Christine,

What a wonderful story of creative adaptation!

Your idea of having students look for 
opportunities to praise other students strikes me 
as an especially valid adaptation to Japanese 
cultures.  That is something that culture values 
strongly.  Finding a way to plug that 
pre-exisiting mind-set into educationally 
positive behavior is, as one student noted, praise-worthy on your part.
         My guess is that, as some students 
receive praise for working to overcome their 
Superlingoshyorrhagia, they will work even more 
in the future to continue doing so.

Nice job, "Teach"!  ;-)

Dee




At 12:56 AM 10/21/2008, Christine Kuramoto wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>I just wanted to give an update on the English 
>speaking situation in class.  Thank you all so much for your great ideas!
>
>First of all I introduced 3 "new" medical terms 
>that I wanted the students to "beware" of.  I 
>told them, quite seriously, that these 
>conditions are running rampant at our university.
>1. Hypoenglishia - a condition in which levels 
>of English production and use are below normal.
>2. Toxicoeigodynia- a condition in which past 
>negative English experiences have poisoned the 
>person leading to pain when trying to produce English sentences. (note:
>    eigo is the Japanese word for the English language)
>3. Superlingoshyorrhagia - a condition in which 
>there is an excessive flow of shyness regarding 
>using language (especially foreign language).
>
>After frantically searching their medical 
>dictionaries for the first word, they caught on and I even saw a few smiles.
>
>I then introduced English Effort Points.  There 
>are 10 EEP possible each class 
>session.  Students fill out a form (much like 
>the peer evaluation) with the names of the other 
>members of the group and disperse the 10 points 
>appropriately among the other members of the 
>group.  Several groups divided the points 
>evenly, but if even one person decides to 
>honestly give a little extra to someone they 
>recognized as trying hard, that person comes out 
>a little ahead for the day.  The EEP results 
>will be posted anonymously (by student number) each class period.
>
>I also added the "praise box" that someone here 
>had mentioned in an earlier post.  The praise 
>box was for praising someone in your group for 
>any kind of helping or outstanding positive 
>behavior.  I was so uplifted after reading those 
>praises!  Some of them praised use of English, 
>but others praised good preparation, good 
>leadership, and one even praised me! (haha!)
>
>One of the praise comments said "I want to 
>praise so-and-so because he really tried hard to 
>speak in English even though last week he had said 'I'm poor at English.'
>
>And there you have it!!  Great progress from the 
>sorry state of things one week before!  Woohooo!
>
>Thank you all again for your wonderful input!
>
>Christine
>•
>•
>•
>•
>
>--
>*******
>Christine Kuramoto, Assistant Professor: Medical English
>Kyushu University, Department of Medical Education
>Faculty of Medical Sciences
>3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582 Japan
>Phone: (+81)92-642-6186 Fax: (+81)92-642-6188
>E-mail: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
L. Dee Fink                                     Phone: 405-364-6464
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Norman, OK 73069                                FAX:   405-364-6464
                 Website: www.finkconsulting.info

**National Project Director, Teaching & Curriculum Improvement (TCI) Project
**Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
**Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences (Jossey-Bass, 2003)
**Former President of the POD Network 
[Professional and Organizational Development] in Higher Education (2004-2005)