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
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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:

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