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
•
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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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* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*
L. Dee
Fink
Phone:
405-364-6464
234 Foreman
Ave
Email:
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Norman, OK
73069
FAX:
405-364-6464
Website:
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**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)