Creating an English Environment

1. Creating an English Environment Hui-Ling Lang 郎慧玲(Ph.D.) Department of Applied English Ming Chuan University theresalang1006@gmail.com huilinglang@hotmail.com 2011 壽山高中

2. Brief introduction Name: Hui-Ling Lang 郎慧玲 BA: Major in Arabic and minors in English and Education at National Chengchi University MA: TESL/TEFL in University of Birmingham in UK Ph.D.: Applied Linguistics in University of Manchester in UK Research interests: Reading and Writing, English for Specific Purposes, Corpus Linguistics, Genre analysis Personal interests: traveling (45 countries so far; general reading, listening to different kinds of music) 2011 壽山高中 2

3. Why do teachers need to build an English environment? 2011 壽山高中

4. Outline • School-bilingual environment • bilingual signpost • English corner • Whole English environment Example-Ming Chuan University • Student-autonomous English learning • English activities • Listening/Speaking • Cross-cultural Immersion • Vocabulary/Grammar • Reading/Writing 2011 壽山高中

5. School signposts (1) 校長室Principal’s Office教務處Office Of Academic Affairs學務處Office Of Student Affairs健康中心/保健室 Health Center總務處 Office Of General Affairs輔導處Counselors’ Office 導師辦公室Homeroom Teachers’ Office 2011 壽山高中

6. School signposts (2) 會議室Conference Room 教師會Teachers’ Association閱覽室Reading Room圖書館Library家長會Parents’ Association活動中心Student Activity Center視聽中心Audio- Visual Center電腦教室Computer Classro666om 2011 壽山高中

7. School signposts (3) 操場playground司令台commander‘s platform教室classroom停車場parking lot / parking garage / parking area游泳池swimming pool教官室Military Instructor's office 合作社School Store 2011 壽山高中

8. English corner (1) • What is an English corner? • Space in the corner of the classroom • Appropriate materials placed on a shelf or table • Cooperate with other class teachers to put materials in the corner • Books and activities swapped around at the beginning of each term, providing students with regular new resources. • Many flexible and usable materials in different contexts. (combine the materials with the content of the textbook) 2011 壽山高中

9. English corner (2) How can English corners help to motivate pupils? • Allow students to work at their own pace (alone, in pairs or in small groups) and without the pressure of the teacher. • When the teacher is present, maybe helping an individual or small group, students feel less inhibited as their weaknesses are not being exposed to the rest of the class. • Easier for the teacher to build up a relationship of trust with individuals who may otherwise feel hostile. 2011 壽山高中

10. English Corner (3) Why use English corners? • Provide activities for fast finishers. • Give you the opportunity to spend time individually with students who need help with a task they find difficult. • Allow you to evaluate our students’ speaking, one by one or in small groups. • Enable students to take a break from course work. • Offer the chance to practice or review vocabulary. 2011 壽山高中

11. English Corner (4) • What kinds of corners can work? • Book corner • Activity corner (with motivating games and activities) • ICT corner (new technologies). • If the classroom is big enough, the ideal scenario would be to set up the different corners in three separate corners of the classroom in order to distinguish them clearly. 2011 壽山高中

12. English Corner (5) The book corner • Encourage students to write comments about the books they have read and stick them in the corner to motivate other pupils to read the book • Let everyone in the class feels involved in the organization (and even decoration) of the corner. This will encourage them to use it. • A lending system could be devised so that your pupils can take books home. This is a good way to monitor how many books each of them has read. 2011 壽山高中

13. Types of Reading Material • Different Kinds of Books • Fiction / Non-fiction • Comics • Newspapers • News, Business, Sports, Entertainment • Magazines • News, Language, Serious, Popular 2011 壽山高中

14. Reading Material on the Web • Different kinds of books • Audio books • Comics • Newspapers http://www.cuteway.net/link.htmlhttp://www.ipl.org/div/news/ • Magazineshttp://www.ipl.org/div/serials 2011 壽山高中

15. English Corner (6) Activity corner • Do different stages such as motivating games and activities. • And the use of the corner is very important in the classroom because they improve their foreign language. • Source: http://www.revistaeducativa.es/temas/documentos/the-english-corner-278.asp 2011 壽山高中

16. English Corner (7) The ICT corner • free software which can be used by the teacher. These softwares are used in order to create different educational activities and they can be used in the computer room. • Create a blog and read on line stories through the Internet. Source: http://www.revistaeducativa.es/temas/documentos/the-english-corner-278.asp 2011 壽山高中

17. Whole English Environment Ming Chuan University • International college • Department of Applied English • English instruction • English corner Friday-English Day • DAE office • Counseling room • Self-English learning center • American culture classroom and corridors • Professional Interpretation classroom • Audio-visual classroom source: www.mcu.edu.tw 2011 壽山高中

18. How do we create an English environment to students? 2011 壽山高中

19. English language activities (1) Take students to museums or places where English guides are offered. Encourage students in groups to see exhibitions and express their reflections after the tour. Invite speakers from different occupations to introduce various topics to students. Group students and ask them to do small English plays at the end of the semester. 2011 壽山高中

20. English language activities (2) Group students to introduce topics they are interested in English in every session of the English class. Assign a day as the English day and students are asked to speak only in English. Those who do not follow the rule need to be fined and the fund can be served as the funding for the class use. Hold English competitions such as English speech competition, singing competition, English storytelling competition, English jokes competition. 2011 壽山高中

21. Listening and Speaking • Role plays • Learning English songs • English singing contests • Movies and series watching • Interviewing foreigner • Mini-plays 2011 壽山高中

22. Role plays • Being able to make, change and cancel appointments is an important skill in business English. Here are some expressions you can use to do this concisely and clearly. • Asking for an appointment • (formal situations)I would like to arrange an appointment to discuss….Please would you indicate a suitable time and place to meet? • (neutral)Would it be possible to meet on (date) at your / our offices to discuss…? • (informal)Can we meet (up) to talk about…? • Suggesting a time • (neutral)Would Tuesday suit you?Would you be available on Tuesday? • (informal)What about…?Let's say… • Agreeing to an appointment • (formal)Thank you for your email. I would be available to discuss…. on (date) at (time and place) • (neutral / informal)Tuesday sounds fine. Shall we say around (time) at (place)? Source; www.english-at-home.com/business 2011 壽山高中

23. Saying a time is not convenient • (formal)Unfortunately, I will be away on business during the week of July 6 – 11, so I will be unable to meet you then. However, if you were available in the following week, I would be glad to arrange a meeting with you. • I will be out of the office on Wednesday and Thursday, but I will be available on Friday afternoon. • Cancelling an appointment • (formal) Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen business, I will be unable to keep our appointment for tomorrow afternoon. • Would it be possible to arrange another time later in the week? • (neutral) I’m afraid that I have to cancel our meeting on Wednesday, as something unexpected has come up. • Would you be free to meet early next week? • Apologizing • I apologize for any inconvenience. (formal) I'm sorry about cancelling. (informal) • Asking for confirmation • Please confirm if this date and time is suitable / convenient for you. (neutral)Can you let me know if this is OK for you? (informal) • Writing to someone you don't know • If you don't know the person, you'll need to give some background information about yourself or your company. • I am… and I would be interested to meet you to discuss… • I would be grateful if you could indicate a convenient time to meet during this week. • I look forward to hearing from you. source: www.english-at-home.com/business 2011 壽山高中

24. Learning English songs(1) • 1. What a Wonderful World • 文法重點: 1驚嘆句2 感官動詞 + V / Ving • 2. In Love With You • 文法重點: 1名詞子句2 形容詞子句 • 3. MakingLove Out of Nothing At All • 文法重點:名詞片語 • 4.Longer • 文法重點:形容詞的比較級 • 5.Even the Nights Are Better • 文法重點:形容詞的比較級 • 6.Where Have All the Flowers Gone • 文法重點:現在完成式---表示動作的完成與否 • 7. What I've Done • 文法重點:現在完成式---表示動作的完成與否 https://sites.google.com/a/krjh.tcc.edu.tw/english/sophie-s-english-garden 2011 壽山高中

25. What a wonderful world 多麼美好的世界　---Louis Armstrong I see trees are green, red roses, too 我看見樹的翠綠和玫瑰的紅艷 I see them bloom (bloom) for me and you 她們為你我而綻放 And I think to myself 我心中想著 What(How, What) a wonderful world 多麼美好的世界啊 I see skies of blue and clouds of white 我看到了藍天與白雲 The bright blessed day 明亮、幸福的一天 The dark says good night 夜晚向人們道晚安 And I think to myself 我心中想著 What(How, What) a wonderful world 多麼美好的世界啊 The colors of the rainbow 彩虹的顏色 So pretty in the sky 在天空中多麼美麗 Are also on the faces of people going by 那些過往的行人臉上也是 I see friends shaking (shake) hands 我看到朋友互相握手 Saying (Say) "how do you do?" 說著"最近好嗎？" They‘re really saying I love you 他們是真心的愛著彼此 I hear babies cry (cry), I watch them grow (grow) 我聽著嬰兒哭泣，看著他們長大 They learn much more 他們學習著許多 Than I'll never know 我從不知道的事物 And I think to myself 我心中想著 What (How, What) a wonderful world 多麼美好的世界啊 Yes, I think to myself 我心中想著 What(How, What) a wonderful world 多麼美好的世界啊 Grammar Tips: see / watch / hear + O + V / VingI see birds fly high in the sky.I hear the birds singing happily in the tree. • What a + 形容詞 + 名詞! / How +形容詞/副詞!What a beautiful day! • 18 - What a Wonderful World.mp3 2011 壽山高中

26. Learning English songs (2) • www.tacocity.com.tw/abs/984/lyrics/htm • 04_BEAUTY_AND_THE_BEAST.mp3 2011 壽山高中

27. English singing contest Play famous English musicals or music videos (pop culture) to raise students’ motivation. Hold an English singing contest. Encourage students to sing and dance with the music melody ex. Mama Mia, Sound of the music and etc. 2011 壽山高中

28. Interview foreign visitors Encourage students in groups to interview foreigners and explore their cultural background. First, ask students to discuss issues related to cultures of English speaking countries, such as food, clothes, movies and etc. Second, gather the topics and ask students to transform them into interview questions. Third, send students to do interviews with foreigners (better ask them to record the conversation with permission). Forth, require students to transcribe the scripts and take photos with foreigners. Last, invite students in groups to present their interviews in the class. 2011 壽山高中

29. Movies or Series watching (1) Play part of the popular teenager series • Teachers play the series with English subtitles when playing the episode first time and ask students to jolt down words they do not know. • Then play the series with the Chinese subtitles second time so students can check the meanings of the vocabulary. 2011 壽山高中

30. Movies or Series watching (2) Play movies and download the scripts • Play movies based students’ preference and then choose interesting sections from the movies. • Download the movie scripts from the website www.script-o-rama.com/oldindex.shtml • Transform the scripts into a fill-in-the-blank exercises and ask students to find answers according to what they hear. 2011 壽山高中

31. Cross-Cultural Immersion (1) Small parties for holidays • Christmas • Easter • Halloween • Thanksgiving • Independence Day 2011 壽山高中

32. Cross-Cultural Immersion (2) Introduce topics related to English culture from magazines or newspapers • Food and drink • Sports • Entertainment • Shopping • School’s life in America or England 2011 壽山高中

33. Vocabulary and Grammar • Vocabulary cluster source: www.visualthesauras.com • Proverbs source: www.manythings.org • Spelling bee games • Grammar learning with the audio-visual cartoon source: www.grammarfree.com.tw 2011 壽山高中

34. Vocabulary cluster • Learn the word family with the web • Source: www.visualthesauras.com 2011 壽山高中

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37. Proverbs • Learn proverbs through crosswords and on-line fill-in-the-blank exercises Source: www.manythings.org 2011 壽山高中

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43. Spelling Bee Games 1 Assemble a group of students. 2 Make a list of words suitable for the group you have assembled. You can find words from the spelling lists from the textbooks. 3 Arrange prizes. There should be some reward for winning the game. 4 Determine who will go first by drawing numbers. 5 Ask the first student to spell a word. Cross off each word as the child spells it so that you know which word to go to next. If he spells the word correctly, then the student will stay in the game, if incorrect, than he is out of the game and the next student has to spell that word. 6 Have each student ay the word, spell the word and say the word again. Read more: How to Play Spelling Bee Games | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/how_2154475_play-spelling-bee-games.html#ixzz1ZFosr5aV 2011 壽山高中

44. English Grammar (1) • Source: www.grammarfree.com 2011 壽山高中

45. English Grammar (2) 2011 壽山高中

46. Reading • Reading blog • Read Theatre • Literature circle • Assessing reading • Reading project • Reading journal 2011 壽山高中

47. Reading Blog (1) Ask students to create their reading lists Provide students with a reading list Encourage students to read extensively and keep the reading blogs. Ask students to share their reflections after reading Ask students to design reading questions based on students’ presentation. 2011 壽山高中

48. Reading Log (2) 2011 壽山高中

49. Reading Blog (3) • Format of a reading blog • Title of the book • Author of the book • Summary of the book • Characters of the book • Beautiful sentences or dialogues of the book • Reflections 2011 壽山高中

50. Reading Theater Find famous stories or fairytales Ask students to read those stories in groups and write a play script. Tell students to create lots of dialogues about the story. Allow students to revise and modify the version of the stories Students READ the script ALOUD so they can practice their English pronunciation and intonation. 2011 壽山高中