Lesson Plan: Chinese Teacher Training Part 2
This lesson is designed as session two of a series of four
given to introduce Chinese teachers with a low level of English to both the
English Language and British Culture.
The four sessions together form a one day seminar.
Note: because parts of this lesson are based on personal
anecdote they will need to be changed if used by another teacher. One section
also needs you to be able to translate, or have someone present who can
translate, a number of classroom phrases from English to Chinese.
Lesson Level:
Training For Chinese Teachers Lesson Duration: 45 minutes
Lesson Title:
Classroom language and language difficulties
Grammar/Vocabulary
Phrases for use in the classroom
Lesson Objectives
Develop understanding of problems in communication.
Learn some common English phrases for use in the classroom.
Preparation
Prepare stories from own personal experience to replace
stories used below
Prepare a handout of common classroom phrases in Englisg
with space to write them in Chinese.
Procedure
1
Write title on board “Communications Difficulties and
Classroom Language”
2
Explain that I speak virtually no Chinese and that the
Chinese phrases I do know I pronounce so badly that no one ever understands me.
Tell story of trying to buy tea. (See Notes)
Tell story of trying to take a taxi home. (See Notes)
3
Ask class what they think is the problem in each case.
Elicit ideas from students.
Explain why those two stories show differences between
Chinese language and English
(The first is because in English it’s possible to
communicate in single words and often possible to communicate with just nouns…
this is much harder in Chinese because of the number of homophones and near
homophones. Without a context and with my mangled pronunciation no one can tell
if I am talking about poetry or earwax because both are shi.
The second illustrates how difficult it is for some
foreigners to hear and use Chinese tones.)
4
Tell class we will now learn some phrases in English that
teachers need to use in class.
Tell them I have tried to learn these in Chinese but with
little success.
Tell them the only classroom phrases I know in Chinese are
(and this is phonetic – NOT pinyin – Anjin and bie cho le)
5
Tell class we will start by seeing how many phrases they can
recognize and obey.
I will say a phrase and they must do it.
Practise with these phrases.
Stand up
Sit down
Open your
books.
Turn to
page twelve.
Repeat
after me, “This is Bob’s class”.
Put up your
hand.
Look at the
board.
No more
talking.
Quiet
Do you
understand?
Can you say
that again?
Work
together.
Do you have
any questions?
Have you
finished?
6
Hand out he phrase sheets.
Write each phrase on the board one at a time in the order they
are on the sheet.
Have classroom assistant translate each phrase into Chinese
for students to write down.
7
Explain about the use of tone in ENGLISH.
Explain about question intonation.
ANY SENTENCE IN ENGLISH CAN BE A QUESTION, rising tone makes
it a question.
Give examples.
This is a
bottle. V This is a bottle.
He likes
noodles. V He likes noodles? V He likes noodles? V He likes noodles?
Repeat some sentences and ask class to decide if they are
questions or statements. If they are questions what are they asking?
Coffee is
his favourite drink.
Rice is his favourite food?
There are three trees in my garden?
Teaching is
a good job.
Picasso was
a good artist?
There are eleven men in a football team?
All my
students say that they love my lessons.
John says
Michael is his friend.
Michael
says John is his friend?
8
Write sentences on the board WITHOUT punctuation.
Ask students to pronounce them either as statements or
questions.
Coffee is
his favourite drink
Rice is his favourite food
There are three trees in my garden
Teaching is
a good job
Picasso was
a good artist
There are eleven men in a football team
All my
students say that they love my lessons
John says
Michael is his friend
Michael
says John is his friend
9
Q and A
Students can now ask any questions about the content of THIS
Session.
Notes
The “buying tea” story.
I had been in China for just a
few days. I wanted to buy some tea. I know the Chinese for “tea” is “cha” but I
don’t know the tone. I went into the shop and said “cha” the man looked at me
blankly. In England this wouldn’t happen. Just saying “tea” would be enough but
he had no idea what wanted. I tried again with a different attempt at a tone.
Nothing. And again. Nothing. Eventually I was repeating the worder over and
over in different silly voices like some crazy person.
I never did get my tea.
The taxi story
I had just moved to Baiyin. The
FAO’s son there is a good friend of mine and he had tried very hard to teach me
how to say my address in Chinese so that I could get home in a taxi. After
going out to dinner I got into a taxi and said my address. The man did not
understand. I tried about ten times but he had no idea what I was saying. I
telephoned my friend, told him the problem and put the phone on speaker. He
said my address. To me it sounded EXACTLY the same as I was saying. I could
hear no difference at all. The taxi driver nodded and took me home.
Common
Classroom Phrases
Stand
up
Sit down
Open your books.
Turn to page twelve.
Repeat after me, “This is Bob’s class”.
Put up your hand.
Look at the board.
No more talking.
Quiet
Do you understand?
Can you say that again?
Work together.
Do you have any questions?
Have you finished?
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