I apologize as I am finding it harder and harder to keep up with my blog. I have been very busy this week and cannot figure out when is the best time to designate for writing... This week has been crazy, its the first week where I have had to give full lessons to all of my classes... Teaching is exhausting. (mother, I do not know how you do it.-- However, I think that having 8 classes of 50 is bit more challenging than 2 of less than 30)
Reading Aloud... In class today, I asked my students to read through the dialogue and make sure that they understand it... I had no idea that they would all (50 mind you) begin to read the whole thing OUT LOUD!!! Mind you this is not all at the same time, each was reading at his or her own pace... this also did not happen at low volume. this was LOUD, some where shouting... I was caught completely off guard... after they finished reading, I asked the students how could they possibly focus on what they were reading with their classmates reading aloud and at different paces... Their response was "reading aloud enhances comprehension" and "we are used to it." I do not think that I will ever be able to get used to it...
The classroom is not the only place where one can hear Chinese students reading aloud. Starting in the morning by 6 AM and lasting until around 8 PM, when walking through the campus gardens (pictures are forthcoming) the sounds of hundreds of studious young Asians can be heard as they read aloud from their texts... My favorite is passing by someone who is reading from an English book. She (usually a girl, sometimes males) will have her head buried in her book and I will walk past and say "good morning!" she often just giggles and says nothing in return... I try to do this at least twice a week... I actually met a very nice young man with this approach... at 10 PM, walking home from English Corner, I passed a student reciting King George VI's famous WWII "We are at War" Speech (made popular in the movie The King's Speech)... Nice, friendly guy. He invited the foreigners to pick pears with him this weekend... should be a good time.
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