classroom English

[ohannasaurus]

I've searched the forum and nothing came up about this, so I am sorry if this is a repeat post!

I've been commissioned to teach a bunch of elementary school teachers classroom English. ...with phonics. what that entails is beyond me. my supervisor cannot elaborate about what that means, but we've come to the conclusion that it involves the pronunciation of words, using the IPA symbols. it's been ages since I've taken my linguistics class, so I'm going to need to do some major googling. however, I'm pretty sure the extent of the phonics part will be, "repeat after me!"

either way, what do you think I should include in my lesson? it's about a regular class period, so nothing too intensive. I thought it would be important to include phrases like:

• please be quiet (as opposed to "shut up!" which I've heard most teachers yell)
• pay attention
• listen
• repeat
• sit down
• stand up
• get into (your lunch) groups
• partner up/work in pairs
• pass your papers forward/collect your papers

I'm sure I've missed a lot, so please help! thank you in advance. :]

[ampersand]

Are you supposed to teach these teachers classroom English or how to teach classroom English? If it's the first, what does phonics have to do with it?

Classroom English is usually only spoken,whereas phonics is essentially just spelling-pronunciation rules. Its what you probably learned in grade school: R says, "rrrr," C-H says, "ch," etc. IPA doesn't need to have anything to do with it. Its use is as a written notation for pronunciation, for example recording whether the symbol 'r' is pronounced as it is English, French, or Spanish or to describe what sound goes with 'o' in a given word.

One hour isn't long if you want them to be able to pronounce stuff properly.

[Wakatta]

My suggested phonics hit list, in order of priority:

1) L/R (l is using the tongue without using the lips, r is using the lips without using the tongue)
2) th (tongue under teeth, not behind teeth)
3) f/h (use of the bottom lip)
4) b/v (b is as Japanese, v is with teeth on the bottom lip)

Some argue that it's also good to do some stuff with vowels, like short 'i' sounds, but I find that's pretty easy to just mimic on the fly. I think it's more productive to do some mouth positioning stuff for consonants.

[Tarquin]

don't forget "Move the desks" and "line up"
as a lot of elementary games are pretty active and I have great fun trying to get them to push the desks right to the back of the classroom.

[wicket]

Let's start.
Stop.
Please raise your hand.
Write your answers.
Do you understand.
Repeat after me.

Also, teach things that the kids need to say, such as "I don't know" or "Please help me" or "Please speak more slowly" etc.

If you have the time and equipment, try to make a short video showing you using classroom English (or better yet, one of your JTEs) and students also using it.
Don't get bogged down in the technicalities of phonics, but do teach frequently mispronounced sounds (as suggested by another poster).

[AliDimayev]

"Sit down and do your work!"

But, do you have4 any ideas for teaching the 'a' sound in man and fan and such???

On another note (Rin are you there?!) what languages have the 'th' sound as found in English?? Off the top of my head, I cant think of any.

[ohannasaurus]

thank you so much for all of your suggestions! they're super helpful. :]

as for the phonics part, I really have no idea what I'm supposed to do with that. the supervisor from the elementary school came while I was at another elementary school, so I got all the information from my base school supervisor. thus, she asked, "do you know phonics? that should be included in the lesson" and that was that. like you've all said, though, it will be a good idea to break things down and drill the more difficult sounds to pronounce.

[Wakatta]

Just think about it, or google it a bit, and it should be pretty obvious to you.

E.g.:

L: Speak without moving your mouth/lips, only your tongue.
R: Speak without the tongue-touch that accompanies "L" and らりるれろ.
Th: Touch your tongue to your front teeth.
F: Touch your teeth to your lower lip and sort of blow.
V: Touch your teeth to your lower lip and vibrate it.

These are simplifications, but they do the job.

I'm not sure about elementary school, but I do find that some of the most useful expressions are:

"What's (X) in English?" "What's (X) in Japanese?"
and
"One more time, please."