十二年國教
英文教學面面觀
高師大
林秀春Spring
12-Year Compulsory Education –
Looking at
English Instruction from
Different Perspectives
1. nonmotile generation (無動力世代)
for Ss
powerless, helpless (無力感) for Ts
Ex: my experience teaching at a
vocational night school, remedial
instruction during lunch break in KH
2. English – one of the five most hated
subjects
ET – most unloved teacher
3. Activation (revitalization)
of teaching (活化教學)
ASK: I want to become an English
teacher, but my English is
not good now. What I have
to do?
Ans: Study English every day!
Things I’d like to cover in this talk:
pronunciation, vocabulary,
phrases, idiom, grammar,
listening, speaking, reading,
writing, warm-up, testing, seating
arrangement, activities and
games, mnemonics, etc.
4.
The top ten most difficult languages in
the world (The United Nations
Educational Scientific & Cultural
Organization):
• French
• Danish
• Norwegian
• German
• Finish
• Japanese
• Icelandic
• Arabic
• Greek
And the top one?
Take a guess.
Chinese
(The written form has no clues
as to how it is actually
pronounced)
Ex: aficionado
Why English Is So Hard
(Crazy English)
We’ll begin with a box,
and the plural is boxes.
But the plural of ox should
be oxen,
not oxes.
Then one fowl is goose,
but two are called geese.
Yet the plural of moose
should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse
or a whole lot of mice.
But the plural of house is
houses,
not hice.
If the plural of man
is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the
plural of pan
be called pen?
The cow in a plural
may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is
vows,
not vine.
As I speak of foot,
and you show me your
feet,
But I give you a boot…
Would a pair be called
beet?
If one is a tooth
and the whole set are
teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural
of booth
be called beeth?
If the singular is this
and the plural is these,
Should the plural of kiss
be nicknamed kese?
Then one may be that,
and three may be those,
Yet the plural of hat
would never be hose.
We speak of a brother,
and also of brethren,
But though we say
mother,
we never say methern.
The masculine pronouns
are
he, his, and him,
But imagine the
feminine
she, shis, and shim.
So our English,
I think you will agree,
is the trickiest language
you ever did see.
Things you might not know about English:
1. Cleave is the only word with two synonyms
which are antonyms of each other: adhere and
separate.
2. The shortest complete sentence: I am.
3. The only word that ends in the letters “mt”:
dreamt.
4. Only four words which end in “-ous”: tremendous,
horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
5. The longest word typed with only the left
hand: stewardesses.
Things you might not know about English:
6. The longest one-syllable word: screeched.
7. The following sentence contains all of
the pronunciations of “ough”:
A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful
ploughman strode through the streets of
Scarborough; after falling into a slough,
he coughed and hiccoughed.
Things you might not know about English:
8. A word with different
pronunciations and meanings:
Slough – a town in Central London
slough – a hole with mud
slough – (V.) remove an outer layer
of skin
Things you might not know about English:
9. Which word has the most definitions:
set, 464 in Oxford English Dictionary.
15 verb, 11 nouns, 7 adjectives from
Macmillan
(run 19 verb, 10 noun from Macmillan,
800 compounds)
The most complex verbs:
set, put, & run
Things you might not know about English:
10. A 7-letter word which
contains 10 words: therein –
the, there, he, her, here, ere,
in, rein, therein, herein (in
this situation, legal term)
11. The animals have Germanic
names, the cooked meats
have French names – swine,
pork, sheep, mutton.
12. English spelling is erratic.
Shakespeare was liberal in
spelling. He used multiple
variants in one single text.
13. Underground is the only
word that begins and ends
with und.
14. Queue is the only word that
is pronounced the same
with the last 4 letters
removed.
15. Typewriter uses only the top
row of keys on the keyboard.
16. The dot on i is called tittle.
17. The most used letter is e and
the least, q.
18. Rhythm is the longest word
without a vowel.
19. English has the largest
vocabulary and the most
synonyms (thesaurus).
20. “Rule of thumb” came from
an old English law in which
you can’t beat your wife
with anything wider than
your thumb.
21. “Sleep tight” – mattresses
were secured on bed frames
by ropes.
Use mnemonics.
Ex: Daylight saving time – spring forward, fall
back
Ex: i before e, except after c
Examples of wrong spellings:
1. CHILD BEER in India
2. testy food
3. Go slow Accident Porn Area
4. Speling bee: 42 semifinalists complete for
coveted trophy
(headline in a newspaper in Florida)
Funny signs:
1. If your dog does a poo,
please put it in a litter bin.
2. Sign in a gym: Education is
important, but big biceps are
importanter.
Use mnemonics.
Ex: Double the c, double the s, you will always
have success.
Ex: assassinate
separate – There is a rat in it.
cemetery – All the “e’s” are buried in the cemetery.
secretary – A secretary keeps a secret.
bargain – You gain if you get a bargain.
necessary – one c, two s’s It’s necessary to have one
coffee and two sugars.
dilemma – Emma has a dilemma.
RHYTHM – Rhythm Helps Your Tiny Hips Move
Use mnemonics.
Ex: principle, principal
discreet, discrete biennial, biannual
stationery, stationary
indispensibe or indispensable?
desert, dessert
overt, covert
convex, concave
stressed, dog
rebuke – repuke
pandemonium 烏煙瘴氣
Use mnemonics.
Ex: crucible, tyro, coma, panacea, loathe, coy,
docile, pedantic, tirade, rampant, shoddy
Ex: lie lied lied, lie lay lain, lay laid laid
Ex: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
Ex: coordinating conjunctions FANBOYS – For,
And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So
Ex: Good, better, best.
Never let it rest, till the good gets better and
the better, best.
PRONUNCIATION
Do we need to teach phonetic symbols?
69 spellings have more than one
pronunciation.
a: and, apron, any, father
e: he, the
i: ink, kind
o: go, do
u: cup, push
ch: chop, chorus, choir, chute (rubbish chute)
z: size, azure (bright blue)
American
British
colleague
colleague
schedule
schedule
garage
garage
kilometer
kilometer
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Dictation can help us find out what
went wrong in our listening process.
Ex: My Ss did not understand
comma, dash, or period.
Ex: I've been
She’s haunted
Intonation and stress:
Ex.
Man:
I saw a car accident on
my way here.
Woman: What?
Man:
I saw a car accident on
my way here.
Woman: What!
Intonation and stress:
Ex: I lost my purse. GREAT! Now I
don't have money for lunch.
Of all people, (why me!)
Get out of here.
Shut up!
Japanese: oba-san (aunt)
obaa-san (grandma)
Pause:
Jane said, “My dog is clever.”
“Jane,” said my dog, “is clever.”
Let’s eat Grandma.
Let’s eat, Grandma.
Content words and function words:
1. The beautiful mountain appeared
transfixed in the distance.
(14 syllables)
2. He can come on Sundays as long as
he doesn’t have to do any homework
in the evening. (22 syllables)
(The two sentences take about
the same time to speak, why?)
(Non-stressed words are often
swallowed. They are glided over.)
1. I can speak English well.
2. I can’t speak English well.
A dialogue between a student and a
teacher:
S: Mrs. Holiday, can you help me with comedy?
T: Comedy?
S: Yes, comedy is big problem.
T: I don’t quite follow.
S: Problem – this is worry.
T: Yes, a worry. Um… you mean you have a problem
with comedy on TV?
S: TV? The boss put me on department comedy.
Everybody on comedy, all the time argue.
T: Oh, you mean committee!
S: Yes, what I told you, comedy!
Use tongue twisters to help Ss
pronounce correctly.
• th
Tom threw Tim three thumbtacks.
•l r
Don’t run along the wrong isle.
Let little Nellie run a little.
A lump of red leather, a red leather lump.
Red leather, yellow leather.
• pl pr
Is there a pleasant peasant present?
• cr
Cross crossings cautiously.
• gr
Greek grapes.
Use tongue twisters to help Ss
pronounce correctly.
• ch sh
Which is the witch that wished the wicked
wish?
• s sh
We surely shall see the sun shine soon.
•a
A knapsack strap.
A black-based bath brush.
•i
Thin sticks, thick bricks.
•u
Double bubble gum bubbles double.
•u a
A cup of coffee in a copper coffee pot.
1. The rain in Spain stays mainly
on the plain.
2. If two witches watched two
watches, which witch would
watch which watch?
3. How much dew would a
dewdrop drop if a dewdrop
could drop dew?
4. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chunk wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he
could, and chuck as much wood as a
woodchuck would,
If a woodchuck could chuck wood.
5. How many cans can a canner can if a canner
can can cans?
A canner can can as many cans as a canner
can if a canner can can cans.
How do you pronounce the following words?
DISTORTION OF WORD BOUNDARIES–
words and syllable boundaries do not occur in
the same places as the written form
a. Fish and chips-FISH/N CHIPS
b. It’s a lot of work–
IT’S @ LOT@WORK
WEAK FORMS –
vowels in unstressed position centralize to a
schwa @
a. I want to leave-- I WANT@
LEAVE
b. Tell them it’s a piece for a
fridge—TELL @M ITS @
PIECE F@R@FRIDGE
ELISION –
the missing out of a consonant or a vowel
a. Last year -- LAS YEAR
b. Because – PCAUSE
c. I’d better -- I BETTER
d. suppose, factory, mostly
ASSIMILATION –
a sound becomes more like another sound
which follows it or precedes it
a. be at Kennedy Airport -BE A KENNEDY AIRPORT
b. a white board -@WHI BOARD
GEMINATION
a. stop picking on Val
MORE PRACTICES
a. Which church should Don’s sister get
married in?
b. If anybody phones after 3, tell them I
went out with the boss.
c. His big granddaughter read him my letter.
d. Jack can never repeat these sentences
smoothly.
e. Have Frank copy the section.
f. Turkish eye rip off wind up wrap up
VOCABULARY
We need to encounter a new word 10 to 16
times to effectively learn it.
Joke: ignorance, apathy
pronoun
joke: My nephew doesn’t
want others’ nipples.
He wants his own nipple.
Learn vocabulary through riddles
1. What travels all around the world and
stays in a corner?
2. What’s teachers’ favorite nation?
3. What’s the difference between a jeweler
and a jailor?
(A jeweler sells watches and a jailor
watches cells.)
4. You must keep it after giving it?
5. What is so fragile that when you say its
name, you break it?
Learn vocabulary through riddles
6. I have a tail and I have a head, but I have
no body. I’m not a snake. What am I?
7. You throw away the outside and cook the
inside. Then you eat the outside and throw
away the inside. What did you eat?
8. What can run but never walks, has a
mouth but never talks, has a head but
never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?
9. What gets wetter and wetter the more it
dries?
Grammar
(Effortless English: do not study grammar,
read to acquire automatic grammar.)
There is no rule but has exceptions.
English Grammar can be messy:
•The reason we study English…
•The reason why we study English…
•The reason that we study English…
•The reason for studying English…
•The reason to study English…
Use lively sentences to teach grammar.
Ex: 1+1, the SOB is 2.
Ex: Dangling: Walking into a temple, a
Buddha was seen by me.
Ex: Subjunctive Mood: If the sun were to
rise in the west, I would marry you.
I would have gotten married had I
listened to my Mom when I was young.
If the sentence which had had had had
had had, it would have been correct.
WARM-UP & FUN ACTIVITIES
1. Vocabulary --Write a letter on the board and
ask Ss to call out words beginning with that
letter. Ex: b – boy, black, bad, bomb…
2. Vocabulary -- Write a letter on the board and
ask Ss to call out words that end with that
letter. Ex: d – end, word, find, could…
3. Chain spelling: Write a word on the board and
ask Ss to call out a new word using the last
letter of that word and then a new word… Ex:
good, do, ought, teacher…
WARM-UP & FUN ACTIVITIES
4. Substitution
Ex: Pandas were taken to a zoo in
New York City last Thursday.
Ss can substitute any word in the
sentence.
Ex: An attractive girl with orange
hair, brown eyes, and a tattoo on
her left arm is standing in front of
you. (Lesson 4)
WARM-UP & FUN ACTIVITIES
5. Subjunctive Mood
If you could be in a movie of your
choice, what movie would choose
and what character would you play?
(Lesson 4)
If you were a vegetable, what
vegetable would you be? (an animal)
If you were to change your name,
what would you change your name
to? Why?
WARM-UP & FUN ACTIVITIES
6. Adjectives
Are you spring, summer, fall, or winter?
Please share why?
What does your name mean?
Ss write down an appropriate adjective
that begin with each letter of their first
name: Splendid, Professional,
Responsible, Impressive, Noble,
Glamorous
WARM-UP & FUN ACTIVITIES
7. Past Tense & Qs
One student says, “Yesterday I went
shopping.” Other Ss ask Qs.
WARM-UP & FUN ACTIVITIES
8. Review: Classroom Jeopardy
9. Conjunction
Fortunately/Unfortunately
Ex: I lost my purse at the bus station, but
fortunately…
Ask one student to finish the sentence.
Then ask another student to continue
with “But unfortunately…”
WARM-UP & FUN ACTIVITIES
10. Half Dictation
Say the first half of the sentence and ask Ss
to finish it.
Ex: As soon as I walked into the classroom, …
Because I went to bed late last night, …
Although Tina is short and skinny, …
Yesterday my dog ran away…
After I graduate from high school, …
If you wish to win her heart, …
Nobody knows…
Passion makes a language easier!
If you have a job you like, you’ll
never work a day in your life.