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Message board > Just curious: Do your students interact SPONTANEOUSLY with you?
Just curious: Do your students interact SPONTANEOUSLY with you?
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frenchfrog
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Just curious: Do your students interact SPONTANEOUSLY with you?
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Do your students interact SPONTANEOUSLY with you?
I would like to know if this is a typically French thing or if this tendency is more largely spread.
I would like my students to interrupt me with questions. For instance, I have just finished studying CAN with my 1st year students. We did different activities and I asked many of them �Can you do this? � �Can you do that? �. None of my students interrupted me to ask �And you, Miss FF, can you ....? � I would really like them to interact with me spontaneously. I �m trying to develop some activities to encourage this, but it is not easy.
But when we study LIKE and hobbies, and I tell the whole class �I really hate going shopping � (I really do!!!! I hate it!!!), I can almost hear all the girls scream �What? You hate going shopping? That �s impossible!!! � (most of the time, they say it in French  but at least there is a reaction!)
Is it the same thing in your countries?
My thought of the day!!! 
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22 Nov 2009
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manonski (f)
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Same here too.
In all the other classes, they are told to be quiet and then they come to English and we ask them to communicate, which is not what they are used to do during the rest of the day.
Could it be one of the reason? |
22 Nov 2009
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Alina26
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Hello!
Unfortunately, students don �t interact with their teachers when it comes to things taught during the class; or if they interact, they do it less than we could possibly expect ; or... they do it in their mother tongue (Romanian in my case). Few of them are really interested in this process of active teaching-learning, the rest of them acting as if they were robots. They just don �t care about it and you, the teacher, work so hard to try to make ur classes appealing to them. Sometimes it �s really frustrating :( |
22 Nov 2009
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eng789
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It is the exact opposite here, pupils will ask you anything that comes to mind. They will also comment on yoiur personal appearance - usually good things like - You look nice today or you straightened your hair.
I sometimes wish there was a bit more distance. By the way they call me by my first name although I am probably older than most of their grandparents.
Frenchie - do you want to trade places? |
22 Nov 2009
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degofe
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French Frog,
I can tell you that the same happens to me! I usually teach tenagers and when I let them ask me personal questions they just stare as if I was saying something illegal. they don �t feel comfortable about it but when it comes to expressing my opinion, they sometimes react telling how they feel about it. there �s some interaction and that �s the most important.
apathy kills the learning, I guess. |
22 Nov 2009
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chribou2
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It �s hard when they �re 12-13 years old... and impossible when they �re older!
But I think you can trap them. For instance pupils have a tendency to correct homework exercises like robots, ex:"question-one-do-you-like-apples-yes-I-do" and then they wait for Your Great Validation. "OK, love, let �s do that again, shall we? It �s a QUESTION, so ask a classmate.". That is step one. Corrections won �t be so boring. Now, Step TWO is when one of the little ones forgets about the routine and leaves the question hanging in the air... THEN reply "Are you asking me? Oh, yes, I do, I LOVE apples". After a few weeks they will know that it �s OK to ask the teacher.
Or, you can be more vicious  and select the classmates they �re going to ask questions to. Ex: "Ask a boy" "Ask a girl", then after a few turns: "Ask a BEAUTIFUL girl". This is bound to leave the little boy panicked and blushing. Jump on the occasion and point to yourself with an incredulous look. I did this once... what a laugh! But that way they implictely know that I can be part of the game, too... Don �t expect miracles, though... I just felt like sharing... |
22 Nov 2009
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Greek Professor
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Greetings....
Well.. for me its the opposite... my kids ask me basically alot of things... and I have to agree with eng789... they comment on appearance.. hair colour, notice if you have sth new. If they dont like sth they will tell me. And of course i allow it... ONLY if its in ENGLISH.. otherwise i just ignore them if they talk in their mother tongue.
Alot of the kids want to talk about their everyday things... school, relationships, family so i enjoy listening to them... This way they talk.
Of course there are times that when being asked they stare into space... ha ha ha.. |
22 Nov 2009
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chribou2
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P.S. I love your work... Do you EVER sleep? |
22 Nov 2009
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monchis
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Hi,
I always thought that was something that only happened in Mexico because since early childhood we are told never to interrupt or to ask personal questions to adults. That is allowed only if there is a close relationship.
For me, it was difficult to make my students to feel confident enough to ask personal questions but I think it was possible after showing them that I wouldn�t get angry if they dared to ask.
You know, we have a rule in my classes "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas".
My students know that everything we discuss or talk about in class is not going to be talked about anywhere else.
This has helped us to develop an environment of confidence because they know they can trust me and they are not afraid of asking.... maybe sometimes they ask to much |
22 Nov 2009
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Amandina
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Same here! I think that showing disinterest and apathy is part of being cool in a teenager �s world. The younger students tend to be less passive, but as soon as they hit puberty all that spontaneity goes down the drain. :(
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22 Nov 2009
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eng789
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I �m teaching in the wrong country.  |
22 Nov 2009
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