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Ask for help > Opinions from Ts from other countries needed
Opinions from Ts from other countries needed
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stryc.fido
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Opinions from Ts from other countries needed
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Hi guys. I need your help. I �m defending my diploma thesis on Tuesday and am struggling with the answer to one question they gave me. Please help!!
The outcome of the thesis was a board game developed to practice oral communication strategies (i.e. what u do when you cannot remember a word). It included a guessing game within the board game rules. One student describes a word/ others gues it.
My students acquired the comm. strategies by learning a list of useful phrases and vocabulary (It �s similar to ... /I mean the thing which ... etc.) (I �ll post the stuff here after the horror is over :-) )
The question was: How can this procedure (I don �t even understand what is meant by this word :-( ) be tricky/ unsuccessful in different countries with adult learners????
Oh, dear ... I don �t have a clue! I thought that:
1. a board game might seem as an unsuitable content of an adult course to some people maybe. (do you know a country this might fir on?)
2. Also. The organization of the board game could be difficult with large classes. (any country in mind?)
3. And the guessing game sometimes puts the speaker into an embarrasing position when s/he is trying but nobody understands. (can u think of a country which would like to avoid this situation?)
would be grateful for comments. Thanx :-)
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19 Apr 2013
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pandy
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Students from different countries may have a different understanding (or mental image) of what something is: what something looks like and so on.
An English person (such as myself) may think of a taxi as quite a different vehicle from an Egyptian person may normally see in Egypt... size, colour of the vehicle etc (if my memory serves - I went there 15 years ago!). If I describe a (UK) house, I will not also be exactly describing what a house looks like in Spain, Somalia or Thailand.
Therefore those listening to a description may not think of the same thing as that intended by the speaker.
Still a a well concieved (very good) idea for a game!! Also, board games are fine with adult learners, as long as you don�t have patronising / childish images or language.
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19 Apr 2013
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valentinaper
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How can this procedure be tricky/ unsuccessful in different countries with adult learners?
First of all, the procedure of trying to describe a word may include geastures or body language which may be misunderstood by adults from different countries. For instance, trying to show 5 fingers with your hand pointing to somebody is considered offensive in Greece, but not in most European countries!
Also, getting into the whole miming/ describing thing may be fine for children, since they love these kinds of games, but it could be embarrassing for adults. They may lose their motivation if they feel they are unable to get their message across quickly.
Just some ideas, hope they �re helpful. Great idea about the board game. I don �t think there �s anything inappropriate with using it in adult classes, but that �s whats I would answer to sb if I were forced to.
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19 Apr 2013
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stryc.fido
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thank you! you are absolutely right! You helped me a lot! :-)
(still I would welcome any more ideas)
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20 Apr 2013
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