They really had a lot to say on the topic. I asked them to work in small groups and make a list of how teenagers use text messaging in their countries, and then orally present and comment on them to the class.  Some of them actually said teens used it to break up with others.  Well, I couldn’t believe it, so I asked them if they thought it was OK to do so. We had a light ethical conversation about it and that was an added bonus. They always say they want to practice their conversation. Well, we certainly found a good talking point.

If I could go back and do it again, I would eliminate the second item in the ‘Before you listen’ section. I’d also give the audience a task to do as they listened to groups present their lists, like listen for vocabulary words included in the worksheet.

The debate was prepared in two groups, each side preparing their arguments. Some of the quotes from my students:

• “Competition gets the lazy ones to work harder”
• “cooperation among students can teach more than a formal class”
• “competition spurs you on”
• “competition is discouraging”

The students felt the victory went to the side arguing for competition. I am not so sure that I agree with them, although that side definitely came up with some good arguments.

I had another idea for a debate on education, but we didn’t do it with this group: corporal punishment and whether it has a place in education.

With this group of students, the debate might have been too divisive among the different countries. But we did touch on it with bullying. Physical punishment for children – what does it really teach them?

This question arose in part from the Listening /Speaking passages on homework and asking other students for help.

The discussion also came from one student’s experiences at an American Community College. She wasn’t able to take good notes because the teacher spoke very quickly and the student’s English was not very good.

She emailed other students in the class and asked them to give her their notes so she could study them. I asked her if anyone had actually sent her the notes. She said only another international student but none of the American students.

She couldn’t understand this but, of course, I could. We had a great discussion about student culture in different countries (lots of vocabulary came out of this!).

As the students explained to each other, in some countries, students “stick together” at all costs. Sharing notes is considered helping out your fellow student, and everyone is expected to support everyone else.

In other countries, education is very much an individual endeavor. Asking someone else for their notes can sometimes be seen as not wanting to do your own work and just wanting to benefit from the work of others. As this student soon learned, the situation in the US is much closer to this end of the spectrum.

This was a great opportunity for me to point out to the students why we spend so much time on note taking skills! Being able to take notes is a very important skill, and it’s one my international students need to develop—they may not be able to look at anyone else’s!

I gave them this worksheet to accompany a video clip from the movie “He’s Just Not That Into You”.  The clip shows two friends shopping at the drug store and discussing one’s misadventures in trying to get in touch with a potential date. The main character, Mary, is very frustrated about having to check seven electronic portals just to see if anyone has tried to get in touch with her.

• What tone do you think Mary uses when she says, “I can’t text. I’m just not charming via text.”?

Does she feel down about not being good at texting? Or, does she feel frustrated? I modeled the two ways of expressing those emotions and then we watched the clip.

The worksheet analyzes how her pronunciation manifests frustration, and offers students practice in this. It also preps them for the clip by reviewing vocabulary, main ideas, and offers two conversation activities: tell a frustrating story, explain when you like to and don’t like to use technology for socializing.

The students appreciated the topic.  I saw that it generated a lot of good discussion and opportunities to use their English skills.

• In science experiments the agent (the grad student or the professor) is not as important as what was discovered.
  • The lab assistant obtained DNA from the remains. The lab assistant is not important.
  • DNA cells were obtained from the remains. (by the lab assistant = can be left out)
• We don’t really know who or what the agent is.
  • All questions will be answered within 24 hours. We don’t know who will answer them – maybe a group of employees of the corporation.
• We want to avoid responsibility.
  • Mr Dupont and I will lay off 100 workers. -> 
  • One hundred workers will be laid off. This is more impersonal and makes it seem that no one is responsible.

As an example from the news, I gave the students this news article from many (many) years ago. I also gave them these exercises to help them see that the passive voice is often used to shift the focus from the agent to an impersonal source.

It’s easy to see from the article that not much information was available and no one wanted to say anything. Nothing was sure. However, the papers needed news so the reporters wrote this article.

The press was a really interesting topic for my students and I think the lessons with this chapter were very successful.

To review the passive voice (in the unit on media), my colleague asked the students to bring in news articles of their choice and in summarizing them, use the passive voice when needed. That brought us to the question: when is it needed?

I planned a class to explain the use of the passive voice and to make sure students don’t OVERUSE it. In other languages it may be used much more than in English and in different ways.

Although in general, English prefers the active voice, there are some contexts when we prefer the passive.

Example:

Active: The doctor operated on the President yesterday.

Passive: The President was operated on yesterday.

The active sentence is awkward because the subject of the sentence is “the doctor” and the subject is supposed to be the most important focus of the sentence. But the really important person in the sentence is “the President.” Thus shifting the focus from the doctor to the President is logical and the passive voice helps to take the focus away from the agent and onto the important person.

All of these discussions gave the students a little taste of university courses on Media Studies. We made a list of the kinds of things people criticize in the press:

• news companies want to make profits and they like sensational stories (like the NorthStar story about coverage of the bombing suspect)
• sometimes they print things without being sure of the evidence
• they are too intrusive in people’s private lives, particularly politicians (Gennifer Flowers in the NorthStar story)
• they give too much time to stars and athletes
• they only talk about what’s good for their own country

What do yours students think of the press? Do these issues come up in class? How do you usually structure the discussions and activities?

We also discussed libel laws in different countries. In the U.S., if you are considered a “public figure” a libel verdict is very hard to prove since it is assumed that you put yourself forward and have to take the consequences of the “free market of ideas.” In other countries, the question of libel is more narrowly defined.

This was a very challenging listening for the students BUT I played only the first 7 minutes of the interview. Then I allowed them to read the interactive transcript provided by the program. We listened again and discussed the answers to my comprehension questions in groups. 

Here are the exercises I used.

The students really got into the discussion.

One student said he thought journalists were killed in some countries (including his own) because they told lies. Another student asked him why anyone would kill reporters because they told lies. It seemed more likely that they were telling a truth that powerful people didn’t want to hear.

Lots of silence after that exchange.

Some students defended censorship on the internet “because young people can be influenced to do bad things.” The idea of being able to “make up your own mind” and having access to information was discussed –“the right to know.” In a dictatorship, it doesn’t matter whether the average citizen is well-informed. In fact, it’s better for government control if they are not.

These discussions have been great for getting students to really engage with the language and use new words and expressions. What lessons have you created that got students’ interest?

__ TV
__ radio
__ newspapers
__ the internet

The class had some lively contributions about all of this. Most of the young people from countries with a free press said they preferred the internet because they thought it was easier to find what interests them.

However, students from some countries said less than 5% of households in their country had internet access. For them, the “information overload” was non-existent. We discussed how the internet allows for more varied sources of information but also some dangers, such as unfiltered information from biased sources.

What about your students? Do you have a similar breakdown among your students? How have you handled this?

Some students asked about Fox News and how biased that network was against the President in the recent health care debate. We discussed whether a “free press” means that every news broadcast has to be objective.

Is total objectivity possible? Many said yes. We discussed the fact that if some channels are pro-conservative, others are pro-liberal and if we know that, we can get some balance. Some students were shocked that the country allowed people to make fun of the President.

Have you ever looked at bias in US news media? How have you structured those lessons?

We did the NorthStar 4 Unit 6 Video on Habitat for Humanity in class. The students really liked the idea of Habitat and all the volunteers working together with the family who will receive the house.

The founder of Habitat speaks in a Southern accent – students had trouble realizing that there are regional accents (not just “foreign” accents) in the U.S.

How have you handled different regional accents? Have you had any interesting lessons/discussions?

We also discussed volunteering possibilities at our university: mostly tutoring in disadvantaged neighborhood schools. We discussed what each side (children and university students) got out of this experience. For homework, students have to search YouTube for other videos about Habitat for Humanity (there are many).