How Do I Incorporate Exercise Into Classroom Activities?

Traditionally, Japanese people ate meals of rice, grilled fish, miso soup, and pickles, which gave them a caloric deficit and created their slender frames. Nowadays, there is no shortage of Western food available in Japan to help fill them out to levels seen in the Western world. From hamburgers to sandwiches, and from bread to donuts, Japanese are experiencing an influx of calories into their diets as well as into their bodies, thus a need for exercise is becoming more and more clear.
Although fat people in Japan are only half the size of fat people in fat countries such as America and Britain, they are still an eyesore. However, unlike those countries, Japan has a large amount of shame in becoming obese, and will often hide themselves and avoid gyms, creating a need to incorporate exercise into the classroom.

Compliments
Start the conversation off with simply asking “Did you lose weight?”. If the student responds “yes”, congratulate them on their hard work and encourage them to study English as well as they diet. If the student responds “No, I did not lose weight”, cast doubt on them and say that they are looking more healthy than the previous class.
Compliments are like greasing the wheels towards more activities. We’re talkin’ machine grease, not bacon grease!

Have the student stand
Tell the student that the next part of the lesson is going to involve a roleplay. Set up the roleplay as people waiting at a bus stop, or waiting in line for a new product. The background doesn’t matter as much as getting them to stand.
It’s important to push through towards completion. Overweight people like sitting almost as much as eating, and the student may make excuses in order to sit down. It’s best to just focus on the roleplay as long as possible.

Have the student do pushups
Incorporation of pushups into the lesson really begins to separate the milk from the cream, where the milk is the fat people and the cream is the better, thinner people. We’ve asked several students to do pushups with most of them flat-out refusing. Like them, we chose not to push the issue.

It’s important to remember that improving the student’s English ability is good, but improving the student is great.

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How Do I Teach Tag Questions and Accusatory Questions?

You enjoy tag questions, don’t you? You study or teach English, don’t you?
The above two sentences are two examples of tag questions. Tag questions are often used to elicit a confirmation from another party. The grammar employed involves positive and negative verbs in pairs. Take a look at the following sentences. The examples of the positive and negative verbs have been capitalized.

tag_questionsAffirmative Infinitive verb -> negative Infinitive verb
You ENJOY tag questions, DON’T you?
or
You DON’T ENJOY tag questions, DO you?

These verbs are infinitive, but many other patterns may be used;
You CAN speak English, CAN’T you?
You HAVE eaten eggs, HAVEN’T you?
They WILL clean the carpet, WON’T they?
He COULD have escaped through the window, COULDN’T he?
She HADN’T moved from the couch by the time the phone rang, HAD she?

The best way to confirm understanding of tag questions is to confirm that the student knows you. Have the student confirm how well they know you, asking questions about nationality, favorite foods, sexual orientation, work schedule, etc.After the student has asked 5 questions, switch and ask the student 5 questions. This is where the exercise becomes difficult, because Japanese responses may be “Yes, I don’t”, which is unnatural in English. Inform the student that they should answer as though the question is not a tag question. For example;
You aren’t Chinese, are you?
No, I am not (Chinese).
Your parents are still alive, aren’t they?
No, they are not (alive).

Accusatory questions are similar to tag questions, but as indicated by their name, are much more accusatory in fashion. They are used when you are in disbelief of a situation.
Don’t you like cake? (surprise that the person is not eating/enjoying cake)
Haven’t you seen Castleblanca? (surprise that the person has not seen the classic movie Castleblanca)
Can’t you breathe through your nose? (surprise at the student’s breathing through their mouth)

cute dog

This is an inspiration dog

Even if the student is an abrasive one, it is never wise to attack their character through this grammar. Set up a role-play with a stuffed animal, and have the student pretend that the stuffed animal is a real person, but with animal traits, and have them lecture the person on proper behavior. For example, with a dog stuffed animal, the student may respond “Won’t you stop barking while driving?”, or a cat with the response “Can’t you stop sleeping on my keyboard?” Have fun with the activity, but do not let tempers get the best of anyone.

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When Do I Use “A” and When Do I Use “The”?

One of the more difficult aspects of English are the articles, and not just the ones found in newspapers. Using “a” and “the” take years for most English natives to fully grasp, and much longer for those attempting to gain English abilities. The differences are striking, and there are many instances where “the” and “a” are not interchangable.
The word “The” is used to refer to something known by both the speaker and the listener. In the previous sentence as well as the sentence you are reading, there are 6 instances of “the”, each referencing something that we both clearly know to avoid confusion. “The word” refers to the word in question, which is “The”. “The speaker” is the person speaking, and “the listener” is the person listening, both known to both people. The “the” in quotes refers to the word “the”.
To clearly teach the word (“the”), have the student write the following sentence on paper, and identify all instances of “the” and what they reference;
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

a clipart

Image of the letter and word “a” in uppercase

To contrast, “a” refers to any instance of the object in question. If the teacher were to mention that they were going to “The Family Mart”, it would be assumed that the student is in some way familiar with that location, whereas “A Family Mart” could be any location located in Japan. If the teacher asked the student to write “The word”, the student should write “the”, whereas “A word” could be “pencil”, “hotcakes”, “button”, or any other word allowed in the classroom.
After explaining usage to the student, have them write the following sentence;
A quick brown fox jumps over a lazy dog.

Have the student compare and contrast the two sentences to demonstrate understanding. This activity should take between 3 to 5 minutes. When the student successfully is able to show strong knowledge of “the” and “a”, reward them with a smile or a sticker in their reward booklet.

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How Do I Explain the Difference Between Green Tea and Japanese Tea?

Oftentimes, vocabulary used for foods can be confusing, using different words to refer to the same thing i.e. soda and pop, EZ-Cheez and Easy-Cheese, Quesadillas and tortilla melts
This is confusing for non-native speakers who assume that everything only has a single word, which is the case for the Japanese word o-cha, which refers to both Japanese tea and green tea. So, how can you teach a student when each word is appropriate?
Drill the student on their nationality by using the grammar pattern of “Which nationality are you?”, to encourage the student to say “I am Japanese”. Expand on the grammar practice by asking “Which nationality is your tea?”, to which they should respond “It is Japanese” or “My tea is Japanese”. With both the student and the tea’s nationality established, the student will understand that they drink Japanese tea.

Japanese green tea drink

Japanese green tea drink

Next, ask the student “What color are you?”. If the student appears confused, use a piece of paper or a whiteboard to write “Y _ L L _ W” and encourage the student to fill in the blanks to choose “yellow” or whatever shade is most appropriate. Next, ask the student “What color is your tea?”, and write down all responses.
The student will quickly understand that green tea and Japanese tea are one in the same, and will have no problem using either term to describe the bitter deliciousness of Japanese お茶 (o-cha).

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How Do I Convince a Student to Stop Taking Lessons?

As any seasoned veteran teacher can attest, some students reach a point where they are no longer capable of learning. Specialized compartments in their brains, for whatever reason, fill up and do not accept any new knowledge. In these cases, what can teachers do?
Teachers must be insistent that the student has mastered everything there is to know, and any future learning must come through self study and speaking in front of a mirror. The student may protest, but you can point out that they have stopped listening to the teacher and have now become their own teacher. Be firm, yet kind with the student when you tell them not to return.
This is a particularly big problem in Japan, where you can talk to the student for an hour at a time and they do not retain anything that you have given them. Having spent the past hour reading a list of important words to a student, and having them leave the class with a bewildered expression does not result in good feelings.
For students that are insistent that you continue teaching them, convince them of their expertise by artificially dropping your own English ability. Remove prepositions from your conversation, avoid plurals, and interspace your sentences with hoots and whoops. It truly is a confidence booster for the student.

student reaction

student reaction

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How Do I Make the Student Pronounce the “TH” Sound?

It’s a question that many teachers ask themselves and each other; how can I make the students pronounce the “TH” sound so frequently found in English? Luckily, the answer is quite simple, but the road to that answer is long and riddled with difficulties.

One of the difficulties comes from the size of the average Japanese person’s tongue. It is a well-known fact that Japanese have longer intestines than any other race on the planet, lending to specialization towards their diet of rice, fish and miso soup. Because of the longer intestines, the tongue is shorter for obvious reasons. With short tongues, they develop a condition where they infrequently move outwards from the back of the throat, leading to mispronunciation of sounds that make great use of the tongue, primarily the “TH” sound.

Tongue Image

Tongue Image

To teach the “TH” sound, it is as simple as convincing the student to stick their tongue out. Stick your tongue out when looking at the student and speak, making liberal use of words that begin with “S”. As the teeth come down, they naturally create a “TH” sound. Each time the student successfully makes a “TH” sound, reward them with a smile and say “ooo, nice”. If they make an “S” sound, you should shake your head in disappointment and reinforce this with “oh, not good at all”.
Very few people outside of the medical field own calipers, but it is possible to maneuver the tongue out of the mouth with fingers, chopsticks, or pens used as chopsticks. Make certain to wash or use alcohol rub on anything before placing it into your mouth or the student’s.

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What Do I Do If a CD Is Scratched and I Need To Perform a Listening Activity?

We are teaching the best lesson of our lives, engaging the student and filling their brain full of English, when suddenly a listening activity occurs. Since CDs are rarely replaced, years of usage take their toll and result in CDs so scratched that they will barely play. Needing to apologize over the condition of the CDs not only reflects poorly on the teacher, but also on the school.

For more experienced teachers, there is always safety in using cassette tapes. Cassette tapes can never become scratched, and have the ever-important reliability that CDs simply cannot provide. Many teachers will decorate the tapes to create a more personal atmosphere for the student, and allow the student to cue them for the activity.

this is a CDFor those who do not have extra cassette tapes, another possibility is to record yourself narrating the listening activities. This is beneficial for three reasons; one, you own all of the rights. Two, you won’t be surprised by the content. Three, it delights the students, and they are more likely to believe that you are a professional narrator.

If your school has new CDs, keep them in pristine condition by never placing them in direct sunlight, lightly washing the backs with a solution of detergent and water by means of a soft towel, and never putting them directly on top of paper.

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School Update: 2012-10-31

Last week we had the misfortune of having a student with a colostomy bag enter our English school, and despite my best efforts, we were unable to succeed in dissuading him from learning English. Older students often have difficulty in the high intensity English learning environment, and that difficulty would only be compounded by the possibility of an accident occurring with the student’s bag.
This situation has weighed so heavily on all of the teachers at the school that it feels as though morale is dropping with no signs of bottoming out, but as professionals we will do our best to continue giving quality lessons no matter which obstacles are placed in our paths.
Even after years of teaching, there are situations that surprise all but the most worldly of English teachers, and this situation is no different. It is important to assess aspects of every situation and react with careful forethought, and so if placed in a situation such as this one, confirm with the student that there will be no leaks or chances of bursting, and position yourself near the door if you suspect the student of lying to boost your opinion of them. On the days which you teach the student, wear some slightly older clothing that you wouldn’t mind getting dirty.
With luck, there will never be any mishaps due to medical situations, but it is always important to treat each situation with caution.

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How Do I Build Student Willpower?

Learning English is often a matter of willpower, with the weak-willed failing quickly and the strong-willed eventually failing much later.
To build willpower in the classroom, the teacher must take on the role of leader by establishing themselves as the “alpha” unit. Loud noises, whether in quick succession or all at once is a great way to gain the attention of the student, assert yourself as the “alpha”, and build their willpower.

Applying this in the classroom is simple; mix the loud noises into your lesson plan. This can be done a variety of ways, such as turning the radio up to full volume before playing a practice CD, dropping books on and around the student, or simply yelling on occasion. You will literally see an immediate response from the student in terms of their attentiveness.

The castle of willpower

Some students respond negatively towards loud noises and exhibit a range of responses ranging from simple cowering to full on confrontation. In these situations it is important that the student not be allowed to view you from eye level or above, and so it is important that you keep them in their seat. Standing in front of them and pinning their hands to the side of the chair while asking “are you here to learn or are you here to quit?” is very effective at garnering a positive response from the student and getting them ready to learn English.

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How Do I Teach the Difference Between Jail and Prison?

prisoner_clip_art

A guest at a prison or jail (likely a jail)

Most students have not been through the legal system and have yet to experience the difference between jail and prison firsthand. The differences are many, but can be summarized rather easily. Although not exclusive, jails are for light-skinned people and prisons are for dark-skinned people, but there are of course many other differences.

To teach the difference between jail and prison, write the words on the board. Have the student brainstorm different aspects of each (food, lodgings, activities, television time, yard size), and write those items on the board as well. For each aspect, act out the differences while the student takes notes. For example, for jail food you could make a disappointed face at the flavor followed by a look of resolved gladness that your dessert will not be taken, whereas prison food would be a slightly less disappointed face at the flavor and a confused face at the consistency and texture of the soups. Repeat for each aspect.

After the student has taken sufficient notes, start a roleplay. You take on the role of a reporter and the student a sheriff, and the sheriff has to explain the differences between the facilities in his/her jurisdiction. When the student has completed the roleplay, switch roles.

Please leave any inquiries concerning differences in the message area below.

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