Binder

Beginner Band Clients

Introductions

USA x 2 / UK x 2 / Portugal / Iran x 2 / Ghana / Egypt

Get to know each other

What do you find challenging when teaching Beginner Band clients?

What do you want to improve?

Questioning
Asking your client questions helps you to…
-Put the client at ease
-Get to know them/build rapport
-Assess their language ability
-Elicit Target language
-Get information you can use to customize the lesson

Questions that aren’t understandable…
-are demotivating
-bog down the lesson in unnecessary repetition/explanation
-increase instructor talk time

Questions
It is important to start with simple questions that support your clients and gradually move to more challenging questions.

What types of questions should we ask beginners?
-Yes/No
-A/B: Do you like A or B?
-Open

What types of questions should we avoid?
-Complex: Have you ever swum in another country?
-Speculative: What does the man in the picture think?
-Abstract: Why do you like jogging?

Warm Up Questions
What could you ask Tetsuro in the Warm Up? (Case study, Binder page 5)
-Do you like baking?
-Do you like cooking Japanese food or Foreign food?
-What kind of [blank] food do you like cooking? / What is [name]? / What does it taste like?

Picture Speculation
What could you ask Tetsuro about the picture?
-Is this an Italian restaurant?
-Is this a Japanese or Chinese restaurant?
-What kind of restaurant is this? What does this say? What is that? What does it taste like?

Split Groups and do Case Study B or C
Come up with questions for the Warm Up and Picture Speculation

Natsu
Warm Up
-Did you walk to Gaba today?
-Was it sunny or rainy?
-What do you like to do on [weather] days?

Speculation
-Is it a sunny day?
-Is it hot or cold?
-What are the people on the right doing?

Customizing
We can support the client by identifying milestones throughout the lesson:
-Big Picture goal: What do I expect the client to be able to do in English by the end of the unit?
-Milestones: What do I expect the client to be able to do by the end of each Practice?

-Big picture goal: By the end of the unit, Tetsuro will be able to describe the Japanese food that he cooks.

-Practice A: Describing what the food is: Cooking method + Food name (Ramen is boiled egg noodles)
-Practice B: Describing the food taste (Ramen is salty)
-Practice C: Combining the two and adding more detail (It’s a little salty, but very juicy!)

Customizing
Practice A: What is okonomiyaki
-Cooking method: Pan-fried
-Food name: Savory pancake

Practice B: How does Okonomiyaki taste?
Tetsuro: Okonomiyaki is sweet and smoky

Practice C: What is Hiroshima Okonomiyaki?
Describe name and cooking method
-Is it good?
Describe taste

Case Studies C
-Big picture goal:
Describe the weather (Hot/cold, Sunny/Rainy/Snowy)

-Practice milestones:
Practice A: How is the weather today?/How was the weather yesterday? What month did you go to Australia? How was the weather in Australia in [month]?

Practice B: How is the weather today? What else? Anything else? (Combine the sentence together)

Practice C: Pull up a 10 day forecast and ask about the next week

[Graded worksheet]

Reviewing & Previewing
Q: How can we ensure we are using level-appropriate language?
A: Use the language you want your client to learn!

● Use language from previous lessons that the client should recognize and understand.
● Use language from the upcoming lesson so the client can hear natural examples and subconsciously learn the language.

Start reviewing & previewing the language in the Warm up and continue throughout the lesson including the Feedback.

Reviewing Previous Lessons
Here are Testsuro’s Vocabulary and Phrases
[Bottom of case study]

Reviewing Prvious Lessons
Instructor: Tetsuro, what did you do yesterday?
Tetsuro: Lunch with friends.
Sounds nice! Did you do anything else?
Watch movie.
Great! What did you do first? Watch a movie or eat lunch?
First, eat lunch, second, watch a movie

How could you incorporate the language from Tetsuro’s next lesson?
Instructor
Instructor: Tetsuro, what did you do yesterday?
Tetsuro: Lunch with friends.
Instructor: What did you eat?
Tetsuro: Italy food
Instructor: I love Italian food! Did you eat pizza pasta
Tetsuro: I ate Margherita pizza
Instructor: What’s Margherita pizza
Tetsuro: Cheese and tomato and basil
Instructor: Nice! I Like tomato pasta. It’s sweet and spicy. How does Marghertia pizza taste?
Tetsuro: Margherita pizza is… good taste!

Case Studies
Look at your Case Study and write a dialogue incorporating language from the previous and upcoming units.

Instructor: Did you eat out recently?
Natsu: Yes
Instructor: What did you eat?
Natsu: I eat Gyudon.
Instructor: Oh you ate Gyudon, nice? Did you sit inside or outside while eating?
Natsu: I sat outside.
Instructor: Nice, how was the weather?
Natsu: ?
Instructor: Was it rainy or sunny? How was the weather when you ate Gyudon?
Natsu: It was sunny.

Clarifying & Correcting
Q: When do we need to clarify before correcting?
A: When the client says something we don’t understand, or that could be confusing to a non-Japanese speaker.

-Mispronunciation: I went to a Tei-ma-paa-ku (theme park)
-Misusing loan words: I want to revenge that restaurant! (try again)
-Vocabulary mistakes: The train was free this morning (empty)
-Grammar/tense mistakes: My phone is change to new one (I will change my phone/…)

How should we clarify what the client is saying?
● Ask conversational questions to help you understand what your client is trying to communicate
● Provide a more widely understood alternative to the client that is natural and easily usable

What is direct reformulation?
-Restating their statement and then saying it back to them.
Why should we avoid it?
-Students don’t realize that they have made a mistake
When is it appropriate?
-Simple corrections

Clarifying & Correcting
Client: I went to depaato
Instructor: Do you mean “Department store”?
[Lesson Notes: I went to the department store.]

Client: I couldn’t listen to his English
Instructor: Was it too noisy or too difficult?
[Lesson Notes: I couldn’t hear/understand what he was saying]

Supa famikom is my first game system
Sorry, I don’t know that. Let’s look it up together!
[Lesson Notes: The Super Nintendo was my first console.]

Feedback & Praise
Beginner Band clients need to focus on fluency, not accuracy. Give positive feedback and praise. Avoid excessive mistake correction!

How should we communicate positive feedback:
● Use specific examples: Well done using “too much”!
● Focus on how the client is improving: You used this word from last lesson!
● Reinforce what they said: “I’m looking forward to…” Good phrase!

Try to elicit self correction:
What did you do last weekend?
Weekend… relax.
Last weekend I…
Last Weekend I ____
Last weekend I relaxed.
Fantastic sentence!
Last weekend I relaxed.

Give a praise sandwich:
What time do you get home?
I usually back home 7 o’clock
Great job using the vocabulary usually. Let’s work to make that sentence more natural. Instead of…
X I usually back home 7 o’clock
O I usually get home at 7 o’clock
I usually get home at 7 o’clock

TOOK A PIC, FILL IN LATER

Simple Lesson Notes

What would bad lesson notes for beginners look like?
-Lack of organization or consistency
-Untidy, small or cursive handwriting
-Long explanations - overly wordy
-Only words without meanings or examples

What would be good techniques when taking notes for beginners
-Draw pictures where possible
-Use other visual aids such as scales and formulas
-Use simple language - keep definitions to a minimum
-Consistent presentations

Presentation:
● Consistent use of color
● Well spaced out
● Easy to read handwriting
● Use of visuals (pictures, diagrams, timelines, etc.)

Content:
● Simple definitions
● Example sentences
● Sentence formulas
● Simple corrections

Online Lesson Notes:
● Organized (section headers)
● New vocabulary and phrases
● Mistake correction
● Use emoji and symbol