End of the Semester

My third year classes ended last week. Now I'm busier than ever! Some of it is end-of-the-semester work, like reading through the students' evaluations of the VTF teachers, but the main part of my workload these days is a special short-term class.

In October, the school asked for a foreign teacher to conduct a 4-week phonetics/pronunciation class in December. It eventually was trimmed down to 3 weeks. The seven students are in their mid-to-late 20's. Three are teachers; two have very good English, five have excellent English (including the one who earned her masters in Phonology in Australia). It's somewhat intimidating teaching students who could probably teach the course themselves. They've been chosen to attend the European Union's interpreter training program in Brussels, Belgium. My job is to help them brush up on their skills before they leave.

We meet 3 hours each morning, five days a week. That means I finish class and head straight home to get my VTF work done and then prep for the next day's class. I've not been able to prep too far in advance yet because I'm trying to tailor the content to their specific needs. That's meant a lot of careful listening this week.

A typical class for the first week:

• Breaking into their Vietnamese conversation about the woes of applying for visas and asking them to switch to English. Once they do, I let them continue for about 15 minutes while I listen and jot down problem words and sounds. Then we work on them. (Anyone got any advice on how to explain how to get the middle /r/ sound in "world" and "word"?)
• Catch Phrase! (Thanks, Jim & Nancy K.!) It helps them work on their vocabulary, synonyms, and think under pressure. They love it. The teachers want to know where they can get one for their classes. (Taboo is next week. Thanks, Bob & Judy!)
• Recording. One of the benefits of a small class is that I've been able to bring my computer and record them as they translate each others presentations. They've been able to listen to themselves and begin to compile their own list of specific problem words.
• The book. We have a book and cassette tapes that cover intonation (from a British point of view). It's not that helpful, but I try to use it a little every day or two because the boss gave it to me.

Today we also did a Jazz Chant. (Not "Pete Eats Meat." This time it was "Banker's Wife's Blues.") They seemed to like it and, weird as it seems, it really does help refine their speaking.

This afternoon has been my time to relax since I don't have any VTF responsibilities and I'm off till Monday. Tomorrow I'll start working on that. It's been a busy week, but I love small classes and I like teaching adults. It's been good.

In an hour, five of them are coming to the house to help Nancy make Christmas cookies. Time to finish getting things ready.