Help with language exchange?

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

Okay, so this isn’t technically teaching English in Taiwan, but in preparation for myself going to Taiwan I found someone to do a little language exchange with me. I’m not sure what dialect or where exactly she is from, only that she is Chinese and says she “had taken the relevant training courses in China” but our first “lesson” is tomorrow. She’ll be teaching me Chinese, I’ll be helping her with her English, and then I’ll give her some cash for her time because over here, Chinese is a bit more valuable than English. But I want to give her the best learning experience possible. I plan on getting my CELTA certification soon, but I haven’t even started it yet. So I was wondering if anyone has any web resources so that I could use yo get myself as prepared as possible to help her with her English, just something to read up on theory, or alternatively, if you guys and gals have any suggestions for a lesson plan, she seems to speak pretty good English, she even used fairly big words during our text exchange like “opinion” “relevant” and “meanwhile” some of her sentence structure was off, but I would say she seems fairly advanced.

Thanks for any help!

(and mods, feel free to move this to the “Learning Chinese” or whatever forum you want; just PM me so I know where to look for it, please. I am really asking about how to help improve her English, so I figured this was the right forum)

2

To be clear: I’m not asking you guys to do too much work. Just tell me where I can read some theory or something. I don’t want anyone to think I’m asking you guys to make me a lesson plan or anything.

Also, I realize my situation is not ideal for her English education.

3

Well, Ive never taught before or done a LEx… but it seems to me that you first need to figure out what her English level is First.

Then worry about making “lessons” and studying pedagogy.

4

This is the first time you’ve ever taught?

Then speak very slowly and simplify your language. Don’t assume that she understands just because it seems obvious to you. Don’t worry about teaching theories at this stage.

You’ll be fine.

5

You need to find out what she wants out of the language exchange. Does she want to do grammar exercises (textbook), reading comp or general conversation (or other)? The problem is that she might not know. I’m guessing that she probably wants to improve her conversation level.

I had one language exchange here and for 1-2 months the English part was a drag. I didn’t know what she wanted and I don’t she did either. The day that she pulled out a book and started reading formal business memos I decided to make changes. I found an interesting travel blog and each day we read thru it. She read first and then I read thru it explaining the meaning and the difficult vocab/pronunciations. And we talked about it. she really enjoyed it and it was what she wanted (as far I can tell).

OTOH - I wasn’t motivated to learn Chinese at the time (burned out after a 3hr/day plus studying uni class). And I wasn’t enjoying the Chinese part. The biggest thing I disliked about both the uni class and the language exchange was the insistence on learning characters during this time. Learning characters is simply a time consuming memorization ordeal (maybe not that bad). You can do this on your own time. I wanted to spend more time working on pronunciation, listening comp and some grammar.

6

Thanks for the advice everyone! I actually had a great time at the Language Exchange, I didn’t even have to pay her, just English for Chinese straight up :slight_smile: . Her English is pretty advanced, I guess she wants me to help her make her English more natural. I think that is what she needs, she learned English from a Chinese teacher and while most everything she says is technically correct, it is sometimes not what people would say in everyday life.

My plan for lesson day 2 is to make a work sheet where I have a sentence with a word blank, and then I’ll give her four options, two that are completely wrong, one that is technically correct or might seem to be correct, and one that is 100% correct and would be used in everyday conversation. Does that sound good?

One more question, should I keep trying to get her to pronounce her Ls, or is that a lost cause?

7

Never come across that one before. Mandarin has an ‘L’ sound which is exactly the same as the English one, so are you sure that’s the problem? Listen carefully - is she perhaps just inserting extra vowels (quite common - English has too many consonants, apparently) and the L gets lost? If her grammar and vocab are fine, I’d say you’re right about the “more natural” theme; she probably does want to improve her accent/pronunciation.

Also … try to keep it fun. Language exchange tends to just turn into, uh, dating, but even if you’re really there for learning, try to find out what the other person is interested in and likes doing. That way you can pick appropriate material to discuss, and conversation flows much more naturally. There’s very little point trying to get all technical - she’ll have had enough of that at school. The aim of language exchange should be to improve conversational skills, and for that to happen, you guys need to have something interesting to talk about. The fill-in-the-blanks idea sounds good, but why not do something similar while you’re speaking - introduce deliberate errors into your conversation (or use non-idiomatic phrases) and get her to correct you on it? Again, she’ll have had enough of the worksheets at school.

8

worksheets are boring and they are work.

Find out what she wants to do. My guess is that she needs to practice pronunciation and listening comp.

9

question : do language exchanges EVER remain just that between heterosexual males and eligible females?

10

Let’s hope not :pray: That would just be bad and very wrong, and would probably mean the end of the universe as we know it.

11

[quote=“finley”]
Never come across that one before. Mandarin has an ‘L’ sound which is exactly the same as the English one, so are you sure that’s the problem? Listen carefully - is she perhaps just inserting extra vowels (quite common - English has too many consonants, apparently) and the L gets lost? If her grammar and vocab are fine, I’d say you’re right about the “more natural” theme; she probably does want to improve her accent/pronunciation.

Also … try to keep it fun. Language exchange tends to just turn into, uh, dating, but even if you’re really there for learning, try to find out what the other person is interested in and likes doing. That way you can pick appropriate material to discuss, and conversation flows much more naturally. There’s very little point trying to get all technical - she’ll have had enough of that at school. The aim of language exchange should be to improve conversational skills, and for that to happen, you guys need to have something interesting to talk about. The fill-in-the-blanks idea sounds good, but why not do something similar while you’re speaking - introduce deliberate errors into your conversation (or use non-idiomatic phrases) and get her to correct you on it? Again, she’ll have had enough of the worksheets at school.[/quote]

Well, her “La” sounds more like “Na”. That isn’t common? I mean stereotypes and stereotypes and I don’t put much stock in them, but it’s certainly a stereotype that Chinese pronounce “La” like “Ra” so I am surprised to hear that Ls aren’t commonly difficult for Chinese. I guess that will teach me to depend on American Pop Culture. :blush:

I sort of feel like I have to bring some worksheets, she came prepared with worksheets, plus she is qualified to teach Chinese, and is here working on her second Masters, while I’m still working on my first Bachelors, and don’t have my CELTA yet. We agreed on roughly ten minutes worth of worksheets for her, I doubt it’ll even take her that long, I’ll just give her like ten multiple choice questions, and the rest will just be conversation. I just feel like she is putting all this effort into teaching me Chinese professionally while I’m just showing up armed only with my native tongue, which she can really get anywhere here in America (well, this part of America anyway) showing up with a worksheet at least shows I’m as committed to giving her a good experience as possible. I do like the idea of purposely messing up my speech and seeing if she can recognize it. But I think her biggest problem is not knowing what words are appropriate in what context. So she might not pick it up, I’ll try it out though. It’s not even really about getting her grammar correct, she is already really good at that, (or at least she told me so. “Chinese are very good at grammar”) its really just getting her over the last hump into complete fluency, I think. For an example when we were txting back and forth she said “We may discuss reward” which, is technically correct, but a more common way to say that would have been “We can discuss payment” or “We may discuss the price” I told her that reward is generally used as something you “win” not something you get for a service (though, I believe, it technically could.) So it’s really just stuff like that, she wants her speech to be less “Chinglish” (her words not mine). So getting that down, and maybe some common slang (stuff we hardly consider slang anymore but technically is, like “cool”).

Like Finley said, lets hope not, shes pretty cute. But, I don’t think the world will end if not, my main goal is to just learn as much Chinese as possible in a year, if something else happens well. . .

:lick:

EDIT: Thanks again for all the advice, its been invaluable so far.

12

I’ve heard the L and R phonemes in standard Japanese are essentially the same. But now you mention it … I do remember hearing someone pronounce ‘L’ as ‘N’, but that’s just because her (non-native) English teacher had awful pronunciation. ‘L’ isn’t an inherently difficult sound for mandarin speakers … although possibly mandarin isn’t her first language?

That’s probably a good reason for not using worksheets. Ironlady might weigh in here, but I suspect she’s using worksheets just because they make her feel comfortable. Try to explain to her that her English grammar and vocab has reached the point where she no longer needs worksheets, and you’re going to focus purely on verbal fluency and improving her diction. If you bring some reading material, preferably written in a colloquial style with useful phrases highlighted, hopefully she’ll still feel you’re making an effort. Again, you need to find out what she’s interested in.

You might want to point out that the recipient of that kind of text message might think he was about to get lucky … :slight_smile: Seriously, this might be a good example to use while pointing out to her that worksheets are not the way to go. She needs to spend more time learning idiomatic English in normal conversation, otherwise she’ll spend the rest of her life sounding like Google Translate.

13

Sure, keep trying.

Let’s hope not :pray: That would just be bad and very wrong, and would probably mean the end of the universe as we know it.[/quote]

:laughing: I had countless LEs without dating them. Only [strike]four or five[/strike] six or seven of them tried to date me, though, and I did date two of them, and married one of those.

14

Try doing a diary exchange instead of worksheets. Have her write a paragraph or two about what she did last week. And then read thru it during the LE correcting her mistakes. This will be a more natural way of finding the mistakes that she is making. And less work. And when you know enough Chinese you can do the same.

I wouldn’t aim to use the same teaching style that she is using. You are at complete opposite levels of learning.

15

[quote=“finley”]
I’ve heard the L and R phonemes in standard Japanese are essentially the same. But now you mention it … I do remember hearing someone pronounce ‘L’ as ‘N’, but that’s just because her (non-native) English teacher had awful pronunciation. ‘L’ isn’t an inherently difficult sound for Mandarin speakers … although possibly Mandarin isn’t her first language?[/quote]

Well, I’m thinking specifically about “The Christmas Story” when the turkey is eaten by dogs they go to a Chinese Restaurant where they sing "Deck the harrs with boughs of horry, fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra. " But an early 80s American movie is hardly the kind of thing to depend on for reliable information on other cultures, but I think that is where the stereotype comes from.

She said that Mandarin is her dialect, but perhaps she just said that because I said that I would prefer that in my ad. But she did seem very knowledgeable about the differences between Taiwan Mandarin and Mainland Mandarin. I’ll ask her again what her native city is next time I see her, and then find out for sure if they speak Mandarin there, but assuming she isn’t lying, it is her first language.

[quote]
That’s probably a good reason for not using worksheets. Ironlady might weigh in here, but I suspect she’s using worksheets just because they make her feel comfortable. Try to explain to her that her English grammar and vocab has reached the point where she no longer needs worksheets, and you’re going to focus purely on verbal fluency and improving her diction. If you bring some reading material, preferably written in a colloquial style with useful phrases highlighted, hopefully she’ll still feel you’re making an effort. Again, you need to find out what she’s interested in.[/quote]

Yeah, honestly she didn’t seem that thrilled to hear about worksheets, but when I mentioned it early on in the lesson she seemed less than enthused about reading out of a book together. I think I’ll bring it up again though, you have any suggestions? I’m thinking some Bill Bryson might be good.

That sounds like a great idea, and I will bring that up to her at the next meeting. :smiley:

16

Native speakers of other Chinese dialects/languages often claim to be native speakers of Mandarin. Don’t bother arguing about it with her.
The r-l mix-up is for speakers of Japanese, but we Westerners often get the various East Asian languages, ethnic groups, and countries mixed up, so you will hear people making fun of Chinese people for mixing up r and l.
One place where native speakers of Chinese do mix up ‘l’ and ‘n’ is Sichuan. In some of the dialects used there, ‘n’ and ‘l’ are pronounced the same.

17

[quote=“bababa”]Native speakers of other Chinese dialects/languages often claim to be native speakers of Mandarin. Don’t bother arguing about it with her.
The r-l mix-up is for speakers of Japanese, but we Westerners often get the various East Asian languages, ethnic groups, and countries mixed up, so you will hear people making fun of Chinese people for mixing up r and l.
One place where native speakers of Chinese do mix up ‘l’ and ‘n’ is Sichuan. In some of the dialects used there, ‘n’ and ‘l’ are pronounced the same.[/quote]

Yeah, of course I won’t argue with her about it, I’ll just casually ask her what city she is from and then report back here. :slight_smile:

Also, yeah, it is pretty sad how some Westerners don’t know anything beyond “Chinese or Japanese?” and then are even completely ignorant about those two cultures.

So anyway, class #2 is tomorrow (well, today for you guys). She doesn’t think she needs help with anything other than her accent, but she does. I have noticed quite a few errors when dealing with Tenses. So I made up a quick work sheet for her that has five questions they are as followed:

(1) I ____ English at the University last year.
(a) Study
(b) Studied
© Studying

(2) I really ____ a ride to my car. (Present Tense)
(a) Need
(b) Needed
© Needing

(3) I really ____ a ride to my car. (Past Tense)
(a) Need
(b) Needed
© Needing

(4) When I went to the store I ____ my friend Joe.
(a) Saw
(b) See
© Seen

(5) Did you see Joe? Yes I have ____ Joe.
(a) Saw
(b) See
© Seen

I think that should be good. I didn’t want to confuse her with complex versions of tenses, trying to get her to memorize “continuous past” or “perfect present” and all that other stuff that even I have trouble keeping straight in my mind, so I just kept it simple “past” and “present”. Do you think this will be a problem for someone who isn’t a native speaker and thus may have to actually think about what precise version of a tense they are using?

After that, I plan on giving her some tongue twisters I got off of English Banana.com, I think that the only way to minimize accents would be to practice, so tongue twisters would be good for that, right?

And then lastly I have a story (also from English Banana.com) that is pretty complex, with analogies and similes and all that good stuff. She is supposed to write a 1000 word response to it, but I don’t think she will want to (I changed it to 500 just in case she does, because I think seeing something written out might help with her tenses) that I wrote out some questions for her to respond to. Since she is worried purely about her oral skills though I think we will just discuss the questions rather than have her write them down. They are as followed: (the story can be found here)

(1) Why are the protesters concerned about the development of an improved bus station?

(2) What did the article mean when it said the protest had been “buoyed by the mysterious addition of a small caravan” specifically what does “buoyed” mean in this context?

(3) Why are some residents of Derby opposed to the protest?

(4) What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a caravan, from the perspective of the protesters?

(5) Based on the information presented to you, what is your opinion on the protest and the protesters?

I’m also going to have her highlight any part of the text she is confused by.

The last question, honestly, isn’t to help her with her English, I just want to hear a Mainland Chinese person’s opinion on protests and protesters.

Any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

18

Non-native speakers of English who have studied English in East Asian schools often know the names of the tenses better than the average native speaker would, and can often reel them off in order. The problem is actually using the correct form in context.

Tell us how the class went and what she found difficult and easy.