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Labels:
Motivation from the Very First Day
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"What can I do on the
first day of class?" This is a question that we, as English teachers, always ask
ourselves at the beginning of each school year.
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I think it is the wish of
every English teacher to succeed in creating in their students a positive attitude towards
the language; and the achievement of this goal will very much depend on our ability to
motivate students in our first contact with them.
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It is usually the case
that learners of a foreign language-especially "false beginners"-tend to
underrate themselves. They think they know less than what they really know. Also, the
students are not aware of the presence and importance of the English language, especially
in countries like Spain, in which English has no special standing; and they consider
English as just one more theoretical subject to be studied, with no recognition of its
practical use as an international language.
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To serve the double
purpose of creating a positive attitude towards the language and of motivating them, I
developed an activity for the first day of class which I have called "labels."
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I noticed that many goods
which could be bought in Spain-including articles of clothing, food products, drinks and
other consumer goods-had "labels" with messages written in English. This was
true not only of imported items, but also of those made in Spain. When I had collected
enough of these "labels," I selected seven of them which would be suitable for
the activity I had in mind and for the age and level of my students (15 and 16 years-old,
second form, non-compulsory secondary education).
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Before having the students
perform the activity, I tried to make clear what they were supposed to do, explaining that
it was not necessary to understand every single word in the labels to answer the proposed
questions. This said, I gave to each student a personal handout and let them read the
labels. It is important to allow them enough time to read before giving out the answers
because otherwise they will attempt to answer the questions without reading through the
labels first.
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I went through the
sections on comprehension questions and key words, to solve any difficulties that students
had with the wording of the questions; but at no time did I translate the labels or allow
the use of dictionaries, since that would distort the purpose of the exercise. Once the
students were ready to start the activity, I gave them twenty minutes to work out the
answers individually.
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After the time ran out,
the answer sheet was corrected in class in the following way: for the comprehension
questions, I asked a different student each time until all six questions were answered. At
this stage most of the students got all the answers right, except for label four, which
proved to be the most difficult one. For key words, I followed the same procedure, but
this time I told students to feel free to participate even though they were not called
upon.
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I accepted key words
corresponding to trademarks or brands of products, provided that the student explained in
English why s/he had chosen those words. If a student chose a word from a label which the
rest of the class did not consider to be a "key" word, he or she had to justify
his/her choice, so that sometimes there was a discussion between those who argued for and
those who argued against the validity of the word. I insisted on the exchange being
conducted in English. In the cases of disagreement after a debate, my view was usually
accepted.
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In the course of the
correction of the students' answers, they were free to ask the teacher for any explanation
regarding grammatical structure, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, style, etc. A space
was left on the answer sheet for the translation of the key words into the students'
mother tongue.
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With the aid of this
simple exercise we may have opened our students' eyes to the fact that the English
language is not an abstract entity beyond their reach, but a universal language which they
can understand and speak. If we have the ability to get the students involved in the
activity, it will make them more confident about learning the language.
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Bernardo Rodríguez Caparrini is an English teacher at the
Instituto de Bachillerato, Santo Domingo, a state secondary school in El Puerto de Santa
María (Cádiz), Spain. |
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