It’s amazing how busy they are keeping us. I was going non-stop today from 9 am to 9 pm. Input sessions from 9 to 12:30. Then we get an hour and a half for lunch. I spent a half an hour getting the materials for my lesson ready. Then I was going to grab a quick bite to eat, when the student I was going to interview at 1:30 arrived, so I talked to her for a half hour. Then I had to review my lesson plan.

I thought my lesson was really flat. I still felt crummy, I didn’t like the material, and there were only five students, so it seemed awkward. But my instructor assessed it at an “S+,” or above standard. I did do the vocabulary eliciting well. When we teach vocab, instead of just feeding the students the words and meanings, we try to get them to say it for us. I was doing sports activities, so I would show them a picture, for instance, of a guy rock climbing, and ask if anyone knew what he was doing. As I expected, nobody came up with “rock climbing,” but somebody did say “climbing.” Then it was just a matter of pointing at the mountain, which got that word, and asking what the mountain was made of: “rock.” Then someone said “climbing rock,” I got him to flip it around. It’s fun, because it’s sort of like hosting a game show. The tricky part comes when you say it, then get the class to say it, then group, then individuals. You have to listen for mistakes, and correct them. But just saying it for them yourself isn’t always good, so you have to try to identify someone saying it correctly, have them say it, then go back to the incorrect student.

I think a good rule of thumb is to be a “lazy teacher.” The less you say, the better. Your just there to facilitate student-student communication. They call this the “communicative approach,” and it’s different from anything I’ve ever encountered before in my own education, where teachers just talk at (not to) the class, and I sleep. (Even though you minimize your talking time, you have to work hard to get them to talk, so you are being anything but lazy.)

Even on a “night off” (I don’t teach tomorrow, so don’t have to plan a lesson) I was still busy, because I had to observe a two hour lesson. The teacher was good, and was trying to teach his class “connected speech.” When Thais talk, they will carefully pronounce every word. It is understandable, but it doesn’t sound right, because when native speakers talk, the sounds of words change when used in sentences. For instance, “Did you go to the movies?” actually sounds like “Didja go ta the movies?” It was sort of funny watching a group of Thais being taught how to say “didja.” The teacher's ability and the students' enthusiasm were inspiring.