Topic: class of 96........help please

[anyonefortennis]

I've been asked to teach a group second year nursing students communicative English - or Everyday English as they've titled the course – sounds ok so far, however the group in question is 96 people.

At first I told them to go away in short jerky movements and not to be silly, but in a moment of madness I contacted them and said ok no probs. I was under the illusion that perhaps they were intermediate or above and we could participate in meaningful discourse for 3 hours a week.

Alas they are all beginners, some do have the current skill level to repeat “You, You” when they want my attention, others however cannot interact even at this level.

I’ve had a couple of extremely painful hours with them, and unfortunately we were in a room that resembled a bowling alley, very thin and very long and the fine mixture of bodily odours was an assault on the senses like I’ve never experienced before.

The course starts for real in the new semester, so I’ve got three months to get my shit together, and here’s where I need help;

* I’m a great believer in using students names, as opposed to “you, next to the guy with the eye shadow on”, how the fudge do I go about remembering 96 names? In the past I’ve used classroom maps, distinguishing features (warts, glasses, piercing etc.) and name cards, and so on.
* If I canna even see the people in the back 4 rows (and in the room we used previously it took at good 15 minutes of clambering over desks, people and bags to get to the back), how can I facilitate their learning process?
* Ideas for communicative activities? Pair work is always a favourite of mine, but I’m gonna be hard pushed to listen in to 48 pairs, even if I can manipulate the room to set this up.

Anyone got any useful advice (please note ‘useful’)? These guys need practice in the skills, they won’t benefit from me rambling on, how can I do it? 

Cheers.

[ajarnnormal]

You have one hell of a job there. I hope the baht is coming in for this job. I teach at many hospitals and have never had a class that big. I am trying to get the picture of the room you are in. i divide the class in half. that is one half on one side and the other half on the other facing each other. That is so you can have a walkway between them. As you say groups is the answer but with a class this size is difficult. Roleplay is also difficult but maybe your best bet as you wander down the gap in between the two halves of the class. With the level and size of classs you are teaching there is no easy way. Surely they can not expect to learn with a class that size. I will think again but I can only wish you the best of luck right now. Seating for me is very important though. I am sure they are going to gaggle on in Thai all through the lesson and make it even more difficult for you.

[anyonefortennis]

Cheers AjN, no they probably don't expect to learn but it would be nice.....

It's a bit of a 'face' thing, the nursing college has a new Bachelors programme and they have the old "EN101" type of course on it, and a native speaker stood in front of the class is essential - unfortunately I was stupid enough to agree....but we live n learn.

[Pavlovsdog]

A class of 96!!!!   You have my sympathy!    Here's a couple of quick suggestions:

1.  Have them make nametags with their nicknames spelled in English.  This could be more difficult than you may expect, after all, Goff is spelled Golf, Min is either Mint or Mink, Bon is Ball, Bun is Ple and Bang is Bank! 

2.  Try to identify top 10 students and put them in charge of groups of 9 or 10 students.  If you can't identify the best students, just form them into groups and see who the natural spokesperson is!  If a group is very weak, move someone from a stronger group into it.  Have them do their exercises and activities in groups, with you circulating around helping and explaining things.

3.  Most of all, try to keep things fun!

[Mods-Rockers]

AFT

And I thought that pibby was the masochist! 96 students, ouch, well  at least you have one thing in your favour and that’s the fact that they are all student nurses. I would assume that the course would therefore be a mix of ESP (medical talk) and general conversation but still initially with a medical leaning. The English side will be to help interfacing with farang!

What equipment will you have? An HP might be useful here, as would a cassette recorder.

One thing that has always struck me about hospital setting anywhere and Thailand in particular is paperwork. It might be an idea to get the hospital to supply you with copies of the more general forms that the nurses will have to work with. Of course these will be in Thai, if you can get these translated and printed up as a bilingual document then this could be used as a teaching aid, especially if you can also put the doc up on the OHP.

From this paperwork you could start with some simple formulaic question-answer-follow p type vocabulary and speaking exercises;
What is your name? could you spell that please, please could you repeat that.
Sir, don’t be alarmed but I have to insert this rectal thermometer (not good for role plays)
Sir, I am sorry to tell you but you are clinically dead!

These could then be taken further into roleplays. Thais love to play act, and if you initially give them a full role play to perform and practice it a few times you can then start bringing in changes that will challenge their thinking in the role. Explain to them that the role play has limitations in that whilst they [the nurses] may well remember the exact sequence in the roleplay a real patient, especially one in a great deal of pain probably does not know the words.

Try to get the stronger students to become proxy teachers, coaching the weaker one who should be the ones who role act the most. Don’t have a schedule that the students can predict, keep ringing the changes and at times do something that’s completely off the wall. Try and bittorrent some of the old medical comedies from the net, maybe the med dramas as well and select scenes that have needed vocab and text patterns that you want to teach the students. Keep it varied, keep it fun and above all enjoy yourself, if you are having fun the students normally are as well and if everyone is happy then they learn much more!

But 96 students! Man they will run you ragged if you let them, still its exercise I guess!

[bomha]

My Yank mate says that state unis over there have 'freshman 101 classes' in lecture halls with hundreds of students.  Nobody expects the lecturer to do any thing more than lecture.  No student interaction.  No student names.  Some drone bee takes attendance.  Nobody learns.  The lecturer only has a BS in the subject.  He often cannot speak English well.  He has a $1,200 public address sytem.

Face it.  Just keep everybody's pretty face.  Even the male face with eye makeup.  Pretend to teach.  The Yank says you can teach "Look Jane.  See the dog.  The dog chases the ball.  The name of dog is Spot.  Ball has spots.  Do your balls have spots?"

[Mods-Rockers]

See bomha! you have created  medical text! next you will have them doing clinical examinations of the balls during role play! urmm maybe not!

[bomha]

The sentence "Ball has spots" refers to the student on row 6, seat G6, named "Ball."  Ball has posts on his.....

You then break them up into pairs, and they take turns asking, "Do you have spots on your balls?"  "Ball, does your dog have balls?" 

[anyonefortennis]

thanks for all yer words of wisdom, if anything else springs to mind (other than telling them to knob off) please feel free to share it.