Talking of Schools

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Talking of Schools	James Simpson

introduction > This topic is about life at primary school. ESOL students who are parents of school-aged children know the importance of informed participation in their children's schooling. At the same time, many ESOL students find the talk around school a challenge: talking to teachers about their children's learning and progress, talking to the head teacher when a problem arises, chatting to other parents about the school, and so on. These activities are designed to help students address such challenges. Here you will find recordings and transcripts of discussions with teachers, parents and children at a primary school in Yorkshire. For each recording, there are suggestions for using them in your ESOL teaching. Recording 1 Here is a recording and a transcript of part of a discussion with Miss Middleton, a teacher of a Year 1 class in the school. Year 1 children are five or six years old. In this extract, Miss Middleton is talking about some of the things parents ask her about their children's lives at school. Recording 2 In this extract, Miss Middleton discusses how she talks to parents who are learners of English. Recording 3 In this extract, Miss Middleton continues talking about how parents who are learners of English have difficulty communicating with their children's teacher.
transcript > Click the audio player on the left for the full interview or the players below for sections. Recording 1 Miss Middleton: I mean the most com- the most common questions that parents ask me at the beginning of the year erm is you know what topics are you doing they like to know you know the curriculum newsletters that we send out they always sort of come in and ask questions and erm a lot of parents ask me if year one were having homework and erm what I was doing with the reading books and how that was working erm and then a lot of them ask about PE as well and what type of kit that they need to bring in whether they need games kit erm things like that really erm they also ask me about the timings of the school day how long lunch is and and break time erm when do we have snack erm what happens in the afternoon (a) Here are some of the words and phrases in the extract that you might like to focus on, either as a pre-teaching activity or during/after reading/listening to the extract. homework topics we are doing the curriculum newsletter the reading books PE games kit the school day lunch break time snack (b) [For more advanced students] Some of the themes in this extract are: homework PE and games, and the kit required events in the school day To introduce the topic with the students, think of some questions for discussion around these themes. Some of your students may well have children at primary school. Ask these students to tell other members of the class about their experiences of these themes. (c) [for intermediate students] As homework, students who are parents can ask their children to describe to them their school day. Using the notes they make, build up a 'timetable' of a typical school day for the children of students in your class. (d) [for intermediate students] As a classroom-based alternative to (c), ask students in groups to brainstorm all the words and phrases they know which relate to children's daily routines at school. Students could build up a spidergram of these words and phrases. (e) [For beginner and lower-intermediate students] The teacher talks about PE and games kit. Using pictures (e.g. from Google Images) as prompts, elicit or teach vocabulary around PE and games in school. You could group the vocabulary into sub-themes. For example, sports played at school (in the summer/winter); kit needed for each of these sports. Recording 2 Miss Middleton: with erm somebody in in this class and I and I taught her daughter last year as well erm and I found sort of there there is a little bit of a language barrier there sometimes as well so you just have to sort of be very careful of what you're saying keep everything quite sort of simple not use any sort of really complicated language and things and you know just get to very straight to the point and things because sometimes I think they find it you know quite hard to come and ask me and they found it hard to come and just speak to me about the learning so I try and just keep it really friendly and you know very sort of simple English so they they understand (a) [for intermediate students] Ask your students to predict what Miss Middleton does to make communication easier between herself and parents who are themselves learners of English? Key: Some of the phrases Miss Middleton uses are: you have to be very careful about what you are saying keep everything quite sort of simple not use any complicated language just get very sort of you know to the point just keep it really friendly and very simple English (b) [for intermediate and more advanced students] Miss Middleton uses the term ‘language barrier' here. You might like to discuss this with your students. Ask your students what they think she means by the term ‘language barrier'. Ask your students whether they think it is right for Miss Middleton to modify her language when talking to parents who are English language learners. Ask your students how people modify their language when talking to them, and what their attitude or response is to this. Recording 3 James: do they have problems talking to you about or asking you questions Miss Middleton: I think so yeah I think they find it hard approaching me especially if there's a lot of parents come to ch- collect their children at the end of the day erm and especially sort of erm it's very busy isn't it James: it is yes Miss Middleton: even when I was teaching in year three because it was right by the main entrance it was so busy that parents couldn't just say oh can I just quickly ask you such and such you know we had to always step into the classroom and things and I think they found it hard to sort of just come and say to me oh can I ask you you know such and such a question or can you tell me what this book is that you've sent home or what do I do with the reading record erm a lot of parents sort of ask me how to fill in the reading record sometimes as well and and what it's used for and things (a) [intermediate students] As a pre-listening activity, ask your students if they can predict what problems these parents might encounter. Students who are parents can describe the problems they have encountered when talking to their children's teacher. (b) [beginners to advanced] A ‘filler cloze' activity. Like most people, Miss Middleton uses a number of ‘fillers' in her talk: words and sounds like erm, you know, sort of, and things, etc. As an activity to raise students' awareness of this aspect of spontaneous talk, blank out the fillers in the transcript, play the recording, and ask students to replace them. You could make the activity easier by listing the ‘missing' fillers. As an extension, you could discuss with students the use of fillers in their own expert languages.
download > To download the files on this page use right-click on the filename then Save Target As full audio recording recording 1 recording 2 recording 3 transcript and teaching ideas

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