This week will focus on teaching vocab an using some of the nation/Harmer techniques.
I only taught 3 classes this week as teaching slowly progresses to being sugar on the top of a greater income trifle. This left me with my 'conversation' classes.
In one class I tried to teach using the above techniques especially the teaching of collocation elements - spelling and prefixes/suffixes. For example, one word which came up was "decriminalised". I began showing and having him add the elements ("criminal" what's the adjective, what's the negative...). It was reasonably successful from this technical point of view, and the student was capable of negotiating the various points.
One of the challenges of teaching vocabulary within a "conversation" class is that there is never a comfortable point to actually duly CCQ the new vocab as the student is usually keen to get on with the point they were trying to make. In this class I gave some contextual examples of the word in use and got the student to give another example.
The student was typically tenacious and latched onto this idea that decriminalised meant "released without charge" or "settled out of court". I went into more detail about the true meaning but there was little traction and he remained convinced of his earlier inference.
His point continued and the word came up again. I corrected one more time but the conversation continued regardless.
Overall, in the remaining two classes, teaching of vocab went more smoothly and, with my new-found focus on form seemed to go quite well. The paradox comes with teaching vocab form as a "teacher" yet wanting to keep the class as dialogic as possible. It's the subtle gear change of
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