Trinity TESOL Part Time Intensive Course May –

July 2010

Kevin Reeve

Foreign Language Journal

Part A
Lesson One:
Right from the start of this lesson you knew some different was going to
happen. Mike entered the room in character. He was wearing a Brazilian
football shirt and a football in his hand.

Not one English word came from Mike’s mouth all lesson. He began with
the words ‘Tudo Bem?’ which I now know means ‘Everything good?’

As absolute beginners we looked at him with blank faces. So he now

modelled the word again now far more animated and indicating the
syliables with his fingers. Next he encouraged us to repeat the phrase
back to him be using gestures and we quickly realised that it was a
greeting. Mike continued for a while drilling us before writing the phrase
on the board and we felt success for the first time.

Next came the phrases ‘Como ē seu nome?’ and ‘Meu nome ē’ which as
the lesson progressed we found to mean ‘What is you name?’ and ‘My
name is’. Using different coloured pens Mike marked the stressed
syliables, intonation and phonemes. He now drilled us on these new
phrases correcting our pronunciation as needed before we began to
practice in pairs.

Mike now introduced a map of the world and small photos of famous
people a new phrase ‘Como ē o nome dele?’ and ‘Como ē o nome dela?’
meaning what is his name and what is her name. He ecilcited the correct
answers pointing to the photos and again drilled us in the group
environment before allowing us the practice in pairs.

Next he taught us the names of the countries the famous people came
from by placing the pictures on the map and repeating two new phrases, ‘
e de onde?’ and ‘ Ela ē da’ for example

Helen Clark ē de onde? Ela ē da Nove Zelandia.

All the time drilling us chorally and individually after which again we
practiced in pairs

A worksheet was now given out on which the names of the seven famous
people were printed, complete with a worked example. This worksheet
helped with our spelling, accuracy and the Portugise accent system.

After this we played a pelmanism game which involved matching up the

famous people to the country of origin. This allowed us to use the TL in
positive negative and question form while having fun and hopefully
storing the information in our long term memory. The pelmanism game
slso aided our development in fluency and confidence.

After this lesson I could see how the communicative method worked. I felt
that is was actually learning. It is easy to feel an observer in a language
lesson as you struggle with the content. However here Mike created a
relax atmosphere with activities that helped to build confidence.