Gary Malmgren

I trained as an engineer, so I approach teaching English from a slightly different viewpoint from other teachers.
An engineer needs to identify problems, solve them and make sure that they don’t occur again.
Two problems that I have identified in Japanese students are:
What should I say?
How should I say it?
Two solutions that I use (sometimes successfully sometimes not) are:
Asking and answering questions in 6 steps of difficulty, I use a print sheet called Ordinal questions.
Talking about a topic in 7 steps. This print sheet has photographs, questions, reading and homework.
Today, I would like to explain each of these solutions and some other ideas that are connected to them.
Asking and answering questions in 6 steps of difficulty, I use a print sheet called Ordinal questions.
S1= Student one S2 = Student 2
Step 1. (Junior high school 1st level) S1= ask a question S2 = answer
Step 2. (Junior high school 2nd level) S1= ask a question S2 = long answer
Step 3. (High school 1st level) S1= Choose a question and talk.
(S1 should not talk directly) S2 = Says “That’s the ….question.”
Step 4. (High school 2nd level) S1= Says “Start with the ….question.”
S2 = Should start with that question , but finish with another question.”
S1 = Says “That’s the ….question.”
Step 5. (High school 2nd level) S1= Says “Finish with the ….question.”
S2 = Should finish with that question , but start with another question.”
S1 = Says “That’s the ….question.”
Step 6. (University level)
S1= Says “Start with the ….question and finish with the ….question.”
S2 = Should start and finish with the given questions, but add another in the middle question.”
S1 = Says “That’s the ….question.”
This gives students practice in:
Listening to commands.
Listening for a task.
Listening for content and information.
Changing topics when speaking.
Speaking spontaneously about given topics.
Speaking in order to trick or mislead the listener.
Speaking for a longer period of time.
Practicing “th” pronunciation.