Our latest BGE-and-LdL lesson at the Akademie Schönbühl went quite well. First I did a plenary pronunciation exercise and a game exercise in pairs (during which I also observed and, if need be, corrected pronunciations of single individuals). The pronunciation will continue to be a challenge for me. Then we had groupwork: there was again a preparatory phase in groups of 3-4 people (revision group, dialog group, word-list group, game group, cultural contrast group). The single presentations took a bit longer than planned because some people didn’t know a game which I had expected as internationally known (“Happy Families”/“Go Fish”) and because people still have to get accustomed to some presentation techniques, e.g. the presentation of the dialog in three steps: (1) presentation in slow motion with the “sandwich technique”, i.e. when you say a new word/phrase, then a background interpreter gives the German equivalent and the literal German expression before the new word/phrase is uttered again (e.g. How are you? — Wie geht es Ihnen?, wörtlich: Wie seid ihr? — How are you?), (2) presentation in normal speed, (3) dialog hand-out plus reading.
During the single presentations, I will take care that the presenters stick to the wording on my sheet when they explain something and that good learners (“false beginners”) don’t choose expressions that the “true beginners” are not able to understand yet.
Joachim Grzega
