BGE lesson #6 in Lindau

“It must have gone well today, judging from your smile,” the director of the Akademie Schönbühl said when he entered the room after the lesson. Indeed, last session in Lindau was very good again. The learners’ performance during the pronunciation section was good as never before. One of the members said that this may have been, because I acted as such a great motivator today (and before the lesson people weren’t sure what they had to expect after last session’s discussion).

It is surprising, though, that it is still extremely hard for people to understand the sandwich technique, that it is also hard for them that they simply have to stick to what is written on their expert worksheets in order to present their material, and that it is also quite hard to speak slowly, clearly and loudly. But this is part of training intercultural competence. Also of note, the vocabulary section dealt with emotions this time and in order to memorize the words more easily learners were asked to also play the words (sad, angry etc.); not everyone felt at ease with that.

All in all, however, there was a very relaxed atmosphere in class. And learners also said that they feel they keep improving.

Joachim Grzega

4th LdL lesson in Lindau

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