SiamSap
- 2005-05-31
I'll get my director to send them your way if he wants to get rid of them. Like I said, they're doing nothing but gathering dust here, just like a bunch of US history books we have.
SS
Mic
- 2005-05-28
We have an opposite situation in China. Most Chinese people would love to know more about New York, Vancouver, or San Francisco. Most mainland Chinese, would love to get out of China too....
Alot different from your Thai I suppose. So, why don't you send those tapes over to China, we'll use them.
SiamSap
- 2005-05-28
I agree. Thai students react best to pictures, sounds, and conversations from, or involving, Thailand. In other words, I use Thai settings as though the universe revolves around Thailand. As silly as this sounds, I've found using Thai settings really IS the most effective method.
SS
If you teach in Thailand, you know how big 7-Eleven is here. These guys may be bright when it comes to selling soda pop, but they're not too bright when it comes to producing a learning resouce students will use.
Allow me to explain.
About two years ago, 7-Eleven donated a whole slew of tapes with read-along-books, a series called 'Just For You', to my Thai high school in an effort to help them learn English. When I arrived on the scene here, I discovered these tapes/books were doing nothing but gathering dust on a library shelf. 'Why don't students use these?' I thought to myself. After examing the first book and its matching tape, it became obvious.
The 'setting' was New York City. The book was filled with pics of New York, the dialogues were from New York, even the sounds on the tape were from New York. My Thai kids don't care about New York. They want to see pictures of Thailand, hear dialogues from Thailand, and hear sounds from Thailand.
I examined other books and found more of the same. One book covered 'travel'. Was there a picture of Wat Arun in the book? No. Did I find a picture of the King inside its dusty covers? Nope. Did it have any pictures of Thailand AT ALL. No way. It was a 'story' about a vacation to Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, USA.
Is anyone interested in about 20 dusty books with matching tapes? Your students will learn to speak English while learning all about the US at the same time.
E