Losing As Negative Evidence

[kellogg]

 

Q #4. Situations and Rules

Game-UPWORDS

T: 호현!

S: Yes?

T: Do you know how to play "Scrabble"? Scrabble? (I showed the box of Scrabble   to 호현. 호현 played the game last semester in class)

S; Ah!

T: Yes. We did (sic) once in class. Right. Um. This game is Upword. Upword. It's similar  to the game, Scrabble. But there's something different. Okay. Later, I will show you. Please pick one letter from the pile.

S: (호현 put his hand in the pile) One?

T: Just one.

   Put here. "N?"

S: N

T: Okay. My turn. I chose the word, C. So, which one is the nearest to the letter   A?

S: (He pointed the letter tile "C")

T: C? Right.

   So, it means I will start first.

S: Ah~

T: Please choose seven words(sic), letters. Seven.

   But, do not let me see your letters.

   One, two, three, four, five,..

S; six, seven.

T: Me, too.

   I will choose seven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

   Okay. Using the seven letter tiles, I will make words.

S: Yes.

T: Up. UP.

S; Up?

T: Yes. So I have two points.

S: Two points?

T: Yes? Okay. Your turn.

   Ah. Because I used two letter tiles, I will pick two letter tiles.

S: (호현 hesitated for a while to think what word he could make.

T: Oh, You got it.

S: (Gesturing if it's okay to put word downward) Here?

T: It's okay.

   You can put here(downward), here(across), or here(separate from the earlier       word)

S: (He put the letter, LUSE)

T: LUSE? Right. Good word. LUSE? Maybe you mention(sic), you mean "LOSE?"   You lose your turn.

S: Ah.

T: Oh, but, okay I will help you.

   Except this letter "L", USE!

S: Ah.

T: Use. Use. Good. Okay. My turn.

   So you have three points.

   (connecting from the letter "S" in the word of "USE") SIT. SIT. SIT. Sit down,       Sit.

   So I have 5 points.

   Because you used three letters, three more.

   Me, too. Two more.

S: (호현 wavered again to find the word. He put "ZEE" after the "E" of "USE")

T: ZEE?

Zee is a word. Look:

A name, esp. now in U.S., of the letter Z.

1677T. LYENew Spelling Bk.II. 5 Zz zee Z-eal, thou shalt be my charret, whilst I ride, Elijah-like, with Word and Spirit, my Guide. 1797Gazette of U.S. No. 1429. 3/3 Younker yield the yawning yea Zounds, I'm safe at zig~zag zee. 1828 WEBSTER, Z... It is pronounced zee. 1882 [see ZED 1].

Oxford English Dictionary.

It's the name of the letter "Z"! So Hohyeon is really RIGHT and the teacher is WRONG. Now, at the end of the game the score is five to three. But "Zee" is three points, and so if the teacher had NOT been also the referee, Hohyeon would have won the game.

There are several reasons why we WANT to lose games when we show children how to play the game (you remember that when I showed Taeyeon how to play Mancala I was very careful to lose!).

a) If the children WIN, it gives them confidence and motivates them to play again.

b) If the children WIN, it suggests that the game is fair, and worth playing.

c( If the teacher LOSES, it actually gives the children MORE INFORMATION than if the teacher wins.

Let me explain the last point a little. We know that in language NEGATIVE answers often give us more information than POSITIVE ones. For example:

a) T: How are you?                    T: Let's go on a picnic.

S: Fine.                                 S: OK.

b) T: How are you?                    T: Let's go on a picnic.

S: Terrible.                            S: No.

T: Why?                               T: Why not?

We also know that NEGATIVE evidence is quite formative in grammar learning:

S: Point the table.

T: Point TO the table.

S: Point to the table.

We ALSO know that one of the KEY problems in English teaching has to do wtih teaching children to be CREATIVE in English, and that the solution to this problem is NEVER "listen and repeat".

In fact, it is IMPOSSIBLE to learn creativity through repetition. That is because creativity is by DEFINITION not repetition; it's VARIATION.

You can see that variation is MUCH more likely with negative answers and negative evidence. The same thing is true when we are teaching games.

Remember earlier we wondered how to present examples so that children know they are ONLY examples, and the children should create their OWN examples. How can we present "I am jumping" in such a way that the children will NOT say "I am jumping" but will instead say "I am playing the piano", and how can we present "bathroom" in such a way that the children will NOT slap ONLY when they hear "bathroom" and will know to slap when they hear "kitchen" too?

Here we have the answer! We present a NEGATIVE example, an example that the children will NOT imitate...because if they imitate it they will LOSE.

S: Ah.

   (He found out that it's not a word and moved the letter tiles into his rack)

   (He put "S" above the letter "E" of "USE" and "E" below the letter"E" of "USE")

T: But, "IE", is it a word?

S: No.

Eunjeong: it seems to me that our biggest and most persistent problem is that the children speak only in MONOSYLLABLES; "Ah", "No" "Yes", etc. But you don't address this problem ANYWHERE in your test, do you?

If you think HARD, you will find a VERY good final exam topic in this! (By the way, you may ALSO find that this problem is related to the "repetition" problem.)

T: No.

   You can't put here (I moved the letter tiles, "S" and "E")

   If you can't make the word, it's okay just to say, Pass.

S: Pass.

T: Pass? Okay. My turn.

   (Stacking "S" on "P" of the word, UP) US.

   Ok, So, until now I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven points.

   (Staring 호현) How many points do you have?

S: Three.

T: Just three points.

   So, who win? (sic)

S: You?

T: Right. I win!

When teachers win, they lose! It's MUCH better to lose the game! For one thing, many games have a rule whereby the winner has to keep on playing (in order to determine the champion). This is NOT in the teacher's interests--the teacher does NOT want to keep on playing.

Now, if you think about it, you will realize that this whole problem of winning and losing is caused by the teacher having TWO ROLES--player and referee! We saw that this problem occurred in Mikyeong's data too, and that Hojin resolved it!

   1. What kind of game is it? Is it agon, alea, ilinx, or mimicry? Role play or rule play? Would you say it is mostly action or mostly meaning?

    It is agon because there are a winner and a loser. But there are also winners and losers in alea games, aren't there? If I win Lotto, aren't I a winner? Also, the game proceeded by the skill. Each one has 7 letter tiles each and needs to make up a word using the letter tiles. So, this game is based on how many words the participants know. It is a rule-based game; using the letter tiles, make a word. Most of time during the game, meaning rather than action is used. The teacher utilized lots of sentences to explain how to play the game.

But who chooses the letters? Isn't it random? Suppose I get seven letters like this:

S, E, V, E, R, A, L

Then I win, don't I? But surely you can't call THAT skill!

2. How and where does the teacher present the rules of the game? Is the language simple or complex? Is it understandable or not?

  The teacher says the rule to the student. However, playing the game, there's an explanation. Though the sentences are long and a bit BIG words to the 5th grader, anyway the student understands what the teacher says.

How? And above all, how much?

This is where your analysis really needs to BEGIN, not end. We saw that "stand up" is a SINGLE word to children. When the teacher says something like:

T: So, which one is the nearest to the letter  A?

S: (He pointed the letter tile "C")

The child answers correctly. But does that mean the child can then answer a quesiton like:

"Which one is nearest to the letter Z?"

Or

"Which student's birthday is nearest to Chuseok?"

Remember that during the 중간발표 we saw that not even the TEACHER understood the sentence:

"He has a long hair."

3. Look at the language. Is it mostly commands, questions, or statements? Why?

   The majority of the languages are statements.

Really? But almost EVERYTHING the children say is NOT a statement, but a single word. Aren't you just looking at teacher language?

Let me try it:

c         But, do not let me see your letters.

c         Put here. "N?"

c      T: Please choose seven words(sic), letters. Seven.

f          Except this letter "L", USE!

f          Me, too. Two more.

f          One, two, three, four, five,..

f       A?

f       S: Ah.

f       S: Ah.

f       S: Ah.

f       S: Ah~

f       S: N

f       S: No.

f       S: Pass.

f       S: Three.

f       S: Two points?

f       S: Yes.

f       S: Yes?

f       S; Ah!

f       S; six, seven.

f       S; Up?

f       T: 호현!

f       T: C? Right.

f       T: Just one.

f       T: LUSE? Right. Good word. LUSE? Maybe you mention(sic), you mean "LOSE?"

f       T: Me, too.

f       T: No.

f       T: Pass? Okay. My turn.

f       T: Up. UP.

f       T: Use. Use. Good. Okay. My turn.

f       T: Yes? Okay. Your turn.

f       T: ZEE?

q      T: But, "IE", is it a word?

q      T: Do you know how to play "Scrabble"? Scrabble? (I showed the box of Scrabb

s         Ah. Because I used two letter tiles, I will pick two letter tiles.

s         Because you used three letters, three more.

s         I will choose seven. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

s         If you can't make the word, it's okay just to say, Pass.

s         Ok, So, until now I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven points.

s         Okay. Using the seven letter tiles, I will make words.

s         So I have 5 points.

s         So you have three points.

s         So, it means I will start first.

s         You can't put here (I moved the letter tiles, "S" and "E")

s         You can put here(downward), here(across), or here(separate from the earli

s      T: It's okay.

s      T: Oh, but, okay I will help you.

s      T: Oh, You got it.

s      T: Yes. So I have two points.

s      T: Yes. We did (sic) once in class. Right. Um. This game is Upword. Upword.

s      You lose your turn.

s,c     to the game, Scrabble. But there's something different. Okay. Later, I will

s,q     T: Okay. My turn. I chose the word, C. So, which one is the nearest to the

Even if you are JUST looking at teacher language, for the children to say a single word, doesn't there have to be a question? Let's have a look:

		빈도	퍼센트
유효	commands	3	5.7
	fragments	29	54.7
	questions	2	3.8
	statements	17	32.1
	statement, command	1	1.9
	statement, question	1	1.9
	합계	53	100.0

It's NOT TRUE, Eunjeong! Only 32.1% of the utterances are statements. And over half of them are one or two word sentence fragments!

It is because in the game, there's a condition to move to next step.

So, it means I will start first.

  Like above sentence, when the players did something, it is connected to the rule of the game. From this reason, the languages are mostly statements.

No, they aren't. They are fragments, because that is what the children use! You are looking at this ONLY from the point of view of the teacher. But classrooms are whole, Eunjeong!