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The distinction between given names and family names.
T: Look at the pictures of the Simpsons family.
There are name cards for them. Listen and repeat. Mr. Simpson.(S: Mr. Simpson *①)
Mrs. Simpson. (S: Mrs. Simpson) Bart Simpson. (S: Bart Simpson) Lisa Simpson. (S: Lisa Simpson)
Maggie Simpson. (S: Maggie Simpson)
You can see that this is "Listen and repeat" in more than one sense. The teacher repeats the function "listen and repeat" five times.
But it's a fact of human learning that the more text we understand the more context we have. The more context we have the more text we can understand. So the more the kids do, the more they can do.
Sunjeong is an experienced teacher, and she KNOWS this. That's why she DOESN'T use "Listen and repeat" after the very FIRST time. She knows that the kids know what she wants.
But instead of repeating the same function we can vary it, because we know that the more the kids do the more they can do.
T: Look! This is Mr. Simpson. Homer Simpson. Who?
T: Right--Mr. Homer Simpson. Now, who is Mr. Simpson's wife?
T: Yes, it's Mrs. Simpson. Mama Simpson. Tell me about their kids.
This question technique puts more and more burden on the children. But instead, Sunjeong uses a question technique that really puts a burden on the TEACHER. Why?
Can you match the name to each picture? Who is he? (pointing to the picture of Mr. Simpson)
S: Mr. Simpson.
T: That's right. He is Mr. Simpson. His name is Homer Simpson. We call him Mr. Simpson. Because he is father (sic).
What is "father"? Is it a name or a noun? If it is a noun, doesn't it require an article?
Who is she?
S: Mrs. Simpson.
T: Good. She is Mrs. Simpson. Her name is Marge Simpson. We call her Mrs. Simpson. Because she is mother(sic).
Who is this boy?
S: Bart Simpson.
T: Right. He is Bart Simpson. We just call him Bart. He is a son. Who is this girl?
S: Lisa Simpson.
T: That's right. She is Lisa Simpson, the first daughter. We can call her? What?
S: Lisa.
T: Right. We can call her Lisa. Who is this little girl?
S: Maggie Simpson.
T: Good. She is Maggie, the youngest.
T: Listen and repeat the names of the Simpsons family again.
Why? Are they very hard to pronounce?
There is the same word in their names. What is it?
Ah...that's why! Yes, I do this sometimes too. I get people to READ ALOUD in class--very embarrassing. But it's really just to get us to COMPARE and to THINK. So that is what Sunjeong is doing!
S: Simpson.
T: Right. Simpson is their family name. They are the Simpsons. And Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and maggie are Given names. Look at Bart Simpson. Bart Simpson is the full name of this boy. What is his family name?
S: Simpson.
T: Right. His family name is Simpson. What is his given name?
S: Bart.
T: That's right. His given name is Bart.
T: Now let's play a game. You have to meet your family. The family who meets first is the winner.
The beginning of a game is always a DANGEROUS place. As you can see, Sunjeong uses an identifying relative clause. This is a level of complexity that doesn't exist in our book, and for very good reasons.
Here's what we saw in Amyeong's homework:
Please say hello and *ask and answer your names each other (sic).
You can see that the language of exposure is too difficult EVEN FOR THE TEACHER.
Now that’s really okay. After all, kids can deal with a lot of information, and they normally ignore teacher mistakes too.
But perhaps it’s a sign that we need to slow down, back up, and BREAK UP the sentences into much smaller and shorter pieces. The pieces need to be small enough to fit into the MIND and fit into the MOUTH of a child. Otherwise we are only creating a huge gap between the language of exposure and the language of use, between the grammatical input and the purely lexical output, and between the regulative (management) register of the class and the instructional (teaching) register. The kids are turning into monsters with HUGE ears and very SMALL mouths.
So let’s slow down. We saw that by breaking up the sentences into small pieces, with some form of “breathing in” after each one, we can restrict each “utterance” (or even turn) to ONE PIECE OF INFORMATION. Like this:
T: Let’s play “FROZEN SPELL”.
Now, say hello. What do you say?
Then give your name. Who are you?
Then ask for a name. Ask for what?
Then get ALL the names…and cast a magic spell!
Say ALL the names, and EVERYBODY FREEZE!
Notice that every move begins with some kind of TIME phrase. Why?
Of course, we can NUMBER the moves too. Like this:
FIRST, say hello. First?
SECOND, give your name. Second?
THIRD, ask for a name. Third?
FOURTH?
Now, let's try that with Sunjeong's work too. We take what was INTRA-MENTAL (grammar) and make it INTER-MENTAL again (discourse):
Now let's play a game. You have to meet your family. The family who meets first is the winner.The family who meets first is the winner.
Let's play "meet your family".
It's a game! What's it called?
Now, you have a BIG family. LOTS of relatives, or not very many?
You meet relatives. Near relatives or distant ones?
They are DISTANT relatives. You don't know them. So what do you say?
Now, let's say Sunjeong has THREE relatives. And Seonyeong has only TWO. Who wins?
Notice that what we've done is really to make Sunjeong's relative clause into a QUESTION. By doing this, we are able to make what was internal external again!
*② First, check your name. Meet anyone. Ask his or her full name. If he or she has the same family name, he/she is your family. When you meet all your family, say your family name. Each family has four members. Are you ready? Ok, let's start.
Sunjeong has a big problem. The word "if" is not really in our syllabus, and in fact our syllabus doesn't use hypotaxis at all. How can she do without it here?
*① I would choose Mr. Simpson and Mrs. Simpson instead of Homer Simpson and Marge Simpson in order to give students the clues for matching, even though it is better to present full names to distinguish between given names and family names. Instead, I present the full names later.
Yes, a good idea. And it's a good choice of EXAMPLE too, because the family name is always longer!
Nevertheless, I hesitate to use Mr./Mrs. Simpson. Because it can give another information on the titles. It is difficult for me to explain two things(titles, names) at the same time. I think family is very good to explain our three problems.
*② Teacher gives a name card for each student. Each name card reads one full name such as Sally Brown, Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt, Linus Van Pelt etc.)