Classroom Observation 2

Yesterday I observed Ms. Carretta's speaking class. Although it was a Muslim Holiday this class was too affected by the absences. It was a 1:00pm class so everyone seemed lively and attentive. One of the students requested last class that they cover certain pronunciations. The class reviewed pronunciation of words that contain R's and L's apparently this was a bit challenging for asian students. Ms. Carretta stated that we learn language by regurgitating what we hear. as we get older our hearing lessens which makes it difficult for us to learn newer sounds and pronunciations. For the colombian students the same challenge was held for words beginning with J and Y. So the class practiced stating certain words like "jello" and "yellow", "eerily leery". The second portion of class we were assigned a survival task. This task required us to discuss and explain how we would find food, clothing, and shelter on a island with just the tools on our desk. This appeared to be an interesting activity to use in getting students to practice speaking. It was fun coming up with our Macgyver paper clips! Ms. C is a great artist although she claims otherwise she was able to use diagrams to explain the placement of the tongue when pronouncing our R's and L's. Good Times!