13: 英語2.0: English-Attack.com

I stumbled across this yesterday. This was a big find; I didn't think anybody had made this yet; with licensing rights and the wide variety of programming skills needed, I didn't even think a site like this was practically possible.

"Well this is a game changer and no mistake," said Sam.

In a word, it's a homework website that redefines homework. It's an interactive media website that teaches and reinforces English through popular English media (movies, news), not contrived role-plays and games. It's an Amazing Pneumatic One-of-a-Kind Believe-It-or-Not Independent-izing Interest-Making Attention-Honing EFL Machine.

I think it might be a Thneed. And you know who needs thneeds.

I'm going to give it a close inspection after work today to test its user-friendliness and see how well it stays relevant and interesting over the course of it's perscribed 10-30-minute daily session. I'll test it on the iPad, on the iPhone, and on the PC. And then I'll test it on the wife: if she likes it, I might have just struck gold after all.

It'll be years until I'm able to pull something like this off for my students--if I'm able to pull it off ever. Apparently the guys behind this site have lots of experience in media companies, so they know how to go about acquiring licenses and rights and whatnot. But jeez, if I can figure out a doable way to adapt this idea on a small, Japan-centric scale for my own school's needs (including elementary & pre-elementary students, and adults learning business English), I'll...I don't even know. This is some Super Saiyan 2-level stuff right here.

One thing's for sure [eye-glint as I pivot epically toward the camera]: it's definitely the direction that EFL education is going if we're to be serious about the 21st century. And I aim to be quite serious.

If anyone out there knows of similar interactive sites, let me know! I'm scouring the Internet for better alternatives to traditional writing drill homework textbooks.

11: A Sisyphean Grammar

I just perused the textbook closet for the English department here at school. Here’s what I found:

• Every textbook marked “English Communication Course” was actually just a reading course with a small bit of writing attached at the end of each 5-part chapter.
• The grammar textbooks all used the same abbreviations: S, V, O, and C to show the grammar patterns of English. I could identify 主語 (S, subject), 動詞 (V, verb), and 目的語 (O, object), but I don’t remember ever learning about 補語 (C, complement).
• If the grammar textbooks were battleships, they would be fearsomely well armed. They would not, however, float.
• Because these grammar textbooks are filled to the brim with bits and bytes of grammar information, which the teacher is required to take into his or her beak, swallow and partially digest, and then regurgitate into the brains of his or her students.
• The teacher is required to do this because the students are in high school for primarily two reasons, which are in order:
  
  1. To learn enough bits of information to pass periodic examinations culminating in the college entrance examination of the student’s choice, and
  2. To prepare the students to be mature, functioning adults.
• The first requirement is satisfied by class, the second is satisfied by discipline in class and club activities.
• (That’s overly simplistic and unfair, but this is a microblog not a book, so there.)
• What is missing here is play. The students are sat down at the beginning of the year and set upload as many grammar rocks into their solid-state brains as time allows for. And after this ball gets rolling, the teachers are up to their necks in writing tests, correcting homework, and coaching their respective sports teams or clubs to make time to innovate.
• And so the bland process continues until, occasionally, a teacher as a great idea that they manage to implement.
• For myself, I’d like to approach things like my gym teacher used to do: give us the balls first and let us play around—afterwards there would be time for the teaching of technical details and the testing of specific skills. It might be a worthwhile idea to throw kids into the so-called “deep end” of untethered communication, and only afterward settle down and teach them the reasons they’re saying what they’re saying.
• That might be considered madness in some circles. I mean, how can a student really know what they’re saying in a language they’ve never spoken before unless it’s taught to them specifically and in logical, laid-out stages?
• We all learned our mother tongue this way, so I’d say it’s worth a shot. It would be incredibly difficult to plan a class around this method, but incorporating a few ideas here and there might be just the thing to restore a bit of fun (and the resultant motivation) into EFL classes around the country.