Fitting the Mold

Every now and again (once a week), we Fellows get a request from the English Language Office in the Embassy to conduct a workshop at a university or language center separate from our host institution. These are great opportunities to expand our own English teaching repertoire and just to hang out with some new folks.  Also, we usually get our names printed on a cool banner. Bonus! This past week, Lisa and I responded to one such request from Bina Sarana Informatika (BIS) to hold a seminar in learning English vocabulary.

Now, I am no expert in learning vocabulary - or much else - but part of being a Fellow (I've learned over the past year) is expanding your realm of expertise to fit the mold of what is needed - or learning to just fake it really, really well. Just kidding, they wouldn't have chosen us to be a part of the Fellowship program if we couldn't handle doing a little extra reading up on a topic. However, being a fellow does mean that you might, at any minute, have to agree to something just outside of your comfort zone.

Lisa and I (with a guest appearance by Megan!) agreed to tag team the request for Vocabulary learning. A few days after confirming our attendance, the number of participants jumped from 150 college freshman to 300 - and, oh yeah, their English is preeeeety low. After a year, I've come to expect these last minute changes and to roll with the punches, but even after countless workshops, I still get nervous when someone puts a microphone in my hand (you'll notice how my elbows are locked to my side in every picture to hide my icky pit stains). Lisa and I prepared well, though, and the event went more or less seamlessly.

Perhaps the one thing I remember the most from my undergraduate program in education is the motto: "Beg, Borrow, and Steal." The longer I am a teacher, the more and more I see the value in this statement. Our biggest support in the classroom and in situations like this is to pick the brain of the teachers around us. I was able to scavenge through powerpoints from other fellows and other conferences in order to put together a new presentation directed at 300 college freshman with low English proficiency. Why reinvent the wheel?

I was actually really proud of this particular presentation. I taught the students how to learn (versus memorize) vocabulary through: 1. visuals, 2. physical movements (like charades), 3. mnemonics,  and 4. personalizing. Annnd, we had a lot of fun doing it. I used nonsense words from A Clockwork Orange (Thanks to Stuart Vinnie - a presenter at last year's TEFLIN conference) to demonstrate each method.

For example, the students learned the word klootch (key) by asking each other personal questions:

"How many klootches do you carry?"

They learned the word malenky (little) by making a mnemonic:

"The malenky monkey stole my money!"
"The maling (thief in bahasa Indonesia) stole a malenky money."

They got it. They probably didn't understand every word that came out of my mouth, but they were active, they were smiling, and they were learning. Perhaps most importantly, Lisa, Megan, and I were able to connect with 300 Indonesian college students who otherwise may not ever have the chance to personally interact positively with an American (What? They're not all intolerant, Quran-burning, sexually and morally loose millionaires?). Soft diplomacy at work...again. Just goes to show that a malenky work goes a long way.