CiC3-TB

◯ My hardest day is Wednesday because I have four classes. ◯ My hardest day is Wednesday. I have four classes. How about you? • Write “ How do you say~ in English? ” up on the board have have your students repeat this a few times. This will hopefully encourage them to ask you for help with coming up with reasons for why their days are easy or hard. • Have students spend a few minutes filling in the blanks with answers true for them. Mill about the class, helping students express reasons that are true for them. In most cases one of the variation vocab items will suffice, but you never know… • Model the dialog with several students. Feel free to switch up the open and closed forms of each question as you talk with your students. • Have students practice the model dialog with several classmates. Having them stand up while speaking can help them stay focused. N OTES FOR PAGE 34 Sounding Natural Note: Reacting with surprise or compassion • This note introduces the conversation strategy Getting Time to Think, which is especially useful for helping students decrease the amount of Japanese they use out of habit while speaking English. • Remember that if you want your students to have access to the full transcript of this and all audio notes, you can access these online at cic multimedia.com. • The practice activity embedded within this note focuses on the importance of intonation. Set this up by stating that how you say a word effects its meaning. You could demonstrate by having students ask you how you are, then reply “great” in a super glum voice. While your English is fine, the message is not getting across because of the way you said the word. This is because in face-to face communication, there is more than one channel through which meaning is conveyed. You have the words themselves, but you also have intonation- how they are said. Body language also plays a part. • Have some fun with this rather unconventional intonation practice activity! It’s perfectly fine to

under and over act the model dialog to make a point that while a drab, bored-sounding voice is unacceptable, so is the other extreme- blatant over-acting often born of shyness and insecurity. English transcript of audio track 1-30 Remember that a key element of sounding friendly in English is to react to what your partner says. There are many types of reaction expressions you could use, depending on the situation. When talking about hard or easy days, here are some ways to react with surprise or compassion to “good” or “bad” news. When someone says something positive, you could say: • Wow!

• You’re lucky. • That’s great.

• That’s fantastic. • That’s awesome. When someone says something negative, you could say: • Wow. • Oh no! • That’s too bad. • That’s got to be hard. • That’s got to be (tough). (adjective)

A key point to remember with reactions is that intonation is everything. This is true because HOW you say something carries meaning. To realize the importance of intonation and to help you find your natural, positive voice, try the following exercise: 1. First, read the dialog in the manga below with a partner using a flat, monotone, disinterested voice. It’s okay to sound like a robot! 2. Next, read the dialog again with extreme, over the-top enthusiasm. Have fun over-acting! 3. Finally, read the dialog again with your natural, friendly voice, like you use with your friends. A: What’s your hardest day of the week? B: Oh, it’s definitely Monday because I have five classes and my part-time job in the evening. A: Wow, that’s got to be hard! B: Yeah, it is. What’s your easiest day? A: It’s probably Friday. I don’t have any classes. B: Wow! That’s great. You’re lucky.

Notes for Teachers: Unit 2 42