Spoken English Movie Time!

Recently, I embarked on a new project in my morning Spoken English class at Kadod. Even though the intensity of the professional development workshops takes up a lot of my time, I have a really devoted group of kids. After the Diwali break, we did a unit about asking for and giving directions. This sort of practical English is not really a part of the Gujarat state curriculum. Many people I have met in Gujarat, despite having a strong grasp of English grammar and a BA or MA in English, look confused when met with a simple question like, “Excuse me, do you know a good restaurant around here?” Even grammar and English courses, especially those classes offered online, cannot immerse a student into the context and culture of the language 100%. The unit we did in Spoken English covered basic directions. The students drew maps of Kadod and then used it to ask each other questions like, “Where is the hospital?” “How do you get from the river to the chemist?” The kids really enjoyed this activity because of how tangible it was. Every time I went on an errand and ran into a student in town, I would make sure to ask them, “Excuse me, where is the bakery?” and watch the enlightenment spread over their face as they realized that they were actually helping their teacher find the bakery. As a fun, pre-exams project, students got to write “movies.” After learning about setting, dialogue, characters, problem, and solution, they created short films. The only guideline was that, at some point, someone had to ask for and receive directions. The creativity they showed was impressive! One group boys were “lost dinosaurs,” looking for the jungle and getting help from a kind, if anachronistic, doctor. Some of the girls rewrote an Indian tale from their government textbook, having someone figure out how to get to King Akbar’s palace in order to ask his queen a series of classic riddles. And one “family” of girls went to modern-day South Africa and had to figure out how to get to the zoo. Below is a movie clip of Monil and Niral hamming it up as a lost tourist and helpful doctor (a recurrent theme that reflects many students’ career goals). Monil is moving to the States in a few months, so this was great practice for him! For more clips, search “nanubhai” on youtube.com Movie on 2011-12-30 at 09.52 Please double click the link to view.