スミス英会話相模原校　長いストーリーを英語で話す

英語でストーリーを作るには私からの質問で始まりました。「What time did the airplane take-off … from where …what time did it land … where …how did you get to the hotel…what did you do next …first day, second day, third day, etc… (飛行機が出発したのは何時…どこから…何時に到着…どこ…どうやってホテルへ行った…次に何をした…1日目、2日目、3日目、等)」彼女の返事は1単語や2単語になってしまい文章ではありません。しかし問題はすぐに解決します！

次に私たちはホワイトボードに話の筋を書き始めました。これはスミス英会話で働くようになり身につけた方法です。動詞をホワイトボードの左側に書き、名詞と他のキーワードを右側に書きます。普段のレッスンでは生徒様が出した情報でストーリーを一緒に作ります。多くのストーリーは、横山公園での1日や相模原のおいしいレストランに行く、といった相模原でのシンプルな出来事です。私たちは途中で何度も練習をしながら時間をかけてストーリーを作り、レッスンが終わる頃には、生徒様は私から遮られることなく長いストーリーを話してくれます。このタイ旅行のストーリーはとても長くなってしまいましたが、生徒様は好奇心を持ちこの課題を楽しんでいるのがわかりました。

タイ旅行のストーリーを作るのに私たちは１レッスン分の45分かかりました。生徒様がほとんどすべてを話して私はホワイトボードの単語を指していただけでした。彼女は仕上がりに満足してタイ旅行のストーリーをすばらしい英語で話すことができました。私たちは2人ともホワイトボードの写真を撮り、彼女に次の週のスミス英会話相模原校でのレッスンでもう一度ストーリーを話すように言いました。

次の週、私はホワイトボードにストーリーを促す単語を書いておきましたが、必要ありませんでした。私が“Thailand(タイ)”と言うと、彼女はストーリーを全て完璧な英語でホワイトボードも見ずに話してくれました！私はさらなる質問で追加のテストをしました-「What time did the plan take-off, what did you see, buy, eat, drink(何時に飛行機は出発した、何を見た、買った、食べた、飲んだ)」等です。彼女はどの質問にも自信を持って完璧に答えました。これが、私がスミス英会話相模原校で英会話をコーチすることが大好きな理由のひとつです。生徒様が英会話でコミュニケーションにおける自信つけることが私たちの仕事で、全ては無料体験レッスンから始まります。いつでも歓迎いたします！

最後までお読みいただきありがとうございます。

ジム

English Students at Sagamihara Smith’s School of English Tell Lengthy Stories

English students at Sagamihara Smith’s School of English are always traveling throughout Japan and abroad. They often tell me about their plans beforehand, and I usually ask them to keep a journal during their trip so that they can tell me about it when they return. Some do and some don’t, but either way, as their English “teacher” (coach), I want to listen to their stories. Recently a Sagamihara English student went to Thailand for a few days.

When she came back for her next English lesson I said “tell me about your trip to Thailand.” She hadn’t kept a journal and looked a bit bewildered when I asked her that question. I prompted words like “hotel, food, weather, people,” etc., but as an intermediate level English learner I could see that she was having some problems forming sentences. One thing I really enjoy doing here at Smith’s Sagamihara is helping English students build a coherent story about something meaningful in their lives. So I seized this opportunity for both of us and began breaking down her story from beginning to end.

Building a story in English begins with questions from me. “What time did the airplane take-off…from where…what time did it land…where…how did you get to the hotel…what did you do next…first day, second day, third day, etc…Responses are usually one or two words, not sentences. We will fix that problem quickly!

And we begin plotting the story on the whiteboard. This is a technique I have learned from working with Smith’s School of English long ago. We put the verbs on the left side of the whiteboard, nouns and other keywords on the right side. The English students feed me the information and we create the story together. Many of the stories focus on simple things in Sagamihara- like a day in Yokoyama Park, or going to a good restaurant in Sagamihara. We build it slowly with plenty of practice along the way, and by the time the lesson is finished, that English student is telling me a lengthy story without any interruptions from me. This particular story about Thailand turned out to be very long, but I could see that she was very interested and enjoying the task.

It took us a full 45 minutes to build the story. I mostly just pointed to words on the whiteboard as she did almost all of the talking. She was delighted with the end result and was able to tell me about her trip to Thailand in very good English. We both took a photograph of the whiteboard and asked her to return to Smith’s Sagamihara next week and tell me the story again.

The next week I had written the prompts on the board prior to her English lesson, but I didn’t need to. I said “Thailand.” She told me the whole story in perfect English without looking at the whiteboard! I further tested her with some questions- “what time did the plane take-off, what did you see, buy, eat, drink,” etc. And she answered every question perfectly, with confidence.This is just another reason I love coaching English conversation at Smith’s School of English in Sagamihara. Communicative confidence in English conversation is what we develop in our students, and it all begins with a free trial lesson. New English students are always welcome!  Thanks for reading.

Jim