39. My Best Week at Scudit
I don’t want to give the impression that Scudit was not a good school. As I indicated in blog 33, what the school did it did well, although I found its testing inadequate and its offering of extra-curriculum activities sparse during my four weeks. As I further stated in Blog 33, I had misread their brochure and consequently went with false expectations of classes focusing on conversation rather than on grammar. However, I was not the only one to misconstrue their publicity as at least two others I met expressed the same disappointment to me. As I mentioned in Blog 34, I complained to the Director that he had placed me in a class that was too easy and so for my second week he placed me in a different class. If the rest of my stay at the school could have been what I experienced during this week I would have been very happy indeed.
In this class the emphasis was truly on conversation. The instructor would throw out a subject for discussion or show us a cartoon strip and we would devise a story based on the drawings. Although the instructor had grammatical points she wanted to discuss, she allowed the class to follow its own head. For example, one day she mentioned something scandalous that she had read in the newspaper and asked us for our opinion. So we got into a lively discussion. At times, she would stop us and explain some grammatical point that one of us had used incorrectly.
On another occasion, the instructor brought in a set of comic strips and each of us had to take a role and act out what we thought was happening between the characters. We spoke a lot and laughed a lot, and again, the grammar “lesson” rose from our efforts to speak. By the end of the week I was feeling more comfortable speaking. I felt less rushed so that I was beginning to use the appropriate tense. If I could have had four weeks of this type of class I am sure my ability to speak would have taken a quantum leap. Unfortunately, the following week there was a wholesale exit of students and I was placed back into a “normal” class, at which point I resigned myself to another standard course of grammar with some conversation. If you read this blog and know FIRST-HAND of a school in Italy that teaches the way I am advocating -- conversation with grammar coming from the discussion - - please do let me know.
In this class the emphasis was truly on conversation. The instructor would throw out a subject for discussion or show us a cartoon strip and we would devise a story based on the drawings. Although the instructor had grammatical points she wanted to discuss, she allowed the class to follow its own head. For example, one day she mentioned something scandalous that she had read in the newspaper and asked us for our opinion. So we got into a lively discussion. At times, she would stop us and explain some grammatical point that one of us had used incorrectly.
On another occasion, the instructor brought in a set of comic strips and each of us had to take a role and act out what we thought was happening between the characters. We spoke a lot and laughed a lot, and again, the grammar “lesson” rose from our efforts to speak. By the end of the week I was feeling more comfortable speaking. I felt less rushed so that I was beginning to use the appropriate tense. If I could have had four weeks of this type of class I am sure my ability to speak would have taken a quantum leap. Unfortunately, the following week there was a wholesale exit of students and I was placed back into a “normal” class, at which point I resigned myself to another standard course of grammar with some conversation. If you read this blog and know FIRST-HAND of a school in Italy that teaches the way I am advocating -- conversation with grammar coming from the discussion - - please do let me know.
posted by Toby1939 at 11:13 AM
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