Teaching Journal

Class: 40 students of 1-1 in HSHS
Date: November 18th, 2005
Textbook: Brushup your English grammar p/b CHART INSTITUTE
Allotment: Relative pronouns (1) (2)

Lesson objectives

1. To review the usage of relative pronouns.
2. To show the difference on the function of which/who and that.
3. To introduce continuative mode of relative pronouns.

Teaching objectives

1. To keep on Ss concentration on my explanation as long as possibly by using familiar examples.
2. To look at four Ss on each corner of the room.

Post-class reflections

Ss generally don't like relative pronouns, because sentences with them are longer and may seem difficult. This is true, and what is worse, they must see more complicating sentence structures with relative pronouns. For example, in today's text, they had to meet with the following sentence;

Q: Please chance the following sentences into one, using relative pronouns.
Last Monday I bought five books. I have read none of them yet.
A: Last Monday I bought five books none of which I have read yet.

I strongly believe that these sort of too complicating sentences just confuse Ss, which endlessly produce those who hate English. Still, they have to deal with such questions for entrance exams. One of my dilemmas on grammar lessons is here.
All I can do is to encourage Ss by giving them as interesting examples as possible. For example, when I introduce the continuative mode of relative pronouns, I use the following sentences.

Q: 花子のボーイフレンドは何人いるの？
1) Hanako has three boyfriends who are doctors.
2) Hanako has three boyfriends, who are doctors.

I ask Ss to translate 1) and said, "How many boyfriends do you think Hanako has?" Almost all the Ss say THREE, which is of course wrong. I repeatedly give the same question to three to five students. In the end, sensitive students can find that the answer is 'more than three'.
In 2), the answer is 'three'. This is how I introduce the difference of two modes of relative pronouns. Ss seemed to be concentrating on and enjoying my explanation.
After these introductions, I checked the answers on 'difficult' questions on the right-hand page. At least, all the ss including four on each corner of the room were writing down the answers on their notebook. In the next lesson, I will start with the test on the sample sentences on the left-hand page, and see if my explanation has worked well.
By the say, I told Ss to hand in the assignment (penalty) in the last class, but 15 students could not hand in it. Maybe, the assignment was too much. I will think about it, too. Anyway, I will give Ss more pressure to hand it in.