I have an Eiken 2-ish high school class in my eikaiwa that is otherwise reasonably engaged and locked in, but when it comes time to use the target language in the freer practice section I make time for at the end of the lesson will not really bother to use it.
I feel like I am going about things the right way and building them up to it – showing them an example of the grammar in context written down so they can really see it (which is something, by the way, I think the Impact Conversations text lacks); doing some grammatical exercises to brush up on the finer points and prime them; a conversation role play where they substitute their own ideas in; and then I model an answer to the question set – but when it comes to the fateful moment they just sack it off.
Am I reading too much into this and I just need to let it flow or am I missing something? I know they do not come here at this age to learn grammar per se but I feel obliged to give them something concrete they can say they learned.
I was using the Impact Conversation II textbook at first and while we had fun and what not they did not really produce the target language in the freer practice either. They also wrote nothing down.
I then swtiched things up and decided to make my own grammar-review lessons based around listening exercises on the ELLLO website. I use AI, which I then vet, to give them a short example text demonstrating the grammar point and some grammar worksheets from ISL collective. The whole idea is to have some really concrete target language for them to bat around and at least be able to say they mastered that. Also notice they write down some of the incidental vocabulary from the example text, which is a bonus. Still not really producing the target language come the end of the lesson, though.
Unfortuantely I am taking on a whole lot more classes this semester and I cannot justify making my own freaking textbook here, so open to textbook suggestions, too.
by jamestheobscure