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Lessons with Laughter - George C. Woolard
by ilovemycat
Lessons with Laughter (first published in 1996) is a photocopiable resource book for TEFL teachers, in a similar vein to the same author's Grammar with Laughter (previously reviewed by myself).
However, where Grammar with Laughter followed pretty much the same format all the way through, Lessons with Laughter is separated into ... 92 lessons in four sections and three levels of difficulty - elementary, intermediate and advanced.
The four parts are -
1. Jokes
2. Cartoons
3. Misprints
4. Reading for Fun
Jokes
These consist of simple one-liners where the student must choose either a word to complete the gap or match two halves of a sentence. Each lesson focuses on a different topic, some of them grammatical (conditionals, present perfect, so...that, etc), others on types of language (puns, idioms, etc) and others on types of jokes (Doctor, Doctor!, Elephant Jokes, etc). As with Woolard's other book, the jokes are the tame kind of playground jokes you find in books like 1001 Jokes and the ilk. "Who is the strongest criminal?" Answer "A shoplifter", etc. They're harmless fun, but a little cringeworthy so beware if you're teaching from this book with a particularly "cool" high school class.
Cartoons
Just as it says, this short section consists of a handful of newspaper comment-style cartoons and requires the students to write captions or explain a series of pictures. Unlike the Jokes section, though, it doesn't seem to be split into particularly levels of difficulty, although I found them all hard. More on that later.
Misprints
Again, as it says, this equally short section consists of nine lessons where you have to find the mistakes in a number of little stop-press sized "news" reports. Again, there appears to be no level definition, and most of the answers are of the very subtle kind - for example "a woman frowned" instead of "drowned", the "d" being the mistake. Easy for me, difficult for most levels of student.
Reading for Fun
Now, to the most difficult section of all. The Reading for Fun lessons, which account for 44 of the 92 lessons in the book, are essentially long jokes where the student is required to guess the punchline. There is a clear difference in the length, level of grammar and range of vocabulary used between those labeled elementary and those labeled intermediate and advanced, but they share one common problem - unless you have seen the joke before there's practically no way to guess the answer. I read them all and couldn't guess a single one (there is an answer key however).
Using the book
Photocopiable resource books are just that -they're designed that you can just copy and go. However, labeling the book "Lessons ..." seems a little bit of a misnomer as it's pretty difficult to use any one page as a whole lesson unless you spend a considerable time prepping beforehand, something that these kinds of books are designed to avoid. As supplementary material or as homework it's much more suitable, but not as a complete lesson.
My issues with the book.
Firstly, the arrangement. Despite being split into four sections, the middle two are very short and Cartoons especially is more of an interlude. I used all nine "lessons" of pictures in a single 50 minute class. The first section, Jokes, is pretty much the same as the whole of Grammar with Laughter, while the longest section, Reading for Fun, is remarkably difficult, even at elementary level, and the fact that all 44 lessons are in the same format shows an incredible lack of imagination.
Overall
I'm glad that I bought this book out of my materials budget because if I had paid my own money for it I would have felt let down. I work in Japan and it's far too hard for any level of students that I've come across. You could use it for an advanced class in Europe where English levels are a lot higher, but you'd probably find most students then would scoff at the quality of the jokes. For a teacher in Japan, it's practically useless, and while I've tried to use it on a few occasions it was pretty much a waste of time. The first section is okay for homework, but the rest is too difficult. The pictures lesson I tried was a real struggle. The jokes were hard to understand and not in the same cultural context that Japanese students are familiar with. One joke shows a man at a UN-style meeting staring at the empty desk beside him on which a triangular name plate is resting. It's blank - the students have to guess what's written on it. The answer was "Toblerone", a type of chocolate not commonly available in Japan. I should have realized, but even the simpler cartoons required me to talk my students through each one, which took most of the fun out of it.
Still, the idea behind the book is good. Teaching with humour is pretty important for me, and while I understand that humour is one of the hardest things to learn in a second language, such activities can also open up a student to the flexible nature of English. For example, a joke such as "Dear, did you put out the cat?" - "No I didn't - why, is it on fire?" (from Lesson 2 - Phrasal Verbs) is actually pretty useful in teaching the various uses of "to put out" and is done in a way that would be interesting to the student rather than a straight grammar exercise.
Conclusions
It's a useful book to have on a teacher's shelf, but only if someone else is paying. Available through Amazon currently for 28 quid new (some second hard from 16) although I paid (through my school's budget, haha) about 5200 yen (40 quid) to get it on import.
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Grammar with Laughter - George C. Woolard
by ilovemycat
Grammar with Laughter is a photocopiable resource book for EFL teachers and is a useful if not essential addition to a teacher's library. It consists of 82 photocopiable pages, each of which has eight to ten different jokes, all of which involve the grammatical item being studied on that page. The vast majority of them are gap fills, ... with the occasional page requiring some sentence rearranging.
The grammar involved is from beginner level (articles, can/can't, etc) up to upper-intermediate (third conditional, future continuous, reflexive pronouns, etc), however the vocabulary and complexity of the jokes put the general level easily into the upper-intermediate range. In general, when learning a language, picking up on the subtleties and nuances of humour is among the hardest of skills to acquire, therefore this book is probably of limited use below advanced level. I once made the mistake of using it in what I thought was a high level high-school class - not high enough, clearly, as I spent the entire lesson trying to explain each joke in the students' native language.
The jokes themselves are of the non-threatening, family-friendly type. If you bought one of those "1001 Classic Jokes" books out of a discount book store you'd pretty much be getting this book bar the organisation into grammatical themes and the gaps in the text. There's nothing here to offend anyone, although with a particularly pop-culture savvy class you're liable to get groans rather than laughter.
This book is not intended to be used as a main textbook and doesn't pretend to be; its very much book of supplementary worksheets to be used either as homework or as activities to reinforce a point already taught. Unless you have a particularly jovial class the repetitive layout will probably bore most classes if you use the worksheets too regularly, so I would suggest sparing use or use only on special occasions, such as at the end of term.
While every textbook is photocopiable in the don't-leave-the-copies-where-the-company-rep-might-see-them kind of way, Grammar with Laughter is legally photocopiable, so has the price to match. My copy was 5,250 Japanese Yen, roughly 40 pounds at the current exchange rate, which is pretty brutal (mine came out of my yearly books budget). I couldn't recommend it, particularly for someone teaching in Asia where levels are generally lower, or someone who teaches mostly kids. If you teach a lot of advanced level retirees you'll probably find it pretty useful though.
May also appear on ciao.
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Collins LiveMocha Active German
by Dirgette
Trying to teach yourself a language can be pretty hard going, and without a support network, almost impossible to develop confidence in speaking the language.
But language lessons can be expensive and impractical and not all of us have a large group of friends who speak the language we are trying to learn. So along came ... LiveMocha.
-What is LiveMocha?-
LiveMocha is an online community for people trying to learn a foreign language. As the community is worldwide, you have people from all over the world trying to learn an assortment of languages. Similar to Facebook, the idea is that you make friends with people from the country whose language you are trying to learn. In turn, people will want to become your friend because of the language you speak naturally. This allows you to build up a support network.
-What do you actually pay for?-
The website (www.livemocha.com) can technically be used for free. However, you have the option to purchase 'premium' courses in your chosen language, which provides extensive online tutorials and quizzes, including role plays, videos and writing exercises.
As you are provided a log-in for the site, you can complete as much of the course as you like per visit to the site, and return at your convenience. Your progress will be saved online.
The premium courses are divided into 4 modules, and on completion of all 4, you should have a decent grasp of the language. Each module is divided into 10 units, and each unit contains tutorials on vocabulary and grammar, a video-based exercise and a large selection of other exercises. You must achieve a reasonably high score in the end-of-unit test to be allowed to progress to the next unit. At the end of the module, there is a longer test, which again you must pass to progress.
In addition to the course, there are games you can play primarily designed to test your vocabulary and a few other free exercises you may find helpful.
-How do you network?-
Each unit contains at least one exercise that you can, if you wish, submit to the general LiveMocha community for review. Native speakers of the language you are trying to learn will review your submitted exercise and provide feedback (for free!). In return for their help, you have the option to review exercises submitted by people trying to learn your native tongue.
The exercises are easy to review, and the website provided guidelines on how to review. You do not need to be a languages teacher!
Everything I have submitted has been reviewed promptly, and I make it a general rule to review one exercise for every exercise I submit.
You do have the option to pay (about £1.25) for a proper tutor to review your submissions, but I personally feel this is a waste of money.
One thing to note is that you pay for additional services using tokens. These tokens are purchased with money, you can't earn them.
You also have the option to chat, freestyle, with your 'friends' on LiveMocha, if you're feeling confident enough to talk to a native speaker.
-Does it work?-
Yes! Being forced to record yourself speaking in a role-play, then submitting it to someone who actually speaks the language massively boosts your confidence. The units are almost fun to work through, and you earn points when you complete each unit, which is a bit of a motivator. You can't actually do anything with the points, but its nice to see your progress!
-In summary-
Chuck away your boring textbooks and get yourselves onto LiveMocha! It's a bargain at around £30, and you don't have to spend a penny if all you want to do is chat to native speakers. I've been studying various languages for over 10 years, and this is definitely the most engaging product out there.
-General-
The premium exercises only come in 'popular' languages e.g. English, French, German, Spanish.
The site is free to use for basic exercises in other languages.
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