{"id":232,"date":"2009-04-25T07:27:30","date_gmt":"2009-04-25T04:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eltweekly.com\/more\/?p=232"},"modified":"2009-04-25T07:27:30","modified_gmt":"2009-04-25T04:27:30","slug":"eltweekly-issue17-article-i-dislike-the-word-homework","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/?p=232","title":{"rendered":"ELTWeekly Issue#17, Article: I dislike the word homework"},"content":{"rendered":"

I dislike the word homework<\/p>\n

By\u00a0Karenne Sylvester<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on Kalinago English (<\/em>http:\/\/kalinago.blogspot.com\/<\/em><\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

I was just about to turn off the Kalinago and go on over to write in\u00a0How-to-Learn-English,<\/a>\u00a0about idioms and ballparks but just before I do that I just gotta get something off my chest.<\/p>\n

I hate the word homework.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I teach mainly adults these days and you know what happens to their faces when you say ‘…and your homework is…<\/span>! Ya, you know. But think about the little ones, the kids, if you’ve ever taught these.\u00a0They like homework<\/strong><\/span>.<\/strong> It’s fun.Remember when you were a kid?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It was fun!<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Always something cool to do, drawing or making stuff. Sticking and gluing, putting together projects and talking to Mummy and Daddy. And\u00a0getting praised by the teacher<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>the next day.Even math was enjoyable because with a little bit of work, erasing, more work, you could easily get to the solution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember?<\/p>\n

Somewhere along the way from childhood to early teens the word homework went and got itself distorted and it just began to signify pain: hard annoying tasks with no tangible value. Your students were teens once too so…<\/p>\n

Newsflash: they still feel the same way.<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
It’s not that learning English isn’t fun – it really is – it’s the word that’s the problem.\u00a0Yuck.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>Homework.What am I doing about this? You don’t really expect me to twitter on without a suggestion, do you? LOL. You know me, I’ve been experimenting for over a year now. I’ve some alternative phrases so don’t laugh, they work:\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Pre task activity &\u00a0Post task activity<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Today, in class, I asked my little group of students at an investment bank “So, guys, what would you like to do for your post-task?<\/span>”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

V<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0told me he is going to watch part 3 of the Taleb interview on CNBC because he didn’t get around to doing this yet and\u00a0M<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0is going to continue developing his map of collocations from our dissection of a Nokia investor relations speech (er, a future blog post, coming soon)<\/p>\n

No grumbling. No fuss.<\/p>\n

‘So what’s the plan for this week’s PTA?’<\/span>\u00a0I ask.<\/p>\n

MA<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0at the other bank is going to make a poster of linking words – she’s having a bit of trouble keeping them straight and\u00a0P<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0is going to write up a short email about Chinese investments;\u00a0G<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>is very busy this week but she might listen to the Business Spotlight podcast while running.\u00a0H<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0is going to learn about RFID technology via slideshare as he’s got a client in this field.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

They choose. They do. It’s really as simple as that.<\/strong><\/div>\n
Best,
\nKarenne\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

p.s – What do you think? Want to give it a go? (You’ll feel a bit strange at first, getting that yucky word out of your active vocabulary – actually I still smirk when I’ve got a brand new group and I have to explain to them that we’re not using the word homework – they do look at me like I’m nuts –\u00a0but<\/span>\u00a0it’s working!) Or perhaps you’ve got an alternative phrase to PTA\/ post and pre-task activity?<\/p>\n

Or\u00a0<\/span>do you just think I’ve been teaching way too long and finally flipped out? Whichever it is, do let me know your thoughts as I love sharing and learning from you guys too… xK<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

**Reprinted with kind permission, Karenne Sylvester of\u00a0Kalinago English (http:\/\/kalinago.blogspot.com\/<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I dislike the word homework By\u00a0Karenne Sylvester This article first appeared on Kalinago English (http:\/\/kalinago.blogspot.com\/) I was just about to turn off the Kalinago and go on over to write in\u00a0How-to-Learn-English,\u00a0about idioms and ballparks but just before I do that I just gotta get something off my chest. I hate the word homework. I teach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","omw_enable_modal_window":"enable","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[773,888,963,1163,1227],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-efl-tips","tag-elt-tips","tag-eltweekly-issue17","tag-esl-tips","tag-getting-praised-by-the-teacher","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eltweekly.humbeestudio.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}