Jul 12

EL本棚紹介(96) The Borrowers, by Mary Norton

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

_______

Almost everyone likes Studio Ghibli movies. If you do, you may be interested in The Borrowers, which is the basis for the movie The Secret World of Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ). This is a classic story and the beginning of a long series of books. It is about a tiny girl called Arrietty who lives with her family in an old house. They borrow things from the humans who live there, but they must never been seen.

This story was originally written in 1953, but the language is not too difficult. It is an adventure story, and something interesting or exciting happens in every chapter. The author does a good job of worldbuilding, too. “Worldbuilding” means teaching the reader all about the fantasy world. You won’t just learn about Arrietty and her family, but you will also learn about different types of little people, their different cultures, and their attitudes.

My two cents: I had known about this book for a long time, but only read it recently. I was surprised by how creative and detailed it was, even though it is still pretty easy to read.

Jul 12

EL Game Theories (04): Are Video Games OK?

日本語バージョン

[Welcome to the EL game series. These posts are all short introductions to games you can play in the EL. Because learning to play games in English can take a long time, some posts will explain how to play simple versions of games. Other posts tell you why you should use games to practice English. You can also use the tags to find other posts you might be interested in.] 

_______ 

When I was a child, the term “educational video game” meant a “game” that was boring, poorly designed, and full of vocabulary or math questions. But when it comes to second-language learning, regular video games can be helpful…if they are used correctly. 

If you choose a video game to play in English, you can practice “head fake learning” or your “English habit,” like I described in a previous post. But video games can also help with “learning what you already know,” which I have mentioned in a few book reviews on this blog before. 

I think that “learning what you already know” is a very useful way of learning language. It simply means using English related to something you already know in Japanese. If you’ve played Pokemon or Final Fantasy or Zelda, etc., in Japanese, you can play it again easily in English because you already know the story, characters, and items in the game. This is the same reason that I strongly encourage students to set their computers or Microsoft Word program to English: if you already know the menus in Japanese, you can learn to use them in English pretty quickly (in fact, I set my computer to Japanese when I started learning Japanese in college, and still use most things in Japanese language myself). 

Finally, a word of caution. Many video games, especially action games (shooting games, fighting games) do not require any reading or language skills once you learn them the first time. Do not trick yourself into thinking that playing Smash Brothers in English is “studying,” any more than watching English movies while reading Japanese subtitles is. Choose a game where reading or listening is necessary, and I think there is some value for your English learning. 

Jul 01

EL本棚紹介(92) A Christmas Carol: The Graphic Novel, by Charles Dickens, adapted by Sean Michael Wilson

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

_______

“Classical Comics” is a series of comic books made by the English textbook company, Heinle. The comics are adaptations of famous classic stories, and the English Lounge has a whole collection of them. Because these books are meant for English learners, they include helpful information in the back: a vocabulary list, information about the author, character lists, etc. In addition, the English is changed to be easier to understand than the original, like a Graded Reader.

A Christmas Carol is based on Charles Dickens’ short book of the same name. It tells the story of Ebinezer Scrooge, a rich and greedy old man whose heart has grown cold. This story is so famous that if you call someone a “Scrooge” it means they are being greedy. Christmas is coming, but he hates the holiday. Then, he is visited by a series of ghosts who show him Christmas past, present, and future, including his lonely death. He learns the meaning of Christmas, love, and God, and promises to change his life.

My two cents: “Classical Comics” do not have great art. However, I think that A Christmas Carol has some of the better and more creative drawings in the series, especially the use of black and the colors of the three different ghosts.

Jul 01

EL本棚紹介(91) A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel, by Madeleine L’Engle and Hope Larson

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

_______

This is another comic book based on a young-adult novel that has been turned into a movie (https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1357101081/?ref_=tt_vi_i_2). A Wrinkle in Time is a story about a young girl who goes on an adventure through space to find her missing father. She is guided by three funny, weird old ladies with magical powers, and goes with her brother and friend exploring strange alien planets.

The comic book is easy to follow, the English is mostly not too difficult, and there is a lot of traveling to new places, so it is never boring. The story is science fiction with space travel, but there are no space ships or laser guns. What the “evil” that the heroes are fighting is unclear…also, the “fighting” is not physical violence so much as using speech, belief, and emotions. The important thing is that the characters, the conflict, and the world that exist in A Wrinkle in Time are all probably a little different from what you expect, and that is much of what makes it so interesting.

My two cents: If you pay attention and are interested, you can find some very strong themes of Christianity in this story. Perhaps if you really like this book and are interested, you can read the original and try to discover how the story and characters relate to the lessons in the Bible.

Jun 27

English Lounge Forum 4 – TOEIC

Jun 21

EL本棚紹介(90) Holes, by Louis Sachar

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

_______

Holes tells the story of Stanley Yelnats, who is sent as a punishment to Camp Green Lake. The camp is in the middle of a desert and all of the boys there are forced to dig holes every day. This work is supposed to teach them discipline. However, Stanley realizes that the “Warden” who owns the camp is searching for buried treasure. With some quick thinking and a new friend, Stanley goes on an adventure to solve the mystery of the treasure.

This is a very popular book in schools in the US, and it was also turned into a movie (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311289/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_q_holes). Most chapters are very short and the language is not very difficult. The story jumps back and forth about 100 years, connecting the story in the present with Stanley’s family history. There is a lot of humor, and some themes about racism, destiny, and magic. It is not a particularly challenging book, but the story is interesting, the mystery deep, and the characters are diverse enough to keep you wanting to read some more.

My two cents: This story takes place in Texas, USA. You may be surprised to know that corporal “boot camps” like Camp Green Lake were actually very popular in the 1990s when the book was written, and still exist in places like Texas. The US army even continues to run boot camps for “troubled teens.” This documentary makes it sounds like these camps really help young people, but actually there is little evidence that they are effective at that, and in the worst cases, they are actually abusive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpopZWVEuRk.

Jun 21

EL本棚紹介(89) The Giver: The Graphic Novel, by Lois Lowry and P. Craig Russel

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

_______

The Giver was first published in 1993, and is now taught in schools in the United States. It was made into a film in 2014 (https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3018304537/?playlistId=tt0435651&ref_=tt_ov_vi) and this graphic novel in 2019. The story has many themes: memory, religion, family, death, adolescence and aging, society, and more. The Giver is about an SF world where all strong and negative memories are removed from society and everyone’s lives are governed by long lists of rules—except for one special person. This “dystopian” novel clearly fits in with other books you may have heard about, like George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

The English in this book is not very difficult, and the chapters are short. Also, the art helps you understand the story, especially the use of color, as well as the design of the “SF” world (very different from the film adaptation). In addition, there are two short interviews at the end of the book. The first interview is with the author of the original novel; the second is with the artist and the process he used to adapt it to comic-book form.

My two cents: I was surprised at how many different ways I could interpret this story and the relationships between the characters in it. If you are interested in cults, for example, you may find this a particularly interesting read.

May 31

EL Game Series (07): “Apples to Apples”

[Welcome to the EL game series. These posts are all short introductions to games you can play in the EL. Because learning to play games in English can take a long time, some posts will explain how to play simple versions of games. Other posts tell you why you should use games to practice English. You can also use the tags to find other posts you might be interested in.]

（ELゲーム連載へようこそ。このコラムはELで遊べるボードゲームやカードゲームを紹介します。本来のやり方通りにやってしまうと、遊ぶまでの時間が大変かかるかもしれないので、ある投稿では簡単な遊びの工夫が紹介されます。ほかの投稿ではなぜゲームで英語を勉強するのがよいかが説明されます。投稿のタグを使ってほかに興味ありそうなポストを見つけられます。）

_______

“Apples to Apples” is a very popular and very simple party game. And usually, it’s a very funny game, too.

The basics: There are two kinds of cards, red cards and green cards. Red cards have “things” written on them (commercials, a Venus fly trap, underdogs, etc.). Green cards have adjectives (angelic, aromatic, dim, etc.). One green card is put in the center of the table and each player puts a red card down next to it. A judge chooses the best matching red card, and that player gets a point.

For English Learners:

  • Do not try to play this game exactly as the instructions say! There are a LOT of difficult vocabulary words, jokes, and pop culture references that you probably won’t understand.
  • Do have a teacher or EL supporter sort out cards that are too difficult. Another option is to let players trade away cards they don’t understand.
  • Green cards are mostly very good, useful vocabulary. Focus on them more than the red cards.
  • Variation 1: Find an easy red card and put it in the middle of the table. Players get 5 green cards. Each player puts the best matching green card down and explains why they chose it (“A _____ is _____ because ____.”)
  • Variation 2: Put 6 green cards in the middle of the table. Players get 5 red cards. Use dictionaries or talk with each other so you understand your cards. Then, match one of your red cards to a green card on the table. Give your explanation (“A _____ is _____ because ____.”) and pick up the green card. Each green card is one point. You can get more cards if you are fast.
  • Variation 3: Just read the cards with your group. Many cards have interesting vocabulary or a joke on them. Can you understand the joke? Learning about humor can teach you about foreign culture, too.

Final Thoughts: This game is so popular that two EL teachers bought copies of it at the same time. However, because of the vocabulary and pop culture, I think you should focus less on playing a “game” and more on talking and learning about the interesting cards.

May 31

EL本棚紹介(88) The Secret Garden: A Graphic Novel, adapted by Mariah Marsden and Hanna Luechtefeld

[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]

_______

A young girl whose family died of disease…a farm boy who can talk to animals…a sick boy who is not allowed to go outside…these characters form a friendship in The Secret Garden (Jp. himitsu no hanazono), a famous book that was also recently turned into a movie (https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2242035225/?playlistId=tt2702920&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi). None of the characters in the book start out happy: they are lonely and kept in an old house away from the city. However, as the story continues, they find a magical garden which teaches them to be happy again and changes the people around them.

This comic book has very pretty pictures which fit the calm story and its special kind of “magic.” There are very few words on each page, so it is easy to read quickly. Some of the characters have a little accent, but it is still all very easy to understand.

My two cents: I enjoyed the story, but the last five pages with background information on the book and author were also very interesting. They explain how the original book was partly set in Imperial India, and why the author of the adaptation decided to delete those parts of the story.

May 22

海外協定校講演　アメリカ・テネシー大学マーチン校