12月 05

EL Game Series (04): “Pictionary”

[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。）

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Pictionary is a classic game that everyone I knew in the US played when they were growing up. You might have played it in English class already. It is very easy to learn and good to play with teams.

The basics:

Two people from each team get a secret word. The word can be an object, person/place/animal, action, difficult word, or popular culture. Then they draw the word as quickly as possible while their team guesses what it is. Some words, like “spider,” are very easy, while some, like “push-up” (腕立て) can be difficult. The faster team gets the point.

For English Learners:

  • You can play this game just as described above. The box comes with extra rules about scoring and choosing words. However, I suggest ignoring them and just choosing words yourselves.
  • Be careful to choose words your team will know. If you choose a difficult word, maybe no one can guess it.
  • Use a timer on your smartphone. If no one guesses the word in 1 minute, choose a new word. Otherwise people may become frustrated.
  • Use the whiteboard table or large whiteboards in the EL instead of the little boards in the box. Bigger drawings are easier to see!

Final Thoughts: There is no reason you shouldn’t try this game. It is an easy, fun way to use some English vocabulary while making friends.

12月 05

EL本棚紹介(84) Extensive Reading (多読) Series from I Talk You Talk Press

[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.]

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I Talk You Talk Press is a small company that makes books for Extensive Reading (多読). Their books are not classic literature or non-fiction. Instead, they are mostly new stories about young people, mostly in Japan. Here are a few of the books in the English Lounge:

Women’s Konkatsu Tales – These are eight short stories about women dating and trying to get married in Japan. They are true stories, so you can understand them and relate to the women’s feelings.

A Homestay in Auckland – This is a story about a Japanese student studying in New Zealand. It has a lot of good vocabulary and phrases for studying abroad.

Haruna’s Story, Part 1 – This is a story about a young woman studying for the TOEIC so she can work in America. It is fiction, but I think it is easy to understand how Haruna feels.

My two cents: Reading easy stories about Japan and young people’s culture is good for Extensive Reading. If you read about a foreign culture or fantasy story, it can be more difficult to follow.

11月 17

EL Game Theories (03): 自己ナレーションについて

English Version

（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。）

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以前の投稿で何回か「self-narration」について言及しました。Self-narration＝自己ナレーションは英語学習者のみならず、母語話者が母国語でゲームをやる際に用いて、基本的によい習慣だと思います。一方で、英語学習するためにも、大変有効な方法でしょう。

Self-narrationとは、「自分の行為を言葉で描写する」という、かなり簡単なことです。例えばゲームで２枚のカードを引く時に「I will take two cards.」という。サイコロを振って５が出た時に「I rolled a five」という。コマを動かす時に「I will go here」という。簡単でしょう？

私がself-narrationをこんなに好きな理由は二つあります。①自然に発言をドリルさせるからです。授業でドリルをやったり、先生の言葉を繰り返したり、教科書を読み上げたりすることがつまらない、あるいは不自然でやりたくないことが多いですね。ゲームをやる時に同じ活動を繰り返すことが多いので、self-narrationによって自然に同じ（あるいは近い）語句を自然に繰り返すことになるでしょう。②従来の英会話サークルでは、「順番」がなく、何を言えばいいかわからないかもしれないので、参加するのが難しいことが多いようです。ゲームの場合は、参加者全員は話す、行動する番が必ず廻ってきます。また、self-narrationを行っていれば、何を言えばいいか悩む必要がないはずです。

Final thought: RPGやストーリーを綴るゲームは、self-narrationが基本の遊び方となります（「ドアを開ける」「証拠を引き出しで探す」「ドラゴンから逃げる」等）。もしそのようなゲームに興味があるがちょっと難しすぎるのではないかと考えているのであれば、違うゲームの種類でself-narrationを試してからスタートするのはいかがでしょうか。

11月 17

EL Game Series (03): “Pictionary Card Game”

[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。）

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Pictionary is a classic game that you probably have played before. Someone draws a picture and their team tries to guess what it is. This is the same game, except instead of drawing you have lots of picture cards to use.

The basics:

There are two kinds of cards in the box: shapes and words. There are two sets of the same shapes for two teams. There are no instructions in the box anymore…so use my ideas, below.

For English Learners:

  • Play with teams for points, or just go around in a circle guessing words.
  • One person uses the shape cards make a picture of a word. Their team guesses the word. For example, if the word is “house,” I would put a triangle on top of a square.
  • If you play with teams, divide the shape cards into red and blue piles. One person from each team looks at a word card and chooses the same word to act out. Then, they use the shape cards to make a picture of the word. The first team to guess the correct word gets a point.
  • If you play without teams, one person can use all of the cards to make the word.
  • Try moving the cards. For example, if the word is “spider,” I could take the sun card and move it like an insect.
  • Try using your body. For example, if the word is “tear,” I would take the water drop card and put it under my eye.
  • Difficult version: you can only use cards once each game. So, if you use the square card for the first word, you cannot use it again for the rest of the game.

Final Thoughts: This is a really good game to be creative with. Also, you can choose easy words, so anyone can join in.

11月 17

EL本棚紹介(83) Motel of the Mysteries, by David Macaulay

[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.]

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This is a weird, weird picture book. The story takes place in the distant future, after North America is destroyed by an overflow of junk mail. Everything about American culture and history has been forgotten…until the archaeologist Howard Carson discovers a buried motel. The book tells the story of everything he finds in the motel, and what he (mistakenly) thinks it means. For example, he assumes that the television is an altar to the gods, like a butsudan.

This book contains some difficult language and a little bit of wordplay (dajare). However, each page can be read by itself almost like a short story. The pictures are appealing, and help you understand what Carson is describing. This is a good book for close reading: instead of reading the entire book, you can choose one page and treat each joke like a puzzle. What is the thing in the picture? What does Carson mistake it for? Do you think it’s funny?

My two cents: Because some of the language and jokes are difficult, I recommend just reading a page or two at a time. Pages 22-25 are a good introduction to the story, and “The Treasures” (starting page 51) are each good, very short, paragraphs that should be easy to understand jokes.

11月 01

EL本棚紹介(82) My Neighbor Totoro and Castle in the Sky, by Hayao Miyazaki

[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.]

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I am sure you have seen the movies My Neighbor Totoro and Castle in the Sky. I don’t need to write about the stories here. Almost everyone likes Studio Ghibli films, so you will probably like reading these full-olor manga versions of the stories, too. So, what is there to say?

I think these books are good for you for a few reasons. First, they are great examples of “learning what you already know.” You already know the story and characters in Japanese, so they should be very easy to understand in English. Because they come from the films, there is also surprisingly little reading. Most of the story is told in pictures, and (unfortunately) all of the onomatopoeia 擬音語・擬態語 are left in Japanese. That does not mean these are bad for language learning—it just means that you can read a whole book in one sitting.

Borrow these books if you are interested in an easy, quick read. These books can motivate you to try something a little more challenging next time.

My two cents: While I recommend you read these, I think they are very interesting objects for thinking about media. All of the art comes directly from the films, so it is a strange translation to manga format and I don’t think it always works very well. Animated films do not have frames(コマ), so a lot of pictures had to be shrunk down or cut up to fit in the manga. Also, the beautiful, dense art for the backgrounds works well for animation, but I think overwhelms the character art in the static manga format. Those are just my thoughts, though—what do you think?

 

11月 01

EL Game Series (02): “Word Up”

[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。）

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Word Up is a game for English learners. It uses a board like Monopoly and is simple to understand. Players will move around the board and answer English questions to get points.

The basics:

Players roll the dice to move around the board. When they land on a color, they answer an English question from another player. Each question type has a color: missing word (orange), crossword clues (green), and multiple choice (blue). A correct answer gets you a token (トークン) of that color. If you land on a red space, take a red “Word Up” card and follow the instructions. The first player to get three of each color tokens wins.

For English learners:

This game is for English learners, so the rules are simple enough.

Final Thoughts: This game is less “fun” and more “study.” However, it might be a good activity to start a conversation.

10月 27

Halloween Event

10月 19

EL本棚紹介(81) The Big Wave, by Pearl S. Buck

[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.]

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The Big Wave is a very, very short book that I think is worth your time. It was written by Pearl S. Buck, a woman who lived in Japan and China before World War 2 and wrote stories about East Asian culture. Her most famous novel is The Good Earth 『大地』, which is about a Chinese farming family.

This book is about two Japanese boys who survive a terrible tsunami. It is told like a folktale, using simple sentences and mostly easy vocabulary. However, the meaning and emotions behind the story are more complex. This is book is not too hard to read, but you can think about it a lot afterwards. Maybe you disagree with the author’s conclusion?

Another reason to recommend this book is that it is an example of “culturally-familiar learning material” (文化的親和性ある教材). Because you know about Japan and Japanese culture, it can be easier to read and enjoy that something foreign. This is similar to “learning what you already know,” which I have mentioned several times in this blog before.

My two cents: While this is a very interesting book, a close reading can show something about orientalism, too. How did this westerner look at Japan? How did she treat it differently from the west?

10月 19

EL Game Series (01): “Scrabble” and “Upwords”

[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。）

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Scrabble is a classic American boardgame. It is so famous that it is in the dictionary! Upwords is not as famous, but it is a very similar game that you can play in the same way. The problem with these games is that they are meant for native English speakers, so they can be very difficult even for me.

The basics:

In both games, players get a set of tiles（コマ）with letters on them. They take turns making words on the board. It is like building a crossword puzzle. In Upwords, players can cover old letters up with new tiles, making spelling words a little easier. Each word earns the players points. The player with the highest score wins.

For English learners:

  • Don’t worry about the score! Just make words.
  • Instead of taking a few letters at a time, put a lot of letter tiles next to the board. Players can choose any letters they see on their turn.
  • Play with teams. Work with a partner to make the longest words possible.
  • Make a puzzle. Try to see how many times you can make words cross each other.

Final Thoughts: These are games about vocabulary and creativity. Use word roots and word families when you play.