Conversation Class Lesson Summary
Language Resident Name: Lea Marie Uhlending
Day and Date: Wednesday, 02/07/24
Language and Level: Intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed:
some organizational stuff and then German tongue twisters
Goals of the class:
We had some organizational stuff to deal with and afterwards we had some fun with German tongue twisters. The idea was to work on the student’s pronunciation in a fun way.
How did you structure the class?
At first we talked about some organizational stuff. We talked about costume ideas for the Karneval themed study break and I showed them what a typical costume might look like in Germany. Then we discussed the Conversation Class Projects, the students that were there had never taken a CC so they didn’t really know about the projects, they had also never been to the OLC. So, it took more time than I had thought to talk about that. Afterwards we dove into some German tongue twisters, or as we call them tongue breakers (Zungenbrecher). I put them on a slide and asked one of the students to read it out loud without any input from me, then I read it for them and we talked about the meaning, or rather lack thereof, and then I asked them to try again but faster. The students took turns reading the twisters and they got progressively harder.
What technology, media or props did you use? (Internet resources, handouts, etc.)
PowerPoint
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
The class was inspired by a conversation that happened at language tables. I had never thought of doing tongue twisters but it’s such a good and fun idea to work on students’ pronunciations. The class worked really well, the students had a lot of fun. They also made me laugh so hard I had to cry.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
I think this class worked surprisingly well. It was also actually helpful that we had so much organizational stuff to talk about because I feel like doing the tongue twisters for an entire hour would have gotten tedious.