We were doing a speaking book task, where there is a "set up" situation, and students have to then explain what they will say in the given situation.
In this particular set up, it described a situation where the student has borrowed a friend's phone, only to drop it and break the screen accidentally.
So the students had to, presumably, say something to the effect of: "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I broke your phone. I feel so terrible. I will buy you a new one… "
Anyway, this is actually a really hard task for these students – the book is a bit too hard for their ability level. They just don't have the fluency or active vocabulary to make this happen smoothly. So to make it easier, I spend a good portion of each class describing the situation, acting it out in detail, writing down possible response fragments.
I try to solicit possible words, ideas, and such from the students. One boy, a bit of a contrarian, likes to imagine being a jerk in such situations. So he said, "I feel happy."
I ran with it.
"Right! What if you don't like your friend?" I brainstormed.
"I feel happy. I broke it, so what?" I wrote on the board. The boy scribbled this down diligently. He knew what his speech would look like, now.
I added some more fragments. "It's your phone, deal with it." I spent some time explaining the expression "deal with it."
One girl, normally completely silent, suggested. "I feel joy."
"Joy?" I said, pleased to see her participating. "Not just happy, but joy? You hate your friend?"
She nodded.
"So then what?" I asked. "What if your friend calls a lawyer?"
I spent about 5 minutes explaining what a lawyer was. I explained the concept of "small claims court" – without trying to introduce the vocabulary. The kids were more or less familiar with the idea – there are cheesy courtroom reality shows in Korea, just like in the US.
Without missing a beat, the normally silent girl said, almost inaudibly but clearly, "OK. Call the lawyer with your broken phone."
I was impressed.
[daily log: walking, 6.5km]
You have some remarkable students, and they have an amazingly perceptive, creative, and zany teacher!