Not Your Standard Self-Introduction

Roni Boring

PROCEDURE:

*This activity requires a lot of prep work and some help from your friends.

1. This lesson should be done after your students already know their self-introductions. I taught my students the follow self-introduction:

Hello. My name is ~.

I’m ~. (age)

My birthday is in ~.

I’m from ~.

I like ~.

I can play ~.

I can not (play/eat/speak) ~.

Nice to meet you.

2. I then recorded the self-introductions (using the above script) of several of my friends (and made a CD for use in class). I also took their picture. I chose about 8 people, all from different countries. I also chose people that are the stereotypical image of that country. For example, I interviewed a Japanese-American friend instead of one of my white American friends. I asked each person to speak at a relatively normal pace and to try to use as much of his/her native accent in his/her speech as possible.

3. After I interviewed each person, I created pictures sets representing each aspect of each of my friends’ self-introductions, including the photos I took. (See the following pages for examples of the pictures.) I laminated each picture set, for durability. I made a total of 6 picture sets for each person interviewed.

4. As for the lesson, first I quickly reviewed self-introductions with the students, modeling mine first and then doing a “Challenges” amongst the students, rewarding each of the students who accepted the challenge with points on their point cards.

5. Next, I put a world map and large photos of each of the people that I interviewed on the blackboard. I explained that each person was from a different country, that each one spoke English, and that we were going to listen to his/her self-introduction.

6. I then played each of the self-introductions in their entirety and had the students only listen.

7. Afterwards, I explained that we were going to play a matching game. I asked the students to get into lunch groups and gave each group a set of the laminated picture sets. I explained that their task was to listen to each self-introduction and match the pictures with the correct photo of each interviewee.

8. I then played each self-introduction in its entirety but with pauses between each to allow the students to match the pictures. I replayed each self-introduction only once.

9. After they completed this part of the activity, I picked groups to match the larger pictures I had with the larger photos on the blackboard, so that they could check their answers.

10. I rewarded the groups with points on their point cards for correct answers.

11. Afterwards, I asked the students which people they had trouble understanding or were surprised at. I then explained that not everyone who speaks English has my Midwestern American accent and that English-speakers are multi-ethnic.

NOTES:

The preparation for this activity, as I stated, is time consuming. But it worked quite well; student response was good.

This activity can be adapted in many ways. For example, you could add more pictures so that the students have more of a choice to choose from and so they have to listen more closely. For even more advanced students, while the students are checking their answers with those on the blackboard, you could have the students tell you about each interviewee. For example, “She likes ~.” or “He is from ~.” Also, you could have the students listen to each self-introduction and listen specifically for one or two grammar points. For example, the students have to listen for what country the interviewee is from and then pick out the correct picture.

HANDOUTS and WORKSHEETS:

An example handout for this lesson can be found here: http://storage01.pbwiki.com/f/Not_your_standard_self-intro_handout.doc