English language weeks

3B	Mag. Barbara Prokop	(26.3. - 30.3.2001)
6C	Mag. Christine Gross	(20.3. - 24.3.2001)

Learning English? Yes, of course - but how?

Has anybody ever tried to teach 29 pupils in a class? Financial cuts here and there and everywhere. "Intensivsprachwochen" somewhere abroad? - no sorry, no money! Teachers cannot be paid anymore, parents cannot afford the high costs.
Our way out is to bring native speakers to the school and not vice versa. This is how the idea started.

After some weeks of organization in autum 2000 the classes 3B (29 pupils) an 6C (14 students) will enjoy spending a week entirely dedicated to the English language at really acceptable costs.
Oral skills and project work in smaller groups are the items of training from 8 a.m. till 1 p.m. throughout the week.
At the end of the week a presentation of the work done will be held for the parents in order to show them what they have spent their money on.
For the curious reader of our homepage: a report of the work process will be presented after Easter.

(Barbara Prokop)

ENGLISH – WEEK

David Wilks A few months ago our English teacher Mrs. Gross had the brilliant idea of an „English week". She told us about a school in England called „Stafford House – School of English" where teachers travel around teaching different classes. We, the 6c, were all keen on that idea and decided to pay 1,700 shillings for each pupil in order to have a wonderful week when we were allowed to speak English only. Unfortunately we weren’t able to have regular lessons like Maths, Physics or Biology – we only had one teacher who couldn’t speak German.

David Wilks, one of the best teachers we have ever had , arrived on Sunday, 18th March and our heavenly week started on Tuesday , 20th March because of the „Josefitag" on Monday. David taught us in a room above our „Tagesheim" and told us many facts about himself – therefore we know his girlfriend’s name, his mother’s name and we even know his house number (44). In this week we had to write texts on different topics – most of the time they were funny – we found explanations for different words, we learned about a special way of speaking called „cockney rhyming slang" and did lots of other things. Moreover we worked on projects and our concert which took place in our „cellar – theatre". We presented a „Blind Date Show", a „News Report" and as a highlight we sang two wonderful songs which were not as successful as we thought. And then one of our classmates, Philipp, played and sang two songs he had written himself.
We will never forget this week and hope to see David again next year.

Christoph Suppan, 6c

After the language week the pupils of 3B presented the diaries they had to keep during the week.
The two teachers - Leslie and David – were experts in finding out how to handle the boys and girls. So the mixture of tasks, activities and teachers was the key to motivation and I think all the students enjoyed the different lessons.
The aim was to encourage the speaking ability and to become more self confident.
So the method of „learning by doing" proved to be quite successful and the presentation that was held at the end of the week showed remarkable linguistic talents which were never noticed in class.
Some excerpts of the diaries already mentioned above will show the programme of the language week and the students’ opinions.

(B.Prokop)

DAY 1

David Wilks Today we saw the teachers from the U.K. for the first time. They are very nice and we already know very much about them. Like a normal school day there are lessons. Each lesson David and Leslie (our teachers) change places, so if Leslie is downstairs, David comes up to work with us. The first four lessons are used for practising speaking English. In the fifth lesson we worked on a project. Our group planned to make a newspaper.
In the sixth lesson we started to prepare for the concert on Friday. Again, our class was split into several groups. So I think there are four groups working on something different. My group works is working on a news show.
I’m already excited about what will happen tomorrow!

(Stefan Grassberger, 3B)

March 29th, 2001

David Wilks We played a super game today. It wasn’t so easy. Leslie painted some honeycombs with letters in them on the whiteboard. We worked in two groups. Group A and group B. The first group had to say a letter and then they had to solve the question which Leslie asked. We lost but it was fun. We also had to finish our magazine. It was only a little bit of work. In the last two lessons we practised our project, the news show. It was super. I think the presentation tomorrow will be no problem.

(Victoria Pachoinig, 3B)

5th day

David Wilks Dear diary,
today was the last day of the English-week.
……
When our newspaper was ready we showed it to Leslie and she told us that it was perfect!!! In the next lesson we finished the rehearsal of the news programme and in the third lesson we went to the school theatre to practise the whole concert.
In the evening the concert went very well! I was a little bit nervous but I think I did my part very well. The parents loved the presentation and everybody was happy.
Now the English week is over and I think it was absolutely great!! I also think that we should do such a language week again because it isn’t just fun, I think everybody learns a lot.
Yours Martina

(Martina Lesjak, 3B)

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