Rosalie CO #3: Listening with Dr. Kennell

September 26, 2013

               

            Ms. Sohan, the regular teacher of Foundations Listening, was out sick so Dr. Kennell took over. He began the class in a relaxed way, standing at the front with a coffee cup. “What am I doing?” he asked.

            One of the students said, “Oh, I’m…” and Dr. Kennell interrupted, “No, not what are you doing. What am I doing?”

            “You are drinking coffee!” another said.

            “Right. But let’s back up.” Dr. Kennell wrote on the board, “I drink coffee.”

            “What is this tense?” he asked.

            It was determined to be the simple present. “When do we use this tense?” Dr. Kennell asked as he wrote on the board, “When do we use the simple present tense?”

            One of the students said, “When you do it every day.”

            “Yes,” Dr. Kennell agreed. “We use the simple present tense to talk about routines or facts.” He also wrote this. “Now, this is something I see in my EFL classes as well as my graduate classes,” he said, directing a conspiratorial grin my way. “I see my students, sitting there like they’re watching television.” He sat in an empty chair and looked off into space. “What should you be doing? Taking notes! Take out a piece of paper and a pencil. A piece of paper,” he repeated, “and a pencil.” He waited until all the students were properly supplied. “Write down the question and the answer, here.”  

            He continued lecturing, writing the positive of the simple present tense (I drink coffee), the negative (“How do we form the negative? We add do not, that’s right,” so I do not drink coffee) and the question form (Do you drink coffee?). Dr. Kennell emphasized the importance of practice, “Even if you have to talk to a wall!” he said. “You can put my picture on the wall and tell me about your daily routine. ‘I take a shower every day. I brush my hair every day.’” The students laughed. He has a talent for putting people at ease and lightening the mood of the classroom, while still demanding their attention and diligence.

            Then, Dr. Kennell moved on to the present continuous. “When do you use the present continuous? When you talk about an action or things happening now,” he stated. “So, what am I doing? What are you doing? What is she/he doing? Those are the forms,” and he wrote them, too. Then, he started asking different students, “What are you doing?” They said, “I am studying,” or “I am sitting.” Dr. Kennell began to jump up and down and chose a student, asking him, “What am I doing?”

            “You are jumping,” the student replied quickly.

            “Can you say you are exercising?” another asked.

            “Yes, you can say I am exercising,” Dr. Kennell answered as he mimed doing other exercises. Then, he got another question.

            “Why is I capitalized?”

            “Oh, you mean why do we capitalize I in this sentence but never you, he, she, they, or the other pronouns? I don’t know! It’s just what you do. You smile, you say ‘no problem,’ and you do it,” he said to the student. Then, he looked at me and said, “Do you know about ambiguity tolerance? You don’t need to know this,” he told the class. “Do students need to know all the rules? The best language learners are the ones with high ambiguous tolerance. They shrug and say, hmm, I don’t know why that is but I’m going to do it. Otherwise, language learning is a lot slower.”

            Dr. Kennell’s classroom persona got my attention. He really connects with his class. Beyond just moving around the classroom, he is physically interacting with them. He did a congratulatory fist bump with one student, slapped on a desk to wake another up, and playfully made as if to tap another. He also made a point of praising the students when they correctly formed the present continuous tense, repeatedly expressing how impressed he was. “I’m so happy!” he exclaimed. “You all are so much more advanced than I thought!” I could see the pride in the students’ smiles. I am so glad I got to see him teach.