Self-intros are what
you make of them. Most teachers expect 5-10 minutes. Mine
lasts the entire class. It is a full blown multimedia PowerPoint
presentation, given quiz style, complete with pictures,
maps, music, sound, video clips, etc... When I came to Japan,
I realized I didn't have much for a self-intro, which bummed
me out since I am a one-shot, and would have to do it literally
well over 100 times. I include things that are relevant
to me and my culture, and which students might have heard
something about or seen before. Every last bit of it was
downloaded from the Internet.
The local movie theater
is Warner Mycal. Before each movie, Bugs Bunny gives a little
chat. So, I explain that when I was a kid, I liked Bugs
a lot. I show his picture, have the loony tunes theme playing
in the background, and ask the simple question, "What's
his name?" A question relevant to their current level
of study.
I show Wisconsin's
symbols (I'm from there) while the state song plays in the
background. I ask questions like, "What flower is this?"
They
understand the question, and relate the answer to a color
word they know, "violet". The state bird is the
robin, so after showing the picture and getting them to
repeat the word, I later show a Batman slide, theme music
included, and explain, "I like this comic book hero.
What's his name? What's his partner's name?" Hint,
it's the same as the name of the bird you saw before. I
have a clip of Titanic, where Leo talks about Wisconsin
being cold, and the ice fishing he did there. I talk about
the four seasons (showing pictures of a farm during the
four seasons), and ask what season do you like, can you
ski, have your ever gone ice fishing -- things like that.
Being near Chicago,
I talk about the Chicago Bulls and the Cubs, with video
clips of Jordan and Sosa. I ask things like, "In English,
what's this sport's name?" I show pictures of Chicago-style
pizza and other local foods I like, again using simple vocabulary.
I have music clips
from favorite bands, and movie trailers from the movies
I like.
I like X-files, so
one slide plays the theme music, shows pictures of Mulder
and Scully, and asks, "What's his/her name? What's
the TV program's name?"
A video clip of the
Simpsons (CC Lemon!). Review words like father, mother,
brother, sister, cat, dog...
And so on, and so
on, and so on...
I present it
in the computer lab, or via video projector, or even the
classroom's TV by hooking it up to my laptop. Anyone who
was at my CALL workshop in Kobe or the various prefectural
workshops I've done has seen the first 10 minutes of it.
