Genevieve CO#2

I had the good fortune of attending Felicia's speaking class on July 13th.

She entered the class and took some time to write on the board.  After she put a paragraph on the board she then told the class they had 3 minutes to come up with an opinion.  Students asked for clarification.  Felicia first said to them to read the whole thing at that they might answer their own questions through understanding the over all context.  Students persisted with their questions and then Felicia gave more detail.  She said this is a pretend situation and you have decide if you are pro or con.  When reading time was up Felicia called on each student one at a time to voice their answer.  About halfway through the responses one student, instead of answering the question took her turn to complain about a classmate, saying that she could not understand her classmate's when the student spoke.  I though the student was actually being rude and a bit mean spirited.  Felicia handled this very well.  She explained that it's actually of great benefit to be learning English where students are exposed to so many various accents and that this will serve them quite well, they'll be able to get along listening in speaking in all sorts of situations.  Felicia explained that they were learning Global English. She discussed how, in English, Arabic speakers are challenged by the "p" and "b" sounds, how those with a first language of Japanese are challenged by "l" and "r" and for Spanish speakers is "sh" and "ch" sounds.  She explained how vowels sounds are consistent in Spanish yet in English they change.   Then students continued with their answers.   Students discussed how American work scheduled kept many people from preparing proper meals and left Americans eating unhealthy fast food.  Then Felicia had the students play a game.  She had one student at a time come up to the front of the class and she gave them a flash card.  Then the student had to discuss the flashcard and Felicia would correct their "beautiful mistakes" as they were speaking.  The students seemed to have a fun time with this activity.  Then class time was up.  No homework was assigned.