What to use instead of Google Translate

My students the other day asked about translating an odd slang word into English. First, I rarely give word for word translations, I encourage students to give me a definition or use the word in a sentence. Second, I encourage my students to figure out meanings on their own given the context. Third, I had no idea what they were talking about and even their descriptions were confusing me.

I suggested that they look it up on WordReference. One of the students responded, "We use Google Translate."

I cringed.

Now, don't get me wrong, Google Translate is great in many situations. Sometimes I use it to translate an entire webpage and get a general idea of what the page is trying to say. Other times I have to write a text in English and then again in Spanish. After writing in English sometimes I Google Translate to Spanish and then go through and correct and rewrite the translation. Is it faster? Sometimes! However, for simple word to word translations, there are so many better sites to use.

I really like wordreference because in addition to definitions they have forums. In the forums you can see (or ask yourself) specific questions about specific instances the word is used. They are also helpful if the definition isn't found!

However, as much as I wish me just saying, "Google Translate isn't really the best" would influence them, my students like proof...and songs...and Disney.

Thus, I bring you, "Google Translate Sings." These singers run the lyrics of songs through Google Translate multiple times (for example from English to Spanish, Spanish to German, German to Russian and then Russian to English again. At the end they sing these new lyrics.

Check out this example which uses the song, "Do you want to build a snowman," from Frozen. You can see the original lyrics on the top of the video and the "translated" lyrics on the bottom.

 

They have tons of these. Maybe find one your class would like, and show it as a reminder that brains are often best translators students have!

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Do you have any funny Google Translate mishaps that have happened with your or your students? Share them in the comments!

Confusing Words 1

STRIPPING STRIPES
The first day of class in the Spring semester we played a review game covering everything they should have learned from their class in the fall. One of the queries was as follows:Combine the following sentences:

The cat lives on campus. The cat has stripes.

I look over and see one group talking. They aren't using Spanish (YAY) but one student in the group is visibly confused and begins to mime whirling something over her head. Her classmates quickly laugh and shake their heads, "No... not strip! Stripes" and then they mime drawing stripes on their arms.Important distinction.

If your students need a reminder it may be a good time to cover spelling rules. The "magic e" makes the i says it's own name (long vowel). Without the  "magic e" the i can't make its own name (short vowel)

SWEET SWEAT
My students were writing opinion essays on business practices. One student had come to me after class for some advice about his essay against sweat shops. 

First let's start with praise. He correctly differentiated between sweat and sweet (which is something I see native speakers mess up sometimes). 

You can remember the spelling a few different ways.  Some people remember HEAT makes you SWEAT. Others that MEAT is not SWEET (so meat and swee
t use different vowels).

Even though my student got that part right, he did make a small mistake with one of his supporting ideas.

TASTE TEST
"An example of the horrible conditions of sweat shops is that the women are fired if they are found pregnant. To make sure they are not hiding their pregnancy the sweat shop tastes women to see if they are pregnant."

After I read this I smiled. "So did they lick the workers to see if they were pregnant?" 

He was shocked by the question, but quickly figured out that taste and test were in fact different words.

MEET THE MEAT To end, this one wasn't in my class but a blog comment on an earlier post prompted me to add it.

  Does anyone else think of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when students mix these up?

I am starting to collect commonly missed words, so let me know if you need a visual to help you and/or your students in the comments, by twitter or Facebook.

Phonetic Punctuation

I am using a quote from Victor Borge in tomorrow's presentation...which made me realize I had no idea who he was. So I looked him up...and he is hilarious! This is one of his sketches on "Phonetic Punctuation" There are two videos below where he explains it.

The first one is a bit rougher, but subtitled in English. The second one is cleaner without subtitles (and somehow I think not as funny).






What do you think, would it be easier if instead of using intonation when we spoke we had sounds that marked the place of punctuation?

Funny Sketch About Different English Learners' Problems

This is a fun sketch that goes over the different problems a student may have in a class.

One student struggles with grammar! This is the students I would be most like. With a student weak in grammar I suggest lots of reading, movies, fun drills, and maybe some grammar comics. 

There's another student who is pretty bad at spelling (and thus pronunciation!). There are a few great sites out there if your students can't spell, but I usually know a few good spelling tricks to help out students.

http://www.spellingcity.com/ 

http://www.spellingcity.com/ gave a free password for Teacher's Appreciation Day.

The next student struggles with idioms and proverbs. If you can find these in songs or movies it may help your students remember them.

The final girl has large problems with her vocabulary. There's an entire MOOC going on right now on how to teach vocabulary. I have an older blog post that covers some basic suggestions for activities, games, and quizzes.

And the last student struggles with emphasizing words (and vowel sounds). I am pretty bad with pronunciation other than using minimal pairs and jokes. but the 34th ELT Blog Carnival has given me many more ideas to work with.

The Carnival will be published on September 1st, so all submissions must be received before August 31st.

See http://eslcarissa.blogspot.mx/2013/07/the-34th-elt-blog-carnival-pronunciation.html for more information.

Teacher's Pet - On Grading

I don't know about fellow teachers who own cats, but the hardest part about grading for me is that my cat has this tendency to eat papers if they have been left unattended.

I suppose this is his way of showing utter horror at the lack of punctuation and overuse of capital letters.


If I can manage to keep him from eating the papers then it turns to getting him off of the papers. He seems to want to help grade! Although I am not sure that him attacking the pen and sitting on top of the papers is really that helpful.

Any solutions to these problems with teacher's pet? Or should I just continue to take pictures and let everyone else think he's adorable