Miss Anna

I started at BST Higher Secondary school on Wednesday. Miss Anna from England has arrived to teach speaking English, or 'e-speaking English' as the students and teachers pronounce it here. I explain the difference between the name of the letter 's' and the sound of it by drawing a snake on the board and asking 'What noise does it make...?'. Then it's a matter of fixing the 'sssss' sound on the front of 'speaking'. Sometimes it works.

I explained to one class what a pig is. I was pleased with the drawing I did on the board. 'What do we call the meat of the pig?' I asked them, and the reply was a see of horrified faces. I forgot, they don't eat pig here.

The classes are enthusiastic and want to take part. There's a trick to keeping their minds occupied and I am not sure that I have got it yet, but there is a good library at the British Council and an excellent web site of behaviour management videos that I have been using as a resource.