Beckie Loewenstein

My student G. and I practice phrasal verbs , deyimsel fiilleri , while cooking banana cherry pancakes, muz kiraz krep , in the kitchen in Istanbul. She brings the most delicious homemade cherry jam preserves that her mother made last summer in Izmir. Verbs acquire new meanings with each preposition. As the teacher performs each action, the student narrates with a phrasal verb and takes notes of new vocabulary in the journal. This teaching approach includes visual and kinesthetic learning styles. Banana cherry pancakes recipe: Ingredients: 1 cup flour 1 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg 1 cup milk 2 eggs 1 banana cherry jam Kitchen utensils and equipment vocabulary: fridge stovetop drawer cupboard bowl non-stick pan whisk ladle spatula fork plates spoon spice shaker Instructions with phrasal verbs : Take down the bowl out of the cupboard. Open up the fridge and take out the milk and eggs. Take the flour out of the cupboard . Pull out the drawers and pick ...

This morning my student A., a theater professor, and I perform a listening, singing, and creative writing English lesson to compare and contrast Penny Lane, London, to a street in Kadiköy, Istanbul.  As the American teacher, I provide the American accent.  The Beatles song 'Penny Lane' provides the British accent .  Hem Amerikan hem de Ingiliz ders .  We compare and contrast the American and British accent for the words banker and barber.  Also, there are differences of word choice.  For example, a mack is British English for a raincoat.  First, she listens to the song as she completes the lyric gap fill exercise below. In Penny Lane there is a __________ showing photographs, of every __________ he's had the pleasure to know. And all the people that __________ and __________ , __________ and __________ hello. On the corner is a __________ with a motorcar, the little children __________ at him behind his __________ . And the banker never ____...

Through our regular private English lessons in Istanbul with G., a young businesswoman running her family's olive oil label, I am learning a lot about olive cultivation and extra virgin olive oil production in Bursa and Izmir, Turkey.  After two weeks of lessons, she can describe the process of growing, harvesting, and pressing olives for olive oil; describe the container, quality, and quantity options for the export of the product; answer questions about the brand label.  This week we prepare for an upcoming product fair in Antalya by practicing asking and answering the possible questions of international clients interested in importing the olive oil.  Applying English to practical scenarios such as business meetings, presentations, and telephone calls always excites me and motivates the student.  Here are some of examples of our new vocabulary from our speaking and writing lessons in Istanbul: Olive cultivation: Cultivate olives. Pick up the bucket. Colle...

My student A. takes speaking English lessons to prepare for formal and social conversations at an annual meeting of orthopaedic surgeons in New Orleans in March 2014.  to schedule The patient would like to schedule an appointment. The doctor would like to set the date of the surgery. How is your schedule for Friday? How many patients do you have today on your schedule ? to examine The surgeon examines the patient. She examines the patient's knee. The doctor gives the patient a health examination . The examination room is on the first floor. to operate on The surgical team does each operation together. The surgeon operates on t he hip. My mother got a knee operation . to charge How much does the hospital charge for hip surgery? The bank charges interest on loans. There's no charge because lunch is on me . to get I get a lot of happiness out of cycling. Could you get his attention? My boss got married to his wife in Istanbul. I got divo...

After going to the Cats musical in Istanbul, my student O. and I learned her favorite song 'Memory' as part of our private English lesson at a café near İstiklal. We read the song lyrics and sang the song together, pausing to practice the new vocabulary: • Verbs: ☆ fade away, yavaş yavaş yok olmak ☆ moan, inlemek ☆ mutter, mırıldanmak ☆ burn out, kendini tüketmek ☆ dawn on, Kafama dank etti ☆ marginalize dışlanmak • Nouns: ☆ dawn...dusk, seher ... alacakaranlık ☆ sunrise...sunset, güneş doğduğu zaman ... güneş battığı zaman ☆ sunlight, güneş ışığı ☆ moonlight, ay ışığı ☆ lamplight ☆ gutter çukur , keriş ☆ margin • Adjectives: ☆ stale, bayat ☆ smoky, tüten Next, I ask her what she thinks the song means: The cat was marginalized from the society of cats. The cat is in the gutter, or margins. The flowers whither and die. The light fades away. Finally, we have a free response practice of the new vocabulary. Here are some of her sentences: • Rubbish i...

My student G. and I met in the evening at the iskele , ferry dock, for a walking vocabulary lesson at the shops in Kadıköy. I challenge her to name ten items in each shop. After the warm up, she gradually gets used to the awkward feeling of speaking English to fellow Turks. Together we taste the food, touch the clothes, and examine the glass beads. The lesson becomes a tactile, kinesthetic learning experience. Soon she starts speaking complete sentences using the new vocabulary. Window shopping in English with an American begins to feel more comfortable. This moves her closer to her goal to speak social English in preparation for her studies in the USA. We have way more fun and reflect over tea in a garden on art street. Here's some of the new vocabulary she learns: At the lingerie store: lace, underwear, panties, tanks, wife beaters (slang) At the gift shop: Some people believe that the nazar bead prevents bad things from happening. At the food shop: corn kernels, peanuts, ...

Proverbs with illustrations give a specific context for language learners to apply and reinforce the vocabulary they already know.  I teach proverbs to my advanced student B. with the book Apricots Tomorrow and other Arab sayings with English equivalents .  Together we look at the illustration.  She guesses the wise saying, and then checks the English equivalent of the Arab saying.  Sometimes she discovers that she knows a Turkish equivalent to the proverbs.  All languages express wisdom. As an ongoing learning exercise, I challenge my student to use these proverbs in appropriate scenarios in their daily life.  B. calls herself a bull in a china shop because she can be clumsy.  She agrees that a loved one's onion is a feast because she prefers the company of her friends rather than her boss.  When her American friends stay with her a couple of days, they may eat her out of house and home.   She calls her colleague an armchair critic when...

This evening I taught the first lesson of an English speaking program for my new student A. at his office near Taksim Square.  He would like to practice the upper intermediate English he recently learned in an intense program with British Culture.  Our goal is to reinforce the language and move the new vocabulary and grammar structures from his short term to long term memory.  He would also like to prepare for an interview for a new position.  In our first 90 minutes lesson, I guided him through a possible interview with a staff member of the British company.  I relied on my previous experience with interviews to imagine the possible questions and dynamics.  Basically, the interviewer would expect complete accuracy in the use of all grammar structures and the choice of prepositions.  Student A. already could speak fluently as an upper intermediate level.  However, he made frequent mistakes with prepositions and dropped essential words in adjecti...