Hey, it looks like fun and games but REALLY!, there is a good American idioms English lesson in teaching my students about baseball.
"Up to bat", "Two strikes against you", "Hit a home run", "Grand Slam", "the bases are loaded", "full count", "bottom of the ninth", "to strikeout", "to throw someone a fastball/curveball", etc. You don't realize how many expressions from baseball we Americans use in our everyday English until you try to find justification to
devote an entire lesson to baseball. (Yes, that's a beat-up old broom in my hand. It's all I could get my hands on.)
Now in order to teach baseball idioms
and slang to increase my students English vernacular and listening skills, it is
first necessary to teach them about the game itself. The above-mentioned words
mean nothing if you know nothing about the game. So here is how my baseball
English lesson plan has evolved over the years into its current multimedia, full
participation, 4 class period format from its old broomstick and
chalk-and-blackboard roots pictured above.
Period 1: I was able to score a copy
of Sammy Sosa's High Heat PC game. Before class, I set it up on the classroom
computer and then as class begins, I crank out the high intensity 2 minute intro
to the game. Then I put the game on auto-play for a few batters. The games
graphics are excellent and as anyone who has spent just 5 minutes in China
knows, Chinese students LOVE video games. A five-minute dose of this, and the
students are in high heat to get to know more. I then move to a PowerPoint
presentation which I cobbled together from different sources which shows visuals
of a baseball field and introduce them to the basic structure of the game. Two
teams, 9 players apiece, the different fielding positions, and then the basic
part of the game: pitcher vs. batter. Then we move to the three things that can
happen to a batter - strike out, BOB, or he hits the ball. Then we move to the
three things that can happen if he hits the ball. Foul ball, fly ball or ground
ball. Etc. It moves very slowly at first as the students need to visualize
something they have never seen before. I use a lot of TPR in this part of the
lesson. As break-time arrives, I put the Sammy Sosa game back on on auto-play
and I pass a couple of baseball gloves and some balls around the room for them
to handle while I go out and catch a smoke.
Period 2: After break, I do a loose
review and ask some questions to see if they have grasped the basics: "how many
strikes is a strike out", "how many outs in an inning", stuff like that. Then I
move to another PowerPoint I created with 20-30 baseball idioms that are used in
everyday, American vernacular speech. I teach them the idioms and slang and how
and when to use them. This is the real meat of the lesson and you can see them
scribbling them down. Chinese English students love to acquire new vocabulary
and they will feel happy at the end of the day that they learned 20 or 30 new
vocab items, not to mention learned something about "America's Pastime".
CHUCK'S PRE-MULTIMEDIA BASEBALL LESSON
You want my lesson plan for baseball English?
This is the pre-multimedia version
Click on the pic
CHUCK'S POST-MULTIMEDIA BASEBALL LESSON
With Realia, such as baseball glove ^..........
.........baseball bat ........
.......vocabulary .........
.... grammar, and exhortations.
PLAY BALL!!!
In the Chinese education system,
students are often just told what to do or how to do something. They are rarely
given opportunities to actually try to use what they have learned. "Use it or
lose it" is my oft-repeated motto to my students. (See above photo)
In this case, I can tell you
the rules of baseball and how it is played, but unless you get out and actually
participate in playing it, you will still not understand. So....
Periods 3 & 4: We go outside and play
the game. It's also my reward (to them and self) for the two difficult periods
it took to introduce them to baseball. The results are often hilarious, but the
students quickly learn to love the game. I have students from years ago who I run
into from time-to-time who tell me it was their most memorable lesson.
There are some pictures
here of my students in Jinzhou in their first
attempts at baseball. And here you can find my Winter
2001 English Camp students in Panjin playing in -10°C/14°F.
Below are my Zhejiang University
English major students on a chilly morning in January, 2003, on the artificial
turf of the new soccer field at Zhejiang University's new campus playing their
first game of baseball
Now, here comes the good part.
Just after the game pictured
above, I was walking across the campus after class lugging my bag of books and
baseball equipment when a student I had never met pedaled up to me on his
bicycle.
"Excuse me, teacher, but is that a baseball stick?" he asked
pointing at my bag. I was a little surprised because not many people, other than
my English major students would know a baseball bat if they saw one.
"Why, yes it is. It's a baseball BAT," I told him. Then I got an
even bigger surprise.
"Wow!" he said, "I'm the manager of the Zhejiang University
Baseball team."
"Huh? Zhe Da (Zhejiang University) has a baseball team?"
Then he proceeded to tell me that recently a group of Zhe Da
students who were interested in baseball had formed a club. Zhejiang University
has a large enrollment of more than 50,000 students spread over 5 campuses so it
wasn't unusual that I would not have known this.
"And we don't have a coach. Would you be interested in ......"
He didn't even have to finish the sentence. "Yes!!!" I said.
"But we can't pay," he added, ever the Chinese way of doing
things.
"No problem!" I said. Just the chance to coach some interested
players and play a little baseball with them was enough reward for me. The only
thing rarer in China than baseball is fortune cookies.
And that is how I became the coach of the Zhejiang University
baseball team. For no pay.
And I have continued coaching them for more than 3 years. For no pay.
I love baseball that much.
Over the last three years, the team has progressed from a group
of guys 99% of whom who had never played before, but who had an interest in the
game, to a nice of mix of now 3 year skilled veterans and younger players
(including 4 women) who got interested and joined the team as an
extra-curricular activity. We all enjoy the same thing: a love for baseball.
The first couple of years were just spent practicing. The
players got together 3 or 4 times a week after classes and on weekends. I was
very busy so often limited my appearances to weekend practice sessions. As it
happened, a middle school in town, the #13 Middle School of Hangzhou, also had a
baseball team and, in fact, had built a small baseball field over the school's
soccer field. At Zhejiang University's new campus, which is a few miles outside
town, we had to often fight off the whole male student body to claim just a half
of the soccer field to practice. Chinese male students love soccer and didn't
take kindly to a bunch of guys wearing funny gloves chasing a small ball around
THEIR soccer field. The fact that we carried large, heavy wooden and metal bats
didn't seem to scare them. After all, they had us outnumbered by about 20,000 to
20.
So we would practice wherever we could find space, often to the
amusement of the local workers.
Finding practice places and practice time was tough enough.
Finding opponents was even tougher. There just aren't that many teams around. In Hangzhou, it was us and
#13 Middle School. And their much younger players had been playing for a few
years. So that was who we often scrimmaged against the first two years. And we
would usually lose.
Also, we had an equipment problem. First of all, if you want to
buy some baseball equipment, it's not simply a matter of running over to the
local sporting goods store. The nearest sporting goods store to Hangzhou which
carries baseball equipment, is in JAPAN! Luckily, there was a local Japanese
businessman who was also interested in baseball and he would often come by on
weekends to help coach. And on his infrequent trips back home, the students
would give him some money (from their own pockets as we were yet to be supported
by the school) and he's return with luggage full of new mitts and enough balls
to last us until his next trip home. The one thing everybody forgot to get was
catcher's equipment.
Let me introduce you to the toughest guy in China. His name is Luo Jia. He's
been our catcher for three years. The first year, this is the equipment Luo Jia
wore behind the plate.
The ONLY piece of equipment missing from this
picture is his catcher's glove. That's right, Luo Jia played an entire season
without any catching equipment at all, except a glove. Notice he wears glasses,
too. This kid is tough. If he got smacked by a foul tip or an errant bat, he
just stood back up, shook it off, and got back down behind the batter. Oh, by
the way, this wasn't softball.
The second year, the team was able to get a mask for
Luo Jia as the #13 Middle School got an extra one. Still, it wasn't enough to
protect the rest of Luo Jia's body. Still he never complained. He was a
catcher's catcher.
Finally, this year the team was able to score a
complete set of catching equipment before any major damage was done to Luo Jia.
It made all of us feel a lot better, not the least of whom was Luo Jia himself.
Luo Jia - the toughest guy in China.
After so many games playing against each other or
#13 Middle School, the team was finally able to find a new opponent. Fudan
University in Shanghai had had a baseball team for a number of years. So the ZJU
team decided to invite them to visit the new campus of ZJU in the beautiful city
of Hangzhou during a holiday break. Finally, we had a chance to test our skills
against another Chinese university team. Everyone was excited. Posters were put
up around the campus and game day approached.
CLOSE UP
TRANSLATION:
Zhejiang University vs. Fudan University
October 2 - 9:00 a.m.
ZJU- Zijingang Campus Football (Soccer) Field
THE Baseball Game - The Poster
Poster design "borrowed" for educational purposes.
Gamd day arrived. Even though school was out, about
200 curious students came to cheer on the local home team.Problem was that none
of the fans had a clue what they were watching - for most of them it was
their first time seeing baseball live. They weren't aware of the
physics of
baseball. Like all good Chinese, they crowded close to the field to get a
good look.
Fudan had an experienced team of vets who had played
in the China University National Championships. Their players were big - many of
them came from Northeast China and Inner Mongolia while others had played ball
in high school in Guangzhou. Problem was that none of the fans had a clue
what they were watching - for most of them it was their first time seeing
baseball live.
Still, the game was close through most of the
match. My players had become better hitters. After 7 innings, we were only down
by a run 7-6. Then we changed pitchers in the top of the eighth. It was NOT my
call, but rather the decision of the #13 Middle School coach who wanted to see
how her staff ace fared against college players. The kid promptly gave up 7 runs
and it was ----GAME OVER.
But the two teams were happy at games end - ZJU for
having finally played a real team and keeping it close through most of the game,
and Fudan for a good game, a chance to see ZJU's new Zijingang Campus, and a
chance to spend a few days in Hangzhou. Everyone was a winner.
We had lost to Fudan, but ZJU was waking up to the
fact that there was a baseball team on campus.
To find out what happened next
season, go to the next chapter.
