Learning About the 50 States

This semester I’m teaching American Studies, a course that I’ve enjoyed much more than last semester’s Pronunciation. With American Studies, I’m the lead teacher, and I’ve been able to design my own curriculum and assignments. One of my first assignments was an oral presentation on one of the fifty states. I wanted my students to realize how diverse the US is in its culture, geography, and history. This idea was something that I couldn’t convey well on my own in a ninety minute class. I had each student pick a state at random, and gave them two weeks to prepare three-minute PowerPoint presentation. I also warned them that I would ask each student a few questions after their presentation, as a way of discouraging straight word-by-word memorization. I wanted them to actually understand what they were talking about.

Although my expectations were not that high to begin with, as the English levels are very low at Dong Thap University, I was still nonetheless taken aback by the low quality of many of the presentations. Most of my students didn’t bother to edit their PowerPoints. Many of the PowerPoints declared in 40 point font that they were happy to “welcom” me to their state. Among the many spelling errors, I read of the “pison” that roam the plains of South Dakota and how Oklahoma has facilities for making “aircrapt,” A couple of students were really off and misspelled the names of their states. When I asked one student how she could have such egregious spelling errors using a program with spell check, she told me that she had been wondering what those little red lines meant.

The class also had some difficulties with grammar. Many wrote about the “state of bird” instead of “state bird.” Other students had problems with slide titles. One slide, for example had “Looking Demographics Please” at the top.

Some of the worst errors, however, were factual. Knowing that my students will believe pretty much anything they read on the Internet, I urged them to only use reputable websites, and gave them some suggestions. Some, however, apparently ignored my advice. A few errors were typos. I was told, for example, that Washington State was founded in 1989, instead of 1889. Others mistakes were more extreme. One student told me that James Madison founded Virginia. Another explained how fur-trading drives the Missouri economy. Some of these errors made some sense, and showed that my students were at least close to the mark. James Madison was a Virginian, and Missouri was involved in the fur trade, albeit two hundred years ago. Some errors, however, were completely off. For example, I learned that the state bird of Vermont is the red-headed parrot (it’s actually the hermit thrush, for those of you keeping score at home). One student reported that William Shakespeare was from Louisiana. When I tried to throw this girl a softball about weather during Q and A, she insisted quite strongly that Louisiana, New Orleans in particular, has never experienced any strong storms.

My students also have a different idea of PowerPoint aesthetics. While many kept up to the professional and more reserved themes that one would expect from a Western presentation, several preferred a more colorful approach. Many of the girls of the class filled their presentations with cutesy cartoon bears, birds, dogs, and other animals. Their backgrounds were filled with rainbows, dolphins, angels, and the sort of thing you would expect to see in a sixth-grade girl’s locker. Both girls and guys were guilty of filling their presentations with random pictures of landscapes and buildings that had no relevance to their state, or the USA in general. I asked one girl why she had a picture of the Kremlin on a slide, and she said that she thought it looked pretty.

In short, my students have a lot to learn when it comes to delivering professional-level presentations. While I did let them know that I wasn’t the most pleased with their efforts, I would be a poor teacher if I just harped on them. I’m planning on hosting a seminar in the next few weeks to teach the proper procedures for PowerPoints, so that their skills will hopefully improve. To be fair, the students here at Dong Thap really have very little experience speaking in public, especially in English, and they clearly need more instruction. After all, when it comes to grammar and spelling, no one are prefect, right?