How to Make Yeong Pyo

Two weeks ago my 8th grade students learned two things: a. how to ask how to make something and b. they learned to explain how to make something. On the first day of this lesson, I gave students a list of eight different foods. In groups they needed to pick three of the foods and explain the necessary steps to make each food. To further their understanding of these two concepts, I told students next class we would pretend to go on a picnic, with each group ‘making’ a different food. In groups, students would make a poster explaining how to make their dish. When they were finished, students would share their work with the class.

Walking around the class I could see all of my girls hard at work. My students were frantically coloring, pasting, writing, and looking up English words in their dictionaries. I stopped at tables from time to time to explain some of the new vocabulary they encountered. As I was walking past one of the groups, a student stopped me and pointed to my hair where my hair pin was. “Does my hair need to be fixed?” I asked. My question was met with a nod and then she began reaching for my hair. In advance I said, “Thank you.” However, to my surprise my student did not fix my hair, but rather she pulled it out! She giggled at my surprise and then began examining and playing with my light hair. She wrapped it around her finger, smelled it, and examined it against white paper. A little shocked, I smiled at her and walked away.



As students began to finish I announced to students that we would begin sharing our posters with each other. I asked for a volunteer and group E rose to the challenge. The girls walked up to the front, stuck their poster on the board, and with their backs to the class they gave their presentation:

“Do you know how to make yeong pyo?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Will you tell me?”
“Sure. 1. Wash Yeong Pyo (No Shampoo!), 2. Put the fried in the powder (No Face!), 3. Put the fried in the boiling oil, 4. Lift the fried and put on dish, 5. E.A.T., tip: dip in special sauce.”



As group E was giving their presentation I could not help but smile to myself. The task I gave them (both the poster and presenting) was challenging, but they tried their best. They took something they were very familiar with in Korean and, using a limited vocabulary, put it into English. Clearly, their English can be broken at times, but I could understand what they meant. This is what makes them successful to me. Sure, we will work on their grammar as time goes on. Right now I would rather have them feel confident about their work then be afraid to claim their work because it might have a mistake.