Phase 3.

1 Teaching Techniques ( Language Skills )

Phase 3.1 - INTEGRATION OF FOUR SKILLS

Objectives:
To recognize that using language is a skill.
To demonstrate that using language is based on four skills.
To develop in learners the ability to listen through various activities.
To give ample and appropriate listening opportunities to learners.
To assess comprehension skills through listening.
To create reading readiness in learners.
To provide and encourage opportunities for speaking in learners.
To provide opportunities to learners for writing.
To integrate all four skills in the classroom situation.
To assess all four skills in learners in order to ensure that learning has taken place.

Phase 3.1 INTEGRATION OF FOUR SKILLS

The Current Phase:

Using a language is a skill. No amount of knowledge about the language can ensure

that one may use it effectively. Language is for communication and needs to be

competently used in order to develop proficiency. The four skills are Listening, Reading,

Speaking and Writing. The teacher has to integrate all of these skills in the classroom.
Listening Skills

Teaching listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any ESL teacher. This is

because success in listening is acquired over time and with lots of practice. It's

frustrating for students because there are no rules in teaching listening. Speaking and

writing have very specific exercises that can lead to improved skills. This is not to say

that there are no ways of improving listening skills; however they are difficult to

quantify.

One of the largest inhibitors for students has often been the mental block. While

listening, a student suddenly decides that he or she doesn't understand what is being

said. At this point, many students just tune out or get caught up in an internal dialogue

trying to translate a specific word. You will almost see the wheels in your students’ heads

turn as they are translating from word to word. Some students convince themselves that

they are not able to understand spoken English well and create problems for

themselves.
The key to helping students improve their listening skills is to convince them that not

understanding is OK. This is more of an attitude adjustment than anything else, and it is

easier for some students to accept than others. Another important point is that they

need to listen to English as often as possible, but for short periods of time.

There is a famous analogy:

Imagine you want to get in shape. You decide to begin jogging. The very first day you

go out and jog seven miles. If you are lucky, you might even be able to jog the seven

miles. However, chances are good that you will not soon go out jogging again. Fitness

trainers have taught us that we must begin with little steps. Begin jogging short distances

and walk some as well, over time you can build up the distance. Using this approach,

you'll be much more likely to continue jogging and get fit.

Students need to apply the same approach to listening skills. Encourage them to get a

film, or listen to an English radio station, but not to watch an entire film or listen for

two hours. Students should often listen, but they should listen for short periods - five to

ten minutes. This should happen four or five times a week. Even if they don't understand

anything, five to ten minutes is a minor investment. However, for this strategy to work,

students must not expect improved understanding too quickly. The brain is capable of

amazing things if given time; students must have the patience to wait for results. If a

student continues this exercise over two to three months their listening comprehension

skills will greatly improve.

Not only is listening is one of the most challenging skills for our students to develop, it is

also one of the most important. Developing our students’ ability to listen well enables

our students' to become more independent learners. By hearing accurately, they are
much more likely to be able to reproduce accurately, refine their understanding of

grammar and develop their own vocabulary.

A framework can be used to design a listening lesson that will develop your students'

listening skills and look at some of the issues involved.

 The basic framework

 Pre-listening

 While listening

 Post listening

 Applying the framework to a song

 Some conclusions

The basic framework

The basic framework on which you can construct a listening lesson can be divided into

three main stages.

 Pre listening, during which we help our students prepare to listen.

 While listening, during which we help to focus their attention on the listening text

and guide the development of their understanding of it.

 Post listening, during which we help our students integrate what they have learned

from the text into their existing knowledge.

Pre-listening
There are certain goals that should be achieved before students attempt to listen to any

text. These are motivation, contextualization, and preparation.

 Motivation

It is enormously important that before listening students are motivated to listen,

so you should try to select a text that they will find interesting and then design

tasks that will arouse your students' interest and curiosity.

With older teenagers, this is often difficult as they find commercial ESL materials often

do not connect with their lives and are geared towards younger learners. This presents an

opportunity for the teacher to include students in the development of listening exercises.

 Contextualization

As we listen in our everyday lives, we hear language within its natural

environment and that environment gives us a huge amount of information about

the linguistic content we are likely to hear. Listening to a tape recording in a

classroom is a very unnatural process. The text has been taken from its original

environment and we need to design tasks that will help students to contextualize

the listening and access their existing knowledge and expectations to help them

understand the text.

 Preparation

To achieve success with the task we set for students during a listening activity,

teachers may need to review specific vocabulary or expressions. It's vital that we

cover this before they start to listen as we want the challenge within the lesson to

be an act of listening and not understanding what they have to do.

While listening

In our everyday lives, when we listen to someone or something, we do so for a reason.

Students, too, need a reason to listen, to know what they should focus their attention

on.

For our students to really develop their listening skills they will need to listen a number of

times - three or four usually works quite well - as it has been found that the first time many

students listen to a text they are nervous and have to tune in to the accents and the

speed at which the people are speaking.

Ideally, the listening tasks we design for them should guide them through the text and

should range in difficulty so that the first listening task they do is quite easy and helps

them to get a general understanding of the text. Sometimes a single question at this

stage will be enough, not putting the students under too much pressure.

The listening task that the students have to listen to the second time requires detailed

understanding of the text. Make sure though that the task doesn't demand too much of

a response. Writing long responses as they listen can be very demanding and is a

separate skill in itself, so keep the tasks to single words, ticking or some sort of

graphical response.

Note: Some of your students will be taking classes in preparation for English language

proficiency exams such as TOEFL and IELTS (used for university admission) and TOIC

(usually used for employment except in Korea). In these exams, they will have to listen to long,

multi-paragraph, passages and then answer several questions about what they heard.

The third listening task could just be a matter of checking their own answers from the

second task or could lead students towards some more subtle interpretations of the text.
Listening to a foreign language is a very intensive and demanding activity and for this

reason it is very important that students should have 'breathing' or 'thinking' time

between listening. Students may compare their answers between listening as this gives

them the chance not only to have a break from the listening, but also to check their

understanding with a peer and reconsider what they heard before listening again.

Post-listening

There are two common forms that post-listening tasks can take. These are reactions to

the content of the text, and analysis of the linguistic features used to express the content.

 Reaction to the text

Tasks that focus students' reaction to content are most important. Again, this is

something that we naturally do in our everyday lives. Because we listen for a

reason, there is generally a following reaction. This could be discussed as a

response to what we've heard—did they agree or disagree or even believe what

they have heard?—or it could be some kind of reuse of the information they have

heard.

 Analysis of language

The second of these two post-listening task types involves focusing students on

the linguistic features of the text. This is important in terms of developing their

knowledge of language, but less so in terms of developing students’ listening

skills. It could take the form of an analysis of verb forms from a script of the

listening text or vocabulary or collocation work. This is a good time to do form

focused work as the students have already developed an understanding of the

 text and so will find dealing with the forms that express those meanings much

easier.

Applying the framework to a song.

Here is an example of how you could use this framework to exploit a song:

 Pre-listening

 Students brainstorm kinds of songs.

Students describe one of their favorite songs and what they like about it.

 Students predict words or expressions that might be in a love song.

 While listening

 Students listen and decide if the song is happy or sad.

 Students listen again and order the lines or verses of the song.

 Students listen again to check their answers or read a summary of the

song and correct any errors.

 Post listening

Focus on content

 Discuss what they liked / didn't like about the song.

 Decide whether they would buy the CD/ who they would buy it

for.

 Write a review of the song for a newspaper or website.

 Write another verse for the song.

 Focus on form

 Students look at the lyrics from the song and identify the verb

forms.

 Students find new words in the song and find out what they mean.

 Students make notes of common collocations within the song.

Caution: The lyrics in most popular songs border on the unintelligible as they are often drowned

out by the music. Also, some of the most popular songs for teen-agers contain lyrics that may be

offensive to some. The teacher must exercise good judgment in the final choice of music to be

used in class.

Folk music and ballads are often slowly sung as the song is really about the lyrics and not

necessarily the music itself.

Two principles of listening:

• bottom up listening skills

• top down listening skills

Bottom up listening skills, or bottom up processing, refers to the process of direct decoding

of language into meaningful units; sound waves through the air, in through our ears

and into our brain where meaning is decoded. To do this, students, need to know the

code—how the sounds work, how they string together, and how the codes can change

in different ways when they're strung together.

Most students have never been taught how English changes when it's strung together in

sentences.

Top-down processing refers to how we use our fund of knowledge to attribute meaning

to language input; how our knowledge of social convention helps us understand the

meaning.

These are the skills that listening teachers should be teaching in their classes, but all too often are

not.

What Teachers Need to Do

Give students practice in listening which asks students to interpret and understand

meaning, together with listening which teaches learners about how English is actually

spoken. That is, students need practice in listening for meaning and instruction about

how to do this (a focus on form).

Objectives of listening:

 We listen to the sounds.

 We react to them.

 We listen, to comprehend.

 It is a receptive skill.

 We listen to the tone inflection and to the inferred meaning.

Types of listening:
  Specific

 Global

 Inferences

Good listening strategies:

 Trying to comprehend.

 Speak well.

 Trying to predict.

 To be able to monitor.

 To ask and clarify.

Triumphs and Tribulations:

One of the main advantages of teaching listening is that students get to hear recordings

of different voices, accents, genders and so forth. They do not have to just rely on the

teacher to help perfect their spoken English, but they can also learn to understand others

who speak. This helps prepare students for real life situations where they will have to

listen, respond to, and make sense of a variety of voices. While in the classroom, the

recording can be played again and again for the students to get the gist of what is being

said and to make inferences about the overall meaning based on the context. In real life,

this doesn't happen.

Audio recordings are useful tools because of the diversity of speech patterns that

students can benefit from in their progress with the English language. Teachers can pick

out from two way dialogue, radio recordings or a monologue. These are examples of
natural speech that students will need to get used to outside the classroom as they put

their English to use.

However, one of the disadvantages of listening exercises is that students are not able to

see extra linguistic features such as facial expressions, gestures and body language in

order to be able to tell how the speaker feels and infer further meaning from what is

said. Italian and Greek are examples of two languages that make good use of such extra

linguistic features, as people "speak" with their hands and eyes, as well as with their

mouth. That is why students from these countries may find it difficult to make sense of

what they hear, as they are used to the visual delivery of language, as well as the

spoken word. But a change in tone or pitch can help students to guess at the meaning of

what is being said.

Note: If you are going to use technology of any sort in the classroom, ensure that it works before

you do the lesson. There is nothing more embarrassing than preparing the students only find

that the CD player or the tape recorder doesn't work.

Sample Activities

Activity Title Do as I say, not as I do

Time Duration 10 min

By the end of the lesson the students will be able to respond

Objective
to simple commands in English

1. First practice Simon Says with the students so that they

understand the game.

2.Now tell them to do as you SAY, not as you do, and repeat

playing the game - only this time, when you say 'touch your
Procedure
knees' etc, touch your ears instead, or any other part of your

body. This is a good way to see who is listening to you

correctly and who is just copying your movements. Students

find this game much more fun than the original.

Activity Title Telephone

Time Duration 10 min

Objective Will be able to listen and repeat the target language

Age 10 to 15 years
 1. Arrange the class in a circle.

2. The teacher whispers a word / phrase into the ear of one

student and indicates that it has to be passed around until it

reaches the last person.

Procedure 3. The last person then has to act out the word / phrase.

4. After the action the teacher then confirms whether the

word and the action are same or not.

5. The one who does the action now gets the chance to

whisper.

Activity Title Lie detector

Time Duration 10 min

Will be able to listen for specific information & use the target
Objective
structure accurately to complete the task.

Age 10 to 15 years
 1. Teams are created; each team is given a topic.

2. The teams must create four sentences about that topic, but

one of those sentences contains an untruth.

3. The sentences are then presented to the class and it is the

task of the other teams to identify the lie.

4. The response must be exact and not sentence 3 is wrong.

5. For example:

Tom cruise is a superstar.

Tom Cruise has acted in many movies.

Tom Cruise is married to Nicole Kidman.

Procedure

Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch.

6. Possible categories

· Countries

· Famous people

· Members of the class

· The teacher

· English

· Grammar

· Stories from films or other TV programs

Activity Title Giving directions

Time Duration 10 min

Will be able to ask and give directions using prepositions in

Objective
groups to complete the task.

Age 10 to 15 years

1. Ask for a volunteer who is blindfolded.

2. The furniture of the room is rearranged (if the tables are

fixed, then the chairs can be manipulated) The classroom is

like a maze.

3. Place a coin or a wrapped sweet somewhere in the room.

Procedure 4. In order to reach the target the blindfolded person is now

asked to follow directions as told to him /her.

5. Gently turn the student two or three times to confuse his /

her sense of direction.

6. Then the teacher remains silent as the rest of the class gives

instructions.
 7. This could be done in groups too.

Speaking skills

Introduction

Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and

non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13). Speaking is a crucial

part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years,

teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued

to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However,

today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students'

communicative skills because only in that way, students can express themselves and

learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative

circumstance. In order to teach second language learners how to speak in the best way
possible, some speaking activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL

classroom settings, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language. One

of the common complaints a teacher will hear is that "Many English students complain

that they understand English, but don't feel confident enough to join a conversation."

There are a number of reasons for this:

 Students are trying to translate from their native language into

English. (You can almost see the "wheels' in their head turning as they do

this.)

 Production "blocking" is occurring due to nervousness or lack of

confidence.

 The speaker is looking for a specific—more complex word—rather

than using simple language.

 There aren't enough conversation opportunities in or outside of class.

 Students aren't able to speak to peers or appear foolish in front of

them.

 Exam preparation focuses on grammar, vocabulary, etc. and leaves

little time for active use.

The first rule of improving speaking skills is to speak, converse, talk, gab as much as you can!

Teaching Speaking

What is meant by "teaching speaking":

 Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns.

  Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second

language.

 Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting,

audience, situation and subject matter.

 Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence.

 Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments.

 Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses. This is

called fluency.

How To Teach Speaking

Today, many linguists and ESL teachers agree that students learn to speak the second

language by "interacting‛ in that language. Communicative language teaching and

collaborative learning will best enhance your teaching and your student's learning.

Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require

communication. By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the

opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language. In brief, ESL

teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication,

authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This occurs when

students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task.

While teaching speaking skills, one has to keep in mind that intonation and stress are

the keys to understanding and being understood.

Activity :

Say this sentence aloud and count how many seconds it takes.
“The beautiful mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. "

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds. Now, try speaking this sentence aloud.

“He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.”

Time required? Probably about 5 seconds.

Wait a minute—the first sentence is much shorter than the second sentence!

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening.

You are only partially right!

English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered

syllabic. What does that mean? It means that, in English, we give stress to certain

words, while other words are quickly spoken (some students say eaten!). In other

languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is

stress, but each syllable has its own length).

Many speakers of syllabic languages don't understand why we speak fast, or swallow a

number of words in a sentence. In syllabic languages, each syllable has equal

importance, and therefore equal time is needed. English, however, spends more time on

specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, less important, words.

Let's look at a simple example: the modal verb "can". When we use the positive form of

"can" we quickly glide over the can and it is hardly pronounced.

They can come on Friday.

On the other hand, when we use the negative form "can't" we tend to stress the fact that

it is the negative form by also stressing "can't".

They can't come on Friday.

As you can see from the above example the sentence, "They can't come on Friday" is

longer than "They can come on Friday" because both the modal "can't" and the verb

"come" are stressed.

So, what does this mean for developing speaking skills?

Well, first of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which

we do not stress. Basically, stressed words are considered CONTENT WORDS, such as

· Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter

· (most) principal verbs e.g. visit, construct

· Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting

· Adverbs e.g. often, carefully

Non-stressed words are considered FUNCTION WORDS such as

· Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few

· Auxiliary verbs e.g. don't, am, can, were

· Prepositions e.g. before, next to, opposite

· Conjunctions e.g. but, while, as

· Pronouns e.g. they, she, us

Let's return to the beginning example to demonstrate how this affects speech.

The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance. (14 syllables)

He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn't have to do any homework in the evening. (22

syllables)

Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the

sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressed words in each

sentence. From this example, we can see that there is no need to worry about

pronouncing every word clearly to be understood. One should, however, concentrate

on pronouncing the stressed words clearly.

The best way to improve speaking skills is by speaking to native English speaking friends and

listening and concentrating on the stressed words rather than giving importance to each syllable.

Better listening leads to better communication skills. All those words that the students

thought they didn’t understand were really not crucial for understanding or making

oneself understood. Stressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding

of English.

Thus we can conclude just how important it is for the teachers to help students know

about stress.

Another important part of learning to speak English is to concentrate on pronunciation. To

help facilitate pronunciation, songs, poems and tongue twisters are the most effective,

as they take out the stress from the activity and helps students to get into the flow.

Suggestions to Teachers

Here are some suggestions for English language teachers while teaching oral language:
 Provide maximum opportunity for students to speak the target language by

providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic

materials and tasks, and shared knowledge.

 Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice

different ways of student participation.

 Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. Step

back and observe students.

 Use positive reinforcement when commenting on a student's response.

 Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that

conclusion?" In in order to prompt students to speak more.

 Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great. It was a good job.

I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of

your voice…"

 Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking.

Corrections should not distract the student from his or her speech.

 Involve speaking activities not only in class, but also out of class; contact parents and

other people who can help.

 Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see

whether they need your help while they work in groups or pairs.

 Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities.

  Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves

in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken

language.

Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning. The ability to

communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of

the learner in school and, later, success in every phase of life. Therefore, it is essential

that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking. Rather than leading

students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where meaningful

communication takes place is desired. With this aim, various speaking activities such as

those listed above can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive

skills necessary for life. These activities make students more active in the learning

process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them.

To start speaking :

Conversation Tips

 Speak about location: When speaking to a stranger, ask them where they are

from and then make a connection with that place. For example: "Oh, I have a

friend who studied in Los Angeles. He says it's a beautiful place to live in."

Most Americans will then willingly talk about their experiences living in or

visiting that particular city or area.

 Talk about work: commonly ask "What do you do?‛ It's not considered

impolite and is a popular topic of discussion between strangers.

  Talk about sports: Almost everybody loves sports! Some sports such as soccer,

cricket and tennis are played globally therefore a great way to start a

conversation.

Activities

Speaking Skills - Asking Questions

Many post beginners to lower intermediate students are quite capable of expressing their

ideas reasonably well. However, they often run into problems when asking questions.

Two possible causes are: teachers are the ones that usually ask questions and the inversion of the

auxiliary verb and subject can be especially tricky for many students.

This simple lesson focuses specifically on the question form and helping students gain

skill while switching tenses in the question form.

Aim: Improving speaking confidence when using question forms

Exercise 1 :Ask an appropriate question for the response

 A steak, please.

 Oh, I stayed at home and watched TV.

 She is reading a book at the moment.

 We are going to visit France.

 I usually get up at 7 o'clock.

 No, he is single.
  For about 2 years.

 I was washing up when he arrived.

Exercise 2 : Buzz Groups

A problem is discussed in small groups for a few minutes before views or solutions are

reported to the whole class.

This activity has worked well with students to brainstorm identical material prior to

larger group work or open class discussions, such as a jigsaw activity. One topic that

works well is a real life controversial news issue that happened in their community.

What consequences should apply to officials of local and state government who argued

about whose department was to send rescue teams to a group of people that drowned

while they were figuring it out? (Note: Depending on the cultural norms of where you are

teaching, some topics that are OK for you as the teacher, may be taboo in the local community

and should not be suggested.)

Exercise 3: Playing Cards

In this game, students should form groups of four. Each group will represent a topic.

For instance:

 Diamonds: Earning money

 Hearts: Love and relationships

 Spades: An unforgettable memory

 Clubs: Best teacher

Each student in a group will choose a card. Then, each student will write 4-5 questions

about that topic to ask the other people in the group. For example:
If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possible questions:

 Is money important in your life? Why?

 What is the easiest way of earning money?

 What do you think about lottery? Etc.

Other activities

Role Play

One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend they are in

various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities, the

teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or

feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You are David, you go to the doctor and

tell him what happened last night, and…" (Harmer, 1984)

Simulations

Simulations are very similar to role-plays, but what makes simulations different than

role plays is that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can bring items to the

class to create a realistic environment. For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she

brings a microphone to sing and so on. Role plays and simulations have many

advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they motivate the students. Second, as

Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because

in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and do not have to

speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility.
Brainstorming

On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time. Depending on the

context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate

ideas quickly and freely. The best part of brainstorming is that the students are not

criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas.

Storytelling

Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand,

or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates. Storytelling fosters creative

thinking. It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development,

and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have a good plot.

Students also can tell riddles or jokes. For instance, at the very beginning of each class

session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening.

In this way, not only will the teacher address students’ speaking ability, but also get the

attention of the class.

Interviews

Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a good

idea that the teacher provides relevant cues and prompts to students, so that they know

what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare

their own interview questions. Conducting interviews with people gives students a

chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class, but also outside and helps

them to become socialized. After the interviews, each student can present his or her

study to the class. Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or

her partner to the class.

Story Completion

This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which all the students

must sit in a circle. For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few

sentences he or she stops narrating. Then, each student starts to narrate from the point

where the previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to add from four to ten

sentences. Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on.

Reporting

Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and, in

class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news. Students

can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling their friends

in their daily lives before class.

However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that students are

not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or no students get little

practice in spoken language production. Rather, students ask open-ended questions to

each other so that they reply in complete sentences.

Picture Narrating

This activity is based on several sequential pictures. Students are asked to tell the story

taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by

the teacher as a rubric. The teacher’s instruction for the task includes the vocabulary or

structures they need to use while narrating.

Picture Describing

Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one

picture and having them describe what is happening in the picture. For this activity
students can form groups and each group is given a different picture. First the students

discuss the picture within their groups. Then a spokesperson from each group describes

the picture to the whole class. This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the

learners as well as their public speaking skills.

Find the Difference

For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different

pictures, for example, a picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls

playing tennis. Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the

pictures.

Reading Skills

Reading is a receptive skill. Different researchers have considered

any number of variables in attempting to define reading—both as

a process and a product.

Reading is a fluent process of combining information from a text

and their own background knowledge to construct meaning.

The goal of reading is comprehension. Strategic reading is the ability of the reader to

use a wide variety of strategies to accomplish the task of reading and comprehending

the content of the reading material. Meaning does not rest in the reader nor in the text;
does the reader’s background knowledge integrate with text to create meaning. Therefore, the

text, reader, fluency and strategies combined together define the act of reading.

Understanding the process of reading has been the focus of much research over the past

century. From this research, principles of how the printed word is understood have

emerged. While there is often disagreement among researchers on how reading

‚happens", skills are acquired and developed, the principles can be divided into three

categories:

 Bottom – up

 Top- down

1. The bottom – up principle typically consists of lower-level reading process. Readers

start with the basic of letter and sound recognition, identification of grammatical

structures, sentences and then longer text. The phonic approach to teaching reading

supports this model. Many teachers and researchers suggest that readers should be able

to break a word down to individual sounds. This helps the reader to read unknown

words too. The blending together of the various sounds allows the reader to then

comprehend the material. One element of a bottom-up approach is a graded reader

approach. Within a bottom-up approach to reading, the most typical classroom focus is

on intensive reading.

2. Top-down principle, on the other hand, begins with the idea that comprehension resides

in the reader. The reader uses background knowledge, makes predictions and searches

the text to confirm or reject these predictions. A passage can thus be understood even if

all the individual words are not understood. Goodman (1976), a strong advocate of this
model criticizes the bottom-up model because readers may be able to read the words on

a page but may not understand what they have read. He believes teachers make

reading difficult by breaking ‚whole-natural language into abstract little pieces.‛

A meaning based or whole language approach supports this model. This approach uses

books with authentic language, is student-centered and emphasizes constructing

meaning.

Therefore the reader begins with the largest elements and works down towards the smaller

elements to build comprehension. Extensive reading plays a key role in this approach to

reading.

The models that are accepted as the most comprehensive description of the reading

process are interactive models. This combines elements of both top-down and bottom-

up models assuming that ‚a pattern is synthesized based on information provided

simultaneously from several knowledge sources‛. The best second language reader is

one who can integrate both bottom-up and top-down processes.

A reader will use various strategies depending on the purpose of reading. The most

common strategies are:

 Skimming - used to understand the "gist" or main idea.

 Scanning - used to find a particular piece of information.

 Extensive reading - used for pleasure and general understanding.

 Intensive reading - accurate reading for detailed understanding.

Skimming
Skimming is used to quickly gather the most important information, or 'gist' of what is

being said. Run your eyes over the text, noting important information. Use skimming to

quickly get up to speed on a current business situation. It's not essential to understand

each word when skimming.

Examples of Skimming:

 The Newspaper (quickly to get the general news of the day).

 Magazines (quickly to discover which articles you would like to read in more

detail).

 Business and Travel Brochures (quickly to get informed).

How to skim?

Skim several times

When reading a large amount of material, you can first skim over the phrase and

section titles to give you an idea of what the material is about. Then quickly scan

through the material again to get a better idea of the topic. Finally, you read the

assignment, but still reading rapidly.

Read first sentence

Since often the first sentence of each paragraph states the main idea of that paragraph, while the

other sentences elaborate on that idea, you can skim read by just reading the first few

sentences. In some cases, you can get enough information by only reading the first

sentence from each paragraph. Unfortunately, some writers make their paragraphs so

long, that they have several ideas in them, and others stick the important sentences in

the middle. In such cases, you can't use the first sentence method effectively.
Grouping words

Most people read one word at a time, saying the words to themselves. This is a slow

way of doing the task, especially when your mind is capable of processing information

at a much higher rate.

Look at groups of words

One of the primary tricks in speed-reading is to look at phrases and groups of words

instead of individual words. Instead of reading word-by-word, you read in chunks of

information. You don't have to say the word to understand what it means.

Speed is important

It certainly is more enjoyable to be able to read something rapidly, instead of spending

what seems like forever struggling through the words.

Scanning

Scanning is used to find a particular piece of information. Run your eyes over the text

looking for the specific piece of information you need. Use scanning on schedules,

meeting plans, etc. in order to find the specific details you require. If you see words or

phrases that you don't understand, don't worry when scanning.

Examples of Scanning

 The "What's on TV" section of your newspaper.

 A train / airplane schedule

 A conference guide

Extensive reading
Extensive reading is used to obtain a general understanding of a subject and includes

reading longer texts for pleasure, as well as business books. Use extensive reading skills

to improve your general knowledge of business procedures. Do not worry if you don’t

understand each word.

Examples of Extensive Reading

 The latest marketing strategy book.

 A novel you read before going to bed.

 Magazine articles that interest you.

Intensive reading

Intensive reading is used on shorter texts in order to extract specific information. It

includes very close accurate reading for detail. Use intensive reading skills to grasp the

details of a specific situation. In this case, it is important that you understand each

word, number or fact.

In order to make students aware of these different types of reading styles, I find it

useful to provide an awareness raising lesson to help them identify reading skills they

already apply when reading in their native tongues. Thus, when approaching an

English text, students first identify what type of reading skill needs to be applied to the

specific text at hand. In this way valuable skills, which students already possess, are

easily transferred to their English reading.

Reading Instruction in Content Classrooms

Incorporation of reading instruction into the content classroom is not as daunting as

you might believe. Any reading assignment can be broken down into three

comprehension-building steps:

Strategies:

Step One: Before Reading

This step activates a knowledge base upon which students can build and establishes a

purpose for reading.

There are some simple methods that one can use to pay better attention and get more

out of the textbook reading time. If a student previews the passage before actually sitting

down and reading every word, a better understanding takes place.

To do a preview of an assignment, a student should:

 Take 30 to 60 seconds.

 Look over the title of the Phase.

 Look at all the headings, subheadings and marked, italic or dark print.

 Look at any pictures or illustrations, charts or graphs.

 Quickly skim over the passage, reading the first and last paragraph and

glancing at the first sentence of every other paragraph.

 Close the book and ask yourself:

 What is the main idea?

 What kind of writing is it?

  What is the author's purpose?

Before Reading Strategies

Brainstorm · predict · skim · assess prior knowledge · preview headings · learn

crucial vocabulary

Step Two: During Reading

This step allows students to measure comprehension, clarify, visualize, and build

connections.

 Read in thought groups. Visualizing means what? Studies have shown that when

we read, our eyes must make small stops along the line. Poor readers make many

more fixations (eye stops) than good readers. Not only does this slow reading

progress, but it inhibits comprehension because meaning is easier to pull from

groups of words rather than from individual words or even single letters.

Try to read in phrases of three or four words, especially in complete clauses and

prepositional phrases. The mind may internalize them as if the whole phrase is

like one big meaning-rich word. Clarification of what is being read can be done

by ‘looking for support phrases those which connect the predictions and

therefore leads to build connections.

During Reading Strategies

Reread · infer · question · support predictions · summarize

Step Three: After Reading

This step expands prior knowledge, builds connections, and deepens understanding.
Comprehend what has been read, this can be done by asking questions from the

passage and comparing the answers to see whether true comprehension has taken

place.

After Reading Strategies

Reread · confirm predictions · summarize · synthesize · reflect · question.

Tips to Effective Reading

Key points:

This section shows different strategies and techniques that you can use to read more

effectively.

These are:

 Knowing what you need to know, and reading appropriately.

 Knowing how deeply to read the document: skimming, scanning or studying.

 Using active reading techniques to pick out key points and keep your mind

focused on the material .

 Using the table of contents for reading magazines and newspapers, and clipping

useful articles.

 Understanding how to extract information from different article types.

 Creating your own table of contents for reviewing material.

 Using indexes, tables of contents, and glossaries to help you assimilate technical

information.
Good Reading Strategies

Good reading strategies help you to read in a very efficient way. Using them, you aim

to get the maximum benefit from your reading with the minimum effort. This section

will show you how to use different strategies to read intelligently.

 Knowing what you want to know

The first thing to ask yourself is: Why you are reading the text? Are you reading for a

purpose or just for pleasure? What do you want to know after reading it?

Once you know this, you can examine the text to see whether it is going to move you

towards this goal. An easy way of doing this is to look at the introduction and the Phase

headings. The introduction should let you know whom the book is targeted at and what

it seeks to achieve. Phase headings will give you an overall view of the structure of the

subject. Ask yourself whether the book meets your needs. Ask yourself if it assumes too

much or too little knowledge. If the book isn't ideal, would it be better to find a better

one?

 Knowing how deeply to study the material

Where you only need the shallowest knowledge of the subject, you can skim the material.

Here you read only Phase headings, introductions and summaries. If you need a

moderate level of information on a subject, then you can scan the text. Here you read the

Phase introductions and summaries in detail. You may then speed read the contents of

the Phases, picking out and understanding key words and concepts. Only when you

need detailed knowledge of a subject is it worth studying the text. Here it is best to skim
the material first to get an overview of the subject. This gives you an understanding of

its structure, into which you can fit the detail gained from a full, receptive reading of

the material. SQ3R is a good technique for getting a deep understanding of a text.

The SQ3R technique

Survey or skim the text for main ideas.

Question the reader for the purpose of the text.

Read- the text and look for answers to the questions.

Recite- reprocesses the salient points.

Review the importance of the read material.

 How to study different sorts of material

Different documents hold information in different places and in different ways. They have

different depths and breadths of coverage. By understanding the layout of the material

you are reading, you can extract useful information much more efficiently.

Sample Activity

The final objective of reading is comprehension. In order for the teacher to know that

the students have been able to comprehend, he or she can conduct a quiz on a given

passage. For example:

 Read the passage and do the following quiz

A special Christmas present

David wants to buy a Christmas present for a very special person, his mother. David's father

gives him $5.00 a week pocket money and David puts $2.00 a week into his bank account. After

three months David takes $20.00 out of his bank account and goes to the shopping mall. He looks

for a perfect gift.

Suddenly he sees a beautiful brooch in the shape of his favorite pet. He says

to himself "Mother loves jewelry, and the brooch costs only $l7.00." He

buys the brooch and takes it home. He wraps the present in Christmas

paper and places it under the tree. He is very excited and he is looking

forward to Christmas morning to see the joy on his mother's face.

But when his mother opens the present she screams with fright because she

sees a spider

A special Christmas present

Choose the correct answer

What does David want to buy his Mother?

 A special birthday present

 A Christmas present

 A spider ring
2 Who does David get his money from?

 his pet

 his mother

 his father

3 How much money does David have in the bank?

 $ 20.00

 $ 5.00

 $ l7.00

4 What does David buy his mother?

 a ring

 a brooch

 a spider
5 What does David do with the present when he takes it

home?

 he gives it to his mother

 he wraps it in Christmas paper

 he is very excited

6 Why does David's mother scream?

 because the present is beautiful

 because she doesn't like Christmas

presents

 because she thinks she sees a real

spider

7 Why does David buy a spider brooch?

 spiders are his favorite pet

 he loves Christmas
  to scare his mother

8 Where does David put the present on Christmas Eve?

 under his pillow

 under a spider

 under the Christmas tree

Teaching Writing
Writing can be defined by a series of contrast—it is both a physical and a mental act. Its

purpose is both to express and impress. It is both a process and a product. The writer

imagines, organizes, drafts, edits and all these are processes, but what the reader sees is

a product. Earlier rules of writing were concerned more with correctness of form over

function. In the 1960s, writing began to include the entire process—invention, drafting,

feedback and revision—not just the final product.

Writing as a process focuses on:

 Leading to the final product.

 Helping writers to understand their own composing process and to.

 To build strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting.

 Giving students time to write and rewrite.

 Impressing students with the importance of revision.

 Giving feedback throughout the composing process and not just the final

product.

 Encouraging feedback from peers and instructors.

Good writing conveys a meaningful message and uses English with grace and elegance,

but the message is more important than correct presentation. If you can understand the

message or even part of it, your student has succeeded in communicating on paper and should be

praised for that.

For many adult ESL learners, writing skills will not be used much outside your class.

This doesn't mean that they shouldn't be challenged to write, but you should consider

their needs and balance your class time appropriately. Many adults who do not need to
write will enjoy it for the purpose of sharing their thoughts and personal stories, and

they appreciate a format where they can revise their work into better English than if

they shared the same information orally.

On the other hand, you may have students who will need to learn how to write for

exams such as TOEFL, TOEIC and IELTS. This is a different kind of writing and

demands a different curricular approach.

Two writing strategies you may want to use in your lessons are free writing and revised

writing.

1. Free writing

Free writing directs students to simply get their ideas onto paper without worrying

much about grammar, spelling, or other English mechanics. In fact, the teacher can

choose not to even look at free writing pieces. To practice free writing, give students 5

minutes in class to write about a certain topic or, ask them to write weekly in a journal

(this works better for adults than it does with teen-agers). You can try a dialog journal

where students write a journal entry and then give the journal to a partner or the

teacher, who writes another entry in response. The journals may be exchanged during

class, but journal writing usually is done at home. The main characteristic of free

writing is that few (if any) errors are corrected by the teacher, which relieves students of

the pressure to perform and allows them to express themselves more freely.

2. Revised writing

Revised writing, also called extended or process writing is a more formal activity in

which students must first write a draft, then revise and edit it to a final polished

version. Often the finished product is shared publicly. You may need several class
sessions to accomplish this. Begin with a pre-writing task such as free writing,

brainstorming, listing, discussion of a topic, making a timeline, or making an outline.

Pairs or small groups often work well for pre-writing tasks. Then give the students clear

instructions and ample time to write the assignment. In a class, you can circulate from

person to person asking, "Do you have any questions?" Many students will ask a

question when approached but otherwise would not have raised a hand to call your

attention. Make yourself available during the writing activity; don't sit at a desk

working on your next lesson plan. Once a rough draft is completed, the students can

hand in their papers for written comment, discuss them with you face to face or share

them with a partner. All of these provide the writer with constructive feedback. Make

sure ideas and content are addressed first; correcting the English should be secondary.

Finally, ask students to rewrite the piece. They should use the feedback they received to

revise and edit it into a piece they feel good about. Such finished pieces are often shared

with the class or posted publicly, and depending on the assignment, you may even

choose to 'publish' everyone's writing into a class booklet.

Teaching Writing: Strategies

The most important factor in writing exercises is that students need to be personally

involved in order to make the learning experience valuable to them. Encouraging

student participation in the exercise, while at the same time refining and expanding

writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on

what skills he/she is trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which

means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area. Once the target skill

areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can then proceed to focus
on what topic can be best employed to ensure student participation. By pragmatically

combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning.

Choosing the target area depends on many factors;

 What level are the students?

 What is the average age of the students?

 Why are the students learning English? Are there any specific future intentions

for the writing (i.e. school tests or job application letters etc.).

Other important questions to ask oneself are:

 What should the students be able to produce at the end of this exercise (a well

written letter, basic communication of ideas, etc.)?

 What is the focus of the exercise (Structure, tense usage, creative writing)?

Once these factors are clear in the mind of the teacher, the teacher can begin to focus on

how to involve the students in the activity thus promoting a positive, long-term

learning experience.

Having decided on the target area, the teacher can focus on the means to achieve this

type of learning.

With both the target area and means of production clear in the teacher’s mind, the

teacher can begin to consider how to involve the students by identifying what types of

activities are interesting to the students;

  Are they preparing for something specific such as a holiday or test?

 Will they need any of the skills pragmatically?

 What has been effective in the past?

A good way to approach this is by class feedback or brainstorming sessions. By

choosing a topic that involves the students the teacher is providing a context within

which effective learning in the target area can be undertaken.

Finally, the question of which type of correction will facilitate a useful writing exercise

is of utmost importance. Here the teacher needs to once again think about the overall

target area of the exercise. If there is an immediate task at hand, such as taking a test,

perhaps a teacher guided correction is the most effective solution. However, if the task

is more general (for example developing informal letter writing skills), the best

approach might be to have the student’s work in groups thereby learning from each

other. Most importantly, by choosing the correct means of correction, the teacher can

encourage rather than discourage students.

While teaching writing it is mandatory that an ESL teacher keeps in mind the personal

factors that influences the writing of ESL students.

Language Overload

International students will commonly backslide, making errors they seemed to master

on previous papers, because their knowledge of English (and how it interrelates with

the language or languages they already know) is constantly shifting and stretching. A

student may indiscriminately apply rules, writing "She cans do it" because he has

learned that a third-person singular, present tense verb will have a "s" in the end. This
can be frustrating for the teacher and the student, but it may (as long as the student tries

to understand mistakes) be integral to language acquisition.

Gender Issues

Some female students may come from countries where women are not supposed to

speak in a group of men unless addressed, while some male students may find it

difficult to share power with female students in groups. Still other students may find a

female teacher threatening or alien, not being used to women in authority positions.

Political Issues

It must be noted that some students may have negative feelings about the United States

(or some other country) because of the effect of foreign policy and business on their

home countries. Some students may have experienced prejudice in the United States—

for example, Iranian students were harassed during the hostage crisis, Iraqis during the

Gulf War. Asians may feel other students are hostile towards them because of the

stereotype of Asians as hard-working and competitive. Students from Taiwan may have

negative feelings about those from mainland China. Students also may have

experienced racism from instructors.

Cultural Issues

In reading for composition classes, international students face the obstacle of cultural

assumptions that underlie many essays and stories. In literature, students may be

baffled by the Biblical symbolism that American students take for granted, or they may
need a crash course in pop cultural history in order to decipher a compare/contrast

essay on punk rock vs. heavy metal.

Some Issues to Keep in Mind

Informality

Students may be surprised by the level of informality in the classroom—they may feel

that some students are challenging your authority when they eat during class or wear

cutoffs and sandals. Your manner—sitting on the edge of the desk, using slang,

swearing—may also surprise them.

Interrupting

Students may interrupt others during class discussions because the cues for taking turns

in a conversation may be different in their home countries and they may still be

learning the cues here. Also, if they have been rehearsing how to phrase a response in

their heads, they may want to get it out before they've forgotten how to say it.

Volunteering in Discussions

Students may be reluctant to volunteer answers or comments because they don't want

to look as if they're trying to one-up native-speaking students. They may not volunteer

in class for fear of being wrong and thus foolish in the eyes of their peers.

Audience

Composition classes often emphasize considering one's audience, but ESL students may

feel they don't know their audience's expectations or background.

Numerals

Page numbers and dates may be difficult for some students to hear so make sure to

write them on the board or give them in writing in a hand-out.

Plagiarism and Clichés

The concepts of plagiarism/copying and clichés may require some extra explaining,

because in some cultures, notably Chinese, Thai and Korean cultures, students learn by

memorizing aphorisms and passages from classical literature, and they are encouraged

to use other people's "words of wisdom" without formally quoting them. The concepts

of "personal expression" and "finding your own voice" may strike some students as

ridiculously egotistical, as in "Why should I write my opinions when this ancient

thinker has already said it so much better?"

One-on-One Conferences

When discussing a paper with a student one-on-one, don't assume that the student

understands because he or she nods or answers yes. Try to ask questions that require

more than a one-word answer, and try to balance your talking with getting them to talk

and ask questions of you. Choose an error in a paper that's representative of other

errors, and after explaining that error, ask the student to find similar ones and talk

about how to correct them.

Humor

Another important consideration is how you use humor in talking to the student. You

may feel that smiling or making a joke about errors in a student's paper will help

"lighten up" a grueling session, but, many international students fear looking comical or
"cute," and they may feel humiliated by jokes. The best strategy is to get to know the

student before kidding around with him or her.

Types of Rhetorical Discourse

Cultural differences may come into play in terms of methods of developing ideas--

Chinese students are often trained to "circle around a subject," and they consider

explicitly spelling out an idea insulting to the reader, while a Spanish student who

comes from a tightly-knit, family-oriented community may seem to over-generalize

because he or she expects everyone to understand the context of his or her conclusions.

No cultural generalization can cover each individual student, so the best strategy is to

ask questions to gauge a student's familiarity and comfort level with American

composition standards.

Correction

Tactful correction of student writing is essential. Written correction is potentially

damaging to confidence because it's very visible and permanent on the page. Always

make positive comments and respond to the content, not just the language. Focus on

helping the student clarify the meaning of the writing. Especially at lower levels, choose

selectively what to correct and what to ignore. Spelling should be a low priority as long

as words are recognizable. To reduce ink on the page, don't correct all errors or rewrite

sentences for the student. Make a mark where the error is and let the student figure out

what's wrong and how to fix it. At higher levels you can tell students ahead of time

exactly what kinds of errors (verbs, punctuation, spelling, word choice) you will correct

and ignore other errors. If possible, in addition to any written feedback you provide, try
to respond orally to your student's writing, making comments on the introduction,

overall clarity, organization, and any unnecessary information.

Typical Errors Found in ESL Papers

Grammar Trouble spots

1. Nouns

 Omission of the -s plural.

 Pluralizing non-count nouns or nouns used in non-count sense (homework’s).

 Using indefinite article a(n) with a non-count noun or a noun used in ( non-

count) sense. ( A flour, a wine is good to drink.)

 Failing to make nouns and noun determiners agree. (This doctors, seven page)

2. Verbs

 Omission of 3rd person singular ‚s". (he walk)

 Omission of the "ed" of the simple past tense. (Yesterday he play ball.)

 Omission of the "ed" in formation of passive voice. (The scientists were honor for

their work.)

 Use of intransitive verbs in passive forms. (The earthquake was occurred last

Friday.)—verbs such as occur, happen, sleep, die, and fall often cause problems

because they seem to have passive meanings even though they are intransitive.

 Misuse of progressive verb forms. (I am reading the paper every day. What are

you wanting?)--it can help to emphasize that certain verbs expressing a state of
 being or mental activity are generally not used in the progressive sense.

Examples include appear, believe, have, hear, know, like, need, see, seem, taste, think,

understand, and want.

 Misuse of perfect forms.—while English uses present perfect to describe an

action that began in the past and continues to the present, as in "I have been here

for six months now," other languages would just say "I am here six months now."

Other students may omit the -ed ending on the past participle: Many churches

have offer shelter to the homeless.

 Misuse of modal auxiliaries — Out of the twenty-three English helping verbs,

nine, called modals, can only work as helping verbs. These are can, could, may,

might, must, shall, should, will, and would; verbs that can be either helping or main

verbs are forms of do, have, and be. Some students may have trouble coordinating

helping and main verbs, but it can help to tell students that modal auxiliaries do

not agree in number with the subject (He cans do it) and that modals are

followed by base, not finite verb forms. (He can does it)

3. Preposition Errors

Preposition meanings are highly idiosyncratic from language to language-- (I

prefer to live in home, at the day of her arrival)

4. Articles

 Failing to use a(an) with singular countable nouns whose specific identity is

unknown to the reader. (Mary Beth arrived in limousine.)

 Using a(an) with uncountable nouns. (a sugar, a furniture, a patience) Commonly

used uncountable nouns include words for food and drink (bacon, beef, candy,
 milk, pasta); nonfood substances (air, water, coal, snow); abstract nouns (advice,

anger, intelligence, fun); and others. (biology, clothing, luggage, homework,

furniture, money, news, work)

 Failing to use the with nouns whose specific identity is known to the reader.

(Gun on the top shelf was loaded, Don't slam door when you leave.)

 Using the with plural or non - countable nouns meaning "all" or ‚general". (In

some parts of the world, the rice is preferred to other grains.)

 Using an article with proper nouns. (the South America, the Lake Geneva)-- this

can be confusing because some proper nouns do take an article. (the Mississippi

River, the Sahara Desert) The best strategy is to check the dictionary, an atlas, or

an encyclopedia when in doubt.

 Some languages (Thai for instance) do not have articles thus their use in English

is quite baffling for the learners.

Adverb Clauses

Misconstruction of adverb clauses by using two conjunctions. (Although international

students need money, but they are not allowed to work in the U.S.)
These certainly don't cover all the bases, but they do touch on some of the major errors

you'll see cropping up in papers.

Conclusion

ESL students challenge teachers to question their own assumptions about culture,

writing, and how the English language works. Explaining the use of articles to a student

from Iran, a teacher may actually realize something about the difference between "the"

and "a" that he or she always took for granted--hearing a student from China complain

that American writing teachers "want everything spelled out for them, like they are

children," may inspire a teacher to question the rigidity of the three-point enumeration

essay. With open-mindedness and patience, teachers can learn lessons from ESL

students that will make them better teachers of every student.

Many people believe writing is a talent present in only a few. Fortunately writing is a

teachable and learnable skill and can be developed through strategic steps of invention,

drafting, review, revision and evaluation.

Activities

 Poems can motivate students to write, it's fun and interesting and takes the stress

away from the process.

 Limericks

 Cinquain Poetry

 Haiku
Example 1

 Basket stories: Students tell stories based on a basket full of prompts that they

have generated.

Student Level: High Beginner+

Description: More structured than the "Story Box" activity, this style of storytelling

allows the teller/author more control over the person, place or action s/he will

incorporate into the story.

Materials required :

 One basket for every group of 3-4 students.

 Three kinds of objects from nature (flat leaves, sticks, stones...), or 3

colors of paper, cut up into small squares.

 Permanent marking pens.

Example 2

 Chain stories: Multi-authored stories.

ESOL Student Level: High Beginner+

Description: Students co-author a very short story in three parts, a beginning, middle

and end.

Instructions

 Set the Stage: (optional) use as a process-writing activity (based on a class

experience), or pre-select a theme (e.g. mystery, false fable, soap opera, etc.).
 Set up the authoring teams. Divide the class into groups of three.

 Everyone writes Part A (the "beginning" of the story), and gives it to another

person in the group (either through email or on paper).

 Everyone writes Part B (the "middle" of the story), and gives it to the third person

in the group.

 The last person writes Part C (the "end"), and the story is finished!

 Illustrate individually or in groups (optional).

 Hints:

 Make sure each person's name gets on the story at each turn.

 This works best if it's done in one day -- then copies are not "lost" and

chains are not "broken".

Example 3

 Magazine stories: Students create stories from magazine picture collections.

Description: Surprisingly simple instructions yield complexly creative results!

ESL Student Level: Beginner +

Examples from low-level adult ESL students

Materials required:

 Old magazines with a variety of pictures/topics

 Tape or glue
  Paper (poster size or booklet size)

 Scissors

Instructions A

 Students can work alone, in pairs, or in small groups.

 Each author/author group receives a folder containing a set of magazine pictures.

A story must be created using at least 5 of those pictures (characters can be

"melded" -- e.g. all young boys in the set are John even though they have

different faces).

 If more than one author, the storytelling must be equally shared.

Instructions B

 Students can work alone, in pairs, or in small groups.

 Each author/author group receives a stack of magazines and selects a minimum

of 4-5 interesting pictures which are then used to tell a story.

Example 4

 Bag of tricks

Instructions

Students write captions or stories to fit wordless cartoons (originally wordless, or with

the words erased by a peer or instructor). Remember that you can copy and paste non-

copyrighted images from the Web into a word processing document if you want to

make the selections yourself!

Guess the title of this one! --------------------------------------------