This article explores the value of storytelling in English language learning. Strong emphasis is placed on the role that stories of personal experience play in human interaction and how these natural conversations foster a better language learning experience. The author outlines a four-step approach to help students develop conversational skills as storytellers, including techniques for improving fluency and honing listening skills.

1. Summer Vacation Comics
This stand-alone language-learning activity, “Summer Vacation Comics,” is related to the theme of summer. The activity is designed for students at the upper beginner/lower intermediate level. In the activity, students work in groups to create comics that illustrate their dream vacations, then practice speaking about them.

2. Create Your Own Flag
This stand-alone language-learning activity, “Create Your Own Flag,” is related to the theme of summer. The activity is designed for students at the intermediate level. In the activity, students discuss their country’s flag, read and answer questions about the United States flag, and create flags reflecting their own likes, dislikes, hopes, and beliefs. They then view and discuss one another’s flags.

Progress testing is often neglected in communicative language teaching; yet it has a crucial role. This article, originally published in 1995, offers a rationale for testing and presents guidelines for designing appropriate tests.

This piece makes a case for using assessment to understand and identify the needs of learners and introduces the three reprints that follow: “Twenty Common Testing Mistakes for EFL Teachers to Avoid,” Coming to Grips with Progress Testing: Some Guidelines for Its Design,” and “Purposeful Language Assessment: Selecting the Right Alternative Test.”