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1. Fish All Around Us

   In: English Teaching Forum 2014, Volume 52, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   This article takes a look at fish from various angles—from individuals keeping fish as a hobby, to medical offices providing aquariums to calm patients, to large public aquariums that thrill their visitors with hundreds of species of fish. A sidebar highlights U.S. locales that are popular for scuba diving and snorkeling.

2. Using Identity to Introduce ICC Skills in the EFL Classroom

   In: English Teaching Forum 2020, Volume 58, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   The authors describe a detailed, step-by-step procedure to help students analyze the concept of identity—with the use of “identity wheels” and a knowledge-skills-attitudes framework—and apply their understanding to develop intercultural communicative competence

3. English Teaching Forum 2021, Volume 59, Number 3

   Format(s): Text

   Find strategies for implementing humor instruction in English language teaching … using story retelling wheels with young learners … practicing stress and intonation with an “mmm” technique … developing learners’ discussion and tutorial leadership skills … engaging beginning students online … conducting a press conference to deepen understanding of fictional characters … and much more.

4. Promoting Genre Awareness in the EFL Classroom

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   The author introduces genre awareness, a concept from ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and EAP (English for Academic Purposes), and relates it to its potential use in the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom. She explains genre awareness as the ability to use the communication tool that is most appropriate for the purpose and audience. She recognizes several challenges to using genre awareness curriculum in the EFL classroom. Finally, she presents several useful genre awareness classroom exercises.

5. Classroom Activities

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   These classrooms activities, which are designed for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students, focus on the issue’s fishing theme. Classroom activities include written and oral work, vocabulary, team work and individual work. Lessons include creating a vocabulary card game, oral story telling based on the “fish story” concept of telling exaggerated stories, and the creation of a persuasive piece. Variations are included to expand and vary the lessons.

6. Reconceptualizing Interactional Groups: Grouping Schemes for Maximizing Language Learning

   In: English Teaching Forum 2010, Volume 48, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   While noting the research on the benefits of learner interaction, this article states that more attention needs to be given to strategies for planning successful group work while avoiding the problems that can come with group activities. The author gives guidelines for forming groups, such as how many students to put in each group, whether to use flexible or fixed groupings, and how to divide students (by personal affiliation, oral language ability, personality, L1, and academic interests). Also addressed are guidelines for designing tasks and assigning group roles.

7. Lesson Plan: Greetings from Sunny New Mexico

   In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   The New Mexico lesson plan for this issue is a self-contained 1 1/4 to 2 hour lesson with a complete pre- during- post framework for interacting with the main text - a letter from a friend living in New Mexico. The focus here is on the vocabulary and grammar of description (e.g., words for scenery and weather, relative "that" clauses). Extension activities are provided for multi-session lessons (e.g., written response, class survey).

8. Using VOA Special English to Improve Advanced English Learners' Productive Use of High Frequency Words

   In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This article focuses on advanced ESL learners’ acquisition of the spelling, pronunciation, and comprehension of high-frequency words at the productive skill level rather than at the receptive skill level. It discusses the use of the Voice of America (VOA) Special English program to expose learners to different activities requiring productive skills. The article offers examples of how the VOA program exposes learners to comprehensible input through high-frequency words and helps them produce these words both in writing and speaking.

9. Lesson Plan - Virginia: Jamestown and Its People (Volume 47, Issue 3)

   In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   The lesson plan “Virginia: Jamestown and Its People” consists of two parts using Jamestown, a historical site in Virginia, and several of its famous figures as the source for classroom activities. Part I activities are about the site including a brief history of Jamestown and its artifacts as a basis for writing and speaking activities, while the second part focuses on some famous figures who lived there as a basis for listening and writing activities.

10. Creating Positive Attitudes Towards English as a Foreign Language

    In: English Teaching Forum 2006, Volume 44, Number 4 Format(s): Text

    The author reviews research on the connections between attitudes and language learning, and between attitudes and motivation. The article suggests that language learners’ motivation and attitudes can influence learning outcomes, and that effective teaching can change negative attitudes. It describes a classroom action research project that was carried out among 95 students in Turkey to examine attitudes and motivation for English learning. Results and possible factors are discussed with regard to the students’ attitudes and motivation.

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