Advanced Search: Resources

1. Classroom Techniques: Romeo and Juliet in One Hour

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

   This article describes the use of drama activities to motivate students, to teach vocabulary and pronunciation, and to enhance cooperative learning. The author describes in five steps the classroom procedure of an activity based on the play of Romeo and Juliet. The author discusses the results of the activity and its implications. Play scripts used in the activity are included.

2. Practicum: Microteaching for Non-Native Speaking Teacher Trainees

   In: English Teaching Forum 2007, Volume 45, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   In situations where it is not possible for trainees to practice teaching in local schools, teaching short lessons to their peers—called microteaching--can provide beneficial experience and feedback to teachers-in-training. The article includes guidelines for presenters, observers, and teacher trainers as well as a sample practicum class schedule and microteaching lesson. Students experience microteaching both in small groups and with the whole class.

3. Designing Lessons for EFL Listening Comprehension Classes

   In: English Teaching Forum 2007, Volume 45, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   To keep students motivated, the author outlines several principles for developing listening comprehension lessons. When learners focus on a clear learning objective, retention improves. Other recommendations include keeping the same topic and objective for several activities and selecting relevant, authentic material with a clear layout and pictures to help with prediction. The author discusses appropriate teaching methods, such as variety and effective questioning.

4. Understanding and Teaching Generation Y

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   This article responds to the challenges of teaching Generation Y students, who are tech-savvy and feedback-dependent visual learners. Because "Gen Y" students are less likely to engage with traditional classroom teaching methods, this article is helpful in identifying specific activities teachers can employ to utilize students' attraction to digital media, multi-tasking, and a sense of global purpose.

5. Reading Logs: Integrating Extensive Reading with Writing Tasks

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   This article informs instructors about blending reading logs into writing tasks. Several benefits are discussed, including clarifying objectives of reading and providing opportunities to respond to reading, building critical literacy, and monitoring student progress. The article describes how to develop an extensive reading project for advanced students that includes both comprehension and vocabulary strategies. Details include how to structure and format the reading logs as well as assessment procedures.

6. 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.

7. Good Teaching is Timeless

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   The author provides an introduction to three of the articles reprinted in this volume by framing them as what effective teachers have been doing through time and must continue to do.

8. Spot the Problem! (reprinted from Teaching Pragmatics)

   In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This lesson plan considers pragmatic violations of openings, closings, and requests. These humorous role plays involve continuing a conversation when one person is trying to end it, being overly direct, and providing an overly informative answer to the greeting “How are you?” Textbooks may lack complete openings and closings, so it is worthwhile to spend time on post-openings and pre-closings. Politeness in English may be problematic for EFL learners because of the lack of grammatical forms that mark it.

9. English Magazines = Motivation + Improved ESL Writing Skills

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 1 Format(s): Text

   Creating and editing a magazine in English is a challenging and motivating type of portfolio assessment. It encourages student fluency and freedom by allowing students to choose their own topics for writing. It is real communication for a real audience and requires students to take responsibility for their own writing. It can also make the teacher’s job more enjoyable. The article describes a magazine-editing project for an intermediate university writing class. The students performed well on the national writing examination.

10. A Reading Programme for Elementary Schools

    In: English Teaching Forum 2005, Volume 43, Number 1 Format(s): Text

    This article provides ways to create a positive attitude toward reading through a structured reading program. The article argues that reading programs should include increased reading materials via libraries, fund-raising, and other various collection ideas. The author emphasizes the importance of motivating and structured activities, parental involvement, and various teaching techniques, followed by promises and rewards. This helps young learners create a positive attitude towards reading.

Pages