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Listen Up! Using Audio Books for English Teaching

In: American English Webinars Format(s): Text, Video

"Listen Up! Using Audio Books for English Teaching" features a webinar recording, a downloadable presentation, and classic American literature like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, along with additional resources.

An American Poetry Project for Low Intermediate ESL Adults

In: English Teaching Forum 2001, Volume 39, Number 4 Format(s): Text

This article discusses the author’s poetry unit, developed to expose her ESL students to American literature. Students wrote journals about poems they read and were assigned a poem about which to write a composition. The author required her students to memorize and perform one poem. While teaching the unit, the author and a colleague kept a dialog journal of their experience and insights. Both the student reactions and their dialog journals yielded positive results, allowing the author to make several recommendations for using poetry in the ESL classroom.

Using Favorite Songs and Poems with Young Learners

In: English Teaching Forum 2006, Volume 44, Number 2 Format(s): Text

In this article, the author discusses the benefits of using songs and poems to teach young learners. The author explains how songs and poems can be used in English class and what their benefits are. The author explains how teachers can use actions or puppets to accompany the selected songs or poems, or allow young learners to create ideas themselves. Each suggestion includes an activity. The author also offers an example of a song chart.

The Formeaning Response Approach: Poetry in the EFL Classroom

In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 4 Format(s): Text

This article discusses the use of poetry-based activities in the English as foreign language (EFL) classroom. It claims that poetry exposes learners to content-rich materials. It presents the Formeaning Response approach, which combines language elements with personal responses to poetry, and offers activities that motivate students to attend and respond to both the form and the overall meaning.

Classroom Techniques: - What a Feeling!

In: English Teaching Forum 2005, Volume 43, Number 3 Format(s): Text

This article argues for the use of collaborative writing through poems in the ESL classroom. This activity gives students the motivation to express their creativity while improving teamwork skills that are important outside of the classroom. The author describes how collaborative poetry is introduced and carried out, gives examples of student poems, and suggests how the activity can be used with other genres as well.

English Teaching Forum 2006, Volume 44, Number 1

Format(s): Text

This issue features an article on U.S. Poet Laureates and contains contemporary American poems and a lesson plan on reading, writing, and performing poetry. Other articles discuss reading strategies, teaching politically correct language, and using comic strips and radio programs in the classroom.

Passion for Life!

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

In “Passion for Life,” the author promotes the use of drawing to make the classroom a positive and pleasant place. This technique can help even shy students become active. After reading the poem “Life” by Mother Teresa, students choose their favorite line from the poem and draw a picture to represent it. Secondary students are asked to learn the poem by heart.

For Life's Sake

In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 4 Format(s): Text

In “For Life’s Sake,” author Linda Hogan provides the reader with a view of the cultural influences that have made her into the poet, essayist, and storyteller she is today. She describes how her ancestors and the beliefs she inherited as a Native American have inspired her choice of topics and shaped her writing into its unique style. Her love of trees is woven through the article. Hogan’s essay gives students a chance to understand and appreciate the life of a writer from another America. It includes her poem, “Affinity,” on the topic of horses, as well as a glossary of terms.

Language & Literature in Tertiary Education: The Case for Stylistics

In: English Teaching Forum 2002, Volume 40, Number 2 Format(s): Text

This article discusses the lack of quality in students’ literary criticism in degree English courses, suggesting that students have difficulty understanding literary texts in English. It recommends stylistic analysis, the analysis of structures and vocabulary, as a way that learners of English as a second or foreign language can develop a more active and independent approach to understanding and critiquing literary works.

Tea Time