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1. Are You Listening? (Backchannel Behaviors)

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson aims to promote awareness of short responses during conversations such as uh-huh and yeah known as backchannel behaviors; to increase awareness of cultural differences in backchannel behaviors; to allow students to practice behaviors that indicate active listening.

2. Talking on a Second Channel Using Parentheticals in English Discourse

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson in Teaching Pragmatics aims to help students learn to pronounce a range of parentheticals appropriately.

3. The LIghter Side of TEFL: Limericks

   In: The Lighter Side of TEFL, Volume 1 Format(s): Text

   This section of The Lighter Side of TEFL focuses on limericks, which are light, nonsensical verses of five lines in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other and the third and fourth lines, shorter in form, make up a rhymed couplet.

4. Letters to the Editor

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 2 Format(s): Text

   This letter to the editor was written in response to the article, “Language vs. Literature in English Departments in the Arab World” by Marwan M. Obeidat. The letter addresses this controversial topic from a different point of view. Dr. M. N. K. Bose, who writes the letter, argues that courses teaching language skills are valuable to improve the English proficiency of Arab university students. He stresses that English translations of Arabic literature are more valuable than Western literature in Arabic universities.

5. The Lighter Side

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 2 Format(s): Text

   There are two games in this issue. “Sights in the City: A Word Puzzle” is for high intermediate or advanced students who are familiar with tourist attractions in the United States. Clues about landmarks and their locations are provided, as are “hangman” type blanks to cue the number of letters in the answer. The second game is “Urban Renewal: A Word Search Puzzle.”

6. Maps and Legends

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 2 Format(s): Text

   The author of this student-directed reading, Michael Chabon, shares his experience as a pioneer of the Columbia Experiment. Columbia’s renewal was the dream of James Rouse, who put together a team of city planners to design a lovely, convenient, modern city where races lived together in harmony. Chabon writes about the impact of living with the dream and vision of the city’s development. Since the late 1960s, Columbia has grown from a few thousand people to the second largest city in Maryland.

7. Keeping Discipline in the Classroom

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 3 Format(s): Text

   This article discusses the challenges of keeping order in the classroom and provides suggestions for fostering an environment of mutual respect. The article looks at what students expect of teachers as well as temporary games and long-term strategies that students use to take control from the teacher. Some practical solutions to discipline problems include keeping students’ attention, establishing clear rules together, and addressing discipline problems by using nonverbal and verbal cues before reacting to the problem.

8. Rodeo: A Uniquely American Sport

   In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 3 Format(s): Text

   The feature article, “Rodeo: A Uniquely American Sport,” includes sections about the history of rodeo, classic rodeo events, the growth of professional rodeo, the making of a rodeo cowboy, rodeo heroes, and rodeo and fine arts. Websites of interest and a glossary of rodeo terms accompany the article, as well as many images.

9. Teaching Refusals in an EFL Setting

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   The goals of this lesson in Teaching Pragmatics are: raising awareness that misunderstandings can be caused by differences in performing speech acts between Japanese and Americans; making learners aware of what they know already and encouraging them to use their universal or transferable L1 pragmatic knowledge in L2 contexts; teaching the appropriate linguistic forms that are likely to be encountered in performing speech acts.

10. The Use of Ethics in the EFL Classroom

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

    If students are not meeting their goals, it may be that the reason is non-linguistic. Motivation is an important factor that teachers need to consider. The writer argues that carefully chosen ethics cases can motivate timid students to speak out by removing their fear of making mistakes and by encouraging them to talk about heart-felt beliefs. Since ethics cases may not have clear right and wrong answers, this sets them apart from other discussion topics. Debate will foster critical thinking skills.

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