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1. Lesson Plan: A Day at the Fair

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

   This issue’s lesson plan, “A Day at the Fair” follows the feature article on state and county fairs. After reading a summary of the article, learners are asked to list things they might experience with their senses at a fair. The terms may be used in a role play. Group members select roles and make decisions about how to spend a day at the fair according to the preferences on their cards. The lesson concludes with a reflection on decisions made during the role play.

2. Integrating Authentic Materials and Language Skills in English for Science and Technology Instruction

   In: English Teaching Forum 2001, Volume 39, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   This article describes how a unit in an English for Science and Technology (EST) course integrated three learning materials: a research article from a scientific journal, an article from a magazine that reports on the scientific journal article, and an instructional video with its script. Instruction was focused on both content and rhetorical functions. The author shows how the language skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening were used for each of the three materials.

3. 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.

4. Encouraging Student Voices in a Chinese Classroom

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

   The author shares two activities she developed to promote student participation and encourage candid feedback. The first strategy involved having a student "facilitator" play the role of the teacher in small group discussions, providing an alternative to teacher-centered classrooms. To receive candid feedback from students, the author developed a system called no-fuss feedback. Students drew a large circle on a piece of paper and, as they listened to a list of class activities, they wrote the name of the activity in the circle if it helped them, and outside the circle if it did not.

5. Film Circles: Scaffolding Speaking for EFL Students

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   This article describes action research that pre-service teachers conducted regarding successful communicative activities.

6. Using Story Jokes for Real Communication

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   English language teachers all face the obstacle of getting their students to speak in conversational English. This article, originally published in 1996, explores the use of jokes as a way to get natural conversation going in and out of the classroom and provides activities for teachers to use with their students.

7. Classroom Activities

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   This section presents three stand-alone learning activities related to the theme of bowling. A game for upper beginners is useful for sentence formation and vocabulary review on any topic. Intermediate learners can practice with imperatives by giving and following instructions on how to bowl. The final activity asks intermediate learners to engage in focused listening or reading. Extension possibilities are included for each of the three activities.

8. Classroom Activities

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   Three stand-alone language-learning activities related to the theme of spring.

9. Creating a Storytelling Classroom for a Storytelling World

   In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   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.

10. Talking to Learn across Classrooms and Communities

    In: English Teaching Forum 2013, Volume 51, Number 1 Format(s): Text

    The authors of this article present a model for principled discussion and suggest ways to engage students in focused discussions drawing from their experiences, offering guidance for helping students make the most of the dialogue sessions.

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