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1. Identifying Our Approaches to Language Learning Technologies: Improving Professional Development

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This article emphasizes Warschauer's Model, explaining the three positions that researchers working in the field of language technology are concerned about: determinist or technophobe and technophile, instrumental, and critical. The article discusses the importance and application of Warschauer’s Model to professional development, offering ideas for activities and lesson plans related to each position held.

2. Building Fluency through the Repeated Reading Method

   In: English Teaching Forum 2011, Volume 49, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This article discusses the success of Repeated Reading (RR) within EFL classrooms, illustrating three techniques of RR that can be used to develop students’ fluency, comprehension skills, and reading self-esteem. After providing a background on the RR method, the author explains the techniques step by step and suggests activities. The techniques include classic oral repeated reading (ORR), Paired repeated reading (PRR), and Reader’s Theater (RT).

3. Towards Better Group Work: Seeing the Difference between Cooperation and Collaboration

   In: English Teaching Forum 2010, Volume 48, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   The author explains the difference between cooperation and collaboration in the classroom. Cooperation is students working together (each with individual tasks) for an end product, while collaboration is students interacting to create knowledge. The author discusses the strengths of collaboration and the teacher’s role. Also provided are guidelines for successful collaboration, sample activities, and frequently asked questions, such as what to do when students have emotional reactions to the group work.

4. From Passive Learners to Critical Thinkers: Preparing EFL Students for University Success

   In: English Teaching Forum 2010, Volume 48, Number 3 Format(s): Text

   This article explains how the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC) revised their curriculum to best prepare EFL students for English-speaking universities. After completing a needs analysis on how to best serve their students, the committee decided to make a more interactive classroom environment in which teachers integrated the four skills, used critical thinking activities, taught grammar in context, and used various methods of assessment. Feedback showed that both the students and the teachers responded positively to the changes.

5. 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.

6. VoIM-Mediated Cooperative Tasks for English Language Learners

   In: English Teaching Forum 2008, Volume 46, Number 4 Format(s): Text

   This article discusses how computer-mediated communication, negotiation of meaning, and cooperative task-based learning can be combined in a VoIM-mediated activity to benefit language learners. The author starts with a brief review of how the three aspects of learning can benefit language learners. The author then describes a VoIM-mediated cooperative task. The rest of the article explains how to set up the activity, including technical requirements, planning in eight stages, and materials selection.

7. A Questionnaire Project: Integrating the Four Macro Skills with Critical Thinking

   In: English Teaching Forum 2007, Volume 45, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   This article describes the steps of a questionnaire project that uses listening, speaking, reading and writing while developing interpretation skills and self-regulation. The project creates survey questions, collects and analyzes data, and reports results. While students work in groups, they have opportunities to brainstorm, express opinions, and ask for clarification. The article includes tips on time constraints, evaluation of data, participation, and topic selection.

8. Beyond Film: Exploring the Content of Movies

   In: English Teaching Forum 2007, Volume 45, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   This article looks at the use of movies in the language-learning classroom. The author promotes the use of the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird” due to its content, which involves poverty, racial inequality and mental illness, and to the availability of websites related to its use in English classrooms. The author highlights six scenes for understanding the movie, pre-viewing, while viewing, and post-viewing activities, as well as suggestions for Internet follow-up. An example WebQuest is included.

9. Developing Dynamic Units for EFL

   In: English Teaching Forum 2007, Volume 45, Number 2 Format(s): Text

   “Developing Dynamic Units for EFL” describes how to develop a thematic unit that integrates skills in context, provides opportunities for learner autonomy, and is project-based and experiential. Planning includes identifying curriculum standards, thinking of a meaningful topic, brainstorming tasks, organizing the activities, and making use of learner choice. The sample unit “Eating Out with Friends” includes the topics of inviting friends; choosing a restaurant and making a reservation; finding and communicating directions; ordering and requesting the bill; and thanking friends and retelling the story.

10. Rock and Roll English Teaching: Content-Based Cultural Workshops

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

    This article considers content-based cultural workshops. With a focus on cultural content and a relaxed, engaging atmosphere, students practice language and cooperative learning strategies. The author describes the process of developing such a workshop as an extracurricular activity for a large, mixed audience. The article details an example interactive workshop on rock and roll and includes an appendix of useful websites related to the topic.

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