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1. Destroying the Teacher: The Need for Learner-Centered Teaching

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

   This article advocates using English to teach content, addressing this through five areas: Reduction of Coercion (not eliciting correct answers, but engaging students in thinking); Active Learner Involvement (less teacher talk and more material chosen to engage learners), Experience Before Interpretation (handling material before interpreting it), Avoidance of Simplification (choosing materials challenging enough to learn skills for tackling new ideas), and Value of Silence (allowing students to think without forcing them to talk).

2. Hickory Dickory Dock

   In: Sing Out Loud Children's Songs Format(s): MP3, Text, Image / Poster / Maps

   This song in the Sing Out Loud Children's Songs collection introduces students to numbers. Poster included.

3. Teaching Young Learners

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

   This author shares her unique approach to teaching young learners. She emphasizes that her approach involves features of communicative styles, the audio lingual approach (AL), and Total Physical Response (TPR), as she believes it is necessary to bring together all three styles of teaching to develop language proficiency. She includes a lesson plan for beginner level students to improve grammar competency.

4. Picture This – Questions, Questions

   In: Activate Games for Learning American English: Picture This Format(s): Text

   This game gives students practice forming yes/no questions. Download the cards and instructions for the game.

5. Picture This – Mix It, Fix It!

   In: Activate Games for Learning American English: Picture This Format(s): Text

   Mix It, Fix It! allows students to practice creating well-formed questions. This game works best in small groups.

6. Picture This – Word Strings

   In: Activate Games for Learning American English: Picture This Format(s): Text

   Word Strings provides students with practice forming phrases and sentences, using vo­cabulary words from a Picture This card as a starting point. This game works best in groups.

7. 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).

8. Using Practice Posters to Address EFL Challenges

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

   Practice posters, with pictures and captions, are useful for controlled practice of vocabulary and structures in an EFL context. The author has found many advantages of using posters with beginners in a high school setting. Student led review gets students active, increases autonomy and improves confidence. The use of small groups is effective with multi-language classes and frees the teacher to monitor interactions. Other benefits include increasing English use, limiting mistakes, decreasing discipline issues, helping with pronunciation and appealing to a variety of learning styles.

9. Real-Life Problem Solving: A Collaborative Learning Activity

   In: English Teaching Forum 2002 (Volume 40, Number 1) Format(s): Text

   This article emphasizes the importance of classroom activities that promote interaction and real-life problem-solving skills. The author describes a real-life problem-solving activity that she implements within her own classroom, consisting of multiple groups of students following a seven-step process. The steps she emphasizes include: state the problem, analyze, brainstorm, decide, think though, identify, and follow up. The author suggests how the activity can be used in a variety of classrooms and age levels.

10. Consciousness-Raising and Prepositions

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

    This article discusses consciousness-raising as a way to help students learn English prepositions. This technique, in which grammatical forms are highlighted in some way, can be helpful to teachers, especially when instructors have difficulty finding materials. The author shares her experience using consciousness-raising in a course in South Africa for ESL teachers.

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