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Reading to Speak: Integrating Oral Communication Skills

In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 1 Format(s): Text

Although students want to practice speaking English, they do not have many opportunities to do so in the Chinese EFL system. This often results in something called 'mute English.' This article suggests a greater integration of skills through reading to speak activities. The author includes activities for reading to act, reading to debate, and reading to interview. These activities move students away from a focus on form, allowing students to be creative and build fluency.

Using Public Speaking Tasks in English Language Teaching

In: English Teaching Forum 2009, Volume 47, Number 2 Format(s): Text

There are advantages to using public speaking tasks in the L2 classroom. Among them are the ability to use the four skills (e.g., when responding to audience questions, creating a presentation, or writing notes), the development of critical thinking skills, and the opportunity that public speaking provides for sharing information. The author offers guidelines and figures to illustrate the steps involved in supporting students in their research, demonstration, and review.

Using Web Resources in a Public Speaking Class

In: English Teaching Forum 2003, Volume 41, Number 2 Format(s): Text

This article describes ways to teach public speaking students how to efficiently locate information on the Internet, how to quickly evaluate and analyze those resources, and how best to navigate the Web. The author’s lesson leads the students through a Web-based scavenger hunt, included in the article, and has information about how to evaluate sites. The author expands on these lessons to show the students how the Internet can help prepare and deliver a speech.

Speaking and Listening Online

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

This article gives an overview of online technology for developing students’ listening and speaking skills. The author explores websites for both receptive and interactive communication and discusses the benefits and limitations of the technology as well as possible classroom activities. The article argues that the quality of the programs supports their use in the second language classroom.

Authentic Video in the Beginning ESOL Classroom: Using a Full-Length Feature Film for Listening and Speaking Strategy Practice

In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 1 Format(s): Text

Using film in the classroom can be effective with beginning English learners. A full-length film offers continuous context to discuss humor, culture, and language functions, real-life communication with images and non-verbal cues, increased retention due to activating the right hemisphere of the brain, and the lowering of students’ affective filters. The authors include a lesson based on their experience teaching listening and speaking skills using the movie “What about Bob.” Assessment techniques and potential problems are considered.

A Lesson Plan Speaking (and Writing) of Sports

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

This lesson plan offers several sports-related photographs and classroom activities that use the pictures for individual, pair, or group work. The activities include a sentence-combination task, structured writing questions, open-ended writing tasks, a charting task, and questions for a whole-class discussion. The author gives suggestions for making the tasks easier or more difficult for multiple levels.

Teaching Reading to Speakers of Non-Romanized Languages

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

This article offers tips for teaching reading to speakers of non-Romanized languages. The author explains how initial lessons of the text “Let’s Read: A Linguistic Approach” by Bloomfield and Barnhart can be modified to address challenges that many Asian and Middle Eastern EFL learners face. The lessons address the alphabet, linking letters to sounds, and focusing on vowels in beginning reading. Rhyming and minimal pairs build connections between symbols and phonetic values. The lessons build a foundation for future reading. Teachers of any age group may find this article useful.

Practicum: Microteaching for Non-Native Speaking Teacher Trainees

In: English Teaching Forum 2007, Volume 45, Number 4 Format(s): Text

In situations where it is not possible for trainees to practice teaching in local schools, teaching short lessons to their peers—called microteaching--can provide beneficial experience and feedback to teachers-in-training. The article includes guidelines for presenters, observers, and teacher trainers as well as a sample practicum class schedule and microteaching lesson. Students experience microteaching both in small groups and with the whole class.

Techniques for Students New to the Language Lab

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

This article presents techniques that can be used in the university language lab to improve listening and speaking skills. The article describes several tasks for pairs and groups. Lessons begin with a popular English song and a warm up activity. Materials expose students to the formal and informal language of native speakers and fluent non-native speakers. Drills, stories, songs, and conversations make the language lab a beneficial resource. An initial session highlights the unique aspects of spoken language.

Transforming the Whole Class into Gossiping Groups

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

This article discusses various communicative purposes displayed by speakers of a language, including focusing on the topic of gossiping as a universal language function and exploring ways to exploit our human tendency for gossip to provide language fluency practice. The author provides two different interactive gossip activities that can be used in the classroom to help students speak more fluently. Included are step-by-step details for each lesson plan and each activity.

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