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1. Lesson Plan: Cultural Crossroads: Hawaii and Beyond

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

   This content-based lesson plan is about ethnic/cultural heritage and diversity in Hawaii. It also encourages students to explore their own cultures. The author includes four activities (listening and speaking, small group discussion, place-based group work, and role play). Ideas are also provided for multi-session lessons that encourage students to revise and communicate.

2. Lesson Plan: Exploring New York City

   In: English Teaching Forum 2008, Volume 46, Number 1 Format(s): Text

   This lesson plan is based on the article that describes New York City. It includes a fact sheet to gain more detailed information about the city. The plan consists of several activities that ask students to scan for specific information as a reading skill, oral presentations skills, and writing.

3. Adbusting: Critical Media Literacy in a Multi-Skills Academic Writing Lesson

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

   This article provides 10 reasons why it is important to do critical media analysis in the second language classroom and describes how a process-writing approach can be used for this in a university writing class. The authors explain how to prepare a lesson plan and the idea of an “Adbuster.” They then describe 10 stages in the lesson plan that involve different activities that blend the themes of an advertisement with the stages of the writing process.

4. Lesson Plan: Sharing Your Vacation - Send a Postcard!

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

   This lesson plan for intermediate students is based on a fact sheet about Chicago and the idea of writing a postcard to family members during vacation. It describes a warm-up activity and several activities for writing and reading a postcard. The lesson aims to strengthen learners’ vocabulary and literacy skills using authentic materials.

5. The Communicative Approach: Addressing Frequent Failure

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

   The author found that student and teacher beliefs about error correction support a teacher-centered classroom environment. However, the notion of interlanguage suggests that language is acquired through trial and error in communicative settings. Too much correction means decreased confidence and less time for students to use the language. The author proposes that teachers reduce the amount of time they talk. Teachers need to learn more about the benefits and techniques of a communicative approach and ways to adapt material.

6. The Psychic Rewards of Teaching: An Interview with James E. Alatis

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

   Dr. James Alatis answers questions about teaching English as a profession, establishing the international association TESOL, and his strong belief that linguistics and language teaching will change the world. The son of Greek immigrants, Alatis shares how his early interest in languages led him to study linguistics. Regarded as "the father of TESOL," Alatis believes the best linguistics is interdisciplinary. According to Alatis, the future of TESOL will involve more audiovisual and online material, all subjects taught by ESL teachers, and more concern for cultures of other countries.

7. Why and How to Teach Collocations

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

   One of the key developments in vocabulary teaching stems from Michael Lewis’s Lexical Approach, which considers language as chunks of words combined for meaning. These frequently occurring word combinations are called collocations. This article points out a number of problems that result from learning words in isolation. Work with meaningful phrases can help improve students’ comprehension and comprehensibility. The article includes reading and listening activities to raise awareness of collocations as well as writing and speaking activities.

8. Language Teaching through Critical Thinking and Self-Awareness

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

   This article contains a wealth of activities that will help students develop critical thinking skills. These fun and dynamic activities raise students’ self-awareness regarding their perceptions, assumptions, prejudices, and values. The author addresses the teacher's role in helping students think differently and consider ideas from multiple points of view. To encourage critical thinking, assessment should not rely on summary and definition questions, but those that require analysis, hypothesis, and evaluation. A rationale for the importance of critical thinking is provided from a cognitive perspective.

9. Two Writing Activities for Extensive Reading

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

   These activities promote writing fluency and self-monitoring as well as skills such as getting started with writing and skimming. Students demonstrate understanding of their extensive reading. Timed repeated thinking and writing is similar to free-writing. It includes brief cycles of writing and reflecting. In each cycle, students start their writing over. A similar activity involves cycles of skimming, writing, and thinking. For variation, students can start from where their last writing left off or choose the most important point as a starting place for the next writing turn.

10. An Integrated Skills Lesson Plan for "Just Off Main Street" by Elmaz Abinader

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

    This lesson plan is designed for high intermediate to advanced English language learners. Based on an authentic, contemporary essay by an accomplished American writer, the lesson plan includes tasks and activities designed to improve students’ English language skills as well as increase their understanding of American culture. The lesson includes pre-, during, and post reading activities to improve comprehension, learn new vocabulary, and make connections beyond the text. Websites of interest and useful questions for discussion or writing are included.

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