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1. The Lighter Side of TEFL: Crossword Puzzles

   In: The Lighter Side of TEFL, Volume 1 Format(s): Text

   This section of The Lighter Side of TEFL focuses on crossword puzzles, a challenging word game in which students must decide which word satisfies the clue and fits the number of available spaces.

2. Near-Peer Tutoring in an ESOL Music Project

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

   This article describes how near-peer tutoring was used to foster a supportive, learner-centered environment in an adult ESOL setting. Students from beginning and advanced classes worked together to learn a song to perform at a year-end ceremony. The task involved vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, and comprehension. Benefits of the music project included building relationships, breaking the routine, and lowering students’ affective filters. The project allowed the adults to be self-directed, empowered them to critique themselves, and gave them a sense of accomplishment.

3. Listen Actively! You can Keep that Conversation Going!

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson aims to help students learn to respond appropriately to maintain a conversation.

4. Are You Listening? (Backchannel Behaviors)

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson aims to promote awareness of short responses during conversations such as uh-huh and yeah known as backchannel behaviors; to increase awareness of cultural differences in backchannel behaviors; to allow students to practice behaviors that indicate active listening.

5. Talking on a Second Channel Using Parentheticals in English Discourse

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson in Teaching Pragmatics aims to help students learn to pronounce a range of parentheticals appropriately.

6. The Lighter Side of TEFL: Idioms

   In: The Lighter Side of TEFL, Volume 1 Format(s): Text

   There are so many idioms in American English. The Lighter Side of TEFL has a section devoted to idioms, and you can download it for free.

7. Hello, I must be going!

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson aims for students to become more fluent in using and understanding basic greetings and leave-takings in brief "small talk" encounters.

8. The LIghter Side of TEFL: Limericks

   In: The Lighter Side of TEFL, Volume 1 Format(s): Text

   This section of The Lighter Side of TEFL focuses on limericks, which are light, nonsensical verses of five lines in which the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other and the third and fourth lines, shorter in form, make up a rhymed couplet.

9. How Are You, Auntie Elizabeth?

   In: Teaching Pragmatics Format(s): Text, Video, Website

   This lesson aims for students to discuss pragmatic differences between their mother tongues and English, with special attention to openings and closings.

10. Letters to the Editor

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

    This letter to the editor was written in response to the article, “Language vs. Literature in English Departments in the Arab World” by Marwan M. Obeidat. The letter addresses this controversial topic from a different point of view. Dr. M. N. K. Bose, who writes the letter, argues that courses teaching language skills are valuable to improve the English proficiency of Arab university students. He stresses that English translations of Arabic literature are more valuable than Western literature in Arabic universities.

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