Introduction

When we think of English skills, the 'four skills' of listening, speaking, reading, and writing readily come to mind. Of course other skills such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling all play a role in effective English communication. The amount of attention you give to each skill area will depend both the level of your learners as well as their situational needs. Generally beginners, especially those who are nonliterate, benefit most from listening and speaking instruction with relatively little work on reading and writing. As fluency increases, the amount of reading and writing in your lessons may also increase. With advanced learners, up to half of your lesson time can be spent on written skills, although your learners may wish to keep their focus weighted toward oral communication if that is a greater need.

Teaching receptive skills - Reading and listening

Task 1 - What are the two receptive skills?

The two receptive skills are:

i. Reading

ii. Listening

Task 2 - Describe the different specialist skills needed for reading and listening successfully:

i- Predictive skills

This skill enable someone to predict the content of an article, dialogue etc. from a headline or introduction.

ii- Specific information- Scanning

We often like to hear or read a specific information. For example, we are only interested to know the result of a particular hockey match in the newspaper. We listen to the news, only concentrating when a particular story comes up.

iii- General Idea- Skimming

We read or listen to get general idea of a certain text/dialogue. We do not focus on each and every detail, but to get general understanding of the content.

iv- Detailed information

Sometimes we read or listen in order to know the details. For example, when reading or listening to detailed direction to get to some place. We have to read/listen to them carefully and give our full concentration to get the full benefit out of them.

v- Deduction from text

Sometimes we have to understand or deduce the meaning of individual words or phrases from the context in which we hear/read them. Sometimes we have to understand beyond the literal meaning of the words or phrases. For example, if we read that you are in non-smoking zone then its not just for information but it also warn us not to smoke in this zone.

Task 3 - Why is the choice of topic so important? How can the teacher generate interest in the topic?

Choice of topic

The topic of a text or dialogue also plays a vital role in the motivation of students. If the topic is not interesting then it is likely that students may not take interest in the activity. Therefore choice of topic should be carefully done. It will not be always true that the topic which is interesting for the teacher is also interesting for the students. Every student has his/her own interest, therefore a topic might be interesting for some students but not for all. It is important to select those topics which may be of interest for majority of the students.

A good teacher always try to find out the inerest of the students, which may help in the selection of suitable material for the students.

Create interest in the topic

If the teacher can get the students motivated and engaged in the tasks, then there is greater possibility that the students may read and listen with interest and enthusiasm. There might be possibility that initially students may not have the interest in the topic. There are number of ways to create interest among the students. For example, the teacher may discuss about the topic, give some interesting information, show some pictures related to the topics, pridicting what the text will be about and other 'engage' phase activities.

Task 4 - What does the teacher need to consider when selecting a text or dialogue?

Selection of text or dialogue

If the teacher is careful in the selection of reading and listening materials for the students then he/she can expose the students to the variety of authentic and non-authentic texts. Authentic texts are not designed for students whereas non-authentic are. Non-authentic text allows students to access materials that contains language which is more appropriate to the students’ abilities, whereas authentic texts will expose students to texts which will give them confidence in their skills. Authentic materials should be carefully selected, so as to focus what students know, rather than how much they don't know.

Teaching listening

Teaching listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks for any ESL teacher. This is because successful listening skills are acquired over time and with lots of practice. It's frustrating for students because there are no rules as in grammar teaching. Speaking and writing also have very specific exercises that can lead to improved skills. This is not to say that there are not ways of improving listening skills, however they are difficult to quantify.

One of the largest inhibitors for students is often mental block. While listening, a student suddenly decides that he or she doesn't understand what is being said. At this point, many students just tune out or get caught up in an internal dialogue trying translate a specific word. Some students convince themselves that they are not able to understand spoken English well and create problems for themselves.

They key to helping students improve their listening skills is to convince them that not understanding is OK. This is more of an attitude adjustment than anything else, and it is easier for some students to accept than others. Another important point that I try to teach my students (with differing amounts of success) is that they need to listen to English as often as possible, but for short periods of time.

I like to use this analogy: Imagine you want to get in shape. You decide to begin jogging. The very first day you go out and jog seven miles. If you are lucky, you might even be able to jog the seven miles. However, chances are good that you will not soon go out jogging again. Fitness trainers have taught us that we must begin with little steps. Begin jogging short distances and walk some as well, over time you can build up the distance. Using this approach, you'll be much more likely to continue jogging and get fit.

Students need to apply the same approach to listening skills. Encourage them to get a film, or listen to an English radio station, but not to watch an entire film or listen for two hours. Students should often listen, but they should listen for short periods - five to ten minutes. This should happen four or five times a week. Even if they don't understand anything, five to ten minutes is a minor investement. However, for this strategy to work, students must not expect improved understanding too quickly. The brain is capable of amazing things if given time, students must have the patience to wait for results. If a student continues this exercise over two to three months their listening comprehension skills will greatly improve.

Productive Skills

Articles

Using poems to develop productive skills

You and your students might already enjoy reading and listening to poetry in your own language and perhaps in English too. Poems are, after all, authentic texts. This is a great motivator. Poems are often rich in cultural references, and they present a wide range of learning opportunities. For me, the aim is to teach English through poetry, not to teach the poetry itself, so you don't need to be a literature expert.

Most of the tried and tested activities used regularly by language teachers can be adapted easily to bring poetry into the classroom.

Communicative speaking activities
Before doing any productive work, I like to give my students plenty of pre-reading activities so that they are adequately prepared.

• As a way in to a poem, I might play some background music to create the atmosphere, show some pictures to introduce the topic, and then get students to think about their personal knowledge or experience which relates to this topic.

• They then talk about the poem, first with a partner and then in small groups, perhaps coming together as a class at the end to share ideas. I monitor and feed in ideas and vocabulary if necessary, give brief feedback on language used and note any language problems to be dealt with at a later date.

• I usually prepare worksheets for pre-reading speaking activities which might involve a quiz, a questionnaire, sentence stems to be completed and discussed, statements to be ranked and discussed, and so on.

• Students might predict endings to verses, the whole poem, or events occurring after the end of the poem.

• Afterwards, the students could talk about their personal response to the poem, discuss the characters and theme, or debate the moral issues.

• Role plays work well, interviewing a partner, or even dramatising the poem and making a video. Students could compare poems on related topics, with different groups working on different poems and then regrouping to pool their ideas.

Writing activities
A poem can spark off some wonderful creative writing. Students can add more lines or stanzas individually or in pairs or groups.

• They can write a letter to a character in the poem, write about what happened before the beginning or after the ending of the poem and so on.

• Students could use the poem as a starting point and model for some parallel writing: Each group might contribute a verse to a collective poem (or rap).

• Genre transfer presents a lot of opportunities for writing practice; letters, diary entries, radio plays, newspaper articles, agony aunt columns all based on the original text from a poem.

• My students have found reformulation exercises very stimulating, where they switch between formal and informal language.

• Longer poems can be summarised in fifty words.

• It is also fun to get students to transform content words to synonyms or antonyms and then discuss the subtleties of vocabulary.

Teaching Writing

Good writing conveys a meaningful message and uses English well, but the message is more important than correct presentation. If you can understand the message or even part of it, your student has succeeded in communicating on paper and should be praised for that. For many adult ESL learners, writing skills will not be used much outside your class. This doesn't mean that they shouldn't be challenged to write, but you should consider their needs and balance your class time appropriately. Many adults who do not need to write will enjoy it for the purpose of sharing their thoughts and personal stories, and they appreciate a format where they can revise their work into better English than if they shared the same information orally.

Two writing strategies you may want to use in your lessons are free writing and revised writing. Free writing directs students to simply get their ideas onto paper without worrying much about grammar, spelling, or other English mechanics. In fact, the teacher can choose not to even look at free writing pieces. To practice free writing, give students 5 minutes in class to write about a certain topic, or ask them to write weekly in a journal. You can try a dialog journal where students write a journal entry and then give the journal to a partner or the teacher, who writes another entry in response. The journals may be exchanged during class, but journal writing usually is done at home. The main characteristic of free writing is that few (if any) errors are corrected by the teacher, which relieves students of the pressure to perform and allows them to express themselves more freely.

Revised writing, also called extended or process writing, is a more formal activity in which students must write a first draft, then revise and edit it to a final polished version, and often the finished product is shared publicly. You may need several class sessions to accomplish this. Begin with a pre-writing task such as free writing, brainstorming, listing, discussion of a topic, making a timeline, or making an outline. Pairs or small groups often work well for pre-writing tasks. Then give the students clear instructions and ample time to write the assignment. In a class, you can circulate from person to person asking, "Do you have any questions?" Many students will ask a question when approached but otherwise would not have raised a hand to call your attention. Make yourself available during the writing activity; don't sit at a desk working on your next lesson plan. Once a rough draft is completed, the students can hand in their papers for written comment, discuss them with you face to face, or share them with a partner, all for the purpose of receiving constructive feedback. Make sure ideas and content are addressed first; correcting the English should be secondary. Finally, ask students to rewrite the piece. They should use the feedback they received to revise and edit it into a piece they feel good about. Such finished pieces are often shared with the class or posted publicly, and depending on the assignment, you may even choose to 'publish' everyone's writing into a class booklet.

Tactful correction of student writing is essential. Written correction is potentially damaging to confidence because it's very visible and permanent on the page. Always make positive comments and respond to the content, not just the language. Focus on helping the student clarify the meaning of the writing. Especially at lower levels, choose selectively what to correct and what to ignore. Spelling should be a low priority as long as words are recognizable. To reduce ink on the page, don't correct all errors or rewrite sentences for the student. Make a mark where the error is and let the student figure out what's wrong and how to fix it. At higher levels you can tell students ahead of time exactly what kinds of errors (verbs, punctuation, spelling, word choice) you will correct and ignore other errors. If possible, in addition to any written feedback you provide, try to respond orally to your student's writing, making comments on the introduction, overall clarity, organization, and any unnecessary information.

Consider the following ideas for your writing lessons.

• Types of Tasks
  Here are some ideas for the types of writing you can ask your students to do.
  • Copying text word for word
  • Writing what you dictate
  • Imitating a model
  • Filling in blanks in sentences or paragraphs
  • Taking a paragraph and transforming certain language, for example changing all verbs and time references to past tense
  • Summarizing a story text, video, or listening clip (you can guide with questions or keywords)
  • Making lists of items, ideas, reasons, etc. (words or sentences depending on level)
  • Writing what your students want to learn in English and why
  • Writing letters (complaint, friend, advice) - give blank post cards or note cards or stationery to add interest; you can also use this to teach how to address an envelope
  • Organizing information, for example making a grid of survey results or writing directions to a location using a map
  • Reacting to a text, object, picture, etc. - can be a word or whole written piece
• Format
  Clarify the format. For an essay, you may specify that you want an introduction, main ideas, support, and a conclusion. For a poem, story, list, etc., the format will vary accordingly, but make sure your students know what you expect.
• Model
  Provide a model of the type of writing you want your students to do, especially for beginners.
• Editing
  Consider giving students a checklist of points to look for when editing their own work. Include such things as clear topic sentences, introduction and conclusion, verb tenses, spelling, capitalization, etc.
• Correction
  Minimize the threatening appearance of correction. Instead of a red pen, use green or blue or even pencil, as long as it's different from what the student used. Explain to the students that you will use certain symbols such as VT for verb tense or WO for word order, and be very clear whether a mark (check mark, X, star, circle) means correct or incorrect as this varies among cultures.

Teaching speaking skills - overcoming classroom problems

This article is written for teachers with large classes of students who have encountered some of the following or similar problems during speaking activities in their classroom.

• Why should we teach speaking skills in the classroom?
  • Motivation
  • Speaking is fundamental to human communication

• Dealing with the arguments against teaching speaking skills
  • Student's won't talk or say anything
  • When students work in pairs or groups they just end up chatting in their own language
  • When all the students speak together it gets too noisy and out of hand and I lose control of the classroom

• Conclusion

• References

Why should we teach speaking skills in the classroom?
Motivation Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language, or as Nunan (1991) wrote, "success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be. Speaking is fundamental to human communication Just think of all the different conversations you have in one day and compare that with how much written communication you do in one day. Which do you do more of? In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write, yet many English teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice almost ignoring speaking and listening skills. Do you think this is a good balance? If the goal of your language course is truly to enable your students to communicate in English, then speaking skills should be taught and practised in the language classroom. Dealing with common arguments against teaching speaking skills in the classroom Students won't talk or say anything One way to tackle this problem is to find the root of the problem and start from there. If the problem is cultural, that is in your culture it is unusual for students to talk out loud in class, or if students feel really shy about talking in front of other students then one way to go about breaking this cultural barrier is to create and establish your own classroom culture where speaking out loud in English is the norm. One way to do this is to distinguish your classroom from other classrooms in your school by arranging the classroom desks differently, in groups instead of lines etc. or by decorating the walls in English language and culture posters. From day one teach your students classroom language and keep on teaching it and encourage your students to ask for things and to ask questions in English. Giving positive feedback also helps to encourage and relax shy students to speak more. Another way to get students motivated to speak more is to allocate a percentage of their final grade to speaking skills and let the students know they are being assessed continually on their speaking practice in class throughout the term. A completely different reason for student silence may simply be that the class activities are boring or are pitched at the wrong level. Very often our interesting communicative speaking activities are not quite as interesting or as communicative as we think they are and all the students are really required to do is answer 'yes' or 'no' which they do quickly and then just sit in silence or worse talking noisily in their L1. So maybe you need to take a closer look at the type of speaking activities you are using and see if they really capture student interest and create a real need for communication. (Why not try out some of the speaking activities on this web site). Another way to encourage your students to speak in English is simply to speak in English yourself as much as possible in class. If you are shy about speaking in English, how can you expect your students to overcome their fears about speaking English? Don't worry if you are not completely fluent or don't have that elusive perfect native accent, as Swain (1985) wrote "We learn to speak by speaking" and that goes for teachers as well as students. The more you practise the more you will improve your own oral skills as well as help your students improve theirs. When students work in pairs or groups they just end up chatting in their own language. Is the activity or task pitched at the right level for the students? Make sure you give the students all the tools and language they need to be able to complete the task. If the language is pitched too high they may revert to their L1, likewise if the task is too easy they may get bored and revert to their L1. Also, be aware of the fact that some students especially beginners, will often use their L1 as an emotional support at first, translating everything word for word to check they have understood the task before attempting to speak. In the case of these students simply be patient as most likely once their confidence grows in using English their dependence on using their L1 will begin to disappear. Are all the students actively involved and is the activity interesting? If students do not have something to say or do, or don't feel the need to speak, you can be sure it won't be long before they are chatting away in their L1. Was the timing of the activity good? The timing of a speaking activity in a class can be crucial sometimes. How many teachers have discovered that their speaking activity ended up as a continuation of the students break-time gossip conducted in the L1? After break-time, why not try giving students an activity to calm them down and make them focus before attempting speaking activities that involve groups or pair work. Another way to discourage students speaking in their L1 is to walk around the classroom monitoring their participation and giving support and help to students as they need it. If certain students persist in speaking in the L1 then perhaps you should ask them to stay behind after class and speak to them individually and explain to them the importance of speaking English and ask them why they don't feel comfortable speaking in English in the class. Maybe they just need some extra reassurance or they don't like working with certain students or there is some other problem that you can help them to resolve. When all the students speak together it gets too noisy and out of hand and I lose control of the classroom First of all separate the two points a noisy classroom and an out-of-control classroom. A classroom full of students talking and interacting in English, even if it is noisy, is exactly what you want. Maybe you just feel like you are losing control because the class is suddenly student centred and not teacher centred. This is an important issue to consider. Learner-centred classrooms where learners do the talking in groups and learners have to take responsibility for using communicative resources to complete a task are shown to be more conducive to language learning than teacher-centred classes (Long & Richards 1987). Nevertheless, many classrooms all over the world continue to be teacher centred, so the question you have to ask yourself is, how learner centred is my classroom? Losing control of the classroom, on the other hand, is a different issue. Once again walking around and monitoring the students as they are working in groups can help, as you can naturally move over to the part of the classroom where the noise is coming from and calm the rogue students down and focus them back on the task without disrupting the rest of the students who are working well in their groups. If students really get too rowdy then simply change the pace of the class and type of activity to a more controlled task, for example a focus on form or writing task where students have to work in silence individually. Once the students have calmed down you can return to the original or another interactive group activity.

Introduction

Pronunciation Tips

Video Games Are Not Only for Entertainment [Listening Activity]

1. Jason's parents were concerned about his addiction to video games.
True.
False.
It's not said on the video.

2. Jason thinks that finding work related to video games may be difficult for him.
True.
False.
It's not said on the video.

3. Game technology is not used in other industries.
True.
False.
It's not said on the video.

4. The games developed by the U.S. Army can be downloaded free.
True.
False.
It's not said on the video.

5. The D.C. area has about ____ game-oriented technology firms.
100.
200.
1,000.

Reading activity

Dirty Britain

Before the grass has thickened on the roadside verges and leaves have started growing on the trees is a perfect time to look around and see just how dirty Britain has become. The pavements are stained with chewing gum that has been spat out and the gutters are full of discarded fast food cartons. Years ago I remember travelling abroad and being saddened by the plastic bags, discarded bottles and soiled nappies at the edge of every road. Nowadays, Britain seems to look at least as bad. What has
gone wrong?

The problem is that the rubbish created by our increasingly mobile lives lasts a lot longer than before. If it is not cleared up and properly thrown away, it stays in the undergrowth for years; a semi-permanent reminder of what a tatty little country we have now.

Firstly, it is estimated that 10 billion plastic bags have been given to shoppers. These will take anything from 100 to 1,000 years to rot. However, it is not as if there is no solution to this. A few years ago, the Irish government introduced a tax on non-recyclable carrier bags and in three months reduced their use by 90%. When he was a minister, Michael Meacher attempted to introduce a similar arrangement in Britain. The plastics industry protested, of course. However, they need not have bothered; the idea was killed before it could draw breath, leaving supermarkets free to give away plastic bags.

What is clearly necessary right now is some sort of combined initiative, both individual and collective, before it is too late. The alternative is to continue sliding downhill until we have a country that looks like a vast municipal rubbish tip. We may well be at the tipping point. Yet we know that people respond to their environment. If things around them are clean and tidy, people behave cleanly and tidily. If they are surrounded by squalor, they behave squalidly. Now, much of Britain looks pretty squalid. What will it look like in five years?

Q1 - The writer says that it is a good time to see Britain before the trees have leaves because

Britain looks perfect.
you can see Britain at its dirtiest.
you can see how dirty Britain is now.
the grass has thickened on the verges.

Q2 - According to the writer, things used to be

worse abroad.
the same abroad.
better abroad.
worse, but now things are better abroad.

Q3 - For the writer, the problem is that

rubbish is not cleared up.
rubbish last longer than it used to.
our society is increasingly mobile.
Britain is a tatty country.

Q4 - Michael Meacher

followed the Irish example with a tax on plastic bags.
tried to follow the Irish example with a tax on plastic bags.
made no attempt to follow the Irish example with a tax on plastic bags.
had problems with the plastics industry who weren't bothered about the tax.

Q5 - The writer thinks

it is too late to do anything.
we are at the tipping point.
there is no alternative.
we need to work together to solve the problem.

Q6 - The writer thinks that

people are squalid.
people behave according to what they see around them.
people are clean and tidy.
people are like a vast municipal rubbish tip.