O‘ZBEKISTON RESPUBLIKASI OLIY VA O‘RTA MAXSUS
TA’LIM VAZIRLIGI
QARSHI DAVLAT UNIVERSITETI
XORIJIY TILLAR FAKULTETI
INGLIZ TILI O’QITISH METODIKASI VA AMALIYOTI KAFEDRASI
CHET TILLARNI O‘QITISHNING INTEGRALLASHGAN KURSI
fanidan
O‘QUV-USLUBIY MAJMUA
III kurs
Bilim sohasi:
100000 –Gumanitar soha
Ta’lim sohasi:
110000 – Pedagogika
Ta’lim yo‘nalishi:
5111400 – Xorijiy til va adabiyot (ingliz tili)
QARSHI-2021
Ushbu o‘quv uslubiy majmua О‘zbekiston Respublikasi Oliy va о‘rta
maxsus ta’lim vazirligining 2019 yil 20-iyuldagi 654-sonli buyrug‘i bilan
tasdiqlangan fan dasturi va О‘zbekiston Respublikasi Oliy va о‘rta maxsus ta’lim
vazirligining 2017 yil “1” martdagi №107 buyrug‘i asosida tayyorlangan
O’q. H.Jabborova
Tuzuvchilar:
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Taqrizchilar:
M. Shonazarov
Kafedra yig`ilishi qarori № ____
________ 2021 yil
Ingliz tili o’qitish metodikasi
va amaliyoti kafedrasi mudiri:
____________
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Fakultet kengashi qarori № ____
________ 2021 yil
Fakultet kengashi raisi:
PhD. B. Rizayev
_____________
Universitet kengashi qarori № ____
Universitet O’UBB
_____________
2
_________ 2021 yil
P.R. Qurbonov
MUNDARIJA
O‘quv materiallari:
a) Amaliy mashg‘ulotlari
2. Mustaqil ta’lim mashg‘ulotlari
3. Glossariy
4. Ilovalar:
a) Fan dasturi
b) Ishchi fan dasturi
v) Tarqatma materiallar
d) Testlar
g) Baholash mezonlari
е) O‘UMning elektron varianti
3
O‘ZBEKISTON RESPUBLIKASI OLIY VA O‘RTA MAXSUS
TA’LIM VAZIRLIGI
QARSHI DAVLAT UNIVERSITETI
XORIJIY TILLAR FAKULTETI
INGLIZ TILI O’QITISH METODIKASI VA AMALIYOTI KAFEDRASI
CHET TILLARNI O‘QITISHNING INTEGRALLASHGAN KURSI
III kurs
fanidan
AMALIY MASHGULOTLAR ISHLANMASI
Qarshi - 2021 yil
4
THEME 1: The importance of integrating skills in the teaching of English as a foreign
language
This article has been made as a guide for teachers of English as a foreign language
to develop the students´ abilities in the language. It is the application of an
integrating approach for the development of communicative skills in the
classroom, in which the four skills in the acquisition of knowledge of a foreign
language can be taught in a coherent way, and practiced together, with a distinction
of the importance of one upon the other
One image for teaching English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) is that
of a tapestry. The tapestry is woven from many strands, such as the characteristics
of the teacher, the learner, the setting, and the relevant languages (i.e., English and
the native languages of the learners and the teacher). For the instructional loom to
produce a large, strong, beautiful, colorful tapestry, all of these strands must be
interwoven in positive ways. For example, the instructor's teaching style must
address the learning style of the learner, the learner must be motivated, and the
setting must provide resources and values that strongly support the teaching of the
language. However, if the strands are not woven together effectively, the
instructional loom is likely to produce something small, weak, ragged, and pale-not recognizable as a tapestry at all.
In addition to the four strands mentioned above--teacher, learner, setting, and
relevant languages--other important strands exist in the tapestry. In a practical
sense, one of the most crucial of these strands consists of the four primary skills of
listening, reading, speaking, and writing. This strand also includes associated or
related skills such as knowledge of vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, syntax,
meaning, and usage. The skill strand of the tapestry leads to optimal ESL/EFL
communication when the skills are interwoven during instruction. This is known as
the integrated-skill approach.
If this weaving together does not occur, the strand consists merely of discrete,
segregated skills--parallel threads that do not touch, support, or interact with each
5
other. This is sometimes known as the segregated-skill approach. Another title for
this mode of instruction is the language-based approach, because the language
itself is the focus of instruction (language for language's sake). In this approach,
the emphasis is not on learning for authentic communication.
By examining segregated-skill instruction, we can see the advantages of integrating
the skills and move toward improving teaching for English language learners.
SEGREGATED-SKILL INSTRUCTION
In the segregated-skill approach, the mastery of discrete language skills such as
reading and speaking is seen as the key to successful learning, and language
learning is typically separate from content learning (Mohan, 1986). This is contrary
to the integrated way that people use language skills in normal communication, and
it clashes with the direction in which language teaching experts have been moving
in recent years.
Skill segregation is reflected in traditional ESL/EFL programs that offer classes
focusing on segregated language skills. Why do they offer such classes? Perhaps
teachers and administrators think it is logistically easier to present courses on
writing divorced from speaking, or on listening isolated from reading. They may
believe that it is instructionally impossible to concentrate on more than one skill at
a time.
Even if it were possible to fully develop one or two skills in the absence of all the
others, such an approach would not ensure adequate preparation for later success in
academic communication, career-related language use, or everyday interaction in
the language. An extreme example is the grammar-translation method, which
teaches students to analyze grammar and to translate (usually in writing) from one
language to another. This method restricts language learning to a very narrow,
noncommunicative range that does not prepare students to use the language in
everyday life.
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Frequently, segregated-skill ESL/EFL classes present instruction in terms of skilllinked learning strategies: reading strategies, listening strategies, speaking
strategies, and writing strategies (see Peregoy & Boyle, 2001). Learning strategies
are strategies that students employ, most often consciously, to improve their
learning. Examples are guessing meaning based on context, breaking a sentence
or word down into parts to understand the meaning, and practicing the language
with someone else.
Very frequently, experts demonstrate strategies as though they were linked to only
one particular skill, such as reading or writing (e.g., Peregoy & Boyle, 2001).
However, it can be confusing or misleading to believe that a given strategy is
associated with only one specific language skill. Many strategies, such as paying
selective attention, self-evaluating, asking questions, analyzing, synthesizing,
planning, and predicting, are applicable across skill areas (see Oxford, 1990).
Common strategies help weave the skills together. Teaching students to improve
their learning strategies in one skill area can often enhance performance in all
language skills (Oxford, 1996).
Fortunately, in many instances where an ESL or EFL course is labeled by a single
skill, the segregation of language skills might be only partial or even illusory. If the
teacher is creative, a course bearing a discrete-skill title might actually involve
multiple, integrated skills. For example, in a course on intermediate reading, the
teacher probably gives all of the directions orally in English, thus causing students
to use their listening ability to understand the assignment. In this course, students
might discuss their readings, thus employing speaking and listening skills and
certain associated skills, such as pronunciation, syntax, and social usage. Students
might be asked to summarize or analyze readings in written form, thus activating
their writing skills. In a real sense, then, some courses that are labeled according to
one specific skill might actually reflect an integrated-skill approach after all.
The same can be said for ESL/EFL textbooks. A particular series might highlight
certain skills in one book or another, but all the language skills might nevertheless
7
be present in the tasks in each book. In this way, students have the benefit of
practicing all the language skills in an integrated, natural, communicative way,
even if one skill is the main focus of a given volume.
In contrast to segregated-skill instruction, both actual and apparent, there are at
least two forms of instruction that are clearly oriented toward integrating the skills.
TWO FORMS OF INTEGRATED-SKILL INSTRUCTION
Two types of integrated-skill instruction are content-based language instruction
and task-based instruction. The first of these emphasizes learning content through
language, while the second stresses doing tasks that require communicative
language use. Both of these benefit from a diverse range of materials, textbooks,
and technologies for the ESL or EFL classroom.
"Content-Based Instruction." In content-based instruction, students practice all the
language skills in a highly integrated, communicative fashion while learning
content such as science, mathematics, and social studies. Content-based language
instruction is valuable at all levels of proficiency, but the nature of the content
might differ by proficiency level. For beginners, the content often involves basic
social and interpersonal communication skills, but past the beginning level, the
content can become increasingly academic and complex. The Cognitive Academic
Language Learning Approach (CALLA), created by Chamot and O'Malley (1994)
shows how language learning strategies can be integrated into the simultaneous
learning of content and language.
At least three general models of content-based language instruction exist: themebased, adjunct, and sheltered (Scarcella & Oxford, 1992). The theme-based model
integrates the language skills into the study of a theme (e.g., urban violence, crosscultural differences in marriage practices, natural wonders of the world, or a broad
topic such as change). The theme must be very interesting to students and must
allow a wide variety of language skills to be practiced, always in the service of
communicating about the theme. This is the most useful and widespread form of
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content-based instruction today, and it is found in many innovative ESL and EFL
textbooks. In the adjunct model, language and content courses are taught separately
but are carefully coordinated. In the sheltered model, the subject matter is taught in
simplified English tailored to students' English proficiency level.
"Task-Based Instruction." In task-based instruction, students participate in
communicative tasks in English. Tasks are defined as activities that can stand alone
as fundamental units and that require comprehending, producing, manipulating, or
interacting in authentic language while attention is principally paid to meaning
rather than form (Nunan, 1989).
The task-based model is beginning to influence the measurement of learning
strategies, not just the teaching of ESL and EFL. In task-based instruction, basic
pair work and group work are often used to increase student interaction and
collaboration. For instance, students work together to write and edit a class
newspaper, develop a television commercial, enact scenes from a play, or take part
in other joint tasks. More structured cooperative learning formats can also be used
in task-based instruction. Task-based instruction is relevant to all levels of
language proficiency, but the nature of the task varies from one level to the other.
Tasks become increasingly complex at higher proficiency levels. For instance,
beginners might be asked to introduce each other and share one item of
information about each other. More advanced students might do more intricate and
demanding tasks, such as taking a public opinion poll at school, the university, or a
shopping mall.
ADVANTAGES OF THE INTEGRATED-SKILL APPROACH
The integrated-skill approach, as contrasted with the purely segregated approach,
exposes English language learners to authentic language and challenges them to
interact naturally in the language. Learners rapidly gain a true picture of the
richness and complexity of the English language as employed for communication.
Moreover, this approach stresses that English is not just an object of academic
interest nor merely a key to passing an examination; instead, English becomes a
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real means of interaction and sharing among people. This approach allows teachers
to track students' progress in multiple skills at the same time. Integrating the
language skills also promotes the learning of real content, not just the dissection of
language forms. Finally, the integrated-skill approach, whether found in contentbased or task-based language instruction or some hybrid form, can be highly
motivating to students of all ages and backgrounds.
INTEGRATING THE LANGUAGE SKILLS
In order to integrate the language skills in ESL/EFL instruction,teachers should
consider taking these steps:
* Learn more about the various ways to integrate language skills in theclassroom
(e.g., content-based, task-based, or a combination).
* Reflect on their current approach and evaluate the extent to which theskills are
integrated.
* Choose instructional materials, textbooks, and technologies that promotethe
integration of listening, reading, speaking, and writing, as well as theassociated
skills of syntax, vocabulary, and so on.
* Even if a given course is labeled according to just one skill, rememberthat it is
possible to integrate the other language skills throughappropriate tasks.
* Teach language learning strategies and emphasize that a given strategycan often
enhance performance in multiple skills.
CONCLUSION
With careful reflection and planning, any teacher can integrate the language skills
and strengthen the tapestry of language teaching and learning. When the tapestry is
woven well, learners can use English effectively for communication.
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Theme 2: Listening skills and listening materials for English language
learners
Good listening doesn’t just come naturally (unless you were born listening to
English). We need to make a special effort to work on our listening skills.
In this lesson you’ll learn about:

listening and how it differs from hearing

listening materials for English language learners

typical tasks found in English-language listening tests

general listening tips to become a more active listener

where you can find listening materials

listening strategies for better comprehension

questions to ask yourself
You can also look below at the listening glossary for any words about listening that
you don’t understand, or try our Listening Terms Quiz.
Listening is the first of the four language skills. It is called a "receptive" skill
because when we listen we receive language coming in:
1. listening (← in)
2. speaking (out →)
3. reading (← in)
4. writing (out →)
Differences between hearing and listening
Hearing is simply the physical act of sound waves entering our ears and being
transported to our brain. This is a passive process that requires no effort. No
meaning is attached. If your ears work and you are in a place where sound is being
11
transmitted, you will hear it. Listening is an active skill. It requires effort, and you
can choose not to do it. Listeners take sounds and attach meanings to them. If they
comprehend what a speaker has said, they can interpret and respond to the
message. This is called active listening.
What to listen to
If you have Internet and a device (computer, tablet, phone) with sound, you will
never run out of English listening material. Here are some suggestions for finding
appropriate materials. If the listening level is too high and you don’t understand
anything, find something easier.
Podcasts: Podcasts offer regularly updated episodes of listening bites. These
shows may be short or long. They may be formal or informal. They are often
organized around a certain topic. Podcasts are typically free. You can find many
that are specifically made for language learners. You don’t need an iPod to listen to
podcasts. You can often listen to podcasts online. If you have a mobile device or
MP3 player you can also subscribe to podcasts and listen to them on the
go. EnglishClub has a podcast that you can subscribe to.
Online listening labs and sites: Many websites like EnglishClub offer free
listening activities. Some are organized by topic or level. You can also search
EnglishClub’s links to find sites that offer free audio. Or use the search terms “free
audio practice” or “free English listening”.
News: Many English news sites offer audio or video clips to go with news stories.
If the English is too difficult for you, find a site that offers news in easy English,
such as EnglishClub’s monthly news or other sites that specialize in news reports
for English learners.
Music: Listening to music lyrics is a great way to practise your active listening. At
times you will have to replay one line over and over until you can understand what
12
the singer is saying. Many lyrics are available online so you can read along as you
listen. You can also search for music videos that have subtitles.
Videos/Film/TV: Find a topic you are interested in and start watching videos. You
can watch English cartoons, how-to videos, documentaries or movies. Why not
watch one each day? Some videos offer captions. You could also buy a TV series
on DVD so that you can control when to pause, stop, and replay certain scenes.
Dictations: Improve your spelling, writing and typing skills as you practise
listening. Dictations can also help you learn new vocabulary in context.
EnglishClub offers dictations for different levels. You could also practise
dictations with a partner. Choose readings at an appropriate level and practise
reading slowly with proper pronunciation.
Conversations: If you are in an English-speaking country, instead of texting in
your own language on the bus or train, fold your hands in your lap and listen to the
conversations around you. You can also sit in a coffee shop or restaurant and
practise listening to strangers around you. This is called eavesdropping. Stare out a
window or pretend to read a book so that others don’t feel uncomfortable. This is
the one time not to make eye contact.
Lectures: Many online schools offer free lectures on a variety of topics. You can
also listen to TED Talks.
10 Tips to be a good listener
1. Try to be still as you are listening.
2. Try to ignore distractions.
3. Make eye contact with the speaker.
4. Try to pinpoint the point of view of the speaker.
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5. Try not to daydream. Refocus when you catch yourself thinking about
something else.
6. Try not to think about what you are going to say next when another person is
talking. Concentrate on the speaker.
7. Observe body language (including your own).
8. Learn how to paraphrase what you have heard.
9. Learn how to ask for clarification if you don’t understand. Don’t pretend to
understand.
10.Avoid interrupting (unless you are practising how to interrupt politely).
Take notes if it is not distracting to the speaker.
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THEME 3: Task-based listening
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17
18
THEME 4: The task feedback cycle
19
20
21
22
23
Theme 5 : How do we listen?
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25
26
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THEME 6: CREATING PRE, WHILE AND POST-LISTENING
ACTIVITIES
Every language lesson usually starts with a warm-up or some task to make people
think about the topic they are about to learn. The listening lesson is made up of
three stages regardless of the framework you use. A listening lesson consists of
task before students listen to the passage, tasks to complete while they listen to the
passage and activities that you after the listening.
The 3 Stages of a Listening Lessons are:
1. Pre-Listening
2. During- Listening
3. Post- listening
How to Choose Listening Materials
Listening Materials can come in different ways. We can easily categorize the
different listening materials according to:
1. their authenticity
2. their level
3. their purpose
Not all listening passages make for a good listening for English Language classes
because some factors can make the listening task even more challenging than it
already is.
The factors that makes a good listening material can be divided into two
groups: Content and Delivery.
Take them into account to avoid learner’s frustration and confusion.
Content Factors
These are the content factors that you have to take into account when choosing a
listening passage
#1 Interest Factor:
Probably the most important factor is interest, an interesting enough listening
passage will make the learner listen attentively.
28
Sometimes it is quite difficult to find a listening passage that might engage all of
your learners but well-prepared pre-listening tasks can help raise interest in the
topic, interest that students didn’t know they have .
#2 Entertainment Factor
This is closely related to the notion of interest, if our listening passage can be both
interesting and entertaining, that will engage learners in the listening task.
#3 Cultural Accessibility
The text needs to be culturally accessible to the learner, some concepts simply
don’t exist in some cultures, for example Thanksgiving might be something that is
unheard of in some parts of Africa.
we can also take the example of Rugby which is played in England and it is not
played in Hispanic countries.
4.Speech Acts:
We have to understand the nature of our listening passage, is the speaker in the
listening passage narrating, criticizing, giving instructions or suggesting? if
students don’t know, the difficulty of the listening task will increase.
#5 Discourse Structures
There are certain discourse structures that are easier than others. Discourse
structures refers to the organization of a text.
For example if you are listening to a cause and effect listening passage you would
expect to hear causes and the effects and that makes listening easier. Listening task
with complex discourse structure tend to
#6 Density:
This feature refers to the amount of information that a text has. For examples news
articles tend to be very deep in density because the speakers move quickly from
one point to another.
#7 Language Level:
The Complexity of a text can be increased if the text has complex grammar
structures, difficult vocabulary such as phrasal verbs or idioms.
Very formal textS are full of new definitions and very informal texts tend to
include slang and unclear articulation.
29
Delivery Factors
#8 Length
Another key factor is the limited amount of input that students can deal with. The
constant arrival of new input in a listening task get students tired. the average of a
listening text should be around one minute.
#9 Quality of Recordings:
Most of listening materials today have a good quality but some recording
materials has distortion and lack of clarity and that can increase the difficulty of a
listening task.
#10 Accent, Speed and Number of Speakers
Some students are used to listen to American English and they might have
difficulties listening to Australian speakers.
Rapid speech, such the one heard in the news and many speakers talking can create
confusion if there is no visual element to support the listening task.
Stages of a Listening Lesson
These are the 3 stages that make up a listening lesson
Pre-Listening Activities
The pre-listening stage help our students to prepare for what they are going to
hear, and this gives them a greater chance of success in any given task.
Pre-Listening Tasks can:
1. Help teachers find out about what students already know about the topic.
2. Prepare students for the vocabulary and language structures in the text.
3. Helps mitigate the anxiety which comes from listening in a foreign
language, by providing a clear context.
4. Offer opportunities for class discussion and more interaction among
students.
While-Listening Activities
During-Listening tasks are a series of activities that a learner does while listening
to a passage in order to show their understanding of what was heard of.
Well-designed activities can help students to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Identify what’s important in a passage.
Perceive the text structure.
Keep themselves concentrated throughout the passage.
Show their understanding or non-understanding of the passage.
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Most While-ilstening activities focus on these subskills:
 Listening for the gist
 Listening for specific information
 Listening for the speaker’s attitude or opinion
Post-Listening Activities
Post-Listening Activities consist of tasks which main aim is to help students
reflect on the listening experience. these activities are carried out after teacher have
carried out pre-listening and while listening activities successfully.
These are some example of Pre-Listening Activities:
1. Check and Summarizing: One of the activities that a teacher can do to check
understanding is to ask student to summarize the information they heard, this can
be done orally or in writing.
2. Discussions: You can ask students to have a short discussion about the topic, the
topic for the discussion must be taken from the listening task that they previously
did and should be interesting enough to inspire comments and debates.
Mistakes to Avoid when Teaching Listening:
#1 You didn’t Set Rules:
You need to give your students a brief overview of what you are going to do
during your lesson and what type of behavior you expect from them in each one of
the stages of the listening lesson.
#2 You Chose the Wrong Listening Passage:
Finding the right track for your lesson might be a difficult task but you must try to
choose a passage that meets your expectations.
You need to take into account some of these important considerations such as the
accent of the speakers, numbers of speakers, cultural factors, entertainment factors
and some other factors covered in the “10 Important Considerations to Take When
Choosing a Listening Passage”
#3 You didn’t Include Pre-Listening Tasks
Sometimes teachers go to the classroom and they don’t spend some time preparing
students for what they are going to listen to, not doing that decreases their
motivation to listen and doesn’t get them ready for the task ahead.
#4 You didn’t Check your Equipment
Sometimes you go to the classroom, you tell your students that today they are
going to do some listening, you start with your warm-up and pre-listening tasks
31
and when you play the track, the sound is too low and students can barely listen to
it so you have to figure out what to do to fix the problem and you lose momentum.
Test your equipment before starting the class, if the sound is too low, you can
increase MP3 volume using MP3 louder to fix that.
#5 You didn’t Set Clear Expectations
Remember that students don’t need to understand every word of the listening
passage, sometimes they have to listen for specific details and sometimes they have
to understand the general meaning of a passage. I know you know but you also
have to remind that to your students.
#6 You didn’t Teach Students any Techniques
When students haven’t taken part in listening lessons before, they might have
some problems to accomplish tasks successfully despite their good listening skills,
for example, in gap-fil tasks, they try to write the missing words fully and they
don’t continue listening to the rest of it.
#7 Don’t Forget to Include Engaging While-Listening Task
There is a wide range of while-listening activities and choosing one of them
highly depends on the type of listening that you bring to your classroom.
#8 You didn’t Make the Most out of your Listening Lesson
It is recommended that you play the track at least twice, also you can try to prepare
more than one while-listening task so students have more reasons to listen to the
passage.
#9 You didn’t Include Post-Listening Activities
Remember that a listening lesson doesn’t end when the while listening activities
are over, you have to connect that listening passage to other skills such as speaking
and writing. I covered some of the Most Important Types of Post- Listening Tasks
post.
#10 You didn’t Evolve
Take into account that you need to make an effort choosing your listening sources
and the type of tasks that you include with them, don’t overuse one type of
listening material or any of the activities in each one of the stages of the listening
lesson.
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While-Listening activities are activities that are completed by the students when
they are listening to a passage.
While-listening activities are also called during-listening activities.
You needed to do some pre-Listening Tasks in order to prepare your
students before this stage of a listening lesson.
These activities are followed by post-Listening activities and all together made up
the three stages of a listening lesson
Why are While Listening Important?
Well-designed activities can help students to:
1. Identify what’s important in a passage.
2. Perceive the text structure.
3. Keep themselves concentrated throughout the passage.
4. Show their understanding or non-understanding of the passage.
What While-Listening Activities are there?
Most While-listening activities focus on these subskills:
 Listening for the gist
 Listening for specific information
 Listening for the speaker’s attitude or opinion
Take into consideration these guidelines when using While-listening Tasks
 Allow students to listen to the passage two or three times
 Encourage student to focus on global meaning first and let the questions
about details after the first listen.
There are many While-Listening activities that you can do, some of the best ones
are the following:
1. Listen and Describe
The teacher tells a story but stops regularly and asks the students to write or give a
description.
2. True or False
The teacher tells a story and the students has to determine if the sentences that he
has are true or false statements
3. Hidden Picture
The teacher gives a picture to the students about any particular subject and one of
the students describes a picture and another student has to note down some of the
things that her or his classmate says.
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4. Dictation of short passages
This is an activity which has been discontinued but it helps students to practice
skills, they have to listen to the sentences, they have to write them down, they have
to read and say their sentences to their teacher to make sure they got their
sentences right.
5. Dictogloss
Dictogloss is a language teaching technique in which students form small groups
and summarize a target-language text.
First, the teacher prepares a text that contains examples of the grammatical form to
be studied.
The teacher reads the text to the students at normal speed while they take notes.
Students then work in small groups group to prepare a summary of their work
using the correct grammatical structures,and finally each group presents their work
to the rest of the class.
6: Picture Dictation
The teacher describes a pictures without showing to the students and they have to
draw it.
7. False Facts Dictation
The teachers reads some statements which are false facts and students has to
correct them silently and then they have to discuss them with a partner.
8. Running Dictation
Running dictation involves a text stuck out of view of the students. In pairs,
the students decide who will be the runner and who the scribe.
The runner goes to the wall, memorises a chunk of text, runs back to the scribe and
dictates it. After a minute or two, the scribe and the runner change roles. The
activity is extremely lively, with students running to and fro.
9. Listen and Do Activities
Simon Says is a classic game that works really well as a fun ESL classroom
activity.
Tell the students to listen to the instructions you will give them, they can follow
your actions too but at some stage you will try and trick them so they have to be
very careful not to get caught out.
Other variations of the game are stand up if and change chairs if
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10. Twelve Questions
Prepare a diagram or something similar with 12 questions that students need to
answer while they listen to a extended passage.
11: Gap Fill
Give students a transcript and ask students to fill in the blanks as they listen to the
passage.
12: Multiple Choice
Ask students to read questions before they listen to the passage and then they have
to select the correct answer out of 3 or 4 options.
Remember that this is the second part of a listening lesson, we need to learn more
about Post-Listening activities so we can be able to say that our work has been
finished.
Post-Listening Activities consist of tasks which main aim is to help students
reflect on the listening experience. these activities are carried out after teacher have
carried out pre-listening and while listening activities successfully.
The pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening make up what is known as
the three stages of a listening lesson.
First of all, post-listening activities are oriented to check the degree of
comprehension of the text. I think almost every teacher uses summarizing for this
purpose. To add some fun to the process of summarizing the teacher can ask
learners to create a group summary. Secondly, we need post-listening activities to
arouse a discussion and make a transition to speaking activities. The teacher can
ask learners to personalize the problem touched upon in the text (What would you
do in this situation?), to dwell upon pros and cons, to agree or disagree with some
statements related to the text, etc.
What are Pre-Listening and While-Listening Activities?
Pre-Listening Activities prepare the students by getting them interested in the topic
and after that they move on to the next stage in which students are given a whilelistening task which consists of a series of activities that a learner does while
listening to a passage in order to show their understanding of what was heard of.
10 Most Common Post-Listening Activities:
These are ten of the most common post-listening activities that you can use in the
classroom:
1. Check and Summarizing
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One of the post- listening activities that a teacher can do to check understanding is
to ask student to summarize the information they heard, this can be done orally or
in writing.
Students can make pairs and then they can talk during a minute to another student,
once the minute ‘s over the change partner and share their views with another
classmates.
2. Discussions
One of the post-listening activities that a teacher can do is asking students to have a
short discussion about the topic.
The topic for the discussion must be taken from the listening task that they
previously did and should be interesting enough to inspire comments and debates.
3. Information Exchange
In this activity you ask students to listen to a passage and ask another to listen to a
different passage, when they finish, they share they information with each other
and make sure that they understand the message the passage was intended to give.
4. Problem Solving
Students listen to a passage with the intention of solving a problem. Some
problem-solving task types such as solving moral dilemmas and solving mysteries
will motivate students to listen carefully to a passage.
5: Deconstructing a Listening Passage
Most books have transcripts at the back of the books, those transcripts are often
unused but you can use them to exploit features such as pronunciation, vocabulary,
grammar and discourse markers.
6: Disappearing Dialogues
Another activity students can do to promote critical thinking skills is erasing parts
of the dialogue and then asking students to fill in the blanks with phrases they
remember or other phrases that might fit perfectly into the dialogue.
7: Test your Classmates
One of the best post-listening activities consist in quizzing their classmates.
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You can ask students to prepare a set of questions that another student will have to
respond, they can prepare a multiple-choice quiz, short answer questions or true
and false statements.
If you have technology in the classroom, an alternative could be using an online
tool to create quizzes.
8: Writing a Short Composition
After students have listened to a passage, they can write a short essay based on the
information given in the listening passage.
9: Time to Act
After listening to a passage, students can identify a theme and create a skit and
perform it in front of their classmates.
10: Synonyms and Antonyms
Another post-listening activity that students can do is identifying vocabulary and
then find synonyms and antonyms for some words in the transcript.
When they have done that, they can pair up and share their finding with others.
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THEME 7: CONVERSATION AND DISCUSSION CLASSES
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39
40
41
42
43
44
THEME 8: COMMUNICATIVE
ACTIVITIES
45
46
47
48
EXAMPLES FROM APPENDIX
49
50
THEME 9: ROLE PLAY, REAL-PLAY AND SIMULATION
51
52
53
54
THEME 10: FLUENCY, ACCURACY AND COMMUNICATION
55
56
57
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THEME 11: DIFFERENT KINDS OF SPEAKING
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
Theme 12: Approaches to reading
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67
68
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Principles of teaching reading
According to Nation (2009), teaching grammar should follow specific principles
that help boost the reading skills.
1. Reading is a purposeful enterprise
Training students to develop their reading skills should be done to fulfill a range of
purposes:
To search for specific information through skimming and scanning
activities.

To learn and gain knowledge about different topics

To be entertained

To react to a text and have a say about its content.

…
2. Appropriateness to students’ level

Reading activities should be appropriate to students’ level of language proficiency.
Teachers should use simplified texts that are slightly above their level.
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3. Vocabulary knowledge
As far as vocabulary is concerned, students should:
“read with 98 percent coverage of vocabulary in the text so that they can learn the
remaining 2 percent guessing from context.” Nation, 2009, p. 6
4. Integration of skills
Reading activities should integrate other skills. Smooth incorporation of speaking,
listening and writing activities are highly advised. These activities should be
assigned at the pre, while, or post-reading stages.
5. Reading skills
The focus should be also on developing reading skills such as phonemic
awareness, spelling practice, vocabulary learning, and grammar study.
6. Reading strategies
A reading strategy is a conscious plan that good readers adopt to understand a text.
By becoming aware of these purposeful strategies, learners may get full control of
reading comprehension. Accordingly, teachers should train learners to acquire
reading strategies such as:
Previewing,

Setting a purpose,

Predicting,

Asking questions,

Connecting to background knowledge,

Paying attention to text structure

Guessing words from context,

Reflecting on the text and reacting to it.

…
7. Text type

Gaining knowledge about text type is another area that learners should be trained
at. They should be able to differentiate between genres of texts: emails, reports,
stories, newspaper articles, scientific texts…
8. Reading a lot
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Learners must be also encouraged to read a lot. Extensive reading helps them
become fluent and develop speed at reading different texts, a competency much
needed for academic success and in students’ future careers.
How to teach reading skills depends on which objectives the teacher aims at
developing in his/her students and on how lesson plans are structured. To this
effect, teachers must take decisions about the objectives of their reading
comprehension lesson. For example, the following objectives guide teachers in
teaching reading skills:








Reading for gist?
Reading for specific information?
Reading for detailed comprehension?
Developing speed reading?
Training learners on specific reading strategies?
Inferring meaning from context?
A combination of the above goals?
…
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Theme 13: Extensive reading
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74
75
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THEME 14 AUTHENTICITY IN THE CLASSROOM
There are lots of resources available to English language teachers today: from
textbooks to online teaching tools, they can all aid and enrich English lessons.
Many teachers also introduce authentic English material into their lessons to
expose learners to the language as it is spoken in the real world.
Authentic material is any material written in English that was not created for
intentional use in the English language classroom. Using this content to teach the
English language can make the learning process even more engaging, imaginative
and motivating for students. It can also be useful to elicit genuine responses from
learners.
The great thing about using authentic material is that it is everywhere, which
makes it easy to find, and simple for learners to practise English in their own time.
Remember that it isn’t limited to articles from newspapers and
magazines. Songs, TV programmes and films, radio and podcasts, leaflets, menus
– anything written in English constitutes authentic material.
Selecting authentic material
The best content to select depends on the learners, their level of English and the
course content the teacher wishes to focus on. It’s also a good idea to find out the
learners’ interests – after all, there’s no point trying to get students fascinated by a
text on the latest sci-fi movie if they’re all fans of action films.
The materials should reflect a situation that learners may face in an Englishspeaking environment – this will help them transition into a world where English is
the norm. In this world, people use abbreviations, body language is important and
they’ll use “filler” sounds – such as “ummm” – when they are speaking English –
and learners will encounter these in authentic material.
It’s important not to overwhelm learners with the first piece of authentic material.
So to begin with, choose articles, songs or sections of TV programmes or movies
which aren’t too difficult to understand or take too long to get through.
Some ways to use authentic material
Here are two ideas for using authentic material in class: do remember to develop
the ideas into proper lesson plans and explain the aims thoroughly to your
learners…
1. Restaurant menus: order your favourite dish
Food is important to everyone, so introduce language learners to some of the
common dishes in English-speaking countries so that they will be able to order
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meals with confidence. Many restaurants have their menus online, so you can
easily download them (no need to walk or drive around the neighbourhood!). Try
to use local restaurants, which will make it more meaningful for your students, and
make sure you have plenty of copies of the menu.
THEME 15 AUTHENTIC AND NON AUTHENTIC MATERIALS
The term materials can apply to virtually anything that a teacher uses to help the
teaching process in the classroom. Common teaching materials include items such
as worksheets, newspapers, pictures, text books and video recordings.
These teaching materials are often classed as either authentic or non authentic
depending on their origin and how they are used. ‘Authentic material’ refers to
items that have not been designed or adapted for use in an English language
classroom such as magazines, newspapers, video clips and song lyrics. In contrast,
‘non authentic material’ refers to anything that has been designed specifically to
aid the teaching process such as worksheets, text books and instructional CD’s or
DVD’S. Authentic materials are also known as real-life or genuine materials.
Martinez (2002) as cited in Al-Azri and Al-Rashdi (2014) defines authentic
materials as materials which are aimed at native speakers daily life and not for
teaching purposes. Meanwhile, Klickaya (2004) characterises authentic materials
as materials which expose the real world and how it is used in the target language.
On the other side, Little, Devitt, and Singleton (1989) as cited in Peacock (1997)
identify real-life materials as materials which are created and used for a social
purpose in the language community of the native speakers. Also, Rogers and
Medley (1988) characterise authentic as materials which expose the genuineness
and naturalness of the language and well-contextualised in the native speakers'
context. These materials can be in the form of oral and written form. Moreover,
Wong, Kwok and Choi (1995) describe that authentic materials are identified by
their authenticity in time, people, and location. These materials exist in the target
language country, used by the people of that country and exist in the current
situation. Generally, I conclude that authentic materials are real materials which
exist in the real world of the target language, used in their daily life and not
produced for teaching purposes. Furthermore, Gerbhard (1996) as cited in Oura
(2001) informs that authentic materials vary into several types. They can be in the
form of listening materials such as radio show and songs, visual materials like the
TV show and movies, printed materials such as a magazine, poster, and map, and
realia or real-world objects like dolls. Many authors have examined the use of
authentic materials in the classroom practice. They agree that the use of the
materials is very prominent for the students. The following parts will discuss the
advantages and disadvantages of authentic materials in the classroom. On the other
side, non-authentic materials are teaching materials which are made and designed
for teaching purposes only. These materials are planned, designed, and produced
based on the curriculum and policy in each country, in this context, Indonesia.
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These materials are usually in the form of textbooks. These textbooks are also built
upon the learner's needs and ability.
THEME 16 : CREATING PRE, WHILE AND POST-READING
ACTIVITIES
How to teach reading relies also on the way the lesson is structured. In fact, any
reading lesson plan should include three stages:
Pre-reading stage

While reading stage

Post-reading stage
Pre-reading stage

According to the constructivists, we construct new knowledge by relying on our
prior knowledge. Being able to decode the information from the text is insufficient.
Teachers should encourage learners to utilize their own world knowledge and
worldview to make sense of the text. This knowledge, which is often referred to as
schema (see above), is the essential condition for the process of construction of
meaning.
Pre-reading activities are an essential part of the reading lesson because of the
following:
They help students be more prepared for what they are about to read.

These activities help learners anticipate the topic of the reading.

Formulating expectations about the content of the text help learners prepare
themselves for the kind of language, vocabulary, and even grammar that might
be used in the text.

These activities create the need for reading the text to know more about a
topic.

By creating the need to learn more about the topic, these activities increase
students’ motivation.
Teachers must activate students’ knowledge about the topic of the text they are
about to read using the following activities:

Brainstorming
This may be done following this process:





In groups, students brainstorm ideas relating to the topic of the text.
All members of the groups contribute to the generation of ideas about the
topic.
All ideas are to be accepted.
The teacher sets a time for the brainstorming process.
After generating enough ideas, groups organize their ideas and form
sentences.
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Finally, they share their ideas with the whole class.
This procedure can also be done as a whole class activity.

Discussions
This may be done as follows:
The teacher prepares contrasting opinions about the topic of the text, or
simply provides a quote related to the topic of the reading.

Students work in groups to discuss and react to these opinions or quote.

They then write a short report to be read by the representative of each group.

Groups react to each other’s opinions.
Pictures

Here is how pictures can be used as a pre-reading activity:
The teacher provides pictures related to the topic of the text.

In groups, the students work together to make sense of the pictures and
guess what the text will be about.

The representative of each group takes turns presenting their ideas.
Another alternative would be to:

Provide a series of pictures representing a series of events in the text.

The students work in groups to put the events in the correct order.

They then try to write a short paragraph about what they think the text will
be about.
Pictionary

To prepare students for the topic and vocabulary of the reading activity, the teacher
may use the Pictionary activity:
The teacher creates a list of vocabulary terms or concepts relevant to the
current topic or unit.

The teacher asks one student from each group to come to the board.

The student gets secretly the first word or concept from the teacher.

The student draws a picture representing the term or concept.

The teacher sets a short amount of time for the student’s group to guess the
word or concept.

When their group correctly identifies the word or concept within the time
limit, they get a point.
Predicting

The teacher can prepare the learners to predict what the text will be about using
different elements of the text:

The teacher raises the learners’ attention to only the title, the subheadings,
the pictures, and/or the illustrations accompanying the text.
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They have a discussion in groups to predict the topic.

Groups report their predictions.
KWL chart (Know, Want to Know, Learned)

KWL chart is an excellent reading strategy to guide learners through a text. KWL
stands for Know, Want to Know, Learned. The aim is to elicit learners’ prior
knowledge of the topic of the text and set a purpose for the reading activity. Here is
how to proceed:




Students draw a chart like the one below.
They start by writing everything they know everything they already know
about a topic on the K (Know) column.
Students then list questions about what they want to know about the topic in
the W (Want to Know) column.
During or after reading, students answer the questions that are in the W
(Want to Know) column and record them in the L (Learned) column.
K (Know)
W (Want to Know)
L (Learned)
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
Cloud of words
This is an excellent activity to prepare students for the topic of the text and the
vocabulary they are going to encounter.
The teacher provides the title of the text.

The learners work together in groups to make guesses about the topic.

Then, the teacher provides a cloud of scattered words (relevant and
irrelevant words to the text)

They try to identify which ones of these words the learners will find in the
text (they may use their dictionary).
Videos

Videos are an excellent tool to create a context for the reading activity and to
bridge the gap between listening, writing, speaking and reading skills.




Choose a short video related to the topic of the reading.
Set a purpose for students while they are watching the video. For example,
ask a focus question, or ask them to complete a chart while they are watching
the video.
After watching the video, students work in groups to agree on their answers.
After correction, students may have a discussion about the video.
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While reading activities
While-reading activities are activities that help students focus on text features and
its comprehension. In addition to guiding students towards a better understanding
of the text, these activities aim at:
Connecting students prior knowledge with the content of the reading,

Helping them gain new knowledge,

Training them to deal with similar text in the future.
The following are a few examples of while reading activities

Skimming
Skimming the text to check predictions is a while-reading activity that is an
extension of some pre-reading activities. Skimming can be defined as reading a
text quickly to get a general idea of the passage. Students do not have to read
everything. Skimming involves among other things:
Reading the title, the headings and the subheadings.

Reading the introduction or the first paragraph.

Reading the topic sentence of each paragraph.

Looking at pictures, charts, or graphs.

Paying attention to italicized or boldface words or phrases.

Reading the concluding paragraph.
Scanning

Scanning refers to reading in order to find specific information such as a name, a
date, or a number. This is a technique used when one is interested in finding
specific information quickly.
As a teacher, you may want to ask your students to scan a text to find
answers to (a) specific question(s).

With these questions in mind, your students read the text to attempt to find
answers to only these questions.

They may ignore irrelevant information.

Students may use headings and any other clues that will help them identify
which part of the text might contain the needed information. In other words,
they will have to read selectively and skip through irrelevant sections of the
text.
Comprehension questions

Most textbooks include comprehension questions that students have to answer
while they are reading.
These comprehension questions have different forms:
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Pronominal questions
Pronominal questions or WH-questions begin with who, what, when, where, how,
why, etc.
These questions test both writing ability as well as reading ability.

These questions can be literal or inferential. Inferential questions are more
difficult to answer.

The answer to pronominal questions might be one word, a phrase or a full
sentence.

If the aim of the teacher is to test comprehension, spelling mistakes, as well
as grammar mistakes, may be tolerated.
Commands

Instead of questions, students answer commands such as:
Identify,

Circle,

Underline,

Describe,

Explain,

…
Yes/no questions

Yes/no questions require short answers. These types of questions are easy to
answer and do not require a high level of writing proficiency skills. Learners have
a 50% chance of getting the correct answer.
True/false statements
Like yes/no questions, there is a 50% chance of getting the correct answer in
true/false exercise.
Learners decide whether each sentence is true or false according to the text.

They may be asked to justify their answers from the text.

The learners may be asked to rewrite the false sentences making the
necessary changes to make them true.
Multiple-choice questions

Four choices are provided. So the leaner, has 25% chance of getting it right. This
exercise is difficult to make, but it is easy to correct. Incorrect choices must be
possible (partly correct) and not stupid.
Sentence completion
Asking learners to complete sentences is an excellent way to assess
comprehension. This type of exercise can take different forms from easy to
difficult:
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

The sentence to be completed can be taken as it is from the passage and the
missing words:
– may be copied from the text
or
– the students must use their vocabulary knowledge to complete the sentence.
The sentence to be completed is not taken as it is from the passage and the
missing words:
– may be copied from the text
or
– the students must use their vocabulary knowledge to complete the sentence.
The sentence
Missing
words
Missing words
Taken as it is from the
text
From the
text
Students must use their vocabulary
knowledge to complete the sentence
Not taken as it is from
the text
From the
text
Students must use their vocabulary
knowledge to complete the sentence
Graphic organizers
Graphic organizers help students construct meaning and visualize how ideas fit
together. Scolastic has some interesting ideas for using graphic organizers as
learning tools that can be used with any text.
Text type and structure
Identifying type of text (i.e. email, newspaper article, scientific text…)

Identifying topic sentences and the main idea of paragraphs.

Distinguishing general from specific ideas.
Cohesion

Identifying the connectors (however, moreover, thus, etc) to see how ideas
are linked within the text.
Vocabulary and grammar work

Reading is a great opportunity for vocabulary and grammar practice, which
contribute, to a better understanding of the text. Here are some examples of these
activities.
Vocabulary work
Provide a list of vocabulary words from a reading passage and have students sort
them into various categories:

Parts of speech,
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Semantic fields (e.g. food, means of transport, banking, branches of
government, etc.)
Other vocabulary activities consist of:

Matching synonyms or opposites;

Filling the gaps with the appropriate words from the text.
Grammar work

Many grammar points are directly related to the meaning of the text. Students can
be encouraged to notice the grammar structures used to convey meaning through
activities such as:
Identifying verb tense

Identifying verb patterns (verb + infinitive or gerund..)

Distinguishing passive from active structures.

….
Post reading activities

Post-reading activities help learners summarize their learning, get a deeper
understanding, and organize their thoughts and ideas. Here are examples of these
activities.
What I learned
Some elements of the KWL chart mentioned above, namely the L (Learned)
column, have to be completed after reading the text.
Discussion
Groups react to the content of the passage. Each group reports to the other groups a
summary of their findings followed by whole class discussion.
Summarizing
As a post reading activity, teachers may ask students to write a summary of the
main points of a text. Chambers and Brigham (1989, cited in Nation, 2009), report
an interesting strategy to help learners summarize a passage. This strategy is called
summary by deletion. This involves the following steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Students read the passage and delete all the sentences that merely elaborate
the main sentences;
They delete all unnecessary clauses and phrases from the main sentences;
They delete all unnecessary words from what remains;
They replace the remaining words with their own expressions;
They write a final draft of the summary.
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Retelling the story
Retelling the story would help learners to talk about the content of the passage. It is
an opportunity for the teacher to integrate the speaking skill within the reading
activity.
Think-Pair-Share
This is an excellent activity to help learners summarize what they learned and
discuss it with other peers. Here is how to proceed:
Students write down their thoughts on the topic of the passage.

Then, they discuss with a partner.

Finally, they share with the whole class.
This activity also encourages interaction and leads to various perspectives and
comprehension.

Drawing
The teacher encourages the learners to translate the content of the text into
storyboards, cartoons, or pictures. For example, they have to convert the most
important ideas, facts, or events into the form of pictures accompanied with
explanations in the form of captions.
Search quest
After reading the text, the teacher encourages the students to conduct a search
quest to find out more about the topic of the text.
Videos
Students may use their cameras on their mobiles to make a video about the text.
This can take the form of:
a role play,

a report,

interview, etc.
Presentations

Students may be asked to prepare a presentation about the text. They may use the
internet to find documents related to the topic. These documents can be in the form
of pictures, movies, songs, poems, etc.
Vocabulary work
To gain cognitive depth of the vocabulary learned, students have to be encouraged
to work on the newly acquired lexical items:
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Students identify the newly acquired words in the passage. They quiz each
other on the parts of speech and meaning of these words.

Students choose 10 words from the text, which they have to use to produce
10 sentences or to write a piece of writing that is related to the topic.
Peer testing

Students work in pairs or in groups.


They have to prepare questions about the text they have just read.
The members of each pair or each group will have to answer.
THEME 17 : CLASSROOM INTERACTION
In this lesson we try to provide a definition of classroom interaction and how
different approaches dealt with interaction to provide learning and teaching
opportunities.
A shift in perspective
Gone are the days when the teacher was considered the sage on the stage whose
job was to fill students’ heads with knowledge. Learners are not recipients to be
filled, but humans with their own personal needs who want to initiate their own
learning and develop their skills in a threat-free environment.
This shift in perspectives has its manifestation in the classroom. Classroom
interaction has become of paramount importance in the teaching and learning
process.
Definition
The term “interaction” is made up of two morphemes, namely inter and action. It
is a mutual or reciprocal action or influence. In English language teaching,
interaction is used to indicate the language (or action) used to maintain
conversation, teach or interact with participants involved in teaching and learning
in the classroom.
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Different perspectives
Classroom interaction can be seen from different perspectives according to the
approach adopted in teaching.
Behaviorism
From a behaviorist perspective, classroom interaction is reduced to modeling,
repetition, and drills. The most salient feature of classroom interaction in a
behavioral model is the use of techniques that bring students’ behavior under
stimulus control. This model focuses mainly on the transmission of the right
behavior to students by means of stimulus, response and reinforcement. This
approach to teaching is mainly teacher-centered. Students are mere recipients
whose control over interaction is reduced to the minimum. The interaction flows,
most of the times, in one direction, from the teacher to the students. They rarely
work collaboratively to construct their knowledge.
Cognitivism
The cognitive model of classroom interaction is based on the learner processing of
what’s happening in the classroom to make sense of the world. Here, the learner is
actively involved in the learning by means of two processes, namely assimilation
and accommodation. These are complementary processes through which awareness
of the outside world is internalized by learners. The input that the learner receives
is processed and adapted to learners prior knowledge. Learners are actively
engaged in the learning by questioning and making sense of the world. The
students are invited to make hypotheses, ask questions, and experiment. The aim is
to auto regulate their learning and find a state of equilibrium between the prior
knowledge and the new one. The interaction flows freely between the teacher, the
students, and the language taught.
Social constructivism
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Interaction is at the heart of the social constructivist theory of learning. Learners
make sense of the world not only by means of internal processes (what happens in
the mind), but also through the social dimension of learning. This theory contends
that human development is socially situated and knowledge is constructed
through interaction with others.
Types of classroom interactions
Taking the different main participants in classroom interactions, namely students
and teachers, one can think of the following possible patterns:

Teacher-students .

Students-teacher.

Students-students.
One may argue that the more the initiative comes from students in classroom
interaction, the more learning is taking place. In other words, the more students are
free:

to ask and answer questions,

to take decisions about the learning process,

to participate in discussions,

to initiate conversations,
the more they contribute to the learning process.
Teacher-centered vs. student-centered classes
It is worthwhile noting that there is a huge difference between classes where the
focus is on teaching and classes where focus is on learning:
Teacher-centered classes:

Focus is on teaching

They are lecture-focused

Students’ talking time is low.
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
Students have little say on what’s happening

Teacher have to listen, take notes and memorize what they are being taught
In these classes, teachers do not provide an opportunity for interactions among
students. Most of the classroom interaction is teacher-student oriented.
Student-centered classes:

Focus is on learning.

Focus is not on lectures but on tasks.

Students work collaboratively in small groups to answer tasks.

Tasks are designed in such a way that they have the potential for more than
one answer.

Students talking time is high.

Students are provided with sufficient time and opportunity to listen and
consider the ideas of others.

Critical thinking is promoted.
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THEME 18: HELPING STUDENTS TO WRITE
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THEME 19: WRITING IN CLASS
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THEME 20: RESPONSES TO WRITING
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THEME 21: STRATEGIES OF DEVELOPING WRITING SKILLS
Unlike some other academic skills, the ability to write well is something that
follows you from elementary school all throughout your life, particularly if
you work in an office environment – so it’s no wonder there’s such an emphasis on
it in school! From creative short stories and descriptive paragraphs in elementary
school to lengthier prose and argumentative essays in high school, and then
implementing those skills to write research and term papers in college, students
spend a great deal of their formative years learning the proper grammar rules and
various writing types.
Whether you’re still in school now, or want to refresh your skills as an adult, it’s
never too late to improve your writing. Here are some key strategies to implement
into your regular routine:
1. Read (a lot)!
This might be surprising, but the first step toward developing writing skills is not
to write, but to read! Reading the works of respected authors will open your eyes
and your mind to examples of good writing. Do you already know the type of
writing that appeals to you? Find out who the leading writers are in that genre and
read through their works. Whether it’s fantasy, academic, humor, poetry, science
fiction, satire, or general prose, reading a lot will help you recognize what sounds
good on paper and, in turn, will help you follow a similar model in your own
writing. And it goes without saying that reading good writers will expose you to
correct grammar and spelling, as well as a larger vocabulary.
2. Get familiar with various writing styles.
Speaking of different writing styles, get to know the idiosyncrasies that exist
between each. How does academic writing differ from fiction? What makes a good
creative writing sample? What are the different types of poetry and how do they
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differ from prose? Becoming familiar with the different styles will lead to you
become a more nuanced and sophisticated writer as you hone your own voice.
3. Write and/or journal everyday.
The old adage stands true: practice makes perfect. It applies to virtually any
activity or endeavor in life. When you want to get better at something, there’s just
no substitute for doing it, and doing it consistently. The same goes for writing!
Write every day. Keep a folder on your desktop with your daily writing or keep a
physical journal if you prefer writing by hand. You may not feel like you are
developing writing skills from day to day, since progress can be very gradual, but
trust us, you’re getting better with each day, week, and month of practice! One of
the most rewarding experiences as a student of writing is to look back on your
writing samples from months or years before and recognize just how much
progress you’ve made over time.
4. Read your writing out loud to yourself.
This tip is another one that might not seem intuitive, but it is important. Writing
that is good on paper should also sound good to the reader’s ear, as though they
were a listening audience. When you read your writing out loud, you may notice if
it’s choppy, incomplete, or repetitive – things you may not always notice when
you’re busy typing or writing away.
Be sure to do this regularly, not just at the end of your assignment or document.
Getting in the habit of pausing to read every few sentences or paragraphs helps to
keep your momentum flowing and your writing fresh.
5. Work with a writing tutor.
Finally, it can be extremely helpful to share your work with others, especially those
who can give you useful feedback and individual attention. A writing coach or
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tutor is key to developing writing skills, as he or she will have professional
experience and can offer constructive criticism. This final step is especially
valuable if you are planning on submitting a piece to a writing competition or
publication.
Check out this helpful blog post for some extra tips on how to take criticism as a
writer.
Some are born with natural writing talent and others need extra practice. The thing
to remember, though, is that anybody can become a good writer! Let these key
strategies guide you in school and beyond, and you’ll notice a difference in your
writing skills sooner than you think.
22 THEME: Integrating skills in English language classes
English language teaching can be separated into systems, skills, and phonology.
Systems refer to grammar, whereas skills denote reading, writing and listening, and
speaking. Phonology incorporates elements of pronunciation, such as intonation,
connected speech, and isolating difficult phonemes which focus on manner
(position of the mouth), place (position of the tongue), and voice (voiced or
unvoiced).
In reality, our students rarely use English skills in isolation: they rarely ever read
an email without replying, nor do they listen to a friend’s story without reacting in
shock, bemusement, or telling their own. Therefore, when planning or teaching a
lesson, it's important to provide opportunities for use a number of different skills in
order to:



Allow students to engage and experiment with the language they see in a
more realistic way;
Help students to improve their English more broadly for key English exams,
such as Trinity ISE (Integrated skills in English) which focus specifically on
students’ ability to draw on all their knowledge of using English;
Maximise opportunities for practice and personalisation of the language and
topics in your classes.
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Integrated skills in your lesson planning
As there is a main aim of each lesson you teach it is necessary to provide at least
one sub aim. This can either be a skill, system, or, pronunciation aim. Also,
remember that certain aims fit very well together. For example, let’s take a
speaking lesson and we will add a pronunciation sub aim.
A great way to integrate the pronunciation aim is in the free production stage;
whilst the learners are speaking, introduce a feature of connected speech (e.g. weak
forms), or intonation practice e.g. rising/ falling intonation. This is also an
occasion to single out a difficult phoneme to focus on the correct manner, place,
and voice of articulation.
Also keep in mind, prioritizing errors. The best way to do this is to choose errors
which impede communication, or if teaching a multilingual class try to identify a
common pronunciation error.
Integrated skills by exploiting a task
Now let’s look at adding a written aim to a reading lesson. The obvious aims of a
reading lesson are to understand the text and to exploit it for vocabulary. So how
do you integrate a writing task into a lesson that is focused on receptive skills?
Well let’s have a look. For example, after completing a reading text (e.g. an advice
column) instead of writing responses to the column, give the learners an example
response and then get them to write the problem. This is more effective as it
requires a bit more thinking, or deeper processing, and is slightly more
challenging. This addresses tense/aspects which are used, vocabulary, and style
informal/formal, and structure.
Another writing task from any type of reading lesson is to summarize the text in a
set amount of words. This enables the learner to articulate wording and paraphrase
accordingly. After finishing the summary, incorporate a peer correction stage by
providing a short criteria sheet for learners to assess their partners.
What about listening and writing aims for a speaking task? In the production stage,
try implementing a quiz or a survey. The students generate their own questions
using the target language/structures taught, and then have them ask and answer
while recording their partner’s answers. Learners are then focusing on questions
forms, rising and falling intonation, and note taking skills while speaking (throw in
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some phrases for clarification) and listening to each other (e.g. back channeling
signals ‘oh’ ‘huh’ or ‘really’).
As you can see, the survey has additionally integrated a system’s aim (questions
forms) pronunciation (rising /falling intonation), and writing (note-taking skills).
How to incorporate integrated skills into the classroom
Teachers spend a lot of time in class working on reading, writing, listening and
speaking with their students. These skills are essential for effective communication
and are the areas tested in many well-known English language examinations.
We may work on a number of these skills within a single lesson, however, we
often teach students to do them in isolation. If we want our learners to become
successful communicators, we need to make the situations as authentic as possible
inside the classroom.
To do this we need to use an integrated approach to language learning.
An integrated approach to language learning
This is when we ask the students to use a combination (or all four) of these skills
within a single activity (or series of activities) to create a situation which is much
more similar to one they might come across in the real world.
If you take, for example, a simple telephone conversation. We listen to what the
other person is saying and then reply. We may also need to make a note of
something they’ve said, read it back to make sure it makes sense and then explain
it to someone else.
Integrating skills can help students transfer skills, e.g. if students have to read a
blog post before writing their own they’ll become familiar with the structure and
content which will help them write it.
It also allows you to vary your activities in class, creating a more engaging and
motivating experience for students.
How to Integrate the four skills?
The four skills can be referred to as Receptive Skills (listening and reading)
or Productive Skills (speaking and writing).
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Perhaps the easiest way to start integrating skills in your class is by combining the
receptive and productive skills which are used across the same medium.
Oral medium – Listening and Speaking
Try a simple yet fun activity like Telephone.
Telephone

Level: Any
 Grammar: Any
 Vocabulary: Any
 Skills: Listening and Speaking
Put students into groups (or, if you have a small class, do it as a whole class
activity) and tell them to sit in a circle.
Nominate a student to think of a sentence (ideally related to what you’ve been
doing in class). Have them whisper their sentence to the next person in the circle,
who must listen and repeat what they heard to the person next to them. This
continues until they reach the final person in the group. The last person then has to
say out loud what they thought they heard. Finally ask the first person what their
original sentence was and write both on the board and compare them. Deal with
any issues which come up.
Written medium – Reading and Writing
Group story writing
This game works well with all levels and can be used to write funny stories using
the target language of your choice.
First, put students into groups (or if you have a small class do it all together). Hand
out a piece of paper to each student.
Next, read a cue (see an example below) to the students and have them write a
sentence at the top of the paper. They then fold the paper so their sentence is
hidden and pass the paper to the person on their right. Each student should receive
a new piece of paper each time they pass it on.
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Continue until you’ve read all the cues. At the end of the game each student
unfolds their piece of paper and reads it to the rest of their group. Make the activity
more challenging by getting students to read the story and then retell it to the class
without looking. They should then discuss the stories and decide which one they
thought was best.
My last holiday

Level: 1 (CEFR A2)
 Grammar: Past simple
 Vocabulary: Holidays
 Skills: Writing and reading
In this story your students will tell an exciting story about trip they went on. Tell
your students to write in full sentences. If this is too difficult you can give them the
start of the sentence, the verb they need to conjugate or the key vocabulary etc.
Example cues:
1. Where did you go? The more creative the better. (E.g. I went to the moon).
Fold the paper and pass it to your right.
2. Who did you go with? (E.g. I went with the Queen of England).
Fold the paper and pass it to your right.
3. How did you get there? (E.g. We travelled by hot air balloon).
Fold the paper and pass it to your right.
4. How long did it take? (E.g. It took 5 hours).
Fold the paper and pass it to your right.
5. Where did you stay? (E.g. We stayed in a tent).
Fold the paper and pass it to your right.
6. What did you do during the day? (E.g. During the day we played volleyball).
Fold the paper and pass it to your right.
7. What did you do at night? (E.g. At night we went dancing).
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Fold the paper and pass it to your right.
8. How was your trip? (E.g. We had a great time).
Fold the paper and pass it to your right.
9. Unfold the paper and read the story to the rest of the group.
When you start to feel more adventurous try to combine all four skills. A good way
to do this is by doing content based learning (where students learn about other
subjects like science, history or geography) using English as the medium of
instruction. Task based learning also works well.
Here is an easy activity you can do at the start of a course that combines all four
skills and helps the students learn new things about each other.
About me

Level: A1+
 Grammar: Present simple
 Vocabulary: Likes and dislikes
 Skills: Writing, reading, listening, speaking
Have students write a short introduction (50-70 words) about themselves on a
piece of paper. Include things like where they are from, their likes and dislikes etc.
They shouldn’t include their names.
Collect the papers and distribute at random. Have students read out the information
while the others listen. The students should then guess who they think it is about.
Once they’ve determined who it is, have your students mingle and ask further
questions about each other based on what they heard.
Integrated skills in Pearson Test of English (PTE) General
One of things which sets the PTE General apart from other examinations is that it
incorporates integrated skills.
In Section 2 students are tested on both their listening and writing. They first have
to listen to a recording and then have to write down exactly what they heard. This
is something we have to do in our daily lives and by including it in the exam, it
encourages students to practice combining skills in class.
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Sections 7 and 8 also rely on skill integration. Section 7 is a reading activity where
students have to read a text and then complete some notes. In Section 8 they must
write a correspondence such as an email or letter. However, to do so, they need to
use the information found in the previous section.
Sample activity
Here is an example activity you can do to help students practice integrated skills
and prepare for PTE General.

Level: Any (choose text and writing task depending on level)
 Grammar: N/A
 Vocabulary: N/A
 Skills: Reading, listening, writing, speaking
Choose two short texts similar to what might appear in Section 7 of the exam that
your students might be interested in.
Split students into pairs – A and B. Give one text to person A and the other to
person B.
Have student A read the text to their partner who has to transcribe it. Remind them
to speak slowly and clearly, pausing when necessary.
Swap so that B reads their text to A who now has to write down what they hear.
Get students to check accuracy by comparing their transcriptions with the original
texts. Assist them and help with difficult vocabulary or other problems.
Next have them briefly discuss each text with their partner, giving their opinion on
the content.
Finally, they should write a correspondence like in Section 8 of the exam. This will
vary depending on the text given and the level of the group, however, it should be
something like an email to a friend or a letter of complaint to a hotel manager.
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THEME 23 : TEACHER’S PHYSICAL PRESENCE
Physical presence includes the teacher’s overall appearance or presentation,
gestures, movements, proximity, contact with students, and eye contact. In general,
teacher should use their presence to keep order in the class and keep students on
task, inline, and working.
Some teachers use their presence to intimidate students to keep them inline and
working while others use it to bring their students inline or to get their attention. It
all comes down to what your class is like as a whole, how you approach classroom
management, and to a degree how much control you are willing to give up.
In the classes teachers use their presence to get students attention when they need
to model something or get information across to them, otherwise teachers wander
the room making sure students are on task and working and most don’t realize
teacher is even there. This also means the classroom is a little noisier than other
classes and it may take 30–40 seconds to get the attention of all students initially
but with training they come to attention within 10–15 seconds.
However, it should be noted that in the class students are given a lot of
independence. I rarely directly teach them but instead create and provide videos to
teach them the skills they are learning.
13 Things to Know About Teacher Presence
When we think back to the teachers that really influenced us, it’s often not the
detail of what they taught us that is most vivid in our memory, rather it’s how they
made us feel – how they communicated compassion or aliveness and enthusiasm,
how they showed up for us in our classrooms. These are qualities that are
communicated through the teacher’s actions and presence.
As teachers, everything we do is enabled or undermined by the kind of presence
we bring. This is true in our families, our meeting rooms and corridors, in our
private life and our public. In public, perhaps nowhere is this truer than in the
classroom, where we are visible at an intensity and frequency rarely experienced
by other professions. Despite this, teacher presence is rarely treated as something
that can be consciously developed. So it’s useful for teachers, and those that help
to develop teachers, to know a few things about ‘presence’.
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Here are 13 things worth knowing.
1. Every teacher already has all it takes to have a full, powerful and generous
presence! The problem is …
2. … Each of us has also developed an enormous range of clever and effective
ways to block, sabotage, dampen, diffuse or hide that presence. Particularly
when our physical, emotional, or mental safety is in question. Our bodies
have ingrained patterns of responding to stress (such as in a classroom) that
get in the way of showing up with a strong and open presence.
3. Teacher presence is created by five things. They are:a. how fully Present we are in the moment. This means, are we…
 mentally aware?
 emotionally engaged?
 physically balanced, relaxed and alert?
b. how we show up non-verbally (posture, gesture, breathing, tone,
etc). How Aligned are we with our message?
c. how we allow and shape the energy of our basic Aliveness /
excitement or passion to flow through our voice and body
d. how we authentically Connect both inwardly with our own self and
outwardly to others, and then connect to something bigger than us,
allowing it to come through us,
e. and finally, how we make our actions over time Consistent with our
declared values. Walking our talk.
We can remember this as PAACC.
4. Teacher presence can be developed because each of these elements can be
cultivated and developed.
5. Truthfully, this is demanding because core parts of our identity want to be
protected from challenge. Part of us looks for control, approval or safety.
Especially in teaching, a profession that makes us highly visible in a
difficult, challenging environment. If we seek to cultivate presence we agree
to working with our fear.
6. Sometimes we strive really hard to achieve the wrong kind of presence.
There are many types of presence. If my teaching presence looks and feels
identical to yours, it probably is not my presence, but a variably good
imitation of yours. Some people’s presence is sharp and forceful like a knife;
others grand and magnetic like a mountain; others can be firm and
supportive like the earth, or receptive like an ocean. The question is not
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creating a presence, but creating your presence. While we can learn a lot
from imitation, the goal is to allow your own authentic presence to emerge.
7. Often, by the end of our childhood, we learned to dampen, disperse or hide
the energy of this authentic presence. Knowing exactly how we do that is a
stepping stone towards catching ourselves doing it. If we catch ourselves
early in this process we can have more choice over whether to do so or not.
8. Authentic presence is not about becoming an extrovert. We can hide our
authentic presence in two different directions. We can dial it down so no one
will spot us. Or we can dial it up! We can speak so loudly, act so
dominantly, or take up so much space that it is impossible for anyone to
experience a genuine moment of contact with who we actually are. Our
genuine presence may be extroverted or introverted.
9. Developing our presence (just like recovering our voice) is not so much
about adding something to us, as it is a task of recovery. It is
about removing
learned
and
sometimes
deeply
embedded
obstacles preventing our natural and authentic presence to emerge. It is like
the work of a sculptor, who removes the stone to enable the work of art to
emerge. Our presence is waiting for us to join it!
10.Our body is the fundamental place of support or sabotage for our authentic
presence. Our presence is shaped by whether we are firing our contractor
muscles or our extensors, whether we are aligned and balanced in our
posture, and whether we are breathing from our belly/diaphragm, or the top
of our chest. This is great news, because it allows us a powerful entry point
for developing presence.
11.Part of you believes you can be safer, kinder or build better relationships by
muting, dampening or constricting your presence. It says “If I am too big,
too expansive, too alive, I risk something.” This part of you may once have
been vital or helpful. But it is now a saboteur. It wants to protect you, but
with the emotional and mental understanding or strategies available to a
child. Its advice is no longer sacrosanct.
12.Cultivating teacher presence is a path of practice and repetition. It is not like
learning a formula that solves a problem, and then we are done. It is not
a one-off learning. Instead, we must practice. We return repeatedly,
consciously building behaviours, rituals and habits that rewire our system
allowing our authentic alive presence to emerge.
13.It may feel scary, inconsiderate or dangerous to allow our presence to fully
open in the world… but to not do so is fatal to something deeply important
in our existence – our ability to live a full, engaged, generous and happy life!
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And whenever we mute our presence we deprive our colleagues, loved ones
and the world of the fruits of our unique and unrepeatable offering.
THEME 24: TEACHER’S GESTURES
Gestures play an important role in teacher-student classroom interactions. In the
domain of education, many research projects have focused on the study of such
gestures either in real classrooms or in tutorial settings with experienced teachers.
Novice teachers especially need to understand the messages they are sending
through nonverbal communication as this can have a major effect on their ability to
manage behaviors and deliver content. Such learning should optimally occur
before experiencing the real classroom.
As a teacher, you’ve seen how real excitement and enthusiasm can drive your
lesson content and lesson delivery, helping your ESL students remain attentive and
enjoy the lesson at the same time. A great way to make your delivery more
interesting, especially to lower level ESL classes is by using mime in the ESL
classroom.
Mime and gestures will be able to facilitate communication, understanding and
participation. Additionally, mime and gesture will make you appear to be a more
charismatic teacher. Putting yourself out there, fearlessly, demonstrates
confidence. Your students will therefore be more engaged and more likely to retain
what they’re being taught in the classroom.
There’s a number of different ways to use mime in the language classroom. It
doesn’t require you to become a Hollywood-caliber actor or go totally over the top,
but it may require you to get outside your comfort zone a little bit, especially if
you’re not a person who naturally uses a lot of gestures in your normal, everyday
interactions.
1. Use Gestures to Give Directions
Gestures could make the difference between your ESL beginners getting what
you’re trying to express or not. Visual cues really help things “click” in a student’s
brain. For example, perhaps a word sounded familiar to one student but she
couldn’t remember the meaning well — speaking the word while making a
descriptive gesture will help her brain make the connection between language and
action.
Additionally, it’ll also help your students acquire new vocabulary as it’ll lead your
L2 learners to associating certain body movements or gestures with particular
things. For example, if you can always use the exact same gesture when instructing
“please sit down,” your ESL learners will end up becoming more accustomed to
hearing the command and then sitting down. It doesn’t even matter if you omit the
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oral instruction from time to time. After a few repetitions, the gesture alone should
do the trick.
Using gesture in the ESL classroom is also an excellent way of having more
control over your class – in the future if your students become rowdy or a little too
loud, you can simply use gestures without oral instruction to have them stand up,
be quiet or even make groups.
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part of an empowering and collaborative community?
2. Use Gestures and Mime to Teach Vocabulary
When an ESL student has zero English or is a complete beginner, you’ll want some
options aside from translating directly in the classroom. Falling back on their
native language can become a bit of a crutch and slow down the learning process.
In this case, gesturing will become indispensable. Additionally, gesturing can help
you elicit certain key vocabulary and phrases from your learners without you
having to directly translate. In other words, it adds more variety to your method of
ESL instruction and avoids common pitfalls.
Gesturing will help your younger students associate common words and phrases
with certain actions, which will accelerate their learning and give them more
confidence.
3. Using Mime and Gesture to Practice Dialogues
In the communicative ESL classroom, a big part of practicing the new English
vocabulary and grammar that’s being taught is through dialogues and role-plays.
This is the perfect opportunity to incorporate mime and gesture into the lesson.
This creates a stronger sense of reality. A conversation seems more real-world and
natural to students when they have to behave as they would in their usual
interactions with people.
For example, if you’re introducing a sample conversation or scenario where a
customer has gone back to the store to complain, you can advise your students that
the store clerk could react in a variety of ways towards the complaint. They could
make themselves look shocked, angry or apologetic when hearing the complaint. If
the activity involves a first-time meeting where the students have to introduce
themselves, have them shake hands just like they would have to do in a real-life
scenario. Not only will your students learn culturally appropriate gestures to fit the
scenario, it’ll also make learning a lot more fun and interesting.
Gestures and miming can also be used in the production part of the communicative
ESL class. They help reinforce what has already been learned. For example, if your
class has just completed a chapter on feelings and emotions, you could use mime
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and gesture to practice them. This can be simply done by using a fun little miming
activity. Compile a list of all the emotions that have been learned and practiced on
the board. Then have your students each select a piece of paper from a hat. Each
small piece of paper should have a related sentence written on it, such as “you are
angry.” Students should keep what’s written on their papers secret. Every student
will have a piece of paper where they’ll write complete sentences about their
classmates while they mime out their sentences one-by-one. In this way, students
need to identify the correct emotion to mime, as well as the emotion that’s being
mimed, and write it down. The sentences written down should look like: “Mika is
furious” and so on. The activity will continue until everyone has mimed their
emotion to one another.
4. Use Mime and Gesture to Teach Cultural Differences
Gesturing is a huge part of many languages and cultures.
Some countries use more gestures and expressions than others. It’s imperative that
you, as an ESL instructor, talk about the importance of using gestures when
communicating. What your ESL students need to know is that, even though they
may have mastered using polite language in English, the way they use their bodies
is also very important.
What they normally gesture out in their culture may not translate into the country
where they’re living and learning English. If a gesture is used inappropriately or
incorrectly, it could be interpreted in the wrong way. Therefore, the way you use
gestures in class will help your students to communicate better. Continue using
gestures no matter which level of English you’re teaching. If you see your students
outside of the classroom in the distance, wave to them as you would to someone
from an English-speaking region. If you need them to come to the board, motion
the “come here” gesture to them. If you don’t have any idea how to answer their
question, shrug your shoulders to show that you don’t know the answer. By doing
this, you’re helping them subconsciously learn how to gesture correctly when
speaking English.
5. Reinforce and Practice Using Mime Games
Charades is a classic mime game. The great thing is that you can use it for all
levels and learners never grow bored of it. Separate your ESL class into two
different teams. Explain to your ESL learners that one player goes to the front of
the class and acts out a set phrase using no words, sounds or props. Give your
students a set time limit — a time of 3 minutes is recommended for lower ESL
levels. If the actor’s team guesses the right phrase within the set time, they get a
point. If they can’t get the answer, the point is given to the other team. After one
player from one team has had a turn, the next team has a go and it continues like
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this. This is the perfect way to practice and review different phrases, but make sure
you use this activity at the end of your lesson. Otherwise, it may be difficult to
control your learners afterwards when you want to do a quieter activity. Most
learners will catch on pretty quickly, especially since there’s usually a similar
game in most other countries.
Emphasize is a fun game for the pre-intermediate ESL level and above. This
requires the students to use different gestures and tones depending on the given
situation. The aim of this fun little ESL game is to have the students try and deduce
the situation from an acting student’s tone, word stress and body language.
Emphasize to your learners that they need to show different emotions such as
disappointment, excitement, anger or surprise, for example. It would be a good
idea to have them practice different situations first. The next step is to have your
learners memorize a simple dialogue between two people. You can make up the
dialogue yourself or you can use something like the following:
A: Hey, how are you?
B: Okay, thanks. And you?
A: Great! What have you been up to lately?
B: Oh, you know, not much, but I’m keeping myself busy.
A: Well, okay. It’s been good seeing you.
B: Yeah. Okay, then. Bye!
A: See ya!
Have them practice the dialogue through choral drilling until you think they know
it. Afterwards, have them practice the same dialogue in pairs, but using a normal
tone.
After they’ve practiced the dialogue a few times, give each pair a scenario such as:
a divorced couple, two very old people who are nearly deaf, two people who are
angry at each other and so on. They’re to keep their card a secret. Using their voice
and body, they’ll need to act out the dialogue for their particular situation. If it’s
unclear about what the scenario is, encourage the rest of the class to ask the actors
questions until they get there. For such a game that doesn’t transfer into other
languages and cultures, it’s always a good idea for you to demonstrate the activity
first no matter how advanced your students are.
All in all, using both gestures and mime in the English language classroom can be
really beneficial for your students and yourself in a number of different situations.
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Be careful not to force a certain gesture, let them come naturally instead. When
you figure out what works best for you, stick with it and allow your students to
adapt to you.
THEME 25: TEACHER’S VOICE IN CLASSROOM
One of the most effective tools you have as a teacher is your voice. Think
back to your favorite school teachers – what was it about them that won your
heart? Chances are, they knew how to catch your attention, make the subject
interesting and inspire you to learn. You can do the same for your students, too.
Start each day with a cheerful greeting or a bit of news or trivia that will grab their
attention. Why not ask them a thought-provoking question to wake up their brains?
What you communicate to your class early on sets the tone for the day ahead.
The teacher's tone of voice is a powerful instrument. It sets the tone and
environment for the entire classroom in terms of engagement, behavior, and
rapport with students. ... It contains some valuable insights from teachers who
have experimented with how their tone of voice affects the functionality of their
classrooms.
As teachers we all know that our voice is a teacher’s most valuable asset.
The one thing teachers do most often is talk. They talk for long periods each day,
for many years. They rely on their voices to a great extent, and with it they
transmit not only information, but also mood, atmosphere and emotions. there are
three issues to think about.
AUDIBILITY. The teacher’s voice needs to be effective in a variety of
circumstances. Teachers need to be audible. Students at the back of the class must
be able to hear them as well as those at the front. Switching from one-to-one and
small groups to whole-class and games situations, teachers have to have
adaptability as one of their abilities. Audibility, however, cannot be divorced from
voice quality.
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Teachers do not have to shout to be heard or to make themselves understood.
Good voice projection is more important than volume (though the two are, of
course, connected). Speaking too softly or unpleasantly loudly are both irritating
and unhelpful for students. Expressive voices, used in an imaginative way, draw
students in and make them want to pay attention and listen.
VARIETY- it is important for teachers to vary the quality of their voices and the
volume they speak at, according to the type of lesson and the type of activity. The
keyword is ‘variety’. Our voices can be varied along a number of parameters:
volume (how loud or softly we speak)  pace (how quickly or slowly we speak,
and how we use pausing)  pitch (how high or low in our voice range we go) 
modulation (how we adjust the tone of our voice to convey a mood).
CONSERVATION - The most common problem associated with the untrained
voice is a lack of knowledge of good breathing habits.  Breathing properly means
being relaxed (in the shoulders, for example, and not slumped backwards or
forwards), and using the lower abdomen to help expand the rib cage, thus filling
the lungs with air.
CONSERVATION- It is essential to that teachers vary their voices throughout the
day, avoiding shouting wherever possible, so that they can conserve their vocal
energy. Conserving the voice is one of the things teachers will want to take into
account when planning a day's or week's work.
There are many ways you can use your voice as an effective teaching tool.
Consider the following:
Expression –
In the classroom, what you say and how you say it is important. Use an
expressive, sincere voice to encourage a student that struggles with new concepts.
Quietly affirm someone who has little support or encouragement at home. When
the class (or a student) is overly-excited, a calm, steady voice can help diffuse the
situation.
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Express pride in children and groups when they are cooperative and helpful.
When special events are on the schedule, share your anticipation through the tone
of your voice. Your facial expressions. tone of voice and pitch automatically come
into play as you speak. Be expressive as you teach and never hesitate to inject true
emotion into your voice. This helps the children learn to be expressive, too.
Volume –
There’s just something about a whisper young children can’t ignore! It
signals intrigue, mystery, secrets and more. Place a finger to your lips to signal for
quiet, then speak in a whisper to introduce the next activity. Whisper, “I’ve got a
brand new story you’ll love. Let’s tiptoe over and find our places very quietly.” Be
sure to vary the circumstance and occasions for using whispers. If you whisper
every story time, it will soon lose its appeal and intrigue.
The rise and fall of volume helps maintain interest for all students and can be
especially effective for older children. During a history lesson, quote a couple
characters, using different voices and volumes to peak interest. When posing class
questions, making announcements and giving assignments, a bit louder volume is
in order. You want everyone to hear you clearly. On the other hand, yelling is
never in order! It shows the teacher has lost control of the situation and also feeds
the frenzy you are trying to dispel.
Inflection –
The dictionary defines inflection as “any change in tone or pitch of the voice
… a modulation to signal a question by a rising inflection.” Inflection of the voice
adds interest to what you say and can actually change the meaning of what you
say.
For instance, consider the word “really.” In a flat monotone, the word
sounds like dull and robotic. With a slight inflection, the word takes on real
meaning. For instance, when the rise in pitch comes at the end of the word, it asks
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the question, “Really?” With a higher pitch at the beginning of the word and a drop
at the end of the word, one affirms the question with “Really!”
Most of us use inflection without even thinking about it. It’s one of those
skills we learned as a child by listening and imitating the way those around us
spoke.
Inflection is also one of the most effective tools you’ll use as a teacher.
Variation of tone and pitch is a vital part of the communication process, and
without it, what we say can be misunderstood. For instance, the following sentence
without inflection (in a flat monotone with no change of pitch) actually means the
opposite of what it states:
“I am so excited about your good grades. ”
Would your child actually believe you were happy and pleased excited if
you said those words in a monotone voice? Now try the same sentence with
inflection – the way you would normally say it if you saw straight A’s on a report
card. “I am so excited about your good grades!” Say it again a couple times and
notice the natural inflection in your voice.
As a teacher, you have the ability to change the atmosphere in your room
with your voice. A whisper is an unexpected change in volume level that will catch
students’ attention – and hold it – for brief periods of time. Using a monotone
voice will certainly do the same!
Inflection, however, is the one tool you must wield daily to keep your
classes interesting. If you’re reading aloud, explaining a new concept, sharing
information or making announcements, inflection helps maintain interest in what
you are saying.
The human voice is truly an amazing gift. Every time you stand before your
students and speak, 15 parts of your body are actively working! The generators of
sound include your lungs, rib cage, diaphragm and related muscles. As they move
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air upwards in the chest, the vibrators of sound – the larynx and vocal cords –
begin to quiver.
The resonators of sound are the oral mouth, throat and nasal cavity. These
determine the quality of your speech. Finally, the articulators of sound are the jaw,
lips, teeth, gum ridge, hard and soft palates and the tongue. These work to help you
pronounce words distinctly. And you thought all you had to do was open your
mouth and teach!
Remember, the ability to speak and teach is truly a gift. By using your voice
as an effective teaching tool, you can impress the hearts and lives of your students.
Who knows? You may be the one favorite teacher they’ll remember for years to
come!
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THEME 26: WHAT IS A TEACHER FOR?
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THEME 27: CREATING ENGLISH ENVIRONMENT IN THE
CLASSROOM
As teachers, we constantly strive to create a classroom environment
where children are exposed to high quality language in varying forms.
After all, language acquisition and its use are at the core of all the
reading, writing, and communication we expect of our students. It’s not
enough, however, for students to be passive observers of the language
they see on word walls or hear in a read aloud. A language-rich
classroom has many different layers and I believe the key to each is
student engagement.
If your goal is to create a language-rich environment, student exposure to
language should be meaningful, deliberate, repetitive and engaging —
meaning it directly involves the students as active participants. This week
I’ll share with you 12 ways I try to make my classroom an interactive,
language-rich environment each and every day.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Read Aloud Every Day. ...
Use Word Walls. ...
Use Anchor Charts. ...
Create a Diverse Classroom Library. ...
Put Language in Unexpected Places. ...
Search for Awesome Language While Reading. ...
Encourage Awesome Language in Writing. ...
Play with Words.
THEME 28: CREATING SUPPORTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
It is important to foster a learning environment in which students feel safe, relaxed,
and willing to take risks, especially for learners who may have had negative
experiences in traditional classroom environments. Students often describe
supportive learning environments as expanding their sense of family and
enhancing their self-esteem, which, when combined with increased literacy skills,
help students take more chances in pursuing their goals.
Here are some ways to create a supportive learning environment for your students:
Build a strong classroom community
The adult education classroom can play an important role in helping students build
stronger and larger networks. Classrooms provide students and staff with
friendship, skills, and contacts beyond their immediate communities. Intentionally
building networks in the classroom can create meaningful, supportive relationships
among students and teachers.
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Use pair work, as well as small-group and whole-class activities, beginning
the first day of class to help students get acquainted, and provide ongoing
opportunities for students to form connections with students they don’t
interact with as frequently in the classroom.
Provide students with opportunities to share about their backgrounds and
cultures.
Seek to connect students with the greater community, through field trips,
current events discussions, bringing guest speakers, etc.
See our website for information on monthly workshops and field trips that teach
about community involvement and service while improving language skills.
Build self-esteem and self-efficacy
Students’ determination and belief that they can achieve their goals are important
factors in their persistence in ongoing learning. Adult learners may have negative
feelings about themselves due to failure experienced in their lives, due to dropping
out of school, losing a job, or not being able to read or write well enough to
complete a job application or read to their children .
o
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Ensure that students experience success at their first meeting so the first
experience is a positive one. It may be appropriate to start with material that
is slightly below the student’s level.
Be patient! Patience is an extremely important characteristic for any teacher
or tutor of adults. Adults can often take a longer time in the learning process
because of various learning barriers, but this does not mean they aren’t
motivated to learn.
Accept your student as he/she is and respect his/her values even if they
differ from yours.
Believe in your student and he/she will begin to believe in him/herself.
Memorize the names of all your students within the first week of instruction.
Use students’ names frequently.
If your students are English learners, learn a few key phrases in their native
languages to model that it is acceptable to struggle with pronunciation and
language learning.
Use positive nonverbal communication
Nonverbal messages are an essential component of communication in the teaching
process. It is not only what you say to your students that is important but also how
you say it. An awareness of nonverbal behavior will allow you to become a better
receiver of students’ messages and a better sender of signals that reinforce
learning.
Some areas of nonverbal behaviors to explore include:
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Eye contact: Teachers who make eye contact open the flow of
communication and convey interest, concern, warmth and credibility.
Facial expressions: Smiling is a great way to communicate friendliness and
warmth to students.
Gestures: A lively and animated teaching style captures students’ attention,
makes the material more interesting, and facilitates learning. Head nods also
communicate positive reinforcement to students and indicate that you are
listening.
Posture and body orientation: Standing erect, but not rigid, and leaning
slightly forward communicates to students that you are approachable,
receptive and friendly. Speaking with your back turned or looking at the
floor or ceiling should be avoided, as it communicates disinterest.
Proximity: Cultural norms dictate a comfortable distance for interaction with
students. Look for signals of discomfort caused by invading students’ space,
which include rocking, leg swinging, crossed arms, tapping and gaze
aversion.
Paralinguistics: Tone, pitch, rhythm, timbre, loudness and inflection in the
way you speak should be varied for maximum effectiveness. Students report
that they learn less and lose interest more quickly when listening to teachers
who have not learned to modulate their voices.
Humor: Develop the ability to laugh at yourself and encourage students to
do the same. Humor is often overlooked as a teaching tool. It can release
stress and tension for both instructor and student and foster a friendly
classroom environment that facilitates learning.
Motivate students
Motivation is a key factor in student success, and whatever level of motivation
your student brings to the learning environment will be transformed, for better or
worse, by what happens in the learning process.
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Involve students as active participants in learning. Students learn by doing,
making, writing, designing, creating, and solving. Pose questions. Don’t tell
students something when you can ask them.
Be enthusiastic about what you are teaching. An instructor’s enthusiasm is a
crucial factor in student motivation. If you become bored or apathetic,
students will too.
Work from students’ strengths and interests.
When possible, let students have some say in choosing what will be studied.
Let students decide between two locations for a field trip, or have them
select which topics to explore in greater depth.
Vary your teaching methods. Variety reawakens students’ involvement in
the course and their motivation. Incorporate role playing, debates,
brainstorming, discussion, demonstrations, case studies, audiovisual
presentations, guest speakers or small group work.
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o
Relate new tasks to those students already know.
29 THEME: CLASSROOM LANGUAGE
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30 THEME: EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING
 A greater number of questions tends to indicate greater teaching
effectiveness (if questions aren’t all lower level).
 Planning is essential to asking effective questions at a variety of levels
Equity
Eliminate bias by asking All students All questions. Here are some techniques to
promote equity in questioning and allow the whole class to respond:
 Turn-To-Your-Neighbor
 Think-Pair-Share
 Think-Pair-Square
 Choral Response
 Value Line
 Shuffle the Deck (Random Call)
 Voting
 Ranking
 Corners
 Blackboard Share
 Slate/White Board Answers
Prompting
 Wonder what to do when students can’t respond? Try this sequence:
– Original question
– Alternate question (ask the same thing in a different way)
– Open-ended question (I.e. descriptions or comparisons)
Alternative response (give students an “either/or” option)
Wait-Time
After posing a questions, wait AT LEAT 3 second before asking for a response.
Here are two paradigms:
 Traditional Questioning Paradigm
– Teacher questions (pause)
– Call on student (pause)
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– Student responds or teacher intervenes (pause)
 Go back to “Teacher Questions”
 Cooperative Questioning Paradigm
– Teacher questions (pause)
– ALL individuals think (pause)
– ALL individuals respond (team members and teacher
intervene)(pause)
– Responses are shared with the class
 Go Back to “Teacher Questions”
Questioning Level
Textbooks and teachers tend to ask questions that require only literal
comprehension (knowledge and comprehension). Here are two classification
strategies for building and evaluating classroom questions:
 Bloom’s Taxonomy
– Knowledge
– Comprehension
– Application
– Analysis
– Synthesis
– Evaluation
 ECRI Categorization
– Literal Comprehension
– Interpretive Comprehension
– Critical Comprehension
– Creative Comprehension
Revisiting the Taxonomy of Higher Level Learning as developed by Benjamin
Bloom
 As an educator, Benjamin S. Bloom worked with a group of fellow
educators to categorize the different types of thinking skills that are used
when people are trying to learn something new. They arrived at six different
levels, with each level requiring a different kind of thinking. The following
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terms refer to these levels which Bloom and the others categorized. They
have come to be known as Bloom’s Taxonomy of High Level Thinking
Skills. A taxonomy is a collection.
Knowledge Level
 At this level, we are simply remembering the facts about a topic we are
studying.
 Example:
– List the planets in order from smallest to largest.
 The student recalls or recognizes information.
Comprehension Level
 Here you should be able to show that you understand the main idea about the
topic.
 Example:
– Describe one of the planets in terms of its physical characteristics.
 The student changes information into a different symbolic form.
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THEME 31: GIVING INSTRUCTIONS
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Lead in
 Ask participants the following questions and elicit answers after each question:
~ What language do you use when giving instructions in English?
~ Why do you use a certain language in class when giving
instructions?
~ Do you think it's important to use English in class as much as
possible? Why/Why not?
 Most teachers use English a lot when giving instructions during classes. This
activity will be about giving effective instructions. Read it out.
NB Check the pronunciation of every difficult word beforehand so that you
do not make mistakes while reading. Make pauses when you read.
If you want to prepare a delicious breakfast you should acquire an egg, wash
it thoroughly in low temperature water until cleansed of any foreign or
adverse substance. Obtain a heat able mug and situate the bathed egg in the
procured mug for further treatment.
Douse the egg until it is completely covered with water and position the mug
onto a combustible source, whereupon it should simmer for approximately
one tenth of an hour until it obtains a durable quality.
Switch off the flammable source and position the mug with its contents
under the cold water tap to lower the temperature of the ripened egg. Shed
the outer wrapping from the egg and take immense pleasure in eating it.
 Questions:
~ What did the instruction ask you to do?
~ Was it easy to understand? Why / Why not?
 Read out the second explanation.
HOW TO MAKE A HARD BOILED EGG
1. Take a raw egg and wash it in cold water.
2. Take a metal mug.
3. Put the washed egg into the mug.
4. Pour cold water into the mug to cover the egg.
5. Put the mug with the egg onto the fire.
6. Boil it for 8-10 minutes.
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7. Switch off the fire.
8. Put the mug with the egg under cold water to cool the egg off.
9. Peel the shell.
10.Enjoy your egg.
 Question:
~ Which of the instructions is easier to understand? Why?
- Teacher should use simple language while giving instructions i.e. familiar
words and short sentences in the imperative mood. Say that in order to make
communication in English lessons successful classroom instructions should
be understandable.
THEME 32: OBSERVATION AND FEEDBACK 2
Activity 1 Handout 1a
OBSERVER’S QUESTIONNAIRE
You have observed a session and gave feedback to your colleague (Teacher). With
other Observers discuss the following questions:
 How did you start your feedback session?
 What was the general tone of your feedback? How do you feel about
it?
 Did you ask each other any questions? If yes, what were they?
 How do you think your colleague (Teacher) felt receiving feedback?
 How helpful do you think your feedback was? Why?
OBSERVATION AND FEEDBACK 2
Activity 1 Handout 1b
TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE
You have taught a session and received feedback from your colleague (Observer).
With other Teachers discuss the following questions:
 How did your colleague (Observer) start the feedback session?
 What was the general tone of the feedback? How do you feel about
it?
 Did you ask each other any questions? If yes, what were they?
 How do you think your colleague (Observer) felt giving feedback?
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 How helpful do you think the feedback was? Why?
OBSERVATION AND FEEDBACK 2
Activity 2 Handout 2
FEEDBACK SESSION TRANSCRIPT: OBSERVER’S
QUESTIONS
• Nodira, thanks very much for having me in the lesson. How do you feel
afterwards?
• Did things go the way you’d expected?
• Were you happy with the students’ responses to the tasks that you set?
• The students were very involved. Do you think it has something to do with the
topic?
• You’ve asked me to give you feedback on group dynamics and interaction
within the group. How do you think the warmer helped at the beginning?
• Quite a lively group (of students). It wasn’t a problem to get them talking?
• There’s clearly a lot of friendship groups within the group. Do you know who is
friendly with who in the group?
• I’ve noticed you used quite a few of different ways of correcting students’
mistakes. One of them was that you actually asked them to self-correct. Why
would you do that?
• And sometimes other students in the class helped with the correction. Were you
happy with that?
• And then there were other times where you corrected yourself. Why did you do
that sometimes?
• I noticed that you had a fourth strategy as well and that was sometimes not to
correct at all. For example, I noticed that you let Ozodbek talk for quite a long
time but you didn’t correct him. Why did you leave him alone?
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• I also think that sometimes it is not so easy for a boy to be the only boy in a
class of girls. What do you think of that?
• Maybe ‘Keeping secrets’ was more of a girls’ topic than a boys’ topic. And the
group as a whole seemed to have responded very well to the language point
when you got on to the phrasal verbs. Is there a particular difficulty for Uzbek
speakers or Russian speakers with these phrasal verbs?
• Just thinking about the next time you teach this class, Nodira, is there anything
you plan a little bit differently that you’d like to work some more on or change
a little bit?
• And you think the students are ready for that? Anything else for you to keep in
mind in your next class, particularly about error correction or managing the
group dynamics? What about pronunciation in particular, I wonder?
• My impression was that perhaps pronunciation needs just a little bit more
attention.
• But thank you ever so much; I wish you good luck in your next class.
OBSERVATION AND FEEDBACK 2
Activity 2 Handout 3
TYPES OF FEEDBACK
Donald Freeman has identified the following three types of feedback:
Directive,
Alternative
Non-directive
They respectively address the following questions:
Directive:
Alternative:
Non-directive:
What do I teach?
How do I teach?
Why do I teach the way I do?
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In Directive feedbackteachers are informed about their mistakes and told what to
do. Teachers could be challenged in problematic areas of their teaching.
In Alternative feedback teachers can be asked questions that would make them
consider alternative practises.
In Non-directive feedback teachers are invited to analyse and conceptualise their
own teaching beliefs and practices and the supervisor’s role is to facilitate this
process.
A feedback session is normally structured in the following way:
Opening up teacher’s feelings about the lesson (What happened in the
lesson? How
did you feel about it?)
Rationalisation and conceptualisation (Why did you teach the way you
taught?)
Considering future action (What would you do differently next time?)
Supportive feedback is essentially non-judgemental. Thesupervisor’s task is not
to pass judgement on teacher’s practices qualifying them either as ‘good’ or ‘bad’
but to learn from observation and provide professional support to teachers. Before
an observation session observer/supervisor and teacher should agree on the focus
of observation and feedback.
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THEME 33: USING THE LEARNER’S FIRST LANGUAGE
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THEME 34: REVISION
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