Teach English in Xianggou Zhen - Linyi Shi

Teaching receptive as well as productive skills is an essential part of an EFL course. Students should be able to comprehend speech as well as to produce speech in English language so that they would be able to fulfil their communication needs. Realising that there are realistic communication needs that we are fulfilling when we interact in another language is an important aspect of language teaching, and as such it should be incorporated into lesson planning, and subsequently into the learning experience. We normally listen to texts for a number of reasons e.g. to get specific information, to entertain ourselves, to get the gist of an account (2011a,1) When designing listening activities, we should draw on these aspects, and design the tasks we assign to the students accordingly. We should keep in mind that students shouldn’t be expected to understand everything. Students should rather practise interacting with texts either oral or written, in order to fulfil certain objectives. In this way, their comprehension skills will gradually be enhanced. Clearly, in order for students to be able to engage with texts effectively, there should be motivation there, as well as genuine interest (2011a, 4) Selecting interesting materials for students is key to getting them more involved, and allowing for questions to be generated. Effective activities in the Engage stage should prepare students to recall previous knowledge, and create an interest for the topic that they would engage with. Similarly, the tasks that they would be presented with should pose a challenge; they should be neither too difficult, nor too easy (2011b,4). If the vocabulary is too difficult for the task to be accomplished, the teacher could pre teach the words that would be essential to understanding. The same principles apply to productive skills. We should realize that we should help students develop the desire to communicate. In this case, also, we should cater for the interests of individual students. We should select topics that would get students to talk, and share their experiences according to their age, their everyday life, their individual interests- even their cultures, in case we are in a multicultural class- although in this case we should be sensitive to cultural diversity issues. In case some students are reluctant to talk to the plenary, we should encourage group work or pair work, so that they would get the chance to practice in a safe environment. Teaching speaking skills entails focusing on both accuracy and fluency (2011b, 2) Accuracy should be mainly targeted during the Study phase of an EFL lesson through controlled, and guided activities during which students learn specific grammatical structures, learn about the meaning and usage of words, practise the correct pronunciation. The Engage phase, as well as the Activate phase should provide room for students to speak freely, to express their thoughts in a meaningful way though not always accurate. During the Activate phase, we should ensure that students get as much time to talk as possible. Providing them with scenarios, and asking them to act out different roles in groups- without prescribing the language that they would use- is one way of ensuring sufficient student talk-time. At this stage, the teacher should supervise from a distance, and avoid intervening in group work. Any feedback should be provided later as a recap or as part of a Study phase. There is a number of factors which should be taken into consideration when teaching writing skills: the handwriting ability of individual students, the spelling rules, punctuation, as well as the layout of specific forms of writing (2011b, 6) Teachers should help individually students who are not familiar with the Roman alphabet so that they are able to form the letters on paper, in the correct way. Spelling could be enhanced by drawing the students’ attention to different phonetic pairs that are written in the same way. Punctuation can be improved by drawing their attention to specific rules. Creative writing should be encouraged (2011b,7) so that students can express themselves according to their own communicative needs. Creative writing can include stories, plays, and poems, and can also take place in groups. Group work may trigger creativity through the sharing of thoughts and experience, and can also double student talk time. Of course, creative writing activities should be preceded by preparation time, during which students’ thinking and imagination would be stimulated by visuals, authentic texts, storytelling or discussions that would take place in previous stages of the lesson. In fact, one important aspect of teaching integrated skills is that they are often combined, and so it should be (2011a, 1). During a single lesson, students can start with discussing about holiday photographs they are presented with. Then, they would get the chance to read an authentic text about what English holiday makers do, they would decipher vocabulary and practise pronunciation, and then they would write a short essay about what they usually do when on holiday. By systematically engaging with receptive and productive skills, students gradually develop the ability to comprehend authentic texts written in English Language, and also express themselves in an authentic way. References: Unit 11. Teaching Receptive Skills (2011). International TEFL and TESOL Training Unit 12. Teaching Productive Skills (2011). International TEFL and TESOL Training