Teach English in Zhuge Zhen - Linyi Shi

Teaching productive skills can be one of the most challenging things to do as an English as a second language teacher. Students of all types and backgrounds tend to be a little shy when it comes to presenting their new language skills. That makes teaching these skills properly all the more important. When teaching productive skills, it's vital to teach them in a way that builds student confidence. It's equally as important to allow the class to display their productive skills in a way that is culturally sensitive to the region. That being said, teaching productive skills is probably the most important skill students will take away from the classroom. One of the two productive skills is writing. While writing might not be everyone's favorite, it's important to tell students why writing is so important. It might be motivating to students if you remind them that writing skills will allow them to create poems, literature, movies scripts, and other forms of art that other people can enjoy. Often literature is written in a way that only holds its poetic meaning in the original language, so you can also tell students they will be able to express themselves in new ways. You can have students practice their writing skills by having them create their own stories, write about their day, or talk about what their dreams are. You might accomplish this with young learners by reading simple universal children stories. Holding the attention of younger learners can be difficult, so it is important to stay with more exciting or funny exercises. Younger learners might even find it more interesting to write lyrics to a song and sing them later. When teaching older classes, you have more options. Older classes might enjoy writing their thoughts about classic literature from famous artists or something they have heard about in pop culture. Realia is another option for older learners. If you have a business English class, for example, it might interest the students more to have them write about an article from the New York Times rather than a create a fictional piece. Speaking is the other half of the productive skill set. Speaking skills is what most English as a second language students come to learn. While it sounds like a simple task, teaching speaking skills can easily become complicated. Firstly, you have to take cultural norms into account. You have to know if it is ok to mix genders in group exercises, request that students speak in front of the classroom, or correct student errors publicly. Secondly, it can be difficult to know where to start, especially with older classes. The chances are that most students may have acquired some English speaking skills through pop culture. It will be important that you test students knowledge of the English language at the beginning of the semester so that you can start in a place that the entire class can understand. This type of test is often called a diagnostic test. Teaching speaking skills can be taught in many ways. I think the most beneficial method though is when you have students practice their skills with one another. If they only speak with the teacher, they might feel intimidated or embarrassed. I think it would beneficial if students got to practice their speaking skills with their peers before presenting to the class. One activity that students might enjoy is pretending to order food at a restaurant. This activity is great for students because it offers them a chance to practice a skill they will need when traveling in an English-speaking country. Secondly, this skill is based on a fictional situation. This will help shy students be less embarrassed because they get to pretend and to be someone else in the scenario. If you are teaching in a culture that has "face" culture you might want to consider teaching speaking in a way that puts less emphasis on the individual. To teach in these types of situations you might want to have the whole class speak at once while reading from the board or a book. You could also practice speaking with pronunciation drills that have students simply repeating what you have said.