Teach English in Xiashe Zhen - Shuozhou Shi

While both writing and speaking are productive skills, we need to use different ideas and techniques for teaching one versus the other. Writing tasks are often not allotted as much time as the speaking tasks in any given lesson plan. However, there are some techniques that a teacher can use to maximize the time given to teaching writing. First, it is important to get the students excited about doing writing tasks. In the English conversation classes that I teach, students are there primarily to speak and learn to converse with the fluency of the level of the class (basic, beginner, intermediate, or advanced). Therefore, the students don’t always think that they will be writing. It is my job to show them that writing skills are also necessary for their goals. I start with a “Needs Analysis” which helps to identify their goals and needs. This analysis also brings out uses for the language that they may not have thought of. For example, most of my students want to get better jobs. They are interested in improving their speaking and listening skills for job interviews. Once I have elicited the topic of job interviews, I ask if they have been to the Job Center in our school. Some have and some have not. Either way, most know what a resume is. From there, I introduce cover letters. We examine the structure of a very short cover letter. Then we “talk” out a cover letter for a job in an advertisement I have selected. I write these sentences on the board. For homework, I ask them to write a short cover letter by following the example we created together in class. They can use a job of their choosing or use one of the job advertisements I provide. I collect these letters and analyze them for common mistakes that we go over in another class. I do not reveal any student’s work out loud to the class. I also encourage my students to keep a journal. Their journals are private. I begin by sharing a sample of the journal I keep that follows the conversations I model in class. For example, I write what I do in the morning. “I woke up at 6 o’clock this morning. I brushed my teeth. I ate eggs for breakfast.” and so on. These day-to-day activities are discussed during the speaking portions of some lessons. One of my favorite writing exercises is “Finish the Story.” I provide the students with the beginning of a story during the speaking portions of the lesson. After they have finished working on the story in groups, then I have each group present their ending to the stories to the class. For homework, I give them another unfinished story to complete. I give them several days or a week to work on their stories. Again, their writing is kept private. When I return to the story in class, I elicit endings from them, and I write sentences on the board. I stay enthusiastic about writing and try to infuse my students with the same excitement. I show them that writing is important to their business needs (job search) and that writing can be fun (creative writing). Most of what we do in our classes is done in an effort to increase student talk time. Therefore, we spend most of our time working on speaking skills. The keys to successfully teaching speaking skills are to gear the lessons towards the needs of the students and to generate enthusiasm in the students (partly by being enthusiastic as a teacher). I think of myself as not only a teacher but also a cheerleader. I begin each class with a hearty “Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening, class!” I hold my hand to my ear as a cue for them to respond. I announce that we will “have a great class” or something to that effect. (“Let’s have a wonderful class!”) I keep boredom from invading our classes by not always doing the same activities and by calling on students in different orders. This way the students achieve a higher level of anticipation. They have a “what’s next” attitude. I also change the seating arrangements for some of the classes. I sometimes assign seats in order to get students to work with those they haven’t worked with before. I do like to keep together students that work well together for most of the activities. This includes pairing weaker with stronger students, shy with outgoing students. But, changing their seating arrangements from time-to-time keeps the class proceedings fresh. After I model a conversation, I may have a pair of students that I choose on the spot to stand up and model the conversation for the class. Getting students up and on their feet is another way to provide a stimulating learning environment. Making the lessons relevant to the needs and lives of the students and keeping the class lively will help any teacher achieve success in the classroom.