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How to Teach English笔记整理
Unit One How to be a good teacher
What makes a good teacher?
How should teachers talk to students? How should teachers give instructions? Who should talk in class?
What are the best kinds of lesson?
How important is it to follow a pre-arranged plan? What makes a good teacher? Focus on moral education;
Teachers’ character and personality;
Care more about their students’ learning than their own teaching. How to be a good teacher
How should teachers talk to students? Rough-tuning:
Unconscious simplification which both parents and teachers make;
The modification of language that is suitable to students of different level Physical movement:
Gestures, expressions, mime
How should teachers give instructions? Rules: simple & logical Check:
ask one to repeat your instruction
ask someone to translation your instruction into the students’ native language Who should talk in class?
Maximise STT (Student Talking Time) Minimise TTT (Teacher Talking Time) Who should talk in class? What is good TTT?
Good TTT must follow the rule of “comprehensive input”
The Input hypothesis is Stephen Krashen's attempt to explain how the learner acquires a second language. In other words, this hypothesis is Krashen's explanation of how second language acquisition takes place. So, the Input hypothesis is only concerned with 'acquisition', not 'learning'.
According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses along the 'natural order' when he/she receives second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence.For example, if a learner is at a stage 'i', then acquisition takes place when he/she is exposed to 'Comprehensible Input' that belongs to level 'i + 1'. What are the best kinds of lesson? Try your best to break boredom: Change your clothes;
Bahaving calmly and slowly one day if you are normally noisy and energitec; Variety of your class:
Set different tasks;
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Keep balance between predictable safety and unexpected variety. How important is it to follow a pre-arranged plan?
A balance has to be struck between teachers attempting to achieve what they set out to achieve on the one hand and responding to what students are saying or doing on the other. Be flexible if your plan is interrupted by students. How important is the students’ motivation?
What is motivation?
Motivation refers to elements that push students to do learning activities.
According to the source of motivation, it can be divided into intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.
Gardener and Lamber classified motivation of foreign language acquisition into instrumental motivation(工具型动机) and integrative motivation(融入型动机) from the perspective of social linguistics.
Learners with instrumental motivation aim to reach their goal and treat the language just as one kind of tool, such as finding a good job and so on.
Learners with integrative motivation desire to mix with the culture of the second/ foreign language and always show deep interest in the culture and people influenced by this language. How important is the students’ motivation? Conclusions of Gardner and Lamber’s theory:
Highly motivated students do better than ones without any motivation at all. Integrative motivation was more powerful than Instrumental motivation. How important is the students’ motivation?
How to provoke students’ interest and involvement in the class?
Choice of topic, activity and linguistic content that students are interested in;
Incentive mechanism: verbal commendation, honor, material reward, examination How to help students? Homework;
Reading assignment; Practical activities
Who is responsible for learning?
Unit Four Lesson Planning
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4.4.1 Teaching aims The first thing to do in lesson planning is to decide the aims of a lesson, which include what language components to present, what communicative skills to practise, what activities to conduct and what materials and teaching aids to be used.
Questions:
What do you think are the aims of this part of the lesson?
Three different teachers are about to teach the lesson. Below are their introductions to the lesson. Which teacher has the clearest idea of the aims of the lesson?
Teacher A: Today we are going to learn Lesson 15. It’s question and answer practice using a substitution table.
Teacher B: Today we are going to practise present simple questions with “when…” and other time expressions.
Teacher C: Today we are going to practise asking and answering questions using the present simple tense, so that we will learn how to talk about everyday activities.
Unit 6 Teaching Pronunciation
1. The role of pronunciation in language learning. 2. The goal of teaching pronunciation.
3.The aspects of pronunciation we need to teach.
4. The ways to help student to improve pronunciation. 6.1 The role of pronunciation
Why do learners make pronunciation errors?
A particular sound may not exist in the mother tongue, so that the learners are not used to forming it and therefore tends to substitute the nearest equivalent he or she knows.
A sound does exist in the mother tongue, but not as a separate phoneme---the learner does not perceive it as a distinct sound that makes a difference to meaning.(sheep/ship)
The learners have the actual sounds right, but have not learnt the stress patterns of the word or group of words, or they are using an intonation from their mother tongue which is inappropriate to the target language.
What should be taught to the beginners, pronunciation or phonetic?
Pronunciation is more important than phonetic. Stress and intonation are as important as the sounds themselves and should be taught from the very beginning. Whether pronunciation needs special attention or focus in language teaching depends on many factors especially learner factors.
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Learners whose native language has similar sounds to English are less likely to have problems with pronunciation.
Learners who have more exposure to English need less focus on pronunciation.
Adult learners need more focus on pronunciation because they are more likely to substitute English sounds with sounds from their native language.
Beginning Chinese learners of English should focus on pronunciation and their ability to identify and produce English sounds themselves, because phonetic transcripts are more abstract and less meaningful. When should we teach phonetic?
Phonetic rules regarding what sounds a letter or a cluster of letters should be pronounced are helpful for students to develop the ability to cope with English pronunciation and they should be introduced at a suitable stage. Beginners of English, specially young learners, should be avoided to teach phonetic. Stress and intonation are as important as the sounds themselves and should be taught from the very beginning.
In the example below, different intonations for “Sorry” indicate different meanings. A neutral tone would indicate a normal apology. However, a sharp falling tone or a rising tone would mean the opposite. A: Would you please turn down the radio a little bit? B: Sorry. (No, I don’t want to.) Or B: Sorry? ↗ (What did you say?)
6.2 The goal of teaching pronunciation
1. What’s considered as a good pronunciation? A good pronunciation means:
1) to pronounce correctly all the speech sounds of the language and all the combinations in their proper order not only isolated words, but also in sentences;
2) to pronounce sentences fluently at the speed required by the situation with correct stresses, linking of sounds, rhythm, pauses and intonation.
As a matter of fact, most Chinese learners of English do not have enough exposure to English to acquire native-like pronunciation.
2. Why most learners of English as a foreign language cannot acquire native-like English pronunciation?
Critical period hypothesis
The amount of exposure to English Individual ability.
Critical Period Hypothesis
According to Chomsky’s theory, if humans do not learn a foreign language before a certain age, then due to changes such as maturation of the brain and speech organs, it becomes impossible to learn the foreign language like a native speaker. The amount of exposure to English
It is another factor that determines if the students can acquire native-like English pronunciation. At the present time, most Chinese learners of English do not have enough exposure to English to acquire native-like pronunciation. 6.3 Aspects of Pronunciation Stress
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1. Single Stress i.e. important , complain, medicine 2. Main stress and secondary stress i.e. interpretation 3. Double stress i.e. thir teen, Chi nese
4. Varieties of English i.e. advertisement (Br. E) advertisement(Am. E) 5. Stress shifts i.e. import (n.), import (v.) record (n.), record (v.) 6. Stress for emphasis i.e. I’m a teacher because I like people. 7. Sentence stress: content words vs. structural words Intonation
1. Falling intonation
(statements, special questions, exclamation, commands) 2. Rising intonation
(general questions, requests, remarks of concern and apology, partings) 3. Combined intonation
(tag questions, compound sentences) Read the following sentences: You haven’t finished, / have you? Where there is a will, / there is a way.
She can speak fairly well,/ but by no means perfect. 6.4 Practising sounds Perception practice Using minimal pairs Which order? Same or different? Odd man out Completion
Production practice Listen and repeat Fill in the blanks Make up sentences Use meaningful context Use pictures
Use tongue twisters Perception practice
Perception practice is aimed at developing the students’ ability to identify and distinguish between different sounds. Correct perception of sounds is vital for listening comprehension. Below are some examples of perception practice of English sounds. Using minimal pairs.
Minimal pairs are two words which have only one different sound. The teacher reads either word of each pair and asks the students to tell which word is read. Here are some examples of minimal pairs: will well till tell fill fell lid led ship sheep bid bed
2. Which order?
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The teacher reads each group of words in different order and the students mark the words with 1, 2, 3 . The teacher can read the words several times in different order. 3. Same or different
The teacher reads pairs of words and asks the students to tell if the pairs of words are the same or different.
The words should not be written out.
Here is an example(D for “different” and S for “same”): met meet (D) well well (S) well will (D) 4. Odd one out
The teacher reads a group of words a time and the students identify the different word or sound. The words are not written out. Below are some examples:
bit bit bit pit (No.4 is different.) lid led lid lid (No. 2 is different.) bag bag back bag (No. 3 is different.) 5. Completion
The teacher reads a series of words which have only one different sound. The students complete the words they hear.
Here is an example:
_ate _ate _ate _ate _ate _ate _ate _ate For the words:
gate late mate fate date hate rate and Kate Production practice
Production practice is aimed at developing students’ ability to produce sounds. Producing distinct and understandable sounds is very important for effective communication. Here are some types of production practice activities: Listen and repeat Fill in the blanks Make up sentences Use meaningful context Use pictures
Use tongue twisters Listen and repeat
The students repeat what the teacher says, the content with taps or the English songs. This activity can practice individual sounds, words, and sentences. Fill in the blanks
The students fill in the blanks in sentences with words which contain certain sound. Here is an example:
a. Children love to _play_ games. b. Black and white make _grey_ c. After April comes _May_
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d. Hurry up. Don’t be _late_for school.
e. We study in the same class. We are _classmates_. Make up sentences
The students are given a group of words containing the same sound or similar sounds. They should make up sentences as many from the given words as possible. The sentences do not have to be realistically meaningful and logical. Humourous sentences are preferred. Use meaningful context
The sounds to focus on are embedded in a meaningful context and students perform meaning tasks. Students can role play the dialogue:
A: What’s wrong with you, Ann? B: I hate this horrible job. A: What job? B: Washing socks.
A: What do you want to do? B: I want a holiday. Use pictures
The students produce meaningful language based on pictures. Use tongue twisters
Tongue twisters are fun and motivating, and the relaxing atmosphere halps students overcome inhibition. Give students a few minutes to practice by themselves, then ask them to perform in front of the whole class.
Examples of tongue twisters
She sells sea shells on the seashore.
Five wives drank five bottles of fine wine.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where is the peck of pickled peppers that Peter Piper picked? 6.5 Practising stress and intonation Practising stress
Word-level stress: stress the proper syllable in multi- syllabic words
Phrase-level stress
The most important thing in practicing stress is making the students be aware of where to stress the word or phrase. Below are three ways to show the stress pattern of words, phrases and sentences.
Use gestures. The teacher can indicate the stress by clapping hands or using arm movements as if conducting music.
Use the voice. The teacher can raise the voice to indicate stress. This can be done with some exaggeration sometimes.
Use the blackboard. The teacher can highlight the stress by underlining them or writing them with colored chalks or in different size. Practicing intonation
Intonation can greatly affect the invention of the speaker’s message. Intonation is used by native speakers to express meanings in many subtle ways such as surprise, complaint, sarcasm, friendliness, threats, etc. This is perhaps one of the last areas of language that foreign language learners can master
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and is very difficult to teach.
Ways to indicate change of intonation:
Use rising or falling arrows, such as and .
Mark change of intonation is to draw lines as shown below.
Unit7 Teaching Grammar
In this unit, we are going to discuss how to teach grammar. Although grammar is usually integrated with the teaching of other language components, we still consider it necessary to introduce ways to “focus on form”. We will mainly talk about the following: 1. The role of grammar in ELT
2. Methods for grammar presentation 3. Methods for grammar practice 7.1 The role of grammar in ELT Discussion:
Why do we learn grammar? (The importance of grammar)
B. Can’t we learn English without learning its grammar, as we do with mother tongue? Before trying to find out how something can be done it is necessary to decide whether it should be done, the value of grammar in foreign language teaching has been a focus of debate for decades and no conclusion is in sight. Task 1:
Read the following assumption about grammar in English learning and decide if you agree with them or not. When you have finished, compare results with your partner. Try to give your reasons for your decision. X Children do not learn grammar rules when they acquire their 1st language, so they don’t need them either when learning a foreign language. X X V V V V V V Students need to be given detailed grammar rules if they want to learn a foreign language successfully. If students get enough chance to practice using a foreign language, they don’t need to learn grammar. Making students aware of grammatical information is one of the objectives, allowing students opportunities for using the language is just as important. Grammar should be taught to help students to analyze difficult structures in texts. Teaching and learning grammar should focus on practice rather then the study of grammar itself. Grammar should be taught and practiced in context. Knowing grammar isn’t enough for real communication. An inadequate knowledge of grammar would severely constrain the capacity for communication. 8 / 33
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X Grammar will always be “the boring bit” of language learning. 7.2 Grammar presentation methods
As we know grammar is so complicated that we need various methods to teach it. Among the methods for teaching grammar, the deductive method and the inductive method have been discussed and used most frequently. .Deductive method (演绎法)
Present the rules Explain Example Apply the rules Conclusion
Example
a. 强调句句型结构It + is(was) +被强调部分 + that (who) + 句子其他成分 b. Take a sentence as an example to explain the structure c. For instance
It was your sister that (whom) Tom met in the zoo yesterday. It was in the zoo that Tom met your sister yesterday.
Read the two sentences and try to find the differences between them. d. Apply in the practice
____________that the trade between the two countries reached its highest point. A: During the 1960s B: That it was in the 1960s C: It was in the 1960s D: It was the 1960s e. Evaluate
Deductive method
⑴The deductive method relies or reasoning, analyzing and comparing. ⑵How to teach:
First, the teacher writes an example on the board or draws attention to an example in the textbook.
Then teacher explains the underlying rules regarding the forms and positions of certain structural words. The explanations are often done in the student’s native language and using grammatical terms.
Sometimes, comparisons are made between the native language and the target language or between the newly presented structure and previously learned structures.
Finally the students practice applying the rule to produce sentences with given prompts.
⑶The deductive method is often criticized: a. it teaches grammar in an isolated way; b. little attention is paid to meaning; c. the practice is often mechanical. ⑷The method is not without merits.
a. it could be very successful with selected and motivated students.
b. it could save time when students are confronted with a grammar rule which is complex but which has to be learned.
c. it may help to increase students’ confidence in those examinations which are written with accuracy as the main criterion of success. B. Inductive method（归纳法）
1.Present the rule in the contest.2.Give more examples.3. Ask students to focus on the use of the structure.4. Apply the structure to produce sentences.5. Get the students to work out the rule.6. Elicit the rule from the students.
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Inductive method
⑴In the inductive method, the teacher induces the learners to realize grammar rules without any form of explicit explanation. It is believed that the rules will become evident if the students are given enough appropriate examples. ⑵How to teach:
For example, in order to present the two forms\" this is” and “these are”, the teacher will first hold up a book, saying “This is a book.” He will do the same showing other objects.
Then the teacher holds up several books and says “These are books.” After several similar examples, it is hoped students will understand “These are” is used with plural forms of nouns.
Then students are invited to apply the newly learned structure to produce sentences with given visual aids or verbal prompts. The teacher tries to say nothing except to correct when necessary. Finally, but optionally, the teacher may elicit the grammar rule from the students.
⑶. It is believed the inductive method is more effective in that students discover the grammar rules themselves while engaged in language use. This is especially true with grammatical regularities which are easily perceived, understood and applied.
In practice, the distinguish between the deductive method and the inductive method is not always apparent. Perhaps a blend between the two is indeed more appropriate. 7.3 Grammar Practice
It is widely believed that practice is of vital importance in the teaching and learning grammar. But what is practice? What kind of practice is most effective? How can practice be conducted in a language classroom?
According to Ur. “practice may be defined as any kind of engaging with the language on the part of the learner, usually under the teacher supervision, whose primary objective is to consolidate learning” (Ur, 1988:11).
Before we make a further study of practice. We should remember that one way to teach grammar is by means of
Presentation Practice Production Presentation stage:
Introduce new language, focusing on its meaning, form and function. It’s important that the students understand the new language. Practice stage:
Students work through activities from being controlled to being free in order to practice the new language in different situations. The emphasis at this stage is on accuracy. Production stage:
Students have the chance to use the new language freely and incorporate it into their existing language. The emphasis at this stage is on use and fluency.
Ur further predicts that the following factors contribute to successful practice:
Pre-learning. Practice is more effective when new language is clearly perceived and taken into short-term memory by the learners.
Volume and repetition. The more language the learners are exposed to or produce, the more they are likely to learn. The learners should have plenty of time and opportunities to listen, speak, read and write. Success-orientation. Practice is most effective if it is based on successful practice.
Heterogeneity. Practice should be able to elicit different sentences and generate different levels of answers from different learners.
Teacher assistance. Practice is most effective when teacher assistance is available, such as suggestions,
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hints and prompts.
Interest. Interest is an essential feature of successful practice. Learners who are bored find it difficult to concentrate and their attention wanders. Mechanical Practice
Mechanical practice involves activities that are aimed at form accuracy. By doing mechanical practice, the students pay repeated attention to a key element in a structure. Substitution and transformation drills are most frequently used in mechanical practice.
In SUBSTITUTION DRILLS, the students substitute a part in a structure so that they get to know that part functions in a sentence. Sometimes certain prompts are given. Below is an example: Substitute the underlined part with the proper forms of the given words.
green lawn clean house pretty garden nice flowers In this exercise, the students are expected to produce sentences like: Mrs. Green has the greenest lawn in town. Mrs. Green has the cleanest house in town. Mrs. Green has the prettiest garden in town. Mrs. Green has the nicest flowers in town.
When doing substitution drills, the students also need to change the forms of the given prompts. It is believed that substitution drills that involve changes in forms are effective than those in which students simply replace the target part with another word.
The transformation drills, the students change a given structure in a way so that they are exposed to another similar structure. The type of exercise helps the students to have a deeper understanding of how the structures are formed and how they are used. Below is an example of transformation: Change the following sentences into the past tense. Use the adv. given in the brackets. Now he lives in London.(last year, Paris)
We have English and math today. (Yesterday, music and P.E) He gets up at seven. (This morning, eight) Last year he lived in Paris.
Yesterday we had music and P.E. This morning he got up at eight. Meaningful Practice In meaningful practice the focus is on the production, comprehension or exchange of meanings though the students “keep an eye on ” the way newly learned structures that are used in the process. Meaningful practice usually comes after mechanical practice. For example, after the presentation and mechanical practice of adjective comparatives and superlatives.
Using prompts for practice
Using prompts has also proved to be an effective way of grammar practice.
The prompts can be pictures, mimes, tables or key words. Practice based on prompts is usually meaningful practice.
Ø Using picture prompts.
Ø Using mime or gestures as prompts Ø Using information sheet as prompts
Ø Using key words or key phrases as prompts
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Ø Using chained phrases for story telling Ø Using created situations
① Using picture prompts: the students are asked to produce sentences based on the pictures provided. ② Using mime or gestures as prompts: the teacher can invite the students to ask questions like: “what were you doing at 7 o’clock yesterday evening?” or “What do you like to do in your spare time?” instead of answering the questions directly the teacher acts out the answers by miming and invites the students to guess the answers.
③Using information sheet as prompts: Students can be asked to describe each person using the information provided and then add and tell each other their own likes.
④Using key phrase or key words as prompts: The students are asked to produce language based on pictures and key phrase provided by the teachers. How many? playground boys girls children
⑤ Using chained phrase for story telling. The students try to tell a story based on given prompts. Here is an example:
7 o’clock –got up –had breakfast – hurried to school – school closed – surprised--?
⑥ Using created situations. In classroom situations, it is very difficult to find a real need and a real purpose for genuine communication in English among the students. However, teachers can create a situation for students to practice the language in a communicative way.
Unit 8 Teaching Vocabulary
Aims of the unit:
Although vocabulary is usually integrated with the teaching of reading, we still consider it necessary to introduce ways to learn and consolidate vocabulary. Assumptions about vocabulary and vocabulary building. Methods for presenting new vocabulary items. Ways to consolidate vocabulary;
Ways to help students develop vocabulary building strategies. 8.1 Vocabulary and vocabulary building Unlike the controversial role of grammar in foreign language learning, the role of vocabulary seems to have received more consistent understanding. However, uncertainty still remains regarding what constitutes a vocabulary item, which vocabulary items should be taught and learned, and how vocabulary can be taught and learned most effectively. Task I
Read the following assumptions about vocabulary in English learning and decide if you agree with them or not. 12 / 33
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2. Language consist of “words” with equivalents from one language to another. X 3. Vocabulary cannot be taught. It must be learned by the individuals. V 4. Both teachers and students need to know that there is a difference between active and passive vocabulary. V 6. English-English explanations are the best for vocabulary teaching. X 7. An English-English dictionary is an important aid for students. V 8. Words can be taught and learned most effectively in groups of words which are related to each other in meaning. V 9. Words must be learned in language contexts. V 10. If we do not use words, we will forget them. V
8.2 Presenting new words
Different teachers have different ways to present new words. Whatever methods are used, the following suggestions may help teachers:
Prepare examples to show meaning. Examples are best if they are created by the teachers themselves rather than taken from dictionaries. Ask students to tell the meaning first.
Think about how to show the meaning of a word with related words such as synonyms, antonyms etc. Think about how to check students’ understanding.
Think about the context in real life where the word might be used. Relating newly learned language to real life promotes high motivation.
6) Think about possible misunderstanding or confusing that students may have. 8.3 Consolidating vocabulary
Some ways are more effective for students to consolidate their vocabulary, say in groups, through various activities and under the teacher’s supervision.
Below are some vocabulary consolidating activities that can be done in class. Labelling
Students are given a picture. They are to write the names of objects indicated in the picture. A competitive element can be introduced by making the first student to finish the winner. Spotting the differences
Students are put into pairs. Each member of the pair receives a picture which is slightly different from one another and then, by a process of describing, questioning and answering, discover what the
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differences are.
Describing and drawing
One student has a picture, the other a blank piece of paper and a pencil. The student having the picture must tell his partner what to draw so that the drawing ends up the same as the original picture. Playing a game
Students are shown a picture or a tray with many objects on it, or a series of different flash cards or magazine pictures. They have one or two minutes to memorise as many of the objects as they can. The cards, pictures or tray are then taken away and the students have to say what they saw, or write down everything they can remember seeing, then compare their answers with the rest of the class. Using word thermometers
These are useful for indicating different degrees in size, speed, age, distance, emotion and etc. Students are given a list of words in jumbled order. They have to place these words in the correct place on the thermometer. Using word series
Students construct the series following an example.
Example: Cutlery: knife, fork, spoon
Vehicles: , , , Furniture: , , , Buildings: , , , Word bingo
The teacher thinks of an area of language (e.g. shopping) that the students have recently been studying. Students draw nine squares (3 *3 ) on a piece of paper and put nine words connected with shopping in the squares. The teacher then calls out, one at a time, words connected with shopping. If the students have the word in the squares, they cross it out. The first student to cross out all the words in the squares is the winner. The game can be played for more than one round.
Word association The teacher says a key word, e.g. travelling. The students then have to write down all the words they can think of connected with travelling. They have a time limit, e.g. two minutes. When time is up, the person with the highest number of acceptable words in the winner. Odd man out
The teacher writes a set of words on the blackboard and asks the students to find the “odd man out”. For example, in the set “cheese, eggs, oranges, bread, soap, and meat”, the word “soap” is the “odd man out”.
Synonyms and antonyms The students are given a list of words and asked to find pairs of words, either synonyms or antonyms. The words in the box below are six pairs of synonyms and six pairs of antonyms. Can you find them?
Using word categories
Students put the jumbled words in the middle into the boxes marked with different categories. Using word net-work
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Students fill in the ovals in a network with words that are under the same category or sub-category.
Unit 9 Teaching Listening
English Language Teaching Aims of the unit
1. Why is listening so difficult for students? 2. What do we listen to in everyday life?
3. What are the characteristics of the listening process? 4. What are the principles of teaching listening?
5. What are the common activities in teaching listening? 9.6 Classroom Model of Teaching Listening 1Pre-listening activities 2While-listening activities 3After-listening activities listening Class:
1Pre-listening activities:
Introduction, Title guessing, Questions, Discussions, Key words, Visual aids
2While-listening activities
Syntactic problems, Discourse problems, Social problems, Cultural problems, Listening Strategies, Writing or reading activities
3Post-listening activities
Comprehension check-up, Oral reproduction, Written reproduction, Outside listening Testing
listening Class
Activities for Pre-Listening Stage Predict
Activate topic-related words Set the frame Tell true or false Listen for a gist
Activities for While-Listening Stage Listen and tick Listen and fill
Listen and sequence Listen and locate Listen and repeat
Answer multiple-choice questions
Answer closed-ended or open-ended questions Dictation
Activities for Post-Listening Stage
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Note-taking and gap-filling Answer open-ended questions
Reconstruct or summarize the passage Do a role-play
Write on the same theme 9.6.1 Pre-listening stage
This stage is to prepare the listeners for what they are going to hear, just as we are usually prepared in real life (for example, we usually have expectations about the topic, and even the language). Discuss a relevant picture Discuss relevant experiences Associate ideas with the topic Associate vocabulary with the topic Predict information about the topic Write questions about the topic Pre-listening activities
Aims for having Pre-listening activities
To spark interest and motivate students to attend to the spoken message: To activate or build students' prior topical and linguistic knowledge: To set purposes for listening:
Pre-listening activities: Predicting
Setting the scene Listening for the gist
Listening for specific information Summary on pre-listening activities Predicting
√using visual aids (pictures) √asking leading questions
√students’ reading the listening comprehension questions before listening Setting the scene
Teachers can help provide the background information for students know more about the materials. So they will be better prepared to understand what they hear. Listening for the gist Important in real life;
Be similar to the concept of skimming a passage in reading; The gist can be obtained from the tone of voices of the speakers Listening for specific information Flight;
Temperature; price
While-listening activities:
This stage is to help the listeners to understand the text. The teacher should not expect the learners to try to understand every word but help the learners to process the information actively by involving them in practicing different listening skills .
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The following are tasks for students to do while they are listening to a passage. No specific responses
Recent research has shown that by not giving students any task the first time they listen to a passage, it can take the anxiety out of listening. This can work well with stories or with any kind of material that is interesting, humorous, or dramatic, because learners are likely to pay attention and try to understand in order to enjoy it. Listen and tick
A large part of what makes a listening task easy or difficult is what the teacher asks the students to do with the material. The tick item is quite easy. Listen and sequence
In this task, the students find out the order of things based on what they hear. Students can successfully complete this type of task even when they do not understand every word they hear. This builds up their confidence and helps prepare them for the real world. Listen and draw
Draw pictures according to what students hear; Pair work;
Compare pictures each has drawn; Give instructions before the activity
Notes: For this type of task, it is best to give it live rather than recorded. Listen and fill
Fill blanks according to what the teacher read; Do not overdo Listen and guess
Guess according to the descriptions, such as animals, people, etc. Post-listening activities:
This stage is to help the listeners connect what they have heard with their own ideas and experience, just as we often do in real life. It also allows the teacher to move from listening to another skill. For example, the listeners may practice speaking by role-play interviews similar to the one they have heard. Post-listening activities Give opinions
Relate similar experiences Role play a similar interaction Write a brief report Write a similar text Debate the topic
Multiple choice questions
The most typical type of post-listening task is the multiple-choice comprehension question. While this type of task may prepare students to take traditional multiple choice tests, it does little to help them develop good listening habits and strategies. The teacher needs to decide what balance is best for the students, preparing them for traditional multiple-choice tests or preparing them to function in English in the real world.
Note-taking and gap-filling
First the students listen to a fairly long text (depending on the level). The students takes notes while they are listening. When the listening is finished, the students are given two or three minutes to tidy up the notes. Then the teacher gives the students an incomplete summary of the text that the students have
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listened to. The students complete the summary based on their notes. They do not have to use the original words from the text. This is a good activity where students reconstruct meaning from what they hear.
(TEM8 Listening Mini-lecture) Dictogloss
Dictogloss is a recently discovered listening activity which requires the use of comprehensive listening skills. It has four stages:
Preparation. The teacher prepares the students by briefly talking about the topic and key words or asking general questions about the text they are going to hear. The teacher should also make sure students know what to do exactly.
Dictation. The teaching dictates the text twice. For the first time, students just listen an focus on the meaning. For the second time, the students take extensive notes. The teacher should make sure that the dictation speed is almost at the speed of normal speech.
3) Reconstruction. Based on their notes, the students work in pairs or groups and reconstruct the text they have heard.
4) Analysis and correction. The students compare their version of the text with the original, sentence by sentence.
Summary on post-listening activities
Not demanding students remember more details than a native-speaker would in a real-life situation; Integrating listening tasks with speaking and writing; Focus listening practice on real-life situation. Unit 10 Teaching Speaking
Aims of the unit: Through learning and discussion ,students will get to know: 1.The purpose of learning speaking;
2.Two main factors affect the improvement of speaking ability; 3. the main characteristics of spoken language 4. principles for teaching speaking 5. Group work in speaking activities; 6. Common types of speaking activities. Characteristics of spoken language 1Spontaneity
2Time-constraint Spontaneity
In most situations, people do not plan ahead of time what they are going to say.
The fact that speech is spontaneous means that it is full of false starts, repetitions, incomplete sentences, and short phrases.
Teachers may be requiring their students to do more forward-thinking and planning than native speakers do in real life!（Bygate，1987） Time-constraint
The students must be able to produce unplanned utterances in real time; otherwise people will not have the patience to listen to them. IV. Designing speaking tasks
One important consideration: Proficiency level of the students (challenging but not too difficult.) If the task is too easy or too difficult, the students may be demotivated.
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Other factors which are common in successful speaking tasks: Maximum foreign talk Even participation High motivation Right language level Maximum foreign talk
Try to avoid students’ talking in the mother tongue, and avoid too much Teacher Talk. Even participation
Try to avoid outstanding students’ dominating discussions. Try to guarantee equal opportunities for students of different levels. High motivation
Interesting topic, and clear objective. Make sure that the task is in line with the students’ ability. Right language level
The task must be designed so that the students can complete the task successfully with the language that they have. Otherwise the task will become frustrating and the students are likely to give up or revert to the native language.
VI. Types of speaking tasks
It is important to provide the students with a variety of speaking activities because:
1A variety of speaking activities will enable students to cope with different situations in reality. 2Variety helps keep motivation high.
3Variety may suit students of different learning styles.
4There are two major purposes for listening. One is to get information and the other is for social reasons. 5Since speaking is reciprocal of listening, the same is true of speaking.
6According to Littlewood, communicative speaking activities can be divided into two types: functional communication activities, and social interaction activities:
7For beginning students, pre-communicative activities are also necessary, which are more structural and allow the learner to practise the forms of the language. However, we should make speaking tasks as communicative as possible.
Some types of speaking activities Information-gap activities Dialogues and role-plays Activities using pictures Problem-solving activities Other speaking activities Information-gap activities
One excellent way to make speaking tasks communicative is to use information-gap activities, in which the students have different information and they need to obtain information from each other in order to finish a task.
Dialogues and role-plays
Two problems with most dialogues in textbooks:
Not authentic or natural. The natural speech of native speakers is often phrases or sentence fragments full of pauses, false starts, and repetitions.
The way most dialogues are taught. Teachers ask students to memorize dialogues by heart. Activities using pictures
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Pictures are invaluable in speaking activities. Appropriate pictures provide cues, prompts, situations and non-verbal aid for communication. Students from elementary level to advanced level can all benefit from using pictures in speaking activities. Problem-solving activities
You are on a committee that is in charge of deciding what to do with a small amount of money that has been donated to improve your school. You have a list of things to do, but you only have enough money for 5 of the items. You must reach a consensus (agreement) in your group on which 5 items you will spend the money. Here is the list:
Problem solving activities require a higher level of language proficiency, but the difficulty levels can be controlled somewhat by the topic.
In problem-solving activities, “participants tend to become personally involved; they begin to relate the problem as an emotional issue as well as an intellectual and moral one” (Ur 1996:128). Other speaking activities Find someone who …
e.g. Sand up and walk around the room. Ask your classmates what they like to do. Remember, you must speak in English only! Bingo activities
Change the story
Step 1: Form groups of 3-5;
Step 2: The group together makes a list of about 20 random verbs. e.g. go, sleep, teach, learn, jump, fall, look (at), hear, laugh, sing, etc. Step 3: Each one writes a short story, and underlines all the verbs in the story; e.g.
Step 4: Each one read his/her story, but pauses at every verb. The group then supplies one of the random verbs into that slot.
The results can be very funny. A possible version may be:
No specific responses
The teacher calls out a verb and students hold up a letter card each and rush to spell a word. (This seems to be practising listening rather than speaking.)
VII. Organising speaking tasks
Advantages of using group work:
More opportunities. As compared with activities for the whole class, group work enables students to talk a lot because it increases the time for each student to practise speaking in one lesson.
More motivation. Group work helps students avoid losing their face in front of a whole class, and thus it makes students courageous to speak.
More authenticity. Speaking in a small group is more natural than speaking in a large group, because the latter is usually more formal and requires preparation.
Different levels. Students can naturally perform to their abilities more readily in small groups than in a whole class, i.e. students of different levels can participate.
More cooperation. Small group work helps students learn to work cooperatively and it helps develop
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interpersonal skill – fostering development of tolerance, mutual respect and harmony.
Unit 11
Teaching Reading GROUP MENBERS: Contents
The Nature of Reading How do we read? What do we read?
Strategies involved in reading comprehension The role of vocabulary in reading
Principles and models for teaching reading Contents
Pre-reading activities While- reading activities Post-reading activities Conclusion
The Nature of Reading The Nature of Reading
Reading is an active process. It constantly involves guessing, predicting, checking and asking oneself questions.
Reading is the ability to understand the written words and respond to them in proper ways. Reading means getting meaning out of a given context. How do we read?
1. Reading has only one purpose, i.e. to get information.
2. Reading is a silent activity. Reading aloud does not help much with comprehension. 3. Reading with a purpose is more effective than reading without a purpose.
4. When we read, our eyes are constantly moving from letter to letter, word to word and sentence to sentence.
5. Reading is an individual activity.
6. We need to know all the words in order to understand a text 7. We read everything with the same speed.
8. When reading in a foreign language, we mentally translate everything in order to understand. 9. It is helpful to use a dictionary and note down the meaning of all the new words while reading. 10. The lack of cultural knowledge may affect the rate of reading comprehension. 11. Possessing a large amount of vocabulary is the key for reading comprehension. 12. Reading can best be improved by being engaged in reading and reading more.
Tasks should help develop students’ reading skills rather than test their reading comprehension.
The teacher should help students not merely to cope with one particular text in class but to develop their reading strategies and reading ability in general so that they are able to apply the strategies or skills learned in class to tackle other texts they encounter outside class or in the future. PWP三阶段英语阅读教学模式
三阶段英语阅读教学模式是我国中小学英语阅读教学中普遍被采用的教学模式，主要属于“自上而下”或交互作用的阅读教学模式，具体属于哪种阅读教学模式主要根据阅读文本体裁和教师的
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教学活动设计而定。三阶段即读前（pre-reading)、读中（while-reading)、读后（post-reading)三个阶段。
Pre-reading activities
Pooling existing knowledge about the topic Predicting the contents of the text
Skimming or scanning the text for certain purposes Learning key words and structures
Aims——To facilitate while-reading activities Pre-reading activities 1 Predicting
2 Setting the scene
3Skimming and scanning Content Layouts
Predicting is an important reading skill, which can make reading more intriguing and purposeful .Therefore, it is likely to result in better comprehension compared with the situation where the learner starts reading with a blank mind. Three ways of prediction Predicting based on the title
Good titles always contain the most important information of a written text. .
Look at the three titles in the box below and predict the contents of the texts. When you are ready, join another pair an d compare your predictions and the clues that helped you to make the predictions. A Nation of Pet-Lovers, Save the Jungle: Save the World, Police Hunt for Child
To begin with, students may not be good at predicting. If so, the teacher can help them by asking certain questions. For example, for each of the three texts above, we can ask these questions:
Text 1: What is a pet? What are pets for? Why do people love pets? Are there any problems with pets?
Text 2: What is a jungle? Where can you find jungles? What do you think has happened to the jungles?
Text 3: What happened to the child? How do you think the parents would feel? What could the police do?
Three ways of prediction
Predicting based on vocabulary
The teacher also asks students to write down the words that they think will appear in the text, according to the topic suggested by the title. Directions: Ask no less than 5 questions based on the title of the text. Also write some possible words you expect to appear in the text. 22 / 33
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Pre-questions 1.. 2. . 3. . 4. . 5. . Possible words mentioned
Predicting based on the T/F questions
The teacher gives students some true or false statements. Students predict if these statements are true or false. Then they read the text to check if they have made the right predictions. Setting the scene
Getting the students familiarized with the cultural and social background knowledge relevant to the reading text.
Setting the scene by relating what students already know to what they want to know.
Using visual aids to setting the scene, such as real objects, pictures, videos episodes and multi-media materials,etc.
Skimming
Reading quickly to get the gist,i.e. the main idea of the text.
Ask general questions which allow students to focus on one or two things.
Provide 3-4 statements and one of them represents the main idea, ask students to read the text and decide which statement is the correct one.
Provide subtitles for different parts of a text and asks students to put them in the right place.
Scanning
Read to locate specific information. The key point is that the readers has something in his mind and he should ignore the irrelevant parts when reading.
Besides,we can also ask students to scan for vocabulary which usually have certain semantic connections with the theme. Though teachers’ pre-teaching,students will facilitate the reading tasks that follow.
What’s more, students can also scan for certain structures,for example, tense forms,discourse connectors,or particular sentence structures,which can serve as the basis for grammar study. Should pay attention to following things: Set a time limit;
Give clear instruction for the task Wait until 70% of the students finish
Make clear how you are going to get feedback
Make sure that answers to the scanning questions are scattered throughout the text rather than clustered at one place.
Different texts offer opportunities for different kinds of exploitation. Yet a reading passage in traditional reading comprehension textbook has generally been exploited by means of mutiple choice quesstions,T/F questions, open questions, parahrasing and translation.
While-reading activities
In this section we will look at some different ways of exploiting texts focusing on the process of understanding rather than the results of reading.
Information presented in plain text form dose not facilitate information retention. When information in
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text form is transferred to another form, it can be more effectively processed and retained. The way to transfer information from one form to another is called a transition device
Transition device
Its function in teaching reading can be illustrated in the following diagram:
COMPLICATED INPUT(SI) TRANSITION DEVICE(TD) OUTPUT (TD) Most of the transition devices make use of visual aids so that information in text form is visualized. Research has shown visualization can help second language learners to comprehend meaning while reading (Tomlinson, 1998).
Below are some transition devices that are often used in teaching: Pictures Pie charts Chronological sequence Tree diagrams Cyclic diagrams Maps Flowcharts Drawings Notes(taking notes while reading) Bar charts Tables
Subtitles(provide subtitles) Purposes of transition device:
1.Focus attention on the main meaning of the text.
2.Be able to simplify sophisticated input so that it becomes the basic for out put. 3.Allow the students to perform tasks while they are reading.
4.Highlight the main structural organization of a text /part of a text, and show how the structure relates to meaning.
5.Involve all the students in clearly defined reading tasks.
6.Precede one step at a time(easier tasks before more complicated one.)
7.When a TD is completed, use it as a basis for further oral and/or written language practice.
Reading comprehension question
One of the most frequently used methods in teaching reading is asking students to answer comprehension questions. Nuttal suggests that we can classify questions according to the kind of information that they require students to get from the texts, or the kind of thinking that we wish students to engage in.
She lists five types:
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Questions of literal comprehension. These are questions whose answer are directly and explicitly expressed in the text.
Questions involving reorganization or reinterpretation. These questions require Ss to put literal information together in a new way or reinterpret it.
Questions for inferences. They require Ss to consider what is implied but not explicitly stated.
Questions for evaluation or appreciation. Such as making judgment about what the writer is trying to do and whether the writer is biased or dishonest.
Questions for personal response. The answers to these questions depend most on the reader`s reaction to the content of the text.
Understanding references:
All natural language, spoken or written , uses referential words such as pronouns to refer to people or things already mentioned previously in the context. Some students have difficulty in following clearly the references in the text. So the teacher should find ways to help Ss find the meaning of the references in the context.
Making inferences
Making inferences, which means 'reading between the lines', is an important reading skill. It requires the readers to use background knowledge in order to infer the implied meaning of the author.
Making inferences is actually the process of relating the given information to what we have known about the world.
Sometimes, inferences can be made only after we have read the whole text and reinterpreted the text.
Summary on while-reading activities
Now, We have looked at a number of while reading tasks. Of course, you cannot use all of them at one time or with one text. You need to choose from them the ones that best suit your students as well as the materials that you are using.
Post-reading activities
In this area, teachers have to be most inventive or imaginative .They have to design tasks which are relevant to the text being studied and appropriate to the students' level. The tasks can fulfil several functions, whether they are used in an extensive or an intensive reading context.
At the post-reading stage, teachers often rely upon reading aloud, asking comprehension questions or asking students to paraphrase sentences of a text.
Sometimes sentences by sentence translation is conducted. We consider these activities inadequate to fulfil the functions of post-reading tasks.
Post-reading tasks should provide the students with opportunities to relate what they have read to what they already know or what they feel. In addition, post-reading tasks should enable students to produce language based on what they learned.
Post-reading activities
Discussion Role play Gap-filling Retelling Writing Discussion
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Discussion in class is quite often used as a way of exploiting reading texts and used for exchange of personal opinions with a question like\"what do you think of.......?\"
It can also be used as a basis for other activities, such as problem-solving, the ranking of alternatives, deciding upon priorities, ect.
Stages of role-play
Defining the roles and setting up goals. Grouping students and assessing roles.
Preparation:a) whole class brainstorm possible questions;b) students playing the same roles go into a group to work out the questions. Role play in pairs/groups. Class viewing/ demonstration.
Teacher gives feedback based on active monitoring. Gap-filling
The teacher provide the Ss with a summary of the text, leaving some blanks for them to fill in, encourage students to use as many different words or expressions as possible.
The teacher provides key words and phrases and Ss retell the story according to these words or asks them to retell from another character`s point of view. Retelling Writing
The Ss are asked to write something based on what they have read. For example:
Produce a tourist brochure for a place described in a text. Produce an advertisement for a product described in a text. Re write a story from another character`s point of view. Write a short summary of the text.
Conclusion
The teaching of reading should focus on developing students' reading skills and strategies and on maintaining students' motivation for reading, which can be achieved through pre-, while-, and post- reading for activities.
The purpose of teaching reading is to guide students to learn to read so that they can read to learn in the future.
Remember: it is important to make reading an enjoyable and fruitful experience for the students.
Unit 12 Teaching Writing Aims of the Unit
- to understand the nature of writing in reality to learn a communicative approach to writing
- to be aware of the problems in writing tasks in existing textbooks to understand the process approach to writing Writing through e-mail
12.1 What, why and how do we write?
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What do we write?
Writing is a real-life reality. Whether it is in social, work or study situations, we write to get things done and to form and maintain social relationships. In reality there is a great variety of things we write for example, letters, journals, notes, instructions, posters, essays, reports, menus. We fill in forms, answer questionnaires and similar tasks.
Why do we write?
We write for various reasons, such as to convey messages or just to keep a record of what is in our mind. Reasons why we should get students involved in writing in a foreign language: Writing can give a voice to shy students as writing can serve as a medium through which less confident students can communicate with their teacher. Writing can be less threatening for anxious students as it gives them time to think about their meaning and purpose (Morgan, 2005). Writing can also raise awareness of how language works. Through writing, students will become more familiar with the linguistic and social conventions of writing in English. A contrast between writing in ELT classroom and writing in reality writing in ELT classroom writing in reality Purpose To consolidate language recently learned (writing To convey message or for self creation as language learning) Way write to Students write according to the topic and We may have some ideas long before we put them on requirements given by the teacher in limited period paper. And we often plan, draft, and rewrite. That is, we of time; the focus is on the final product while the focus on the writing process. process which the students go through while do the writing task is virtually ignored.
Principles for teaching writing
Choose the proper model for teaching.
Make the writing tasks for real communication. Focus on the process rather than the product. Instruct clearly for each stage.
Integrate writing with reading, listening, and speaking.
Pay attention to both product assessment and process assessment.
Basically, in teaching writing the teacher of English needs to give equal weight to clarity of expression, preciseness, conciseness, frequency, accuracy, and the ability to organize and summarize ideas. 12. 2. A communicative approach to writing
Mechanical writing activities that are done in traditional ELT classroom do not by themselves motivate students. To motivate students, it is necessary to engage them in some act of communication. This means writing for a specific recipient or engaging in an act of creative writing where their work is intended to be read by an intended audience.
In short, students can be motivated by authentic writing tasks that have some communicative elements. Some writing activities can be between “writing for learning” and “writing for communication”. 12. 3 Problems in writing tasks
Many writing tasks, both in existing textbooks and in classroom teaching, fail to have a communicative element due to the following deficiencies: 1. They are mainly accuracy-based.
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2. They are designed to practice a certain target structures.
3. There is insufficient preparation before the writing stage. 4. There is no sense of audience or authenticity.
5. Students are given ideas to express rather than invited to invent their own.
6. There is no opportunity for creative writing, particularly for expressing unusual ideas.
7. Many of them are test-oriented.
12.4 A Process Approach to Writing
1. What is process approach to writing? The teacher provides some help to guide the students through the process that they undergo when they are writing. Of course this kind of guidance should be gradually withdrawn so that the students finally become independent writers.
2. What are the features of process writing?
Features of the process approach to writing summarized by Brown (1994:320-321): Focus on the process of writing that leads to the final written product; Help students writers to understand their own composing process;
Help them to build repertoires of strategies for prewriting, drafting, and rewriting; Give students time to write and rewrite;
Place central importance on the process of revision;
Let students discover what they want to say as they write;
Give students feedback throughout the composing process; (not just on the final product) to consider as they attempt to bring their expression closer and closer to intention; Encourage feedback both from the instructor and peers;
Include individual conferences between teacher and student during the process of composition.
or original
Suggestions on the Process Approach to Writing
Before writing, students work together to brainstorm topics and ideas. While writing, students should finish it by themselves.
After writing, there are a lot of options for the teacher to decide what to do next, e.g. peer reading, discussion, rewriting.
The teacher could provide the students with a checklist to guide their peer reading and feedback.
In other words, writing activities should serve to encourage a process of brainstorming, drafting, writing, feedback, revising and editing, which proceeds in a cyclical fashion resembling the writing process of a real writer. These types of activities should ‘encourage the idea that learning to write is more important than creating a final product; it is the learning of a series skills leading to the product.’ (Sokolik, 2003:96)
Process-oriented Approach Pre-writing Drafting Revising Second draft
Teacher’s feedback
1) The Process of Writing
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Drafting Organize
Explore the new idea Edit
Check idea and organization Correcting
Correct mistakes, such as spelling, usage, punctuation Publishing
Share it with others Pre- writing activities
Collect material,Choose object and audience
The process approach pays attention to pre-writing, while-writing and post-writing activities. Creating a motivation to write Brainstorming Mapping Freewriting Outlining Drafting Editing Revising Proofreading Conferencing
Creating a motivation to write Purpose or reason to write Interest
Brainstorming
Students’ thoughts can be inspired by each other’s sparkling points.
The more important is to get the students to think freely and put down all possible ideas that come to their mind. Mapping
Mapping will give students the opportunity to select from the list these useful ideas to be included in their writing and also to see how these ideas can be put together in a coherent and logical way to present a convincing argument.
As pointed by Morgan (2005), when students see their ideas emerge visually on the page, it can stimulate more ideas. Free writing
Students are required to write anything that comes to their minds as quickly as possible without caring much about spelling and grammar.
Free writing can help students develop fluency in writing. Outlining
An outline usually illustrates the main organising structure and the most important points of the essay. Main idea of each paragraph; Notes for supporting details;
An introduction and a conclusion.
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It can be changed as the writer has better ideas. Drafting
At this stage, students should be given more time to write the first draft and developing ideas is more important than getting grammatical structures, punctuations or spelling correct. Editing
Editing is the stage when students read through their writings and check the clarity of ideas or the logical development of their arguments. Self-editing and peer-editing (what’s the benefit in editing?)
Exchange of ideas between editors and writers and justification of ideas. Revising
Revising is the stage when teachers guide students to make necessary improvements in both organization and contents based either self-editing or peer editing, eg. adding new points or deleting irrelevant facts, and correcting errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar or choice of words.
Revising can take several rounds, so students need to be prepared to write a second or third draft before they submit the final draft. Proofreading(校对) The final stage in writing
To read the writing for mistakes in grammar, spelling, punctuation, or capitalization. Independent proofreading is encouraged.
Teachers should limit their involvement in making corrections for the students. They do not need to present all the correct forms. They can underline those problematic items and leave them for the students to do the correction themselves.
In order to keep tract of how students do self-correction, a form can be used so that both teachers and students can check from time to time to see if the same mistakes/errors are repeated. Conferencing
Conference here refers to a private meeting between the teacher and each individual student. It is very important to talk face to face with students about their writing, pointing out their strength and weakness. For small classes, if possible, conferencing with individual student can be done once or twice during a semester and 5-10 minutes for a student. For a number of large classes a teacher teaches, there can be a class conference focusing on the main problems and features of good writings.
In commenting the students’ writing, teachers should keep in mind that teachers’ attitude can influence students’ confidence and motivation to write. So during the teacher-student conferencing, teachers need to encourage rather than criticize, be constructive rather than destructive and try their best to protect students’ self-esteem.
Even after the marks are given, teachers can still allow students to continue improving their writing. In other words, students can revise their writing again if they are not satisfied with the grade and a new grade can be given if better improvement is made within the time frame given to encourage individuals to be more self-directed in learning. 2) Process writing tasks No. Writing Task Writing Process Methodology 30 / 33
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You are going to write a composition entitled Pre-writing stage “The advantages and disadvantages of 1 (brainstorming watching TV”. Now you need to make notes ideas) of the things you’d like to discuss about. The following is a list of ideas about the advantages and disadvantages of watching Pre-writing stage 2 TV. Decide on the ideas that your thinking (organizing ideas) are useful and remove any that you think are of little use. Write a draft/first version of the 3 composition based on the ideas that you’ve decided to use. Revise the first version of your work. You can reorganize your work by 4 shifting emphasis or changing the order of paragraphs. Write the final version. You need to correct any errors in grammar, 5 vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and references. Drafting/Composing stage (first version) Individual work Pair work Teacher guide Group work Revising stage ( second version) Individual work Peer correction Editing stage (final version) Individual work Peer correction
From the above discussion, we can see that writing tasks can involve a lot of oral discussions. This is because writing and speaking are always related to each other because both are forms of language production, and in reality, much writing is done based on what has been discussed, for example, in group project work. And in teaching, we try to advocate integrated teaching of language skills.
12. 5 Motivating students to write Is writing an interesting skill to develop?
The way to motivate students to write is a key point to the successful teaching of writing.
1)Make the topic of writing as close as possible to students’ life
Giving students a few topics so that they can choose what they want to write about can be a way to meet the needs and interests of different learners.
2) Leave students enough room for creativity and imagination Students like to use extraordinary ideas to write. 3) Prepare students well before writing Some pre-writing activities are necessary.
4) Encourage collaborative group writing as well as individual writing
Designing group writing activities once in a while can greatly motivate students to write. It can also provide an opportunity for different students to exercise different talents. In this kind of writing activity, they can help each other and learn from each other.
5) Provide opportunities for students to share their writings
Teachers can organize class presentation or group presentation to allow students to share their writings.
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It can provide another opportunity for students to learn from each other. 6) Provide constructive and positive feedback
Giving feedback is integral part of teaching writing. Every student wants his/her writing to be read seriously by the teacher or their classmates.
The feedback should include at least three elements:1) positive comments on the good features of the piece of writing;2) areas for improvement; 3) your personal opinion on the issue the writer has discussed in his / her writing.
Feedback for each writing should be personal and specific so that it can help build up a trust between teachers and students. Students will feel more motivated to write if he /she realizes that the teacher takes his/her writing seriously and discusses with them in meaningful ways. 7) Treat students’ errors strategically
Teacher’s attitude towards errors plays a key role in motivating students to write. As making mistakes is an inevitable part of the learning process, teachers should encourage students to take risks to use new vocabulary and structures in their writing. If teachers often show negative attitude towards errors, students will not dare to take risks but use only very simple words and structures in order to guarantee accuracy. Eventually, they make no obvious progress in their writing skills. 8) Give students a sense of achievement from time to time.
Progress in writing is usually a slow process and it is not easily observable. And this can easily discourage many students. Therefore, enabling students to experience a sense of achievement from time to time is quite crucial in motivating students to continue writing practice.
Organizing a writing conference, displaying works in a writing exhibition in the classroom and publishing a class writing newsletter are all good ways to give students a sense of achievements. The limitation may be that we do not have enough space to exhibit all the writings of all the students. In this case, guiding students to create their own writing portfolio is a good way to encourage every student. Each portfolio can be a unique writing because each student can decide what to put in his/her portfolio and how to design it. A portfolio can demonstrate the progress made as one examines the whole writing process through first draft, second draft to the final product with peer editing comments and self reflection.
12.6 Using the internet to promote process writing Traditional way of writing
Research indicates, rather than handing in the ‘perfect’ final product, students are more willing to submit drafts one at a time to the teacher and revise their work after seeking comments or advice from the teacher (Warschauer,1995). In doing so, the traditional hand-in-and-return method will not suffice.
E-mail provides a perfect mechanism for students to submit drafts and for teachers to look them over at their convenience and send them back with comments--- once, twice or several times. New ideas are shared promptly and can be responded to quickly. Another advantage is that the teacher can easily store all the drafts of a document for later review and analysis of the revision process. All these help promote the application of the process approach to writing in ELT classroom.
The students can send their work to each other to exchange and share ideas.
When writing through e-mails, students have a feeling of real-time writing. They feel that they are writing for real purposes of exchanging ideas.
Besides e-mails, Blogging and BBS are also very useful ways in teaching writing. The teacher can set up a class writing blog or BBS for writing tasks. Students can paste their assignments on the blog or BBS. In this way, students in the same class can read and comment on each other’s writings. It can motivate students to write and give them a real sense of communication through writing.
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教学法笔记精校版How-to-Teach-English
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