Aural and Oral Skills Teaching
This week's readings have been both, enlightening and entertaining.
It is really necessary that teachers provide tasks that integrate all the skills in order to benefit our students, as mentioned by Julia Gong (The employment of CALL in teaching second/foreign language speaking skills). Here I would like to add the need to chunk materials and activities. For example if you are planning for a receptive skill like Listening, make sure that you include a meaningful productive Post-Listening task like writing about the student's own opinion or experience. I agree when Ms. Gong says that using computers provide a safe environment for our students, but I have to say that my students still need the teacher's reassurance and feedback when we go to our CALL classroom. It is true that their enthusiasm increases whenever I use any technological approach during class or when I assign homework, so Julia Gong is right about the motivating factor of technology.
While reading Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsay Miller I was greatly surprised to hear that the use of the Radio was still on! I pretend to include it on my teaching. I just have some questions...Are these Radios online? Can we have their broadcasting schedules and topics in advance? Is it legal to record their programs in order to use them in class? The Pre-During-Post is a must when it comes to lesson planning for a receptive skill in my institution. Therefore, I use it almost every day. For authentic aural material I tend to use Randall's ESL Lab and Breaking News English. I also ask my students to record themselves using my Ipad and then I used the recorded conversations with other classes. I am also very much into making my students produce videos, first they need to write their own material (after researching the net), then they need to look for pictures that illustrate what they are talking about, finally they need to put all together with their voices in the background. I also use their videos as authentic material!
Speaking lesson plans
I would like to talk about a lesson plan that I found at esl.about. It really got my attention since it deals with the grammar usage of Modals of deduction, something my intermediate students find challenging, which are so well addressed. The name of the lesson plan is Teenage Problems-Giving advice. Esl.about is one of the many destinations to get lesson plans, and it is definitely a really good one.
This week's readings have been both, enlightening and entertaining.
It is really necessary that teachers provide tasks that integrate all the skills in order to benefit our students, as mentioned by Julia Gong (The employment of CALL in teaching second/foreign language speaking skills). Here I would like to add the need to chunk materials and activities. For example if you are planning for a receptive skill like Listening, make sure that you include a meaningful productive Post-Listening task like writing about the student's own opinion or experience. I agree when Ms. Gong says that using computers provide a safe environment for our students, but I have to say that my students still need the teacher's reassurance and feedback when we go to our CALL classroom. It is true that their enthusiasm increases whenever I use any technological approach during class or when I assign homework, so Julia Gong is right about the motivating factor of technology.
While reading Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsay Miller I was greatly surprised to hear that the use of the Radio was still on! I pretend to include it on my teaching. I just have some questions...Are these Radios online? Can we have their broadcasting schedules and topics in advance? Is it legal to record their programs in order to use them in class? The Pre-During-Post is a must when it comes to lesson planning for a receptive skill in my institution. Therefore, I use it almost every day. For authentic aural material I tend to use Randall's ESL Lab and Breaking News English. I also ask my students to record themselves using my Ipad and then I used the recorded conversations with other classes. I am also very much into making my students produce videos, first they need to write their own material (after researching the net), then they need to look for pictures that illustrate what they are talking about, finally they need to put all together with their voices in the background. I also use their videos as authentic material!
Speaking lesson plans
I would like to talk about a lesson plan that I found at esl.about. It really got my attention since it deals with the grammar usage of Modals of deduction, something my intermediate students find challenging, which are so well addressed. The name of the lesson plan is Teenage Problems-Giving advice. Esl.about is one of the many destinations to get lesson plans, and it is definitely a really good one.
I have to say that meeting Lindsay Clandfield in person at an ABLA Convention in Santo Domingo, which was an inspiring moment, made me read ALL his recommended lesson plans. I especially enjoyed his First Day plans since we all know that it is in that important day that we set the tone for the rest of the course (you never have a second chance to give a great first impression!). I would love to use his Out of the Classrooms plans but that is not allowed where I work. One Stop English is an ideal site to find fun and innovative plans for all English levels!
Delicious Social Bookmarking
Creating my Delicious account was quite easy since I signed in using my Facebook account. I find it so simple to use, just click on Add to Delicious on your bookmarks bar and add a short accurate description about your link. You should also add tags to group your links under different categories. Here you have a link to my Delicious account so you can follow me!
Rosmery from Bolivia
Hello Rosemery,
ReplyDeleteYour passion as a teacher can be traced throughout the lines of your blog. I agree with you that the teacher's role in CALL class is vital when it comes to guiding his/her students and providing them with proper feedback; the thing that raises the issue of the teacher's role inside the class with all the technological facilities offered to students.
Keep up the good work.
Best,
Dareen