4 SKILL OF EACH SETTING

Teaching Reading in the EFL Classroom

Teaching reading in EFL is a bit different than the way native speakers are taught to read.  While vocabulary is an important part of reading, teaching the reading skills of surveying, skimming, scanning, inference, predicting, and guessing are just as important.

Research tends to indicate that a student’s reading comprehension can be improved by focusing on teaching students skills in the following areas:

Vocabulary

Many languages do not have the word building concepts that English does. In teaching vocabulary, the idea of “root” words, and prefixes and suffixes helps students build a larger vocabulary quickly.  Affixes (prefixes and suffixes) help us create a variety of words from one base word.  many EFL students won’t recognize that contain is the root word of container and containment; or that desire is the root word of undesirable and desirability. When teaching new vocabulary it is important to point out these connections and we can quickly help students expand their vocabulary with the base words they already know.  Teaching affixes is only one of several strategies for teaching vocabulary.  See the links below for more.

Surveying, Scanning, Skimming

In an academic setting we rarely read an entire text word for word.  More typical is that we look at the contents of a book, the chapters, headings, subheadings, sidebars, pictures, illustrations, words in italics and bold type – and dive in to find the information we need. These are the concepts of surveying, scanning and skimming: moving from the big ideas of a reading down to the specific details.  These are skills that EFL students don’t usually have and must be taught.  The linked readings below will give you more specifics on these skills.

Guessing and Predicting from Context

Students also need to be taught to guess the meanings of words based on the context of the reading and to draw from the reading an ability to predict what might happen in the next paragraph.  Links below will lead to more information on these skills.

Teaching Listening in the EFL Classroom

Basic Concepts

·         Recognize cardinal and ordinal numbers and the alphabet

·         Follow the directions in familiar context to complete a simple task

·         Follow the direction and instruction with some detailed

·         Using simple conversation in the audio/video

·         Recognize some common idioms in conversation

Teaching EFL Writing

Basic Concepts:

Teaching writing is often about teaching grammar.  If grammar comes up anywhere in EFL, it is in the writing classroom.  Most EFL students will have some writing skills when you get them.  But they will often have an idea that their writing is quite good and generally it will be quite poor.

Many EFL students will have had some experience with paragraph and essay writing, but, in fact, they often will have quite poor writing skills at the sentence level.  Therefore, you will need to take them back to sentence level and begin to teach them very basic structure and how to write simply.  Run-on and fragmented sentences will be very common until you correct those errors.

The more basic you get with your writing students, the better.  Once a good foundation is built, you can move on to basic paragraph writing and on to essays.  These skills take time to develop though and you will find that most textbooks will move your students forward too quickly.

•      Write simple sentence by using simple punctuation

•      Following a model, write a simple paragraph on a single topic

•      Apply basic capitalization, spelling and punctuation rules when writing

•      Use some idioms in writing

•      Describe a detailed procedure in writing

English speaking teaching techniques and strategies for EFL

•      Produce some sentence

•      Using simple expression

•      Provide two and three step instructions with detail on how to do something

•      Use a variety of sentence patterns, new vocabulary, and high-frequency idioms in spontaneous conversation

•      Tell a story in every part conversations.

Reading in the ESOL Classroom: A Technique for Teaching Syntactic Meaning

• A focus on grammar (e.g. articles, punctuation, phrasal verbs, grammar tenses and passive and active voice)
• Sentence structure
• Paragraph structure
• Overall organisation& construction of written texts

 This course is based on participants’ needs. Actual topics/types of writing to be covered are negotiated and agreed on with class participants according to the needs of the group.

 Classes are practical and participants are given exercises in order to practise the skills they have learned.

How to Teach Writing Skills to ESL Students

1.      Provide a notebook for each student. Ask the students to write in their journals every day. Write the day of the week and the date on a board. Read the day and date, then ask the students to copy the date in their journals and to write about anything they choose. Some students will write sentences, some may write paragraphs and some may write only words. Tell students to raise their hands if they want to know how to spell a word. Write the word on the board. Suggest topics that the students might like to write about: their friends, their family, how they feel, their favorite food or their favorite book. Give students the opportunity to read their entries to their classmates. The teacher does not correct the writing at this point, but she may want to write a brief comment in a few of the journals each day.

2.      Have the students brainstorm a topic such as "family." Draw a word web on the chalkboard. Write the word "family" in the middle circle. Then ask for words that tell about families in the circles that you draw around the main circle. Ask the students to make sentences from the words you have written on the board. Start the sentences by writing "Four people live in my house." Write all the sentences on the board, reading them as you write.

3.      Ask the students to make up a story together. The story can be something that really happened, such as a game they played outside or a trip that someone took, or it could be a made-up story, such as "One day Juan saw a flying car." Write the sentences on the board as the students say them. Do not correct grammar at this point. Read the story aloud, then ask the students to read it in unison. Have them read it several times. Ask if anyone would like to read the story by himself. Explain why you put punctuation and capital letters in the sentences.

4.      Use fill-in-the-blank activities. Adjust the difficulty level according to the ability of your students. Give the students a worksheet, and ask them to write the words in the correct places. Write a story on the board the first time. Complete it with the students.Forexample:keep asked feed little kittenIngrid found a - - - - - - kitten.She wanted to - - - - the - - - - - -.Ingrid - - - - - her mother if she could keep the kitten.Her mother told her she would have to - - - - it and give it water.

5.      Have students make a mural that tells or retells a story--for example, summarizing the events in a story they have read or how their family makes preparations for a holiday. Provide butcher paper, markers, tape and crayons. Ask them to draw a picture showing what happens first, second and the next steps. Then ask them to write sentences below the pictures that describe the action. Help the students tape the mural to a wall. Organize an exhibit of the mural. Appoint a student to stand in front of each picture to read the sentence under that picture and explain what is happening in the picture. The other students form a line and walk past the mural listening to the information about each picture. Let the students take turns describing the pictures.

6.      Give the students opportunities to do functional tasks such as making lists of things they need to bring for a party, writing friendly letters, reading and copying poems that you write on the chalkboard and writing notes to their families about school events.

Improve Listening Skills for ESL Students

So what can you do to focus on listening in a lesson, but also give ESL learners greater confidence when it comes to the skill?

First, prepare the students with an activity or two. Set aside some discussion time, with several questions that deal with the topic. If the listening exercise deals with vacations, give the students several questions related to vacations to talk about. This gives them some background ideas, thereby gearing up their thoughts towards the upcoming content. With lower-level students, use more basic questions.

Next, establish the subject and purpose of the monologue/dialogue. If the students have a general description, the reason for the conversation, and who will be speaking, they can jump right in and focus on the tasks you've assigned. In other words, they won't lose any time orienting themselves with the speakers and the purpose of the conversation. You should also explain exactly what the activity requires to be done. For example, will students need to answer questions? Will they need to follow a set of directions? Will they need to complete a task, like filling out a calendar or diary? If necessary, walk the students through the instructions step-by-step, and confirm understanding. This guarantees everyone fully and correctly participates in the next step.

Third,do the task. Students listen to the passage or conversation, and then do something with that information (e.g., answer questions, fill out a schedule, etc.). With more difficult passages, it's perfectly all right to let the students listen once, but not take any action apart from becoming familiar with the accent and intonation, and to just catch the gist of it.

Lastly, confirm and discuss the listening task. Was it easy, or difficult? What did the class miss? Why? This gives everyone the chance to talk about the listening exercise in a positive environment. Follow this with answer checks, either as a class or in pairs/groups. Then wrap up the exercise with an opportunity to reuse the information that they just heard in combination with other language skills. Discuss specific questions in pairs or groups, for example, or debate the information. With lower-level students, have them reuse phrases, vocabulary, or ideas in another activity such as peer interviews, or a similar dialogue.

TEACHING SPEAKING TESL

•       Using intermediate dialogue for role play with follow up multiple choice quiz

•       Understand your class for fun survey to understand study habits

•       Using pronunciation teaching

•       Participate in social conversation

•       Retell a simple story

READING IN TESOL

•       Recognize personal information words

•       Read learned sentences

•       Read simple sentences on a familiar topic

•       Read compound and complex sentences following punctuation cues

•       Read short simplified paragraphs on a single topic with familiar vocabulary

•       Determine meaning of new vocabulary using context clues and decoding skills

WRTING IN TESOL

•      Classroom application reflection writing correction task

•      Writing activities (Write basic personal information)

•      Marking written work (Write simple sentences related to familiar situations)

•       Write a descriptive paragraph with some detail on a familiar topic that includes a beginning, middle and end

•      Apply basic capitalization, spelling and punctuation rules when writing

•      Draft, organize, write and edit a short paragraph using a topic sentence, supporting details and

•      Write a detailed paragraph with topic sentence, supporting details, and conclusion

•       Describe a detailed procedure in writing

LISTENING IN TESOL

•      Recognize or respond to basic survival vocabulary, greetings, and polite expressions

•      Listen for key vocabulary words in contextualized conversations

•      Recognize common words when spelled or dictated

•      Respond to simple social conversation in familiar context

•      Identify simple information from a conversation in familiar context

•      Distinguish between facts and opinions in conversation

•      Recognize or respond to some common idioms

•      Recognize/respond to conversational openers/closures and polite expressions as used by native speakers

SPEAKING IN TESOL

•      Warm up (use basic vocabulary for social interaction)

•      Speaking activities ( practice and reflection)

•      Games

•      Spell some familiar words

•      Participates in short conversations on everyday activities using appropriate conversation skills and monitoring for listener comprehension

•      Produce simple statements, questions, and commands using familiar vocabulary

•       Participate in routine social conversations in familiar contexts

•      Participate in social interactions using the appropriate degree of formality

Listening in TEIL

·         Identify simple expressions indicating lack of understanding

·         Respond to statements, questions and commands using some expanded vocabulary

·         Distinguish language use in informal versus simple formal situations (i.e., pay attention to register)

·         Recognize/respond to conversational openers/closures and polite expressions as used by native speakers

WRITING IN TEIL

·         Write simple notes and messages (e.g., note to a teacher about a sick child, thank you for a gift, etc.)

·         Use pre-writing skills to organize and develop a paragraph

·         Identify parts of a composition -- outlining content/sequence of paragraphs

READING IN TEIL

·         Recognize alternate forms of basic information words on a personal information form (e.g., today’s date/current date, birth date/date of birth, sex/gender).

·         Identify main idea, chronological order, and simple transitions in texts on familiar subjects

·         Read and understand multi- paragraph selections from a variety of genres

SPEAKING IN TEIL

·         USING EXPRESSION in conversation

·         Respond to simple questions in familiar situations demonstrating some control of grammar

·         Produce simple statement and common using familiar vocabulary

·         Request specific information in person

·         Participate in social interactions using the appropriate degree of formality