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In the last unit we learned about the receptive skills reading and listening. In Unit 12 we are learning about the productive skills speaking and writing. These skills are very important to learn in communicating with others. It is important to integrate all these skills in presenting and guiding students in learning English. First, there are several reasons why a student would want to communicate with either speaking or writing. They may have some reason or purpose that makes it necessary to communicate with someone. For instance, if they need help at a supermarket in finding something, they need to be able to communicate what they need to find. Or they just may feel a need to express themselves to people. They may want to listen to something on a subject they are interested in, or other similar situations. The unit discusses the difference between accuracy and fluency, both of which are important. Accuracy is presented for the most part in the study phase of a lesson. Drilling and prompting help students in their speaking accuracy. In writing, accurate grammar, spelling, pronunciation, proper vocabulary, and so on, are all addressed in this phase. The teacher needs to make sure the students are understanding these concepts while doing motivating, interesting activities such as gap fill, true/false exercises, and similar things. Fluency is emphasized in the Activate phase of a lesson. More creative, imaginative activities are encouraged with less emphasis on every communication being accurate during the activity. Mistakes can be addressed briefly at the end, or recurring mistakes can be corrected in presenting future lessons. It is important to let the students have a feeling of confidence and accomplishment, especially during the activate phase. Some speaking activities could be role-plays, debates, discussions, and others. Writing activities for the activate phase would be creative writing, story telling, etc. Sometimes student find it difficult to speak in class. This may be due to lack of personal confidence, bad past experiences, fear of others opinions of them, or it may be some type of cultural reason. It is very important to make the students feel comfortable and confident enough to speak in class, because it will enhance his or her learning. This can be accomplished through several things, such as doing pair work one on one with another student, or group work with a smaller group of students. Other helps would be if the teacher has careful planning in making sure time is allowed for the students to think and prepare if they are to prepare something to speak aloud to the class, for instance. The teacher should make sure he or she presents her instructions clearly before the activities. Correcting afterwards and not during a student presentation, even privately with the student, is another way to keep the level of enthusiasm and confidence among the students. In short, teaching writing and speaking skills are important aspects of teaching English to students.
