Teach English in ShAxiZhen - Chaozhou Shi

Unit 12 presents speaking and writing, two of the four basic language skills that are reading, listening, speaking and writing. These two skills speaking and writing are productive skills while reading and listening are receptive skills. Activities designed for speaking and writing focus on either accuracy or fluency. Activities focusing on accuracy are designed to ensure accurate language production. while activities focusing on fluency are designed to enhance effectiveness and flow of communication. In summary, accuracy activities ensure that students understand and use the language correctly before using language creatively in activities with more emphasis on fluency. Different types of speaking activities are outlined below. ACCURRACY ACTIVITIES * 3 by 3 drill : class repeats what teacher says 3 times then 3 students are called on to repeat. * prompting : pre-planned question and answer * model dialogues : dialog practice with scripted dialog * guided role play : teacher assisted role-play FLUENCY ACTIVITIES * free role play * discussions * information gap : students have different pieces of information which is shared to get complete picture * debates * simulations * communication games Teachers must overcome some students' aversion to speaking in class which may arise for various reasons. This is best cone by creating a comfortable atmosphere where students are not afraid to speak or make mistakes. Techniques for encouraging student interaction are outlined below. * pair-work * group-work * activities that require interaction and communication Essential parts of writing are handwriting, spelling, layout and punctuation, and creative writing. How handwriting is learned depends on the learners native language, since some languages use different alphabetical systems. In that case letter formations will also be taught. English spelling is important since misspellings tend to make writers seem uneducated and difficult because there are many exceptions that cannot be 'sounded out'. However, reading extensively is an excellent way to counter this. How layout and punctuation is learned also depends on the learners native language, because written languages punctuation and layout is highly variable. Some languages do not use punctuation, some do not use spaces between words, etc. Teachers should try to make creative writing interesting and engaging. This can be achieved by having group writing projects, creating interesting activities which require creativity. An example given in the text is where students are given a pictures from a newspaper or magazine and they create a story from it. Another activity is to fill in text for a comic strip with empty bubble-dialog. Creative communication games are also an excellent way for learning English, a few examples are listed below. * Twenty questions * Tic-tac-toe * Hangman * Twister * Clue * chutes and ladders * Connect 4 * Charades * Jeopardy * Crosswords * Tongue-twisters * Pictionary