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This unit focussed on the productive skills being speaking and writing. The first part of the unit focussed on speaking and dealt with issues that need to be considered. The difference between accuracy activities and fluency activities was explained. Accuracy activities are generally used more in the study phase, as they are guided a bit more strictly by the teacher and focus on the students getting the language, pronunciation and other considerations as correct as possible. In the fluency stage the flow and continuity of language produced by the students is much more important and the learners are allowed more creative control, whilst the teacher merely monitors and only helps when necessary. I learnt that there are controlled activities such as drilling, guided activities such as guided role play and creative activities such as debates or discussions to help learners first learn the accurate language and then experiment. The unit helped with tips on how to prepare before the lesson. For example it was shown as a good idea to predict problem areas or interest levels of students. It also gave tips on how to deal with learners during the lesson, such as it was shown to be useful to remind students of useful vocabulary for the particular task at hand. Tips for after the lesson were also given in the unit such as giving extensive feedback and dealing with any common errors that the students were making as a group. The next section of the unit dealt with writing and the important elements to take into consideration when dealing with this, such as spelling, grammar and pronunciation and hand writing. Spelling was shown to be important because bad spelling can often be regarded as a result of a lack of education, even though this may not necessarily be the case. Additionally the unit showed that punctuation can cause problems because other languages may use it differently or not at all. Furthermore handwriting for languages that use a completely different alphabet can also be tricky, so whilst a teacher need not ensure that all students are writing perfectly they do need to ensure that students are writing in a manner that is understandable to the reader to avoid future problems. The unit also discussed the importance of creative writing for learners, as this can often instil a sense of pride in the learners and allows them to experiment with the language and learn more through this process. Thus it was shown as an effective activity to use when teaching writing skills. I found this unit very helpful in understanding what needs to be taken into consideration when teaching the productive language skills, especially as it highlights issues that I may look over being a native English speaker, such as the fact that students who are used to different alphabets may find difficulty with forming English words or using punctuation.
