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This unit is about teaching productive skills (speaking and writing). Both, speaking and writing, are important skills, even though writing is a neglected skill because most teacher do not like quite time in the class and they focus more on speaking skills. Writing focuses more on accuracy (correct use of language), and when we speak fluency (flow of communication) is more important. There are three types of speaking activities: controlled, guided, and creative. Controlled activities are used in study phase, and the focus is on accuracy. Guided activities can be used in study and activate phase, the focus is still on accuracy but more on output than on every word. Creative activities on the other hand are all about fluency. They are used in activate phase. For speaking activities is important that the teacher creates a need for students to speak, that students have enough language knowledge for the activities, and uses pair activities so student can interact with less stress. For a successful speaking lesson teacher should decide what and why would like students to learn from the lesson, predict what knowledge the students will bring to the lesson and what problems they may have, and prepare all the materials needed. Teacher should also bring visual material that will be more interesting for the students, and make sure instructions are clear and everyone understand them. At the end of the activity feedback, how well the lesson went, should be given. Some of the main writing skills include: handwriting, spelling, layout, and punctuation. These skills can be very difficult for students to learn, especially if native language is very different from English language. Handwriting changes from one individual to another, the teacher can encourage student to improve it. Spelling can be very difficult to learn, some words are written the same but pronounced differently (read), some are written differently but pronounced the same (two, too)... The best way to learn punctuation is with exposure and practise. To make the learning easier and more interesting teachers usually use different games. A game in a classroom is an activity that has rules, has a teaching goal, and element of fun. There are many games from everyday life that can be used for teaching (hangman, twenty questions, tic-tac-toe...). I learned, from this unit, that teaching how to write or speak can be very challenging, especially if students? native language has very different rules than English language. I also saw an example of lessons that focus on writing/ speaking activities. To make the lesson more interesting, easier, and fun, everyday games can come very handy.
