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This unit focused on the two productive skills: writing and speaking. These skills both relate to the output of language as opposed to the receptive skills which deal with input of language. The writing skill generally receives the least amount of focus in EFL contexts due in part to lack of student interest in writing as opposed to speaking and due in part to the perception of teachers that quiet class time is wasted class time. Speaking activities can be broken down into two sub-categories: accuracy activities and fluency activities. The former focused on accurate and proper production of the language in a controlled context. These activities are most often found in the study phase of an ESA lesson. Activities include pronunciation drills or prompting students responses. The other category is fluency activities. These focus on communicative production of the language in an open/free context. These activities are usually seen in the engage phase of an ESA plan. Fluency activities include debates, conversations, role-plays, games, and more. Many activities can serve as a combination of both fluency and accuracy activities. These types of activities are more guided than a pure fluency activity, but still allows for some freedom of communication. Speaking in class can be a challenge for some students depending on confidence level, interest in the class, appropriate level of challenge, and cultural norms. A teacher can promote students to speak in class by creating the right environment for students. Interesting topics, encouragement, praising improvements, and pair/group work are all techniques to encourage speaking participation from students. The second productive skill is writing. This comes with many of the same challenges as speaking, but include some additional ones such as spelling, penmanship, and punctuation. It can be difficult to encourage students to write because they tend to want to focus on speaking skills instead. Engaging and fun creative writing activities, potentially done in pairs, is a great way to encourage written communicative practice. The final section of the unit presented the use of games in the classroom and how many familiar games can be adapted to EFL lessons. The use of games in the classroom is essential in making language learning fun, interesting, and engaging all while distracting students from the fact that they're actually working on a new language skill.
