Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Yuzhu Jiedao? Are you interested in teaching English in Guangzhou Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
Speaking and writing (plus games) Unit 12 deals with productive skills which are speaking and writing. Speaking and writing are quite different in various ways but both are used for the purpose of communication. Writing is the most neglected skill in the TEFL world and often, relegated to homework which is frequently not done thus, the skill is never developed. Writing is the more difficult skill, requiring a greater degree of accuracy Speaking requires a greater degree of fluency as speakers don?t have time to think and plan an answer. Language is for communication and needs to be understood by both the speaker and the listener .However, there are a number of differences between accuracy and fluency but both carry equal importance. Some students are reluctant to speak in class due to lack of confidence, fear of making mistakes, peer intimidation, lack of interest in the lesson, cultural reasons and past lessons experiences. It?s therefore the duty of the teacher to come up with techniques to encourage student interaction. Writing is of great important as a clever and good student could easily fail an exam due to poor handwriting. Handwriting is important. Spelling is of equal importance as wrong spellings distort the beauty of the language. Some of the words are very confusing as some are spelled the same but pronounced differently while others are spelled differently and pronounced same. For example; waist, waste, read and read. English is not a phonetic language. Teachers are advised to draw the attention of the students to the different ways of pronouncing the same letters (or combination of letters) and have them do exercises to discover spelling rules. Layout and punctuation can present a serious problem to the student especially if the rules in their first language are different from English rules. Wring form may differ, an example- from left to right. Punctuation is a personal style but totally incorrect usage can lead to rather awkward and difficult looking piece of writing. Creative writing: Games in a classroom are also fun, educative and entertaining. - Competitive games- wind to occupy a good spot. - Cooperative games- work in teams to achieve a goal together (communicative plus linguistic games). Games are very important in an ESL class and should be an integral part of the syllabus. It?s great to incorporate games in our lessons.
