CMo EnseAr Writing A Estudiantes Iniciales Presentation Transcript

1. The teacher shows the knowledgement Students and Students teacher review choose the the grammar topic to talk and content about HOW TO TEACH WRITTING TO BEGINNERS Students add Students an make a introduction conclusion and put a title Students participate in a brainstorming activity 2. The teacher shows the knowledgement to the students Students, today were going to . Talk about a city of Ecuador you like the best. . Everybody think about a place you think is the nicer one you know 3. Students choose the topic to talk about OK students,think, what is the best title for the activity? 4. Students choose the title and create an introduction for the text: BEAUTIFUL CITIES OF ECUADOR Ecuador is a small and beautiful country. It is placed in the north west of South America. 5. Students participate in a brainstorming Quito is the Baos is a very Guayaquil is capital of touristic city a hot big city Ecuador Salinashas Puyo has Loja is on the lot of amazing south border beaches animals of Ecuador Ambato is Guaranda has in the many white Cuenca is known by its center of mountains singing rivers Ecuador 6. Students organize paragraphs -Guayaquil is a hot big city. -Salinas has lot of beaches. -Ambato is in the center of Ecuador. -Quito is the capital of Ecuador. Puyo has amazing animals. -Guaranda has many white mountains. -Baos is a very touristic city. -Loja is on the south border of Ecuador. -Cuenca is known by its singing rivers. 7. Students make a conclusion Ecuador is a beautiful country and it is our. Lets love it and care. 8. Teacher and students correct the grammar and semanthic.

Teaching Writing Activities and Ideas

Posted on September 22, 2009

Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted. Jules Renard ideas to get your students pencils moving DOWNLOAD THIS Writing is and isnt an easy thing to do in the classroom. Especially nowadays when students dont have long attention spans and are more and more digital and visual learners. However, it is a vital skill that opens up a world of possibilities for any student. Written communication in

whatever language, even with the advent of the internet, is still a necessity. Writing allows communication, controlled and deliberate POWERFUL, communication. So we have to get our students writing more and better. How? Below, find a rundown of what I consider the standard writing activities for any age group. Just change the topic/theme. Most are for any classroom, EFL / ESL or the regular classroom. My belief is that writing in English is writing in English. Whether it be a second language or first makes no difference because the eating is all the same. Ive divided the activities into different categories. These are just for the sake of having some kind of organization. Ive also labeled them WUP for a warm up writing activity and something to do quickly. CP Controlled practice. Writing activities that help the beginning writer and offer support, repetition and guidance. F Free writing activities which activate student learning and allow them to practice what they already know and test the waters so to speak. Where appropriate, Ive linked to some resources that compliment the writing activity as described.

Listen Write
1. Dictation There are many ways to spice up the standard dictation. The simplest is to have the students fold a blank piece of paper hamburger style (Up/down) 4 times. Unfold and they have a nice 8 line piece of paper. Speak 8 sentences , repeating each several times as the students write. Get the students to record their answers on the board and correct. Collect and keep in a portfolio! There are many online sites where students can do the same but in a computer lab or at home. Or the teacher can even try in the classroom. http://www.listen-and-write.com/audio for older students http://www.learner.org/interactives/spelling/ for young learners - CP 2. Story Rewriting The teacher reads a story or the class listens to an audio story. After, students make a story board (just fold a blank page so you have 8 squares) and draw pictures. Then, they write the story based on those pictures. Very simple and powerful! F 3. Visualization

The students close their eyes and the teacher describes a scene. Play some nice background music. The students then write and describe the scene they imagined, sharing their scene afterwards with the class or a classmate. -F 4. Pop Song Rewrite Play a familiar pop song. One with a catchy chorus. Afterwards, write out the chorus on the board with some of the words missing. Students can then rewrite the chorus and sing their own version. Higher level students can simply write their own version without help. Heres a very simple example Hes got the whole world in his hands Hes got ___________ and ___________ In his hands. (3x) Hes got the whole world in his hands - CP

Watch Write
1. Commercials. Students watch a TV Commercial. Then, they write their own script based on that commercial but focused on a different product. Afterwards, they can perform. F 2. Short videos. Just like a story but this time students watch. Then, they can rewrite / respond / reflect. Students can choose to reflect on one standard Reading Response question or as part of a daily journal. Ex. The best part was .. / If I had made the video, I would have Short videos are powerful and if well chosen can really get students writing in a reflective manner. CP / F How to Videos Students can watch a short How to video that describes a process. There are some excellent sites with User Generated Content. Expert Village and eHow are recommended. After the students watch the video several times, they can write out the steps using transitions which the teacher lists on the board. [First, first off, To begin, then, after that, next, most importantly, finally, last but not least, to finish ] CP / F 3. Newscasts / Weather reports

Watch the daily news or weather report. Students write in groups or individually, their own version of the news for that week/day. Then perform for the class like a real news report! F 4. Travel Videos Watch a few travel videos (there are many nice, short travel postcard videos online). Groups of students select a place and write up a report or a poster outlining why others should visit their city/country. Alternately, give students a postcard and have them write to another student in the classroom as if they were in that city/country. For lower leveled students, provide them with a template and they just fill in the details. Ex. Hi.. Im sitting in a drinking a Ive been in . for . days now. The weather has been . Yesterday I visited the .. and I saw .. Today, Im going to . I highly recommend .. See you when I get home Best, . CP / F

Look Write
1. Pictures / Slideshows Visuals are a powerful way to provide context and background for any writing. Make sure to use attractive, stimulating and if possible real photos to prompt student writing. Students can describe a scene or they can describe a series of pictures from a slideshow. An excellent activity is to show a nice photo and get students to guess and write their guess in the form of the 5Ws. They answer all the 5w questions and then share their thoughts with the class. Show a picture and get students to write a story or use it as background for a writing prompt. For example, Show a picture of a happy lottery winner. Ask students to write in their journal If I won a million dollars I would This is a much better way to prompt writing than simple script! CP 2. Description Show students a selection of fairly similar pictures. The students describe in writing one of the pictures (faces work really well). They read and the other students listen and guess which picture is being described. Similar to this listening activity. CP

http://eflclassroom.com/rave/Listening%20Quiz/Animals.swf 3. Bookmaking Provide students with a series of pictures which describe a story. I often use Action Pictures. Students write about each picture, numbering each piece of writing for each picture. The teacher can guide lower level students like this Mr. Xs Amazing Day example. After editing, the students cut up the pictures and make a storybook. Gluing in the pictures, coloring, decorating and adding their own story text. Afterwards read to the whole class or share among the class. CP / F 4. Sequencing Provide students with a sequence of pictures which are scrambled. The students must order the pictures and then write out the process. Ex. Making scrambled eggs. F

Read - Write
1. Reading Journal / Reading Response The students read a story and then respond by making a reflective journal entry. Alternatively, the students can respond to a reading response question like, Which character did you like best? Why? F 2. Rewrite Read a short story and then give students a copy of the story with some text missing. The students can fill it in with the correct version OR fill it in and make the story their own. Rebus Stories These are stories where words are replaced with icons/pictures. Students can read the story and then write out the whole story, replacing the pictures with the correct text. Here are some nice examples. CP http://abcteach.com/directory/basics/rebus/ 3. Opinion / Essay Select an article or OP Ed piece that students would find interesting or controversial. After reading and discussing, students can respond with a formal essay or piece of writing reflecting their opinion. Read them anonymously afterwards and get the class to guess who wrote it! F 4. Giving Advice

Students read a problem provided by the teacher (even better, get students to provide the problem by having them write down what they need advice on). This can often be an Ann Landers style request for advice from a newspaper. Students write their own response, giving advice. F 5. Running dictation This is a lot of fun but quite noisy. Put students into groups of 3 or 4. For each group, post on the wall around the classroom, a piece of writing (maybe a selection of text you will be reading in your lesson). One student is appointed as the secretary. The other students must run to where their piece of writing is on the wall and read it. Then run back and dictate it to the secretary who records it. Continue until one group is finished (but check that they got it right!). CP

Think - Write
1. Graphic Organizers These you can make on your own by having students draw and fold blank sheets of paper or by giving them a pre-designed one. Students write out their thoughts on a topic using the organizer. An alphabet organizer is also an excellent activity in writing for lower level students. Graphic organizers and mind maps are an excellent way first step to a longer writing piece and are an important pre-writing activity. WUP 2. Prompts / Sentence Starters Students are prompted to finish sentences that are half started. They can write X number of sentences using the sentence starter. Many starters can be found online. Prompts are also an excellent way to get students thinking and writing. Every day, students can free write a passage using the daily prompt (ex. What I did this morning etc ) Creative writing of this sort really motivates students to write. There are many lists online you can use. - WUP 3. Thinking Games Using a worksheet, students play the game while writing down their responses in grammatical sentences. What the Wordle / Not Like the Other and Top 5 are some games Ive made and which help students begin to write. Each has a worksheet which students fill out. CP 4. Decoding / Translating Translating a passage into English can be a good writing activity for higher level students. Students love their cell phones and Transl8it.com is a handy way to get students interested in writing. Simply put in English text and Transl8it.com will output text messaging. Give this to students to decode into standard English and then check against the original. Lots of

fun! See the games Ive designed (Pop Song / Dialogues ) using this principle of decoding text messaging. CP 5. Forms / Applications Students need to practice writing that will be of use to them directly in the wider world. Forms and filling in applications are a valuable way to do this. Fill in one together as a class and then get students to do this same for themselves individually. CP 6. Journals / Reflection / Diaries This type of free writing activity should be done on a regular basis if used in class. Use a timer and for X minutes, students can write upon a topic that is important to them, that day. Alternatively, students can write at the end of the day and record their thoughts about the lesson or their own learning. These are all excellent ways for the teacher to get to know their students. One caution dont correct student writing here! Comment positively on the students writing the goal is to get them feeling good about writing and into it. F 7. Tag Stories / Writing Students love this creative exercise. Fold a blank piece of paper vertically (Hamburger style) 4 times. Youll have 8 lines. On the first line, students all write the same sentence starter. Ex. A man walked into a bank and .. Next, students finish the sentence and then pass their paper to the student on their left/right. That student reads the sentence and continues the story on the next line. Continue until all 8 lines are completed. Read the stories as a class many will be hilarious! I often do this with a gossip variation. I write some gossip chunks on the board like; I heard that.. , I was told The word on the street is Dont pass it around but. Students choose one and write some juicy gossip about the student to their right. They then pass their paper to the left with everyone adding onto the gossip. Students really get into this! CP / F 8. Describe and guess Students think of a person / a place or a thing. They write a description of them / it and they are read out and others students guess. Jokes and riddles are also effective for this. Students write out a joke or riddle they know and then they are read and other students try to guess the punchline. F

TEXT Write
1. Sentence Chains The teacher writes a word on the board and then students shout out words that follow using the last letter(s). The more last letters they use, the more points they get. The teacher keeps writing as quick as possible as the students offer up more correct words. Ex.

Smilengthosentencementality.. Give students a blank piece of paper and in pairs with one student being the secretary, they play! This is a great game for simple spelling practice and also to get students noticing language and how words end/begin. They can also play for points. Compound words and phrases are acceptable! WUP 2. Guided Writing This is a mainstay of the writing teachers toolkit. Students are either given a bank of words or can write/guess on their own. They fill in the missing words of a text to complete the text. Take up together and let students read their variations. A nice adaptation to guided writing for lower level students is for them to personalize the writing by getting them to draw a picture for the writing passage to illustrate and fortify the meaning. Heres a nice example. CP 3. Timelines Use a time line to describe any event. Brainstorm as a class. Then students use the key words written on the board, to write out the time line as a narrative. Really effective and you can teach history like this too! Biographies of individuals or even the students themselves are a powerful writing activity and timelines are a great way to get them started. F 4. Notes Students are given notes (the classic example is a shopping list but it might be a list of zoo animals / household items etc) and then asked to write something using all the noted words. This usually focuses on sequence (transitions) or location (prepositions). F 5. Grammar Poems Grammar poems are short poems about a topic that students complete using various grammar prompts. This form of guided writing is very effective and helps students notice various syntactical elements of the language. Put the grammar poem on the board with blanks. Here are some examples but it could be on any topic (country, famous person, my home, this school, etc..). Fill out as a class with one student filling it in. Then, students copy the poem and complete with their own ideas. Change as needed to stress different grammatical elements. And of course, afterwards SHARE. Present some to the class and display on a bulletin board. Your students will be proud of them!

SPEAK Write
1. Surveys / Reports

Students have a survey question or a questionnaire. They walk around the class recording information. After, instead of reporting to the class orally, they can write up the report about their findings. This can also be used with FSW (Find Someone Who) games. Students use a picture bingo card to walk around the classroom and ask students yes/no questions. They write the answers with a check or X and the students name in the box with the picture. After, they write up a report about which student . / didnt certain things. CP 2. Reported Speech Do any speaking activity or set of conversation questions. Afterwards, students report back by writing using reported speech, Susan told me that she .. and Brad said that .. etc.. CP 3. Introducing each other Students can interview another classmate using a series of questions / key words given by the teacher. After the interview of each other is over, students can write out a biography of their partner and others can read them in a class booklet. F 4. In class letter writing Writing for a purpose is so important and nothing makes this happen better than in class letter writing. Appoint a postman and have each student make a post office box (it could just be a small bag hanging from their desk). The students can write each other (best to assign certain students first) and then respond to their letter. Once it gets started, it just keeps going and going F 4. Email / messaging / chat / social networking This is an excellent way to get students speaking by writing. Set up a social networking system or a messaging / emailing system for the students. They can communicate and chat there using an English only policy. Use videos / pictures like in class to promote student discussion and communication. Projects online foster this kind of written communication and using an CMS (Content Management System) like moodle or atutor or ning can really help students write more. F 5. Class / School English newspaper or magazine Students can gain valuable skills by meeting and designing a school English newsletter. Give each student a role (photographer, gossip / news / sports / editor in chief / copy editor etc) and see what they can do. Youll be surprised! F

WRITE Do

1. Dialogues Students can write dialogues for many every day situations and then act them out for the class. The teacher can model the language on the board and then erase words so students can complete by themselves and in their own words. Heres a neat example using a commercial as a dialogue. CP 2. Drawing Students draw a picture and then write a description of the picture. They hand their description to another student who must read it and then draw the picture as they see it. Finally, both students compare pictures! F 3. Tableaus / Drama Students write texts of any sort. Then the texts are read and other students must make a tableau of the description or act out the text in some manner. For example students can write about their weekend. After writing, the student reads their text and other students act it out or perform a tableau. F 4. Dont speak / Write! I once experimented with a class that wouldnt speak much by putting a gag on myself and only writing out my instructions. It worked and this technique could be used in a writing class. Students cant speak and are gagged. Give them post it notes by which to communicate with others. Instruct using the board. There are many creative ways to use this technique! F

RECOMMENDED BOOKS 4 TEACHERS

I highly recommend the following two books for ideas and some general theory on how to teach writing. Purchase them for reference. 1. HOW TO TEACH WRITING Jeremy Harmer Very insightful and cleanly, simply written. The author explores through example and description, all the facets and theory behind that looking glass which we call teaching. I use this as a course text for my methodology class for in-service teachers.

2. Oxford Basics: Simple Writing Activites - Jill and Charles Hadfield This book (and series) is a gem! Jill Hadfield knows what working EFL / ESL teachers need and in this book there are 30 simple writing activities which teachers can use with a wide variety of levels and with only a chalkboard and a piece of chalk / paper. _____________________________________________ ____________________________ See my Blog post and download the list of my TOP 10 WRITING WEBSITES FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
This entry was posted in Prof. Development and tagged activities, ideas, lessons, school of tefl, tesol, writing by ddeubel. Bookmark the permalink.

7 thoughts on Teaching Writing Activities and Ideas

1. Pingback: The Best Sites For Teachers Of English Language Learners 2009 | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...
2. pm said: gebru zenebe on February 28, 2011 at 2:59

Im gebru zenebe a postgraduate student at addis ababa university, Ethiopia. Im conducting my research thesis on the title assessment of EFL writing task in an ELT Materials and the classroom practices. so Im so hopeful if have the chance to get your help for some available information through this email address. thank you!!
3. ddeubel on February 28, 2011 at 9:57 pm said:

Thanks for the kind words gebru. Hope ou find lots here to help you 4. Pingback: ACTIVITY IN WRITING CLASS: RECOUNT TEXT funvezadino
5. fereshteh on November 5, 2012 at 12:19 pm said:

Hi David As I am going to use your article as a reference in my article, could you please mail me the journal you have published it. Thanks Fereshteh

6.

Rachel Jordan on February 8, 2013 at 6:30 am said:

Thanks so much. This is an amazing list of ideas for teaching writing. I have a group of four very capable Upp Int learners who can do all the prescribed grammar, vocab, reading and listening tests standing on their heads but then fall down in their writing. I plan to try a lot of these activities and am sure that they will liven up the class and help my students improve their writing.

7.

ddeubel on February 12, 2013 at 12:38 pm said:

Rachel, thanks for the positive feedback and good to know. There is a lot that we can do to make writing less the boring activity that it seems to many of our more visual, active and tactile students. Just got to think out of the box. Leave a Reply Your email address will not be published. Name
The Internet TESL Journal

Teaching Speaking: Activities to Promote Speaking in a Second Language

Hayriye Kayi http://unr.edu/homepage/hayriyek kayih[at]unr.nevada.edu University of Nevada (Nevada,USA)

Introduction
Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13). Speaking is a crucial part of second

language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. In order to teach second language learners how to speak in the best way possible, some speaking activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and EFL classroom settings, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.

What Is "Teaching Speaking"?

What is meant by "teaching speaking" is to teach ESL learners to:

Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language. Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter. Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence. Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments. Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency. (Nunan, 2003)

How To Teach Speaking

Now many linguistics and ESL teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the second language by "interacting". Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this aim. Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require communication. By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language. In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This can occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task.

Activities To Promote Speaking

Discussions
After a content-based lesson, a discussion can be held for various reasons. The students may aim to arrive at a conclusion, share ideas about an event, or find solutions in their discussion groups. Before the discussion, it is essential that the purpose of the discussion activity is set by the teacher. In this way, the discussion points are relevant to this purpose, so that students do not spend their time chatting with each other about irrelevant things. For example, students can become involved in agree/disagree discussions. In this type of discussions, the teacher can form groups of students, preferably 4 or 5 in each group, and provide controversial sentences like

people learn best when they read vs. people learn best when they travel. Then each group works on their topic for a given time period, and presents their opinions to the class. It is essential that the speaking should be equally divided among group members. At the end, the class decides on the winning group who defended the idea in the best way. This activity fosters critical thinking and quick decision making, and students learn how to express and justify themselves in polite ways while disagreeing with the others. For efficient group discussions, it is always better not to form large groups, because quiet students may avoid contributing in large groups. The group members can be either assigned by the teacher or the students may determine it by themselves, but groups should be rearranged in every discussion activity so that students can work with various people and learn to be open to different ideas. Lastly, in class or group discussions, whatever the aim is, the students should always be encouraged to ask questions, paraphrase ideas, express support, check for clarification, and so on.

Role Play
One other way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You are David, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and" (Harmer, 1984)

Simulations
Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than role plays is that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment. For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on. Role plays and simulations have many advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they motivate the students. Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and do not have to speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility.

Information Gap
In this activity, students are supposed to be working in pairs. One student will have the information that other partner does not have and the partners will share their information. Information gap activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem or collecting information. Also, each partner plays an important role because the task cannot be completed if the partners do not provide the information the others need. These activities are effective because everybody has the opportunity to talk extensively in the target language.

Brainstorming
On a given topic, students can produce ideas in a limited time. Depending on the context, either individual or group brainstorming is effective and learners generate ideas quickly and freely. The good characteristics of brainstorming is that the students are not criticized for their ideas so students will be open to sharing new ideas.

Storytelling
Students can briefly summarize a tale or story they heard from somebody beforehand, or they may create their own stories to tell their classmates. Story telling fosters creative thinking. It also helps students express ideas in the format of beginning, development, and ending, including the characters and setting a story has to have. Students also can tell riddles or jokes. For instance, at the very beginning of each class session, the teacher may call a few students to tell short riddles or jokes as an opening. In this way, not only will the teacher address students speaking ability, but also get the attention of the class.

Interviews
Students can conduct interviews on selected topics with various people. It is a good idea that the teacher provides a rubric to students so that they know what type of questions they can ask or what path to follow, but students should prepare their own interview questions. Conducting interviews with people gives students a chance to practice their speaking ability not only in class but also outside and helps them becoming socialized. After interviews, each student can present his or her study to the class. Moreover, students can interview each other and "introduce" his or her partner to the class.

Story Completion
This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students sit in a circle. For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences he or she stops narrating. Then, each student starts to narrate from the point where the previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to add from four to ten sentences. Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on.

Reporting
Before coming to class, students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine and, in class, they report to their friends what they find as the most interesting news. Students can also talk about whether they have experienced anything worth telling their friends in their daily lives before class.

Playing Cards
In this game, students should form groups of four. Each suit will represent a topic. For instance:

Diamonds: Earning money Hearts: Love and relationships Spades: An unforgettable memory Clubs: Best teacher

Each student in a group will choose a card. Then, each student will write 4-5 questions about that topic to ask the other people in the group. For example: If the topic "Diamonds: Earning Money" is selected, here are some possible questions:

Is money important in your life? Why? What is the easiest way of earning money? What do you think about lottery? Etc.

However, the teacher should state at the very beginning of the activity that students are not allowed to prepare yes-no questions, because by saying yes or no students get little practice in spoken language production. Rather, students ask open-ended questions to each other so that they reply in complete sentences.

Picture Narrating
This activity is based on several sequential pictures. Students are asked to tell the story taking place in the sequential pictures by paying attention to the criteria provided by the teacher as a rubric. Rubrics can include the vocabulary or structures they need to use while narrating.

Picture Describing
Another way to make use of pictures in a speaking activity is to give students just one picture and having them describe what it is in the picture. For this activity students can form groups and each group is given a different picture. Students discuss the picture with their groups, then a spokesperson for each group describes the picture to the whole class. This activity fosters the creativity and imagination of the learners as well as their public speaking skills.

Find the Difference

For this activity students can work in pairs and each couple is given two different pictures, for example, picture of boys playing football and another picture of girls playing tennis. Students in pairs discuss the similarities and/or differences in the pictures.

Suggestions For Teachers in Teaching Speaking

Here are some suggestions for English language teachers while teaching oral language:

Provide maximum opportunity to students to speak the target language by providing a rich environment that contains collaborative work, authentic materials and tasks, and shared knowledge. Try to involve each student in every speaking activity; for this aim, practice different ways of student participation. Reduce teacher speaking time in class while increasing student speaking time. Step back and observe students. Indicate positive signs when commenting on a student's response. Ask eliciting questions such as "What do you mean? How did you reach that conclusion?" in order to prompt students to speak more. Provide written feedback like "Your presentation was really great. It was a good job. I really appreciated your efforts in preparing the materials and efficient use of your voice" Do not correct students' pronunciation mistakes very often while they are speaking. Correction should not distract student from his or her speech. Involve speaking activities not only in class but also out of class; contact parents and other people who can help. Circulate around classroom to ensure that students are on the right track and see whether they need your help while they work in groups or pairs. Provide the vocabulary beforehand that students need in speaking activities. Diagnose problems faced by students who have difficulty in expressing themselves in the target language and provide more opportunities to practice the spoken language.

Conclusion
Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning. The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase of life. Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking. Rather than leading students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place is desired. With this aim, various speaking activities such as those listed above can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life. These activities make students more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them.

References

Celce-Murcia. M. 2001. Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (3rd ed). USA: Heinle&Heinle. Chaney, A.L., and T.L. Burk. 1998. Teaching Oral Communication in Grades K-8. Boston: Allyn&Bacon. Baruah, T.C. 1991. The English Teacher's Handbook. Delhi: Sterling Publishing House. Brown, G. and G. Yule. 1983. Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Harmer, J. 1984. The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman. McDonough, J. and C. Shaw. 2003. Materials and Methods in ELT: a teachers guide. Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell. Nunan, D., 2003. Practical English Language Teaching. NY:McGraw-Hill. Staab, C. 1992. Oral language for today's classroom. Markham, ON: Pippin Publishing.

Teaching Listening
Listening skills are vital for your learners. Of the 'four skills,' listening is by far the most frequently used. Listening and speaking are often taught together, but beginners, especially non-literate ones, should be given more listening than speaking practice. It's important to speak as close to natural speed as possible, although with beginners some slowing is usually necessary. Without reducing your speaking speed, you can make your language easier to comprehend by simplifying your vocabulary, using shorter sentences, and increasing the number and length of pauses in your speech. There are many types of listening activities. Those that don't require learners to produce language in response are easier than those that do. Learners can be asked to physically respond to a command (for example, "please open the door"), select an appropriate picture or object, circle the correct letter or word on a worksheet, draw a route on a map, or fill in a chart as they listen. It's more difficult to repeat back what was heard, translate into the native language, take notes, make an outline, or answer comprehension questions. To add more challenge, learners can continue a story text, solve a problem, perform a similar task

with a classmate after listening to a model (for example, order a cake from a bakery), or participate in real-time conversation. Good listening lessons go beyond the listening task itself with related activities before and after the listening. Here is the basic structure:

Before Listening Prepare your learners by introducing the topic and finding out what they already know about it. A good way to do this is to have a brainstorming session and some discussion questions related to the topic. Then provide any necessary background information and new vocabulary they will need for the listening activity. During Listening Be specific about what students need to listen for. They can listen for selective details or general content, or for an emotional tone such as happy, surprised, or angry. If they are not marking answers or otherwise responding while listening, tell them ahead of time what will be required afterward. After Listening Finish with an activity to extend the topic and help students remember new vocabulary. This could be a discussion group, craft project, writing task, game, etc.

The following ideas will help make your listening activities successful.

Noise Reduce distractions and noise during the listening segment. You may need to close doors or windows or ask children in the room to be quiet for a few minutes. Equipment If you are using a cassette player, make sure it produces acceptable sound quality. A counter on the machine will aid tremendously in cueing up tapes. Bring extra batteries or an extension cord with you. Repetition Read or play the text a total of 2-3 times. Tell students in advance you will repeat it. This will reduce their anxiety about not catching it all the first time. You can also ask them to listen for different information each time through. Content Unless your text is merely a list of items, talk about the content as well as specific language used. The material should be interesting and appropriate for your class level in topic, speed, and vocabulary. You may need to explain reductions (like 'gonna' for 'going to') and fillers (like 'um' or 'uh-huh'). Recording Your Own Tape Write appropriate text (or use something from your textbook) and have another English speaker read it onto tape. Copy the recording three times so you don't need to rewind. The reader should not simply read three times, because students want to hear exact repetition of the pronunciation, intonation, and pace, not just the words. Video You can play a video clip with the sound off and ask students to make predictions about what dialog is taking place. Then play it again with sound and discuss why they were right or wrong in their predictions. You can also play the sound without the video first, and show the video after students have guessed what is going on.

Homework Give students a listening task to do between classes. Encourage them to listen to public announcements in airports, bus stations, supermarkets, etc. and try to write down what they heard. Tell them the telephone number of a cinema and ask them to write down the playing times of a specific movie. Give them a tape recording of yourself with questions, dictation, or a worksheet to complete.

Look for listening activities in the Activities and Lesson Materials sections of this guide. If your learners can use a computer with internet access and headphones or speakers, you may direct them toward the following listening practice sites. You could also assign specific activities from these sites as homework. Teach new vocabulary ahead of time if necessary.

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab Around 140 listening clips and quizzes for students to access online; categorized into four difficulty levels, but activities marked 'easy' may be too difficult for beginners due to unfamiliar vocabulary; many include pre- and post-listening exercises; requires audio software such as RealPlayer (free) or optional interactive software like Divace. The English Listening Lounge Thirty free listening clips categorized into three difficulty levels for students to access online; more available with membership; requires audio software such as RealPlayer (free).

eaching Listening
Developing Listening Activities
As you design listening tasks, keep in mind that complete recall of all the information in an aural text is an unrealistic expectation to which even native speakers are not usually held. Listening exercises that are meant to train should be success-oriented and build up students' confidence in their listening ability. Construct the listening activity around a contextualized task. Contextualized listening activities approximate real-life tasks and give the listener an idea of the type of information to expect and what to do with it in advance of the actual listening. A beginning level task would be locating places on a map (one way) or exchanging name and address information (two way). At an intermediate level students could follow directions for assembling something (one way) or work in pairs to create a story to tell to the rest of the class (two way). Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response. Each activity should have as its goal the improvement of one or more specific listening skills. A listening activity may have more than one goal or outcome, but be careful not to overburden the attention of beginning or intermediate listeners.

Recognizing the goal(s) of listening comprehension in each listening situation will help students select appropriate listening strategies.

Identification: Recognizing or discriminating specific aspects of the message, such as sounds, categories of words, morphological distinctions Orientation: Determining the major facts about a message, such as topic, text type, setting Main idea comprehension: Identifying the higher-order ideas Detail comprehension: Identifying supporting details Replication: Reproducing the message orally or in writing

Check the level of difficulty of the listening text. The factors listed below can help you judge the relative ease or difficulty of a listening text for a particular purpose and a particular group of students. How is the information organized? Does the story line, narrative, or instruction conform to familiar expectations? Texts in which the events are presented in natural chronological order, which have an informative title, and which present the information following an obvious organization (main ideas first, details and examples second) are easier to follow. How familiar are the students with the topic? Remember that misapplication of background knowledge due to cultural differences can create major comprehension difficulties. Does the text contain redundancy? At the lower levels of proficiency, listeners may find short, simple messages easier to process, but students with higher proficiency benefit from the natural redundancy of the language. Does the text involve multiple individuals and objects? Are they clearly differentiated? It is easier to understand a text with a doctor and a patient than one with two doctors, and it is even easier if they are of the opposite sex. In other words, the more marked the differences, the easier the comprehension. Does the text offer visual support to aid in the interpretation of what the listeners hear? Visual aids such as maps, diagrams, pictures, or the images in a video help contextualize the listening input and provide clues to meaning. Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view. The activities chosen during pre-listening may serve as preparation for listening in several ways. During pre-listening the teacher may

assess students' background knowledge of the topic and linguistic content of the text provide students with the background knowledge necessary for their comprehension of the listening passage or activate the existing knowledge that the students possess clarify any cultural information which may be necessary to comprehend the passage

make students aware of the type of text they will be listening to, the role they will play, and the purpose(s) for which they will be listening provide opportunities for group or collaborative work and for background reading or class discussion activities

Sample pre-listening activities:

looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures reading something relevant constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing how they are related) predicting the content of the listening text going over the directions or instructions for the activity doing guided practice

Match while-listening activities to the instructional goal, the listening purpose, and students' proficiency level. While-listening activities relate directly to the text, and students do them do during or immediately after the time they are listening. Keep these points in mind when planning while-listening activities: If students are to complete a written task during or immediately after listening, allow them to read through it before listening. Students need to devote all their attention to the listening task. Be sure they understand the instructions for the written task before listening begins so that they are not distracted by the need to figure out what to do. Keep writing to a minimum during listening. Remember that the primary goal is comprehension, not production. Having to write while listening may distract students from this primary goal. If a written response is to be given after listening, the task can be more demanding. Organize activities so that they guide listeners through the text. Combine global activities such as getting the main idea, topic, and setting with selective listening activities that focus on details of content and form. Use questions to focus students' attention on the elements of the text crucial to comprehension of the whole. Before the listening activity begins, have students review questions they will answer orally or in writing after listening. Listening for the answers will help students recognize the crucial parts of the message. Use predicting to encourage students to monitor their comprehension as they listen. Do a predicting activity before listening, and remind students to review what they are hearing to see if it makes sense in the context of their prior knowledge and what they already know of the topic or events of the passage.

Give immediate feedback whenever possible. Encourage students to examine how or why their responses were incorrect. Sample while-listening activities

listening with visuals filling in graphs and charts following a route on a map checking off items in a list listening for the gist searching for specific clues to meaning completing cloze (fill-in) exercises distinguishing between formal and informal registers