English Speaking Practice through Presentations
by Josef Essberger
If you’re anything like most teachers, you’re probably constantly looking for new ways to encourage your students to practise their oral English and speak spontaneously. This month, we’re going to consider the value of the ‘presentation’ in achieving this. Read the rest of this entry »
In General Music Use
First, accustom your learners to the use of music in a variety of ways in the ELL classroom. You could begin with using soft background music at times to help control the learners. After a TPR or other type of activity session, you calm and soften the learners’ mood but putting on a smooth, easy-listening or classical song (like Mozart or Cesaria Evora – pictured here). I use this while re-arranging seating from a previous activity or prior to starting a new one. The learners also know the transition is expected to be finished before the song ends, so after an initial acclimation period near the beginning of the semester, things often go quite smoothly.
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The Cultural Dynamics of Teaching
Introduction
When children first attend school and embark on the formal processes of learning to read and write, school learning purports to enable children to realise and release, as it were, their intrinsic potentialities of interpreting written text. Moreover, this release of potential is supposed to help children acquire a higher-order cultural awareness of their society, so that they may engage in the use of logic, science and religion. This is what has been dubbed “the classical torch” view of literacy and schooling (see Thomas, 2000: 43 for further details), and it has been criticised on certain grounds - that, for example, it creates a void between literates and non-literates, and that if school fails to achieve its goals for many of its pupils, the latter are doomed, as they are incapable of participating effectively in cultural interaction and their society’s high culture. Nevertheless, even if some students fail to become “literate” - mainly because much of school learning is concerned with the “technological” features of writing (ibid.: 44) - they still have a rich oral capacity, which has been neglected or even ignored by formal schooling.
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Implicit Grammar Teaching
Implicit grammar teaching should not be excluded for explicit grammar teaching entirely, however. Some basic features of English language grammar structure are illogical or dissimilar to speakers of other languages and do not readily lend themselves to being well understood, even in context. In cases where features of English grammar are diametrically opposed or in some other way radically different from the manner of expression in the student’s L1, explicit teaching may be required.
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