Marmara Elt Resources

Genre in the Foreign Language Classroom ( written by Kim Bradford-Watts )

In the EFL situation, we find ourselves working from both directions: we pick and choose specific genres as the need arises, and we also work from generic values. On the way, we occasionally stop and explore genre colonies more closely, depending on student needs. This is as it should be, since much of our teaching involves the development of pathways of use for the learner with limited exposure to the target language. One component of the development of such a network is the laying of infrastructure, or generic values. Another part is the development of specific regions of this infrastructure, which involves the greater specification of context (specific genres and genre colonies).
In an example of how to prepare a genre-based course for first year university conversation classes in Japan, Bradford-Watts (2003) basically describes a top-down approach. In the following example of using a genre approach in teaching interviewing and survey reporting genres in second and third-year classes, I am describing the use of both top-down and bottom-up approaches. In the first class of the year, students interview each other and record everyone’s names, birthdays, interests and contact details. Prior to the activity, we brainstorm ways of approaching people unknown to us, ways of asking questions, and ways of thanking people. This is done in a very general manner, and can be used in a great variety of settings. This is a top-down approach, and the generic value is “interviews.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Teaching English Tips to Stay in Control of a Large Class
Teaching English with games is becoming standard through
out ESL classrooms of the world. And this is good news,
because children love to learn through games, and become
much more motivated students as a result. However games
often make children excited, and if you have a large class
you need a few things up your sleeve to bring the class
into line immediately if things get a little over-heated.

Read the rest of this entry »

Teaching Research Skills to Students For the Twenty-First Century
Many teachers are afraid to allow their students to use the Internet to write research papers. Teacher complaints that I have heard regarding this topic are: “Students plagiarize by cutting and pasting information from websites.” “Students will not search beyond the first few sites they Google.” “Students cannot distinguish an appropriate site for information from an advertisement.”
As a high school English teacher, I shared these same concerns; consequently, I discouraged my students from using the Internet for research. That was before I heard the complaints of professors and college librarians. The essence of their complaints was the chorus of a familiar tune: “What are they teaching them in high school?” They were baffled as to why college freshmen were clueless about how to use the Internet as a research tool. Below are classroom tested solutions to typical problems students and teachers face when students use the Internet for academic research purposes.
Read the rest of this entry »

“Tag questions” are one of the more difficult areas for ESL and EFL students. They know that you are asking a question, but the difficulty is in figuring out whether their answer should be a positive (yes) or a negative (no) answer. This is the first problem.

Understanding intonation is the other difficult area of tag questions for ESL students. As most native English speakers know, when a tag question is used, it can be used in two ways: (1) when the speaker doesn’t know the answer to the question and is asking for an answer, and (2) when the speaker is not really asking a question, but rather, is asking for agreement from the listener. For example, “It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” The speaker isn’t really asking for a weather report, but rather, is making a comment and asking the speaker to agree with him or her.

Read the rest of this entry »