Marmara Elt Resources

Listenning skill is one of the most difficult among all other English learning skill because it gives you the least time for your brain to process.

Speakers never stop and let you understand word by word before moving on to the next sentence.If they do the conversation is going to take a whole day.

Moreover, there are hundreds different English pronunciation around the world. Even people in the same countries who speak the same language have different pronunciation.

It is normal that American people from the north do not fully understand those from the south. The way of life, climate and everything all impact pronunciation.

So, how do you overcome those? How can you understand when people speak English? Well, it is not that difficult.

This article is not telling you to practice hard, listen to the conversation tape or watch hundreds of Hollywood movie. Those are the things that you need to do anyway and already described in other English learning articles.
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A Simple, Guided-Discovery Learning Activity
Ichiyama Yoko 
 QUICK GUIDE

Key Words:Guided-discovery learning activity, grammar
Learner English Level: Adaptable
Learner Maturity Level: Adaptable
Preparation Time: 30 minutes or less
Activity Time: 20 minutes
Materials: A reading passage and some example sentences

As a junior high school teacher, I have often found students to be passive and unmotivated in grammar lessons where teachers rely heavily on a deductive approach. However, on one occasion I found that students not only acquired the grammar rules more easily, but also actively participated in the process of acquiring target grammar rules when they were asked to work out the rules for themselves.

In order to encourage students to be involved in the process of discovering the rules of the target grammar items, I decided to introduce a simple guided-discovery learning activity to my class. As a result of the incorporation of guided-discovery learning into the classroom, students’ attitudes towards grammar learning have greatly improved. Read the rest of this entry »

Peer Observation in the Classroom

To see what is happening in the classroom more clearly -particularly if access to video or audiotaping is not available - teachers may need asssistance from their colleagues. Peer observation has long been considered conductive to teacher learning, especially if the teacher observed is an experienced one and the observation is followed by conferences adn analysis of findings. Over the years,ideas for peer observation have been revised and new methods and possibilities have been developed. Observation can be conducted in pairs or groups; a second observer may be invited to class to ensure  objectivity; all parties may write diary entries or fill out checklists or observation report forms to elicit all perceptions of the lesson. Whatever the form, thevalue of peer observation comes not only in learning gained bye the observer through watching another teacher’s methods, but also in follow-up sessions. It is postobservation discussions that we draw conclusions that help improve our teaching patters and boost our professional growth. Read the rest of this entry »

The main problem faced by today’s teacher is that they feel students are loosing interest in studies. If we look from the student’s perspective then students feel that whatever is taught to them in schools is boring. Being a teacher, I faced these problems and tried to solve them. Based on my experiences, some of the solutions to increase interest and curiosity in students towards studies are:

1. In a class of 30-40 students there may be more than 20-25 hobbies now the teacher’s job is to correlate these hobbies with their studies. Suppose a student has a hobby of collecting stamps. The History teacher can ask the students to bring all stamps with Famous personalities printed on it and with the help of these stamps, the lesson can be made interesting. Other student may like something else that can make our classroom teaching well.
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