You and your students might already enjoy reading and listening to poetry in your own language and perhaps in English too. Poems are, after all, authentic texts. This is a great motivator. Poems are often rich in cultural references, and they present a wide range of learning opportunities. For me, the aim is to teach English through poetry, not to teach the poetry itself, so you don’t need to be a literature expert.

Most of the tried and tested activities used regularly by language teachers can be adapted easily to bring poetry into the classroom.

• Communicative speaking activities

• Working on pronunciation

• Writing activities

• Some pros and cons

• Conclusion

Communicative speaking activities

Before doing any productive work, I like to give my students plenty of pre-reading activities so that they are adequately prepared.

Read the complete article at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles

Homework
by BBC TeachingEnglish Editor

“Homework seems to be an accepted part of teachers’ and students’ routines, but there is little mention of it in ELT literature. The role of homework is hardly mentioned in the majority of general ELT texts or training courses, suggesting that there is little question as to its value even if the resulting workload is time-consuming. However, there is clearly room for discussion of homework policies and practices particularly now that technology has made so many more resources available to learners outside the classroom.

Reasons for homework

• Attitudes to homework
• Effective homework
• Types of homework
• Conclusion

Reasons for homework

• Homework is expected by students, teachers, parents and institutions.
• Homework reinforces and helps learners to retain information taught in the classroom as well as increasing their general understanding of the language.
• Homework develops study habits and independent learning. It also encourages learners to acquire resources such as dictionaries and grammar reference books. Research shows that homework also benefits factual knowledge, self-discipline, attitudes to learning and problem-solving skills.
• Homework offers opportunities for extensive activities in the receptive skills which there may not be time for in the classroom. It may also be an integral part of ongoing learning such as project work and the use of a graded reader.”

Read the rest of ‘Homework’ article by visiting http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/homework

With What Frequency Are Teachers Employing Evidenced-Based Procedures in Their Writing Classrooms?

by Soiferman, L. Karen; Boyd, Karen; Straw, Stanley B.

Background: The need for improvement in writing instruction in schools is dependent on teachers being aware of evidence-based procedures in writing and implementing them on a regular basis in their classrooms. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the frequency with which teachers in Western Canada employed evidence-based procedures in writing instruction in the classes. The data were gathered on the eleven elements identified by Graham and Perin (2007) in their meta-analysis of the most effective procedures for teaching writing.

Setting: Writing classrooms in Western Canada. Study Sample: Seventy-five teachers randomly selected participated in the study. Intervention: none. Research Design: Statistical Survey. Control or Comparison Condition: none. Data Collection and Analysis: Data were collected on the frequency with which teachers employed the eleven effective elements identified by Graham & Perin (2007).

They were: Direct Strategy Instruction, Summarization Instruction, Collaborative Writing, Setting Specific Product Goals, Word Processing, Sentence Combining, Engaging in Pre-Writing Activities, Engaging in Inquiry Activities, Process Writing, the Study of Models, and Writing for Content Area Learning. Two other elements, Formal Grammar Instruction, and the Use of Writing Rubrics were also investigated.

Findings: We found that approximately a quarter of the teachers surveyed employed the most powerful elements for teaching writing on a regular basis. The notable exceptions were in collaborative writing, teaching summarizing, and sentence combining which a small number of teachers utilized. Between and third and a half of the responses for the eleven elements were in the “seldom” or “never” categories.

Conclusion: This study makes no claims to why some teachers employ evidence-based techniques in teaching writing and why others do not. It is clear, however, that the percentage of classroom teachers who need to employ, regularly, evidence-based techniques need to be increased, at least in Western Canada. A concerted effort on the part of provincial ministries of education and teacher education institutions may be needed to keep teachers better informed on what strategies are most effective in teaching writing and how to implement those in their classes. Citation: Soiferman, L.K., Boyd, K., & Straw, S. B. (2010, Janaury 7). With What Frequency Are Teachers Employing Evidenced-Based Procedures in their Writing Classrooms? A paper presented at the 8th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education, Honolulu, Hawaii. (Contains 3 notes.)

Download the ‘With What Frequency Are Teachers Employing Evidenced-Based Procedures in Their Writing Classrooms?’ research paper by visiting http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal

Task Oriented Meta-cognitive Approach In English Language Teaching And Learning

by Mansa R. Maity, RGUKT-APIIIT, Basar.

Introduction:

English language is one of the richest languages in the world, in respect of literature and culture. English literature contains some of the finest utterances of life and conduct. In it we have the “Authorized Version of Bible”, the perfection of the English language. It is the language with which Milton tried to assert eternal providence, “And justify the way of God to Men”, the language through which Darwin expounded his “theory of evolution”, “struggle for existence” and “survival of the fittest”.The English language has given expression to great social ideas and great political ideas.
The first requirement for any author to produce any form of literature is to have an effective language.

The Study of Foreign Language Teachers– Teacher Efficacy and Native Speakership

by Liaw, En-Chong

Abstract

This study aims at examining the differences between native and nonnative foreign language teachers at a major northeast university. The primary areas of investigation are “teacher efficacy” and “teacher perceptions of language teaching.” The results of this study suggested that both nativeness and wide repertoire of teaching experience and strategies play the significant role on efficacy in teaching higher-level classes. Beside, the results also revealed that teachers of less commonly taught languages seemed to be more conservative and cautious in evaluating their efficacy levels, while those of more commonly taught languages appeared to be more open in doing so. (Contains 2 tables.)

Download the ‘The Study of Foreign Language Teachers– Teacher Efficacy and Native Speakership’ research paper by visiting http://www.eric.ed.gov

istening is one of the most challenging skills for our students to develop and yet also one of the most important. By developing their ability to listen well we develop our students’ ability to become more independent learners, as by hearing accurately they are much more likely to be able to reproduce accurately, refine their understanding of grammar and develop their own vocabulary.

In this article I intend to outline a framework that can be used to design a listening lesson that will develop your students’ listening skills and look at some of the issues involved.

• The basic framework

• Pre-listening

• While listening

• Post-listening

• Applying the framework to a song

• Some conclusions”

Read the complete article by visiting: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk

Here is Gavin Dudeney’s second exclusive article for TeachingEnglish.

I’m fortunate enough to be able to go to quite a few face-to-face conferences every year, generally as a speaker, though I also attend as many sessions as I can at each event – there’s always something to learn from any speaker, no matter how experienced they are. This year I’ve seen some great speakers, not just some of the more famous people in ELT, but a wide variety of teachers talking about what they do with great passion, and sharing their experiences and teaching ideas. In fact, these types of events are my favourite kind of professional development, combining – as they do – the talks, plenaries and workshops with fun social activities and occasionally some sightseeing.

But of course not everybody is lucky enough to be able to go to these events very often, and have to rely on local development opportunities such as workshops or in-school training. And, at least in my experience, this is actually relatively rare too. In all my travels this year I’ve met hundreds of teachers who receive no professional development each year. It’s as if they’ve simple been forgotten about… Now they’re in place and teaching, there’s no need to develop them any further or help them widen their repertoire, at least that is what seems to me happens in many schools. So what is a teacher to do in that kind of situation?

Read the complete article at http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/personal-learning-networks

The issue of “grammar instruction” in Second/Foreign Language Learning Teaching is among the most hotly debated ones. Of course, there is no gainsaying that grammatical competence alone cannot account for what is involved in the mastery of a language. However, the reaction against grammar teaching which resulted due to the communicative approach revolution has certain inherent weaknesses. This article evaluates the role of grammar in Second/Foreign language pedagogy and subsequently goes on to show how grammar is, in fact, so important that it cannot be ignored. Hence the issue now is no longer whether grammar is to be taught or not but rather how grammar items are to be taught most effectively. With this end in view, the article looks into a model of task-based grammar teaching, which blends grammar instruction with communicative tasks so that accuracy is not sacrificed at the altar of fluency.

Grammar teaching in English as Second Language/ English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) pedagogy has always been a contentious issue. In fact, there has been a pendulum swing regarding whether grammar should be taught or not. Before the advent of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in the 1970’s, for instance, grammar was in a position of domination in language education, with curricula being organized around it. However, the supremacy of grammar was questioned when developments in the field of Sociolinguistics in the seventies challenged the traditional notions about the nature of language and learning. One of the primary reasons for the rejection of a narrow focus on grammatical forms and structures in language learning was the blurring of the notion of ‘correctness’ of language thanks to the investigation of language varieties. Also, sociolinguists like the American Dell Hymes went on to put forward a broader concept of ‘communicative competence’, which drew attention to language use in social context. This had a tremendous impact on language teaching, encouraging a more critical look at language and sharpening an awareness of the need to make language relevant to students’ needs and to provide opportunities for language use in the classroom.

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Duncan says, “I have often found that learners of all levels feel that there is inadequate time spent on listening in most language courses. Adult learners often complain that (sometimes) after years of study, they can’t understand native speakers. This is partly because they do not receive adequate exposure to authentic texts in class. Another is that it’s hard to find authentic audio texts that can be easily adapted for classroom use.

To tackle these issues, I have developed an approach to listening based loosely on the way children learn languages. I’ve found this to be hugely advantageous in my own language learning, and have passed it on to my students with considerable success.

Children versus adults – children win
According to estimates (Pinker, S., The Language Instinct, 150-151), an average six year old commands about 13,000 words, equivalent to acquiring a new word every two hours.

Children have huge advantages over adult foreign learners in the classroom – they are constantly exposed to the target language and their brains are optimized for rapid language acquisition.

In this article, I argue for a ‘simulated immersion’ approach. The idea is that learners engage in a variety of different types of listening in their own time, similar to what they would encounter if they were living in an English speaking country. Essentially they are trying to mimic the language learning behaviour of young children.”

Read the rest of ‘Simulated immersion’ article