Are you conserving and recycling water? As EFL, ESL or foreign language teaching professionals we ultimately have a responsibility to our learners, our adopted communities and ourselves as a form of social responsibility. We can quite easily, quickly and responsibly incorporate global, regional and local social issues into our class sessions to provide our language learners with an outlet for their English as a foreign language or other foreign language communicative skills. Pollution, crime, the environment, global warming and terrorism are all available topics of concern regionally and locally worldwide. Take water conservation for example.
Category: ELT Articles and Research Papers
ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue 33
ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#33 | August 13, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036 Classroom Tip: Drawing dictation Video: Professor Farzad Sharifian: English as an International Language (EIL) 2011 Lecture Article: How Listening to Music Influences English Language Teaching Learning Video: Learner Language: Tools for Teachers | The New School International Conference On ‘Empowering The English Language Classroom’ At… Continue reading ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue 33
Vol. 4 Issue 33 – Article: How Listening to Music Influences English Language Teaching Learning
Gateway author Dave Spencer’s Top Tips series for Macmillan Education.
Vol. 4 Issue 32 – Article: ‘Some Common English Idioms’ by Debra Johnson
One of the hardest things to learn in any language is the colloquialisms. Old words and phrases that are commonly used among native speakers but have no real relevance to modern language. In English, these are known as idioms. They can be widely used or constrained to certain geographical areas. They can make sense or be completely inane. What they have in common, however, is that native speakers will understand the idea behind the idiom where English learners will not.
Vol. 4 Issue 32 – Research Paper: ‘More Benefits from Video form of Advertisements for Developing Communication Skills of Science and Technology Students in ELCS Labs’ by K. Balashowri Reddy
At present trends, there has been a great rush to jump on the video bandwagon and use this form of media in the ELCS lab for developing communication skills. This paper points out that video, with its combination of visual and oral information, has an intrinsic attractiveness for students of Science and Technology, and advertisements with their 30 second barrage of language and culture are an excellent source of authentic material that are more manageable in length than sitcoms, full-feature movies, or programs. This paper then discusses that one of the most compelling reasons for using video form advertisements is that they are the ideal source of innovative and fun ELCS lab activities in content-based lab classes because they can be tied to a particular theme or chapter in a textbook. Finally, a sample lesson is outlined using pre-viewing activities, viewing the video form of advertisement, language processing, securing adequate comprehension, discussing cultural and values laden components and follow-up activities to tap into the potential of the commercial medium.
Vol. 4 Issue 32 – Article: ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Doing PhD in English Literature’ Dr. Sachin Ketkar
There is a sudden rise in the number of PhD aspirants in these parts of the country. This may be because many universities in Gujarat and elsewhere offering the PhD Entrance Test (TET) in a quick succession. It may also be due to the UGC resolution that those who have completed their PhD following 2009 norms will be exempt from National Eligibility Test (NET) for lecturership, and probably also due to the new Academic Performance Index being introduced by the UGC in the sixth pay commission. However, not many are clear about what research in literary studies means, or why they are doing it in the first place.These dreadful questions may haunt them later in many forms if they jump on the bandwagon hastily.
ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue 31
ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue#31 | July 30, 2012 | ISSN 0975-3036 Video: The power of English for development Cambridge ELT Interview with John Field Article: ‘Teaching English As Foreign Language in South Africa’ by Aparupa Patowary Video: Influence of the King James Bible on the English Language Webinar: Oxford’s ‘CLIL for Younger Learners’ Webinar, September 20… Continue reading ELTWeekly Vol. 4 Issue 31
Vol. 4 Issue 31 – Article: Educating the Next Generation: Unconventional Teaching Methods Using Technology Applications
The traditional conception of a teacher leading a lesson with a piece of chalk, vigorously scratching formulas, themes or motifs across a chalkboard, is ingrained in most of our minds. We grew up in a classroom where knowledge came from two sources: the instructor and the textbook. Those may never change, but their ability to educate has been made easier with forward-thinking.
Vol. 4 Issue 31 – Research Article: ‘Silence Also Speaks: Nonverbal Communication in the Classroom’ by Dr. Shubha R. Mishra
Communication is one of the most important concepts of the 21st century. In a teaching learning situation, communication and all its related assumptions have drastically changed over the period of last two centuries. In the traditional classroom, teaching was through lecture method and the use of the chalk and the board. With the explosion of technology, the whole scenario has changed. The traditional teacher, who was respected only next to God, and was regarded as the final word, has now changed roles to a facilitator, who communicates his thoughts, ideas and knowledge, through many different ways. Those teachers, who use uses nonverbal communication and its multiple facets like expressions and body language, to make the teaching more interactive and interesting, are more popular, and are regarded more humane and accessible. In this changed scenario, nonverbal communication has gained a new dimension and importance in classroom teaching. Therefore the teacher’s awareness to the multiple ways of non verbal communication, its effects and significance has become crucial in the whole process of teaching and learning.
Vol. 4 Issue 31 – Article: ‘Teaching English As Foreign Language in South Africa’ by Aparupa Patowary
South Africa was primarily a Dutch colony and later taken up by the British. The country was plagued by racial and cultural conflicts but has conquered over its troubles to a large extent in the recent past. It is now a multi-cultural and a multi-lingual country with 11 official languages and only 8% of its’ population conversant in English. Economically, it has been doing very well and is striving to do better in the global world. Since communication is very important to further their development in world economy, the people in South Africa are educating themselves in today’s lingua franca, English.