How to be an effective EFL writing teacher

Writing is a technique that many students are afraid of. As in  a maxim, they say “Writing that can be postponed, will be”. The fact is that some people are very interested in writing. They are not writers but they write very interesting essays. The situations are opposite. Why are they afaid of writing but not speaking or others?

Speaking and writing are quite different. In speaking, students can speak freely and the listeners can understand the more easily because sometimes they do not really need all the grammar points while in writing, they always think of grammar, the culturally situations to expess their thinking. They can speak freely but it is difficult to understand with free writing.

One of the way to change negative attitudes toward writing is to teach students that writing is more a mode of learning than a skill. In fact, this makes someone even more negative because different people have different point of view in writing, so that students always worry that their writing s are not suitable  for their teachers and they do not want to write.

Raimes considers that the teaching of writing should stress the students’ ideas but not grammar. This is in condition for only the beginners. As for the advanced learners, the ideas and the structures come together closely.

Taylor, and Ramies think that organization grows out of ideas. As for beginners, outlines and instructions are very important. They help them believable to write what their teachers ask them to do especially when the teachers give them a goal.

I quite agree with the point that, after each writing lesson, the teacher should correct the students’ writing. When writing they do not know they write in the correct way or not. It will be more effective when the teacher shows out all the mistakes for each student. They may not cause that mistakes again. We all know that but it is very difficult to do so because there are 40 or 50  even more students in one class so that we do not have enough time to do what I want to do. Sometimes, correction of errors did not help the students in writing because they do not pay attention to it or they do not understand what the teacher said. They write as an obligation.

As speaking, reading and listening, writing needs time to develop.

Improving adult English language learners’ speaking skill

In communication, speaking is most used and it is the easiest way to express someone’s ideas. Speaking links the structures, vocabulary, pronunciation…. .But in our daylife, it is a bit different because of the learners’ purpose, such as Vietnamese pupils; They learn foreign languages at school for their tests but not for communication. The standard of the learners is marked by their fluency.

            Out side the class, they use speaking most, but inside they use both speaking and listening, even writing.

            Many researchers give different definition for speaking. It is the combination of grammar structures, vocabulary,intonation, traditions… in such situations, in which someone uses to express his ideas. Speaking is quite different from written language. Sometimes, speaking is helped by the body language, gestures.

            When teaching, the teacher helps the students to find out the right ways to use the structures ,vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation correctly in most suitable ways, selecting words.

“Imported” communicative language teaching: Implications for local teachers

Comment:

Imported” communicative language teaching (CLT) is a problem which the teachers at schools , universities, colleges, centers have to cope with. What does Pham Hoa Hiep mean when he uses the word “imported”? Most local teachers used grammar structures in teaching English some years ago. They change to CLT recently. The problem here is that, many authors have had arguments about CLT. CLT is seen as an approach (Rechards and Roger, 1986) while almost local teachers consider it as a skill. Therefore, they ask their students to practice speaking during the lessons and think  it is CLT. They do not realize that speaking requires the link of linguistic and sociolinguistic competence (Burns and Joyce, 1997). It does mean that speaking needs grammar controlled and language uses.

In my opinion, CLT is the combination of many teaching fields:

-         Using the grammar structures in the right way.

-         Using the vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation effectively.

-         Using the language in the right context.

         People use the language to express their ideas in different situations so that when this function is broken, language is not always communicative. The goal of CLT is native speaker communication. We can look at the given examples:

-         Do you like bananas?           (Grammar structure – Like or dislike)

Yes, I do /  No, I don’t.      

-         Do you like bananas?           (Invitation – Colloqual language)

No, thanks.                          

-         Would you like bananas?      (Invitation – Colloqual language, formal way)

Yes, Thanks.

           - Bananas?  (Invitation – Colloqual language)- Using a tone for an invitation.

         - Is there a post office near here? (Asking for direction, not asking if there is a post office).

Why do teachers at local schools “import” and some teachers at universities who learn CLT in foreign countries but they still use the grammar structures? Which methods of teaching are used base on the materials – Syllabus designs. The reason is that: Materials at schools  are produced based on grammar structures so as the state exams. The students learn the language to pass the exams first.That is why our materials have the need of a change to be more suitable for the learners’ purposes.

            In short, inorder to make CLT come to its goal,  when teaching a lesson, the teacher has to teach grammar points, vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation and the way  how to use the language in the right context carefully and effectively. They are in one chain which can not be broken out.

 

Assignment for the second day

This is the second day for our course but we haven’t got used to the lesson yet. It is difficult for us to login our blogs or save our materials in Delicious though our teacher helps us much. My teacher asked us to read some websites and I found some interesting articals to read.

I am a teacher of English. I pay much attention to the pronunciation. I find some web pages in which we have many lessons to deal with teaching pronunciation and teaching English:

1. http://www.k-way.home.sonic.net/

Notes on Dr. Olle Kjellin’s Pronunciation Teaching Method

This web site is interesting for teachers who teach the beginner to practice the sounds. It is easy for the beginners because there are steps in practicing. The beginners will find interested in those steps.

2.http://www.paulnoll.com/Books/Clear-Speech/index.html

“American” clear speech sounds

This helps us to learn pronunciation too. We have lessons which tell us the mouth positions when we produce vowel or consonants sounds, the syllable length, English rhythms and many other things interesting.

3..http://www.paulnoll.com/Books/Clear-English/index.html

American English teaching material

In this website, we have all kinds of lessons for the learners to learn pronunciation. All the goals, the differences in English and American sounds. The similarities/ differences exercise which helps the learners to practice the sounds betters.

4.http://www.paulnoll.com/Books/index.html

Books to Help Learning English

This helps us to finds many books which are useful for teachers

Technology and change in English language teaching

Moon- June 6th, 2008.

          Nowadays, English is widely used all over the world in different fields. The growth of English has a close relationship with the growth of computers. As Graddol’s research, he pointed out that in the year of 2010, English learning could  peak and the growth of computers could be the same because 80% of information stored on the internet is in English.

          One of the most emerging problems in influence of English learning and computer using is the development of vocabulary or the change of language itself. Many new words are created when people use computers such as: Email, chat, bookmark, infanview ………… In the world of messengers, the language changes a lot: Single letters can replace words, single digits can replace words, a single letter or digit can replace a syllable, other text language ………… People do not pay attention to grammar and spelling mistakes. Internet slang has been developed through three main ways: texting messages, sending instant messages and registering as members of an Internet Forum. Internet slang has appeared to meet the demand for conveying emotion, attitude and even personality of Internet users.

          Eg 1:    Please come see me in my office.

          Eg 2 :  Plz come c  me in my office.  ………..

          As for all teachers, computers are helpful for them to check information, look for materials and save them, prepare the lessons, use the websites as a place for the students to express their ideas. There are many web sites which are used for the students to practice 4 skills. The teacher can record the lesson and the computer can repeat that lesson again and again with out being “tired or bored”. A computer with a internet line is a great book for all teachers.