please download the content for Communication Styles unit by clicking the following link.

Communication Styles

Please DO READ your books in addition to this article.

love,

Tarun

please click the following links and download the content to read.

1. Communication Styles Questionnair
2. Handbook on Communication Skills

All the best for exam

Along with all these the education is the sector which has gained a big momentum with the evolution of Internet. 

Google – the search giant has equipped the educators with superb tools which help us be “more” effective in the classroom. All the Google’s educational tools can be explored at http://www.google.com/educators/tools.html. Google’s tools help us even keep in touch and keep educating our learners from anywhere “online” .

I will explore all Google for Educator tools sometime late, today I would like to share a new social networking application that could help us improve our students’ English to a greater extent.

The name of the application is Twitter 

Twitter is a privately funded startup with offices in the SoMA neighborhood of San Francisco, CA. Started as a side project in March of 2006, Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.

In countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevant to them and access information via Twitter as it happens—from breaking international news to updates from friends.

Twitter is a free service that asks one question, “What are you doing?” Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web. These short messages are called “Tweets”. Tweets can be read via email, instant messages, text messages on a mobile phone, or on the Web.

Educators and Twitter

Teachers can utilize Twitter in several ways.

1. We can make timely announcements without need for reliable Internet service. It hardly takes a second for a message to appear on Twitter.

2. We can have batter connections with our learners.

3. It can prove a big time saver for the students as they don’t have to visit the blog / website on a daily basis.

ELT and Twitter

Now comes the role of Twitter in helping our students be better users of English language.

How can I do that? The biggest problem with the ESL students is the correct usage of English language. They are not able to use correct English as they “do not” use enough of English everyday.

This is how we can make them use English and improve upon.

Ask your students to answer the question”What are you doing?” on Twitter 15 times a day. Review all their answers everyday and offer corrections as and when required. 

Your students will answer the question”What are you doing?” in these manners.

When he / she is reading, he / she would write “I am reading my textbook now”.

When he / she is chatting, he / she would write “I am chatting with my friend on Yahoo! messenger”.

When he / she is about to close the Internet connection, he / she would write “I am shutting down my computer now”.

In the above manner they would keep writing and with the correct usage of the English language they are bound to make the mistakes too. Correct them by posting their original answer as your tweet and the correct version of their sentence below.

This can definitely help improve the language usage of our students.

With Twitter we can easily help improve our students improve upon all kinds of language functions.

Here I would like to request you to read a case study in which a Saudi Arabian teacher explains how he experimented with Twitter and shares his research results. A link to this case study is given at the end of this article.

So friends, this is what I have discovered with this messaging technology, and I am sure that many of you would come forward with some better ideas.

Other Twitter Related Links

* Twitter in Academia: A Case Study from Saudi Arabia

* Twitter Tweets for Higher Education

* teaching with Twitter.

Please send your reflections on this activity. Mail them to info@eltweekly.com.

Read such more articles at ELTWeekly.com.

In this article I am going to share some of the ways of using OHP for ELT.

The OHP is a small machine designed to project an image onto a small screen or whiteboard. If you have a screen, which can be placed above the whiteboard and pulled down accordingly, it will stop the glare. The materials we normally use with it are pens, which can either be permanent, or cleanable. In addition to these there are transparencies (OHT), which you can write or draw on, and a special type of transparency which a text or image can be photocopied onto. (Alan Finch, British Council Paris)

Why use OHP?

-      It is cheaper option as compared to any other technology

-      Use of OHP can reduce paper consumption to a great extent

-      Use of OHP enables the teacher to provide students with the handouts of a lesson discussed

-      Use of OHP reflects the well-preparedness of the teacher. Students can realize the effort put in by the teacher to prepare the transparencies

      Students’ work can be presented in the classroom. This can enable the teacher to correct the most common mistakes made by the students.

-      Ready materials are available to teach grammar and other components of language. Also the materials can be used again and again.

-      Having OHP in the classroom, a teacher can save a big amount of time (by not writing anything on the blackboard)

-      Teacher can gain more control over the content of the topic.

-      Teacher can also gain the control of the students with the help of such educational device.

-      The use of OHP also allows a teacher to make available the images of whatever is taught to the class. This makes the process of teaching more lively and meaningful.

Be careful

-      Know how to use OHP before taking it into a classroom. If possible, hold a mock session with your colleagues wherein you are using OHP.

-       Make sure that the transperancies you are using are visible enough (keeping the number of students in mind)

-  Use a pointer to describe important pointes from the transparencies

In the end, once again I would like to quote Alan Finch ”The OHP is extremely practical and versatile as every classroom activity can be adapted for the OHP and even the worst technophobe can use it with confidence. Allowing you to have complete control of the class and holding your students’ attention, it is a useful tool for any teacher or indeed worthwhile purchase for any school which doesn’t have one. Finally, as global warming threatens to devastate our world, using the OHP can play more than a small part in saving paper, therefore trees, and the environment.”

Here are some links where you can get more information on OHP in an English classroom:

* http://www.eslprintables.com/printable.asp?id=178535

* http://www.presentationresources.net/opt_aids.html

* http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED352820&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&

Also using videos for language teaching has been one of the most effective ways to achieve success in the classroom. The ELTicialsn have been using the videos for teaching English language skills since many years now. The organizations like BBC and CNN have even made billions of dollars selling the video content for teaching purposes.

Money and Time – are two things which have been creating so many hurdles in accessing the authentic video content in the past time.

But for last three and a half years, YouTube, a video content sharing website has been making the difference to it. At YouTube, anyone can post / access video content.

YouTube now contains enormous amount of video content, some of which is highly exploitable in the classroom.

YouTube features videos in several categories. Some of them are:

- Autos & Vehicles

- Comedy

- Education

- Entertainment

- Film & Animation

- Gaming

- Howto & Style

- Music

- News & Politics

- Nonprofits & Activism

- People & Blogs

- Pets & Animals

- Science & Technology

- Sports

- Travel & Events.

The real advantage of YouTube – at least from a language learning point of view – is that it offers authentic examples of everyday English used by everyday people.

Yes, this is the challenge as well. Students may enjoy watching these clips, but poor sound quality, pronunciation and slang can make these short videos even more difficult to understand.

At the same time use of YouTube videos enables teachers to attach the students to the “real life” nature of these videos. By creating context for these short videos students can be helped to explore a world of online English learning possibilities.

YouTube videos can be used in an ELT classroom for various teaching vocabulary, accents, pronunciations, voice modulation and what not.

BBC Content on YouTube

YouTube and BBC’s international commercial television channel have collaborated. With this around 30 news clips per day will be offered, with up-to-the-minute news and analysis from around the world. The advertising-funded clips will be available to users outside the UK only. Users will be able to comment on clips, rate them, recommend them to friends and post their own video responses to communicate with the BBC and other viewers.

This helps teachers have even “authentic” authentic video content for their classrooms.

The BBC content on YouTube is available at http://www.youtube.com/BBC

Other than BBC, there are several ELT experts worldwide who have been posting their English Language Teaching content on YouTube.

Such videos include English teaching tips, tricks, methods, approaches and more.

If you search for “ELT” on YouTube, the search engine will bring up abut 1830 videos. And if you will search for “English Language Teaching” the search engine will bring about 1240 videos.

YouTube also features hundreds of videos in the following categories too:

- English Language Learning

- English Language Lessons

- English Language Course

- English Language Comedy

- English Language Tutorials

- English Language History

- English Language Commercials

- English Language Teaching Tips

- English Language Teaching Methods and much more.

All this ELT video content is offered on YouTube on the following channels:

- CHANNEL KUNGZOO

- Quality English Lessons

- English Language Teaching

- Edufinder

- Macmillan ELT

- Teaching English in China with EF English First

- eezenglish

- Imagine Learning English.

Key benefits of using YouTube for ELT are:

- Teachers get free video content

- Also a lot of variety

- Teachers can reproduce authentic language in the classroom

- Also comprehensible input is offered through videos

- More intelligences are - The more times and ways we are presented with information, the more likely we will learn it.

Here it has only been possible to touch briefly some information on the use of YouTube videos in ELT.  One aspect not yet mentioned is motivation.  

Students in many contexts have said they like video activities because they provide a break from the usual textbook-based activities, and even when the activities challenge students, learning with video is more enjoyable.  

If you have any query / suggestion, I can be reached at tarunjpatel@gmail.com.

Here are some useful links if you wish to use YouTube for your ELT:

• Using YouTube for Vocabulary Development
• 100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers
• YouTube in the Classroom!

e.g. ‘Nilu, please read the instructions for Activity X for us’.

And yes, don’t forget to pick a different student each time.

Why read aloud?

1. It saves you doing it.

2. You can check pronunciation.

3. The other students may well understand the instructions better when read by another student.

4. The students are more likely to listen to another student than to you.

5. If they all read the instructions silently they will all finish at different times. If they listen to someone reading the instructions out loud they all finish at the same time.

I hope this helps! 

Please send your reflections on this activity. Mail them to info@eltweekly.com.

Read such more articles at ELTWeekly.com.

Make sure they know how to use it. If not, teach them how.

Encourage them to refer to their dictionary whenever appropriate during the lesson, though they should try to guess the meaning from the context first where possible.

In the classroom as well outside the class, Dictionaries make students more independent – not relying on the teacher the whole time – and more able to study outside the classroom, at home, or whatever, and to continue studying after the course has finished.

Also this helps them enrich their vocabulary slowly and gradually.

Please send your reflections on this activity. Mail them to info@eltweekly.com.

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Blogs can be utilized this way:

• Put your teaching materials, assignments, time table, important dates on blog
• Write summary of everyday lessons on your blog and ask students to post their comments
• Award the student who posts best comment keeping language and its importance in view
• Invite student articles to be posted on the blog and also ask other students and teachers to read those articles and offer their feedback
• Also students can be motivated to create their own blogs and post their articles, poems, quotes etc. Select the best blog and award it 

Do you think something more could be added to this tip? Please send “what you think” totarunjpatel@gmail.com.

Read such more articles at ELTWeekly.com.

Once they’ve read it all, let them begin doing the exercise.

It is a good idea to read the whole exercise before starting to write anything because sometimes more than one answer is possible but, in the exercise the students are doing, only one answer is the right one.

This will also enable the students to answer the questions they know the answer to and guess the rest.

Please send your reflections on this activity. Mail them to info@eltweekly.com.

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Tell the students that if the answers are the same, they are probably correct but if they are different they need to explain/justify their choice of answer to their partner – in English! They can change their answers if they like.

Please send your reflections on this activity. Mail them to info@eltweekly.com.

Read such more articles at ELTWeekly.com.