With the advent of technology, we have got several aids to strengthen the English Teaching process. Among all the devices, the one which requires minimum of technical knowledge is OHP, or overhead projector.
In this article I am going to share some of the ways of using OHP for ELT. Read the rest of this entry »
The English Language Teaching process has been energized with the emergence of new Internet technologies and now the Web 2.0 tools.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
During your ELT session pick a student and ask him/her to read the instructions for your activities for that particular session.
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. Read the rest of this entry »
Try to give the students each an English-English dictionary.
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.
Read such more articles at ELTWeekly.com.
Blogging can be a powerful and interesting activity to expand your reach among your students and also to help them improve their language.
Blogs can be utilized this way:
Do you think something more could be added to this tip? Please send “what you think” totarunjpatel@gmail.com.
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Tell the students to read the whole exercise before writing anything. (This will be difficult for some students to do).
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.
Read such more articles at ELTWeekly.com.
Pictures could prone to be a great aid in the ELT process. Pictures give students information which does not require translation. Pictures can avoid long explanations in words which students would not understand.
Pictures also help students communicate incomplete information and so they leave space for the students’ imagination and creativity.
Here is an activity on using pictures in an ELT classroom;
Collect full length pictures of people from a clothes catalogue.
Cut off the heads and paste them on small cards.
Cut off the feet (and shoes) paste them on small cards.
Give a collection of cards to a group of students.
Ask them to try to match the heads and feet. Ask them to try to explain the matches they have made.
Please send your reflections on this activity. Mail them to info@eltweekly.com.
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Listening is the most important receptive (and learning) skill for English language students. An ability to listen and interpret is a fundamental communicative ability.
Teaching listening involves training in some ‘enabling skills’ — perception of sounds, stress, intonation patterns, accents, attitudes and so on, as well as ‘practice’ in various styles of listening comprehension.
1. Clear Voice: The teacher needs to use a clear voice with good articulation and sufficient projection to be heard by all the students. The teacher’s voice whether speaking or reading aloud is the first and most important source of listening material for students. A good voice is produced from the diaphragm and not from the upper chest.
2. Cassette or CD Player: A good cassette or CD player for classroom use will have a forward-facing loudspeaker slightly higher than the students’ ear level so that the sound goes directly to the students. If your loudspeaker is too low and the students are sitting in rows, their bodies and the furniture will block the sound. If your player’s loudspeaker points vertically upwards, the sound will be reflected off the ceiling and be distorted. Turn it, so it faces the students.
3. Outside Noise: Reduce the noise coming from outside the classroom by shutting the windows (or, in hot countries, turning off the air conditioning) while students are listening.
4. Inside Noise: The greatest source of noise which interferes with listening comes from the students themselves. Train them to keep quiet while listening by making sure that they have tasks which force them to listen carefully.
5. Use the language laboratory: Earphones and headphones deliver undistorted sound directly to the ears. If you have access to a language laboratory, this provides ideal conditions for intensive listening. Don’t spend all your language laboratory time doing structural drills. Use the time for intensive and extensive listening.
I will bring some more listening tips in the next issue of ELTWeekly.
Do you have some ELT tips to share? Please send them to eltweekly@gmail.com.
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