One of the aims of this session is to help you or your trainees see the differences between accuracy and fluency and to understand why each is important. You or your trainees are asked to think about some of the key problems that students face in your context. Are they mainly problems with accuracy or fluency – or both?
This unit contains the following elements:
- A short video.
- A downloadable series of reflection tasks and activities.
- An answer key and further opportunities for reflection.
- If you are a teacher trainer and are planning to use the material in a face-to-face context, there is a set of trainer notes for each topic.
The videos in this series express the view that “English language teaching has the same challenges the world over”, but that the solutions to these problems depend very much on the local context, and for this reason the approach taken focuses on tasks that enable the participants to relate the video to their own specific practice and experience.
If this video is not available for viewing in your location, please click here
Downloads
Comments
Where is the video?
Hi! I cannot watch the video, can anyone help me, please?
Thinking time
One way of taking a back seat is allowing students to take some time to think and elaborate on their responses.
Native Accent
Even though I always tried to have a near-native accent as a student, I don´t worry much about that as a teacher now because I know that the goal of learning a foreign language is to be able to communicate ideas; no matter how native or non-native you could sound. Consequently, As long as our students are intelligible and are able to transmit their ideas, we can say we are meeting our objectives.
I agree with the idea of taking a back seat
When I was an inexperienced teacher my teaching talking time was too high. In my attempt to "teach" and explain everything, I wasn't giving my students enough time for oral production.
Taking a back seat
I like this phrase. If we avoid completing our students´s sentences and/or answering questions for them we would be taking a back seat, and we would be giving them opportunities to speak, so our TTT would be reduced. Let´s make an effort and do it.
Teaching speaking
How can I download videos on rhythm stress and intonation? I want to train my teachers
Video
Hi Angelocheck
Sorry you are having problems with the video. You should be able to click directly on it. If the image (with the play icon) isn't appearing, then please try using a different web browser (Chrome, Firefox etc.) on your computer. The video is working fine here so it may be a problem with your browser.
Hope that helps,
Cath
TE Team
Teaching Speaking to Adults
The tips are quite effective. I invariably encourage my learners whatever effort they make for learning the English language. Thanks.
EFL
Great advice comes from experience. Teaching is a gift. Some have a natural ability to teach non-native speakers. It does help to show them the end result of what they will be able to accomplish before the start of each lesson.
I love it when I stand back and let the class perform conversational activities. It is a pleasure to see the children speaking out loud and waving hello or goodbye and putting directly into practice everything I taught them to learn how to say in class, The results of listening to them speaking out naturally to me is a job well done. Using the classroom to communicate freely with each lesson plan as if they were all on their own while i observe is the best form of natural conversation! GB
speaking is more importent
As above my companion said that speaking is very important. Being a teacher I am giving more importance to speaking instead of writing or else i always give some sample sentences to my student and they make more sentences like those. In one month i have observed that in fact its working
ENGLISH AS A MATTER OF HABIT
In the Philippines, where I do live, most teachers are focusing on book. I hate focusing on book. I love speaking. Only few teachers conduct a debate forum. Speaking must be mastered because it is highly needed for public speaking, and the clever you become in it, the confident person you become.
TEACHING SPEAKING
There are many ways of teaching speaking. I feel that it is possible to make children speak English even in a remote corner of a village in India. Most of my students are speaking English spontaneously. I am working in a Secondary school in a village. I think a teacher can make the children speak English without any latest teaching aids. A black board, a piece of chalk and a competent and confident English teacher are enough.
Downloading video
Hi DebraAnna
Unfortunately our videos are not available for download, only for streaming in class.
Sorry about that.
Cath
TE Team
Listening and Speaking is neglected
It's noticed in majority of the Pakistani schools that English in not taught as a language. They only take this as a subject and teach grammar rules, comprehensions and compositions in a boring and woefully inadequate manners. Teachers are given such a lengthy and specific content that they are not able to conduct any kind of learning activities in the classroom. There is no concept of examining the speaking and listening abilities at any stage of academic year.These are the some reasons that students have least interest towards the English language. I don't know when it'll be realized that proficiency in English language can only be acquired through all the four language learning skills.
speaking skill
This video about how can we get our students improve your English skill was really interesting, since we as teachers must apply differents strategies which involve students and encourage them to participe more in English class. These tips explaned on the video will be useful and effective to get students can talk English language well.
taking the back seat
The comment about doing our job properly means taking the back seat was interesting to me. Sometimes, as a teacher, I might worry about the silent gaps. But I need to remember the learners are processing from one language to another before producing an answer or communicating. So patience and confidence play a big role.
That´s an awesome sentence to start our daily work
I also really liked what they said about giving our students the chance to produce language and as a teacher be silent. We as teachers think that if you don´t speak, you´re not doing your job but on the contrary, taking the back seat is part of our job. (=
planning and organising your time
2. preparing yourself
3. anything else?