Organization and Discipline

What are some of the factors that differentiate those who are successful and those who are not? I believe that the key differences are their level of discipline, organization and determination. Sure, you can still achieve success with a very low level of these things but people who can do this are few and far between, not to mention quite exceptional. If you are not a person who is capable of becoming organized, disciplined and organized there is one other option, leverage.

Organization is a big time saving skill for those who have it. I know many college and university students who have very messy rooms and that’s the way they like it since it doesn’t take too much effort. However, they often lose their work because they misplaced it in their room under the pile of boxes of Kraft Dinner, dirty laundry and beer bottles. I also know many university students who receive exceptional marks from their professors and these students are extremely organized and responsible. They keep all their notes in order and in a specific place where they can find them. All of these acquantances and friends also happened to go to elementary school with me and are both capable of great work. Elementary school teachers hound the students for their homework and really grind them to write the name and date and place their work in their binders. Post secondary institutions however are a totally different story, the responsibility lies solely on the student’s shoulders and this is where the disorganized students crumble.

Determination and discipline are intrinsic values that are very crucial to success in any field. Every year, on December 31st, people across the world have New Year’s parties where they make resolutions. Everyone is guilty of making one of those “work out every day this year” or “quit smoking forever” type of resolutions. Not surprisingly, most of these resolutions end up unfulfilled because of lack of discipline. Beginning the task is easy. You could do fine for a few days, a week, or maybe, if you’re really good, a month or two, but most people do not consistently take action. They stop just a meter short of the finish line. Those who possess great intrinsic determination and motivation are able to push through at that last second and finish the race. And in the end their efforts are rewarded, they accomplish their goals and they’re on to the next one. Discipline allows them to get past the hard times so they can see get the long term results.

If you are an extremely lazy person, there is an alternative. Have you ever played that game “Would you rather?” If you haven’t it goes something like this… One person asks “Would you rather eat a whole jar of peanut butter or kiss a fat guy?” and the other person says “Ewww kiss a fat guy? I’ll eat the peanut butter.” Tell a close friend or someone you trust that you are going to fulfill your resolution and that if you don’t you will have to do something of their choice… like clean all the toilets in your house, do something embarrassing or as simple as giving them a hundred dollars. In most cases the person would rather work out everyday than pay a large ammount of money or do something embarrassing.

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The Importance of Communication

It is important to put our ideas into action, and learn by putting things we learn into practice. The problem is that we lack opportunities to practice what we learn; but if we don’t get or seize these opportunities we may never get to reach our fullest potential. As the teacher you can prompt them to use their newly acquired English skills.

A great method that is a classic among teachers is the good old topic and cues. The teacher would bring up a topic of discussion in which the students would have to draw information from a resource such as a book, or an article. The students would then use the information and have discussions and debates in order to understand the topic more in depth, but the important thing is that they are able to practice their conversational English and the fluency in real time.

Another great way that you can aid the students in their learning is by providing structure. Although we need to let them practice communicating they can sometimes get off track or the conversation could die down. It is then the teacher’s job to get the train back on the tracks and moving on by adding an important point that they may have missed or getting them back on topic as to maintain the flow of the conversation.

It is important to ask open questions that are very general rather than non-leading questions that can be answered in one word. It allows the students to express their inner most thoughts and feelings which is a great way to start a conversation as there are often opposing views. Asking a question such as “Do you like swimming?” has one of two results: yes or no. An open question usually begins with Who, What, Why, Where, When and How and has infinite possible responses.

You can also get the students riled up by playing devil’s advocate. Start off by stating something that they will almost certainly object to in order to get them to object using everything they’ve got. An example of this is when stated in class that I thought that we should all have arranged marriages and that we should marry not for love but rather wealth, and status. Several people caved to my statement but a mini discussion began when someone stated their differing views.

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Advice: What Should I Do?

After careful observation I have realized something incredible, a great phenomenon. Advice that we receive is no longer given based on experience and wisdom instead we are giving default answers because we don’t know what else to say. I think that we need to realize that we are not always qualified to give advice, but rather to direct them to another resource that is more reliable. If we try to play counselor without very much prior knowledge we can cause many further complications which may snowball.

I first came to this realization while I witnessed two people in the class role-play a distressed individual and a counselor. The initial intent was obviously not to practice counseling but rather to use our English vocabulary in real time and practice at it. The distressed individual’s problem was that someone from one of his former relationship had become a burden and a time vampire and that it was affecting the quality of his current relationship. His great dilemma was whether it was time to say ‘enough is enough’ or if he should continue to be her shoulder to cry on and just find time for her.

The problem is very common and is just a background to the real meat and potatoes which is the advice given by the counselor. The person playing the role of the counselor found difficulty in answering because she probably hadn’t experienced something like that before. She gave a very common answer which is to continue being there for them as a friend and making them a top priority.

I do not know where exactly where we get these ideas from but we have an auto-response mechanism inside us when it comes to advice – default solutions to difficult questions. If I like a girl how do I get her to like me? Auto-response: be yourself. I feel really hurt from a break up. Don’t worry about it, there are plenty of fish in the sea, we’ll go to the bar. First of all I think that we are looking for advice in the wrong place, our peers are not always a great resource. Not only that, but when they do give advice its very hit or miss because it is just a stock response and the results are dependent on how you perceived the advice.

It is not uncommon for us to think that we give great advice. It can be addicting and as much as it strokes our ego we much find an alternative, something that is more effective. I think that the most effective way to solve a problem is to act as a prompter and inquire more deeply into the problem, as a resource that guides them to the a more qualified source, and also as a sounding mirror to build rapport and really give develop a greater understanding for both the counselor and the distressed individual and work towards resolution.

I think that when giving advice we should really speak from our own experiences and wisdom and if you don’t know the answer then just tell them that honestly. I know it sounds very simple to do, but it is a difficult task to put into practice. We can really empathize and get to understand the individual through prompting, mirroring and acting as a resource. Although this is a good solution we must remember that we need to experience things for ourselves and learn from our mistakes. If we change our approach, we may not be doomed to repeat history after all.

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Hahyun Park’s last day!(Overdue...Sept 25th)

Today was her final day here at ATC as a student. Although the will no longer be attending regularly as a student she will continue to attend classes occasionally so she can see her friends here and enjoy spending time with them. I think that she put a lot of effort into planning her final lesson for us. She understood the material in depth and was able to communicate it to us very elegantly and with a wonderful passionate smile. Her methods of teaching us grammar were very effective but that’s not the most important part. What made the lesson really memorable is that she really took us into consideration and made the lesson very fun, interactive and a great way to help us get to know each other before she had to say her last farewell. Afterwards, we exchanged contact information and agreed to have a goodbye party in Hahyun’s honor tomorrow night. If you ask me I would say that today was truly a Kodak moment.

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The Secret About Great Teachers

At this day and age I noticed that we have fewer exceptional teachers, and more mediocre teachers. I believe that the mediocre teachers lack something very crucial that hinders them from ever achieving greatness. Extraordinary teachers have a passion for what they do, they have a positive attitude and they can motivate students by relating to them and working within their incentive systems.

Spectacular teachers becoming scarcer we have begun to accept mediocrity as long as they have the practical knowledge and a piece of paper that says they do – a degree or certificate. These “teachers” have all the practical knowledge you could want; they might be able to parrot back to you the entire encyclopedia Britannica, but they still lack something, that “so close yet so far” – passion. A superstar teacher who is passionate is naturally talented because they love what they do, they are doing it because they want to see students learn and grow, and as a result they have radiate charisma and a contagious enthusiasm. I am not dreaming, teachers like this are few and far between, but they do exist. A teacher who is passionate about teaching can inspire you to be passionate about teaching and look at life in a totally different light.

Another quality a great teacher possesses is the ability to see things in a positive light and the ability to take responsibility. They don’t blame people for their mistakes, they don’t have a victim’s mentality, and they don’t want to cut themselves when someone gives them constructive criticism. Every mistake and critique they receive is something they can learn from so that they can really refine and improve on their teaching ability. They don’t play the blame game or make excuses; they take responsibility and think about what they can change, they believe that they are the masters of their destiny. A teacher who makes excuses and has a victim mentality doesn’t have control of his life, is controlled externally, never changes, never improves, and never becomes great. On the other hand, the great teacher takes responsibility, takes control of his life, takes action, adapts, improves, and achieves his goals.

Although a great teacher can generally spark a student’s dormant enthusiasm and passion, there are some who need to be motivated differently. Any great teacher is able to ‘walk in their shoes’ and take some time to think about what makes the students motivated. They know that young kids and adolescents have a different paradigm and mindset and that the same things that make adults tick aren’t necessarily the same things that make young students tick. I have seen some truly excellent teachers use this to their advantage by offering incentives such as snacks, fieldtrips, and recognition and witnessed how effective it is.

In brief, these are some of the main traits of the truly successful, wonderful, and inspirational teachers. The things that truly separate the magnificent and the mediocre are passion for teaching, the ability to take responsibility and maintain a positive attitude, and see the world through the eyes of their students. I see a bright future for the aspiring teachers who possess these traits, as they will become legends, who will continue to inspire for years to come.

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Challenges of Teaching Multi-Level Classes

There are many challenges in teaching a multi-level class. When teaching a multi-level class the teacher must be adaptable and able to cater to the needs of a variety of different skill levels. Students who have a higher level of understanding for the subject could easily get bored because it is not challenging enough for them. On the other hand there are the lower level students who could feel anxiety, nervousness and inadequacy when confronted with difficult questions. Consequently, this could be very frustrating for the student and the teacher.

I have taught some small multi-level classes just recently and found it challenging. However, I feel like I have learned many new things that I could try when teaching them in the future. I would begin the activity with the entire group united and have them discuss the theme that the lesson would be focusing on. I would then divide them into equal ability groups and each group would be responsible for completing a specific task according to their skill level. Each specific task would contribute something towards completing the big picture. I would then divide them into mixed ability groups where they would do something interactive such as a role-play to enhance their communication skills. I would set up stations for different levels in the classroom so that those who finish early can continue to learn and practice their skills.

It is especially difficult to evaluate students in a multi-level class. Our goal is to evaluate the students in comparison with their personal goals and personal best, not compare them against each other. Some ways we can monitor their progress without this kind of awkward dynamic is to find alternatives such as journals, participation, and observation of the students and for the students to monitor their own progress with a checklist.

by Ken Lam

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ESL Teaching at ATC

Yesterday I finally got the opportunity to teach after about 2 weeks! I had been long anticipating a chance to teach ever since I had taught Social Studies to a class of high school juniors last year. I had craved the feeling of standing up in a class of students and teaching. I loved the rush you got when you know all eyes are on you and that you were in a way leading them towards the right path. I had an amazing feeling of satisfaction when I felt that I came across in just the right way and so that both me and my students were enjoying the class.

Although it was a really fun experience I also found it a bit challenging. I had a hard time adapting because I was used to teaching a class of 30 native English speakers. I had to be very conscious of my voice fluctuation and volume as well as the speed so that I did not intimidate or confuse my students. When I had first planned this lesson a week ago I did not take the time, and how long everything would take, into consideration. I could have improved the overall experience for the students by paying close attention to the specifics, preparing more examples and being more clear about the task and expectations.

During the runtime of the class I felt that it could have benefited me to read the students' physical cues instead of interrupting their train of thought by constantly asking if they needed more time. Variety is the spice of life; when I got them to read aloud I had given them large chunks to summarize and I feel that I should have allowed them to alternate more to provide more variety.

Despite having run into many obstacles in terms of adapting, I realized that this was 'falling off your bike' part of teaching. We sometimes forget that we all have to start somewhere. Making initial mistakes is what makes it all the more rewarding when we do reach our highest potential because we know that we made something from nothing. When we look back we can truly appreciate where we are at and how much hard work and determination it took to get there.

by Ken Lam

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My one and only girl
Smart, sweet and sexy
Oh, what a feeling
It is a miracle to have you
Unforgettable moments with you
Don’t lose this love
And friendship

By Lawrence & Justyna


*



Good morning sweetheart
Every day, every moment
You make me smile
I’m proud of my sunshine!
You’re beautiful, marvellous
We are growing up together
Keep on your flavour
Daughter

By Joshua, Grace & Winney
*
Ju.

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Poems...

Have you read our poems?
I would like to show you next part of that art.
We had another poem exercise last week. We cut out some magazine titles and tried to create our own poem from these words. We had real fun and our poems were very colourful.
Have a look!




The real story behind happiness…
Make your own relationship as much as
You feel good, great,
It doesn’t matter how long
The strength to get your friend
Makes yourself have a lot of things,
Luck and fantasy

By Jessica & Michelle

*

You love wild life?
I cry for delicious naked bars
My time’s been over

By Kim Jong Soo & Christine

*

Your best life and age
Live your year!
We found cook of the iron
What the pretty look!

By Yukiko & Haemin




*

Ju.

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How to write a poem?

Topic for this week in TESOL class is “Teaching reading”. It may seem to be difficult but I think that all students really enjoy it.
Yesterday we were using poetry in the class and we became poets. Real poets!!! You may believe or not but it is not so complicated. You should use your imagination and try to write even a very easy poem, even a poem about everyday life.
Just try!
We tried. We worked in pairs and each group wrote a poem. You can read it below.


Picture

The picture is blurred
It is dark and scary
I’ve never seen him smiling…
His eyes are sad, waiting for happiness
His small hands need love
I wish I could help him

Ju&Yu

***

The bizarre girl

The smiling and not so shy girl seems happy
She is thinking about the weekend but actually
She is dreaming of another life
She then looks at her clean hands and says:
“Oh, my hands can do so many things!”
So she grabs the plant and felt like throwing it out
But the window was like a cage
And in the whitish artificial neon light
She suddenly became sleepy
But the humming of the ventilation awoke her
Then she saw through the windows a beautiful
View despite the many towers.
She realized that her future wasn’t bright but soft and dark.

Lawrence
Christine

***

no title

World wide map is stretched on the wall and wind makes plants dance.
The light through the window since I was here but I didn’t even notice.
On the other hand it makes me happy though.
The hands were weird like hers.
Outside is shining and beautiful but who knows tomorrow could be raining.
I wonder he has new haircut but I don’t think he would notice that I’m staring him.
It may be ridiculous

no names

***

Do you like it?
Now it is your turn! If you want, you can write a poem or a fairy tale and share with us by publishing it here. It may be real fun.

ju.

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What is your way to improve speaking and listening skills?

Most of you might have decided to study abroad to increase of speaking and listening skills rather than the rest two parts-writing and reading in English. By exposure yourself in English immersion environment you will acquire practical experience with association of local people. However, what I have gone though is that just stay in English speaking country not helpful for international student. At the first time just stay in foreign country seems interest and fun but by time goes on you will lose the passion to mingle with native speaker and more hang out and come close with same ethnic friends. Some of my friends grumble for getting worse of their speaking and listening.

I suggest one tip to improve speaking and listening. You have mp3 or portable tape player that are usually using for enjoying music rather for your English study. First choose interesting topics that will never become dull in internet website and down load sound file to your portable devise and shadow the spoken work and dictate all sentences as long as you can understand. It is not easy job but by repeating the process you will fell your progression within a week. If you keep this work around on month you would aware yourself highly have improved in speaking and listening. After that go to movie and test your ability. Do not be surprised with your capacity. Good luck!

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Which features do good teachers have?

Many international students are interested in to be an English teacher in their countries recently, that's why they dicided to study overseas.
Students need to bear the loneliness and hunger for it if they want to reach their dream.

To be an English teacher, TESOL diploma or certificate is strongly required. It is a license to teach English.
The difference of TESOL from other English courses is, you can get more opportunities to speak English in the class.

For instance, for ESL course, teacher teaches and speaks more than students in gerneral and students usually complain that they don't have a chance to speak and their English never improved.

On the other hand, for TESOL course, teacher elicits students to say and prepare for a class. In short, a class is like students' reponsibility. It is very helpful for them.
TESOL course is a good rehearsal when you teach English infront of your students as Teacher.

Can students improve English? The answer is "ABSOLUTELY YES". You took the words right out of my mouth.
Before starting TESOL programme, students need to know what a good teacher is.

Let me tell you my story.

Peter Schmitter was my professor when I was at Berlin-Freie Universitaet.
He influenced me a lot, even my life.
Mr. Peter's teaching showed me what a good teacher is.

The good teacher motivates students to have their vision.
He used to ask students with this question, "Do you have a dream?" If they answered "No" or "I don't know yet, he was upset and said "It's your today homework, Go home!" The 70 year-old tried to make students pursue their dream and hope. He had an inspiration to all students.

The good teacher should be energetic, enthusiastic.
Teachers usually teach same thing repeatedly, they could be exhausted easily. If the teacher seems tired, definitely students could be tired of a class. Even though he was 70 years old, he was so powerful like young teachers.
Students absolutely respected his powerful passion.

The good teacher teaches without distinction.
It is a little bit difficult to give students same opportunities during a class, but the good teacher tries to do that.
Personally, I am German, but look Asian. Unfortunately, Germany is very famous for the discrimination in the world.
However, Mr. Peter gave me a lot of opportunities to take scholarships fairly unlike other professors. He also was willing to recommended me to a good korean university as an exchange student. When I asked to him a favor or needed his consultation, he did it like his work.
Nobody expects a discrimination from him.

The good teacher has a keen sense of humor.
Listener generally could be felt boring easily. Teachers are no exception to this. If teacher sits down on the chair and just listens somebody' speech, even teacher is going to be sleepy honestly. That's why some proper humor is necessary in the class. Humor has a mysterious power for concentration in the class.

The good teacher praises students for what they do.
Students usually could make a lot of mistakes and next time they’re going to be afraid of their mistakes. On this occasion, teacher’s praise can help them escape from a fear of mistake and then students will try to their best.

OK!
Are you ready for TESOL?
ATC's "SPECIALIZED TESOL-PROGRAM" is waiting for YOU!


By Deutschmann

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What is your idea on teaching?

Those of you who are reading this category will have interest in teaching and some are already in service or have plan to teach in the future. If then, what is your idea on teaching. Before taking the TESOL(Teaching English to Speakers of other languages) you need to conceptualize with your own view to succeed in your study and do not be disappointed after took the program.

With my idea I think teaching is the process of knowing myself rather than conveying knowledge to the students in my class. If we do not know ourselves we could not teach anybody. Even though we can teach but there are critical absent like a empty bowl. To be a sincere teacher you try to contemplate and find yourself  thereafter you can reborn as a real teacher. And, if you want to be serious in your life I strongly recommend to take TESOL program even you are not interest in being a English teacher. The program will bring you a lot of resource in your life.

We have spent almost 2007, now it is the time to warp up and to plan coming year. Whatever you do I hope you will succeed in your field. See you in the next story.

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The dog with 3 heads

(The story is made by 6 people in TESOL class. Nobody knew what the story would be like...)

The dog with 3 heads winked at me and started running toward me.

The dog talked to me and said,
"I’m hungry, I want to eat you."

I was shocked and started running away, but the dog was running very fast and I was almost caught by the dog.

I, however, was hungry as well. I was starving and my stomach said,
"Look at the dog, his heads look like very yummy like three Big-Macs."
The voice inside my stomach was repetitive.
The dog seemed to read my mind and said,

"I’m tired of being alive, you can eat me if you want, but keep in mind. If you eat me, you will have three heads like me."
I hesitated a little and answered,
"My dream is having three heads, it’s my pleasure! I’ll eat you!"
"Be my guest."

I walked around town, talking to myself, each head listening and then talking to the other 2 heads. I realized that my heads had different feelings. One head was excited, another was afraid, another was very happy. I felt confused and wanted to put all of my heads together.

I squeezed them hard together, and suddenly found myself in Macdonald squeezing a Big Mac in my hands.
"I'd prefer a hot dog," was my next thought.


By Ali, Kumi, Tsumugi, Yohei, Hye sung, Sunny

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Boy meets girl

(The story is made by 6 people in TESOL class. Nobody knew what the story would be like...)

One day, I woke up in my room and had breakfast, then I got out of the apartment.....but, nobody was there outside as if I was the only one in the world.

"What happened ?"
"Why am I alone here?"

I walked on the street and saw some people, but they didn’t look like people.
When I spoke to them, they didn’t answer me. They were not people. I thought I was in the other planet.

I tried to find people here. I saw a girl and I said,
"how did you get here?"
She answered,
"I don’t know, but I know I’m here to meet you."

"What? To meet me?"
"Yes, and we have to make a family. We are the only two humans here in this planet. We need to make a human world here."
"Wait, what I want to do is just going home."

"I know, but I have no idea how to get back to the earth. Why don’t we stay here together? You are so attractive. What is your name by the way?"
"I’m Yohei, and you?"
"My name is Paris Hilton Sunny."
"Oh boy, I thought you were in jail."
"Yeah, exactly, I was about to get into jail, but suddenly I got here, here is much better than jail because I am here with you, Yohei."

"Oh, my goodness. You are nice, but I don’t wanna be with someone who was arrested."
Then, I walked around and found a Mercedes, but part of the car was broken and the car seemed to have space that only one person could barely get in, so I said,
"I’m sorry that I have to leave you here because your license is invalid. See you, bye!"


By Yohei, Hye Sung, Ali, Kumi, Tsumugi, Sunny

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What the 3 most important qualities of a successful teacher are

Teaching something to students is quite challenging and worthwhile, however, not always enjoyable or satisfactory. Sometimes, it is hard to teach students, so I would like to suggest 3 important qualities that a successful teacher has; knowing how to get students to be motivated, flexibility, and fairness.

In order to teach students efficiently, teachers are required to get students to be motivated. I consider that how to get students to be motivated is one of the most important skills teachers have to acquire. The students who are highly motivated to learn are genius. They absorb anything quickly and efficiently. They can find the best way to learn for them automatically because they are so fascinated and similarly enjoying learning. This is the first quality of a successful teacher.

For the second quality, teachers have to be flexible. Even teachers sometimes make a mistake, however, it might be difficult for teachers to admit their mistakes because some teachers may believe that teachers are not supposed to make any mistakes. They are so afraid of making a mistake and try to justify what they did when they made a mistake, but the point is making a mistake is so bad? No, no one can be perfect. Teachers can grow up through a bunch of mistakes as students do. The more flexible teachers are, the more free students are to challenge what they want to do. Thus, teachers should be flexible toward students and themselves as well. Flexibility is the second quality of a successful teacher.

Lastly, the third quality of a successful teacher, which is basic but primary, is fairness. Students are so intuitive and sensitive. Favouritism, discrimination, prejudice, bias, students can easily catch those kinds of things and it directly influences their behaviours, attitudes, and more importantly, their personalities. Besides, teachers have a limited amount of time to interact with each student, so teachers have to treat students fairly all the time and ought to value each student’s idea.

In conclusion, the most important 3 qualities of a successful teacher are knowing how to get students to be motivated, flexibility, and fairness. Students are invaluable diamonds unpolished. Teachers have to polish those carefully using 3 tools and find a shine that they have inside. I believe that is what a successful teacher does.

by Yohei

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What skill is required for good classroom management

Important points for good classroom management are decisions and actions. The actions are what is done in the classroom. The decisions are about whether to do these actions. Any moments you feel that you’d better change something in the class, you’ll have several options and you’ll have to choose one action that you believe is the best way for the class and students so they can study more comfortably. Having plenty of options that you can implement and choosing a proper action in the bunch of options are very important for a good teacher and those skills make students believe you and build a good relationship between students and teachers.

What we shouldn’t do in teaching speaking is to have students have a conversation without giving them any specific topic and frame. In order to improve students’ speaking skills, of course we have to get students to speak English and to communicate with other students using English. It is a good way to do some activities to have students communicate with each other with fun so they can speak English for a long time without getting bored, however, what if students have no specific topic or frame? They’ll be confused and have no idea about what they need to further talk about. That situation could make teachers lose students’ credit because students always want to feel that they are protected by teachers.

One good way to teach listening class is to use the ‘big to small’ task sequence. This method will work well for many standard course book and classroom recordings. According to this method, we start listening class with easy and general questions, then we ask students more detailed questions. If we ask students some difficult, detailed questions from the beginning, students will lose their confidence since those questions might be too difficult to answer for some students. First, we need to build students’ confidence with a couple of easy questions and then, we have students challenge some difficult questions. This will be effective for listening class.

Lastly, I’d like to mention what the advantages are to use magazines or newspapers as teaching materials. One advantage is that magazines and newspapers are quite familiar to us in real life, so students can learn real issues in English from those materials. Another advantage is that newspaper consists of a lot of categories; sports, politics, gossip, job advertisement, real estate information, comics, etc. Besides, those are usually including a lot of pictures, so Teachers can easily make many activities from newspaper although teachers have to choose appropriate issues as teaching materials for students.

by Yohei

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