ELTWeekly

• Webinar: Dealing with challenging learners

• Video: From Communicative Competence to Teaching Speaking

• Webinar: Spoken grammar/lexical approach

• Video: Reading Strategies That Improve Comprehension

• Video: Teaching Grammar Communicatively

• Event: Second International conference for English language teacher educators, March 3-5, Hyderabad, India

• Book of the week: ‘Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching’ by Diane Larsen-Freeman

• Research Paper: ‘A study on the impact of Area on the undergraduate learners’ attitudes towards the English language’ by Hitendra Vyas

• Research Paper: ‘Corpus-Based Approach Toward Teaching Collocation of Synonyms’ by Aliakbar Jafarpour, Mahmood Hashemian & Sepideh Alipour.

This is an updated third edition of our popular introduction to language teaching methodology, which describes different methods and approaches in language teaching. Clear and jargon-free, it provides practical step-by-step guidance for new teachers, and introduces more experienced teachers to new approaches and teaching ideas. Includes a new chapter on the use of digital technology.

Dr. Diane Larsen-Freeman is a Professor of Education and Director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She is also Distinguished Senior Faculty Fellow at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. She has spoken and published widely on the topics of teacher education, second language acquisition, English grammar, and language teaching methodology. In 1997, Dr. Larsen-Freeman was inducted into the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1999, she was named one of the ESL pioneers by ESL Magazine. In 2000, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Heinle and Heinle Publishers.

The British Council TeachingEnglish team is hosting a webinar on March 15 at 12.00 UK time. The topic of the webinar is “Spoken grammar/lexical approach”.

Theme: Lexical Chunking is a way of thinking about language which puts lexis in the centre of our attention rather than grammar. New ways of collecting data such as computer analysis of the language corpus has provided invaluable information about the meaning of words, their frequencies and their word partnerships just to name a few. The pedagogical implications for our teaching are immense and it is now finding its way into our coursebooks and other materials we use in our language classes. Raising awareness of chunks through learner training speeds up the learning process helps in more natural language use and can helps students to perform better in exams. In this session we will look at chunks, how to teach them, how to tweak our materials and  how to explore the available on-line resources.

Register: If you are not able to watch the webinar live, you will be able to watch a recording – we’ll put the link on this page after the event. Registration will open early in March 2012.

About the speaker: Hanna Kryszewska is a senior lecturer at the English Institute, University of Gdańsk, Poland, and EU Teacher Training College where she trains pre-service teachers. She is also a teacher trainer and trainer of trainers working mainly with Pilgrims Language Courses and University of Oxford. She is co-author of resource books: “Learner Based Teaching” OUP and a range of other books for teachers. Her new book (with Paul Davis) on lexical chunking “Company Words Keep” will appear in DELTA this month. For 6 years she has been the editor of HLT Magazine.

‘Spoken grammar/lexical approach‘ Webinar

The British Council TeachingEnglish team is hosting a webinar on February 14 at 12.00 UK time. The topic of the webinar is “Dealing with challenging learners”.

Theme: What is a challenging learner? Why do some learners challenge us more than others? How can we understand challenging behaviour in a different way so that we can teach these learners better in the classroom? This webinar will address these questions and explain the effects of loss, trauma, violence and neglect on the brain, learning and behaviour.

Register: If you are not able to watch the webinar live, you will be able to watch a recording – we’ll put the link on this page after the event. Registration will open early in 2012.

About the speaker: Marie Delaney is Director of The Learning Harbour, Cork, Ireland. She is a teacher, trainer and Educational Psychotherapist with many years of experience of working with school management, staff and pupils around challenging behaviour.

‘Dealing with challenging learners‘ Webinar

The second international conference for English language teacher educators will be held from 3 to 5 March 2012 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad. The conference focuses on the theme of Assessment and Evaluation of English Language Teacher Education, Teaching and Learning. The theme is designed to focus our attention on the importance of setting, achieving and maintaining standards which lead to better quality and more accountability, not just at the practitioner level, but also at the programme levels.  Read the rest of this entry »

Most English teachers feel comfortable teaching a conversation lesson or a lesson that integrates other skills such as listening, reading or writing. They show creativity in those lessons and include a variety of ideas to help students improve their language skills. However, this might be more difficult when teaching a grammar topic…

In this video, the participants are involved in communicative reading activities including jigsaw reading, think-pair-share, and various activities to use with students before, during, and after reading. Workshop led by Diann Geisbert, English Language Fellow.

This session looks at how language teachers at any level can use the broad theoretical concepts of communicative competence, sociocultural theory, and speaking principles to enhance interaction. Together, we will examine specific principles of teaching speaking and show how to adapt these principles in your classroom. Workshop led by David Chiesa, English Language Fellow.

Aliakbar Jafarpour, Mahmood Hashemian & Sepideh Alipour work with Sharekord University.

Abstract

The study was aimed at providing more insights on the application of the corpus-based approach. The objectives of the study were to compare its learning effects with the conventional teaching method’s effects on collocations of synonyms. The study was conducted with two groups of L2 learners. One group was randomly assigned to be the experimental group studying with the corpus-based approach whereas the other represented the comparison group studying with the conventional teaching method. The learners from both groups were matched in pairs according to their language proficiency and collocation knowledge on the pretest. During the study, the experimental group was trained through paper-based and hands-on activities to deal with the concordance information in the corpus whereas the comparison group was taught collocations of synonyms through conventional activities such as explicit teaching. The instruments for collecting data included the pretest, posttest, prewriting and postwriting.

Key words: collocation; synonym; corpus-based approach; conventional approach; writing
Read the rest of this entry »

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the impact of Area on the undergraduate learners’ attitudes towards the English language as regards to the situation of ELT in India. SLA research has consistently pointed out that attitudes towards the target language play an important role in learning it. The research on the role of attitudes in English language teaching naturally interests the investigator as a college teacher of English in an Arts college. The researcher has examined the undergraduate learners’ attitudes towards the English language. This paper focuses on the undergraduate learners of English in Arts colleges affiliated to the Gujarat University (Ahmedabad) but located in urban and rural areas. It has been observed that students do want to learn and improve their knowledge of English but somehow they shy away from the language. On their part, the college teachers of English have consistently displayed a lack of understanding of the students’ needs, problems, and interests. Read the rest of this entry »