TESOL Lianyuan

This unit covered teaching about productive skills ? writing and speaking. Writing and speaking are skills that are used for communication and making yourself understood. According to the text, writing is a more difficult skill and is often less developed in students, as teachers aren?t willing to spend class time on writing exercises. When teaching these skills, teachers must focus on teaching accuracy as well as fluency. The text provided us with some methods of teaching speaking activities. These are generally conversation based, such as role play, discussion, or debate. For more controlled exercise, drilling is effective to teach accuracy. Some students can be shy about speaking in the classroom, but there are many ways to work around this. Teachers can vary the division of students in class and make sure students have enough practice and time to be confident about what they say. Then, the text walked us through an example speaking activity. Next, teaching writing skills was covered. The text noted the importance of handwriting and spelling and the effect that these have on the reader. Students also need to pay attention to punctuation and layout. It?s important to have students review their own work for mistakes before turning it in to the teacher. Next, the text walked us through an example lesson. Finally, we learned about using games in the classroom. Games are important and useful in many ways. Everyone enjoys playing games and games can be both educational and fun.