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<h4>Letters (invitations, complaint, request etc...)
An answer to a letter
Paragraph writing (narrative, descriptive, argumentative etc...) A leaflet, an ad, a brochure
Notes
Reports
Instructions
A song, a poem
A dialogue, an interview
A short story
A summary</h4>
<h2>ROLE PLAY TEXTING AS AN AUTHENTIC</h2>
<h4>ACTIVITY!</h4>
<h4>Whether you love text messaging or hate it, text messaging is an authentic and common mode of communication. Text messaging is a perfect example of using an authentic activity to teach reading and writing skills; it gets students using their second language for specific communicative functions based on real-world needs. Here is a look at how texting can be used in the ESL classroom:</h4>
<h4>You need to set up a simple situation, which would be relevant to the whole class, describe roles and initiate a text messaging communication to which students must respond. Use the board, a projector or computers, and have students respond to a prompt as if it were in real-time. Students could work in pairs first and/or compare their responses to the class prompt to complete a conversation.</h4>
<h4>This type of task could be used to focus on either accuracy or fluency. For accuracy work, you could work on numerous functions and forms they need to fulfil the functions such as: asking wh or yes/no questions and responses, arranging a meeting, inviting, accepting, declining, agreeing, etc. As a specific example, you could work on prepositions of time and place. Two friends must try to arrange a meeting place in a large shopping mall. They need to use the right prepositions to set up an exact time and location.</h4>
<h4>You can also do this solely for fluency practice. What is important here is that they are communicating; they are reading, writing and decoding meaning to fulfil communicative functions. As a wrap-up, and to integrate speaking skills, you might have students share their two-way communication for the audience to decide if their exchanges were successful texting sessions or not – and why.</h4>
<h4>Current research shows that the use of social media is improving reading and writing skills. Research also shows that the use of abbreviations is a type of code and the people who use abbreviations are aware that this code is specific to texting, not a code they would likely use on for example exams. You can choose not to allow students to use abbreviations, or embrace the use – as a specific code. Find out what abbreviations they know and teach each other common abbreviations. What is important here is that they are communicating; they are reading, writing and decoding meaning to communicate.</h4>
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<h1> Teaching Abroad</h1>
<h2>10.1 TEACHING MULTI-LEVEL CLASSES IN HONG KONG</h2>
<h4>When you are in charge of teaching a large group of ESL students, one major aspect that you must consider is the students’ English levels. It is highly unlikely that all of your students will be at the same place in their English learning, so it is very important to recognize and address the varying abilities in your classroom. Students who aren’t working at their appropriate level struggle to learn the material and are easily distracted from the task at hand, so it is essential to provide them with material that suits their abilities.</h4>
<h4>The first thing to consider when dealing with a multi-level class is the physical arrangement of the students. There are generally two ways to seat students, each with its own benefits. If there are two teachers in the classroom, it is possible to separate the lower ability students from the higher ability students. Each teacher can deal with a particular group and give them material and activities that are suitable to their level. Alternatively, if you are teaching on your own, students can be seated in mixed ability groups. This way, the higher ability students can help teach the</h4>
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<h4>lower ability students in their group, and students who may not feel comfortable speaking in front of the whole class can practise speaking with a small group of their peers.</h4>
<h4>A second way of dealing with a multi-level class is by providing levelled questions for students to answer throughout the lesson. When checking for comprehension you can provide three types of spoken questions: multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and open-ended. The multiple-choice questions cater to the lowest ability students in the classroom, the fill-in-the-blank questions target the core students, and the open-ended questions cater to the higher ability students. Once you are familiar with your students and their abilities, it is easy to ask individual students questions that are appropriate to their level.</h4>
<h4>Finally, you can cater for learner diversity in the classroom by creating levelled materials for your students. While it may seem like a daunting task to create levelled material, it is easily done by roughly dividing students into lower ability, core, and higher ability groups. In my lessons, students have been assigned star (lower ability), moon (core), and sun (higher ability). By giving each group a creative name, you ensure that students remember the group they are in and this makes it much easier when distributing materials. While all of the worksheets will achieve the same goal (i.e. writing an animal riddle), the difficulty level will vary. Typically, lower ability worksheets will involve circling the correct answer and filling in a word or two. Core students will be given language templates and examples to follow and will have to write the sentences on their own. Higher-ability students will be given an example but should be encouraged to be creative and write their work on their own. In this way, students are all learning the same target material while ensuring that they aren’t working at a level that is too easy or difficult for them.</h4>
<h2>10.2 TEACHING IELTS READING PREPARATION IN</h2>
<h4>VIETNAM</h4>
<h4>Guiding students toward achieving a high IELTS band score can be a long process involving the introduction, development and mastery of various techniques including skimming and scanning, recognizing paraphrase, text analysis, techniques for dealing with the various question types and time management. For this reason, communicative techniques can be used at various stages of the scaffolding process for the development of these skills. In this article, I would like to outline 4 activities that can be used, which reflect certain elements of the communicative technique</h4>
<h4>Pre-Teaching Vocabulary</h4>
<h4>It may be argued by some people that vocabulary should not be pre-taught in IELTS reading classes, as students need to learn how to deal with unfamiliar vocabulary in the actual lest. However, I believe that the decision to pre-teach depends on the objective of the lesson and maybe quite necessary in order to reduce the cognitive load on students when focusing on one particular task.</h4>
<h4>It may also be necessary to pre-teach vocabulary in certain parts of the world where students may lack cultural knowledge to be able to deal with the text. One example of this comes from teaching in Vietnam. I recently gave my IELTS students a reading exercise in a test simulation</h4>
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<h4>situation (20 minutes for a 700-word text with 14 questions to be answered). Although it would never happen in a real test, I pre-taught the vocabulary: “New World and Old World”. In fact, I drew a quick map to illustrate the concepts, as an understanding of this concept was essential for them to be able to deal with the text and questions.</h4>
<h4>Peer Discussion</h4>
<h4>It may appear at first glance that peer discussion is not very innovative, but I believe that its effectiveness should not be underestimated. Peer discussion can be adapted to suit just about any activity in any class, but I will give one simple example of how to use this technique in higher-level IELTS reading classes.</h4>
<h4>After doing an IELTS reading test, some teachers would be tempted to just correct the answer sheets and give the students their band scores. Other teachers might give the students the answers and ask them to try discover where they went wrong for homework. However, in most cases, students lose interest in the reading once they have attempted it, and I believe it quite unlikely that the students actually complete this task effectively.</h4>
<h4>Therefore, after the test simulation, I put the students into groups or pairs to compare their results (without giving them correct answers). When all the students coincide with one answer they move on to the next question. When they disagree, they need to compare ideas and try to come up with the best answer. This can lead to interesting, and sometimes passionate, discussions as students exchange ideas and techniques for finding correct answers, recognizing paraphrase etc.</h4>
<h4>Newspaper Scanning Race</h4>
<h4>This is a collaborative, task-based learning activity, which I would use in introductory IELTS class or maybe even a Pre-IELTS class.</h4>
<h4>Preparation: The teacher acquires a number of newspapers (the same edition) or perhaps some pamphlets or brochures, and prepares 20 scanning questions. The answers to these questions can be found anywhere in the paper. It is a good idea to prepare questions which practice different scanning techniques and have a wide range of degree of difficulty. Note: I usually use an English Language newspaper published here in Vietnam which is about 24 pages long.</h4>
<h4>In pairs, the students try to answer as many questions as they can within a set time limit. The pair that answers the highest number of correct answers within the time limit wins the race.</h4>
<h4>Reading Journals</h4>
<h4>Reading journals can be used at any stage of a reading course but are especially effective in IELTS and pre-IELTS courses. The methodology is very similar to that used in many general English books when students have to read different passages and then describe what they have read to a partner.</h4>
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<h4>For homework, students are told that they need to read a newspaper article from a traditional or online source and identify the following items:</h4>
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<h4>Topic</h4>
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<h4>Main Idea</h4>
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<h4>Interesting Details</h4>
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<h4>My opinion</h4>
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<h4>New Vocabulary</h4>
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<h4>On the assigned day, students need to come to class prepared to discuss their article in groups with other students, using the new vocabulary as much as possible. They also need to hand in, or post, a completed worksheet, on which they fill in a worksheet on the items in the list above.</h4>
<h4>I created and developed this activity and have made it an integral part of some of the IELTS courses I have designed as, in my opinion, the activity provides the following benefits:</h4>
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<h4>The speaking exercise helps reinforce the new vocabulary.</h4>
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<h4>It gives students practice in analyzing texts and in forming opinions.</h4>
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<h4>It gives students a chance to develop fluency and to be able to discuss interesting topics.</h4>
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<h4>It encourages students to read, and therefore, is good preparation for all sections of theIELTS exam: both writing sections, speaking section 3 and naturally the reading section.</h4>
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<h4>Extra-curricular reading is especially important in Vietnam as most university studentshere have very little interest in current events and socio-economic issues.</h4>
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<h4>It is also a great way to get students to do a lot of work, without much extra effort on thepart of the teacher. This can create some much-needed relief, especially for teachers of large classes who have to do a lot of extra work grading assignments, etc.</h4>
<h4>10.3 TEACHING WRITING IN THE UAE</h4>
<h4>The mixed-ability classroom is the norm in the UAE, but an EFL teacher new to the country may be shocked at just how broad that range of abilities is. It is not uncommon to have a few students, who, despite vast exposure to English in school, still cannot properly write their own names in the language. Very rarely do you find students who are solidly proficient in English? EFL teachers around the Arab world frequently note that while their students may be able to speak English at a satisfactory BICS level and understand when spoken to them, the majority have great difficulty with reading and writing in the language.</h4>
<h4>The first thing I had to tackle as an Arabic-language learner was the writing system, which is unlike any other language I studied in the past. There are 28 letters in the Arabic alphabet, which are connected in writing in a cursive style; however, most of the letters have four, sometimes radically different, forms depending on their position in a word. Then, of course, you string it all together from right to left, which perhaps was the biggest challenge for me to overcome, requiring lots of practice to correctly train my movements. Well, the inverse is true for Arab students learning to write in English.</h4>
<h4>The English writing system poses many challenges for them. These students have to learn to write from the opposite direction, which surely is as much if not more of a challenge than it was for me. They must assimilate an alphabet composed of capital and lowercase letters (Arabic makes</h4>
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<h4>no distinction between capital and lowercase letters). Furthermore, they must learn to be more attentive to the vowel sounds in words when encoding (In Arabic writing only the long vowel sounds are represented, short vowels being represented by a system of diacritical marks that is routinely omitted in everyday Arabic texts). Many of my Emirati students struggle with correctly and consistently forming the letters of the English alphabet. Despite the fluid ease with which they can write in Arabic, much of what I see from my students could have been written by an early elementary student back home. They will frequently omit capital letters or use them inappropriately and inconsistently throughout their writing. Much of this likely stems from inadequate or insufficient instruction and practice earlier in their education. The letters g, j, p, q, and y, for example, are frequently formed above the page lines, sometimes making as if to fly away, having been written higher than the other letters in the word. This suggests that while they were taught the alphabet early on, the training they received in letter formation, especially when composing on standardized paper, was limited or inadequate.</h4>
<h4>Beyond simple orthography, spelling is a major problem in my students’ writing. One reason is that when learning English, Arab students have to reckon with English’s unconventional spelling patterns and irregular forms. However, the directionality of their native writing system often interferes with their writing (and reading) of English. One frequently encountered example is confusion of letters with ‘mirror’ shapes, where a student will write b instead of d, p instead of q, and vice-versa. The letter p poses a further problem for Arab students as the phoneme represented by this letter does not exist in Arabic. Many students will write b in places where p is required, especially if recording from a dictation or listening script. Another example of how the different directionality of Arabic can interfere with Arab students’ writing is the reversal of letters within words, particularly towards the center, such as ‘twon’ instead of ‘town’ or ‘paly’ instead of ‘play’. I have witnessed such mistakes often in my students’ writing, which I’ve pondered as akin to dyslexia except that the students are wired correctly for reading and writing in their native language.</h4>
<h4>A prominent form of grammatical interference that manifests more often in students’ writing than in speech is a redundancy in the parts of a sentence (i.e. subjects, verbs, objects). It is not unusual to encounter constructions similar to “Mohammed he loves a girl he met her last
year” (redundancy in the subject and object), yet this, in fact, is a direct translation of the same sentence written in formal Arabic. Inappropriate pronouns don’t just stop at redundancy. Arabic’s rules for gender often lead to the incorrect use of ‘he’ or ‘she’ instead of ‘it’ for inanimate or neuter nouns because there is no corresponding word for ‘it’ in Arabic; it is a dual-gender language. Further confusion comes from Arabic’s pronoun-antecedent rule for inanimate plural nouns, which, no matter the gender of the singular noun, always take ‘she’ when plural.</h4>
<h4>Just as there is no ‘it’ in Arabic, there is also no indefinite article (a/an). Indefiniteness is often simply signalled by the absence of the definite article. Furthermore, there is no present tense form of the verb ‘to be’. For example, the construction ‘he-man’ for ‘he is a man’ is grammatically complete in Arabic. The definite article does exist in Arabic but you may find it in unexpected places in your Arab students writing. In Arabic, if you wanted to write ‘he is the man’, it would translate as ‘he the man’; however, if you wanted to write ‘he is the tall man’, it would translate as ‘he the man the tall’. In other words, when defining a noun in Arabic you must also define any</h4>
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<h4>adjectives modifying that noun. This confused me when learning it in Arabic. Unlearning it for Arab students can be an equally confusing challenge.</h4>
<h4>Two other major areas of interference I have noted in my students’ writing are prepositions and lexical usage. The meaning and usage of Arabic prepositions do not always correspond with their otherwise English counterparts. In prepositional and verbal phrases in Arabic, a different pronoun is often used than the one we would expect given our language. For example, the verbal phrase ‘afraid of’ directly translates from the Arabic as ‘afraid from’. This can sometimes have more comical results, such as ‘I saw him in the television last night’. Be on the lookout for cases where Arab students have translated Arabic phrases and expressions directly into English without considering their appropriateness or clarity. Many such phrases and expressions in Arabic become odd, if not downright befuddling when translated word for word into English. Oftentimes the problem may lie with a single lexical interference where the word in Arabic, when translated directly, conveys a different meaning in English.</h4>
<h4>Modern Arabic has adopted a system of punctuation not too different from that used in the English language, yet Arabic punctuation rules are still not as restrictive as in English. Some of my students need foundational instruction on the usage rules for common punctuation marks and the conventions that attend them, such as capitalization. While others have learned the rules but inconsistently apply them, requiring more coaching than anything. My students’ problems with sentence structure do not stop at simple confusion over punctuation usage. Arabic rhetorical practice also commonly interferes with the production of structurally correct sentences in English. Run-on sentences are the biggest problem for ESL students in the United Arab Emirates.</h4>
<h4>In Arabic rhetoric you can load a sentence with several grammatically complete ideas, all linked together with the Arabic equivalent of ‘and’, and it’s acceptable. I encounter this in my students’ writing often, and, as a quick remedy, I simply advise them to limit each sentence to two independent ideas. To foster lasting understanding I have to provide more in-depth instruction and ample practice, especially once we get into subordination; otherwise, the looser usage rules in Arabic may begin to win out once again.</h4>
<h2>10.4 TEACHING GRAMMAR TO CZECHS</h2>
<h4>In Prague, foreign teachers are in charge of students who already have some control of the English language, typically a minimum of B1 or more advanced A2 (for those who are not familiar with the Common European Framework, they mean pre-intermediate and intermediate, respectively). A1 learners (basic), on the other hand, are the responsibility of Czech English teachers alone. This is a relief for us foreigners if you ask me, and better for the students. I’m not saying that Beginners benefit from constant translations and explanations from part of the teacher. Not at all! What is indeed helpful for the students is to have the guidance and assistance of someone who understands what they are trying to say and why they aren’t able to say it; in other words, someone who understands their language. This is why in this article I will try to illustrate some typical, general grammar mistakes you can expect from a Czech student, and how they can be explained by L1 interference.</h4>
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<h4>Word Order</h4>
<h4>One important thing you have to bear in mind is that, in Czech, almost all the permutations of the words in a clause are possible, as opposed to English where the sequence subject-verb-object is often the rule. That said, the word order in Czech will place emphasis on one or other aspect of the message, completely affecting the words needed in the English translation while using exactly the same words in the original: Češi udělali revoluci (The Czechs made a revolution), Revoluci udělali Češi (It was the Czechs who made the revolution), and Češi revoluci udělali (The Czechs did make a revolution). This by itself could pose a major problem to students, who don’t seem to get the hang of the standard word order in English.</h4>
<h4>Verb ‘to be’</h4>
<h4>There is a very important rule of the Czech language that creates serious problems. The verb ‘to be’ should always come in the second position, followed by the reflexive particle “se” and the object pronoun, when they exist. This can be very complicated for Czech students trying to learn English chiefly because they tend to follow this rule and often put the verb “to be” in the second position. Consider typical sentences from some of my students: “When is somebody homeless, I understand”, verb “to be” as the second element of the sentence; or “She was tired?” typical mistake (when practicing grammar, at least) caused by lack of inversion, even worse for the Czechs because of the second-position rule.</h4>
<h4>Tenses</h4>
<h4>Another characteristic of the Czech language is the existence of only 3 verb tenses – present, past and future. In addition to this, virtually every verb in Czech comes in pairs, one being the perfectivum, which can only be used for the past and the future and represent an action done only once; and the imperfectivum, used for the three core tenses for things that are, were, or will be done over a period of time; or as a routine. The verb “start,” for example, brings the two forms respectively: začít and začínat. The most obvious consequence of this rule is the major problem Czech students are certain to have with almost all verb tenses in English; for instance, it is difficult for them to understand the present or past perfect, the different ways to express the future and, still more confusing, the past and present continuous.</h4>
<h4>As mentioned above, the imperfectivum verbs are also used to express routines; logical, for them, because a routine is something happening over a period of time. As a result, they believe that present and past continuous can also be used to express routines in the present, instead of the simple form; or in the past, as opposed to the simple form, would, or (be) used to. Typical examples follow: “When I was young, I was playing hockey every day with my friends;” or “I’m usually having dinner at 7 pm.” It may appear as though it’s a simple task to teach them the correct form, but this mistake persists even among the most advanced students. Just try to learn Czech and be in their shoes, and you will understand.</h4>
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<h4>Other Challenges</h4>
<h4>Apart from the more elusive problems outlined above, the Czechs also encounter other difficulties when learning English. Probably the most infamous one is the lack of articles, or misuse of them, resulting from the fact that there are no articles in Czech; furthermore, Czech students are sure to have problems with conditionals and hence create sentences like “If I will have time, I will write you an email,” which stems from the fact that in their L1 both clauses go to the future; there + verb meaning “exist” is also problematic as they use tady je or tady jsou to mean, in Czech, “there is” or “there are,” but the translation into English is “here it is” or “here they are,” respectively. You might then come across sentences such as “They are 10 chairs here,” or “It’s a lot of rain here.”</h4>
<h4>This article does not aim to delineate all the problems with grammar Czech students often come across when learning English. Nor does it intend to provide an in-depth description of the Czech language and other aspects thereof, such as phonology. The goal of this article is to outline the most common problems that new teachers will face in Prague so they are better prepared. There’s just one thing that’s wise to take into consideration before drawing any conclusions: Every language has its own idiosyncrasies, which present different problems to English learners. Non- native speakers from different countries are not easier or more difficult to teach, nor are they better or worse. They are simply different.</h4>
<h4>10.5 TEACHING PRONUNCIATION AND GRAMMAR IN TURKEY
Problems with Pronunciation</h4>
<h4>There are sounds in English which have no equivalent in Turkish. Unfortunately, these appear in some of the most common words. The /θ/ and /ð̠/ consonants, for instance, do not naturally appear in Turkish and cause constant problems with words such as through and the. Another issue is that /r/ is always pronounced in Turkish, leading to seemingly over-pronounced Rs when speaking English, such as water and doctor. Conversely, /w/ does not appear in Turkish, leading to confusion of the pronunciation of words containing either /v/ or /w/ in English. Consonant clusters, such as spr-, rarely appear at the start of Turkish words, making vocabulary like spring a pronunciation nightmare for students (typically you will hear something like si- prink). Turks nevertheless place great importance on correct pronunciation, so activities using the phonetic alphabet go down well.</h4>
<h4>Problems with Articles</h4>
<h4>Turkish has an indefinite article but no direct equivalent of the definite the. Correct use of the definite article is a long and painful process for Turkish students. The best way to approach this tends to be the way that it is addressed in the major course books, i.e. through a series of applicable rules. Turks get upset at their failure to master what they perceive as a basic aspect of</h4>
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<h4>English, despite the actual complexities of article use. Whenever articles come up as a grammar point in a course, a good approach is to take your time and add extra practice activities that reinforce the grammar rule being taught, such as the use of the with rivers and oceans but not, generally, with cities and countries.</h4>
<h4>Problems with Prepositions</h4>
<h4>This is another aspect of English that perturbs Turks who perceive it as a fundamental part of grammar that they find somewhat difficult to get to grips with. The problem lies in the fact that there is one preposition in Turkish that serves the role that in, on and at doing in English. Therefore, there is often confusion about which one to use and you can expect to see them mixed up. As with articles, the best solution again is to do as is done in course books, but take it slow and steady, supplementing with extra activities that give more chances to practice. Work steadily and regularly on prepositions of place and time in particular.</h4>
<h4>Problems with Relative Clauses</h4>
<h4>The subject-object-verb structure of Turkish means that the way relative clauses are constructed in English is totally alien to students. When you introduce these clauses in grammar classes, you will find that students will work through the exercises and then never use them again unless really pushed to do so. After teaching relative clauses, look for opportunities to return to this grammar point as frequently as you can later on in the course. Take simple steps to ensure regular review of relative clauses. For instance, ask students to find examples in any reading text you do in class. Alternatively, ask questions that require the use of a relative clause in the answer. For instance: ‘What’s the name of the person who did a certain action in the text?’ or ‘What’s the name of the country where this took place?’</h4>
<h4>10.6 TEACHING LARGE CLASSES IN SOUTH KOREA</h4>
<h4>Encouraging enthusiasm for participation is important in large classes. Giving stickers or candy is a good way to get wider participation, especially among younger groups. You can also have a long term reward system for the class as a whole. If the whole class is affected by one student’s bad behaviour, they are more likely to govern themselves. They will tell the noisy kid to be quiet, or help the student who has difficulty completing homework to get it done on time. Promising movie or treat days for a month of good behaviour is a good way to get this response.</h4>
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<h4>Class Participation</h4>
<h4>In a large class, it’s not so difficult to get students to respond as a class in repetitive exercises. They may start out weak, but simply having them do it over again until you get wider participation is usually effective. However, you must watch out for kids who are faking it and try to make note of who they are. It’s easy to spot the kids who participate well, but there are always kids who will try to hide in the shadows. These students often have a low level of confidence in their English ability and singling them out in front of the class isn’t going to make it any better. Instead, I find that it helps to approach these students and work with them during reading and writing practice. Getting them to read aloud and answer questions one-on-one will give them more confidence to do it in front of the class. Give them the extra attention they need and you will often find that they step up to the plate more frequently during a question and answer format.</h4>
<h4>Co-Teacher</h4>
<h4>Working with a co-teacher allows you to visit with many of the students who need extra help more quickly so the pace of the class won’t be hindered. Bigger classes tend to work at a slower pace anyway. Simple tasks like having all the students open their books take longer as you wait for that inevitable element of students who weren’t paying attention when you asked or the ones who are simply feeling defiant.</h4>
<h4>Discipline</h4>
<h4>In larger classes, the defiant element is always something to watch out for. It should be caught early and dealt with. If you have a co-teacher, it’s best to have them explain the expectations clear to students. If you are on your own, make it clear for them to understand punishment, and use it consistently. Standing at the back of the class, going to a corner, or writing lines for bad behaviour are clear and easily understood punishments, which are good for removing the defiant element from the class without interfering with everyone else’s learning.</h4>
<h4>Whatever class size you have, the main thing you should keep in mind is to be flexible. Don’t let your plans get in the way of the student’s learning. If something isn’t working for the group, think fast and try something else.</h4>
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