Skills

Writing

Searching the web for new tools that would be easy to use, fast to apply, free to access and above all lead to the objective of a certain lesson is not easy. Given the fact that the number of tools available online can be overwhelming, it is not always easy to find the perfect one.

A new tool that has proved useful for the practice of writing is Read-write-think interactives. 

The one that seems more than useful is the Essay map. It is actually a tool that will help students write a concept. Thus they will develop the skill of writing concise and coherent essays without digressions or unnecessary information. All they have to do is follow the map outline and fill in the respective fields. Once completed, the map can be downloaded and printed. Based on the map, the student can then compile their final essay.

Another writing tool that would be particularly useful for literature classes is the Literary Elements Map. The tool enables four different types of maps: character map, conflict map, resolution map and setting map. The names already say what each of them may be used for. For instance, with the conflict map, the student opens several fields, each meant to be used for an answer to a question posed in the upper part of the panel, such as 'What is the conflict?', 'Why does this conflict appear?' and 'What are some ways the conflict could be resolved?'. By supplying arguments and answers, the student can slowly build up the essay.


A special treat for all the desperate teachers instructing students in the area of academic writing is the page providing student resources on Easy Bib. The four different guides demonstrate to students how to research, write, cite and define their research topic. For instance, the Citation guides provide information on how to cite sources within a piece of writing and compile an accurate list of references pursuant to different citation rules.

Apart from these, there are many more guides and downloads supplied by this tool. Of course, the free edition of tools is limited, but considering the amount that is offered there, it should suffice.

Reading

One of the first skill that is acquired in formal education is the skill of reading. It accompanies us throughout our entire life and it is probably the only skill that people of any background or profession will pursue at any age. 

The skill of reading within foreign language learning is the cognitive ability a person is able to use when interacting with a written text in a foreign language. Students of a foreign language are expected to develop the skill up to a level where they can deploy their reading skill unconsciously and interact with the text in the sense they can accomplish more complicated tasks, such as answering questions and making inferences about the meaning and message of the text. 

The unconscious understanding of the text is easy. What most teachers seem to struggle with in the foreign language classroom is the interaction-with-the-text part. The aim is to facilitate the skill of reading in relationship with task-oriented activities that will enable comprehension. In other words, the teaching of reading skills in foreign language instruction should focus on reading comprehension activities.

The use of CALL for the purpose of aiding reading comprehension, makes a lot of sense. Resources are more than abundant, selection can be made easier by setting the search criteria in advance. Namely, students can be instructed to modify their search based on key words. In that way, they will be taught how to filter their search criteria and read only sources they really need.

A list of objectives for reading comprehension should probably include the following:

1. Students are able to predict consecutive events in the chronology of the text based on the clues presented in the text;
2. Students can pose questions about the main idea, message or plot of the text;
3. Students understand the sequence of events, the structure and the context as well as the motivation of the characters;
4. Students are able to analyse confusing issues in a text and clarify them;
5. Students are able to relate different elements in the text to prior knowledge or experience.

In brief, the reading comprehension skill should increase the effectiveness of reading.

Some of the reading comprehension exercises that are frequently used in a language classroom are based on rather common exercises, such as questions about the text, fill-in-the-blanks, match, paraphrase, cloze tests, etc. More analytical means to test reading comprehension are summarising and essay writing.

There are quite a few tools on the web that can be used for these purposes. The pages on Scholastic.com are primarily for younger learners but the graphic organisers presented are brilliant and they may be used even at the level of tertiary education. For instance, I would recommend the Problem and solution diagram as it can be used to help students write a concept for an essay. Instead of the clues labelled as 'events' I would say 'argument'. Now, all the students have to do is fill in the fields related to the separate clues, add cohesion and coherence - and voila - the essay is there. Or Author tools, which I would use for literature, maybe even an essay about a poem. I could also use it for descriptive essays as students could be instructed to put down all the different descriptive adjectives and phrases they might use in their final piece of writing.

Another great resource to point at is Reading comprehension tools. This is an exceptional collection of seven different tools that may easily be incorporated into any lesson plan. The tools are presented on a single page in the form of short pieces of advice directed at the student. However, the teacher can develop each of it individually by means of other tools or comprehension games and strategies.

One of the most effective strategy that may improve reading comprehension considerably is the K-W-L strategy, which stands for what I Know, what I Want to learn, and what I did Learn. A graphic organiser that may come in handy is the KWL chart available on Scholastic.com.

Obviously, the objective of a particular lesson, class or activity will determine the reading comprehension activity. The most important thing to remember is that reading should not be boiled down to just reading a text and underlining unknown vocabulary. Such an activity would bore to death even the most enthusiastic student!

Listening

Two years ago I explored aural/ oral  skills because I wanted to find an online tool to help me work on these skills with my students. That is when I fell in love with Randall's ESL lab.

The reason why these pages still seem so appealing is that I am one among the many teachers who have honestly despaired of their students keeping their mouths shut. Endless questions posted by the teacher and endless answers provided by the teacher. The students I know are rather reluctant when it comes to responding to speaking exercises. I must admit that I have tried all sorts of exercises and they all boil down to the same: them listening, me speaking, or, a slight variation, most of them listening, and one forward student speaking. Anyway, I have tried several of Randall's suggested listening/ speaking exercises and I have had quite positive results regarding their usefulness in my own classroom.

The reason why I think Randall's exercises are useful is that students can do the pre-listening and the listening on their own and then, having familiarised themselves with the topic to a degree boosting their self-confidence, they can be motivated to trigger some discussion.

Comprehension

When searching the web for ideas for the purpose of improving the skill of comprehension, many different ideas pop up. Most can easily be incorporated in any class. However, the problem with ready-made comprehension exercises is that they are usually linked to some ready-made reading or listening material. The above-mentioned Randall's lab incorporates comprehension exercises in every of the assignments but they are all linked to a particular listening exercise. 

If a teacher wants to create a comprehension exercise on their own, they would have to use some of the authoring tools that are available on the Internet. Personally, I use Hot Potatoes and Quandary. Both are really great and easy to figure out. 

With Hot Potatoes different types of comprehension exercises can be made, such as fill-in-the-blanks, match, quiz, etc. This is what a Matching exercise may look like. The items on the right are simply dragged to the items on the left. Students may check their answers by clicking the ok square below the title of the exercise. The tool offers different feedback options and the teacher may choose the one that is most appropriate.

Quandary is a game-like tool. It is used to design a quest offering students choices so that when they choose a particular answer, a new path opens. This tool can be used to design very short quests, but it may also be used for rather long and elaborate quests. Here is a rather simple sample created under the title Get dressed for the party tonight. The quest starts by clicking 'Start'. Several decision points have been created and by clicking any of them, new decision points open. The quest may be created with decision points that are actually answers to a question whereby only one answer can be planned to be the correct one. In other words, if the student chooses the wrong answer, they may not continue with the quest. The provided options are numerous and the teacher can use the tool even for the purpose of a test.

Speaking


For starters, I would like to suggest Pronunciationstuff . I always like comprehensively presented things. In other words, I like it when things are displayed in a categorised and systematic way. It makes researching them easier. I have great respect for people who take the time and prepare such resources that save time and make studying them more practical.

The next to mention are the Daily Pronunciation Practice, the InternationalDialects of English Archive and of course representations of pronunciation, such as the Hilarious Pink Panther.

Now that we've got us going on teaching and practising pronunciation, I wanted to find more online resources to be used either in class or for the purpose of self-study.

Fonetiks takes you to online pronunciation guides to 9 varieties of the English language and 9 other languages. It presents pronunciation samples illustrated by over 40 native speakers.

English interactive opened a whole new world of training resources to be used. I have never believed I could get caught up by and absorbed into the world of phonetics this much. It is almost as if a whole new passion is developing.

Phonemicsymbols to download you can download A4 representations of the phonemic symbols in English to hang on the wall in your classroom. I can already think of different ideas to be realised with younger learners, such as colouring them, organising an exhibition, or with older learners, such as recording the separate phonemes.

Authentic American offers many different things to be explored. I tried the page with homophones. It provides a long list of homophone pairs as well as the possibility to download them and listen to them in Real Player.