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Techniques and methods in Language Teaching > To which skill do you spare the most of time ,reading,writing ,listening or speaking ?
To which skill do you spare the most of time ,reading,writing ,listening or speaking ?
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epit
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To which skill do you spare the most of time ,reading,writing ,listening or speaking ?
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To which skill do you spare the most of time ,reading,writing ,listening or speaking ?Or Does grammar cover all the time ? I must admit that I give grammar much more time than other skills cause the curricullium make me force that ,but pupils are getting bored They like writing as I give short samples especially they like talking about themselves.How about you ,dear friends |
17 Apr 2010
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mena22
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Hi! We try to balance the four of them, but I must confess that I do more reading, speaking and listening than writing. Why? Simply because you have 6 classes with 25 students each, meaning that you have to correct 150 essays, which I am not able to do as often as I would like.
As for grammar, it �s been quite a long time since we prepare our tasks in such a way that the sociocultural element plus the 4 language skiils are the essential of each task/unit. So let �s say that in five or six lessons, we have one of grammar, specifically. Grammar is important to make us speak, read, listen, write correctly - and that is how we test it, through the 4 skills and not by itself.
Hugs,
mena |
17 Apr 2010
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PascGosselin
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Hi epit,
Since the new educational reform application in Quebec schools, we do not talk about skills, but about competencies that the students have to develop. There are three competencies in ESL: C1: To interact orally in English. C2: To reinvest the understanding of texts. C3: To write and produce text.
My approach to teach English is more communicative, so I would say I develop the first competency more often. Also, there is a big part of my time that is used for the second competency as I have to test the students using written exams...
Regards,
Pascal |
17 Apr 2010
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libertybelle
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I agree with Mena! We balance them all.
You can �t use grammar for anything unless you can speak and understand a language.
Why do we even teach English if not to learn to communicate with others?
So that �s my answer. I think too much writing and grammar - especially makes kids lose interest. (and it �s also easier and quieter for the teacher, but not necessarily best for learning English)
L
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17 Apr 2010
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serene
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Hi, epit!
My students, too, find grammar lessons boring. However, they like reading and discussing topical news stories so I use the context of these texts to revise specific grammatical points. They also like watching videos and movies in English but they are not very keen on writing. So I guess it �s reading, listening, speaking and less writing.
Have a nice weekend!
serene
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17 Apr 2010
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teachertonyinchina
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Is your question aimed at native speaking teachers or teachers who speak English as a second language? As the answers will be different. |
17 Apr 2010
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libertybelle
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Well, teachertonyinchina
I �m a native speaker teaching Danish children English.
I don �t see any difference. Perhaps the ministry of education is each country
has different goals - but language is a communication subject and should be
taught as such.
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17 Apr 2010
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5puravida5
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I �m a native speaker teaching children English in a remote, impoverished, school system. Since I �m not paid, and not a "professional" teacher, I do pretty much what I want. Since "creativity" is a big word in my vocabulary, I use a lot of singing, dancing, and talking in my classes. The more creative I get, the more the students seem to learn. (I even took my Border Collie to class to teach commands...sit, stay, down, come, roll over, shake a paw etc. Then I let them try. They loved it!). My kids can talk a streak but can �t write it. I feel my job is to make English class fun. I can give them a head start on pronunciation. Soon enough, I pass them on to collegio where they get more grammar than they understand. And now that I �ve found this site, I have so many beautiful wss to send home for their tarea. They are soooo appreciative.
Cheryl |
17 Apr 2010
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marylin
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If you have a closer look at how little children learn their first language, you will see that they start with listening to other people for quite a long time. Then with one or two years, sometimes even later, they begin speaking one word sentences, then very short sentences before the sentences get longer. When they come to school they first learn reading before they improve their writing skills more and more. If you consider these facts for teaching a second language, you should follow the more "natural" way of learning a language. So for me listening comprehension is the most important skill, then speaking practice as to communicate directy with others. Reading comes next, at first it is just a kind of recognising a word. Writing skills come last. In Germany children come to school with 6 and of cause they have got to learn reading and writing the German language first. English starts already in the second part of first school year, that means that we play and sing a lot with the students, tell stories and fairy tales, but we really try to speak English to the kids during the whole lessons. In our English curriculum you will find the same order as I described concerning the first three and a half years of English at primary school. At the secondary school the 4 skills get more and more equal. And Grammar gets important, too, of cause. But I really think communication should be the preferred aim of language teaching. |
17 Apr 2010
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zailda
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At my school we try to develop the 4 skills simultaneously. If a student can �t understand spoken English s/he will be unable to speak; if s/he doesn �t understand written English s/he won �t be able to write properly.
And of course grammar is also important (with an ever growing vocabulary), to provide resources for communication. And we also try to teach students how to speak naturally, teaching pronunciation, natural tone, slangs.
We try to teach students how to switch between formal & informal language depending on the situation, so most of them know when they have to say that someone "has gone" instead of saying he has kicked the bucket...
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17 Apr 2010
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epit
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Hi again friends whenI opened tis topic on the forum I couldn �t guees I would get those kind of full answers .For thatreasonI must thank to all firstly .Then ,I must clear thatin Turkey we begin to foreign language at very late age in the fourth class and that means the pupils are about 10 years old .So this also means pupils miss the oppurtunity the getting language in the natural ways .Of course we have some private schools that get stated the language learning in very early ages but all the childern are not luckier like them.So in a typical state school you have to begin with grammar
,Reading listening speaking writing comes later .6 classes with more than30 kids ıt is to difficult to spare equal time for every activity All I wanted to sayi s yesterday I made them a short writing activity and all they wanted to read what they wrote .In addition to this we have 4 x40 min in week for 6,7,8 classes and 3x40min for 4and 5 grades .We have very limited time ...Thanks again |
17 Apr 2010
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