Liuzhou, China TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

This unit discusses the importance of writing and speaking in learning a new language. Writing is definitely the understated part of this process. People do tend to pick up speaking the new language faster than writing it, especially when the languages differ as much as Chinese and English do. Though learning to write in any language helps to create links and help a person think in the new dialect easier. Speaking exercises are quite useful, and can be as simple as role playing, telling stories, or having the students share something about their day. This can also be combined with the previously mentioned reading skill by having them read aloud, to practice both parts at once. Encouraging students to speak in the desired language should be done through fun activities with no worries about embarrassing themselves or looking silly. Personally I wish my french teacher would have spent more time on having us use the language conversationally than all of the reading and writing focus she did. I think keeping the environment on a more conversational basis would greatly assist in helping the students feel more comfortable in speaking English and they would do so more readily. Writing in a new language can be quite a challenge as well, again especially with such diverse differences between them. I like the idea of the comic strip with blank bubbles, in which they fill them in with their own phrases. This was an idea I had not considered and I can see adapting this to my own use in a classroom. Working through spelling issues through writing will definitely be a challenge due to the complexity of the English language, but one I think ideas like the cartoon strip will be helpful in meeting.