Week 7 class reflection

In the class, Aaron and I presented about oral skills. First, I expalined why the learners have difficulties in speaking. After that we tried discussing following things. 

1. Cover multiple subjects from textbooks
2. Discussion w/ class (10 min), Topic: Why EFL/ESL students tend to have difficulty speaking:

1. What experiences do you have with this personally?

2. What are the differences between a proficient L2 speaker and a native L1 speaker of English?

3. How can our ESL/EFL students improve their speaking?

4. What would be some good speaking strategies for our ESL learners in the US? What about in other cultures (maybe where English is a widely used 2^nd language, i.e. Russia/Russian accent,  ?

5. What activities can we use to enhance learners’ speaking skills?

6. What forms of technology should we use and are they helpful when teaching oral language skills?

 

II.                Activities

a.       In small groups (5 groups of 3 people) create a discussion using multiple speaking strategies. Remember to take notes during or just after your discussion. (Topics: Politics/international relations, cultural differences, food, sports/fashion (gender speaking differences), television/movies, media control, etc.) (10 Min.)

b.      As a class, share the notes about your group’s conversation and (if time) discuss how these strategies could be taught. What else can we do to improve and motivate/encourage (i.e. confidence) our students’ speaking ability?

Unfortunately, we did not enough time to cover everything. However, we could discuss a lot. I think that it was good. Next time, I am going to focus on writing. I will do my best.