theme-sticky-logo-alt
Speaking and Spoken Language

Is Your English Fully Operational? – Accurate, Fluent and Fluid Speaking

Scarcella and Oxford (1992) mention that ‘a learner will basically need to develop competences in order to become proficient in an L2 – grammatical competence, socialinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence.’ I bet that at the some point of your teaching career you have come across that student who wants to learn only to...Read More

What does it mean to “communicate”?

“Relax,” many teachers tell students, “if you have communicated, it’s all right.” Indeed. What is it, however, that counts as effective communication? At what moment can we chill out knowing we have done a good job in communicating? For some teachers, communication is getting your message across. It doesn’t matter if the learner has made...Read More

Suffixes: pronunciation for teachers

It seems to me that my posts here have, unintentionally, turned into a pronunciation series. I’ve been keeping my eyes /aɪz/ and ears /ɪərz/ open to things to write about. Last week, I worked with the pronunciation of different suffixes in different places. Because of that, I thought this would be an appropriate topic and I’ve...Read More

Understanding Classroom Life: My first steps into Exploratory Practice

Why do my students participate in my classes? This is the question I asked myself when I first met this group of twenty s teenagers age 15-16 years old. From day one, they took part in the activities and spoke English most of the time. I was puzzled. How come? We meet at the end...Read More

Final /i/ and /m/: pronunciation for teachers

After receiving some positive feedback on my previous post about pronunciation, I started thinking about other pronunciation areas that I thought were problematic. These are mistakes your students will certainly make, but that you may be making yourself too. The two sounds I have chosen have a couple of similarities to the /s/ and /z/...Read More

Being a NNEST in Brazil Today Part 2

  “Language doesn’t only represent or refer to social reality (…) it constructs social reality” Claire Kramsch, in “From Practice to Theory and Back Again.”                                                            ...Read More

/s/ and /z/: pronunciation for teachers

For a very long time, I thought my pronunciation was very good. Teachers and colleagues had told me so, and because of that I rarely ever gave it much attention. I was more worried about learning vocabulary or grammar. Naturally, my pronunciation was (and still is) far from perfect, but it took me time to...Read More

Practical tips to help learners become more fluent in English

  English teachers are often asked by learners how they can become more fluent in English. Developing oral and written fluency in English requires discipline and a certain study routine – it does not happen overnight as all teachers certainly know and have pointed out to their learners. Learning English nowadays is certainly more accessible...Read More

Sobre “yellow and red” e a dificuldade de prestarmos atenção ao que falamos

Durante a cerimônia de encerramento dos Jogos Olímpicos do Rio de Janeiro, transmitida ao vivo para o mundo inteiro, o Brasil deu mais uma prova de que o nosso povo é capaz de realizar grandes feitos. O espetáculo estava uma lindeza só e tudo transcorria maravilhosamente bem: apresentações impecáveis dos nossos melhores artistas, espetáculos de...Read More

The Big Picture of Language Learning

“Novices become acquainted with activities not only from their own and others’ attempts to define what transpires in an activity, but also from how those participating in the activity respond to them.” Elinor Ochs, in “Becoming a Speaker of A Culture.” (2002) I have just read Elinor Ochs’ article entitled ‘Becoming a Speaker of a Culture,’...Read More
15 49.0138 8.38624 1 0 4000 1 https://www.richmondshare.com.br 300 0