ENG515 Handouts by VUBuddy

Table of Contents

Lesson No.

Title · Topics · Lesson 1

001-004

Lesson 2

005-010

Lesson 3

Teaching How to Recognize and Spell Words I 011-015

Lesson 4

Teaching How to Recognize and Spell Words II 016-022

Lesson 5

Teaching Intensive EFL/ESL Reading I 023-027

Lesson 6

Teaching Intensive EFL/ESL Reading II 028-033

Lesson 7

Teaching Intensive EFL/ESL Reading III 034-039

Lesson 8

Teaching Extensive Reading I 040-044

Lesson 9

Teaching Extensive Reading II 045-049

Lesson 10

Issues in Extensive Reading 050-054

Lesson 11

Teaching How to Read Faster 055-062

Lesson 12

Enhancing Communicative Competence through Reading I 063-067

Lesson 13

Enhancing Communicative Competence through Reading II 068-071

Lesson 14

Developing Strategic L2 Readers I 072-076

Lesson 15

Developing Strategic L2 Readers II 077-082

Lesson 16

Developing Fluent Reading Skills 083-090

Lesson 17

Developing Fluent Reading Skills II 091-097

Lesson 18

Teaching Reading: Individual and Social Perspective I 098-104

Lesson 19

Teaching Reading: Individual and Social Perspective II 105-110

Lesson 20

Research Informing L2 Reading I 111-116

Lesson 21

Research Informing L2 Reading II 117-121

Lesson 22

Assessing Reading I 122-126

Lesson 23

Assessing Reading II 127-131

Lesson 24

Teaching Writing I 132-136

Lesson 25

Teaching Writing II 137-140

Lesson 26

Teaching Writing in an L2 Classroom I 141-145

Lesson 27

Teaching Writing in an L2 Classroom II 146-150

Lesson 28

The Writing Process I 151-155

Lesson 29

The Writing Process II 156-159

Lesson 30

Issues of Cohesion and Coherence 160-164

Lesson 31

Teaching the Nuts and Bolts of Writing I 165-169

Lesson 32

Teaching the Nuts and Bolts of Writing II 170-175

Lesson 33

Building the Writing Habit 176-183

Lesson 34

Syllabus Design and Lesson Planning for L2 Writing 184-189

Lesson 35

Planning a Writing Course I 190-198

Lesson 36

Planning a Writing Course II 199-206

Lesson 37

Teaching Students to Self-Edit 207-211

Lesson 38

Theoretical and Practical Issues in ESL Writing 212-218

Lesson 39

Responding to Written Work I 219-226

Lesson 40

Responding to Written Work II 227-234

Lesson 41

Responding to Written Work III 235-240

Lesson 42

Teaching Academic L2 Writing I 241-247

Lesson 43

Teaching Academic L2 Writing II 248-253

Lesson 44

Teaching Reading and Writing in the Pakistani ELT Context 254-258

Lesson 45

Integrating Receptive and Productive Skills 259-266

Lesson-01

Topic: 001: Overview of the course and background

In the companion volume to this one, Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking (Nation and

Newton, 2009), the four strands of a language course are described. The basic idea behind the four strands

is that, in a well-balanced language course, equal time is given to each of the four strands of meaningfocused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. Meaning-

focused input involves getting input through listening and reading where the learners’ focus is on

understanding the message and where only a small proportion of language features are outside the learners’ present level of proficiency. In a reading and writing program, extensive reading is likely to be

the major source of meaning-focused input. Meaning-focused output involves the learners producing

language through speaking and writing where the learners’ focus is on others understanding the message.

Meaning-focused output occurs when learners write essays and assignments, when they write letters,

when they write a diary, when they send email and text messages to each other, and when they write

about their experience. Language-focused learning involves deliberate attention to language features both

in the context of meaning-focused input and meaning focused output, and in decontextualized learning

and teaching. In the reading and writing program, language-focused learning occurs in intensive reading,

when learners consult dictionaries in reading and writing, when they get language-focused feedback on

their writing, when they deliberately learn new vocabulary for receptive or productive use, when they

practise spelling, when they concentrate on learning to write or form written letters of the alphabet, and

when they study grammar and discourse features.

There are lots of ways of making language-focused learning a part of the course, but a teacher

needs to be careful that this does not take up more than 25 percent of the total course time. Fluency

development is often neglected in courses, partly because teachers and learners feel that they should

always be learning something new. Fluency development involves making the best use of what is already known. The best-known kind of fluency development is speed reading where learners focus on increasing

their reading speed while still maintaining good comprehension. For speed reading courses to work well

with learners of English as a second or foreign language, the reading material needs to be well within the

learners’ level of proficiency. There should be little or no unknown vocabulary or grammatical features in

the speed reading texts. Writing fluency also needs to get attention in a well-balanced course, especially

where learners need to sit a written test as part of academic study and where they have to write under time

pressure.

These four strands of meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development need to take up roughly equal time in a language course. As we shall

see, there are many ways of getting this balance, and the way this is done depends on local conditions,

teacher preferences, the way the classes are divided up and scheduled, and timetabling constraints. What

is important is that over a period of time probably no greater than a month or two, there is a roughly equal

amount of time given to each of these four strands, and that the necessary conditions exist for the strands

to occur. In this book, this idea of the four strands will be applied to goals as diverse as learning to spell, learning to write, and becoming fluent in reading. The first six chapters of this book focus largely on