METHODOLOGY OF TESOL TESOL Research Institute COMPILED BY JIHEE PARK AND NISA MOHAMAD

JULY 2ND, 2012

Cory right reserved by Association of School Teachers

Teaching English to English learners is very different. The skills that teachers need to acquire and learn from real teaching experiences are always over flowing and can never be mastered to its perfect form. Teachers learn from students and this ongoing process keeps both the teacher and student in contact with the active roles of teaching and learning. The next couple of pages will give basic information on different types of learners at various levels of their English proficiency and how teachers need to adapt or accommodate their pedagogy. Learners All around the world, students of all ages are learning to speak English, but their reasons for wanting to study English can differ greatly. Some students, of course, only learn English because it is on the curriculum at primary or secondary level, but for others, studying the language reflects some kind of a choice. Many people learn English because they have moved into a target-language community and they need to be able to operate successfully within that community. A target-language community is a place where English is the national language e.g. Britain, Canada, New Zealand, etc or where it is one of the main languages of culture and commerce e.g. India, Pakistan, Nigeria. Some students need English for specific Purpose (ESP). Such students of ESP (Sometimes also called English for Special Purposes) may need to learn legal language, or the language of tourism, banking or nursing, for example. An extremely popular strand of ESP is the teaching of business English, where students learn about how to operate in English in the business world. Many students need English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in order to study at an English-speaking university or college, or because they need to access English-language academic texts. The purposes students have for learning will have an effect on what it is they want and need to learn-and as a result will influence what they are taught. Business English students, for example, will want to spend a lot of time concentrating on the language needed for specific business transactions and situations. Students living in a target-language community will need to use English to achieve their immediate practical and social needs. A group of nurses will want to study the kind of English that they are likely to have to use while they nurse. Students of general English (including those studying the language as part of their primary and secondary education) will not have such specific needs, of course, and so their lessons (and the materials which the teachers use) will almost certainly look different from those for students with more clearly identifiable needs. Consideration of our students different reasons for learning is just one of many different learner variables, as we shall see below.
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Different Contexts for Learning English is learnt and taught in many different contexts, and in many different class arrangements. Such differences will have a considerable effect on how and what it is we teach. EFL, ESL, and ESOL For many years we have made a distinction between people who study English as a foreign language and those who study it is a second or other language. It has been suggested that students of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) tend to be learning so that they can use English when travelling or to communicate with other people, from whatever country, who also speak English. ESL (English as a Second Language) students, on the other hand, are usually living in the target-language community. The latter may need to learn the particular language variety of that community (Scottish English, southern English from England, Australian English, Texan English, etc) rather than a more general language variety. They may need to combine their learning of English with knowledge of how to do things in the target-language community- such as going to a bank, renting a flat, accessing health services, etc. The English they learn, therefore, may differ from that studied by EFL students, whose needs are not so specific to a particular time and place. However, this distinction begins to look less satisfactory when we look at the way people use English in a global context. The use of English for international communication, especially with the internet, means that many EFL students are in effect living in a global target -language community and so might be thought of as ESL students instead! Partly as a result of th is we now tend to use the term ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) to describe both situations. Nevertheless, the context in which the language is learnt (what community they wish to be part of) is still of considerable relevance to the kind of English they will want and need to study, and the skills they will need to acquire. Learning Styles All students respond to various stimuli (such as pictures, sounds, music, movement, etc.), but for most of them (and us) some things stimulate them into learning more than other things to do. The Neuro-Linguistic Programming model (often called NLP) takes account of this by showing how some students are especially influenced by visual stimuli and is therefore likely to remember things better if they see them. Some students, on the other hand, are especially affected by auditory input and, as a result, respond very well to things they hear. Kinaesthetic activity is especially effective for other learners, who seem to learn best when they are involved in some kind of physical activity, such as moving around, or rearranging things with their hands. The point is that although we all respond to all of these stimuli, for most of us, one or other of
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them (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic) is more powerful than the others in enabling us to learn and remember what we have learnt. Another way of looking at students variation is offered by the concept of Multiple Intelligences, for articulated by Howard Gardner. In his formulation (and that of people who have followed and expanded his theories), we all have a number of different intelligences (mathematical intelligence might be highly developed, their interpersonal intelligences (the ability to interact with and relate to other people) might be less advanced, whereas another person might have good spatial awareness and musical intelligence, but might be weak mathematically. Thus it is inappropriate to describe someone as being intelligent or unintelligent, because while we may not have much of a knack for, say, musi c, that does not mean our abilities are similarly limited in other areas. What these two theories tell us (from their different standpoints) is that in any one classroom we have a number of different individuals with different learning styles and preferences. Experienced teachers know this and try to ensure that different learning styles are catered for as often as is possible. In effect, this means offering a wide range of different activity types in our lessons in order to cater for individual differences and needs. Nevertheless, we need to find out whether there are any generalizations which will help us to encourage habits in students which will help all of them. We might say, for example, that homework is good for everyone and so is reading for pleasure. Certain activities such as many of the speaking activities are good for all students in the class, though the way we organize them (and the precise things we ask students to do) may vary for the reasons we have been discussing. Levels Teacher of English generally make three basic distinctions to categorize the language knowledge of their students: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Broadly speaking, beginners are those who dont know any English and advanced students are those whose level of English is competent, allowing them to read unsimplified factual and fictional texts and communicate fluently. Between these two extremes, intermediate suggests a basic listening and reading. However, as we shall see, these are rough and ready labels whose exact meaning can vary from institution to institution. Other descriptive terms are also used in an attempt to be more specific about exactly what kind of beginner, intermediate or advanced students we are talking about. A distinction is made between beginners (students who start a beginners course having heard virtually not English) and false beginners to reflect the fact that the latter cant really use any English but actually
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know quite a lot which can be quickly activated; theyre not real beginners. Elementary students are no longer beginners and are able to communicate in a basic way. They can string some sentences together, construct a simple story, or take part in simple spoken interactions. Pre-intermediate students have not yet achieved intermediate competence, which involves greater fluency and general comprehension of some general authentic English. However, they have come across most of the basic structures and lexis of the language. Upper-intermediate students, on the other hand, have the competence of intermediate students plus an extended knowledge of grammatical construction and skill use. However, they may not have achieved the accuracy or depth of knowledge which their advanced colleagues have acquired, and as a result are less able to operate at different levels of subtlety. Beginners Success is easy to see at this level, and easy for the teacher to arrange. But then so is failure! Some adult beginners find that language learning is more stressful than they expected and reluctantly give up. However, if things are going well, teaching beginners can be incredibly stimulating. The pleasure of being able to see our part in our students success is invigorating. Intermediate students Success is less obvious at intermediate level. Intermediate students have already achieved a lot, but they are less likely to be able to recognize an almost daily progress. On the contrary, it may sometimes seem to them that they dont improve that much or that fast anymore. We often call this the plateau effect, and the teacher has to make strenuous attempts to show students what they still need to learn without being discouraging. One of the ways of doing this is to make the tasks we give them more challenging, and to get them to analyze language more thoroughly. We need to help them set clear goals for themselves so that they have something to measure their achievement by. Advanced students Students at this level already know a lot of English. There is still the danger of the plateau effect (even if the plateau itself is higher up!) so we have to create a classroom culture where students understand what still has to be done, and we need to provide good, clear evidence of progress. We can do this through a concentration not so much on grammatical accuracy, but on style and perception of, for example, appropriacy (using the right language in the right situation, connotation (whether words have a negative or positive tinge, for example) and inference (how we can read behind the words to get a writers true meaning). In these areas, we can enable students to use language with more subtlety. It is also at this level especially, that we have to encourage students to make more and more responsibility for their own learning.

Things to keep in mind 1. The importance of student motivation a. Extrinsic motivation b. Intrinsic motivation 2. Responsibility for learning a. The students responsibility for their own learning and how we can encourage this as educators is very important. Teachers 1. The personality that teachers show to students is very important. This has to be in some way different (and more teacher-like) from our normal selves. 2. Teachers need to be both adaptable and able to perform different roles at different lesson stages. 3. Teachers should be able to listen to their students, respect them and be totally evenhanded in our treatment of individual and groups. 4. Teachers need to be well prepared for each class period and be good at record keeping and reliability. 5. Among the skills that teachers need to acquire, teachers need to acquire the ability to manage classes, match tasks to different groups and circumstances, provide variety in lessons and offer students clear learning outcomes. 6. Teachers need to acquire the knowledge of language systems, available materials, resources and classroom equipment, and knowledge about the latest developments in the field. 7. It is important to keep in mind that teaching is both a science and an art.

Second and Foreign Language Contexts In some of our professional musing about teaching and learning, we interchange the terms second and foreign in referring to English language teaching. But some caution is warranted, particularly in relation to a curriculum or a lesson, because a) the difference between the two is significant, and b) this dichotomy has been overgeneralized in recent years. Second language learning contexts are those in which the classroom target language is readily available out there. Teaching English in the United States or Australia clearly falls into this (ESL) category. Foreign language contexts are in which students do not have ready-made contexts for communication beyond their classroom. They may be obtainable through language clubs, special media opportunities, books, or an occasional tourist, but efforts must be made to create such opportunities. Teaching English in Japan or Morocco or Thailand is almost always a context of English as a foreign language (EFL). The seemingly clear dichotomy between ESL and EFL, however, has been considerably
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muddied in recent years with the increasing use of English worldwide for a variety of purposes (Nayar 1997). First, ESL contexts vary from an American or British context, where monolingual native speakers abound, to countries such as India or Singapore, where English is a widely used second language for education, government and commerce, to Scandinavian countries, where English has no official status but is commonly spoken by virtually every educated person. Likewise, in countries where a language might be quickly judged as foreign (for instance, Spanish or Chinese in the US, English in Japan), learners may find readily available potential for authentic use of the language in such venues as indigenous language communities and the media (Internet, TV, film). With that fair warning, it is still useful to consider the pedagogical implications for a continuum of contexts ranging from high-visibility, ready access to the target language outside the language classroom to no access beyond the classroom door. In a typical second language context, your students have tremendous advantage. They have an instant 'laboratory' available twenty-four hours a day. When you plan a lesson or curriculum in a context that falls into the second language category, students can capitalize on numerous opportunities. Here are some ways to seize this ESL advantage: Give homework that involves a specific speaking task with a person outside the classroom, listening to a radio or TV program, reading a newspaper article, writing a letter to a store or a charity. Encourage students to seek out opportunities for practice. Encourage students to seek corrective feedback from others. Have students keep a log or diary of their extra-class learning. Plan and carry out field trips (to a museum, for example) Arrange a social 'mixer' with native English speakers. Invite speakers into your classroom.

Communicative language teaching in what we might broadly categorize as an EFL context is clearly a greater challenge for students and teachers. Often, intrinsic motivation is a big issue, since students may have difficulty in seeing the relevance from their own circumstances, and classroom hours may be the only part of the day when they are exposed to English. Therefore, the language that you present, model, elicit, and takes on great importance. If your class meets for, say, only ninety minutes a week, which represent a little more than 1
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percent of their waking hours, think of what students need to accomplish! Can students learn English in an EFL setting? The answer is obviously 'yes' because many people have done so. Here are some guidelines to help you compensate for the lack of ready communicative situations outside the classroom. Use class time for optimal authentic language input and interaction. Don't waste class time on work that can be done as homework. Provide regular motivation-stimulating activities. Help students to see genuine uses for English in their own lives. Play down the role of tests and emphasize more intrinsic factors. Provide plenty of extra-class learning opportunities, such as assigning an Englishspeaking movie, having them listen to an English-speaking TV or side reading (news magazines, books), writing a journal or diary, in English, on their learning process. Encourage the use of learning strategies outside class. Form a language club and schedule regular activities.

TEACHING LANGUAGE SKILLS INTEGRATING THE 'FOUR SKILLS' For more than six decades now, research and practice in English language teaching has identified the four skills listening, speaking, reading, and writing-as of paramount importance. ESL curricula and textbooks around the world tend to focus on one or two of the four skills, sometimes to the exclusion of the others. Despite our history of treating the four skills in separate segments of a curriculum, there is a recent trend toward skill integration. That is, rather than designing a curriculum to teach the many aspects of one skill, say reading, curriculum designers are taking more of a whole language approach whereby reading is treated as one of two or more interrelated skills. The integration of the four skills gives the students the chance to diversify their efforts in more meaningful tasks. How can you maintain an integrated-skills focus in your teaching? The following five models are in common use as they all pull the direct attention of the student away from the separateness of the skills of language and toward the meaningful purposes for which we use language. 1. Content-based Instruction Integrates the learning of some specific subject-matter content with the learning of a second language. The overall structure of a content-based curriculum, in contrast to many traditional language curricula, is dictated more by the nature of the subject matter than by language forms and sequences. The second language, then, is simply the medium to convey informational content of interest and relevance to the learner. Content-based instruction usually pertains to academic or occupational instruction over an extended period of time at intermediate-toadvanced proficiency levels. Content-based instruction allows for the complete integration of language skills. As you plan a lesson around a particular subtopic of your subject-matter area, your task becomes how best to present that topic or concept or principle. 2. Theme-based Instruction Provides an alternative to what would otherwise be traditional language classes by structuring a course around themes and topics. Theme-based curricula can serve the multiple interests of students in a classroom and can offer a focus on content while still adhering to institutional needs for offering a language course per se. Numerous current ESL textbooks, especially at the intermediate to advanced levels, offer themebased courses of study. Consider just one of an abundance of topics that have been used as themes through which language is taught: environmental awareness and action. Here are some possible theme-based activities: i. Use environmental statistics and facts for classroom reading, writing, discussion and
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debate. Here are some things that students can do with such material: For Intermediate to advanced students scan [reading selections] for particular information do compare-and-contrast exercises look for biases in statistics use statistics in argument learn the discourse features of persuasive writing discuss issues engage in formal debate

For beginner students use imperatives ("Don't buy aerosol spray cans.") practice verb tenses ("The ozone layer is vanishing.") develop new vocabulary learn cardinal and ordinal numbers work with simple conversations/dialogues

ii.

Carry out research and writing projects. Libraries, bookstores, newsstands, television and radio, and even political campaigns are fruitful course of information to carry out a research project. While individual projects are suitable, you can also assign students to work in pairs, or teams, each assigned to a different aspect of an issue. Students will then submit the results in writing or present it orally in front of the class.

iii. Have students create their own environmental awareness material. Whether you are teaching adults or children, beginner to advanced students, you can get a lot out of a language experience approach in which students create leaflets, posters,
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bulletin boards, newsletter articles, or even a booklet that outlines practical things they can do to save the earth. If time and equipment permit, some exciting projects can be done with a video camera, such as an information program, a drama, interviews, or news reports. iv. Arrange field trips. These could involve a pre-trip module (of perhaps several days) of reading, researching, and other fact-finding, and a post-trip of module of summary and conclusions. Field trips can be made to recycling centers, factories that practice recycling, wildlife preserves, areas that need litter removed (abandoned lots, beaches, parks), etc. v. Conduct simulation games. A number of simulation games are being created that use the environmental crisis as a theme around which to build various scenarios for the gaming process. Some games get quite elaborate, with countries of the world and their respective resources represented by objects like egg cartons, bottles, cans, newspapers, and the like, and players charged to resolve problems of unequal distributions of wealth as well as environmental controls. 3. Experiential learning Includes activities that engage both left- and right-brain processing, that contextualize language, that integrate skills, and that point toward authentic, real-world purposes. Experiential learning gives students concrete experiences through which they discover language principles (even if subconsciously) by trial and error, by processing feedback, by building hypotheses about language, and by revising these assumptions in order to become fluent (Eyring 1991:347). Teachers do not simply tell students about how language works; instead give students opportunities to use language as they grapple with the problem-solving complexities of a variety of concrete experiences. Experiential learning tends to be learner-centered by nature. Examples of learner-centered experiential techniques include: hands-on projects (such as nature projects) computer activities (especially in small groups) research projects cross-cultural experiences (camps, dinner groups, etc.) field trips and other on-site visits (such as to a grocery store) role-plays and simulations.

But some teacher-controlled techniques may be considered experiential:

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using props, realia, visuals, show-and-tell sessions playing games (which often involve strategy) and singing utilizing media (television, radio, and movies).

One specialized form of experiential learning that has been quite popular in elementary school teaching for several decades is an integrated-skills approach called the Language Experience Approach (LEA). With widely varying adaptations, students personal experiences (a trip to the zoo, a television story, a picture, etc.) are used as the basis of discussion, and then the teacher writes down the experience, in which the students can recopy, edit, and/or illustrate the story, which is preserved in the form of a book. A number of activities can then follow, including word study, spelling focus, semantic discussions, interference, prediction, etc.

4. The Episode Hypothesis According to Oller (1983b: 12), in episode hypothesis, text (i.e., discourse in any form) will be easier to reproduce, understand, and recall, to the extent that it is structured episodically. The presentation of language is enhanced if students receive interconnected sentences in an interest-provoking episode rather than in a disconnected series of sentences. It goes well beyond simple meaningful learning. Oller notes that the interaction of cognition and language enables learners to form expectancies as they encounter either logically or episodically linked sentences. Moreover, stories are universal, and therefore students from many different cultures can understand their organizational structure and identify with the characters. Here are some of the possible ways the episode hypothesis contributes or relates to integrated-skills teaching: Stories or episodes challenge the teacher and textbook writer to present interesting, natural language, whether the language is viewed as the written discourse or oral discourse. Episodes can be presented in either written or spoken form, thus requiring reading and/or writing skills on the students part. Episodes can provide the stimulus for spoken or written questions that students respond to, in turn, by speaking or writing. Students can be encouraged to write their own episodes, or to complete an episode whose resolution or climax is not presented. Those written episodes might then be dramatized in the classroom by the students.

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5. Task-based teaching Task-based teaching makes an important distinction between target tasks, which students must accomplish beyond the classroom, and pedagogical tasks, which form the nucleus of the classroom activity. For example, if giving personal information is a communicative function of a language, then an appropriately stated target task might be giving personal information in a job interview. Notice that the target task specifies a context. Pedagogical tasks include any of the series of techniques designed ultimately to teach students to perform the target task; the climactic pedagogical task actually involves students in some form of simulation of the target task itself (say, through a role-play simulation in which certain roles are assigned to pairs of learners). Pedagogical tasks may include both formal and functional techniques. A pedagogical task designed to teach students to give personal information in a job interview might, for example, involve 1. exercises in comprehension of wh- questions with do-insertion (When do you work at Macys?). 2. drills in the use of frequency adverbs (I usually work until five o clock.). 3. listening to extracts of job interviews. 4. analyzing the grammar and discourse of the interviews. 5. modeling an interview: teacher and one students. 6. role-playing a simulated interview: students in pairs.

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In task-based instruction, the priority is not the bits and pieces of language, but rather the functional purposes for which language must be used. While content-based instruction focuses on subject-matter content, task-based instruction focuses on a whole set of real-world tasks themselves. Input for tasks can come from a variety of authentic sources:

speeches conversations narratives public announcements cartoon strips interviews oral descriptions media extracts games and puzzles photos

letters poems directions invitations textbooks diaries songs telephone directories menus labels

Task-based curricula differ from content-based, theme-based, and experiential instruction in that the course objectives are somewhat more language-based. While there is an ultimate focus on communication and purpose and meaning, the goals are linguistic in nature. They maintain the centrality of functions like greeting people, expressing opinions, requesting information, etc., the course goals center on learners pragmatic language competence. The principal idea here is for you not to assume that all your techniques should be identified with just one of the four skills, but rather that most successful interactive techniques will include several skill areas.

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TEACHING LISTENING PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING LISTENING TECHNIQUES The first two apply to any technique; the others are more germane to listening. 1. In an interactive, four-skills curriculum, make sure that you don't overlook the importance of techniques that specifically develop listening comprehension competence. If your curriculum is strongly content-based, or otherwise dedicated to the integration of skills, remember that each of the separate skills deserves special focus in appropriate doses. As aural comprehension itself cannot be overtly 'observed', teachers sometimes incorrectly assume that the input provided in the classroom will always be converted into intake. 2. Use techniques that are intrinsically motivating. Appeal to listeners' personal interests and goals. Since background information (schemata) is an important factor in listening, take into full account the experiences, goals, and abilities of your students as you design lessons. Also, remember that the cultural background(s) of your students can be both facilitating and interfering in the process of listening. Then, once a technique is launched, try to construct it in such a way that the students are caught up in the activity and feel self-propelled toward its final objective. 3. Utilize authentic language and contexts. Students will readily dive into the activity if you introduce natural texts rather than artificial material as the students will be able to see the relevance of classroom activity to their long-term communicative goals. 4. Carefully consider the form of listeners' responses. As comprehension itself is not externally observable, we can only infer that certain things have been comprehended through students' overt (verbal or nonverbal) responses to speech. Lund (1990) offered nine different ways that we can check listeners' comprehension: doing - the listener responds physically to a command choosing - the listener selects from alternatives such as pictures, objects, and texts transferring - the listener draws a picture of what is heard answering - the listener answers questions about the message condensing - the listener outlines or takes notes on a lecture
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extending - the listener provides an ending to a story heard duplicating - the listener translates the message into the native language or repeats it verbatim modeling - the listener orders a meal, for example, after listening to a model order conversing - the listener engages in a conversation that indicates appropriate processing of information

5. Encourage the development of listening strategies Most foreign language students are simply not aware of how to listen so you have to draw their attention to the value of such strategies as looking for key words looking for nonverbal cues to meaning predicting a speaker's purpose by the context of the spoken discourse associating information with one's existing cognitive structure (activating background information) guessing at meanings seeking clarification listening for general gist various test-taking strategies for listening comprehension

6. Include both bottom-up and top-down listening techniques Bottom-up processing proceeds from sounds to words to grammatical relationships to lexical meanings, etc., to a final "message." Top-down processing is evoked from a "bank of prior knowledge and global expectations" (Morley 1991: 87) and other information (schemata) that the listener brings to the text. Bottom-up techniques typically focus on sounds, words, intonation, grammatical structure, and other components of spoken language. Top-down techniques are more concerned with the activation of schemata, with deriving meaning, with global misunderstanding, and with the interpretation of a text. It is important for learners to operate
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from both directions, but in a communicative interactive context, you don't want to dwell too heavily on the bottom-up, for to do so may hamper the development of a learner's all-important automaticity in processing speech.

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TEACHING SPEAKING PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING SPEAKING TECHNIQUES 1. Use techniques that cover the spectrum of learner needs, from language-based focus on accuracy to message-based focus on interaction, meaning and fluency. When you do a jigsaw group technique, play a game, or discuss solutions to the environmental crisis, make sure that your tasks include techniques designed to help students to perceive and use the building blocks of language. At the same time, don't bore your students to death with lifeless, repetitious drills. As noted above, make any drilling you do as meaningful as possible. 2. Provide intrinsically motivating techniques. Students often don't know why we ask them to do certain things, so it usually pays to tell them how the activity will benefit them. Always try to appeal to their ultimate goals and interests, to their need for knowledge, for status, for achieving competence and autonomy and for 'being all that they can be'. 3. Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts. It takes energy and creativity to devise authentic contexts and meaningful interaction, but with the help of a storehouse of teacher resource material it can be done. Even drills can be structured to provide a sense of authenticity. 4. Provide appropriate feedback and correction. It is important that you take advantage of your knowledge of English to inject the kinds of corrective feedback that are appropriate for the moment because students are totally dependent on the teacher for useful linguistic feedback. 5. Capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening Many interactive techniques that involve speaking will include listening, so take the opportunities to integrate the skills as it can reinforce each other. 6. Give students opportunities to initiate oral communication. Part of oral communication competence is the ability to initiate conversations, to nominate topics, to ask questions, to control conversations, and to change the subject. As you design and use speaking techniques, ask yourself if you have allowed students to initiate language.

7. Encourage the development of speaking strategies.

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Your classroom can be one in which the students become aware of strategic competence and have a chance develop their own personal strategies for accomplishing oral communicative purposes such as asking for clarification (What?). asking someone to repeat something (Huh? Excuse me?). using fillers (Uh, I mean, Well) in order to gain time to process. using conversation maintenance cues (Uh huh, Right, Yeah, Okay, Hm). getting someone's attention (Hey, Say, So). using paraphrases for structures one can't produce. appealing for assistance from the interlocutor (to get a word or phrase, for example). using formulaic expressions (at the survival stage) (How much does _____ cost? How do you get to the _____?). using mime and nonverbal expressions to convey meaning.

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TEACHING READING PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING INTERACTIVE READING TECHNIQUES 1. In an interactive curriculum, make sure that you don't overlook the importance of specific instruction in reading skills. Teachers often assume that ESL students will learn good reading simply by absorption through generous offerings of extensive reading opportunities. In reality, there is much to be gained by your focusing on reading skills. It is important to make sure that the students have ample time for extensive reading. Sustained silent reading allows them to develop a sense of fluency. Also, silent reading becomes an excellent method for self-instruction on the part of the learner. 2. Use techniques that are intrinsically motivating. What are your students' goals in learning to read English? Focus on those goals. Choose material that is relevant to those goals. One popular and intrinsically motivating approach to reading instruction is Language Experience Approach (LEA), where students create their own material for reading. Carefully sequence readings and instructional strategies that are success-oriented give further intrinsic involvement in the process. 3. Balance authenticity and readability in choosing texts. Christine Nuttall (1996) offered three criteria in choosing reading texts for students. i. suitability of content: material that students will find interesting, enjoyable, challenging, and appropriate for their goals in learning English ii. readability: a text with lexical and structural difficulty that will challenge students without overwhelming them. 4. Include both bottom-up and top-down techniques. Make sure that you give enough classroom time to focus on the building blocks of written language, geared appropriately for each level.

5. Follow the 'SQ3R' sequence. One effective series of procedures for approaching a reading text has come to be labeled the SQ3R technique, a process consisting the following five steps. 1. Survey: Skim the text for an overview of main ideas.
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2. Question: The reader asks questions about what he or she wishes to get out of the text. 3. Read: Read the text while looking for answers to the previously formulated questions. 4. Recite: Reprocess the salient points of the text through oral or written language. 5. Review: Assess the importance of what one has just read and incorporate it into long-term associations.

6. Subdive your techniques into pre-reading, during-reading and after-reading phases. A good rubric to keep in mind for teaching reading is the following three-part framework: a. Before you read: Spend some time introducing a topic, encouraging skimming, scanning, predicting, and activating schemata. Students can bring the best of their knowledge and skills to a text when they have been given a chance to "ease into" the passage. b. While you read: Not all reading is simply extensive or global reading. There may be certain facts or rhetorical devices that students should take note of while they read. Give students a sense of purpose for reading rather than just reading because you ordered it. c. After you read: Comprehension questions are just one form of activity appropriate for postreading. Also consider vocabulary study, identifying the author's purpose, discussing the author's line of reasoning, examining grammatical structures, or steering students toward a follow-up writing exercise.

7. Build in some evaluative aspect to your techniques. It is as important in reading as it is in listening to be able to accurately assess students' comprehension and development of skills. Consider some of the following overt responses that indicate comprehension: 1. Doing - the reader responds physically to a command. 2. Choosing - the reader selects from alternatives posed orally or in writing 3. Transferring - the reader summarizes orally what is read. 4. Answering - the reader answers questions about the passage. 5. Condensing - the reader outlines or takes notes on a passage.

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6. Extending - the reader provides an ending to a story. 7. Duplicating - the reader translates the message into the native language or copies it (beginning level, for very short passages only). 8. Modeling - the reader puts together a toy, for example, after reading directions for assembly. 9. Conversing - the reader engages in a conversation that indicates appropriate processing of information.

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TEACHING WRITING PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING WRITING TECHNIQUES 1. Incorporate practices of 'good' writers. Consider the various things that efficient writers do, and see if your technique includes some of the practices. For example, good writers focus on a goal or main idea in writing perceptively gauge their audience spend some time (but not too much!) planning to write easily let their first ideas flow onto the paper follow a general organizational plan as they write solicit and utilize feedback on their writing are not wedded to certain surface structures revise their work willingly and efficiently patiently make as many revisions as needed

2. Balance process and product. Make sure that students are carefully led through appropriate stages in the process of composing as writing is a composing process and usually requires multiple drafts before an effective product is created. Make sure students see that everything leading up to this final creation is worth the effort. 3. Account for cultural/literary backgrounds. Make sure that your techniques do not assume that your students know English rhetorical conventions. If there are some apparent contrasts between students' native traditions and those that you are trying to teach, try to help students to understand what it is, exactly, that they are accustomed to and then, by degrees, bring them to the use of acceptable English rhetoric. 4. Connect reading and writing. Clearly, students learn to write in part by carefully observing what is already written. That is,
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they learn by observing, or reading, the written word. By reading and studying a variety of relevant types of text, students can gain important insights both about how they should write and about subject matter that may become the topic of their writing. 5. Provide as much authentic writing as possible. Whether writing is real writing or for display, it can still be authentic in that the purposes for writing are clear to the students, the audience is specified overtly, and there is at least some intent to convey meaning. Sharing writing with other students in the class is one way to add authenticity. Publishing a class newsletter, writing letters to people outside of class, writing a script for a skit or dramatic presentation, writing a resume, writing advertisements-all these can be seen as authentic writing. 6. Frame your techniques in terms of pre-writing, drafting, and revising stages. The pre-writing stage encourages the generation of ideas, which can happen in numerous ways: reading (extensively) a passage skimming and/or scanning a passage conducting some outside research brainstorming listing (in writing-individually) clustering (begin with a key word, then add other words, using free association) discussing a topic or question instructor-initiated questions and probes freewriting

The drafting and revising stages are the core process of writing. In traditional approaches to writing instruction, students either are given timed in-class compositions to write from start to finish within a class hour, or they are given a homework writing assignment. The first option gives no opportunity for systematic drafting, and the second assumes that if students did any drafting at all, they would simply have to learn the tricks of the trade on their own. In a process approach, drafting is viewed as an important and complex set of strategies, the mastery of which takes time, patience, and trained instruction. Several strategies and skills apply to the drafting/revising process in writing.

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getting started (adapting the freewriting technique) "optimal" monitoring of one's writing (without premature editing and diverted attention to wording, grammar, etc.) peer-reviewing for content ( accepting/using classmates' comments) using the instructor's feedback editing for grammatical errors "read aloud" technique (in small groups or pair, students read their almost final drafts to each other for a final check on errors, flow of ideas, etc.) proofreading

7. Strive to offer techniques that are as interactive as possible. Writing techniques that focus on purposes other than compositions (such as letters, forms, memos, directions, short reports) are also subject to the principles of interactive classrooms. Group collaboration, brainstorming, and critiquing are as easily and successfully a part of many writing-focused techniques. Don't buy into the myth that writing is a solitary activity! Some of it is, to be sure, but a good deal of what makes a good writer can be most effectively learned within a community of learners. 8. Sensitively apply methods of responding to and correcting your students' writing. As you respond to your students' writing, remember that you are there as an ally, as a guide, as a facilitator. After the final work is turned in, you may indeed have to assume the position of judge and evaluator, but until then, the role of consultant will be the most productive way to respond. Ideally, your responses-or at least some of them-will be written and oral as you hold a conference, however short, with a student. Under less than ideal conditions, written comments may have to suffice.

Here are some guidelines for responding to the first draft. a. Resist the temptation to treat minor (local) grammatical errors; major (global) errors within relevant paragraphs-see (e) below - can at this stage be indicated either directly (say, underlining) or indirectly (for example, by a check next to the line in which an error occurs). b. Generally resist the temptation to rewrite a student's sentences.
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c. Comment holistically, in terms of the clarity of the overall thesis and the general structural organization. d. Comment on the introductory paragraph. e. Comment on features that appear to be irrelevant to the topic. f. Question clearly inadequate word choices and awkward expression within those paragraphs/sentences that are relevant to the topic. For the subsequent drafts, your responses can include all of the above except that (a) now may change its character slightly: g. Minor ("local") grammatical and mechanical (spelling, punctuation) errors should be indicated, but not corrected for the student. h. Comment on the specific clarity and strength of all main ideas, supporting ideas, and on argument and logic. i. Comment on any further word choices and expressions that may not be "awkward" but are not as clear or direct as they should be. j. Check cohesive devices within and across paragraphs. k. In academic papers, comment on documentation, citing sources, evidence, and other support. l. Comment on the adequacy and strength of the conclusion.

9. Clearly instruct students on the rhetorical, formal conventions of writing. Each type of writing has its formal properties, but don't just assume that students will pick these up by absorption. Make them explicit. A reading approach to writing is very helpful here. For academic writing, for example, some of the futures of English rhetorical discourse that writers use to explain, propose solutions, debate and argue are as follows: a clear statement of the thesis or topic or purpose use of main ideas to develop or clarify the thesis use of supporting ideas supporting by "telling": describing supporting by "showing": giving evidence, facts, statistics, etc.
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supporting by linking cause and effect supporting by using comparison and/or contrast.

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References
1) How to teach English by Jeremy Harmer from Pearson Longman 2) Teaching by Principles - An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy - 2nd Edition - H. Douglas Brown - Longman 2001

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Contact
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