HW for 19/07/2006

Today, I try to write about "English teaching method".
My teacher, Mr. James M Hall adivised me to read "The way to teach English based on brand-new study of course".(This might includes some grammatical mistakes, I'm afraid).
The reason why I chose "speaking" as a tytle of thesis was due to my stay in Australia. During 4 months, I talked with Aussie a lot, and that inspired me very much. My opinion for English has changed as time went by.
"Speaking is much better than grammar". Now, let's start for my thesis!

1.The importance of speaking. A role in communication.
English is getting more important as an international language. Moreover, it's increasing that our chances to talk with foreigners whose cultures are different from ours.
We shouldn't ignore other functions (ex:listening) though speaking is important in such a situation. Especially, listening plays an important part in communication because it includes not only "encoding" but "decoding". One of that examples is called "collaborative listening" which is composed of two parts. One is "speaker" and another one is "listener". Both of them should cooporate with each other to make it better. Actually, it's common to learn how to pronnounce for each word or some sentences in Japan, but it's no use bacause communication is what is called "massage focus". In other words, we need to get the speaking ability by using communicative ways.

2.The features of speaking language

　３.Expressions in conversation
First of all, there are three expressions that we have to learn by heart.

○Expressions which control progression of conversation such as,
"I don't understand you." /"Could you say that again?"

This book says "Silent doesn't make money in English."

　　○Gambit(some kind of signal) such as,
"Excuse me, but" /"The problem is…"/"By the way…"

These help us to understand the frame of conversation.

　　○Filler to make it smooth such as,
"Really?"/"Are you with me?"

Anyway, These expression should be introduced before we are ready to start communicating.

　4.Speaking guidelines for speaking
In this section, five activities are introduced as a speaking activity.

○ Information gap
To give some information each other, so that we can do our tasks.
　　
○ Presentation followed by questions
"Show and tell" style is this kind of activity. After someone finish presentation, other student would ask some questions to him/her.
　　
○ Role play
For example: to pretend to be a customner and clerk.
　
　○ Game
Such as "Twenty questions"
Yes/No question.
　　
○ Debate
Basically, we have two sides.
The one is "affirmative side", and another one is"negative".Either side should be a winner.

５．Post communication activity
It should be considered that fluency is more important than accuracy in speaking lesson.

written by Akihiko Mochizuki, Taishukan Shoten 2001
"English teaching method based on Brand-new course of study"