Matt, Jason and Katie Part 2

Listening:
Include a focus on listening in an integrated-skills course
Encourage the development of listening strategies

When including a focus on listening in your integrated-skills course you must be careful to tailor the listening activities to the level of English that your students speak. Some activities you can do to help focus on listening are playing an audio recording and having students respond. Going around the room randomly selecting students and asking them questions about a particular topic and changing the topic as students share about this or that or whatever.

For encouraging students to develop listening strategies we discussed how they will help the students have a more successful learning experience. Listening strategies will help their understanding of English and increase their automaticity. Learning not to worry about whether you understand every word in an utterance but rather picking up the key words will help a student greatly in listening. Also, note taking will help a student to grasp the spoken language as it gives the student and opportunity to summarize what is being heard and to maintain focus.

Speaking:
Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts

Using relevant, intrinsically motivating spoken language activities helps the student stay interested and take charge of his/her learning. Any grammar discussion should be condensed to a mini-lesson that addresses specific grammatical errors that are hampering a group of the students in class.