John Hopkins Magazine has an interesting article on sounds and why it can be so difficult for some learners to produce a sound in the same way a native speaker can.
Essentially it says that when we are young we pick up a set of sounds from the language we hear around us and store them in our brain. However, later in life we might hear new…
One Word Speeches is a very simple activity which needs very little preparation but which is highly effective in giving your students practice in all four skills, especially listening and speaking.
It is very flexible and in different forms it works for both beginners right up to highly advanced students, for writing as well as speaking.
Explaining the Activity
The first time you run…
Listening is one of the four main language skills along with reading, writing and speaking.
Whilst in reading and writing we talk about sentences, the spoken (or heard) equivalent is an utterance.
The Components of Listening
Listening is often confusing for an English learner. There are a number of reasons for this partly because of the various parts which go to make up listening:
Layers of Sound
Unlike reading…
Storytelling is an ancient art that developed alongside the development of language and it is one of the earliest forms of folkart.
The story can be of a real event or it can be made up. Storytelling has been used over the millennia not only as a means of entertainment but also of education.
Storytelling techniques can be used to get TEFL students to practice listening…
