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In classroom activities, students can become easily frustrated tudents can become easily frustrated when they do not understand what they are learning. As a result, they when they do not understand what they are learning. As a result, they become discouraged. As a teacher, we need to design different become discouraged. As a teacher, we need to design different activities in order to help students close the gaps in their understanding. activities in order to help students close the gaps in their understanding. The basic challenge for the teacher is to know exactly which activity is The basic challenge for the teacher is to know exactly which activity is useful and most helpful for their students because each student has useful and most helpful for their students because each student has different aptitudes in study. Therefore, we will give you some strategies different aptitudes in study. Therefore, we will give you some strategies and a few tips to teach well.and a few tips to teach well.

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In this section, we just focus on how to teach four language skills such as Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing well. First of all, we would like you to take a look at the shape of a skill lesson to have an overview of a lesson plan before teaching. Then, we will go into details about how to teach each skill effectively.

LOGOShape of a Skill Lesson

Pre-stagePre-stage While-stageWhile-stage Post-stagePost-stage

Purpose: To get students to think about the topic or the situation before they read, listen, speak or write

Activities: Brainstorming, discussion, pre - teaching vocabulary and prediction

Timing: 15 minutes

Purpose: To give students a guide or framework to help them practice the target skill of the lesson

Activities: Comprehension task, ordering and transformation

Timing: 15 minutes

Purpose: To help students take the information or what they have produced in the While – stage and do something meaningful with it

Activities: Speaking or writing

Timing: 15 minutes

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Reading

Listening

Speaking

Writing

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Listening is the language skill used most frequently. It has been estimated that students may receive as much as 90% of their in-school information through listening to instructors and to one another. However, language learners feel that listening to be one of the most difficult skills in learning English.

Pre-listening:Tell students they should not worry that they have to understand every word they hear. Not every word is important! Make sure students know what they are listening for before starting listening. Explain students should focus only on the necessary information. Check for some unknown words to students and pre-teach them so students will not interfere with understanding while listening. Brainstorm students’ ideas on the topic they are going to listen to.

LOGO While-listening: Play the tape once for overall comprehension. Then play it again for specific information. Tell students to take notes some key words and clues like numbers, names they hear. Design a variety of tasks to encourage students to think while listening such as gap-fill, multiple-choice. Do not choose a too long listening. Do not be afraid to repeat the tape. If necessary, stop the tape at some points and review what students have understood so far or stop at some parts students feel most difficult in understanding. Post-listening: Ask students to compare their notes and discuss what they understood in pairs or groups. Encourage students to respond to what they heard by asking “ Do you agree? Is right or wrong?, etc. Tell students to summarize the main points from their notes and compare with their classmates. Play the tape again and get students to call out “ Stop!” when they hear the answers for the listening tasks after that check students’ answers with the whole class. Try to use as many different sources of listening material as possible like news on TV or radio, songs, speeches, phone talk, etc.

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Beside writing, speaking is the productive skill used very often by students when learning a language. They regard speaking as the most important skill to prove their knowledge of the language. Speaking is not a simple process. Students have to combine many different things such grammar, vocabulary, intonation, etc when speaking.

Pre-speaking: Give students topic to talk about and supply them with some background related to the topic. Make sure students know what topic they are going to speak before starting speaking. Check for some unknown words to students and pre-teach these words which students can use when speaking. Give students some useful structures to speak.

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While-speaking: Set the scene before getting students to talk about the topic. Give students some models for them to follow when speaking. Design a variety of tasks making conversation, telling a story or reporting a news, etc to encourage students to develop their speaking skill and make their talk more realistic. Do not choose a very complicated topic. Students can get difficulties in expressing their ideas or they can lack background knowledge of that topic. Post-speaking: Ask students to discuss what they understood in pairs or groups. Encourage students to feel free to talk about the topic or they can relate it to their life. Tell students to talk to their classmates about that. Call on some students to present their ideas in front of the class and give some correction and assessments on their performance. Try to encourage students to talk about a diversity of authentic issues like in many different ways like role-plays, surveys, dialogues, interviews, etc.

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Reading is an skill with a purpose to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to understand writers’ ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment and enhancement knowledge of the language being read. Reading can be interrupted if students do not have enough knowledge of grammatical structures or vocabulary as well as they do not have enough background knowledge.

Pre-reading: Let students know the purpose of their reading such as reading for gist, for details in order for them to have a relevant reading strategy (skimming and scanning). Make sure students know what they are going to read before starting reading. Explain students should focus only on the necessary information ( key words) in the reading passage. Pre-teach some new words. However, should not teach all new words because it consumes much time and students cannot have chances to find out and understand new words by themselves.

LOGO While-reading: Provide students the suitable reading passage in both length and content. Then set the time for them to read. Tell students to take notes some key words while reading. Design a variety of tasks like comprehension questions, true or false statements, gap-fill, matching, etc to help students to develop their reading skills such as scanning, skimming, guessing meaning from context and making inference. Do not use a very complicated reading. If necessary, stop at some unknown words and elicit their meanings to students, do not translate these words into Vietnamese. It makes students become passive in discovering new words and they cannot remember them for a long time. Post-reading: Ask students to discuss what they understood about the reading in pairs or groups.Tell students to summarize the main points of the reading and compare with their classmates and give comments and corrections Ask students to write something related to what they have just read by using the words from the reading. Try to use many different types of reading materials like academic essays, newspapers, directories, recipes, etc to encourage students’ to read intensively and extensively.

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Writing is the language skill used frequently to express students’ performance in written form. In many cases, students can produce the language through writing to communicate with other people. Their writing skill can be dependent on many different factors like grammar, word choice as well their writing style ( the way they organize their ideas).

Pre-writing: Make sure students know what they are going to write about, who they write to and why they write before starting writing. Pre-teach some new words in order for students have some vocabulary to apply into their writing. Get students to do some pre-writing activities like matching, gap-fill, ordering, etc before asking students to write in order for them to have the preparation for their writing.

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While-writing: Provide students the suitable areas for them to write about. Tell students the organization they have to follow when writing. For example, they must includes the topic sentence, supporting ideas, concluding sentence in their writing if they a paragraph. If they write a letter, they must know the letter’s format. Help students to arrange their ideas effectively by giving them some prompts like some transitional words, key words,ect. Post-writing: Ask students to display their writing in front of the class. Tell students to look at each other’s writings and then compare and give comments or corrections if necessary. Give corrections and comments in a appropriate manner to encourage students write better. Try to use as many different types of writing as possible like writing letters, descriptions, stories, etc.

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is good at explaining things. Being comfortable with explaining content to students is an essential skill for teachers. keeps their cool. There will be times when you will be tempted to scream or yell at your students. A good teachers is able to successfully resist this urge. has a sense of humor. Research has consistently shown that a good teacher has a sense of humor and is able to use humor as part of his or her teaching methods. Humor, used properly, can be a powerful addition to any lesson. loves students, especially students in the age range in which he or she intends to teach. Most teachers choose an area of specialization such as elementary education, special education, secondary education, or higher education because they have a temperament for students in those age ranges. If you are not comfortable working with young children, don't major in elementary education! is inherently fair-minded. being able to assess students on their performance, not on the students' personal qualities or something else.

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sets high expectations for the students and holds the students to those expectations. If you are thinking about becoming a teacher, you should set high expectations for yourself, and demand this expectation not only of yourself, but your students as well. is a motivating teacher: If you are a discouraging person, your students feel scared of you and they feel stressful to work with you. As a result, they do not dare to express their ideas and they cannot study well. In contrast, a motivating teacher is a friendly person and know how to create activities to help students study in the best conditions. is good managers of time. Time is one of the most precious resources a teacher has. Good teachers have learned to use this resource wisely. is flexible. A good teacher can size up a situation quickly and make an appropriate decision. In managing a classroom or leading some outside activities, a good teacher should prepare for some unexpected situations and read to deal with them. (Reference: http://www.adprima.com)

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