Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Educational Activities: Improving speaking abilities ESL College Students School of Languages, Univ. Guayaquil 2010


Developing speaking skills in ESL Beginner College Level Students- Large Groups (65 students - 1 teacher) - Research September 2010. School of Languages, Guayaquil, Ecuador, South America.
Skills: Improve speaking abilities. Reinforce grammar structure (past tense, Wh and affirmative and negative questions


Students who entered First College level at the School of Languages have a good English proficiency level, they are good in basic grammar, they follow patterns and structures. They have a good vocabulary background and pronunciation. They can understand some basic orders in English and they can understand the teacher´s instructions, but when it comes to follow an English conversation with an English speaking person or an ESL, there is no proficiency and understanding. Considering all these aspects, I am giving an extra emphasis on improving their speaking abilities.

Advantages of my students: Enthusiasm, desire to learn
Disadvantages: fear to talk in public, failure,


I have worked First Course with the Book American File 1a/b from Oxford. One interesting activity to develop the speaking abilities on my students was a story from a graded suspense reader from the book "Murder in a Mansion".
Firstly, I let the students listened to the tape with the books closed, some important vocabulary was explained and pronounced, then they worked in groups of seven to find out who the murder was and they answered the questions from the book. For practice, they read they listened to the story at home and for the next class they read it in groups and their classmates checked on pronunciation errors.
As this story generated suspense on the students, my next step was to act out the story. The groups were chosen randomly and they had a week to decide on their characters, lines and costumes. I was thrilled to listen to extraordinary actors and actresses, great costumes and structures and phrases were easy to repeat, learn and understand.
Observations:This activity took me a week to finish, but it helped students to feel comfortable with their English level and improved peer interaction. I also noticed that some quiet students did outstanding presentations and they felt very comfortable with their voice, accent and group work.a

Beneath all the fun, the students were practicing fluency, grammar structures and felt comfortable and proud with their knowledge. I only grade my students on their own effort, fluency, but not on pronunciation

This is a great activity to make students get involve in the language, improve their fluency, peer interaction, creativity, independence and social skills. I was extremely excited about my students´presentations.

















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Actividad: Desarrollo de las destrezas auditivas y orales en alumnos de Primer Curso de la Universidad de Guayaquil, Escuela de Lenguas y Linguisticas, Guayaquil, Ecuador, America del Sur.

Los alumnos que ingresan a la Escuela de Lenguas y Linguisticas de la Universidad de Guayaquil, lo hacen con el proposito de preparase para ser los futuros docentes en Lenguas Extranjeras. Desde el primer año de estudios, los alumnos toman 15 horas semanales de Inglés. En su mayoria los alumnos que ingresar al PrimerCurso poseen un buen conocimiento de la gramatica inglesa, tienen un vocabulario medio. Pueden comprender y responder a ciertas comando en Ingles que la profesora les indique perfectamente. Las areas que necesitan ser desarrolladas y reorzadas en los estudiantes son sus habilidades orales y auditivas en el idioma. Facilmente pueden comprender las instrucciones del docente y mantener una pequeña conversacion a nivel basico con respuestas cortas y directas y es aqui donde los docentes de lenguas extranjeras necesitamos reforzar las areas auditivas y orales.
Yo he trtbajado el Primer Curso con el libro American File a/b editado para desarrollar y mejorar las cuatro habilidades en estudiantes de ingles como segunda lengua.
La lectura de "Muder in a Mansion" fue dramatizada por los alumnos en grupos de 6 alumnos, siguiendo los procesos de

Las dramatizaciones



questions.

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