Writing Output 2: Assume that you will soon be teaching all of these special classes for

Adult Beginner:
1.) pronunciation
2.) vocabulary
3.) grammar and
4.) discourse
From your reading, discuss and explain comprehensively the effective teaching
strategies for each of the special classes.

PRONUNCIATION

When learning another language for communication, most people want to be

able to speak so that others can understand them. For this reason, learning how to
pronounce the target language is very important from the start. Adult beginners have a
lot to learn. They need to (a) sensitize their ears to the sounds and sound patterns of a
new language; (b) learn new words to represent things, actions, and concepts they wish
to express; (c) learn how to connect a series of words together in an order that makes
sense to the listener; (d) articulate sounds and use rhythms and pitch patterns that do
not exist in their own language; (e) respond orally to questions in English; (f) engage in
conversations with other English speakers; and (g) speak in English in their daily lives.
Being able to pronounce clearly is a vital part of oral communication, and teachers of
beginners play a pivotal role in helping learners establish good habits in both
pronunciation and listening discrimination at the outset.

Although I cannot change the attitude or behavior of listeners, as a teacher I can

guide our English adult learners to pronounce clearly enough to get their message
across to someone who makes a concentrated effort at listening. When adult beginners
find that their listeners understand them, they gain confidence and become more willing
to speak English. With greater confidence, they become more comfortable opening their
mouths, speak more often and gain greater practice, which can all serve to make their
speech more understandable and promote their overall oral communication skills.

Those of us who teach English as a second language to adults might be tempted

to avoid teaching pronunciation since the Critical Period Hypothesis suggests that
adults won’t be able to achieve native-like fluency. This is reinforced by the current
language learning methodology, namely Communicative Language Teaching, failing to
know what to do with the teaching of pronunciation (Krashen and Terrell, 1983; Terrell,
1989) What, then, is to be gained by pursuing pronunciation instruction in our adult
classes? The answer is quite a lot.

While adult students may never be able to pass as native-speakers, improving

pronunciation can improve learners’ confidence and motivation as I mentioned earlier.
Adults stand to improve their fluency and comprehension levels in both the segmental
and supra-segmental areas of pronunciation as well as learn to self-monitor and self-
correct. After all, one of the major advantages adult students possess is the ability to
self examine how they learn.
 Apart from using knowledge of our students and our ears in order to be aware of
their pronunciation problems, it is also useful to have some prior knowledge of what
elements of English phonetics and phonology are likely to cause problems. This is one
area of language learning where few people would question the use of contrastive
analysis. For instance, to give some simple examples, we can predict that Arabic
speakers will have difficulty distinguishing between /p/ and /b/ , Japanese speakers will
not perceive the difference between /l/ and /r/ and Spanish speakers will have a
problem realizing consonant clusters like [ sts ]. Having informed him or herself of some
of the main areas of contrast between native language and target language and what
difficulties students have, it then remains for the teacher to build this information into
some meaningful classroom exercises.

The following are some strategies that I would use to teach pronunciation that can help
adult beginner students meet their personal and professional needs.

1. Listen and Imitate

A technique in which students listen to a teacher-provided model and repeat or

imitate it. This technique has been enhanced by the use of audio recorders, language
labs or video recorders.

2. Reading Aloud or Recitation

Passages or scripts for learners to practice and then read aloud, focusing on
stress, timing and intonation. This technique may or may not involve memorization of
text, and it usually occurs with genres that are intended to be spoken, such as
speeches, poems plays and dialogues.

3. Minimal Pair Drills

A technique which can help students distinguish between similar and problematic
sounds in the target language through listening discrimination and spoken practice.
Minimal pair drills typically begin with the word-level drills and then move on to
sentence-level drills.

4. Recordings of Learners’ Production

Audio and video recordings of rehearsed spontaneous speeches, free

conversations, and role plays. Subsequent playback offers opportunities for feedback
from teachers and peers as well as for teacher, peer, and self-evaluation.

5. Rehearsing Corrections Aloud

Practice has been cited as an effective strategy. By rehearsing corrections aloud,

it will help students familiarize the right pronunciation of words.
 VOCABULARY

Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. As Steven Stahl

(2005) puts it, "Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only
implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world." It is not something
that can ever be fully mastered; it is something that expands and deepens over the
course of a lifetime.

And we can probably all agree that repeating definitions from a dictionary is not
an effective way to teach vocabulary to our students, yet this practice is often the first
method that comes to mind in the context of our classrooms. Studies are now showing
that students need multiple exposures to a word before they can fully understand it.
They also need to learn new words in context, by reading. First, we need to select the
words we want our students to learn. We may be required to teach specific words from
a list or use vocabulary book. In addition to that, we may want students to study words
that they encounter in our content area or in their independent reading. Remember that
students aren’t just learning new vocabulary in the class. Rather than using a random
list, if we have the flexibility to choose our own words, draw from the texts the students
are reading and analyzing.

Teaching vocabulary can be a real challenge. But once our students can
understand, decode, and determine the meaning of new words, their reading
comprehension will definitely improve. Here are some vocabulary teaching strategies
that I would use to help my adult learners:

1. Put yourself in your students’ shoes

To teach students vocabulary effectively, we’ll need to see things from their
perspective. Because while we may have known the meanings of words like fortuitous
or incremental, our students might not.

2. Make direct vocabulary instruction fun and engaging.

When introducing a new term, we should:

• Supply illustrations, descriptions, examples, and anecdotes. Students need to

interact with words in both an auditory and visual way.
• Consider ways to transition between grammatical forms, explicitly teaching roots
and affixes of words. Think of connections to easily confused words related to the
one at hand, and try to clear up any confusion your students might have.
• Have students develop their own connections, illustrations, and examples. In the
final step of direct instruction, students need to personalize the information and
capture experiences to develop a growing understanding of the contexts in which
words can be used.
3. Indirect vocabulary instruction is key

Students can learn vocabulary from hearing and seeing words repeatedly in
different contexts. This includes exposure to vocabulary that is encountered in an
independent reading book or heard in conversation, whether that be in person, in a
movie, or online. Reading aloud to students, especially those with disabilities, can
indirectly instruct vocabulary as well

4. Create quality vocabulary practices

What are some ways students can practice vocabulary without just copying
definitions from the dictionary? Here are some techniques:

• Sorting — Guided word sorts consist of telling students the categories in which to
sort a list of words. This could be “adjectives,” “nouns,” etc.. Free word sorts allow
students to make categories themselves based on their own observations and
methods of grouping. Some students may come up with a completely unique
method of classifying the words, which helps them create their own understanding
of the words. This works better with certain word lists and when students have
experience with the sorting process.
• On-purpose errors — The teacher or a member of a small group uses a
vocabulary word incorrectly in a sentence (either aloud or in print). Students are
then tasked with determining which word fixes the mistake and should replace the
erroneous word in the sentence.
• Word races — Adult beginner students like a good game. Have them line up in
teams and set up the parameters of the game. Then, you could say the definition
and have the students race to the whiteboard to write the word. You could make
this more complex, too.
• Mind mapping — Mind maps allow visual representations of connections through
the use of branches (like a tree) or colors or pictures. Students can use pencil and
paper or digital tools to create a semantic map of how they connect to the
vocabulary words. Some might choose images. Some might choose song lyrics,
colors, or a tree. This is where with instruction, individuals can develop their own
creative methods of building a vocabulary.
• Inquiries — Like my example above in step three of direct vocabulary instruction,
sometimes allowing students to research their own questions about a word can
help them build stronger connections. Find out what they’re wondering about. See
what they assume about or connect to the word (possibly erroneously!), and spend
time researching any questions they have (if you don’t already know the answers).
 GRAMMAR

Grammar is a description of the structure of a language and the way in which

linguistic units such as words and phrases are combined to produce sentences in the
language. It takes into account the meanings and functions the sentences have in the
overall system of the language. As an important element of language and as the
essential part of linguistic competence, grammar has a central role in making up
learner’s language skills and their communicative competence.

Teaching English grammar should result in the students being able to use the
language to express themselves. ‘Use the language’ refers not only to the students’
using the language in oral discourse where creativity and anomalies are accepted, as
long as the language is intelligible, that is, understood by the listener, but also to their
using the language in written form where ideas are more rule-governed than freely
expressed.

So the challenges as a teacher of grammar is to make the teaching meaningful

and relevant to the needs of the learners by contextualizing it using examples derived
from the socio- cultural situations of the learners. An important part of grammar
instruction is to provide examples that is accurate and appropriate. Examples should
focus on a particular theme or topic so that students have more contact with specific
information and vocabulary.

Through grammar, we teachers, can help students use the language correctly
and appropriately. The teacher should help the students understand the different tenses
and how to use them. In English, there are so many present, past, future, past
participle, present progressive etc., and also gerunds which can act as nouns.

Here’s a variety of techniques and strategies that I would use for teaching grammar:

1. Boardwork Presentations

For a quick and easy presentation of new language, the board is the obvious
resource to exploit. Starting by building a context.

2. Using the students and you, the teacher

A direct context for language can often be found in the lives and experiences of
the people in the room. Personal contexts immediately show how applicable the
grammar is, and can also be more memorable than stories of people from outside the
students’ worlds. Throughout the book I’d suggest activities where students talk about
themselves, their experiences, their lives, their opinions. Student photos can also be a
great resource. Most students will have photos on their mobile phones that they can
share with each other to support any number of practice activities.
3. Using realia

Bringing objects into the classroom or using the objects you find in the classroom
can help bring a grammar point to life and create a physical memory hook. Realia can
be used to create a context for the target language.

4. Dialogue building

This collaborative technique involves setting a scene and, with the students’ help,
writing a dialogue on the board including the language you want to focus on. Students
then either practice the dialogue in pairs as it is or with variations. A great way to push
students towards memorizing the language is to gradually erase the text, word by word,
until the students are repeating the dialogue from memory.

5. Dictation

With grammar points where the written form is already familiar to the students,
but where meaning needs to be explored in more depth, a quick and effective means of
introducing the language is to dictate model sentences to the class. Dictation
immediately gets students working with the language and tests listening skills and
spelling, as well as grammatical knowledge. It also promotes conversation management
skills, such as asking to clarify and repeat.

6. Dictogloss

In a dictogloss, the teacher has a text prepared to dictate to the class, but instead
of dictating it slowly to ensure students write a faithful copy, they read it at a more
natural speed two or more times. Prepare a text of no more than 100 words. Read it out
first for content, and check comprehension. Then tell students to write down keywords,
such as nouns and verbs, as you read it out again. Explain that even though they will
not be able to write every word, they should keep writing as much as possible. Using
their notes, students in pairs or small groups reconstruct the text in complete sentences.
The idea is not to reproduce the text verbatim, but to focus in on certain aspects of the
language used.

7. Drilling

To help students pronounce new language correctly, get them to say it repeatedly
so you can check for accuracy. By experiencing the movement of the mouth as they say
it, students reinforce their learning in a different way from when they write it down and
see it. Simple drilling can be either choral, ie all students repeat the structure at the
same time, or individual.
8. Songs

Another popular way of encouraging students to repeat structures as well as to

make them memorable is through songs. Choose songs that contain the target
language multiple times and which contain a natural stress pattern for it, too. Songs can
be used to present the target language through listening tasks such as gap-fills or
reordering the lines or words in the lyrics. They also offer repeated exposure to the
language and, if your students enjoy singing, can also offer a chance to practice
pronunciation.

9. Exploiting feedback stages

Feedback on activities is not just about seeing how many questions students got
right; it is an opportunity to achieve several teaching objectives: to check understanding,
correct persistent errors, share interesting information, revise rules and to draw
conclusions.
• Critical Thinking: as well as asking students what they answered, we can also ask
Why?
• Remembering/Summarizing: one way of carrying out feedback is to get students to
work in pairs or groups to remember everybody else’s answers, effectively drilling the
target language.

10. Error correction

Students want and expect correction from their teacher. Choosing which
mistakes to correct, when to do so and how, are complex questions. It’s important,
however, to remember that students who need the most correction may not be those
that make the most or biggest mistakes. Lower-level or quiet, shy students may benefit
from less correction so that they are not discouraged from using English, however
imperfectly. We correct students in the hope that they won’t keep making those
mistakes. To encourage them to think about their errors, let them try out new language,
listening out for errors of use. Then point out the errors and show them the corrections.
 DISCOURSE

Discourse is the study of the relationship between language and its contexts of
use. It is a linguistic unit (such as a conversation or a story) larger than a sentence. It is
concerned with speakers and listeners and normally, with extended stretches of
language (e.g., a whole conversation, a story, a phone call) rather than single
sentences. It is a mode of organizing knowledge, ideas, or experience that is rooted in
language and its concrete contexts (such as history or institutions).

Teachers play an important role in shaping classroom discourse and in

maximizing opportunities for learning. Rather than accepting a student’s first response,
for example, teachers can construct genuine opportunities for learning. We have to do
this through careful control of our own language and by helping students to say what
they mean.

The following are strategies and techniques that would be helpful in teaching discourse:

• Carousel
This strategy is to share information in an interactive format. First is to divide and
assign the group into smaller groups based on how many posters you have. Place 4-5
posters with information and have participants a) independently read the information, b)
discuss in a small group, and c) process the information by writing a question,
comment, or application. Assign a designated amount of time to each station and have
groups rotate after time is up. Use an online “countdown timer” for students to see and
hear.

• In Your Pocket
This strategy can be used as a welcome activity. Each student takes an item from
his/her pocket, bag, or purse, as uses it as a metaphor for what they hope for in the
training. For example, “I hope today is like my chapstick – smooth and refreshing!”

• Jigsaw Groups
A well-established method for encouraging group sharing and learning of specific
content. This technique can be used as an instructional activity across several days and
is best to use when there is a large amount of content to teach.

• Mix-Freeze-Pair-Share/Stir the Classroom

Use this strategy as a sponge/activator. Have a large group get up and mix.
When signaled, they should freeze and pair with the nearest person. Ask pairs to first
question and have them share their responses. Mix and freeze again and ask second
question. Continue with all questions. (This would be a great activity with music.)
• Penny for Your Thoughts
This as an activator strategy to engage and connect groups. Distribute one
penny to each student. Ask them to share a story (personal, professional, political,
social, etc.) that connects to the year of the penny.

• Role Play
Use this strategy to help students understand ideas from a different point of view.
Assign an identity to each person in the group. Listen to the scenario. Respond to the
scenario from your given identity.

• Reciprocal Teaching
Reciprocal teaching refers to an activity in which students become the teacher in
small group reading sessions. Teacher models, then help students learn to guide group
discussion using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying and
predicting. Once students have learned the strategies, they take turns assuming the role
of the teacher in leading dialogue about what has been read.

• Clock/Appointment Partners
Ask students to make “appointments” with their classmates using the 3, 6, 9, 12
of a clock. Student circulates and sets a time to meet with four other students, writing
their name down on the corresponding line.

• Opinion Stations
Designate 4 stations in the room: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly
Disagree. Students are given a statement and asked to move to the station that
matches their position. Students then discuss their reasons and evidence. Half of the
group crosses over to the opposite position and each group discusses.

• Linear Array
This strategy is used to gather student feedback. Ask each students to write one
word on a post-it that summarizes how the training/class/day went. Draw a line on a
board with a (-) negative sign, (0) neutral sign, and (+)positive sign. Participants should
get up and place their word on the line based on the type of emotion the word evokes.