Reading

Tips, advice and different ways of staging reading lessons and activities in class.

Lesson ideas on dating and relationships 2 – working with a text

Posted on by Simon Thomas
Green heart

Levels: upper-intermediate to advanced.
Ages: older teens and adults.
Type: discussion and grammar dictation/reading tasks based on a text about speed dating.
Skills: reading; writing; speaking; listening.
Language focus: grammar- and vocabulary-building, using (semi-)fixed expressions from the text, and your students’ own words.

Reading from nothing

Posted on by Simon Thomas
Imaginative image for stories

Levels: strong pre-intermediate to proficiency.
Ages: teens and adults.
Type: writing in a chosen genre, reading student-generated texts, reading and writing for pleasure.
Skills: reading; writing; speaking; listening.
Language focus: revising pre-selected grammar points, or any problematic grammar, register or vocabulary as it arises.

Paul Nation w/ Rocky Nelson (Pt. 1)

Posted on by Simon Thomas

In this first part of this 2010 interview at the PAC KOTESOL Conference, Professor Nation talks about the value of the General Service List, the growth of vocabulary studies, the value and limitations of teaching vocabulary in class, and how passion for an approach can carry you away.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThYY4j3TTgI[/youtube]

Paul Nation w/ Rocky Nelson (pt. 2)

Posted on by Simon Thomas

In this part of the interview, Professor Nation discusses what fluency means in relation to language learning, talks more generally about extensive reading, and suggests a greater focus be placed on learner training than vocabulary acquisition in exam classes. He also has an excellent set of free-to-use resources on his university webpage, here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irT1cGJDm5s&feature=related[/youtube]