Module 4: Issues specific to teaching and learning in English

Unit 13: Developing listening skills

Listening comprehension is often one of the skills that students least like to work on. This Unit focuses on what you can do to make the listening process in the classroom easier for your students. It considers how you might engage them in conversations about what they actually do when they listen, and what strategies they might use to make them more successful listeners who are more able to understand unfamiliar discourse.

Unit 14: Developing reading skills

In this Unit you are encouraged to consider the thought process that happens when you yourself approach an unfamiliar text. The Unit encourages you to talk about the reading strategies a good language learner uses in order to develop their reading skills. The Unit also considers how newspapers can be used in the classroom to develop both linguistic and intercultural knowledge of English.

Unit 15: Developing fluency in spoken English

In this Unit you will consider how to teach students systematically how to say what they want to say and how to encourage spontaneous talk in the English classroom. You will also consider the impact of introducing an element of competition into lessons.

Unit 16: Developing writing beyond the English textbook

In this Unit you will consider how to develop your students’ independence in writing, looking in particular at creative writing. You will also explore how to establish the habit of drafting and redrafting in the classroom and look at ways of stimulating creativity through poetry writing.