A practical teacher-training resource for curriculum on speaking

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Copyright © 2006, University of Michigan. All rights reserved.

Description

*What elements make a speaking activity successful?
*Which tasks or activities really help build speaking fluency?
*What does the research show regarding speaking activities?
*What mistakes do ESL teachers often make in speaking activity design?

In this highly accessible and practical resource, Keith S. Folse provides a wealth of information to help ESL/EFL teachers design and use speaking tasks that will actually improve students' speaking fluency. The book presents and discusses the relevant research and assessment issues and includes case studies from twenty different settings and classrooms around the world so that readers learn from others about the problems and successes of using various speaking activities.

Teachers will find the chapters on Twenty Successful Activities and Ten Unsuccessful Activities particularly valuable. The successful activities are provided for classroom use and are reproducible. The book also contains five appendixes that explain what teachers need to know about vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar and how they affect the teaching of speaking. Samples of successful lesson plans and a list of resources useful for teaching speaking are also included.

Keith S. Folse, Ph.D., is Coordinator, TESOL Programs, University of Central Florida (Orlando). He is the author of Vocabulary Myths (University of Michigan Press, 2004) and more than 35 second language textbooks, including texts on grammar, reading, speaking, listening, and writing.

Dr. Keith Folse served as Professor of TESOL and at the University of Central Florida, where he taught courses in the undergraduate TEFL program, the master’s in TESOL program, and the PhD in TESOL program. He is an internationally known teacher and scholar, having taught in the U.S., Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. He has trained teachers from all over the world and is the author of more than 70 books. Some of his best-known books are Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language LearnersThe Grammar Answer Key, and Vocabulary Myths