T h e E F L T e a c h e r ’ s M a g a z i n eteach&share

Is Cooperative Learning Really Worth It?

How To Teach Reading?Let’s do it the right way!

Kingdom of BahrainMinistry of EducationHamad Town Intermediate Boys’ SchoolDepartment of English

Language Teaching and Real Life:Teaching the language vs. teaching about the language

Using The Board Effectively:How to maximise the benefits of using the board?

Listening strategies:Helping students enjoy their listening sessions.

Also Read In This Issue:

March 2007Volume1•Number1

Technology Matters:The internet and multimedia are the teacher’s new tools

Facts about our school:Hamad Town Intermediate Boys’ School is one of The Kingdom’s newest schools. It has a modern and illustrious style and is equipped with the latest facilities and amenities. It comprises several state-of-the-art laboratories and centres for both practical and theoretical studies like the computer lab, the music room, art rooms, the photography lab, a sports area and recently a new multimedia classroom furnished with the latest PCs, an active board and other modern equipment. Some historical facts:1987: Hamad Town Intermediate Boys’ School was founded.Administration: Mr. Abdullah Mohammed Mufiz as the headmaster, assisted by Mr. Youssif Khalil BuNajm.1997: Administration: Mr. Ali Mansoor Shihab as the headmaster, assisted by Mr. Mohammed AbdulRahman Kerata.2000: Administration: Mr. Abdulltif AlMudawi as the headmaster, assisted by Mr. Hassan Othman and Mr. Ahmad Khadhem.2003: Administration: Mr. Issa Rashed Mohammed Fadhl as the headmaster, assisted by Mr. AbdulAziz Yakoot.Now, Mr. Ghanem Zayed Ghanem is the headmaster of Hamad Town Intermediate Boys’ School. He is assisted by Mr. Youssif Madan and Mr. Mirza Jumaa.2007: A new department has been built to accommodate the rising number of students.

Official Visits to the school:Sheikh Zayed Ben Sultan paid a visit to Hamad Town Intermediate Boys’ School in the year 1989. A big ceremony was organised to welcome the Kingdom’s outstanding guest.In 2000, a group of delegates representing the Ministry of Education in the U.A.E came to pay homage to the Kingdom’s schools innovative experience in teaching sciences.Choosing the school as a provincial Centre for correcting tests, for many years now, came as a result of its reputation as a thriving and successful school both locally and nationally.

ourschoolinafewlines...

Hassan Sheroogui,Teacher of EnglishKingdom of Bahrain

Name: Mr.Ghanem Zayed Ghanem

Date of birth: 1951

Field of study: Geography

Qualifications: Bachelor of Geography

Experience: 35 years

Our headmaster

Q: Why did you opt for the educational field rather than other fields?A: Because the educational field is the most suitable way for guiding and implanting good qualities in our students. Besides, it is the best field to help forging good citizens.

Q: You had taken several posts before you became a headmasttter. In your opinion, what is the difference between teaching and school management?A: Teaching is a sacred job and it is very hard because the teacher deals with juvenile and immature learners. It teaches you to be more patient. Management, on the other hand, is the art of taking the right decisions when you face problems and you have to deal with hard tasks.

Q: When you were young, did you have it in mind that one day you would be a teacher and then a school principal?A: Well.. Yes, I have always wanted to be a teacher.

Q: Throughout your past experiences, what is the most approprittate method for school management?A: The democratic way, of course. By this, I mean we need, as an administration, to take everybody’s opinion into account and to handle situations with wisdom and patience.

Q: After two years of being the headmaster of Hamad Town Intttermediate Boys’ School, how do you see the school today ?What are your plans for the school in the future? A: The school has a good reputation in the local society and the ministry and among other schools because its outcome is getting better every year. So, we are making every effort to make our school perk up its reputation and meet the parents’ expectations.

Q: How do you see Teach&share?A: I’m pleased with this magazine and it is certainly a great initttiative to help create a space where teachers can share tips, ideas and their experiences in the field of TEFL.

Q: A last word for Teach&share:A: I want to conclude by thanking all those who contributed to make this nice magazine.

interviewwiththeheadmasterInterview

withtheheadm

aster

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� Teach&Share

Contents

2 Our school in a few lines

3 This month’s interview

6 Editorial

8 Technology matters AnarticleaboutintegratingtechnologyintotheEnglishLanguageclassroom bySayedMortadhaYoussif

10 E-Learning: Thinking ahead of time M.Alghawitalksaboutwhate-learningisaboutandhowtheE-learingteamin ourschoolworkshardtogetridofanyobstaclesthatmaygetintheway oftheadvancementofapplyinge-learninginourschool.

13 How to teach reading? Whataretherighttechniquesandskillsforteachingreading? AquestionansweredbyAbdellatifBenAkremiSaeedi

19 Language teaching and real life MohammedBarghashAl-Enazireflectsonthedifferencebetweenteaching thelanguageandteachingaboutthelanguage.

20 Using the board effectively MohamedEbrahimHassanwritesabouttheimportanceof usingboardseffectively.

23 Is Cooperative Learning really worth it? HowcanCLbeagratifyingexperienceratherthanafrustratingone? TariqBenMohammedBrahmitriestoanswerthisquestion.

27 Strategies for teaching listening LotfiSamaalirecommendssomestrategiesforensuringbetterListeningsessions!

teach&shareT h e E F L T e a c h e r ’ s M a g a z i n e

Magazine designed and edited by : Tariq Ben Mohammed BrahmiPhotos : dreamstime.comDate :March 2007Volume:1Number:1

Teach&Share �

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EditorialHi. It is spring time! After the rainy days and the clouds come the bright days and the nice breeze.That is why Teach&share chooses to put on bright and vivid colours to reflect the cheerful mood of the spring. After months of continuous work, our magazine began to take its current shape to finally rest between the palms of your hands. Like anything else, it had started as an idea. We began to feed it slowly but surely. Support for the idea continued to grow and articles found their way naturally to the pages like birds find their way to their nests.To go back to the metaphor of the flower, my colleagues took it as their responsibility to water the flower and waited for the spring to come.Their articles are the petals and the overall outcome is eventually a magazine that smells good. When we talked about this magazine, we all agreed that it could be a great medium for us to contribute tips and ideas and to share our experiences. So what is on ?Mr. Mortadha will take you in a quick trip in order to exttplain the merits of implementing new tech. into our classttrooms. Mr. Abdellatif reminds us that reading should be taught properly to make sure students enjoy reading and feel comfortable while doing it. Mr. Mohammed Ebrahim demonstrates that we can make good use of our boards if we follow his simple but totthetpoint tips.Mr. Mohammed Barghash reflects on teaching EFL and how to relate language to our immediate environment rather than talking about the language. Mr. Lotfi Samaali stresses the fact that listening is the “weak chain” amongst the other skills and that it needs more attention. As far as I am concerned, I choose to write about cooperatttive learning and how careful planning and some knowlttedge of the dynamics of group work can alleviate much of the pain and suffering that we may experience while assigning tasks as group work.We hope that you will love the content and find it useful!Happy reading!

Tariq Ben Mohammed, Editor

Teach&Share �

whattheysaidaboutthemag:

On the occasion of the first

issue of

the English Language Department’s magatt

zine “Teach & share” for the academic year

2006t2007, it gives me a great pleasure to

congratulate the English Department, namely

Mr. Sayed Mortadha Youssif, the departtt

ment’s coordinator, M

r. Tariq Ben Mohamtt

med, the magazine editor, and the teachers

who contributed their important articles to

supplement this magazine with the material

it needed to have its present shape. I h

ope

that this contribution will co

ntinue and that

the magazine will always include a variety of

experiences and discuss the latest approachtt

es in the field of English Language Teaching.

I also hope that through this piece of work

we will achieve the goals that we have altt

ready set at the beginning of this academic

year ,that is to raise the teachers’ proficiency

and to encourage teachers to bring into bett

ing more creative work. This work is part of

the educational development process which

places the student at the heart of the teaching

& learning process. In fact, w

e see it as our

responsibility to improve the students’ skills

and talents and to provide them with the batt

sic skills o

f thinking, in order to enable them

to deal successfully with real life challenges.

This is one great step and we are waiting for

more creative endeavours to further improve

the quality of teaching in our school.

Mr. Ghanem Zayed Ghanem,

Headmaster

We, as the teachers of the English

Department, would like to express

our great acknowledgment, debt

and thanks to our colleague, Mr.

Tariq Ben Mohammed Brahmi for

his constant, limitless and tireless

efforts during the preparation and

the making of this hightquality

magazine. We also owe Mr. Tariq

our heartfelt gratitude for providtt

ing the English Department with

creative and constructive ideas.

The contributors, Department of

English

I would like to express my gratitttude to the people thanks to whom this issue of the magattzine has come into being, namely the editor, contributors, and those involved in the maktting of “Teach & share”. My special great thanks go to Mr. Tariq, who has been thoroughly and competently reviewing all the article submissions; without whom the magazine would not have its present shape. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues for their priceless contributions.

Sayed Moratadha, Coordinator

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Integrating technology into the English Language classroom

By Sayed Mortadha Youssif

Why Use CALL?The Internet has tremendous potttential as a tool for teaching EFL. Sayers (199�) mentioned that netttworktbased technology can contttribute significantly to:Experiential Learning: The World Wide Web makes it posttsible for students to tackle a huge amount of human experience. In such a way, they can learn by doing things themselves. They become the creators not just the receivers of knowledge. Information is prettsented in a nontlinear way and ustters develop more flexible thinking skills and choose what to explore.Motivation: Computers are most popular among students as they are often associated with fun and games. Student motivation is therefore inttcreased, especially whenever a varittety of activities are offered. This in turn makes students feel more independent.

Enhanced student achievement: Networktbased instruction can help pupils strengthen their linttguistic skills by positively affecttting their attitude towards learntting and by helping them build selftinstruction strategies and promote their selftconfidence.Authentic materials for study: All students can use various rettsources of authentic reading mattterials either at school or from their home. Those materials can be accessed 2� hours a day at a relatively low cost.Greater Interaction: Random access to Web pages breaks the linear flow of instructttion. By sending Etmail and jointting newsgroups, EFL students can communicate with people they have never met. They can also inttteract with their own classmates.Furthermore, some Internet actttivities give students positive and negative feedback by automatittcally correcting their ontline exttercises.

In the last few years the number of teachers using Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has increased markedly.It is obvious that a new information age in which the links between technology and TEFL

have already been established. The development of the Internet brought about a revolution in the teachers’ perspective, as the teaching tools offered through the net were gradually becoming more reliable.

CALL is motivating because computers are often associated with fun and games.Moreover, it facilitates access to authentic materials 24 hours a day.

Technology matters!

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Individualization:Shy or inhibited students can be greatly benefited by individualttized, studenttcentered collaboratttive learning. High fliers can also realize their full potential without preventing their peers from worktting at their own pace. Independence from a single source of information:Although students can still use their books, they are presented with opportunities to escape from

canned knowledge and discover thousands of information sources. As a result, their education fulttfils the need for interdisciplinary learning in a multicultural world. Global Understanding: A foreign language is studied in a cultural context. In a world where the use of the Internet becomes more and more widespread, an English Language teacher’s duty is to facilitate students’ access to the web and make them feel like citizens of a global classroom, practtticing communication on a global level.

A New Role For The TeacherThe Internet is one of the most powerful tools for teachers to help students collaborate, interact and participate actively in the learning process. However, the wealth of available resources may cause confusion among students and discourage them from participating, if they are not given the necessary guidettlines. When students are faced with thouttsands of Internet sources they canttnot effectively handle such large amounts of information.

One of the most important tasks for teachers is to assist their stuttdents so that they can discover what they enjoy most according to their level of linguistic competttence. Teachers are also responttsible for the evaluation of all the web tools offered.In an Internettbased lesson, rather than being a single omttniscient source of knowledge himself, a teacher is a facilitator helping students build their own learning strategies. What learntters acquire with the Internet is less under the control of the teacher. The teacher’s role includes planning, analyzing organizing, coordinating and problemtsolvtting in a studenttcentered envittronment.

Using computers benefits shy students and lead to more conclusive student-centered learning.

There is more emphasis on the teacher’s role as facilitator,coordinator, and analyzer.

Technologymatters!

Sayed Mortadha Youssif,Coordinator,Kingdom of Bahrain

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E-learning:think--ing ahead of time

E-learning or electronic learning refers to learning supported by digital electronic tools and media. The success that has been adjacent to the implementation of information technology in many developed countries has led some countries aspiring to improve their educational

systems to think seriously about putting into practice e-learning.

The Kingdom of Bahrain, through “King Hamad’s Project of The Schools of the Future”, is one of the pioneers of introducing etlearning in the Arab World. The Ministry of Education in the Kingdom has undertaken it as its obligation to change the traditional schools into modern electronic schools. It has already supplied all the Kingttdom’s schools with statetoftthetart equipment. Etlearning has recentttly gained momentum because it has provided evidence that it has many benefits. This modern form of education and pedagogy is acttcredited for its high consideration of active, productive, and creative learning methods. It aims at positttively involving the students in the learning process and perk up their achievement outcomes.

The E-Team paves the way for introducing E-learning:Our determined “electronic team” has put it as its main assignment to give details on what etlearning is all about and to get rid of any obstacles that may get in the way

of the advancement of applying etlearning in Hamad Town Intermettdiate Boys’ School since the very beginning. One of the first steps we undertook was to initiate a carefully designed information campaignto elicit the benefits and the dyttnamics of applying etlearning in our school and to include new ideas and thoughts on the ways in which computers can increase the abilttity of students to learn. Brochures were handed out to the administratttion, teachers, students and parents. Workshops and lectures were also planned on behalf of the teachers and students alike.

The electronic class--room and the active board:The active board and the electronic classroom came as a substitute for the usual board and chalk and the traditional classroom. The active board is a modern device that is conttnected to a computer. It differs from the conventional board in many asttpects. It consists of an assortment of handy utilities like a virtual keyttboard, a virtual pen, an

The Ministry of Education in the Kingdom has undertaken it as its obligation to change the traditional schools into modern electronic schools.

Education in The Kingdom :A giant leap towards excellence!

By Mohammed Al-Ghawi

Teach&Share 11

eraser, a wide range of illustrations, sound effects, videos, etc. Besides, the content on the board can be displayed on every student’s comttputer. We arranged a number of workttshops entitled “The basics of using the active board” for all the school’s departments to give details on how to use the active board in the electttronic classroom.

The benefits of e-learn--ing:1-For the administration: Introducing a modern scheme will provide an inclusive structure that will assist the administration in evaluating and keeping track of the personnel, the students, the teachtters, the parents, the subjects, the timetables, etc.2-For the teacher and the stu--dent: Etlearning is designed to assist teachers in delivering motivating knowledge in forms valued by stuttdents and to help those latters in their endeavors to learn, by allowtting their own processing powers to speed up study.It will help students retrieve and process data quickly, while allowtting more time to be used for useful insight into the lesson.3-For the parents:The system will facilitate the parttents’ communication with the school and have access to their chilttdren’s results, their interests, etc.

The electronic team’s activities in Hamad Town Intermediate Boys’ School:Mr. Mohammed Alghawi, the etlearning specialist, accomplished successfully a series of workshops on behalf of the teachers. The headttmaster, Mr. Ghanem Zayed Ghattnem, The head of the Electronic team, Mr. Mirza Mohammed, and Mr. Youssif Madan attended some

of these workshops and congratuttlated Mr. Alghawi for the success of these workshops.The teachers have also been given the opportunity to practice using the board in their spare time.

The Department of Eng--lish and the Electronic classroom:

Mr. Sayed Mortadha Youssif, the Department of English coordinator, successfully presented two lessons in the electronic classroom. The headmaster, Mr. Ghanem Zayed Ghanem, Mr. Youssif Madan, and Mr. Mirza Mohammed congratuttlated Mr. Mortadha on the success of these lessons and appreciated his expertise and the remarkable inttvolvement of the students.

Mohammed Al-Ghawi,E-learning Specialist,Kingdom of Bahrain

E-learning is designed to assist teachers in delivering motivating knowledge in forms valued by students.

E-learning:thinkingaheadoftime

The overall purpose for teaching reading is to

develop in the reader the attitudes, the abiltt

ity and skills needed for obtaining information, fostering and

reacting to ideas, developing intertt

est and finally, deriving pleasure by reading

through understanding or

“comprehension”.

12 Teach&Share

Teach&Share 1�

The right techniques and skills for teaching reading

By Abdellatif Ben Akremi Saeedi

I-Reading From a Communicative View:

Unlike the traditional approaches of teaching reading, the commuttnicative approach has shifted the way towards achieving communittcative goals including independent readers and an encouraging atmottsphere. This change has concerned the nature of reading itself, the view towards the reader and the view tottwards the reading environment.According to the communicative approach, the aim of a reading class must be reading t not reinforcettment of oral skills, not grammatical or discourse analysis, and not the acquisition of new vocabulary. Improvement in any of these areas can make reading easier but none of them is reading and none contttributes directly to the one legititt

The development of genuine reading habit in the language, i.e., making the students competttent and independent readers in real life situation.

II-Why Do We Teach Reading?The overall purpose for teachtting reading is to develop in the reader the attitudes, the ability and skills needed for obtaining information, fostering and reacttting to ideas, developing interest and finally, deriving pleasure by reading through understanding or “comprehension”. We want to get the message the writer has expressed. This is the authentic reason for reading; we are concerned not with language learning but with the uses to which we put reading in our daily lives outside the classroom.

The commuincative approach emphasises the need for teaching reading for the sake of achieving communicative goals.

A common view of teaching reading is that the text is full of meanings like a jug of water, and it can be poured straight into the reader’s mind. Passages are set and questions designed to inter--rogate readers and little concern is shown for the readers themselves , and the knowledge they

bring to the text is largely ignored. All the work has to be done by the writer and the reader has only to open his mind and let the meaning pour in. But with the changes that accompanied the appearance of the new teaching approches, our understanding of the reading process has increased, particularly few changes seem to have occured in the way comprehension has been taught.

How to teach reading?

1� Teach&Share

The problem, however, is that the students do not read the foreign language for authentic reasons, but because they want to improve, practise, and consolidate linguistic itemtvocabulary, structure, and so on. This, of course, is not the specifttic use of a text. So it is the teachers’ concern to increase motivation in the authentic classroom by making foreign t language reading interesttting in itself. The materials to be read must reflect the authentic purposes for which people do in fact read. So we are not trying , as in a language t development lesson, to put somettthing into the learner’s head but instead we are trying to get him to grasp the knowledge himself, to get him to make use of the knowledge he already has in order to underttstand new messages.

III-The Different Stages of implementing a Les--son:The activities usually implemented and practised in the classroom as teaching strategies may be divided, on the basis of their sequence, into three categories: (1) Pre-reading activities, (2) whilst-reading activities, and (3) post-reading activities.1-Pre-reading stage:It has been clearly established that reading comprehension implies much prediction, anticipation and hypothesis making. According to Smith (19��) comprehension is fattcilitated if the reader tries to anticittpate the flow of information that the brain is processing. Efficient readers are involved in making guesses in order to predict the flow of information as they read . By making predictions, the reader is less likely to be overwhelmed by the load of new information carried by the text under scrutiny.

Smith (19��: 19��) concludes “we avoid the confusion and ambiguttity and succeed in bringing the gaps between the surface structtture of the text and the writer’s intention”.Foreign language students have to be taught how to predict inttformation. Teaching reading at an advanced level is not just a matter of answering comprehenttsion questions. It involves among other things teaching students to predict by trying to match their presuppositions with what is imttplied or explicitly stated by the writer. The reader is, therefore, ready for the flow of informatttion even though he may have made wrong predictions.In fact, predicting includes techttniques for drawing inferences about the context of a topic of a text. Some elements used for predicting are the title of the text, illustration, warmers, and key words.A-TitlePrediction begins from the mottment the reader reads the title of a text and forms expectations of what the text is most likely to be about. ln fact, these exercises are useful in as far as they lead students to realize the relations holding between a text and its title and promotes discussion about the difference between the writer’s purpose and the reader’s assumptions. Such a difference can only be perceived when the reader discovers what the writer really means .In fact, before reading the text, the teacher and while discusstting the student’s predictions can guide the learners and introduce them to the grammatical structtture. The teacher should try to sustain and further develop their interest by offering followtup actttivities .

Through teaching reading, teachers aim at developing in the learners the skillsof obtaining information and fostering and reacting to ideas.

Teaching reading comprises 3 important stages:The pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading stages.

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B-Illustrations :Having discussed the title , the teacher may present an illustration that gives a view of the text. Such an illustration can provide importttant clues for predicting the content and topic of the text. Many texts have fronttcover illustrations. If an illustrated text is not available , the teacher may draw his / her own ilttlustration. C-Warmers:Pret reading activities can also be carried out with the help of one line warmers picked out from the text and chosen from maxims , proverbs and quotations that are closely rettlated to some aspect of the content and theme. Warmers facilitate open discussion and help elicit predictttions of what the text is going to be about . They encourage a response to a theme and prompt a prior perttsonal involvement with the topic represented in the text. The teacher , choosing some closely related warmers , jots them down on the blackboard and ask them to express the idea contained in them. D-Key words:Sometimes , the text provides clues for predicting its theme or content through the vocabulary used . It is, therefore, rewarding to pay parttticular attention to the structure , organization , selection and collottcation of lexis in a text . The words and collocated units that appear in the form of key words, together, through a semantic link , help readtters predict what the atmosphere of the world inside the text is going to be like .2-While-reading stage:Generally speaking, at this stage , the activities/questions that the stuttdents are asked to carry out / answer go from the general to the particuttlar .A-Reading for general informa--tion :Students are asked to survey the text to find out the number of parattgraph, the type of the text ( narratttive , descriptive.....), include the

topic of what he is reading, give or complete or choose a title for the passage . We can include a variety of exttercises intended to call the stuttdents’ attention to the main idea of the text so that they may apttply the appropriate strategies to

read it effectively .This activity doesn’t require the learner to look for specific inforttmation but just to skim the text and have the general idea.B-Reading for specific informa--tion :When we read for specific inforttmation it is important to locate the information we want . Therettfore , it is important to concentttrate on the relevant parts of the passage.Activity 1: This activity practises reading a passage to find pieces of specific information .Activity 2 : Time lines / charts :This activity can be used in conttnection with texts concerned with daily routines, stages on a journey giving times of arrival and departure, a biography ....... etc . Pupils are to set out the events /activities in chronologittcal order.C-Structural study:Here we deal with language items such as linking words, reftterence words, nominal groups, sentence structure, affixes, verbs, aspects etc..... Knowing the lanttguage system is very important in the reading process. It is necttessary that the learner should know how it works. That is he should be familiar with the vottcabulary, grammar, coherence, reference etc...... to be able to recognize the message the text contains. For this reason, the reader has to be made aware of the structure of sentences and of the text and why it is written in a particular way.Such objective is carried out in our reading plan by including activities that reinttforce the pupil’s awareness of

The title and illustrations can provide important clues for predicting the content and topic of the text.

How

toteachreading?

1� Teach&Share

the importance of structure and grammatical study of the reading passage.D-Reference exercises:In passages, writers try not to report words very often. They refer back to them.This relation is called reference. It is the use of common words like “he”, “she”, “it”,” this”, “so”, etc... to refer to people, things or items of informatttion already mentioned in the text.E-Discourse markers:Readers may he given an exerttcise to recognize the connectives which are signal words that conttnect words, clauses, sentences, ideas and paragraphs in a logical way. In any organization analysis, the logittcal connectors act like “signposts” that help the readers discover the architecture of the material. They show them the logical relationship between ideas and paragraphs. Varittous phrases or clauses can be linked together by using some linking devices such as “and, in addition, besides, moreover”. For addition:” first, then, after that, finally”. For contrast: “but, however, in contrast”. For sequence; “therefore, so, as a rettsult, consequently”.F-Substitution and ellipsis exer--cises:Most writers do not usually give the reader more information than he needs, but they also avoid needttless repetition and prefer to omit certain information or expressions which the reader is assumed to supttply for him. Such omission can be in the form of substitution and elttlipsis. In order for the second lanttguage learner to deal with substitutttion or ellipsis, he must first realize that the information is incomplete and then must retrieve the required information from context.Before getting the students to deal with any exercises, ellipsis and subttstitution samples must be presented to make sure they understand what we really mean by such things as elttlipsis or substitution.

Exercises should be devised then to make the students aware of the problem and how to tackle it. The following sentence is a typical example of ellipsis activttity:“Before making a loan, the bank satisfies itself that the borrower, whether it be a government, (.....) an autonomous agency” or (.....) “A private corporation” will be able to service the debt:tWrite the missing expressions below.G-Topic sentences and main ideas recognition:The purpose of reading comttprehension is to discover the author’s ideas. What is needed, therefore, is an approach that helps the students read the pasttsage and enable them to cope with the ideas expressed.Students should be made aware, above all, that one of the basic features of discourse organizatttion is the topic sentence or main idea principle. Students must know that the writer alttways takes pains to tell the readtterstwhether explicitly or implicttitlyt about his main idea before trying to develop it in the rest of the text.Various strategies need to be taught to help the students grasp the main idea since many stuttdents seem to have much trouble in distinguishing the main idea from the marginal or supporttting details in a text. Once the reader locates the topic sentence, which carries the main idea in a passage, his comprehension perttformance will improve to a great deal. As suggested by Hedge , “ If the reader does decide to drink deep the topic sentences will provide him with a clear framework on which to build the rest of the reading and will remind him of where the writer is going and how he is getting there”

The while-reading stage includes reading for general and specific infornmation, studying the structure, forms and grammar underlying a text, among other things..

Teach&Share 1�

Exercise 1: supply a text with the topic sentence of each paragraph omitted and replaced by a gap.Exercise 2 : a t If you had to pick one sentence in the whole passage to sum up the main idea, which one would you choose ?b tFind the topic sentence of each paragraph if there is one .c t The following points are all mentioned in the text next to each of them, write down, “ M”, if you think it represents a main idea and “S”, if you think it is only a supporttting detail . Exercise � : In order to help the stuttdents to recognize the main idea of the text by asking them to match articles and headlines . Finding the proper headline for an article means the student has understood the main idea of the article. Various articles with a set of jumbled headttlines are supplied and the students are required then to match the arttticles with their headlines .

3-Post-Reading stage:Reading is not an isolated activity . It should always lead to something, and thus be integrated with the imttprovement of all skills .In fact , with the learners’ increastting need for English in communittcative situations it became necesttsary to integrate receptive as well as productive skills in one course, for written and spoken language often bear a reciprocal relationship to each other, to ignore that relationttship is to ignore the richness of the language.We’ve seen in a previous section how pretreading stage can be a kind of speaking or writing activity or even both and that the reason behind such stage is mainly to actttivate the learner’s schemata . Post reading stage can also include activttities that integrate other skills and therefore allows teachers to maintttain integrated skills into their teaching which is the ultimate gaol of the communicative approach.

A- Integrating reading and writing:Teachers should be aware of the importance of integrating writtting in a reading comprehension lesson for many reasons. First, incorporating writing activittties in the reading class more actively involves the students in the reading process. Second, including writing in the readtting class shifts the emphasis in reading from product to process and from separate skills to intettgrated approach.Activity 1: Students may be asked to write a paragraph or a lettertrelated to the passage theme.Activity 2: An excellent intelttlectual and linguistic exercise is the resume or summary: The gathering together of the main ideas of the text in concise form. To do this well, students have to understand the text fully and rethink it in concentrated terms which they express in English.Activity �: Students may be asked to set down the main ideas in a logical sequence in simple declarative sentences. This skeleton outline is then put away. Another day, the stuttdents take the outline and write a text of their own from it. They can compare their text with the original to see what they can learn linguistically from the comparison.Activity �: After reading job advertisements, pupils may be asked to complete an applicatttion form or write a formal letttter applying or requesting inttformation about the advertised job.As a conclusion, I want to stress that this integrated reading and writing approach is still at a very tentative stage. Teachers still put emphasis on one skill at the expense of others. Most of the time the writing skill is given the smallest share of the

Various strategies need to be taught to help the students grasp the main idea since many students seem to have much trouble in distinguishing the main idea from the marginal or supporting details in a text.

How

toteachreading?

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lesson plan or given as a homework to be corrected next session or even sometimes neglected.B-lntegrating reading and speak--ing:Students should be provided with frequent opportunities to give in English the gist of what they have read. Some of the material read will serve as a basis for oral presentation or summary, role play or interview. Some will provide ammunitions for discussion and debates.Speaking, therefore, can be used as a pretreading and postt reading activttity. Here we can speak of a reading course around which 2 or � skills are carried out. We can as well notttice how skills are interrelated and how a skill can lead to another.At this level, I can say that an intettgrated lesson shows for the practttice of language in a way which is closer to the real word and assists in the development of a full language user.tIntegrated lessons where one thing leads to the other are more satisfytting, less bitty, for the learners.tA lesson which integrates a numttber of skills has more variety.tIt gives an opportunity for a topic to be fully explored and for vocabttulary corrected to the topic to be practised and recycled.

Conclusion“ Reading is like an infectious disttease: it is caught not taught. And you can’t catch it from someone who hasn’t got it ...”We can admit, at the end of this work, that of all the skills taught at school, reading can be regarded as a “ tool” skill , in the sense that a learner’s progress in communittcative language learning depends considerably on his ability to read efficiently and effectively . To achieve this goal, students have to be familiar with the different reading strategies and the language system.

This ability to read effectively should be cultivated in progressive stages, through the use of differttent strategies, techniques and skills that can be interrelated in a lesson whose main focus is reading. It is the teacher who should equip his students with the relevant stratettgies that help them extract the message the text contains.Students with a good background in readtting in their course would, finally, be able to move into independent reading. They should feel confident enough to pick a book, magazine or newsttpaper and read it for their amusettment and enlightenment, with only occasional resort to dictionttary. They will not feel to do so , however, if they have not been encouraged during their language course to read on their own with ever increasing confidence even when they can’t get the full meantting of a written piece. This conttfidence is, in fact, “caught” from teachers . After all reading is “ an infectious disease”. It is caught not taught . And learners can’t “catch it from someone who hasn’t got it”.

References:1) Carrel, L. Patricia . Devine Joanne and Eskey David E. Interactive Apppproaches Second Language Readpping. Cambridge Cambridge Apttplied Linguistics .2) Cairney, T. H . Teaching Reading Comprehension .�) Hughes, John M. Reading and Reading Failure . �) Hedge, Patricia. Using Readers in language .�) Jack C. Richards. From Readers To Reading Reachers .�) English Teaching Forum: Volttume �0, Number �, October 1992.�) English Teaching Forum: Volttume �1. Number �, October 199� .�) English Teaching Forum: Volttume ��. Number �, October 199� .9 ) English Teaching Forum: Volttume XXI, Number 1, January 19�� .

Including writing in the reading class shifts the emphasis in reading from product to process and from separate skills to integrated approach.

Reading is like an infectious disease: it is caught not taught. And you can’t catch it from someone who hasn’t got it ...

Abdellatif Ben Akremi Saeedi,Teacher of English,Tunisia

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Teaching the language vs. teaching about the language

By Mohammed Barghash Al-Enazi

The most common objectives of teaching any foreign lanttguage are:1t Learners can use the target language in their real life, not just inside the classroom. 2tLearners can think directly in the foreign language.�tLearners must understand the target language’s culture.Putting in mind these objectives before planning and presenttting a language lesson is a very important condition for this lesttson to be successful and unforgettable. Otherwise, the teacher is not teaching the language but teaching about the language. In fact, there are several teaching techniques that we can apply to achieve the above mentioned goals of teaching and learntting a foreign language. Here, I will discuss a technique which is “relating language to the real environment while teaching”. Suppose that a teacher wants to teach his/her students about how to describe people. Instead of using the examples and the pictures in their textbooks, he can describe one of the students as a model or any famous person from the community e.g. an actor or a football player, etc... For instance, the teacher can say: “Look at Ali. He is a tall boy with a round face.” Then students describe each other in the same manner. Also if the lesson is about writing, the teacher writes a sentence on the board describing a welltknown person, let us say another teacher in the school such as: Teacher X is a very nice/boring/nervous person. Then, students write similar sentences about three or four other persons. This kind of teaching technique relates language to the students’ real life and makes language more authentic, not just artificial.

L a n g u a g e teaching andreal life

Mohammed Barghesh Al-Enzi,Teacher of English,Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Our aim in using a board should be to make things clearer to the class and to help focus their attention.

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What is a board?A board is a simple visual aid that is put before students’ eyes and used for writing or drawing. It is the easiest definition and most common one.What are the boards’ types?There are many types but I will mention the most famous ones; 1. Chalk board 2. Pen board�. Pictures board �. Pocket board �. Electronic boardHowever, I am going to write about the chalk board and the pen board as they are the most comttmon.

What is the im--portance of using boards?No doubt that the board is very imttportant as it is easy to use and the teacher can find it all the time.It is always available and can be used for various purposes without special preparation. Our aim in ustting a board should

Th e r e i s n o d o u b t t h a t t e a c h i n g a i d s a r e v e r y i m p o r t a n t a s t h e y m a k e t e a c h i n g m o r e e f f e c t i v e a n d h e l p t e a c h e r s w i t h t h e i r h a r d w o r k . T h a t i s t h e p r i n c i p l e I b e l i e v e i n

a s a t e a c h e r o f E n g l i s h . F r a n k l y , w h e n I w a s i n E g y p t , I f o u n d i t d i f f i c u l t t o u s e m a n y t e a c h i n g a i d s a s c l a s s e s w e r e s o c r o w d --e d a n d o n l y s u i t a b l e f o r u s i n g c e r t a i n t e a c h i n g a i d s ; b o a r d s a r e t h e m o s t p o p u l a r . S o I u s e d b o a r d s m o r e t h a n a n y o t h e r a i d s a n d I f i n d i t i s c o n v e n i e n t t o w r i t e a b o u t t h e m .

be to make things clearer to the class and to help focus their attttention.

What are the pur--poses for which the board can be used ?The most important purposes for which the board can be used are:1.Presenting new words 2.Showing spelling�.Giving a model for handwrittting �.Writing prompts for practice

How can a teacher use the boardeffectively?1.He should stand in a way that doesn’t hide the board. He should stand sideways, half factting the board and half facing the class, with his arm fully extendtted. In this way, the students can see what he is writing, and he can see the students .

The importance of using boards effectivelyBy Mohamed Ebrahim Hassan

Using the board effectively

Many teachers use the board only for writing. But simple pictures drawn on the board can help to increase the interest of a lesson.

The board should be organized and not too crowded.

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2. He should write clearly. The writing should be large enough to read from the back of the class.�. He should talk as he writes to involve the class .�. He should be careful of organizing the layout of what hewrites. The board should be organized and not too crowded.Here is a teacher’s board at the end of a lesson . How could the layout have been organized more clearly?

A possible layout may be:

How can a teacher use the board for drawing?

Many teachers use the board only for writing. But simple pictures drawn on the board can help to increase the interest of a lesson, and are often a good way of showing meaning and conveying situations to the class.

It is not necessary to be a good artist to draw successfully. Board drawings should be as simple as possible, showing only the most details. It is also important to draw quickly.Simple board drawings :

Usingtheboardeffectively

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How can a teacher use a board for presenting structures?An important use of the board is to show clearly how structures are formed, and to show differences between structures.A good way of showing the different forms of a structure is by means of a table (sometimes called a “substitution table”).

I am preparing breakfast

He

is eating lunchShe

It

You

are having dinnerWe

They

We also can use the board for presenting prompts as a basis far practice :

Tom

6 :30 Gets up , has a shower

7:00 breakfast

7:30 Bus, work

12:00 lunch

I3:00 home

In short, I’d like to say the board is one of the most useful of all visual aids. We shouldn’t ignore its importance.

An important use of the board is to show clearly how structures are formed, and to show differences between structures.

Mohammed Ebrahim Hassan,Teacher of English,Egypt

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Co o p e r a t i v e L e a r n i n g h a s a l w a y s b e e n a c o n t r o v e r s i a l i s s u e a n d l e d t o c o n f l i c t i n g v i e w s a m o n g t e a c h e r s . W h i l e s o m e w o u l d s w e a r b y t h e i r d e a r e s t o n e s t h a t i t i s b y f a r t h e

b e s t w a y t o i n v o l v e t h e i r l e a r n e r s a n d t o m o t i v a t e t h e m , o t h e r t e a c h e r s a s s e r t t h a t i t m a k e s t h e m l o o s e n o t o n l y c o n t r o l o f t h e c l a s s b u t a l s o p r e c i o u s t i m e . U s u a l l y , t e a c h e r s g o f r o m t h e s e c --o n d s t a n d p o i n t t o t h e f i r s t b u t n o t t h e o t h e r w a y r o u n d . O n c e y o u a p p l y C L s u i t a b l y i n y o u r c l a s s r o o m , y o u w i l l n e v e r l o o k b a c k t o t h e d a y s w h e n y o u w e r e u n w i l l i n g t o a p p l y i t . I n t h i s a r t i c l e , I a m g o i n g t o d e m o n s t r a t e h o w C L c a n b e r e w a r d i n g a n d f u n i f i t i s d o n e p r o p e r l y a n d h o w i t c a n b e a g r a t i f y i n g e x p e r i --e n c e r a t h e r t h a n a f r u s t r a t i n g o n e .

How CL can be a gratifying experience rather than a frustrating one

By Tariq Ben Mohammed Brahmi

My personal experience with CL:Like many of my colleagues, my first lesson using CL was a complete disaster. I asked my students to sit in groups of fours and fives. Sooner, I began to get nervous as the students forttgot about my presence and I failed to make them pay attention to my instructions. To add to that misfortttune, the lesson quickly ended in the renowned scenario so hated by teachers.

The headmaster showed up and started to hint to the state of chattos that my class was in. “No more group work” was my first reactttion. That could have been the end of it. Well.. until a miracle happens, of course. That same year, I was a member in of a group of trainees paying a visit to a veteran’s classroom. Observing experienced teachers’ classrooms was part of my schedttule as a trainee. The marvel hapttpened in front of our eyes.

Is Cooperative Learning really worth it?

My first lesson using CL was almost a complete disaster.

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The teacher had his students sit in groups. The lesson was going smoothly. The group members were actively involved in achieving the tasks. The teacher was busy going from group to group, explaining, helping, giving feedback, without being too “present”. By the end of the lesson, the groups took turns to present their essays(It was a writing lesson).Was I impressed? Very much so! The students left the classroom and we had about an hour to ask questttions and to discuss the lesson. The discussion was so valuable and it opened our eyes to the dynamics underlying group work. This only opened my appetite for more so I started reading all the materials that were at my hands’ reach about CL. The Internet was my best resource, as you would expect. I even opted for CL as the subject matter of my research project the following year. Enough talk about my own experittence. I know you are eager to find out what made that teacher do well where I failed. Wait no more: here are the answers!

The magician without the magic wand:Good teaching is like magic. When you see a good lesson, your immedittate reaction is an admiring “Wow”!. You are overwhelmed by it until you start learning the tricks yourttself. Then, you will end up mumttbling jubilantly: “Aha!!..” The fun will never end because you will be the magician now and you will get other people shine in admiration.

Trick Number One:Preparation, my friend! It is all in the preparation. Never come to your CL session unttprepared. Preparation means that you have to think about the activity beforehand.

What is the goal of this activity? Is there a good a reason to assign it as a group work? Is it challengtting enough to be assigned as a CL activity? If the answer is No, perhaps it shouldn’t be.Before delving into group work, you have to make your students aware of the benefits of worktting together and relate this to real life: start by telling a relttevant story or local proverbs. I usually talk about that old man who gathered his sons when he felt he was going to die soon. He took a stick and broke it . Then, he took a bunch of sticks and tried to break them, in vain. He explained that as long as his sons would be working together they would be more powerful. A common proverb I use is a Tunisian one. It states that even a heavy burden is light when it is shared by a group of people. Just be creative and think about other examples.Moreover, don’t start with a very challenging task. Choose a task and make it as simple and enjoyttable as possible: A towertbuildtting activity or a simple puzzle are commonly used as warmers and teamtbuilding activities.Group work is a kind of social inttteraction. If your students don’t know how to interact with each other, don’t expect them to sucttceed in dealing with the activity. Relevant questions that are going to build the students’ interactive skills include:What do you think of…?Do you think that…?Why is it important to ….?Do you agree that….?What is your opinion concern--ing….?Do you share his opinion?These questions are only examttples.

A teacher has to make his/her students aware of the benefits of working together and relate this to real life.

A tower-building activity or a simple puzzle are commonly used as warmers and team-building activities.

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What students will need depends on the task in question, their level, etc...One claim teachers typically have, however, is that this is time consumtting. The answer is that you are not going to do this in every lesson. You do it only in the beginning. It can take you a whole lesson to do that but it will be rewarding by the end of it.

Trick number Two:Who is doing what?For our task to be successful, we need to tell our students what we exactly expect from them. Make sure that nobody is left out of the group and that everyone will have a simple defined role: Many teachers have come up with different names for those roles but they are the same, basically. Here are a few : Note taker also called secretary. Presenter also called Spokesman or Reporttter. Timekeeper, idea generator, noise watcher, speech organizer are only a few more suggestions. Stick to these or invent your own roles.But always make sure that the roles do more or less fit the members’ personality and level and that they are not similar. Asking the shyttest person in the group to be the spokesman may not always the best bet. Besides, assigning the role of presenter, spokesman, and reporter inside the same group will only add to the students’ confusion.

Trick number Three:I want more Noise!I can see it in your eyes, that susttpecting look as you come across the above line. More noise? Is he crazy? Is he being serious?The answer is Yes.. and No! Noise is not always supposed to be negative. I bet you have come across the expression: “constructive noise”.

However, before going any furttther, it is important to remind ourselves that we shouldn’t exttpect our students to be totally quiet or use their body language when they are operating inside a group. The noise will be there inevitably. But it has to be contttrolled and kept to a minimum.How? That is a good question: You can ask one of the members to be the noisetwatcher. The stuttdent will keep eyetcontact with you and tell the group if they are exceeding the permitted limits.You do this and you hit two birds with the same stone(although I hate hitting birds): First, you keep a troubletmaking or lazy student busy. Second, you keep the noise level low. Other teachers suggest to keep a whistle to signal the level of noise is too high. Keeptting colored cards to draw attentttion to the level of noise is also another conceivable option. A red card means the group is too noisy, etc... Again, be creative and invent your own solution.

Trick number Four:Less is more!While the groups work, try to keep your presence as imperceptttible as possible. Interfere a lot and you will make the groups less concentrated on their task. Interfere less and they are more productive. Does this mean you just sit down and “let the kids play”? No, the teacher has to go from group to group, listening , helping, giving feedback and making sure they are not loosing interest or ignoring the activity. You may want to be less present because you want to make them take responsibility for their own learning, interact using English, and try to solve their problems by themselves.

If our students don’t know how to interact with each other, we shouldn’t expect them to succeed in dealing with the activity.

We need to make sure that nobody is left out of the group and that everyone will have a simple defined role.

Iscooperativelearningreallyworthit?

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You may want to be there, however, in case they began to loose focus, they need more clarification, or have problems that they cannot rettsolve by themselves.

Trick number Five:The happy ending!It is important to set a time limit. Make sure the task is feasible within that time limit.Doing a group task that will never be presented to the class because the bell rang is as detrimental as doing nothing at all. Let it be clear that the students have to finish in time. When they finish, the reporters will “report” their work to the rest of the class. After that, you can thank the groups for their efforts and make them see the worth of their cooperttation. This will encourage them to make more effort and enjoy it when you decide to do more CL later.

Trick number Six:Give to Caesar…Fair grading is a major concern for teachers especially when using CL. How can I decide whether all the members worked evenly during a group activity? What should I really grade, the students’ work as a whole or their individual contribution to the group work? Generally, group work should not only be about the product. It must also be about the process. Don’t only grade the product because it may not reflect the members’ contttributions to the group. Make sure to include a kind of peer assessment form using a simple point system. The students are required to assess the involvement of their peers but they may also be asked to assess themselves. This will help you dettcide whether the grades are consistttent later.

Having your own group assessttment form with the names of the groups and the members and assigning points as you go from group to group will also help you get a more accurate grading system. This, added to the product itself, will make a good basis for a fair grade.

Putting the puzzle pieces together:The morale of the story:For a CL lesson to succeed, a teacher has to:•prepare the lesson beforehand.•talk about the benefits of working in groups.•teach the students how to interact with their peers in English.•assign clear roles to all the membbbers of the group.•control noise and tolerate it if it doesn’t hamper the lesson.•manage the groups, clarify the tasks and give feedback while the groups work, without being too aubbthoritative.•grade both the product and the process.Even then, don’t expect CL to work perfectly from the first lesson. You will gain precious insight into the dynamics of group work while you are dotting it. You will soon find what works and what doesn’t work with your classrooms. But unttless you try CL, you will never be good at teaching it.

References:www.eric.ed.govSchreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, “Commonly Asked Questions about Teaching Collab--orative Activities”

Interfere a lot and you will make the groups less concentrated on their task. Interfere less and they are more productive.

Group work should not only be about the product. It must also be about the process.

Tariq Ben Mohammed,Teacher of English,Tunisia

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Less interest has been shown in listening comprehension in the field of foreign language teach--ing. Although the listening process has been considered from different angles, its application in foreign language teaching has not been fully exploited. Moreover, limited research work has

been carried out to investigate the listening comprehension problems of foreign language learners, and even less has been achieved in order to train to listen effectively. In fact, from my personal experi--ence, while teaching, listening is considered by my pupils as the unknown world, the mysterious and the ambiguous skill, perhaps “the most frightening “ that causes fear and sometimes boredom to my pupils. Of course, there must exist some factors that may cause this feeling.

Most of the pupils whom I have asked about their opinions tottwards listening comprehension, assure that they have felt frustrated whenever their teachers come to class holding a tape recorder. They all seem to agree that this frustratttion is caused by their inability to understand what is being said in the taped text, their lack of knowlttedge of the language system and the unfamiliar speed of speaking, which is always rapid. Such a feeling can be conttsidered as a result of the neglect of listening as a skill, compared to writing and reading. Theorists and methodologists have emphattsized the importance of the latter skills at the expense of the former. Theodore Calidova sees listening as “probably the most neglected of the four skills ( speaking, writing, reading and listening) and conttcluded that such neglect “ causes

the learner to puzzle, to feel frustttrated and to be discouraged.”The great hostility towards the tape recorder on the part of stuttdents can be diminished if we make them listen in a guided way. They will be more interested in the listening if they are asked to answer a question, fill a chart, or give direction on a road map as a response to what they listen to.In her book Teaching of English as a Second or Foreign language, Ur states that “listening exercises are most effectttive if they are constructed round a task ... They will show their unttderstanding. “What is a task ? How important is it in listening comprehension? These two questions and others are going to be elaborated about to find myself “ a gate through “ to create a friendly relationship between the tape recorder and the listener.

Listening is “probably the most neglected of the four skills”.

Strategies for teaching Listening

Strategies for ensuring better Listttening sessions!

By LotFIfi Smaali

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I- What is listening comprehen--sion ?Listening is derived from the verb to “ to listen”, which is dettfined in the Oxford Dictionary of the English language as “ to try to hear.” and “ pay attention to.”Some theorists have contrasted the verb “ to listen” with the verb “ to hear.” The second has been defined as when you hear someone speaking a language without ‘understanding what he is saying’. It simply includes the recognition of the sounds of the heard text or language. Unlike “ to hear”, “ to listen” implies some conscious attention to the mesttsage. It conveys the comprehendtting of the message heard.Howatt and Dakin define listentting as “ the ability to identify and understand what others are saytting. This involves understanding a speaker’s accent or pronunciatttion, his grammar and vocabuttlary and grasping his meaning.”Since our life is based on commuttnication, which in turn requires a listener and a speaker, listening can be considered as half of the process of communication. Itpresupposes in the hearer a willttingness and a competence to understand what is being said. Comprehension, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English Language, means “ to know the meaning, nature, and explanatttion of something.”We, as teachers of the English Language, should bear in mind that our students are not expecttted to achieve a perfect or correct comprehension. In fact, even in our daily life, when communicattting with one another, we never reach a total comprehension as our addresser’ s intention is not always clear. If the students feel that they are obliged to achieve a thorough understanding and they never reach it, they will be frustrated and expect themselves not to understand future listentting material.

II-What do learners lis--ten to ?As there is no fulltscale ( exhaustive ) taxonomy of all different kinds of listening situations available “ since the immense variety of societies, individuals, situations and types of oral discourse must defy classificatttion.” And as pointed out by Ur in her bookabout Teaching Listening Comprehension that “ on a less amttbitious scale, we might expect reattsonably educated people living in a developed country to be exposed to, and hope that an examination of the results may yield some useful conclusions.” However[ she writes] , it is possible to list some examples of the types of listening we might expect :• Listening to the news/ weather forecasts / sports reports/ announcements on the radio. • Making arrangements/ exttchanging news over the telephone.• Hearing announcements over the loudspeaker. ( at a railway station, for example, or airport.)• Receiving instructions on how to do something/ get somettwhere. tAttending a seminar/ a lesttson.• Being interviewed.• Watching a film/ tv/ theatre show.• Hearing a speech/ a lecture.• Listening to recorded/ broadcast songs.She concluded that “ though this list is rough and incomplete, I think, it is fairly presentative. Some generalttizations can be inferred from it and which have some immediate implittcations for classroom practice.”

III- The communicative approach to the teach--ing of listening:The communicative approach to the teaching of listening has sugttgested further desirable features of the process in classroom listening activities. In particular, the commuttnicative approach stresses “realistic listening” that is to say, the learners must be communicative approach

If the students feel that they are obliged to achieve a thorough understanding and they never reach it, they will be frustrated and expect themselves not to understand future listening material.

Teach&Share 29

stresses “ realistic listening “ that is to say, the learners must realistic listening be involved in what they are listening to, the learners must be given a chance to respond emotionally or intellectuttally as they might do in their first lanttguage.Likewise, the communicative approach emphasizes the importance of the choice of listening passages because the content promotes a reason for listentting and increases pupils motivation to listen. Hence, listening passages should be authentic and listening should be purposeful because interesting content motivates the learners to listen effectttively and them to participate in a varittety of activities that can increase their understanding of the listening passage, expand their knowledge of the topic, enlarge their vocabulary, improve their knowledge of the structures of the lanttguage and help them become more efttficient and effective listeners. Thus, listttening comprehension should not be seperated from other skills.

IV- How to achieve an ef--fective listening compre--hension ?Previously, listening comprehension has been based on memorization. The pupils listen to two taped texts and rettpeat every single word that they have heard in order to memorize it. This belief has been proved false as natttive speakers of any language in their life situation retain certain items and exclude others. With the development of the commuttnicative approach and the increased popularity of the authentic material, listening comprehension has been aimed at understanding the global message of the text regardless of its details. Moreover, classroom activities have become more closely related to the sorts of things learners are likely to do or need to do outside the classroom such as asking for directions, time, etc. These activities should come in the form of tasks to be completed. They (tasks) serve as a means to reach a comttmunicative response

in which the learner has to create a suitable response on the basis of what he is understanding. In her book Teaching of English as a Second or Foreign Language, ( 19�� : p 2� ) Ur has stated that “ as a general rule listening exercises are most effective if they are constructed round a task, that is to say, the students are rettquired to do something in response to what they hear that will demonttstrate their understanding.”These tasks test the students <listentting comprehension and encourage them to use different skills and stratttegies. Thus, to reach an effective listttening comprehension, our teaching should be tasktbased. The variety of tasks makes teaching more commuttnicative since it provides a purpose for a classroom activity which goes beyond the practice of language for its own sake.

1-What is a task ?This question has been the concern of many linguists and theorists. Acttcording to the Oxford Dictionary of English Language, a task is a “ piece of ( especially hard ) work (to be ) done.” David Nunan defines the task as “ a piece of work undertaken for onettself or for others, freely or for some reward. Thus, examples of tasks inttclude making a fence, dressing a child ... in other words, by task he means the hundred and one things people do in everyday life, at work, at play and between.”The psycholinguists, Richard, Platt and Weber ( 19��: p 2�9 ) have dettfined a “ task as “ an activity or actttion which is carried out as the rettsult of processing or understanding language.”Now, to draw our conclusion, we can say that a task is an action and a performance. The pupils listen to and grasp the information and then complete a task to fulfill theirobjective, i.e, to show their underttstanding.2- Sample tasks :Classroom procedure for a listening lesson:

The content promotes a reason for listening and increases pupils motivation to listen.

As a general rule listening exercises are most effective if they are constructed round a task, that is to say, the students are required to do something in response to what they hear that will demonstrate their understanding.

Strategiesforteachinglistening

�0 Teach&Share

The listening lesson generally conttsists of three steps ( the pretlistening activity, the while listening activity and the post activity). Each activity may comprise a set of tasks.2.1- Pre-listening tasks :They are tasks assigned before the text is heard . They serve as a means to introduce the topic of the pasttsage or prepare the pupils for a betttter understanding of it. By posing such tasks, the listeners are given a purpose for listening, which forces them to focus on selected informatttion. They can be tasks that generate discussion about the topic like visuttals, newspaper headings, diagram completion, brainstorming ...Such tasks bring the ideas, the items, the thin in question close to the mind of the learner. They also refresh the pupils memottries as it makes them predict or conttsolidate the words or expressions that are likely to appear in the tape script.It is in this stage that new vocabulary items deemed essential for the unttderstanding of the listening passage are introduced. Devising such comttmunicative tasks is of great value and premordial importance. It is in this stage that pupils are motivated and their attention is captured for what comes next. 2.2- While listening tasks :To create a coherence, unity, a contttinuity, between the pretstage, the while stage or let>s say the post stage tasks, the teacher should create his own transition or transitions in movtting between the tasks or the stages of a lesson.Whiletlistening tasks help the pupils indicate the overall structure of the listening passage in question. These tasks can be divided into:2.2.1- Extensive activities :They are activities that require a global comprehension of the pasttsage after listening to it for the first time. Thus, to get the meaning of the whole passage, tasks such as : *tinformation transfer*tmultiple choice questions*tyes/ no or w/ h questions...

2.2.2- Intensive activities :This phase consists in further exploitttation of the text. As its name indittcates, intensive activities look at the text from inside to look for more unttderstanding of it than that fetched in the prior phase. Tasks assigned in this phase should minimize if not elimittnate pupils worries and fear of not getting the correct information and require a minimum of words ,rather than full, long answers that judge the linguistic competence of the pupils.Some of these tasks are: •notettaking •diagram completion •multiple choice questions •gap filling *tinformation transfer •cloze exercises •true/ false and w/h questions ...It is worth noting that the teacher>s role in these situations is to help his pupils feel at ease while carrying out such tasks. He/ she should assign clear, motivating and enjoyable tasks to enttcourage his/ her pupils to use their ears (to listen effectively and with a purpose )without fearing failure. Once the puttpils feel the friendly teachertpupil relationship, their motivation will inttcrease.2.3- Post listening activities :They are also called followtup activittties as they come after the whole exttploitation of the listening passage durtting the pret and the whilet listening phases. In this final phase, the pupils take the information they have gained from the listening passage and use it for another purpose, i.e, to speak, to write, etc…

Conclusion:It becomes clear that theorists, textttbook designers and teachers should pay due attention to the listening skills as it fosters learners’ communicatttive abilities, a natural challenge that stimulates an enthusiastic effective learning in the classroom.

It is in the pre-listening stage that new vocabulary items deemed essential for the understanding of the listening passage are introduced.

The teacher should assign clear, motivating and enjoyable tasks to encourage his/ her pupils to use their ears (to listen effectively and with a purpose )without fearing failure.

Lotfi Samaali,Teacher of English,Tunisia

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Neglecting the listening skill “ causes the

learner to puzzle, to feel frustrated and to

be discouraged.”

teach&share

Looking forward to a better future!