Insight in Reading Skills

What does reading really mean? To your elementary students it involves letter recognition
and decoding the letters so they can decode words. To your advanced students it’s a
process of decoding ideas which may be stated directly, or a process of ‘reading between
the lines’. Either way, your students are practising a form of decoding.

This decoding is a perfect way to expose them to vocabulary because it’s embedded in a
context. This technique is similarly useful for grammar study, but whether it is vocabulary or
grammar that we highlight, this is a chance for students to see models of language that they
can then put to use in conversation or writing tasks.

In our L1 we read for information, whether it’s following signs at an airport, or doing an
internet search to find a relevant article online. When reading in English, it’s important to
maintain a purpose for reading the information. We need to remind ourselves as ELT
teachers that our students are not English language specialists; 9 out of 10 are very likely
studying English because it’s on the school timetable, or someone has decided for them
that it’s best they take English classes. So don’t treat reading as the teaching of vocabulary
and grammar structures, because that won’t be what persuades them to read.

So what can we do to encourage our students to read? Try these top 10 tips:

1. Get that schema warmed up

Always warm up students’ background knowledge (known as ‘schema/schemata’) first. We
cannot guarantee that our students all have the same knowledge on a topic or theme, so it
is important to get everyone to the same point. Images are an ideal way to gather together
what your students know – and allow time for a quick brainstorm where they can discuss
their thoughts first.

2. Get them using all the clues, in true Sherlock Holmes style
Focus on headings, images and subheadings (if there are any) to help students to predict
what the topic or content might be about. This stimulates ideas further and prepares them to
read, allowing for a subconscious awareness of what type of vocabulary might be found.
This also illustrates that a handful of words can help us understand and that we don’t need
to know every single word to appreciate a piece of text.

3. Peer checking
After their first reading of a text, get students to discuss it with each other. Speaking about
something you have just read helps to clarify your understanding because you can’t explain
something until you’ve understood it. You’ll also find that students voluntarily re-read
sections to make sure they’re explaining their thoughts correctly. It also allows them to get
help with sections they may not have understood well when they read it themselves.

4. Question their understanding

To reinforce the main ideas of a text, ask questions that check understanding of the context,
rather than finer details. If we focus on overall comprehension, we encourage students to
skim the text to find areas that are relevant to questions, rather than them reading in detail.

5. Word recognition
The quicker we learn to read, the more efficiently we can get information, so it is helpful to
encourage this in L2 as well. Have a competition to train students to ‘see’ a
word/collocation/phrase in the text. Project a text onto your whiteboard and bring a group of
students to the front of the class. You say a word that is in the text and they have to point to
it.

6. Speed them up
Get students to time themselves reading a text so they have a record of how many words
they read per minute. Then, at intervals throughout the academic year, give them a similar
text, in both length and complexity, to see how they progress. In each instance, ask
questions that bring out the main points of the text after, so you know that they are not
simply glancing at the words, but actually reading them!

7. Recall and highlight words

Once the context has been understood, highlight vocabulary by using flashcards. Use
different coloured cards to differentiate between different parts of speech – main verbs
could be on a green coloured background; auxiliary verbs on yellow; nouns on blue, etc. If
students are in groups, get them to take turns to give a definition, synonym or antonym.

8. Recall and highlight structures

Take sentences from the text and write each word on a separate card, jumbling them up
into the wrong order. Then, get students to place them in the correct order. This could be
done in groups or on large flashcards at the front of the class. Do these with useful
sentences, or ones that include important phrases so that they are subconsciously
reinforced.

9. Lure them into reading

Have lots of reading material available – pamphlets, brochures or graded readers for
students to pick up and read. This can play on students’ curiosity and encourage reading in
L2 for pleasure as well as for information.

10. Nurture a love of reading

Finally, get students to find a piece of text on a topic of their choice and have them talk to
you about it and why they chose it. If you don’t have time to do face-to-face interviews with
each student, they could record themselves talking about it and send it to you as an mp3
recording, along with a link to the text.

As Krashen said, “Reading is good for you…Reading is the only way we become good
readers, develop a good writing style, an adequate vocabulary, advanced grammar and the
only way we become good spellers.” (1993:23)

With all these benefits, reading is something we need to ensure is developed, but without
necessarily making students aware that all the above is going on. It’s like enjoying a meal –
who wants to be told about all the nutritional value of everything you eat when you can
enjoy the taste?!

Reference
Krashen, S. (1993) The power of reading: Insights from the research. Englewood, Co.: Libraries
Unlimited.

7 Powerful Public Speaking Tips

from the Best TED Talks Speakers
POSTED BY GUTHRIE-JENSEN CONSULTANTS

We often associate public speaking with world leaders or celebrities. We listen

to every word they say,
sometimes wondering how they have mastered the skill of public speaking so
well. Did they go through
formal training? Do they practice in front of the mirror? Does practice make
perfect indeed?
In the corporate world, public speaking carries a lot of meaning. Having skills
in public speaking can help
you spell your success both as an employee and as a leader. It’s a fact that
your ability to articulate
concepts, ideas, or plans in a compelling and clear manner can help you
reach the top of the corporate
ladder.
Speaking of compelling speeches, we have compiled few of the best ones
from TED Talks – a platform
where speakers share ideas about education, technology, science, business,
and just about anything
under the sun that proves significant in effecting change or improvement in
today’s world.
We believe that it’s never too late to improve your public speaking skills, so
here are tips and advice that
speakers take to heart when giving a talk in front of bigger crowds. These
pointers can work to help you
become an excellent public speaker, too.

How to Deliver Powerful Speeches

as TED Talks Speakers Do
Try applying these techniques in your next speaking engagement.

1. Plant a seed in your audience’s

mind.
Speakers have more or less the same goals, and that’s to educate, inspire,
persuade, or influence the
people watching or listening. Whatever your purpose is, you need one central
message or idea where
your discussion will revolve.
Since ideas are already complex as they are, you’ll need to focus on a single
aspect to allow yourself to
discuss it thoroughly. That focal theme serves as a “through-line,” so that any
supporting details you
provide will link you back to it. Staying within that boundary is also an effective
way of reining yourself in,
so you don’t hop from one idea to another aimlessly.

(Source)
Think of your message as a seed that you plant in the minds of your audience
for it to grow later on,
which means you have to provide the perfect conditions (more of this in the
succeeding tips that you’ll be
reading) in order for viewers or listeners to embrace and find your “ideas
worth spreading.”

2. Simplify technical concepts.

Communicating in a way that everyone understands should be part of your
public speaking goals. To a
great extent, public speaking is comparable to storytelling, which requires that
you use simple everyday
language in your narrative. This calls for expanding your vocabulary base, so
you have a wide range of
options to choose from until you’re able to come up with the most
straightforward, appropriate word for
your intended message. India’s Javed Akhtar said, “The more words you
have, the clearer your thoughts,
and the more clearly you can convey them.”
Even if your subject matter is a technical one, you have to bring down the
level of your language so you
can cater to different types of people in your audience – from field experts to
average users. When you
intend to express than to impress, you sound more sincere and relatable to
your audience.
Using technical jargon that your audience may or may not comprehend
doesn’t demonstrate how
knowledgeable you are in the subject matter. Perhaps you’ll even come off as
arrogant or stingy with
information.
3. Be mindful of your body
language.
Communication may come in written, verbal, or non-verbal form. The last one
is more commonly known
as body language. Your body language pertains to gestures, posture, and
even eye contact that
communicate your thoughts or emotions. Maybe you would use hand gestures
as Steve Jobs often did to
illustrate a point during presentations. You also shouldn’t underestimate the
power of solid eye contact in
capturing your audience’s undivided attention.

Social psychologist Amy Cuddy stresses that one’s non-verbal behaviour

corresponds to a particular
state or feeling. For instance, when you’re feeling confident or victorious, you
subconsciously take an
upright position, standing tall and proud in front of your audience. By contrast,
you tend to close up or
shrink when you perceive danger or when your self-confidence is not at its
peak.
Since your body language shapes how you feel, you need to be conscious of
the non-verbal expressions
that you use. Before giving a speech, walk around with your head held high to
build your confidence.
Eventually, your body will act according to your state of mind so that you’re
able to deliver your message
and captivate your audience in the most powerful way.
4. Build a shared experience.
Bad speeches are every speaker’s nightmare. Perhaps the speaker got off on
a shaky start. He or she
might have forgotten a line or two resulting to a lot of dead air throughout the
talk.
On the contrary, good talks are those where speakers can captivate the
audience through anecdotes,
humour, and questions, to name a few. Speakers employ these tools and
techniques to establish a
connection or rapport with the crowd.
Another way that you can get your audience’s attention and involvement is by
talking from a perspective
that’s familiar to them and then injecting your knowledge, insights, and
experience into the dialogue.
Always put your audience first, so that they can learn something from your
expertise and wisdom.

5. Initiate action.
Public speaking and sound leadership have one thing in common: they
stimulate action. When people like
what they hear or see or admire the person leading them, they are more likely
to adopt the same set of
beliefs. Simon Sinek, a British-American speaker and writer of the best-selling
book “Start with Why,”
proposes that you identify the purpose behind everything that you do.
When you apply this principle in public speaking, you will be able to motivate
your audience better if you
have a cause that they want to be a part of. But first, there are three things
that your speech should
answer, namely “What,” “How,” and “Why.” What is it that you are trying to
do? How do you plan to do it?
Why are you doing it? Among these three, the why part is the most important
thing for you to settle since
people get drawn to people who speak and act based on their convictions.
Interestingly, Sinek’s Ted Talks video, where he shares the Why-How-What
model in helping leaders
inspire action has gained 40 million views.

6. Find out what method works best

for you.
A maxim says, “To each his own.” This means that each one of us has our
own way of thinking or doing
things based on our personal opinions or preferences.
If you’re not comfortable delivering talks in a formal, traditional setting – a
raised platform or stage,
spotlight, script – maybe you can arrange for an informal dialogue instead. It
can be a sit-down type of
conversation, where you blend in with the crowd more instead of being at the
centre stage. However, if
you find that scripts make you sound and look unnatural, then, by all means,
get rid of them and use cue
cards to help you remember what to say.
As Megan Washington has shown in this TED talk, you don’t have to dread
public speaking if you use
your strengths to downplay your less favourable attributes. In her case,
Megan overcomes her speech
defect by singing the things she has to say. Now, that’s creative.

7. Always speak the truth.

Sometimes, in their desire to sound more pleasing or convincing to their
audience, speakers resort to
using rhetoric. Political speeches or campaigns often get this label because
the language used sounds
impressive and in good taste. However, this technique is far from being
effective because it’s construed
as a way of sugar-coating the subject or situation.
The best speakers know the importance of coming clean with the audience by
sticking to the facts and
figures, so they can present a picture of what’s really happening. Get rid of the
unnecessary stuff that
doesn’t mean anything to your audience. Write your speeches with this piece
of advice from Clint Smith:
“… write consciously, speak clearly, tell your truth.”

Your Guide to Effective Public

Speaking
The most fulfilling thing about public speaking is that it gives you the power to
impart a message that your
audience will appreciate and take with them even after your talk is over and
you step off the stage.
However, there is no single best formula in effective public speaking. To be an
excellent public speaker,
 you have to work on several aspects, such as carefully crafting and delivering
your message, building
rapport with your audience, and being comfortable and confident about your
skills.
Guthrie-Jensen Consultants invites you to try our Powerful Presentation Skills
Seminar, which can help you enhance your public speaking skills and
maintain a good line of communication with the clients you serve.

Insight in Writing Skills

Writing is the most difficult of the four language skills. In order to write well, students need to
not only have mastery of grammar, a large bank of vocabulary, know how to structure texts,
and be able to plan and edit their own writing – they also need to have ideas, opinions and
imagination. They are also expected to write things they would never normally write in their
own language, let alone in English. Little wonder that so many students don’t like writing
and find it hard to see any progress in this skill.
Here are 10 tips to help you teach writing in the classroom.
1. Start small
Initially do short writing tasks in class. Writing even one good sentence is a great start. All
too often, teachers ask students at low levels to produce long texts, which they have not
been prepared for. Students will become confident with a step-by-step approach based on
the success of mastering skills one by one.
Whatever the focus of the lesson, encourage students to produce their own sentences
which incorporate the target language.
2. Provide good models and discuss what makes them good
Students need to see what they are aiming for. Ensure that lessons focusing on reading
texts include a discussion on what makes it an effective text – why is a particular description
good? Maybe because it uses vivid adjectives and builds up a picture that can easily be
visualised by the reader. Remember: just reading a lot of texts is not enough – students
have to notice how they work in order to then reproduce those skills.
3. Plan to develop different aspects of writing separately
There are so many different skills which students need to develop in order to become
proficient writers in English, they cannot be developed simultaneously. So, plan tasks in
class which develop these skills separately. Course books often have lots of writing tasks to
develop grammatical accuracy, but what about other writing sub-skills? You could create a
gapped text of a story with no adjectives and ask students to add powerful adjectives to see
how they add colour and tone to the text i.e. using different adjectives could make it funny,
serious or even frightening.
Note which writing sub-skills your students have problems with and create tasks to address
these problems.
4. Brainstorm and input ideas
Before setting writing tasks, brainstorm in class. You can brainstorm ideas, vocabulary,
appropriate grammar etc. Encourage students to record mind maps and to use this
technique when they have to write independently or in an exam.
Often, a problem students have when writing is that they don’t have the background,
experience or knowledge to write on that particular topic, even in their Mother tongue.
Exploit the texts in your course book by asking students to underline ideas they find
interesting and then use them later in their own writing. They should not be hampered by
lack of general knowledge in a class that is aimed to develop their language skills.
Use videos from websites such as Youtube or texts from the internet, English language
newspapers, or magazines to introduce the topic.
5. Provide a reason to write
All too often there is no real reason to write in class other than to have the teacher mark it!
This is not very motivating for students.
Could the class create their own chat room or blog for sharing ideas about lessons, jokes,
interests or news? What about getting students to write dialogues based on a unit topic,
before recording them with sound effects?
6. Collaborative writing in class
By always setting writing for homework, students are left isolated with little support to
develop writing skills. This means that writing rarely improves and students lose motivation
and confidence. Do writing in class and ensure that students work together, sharing both
their ideas, vocabulary and grammar knowledge.
7. Make it creative and fun
Writing doesn’t always have to take the form of examination-style texts like ‘Advantages and
disadvantages of living in a city’, or ‘A letter of application for a job’.
Creative writing can encourage interesting and effective language use. For example, find
interesting pictures of pairs or groups of people (e.g. famous paintings which can be found
online) and ask students to imagine what they are thinking or saying to each other.
Writing poems is a great way to allow students to focus on quality of writing rather than
worrying about quantity. (Have a look at Creative Poetry Writing by Jane Spiro, Resource
Books for Teachers, Oxford University Press).
8. Include writing in every lesson
Plan to have at least some writing in every lesson, so that it becomes more natural and
easier for your students to write in English.
You could create a graffiti wall in class and ask students at the end of each lesson to write
on post-its / small pieces of paper the things they liked about it. They could even write
requests for future lessons or a note of praise to a student they have noticed has worked
particularly well that day. These can be put up on the wall and read by all the class, while
you can mention any comments. Knowing that people will read your writing makes it more
real and interesting.
9. Sometimes focus on accuracy and at other times on fluency
If students feel that when they write for you, you will focus on their mistakes, they may well
lose sight of the message.
Plan writing tasks so that some just focus on fluency, encouraging students to express their
ideas and what vocabulary they know. Why not have students write regular texts, emails or
letters, telling you about things going on in their lives? Don’t correct these, but send back
short replies that address the message of the text.
10. Mark positively
There is nothing more disheartening than getting back your writing covered in red pen, with
a bad mark at the bottom and the comment ‘Try harder!’
Avoid using a red pen to highlight all the mistakes. Why not highlight everything the student
has done well, so they know to keep doing that in the future and make them feel good about
the effort they have put into the text. You can also be selective in marking mistakes: choose
the three most common / serious errors and focus on those. But always mention the good
points in the writing.
Remember how hard it is to write well even in your own language and that students need as
much help as possible in developing this complex skill. Encourage and don’t over-correct to
make writing a positive experience for students in class.
For more ideas on writing in class, see Writing by Tricia Hedge, Resource Books for
Teachers, OUP.

Insight in Viewing Skills

Improve Your Listening to Gain Better

Insights as a Leader
BY KRISTI HEDGES

There’s a bevy of resources to help leaders speak better. It’s rare to find leaders who haven’t gone
through some kind of presentation training on their way to their positions.
And yet, speaking is only half of the communication process. It’s actually the other half—listening—
that sparks leadership insights. Listening well allows us to learn more, expand our perspective, and
develop novel approaches.
Listening intently to another person creates a virtuous circle. One person’s listening opens up
another’s ability to think and process, which leads to ideas from both parties.
In the research for my new book, one clear finding was that we are most often inspired from being in
conversation with others. In fact, listening was the most cited inspirational behavior in research that I
commissioned with the Harris Poll.
So if we want more inspired ideas, we need to work on our listening—and nearly everyone needs
the work. The further we go in our careers, the greater the importance. According to research,
“hourly employees may spend 30 percent of their time listening, while managers often spend 60
percent, and executives 75 percent or more.”
Improving your listening doesn’t have to be an abstract or complicated exercise. We can make
subtle shifts in how we listen that dramatically enhance the information that we obtain. If you want to
gather more insights, try these shifts:

Shift No. 1: From listening for facts to listening for the whole person
A common way that we listen is to understand the facts. For those of us who like to think
systematically and logically, the facts help us to frame up the situation.
When we home in on the facts, though, we push the person talking into the background. We miss
the larger picture about how that person relates to the situation, and how feelings and personalities
may impact it.
We’re a better listener if we expand our focus to take in the whole person in front of us. We discuss
the facts, but we also listen for how that person explains the situation, what his or her body language
is telling us, and the person’s emotional state and thought processes.

Shift No. 2: From listening for text to listening for text and subtext
In any conversation, there’s both the text of the words spoken and the subtext that’s unspoken.
Conversations where we don’t name the “elephant in the room” or the cultural and contextual factors
that are relevant are superficial and unfulfilling. They don’t create learning, open us up to new
information, or change anything.
To move from listening for text to also listening for subtext means paying attention to the clues the
other person gives, picking them up, and probing further. It means asking for more understanding
and about the emotions behind the issue. Subtext also includes the history around the conversation,
which can be a significant factor.

Shift No. 3: From listening to judge to listening out of curiosity

We’re all judgmental, and it’s not all bad. Being able to assess our environments and draw swift
conclusions allows us to survive and thrive. But with this type of listening, we’re most likely to
heighten our biases and confirm what we already think.
To listen out of curiosity, we have to come in with an empty-glass mentality and allow it to be filled.
We get and stay interested, asking questions out of curiosity about what the other person shows us
and expresses, rather than directing the conversation to our own agenda. We allow ourselves to
learn as we go, and when we do that, we learn more than we ever could have predicted.
 When Teachers Become Better
Listeners, Students Become
Better Learners — Here's Why
By Margaret Steen • May 8, 2017

Teachers spend a lot of time talking: explaining, leading conversations, giving

demonstrations. But listening can be equally powerful — and it’s a skill that
not everyone masters, often because people don’t realize its importance.

Gillian Parrish, a research and communications specialist at the Teaching

Center at Washington University in St. Louis, says educators are increasingly
recognizing the importance of listening as well as talking. She offers three
reasons listening is crucial to building a good classroom culture:

1. When people listen to each other, new

ideas take shape

Parrish likens a discussion when

participants ask questions and then listen to the answers to “an open window,
open to whatever comes in.” This opens all participants to new ideas and
helps them really understand them.

“Listening is the zone in which inquiry happens, in which questions arise and
tug at us and the seeds of ideas germinate,” Parrish said. “There is a growing
awareness that as educators in today’s polarized yet shrinking world, opening
up spaces in ourselves and our classrooms is a way of modeling dialogue,
collaboration, curiosity, creativity and compassion.”
2. Being listened to deepens student
learning
When students feel they are genuinely part of the conversation, they are more
likely to really understand what they are learning and remember it.

“The effect of a good listener on student learning is electrifying,” Parrish said.

“When students are heard, when their insights strike their listener, when their
questions open up discussions, when their ideas are taken up and explored
sincerely, then they blossom.”

This type of open-ended conversation can move students from being passive
consumers of information to more self-directed learners.

3. Listening well helps the teacher learn,

too
Not every lesson lends itself to a conversation between students and the
teacher. But when teachers are engaging students in a discussion about the
meaning of what they have learned — the causes of the French Revolution,
for example, or the implications of a recent scientific discovery — the
conversation will be more rewarding for the teacher and the students if people
are listening to each other.

This means more than simply pausing to let the other person speak.

“Think back to those teachers that really cared about what you had to say,
that heard your words and were sparked by them, that really took in your
questions and mulled them over themselves, even if they are old questions in
that field,” Parrish said. “That kind of listening makes our classrooms into
vibrant learning communities.”

Our culture is often easier for extroverts than for introverts, which means it
“tends to be afraid of silence,” Parrish said. That’s why it’s so important to
both tell students what good listening can accomplish and model it for them.

The pause after a question doesn’t have to be an awkward silence: It can be

the space where deeper ideas take root.