Good Activities to Do in Teaching Pronunciation

There are lots of activities you can do with your child to practise pronunciation. Choose the activities that you think your child will like best. Try to make the activities as fun as possible, and stop when your child has had enough.

Here are some ideas for activities:

• Songs and rhymes; Songs, nursery rhymes and chants are a great way to introduce younger children to the sounds of English. Many chants and nursery rhymes are repetitive and easy to remember, and your child will not need to be able to read or write English. You'll find some traditional songs and nursery rhymes on LearnEnglish Kids. Listen to the songs, learn them together and sing the rhymes wherever and whenever you like - in the car, on the way to school, at bathtime! You can also read some tips for using simple rhymes with children. You'll find some rhymes that you can listen to, or download. You'll also find a fun resource you can try with your children called 'Rhyme and record'.

5 Principles in Encouraging Students to Speak English

Principle 1: Positive Reinforcement

As a teacher, you should focus on your students successful attempts to use English. At first, reward ANY success however small. If students speak out loudly and clearly, but make a mistake, praise them just for speaking out or for pronouncing it well. As students improve, you can focus on the most outstanding successes. Whatever you encourage, students will continue to do. On the other hand, if you do not encourage them, they will likely become passive in class. 

Principle 2: Clear Goals and Instructions

Students need to know exactly HOW an activity is done, otherwise they will be out of control when the activity starts. If necessary, write the instructions on the blackboard or overhead projector. Or, model the activity with one of your best students so everyone can see what they need to do.

Students also need to know WHY an activity is being done. Dictations are done to train the ear, so they will be more successful in learning in the future. Pair practice is a simulation of real-life conversation, so they should not show their questions to their partner. Without understanding why, many students think an activity is not important and give up or practice half-heartedly.

Be sure to include goals and instructions in your lesson plan. That way you will be sure to remember to do them, and if you do have any problems, you will easily see how to fix them in future lessons.

Teaching Reading Comprehension; Guides for teachers

The followings are seven strategies to implement by teachers in improving students' text comprehension;

1. Monitoring comprehension

Students who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. They have strategies to "fix" problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.

Comprehension monitoring instruction teaches students to:

• Be aware of what they do understand
• Identify what they do not understand
• Use appropriate strategies to resolve problems in comprehension

2. Metacognition

Metacognition can be defined as "thinking about thinking." Good readers use metacognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text. During reading, they might monitor their understanding, adjusting their reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text and "fixing" any comprehension problems they have. After reading, they check their understanding of what they read.

Students may use several comprehension monitoring strategies: