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curriculum
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metodd1



Joined: 31 Mar 2006
Posts: 10
Location: here and there

PostPosted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:11 am    Post subject: curriculum Reply with quote

So, this has probably been covered. If so, sorry.

Still, for those of you who teach in places with no curriculum and you have to come up with material on your own, what do you turn to for lesson ideas and things like that? Do you all have a good resource or resources to use for that? I'm wondering if there is some kind of great material out there that people are using, or if it is a wide range of different stuff. I'd be interested to know, because I'm going to have to come up with some.
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Super Mario



Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 1022
Location: Australia, previously China

PostPosted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh dear.
Which kinds of English classes do you teach? I like to build students' written competence via noun groups, nominalisations, and the various text types they need to master.
Field building, deconstructing, modelling and scaffolding are part of the teaching/learning cycle.
There are no quick fix answers to teaching EFL.
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nolefan



Joined: 14 Jan 2004
Posts: 1458
Location: on the run

PostPosted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

too many variables to give you a proper answer.

I tend to use the China Daily as a source of materials and articles that are somewhat current and relevant. This website is not bad either and there are a few more.
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Super Mario



Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 1022
Location: Australia, previously China

PostPosted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 9:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There are heaps of free ESL sites providing lesson ideas and plans.
At the top of this page, hit
Dave's ESL Cafe Home
Then from Stuff for Everyone choose [/b]Weblinks.
But this is just lesson by lesson survival stuff. You need a long term program based on your student group's needs.

And some people [clearly not the OP] think teaching's just a stroll in the park!
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Malsol



Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 1976
Location: Lanzhou

PostPosted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Laughing

Last edited by Malsol on Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Girl Scout



Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 525
Location: Inbetween worlds

PostPosted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 3:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Since you didn't bother to inform us, or have no idea, about the ability level or age group you will be teaching, you will have a bit more work to do. We're not going to guess if you are teaching kids, college, or adults. You should also know that even if your job has a curicculm and materials, most of the ones I've been given were not worth the paper they were published on.

A good place to start is right here at Dave's. Go to the Thailand Forum and check the Thailand Master Index sticky.

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=12862

Scroll about half-way down the page to the Virtual Teacher Index. There you will find one of the most comprehensive list of material and lesson plan sites available today.
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metodd1



Joined: 31 Mar 2006
Posts: 10
Location: here and there

PostPosted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 5:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

:::sigh::::

university.
no curriculum provided.
i have teaching experience as a sub, no lesson planning to speak of, until this summer when i have a couple of classes (at a college) of my own before heading to china for the fall.
i will figure it out.
thanks for the info.
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Roger



Joined: 19 Jan 2003
Posts: 9138

PostPosted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 6:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

metodd1 wrote:
:::sigh::::

university.
no curriculum provided.
i have teaching experience as a sub, no lesson planning to speak of, until this summer when i have a couple of classes (at a college) of my own before heading to china for the fall.
i will figure it out.
thanks for the info.


I empathise with you for the discordant notes in the previous "replies"...

At univesity level: do you teach "oral English"?

Are your students English majors?

To givbe you some parallels:
I have university-level students aged 22 this year; none is English major. Yet, they have at least 8 or more likely: 10 years of classroom English to their belts.

Some come with a textbook "TAPESTRY" that's been written by people connected to the CNN.

The texts look pretty heavy and pretty interesting but alas, they don't go down with most students - their English simply isn't up to scratch.

So, as one of their instructors I can choose to use the textbook (though I haven't been provided with a copy myself!), or I can design my own course content.

As always, my students lack listening ability the most; say what you will but without the ability to follow someone else's discourse you should not try to make conversation with that person!
I therefore focus on listening exercises that incorporate pronunciation, comprehension and phonetics.

My classes are way too big to give them the opportunity to speak up; I don't subscribe to the notion of pairing them up to maximise their oral production because I am not a cop enforcing the rule to speak; if someone wants to speak they must do so to the whole class. In a postgraduate class of English majors they loved doing that, and they had no problems talking in front to their peers sitting at desks.
What I do to make them produce some spoken English is to have them repeat certain short stories sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph. I divide them into groups and make one at a time speak with the rest of them listening; I reoutinely ask for their peers' opinion on how