It is interesting to see how the language pedagogy moved from placing grammar in the center of instructional activities to placing speaking there (and I don't mean that speaking does not have a rightful place in this spot). When I was in school (as in before college), we focused on the form mostly and then starting with middle school we started to have classes aimed at oral skills development, where we would mostly give prepared speeches, it was boring as hell, except for two years when we had a Peace Corps volunteer. In college we also had oral skills classes, and on the contrary to any logic, we had to write at least two essays for every class meeting. This logical discrepancy bothered me to no end. The bottom line is that out of 75 kids in my high school class and about 200 in college the only ones that were fluent, really fluent in English, were the ones who had been to the US on FSA/FLEX exchange program. So much for the form-focused instruction.
I think that now ESL and EFL instruction settings are becoming more similar due to the development of technology. We can use podcasts, movies, live broadcasting and what not. I also think that role playing and communicative activities are a lot more productive compared to prepared speeches, which are basically academic writing and reading out loud combined (not too communicative, eh?).
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2 comments:
Where and what did you as a volunteer for Peace Corps?
I am sorry about confusing you. I wasn't a Peace Corps volunteer. When I was in high school we had a PC volunteer teach a course in spoken English for two years.
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