Chapter 6- Oracy Instruction That Builds on the First Language

Speaking and listening are two important skills in language acquisition. In this chapter, I really like the idea of "cultural capital" where the student's native language is taken as the capital to build the second language acquisition on. Also recognizing different categories of listening is so helpful for teachers to be able to include a variety of exercises/activities from these categories. Among these,I believe, listening for communication is the one that should be focused on more as people, regardless of L1 or L2, learn a language to interact with each other. Including before, while and after listening tasks would be beneficial for the students to be able to listen effectively. A before listening exercise serves as a warm-up for the content to be studied. Students have an idea what the listening will be about. A while listening task, on the other hand, would help students acquire more academic skills like note taking or listening for a reason. Finally, an after listening task gives the student a chance to practice the material studied and learn the culture while interacting with others.

Speaking on the other hand, is extremely important in a language classroom. I believe, as long as students do not speak in the target language, one cannot say that fully learning happenned. In order for students to speak confidently in class, they should be provided a non-threatening environment. When students know that, the others are not mocking them and their thoughts are valued, it becomes easier to have them speak in class. Students should be given opportunities to speak not only for the Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills but also for academic purposes. I cannot imagine a language class where speaking is not promoted. But unfortunately, in most of the EFL classrooms, the priority is given to input (maybe because of the curricular restrictions) and students almost never have the chance to communicate in the target language until they goto a country where TL is spoken. Since I have had the same experince, I know that it becomes harder as one waits longer to start communicating in TL. To prevent this using IC in the classrooms would benefit a lot.

I also agree what Shawn says on his blog. "the key is to have any exercise be interesting so that it stimulates the students' learning" The materials chosen should be relevant to students' lives if paticipation is expected. http://shawnfeeneyeesl501.blogspot.com/