E-05.01 Get Into Oral-Skills Instructional Approaches (While Asking & Giving Directions)

English in Everyday Life: Getting There 

WorkLife English: Competency-Based Listening/Speaking Book 2.  Tapescript 

10 + 2 = 12 pp

Who It’s For: American-English (Teachers & Helpers of) High Beginning to Intermediate Students About to (Re-)Start a Course of Oral-Language-Skills Development

Why It’s Useful: All ten Chapters of  WorkLife English: A Competency-Based Listening/Speaking Book 2: English in Everyday Life have the same format.  After a Chapter Opener listing Competencies & Grammar comes a Vocabulary preview.  Part One / Better Listening provides model conversation on the Chapter Theme. It helps text users develop proficiency in Strategies such as Getting Main Ideas, Listening for Stressed Words, Tolerating Ambiguity.  Part Two / Pronunciation is built around features like Sounds in Contrast, Word Stress, & Intonation. Part Three / Listening & Speaking Skills offers various Listening Tasks & Oral Activities. There’s a section called “Words in Fast Speech.”  Finally, Part Four / Communication wraps up the pedagogy with assorted (Information-Gap) Speaking Activities, some involving “Notions & Functions.” This E-05.01 Download represents a first opportunity to gain familiarity with a number of “best practices” approaches to the furthering of Listening & Speaking abilities. 

What You’ll Do: 

[1] In the page 5 Opener, notice Competencies to achieve like “Understanding & Giving Instructions & (Personal) Info,” “Expressing (In) Comprehension,” & “Asking for Repetition.” Note the Grammar in Focus.  Get the Vocabulary: “Words in Directions.”

[2]  To build “Better Listening” skills on page 7, hear Audio segments to react to—by circling “yes” or “no” and by drawing a line of a map. To focus on “Pronunciation,”  listen to (and repeat) someone’s thoughts in a Strip Story. Contrast the “Simple Vowels / Ï E  I  A  ¿ / in “street names.” Then insert stressed words into sentences with rising + falling intonation.  On page 10, review the pronunciation of numbers (in contact info & times).  According to what you hear in Conversations, complete a “Class Enrollment Card.” Show you can understand “Contractions & Words in Fast Speech” by filling in blanks.  On pages 13-14, use sentence templates to fill in speech balloons of some illustrated situations—orally and with clear articulation.  Finally, with someone else, give & get mapped street directions.

[3] Attached to each Download E-05.01 through E-05.10 are corresponding pages from the WorkLife English: A Competency-Based Listening/Speaking Book 2: English in Everyday Life Instructor’s Manual. Relevant portions are highlighted.