Have Harrison Ford to Help to Improve Your English Language Speaking Fluency

FRANTIC
This 1991 film stars Harrison Ford and Betty Buckley as a doctor and his wife who are visiting Paris for a medical convention when she suddenly disappears. The desperate husband, who doesn’t speak any French, eventually goes to the Blue Parrot Disco in his search for his missing wife but meets a smooth-talking drug dealer instead. The accents, idioms, expressions, slang, setting and dialogue in this scene are absolutely great. I have a comprehension worksheet I use with learners just for this eight-minute clip from this film. If you have access to this movie just e-mail me and I'll send a copy of the worksheet to you.

Using Popular Films to Improve Speaking Skills
During the course of my 15 plus years of English as a foreign language teaching, I have come across a number of popular films which not only aid EFL learners in improving their English language speaking skills, but are enjoyable for them to watch. In each of these films a scene is selected and the dialogue and setting are exploited for cultural, linguistic and connected speech elements. While there actually many such films, I’ll mention five of my English language learners’ favorites in this series of articles.

In the movie “Frantic”, the distinctive cultural differences in the way countries might investigate crimes, solve cases and handle problems is illustrated. Since the main character doesn’t speak the local language, French, he is severely handicapped in his communication attempts.

What strategies could he use to help him communicate with people? If you’re traveling to a foreign country should you study or try to learn some of the local language first? Why or why not? Are the locals sympathetic? How can you support your response from the film? Have you ever seen any mistreatment of foreign visitors? What happened? Have foreign visitors even acted improperly in your culture or country? What are some common problems with foreigner visitors to your area or country? How could the situation be corrected or improved?

Have your learners practice and act out the scene in pairs or small groups. Write in changes to the scene dialogue. Add dialogue to the scene as well. Update the dialogue into more modern or colloquial English language. May the dialogue funnier, more serious or use idioms and expressions common to the area where the EFL learners live.

Create vocabulary lists, puzzles like crosswords or word searches from the key vocabulary in the scene. The extent of possibilities are limited only by the imagination of you and your English or foreign language learners. Above all, have fun! If you're not familiar with this award-winning actor, just check out this short video clip at: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/292511/harrison_ford/

Key Film Elements
While many popular films contain selected scenes which could be used to illustrate cultural, linguistic and connected speech elements, these five have proven to be useful and well-received by a variety of English language learner profiles. If you can get a hold of any or all of them, give them a try and watch your learners’ motivation and English language speaking skills skyrocket.

By the way, let me know how well this works for you. If you have any questions or would like one of the worksheets I use to accompany each of these film scenes, just drop me an e-mail. I’ll be happy to help.


Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? E-mail the author for a prompt response.

Using Right and Left Brain Activities in English Language Teaching and Learning

In my English language teaching experience I’ve found it to be highly effective to use a multi-modal approach (D. Lazear) combined with multi-media based activities for maximum effect and language acquisition on the part of the learners. I’ve also found it important to develop skills and abilities seated in both hemispheres of the brain. Here is what to consider and how you might approach this.

Theory of Dual Psychology
The theory of Dual Psychology or “Split Brain Theory” as it is sometimes called, states that each of the brain’s two hemispheres operate independently, performing different functions. An inter-connective structure called the Corpus Callosum allows exchange of information and processes between the two hemispheres. Development of the Corpus Callosum is not uniform between men and women. In women, for example, information passes between the two hemispheres via a broad “super highway”. In men however, the path is more like a machete-hacked trail through the jungle, which helps to explain why women are more intuitive and emotional while men tend more to be physical and logical.

Right Brain
Functions which are primarily seated in the right brain hemisphere include:

• Insight
• 3-D three dimensional thinking and concepts
• Art, visuals, images and graphics
• Imagination
• Music
• Control of body’s left side

Left Brain
Functions which are primarily seated in the left brain hemisphere include:

• Number skills
• Written language
• Reasoning
• Spoken language
• Scientific thought
• Control of body’s right side

With an understanding of these split-brain-related aspects we can then prepare a palette of activities that aid in the use and development of both brain hemispheres fostering more balanced overall intellectual development.

Summary
Knowing how the brain functions, how memory works and determining the key strengths, intelligences and learning styles of your learners are important to English and foreign language teaching professionals. It can significantly impact in the preparation of curriculum, lesson planning, use of facilities, resources and the implementation of classroom-based activities or didactics. As such, this is an area of investigation which cannot be persistently ignored. Other didactics, intellectual development and intelligence theory models as well as their application to English and foreign language teaching and learning, such as the Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1984), Hermann’s Brain Dominance Indicator (N. Hermann), and the Triune Brain Model (P. MacLean), will be examined in this continuing series. Also, a selection of didactic activities and their application will be discussed in a sequence of upcoming article posts.


Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? E-mail the author for a prompt response.

Why Grammar teaching Should Be Explicit

Implicit Grammar Teaching
Implicit grammar teaching should not be excluded for explicit grammar teaching entirely, however. Some basic features of English language grammar structure are illogical or dissimilar to speakers of other languages and do not readily lend themselves to being well understood, even in context. In cases where features of English grammar are diametrically opposed or in some other way radically different from the manner of expression in the student’s L1, explicit teaching may be required.

Photo: The author making a point in a university EFL class

Aspects of English language grammar that may offer exceptional challenge to EFL students include use of word order, determiners (this, that, these, those, a, an, the), prepositions (in, on, at, by, for, from, of), auxiliaries (do, be, have), conjunctions (but, so, however, therefore, though, although), interrogatives, intensifiers (some, any, few, more, too) and distinctions between modal verbs (can, could, would, should, may, might, must). Phrasal verbs also present considerable difficulty to Spanish speakers learning communicative English.

Student Responses
Some students also are logical or linguistically-biased thinkers who respond well to structured presentation of new material. Logical-Mathematical and Verbal-Linguistic intelligence learners are prime examples of those that would respond well to explicit grammar teaching in many cases.

Based on my English language teaching and on my personal second and third foreign language learning (L2, L3) experience, an exclusive approach using either implicit or explicit methodologies is not as effective as utilizing one or the other of these approaches as required. Although it is essential to teach elements of language and develop communicative abilities in our students, there is no one best way to introduce and provide practice in them. Young learners have more natural facility in acquisition, while adults may benefit substantially from more “formal” language learning. Learning styles and intelligence strengths are also a significant factor.

Sounds and Structure Introduction
There are many generally accepted ways of introducing the sounds, structure and vocabulary of English, including colloquial forms of conversation and the four basic communication skills. Grammar provides for “communicative economy”. Grammar teaching should be implicit, or explicit, as teaching / learning conditions may dictate helping to minimize the student response teachers fear most, “Teacher, I don’t understand.”

Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? E-mail the author for a prompt response.

Grammar Teaching Should Be Implicit

Strictly Explicit Grammar Study
Strictly explicit grammar study however, and even grammar-focused lessons are often not communicatively based. They can therefore be boring, cumbersome and difficult for students to assimilate. The strict teaching of grammar / structure, except with students of the Logical – Mathematical or Verbal – Linguistic intelligences (H.Gardner, 1988), can be frustrating and highly ineffective. Thus enters Implicit grammar teaching methodologies.

In the early 20th century, Jespersen, like Boas, thought grammar should be studied by examining living speech rather than by analyzing written documents. By providing grammar in context, in an implicit manner, we can expose students to substantial doses of grammar study without alienating them to the learning of English or other foreign language. I also agree with this implicit approach of teaching grammar. The principal manner in which I accomplish this is by teaching short grammar-based sessions immediately followed by additional function-based lessons in which the new grammar / structure is applied in context.

Acquisition vs. Learning
The hypothesis of language-learning researcher Stephen Krashen, pictured above, is that adult language students have two distinct ways of developing skills and knowledge in a second language, acquisition and learning. Acquiring a language is “picking it up”, i.e., developing ability in a language by using it in natural, communicative situations. Learning language differs in that it is “knowing the rules” and having a conscious knowledge of grammar / structure. Adults acquire language, although usually not as easily or as well as children. (Krashen – Terrell, 1984)

Acquisition, however, is the most important means for gaining linguistic skills. A person’s first language (L1) is primarily learned in this way. This manner of developing language skills typically employs implicit grammar teaching and learning.

This does not exclude explicit grammar-teaching entirely, however. Some basic features of English language grammar structure are illogical or highly dissimilar to speakers of other languages and do not readily lend themselves to being well understood, even when presented in context. In cases where features of English grammar are diametrically opposed or in some other way radically different from the manner of expression in the student’s L1, explicit teaching may be required as will be considered further in the following article post of this series.

Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? E-mail the author for a prompt response.

How Should Grammar Be Taught?

Based on my 20 years of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teaching experience, the statement “grammar teaching should be implicit, not explicit” could be argued both for and against. Whether to teach grammar as an extracted focus of ELT (English Language Teaching) or more passively as an inductive, integral topic has been the theme of countless debates on the part of institutions, professors, grammarians and language researchers for decades. Grammar is the branch of linguistics dealing with the form and structure of words or morphology, and their interrelation in sentences, called syntax. The study of grammar reveals how language works, an important aspect in both English acquisition and learning.

The Early 20th Century
In the early 20th century grammarians like the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas and the Danish linguist Otto Jespersen began to describe languages and Boas' work formed the basis of various types of American descriptive grammar study. Jespersen's work was the fore-runner of such current approaches to linguistic theory such as Noam Chomsky’s Transformational Generative Grammar.

Chomsky, pictured above, who studied structural linguistics, sought to analyze the syntax of English in a structural grammar. This led him to view grammar as a theory of language structure rather than a description of actual sentences. His idea of grammar is that it is a device for producing the structure, not of a particular language, but of the ability to produce and understand sentences in any and all languages. Since grammar is the means by which we can understand how a language “works”, a definitive study of language grammar is essential to language study.

Strictly Explicit Grammar Teaching
Strictly explicit grammar study however, and even grammar-focused lessons are often not communicatively based. They can therefore be boring, cumbersome and difficult for students to assimilate. The strict teaching of grammar / structure, except with students of the Logical – Mathematical or Verbal – Linguistic multiple intelligences, can be frustrating and highly ineffective.

There are many generally accepted ways of introducing the sounds, structure and vocabulary of English, including colloquial forms of conversation and the four basic communication skills. Grammar provides for “communicative economy”. Grammar teaching should be implicit, or explicit, as teaching / learning conditions may dictate.


Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? E-mail the author for a prompt response.

Have Whoopi Goldberg Help to Improve Your English Language Speaking Fluency One Scene at a Time

THE COLOR PURPLE
Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Adolph Caesar and Oprah Winfrey deliver memorable performances in this 1985 film adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Alice Walker. A scene with the late Adolph Caesar in which a despondent man (Danny Glover) is consoled by his less-than-capable father (Adolph Caesar) who also tries to motivate his slovenly son out of the doldrums is priceless for use in vocabulary acquisition, and multiple verb tense use, among others. My EFL learners often gasp in disbelief at seeing the state of the son’s (Danny Glover) house in this scene.

Using Popular Films to Improve Speaking Skills
During the course of my 15 plus years of English as a foreign language teaching, I have come across a number of popular films which not only aid EFL learners in improving their English language speaking skills, but are enjoyable for them to watch. In each of these films a scene is selected and the dialogue and setting are exploited for cultural, linguistic and connected speech elements. While there actually many, many such films, I’ll detail five of my English language learners’ favorites in this series of articles.

Discussion Points, Questions and Activities
The film, “The Color Purple”, is set in the American rural south. Sub themes of spousal abuse and social conditions of blacks during that era provide extensive basis for discussion, research and discourse on related and comparative cultural aspects. Your English language learners can compare the conditions pictured in the film with current conditions of ethnic or national groups in their country. Suggestions for changes and improvements can be made. How are the clothes, conditions and speech different from what your EFL learners may currently be exposed to? Why might any of these conditions and aspects be different?

Have your learners practice and act out the scene in pairs or small groups. Write in changes to the scene dialogue. Add dialogue to the scene as well. Update the dialogue into more modern or colloquial English language. May the dialogue funnier, more serious or use idioms and expressions common to the area where the EFL learners live.

Create vocabulary lists, puzzles like crosswords or word searches from the key vocabulary in the scene. The extent of possibilities are limited only by the imagination of you and your English or foreign language learners. And above all, remember to have fun!

Key Film Elements
While many popular films contain selected scenes which could be used to illustrate cultural, linguistic and connected speech elements, these five have proven to be useful and well-received by a variety of English language learner profiles. If you can get a hold of any or all of them, give them a try and watch your learners’ motivation and English language speaking skills skyrocket.

By the way, let me know how well this works for you with your English as a foreign language learners. If you have any questions or would like one of the worksheets I use to accompany the film scenes, just drop me a quick e-mail request. I’m always happy to help.


Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? E-mail the author for a prompt response.

What Birds Can Teach You About English Language Learning

What can some of our fine feathered friends teach you about English language learning? Plenty. So let’s briefly look at some of the techniques you can apply in your own English language teaching and learning situations.


Bird Species to Note
A variety of bird species have an innate ability to imitate foreign sounds.

Species include:

• Parrots and Parakeets
• Mynahs
• Mockingbirds
• Cockatiels
• Starlings
• Macaws


This ability includes the imitation of or “mocking” of human speech as well as whistling tunes and making “rude” noises. Surely you’re all familiar with the “Polly want a cracker” speech imitation mode. A former neighbor’s parrot annoyed almost everyone with a recognizable, but naughty whistle it “learned” to give whenever anyone walked by. But do you know exactly how these birds are “taught” to imitate human language?

Stimulus and Reward
One key technique used to train birds and other animals as well, is the “stimulus and reward” method. The other is “time interval repetition”. When combined, birds of several different species can be “trained” t “talk”. That is, they repeat an imprinted sound pattern sequence and are then rewarded with a morsel of food. Sound stimulus and repetition then finally lead to a reward if “performed” by the bird. In the wild, Mockingbirds can imitate the sounds of predators and other bird species like hawks, to trick or scare enemies and rivals away.

The EFL or Foreign Language Learner
So how then, does this impact an EFL or foreign language learner? Simply that by imitating correct or native speaker connected speech patterns a high level of pronunciation and speaking fluency can be achieved. To accomplish this, the learner essentially requires the following:

• A native (or near-native) English or foreign language speaking model

This can be a “live” person or a series of audio or video repeatable recordings. Whether on VHS, BETA video cassettes, CD ROMs or DVDs, the learner must be able to stop and repeat as necessary.

• A manner of receiving any necessary error-correction and fine-tuning of connected or pronunciation elements

This is mostly accomplished through the efforts of an instructor or speech coach whose responsibility is to provide needed demonstration, correction and feedback for the learner’s improvement.

Audio Only?
Although the use of audio cassettes and voice only media are also useful, the process can be more difficult because learners do not have the ability to see the movement and positions of speech-producing organs. Not only are the throat and vocal chords used in speech, but also the lips, teeth, tongue hard and soft palates play important roles. In addition, models can be acquired from online sources in a number of formats. CALL (Computer-Aided Language Learning) author Gavin Dudeney, in his work with web quests and online learning projects advises having a multi-modal approach to English or foreign language learning which includes connected speech and pronunciation aspects.

By applying the techniques of “mimicking” or “shadow Talking” to your English or foreign language learning repertoire, substantial progress in connected speech improvement can be achieved in a relatively short period of time. The technique is referred to as “Shadow talking” or “mimicking” as noted by Australian English language-learning researcher Christopher Dugdale. We’ll have more on the application of these techniques in upcoming article posts.

Note: For an example of a Cockatiel imitating human speech check out this YouTube video at: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=DsyAZYYB2ig


Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on the lucrative, fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign Language, get your copy of his no-cost, full multi-media, hypertext-linked pdf ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know” by sending an e-mail to lynchlarrym@gmail.com with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. Need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? E-mail the author for a prompt response.