[etni] Fw: re: Oral skills

----- Original Message ----- 
From: laurie ornstein - laurenmadeline@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Oral skills

Hi Renee and All,

Renee, I agree with you even though I said my classroom is an 
English-speaking environment. I do, when necessary, mostly to explain a 
word/phrase, use Hebrew. And I guide my teachers to do the same in their 
mother tongue, Arabic. However, apart from short explanations, we teach 
English in English.

Laurie


Renee wrote:
>I'd like to add another side to the oral skills discussion.
>Although I agree that it is important for our pupils to be able to carry on 
>a conversation in reasonably fluent and understandable English, I do not 
>totally agree with the methods for bringing this about.  In particular, I 
>have never been comfortable with the method that disallows the use of the 
>mother tongue in the EFL classroom.  This is because of my own (and 
>others')  experience with the ulpan method of learning Hebrew.  I remember 
>feeling completely frustated with the complete waste of time trying to 
>explain the meaning of a word, or a point of grammar in a language that was 
>so difficult to begin with, when a quick sentence or word in 
>English/Russian/French would have done the job so much more efficiently.
>Certainly our children should hear as much English as possible, but they 
>hear plenty in the songs they listen to, the TV programs they watch, etc. 
>So some teachers don't know enough Hebrew to use it in the classroom - OK, 
>then they will make themselves understood the best they can and probably do 
>just as good a job. Also, quite a few teachers have such a horrible accent 
>in English that I'd hate any kid of mine to learn speaking skills from 
>them.  So I don't think we should make a fettish of speaking only English 
>in the classroom.  Yes, it is important for pupils to learn oral skills and 
>they should have plenty of opportunity to speak and present in English. 
>But let's not forget that , it is important for them to be able to read and 
>write English as well and this should be done by each teacher with the most 
>efficient use of the little time we have for the task.

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