Monday, July 12, 2010

Teaching Oral Communication Skills to Diploma Students

Starting this semester (Semester July 2010) year one students will need to take a new subject in English which is AE101 Communicative English. This subject would not only new to the students but also to some English Language tutors including me. The subject (according to the syllabus that is given to me) will focus more on communication skills like listening and speaking especially. The subject will not have any final test since every single assessment or the 100 percent will be implemented in classroom throughout quizzes, writing tasks, group discussions, assignments and individual oral presentations.

It’s is a norm to have some students with difficulties in speaking for instance, but in another way they are good in term of writing skills or comprehension and the situation goes vice versa. Tutors tasks or responsibility here are to be the facilitators to students and the rest is depending on them whether they willing to try and succeed or stop trying and remain at the same level all time.

For the past 2 weeks everything seems to goes very well in my class. In my observation, most students are giving their full commitment and cooperation in class and ready to take their language learning experience to the next level. It’s a very good start for both parties; language learners and tutors. And I hope the positive situation goes the same way until the end of this semester. As far as I am concerned, the students listened to my instructions in class and get along very well with my explanations on related topics.

Teaching and especially learning communication skills does take time. The most important thing to remember is to make sure students know what they are doing especially in using the communication skills appropriately in the future. The focus now is in making sure that the class will have 100 percent participation and develop speaking skills from time to time.

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