Describing And Teaching Spoken English

Is American English in decline? Are regional dialects dying out? Is there a difference between men and women in how they adapt to linguistic variations? These questions, and more, about our language catapulted Robert MacNeil and William Cran—the authors (with Robert McCrum) of the language classic The Story of English—across the country in search of the answers. Do You Speak American? is the tale of their discoveries, which provocatively show how the standard for American English—if a standard exists—is changing quickly and dramatically. On a journey that takes them from the Northeast, through Appalachia and the Deep South, and west to California, the authors observe everyday verbal interactions and in a host of interviews with native speakers glean the linguistic quirks and traditions characteristic of each area. While examining the histories and controversies surrounding both written and spoken American English, they address anxieties and assumptions that, when explored, are highly emotional, such as the growing influence of Spanish as a threat to American English and the special treatment of African-American vernacular English. And, challenging the purists who think grammatical standards are in serious deterioration and that media saturation of our culture is homogenizing our speech, they surprise us with unpredictable responses. With insight and wit, MacNeil and Cran bring us a compelling book that is at once a celebration and a potent study of our singular language. Each wave of immigration has brought new words to enrich the American language. Do you recognize the origin of 1. blunderbuss, sleigh, stoop, coleslaw, boss, waffle? Or 2. dumb, ouch, shyster, check, kaput, scram, bummer? Or 3. phooey, pastrami, glitch, kibbitz, schnozzle? Or 4. broccoli, espresso, pizza, pasta, macaroni, radio? Or 5. smithereens, lollapalooza, speakeasy, hooligan? Or 6. vamoose, chaps, stampede, mustang, ranch, corral? 1. Dutch 2. German 3. Yiddish 4. Italian 5. Irish 6. Spanish

"This series has been designed to help students of English understand spoken language as it is encountered in everyday business and social situations in English speaking environments aroudn the world."--Back cover.

"Drawing on wide-ranging literature from a variety of relevant disciplines, as well as their own extensive experience in teaching spoken English, the authors give a fascinating, comprehensive, and insightful account of the nature of second language speaking skills. The research and theory they survey then serves as the basis for the principles, strategies, and procedures they propose for the teaching of spoken English. This book will, therefore, provide an invaluable resource for teachers, teachers in training, and researchers, providing both a state-of-the-art survey of the field as well as a source of practical ideas for those involved in planning, teaching, and evaluating courses and materials for the teaching of spoken English"--

Here is a practical tool for teaching communication in the language classroom, suitable for use with students from elementary to advanced level. The book contains instructions for over 100 different participatory exercises. For each activity, notes are provided for organization, time, and preparation. A comprehensive table of activities and an index also are included. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

In this book the authors examine the nature of spoken language and how it differs from written language both in form and purpose. A large part of it is concerned with principles and techniques for teaching spoken production and listening comprehension. An important chapter deals with how to assess spoken language. The principles and techniques described apply to the teaching of English as a foreign and second language and are also highly relevant to the teaching of the mother tongue

*What elements make a speaking activity successful? *Which tasks or activities really help build speaking fluency? *What does the research show regarding speaking activities? *What mistakes do ESL teachers often make in speaking activity design? In this highly accessible and practical resource, Keith S. Folse provides a wealth of information to help ESL/EFL teachers design and use speaking tasks that will actually improve students' speaking fluency. The book presents and discusses the relevant research and assessment issues and includes case studies from twenty different settings and classrooms around the world so that readers learn from others about the problems and successes of using various speaking activities. Teachers will find the chapters on Twenty Successful Activities and Ten Unsuccessful Activities particularly valuable. The successful activities are provided for classroom use and are reproducible. The book also contains five appendixes that explain what teachers need to know about vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar and how they affect the teaching of speaking. Samples of successful lesson plans and a list of resources useful for teaching speaking are also included. Keith S. Folse, Ph.D., is Coordinator, TESOL Programs, University of Central Florida (Orlando). He is the author of Vocabulary Myths (University of Michigan Press, 2004) and more than 35 second language textbooks, including texts on grammar, reading, speaking, listening, and writing.

This is a book with successful track record of teaching to speak English with great confidence and style. It provides all the necessary material for conversation practice. Lessons have been prepared by picking up familiar topics and creating extended dialogues based on everyday situations. The exercise after each lesson provides a variety of sentence patterns, word lists, grammatical intricacies, subtle variations in word/ phrase meanings, with their usage in different situations, and showcases the multiple ways of saying the same thing. These also provide ample hands-on practice through fill-in-the-blanks exercises. There is also a pronunciation guide with short notes on stress and rhythm. At the end of the book there is a treasure trove in the form of: • an alert against words often confused between • words that are always used in their plural form • uncountable nouns • words that are often misspelt • words that are often mispronounced • exercises to equip you against common mistakes that are often made. In the fourth edition, some more expressions have been included that are now becoming popular. The book is thus much richer in expressions and dialogues, and is in a more attractive format.

This book is designed to help students of English understand spoken language as it is encountered in everyday business and social situations in English speaking environments around the world. It provides information about the social and business conventions of spoken English such as, changing the topic of conversation, agreeing and disagreeing politely, checking meaning, giving feedback and making 'small talk'.