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<p>I remember in my first years of teaching English I often struggled with providing speaking opportunities for all my students. I had to overcome a few obstacles, which included getting all my 20+ students to speak in one class, motivating them to speak English versus their native language, and encouraging shy students to speak. Another problem was finding a way to assess the speaking in order to prepare my students to successfully complete the speaking portion of their tests. Throughout the years, I have collected resources that have helped me motivate my learners to speak English.</p>

<h3>Tips and Resources for In-Class Dialogue</h3>

<p>Set up your classroom to encourage dialogue.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Two desks or chairs facing each other is great for pair work.</li>
	<li>Chairs in a circle is great for whole class discussions.</li>
</ul>

<p>Divide students up in pairs or groups and walk around the class and take observation notes discreetly to be shared later when you provide feedback. Give feedback afterwards so you do not interrupt the flow of the conversation.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Provide these written notes to each student privately so the student isn&#39;t embarrassed in the class.</li>
	<li>You can also point out general errors during whole class feedback.</li>
</ul>

<p>Have students record themselves having the conversation with either their cellphones or provide them recorders.</p>

<p>Have students suggest topics they would like to discuss in order to ensure they have an interest in the topic.</p>

<p>Play games or use icebreakers to add some fun!</p>

<p>Have students provide the vocabulary and materials to spark the conversation! These are a few ideas:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2010/11/29/animating-your-lessons-with-some-drama-20-resources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Animating Your Lessons</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2010/10/23/teaching-unplugged-with-a-student-interaction-whiteboard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Teaching Unplugged With A Student Interaction Whiteboard</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://teacherrebootcamp.com/2009/10/current-events-lesson-for-english-language-learners/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Current Events Lesson for English Language Learners</a></li>
</ul>

<h3>Suggested Tools</h3>

<p>These free tools helped my learners improve their speaking skills! Click on the links to discover ways learners used the tools!</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="http://www.skype.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Skype</a>&nbsp;- Check out <a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2010/08/22/learning-beyond-walls-21-skype-resources/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">21 Skype Resources</a>. Skype in guest experts your students can interview, or Skype with other classes around the world!</li>
	<li><a href="http://blabberize.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Blabberize</a>&nbsp;- Free tool for students to add mouths and dialogue to images.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Chatbots</h3>

<p>There are several chatbot sites that are great for English language learners. The student simply types in the dialogue and the chatbot will respond.</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="http://www.innocentenglish.com/for-kids/chat-bot-introduction.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BELL</a>&nbsp;- A female chatbot that responds to messages typed in by children and adults. Read Anne Hodgson&rsquo;s article on her experience talking with Bell, <a href="http://www.spotlight-online.de/language/grammar/the-chatbot-and-i-grammar-and-pragmatics" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Chatbot and I: Grammar and Pragmatics</a>. In this article,&nbsp;she has you examine if the conversation is human-like or robot-like.</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.eslfast.com/robot/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ESLFast</a>&nbsp;- Students can speak with Tutor Mike, a male bot, or the female shopping bot. There are many dialogue examples on the right side of the website. English language learners can listen and read the various dialogues for various situations.</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.elbot.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elbot</a>&nbsp;- This is a robot that chats with students. Click on the red button on his stomach to chat with him.</li>
</ul>

Yakkity Yak! Talk Back! Tips and Resources for Improving Speaking Skills

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<p>It&#39;s that time again for many of us worldwide to start the new school year!</p>

<p>This time of year is very exciting, but it also comes with new challenges.</p>

<p>One of the most important challenges of the school year is <strong>how to engage parents</strong>.</p>

<p>Engaged parents make decisions and have a say in what happens in the classroom and with the curriculum. Engaging parents was something I often struggled with for many years.</p>

<p>Here are a few practical ways to get your parents to become partners.</p>

<h3>Begin the conversation</h3>


<p>Instead of having parents sign a syllabus with difficult language, try sending a personalized email.</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>I use a blanket email that I copy and paste</strong> but the first two sentences always says something along the lines of, &#39;Dear Mr./Mrs. Doe, I really enjoyed meeting Johnny who is very bright and made me laugh.&#39; I always try to send a positive message for every child. This way, the first communication you have with the parent is positive versus negative.</li>
	<li><strong>Include information and links to your wiki page</strong>, school website, your contact information, where they can find homework, your meeting hours, schools supplies needed, and other important dates or information.</li>
	<li><strong>Use headers</strong> like I am using in this post for easy navigation.</li>
	<li><strong>Try translating with Google </strong>if you know the parents of your English language learners have trouble understanding. I often will begin the email with &#39;I&#39;m sorry if this isn&#39;t translated so well. I used Google.&#39; Parents really get a kick out of this and love me for the effort.</li>
	<li><strong>At the end of the email, ask the parents to respond with answers</strong> to questions like what is the best time to contact them and how they would like to help. If the parents have a question, they are more likely to respond back.</li>
	<li><strong>If the parent doesn&#39;t have email, then send the printed letter home</strong> with the child that asks for the best way to contact them.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Set up an online parent community</h3>

<p>Set up a community for your parents to communicate with you and other parents. You can easily do this with Facebook.</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>These communities allow parents to post updates</strong> to calendars, share resources, find homework, and so much more. <span new="" roman="" style="font-family: Georgia, " times="">These social networks can be made private so that only students and parents have access.</span></li>
	<li><strong>Try posting a resource every week</strong> or month that will help parents with their own English.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Keep parents active</h3>

<p>Partnerships work best when we help each other.</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>Let parents make decisions.&nbsp;</strong>Ask parents what they think would make the curriculum better. Then try to implement the suggestion. In the past, I have had parents add Wiki content such as song lyrics or YouTube videos. I have had parents suggest an activity for a book or a game.</li>
	<li><strong>Invite parents to volunteer and help.&nbsp;</strong>I have had parents decorate the classroom or update the calendar in our online community. I have had parents organize fundraisers to get computers or other needs in the classroom. I have had parents be in charge of the activity of the month or resource of the month. Parents have organized field trips or have been guest speakers. Just like students, parents often need to know how they can help and be assigned roles so they feel like you value them and their ideas. Every parent can help in some way to improve the learning environment.</li>
	<li><strong>Invite parents to a workshop</strong>. Invite parents to a special workshop night and serve food! Food entices people to come.&nbsp;I like to do this after the first few weeks in order to go over what technology we will use in the classroom, games we will play, rules, and more. I talk to parents about their concerns with their children posting online and we come to an agreement on&nbsp;what will be published.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Share your ideas</h3>

<p>I hope these ideas will help you begin the school year right with your language learners and their parents! Whether your students are toddlers or teenagers, these ideas have worked for me! What are your favorite ways to engage parents?</p>

Tips for Engaging Parents this School Year

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<p>Many English language teachers worldwide have upcoming holidays or a summer/winter break. These breaks provide educators the opportunities to engage in fantastic online professional development that is inspiring and motivating! Tweet with some of your favorite ELT authors, attend a webinar with teachers worldwide, or read some great English language teaching blogs. Social media provides us with incredible opportunities to choose the way we want to develop professionally. You can choose the topic, the medium, and who you want to learn from. You can choose the way you like to learn, because social media provides us with several multimedia experiences, such as webinars, LMS, live video, and more. The experience is usually dynamic and motivating because you are learning with others around the world! Additionally, you will be developing your&nbsp;Personal/ Passionate Learning Network (PLN).</p>

<p>Don&#39;t know where to start, well here are a few ideas:</p>

<h3>Free Programs</h3>

<p><a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/30-goals-2011/">The 30 Goals Challenge</a>&nbsp;- Over 5000 educators have participated in the 1st and 2nd editions of this global challenge for educators with the premise of getting you to complete 30 professional development goals by 2012. These are short-term goals, such as guest posting, changing your classroom environment, providing effective feedback, establishing an online presence, and more.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.integrating-technology.org/">Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL)</a>&nbsp;- provides free online workshops on Moodle for Teachers (Orientation, Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced), Professional Electronic Portfolios (PEP), WebQuests, Facilitating Online Classes, Grant Writings, TESOL, Integrating Technology and using Web 2.0 in the classroom.</p>

<h3>Real-Time Events</h3>

<p>You can attend several free conferences, webinars, Twitter chats, and presentations online with your PLN! These usually last one hour, but many conferences also offer free all day live streaming of their keynotes.</p>

<p><a href="http://edupln.ning.com/forum">The Educators&rsquo; PLN Ning Live Chats with Guest Experts</a>&nbsp;- The Educator&rsquo;s PLN is a great place to interact and learn from other educators. Join us for free live chats with various authors. In the past we featured Alfie Kohn, Howard Rheingold, Diane Ravitch, Chris Lehmann, Steve Hargadon, Jim Burke, and others.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.futureofeducation.com/">Future of Education</a>&nbsp;- Join Steve Hargadon live as he interviews some of the greatest minds in education. Past guests included Sir Ken Robinson, Alfie Kohn, Diane Ravitch, and more!</p>

<p><a href="http://live.classroom20.com/index.html">Classroom 2.0 Live Events</a>&nbsp;- Every week, attend a free webinar with an expert in a field or listen to some great authors speak live and ask them questions.</p>

<p><a href="https://join.secondlife.com/?lang=en-US">Attend Second Life Live Events</a>&nbsp;- Second Life has several educational groups that meet weekly for free conferences, talks, workshops, and more.<a href="http://secondlife.com/support/downloads/?lang=en-US"> Download the software</a> and register for free.</p>

<p><a href="http://eltchat.pbworks.com/">#ELTchat</a>&nbsp;- Join several language teachers every Wednesday to discuss various topics you get to vote for and suggest.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.cybraryman.com/chats.html">Education Chats on Twitter</a>&nbsp;- Find out the dates and times of educational conversations that occur on Twitter.</p>

<p>What are your favorite ways to learn online? Did I miss any other great professional development opportunities?</p>


What Will You Learn? Free Professional Development Opportunities for English Language Teachers

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<p>In many countries, students are taking a break for the summer. Yes, we want our students to enjoy their time away from classes, however, we don&#39;t want them to lose the language they&#39;ve acquired. Learning a language requires continuous practice and the best practice is always outside the classroom within a context. One way to motivate students to practice their English in a fun way is to get them to do it while they play! I can guarantee you that every one of your students will find time to play this summer, online and offline! The trick is getting your students to use English while playing their games. These ideas have helped me motivate my students to play games outside the classroom.</p>

<h3>Find Out Your Students&#39; Gaming Habits</h3>

<p>Use one of your class discussions to explore your students&#39; gaming habits. Have them break up in groups or pairs and discuss how much time a week and month they spend playing games, if these games are offline or online, what devices they play on, if they play online games, and what kind of games they like to play. Some of your students will love word games, others may like war games, and others make like active games. Some of your students will prefer playing outdoors and others will be glued to their PS3s or mobile phones. Take a poll to find out how many play games using technology and how many still play outdoor games or board games. This will be an interesting lesson that sparks a lot of discussion, while revealing how you might be able to integrate language learning into your students&#39; gaming habits. If you collaborate with classes in another country, you can compare results with this class and discuss the cultural and societal differences.</p>

<h3>Engage Parents</h3>

<p>Conduct a parent workshop to teach parents how to help their children play the games and reinforce the language at home. I invite parents to a free workshop where I serve delicious snacks so they will come. Then we talk about their concerns with their children using various technologies and we talk about how I will use technology to encourage their children to practice English.&nbsp;I ask for their ideas of games their children like to play and what games they play with their children offline. We then talk about various ways they can play with the children online and offline and use English.&nbsp;I also tell parents that I would like their children to blog about their game play or post on a social site (if they are teens) to encourage them to continue playing the game. After all, children love to tell their friends what they are up to and what games they are playing.</p>

<h3>Encourage Game Play for Young Learners</h3>

<p>Parents are very important in motivating very young children to play games. I suggest to parents various board games, card games, jump rope games, clapping games, travel games, and more ways to play and use English. The parents also let me know what games they already play with their children and we talk about ways to introduce some English into these games. If your students have access to the Internet, students are able to play online games you suggest in a wiki, blog or website. Moreover, in a wiki or blog, the parents can automatically receive updates to their email accounts.</p>

<h3>Encourage Game Play for Teens</h3>

<p>If your students have access to the Internet, students are able to practice English in a fun way through online games. They can play the games you suggest in a wiki, blog, website, or social forum. I prefer social forums such as Edmodo, Facebook, or Twitter. The trick is finding what social networks your students are already active on and creating a private, safe group. If you work with teenagers, then you can have them create a private Facebook group where they update their status, post their scores, write notes about tricks they learned for certain levels, and overall what games they recommend others play. You can easily and quickly add your gaming suggestions, interesting articles about the games, tips you find, or walkthroughs that will encourage your students to read in English and apply the language to their game playing. Also, you can list links to polls and encourage them to post pics of levels they reach and so forth. You can have them chat with each other when they need help from another student about the various levels they are playing and how to pass them. Language is social and helps in getting your students interested in speaking English through their game playing.</p>

<h3>Encourage Game Play for Adults</h3>

<p>Adults also play games. They often love games such as Scrabble, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, or Bingo. Encourage the adults to host a weekly game night where they try playing English games such as charades, Apples to Apples, Clue, Taboo, Family Feud, Twister, Monopoly, or other English language games with the family. In this way, you also support family time or time with friends and many of the adults will thank you for this. Many will also play games on their mobile devices.</p>

Tips for Getting Students to Play Games and Learn This Summer

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VIEWING POSTS BY

Shelly Terrell

Yakkity Yak! Talk Back! Tips and Resources for Improving Speaking Skills

Tips for Engaging Parents this School Year

What Will You Learn? Free Professional Development Opportunities for English Language Teachers

Tips for Getting Students to Play Games and Learn This Summer