2012 README

The aim of this blog is to encourage Upper Intermediate and Advanced learners of the English language to develop

• their Oral Skill (learning to speak fluently and accurately),
• their Aural Skill (learning to understand spoken English — various accents & ways of speaking, different Englishes…),
• their Sociocultural Knowledgeof English-speaking peoples and countries (language is culture),
• their Communicative Strategies (the skill to manage to actually communicate with others, doing what it takes to fix communication problems and the like),
• their Learning Skills (their ability to be effective independent and resourceful lifelong learners).

Also, for the case of Michelle’s Avanzado 2 and Intermediate 2 students at a state-run language school (EOI), these projects
will give you

• excuses to communicate in English with other classmates for different purposes including having a true meaningful communicative purpose! (Never speak Spanish to any of us),
• the chance to pick activities and topics that appeal to you personally (and not only because of professional or academic duties),
• the chance to get together with peers making the same choice,
• the chance to practice teamwork (preparing an Oral Presentation to give in class, an OP),
• the chance to learn to be an independent and resourceful lifelong learner of English while witnessing how your peers do that too.

In this way, hopefully, speaking English in the classroom will become a more spontaneous activity.

Course 2012-13: There are two pages with Lesson Plans: the Intermedio 2 page, and the Avanzado 2 page. Then you have a few other pages you can check out whenever you want to. Finally, I’ve created a “Topics” page to gather all the posts with videos, audios and written texts that help you learn language by topic, and a page on Techniques, Strategies and Resources we are using, called “LEARN TO LEARN”

This blog is shared on the Net in the framework of the Talking People Project, an independent non-profit resource, because we welcome other teachers and learners to profit from the ideas and resources presented here. Everybody is welcome to post and to share their work by sending it for publication Talking People. Please, check outGuidelines for Contributors.