This document outlines Hanadi Mirza's presentation on improving English language skills at L.I.U. The presentation covers teaching English in the classroom, how students learn and retain new information, and developing key language skills like listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It provides teaching strategies and activities for each skill, addressing common student problems. The schedule includes sessions on teaching methods, memory and learning, developing individual skills, and concluding with a group work activity.

1. IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AT L.I.U.:
A PRACTICAL APPROACH
HANADI MIRZA

2. Schedule
 9:00-10:30
Teaching English in YOUR Class
Learning & Retaining new info
Listening & Speaking Skills
 10:30-10:45 BREAK
 10:45-12:15 Reading & Writing Skills
 12:15-12:30 BREAK
 12:30-14:00 Group Work & Presentations
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3. I.
How do you TEACH English
In YOUR Classroom?
Skills
Course book
Workbook
Syllabus
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4. II. How Do Students
- LEARN English?
- RETAIN New Info?
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6. 
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7. Human Memory
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8. What Do We Remember?
We remember …
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10% of what we read;
20% of what we hear;
30% of what we see;
50% of what we see and hear
80% of what we say;
90% of what we say and do
From: Resources for Organizations and Creative Training TechnIques, 1997
LEARNING by DOING
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9. Language Skills Development
 L
Listening
Receptive
 S
Speaking
Productive
 R
Reading
 W
Writing
Subskills
Grammar & Vocab
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10. III. LISTENING COMPREHENSION Skill
 3.5 A
 3.7 D
Listening vs. Hearing
Your students’ Problems
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11. From Input to Intake
What is happening
INSIDE your head?
A: “ Is it Wemberley?”
B: “NO, it’s Thursday.”
C: “Ah, me too. Let’s have a drink!”
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12. Listening Process
 Comprehension
1. Raw Speech Image Formation
2. Conversation Types (Lecture, Dialog, Radio news
3. Speaker’s Objective (Ask Q’s, Inform, Suggest …)
4. Make Cognitive Association (Background K.) 
Plausible Interpretations
5. Assign Literal Meaning to Utterances
 Understanding
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13.  Misunderstanding
6. Assign Intended Meaning to Utterance
 Misunderstanding= Hearer Makes
False Assumptions about
the Speaker’s Intended Meaning
 Understanding= Intended Meaning Matches
Speaker’s Literal Utterance
7. What to Retain in Short/Long Term Memory
8. Info Is Retained Conceptually NOT Original Form
PARAPHRASING
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14. Good vs. Poor Listeners
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15. Giving & Following
Instructions
1- Attract Students’ Attention
2- Seating Arrangement
3- Tell Students’:
 What to do?
 What materials to use?
 How much time needed to complete Task?
4- Ask Students’ to rephrase Instruction
 TPR (Total Physical Response)
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16. Listening Activities
Purpose
 a. Listen for the gist
 b. Listen for specific information
 c. Listen for details
Strategies
 1. Planning
 2. Monitoring
 3. Evaluating
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17. Thematic Vocabulary
1- Meaning IN Context:
Word / Definition / Synonym / Antonym
Graded readers are written in narrative form.
2- Application:
 Word Formation
 Speaking
 Writing
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18. Listening
 3.3 D / 3.8 A
 3.6 B
IV. SPEAKING Skill
What do we say?
Why Speak?
Your Students’ Problems
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19. Spoken Language
- Monolog = lecture radio news,…
- Dialog = interpersonal or transactional
Fluency versus Accuracy
 Fluency: NOT speed
 ability to express one’s ideas logically
 Accuracy: NO Grammar OR
Pronunciation mistakes
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20. Correcting Pronunciation
 Simplified Phonetics
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[ə] = (euh) sound
Answer
[an sər]
Respond
job
[djob ]
Schedule
[sked jouwəl] Time table
People
[py pəl]
persons
Suggest
[sag djèst]
Jounralist
[djər nalist]
Work in pairs [wərk in pèrz]
Question
[kwest shən]
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21. Correcting Grammar Mistakes
 Revisit a point in grammar
Eg. He? She? Or It?
Ex 1: Use pictures of different people, animals,
things, places, ….:
Ex. 2: Tom is a little boy. _____ goes to school
everyday, and _____ likes to study with his
friend Carl. His sister plays the piano and
_____likes to play with her little dog. _____ is
her favorite friend.
Ex. 3: Monolog or Dialog  Integrate grammar
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22. Speaking Activities
Role Play, Presentation, Guessing Game, Project
 Familiarize SS with the evaluation criteria to lower
their level of anxiety and provide enough practice
 to improve fluency and
 to internalize grammatical rules and increase
accuracy.
 Help SS to Develop Good Conversation Skills (be
polite, take turns, ,…)
 Improve SS pronunciation using simplified phonetics
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23. Input NEEDED for Authentic
Speaking Activities

a.
b.
c.
Listen to:
Monolog/dialog
Music
Sounds

a.
b.
c.
Use Sight:
Watch a Video
Look at Picture/Drawing
Read a text
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24.  Listening
 3.12
 Speaking
 V. READING COMPREHENSION Skill
 Why do we read?
 Reading vs. Reading Comprehension
 Reading Aloud vs. Silent Reading
 Your Students’ Problems
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25. Reading Comprehension =
Meaning Making
PURPOSE:
- Read for the Gist (main idea)
- Read for Specific Info
- Read for Details (intensive / inferential Reading)
 Develop Schemata for CV Reading / Other types
Reading Strategies:
- Praraphrasing
- Questioning
- Clarifying
- Summarizing
| Reading Skills:
a) Skimming
b) Scanning
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26. Comprehension of a Text
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1- Pre-Reading Stage
Warm-up (Discussion)
Pre-Teach Vocab OR Meaning from Context
Predict Story from Title/Pictures
2- During Reading Stage (Silent Reading)
Answer Factual THEN Analytical Questions
Fill in the Story Map / Chart/ Table….
3- Post-Reading Stage
Summarize the Story / Text
Read Aloud  Pronunciation + Intonation
Connect: R-W / R-S / R- Drawing / ….
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27. Reading Aloud
 Simplified Phonetics
Past Tense of Regular Verbs
 (-ed)  [- id] , [-t] , or [-d] ? WANTED -DECIDED
 [-t] & [-d] + [-id] / Vd + [-d] / vl + [-t]
ASKED - PLAYED
 Created , Needed / Proved / Fixed
Plural Form of Nouns
 (-s)  [-z] or [-s] or [-əz] ? MAPS- BOTTLES - CHURCHES
 vd + [-z] / vl + [-s] / -ch, -sh, -ss, -x + [-əz]
 Boys, girls / cats, lin ks / classes, foxes

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28. Vocab Box
(3.11 A / Quiz 94)
1- Thematic Vocabulary
Word / P. of Sp. / Def / Syn / Anto
2- Application:
* Word Formation + Prefixes & Suffixes
Word / Noun / Verb / Adj. / Adv.
* WRITE  Sentences / Paragraph / Essay
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29. Listening
Speaking
3.9- p. 40 / p. 37 D
Reading
3.8 C- D
VI. WRITING Skill
What do we write? Why write?
Your Students’ Problems
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30. We Write…
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Letter 
Word 
Sentence (vs. Non-Sentence) 
Paragraph 
Essay 
Term Paper 
Master Thesis 
Ph.D. Dissertation
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31. Students’ Paragraphs
The Teacher will never forget that kindergarten
student named Jad. Because he was the most
active student in her classroom. He
participates more than anyone else. At play
time, all Kids were playing together, while Jad
was sitting alone, the Teacher realize that,
she agave him his seat next to his friends in
order to read a story that was about Bears.
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32. Sentence
 1- capital letter
./?/!
 2- Meaningful (ONE idea)
 3- Structure  S V (O) Simple Sentence
Combining 2 Ideas:
Add
and
Contrast Cause- Sequence
effect
but
because
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33. Sentence Structure
& Question Formation
 What age are you? (Fr) vs. How old are you?
 I have 20 years old. (French & Arabic)
  I am 20 years old.
 Simple sentence  SVO (French)
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 VSO (Arabic)  SVO
 Question  (Wh-) + Aux + S + V + … ?
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34. Paragraph Schemata
 Elements
+
 Title
 Indentation
 Topic Sentence
 Supporting Details
 Concluding Sentence
Genre:
Descriptive
Adjectives
Senses
Simile
Metaphor
 Essay: Intro+ Body 1+ Body 2+ (Body 3)+ Conc
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35. Model Paragraph
My perfect sl hchool would be much like the
one I went to; however, several improvements
could be made. There could be a better pupilteacher relationship, especially between older
teachers and pupils. Pupils should be once again
given some kind of incentives to do well both at
academic and sports activities. Discipline would
be strict but punishment would only be
administered in severe cases. School would still be
compulsory.
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36. Problems with Writing Tasks
 Poor Writing Topics (summer vacations)
 NO Schemata for Paragraph or Essay
- ID of Paragraph = Topic Sentence
- ID of Essay = Thesis Statement
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37. Writing Topics
* Students usually wait for the summer vacations to rest
and have fun. Some go to the beach. Others spend their
time in the mountains or even travel abroad.
Write a paragraph in which you describe a new place you
visited. How was it? What did you do there?
(Graphic Organizer)
 Write a 4-paragraph essay in which you argue
with or against the law of banning smoking in
public places in Lebanon.
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38. Other Problems with Writing
 Grammar NOT integrated IN Writing
(Habits in the present  Simple present)
 Poor explanation of Spelling rules in Elem
(hid – hide / cut – cute / mad – made)
 Memorizing words visually
(Dictation= NO Use of Listening to Write)
* Memorizing sentences/paragraphs for
(official) exams  destroy writing process
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39. Improve Spelling & Writing
(3.18 A / p. 44 C)
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1- Picture + 1 missing letter (beg. Letter THEN other letters)
2- Picture + 2 missing letters (any two)
3- Picture + scrambled letters
4- Picture only
5- Scrambled letters  Word Formation
6- Find the word: Cross puzzle (+ pics)
7- Dictation: Listen then Write word
8- Unscramble words  Sentence Formation
 Write sentences
9- Unscramble sentences  Make a Paragraph
 Write a paragraph
10- Sequence paragraphs  make an Essay
 Write an essay
11- Creative Writing
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40. Correcting Written Mistakes
Mistake
Type
Correction
Sentence
freind
Spelling
Friend
Tom is my
friend.
he mixs
Simple pre- Mixes
Presen S-V
-prep.
-at the
morning
-make
homework
Sara mixes
tea and
sugar.
--
collocations
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41. Correcting Grammar Mistakes
Integrating Grammar INTO Writing
1. Task A  Writing + Grammar OR Grammar exercise
2. a) Teaching based on mistakes & Learning outcomes
(Modeling / Guided / Independent stages)
b) Working on needed Writing / Grammar exercises
3. Task B  Repeat Sequence till Students meet grammar
objectives in the course syllabus
Reinforce grammar & writing through READING
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42. Avoid Plagiarism
Copy/Paste in:
 Master Thesis
 Ph.D. Dissertation
Projects
Paraphrase ideas taken from:
Internet/ newspapers / books / magazines...
 Quote people (APA Style)
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43. Writing Activities
* NEEDED Input from Listening/Reading
* Integrate Vocabulary / Grammar
* Scoring Rubric
* Writing as Process NOT as a Product:
1- Gather ideas  Needed ideas in Graphic Org.
2- Outline  Organize ideas
3- Write draft 1  respect paragraph/essay format
4- Review ideas  include all needed ideas? (GO)
5 -Edit mistakes  Spelling/ Grammar / Mechanics
6- Write draft 2  Proofread (Peer/ Self/ Teacher Evaluation)
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44. VII. Group Work &
Presentation
Micro- Teaching (10 minutes)
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Listening Activity
Speaking Activity (vocab )
Reading Activity (+ 2 vocab)
Writing Activity (grammar)
Reinforce grammar & Writing through
Reading
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45. Hanadi MIRZA
* hanadym@hotmail.com
* www.hanadimirza.blogspot.com
M
IATEFL BESIG blogroll:
* Teacher Training Blog – Hanadi Mirza
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