Collections of Professor Dr David Ngin Sian Pau

Speaking

Fluency comes from practice. However, it needs to be practice that involves extended use of the language and use of extended sentences. Students can not build fluency by repeating single words or short phrases. Fluency at its heart relates to being able to speak for longer periods of time in a smooth way. Broadly speaking, here are a few things I will do with students in class that can help build fluency:

1.speeches or presentations
2.group discussions
3.role plays
4.negotiations and debates
5.interviews and meetings
6.chatting in small groups
7.pair works
8.arguments
9.creating a situation and acting it accordingly
10.anyone is free to answer questions asked by the teacher on a given topic
11.playing games such as hangman, tic-tac-toe, bingos, I spy, who am I?, etc..

Idioms & Phrasal Verbs

Many websites list idioms. So I will tell students to enter "American Idioms" or “British Idioms” in Google or any search engine to find many sites full of idioms. It would be good to let them guess their meanings from their context from the paragraphs the teacher wrote on the board. Finally giving them the correct definitions, engaging the students in conversation will help them remember the chosen idioms of the day. Sometimes student's mother language has similar idioms. So I will ask them how they express the same thing in their language. Test them on the meanings of the idioms. I like to use the "fill in the blank" method, and complete the class by having them write a paragraph or two using the idioms so that students may not forget what they learnt in class.

For teaching phrasal verb to students, I will write a list of common verbs that combine with prepositions to make phrasal verbs. I would suggest the following list:

1.Take, 2.Get, 3.Make, 4.Put, 5.Bring, 6.Turn, 7.Be, 8.Carry, and so on.

And I will divide students into small groups of 3-4 each, ask students to choose three of the verbs from the list and then brainstorm to come up with as many phrasal verbs using each of the three verbs that they can. Once I have provided the students with examples, they should also write example sentences for each of the phrasal verbs. Finally, I will ask students to read their own examples and check to make sure that they have used the phrasal verbs correctly. Apart from this style of teaching phrasal verbs, the following technique can also be used.

This is one of the exercises students will be asked to complete sentences with the appropriate Phrasal Verbs in their correct form.

catch sb out; fill sth in; cut sth out; take up sth
1. If you want to lose weight , ___ potatoes, bread, and sweet things for a week.
2. The oral exam was difficult. The examiner tried to ___ (me) by asking some tricky questions.
3. My brother has___ karate. He trains three times a week.
4. Here are the visa application forms. You have to ___ (them) and return them to the consulate.