I prefer the receptive skills to the productive ones.

For a very long time, the main goal of teaching English in most nations was library language enabling learners to read books in English with reasonable amounts of fluency and comprehension. However, in the globalized and globalizing requirements of the present day and age, the productive skills of language learning such as speaking and writing are a top priority.

I think that I am with Bianca. Conversational and intercultural competence gives me a chance to learn about someone else's culture and beliefs while having a spirited discussion. I just hope that no one expects this dinosaur to be familiar with today's music and slang. I am definitely into the politics of healthcare, the

environment, making the world or at least which ever part of the world you exist in better. I would like to make the world better, but that is daunting. At least when like minded people converse, there is the hope that an exchange of ideas will reap some positive reward.

Brigid

I love to teach pronunciation through the glasses of phonics. This helps the beginning student to have better pronunciation.

OH MY GOSH, I so agree. I remember phonics in grade school with shudders of dread, but it works! I hate sloppy pronunciation, even though I have dyslexia, I endeavor to speak and spell correctly. Diction is a dying art. Mom used to drill it into our heads.

I do a very simple exercise with my students and they love it. We start with the word "fat". I tell them I want them to change 1 sound and get the word "fit". I wait and give them a chance to make the change - then I say the /a/ changes to /i/ and then I cross out the a and write the word fit below it. After about 15 changes (some middle, beginning, and ending) we read through the list of words. This helps them pay attention to the sounds and helps them to realize one sound changes a word.