Materials for teaching

[Morpheus]

Dear colleagues,

What materials do you think are the best examples of good modern and natural English? What would be your choice if you planned to teach your students good English for everyday communication?

Please give your votes and explanations if possible.

[Avalon]

Well Morpheus,I personally like the podcasts that can be downloaded with scripts/exercises , they´re updated and depending on where you get them, they´re natural English sources of material.The myriad of sites makes it a time consuming search for good stuff, but I see the web as the source of most of the materials I use...video clips, listening passages, ready made handouts...they´re all there.

[Tdol]

How about a mixture of all those and others too?

[Morpheus]

Originally Posted by Tdol

How about a mixture of all those and others too?

Well, naturally we use different types of materials just to teach our students to understand them all. But I think you will agree that some materials are stylistically further form everyday speech than others. That is why I am asking my question: I would like to find out which materials can serve as good examples of how people should speak when they discuss politics, legal issues, education, raising children, art, etc.

If my students reproduce a newspaper article close to the original, do you think they will sound natural? ;)

[Morpheus]

Originally Posted by Avalon

Well Morpheus,I personally like the podcasts that can be downloaded with scripts/exercises , they´re updated and depending on where you get them, they´re natural English sources of material.

Avalon, thank you for your reply. Could you just explain what a "podcast" is? And maybe you will give a few links to the sites where they can be downloaded?

Thank you

[Avalon]

why yes, of course my horse! ( sorry, I´m not calling you a horse..But I´ve just read the thread ( hey , this rhymes too!!) on rhyming american slang and remembered this one now! rsrsr)
Well basically , a podcast is an MP3 file that you find on the net and download for free,then you have the file and can burn it on a cd to be played in class...the ones that have ready made lessons/scripts can be a bit more contrived, with speakers speaking way too slowly and well-pronounced..but not all...breakingnews.com is one I´ve used and liked,but if you search for podcasts for ESL/EFL you can find many...then you select it according to your needs..once you find a listening that is suitable you right click on the link and save it to your hard disk...then burn the cd,and print the handouts! it´s a piece o´cake! Speaking of piece of cake, I invite you to go to the thread I´ve opened with binomials...

[Tdol]

Morpheus, here are some links to ESL podcasts: http://www.usingenglish.com/links/Li...sts/index.html

[Tdol]

Originally Posted by Morpheus

If my students reproduce a newspaper article close to the original, do you think they will sound natural? ;)

That's not very likely. But they can be used as a basis for a discussion, but the discussion should reflect the language of speech, not the writing of a newspaper.

[Morpheus]

Originally Posted by Tdol

That's not very likely. But they can be used as a basis for a discussion, but the discussion should reflect the language of speech, not the writing of a newspaper.

I agree but how will my students know what the language of speech is? ;) According to the teaching methodology used here in Russia, students should always have examples of the speech they are encouraged to aim at. They should have something to compare their own speech with. When the students' teacher is a native speaker like you, Tdol, it's ok, they can listen to a model of good natural English, but foreign teachers need authentic materials to serve as a model. So, what would you recommend? :)

[Morpheus]

Originally Posted by Tdol

Morpheus, here are some links to ESL podcasts: http://www.usingenglish.com/links/Li...sts/index.html

Tdol, thank you very much, indeed