Developing Productive Skills(Speaking and Writing)

[mhrasel]

Speaking and writing are known as productive skills. In our daily life these skills play significant role.In Bangladeshi context most learners are week in these skills for a number of reasons.(To be continued)

[Md. Limon Hossain]

Dear Sir:

You are very much right. I hope you write the reasons very soon

[mhrasel]

WRITING SKILLS STUDY GUIDE 1
General advice on writing in a foreign language

Aim: This study guide gives you(Learners) some general ideas on improving your own writing skills.


1.   Do not expect to write everything correctly first time, always produce at least one draft.  Review it and rewrite it as often as necessary.  Even native speakers do this.

2.   Try and learn from previous mistakes and any tutor's corrections and comments.  Look up grammar points that have caused trouble.  Check for careless mistakes.  How many careless mistakes did you make in your last piece of writing?

3.   It is not usually a good idea to look up every word you do not know right at the beginning.  This is very time-consuming.  Write down your ideas in a first draft, using if necessary the odd word or phrase in your own language, then look up any necessary words of phrases.

4.   Do not write the whole piece in your own language and then translate.  Word for word translations are rarely successful.  Try to THINK in English from the start, even if you do feel frustrated at not being able to express yourself as you wish.  This is only to be expected.

5.   Take every opportunity to write.  Writing a personal diary is often a useful way of expressing yourself in writing.  It can help with note-making and it can be very rewarding personally.

6.   Prepare yourself for writing by thinking about what language functions are used in any piece of writing.  Such functions might be: describing, classifying, comparing and contrasting, writing conclusions.  See, for example, Academic Writing Course by R.R. Jordan for further help and exercises.

7.   Take a text which interests you.  Read it for general information and then summarise its main points (see section on summary writing for further help).

8.   Select a useful unit from a general course book and work through the exercises or select a text-book appropriate to your subject (an LSP book) and work through useful sections.

9.   Most important be a CRITICAL READER.  When you read, notice how writers achieve a certain effect.  Notice the style (formal or informal) and the form of the piece of writing.  Can you identify the introduction and conclusion, the main ideas?  Can you see how the argument is developed?  Collect useful vocabulary and phrases when you read.  Use a highlighter pen to underline them, note them down in a note book for future use.

10.   Finally it can be very useful exercise to get together with a colleague or two and review each other's work.

[irina]

For learning a foreign language or mother tongue, it is important to listen to the language first.Only a good listener can be a good speaker.Good listening can be achieved through training and regular practice. Our learners listen to a lot of things everyday: music, lectures, speeches, announcements, news, weather forecast, dialogues etc. Most of these are in Bangla. But what if they listen to these in English, particularly spoken by native speakers? Most of them would find it difficult to follow. That's because they are not used to the sounds of English. Therefore, listening comprehension is something we must help them in class, whether it is listening for a particular information or listening for gist, is something we need to guide them too.
While learning a foreign language, learners go through a period of silence and come across a bunch of meaningless sounds. Gradually this sound will turn into a meaningful sound to them. Through proper guidance and regular practice, we can help our learners develop their listening skills.

[Razon Mahmood]

Thank you Sir for sharing the ideas. These are really very much effective ideas. 

[mhrasel]

Razon,it wll be nicer if you do practice following these techniques.

Thanks

[sushmita]

I am completely agreeing with Rasel sir.

We should give much more emphasis on these two productive skill---Writing and Speaking.

Because when my students open their mouth, we can understand that in which level they are at that time.

And it's known to them that they need to write all the time in the classroom or in the exam hall.

[goodboy]

Among all the terms in writing skill............I prefer the term no-07 most.........Because I personally admired the usefulness of the practice..............   

[mhrasel]

Good

[Rokon]

dear Rasel sir,
  you mentioned different types of techniques to improve the productive skill in your previous posts.you said in techniques to write something everyday.Sir to write in forum can be helpful to improve the skill?

[mhrasel]

Dear Rokon
I mention about writing practice. It can be writing on forum,keeping a diary and noting downing academic notes.

Thanks