How to Improve Students’ Writing and Speaking Skills

• Main Author: Elftorp, Fredrik
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, Högskolan i Jönköping, HLK, Ämnesforskning 2008
• Subjects: Teaching; Specific Languages; Studier av enskilda språk
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-1192

English is one of three core subjects in upper secondary school and it is essential that students receive a good education in this subject. Since writing and speaking are such prominent parts of the English language, the teacher is obliged to possess knowledge of how to improve students’ proficiencies in an efficient way. The question is how to use this knowledge when the teacher is supposed to compose different methods for lessons, evaluate the exercises and give proper feedback to the students. This investigation is based on various literary sources, interviews with teachers and questionnaires with students and the background information is the basis for the interview questions and the questionnaire. There are endless possibilities for appropriate exercises to improve writing and speaking and it is impossible to investigate every single one there is in a relatively short essay. I have, however, found a fair number of methods, which will be described in this paper. In order to evaluate exercises, the teacher needs to be prepared and know what to focus on in the exercise as it is in progress, but also listen to the students’ opinions since they know if they have learned anything or not. Correction of spoken errors should be handled cautiously by the teacher but the students should be made aware of the written mistakes they make.