Speaking Activities for the Classroom

The materials in this text were compiled over a period of ten years, in Thailand from 1993 to 2003, while I was teaching at The Faculty of Arts at Chulalongkorn University and later at the Department of Language at KMUTT. I started a file of speaking activities because there were too many tasks and ideas to keep in my head, and I wanted to be able to access them when I needed them in the future. Eventually, the file grew thicker and thicker, until it was big enough to become a book.

Idioms and Expressions

I wrote this model as a teaching device during the time I was working in Bangkok, Thailand, as a legal editor and language consultant, with one of the Big Four Legal and Tax companies, KPMG (during my afternoon job) after teaching at the university. (by David Holmes)

Sayings and Words of Wisdom in English

Students should focus on a single idea, one-idea-at-a-time, and interpret it, step-by-step according to the following process:
    • Scan through once to get the general idea
    • Look-up any unfamiliar vocabulary
    • Consider the relation of the parts to the whole
    • Interpret the meaning so is clear in your mind
    • Prepare to explain it in your own word
If you are working in a group or a class, you can also go on to:
    • Discuss the saying within a peer-group
    • Exchange ideas and interpretations

The Visual Vocabulary Resources book provides teachers photo-word cards that visually introduce specific vocabulary. The photos are intended to preteach vocabulary to English learners and Approaching Level students in grade 5, as well as offer additional, meaningful language and concept support to these students.

Poetry and Poetics

Explaining how poetry arises, where its traditions come from, and how English poetry eventually developed, as an independent body of literature on its own. The text is arranged in two parts: the first is about traditional poetic origins and formulae, especially from the past; and the second is about the use of poetic language, tools and devices, leading up to the more recent present. The first section gives a historical scan or overview; the second part goes into closer observation and analysis of the art of poetry in an attempt to lead the reader into developing a critical ability to see the difference between what is merely good and what is truly excellent.