Monday, September 07, 2009

There were two listening task activities in the lab and the children simply enjoyed the classes, especially the thrill that comes with understanding the British and American accent and doing complex listening tasks based on conversations of native speakers.

I think I am also honing my listening skills, cos I have found that I usually make mistakes while listening and these exercises are helping me as much as they do the children.

I am very happy that questions that make us think are the kind found in these exercises. There are no run-of-the-mill, monotonous, challenge-less questions. I am glad that this book for the first time meets the needs of students.

Change is the face of education and any thought process which follows the trodden path will never experiment, learn and innovate. I am glad that English Language Teaching is undergoing such transformations, where the teacher cannot depend only on questions that test knowledge , but must be ready to accept tests of skills. Teachers have to be at the vanguard of change in order to accept the changing environment of learning. Any effort to cling to what is familiar and conforms to the comfort level of the teacher will hinder the progress of learning. Challenges must be accepted if we wish to improve our students. Like Robert Frost, the 'path not trodden' may be a little difficult, but not impossible.





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