Exploring Fluency and Fluency Development

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

This forum is for teachers to explore and discuss fluency and fluency development in language learning and teaching.

For a useful starting point, please check out the following teaching article:

Brown P. S. (2017, November). What is fluency and how do we develop it? Contact Magazine, pp. 5-14: https://contact.teslontario.org/fluency-how-to-develop-it/

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

27th MELTA International Conference, Johor Bahru, 18-20th August 2018

“Practice Makes Perfect! Or Does it? 
Exploring Fluency & How We Develop It”
Workshop Handout

I have made this a PDF with live links that you can Comment freely on (but not edit).

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Here are some sample lesson materials

You can comment on (but not edit) the PDF.

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Some self-access learning guides and activities for students via Konan Women’s University self-access learning centre, e-space

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Dear Fellow MELTA Members,

Thank you to everyone who participated in the workshop on Sunday morning. I really appreciated having such an enthusiastic and engaged group of teachers. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to add them here to share with others, or email me if you prefer. I also welcome your feedback on any of the materials and would love to hear of your experiences developing fluency amongst your learners.

All the very best!

Phil

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

In The Teachers’ Room on today, Svetlana, kindly let us know about this talk by Scott Thornbury on Fluency and How To Achieve It

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

A couple of people asked me about the book, Exploring EFL Fluency in Asia (2014) which is available directly from Palgrave Macmillan or from Amazon:
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137449399

You may also find secondhand copies elsewhere.

We also share fluency-related posts on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ExploringEFLFluencyinAsia/

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

#FocusOnFluency at #KOTESOL2018 International Conference, October 13-14th, 2018

[Anne Hendler]

I can’t see that link for some reason, but I have KoTESOL marked in my calendar. Are you going to go? I hope people live-tweet it.

[Gareth]

Haven’t been able to join the sessions this month, but a topic that’s very relevant. One thing that marks a learner as less than competent in fluency is the frequency and amount of self-repair that goes on. Do teachers encourage learners to self-repair by e.g. going back to the start of the sentence, or do they encourage them to continue regardless? Interested to find out.

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Good question, Gareth. Personally, I do encourage my students to self-repair or correct themselves if they noticed something or the wrong word slipped out. One of my most recent IELTS students has become consistently good and just interjecting herself, with “Sorry, (I mean[t]) …” for example.

As well as seeing if teachers encourage their learners, I’m also interested to know, for example, how oral examiners evaluate self-repair, too. And how about the students themselves? For example, as a learner, one might wonder/worry if one should draw attention to one’s mistakes or hope that it didn’t matter (or that the examiner didn’t notice!).

[Philip Shigeo Brown (Phil)]

Sorry here’s the link again https://koreatesol.org/ic2018

I’m not able to go, unfortunately, but the line-up is great with a few familiar names, faces, and friends featuring!

Plenary Speakers
Stephen Krashen ㅡ University of Southern California (emeritus), applied linguist.
Scott Thornbury ㅡ The New School, NY; ELT author, academic, teacher trainer.

Featured Speakers
Jill Hadfield ㅡ Unitec Institute of Technology, ELT author, academic, teacher trainer.
Yilin Sun ㅡ Seattle Colleges
Ki Hun Kim ㅡ MegaStudyEdu
Steven Herder ㅡ Kyoto Notre Dame University
Jill Murray ㅡ Macquarie University
Jennifer Book ㅡ IATEFL TTEd SIG

Featured Panel
Boyoung Lee / Kyungsook Yeum / Joo-Kyung Park

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