Fluency and Accuracy in Vocabulary and Grammar Teaching
with Penny Ur and Scott Thornbury
It’s generally accepted that the Communicative Approach was instrumental in shifting the emphasis away from accuracy and onto fluency. But many teachers (and learners) still feel that we haven’t yet found the balance we’re looking for between teaching for fluency and teaching for accuracy.
In this self study course Scott Thornbury and Penny Ur take a fresh look at accuracy and fluency in teaching grammar and vocabulary. With them, you’ll explore assumptions and challenge beliefs that you may never have considered. Regardless of your starting point, you’ll leave the course with a deeper understanding of both accuracy and fluency, and greater confidence in your ability to teach grammar and vocabulary effectively.
In this course you will address the following questions (although not necessarily in this order)
- What do we mean, in practice, by the terms “fluency” and “accuracy”?
- Which is more important? Which should come first?
- What is the place of the learning of grammar in achieving fluency? of the learning of vocabulary?
- Would you like to have an archive of ready-to-go custom-made materials for your lessons?
- What are some useful practical procedures that can increase both fluency and accuracy in the teaching of grammar? of vocabulary?
Each download includes the original course recordings, handouts, readings, and discussion questions
Scholarships
As always, iTDi believes that all teachers deserve the same opportunity to improve themselves. Therefore, a limited number of scholarships will be available for this course. Please apply through our scholarship application and specify which course you would like a scholarship for.iTDi Advanced Skills Self Study courses allow you to enjoy the content of some of our most popular Advanced Teaching Skills live courses, at your own pace and at a time that is convenient for you. And you can revisit the course recordings and resources as often as you like.
Get your professional development certified with iTDi
This is not a live course. Your purchase includes includes access to four video recordings, readings, and discussion questions. Teachers can earn a Certificate of Completion verifying 20 Professional Development hours if desired. To receive a certificate teachers are required to submit written responses to the discussion questions
About Penny Ur:
Penny Ur has thirty-five years’ experience as an English teacher in elementary, middle and high schools in Israel. Now retired, she has taught B.A. and M.A. courses at Oranim Academic College of Education and Haifa University. She has presented papers at TESOL, IATEFL and other English teachers’ conferences worldwide. She was for ten years the editor of the Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers series. Her books include Discussions that work (1981), Five minute activities (co authored with Andrew Wright) (1992), Grammar practice activities (2nd Edition) (2009), Vocabulary activities (2012), and A course in English language teaching (2012), all published by Cambridge University Press. A new book, Discussions and more, was published in 2015
About Scott Thornbury:
Scott Thornbury is a teacher and teacher educator, with over 40 years’ experience in English language teaching. He currently teaches on an online MA TESOL program for The New School in New York. His previous experience includes teaching and teacher training in Egypt, UK, Spain, and his native New Zealand. Scott’s writing credits include several award-winning books for teachers on language and methodology including The A-Z of ELT, How to Teach Grammar and Teaching Unplugged. He is series editor for the Cambridge Handbooks for Teachers (CUP) and was also the co-founder of the dogme ELT group. Scott’s thought-provoking blog, An A-Z of ELT, is a popular site for many teachers and has been adapted as an e-book, Big Questions in ELT. His most recent books are Scott Thornbury’s 30 Language Teaching Methods and Scott Thornbury’s 101 Grammar Questions.