Part Seven
Specialty Classes/Courses

Opening Remarks
Some of the examples exercises here will seem trivial or matter of fact for the experienced teacher. Still, I have tried to include information or lesson plans that will help new or under experienced teachers or that I thought would be important for experienced teachers to remember.
I have included an outline for a sample lesson for a test preparation course that works on developing skills necessary for the interview portion of the eiken pre-first level exam that is administered by the Society for Testing English Proficiency (STEP).
The following section is a complete week-by-week outline for conducting two ten-week courses on Speech Communication.
Next, I have included a syllabus for teaching a movie appreciation course with some tips on how to use video in the English language classroom.
Finally, I present some ideas on teaching Business English classes. The demand for English skills in international business and Japan's activity in the world market have made English a requirement for business people in Japan1 and this ensures there will no shortage of Business English course in the forseeable future.

1. Test Preparation Class
As mentioned in Part Three, the Japanese education system strongly emphasizes test taking. This influence continues to exert itself even after graduation and many adults take tests to obtain some qualification or gain promotion at their job. English tests are very popular in Japan and you will no doubt find some of your students who are interested in taking one of the following tests:

Society for Testing English Proficiency (STEP) eiken test
There are several grades of this test with the first beign the highest, followed by pre-first, second, pre-second, third and fourth. This is a popular test in that the certificate is seen as a strong addition to successful candidates' resumes.

TOEIC
This test is graded by points and some companies use the results of this test as one determining factor in granting promotion or deciding work assignments2.

TOEFL
Also graded by points, this test is used by universities in the United States for admitting students from abroad.

Cambridge First Certificate and Cambridge Proficiency Exam
These standardized tests of English language proficiency in the United Kingdom are gaining popularity in Japan.

UNITED NATIONS eiken
A more advanced version of the regular eiken. The advanced level of this test makes it more unlikely that any of your students will be preparing for it.

Interpreter Guide Test
Prospective guides for foreign visitors to Japan are required to obtain the license that is granted with the successful passing of this test. The interview portion is in English and tests the ability to explain different aspects of Japan, i.e. geography, religion, festivals, etc. in detail. It is also available in other languages.

In addition to the above, there are also a number of private testing companies that cater to individuals and companies interested in checking English competency. The quality of these tests varies greatly and results may or may not be recognized by potential employers.

A. Eiken pre-first
The following is an example lesson from a course that I have used to prepare students for the pre-first level of the STEP test. This course works best for classes of between four and twenty students at the intermediate to upper-intermediate level. Each class consists of two fifty-five minute sessions with a ten minute break between the two for a total of two hours.

First fifty-five minutes
The first session concentrates on listening comprehension, sentence structure, and summarizing, all of which will help the students in the real test. You will work with two short stories or passages of between one-hundred and one-hundred and forty words. I have used the following example from L. G. Alexander's Practice and Progress, which is an excellent text to use for this course despite being written in British English:

Taxi!
Captain Ben Fawcett has bought an unusual taxi and has begun a new service. The 'taxi' is a small Swiss aeroplane called a 'Pilatus Porter'. This wonderful plane can carry seven passengers. The most surprising thing about it, however, is that it can land anywhere: on snow, water, or even a ploughed field. Captain Fawcett's first passenger was a doctor who flew from Birmingham to a lonely village in the Welsh mountains. Since then, Captain Fawcett has flown passengers to many unusual places. Once he landed on the roof of a block of flats and on another occasion, he landed in a deserted car park. Captain Fawcett has just refused a strange request from a businessman. The man wanted to fly to Rockall, a lonely island in the Atlantic Ocean, but Captain Fawcett did not take him because the trip was too dangerous.

Comprehension and Precis
Answer the questions in not more than 60 words.

  1. Has Captain Ben Fawcett bought a small Swiss aeroplane, or has he bought an ordinary taxi? Does he use it as a taxi or not? (and)
  2. What is it called?
  3. How many passengers can it carry? Can it land anywhere or not? (not only . . . but)
  4. Has Captain Fawcett taken passengers to many strange places in his plane or not?
  5. Did he refuse to fly a businessman to Rockall or not?
  6. Was the journey too dangerous or not?


Follow this outline:
1. Read the passage once at normal speed (books closed).
2. Read the Comprehension and Precis questions once.
3. Read the passage a second time.
4. Ask individual students to answer each question.
5. Have students open their books (or pass out copies) and read the passage out loud. (This will be noisy, but students have a chance to warm-up their vocal chords)
6. Answer any grammar or vocabulary questions.
7. Have students write the answers to all questions using the words in brackets to connect sentences.
8. Have half of the class read their answers (without saying the number).
9. Have the other half of the class say the answers by memory (books closed and answer sheets upside down).

By answering the questions, students are summarizing the story and focusing on main points. With the second story you can switch the groups so that both halves of the class have an opportunity to answer by memory. You can also give hints to students who have some difficulty. With large classes, you can have students work in pairs or small groups.

Second fifty-five minutes
This session will focus on practicing the actual interview style that is used for the test. A test card is used and I have included a description of the pictures instead of real pictures. You can get practice cards at most major book stores. Follow this outline:

1. Pass out the following test cards upside down (pictures have been described).

Interview Test (1)


Look at the pictures carefully and read the directions given below them.



You have just one minute to prepare.



(picture one) Two women are working in what appears to be a supermarket or department store. One of them is ringing up a customer's purchases and the other is placing the items in a bag. The customer appears to be a young housewife and she is holding some bills and waiting.

(picture two) The cashier is giving the customer her change and her partner is looking on.

(picture three) The housewife is carefully counting her change and the cashier is patiently waiting.

(picture four) The customer has finished counting her change, turned, and is walking away. The cashier and her partner have puzzled looks and are beginning to wave and call to the customer since she has forgotten her groceries.


This story is about Miss Fujita, a cashier.

Tell your story about her.

You have two minutes to tell it.

Please begin with the following sentence:

A customer came to Miss Fujita's cash register to pay for her purchases.


2. Have all students turn the cards over and give them one minute to read the instructions, look at the pictures, and think of a story to fit the pictures.

3. Call on the first student to tell their story. Time them for exactly two minutes, but let them finish if they go over.

4. Ask two or three questions based on the story or the student's opinion. These are some examples:



5. Help the student with their answers if they have difficulty. Also, point out any big mistakes with their story and give some advice on how to make it better, i.e. keep it in the past tense, use more connecting words, don't pause so often, etc.

6. Repeat the procedure on-by-one with the rest of the students.

7. When all students have finished pass out the following model story.


A customer came to Miss Fujita's cash register to pay for her purchases. She started ringing up the items. Her co-worker packed the goods in a shopping bag while the customer looked on.

After ringing up the purchases, Miss Fujita took the customer's money and gave her her change.

The customer carefully counter her change to make sure Miss Fujita had given her the correct amount.

Then, the customer turned around to leave, forgetting her package. Miss Fujita and her co-worker were caught off guard and had to run after the customer to give her her package.

8. Have all students read this model out loud and then answer any questions concerning new vocabulary or phrases. Also, point out any items in the story that you think are particularly good.

9. Start over with the second story and change the order of students.

One thing that can be done to save time with larger classes is to put the students in pairs and have them tell their stories to each other and make up their own questions. I usually do this anyway because it builds up confidence.

2. Speech Course
This course is based on a similar course prepared by Richard Han for Sony Language Laboratory3 and aims at teaching some main concepts in public speaking and giving students ample opportunity to prepare and deliver different kinds of speeches. In addition, students will be challenged with other activities to polish other aspects of their speech. The course is designed to be taught in two ten-week segments with the class time ranging between eighty to one hundred minutes each. Speech One is designed as an introductory course with an emphasis on concepts of speech communication and Speech Two is geared to give more actual speaking opportunities and can thus be taken more than one time by students who either enjoy the format or feel they need more polishing in certain areas.

SPEECH ONE
Some of the material contained in the following sections is for the teacher's reference only. Please distinguish between what is to be taught and what is only background information. All handouts are included in the Supplementary Handouts section.

Day One
I. Self-Introductions
To set the tone for this course, you will invite students to the front of the class to introduce themselves. You will also encourage other students to help in interviewing the person who is doing their introduction. This is a good opportunity for the teacher to see how comfortable, or uncomfortable, each of the students is talking in front of an audience.
First, position two chairs side by side in front of the class. After sitting in one of the chairs, introduce yourself including name, where you are living, where you are from and how long you have been at your current position. Then, ask the students if they have any questions. For shy classes, I often require each student to ask at least one question. It is important to exude confidence at this time and yet create a comfortable setting in which students are encouraged to ask questions and share personal information.
After you have answered a number of questions, invite one of the students to sit in the empty chair next to you. Tell them to briefly introduce themselves and then ask for questions from the audience. You can ask questions too, but do not dominate the discussion. This is a good chance for you to take notes that will help you remember names, faces and personalities. This is also a good chance to make some simple evaluations. The students will of course have different reasons for taking speech class. The first class is a good time to ask what these reasons are and determine how dedicated the students are. This knowledge will help you make small adjustments to the curriculum.
Continue calling students to the front until everyone has had a chance to introduce themselves. Make sure to create a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. In doing so, much of the pressure that is inherent in many of the future activities and exercises will be reduced.

II. Introduction to Speech Class
Next, you will try to give your students a clear idea of what you hope to accomplish in Speech I class. The goal of both Speech I and Speech II is to become not only a "good" speaker of English but to become an effective communicator. Students can achieve this by gaining a feeling of ease in various communication settings and learning different techniques necessary for communication.
The next point you will want to make concerns stage fright. Stage fright is the term we use to designate "nervousness" in speaking before a person or a group of persons. Giving the students some anecdote of a time when you personally experienced stage fright will help put them at ease concerning this matter. Make sure they understand that they are not alone in feeling nervous and that many of the exercises will help alleviate these feelings. It is almost unnatural not to feel stage fright the first few times speaking in front of others. These feelings can be overcome through practice and experience4.
Now, ask your students their opinions as to what makes a good public speaker. You may ask them for some examples of famous personalities who they think are good speakers and who they think are bad speakers. Direct the student's attention to why they are attracted by certain speakers while they are bored or turned off by others. You will probably get references to clarity, volume, humor, control, etc.
This discussion leads naturally to the "mechanics" of what constitutes an effective speaker. It will also help to show examples of effective public speaking and not so effective public speaking. You can show video clips or perform yourself.

III. Style and Content
Communication consists of two parts: style and content. Content is what people say. Style is how people speak. Content is the emphasis in most English classes, while Speech Class will also give weight to style.
Many people who fail at effective communication do so because of a neglect for style. Japanese politicians are a good example. Stress the fact that effective communication takes place when the listener(s) both understand the speakers message and find the topic and delivery interesting. For this reason, speakers should strive to achieve a degree of balance between style and content.
An analogy of watching a movie may help elucidate your point. The following dialogue may be used.

Teacher: "Mr. Yoshida, what is your favorite all time movie?"
Yoshida: "Dance With Wolves."
Teacher: "Great. I liked that one too. Now imagine that Mr. Yoshida and I are both watching 'Dance With Wolves' but on different mediums. I'm watching it on video cassette through my tiny black and white 8-inch television screen. The sound is terrible and the picture is even worse. On the other hand, Mr. Yoshida is down at the Elsinore Theater which has just installed the newest version of 'Sensaround' speakers. Who do you think will enjoy the movie more? Who will understand the message more clearly? Mr. Yoshida of course. Even though the movie, i.e. the content, is the same, Mr. Yoshida is receiving a much better style of communication."

While there are people who have bad style and good content, there are also speakers who rely too much on style to cover up their lack of content. Ask students to give some examples.
While our discussion of style and content will be grounded in the area of public speaking, much of what we will touch upon will help students in a variety of settings, or modes, of communication. Fig. 1 is a scale that represents the speaking-to-listening ratio.



What we are trying to show here is that if students can handle the most difficult mode, public speaking, they will face the other modes with less apprehension and more confidence.
As for style, let's discuss what is involved in style. Humans have five senses, but use only two for communicating, namely Sight and Hearing. We hear the speaker's voice and see the speaker's body. At this time, it is not necessary to go down the check list with the students. Instead, tell them that you will be giving lectures and they will be doing activities based on these two areas, voice and body, over the next few weeks. In the next class, we will start by practicing the effective use of our speaking voices.
Presentation of these ideas will probably fill the first class period. If possible, it is nice to show some video clips of speeches during the first class. Optimally, an edited video containing both good and bad public speakers would help illustrate the points you made in this first lecture.

Day Two
Today, you will highlight the main points of Day One, teach your students the six checkpoints of the Voice and conduct some voice exercises that are designed to work on these six checkpoints.
Start out by doing a quick review of Day One. Ask students to explain what they learned or remember from last weeks class. You can check, correct, or fill in any missing information. With larger classes, you can have students do this in pairs or small groups.

I. The Speaking Voice
By highlighting last week's main points, you will have prepared students for your short lecture on Voice. Draw the following Speech Chart (Fig. 2) on the blackboard to focus student's attention on what we will be working on today.



Fig. 2 The Speech Chart with public speaking divided into two categories, style and content and further details of both.

Focus the student's attention on the left side where the Voice is listed.

A. Diaphragm Breathing
Our voice is in large part dependent on air. The voyage of air begins within the body, passes through the throat (the larynx) where sound is attached, then, when it reaches the mouth, the sounds are transformed into meaningful language. The point to stress to the students is that this air comes from the stomach, or the diaphragm, and if used properly will place less strain on the throat. Also, sound coming from the stomach will have a "richer" quality. Diaphragm Breathing will also help students who have a problem with volume. (Incidentally, the deeper breathing also serves to reduce nervousness by supplying more oxygen to the body.)

B. Volume
Volume is how loudly or softly the voice is produced. People match their volume to the size of the room and to the distance between them and their listeners. Students need to find the correct volume for their surroundings. Lack of volume will lead to a breakdown in communication. Still, sometimes a soft voice can attract the audiences attention. You may remember the lady's perfume commercial in which a beautiful actress looks seductively at the audience and says, "Nothing speaks louder than a whisper."

C. Rate
Rate is the speed of speaking. If we speak too fast, people won't be able to follow and there will be a breakdown in communication. The myth that fast speakers are good speakers is not true. The effectiveness of your speech depends on how clearly your audience understands the message. Be careful though. If you speak too slowly, your audience may fall asleep.

D. Pitch
Pitch is how high or low the voice is produced on the musical scale. Pitch variation can be effectively used to express emotion. A high pitch can be used to demonstrate joy or excitement. A lower pitch conveys a more subdued feeling. Monotone speech is boring to listen to and this occurs when a speaker does not vary his pitch.

E. Enunciation
Enunciation is how clearly we speak. You should encourage your students to move the mouth, the tongue, and the lips whenever they speak. This practice will make the sounds they produce much clearer. The value of this can not be over stressed. Make clear that this practice should be observed when ever they communicate verbally. Handout One may be of use in training the students in good enunciation.

F. Pronunciation
A good example of the difference between pronunciation and enunciation may be necessary to clarify the students' understanding. Pick some good sentences or phrases to experiment with. First give an example of good pronunciation and bad enunciation and then bad pronunciation and good enunciation.

Next, you will conduct a practice session to clarify some of the points made in your lecture about Voice. One thing that should be mentioned before you pass out the Voice Paper, Handout Two, is the use of stress in speech. When we write we underline words to "stress" important ideas. We do this "underlining" in speech by varying the voice. Volume and Rate are most commonly used to achieve this effect. Teach your students how to do this. Variation means going both ways; loud or soft for volume, fast or slow for rate. The decision to go either way is dictated by the content The sentences in the Voice Paper will give your students a clear picture of this. So tell them to study it!
Inform your students that the use of "pauses" before and after the "stress word(s)" can further enhance the emphasis. This combined with Diaphragm Breathing can create a better rhythm of speech eliminating a staccato style of speaking.
Now distribute the Voice Paper and conduct some intensive voice practices. Seriously drill your students to show them the importance of this area of speech.
To help them concentrate better, have all the students stand up. Read the instructions, model each sentence for them, and have them repeat chorally. This choral repetition reduces their shyness about making mistakes. While accomplishing the specific "tasks" in each section, periodically remind them of good Enunciation and Diaphragm Breathing. If they have any doubts concerning the pronunciation or meaning of certain words don't hesitate to help them out.
At the end of this class, it may be interesting to teach your students some English tongue-twisters. Polishing Your Speaking, Handout Three, may be used in class or as an out of class exercise. Following is a list of some possible easy examples of simple tongue-twisters:
"The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick."
"Rubber baby buggy bumpers." (repeat three times)
"She sells seashells by the seashore." (repeat three times)
"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many peppers did Peter Piper pick?"

Day Three
Whereas Day Two was dedicated to working on the voice, today you will concentrate on the importance of body in public speaking.

I. Non Verbal Communication
A. Eye-Contact
Eye-contact is important in that it helps the speaker get and maintain the audience's attention throughout the presentation and check the audience's understanding of the presentation. The speaker must be able to adapt to the "conditions" of the audience by reading nonverbal cues from them. For example, the speaker can raise the volume of their voice if they see part of the audience straining to hear their presentation.
It is also important to tell your students not to neglect any spot in the audience. Most people have a tendency to favor one side and that is where there eyes tend to rest. Good public speakers must be aware of this and make a conscious effort to keep their eyes moving over the whole audience.

EXERCISE: Have the students stand up and establish eye-contact with each and every person in the room. They can acknowledge each contact with a nod of the head. Tell them that they must not verbally communicate at any time. Repeat this procedure until they seem comfortable with it.

B. Gestures
Gestures are the movement of the body that carry a specific meaning or purpose with it. They can be used to visually demonstrate such things as size, shape or direction. They can also be used in such a way as to enhance the verbal message. The most important thing to tell your students is to avoid "unnecessary gestures." Constant moving of the body, touching the hair and all other "visual noise" distract the listeners from the message that is being delivered. It's like watching T.V. with poor reception.

C. Posture
The speaker must appear confident and must seem to be "in control." Good posture, or positioning of the body, can make them appear more confident. In addition, posture helps in other ways such as increasing our concentration and making us more alert.

EXERCISE: Tell the students to stand with their feet at about "shoulder width." Both feet should equally support the weight of the body. They should "feel" the floor under their feet. Neither the head nor the body should lean to any side. Tell them to relax their arms and shoulders. Point out that they're now forming an ideal Public Speaking Posture and that the hard part is to maintain this stance. So tell them to concentrate. Now introduce Diaphragm Breathing, and Eye-Contact. "Toning" the body in this way gives a speaker a sense of confidence thus "physically" combating Stage Fright.

While you are talking about posture and gesture, it would be interesting to compare nonverbal "emblems" (body signs that designate a specific meaning, like pointing to the chest with the index finger for "Me?"--the Japanese point at their nose) of different cultures. Teach them some or your native emblems and you can ask your students to show you some Japanese "signs."

D. Facial Expressions
The Face sets the mood for the speech. The audience picks up visual cues from the speaker's facial expression to realize the nature of the presentation. Point out to your students that the most expressive parts of the face are the eyebrows.

EXERCISE: Have each person create an "emotional sentence." Individually have them say it, telling them to carefully match the pitch of their voice and their facial expression to their content.

E. Dress
Mention that Dress Communication is everything a person "does" to his/her body. It includes everything from clothes, hair-style, make-up, to jewelry. Dress must match the content of the message. To clarify this point, I ask students to imagine someone giving a speech on "Surfing" wearing a tuxedo.

F. Distance
The distance between the speaker and the listener(s) must be kept in mind to carry out communication effectively. For Public Speeches, the location of the podium dictates the distance.

Day Four
I. Combination of Voice and Body
This class will be spent on the fusion of "voice" and "body" in an exercise called the Eight O'Clock News, Handout Four. The following outline can be used:

1. Distribute the Eight O'Clock News handout and begin by reading all six news items as a class. Make sure they understand the meaning and explain that this is the "content." Tell them that now you will work on the style.

2. Have each student pick one story of their choice.

3. Tell the students that they will be responsible to present their news individually in front of the class. In order to prepare for this, give them ten minutes "practice time."

4. Instruct them on "how to practice." First, they should fully understand the content. "Stress Words" should then be underlined. Encourage them to practice by reading aloud, varying the voice where necessary. Tell them to pay attention to Diaphragm Breathing, Enunciation, Posture and other Style Variables. Have students consult you if they encounter pronunciation problems. The more they practice, the more comfortable they will feel when it is their turn to present the news. This will reduce Stage Fright. Further, point out that this is an effective way to prepare and practice at home for public speeches.

5. Position a chair and table in front of the class to resemble a news room.

6. Decide the speaking order of the students. Be creative and change the method for deciding the speaking order every time this procedure must be carried out. Point out that the first speaker has the advantage of not having to "sweat it out" by waiting for his/her turn.

7. Have each student come up and present their news. They will all do it sitting down since this is a less frightening posture which is more preferable at this stage of their learning. After all students have read their news, give comments regarding each student's style of speaking. Build up their confidence by making them believe they are doing all right. Be careful not to discourage anybody here.

8. Make them do it one more time incorporating your comments.

Day Five
Today you will announce that the presentation day for the student's first speech will be on Day Seven, two weeks later. Then, you will instruct students on a step-by-step method for the construction of a speech, i.e. the Content.

I. Content

A. Choosing the Purpose
The purpose for speaking can be divided into three areas:
i. to Inform
ii. to Persuade
iii. to Entertain

Tell your students that the first step to constructing a successful speech is to choose their purpose for speaking. Of course, there will sometimes be a blend of more than one purpose.

B. Choosing a Topic
This is probably the hardest part of making a speech. Two things must be kept in mind. First, the topic must be interesting to the audience. Second, the speaker must be interested in the topic themselves. They must also know their topic well. Analyzing your audience may help in choosing a topic.

C. Audience Analysis
An effective speaker must know their audience. They must be able to adapt their style and content to the situation and to the audience's size, age, and background. Many public speakers fail right here.
Audience Analysis should also affect a speaker's choice of topic. In your class, you and the students will be the audience. Give each student a chance to conduct Audience Analysis to help them choose their topic.

EXERCISE: Tell each student to think of three possible topics they might be interested in speaking on. Give them five minutes. Have each student announce his topics to the class. Then take a vote. "Raise your hand if you like the first topic . . . the second . . . the third."
This procedure will inform the students about the interests of their classmates, who will be their future audience. For their first presentations, students will be required to stick to informative speeches. You may want to write a list of topics on the board to help stimulate the student's interest and give them some ideas to get started.

Audience Analysis should also affect the speaker's vocabulary. Experts speaking about their specialized field must be extremely careful. You can imagine a computer engineer assuming his audience would understand the technical words used in his speech only to find a room full of blank stares. The result of such a mistake is a communication breakdown. An effective speaker is someone who can get their message across.

D. The Introduction
The Introduction must serve three purposes:
i. Get the audience's attention.
ii. Set the mood of the speech.
iii. Lead into the Body of the speech.

Tell your students to avoid "weak" intros. A very common ineffective introduction is, "I would like to talk about . . ." Another one is, "My topic is . . ." Also tell them never to open a speech with an apology. "I'm sorry, I didn't have time to prepare . . ." The Introduction can be presented effectively in the following forms:

Question
For an "anti-smoking" speech, "How much money would you pay to commit suicide?

" Startling Statement
"If I told you to throw away five minutes of your life, you would probably think I'm crazy. But if I offered you a cigarette you might say 'Thanks,' and take it. But in doing so, you are in fact shortening your life by five minutes, or by nearly two hours a day if you are a pack-a-day smoker."

Anecdote
"Last October I was sitting beside my father's bed at General Hospital. I could see him suffering with each breath he took. His doctor had given up on him the week before. Just two months before that, he had been telling me how much he enjoyed smoking."

E. The Topic Sentence
Inserted between the Introduction and the Body, the Topic Sentence states the purpose and topic of a speech. Without it the audience might get confused as to what the speaker is trying to convey to them.

F. The Body
This is the main section of a speech. Tell your students to be creative. Emphasize the use of logic and organization. Use of examples, especially ones based on personal experiences, should also be encouraged.

G. The Ending
A speech without a strong ending leaves the audience without a sense of satisfaction. A good ending should consist of:
i. a Summary
ii. the Conclusion

The Conclusion of a speech must be memorable. Just like the Introduction, it can take the form of a question, a startling statement, or an anecdote. For the "anti-smoking" speech:

Question:
"Do you want to kill yourself in slow-motion?"

Startling Statement:
"Don't smoke. Believe me, I know . . . I've got cancer."

Anecdote:
"That night my father died. Since then I haven't touched a cigarette."

H. Greetings and Closings
The Greeting must match the mood and formality of a speech. "Hi" will set a different tone from "Good Afternoon."
Tell your students to absolutely avoid saying "That's all" for their Closing. Variations of "Thank you" are the most commonly employed.
Mentioning the Greeting and/or Closing may sometimes have an adverse effect on the impact of a presentation. When a speech has a dramatic introduction ("I have a dream . . .") or a powerful conclusion (" . . . give me liberty or give me death."), pauses can be used instead to hold suspense.

The following items are some tips for writing that will make the student's presentations easier to read for themselves and the teacher. These tips may also help in memorization and polishing style.
  1. Use lined paper
  2. Write neatly
  3. Skip every other line
  4. Don't write on the back of a page. Students should slide the pages from left to right. Flipping papers over leads to "noise" and awkward pauses.

Tell your students they will not have to memorize their speeches. They can bring their scripts with them to the podium.
Inform the students that although there won't be any time limit for their speeches, they should keep their presentations around five minutes. Brevity is an asset.

Day Six
Today will be an easy day for you but a challenging one for the students. Basically, you will have the students read parts of classic speeches in front of each other and create original stories using magazine pictures.

I. Classic Speeches
It is a good idea for you, as a speech teacher, to find samples of good speeches. There are a number of good collections of memorable speeches. The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Speeches is one of the best I've found. Look for parts of speeches with which the students can practice their style. If possible, find speeches with accompanying audio or video tape so the students can see or hear good examples of powerful speeches. Have them concentrate on the different areas concerned with style and how those areas relate to the content.

II. The Picture Search
You will give your students a number of pictures unrelated to each other. They must create an original story by selecting five of them and then using them to make a story in front of the class. The following outline can be used:
  1. Randomly hand out a portion of the pictures to each student.
  2. Tell them to select five pictures and make a story. The pictures will be used to show the sequence of events in their story.
  3. Allow fifteen minutes preparation time.
  4. Decide the speaking order.
  5. Teach them how to handle visual aids i.e. the pictures. Tell them to hold them steady so as to eliminate visual noise.
  6. Have each student stand up and present their story in front of the class. They can use a table in front of the room to rest the pictures.
  7. After each presentation give comments based on Style and Content checkpoints. Highlight each speaker's strengths and use a lot of tact in criticizing. You don't want to destroy anybody's confidence here. The encouragement you give them today will serve as a "deposit" for next week's presentations, reducing the possibility of your students being absent.

Day Seven
To prepare for today's presentations you should place a podium in front of the class. You should have been preparing students for today by building up the excitement. Say something like, "The day we have all been waiting for has arrived." Today you will listen to speeches (hopefully some really good ones) and then instruct them on extemporaneous speaking.
First of all, don't be discouraged to find only a few students waiting for you. My past experience shows many students coming in late on this day. Like many (if not most) people, they are engaged in "last-minute" preparations. Don't spoil the day for your good students by getting mad at the ones who are late or absents.
You will feel an air of nervousness in class. Put the students at ease by saying something conversational. They'll appreciate it.

I. Presentations
Start out by deciding the speaking order for today. Collect copies of speeches from students who want your comments or corrections. Now have all your students stand up.
Conduct some warm-up exercises: Diaphragm breathing, vocalizing, eye-contact, etc.
Before anyone goes up to speak, inform them that a speech begins the moment the speaker's name is called. A speaker must have all his papers in order before standing up. As he/she responds to their call, they should confidently stand up and walk to the front of the audience, very much like a professional pianist walks to their piano on stage before a concert.
Too often, a speaker rushes up to the podium, tense and nervous, and immediately begins to speak, reducing the general effectiveness of the delivery and demonstrating his or her lack of confidence.
Tell your students to take several deep breaths, to take time deliberately before they begin, to establish eye-contact, then begin the presentation. The secret is to feel and appear to be in control.
Tell them also not to smile when they make a mistake. "Mistake Smiles" serve only one purpose: they highlight errors.
After each delivery, give comments. Ask a number of students each time to comment on the speaker's Style and Content. (This will also serve to increase the students' speaking time in class.) You might also want to talk about their topic. Don't be afraid to take time here. Just remember to pace the progression so you don't end up with five minutes of class time and five more speeches to finish.

II. Extemporaneous Speaking
After all the speeches have been delivered, announce that they will have to convert their presentation (the same speech) into extemporaneous fashion for the following week. Extemporaneous Speeches are neither "read" nor "memorized."
Students should write key words in the form of an outline on cards (library index cards are ideal) and try to learn their speeches point by point, not word for word. Of course, preparation and practice are still essential.
Tell your students that the best speakers are those who make their words sound spontaneous. Speakers very often lose the needed "personal touch" when they read or memorize a speech.
Day Eight
Today you will listen to polished versions of last week's speeches. Basically, repeat the procedure as outlined in Day Seven. Use of video equipment is highly recommended for today. Also, since you will also be watching the presentations on video, you won't have as much time to spend on comments or discussion of the speeches.

I. More Presentations
With the use of video equipment, tape each student's speech. Today's speeches should be done without notes in extemporaneous fashion. Following all of the presentations, watch the tape together. This gives each student a chance to assess his own performance.
Finally, break the news that the students won't have to prepare anything for the next lesson.

Day Nine
Draw the Communication Scale (see page 3) on the board and tell your students that today they will have a chance to use their knowledge and techniques of communication for "Interpersonal Speech" modes. They will first attempt an Interview with one or two classmates and then Group Discussion with larger groups.

I. Job Interviews
There are two parties involved in an interview: the interviewer and the interviewee. Your students will have a chance to experience both sides in this exercise. The following outline can be used:

  1. Distribute scratch paper and work together as a class to think up some important questions for prospective employees. These questions will serve as a guideline when they assume the role of Interviewer. Tell them it is important to keep an open mind and follow up any interesting answers with additional related questions.
  2. Inform them about the roles or jobs of the Interviewer and Interviewee. The interviewer is the leader of the interview. The interviewee is the follower. The Interviewer must constantly be thinking ahead while the Interviewee should concentrate on answering the questions quickly and intelligently.
  3. Make the conditions.
    EXAMPLE:
    Name of Company: ALIEN INTERNATIONAL
    Type of Job: Interpreting
    Qualifications: Must be enrolled in Speech I Class
    Working Hours: Twenty hours a week
    Salary: 450,000 yen a month
  4. 4. Randomly divide the class into the roles of Interviewers and Interviewees and assign everyone a partner. If the number of students is odd, appoint two Interviewers for one group.
  5. 5. Have all Interviewees leave the room. Let the Interviewers establish their territory by positioning two chairs face to face in different parts of the room.
  6. 6. Have the Interviewees enter and go to their respective partners.
  7. 7. Allow eight minutes for this round of interviews.
  8. 8. While the interviews are in progress, match up names so that everyone will have a different partner for round two in which the Interviews and Interviewees will switch roles.
  9. 9. Upon completion of round one, announce the names for the new groups.
  10. 10. Begin round two. Give them eight minutes again.

At the end of the interviews, you can find out how successful the Interviewees were. Have all your students close their eyes and have them raise their hands if they would employ the person they interviewed.

II. Island Survival
Begin by telling the students that the success of a Group Discussion hinges on the group member's participation. Encourage them to speak and tell them not to be afraid to disagree.
  1. The number of people in a group should be between three to five with five being better. Divide up the class accordingly.
  2. Have each group sit in a circle.
  3. Hand out the Island Survival Paper Handout Five to each student and go over the story together.
  4. Let the discussions begin.
  5. Upon completion of the discussion(s), tell each group to announce the items they have chosen.

Day Ten
Today is the last class and you want to leave the student's with the feeling that they accomplished something. To make sure each student has ample opportunity to speak, we will do two activities that challenge the students and bring the class to a successful close.

I. Impromptu Speaking
Not only are we doing public speeches, be we are going to be doing the most challenging form of public speaking, i.e. impromptu or instant speaking. Tell your students that the delivery of an Impromptu Speech is also the heart of the interview portion of the "STEP I Test" of English, Also known as "Eiken." The following outline can be used:

  1. Give each student one blank piece of paper.
  2. Tell them they have five minutes to write three topics for a speech.
  3. Collect the papers.
  4. Decide the speaking order.
  5. Have the first speaker choose one paper. It must not be their own paper. The other students will also pick a paper, but not look at it.
  6. Give the first speaker three minutes to choose one of the three topics and prepare for their speech.
  7. Have the first speaker deliver a speech of approximately three minutes.
  8. Give comments as usual after the speech.
  9. Repeat steps 6,7 and 8 for each speaker.

The following are a few tips for successful Impromptu speaking:
a. During the three-minute preparation time, tell your students to avoid using their dictionaries as much as possible to save time.
b. One of the most common problems during the delivery is speakers not being able to end. This usually occurs because they do not have their conclusion prepared. Advise your students to think of the Body, Conclusion and Introduction in that order.

II. Future Visions
This activity is a chance for students to think about what they have accomplished during this course and concentrate on what they would like to do with the tools they have acquired. You want to encourage students to look at their weaknesses and ways in which they can overcome them. Basically follow the steps for other presentations except that all students will have five minutes to prepare a short speech thanking you the teacher and the other students and giving their impression of the class and plans for future study.
Tell them to keep their presentations short and relatively formal. This may be the last time you see some of the students and you want to give everyone as much encouragement as possible.
You will be the last speaker and you should make sure the students know that this was a learning experience for you as well and that you hope they all become excellent public speakers. Public speaking is not easy and to become an effective communicator you need to practice. Also, you may need to fail a few times. This is part of the learning experience and everyone goes through it. No one was born a great speaker. Great speakers work very hard to perfect their art. THANK YOU!

(NOTE: Some students will be continuing on to Speech Two. Explain that students will have more chances to make public presentations and that you will work on other types of speech, namely Persuasion and Entertainment.)

SPEECH TWO

Speech Two is intended to be a continuation of Speech One. Students should already have the basic knowledge of Communication and therefore the teacher will not need to reiterate those points made in Speech One, but only make reference to them. As with Speech I, some of the material is for the teacher's information only and need not be passed on to the students.
This course is also designed so that students can take it as many times as they wish to keep polishing their public speaking skills.

Day One
Much of today will be spent reviewing the important points of Speech One and doing self-introductions.

I. Review
We will start this review by working with the Voice Paper that was introduced on Day Two in Speech One. Drill your students again on the use of their voice and body in communication. You may also want to draw the Speech Chart on the board to reiterate our focus.
Next, review the ideas presented as Content for Public Speech. Bring the student's attention around to three types of speeches: Informative, Persuasive, and Entertainment. It will be reassuring to students to mention that students will have a chance to learn, prepare and deliver each type of speech.

II. Self Introductions
Start by having each student go up to the podium and introducing themselves with information that they think is important. To get them back into the flow of speech class have them do this as a "public presentation." When the students finish their presentations, don't let them return to their seats right away. Have each of the other people in class ask at least one question. When all students are finished giving their presentations you can give some comments and point out the Twelve Checkpoints for style on the Speech Chart for review.
Announce that all students will be required to give an Information Speech on Day Two. Remind them of the instructions that were introduced on Day Five in Speech One for constructing effective speeches. Tell them the importance of presenting new information when doing Informative Speeches. "How to . . ." speeches are quite common and generally interesting. Tell them to think of something that they know how to do that most of the other students probably don't.
If you have time, this would be a golden opportunity to conduct an Audience Analysis exercise. Also, I like to require that all speeches from this point on be delivered in extemporaneous fashion.

Day Two
Today you will conduct the class along the lines of your first presentation day in Speech One. Choose an inventive way to decide speaking order and make sure that the audience is involved in asking questions of each speaker. Finally, you will make some comments or offer some light criticism. This is all to boost the students' self esteem or give impetus for improvement.

Day Three
Today you will give a lecture on Persuasion speeches, announce the presentation day for the students' Persuasion speech presentations and practice some simple story telling.

I. Tools of Persuasion
A good place to start is explaining the three "powers" of persuasion, ethos, logos and pathos.

A. Ethos - As far as speech is concerned Ethos refers to the credibility of the speaker. For example, a practicing dentist will be more persuasive talking on the advantages to daily flossing. Point out an example such as a policeman telling someone to stop. The power of Ethos is used here and most people would immediately stop.

B. Logos - Logos is persuasion by logic. Basically there are two forms of logical reasoning, inductive and deductive. Inductive reasoning goes from the general to the specific. Give an example something like this: All professional soccer teams in Japan are sponsored by major corporations. Gamba Osaka is one of the professional soccer teams in Japan. Therefore, Gamba Osaka is sponsored by a major corporation.
Conversely, deductive reasoning goes from the specific to the general. Example: Akebono is a strong sumo wrestler. Akebono is from Hawaii. Therefore, All sumo wrestlers from Hawaii are strong.

C. Pathos - this form of persuasion appeals to a person's emotions. Using a picture of starving children in Ethiopia would be an effective way to persuade people to donate money to needy children that uses Pathos.

Two more important "tools" of persuasion that are used often in advertising are Testimonials and Expert Testimonies. A famous sports figure endorsing a certain brand of toothbrush is an example of a testimonial. He or she is not an expert on toothbrushes but the message is persuasive because of their "name value." Expert testimonials, on the other hand, are endorsements given by professionals in a certain field. A dentist endorsing x-brand toothbrush is a good example of this.

A good example of how to set up a persuasion speech is the Monroe Motivated Sequence which is as follows:

  1. Get the attention of the audience.
  2. Establish a definite need.
  3. Satisfy that need.
  4. Give the audience an opportunity to visualize the solution.
  5. Suggest action for the audience to take.

You could give the following example of a point by point outline of a speech attempting to persuade the audience to buy a certain bathroom cleaner:

II. Storytelling
This activity is designed to give your students the opportunity to practice preparing and delivering short stories that are logically sound. This activity is also preparation for the interview part of the pre-first level of the STEP test mentioned in the section on test preparation.

Finally, today you will announce that Day Five will be presentation day for Persuasion speeches.

Day Four
The entire class today will be spent practicing impromptu speeches. Follow the instructions for conducting impromptu speeches from Day Ten in Speech One.

Day Five
Today will be devoted to Persuasion Speeches. Pass out enough speech evaluations sheets (Fig. 3) for each student to evaluate all of their classmates and follow the procedure for presentations from Day Seven in Speech One.



Day Six
To strengthen the student's use of persuasive speaking skills you will have students prepare for simple debates and do an activity called balloon survival.

I. Preparing One-on-One Debates
1. Go over some key terms used in debate such as "pro," "con," "affirmative," "negative," "cross-examination," "evidence," and any others that you think necessary.

2. Divide the class into pairs and have them sit together. In these pairs they will decide on a topic for debate. Make sure they choose a topic that interests them. The following is a short list of possibilities:

Smoking Studying Abroad Gambling
Public Lottery T.V. vs. Radio Instant Food
Vending Machines Space Exploration Legal Drinking Age

3. Decide speaking roles. Choose some indiscriminate way of deciding who will take the affirmative role and who will take the negative role.

4. Give them a short time to outline their argument and tell them their homework is to prepare a persuasive speech arguing their point.

II. Balloon Survival
This activity is designed to exercise student's persuasive speaking skills. Follow this outline:

1. Start by having students choose a profession that they think is important. Give them a few minutes and then have them announce their profession to the rest of the class.

2. Describe the following scenario:
The students are citizens of the island-nation of Wallabi in the South Pacific. The population of Wallabi is 10,000. The group of citizens in this room (your speech class) has decided to travel to a neighboring island by balloon. Fifty kilometers away from land, a seagull crashes into the balloon and punctures a small hole in the balloon. Because of the small leak the balloon gradually loses altitude. (Did I forget to mention that the waters around here are shark infested?) It is determined that the balloon can only support the weight of two people.

3. The resulting discussion should focus on persuasion. Each student should try to convince the others that he/she is the most important and that he/she should survive. Stress the point that this should be a democratic decision and that suicide or martyrdom are not possible solutions.
Ideally, the decision should be reached by consensus. If this isn't possible, make sure the students realize that a decision reached by majority vote is also a good resolution.

Day Seven
There are two parts to today's lesson. First, is a lecture on entertainment speeches and conducting an audience interest survey for the student's final prepared presentations for the course. Secondly, you will conduct an exercise called "Timed Speaking" which exercises the students' ability to use a limited amount of time efficiently and encourages students to economize on words.

I. Entertainment Speeches
Speeches to entertain are designed with one main purpose in mind: to entertain the audience. There are many kinds of entertainment such as humorous presentations or stories based on personal experience. Some people enjoy ghost stories or unexplained mysteries.
In any case, entertaining an audience is a challenging task and brings with it the most reward. Tell your students to try and be creative and have fun with it.
If your students choose to tell a story, advise them to "feel" the story and aim at making the story "believable." A skillful storyteller can "paint" the images on the audiences mind.
Now, conduct an audience analysis to give the students an idea of what interests their classmates. An outline of conducting this exercise can be found instructions for Day Five in Speech One.
II. Timed Speaking
The basic idea behind this activity is to have students tell a short story three times with a decreasing amount of time. You may need to adjust the following outline to accommodate large, small or odd-numbered classes.
1. Divide the class into pairs or groups of three and have them decide their own group's speaking order.
2. Decide on a common topic that will interest the greatest number of students and lead to some interesting stories. Topics that have been used successfully in my classes are "My Most Embarrassing Experience," "My Worst Date," and "My Best Vacation."
3. Give everyone two or three minutes to prepare an outline for their story. You don't want them to write out their whole story, just some main points in outline form.
4. Using a stop watch or the clock, time the first speakers at two minutes. (Mention that the main idea is to keep talking for the whole two minutes and not to worry about perfect grammar, structure, etc.)
5. After the first speaker of each group is finished, have other students ask clarifying questions to their partners.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 with the rest of the speakers.
7. Change groups and repeat steps 4 through 6 with the same stories but only ninety seconds for each speaker.
8. Change groups one last time and repeat steps 4 through 6 with the same stories but only seventy-five seconds.

After all speakers are finished, point out that the aim of this exercise is to get students to use their speaking time more efficiently. The stories were the same, but students had to drop all unnecessary starts and stops and economize on language used. (This is a good activity to use in other intermediate and advanced classes.)

Day Eight
Today will be spent listening to entertainment speeches. Follow the instructions for conducting presentations found on Day Seven of Speech One. Have students evaluate their classmates using the evaluation sheets (Fig. ?) You should also mention that students who finish their speeches today will be required to deliver the same speech in extemporaneous fashion next week and the students who deliver their entertainment speech next week will be required to do so on the last day, Day Ten.

Day Nine
Today will be a continuation of last weeks Entertainment Speeches.

I. Entertainment Speeches
Follow the same outline as last week for the remaining students.

II. Extemporaneous Speeches
Students who delivered their Entertainment Speech on Day Eight will give their speech again in extemporaneous fashion. Refer to Day Seven for a detailed explanation and follow the usual procedure for presentations.

Day Ten
Today is the last day of the course and you want to send the students away with a feeling of accomplishment and pride. You will probably have a few more extemporaneous entertainment speeches to finish and then you will conduct impromptu speeches of a different variety. Finally, you will conduct a future vision session similar to the last day of Speech One.

I. Extemporaneous Speeches
Students who gave their first Entertainment Speech on Day Nine will give the same speech in extemporaneous fashion today. Follow the same procedure for these speeches as you did last week.

II. The Ultimate Speech
These are Impromptu Speeches with a designated topic and purpose. You can alter the following procedure to fit your class and the remaining time:
1. Basically, follow the steps of Impromptu Speeches on Day Ten of Speech One.
2. Students have a few minutes to write down one speech topic that they would be interested in giving. When writing these topics, students should also include the speech purpose (Informative, Persuasive, Entertainment) For example: "recycling" -- Persuasive
3. Collect all papers and redistribute. No student should have their own speech topic.
4. Students come up in front of the class one at a time and deliver their Impromptu Speech. Other students should be encouraged to ask questions after each speech is delivered.

III. Future Visions
Depending on the remaining amount of time, you can follow the example for Future Visions on Day Ten of Speech One.

Today is the last day of the course and you should send the students off with an encouraging word. Tell them that they are welcome to take Speech Two again at any time and that they should aggressively look for chances to speak in public and not shy away from them. Good public speakers have had a lot of practice and each time you speak in public will be a unique experience and add to your confidence. Good Luck to you all.
END OF SPEECH COMMUNICATION

3. MOVIE CLASS
I designed this class also while employed as a language instructor at Sony Language Laboratory. Prior to being assigned the task of designing this class, I was in charge of a movie class in which we used the prepared materials by CINEX, which is a department of Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc. The materials for that course are of exceptional quality, but I found the limitations of teaching a twenty week course on one movie to be to extreme. It was with the experiences of that course in mind that I set out to design a movie course which would give the students much more opportunity to use and develop their verbal skills using a variety of movies as the basis for discussion and study of language.

MOVIE APPRECIATION CLASS COURSE OUTLINE



Date/time: ???

Meeting Place: Room ???

Aim:

Advice: This class requires the active participation of all members. Preparation for class sometimes includes written presentations and these will be checked to evaluate your understanding of the material. Also, a notebook for new vocabulary, expressions, etc. will be very useful in keeping a record for later review.

This course outline is designed to help students sharpen the skills needed for communication. While the teacher will be busy preparing for this class, they should not dominate the discussion during class hours. Activities should be carefully designed to focus attention on the movie clips and students.
I strongly suggest the extensive use of video, although it is not necessary for every class. Students should be urged to talk about all aspects of movies and too much video can deter from this.
Transcripts are also quite helpful. You will want to include transcripts for the clips you show in class as well as other scenes that you don't show. Also, students should be encouraged to do role plays based on scenes that they watch or read.

MOVIE APPRECIATION CLASS
COURSE SYLLABUS

Week One
1) Greetings/Introductions
2) Explanation of course and responsibilities
3) Useful vocabulary for this course
4) Determine goals and statement of commitment
5) Movie Interest Survey

Week Two
Romance Movies (Relationships)

Week Three
Action Movies (Photography/Scenery)

Week Four
Suspense/Mystery Movies (Plot/Theme)

Week Five
Classic Movies (Characters)

Week Six
Comedy Movies (Timing/Setting)

Week Seven
Serial Movies (Sequence)

Week Eight
Japanese Movies (Cultural Background)

Week Nine
Science Fiction (Special Effects/Makeup)

Week Ten
1) Student Presentations
2) Future Goals/Visions

*Do not hesitate to suggest changes or additions
**Themes or focus may change to facilitate natural discussion

This syllabus is designed so as to cover a different genre each week. Since you can use different movies, it is possible for the same students to repeat the course and further polish their communication skills.
Students will have different reasons for wanting to study in a movie class. The popularity of American films has long had a firm grip in Japan and most major films have been dubbed into Japanese or include Japanese sub-titles. Still, many Japanese are interested in learning how to understand the Engish in movies without these aids and believe a class of this variety can help them in this endeavor.
The following techniques for using video in the English language classroom are just a few of the many ways in which you can make video classes interesting and productive. I suggest using a variety of techniques and finding ones that suit your teaching style or the needs of the students. Keep in mind that using one technique too often or too long rus the risk of boring students.

Clozed Listening
These activities require students to listen for details and fill in the missing information in thier text or handouts.

Clozed Viewing
This is a technique in which students watch only bits of a scene and speculate on what happens in the missing parts. Another version of this (Gap Viewing) is an information gap in which students watch different parts of the same scene and compare information to get a fuller picture.

Dictation
Dictation can be used to focus the students attention in on specific language points that appear in the movie dialog. This technique should be used regularly to reinforce newly learned language, etc.

Mini-Dialogue
After watching certain scenes, have students write their own dialogues with similar ideas or language focus and have them practice in pairs or small groups. Adding the pressure of performing in front of their classmates can sometimes be a good form of motivation.

Guesswork
After giving students a few possible outcomes of a scene, have them discuss the merits and demerits of each choice. After this discussion has been exhausted, you can watch the scene and then have students give thier opinion.

Ranking
This technique involves having students arrange a certain list of items in their order of preference and then justifying this arrangement to you or each other. A number of situations can be used.

Splitviewing/listening
This technique resembles gap viewing but you have some students listen to the scene without watching and the other students watch without listening. The task of sharing information requires students to infer or deduce certain points.

Staggered Viewing
Another version of clozed viewing or gap viewing in which each student sees a different part of the same scene and the whole class has to piece together the entire scene from start to finish.

The above techniques can and should be used throughout the course. Now that you have a list of techniques for using video, here are some tips on other ways to make your video class more successful.

A. Using the Blackboard
Keeping lists of new vocabulary or other language items on the board will help reinforce what students are learning from the video. Be careful to keep your writing to a minimum in order to avoid overload.

B. Discussions
These can be done in pairs, groups or as a class and should focus on topics that naturally come up as a result of a certain scene or activity. By presenting their answers and opinions and listening to the opinions of others, students will gain confidence in using English as a tool for communicating their thoughts, doubts, etc.

C. Notebooks
Encourage your students to keep notebooks and make extensive entries when participating in class discussions or when doing extensive viewing. You should stress the importance of double checking information, cross referencing, and review.

D. Retelling
Stress to your students the merits of improving their ability to retell stories. Proficiency in this area will positively affect other areas of language and increase needed confidence in a variety of communicative settings.

4. BUSINESS CLASS
There are a number of good business English texts that you can choose to center a class on. Oxford University Press and Longman are just a couple of the publishing companies that have a specific division that concentrates on business English courses and text. Still, you may find that you want to modify or supplement and existing text or create your own course. The following items may be important and should be kept in mind:*Do not hesitate to suggest changes or additions
**Themes or focus may change to facilitate natural discussion

*Do not hesitate to suggest changes or additions
**Themes or focus may change to facilitate natural discussion

A. Only extremely motivated students will be able to study only business items and not get bored. You may want to sprinkle in some other language items that will be useful to the students and use free discussion under the premise that it will help advance overall language ability.

B. Business English courses will focus on different aspects of business such as telephoning, letter writing, conducting meetings, and giving presentations. Individual students will have certain strengths and weaknesses that may or may not coincide with their actual ability to use English. Teachers of business courses need to be especially sensitive to the needs of individual students and be able to adjust certain tasks up or down to accommodate a variety of students.

C. The ability to actively participate in business meetings requires competence in aural and oral skills and relies heavily on an extensive vocabulary and better than average listening comprehension5. Keep this in mind when deciding on textbooks or materials and tell your students that extensive reading and extra listening practive outside of class is necessary to achieve recognizable progress.

In addition to the above items, I strongly urge teachers to use some of the other techniques in the other sections of this chapter and Part Six to supplement the prepared materials that you decide to use. Requiring students to write research reports6 is an excellent tool for polishing business English proficiency.
Students at lower levels will also need more variety since you want to help them develop a balanced set of communication skills.

CONCLUSION
All of the information in this chapter is intended to get teachers more comfortable with actual classes. I hope teachers will use the ideas here in other classes as well since some of them work very well in other situations and have value in promoting language competency.
Not all activities will work for you and having an extensive repertoire will decrease the probability of a class totally flopping. Keep your antennae tuned in for new or useful activities and techniques and aim at putting them into practice as soon as possible.

NOTES

[1] Katsuki, N. Japan's Booming Bilingual Business. in Tokyo Business Today, September, 1989 (58-60).

[2] The Japan Times carried an article titled English Gains International Favor in its October 8, 1991 edition on page 7. This article gives a few examples of how companies do this and what they look for.

[3] Richard Han prepared the original course in 1983 and I have modified it in length and detail to fit a ten-week, eighty to one-hundred minute format.

[4] Dale Carnegie (1990) makes this point several times in his best seller, How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking.

[5] Waters, A., ed. Issues in ESP. Lancaster Practical Papers in English Language Education, 5, 1982.

[6] Neubert, G.A., and Binko, J.B. Teach-Probe-Revise: A Model for Initiating Classroom Research. The Teacher Educator, 22(1), 9-17. 1987.

Part Eight - Useful Information