Improving How Listening Skills are Taught in the Efl Classroom: Guidelines to Producing Better Speakers of the English Language

This research paper is concerned with the need to improve how listening skills are taught in the Capeverdian EFL classroom. Teaching English through listening is not an easy task, especially when there are many factors that impede the learning process such as: lack of adequate materials and conditions; lack of qualified teachers with good pronunciation, and lack of innovative approaches to teaching listening skills. If our goal as teachers is to produce good English speakers we must invest in training good listeners. In this work I will focus on the following aspects: an evaluation of how effectively listening skills are taught in the Capeverdian EFL classroom; a look at how we can turn teaching problems into positive solutions; how to improve teaching listening skills and materials and recommendations for best practices in teaching listening skills in the EFL classroom. In conclusion I will include listening activities which reflect these best practices and offer recommendations for further research.

Comunidade dos pa��ses de lingua oficial portuguesa (CPLP): comunidade ���lus��fona��� ou ficticia?

O presente cap��tulo visa, con recurso ao universo te��rico e ao referencial metodol��xico da ciencia pol��tica e das relaci��ns internacionais, analizar a evoluci��n hist��rica da CPLP, as rupturas, mudanzas e (des) continuidades verificadas na acci��n externa e diplom��tica da organizaci��n na s��a relaci��n coa organizaci��n pol��tica do mundo, o seu argumentario pol��tico de referencia, o discurso lexitimador(1) (Maltez, 1996: 153; Sarmento, 2008: 251; Costa, 2009: 9) e a ret��rica discursiva que preside a constituci��n dunha comunidade pol��tica ���lus��fona��� asentada en solidariedades horizontais (Moreira, 2001: 15). Percibida polas elites pol��ticas como unha oportunidade hist��rica sen precedentes (Cabral, 1994: 2;) emerxe analiticamente como unha fonte explicativa da crecente complexidade do fen��meno pol��tico no espazo lus��fono, e modelo institucional capaz de potenciar e descentralizar o di��logo intercontinental (Gama, 1996: 7) entre os pa��ses que te��en a lingua portuguesa como veh��culo privilexiado de comuni- caci��n, e mecanismo formatador dun ���modo portugu��s de estar no mundo���(3)(Moreira, 1956; Castelo, 1998: 13 e 101).

Adapting the Process Writing Approach to English Language Learners with Special Needs: Using Visuals

The available literature on the writing characteristics and best practices to teach writing to English Language Learners who also present some disability is scarce. In order to understand and provide some insight on the developments in this field, I propose an adaptation of the Process Writing Approach based on a literature review of the existing bibliography about the writing characteristics of English Language Learners, Special Needs Learners, and English Language Learners with Special Needs��� writing, the effects of the Process Writing Approach in teaching writing to these groups, and the use of visuals in writing instruction. The main assumptions of this study are: a) The Process Writing Approach provides an opportunity to differentiate instruction to ELLs with special needs and gives them additional opportunities to bring their funds of knowledge to the classroom, improving their writing, and b) By allowing students to rely on visuals in different phases of the writing process teachers will be addressing the needs of both visual and verbal learners, therefore allowing students more options to develop writing skills. The main pedagogical implication is that by dividing writing in recursive stages and inserting visuals as scaffolding throughout the entire writing process, teachers will provide an alternative approach to writing instruction that may be more effective to English Language Learners with Special Needs.