In Vocabulary Myths, Keith S. Folse breaks down the teaching of second language vocabulary into eight commonly held myths. In debunking each myth, he introduces the myth with a story based on his 25 years of teaching experience (in the United States and abroad), continues with a presentation of what empirical research has shown on the topic, and finishes with a list of what teachers can do in their classrooms to facilitate true vocabulary acquisition.The goal of Vocabulary Myths is to foster a paradigm shift that correctly views vocabulary as fundamental in any second language learning process and demonstrates that research supports this goal-that in fact there is a wealth of empirical evidence to support these views. In addition, an important theme is that teachers have overestimated how much vocabulary students really understand, and as a result, the so-called "comprehensible input" is neither comprehensible nor input.The second language vocabulary acquisition myths reexamined in this book are:*In learning another language, vocabulary is not as important as grammar or other areas.*Using word lists to learn L2 vocabulary is unproductive.*Presenting new vocabulary in semantic sets facilitates learning.*The use of translations to learn new vocabulary should be discouraged.*Guessing words from context is an excellent strategy for learning L2 vocabulary.*The best vocabulary learners make use of one or two really specific vocabulary learning strategies.*The best dictionary for L2 learners is a monolingual dictionary.*Teachers, textbooks, and curricula cover L2 vocabulary adequately.

*What elements make a speaking activity successful? *Which tasks or activities really help build speaking fluency? *What does the research show regarding speaking activities?*What mistakes do ESL teachers often make in speaking activity design?In this highly accessible and practical resource, Keith S. Folse provides a wealth of information to help ESL/EFL teachers design and use speaking tasks that will actually improve students' speaking fluency. The book presents and discusses the relevant research and assessment issues and includes case studies from twenty different settings and classrooms around the world so that readers learn from others about the problems and successes of using various speaking activities. Teachers will find the chapters on Twenty Successful Activities and Ten Unsuccessful Activities particularly valuable. The successful activities are provided for classroom use and are reproducible. The book also contains five appendixes that explain what teachers need to know about vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar and how they affect the teaching of speaking. Samples of successful lesson plans and a list of resources useful for teaching speaking are also included.Keith S. Folse, Ph.D., is Coordinator, TESOL Programs, University of Central Florida (Orlando). He is the author of Vocabulary Myths (University of Michigan Press, 2004) and more than 35 second language textbooks, including texts on grammar, reading, speaking, listening, and writing.

For many teachers of English language learners, the field of assessment is foreign territory. Assessment has its own culture, traditions, and terminology. This training guide is intended to help classroom teachers become more comfortable creating and using assessments. A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners provides helpful insights into the practice and terminology of assessment. The text focuses on providing the cornerstones of good assessments—usefulness, validity, reliability, practicality, washback, authenticity, transparency, and security—and techniques for testing. It devotes a chapter to the assessment of each of the four main skill areas (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), and also covers placement testing, such as using TOEFL® and MELAB, diagnostic testing, evaluation, and instructional decision-making with regard to testing. Tips to improve students’ test-taking strategies are offered, and each chapter ends with a helpful list of Ten Things to Remember, as well as informative case studies featuring two teachers and their assessment decisions. Incorporating its own principles, A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners opens with a short quiz for the reader called Are You Testwise? that quickly determines how each teacher will benefit from this indispensable guide.

The Four Point series is designed for English language learners whose primary goal is to succeed in an academic setting. The series covers the four academic skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking while providing reinforcement and systematic recycling of key vocabulary and further exposure to grammar issues. In order to participate in academic settings, ELLs need focused activities to develop and then maintain their use of vocabulary and grammar. Each book in the series focuses heavily on vocabulary in particular, highlighting between 125-150 key vocabulary items including individual words, compound words, phrasal verbs, short phrases, idioms, metaphors, collocations, and longer set lexical phrases. Each unit in Reading-Writing 1, includes two reading passages on the same topic within a field of academic study: Psychology, World Civilizations, Astronomy, Literature, Civil Engineering, and Political Science. Each reading is accompanied by a before reading, during reading, and after reading strategy and practice activity. The goal is to provide students with a variety of strategies/tools to master whatever academic texts they may encounter. In addition, exercises have been designed to develop vocabulary, paraphrasing, summarizing, and synthesizing skills. By addressing the breadth and depth of reading and writing tasks required in academic settings instead of only reading for pleasure or writing for research projects, this volume truly prepares students for the variety of reading texts and writing projects they will be assigned in colleges and universities. Interactive vocabulary activities are available on the book's companion website.

The 4 Point series is designed for English language learners whose primary goal is to succeed in an academic setting. Academic English learners need skills-based books that focus on reading, listening, and speaking, as well as the two primary language bases of vocabulary and grammar. The ultimate goal is to help your students improve these skills and earn a 4.0 (GPA).The Introduction to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) level is designed for students in academic programs who need a more general introduction to authentic academic content. The discrete skills volumes are designed for programs and courses that want to more intensively focus on key strategies and authentic academic content in one skill area.Each 4 Point volume covers academic skills while providing reinforcement and systematic recycling of key vocabulary issues and further exposure to grammar issues. These volumes focus very heavily on vocabulary because language learners know that they are way behind their native-speaker counterparts when it comes to vocabulary. Each book highlights key vocabulary items, including individual words, compound words, phrasal verbs, short phrases, idioms, metaphors, collocations and longer set lexical phrases.Speaking for Academic Purposes is an introductory textbook containing English for Academic Purposes content. Each unit includes activities to strengthen a range of speaking skills, notably: understanding classroom discourse, using academic language functions, recognizing signal words and phrases, and synthesizing information. These activities are presented within the context of one field of academic study (Architecture, Marketing, Earth Science, U.S. History, Chemistry, and Fine Arts) per unit. Unique to this speaking text are six videos showing common student interactions. Access to the videos is free. Each unit includes three academic speaking strategies (including one specific to making presentations) and tasks that involve participating in group discussions, interacting with native speakers, and making a presentation. The goal is to provide students with a variety of strategies/tools to master academic situations in which they need to participate.

This workbook accompanies the Second Edition of Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners: A Practical Handbook by Keith S. Folse (ISBN: 978-0-472-03667-7). The Workbook has been updated to reflect new content in the Second Edition of the Handbook and once again features exercises that carefully follow the sequence of material in the Handbook. To facilitate use of the Workbook with the Handbook, each exercise is coded with the corresponding pages for the material in the Handbook. Reflecting the different learning styles in any given class, the exercises practice identifying grammatical features in a variety of different ways, including many charts, matching activities, and short answer questions. In addition, the Workbook has a variety of exercises consisting of sentences typical of English language learners so that teachers can become familiar with specific types of errors that ESL students make with certain grammar points.The Workbook also features some action research projects to guide teachers in collecting small samples of data from their target student populations.

The Grammar Answer Key is a collection of 100 questions submitted by ESL teachers--both novice and experienced and both native and non-native speakers--from many different countries around the world. The questions are real questions that ESL/EFL students have asked teachers about English and are similar to the Hot Seat Questions presented in Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners, 2nd ed. (Folse, 2016). The 100 questions are organized into 12 chapters on topics that teachers and students can relate to well: adjectives, articles, clauses, connectors, gerunds and infinitives, prepositions, pronouns, pronunciation, subject-verb agreement, suffixes, verbs, and vocabulary-grammar connections. The number of questions in each chapter ranges from 3 to 13 and is based on the questions submitted. Each chapter begins with a short overview of the topic that features key terminology and a chart explaining three common ESL errors. Each question is presented in a box and is followed by an "answer" that can inform instruction, often in chart format. Examples of questions are:How do you know if a word is an adjective? Can I say the Monday or the January? Do you say on July or in July? I received an email from someone that said “Greetings from my wife and I.” Is this right? Why?How do I know which way to pronounce the -ed at the end of a word?Which verb tenses are the most common in English? Which ones should I study?Why do you say turn on the light instead of turn the light? In my language, we have one word for make and do. In English, when should I use make and when should I use do? The book is the ideal teacher resource and professional development tool.

In Vocabulary Myths, Keith S. Folse breaks down the teaching of second language vocabulary into eight commonly held myths. In debunking each myth, he introduces the myth with a story based on his 25 years of teaching experience (in the United States and abroad), continues with a presentation of what empirical research has shown on the topic, and finishes with a list of what teachers can do in their classrooms to facilitate true vocabulary acquisition.The goal of Vocabulary Myths is to foster a paradigm shift that correctly views vocabulary as fundamental in any second language learning process and demonstrates that research supports this goal-that in fact there is a wealth of empirical evidence to support these views. In addition, an important theme is that teachers have overestimated how much vocabulary students really understand, and as a result, the so-called "comprehensible input" is neither comprehensible nor input.The second language vocabulary acquisition myths reexamined in this book are:*In learning another language, vocabulary is not as important as grammar or other areas.*Using word lists to learn L2 vocabulary is unproductive.*Presenting new vocabulary in semantic sets facilitates learning.*The use of translations to learn new vocabulary should be discouraged.*Guessing words from context is an excellent strategy for learning L2 vocabulary.*The best vocabulary learners make use of one or two really specific vocabulary learning strategies.*The best dictionary for L2 learners is a monolingual dictionary.*Teachers, textbooks, and curricula cover L2 vocabulary adequately.

*What elements make a speaking activity successful? *Which tasks or activities really help build speaking fluency? *What does the research show regarding speaking activities?*What mistakes do ESL teachers often make in speaking activity design?In this highly accessible and practical resource, Keith S. Folse provides a wealth of information to help ESL/EFL teachers design and use speaking tasks that will actually improve students' speaking fluency. The book presents and discusses the relevant research and assessment issues and includes case studies from twenty different settings and classrooms around the world so that readers learn from others about the problems and successes of using various speaking activities. Teachers will find the chapters on Twenty Successful Activities and Ten Unsuccessful Activities particularly valuable. The successful activities are provided for classroom use and are reproducible. The book also contains five appendixes that explain what teachers need to know about vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar and how they affect the teaching of speaking. Samples of successful lesson plans and a list of resources useful for teaching speaking are also included.Keith S. Folse, Ph.D., is Coordinator, TESOL Programs, University of Central Florida (Orlando). He is the author of Vocabulary Myths (University of Michigan Press, 2004) and more than 35 second language textbooks, including texts on grammar, reading, speaking, listening, and writing.

For many teachers of English language learners, the field of assessment is foreign territory. Assessment has its own culture, traditions, and terminology. This training guide is intended to help classroom teachers become more comfortable creating and using assessments. A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners provides helpful insights into the practice and terminology of assessment. The text focuses on providing the cornerstones of good assessments—usefulness, validity, reliability, practicality, washback, authenticity, transparency, and security—and techniques for testing. It devotes a chapter to the assessment of each of the four main skill areas (reading, writing, listening, and speaking), and also covers placement testing, such as using TOEFL® and MELAB, diagnostic testing, evaluation, and instructional decision-making with regard to testing. Tips to improve students’ test-taking strategies are offered, and each chapter ends with a helpful list of Ten Things to Remember, as well as informative case studies featuring two teachers and their assessment decisions. Incorporating its own principles, A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners opens with a short quiz for the reader called Are You Testwise? that quickly determines how each teacher will benefit from this indispensable guide.

The Four Point series is designed for English language learners whose primary goal is to succeed in an academic setting. The series covers the four academic skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking while providing reinforcement and systematic recycling of key vocabulary and further exposure to grammar issues. In order to participate in academic settings, ELLs need focused activities to develop and then maintain their use of vocabulary and grammar. Each book in the series focuses heavily on vocabulary in particular, highlighting between 125-150 key vocabulary items including individual words, compound words, phrasal verbs, short phrases, idioms, metaphors, collocations, and longer set lexical phrases. Each unit in Reading-Writing 1, includes two reading passages on the same topic within a field of academic study: Psychology, World Civilizations, Astronomy, Literature, Civil Engineering, and Political Science. Each reading is accompanied by a before reading, during reading, and after reading strategy and practice activity. The goal is to provide students with a variety of strategies/tools to master whatever academic texts they may encounter. In addition, exercises have been designed to develop vocabulary, paraphrasing, summarizing, and synthesizing skills. By addressing the breadth and depth of reading and writing tasks required in academic settings instead of only reading for pleasure or writing for research projects, this volume truly prepares students for the variety of reading texts and writing projects they will be assigned in colleges and universities. Interactive vocabulary activities are available on the book's companion website.

The 4 Point series is designed for English language learners whose primary goal is to succeed in an academic setting. Academic English learners need skills-based books that focus on reading, listening, and speaking, as well as the two primary language bases of vocabulary and grammar. The ultimate goal is to help your students improve these skills and earn a 4.0 (GPA).The Introduction to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) level is designed for students in academic programs who need a more general introduction to authentic academic content. The discrete skills volumes are designed for programs and courses that want to more intensively focus on key strategies and authentic academic content in one skill area.Each 4 Point volume covers academic skills while providing reinforcement and systematic recycling of key vocabulary issues and further exposure to grammar issues. These volumes focus very heavily on vocabulary because language learners know that they are way behind their native-speaker counterparts when it comes to vocabulary. Each book highlights key vocabulary items, including individual words, compound words, phrasal verbs, short phrases, idioms, metaphors, collocations and longer set lexical phrases.Speaking for Academic Purposes is an introductory textbook containing English for Academic Purposes content. Each unit includes activities to strengthen a range of speaking skills, notably: understanding classroom discourse, using academic language functions, recognizing signal words and phrases, and synthesizing information. These activities are presented within the context of one field of academic study (Architecture, Marketing, Earth Science, U.S. History, Chemistry, and Fine Arts) per unit. Unique to this speaking text are six videos showing common student interactions. Access to the videos is free. Each unit includes three academic speaking strategies (including one specific to making presentations) and tasks that involve participating in group discussions, interacting with native speakers, and making a presentation. The goal is to provide students with a variety of strategies/tools to master academic situations in which they need to participate.

This workbook accompanies the Second Edition of Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners: A Practical Handbook by Keith S. Folse (ISBN: 978-0-472-03667-7). The Workbook has been updated to reflect new content in the Second Edition of the Handbook and once again features exercises that carefully follow the sequence of material in the Handbook. To facilitate use of the Workbook with the Handbook, each exercise is coded with the corresponding pages for the material in the Handbook. Reflecting the different learning styles in any given class, the exercises practice identifying grammatical features in a variety of different ways, including many charts, matching activities, and short answer questions. In addition, the Workbook has a variety of exercises consisting of sentences typical of English language learners so that teachers can become familiar with specific types of errors that ESL students make with certain grammar points.The Workbook also features some action research projects to guide teachers in collecting small samples of data from their target student populations.

The Grammar Answer Key is a collection of 100 questions submitted by ESL teachers--both novice and experienced and both native and non-native speakers--from many different countries around the world. The questions are real questions that ESL/EFL students have asked teachers about English and are similar to the Hot Seat Questions presented in Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners, 2nd ed. (Folse, 2016). The 100 questions are organized into 12 chapters on topics that teachers and students can relate to well: adjectives, articles, clauses, connectors, gerunds and infinitives, prepositions, pronouns, pronunciation, subject-verb agreement, suffixes, verbs, and vocabulary-grammar connections. The number of questions in each chapter ranges from 3 to 13 and is based on the questions submitted. Each chapter begins with a short overview of the topic that features key terminology and a chart explaining three common ESL errors. Each question is presented in a box and is followed by an "answer" that can inform instruction, often in chart format. Examples of questions are:How do you know if a word is an adjective? Can I say the Monday or the January? Do you say on July or in July? I received an email from someone that said “Greetings from my wife and I.” Is this right? Why?How do I know which way to pronounce the -ed at the end of a word?Which verb tenses are the most common in English? Which ones should I study?Why do you say turn on the light instead of turn the light? In my language, we have one word for make and do. In English, when should I use make and when should I use do? The book is the ideal teacher resource and professional development tool.