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Learner : children| business| ESL/EFL High School & College

Skill : Listening & Speaking | Reading | Vocabulary Development | Early Language Development

Text Type: Classroom Texts | Supplemental Texts | Software | Teacher's Resources | Class Resources

Top-Up Listening

"...actually teaches students how to listen"

- Bronia Holmes, in English Teaching Professional (Book Reviews, Issue 30, January 2004)

Teaching English as it is actually spoken

Top-Up gives students practice in drawing meaning from naturally spoken English in two ways: using their knowledge of the world and of the language to guess what's coming next, and using their knowledge of how English is actually structured as a sound.

Whaddaweemean? - how words run together, how sounds are lost, how vowels naturally weaken and entire words are dropped. Without knowledge of such patterns, listening is impossible. Lots of practice! Lots of variety! >> more info

For info on the background SLA theory to Top-Up Listening please click here.

Communication Spotlight Key Features:

Spotlight on Listening: A look into the skills and strategies of listening, how English is naturally pronounced in streams of connected discourse, using your world knowledge to get to meaning

Spotlight on Speaking: A focus on how second language speakers can better use strategies to communicate their message

Spotlight on Memory: A focus on short term memory, with an eye to stretching it.

Focuses on Speaking Strategies:

• Conversation management
• Compensation strategies
• Involvement strategies
• Confirmation strategies

Plus Listening Skills and Strategies: weak vowels, assimlation, liaison, elision, inferencing and so on. Teaching the skills of listening explicitly!