A Critical Thinking Lesson for Teaching Argumentation and Persuasion

This is a great interactive lesson to get students talking and thinking about a number of controversial issues. The lesson is designed as an idea-generating activity for advanced ESL/EFL students who are preparing to write an argumentative essay or do a persuasive speech. The lesson takes about 90 minutes. The best way to do the lesson is put students in small groups. First, go over the vocabulary. Next, explain that they will watch several videos and then in their groups, they will discuss and answer the questions on their worksheets. Here are the links and videos for teaching the lesson:

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Using Environmental Themes in the Language Classroom

In his book The Lorax, Dr. Seuss ingeniously communicates a message about environmental stewardship through witty rhymes from his colorful cartoon characters. The message is obvious, but delivered via his unique brand of edu-tainment. Seuss creatively uses a children’s book as a vehicle to raise awareness of sustainable development among the young generation.In the same way, language teachers can help to raise awareness about current environmental issues by incorporating environmental themes into lesson materials. Such topics can be suitable content for all levels of language courses. Therefore, this paper proposes that the commonalities between environmental education and language education merit the consideration of using “green themes” in content-based instruction. In addition, this paper will offer suggestions for designing green lessons that facilitate language acquisition.

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Designing Web-Based Materials for ESL/EFL Lessons

     It has often been said that computers will never replace teachers; however, teachers that use computers to facilitate learning for their students will always have one more “tool” than those that do not. Although the use of computers in language teaching is ubiquitous, many teachers are still unsure of how to design Internet-based lessons that encourage students to communicate in the target language.

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Academic Writing: Recognizing Red Flags on the Road to Revision

Red Flag # 1: Avoid Using First or Second Person in Academic Writing

There is a debate over how appropriate the use of “I” and “You” are in academic writing. However, especially for less experienced writers, these pronouns tend to reduce the level of formality in academic writing. Often personal pronouns make a paper or an essay much like a letter to “Mom” rather than academic prose. There are several solutions to using personal pronouns.

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