after-school communication skills enhancement program

In classes using traditional methods of teaching, students seldom have the opportunity to practice or better their skills because instruction is teacher-centered. This means that it is the teacher who is the focus of attention, the teacher who does all the blah while the students sit, stare, and hopefully listen to the lesson of the day delivered by the teacher. Classes are started and ended one after the other and at the end of the day, what skills or lessons did the students learn?

It is on this fact that a need for an after-school communication skills enhancement program is deemed vital in order for students to have maximum use of their potentials. Such a program will serve as an enrichment course designed to hone the speaking, writing, reading, and listening skills of the students enrolled. Meeting only once a week, this two-hour project aims to make ALL the students exercise or use their skills MANY TIMES EVERY MEETING.

Sessions will be held Saturdays at 2:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon.

how to optimize learning in English and speech classes

Let us admit it. Much class time is wasted doing things that do not contribute to the improvement of our students' language skills. Mentors oftentimes overlook to see that they are wasting their students' time and money teaching them lessons that they already know. For instance in a Speech or English class, the teacher should give emphasis on lessons that students find most problems and difficulty.

Teachers should know where her students are by giving them a sort of diagnostic test, like a simple essay, or a simple self-introduction to know their weaknesses and work from there. In English language, is it grammar? Which area of grammar? Is it preposition or subject-verb agreement? If it is Speech it is very easy to isolate problem speech sounds and to start working on those. Teachers will be able to save a lot of class time as well as optimize student learning if he or she will only work on the students' problem areas.

In Speech for example, the teacher can first make a comparison of the sounds in our own dialect against the sounds of the English language. You will notice that there are many sounds in our Pilipino language that are also found in the English language. For example are sounds like /m/, /n/, /b/, /g/, /h/, /w/ and many more. However, there are also many sounds in English that are not found in our own native language like the sounds /f/, /sh/, /v/, /th/ etc.

Sounds that we have no problem producing may be reviewed but sounds that give us many problems should be given more time.

Always work on something that students have little or no know-how. This is the only way that schools can have relevance. Otherwise, there is no point in going to school when you already know what the teachers are talking about.

unskilled graduates are more expensive, say companies

Why?

According to a study, companies have second thoughts about hiring graduates of certain schools that did not equip their students with important skills that are necessary in the workplace.

Top firms say that unskilled graduates are more expensive in the long run because they still need to be retrained and the budget for training these graduates with no or very little know-how could drain companies' pockets.


This is the reason why companies always look for graduates of schools that are known for their highly skilled graduates.

What particular skills do these companies look for?

1. Communication skills: Speaking, listening, reading, writing

2. Computer skills

3. PR skills (could very well follow if you have no. 1)

4. Others (driving, carpentry, nursing, cooking, etc.)

Focus on item no. 1---Companies generally look for people who are highly skilled in the various aspects of Communication.

Question: Where do people get their training in this area?

Answer: In school.

Question: Are the schools giving us this training?

Answer: Some, but not all.

Question: What does this mean?

Answer: It means low demand for your sevices. Solution? To go to a school that addresses this need.