SPEAKING

Introduction Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It, like the other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and involves more than just pronouncing words. Listening Situations There are three kinds of speaking situations in which we find ourselves: * interactive, * partially interactive, and * non-interactive. Interactive speaking situations include face-to-face conversations and telephone calls, in which we are alternately listening and speaking, and in which we have a chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower speech from our conversation partner. Some speaking situations are partially interactive, such as when giving a speech to a live audience, where the convention is that the audience does not interrupt the speech. The speaker nevertheless can see the audience and judge from the expressions on their faces and body language whether or not he or she is being understood. Some few speaking situations may be totally non-interactive, such as when recording a speech for a radio broadcast . Micro-skills Here are some of the micro-skills involved in speaking. The speaker has to: * pronounce the distinctive sounds of a language clearly enough so that people can distinguish them. This includes making tonal distinctions. * use stress and rhythmic patterns, and intonation patterns of the language clearly enough so that people can understand what is said. * use the correct forms of words. This may mean, for example, changes in the tense, case, or gender. * put words together in correct word order. * use vocabulary appropriately. * use the register or language variety that is appropriate to the situation and the relationship to the conversation partner. * make clear to the listener the main sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, by whatever means the language uses. * make the main ideas stand out from supporting ideas or information. * make the discourse hang together so that people can follow what you are saying.

LISTENING

LISTENING Assessing Listening Abilities Geoff Brindley Over the last two decades, research has highlighted the important role that listening plays in language acquisition (Brown and Yule 1983, Ellis, et al. 1994, Faerch and Kasper 1986, Feyten 1991, Long 1985), and listening comprehension skills have begun to receive a lot more systematic attention in language teaching classrooms. A wide range of books, articles, and materials aimed at assisting teachers to develop learners’ listening skills are now available, and a variety of comprehension-based methodologies have been proposed (see, for example, Anderson and Lynch 1988, Courchene, et al. 1992, Rost 1990; 1994, Underwood 1989). However, although many of the tasks used for teaching listening are virtually identical to those which appear in tests, assessment of listening ability has received relatively limited coverage in the language testing literature.

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My Fav Singer

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American country pop^[1] singer-songwriter, musician and actress.
In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and was nominated for the Best New Artist award at 50th Grammy Awards. In November 2008, Swift released her second album, Fearless, and the recording earned Swift four Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Fearless and Taylor Swift finished 2008 at number-three and number-six respectively, with sales of 2.1 and 1.5 million.^[5] Fearless topped the Billboard 200 for 11 non-consecutive weeks;^[6] no album has spent more time at No. 1 since 2000. Swift was named Artist of the Year by Billboard Magazine in 2009.^[7] Swift released her third album Speak Now on October 25, 2010 which sold 1,047,000 copies in its first week.
In 2008, her albums sold a combined four million copies, making her the best-selling musician of the year in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Forbes ranked Swift 2009's 69th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $18 million^[8] and 2010's 12th-most powerful celebrity with earnings of $45 million.^[9] Swift was ranked the 38th Best Artist of the 2000–10 decade by Billboard.^[10] In January 2010 Nielsen SoundScan listed Swift as the most commercially successful country (or country/pop crossover) artist in music history with over 33 million digital tracks sold.^[11] As of February 2011^[update], she has sold over 19 million albums and 33 million singles worldwide.^[12]