Keith S. Folse

While most teachers acknowledge the importance of vocabulary in learning a new language, many assume a reading class or other teacher will cover vocabulary. Yet vocabulary plays an essential role in good writing, especially academic writing. Teaching Vocabulary Is the Writing Teacher’s Job explores the serious nature of ESL students’ lexical plight and looks at vocabulary in relation to reading, speaking, listening, and writing proficiency. It also examines the role of vocabulary in ESL writing assessment. In the conclusion, author Keith Folse discusses eight research-based suggestions for writing teachers, including encouraging students to become vocabulary detectives, teaching collocations, testing vocabulary, and teaching paraphrasing and summarizing.

In Academic Word Lists, Keith Folse explains how various lists like the Academic Word List (AWL) have become popular tools in the ESL classroom for teaching vocabulary. Following a discussion on the importance of teaching vocabulary, Folse explains why word lists are useful in language learning and how they can help address the lexical gap. He also outlines what words are on the AWL, how the word families are selected, and what teachers should know about other word lists. The book also includes 10 suggestions for using academic word lists in the classroom, including how to use vocabulary notebooks.

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.

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.

A MICHIGAN TEACHER TRAINING title Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners: A Practical Handbook is not intended to be an exhaustive reference book about ESL grammar. Written for classroom teachers (K-12, ESL, EFL), this book teaches the most common ESL grammar points in an accessible way through real ESL errors together with suggested teaching techniques. Relevant grammar terminology is explained. The four objectives of this book are to help teachers: (1) identify common ESL grammar points and understand the details associated with each one; (2) improve their ability to answer any grammar question on the spot (when on the “hot seat”); (3) anticipate common ESL errors by grammar point, by first language, and/or by proficiency level; and (4) develop more effective grammar/language learning lessons. These objectives are for all teachers, whether they are teaching grammar directly or indirectly in a variety of classes – including a grammar class, a writing class, a speaking class, an ESP class, or a K-12 class. In the Second Edition, all chapters have been updated and substantively revised. The number of marginal (gray) boxes with tips and extra information has doubled. A 16th Key, on Negating, and three new appendixes have been added. One of the new appendixes provides a sample exercise from an actual ESL textbook plus relevant notes about the designing of grammar activities and suggestions for teaching each grammar point. Also added to each Key is a section on the vocabulary items (e.g., collocations) that are related to the teaching of that particular grammar point. This information is unique to this edition and cannot be found elsewhere on the market. The Workbook for the Second Edition (978-0-472-03679-0), available in 2017, includes numerous activities that practice the essentials of grammar and issues relevant to ESL teachers.

Clear Grammar 3 introduces high-intermediate grammar. Clear Grammar 3, 2nd Ed., includes phrasal verbs infinitives and gerunds participial adjectives: -ing and -ed prepositions after verbs, adjectives, and nouns passive voice adjective clauses adverbs connectors review of verb tenses Clear Grammar 3 concludes with a review of this volume’s contents of high-intermediate grammar points. Clear Grammar is a four-level grammar series that features a unique combination of useful grammar information written in clear language with activities that promote more accurate and fluent writing, speaking, reading, and vocabulary usage. Important features of the new editions of Clear Grammar include:More user-friendly charts to accompany grammar explanations High-frequency, corpus-informed vocabulary related to each grammar point Grammar discovery tasks using students’ inductive learning skills A greater variety and more activities, including practice online (www.press.umich.edu/esl/compsite/cleargrammar/) Many more activities at the longer discourse level The addition of reading practice at the end, plus a critical-reading task More writing practice, including one on editing student writing and another for original student writing Two vocabulary practice activities per unit, with one on collocations; plus many one-minute lessons showing the connection between grammar and vocabulary More speaking practice, with activities that require students to speak and listen to each other while using the target grammar Support for teachers in the form of indicators that reference how to teach the grammar points in the Clear Grammar series from Keys to Teaching Grammar for English Language Learners by Keith S. Folse (978-0-472-03220-4).

Clear Grammar 4 introduces advanced grammar. Clear Grammar 4, 2nd Ed., includesSubject-verb agreementWord formsPast perfect tenseConditionalsAdverb clausesNoun clausesReduction of adjective and adverb clauses (including appositives)Past modalsReview of verb tensesClear Grammar 4 concludes with a review of this volume’s contents of advanced grammar points. Clear Grammar is a four-level grammar series that features a unique combination of useful grammar information written in clear language with activities that promote more accurate and fluent writing, speaking, reading, and vocabulary usage. Important features of the new editions of Clear Grammar include:More user-friendly charts to accompany grammar explanations High-frequency, corpus-informed vocabulary related to each grammar point Grammar discovery tasks using students’ inductive learning skills A greater variety and more activities, including practice online (www.press.umich.edu/esl/compsite/cleargrammar/) Many more activities at the longer discourse level The addition of reading practice at the end, plus a critical-reading task More writing practice, including one on editing student writing and another for original student writing Two vocabulary practice activities per unit, with one on collocations; plus many one-minute lessons showing the connection between grammar and vocabulary More speaking practice, with activities that require students to speak and listen to each other while using the target grammar Support for teachers in the form of indicators that reference how to teach the grammar points in the Clear Grammar series from Keys to Teaching Grammar for English Language Learners by Keith S. Folse (978-0-472-03220-4).

Clear Grammar is a four-level grammar series that features a unique combination of useful grammar information written in clear language with activities that promote more accurate and fluent vocabulary usage, writing, speaking, and reading. Important features of all four new editions of Clear Grammar include:More user-friendly charts to accompany grammar explanations High-frequency, corpus-based vocabulary related to each grammar point Grammar discovery tasks using students’ inductive learning skills A greater variety and increased number of activities, including more practice online Many more activities at the longer discourse level The addition of reading practice at the end of the unit, as well a critical-reading task More writing practice, including one on editing student writing and another for original student writing Two vocabulary practice activities, including a focus on collocations, in each unit, as well as many one-minute mini lessons showing the connection between grammar and vocabulary More speaking practice, with activities that require students to speak and listen to each other while using the target grammar Support for teachers in the form of indicators that reference how to teach the grammar points in the Clear Grammar series from Keys to Teaching Grammar for English Language Learners by Keith S. Folse (978-0-472-03220-4). Clear Grammar 2 offers students and teachers a solid introduction to low-intermediate grammar. Clear Grammar 2, 2nd Ed., includes* Articles* Past tense of irregular verbs * Present perfect tense * Adverbs of frequency * Nouns used as adjectives* Object pronouns* Past progressive tense* One and Other* Possessives *Comparatives and superlatives *ModalsThe book's companion website includes the additional grammar/vocabulary activities that are referenced in the textbook.

Clear Grammar is a four-level grammar series that features a unique combination of useful grammar information written in clear language with activities that promote more accurate and fluent vocabulary usage, writing, speaking, and reading. Important features of all four new editions of Clear Grammar include:More user-friendly charts to accompany grammar explanations High-frequency, corpus-based vocabulary related to each grammar point Grammar discovery tasks using students’ inductive learning skills A greater variety and increased number of activities, including more practice online Many more activities at the longer discourse level The addition of reading practice at the end of the unit, as well a critical-reading task More writing practice, including one on editing student writing and another for original student writing Two vocabulary practice activities, including a focus on collocations, in each unit, as well as many one-minute mini lessons showing the connection between grammar and vocabulary More speaking practice, with activities that require students to speak and listen to each other while using the target grammar Support for teachers in the form of indicators that reference how to teach the grammar points in the Clear Grammar series from Keys to Teaching Grammar for English Language Learners by Keith S. Folse (978-0-472-03220-4). Clear Grammar 1 offers students and teachers a solid introduction to beginning-level grammar. It also includes an introduction to the present perfect. Clear Grammar 1, 2nd Ed., includes Present tense of be and regular verbs Possessive adjectives and demonstrative words Descriptive adjectives Past tense of be, regular, and irregular verbs Wh- questions Present progressive Count vs. non-count nouns Prepositions Be going to + Verb Review of verb tensesThe book's companion website includes the additional grammar/vocabulary activities indicated in the textbook.

After general reading comprehension, perhaps the most serious problem encountered by developing readers is reading speed or reading rate. This might be true for many reasons, but most likely it is students' lack of reading automaticity - that is, their inability to recognize discrete vocabulary items rapidly. ESL learners are rarely given opportunities to practice word automaticity." Rapid Reading Practices" consists of 100 timed word practices. These practices cover words at four levels: basic, beginning, intermediate, and advanced. The practices begin with words from the Dolch Word list, include words from the General Service List, and build up to words from the Academic Word List. This textbook includes material for charting student progress on these exercises. Tracking progress is exciting for students, and teachers will notice how consistent and plentiful practice will reveal reading rate improvement.

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.

*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.

101 Clear Grammar Tests contains 101 reproducible tests on common points in the teaching of beginning, intermediate, and advanced ESL grammar. This collection of tests includes a variety of question types and reflects a range of different approaches to testing. As a result, busy teachers will be able to easily find tests that resemble the teaching and learning styles of their own classrooms. The tests in this book are arranged by topic, with two tests per grammar point, in a sequence that matches the one found in the Clear Grammar textbooks, Books 1-4. This test bank also contains a bonus-nine comprehensive advanced grammar tests. Like its predecessor (100 Clear Grammar Tests), this book can be used along with any other ESL grammar series.

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.

Targeting Listening and Speaking provides short and focused activities to help lower-proficiency ESL/EFL students improve their listening and speaking skills. It includes practice in both mastering the larger message and key words/phrases and specific words and sounds to assist students in developing better speaking and comprehension skills. Each unit has a general theme -- such as food, animals and pets, free time and hobbies, and travel -- around which all exercises are designed. The final unit consists of four listening tests that can be used to monitor progress. Each unit includes: dictation practice using dialogues listening skill development speaking practice listening to simple conversations sound practice with minimal pairs listening to simple lectures more speaking and discussion practice. Quizzes are available on the companion website. The audio material is available either on CD or cassette (there are 4 components for each).

Great Authors, Great Writing Models, Great Teaching Support - Great Series!

This workbook, which may be used independently or in conjunction with English Sentence Structure, contains more than 400 exercises that cover beginning- and intermediate-level grammar points such as tenses, articles, count and noncount nouns, modals, verbals, relative clauses, passive voice, adverbs, and conditional sentences. This is the workbook to accompany English Sentence Structure.