We neet to talk: sensitive topics for communicative classes (material didático para o ensino de inglês)

Abstract

When adults look for language courses, their prime motivation is to acquire a new language. This is not the only reason why people enroll in language schools. Getting to know new people and making friends has become more and more difficult. Technology has made it possible to easily keep in touch and make new friends through social media and apps. Those interactions often lack a very important component: human interaction. Teachers often report to their peers that their classes sometimes feel like therapy sessions. To a certain extent, they are. Discussing such topics is a way to poke into subjects that may concern people but are hardly debated. Each unit is divided into a warm-up section to set the ball rolling and introduce the unit topic, a section for each of the four skills - speaking, reading, listening, and writing - that serve as language learning opportunities and input for debates that may take place throughout the unit. The units are supposed to be taught communicatively. Vocabulary and grammar are addressed inductively by presenting the language in context. The vocabulary and grammar activities are based on the texts or listening files from the unit so that students are exposed to the language structures addressed before tackling them more closely.