ESL RULES, LLC Newsletter          December 2008
marjorie                                                                           
 
 lynda picture 

Lynda Katz Wilner, of Successfully Speaking,
  
 
and Marjorie Feinstein-Whittaker, of The Whittaker Group, join together to form
ESL RULES, LLC for their joint workshops and training materials. Visit their individual websites at www.successfully-speaking.com and 
www.prospeech.com.  
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HOLIDAY SPECIAL
 
Take this opportunity to purchase RULES: Teacher's Edition for 20% off until January 15, 2009. Check our website for other bulk offers.
Dear Friends and Colleagues, 

We wish you warm holiday greetings for a joyous, healthy, and prosperous 2009!

Tip of the Month

 
At the ASHA (American Speech-Language and Hearing Association) Convention in Chicago this past November, we presented on "Conversational Skills: A Critical Component in Corporate and Healthcare Communication,"  along with our colleague, Lorna Sikorski.  For those who were unable to attend, here is a summary of our favorite activities to enhance conversational skills and facilitate pronunciation carryover:
  1.  Script reading- Read sound-loaded paragraphs to focus on a particular sound. First read it with highlighting, then without the cues, answer questions about the content, and finally paraphrase it. (We have these scripts in Medically Speaking RULES.)
  2. Dictation exercises - Complete fill-ins (cloze) and dictogloss (writing from dictation) followed by open-ended discussions, exploration of unfamiliar vocabulary via matching, sentence completions, etc.
  3. Role-playing and dialogues - Include advice, complaints, conflict resolution, cultural encounters, interviews, etc.
  4. Opinion discussions - Discuss culture, work, family, finance, health, personal values and experiences, national and global issues, etc. 

WATESOL exhibitReflecting on 2008

 
 
 

2008 was an exciting year for ESL RULES.  We had the opportunity to present at several conferences on topics of interest to corporate speech and communication trainers and ESOL instructors at TESOL, WATESOL, and ASHA. We also exhibited our materials at the TESOL, WATESOL and MDTESOL conferences and enjoyed meeting many of you at those venues. There is a growing interest in the area of accent modification by ESL/ELL teachers, Human Resource Managers, Workforce Development Teams, and others.

 

There has been tremendous growth and recognition of the need to develop training programs and materials for the medical professionals. Lynda presented along with a Program Director of a Family Medicine Residency program, a resident advisor, and a medical resident in November at the NE-STFM (Northeast Region-Society of Teachers of Family Medicine). It is exciting to be on the cutting edge of training in corporate, medical, and educational settings.

Looking Ahead to 2009

 

We look forward to a review of our Medically Speaking materials in the upcoming Advance for Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists issue and the April issue of Essential Teacher, the publication of TESOL. We are busy developing workshops for corporations and community colleges and anticipate the rollout of supplemental RULES and Medically Speaking materials in the year ahead. 

With best regards,
 
Lynda Katz Wilner
 
Marjorie Feinstein-Whittaker
 
marjorie
  
  ESL RULES, LLC
 
 410.356.5666