PROGRAM PENSISWAZAHAN GURU (PPG) MOD PENDIDIKAN JARAK JAUH
IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PERGURUAN DENGAN KEPUJIAN
MODUL TEACHING OF GRAMMAR IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM TSL3108
BAHASA INGGERIS MAJOR
INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU KEMENTERIAN PELAJARAN MALAYSIA ARAS 1, ENTERPRISE BUILDING 3, BLOK 2200, PERSIARAN APEC, CYBER 6, 63000 CYBERJAYA Berkuat kuasa pada Jun 2012
TOPIC 1
INTRODUCTION TO GRAMMAR
1.0 SYNOPSIS Topic 1 provides input on the teaching of grammar in the Primary School. It also discusses the different meanings and definitions of grammar. In addition, it willo compare and contrast between fluency and accuracy, grammar for young learners and the place of grammar in the primary classroom.
1.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of Topic 1, you will be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of the meanings and definition of grammar. Demonstrate an understanding of an overview of Teaching of Grammar in the Primary School
1.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS
CONTENT SESSION ONE (3 Hours)
1.3 Introduction to grammar Grammar is central to the teaching and learning of languages. It is also one of the more difficult aspects of language to teach as well. Grammar is partly the study of what forms (or structures) are possible in a language, All language in use can be analysed at each of the four levels; sound, word, sentence and text. These rules tell the speakers
how to pronounce syllables (phonology),
how to form words (morphology),
how to structure sentences (syntax) and
what style of language to use in a given context (pragmatics).
These are the forms that language takes. The study of grammar consists, in part, of looking at the way these forms are arranged and patterned. Thus a grammar is a description of the rules that govern how a language‘s sentences are formed. 1.3.1 Meanings and definition of grammar Grammar according to Rutheford (1987) is ―a necessary component of any language teaching programme” (p.9), and thus plays an important role in language teaching. However, the focus on grammar in language teaching was challenged with the emergence of teaching methodologies based on different learning theories, Such a challenge influenced not only the content and the curriculum in language teaching, but also the implication for teaching grammar. Thus, a fresh look at grammar was necessary causing linguists and language educators to rethink the status of grammar in language teaching and learning. This led to a constant debate among language educators and linguists regarding the nature and type of grammar instruction, which affected the understanding of how second languages should be taught or learned. There are various definitions of grammar. Among them are; Grammar can be defined as a description of the structure of a language and the ways in which units such as words and phrases are combined to produce sentences in the language (Dictionary of Applied Linguistics) Grammar is roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combines words (or bits of words) in order to form longer units of meaning. ( Ur, 1994) Grammar is generally thought to be a set of rules specifying the correct ordering of words at the sentence level. (Nunan, 2003)
Grammar is the system of rules governing the conventional arrangement and relationship of words in a sentence. (Brown, 2007)
Grammar is a description of the rules that govern how a language‘s sentences are formed. (Thornbury, 2008) From the various definitions of grammar we can deduce that grammar is partly the study of what ‗forms‘ are possible. Basically, a language consists words and sounds (when spoken). This can be analysed at each of the four levels; text, sentence, word and sound. These are the forms that they take. A study of grammar looks at the way these forms are arranged and patterned. Look at the following example:
This is 0153456789. We are not at home right now. Please leave a message after the beep.
If you change the order of the sentences you no longer have a well-formed answerphone message. For example: Please leave a message after the beep. This is 0153456789. We are not home right now.
Likewise at the sentence level, there is a fairly fixed order of words that form a sentence. Beep after a leave the please message. At the word level; peeb Grammar explains why the following sentences are acceptable: We are not at home right now. Right now we ar not at home. The system of rules that cover the order of words in a sentence is called syntax. Syntax rules disallow; Not we at right home now are. The system of rules that cover the formation of words is called morphology. Morphology rules disallow; We is not at home right now.
(Adapted
from
Thornbury,
2012) Grammar is conventionally seen as the study of the syntax and morphology of sentences.
The ability to recognise and produce well-formed sentences is an
essential part of learning a second language. However, in certain situation a sentence may not make sense if only the form is correct, but it does not convey meaning. Take the following example; This is 0153456789. We are at home right now. Please leave a message after the beep Grammar communicates meanings – meanings of a very precise kind. Principally, grammar convey two kinds of meanings: representation – that is, grammar enables us to use language to describe the world in terms of how, when and where things happen, and interpersonal – that is, grammar facilitates the way we interact with other people when, for example, we need to get things done using language. 1.3.2 Fluency versus Accuracy The aim of the communicative approach is to get students to use language to communicate efficiently and to seek information, give information, solve a problem etc. A classroom activity may aim either at accuracy or fluency, a distinction first made by Brumfit (1984). An accuracy-oriented activity such as pattern drills is usually used in the teaching of a new target item; A fluency-oriented activity such as extensive reading and information gap aims to develop the students' spontaneous communications skills in using what they have already learned. Accuracy activities: ●
Purpose: the primary purpose is to help students achieve accurate perception and production of a target item which can be a sound, a word, or a sentence structure.
●
Material: the texts are usually composed of separate items; the target items are usually practised out of context or situation;
●
Activities: students' attention is focused on a particular target item; their output is usually predictable; their performance is assessed on how few language mistakes are made; students' errors are corrected; tasks do not usually simulate real-life situations.
ISSUE: do you teach accuracy or fluency first? Accuracy To achieve accuracy Advantage: produce students who can reproduce accurately sentences learnt Disadvantage: May not be effective in communicating the language in real life situations. ●
Purpose: the primary purpose is to help students practice language in Lisstening, Speaking, Reading and Writing activities to so develop fluency in using the language in spontaneous communication.
●
Material: the texts are usually whole pieces of discourses: conversation, stories, etc.; texts are usually authentic and used as they would be in real life.
● Activities: students' attention is focused on communicating information and expressing ideas; their output may not always be predictable; their performance is assessed on how well ideas are expressed or understood; students' errors are not corrected unless it interferes with communication; tasks often simulate real-life situations. 1.3.3 Grammar for Young Learners The age of our students is a major factor in our decisions about how and what to teach. People of different ages have different needs, competences and cognitive skills (Harmer, 2005).
Harmer (2005) further explains that young learners learn
differently from older children, adolescents and adults among others in the following ways;
They respond to meaning even if they do not understand individual words. They often learn indirectly rather than directly – taking every information around them rather than focussing on the precise topic being taught Their understanding comes from explanation as well as from what they see and hear and interact with. They find abstract concepts such as grammar rules difficult to grasp They have a limited attention span; unless activities are extremely engaging, they can get easily bored, losing interest after ten minutes or so.
In relation to the teaching of grammar for young learners, explicit grammar teaching is more effective at the intermediate to advanced levels than beginning levels (Brown, 2007). This is because incidental focus on form is valuable as it treats errors that occur while learners are engaged in meaningful communication. This corrective feedback can facilitate acquisition if it involves a mixture of implicit and explicit feedback. 1.3.4 The place of grammar in the Primary classroom (a)
The KBSR syllabus
As stipulated in the curriculum spesifications for the primary school, the English Language lesson aims to equip pupils with skills and provide a basic undrstanding of the English language so that they are able to communicate, both orally and in writing, in and out of school.
Objectives of the KBSR Syllabus i)
listen to and understand simple spoken English to be able to function in common everyday situations;
ii)
speak and respond clearly and appropriately in common everyday situations using simple language;
iii)
to read and understand different kinds of texts (from print and electronic sources) for enjoyment and information;
iv)
write (including e-mail) for different purposes using simple language; and
v)
show an awareness and appreciation of moral values and love towards the nation.
(b) The KSSR Syllabus Under the KSSR syllabus, primary education is divided into two stages, Stage One referring to Years 1, 2 and 3 and Stage Two, Year 4, 5 and 6. In Year 1 and 2, the English language curriculum emphasises on the pupils‘ development of basic language skills in building the proficiency in the language.
Grammar is only
introduced from Year 3 onwards.
KSSR ENGLISH
KSSR States that: “By the end of Year 6, pupils should be able to: … use correct and appropriate rules of grammar in speech and writing.” The following diagram shows the conceptual framework of the curriculum model.
THE MODULAR CONFIGURATION
Objectives Of the KSSR By the end of Year 6, pupils should be able to: i)
communicate with peers and adults confidently and appropriately in formal and informal situations;
ii)
read and comprehend a range of English texts for information and enjoyment;
iii)
write a range of texts using appropriate language, style and form through a variety of media;
iv)
appreciate and demonstrate understanding of English language literary or creative works for enjoyment; and
v)
use correct and appropriate rules of grammar in speech and writing
CURRICULUM ORGANISATION The Standard-Based English Language Curriculum for Malaysian National Primary Schools (SK) is designed to provide pupils with a strong foundation in the English language. It is stipulated in the KSSR syllabus that teachers should use Standard British English as a reference and model for teaching the language. It should be used as a reference for spelling and grammar as well as pronunciation for standardisation.
TOPIC 2
APPROACHES IN THE TEACHING OF GRAMMAR
2.0 SYNOPSIS Topic 2 highlights some of the approaches in the teaching of grammar. Some of the approaches discussed are descriptive and prescriptive grammar, covert and overt approaches, teaching of grammar in isolation and in context, Meaning, Use, Form (MUF) framework and the integration of grammar with the other language skills, i.e. listening, speaking, reading and writing. In addition, issues pertaining to the teaching of grammer are also discussed. 2.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this Topic, you will be able to: demonstrate an understanding of the approaches in the teaching of grammar discuss issues in the teaching of grammar 2.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS
CONTENT
SESSION TWO (3 Hours) 2.3 Descriptive and Prescriptive Grammar 2.3.1 Descriptive grammar Descriptive grammar refers to the structure of a language as it is actually used by speakers and writers. Descriptive grammars describe how people use spoken and written language, and the knowledge that they use to decide whether something is grammatically correct. 2.3.2 Prescriptive grammar Prescriptive grammar is a set of rules and examples dealing with the syntax and word structures of a language, usually intended as an aid to the learning of that language. It refers to the structure of a language as certain people think it should be used. Prescriptive grammars prescribe the rules of a language.
Both kinds of grammar are concerned with rules--but in different ways. Specialists in descriptive grammar (called linguists) study the rules or patterns that underlie our use of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences.
On the other hand, prescriptive grammarians (such as most editors and teachers) layout rules about what they believe to be the ―correct‖ or ―incorrect‖ use of language. Exercise 1 What do you think of prescriptive and descriptive grammar? comments.
Give your
2.4 Covert and Overt Approaches Harmer (1988) puts forward two approaches to the teaching of grammar; covert and overt grammar teaching.
2.4.1 Covert Approach In this approach, the teacher uses the structure without drawing attention to grammatical rules. The focus is on the activity and not the grammar rules.
Errors
should be tolerated during the course of the activity but should be noted and dealt with at a later session. 2.4.2 Overt Approach In the overt approach, teacher explicitly explains the rules when presenting the new language. There are two options available to the teacher; the deductive approach and the inductive approach. Deductive approach – the teacher presents the rules/patterns/generalizations and then goes on to provide practice in the application of these rules. Inductive approach - also known as discovery method. The students are first given a number of sample sentences containing the target forms and then the teacher guides the students into deriving the rule for themselves. The two approaches should not be seen as separate but rather as complementary.
A grammar rule presented covertly via communicative activity can be supported by an explicit explanation so that students understand the rules.
A grammar rule
presented overtly or explicitly should be supported by activities which encourage students to use the structures for communicative purposes. 2.5 Grammar in Isolation vs Grammar in Context 2.5.1 Grammar in Isolation Teaching of grammar in isolation involves learning grammar which is presented out of context.
In this approach of teaching grammar, learners are given isolated
sentences, which they are expected to internalize through exercises involving repetition, manipulation, and grammatical transformation.
These exercises are
designed to provide learners with formal, declarative mastery of the language in which they are able to explain rules of using the form of the language. 2.5.2 Grammar in Context Teaching of grammar in context involves teaching grammar in relations to the context of the situation the utterances are usually used. When learners are given the opportunities to explore grammar in context, it will make it easy for them to see how and why alternative forms exist to express different communicative meanings. For instance, getting learners to read a set of sentences in the active voice, and then
transform these into passives following a model, is a standard way of introducing the passive voice. Nevertheless, this needs to be supplemented by tasks which give learners opportunities to explore when it is communicatively appropriate to use the passive rather that the active voice (Nunan, 2000).
Grammar is therefore
contextualized in meaningful language use. There are many views on the benefits of teaching grammar in context. As teachers, we need to help learners see that effective communication involves achieving harmony between functional interpretation and formal appropriacy (Halliday 1985) by giving them tasks that shows the relationship between grammatical items and the context in which they occur. This is because in genuine communication beyond the classroom, grammar and context are often closely related that appropriate grammatical choices can only be made with reference to the context and the purpose of the communication. Furthermore, Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (1998) stressed that only a handful of grammatical rules are free from discoursal contraints. According to Weaver (1996), grammar need not be taught, since it is acquired subconciously when the students learn the other language skills. Weaver further postulates that students can learn and apply many grammatical concepts without learning to analyse and label the parts of speech and various other grammatical constructions. For example, we come to understand that acquiring the terminology that a ‗have‘ auxilliary is always followed by a past participle (―They have taken the chair‖) and a ‗be‘ auxilliary is always followed by a present participle (―They will be taking the chair‖).
2.6 Meaning, Use, Form (MUF) framework 2.6.1 MEANING: What meaning does the vocabulary, functional expression or grammar structure have in the (specific) context? In other words what does the unit of language mean? There are two aspects of meaning. First, what is literal or ‗essential‘ meaning of the word, phrase, functional expression or grammar structure? Second, what does it mean in the context it‘s being used in?
For example: She‟s wearing a red skirt. The literal or essential meaning of the word has to do with naming a particular color. She‟s red from sitting in the sun. Her skin has turned a particular shade of pink indicating sunburn. He was a well-known red. Red indicates the person‘s political beliefs and affiliation.
2.6.2 FORM:
How is the vocabulary unit, functional expression, or grammar structure formed? Form refers to the visible and audible parts of vocabulary, functional expressions and grammar units: the spelling, phonemes, syllable stress, words in a phrase, prefixes or suffixes, syntax (word order), choice of noun or verb, etc for a particular place in a sentence, and/or punctuation. For example: the present perfect is formed with have been plus the past participle of the main verb; tired of is followed by Ving/gerund not an to V/infinitive, in my opinion and not on my opinion; the word is spelled c-o-n-t-e-n-t and the second syllable is stressed 2.6.3 USE: When or why is the vocabulary, functional expression or grammar structure used? The words, functional expressions, grammar structures we choose to use are determined by the situation we are in and/or what we want to communicate to our listener(s). Use is interconnected with meaning. For example: Please note: Mail will not be delivered on Thursdays until further notice. The passive voice is used appropriately here because it is more formal and objective; because listeners know generally that postmen deliver the mail and that this decision was made by a nameless government or postal official; and because the what is crucial to communicate is the fact that there will be no postal delivery on the specified day for the foreseeable future. For example: Good morning! is a greeting we use with friends, family, our boss, etc. when we see them before noon. If we say Good morning! to a family as s/he gets up in the afternoon (because they were out late the night before), we are being ironic and perhaps indicating disapproval. We would probably not say this to our boss when s/he came in late.
Figure 1: Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman’s Form/Meaning/Use 2.7 Integration with the teaching of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing skills. Grammar is the basis of all written and verbal communication. We cannot listen, speak, read or write without grammar.
It is always present in any form of
communication. This is how grammar is acquired in the L1 situation without being taught. This is because they are totally immersed in the L1 environment. However, the situation is different in the ESL and EFL context. In the ESL and EFL context, learning of grammar does not occur by pure chance. In the Malaysian ESL context, the KBSR states that; ―The principle of integration requires that the four language skills, grammar items/sentence patterns, the sound system and vocabulary be integrated and taught as a whole, wherever possible‖ There are at least three ways in which grammar can be integrated with the other language skills like, listening, speaking, reading and writing; i.
by a systematized mapping of the grammar syllabus within a thematically conceived series of units. How this is done is explained in detail below.
ii.
by a unit-by-unit mapping of grammar. In this system, mapping of grammar that comes after the texts and situations for the four language skills have been determined. The grammar element is then built in to support the skillsbased activities.
The activities in turn, provide the grammar lesson with
models from which to derive grammar rules. This way of working out the
grammar makes grammar-learning appear more interesting to the students as the need for grammar arises out of the immediate context. iii.
through the specific ways in which grammar supports and is supported by each language skill.
(Source: Chitravelu et al., 2005)
For more detailed description on the integration of grammar with each of the language skills, refer to Chitravelu et al. 2005. ELT Methodology Principles and Practice. Kuala Lumpur. Oxford Fajar Sdn. Bhd.
2.8 Issues in grammar teaching There are several issues pertaining to the teaching of grammar in the primary classroom. Among them are: 2.8.1 To teach of not to teach grammar There is an issue on whether to teach or not to teach grammar and if so, how to teach it.
The issue on whether to teach or not to teach grammar depends on
various variables (Brown, 2007) such as:
age proficiency level educational background language skills style (register) need and goals 2.8.2 Should grammar be presented inductively or deductively The issue here is whether learners benefit from an inductive approach where various language forms are practiced but in which the learners are left to discover or induce rules and generalizations on their own? Or is it better if rule/generalization are given by the teacher or textbook and then allowed to practice arious instances of language to which the rule applies?
Sometimes a deductive approach, an inductive approach or even a blend between the two is effective. In practice, the distinction is not always apparent. 2.8.3 Should grammar be taught in context or in isolation Research on the effectiveness of grammatical instruction indicates the advisability of embedding grammatical techniques into general language courses, rather than teaching it in isolation, and treating it in a separate course. Grammar, whether learned consciously or subconciously is regarded as an enabling system that helps students to pursue relevant language goals. In other words, grammar serves as a contributor towards achieving such goals. In some curricula, certain class hours are set aside for grammar instruction. Under certain conditions, however, they can provide a useful function, especially for the high intermediate to advanced learners (Ellis 2006). 2.8.4 Should teachers correct grammatical errors Many of the students‘ errors in speech and writing performance are grammatical. Research evidence shows that overt grammatical correction by teachers in the classroom is seldom seen of any consequence in improving learners‘ language. However, there are evidence showing that various other forms of attention to and treatment of grammatical errors have an impact on learners. In speaking we have to adhere to the principles of maintaining communicative flow, of maximizing student self-correction and of sensitively considering the affective and linguistic place the learner is in.
However, in the process writing
approach, overt attention to local grammatical and rhetorical errors is normally delayed until learners have completed one or two drafts of a paper. Nevertheless, global errors has to be treated earlier in the process. Studies have shown that certain attention to errors make a difference in final written products ( Brown, 2007).
Find other issues related to the teaching of grammar in the Primary ESL classroom and write a critical review on the issues stated. .
TOPIC 3
GRAMMAR IN THE MALAYSIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUM
3.0 SYNOPSIS
Topic 3 provides input on grammar in the Malaysian Primary School English language Curriculum. It looks at the KBSR/KSSR syllabus and the language content therein. We will also look at developing relevant activities to teach selected grammar items.
3.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this session, you will be able to: 1. demonstrate an understanding of the KBSR/KSSR Curriculum Specifications 2. explain the role of grammar in the KBSR/KSSR 3. identify grammar items and develop relevant activities
3.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS
Curriculum Specifications Objectives Activities
From discourse to grammar
CONTENT
Guided noticing activities
Structuring activities
Proceduralising activities
SESSION THREE (3 Hours) 3.0
The Ministry of Education has set out the Curriculum Specifications (Huraian
Sukatan Pelajaran) for each year of KSSR/KBSR. The document specifies what is to be taught from Year 1 to Year 6. It comprises the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as the language contents. The language contents are the sound system, grammar and vocabulary. 3.1
CURRICULUM SPECIFICATIONS
Curriculum specifications for the English language syllabus have been prepared as separate documents for each year of the primary school and these are known as ‗Huraian Sukatan Pelajaran‘. Each document serves as a guide to teachers with regard to the skills to be acquired by learners, the content or topic that is to be dealt with, and the vocabulary and grammar items that pupils must know in order for them to use the language. Grammar forms part of the language contents in the Curriculum Specifications for Malaysian Primary Schools. Grammar items and sentence patterns have been selected from the list provided in the English Language syllabus to help pupils master the structures of English. Two sections of the KBSR English Syllabus deal with grammar. One section categorizes grammar under specific grammar labels and provides sentence patterns to be covered under each label. In the other section, sentence patterns are placed under functions and topics. Grammar is taught every year under the KBSR syllabus. However, with the KSSR syllabus, it is only introduced from Year 3 onwards.
3.2
OBJECTIVES The syllabus sets out the objectives to be met in the teaching of grammar.
The KBSR syllabus sets out its objectives as: By the end of Year 6, pupils should be able to: -
3.3
use correct and appropriate rules of grammar in speech and writing.
LANGUAGE CONTENT
Two sections have been listed to assist teachers. For example, the Curriculum Specifications document for Year 5 has been divided into section 5.0 (a) and 5.0 (b).
In section (a), grammar items to be taught have been specified under the different grammar categories. To illustrate what is meant by each category and at the same time to specify the scope and depth of the items to be taught examples are given. Words underlined highlight significant points of grammar. In section (b), suggested sentence patterns for teaching are given. These sentence patterns are set out under some functions and/or areas of interest. In teaching these patterns, it is important that teachers teach them in context and in a meaningful way.
Teachers are advised to limit the number of structures used in any one lesson to ensure that learners master the structures well. Teaching too many structures may not be advisable for weak learners as these may only serve to confuse them. 3.3.1
KSSR Primary (exit after Year 6)
The English Language Curriculum for Primary Schools aims to equip pupils with basic language skills to enable them to communicate effectively in a variety of contexts that‘s appropriate to the pupils level of development.
3.3.2
KBSR Primary (exit after Year 6)
The English language syllabus for primary school aims to equip pupils with skills and provide a basic understanding of the English language so that they are able to communicate, both orally and in writing, in and out of school. Reflection Compare and constrast the KBSR Curriculum Specifications and the KSSR Standard Document for Year 3.
3.4
ACTIVITIES
In this section, we move to practicalities and consider how teachers may actually go about helping young learners develop their grammatical knowledge in the foreign language. We begin with seeing how common activities in the young learner classroom can offer opportunities for grammar learning. We will also look at take noticing, structuring and proceduralising, and some examples of activities. Keep in mind that grammar items taught and learnt must be applied both to oral work and writing exercises. 3.4.1
Working from discourse to grammar Many types of discourse that occur in young learner classrooms have grammatical patterns that occur naturally, but that can be exploited for grammar learning. It requires teachers to think about their language use from a grammatical perspective, so that they become aware of opportunities for grammar that arise every day. Classroom discourse contexts and routines can serve to introduce new grammar, with access to meaning supported by action and objects, or to give further practice in language that has already been introduced in other ways. Routines are an ideal context in which chunks can be expanded. (Cameron 2010:111)
a.
The language of classroom management
When children begin learning English, some very simple phrases for classroom management can be introduced, and as time goes by, these can be expanded. Some of the phrases originally used by the teacher can be used by pupils when they in pairs or groups. The language of classroom management can thus act as a meaningful discourse context within which certain patterns arise regularly and help with building the internal grammar. When organising practical activities, for example, the teacher may ask pupils to:
the scissors give out
the books the paper
The range of verbs to use with the nouns can be gradually increased:
give out
the scissors
collect
the books
tidy
the paper
The noun phrases can be expanded to match or to extend grammar development:
b.
give out
the small scissors
collect
the green writing books
tidy
the paper from the cupboard
Talking with children
Conversations with individual children can be very powerful for language development, because they can pick up on exactly what an individual child needs to know next to talk about what interests him or her. If a child volunteers something, in the first language or in what they can manage of the foreign language, the teacher can respond in the foreign language, offering a more correct way of saying it:
Child:
my mummy hospital
Teacher:
oh! your mummy‘s in hospital. Why?
This type of ‗corrective feedback‘ can be used for expanding the talk. If a child offers a comment about a picture, for example, the teacher can respond with fuller sentences that pick up the child‘s interest:
Child:
bird tree
Teacher:
Yes. The bird‘s in the tree. He‘s sitting on the branch. He‘s singing.
By becoming ‗grammar aware‘, it is possible to incorporate a lot of grammar teaching through this kind of incidental focusing on form that seizes on opportunities and operates in a child‘s space for growth.
Can you think of other classroom routines which can allow opportunities for practising grammar items?
3.4.2
Guided noticing activities
Activities in the previous section are those likely to lead to noticing of grammatical patterns in the language. It is possible to construct activities that make noticing even more probable, and which fit all or most of the criteria for good noticing activities.
a.
Listen and notice
Pupils listen to sentences or to a connected piece of talk, e.g. a story or phone call, and complete a table or grid using what they hear. In order to complete the grid, they need to pay attention to the grammar aspect being taught. b.
Presentation of new language with puppets
When introducing a new pattern, the teacher can construct a dialogue with a storyline, that uses a ‗repetition plus constrast‘ pattern, to be played out by puppets. For example, a story where a crocodile and a squirrel discuss going swimming; with dramatic irony added because the children know that the crocodile wants to eat the squirrel. The pupils listen several times to the story-dialogue:
S: I wish I could swim like you, Croc. C: I‘ll teach you to swim. S: Oh, will you? C: Let‘s start next week. Shall we go swimming on Monday? S: No, sorry. On Mondays, I clean my house. C: Shall we go swimming onTuesday? S: No, sorry. On Tuesdays, I visit my grandmother. Similar pattern for Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays. C: ((wearily)) What about Sunday? S: Yes! On Sundays, I‘m free. C: ((more excited; licking his lips)) OK. On Sunday we‘ll have our first swimming lesson!
The teacher can then recap the routine events by pointing to the calendar and saying the key pattern phrases on their own: „On Tuesdays, I visit my grandmother‟ etc. To help input processing, pupils may be given a blank calendar and be asked to
complete Croc‘s regular routine from listening, making a distinction between routine events, „On Mondays, I catch fish‟ and, non-routine events „On Sunday, I‟m going to teach Squirrel to swim‟. Reflection
Think of other examples of guided noticing activities.
3.4.3
Language practice activities that offer structuring opportunities
In structuring activities the goal is to help learners internalise the grammatical pattern so that it becomes part of their internal grammar. The focus is on internal work that happens as a result of activities that demand accuracy, rather than on fluency in production. a.
Questionnaires, surveys and quizzes
These are commonly found in young learner course books; after input on favourite foods, for example, children are asked to interview their friends to find out their favourite foods. Preparation and rehearsal of the questions is necessary to ensure accuracy, and the activity must be managed so that the questions are asked in full each time. Once the information from several people has been collected, group work on compiling results can offer further opportunities for internalising or structuring the grammar patterns. Such structuring requires learners to manipulate the language so that they produce the form with attention and accurately. b.
Information gap activities
Activities with information gaps are often found in course books to practise oral skills. Again, with just small adjustments, they can be used with grammar goals rather than oral fluency goals. For example, children work in pairs; each has a calendar covering the same month, but with different entries (this is the ‗gap‘). Without looking, again perhaps pretending to talk by phone, the children are to find a time when they are both free, and can then decide what they want to do, e.g. go swimming, go to the cinema, go shopping. In finding out when they are both free, they should be encouraged to use the language form being practised, e.g. Shall we meet on Friday? No, sorry. On Fridays, I go to the library.
c.
Drills and chants
Drills offer language and involvement support to children when used to practise new language, because the child can listen to others to pick up bits that she or he is unsure about, and drills can be lively and fun if the pace is kept up. Repetition drills,in which the children repeat what the teacher says, can help in familiarising a new form, but substitution drills are the ones that offer more for grammar structuring. In a substitution drill, the learners may transform the teacher‘s line, as here from you want to to let‟s:
T:
You want to play football.
PS:
Let‘s play football.
T:
You want to go swimming.
PS:
Let‘s go swimming.
(Doff 1988)
Alternatively, the teacher may use single words or pictures as prompts for pupils to produce a sentence: T:
Cinema.
PS:
Let‘s go to the cinema.
T:
Football.
PS:
Let‘s play football.
(Doff 1988)
In each case, the pupils are doing grammatical work in their minds to produce their line in the drill, and this may help structuring. Reflection Design an information gap activity to practise the patterns ‗who is he?/where does he live?/what does he do?/what‘s he doing right now? 3.4.4
Proceduralising activities
At this point, we want learners to automatise their use of the grammatical form so that it is available quickly and effectively for use in communication. Task design must ensure that grammar is essential for achieving task goals and that some attention to accuracy is required, but the idea is that attention to accuracy can gradually be relaxed as it becomes automatic.
a.
Dictogloss
The basic idea of dictogloss is that the teacher reads out a text several times, the pupils listen and make notes between readings, and then reconstruct the text in pairs or small groups, aiming to be as close as possible to the original and as accurate as possible. During the collaborative reconstruction, learners will talk to each other about the language, as well as the content, drawing on making their internal grammatical knowledge. Through this talk, a pupil may learn from another about some aspect of grammar.
Summary The teacher can probably best help to develop children‘s grammar in the foreign language, not by teaching grammar directly, but by being sensitive to opportunities for grammar learning that arise in the classroom. A grammar-sensitive teacher will see that language patterns that occur in tasks, stories, songs, rhymes and classroom talk, and will have a range of techniques to bring these patterns to the children‘s notice, and to organise meaningful practice. To do this well requires considerable knowledge and teaching skills.
The End …good luck with your activities!
TOPIC 4
TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR
4.0 SYNOPSIS Topic 4 provides you with some techniques for teaching grammar and discusses how the different teaching techniques can be used to encourage the teaching of grammar.
4.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session, you will be able to: list features of activities that support grammar learning demonstrate an understanding of the techniques in the teaching of grammar create an activity based on one of the techniques. present and justify your choice.
4.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS
CONTENT SESSION FOUR (3 Hours) 4.3 INTRODUCTION
For a good grammar teaching, teachers have to make the lesson meaningful and interesting in which pupils need to be surrounded by and participate in meaningful discourse in their ESL classroom. Teachers should take the language learning forwards and bring in grammatical features of stories, dialogues, songs, etc. to the attention of their pupils in order to attract the pupils‘ attention. On the other hand, the teacher‘s lack of ability to apply the appropriate techniques and plan suitable activities for the pupils can often destroy the pupils‘ motivation in learning grammar. Thus,
according to Chitravelu (2005), there are
several features that a teacher has to consider when planning suitable techniques in his/her grammar classes. a) Be meaningful : relate to students‘ own needs, interests, likes and dislikes. b) Be purposeful : provide challenge, get them involve and utilize the new language. c) Have a social function : provide opportunities for interaction. d) Provide plenty of practice : using similar language in different ways. e) Use a multimedia approach : use of all the five senses f) Provide variety : practise new structures using all four skills g) Encourage active participation Reflection
Do you agree with the above features of activities that support grammar learning? Consider your own grammar lessons in justifying your reasons.
4.4
TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR
In this section, we move to practicalities and consider six techniques how teachers may actually go about helping pupils develop their grammatical knowledge. 4.4.1
SONGS AND CHANTS
(a)
Songs
Songs is a very good tool to motivate the pupils' learning process, it works also as a break for the routine.
Songs could be an essential part of English teaching. It makes the pupils more sensitive to the sounds and the classes becomes more interesting and powerful. Be careful with your students‘ level. You should choose a song according to their level and try to see if the song is suitable for them. There are lots of songs which are unsuitable for the language teaching, these songs have a bad pronunciation or better the words are pronounced wrongly. There are many reasons to use songs in the classroom :
Songs are authentic texts Songs can be linked to societal issues which might be interesting to students Songs provide good context for grammar. Songs can trigger emotional and affective connections to the target language and culture. Learning through songs involve different skills. Songs are a good way to teach in an "Edutainment" way because they incorporate all the language skills: (1) Listening (to the song) - Following the song to determine words. (2) Reading (following the lyrics to determine the words) (3) Writing (filling in the blanks) (4) Speaking (singing the song) Kind of songs: - Special songs - Children's songs - Action songs - Teaching structure songs - Telling stories songs - Pop Songs How to use songs? (i) Classic gap-fill:
Pupils listen to a song and as they listen they have the lyrics with gaps in for them to fill in as they listen. This activity is not as simple as it sounds and before making one yourself think about why you are taking out certain words. It may be better to take out all the words in one group, such as prepositions or verbs, and tell the pupils what they should be listening out for. Another option is to take out rhyming words. Don‘t be tempted to take out too many words, eight or ten is normally enough. To make the task easier you could provide the missing words in a box at the side for the pupils to select, or you could number the gaps and provide clues for each number. (ii) Spot the mistakes:
Change some of the words in the lyrics and as pupils listen, they have to spot and correct the mistakes. As with the gap-fill limit the mistakes to a maximum of eight or ten and if possible choose a word set. Another example of this for higher levels is to show the students the real lyrics and you correct the English and make it proper! E.g. ‗gonna‘ change to ‗going to‘ ‗we was‘ change to ‗we were‘ etc. This is a good way to focus on song language.
(iii) Comic strip:
Songs that tell stories are great for pupils to make comic strips out of. You have to choose your song carefully and spend time looking at the lyrics with the pupils and making sure they have understood the main ideas. Lower levels may need guidance as to how to divide up the song into suitable chucks that can be represented pictorially. (iv) Order the verses:
With low levels this is a very simple activity. Chop up the lyrics of the song by verse and give a small group of pupils the jumbled verses. As they listen they put them in order. (v) Discussion:
Certain songs lend themselves to discussions and you can use the song as a nice lead in to the topic and a way to pre-teach some of the vocabulary. For example: ‗Where is the love?‘ by the Black Eyed Peas to lead in to a discussion about war. (vi) Translation:
Although some teachers oppose all use of the mother tongue in the language classroom, some pupils really enjoy translating lyrics into their own language. If you do ask your pupils to do this ensure the lyrics are worth translating! (b)
Chants Grammar chants can be a lot of fun to use in classes. They are especially effective when used to help pupils learn problematic forms. Grammar chants use repetition to engage the right side of the brain's 'musical' intelligence. The use of multiple intelligences can go a long way to helping pupils speak English 'automatically'. Using a chant is pretty straight-forward. The teacher (or leader) stands up in front of the class and 'chants' the lines. It's important to be as rhythmical as possible because these rhythms help the brain during its learning process. Remember that through the use of repetition and having fun together (be as crazy as you like) pupils will improve their 'automatic' use of the language. Example of a chant on prepositions. Let‘s practice. Teacher/Leader: At, on Class/Group: At, on Teacher/Leader: at - with time Class/Group: at - with time Teacher/Leader: on - with days Class/Group: on - with days
Teacher/Leader: We eat at eight. Class/Group: We eat at eight. Teacher/Leader: We meet on Mondays. Class/Group: We meet on Mondays. Teacher/Leader: She leaves at five. Class/Group: She leaves at five. Teacher/Leader: They play on Saturdays. Class/Group: They play on Saturdays. Teacher/Leader: At, on Class/Group: At, on Teacher/Leader: at - with time Class/Group: at - with time Teacher/Leader: on - with days Class/Group: on - with days (Source: www.chants.net.com )
Reflection
What do you think are the challenges of using songs and chants in classroom?
4.4.2
STORIES
Using ESL stories for teaching English is a very good way of helping students learn language more deeply and naturally. Just as salespeople and politicians attract people to their products and ideas using stories - if they are wise - so too, can English teachers attract students, particularly young learners, by using stories. Stories are motivating and fun; they create a deep interest and a desire to continue learning. Listening to stories is a shared social experience; it provokes a shared response of laughter, sadness, excitement and anticipation. Stories exercise the imagination; children can become personally involved in a story as they identify with the characters and try to interpret the narrative and illustrations. According to Chitravelu (2005), stories are excellent resources for grammar teaching for several reasons:
1. Children, adolescent and adults all love stories & this generate positive attitude
2. to the lesson for which the story acts as a framework. 2. Stories provide a context for several grammatical structures. 3. A story can provide contexts for ‗real‘ use of English (variety of emotions and issues).
Below are some activities and approaches to using ESL stories in the classroom. (Source: http://www.tesolzone.com/esl-stories.html) (i) Circle Story A very simple technique which focuses on accuracy of language. The class create stories word by word. You can begin by saying: "One Monday morning I was" or whatever beginning you like. Then go round the class in a circle [not randomly]. The first pupil must repeat "One Monday morning I was" and then add a single word that makes sense and fits in grammatically. The second pupil repeats all the first pupil has said, adding one more word. The third pupil repeats all and adds a word, and so on, until a story develops around the class.
This technique can be fun, requires no preparation and focuses on the accurate use of language. It can make a good warmer. With a small class it's possible to go round the class twice. The teacher can choose whether the story is to be told in present tense [if they are beginners] or used to practice the simple past tense, or with no restrictions on the language used. (ii) Question Story Write 4 or 5 questions on the board. For a very low level class these might be: "What's his/her name?" "Where is he/she?" "What's he/she doing?" "What does he/she say?" Run through a few possible answers orally with the class. Then give a piece of paper to every pupil. Tell them you want them to write an answer to the first question only. Encourage them to be creative.
They then fold back their paper, so the answer they have written is folded away from the page and not visible when the paper is flat on the
desk. All pupils then pass their paper to the pupil on the left. They all then write the answer to the second question, fold the paper again, then pass to the next pupil on the left, and so on, until all the questions have been answered. The pupils can then unfold the papers, correct where possible, and then read aloud the slightly crazy stories to the class.
(iii) Retelling Stories a) Another way of using stories which requires minimal preparation, yet is a very powerful learning tool, is to have the pupils retell stories. The best stories to begin with are interesting anecdotes from your life, or interesting or unusual news stories. Once this activity is familiar, the pupils can then contribute with their own stories. This activity works well as a warmer and as practice or review of the simple past tense.
b) Choose a short story that can be told in several sentences. Write a title on the board as an introduction. Then write the appropriate verb (in the present tense) for each sentence of the story. Do not write out the story. Adding pictures helps, as long as the pictures can be drawn in a few seconds. Then tell the story, sentence by sentence, pointing to the verbs and eliciting the correct past tense from the students. The pupils then retell the story. This can be done by asking individual pupils to retell separate parts. The pupils can also retell the story to each other in pairs. When the pupils are familiar with this method of using stories, have some of them prepare a short story for homework. They can retell it to the other pupils the following class.
4.4.3
NURSERY RHYMES AND POEMS Nursery Rhymes and poems like songs, contextualize a grammar lesson
effectively. Since poetry is often spoken, repeated, dealt with, and considered, it acts
as an effective tool for practicing a specific grammatical structure. Through repeating and considering the poem, the grammatical structures become more deeply internalized. Thus, poetry not only provides a rewarding resource for structured practice of grammar, but also a proper basis for review.
In the selection of a poem, the teacher should first consider the grammatical structure to be presented, practiced, or reviewed, then the level and the age of the students, next the theme and the length of the poem and its appropriateness to the classroom objectives. Poems, which reflect cultural themes, universal features, humanistic values, or emotional aspects, will be more relevant to the foreign language
learners.
Finally,
through
taking
the
classroom
objectives
into
consideration, a teacher should effectively benefit from poems as teaching aids.
If a poem that exemplifies a particular structure is also a good poem, it engages the eye, the ear and the tongue simultaneously while also stimulating and moving us; this polymorphic effect makes poetry easier to memorize than other things for many students. Some of its potential is illustrated as the followings: Example 1: To practice adjectives
The following poem is about hippos. Use the structure of this poem and write a poem of your own about anything, e.g. people, trees, shoes.
Hippos
Hippos swim. Hippos snort. Hippo legs are rather short.
Hippos ears are pink and tiny. Hippo hide is very shiny.
Hippo tails are stout and stubby. Hippo hips are kind of chubby.
Hippos stay rather quiet. Hippos never like to diet. (Source: http://www.charlesghigna.com/poems.html)
Example 2: To teach the imperative
Chivvy Grown-ups say things like: Speak up Don't talk with your mouth full Don't stare Don't point
Don't pick your nose
Sit up Say please Less noise Shut the door behind you Don't drag your feet Haven't you got a hankie? Take your hands out of your pockets
Pull your socks up Stand up straight Say thank you Don't interrupt No one thinks you're funny Take your elbows off the table
Can't you make up your own mind about anything? By Michael Rosen
Example 3: To practice verbs
Take a grape and eat it slowly. Then read this poem. Then eat a mango and write a poem like this about it. How to eat a grape squash, squish crunch chew, chew trickle twang, bang spit swallow choose squash, squish crunch chew, chew trickle
twang, bang spit swallow choke cough, cough Anonymous
4.4.4
GAMES
Teaching Grammar through games is another way to help pupils not only gain knowledge but be able to apply and use that learning in an interesting way. According to Arif Saricoban and Esen Metin, authors of "Songs, Verse and Games for Teaching Grammar" , they say that 1. ―Games and problem-solving activities...have a purpose beyond the production of correct speech, and are examples of the most preferable communicative activities.― 2. Grammar games help children not only gain knowledge but be able to apply and use that learning. 3. Games allow the students to "practice and internalize vocabulary, grammar and structures extensively." How? i) They can do this through repeated exposure to the target grammar and because students are often more motivated to play games than they are to do deskwork. ii) Plus, during the game, the students are focused on the activity and end up absorbing the grammar subconsciously.
Similarly, Aydan Ersoz, author of "Six Games for the ESL/EFL Classroom" also explained more reasons why games do work for teaching grammar. Learning a language requires constant effort and that can be tiring, but Ersoz outlines two good reasons why games should be included in the classroom: -
Games that are amusing and challenging are highly motivating.
-
Games allow meaningful use of the language in context.
(Source:http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/Articles/Teaching_Grammar_with_G ames_in_the_ESL_Classroom.htm)
In short, we can conclude that there are many advantages of using games in the classroom (Lee, 1995): 1. Games are a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class. 2. They are motivating and challenging. 3. Learning a language requires a great deal of effort. Games help students to make and sustain the effort of learning. 4. Games provide language practice in the various skills- speaking, writing, listening and reading. 5. They encourage students to interact and communicate. 6. They create a meaningful context for language use.'
What kinds of games work best?
When you are looking for games to use in your classroom, don't just pick something to be a "time filler" that does not have any linguistic purpose. Lin Hong, author of "Using Games in Teaching English to Young Learners", explains that not all games are going to work to teach the students language skills. You should consider these questions posed by Hong: -
Which skills do the games practice?
-
What type of game is it and what is its purpose?
-
Does the difficulty level of the game match with the students' ability level?
-
Does the game require maximum involvement by the students?
-
Do the students like it? Do you like it?
-
What specific vocabulary or grammar are you introducing or practising with this game?
-
Can you keep control of your class and play this game?
-
What materials do you need for the game and can you obtain these easily?
-
What controls, if any are needed, will you have in place to ensure the children are on track?
When to Use Games?
'Games are often used as short warm-up activities or when there is some time left at the end of a lesson.
However, a game "should not be regarded as a marginal activity filling in odd moments when the teacher and class have nothing better to do" Lee (1979:3).
Games ought to be at the heart of teaching foreign languages. Rixon suggests that games be used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are suitable and carefully chosen.‗
'Games also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping learners recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way.
Therefore, it is agreed that even if games resulted only in noise and entertained students, they are still worth paying attention to and implementing in the classroom since they motivate learners, promote communicative competence, and generate fluency.' Tips for Using Grammar Games in Class Successfully (Adapted from http://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/grammar-games.html) 1. ORGANIZATION
Figure out how to organize your class i.e. the time spent. For the younger students you'll want to change your activities every five to ten minutes because they have shorter attention spans. If you don't change your activities, they'll soon start losing interest. As you get towards the higher elementary grades, you can expand the time you spend per activity. Additionally, try to have everything ready to go before the students enter the classroom. That way you can go from activity to activity with minimal downtime. This is essential as you can lose control of the class if you do not keep them occupied.
2. EXPECTATIONS
If you notice that your class is getting noisy or rambunctious, it's time to change activities. Pupils of this age like to be active; in order to balance out the energy levels in the classroom, alternate between active activities and quiet activities. 3. VARIATION
You want to make sure your activities appeal to all sorts learning styles, so even when you are using games to teach grammar you'll want to vary the types of things you expect your students to do. For Level One pupils, stick to games that use talking, listening, looking and moving. For Level Two pupils, you can continue to use games that use talking, listening, looking and moving and add in some games that use writing and reading. 4. RESPECT To make games work for you and your class, be sure to operate your class with the utmost respect - both to and from students. This includes teaching your students from the very start that you expect respect at all times. This includes giving encouragement and following the rules.
5. ROUTINE
Establishing a routine will help the class go smoothly. If pupils know what to expect next, they will be more able to participate in what's going on now. Set up a schedule for the type of activities you'll be doing at any given time throughout the class whether it is a game, story or song or whatever you want to do. Then, when you are planning your class, plug in the appropriate activities to each section of time. You should also leave a little time at the end of the class period to allow the pupils to clean up and gather their things as well as time for you to recap the class, praise the pupils and tell them good-bye. EXAMPLES OF GAMES
By incorporating games into your lesson plan, your students will not only stop dreading grammar lessons, but they‘ll actually look forward to them.
Board games, such as Go to Press! A Grammar Game, are sure to be a big hit with young students, and will have them giggling too. In this unique game, pupils try to create a complete newspaper by moving from department to department (such as entertainment, sports, weather, etc.) finding and correcting errors in the headlines. The goal is to be the first player to return to the boss‘s office and say, ―Go to press!‖
If you don‘t have access to board games, there are still a number of activities you can have pupils participate in. Create a crossword puzzle and use the clues to get pupils to practice critical thinking skills about the grammar lesson of your choice.
Or, try playing a game of hangman to get pupils focused on adjectives.
CONCLUSION Using games to teach grammar can be both fun and rewarding for you and your pupils. Just remember to keep them engaged and make sure that your games are truly teaching the skill at hand and you'll soon have a class full of pupils who get excited about learning grammar!
4.4.5
PUPPETS
What is a puppet?
-
A puppet is an inanimate figure moved by a puppeteer to convey emotion, character and story.
Some examples of puppets: 1. shadow puppets 2. hand puppets 3. marionette puppets 4. water puppets 5. finger puppets 6. stick puppets 7. robotic puppets
Main types of Puppets
Hand or glove puppet: these are puppets controlled by one hand which occupies the interior of the puppet.
Sock puppet: they are particularly simple type of hand puppet made from a sock and they operated by inserting ones hand inside the sock. One then moves his hand up and down to give the impersonation of speaking.
Rod puppet: it is constructed around a central rod secured to the head. A large glove covers the rod and is attached to the neck of the puppet. A rod puppet is controlled by the puppeteer moving the metal rods attached to the hands of the puppet and by turning the central rod secured to the head. Human-arm puppet: it is also called a ―two-man puppet‖ or a ―Livehand puppet‖; it is similar to a hand puppet but is larger and requires two puppeteers. One puppeteer places a hand inside the puppet‘s head and operates its head and mouth, while the other puppeteer wears gloves and special sleeves attached to the puppet in order to become the puppet‘s arms, so that the puppet can perform arbitrary hand gestures. This is a form of glove or hand puppetry and rod puppetry.
The marionette is a particular type of puppet. It is suspended and controlled by a number of strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer. The control bar can be either a horizontal or vertical one. This form of puppetry is complex and sophisticated to operate, requiring greater manipulative control than a finger, glove or rod puppet. The most famous marionette is Pinocchio, invented by Carlo Collodi. Why and how should teachers use puppets in their class?
Teachers use puppets for the same reason a fisherman puts bait on his hook; to catch the attention of children. Children love puppets. Puppets are much more than a cute toy. Puppets are powerful communication tools. Puppets are tools you should add to your tool box along with the paper and pencils.
use a puppet (or a set of puppets) to ―act out‖ various grammar concepts. This can be especially useful for learning verb tenses and prepositions for instance.
4.4.6
DIALOGUES AND PLAYS
Dialogues are popular activities in ESL textbooks for a number of linguistic as well as cultural reasons. According to Rivers (1981), there are two broad categories of dialogues: 1. Conversation-facilitation - Provide students with useful phrases with which they can begin to communicate. These dialogues are often short and therefore students are encouraged to memorize them. 2. Grammar-demonstration dialogues. - The dialogues are longer and contain certain grammatical structures that are to be studied. They provide contextualized examples from which students will deduce generalizations about a particular grammatical structure. Teachers can use or adapt dialogues to:
• demonstrate grammar in context • facilitate conversation—This may parallel grammar instruction, but also gives specific language practice • provide recreation such as a skit—These dialogues are bridging activities that provide spontaneous use of learner knowledge. (b) Plays
Apart from memorization, widely used in the audio-lingual era, dialogues can be exploited for plays through which students can practice language more freely.
Larsen-Freeman (2000) has pointed out, plays give pupils the chance of interacting and practicing communication acts in different contexts and because of this, they are of primary importance in language teaching.
The play scripts encourage students to read aloud, swap roles, repeat and understand grammar in context, and make the sentences come alive.
Pupils in pairs or small groups can also be given the task of writing a play script.
After they have learned rules and done some practice, they can undertake the work of creating a ―play‖ using the newly learned structure.
Some points to keep in mind when writing or adapting dialogues for pupils to practice
Use ―natural‖ language as much as possible (include exclamations and expressions where appropriate; avoid a strict question-answer-question sequence). Keep the dialogue short enough so that students can easily remember it. Apply current sociolinguistic norms. For example, an informal introduction is Hi, nice to meet you, rather than How do you do? Depict situations in the dialogue that are relevant and useful to the learner. Retain truth value in the dialogue. Create characters who ―are realistic in that they have some personality and relate to the learners‘ experience in some way‖. (based on Slager 1976 cited in Omaggio 1984 and Graham 1992).
Refer to online websites. Compile articles related to the importance of using different techniques for teaching grammar.
The end of this session…good luck with your activities!
TOPIC 5
DEVELOPING ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES FOR THE TEACHING OF GRAMMAR
5.0 SYNOPSIS Topic 5 exposes you the various types of English Language Teaching (ELT) activities and resources for the teaching of grammar. Activities and resources are very important to English language teachers. If selected and used effectively, they can help our pupils to understand what we are teaching them more easily. In this topic, you will be exposed to the various types of activities and resources for teaching grammar. Then we will look at how to select suitable activities and finally how to exploit the resources so that teaching and learning will be more enjoyable and effective.
5.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session, you will be able to:
1. identify principles of selecting activities and resources 2. identify types of ELT activities and resources 3. select appropriate activities and resources for use in the grammar classes 4. demonstrate an understanding of the activities and resources in the teaching of grammar.
5.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS
SESSION FIVE (3 Hours) 5.3 ACTIVITIES One of the goals of language teaching is to develop fluency in language use. Compared to the traditional lesson formats where the focus was on mastery of different items of grammar and practice through controlled activities such as memorization of dialogues and drills, and the current trend has moved toward the use of pair work activities, role plays, group work activities and project work. 5.3.1 ROLE OF ACTIVITIES Good classroom activities will create fluency in which students can negotiate meaning, use communication strategies, correct misunderstandings, and work to avoid communication breakdowns. These activities can also organised to meet accuracy which focuses on creating correct examples of language use. Differences between activities that focus on fluency and those that focus on accuracy can be summarized as follows:
Activities focusing on fluency
Reflect natural use of language Focus on achieving communication Require meaningful use of language Require the use of communication strategies Produce language that may not be predictable Seek to link language use to context Activities focusing on accuracy
Reflect classroom use of language Focus on the formation of correct examples of language Practice language out of context Practice small samples of language Do not require meaningful communication Control choice of language
5.3.2 PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION The activities to support grammar teaching and learning should follow the features below: a)
Be meaningful The activities must relate to students‘ own needs and therefore make them involve. As a teacher, you should consider your pupils‘ age, sex and
background. Preferably getting to know your pupils‘ interests, likes and dislikes will make the learning more meaningful. Primary school pupils normally love stories, wild life, nature, songs and rhymes and popular personalities. b)
Be purposeful Good learning activities should make pupils utilise the language, provide them challenge and grab their attention and interest. This is because the pupils learn better if the lesson or activities require personal and emotional involvement.
c)
Have a social function Good learning activities too have opportunities for interaction with other
people By having social function, pupils can get a sense of the usefulness of the language, check and test whether they have used the language correctly and learn from their classmates in a less threatening way. d)
Provide plenty of practice Provide sufficient opportunities for each pupil to use similar language in different ways (listen, speak, read and write) and contexts (poems, stories, songs, games, jokes) so that the target structures become part of the automatic response.
e)
Use multimedia approach Language learning should be supported using all the five senses because the variety of input is important as an aid to memory.
f)
Provide variety To keep pupils‘ attention, teachers need to have a variety of activity types in
the teaching of grammar. Children, especially the lower primary level, have short attention span. g)
Encourage active participation Teachers should ensure that activities design for grammar teaching should encourage them move around and interact with each other. Pupils will enjoy
all these movement and hence enhance their learning process.
5.3.3
DEVELOPING GRAMMAR ACTIVITIES
Classroom activities need to reflect the grammar point that is being introduced or reviewed. By contrast, when a course curriculum follows a topic sequence, grammar points can be addressed as they come up. In both cases, teachers can use the Larsen-Freeman pie chart (below) as a guide for developing activities.
Figure 1: Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman‘s Form/Meaning /Use pie chart
According to Diane Larsen Freeman (1997), to know a grammatical item, a student needs to understand its form- how to make the structure, its meaning and its use. Each segment is inter-related, so that altering one segment will automatically produce change in other segments. Hence, language teachers must ensure that their students master all three segments; how to construct the grammatical item (form), what it means (meaning) and how to use it (use). TYPES OF ACTIVITIES Activities that are commonly carried out in grammar lessons are: a) Drills
A drill is a type of highly controlled oral practice in which the students respond to a given cue. The response varies according to the type of drill. Drills are used usually at the controlled practice stage of language learning so that students have the opportunity to accurately try out what they have learned. Drills help students to develop quick, automatic responses using a specific formulaic expression or structure, such as a tag ending, verb form, or transformation. There are six common forms of drills: Type of Drill
Example
1
Simple repetition
2
Simple substitution
3
Multiple substitution
T: Rizal calls Mat. S: Rizal calls Mat. T: Rizal calls Mat. S: Rizal calls Govind. T: Rizal calls Mat. Uma
Cue words
Govind George
4
Simple correlation
5
Multiple correlations
6
Transformation
S: George calls Uma.. T: Rizal calls Mat. Aini S: Janet and Aini call Mat. T: Rizal hurt himself. S: We hurt ourselves. T: Rizal calls Mat. S: Does Rizal call Mat?
Janet and
We Question
Drills can be made interesting by changing the tone, loudness etc. with each item is said. Mode of drilling also can be changed from individual drill to chorus drill. For more ideas on drills, see Stevick (1987). b)
Substitution tables
Substitution tables are usually used by teachers to practise more than one form. For example the table below is constructed to practise two question forms.
the post office? How do I go to
the railway station? the secondary school?
Where is
c)
the supermarket?
Jazz Chants Another way in which drills can be made more engaging is through jazz
chants. This technique involves using an element of rhythm. Jazz chants is simply a way of learning to speak and understand with special attention to the sound system of the language (Carolyn Graham, 1978). An example of a jazz chants:
I saw a lion I saw a lion
They saw a buffalo too
What did you see?
Nobody saw a rhino. Nobody saw a rhino.
I saw a lion So did we
Where are all the rhinos?
Where did they go? She saw a hippo
Where are all the rhinos?
He saw an elephant
I don‘t know.
(Source: http://jazzchants.net/some-favorites/84-jazz-baby-in-africa) For more examples and information on grammar activities see Chitravelu et al. pp213-228
Choose one activity for teaching grammar. List down the strengths and weaknesses of the selected activity. Share the findings during tutorial.
5.4 MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
For English language teachers choosing resources for teaching is easy as we live in a world of teaching resources. Resources can come from the internet, the newspaper, the school itself, the environment and our own homes. These massive choice of resources can be obtained and modified for classroom teaching. Although getting resources seems easy, as English language teachers, we do need to get some information about teaching resources because
it will help us make decisions about how many areas of content we can realistically address within the time frame of our teaching. It will help us make decisions about the kinds of materials we choose or develop. 5.4.1 TYPES OF MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
Are these teaching aids familiar to you?
Videos newspaper radio pictures puppets brochures games charts computers Internet LCD projectors CD-roms real objects
Well, can you think of some other materials or resources that you can use in your grammar lessons?
Print, Non-Print and Electronic ELT materials and resources can generally be grouped into three categories:
5.4.2 ROLE OF MATERIALS
Can you recall your own learning experience when you were in school? How did it feel to attend a class which was carried out without any teaching aid? Of course, the lesson would be dull and bored if you were asked to just sit and listen for a long
period of time. This is where the teaching aids play a role. They contribute to the learning process in the following ways: •
source of motivation
•
making learning interesting
•
decrease the anxiety of learner
•
concrete base for abstract learning
•
develop confidence (individually, group work)
•
develop creativity
•
flexible and friendly environment
•
provides students an approach towards learning
•
capture the attention and involve the students in learning situation
5.4.3 PRINCIPLES OF MATERIAL SELECTION Materials development refers to anything which is done by writers, teachers or learners to provide sources of language input and to exploit those sources in ways which maximize the likelihood of intake: the supplying of information about and/or experience of the language in ways designed to promote language learning. However, in developing resources or materials for teaching, teachers should consider the following criteria: (a)
Interest Value Materials selected should contain some illustrations to attract the learners‘ attention and avoid boredom. Teachers should bear in mind that boys and
girls have different interests.
(b)
Learners’ Level of Proficiency It is necessary to check the difficulty of language used in materials, especially authentic ones such as newspaper articles, before deciding to use them in
your class. (c)
Learners’ Maturity The content of the materials should be suited to the maturity level of the
learners. Young learners will comprehend something familiar to them such as on family and
favourite past times. Adolescent learners, on the other hand, will
appreciate current issues.
(d)
Learners’ Prior Knowledge Learners‘ prior knowledge, in other words, should serve as a take-off point in your teaching and also their learning. If the prior knowledge is not taken into consideration, learners will feel frustrated and demotivated.
(e)
Suitability of Cultural Content Teachers need to be sensitive to the students‘ cultural background and
values as this would arouse conflicts in them. This includes the assurance that children and students will not be exposed to offensive materials. Although teachers are not intentionally teaching the ‗wrong values‘, sometimes good intentions are misunderstood. (f)
Practicality The criterion of practicality should be very much the concern of the teachers when selecting the materials. They need to consider whether the learners have ample time to complete the materials.
(g)
Availability and Cost Some teaching aids such as software programmes and electronic aids can be rather costly and not easily accessible. Thus, teachers should make the necessary arrangements if they plan to use them. Electronic aids such as the LCD projector, radio, television or charts need to be booked from the resource room in school. to save cost. Besides that, there are a lot of materials available on the internet in which teachers can search for when they have free time, and store them for future classes.
5.4.4
DEVELOPING RESOURCES
Realia or real objects are not always suitable for our lessons. Sometimes teachers have to make their own teaching aids to suit their activities. Therefore, in this section, we will look at how to produce some simple teaching materials that are very useful to the primary school teachers. (a)
Flashcards
Flashcards are easy to make as all you need to do is to stick a picture or word (or phrase), or both, on a piece of manila card. Pictures can be drawn or taken from magazines or internet. Can be used for revision or remedial work.
Make sure the cards are big enough to be seen by the whole class. Sample of flashcards to teach prepositions:
Content: above, across from, behind, below, between, in, in front of, into, near, next to, on, out of, over, under (Source: http://www.eslflashcards.com)
(b)
Exploiting materials from the newspapers
The newspaper is a wonderful resource for teaching. It contains a variety of both pictorial and non-pictorial texts that teachers can use in lessons. Teachers can utilise the pictures, articles, advertisements, comic strips, TV programmes etc. These materials can be used to generate many classroom activities for all levels of proficiency. In addition, the newspaper is also cheap, easily available and it exposes learners to real-life language.
Here are some examples of activities:
(i) Scavenger Hunt Pupils work in groups and are given a list of items to look for in the newspaper. They can either cut out whole pictures, words or phrases and paste them on a piece of paper. It is a lot of fun as students compete in their groups and locate the items
stated in the
scavenger hunt list.
(ii) Guided Writing Teacher can cut out an advertisement and pupils will
complete
blanks/ dialogues with information from the advertisement.
(iii) Shopping list Pupils will be told that they are going shopping for birthday presents for themselves and their family members. Look through the newspaper and cut out the presents that they would buy if they have lots of money. Ask them to explain their choices either in written or verbal form.
***For more ideas and hands-on experience on using newspaper in education (NIE), look out for the annual NIE workshops organised by The Star and News Straits Times in major cities in Malaysia. (c)
Internet resources
The internet is another good resource for teaching. There are many educational websites, pictures, exercises, stories, poems, ideas an other kinds of materials that you can use for your grammar lessons. Multimedia presentations can also be downloaded and shown during lessons to make learning and understanding easier. Besides, the animation, colour and hi-tech presentations often motivate and capture students‘ attention. Teachers can either download the materials and print them for the students or allow them to access the internet to do the exercises.
However, the availability of computer and internet facilities, the constraints of time and computer skills of the students will play a very important role in ensuring the smooth flow of the lesson. Here are some useful websites for teachers to obtain interesting materials for lessons. Website http://www.eslcafe.com
Description Ideas for teaching & learning ESL, games, exercises
http://www.englishclub,com
Games,
quizzes,
exercises,
worksheet generator http://www.englishlearner.com
Resources
for
teaching,
interactive tests & exercises http://www.longman.com
Resources for teaching English
http://www.english-to-go.com
Lesson
plans,
interactive
activities, resources
Refer to internet sources and compile different samples of activities and resources for the teaching of grammar.
Summary and Conclusion
Activities and materials that are appropriate for a particular class need to have an underlying instructional philosophy, approach, method and technique which suit the students and their needs. They should have correct, natural, current and standard English. Teachers need to choose appropriate activities and look for good materials, both commercial and non-commercial, all the time to ensure teaching and learning take place effectively. The end of this session…good luck with your activities!
TOPIC 6
ASSESSING GRAMMAR
6.0 SYNOPSIS
Topic 6 provides input on how to assess grammar. We are going to look at how to test the students‘ knowledge of grammar. We will also look at a number of types of test items.
6.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this session, you will be able to: 1. demonstrate an understanding of types of tests 2. explain the rules for writing tests 3. design items to test students knowledge of grammar 6.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS
Types of Tests
Rules of writing tests Developing test items
Multiple choice
Sentence writing CONTENT
SESSION SIX (3 Hours)
Sentence completion activities
Fill-ins
Sentence reordering
Transformations
Parallel writing
3.0
You have taught the grammar. You have practised it. You have corrected it.
But how do you know if the process has worked? How do you test it? 3.1
TYPES OF TEST We can test the students‘ ability to speak or write. We can test students‘
reading or listening comprehension skills. Many tests include all these elements, especially public exams like SPM and MUET. Public exams test how good a student‘s overall command of English is. In this chapter, however, we will look at tests which are given in schools and classes to find out how well students have done. These are often called achievement tests and are given after a semester or year‘s work. The aim of such tests is to see if students have learnt and acquired the language they have been studying or have been exposed to.
3.1.1
WRITING ACHIEVEMENT TESTS Writing a test is an important job that demands skill and patience. Good tests
show both teacher and students how well they are all doing. They do not fail students unnecessarily and they give everyone a chance to show how much they have learnt. Tests can often go wrong, not just because of the students‘ lack of knowledge, but also because of problems in the writing of the tests themselves. When writing tests teachers should bear in mind the following ‗rules‘. a.
Don’t test what you haven’t taught.
The purpose of an achievement test is to find out how well students have achieved what they have been studying. In such a test, then, it is not fair to test things that they haven‘t been exposed to.
b.
Don’t test general knowledge
Test writers should remember that they are testing the students‘ knowledge
of
English, not their knowledge of the world. For example, a test item like this would not be acceptable. Picasso was a famous _______________. The problem is that if students get this item wrong, you don‘t know if it is because they don‘t know about Picasso or because they don‘t know the word painter (or artist).
c.
Don’t introduce new techniques in tests
One thing that confuses students in tests, is the presence of item types and techniques that they have never seen before. In other words, if students are given a set of jumbled words and asked to reorder them to make a sentence, we would expect them to have seen this type of activity before in class. If the sentence-ordering activity is completely new to them, they may have difficulties understanding how to do the question which have nothing to do with their knowledge of English (or lack of it). d.
Don’t forget to test the test.
It is extremely unwise to write a test and give it straight to the students. Often unforseen problems arise. Perhaps you forgot to write clear instructions. Perhaps there are some mistakes. Perhaps the test is far too difficult – or far too easy. But especially if the test is important for students (and most tests are) you must try to ensure that it works. You should show it to your colleagues who can help to spot problems or misprints. If possible try out the test with a class similar to your own. This is done to spot any obvious mistakes or problems. TEST ITEMS Grammar is typically tested by means of what are called discrete-item tests. That is, individual components of the learner‘s knowledge (for example, irregular past tense verb forms such as went, saw, did etc.) are tested using tasks such as gap-fills:
Let us now look at a number of items that test a student‘s knowledge of grammar. We will start by looking at more discrete items and end by looking at testing techniques that are slightly more integrative.
(i) Multiple choice In multiple choice items, students have to choose the correct answer from a number of alternatives. At the most simple level, multiple choice can be used to test the students‘ grammatical knowledge, for example: Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D. 1. Charles ____________ to work yesterday. A. doesn‘t go
B. hasn‘t gone C. didn‘t go
D. Isn‘t going
Multiple choice items can be made a greater test of all-round comprehension if they are part of a passage or dialogue, for example: Hilary : Where are you (on, in, off, out) to? Jane:
I‘m just going to the shops.
Hilary:
Could you (post, take, bring, buy) this letter with you?
Jane:
Yes, of course.
Hilary:
And you‘d better (take, to take, taking, took) an umbrella.
Jane:
Why?
Hilary:
Because it‘s going to rain.
Muliple choice items like this have the great advantage of being easy to mark. But it is difficult to write ‗distractors‘ (the three wrong answers), which aren‘t either absurd – or possible – as well as the correct answer. Special care should be taken to make sure that there is only one correct answer. Multiple choice items like this test students‘ recognition of grammatical items. They are not tests of the students‘ productive ability.
(ii) Fill-ins Fill-ins are those items where students have to fill a blank with a word or words. In the traditional fill-in, students often see five or more separate sentences and have to fill in a word for each. However, a more meaningful test would be to give the pupils a passage with some selected words removed. For example: Look at Jenny‘s postcard to Joanne. There are some missing words. Write one word for each space. Dear Joanne, Rome ____ a beautiful city! The people ____ very nice. Susan ______ not like the city very much, but ____ likes the meals. (She loves shaghetti!) Susan has two friends in Rome ____ Parlo and Kurt. ____ live ____ the north-west of Rome. Kurt is an artist. _____ pictures are very good. Parlo is Italian and Kurt is German. He is ____ Hamburg. I ____ speak Italian or German, but Parlo and Kurt can speak English very well. See you soon,
Love, Jenny In this example the students have to understand the whole text at the same time and then write the words in the spaces. This is a good test of students‘ comprehension as well as of their knowledge of individual grammatical items (such as personal pronouns, prepositions, and the verb to be, etc). Fill-in items are easy to write, although it is sometimes difficult to ensure that students can put in only one answer! It is possible for students to to come up with more than one word to put in the blank which could be correct.
(iii) Sentence completion Fill-in items usually ask for only one word. But they can be extended to test more of the students‘ knowledge and use of English. Students have to fill in a blank and/or complete a sentence with more than one word. Test items like this are usually called sentence completions. For example:
Complete the sentences below so that they make sense. 1. A: Are you sure you‘ll be all right? B: Don‘t worry – I‘m _________ looking after myself. 2. Both teams were exhausted. They __________ for three hours. 3. The old lady, who __________, suddenly sat up and asked for some tea. 4. He was born between 1940 and 1942, so he must be in ______________.
Students who complete this task successfully show that they have a lot of grammatical knowledge and that they are able to use the right vocabulary and grammar to complete the task. Obviously the writers of this test do not have only one correct answer in mind, but deciding what to accept makes the test marker‘s task quite complex. (iv) Sentence reordering If students are used to this activity, then part of a test might look like this: Put the words in order to make correct sentences. 1.
he lives / John is / and / in London. / a student ________________________________________________________
2.
a housewife and / is / His sister / she is / secretary. / a ________________________________________________________
3.
at home now, / isn‘t / in Canada. / His sister / she is
_________________________________________________________ This type of test item explores the students‘ knowledge of syntax and is a useful addition to a test. (v) Transformations A test of the students‘ knowledge of syntax and structure is sentence transformation. Here students have to rewrite sentences so that they have the same meaning but different grammatical structures. For example:
Complete the sentences so that they mean the same as the original sentence. Start with the words given. 1. John is taller than Mary. Mary isn‘t ________________________________________________. 2. ‗I haven‘t seen her for years‘, he said. He said that _____________________________________________. 3. I won‘t come unless you ring. I‘ll come ________________________________________________.
Once again, students should have practised transforming sentences before they come across this exercise. But the ability to transform sentences correctly certainly implies quite a lot grammatical knowledge – although it may take a certain kind of ‗intelligence‘ to be very good at it. (vi) Sentence writing Students can practise their sentence writing by describing a picture. This activity certainly tests the students‘ ability to write correct sentences – and their ability to use there with is and are correctly. is There
(vii) Parallel writing
are
One way of providing a fairly controlled integrative test type is through parallel writing. Here you ask the students to use their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to imitate a piece they have read (and understood). In order to complete this successfully, students need to understand a paragraph, its form and its grammar. Once again, the teacher should be sure that pupils have previously used this technique in class since it might otherwise cause confusion. Summary In this chapter we have looked at a number of exercises which test grammar, together with some ‗rules‘ or hints about test design. We have looked at the need for test exercises which encourages the students‘ written production as well as terms which concentrate as accuracy.
TASKS: 1. Write some multiple choice items to test the students‘ knowledge of the difference between simple and continuous verb. 2. Write a five item sentence-completion exercise for a final test at upper primary level. Try to make all the items refer to the same context. 3. Choose a specific language point and write a fill-in exercise to practise it. 4. Write a short test for beginner students to use as a parallel writing activity. 5. Decide which type of written practice you prefer and say why.
The end of this session…good luck with your activities!
TOPIC 7
ENRICHMENT AND REMEDIAL GRAMMAR ACTIVITIES
7.0 SYNOPSIS Topic 7 exposes you the various types of enrichment and remedial grammar activities.
7.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this session, you will be able to:
5. differentiate between enrichment and remedial activities 6. select appropriate activities for use in the grammar classes 7.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS
7.2.1
WHAT IS ENRICHMENT?
(Source:http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/education)
Enrichment has been defined in a number of ways. One such is that of Teare (1997), who described it as
A higher quality of work than the norm for the age group Work covered in more depth A broadening of the learning experience Promoting a higher level of thinking The inclusion of additional subject areas and/or activities The use of supplementary materials beyond the normal range of resources.‘ Enrichment might be said to involve:
staying with a theme, subject or skill and developing it in depth ‗rounding out‘ the basic curriculum subjects with a wider context; relating learning to new areas; and/or providing pupils with experiences outside the ‗regular‘ curriculum (breadth). Enrichment is sometimes seen in terms of the development of certain qualities of mind. These include problem solving, creative thinking, initiative and self-direction, discovery, higher order thinking skills, profound personal interests, self-acceptance, and the courage to be different. Opportunities for these kinds of enrichment should be created throughout the curriculum, as well as beyond lesson time – and both in school and outside it. An important feature of enrichment is that it must enhance the curriculum and the student‘s general learning experience. This applies both to work done in the classroom and to activities outside school.
There is now a copious amount of material available in books and online to support many kinds of enrichment activity, both in and out of the classroom. The common ground will be that the activities should include:
Challenge Enjoyment exposure to new knowledge and ideas
thinking in different or unusual ways risk taking. 7.2.2
EXAMPLES OF ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES
Examples of possible enrichment activities which have been suggested include the following:
In class
In the course of a literacy or an ICT lesson, where students are working on a news story, the teacher can email certain students with a controversial newsflash to which they have to respond quickly with an article, mimicking the pressures of a busy newsroom. Enrichment offers able pupils a chance to enhance their metacognitive skills, i.e. to become aware of, and discuss, their own learning. They can, for example, keep logs in which they reflect upon their learning, and create questionnaires and surveys to evaluate the learning experiences of their fellow students. Able pupils can be helped to develop the ability to assess the complexity of a task and complete it in a prescribed time. ‗Real time simulations‘ offer an enjoyable challenge and a sense of fulfilment. ‗Challenge Boxes‘ containing enjoyable and demanding activities can be kept in every classroom for students to use when they have finished their work. The challenges can be developed for different subjects and topics and can be exchanged between teachers to provide a continuing supply of activities. A regular feature of a lesson might be a ‗thinking slot‘, or, in the words of Coates and Wilson (2003), a ‗Bright ideas time‘. Students are thus stimulated to ‗think outside the box‘, a process for which, in fact, there is a website: http://www.thinkingoutofabox.co.uk, offering a thinking activity for each day of the school year. Other examples are brainteasers, ‗cognitive cartoon‘ activities and PMI challenges (Plus, Minus, Interesting).
There are numerous ways in which enrichment activities can be evaluated, including the following:
Feedback from students, and their engagement in evaluative research. Training in research methods can itself form part of an enrichment activity. Questionnaires to parents before and after the provision of enrichment. This is time consuming but can reveal some interesting perspectives on the way the students perceived the activity. Questionnaires to teachers, to gauge the success of the enrichment and suggest areas where further learning might take place, including in the ordinary classroom. Independent observations from those involved in devising or supervising the activity, including professional providers, teachers, or educational officers. Whole school, department and/or auditors. Let‘s take a break and discuss these: Define the terms ‗enrichment‘ in the context of grammar activities. Discuss the purpose of using enrichment grammar activities
7.3
WHAT IS REMEDIAL TEACHING?
If a student appears to be significantly behind the expected level for a class, a teacher may require him or her to take a remedial class. These classes act as a "safety valve" for struggling students, allowing them to work at a more appropriate level, rather than failing because they are not at the same level as the rest of the class. Remedial classes can be a positive environment for students suffering from
low self-esteem, as they encourage students to ask as many questions as necessary to understand a subject, rather than feeling pressured to learn everything immediately. A remedial activity is one that is meant to improve a learning skill or rectify a problem area. Remedial instruction involves using individualized teaching of students who are experiencing difficulties in specific subject areas.
A. Identification: a) Through academic achievement: i) Class interaction: An under-achiever will give wrong answers frequently to the questions asked. He will appear to be confused. He may probably not respond to the questions asked in the class at all. ii) Home assignment: An under-achiever will not do the homework. If pressurised to complete the work, he may resort to copying, which may be easily detected. iii) Unit tests and term tests: He will show poor performance consistently in tests. He will either not attempt the question(s) at all or, will do cuttings and overwriting. He may even try to copy the solution to the problems from his peers.
b) Through behavioural aspect: i) Attitude towards academic activities: He will be disinterested in such activities. He will try to refrain himself from such activities. He will try to avoid discussion about academics with his peers or teachers. ii) Class escapism: He will try to bunk classes for one reason or another. He will give excuses for not attending classes. iii) Fiddle with notebooks instead of studying: He will be found to fiddle with notebooks and books instead of studying.
Once the under-achiever has been identified, the next step is the diagnosis of deficiencies. B. Diagnosis of deficiencies: a) Learning of concepts: His concept(s) related to a particular topic or formula is not clear.
b) Application of knowledge: He may not be able to apply the learned knowledge in different situations. Once, the deficiency has been diagnosed, let us explore the possible causes for the same. C. Causes: a) Memory: Individual capacity of memorising facts and figures. b) Understanding: Lack of comprehension-he does not follow what he reads. c) Presentation: Finds difficulty in expressing views-vocabulary is not sufficient. d) Knowledge Gap: Incomplete coverage units in the previous class-long absence. e) Parental background: Socio-economic status; education f) Parental attitude: Indifference of parents towards studies; over-expectation. g) School Based: Lack of suitable equipment and environment in schoolover-crowded class. h) Medium of instruction: Language problem. i) Physical factors: Poor eyesight; poor audibility; illness and other problems. j) Individual factors: Good in oral tests but does not prepare notes and does not do home work regularly; not sincere in studies; very anxious but is unable to concentrate on studies; lacks self confidence; inferiority feeling; fear of failure; wants company of students who avoid classes; emotional instability. k) Teacher based: Lack of confidence in teacher; lack of time at teacher‘s disposal; faulty method of teaching; does not encourage student participation in class; inadequate home assignments and problems for practice; improper way of correction of homework and of guidance to students at appropriate time and stage.; knowledge of the subject is not thorough; unable to clarify difficult concept; lacks in expression; unable to provide secure and affectionate climate in classroom and lack of understanding and acceptance for each individual.
The causes having known let us now discuss about the possible cures and remedies. D. Cures and Remedies: a) Category wise remedial-not more than 5 to 10 students in each class. b) Personal and individual attention by teacher. c) No humiliation. Therefore, the primary responsibility of the teacher in remedial teaching involves:
i)
Diagnosis of the specific difficulty of the student by conducting a suitable diagnostic test.
ii)
Providing suitable remedial measures
iii)
Providing ways and means for preventing them from reoccurring in future.
By reviewing and focusing on the basics, students become better prepared to keep up with advanced classes. Remedial courses can also teach students better study and learning habits, to help them succeed where they might have otherwise found difficulty. Specifically for grammar teaching, most remedial classes stress basic concepts that must be understood before complicated ideas can be applied. In remedial language classes, for example, teachers might stress grammar, spelling, and vocabulary.
Identify different definitions of the terms ‘enrichment’ and ‘remedial’.
The followings are some examples of exercises or activities that teachers can use in their classrooms. Example 1 : Grammar Exercise Find the conjunction in the sentence. Circle the conjunction and underline the words that it joins.
(Source: http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/language_arts/creative/per1.html)
Example 2: Writing activity
(Source: http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/language_arts/creative/per1.html) Design grammar activity suitable for either enrichment or remedial purposes. Present it to your peers.
The end of this session…good luck with your activities!
TOPIC 8
LESSON PLANNING
8.0 SYNOPSIS Topic 8 provides you with some basic information on lesson planning It gives you some practice in planning the lesson plan via some discussion with peers and lecturer. It will enable you to focus on the factors to consider in lesson planning, to analyze and comment on the different stages of a lesson, to select appropriate activities and resources in line with the syllabus and with the correct objectives in your lesson plan. In addition lesson planning will help you identify the strengths and weakness of planning and enable you to improve on it before your micro-teaching 8.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this Session, you will be able to:
Prepare lesson plan and resources to teach grammar 8.2 FRAMEWORK FOR TOPIC
LESSON PLANNING 1.IN CONTEXT 2. IN ISOLATION
PLANNING AND DRAFTING
ACTIVITIES
RESOURCES
Checklist for lesson planning. Read through to get a better understanding of what it takes to plan a good lesson.
8.3 PLANNING A LESSON 8.3.1 a.
What is a lesson? A learning event in which all the activities are pre-orchestrated to serve one central pedagogic aim
a. Have a beginning, a middle and end, though these stages are called by different names. (pre, while, post) 8.3.2
Why is Lesson planning important?
a. Requires the teacher to keep many things in mind simultaneously b. Teacher has to do work that can be done before a learning –teaching session begins and work that can be done in the classroom c. Early planning enables the teacher to get the software and hardware necessary for implementing his/her plan. d. Lesson plan act as a record of work done. 8.3.3. a.
Factors to bear in mind when planning a lesson The general and specific objectives it sets out to achieve – decide on what the general aim of the lesson is going to be.
b
Student characteristics – take note of pupils‘ interest
c
Previous knowledge of the pupils think specifically of concept of previous knowledge to be useful in planning.
d.
Tasks Devise a task or a set of tasks Choose a task that would allow students to get practice in all the relevant skills.
e.
Materials Decide on the types of materials that will be used and how they will be exploited.
f. Language requirements of task/ activity Decisions on language need to be made at the stage when a task is being selected.
Decisions regarding language also need to be made after the materials for the tasks have been assembled. g. Time When the lesson will take place How much time is available Timing of activities h. Amount and type of pupil-teacher participation i. Balance in allocation of time j. Sequence and grading of activities
Find time to do some research on lesson planning.
8.3.4
Possible Procedure for Planning a lesson a. Deciding on what to teach Look at the scheme of work for the week and pick the syllabus item(s) that can be done in the slot allocated for the day b. Deciding on general aims of your lessonIf you are taking a skill-based approach, you need to look through the repertoire of skills specified in the syllabus. If you are taking a task-based approach, you need to decide which aims
the task you have chosen can help to achieve.
c. Interpreting the chart d. Deciding on specific aims or levels of achievement – teacher needs to know what sub-skills are generally involved in achieving the broad aim and then decide which of the several sub-skills should be the focus of his lesson. e. Taking stock of circumstances under which learning will take place.
f. Deciding on the staging of the lesson g. Deciding on activites h. Checking for balance and variety i. Making a final copy of the lesson plan j. Dealing with mixed- ability groups
Search the Web for more information on lesson planning. Jot down some notes to keep you refreshed.
8.4 LESSON PLAN Format for Lesson Plan Subject :………………………………….. Class:………………….. Level:…………………… Enrolment:……… Date:…………………… Time:……………………. Teaching Context:………………………. Topic:…………………………………….
Specifications: Decide the level at which your pupils are/ include integration of language skills Vary the demands and support factor of the task. Learning Outcomes: By the end of this lesson, pupils in their respective levels should be able to: Do what? What of What? How? How many? Are they behavioural? Measurable ? Tangible ? Thinking skills: Previous knowledge: Pupils have learnt ………./ have been taught………../ are familiar with………….. Moral values : Teaching materials :
Steps /Phase time Set induction
Presentation: Step 1: (+/- mins) Step 2: (+/- mins)
Content
Teaching learning activities
Remarks State where applicable
Focus on what the Pupils will do
Practice : (+/- mins) Production / Evaluation (+/- mins) Closure: (+/-mins) advance/ intermediate / Elementary / Good / Average / weak / Mixed –ability
Reflect on your mirco-teaching and focus on issues and actions carried out during the micro-teaching. Also focus on your strenghts and weakness of your lesson. Trainee‘s reflection of the lesson: -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Lecturer‘s comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Refer to the book stated below to enhance your understanding of planning and implementation of lesson plans and reflection of your micro-teaching. Refer to Nesamalar Citravelu (2005) ELT Methodology –Principles and Practice.Pp 196 - 240 for more ideas on teaching grammar and grammar activities. Refer to Brown, H.D.(2007) Teaching by Principles : An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, pp 179 – 186 for more information.
8.5 SAMPLE LESSON PLAN
LESSON PLAN FOR TEACHING GRAMMAR (IN CONTEXT) Subject: English Language- Grammar Class: Year 5 Mawar Level: Average Enrolment: 25 students Date: Time: Teaching Context : World of Knowledge Topic: My big family Learning Specifications: 5.3.1: Personal pronouns Eg I, you, he, she, we, they Learning outcomes: By the end of this lesson, pupils should be able to :
1.1
Describe about their family member by using suitable personal pronoun.
1.2
Answer correctly 15 questions on personal pronouns
1.3
Write a post card by using correct personal pronoun
Thinking skills:1.
Identifying
2. Information processing Previous Knowledge: Pupils have learnt the part of speech noun. Moral Values: Love your family first Teaching Materials: LCD projector, Laptop, Manila Card, Worksheet, A4 Papers, Powerpoint presentation. Stages/Phases contents Set Induction (+/- 5 mins)
Introduction of the topic.
―My big family‖ The teacher shows the students the ―my family‖ Members video
Teaching learning Activities Teacher introduces the topic that students will learn today (My Big Family) Teacher shows a video of ―my family
Remarks Predicting skills To capture attention
Questions: 1. What did you see in the video? 2. How many siblings do you have? 3. What are their names? 4. What are their hobbies?
members‖ to the students by using the LCD projector Teacher asks some Wh--- questions based on the video shown
Presentation (10 mins)
Teacher centered
Teacher shows powerpoint Material Microsoft Presentation slides Powerpoint of text ―my family‖ Presentation Teacher reads the Slides on a text of text once to the ‗My family‖ students Expected answers: Teacher draws the student‘s attention Mama Syara to the words in bold Papa Izat Next , the teacher Materials: continues by Pw presentation showing PPT slides Personal pronoun on personal pronouns Teachers introduces the definition of personal pronoun Teacher explains each pronoun with the help of pictures Teacher provides some pictures and Material: grid tables/ make Text of ―My Family‖ students on the understand Manila card Next , the teacher shows again ‗to the students written on manila card. Teacher asks students to replace all the nouns in the bracket by filling in the blanks with the personal pronouns
Recap previous knowledge
Develop student‘s understanding
Practice (+/- 25 Mins)
Teacher and the pupils Pairwork
Activity 1: Co-operation Teacher asks the students to find their own partner and sit in pairs Teacher asks the students to practice using the personal pronoun about their own big family verbally Teacher asks the students to correct their friends‘ work Develop selfDuring practice esteem Activity 2: Teacher called the students randomly to come in front of the class and describe to the whole class about their big family by using the suitable personal pronoun
Teatheir big family using the suitabl
Production (+/- 10 Mins)
Student centered Material: Worksheets
Next, teacher distributes worksheet on personal pronouns. The students are required to answer all the questions given. Teacher discuss the answers with all the students
Thinking skill Assess student‘s understanding and feedback
Closure (+/-10 Mins)
Groupwork Write a post card
Teacher distributes A4 paper to all groups Teacher asks students to write a post card to one of their siblings who studies overseas to tell about their family condition in the hometown. Teacher gives compliments to the students for their active involvement and achievement
Creative thinking
8.6 LESSON PLAN (GRAMMAR IN ISOLATION) Subject: English Language- Grammar Class: Year 5 Mawar Level: Average Enrolment: 25 students Date: Time: Teaching Context : World of knowledge Topic: Mid-position adverbs in present tense Learning Specifications: Learning outcomes: By the end of this lesson, pupils should be able to :
1.1 Use mid-position adverbs in statements and questions 1.2 Ask and answer questions based on table/ chart 1.3 Plan a group Chart Thinking skills:1. Identifying 2. Information processing Previous Knowledge: Pupils have learnt regular and irregular verbs in present tense Moral Values: Love your family first Teaching Materials: charts, pictures, four advertisements
Stages/Phases Induction (+/_ 5 mins)
Contents Teacher puts up the table on the whiteboard Na M Tu W Th m on es ed ur e Kri m lak ric fru s ee sa e its And others Pupils are encouraged to ask and answer questions Eg of question: What does Kris buy every day? What does Jas buy on Mon? What does Neeta buy on Tues?
Presentation (+/- 20 mins)
Practice (+/- 10 mins)
Teacher says these sentences and pupils listen Kris buys mee on Monday. Neeta always buys Mee Leon buys rice every Tuesday
Teaching learning Activities Grid table with all the names and the food that they eat in the canteen. Pupils are asked to enter their names and what they buy at the canteen each day of the week Q n A session
Pairwork Pupils repeat after teacher and then work in pairs
Groupwork Teacher uses sugarpaper with blu-tac. a. Places figurine(cutouts from newspaper) on the sugarpaper For each person listed.eg coffee, cereals,tea, chocolates, milk etc b. Pupils practise structures using the pictures and cut-outs
Production (+/- 15mins)
c. Pupils practise in groups then move to pairs Class discussion
Remark s
Teacher puts up a chart giving information about Encik Razak (chart after the lesson plan) Closure (+/-10 mins) Making your own chart
Pupils encouraged to talk about Encik Razak, using the info in the table and using terms like usually, sometimes,never, always Pupils write sentences about En. Razak. Additional: teacher can also get students to write parallel paragraph about another person As homework
Groupwork Get pupils to do a group chart on majong paper. (If not enough time , may continue the presentation of the chart the next lesson.)
Reflect on your teaching. Trainees reflection of lesson: ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________ Lecturer‘s comments: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chart En.Razak buys plays eats
Mon cola tennis rice
Tues milk badminton noodles
Wed tea tennis rice
Thurs tea hockey rice
Fri coffee tennis noodles
Sat tea tennis rice
Sun tea golf fish
Rread through the following points and apply it in your planning stage.
8.7 Stages of a Grammar Lesson
Purpose
Presentation
Focused practice
To illustrate how the
To build students‘
To give students
structure is formed
confidence in
opportunities to
and what it means, as
using the new
use the new
well as how it is used
language
language in freer
To lead students to
To enable
more purposeful
use the structure to
students‘ to gain
and creative ways
talk about themselves
control of the
/ things which really
structure within
mean something to
controlled
them.
framework
To check student‘s understandings
Communicative practice
Characteristics
Clear, interesting,
Controlled to
Learner – centered
relevant and
minimize scope for
Interaction
appropriate
errors
activities which
Includes an element
Clear, and precise
incorporate these
of personal
Student – talking
Features:
involvement(on the
time maximized
information gap,
part of the students)
choice and
Grammatical
feedback
explanation if necessary Typical activities
-Build up of
*drills
Communicative
appropriate situational *dialogue
activities:
and linguistic contexts
*text completion
*games
for new language
*problem-solving
*discussions
-listening to and initial
*Role-play
repetition of new language -using new language to talk about themselves Role of teacher
Types of instructions
informant
*conductor
*monitor and
*corrector
organizer
*teacher –class
*tr
class/group
Stu----
*tr
Tr
-individual
student(pairs)
individual
students
Stu
class/gp
student (groups)
Degree of control
Correction
Length and place in lesson
student
*controlled
*very controlled,
*some guidance
*semi-controlled
Students have
*free, students
limited choice
have choice
Necessary to correct
*immediate
* without correction
to ensure students
correction by
but errors- noted
grasp the correct form
teachers/ peers
*short
*depends on
*depends on
*usually at the
students‘ needs
proficiency of
beginning
and difficulty of the
students and types
structure
of activity
*immediately after
*after presentation
presentation
and practice *within or across lessons
Some help for you to phrase your learning objectives.
8.8 List of Actions words that can used in constructing and generating SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES in the lesson plan. Competence Recall
Action Verbs Define, describe, detail, specify, list, state, name, outline, recognize, identify, catalogue …..
Understanding
Explain, illustrate, account for, justify, distinguish, defend, deduce, conclude, exemplify, interpret, infer, predict, summarise…….
Application
Apply, use, solve, relate, predict, calculate, produce, show,estimate, ……..
Analysis
Classify, categorise, compare, contrast, analyze, select, distinguish, resolve, investigate…..
Evaluation
Evaluate, judge, choose, justify, interpret, conclude, compare, appraise……..
Synthesis
Compose, create, plan, design,devise, organize, compile, develop, formulate……
Practical
Assemble, compose, construct, produce, generate, install,
perform, erect, manufacture, employ, operate, manipulate.... Behavioural
Respond, collaborate, co-operate, participate, demonstrate, relate, act, consider, encourage, promote, acknowledge, react, perform, contribute......
TOPIC 9
SIMULATED TEACHING
9.0 SYNOPSIS Topic 9 provides you with some basic information on implementation of lesson planned with feedback from peers and lecturers. In this topic you also receive feedback and review of which your reflection will be based on. 9.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of this Session, you will be able to: Assess and evaluate on teaching performance 9.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPIC
IMPLEMENTATION
FEEDBACK
REVIEW
REFLECTION
9.3 SIMULATED TEACHING (Micro-teaching)
Implementation: 9.3.1.
Planning and discussion
Refer to session 8 on ‗factors to bear in mind when planning a lesson‘. Plan and discuss in pairs or small groups but write out your own lesson plan which need to be handed in for grading. Consult your lecturer if you need help in planning.
9.3.2.
Materials and aids
Materials and aids provide the context for presenting new language.They arouse interest, stimulate interaction and help students see new places, people and events and bring to life situations that is too abstract for understanding (Nesamalar, 2005)
9.3.3.
Drafting , feedback and redrafting
Trainees draft the lesson plan and get feedback from lecturer concerned on areas that need improvement. Restrategise and redraft lesson plan and choose the lesson plan that you want to implement in your micro-teaching.
9.3.4.
Micro- teaching in either in pairs or in groups of three
Based on the individual lesson plans, trainees can select one lesson plan from within the group members and do micro-teaching based on that particular improved lesson plan. Decide who is going to take which stage of the lesson.
9.5
Feedback and review: Comments from lecturer based on simulated teaching
-
Strengths of the trainee / lesson / activities
-
Weakness of the lesson / activities/ trainee
-
Problem solving
-
Suggestions for improvement
Note: Refer to appendix for Evaluation Form for Micro-teaching.
Plan well. Be well prepared and implement your plan into action.
Task for you to further understand.
Task / Groupwork: Discuss the strengths and weakness of your group members with the feedback given by the lecturer and ways to solve the problems or conflicts faced in the class during the micro-teaching. 9.6
Reflection: Writing of reflection based on: -
Process
-
Actual teaching
-
Strengths
-
Weakness
-
Learning points
Plan your visits to the library and do some research on the topics.
Further reading: Harmer (4 th Edition) : The Practice of English Language Teaching Pp 364 – 379.
Evaluation Form Name
marks
Criteria for evaluation: 1. Set Induction well managed, relevant , motivating and captivating 2. Lesson develops smoothly and presented systematically 3. Learner centered activities. 4. All activities are relevant, appropriate and effective. 5. Lesson is well wrapped up in an interesting and creative way. 6. Excellent time management 7. Demonstrates a range of deep understanding of the processes involved in a teaching and learning situation 8. Able to analyze critically and identify clearly own strenghts and weakness
