Teaching pronunciation

Today I tried to teach word stress and pronunciation.

Thank God its in NIE and not in school. But having said that it was a good experience, not because I made much mistakes but because I learnt.

Previously whenever I use Dictionary, I would simple look at the meaning and sample sentences. Maybe the verb or noun form, tense if any.

But now I know how to use those funny spelling of words in dictionaries: they tell you where should you stress the word when reading it! haha...

WK 3

This week, we covered lesson planning as well as a discussion of the effectiveness of an Extensive reading programme.

Lesson planning (Richards, 2002) (Farrell, 2002)
Lesson plan helps teacher to think about content, materials, sequencing, timing and activities for the lesson. It acts as a general map to guide teacher when teaching. It also serves as a log of what has been covered in class. Lastly it can be used to guide a relief teacher when a substitute is necessary.

(Tyler, 1949) came up with a rational-linear framework to lesson planning. This model has 4 steps. Namely, (1) specify objectives, (2) select learning activities, (3) organize learning, and (4) specify methods of evaluation.

But from my observations, it seems that (Yinger, 1980)’s alternative model is frequently used in local schools. The first stage begins with “problem conception” integrating with the teacher’s goals, knowledge and experiences. The second stage consists of “problem formulation and finding solutions”. The third stage involves “implementing the plan” and it subsequent “evaluation”.

I also learnt that an effective lesson plan begins with clearly written learning objectives. Objectives is defined as a description of a learning outcome. Providing students focus and teachers a way to evaluate students’ learning.
Effective objectives describe what students will be able to do in observable behaviors. Actions words / Bloodm’s Taxonomy like “identify, present, describe, explain, demonstrate, list, contrast and debate” should be used.

Finally, a generic lesson plan has 5 phases:
1. Perspective or Opening
Recap on previous learning and preview of this lesson.
2. Stimulation
To arouse students’ interest. Teacher can pose questions to students, relate lesson to students’ lives, use of attention grabbers.
3. Instruction / Participation
Teacher presents the activity and gets students to be actively involved through group work, pair work, etc.
4. Closure
Teacher to check to learning and gives previews of future classes.
5. Follow-up
Teacher sets up activities to reinforce certain concepts or even to introduce some new ones. Homework.

Extensive reading programme (Bell, 2007) (Clarity, 2007)
According to (Calrity, 2007) this simply means reading a lot and reading for pleasure. More specifically, it entails reading larger amounts with general understanding only.

Its benefits include; helping with language acquisition in a less stressful environment. By increasing students’ exposure to the language, it increases their vocabulary, motivates them to read. Leading to consolidation of previously learnt language, better writing, enhancing confidence with reading longer texts, read faster and more effectively through the exploitation of textual redundancy. Last but not least fosters the development of prediction skills when reading.

Students’ reading can also be monitored with relative ease through written work, book reviews, student presentations / dramatizations.

However, one of the greatest challenges to implementation remains the lack of time and the important and pressing need to perform at the national examinations.

WK 1 & 2 (sry for late post)

Reading strategies

I learnt that activating prior knowledge is one good way to “trick” reluctant readers into reading. We can use strategies like KWL, word splash, DRTA, skimming & scanning.

KWL basically gets students to state explicitly; what they “Know” about a topic, what they “Want” to know, and what they “Learnt” after reading the text. By doing this, teachers actually activate their schemas, motivating them to read and also focusing their reading, thus making reading purposeful and directed.

Word splash, involves using a collection of key words from a reading text that students are about to read. Teacher should plan activities such that it encourages students to predict what is going to happen next in the story that they are reading. This in some what is what actually happens during reading and keeps us motivated to turn the pages. This also provides an opportunity for students to creatively come up with their own versions of the story, again increasing motivation for reading.

DRTA / Directed Reading and Thinking Activities is another interesting method to get students to read. Teacher can begin by prompting students to look at titles and headings so form expectations of what the passage is likely to be about. Then teacher show students portions of the passage; paragraph by paragraph, meanwhile encouraging them to predict the contents of the next. Then asks students if they were correct in their predictions, hopefully some of them are, motivating them to read further. After completing reading, students can be asked to suggest an appropriate ending, potentially as a start to a writing activity. One merit of this method is that it encourages close reading. The interpretation of single words also creates and trains students to develop a better awareness when reading and writing.

Last but not least skimming and scanning are useful strategies too. Basically, skimming is used to look for general ideas while scanning is to look for specific information. These reading strategies are especially useful when reading for understanding and looking for information quickly in the real world context; brochures, newspaper reports, etc.

thats all for now... writing again soon...

Hi

Welcome to my new blog for my EL module. Stay tune...