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Module Two Section A

Ans 2.
One evening King Akbar and the Queen sat on a balcony. They looked down at the Jumna River
and ate mangoes. The King sucked the juice from one mango, then another, and then another:
suck! suck! suck! Then he put the skins and seeds on a plate in front of the Queen. Birbal came
to talk with the King. He saw the big pile of skins on the plate.
The King smiled to himself and thought, I am going to play a trick on my wife.
Look, Birbal! The Queen is selfish. She ate all of those mangoes and did not share with me.
Look at all those skins. They are like a big mountain.
The Queen was very angry and wanted to say something. But Birbal started talking first. He said,
I think she learned to be selfish from you, my Majesty.
What do you mean? said King Akbar. Are you saying that I am bad? Look, there is no fruit in
front of me, but there is a huge pile of skins and seeds in front of her.
That is right, said Birbal. The Queen is eating only the mangoes. She is not eating the skins
and seeds. But your plate is empty because you are eating the skins and seeds along with the
mangoes. So you are more selfish than the Queen!
My objective was to re-write the text in as uncomplicated English a doable thus my intention was
to simplify it to a beginner take. Although beginner and elementary levels, united with preintermediate level are structured within `elementary for the purposes of this unit, I feel I was
unable to simplify it sufficiently for a beginner, without losing the essence of the story.
Teaching Pre-literate and Beginning ESL Students
Make Sure Personal Connections Come First
Before teaching any aspect of language, get to know each student individually. Learners should
want to communicate with you first before you can begin to help them learn to communicate in
their L2. In the case of adult learners who are refugees, you must first attempt to step into their
shoes and ask yourself why they would want to talk to you. They have encountered many people
who have walked in and out of their lives and since their lives have been so transitory, you
should seek to develop a sense of community in the classroom--which means they must see you
as someone who they enjoy talking to. Delay the scripted lesson plan and make the class about
people getting to know one another. For example, learn not only the students names, but also the
names of their family members. In other words, talk about what matters to the students first.
Use Interruptions as Teaching Moments that Trump Whatever Lesson You Planned
If a student arrives late, use that as an opportunity to allow the class to discuss public
transportation, numbers or as a review on telling time. If a student has a sick baby, use that as an
opportunity to discuss medical issues, body parts or terms for various symptoms. If a student
brings in photos of his or her family, use that to springboard into a discussion about family. The

bottom line is to be spontaneous. The students will remember and learn real-life language as it
unfolds naturally, far better than they will recall a pre-planned lesson that is more abstract.
Try to Minimize the Students Cognitive Burden
This tip is regarding teaching technique. When teaching pre-literate students its best not to write
a lot of information on the white board and have students copy it down while you continue to
explain concepts. We can easily forget that pre-literate students cannot multi-task with their
current language proficiency level and it is important to break down tasks into smaller
components. If students are busily copying down information from the board, they will not
focus on what you are telling them because there are just too many things for them to focus their
attention on.
Feed Their Stomachs Sometimes, Not Just Their Minds
Watch for cues that your students may be hungry and share snacks together as a class. Likewise,
make sure students can see and hear the lessons. Some pre-literate students may never have had
their eyesight or hearing checked. A student who appears resistant to learning may simply have
needs that have not been expressed.
Try to Meet Students Half-way
Make an effort to learn words or phrases in the students L1. They will appreciate your effort to
learn their language, and they will see you more as a partner in the learning process rather than
someone who has all the answers. For example, when teaching English to Afghani women I
studied Farsi at the same time. My students enjoyed helping me learn a few new words each day,
and I was able to gain more empathy for my students struggles to learn English.
Communicate Slowly, Clearly and Directly
Students typically do not understand subtlety in the second language, and there may be times
when you need to explain a sensitive issue such as personal etiquette or hygiene. In such cases, I
have found it helpful to use role play to get the point across in a non-threatening yet direct way.
Avoid Using Books that Are Too Childish
Even though your students are at a beginning level, its important to utilize or create material that
is relevant to an adult. Every adult learner brings a wealth of life experience and sophistication
to the learning process. For example, a book that is about a frog jumping over a lily pad may be
interpreted sarcastically in the mind of an adult student as the frog jumped over the blanketyblank lily pad.
Review Constantly

Remember that with beginners you are your students textbook and study guide as well as their
teacher. Provide review sessions at the beginning of every class so students will practice what
theyve learned and acquire the language.
Be Animated
Dont be afraid to make sound effects, play music, and take walks around the neighborhood to
reinforce concepts. Sometimes the best learning doesnt even take place in the classroom, and it
doesnt have to be serious to be effective.
Dont Assume Students Know Why You Are Teaching Them
For instance, do a role play to demonstrate how bad it would be if they got lost and couldnt
communicate. This will show students why they need to memorize their phone number. If they
understand why a concept is important they will be more likely to remember it.
This is quite a lot of content for the first lesson so there needs to be plenty of practice. It is not a
matter of going straight through to the end, but of:
1. presenting new content to the class
2. practicing new content with the class
3. allowing the class to practice new content with each other
Then move on to another piece of content but always make sure to go back and repeat and revise
previous content as you do so. For example, half way through the lesson suddenly turn to a
student and shake their hands and say, Hello and wait for them to respond.

Basic English Grammar Rules


Some of the most basic and important English grammar rules relate directly to sentence
structure. Some of these rules specify that:

A singular subject needs a singular predicate.

A sentence needs to express a complete thought.

Another term for a sentence is an independent clause.

Clauses, like any sentence, have a subject and predicate too. If a group of words does not
have a subject and predicate, it is a phrase.

If they can stand alone and make a complete thought, then they are independent and
called sentences.

If they do not express a complete thought, they are called "dependent clauses." An
example of a dependent clause, which is not a sentence, is when i finish my work.

So, what are the other basic rules for sentence structure?
Subjects and Predicates
Basic to any language is the sentence, which expresses a complete thought and consists of a
subject and a predicate.

The subject is the star of the sentence; the person, animal, or thing that is the focus of it.

The predicate will tell the action that the subject is taking or tell something about the
subject.

Basic Parts of Speech


Once you have a general idea of the basic grammar rules for sentence structures, it is also helpful
to learn about the parts of speech:

A noun names a person, animal, place, thing, quality, idea, activity, or feeling. A noun
can be singular, plural, or show possession.

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun, like: I, you, or they.

A verb shows action and can be a main verb or a helping verb, like: were or has.
Verbs also indicate tense and sometimes change their form to show past, present, or
future tense. Linking verbs link the subject to the rest of the sentence and examples are:
appear and seem.

An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun. It adds meaning by telling how much, which
one, what kind, or describing it in other ways.

An adverb will modify a verb and tell more about it, like how much, when, where, why,
or how.

A preposition shows a relationship between nouns or pronouns. It is often used with a


noun to show location, like: beside, in, or on. It can also show time, direction,
motion, manner, reason, or possession.

Conjunctions connect two words, phrases, or clauses, and common ones are: and,
but, and or.

Mention needs to be made about other types of words that are considered by some, but not all, to
be parts of speech.

One of them is the interjection. It shows emotion and examples are: yea, hurray, uhoh, and alas.

Articles are very useful little words that are also sometimes considered to be parts of
speech. The articles are: a, an, and the. Indefinite articles are a and an and
the is a definite article.

Punctuation
To fully understand basic grammar rules, you also need to look at punctuation rules.

All sentences must start with a capital, or upper case, letter.

Titles of people, books, magazines, movies, specific places, etc. are capitalized.

Organizations and compass points are capitalized.

Every sentence needs a punctuation mark at the end of it. These would include a period,
exclamation mark, or question mark.

Colons are used to separate a sentence from a list of items, between two sentences when
the second one explains the first, and to introduce a long direct quote.

Semicolons are used to take the place of a conjunction and are placed before introductory
words like therefore or however. They are also used to separate a list of things if
there are commas within each unit.

There are a lot of rules for commas. The basic ones are commas separate things in a
series and go wherever there is a pause in the sentence. They surround the name of a
person being addressed, separate the day of the month from the year in a date, and
separate a town from the state.

Parentheses enclose things that clarify and enclose numbers and letters that are part of a
list. Apostrophes are used in contractions to take the place of one or more letters and to
show possession. An apostrophe and s is added if the noun is singular and an
apostrophe alone is added if the noun is plural.

Module Two Section B


Q3. The best teaching aid is a piece of chalk. Discuss this point of view with reference to the
alternatives.
Ans 3. As far back as I can remember, teachers had nothing else but a piece of chalk in school,
some just had the plain white ones, while others had the multi colored ones just to help make the
lessons more interesting. Today, as a teacher I am overwhelmed by the multitude of teaching aids
available, and even a little alarmed by the cutting edge technology available to me. It may be
useful in certain ways, but can easily become confusing if a teacher is unfamiliar with it. But yet,
even with all of this exceptional technology available, I still feel that a piece of chalk is still the
best teaching tool available. It may not be "cutting edge" or "modern technology", but its
simplicity and usefulness is still by far the best instrument available to teachers.

While a lot of my colleagues prefer new technology, I remain partial to the chalk. The black
board is the main piece of equipment and if one uses it well and to its full potential, one will
realize that modern equipments can take a step back. Not every language centre or school can
provide us with the latest technology, as some may face strict budgets. Furthermore, I don't think
that these modern gadgets are going to make you a better teacher and that student learning
efficiency will be greatly increased. The black board and the chalk actually reminds them that
they are "back in school", for most of us grew up in these types of classrooms and environment,
which helps to draw the students attention to the lesson at hand. Think for a moment, what you
write and how you write on the board will be transferred into the students' note pads and stamped
in their minds. There is not one thing about the chalk that makes ones job unfeasible or is not
within our reach, using a chalk and board to deliver a lesson is a step forward that we have to
pursue with our mind.

A chalk is a teaching tool just like technology is, it is not just a writing tool. For years we have
seen teachers using a white piece of chalk. Over time, dustless chalk was developed and
eventually coloured ones appeared. The humble piece of chalk itself has evolved over time. Even
though we use the blackboard to write our notes for the students, many teachers tend to rely on
PowerPoint presentations. Yes, the basics are the same and yes, you can always save a bit of time
as all you need to do is just plug in the computer to the projector. But what happens when there is
a black out? Your notes are no longer visible and even with a backup generator, if your computer
decides to give you trouble, everything your relied on and what was on it may well disappear.
But the black board and your piece of chalk is still there. The backup generator will give you
sufficient lighting and you can continue your lesson. I find that when you write and present your
lesson, students find themselves more involved and interaction time is great, for you can always
call on your students to write examples on the board themselves. And then again, think of how
much, as a teacher, you will save on stationery when you use the chalk. When I was asked to use
a classroom equipped with only a white board, I was quite happy at first because it appeared to
be a step forward from the black board and chalk but soon, I realised that I needed more than just
a black marker. I like to use colours when I teach, for example, verbs in red, adjectives in green
and so on and I rapidly found myself spending much more on markers that dried up quite
quickly. Obviously the white board may have other uses, such as acting as a screen if you are
planning to show slides or a movie using the LCD projector but for teaching spelling or word
stress, a board and a piece of chalk are still the best. With a piece of chalk, it is the capability of
the user to employ all teaching methods and experiences to get through to and inspire the
learners. Jeremy Harmer quotes: "The most versatile piece of classroom teaching equipment is
the board - it provides a motivating focal point during whole-class grouping." With a piece of
chalk we have greater influence on our students and we can also establish better connectivity
with them.
So how do you plan your lesson the old fashioned way? Well it is quite simple, your notes are
there to guide you, if you have the opportunity to enter the classroom before your class starts,
take advantage to write a few notes on the board, but don't clutter your blackboard, use different

coloured chalks to make your point. You can even draw things like simple objects, you don't
have to be an expert, and the fact you are using a chalk you can erase and try again. When you
use new technologies, you cannot improvise your lesson because you are obligated to follow a
set pattern of presentation but some students require additional attention or information and that
piece of chalk allows you to become flexible in your lesson. You can erase and rewrite. The
possibilities offered to teachers using a piece of chalk are endless. A teaching aid, like a piece of
chalk, is just a tool to help us deliver our lesson. How effectively we use the chalk as a teaching
tool is up to the teacher's creativity because no matter how "high tech" is only as valuable and as
motivating as its user.
There are some ways to use chalkboard as a teaching aid:

Chalkboard is the most available instructional material which can be used in presenting
new lesson

Chalkboard is very useful to show solutions of the different mathematical problems


systematically

The chalkboard helps T to present more formally prepared lessons or informal sessions
that Ss can understand follow more topic

The T uses the chalkboard to write the important information about the topic. So that
lessons ideas can be clear from facts to concepts, from cognitive to affective learning

T can use various color chalk or pen to draw on the chalkboard to develop the topic, show
part or build association

T can use chalkboard to draw or illustrate a point-by-point outline of a lesson by a


diagram, chart, etc.

Chalkboard can improve Ss thinking ability by direct attention on the chalkboard or


visualize their own ideas

Chalkboard can be use to list the ideas or topic suggested in discussion. T can add, delete
or put them in final form

Chalkboard can be used to helps Ss practice their work at one time and get feedback
immediately by T and other Ss

The Ss can use mini-chalkboard combines with looking at teacher and give their own
answers

It has its uses, BUT: There are other aids, both low-tech and high-tech, that create active
learning.

I. LOW TECH

Flash cards, word cards (high tech ways too)


Realia
Pictures and charts:
Magazines, wall charts, songs and rhymes, games and puzzles (adverb game, Kim's game,
Word Bingo, Icebreaker, Scrabble), Role play (alibi), Crosswords, steps
II. HIGH TECH ("ELECTRIC AND ELECTRONIC AIDS," p. 29)
audial: tape recorder, radio, cd player, mp3, mp4, iPod, voice recorders
visual: slide projector, over-head projector, LCD projector
Audio-Visual: TV, VCR, DVD, laptop, video camera
Interactive audial: Language lab
Interactive visual: Computer, cd rom, internet

References
Retrieved July 22, 2015, from the World Wide Web: http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/TheBest-Teaching-Aid-Is-A-623192.html

Q4. Are electrical and electronic teaching aids just gimmicks or are they worth expense?
Evaluate those available for the teaching of languages.
Ans. Computers and related electronic resources have come to play a central role in education.
Whatever your feelings about what some have called the digital revolution, you must accept that
many, perhaps most, of your students are fully immersed in it. At the very simplest level, you
will rarely receive a paper or other assignment from a student that has not been written with the
help of a computer. Most of your students will have considerable experience with the Internet
and will, whether you like it or not, make use of it for much of their academic work. Many of
them will be accustomed to using e-mail as a normal form of communication. But it is not just
students who find electronic resources valuable. Teachers can benefit from these resources as
well, by employing a series of useful tools.
We stress the word "useful" because electronic resources complement, but seldom replace, more
conventional teaching techniques. Electronic tools can make classes more efficient; lectures
more compelling, informative, and varied; reading assignments more extensive, interesting, and
accessible; discussions more free ranging and challenging; and students' papers more original
and well researched. Only you, however, can judge if these techniques advance your own
teaching goals.
Five Promising Uses of New Technology
Of the many electronic teaching techniques that instructors have found useful, we have chosen
five that we believe seem particularly likely to help significant numbers of teachers. All of these
techniques demand an investment of time if they are to succeed, and your willingness to use

them should be balanced carefully against other, perhaps more important, teaching priorities. But
for each technique, there are both simple and complex ways of proceeding, and we will try to
make clear the respective advantages and disadvantages.
The five ways in which we suggest teachers consider using electronic resources involve tasks
that you will usually have to perform in any case. New technologies can help you perform them
better and more easily:

Administration: The routine administration of courses (advertising a class, providing


copies of the syllabus, assigning discussion sections, and getting out course news) can be
more efficiently handled with a course home page, electronic discussion groups, and email lists. These tools can also dramatically improve the continuity and the community
aspects of courses, helping students to engage with and learn from each other and even
from people outside the course.

Readings/sources: The Web and CD-ROMs provide a wider variety of secondary and
primary sources (including visual and audio sources) than has previously been available.
With your guidance, your students can now gain access to materials that were once
accessible only to experts because they were too cumbersome to reproduce for classroom
use or too expensive for students to purchase. By taking their own paths through these
sources, students can bring their own evidence and arguments into lectures and discussion
sections, as well as write on a wider range of research topics.

Papers/presentations: Rather than performing assignments and taking exams from the
teacher alone, students can perform more independent exercises in publishing, exhibit
building, or assembling and presenting teaching units and other materials for their peers.
A web archive of several terms' work can make the course itself an ongoing and
collaborative intellectual construction.

Lectures: A computer with presentation software can provide a single tool for
augmenting lectures with outlines, slides, statistical charts and tables, images, music, and
even video clips. In addition to printing them as handouts, you can save in-class
presentations in a web-compatible format for later review and discussion.

Discussion: Electronic discussion tools such as e-mail, conferencing software, and online chat services can seed discussion questions before the class meets, draw out your shy
students, and follow up on discussions or questions on the reading between classes. For
courses without face-to-face discussion sections, these tools can bring the course to life
over great distances and help overcome scheduling difficulties.

What you need will depend, of course, on what you want to do. Most teachers have computers,
and most have at least some access to e-mail and the Internet. In many schools and universities,
most students do, too. Many teaching opportunities are likely to be available to you, therefore,
using equipment you and your students already have. Other techniques require more advanced
technologies that you may or may not wish to purchase on your own, and that your institution
may or may not make available to you. It should be obvious, therefore, that you should make no

plans for using electronic tools before making sure that both you and your students will have
access to the necessary technology.
But owning, or having access to, technology is usually only a first step. Even more important is
learning how to use it. This is one of the biggest challenges facing anyone who wishes to use
electronic tools, because the knowledge is not always easy to acquire. Many people, of course,
are highly skilled in computer technology and know how to teach themselves to do almost
anything. But many other people have limited computer skills, are easily intimidated by new and
unfamiliar tasks, and tend to avoid doing anything that requires them to learn something very
different from the things to which they are accustomed. If you fall in the latter group but wish to
expand your ability to use electronic tools, you need to find help. Some institutions offer
extensive assistance through their computer centers or their information technology services.
Some departments have staff members or graduate student assistants who are hired to handle
computer-related problems. There are also many excellent reference works to help you learn
about various electronic tools. Just as you must be sure that you have the necessary technology at
your disposal before you decide to use electronic tools in your teaching, so you must also make
sure that you have access to the necessary help in learning to use it.
Keep in mind, finally, that the technology associated with computers and the Internet changes
with breathtaking speed. Although certain skills will remain useful to you over long periods of
time, there will be many things that will have to be relearned time and time again. The rapidity of
change in this field can be bewildering and intimidating. But it is also the source of some
valuable innovations that can be of great use to you.
Electronic Sources
For the moment, at least, textbooks and monographs have little to fear from on-line competition.
Few students or faculty will submit to reading long passages of text on a computer screen. But
many classrooms can benefit from electronic resources in at least two areas: supplementary
readings and primary sources. Even the best published readers or photocopied packets tend to
dampen the thrill of discovery because they have been preselected and packaged for a particular
purpose (seldom your own). Electronic sources, whether on CD-ROM or the Web, can
significantly open up the range of materials accessible to your students.
There are a wide variety of electronic resources that can be useful for the classroom. Among the
most popular have been CD-ROM document collections such as Chaucer: Life & Times;
Pennsylvania Gazette, 1728-1783; and Presidential Papers: Washington-Clinton. Textbook
publishers are increasingly providing electronic study guides, map exercises, sample presentation
slides, and computerized test banks on CD-ROM, floppy disks, or even on the Web. Some
schools are producing, or arranging access to, large collections of digital materials.
The most extensive, if still not fully developed, source for electronic resources is the World Wide
Web. Many web sites can deliver primary documents, secondary literature, sound, and images
from a wide variety of sources. Students who explore web sites related to a course can bring
compelling evidence and arguments back to the class. Publishers are building companion web
sites around their textbooks, and large international projects have been launched to provide on-

line sources for standard humanities and social science survey courses. Finally, libraries and
scholars are making scanned materials accessible over the Web, although the copyright
implications of this practice require close attention.
In both cases, these relatively new forms of material require some special handling. You should
approach selecting electronic sources for your course with the following guidelines in mind:

Ensure that all electronic assignments contribute to the objectives of the course. The new
materials should pass the same relevance test as traditional material.

Personally evaluate the scholarly quality of your electronic sources. Although linking to
electronic sources might be free, one substandard source can lower the credibility of the
course.

Use the appropriate medium. Can these materials be more easily or effectively used in a
more traditional form? Try to use the Web for things that it can do particularly well:
displaying multimedia material, hyperlinking to other sources, providing interactive
experiences, or improving access to otherwise cumbersome or distant materials. As online archives begin providing access to recordings and radio and television programs, its
possible value to teachers will increase even further.

When dealing with massive collections of primary documents, make the task of using
them more manageable by discussing ahead of time the particular questions the collection
might help answer. Then divide the class into groups, each of which will explore the
archive with a particular question in mind. Short review papers, web-page postings, or inclass presentations can enable each group to share small numbers of documents, images,
and other artifacts that address the question or theme they have chosen.

Reinforce traditional research skills. Using on-line information requires at least as much
skill and discipline as using traditional sources. Just because students can "cut and paste"
from on-line sources, the process of researching and writing is not fundamentally
different from that for a project that uses more traditional sources. Encourage students to
take the same detailed notes and to follow the same strict citation procedures they use for
conventional printed sources.

Mix traditional and electronic sources. Require students to consult traditional printed and
microform source material as well as electronic resources. Most valuable sources will not
be digitized any time soon, if ever, so student research should include at least as many
traditional sources as electronic ones. Students wedded to the Internet sometimes tend to
assume that they need never use a traditional library; some act at times as if they think
information that is not on the Web does not exist. Be sure that you structure assignments
in a way that does not sever your students' ties to the most important sources of scholarly
material.

Caution your students to be especially critical readers of on-line sources. Explain the
Web's fluid (or nonexistent) editorial standards and the need to determine the standards,

origin, and scholarly discipline that went into the creation of each on-line source.
Virtually anyone can create a web site, and there is no review process to test sites for
accuracy or reliability unless the creator of the site initiates one. To avoid the problems
such lax standards can cause, you should heavily emphasize the on-line offerings of
established libraries, archives, and universities.

To ensure that your students become critical consumers of on-line material, consider
having them complete a quick questionnaire after reading the first electronic resource of
the term. Ask them to identify the author of the material, give the address (URL) for the
site, and comment on the scholarly methods and reputation of the sponsoring organization
or individual. Have them try to discover how long a site has been in existence and how
long the reference will remain on-line. Will more material be added or corrections made?
How should they cite this material in their papers, and can they be sure the material will
still be at that location? A short discussion of the answers in class will counteract many of
the sources of confusion and disappointment.

Electronic Publishing of Student Work


Ordinarily, when students write essays or research papers for a course, they write for an audience
of one: the instructor. But teachers who have persuaded students that they are writing for a
broader audience have found that students take the work more seriously and devote a great deal
more effort to it. Creating a system of on-line publications for your course, or for your
department, can have a tremendous impact on student engagement with scholarly work. On-line
publishing also creates opportunities for student collaboration, and for students to take a more
direct and responsible role in the learning process than they otherwise might. Another thing that
makes electronic publishing valuable is that it exposes students to the stylistic constraints and
opportunities of the new digital media. Already, a considerable portion of this nation's business,
scholarly, and personal communication occurs through e-mail, the World Wide Web, and private
networks of computers. A number of important periodicals, such as Salon Magazine and
Microsoft's Slate, exist primarily or solely on-line.
The range of electronic publishing techniques you use in your course depends largely on the
technical skills, resources, and imagination of you or your class. Students have performed the
following with considerable success:

Multimedia in-class presentations: A student uses a presentation program to supplement


a standard spoken presentation with images, charts and graphs, or sound.

Essays in the form of World Wide Web pages:While even a traditional text essay might
be posted for comment, the best web essays will make use of the Web's unique ability to
incorporate multimedia elements.

Web teaching units for your class or other classes:Students can become teachers by
sharing their research and analysis with the class or with an outside audience (including
secondary and primary school classes).

Web exhibits: By emulating the form and rigor of museum and library exhibits, students
can produce a classroom and community resource on their topic.

Collaborative projects: All of the above projects lend themselves to collaborative work
by groups of students.

Classroom archive/library: Over the years, a digitally savvy course might accumulate an
excellent library of digital student essays, teaching units, exhibits, and dialogues.

The promise of electronic publishing is almost evenly matched by its perils. The following steps
will help you avoid the most common pitfalls:

Establish and communicate the pedagogical goals of the assignment. You should justify
deviation from traditional forms of student work by establishing that the innovation will
improve the students' knowledge, skills, or learning experience.

Make the assignment appropriate to the medium. Most rewarding are assignments that
make use of multimedia sources, hyperlinks, and collaboration with resources or people
over the Internet. For text-only essays, ensure that the students' classmates or an outside
scholar or peer comments on the published papers.

Provide appropriate technical and stylistic support. Even if the assignment is voluntary,
many students will need help with the new requirements of publishing on-line or
preparing multimedia presentations. Arrange for help from your school's computer
department, devote a particular class to a group tutorial, or devote a portion of your office
hours to technical assistance. Teaching computing skills in non-computer science classes
is a controversial practice; be sure not to allow the technology to overwhelm the
substance.

Keep technological hurdles as low as possible. If possible, use web page templates,
simple submission forms, and any other aid that can keep the focus of the class on the
subject matter and not the tools. Keep abreast of the range of technical skill among your
students through classroom and schoolwide surveys, or even a show of hands on the first
day of class.

Arrange campus, local, scholarly, or international exposure for your students' work. The
publishing aspect of the Web is too often assumed to happen spontaneously. A moderate
effort at planning how to distribute and publicize your students' work can ensure that
students feel their publications have been taken seriously.

Integrate and archive student work on the course home page. Many students appreciate
contributing to the knowledge of the class and to the learning experience of their peers. A
gallery of past student work is also effective advertising of your course to prospective
students. Pay careful attention to privacy issues regarding student work; school policy
and privacy laws may require pseudonyms and anonymous entries when student work is

exposed to an outside audience. Certainly nothing should ever be published without the
express permission of its author.
As promising as these new media forms might be, the lack of clear standards for evaluating this
work has sometimes hampered their adoption. Teachers are comfortable guiding and evaluating
students on traditional essays and presentations. Multimedia presentations or web pages require
even more explicit guidelines to avoid highly uneven results. Electronic projects should fulfill
the assignment, make appropriate use of multimedia material, conform to on-line style
conventions, and respect the diversity and size of their potential audience.
Multimedia Lecturing
Despite several generations of harsh criticism, lecturing remains one of the most common, and
often one of the most effective, means of teaching. At its best, a lecture enlivens academic
subjects with the instructor's energy and curiosity and with the persuasive nuances of human
speech. Nevertheless, lecturing has its limits, most notably the reputed twelve-minute average
human attention span, the difficulty of representing complex material verbally, and the
awkwardness of presenting diverse, multimedia sources.
These challenges have already led teachers to use chalkboards, overhead and slide projectors,
and audiovisual equipment. Some schools are beginning to provide classrooms equipped with
built-in or portable multimedia computer systems. You can take advantage of the electronic
possibilities for lecturing by familiarizing yourself with the most popular and powerful
computerized classroom tool: presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint. Business
presenters were the early adopters of this software, driven by the less captive nature of their
audiences. Teachers have recently begun to use such programs to consolidate into one device the
presentation of multimedia material that supplements their lectures.
The basic concept behind presentation software is a familiar one; it is the same as that for the
slide show or overhead transparencies. The most elementary use of presentation programs is as a
glorified slide projector to display a sequence of pictures or documents to accompany your
lecture. When using computerized presentation, however, you can easily add captions to the
images, digitally highlight or annotate them, or combine multiple images on a single "slide."
Teachers who distribute lecture outlines or write them on the board might want to include that
text on a projected slide.
At their most advanced, these programs can allow teachers to add sound, video, and even
interactive charts and graphs to slides. You might, for example, project a map that demonstrates
various changes as you advance along a time line. If the classroom computer system has Internet
access, you can hyperlink your slides to World Wide Web resources, effectively incorporating
that material into your lecture.
The use of presentation software in the classroom requires careful planning and a not
inconsiderable investment of time. You should be prepared to take some or all of the following
steps:

Determine whether you have access to the equipment and special classrooms necessary to
display electronic presentations. At a minimum, you will need a laptop computer, a
projection device compatible with your software and hardware, and a classroom with a
convenient electrical outlet, dimmable lights, and an appropriate screen. Check that the
computer is capable of producing all the effects you plan for the class such as sound,
video, or Internet access.

Ensure that your own computer equipment will allow you to create and maintain these
presentations. Manipulating multimedia resources requires a relatively powerful
computer and, with some exceptions, a modern graphical operating system such as the
Macintosh Operating System or Windows.

Acquire a presentation program. Many of the more popular office suites (for instance,
from Microsoft, Corel, or Lotus) include them. Your campus may already have purchased
licenses to one or more of these products. Finally, check to make sure your choice is
compatible with the systems installed in classrooms.

Write or revise your lectures with the multimedia slide show in mind. Begin to collect
compelling pictures and artwork, explanatory maps and charts, music clips, even short
videos that might enhance your analysis. Evaluate which of these materials can be
rendered in digital form, and consider the copyright implicationsif possible by
discussing them with the relevant experts in your school. When preparing text for your
presentationheadings or explanatory captionsuse simple clauses and standard fonts
(for example, Arial or Times New Roman) to ensure that your presentation will look the
same regardless of what computer you are using. The best font size for headings is
twenty-four point, although you can use thirty point or higher if you wish.

Be sure to calculate how long a visual or audio presentation will take and how much of a
reduction in the other parts of your lecture may be necessary.

Digitize the material that best advances your teaching goals. Your campus may have a
central lab for digitizing materials, and you might find some of the equipment affordable
enough for a department or individual to own. Make the file size of the slides as small as
possible, even if it means sacrificing a little of the display quality. These images and
sounds will typically be experienced on a large screen or in a noisy room, so fine details
might be lost in any case.

Keep the design of your electronic slides simple and efficient. Include only material that
directly supports the point you are making in the lecture. Eliminate all unnecessary
special effects, backgrounds, and animation.

Proofread and test your presentations thoroughly on your machine and in the classroom.
Pay special attention to the legibility and overall quantity of text on your slides. And be
sure your work is stored in at least two different places. Concentrating your multimedia

material on one machine or one disk may be convenient, but this also creates a single
point of failure in the notoriously fickle personal computer.

Have a backup plan. Make sure that you will be able to deliver the main substance of
your lecture whether or not everything works perfectly. In the case of equipment failure,
do not waste class time trying to solve the problem.

Plan to publish your slide shows on the course home page, if you have one. While
traditional slide shows are difficult to reproduce for absent students or to review at exam
time, many presentation programs offer a relatively simple procedure for publishing your
show on the Web.

Use electronic resources to help encourage student participation during your lectures
for example, by presenting a variety of images, primary documents, or other materials
that could form the basis for an in-class debate or conversation.

Finally, to make these technologies work in your classroom, you must make regular
contributions to the electronic discussions just as you would to a face-to-face discussion. Online discussions have to be closely monitored to ensure their intellectual usefulness and to
reinforce the importance of etiquette in this relatively unfamiliar terrain. You yourself must
be a participant to ensure that students take them seriously. But guard your time. Be careful
not to create an on-line discussion in which every query is directed at you. Your participation
is essential, but you should not allow yourself to be overwhelmed with electronic
communications.
Computer technology is becoming both more useful and more cost effective for many fields
of teaching. And yet only you, the teacher, can determine whether these methods will prove
effective in your classroom. Whatever you decide, remember that technology complements,
but does not fundamentally alter, the elements of teaching.
References:
Alan Brinkley, Betty Dessants, Michael Flamm, Cynthia Fleming, Charles Forcey, and Eric
Rothschild
The Chicago Handbook for Teachers: A Practical Guide to the College Classroom
Q5. Discuss the range of visual aids available to the language teacher, and how they can be used
in the classroom, mentioning their suitability for different learners.
Ans. Plenty of research has been conducted that shows that there is no one specific teaching
method. Recent studies have shown that students tend to learn in different ways and even prefer
the use of different teaching materials (Franzoni & Assar, 2009). Before going into an in depth
analysis of visual aids, it is important to know how the brain works while learning. The brain
consists of two hemispheres. When cut at the corpus callosum, these hemispheres are more

commonly known as the left and right brain, specifically merited with separate names due to the
independent capabilities and mental properties each side possesses (Sperry, 1975). The left brain
according to Sperry (1975) is highly verbal, mathematical and does well performing analytical,
symbolic and computer like activities whereas the right is spatial and mute but is particularly
talented and superior in visual-spatial activities. Based on experiments conducted by Dennis
Molfese (2000), it appears that while Sperry claims linguistic skills are located in the left portion
of the brain, Molfese suggests that these skills are not just restricted to the left hemisphere during
the early stages after post-natal life. This probably would explain why children learn languages
faster than adults.
Considering how the brain operates, one may claim since language mostly resides in the left
hemisphere, teaching should be conducted in a more left-brained manner. This is not the case.
Studies have shown that when linguistic teaching is conducted, better results come from teaching
styles that are more right-brain oriented than left-brain oriented (Asher, 2009). This fact proves
the importance of visual aids to a teacher in a classroom.
Nowadays teachers are very fortunate to have so many visual aid which can help to make the
classes more interesting and productive. Visual aid helps students to understand what the teacher
explaining to them. The visual aids generally used are black board, white board, flashcards,
posters, wall charts, realia, OHP, DVD and video but most important of all is the teacher who is
the best visual aid.
Flash Cards
Flash cards are a set of cards bearing information, as words or numbers, on either or both sides,
used in classroom drills or in private study. One writes a question on a card and an answer over
leaf. Flashcards can bear vocabulary, historical dates, formulas or any subject matter that canbe
learned via a question and answer format. Flashcards are widely used as a learning drill to aid
memorization by way of spaced repetition. The common use of visual stimuli such as Flash cards
is always practical. Both children and adults would find this very useful. It can either be used for
the pre-lesson or during the lesson period. This teaching aid is useful for the Presentation,
Production and Practice (PP) teaching methodology. For the lower levels, it is used to develop
the speaking skills of students with emphasis on vocabulary and pronunciation. Students are able
to practice making sentences, reorder jumbled up or to complete a series of incomplete
sentences. It can also be used to drill the simple reading skills. For example, an exercise on
imperative for young children to follow a simple set of instructions written on a cue card. They
can do this by mimicking exactly what is written on the cue card. It is also effective for grammar
drills. However, the drills and exercises must not be too lengthy to deter boredom and monotony.
At the intermediate level, it is useful in developing the students writing skills. Jumbled up
sentences that are found in flash cards which are obtained from newspaper or magazine cutting
scan be separated into phrases or clauses.
Black-board: a big strong piece of wood it is a very old teaching aids used by teacher to write
on anything he wants to attract the attention of students e.g. difficult words, questions.
Advantages of blackboard:

Easy to make changes


Excellent two way communication
Inexpensive
Good for step by step instruction

Disadvantages:
Not portable
Not permanent
Poor for showing details
Time consuming
Loss of eye contact with the class

2.Handout: any written material to be covered in class or information.


Advantages:
Good for covering forms.
Inexpensive
Disadvantages:
Students will spend class time going over a handout if it is not covered in class
Difficult to make changes if the handout is large
Current forms need to be constantly updated
Spelling must be checked
3. Charts and maps: Usually the teacher uses them in case of diagrams that he cannot draw
them in the blackboard. Charts are very important for presenting and practicing structures and
vocabulary. Maps are useful in showing the location of places, mountains, riversetc.
Advantages:
Inexpensive
Easy to prepare and make changes

Easy to transport
Simple to set up
No special lighting
Step by step instruction

Disadvantages:
Charts get dirty and ragged with use
Attached work art may not roll up easily
Class size limited to those who can see the chart clearly.

4. Pictures: Here we distinguish two types of pictures; text pictures and class pictures. Text
pictures are found in texts they are usually designed for beginners. Class pictures may be divided
into two; picture cards and wall pictures. Picture cards (post cards) are very helpful in language
teaching. Wall pictures include maps, posters photographs that represent things that cannot be
brought to the classroom. They are helpful for oral presentations and question and answer drills.
Pictures are important because we describe through them what we cannot describe by words.

5. Posters: They are a large size pictures.


Advantages:
Wide range of illustrative technique can be used.
Permanent record
Disadvantages:
Repeated use can cause posters to break
Less portable
Difficult to make changes
Easy to set up

6. Flannel board: it is a piece of wooden board covered with flannel to stick on some stiff and
sanded strips of paper.

7. Specimen: Specimens are part of a bigger object. Pieces of bark of a tree, , buds, flowers etc.,
can be called specimens.

8. Model: is when we represent something real in an object it may be larger or smaller than the
real object.

Advantages:
Having the real thing in the classroom
Permanent
Adds realism to training instruction
Disadvantages:
Expensive
Can require skill to use in font of the classroom

9. Overhead projectors: it is an object used to display your hand-written, pictures before the
learners. For overhead projectors there are transparencies sheets on which you can write with the
help of pens specially meant for writing on the transparency.
Advantages:
Instructor can face the class and present information
Easy to prepare
Can use step by step presentation
Inexpensive
Handouts can be made directly from the transparency
Permanent
Disadvantages:
May require a darkened room

Projection equipment may not be available


Projection may change if not set up properly
Difficult to control

10. Puppets: By using puppets the teacher can attract students attention he can perform many
situations. Puppets can represent persons that a discussion or dialogue may happen between
them.
11. Films: It is a visual aid used in language teaching in the forms of fixed film strips or slides
and motion picture film. The advantages of slides and film strips are they direct the attention of
students to the screen and to the picture and words on it. What we present in a film strip can be
shown over and over. Motion pictures are very interesting in teaching meaning and the form of
the language.
12. Slides: picture on photographic film projected onto a screen.
Advantages:
Subject matter is unlimited
Can be easily rearranged
Permanent and easy to handle and carry
Projection equipment easily available
Can be easily duplicated
Presentation can be stopped for discussion
Disadvantages:
Room needs to be dark
Requires time and special equipments
Expensive
Equipment may fail

Therefore, we have seen that visual aids play an important role in teaching languages. However
the main function of visual aids is to allow the learner to understand what he hears, to learn the
different situation in which language forms are used.

References
Cruse,Emily.Using Educational Video in the Classroom.Univesity press. London, 2006
Dale, Edgar. Audiovisual Method in Teaching. New York: Dryden press, 1946.
Felder,Richard and Eunice Henriques. Learning and Teaching StylesIn Foreign and Second
Language Education.Carolina,1995
Franzoni, Lidia, Assar, S. Student Learning Styles Adaptation Method Based on Teaching
Strategies and ElectronicMedia, 2009

Q6. All they seem to do is talk and play games thats not learning a language. I bet they dont
even know what the future perfect is. What other opinions would you expect from someone with
views like this and how would you refute his arguments?
Ans. In attempting to answer the essay questions it is first necessary to try and understand the
type of person who might make this comment and try to consider what type of teaching
methodologies and styles he may and may not approve of.
An initial look at his statement leads to the opinion that he could be a person who is disapproving
of active approaches to teaching and may favor a more formal approach. This opinion is based on
the idea that he seems to be disparaging about the concept of just talking and playing games in
an English language class and to be of the opinion that knowledge of the theories of English
grammar is of greater importance.
Firstly it may be an idea to have a look at his comments and try to understand the reasoning
behind them. There is a school of thought that playing games is a waste of time. While this
opinion is not true, for reasons which we will look at shortly, it can contain an element of truth if
the games are not used productively.
Sometimes a teacher can play a game that has little or no bearing on the topic matter or area
currently being taught, or may play the same game or games for too long or over and over again
until they lose their impact, or he may play too many games at the expense of other learning
activities. Some inexperienced teachers have problems with games. They have problems either in
thinking of suitable games to use or in applying them properly. If the author of the statement
above has had access to, or experience of, games not being utilized in the most beneficial manner
than that may be the reason for him forming such an opinion.
However, games can be beneficial and can assist students in learning if used well. Games can
give students motivation and a break from the rigors of real study while also enabling them to
learn the language unconsciously. Students can become stimulated by games and the teacher can
use them as a tool to encourage the students and as a reward for good work. Games must be
planned and used productively as students will get limited benefit or enjoyment from a teacher
who constantly plays hangman or gives word searches because he cant think of what else to do.

The second sentence, I bet they don't even know what the future perfect is', implies an
importance being placed on formal teaching of grammar and structural concepts. If this is true
then it is possible that he is an advocate of the Grammar Translation (GT) method of teaching.
This is a method of teaching which more places emphasis on grammar and translation and less
on speech and communication. Here the style of teaching involves lots of drilling and word
forms. A lot of translation takes place along with rather a formal introduction to the tenses with
rather rigid and uncontextualised examples.
In reply it could be argued that a good understanding and usage of English as a second language
can be achieved without too much formal teaching of grammar and structure whatsoever. At the
other end of the scale of teaching methodologies, and ones which the author of the complaint
would most likely not be in favor of, are more active teaching methods such as the
Communicative, Natural and Immersion methods. These methodologies of teaching try to ensure
that students are surrounded by English and so learn in a much natural way. A lot more emphasis
is put on speaking and listening and communication is the key. Advocates of these
methodologies state that much language, including rules of grammar and structure, can be learnt
passively. The goal is for students to learn English in a way as close as possible to the way native
speakers of English learn, and as young children learning English as their mother tongue are not,
initially at least, taught the mechanics of grammar, neither is it necessary to do the same with
foreign learners.
A person who holds such a view is likely to have other ideas about teaching and learning
English. It is now the intention to look at some of these ideas and counter arguments to them.
This person could conceivably also by of the opinion that watching TV or videos is a waste of
time. He may feel that students should be spending time studying and that using audio visual
aids is not a legitimate form of study.
If a teacher fails to use audio visual aids in a productive manner then it can indeed be a waste of
time to use them at all. This writer has been in staff rooms and heard inexperienced teachers
comment I dont have to plan my class today. We are just going to watch a video. A video class
needs to be planned just as much as any other class and it can be argued even more so. Students
do enjoy the media of film and TV but only if they understand enough of what is happening to
make it worthwhile. A pre-intermediate class of early teens, for example, is going to get very
little enjoyment and almost no benefit whatsoever from spending an entire lesson watching sixty
minutes of a Hollywood blockbuster.
However, if audio-visual aids are used in the correct way they can be a very useful tool indeed.
As with games they can provide students with the sense of having a break while still studying
and they can provide both stimuli and motivation. Students usually wish to become involved in
lessons and if they find that all they are being required to do is to sit quietly then they can often
become unmotivated and lose interest. For this reason they should partake in activities before
during and after the playing of the TV or video.
Some examples of how the teacher can use such media as a learning aid follow: The teacher can
play the video in small segments with the sound off and ask the students to provide their own

commentary or narrative or, if they are watching a show or situation comedy, to make their own
dialogues for the characters in the show. The tape can be stopped and the students talk about
what has happened and why, and what they predict will happen in the next part or the students
can make alternative endings to what they have seen. Other things can be tried such as a student
leaving the class for one minute while the tape is playing then rejoining the class and one student
being given the responsibility of telling him what he has missed, or alternatively he rejoins the
class and continues watching the tape and is given three minutes catch up time in which he has to
try and deduce for himself what he has missed. Therefore we can see as long as the segments of
the tape or TV are kept short and the lesson is well planned audio-visual aids can be of a benefit
to students.
Next he may be of the opinion Free conversation is a waste of time and anyway writing is of
much more importance than speaking.
The concept of free conversation means students, or students and the teacher, talking with no
apparent aim about any topic they wish. There appears to be no reason for the conversation as
there arent any discernable structures or language points being covered, the vocabulary being
used is not controlled in any way, perhaps mistakes are not being corrected, and the conversation
doesnt seem to be leading anywhere.
As with the examples above it can be a valid argument that spending significant amounts of time
in such an environment is not very productive. However, once again it depends on the planning
of the class and the reasons behind the activity.
Firstly, students sometimes benefit from a period of time when they are encouraged to speak
openly, when they dont worry about making mistakes or about keeping to a framework of
controlled vocabulary or structure. They sometimes will wish to use what they have been
learning rather than simply practice it, and free conversation gives them that opportunity.
Secondly, it can be a nice way to end the lesson. The students can chat informally amongst
themselves or with
the teacher and in that way they no longer see themselves as students as such. It can help to end
the lesson on a positive and friendly note. Thirdly, although it may look that the session is
unstructured and happening in a haphazard way a good teacher can, in fact, be much more in
control of the conversation than appears. He can be guiding students to use certain vocabulary
and structures without them being aware of it, he can be ensuring that all students get an equal
amount of opportunity to speak and he can be monitoring the students with a view to reviewing
mistakes or problems later.
Because he may prefer more formal methodologies of teaching he may feel that writing
constitutes real studying and so is more important than speaking. He may feel that students who
write more will remember more and will take studying English more seriously.
However, this opinion fails to take into account several factors. Firstly, language is a practical
subject. It differs from certain other academic subjects in that it doesnt depend purely upon a lot

of facts and figures being committed to memory in order for progress to be made, nor is the sole
or even the primary aim of studying English normally to pass exams.
Next, the theory that students need to consciously study hard in order to get English proficiency
doesnt take into consideration the fact that language students learn subconsciously. Students
cant reproduce all they understand and they will understand a lot more through exposure to
English than they will be able to speak and they will be able to speak a lot more than they can
write. Speaking is natural. It is something that every child learns to do through exposure and
imitation, while reading and writing are unnatural. That is they are skills that need to be taught.
He may be heard to give the opinion dialogues, role plays and dramas are also a waste of
time. He may see dialogues, dramas and role plays as an extension of games. He may feel that
here once again the students are not improving their English and that they are merely having fun.
He may be aware that the students are enjoying themselves but see no benefit and so think that
the roles they are acting out, as well as not improving their English, will be of no practical use to
them.
If the dialogues, role plays and dramas are carefully adapted to the students needs and abilities
then they can be useful learning tools. The dialogues can be short or they can be part of longer
role plays and they can be used as a way to practice structures currently being taught. They can
be personalized to make them relevant to the students lives and experiences and can be carefully
monitored and graded so that students can progress onto longer role plays. These role plays,
rather than being of no practical use to students, can prepare them for true and real situations.
The teacher will need to make the situation as realistic as possible and to give as much help as he
can. This could be in the form of making sure the students have realistic props, role play cards,
model dialogues, etc, and that they have sufficient and correct vocabulary needed.
He may feel that drilling is the best and maybe only way to ensure retention.Perhaps he would
feel this way because he may be in favor of the more formal methodology which encompasses
drilling. He would have a valid point in that drilling has its uses and can be somewhat beneficial.
Drills can be either oral or written and so can be used for groups of students at a time or
individually. They can be used to practice pronunciation and vocabulary and often grammatical
structures. They are useful as they give the chance for many students to speak at once and they
dont take up much time. However, care needs to be taken to contextualize the drills and to make
them meaningful to the students lives.
Whilst acknowledging the benefits of drilling it should be noted that there are some potential
drawbacks to them as well. They can be rather too controlled and not allow for spontaneity or
freedom of expression, and they may not be relevant to the students lives and experiences unless
carefully planned.
Also, as well as drilling there are other methods of helping students retain what they have learnt.
Proponents of active methodologies would advocate that some of the ideas mentioned above
such as dialogues and role plays and the use of games and audio-visual aids do so in a more
interesting and so beneficial manner.

He may be heard to say accuracy is a must. He may feel that students must always aim to be
correct and that any answer or response deviating from the expected one is wrong. As
someone likely to prefer traditional forms of teaching he may feel, as stated above, that language
learning is about studying hard, that there are only right and wrong answers as there are in other
academic subjects.
This opinion once again fails to account for the flexibility that exists in both language learning
and language speaking. In everyday speaking even no native speaker uses only correct English.
We all speak naturally and so sometimes grammar will be uncontrolled and mistakes can be
made, or we speak with pauses or hesitations or with wrong pronunciation. In fact, it could be
argued that totally correct English is wrong because it is unnatural English.
The aim of learning English is usually to be able to communicate in English. Students are able to
communicate despite their mistakes and will probably find their ability to so communicate
hindered if they are afraid of making mistakes.
As an extension of this point he may also feel that RP is the correct pronunciation and that all
students should be aiming for that. Again, this is neither right nor practical.
This person may have other ideas about teaching and learning English which relate to, and
extend from, the ones above. He may feel, for example that The book and the whiteboard are
the best aids available.
As previously mentioned he may not be in favor of using such aids as audio-visual equipment or
such teaching practices as role plays or games, but he may go further and be of the opinion that
the teacher should rely mainly on the book, and possibly an accompanying cassette, along with
the black or whiteboard for teaching aids. This would be consistent with his view of English
language being an academic subject to be studied in a way similar to certain other academic
subjects. In order to refute this opinion it would again be prudent to point out to him the benefits
that utilizing other aids can bring and also to remind him that the students needs must be of
paramount importance. Students must be motivated and flexibility in teaching styles and
methods is a good way to promote motivation, while rigidly sticking to one book, no matter how
good it is or how well it is written, can be boring.
As a possible proponent of traditional teaching methods he may feel that other than in
translation exercises students should not be permitted to speak in their first language. This
means that any talking in the first language other than when totally necessary should not be
allowed. While it can be good to have English only times, and perhaps even lessons, it can also
be counter-productive sometimes.
Students sometimes need to have an explanation of something in their own language and this
should not be considered the same as a translation lesson or exercise. Sometimes the teacher will
explain what he wants a class to do or a language point in their first language without any effort
being made to make the students aware of the English translation. This first language use could
be simply for matters of ease, to ensure that students will understand quickly and fully.

Sometimes students will wish to ask questions of their teacher (or a close-by classmate) so they
can be sure of understanding, and sometimes students can quite simply be tired and bored of
speaking English and so may just want to speak a little bit in their own language. Although this
shouldnt be allowed to become a habit we teachers must always keep remembering that students
learn best when they are motivated and if we are too draconian in our requirements of them they
may well lose motivation.
He may have fixed views on student evaluation and so may be of the opinion that students
should be constantly tested. This testing is likely to take place under formal conditions and be
necessary, in his opinion, in order to gauge progress and also to act as a motivational tool for
students to study hard, as most students will indeed be more conscientious as exams and tests
approach. Now, students should be constantly evaluated and testing under formal conditions can
assist with this but it shouldnt be the only means of evaluation and nor should it be done too
frequently.
Students should be evaluated as a class and as individuals based on their ability to pick up the
concepts and ideas being taught. They should be evaluated according to how well they produce
the language and how well they communicate the language and then if necessary lessons and
styles and methodologies can be revised and adapted. Formal testing will be of a use but a lot of
formal tests are uncontextualised while a lot of everyday class work can be better contextualized
and therefore better evaluated.
Speaking evaluations are especially easier to be made under realistic conditions than in formal
test conditions. It is easier to evaluate a student speaking in the midst of a free role play, for
example, than in a one-on-one oral test condition.Added to these reasons is the fact that formal
testing is invariably more stressful for the students. Again, this is particularly so in the case of
formal oral testing.
In summary we can see that someone who has the opinion that talking and playing games is not
learning a language and that grammatical knowledge is very important is likely to have
somewhat formal views on teaching and learning English. It has been the aim of this essay to try
and look at some of the views and opinions he may hold and to try and explain some of the
benefits of certain other aids, styles and methods. The aim has been to try and show that
flexibility is required to be a good language teacher and also to show how language studying
needs the students to be motivated meaning that rigidity in teaching is not advised.
A person with the view that within a communicative classroom all they seem to do is talk and
play games [which is] not learning a language. Would probably also hold the view that
language should be taught within the boundaries of a grammar-translation method, which is
also born out by the further comment I bet they dont even know what the future perfect is,
maybe because he/she is a teacher their self, or maybe because this was the way they learnt a
language. Such views do not necessarily need to be disproved nor proved but rather, they need to
be considered as an integral part of learning a language. A classroom conducive to language
teaching needs to incorporate a variety of language teaching methods and approaches, and to
disregard one in place of another is not necessarily the best way to go. An informed and effective

teacher would have the knowledge, inclination and ability to pull from a number of methods and
approaches that best suit his/her students needs. Although some people are of the view that
talking and playing games may appear to be trivial and not illustrating a knowledge of the
language, others would say that knowing a language is being able to use it outside of the
classroom. In order to do this, students need to be given the opportunity of using the language
freely within the classroom. They cannot do this by simply repeating and drilling grammatical
rules, wherein, they may be more apt in talking about the language but less able to use the
language. On the other hand, if students were merely asked to speak and use language freely
without first having been taught it, they would not have the knowledge ot the means to do so. A
more integrated approach however, would allow for a more progressive lesson and allow for the
grammatical explanations, the repetition and the drilling, but also provide motivation for student
autonomy within each and every lesson. A well structured lesson should progress from teacher
input to student controlled practice, to freer practice and finally providing an opportunity for
complete free use of the language by students. There are many experienced and professional
teachers out there, who adhere to the views of grammar translation methods. This does not
make them bad teachers. They have successfully taught a language to thousands of students,
but perhaps with different and a more communicative approach, there lessons could have been
more interesting, inspiring and fun. The most important thing to remember is that no single
approach or method is superior but rather we need to adapt and integrate from them all.

Q7. Discuss the techniques used to improve fluency in one of the four skills.
Ans. With an understanding of what fluency is and how to assess it, let's turn to the questions
that teachers are always most interested in: What should fluency instruction look like? And, what
can I do to help students whose fluency is far behind their peers'?
Research over the past two decades has identified repeated reading as the key strategy for
improving students' fluency skills (NICHD, 2000). Repeated reading has two essential elements:
1) Giving students the opportunity to read and then re-read the same text, and 2) having students
practice their reading orally with an opportunity to receive corrections and guidance (if
necessary).
Research has also determined that having students read aloud along with a model of well-paced,
expressive reading and receiving specific feedback through systematic progress monitoring also
helps improve students' fluency skills. So, what are the best methods to use in the classroom to
help students become fluent? The answer depends on whether the student is just beginning to
read, has learned to read and is making adequate progress, or is struggling. Let's start with
beginning readers, those students in kindergarten and grade one.
Teaching beginning readers to become fluent
Because accuracy is a fundamental component of fluency, teachers who work with beginning
readers must focus significant amounts of instructional time on basic word recognition and word
analysis skills (Pikulski and Chard, 2005). To do this effectively, teachers should provide

instruction that systematically presents daily opportunities for students to learn to read words
accurately (Snow, Burns, and Griffith, 1998)-the important first step in becoming a skillful,
proficient, and motivated reader. Pushing students to "read faster" too soon could cause some
students to begin guessing or otherwise undermine their focus on reading carefully.
There is no guidance from empirical research about precisely when teachers should formally
begin encouraging beginning readers to increase their speed, but teachers usually wait until about
the middle of first grade. Fluency researchers Stahl and Kuhn (2002) recommend that students be
given opportunities to re-read sentences and encouraged to make their reading "sound like
talking" as soon as they are making good progress with basic decoding, demonstrating an
understanding of the act of reading, and showing some degree of confidence-whether that
happens in kindergarten or in first grade.
Teachers and parents should also frequently model fluent reading, demonstrating (and sometimes
explicitly pointing out) how accurate reading can be done at a reasonable rate and with good
phrasing, intonation, and expression. In the classroom, the teacher can read aloud from largeformat books so the students can follow along.
Maintaining reading fluency for on-level readers
What about students in grades two and higher who are making adequate progress with their
reading? Three techniques can be used very frequently with a variety of texts to help maintain
and develop students' reading fluency: Choral reading, cloze reading, and partner reading. All of
these procedures can be used with readers at any grade level, with small or large groups, and
with fiction or content-heavy nonfiction materials. Two additional techniques can also be
considered for use: Readers' Theater and poetry readings. Let's review each.
For choral reading, the teacher and students read aloud together, following the teacher's pace-so
students get the benefit of a model while they practice reading aloud. The teacher can stop at any
time to ask questions, comment on the text, discuss a vocabulary term, or remind the class that
she expects everyone to be reading. If choral reading is used with heterogeneously grouped
students, it is possible that the lowest performing students may have difficulty keeping up with
even a moderate pace. However, they can follow along, participating when they can, and still
hear the text being read accurately and with good pacing and phrasing. Choral reading works
best if the teacher directs all students-regardless of age or ability level-to use a marker or finger
to follow along in the text as they read.
Cloze reading is similar to choral reading, except that the teacher does most of the oral reading
while the students read along silently. Once or twice every few sentences, the teacher omits an
important vocabulary or content word, not a simple sight word, and the students' job is to read it
aloud as a class. Notice that with cloze reading, as opposed to choral reading, students spend less
time practicing oral reading. Therefore, cloze reading is best thought of as an alternative to
Round Robin Reading.
Cloze reading allows teachers to cover text and keep students engaged while avoiding the pitfalls
of subjecting the class to examples of poor reading and embarrassing struggling students. As

with choral reading, it is likely that the lowest performing readers will be unable to keep up or to
correctly read every omitted word, but they will not be singled out-and will be provided with
examples of skillful reading.
Another method for improving fluency is to have students read aloud to a partner. This procedure
works best when students are taught some techniques for giving feedback and managing their
time, and when the partners have been selected by the teacher.
One technique for assigning partners is for teachers to first rank the students from the strongest
reader in the class to the weakest (making judgments subjectively or from assessment data) and
then consider whether there are students whose reading ability is so low that partner reading may
be inappropriate. These students could meet with the teacher for more direct instruction or
closely supported partner reading while the other students do independent partner reading.
The teacher then divides the remaining students in half, forming pairs such that the strongest
reader is paired with a mid-level reader, and so on, ensuring that each pair has a slightly stronger
reader, but that the difference in the students' ability is not so large as to cause embarrassment or
confusion.
At times, the stronger reader may be directed to read first, providing a model of fluent reading.
Then the less fluent reader reads the same text aloud. The stronger student can help with word
recognition and give feedback and encouragement to the less fluent partner. Another effective
technique pairs students who read at the same level and asks them to re-read a story on which
they have already received instruction from the teacher (Osborn and Lehr, 2004).
Readers' Theater and poetry readings-both of which engage students in a reading performancehave become popular over the last few years. Much has been written about Readers' Theater in
particular, and about the apparent value of having students participate in dramatic readings
(Rasinski, 2006). These kinds of activities provide students with an opportunity to read text that
is enjoyable-and provides a clear incentive for students to read, and re-read, their assigned parts
or poem.
However, while these techniques are motivating, teachers should not assume that either one
could possibly provide as much practice for the whole class as choral or partner reading, much
less anything close to the amount of instruction and practice necessary for struggling students to
improve their fluency.
Improving struggling readers' fluency: Suggestions for intervention
The research literature provides some clear directions on what to do with struggling readers:
Interventions must combine the modeling, repeated reading, and feedback that research has
demonstrated effective (Shaywitz, 2003). Several commercial programs have been developed,
including Read Naturally (Ihnot, 1991), the Six Minute Solution (Adams and Brown, 2003),
Quick Reads (Heibert, 2002), and the Great Leaps Reading program (Campbell, 1996). Each of
these programs includes at least some of the instructional components that have been shown to
improve students' reading fluency and has its own approach to student engagement.

Unfortunately, research that directly compares the effectiveness of these various programs has
yet to be done. In my own review of the available research, I've concluded that the strategy
developed by Read Naturally makes the best use of the research base on fluency and has the
strongest evidence of effectiveness as a fluency intervention. And, in using the Read Naturally
strategy with students in many different grade levels, I've found that it engages them in the
repeated reading they so desperately need.
However, I encourage readers to keep in mind that over the next several years, research may
provide evidence of effectiveness on these other programs that equals or surpasses that of the
Read Naturally strategy.
The Read Naturally (RN) strategy was developed by Candyce Ihnot, a Title I reading teacher
from Minneapolis. Candyce developed and tested it in 1989 as part of her master's thesis in
special education. After finding that her approach was effective with struggling students in her
school, Candyce and her husband, Tom Ihnot, developed a set of instructional materials that are
commercially available from their company, Read Naturally, Inc.
To implement the RN strategy, students' fluency levels (WCPM) are assessed to place students at
an appropriate instructional level. The teacher then helps each student set a reasonable,
achievable fluency goal (approximately 80-90 WCPM for primary students or older students
reading at a primary level; from 90-120 WCPM for upper elementary students).
Instruction begins with an unpracticed, "cold reading" of a student-selected passage from the
targeted level. Passages may range in length from approximately 100 words at the mid-firstgrade level to 350 words at the sixth-grade level. As they read, students use a timer and keep
track of the words they skip or stumble over (by lightly underlining the problem word). They
then calculate their WCPM and graph this first, unpracticed WCPM score on a bar graph.
In step two, students practice reading this same passage three to four times along with a model to
learn how to accurately pronounce all the words in the text. This step is not timed, and the
students read the entire passage. The modeled reading can come from a recording or a person
trained to read the passage at a rate that is comfortable for the student.
The key here is that a student does not just listen to the model, but actually reads aloud (softly)
with the narrator's voice, giving full attention to the text. Encouraging students to point to the
text being read and informing them that they will be responsible for answering a set of
comprehension questions after completing all the steps in the strategy helps students stay
focused.
Once students feel comfortable with the text, they begin step three in which they read the text
independently, again aloud, but softly. Students set a timer for one minute and read the text
several times until they are comfortably reaching their predetermined goal level-and are ready to
be checked by the teacher. Having some kind of silent signal for the teacher such as a flag or
colored card at the students' desk can help manage this step. Students keep practicing the passage
until the teacher can meet with them because this maximizes their engaged practice time-a key to
improved skills in low-performing students (Brophy, 1988).

In the final step, the student reads for the teacher, who then calculates the WCPM score. The
student "passes" if four criteria are met:
1. the WCPM score meets or exceeds the predetermined goal;
2. three or fewer errors are made;
3. the student reads the passage with correct phrasing and attention to punctuation; and,
4. the student can correctly answer a few comprehension questions.
When students do not pass, they continue practicing this same text. When they do pass, they
graph their new score onto the same bar with their initial, unpracticed score, using a different
colored pencil or marker. This graph gives tangible evidence to the students that they are
improving-and keeps motivation high by showing them that their own effort makes the
difference. For an external check on progress, the teacher should also periodically assess
students' performance on an unpracticed passage by following the progress monitoring procedure
described in the article "Screening, Diagnosing, and Progress Monitoring: The Details."
Students repeat these steps until they complete 10-12 passages of equivalent difficulty. At that
point the student and teacher collaboratively examine the data on the student's graph to decide
what step to take next. If the student is making steady progress in the current level, but is not yet
approaching his goal level on the first, unpracticed reading, he should stay in that same level for
another 10-12 passages.
If the student's first unpracticed readings are occasionally meeting or approaching the goal, the
teacher and student may decide to move the student up to the next level of difficulty with the
same goal, or stay in the current level of difficulty and raise the "pass" goal a bit higher. Of
course, if at any time the student is having difficulty reading at the goal level after the practice
readings, the decision can be made to move the student down to an easier level or make a
downward adjustment in the WCPM goal.
In addition to requiring the students to answer a set of comprehension questions at the end of
each passage, some teachers have added other comprehension activities to this process, such as
having the students write a five-minute re-tell response after each passage.
Using the RN strategy for 20-30 minutes per day, for three or more days per week, can have a
significant impact on improving students' reading fluency. In two studies reported on by
Hasbrouck, Ihnot, and Rogers (1999), second- and third-grade Title I students, as well as sixthgrade special education students, showed significant improvement in their fluency. The secondand third-graders received, on average, 32 weeks of RN instruction. From fall to spring, the
second-graders' average WCPM increased from 17.9 to 71.6, meaning that they moved from well
below the 25th percentile to well above it (see norms table in "Screening, Diagnosing, and
Progress Monitoring: The Details"); they showed an average gain of 1.68 WCPM per week,
much greater than the 1.2 WCPM per week gain that second-graders typically make.
Third-grade students had similar results. From fall to spring, their average WCPM increased
from 42 to 93, meaning that they moved from just below the 25th percentile to well above it;

they gained 1.60 WCPM per week, as compared to the typical growth of 1.1 WCPM per week.
The study of sixth-grade special education students also found significant improvements. These
students were reading at levels ranging from grade 1.5 to 4.0. They received RN instruction in a
special education class for 20 to 32 weeks and improved their fluency by an average of 1.4
WCPM per week, which is double the 0.7 words per week that sixth-graders typically gain.
References
Adams, G.N. and Brown, S. (2003). The Six-minute solution. Longmont, Colo.:Sopris West.
Brophy, J.E. (1988). Educating teachers about managing classroom and students. Teacher and
Teacher Education 4(1), 1-18.
Campbell, K. (1996). Great Leaps Reading Program.
Hasbrouck, J.E., Ihnot, C., and Rogers, G.H. (1999). "Read Naturally": A strategy to increase
oral reading fluency. Reading Research & Instruction, 39(1), 27-38.
Heibert, E.H. (2003). Quick reads. Parsipanny, N.J.:Pearson Learning.
Ihnot, C. (1991). Read naturally. Read Naturally:Minneapolis, Minn.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (2000). Report of the
National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the
scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. NIH
Publication No. 00-4769. Washington, D.C.:U.S. Government Printing Office.
Osborn, J. and Lehr, F. (2004). A focus on fluency. Honolulu: Pacific Resources for Education
and Learning.
Pikulski, J.J. and Chard, D.J. (2005). Fluency: Bridge between decoding and comprehension.
The Reading Teacher, 58(6), 510-519.
Rasinski, T. (2006, April). Reading Fluency Instruction: Moving Beyond Accuracy, Automaticity,
and Prosody. The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 704-706.
Read Naturally (2002). Reading fluency monitor. Minneapolis: Author.
Shaywitz, S. (2003). Overcoming dyslexia: A new and complete science-based program for
reading problems at any level. New York:Alfred A. Knopf.
Snow, C.E., Burns, M.S., and Griffin, P. (Eds.) (1998). Preventing reading difficulties in young
children. Washington, D.C.:National Academy Press.
Stahl, S.A. and Kuhn, M.R. (2002). Making it sound like language: Developing fluency. The
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