FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND LANGUAGES

HBEL 2103: TEACHING OF LISTENING AND SPEAKING SEPTEMBER 2010 SEMESTER

Siti Radhiah Binti Shamsudin Matric number : 741014105128002 NRIC : 741014-10-5128 Telephone number : 019-3941084 E-mail address: ctradhiah@gmail.com

Tutors name: ABDUL RAFIL BIN ABDUL HALIM Learning Centre: Shah Alam Learning Centre

September 2010 Semester

SITI RADHIAH BINTI SHAMSUDIN 741014-10-5128) HBSS2103

ASSIGNMENT QUESTION 1: PREPARING A LESSON PLAN (15 marks) Based on the story given below (The Stone Cutter by Andrew Lang), design an 80-minute lesson plan for a group of students to teach them the following:

(i) (ii)

Listening for specific information Listening for gist

Your lesson plan must consist of the following information: (i) A brief description of class (who the students are- age/ level/ number of students in class) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) Specific aims (these need to address the specific listening area) Actual teaching aids utilised in the lessons (to be attached to the lesson plan) Detailed procedures carried out (pre, while and post activities) Describe in detail the rationale for carrying out the proposed tasks Timing for each activity

Note: 1. 2. Remember that you have a maximum of 80 minutes to conduct your lesson. When submitting your assignment, attach the actual teaching aids that you have prepared to the lesson plan. 3. Refer to the sample lesson plan format below. This is only a sample. Feel free to adapt the one given or use your own format.

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LESSON PLAN Class Enrolment Time Topic Theme : : : : : 5 Intan 35 students 8.00 9.00 (60 minutes) The Stone-Cutter (A Fable) World of Knowledge Date/Day : 1st November 2010 /Monday

Learning Outcomes: 1.7- Listen to and stories, fables and fantasy and predict outcomes And draw conclusion a level suited to the pupils ability Curriculum Specification 1.5.1) Obtain information from texts listened to in relation; to main ideas, specific details and sequence 1.7.2) Listen to a story or a fable and recall details 1.7.3) Listen to stories and fables and recall the sequence of events 1.7.5) Share feelings about the story of fable heard 2 3 3 Level 1

Language Content

Grammar :- Adjectives Comparative Form : harder, heavier, mightier, greater

Behavioural Objectives

At the end of the lesson, the students are able to:Level 1: a) tick () or cross () 8 statements correctly out of 10 statements given Level 2 : a) rearrange the sequence of a story appropriately; at least 7 correct sequence out of 8 phrases given. Level 3: : a) complete a sentence based on a reasoning given according to the task given.

Previous Knowledge Teaching Aids Moral Values

: : :

Descriptions of feelings (adjectives) LCD, Laptop, Audio recording The stone Cutter, Worksheets
Determine and work hard to achieve dreams Be contented in life. Dont be a greedy person

Education Emphasis / :

i) Sequencing ~ Critical Thinking Skills ii) Reasoning ~ Creative Thinking Skills iii)Making association ~ Creative Thinking Skills

Thinking Skills

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Stage / Time

Content Sun {SLIDE 1} (suggested answer) It is hot. It is big. It helps to grow plants Cloud {SLIDE 2} (suggested answers) It contains rain It gives us shade It hides the hot sunshine Rock {SLIDE 3} (suggested answers) It is hard. It is heavy It is strong

Teaching / Learning Activities

Rationale

SET INDUCTION

5 minutes

1. Teacher presents pictures of SUN,ROCK & CLOUD using the LCD 2. Teachers asks which one of these nature of the elements that the students like most. 3. Students give their reasons

To attract students attention

4. Teacher presents the topic for today;A fable The stonecutter

Activating schemata

Pre-Listening Activity
PRESENTATION STAGE VISUAL AIDS: LCD Pictures (POWER POINT 10 minutes presentation)

1. Before the audio being played, teacher shows pictures of the To create a SUN/ROCK/CLOUD critical and {SLIDE 1-3} & ask which creative one of it is the strongest thinking among {SLIDE 4} students. 2. Students give their reasons 3. Teacher shows pictures of To attract the A RICH MAN/A students PRINCE/A STONEattention CUTTER & ask who do the students like to be one. {SLIDE 5}. 4. Students give their reasons

To activate students schemata

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THE STONE-CUTTER By Andrew Lang While -Listening Activity

While-listening : 1) True/false statements 2) Sequencing

While-Listening Activity

1. Teacher

plays

the

audio.

Students

Students just listen (1st time engage with the listening)

story

20 minutes

2. Students get a worksheets.

*Refer worksheets

3. Teacher explains briefly about the next activity & what they need to do. And the audio been played for the 2nd time .

Listening for information

To encourage

4. Students work in groups. Each group They receive an envelope. have to rearrange

teamwork

Listening for a purpose

paragraphs strips according to the story that been played for the 3rd time. Teacher plays and pauses the recording after each paragraph. In groups of five, rearrange the strips of the story.

Discussion will help students to have better understanding of the story

Listening for information

5. Teacher allows students to check their storyline with each other. (Teacher play the story for the 4th time if necessary) To engage
Post-listening Activity
Post listening: (Group Work) 1)Tick appropriate

1. Students work in groups and each have given a post-activity task .

students in the lesson.

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statements 2) Info-gap activity

2. Each group presents their answers. To encourage teamwork. 3. Individually, a worksheet are given. Students have to write their own wish and their own ambition & draw their own wish

*Refer worksheets
Post listening: (individual Work) a)If I were the stone-cutter, I wish to be a

Post-listening Activity

- To encourage creative and critical

20 minutes

.Why?

4. Sharing session:
b)What is your ambition? Reason:

Teacher

chooses

some

thinking skills. - To enhance students creativity.

*Refer worksheets

works and shows it to the class. Towards the end, all of the students work will be

pasted around the class for everyone to see.

1. Teacher elicits moral values

- To inculcate moral values.

Closure 5 minutes

Moral Values : Determine and work hard to achieve dreams Be contented in life. Dont be a greedy person.

from the students on todays lesson. Dont be a greedy person. Work hard to achieve our dreams. Be contented in life

Reflection : The lesson is so interesting. Students are so excited with the abundant activities that been given ; post, pre and while-listening. The usage of audio-visual aids has enhanced students attention throughout the lesson. All the task have been executed well and the time allocation is suitable.

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QUESTION 2: Writing an academic essay Conduct a survey to find out what are the problems faced by students when speaking English in school. Get feedback from other teachers on how these problems can be overcome. Then write a 1000 word academic essay to explain Three Main reasons why students in Malaysian classroom often have problems with English speaking activities. In your essay, explain THREE ways that teacher can employed to encourage their students to speak in English in their classrooms.

As the second language in Malaysia, English language is taught in primary and secondary school as a compulsory subject. One of the main aims of teaching the subject to the students is to prepare them for their future especially when they are furthering their study to tertiary level where the medium is English (KBSR 2003). This will help them to improve their knowledge in all kinds of areas thus it will prepare them for the real world in the future. However, there are some issues in implementing it in Malaysian classroom. One of the areas is in speaking lesson. Based on the survey done, the problems faced by students are lack of confidence to speak in English, interference of mother tongue and their perception towards the language.

As suggested by Ferris and Tagg (1996), overcoming cultural inhibitions and shyness is one of the main goals in an ESL classroom. In Malaysian classroom, there are many students who are not confident to speak in English during speaking activities. They are too shy to speak up or even afraid to make mistakes thus showing their weakness in front of others (Kabilan 2008). This could be due to the lack of practice and usage of the language in their daily life. In Malaysia, students achievements are assessed by tests and examinations. Hence students will usually strive to excel in these examinations resulting in the examination oriented learning culture (Elina 1999, Nutall 1995). Since the tests are in written form, speaking skills were given less attention both by teachers and students. Other than that, the use of mother tongue (L1) in the classroom is one of the problems faced in a speaking lesson. There are many reasons for teachers to allow the use of L1 in their classrooms (Yeow 2000). However, too much of L1 would hinder the purpose of the lesson as it will take away precious speaking practice time that they would not find outside the classroom (Piccolo 2010). For many students, especially in rural areas, the English lesson at

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school would be the only time they were exposed to the language. This short period of time should be use to the fullest by teachers for the students benefit. Although English is the second language of this country, many people still have not changed their perception towards the language. For students in the rural areas, they could not see the importance of learning the language hence resulting in their lack of interest and motivation. These students would refuse to participate in classroom activities and teachers will find it hard to attract their attention towards learning. In this case, teachers should take appropriate measures to curb this problem in their classrooms. In order to solve the problems mentioned above, teachers can take some measures such as by creating a non-threatening environment in the classroom. It is important as it will help them in improving their confidence (Moon 2005). This could be done in many ways such as by creating some shared ground rules on expected behaviour in the classroom, good rapport between students and teacher as well as between students and also by having an attractive-looking classroom. Other than that, in order to improve students confidence, the speaking activities should involve the whole class instead of individually. By having an activity that involves the whole class, it will help the passive students who might refuse to participate in individual activities as it will help them to build up their confidence (Medina 2002). These are some of the ways that teachers could try to implement in their classroom in order to help in boosting students confidence hence will help them in the speaking lesson. The use of L1 is somehow inevitable in Malaysian classroom (Mohd 2003). Though it might help in some ways, teacher should limit or discourage it in English lesson. Another way to encourage the students to speak in English is the teacher to speak in English as much as possible in class. Teachers should not worry if they are not completely fluent or don't have perfect native accent, as Swain (1985) as cited in Lawtie (2004) wrote "We learn to speak by speaking" and that goes for teachers as well as students. Besides, teachers should know their students level so that the activities could be pitched at the right level. The language used should be simple so that it will be easier for students to speak without hesitation (Piccolo 2010). Other than that, the topic chosen should be of students interest so that it will attract them to participate in the activities. This way, students will be exposed to the language and have the opportunity to practice it as much as they can thus it will not be a foreign language anymore. There are also students who are not interested in learning the language due to their perception towards the language; these students might not see the need of knowing and 7

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learning the language in their current situation and environment. In such cases, teachers will find it hard to attract students attention towards learning the language. As trying new things might attract students interest in many ways, teachers should try to vary their teaching methods as frequently as they can. One of the ways to achieve this is to make the lesson as fun and enjoyable as it could help in engaging and motivating students towards learning (Woolfolk 2004). This way, although students might not see the importance of the subject, teacher could slowly attract them towards learning by creating interesting lesson in the classroom. From what have been discussed earlier, Malaysian students have some problems in speaking activities. These problems should be tackled by teachers as it can impede students learning. In order to curb these problems, there are many ways teachers could try in their classroom to help in improving students speaking skill. It depends on the teachers creativity in implementing these ideas in the classroom that could turn these ideas into a success.

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References Elina, A. (1999) Learning how to learn as an approach in the teaching of ESL in Malaysian secondary classroom. Unpublished M. Ed dissertation. Universiti Malaya. Ferris,D. and Tagg.T. (1996) "Academic Listening/Speaking Tasks for ESL Students: Problems, Suggestions, and Implications." TESOL Quaterly 30.2 (Summer 1996): 297-320 Nuttal, C. (1996). Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. Oxford: Heinemann. Kabilan, M.K. (2008). Challenges Faced and the Strategies Adopted by a Malaysian English Language Teacher during Teaching Practice. English Language Teaching, 1(1), pp 87-95.

Lawtie, F. (2004). Teaching speaking skills 2 - overcoming classroom problems [online]. Available from: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/teaching-speakingskills-2-overcoming-classroom-problems. Accessed 19 Oct 2010. Piccolo, L. (2010). Teaching Speaking to English Second Language Students [online]. Available from: http://www.suite101.com/content/teaching-speaking-to-englishsecond-language-students-a261761. Accessed 30 Oct 2010.

Medina, S. (2002) Using Music to Enhance Second Language Acquisition: From Theory to Practice [online]. Available from: http://www.forefrontpublishers.com/ eslmusic/articles/ 06.htm. Accessed 20 Oct 2010.

Moon, J. (2005) Children Learning English. Oxford: MacMillan.

Yeow, P.W. (2000.) The Use of the Non-Target Language in the Teaching of English in Malaysian Classrooms. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Leeds, UK Woolfolk, A. (2004) Educational Psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 9th edition.