English - Coursework Example

?Good Afternoon William, at long last…..Module 5! I’ll be making my comments in blue today. Cheers. Part One – Question One Question One – Choose Five Point (Point #6)Think about the reading and listening you have done over the last few days in your own language. List 6 reading and listening activities and the reason you did them. Example: Watching the news: information. (Point #7) How would questions on a novel differ from questions on a short factual text? Think about what information you want your students to know after they have read the piece. (Point #8) What’s the difference between class drilling and individual drilling? Are some language items more suitable for drilling than others? Which students might respond well to drilling and which might not? (Point #10) Would all kinds of writing practice be suitable for all kinds of students? How would the writing the writing you give to business people differs from the writing you give to school students? Is there any point in giving EAP students story-writing practice? Not all writing need to be done long – what kinds of writing would you give to people wanting to learn English for a holiday trip to England? ( Point#11) Which of the vocabulary methods do you think more useful? Why? What other strategies for teaching vocabulary are you aware? Describe each of the five points chosen. (Point 6) Listening to the radio to get the weather; listening to a television program that offers Bible study, and attending a seminar listening to information on job related material is a hearing/listening activity I do daily. Checking my emails for both academic and social communication; reading a magazine in the doctor’s office that provided information on the latest break through in treating different medical conditions; reviewing a study Power Point to work on an academic paper, are different examples of reading and listening for information I may accomplish on any given day.I think it is pretty amazing how much information we receive everyday and equally amazing how many sources it comes from. I think this Point to Consider just wants you to ‘notice’ how many different mediums of information we are exposed to everyday and understand how daunting it must be for someone learning another language to take it all in and make sense of it. (Point7 )Preparing questions for review for students having read a novel versus those prepared for students having read a short story takes into account a broader perspective. With a novel, the questions might include what is the theme; what is the tone; what is the setting. Using deduction and inference applies to students reading a novel and answering questions about the reading. When students are provided questions ahead of a short reading of entertainment sections of a paper such as who, what, where, when, and why then they have an opportunity to use scanning the way native speakers use it to get specific information from smaller pieces of text. I agree. Here are some other types of questions to consider. Some of these are more applicable to one particular genre than the other. Analylitical: Tear the text apart piece by piece. Evaluating: Expressing judgment Inference: Being able to read between the lines, to understand something without having it written out. Synthesizing: Pulling the text together. Valuing: Making a choice, preferring one over the other. View Point: Who is telling the story? How would the story be different if it were told by X instead of Y? (Point 8)Both beginning and advanced students benefit from drilling when kept to two minute exercises that challenge answers by asking questions as part of the drill. Using drilling individually focuses on the student for answers while class drilling can involve everyone answering a question. Either way, the use of drilling is only effective when it involves having students respond to a specific inquiry rather than repeating what is said. Repeating what an instructor says is useful for beginning work one on one with a student or in having individuals repeat the correct pronunciation of a word or words.I have found that drilling is particularly useful when helping students with their pronunciation. I tell them that their mouths needs to develop ‘mouth memory’ – how to automatically shape their mouth in order to get the right pronunciation. The best way to do that is by repetition. Of course, I am only talking about a few minutes of drilling now and then in the lesson to help them along. Too much and it becomes very tedious for both the students and the teacher. (Point 10)The primary difference in providing writing exercises for different groups of students lay in the topic and the language capability of the different groups. Story writing practice is just as practical for EAP students as it is for any student. It is a way to get them to think and absorb the language and using real life situations is the most proactive method for using writing exercises. A holiday to England instruction would best apply short questions with possible answers, drilling, and role playing with one participant being the tourist and the other the native speaker. Either way the participants will be able to practice speaking and to practice listening. Using both these methods gives a broad application to the process and providing the best means to familiarize the learner with sounds and with pronunciation with familiarizing them with the difference of these two characteristics of the new language. Doing these two exercises lessens their anxiety when they get to their English speaking destination so what they hear does not exactly sound like garble since they have familiarized them selves with the basic sounds of the language when hearing it, as well as pronouncing key words and phrases correct enough they are understood. I think the key here is to determine what the student needs are and then design writing assignments that fulfill those needs. For example, a business man would need to know how to take notes during a business meeting, write an e-mail, write a memo, and most importantly, write a report. A student would need to know how to write different genres of academic papers ranging from a discussion to an exposition. Someone going on vacation might enjoy learning how to write a post-card to one of their friends back home. The need determines the type of writing a person does. Having said that, story writing is fun and makes a person of any age use their imagination and creativity while using English as the means of expression. (Point 11)The second method for teaching vocabulary showing words that are matched to the corresponding picture is the better of the two methods of teaching vocabulary to English learners (or any language for that matter). This is because the student can identify words with pictures instead of taking the more stressful and possibly counter productive method of completely memorizing the information when they have little if anything to relate what is being memorized. Learning any language the use of photographs or illustrations improves the ability for relating the words to real life objects. This is true in particular in food vending places who offer what #3 “looks” like and so on. I agree. I strongly advise teachers to use pictures whenever possible. It helps students make a visual association between their pre-existing knowledge of the word or concept in their MT and the word or concept in the new language. For example, they already know what a ‘front desk clerk ’ is at a hotel in their MT, so when you show them a picture of one they are now free to associate that image and meaning with the new word and same meaning in the target language. Pictures help students put new vocabulary into a realistic context. Part Two You are teaching a group of Spanish students and you have noticed they say things like bery good and jes, instead of very good and yes. .Part Two – Question One Firstly identify the phonology problem and explain precisely what it is. Question 1 The phonology problem with the manner these words are pronounced is related to the way the student look at the word and pronouncing the letters they see based on the different alphabet sounds of their native language. This is common among anyone learning a second language to pronounce the letters in the manner fitting the alphabet associated with their root language. Learning a new language requires learning the alphabet sounds of vowels and consonants of the new language and understanding the difference in the pronunciation. I agree. This is called interference. The MT is interfering with the new target language. This is also why people speak a new language with an accent. The MT pronunciation is carrying – over to the target language. Someone with a ‘heavy accent’ often has a hard time making themselves understood by native speakers. Part Two – Question Two How serious is this problem? Could it cause problems for your students classroom? And, if so, explain how and why. . Question Two For this particular set of words and the manner, the native Spanish speaking students are pronouncing these English words according to the Spanish alphabet and consonant sound of this particular alphabet does not create a major problem because words are still understandable even though mispronounced. The nature of learning a second language is focusing on communicating and with the smaller global community; it is not uncommon that second languages have some inaccurate pronunciation of words that remain nonetheless understandable in particular in context with the rest of what is said. Correct. The context is key to comprehension. Very few people who learn English as a second language acquire the ability to speak it without a hint of accent on certain words that belie they are not native speakers. Due to the fact, native speakers of a root language may pronounce words differently because of the region of the native country they learned to speak the language. All native English speaking people do not pronounce (and in some cases even spell) words the same as in other English speaking regions. This is due to accents of regions for the most part. I hadn’t thought of that. Very good point. Part Two – Question Three Describe 2 different activities you could do to help your students improve in this area. Activity one The activity is called number dictation. It involves two teams that compete to identify the correct word pronounced. The minimal pairs are written on the board in a table one column being 1 and the next column being 2. A teacher reads out a set of words, let’s say four words at a go and asking the class to identify which of the two words they think they have heard by writing the number only not the words. The group with the mist correct number combinations wins the game. Latter on the students are supposed to do the activity in pairs, one student read the four words and gives the other student an opportunity to identify the words by writing down the numbers. The table on the board should look like 1 2 Ferry Berry Best Vest Bus Verse Bubble Fable Yeast Jest Bat Fat Yan Jan Uncle ankle Lung Rung Zeal Seal First, the teacher will introduce the class to the lesson and then divide the class into two teams. Next, the teacher will write the minimal pairs on the board in a table like shown above. The teacher will drill the pronunciation around the class by giving examples of what is expected in the activity. For example, dictating words like Fat, Jan, yeast, zeal, the group should write 2, 2, 1, 1 as the answer to the pronunciation. After being sure, that class has understood the activity, the teacher will continue with the activity by giving the highest number of four words combination as he can. Later the teacher together with the class should mark the correct number combination and the team with the highest scores is the winner in the activity. Next, the student work in pairs i.e. desk mates work together. One student dictates the words and the other student identifies the number representing the word. Activity 2 This is a tongue twister game. It involves students reading the tongue twisters aloud, first slowly, next faster then, three times in a row (Joyce 2002). Next, students write tongue twisters in their MT and the teacher tries to pronounce them. Finally, students create their own tongue twisters in English and ask their neighbors to read out the tongue twisters first slowly, next faster and finally faster three times in a row. First, the teacher introduces the lesson to the class. Next, the teacher writes some tongue twisters on the board and explains how the activity will be coordinated. To make the students understand the activity, the teacher starts off the activity by first reading out a tongue twister slowly and loudly, next the teacher reads the tongue twister aloud and faster, finally the teacher reads out the tongue twister loudly and faster three times in a row. Next, going by rows, the teacher asks students to read out the tongue twisters first slowly and aloud, next faster and a loud then finally louder three times in a row. The tongue twisters in use will include She sells seashells on the seashore A red lorry rolling A big black bug bit a big black bear It Kantai can tie a tie why can’t I untie the tie before Kantai ties the tie. Four furious friends fought for a phone. Green glass globes glow greenly I scream, you scream, we all scream for the ice cream I saw Susan sitting in a shoeshine shop The sixth sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick Six sick slick slim sycamore saplings Next, the teacher should ask students to give tongue twisters in their mother tongue and he tries and says them. The teacher trying to say tongue twisters in the students MT is a way of encouraging them and creating fun in class. Finally, students should create their own tongue twisters in English using consonants starting with letter B, and ask their neighbors to say them. References Joyce, Kate 2002, ‘The Tongue Twister Game’, British council, 23 June, 2002. Viewed 3 April 2012, < http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/tongue-twister-game>. Bibliography The tiny TEFL Teacher, n. d, Minimal pair’s pronunciation Activities, Viewed 3 April 2012, < http://www.tinyteflteacher.co.uk/teacher/pronunciation/minimalpairs.html>. Part Three You have the following 3 classes: Twenty Italian teenage students aged from 14-17. They are monolingual, co-ed and very lively. They’ve been studying English for 4 years and are Intermediate level. They can hold basic conversations and although they know the basics of English grammar and the tenses, they make mistakes. This class studies with you for 2 hours per week. At the end of this year they will take a school exam and then go into a new class where they will study for the First Certificate exam which they will take in about a year’s time. Sixteen adults aged from 24 and 52. They are all immigrants to your country and have been living there for several months now. They need English to live in the new country and they are enthusiastic but at the moment their level is fairly low. The group comprises of several Spanish speaking South American students, a couple from Hong Kong, and two brothers from the Middle East as well as students from Russia, Japan and Africa. Alternatively, you can select a class which you already teach. If you take this option, contact your tutor first with details of the class to make sure it is suitable for this assignment. Select one of the options above – you will be preparing material for this class. I choose the first group of twenty Italian teenage students aged from 14-17 years. Part Three – Question One Select an authentic text or passage from a magazine or book, etc, you think would be suitable for the class. Depending on the level of the class you have selected, the text or passage should be about 100 words in length. Make sure it is of the right level – you may want to alter certain aspects (vocabulary or grammar) to simplify it. You will be using this passage for a single lesson, and the aim is to improve a reading sub-skill or sub-skills, rather than as an example of a grammar point. Submit the authentic passage you have chosen and explain why you feel this passage is appropriate for this group. Part Three, Question 1 Handout 1 There are five stages of alcohol and drug use. The first stage involves access to alcohol without necessarily using it. At this stage, minimizing risk factors that expose a teenager to using the alcohol is an issue. The second stage is the experimental to regular use of alcohol. The third stage involves increasing and frequent use of alcohol. This stage may include teenagers buying or stealing to buy drugs. In the fourth stage, teenagers have established a regular use of alcohol, which keeps them intoxicated. This leads to problems in their social, educational, vocational, or family life. The final stage is defined by the youth relying on alcohol to feel normal. During this stage, risk-taking behavior like stealing, engaging in physical fights, or driving while intoxicated increase and they become most vulnerable to having suicidal thoughts. I chose the above text since I found it easy to interpret with an intermediate class of teenagers. The text is rich in handling issues that revolve around youths and therefore a good text for not only language lessons but also life lessons. At their age, the teenagers may be aware of some risks involved in alcohol and drug use but may not be aware of what leads to substance abuse. Therefore taking them through such a text will be most interesting as they will be eager to learn the next stage. I also choose the text bearing in mind that some of them may have had an exposure to such substances. Therefore, the text comes in handy in educating them on the risks involved for them who are in the vice as well as warn them who are not yet recruited in the vice. Therefore taking such a text exposes the ideas the students already know in their mother tongue in the English context. This text is appropriate for this group for not only learning how to read but also developing their reading sub-skills in the English context with the issues that are around them in their age. Handout 2 “Five stages of alcohol and drug use have been identified. The first stage is described as access to alcohol rather than use of alcohol, tobacco, inhalants, or other drugs. In that stage, minimizing the risk factors that make a teenager more vulnerable to using alcohol are an issue. The second stage of alcohol and other drug use ranges from experimentation or occasional use to regular weekly use of alcohol, tobacco, inhalants, or other drugs.” (Dryden-Edwards 2012). “The third stage is characterized by youths further increasing the frequency of alcohol use and/ or using alcohol and other drugs on regular basis. This stage may also include the teenager either buying drugs or stealing to get drugs. In the fourth stage of alcohol and drug use, adolescents have established regular usage, have become preoccupied with getting intoxicated (“High”) and have developed problems in their social, educational, vocational, or family life as a result of using the substance” (Dryden-Edwards 2012). “The final and most serious fifth stage of alcohol or other drug use is defined by the youth only feeling normal when they are using. During this stage, risk-taking behavior like stealing, engaging in physical fights, or driving while intoxicated increase and they become most vulnerable to having suicidal thoughts” (Dryden-Edwards 2012). . References Dryden-Edwards, R 2012, ‘Alcohol and Teens (cont.)’, Medicinenet. Com, Viewed 3 April 2012, . Part Three – Question Two Explain how you would introduce the passage to the class. Provide a detailed description of your introductory activity and some preliminary activities on this you might want to include. This introduction should be interesting, stimulating and thought provoking. It can take almost any form and is a chance to capture the attention of your students. Part Three, Question Two In the introduction, I will first write the title of the lesson on the black board. I will explain the objectives of the lesson and give the students direction on how they are going to work during the lesson i.e. in pairs. Next, which is my first preliminary activity, I will show the class a 4 minutes video of teenagers involving in alcohol. In this case I will use the film by the name , Step out of Apathy which can be viewed from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgl7jXtLAwY. Next, I will ask students to mention some hazards they have observed from the film and how in their views the teenagers can be educated on the hazards to reduce number of casualties. As they give their answers, I will ask them to note down some of the keywords they give, as they will expect some of them to appear in the text. After that, I will issue handouts to the students and ask them not to open them until I ask them to do that. Next, I will ask the students to go through the text quickly, in about 1 minute, and try to get the overall topic in the text. After the time is up, the students will be required to close their handouts and try to write down as many words as they can remember from the text. I will evaluate their understanding of the text by asking them to mention what the text was about in one brief sentence. The activity at this point will be between two students, they will combine their ideas on what the text was all about, by first writing down as many words as they could pick from the text. Using their different list, they will try to combine their ideas and reconstruct the text. After reconstruction, the class will read the text again to identify whose ideas were close to the main text. Part Three – Question Three Now, with plenty of detail, finish off the lesson plan. Here you must include at least 4 different follow-up activities based on the theme of the text and the class make-up. You should be detailed in your description and include any handouts or material you would use and also say how long each activity would last, feedback systems and any variations you could include. Although they can be in any order, there should be 1 activity for each of the following 4 skill areas: listening speaking writing reading& text comprehension Part Three, Question three Lesson Plan Lesson Title Teenage Alcohol Use Class English for Intermediates- Weekly lesson- 20 students Level Monolingual Intermediate class Duration 60 minutes Lesson objective By the end of the lesson, the students should be able to read passages, understand what it is all about by connecting the ideas in the text from mother tongue to English. This will improve their reading sub-skills. Resources/ Materials Video clip, Text handouts, pens, pieces of chalk, exercise books, and blackboard. Preparation Prepare before the lesson the handouts and class exercises to be given to the students. Possible problems Though students at this level can hold basic conversations and know basics of English grammar, they still make mistakes. There could be a possibility of some of them shying away from the discussion especially them who are in the vice already. Introduction (5 min) Teacher writes the title of the lesson on the board and explains the objectives of the lessons. The teacher also explains how the students are going to work i.e. in pairs. Activity/ Exercise 1 Students’ part. (Speaking Skill) (10 min) The activity involves students viewing a video clip, identifying some situations around alcoholism, their possible hazards and how in their views teenagers can be protected from such hazards. All this is done in pairs i.e. desk mates working together where they are expected to conduct the activity by talking to each other. Activity Description First, the teacher mentions some substances that are abused as drugs i.e. cocaine and gives students the hazards around the drug. Next, the teacher mentions her view on how teenager protection from such hazards can be achieved. One way is by educating them on how best they can avoid situations that could lead them to use of cocaine. With such a background, the teacher ask students to mention some of the drugs they know and while working in pairs, explain to each other the possible hazards associated by each drug. Each student in the pair should give a view how well teenagers can be informed of the consequences of substance abuse. Materials and resources used: In this activity, video clip will be used. Activity/ Exercise 2 Reading the handout (Listening) (15 min) The activity involves students reading a text in a given hand out very quickly in one minute and trying to get the theme of the text. Activity Description The teacher distributes handouts to students and asks them not to open the handout until given instructions to do that. Teacher starts the activity by reading out the text quickly in one minute to the class. Next, the teacher asks the class to give out their views on what they got as the theme of the text as she records on the board the students responses. An example of a suggestion is ‘stages involved in alcoholism’. After that, the teacher asks the students while working in pairs to open the handouts, read them out to each other quickly in one minute. The reader should ask the listener what he/ she got as the theme of the text. They should record in their books the first listener’s theme of the text. Next, the previous listener becomes the reader. The student reads out the text in one minute and asks the listener to identify the theme of the text. The students should record this theme too in their books. Finally, the students working in pair discusses their two themes and tries to come up with one overall theme for the text. Each pair should come up with one theme for the text. Materials and Resources used: Text handouts, blackboard, a piece of chalk, books, and pens. Activity/ Exercise 3 Idea collection (writing skill) (15 min) The activity involves reading the text slowly and in details. After reading, keeping the hand out away and trying to remember as many ideas as one can from the text. Activity Description The teacher leads the students in the activity by reading the handout slowly and loudly to the class. The teacher tries to pick as many ideas as she can with the help of the class as she writes them on the board. Next, the teacher with the help of the students picks the ideas written on the board, combines them to get the overall idea in the text. All the ideas and the overall idea should be recorded on the board as the activity progresses. Examples of ideas in this text include; stealing to buy alcohol, driving while drunk, staying intoxicated, stage five is worse. The overall idea could be when teenagers get used to drugs, they have to engage in vices like stealing to continue in the vice. Next, while working in pairs, the students read out the handouts together slowly and in detail. After reading, they close the handouts and each student in the pair writes as many ideas as they can pick from the text. Next, the students while working in pairs should combine their ideas and come up with one main idea on what the text entailed. Materials and Resources used: Text handouts, blackboard, a piece of chalk, books, and pens. Activity/ Exercise 4 Exercise (Reading and text comprehension) (10 min) The activity involves students making use of the list of ideas they had made before in activity 3, combine the ideas, and reconstruct the text. Activity Description The teacher gives students an assignment where they are to use their different lists; the students combine their ideas and reconstruct the text. After that, the teacher leads the students to reading out their constructed texts to identify whose ideas are close to the main text. Materials and Resources used: Blackboard, a piece of chalk, books, and pens. Closure (5 min) Teacher collects the handouts and bids the class goodbye until the next lesson. Assessment Follow up activity 1: Teacher asks the students to answer the following questions 1. How many stages are involved in teenage alcoholism 2. Mention each stage. 3. What are the possible vices that teenagers are likely to engage in to sustain the vice. 4. From the movie clip, what does alcoholism lead to? 5. Which is the worst stage of all and how can one avoid getting to that stage. 6. Suggest some ways teenagers can be educated on drug and substance abuse. Follow up activity 2: Students create the whole text by combining their ideas from the last to the first one. Follow up activity 3: Give students some sentences to identify whether true or false. Example, alcoholism starts when somebody gets to a pub and just decides to drink. The answer here should be false. Follow up activity 4: Students take turns in developing the original text using their collected ideas. Part Three – Question Four What homework would you give the students now and why? This homework again should be related to the theme of the text and be a natural development on from the lesson. Part Three, Question Four To evaluate how the students have understood the text and how well their reading sub-skills have improved, I will give the students homework based on the same text. The homework will require the students to develop the original text upwards from the end of the text I will have issued. I will require them to work in pairs and develop it from memory and the ideas they had written down. By reviewing the ideas together as a pair, they will be expected to arrange them from the last to the first one, which will in turn develop the whole text. I’ll keep an eye out for your resubmission. Cheers, Scott Grade: None yet ( As with all ICAL assignments, a pass mark is 16/20. If you grade less than this you are allowed to re-work and re-submit assignment as many times as you wish to reach a pass mark. If your grade 16 or above then you move automatically on to the next module.) Read More