Critical Evaluation of Course for English Learning - Research Paper Example

? Critical Evaluation of for English Learning | TEACHING ENGLISH Critical Evaluation of for English Learning By:____________________________________ Professor:________________________________ Date:____________________________________ Contents 1.Introduction 4 2.Usefulness of Course – A Critical Analysis 5 2.1. Global Benefits 5 2.1.1.Jobs and Career 5 2.1.2.Education 5 2.2.Personal Benefits 5 2.2.1.Language Anxiety 5 2.2.2.Value Addition 6 2.3. Social Benefits 6 2.3.1.Participation and Involvement 6 2.4. Digital Benefits 6 2.4.1.Data Availability and Usage 6 3.Suggested Improvements 7 3.1. Too Much Data 7 3.1.1.What Could Be Done? 7 3.2. Too Many Exercises 8 3.2.1.What Could Be Done? 8 3.3. Availability of Answer Key 8 3.3.1.What Could Be Done? 8 3.4.Vocabulary List 8 3.4.1.What Could Be Done? 8 3.5.Daily Mini Diary 9 3.5.1.What Could Be Done? 9 4.Good Class Room Material 9 4.1. Informative and Authentic Reading Material 9 4.2. Computer and Internet 10 4.3.Worksheets and Quizzes 10 4.4.Creative Exercises 10 5. Conclusion 10 1. Introduction Robert Burshfield (author of the book: ‘Unlocking the English Language’) believes: "Any literate, educated person on the face of the globe is deprived, if he does not know English". English, being the language which is most widely published and spoken by more than 250 to 350 million non-native speakers, is now the prerequisite for anyone to consider himself as part of the new concept of globalization. Having an international recognition it is the most commonly spoken and used language as compared to any other colonial languages like French, Spanish, etc. In Asian countries like Indian, with variety of languages, English is commonly used as a source to unite them. As a medium of language in schools, court of law, newspaper and other electronic media, it is spoken and written in India, more than in England itself. Having more than 508 million speakers across the globe, English is not used as world language due to number of its speakers but because it is widely used as the foreign or secondary language outside its native areas. This importance of English as a global language, initiated the concept of making it an entire course added as a part to the curriculum of schools across the globe. The course dose not only provide value addition in form another language to the learner but also opens new broad horizons to better understanding of English culture, heritage and civilization. Taking into account the importance of English language, it is concluded that this course is very beneficial to students in secondary school, who do have some previous knowledge of English but lack the full command on it as a language. The benefits will be further highlighted in the report. There is room for some suggestions to further improve the course content which would also be covered as part of the report. 2. Usefulness of Course – A Critical Analysis 2.1. Global Benefits 2.1.1. Jobs and Career As we talked about the new emerging concept of globalization, in the above introductory paragraph, we identify that English language enjoys the recognition of an international language used as a common medium of communication among people from various cultures. The audience of the course is Secondary School entry level students, who in later stage will be required to relocate globally for the purpose of education, jobs, etc. When required to work in diverse cultures, having acquired a command on an international language, they will possess a value addition tool that will help them gain a competitive edge in their field. They will be preferred over students who lack the element of a common language that is used across the organization in any multinational. 2.1.2. Education In the field of education, globally every university or high school offers courses having English as primary language for instructions. The students having good command in this language will feel more comfortable while selecting their course and will have a more diverse variety of options for selection. 2.2. Personal Benefits 2.2.1. Language Anxiety It has been commonly seen that many students experience symptoms of anxiety such as stammering, faster heart beat, sweating, etc during English classrooms. This factor of anxiety among them is a major blockage in their way to better acquisition of a language. It is concluded in various research conducted that anxiety and achievement in acquiring a second language are negatively co-related. This anxiety is mainly experienced by students when they face a situation in which they are required to communicate in a language that they are not comfortable with. Training them with such a course will not only help them gain confidence and command in the language but will also facilitate them in fighting with the element of anxiety and thus, ultimately leading to better acquisition of the other languages. 2.2.2. Value Addition Acquiring command over multiple languages is a much appreciated trait and a value addition to any individual. It will not only boost up their self- confidence but will help them gain competitive edge when interacting in a multi-dynamic and culturally diverse environment with a cocktail of languages, especially when the command is in an international language like English. It will provide them with a better understanding of cultures and therefore an ease to talk and interact with unknown people from different backgrounds. 2.3. Social Benefits 2.3.1. Participation and Involvement Secondary school students are required to participate in various global inter-schools competition such as poetry, speech, arts, etc. All of such competition and activities use English as the medium. Moreover, the school students are taken to field trips such as to industries, farms, camps, etc. Wherever, they go they are required to communicate in English as a common language that everyone can understand. Through this course they will develop the confidence and command to communicate in this language and will make them more sociable, friendly and open to making new connections. 2.4. Digital Benefits 2.4.1. Data Availability and Usage It’s the world of digital data and internet. Everyone is connected through various social online forums and any data is easily and commonly available over the internet. Even a small assignment assigned by the teacher in the class room needs help from the internet to be completed. But yet again, majority of the data and activities taking place over the internet are in English. And in order, to achieve proper benefit from this facility, one should have good command over not only spoken English but reading and writing as well. This course will help the students to gain a strong control over the language and avail all the benefits this control brings to them. 3. Suggested Improvements The course is very thoroughly designed and detailed which almost covers all the aspects of teaching English as a language. It reflects that a very structured approach and proper planning was adapted during content screening. The text book ‘You’ which is selected as the course book, is no doubt a very well structured, informative and a true learner oriented book, that uses the Step-By-Step approach to facilitate not only learners who have some background knowledge of the language but also those who are totally raw. It can work as an asset to the students if they properly utilize the book for their learning. But, this alone is not possible until, students attempt each and every exercise provided in the end for each unit and actually implement it in their daily lives. However, keeping in view the audiences for the course, there are few issues with the course material and a room for some improvements exist that could be made in order to enhance the effectiveness of this course further. 3.1. Too Much Data Research has proven that majority kids from the age group that the course targets are not interested in reading too much of black and white data, rather they are more inclined to pictures, figures, graphs etc. Especially, when it’s not in a language they are comfortable with, there are high chances that either they will not read the entire text thoroughly or if by any chance they do, their interest will be broken in mid-way and they will not be interested in reading the rest of the stuff. 3.1.1. What Could Be Done? It is suggested that the maximum level of irrelevant data be omitted from the book and only selected most relevant data should be kept for the reading purpose. For example, making them read so many stories of what different people do in their free time around the world (Unit 10). One or two stories could be read and few stories could be personally told by inviting guests that have English as their native language. This will not only help in developing reading but as well as listening skills of the students and their interest will stay intact. More pictorial information should be added to the course content rather written. 3.2. Too Many Exercises No kid of this age group is interested in attempting long exercise. Their interest span is pretty short and they would be more happy if asked orally rather writing so much of data on the sheets. The exercise stated in Unit 10, pose 12 questions of similar nature, to the students. Too much of redundancy will de-motivate them. 3.2.1. What Could Be Done? So many similar questions should not be repeated to be answered in written form. Only distinct questions can be made compulsory to be answered in the written form and other same natured questions could be randomly asked by the teacher from the students. This will help in improvement of their written as well as spoken English. 3.3. Availability of Answer Key Giving the key at the end of the book, kind of provide the students with the opportunity to sneak- peek at the answers and skip attempting the questions all by themselves. In other cases there are also chances that they attempt the question once and check for the answers and if they find themselves as incorrect they will directly copy the answer and will not bother giving it a second try. This will develop bad habit of taking help from the key as well as habits of not attempting the question twice or at all. 3.3.1. What Could Be Done? In order to avoid any such conditions it is essential for the key not to be provided to the students and should only stay with the teacher. It could be provided on demand once the student has already attempted the questions at least once all on his own. 3.4. Vocabulary List Vocabulary is an essential part of acquiring any language. Fluency and grammar comes with practice, but vocabulary is the pre-requisite for learning any language. Keeping this point in view, the book lacks a very major element of daily vocabulary addition to student’s memory. 3.4.1. What Could Be Done? A short list of vocabulary words along with their meanings can be included as a part of each unit in a small table at the corner of the page. Starting with basic words, the book’s step-by-step approach could be kept intact. Progress could be made by including more difficult words as the unit proceeds. 3.5. Daily Mini Diary It is important for the teacher to know the students and for the students to know each other in order to communicate. It is also very essential for the students to practice what they learn in written and spoken forms. No goal is achievable without constant reinforcement. They should practice it as often to gain strong control and retain what they have learned. 3.5.1. What Could Be Done? In the starting of the course, small questionnaire sheet could be given to students by the teacher to tell about themselves. They will be required to read it out loud later once everyone is done. This will develop a familiarity of student to student and student to teacher. In later units a 5-10 lines part could be included in each unit’s end that would require the students to write in about what happened in their lives that day. After every student has written it, each would be required to speak out his work. The rest will listen to it, and, relate to the activities that if have been common. After he has complete speaking, each student will be asked to co-relate his activities with the spoken one. This will enhance their, written, spoken, listening and interacting abilities in English. Above all, English should be kept as constant medium of interaction. 4. Good Class Room Material Better learning, comes only with good teaching. If the student - teacher chemistry does not match there is not even a single bit of chance that the student will like the course or will learn. Teaching English does not only requires knowledge about grammar, vocabulary, etc but proper use of methodologies in order to make the students fully understands your content. It is as difficult as for a non-native speaker of English to learn and have command on it. These methodologies are facilitated by good class room material to enable complete understanding of your content and to achieve the ultimate goal of learning. This material includes variety of stuff such as: 4.1. Informative and Authentic Reading Material English learning requires mastering all the skills; written, spoken, reading, listening, etc. in order to cater to this need it is important that both verbal and written data be provided to the students. The written data could be inform of a good authentic up-to-date text book that is most suitable to students needs, articles from magazines and journals, news paper cuttings, etc. 4.2. Computer and Internet As the world is advancing in technology it has become very easy for the students and teachers to use internet, a rich source of information, for their benefits. They can use internet puzzles such as ‘scribble’ and many other free games ‘cross words’, etc commonly available to everyone. It’s a more fun way of learning for today’s generation than the typical method of studying long texts. 4.3. Worksheets and Quizzes Quick pop up quizzes and worksheets to complete are best way to monitor students learning progress and provide the teacher with the opportunity of feedback and reinforcement. No matter what the teaching methodology is, qauntative analysis of student’s progress on learning is very essential for the teacher to determine where the student stands and how much more input he/she requires. 4.4. Creative Exercises Small poems, poetry, English songs, movies and shows can be played or singed by the students in the class room to facilitate the learning process. Drills and flash cards can also be commonly used to facilitate the learning process. Inviting guest speakers who are normal native English speakers to share their stories in the class room are all the activities that would keep the students occupied and involved. 5. Conclusion It is therefore, concluded, that English being an international language and having a global recognition is very important for students to learn. Gaining a command over this language help students perform better when placed in multi dynamic and diverse cultures. It value ads, as it provide them with a powerful tool that facilitate open communication to anyone and thus, helping them gain a competitive edge over others. Such courses do not only facilitate students to learn English in an early stage of their academic lives but also to gain a full control and command over the language that gets helpful for them when they later relocate globally due to education, jobs, etc. English is the language of the digital world and the real world, lingua Franca. The life of average students revolves around education, jobs, computers, games, music, movies, etc. You need English to download music from online sources, most of the generation listens to English pop music, the popular TV shows such as ‘American Idol’ requires understanding of English language, for chatting you need English, for games you need English, if you plan to relocate globally as part of your future career plan you need English. Thus, English is required more outside the school than just academically, it encompass your life and is very important to properly learn as part of your academic program. As goes the famous saying, a person who knows more languages lives longer. References: 1. Lightbown, M. Patsy & Spada, Nina . How Languages are Learned. 2nd ed. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Print. 2. Michael P. Fleming, Mike Fleming and David Stevens, .English Teaching in the Secondary School: Linking Theory and Practice. 3RD . Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN: Routledge, 2010. eBook. 3. Jon Davison and Jane Dowson. Learning to Teach English in the Secondary School. 2ND ed . NewYork, NY 10001: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003. eBook. 4. Pallab Dutta, . "The Advantages of Learning English in School." ehow, Online Posting to ehow. Web. 9 Sep. 2012.  5. Zhao , Na. "A Study of High School Students’ English Learning Anxiety ." Asian EFL Journal. Vol 9. Issue 3 (2003): n. Print. 6. Robert C. Gardner*, , and Peter D. MacIntyre. "On the Measurement of Affective Variables in Second Language Learning." Language Learning. Vol 43.Issue 2 (June 1993): 157-194. Web. 9 Sep. 2012. 7. F.Z. Medjahed, . TEACHING ENGLISH IN ALGERIAN SECONDARY SCHOOLS: STATE OF THE ART. Diss. Departement de langues, ENSET Oran, 2010. privately published, 2011. Web. 8. Ezana Habte-Gabr, . "The Importance of Socio-affective Strategies in Using EFL for Teaching Mainstream Subjects." Humanizing Language Teaching. Vol 8.issue 8 (Sept 06): n. 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