Grammar Lessons for Maldivian Classroom - Assignment Example

?Grammar Lessons for Maldivian room Trends in education have paved ways to restructuring the curriculum to address needs for active learning environment. Gone are the days of teacher-centered instruction where teachers served as mentors or the main sources of information in the classroom. In this type of instruction, the teacher provides information to the students who basically listen to, and learn from what the teacher provides through discussion. In such situation, the students' role, which is often characterized by listening and thinking, is limited while the teacher's role is very significant, being the main source of knowledge or information. Sadly, it follows that in this kind of instruction, the teacher has a tendency to manipulate the discussion—calling students to answer questions addressed to the class. Opposed to the teacher-centered instruction is an active learning environment in which students' response, creativity, and participation are necessary to achieve learning. In this situation, the learners take an active role in the activities and discussions that will transpire. While students serve as listeners and receivers of information in the teacher-centered instruction, active learning environment encourages students to share information, express feelings/ideas, and take participatory roles in group dynamics. In addition, active learning environment involves the commitment of students and the teacher to “a dynamic partnership in which both share a vision and responsibility for instruction” (Fern, Anstrom, and Silcox 1994). In such an environment, the students have the role of discovering, constructing and creating something new” while the teacher takes the role of a facilitator and guide. Moreover, the students become the focus of instruction in that the content and activities are designed according to their needs, interests, and experiences. Importantly, the background of the students is considered as early as the design phase of the curriculum. The teacher, in response to this environment, guides the students towards the accomplishment of goals which include learning concepts and mastery of skills. In the suggested activities, students will be the focus of instruction. They will play an active part in the learning process as they report, demonstrate, and discuss information with others. The use of interesting activities and worksheets will also benefit learning and assessment of individual progress. Teaching Speaking Target Level: Grades 2-3 Number of students: 20-25   Time durations: 45 min – 1 hour Materials: Picture of a man with thought bubbles Pens/markers In this lesson, the students should be able to: 1. Enrich vocabulary with the use of different/alternative terms to express a thought 2. Develop socio-linguistic competence by constructing relevant sentences to describe a picture 3. Express themselves freely Procedure: Motivation/Initial Activity The teacher starts by asking students what they want to be when they grow up. Each student briefly says “I want to be a _________.” Main Activity The teacher relates the activity to the lesson by explaining that each person has dreams or wishes. She shows students the picture of a man dreaming (See Appendix A). The teacher writes on the board the sentences using the words ‘dreams’, ‘wishes’, ‘wants’, ‘needs’, ‘longs’ and other related terms. The students will identify what the man is doing/thinking of and recite a sentence about the picture. Next, they will determine the difference between sentences expressing desires that are impossible or difficult to attain and sentences expressing things that are possible or easily attainable. This activity helps them to learn the difference between hopes and wishes, and the terms that they can use to express their thoughts appropriately. Examples are as follows: Difficult/Impossible Easy/Possible The man dreams of finding a treasure. The man plans to finish his studies. Class discussion on expressing plans and wishes will follow. The teacher emphasises the difference between the two. Enrichment To reinforce learning, the class will do the activity, “Agree or Disagree?” This activity entails each student to construct a sentence expressing his hope/dream. As each student recites, another one will stand up to give him an advice on how to attain his dream or goal. The rest of the class agrees or disagrees with the advice by saying ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’. If anyone disagrees, he will stand up and give his advice to the other person. One important rule to follow is to give everybody a chance to express a dream/wish and give an advice. Rationale Thought bubbles will be used to motivate students to formulate sentences. In particular, the picture shows a man who thinks of many things including a luxury car, house and lot, college diploma, healthy body, and delightful dinner. The thoughts in the pictures are very common to allow students to relate easily with the boy, thus construct sentences with ease. The focus of the lesson is to develop discourse competence by making students express themselves freely. In this regard, there is no need to explain further why they want the things they will mention. Checking of students’ pronunciation mistakes will be limited in order to encourage them to speak. As proponents of the Communicative Approach posit, students will learn faster by struggling to use the language than by just knowing or memorising its rules (Richards & Rodgers, 1999; 2001). Discourse and socio-linguistic competence will be enhanced by having each of the students give an advice to one of their classmates. Discourse competence will be challenged as students express their thoughts whilst socio-linguistic competence will be demonstrated as students reply in accordance to the intention of their classmates. According to Tarone & Yule (1989, 67) ‘sociolinguistic competence involves the ability to produce and understand language appropriate to specific social situations and conforms to the politeness conventions of those situations’. Giving advice to their classmates tests the students’ ability to respond with politeness and consideration. For instance, if one expresses intention to graduate with honours, the second student is expected to advise him to study hard and improve in a particular subject. In other words, the adviser should provide encouragement but at the same time make the other realise what he should do to attain the goal. Considering the gender and culture of the students, the picture to be posted on the board should show only those things that are relevant to their context. Specifically, the picture of the food shows fruits and vegetables as the Muslim culture prohibits pork and other meat dishes. Material things such as cars, house and lot, and jewellery are neutral to the culture, and would not offend the learners. Likewise, the pictures do not include having a family as some of the students may not be thinking of having a family in the future. Instead, the pictures include finishing a college degree, a goal aspired by all. Once again, the choice of materials for instruction should be done carefully to avoid discrimination and confusion. Teachers should not infuse their moral standards into their lessons as this could offend the students. As demonstrated in the lesson, the teacher will allow other students to provide advice to their classmates. Having a similar cultural background, it is assumed that students themselves are better advisers than the teacher who is coming from a different culture. Moreover, consideration of the students’ culture restrains the design of the speaking activity. Instead of having the students grouped to perform role-playing, recitation should be done individually to avoid noise inside the classroom. The Muslim school culture is strict about behaviour. Unlike in other classrooms where cooperative learning activities are ideal to promote learning (Brown, 1994), Muslim classrooms are preferably quiet to avoid disruptions (Al-Khwaiter, 2001). Teaching Writing Target Level: Grades 2-3 Number of students: 20-25   Time durations: 45 min – 1 hour Materials: Worksheets for writing, pens, crayons In this lesson, the students should be able to: 1. Illustrate characterisation, setting and events in their story 2. Write a story based on their illustration 3. Read and comment on other students’ stories Procedure Motivation/Initial Activity The main purpose of the lesson is to lead students to write their original story based on plain illustrations (See Appendix B). Before writing, the teacher motivates students to look at the figure on the first page of the worksheets and ‘dress up’ the character. The students will be allowed 15 min to design their character. That is, they will change the stick figure into something else, such as a boy/girl with face, body, etc. They will also draw something on the background to show the setting or where the character lives. This means that the students will draw something on the background such as a school or home to show where they can find their character. For example, they will show that the character is a student in a school or a worker in the farm, etc. The teacher will roam around to check if the students are doing the activity properly. Main Activity When students are done with the drawing on the first page, the teacher will ask them to write something to describe the character. The description will include the gender, age, hobby and environment of the character. The aim is to write a story using illustrations. The worksheets include instructions on what to do. The teacher will provide the pages with illustration of stick figures (Appendices D-H). The first two pages (B-C) are required of every student. This means each student will have those illustrations and they will design those figures with an introduction of the characters. For the continuation, the teacher will let them choose other illustrations to use in their story. The students will decide/choose from Worksheets D-H to complete their story. On the second page, they will be asked to imagine that the character meets other characters and makes a conversation with them. This means they will design the other character (make a face, body, feet, etc.) in order to show the physical features. They will discuss about the relationship between the two characters, whether they are a family, student-teacher, friends, etc. They will also write a conversation between the characters and continue the story in the other pages of their choice (Appendices D-H). Enrichment The teacher will ask students to read and comment on others’ stories. Each will read at least two stories and give (only) positive comments to each. Rationale This lesson takes into consideration that writing a story is not an easy task especially for ESL/EFL students. Therefore, to aid students in writing, the teacher motivates them by asking them to draw first then write about their own illustration. The illustrations in the appendices are stick figures to allow students to draw and make their own characters. They will benefit from this activity because it cultivates their creativity to draw and make up a character. Also, writing about what they have drawn is easier because students will draw out from their own background and vocabulary. It is better than writing a story based on pictures because the latter is limiting and less imaginative. Also, as Nunan (1989) posits, authentic materials promote communicative language use. Their own illustrations can be considered authentic because those are products of their own imagination and cultural context. Designing the following pages of their story based on the illustrations provides challenge for students to think critically. The suggestive stick figures will guide them to write a story with limited number of characters. It is also advantageous to the teacher because she/he will be able to identify who among the students can creatively produce written manuscripts out of the given figures. The more figures/illustrations the students take and write about, the longer the story they will make and the more language they produce. The worksheets provided include instructions to scaffold writing. These instructions are very specific so as to lead students to create a story line. Nevertheless, they are not limiting so students can still think of different ways to interpret and design the stick figures. The enrichment part requires students to give positive comments to others’ stories. This will help students improve and feel better about expressing themselves. It is better to give only positive comments to others than give negative comments because according to Domjan (2010), positive reinforcement produces an appetitive stimulus. Teaching Grammar Target Level: Grades 2-3 Number of students: 20-25   Time durations: 45 min – 1 hour Materials: Board of Activities Pens In this lesson, the students should be able to: 1. Fill up the ‘board of activities’ by inquiring from other people the activities they intend to do in the future 2. Construct sentences in the future tense 3. Present their work in front of the class Procedure Motivation/Initial Activity The students will complete the ‘board of activities’ (See Appendix E) by inquiring from their partner what s/he plans to do in the future. The board contains different occasions and students will have to find fill in each box with sentences expressing interest of their partner to fulfil an activity. Main Activity Upon completion of the board, the students will present in front of the class. They will mention the persons who will fulfil the activity and give some background stories about it based on their interview. At the end of the presentation, the teacher will ask students to identify the words (verbs) they used to report activities to be completed in the future. Students will discuss the function of the future tense of the verb. Enrichment The students will design a similar ‘board of activities’ to record activities they will do when they get older. They are free to choose the ages as long as they complete all nine boxes. Rationale The grammar activities are designed mainly to teach students how to construct sentences in the future tense. It is assumed that students already encountered the lesson in the previous years such as Grade 1, thus the designed lesson is a way to enhance and improve their knowledge and skills. The board determines the students’ prior knowledge of future tense. Identifying prior knowledge helps to improve the interest of students (Christen & Murphy, 1991). It will also aid the teacher to assess the readiness of students for the next lesson. As they interview their partner and jot down things the other would like to accomplish, they form sentences with the future tense (will+verb) despite unawareness. The use of the board helps to bring about an inductive way of teaching grammar. Earlier approaches in grammar usually made use of deductive teaching (Richard & Rodgers, 1999; 2001) but such will make students memorise the rules without much application. In the activity, the students do not need to recite the rules because they will construct the sentence with the board as their guide. For instance, students will say, ‘Glenda will learn to roast Turkey on Thanksgiving’. The repeated recitation of the students will promote acquisition of vocabulary because as Skinner (in Linden, 2008) proposes, the more they get exposed to the language, the better they acquire it, especially if the stimuli is followed by a positive response such as commendations/praise after reciting. The inductive approach to teaching grammar is also more student-centred because the activity is given priority over the rules. In the suggested activity, the students will first enjoy filling in the columns with names of their classmates as they look for the one who fits the description. Then, they will use the sentences on their own before identifying the tense of the verbs they used. In contrast, if the teacher uses the deductive approach, s/he will give verbs in the base form then ask students to convert them into the future tense, then finally use them in sentences. This way, the opportunity to communicate with others is limited if not absent and communication situation becomes stilted. Students will be forced to construct sentences using the verbs and they will come up mostly with simple sentences (S-V-OC) just to comply with the teacher’s requirement. Active learning strategy is likewise applied in the activity as students take an active role in interviewing their classmate. Active learning environment encourages students to share information, express feelings/ideas, and take participatory roles in class activities. In addition, active learning environment involves the commitment of students and the teacher to “a dynamic partnership in which both share a vision and responsibility for instruction” (Fern, Anstrom & Silcox, 1994). In such an environment, the students have the role of discovering, constructing and creating something new” while the teacher takes the role of a facilitator and guide. In the given activity, the student discusses the content of their boards, whilst the teacher facilitates by asking questions regarding the presentation. Conclusion Teaching English to foreign language speakers present a lot of challenges. TEFL students have limited opportunity to speak and practice the language, making acquisition and learning much slower. Likewise, they have limited access to reading and listening materials for their level. Unless provided by the school, the students will have less opportunity to read and listen to the target language. Therefore, TEFL teachers should be resourceful and creative in designing lessons for students. In the lessons provided, the teacher ensured that the activities maximise opportunities for interaction, and they are equally challenging and interesting for Grades 2 to 3. The exercises in the lesson plans maximize the opportunity to communicate with each other. In the speaking and grammar lessons, students will interact with their classmates by sharing experiences and thoughts. The grammar lesson specifically requires them to conduct an informal interview with a partner, thus this activity provides ample practice to them. To succeed in the objective, the teacher should encourage students to speak in straight English while doing the interview. The exercises are also challenging and interesting for their level. The lesson plans incorporate art to make the activities interesting. Students will find more reason to write as they see the illustrations they make in the writing activity. This is better than just asking them to write based on imagination. Likewise, the activity is challenging because they will have to decide what scenes will follow. Similarly, students will be challenged to think about the thoughts of the man in the speaking activity. Furthermore, in the grammar activity, the interview part will challenge them to approach another person and engage in relational and personal communication. Likewise, the discussion will challenge their presentation or public speaking skills. Taking from these, students will find the activities interesting as they use other skills such as drawing, interviewing, and presenting/discussing in front of the class. The activities, which make use of visual-spatial, interpersonal and linguistic talents, accordingly, can also promote the multiple intelligences of students, thus making instruction holistic. References Al-Khwaiter, J. (2001). Communicative language teaching and curriculum innovation in the teaching of English as a foreign language in Qatar: A study of the classroom and its socio-cultural context. PhD Thesis: De Montfort University. Brown, H. D. (1994). Principles of language learning and teaching. NJ: Prentice Hall. Christen, W. & Murphy, T. (1991). Increasing comprehension by activating prior knowledge: summary and analysis. Retrieved from ERIC Database (ED 328885) Fern, V., Anstrom, K.& Silicox, B. (1994). Active learning and the limited English proficient. Directions in Language and Education, 1(2), National Clearing House for Bilingual Education. Linden, L. (2008). The basic theories of language acquisition. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J. & Rodgers, T. (1999). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J. and Rodgers, T. 2001. Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.a Tarone, E. & Yule, G. (1989). Focus on the language learner. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Appendix A Pictures for Motivation Activity: Speaking Appendix B Worksheet for Writing Design the character by making him/her look like a real person. Draw the face, body, arms, legs, feet, etc. and describe him/her in at least two sentences. In your description, mention the name and age of the character, and describe him/her. For example, write if he/she is an intelligent, kind, industrious, funny person. Draw something in the background too in order to show where we can find the character (school, home, street, office, etc.). _____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Appendix C Imagine that the character you made meets another character. Design the figures again to show their faces, body, etc. Write about what is happening in the drawing. ______________________________________________________________________________ Appendix D If you choose this illustration, you imagine your character meeting other people. Design the characters and write about this scene. What are the characters doing here? How are they related to each other? What are they telling each other? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Appendix E If you choose this illustration, you are thinking of a possible argument between the characters in the story. Draw the characters and write about their conversation and feelings. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Appendices D-H will be photocopied and placed in the middle table. Students will just get them if they need the illustrations to complete their stories. They can also choose to draw the ending. Appendix F If you choose this scene, you are thinking of the character being hugged by the other character. What are they saying to each other? Are they reuniting? Are they showing each other their care? Write about your thoughts on the lines. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Appendix G If you choose this one, write about the character feeling free, happy, or running for something, escaping, or simply walking. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Appendix H This could be the end of your story. In this illustration, the character is smiling. Why is your character smiling? Has he/she done something good? Write about it. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Appendix I Board of Activities Interview your classmate and find out what she/he intends to do on the following dates. Use the future tense of the verbs. Prepare to report to the class what you found out about your partner. Thanksgiving Christmas New Year Valentine’s Day Independence Day Your Birthday Your Mom;s/Dad’s Birthday Your bro/sis’s birthday First Day of School Read More