REFLECTION : WEEK 3

For this week tutorial task we were required to read three articles on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). This week tutorial is much more complex compare to the previous one. The three articles are very hard for me to understand at first. So, I have to read it several times.

CLT focused more on communication as a medium to learn a language. CLT enable students to experiments more on the usage of the language formally of informally. I personally believe that in order for someone to perform better in a target language, he/she must always try to use the language in their daily life. By doing so, they will be able to improve themselves instead of just learning the theory they actually can practice it to make it more effective.

In this tutorial we were able to derive the theory behind CLT approach from the articles given.We also be able to see the implications of communicative language teaching towards materials development. We also be able to pinpoints the principles that supports CLT within the KBSM English Language Curriculum and F1 English Language Syllabus. This show the importance of the reasons why CLT is being implemented in our education system.

As a teacher we must encourage and motivate our students to communicate in English. This will not only boost their confidence level but also improve their speaking skills. Thus, the knowledge regarding CLT is very important to be internalized by a teacher. 

REFLECTION : WEEK 8

For this week tutorial, we were required to compare and contrast the adaptation techniques proposed by McDonough and Shaw, Tomlinson and Masuhara and also Makey. Through this task, I noticed that there are different techniques of material adaptation. The techniques that being focused by the authors did share some similarities. However, we also can detect some contrasting elements between the authors such the terms used and also the steps of the adaptation process.

 As a teacher it is essential for us to know all these techniques if one day we wish to apply it in our materials.It is very important for the teacher to understand the material themselves before using it in the classroom. Teacher must also be able to prepare themselves for all the possibilities of using certain materials.

Material adaptation is really important to create an effective and engaging learning process in the classroom. Students will be able to learn more and become more eager to learn if the materials are fun and interesting. To really catch the students’ attention, a teacher must be able to apply the adaptation technique in choosing and designing a material for the learners.

REFLECTION : WEEK 6, TUTORIAL TASK

For this week, we were assigned to do a presentation based on the given articles of checklist to evaluate a coursebook or material. For my group, we need to prepare a presentation on Sheldon’s ‘Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials’. We need to go through the articles and ttry to grasp the concept of evaluating a textbook that Sheldon is trying to convey. From the checklist provided, we realized that the rating given for each criteria depend closely on who is doing the evaluation. This is due to the fact that each party that involve with the textbook and material evaluation have different priorities in selecting the most suitable coursebook to be integrate a particular classroom. For instance, teachers most probably think the rationale of the textbook over other characteristic while, the administration might consider the suffiency criteria as a crucial factor in evaluating a textbook.

Compare to other checklist such as Grant’s, William’s and Littlejohn’s, Sheldon’s checklist seems to be more user friendly because it does not include a complex evaluation process. Nevertheless, Sheldon’s checklist is more suitable to be used to evaluate as a whole. This is because the items in the checklist are not spesific enough to evaluate a textbook down to the linguistic content.

We also realized that each checklist has its own flaws but it is interesting how different author come out with these checklists. The structure of the checklist might seems different but the aim is the same which is to evaluate a coursebook to determine wether it is convenient to be use and also to look for room of improvement.

REFLECTION : WEEK 4/5, TUTORIAL TASK

For this week task, we were assigned with an article regarding coursebook and material evaluation. The title of the article is Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials by Leslie E. Sheldon. Other than the checklist provided in we were also be able to understand more on other checklist by different authors such as William, Grant and Littlejohn.

Through this task, I realized that there are no perfect ways of evaluating a coursebooks or materials. It all all depends on the situation where the coursebooks or materials being implemented. The situation and environment also need to be taken into consideration in selecting a material for teaching and learning process in a classroom.

Sheldon’s checklist is simple and easy to be used. It consist of 17 criteria that comprises not only can apply to evaluate the content of the a coursebook but also the physical criteria and technical part of a coursebook. However, we also spot the weaknesses of the checklist.

TASK : WEEK 3

(    (a) Identify the theory behind communicative language teaching approach.

Based on the article of Communicative Language Teaching by Nina Spada, CLT is an approach to L2 teaching where it is a meaning-based and learner-centered approach. Here, the fluency is being emphasized more compared to the accuracy of the language or in other words, it is mainly focus on the ability of the students to understand and produce messages and not the teaching or correction of language form. Other than that, there is also other view that purpose CLT as primarily meaning-based which includes both the fluency and accuracy aspect.

The audio-lingual method is an oral-based approach which is based on the behavioral psychology (Skinner). In addition, it is used in the language learning where it gives attention on the inductive learning of grammar. The learning is conducted through the activities that involve the students to do repetition, practice and memorization. This method will drill the students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. For example, dialogue activities which can be carried out by the students in form of imitation and repetition. By conducting this activity, the students will be able to use the target language communicatively.

Furthermore, according to Hymes’ theory the knowledge of the rules of grammar (linguistic competence) and the knowledge of the rules of language use (communicative competence) gives obvious impact on CLT. According to Hymes’, the focus in L2 teaching is through the accurate use of grammatical forms. Besides that, there are also several components of abilities that the learners need to require which is (1) linguistic competence; (2) sociolinguistic competence; (3) discourse competence; and (4) Strategic competence.

·         Linguistic competence: the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.

·         Sociolinguistic competence: the ability to say the appropriate thing in a certain social situation.

·         Discourse competence: the ability to start, enter, contribute to, and end a conversation, and the ability to do this in a consistent and coherent manner.

·         Strategic competence: the ability to communicative effectively and repair problems caused by communication breakdown.

      (b)  State the implications of communicative language teaching towards materials development.

   (c)  Locate principles supporting CLT within the KBSM English Language Curriculum and F1 English Language Syllabus.

Aim of KBSM English Language Curriculum:

The syllabus aims to extend learners’ English language proficiency in order to meet their needs to use English in certain situations in everyday life, for knowledge acquisition, and for future workplace needs.

By referring to the KBSM English Language Curriculum, there are several objectives that support the CLT that are:-

By the end of their secondary school education, learners should be able to:

·         form and maintain relationships through conversations and correspondence; take part in social interaction; and interact to obtain goods and services;

·         obtain, process and use information from various audio-visual and print sources, and present the information in spoken and written form;

·         listen to, view, read and respond to different texts, and express ideas, opinions, thoughts and feelings imaginatively and creatively in spoken and written form;

Principles that support CLT:-

(1)   form and maintain relationships through conversations and correspondence; take part in social interaction; and interact to obtain goods and services:

·         1 principle: promotes cooperative and collaborative learning

Through the activities that involves conversation; the students will eventually interact with each other and give opinions on the topic that is being talk about. Here, the students not only able to express their idea on certain things but they also will learn on how to give a right response. For example, in the role-playing activities where students can ask each other questions regarding certain topic (e.g. family or friend) where during this process, they will ask questions and respond politely. Moreover, through this activity the students also practice the sociolinguistic competence. In addition, the students also will collaborate with each other in order to make the process of communication of the target language can be carry out successfully. Thus, teacher needs to be the facilitator during the learning activities and promotes communication among students.

·         2 principal: practice of using the language

-          As the students get involves in the interaction process obtaining the goods and services, they will be exposed to discourse competence. Here, they will learn to start, contribute to, and end the conversation on the topic being talk about. The students will start to learn this in a consistent and coherent manner as they will take turn in order to participate in the conversation. Moreover, they also will be taught on how to ask questions and responds in a polite manner whenever they want to make enquiries.

-          Apart from that, the students also will learn the linguistic competence as they get involves in activities such as writing simple instruction or simple invitation. Here, the students usually will participate collaboratively and at the same time they will learn on how to use the simple grammar and vocabulary.

·         3 principal: focus on form

-      It is an approach to explicit grammar teaching, emphasizes a form-meaning connection and teaches grammar within the contexts and through communicative task. Thus, it is very important for the teacher to find activities that is related to their real life situation so that they will understand the context more easily. Here, teacher should encourage the students to express their idea by making the students get involve in interaction and focus more on the meaning and allow the learners to figure out the rule themselves naturally as they having a conversation with each other. During the activity, the students eventually will communicate by negotiation of meaning and gives feedback as well.

(2)   obtain, process and use information from various audio-visual and print sources, and present the information in spoken and written form:

·         1 principal: input needs to be rich

-          The activities that involve the use of authentic materials are very essential to reflect real-life situations and demands. Thus, teacher should design activities that use various audio-visual and print resources for the learning. For example by using audio-visual such as videos, the students not only will listen to the spoken texts but they also can take a look at the visuals presented in the videos. This is very good as teacher can attract the student’s interest. Moreover, teacher plays an important role in maximizing the use of the target language and this can be done through giving an instruction during the learning. Furthermore, teacher should give students greater amount of input so that they will gains greater information on the target language.

·         2 principal: input needs to be meaningful, comprehensible and elaborated.

-          The materials that are used in the activity of the learning should be meaningful and comprehensible to the students so that they can use the language in their real life. Thus, teacher needs to design activity that is authentic. For example, teacher should choose passage that is meaningful and able the students to give view on what the text is all about. Here, the process of learning can be in the form of writing or orally where here the students are encourage to elaborate their thought on what they have learn. That is why; teacher must be able to choose appropriate materials, as the proficiency levels of the students differ.

(3)   listen to, view, read and respond to different texts, and express ideas, opinions, thoughts and feelings imaginatively and creatively in spoken and written form:

·         1 principal: promotes collaborative learning

-          As the students are exposed to different texts, this can enhance their understanding on different usage of the language. The students will get involves in a group activity where they need to collaborate and interact with each other to complete their task. For example, storytelling activities during the discussion which ask the students to use their own words in order to express their ideas. Here, the process of negotiation of meaning can be seen during the discussion process.

·         2 principal: focus on fluency over accuracy

-          As the students express their own ideas, the focus will be on the fluency of the language use. Here, teacher also will emphasize the students with the discourse competence and sociolinguistic competence as the students get involves in the interaction process regarding the topic being discussed.

·         3 principal: learner-centered approach

-          Teacher should encourage the students to participate actively in an activity that use the target language which allow them to work on themselves, for example role-play activity that needs the students to cooperate with each other creatively. Thus, by conducting activity that focus on learner-centered, the students able to express their ideas and opinions freely. Moreover, in order for the learner’s linguistic knowledge to be automatic, students’ needs to be put under the real condition or situation of communication.

·         4 principal: provide error corrective feedback

-          When the students presenting their works, teachers will either give positive or negative feedback to the students. In order for teacher to make correction on the language used by the students, teacher can used direct error corrective which involved teacher’s help such as providing clues or clarification requests. In addition, error corrective and positive feedback is necessary in support of the learning process. Moreover, during the feedback, the students also will be exposed to the strategic competence that allow them to communicative effectively and repair problems caused by communication breakdown.

REFLECTION : WEEK 2, TUTORIAL TASK

How does it affect me as a pre-service teacher?

At first the task seems distant to me as I do not even know how to begin. After watching Jeremy Short’s video several times, I realized that I was able to see the connection of what he talk about on the video and the principle of material development. As a pre-service teacher this is an eye opener for me on how to design an effective material that can function efficiently in a classroom and actually be able provided support for the students understanding of a paticular lesson. A teacher must consider the principle of material development while choosing or designing a material for his/her classroom. The teacher must ask themselves ‘will the material achieve impact?’, ‘will it be able to facilitate learning’ and ‘will the students be interested to learn from it?. As a pre-service teacher, I realized that these are among the questions that I have to consider when I want to integrate or develop a material in the future.

How does it affect my current level of knowledge?

This week I also realized that there are so many tools that can be used to teach, a tool will forever remain a tool and will never become a language learning materials unless it is being utilize in a proper way to facilitate language learning. There are variety of tools, media and objects that can be used to teach. It is up to the teacher to integrated it into the classroom and make sure that it is corelated with the teaching purposes. I also learned that there are criteria that need to be taken into consideration in creating learning materials. In creating learning material we have to see from different point of views. We have to see it from not only the students’ point of view but also the teachers’ point of views. The materials must be able to grasp the students’ attention and interest to learn. On the other hand, it is also important for the teacher to believe and comfortable with the materials that they are using in the classroom. The teacher must first be sure that the material is suitable for the classroom and he/she must be able to operate with materials well.

How can I use that knowledge to improve myself?

From this week lesson, I learned the importance of a teacher being innovative and creative in implementing new methods of teaching to the classroom. It is very important for teachers to be able to engage students and encourage them to participate during the teaching and learning process. The knowledge that I gain also make me want to explore more on interesting materials and method of teaching and also create my own materials.

REFLECTION : WEEK 7

For this week task, we need to develop a Digital Language Learning Material (DLLM). The DLLM can involve the use of any type of digital media. Videos, audio and even pictures can use as a DLLM. We need to sketch out a digital language learning material interface and explain our concept using the information we have read. The DLLM can either be thematic based or language form based.

We decided to use ‘Prezi ‘ as our canvas. We found Prezi is a versatile tool. It can be exploited in many ways to create a DLLM not only for presentation. Everyone can use Prezi as long as they are connected to the internet or downloaded the desktop version of it. At first it might seem a bit complex to use Prezi but once you have tried to use it you will find it easy to use and also user friendly. It really helps to create a unique and interesting DLLM.

We use the Prezi to create a guided collaborative narration. This material aims to provide guidance on writing a narrative essay. It is suitable to be use in pre-writing stage as a supplement activity. In the activity, learners are required to write a storyline by choosing several items in each check points. At each checkpoint the users will be provided with a choice. The learners have to choose one of the listed option. The items will be the characters, the setting, the object involve and the genre of their story. They have to include each item in their narration.