ELT METHODOLOGY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0

Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 1.2 Overview of Language Teaching Methodology .................................................... 1 Scope and Objectives of the Assignment ............................................................ 1

2.0

Communicative Language Teaching Lesson Plan ................................................... 2 2.1 2.2 Overview ............................................................................................................. 2 Description of the Lesson Plan ............................................................................ 2

3.0 4.0

Justification of Choice of Activities ............................................................................. 4 Teaching and Learning Reflection ............................................................................... 6 4.1 4.2 4.3 Overview ............................................................................................................. 6 Strengths and Weaknesses of the Activities ........................................................ 6 Suggestions for Improvement .............................................................................. 7

5.0

Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 9

REFERENCES .........................................................................................................................10 Appendix A The Lesson Plan ..............................................................................................11 Appendix B Observation Sheet ...........................................................................................21

1.0 1.1

Introduction Overview of Language Teaching Methodology

Rodgers (2001) stated that language teaching has become a profession in the last century. With that, there concept of methods of language teaching has emerged. The methodolgoy refers to a systematic set of teaching practices based on a particular theory of language and language learning. Due to the focus on language teaching methodology, there have been many approaches in teaching language such as the silent way, direct method, suggestopaedia, audiolingual method, total physical response, grammar translation method, community language teaching and communicative language teaching. In the Malaysian education context, the popularity of communicative language teaching (CLT) has made it as one of the main approaches to use in teaching English in the classroom (Kettle, 2008).

1.2

Scope and Objectives of the Assignment

This assignment explores the use of a selected language teaching approach; in this case, the selected approach is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) to teach the specific skills of speaking and listening in the classroom. A lesson plan is developed and presented in this assignment report which highlights the activities of the lesson plan. Additionally, a short essay is written to provide justification for selecting the activities by relating these activities to the CLT approach. Also, a reflection of the teaching and learning activities is also written in this assignment report that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the activities, as well as to provide recommendations/changes that should be made to the activities together with the rationale for changes.

2.0 2.1

Communicative Language Teaching Lesson Plan Overview

The lesson plan is developed to teach speaking skills to Primary Three students with low to intermediate proficiency in the English language. The lesson plan focuses on speaking skills, based on the curriculum specification for English KBSR Year Four: Narrating the events that took place. The lesson takes 60 minutes to complete with activities that included incidentally, other language skills such as listening, reading and writing. The activities in the proposed lesson plan are based on the learning theme for English KBSR Year 4 (Curriculum Development Centre, 2003). The activities are adapted to develop students speaking skills while integrating with other language skills.

2.2

Description of the Lesson Plan

A description of the lesson plan is provided below:

Date Time/Duration Year Enrolment Language Level Topic Learning Outcome

23 March 2012 8.00 9.00 am (60 minutes) 4 25 students Low intermediate Food Variety of food in the canteen At the end of this class, the students will be able to: Participate and contribute in a conversation about food

Prior knowledge Curriculum Specification

Familiar with food available in the canteen 2.2. Talk confidently on topics of interest in simple language; 2.3 Express thoughts and feelings and talk about things heard, read, seen, and viewed in simple language;

General objectives

At the end of the lesson, students are able to: (i) talk about foods found in the school canteen; (ii) give opinion about improving food in the school canteen

Specific objectives

At the end of the lesson, students are able to: (a) tell a friend(s) about the type of food found in the school canteen (b) share their opinion about the quality of food in the canteen (c) give at least one idea to improve food in the school canteen

Moral value Teaching and learning procedures

Sharing, respect for others Picture, articles, worksheets, board

Note: The Lesson Plan and its Teaching and Learning Aids are appended in the Appendices Section

3.0

Justification of Choice of Activities

The 60-minute lesson plan includes a set induction stage using food demonstration with a homemade sandwich. The use of the realia was to initiate conversation by the students about food and leading the discussion to food in the canteen. The first and second activities use a game approach with word puzzle and matching picture-word as a fun way to learn. These activities create conscious awareness to the pronunciation and spelling of active vocabulary relating to canteen food. The activities were done in small group to promote cooperation and generating small talks (to enhance speaking skills) among the students. The next activity includes the use of short discussion to enhance critical and creative thinking. The writing exercise was guided so that students are able to produce coherent sentences. The activity outline in Worksheet B gives the students guideline to structure their groups discussion as well as to create lyrics for their song. The next activity involves active speech production in an implicit manner through the use of song and lyric. Through singing, the students incidentally improve their pronunciation skills while sharpening their listening skills as they listen to their teacher and friends. The lyrics help the students to improve their spelling skills. The closing activity uses a picture to raise students curiosity and lead them toward critical thinking and higher order thinking (synthesizing, analyzing).

The activities in the lesson plan provided the students with tools and opportunity to enhance their language skills particularly speaking, as well as other skills listening and writing. These activities complied with the underlying principles of CLT approach which according to Rodgers (2001) and Richard and Rodgers (2001) are as follows: Learners learn a language through using it to communicate Authentic and meaningful communication is the main goal of the classroom activities Fluency is given emphasis in communication Communication involves the integration of several language skills Learning is a process of creative construction and involves trial and error

In all the activities, the students were exposed to speaking and listening opportunities and were using the skills as they participate in the activities through their communication efforts. The communication was related to something authentic and meaningful; in this case, a 4

discussion about the food in the canteen. Fluency was also given emphasis in the communication process as the teacher include activities that get students to enrich their vocabularies and notice as well as use the words in both oral and written form. Thus, students were able to pronounce and spell the words familiar in the canteen context correctly. The activities were also designed to enable students to use their speaking skills as well as listening and writing. The students also used learning skills such as scanning and skimming, and interpersonal skills. The activities centered on the students as the teacher played the role as facilitator. Students construct their own meaning as they depend on their schemata (prior knowledge about food in the canteen) which are refreshed through the games activities and used prominently in their communication efforts. Brown (2001) stated that students in a communicative class ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed contexts outside the classroom. Classroom tasks must therefore equip students with the skills necessary for communication in those contexts. These aspects have been included in the activities of the lesson plan.

4.0 4.1

Teaching and Learning Reflection Overview

The teaching and learning reflection involved having a colleague to be an observer during the classroom activities. An observation sheet was developed to provide the teacher with a writing tool to record the responses of the students, their participation and teachers classroom management ability. The teachers responses were documented in the observation sheet, shown in Appendix B.

4.2

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Activities

Based on my own reflection of the activities and my colleagues observation comments and ratings, I felt that the activities to a certain extent have fulfilled the learning objectives. The students were provided with contextual activities in a situation they are familiar with. The varied activities in games, group activities, singing, discussion and others gave them the chance to express thoughts and feelings as well as talk about things they are familiar with in a simple but fluent language. Based on the general and specific objectives, the students main communication efforts were talking about food in the canteen and sharing information with their friends in their conversation. However, my colleague and I observed that participation in all the activities is not 100%. The weaker students sometime stay silent and do not speak unless being spoken to directly. Also, the use of other language (Malay) also lessens the effectiveness of the lesson activities. The students however, did their best to speak in English with some help from their friends to supply them with vocabulary for completing their sentences. The students were using the English term for the food but most of the sentences in their conversation are in Malay. Nevertheless, the students have enriched their vocabulary with new words relating to food in the canteen and learn how to state like and dislike of a particular food.

Some of the activities were easy such as the word puzzle game and the picture-word matching activities. The students were able to search the words easily. Thus, the activity was finished early. I used some of the extra time to generate more conversation with the students. There are also activities such as the singing activity that was given a short time period. The 6

students like the activity but felt that it was not enough (time) and reluctant to finish the lesson as they want to sing some more. Therefore, the weakness in this aspect is lack of planning and anticipation of the students learning styles and preferences.

The activities also showed that students have no setbacks to using English in singing songs. All the students, including the weaker ones enjoyed and participated 100% in the singing. This indirectly makes up for their inactivity during the conversation and discussion activities. However, the singing activity was short for them, and only able to build several lines of lyrics for the students to sing. It did led to the discovery of new words, their meanings and use in context such as delicious, spicy, fragrant, stinky, sour, and so on.

4.3

Suggestions for Improvement

Based on the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson plan, the following suggestions for improvement are given. (a) Lesson follow up The students have been exposed to a rich vocabulary input relating to food in the canteen. There should be follow up of this speaking lesson such as using the world of knowledge about food and bringing them into a specific writing class. It can also be used in a grammar lesson to enhance students knowledge about adjectives. This ensures that the knowledge they gained from this lesson is used to enhance other language skills in another follow up lesson.

(b) Rules Only English in the Classroom One of the weaknesses of the activities was use of Malay in the classroom especially during the conversation and discussion. In future lesson, a strict rule of Only English in the Classroom should be adhered to complete with rewards and punishment. This abides the behaviorist approach to learning, stating that response to stimulus and reinforcing good behaviour with positive (rewards) and negative (punishment) reinforcement can help students to learn the language effectively (Baum, 2005). To help the students to develop confidence and skills to speak in English, the teacher may put 7

sentence model written on poster paper and pasted in the classroom so that this guides the students in constructing their speech. This suggestion is recommended because the effectiveness of the activities depends on the students use of English in their conversation and discussion.

(c) More time given to activities that students like More time should be given to activities that students like, such as singing activity. This will generate more active participation and encourage incidental use of the language, as advocated in the CLT approach (Rodgers, 2001). Newton (2001) stated that singing is a form of communicative approach and an efficient way to learn vocabulary. He explained that singing provides the vocabularies that students can use productively and repetitively.

(d) Prepare activities that match students ability level The games activities were too easy for the students as they may have been familiar with the vocabulary related to food in the canteen. To improve the activity, the teacher may use questions that lead to the word in the word puzzle. For example, Food that is long, brownish and often found between two buns will lead to Sausage. This will be more challenging and generate higher thinking order as well as promoting critical and creative thinking.

The proposed suggestions above can help to improve the activities in the lesson plan. Through these improvement, the students will be able to enhance their speaking skills even more and at the same time, having fun while learning.

5.0

Conclusion

The lesson plan developed in this assignment is based on a communicative language teaching approach which is most commonly used in the teaching and learning English in most Malaysian classrooms. The activities presented in the lesson plan are geared towards providing the students with a contextual situation where they can participate in communicative activities. As shown by the lesson plan, there are a variety of activities that we can use in a CLT classroom. However, the success and effectiveness of the activities depend on the students level of participation. Strengths and weaknesses of the activities must be determined and further improved in future lessons.

REFERENCES

Baum, W.M. (2005) Understanding behaviorism: Behavior, Culture and Evolution. Blackwell. Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Longman Pearson Education, White Plains, New York. Howatt, A. (1984). A history of English language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kettle, M. (2008) Teaching Grammar: Rethinking the Approach. In H. Gaudert (Ed). The Teaching of Grammar. Malaysia: Sasbadi-Malaysian English Language Teaching Association. pp. 175-190 Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rodgers, T.S. (2001). Language Teaching Methodology, CAL Online Resources, September Issue Paper, http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/rodgers.html

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Appendix A The Lesson Plan

Stage Set induction 5 minutes

Teaching activity Food Demonstration The teacher brings homemade sandwiches from home

Students activity Whole class Students give responds to teachers question

Remarks Rationale: To bring students focus to the lesson content

Teacher asks questions

Do you bring homemade food to school? Materials: Homemade sandwich (realia)

Do you buy food

from the canteen during recess?

Which is better,

homemade food or canteen food?

[Teacher calls out students name to respond to her]

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Stage Activity 1 10 minutes

Teaching activity Word Puzzle Game The teacher gives instruction on how the game is played

Students activity Small Group Students form group of 4 Students highlight 5 items from the puzzle

Remarks Rationale: To provide vocabulary on type of food in the canteen

Small groups are formed

Teacher asks students to find at least 5 items from the puzzle

Students calls out the food in the puzzle Materials: Word puzzle

Teacher asks students to say out the food they find in the puzzle

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Activity Sheet: Word Puzzle

S R G B A R I C E U

A E N U G G E T A L

U A A N T F E F C L

S I S F G R R B A A

A J I J P I T I K B

G L L A O E Y S E H

E I E G G D G C D S

R I M C I M D U F I

U H A N L E J I G F

I G K E J E D T J R

Bun, Sausage, Nugget, Cake, Nasi lemak, Biscuit, Rice, Fried Mee, Egg, Fish ball

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Stage Activity 2 10 minutes

Teaching activity Matching word-pictures

Students activity Small Group

Remarks Rationale: To relate food in the puzzle to the canteen as a context and also to improve students pronunciation

Teacher distributes Worksheet A

Students match food item to the picture

Teacher asks students to match the food item to the picture

Students responds to teacher when called out

Teacher asks questions

What food is this? Can you find this

Students read out the food in the list

food in the canteen?

Do you like this

Materials: Worksheet A Whiteboard

food?
What other food

can you find in our school canteen

Teacher writes down other food items found in the canteen

Teacher asks students to pronounce the food in the list

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Worksheet A

Biscuit

Nugget

Egg Fish ball

Bun Cake

Fried mee

Nasi lemak

Fried rice

Sausage

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Stage Activity 3 10 minutes

Teaching activity Group Discussion Teacher distributes Worksheet B

Students activity Small Group Students discuss and give respond to the questions

Remarks Rationale: To encourage students to share ideas among themselves

Teacher asks students to discuss about food in the canteen

Food they like and

Students complete the worksheet

why
Food they dont like

and why
Food they want the

Materials: Worksheet B

canteen to sell and why

Teacher asks students to write their answer in the worksheet

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Worksheet B:

We like to eat _______ Because its _____________ We dont like to eat _________ Because its ________________

We want ________ in canteen We want __________ in canteen Because ____________________ Because ____________________

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Stage Activity 4 10 minutes

Teaching activity Sing a Song Teacher distributes Worksheet C

Students activity Small Group Students sing along with teacher

Remarks Rationale: To present group output in a creative way

Teacher gives instruction for the activity

Students sing their song based on their lyrics

Teacher teaches students to sing the song Materials: Worksheet B Worksheet C

Teacher asks students to sing their song using lyrics they made in Worksheet B

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Worksheet C:

Sing a song (Lyric Happy birthday)

We liked to eat sandwich Because its so yummy We dont like to eat sweets because it is too sweet

We want fried mee in canteen We want fried rice in canteen because it is delicious because it is my favorite

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Stage Closure 10 minutes

Teaching activity Show a Picture Teacher shows a picture

Students activity Whole Class Students respond to teacher

Remarks Rationale: To wrap-up the lesson and inculcate moral value

Teacher asks students if they can have the food

Teacher impart moral value about healthy diet Materials: Picture A

Teachers summarizes the lesson

Picture A:

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Appendix B Observation Sheet

Rate the students participation, students response and teachers management ability using 1 5 (1 = the least satisfactory, 5 = the most satisfactory) and your comments

Stage

Students participation

Students response

Teachers management ability

Set induction

3 4 3 Comments: The students shows more interest about the food and do not answer the teacher unless the teacher ask specifically from someone (say out name of student) 4 4 4 Comments: The game was easy. Students can find the words easily. 3 3

Activity 1

Activity 2

Comments: The game was easy. Most responses from those who are good in English. The weaker ones kept silent. 3 3 3 Comments: Malay is used in the conversation of the students. The teacher has to keep reminding students to speak in English. Only the better ones tried; the weaker ones remain silent. 5 5 5 Comments: Students definitely like this activity 3 3 Comments: Students still want to sing and dont want the class to end

Activity 3

Activity 4

Closure

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