Task 3 Academic Writing

The article that I have chosen for my argument is Teachers Approaches in

Teaching Literature: Observations of ESL Classroom. Contemporary Childrens
Literature programme was designed by Literature in Education (LIE) and introduced
in 2006 to provide pupils with basic foundation of early exposure to literature so as to
enhance their understanding, thinking, and appreciation of cultures, values and
traditions. (Siti Salina Mustakim, Ramlee Mustapha, Othman Lebar, 2015). The CCL
Programme is not only meant to address the interpersonal and informational
aesthetic value of the learning, but also beyond that where the students learn about
people, culture, ethics, behaviours and other social norms (Siti Salina Mustakim,
Ramlee Mustapha, Othman Lebar, 2015). There are three issues discussed in this
article which are the role of of CCL in primary schools, the role of teachers in the
teaching of CCL Programme and teachers approaches in the teaching of literature in
schools.

First and foremost, the first issue discussed in this article is the role of CCL in
primary schools. Siti Salina Mustakim, Ramlee Mustapha, Othman Lebar (2015)
claim that literature can be a tool to promote English Language literacy and
proficiency among the primary students. This theory is based on three learning
objectives of the CCL programme which are from the aspects of the personal and
emotional gains, the learning gains and the language gain. From the aspect of
language gain, through the early exposure to the literary texts, the students will
slowly become familiar with many features of language such as the syntactic and
lexical items in English Language. Then, they will be able to correct sentence
patterns, standard story structures, and varied word usage. From the aspects of
learning gain, children will learn new ideas and new knowledge regarding the values
and issues in lives. From the aspect of personal and emotional gain, literature help
the students in their emotional and spiritual growth as the literary works deals with
the events that usually constitute part of the readers experiences which they are able
to relate it to their own lives. To sum up, students can benefit from the literature by
having personal and emotional gain, learning gain and the language gain.

In addition, the next issue discussed is the role of teachers in the teaching of
CCL Programme. Siti Salina Mustakim, Ramlee Mustapha, Othman Lebar (2015)
assert that teachers as the activities planner are required to perform activities
suggested in modules and develop worksheet which can introduce the subject of the
literary elements in the works. Teachers can read the story with their students and

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highlights the storyline, characters, message or moral of the story. The activities
should be based on the students needs and interests so that they will have positive
attitude towards the literature that suits them. Classroom talk plays a critical role in
acquiring and fine-tuning literacy abilities. Teachers can also initiate a classroom
activity like discussion which involve the students to share their literature based on
their evaluation on the text. The scaffolding concept can be implemented during the
activities in which teachers provide temporary support to help students reaching
higher levels of comprehension and skill. By implementing this scaffolding concept,
the students will be able to learn independently. Therefore, teachers role of activities
planner is important in teaching the CCL programme.

Furthermore, the issue of teachers approaches in the teaching of literature in

schools is depicted in this article. There are three models which are Cultural Model,
Language Model and Personal Growth Model in the teaching of CCL programme.
Cultural Model examines the social, political, historical and background of a text. It is
quite teacher-centred as it requires a teacher to transmit the information and
knowledge to the students. Examples of activities that can be implemented through
Cultural Model are lectures, explanation, reading notes and criticism provided in
workbooks or by teacher. Secondly, in Language Model, teachers use the literature
as a resource in language learning to help the students to focus on the way how the
language is used in literature. Examples of activities that can be implemented are
prediction exercises, jumbled sentences, summary writing, creative writing and role-
play. Thirdly, Personal Growth Model focuses on the particular use of language in a
text and places it in a specific cultural context for making a connection to their
personal lives.

The strength of the CCL Programme is developing high-order thinking skills.

Discussion activity of literature that is carried out by the teacher bring out reasoning
related to sequence; cause and effect; character motivation; predictions; visualization
of actions, characters, and settings; critical analysis of the story; and creative
responses.They will learn how to reconnect the ideas and sequence of the text in a
systematic order and this will help to expand their imagination. Besides, the CCL
Programme can help to utilize literature as a model of writing. Literature can be a
guided writing to the students with low proficiency level of English. When the
students are exposed to the new lexical items in the sentences, they are able to
enrich their vocabulary words list which is very useful in writing. Moreover, literary
works from other country can facilitate understanding on how communication takes
place in that country as the world of a novel, play, or short story is an imaginary one

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and it presents a setting in which characters from many social or regional
backgrounds can be described. Literature is perhaps best regarded as a complement
to other materials used to develop the foreign learners understanding into the
country whose language is being learned. Hence, the strengths of CCL programme
are developing thinking skills, model of writing and increase cultural knowledge of
other country.

Nevertheless, there are some weaknesses in implementing this programme.

Some teachers might ignore the child-centered approaches and activities required by
CCL Programme. They continue in their usual teacher-centered patterns. The extent
to which teachers adopt the new literacy teaching programme relates closely to the
degree of alignment between their personal beliefs and the assumptions underlying
particular teaching. The implementation of CCL Programme also arouses the
problem of teachers experiences in teaching this subject. Since this programme is
introduced in 2006, the teachers nowadays are not exposed to it when they are
studying. Since there are teachers who do not attend the seminar for this
programme, they might face a lot of difficulties if the schools ask them to teach the
subject in upcoming years. There might also be some flaws on the selected text from
CCL Programme. If a story is adopted from Africa culture, the students are not able
to understand the culture in the story which is unsuitable for Malaysian students prior
knowledge. The title itself might bring some confusion to the students who can hardly
understand the figurative meaning of literary texts and also to the students with low
proficiency level of English. Therefore, the flaws in implementing this programme are
ignorance by teachers, lack of experiences and the unsuitability of culture.

To put in a nutshell, Contemporary Childrens Literature Programme (CCL) is

efficient in promoting the literacy level in English among the primary school students.
Literacy skills which include reading, writing, listening and speaking can be
developed through this programme as it can be a model of writing, increase
childrens understanding of verbal or nonverbal aspects of communication and
develop high-order thinking skills which is in line with the National Philosophy of
Education. However, the teachers role in promoting the CCL programme is
extremely important as they are the programme developer. The ways in which
childrens literature is used in the elementary classroom are directly related to the
teachers definition of reading, her beliefs about how meaning and knowledge are
constructed, the role of the reader in the act of reading, and the context of the
reading event. Hence, teachers should shoulder the responsibility to practise this
programme helps students acquire a native-like competence in English.

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