Journal During the third period every Monday, , I will come into the Remove class.

It is the first period after the assembly will be my class. The problem I have to tackle with having the first class after the assembly on a Monday morning is the rubbish pile. Students would not think about collecting rubbish on and putting them into the rubbish bin on a Friday afternoon, they only think about getting out and having a good weekend. Even when my class is the fifth period, I will see rubbish on the floor. Perhaps the Principal had not made herself clear. Do not start the class before the floor is clean. In year 2001 I had experience sweeping the floor myself, before the students came in, although that made me look so low. The first 20 minutes, Id be busy settling them down, and asking them to clean up the foxs leftovers, and the 2-days-old pile of rubbish on the floor. I could not do anything because they were busy saying hi and asking each others well-being after 2 days of not seeing each other. If I had new or important information to be passed down to them, it was better to tell them to write it down. They wouldjot down everything, even though they didnt understand a thing, and that was funny, and they were going to copy down the black board margins as well. A few students had been reported to write syn err (syntax error) they saw on the calculator screen. They thought that was the answer. So, lastly I wrote the information, and asked them to write it down in their RV book. At times it felt funny to stand there in front of the class, and shouting German language to them. It did not matter what language I spoke, they could only understand simple bahasa and their mother tongue. And the distance between us makes a difference. If I stood too far from them and talk, I was going to waste my breath. So, what I did is to go round the class telling the small groups what they must do. Last time I brought glue, when they make noise uncontrollably I would stick the glue point to their arm, and they hated the sticky glue so much. Whatever the obstacles are, as Mr Abdull Aziz have told me during the orientation day, We have an organisation, and it will assist you in dealing with your problems. Facing the problem alone is not the answer. Meet some people, after you have finished dealing with it, but still is not solved.

After all, we are adults who know how to handle things on our own. We do not feel frustrated, because they dont know what is going on. In the future they will look back.

Journal

It is much more difficult to take care of girls. We really want to take care of them, but we have to be careful when dealing with them. Taking care of girls is like taking care of primary schoolchildren, we cant get to near with them as well, especially when its co curricular activity time. Lets say I am in a staffroom alone typing away some work and there is a girl entering the staffroom to get her books. Before she enters, stop her, and tell her to get it tomorrow, when her teacher is around. It does not matter whether in a closed space, accusations might happen when we are at the field or a very large Hall. When nobody is seeing, it can happen. Some teachers who were naive got framed, they got accused of misconduct. When there is an accusation, youll be called to testify. Testifying is not something people like to do. I have heard male teachers got framed by 2 girls. When its about under aged children, there is this Children Law we have to abide. Lets say there is a naughty girl who just want to frame somebody, then she just goes see a teacher and says that person did something bad to her, when she went up to the staffroom to get her books. When she accuses the teacher of doing anything, its going to make his life difficult, not hers. The key word here is to avoid this from happening, though I sound like overreacting. A book on co curriculum tells of a story when we become the accompanying teacher for students for a camping trip. The teacher, named A, is relaxing in his tent, then a boy came popping his head through the tent door, asking to get in and had a chat. A did not entertain him, A did not allow him to get it, instead, A went out and talked outside. Why is that so? The reason is although it seems nothings bad when a guy teacher talks with his boy student, but accusations can happen, lets say its a

naughty boy who just like to mess up with a persons life, then he would make an accusation about misconduct that A has never done, and As life will be over in the school. Nobody is going to blame the boy, the school is going to blame A in the end. In teaching too, we be careful of what we say, especially when it relates to politics, race and religion. Perhaps if we touch on this topic, a student might get it wrong, tells the parents, and the parents write to the Ministry of Education. The lesson here is to maintain a distance with the students. We will find ourselves in hot soup or cold storage in one of the corners of the PPD office. But this form 1 girl who insists me to give her a high five whenever we bump into each other is pretty annoying. Journal Being in period number 3 on a Monday morning is like being in the first period. The students are not in the class during the first two periods, so when you step into the class, the class was a mess from last Fridays rubbish and some animals dung on the table and the floor. The students will not do anything unless you ask them to. The best you can do is to tell them not to leave any rubbish on the last period on Friday and clean up as soon as they reach class on Monday morning that is the third period. I hope every teacher who enters into my Remove class will ask them to clean their places and smarten up. Journal I learn how to give a clear and simple instruction, even though it looks like so straightforward. When I get into the Remove class, i always give them task to do. They perform task better than they listen. Today a new student registered into my class. I learn to speak one syllable at a time, and not rush to finish my words. They will not understand what I have said, and they will start talking. It was frustrating when I had to find the gap when they cease to talk, and they talk in their mother

tongue without taking care they are in English class. They just ignore the language altogether.

Journal

My critical event in teaching situation is students do not have fun when learning English. I think it happened because all the classes that I went in were first classes. I am a relief teacher for classes when teachers are not around on that day, but I still teach the students some basic grammar. I see when it affects my teaching because the students feel bored, because they just follow what I teach, I want them to have fun, especially when it was the 10th period, when everybody was tired and wanted to go home. Since it was a first class, I do not know them, and having fun in the first class has the risk where you have an easy personality. My alternative was to give it some fun when the class was about to end, where I will call a few students and they gave their answers. My other reflection is I need to stay sincere and honest to all the classes that I teach. The only thing that makes me teach is honesty, and that will keep me going up and forward. For the time being, thank God I am not biased, I do not practise favouritism with my students and I keep a clean self every day. Sometimes naivety will pull some trouble, and being a new comer here I understand to keep away from trouble before t starts, close all the fine holes for trouble, and maintain it. Naivety means not knowing on something the customs here, the rules that are unofficial, not written, but its there to be followed voluntarily. I also need to show the firmness, its the statement of a guy that needs to be shown. Its a male guy that makes him different from others, and that is seen from the eyes of my peers. My peers are my mirror, where they show me what have I shown to them. Its what I need to have, to have my reflection from them. They are my mirror and I accept what reflection I hear from them. It is the first step to accept yourself as you are, and then I am able to improve the weaknesses.

Journal In my class, when the students sit properly and do the work that is give, I will praise them. I will write Good in their exercise book when they have answered the questions correctly. I usually praise the naughty boys, when they behave in class, they like it when they are praised. One student says thank you, sir, because I have praised him for behaving in class. A few of my students, who were very quiet, asked me about the work I had given. Students being quiet all the time for no reason are not a good behaviour in a language class. I usually ask these students something, but they gave a blank stare. When they asked me something, I gave a positive response. In relation to my behaviour and the students behaviour, B. F. Skinner, an American psychologist best known for his work in behaviourism, proposed behaviourism as the basis for language development in a book published in 1957. The core of behaviourism is learning through reinforcement. The reinforcement takes different forms. For example, if a parent says to the child, "Can you say mommy?" and the child responds accordingly, the parent provides positive reinforcement. If the child uses language to make demands, such as asking for a cookie, and the demand is granted, the child receives positive reinforcement for using language. Leadership by example ? I did that by speaking simple and good English sentences. Sometimes code switching is unevitable, or I need a translator to say something to the silent students. When they copy what I have written on the black board, they copy the margins as well. I make sure the sentences they copy are correct, I avoid any cursive handwriting, be it between two letters. They will learn by copying. I know they can learn English well, they have the ability to do it. Their native language will not interfere with the English they are learning. So far I have not seen them arranging the English word cards using the syntax of their mother tongue.In relation to vocabulary, I have heard some students addressing me as engkau and that was irritating. In their mother tongue, this word is acceptable.In English as well, the pronoun you is used for the person we are talking with.

Noam Chomsky, an American linguist and cognitive scientist, believes children are born with innate knowledge of the rules governing language. His research during the late 20th century also suggests that the rules are universal among the known human languages. For example, Japanese and English seem very different, but both languages include verbs and in both languages verbs take an object. The difference is where the object of the verb is placed in the sentence. According to Chomsky, the reason children learn language so quickly is because they already know its rules. Students must know, learning Bahasa Malaysia and English will benefit them in the future. They must know the reason to practise English and to get a good grade. My part is to prepare the best lesson plans so they can learn and practise English. I hope they can spell the name of shapes on their own, rather than filling in the blanks such as s_ u a _ _ for square Journal "How do the Remove class students learn language ?" is both a very interesting and a very complex question. Some people have the opinions that we will learn a language when we practise it everyday. A language will be learnt quickly when there is a need for it, if I am a foreigner in America who does not know English, still I have to learn the language if I want to communicate with the locals . It has fascinated people for centuries to find an answer to that question, but so far only competing theories have come up. When I took linguistics, my doctor taught me about Noam Chomskys opinions. He did not like Noam Chomsky and Halliday, so I guess his opinions were biased towards them. It was not easy to invent a linguistic theory. In 1965, Noam Chomsky invented the theory of a Universal Grammar underlying the structures of all languages and that babies were born with innate knowledge of this Universal Grammar. When we learnt the Universal Grammar, we knew everybody can learn a language, and every child can learn 5 human languages before age 5. The idea has revolutionised language acquisition research. But only in the 1970s did researchers start to look at the acquisition of second languages as well as the first language acquisition. Since then, studies, theories and new research fields have sprung up at an amazing rate.

Linguist Noam Chomsky made the argument that the human brain contains a limited set of rules for organizing language. In turn, there is an assumption that all languages have a common structural basis. This set of rules is known as universal grammar. Noam Chomsky, an American linguist and cognitive scientist, believes children are born with innate knowledge of the rules governing language. This makes him a nativist. His research during the late 20th century also suggests that the rules are universal among the known human languages. For example, Japanese and English seem very different, but both languages include verbs and in both languages verbs take an object. The difference is where the object of the verb is placed in the sentence. According to Chomsky, the reason children learn language so quickly is because they already know its rules. The difference between the all languages is in the community they are practised. The languages word bank shows how rich and expanding it is. A second languages word bank may be larger than the mother tongue itself. If I am a Malaysian learning all about wheat, Ill be surprised to know there are many kinds of wheat, so far I only know all wheats are wheat. It is the same when a British comes to Tanjung Karang for a homestay treat and he begins to hear many kinds of rice (beras) such as beras hancur, beras kampung, beras kilang, beras perang and beras gred. Speakers proficient in a language know what expressions are acceptable in their language and what expressions are unacceptable. Sometimes they just do not know the terms to be used in English, as you is addressed to the seo=cond person singular, a few of my Remove class students address me as engkau and it was shocking at first. The key puzzle is how speakers should come to know the restrictions of their language, since expressions which violate those restrictions are not present in the input, indicated as such. This absence of negative evidencethat is, absence of evidence that an expression is part of a class of the ungrammatical sentences in one's languageis the core of the poverty of stimulus argument. Can somebody clarify whether you is only for one person, or if we are addressing two persons at a time, can we still use you? The English grammar only has 7 personal pronouns, and you is one of them, and not all of you, or you all. Please respond.