Tutorial Week 9 ● Reflection

In this week’s tutorial task, we were required to see how closely does the listening process is mirrored in the tasks in the Malaysian English textbook. Also, we needed to see to what extent the tasks assist in developing the listening skills of the learners. After looking at two chapters and discussing it with my coursemates, we found that the activities reflect the listening skills well. However, we feel that the activities helps learners in their listening as most activities usually require learners to listen for information to complete an activity or listening on how to pronounce a consonant or a word. Activities given provide learners with the top-down and also bottom-up learning process which helps learners learn better. In my opinion, I feel that the textbook has provided learners with activities that are able to enhance the learners’ listening skills; however, from my past experience, teachers usually skip these tasks as they feel that it is troublesome and a waste of time. Therefore, it is crucial that teacher realises the importance of the listening skills and pay more attention to this skill along with the other language learning skills.

Tutorial Week 9:Designing Materials for Listening

• Preview extracts from a local textbook
• Form 2 Textbook Chapter 3: Famous Faces

Page 32:

 

•  How closely do you feel that the listening process is mirrored in these materials?
• Learners are required to converse with a partner in classroom. One of them can take the role of a famous personality. The roles of a fan and a famous person can be reverse so that both the learners can have the chance to express, listen and react.
• To what extent do they assist in developing the listening skills of our learners?
• Authenticity exist in this task as the language reflect real discourse when they are giving compliment and congratulate. Language used is not difficult. For example ‘You sang the song beautifully.’ The other partner has to listen for the compliment and give acknowledgement.

Page 36:

• How closely do you feel that the listening process is mirrored in these materials?
• Learners are required to listen to the conversation in order to fill in the blanks to complete the statements given in the task. It is a must for learners to listen attentively to given conversation, if they fail to do so, they will not be able to answer the questions correctly.
• In task B, the situation is the same. Learners are to listen to the conversation again to answer the questions given in task B.
• To what extent do they assist in developing the listening skills of our learners?
• Learners are to listen to the conversation attentively in order to understand and also identify the answers. Learners are listening for a purpose, with this, they will pay more attention to the conversation given.
• Not only that, learners have a background knowledge regarding the theme of the conversation as they have learnt it in the previous tasks. This allows them to be familiar and have a rough idea on the conversation where top-down processing occurs.
• The more exposure the listener has to them, the greater the ability to comprehend.

Page 38:

• How closely do you feel that the listening process is mirrored in these materials?
• In activity A, learners are required to say words after the teacher. This activity focuses on the consonants of /v/ and /w/.
• In activity B, learners are required to pronounce words that they have learned in activity A.
• To what extent do they assist in developing the listening skills of our learners?
• In activity A, it is a bottom-up practice activity. Learners have to listen and repeat to the words after the teacher. Learners have to pay attention and listen accurately to the sound in order for them to get the pronunciation correctly.
• In activity B, it is a top-down activity since learners have to use their schemata of correct pronunciation of the words so that they can say the sentences aloud. This encourage learners to discuss what they already know about.
• We noticed that this activity has both bottom-up and top-down approach. Correlation between two approaches can help the learners to sharpen their listening skill.

• Preview extracts from a local textbook.
• Form 2 Textbook Chapter 13: Our Green Heritage

Page 179:

• How closely do you feel that the listening process is mirrored in these materials?
• For task A, the learners are to listen to a recording and then pay attention to the sequence of the story. After that, they need to sequence the picture given in the textbook.
• For task B, the learners need to listen to the recording again and then they need to sequence the sentences given in the textbook.
• To what extent do they assist in developing the listening skills of our learners?
• For task A and B, the learners are listening for a purpose, they need to listen attentively to details from the recording.
• The task relates to top down process as it requires learners’ background knowledge to enable them to relate the description of recording with the picture given.  

Tutorial Week 7 ● Reflection

For the tutorial this week, we were required to sketch out a digital language learning material (DLLM) interface and explain our concept based on week 7’s lecture notes and articles given. I am thankful that I was exposed to digital learning materials in my first semester but I only knew a little about it. All I knew was that the materials used were tools related to the computer and Internet. Therefore, this week’s lesson on DLLM allowed me to understand it better and I really enjoyed reading about it.

I’ve learnt that in creating materials/DLLM, we have to consider many aspects such as the learning objects and materials, the usability of that particular material, etc. We have to see how practical is the material and how would learners accept it or use it as a language learning material. Seeing how the DLLM corresponds with the needs of the learners and the pedagogical usability. I realised DLLM is not created because we want the material to be interesting and students will pay more attention in class; besides that, it has to focus on how language is being learnt and how learners can use these DLLM to improve and apply in their daily lives.

I enjoyed this tutorial as it allowed us to create a DLLM in whatever way we wanted. I enjoyed searching through the Internet to find suitable websites and software that are interesting, fun and most importantly, user friendly. We chose ToonDoo as we found that it was practical and it had the ‘criteria’ we wanted. We thought its very user friendly and it will not be difficult for high school learners to use it. After deciding on the suitable website/material, we created a comic strip and came up with questions that will enable learners to use the website to answer the questions given.

This week’s tutorial task was definitely fun and helpful as I learnt more about DLLM and how it is important to not just create a DLLM for the sake of having an interesting activity, but to create a DLLM to aid and enhance one’s language learning process. I will definitely follow these theories and principles in designing an interesting and useful DLLM for my learners next time.

Tutorial Week 7: Sketching Out A Digital Language Learning Material

Digital Language Learning Materials.pptx

Tutorial Week 6 ● Reflection

In week four and week five’s tutorial, each group gave a presentation on their respective checklist. It was interesting to see how many checklist we can use to evaluate a material. After the presentation, we were given an English textbook/course book by Miss JC. Our task was to use our respective checklist to evaluate and list out the problems we faced during the evaluation. “Easy job. Just follow the criteria/features given in Littlejohn’s checklist, tick the ones that the chapters have,” I thought. I was wrong.

Referring to the problems stated in the PowerPoint presentation, our group struggled quite a bit with how the tasks should be divided and with the meaning of some criteria. Despite the definition and examples given in the article, we still couldn’t fully understand the criteria. After some discussion with the group, we decided to evaluate based on our understanding of the criteria/features. It was a relieve knowing what we’ve discussed were correct after our presentation; and it was good that Miss JC further explained the meaning of different criteria/features.

I can’t say I enjoyed this task, but I know that I’ve learnt a lot through it. Materials evaluation isn’t as easy as it looks like, and it takes a large amount of effort in analysing each task. I’ve learnt that it is important to be open to other people’s opinion and feedback on things. Everyone is different in the way they think, and I realise it’s good to be able to listen to different interpretations and see things in other people’s perspective. With this, it is important that teachers also seek other teachers for different opinion on the tasks/activity in the textbook. The teachers will not only be able to share their own experiences with one another, they can also work together to produce better materials that are interesting and will be able to suit different learners.

Littlejohn’s checklist is a good checklist to be used as it is specific and it looks at every aspect of the material. However, I feel that it may be very difficult to use this checklist all the time. Analysing materials with this checklist requires patience as the analysis can be quite tedious. Teachers will not have sufficient amount of time to go through each tasks as they have other responsibilities and needs to cater to. Thus, I recommend that teachers try to allocate a time to at least analyse 5-8 tasks a day; other checklists can also be used too. J

*This reflection was written on the 5th of November. The date was changed because I thought it'd be better if it was posted after the respective task.

Tutorial Week 6: Evaluation and Problems Faced While Using Littlejohn's Checklist

Evaluation and Problems Faced While Using Littlejohn's Checklist

Tutorial Week 4 & 5 ● Reflection

This week’s tutorial task was interesting, I must say. I never knew there were checklists in evaluating materials till I joined this course, so it was something new for me. J We were required to give a presentation base on the checklist we were given, chose. We were given a choice on which author’s checklist we would like to present on; not knowing that it’d be one of the toughest checklists to understand, we chose the author with what we thought had the most interesting name, Andrew Littlejohn.

I struggled really hard the first time I read the article on Littlejohn’s checklist, I couldn’t understand what it was about and I found it hard to focus while reading. I realised just reading the article didn't help; so I decided to highlight important points and make annotations. After that, re-reading it for around four times really allowed me to understand the main points, and I realised it wasn't as tough as I thought it would be.

As I was trying to understand Littlejohn’s article, it was interesting to see how he introduces the framework and how there are different levels in analysing the materials. I felt that it was helpful that he arranged it in a way that there are different levels in analysing, first the explicit nature of the material, then he slowly moves in to a more specific/deeper level of analysis. I really like this checklist as it looks at every aspect of the material. However, seeing so many criteria/features in the checklist, I do think that it can be time consuming.

Through this tutorial task, I found out the importance of evaluating a material. Teachers will be able to see what the material lacks, they can also improve the materials to suit the classroom and to achieve learning objectives. However, I feel that the checklist can only do so much in how effective a material can be, the rest belongs to the effort a teacher puts in order to produce a good material. I would definitely try to use this checklist in the future in hopes of providing my future learners a better language learning material. J

*This reflection was written on the 5th of November. The date was changed because I thought it'd be better if it was posted after the respective task.

Tutorial Week 4 & 5: Presentation on the article "The analysis of language teaching materials: inside the Trojan Horse"

The Analysis of Language Teaching Materials by Glenn A. Hilarion

Tutorial Week 3 ● Reflection

This week’s tutorial task was much more difficult compared to the one before. We had to answer four questions given based on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). At our first discussion on this tutorial task, we didn’t quite know how to answer the questions as we were all quite confused. We then divided tasks where we explained our findings to one another after we’ve completed it.

After tutorial class, we realised our answers weren’t even close to what Miss JC has answered and explained. We only manage to come out with few theories that are correct; even so, we did not really understand the meaning of the theories in CLT. It took us quite some time to re-read and understand what is CLT and how we should apply it.

I guess it never really occurred to me that CLT plays a big role in language teaching. Having known about CLT from last semester’s SLA course, I thought it was just a part of the sociocultural theory of SLA and there are only few things to follow. Well, now I see that there is more to CLT than I thought. Looking at the different components in the communicative competence, I am able to see how it helps learners to learn. It is encouraging to see how CLT allows learners to learn through negotiation of meaning between speaker and hearer or reader and writer. I’ve always thought CLT is only about speaking and listening; hence, it was interesting that CLT includes the communication between writer and speaker.

Reading the three articles provided, I began to really understand what CLT is all about. And reflecting back to the days when I was in high school, I am really glad that my teacher were one of the teachers that implements CLT in the classroom. I still remember my teacher would always conduct activities where we were required to give opinions and share our experiences.

Reading through the principles of CLT, it made me remember one of the lessons in my Form 5 English class.  I can’t remember which topic the lesson was on, but it was one of the lessons I’d never forget. Miss Wong talked about her experiences on how she was terrible at rearing animals. She elaborated on each animals she reared (a dog, a rabbit, a tortoise, and hamsters) in which the animals either ended up escaping or moving on to the next life. Not only were the stories humorous, Miss Wong included us while she was telling the story. She would asked us how one actually rears a rabbit, and asked our opinions on whether or not one should bathe hamsters, etc. Of course, she would want us to express ourselves in the target language – English. After asking, she would continue sharing her experiences. Explanation on certain words or phrases were also given to ensure that we all understand. It was the first (and I think the last) time I saw all my classmates so interested and eager to share their opinions and listen to Miss Wong.

Looking at the experience mentioned above, I could see that Miss Wong had applied CLT in her lesson. The language used in that situation was informal, but it was appropriate at that situation. There are also times where we were required to speak formally and use the proper linguistic items. Miss Wong always made it clear on when we needed to be formal or informal depending on the situation (strategic & discourse competence). Reflecting back, it is very encouraging to see that CLT was applied in my lessons. J

As a future language teacher, I would definitely try my best in applying CLT in my teaching. However, I feel that both accuracy and fluency have the same importance. Sticking to a little more ‘traditional’ way, I would want to try my best in also focusing on accuracy even though I know it isn’t easy. Also, I would try my best to make students feel at ease when I teach as I don’t want to make them feel pressured to speak in English; that would defeat the purpose of CLT. Having been a student before, and having friends who hates speaking in English, I know how it feels to be pressured to speak in class. Hence, I will try my best in finding ways to ensure my learners express themselves without being pressured where they can learn the language at the same time. J

*This reflection was written on the 5th of November. The date was changed because I thought it'd be better if it was posted after the respective task.

Tutorial Week 3

a) Identify theory behind communicative language teaching (CLT).

Informations found in Spada and Savignon’s article:

There are many answers to the question “What is CLT?” depending on whom you ask. In this article by Spada, many say that CLT is meaning-based but they have different perceptions on the emphasis. Some says that it focuses the comprehension and production of message but not teaching or correction of language form; some says that CLT is an approach to L2 instruction as well as it includes both fluency and accuracy. These different perspectives are believed due to the presence and absence of the attention in language form which is when Howatt’s (1984) distinction on weak and strong CLT came about.

Hymes’ theory of communicative competence and the belief that knowing a language includes more than knowledge of the rules of grammar also knowledge of the rules of language has influenced CLT. Hyme introduced this theory in broadening the current conceptualizations of language. In this article, the theories stated are very closely related to SLA where the comprehensible input and interactionist hypothesis by Krashen and Long has been discussed. Both hypotheses emphasize on the central role of meaningful communication in language acquisition.

In Savignon’s article, he said Hymes (1971) proposed the term communicative competence to represent the use of language in social context, the observance of sociolinguistic norms of appropriacy. Hymes’ communicative competence was seen as the same as Halliday’s meaning potential where his focus was also on language as a social behavior and not language learning. Berns (1990) stresses that the definition of a communicative competence appropriate for learners requires an understanding of the sociocultural contexts of language use.

Savignon also raised the issue on how grammar and CLT, communication cannot take place with the absence of structure or grammar. It is written that Canale and Swain (1980) sought to put grammatical competence within a more broadly defined communicative competence. In the development of communicative ability, the research findings have support the integration of form-focused exercises with meaning-focused experience. Grammar is important in communication, and leaners learn grammar best when they relate it to their communicative needs and experience.

At the end the article, Savignon also mentioned that communicative language teaching cannot continue without the involvement of classroom teachers. Hence, teachers need to find materials that work to involve learners in the experience of communication.

Theories behind communicative language teaching

Communicative Competence has four components:

i)             Linguistic competence

ii)            Discourse competence

iii)           Pragmatic competence

iv)           Strategic competence

Linguistic competence is the knowledge one has in the application of linguistic items; in order words, linguistic competence is the knowledge on how the language system is being used in communication. Linguistic items include pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Learners with such competence possess the ability to utilise grammar of a spoken language to express themselves. In addition, the learner will demonstrate good knowledge in using appropriate words while communicating. However, if one lacks linguistic competence, he or she will face difficulties in achieving the communication goal in which will lead to communication breakdown.

Discourse competence refers to the ability to produce meaningful speech in such way where ideas are linked across sentences (written discourse) or utterances (spoken discourse). In discourse competence, sentences are assembled following the cohesion rules and rhetorical organisation. Cohesion is how we make use of linguistic items (vocabulary, grammar, etc) to link ideas and meaning in a sentence. Eg:

A: It’s very cold.

B: I’ll increase the temperature of the air-conditioner.

Rhetorical organisation focuses on the structure of a text according to genre, it varies according to content, topic and purpose. For example, one would recognise a text which begins with “Once upon a time…” as a narrative writing/fairy-tale story. Discourse competence allows language learners to maintain communication with others.

Pragmatic Competence is the ability to use language appropriately in different situations. A learner that possesses pragmatic competence will be able to transmit and interpret intentions (illocutionary force) with the appropriate language depending on the social situations he or she is put in. Illocutionary force comes from speech act theory and illustrates an utterance to perform different functions or a function represented by different utterances depending on context (Searle, 1969). Eg:

Teacher: Please switch off the lights.

Student immediately turns on the light.

(Students know that it is an order and follows the teacher’s order)

In pragmatic competence, we can see how language is used through relationships between people. Pragmatic competence is important as it helps start or maintain social relationships and to avoid miscommunication. Hence, learners also need to learn to be sensitive to different culture practices that will affect the way communication is being conducted.

Strategic Competence is the ability to keep communication going. A learner who possesses this communication competence will be able to maintain communication even when there is a communication breakdown, he or she will also be able to enhance the effectiveness of the communication. Eg:

Using simple words or hand gesture to give directions or to describe an object.

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

Howatt (1984) claims there are ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ version of communicative approach.  The weak focused on the use English by providing learners with opportunities to communicate and the strong version argued that language can be acquired through communication. There is no one perfect approach to teach because it depends on the learners’ language proficiency.

Activities are designed to improve learners’ fluency through negotiating meaning and sharing information in a communicative-based classroom.  However, accuracy is also a crucial element. According to Brown (1993), accuracy and fluency are “complementary principles” for communicative ability. Learners trying to be fluent need to have language accuracy to be able to produce comprehensible utterances.

Cunningsworth (1995) stated that language skills help learners communicate effectively and complement linguistic knowledge. Vocabulary is important to help learners develop learners’ understanding of the English language. For example, learners have to scan, skim and also summarise the passage when writing a summary of a passage. Learners must good vocabulary, so that they able to produce a meaningful summary writing.

Materials and tasks should reflect authenticity, as they connect the classroom and the outside world. Rogers and Medley (1988) defines authentic as language reflecting “a naturalness of form, and an appropriateness of cultural and situational context that would be found in the language as used by native speakers” (op cit, 468). One problem is the suitability of the materials to match the learner’s language proficiency level and interest because of the different background. Learners could lose their interests if the materials are too difficult for them.

The traditional role of the teacher has changed as a facilitator to facilitate learners’ language learning progress by designing, executing and managing activities in the classroom. Teacher also has to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching group. The learner plays an active role of becoming in language learning. Teachers have to help learners attain autonomy in their own learning by making learners be aware of the language.

The social context is crucial for communicative approach to be successfully implemented. The communicative approach should be context-dependent to enable learners to become communicatively competent.

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

The objectives given are taken from form 1 KBSM English Language Curriculum.

Objectives (Form 1)

Make friends and talk about themselves, recount experiences and also enquire about the person(s) they are talking to 

Principle 1: Teach communicative competence: grammatical competence plus ability to use grammar appropriately

• To achieve communicative competence, learners must be aware of the rules in grammar. So, based on this objective, they need a certain level of linguistic competence to achieve the aim of the objective. Bachman (1990) states that linguistic competence is the knowledge and application of linguistic items. Therefore, the activities done must contain elements of proper grammatical usage. For instance, one of the activities in this objective is “Introducing oneself”; learners must be acquainted with proper sentence patterns that suits with “Introducing oneself”.   Hence, when learners are introducing themselves using the English Language (if they have the chance to), they would be able to use proper sentence patterns that they have already learned in their lesson.

Principle 2: Practice functions and forms in context rich environment

• According to David Wilkins, “Any individual sentence can be used to perform virtually any function in language and consequently any function may take a variety of forms”. Learners must be able to express through functions as well as demonstrate through form. In terms of function, this principle relates to pragmatic competence. Hedge (2000) stated that pragmatic competence refers to the leaner’s ability to transmit and interpret intentions using appropriate language according to the social context. Learners must be able to express language properly and in-context as to maintain social relationships and to avoid any miscommunication. So, activities being done must be pragmatically competent. For example, when learners are recounting an experience, they must have boundaries in the experience that they are telling in order to not offend other learners in the same class. On the other hand, in terms of form, learners must be able to manifest language being use in speech and writing and this can be done through context rich environment.  Context rich environment is a situation where learners are exposed to linguistic items which reflect real world activities. When learners are exposed to activities which reflect the real world or a situation where they could relate to in their lives, the process of attaining and retaining linguistic items would be much more effective. An activity which reflects real world situation, for instance recounting an experience; learners must be able talk about a situation that they have experienced. Hence, the must have the correct vocabulary (adjectives) to express the situation that they have experience.

Make enquiries about services and products and place an order for the product or services

Principle 1: Teach communicative competence: grammatical competence plus ability to use grammar appropriately

• When making enquiries about services and products and also placing an order, learners must be able to use the WH- questions correctly and this relates to lexical competence. If the learners do not have the proper lexical competence, they would not be able to use proper grammar. When this happens, communicative breakdown will occur. For instance, one of the activities in this objective is role playing activities as a buyer and seller. If learners are not able to produce proper grammar, then interaction between buyer and seller would be affected. In a real-life situation, the seller might misinterpret the message of the buyer. So, having communicative competence allows the learners to be able to engage in a conversation well.

Socialize with friends and in groups and make plans and arrangements for joint activities

Principle 7: Promote Collaborative and Cooperative Learning

• In CLT, learning a language should be collaborative and cooperative. So, learners should interact with each other in order for negotiation of meaning to occur. In a collaborative and cooperative learning environment, scaffolding occurs. The high proficiency learners are able to help and guide the low proficiency learners in doing activities or tasks. Moreover, interaction between learners might help the low proficiency learners to attain certain characteristics of language use. For instance, the low proficiency learners might be able to pick up proper grammatical usage from the high proficiency learners and implement them into their own, thus, raising their own language proficiency.

Principle 8: Provide Error Corrective Feedback

• Interaction between learners promotes error corrective feedback. Positive feedback confirms the correctness of learner’s response while negative feedback relates to error correction. So, if both are delivered effectively, it would facilitate learning. Thus, this would benefit greatly in interactions between low proficiency learners and high proficiency learners.

Obtain information from various text-types such as instructions and notices and obtain factual information on a topic from short texts and present the information briefly to others orally and in writing

Principle 1: Teach communicative competence: grammatical competence plus the ability to use grammar appropriately

• In a presentation, learners are asked to present information on a topic from short text to others orally and in writing. This relates to linguistic competence as learners need to have decent pronunciation during oral presentation and an adequate use of grammar during writing. Hence, activities such as reading aloud can promote correct use of pronunciation. On the other hand, activities such as writing recounts can help learners to master certain grammatical aspects such as the use of linkers.

Principle 8: Provide Error Corrective Feedback

• This principle relates to the interaction between the teacher and learners. Teachers could help students in their pronunciation skills by correcting them during the reading aloud activities and also correcting their grammar mistakes in writing activities. However, teachers should not hesitantly correct every mistake or errors that the learners make as some learners’ affective filter would increase and this can result in learners not able to acquire the targeted language. 

d) Identify general categories and specific items to evaluate chapters in a Malaysian English Language textbook

General categories: according to (Rubdy, 2003) 3P

i)            Psychological validity

- Rationale/learners need

- Independence and autonomy

- Self-development

- Cooperation

- Creativity

ii)           Pedagogical validity

- Guidance

- Choice

- Reflection/exploration/innovation

iii)         Process and content validity 

- Methodology

- Content

- Authenticity

- Appropriacy

- Cultural sensitivity

- Layout graphic

- Accessibility

- Linkage

- Selection/grading
- Sufficiency

- Balance/integration/challenge

- Stimulus/practice/revision

- Flexibility

- National/local curriculum concerns

Tutorial Week 2 ● Reflection

In our Materials Development tutorial for week 2, our first task were that we had to find out which principles Jeremy Short applied when he produced his materials. At first, we felt that it wasn’t a difficult task as it was quite easy to spot and choose which principles he applied; however, we chose it based on the general points, overlooking the procedures/sub-points given from the main point.

After tutorial class on Monday, we had a discussion again to choose the principles based on the main point and also the procedures/sub-points, also considering Miss JC’s comment on our presentation. There were slight differences to our previous choices and we struggled a little as it wasn’t as easy as we thought when we needed to elaborate on each point. I feel that there will not be a principle that will be able to fit perfectly, and we really need to improvise and adapt to teach; this was one thing I learnt. Knowing and following the principles is “easy”, but to apply it in teaching isn’t as easy because there are so many factors we need to consider and cater to. I realised that the principles act as a guideline, but it’s up to us to adapt and to develop the best materials possible.

The second task for the tutorial was much harder compared to the first task. We were confused on whether we should elaborate on how each point affected materials development respectively or draw out a diagram linking the points with explanation. After much confusion, we decided on the latter. Coming out with a diagram was quite time consuming as we had different ideas and opinions, but I realised we all learnt from each other and we eventually came out with a diagram we were happy with.

Having to design a diagram on the aspects influencing materials development was eye-opening; there are so many things that influence materials development and it all links to one another. Before this, all I knew was that materials were develop based on the curriculum goal and objectives only. I didn’t know there were principles to follow or other factors that influences materials development. As a future language teacher, I realised developing language learning materials is crucial in helping students to learn and also in helping myself-as a teacher-to teach. Also, I realised it isn’t a “develop a material, and use the material for the rest of my teaching life” practice, but we are to constantly change, modify and improve the materials based on the factors in the diagram.

This tutorial has definitely allowed me to learn more on materials development, on how it plays a part in the process of teaching and learning among teachers and learners. As a pre-service teacher, I realised there are so many things I’ve not known before taking this course, and I have much more to learn and to take in before I start teaching in the future. I’m looking forward to learn more on this. J

Tutorial Week 2

A. Which principles for materials development did Short apply when producing his materials?

Materials should achieve impact.

• Jeremy short’s materials are very attractive and appealing to the students.
• However, it may not impact in terms of learning. 
• Although the material appeals to the student, we are uncertain that it would allow students to learn more.

What is being taught should be perceived by learners as relevant and useful

• Jeremy Short’s materials relate to learners’ interests and ‘real-life’ tasks. For instance, he talks about “Tales of Garcon” and “University Life”, both of which learners could relate to what they are experiencing in real-life.
• Also, through Short’s graphic novels, students obtain the message through stories that relates to real-life situation which differs from the usual textbook model.
• Hence, through Short’s graphic novel, learners could discuss the solution of the problem since it relates to real-life situation.

Materials should provide opportunities for outcome and feedback.

• Short gotten feedback from his students on how boring the textbooks were and that’s how he started producing his materials.
• After he created and shared the materials, students also provided feedback and asked him “what’s going to come next?” It shows that students are interested in the materials he produced and wants to know more.
• However, asking him “what’s next?” may mean that they’re only interested on the graphic novels and may have not grasp what they are supposed to learn. 

B. Design and complete the following diagram.

The diagram below shows the aspects influencing materials development. We decided to put country’s vision as the main aspect that influences materials development because we are looking at the bigger picture of the development of materials. Country’s vision includes improving many areas such as the economy, politics, social, and education. Since we are focusing on education, we feel that the county’s vision is to produce a better generation of learners in the future. Therefore, in order to achieve this vision, we need to have curriculum goal and objectives (eg: Malaysian Education Blueprint). 

After the country’s vision, we are going to see a smaller picture which is the curriculum goal and objective. In order to achieve country’s vision in the education field, educators need to set goals and objectives. Hence, school administration aims and objective plays a significant role in carrying out the process of moving towards the target. These three aspects mentioned can be achieved through materials developments.

Materials development is influenced by two principles namely principles of teaching and learning and the principles of second language acquisition.  Both of these principles influence teachers’ belief and rational as these principles act as a guidance in producing material. However, teacher’s belief and rational are also affected by the learners; with this, teachers need to adapt by taking into consideration which principles are applicable in developing the materials. The teachers’ belief and rational, we feel, is how he/she adapts and then implement these principles and beliefs in developing materials in teaching.

Having the experience of a learner in our high school lives, we realised parents’ goals are one of the main factors that affects us. Most parents have expectations towards their children’s (learners) development which in turn affects the learner in their learning. Due to this situation, teachers are affected as they need to cater to the parents’ expectation of their children.

Mini Test Question 2: Environment Writing Lesson

One day, you have received an email that consists of a video from your future self.

“Dear me from the past,

            I am the future you from 20 years in the future. Please pay attention to what I am about to write, it is very important that you watch the video I have attached in this mail. The video shows how the earth would look like in 20 years time. It consists of the causes and effects of global warming. Do not be surprise on how ugly the earth will look like in the video. I am sending you this because I want you to know the importance of conserving and preserving our planet. There is still a little time for you to change things. Please do not ignore this email.

Yours truly,

The future you”

After watching the video, in groups of 5, you are to list down the causes and effect of global warming from the video. You are then required to produce an essay about the causes and effect of global warming. Your essay should be not less than 150 words.

Mini Test Question 1: MAP

Write instructions for students for two writing activities based on the pictures. 

1. The PERMADIK club is planning on organising an event, "Amazing Race, KK Style" for the first year students. You are the person in charge on planning the race in KK town. In not less than 100 words, plan out a route for the race. Your route should include these places:
Hyatt Regency Kinabalu Hotel, Wisma Merdeka, CBS Gaya Centre, Sabah Tourism Promotion Corporation and Signal Hill Observatory.

2. One day, you bumped into a visitor from outer space at Wisma Merdeka, his name is Mr Alien. Mr Alien is a friendly martian and was lost at Wisma Merdeka. He mentioned that his space ship was at Signal Hill Observatory but he got loss wandering around KK Town. Mr Alien requested that you show him the way back to Signal Hill Observatory from Wisma Merdeka. He also mentioned that he would want to go do some sightseeing at CBS Gaya Centre, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board and Sabah Tourism Promotion Corporation.
In not less than 80 words, write down directions to Signal Hill Observatory from Wisma Merdeka in a short paragraph. Remember to include the places mentioned by Mr Alien.

Inside the Haiti Earthquake

We were introduced to this online game called “Inside the Haiti Earthquake” by Miss Yoon and I must say, this is one interesting game. It was a heart wrenching game too. I have to admit, I never really followed the news when the Haiti earthquake occurred, all I knew was they experienced a major natural disaster and many people were affected. I didn’t really know how Haiti looked like after the disaster, how it felt like being one of the survivors, how everything was like, until I played this game.

They offered three characters to choose from, a journalist, a survivor and an aid worker. I played the game three times as I wanted to know how it felt like being each of them. The footages shown were so surreal and difficult for me to comprehend as I felt the pain of seeing so many people being affected by the disaster. It really allowed you to picture yourself in their position, to see what they see, to hear what they hear, and to feel what they feel. I liked that I was allowed to make my own choices in the game. Also, I liked how they also included footages of people singing and praising God despite what happened. This game is definitely something I would recommend people to play. By committing to the various strategies, we experience the consequences from our choices.

I would definitely use this game to conduct a writing lesson. There are two ways in which I would use, the first would be writing a narrative essay. Students will be asked to play the game and note down whatever they have experienced in the game. Then, I would ask the students to write a narrative essay out of the points they have noted. Students are required to write the essay in 200 words, with titles, "As A Survivor During the Haiti Earthquake", "As A Journalist During the Haiti Earthquake" and "As An Aid Worker During the Haiti Earthquake".

Another activity would be: Students will be asked to play the game and later, write down their thoughts on the game. Students are required to write a passage in not less than 100 words.

One thing I recommend while playing this game? A good Internet connection.

A Scary Experience?

The essay given by Miss Yoon to be marked was quite a challenge. After reading it a couple of times, I finally understood the whole essay written. I realised the errors that the student made was mainly failure to express himself/herself in proper English and grammatical errors. I felt that the student wasn't able to express himself/herself well in proper English as most of the sentences were directly translated from Mandarin to English. The student’s grammar errors were mainly on past and present tenses. I give credits for a good story where you can actually see the plot of the story that consisted of introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and conclusion.

The method I'd use would be written comments. This is because not only does his/her essay follow the format of a common story writing plot, it is also not hard to understand. By circling the grammar errors and underlining the unclear sentences, the student would be able to understand where he/she made a mistake. I would also try using the method on talking to the writer about the errors he/she made as it might be easier for me to explain what to do and what not to do in the future. But this may take up a lot of time as there are other student’s essays to tend to.

Peer editing would definitely be a good way for students to improve on his/her writing. I would encourage students to come together in a group to help edit one another’s essay. Through this, students are not only able to identify mistakes and errors, they will be able to improve themselves while helping edit others' essay.

As for the follow-up activity, I would provide some activities on forming simple sentences in a specific structure so that he/she will be able to produce better sentences in the future rather than a sentence translated from Mandarin to English. Besides that, I would also provide activities like changing sentences from present tense to past tense to improve his/her grammar.

I Give You... A TEN!

We were asked to assess the essay written by Miss Yoon's China student in this activity. Our group decided on giving him/her 10 marks-which is halved of the full mark- as he/she came out with quite a good essay. The essay written was appropriate and its language and context were modest. However, there are some inaccuracies, for instance the usage of vocabulary. Though the student's vocabulary is fairly well, the student was unable to use the right vocabulary in expressing himself.

Although this essay has many mistakes, but it is a good essay in general. It has a clear flow in the story line and has a modest command of the language. We give it a 10! :)

Are you HOTS enough? :)

I’ve come out with an activity that integrates the level of evaluating.

One day, you and your friends decided to hike up Mount Brinchang. Unfortunately, you all lost your way and it was getting dark. Your friends decided to rest at an open area for a night because it is no use to walk in the dark. All of you were hungry and tired but had no food supply or a tent to rest in. What would you do? Would you continue the journey in finding the right way back, or would you decide to stay at the open area and wait for it to be bright again? Decide on what would you do and later write a short narrative essay on your adventure in finding your way back. Your essay should be in not less than 200 words.

Tutorial 2: Causes Of Motor Vehicle Accidents

Causes of motor vehicle accidents

Thesis statement:

The causes of motor vehicle accidents are speeding, usage of cell phone while driving and drunk driving.

Topic sentences:

1. One of the causes of motor vehicle accidents would be speeding.
2. The usage of cell phone while driving is one of the reasons of motor vehicle accidents.
3. Drunk driving is also a common cause of motor vehicle accidents.

Tutorial 1: Article Review Exercise

INTEGRATING SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS INTO ESL WRITING CLASSROOM:

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSES

This article focuses on the strength and weakness of integrating social networking tools into the ESL writing classroom. Integrating SNSs enhances one’s creative thinking skills through the collaboration of students and peer encouragement. Students are able to write and voice out their opinion on a certain topic the teacher offers. The comfort and familiarity of SNS builds up the student’s confidence in writing. Not only that, it also fosters a better relationship among the teacher and the students. However, the students’ lack of concentration while using SNSs is a problem that will be experienced by many. Not forgetting the use of informal short forms and the automatic correction in one’s spelling, which leads to the deterioration in one's language skills.

Through my experiences of being a student, it is almost impossible for a student to focus on a task when SNSs are being used. Students will be busy updating their statuses on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, searching for the latest gossips online, and looking up the latest videos on YouTube. Distractions will definitely be present while using SNSs. Besides that, many schools have limited, if not, no access to the Internet. Students who live in rural areas are bound to struggle with no Internet access. Not to mention, not everyone is financially capable to even own a computer, let alone get Internet access at home. With the world of the Internet being so unsafe, the private lives of teachers and students will be affected, if the usage of SNSs is not guarded. When students are able to access the profiles of their teachers and vice versa, one’s privacy will clearly be disturbed.

In my opinion, integrating social networking tools into the ESL writing classroom is irrelevant in many ways. SNSs are meant for socialising and interacting amongst people, it is not a place for students to develop or improve their writing skills. With all the distractions on the Internet, SNSs are definitely not suitable for academic purposes. Teachers should encourage their students to step out of their comfort zone and to be courageous to learn and improve their writing skills, especially through their mistakes. Also, when given topics they are able to relate to, students will be able to improve their writing skills and, at the same time enhance their creative thinking skills. The ESL writing classroom can definitely improve out of the world of SNSs, it only depends on how we use an alternative media to achieve it.