Content
English textbooks should be useful, meaningful and interesting for students. While no single subject will be of interest to all students, materials should be chosen based, in part, on what students, in general, are likely to find interesting and motivating.
Difficulty Level
As a general rule, materials should be slightly higher in their level of difficulty than the students' current level of English proficiency. (Exceptions are usually made for extensive reading and extensive listening materials, which should be easy enough for students to process without much difficulty.) Materials at a slightly higher level of difficulty than the students' current level of English proficiency allow them to learn new grammatical structures and vocabulary.
Instructional issues
English textbooks should have clear instructional procedure and methods, that is, the teacher and students should be able to understand what is expected in each lesson and for each activity.
Textbooks should have support for learning
This can take the form of vocabulary lists, exercises which cover or expand on the content, visual aids, etc. Traditionally, language teaching materials in Japan are made up mostly of text, with few, if any, visual aids. However, with the development of technology, photos, visual materials and audio materials have become very important components of language teaching materialss, and they are becoming easier to obtain. Teachers need to learn how to find them, and how to best exploit these characteristics.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Some reminders on the Characteristics of materials
Just some reminders about some characteristics of materials.
1. Language
English textbooks should have correct, natural, recent, and standard English. Since students' vocabulary is limited, the vocabulary in textbooks should be controlled or the textbooks should provide information to help students understand vocabulary that they may not be familiar with. for lower-level students, grammar should also be controlled. Many textbooks use narratives and essays. It would be useful to have a variety of literary forms (for example, newspaper articles, poetry, or letters), so that students can learn to deal with different forms.
2. Information on Culture
The cultural information included in english textbooks should be correct and recent. it should not be biased and should reflect background cultures of English. It should include visual aids etc., to help students understand cultural information.
1. Language
English textbooks should have correct, natural, recent, and standard English. Since students' vocabulary is limited, the vocabulary in textbooks should be controlled or the textbooks should provide information to help students understand vocabulary that they may not be familiar with. for lower-level students, grammar should also be controlled. Many textbooks use narratives and essays. It would be useful to have a variety of literary forms (for example, newspaper articles, poetry, or letters), so that students can learn to deal with different forms.
2. Information on Culture
The cultural information included in english textbooks should be correct and recent. it should not be biased and should reflect background cultures of English. It should include visual aids etc., to help students understand cultural information.
Last minutes reads!!! Part 2
Continue from the last discussion of the few things to know when working with young learners:
3. Children's instinct for play and fun
I observe my own cousins that, when two or more of them getting together, they will surely engage in playing, either it will be chasing one another, or engage in a drama with each of them taking one role. Thus it is so true that being playful and engaging in fun is IN the children's nature. And teacher should adapt her teaching method to suit this characteristics of children.
4. The role of IMAGINATION
When watching children play sometimes, their surroundings seem to be out of reality: that off the bed is the fall of a waterfall; and the car handle becomes the house of the villain in their story; that by the changing of the shape of the watch the character becomes different in roles... all these are not even in the realm of my imagination but it comes out from the mouth of the children! Well it is amazing and teacher surely can make full use of this characteristic of children to engage them in stories that enable them to learn language through imagination.
3. Children's instinct for play and fun
I observe my own cousins that, when two or more of them getting together, they will surely engage in playing, either it will be chasing one another, or engage in a drama with each of them taking one role. Thus it is so true that being playful and engaging in fun is IN the children's nature. And teacher should adapt her teaching method to suit this characteristics of children.
4. The role of IMAGINATION
When watching children play sometimes, their surroundings seem to be out of reality: that off the bed is the fall of a waterfall; and the car handle becomes the house of the villain in their story; that by the changing of the shape of the watch the character becomes different in roles... all these are not even in the realm of my imagination but it comes out from the mouth of the children! Well it is amazing and teacher surely can make full use of this characteristic of children to engage them in stories that enable them to learn language through imagination.
Last minutes reads!!! Part 1
Well well well....... due to the loads of assignment.... i only got to read my notes for next day exam at 3am... Not too bad as instructions are given that we have to read chapter one.
Well, got a bit of insights as i read through the notes. As it is about working with young learners. And i find the information are quite useful for teachers to know about young learners:
1. Children ability to grasp meaning
I never thought about this that children can associate the meaning with the words that teacher utter by observing the gestures, intonation, facial expression, actions and circumstances at that time, before knowing the word itself. I amaze at this inborn ability in human.
2. Children creative use of limited language resources.
I witness this personally when i was in the car together with my cousin sister who are just 5 years old. She was in the car playing with the toys that she can find: the watch from his daddy's wrist; two balloons that she has just got; cakes that i was holding and even dress that she is wearing. She made full use of these items that she can find around her and began to play on a drama by uttering english words. I presume that the words that she utters are from the children video that she watches. And i believe there's a new language that she utters though she has not heard it before. That is the observation by the innatists. And trully at the age of five, she was quite enjoy in indulging in her own 'drama' with the limited words that she has.
Well, got a bit of insights as i read through the notes. As it is about working with young learners. And i find the information are quite useful for teachers to know about young learners:
1. Children ability to grasp meaning
I never thought about this that children can associate the meaning with the words that teacher utter by observing the gestures, intonation, facial expression, actions and circumstances at that time, before knowing the word itself. I amaze at this inborn ability in human.
2. Children creative use of limited language resources.
I witness this personally when i was in the car together with my cousin sister who are just 5 years old. She was in the car playing with the toys that she can find: the watch from his daddy's wrist; two balloons that she has just got; cakes that i was holding and even dress that she is wearing. She made full use of these items that she can find around her and began to play on a drama by uttering english words. I presume that the words that she utters are from the children video that she watches. And i believe there's a new language that she utters though she has not heard it before. That is the observation by the innatists. And trully at the age of five, she was quite enjoy in indulging in her own 'drama' with the limited words that she has.
Assignment 3 is over!!
Assignment 3.... TATA!!!
Well, no doubt that assignment 3 is a real rush for me... but that is because i do it quite last minute...
But, when recall, i am quite satisfied with my work. No doubt that 4 lesson plans to prepare is really a heavy work. But it is not so boring when technology is involved in the lesson plan. Thus i quite enjoy creating teaching aids out of smart board software, e-book, inserting videos, audio, etc.
In a way it was not too hard to produce those teaching aids as we've done them before.
Well, after passing up the assignment, i see that i still have a long way to improve on my ideas of creating activities for the English lessons. Truly as what Azliza has said in her blog, in order to make a lesson interesting and successful, innovation and creativity are needed.
Well, guess that i still need to brush up on that.
Well, no doubt that assignment 3 is a real rush for me... but that is because i do it quite last minute...
But, when recall, i am quite satisfied with my work. No doubt that 4 lesson plans to prepare is really a heavy work. But it is not so boring when technology is involved in the lesson plan. Thus i quite enjoy creating teaching aids out of smart board software, e-book, inserting videos, audio, etc.
In a way it was not too hard to produce those teaching aids as we've done them before.
Well, after passing up the assignment, i see that i still have a long way to improve on my ideas of creating activities for the English lessons. Truly as what Azliza has said in her blog, in order to make a lesson interesting and successful, innovation and creativity are needed.
Well, guess that i still need to brush up on that.
Detective game software...
There was one session where Mdm Foziah let us view a few children softwares. She brought a bunch and my group got one detective game CD. I think this game will serve as a good tool for pupils to generate their reasoning and analyzing skill as being a detective, they need these two HOTS in order to solve the cases in the CD. This CD is highly interactive, where they are a lot of conversations going on, and they serve as clues for pupils to synthesize the all the clues that they can get and then gradually figure out the source of the problem.
One weakness about this software that i can observe is that it challenges pupils patience. There are conversations which last for a couple of minute per one, and there is no option to skip them. That will reduce the thrill for the game overall as even adults will feel impatience let alone children. Perhaps the clues should be made simple yet challenging.
Other than the detective game software, we have also seen others that let children explore some simple contraptions. They are all interesting, highly interactive and highly motivating. The software all contain colourful and interesting graphics and animation that attract even us as adult.
It thus inspires us that we can use these children softwares as our teaching aids as well next time...
One weakness about this software that i can observe is that it challenges pupils patience. There are conversations which last for a couple of minute per one, and there is no option to skip them. That will reduce the thrill for the game overall as even adults will feel impatience let alone children. Perhaps the clues should be made simple yet challenging.
Other than the detective game software, we have also seen others that let children explore some simple contraptions. They are all interesting, highly interactive and highly motivating. The software all contain colourful and interesting graphics and animation that attract even us as adult.
It thus inspires us that we can use these children softwares as our teaching aids as well next time...
Recall final exam..
Resources paper is the first final paper that i'm taking for the sem... well, it was kinda relaxing.. in fact, it was more like a exercise rather than an exam, due to the setting, the hour... well, good in a way, that it made me not so nervous, and in this way i believe the paper can be answered more properly..
Well the questions are not so tough... butta... i thought i answered it well. But i only start wandering if the answers i give was acceptable after passing up the paper... many people were creating the story board for the whole story instead of creating only one sample as of mine... and for the other question, pick up two teaching aids from the technology and non-technology categories and compare and contrast them. What i did was comparing them individually instead of as a group... O.....
Well, anyhow, anyway. I'm glad that this paper has passed. And another burden is put down. Now it is the portfolio assignment that demands my attention now..
Well the questions are not so tough... butta... i thought i answered it well. But i only start wandering if the answers i give was acceptable after passing up the paper... many people were creating the story board for the whole story instead of creating only one sample as of mine... and for the other question, pick up two teaching aids from the technology and non-technology categories and compare and contrast them. What i did was comparing them individually instead of as a group... O.....
Well, anyhow, anyway. I'm glad that this paper has passed. And another burden is put down. Now it is the portfolio assignment that demands my attention now..
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Recall video editing
Like photo editing, video editing is also one of the tasks that i enjoy doing :)
Remember that Mdm Foziah showed us some of the video works done by our seniors. And it was interesting. We watched two videos; and one of them by displaying the photos they depict a story between two person; while the other with the theme of various tastes in life, was actually depicting the tastes of sweet, bitter, sour, salty that we experience in life. They were the interesting stimulus for us to start on the project that we need to do, that is to create a photo video which relates personal elements in our lives.
So i and Vina paired up to do the work. We decided to create a video that depicts our lives before we met and that when we have come to known each other as course mates. So what we did we went back home and collect our pictures from when we were as young as babies to when we met each other as course mates in KL. We highlights our similarities and differences in the video that the message that we actually want to bring out was that friendship was formed regardless of the backgrounds, cultures that we come from. It is by fate and sincerity that a friendship was formed.
Another enjoyable task to do :)
Remember that Mdm Foziah showed us some of the video works done by our seniors. And it was interesting. We watched two videos; and one of them by displaying the photos they depict a story between two person; while the other with the theme of various tastes in life, was actually depicting the tastes of sweet, bitter, sour, salty that we experience in life. They were the interesting stimulus for us to start on the project that we need to do, that is to create a photo video which relates personal elements in our lives.
So i and Vina paired up to do the work. We decided to create a video that depicts our lives before we met and that when we have come to known each other as course mates. So what we did we went back home and collect our pictures from when we were as young as babies to when we met each other as course mates in KL. We highlights our similarities and differences in the video that the message that we actually want to bring out was that friendship was formed regardless of the backgrounds, cultures that we come from. It is by fate and sincerity that a friendship was formed.
Another enjoyable task to do :)
Recall photo editing
Recall the resources classes that i had, photo editing is one of the lessons that comes to my mind first of all. It wins my favour perhaps because it is a simple yet interesting things that i learn in this course.
We were introduced to the the software that enables the editing of photos possible, and we have tried out real photo editing in our classes. But further exploration are needed to go beyond the basic and very surfacial editing that i have done. I've seen some very innovative and creative photo editing that were done by my friends. I like the session where the products of the 78 of us were displayed, so that we not only share the fun enjoying each other's photo but also getting ideas of what we can do in photo editing.
It is really convenient and cost-efficient to do this things as various software can be downloaded from internet.
Really grateful that this new stuff has been introduced to me in resources class. Hope that i can make use of this application in future.. :)
We were introduced to the the software that enables the editing of photos possible, and we have tried out real photo editing in our classes. But further exploration are needed to go beyond the basic and very surfacial editing that i have done. I've seen some very innovative and creative photo editing that were done by my friends. I like the session where the products of the 78 of us were displayed, so that we not only share the fun enjoying each other's photo but also getting ideas of what we can do in photo editing.
It is really convenient and cost-efficient to do this things as various software can be downloaded from internet.
Really grateful that this new stuff has been introduced to me in resources class. Hope that i can make use of this application in future.. :)
Last post-reflections
Well to answer the question what i like about blogging, i think it is the liberty that i can enjoy in blogging. Knowing that my blog wil be visited and read by others, it motivates me to write down whatever that comes to my mind to share with others. Blogging provides me a space to share something which i might not have opportunity to share with others during socializing time or any other time. It might due to the appropriateness of the circumstance and setting that time. But blogging allows a person to write down anything anytime without the issue about appropriateness of setting or circumstances.
Well about the things that i do not like about blogging.. well sometimes i feel that we will unconsciously fall into the state of being too obsessed with our own view while being too critical on others. It might be an article full of self-righteous views, while many other remarks that criticize on others.. one might be feeling satisfied on venting out their point of view, but the views might be too self-centered and not constructive to others who read it. That’s what i do not like about blogging.
What i have gained from blogging... well, definitely i see myself getting more and more fluent in expressing my view through written language. And continuous blogging also serves as pratice for me to improve my grammar. As i check back the blog that i have written, i realize my grammar mistakes and that will make me more alert on the grammar aspect next time.
What i like about the course... the course exposes me to a lot of technology applications. Some of those are what i encounter for the first time, such as audio editing, audio extracting etc. After being exposed to these kind of software i think i can safely say that i am far from being technology-illiterate, at least i have known these tools that i can explore and utilize next time for teaching purposes.
Well, as much as the excitement that we experience being exposed to the many new technogical stuff, we are feeling as taxing as well of the overload work that we have to deal with. Perhaps the work can be required less so that we can really enjoy learning the course. The overloaded work is one of the factors that deduct the thrills in progressing through the course.
What i have learnt from the course.. the basics of operating the various applications that i’ve introduced to. What i do not expect but have learnt from the course... basically is developing resources from technology sources. I thought it would be the many papers and cutting work that need to be done to produce teaching resouces.. well, the mentioned would be the case of what i expect but have not learnt form the course, but i don’t really fancy that, because i don’t like to produce hand-made resouces.
Last note...
Well, coming to the last post i would post for this course PBEY3102, i write it with a sense of regret.. Well, mostly due to the fact that throughout this semester, i didn't do my work diligently. I confess that even this blogging assignment, i fail to update it weekly.. well, i blame no one else but myself.. it is not a difficult task to upload it weekly, but i still fail to do it. It is the matter of diligence. And also not that this is not reminded by maam earlier on. It IS reminded early of the semester.
Well, coming to the end of the semester, being disappointed by myself, i wish that i would improve in terms of self-discipline and diligence in doing my work. There is really no excuse for me, as others can do it so well and diligently update their blog every week.
Well, hope that i can really learn from this sem, and learn to be diligent for the next sem in whatever subject that i'm going to deal with.
Well, coming to the end of the semester, being disappointed by myself, i wish that i would improve in terms of self-discipline and diligence in doing my work. There is really no excuse for me, as others can do it so well and diligently update their blog every week.
Well, hope that i can really learn from this sem, and learn to be diligent for the next sem in whatever subject that i'm going to deal with.
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