LEARNING MEDIA FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

LEARNING MEDIA FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

 

APPLICATION OF THE TECHNIQUES IN TEACHING LISTENING

Seminar on TEFL

 

Techniques of Teaching Listening

Harmer (1983) states that listening as a different skill to writing. In listening, the listener cannot see what he was listening, but could only listen.

Listening ability is one of skill in English language lessons to mater the skills of students with three others, namely reading, writing, and listening. From experience and discussion with several students, many who find it difficult to reach the expected competent in this skills. Often, in practice, teachers are less able to teach listening that is easily understod by students. This resulted in many students who failed the exam and had to repeat listening.

Therefore, a teacher who is the facilitator should have the skills to be able to make students feel easy in the study of listening. There are several techniques that can be done by teachers when teaching listening in the classroom, including :

1. Filling the Gap

This technique can be done by way of emptying a few words in a paragraph or dialogue.Ask students to listen to text spoken by the teacher or the tape and fill that empty words are.

1. Picture Guessing

This technique can be done by guessing the image according to an oral text that was read or heard.

1. Finding Mistakes

The technique is done by asking and listening to spoken text underlined words that do not correspond with the spoken text.

1. Choosing Menu

The technique is done by asking students to select the menu corresponding to the spoken text.

1. Rearranging Sentences / Paragraph

The technique is done by giving the sentence or paragraph hiatus to students. Students are asked to listen to the spoken text and make sentences / paragraphs to be true.

1. Matching

The technique is done by breaking the conversation into two parts. The first part contains half a sentence and the second half of the sentence. Then students are asked to listen to the text of the conversation and then match the first and second corresponding text conversation.

 

Definition of Listening

Listening is the ability to understand what others say and why they have to said it.

 

Listening is an active proccess of understanding the text by activating various kinds of knowledge, such as background knowledge (knowledge of the content), grammatical (knowledge of the language), phonological knowledge (knowledge of sounds) and knowledge based on learners experience.

 

Listening skills have not been given much importance like other aspects of communication skills, but it is true that listening skills play a major role in the success of one’s communication skills. Only a good listener can be a good speaker. Nobody has been loaded or programmed with good speaking skills at the time of birth. A baby starts speaking, only by listening to the words spoken by his family members. So a child first learns to speak his mother tongue and then other languages like English, Spanish, French etc. But the curiosity found in a baby to learn the language does not last very long as he starts to grow up. Slowly a child develops an ego by thinking that he is a good speaker and that he should speak and others should listen to him. However, this simple thing can be so difficult to do unless you are aware of the need of listening. therefore, the things that makes listening skills importance, include :

• Language learning depends on Listening.
• Speaking does not constitute communication by itself unless what is said is comprehended by another person.
• Listening is used far more  than any other single language skill in normal daily life

 

Tips To Improve The Way You Speak English

Many deserving candidates lose out on job opportunities because of their vernacular accent.

Can I ‘neutralise’ my accent?

Yes, you can. All you need to do is train yourself to speak English as comfortably and perfectly as you speak your mother tongue.

How do you train yourself? By inculcating certain practices in your daily lifestyle. These will get you closer to sounding like a native English speaker and equip you with a global accent — and you will speak not American or British English, but correct English.

This is the first step to learn any other accent, be it American or British or Australian.

Lisa Mojsin, head trainer, director and founder of the Accurate English Training Company in Los Angeles, offers these tips to help ‘neutralise’ your accent or rather do away with the local twang, as you speak.

1. Observe the mouth movements of those who speak English well and try to imitate them.

When you are watching television, observe the mouth movements of the speakers. Repeat what they are saying, while imitating the intonation and rhythm of their speech.

2. Until you learn the correct intonation and rhythm of English, slow your speech down.

If you speak too quickly, and with the wrong intonation and rhythm, native speakers will have a hard time understanding you.

Don’t worry about your listener getting impatient with your slow speech — it is more important that everything you say be understood.

3. Listen to the ‘music’ of English.

Do not use the ‘music’ of your native language when you speak English. Each language has its own way of ‘singing’.

4. Use the dictionary.

Try and familiarise yourself with the phonetic symbols of your dictionary. Look up the correct pronunciation of words that are hard for you to say.

5. Make a list of frequently used words that you find difficult to pronounce and ask someone who speaks the language well to pronounce them for you.

Record these words, listen to them and practice saying them. Listen and read at the same time.

6. Buy books on tape.

Record yourself reading some sections of the book. Compare the sound of your English with that of the person reading the book on the tape.

7. Pronounce the ending of each word.

Pay special attention to ‘S’ and ‘ED’ endings. This will help you strengthen the mouth muscles that you use when you speak English.

8. Read aloud in English for 15-20 minutes every day. 

Research has shown it takes about three months of daily practice to develop strong mouth muscles for speaking a new language.

9. Record your own voice and listen for pronunciation mistakes.

Many people hate to hear the sound of their voice and avoid listening to themselves speak. However, this is a very important exercise because doing it will help you become conscious of the mistakes you are making.

10. Be patient.

You can change the way you speak but it won’t happen overnight. People often expect instant results and give up too soon. You can change the way you sound if you are willing to put some effort into it.

Quick tips

Various versions of the English language exist. Begin by identifying the category you fall into and start by improving the clarity of your speech.

~ Focus on removing the mother tongue influence and the ‘Indianisms’ that creep into your English conversations.

~ Watch the English news on television channels like Star World, CNN, BBC and English movies on Star Movies and HBO.

~ Listen to and sing English songs. We’d recommend Westlife, Robbie Williams, Abba, Skeeter Davis and Connie Francis among others.

sources : google

 

GERUND

 

Gerund is the “ing” form of the verb that functions as “noun”.
The usage of grammar are:

1. As Subject
2. As Object/after certain verb (admit, appreciate, carry on, etc)
3. As Complement
4. After preposition
5. Short Forbidance
6. Compound Word (kata majemuk)
7. After Verb Phrase

 

1. As Subject
– Swimming is a healthy sport
– Dancing is my hobby

2. As Object
– I like swimming

3. As Complement
– My hobby is swimming

4. After Preposition
(in, at, on, after, before, etc)
– After watching TV, I went to bed.

5. Short Forbidance
– No smoking !
– No Parking !

6. Compound Word
– Swimming pool
– Fitting room
– Dining room
– Living room

7. After Verb Phrase
– look forward to + verb ing
– be/get used to + verb ing
– be/get accustomed to + verb ing
– object to + verb ing (menolak)
– confess to + verb ing (mengakui)
– it’s no use + verb ing (tak ada gunanya)

Source” My note.

 

Relative/Adjective Clause

 

A. Relative/Adjective Clause

Relative /adjective clause is a clause that modified noun.

Relative Pronoun:
• who > subject (person) : I, you, they, we, she, he
• whom > object (person) : me, you, them, us, him, her
• whose > milik (person) my…., your…., their…., our…., his…., her….,
• which > benda/binatang : subject/object
• that > orang/binatang/benda : subject/object (informal)
• of which the > milik (benda/binatang) : its…., their….,
• where > place
• when > time

 

Example
a. As Subject
1. The boy is kind. He sits under the tree.
 The boy who/that sits under the tree is kind.
Note: that (informal)
is (p)
kind (complement)

2. The boy is kind. You helped him yesterday.
 The boy whom/that you helped yesterday is kind
Note: whom/that bisa dihilangkan.
is (p)
kind (complement)

3. The boy is kind. You borrowed his car last week.
 The boy whose car you borrowed last week is kind
Note: The boy whose car you borrowed last week (subject)
is (p)
kind (complement)

4. The room is hot. We study in it.
 The room (which/that) we study in is hot
 The room (in which/where) we study is hot
Note: The room (in which/where) we study (subject)
is (p)
hot (complement)

b. As Object/Complement
1. I like the girl. He loves her very much.
 I like the girl whom he loves very much.

2. I have a cat. Its fur is nice.
 I have a cat of which the fur is nice.

3. I like Harry Potter. It is very popular movie.
 I like Harry Potter which is very popular movie.

Source: My note

 

SPEAKING’ METHOD (COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH)

Communicative Language Teaching (The Communicative Approach)

As the language theories underlying the Audiolingual method and the Sitiuational Language Teaching method were questioned by prominent linguists like Chomsky (1957) during the 1960s, a new trend of language teaching paved its way into classrooms. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) Which is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages, emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. It is also referred to as “Communicative Approach”. Historically, CLT has been seen as a response to the Audio-Lingual Method (ALM), and as an extension or development of the Notional-Functional Syllabus. Task-based language learning, a more recent refinement of CLT, has gained considerably in popularity.

Shortcomings of structuralism and behaviorism

The theories underlying the audiolingual method and the situational language teaching were widely criticized during the 1960s. Noam chomsky, for instance, rejected the structuralist view of language and demostrated that there is a distinction between performance and competence.  The goal of the linguist is to study the linguistic competence native speakers are endowed with. He also showed, rightly, that structuralism and behaviourism were unable to account for one fundamental  aspect of language, namely the creatvity and uniqueness of individual sentences. A child is able to produce an infinte number of sentences that s/he has never encountered. This makes  the factors of  imitation, repetition and habit formation weak arguments to account for any language learning theory.

A shift towards communicative proficiency

The increasing interdependency between the European countries necessitated a need for a greater effort to teach adults the principal languages of the continent. New goals were set in language teaching profession:

• The paramount importance of communication aspects of language.
• The increasing interest in meaningful learning.
• The growing centrality of the learner in teaching processes.
• The subordinate importance of structural teaching of language.

Notional / functional dimension of language

Applied linguists  and philosophers addressed another fundamental dimension of language: the functional and communicative potential of language.  The speech act theory showed that we do somthing when we speak a language. We use language ( cf halliday 1975)

• to get things,
• to control behavior,
• to create interaction with others,
• to express personal feelings,
• to learn,
• to create a world of imagination,
• to communicate information.

Besides applied linguists empasized  a teaching of language based on communicative proficiency rather than mastery of structures. instead of describing the core of language through traditional concepts of grammar and vocabulary, they (Van Ek & Alexander, 1975; Wilkins, 1976) attempted to show the systems of meaning underlying the communicative use of language. They described two kinds of meanings.

• Notional categories: concepts such as time, sequence; quantity, location, frequency.
• Functional categories: requests offers, complaints, invitation …

In other words, a “notion” is a particular context in which people communicate. A “function” is a specific purpose for a speaker in a given context. For example, the “notion,” of shopping requires numerous language “functions,” such as asking about prices or features of a product and bargaining.

One language competence or numerous competences?

For Chomsky the focus of linguistics was to describe the linguistic competence that enables speakers to produce grammatically correct sentences. Dell Hymes held, however,  that such a view of linguistic theory was sterile and that it failed to picuture all the aspects of language. He advocated the need of a theory that incorporate communication competence. It must be a definition of what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech community.

Later Canale and Swaine (1980) described four dimensions of communicative competence.

• Grammatical competence: refers to what Chomsky calls linguistic competence.
• Sociolinguistic competence: refers to an understanding of the social context in which communication takes place (role relationships, shared beliefs and information between participants …)
• Discourse competence: refers to the interpretation of individual messsage elements in terms of their interconnectedness and how meaning is represented in relationship to the entire discourse or text.
• Strategic competence: refers to the coping strategies that participants use to initiate terminate, maintain, repair and redirect communication

Learning theory                                           

According to the the communicative approach, in order for learning to take place, emphasis must be put on the importance of these variables:

• Communication: activities that involve real communication promote learning.
• Tasks: activities in which language is used to carry out meaningful tasks supports the learning process.
• Meaning: language that is meaningful and authentic to the learner boosts learning.

Acquiring or learning?

Stephen Krasen later advocated in his language learning theory that there should be a distinction between learning and acquiring. He sees aquisition as the basic process involved in developing language proficiency and ditinguishes this process from learning. Aquisition is an unconscious process that involves the naturalistic development of language proficency while learning is the conscious internalisation of the rules of language. It results in explicit knowledge about the forms of language and the ability to verbalize this knowledge. Learning according to Krashen can not lead to aquisition.

Syllabus

Communicative language teaching syllabus organizes the teaching according to the notional and functional categories of language rather than according to its structures.It concentrates on the following:

• Interactions: using  language to communicate,
• Tasks: using language to  perform meaningful tasks
• Learner: puting the learner’s interesets, needs in the forefront.

Merits of CLT

There are many advantages in teaching according to the communicative approach:

• CLT is a holistic appraoch. It doesn’t focus only on the traditional structural syllabus. It takes into consideration communicative dimension of language.
• CLT provides vitality and motivation within the classroom.
• CLT is a learner centered approach. It capitalizes on the interests and needs of the learner.
• In a world where communication of information and information technology have broken new considerable ground, CLT can play an important role in education.

Criticism

• Notional syllabus was critcised as merely replacing one kind of list, namely a list of grammatical strucures, with another list of notions and functions.
• The various categories of language functions are overlapping and not systematically graded like the structures of the language.
• The communicative approach focuses on the use of language in everyday situations, or the functional aspects of language, and less on the formal structures. There must be a certain balance between the two.It gives priority to meanings and rules of use rather than to grammar and rules of structure.  Such concentration on language behavior may result in negative consequences in the sense that important structures and rules would be left out.
• The approach relies extensively on the functional-notational syllabus which places heavy demands on the learners.
• A major principle underlying this approach is its emphasis on learners’ needs and interests. This implies that every teacher should modify the syllabus to fit the needs of the learners.
• The requirements are difficult. Not all classrooms can allow for group work activities and for teaching aids and materials.

In spite of its critics, CLT has gained widespread acceptance in the world of language study. CLT can succeed, as long as teachers don’t completely reject the need for the structure provided by grammar. Teachers must strive for moderation and don’t neglect the merits of other methods. CLT, in the hands of a balanced teacher, can bring new life and joy to the classroom. Its vitality makes it an important contributor to language learning approaches.

taken from : google

 

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