Listening skill

Listening skill

Using Comic Strips in Language Classes

          Comic are usually funny so applying them to methodological purposes will have the same effect as using games in teaching English. Comic strips not only amuse and interest L2 students. There are plenty of other reasons to use them in education.

          Oller’s episode hypothesis, John Oller and his episode hypothesis “texts which are more episodically organized can be stored and recalled more easily than less episodically organized material”. The students can follow the story line step by step and can recall its structure more easily. Oller’s theory can be applied in the case of comic strips used in the language class. The visual nature of comic strips also helps to increase motivation and more importantly. The learner will memorize and recall it more easily. Comic strips improve communicative competence and are used in spoken, colloquial. Consequently, comic strips help students to deal with spoken and even informal language. Comic strips are authentic and using authentic material is very important in language teaching and learning. There are many sample exercises to practice.

          Comic strips are not only for fun in language class, but there are also methodological reasons for teachers to use them. Comic strips provide the structure and stimulus to which students respond. It helps students to acquire vocabulary, grammatical and communicative competence. When I’m a teacher, I will use comic strips to teach in the language class because it can help students to learn many skills.

Reading  skill    

Ten Helpful Ideas for Teaching English to Young Learners

        Teaching English to Young learners <TEYL> has become its own field of  study as the age of compulsory English education has become lower and lower in countries around the world. This article contains some helpful ideas to incorporate into TEYL classroom.

        The ideas given below can be applied to learners ranging from approximately 5 to 12 years old and can be used for various proficiency levels. There are 10 ideas:

1.    Supplement activities with visuals, realia, and movement. This popular method can be used as technique with storytelling and with songs that teach language related to any kind of movement or physical action. Children have fun with movement, and the move fun for students, the better they will remember the language learned.

2.   Involve students in making visuals and realia. One way to make the learning more fun is to involve students in the creation of the visual or realia.

3.   Move from activities to activity. For young students, from age 5 to 10 especially, it is a good idea to move quickly from activity to activity. Do not spend more time in any activity.

4.   Teach in theme. Teachers should teach students from their planning.

5.   Use stories and contexts familiar to students. The contexts that are use when teaching English, which may be a completely new and foreign language, should be contexts that are familiar to them.

6.   Establish classroom routines in English. Young learners function well within a structured environment and enjoy repetition of certain routines and activities.

7.   Use L1 as a resource when necessary.  Teachers these days are mostly encouraged to teach English through English. Sometimes students can express comprehension of English in their native language.

8.   Bring in helpers from community. Collaborate with others who are studying English, studying to be English teachers, or who speak English well in order to expand the English learning community. Using helpers means taking extra time to communicate your expectation with the guest and working this special event into your lesson plan.

9.   Collaborate with other teachers in your school. Collaborate with other teachers in your school to make the learning experience richer for your students. Connect your lesson to the topics, activities, and stories your students are learning in their native language.

10.        Communicate with other TEYL professionals. TEYL professionals help keep your classroom fresh with new ideas and collaboration can help to construct new ideas and solutions to the common problems that teachers face.

All of the ideas given above stood out as some of the more helpful ideas for teaching EFL to young learners. These activities should prove helpful to all teachers of English to young learners.

Reading  skill    

Reading to Speak: Integrating Oral Communication Skills

          Speaking skill is the most important skill and students must master several difficult microskills, including the pronunciation of unfamiliar phonemes, the correct placement of stress and intonation and the appropriate use of formal and informal expressions.

        How to integrate oral communication skills. Speaking is added to reading and writing lessons to ensure that students receive essential practice in oral communication. The listening skill is already a natural complement to any true speaking activity, adding speaking opportunities to reading or writing lesson automatically allows students to integrate at least three skills. The integration of speaking and reading activities can be used in both intensive and extensive reading class. There are 3 activities that are 1.> Read to act 2.> Read to debate and 3.> Read to interview.

        Reading comes first and speaking is following. When teacher integrates speaking skills, it improves students’ communicative competence. Teacher can use these activities to practice students to speak fluency. 

Inside the classroom

        Today there are 5 people to teaching test. Each person has mistake about lesson plan. They don’t know how to write enabling objectives and terminal objectives. They cannot separate its. When they write enabling objectives and terminal objectives wrong, they cannot achieve for teaching including evaluation because it isn’t relevance. So, teacher asks my friends and me how different between enabling objectives and terminal objectives. If we know it, we can write lesson plan correctly.

        Enabling objectives come from indicator what teacher would like students to know first and terminal objectives are what students can do after they finish study. For example, enabling objective you write: students will be able to understand preposition. Terminal objective you write: students will be able to ask and answer question about the direction of place. If you can write like this, you can evaluate students correctly. Teacher said that they have only rubric criteria but they don’t have the instrument to evaluation. So, you should design it. When you teach, you should choose 1 content that clearly don’t teach many content. You should think that after you finish teaching students can use this language function in real life.

        In conclusion, enabling objectives are different from terminal objectives. You should plan your teaching that activities are smooth and choose only 1 content to teach. If someone can do like this, you will get the good point and good teaching.

 Week 15: Leaning Contract

Day	Time	What I do?
Sunday	10.00	Learning contract
Monday	-	-
Tuesday	22.30	Writing inside the classroom
Wednesday	21.30	Reading skill
Thursday	-
Friday	22.30	Reading skill
Saturday	11.30	Listening skill

Listening skill

Academic Writing: Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay

          Million of students have been taught a formula that has nothing to do with chemistry or mathematic. First, write an introductory paragraph. Then, add three paragraph of evidence. Finally, write a conclusion. Many people said about five-paragraph formula. Some people said the formula is simple to deal with subject and some people are difficult for them. Karen Gocsik said there is no formula for students to write. Students organize their paragraphs to build toward the main idea at the end of the paper.

Vocabulary	Pronunciation	Meaning		Sentence
		Thai	English
formula < n.>	/ ˈfɔːmjələ /	ประโยค	series of letters, numbers or symbols that represent a rule or law	This formula is used to calculate the area of a circle.
guarantee <n.>	/ ˌɡærənˈtiː /	การรับประกัน	a firm promise that you will do sth or that sth will happen	He gave me a guarantee that it would never happen again.

Reading  skill  

 Motivating Students by Modifying Evaluation Methods

          A foreign language learner’s motivation can be influenced by many factors: social, psychological education, and economical. Teachers can do a lot to motivate their students by being observant, understanding, informed, and tactful.

        In the Chinese, this Confucian model has exerted a great influence on foreign language. Teacher is very demanding, responsible. The students are compared with each other. The sad thing from this model is that a teacher’s good will and extra effort frequently bring and negative and harmful effects on the students.

        When evaluating students’ performance, instead of looking at it with the critical eye of an authoritarian, the teacher should examine the way students have been successful. The brainstorming activity would be ruined and the benefits of focusing on success and achievements are manifold.

        Norm-referenced evaluation is like athletic competition in the prize winners are scare. Criterion-referenced evaluation measures a student’s performance by comparing it to a defined of knowledge or skills <Bachman 1990: 74-76>. The students are evaluated according to standards, not each other. Objectives-referenced evaluation works well with essays and should be an integral part of the everyday teaching process. Teachers should not unrealistic demands or judgment criteria for their students, but rather depend on objectives referencing to evaluate both their students’ performance and their own teaching. When teachers evaluate students’ performance, it should be done as one of several means to help students succeed in learning. Analytic assessment point out specific aspects of a students’ performance.

        Students have different tolerance because they differ from other students in such diverse aspects as their family, educational history, learning strategies, and attitude for foreign language learning <Eillis 1994>. These are 3 techniques for improving how we evaluate our students’ work:

1.    Diachronic evaluation.

2.    Split method.

3.    Dynamic view.

Learning a foreign language is a long and complex task. Students should encourage their selves  to learn. These are many methods to motivate them to learn well like focus on success and achievement, use objectives-referenced testing. I think it is useful for teachers to choose these methods to motivate students.

Vocabulary	Pronunciation	Meaning		Sentence
		Thai	English
tactful < adj.>	/ ˈtæktfl /	ระวังคำพูดไม่ให้กระทบผู้อื่น	careful not to say or do anything that will annoy or upset other people	That wasn't a very tactful thing to say! I tried to find a tactful way of telling her the truth.
prevail <v.>	/ prɪˈveɪl /	แพร่หลาย	to exist or be very common at a particular time or in a particular place	We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons.
begrudge<v.>	/ bɪˈɡrʌdʒ /	อิจฉา	to feel unhappy that sb has sth because you do not think that they deserve it	You surely don't begrudge him his happiness.
conceit < n.>	/ kənˈsiːt /		an artistic effect or device, especially one that is very clever or tries to be very clever but does not succeed	The ill-advised conceit of the guardian angel dooms the film from the start.
sluggish < adj.>	/ ˈslʌɡɪʃ /		moving, reacting or working more slowly than normal and in a way that seems lazy	He felt very heavy and sluggish after the meal.