English Class- We Need Reinforcement!

English Class – Please bring the excitement back!

Nowadays, everybody talks about the importance of English language. In the city, people talk about English. They speak English. In the village, they talk about how English can change their kids’ life. So much to say about this language. I must admit that Malaysian now realize the important of English.

I am an English teacher, lecturer, or I can call myself an educator. I have seen English classes with my eyes. Many English classes. I have seen people from all stages of life doing English learning. But, somehow I feel like something is missing. It is like a plate of fried rice without a pinch of salt. It looks great, smells great and seems edible. Yeah, those are our English classes.

English classes have become more and more boring, each and every day. Teachers are not prepared for the class. No more materials like those we were having in our micro-teaching class. No. Not at all. Yes, teachers and students have become so robotic. They need to catch up with syllabus. They need to mind their examination. They need to do this and that. They got so many things to do, both of them, teachers and students.

When they become so robotic, they are less human. Not lesser human by criteria. But the nature of human is something they are missing. Some teachers do not even understand that they are teaching a group of human.  They give the contents and hoping that the students will gradually manage to score in exam.  They don’t really care. They students look not interested in English lesson. I guess they realize that they make too many mistakes in term of language in class. When they realize it, they don’t want to do it anymore.

Teacher is always a good person. Always. This is true. They are teaching. They give something to develop human capital. But, I can see that they slowly stop learning and satisfy with the knowledge they have. Most of them are too lazy to read inspirational, motivational books to improve their teaching. This is a major part they are missing.

That is all from me. I’ll be back.

It takes two to tango.

IT TAKES TWO TO TANGO BUT THREE IS A CROWD.

Written by : Mohd. Juraimi bin Omar
Bachelor in Education (Hons) TESL
September 2009

Education is, perhaps, the most important thing in life for some. Education gives us spaces to develop. Education is learning… and teaching in a broad concept of understanding humanity and the reason for a living. Education should be able to lead learners to improve their behavior, intellectual as well as their emotion so that, by the end of the day, learners will understand the reasons of life.

Education is more than just what we have in the class. It is a process of matching the unique characteristics of an individual with the demand of fast growing world. It is a process where we cannot afford to lose. Watching my students alone are enough to make me realize how important it is to educate them, not teaching them. Teaching them will make them weaker in the future. Mark my words.

Today, teaching is more or less a spoon feeding process, especially in primary and secondary school, nothing more and nothing less. Teaching is seen as something not more than giving loads of information…and information… again and again even though the students are far away from being interested in particular subject or motivated enough to receive and digest the contents as they need the information. The situation in the class makes me think that the students are not there because they want to learn, they just want to get a scroll of academic evidence. That’s all.

Educators work so hard to facilitate the students with as much input as they can. Yes, they did. I know it. Educators are committed to their profession. Yes, they do. I have the evidence and I can be a witness on their dedication. They are extremely dedicated and passionate workers. Yes, they are. I mean it. This group of well-educated human-being contracted their soul in order for the next generation to be enlightened. Unfortunately for some, their hard work does not pay dividends. The students are stubborn as always, as they were born in jail. The parents blame the educators. They are easily pointing their finger and the educators are caught in no man’s land.

It looks like something is missing from our education system. The clearest thing that I can pick is there is no excitement at all among the most of the students. What kind of excitement do I mean? Okay. Now pick one classroom and observe. You should be ready to count. Please count how many students asking questions. Keep counting. Please count how many students do smile or nodding their head in the classroom as a sign of agreement with what the teacher says. Continue. Please count how many students who show uninterested face? You will get many of this, and please count how many students wait for their turn to get a permission to go to the toilet. To make it worst, just take a look at how they react when they hear the bell. They will explode. They will run and run to the canteen as if that is the only good thing that they will face that day and they have to appreciate it. “The things that can make the students happy are recess and Physical Education only”. One of my friends said when I did my practicum in Shah Alam. True to his words. Clearly, the students do not like to be in the class anymore. Forcing them to be in the class does not suit any positive behaviorism and humanism concepts.

To be continued…

the complication of mind

she said i am not listening. she said i should have done better. she said i need to change my behavior. she said i am too selfish. she said i am not understanding. she said i am not the same guy. she said she needs someone better. and those were the things she said. and one more thing. she said i am too good for her after all the things she said before. well done, girl! you have proven one thing. you are the problem. all this while i think i got this wrong. but thanks to you, i got this right this time. you are wrong. absolutely wrong.

it is maturity. it is something to do wif your maturity versus mine. when you say many many things, i just listen without arguing anything. i just smile. you think you are clever by providing me some facts supported with your explanation. you talk and talk to convince me that you are right. you talk until my ears cannot comprehend your words anymore. that is good. you think you got something to prove. and you are trying. i can see that, but i think, you are trying too hard and it doesn't work...at all. trust me. your intellectual level cannot match mine. you forgot to use humanistic approach. after all, we are not robot. we have feeling. hey, please take note. jot this down and bear it in your mind.

BALI'S KECAK DANCE Kecak (pronounced: /'ke.tʃak/, roughly "KEH-chahk", alternate spellings: Ketjak and Ketjack), a form of Balinese music drama, originated in the 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.[1]Kecak was originally a trance ritual accompanied by male chorus.

German painter and musician Walter Spies became deeply interested in the ritual while living in Bali in the 1930s and worked to recreate it into a drama, based on the Hindu Ramayana and including dance, intended to be presented to Western tourist audiences. This transformation is an example of what James Clifford describes as part of the "modern art-culture system"[2] in which, "the West or the central power adopts, transforms, and consumes non-Western or peripheral cultural elements, while making 'art' which was once embedded in the culture as a while, into a separate entity."[3] Spies worked with Wayan Limbak and Limbak popularized the dance by traveling throughout the world with Balinese performance groups. These travels have helped to make the Kecak famous throughout the world.

Lesson Plan

ENVIRONMENT ISSUES
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Level: Form 2
Time: 30 minutes
Level of Proficiency: Intermediate
Theme: Environment
Topic: Environmental Issues


AIMS: To practice summary writing

General Objective: By the end of the lesson, students should be aware of the current environmental issues.

Specific Objectives: By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. Read any article related to environment in the selected website.

2. Point out the main points from the article.

3. Write a summary from the selected material in the website.

Moral Value: Love for the environment.
Educational Emphasis : Creative and Critical Thinking Skills (CCTS) and writing

1) Students need to think critically about the selected article and then use their writing skills to write a summary.

Instructional Aids: Whiteboard, marker pen.

Technical Requirements:

1) Each student will be provided with one personal computer with Internet excess, a Web Browser.

Previous Knowledge: 1) Students already know how to write a summary

2) Students face environmental problems in their daily life.

Website: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/




PROCEDURE:

1) Teacher recalls the previous knowledge of the students on writing a summary.
2) Teacher adds some additional information about how to write a good summary.
3) Teacher asks the students to open the given website- http://www.greenpeace.org/international/
4) Teacher asks students to pick any article on environmental issues from the website.
5) Teacher asks the students to read the article thoroughly and point out the main points in the article.
6) Teacher asks the students to type down the main points in Microsoft Word.
7) Teacher asks students to print out their work.
8) Teacher asks students to do the summary at home and submit it in the next class.


FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITY:

1) Teacher asks students to find a few articles about the environmental issues from the newspaper and read it. They also need to bring it in the next class for the writing class.







Mohd Juraimi bin Omar
U8A
2005478175

ESL Website Evaluation

Prepared by: Mohd Juraimi bin Omar
Group: U8A
Student ID: 2005478175

The Website: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Title: Guide to Grammar & Writing



1) What does the application attempt to “teach”?

The application tries to teach grammar and writing. There is enough coverage for contents for this website as it has many links to follow for various explanations and exercises. The links also are interrelated to one another. It makes the learning process become easier. The application also provides many useful inputs for the users. The explanations also are useful, direct, and comprehensible. The words used in this application are suitable for every level of proficiency. This application is more towards teaching the users instead of let the users playing with the contents. There is o attractive animation in this website. The application also provides the teaching of proper use of daily language use and the other language components such as how to avoid fragmented language, how to avoid runs-on sentences and many more. As a whole, this application provides enough contents for grammar and writing plus the other additional useful language inputs.



2) What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?

The users are expected to read the elaborations of any topics on grammar and writing. Then the users are expected to do some exercises to test their understanding. The grammar section in this application contains of several parts, which are sentence parts, such as adjective, adverb, noun, active and passive voice and many more. The next one is the mechanical parts such as capitalization, fragmentation, Italic, bold and underline and many more. It also comes with punctuation parts such as apostrophes, full stop, comas and so on. The users need to select any part of the sections and learn about the contents followed by the exercise.



3) What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/ access/ use the application?

The basic thing to use this application is the skill to use the cursor, as it will lead the users to explore more about the contents in the application. The users also are expected to know how to use Internet in order to cope with many hyperlinks contained in the application. For some sections in this application, the users need to type the answers and then check for the answers.



4) While you are “playing/ accessing/ assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self- study?

Yes, I remind me to all the exercise that I had in my ESL class during my school days. It also reminds me of the exercise that I gave to my students during my practicum. During my practicum, I used to teach grammar in isolation for the low proficiency students. This application provides the material to learn grammar in isolation. The good thing about the approach used in this application is the choice of color to highlight the important points or answers that can direct the sight of users straight to the intended locations. This reminds me to one of my teacher in my school that always uses different colours of markers to highlight the important points.


5) Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/ or teaching underlying the application?

There are some theories that can be related to the method used in this application. According to Rubin & Thompson (1982), there are 14 characteristics of good language learners. Here, in this website, it can lead the users to meet the criteria of good language learners. There are at least seven characteristics that can be enhanced by the learners using this application. They are:

1. Find their own way, taking charge of their learning.
2. Creative, developing a ‘feel’ for the language by experimenting with its grammar and words.
3. Make their own opportunities for practice in using the language inside and outside the classroom.
4. Make errors work for them and not against them.
5. Use linguistic knowledge, including knowledge of their first language, in learning the second language.
6. Use contextual cues to help them in comprehension.
7. Learn how to make intelligent guesses.

All of these seven characteristics can be developed using this application. For example, learn how to make intelligent guesses. The learner will try to find out anything that can help them in the exercise given to them in the application to get the right answer. This aspect is there in the website.

Some more, this application also related to learning strategies provided by O’Malley (1985b: 582-584). It related to metacognitive and cognitive strategies of the learners or the users. For metacognitive strategy, the users involve in selective attention when they choose any topics that they like in the application. This is intended to improve the language that becomes a concern for the users. Then, the application also uses self-evaluation for the users to see the progress of their learning. It happens when the users check for the answer and rethink about the errors the made. For cognitive strategy, there are nine of them in this application. They are repetition, translation, grouping, deduction, imagery, keyword, contextualization, transfer, and inferencing.

The application allows users to imitating a language model, which is repetition. For translation, the application allows them to using the first language as a base for understanding and, or producing the second language. In grouping part, the users can reordering or reclassifying or labeling the contents that they learn. The next one, deduction, the users can consciously apply the rules to understand the second language. Imagery, the users will have a chance to relate the new information such as grammar rules and examples to visual concepts. The application also provides many obvious keywords for users to remember. The users also would be able to placing a word or phrase in a meaningful language sequence and that is contextualization. For transfer and inferencing, the users can use previously acquired conceptual knowledge to facilitate new language learning task and guessing for the meaning of difficult vocabularies.



6) How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website?

This application also is a good example to describe the usage of constructivist theory. It can lead the users to function as a person who responsible for their learning. The effort taken by the users to use this application is the evidence on that. In addition, this website also has the aspects of empowerment. This means, it can guide the users to learn for the holistic improvement using the target language. The issues contained in the application, are good and related (authentic) for the users. The structure of the exercises and the explanations also is from easy to hard or more complex and follow a good sequence. According to Bruner. J (1986,1990,1996), learning is an active process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts based upon their current/past knowledge. This application provides enough rooms fro the users to use their own ideas based on their knowledge. Note that in constructivism, the focus is on the cognitive aspects rather than behavior. This application accommodates that to stretch users’ mind to learn the target language.


7) In 1980s and early 1890s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation-, was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

Computer should be the supplementary elements of learning. The heavy reliance of the computer does not means that the computer can replace the teacher as it lacks of humanistic touch although the current computer functions are generated to copy down the humanistic functions. The problem of using computer in class is sometimes it does not work the way we planned or too much technical error. It also invites the increasing of cost to accommodate the need of the students to use computer. The major argument is that the computer cannot be functioning without the assistant of human or the guidance of a teacher or peer. This is a perfect evidence of the debate that computer should be the supplementary of learning process only, not to replace the function of a teacher.





8) Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?
Yes or No? Give reasons:

Yes! This is because this application is awesome and helpful for the language learners in many ways. It is free and contains a lot of language aspects and exercise. Some more, this application also is provided by Dr. Charles Darling who is famous in language learning methodology. That means, the methods used in this application is effectively proven. It also can help the users from various level of proficiency.


9) Suggestions/ Recommendations.


My suggestions to improve this application are about the surface validity of it. For me, personally I think that the decorations are too lame and only suitable for adult learners. The choice of colours is bad and the items of decorations are not suitable for the adolescent learners. So I think they publisher need to improve on that and uses more attractive decorations as it always be the first thing that the learners will engage when browsing this website. It also should contain some lively animations so that the users will not be bored in front of the screen.

in class assignment 2

There are 10 interesting sentences below. However, Little Princess could not read it at all. Your task here is to help the Little Princess to read the sentences. You need to put some spaces between the words so that the sentences will make sense. Happy trying!


1) Youshouldcomeearlytoameeting.

2) TheKingwanttoheldagrandcelebrationforyourbirthday.

3) IwanttobeapilotwhenIgrowup.

4) IhaveabeatifulvoiceandIcansingverywell.

5) Theywillcomeherewiththeirarmy.


6) Ahmadcanplayfootballandmanyothersports.

7) RachelandCelinearebestfriend, theyknoweachothersince1994.

8) Malaysiansarenotfamousfortheirreadinghabit.

9) Amrinloveshismotherandfatheraswellashisbrother.

10) Iboughtanexpensivemobilephone.