TESL E-Zone Malaysia » Ideas

Teach English Using Harry Potter Movies

TESLMalaysia Admin — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:02:30 +0000

Without doubt, using movies to teach English can be fun and engaging to students. With visual and audio appeal factor, students will be easily hooked. However, it largely depends on the type of movie as well as the connection to the objectives of a lesson. Here, there are three simple worksheets on vocabulary and comprehension questions worksheets which can be modified to suit students of lower-intermediate level. These worksheets are collected from ESLGalaxy.com. Do visit the site for more useful worksheets.

Grammar Games for Verbs in Simple Past

TESLMalaysia Admin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:01:38 +0000

This is one of the activities taken from the book “Games for Grammar Practice: A Resource Book of Grammar Games and Interactive Activities”. It’s a good activity for students to practise wide range of verbs in the simple past and habitual past with used to. It also helps to enhance student’s speaking and listening skills since conversations are needed to play the game.

This lesson is free to be downloaded and photocopied as long as it is not used for commercial purposes. Of course, feel free to generate more activities from this lesson idea.

DOWNLOAD HERE

TESLMalaysia Share and Win Contest 2010

TESLMalaysia Admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:25:22 +0000

Hi TESL teachers and students, TESLMalaysia.com is celebrating its second anniversary and this year we’re going to have three contests for you to win interesting prizes. This is the first of the contests. Stand a chance to win 1-year subscription of Reader’s Digest, delivered directly to your doorstep. Read more for the instructions and rules.

Contest Instructions:

The contest is fairly simple. Just share one of your activities or ideas in teaching a specific language content or skill. For teachers, you can even share what you have done in your classroom. Inclusion of pictures and materials would be an added bonus. Note: You don’t have to come up with a full lesson plan. A description of your idea would be sufficient.

There are no specific format to follow. Just share your ideas/activities in whatever ways you like. Be creative and innovative. Each winning entry will be published here with your name acknowledged.

For those with blogs, you can also post your entry in your blog and send us the link of the post. Make sure you link back to us on your blog entry as well.

Submit your entry to teslmalaysia@gmail.com with your name, phone number, school/institution name, blog URL(if you have one) with the subject “TESLMalaysia Share and Win Contest”

Contest Rules

This contest is open to all TESL teachers and students residing in MALAYSIA only
You will need to provide the name of your school and institution (university, colleges, etc) in order to be qualified
Contest ends 7 April 2010, 11.59p.m. (GMT+8)
Entry must be ORIGINAL and only in ENGLISH

Questions? Ask in the comment section.

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. Winners will be announced within 1 week.

Teaching English as A Second Language Using Alice In Wonderland

TESLMalaysia Admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:03:05 +0000

We all know Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland 3D movie is hitting cinema across the world. Based on Lewis Carroll classic novel, Alice in Wonderland can be used as a good resource to teach ESL especially literature component. It’s always a good idea to start with something close to students’ heart before going into something “heavy”. Tim Roberts wrote a very interesting article on how to use the book as a teaching material. Perhaps, you can even think of ideas on using the movie clips to spur students’ imagination.

ESL teachers are constantly in need of interesting material for their students, whether those students are first-graders, teenagers, or adults. There is a wide range of lesson planning material available for ESL lessons on the Internet, provided by experienced ESL professionals. But much of it lacks the vital spark needed to ignite a student’s interest and wonder. How many sentences would you want to diagram during a lesson, and how often would you want to review the vocative as compared to the nominative? Useful language tools that sparkle with easily-understood humor are abundantly available in one of the greatest children’s books of all time, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The book has been translated into nearly 200 languages world-wide and has been made into movies, cartoons, and comic books. It is known in some form or other from Valparaiso to Ulaanbataar. Another plus is that the book is now in the Public Domain; there are no pesky copyright issues to deal with. You can easily download an entire copy of the book at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11/11.txt

To call this wonderful text a mere “children’s book” is a misnomer; it is an immemorial saga of mankind’s struggle to discern between dream and reality, comedy and tragedy, farce and force. It speaks directly to the heart of a child or wizened elder, bypassing the barrier of language as blithely as the Cheshire Cat bypasses Alice’s vision. The literary critic Leone Kathanthos described the book as “written beyond the comprehension of all, and thus accessible to all.”

Read the full article by Tim Roberts here.

Teaching English through Drama in Malaysian ESL Classrooms

TESLMalaysia Admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:15:23 +0000

We all know that drama has been included in the list of literary texts for the new KBSM literature component. However, to most ESL (English as a second language) teachers in Malaysia, it is a new learning curve since not everyone is exposed to the genre during their training or studying years. Fear not, like any other literary genre, the first thing that a teacher needs to do, is to understand it and start loving it before you actually go to the classrooms and teach it.

Of course, like any other methods, using drama is not an all-fitting solution to your literature classes’ woes as not all students will engage well in a classroom drama environment. In this article, I would like to share some pedagogical issues that would probably help you out.

Teaching through Drama is NOT Teaching Drama

There is a misconception among teachers on this. Like other literary texts, stop teaching them the technical aspects of each genre. In this case, don’t teach your students “What is drama?” but use it to teach the language aspects. That’s the whole purpose of the literary component. Treat it as a pedagogy with the language as the main content, not the other way round.

Why drama?

Why spend time and huge efforts on drama? Why give up lesson periods meant for grammar drills for drama? Why drama indeed! First of all, the benefits and advantages on using drama in the ESL context have been well studied and documented for decades (Do read this article by Zafeiriadou, 2009). I am not going to explain each research, as you can check out the whole list of research studies on this topic via Google Scholar. What is more important is to bear in mind that unlike most other methods, using drama in language teaching involves all four skills and provides a solid context for language learning. Plus, it provides a touch of motivation and element of fun to the classroom. It also helps to develop your students’ creativity and imagination. Well, talk about killing many birds with one stone!

“Tell me and I will forget.
Show me and I will remember.
Involve me and I will understand.”
Chinese Proverb

Teaching through Drama: The Basics

Unlike a play or a theatre that emphasises more on stage performances, drama refers to shared elements used to explore our emotions, our thinking, and to teach. When we talk about using drama in traditional classroom setting, we are not talking about creating a play for a performance, the focus is not on the final product (i.e. getting students to stage it, and evaluate!). What should be prioritised is the process! Now, if you have never taught using drama before, here are the some basic rules that you need to consider:

Before you start teaching your students using a specific drama, you need to read and understand it first. In other words, do necessary preparation.

It would be good to “dissect” each drama into parts and plans the language focus on each part. Do it like a TV series, change the one whole drama text into “episodes” according to your available time for each lesson. For each part, you can include related activities or games (i.e. miming or facial expression exercises)

As you move from part to part, emphasise on the sub-themes of each part apart from highlighting the language aspects. By the way, if your students can’t memorise the lines, allow them to use scripts cards or the scripts itself

Don’t be scared to improvise the drama or scripts. Don’t be too rigid in following the drama word by word. As much as you want your students to be imaginative and creative, allow some rooms for creativity.

Involve everyone. You know your students well, so do not let a specific group of students to rule the whole drama sessions. For each part or “episode”, rotate your students to hold different roles. For the weaker students, give them short sentences to begin. Once they are more and more confident, give them more.

Classroom drama is still part of your class, and management is just as important as your other lessons. Like a director handling a movie, you should let your students know the procedures for work. If you can’t find a place for your drama sessions, let your students work from their desks or seats.

Enjoy! Yes, create an enjoyable environment. Do not go into the classroom and start lecturing about the drama, telling them which question is going to come out in the exam or not. Make it a light moment that allows your students to learning English the fun way.

In the next article, I will share more specific activities related to the dramas selected for the new KBSM literature component.

By the way, even if you don’t know which text is included, you can always consider using the dramas available on the internet as part of your lessons. Using drama to teach grammar is probably a very good idea, as it fits the notion of “teaching grammar in context”. We’ll talk about that as well in future.

Note: If you have ideas to share, do email to us and we’ll acknowledge your contribution here. This is a platform for all teachers to share and contribute.

Do read this:

Fleming, M. (2001). Teaching drama in primary and secondary schools : an integrated approach. London: David Fulton

Fleming, M. (2003) Starting Drama Teaching. London:David Fulton Publishers

Useful Web Resources

Drama in ELT
http://www.dramainelt.org/

Creating Drama with Poetry: Teaching English as a Second Language Through Dramatization and Improvisation
http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/gaspar01.html

Script Formatting
http://www.humboldt.edu/~jmf2/floss/323rt.script.example.htm

The Drama Teacher’s Resource Room
http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/erachi/

Teaching “I wonder” by Jeannie Kirby – Idea 1

TESLMalaysia Admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:34:34 +0000

This is the first of TESLMALAYSIA’s “Lite-Fun” Series (Literature: Light and Fun).
“I Wonder” by Jeannie Kirby is one of the poems included in the new literature component and it is a very interesting poem.

On first reading, it is rather apparent that the poem seems to be a “lament” by the persona on everything around him or her. There is a strong sense of “deep thinking” and it resembles the typical “small thoughts” that we have when we’re observing our surroundings or wake up in the morning or even when we’re sitting alone, sipping our coffee at the corner of a coffee shop.

The poem is written in an “a a b b” rhyme scheme, a popular scheme used to create a “song-like” poem. In fact, some teachers have spent time changing this poem into a song, to help the students.

“I wonder” by Jeannie Kirby

I wonder why the grass is green
And why to each other we’re often mean?
Who taught us how to curse and hate?
And lead us to betray our faith?

Why can’t we learn to live and love?
And give all praises to him above
Why must we strive to put others down?
Why not wear a smile instead of a frown.

Must we forever devise new ways?
To hurt each other instead of praise?
For aren’t we all the same in his sight
Don’t we all rise in the morn and sleep at night?

For who amongst us has not shed a tear
Or hurt by another who never seemed to care.
And which of us has not done the same
To hurt another or caused some shame.

When shall we learn to let go of the past
And live each day like it’s our very last?
Which will you be, an foe or a friend?
Would you still hate today, if this was your end?

Don’t we yet know that it clouds our fate
When we ignore love and foster hate.
When hate fills your heart, it makes you blue,
For the person most hurt will always be you.

Lets rise each morning, smile and say
“Thank you God, for yet another day”
“Thanks for your love and tender care
And give me more love in my heart to share.

This poem is rather straightforward to be taught. The key here is to build up the mood or sense of emotional outburst. One way is to use the Lemon Tree song by Fool’s Garden. The song is essentially similar in terms of how the persona is expressing his or her opinion on things that “just didn’t turn out right” and the sense of disappointment and emptiness. In Jeannie’s poem, the persona laments on human’s ignorance in promoting love and peace. In the Lemon Tree, the persona laments on his long-lost love (perhaps a girlfriend).

It is often good to start a literature lesson with a song, as means to attract students’ attention and highlight salient features of a specific text. In terms of themes, always start with an easy surface theme before going deeper like in “I wonder”, tolerance and acceptance would be ultimate theme.

LEMON TREE

By Fool’s Garden

I’m sitting here in a boring room it’s just another rainy
Sunday afternoon I’m wasting my time I got nothing to do
I’m hanging around I’m waiting for you
But nothing ever happens- and I wonder

I’m driving around in my car I’m driving too fast
I’m driving too far I’d like to change my point of view
I feel so lonely I’m waiting for you
But nothing ever happens- and I wonder

I wonder how I wonder why yesterday you told me
’bout the blue blue sky and all tall that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree
I’m turning my head up and down
I’m turning turning turning turning turning around
And all that I can see is just another lemon-tree

I’m sitting here I miss the power I’d like to go out
taking a shower but there’s a heavy cloud in side my head
I feel so tired put myself into bed where nothing
ever happens- and I wonder

Isolation – is not good for me
Isolation – I don’t want to sit on a lemon-tree
I’m steppin’ around in a desert of joy Baby anyhow I’ll get another toy and every thing will happen-and you’ll wonder
I wonder how I wonder why yesterday you told me
’bout the blue blue sky and all tall that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree
I’m turning my head up and down
I’m turning turning turning turning turning around
And all that I can see is just another lemon-tree

In the next part, we’ll look specifically at the language features, themes as well as several other activities that can be done using this poem (lesson plans included).

The New KBSM Literature Component 2010

TESLMalaysia Admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:57:42 +0000

As some of you might have noted, the literature component for KBSM has been updated with a complete new list of reading materials. There is still a lack of input on the novels though as some teachers have mentioned they might not be included. We’ll wait and see. At the mean time, TESLMALAYSIA.com will start providing valuable materials for each of the literary texts starting this month. If you would like to contribute, feel free to contact us and we’ll be more than happy to acknowledge your contribution here.

Lower Secondary: Form 1 to Form 3

Poems

1. I Wonder – Jeannie Kirby
2. The River – Valerie Bloom
3. Mr. Nobody – Unknown author
4. Heir Conditioning – M SHANmughalingam
5. A Fighter’s Lines – Marzuki Ali
6. Leisure – William Henry Davies

Short Stories

1. Flipping Fantastic – Jane Langford
2. One Is One and All Alone – Nicholas Fisk

Drama

* Rumplelstiltskin – Angela Lanyon

Upper Secondary: Form 4 to Form 5

Poems

1. In the Midst of Hardship – Latiff Mohidin
2. He Had Such Quiet Eyes – Bibsy Soenharjo
3. Nature – H.D. Carberry
4. Are You Still Playing Your Flute – Zurinah Hassan

Short Stories

1. QWERTYUIOP – Vivien Alcock
2. The Fruitcake Special – Frank Berman

Drama

* Gulp and Gasp – John Townsend

Animal Farm – Characters

TESLMalaysia Admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:18:18 +0000

Good activity for testing students on the characters of Animal Farm

Download The File

Grammar Revision – with Answer Keys

TESLMalaysia Admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:59:55 +0000

A zipped pack of 13 grammar tests for Primary and Lower Secondary students with answer keys. This would come in handy for teachers who don’t want to crack their heads thinking of grammar exercises.

DOWNLOAD THE FILE

Grammar Games for Practice

TESLMalaysia Admin — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:51:20 +0000

This is a nice 19-page excerpt of the book by Maria Lucia on how to practice Grammar through games and interactive activities. You can use it as drills or incorporate it in your English language lessons. You may also modify the activities to make it more localised.

Download the File