Company Details:
EduMind Resources Sdn Bhd
NW-03-22, Cova Square
Jalan Teknologi
Kota Damansara, PJU 5
47810 Petaling Jaya
Selangor DE

Tel: +603 – 6142 3431
Fax: +603 – 6142 6031

If you’re interested, please contact:
Nicholas Chan
Principal
Edumind Learning Centres
Email: nicholas@edumind.com.my
Website: http://www.edumind.com.my

You might also like:

• So You Think You Can Teach ESL?
• English Instructor at Dilog Training Services
• Studying TESL in Malaysia

Well, you can now say goodbye to the conventional scrap book or poster activities (typical large-size “mahjong papers” in Malaysian classroom) especially when your students can gain access to computers and internet connection (I guess most schools are equipped with these facilities now). If there are limited computers in your school, you could use Glogster as a group activitiy or project. Ask them to work on a specific reading text such as a short story or even as means to generate ideas for writing.

Glogster is fun and engaging because unlike blogging, it is filled with interactive multimedia content. The best thing about Glogster is that you’re giving your students an authentic audience rather than presenting their work solely to their peers in class. Imagine when they can go back home and show their parents or neigbours what they did in the classroom using Glogster! You’ll be amaze with your students’ work! Of course, there has been issues on the kind of pictures or images published on Glogster as you’ll see some pictures that are inappropriate in school settings. Well, as teachers, you can always make the rules clear on what kind of images are allowed and make them realise the importance of making the images relevant to the content.

I guess it’s about time for teachers in Malaysia to incorporate various Web 2.0 tools available on the net to maximise learning. The boring lecturer-based lessons are now obsolete, especially in the era where students are well-equipped with mobile phones, and various technology gadgets. Instead of banning them, why don’t use it for the benefit of their learning!

You might also like:

• So You Think You Can Teach ESL?
• Teaching English through Drama in Malaysian ESL Classrooms
• Jennifer’s ESL: Phrasal Verbs and Compound Words
• Lesson Ideas: Blogging Activities
• Learn a language with podcasts

So what exactly is TESL?

As obvious as it may seem, some TESL students are still asking this question. TESL (or short for Teaching English as a Second Language) is dealing with the knowledge of how to teach English primarily as a second language. In Malaysia, the English language is considered as a second language though in most cases it’s Malaysian’s third or fourth language. There is a thin line separating TESL (or some consider them the same) from TEFL (as a Foreign Language) and TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) as within these domains, essential knowledge on English language teaching is similar. What differentiate TESL is the fact that it is used in a region/country where natural English language immersion situations are apt to be plentiful as in the case of Malaysia.

TESL programme is not merely a platform for learning English

Some students think TESL is a programme to improve their English, especially when they are not proficient users of the language to begin with. Though you will have the opportunity to improve during your course of study, chances are, you will struggle to cope. You’ll notice in the TESL programme, there are a lot of critical writing and reading to be done. If you’re not proficient enough, you might end up doing things like “copying”, “plagiarising” or “cheating”. A good grasp of the language is essential before you decide to take up a TESL programme.

TESL is not about measuring your proficiency in English

Perhaps, your friends would “salute” you when you tell them you’re studying TESL as they thought you must be really excellent in the language in order to study the programme. The truth is, you don’t necessary have to. TESL is not about measuring how good your English is, but it’s a matter of how good your English language teaching skills are.

Teaching ESL itself takes a lot of effort. Thus, studying TESL requires more than just knowledge about the language. You’ll need to have a huge passion to teach, the passion to make sure your students learn the language.

So, you think you can teach ESL?

You might also like:

• Teaching English through Drama in Malaysian ESL Classrooms
• Studying TESL in Malaysia
• Vacancy Alert: TESL Teachers Needed at Edumind Learning Centres
• Introducing Glogster – Learning via Interactive Poster
• Lesson Plan: Teaching Argumentative Essay

Address

Hangar 1, Complex B,
Lapangan Sultan Abdul Aziz Airport,
47200 Shah Alam,
Selangor

Contact Person
Noorjehan Bt Saiful Anwar
jehan@dilog.com.my

Company Description
Dilog Training & Services Sdn Bhd (DTS) operates a training centre that provides basic engineering training for aircraft engineers and technicians. The English Department is currently conducting a recruitment drive for the post of English Instructor. Hence, we are inviting those with one of the qualifications detailed below to submit their updated resume by 15th of November 2009. Shortlisted candidates shall be contacted by the HR Department of DTS.

Requirements
• Applicants must possess at least a Bachelor’s Degree or Master’s Degree in any one of the following; TESL / English / TEFL.
• Applicants with 2 to 3 years of experience in teaching or training are encouraged to apply for the post.
• Fresh graduates/Entry level applicants are also encouraged to apply.
• Applicants must be confident, independent and possess good communication and interpersonal skills.
• Must be proficient in the English language.

Please submit your resume to jehan@dilog.com.my if you’re interested.

You might also like:

• Vacancy Alert: TESL Teachers Needed at Edumind Learning Centres

ESL Galaxy Writing Exercises

ESL Galaxy provides a good collection of ESL worksheets and exercises for writing sorted according to students’ level. You can download the available worksheets and modify it to match your needs.

Using English Dot Com

UsingEnglish.com is a popular website offering lesson plans and worksheets for teachers. Here you can see a list of lesson plans, which can be adapted for Malaysian context.

ESL Gold Writing Zone

ESL Gold offers step-by-step guide to ESL writing based on student’s level. Not that comprehensive but it still contains several activities that are good to build up student’s writing ability.

About.COM Teaching Beginners

This website offers good activities meant for beginning ESL learners. Activities are simple and easy to be executed in class.

Purdue OWL Writing Lab

Another popular website that must be visited and explored. Purdue OWL provides resources for ESL instructors and students. Mainly suitable for intermediate and advanced students.

If you have other websites to share, please post it in the comment sections. It’s good to share!

You might also like:

• Teaching English through Drama in Malaysian ESL Classrooms
• Lesson Plan: Teaching Argumentative Essay
• Useful Verbs and Adjectives List for Writing
• Jennifer’s ESL: Phrasal Verbs and Compound Words
• Lesson Ideas: Blogging Activities

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/

You might also like:

• So You Think You Can Teach ESL?
• Lesson Plan: Teaching Argumentative Essay
• Teaching “I wonder” by Jeannie Kirby – Idea 1
• Introducing Glogster – Learning via Interactive Poster
• Useful Websites on Teaching ESL Writing

You might also like:

• Useful Verbs and Adjectives List for Writing
• Teaching English through Drama in Malaysian ESL Classrooms
• The New KBSM Literature Component 2010
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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).

You might also like:

• Teaching English through Drama in Malaysian ESL Classrooms
• Lesson Plan: Teaching Argumentative Essay
• The New KBSM Literature Component 2010
• Useful Verbs and Adjectives List for Writing
• Lesson Plan: Teaching Prepositions – Going Places

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

You might also like:

• Lesson Plan: Teaching Argumentative Essay
• Useful Verbs and Adjectives List for Writing
• Lesson Plan: Teaching Prepositions – Going Places
• Teaching English through Drama in Malaysian ESL Classrooms
• Teaching “I wonder” by Jeannie Kirby – Idea 1

You might also like:

• Lesson Plan: Teaching Argumentative Essay
• The New KBSM Literature Component 2010
• Lesson Plan: Teaching Prepositions – Going Places
• Useful Websites on Teaching ESL Writing
• Teaching English through Drama in Malaysian ESL Classrooms