• Academic Voice
• Scholarly Citations
• Precise Descriptions
• In-depth Elaborations
• Reduce clichés/redundancies
• Effective Structure

You can also download the slides from My SlideShare Page

With English becoming the predominant method of communicating business terms in every country, most TESL programs are focused on getting the basics in and letting the students find the best ways to use the language. While it is important to learn the fundamentals, students also need to learn how to think in English in an abstract manner. With its rigid rules, verb tenses, idioms, exceptions, and immense vocabulary, communicating in English in a human way is a difficult concept for foreign speakers to grasp.

In the US, a non-profit center called 826 is opening locations across the country in mostly Latino neighborhoods. Because their parents can’t speak English well, they can send their children to the centers in order to get creative tutoring and help with homework. These centers stress the importance of viewing creative writing as an expression of feelings and try to distance themselves from traditional tutoring services.

The idea of teaching English in Malaysia is not up for debate anymore, but is a staunch reality that needs to be better implemented. By learning more of the core concepts and getting a feel for the depth of the knowledge, future generations will fare much better in all fields. According to an opinion article on New Straits Times, English should be seen as an upward mobility and development tool which gives access to greater things.

While it may be easy to learn and practice in the maths and sciences with a rudimentary and structured understanding of English, it will be harder for professionals to communicate ideas with English speaking co-workers and give presentations with fluidity. Learning how to think creatively will also give students the skills needed to explore ideas off the beaten path; a major skill the big tech companies are looking for in new hires.

If college graduates reach the workplace without knowing how to express themselves, they could face stagnant wages, a lack of promotion opportunities, and even a lack of respect from coworkers. Those who can take the English language and manipulate its inner workings will be the ones to succeed in an extremely competitive job market.

These channels contain videos of good quality for English language teaching. Of course, teachers still need to make sure that the videos are suitable with the lesson or tasks.

1. Mr.Duncan’s Learning English

2. BBC Learning English

3. RebeccaESL

4. EFL Jack

5. Pod English

6. EnglishClass101

7. Private English Portal

8. LinguaSpectrum’s English Lessons

9. JenniferESL

10. Learn English with Joe Deveto

Bonus: Let’s Talk Fluent English

If you have other recommended links, please share it here or via our Facebook page.

As such, the genre-based Approach was introduced to remedy the problem by engaging students to wider functional range of texts. In this approach, a set of staged genres or ‘text types’ is explicitly taught in a four-phase pedagogy involving field building, modelling, joint negotiation and independent construction. Texts used during the modelling phase are designed to exemplify the main linguistic forms of knowledge required for effective participation in school subjects (Derewianka, 1996).

Language Principles of Genre-Based Approach

The main language principles of the genre-based approach are (Halliday, 1994):

[list type="clip"] [li]

language is a system of sound and signs for making meaning (Whole-language).[/li]

[li]language and learning are not only individual but essentially social.[/li]

[li]language purposes and text types are socio-culturally determined the structures of language are the way they are because of the meanings they have evolved to construct[/li][/list]

The first principle views language as a system of resources for negotiating meanings or the semiotic system. In other words, the genre-base approach to language or better known as the functional model of language emphasises on meaning and how meaning is constructed through the use of language.

The second principle highlights the view that language learning is essentially social. It views that language learning is an interactive process whereby meanings are constantly constructed, reconstructed and deconstructed through negotiation with the so-called ‘meaning experts’ (teachers or care-givers). The process of learning happens through regular scaffolding by the experts in order to facilitate the learners in doing what they could not do (Cullip, 1999).

The third principle focuses on the concept of “genre”, as proposed by Martin (1992), as a great device for examining the purposes of different disciplines and the realisation of these purposes in words and grammar (lexicogrammar), as noted in principle four. Genre may be conceptualised as an evolved institutional text-type that is staged towards a purpose.

The Rationale of Implementing Genre-based Approach

The main rationale of using the genre-based approach is its strengths in teaching writings particularly in English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms. It matches modern classroom practice based on the Whole-language view whereby the main focus is on meaning and how language operates at the text level in order to obtain the meaning. Thus, it is strongly against the traditional phonemic view of language in which meaning is said to be found in isolation at the level of the individual words or sentences. As such, the idea of implementing the genre-based approach in teaching writing serves as a good step in cultivating a new way of improving students’ writing skills.

The Cycle of Genre-based Approach

The pedagogical model of genre-based approach is specially designed to provide a framework for instructors and not as a prescriptive sequence of teaching steps that teachers must follow. The flexibility of the pedagogy allows teachers to decide which stage that should be emphasised on (Martin, 1992).

The first stage in the curriculum cycle is the “Field Knowledge” or “Field Building” stage. The main idea of this stage is to build up control of the field or topic and building up the spoken language to enable students to talk about the topic. A range of activities that could provide input of information and opportunities for students to talk about the topic would be included at this step. This also includes a focus on extensive reading on the particular topic. The grammatical features and vocabulary at this stage are also emphasised depending on the students’ needs.

In the second stage, “Modelling”, the explicit focus will be on the genre that the students will be writing. In this stage, models of the genre will be presented to the students to be analysed. The main emphasis here will be on the purpose of the text, generic structure, language features, tenor and mode. In brief, this stage is giving the students optimum exposures on the fixed genre, which allows them to familiarise with the text type.

The third stage of the curriculum cycle is the “Joint Construction”.  Here, the teacher serves as a facilitator in helping the students to construct a model of the genre. The overall knowledge of the field, content and text organisation are drawn on by the teacher. This helps students to practice what they have learned but with limited guide by the teacher. Constant scaffolding will be given by the teacher in order to trigger students to utilise the knowledge that they have had.

Finally, the fourth stage is the “Independent Construction” stage whereby students would be required to write texts independently. After getting all the required exposures in the previous stages, students should be able to produce their own end-product by choosing their own topic, drafting, editing and getting the feedback from the teacher or peers. The main objective of this stage is to reflect what they have learned earlier and putting all their ideas into written form, and thus produce a well-structured essay (Martin, 1992).

Do check out Writing Fun by Jenny Eather. She has done a great job using Flash to facilitate the teaching of writing based on genre based approach.

[toggle state="closed" title="References"] [li]Cullip, P. F.  (1999). Scaffolding literacy learning: Vygotsky in the Classroom. The English Teacher, xxviii: 1-11.[/li]

[li]Derewianka, B. (1991). Exploring How Texts Work. Newtown, New South Wales: Primary English Teaching Association.[/li]

[li]Halliday,  M.A.K.  (1978).   Language   as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold.[/li]

[li]Halliday, M.A.K. (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edn). London: Routledge. [/li]

[li]Martin, J.R. (1992). English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.[/li]

[/toggle]

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets2
• Harry Potter Chamber Secrets 3

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!

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/

Here is an example of what she offers on YouTube:

Do subscribe to her channel on YouTube for more updates: http://www.youtube.com/user/JenniferESL