The language skills-I (5659)

MA TEFL
Semester: Autumn, 2015
Assignment No. 1
Name: Rizwan Hyder
Roll No.BD 559850
Q1.
What are the components of listening? Differentiate between discrete and global
listening skills with examples. Also discuss that why and how listening, which
has its unique significance in terms of natural sequence of development of
language skills, is neglected in our language classrooms.
Answer:
There are three primary aspects of active listening:
1. Comprehending In the comprehension stage of listening, the listener actively
Analyzes and listens to what the speaker is saying without distraction or thoughts
about other topics.
2.
Retaining Retaining requires the listener to remember what the speaker has said
so that the speakers full message can be conveyed. Some people may opt to take
notes or use memory tricks when practicing active listening.
3.
Responding Responding is the act of providing both verbal and nonverbal
feedback to the speaker that indicates the listener is both hearing and
understanding what the speaker has said.
Global listening: Global listening requires students to comprehend or make inferences
about the main idea of a lengthy lecture or conversation.
GLOBAL LISTENING involves
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

Listening to (or being involved in) massive amounts of text

Text which learners can understand reasonably smoothly
High levels of comprehension
Listening without being constrained by pre-set questions or tasks
Listening at or of ones comfortable fluent listening ability

GLOBAL LISTENING is NOT

a)
b)
c)
d)

Listening for specific information

Listening for the exact words of a phrase or expression
Listening for details
Listening to mimic a text

These are discrete listening exercises aimed at improving specific skills or answering
predetermined questions.

How do we go about teaching global listening? : Because the journey to developing

fluency in listening is long and requires many hours of practice, the listening activities
should be enjoyable and fun to do. The fun factor is of utmost importance here. One of
the reasons professional athletes are willing to spend hundreds, or even thousands, of
hours of practice is because they enjoy what they are doing. Teacher read-aloud can be a
great source of listening activities in the classroom. The key is to do this regularly so that
the impacts of frequent listening can contribute significantly to the students listening
fluency development. Here are some teacher read-aloud activities:
Listen and Draw activity
This can be a lot of fun to do and provides a lot of listening practice in the
listening classroom. However the listening material should be such that the chance of the
students getting the drawing right the first time round is minimized. A good listening
material for this activity should encourage the students to listen attentively. Global
listening several times without them global listening is bored.
Listen and predict activity
The teacher stops at interesting points in the story and encourages the students to
predict what will happen next. This technique supports learner thinking and global
listening learners to think ahead and predict the contents of the next portion of the story.
This is an important skill that good listeners use to enhance their comprehension.
Tell and check activity.
The students are paired up and assigned as either a teller or a checker. The
teacher reads aloud a section of the story and asks the teller to read that portion of the
story to the checker. The checker checks if the teller has included all the relevant details.
This technique keeps the students on task when listening to the story as they have to do
the telling and checking afterward. The telling and checking can be done in either
English or in the pupils first language.
External aids:
To increase the amount of meaningful listening practice, the teacher can motivate
the students to engage in narrow listening or viewing of audio and video materials
outside the classroom. Narrow listening or viewing refers listening or viewing materials
of the same or similar genre. The key language learning benefit of narrow listening is
that the students get to encounter similar language (words, idiomatic expressions,
grammatical structures and other text features) repeatedly.
Advantages of Global Listening:
Speed proficiency:
It can enhance learners ability to deal with normal speech rate, which for many
beginning L2 learners is perceived to be too fast. Beginning students often complain
about the difficulty of understanding spoken language, not because the content is
difficult or the language is too hard, but because it is too fast.
Recognition skill:
It can improve their word recognition skill. Students report that they can often
recognize words in writing, but not in speech. Again, lower proficiency students seem to
have problems recognizing words in speech and frequent listening practice seems to

facilitate the development of automaticity in sound-script relationships. It can enhance

their bottom-up listening skills, in particular the skills of recognizing word boundaries.
In speech, words often take on different forms from when they are said in isolation.
Speech phenomena such as assimilation (e.g., in class ing class), contractions (e.g.,
going togonna), re-syllabification (e.g., bend itben dit) are common in speech and
known to cause listening problems to lower proficiency learners.
High level listening skills:
Finally, global listening can give students a lot of opportunities to experience a
high level listening of language comprehension. What we want our students to
experience is a deeper degree of comprehension when they listen to spoken text, because
it is this type of comprehension that is more likely to lead to acquisition. There is some
research evidence that shows that repeated listening of the same material (called narrow
listening) can lead to deeper comprehension.
Discrete listening :
Discrete listening requires students to perceive phonemes, words, intonation, discourse
markers, and other components of a larger stretch of language (Brown 2004).
Discrete listening activities focus specifically on the components of language such as
phonemes, words, intonation, discourse markers, and others.
Annotation:
Dictation is a great way to provide an discrete listening assessment. It can be altered or a
different passage may be chosen to focus on a variety of language skills. Also, the
variability aids to authenticity. To provide a more authentic dictation, the teacher may
choose to read a common song, or news article that would be very authentic. Similarly, it
is a practical efficient way to assess the students as you could start each day with a
dictation of a news article, or poem of the day and students would be active listeners as
you read the piece. In doing it that way, it becomes a more informal assessment as part of
a daily routine. These could be kept for the year in a journal and reviewed at random by
the teacher. It would not provide wash back unless the teacher talked about errors made
or tricky words/phrases within the passage. More specific sentences could be used for
really focusing on a lesson, such as names or addresses and how to write them. This
provides a lot of opportunity to cater the assessment to the intended material.
What to dictate?
Choosing the right level of listening is clearly critical. Dictating a leader from
"The Times" to a group of intermediate students would be a rather fruitless exercise. Do
not underestimate the difficulty of accurately reproducing a text from dictation. As for
the material list, the range is limitless, from written for GLOBAL LISTENING to
authentic: texts (from course books, newspaper articles, user guides...), songs, poetry,
short compiled lists (numbers, names, appointments...), cornflakes packets etc
Procedure
There is no fixed rule on the procedure to adopt and it can be modified according
to level of listening, class size, and actual subject matter. As a guide, a common
procedure for texts is: Read the whole text once at slightly reduced speed. Read the text
again clearly and phrase by phrase (saying each phrase twice and ending with "comma",
"full stop" etc as appropriate). Allow students reasonable time to finish one phrase before
starting another. Allow time for students to review what they have written and to try to

apply grammar to correct any logical errors. Read the whole text again. Allow some
more time for student review and fine-tuning. Allowing thinking time for somecorrection is particularly valuable. Often students will think they have heard one thing
but their knowledge of grammar can lead them you must have said another thing.
Examples:
The following is an excellent example of a discrete listening test online. The testtaker must listen to the recording and read along, filling in any blanks by selecting the
word choice that matches with the words heard in the recording.
Example 1: Discrete listening Cloze Test (make sure to press the play button on the
silver bar at the top of the web page).
This next example requires students to listen to a very short dialogue while
reading the corresponding fill-in-the-blank script. The test-taker must listen carefully in
order to fill in the words that are left blank.
Example 2: Discrete listening Short Dialogue Discrete listening is a skill which I believe
to be overlooked in many contexts. Historically, one could argue that there was too much
discrete listening, at the expense of general comprehension. However, nowadays course
books and teachers may have shifted too far in the other direction with the focus mainly
on understanding gist. Of course, there is a time and a place for both types of listening,
but some students would arguably benefit from more opportunities to practice and
develop more discrete listening.
.
The whole purpose of English instruction in high school is to build communicators. Yet,
over the years, Ive noticed that an integral skill in communication listening is sorely
neglected. Then we wonder why our children dont know how to take notes, why they
only hear half of our instructions, or why they struggle in their relationships with friends
and family. How do listening skills make us successful in college and in the workforce?
Good listening helps us:
better understand instructions and assignments
uncover the deeper meaning of events and ideas
collaborate with others
resolve problems
Some might think that listening is a natural skill that just needs to be practiced, but
listening does not come naturally to all people. Think about it. When children learn to
write, the first skill they must acquire is how to hold a pencil. Then they must learn how
to read and spell. Then slowly, with much practice, they master the skills of writing
mechanics, usage, punctuation and grammar. So you see, there are many sub-skills that
are necessary before a child can put words to paper. Effective listening also requires a set
of sub-skills and parents are the best ones to encourage mastery of these skills. There are
a number of particular features of listening that make it a tricky skill:
Firstly, it takes place in real time. This is one of the arguments for repeating recordings
a number of times. However, this does not accurately reflect either real life listening or
the way in which listening (even classroom listening) is processed. Listening naturally
includes redundancy (when information is repeated either with the same words and
expressions or in a slightly
different format), yet we often fail to exploit this fact when teaching the skill in class.

Secondly, unless students are aware of the purpose of the redundancy it can often cause
problems in itself. Students need to be made aware of the fact that redundancy occurs in
natural speech, and why it occurs. Then they can use it to help them.
Thirdly, background noises, speed of speech, the fact that there are often several people
speaking at the same time, or overlap (where someone cuts into another person) will all
cause problems. Students need to face these problems and talk about them in order to
find ways of dealing with them whenever they occur.
Finally, what often makes the task of listening particularly tricky is the view of many
students and teachers that it is a passive skill. There appears to be this idea that you can
just let the monologue or dialogue flow over you and take in what you hear. However,
in many cases in real life listening is not passive; it involves the listener in a meaningful
engagement, often with the speaker, and is a co-constructed activity. Unfortunately, most
classroom listening activities are not like this and thus do not really prepare our students
for real listening.

Q2.
Reader Response Theory, which gained prominence in the late 1960s, focuses on the
reader as an active agent who is constantly engaged in the process of meaning
making and decoding the text to such an extent that he/she has been labeled a the
co-author of the text. In the light of this statement, elaborate the idea that reading
which is generally regarded as receptive skill is in fact a productive one.
Answer:
Reading skills can change your life. Without any qualification, reading has
changed my life for the better. Ive learned skills, enjoyed many incredible stories and
learned about the world. Ive learned about history, explored the rich depths of science
fiction, and discovered other countries, learned business ideas and much more.
Like any skill, you can become more effective with practice and an introduction
to the key techniques. In this article, I will mainly focus on reading traditional books,
which remain deeply valuable despite advances in digital technology. That said, many of
these ideas can be adapted to digital reading. These ideas will help you learn and
remember more from the books you read.
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.- Joseph Addison
1) Determine Your Reading Purpose: Leisure or Learning
Generally speaking, there are two broad reasons to read: for leisure or to learn. If
you are reading for leisure, developing productive reading skills may not be a priority.
That said, you can deepen your appreciation for literature by developing reading skills.
In this article, I will focus on reading for learning (with a few examples on leisure and
fiction reading here and there).
2) Make Notes in the Book (Yes, You Have Permission!)
Have you ever noticed that most printed books have margins? Those blank spaces make
it easy for you to add your own notes! Even better, some business and self-improvement
books have blank pages for exercises and other activities. Once you start writing in
books, you will slow down and gain more from the experience.
Tip: There is a centuries long tradition of readers writing in their books. For examples
and insights on this key reading skill, consult Marginalia: Readers Writing in Books By
H. J.Jackson. You will be in good company too: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexander

Pope, Virginia Woolf, John Ruskin, and William Blake are some of the great authors who
have made a habit of writing in their books.
Important Note: Only write in books that you own. Libraries are an excellent resource
and your
responsibility is to return the book back to the library for others to read in top condition.
If
youre reading library books, you can still gain practice in productive reading by
implementing
the other ideas in this article.
3) Use The Swarm Strategy To Go Deep With Your Reading
In essence, the swarm strategy involves going deep into a topic and learning about it
from
multiple viewpoints. Holiday also suggests supplementing your learning strategy with
nonreading
activities where possible. Here are two examples showing how you can use the swarm
strategy.
Learning about the Second World War:
With thousands of books to choose from, you have many different options. For example,
lets say
you live in Canada, the United Kingdom or the United States (i.e. the Western Allies).
Your
understanding of the war and its consequences are likely from the perspective of your
country.
You can apply the swarm strategy by reading about how the war impacted civilians in
Europe,
seek to understand the Holocaust and read biographies of war time leaders (I recommend
Sir
Martin Gilberts Churchill: A Life for a robust and deep introduction to Winston
Churchill).
Learning about marketing:
Marketing is one of the most important business skills you can learn. Fortunately, there
are many
excellent books you can explore. To apply the swarm strategy, read about marketing
form at least
three different perspectives. For example, read about specific marketing techniques (e.g.
Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, 4th Edition By: Perry Marshall, Mike Rhodes, and
Bryan
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Todd), read a classic marketing book (Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins) and
read about
copywriting (The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy)
4) Read About The Author
Who brought you the book youre reading? Learning about the author can deepen your
experience considerably. Last year, I read a biography of Wiliam Shakespeare. I was
fascinated
to learn about Shakespeares work habits. You may not be able to find a full length
biographies
on every author you read about. Instead, ask these questions to deepen your
understanding?

 What books has the author previously published? (i.e. how does this book fit with the
rest
of the authors work. Is it new ground or deepening previously explored ground)
How do books fit into the authors career (e.g. is the person a full time author, a
business
expert who writes books on occasion or something else altogether)?
5) Write About What You Read
Writing works wonders on your comprehension and appreciation of reading. You can
write full
length book reviews (Ive done that several times and it can be rewarding). You can also
write
notes on the inside cover of the book to create a short guide that you can easily
reference.
Not sure what to write about? Consider these points:
Does the book provide exercises or templates for you to read? Complete the
exercises.
Does the book reference other books that sound interesting? Make note of the titles.
Were you struck by the beauty of a particular phrase? Note it.
6) Discuss Your Reading With Other People
In most respects, reading is a solitary habit. However, you can turn reading into a social
activity
with some planning. For example, you can join a virtual book club where you swap notes
and
messages with other readers. You can also use a service like Meetup.com to search for
book
clubs in your area. If you are reading to improve your life or productivity, you will get
the best
results from discussing your reading with others interested in the same material.
7) Ask Yourself: Do I Agree With The Author? Why Or Why Not?
When you read a good book, it is natural to be become absorbed in the process. Some
books are
so engaging that you end up staying up all night reading. While passionate, deep reading
is
admirable, there is more you can do.
Most non-fiction works (and many fiction works) are seeking to prove a point. Explore
how the
points are developed. Does the author provide footnotes or references to other works?
Are they
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writing based on their own experience? These questions will help you to evaluate your
reading
more effectively.
8) Explore the context of your reading (i.e. acknowledgements and footnotes)
In most books I read, I often look into the acknowledgements, footnotes and other
supporting
material. Why? These sections provide extra context that shed new light on the book.
The same
can also be said of a books preface and introduction. In fact, introductions to classic
novels and

fiction works often explain how the book was translated and why the book has come to
be
regarded as a classic.
Reading acknowledgements: In some cases, the authors will provide a simple list of
names. In
other instances, you will learn about the authors key relationships. You may learn about
the
contributions played by the editor and who provided the best feedback on the book
during the
editing process.
Reading footnotes: footnotes and references provide valuable suggestions for further
reading and
additional details that can open your eyes. You dont have to read the entire footnotes
section
simply take a look whenever the author makes an unexpected or interesting point.
9) File Ideas In A Commonplace Book
We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching and the spirited and noble-minded
sayings
which are capable of immediate practical applicationnot far far-fetched or archaic
expressions
or extravagant metaphors and figures of speechand learn them so well that words
become
works.
Seneca, Roman philosopher
In an earlier time, books were expensive. You might have bee able to borrow a given
book for a
short time and then have to retun it. Thats one reason why the commonplace book was
developed. You can use a Moleskine notebook, collect notes in a document on your
computer,
use Evernote or whatever system you like.
10) Reflect on what you enjoyed in leisure reading
Once you finish a novel, short story, play or some other work of leisure reading, put
down the
book. The next day, think about what you liked most about the book. Were you excited
by the
richly imagined world of J.R.R. Tolkien? Were you pleasantly surprised by the relevance
of Jane
Austens reflections on relationships? These observations will help you find other books
that you
will enjoy in the future.
In fact, this reflection skill will help you ask for recommendations from others. Instead
of simply
stating that you enjoyed a book, you can explain what aspects of the book you enjoyed.
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11) Read Reviews About Your Reading

Reading reviews about books you read can provide a fresh perspective. You can start by
reading
reviews on Amazon but you dont have to stop there. You can find outstanding reviews
in

publications such as the London Review of Books and the New York Review of Books.
In fact,
reading thoughtful book reviews equips you with new productive reading skills.
12) Develop Mind Reading Powers By Reading Fiction
Did you know that reading fiction can help you understand people better? Researchers
David
Comer Kidd and Emanuele Castano have shown that reading fiction helps you to
develop a
Theory of Mind for other people. In order to access these benefits, the researchers
recommend
reading literary fiction:
Unlike popular fiction, literary fiction requires intellectual engagement and creative
thought from
their readers. Features of the modern literary novel set it apart from most bestselling
thrillers or
romances.
13) Use Aides To Augment Your Reading
Whether youre reading fiction or non-fiction, you are likely to come across unfamilar
ideas,
words and more from time to time. Instead of skipping over confusing phrases, take one
minute
and look up the word in a dictionary (a print dictionary on your shelf or an online
dictionary).
Likewise, I recommend using Google Maps if your book mentions unfamilar places.
14) Use A Highlighter (To Prepare To Make Notes)
Using a highlighter is a classic way to engage with the text. Unfortunately, CBS News
reports
that highlighting is among the least effective reading strategies. However, this technique
can be
revived if you use it thoughtfully. For example, consider using a multi-step system. You
may
start by reading a chapter of textbook and highlight a few key phrases. Next, write up
notes using
your highlights as a guide.
15) Create Study Notes (for tests and academic situations)
Lets say you are reading a technical book such as the Project Management Body
Knowledge
(i.e. PMBOK Guide) in order to earn the PMP certification. Simply sitting in a chair and
reading
through the material will provide partial results. In order to master the material, you need
to
create study notes.
The type of study notes you create will depend on your learning approach. Here are a
few ideas
to get you started in creating study notes from books you read:
Formulas. Write down important formulas and define the terms.
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Look for BOLD WORDS. If the author uses a phrase in BOLD over and over again,
that
is probably a hint

 Draw diagrams between concepts. I learned this concept from Scott H Young who
famously completed the MIT Computer Science program in 12 months using his
advanced study strategies.
Note concepts you find challenging for further review. When you are learning a new
subject, it is natural to come across challenging concepts in your reading. You may not
understand the new idea right away.
16) Read Every Day
Many people set goals to read more. How do you get there? You simply need to develop
a
lifetime reading habit. Hint always carry a book with you! If you are not a natural
reader, look
for ways to add reading to your routines (e.g. before you leave home for the day or
before going
to sleep).

Q3. Explain the difference between the following terms with examples:
i. Intensive and extensive listening
ii. Roughly and finely tuned input
iii. Fluency and accuracy
iv. Competence and performance
Answer:
1)Intensive listening involves zeroing in on particular segments of the text, and this
should come
only after the students have developed global comprehension of the text. Intensive
listening may
target different goals such as
getting more detailed understanding of some segments of the text,
transcribing certain segments in the text,
guessing the meaning of a word or phrase from context,
looking at certain grammatical structures in the text to see how they can aid
comprehension, etc.
Intensive listening activities can be done in class or in the lab or can be given as
homework
assignments. At the lower levels of instruction, consider doing global comprehension
activities in
class to work on strategies and utilize group work, and assign the intensive listening part
for
homework.
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Extensive Listening (EL) is a way to improve your listening fluency. But what is
listening
fluency? When you learn a language, there are two things you need to do. First, you need
to
learn the grammar and the vocabulary and so on. Most people practice with grammar
books and
vocabulary books and by learning for tests by analyzing the words and grammar in detail

learning their rules and how they work. This method is similar to learning how a car
engine or a

radio works. You can take the engine to pieces little by little, examining it and you can
find out
how each part (the grammar and vocabulary) of the engine works by itself. While this is
a good
thing to do, its not the only thing you need to so. Taking an engine to pieces doesnt
teach you
how to drive the car (use the language).
2)Roughly-Tuned Input : Roughly input means that where the students have to deal
with
language that is at a higher level than they are capable of producing Input of this type
can come
from a number of sources. The teacher talking to the class is giving them input; any
reading
passage has the same function as does a listening exercise on tape. Reading and listening
texts
that are roughly-tuned do not only train the students to read and listen. They also provide
exactly
the kind of input that has been suggested.
Finely-tuned input According to Harmer, finely-tuned input is language which has
been very
precisely selected to be at exactly the students level and can be taken to mean that
language
which we select for conscious learning and teaching. Student pay more attention to
relationships
among form, meaning, and use for a specific grammar rule.
3) Fluency, according to the Oxford dictionary, is defined as the quality or condition of
being
fluent, in particular the ability to express oneself easily and articulately. Ellis and
Barkhuizen
(2005), following Skehan (1998), define fluency as the production of language in real
time
without undue pausing or hesitation. To put into simpler words, fluency is the ability to
speak,
write and read smoothly and effortlessly. Teachers who put more emphasis on fluency
aim to
produce students who are competent in expressing themselves and giving responses in
communication.
Accuracy, meanwhile is defined by the Oxford dictionary as the quality or state of being
correct
or precise. Quoting from British Council s website teachingenglish.or g.uk, accuracy
refers to
how correct learners use of the language system is,
including their use of grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary. In other words, accuracy
is the
ability to speak or write without making any grammatical, vocabulary, punctuations and
other
errors. Teachers who believe accuracy is the key help their students to produce written
and
spoken English with zero mistake and perfect correctness. Typical classroom activities
for

accuracy-based learning are grammar drilling, fill-in-the-gaps exercises, error analysis

and
grammar presentation.
4) Competence refers to a speaker's knowledge of his language as manifest in his ability
to
produce and to understand a theoretically infinite number of sentences most of which he
may
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have never seen or heard before. Competence like organization describes the potentiality
of a
system.
Performance refers to the specific utterances, including grammatical mistakes and
nonlinguistic
features like hesitations, accompanying the use of language. The distinction parallels
Varela's distinction between organization and structure. The former refers to the relations
and
interactions specifically excluding reference to the properties of the refi's components,
whereas
the latter refers to the relations manifest in the concrete realization of such a system in a
physical
space Performance like structure describes the forms actually realized as a subset of
those
conceivable.

Q4. Prepare a detailed lesson plan based on the teaching of speaking skills which aims at
developing fluency in the initial stage of the lesson and accuracy at the production stage.
You
must begin your lesson by clearly formulating specific learning objectives. Your lesson
would be
assessed and evaluated primarily on the basis of logical and smooth flow from one stage
to
another. Make use of interesting activities to motivate your learners. In the end, do not
forget to
test and assess whether or not you have achieved learning objectives.
Answer:
A successful lesson is all about setting realistic aims that meet the students' needs and
achieving
them! Here's a list of aims and sub-aims, by no means exhaustive:
1. Introducing and practicing new vocabulary.
2. Revising previously taught vocabulary.
3. Introducing a new grammatical point.
4. Introducing new functional language.
5. Revising or reviewing one or more grammatical points.
6. Revising or reviewing functional exponents.
7. Giving controlled/less-controlled/freer practice of a language point.
8. Contrasting two (or more) grammatical points.
9. Contrasting two (or more) functional exponents.
10. "Warmers/icebreakers" - getting to know your students.

11. Raising awareness/ear training and/or practicing aspects of phonology: pronunciation

of
phonemes/individual sounds, word stress, sentence stress, intonation, features of
connected
speech
12. Self-access work.
13. Learner training.
14. Developing reading skills - prediction/skimming/scanning/inferring, etc.
15. Developing listening skills - prediction/gist/for specific information/inference, etc.
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16. Developing speaking skills - fluency/accuracy practice/ consolidating recently taught

language.
17. Freer speaking (e.g. role play) for revision of previously taught language.
18. Developing writing sub-skills - paragraph-writing/focus on linking devices, etc.
19. Developing study skills - note-taking/summarizing.
20. Developing dictionary skills.
21. Promoting interest in the culture.
22. Using video to build awareness of non-verbal communication.
23. Integrating the four skills.
24. Simulations for revision of previously taught language / for fluency practice.
25. To create a relaxed, non-threatening atmosphere in the classroom.
A few tips for teachers in general: 1) reduce your TTT (Teacher Talking Time) in the
classroom,
by giving simple and clear instructions, by asking one or two students to show (by means
of
speaking) that they understood the task instructions, and also by asking other students to
answer
a student's question. Being a teacher of English is different from being a lecturer. 2)
Increase
STT (Student Talking Time), again, by asking other students to answer a student's
question, by
showing pictures related to the topic of the class and, without saying a single word,
eliciting
students' participation. 3) avoiding yes/no questions; prefer those questions that make
students
speak in order to make themselves clear. 4) Attention to your way of correcting students.
Sometimes, even when your intention is simply to help a certain student, you may make
things
even worse to them. For instance, if you want to show a certain mistake to a student,
instead of
saying "Oh! this is not correct, ..." or "You made a mistake, ..." or "Oops! don't say this
or
that,..." etc you'd better say "Maybe you should change this or that ..." or "Why don't you
use ...",
or "Well, it may be even better if you do/say ..." or "Very good try, but you'd better
say/do ..." or
"Nice try/beginning. Now why don't you ...?" or "Good participation/answer, now I will
make it
better..." etc.5) When watching student A for mistakes, don't be so close to them because
this will

make them even shier. Instead, get close to another student or simply stand back or
pretend being
interested in something different, picking up a book or going back to your table etc. This
will
make students feel more comfortable and increase STT. 6) When your students are
having
fluency practice (for instance, free conversation), which is totally different from
pronunciation or
grammar practice, never correct them, unless something really serious happen. Let them
talk! Let
them feel that they can communicate in despite of their mistakes in pronunciation,
grammar etc.
Praise them for speaking!!! Show satisfaction!!! 7) Not only encourage them to watch
movies.
Give them tips on what and how to select what really matters, based on what they are
interested
in. For instance, taking notes on useful sentences/phrases and thinking about which
environment
or opportunity they could put those selected sentences in action (among friends, with a
teacher, at
work, at the club etc), just for practice. 8) Never forget! Participating/speaking is what
really
matters in this case in question, and when a student participates (answering questions,
clarifying,
helping other in English, arguing etc) ACCEPT that as something GOOD, despite of
being right
or wrong, otherwise you take the risk of making your student shier and shier (lack of
Page | 14

participation). 9) Activities such as group discussion/debate (topics must be of students'

interest),
description of places/things/people in pairs for guessing, etc tend to help students speak,
but
remember, if you stay very close to them, like a "mistake hunter", you might spoil
everything.
From my point of view it is very important to speak to your students in English most of
the
times. Of course, it is difficult to do this with a junior class, for example, there must be
some
instructions in the native language in order to be clear about the goals of a lesson or a
grammar
rule. However, it's true that the more you speak as a teacher in the foreign language the
more the
students get familiarized with this new language.
Regarding higher levels (e.g. B 2), role playing could really enhance students' oral skills.
To do
this, you'd rather motivate students to participate in the exercise engaging them at roles
they
adore (these may be roles of athletes, actors, singers, heroes etc). Also, as already
mentioned

good solutions to improve their speaking and listening skills could be watching films
with
English subtitles which later on could be removed when students feel more confident to
understand what they listen to. This should be done gradually in order to make them feel
this is
their choice and responsibility, something which stems from the fact that their "oral selfefficacy
beliefs" got increased. Actually, we mustn't forget that first of all as educators we have to
guide
children in the learning process not to make all the decisions for the ways and the pace of
learning instead of them.
Another constructive way to help students improve oral skills is let them talk in English
via
Skype in pairs or as a whole group as they would naturally do with their friends using
their
native language. They should talk about themselves, their interests, their school
performance or
their views about common themes, daily news and future plans. Furthermore, I suppose a
useful
idea would be reading books or magazines they like written in English and then trying to
briefly
narrate the stories in class and answer to questions asked by their classmates about the
stories
(plot, main events, personality traits of the characters etc).
A Speaking lesson or activity will usually follow this pattern:Firstly; Set the scene (Lesson to be taught), --- Secondly; Feed in the language needed.
---Thirdly; provide a reason for speaking. --- Fourthly; set the task. --- Fifthly; Speak.
----and
lastly Feedback and Language focus.
Here are some Tips for a successful speaking skills lesson and to boost students'
confidence:
I) Provide the students with the language they will need to do any speaking activity.
Teachers
make sure of this process.
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II) Students need a model to base their own conversation on. The models could be
printed, could
be a demonstration of the conversion that they have seen or listened to OR could be a
skeleton
conversation written on the board.
Before Speaking
- Create an interest in the topic of the lesson,
- Focus on, Brainstorm or pre-teach the language/ vocabularies/phrases that students will
need to
successfully complete the speaking task.
- Set up a structure so that students know what are they going to speak and why.
- Teacher to make sure there is a communicative aim and set a time limit.
Speaking
When students are speaking, monitor but do not intervene unless they ask for help or are
doing

the task wrongly.

After Speaking
Give students feedback on how they have done and then respond to the useful language
that
came up during the activity and language problem that occurs.
Despite all these, I believe before we engage our students in any classroom activity, it is
best to
know the students background , their first language, their anxiety level, the classroom
environment and motivation ( as it will be more challenging if you have students coming
from
multi-racial, ethnicity, or from different countries in one classroom).

Q5. Critically analyze the figures given in the under mentioned table of Pakistan
Education
Atlas 2013, which depicts survival percentage of school going children of provincial
and tribal
areas of Pakistan. Discuss its salient features and summarize its important findings in the
form of
a coherent and cohesive paragraph.
Answer:
For the last few years, Pakistans adult literacy rate has stagnated at 58% almost
half the
countrys adult population is unable to read or write. The figure is not surprising
when you
consider that only 50% of the countrys rural population has ever attended school;
the
number is higher for urban populations, at 73%.
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According to the Pakistan Education Atlas 2013, launched on Tuesday, improvement in

the
education sector moves at a snails pace, with 32% of children aged 5-9 years out of
school. 17%
of primary schools consist of a single room. Its not all grim news, though 91% of girls
make it
from primary school to middle school (higher than the number of boys, at 78%).
State Minister for Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education Balighur
Rehman
formally launched the report on Tuesday and reiterated the governments pledge to
improve
education in the country. Even though education has been devolved to provinces, he said,
they
have agreed to the constitution of a National Curriculum Commission to bring the
education
system on the same page across Pakistan. Speaking at the launch, World Food
Programme
Representative and Country Director in Pakistan Lola Castro said the WFP had
contributed to the
report as it wished to support and promote this important educational undertaking in the
country.

According to the report, almost seven million children are out of primary schools in the
country.
The quality of education across multiple levels is also lagging by most standards, the
report
states. Some provinces fare relatively better than others in the education sector, with a
survival
rate the percentage of students completing primary school education of 96% in
Islamabad
Capital Territory and a robust 95% in Gilgit-Baltistan. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa clocks in at
64%.
The number is lowest in Balochistan and Sindh 43% each. Survival rates in Punjab
stand at
56%, 48% in Fata.
From primary to middle school
The results are encouraging with regards to the number of students able to reach middle
school in
Pakistan, particularly in Fata, where the number has crept up from 44% in 2010 to 61%
this year.
100% of Islamabad students make it to middle school and 87% in Punjab. The number
stands at
89% in G-B, 72% in K-P, 69% in Azad Jammu Kashmir and 67% in Balochistan. Sindh
has the
lowest number of students reaching middle-school level, at 59%.
Poor grade
Students in 64% of primary schools in the country have access to drinking water in
Azad
Jammu Kashmir, the number plummets to 27%. In Islamabad, 185 schools out of 191
have
access to clean water.
Meanwhile, 49% of government primary schools have electricity. Of more than 10,000
schools
in Balochistan, only 1,662 schools are provided with electricity. Furthermore, only 58%
of
schools in the country have facilities for toilets only 2,000 schools in Balochistan
provided
such access to students.
Page | 17

When State Minister for Education, Trainings and Standards in Higher Education
Balighur
Rehman was questioned about the reports findings, he said a 188-billion rupee National
Plan of
Action has been earmarked over three years to target out-of-school children and missing
facilities
in schools across the country.

Q6. Distinguish between skimming and scanning with examples. Design two activities
which
you may utilize in teaching each of these sub skills of reading to the learners of grade X.
Answer:

There are different types of skills used when approaching reading material. When people
wish to
find only important ideas and not all the details, they often skim a text. This involves
different
strategies; for example, when a person skims a newspaper article, he/she reads the
headline, the
opening lead line, the first paragraph which contains an overview of information.
However, the
reader probably merely skims the remaining paragraphs of the article, reading the
beginning
sentences and glancing at nouns in the paragraph. Skimming is used when a person is not
interested so much in total comprehension, but is instead trying to locate essential points
and major details. Skimming is used to find the main ideas of a text.
Scanning is a technique used when a person tries to find a specific item such as a
telephone
number, a date, a time, etc. For instance, people often scan flight and train schedules, or
they
scan a page in a telephone book. Scanning involves very rapid movement of a person's
eyes up
and down a page. When scanning people often focus on the author's use of organizers
such as
bold print, lettering, numbering, colors, signal words such as first, second, and so on.
After
locating the area on the page that the person desires, he/she may then skim for more
information.
Skimming and scanning are different types of reading. Skimming is essentially reading
through
something very quickly. It gives you enough information to be able to retain a summary,
but not
enough to remember all you read. It gives you an impression of what you are reading
quickly.
Scanning is typically reading through quickly in search of specific key terms or phrases.
Scanning tends to cause you to skip over a larger amount of material than skimming
because
when you are scanning anything that isn't what you are looking for you bypass and don't
even
attempt to retain most of it, normally.
In short:
Skimming allows you to read through all the information quickly and remember a small
summary or "get the gist" of the writing.
Page | 18

Scanning is quickly looking for specific keywords or phrases in a piece of writing.

Skimming:
Idea #1: Students read the headline and the first sentence of each paragraph of an article.
They
then pair up to discuss the guessed-at topic of the article.
Idea #2: Students read the first paragraph and the last paragraph of the article. They then
work in
pairs to discuss the guessed-at contents of the piece.

Idea #3: Students have two minutes to read the article. Of course, they won't be able to
complete
the piece, especially if they try to read each word. After two minutes, students get into
pairs to
discuss the contents of the piece. Additional points may also be discussed, such as
overall tone
(humorous, serious, persuasive), whether the writer supports or opposes the main idea,
Scanning:
Idea #1: Several content-specific questions are written on the board before students
receive the
article. Students read through the text and answer the questions.
Idea #2: Key vocabulary words are written on the board before students receive the
article.
Students read through the text and circle the words, then read the sentence for each word
for
context.
Idea #3: You read aloud the beginning of a sentence. Students must go through the
article, find
the sentence, and read it aloud.
With any of the above skimming and scanning ideas, make sure to let students return to
the piece
after their discussion. Allot several minutes to skim and/or scan through the information
once
more to confirm the ideas exchanged with a partner. Students should then pair up, correct
any
information previously exchanged, and add to the discussion. When you then assign
students to
take a more detailed look at the article, they will be better prepared to do so.

Q7. Discuss in detail the factors responsible for the neglect of teaching oral skills in our
English
language classrooms. What impact does it have on the linguistic performance of our
learners?
Also suggest some practical measures in terms of curriculum planning and syllabus
designing to
improve the existing practices.
Answer:
As the materials and most of the lesson delivery were in English, it was observed that
receptive skills were made
use of by the students, which displays similar results with the teacher interviews. All the
materials from
Page | 19

explanations on the board to presentations and teacher notes were in English. Students
had to read a lot. As the
classes were mainly in English, it can be concluded they practiced listening and note
taking, too. However, the
only writing they did was for the exams and lab reports, which made the practice of
writing quite limited and
unsatisfactory.

Lab reports are written together by a group of students mostly copying the procedures of
the experiment of the day.
Students make use of the notes they took during the experiment in class to compose their
lab reports. The reports
mostly consist of tables and graphics and their explanations underneath, which reduces
the amount of writing
practice even more. Speaking could be referred to as the most neglected skill in the
classrooms as the observers
barely observed students only if they could be answered in one or two words. It was seen
that they preferred
switching back to mother tongue to give longer answers even if the questions asked were
always in English.
.Although the students clearly had problems with speaking in English, teachers did not
seem to force or encourage
students to try to talk in English. Comments were accepted by the teachers as long as
they made sense regardless
of the language mode. Especially the laboratory classes seemed like a big opportunity for
students to practice by
interacting to teachers and to their peers in English as there is real and hands on action
already included to make
things a little easier and closer to real life experience. All in all, the practice suggests that
the primary importance is
given to the comprehension of the content not to the acquisition or practice of the
language itself.
Style can be related both to public speaking and to written composition. On the other
hand, in
an integrated curriculum students can learn to appreciate the differences in the
potentialities of
the spoken and written word.
Related to this discrimination on the part of the student is the development of sensitivity
in the
choice of language for a specific purpose for a particular audience of readers or listeners.
The relating of writing activities as responses to reading experiences is a type of
integration of
two language arts skills that has been widely implemented. However, the potentialities
afforded by oral activities to assist readers to interpret the substance of literature or to
appreciate
literature as an art form all too often remain unexploited in the classroom.
It must be admitted that this failure to use oral work in helping readers to win the
rewards of
deeply satisfying experiences with the various forms of literature occurs more frequently
as
the grade-level ladder is ascended. The process of the reader's personal response to a
work
of literature serves as a foundation for the process of group exploration of the literature
in the
classroom. Frequently the group process takes the form of conversation or informal
group
discussion that centers on pivotal questions concerning the literary work and the reader's

reactions. Often neglected in this cumulative development of critical thinking are the
possibilities
of utilizing public speaking and forms of group discussion such as panel forums and
symposia
which, in turn, can lead to writing assignments related to the literary experience.
Dramatic
literature and poetry must be heard to be fully appreciated. The perceptive oral
interpretation of
poetry can illumine the beauties of alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia for the
listener.
When a student hears the lines of a play read with artistic integrity, the style of the work
can be
apprehended far more readily and completely than when his exploration is restricted to
silent
reading. Only oral reading of the dialogue can expose the artistry of the rhythm of the
work.
Only oral reading of the dialogue can create the meaningful intonations, pauses, and
stress
patterns upon which the dramatic effect of the lines depend. Oral interpretative efforts in
poetry
and drama can be made by the teacher or by the students, or they may collaborate in oral
reading
activities. Choral speaking is especially valuable in creating group enthusiasm and in
harnessing
that enthusiasm for the chief purpose of appreciating the literary work aesthetically. The
playing
Page | 20

of recordings and tapes and the showing of films are valuable techniques in bringing the
printed
word alive as an oral art form. Because of its receptive nature the teacher must be
prepared to
integrate listening as a communicative skill with the oral communicative arts.
In order to realize this integration, the teacher must be sensitive to the need to motivate
the
listener to listen purposefully.
The purpose of the student in listening determines he kind of listening he should attempt.
The
student to listens in order to augment his store of information for it to be utilized later
suggest
some practical measures in terms of curriculum planning
Teachers, whether brand new to the classroom, or veterans of many years of service, are
always
looking for ways to make what they do more effective and more efficient. That even
goes for
students in teacher preparation programs, as well it should. Efficiency is a measure of
what is
obtained (results) in relation to what was expended (resources). Effectiveness is a bit
more
elusive. To be sure, effectiveness in anything, including teaching, can be difficult to
describe and

to measure. The following is a discussion about some fundamental principles that may
lead to
actual improvement of instruction. Please read on.
In order to use any instructional technique effectively, anyone who teaches must, of
necessity,
understand the fundamental principles and assumptions upon which the specific
technique is
based. There is certainly no shortage of descriptions or labels for activities that may be
classified
as pertaining to instruction. From the ever-popular lecture method to complex studentteacher,
student-student interactions, instruction encompasses a broad range of teacher behaviors.
To learn strategic teaching techniques, and to foster the ability of students to engage in
strategic
learning, it is important to define some terms. In fact, one of the principles of strategic
teaching
is to define terms. Below are terms that are relevant to this process.
Strategic teaching describes instructional processes that focus directly on fostering
student
thinking, but goes well beyond that. Strategic teaching and strategic learning are
inexorably
linked. A strategic teacher has an understanding of the variables of instruction and is
aware of the
cognitive requirements of learning. In such awareness, comes a sense of timing and a
style of
management. The strategic teacher is one who:
1. is a thinker and decision maker;
2. possesses a rich knowledge base;
3. is a modeler and a mediator of instruction.
Variables of instruction refer to those factors that strategic teachers consider in order to
develop
instruction. These variables, as the name implies, change, and therefore the teacher must
be
aware of the nature of change as well as the actual variables themselves. These variables
are:
1. characteristics of the learner;
2. material to be learned (curriculum content);
Page | 21

3. the criterial task (the goals and outcomes the teacher and learner designate);
4. learning strategies (goal directed activities in which learners engage).
In teaching content at the elementary, middle, or secondary level, the strategic teacher
helps
guide instruction by focusing on learning strategies that foster thinking skills in relation
to the
content. In connecting new information to what a student already knows, learning
becomes more
meaningful, and not simply retained for test-taking purposes. There are numerous
strategies that
teachers can develop that accomplish this purpose. To give one information is not
difficult, but to

help one be able to develop the tools to both know what information is relevant and the
means to
acquire it, is perhaps the most important function of any social studies teacher. There are
numerous techniques for engaging students in thinking about content.
Besides thinking skills, there are such practical matters as how best to present a lesson
on
weather, teaching map and globe skills, helping students work together in groups, how to
question effectively, and how to answer student questions. The first and foremost
criterion is that
the teacher thoroughly know the content, the second criterion is that the teacher have a
set of
rules for classroom management that are understood and implemented, and the third
criterion is
that the teacher have the resourcefulness and knowledge to rehearse unfamiliar
techniques, and
more importantly, have the capacity to adjust any lesson plan to maintain academic
focus.
Strategic Learning
Strategic learning is, in effect, a highly probable outcome of effective strategic teaching.
Reduced to its essentials, strategic learning is learning in which students construct their
own
meanings, and in the process, become aware of their own thinking. The link between
teaching,
thinking, and learning is critical. As a teacher, if you are not causing your students to
think about
what you are presenting, discussing, demonstrating, mediating, guiding, or directing,
then you
are not doing an effective job. You must be more than a dispenser of information. You
must
create conditions and an environment that encourages thinking, deepens and broadens it,
and
which causes students to become aware of how they think. The process of thinking about
how we
think is referred to as metacognition. In helping students create knowledge, it is useful to
think of
knowledge as occupying space that can be thought of as a pyramid. At the bottom of the
pyramid
is declarative knowledge, or knowledge of "what is." Declarative knowledge is akin to
awareness. One step up on the pyramid is procedural knowledge, or knowledge of "how
something works, or functions." At the top of the pyramid is conditional knowledge, or
knowledge of "when or why" a particular procedure will work.
Content Connections
The creation of knowledge is, in the most practical and profound sense, a primary and
direct
result of learning. As teachers, we must strive to assist our students to develop
intellectual tools
Page | 22

by which they can create knowledge. Any knowledge, once created, becomes a part of a
larger

system that enhances learning and is capable of integrating and accommodating new
information
with greater efficiency and reliability. Each person creates knowledge in similar, yet
uniquely
distinct ways. Connecting information provided or described by others in novel and
personal
ways is a key to learning and developing knowledge. The more one "knows," the more
one can
know. The idea of content links or connections is not exactly new, but offers some
unique
opportunities to chart your own course, learn, and add to your knowledge system. Enter
the idea
of Constructivism. Constructivism is a philosophy as well as a psychology of education.
Constructivism is about how knowledge is created.
Definition and organization of the course inside curriculum include:
Defining of requirements for attending of teaching process from particular course
Course content
Class timetables of contact hours,
Learning and teaching methods
Course credits and student workload
Schedule of examinations, structure of examination,
Compulsory and optional course elements
Details of each component course, include:
Learning outcomes,
Objectives, syllabus,
Assessment criteria,
Reading lists (essential and background).
Teaching is a demanding and complex task. Implicit in the widely accepted and farreaching
changes in medical education is a changing role for the medical teacher. Twelve roles
have been
identified and these can be grouped in six areas in the model presented:
1. the information provider in the lecture, and in the clinical context;
2. the role model on-the-job, and in more formal teaching settings;
Page | 23

3. the facilitator as a mentor and learning facilitator;

4. the student assessor and curriculum evaluator;
5. the curriculum and course planner; and
6. the resource material creator, and study guide producer.
In order to implement successfully new curriculum or reform old one it is essential to
have staff
trained who will be main force in curriculum implementation. Instruction should scan
and predict
special human needs in sense of qualification and knowledge necessary for better
efficiency in
their work. People like to feel self/respected, self accomplished, safety and thats the way
the
new requests are appearing in new curriculum. Staff needed, can be different depending
on the

nature of innovations in curriculum? Staff training should be an ongoing process.

Training
should be opportunity for staff to discuss about many problems and aspects of
curriculum
implementation.
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