ELT Material

7/29/2019 ELT Material

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Instructions:

Read the following material carefully. The units on Listening and Speaking Skills

have been included for revision/reinforcement purposes. You are also required to

pay special attention to the units on Reading and Writing skills - these will provide

you with sufficient background material for the classes to follow and will shape

your understanding of ELT.

Teaching Listening and Speaking Skills

Listening

The four basic language skills comprise listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Without doubt they all contribute to the learning and development of a language.

However, each aspect has its own specificities and importance in the language

learning process and needs to be given due attention.

What is Listening?

Listening is the capacity to process information coming from an aural source. Such

information is first filtered by the perceptual processes of the listener and absorbed

into the short-term memory. Selected information is then stored into the long-term

memory for retrieval at a later stage, if and when required.

What are Receptive Skills?

Receptive skills are the ways in which people extract meaning from the discourse

they hear or see, and listening is one of the most important receptive skills. Hearing

may be incidental, but listening is a conscious act which people deploy in order to

access an aural input or text.

Activity 1

1. What is listening?2. Distinguish between listening and hearing.3. Why do we listen?4. How do we make meaning out of an aural text?5. Do you consider listening to be an important language skill? Think of, and write

down, five reasons for your answer.


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Reasons for Listening

Reasons for listening can be of two broad categories: instrumental or pleasurable.

When we listen to achieve some goals, we have some utilitarian or instrumental

purpose in mind. When we listen, for example, to songs to enjoy them, we are

listening purely for the sake of deriving pleasure. Instrumental listening can be

pleasurable too.

Use of Our Schemata

When we engage in a listening activity, we employ various means to make sense of

the aural input or aural text. First of all, we need to have a basic knowledge of the

language. Furthermore, we use our pre-existent knowledge of the world (Cook1989, as cited in Harmer 2001). Such knowledge is referred to as our schema ( plural:

schemata). It consists of mental representations of situations we come across,

experience or are exposed to. When we hear particular words or any discourse, our

schematic knowledge is activated and we are able to recognize what we hear

because it fits into patterns that we already know (Harmer 2001). Moreover, when

we recognize a piece of aural text we have expectations about the kind of text we

are going to confront. For example, some key words and phrases may inform us

about the subject of the text. We thus draw upon our schemata to make sense of

what we are listening to. This gives a greater chance of success to the interaction

than if both the listener/s and speaker/s did not know anything about what is being

said.

Processing of an Aural Input

Usually, as mentioned above, listening is a conscious act and we are very active

mentally in a listening situation. First of all, we try to make sense of the aural input.

Most often, we get actively engaged in an analysis of the aural text. Analysis of a

listening text can be through top-down or bottom-up processing. In top-down

processing, the listener gets an overall or general view of the text. This is facilitated if

the listeners schemata allow him/her to have appropriate expectations of what

he/she is going to come across. In bottom-up processing, on the other hand, the


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listener focuses on individual words and phrases and achieves understanding by

putting the detailed elements together to build up a whole (Harmer 2001). According

to Harmer, it is useful to see acts of listening texts as interactions between top-down

and bottom-up processing. Sometimes the individual details help to get an overall

understanding, sometimes an overview allows the processing of details.

Listening Skills

While listening to an aural text, we apply different skills to process the text,

depending on the purposes for which we are listening. Such skills include:

1) Identifying the Topic.

Listeners pick up the topic of the text with the help of their schemata. This allows

them to process the text more effectively as it progresses.

2) Guessing and Predicting.

Listeners sometimes try to guess what is being talked about in order to understand,

and sometimes they look forward and try to predict what is coming. Subsequently,

they confirm what they have predicted or readjust what they had thought.

3) Listening for General Understanding.

Listeners want to understand the gist of the discourse without requiring the details.

Listening for a general comprehension implies not requiring the meaning of every

word and not feeling the need to analyze all the details in the text. This is a top-down

approach.

4) Listening for Specific Information.

We also listen for a specific piece of information. For example, when we listen to the

news, we may concentrate only on the particular item that interests us, generally

ignoring all other information.


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5) Listening for Detailed Information.

Sometimes we have to listen to something in order to understand all the details. For

example, when we listen to instructions or directions, we make an effort to listen to

all the details.

6) Interpreting Text.

We usually access more than what the words of an aural text literally mean. We use

a variety of clues to understand and interpret what the speaker is implying or

suggesting. We use our schemata to make sense of the text, or to fill in the gaps left

by the speaker.

The Importance of Listening

Listening is an important language skill for some very important reasons. To start

with, listening is one of the two major tools through which we access language, the

other one being our capacity to read. It is the very first medium through which we

access language from our birth. It is the primary source of language for young

children who have not yet developed the ability to read and for all the people who,

for various reasons, cannot read or do not have access to reading.

Listening is the only medium through which we access the sounds of a language and

all the suprasegmental features of the language, such as tone, pitch, stress, pause,

etc. Hence, listening is a pre-requisite for speaking and, at a later stage, for reading.

Without knowing how a language sounds, we cannot engage confidently in speaking

in the language, and without knowing how the sound patterns of the language

function, reading its graphics serves little purpose.

Listening and speaking, as compared to reading and writing, is the most natural and

a very practical channel of communication. These oral skills can be very spontaneous

and fast. They require a minimum amount of resources. Imagine how tedious it

would be to have to communicate to people through writing all the time!


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Listening is a major source of information. There are so many sources which

communicate to people through the aural medium, for example, through the radio.

Long ago, people learnt the art of living through oral stories and other such means of

communication.

Listening is also an important social skill. If we talk to people without listening to

what they have to say or to their reactions, then the channel of communication is a

closed one and there is no interaction as such. People who, in an exchange, do not

listen to the other participant/s are often considered as arrogant or boring.

Listening can be a major source of pleasure and relaxation. Listening to the cooing oftheir baby can be such a joy for parents. Listening to the sounds in nature can be

very soothing. The entire music industry relies on the pleasure people derive in

listening to music or songs.

The Teaching of Listening skills

Your answer to the above question is most certainly yes, for it is evident that

listening serves the following purposes:

It is the medium through which our learners can access the target language inits oral form and, hence, become familiar with the sounds, intonation

patterns, rhythm, stress and other suprasegmental features of the language,

as well as its vocabulary and structure.

It is an important element in the oral communication channel. It is a major source of information and learning. It is a social skill.

Activity 2

Should we as educators develop the listening skills of our children at primary schoollevel? Give reasons.


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It is a channel through which our learners can be made to appreciate thelanguage through songs, stories and other pleasurable activities.

For the majority of our Mauritian learners, English is more a foreign language than a

second language. For most of them, the only exposure to the language is obtained at

school. Hence, the teacher has to provide a maximum amount of exposure to the

language so that the learner is able to derive all the benefits that such an exposure

can bring him/her in his/her learning of the language. And the most important

source of exposure to the language is through the aural medium, that is, through

listening.

Listening as a skill cannot be taught in isolation, for it is closely associated with

speaking. However, there can be some activities that are more focused on listening.

There is also no doubt that listening activities should be graded according to the

needs of our learners. It will serve no purpose to expose any category of learners to

listening texts that are out of their reach.

Listening to Sounds of the Environment

Learners at the very beginning of the primary cycle need to be led to sharpen their

listening skills. One way to bring this about is to make them listen to familiar sounds

and have them identify those sounds, for example, the barking of dogs, the singing of

birds, especially those that can be identified as belonging to particular birds, and the

sound made by the wind blowing through leaves. This can be accompanied by

imitation of the sounds. Such an activity will help the children pay attention to what

they usually hear, become aware of the amount and quality of sounds that relate to

specific aspects of their environment, and thereby sharpen their listening skills as

well as relate the sounds to sounds they can produce themselves and work their

articulation. At the same time, the teacher will know if the children are listening

properly and are paying attention to what they are listening, for this has important

implications in the language learning process. The use of some songs, for example,

Activity 3

Write down some of the ways in which we can develop and sharpen the listening skills

of our learners while at the same time providing them with exposure to the language.


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Old McDonald had a cow provides the learners with not only an awareness of the

different sounds that exist in the environment, but also the way those sounds are

referred to in the language, for example, cows moo.

Use of Story Telling

Listening at lower primary level can be enhanced by the use of story telling. This is an

interesting activity for children to construct an understanding of time, place, context,

sequencing, cause-effect and other such abstract concepts. It also provides them

with language in a meaningful context through which they expand their vocabulary

and internalize usage of grammar as well as sentence structures without explicit

teaching of these. However, for story telling to be effective in the target language,

the children need to be highly supported, for example, through the use of visual aidssuch as pictures and paralinguistic features such as gestures and appropriate body

language. They can be made to participate in the story telling activity by inviting

them, for example, to make sounds or say lines or parts of the story that are

predictable through their recurrent use in the story. Story telling can further be

exploited as a language activity through, for example, role-playing. At a more

advanced stage, such aspects as the content, the characters or the moral of the story

can be discussed. Extension activities can consist, for example, of continuing the

story, or of providing a different ending to the story. In lower classes, the pictures of

the story may be jumbled and the children can be given the task of sequencing them

correctly. Alternatively, children may be given a set of pictures which they examine

on their own to get familiar with them and also to try to understand the sequence in

which they are. They then listen to the story and in pairs or groups put the pictures

in the order required by the listening text. Otherwise, if they have already been able

to sequence the pictures before the listening, they can verify if they have got the

sequencing right. They may be asked to draw a sequence or a character from the

story, which will allow them to express their understanding of the story.

Use of Poems and Nursery Rhymes

Other aural sources that provide exposure to the language at a preliminary stage are

simple poems and nursery rhymes. Through their use of metre, rhythm, rhyming


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words and repetition, they provide language that is organized and easy to memorize

and repeat. They are also fun. Examples can be Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Baa

Baa Black Sheep and so many others that are easily available in nursery rhyme

books. Engaging the learners in reciting simple poems or in singing nursery rhymes

exposes them to the language while at the same time helping them to internalize

specific language structures and develop an amount of vocabulary. It also gets them

involved in developing their articulation, tone, expressivity, etc.

Developing Phonemic Awareness

At a later stage, when the learners have an amount of vocabulary at their disposal,

they can be made to sharpen their phonemic awareness. For example, they can be

made to identify rhyming words in nursery rhymes or poems. This is better donethrough the aural medium than the written medium, for most often rhyming words

are easier to identify through listening to the sounds than by reading. For example,

in the following lines,

One, two

Tie my shoe

two and shoe are rhyming words as they both end with the /u/ sound. This is

easier to detect through listening than by reading.

Children can be led to say words having a required sound, for example, I, tie, my,

buy, high, fly, all of which end with the /ai/ sound. This also is easier to detect

through the aural medium than through reading.

Through such phonemic awareness activities, the children become unconsciously

aware of the pronunciation of English words. This may help them to recognize the

words more easily in their written form, and decipher them by sight rather than by

decoding the combination of letters of which they are composed, for very often the

same letter combinations are not pronounced in the same way, as in the words

pour and sour.


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Other phonemic awareness activities can consist of making children differentiate

between sounds which are similar in their production except for one variable, for

example, the only difference between the sounds /p/ and /b/ is that of voicing (refer

to explanation in section on Speaking), and the difference between the words sit

and seat lies in the length of the vowel sound. Without being told these facts,

children can be made aware of the differences in sounds by simple games. For

example, the teacher can read a list of words having a specific difference in their

sounds, as in: sit, fit, hit, bit, ship, lip, hip,mill, filland seat, feet, heat, beat, sheep,

leap, heap, meal, feel, in a jumbled order and ask the children to raise their right

hand when they hear words such as sit and stretch their arm in front when they

hear, for example, seat. In order to see to it that the children are genuinely

differentiating between the sounds and not simply following the movements madeby their friends, the teacher can ask individual children or specific groups to perform

the movements.

Listening Comprehension

For more advanced learners at the primary level, listening comprehension activities

help not only to access aural information, but also to sharpen the listening skills and

concentration of the children. This is because an aural text, as opposed to a reading

text, is characterized by a pace of its own and does not stop or repeat itself if we

have not paid attention to what is being said or have missed some information. Even

when the teacher reads the text for the pupils, s/he will adopt a reasonable pace and

will not repeat continuously the same information. Hence, pupils are taught to pay

attention continuously to the incoming information.

Listening comprehension involves a number of language skills, though the listening

may be the specific focus. Listening comprehension tasks are of the same nature as

reading comprehension tasks, that is, listening for getting a general idea of what the

aural text consists of, accessing the topic with which the text is dealing, listening for

general understanding, that is, to arrive at the gist of the text, retrieving specific

information from the text, listening for details, understanding vocabulary from the

context, identifying the main points raised in the text, etc. (as outlined earlier).

Additionally, a listening comprehension text offers the possibility of identifying the


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number of speakers, their gender, the tone of the text, the pace at which it is

delivered, etc.

Although listening comprehension is not examined formally at primary level,

listening comprehension is a skill that is very important to develop among our

students for this is a key to language development. Listening comprehension tasks

should help students develop their listening skills rather than test their listening

comprehension. Our aim is to help students improve their receptive skills. Listening

tasks should aim at helping students arrive at the meaning of words and provoking

an examination of the material. For example, we can make students fill forms on the

basis of information which is read out to them. This will help them become better

listeners. By having them, for example, agree or disagree on whether a statement istrue or not, or by engaging them in a discussion on information based on some

listening material, we are engaging the students in exploring the material and

bringing them to a greater understanding of the language and text construction

rather than challenging them to give correct answers in test-like conditions by asking

them who, why, which etc questions.

Additionally, we need to strike a balance between the level of the task and the level

of the text. If the text is of a high level, we can set tasks that are simple for the

students to access. For example, if we make the students listen to a meteorological

bulletin that contains a lot of technical vocabulary which may not be accessible to all

of them, we may engage them in a discussion about what the broadcast was about,

ask them what the topic was, and some of the basic information that they could

capture from it, before leading them towards tasks of a more challenging nature.

Listening comprehension tasks can be devised by making use of popular songs. Music

is a powerful stimulus for student engagement. The use of music and songs in the

classroom makes a connection between leisure and learning. Song lyrics can be very

useful texts in the classroom. We need to choose songs that are appropriate in terms

of topic and subject matter, as well as having appropriate language. Students can be

asked what the song is about (listening for general understanding). They can be


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given a worksheet which requires them to identify specific details from the song.

They can be given the verses in the wrong order and asked to place them in order (in

sentence cards). Students can be given the lyrics with words blanked out and asked

to provide the missing word/s while listening to the song, or complete half-finished

lines. We may ask students what the title of the song might be. We may also use

other recorded materials such as stories or radio broadcasts as listening

comprehension texts. It is, however, important to allow the learners to become

familiar with the spoken form of the language, especially of recorded materials such

as songs, for it may happen that the learners take some time to become attuned to

the way the words are said before being able to recognize them.

Some Other Examples of Listening Activities:

Telephone Conversation

The teacher can model a short telephone conversation and let children practise it in

pairs. Taking a phone call is a genuinely communicative act. Children can be made to

take messages and deliver it to the person for whom it is meant. They can be made

to listen to recorded telephone conversations and say, for example, how the people

greet each other, or find other such specific information. Telephone calls can be role-

played.

Resource People

One way of ensuring genuine communication via listening is to invite resource

people to talk to the class. This gives the children exposure to some live listening.

Live listening offers an extra dimension to the listening experience. It can be in the

following forms:

Reading Aloud

This is an enjoyable activity, especially when done with style and conviction.


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Dramatic Reading

This gives students exposure to expressive language.

Story Telling

Stories, as mentioned earlier, are excellent listening material and teachers or

resource persons are ideally placed to tell stories.

Interviews

At an advanced stage, interviews are an ideal way to engage students in listening-

speaking tasks. Students need to be encouraged to use their natural curiosity and

their need for clarifications or elaboration to ask questions on specific topics which aresource person or the teacher can answer. Such live interviews can be very

motivating. In such situations, students really listen for answers to questions they

themselves have put or questions on topics which are of interest to them. This

activity can take the form of hot seating as well.

Our task as teachers is to make the learning process for our students an interesting

and fruitful one. If our students somehow do not have enough motivation in the task

we are going to engage them in, we need to create that interest and motivation. We

need to give them clear and achievable purposes. They need to understand the

purpose of the tasks to better participate in them.

Problems in the Teaching of Listening Skills

Activity 4

What, according to you, are the problems that you may encounter in theteaching of listening as in the activities outlined above? Give reasons. Suggest how these problems can be dealt with.


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The teaching of listening presents a number of problems that need to be addressed.

These generally have to do with the language, the topic, the type of tasks students

are asked to perform, and the expectations the students have of the listening tasks.

For listening activities to be successful, students should be told exactly what the

listening purpose is and they should be given clear instructions about how to achieve

it. They should be given tasks that are achievable and texts that are comprehensible

in order to make them feel confident with the tasks.

Language

Unfamiliar words or long sentences can pose a problem so far as the understanding

of a text is concerned. To listen successfully, students have to recognize a high

proportion of the vocabulary in the text without paying conscious attention to it(Paran, 1996 as cited in Harmer, 2001). When students are engaged in a listening

task, unknown lexis can act as a barrier to understanding. This can cause them to

stop and think about the meaning of the word, and thus miss the next part of the

text (Underwood, 1989 as cited in Harmer, 2001). At the same time, comprehension

will be degraded and unless the listener is able catch up with the flow of the text by

understanding new elements that put them back on track, they will lose interest in

the text and disengage from the receptive task. According to Stephen Krashen (as

cited in Harmer, 2001), comprehensible input aids understanding of the language

and thereby language acquisition. The teacher can adapt the listening text so that

the language is accessible to the students. Most importantly, s/he needs to support

the learning through the use of visuals and realia, as mentioned earlier. However,

language need not be oversimplified; it needs to pose some challenges so that the

child makes use of his faculties to derive understanding, and it is not important to

understand the meaning of each and every word to derive meaning from a text.

Moreover, the more we expose the pupils to the language, the more they will learn

it.

Use of Authentic Language

Students should get practice in following listening material and extracting meaning

from it even if a few of the words are not accessible to them. For this, students have


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to come into contact with real language, so that they make an effort to understand,

and this can be brought into the classroom through the use of authentic texts such

as songs and radio broadcasts. Authentic language is normal, natural language as

used by competent speakers of the language. It is language which students will

encounter in real life.

Because of its authenticity, such language is unlikely to be simplified, spoken slowly

or be full of simplistic content. Hence authentic texts have to be carefully chosen so

that they suit the level of students. These can be specially designed listening

material, which may be simplified while at the same time being natural and

approximating authentic language use. Tasks should be so designed that they help

the students understand the language better. According to Farrel (1998) (as cited inHarmer, 2001), A gently paced sequence of activities with small tasks leading to

bigger ones . can enable students to watch television soap operas in English and

end up understanding far more than they might have thought possible.

Hence, there are specific ways in which the problems of language can be addressed.

Pre-Teaching

One of the most important ways in which the language problem can be dealt with is

to prepare the students for the vocabulary that they are going to encounter in the

listening activity. This can be done by tapping their prior knowledge and activating

their schemata on the topic to be dealt with in the listening task. Such a preparation

can familiarize them with the concepts that will crop up in the listening task, as well

as familiarize them with some of the difficult words. However, understanding words

in context is a skill that pupils need to develop and we need to give them the

opportunity to engage in authentic listening for general understanding. It is,

therefore, good to familiarize them with the topic and pre-teach them some of the

most probably unknown and difficult words to activate their schemata and create

interest and let the students engage with the text to discover more. The tasks should

be challenging enough to enhance learning. They should be difficult but achievable

( Scrivener, 1994b as cited in Harmer, 2001).


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Choice of Topics

Topics which we choose to work on should be of interest to our students and familiar

enough in order to activate their schemata. We also need to create interest in the

topic we are going to make them listen to by engaging them in some pre-listening

work, such as showing a picture related to the topic, asking them to guess what they

are going to listen to, or by activating their schemata by doing some brainstorming

on the subject matter. We must also expose them to a variety of genres, such as

songs, recorded conversations, stories, radio dramas, etc in order to cater for their

various needs and to keep their interest sustained. We must ensure that they

experience a range of appropriate texts.

Extensive and Intensive Listening

We can help students improve their listening skills and gain valuable language input

through the practice of intensive and extensive listening.

Extensive listening comprises listening at length. There is no doubt to it that the

more our pupils listen to the language, the more familiar they become to it, the

more language they acquire, and the more they improve their comprehension skills.

They also get better at listening activities. Provided the input is appropriate to their

level and is reasonably comprehensible, they will gradually recognize and acquire

more words and sentence structures and enlarge their schematic knowledge, which

will in turn resolve some of the language deficiencies they started with. For this, we

need to make use of a collection of appropriate recordings such as age-appropriate

songs, radio broadcasts, audio stories or drama. We should motivate our students to

listen to the material by giving them good reasons for doing so. We can make them

talk about their experience of listening to the material, or about the ones they have

enjoyed the most. We can make them keep a record of what they have listened to,

write comments about these which can be posted on a comments chart, etc. Such

tasks make students value what they have listened to, and give them a purpose for

listening further.


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Intensive listening comprises listening which is more dedicated to an in-depth study

of the listening text, as outlined earlier in the listening comprehension activities.

Both kinds of listening activities provide learners with the opportunity to listen to

voices other than only the teachers. They have the opportunity of coming across a

range of different characters and people. The listening activities provide a significant

source of language input. Additionally, as Penny Ur points out (as cited by Harmer,

2001), in real life discourse is rarely replayed. Hence, we must make our pupils

extract as much information and work as much as possible on a listening text on one

hearing only. Extracting important information from a text after listening to it once

only is an important life skill, for, in real life, we rarely have the opportunity to listen

to the same spoken text again and again. Hence, the kind of tasks we give to ourpupils for the first audition of a listening material is critical in training them to listen

effectively. However, it is also true that in face to face conversations we do have a

chance to repeat and clarify matters. Hence we can use the same listening material

for further tasks which are more challenging than the ones achievable through one

audition only. In fact, the more we allow our students to listen to an audio material,

the more they will assimilate the information and language features in it and the

more secure they will feel about it. So we may set general understanding and

prediction tasks for first listenings, and use the material again for detailed

comprehension, interpretation and language tasks, as well as for appreciation.

However, we must not bore our students by playing the same extract over and over

or by making useless repetitions.


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Speaking

Speaking is the ability to convey our thoughts, ideas, feelings, requirements and

opinions through the oral medium. As opposed to listening, which is a receptive skill,

speaking is a productive skill in the sense that we use the language resources at our

disposal to produce information. It is one of the two productive skills we have at our

disposal, the other one being our ability to write. Speaking can be considered as the

primary and most important of the two productive skills, for it allows us to organize

our thoughts and develop them further, discuss and reorient them as required. This

can be witnessed when we see our thoughts and ideas becoming clearer to ourselves

not only when we engage in a conversation on the topic with others, but also in the

way we organize and clarify our thoughts and ideas by engaging in a loud or silent

conversation with ourselves. It is also witnessed when we do so in the process of

writing. Speaking is also the very first medium through which we start to express

ourselves since a very young age, and quite naturally, just by being exposed to and

having the possibility to interact in a language, and by using the resources at our

disposal, such as our breath force and of our speech organs. It is spontaneous and

can be very effective.

Productive Skills in the Classroom

Language use is determined by factors such as the purpose of our communication.

The setting, the channel we are using to communicate by, the type of

communication which we are involved with determine the form in which we try to

achieve that purpose. When learners speak in lessons they have the chance to

Activity 1

1. How would you define Speaking?2. What are the purposes for which people speak?3. List some of the features of oral language. What purposes do these serve?4. Do you consider teaching oral English as an important aspect of the teaching of the

language at primary level? Give five reasons for your answer.


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rehearse language production in safety, experimenting with language that they will

use later for studies or communicative purposes in or outside the classroom. Hence,

when they are working on their language production, they should be operating

towards the communicative end of the continuum. Activities which can be situated

at the non-communicative end, such as language drills, are excluded from the

category of productive skills (Harmer, 2001).Language production means that

students should use all language at their disposal to achieve a communicative

purpose rather than be restricted to specific practice points.

Production can only continue in combination with the practice of receptive skills. For

example, a conversation between two people is a blend of listening and speaking;

comprehension of what has been said is necessary to determine what to say next.Since reception and production are closely related, we cannot have students practice

skills in isolation, which, anyway, is not possible. Skills are integrated: the practice of

one leads onto the other. It is also a fact that production enables reception:

productive skill work helps students with their receptive skills. When students have

tried a speaking activity, they are better attuned to understanding other people

speaking in the same context. The teaching of productive skills is thus closely bound

up with receptive skill work. The two feed each other. When a student produces a

piece of language and sees how it turns out, the information is fed back into the

acquisition process. Normally we modify what we say as we go along, based on how

effective we think we are being. We also get feedback in various forms from the

people with whom we are communicating and know whether we are managing to

get our message across. Spoken texts can act as models to follow, for example, to get

students give spoken directions, they will benefit from hearing other people doing it

first. However, productive work need not be imitative. Texts can act as stimuli. For

example, listening to a story may provide the stimulus to the pupils to tell their own

stories.


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Problems and solutions

Students find language production tasks difficult, especially if the language is a

second/foreign language for them, and they do not have the opportunity to use the

language often in real life situations, which is the case with the majority of our

Mauritian pupils. Most specifically, the tasks at the communicative end of the

continuum prove to be challenging to them. We can help our pupils make the most

of such activities in various ways. To start with, we need to match the tasks we ask

our pupils to perform with their language level. We need to ensure that they have

the minimum language they need to perform the task. Hence, before we ask our

pupils to take part in a spoken activity, we must make them aware of key vocabulary

and help them with phrases and questions that will be helpful while they perform

the task. It must be remembered that language that has just been acquired is not

available for instant use, and that exposure and practice in meaningful situations is

necessary before new language can be used fluently. We need to implement

production activities that will provoke the use of language that is newly acquired.

However, language production activities that which are at the communicative end of

the communication continuum are not just practice activities. In order to make our

pupils use their language more productively, we need to engage them in tasks on

topics that are familiar to them and that are of interest to them. We need to create

interest in the topic and communicate enthusiasm. We also need to ensure that

there is a purpose to the task, that it has some outcome, and that the students are

aware of this. Moreover, our pupils should be led to cultivate the habit of speaking

spontaneously. Instant fluency and creativity is not possible: it needs to be built up.

Students should be given restricted tasks and be prompted to be more spontaneous

gradually.

When speaking, we construct words and phrases with individual sounds and we use

such features as pitch, intonation and stress to convey meaning. We should help our

students to acquire good speaking habits, improve their pronunciation and be

exposed to a variety of language features such as stress, tone, pace, pause, rhythm,

etc.


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Speech Sounds

Human beings can make a lot of sounds with their mouths. Some of them can be

voluntary sounds, for example, clearing the throat or clicking the tongue, while

others are involuntary sounds, for example, sneezing or snoring. However, not all the

sounds that human beings can make are used for the production of speech. The

sounds that we use to produce speech are called speech sounds. Words and

sentences are made up of combinations of these sounds which are called phonemes.

On their own, these sounds are meaningless, except when words are made of single

phonemes. A case in point are the English words a and I, which are words on

their own though they are made up of a single phoneme each ( // and /ai/

respectively).

The English language has twenty vowel phonemes and twenty four consonant

phonemes.

The vowel phonemes are of two categories: the Monophthongs and the Diphthongs.

The monophthongs are those vowel phonemes that are pronounced at one specific

place in the mouth. There are twelve monophthongs in English, as follows:

/a/ as in the words father, car, mark, fall

// as in the words bag, cat, flag, matter

/i/ (short /i/), as in the words me, he, hit, sit, milk, finger

/i:/ (long /i:/) as in the words fee, heat, meal, teacher

/u/ (short /u/) as in the words to, put, full, should, wound

/u:/ (long /u:/) as in the words too, shoes, sure, juice, cool, ruler

/e/ as in the words get, well, fresh, breath

// as in the words a, the (in front of consonant sounds), mother, winter

/:/ (long /:/) as in the words girl, herd, heard, curd, word, journey

/ ^/ as in the words sun, butter, munch, funny, flood, enough, come

// as in the words on, not, hot, plot, bottle

/ :/ (long ):) as in the words bore, law, floor, door, thought


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The diphthongs are those vowel phonemes that are produced by starting at the

position of one specific vowel sound and gliding towards the position of another

specific vowel sound. There are eight dipththongs in English, as follows:

/ai/ as in the words my, buy, tie, fly, kite, climb

/ei/ as in the words play, say, weigh, lay

/i / as in the words toy, soil, spoil, loiter

/i/ as in the words here, fear, mere, cheer

/e/ as in the words there, bear, lair, fare, fair, share

/u/ as in the words sure, poor, tour

/ou/ as in the words go, so, no, ago, sow, low, flow, dough

/au/ as in the words how, now, cow, lousy, bough

The twenty four consonant sounds of the English language are:

/p/ - pair, pepper, shop

/b/ - bad, rabbit, shrub

/m/ - man, summer, farm

/t/ - tap, letter, but

/d/ - do, ladder, bud

/n/ - nose, minor, moon

/f/ - fall, toffee, rough

/v/ - voice, even, of

/k/ - cut, quiet, lacquer, shake

/g/ - grow, sugar, bag

/s/ - safe, loose, bliss

/z/ - zoo, lose, boys

// - sure, sugar, ocean, usher, brush

// - pleasure, treasure, garage

// - think, catheter, myth

// - the, leather, breathe

/t/ - chair, butcher, fetch

/ / - journey, adjourn, judge,


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/l/ - long, rely, ill

/j/ - yawn, lawyer,

/w/- we, weather, jewel

/r/- run, tree, carriage

/h/-hot, his honey

// - gnaw, ignore, sing

Speech sounds are usually produced by using the air stream mechanism while we are

breathing in (pulmonic ingressive air stream mechanism), or while we are breathing

out (pulmonic egressive air stream mechanism). The speech sounds of some

languages, like Arabic, are produced by using both the pulmonic ingressive and thepulmonic egressive air stream mechanisms. The speech sounds of English are

produced by using the pulmonic egressive air stream mechanism only.

Speech sounds can be either voiced or voiceless. The voice box in which the vocal

cords are found is situated in the glottis, the place in the throat where the Adams

apple is found. Normally, the air stream flows through the voice box on its way in or

out of the lungs. In the production of speech, the vocal cords can remain wide open,

allowing the air to pass through freely. The sounds which are produced in such cases

are voiceless. Otherwise, the vocal cords become taut, the passage through the vocal

cords closes down and the air has to squeeze through, causing the vocal cords to

vibrate. In such situations voiced sounds are produced. This process is triggered by

the brain, depending on whether we want to produce voiced or voiceless sounds.

We can hear the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds in their realization.

For example, /p/ and /b/ are both produced at the same place in the mouth and in

the same manner. What produces the difference between them is the state of the

glottis. In the production of /p/, the vocal cords are wide open, hence the sound

produced is voiceless. In the production of /b/, the vocal cords are closed and the air

has to squeeze through, causing them to vibrate, hence producing the voiced

counterpart of /p/, that is, /b/. It is quite difficult to feel the vibration, except in

some cases. For example, when we produce the sound /v/, if we place our fingers on


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our lips, we can feel the vibration. We can also place our fingers on our temples to

feel the buzzing.

Diagram of the vocal cords

Speech sounds are produced by using various parts of the mouth such as the lips, the

tongue, the teeth, the alveolar or teeth ridge (the ridge behind the upper teeth), the

hard palate and the soft palate (also called the velum).

Diagram of the mouth


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The air stream on its passage out of the lungs is modified at various places in the

mouth and in various manners by the use of the articulators in order to produce the

various speech sounds. For example, when both lips are pressed together and the air

is then released through the mouth, the voiced sound /b/ is produced if the vocal

cords are made to vibrate while if the glottis remains wide open, the voiceless

counterpart /p/ is produced. On the other hand, if both lips are pressed together and

the air is allowed to escape through the nose gradually, the /m/ sound is produced.

All vowel sounds are voiced. In the production of vowels, the mouth remains open.

The vowel sounds are produced at different places near the tongue and by stretching

or rounding the mouth.

Features of Spoken English

Pitch

Some people have a high-pitched voice while others have a low-pitched voice. This is

a natural feature. Our pitch also rises or falls depending on whether we are excited,

angry, or bored when we are speaking. Pitch is thus used to communicate emotionsand mood as well.

Intonation

We also consciously alter our pitch to change the tune of our voice in order to

convey meaning. This is called intonation and it is a crucial factor in speech.

According to Kenworthy ( as cited in Harmer, 2001), intonation is used to put

information in the foreground by using a high or wavering pitch, in the background

by lowering the pitch, to signal ends and beginnings of conversations, or to show

whether a situation is open or close.

Intonation is also used to convey emotion, involvement and empathy. Variation in

tone can indicate whether an utterance is an exclamation or a question, for example

when we are exclaiming Really! or asking Really? Intonation hence modifies the


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intention of what we are saying. We thus perform different functions by choosing

different tones to express ourselves while using the same language forms. For

example, the word well can express agreement, doubt or disagreement depending

on what we want to express and we modify our tone accordingly. In tag questions

we use intonation to show our certainty about what we are saying and to indicate

the response we expect as well. For example when we say, The weather is fine

today, isnt it? with a falling tone we confirm what we believe is the case and when

we say the same thing with a rising tone we express our uncertainty about what the

answer will be. Intonation, therefore, conveys meaning in important ways: we

recognize the difference between a statement and a question, we are aware when

someone is expressing surprise or doubt or is being rude.

Pause

Pause is a natural feature of spoken language. This is made visible by the use of

punctuation marks such as full stops, colons, etc in written language. Normally there

is no pause between words in speech. Pauses occur at sentence boundaries or when

we want to achieve some special effect, such as getting the attention of our listener.

Hence pauses, just as all other characteristics of spoken language, serve a

communicative purpose.

Pace

The pace at which we speak may be determined by a number of factors. We speak at

a normal pace for our usual deliberations. We may increase our pace in some

situations to show characteristics such as urgency, excitement, concern etc.

Sometimes we reduce our pace, for example, to create suspense, as in a story telling

activity.

Stress

Languages differ in the quality of their articulation by being either syllabic, tone or

stress-timed languages. French, for example, is syllabic in nature. This implies that


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each syllable is pronounced with equal force. In tone languages like Mandarin, saying

the same word by raising or lowering the tone can cause a difference in meaning.

English, by nature, is a stress-timed language. This means that, in continuous speech,

some syllables in the words of English are made more prominent by placing a

stronger breath force on them, while the other syllables become less prominent. This

is done to serve a communicative purpose. Usually, words which carry content

meaning, that is, verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs, are stressed. All the other

words, such as conjunctions, articles, modals, auxiliaries, etc, which carry

grammatical meaning in the context of the sentence, are usually unstressed, unless

the speaker wishes to place stress on them purposefully.

Hence, all monosyllabic nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are stressed, as follows

(the stress is marked by placing\

above in front of the stressed syllable):

Nouns: \boy, \shoes, \mill, \moon, \soil

Verbs:\go,

\come,

\went,

\clean,

\show

Adjectives: \cool, \good, \nice, \calm

Adverbs:\fast,

\here,

\more,

\so

Disyllabic nouns, adjectives and adverbs carry the stress on the first syllable, for

example,

Disyllabic nouns:\market,

\basket,

\father,

\record,

\village

Disyllabic adjectives:\ugly,

\heavy,

\bitter

Disyllabic adverbs:\very

Disyllabic verbs, on the other hand, carry the stress on the second syllable, as in: ca \

rry, de\cide, whis

\per, be

\gin etc.

This allows to differentiate between nouns and verbs in cases where the same word

can be used as a noun or a verb, with a change in the quality of the vowel as a result

of the differing stress, as in the following cases:

Nouns:\record,

\filter,

\desert,

\export,

\whisper,

\market

Verbs: re \ cord, fil \ ter, de \ sert, ex \ port, whis \ per, mar \ ket


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Stress thus makes some syllables become more prominent in the production of some

words, has an effect on the way words are pronounced in continuous speech, and

serves the grammatical function of differentiating between nouns and verbs. We can

identify where stress is placed on a word by the way the word is pronounced, for

example, in the word particular, the stress is on the syllable ti as it is the most

prominent syllable when we say the word, as follows: /p\tikjul/.

In continuous speech, grammatical words, being normally unstressed, become weak.

Some examples of grammatical categories in their weak forms are as follows:

Strong form

I am

I shall

I will

You will

He will

She will

I would

Has not

Have not

Weak Form

Im

Ill

Ill

Youll

Hell

Shell

Id

Hasnt

Havent

Sentence Stress

In continuous speech, apart from the normal stress within words, stress is placed on

specific words within the sentence to show focus. For example, if we say He wants

to \stay here, we may mean to say he wants to settle down here, whereas if we say

He\wants to stay here, we may mean to say that it is his desire to stay here, he is

not being forced.

The use of these devices contributes to our ability to convey meaning. They allow the

expression of emotion and intensity. Students should be led to develop and deploy


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such suprasegmental features and devices if they are to develop their

communicative skills fully

Use of Non-verbal Features

There are also some paralinguistic or non-verbal features which convey meaning

while we are engaged in oral speech. These include facial expressions such as

frowning, smiling etc, the distance at which we speak to people, or the use of

gestures such as shrugging the shoulders, etc.

Language Processing

The speakers productive capacity in language is also dependent on the rapid

processing skills that talking necessitates. Language processing involves the retrievalof words and phrases from memory and their assembly into syntactically and

propositionally appropriate sequences. Effective speakers need to be able to process

language in their heads and put it in coherent order so that it comes out in forms

that are comprehensible and convey intended meaning. By implementing

meaningful speaking activities in our English language lessons, we help our students

develop habits of rapid language processing in English.

Pronunciation Teaching

Even without specific pronunciation teaching, many students acquire a good

pronunciation in the course of their learning. However, paying attention to the

pronunciation of students will help them improve their pronunciation, thereby

improving comprehension and intelligibility, which should be the prime goal of

language teaching and for effective communication.. There are a few sounds in the

English Language which cause particular difficulties to Mauritian learners of the

language, especially where the sounds do not exist in their mother tongue, a case in

point being the pronunciation of the voiced and voiceless counterparts of the th

sound as in the words the, this, then, therefore, bathe, further, breathe etc

(voiced) and think, thank, thumb, mathematics, truth, warmth, bath etc

(voiceless). Our learners have the tendency to pronounce these sounds as z and s.

Since th as in the word think and s are distinctive sounds in English and


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mispronunciation of the word can send the wrong signal to the listener, for example,

if the speaker says sink instead of think, then it is evident that our learners need to

be led to pronounce the sound properly. In the case of th as in the word the which

is pronounced as ze by some of our learners, the meaning of the word will not be in

doubt since the two versions are not distinctive words, but the quality of the speech

is definitely spoiled. Other sounds that our learners have the tendency to distort

through their faulty pronunciation are sh which is often pronounced as s, h which

remains silent even when it should be pronounced, and r which is often

pronounced as its French counterpart, among some others.

Usually children have the tendency to pronounce sounds the way they perceive

them, or the way they are used to pronouncing similar sounds in their mothertongue. In most of the cases of mispronunciation, the children are not aware of the

situation. We, as the guardians of their learning, need to train their ears to the

subtleties of the sounds of the language so that they achieve the required effect in

their production of the language in its oral form. We can work towards making them

develop an intelligible pronunciation though they cannot achieve native speaker like

quality.

Pronunciation can be taught in an overt way through the practice functional

dialogues, for example, telephone conversations, giving directions, asking for

information at an information desk and other such productive skill activities where

meaning depends on how we convey it orally. Remedial work can consist of making

the children say tongue twisters, or by making them differentiate between sounds in

minimal pairs. It is perfectly possible to work on the sounds of English without using

any phonemic symbol. Minimal or contrasting pairs and exercises e.g. clap or touch

to differentiate between contrasting sounds helps students concentrate on detail,

especially when listening to differentiate between the small differences in the

sounds. We must lead our students to differentiate between sounds which are

especially confusing for them, for example, // and /s/. The teacher can also say a

list of words with one having a different pronunciation though the word may have

the same spelling as the others and the children may be asked to identify the odd


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one. An example of such a list can be: for, pour, sour, draw, door, bore, soar.

Evidently, sour is the odd one out.

Pronunciation can be taught in discrete slots but it must be remembered that

pronunciation is not a separate skill, it is part and parcel of our oral production. It

should form an integrated part of our speech. Moreover, the sounds of the language

must be introduced gradually, not all at once.

Creating Awareness of Intonation

Intonation the ability to vary pitch and tune- is an important meaning carrier in oral

speech too. Often it is difficult to identify the different patterns of rising and falling

tones, but we can usually hear when people are being enthusiastic or bored,

surprised or are really asking a question rather than confirming something they

know. We need to give our learners the opportunity to recognize such moods and

intentions through the way we model them. For example, in order to make them

aware of all the different meanings of yes depending on the tone we use, we can

use the word with the appropriate emotions or make them produce the word bymatching their intonation to pictures of faces with different expressions or by the

teacher modeling out. The point here is that we are not simply identifying specific

intonation patterns, which are an important aspect of spoken language and a very

natural behaviour, but we are also training the ears of the students to discern such

patterns which carry a lot of meaning and also we are raising their awareness of the

power of intonation. It trains them to listen more carefully to what messages are

being conveyed to them. The more they are aware of how English is spoken, the

greater is the chance that their own intelligibility levels will rise.


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Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT)

CLT brought a shift from the Behavioural Approach to language teaching to the

significance of language functions rather than focusing solely on grammar and

vocabulary teaching. The guiding principle of CLT is to make students use language

forms appropriately in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes. It is based

on the premises that exposure to the language and opportunities to use it are vital

for the development of the language skills of the students. CLT activities involve

students in real or realistic communication where the successful achievement of the

task is more important than the grammatical accuracy of the language used.

Mistakes are considered as a part of the process of learning. Students are provided

with a desire and a purpose to communicate. The focus is on the content of what

they are saying, not a particular language form. They are made to use a variety of

language rather than just one language structure. CLT activities attempt to replicate

real communication. CLT aims at making students develop and enhance their ability

to communicate rather than just learning bits of language without focusing on their

use in communication.

Language Practice Activities

Constant practice in meaningful activities is crucial to language development. As far

back as in the 17th

century, Comenius said that languages are easier to learn by

practice than from rules. For such practice, the teacher can use a variety of strategies

in the classroom to help the students develop their oral proficiency.

For example, role-play allows the broadening of the classroom to include the world

outside, and allows students to use a wider range of language than more task-

oriented activities may do. Role play offers the possibility to create situations for

authentic language use. It also brings in an element of fantasy which children can


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easily relate to. Moreover, children easily take on roles assigned to them. Hence, role

play is one of the most productive tools in oral language development.

Games can be used to make the practice of oral English interesting and meaningful.

Games that are designed to provoke communication between students frequently

depend on an information gap so that the students get engaged in talking about the

gap and solving the puzzle, putting the information in the right order or finding

similarities and differences between pictures.

Television and radio games imported into the classroom provide good fluency

activities.

An example of a game is to make children guess what an object is. The teacher saysthat it is, for example, an animal or plant or fruit. The children need to ask a number

of questions to be able to guess what it is. They cant ask the same question twice.

The teacher answers only by yes or no. This activity also sharpens the listening

skills of the children. The class can be divided into two groups to add an element of

healthy competition in the game. The rule can be that if one group cannot guess

after having asked five questions, the other group has the turn. Marks may be

allocated to winners.

Another oral activity can be to make the children construct a story in groups based

on a number of familiar and easily available objects placed on their table, such as a

water bottle, a purse and a cap. Otherwise, they can construct a story collectively by

contributing a sentence each to a clue provided by the teacher.

Songs, as mentioned previously, are an excellent tool for language activities. Apart

from the possibilities they offer for listening activities, songs can lend themselves to

various types of oral activities. The children can sing the song in chorus, or sing a line

one at a time, or one group can sing the part of the male lead while another group

sings the part of the female lead and some join in the chorus if there is one,

depending on the song chosen.


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Language skills are not taught in isolation, as mentioned earlier. They are inter-

related and the development of one leads to the development of another. Hence,

the teaching of listening includes an amount of speaking and there can be no

speaking without listening. The activities outlined above do not constitute an

exhaustive list of all that can be done in the classroom to develop and enhance the

listening and speaking skills of our learners. There has been a large amount of

research on methods of teaching language skills effectively which have been put at

the disposal of teachers. It is up to teachers to make judicious use of them

The Role of Teachers

Kahlil Gibran has said (the wise teacher) does not bid you enter the house of his

wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.(Gibran, 1991;76, as

quoted in Harmer, 2001). To cater for the needs of students in todays world,

teaching can no longer be the transmission of knowledge. It should rather be the

creation of conditions in which students learn.

Under the influence of communicative theories as outlined above, emphasis hasbeen placed on learner-centred teaching, that is, teaching which places the

learners needs and experience at the centre of the educational process. The

students learning experiences and their responses to them should be at the heart of

a language course. Most specifically for the development of listening and speaking

skills, as for the other language skills as well, the measure of a good lesson is the

student activity taking place, not the performance of the teacher. The role of

teachers is to be facilitators and they should as well be good animators so as to make

students produce language. They can do this by setting activities clearly and with

enthusiasm. They can also be participants in the activities. In this way they can

prompt covertly, introduce new information to help the activity move along, ensure

continuing student engagement, and maintain a creative atmosphere.


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Teaching Reading Skills

Introduction

It would be difficult to embark upon a consideration of strategies for the teaching of

reading without taking into account the importance of this skill. All teachers are

undoubtedly conversant with the reasons that impel us to do so and of the various

advantages attached to being literate. Let us briefly go through these.

Reading provides a very good basis for language learning in a country whereEnglish is not the Mother Tongue. Texts contain a variety of structures and

syntactic features and, through exposure to these, learners consciously and

unconsciously absorb the rules for their use. Moreover, texts deal with a

range of themes and contain vocabulary related to these. Being engaged with

these texts naturally helps the learners to learn the language. By using texts

as a basis to teach language, the teacher is ensuring that teaching is

contextualised and therefore meaningful. Consequently learning takes place

more effectively.

Using reading to teach language allows a greater flexibility in terms ofteaching strategies. Since an extensive stock of reading materials is readily

available (though the teacher may need to adapt them according to the

needs or profile of the learners), the teacher can easily ensure that diverse

texts are chosen. The element of novelty will help to keep the learners

interested and motivated. Interest and motivation, as we know, are key

factors in the learning process.

Texts are concrete materials that children can touch and see. The visualelement is not only a stimulus or an attraction but also an aid to retention as


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learners remember more easily when they see. Moreover, learners can revert

to the texts and go through them at their own pace.

All children like stories and derive pleasure from listening to their favouriteones over and over again. Going through the same text a number of times

reinforces the learners awareness that print conveys a message as well as

their ability to follow the story line and to recognise and understand new

words.

Reading can lead to language production because it triggers a response in thereader. Children react to what they read/listen to. Thus they can be

encouraged to talk or write about certain elements and this ascertains that

they use the language. Through use, their knowledge of the language is

inevitably reinforced.

In a literate society, reading constitutes one of the main ways through whichinformation is obtained. Thus, though the importance of reading has so far

been considered in relation to language learning, we cannot ignore the

functional aspect. The teacher has the responsibility of making all learners

literate so that they can manage their day to day life.

The Reading Continuum

Reading skills develop gradually in a number of phases. These have been described

as follows: Role Play Reading, Experimental Reading, Early Reading, Transitional

Reading and Independent Reading (see

http://www.myread.org/images/myread_stages.pdf for details). The learner starts

by developing familiarity with reading conventions then proceeds to making sense at

word level, sentence level and text level. It is important for teachers to be aware of

these stages as activities and materials must be chosen in relation to these.

Additionally, an awareness of these stages helps the teacher to determine the

progress of individual learners and to set targets.


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Let us now look into the objectives of teaching reading at lower and upper primary

levels.

Objectives of Teaching Reading at Lower Primary Level

The objectives of teaching reading at lower primary level are to develop:

form perception and visual discrimination visual sequential memory and visual retention the ability to make letter-sound associations simple word recognition the understanding that print contains a message/story the ability to read short and simple texts the ability to follow a sequence the ability to enjoy and respond to the text

Objectives of Teaching Reading at Upper Primary Level

The objectives of teaching reading at upper primary level are to develop the ability

to:

read age appropriate texts fluently and with understanding recognise different lay outs and conventions infer meaning from context further increase sight vocabulary

Activity 1

1. Consider the stage of reading your pupils have reached.2. Are all pupils at the same stage?3.

Identify reading materials that are appropriate for them.


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engage in sustained silent reading read aloud with appropriate pronunciation, pace, intonation, and

pitch

respond to the text read a variety of age appropriate texts for information and pleasure

Early Reading Experiences

Early reading experiences constitute a crucial stage for the learner and it is the time

when positive attitudes towards reading can be developed. The teaching of reading

at lower primary level can prove to be challenging, especially if the learners have had

limited or no exposure to the target language. The teacher must ensure that the

appropriate conditions exist by creating a language rich environment. The classroom

space must be optimised so that learners are exposed to print in various forms, e.g.

a class library, posters, notices, labels, drawings, childrens works etc. Reading must

be a daily activity and the teacher must model good reading behaviours.

We shall now describe some activities for the teaching of reading at lower and upper

primary level. All activities relate to the objectives stated above.

Form Perception and Visual Discrimination

It is important to develop the learners ability to recognise patterns and letters so

that they are eventually aware of the sequence of letters in words and sequence of

words in sentences.

Activities:

Picture matching


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Shape matching

Letter matching

Word matching

Tracing and copying regular shapes, letters and words

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is an important aid to decipher words. The phonics approach

involves teaching reading by training learners to associate letters with their sound.

By doing so, learners can blend sounds to read words or sound out words to spell

e d n n d e

cat boy boy cat

a a a a a a a a a

b b b b b b b b b

c c c c c c c c c c

cat cat cat cat cat

boy boy boy boy boy


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them. In order to raise phonemic awareness, the teacher can make children practise

auditory discrimination by contrasting sounds (e.g. kit/sit), by analysing or isolating

sounds (e.g. underline the words that end like cake: dog, rake, ball, shake) and by

blending sounds (e.g. using a picture of a cat say the word slowly with the children,

stretching it so that individual sounds c-a-t are made prominent).

A number of activities based on the phonics approach are easily available on the

internet and in books. Devoting some time to research these will allow the teacher

to find a selection of materials that will facilitate the teaching of reading.

Whole Word Recognition

The use of whole word recognition is also a very useful technique for the teaching of

reading. We cannot rely only on the phonics approach, especially as English is an

irregular language. In teaching any subject, it is always best to resort to a variety of

methods. The use of whole word recognition leads to developing basic sight

vocabulary. It is essential for children to build up a bank of words that they recognise

instantly. This contributes to reading fluently.

The teacher can use the following approach: after doing word to word matching,

children are asked to observe the word carefully and trace or copy it. A simple

activity consists of reading the word on a word card, placing the card face down and

trying to write the word from memory. Frequent practice will ensure that the word

is committed to memory. Children must be encouraged to say the word aloud when

they read or write it. The more frequently they encounter these words, the easier it

will be for them to retain them. Playing games or doing activities involving the

reading of these words on flashcards the look and say method- can be used

regularly to provide practice and also to assess progress.


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Visual Sequential Memory

As part of the early reading experiences, children should be taught to read a

sequence of words- initially as a phrase, and then as a sentence. Word cards used to

teach sight vocabulary can be placed in a succession as shown below:

The learner is thus gradually led to read a sentence.

Whole Language Approach

The teaching of reading cannot be limited to reading words and sentences in

isolation. The whole language approach involves making children engage

meaningfully with the text in order to construct meaning. As learners consider a

word, they view it in context, namely in relation to: (i) the correspondence between

symbols/letters and the sound they represent (grapho-phonic) (ii) the meaning of

what is being read (semantic) (iii) the grammatical structure of the sentence/phrase

(syntactic). The teaching of reading is thus always in context rather than in isolation.

This approach provides ample opportunities for the teacher to teach literacy across

the curriculum. Moreover, it ensures that children are provided with daily

experiences to read and write for real purposes.

An example of using the whole language approach is as follows:

After reading a story, the teacher can discuss specific characters by having children

answer questions or express their views. S/he can also have the children act out

a cat on the mat

a cat

on the mat


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parts and draw or describe the character depending on the level. A few tips to make

a story reading session successful are:

Find something interesting to read. Change your tone of voice, use low and high pitch, use squeaking

sounds, whistles and other mouth noises.

Involve the children in the reading, e.g. make them read repetitivewords/sentences with you.

Discuss the characters in the story with the children do they likethem? etc.

Play with the ending, e.g. What happened to ? What if? Most important -- laugh and have fun with the children.

The teacher must bear in mind that teaching reading entails not only teaching a set

of skills but also developing the right attitude. Therefore, it is important for learners

to see a purpose in the tasks set and to enjoy the reading lesson. Reading skills

develop concurrently and not in a sequence, i.e. we cannot wait for the learner to

acquire all the vocabulary (in fact that is hardly possible!) and then proceed to

reading texts. Reading texts to the learners even before they can read will teach

them the basic conventions such as the direction of print. Moreover, it introduces

new words to them, it shows that print contains a message and, with the help of the

teacher, they learn that they can respond to the text. Gradually, they are brought to

read simple texts with words they can decode- either through phonics or the look

and say method.

Activity 2

1. Discuss the need to adopt a number of approaches to teach reading toyoung learners.

2. List the factors that will guide your choice of the aids you will use.


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Let us now see how the young learners become independent readers.

Becoming Proficient Readers

At upper primary level, the teacher will build upon, reinforce and extend the skills

already acquired previously. The scope of the reading lesson becomes broader as

new types of texts with different layouts are introduced, more words are taught,

sentence structures become more complex, etc. Moreover, learners must become

independent readers and must take to reading for pleasure. It is unfortunate that

the importance of reading for pleasure is downplayed, so much so that in Mauritius

reading is too often limited to academic purposes. Reading for pleasure is, in fact, an

effective way of developing fluency and aids in improving pace, constructing

meaning, developing vocabulary and increasing knowledge about a variety of topics.

Children who read extensively have more chances of becoming more proficient

language users. Given these benefits, it is imperative for the teacher to develop a

reading culture.

Stages in the Reading Lesson

The reading lesson can be divided into three main stages, namely:

pre-reading while reading post reading

The Pre- Reading Stage

In this stage, the teacher introduces thetext to the learners. The purpose is to lead

them into the text by focusing on the characters, themes/issues and new words they

will come across. The teacher thus elicits prior knowledge and views about the topic.


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Words that impede understanding are explained using a variety of strategies.

Pictures, realia, anecdotes, printed materials, etc are some of the resources that can

be used.

The While Reading Stage

Here the teacher will lead the learners through the text. This is done by making them

interact with the text at word level (What does the word mean? What word could

have been used instead? Would the meaning be the same? Is there a better word?),

sentence level (What new information has been given? Why is there an exclamation

mark at the end of the sentence? What word goes here?) and text level (What is

going to happen next? Is this what we had anticipated? How does this character

appear here? Why did s/he do/say this?).

The Post Reading Stage

At this point, the text has already been read and the teacher will take the learners

beyond the text. The aim is to make the learners use their newly acquired

knowledge critically and creatively. This allows them to reinforce their understanding

of the text and also to dapple further in the language while carrying out the tasks.

Tasks focusing on the whole text are worked out. Some examples of such activities

are:

1. Answering questions.2. Unscrambling letters to spell words correctly.3. Reordering jumbled pictures and/or sentences in the correct sequence.4. Rewriting the story.5. Discussing issues/events/characters.6. Writing a letter/diary based on a situation.7. Designing a poster based on the text.8. Role Play.9. Changing the ending.


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While teaching reading, the teacher must realise that s/he is not teaching the

learners to read a text but rather using a text to develop skills that will enable the

learners the read any text. S/He must make sure that the approach adopted helps

her/him work towards that end.

Activity 3

Describe the ways in which the teachers approach to teaching reading at

upper primary level differs from that at lower primary level.


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Teaching Writing Skills

IntroductionAt the outset, the answer to the question: Why teach writing? appears obvious.

Writing is naturally a very important skill and mode of communication. But we

should be careful about adopting a very narrow view by focusing only on the

academic aspect. In Mauritius, a lot of emphasis is placed on written exercises given

that the teaching is geared towards examinations. While it is necessary to prepare

children for the examinations, we must not forget that we have to equip them for

life and, therefore, the need to develop functional literacy must be kept in mind. We

should therefore, through our teaching, endow them with the appropriate

knowledge and skills to produce a variety of texts for different purposes and readers.

Where Does the Teaching of Writing Begin?

For most children, the teaching of writing starts even before they enter primary

school. As the children are exposed to printed material at home or elsewhere in their

environment, for example, when they observe others reading and writing, they

acquire the notion that:

Print contains a message Reading/writing takes place in a specific direction (left to right) There are different types of texts (book, newspaper, list, bill, letter, poster

etc).

As the children imitate adults or older siblings, they start to scribble and draw. By

doing so, they unknowingly learn to hold pencils or pens the appropriate way.

When the school takes over the teaching of writing becomes more formal and

structured. Let us therefore turn to the objectives of teaching writing at primary

level.

Objectives of Teaching Writing at Lower Primary Level


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The objectives of teaching writing at lower primary level are to develop the learners

ability to:

Shape letters correctly Spell words correctly Follow directionality of print Use mechanics of writing Use appropriate punctuation marks Write simple sentences that are grammatically correct Produce a variety of simple texts

At upper primary level, the teacher will build upon and extend the knowledge and

skills acquired earlier and work towards the achievements of new targets.

Objectives of teaching writing at upper primary level

The objectives of teaching writing at upper primary level are to develop the learners

ability to:

Write grammatically correct simple and complex sentences Express ideas with clarity and fluency Spell words correctly Use more extensive vocabulary Produce texts with appropriate layout and conventions Write coherently Produce a variety of texts for different purposes and readers

The Writing Continuum

The writing continuum indicates the different stages the children go through on the

way to becoming proficient, i.e. independent writers. These stages are as follows:

Pre-conventional, Emerging, Developing, Beginning, Expanding, Bridging, Fluent,

Proficient, Connecting and Independent writing. For more details, log on to


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http://www.learningtowrite.ecsd.net/stages ;

http://www.misd.klz.wa.us/parentsfamilies/parentsources/continuums/writingconti

nuum.pdf; and http://lindaslearninglinks.com/earlywrtgdev.html . As in the case of

reading, the stages mark a progression in the skill but it is important to bear in mind

that all learners do not progress at the same pace. It is important for teachers to be

aware of the stage of development the learners have attained and to take measures

to make them progress to the next one. Let us now go through examples of activities

that can be carried out at different stages to develop appropriate writing skills.

Activities for the Teaching of Writing at the Early Stages

In the early stages, children express their thoughts through drawing and by

scribbling. They gradually move on to forming letters and producing sequence of

letters- their way of writing words. The teacher must encourage them to talk about

their drawing and to read their scribbling because, by doing so, they are showing

the awareness that print contains a message. As children become involved in more

structured instruction, fine motor skills develop and they learn to follow patterns,

trace dotted letters, copy letters and eventually words. Direction of print is brought

out and the words/phases/sentences are read aloud. As with all skills, the more one

practises writing, the more adept one becomes.

Becoming Proficient Writers

At upper primary level, pupils must be encouraged to write texts on various topics

and for diverse purposes. Moreover, their writing

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