Evaluate 2 Materials That Used in Schools From Different Aspects

Evaluate 2 Materials That Used in Schools From Different Aspects

Research and analysis towards learning materials that have been used in schools are very important. For example, a poem, The Living Photograph by Jackie Kay is used by Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah (KBSM) for Form Four students. This poem is illustrating about the persona’s feeling when she looks at a photograph, which portraited a picture about her grandmother and her. After described about her feelings when she looks at the picture, persona recalls how her grandmother grows weaker and older until she went to an unimaginable place, heaven. At the final stanza of the poem, persona’s grandmother will have remained forever alive for her and her smile looks so alive when she was holding her granddaughter’s hand when her granddaughter was 3 years old.

Analysis for the type of course for students’ level, the poem is quite suitable for Form 4 students because it focuses more on the surface meaning of the poem so it is not very hard for them. So, students’ response towards English learning will be motivated because they can learn and adapt the understanding of the material easily. In my opinion, for Form Four students to learn this poem, they not only need to require more vocabularies from their background knowledge to understand the material but they also need to imagine the setting that the writer has set. Furthermore, the length of this poem, which divided to three stanzas, is not so lengthy for Form Four students and they will not get bored easily facing the long reading material.

The Living Photograph poem is suitable for intermediate Form Four students in the aspects of linguistic proficiency and literary background. For advance Form Four students, maybe this material is slightly easy for them. The language used for this poem is not so difficult and easy to understand. I think this poem is a very good material to attract students’ interest and build their emotional understanding. This is because the cultural background of this poem is about family relationship and the students already familiar with it. Furthermore, this poem is teaching about the values of the importance of family and appreciation towards memories that have been gained. Through this poem, students can realize about the importance for being grateful and appreciate family members while they are still by their side.

In my point of view, the factor of syllabus suitability for the poem is balanced with maturity growth for Form Four students. Since they start to learn more about the importance of relationship between human, the government choose the learning materials by taking moral values into account. Next, for the text exploitability, Form Four students can put themselves in the shoe of the writer in this poem and try to discover more moral values. It is very important to teach the students how to discover writer’s feeling towards family relationship in this poem and appreciate every learning materials. This poem is not only available for Form Four students but this material also can be used for Form one to Form three students. The main intention of this poem is to teach the students more about the importance of human relationship.

On the other hand, The Fruitcake Special is another literature material for Form Four students. The material, written by Frank Brennan is one of the short stories for Form Four students. It is a story about the effect of a fruitcake perfume on men. Anna, a chemist who works in Mr. Amos’ company, creates a perfume accidentally. Mr. Amos feels in love with Anna when he senses Anna put on the perfume. Thus, he asks her for dinner. But at night, Anna is surprised and upset when she found out Mr. Amos was not so interested in her just like this morning. She puts on the Fruitcake perfume, Mr. Amos and a waiter become attracted to her. Both of them declare their love to Anna and chaos situation appears when a fight between two men happened. Anna leaves the restaurant and the perfume company and ends up with Armstrong, the pizza boy.

This short story is more to illusion type of story and there are many moral values that can be discovered. From my point of view, I think this short story can attract students’ positive response in learning English because this short story is quite fun and not so heavy for them since this story related to love story. This piece of material is quite suitable for Form Four students because the content of the story is not so complicated and this short story is not very lengthy. From this material, the students can learn more about the dramatic structure of the story which included exposition section, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement section. 

I think the setting in this short story is more to social issues and this material is selected for Form Four students because of the moral values and social culture background of students. Form Four students already have basic literary background as they learned about literature when they were in Form One, Form Two and Form Three. Thus, this kind of short story can be said as an upgraded material when the writer combined both illusion and reality situation in this story. The Form Four students are mature enough to know how to be realistic in life and do not judge anyone by his/her appearance. This kind of story, which is suitable for Form Four students’ age and intellectual level, is needed to be taught to catch students’ interest in learning English because the language used in this short story is within their language ability. The conflict in this story, for the example, when Anna is in chaos when Mr. Amos and the waiter fight and declare their love to Anna at the restaurant, also can develop their emotional understanding and imagination about the scenes.

The literary materials are selected with the relatedness to students’ syllabus. Mainly, students’ syllabuses are focused on reality and social factors and one of the moral values in this short story is teaching about the important of being realistic in life. In this short story, the students can derive the moral values of being a realistic person and know the importance of not fall for physical appearance in their daily life. These moral values can help them more in lifelong learning. This short story can be available for any ages but I think it is preferable for secondary school students because their general literary background is developed gradually as they learned simple literature material before. Thus, they can read and understand the material better.

As a conclusion, all the materials that have been selected for the students is being evaluated to suit the students’ proficiency level and their maturity to understand the selected material. However, streaming classes such as advance, intermediate and low proficiency students and intellectual differences in learning second or foreign language determine students’ understanding in grasping the understanding of the knowledge. All the materials selected and use consistently in all schools are well evaluated in many aspects included moral values. Thus, the teachers also need to evaluate the materials that they are going to choose so that the students can maximize their learning within their ability.

SPEAKING IN ESP/EAP/ESL CLASSROOM

SPEAKING IN ESP/EAP/ESL CLASSROOM

Most of the language learners will strive for a good and fluence speaking skill after they learn the target language for a certain period. For ESP/EAP/ESL classroom, classroom interaction and presentation in English dominate the learning process thus this explains why the speaking skill is extremely important in language learning classroom. In an interactive classroom, learners need to be able to engage in small talks, group discussions or pair works as speaking skill plays important role in these kinds of interactive activities. However, speaking skill has not been the main focuses in conscious learning as the teachers give all the input to the learners and do not encourage learners to give output as well, especially for conventional teaching and learning approach. In fact, speaking or communication skill has become an essential competence in society. Speaking skill is one of the most challenging skill to develop as it is a productive skill and the learners need to have sufficient input information in order to produce product, which is verbal speech. Thus, development of speaking competence among the learners need to be emphasized by executing effective strategies in developing learners’ confidence and fluency in speaking English. This paper will also discuss about the conflicts and the solution that can be done to solve speaking competence problem.

Speaking skill is not a part of examination but it needs a lot of attention and practice to be well adopted. The main purpose of communication output is to deliver information so, the strategy to deliver accurate information by using the language as the medium is very important. Strategy in speaking skill can be said as an attempt to develop learners’ linguistic and sociolinguistic features in target language (M Lessard, 1997). Anne Burns (2012) presented an effective speaking strategy can refer to Teaching-Speaking Cycle that emphasized on few key concepts that the teachers can use to facilitate their students. The Teaching-Speaking Cycle has seven stages in total to focus on learners’ speaking skill in target language. In this cycle, teachers need to attract the learners to let them focus on speaking and provide input element. For the third stage, teachers can start to conduct the speaking task either by dividing them to groups or pairs. Next, teachers need to focus on language skills or strategies that they can use. For the example, if the teachers want to focus on develop learners’ speaking skill, they can conduct a task-based communicative approach classroom, whereby the learners need to solve the problem by interacting in target language in the classroom. For the fifth stage, teachers need repeat the speaking task but the teachers may change the questions, as long as the speaking practice is being carried out. For the last two stages, it is more to learners’ responsible whereby they need to reflect on their learning and let the teachers give feedback on their learning. This cycle is a very good classroom strategy to promote speaking skill in target language and to increase the applicability of speaking skill in the classroom.

In promoting speaking skill, there are three roles that need to be focused on. Speaking can be applied as interaction, transaction and performance (Jack and Richard, 2008). The learners are familiar with the applicability of speaking as a part of interaction. Speaking serves for interaction purpose when oral speech has become a natural phenomenon for small talk or formal meeting, recount experiences and express feeling as well as give feedback to others verbally. In a language classroom, speaking is not only for interaction purpose but also for transaction purpose. Transaction talk is more to student-centered interaction whereby the learners need to work in groups and exchange information among themselves. The activities that can be done in the classroom for transaction talk included brainstorming and stimulation activities, role plays and impromptu conversation. Lastly, speaking also serve for performance talk. Strategy for teaching performance talk is quite different as it need to prepare a written text first then the understanding of the text need to be discover before applying the text to spoken language (Jones, 1996). The learners involved in the process of text construction and analysis on how the texts work in the form of linguistic features before converting the texts to spoken language. 

In addition, the theory behind the speaking skill is an important dimension to be considered. Different styles of speaking reflected by the characteristic of age, gender, level of education and social status. Every group may have the different choice of word or different pronunciation and this produce variety ways of speaking. In common sense, people will switch between formal or casual speech styles depend on the formality of the event. According to Brown and Yule (1983), they summarized speaking as interaction that has social function, reflects speaker’s identity and status, can be formal or casual, has degree of politeness and reflect on relationships between the audience. In the other words, effective talk depends on where we are, who we are dealing with and what is the purpose of the talk.

Some research has been carried out by socialists about the investigation of the relationship between language and social. Krashen’s idea on input hypothesis explained how the learners acquire second or foreign language. Krashen gave idea to design the speaking lesson based on natural communicative input so that learners who have the different linguistic proficiency level can acquire comprehensible input (Ricarda Schiitz, 2007). After having a systematic speaking lesson plan, teachers need to develop learners’ competence in target language. Hymes (1972) sees the necessity in implement two kinds of competence which are linguistic competence, produce and understand grammatically correct sentences, and communicative competence, produce and understand appropriate and acceptable sentences. Thus, various of key concepts and strategies need to be taken into account in creating an effective speaking environment that can be meaningful to the learners.

Indeed, English speaking skill is very important in ESP/ EAP/ ESL classroom. Based on Richard Schiitz’s reflection on Krashen’s hypotheses, he claimed that the learners can acquire their second language just like how they acquired their mother tongue. At first, the learners undergo a silent period where they just observe how the other speakers use the language. In this process, they may receive some knowledge about vocabularies and sentence structure of target language. After that, through observation about surrounding conversation and comprehension activities, learners can internalize more vocabulary and grammatical structures and know how to communicate in a simple way as they acquired enough basic blocks of language to communicate (Marriam B, Muhammad Azeem and Dr. Ashiq Hussain D., 2011). Thus, because of the complex features of spoken discourse, they are many conflicts that the teachers and the students need to face in order to make sure speaking learning classroom can achieve its learning objectives. However, various of solution to the problems can be done to overcome the challenges and encourage the students to love English learning and develop their oral skill. 

There are some psychological factors such as anxiety, lack of confidence and afraid of making mistakes have become learners’ obstacles in practicing their speaking skill. Anxiety and afraid of making mistakes are the main factors of learners’ reluctant in speaking English in the classroom. Their anxiety may come from negative evaluation or negative feedback they received from previous mistakes. Thus, they become afraid to make any mistake when they are participating in classroom speaking activities. They also afraid that their friends will laugh at their ideas or criticize them. Thus, they will choose to be silent member in the class. Silence in speaking class totally is a worst idea so in terms of suggestion to the possible solution for this problem, the teachers need to encourage the learners to speak more and convince them that making mistakes is one of the learning process and they should learn from it not avoid it. Next, the relationship between the teacher and the students must be in comfortable zone so that the students can talk comfortably with the teacher and believe the teacher will correct them, not criticize them. Teacher needs to play important room in creating harmonious learning environment so it will reduce students’ anxiousness. 

Next, English speaking activities in English classroom is not highly executed because of the use of mother tongue language. If most of the learners share the same mother tongue, they tend to communicate in their native language as they feel more easier and friendly. By using their mother tongue, they also feel that they can express themselves more confidence as they grow up all along by living in that language environment. That is the common problem that can be observed in the classroom even for university learners. However, in order to develop their speaking skill in foreign or second language, learners need to have motivation to speak in target language even though their audience share the same mother tongue with the speaker. In order to prevent the learners speak in their mother tongue when they are delivering messages, teachers need to keep reminding their learners to speak in target language. Teachers also can make language rules in the classroom. For the example, if a learner speaks in other language, not the target language, English, he /she needs to construct three sentences by using new vocabularies from teacher and paste it on the notice board. This approach will help the learners to learn English in speaking and writing skill conscious and unconsciously.

 Furthermore, inadequate frequency of speaking opportunities in the classroom also become the issue when it comes to language learning classroom. According to Jack and Richard (2008), oral skills have been neglected in EFL/ESL classroom. In a usual classroom, teacher often teach by using conventional method, which is teaching how to speak but do not give much opportunities to the learners to do the speaking. Syllabus provided in school is too packed so the teacher pays more attention to writing, reading and listening skills rather than speaking skill. However, to make sure learners get enough input in language class, their best practice is through oral skill. Teachers need to know if their learners are able to apply their knowledge and deliver the knowledge verbally in public, their knowledge in that language is developed. So, the teachers need to have systematic and creative plan to teach speaking.  Teaching speaking is not an easy task as the teachers need to estimate time for every learner to talk and give feedback or evaluation. With speaking practice in the classroom, second language acquirement among learners in ESP/EAP/ESL classroom can be developed in general.

For speaking practices in ESP/EAP/ESL classroom, teachers also face problem in choosing the appropriate types of communicative tasks. Because of a big number of learners and limited lesson time, teachers need to use target language to plan an organized content and the structure of the lesson. Teachers often have this conflict so at the end, they choose to teach based on the text provided in the textbook. Thus, to have a systematic speaking classroom, teachers can plan the lesson based on two basic types of interactions which is teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction. For speaking class, executing pair work or group interacting is not a doubt. If the teachers are planning to have a speaking class and focus on student-centered learning, teachers can conduct speaking class with student-student interaction by dividing the students into groups and distribute speaking tasks. However, teachers need to monitor the whole learning process and make sure the learners generate their ideas in target language. Teacher-student interaction also can promote speaking classroom but the teachers need to be the anchor to attract all the learners to participate in the classroom speaking activities. Teachers also need to be wise in choosing meaningful learning materials for the learners so that learners can feel the relatedness of the lesson. 

In conclusion, learners have to be given more time in conducting speaking activities as practice makes perfect. Oral lesson may be hard to conduct but it has to be carried out in English classroom. Even though some learners may have difficulties in participating speaking activities due to some reasons, but as they get more familiar with ho the lesson is conducted, they will be more active in producing or sharing their ideas verbally. Last but not least, Stern (1981) emphasized on the importance of teacher coping techniques when the learners find themselves alone in the new language environment. Thus, teachers need to guide and facilitate learners in their way of speaking in target language and correct them in the most proper way. 

References:

Bashir, M., Azeem, M., & Dogar, A. H. (2011). Factor affecting students’ English speaking skills. British journal of arts and social sciences, 2(1), 34-50.

Burns, A. (2012). A Holistic Approach to Teaching Speaking in the language classroom. In Symposium (pp. 165-178).

Brown, Gilian and George Yule (1983). Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.

Hymes, D. (1972). On communicative competence. sociolinguistics, 269293, 269-293.

Jack, R., & Richards, M. (2008). Teaching listening and speaking from theory to practice. Cambridge University. Printed in The United States of America.

Lessard-Clouston, M. (1997). Language learning strategies: An overview for L2 teachers. The internet TESL journal, 3(12), 69-80.

Schütz, R. (2007). Stephen Krashen's theory of second language acquisition. English made in Brazil.

Stern, H. H. (1981). Communicative language teaching and learning: Toward a synthesis. JE Alatis, HB.

The Impact of Strategy Development on Listening As a Productive Skill in ELT

The Impact of Strategy Development on Listening As a Productive Skill in ELT

The journal, The Impact of Strategy Development on Listening As a Productive Skill in ELT: A Constructivist Approach written by Pinar Kahveci, stressed that listening should not be viewed as a receptive skill but need to be viewed as reciprocal, as listening practices need to be involved frequently in order to know a language. The statement from Tavil (2010) supported the importance of listening by saying listening should be viewed as an interactive approach of learning as the learners construct their own understanding and interpretation of what they heard. This paper is aimed to investigate whether constructivist listening teaching with overt strategy instruction creates any difference in learner’s strategy use of cognitive and metacognitive, reactions to listening tasks, and their listening proficiency.

The research for this paper is conducted with an experimental research design by having EFL Listening Strategies Survey and Questionnaire on Learners’ Reaction to Listening Task as the instruments. The result came out by showing that the constructivist listening teaching has generated positive changes in students’ reaction towards listening classroom, increase learners’ use of cognitive and metacognitive but failed to prove a significant improvement in listening proficiency. The investigation method used by the researcher to collect the data is very sufficient because he worked on pre-test and post-test, which is a test or a survey before and after the treatment of constructivist listening teaching classroom. There were 29 respondents who participated in this research. They will be divided into two groups which are the experimental group and the control group. The researcher will focus on the experimental group and jot down all of the result given by the experimental group.

The researcher worked on the survey which focused on three sections, which are pre, ongoing and post stages of listening activity that included cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective listening strategies. So, for the approaches and techniques used, constructivist listening teaching is very different from the traditional listening classroom. The difference can be seen by a few methods. Firstly, in a constructivist listening classroom, learners will have a longer pre-listening activity than the usual classroom. By this method, there are many activities can be done with the learners such as encouraging the learners to make inferences of the background of the speakers, ask them more about suspense events in the story to make sure they really gain understanding from what they have heard or the teacher can introduce the grammatical or lexical features that they will learn from the listening exercise. Secondly, in constructivist listening classroom, the teacher is allowed to stop the text and start some discussions. For example, if the students pointed out a question, the question can be discussed before the speaker to continue the story. Discussion of what the learners have heard is important because this can help them to generate more idea and understand more about their learning materials. Lastly, in a constructivist listening learning classroom, listening to material through video is used. The video is mainly related to and familiar with the learners. A constructivist learning classroom resembles real-life learning and encourages learners to build their own ideas based on their knowledge and experience.

I think the approaches and the techniques used by a constructivist listening classroom is very effective to draw learners’ attention towards polishing their listening skill. The teaching method where the teacher can stop the text and ask questions promotes two ways interactions with the students in the class. The approaches used also suitable for a class that has a big size of learners. The teacher can propose questions and the learners can give feedback and lead to a big room discussion. Maybe the text can be played or read more than once as for the second time, the learners will be more focus to gather information from the text. I think, besides understand the text or getting improve in listening proficiency, the teacher also need to stress on the language, grammar and word choices used by the speaker. I believe if the learners are encouraged to detect the feature of the structures of the language use, their listening learning will be more effective. Moreover, the pre-listening activity in the constructivist listening classroom will be much longer than the usual classroom so I think, variety genre of text such as news, narrative, reports and many more should be used to give them practice or an idea before the treatment for constructivist listening classroom begin.

After all, the teachers need to be alert to create a suitable learning environment and execute listening practice so that the learners can control their learning with high self-consciousness (Mitchell & Myles, 1988). Of course, for a listening class, the teacher needs to prepare materials and a quiet classroom for an effective listening learning and teaching classroom. The teacher also needs to control and observe the learning process by making sure that every student takes part in ongoing classroom activity, not only merely listen to the text but also give feedback and reaction to ask questions or seek for clarification. It is very important for learners to be aware of their preferred style or study method so they can learn more effectively.

I think the significance of the study in this paper is to introduce the role of listening skill which is not only a receptive skill but much more than that. Listening is much needed than we thought because before we give any response, we must listen first. From my point of view, the writer is interested in this topic because he found out that listening has failed to be the main point in EFL classroom. Instead, learners are more encouraged to memorize the new vocabularies and apply them in writing. I think listening is prior to learn a language so the writer is trying to raise awareness about the important role of listening in the classroom. The writer also believed by raising the awareness towards the importance of listening skill, learners can manage their learning and learn consciously to achieve effective learning in learning a foreign language. However, the writer failed to make an alignment for the results of the findings in the abstract and conclusion.

From my point of view, I think the approaches for a constructivist classroom are suitable to be replicated in Malaysia’s classroom. As we know, Malaysia’s system in learning English mostly depends on memorizing, not understanding and that is one of the reasons why they do not appreciate a piece of beautiful literature. If a constructivist listening classroom is brought to Malaysia, it can attract learners’ attention as they are going to learn through the videos. This type of learning also can promote learners’ creativity in cognitive since they are going to raise a lot of questions and get into more detail to make inferences and understand the texts. Although to have this kind of effective listening classroom need a lot of time, but as long as the learners learn effectively and learn to earn high potential in listening skill, as a lifelong skill, it is worth enough.

For the conclusion, I think the traditional listening classroom is not as effective as the constructivist listening classroom. The research also has been successful in proving the effectiveness of constructivist listening teaching with overt strategy training. The main point why I support the practice of constructivist listening teaching is because it practiced on the real-life listening classroom. Furthermore, I think if the learners are getting comfortable in receiving input and understand what they heard, they can speak or interact better. Better listening skill will boost learners’ confidence to give feedback on what they heard because they are taking foreign language listening session positively.

References : 

Kahveci, P. (2014). The Impact of Strategy Development on Listening as a Productive Skill in ELT: A Constructivist Approach.

Mitchell, H., & Myles, F. (1988). Second language learning theories. London: Arnold

Tavil, Z. M. ( 2010). Integrating listening and speaking skills to facilitate English language learners’ communicative competence. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences.

What do you think about KBSM ENGLISH FORM THREE TEXTBOOK?

What do you think about KBSM ENGLISH FORM THREE TEXTBOOK?

Generally, learning materials such as textbooks, either for primary school or secondary school, need to undergo the approval of Ministry of Education to ensure the quality of the teaching and learning materials. Thus, the Ministry of Education keeps revising the content and updating new information by upgrading the quality of the textbooks with new curriculum design to enhance students’ learning depending on their competency level and their needs. The intention of the ministry in designing curriculum is not only for teaching the elements that are related to the students but also to deliver the importance of the moral values. The syllabus in the textbook is designed especially for the target group and the suitability of the syllabus based on the level of proficiency, linguistic background and prior knowledge of the students. The latest curriculum that has been designed for the students focus more on the process of developing dynamic, productive and competent youths. 

TOPICS AND ELEMENTS THAT CAN BE FOUND IN SELECTED TEXTBOOK

In the latest publication of Form 3 English Textbook, there are 15 chapters that covered five main themes which are people, health, environment, social issues and science and technology. For the first theme, People, the authors focus more on the famous people who have achieved remarkable contribution. The authors’ intention is to let the students learn from the successful people and take them as role models. Next, there are 4 topics under health and the theme of health grabs the most attention of the authors. The authors give a lot of health information such as the importance of food pyramid and safety problem that have been faced by the students. Authors’ intention through this theme is to build students’ awareness of the importance of taking care of health. For the topics under the themes of environment and current social issues, the authors emphasize on the various common problem that faced by the students by giving information and examples through the texts. For the example, through the usage of the textbook as teaching aids in the classroom, the teacher can guide the students in learning what to do if they face flood situation. The learning will be more effective because the students can assimilate their feeling while learning something they have experienced before. Last but not least, the authors also integrated the topics under science and technology theme. The world is getting more familiar with the use of technology and the authors wish to lead the students to learn the technology gadgets in the proper way and take the advantages of the strength of technology and apply them in their life. Moreover, scientific terms such as water distillation, evaporation and osmosis are used in delivering the information related to science. The topics under this theme will engage students in language learning regarding content-based learning.

All the chapters under those 5 main themes are evenly integrated with few sections which included grammar features and vocabularies, pronunciation and sound system, literature as well as the integration of 4 macro skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking. This English textbook strikes for achieving the objectives of the syllabus by focusing on three areas of language use which are interpersonal, informational and aesthetic. So the intention of the textbook authors is to encourage the students to have a variety of language use based on certain circumstances either is for self-reading or information delivery. The topics chosen are socially related to students’ daily life which brings to a meaningful teaching and learning atmosphere in the classroom. A lot of skills or educational emphases such as Thinking skill, Learning How to Learn, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, Values and Multiple Intelligences, Knowledge of Acquisition skills, Preparation for Real Life situation skills and Future Studies are embedded into every topic in this textbook. 

RELATIVE EMPHASIS GIVEN TO THE COMMON TOPICS/COMPONENT

In this Form 3 English textbook, one of the main themes, health, is emphasized more among all the other themes. This theme is included in 4 chapters which are equivalent to 54 pages. This theme has the highest percentage among four other themes which are people, social issues, environment, and science and technology. The topics under this theme are Fit for Life with 13 pages, Active and Healthy with 15 pages, Safety for One and All with 13 pages, and The Inner You with 13 pages. There are few components under each topic which are language for interpersonal use, language for informational use, language for aesthetic use, grammar, sound system, vocabulary and educational emphases. These components are with consistent number of pages for each chapters. In chapter 6 which is Fit for Life, the number of each pages in the components are the same as in chapter 10, Active and Healthy, with language for interpersonal use is 4 pages, language for informational use is 5 pages, language for aesthetic use is 2 pages, grammar is 2 pages, sound system is 1 page, vocabulary is 1 page and educational emphasis is 1 page. But in chapter 11 which is Safety for One and All, the number of pages in the components are quite different because language for interpersonal use is 8 pages, language for informational use is 4 pages, language for aesthetic use is 2 pages, grammar is 2 pages, sound system is 1 page, vocabulary is 1 page and educational emphases is 1 page. For the last chapter of the most emphasized theme in this textbook is chapter 12, The Inner You. The number of each pages in the components are language for interpersonal use is 5 pages, language for interpersonal use is 4 pages, language for aesthetic use is 1 page, grammar is 2 pages, sound system is 1 page, vocabulary is 1 page and educational emphases is 1 page. Based from all of the components listed above, language for interpersonal use has the most number of pages in order for students to realise that communication and relationship between people are really important, especially in the chapter 6, it shows that the components of language for interpersonal use has the highest number of pages since the writers wanted to emphasize that it is important to express appreciation to those who have really help us.  

TREATMENT TOWARDS TOPICS’ ARRANGEMENT ACCORDING TO CHAPTERS AND THEMES

        There are no same topics being treated more than one in the textbook but there are similarities of the theme of the chapters and the language components being used in the textbook.

The topics are somehow similar but not related to each other and one of the main reasons is because the topics are actually selected based on five themes. Of course, the content of the topics are different in terms of language items being highlighted, grammar and educational emphases. Even though the topics selected are based on the five main themes, the arrangement of the topics are jumbled up and not according to the sequence of themes. For example, the beginning chapters in the textbook are all from the theme ‘People’ and ‘Social’, while the ending chapters in the textbook are all from the theme ‘Science and Technology’. However, for the middle chapters, there are mix up between chapters from the theme ‘Health’ and ‘Environment’. All other chapters are arranged according to themes in sequence – People, Social, Environment, and Science and Technology. The chapters under the ‘Health’ theme does not being arranged consequently after one another. There is one chapter under ‘Health’ theme which is Chapter 6, but Chapter 7 to 9 are topics from the ‘Environment’ topic. Then, the chapters of ‘Health’ theme reappears in Chapter 10 to 12. These might be because chapters under the theme ‘Health’ hold the largest portion in the textbook and the writers need to separate the topic to avoid making it looking too redundant for the students.

Other same components that being treated more than one in the textbook is the focus on skills and type of activities used to enhance the skills. For example, the focus of speaking skills in the section ‘Language for Interpersonal Use’. In almost every topic, there will be activities that require the students to review the lesson or take part in discussions which are suitable for students of  Level 2 and Level 3. Little focus is given to speaking activities for Level 1 probably because this is a Form 3 textbook and students are expected to already be in Level 2 and 3. There are no difference in how the components are sequenced because they all being treated as one of the activities for speaking lesson. Q4:How would you describe the differences among the priorities of the writers of each of the topics/components in the textbook? Generally, the authors focus on the integration of 4 macro skills which are reading listening writing and speaking. Through this textbook, we can see that the authors prioritize the importance of health with the topics of Fit for life, Active and healthy, Safety for all and one and The inner you.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS AND EMPHASIS OF THE TOPICS / COMPONENTS 

To revise the contents of this textbook, there are few topics that we would like to add and eliminate to make sure that it would be able to cater the students’ need and enhance their learning experience. In the comparison of the themes in this Form 3 textbook with the Form 1 textbook, we found that the values theme is only available during Standard 1 and not in this textbook. Therefore, we would like to suggest few topics on “Values” theme to be added into the textbook. Actually, there are topics which implicitly injected values in this textbook such as “Nature’s Gifts” and “The Inner You”, but we think that it would be better if the topic itself represents the values, which means that the values are really given emphasize. As suggested by the National Education Philosophy, students should be balance from all aspects  such as physical (jasmani), emotional (emosi), spiritual (rohani) intellectual (intelek) and social (sosial) or also known as JERIS. Being intelligent without having integrity and values is meaningless. For instance, a teacher or a doctor and even a ruler who is absolutely highly educated will be a dishonourable person if he or she breach the trust. Hence, it is very important to build integrity and other moral values to produce holistic students. 

On the other hand, we would like to suggest that the topics for “People” theme in this textbook to be reduced. Three topics under this theme are “They Touch Our Lives”, “Famous Leaders”, and “Healing Hands”. From our observations, we found that these topics are more and less alike the previous topics which has been included in the Form 2 textbook. Thus, we think that the topics on this theme could actually be reduced to give more space for topics on “Values” theme to be added.

CONCLUSION

As the conclusion, the KBSM English Form Three Textbook has been systematically designed to focus on specific learning objectives. The book provides students with opportunities to participate in various interactive activities to create an enjoyable experience in learning the English Language. There are pros and cons of the textbook in terms of topics arrangement, language elements that were given emphasized and others but all of all, the contents of the whole textbook is relevant in facilitating the students to use the English language effectively not only in the classroom setting but also for the real-world situations that they will face later.

WHAT IS LITERATURE?

WHAT IS LITERATURE?

Literature gives great contribution for students’ personal growth and knowledge development. The role of the literature has grown wider and not only aim for learning language through the context. Thus, no wonder literature has become a compulsory lesson for secondary school students in Malaysia. Literature, in the form of poems, short stories, plays, novels can be said as beautiful arts that derived from human feelings and experiences about personal interest, moral values and cultural items. Indeed, literacy appreciation lesson will light up the atmosphere in the classroom by avoiding traditional chalk and talk classroom but the teacher, who is administering in literature teaching, need to be aware of the approaches that can be executed effectively in the classroom. Teachers also need to draw their attention to teaching elements when conducting a literature teaching and learning classroom.

            A good literature teaching classroom is guided by four elements, which are delivering authentic material in the classroom, using selected materials which are high in cultural and language enrichment and involving the students to the selected materials. Mostly, literary works are created based on real-life experience so when the students can relate the literature work to their experience, the learning process will be meaningful for them. Not only that, literature can let the students know more about how certain communication in different cultures take place by creating the background of the characters and social setting. A good literature teaching classroom also make sure the students perceive the diversity of the language in the form of lexical and syntactic function when they learn about the language through the context. The involvement of the students in the form of their expectation and interest in pursuing the development of the story is very important to draw them into the appreciation of literary works.

            Literature lesson is very important because it helps to polish students’ personality in overall especially in the aspects of appreciation and knowledge. From my point of view, literature elements have the power to move students’ heart and mind when they really appreciate the artwork. This is because every good literature work has valuable moral values and life experiences to learn from. Moreover, literature works add on students’ knowledge because the elements in literature have the function to teach, give messages and establish good values in them. For me, the objectives of literature teaching are to develop students’ interest in literacy work, their feeling and emotion features and develop their own ideas towards the learning materials. Literature not only rich in its language input but rich in its’ context. Literature is a very good platform and effective stimuli to encourage students to express themselves. Thus, good literature teaching and learning classroom must be carried out.

            In a good teaching classroom, students’ learning goals must be taken in to account. I think there are three fundamental students’ learning goals in teaching and learning process which are interpreting, contributing and managing. For example, students need to be able to interpret what they are learning during the lesson. They need to construct their own ideas and think critically. Just like a constructivist approach, students need to guide their own learning and connect their prior knowledge to the new knowledge they have just learned. Students’ learning goal in contributing ideas, engaging in literature learning classroom and communicating with other students also very important. Literature is well learned if it is learned by a group, where discussion is being carried out and sharing ideas between students will be facilitated. For good literature teaching, students must be able to manage their learning by giving response to the learning material and adapt the most suitable learning method to facilitate their literature learning. In order to guide the students in achieving students’ learning goals, teachers’ belief in conducting a lesson is extremely important because belief can guide teachers to apply a variety of effective teaching approaches.

            I believe in pragmatism and constructivism to construct a good literature classroom. Pragmatism, promoted by John Dewey, emphasized on executing various of interesting activities during teaching and learning rather than a traditional teacher-centered teaching method. I think by applying pragmatism in teaching, various learning approached in literature class will be conducted and students can discover their own learning preference. Furthermore, this belief put the position on learning, not just as the preparation for life but it is also for ongoing life. In addition, I also believe in constructivism theory. A constructivism learning is a student-centered learning where the students need to construct their own understanding during the learning process. In a literature class, understanding is very important as through understanding, they will be able to appreciate the artwork better. I believe a good literature classroom can work better with the combination of pragmatism and constructivism in the classroom as the learning will focus on the students’ development. The belief that I have will guide me to reach my personal teaching goals.

            As for me, I have 3 personal goals that I aimed to reach which are teaching, inspiring and changing. I love teaching and I like to deliver what I know to my students and I willing to improve my teaching methods to achieve my personal goals. So, for my first personal goal, I hope I can teach in a correct and effective method while students can enjoy their learning. Next, I hope I can inspire my students to like English like I do and I hope my students do not perceive English as just a communication medium but more than that. Gradually, I hope I can achieve my teaching goal by changing my students’ behavior from not so confident in speaking English to speak English confidently and from taking English learning as a burden to an enjoyment.

Thus, ways of lighting up the classroom’s atmosphere are very important to facilitate the learning process and achieve the learning goals. I believe by monitoring collaborative learning and group work in class, active learning classroom will be established as the students will having a discussion and generating ideas among themselves. Then, an active classroom will change students’ behavior to talk more related to the lesson with their friends in the class. Next, the use of combination of media such as video, graphic, audio and text also can attract students in literature learning process. By giving pictures and presenting animation related to the literary artwork, students can draw the scenes in their mind and get a better understanding. For example, when students understand how to use the language to illustrate a series of pictures in a short story, they will be more confident and inspired to learn and like the language.

How to intend effective strategies to promote literacy learning for students? For me, the teacher needs to conduct an interesting learning lesson to promote effective learning. Teachers need to search for more teaching approaches so that students will not get bored for having the same learning method in every lesson. By using a variety of learning approaches, the teacher not only can challenge themselves in handling the students and classroom atmosphere but the students also will be more attracted to the lesson. If a teacher uses different interesting teaching methods in literature classes, the students will explore the literacy element better and will be able to understand better. There are a few ways to carry out an interesting lesson. For example, the teacher can give some pictures of the short stories and encourage the students to generate their own ideas about the pictures in groups. In this form of activity, the students will be able to participate actively and work with their friends. Next, the teacher also can conduct games based on literary art piece in class. The teacher can prepare a big puzzle and the students can work in group to generate ideas and solve the puzzle under teacher’s guide. The teacher also can teach the students about moral values of the story as every literature work has its own moral values that can guide the students to be a better person in their life. The new teaching approaches and the innovation in teacher’s teaching can definitely promote student’s learning. However, each teaching approach that invented by the teacher need to be equivalent to students’ proficiency and their intellectual level. For the example, in teaching a poem, the teacher can construct the lesson by preparing storyboards, bringing related authentic materials into the classroom and reciting the poem in the right intonation for Form One and Form Two students. So, in order to guide teacher’s teaching approaches, the teacher can apply their teaching based on few literature models.

            Generally, there are three models in literature teaching which are cultural model, language model and personal growth model. Among all the models, I am more attracted to the personal growth model. Literature learning through this model is more to learning for own sake. In other words, literature learning based on personal growth model is not exam oriented learning. I like this model because it is more student-centered and they are encouraged to read for themselves. Through this model, I think the students can learn literature better through this model because they are learning by relating the elements in the literary work to their own life experience so they can understand the lesson better. As a teacher, I need to relate the lesson to the students so that, they can feel the meaningfulness of the lesson they learned. Then, the students will start to evaluate what they have learned and learn the moral values from the literacy work. However, teachers need to keep finding for new information on teaching approaches to try on their students.

            Last but not least, it is not an easy job for a teacher to conduct an interesting and relevant lesson. The teacher needs to pay attention to the proficiency level, intellectual level, interest and students’ preference in how they pursue knowledge. The teacher can apply their ideas about how to conduct a literature classroom since try and error is one of the ways to find the most suitable learning and teaching process for the students. In conclusion, literature learning can be effective if the teacher can conduct the lesson in an appropriate way. But first, a good lesson must be planned by putting students’ cognitive and affective development as a priority.