HBEL2103: TLS 2010

QUESTION 1: PREPARING A LESSON PLAN

1.0 Introduction

1.1 What is lesson plan?

According to B. O’Bannon (2008), “a daily lesson plan is developed by the
teacher to guide the instruction. Planning the instruction is much more difficult than
delivering the instruction. Planning is when you look at the curriculum standards and
develop lesson content that matches those standards”.

Fortunately, textbooks and teacher’s guide that are adopted for the English
Language subject areas are typically written with this in mind. All details should be
written down to assist the smooth delivery of the content. The extent of the detail will
vary depending on the number of years of experience that the teacher has and the
number of times the particular teacher has taught the lesson.

As conclusion, a lesson plan is a teachers’ document used to plan a lesson. It is

a writing noting the method of delivery, and the specific goals and timelines
associated to the delivery of lesson content. So, every teacher needs a lesson plan, and
a lesson plan should be well written in order to deliver fun and interesting lesson.
Following below is a lesson plan I have written to carry out my reading lesson.

1.2 What is listening skill?

According to Dick Lee and Delmar Hatesohl (1993), listening is the
communication skill most of us use the most frequently. Various studies stress the
importance of listening as a communication skill. How we you listen has a major
impact on our daily life, job effectiveness, and on the quality of your relationships
with others.

Normally when we are listening, we listen to obtain information, listen to

understand, listen for enjoyment and listen to learn. So, what actually is listening?
Susie Michelle Cortright (2010) explained that listening means paying attention and
making a conscious effort to process what you hear. It is one of our most important
skills and it is also one of the most overlooked.

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HBEL2103: TLS 2010

Clearly, listening is a skill that we can all benefit from improving. By

becoming a better listener, you will improve your productivity, as well as your ability
to influence, persuade negotiate. What’s more, you’ll avoid conflict and
misunderstandings.

1.3 Objective
This assignment requires us to design a lesson plan based on the story “The
Stone Cutter” written by Andrew Lang. The lesson plan should teach the pupils to
listen of specific information and gist. Therefore, I have selected the following skills
to be taught on my Year 5 students. The syllabus items are shown below:

1.6 Obtain information from texts listened to in relation to main ideas, specific
details, and sequence.
1.6.1 Listen to and understand simple descriptions and answer simple Wh-questions.

1.7 Listen to and enjoy stories, fables and other tales of imagination and fantasy
and predict outcomes, and draw conclusions at a level suited to pupil’s ability.
1.7.1 Listen to simple stories and fables and respond verbally by stating whether
one likes or does not like the story.

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2.0 The lesson plan
Class : Year 5M
Age : 11 years old
Enrolment : 26 pupils
Level : Intermediate level
Time : 80 minutes (7:30 a.m. till 8:50 a.m.)
Theme : World of Stories
Topic : The Stone Cutter
Date : 5th November 2010

Language Skill Curriculum Specification Level

Listening 1.6 Obtain information from texts listened to in relation to main ideas, specific details, and sequence.
1.6.1 Listen to and understand simple descriptions and answer simple Wh-questions. 1

1.7 Listen to and enjoy stories, fables and other tales of imagination and fantasy and predict outcomes,
and draw conclusions at a level suited to pupil’s ability.
1.7.1 Listen to simple stories and fables and respond verbally by stating whether one likes or 1
does not like the story.

a
Vocabulary: dwelt, prosperous, tassels, slabs, contented, fancy, inclined, scarcely, blinds, carriage, coveted, scorch, wrath

Behavioral Objectives/ Learning outcomes:

At the end of the lesson, pupils should be able to:
 1) Respond verbally whether they like or dislike the story and provide the reason in short and simple sentences.
2) Answer the 7 Wh-questions to the story and get at least 4 answers correct.
Previous knowledge: Pupils had mastered basic listening skill. They can listen to and understand short stories and news reports.
Teaching Aids: CD-ROM of the story, CD player, sound clips, worksheet
Moral Value: Moderation
Educational emphasis/ Thinking skills: Making associations and connections
TIMING PRE-ACTIVITY RATIONALE
1) Teacher plays different types of sound clips.
To prepare the pupils form the
5 minutes 2) Pupils listen to the sound clips and guess the sound.
listening lesson.
3) Teacher introduces the listening lesson to the pupils.
TIMING WHILE-ACTIVITY 1 RATIONALE
1) Pupils are asked to stay quite and get ready to listen to the story of “The Stone To state whether one likes or does
40 Cutter”. not like the story.
2) Teacher plays the story for the first time. During the first play, pupils are asked to
jot down some notes which they feel important. (When playing for the first time,
teacher pauses the story in between for a few times to allow the pupils to refresh and
refocus.)
3) After the first play, pupils are being asked to answer verbally to the following
questions:
a. Is the story going too fast?
b. Are you able to keep up to the story?
c. Can you tell me any of the things you heard from the story?
 d. What have you jotted down? Can you share with us?
4) After guiding pupils to answer the questions, teacher gets the pupils ready for the
second play of the story.
5) Teacher plays the story for the second time. During the second play, pupils are again
asked to jot down the important points which they have missed during the first play.
6) After the first play, pupils (randomly picked) are being asked to answer verbally to
the following questions:
a. Do you like the story? Why?
b. Why do you like/dislike the story?
c. Do you find the story interesting? Why?
7) Teacher gives comments to the pupils’ responses.
TIMING WHILE-ACTIVITY 2 RATIONALE
1) Each pupil is given a worksheet. To understand the story and answer
25 minutes 2) Teacher goes through the questions in the worksheet with the pupils. simple Wh-questions.
3) Teacher gets the pupils ready for the second play of the story. During the third play,
pupils are asked to listen carefully to the story and find the answers to the questions.
4) Teacher begins to play the story for the third time.
5) After the third play, pupils are given ten minutes to complete the task on the
worksheet.
6) Teacher discusses the worksheet with the pupils and gives comments to their
answers.
TIMING POST-ACTIVITY RATIONALE
 1) Teacher projects the whole complete story on the screen. To end the lesson.
2) Pupils are asked to read along with the audio clip being play.
10 minutes
3) Pupils are asked to recall what they have learnt in this lesson.
4) Teacher gives a general closure to the lesson.

Reflection:
Overall, this lesson is successful. As stated above, this is a class of intermediate pupils where some of them are not so good in the
language. However, most of them manage to get the whole idea of the story although the story is quite long and packed with a number of words
which they haven’t learnt before.
During the lesson, there are a few things needed to be corrected. First of all, I think that I should have read the story on the spot or get a
better edition of the story audio clip because the reading in the audio clip which I got it from my friend is a bit too fast, which made it difficult
for some of the slower pupils in my class to cope with. Secondly, I should have prepared a bigger or better CD player because the one being used
in the classroom failed to project the sound to the back of the classroom, causing the pupils sitting behind had to squeeze into the front row
sitting uncomfortably with their classmates.
Lastly, I am quite dissatisfied with my closure. Next time, I should plan a better and meaningful closure that is interesting and suits the
lesson well.
3.0 Conclusion
Listening activity doesn’t seem easy to carry out as it seemed to be. To carry out a
successful listening skills lesson in the classroom, it requires a lot of effort starting from the
selection of listening material to the planning of activities. For that reason, many teachers
chose not to carry out this type of lesson in the classroom. On the other hand, for the good
sake of the pupils, teachers must ensure that pupils are being taught the proper listening skills
so that they can apply the skill in their daily life. Hence, teachers should continuously put in
their time and effort in order to make this happen.
QUESTION 2: WRITING AN ACADEMIC ESSAY

1.0 Introduction
In this part of assignment, we are required to conduct a survey to find out what are the
problems faced by students when speaking English in school. To do this, I have questioned
15 of my pupils orally to get their opinion about this matter. Next, we are required to get
feedback from other teachers on how these problems can be overcome. To do this, I have
interviewed three English Language teachers in my school and they have given me some very
useful information.

2.0 Main body

2.1 Problems faced by students when speaking English
As I mentioned earlier, I have questioned 15 students to find out what are the
problems faced by them when speaking English in school. After gathering their
opinion, I have come out with the results below:
14/15 pupils said that they are afraid to speak in English
12/15 pupils said that they do not have confidence to speak in English
8/15 pupils said that they do not know how to speak in English

After looking deep into their 3 major problems, there is only one reason to explain
this situation – Proficiency. As we all are well acknowledged, students especially in
Chinese and Tamil primary school have to learn three different languages at school,
which is Bahasa Melayu, English Language and their own mother tongue (Chinese or
Tamil). From the aspect of time allocation, these pupils spent the least time in
learning English Language. The table below shows the time allocation for three
languages taught in Chinese primary school (lower primary Year 1 to 3):
Time allocated per Percentage
Subjects
week (minutes) (%)
Bahasa Cina 360 52.17
Bahasa Melayu 270 39.13
English Language 60 8.7
Total 690 100

From the table above, what we can see is students from Year 1 to Year 3 only have
chance to learn English Language an hour a week, which the duration of the time
frame is same as those minor subjects such Art and Music, and yet, English Language
is a subject so important that it should have need more time to be taught at school.
Because of this improper allocation of lesson time at school, it has seriously affected
the learning process as well, since less lesson time means less learning time; and less
learning time means less proficient in the language.

2.2 Ways to overcome the problems

After interviewing three teachers regarding this matter, they have voiced out
their opinion and have also suggested a few ways to encourage student to speak in
English in their classrooms. First and foremost, all three teachers agreed that more
time should be given to teach English Language. However, this is the country’s
education system and there is nothing they can do about it.
Therefore, one of the teachers, Ms. Lai suggested that she steals some time to get
more teaching time, which is during the recess time. Ms. Lai said that every day, she
would spend 15 minutes doing a program called the “BIG BOOK” program. Every
recess time, pupils from her class and some even not from her class voluntary go to
the Media Room where she runs the programs. During the program, she would read
them short interesting stories and pupils will have to answer the questions to the story.
Sometimes, she even asked them to express their own opinion about the story. Within
these 15 minutes, the whole interacting process is in English Language. Ms. Lai also
said that may be it is because of the environment, where pupils are away from their
classroom, and there are less pupils, those pupils who come to the program speak
much and more confidently. According to her, the program is a platform for those
students to build their confidence. When they have obtained enough confidence, they
will automatically open their mouth and speak English in their classroom.
Secondly, another teacher Madam Soo, has come out with a brilliant suggestion too.
Madam Soo has always feels that every pupil can speak English; what really matters
is whether they want to speak or not. So to Madam Soo, the solution is simply by
rewarding. According to Madam Soo, she has been teaching the elite classes English
Language at school for almost 20 years. By right, the elite student shouldn’t have any
proficiency problem in English, yet many of them prefer to use Chinese instead of
English. Madam Soo had tried to prohibit them from using Chinese during English
lesson and that get even worse; those pupils just shut their mouth and refuse to speak
at all. So, Madam Soo decided to reward her class who speak English during English
 lesson by giving them less homework. According to Madam Soo, this method has
been working effectively till now.
Ms. Telegavethi, however, has a different view compare to those two teachers.
Although she is not as experienced as both previous teachers, she insists that exposure
is the key to encourage her students to speak English in classroom. Ms. Telegavethi
said that exposure is a natural way for the pupils to learn to speak. What teachers can
do is to get the pupils exposed to English as much as they can. One of the ways is to
play nice English movies and cartoons (together with English subtitles) in the school
compound. These nice movies and cartoons would be able to draw their attention to
watch it, and from watching it, they learn from it. According to Ms. Telegavethi, the
only disadvantage of the method is it need a lot of time to carry on before any obvious
results or changes can be seen.

3.0 Conclusion
From this research, a few things can be summarised. First of all, we can conclude that
proficiency is the major factor which causes the problems. Self proficiency not only affects
self confidence, it will lead to lead to self abundance too. The suggestions provided can be
used as references for the teacher, but it is up to the teachers to adapt at least a way they feel
reliable to encourage their pupils to speak English in classroom. After all, the children are our
future and teachers hold the key to their success.