TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in

the Primary ESL classroom

TOPIC 6 PLANNING REMEDIAL AND ENRICHMENT

ACTIVITIES

6.0 SYNOPSIS

This topic aims to enhance learner’s knowledge of remedial and

enrichment activities for listening and speaking skills. It provides
examples of the activites suitable for remedial and enrichment work
and focusses on the advantages of carrying out remedial and
enrichment activities and finally, a sample remedial and enrichment
activity for classroom practice.

6.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the topic, you will be able to:

 demonstrate an understanding of the definition of remedial and

enrichment activities.
 plan and design suitable remedial and enrichment activities.

6.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS

Planning Remedial and

Enrichment Activities

Enrichment activities Remedial activities

Drama Phonological Awareness
Storytelling activities
Elocution

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 TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in
the Primary ESL classroom

6.3 CONTENT:

ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES

In a mixed-ability class, when the teacher conducts activities or gives

exercises there will be students who finish their work faster than their
peers. These students may be better in their work and have a higher
language proficiency level to enable them to finish their work ahead of the
rest of the class. When they have completed their work it is better to keep
them occupied to prevent any disruption to the rest of the class. This is
because when the students finish their work ahead of the rest of the peers,
they might end up disturbing their friends who are struggling to finish their
work and they could be talking to their friends who have finished or they
may be wandering aimlessly around the class. What can a teacher do in
this situation? The answer is to give these students some challenging
activities – enrichment activities. These are language activities that require
students to work individually, in pairs, or groups. They are carried out with
the aim of improving students’ ability in a particular area or a general area.
They are usually carried out after a skill or several skills are taught. The
focus can be on fluency and /or accuracy. The main purpose is to provide
opportunities and assistance to empower students with the language and
skills necessary for academic and social success.

a. General Principles for planning listening and speaking enrichment

activities

 How are students identified?

The teacher needs to identify the students who can be included for the
enrichment activities. Firstly, identify the students based on the
accuracy of the task completed. Once the students have been
identified the teacher gives strict instructions for the enrichment
activities.

 When are the activities carried out?

The activities can be carried out after students completed an assigned

task within the lesson. The teacher can ask the students for the
enrichment activities to sit in a corner to prepare for the activity.

 How can we determine which type of activity to be carried out?

The teacher has to give specific instruction on the particular enrichment

activity that can be carried out. The selection of activity depends on the

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 TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in
the Primary ESL classroom

specific area taught. Nevertheless, enrichment activities are suitable to

reinforce all listening and speaking skills.

 Amount of time available

The type of enrichment activities to be carried out also depends on the

time available. If there is time constraint then an activity which does not
need a lot of time can be done. Nevertheless, students can be given
time to prepare for the activity and present it in the next lesson.

b. Examples of listening and speaking enrichment activities that can

be carried out.

 Dramatisation
 Storytelling
 Elocution
 Poetry recitation
 Jazz chant
 Nursery rhymes
 Information gap activities
 Problem solving activities
 Ranking activities
 Projects
 Simulations
 Role play
 Vocabulary games, word puzzles

c. Advantages of carrying out enrichment activities

 Keep students occupied with language activities

 As a reinforcement of language learnt
 Motivate students to learn more
 Further strengthen students’ language ability
 Boost self-confidence and self-esteem
 Learning satisfaction
 Promote learner autonomy

d. Suggested enrichment activitiy: Elocution

The teacher plans to give elocution as an enrichment activity. The teacher

prepares the topics for the students identified for the activity. Students are
given 3 minutes to prepare the content of the topics. The teacher can
check on the students from time to time to make sure the students adhere
to the requirements of the task. When the time is up, students present their

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 TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in
the Primary ESL classroom

work to the rest of the class one at a time. The teacher gives
encouragement in the form of praises.

TASK 1
What are the problems teachers face in
carrying out enrichment activities? Present
your work in class.

REMEDIAL ACTIVITIES

In a mixed-ability class, when a teacher conducts a lesson and gives

activities or exercises there will be students who are not able to follow
the lesson like their peers. They are slow in their work and their
language proficiency level is weak. As a result, they are not able to
follow the class at a normal pace. In this case, the teacher needs to
give these students extra guidance or coaching to enable them to
follow the lesson. This extra work from the teacher is called remedial
work. It is the extra work that is carried out during class or after class
which specifically focusses on the problem areas experienced by the
student(s). It can be regarded as a reinforcement or additional support
given by the teacher to help students.

a. Purpose for carrying out remedial activities

• To help learners overcome gaps and errors in their English, especially

fossilized errors.
• To make learners notice their mistakes or errors and discover for
themselves what is wrong and what is right.
• To reactivate, consolidate and clarify previously presented language
items.
• To help students who are slow achievers in a particular area especially
students who still cannot grasp the information that has been taught.
• To monitor learner’s errors, mistakes or slips.

b. General principles for planning remedial activities

 How are students identified?

• The teacher needs to identify the students who need remedial work.
Firstly, identify the students from their learning behaviour in class, for
example, their response throughout the lesson especially the response
to the activities and work assigned throughout the lesson. If they

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 TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in
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consistently show lack of understanding in the lesson taught then they

should be identified for remedial work.

 The frequency of mistakes

One of the steps is to check the frequency of mistakes the student

makes throughout the lesson. Some mistakes are found very often in
the learners’ speech. Others are rarely found. This can determine the
type of remedial work suitable for the student concerned. The teacher
should carefully study each mistake chosen, try to find the reasons why
the learners make the mistake, and look at ways for re -teaching or
correcting, using new techniques and procedures and a new way of
looking at and explaining the problem.

 The feelings of the learners.

If the learners are not really worried by the mistakes or they see no
value in correcting them, remedial work will probably be unsuccessful.
The learners should be able to see that it is possible to make great
improvement and that they are really learning something useful.
Remedial work should not be just a reminder of the learners’ past
failures instead it should enable learners to see it as a way of getting
the informed correction that they do not get outside the class.

 The effect of mistakes on understanding

Some mistakes are found frequently in a learner’s work but they do not
make it difficult for anyone to understand what the learner is trying to
say. Mistakes with a and the, plurals, agreement, and many
pronunciation mistakes are like this. Other mistakes, like the use of
stress, vocabulary, and certain sentence patterns, make it very difficult
for someone to understand what the learner is trying to say. These
kinds of mistakes need to be addressed.

 When are the activities carried out?

The activities can be carried out when the class is doing assigned work
and the teacher can give the students who need remedial work more
attention and further teaching.

 Advantages of Remedial Activities

• To enable the learners to catch up with their peers and to participate

equally in class
• To boost the learners’ self-confidence and self-esteem
• To arouse interest in learning that will lead to life-long learning

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 TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in
the Primary ESL classroom

 Suggested remedial activitiy: Onset and Rime activity

Students have problems with [l] and [r], so the remedial activity is phonics
onset and rime activity / minimal pair drill. Teacher prepares a chart (as
below) to drill students. Teacher says the onset followed by the rime and
students follow. This step is repeated until the students are familiar with
the [l] and [r] problem.

Onset rime Onset rime

l + ack = lack r + ack = rack

l + ick = lick r + ick = rick
l + ink = link r + ink = rink
l + ock = lock r + ock = rock

Task 2
Think about this;
• What other listening and speaking remedial
activities can you think of?
• Can enrichment and remedial activities be carried
out at the same time? Justify your answer.

Task 3

Select a target level- from Level 1 (Years 1, 2, or 3) or

Level 2 (Years 3, 4, or 5)
• Select any two listening and speaking content
standards (KSSR) or one intended learning
outcome (KBSR) each for listening and speaking
skills for the target level selected.
• Design at least two enrichment and two remedial
activities for the above.
• Provide justification for your choice of activities
• Present your work in class

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 TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in
the Primary ESL classroom

Reference

I.S.P. Nation & J. Newton: (2009) Teaching ESL/EFL listening and speaking.
New York :Routledge.

Further readings:
Brown, H.D. (2000). 4th ed. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
New York: Longman.

Chitravelu, N. et. al. (2005) ELT Methodology: Principles and Practice

Selangor: Fajar Bakti.

Harmer, J. (2007). 4th ed.The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow:

Longman.

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