One of my Favourite Novels of All Time

Personal Review on Memoirs of a Geisha

My friend and I have just recently finished reviewing the novel Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Golden (1997) as part of our assignment and I am eager to share my opinions about the story with others. Well, we come upon this book while searching through the Internet on list of books that were made into movies. This book caught our attention because apparently it is our first time to actually read a book related to the culture of the Japanese people. After finding out that the movie version of this book had won three Academy Awards in 2005 along with a Golden Globe award and several others, our interest in reading this book has grown deeper. True to the numerous achievements it have achieved in the film industry, this book proved to be a great piece of artwork/literature as we soon find ourselves immersed in the story, turning page by page with our anticipation growing more than the last. In the beginning, we were dubious in whether we should read the book as the story was told in about 430 pages, all fully filled with words. But, it turns out that the contents are really attention-grabbing, exceeding our expectations and we would for sure regret deeply if we have chosen not to review this book at that moment. Below are some of my views about the story. I find this novel interesting and fascinating. Reason is because I have never been exposed to any culture of the Japanese people before. 

By reading this book/novel, it actually helps me to understand better about the Japanese culture and provides me with information that I would never have think of existing in this world. Given that I am a Malaysian and having no idea at all about the Japanese culture, it simply means that I am actually not in the position to judge the authenticity and accuracy of the culture told in this book/novel. In addition, the story itself is categorized as historical fiction so I think it would be excusable if there are inaccuracies in the information provided by the story. Considering the legal actions that Mineko Iwasaki took towards the writer regarding this book/novel, I am actually quite convinced that the contents are somewhat reliable. The writer, Arthur Golden interviewed Mineko Iwasaki when writing this book/novel and the contents in their conversations are the main source for the stories told in the book/novel.


Frankly said, the contents in the story are something new to me. Before reading this book/novel, I have the mindset/understanding that geishas are no different from prostitutes but this book/novel has proved me wrong. Although the book/novel is a historical fiction, it has somehow manage change my view about geishas. From my understanding after reading this book, geishas are a few classes higher than prostitutes. They 'sell' their skills in arts such as singing and dancing as forms of entertainments to their patrons. This would very well explains how the word ‘geisha’ comes about as ‘gei’ is art and ‘sha’ refers to the doer or person. Looking at the definition, geisha would simply mean a person who is selling her art (skills) or in our modern world now, they are actually quite similar to an entertainer. An apprentice geisha can debut at the age as young as 14 but will only be a full-fledged geisha once she reaches 18 years old.

 So, what do you think? Aren't these details about them interesting? More reviews coming up, but most probably will take a few weeks time. =) Have a nice day, people!

Sample of DLLM (Make Beliefs Comix)

Make Belief Comix (DLLM)

Reflection on Tutorial Task Week 9

In this week’s tutorial task, we are to evaluate whether the activity in the Form 2 English textbook mirrored the listening skills or not. I found that there are activities in the textbook that reflects the listening skills in students and they are easy to identify. In fact, the activities in the textbook are actually categorized appropriately as in whether they are writing, reading or grammar activities. However, I do find the activities quite boring. For instance, one listening activities from Chapter 8 is dictation. It is true that it trains students’ listening skills in getting the right sentences and text. But, at the same time it is boring and of no help for the students’ learning. This is because there is no point in learning to get all the right words. In fact, there should be activity that requires students to listen to get the main ideas of a particular text. Students should be given/provide with activities that will train their listening skills like listening for gist and also for specific information.

Materials Development Tutorial Task Week 9

Materials Development Tutorial Task Week 9

Reflection on Tutorial Task Week 8

In this week’s task, we were to compare and contrast the differences and similarities of the adaptation techniques between McDonough and Shaw with Maley and Tomlinson and also Masuhara’s. I noticed that all three had almost similar technique of adaption which includes addition and deletion and the only difference could be their organization and the usage of different terms for the same ‘step’. I think it is appropriate for a teacher to decide whether to delete or add certain things into her teaching materials as they have to alter certain materials to fit their students’ language proficiency, learning context and also the learning objectives.

I think it is important for a teacher to know the proper technique for adaptation of materials. It can help to avoid the wasting of time and energy of the teacher as well as the students as the teacher can see in advance what he or she needs to supplement so that he or she can keep an eye on materials that could be used. In Malaysia, all teachers in schools are to use the same textbook which is chosen by the education department and thus, the will have to adapt to the activities in the textbook in order to teach more efficiently. Different students have different progress in learning and all teachers should take this criteria into consideration given that they are not allowed to choose their own textbook. So, having these adaption techniques would be a great ‘help’ to all the teachers.

However, to apply it or not, it all depends on the teacher himself. Afterall, I think only teachers who really have the ‘commitment’ will actually spent time on the adaptation of the materials and I daresay not all would do so as this could be the reason why there are students who complained of the learning lesson being boring. In my opinion, I would really love to apply these techniques into teaching my future students. This is because from my past experiences, I dislike teachers who taught according to the textbook all the time. There is no point for me to listen to them if I can read and do those exercises on my own. Something new in the lessons would definitely attract students’ attentions I think this should not be limited only to the English subject but all the other subjects. 

MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT WEEK 8 LECTURE TASK

 (a) Compare and contrast McDonough and Shaw, Maley and Tomlinson and Masuhara adaptation techniques. Are there are differences or are they similar?

Adaptation Technique

McDonough & Shaw	Maley	Tomlinson & Masuhara
McDonough & Shaw’s Techniques •       Adding – Expanding & Extending •       Deleting – subtracting & abridging •       Modifying – re-writing & re-structuring •       Simplifying •       Re-ordering	Techniques for materials adaptation 1. omission: the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive, unproductive, etc., for the particular group. 2. addition: where there seems to be inadequate coverage, teachers may decide to add to textbooks, either in the form of texts or exercise material. 3. reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis. 4. extension: where an activity is lengthened in order to give it an additional dimension. (For example, a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntactic patterning.) 5. rewriting/modification: teacher may occasionally decide to rewrite material, especially exercise material, to make it more appropriate, more “communicative”, more demanding, more accessible to their students, etc. 6. replacement: text or exercise material which is considered inadequate, for whatever reason, may be replaced by more suitable material. This is often culled from other resource materials. 7. re-ordering: teachers may decide that the order in which the textbooks are presented is not suitable for their students. They can then decide to plot a different course through the textbooks from the one the writer has laid down. 8. branching: teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to suggest alternative pathways through the activities. (For example, an experiential route or an analytical route.)	divided into three main categories in terms of quantity: Plus (+), Minus (-) or Zero (0) Plus: ·         Techniques- Examples ·         Addition- Teachers may add different text or activities ·         Expansion- Teachers may expand texts and activities by increasing the length, difficulty, depth, etc. Minus: ·         Techniques- Examples ·         Deletion- Teachers may delete some texts and/or activities together ·         Subtraction- Teachers may decrease the number of sentences in a text or part of an activity ·         Reduction- Teachers may reduce texts and activities by decreasing the length, difficulty, depth, etc. Zero: ·         Techniques- Examples ·         Modification- Teachers may make changes to instructions ·         Replacement- Teachers may swap one activity with another ·         Reorganization- teachers may change the positions of texts and illustrations ·         Resequencing- Teachers may change the sequence of activities ·         Conversion- Teachers may change the genre of a text (from narrative to poem), or move the content from one medium to another (e.g. from print to a web page)

By thoroughly comparing and contrasting the adaptation techniques suggested by all three (McDonough&Shaw, Maley, Tomlinson&Masuhara), we noticed that all three techniques are fairly similar eventhough the terms are named differently.

Differences
The only difference between them is the organization of their techniques. For example, in McDonough & Shaw and Maley , the techniques are just organised in a simple and direct manner from ‘adding’ to ‘ re-ordering’ and ‘omission’ to ‘branching’. As for Tomlinson & Masuhara , they divided their techniques into categories which relates by the type of adaptation they are using. In our opinion, Tomlinson & Masuhara’s choice of organisation is useful whereby it can be easily be chosen by teachers based on what they would like to do with their materials.

Similarities
All of the techniques used are similar even if they have different terms. They can be categorised based on what is done to the materials when using the techniques. For example, the common technique found between them is addition. In all three techniques, they suggested that teachers can add and expand the materials using activities or exercises. The same goes for reduction. In McDonough & Shaw’s techniques, the term used is ‘simplifying’ while Maley uses the term ‘reduction’ and Tomlinson & Masuhara categorises it into ‘Minus’. All three terms share the same usage or adaptation which is removing or subtracting the unnecessary parts of the materials. Eventhough all three techniques are not organized the same, the usage or ways of adapting a material are fairly similar.

(b) Compare and contrast McDonough and Shaw with Tomlinson and Masuhara’s materials  adaptation procedures. Are there are differences or are they similar?

	McDonough and Shaw	Tomlinson and Masuhara
Materials’ Adaptation Procedures		i.            Profiling of teaching context        ii.            Identifying reasons for adaptation       iii.            Evaluating      iv.            Listing Objectives        v.            Adapting      vi.            Teaching     vii.            Revising

Generally, the first move of materials’ adaptation procedures in both the McDonough & Shaw and Tomlinson and Masuhara are the same. They are only different in terms. In McDonough & Shaw, the first thing need to be identified in adapting a material is to match certain internal and external criteria to the material. External factors comprise both the overt claims made about materials and the characteristics of particular situation. Internal factors are concerned with content, organization and consistency. In this context, the matching and congruency is needed in order to localise (as in bringing in the local culture into teaching), personalise (relating the material to learners’ personal schema as in interpersonal use), individualise (relating the material to learners’ background information) and modernise (incorporate IT into teaching)the material used. This is the same as the one in Tomlinson & Masuhara’s procedure which is profiling of teaching context. It is same as there is the need to collect information about something so that later, a description about it can be done. This is important as it helps to identify the reasons/needs for adaptation. After identifying the reasons, evaluation will take place. The material will be evaluated to determine how it should be adapted in order to fit the learners’ context.

In term of differences, McDonough & Shaw do have something which is different compared to Tomlinson & Masuhara. It is that McDonough & Shaw provides specific techniques used in the material adaption. The techniques are adding (expanding and extending), deleting (subtracting and abridging), modifying (re-writing and re-structuring), simplifying (as in simplify the sentence structure) and re-ordering (putting parts of a coursebook into different order). These techniques will be applied into content areas such as language practice, tests, skills and classroom management. In other words, the material will undergo addition, deletion, modification, simplification and re-order to ‘fit’ the tests, language practice, skills and also in creating more effective classroom management.

As for Tomlinson & Masuhara, the listing of objectives comes after the evaluation. The objectives are important as it affects how the adaption to the material is to be done in the next step. However, there is no specific ‘techniques’ stated on how the adaptation should be done. In fact, the next step proceeds straight to teaching and lastly revising.

(c) List and discuss the levels of materials adaptation.

Textbook adaptation can be done at three levels. The first level is macro adaptation, which is ideally done before the language programme begins. After comparing what is covered in a textbook and what is required by the syllabus or examination, the teacher may find that certain areas or even whole units of the book can be omitted, and certain contents need to be supplemented. Macro adaptation is very important because it helps to avoid waste of time and energy of the teacher and the students as well. It also helps the teacher to see in advance what he or she needs to supplement so that he or she can keep an eye on materials that could be used. Based on Malaysia education context, finishing every syllabus of the English textbook is a prerequisite and the teachers are not allowed to choose another textbook. Having options to selecting textbook for teaching is not encouraging in Malaysia. Thus, it is impossible for English teachers in Malaysia to pick another textbook based on their thought in order to teach their students. On the other hand, teachers should evaluate the whole unit in the textbook and make selections on what chapters they should emphasize or less emphasize on based on the probability of the questions which will be asked in exams. For example, the topic’ pollution’,  ‘health’ and ‘technology’ are very common and popular that it have higher probability of coming out in exams. So, teachers should emphasize on those chapters.

The second level is of adaptation is adapting a unit. This could be reordering the activities, combining activities, omitting activities, rewriting or supplementing exercise material, etc. Unit adaptation helps to make the classroom teaching more smooth and cohesive. It also helps the teacher to better fulfil the aims of a unit. Before entering the class, the teacher must go through the textbook units and make decision about which activity or task is applicable in the textbook. The activity or task which are not very useful and does not give students much comprehensible input and new information, then activity can be omitted and teacher needs to replace or modify the omitted activity with a better one.

The third level is adaptation of specific activities in a unit. Occasionally an activity is regarded as valuable, but it is not well-designed or it is not feasible in a particular class. If the teacher does not want to give up the activity, he or she needs to adapt it. For instance, the activity is hard to be integrated in the classroom but it is crucial for students’ understanding in the certain objective of that particular task. Hence, the teacher should put more effort to modify or conduct and give students a clearer picture about that particular activity so that students can carry out this activity in a more efficient way.

(d) Without going in-depth into your 2nd part of your assignment (adapt and create), discuss in general what level of materials adaptation you will be using (it can be all three levels but used at different areas in the materials) and techniques you will employ to enrich the chapter you have evaluated. Briefly state the types of tasks which will accompany the current material. Please mention if there are media accompaniment with that task.

In chapter 9, there are two roles play activities where students have to work in pair. The situation of the roles play given is a conversation between a mother and a son and the other one is conversation of a doctor and his patient.  

Activity:

Firstly students have to choose either one of the situation given. They have to type out their conversation in not less than 120 words and the content of their conversation should include vocabulary and points related to their situation. This means that they have to do this task just like how they usually do in their exam for the writing/ essay section.

They then have to act out the situation in a very authentic way and record the whole process. Their conversation has to be based on their dialogue that they have typed.

After doing both the writing and roles play part, they have to post their outcome into their tumblr account.

Each pair also has to “check out” what the other pairs have posted on their tumblr wall by giving likes and comments, and each pair has to give likes and comments to at least 5 of the other pairs. 

One of the techniques that have been implied in this activity was Maley’s adaptation techniques of branching. Maley suggested that “teachers may decide to add options to the existing activity or to suggest alternative pathways through the activities. (For example, an experiential route or an analytical route.) “. So, for the roles play activity, students can either choose the conversation between the mother and son or, the conversation between a doctor and his patient. By choosing different situation, the content, vocabulary and points that need to be included by students will be different.

Other techniques that have been included in this activity are the addition and expansion techniques proposed by Tomlinson and Masuhara. For the addition technique, Tomlinson and Masuhara stated that “teachers may add different text or activities”. Hence, there is a writing task added into the roles play activity to let students practice in their writing skill. As for the expansion technique, Tomlinson and Masuhara stated that “teachers may expand texts and activities by increasing the length, difficulty, depth, etc.” The difficulty was increased when students are required to prepare a conversation that must include certain types of language features based on the situation that have been chosen., which include points that are related to their topic. On the other hand, students are also required to memorise their dialogues and act it out in front of a recording video and show authenticity in during the roles play. This means that students have to practice few times so they can perform this task more efficiently, and this can help them in their speaking skills.

Media material accompaniment: Tumblr and Video Recording

Reflection on Tutorial Task Week 7

In this week’s task, we are to develop a language learning material using any media from the technology ranging from videos (with sound and visual) to texts (with graphics).Sketch out a digital language learning material interface and explain your concept using the information you have read from the Your DLLM can either be thematic based or language form based.

Our group had decided to use ‘MakeBeliefsComix’ in designing our learning material. The reason is because we find it simple to be used. Anyone can have to access to it as long as there is an internet connection. In addition, students do not have to register or sign up for an account. All they need to do is just design their own comic based on their creativity. When they are done, they can type down the title of their work and their name in the columns provided. Teachers can give them any titles related to what they are learning. For instance, if they are learning about ‘Environment’, teachers can assign them to create comics with topics such as ‘Recycle’ and ‘Cleaning’.

Frankly, my group member and I were quite confused at the beginning of the task. This was because we could not differentiate between language learning material and language learning tool. I, myself could not ‘see’ the line that separated them from each other. On the morning of our tutorial task presentation, our confusion was answered when our lecturer mentioned that there were certain groups that had mistaken language learning tools as language learning materials.

From there, I realized that Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and Tumblr are examples of language learning tools. It is important to be able to differentiate between the language learning materials and tools. So, students use tools to learn language and I wondered if it is in the sense of to improvise what they had learned in class. In other words, I would put it as; tools= an aid for students in learning a language and putting them to use (posting own status on Facebook, viewing and reading others’ status updates or blog entries). As for learning materials, I think it would function as an activity that is to be carried out by students in order for them to learn a language. I think it is important for a future teacher to be able to differentiate between language learning materials and tools.