Friday, 13 December 2013
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.
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.
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