aiou course code 1655 book download free

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aiou course code 1655 book download free

TEACHING OF ENGLISH

Ed (Honors)/ Associate Degree in Education

Course Code: 1655 Units: 1–9

CONTEt

Page #

Preface ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… iii

Introduction of the Course ……………………………………………………………………………… vi

Objectives of the Course……………………………………………………………………………. vii

Unit–1:	Principles of Language Teaching ……………………………………………………..	1
Unit–2:	Methods and Approaches of Teaching English ……………………………………	29
Unit–3:	Teaching English Pronunciation and Spelling……………………………………..	47
Unit–4:	Teaching English Vocabulary…………………………………………………………..	75
Unit–5:	Teaching Reading and Listening ……………………………………………………….	113
Unit–6:	Teaching of Writing and Speaking …………………………………………………….	143
Unit–7:	Teaching of Grammar………………………………………………………………………	189
Unit–8:	Language Assessment ……………………………………………………………………..	229
Unit–9:	Procedures and Techniques ………………………………………………………………	257

CONTENTS

Page #

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

Objectives …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4

Importance of Language Learning ……………………………………………………….. 5

1.1 Importance of Oral Language Learning ……………………………………….. 5

1.2 Importance of Written Language Learning …………………………………… 5

Importance of English Language Learning as………………………………………… 6

2.1 School Curriculum ……………………………………………………………………. 6

2.2 Advancement……………………………………………………………………………. 6

2.3 First Language………………………………………………………………………….. 6

2.4 A Second Language…………………………………………………………………… 6

2.5 A Foreign Language………………………………………………………………….. 7

2.6 An International Language…………………………………………………………. 7

2.7 School Subject………………………………………………………………………….. 8

Activity-1 ………………………………………………………………………………… 8

Aims and Objectives of Teaching English at Elementary Level……………….. 8

3.1 Elements of Language Teaching …………………………………………………. 9

3.2 General Aims of Teaching English ……………………………………………… 9

3.3 Aims of Teaching English at Elementary Level…………………………….. 9

Principles of Language Learning/Teaching …………………………………………… 10

4.1 Psychological Principles…………………………………………………………….. 10

4.2 Linguistic Principles………………………………………………………………….. 11

Activity-2 ………………………………………………………………………………… 12

General Principles of Teaching English: Implications to Teachers …………… 12

5.1 Subject Mastery………………………………………………………………………… 13

5.2 Motivation ……………………………………………………………………………….. 13

5.3 Self-activity and Participation …………………………………………………….. 13

5.4 Principle of Contrast………………………………………………………………….. 13

5.5 Principle of Control …………………………………………………………………… 14

5.6 Principle of Habit Formation………………………………………………………. 14

5.7 Principle of Guidance………………………………………………………………… 14

5.8 Principle of Consistency…………………………………………………………….. 14

5.9 Principle of Integration………………………………………………………………. 14

Classroom Management Strategies ………………………………………………………. 14

6.1 Classroom Seating Arrangement…………………………………………………. 14

6.2 Factors to Consider in Classroom Design …………………………………….. 18

6.3 Grouping for Instruction…………………………………………………………….. 19

Activity-3 ………………………………………………………………………………… 21

Problems of Teaching English at Elementary level ………………………………… 21

7.1 Non Unified Curriculum ……………………………………………………………. 21

7.2 Large Class Size ……………………………………………………………………….. 21

7.3 Lack of Teaching Material …………………………………………………………. 21

7.4 Problem of Good English Teacher ………………………………………………. 21

7.5 Faulty Methods of Teaching……………………………………………………….. 21

7.6 Non Uniform English Syllabus …………………………………………………… 22

7.7 Poor Text Books……………………………………………………………………….. 22

7.8 Defective Examination System …………………………………………………… 22

7.9 Defective Evaluation Procedures ………………………………………………… 22

Suggestion for the Improvement of English Learning …………………………….. 23

8.1 Teacher Training ………………………………………………………………………. 23

8.2 Provision of Supplementary Material for Teachers………………………… 23

8.3 Examination System and Evaluation……………………………………………. 23

8.4 Refresher Courses …………………………………………………………………….. 23

Activity-4 ………………………………………………………………………………… 23

Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 24
Self-Assessment Questions …………………………………………………………………. 26
Exercises ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 27
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………… 28

INTRODUCTION

Language is a medium of communicating thoughts and feelings. We can also communicate through signs, symbols, gestures etc. but these media of communications are totally different from human language. The Roman language system uses vocal sounds. It is based on man’s ability to speak. The written language is derived from the language human beings speak. The basis of language is speech, which in turn means the production of meaningful sounds according to a system. Language has always had a place in human affairs. One of the greatest blessing is human beings’ ability to use language. Language, in fact is a great tool which has made human civilization possible. Therefore, this unit deals with the importance of language learning and teaching.

OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

Describe the nature of language learning and to look at the reasons people have for language

Write down the importance of English language

Enumerate the linguistic and psychological principles of language

Learn and apply the classroom management strategies for effective

Analyze the implications of general principles of language teaching/learning with reference to teaching of English.

1. IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING

Since we know that language is an essential part of human life. Everyone from birth to death makes use of it.

The communication of thought is the essential function of any language. To develop the ability to communicate thought effectively both in speech and writing becomes the major objective of language instruction.

Language is one of the important elements in learning. The learning process takes place through language as used in teaching. Language in the elementary schools is therefore not an academic subject, but a constantly used medium that can be developed on the pupil’s level only through experience by using it.

Language development is closely related to other aspects of the pupils growth. The pupil’s ability to respond to his/her learning environment depends on his/her own basic equipment for the task of learning language. He/she must be able to see, hear, feel, move, understand and make associations, and adjust to the people around him. The formal and informal language work of the elementary school is the development in the pupil of the ability to express adequately, either orally or in writing.

1.1 Importance of Oral Language Learning

Among the specific aims in oral language at elementary level is the ability to:

state his/her needs
answer questions fully

converse

read aloud in such a way as to present thoughts and feelings clearly.
tell a story
take part in and to conduct group discussion or

All these activities involve the development of correct pronunciation, good articulation, a pleasant and well controlled voice and correct and idiomatic usage.

1.2 Importance of Written Language Learning

Among the specific aims in written language are, the ability to:

write a note, copy and formulate a
write names of objects as described in the

write courteous and formally correct letters.

write a narrative of a series of events
compose a summary of main points in a story or assigned reading.
make an outline of the main points in a story or

It must be kept in mind that the degree of skill to be expected in any of these activities should be within the reach of the pupils in the elementary grades.

IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Why do people want to learn foreign language? Why do people want to study English? Is it because they want to read English storybooks? Maybe they want to get a better job. May be they want to understand other countries. There are number of different reasons for language study and the following list will give an idea of the great variety of such reasons.

2.1 School Curriculum

Probably a large number of language students in the world it because it is on the school curriculum whether they like it or not. School curriculum includes syllabus, books, workbooks and a lot of different reading material, rules, regulations, curriculum and co- curriculum activities and events. It provides platform for learning language.

2.2 Advancement

Some people want to study English (or another foreign language) because they think it provides a chance for advancement in their professional lives. They will get a better job with having command on two languages than if they only know their mother tongue. English has a special position here since it has become the international language of communication.

English as a First Language

This refers to native speakers of the English-speaking world who learn the language as their mother tongue. It exists, in those countries, in different forms and varieties. For example, British English has distinctive aspects of pronunciation and usage compared with the American English. Even within these varieties many dialects can be found. People first learn their own language.

Learning of first language is very important for cognitive development. The language a child speaks surrounds him from birth, which constantly reinforces his learning.

English as a Second Language

A second language is one, which is learned after the mother tongue. As a second language, English is taught in conditions where there is some reinforcement from the child’s immediate environment. The language usually functions as the normal medium of instruction and communication in many places in Pakistan. It is also used as the official language of commercial and industrial organizations and of the mass media. This situation prevails in multilingual communities like Canada, South Africa, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Malaysia, India and Pakistan. It is thus essential that the individual learns the target language as an instrument of communication between members of different countries. Motivation to learn the language remains strong as in the first language learning.

English as a Foreign Language

A foreign language is one, which has no internal function in the learner’s country. It is learnt in order to communicate with native speakers or inter-language users of the foreign language. Learning of the foreign language is confined to the classroom. That is, the language is taught and used in schools. Normally, there’s little, if any, reinforcement outside the school. The language is learnt like other subjects in the school curriculum for operational purposes. Unlike the first two learning situations, motivation for learning the target language in this context is not high. This is especially the case in the early stages because young children are still unaware of their individual needs and interests. Motivation depends largely on the teacher, the method, the language activities, the textbooks and the classroom situation.

English as an International Language

English holds an eminent place in most of the Asian countries owing to the traditional relationship maintained with the English-speaking world. There is extensive commercial, cultural and other interdependent activities with the United Kingdom and the United States. This result in a favorable attitude towards the language and therefore people learn it. This status has recently been enhanced by the rapid growth of science and technology.

Of all the languages in the world today English is regarded as an international language. It is the first language of the United Kingdom, The United States of America, Canada and Australia. It is spoken and read by many millions of Europeans, Africans, Chinese, Indians, Japanese, South Americans as a second language. It is widely used in India, Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. In almost every country of the world it is the common means of communication between the people of different nations. One person out of every four on earth can be reached through English. There are millions of people for whom English is the mother tongue or first language. And millions of people use English as second language.

If we look at the media we find that over 50% of the world’s newspapers, over 50% of the world’s scientific and technological periodicals and more than 60% of the world’s radio stations use English as medium of communication.

These facts indicate that English is an international language and is very popular. English is international language in the sense that it helps in inter linking the people in other countries of the world.

Because of rapid spread of industrial development, science and technology, international trade and commerce and the close interdependence of nations, English has become a world language.

It has already been pointed out that English is one of the major languages of the world. The UNO has given English the status of being an official language.

These days every country needs other countries’ help in political, social, economical and cultural matters. Therefore, English language is the medium for such communication. It would not make sense to shut ourselves from the importance of the English language, which keeps us in constant contact with latest happenings in Europe, connected to its culture and other relevant fields. In short we can say that English is the means of global communication.

English as a School Subject

English teaching has a dominant position and is relatively well established recognition in Asia. English has occupied a prominent place in school curriculum for the last two centuries in subcontinent and at least for half a century in Arab countries. It is taught in all government schools as a compulsory subject and as the first foreign language. For example, in Pakistan, the teaching of English starts from preschool to intermediate level at the rate of probably six 45-minute periods per week. Its teaching continues up to higher secondary schools. Pupils thus spend 12 years studying English. And upon going to university or college, they study English either for general or for academic purposes. English language is also being used as the medium of instruction in many private schools and government schools.

The teaching of English has always been concerned with developing the pupil’s ability to communicate. It aims at making learners understand and use the language in its spoken and written forms within a particular cultural context, and to build up the pupils’ communicative competence so that they can use it in their future life.

In the process of learning the language, Pakistani pupils are dependent on the teacher because English is not used outside the school. It is only in the classroom setting that they can learn English or reinforce the skills and knowledge learnt. However, pupils are sometimes exposed to such situations as watching English movies, travelling or shopping where they can practice their newly acquired language.

Activity-1

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF TEACHING ENGLISH

Teaching of any subject becomes much effective and more systematic only when the teacher is fully aware of the aims and values of teaching of that subject. Because the basic principle of teaching is that one must “know that for what purpose he or she is teaching.” Hence we have to understand the aims and values of teaching of English especially at elementary level. At this level the main aim is language development.

Therefore, our main concern should be about the difficulties of pronunciation, growth of vocabulary, grammar and structure. At this stage of education, language development is the only objective.

3.1 Elements of Language Teaching

Language teaching involves the following four elements:

Semantic—related to
Phonetic—deals with sound, spelling, pronunciation
Graphic—related to writing, and
Phonetic-cum-Graphic—dealing with reading

From these four elements of teaching English language we find the following aims of teaching English in Pakistan:

3.2 General Aims of Teaching English

To acquire ability to read the material in English.
To acquire a vocabulary sufficient to help the student in use of English.
To be able to make simple sentences in English
To respond to short conversational
Write English legibly and

The responsibility of teacher will be to teach pupil:

To hear and understand spoken
To understand what they read in English
To speak in English
To write in

Of these (i) and (ii) objectives are to have passive command over the language and objectives (iii) and (iv) have active command over the language.

3.3 Aims of Teaching English at Elementary Level

The following four abilities be developed at this stage of schooling:

Ability to understand spoken English)
Reading (To read simple paragraph)
Speaking, (pronounce words and speak sentences in terms of dialogue)
(paragraph / few lines)

Ability to Understand English:

It includes the following:

Ability to recognize English sounds without
Ability to draw meaning from what is heard.
Ability to respond in action as reaction to

Ability to Read English:
Ability to read simple prose, poetry, story, articles with
Ability to read simple sentences with
Ability to read aloud without losing the chain of

Ability to Speak English:
Ability to pronounce the right intonation and stress
Ability to respond in speech as reaction to
Ability to speak at normal speed, as pointed out by Findlay, “The standard to aim at is the power to understand ordinary English speech spoken at normal speed”.

Ability to Write English:
Ability to form letters
Ability to spell words
Ability to select right words
Ability to construct sentences, and
Ability to “write passage of a page or so of clear, well connected thought in correct language with every point relevant to the topic they are writing about”.

4. PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING/TEACHING

4.1 Psychological Principles

Following psychological principles language learning:

Habit formation: Constant practice and repetition over a relatively long period of time is needed for learning a foreign language. It cannot be learned in days or The teacher should focus on assimilation of patterns of behaviour with memorization of words and rules of grammar.

Acquiring a set of skills: The skills may be divided into two categories
- Receptive, which are listening and reading and (ii) Productive skills, writing and

Since reception comes early and is easier than production, pupils should start with listening comprehension before proceeding to write or speak.

Mother tongue interference: The teaching of a foreign language can benefit a great by comparing the foreign language with mother tongue pointing out the similarities and differences in the two

Exposing the learner to a model: This principle stresses the importance of the model for imitation purposes. The teacher is the chief available model in most language learning situations; therefore, he ought to have a native-like fluency in the foreign language he/she is If such a teacher is not available, tape recordings of native speakers can be used as models to be imitated.

Language learning is basically enjoyable: As children communicate they feel relief and enjoyment. Consequently, language learning should be made as pleasant as possible. This can be achieved by language learning activities such as games, classroom discussions, interviews, dialogues, role-playing, and problem

Individual and a social process: It is individual because the speaker or writer projects himself as a distinct person or writer in what he/she says or writes. It is social in the sense that language use enables the user to get along with others. In other words, it is the process of interaction. Therefore, foreign language teaching should provide the learners with ample opportunity to work and use the language together in realistic and meaningful

4.2 Linguistic Principles

Language as means of Communication: Since language is an important instrument of communication, its teaching should aim at developing a communicative competence in learners. This can be achieved through providing the learners with learning activities to practice communication with one another in a meaningful and natural

Structure of a language: Teaching a language involves the understanding of the structure, there are scientific procedure and can be used accurately while teaching the language knowledge of correct grammar and its use in appropriate manner, knowledge of language system, and its usage are basic principles to be

Context and meaning: The structure of a language gives a lot of information for its However, meaning does not let itself to scientific study easily. The implication is that meaning of forms can be determined by the situation or context in which they are used.

Language is basically oral: This principle implies that language is mainly an oral activity (i.e. speech) and writing is an attempt at representing language. In English, some sounds are represented by two letters, e.g., ph for f, some letters represent no sound, e.g., the final e in wide and horse. The same letter or letters can stand for more than one For example, in busy, bus, possess, the letter ‘s’ is pronounced |z| in the first word, and |s| in the second, while in the third word the first ‘ss’ is pronounced |z| and the second ‘ss’ |s|.

Language is systematic and learnable: Language is a complex inter-woven Its elements are systematic at all levels: phonetic, phonemic, morphemic, morphological, syntactic and semantic levels.

An important implication of the systematic nature of language is that the acquisition of a system enables a speaker to generate an infinite number of grammatically correct sentences.

Phonology: The study of actual sounds of language is called phonetics and the way in which these sounds are used, put together and organized is called phonology or phonetics. The primary school teacher should introduce phonics work gradually and when only he/she is absolutely certain that the pupil is ready for such instruction. In the first grade he/she introduces the pupils with the sound and appearance of consonants in the final positions in the words like, l, t, m, s,. the steps to be followed are:

teach the sound
teach the forms of the

Show how forms and sounds are

Give
Use practice employing the new word plus context and picture to identify new word.

Morphology: Words, what they are, their information and various changes in their form is called morphology.

Semantics: Words and their meanings in a systematic way is called semantics.

Syntax: Construction, arrangement of words into definite meaning conveyed i.e. phrases, formulas and sentences is called syntax.

English as a living language: We find structures and vocabulary of old English to be different from those of Middle and Modern English. English language is about 1500 years old and has undergone a change almost beyond recognition from the form it had in 500 A.D.

Knowing a language is not only knowledge of correct grammar but also includes knowledge of its use in an appropriate manner. The implication of this principle is that a foreign language programme should teach both use and usage, that is knowledge of the language system and its realization in context of use.

Activity-2

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF TEACHING ENGLISH

The knowledge of nature of language can be learned through drill, practice, exercise etc. A skill has been described as “knowledge put to active use”. An English teacher who has the knowledge of nature of language will not waste any time in teaching rules of

grammar and would organize language drills so as to give students a mastery over basic structures of English. Most of English language teachers prefer oral work than book work because oral work involves active participation.

For providing students listening and speaking skills on English teacher adopts audio lingual skills. He/she gives new material in spoken form before his/her students come across it in reading. A teacher well conversant with the nature of language as a system places equal emphasis on all three elements of language i.e. sounds, words, structures. It also helps teacher to avoid the translation method of teaching.

The teaching of language, to be effective, must be based on accepted principles of teaching and learning. Some of the general principles of second language teaching are the following:

Mastery Subject

The teacher of English should have the mastery of the language teaching skills if he/she is to teach it effectively. He/she should bear in mind that language is sound; hence he/she should know that English language has its own set of sounds, very different from those of our native dialects. A language teacher should know the difference between his/her native vernacular and English. Likewise, he/she should know and understand the basic structural patterns of English, which underlie the construction of English sentences and expressions.

5.2 Motivation

Language teaching is effective if properly motivated. The language teacher must bear in mind that proper motivation is the key to language learning. An indispensable aid to good motivation is the presentation of vocabulary and sentence patterns in a realistic and interesting context. This will be best achieved by good pedagogical principles that are interesting and meaningful to the pupils.

Self-activity or Participation

English like other languages, is learned through self-activity or by imitating a spoken word. This calls for more opportunities for the pupils to speak in the language they are learning. The aural-oral approach is a part of this principle. This approach follows the following sequence:

listen to the expression
imitate or produce them with understanding
read them and finally
write

5.4 Principle of Contrast

The language teacher should present the expressions to the pupils through contrast. This calls for the use of drill on phonetics using minimal pairs. This will give the pupils opportunity to hear and to see the difference between two sounds and two expressions, making learning easier and faster for them.

5.5 Principle of Control

The language teacher should control the sounds and expressions to be taught to the pupils. The amount of the items and rate of the presentation should be controlled to meet the needs of the situation. These sounds and expressions are not only to be controlled, but they should be taught in meaningful situations to facilitate understanding or meanings.

5.6 Principle of Habit-formation

The language teacher should bear in mind that language is acquired through practice. This principle calls for the use of drill work in teaching English. The teacher should therefore provide enough practice to make the language habit automatic. As soon as the pupils can manipulate a pattern, it should be practiced in a meaningful sequence of sentences where the function of communication is never lost sight.

5.7 Principle of Guidance

The teaching of English requires proper guidance and correction of the pupils learning pronunciation and sentence patterns. This guidance and correction must come early in the learning experience before incorrect habits are formed. The slow pupils should be given more help and guidance than the bright pupils.

5.8 Principle of Consistency

English expression should be taught in such a way that it could promote transfer to new situations. In other words, the teacher should teach the English expression required for the grade he or she is teaching to the point of automaticity so that the learner can recall each one at once when the situation calls for the use of each.

5.9 Principle of Integration

The teaching of English in the primary grades should be integrated with the units of work in science. If the English period is recited ahead of the science period, the pupils will have a chance to use the English expression that they are learning in the proper setting. This needs careful planning in order that the integration be effective. Such correlation and integration of subject matter will improve the pupils’ ability to speak, read and write English.

6. CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

Classroom Seating Arrangements

Formal Seating Patterns: These are traditional seating arrangements. In formal seating arrangement rows of students directly face the teacher at the front of the classroom (see figure-1). This seating pattern reduces the students-to-student eye contact and interaction and increases teacher control and student passivity. Teacher stays in front of the class more than 85% of the time. Such setting restricts the students’ participation. The students who sit in the center of the room are most active There are several classroom seating arrangements, some are appropriate for teaching language. Language teaching involves more active

participation of students. Some of seating arrangements will help you to choose one for your class. The central part indicated by dots is called “action zone”, because of the fact that this central area of classroom where the teacher is in front of most of the time.

Informal Seating Patterns: Informal seating patterns include rectangular, circular, horseshoe (U-shaped) and various special designs to meet special activities. The rectangular, circular and horseshoe arrangements (see figure-2) accommodate 20 to 25 students. Double rectangular, double circular, and double horseshoe (W-shaped) are needed to accommodate more than 25 (see figure-3)

An Open Classroom: An open classroom seating arrangement is appropriate for elementary, middle, and junior high school students. The formal rows of fixed desks of the traditional classrooms are gone. The desks are arranged in groups or clusters and can be moved. The open classroom increases students’ interaction and gives students the opportunity to move around and engage in different learning activities in different settings. The classroom designs in figures 4, 5, and 6 are special These special seating arrangements enhance students’ interaction in large and small groups to help one another and share study materials.

6.2 Factors to Consider in Classroom Design

Classroom design will be determined by the size of the room, the number of students in the class, the amount of moveable furniture, the location of fixed features such as doors, windows, closets, and chalkboard. The following factors should be considered in arranging the classroom:

Fixed features. The teacher cannot change the fixed items of the room and must take into account the location of doors, windows, closets, electric outlets, and so For example, seats should not be too close to doors or closets. Electric equipments need to be near an open area, and wire should not be placed in the center of the room.

Furniture and Equipment. The room, furniture and equipment should be kept clean, and in repair so that they can be used. Desks and chairs should be clean and

The teacher should be able to see all students from any part of the room to reduce managerial problems and enhance instructional supervision. Students should be able to see the teacher, chalkboard, the projected images, and demonstration with having to move their desks, and without straining their necks.

The classroom design should be flexible enough so that it can be modified to meet the requirements of different activities. Elementary teachers need to be more flexible, since they are not only teaching English but several subjects. They should be more flexible since they rarely share room with other teachers.

6.3 Grouping for Instruction

Interaction may take place in large groups, small groups, and in individual settings. The teacher is responsible in varying these three groupings according to the need of the students, topic, objective and methods of teaching.

Large group instruction: It is the most traditional and common form of classroom In the large group the teacher lectures, explains, and demonstrates on a topic, asks and answers questions in front of the entire class, gives the same practice and drill exercises to the entire class.

Large group can be an economical and efficient way of teaching. This is specially convenient for teaching the same skills or subject to the entire class. Bringing members of a class together for certain activities strengthens the feeling of belonging to a large group and can help establish a sense of community and class spirit. The whole group learns to cooperate by working with and sharing available resources, setting up rules and regulations for the learning environment and exchanging ideas. Finally, this method of grouping students is most effective for directing and managing large number of students.

Disadvantages:

This method of grouping does not meet the needs and interest of an individual student. Teachers who use this method see students as a homogenous group with common abilities, interests, styles of learning and motivation.

All students are expected to learn within narrow limit. Passive students do not receive necessary attention. The uniqueness of each student is lost.

Small group Interaction: Dividing students into small groups provides an opportunity for students to engage actively in learning and for teachers to monitor students progress

Small groups instruction works best in room with moveable furniture, but it can also be used in classroom with fixed furniture. Small group instruction develops democratic values, and appreciation for differences among people. This form of grouping can provide interesting challenges, allow students to progress at their own pace. It also provides a psychologically safe situation in which to master the material and encourage them to participate in class activities.

Dividing the class into small groups helps the teacher to monitor work and assess progress through questioning, discussion, and checking workbook exercises or notebooks and quizzes. Small groups are typically used in all elementary school subjects. The teacher divides the class into two or three groups. The number of students in each group depends on the number of students in whole class, and the number of groups the teacher is able to handle. The teacher is usually works with one group at a time, while the other students do seat work.

The small grouping can be based on:

Ability: Grouping by ability reduces the problems of differences in the
Interest: Students have same choices in group membership based on special interests in subject matter or activity.

Skills: The teacher forms groups in order to develop different skills in students or to have to work with different types of

Viewpoint: Students have some choice in forming groups based on feelings about a controversial
Activity: The teacher forms groups to perform a specific
Arbitrary: Groupings are made at random or on the basis of alphabetical order, location in the room, or some other method not related to student or work

Individualized Instruction. Individualized instruction permits the students to work alone at his or her pace and level over short or long periods of time. Individualized instruction permits the teacher to adapt instructions to the abilities, needs, and interest of the

Following guidelines can help language teacher in the use of individualized instruction:

Make sure students know what to do and how to Objectives, tasks, and achievement level should be stated.
Make sure students understand their responsibilities when working on individual

Arrange instructional material in small, sequenced units to enhance correct responses from

Permit student to work at their own
Monitor and check for understanding
Evaluate student work and provide immediate feedback

Activity-3

7. PROBLEMS OF TEACHING ENGLISH AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL

7.1 Non Unified Curriculum

The curriculum is not supported by a unified set of materials that are rich in opportunities for knowledge and skills as well as enjoyment while learning the new language. Different schools use different curriculum for language learning.

7.2 Large Class Size

The physical arrangement for class is not comfortable due to large number of students in each section. For teaching a language course even a class of about forty students is difficult to control and individual attention cannot be paid. Specially in public schools, the number member of students increases beyond 60.

7.3 Lack of Teaching Material

This includes chalkboard, audio visual aid, teaching material according to grade level, language library, other stimulating material (such as colors, pencils, work books, paper, charts, flash cards). Lack of such facilities make teacher handicap and helpless. They only depend on textbooks, which alone cannot motivate students towards the learning of an alien language. Our schools lack simple teaching material like flash cards, chalk- board, charts, pictures, etc. The availability of appropriate audio-visual material over head projectors, tape records, film stripes and lingua phone makes the teaching of English effective.

7.4 Problem of Good English Teacher

School Teachers are not properly trained for language teaching. Teaching of English is compulsory professional subject for B.Ed (Honors) and ADE (Associate Degree in Education). Prior to B.Ed (honors) program teaching of English was optional subject.

7.5 Faulty Methods of Teaching

In our schools, teachers of all levels are using wrong methods of teaching English. Teacher emphasizes on grammar recitation method. The pupils are required to memorize the parts of speech, rules of syntax, conjugation and translate selection by using bilingual dictionary. Our teachers do not use the structural and situational approaches for teaching English. Undue emphasis on grammar does not develop the four basic skills of language learning. As a result the pupils who have studied the language for years cannot use it.

7.6 Non- uniform English Syllabus

Our society is confronted with multi educational system. Therefore, we have no uniform syllabus for the whole country. All private schools offer different syllabus. The following four different stages of prior system with English teaching exists:

Nursery

At this stage children’s recitation of poems and understanding of alphabets is developed.

Early Stage (age 6–10years)

English is taught as compulsory subject. The whole curriculum is taught in English. Though the routine conversation and context does not offer English oriented environment.

Middle stage: (age 11–14 years)

For this stage private English medium schools have been established in all big cities of Pakistan. This stage covers middle as well as secondary level grades.

High Stage/Higher Stage (age 14–17)

English is taught as a subject in all government and private schools.

But curriculum differs in great extent. Some renowned English medium schools offer Oxford and Cambridge level of system of education (‘O’ level and ‘A’ level). This variation in educational system and syllabus brings variation in overall achievement and more specific in English learning.

Poor Text Book

The textbooks, which are prescribed to our pupils, are not stimulating and suitable. Pupils’ only memorize the content just to pass the examination.

Sufficient oral and written practice is not provided to the pupils. The printing standard and paper used for the textbooks further makes the English subject unattractive. The textbooks are not accompanied with pupil’s workbooks, teacher’s handbook and other necessary supplementary material.

7.8 Defective Examination System

The examination system puts a lot of emphasis on written paper, which requires rote learning from the pupil. There is no examination in spoken English that is totally against the objectives of teaching English. Though to some extent our students know to read and write English but they do not achieve the skills in spoken English.

Defective Evaluation Procedure

Our evaluation procedure is mostly based on essay type questions. The marks awarded to the pupils do not entirely indicate the level of the achievement of the pupils. The evaluator’s subjective evaluation procedures lack appropriate error analysis.

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF ENGLISH LEARNING

Teacher Training (A crash program)

There is a dire need of training teachers in teaching of English at Elementary level. Since government has already initiated this program throughout the country. It is further suggested that a few months or weeks programme is not sufficient for a teacher to be properly equipped with advance methods and approaches of teaching English. Therefore, a one year programme is suggested for the training of language teacher.

8.2 Provision of Supplementary Material for Teachers

Each text book should be accompanied with supplementary material, teacher’s hand book, student’s workbook, and relevant audio-visual aids.

8.3 Examination System and Evaluation

Examination system needs to be restructured. English papers should be set by well trained English teachers. There should be a variety of questions to test language learning. Such as knowledge of vocabulary, words and their forms, tense, sentence pattern, transformation, word-order, evaluation, synthesis, comprehension, the use of relative prepositions etc.

8.4 Refresher Courses

For English teachers, in order to update their knowledge about English language the refresher courses should be arranged by education department.

The evaluation of English should be based in line with the new techniques of teaching learning. Stress should be laid on oral work and pronunciations of the text to test the speaking ability. A variety of questions be asked to test the knowledge of vocabulary learnt.

Activity-4

9. SUMMARY

English as a subject has been given place in our school curriculum since independence. This is due to the fact that English is spoken and understood all over the world. It has been recognized as an international language. Therefore, in most of the Asian, Arab, and African countries, it is being taught as a second language. It is also being used as medium of instruction at college and university level. In majority of the non-English countries, it is used as official language.

Teaching language arts includes languages spelling, reading, phonics, speaking, listening and writing skills. Our goal in language art is twofold: Communication and learning. English in our schools is taught as second language. Most of our language teachers apply the traditional or grammar-translation method of teaching English. This method places emphasis on grammar recitation. The pupils are required to memorize the parts of speech, rules of syntax, and translation by using bilingual dictionary. It is observed that after studying the language for years, the students could not use it.

Aims of Teaching English:

The general aims of teaching English at elementary level are the following:

Ability to understand English
Ability to read English
Ability to speak English
Ability to write English

The Language teaching should emphasize on the following four language aspects:

semantic
phonetic

graphic and,

Phonetic-cum-graphic

These aspects should be used to develop the listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.

Teaching of language should be based on the following principles:

Psychological Principles: Which stresses the language learning as;
1. Habit formation: habit of listening, reading, speaking and
2. acquisition of a set of

involving mother tongue; the teaching of mother tongue and the teaching of foreign language support each other’s.

exposing learner to a model.
making language
making language individual and social

Linguistic principles: The teaching of second language must be based on the following acceptable linguistic principles:
1. oral practice
  1. Systematic system of phonetics,
  2. Language as means of communication
  3. Teaching of English as living language
  4. Teaching of forms and meaning in context

Seating Arrangements:
1. Classroom seating arrangement include traditional, rectangular, circular, horseshoe and various special formations designed to meet special
2. Large-group or whole-group instruction is the most common form of classroom organization, suitable for the teacher when lecturing, explaining, and providing practice and drill.

Small-groups give the teacher flexibility in instruction and an opportunity to introduce skills and tasks at the level suitable to a particular group of

Students need more practice in homework skills than most teachers might

Implications of language principles for Teachers:

With the combination of psychological and linguistic principles, an English teacher can follow the following language principles:

a principle of subject mastery. b motivation.

c self-activity and participation. d contrast.

habit

10. SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

Indicate whether these statements are true or false (verify)

The primary concern of the teacher in teaching language arts is to develop the pupils’ competence in listening, speaking, reading and

Listening and reading are aspects of language which should be emphasized and developed in the intermediate grades rather than in the elementary

The development of language ability requires consideration of interrelated and systematic

The ability to speak and write in second language requires less exercise and

It is an accepted fact that the first and second language is learned by usage of

The learning of second language involves some elements of mother

The study of actual sounds of language is called

Construction, arrangement of words into definite meaning is called

Guidance and correctness is not necessary while teaching pronouns, adjectives, prepositions, verbs, adverbs

Use of self-activity and participation is an effective principle in language

Motivation is the core of language

Listening and reading are the productive skills of language

Writing and speaking are the receptive skills of language

The teaching of second language must be based on acceptable linguistic

Language learning is both an individual and a social process.

Instruction may take place only in large-group setting.

The teacher can change the fixed features of the classroom.

Different grouping is essential for variety, motivation, and flexibility in teaching and

EXERCISE

1 Describe the aims of teaching English at Elementary level.

2 Discuss the importance of English as an international language.

3 Discuss briefly the psychological principles of teaching and learning English.

4 Write down the linguistic principles of language learning with special reference to the teaching of English.

5 What is the usefulness of general principles of teaching English for elementary school English teachers?

6 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of three seating arrangements for teaching third grade English class.

7 Write down four advantages and disadvantages of large-group instruction.

8 Identify the problems faced by elementary school English teachers of our country.

9 Enumerate some of the important principles to be considered in teaching of English as a second language.

12. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, H. D. (1987). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. N.J: Prentice Hall.

Harmer, J. (1999). The practice of English Language Teaching. London. Longman.

Krashen, S. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning.

Pergaman Press.

Masud, A. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. In Teaching of English: Teacher Training Project, Ministry of Education. Islamabad: National Book.

Pahuja, N.P. (1995). Teaching of English. New Delhi: Anmol Publications.

UNIT–2

METHODS AND APPROACHES OF TEACHING ENGLISH

Written by: Prof. M. H. Hamdani Reviewed by: Prof. Dr. Rehana Masrur

CONTENTS

Page #

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 31

Objectives …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 31

Definition of Terms……………………………………………………………………………. 32

1.1 Target Language (TL) ……………………………………………………………….. 32

1.2 L1 …………………………………………………………………………………………… 32

1.3 Second Language (L2) ………………………………………………………………. 32

Old Methods of Teaching English ……………………………………………………….. 32

2.1 The Grammar Translation Method (GTM) …………………………………… 32

2.2 Direct Method (DM) …………………………………………………………………. 35

Activity-1 ………………………………………………………………………………… 36

Activity–2………………………………………………………………………………… 37

New Methods of Teaching …………………………………………………………………. 37

3.1 The Audio-Lingual Method (ALM) …………………………………………….. 37

3.2 Teachers of ALM ……………………………………………………………………… 38

Activity–3………………………………………………………………………………… 41

Approaches to Teaching English …………………………………………………………. 42

4.1 Structural Syllabus ……………………………………………………………………. 43

4.2 Situtaional Approach…………………………………………………………………. 44

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………… 46
Answer Key for Activities and Questions……………………………………………… 46

INTRODUCTION

A teacher of English always has a question in mind: how to be a good teacher? Or how to teach English successfully? You learned English from your teachers, at school and college. In a way, we all have learned. Most of our students may learn to read or write a few correct sentences but they fail to communicate in the language. Something appears to be wrong with the way English is being taught and we need to know why it is so.

When we talk of the way of teaching, we mean the method or methods of teaching of a language. There are many known methods of teaching English or, for that matter, any language of the world. We will like you to learn a few important ones and use them in your class when you teach your students.

OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit and attempting activities you should be able to:

Define the terms:
1. grammar-translation method,
2. direct method,
3. the structural (substitution) method,
4. audio-lingual method,
5. the modern concept of com-judicative approach and communicative competence;

Describe main features of these methods, their merits and demerits and usefulness in the teaching of English;

Recognize and identify difficulties faced by students in learning English as a means to communication;

Prove the usefulness of the communicative approach as the most effective way of teaching English;

Learn that a proper use of all the methods, keeping in mind the needs and background of learners, makes teaching of English more effective and

DEFINITION OF TERMS

You will meet following terms in this unit:

Target Language TL

Target language (TL) means the language which the student wants to learn

L1 refers to the mother tongue (native language). It means the first language which we learn as a child.

Second Language (L2)

Second language is any language which we lean after we have learnt our mother tongue.

OLD METHODS OF TEACHING ENGLISH

The Grammar Translation Method (GTM)

Grammar-translation method is the oldest method of teaching a foreign language. It is being used in our schools all over the country. Those who use it believe that: to learn a foreign language like English, the best way is to first: memorize the rules of its grammar.

The rest of the task becomes easier. Let us see how it works

Features of GTM

Under the GTM, the main source of learning the TL is the reader or the, textbook used in the class. You read and learn meanings of difficult words and sentences in your mother tongue. The teacher helps you in this exercise. He/she translates the lesson, word by word for you. He/she may write a few very difficult words, and their meanings on the blackboard, Students copy them down in their notebook to learn them by heart as their homework.

ASK YOURSELF

Did it help you to express in English? Did you learn to use the words so memorized in your speech, if you ever spoke in English?

At the end of the lesson the teacher asks a few questions to test your understanding of the story, poem or essay, as the case may be, not in English but in your mother tongue, or, perhaps, in Urdu.

Finally, the teacher may write a model grammatical construction on the blackboard and ask students to learn it by heart. He/she may even give some examples of a similar kind and ask students to do the same. For example, he/she may explain how yes-no questions are

formed. (The helping verb moves to the beginning of the sentence: He is happy. Is he happy? You can do it. Can you do it? They will come. Will they come?) What this means is that students are made to learn rules of grammar but not how to communicate in English.

What does the student learn at the end of the class?

a large number of unrelated words, idioms and phrases;
rules of English grammar; and
patterns of English

Summary

We can sum up features of the GTM as follows:

What do the teacher and students do during the teaching of the lesson?

1. The teacher reads and gives meanings of words in the mother tongue.

2. Students are asked to learn meanings and grammar rules by heart. They may be asked to read a lesson alone and write words and phrases but rarely speak

in English.

Teacher’s role

He is active most of the time.

Students role

They sit passively most of the time.

Activity–1

Write true (T) or false (F) in front of the following statements according to whether or not they are true for a class taught by the GTM:

Students take active part in a GTM class.
LI (mother tongue of Students) is mostly used in the
Lessons are based on modem language and experiences of day-to-day life of
The teacher reads the text and translates word by word;
Lessons are very interesting for students because the language used is useful to them to learn how to communicate with other
Students get enough experience of speaking the TL.
Students learn-grammar rules and have a lot of practice in unrelated words and phrases,
Students do a lot of exercises of translation and

Advantages of GTM

After going through the discussion about the GTM so far, you must have formed some ideas about it. One may ask; is anything good about this method? Let us look at what is said about it:

It is based on human psychology. A child learns the TL through his mother tongue, that is, the language he/she knows. This is what they say, learning the unknown (TL) through the known (L1).

ASK YOURSELF

Can we always find an exact translation for every word or sentence? For example, how would you translate the expression ‘I tell you what?’ in the following statement?

I tell you what? We will go to the doctor as soon as we reach there, or how would you translate into English the following sentences?

Meray Dada Barrey Alim Thay. Unhon Nain Bahut Si Kitabain Tasneef Keen.

It saves time of the teacher and the students. Students learn foreign words and phrases in their own language directly. It is very useful when you have to teach large
Most of our teachers are not trained and familiar with modern techniques. When they are asked to teach English, they find it easier to prepare their lessons. They have simply to be sure that they themselves know the vocabulary and understand rules of grammar.
This method is simple and You do not require expensive AV aids. Abstract and difficult terms can be explained in the mother tongue of students.
Students get plenty of practice in reading and writing TL. They can apply rules of grammar which they have learnt by heart. They get enough expenses of translation from TL to LI and vice versa.

c) Disadvantages of GTM

Now let us look at its weak points too.

A student taught by the GTM loses touch with the real life situations. What he learns in the classroom is high form of literature which does not help him to express himself in In fact, he gets little opportunity to speak in English.
A student learns to know about the TL (in our case English) through rules of grammar (formatíon of active/passive sentences, doing direct/indirect narration exercises, filling in the blanks of unrelated sentences etc) but does not know the real language as used in day to day life. We learn a language to communicate with This method is of not much help to us.
Students learn the language passively, They study textbooks and cram notes to pass They are unable to read or understand extra material on their own.
Since the, TL is taught through the medium of mother tongue of the studetn therefore, they learn always to depend on it. They first think in their mother tongue what they have to say and then try to translate it into the All activities of speech depend on the mother tongue. The learners thus develop inferiority complex.
Teaching becomes dull and The teacher simply translates the text into LI and teaches rules of grammar of TL in the form of dull exercises. Students learn them passively.

Question–1

We may conclude that the GTM may be useful to our teachers if they apply it along with other modern methods of teaching English. It alone cannot bring forth the desired results.

Direct Method (DM)

Direct Method of teaching a language is based on the ‘natural approach. It assumes that learning a foreign language like English is the same as learning the mother tongue. That is, just as a child learns his own language naturally, without the help of any written rules, so he/she can learn any other language.

The DM is the method of teaching the TL directly. It aims at bringing students in direct control with the TL in real and meaningful situations. Teachers are required to help students to learn by making them see or think of actual objects and link them with words in the TL. They are encouraged through play and activity in everyday situations.

The main aim of the DM is to teach students to learn how to communicate in the target language.

Students and teachers share the experience of learning as Both remain active.
The mother tongue of students has no role in the Every activity is carried out in the TL.
When a student makes a mistake the teacher encourages him to correct himself.
In order to make meanings of new words and phrases clear to students, the teacher uses pictures, real objects or relates it to words they already know. He/she may explain this through miming (silent acting). Mother tongue is not used for the

Features of Direct Method
Learning of everyday common language is given great Students are helped and encouraged to communicate in the TL.
Writing is taught at a stage when students are able to speak and understand the TL

to some extent.

Reading text is selected carefully. It represents and illustrates the culture of the speakers of
Mother tongue is never It is completely banned in and out of class. Students are expected to learn to communicate in TL only.
New phrases and words are introduced gradually, in any possible way, in the TL. Students are expected to see actual objects and link them with words in the
Grammar rules are not taught and drilled into the minds of students. They are supposed to learn and understand them during the process of using the TL for
Correct pronunciation of words is taught with care and understanding. Students are given enough practice in pronouncing words correctly.
Teaching of communication being the main aim, students are given plenty of opportunity to practice speaking in and out of class. Use of proper intonation is

Activity-1

How will you introduce the following words to an advanced class? What-difficulties will you have to explaining the abstract concepts? Do you think any of these words could be taught more easily through the grammar-translation method? Share your ideas with you tutor at the tutorial meeting.

Rocket, fear, news, sometimes, friendship, success, hope, happiness

Advantages of the DM

Students learn to communicate in the TL which is a desirable thing.
Students gain confidence in speaking
Teaching involves active participation of teacher –
It is natural way of teaching a foreign language. English, for example, is taught in Students have a direct contact with the TL. They learn its use in real life situation.
Students are given plenty of practice in the four skills, namely: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Use of correct pronunciation, stress and intonation in real life conversation gives confidence to the speaker/learner.
Since teacher and student are actively involved in the process of learning, the entire experience becomes interesting, active, alive and
The teacher has enough opportunities to use A.V. aids like radio, tape-recorder, models, charts, overhead projector etc. in the class. Use of aids makes teaching interesting and effective.

Disadvantages of DM

All is not well with the DM. It has certain shortcomings and weak points as well. Let us look at them one by one:

DM is useful at early stage of learning but it is not effective in higher classes. Functional and abstract words like rather, whether, loyalty, patriotism, authority, etc, are not easy to
Absence of clear and defined grammar rules causes problems to learners of It is very discouraging for a student to understand functional words without knowing what they are and what they do to a sentence. Rules of grammar, no matter how simple and basic they may appear, have a definite function in learning and understanding the working of TL. The DM does not give much importance to this matter.
DM requires skillful handling by an experienced teacher. A less-qualified teacher may fail to do justice to the
The fact that students and teachers are not allowed to translate words and phrases into LI may result in waste of time.
Learning of grammar rules does help students in learning the mechanics of TL. DM ignores this fact.
We require skilled teachers to teach by We do not have them.

To make DM really effective in a country like Pakistan, we need properly prepared textbooks based on graded vocabulary and practical exercises. These are not yet available.

Inspite of the weaknesses of DM as given above, it has proved successful in the early stages of learning TL. The DM does help students to learn how to communicate in TL which is always a desirable achievement.

Summary

We can sum up the main features of the direct method as under:

Basic aim of DM: Learning to communicate in TL.
Role of mother tongue: AH activities in TL.
Role of teacher: Active
Role of student: Active
Students mistakes: Teacher encourages correction by students
Grammar rules: Learned indirectly in the

Activity – 2

How will you introduce the following English words to a class of beginners by the direct method? List all you will do to teach these words and show it to your tutor at tutorial meeting:

postman/postmen
book/books
happy/sad
tall/short

NEW METHODS OF TEACHING

The Audio-Lingual Method (ALM)

We have already talked about two methods, namely: Grammar-Translation Method and Direct Method- We have also noted their strong and weak points. As need developed for learning of foreign languages during and after the Second World War, experts felt that these two methods could not meet the requirements. GTM emphasized reading and writing but ignored speaking of TL under DM speaking got priority but was not effective in teaching other skills.

One of the new methods that developed later is known as the Audio-Lingual Method. The word Audio means listening and Lingual means speaking. Thus emphasis is laid on listening and speaking as against one or two of the other skills.

Teachers of ALM

We shall now see how this method is used in the teaching of English. The teacher follows a certain system in dealing with an item through a dialogue. Let us see how:

Presenting the Dialogue

As the teacher enters the class he/she informs students, in TL, that they are going to listen to a dialogue. He/she may display a chart or a few pictures relating to the subject of the dialogue. The teacher reads the dialogue himself/herself. Students just listen to him/her carefully. After this, all students repeat after the teacher trying to pronounce words correctly. This is followed by a small group doing the same; then a few students may be asked to repeat the dialogue.

In this way confidence is built up as everyone gets a chance to speak.

Repetition of Dialogue

Teacher: What will you do today. Ali? Class: What will you do today. Ali? Group A: What will you do today. Ali? Student: What will you do today. Ali? Ali: I shall write a letter to my father. Class; I shall write a letter to my father. Group B: I shall write a letter to my father. Student: I shall write a letter to my father.

Repetition of the dialogue by the class, collectively, in small groups, and individually makes them familiar with it.

Presenting New Words

The teacher now presents a new word in the dialogue. He/she writes the word on the blackboard, explains its meaning in the target language or, if necessary, in L2, or draws/shows a picture of the item. The purpose is to make the meaning clear. The class may be asked to use the word in sentences of their own to show that they have understood the meaning.

Silent Reading

The teacher writes some comprehension questions on the blackboard asking the class to silently read the dialogue and to find answers to the questions. Students have now seen the dialogue in the written form for the first time. He may check the answers orally by asking students to give their answers individually,

Presenting New Struçture

The teacher may select an unfamiliar structure from the dialogue and write it on the blackboard. The structure could be:

I will paint a picture today

The class repeats it twice or thrice to get used to it. The teacher explains meanings of the structure but does not refer to grammatical terms like it being future tense. He may try to explain this point by putting the structure into a context:

Teacher: “What will you do today? Ali: I will paint a picture today. Teacher: Good. Do you have paints? Ali: Yes, I have paints.

Teacher: Yes, you have paints. I can see them. Teacher: Do you have a sheet of drawing-paper? Ali: No, I do not have a sheet of drawing-paper

You will have your lunch. After that you will go to bazar and buy a sheet of drawing-paper.

Ali: Yes. I will.

The dialogue is meaningful. It is arranged in a proper order to make meanings of the words used clear to students.

Drilling the New Structure

The teacher now practices the new structure with the class by conducting a language drill. He motivates the class by showing an object, a picture, a chart or just by miming an action. (Teacher shows picture of a TV to the class.)

Teacher: What will l do now?

Ali: You will watch TV.

Teacher; Good, I’ll watch TV. Group A

Group A: You will watch TV. Teacher: Good Class?

Class: Watch TV. Yes,

Teacher: That’s right. I will watch TV.

In a substitution drill words are put in their respective place when the teacher gives the cue:

Teacher: Listen class, I will watch TV. Hockey match.

Class: 1’ll watch hockey match today.

Teacher: Good. Play.

Class: I’ll play hockey today.

Teacher: Good. They

Class: They’11 play hockey today. Teacher: Yes, Tomorrow.

Class: They’ll play hockey tomorrow.

Written Exercises and Homework

The teacher introduces written exercises after repeated drills making sure that

students have understood the structures. He/she can now assign exercises given in the textbook or the ones that he has prepared for the purpose. The teacher may help students to do one or two sentences in the class and then ask to do the rest as homework.

Place of Grammar in ALM

We have seen that although plenty of grammar is taught by this method but the teacher does not refer to the terms in grammar. He/she does not tell students what grammar item/structure is being taught. He/she focuses their attention on the drill patterns thus indirectly helping them to understanding the correct use of a word, phrase or a structure. To teach simple past tense, the teacher may ask a student to go out of the class, come in, sit down, open the book and read the first line and then tell students what Ali did. He/ she will tell the class:

I asked Ali to go out. Ali went out of the class. He came in and sat on his desk. He opened the book and read the first line,

Dialogues are carefully prepared to teach such grammatical points.

Advantages
In the ALM, target language is used most of the time. Students get plenty of chance to speak in the class. The teacher uses mother tongue where necessary. This saves time. There is also a balance between learning concepts of grammar directly and learning the working of grammar in system of the foreign language, through practice and written and oral
One main advantage of the ALM is that teaching is carried out through graded We start with simple and useful exercises and gradually move on to the difficult ones.
This method offers a lot of practice in all the four skills, that is, reading, writing, listening and speaking.
The dialogues are based on everyday life situations. Students get involved in the process and learn how to react to a real life situation verbally.

Disadvantages
Constant drilling of a pattern becomes boring for the class. Students lose interest because of repetition.
A teacher has to be very experienced and skillful in handling his class. His effort will not bear fruit if he/she slows down or fails to control a large class.
Language drills of unrelated structures and piecemeal dialogues do not give the learner the ability to communicate effectively. He may memorize them but may fail to use them when required.
The method emphasizes form rather than use of a structure through drilling. A learner may, for example, know how to transform a statement into a

They are not the books I want. Aren’t they the books I want? but may never be able to use the form when needed.

Summary

Teaching materials:	Dialogues explaining a grammatical structure
Activities:	Listening, repeating, drilling, reading silently writing grammatical exercises.
Role of teacher:	Active.
Role of Students:	Active.

Activity–3

Read the following descriptions of activities taking place in a classroom of language learning. Say what method is being used in each case. You have so far learned three methods and these activities pertain to them. A teacher may be using the same techniques in different methods. Try to identify them.

Teacher is reading the text and giving meanings of words in the mother tongue of the
The classes read
The teacher is explaining words and phrases in
The teacher has written an exercise about the use of “helping verbs’ on the
The teacher is busy teaching a dialogue through a drill.

We hope, you now have a fairly good idea of the three methods of teaching and of their weak and strong points. Let us look at their main features again before we proceed to the next method:

In the grammar-translation method students are made to learn rules of grammar of the TL and trained to depend on translating texts in LI. They learn the skills of reading and writing but get little experience of speaking
In the direct method students directly work in TL, It is maintained that they will learn TL in the same way as they learn their mother tongue. Emphasis is on spoken The system works well in small classes and with experienced and skilled teachers.
In the audio-lingual method a lot of drilling of unrelated dialogues takes place. Speech gets priority not writing. Teachers teach TL not facts about it. It is believed that constant drilling and repetition of TL structures develop habits of speech of A language is what native speakers of TL say and not what someone thinks they ought to say.

Questions 2–4

When you were a college student, what did you do to pass the exam in English? Do you think you can successfully converse with a foreigner about your social customs, popular foods and national habits?
Do you remember any of the lessons (prose, poetry, plays, stories) you learned at the Intermediate level? Have they helped you to express yourself in English?
You have read three one-act plays in your Intermediate Do you think learning dialogues of a few characters of the plays will help you to speak English fluently?

APPROACHES TO TEACHING ENGLISH

English can be taught through structural and situation approaches. Structural approach means the arrangement of words in such a way as to form a suitable pattern of sentences. The mastery of sentence structures is considered to be more useful than the acquisition of vocabulary,

Structures are tools of a language and are not sentences- While sentences are grammatical order of words, structures do not need any grammatical background. “Structure” in fact is the arrangement of words.

There are four types of structures namely sentence patterns, phrase patterns, formulas and idioms.

Sentence Patterns are a model for sentences of the same shape and construction although- made up of different words.

Phrase patterns are groups of words which express an idea. They are not sentences or clauses of sentences for example: in the school, on the desk, with a knife etc.

Formulas are those words which are used on specific occasions for example. How are you? Good morning, thank you etc.

Idioms are structures taught as whole. For example rich as Croesus, every cloud has a silver lining¹, to audio-visual aids a Midas touch, etc.

Structures which are frequently used in written and spoken language should be selected for teaching. So also simple structures like ‘I am walking, He is sleeping. You are eating. etc. Structures which, are easily teachable, should be introduced first for example, the structure I am sitting can be taught more easily than I am thinking.

Structures can be graded into

Structures which identify things and personal
Structures which locate the things and persons in space
Structures which fix the things and persons in time

In structural approach/content words are also taught because without content words the teaching will be dull and uninspiring. Only those content words which spring from particular situations are taught. For example, if the teacher is holding a duster, the content word ‘duster’ is taught. The selection of content words is directed by their usefulness, simplicity and teach ability.

An appropriate situation should be created to practice the structure and to relate its meaning to it and to build up a vocabulary of content words. Every, structure is taught separately. The item is ‘presented in an appropriate situation by the teacher. For example: to teach the structure “into” the teacher puts a basket on the table and puts an apple into the basket. This is followed by oral drill by the students. The item is presented in some new situation followed by oral drill overall drill is done.

The three principles of structural approach are:

Importance of the student’s activity rather than the teacher’s activity
Importance of speech for firmly fixing the word
Importance of the formation of the language habit in arranging words in suitable English patterns thus replacing the sentence patterns of the students mother tongue

(a) Aims of Structural Approach

To teach about 275 graded structures
To establish a vocabulary of about 3000 root words for active use
To correlate the teaching of grammar and composition with reading
To teach the four fundamental skills of understanding, speaking reading and writing in the same order as named
To lay emphasis on the aural-oral approach, active methods and condemn formal grammar for its own sake.

Structural Syllabus

A Structural syllabus is a graded list of language items that audio-visual aids to be taught to each class. A test is also prescribed to go with F. G French has suggested the following syllabus to be taught in the first three years to teach English:

Simple two part e.g. you work.
Simple three part patterns. g. you are singing
Simple four part e.g., I went to Delhi
The negative form of the above patterns, beginning with a helping e.g. Are you singing?
The negative form of the above patterns, beginning with an asking verb. e.g. Where have you been so long?
Patterns using there and e.g. It is an apple. There are four students.
Order patterns, g., Do your work. Sit down. Speak up.

Merits
An audio-visual aids usage trained teachers can use this method with
Students can do compositions after learning- five or six
Textbooks following the structural syllabus can be
This method can be adopted for all stages of language
Adequate stress is laid on speech or oral
It stresses habit formation; through intensive drills, the student cultivates the habit

of speaking English.

It can be used to teach prose, poetry, etc.
It is based on scientific
Both the teacher and the student are
At very stage the objectives of teaching and learning are clearly defined and are

Demerits

It is suitable only for the lower classes

Only well-selected sentence patterns can be taught
Prescribed text books cannot be taught
Too much stress is placed on mechanical drilling
Is unsuitable for overcrowded classes
More teaching aids are needed
It is difficult to complete the syllabus-if the structural syllabus is followed strictly

It over emphasizes oral presentation teaching of structural items monolingual presentation, rigid sequencing of structures resulting in the production of uninteresting reading materials

Situtaional Approach

In this approach English is taught in the same way in which the child learns his mother tongue. The main features of learning the mother tongue are:

Every item of the mother tongue e. learnt in a real situation.
Whatever the child understands and expresses is connected with his own
The situation in which the child learns his mother tongue is repeated again and

Procedure for Teaching by the Situational Approach:

The new word is introduced incidentally in the class by the teacher by making use of objects available in the For example. This is a white board.
The teacher offers the students many opportunities for associating the words with the corresponding Affirmative negative and interrogative forms of speech are presented by asking the following questions:

What is this? (Interrogative) Is this a table? (Affirmative)

Are you pointing to the whiteboard? (Negative)

Constant repetition is done
The imperative is used with the teacher asking the student to do some activity while he/she gives the statements For Example: Asif, get up and stand near the table
Revision is done
More than half of the time is reserve for pronunciation, drill/ reading/ spelling, writing,

Merits

This method follows the principles of interest, variety and
Activity in the class makes it
It lays emphasis on learning by play
It lays emphasis on learning by hearing
It makes use of teaching aids

Demerits

It can be used to teach only well selected words and; sentence patterns
It is suitable for only lower classes
Too much of drill makes the class monotonous
Prose, poetry, composition cannot be taught by this method
Textbooks cannot be taught by this method
Trained teachers are required,

Conclusion

You must now have á reasonable and fair idea about the methods of teaching discussed in this unit. All of them have their merits and demerits and strong and disadvantages and advantages. None is perfect as such. You as teacher can make use of any or all of them according to your needs. Much will depend on the number of students in your class, their social background, the level to which you are teaching, the time and the textbooks at your disposal, the AV-aids that your school can provide, you and the kind of school you are teaching in. These methods are like many colours in the hands of an artist. He can use them according to what he is painting, applying shades of different colours to different parts of the painting, as the subject demands. You can do the same.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AIOU (1987): Introductory Units Psycho linguistics and Language Teaching Methodology, Block A, Units 7–9, Islamabad, (main source). Campbell, R N. (1979): Linguistic and Social Aspects of Communicative

Competence, in Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, pp. 83–90, Marianne Celce and Lois Mdntosh Massachusetts. Dublin, F, and Oishtain, E, (1977): Facilitating Language Leaming. McGraw”

Hill. Inc. New York. Wilkinds, D A, (1978): Linguistics in Language Teaching London: EIBS and Edward Amoid (Publishers) Ltd.

ANSWER KEY FOR ACTIVITIES AND QUESTIONS

Form		Function
b	Statement	Request
d	Statement	Request
e	Negative	Advice
f	Negative	Order
g	Statement	Warming
i	Imperative	Suggestion ,

Questions

For you to answer.
For you to recall your own
For you to recall and
For you to give your point of view

UNIT–3

TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING

Written by: Fouzia Naureen Reviewed by: Mrs. Shagufta Siraj

CONTENTSS

Page #

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 50

Objectives …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 50

Aims of Teaching English in Pakistan ………………………………………………….. 51
Factors Affecting Pronunciation Learning ……………………………………………. 51

2.1 The Native Language ………………………………………………………………… 51

2.2 The age Factor ………………………………………………………………………….. 51

2.3 Phonetic Ability………………………………………………………………………… 51

Motivation and Concern for Good Pronunciation …………………………. 52
Causes of Defective Pronunciation in …………………………….. 52

2.6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….. 53

Activity–1………………………………………………………………………………… 54

Activity–2………………………………………………………………………………… 54

Introduction to Phonetic Symbols ………………………………………………………… 54
Methods/Techniques of Teaching Pronunciation……………………………………. 56

4.1 Imitation Method………………………………………………………………………. 56

4.2 Phonetic Method ………………………………………………………………………. 58

Activity–3………………………………………………………………………………… 61

Activity–4………………………………………………………………………………… 61

Teaching of Consonant and Vowel Sounds ………………………………………….. 61

5.1 Aspects of Pronunciation……………………………………………………………. 61

5.2 Combinations of Sounds ……………………………………………………………. 61

5.3 Linkage of Sounds…………………………………………………………………….. 62

5.4 Word Stress …………………………………………………………………………….. 62

Activity–5 ……………………………………………………………………………….. 62

Activity–6………………………………………………………………………………… 63

5.5 Rhythm ……………………………………………………………………………………. 63

Role of English Teacher for Teaching Good Pronunciation ……………………. 64

6.1 Helping Learners Hear ……………………………………………………………… 64

6.2 Helping them to Make Sounds ……………………………………………………. 64

6.3 Providing Feedback…………………………………………………………………… 64

6.4 Pointing Out what’s Going on …………………………………………………….. 64

6.5 Establishing Priorities………………………………………………………………… 65

6.6 Devising Activities ……………………………………………………………………. 65

6.7 Assessing Progress ……………………………………………………………………. 65

Role of Singing Songs in Improving Pronunciation ……………………………….. 65

7.1 Songs and Effective Factors ……………………………………………………….. 65

7.2 Singing and Memory …………………………………………………………………. 66

7.3 Songs as Learning Activities ……………………………………………………… 66

7.4 Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic Learning Styles …………………………. 67

7.5 Group Interaction ……………………………………………………………………… 67

7.6 When to use a Song ………………………………………………………………….. 67

Teaching English Spellings…………………………………………………………………. 68

8.1 The Values o f ‘e’ …………………………………………………………………….. 68

8.2 The two ‘ch’ Values ………………………………………………………………….. 68

8.3 One Value Composite Consonants ……………………………………………… 69

8.4 Position Constraints on One Value Composite Constant ………………… 69

8.5 The Silent e Rule ………………………………………………………………………. 69

8.6 Single Vowel Letters in Polysyllabic Words…………………………………. 69

8.7 Steps of Improving Spellings ……………………………………………………… 70

Activity-7 ………………………………………………………………………………… 70

Activity-8 ………………………………………………………………………………… 71

Activity-9 ………………………………………………………………………………… 71

Activity-10 ………………………………………………………………………………. 73

Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 73
Self-Assessment Questions …………………………………………………………………. 74
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………… 74

INTRODUCTION

Teaching pronunciation is fundamental to the teaching of listening and speaking. Therefore, it is essential that the teacher of English should pay a good deal of attention to pronunciation. Thus the second language learner should be trained to respond to a totally new sound system. However, such training should be set in a context of genuine language use; for continuous speech is understood by the listener not merely because of his knowledge of the pronunciation of the individual words but also because of his ability to understand vocabulary, grammar and context meaning. Thus for teaching pronunciation drilling of isolated sounds alone has only a limited value. What is important is to teach pronunciation of words used in continuous speech.

Basically the aim of this unit is to give you as a teacher a greater awareness of the sound system of English and thus help you to be better informed linguistically and better equipped to provide your students with a good model of spoken English. Moreover, we want to give you as a teacher, additional skills for the teaching of English pronunciation and the planning of remedial work.

OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

Define the causes of detective pronunciation in

Describe different methods of teaching English

Recognize the difference between consonant & vowel

Understand and use the basic Phonetic symbols for correct

Teach correct stress and rhythm patterns through songs and

Make effective use of loud reading in the

AIMS OF TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION IN PAKISTAN

To cultivate audible and intelligible
Production of correct sound with proper stress, intonation, rhythm, fluency and

To cultivate the habit of speaking long sentences and speaking for a long time

To develop good speech manners with impressive postures and

FACTORS AFFECTING PRONUNCIATION LEARNING

The native language is an important factor in learning to pronounce English; this is clearly demonstrated by the fact that a foreign accent has some of the sound characteristics of the learner’s native language. These are often obvious enough to make a person’s origins identifiable by untrained as well as trained people. One or two features are enough to suggest a particular language ‘showing through’ their spoken English.

The Native Language

Because of the role that native language plays, there has been a great deal of research in which the sound systems of English and other languages are compared and the problems and difficulties of learners predicted. This applies not only to the individual sounds but also to combinations of sounds and features such as rhythm and intonation. The more differences there are, the more difficulties the learner will have in pronouncing (English).

The Age Factor

We commonly assume that if someone pronounces a second language like a native, they probably started learning it as a child. Conversely, if a person doesn’t begin to learn a second Language until adulthood, they will never have a native-like accent even though other aspects of their Language such as syntax or vocabulary may be indistinguishable from those of native speakers, These beliefs seem to be supported by the many cases of adults who learn to speak a second Language fluently, but still maintain a foreign accent, even when they have lived in the host country for many years.

Phonetic Ability

It is a common view that some people have a better phonetic ability than others. This skill has been variously termed ‘aptitude for oral mimicry’, ‘phonetic coding ability’ or ‘auditory discrimination ability’. Researchers have designed tests which measure this

ability and have demonstrated that some people are able to discriminate between two sounds better than others, and/or are able to mimic sounds more accurately. But every human being, unless hearing-impaired, has this basic ability; if they did not they would not have learned the sounds of the native Language.

Motivation and Concern for Good Pronunciation

Some learners seem to be more concerned about their pronunciation than others. This concern is often expressed in statements about how ‘bad’ their pronunciation is and in requests for correction-both blanket requests (‘Please correct my pronunciation whenever I make a mistake.’) and frequent pauses during speech used to solicit comments on the accuracy of pronunciation. When we talk in terms of ‘strength of concern for pronunciation we are really pinpointing a type of motivation. The desire to do well is a kind of achievement motivation’. Conversely, if you don’t care about a particular task or don’t see the value of it, you won’t be motivated to do well. Learners may also be unconcerned because they simply are not aware that the way they speak is resulting in difficulty, irritation or misunderstanding for the listener.

Causes of Defective Pronunciation in Pakistan

Some of the main causes of defective pronunciation of English in Pakistan are as follows:

Subtitutíng Sounds from Mother-tongue

Sounds in Urdu/Pakistani languages differ from the sounds in English language. However Pakistani students substitute their language sounds for the sounds of English words.

Exaimipie:

Consider the sounds of ‘t’, ‘th’, ‘d’, of these three we find equivalent for ‘t’ and ‘d’ in Pakistani languages but not for ‘th’ sound. This ‘th’ sound is then placed by Pakistani listeners in one of the boxes as illustrated below:

t	th		d
t		d

Lack of Knowledge of Sound

Effective teaching of pronunciation is not possible without the teacher having equipped himself/herself with some background knowledge of phonology and phonetics. This is not to impart this knowledge directly to students but to know what to teach them. Phonology deals with the sound system and phonetics with the physical properties of sounds and their place and manner of articulation in the vocal track. Pupils do not have knowledge of sounds of vowel and consonants, so while speaking they slur over words and pronounce ‘which’ as ‘wich’,

Lack of knowledge ofintonation and Stress

If the learner is not given a proper knowledge of intonation and stress m English language his/her pronunciation is not likely to be effective.

Teacher’s Defective Pronunciation

A Large number of teachers do not pronounce correctly and this has its effect on the pronunciation of student who tries to imitate the teacher considering him/her as ideal.

Mother-Tongue Speech Habits

The mother-tongue speech habits train the speech organs in a different way and because of this it becomes hard for the learner to adjust his speech organs to the new sounds. This is known as ‘retroactive inhibition’.

Lack of Speaking Opportunities

Pakistani students do not get enough Opportunities to speak English and this is also a cause for the retardation in pronunciation.

No Firm Rules

As far as English language is concerned no firm rules are applicable in every sphere of pronunciation.

Lack of Attention to English Pronunciation

Teachers generally lay more emphasis on spelling and ignore pronunciation.

Physical Disabilíty of the Child

Often the pronunciation defect is may be due to some physical defect/disability of some speech organ of the learner.

Shortage of Books on Pronunciation

Books on pronunciation can help students as well as teachers but there is an acute shortage of such books.

Conclusion

We have examined several of the factors which may affect pronunciation accuracy. The question to ask now is: ‘Which of these factors can themselves be affected by teaching and training?

Clearly, we can’t change the age or the raw phonetic ability of our learners, and we can only increase exposure to a certain degree. Nor would it seem that teaching could directly affect the identity and attitudinal factors, although these may be indirectly influenced through their learning experiences, learners become interested in the speakers of the

language and their customs and culture. However, it would seem possible to affect one of the factors we have discussed-motivation and concern for good pronunciation.

A teacher who clearly demonstrates concern for the pronunciation ‘and speaking skills of learners will stand a good chance of instilling a similar concern in the learners themselves. A teacher who pays little or no attention to matters of pronunciation will probably induce a complacent altitude in learners.

Activity–l

Activity–2

INTRODUCTION TO PHONETIC SYMBOLS

English is a difficult language to spell and pronounce. Students are often confused by the strange sound and spelling system of English. The mastery of accurate spelling and correct pronunciation seems a difficult job. But by giving Students practice in recognizing and using the rules, it reinforces some of the patterns which underlie English spelling and pronunciation as well as focusing on the words students frequently have problems with.

But as you know, phonetic symbols are a great help when it comes to learning to pronounce English words correctly. Any time you open a dictionary, you can find the correct pronunciation of words you don’t know by looking at the phonetic pronunciation that follows the word. Unfortunately, learning the phonetic alphabet is not always the easiest thing to do.

In English, many words have the same pronunciation but are written differently with different meanings. For example “to, two, and too” which all have the phonetic transcription /tu/. Sometimes, words can be written similarly but have different pronunciations as in the “ough” combinations thought, though, bough, and through. Another factor in pronunciation is the how the word is stressed. Understanding the phonetic alphabet can greatly simplify the learning process, especially for students who do not have the opportunity to work with a teacher.

Before we go into details we should know the basic symbols for the phonetic alphabet.

Vowels and Diphthongs

Consonants

METHODS/TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION

Important methods used to teach English pronunciation are:

Imitation
Phonetic

Imitation Method

The most important technique in teaching pronunciation is imitation. Students through the process of repetition and practice should closely imitate the teacher’s pronunciation of the word that is taught. As Leonard Bloomfield rightly says, “The Command of a language is not a matter of knowledge … (It) is a matter of practice.”

This method of teaching pronunciation has four important steps.

Perception: The teacher writes the word or sentence on the black-board and gives a model pronunciatíon. Pupils perceive the
Imitation. The students try to pronounce the word or sentence exacíly as the teacher hás This is imitation.

Feed-back: If the teacher finds that the pupil as pronunciation is not correct, he gives feed-back.
Drill: The last step is of It is of two types:
- Group drill and (ii) Individual drill.

However, the pronunciation teaching should not stop at drilling of pronunciation of individual words; it should be extended to the recognition and use of sound features in normal speech. This is possible only if attention is paid on the aspects of pronunciation – intonation, stress, pause etc.

A few key principles in pronunciation practice are as follows. These have been found to be quite useful.

Recognition practice should precede production
But since production reinforces recognition, there is no need to wait for perfect recognition before asking for production.
The sounds to be heard and spoken should be clearly high-lighted in short
But this should not be taken to the extreme of tongue-twisters like Peter
Students should be given the opportunity to hear the same things said by more than one voice as the model.
The English sounds can be demonstrated with other English sounds or else in contrast with sounds from the native language.
The target sound contrast should be shown to function meaning fully i.e. Students should realize that it makes an important difference to their intelligibility to use it

In the teaching of pronunciation, to give model pronunciation, lingua phone can be used. Recording can also help.

Recording is of two types:

(a) Formal, and (b) Informal.

Formal: A model text is recorded by the teacher and is played before Students to
Informal: The imitation by Students is recorded and is played before students to point out their mistakes.

Teaching pronunciation and making the students pronunciation conscious constitute a corrective measure. What is to be born in mind is that though pronunciation is not to be regarded as a separate area of language learning, yet it is necessary that teacher and students give their attention to it from time to time.

Advantages of imitation Method
It is natural method as it is based on psychological principles.
It takes less

It lays more emphasis on

This method can be used for normal as also for a retarded child.

Limitations of Imitation Method
Students imitate the teacher who can be incorrect in
In group-drill, it is not possible to point at the

Pronunciation of every English word is not possible by this method.

To overcome these limitations following steps may be under taken:
1. Teachers be trained in English
2. Lesser number of students be allotted to
3. A habit of consulting dictionary be cultivated amongst the
4. Phonetic method be used-

Phonetic Method

To teach by this method the teacher tells his students about all the 45 sounds of 26 English letters and also tells them how these sounds are produced by different speech organs. He explains rules of producing sounds.

The five steps of this method are:

Recognition of various speech
Making these sounds by the
Using these sounds in their proper places in connected
Learning these sounds in the usages of ‘Sound attribute’ or ‘Prosodies’ (especially length, stress and voice pitch).
Learn to the sounds join each sound of a sequence on to the next and to pronounce the complete sequence rapidly and without

Practice

In the phonetic method, practice of producing correct sound is very essential.

For different consonant sounds, the following tables can be read for practice first down the columns (same sound), then across the columns (contrasted sounds).

Material Aid

The following material aid is helpful in teaching pronunciation through this method;

Charts of speech organs
Position of speech organs during producing different sounds

Lingua phone and gramophone for the demonstration of sounds

Difficulties in Learning English Sounds

There are some major difficulties in pronouncing English sounds for speakers of Urdu language-

The teacher should keep these in view and try to overcome these while teaching pronunciation through phonetic method.

(p) is used for both (í) and (p).
(z) is replaced by (d) or (dz).

(t) and (d) are made with the edge of the tongue

(w) and (v) are confused and an intermediate sound is used for
(e) is replaced by either (x) or (ei).
( ) and (;) are confused and an intermediate sound is used for both

(;) is replaced by ( ).

Advantages of Phonecs Method
It is based on scientific Therefore, there are no chances of distorted pronunciation.
This method develops a feeling of self-dependency in students

The learner can himself evaluate the correctness of his

Limitations of Phonetic Method
It is based on un psychological
It is not proper for mentally retarded students, because it is

It compels student to cram because for many students it becomes hard to understand the sound system and phonetic transcription.

Generally students do not take interest, in learning pronunciation if taught by phonetic
Teachers find this method
It has been found that even after understanding the sound system of English; many persons are unable to pronounce properly.

Since there is no place of practice in this method, students forget pronunciation of many words after some lapse of
This method is not appropriate for little it can only be used successfully with adult students.

It is much time
For teaching pronunciation through this method the teacher must be well trained.
Audio-visual aids are needed, e.g. charts of speech organs, lingua phone

Overcoming the Limits
Auditory Memory should be Auditory memory means to discriminate sounds, to recognize sounds and to remember sounds.
Jones suggests that dictation of isolated sounds can help a

Sounds or another-tongue and English should be

Those sounds should be noted and practiced which are pronounced incorrectly by most of the students.
Tongue Twisters’ should be used to pronounce difficult Tongue Twisters are the groups of words of difficult sounds.

Activity–3

Activity–4

TEACHING OF CONSONANT AND VOWEL SOUNDS

Aspects of Pronunciation

These are of two types vowels and consonants. Vowels and consonants perform different functions in the syllable. Read this sentences there is not any salton the table. Each syllable has a vowel at its center (salt, tab, etc.) and the consonants ‘surround’ the vowel, preceding it and cutting it off. As we see from the word ‘any’, it is also possible to have a syllable with just a vowel (a-ny).

Combinations of Sounds

Sometimes sounds occur in groups. Two consonants occur at the end of the word ‘salt’. When this happens within a word it is called a consonant cluster.

Linkage of Sounds

When English people speak them generally do not pause between each word, but move smoothly from one word to the next. There are special ways of doing this. For example, a speaker saying our sentence will move directly from the ‘t’ of ‘salt to the ‘o’ of ‘on’, and from the ‘t’ of ‘isn’t’ to the ‘a’ of ‘any’. Demonstrate the use of linkage to yourself by saying the following three words slowly, pausing between each word:

not at all

Now string’ them together into a phrase. (Imagine someone has asked you how you liked something, and you want to tell them you didn’t like it one bit, When said in this natural way, speakers don’t pause between the words), but move smoothly from the ‘t’ sounds at the end of ‘not’ and ‘at’ to the vowel sounds at the beginning of ‘at and ‘all’. In fact, when most speakers say the last word of the phrase it sounds like the word ‘tall’.

Word Stress

When an English word has more than one syllable (a ‘polysyllabic’ word) one of these is made to stand out more than the other (s). This is done by saying that syllable slightly louder, holding the vowel a little longer, and pronouncing the consonants very clearly. These features combine to give that syllable prominence or stress. In ‘table’, ‘isn’t’, and ‘any’ the first syllables are stressed.

Activity–5

First of all, you need to understand which words we generally stress and which we do not stress. Basically, stress words are considered CONTENT WORDS such as Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter

(most) principle verbs g. visit, construct
Adjectives g. beautiful interesting
Adverbs g, often, carefully.

Non-stressed words are considered FUNCT10N WORDS such as

Determiners e.g. the, a, some, a few
Auxiliary verbs g. don’t, am, can, were
Prepositions g. before, next to, opposite
Conjunctions g. but, while, as
Pronouns g. they, she, us

Activity–6

Mark the stressed words in the following sentences by placing an upright stroke before the stressed syllable.

I saw your brother
Can I carry your suitcase?
Would you like a cup of tea?
Have you heard about Sajid? He’s going to Lahore
I must be My wife is waiting for me at the corner of the street.

We hope this short introduction to the importance of stress in English will help you to improve your understanding and speaking skills.

Rhythm

English speech resembles music in that it has a beat. There are groups of syllables, just like bars of music, and within each group there are strong and weaker beats. There is a tendency in English for the strong beats to fall on nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs (words that carry a lot of meaning) and for the weak beats to fall on prepositions, articles, and pronouns (words with a grammatical function). If we apply this to our sentence, we get the following rhythm;

There isn’t any salt on the table. Da DA da da DA da da DA da

The following short sentence has the rhythm strong-weak-weak, strong-weak-weak: What do you think of it?

DA da da DA da da

So, it actually has a ‘waltz rhythm’. Weak forms

When a word with only one syllable is unstressed in a sentence, its pronunciation is often quite different from when it is stressed. The definite article, ‘the’, is an example. When said by it or stressed, the vowel will sound like the one in ‘me’, but when it is unstressed the vowel will be quite short and indistinct. The vowel that is used in unstressed syllables most often is schwa/e/. This is the name given to the vowel made with the lips and tongue in a neutral or rest position. It is the vowel sound many English people make when they hesitate during speech (it is often represented in spelling ad ‘uh’ or ‘er’).

The most extreme example of a drastic change in pronunciation in our sentence is ‘n’ ‘t’. This is the unstressed form of ‘not’; it has lost its vowel completely and only the two consonants remain. (These and other similar forms, such as Tm’, ‘you’re’, etc., are called contractions.) When a word has a special pronunciation in unstressed position this is known as its weak form.

ROLE OF TEACHER FOR TEACHING GOOD PRONUNCIATION
- Helping Learners to Hear

Part of the role of the teacher is to help learners perceive sounds. Learners will have a strong tendency to hear the sounds of English in terms of the sounds of their native language. Sounds aren’t like fruit (sound images are different from visual images), but the process of establishing categories is basically the same and each language has its own set of categories. Teachers need to check that their learners are hearing sounds according to the appropriate categories and help them to develop new categories if necessary.

Helping Leamers make Sounds;

Some sounds of English do not occur in other languages. Sometimes learners will be able to imitate the new sound, but if they can’t then the teacher needs to be able to give some hints, which may help them to make the new sound(s).

Providing Feedback

Both the above tasks require the teacher to tell learners how they are doing. Often learners themselves can’t tell if they have ‘got it right’; the teacher must provide them with information about their performances

Pointing out what’s going on

Learners need to know what to pay attention to and what to work on, because speaking is for the most part unconsciously controlled, learners may miss something important. For example, they may not realize that when a particular word is stressed or said in a different way this can affect the message that is sent to the listener. Teachers need to make learners aware of the potential of sounds-the resources available to them for sending spoken messages.

Establishing priorities

Learners themselves will be aware of some of the features of their pronunciation that are ‘different’, but they will not be able to tell if this is important or not. They may notice that something about their pronunciation is not like the way English people do it and may automatically try to change this, but their efforts are misplaced because that feature is a refinement, or acceptable to the English ear, or not essential for intelligible speech. Learners need the help of the teacher in establishing a plan for actions, in deciding what to concentrate on and when to leave well enough alone.

Devising Activities

Learning pronunciation is so complex that the teacher must consider what types of exercises and activities will be helpful. Which activities will provide the most opportunities for practice, experimentation, exploration? In designing activities for learning, teachers must also keep in mind that certain activities suit the teaming styles and approaches of some learners better than others.

Assessing Progress

This is actually a type of feedback-learners find it difficult to assess their own progress so teachers must provide the information. This is especially difficult in the elusive activity of ‘making sounds’, but information about progress is often a crucial factor in maintaining motivation.

ROLE OF SINGING SONGS IN TEACHING PRONUNCIATION

Singing is a fundamental expression of the human spirit. In many cultures singing is a natural activity that accompanies many aspects of life both formally and informally. We all have a natural response to rhythm and melody that can be harnessed to help the learning of a new language. Singing has been used for many centuries as an educational tool.

Songs and Effective Factors

The promotion of a relaxed, light-hearted, playful, low-stress environment, enhances learning. Singing is one of the ways of achieving this environment. Singing is fun. Most students find singing very enjoyable.

Singing and playing around with the words of a song are often accompanied by laughter and joking. These activities promote a warm, relaxed and receptive state in learners. When we are relaxed the part of the brain that creates memory can actually work better Students who feel inhibited about speaking aloud in the new language find singing in a group much less threatening. Beginner learners are very encouraged when they can

reproduce the sounds of the new language in song. The confidence found in this area can be carried over to other learning activities.

Singing and Memory

Memory plays a large role in language learning. Singing seems to be a remarkable way of enhancing the memory and encouraging long-term storage of language. Most people can effortlessly recall whole passages of songs learned many years earlier. Many people can also remember learning with ease information presented in a song, such as the alphabet.

Why is it so much easier to remember language in a song? There appear to be several reasons…….

Songs are usually sung many times, thus providing repetitive practice in the new Transference of information from the short-term to the long-term memory is facilitated by repetition and songs achieve this effect in an interesting way. Many songs contain repetition in them, with recurring choruses and often a good deal of duplication that would be redundant in ordinary spoken language.
Songs stimulate an emotional response. Songs speak to the heart as well as the head and tap into a deep reserve of feeling. This association of words and feelings helps the
Songs tell a Words in a song are linked to form a meaningful whole, Information received in the form of a story is intrinsically interesting and can be related to similar, remembered experiences.
Songs have strong rhythmic, rhyming and melodic patterns. Patterns are easily absorbed into the long-term Rhythmic, rhyming and melodic patterns help to create a kind of memory hook onto which the language of the song is attached, making the words of the song easier to remember.
Singing promotes a state of relaxed receptivity, which is ideal for learning and the enhancement of memory.

Songs as Leaming Actívities

The use of songs is not limited to promoting a relaxed yet lively atmosphere. Songs can be used most effectively as a learning activity to focus on selected aspects of language and to provide repetitive practice of those aspects.

Rhythm and stress: Most English songs provide a natural model of stress, timed The rhythm of the tune emphasizes the stress pattern of the language very usefully. When students tap out the rhythm of a song, the major word and sentence stresses become very obvious. Further, singing in a rhythmic way can be particularly helpful to students whose own language is not stress-timed.
Pronunciation: Songs provide practice in pronunciation in interesting ways, with frequent repetition of words, word endings and phrase patterns. It is much easier to sing a correct pronunciation than to say it. Students who find spoken language difficult can often sing a song without any trace of an
Contractions: Songs often demonstrate natural, colloquial language. They contain many examples of contracted forms, such as don’t for do not or gonna for going to. Songs provide a useful way of introducing these

Structure: A song can be used to focus on an aspect of grammar, such as prepositions and tenses, or a language function, such as making an arrangement. Students can be encouraged to expand their knowledge of such structures by adding suitable substitutions to the song. A song can complement a grammar lesson or be the base for it. All of the songs in Song Talk have a suggested focus on
Vocabulary and Idioms: New vocabulary and idiomatic forms of English can be meaningfully introduced in a song. Often beginners have an urgent need to know the nouns and verbs related to a topic: a song can help them build up a

Since most songs tell a story they are an ideal way of combining the teaching of both form and meaning. The elements of language under study are all part of a finite, manageable and meaningful whole.

Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic Learning Styles

Many Students have a preferred way of receiving information. If information is made available in the way that suits them, then the material they learn is more immediately memorable.

Visual learners tend to prefer reading, auditory learners prefer listening, and kinesthetic learners prefer to do something with their learning in a way that involves movement, such as clapping a rhythm. Many students prefer a mixture of all three styles. Singing provides a means of accessing each of these preferred learning styles in a classroom of students. Songs also lend themselves to practice activities that are both active and interactive, such as games that again support all learning styles.

Group Interaction

People in many cultures sing together to promote harmony, alignment and a sense of belonging. Singing adds this very useful dimension to classroom interaction. It encourages bonding and a sense of cohesion within the group and a warm, open-hearted attitude among students. Students in a classroom spend significant time interacting with and learning from each other. Singing together helps to create an environment where this interaction is easy.

Singing songs also promotes a high level of interest and engagement on the part of the learners (and the teacher). Songs and other enjoyable, low-stress activities such as games and drama promote increased levels of alertness, responsiveness and active participation in students. The time seems to fly and a very positive friendly atmosphere pervades the group.

When to Use a Song

Songs can be used at many stages in the language lesson. They can be used:

At the beginning of a lesson as a warm up and at the end of a lesson as a concluding activity;
As a greeting to the class, such as the first line of lovely day (see p. 14);

As a farewell at the end of a class, such as the song See you on Monday (see 20);
To introduce a topic and to present relevant vocabulary;
To focus on specific structures and grammar points;
To practice and revise language previously taught;
To relax a stressed class before an examination;
As an energizer when class energy is low;
As a change of pace when students need a break from an activity;
As a light-hearted activity for those difficult end-of-the-week

A group of songs might be sung just for fun and for unconscious revision of old material.

TEACHING ENGLISH SPELLINGS

Poor spellings often result from bad habits developed in early school years. With work, such habits can be corrected. If a student can write his/her name without misspelling it, there is no reason why he/she can’t do the same with almost any word in the English language.

Here are a few exercises that can be used to help learners consolidate or discover some of the sound/spelling rules.

The Values o f ‘c’

Give the learners the following two lists of words. Ask them to read the word aloud. When it has been established that ‘c’ can have two values, ask if they can see what the rule is- Prompt them to ‘look at the letter that follows’ if necessary.

List A		List B
Cell	Certain	Cat	Catch
Place	Dance	Cup	Coffee
City	Cycle	Cry	Coin
Policy	Cent	Call	Cake
Decide cinema	Carne	Came	Cost
		Custom	Could

The two ‘ch’ values

(either /k/ ‘chord’ or/t/ ‘cheap’ initially and only /tf/ ‘each’ finally)

Give the learners the following nonsense words. Which of these have two possible pronunciations and which have only one?

Chiep chup poch meech chiht neach choon chiln ach neach chen choad milch

One-value Composite Consonants

(ck ng tch Ïe qu wh ph sh)

Read aloud a list of words to the learners, Such as the following:

Queen quit prolong ringlet mock black photograph whip when stretch wheat whole Dutch epitaph usher, Shop cash equip able

Ask the learners to count the number of sounds they hear for each word then show them a written list and ask them to show what letters stand for each sound, thus:

1 2 3

m a tch

Position Constraints on One-value Compostie Consonants

Look at these nonsense words- which could be English words and which break the rules of English spelling?

Miqu lowh meewh shipson whaply whoy thock queep shasting pick ckall Nequilt nooqu atcho tehert titch phit upsiph ling ngup ngurt mang nong phaiter

A variant of this use of nonsense words is a Scrabble-type activity. Learners are given random sets of cards or blocks with single vowel letters, digraphs, composite letters (say, two vowels and three consonants), and arrange them if possible into a real or possible English word.

The Silent e Rule

To demonstrate this rule learners are given the following pairs of words for oral practice: cut/cute, pip/pipe, mat/mate, fin/fine, etc. Next they are given only one member of the pair, and have to pronounce the other member: us (use), hope (hop), etc.

Single Vowel Letters in Polysyllabic Words

Step One: Using a list of words with the vowel letters ‘a, e, o, and ‘u’ in the stressed syllable, establish whether the letters have their short, or name value, by reading aloud and placing them in a grid like the one below;

	a	e	o
name value	Relation	Completion	Explosion	Confusion
Short	Action	Collection	Option	Discussion

Step Two: For each word, mark off the suffix and indicate the stress pattern: o O o O o

re lat/-tion act/tion

Step Three: Get the students to count the number of consonants following the stressed vowel. Point out the rule (one consonant -name value; two consonants-short value). See if they can spot the pattern, instead of providing it.

Step Four: Point out that the rule works for suffixes with i-vowel and give several examples.

Step Five: Give several words with the letter ‘i’ to show that this rule does not work for ‘i’, (politician/permission/delicious/initial/subscription/vision, etc.)

The five steps that you can tell to your students to improve their spelling are discussed below.

Steps of Improving Spellings

You can tell your students to do the following:

Using the Dictionary

Gel in the habit of using the dictionary. When you write a paper or do your assignment, allow yourself time to look up all those words whose spelling you are unsure about. Do not overlook the value of this step just because it is such a simple one. Through using the dictionary, you will probably improve your spelling 95 percent almost immediately.

Keeping a Personal Speiling List

Either in a separate notebook for spelling or in a specific section in your English notebook, keep a list of words that you misspell.

Activity–7

Use the space below as a starter for words that you misspell. As you accumulate additional words, you may want to Jot them down on a back page of this book or your English notebook.

Incorrect Spelling	Correct Spelling	Points to Remember
A lot	A lot	Two words
Writing	Writing	One “t”
Alright	all right	Two words

c) Learning Key Words In Major Subjects

Make up lists of words central to the vocabulary of your major subjects. For example, a list of key words in business might include: economics, management, resources, scarcity, capitalism, decentralization and so on; in Psychology: behavior, investigation,

experimentation, frustration and so on. Set aside a specific portion of your various course note books to be used only for such lists and study them using the method for learning words described earlier.

Activity–8

Write in the space below the name of one of your subjects and ten repeatedly used terms which you should learn to spell for that subject.

Subject

1.		6.
2.		7.
3.		8.
4.		9.
5. d)	Studymg a Basic Word List	10.

First prepare a list of difficult words and then master the spellings of those words. These words should be the most often used words in English language.

Learning Basic Speiling Rules

A final way to improve spelling is to learn and practice the four often used rules that follow. Sometimes these rules have some exceptions as well.

Rule 1: I before E

Use I before e except after c. for example:

believe deceive yield chief receive receipt field perceive piece grief ceiling priest cashier conceited deceit

Activity–9

Fill in ie or ei in each of the following words:

fr nd
c, ling
br f
mi se f
retr vê
rei vê
rec vê
th f
ach vê
hyg ne

Rule2: Final E

Drop a final e when adding a suffix that begins with a vowel. Keep the final e when adding a suffix that begins with a consonant.

In the following example, the final e is dropped before a suffix beginning with a vowel: Hope + ing ^ss hoping

Bxcite + cd ^ias exicted Believe + able ^aa believable

In the following examples, the final e is retained before a suffix beginning with a consonant:

Hope + less = hopeless Excite + ment =⁶ excitement Use + fui = usefül

Rule 3: Y to I

When a word ends in a consonant plus y, change the y to I when you add a suffix. Here are some examples:

Reply + es = replies Angry + ly = angrily Lazy + ness = laziness Happy + er ^ happier

Rute 4: Doubling

Double the final consonant of a word when all of the following apply:

The word is one syllable or is accented on the last
The word ends with a consonant preceded by a
The suffix you are adding begins with a vowel

Here are some examples:

If you are adding ing to drop, you double the final consonant because Drop is one

Drop ends with a consonant preceded by a vowel. The suffix (ing) being added begins with a vowel.

If you are adding -able to control, you double the final consonant because: Control is accented on the last

Control ends with a consonant preceded by a vowel. The suffix (able) being added begins with a vowel.

If you are adding ed to happen, you do not double the final consonant, because happen s accented on the first rather than the last syllable.

Activity–10

Use the doubling ruie with the following words. 1. big +er = …………………………………………….

Shop +ed = ………………………………………….
swim + ing = ………………………………………
compel +ed = ………………………………………
begin + ing = ………………………………………
forget + fui = ………………………………………
equip + ed = ………………………………………..
repel + ent = ……………………………………….
commit + ed = …………………………………….
ship + ment = ………………………………………

Suggestíons For Teaching Spellings

Accustom students to checking spelling in Refuse to accept slipshod work than a certain number of mistakes, and insist on corrections of misspellings.
Revive old favorites, such as spelling Bees, concentrating on specific problems,

e.g. deceive, leave, believe /i:/. Give simple prizes to the winners. Words with jumbled letters and synonyms or definition e. g. zidraw (wizard), magician etc can be a stepping stone to crosswords.

Use exercise in which students fill in missing letters, e.g. , i_ _med_ _at_ ly, wh_ _

Use fun exercises such as distinguishing between possible and impossible spellings in nonexistent words, e. g, tick the correct items;

midday
bludnotl
negative .
tivepos
Sunday
Wensday

(Answer: 1,3, 5 are correct)

SUMMARY

To teach the spellings is a difficult task. But if the teacher uses the technical ways of improvement of spellings only then he/she can get the desired results. It is better for the students to learn the spelling rules and try to master them by practicing them again and again. In this connection the teacher can help them out by giving variety of exercises based on these rules.

Moreover, the teacher should not be discouraged if he/she is not getting the positive results. Because in our country our children don’t get much opportunity to read books and

open dictionaries. They just remember their lesson by heart and produce it as it is on their examination sheets. No mental work is involved in it. Therefore, being a teacher you should show some tolerance and patience and give time to your students to develop the habit of learning spellings through a logical process instead of just remembering them by heart.

SELF-ASSESMENT QUESTIONS

Do you think our English teachers are not ready to teach pronunciation? If so, what are the reasons for this?
What do you understand by the word “rhythm”?
Think of the ways through which you can teach ‘pronunciation’ in a better
What is the role of a teacher in pronunciation teaching? How can we improve it?
Devise short dialogues to practice weak forms at Matric
Which method of teaching pronunciation is better and why? Give
Can songs be useful in teaching pronunciation in our Pakistani situation? If yes, then explain it with examples.
What are the main ways of improving spellings in our educational system?
Write down the factors that affect our pronunciation
Suggest at least three ways through which we can improve our

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gimson, A.C. (1976). An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English, NY. Publishers. 0’Connor, D, J. (1980). Better English Pronunciation, CUP.

Roach, P. (1983). English Phonetics, Phonology, CUP.

Haycraft, B. and Lee, W.R., (1982). It Depends How You Say It, Pergammon Baker, A., (1982). Introducing English Pronunciation, CUP.

Mortimer, C., (1985). Elements of Pronunciation, CUP.

UNIT–4

TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Written by: Prof. Dr. Rehana Masrur Reviewed by: Dr. Aisha Bibi

CONTENTS

Page #

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 78

Objectives …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 78

Difficulties in Learning Vocabulary …………………………………………………….. 79
Types of Vocabulary ………………………………………………………………………….. 79
Words ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 80

3.1 Meaning of Words…………………………………………………………………….. 81

3.2 Word Use…………………………………………………………………………………. 85

3.3 Word Formation ……………………………………………………………………….. 85

3.4 Word Grammar ………………………………………………………………………… 86

Activity–I ………………………………………………………………………………. 87

Presentation of New Word ………………………………………………………………….. 88

4.1 Word Wall Activities…………………………………………………………………. 88

4.2 Demonstration ………………………………………………………………………….. 88

4.3 Explanation………………………………………………………………………………. 89

4.4 Visual Aids ………………………………………………………………………………. 91

Activity–2………………………………………………………………………………… 92

Techniques for Creating Interest ………………………………………………………….. 94
Examples of Vocabulary Presentation ………………………………………………….. 94

6.1 Realia………………………………………………………………………………………. 94

6.2 Pictures ……………………………………………………………………………………. 94

6.3 Mime, Actions and Gestures ………………………………………………………. 95

6.4 Contrast …………………………………………………………………………………… 95

6.5 Enumeration …………………………………………………………………………….. 95

6.6 Explanation………………………………………………………………………………. 95

6.7 Translation……………………………………………………………………………….. 95

Presenting Sounds of Words ……………………………………………………………….. 96

7.1 Through Modeling…………………………………………………………………….. 96

7.2 Through Visual Presentation ………………………………………………………. 96

Vocabulary Learning Stages in Reading Lesson…………………………………….. 96

8.1 Recognition Stage …………………………………………………………………….. 97

8.2 Receptive Stage ………………………………………………………………………… 98

8.3 Productive Stage……………………………………………………………………….. 98

Exercises for Vocabulary Development………………………………………………… 98
Vocabulary Activities and Games………………………………………………………… 103
Vocabulary Tests……………………………………………………………………………….. 105

Activity–3 …………………………………………………………………………………………. 107

Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 107
Self-Assessment Questions …………………………………………………………………. 109
Exercises ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 110
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………… 112

INTRODUCTION

A vocabulary is a list of words. Language students need to learn this word- book of language. They need to learn what words mean and how they are used. This involves giving the names for things (e.g. table, chair etc.). It also involves showing them how words are stretched and twisted (e.g. to chair a meeting). Some words are taught at lower levels than others, and some may be more appropriate for advance students. The teachers should ensure that their students are aware of the vocabulary they need for their level and that they can use the words which they want to use and/or the words we have selected for them to use. Vocabulary what it means and how it should be taught, is discussed in detail in this unit. You will also study examples of vocabulary presentation.

Learning vocabulary requires adequate mastery of form, meaning and usage. Through this process, the pupils should be able to:

spell and pronounce the words correctly when they use them either in writing or speaking,
understand without difficulty the meaning of the words upon hearing or reading them,
know the correct collocation of vocabulary as well as its connotation or associations,
use vocabulary in appropriate grammatical sentences or utterances, knowing under what circumstances it occurs, the relationships between the mode of the spoken or

These requirements for knowing vocabulary are essential in foreign language learning. Thus the process of teaching/learning vocabulary requires good planning, effective presentation, demonstration and adequate practice by a teacher.

In this unit you will:

OBJECTIVES

Learn what do pupils need to know when teaching:
1. Words Meaning
2. Word use

Formation of word

Word

Learn and practice the procedures and different stages of teaching vocabulary at elementary
Be able to use different techniques in preparing the material for presenting the new word to elementary level
Be able to develop vocabulary exercises for classroom

DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY

We know that the teaching of English vocabulary to bilingual (English & Urdu) Pakistani learners presents additional difficulty to the teacher because Urdu and English are not the same languages. Both have different sentence making and word-formation system; so the teacher will not have the advantage of similarity, which might facilitate his/her task of teaching new lexical items. The teacher has to pay special attention to the form and sound of new words that are different from those of Urdu phonemes.

To overcome the problem in teaching English vocabulary to Pakistani pupils, a teacher should be provided guidelines on how to teach individual words. There are, however, two major issues that influence the effectiveness of teaching English vocabulary to Pakistani pupils. One relates to the competence of the English language teacher, while the other is associated with the communication-oriented approach, which is widely used in Pakistan. We can say that:

An English teacher has to teach a number of vocabulary items included in the English A competent teacher can provide a useful explanation followed by adequate practice. A new inexperienced and inadequate trained teacher foaces difficulty in teaching new vocabulary such new teachers sue incorrect rhythm and intonation, poor forms, idioms and structures. Therefore, teachers must be adequately trained in the usage of new vocabulary in appropriate context.

Communication-oriented teaching has also added a further load to the teacher’s Here the teacher is required to give his pupils, along with the language functions and notions, adequate vocabulary to enable them to communicate effectively in the language. In addition, the teacher is required to contextualize all teaching points through the use of audio-visual aids, stories etc.

TYPES OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY

In teaching English vocabulary, the English teacher has to distinguish five types of English vocabulary, namely;

English for special purpose (ESP);
active/productive;
passive/receptive;
function/structure; and
content

In ESP class the pupils have to learn the forms and to understand the concepts behind words away from real

Productive or active vocabulary is used in every day speech. Therefore, active words should be taught by focusing on the pronunciation, correct form, appropriate collocation and meaning so that pupils can easily remember

Passive vocabulary is not essential for production in speaking or writing. It is meant for recognition and This vocabulary is needed for comprehension. The pupils are not asked to utilize it in everyday speech but recognize it when occurring in context. It may be added that words that are passive in a certain situation or level can be considered active in another context. This feature is not made clear in some English textbooks since all types of vocabulary are treated equally. To overcome this drawback, the teacher has to concentrate on the most useful items for the pupils. He should then handle the remaining items as receptive vocabulary to help improve pupils’ recognition and comprehension.

Active and passive vocabularies are usually called content words because they carry lexical meaning in themselves.

Structure or Functional words are considered as part of the grammatical system of the language since their main functions are grammatical. Unlike content words, structure words are limited in number. Their meaning is mainly derived from the functions they Function words are used:
1. to join parts of structure together into large units as with
2. to join pairs of sentences or phrases as in coordinating conjunctions such as:

but, yet, and, or, nor, and for.

to connect a subordinate idea to the main sentence as with subordinating conjunctions such as: if, although, because, whenever, since, until,

as a sequence signal as with the article ‘the’ which can be used as reference

e.g. An old man was standing at the door.

Function words have high frequency in the language. That is, words like ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘an’, ‘that’, or auxiliaries and conjunctions occur very frequently in any piece of writing in order to make the grammatical structure of sentence.

Content words are closely related to one’s They are also open-ended in the sense that new nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are often joined to name new things or processes.

WORDS

Which vocabulary items students need to know? The decision about what vocabulary to teach and learn will highly be influenced by information we get about words. In this section we will look at words in detail since it is clear that there is far more to a vocabulary item than just one meaning. For a start look at the Figure below, first we must look what ‘meaning’ really is. The summary of knowing a word is given in figure-1.

Meaning of Word

Contextual use of words. The first thing to realize about vocabulary items is that they frequently have more than one meaning. The word ‘book’, for example, obviously refers to something you use to read from (a written work in the form of) a set of printed pages fastened together inside a cover, as a thing to be read’

Figure-1: Knowing a Word

according to one learner’s dictionary. The same dictionary then goes on to list eight more meanings of ‘book’ preposition makes phrasal verbs. So we will have to say that the word ‘book’ sometimes means the kind of thing you read from, but it can also mean a number of other things.

The meanings of a word may change from one situation or context to another. This can be illustrated with the word ‘table’, which has different meanings according to the context and to its position in the sentence.

For example: word; ‘table’

There is usually a table and a chair for the teacher in each classroom (a piece of furniture). There is often a timetable in each classroom (times of classes/subjects and their times). The table does not include codes or symbols (information arranged in the form of a list). It may be surprising to know that the word table has 19 meanings.

It is clear from the above example that the particular meaning of the lexical form depends upon which situation it is being associated with. The English language teacher should take this into consideration when teaching new vocabulary. The teacher must avoid teaching the meaning from lists of unrelated words. Instead:

He should concentrate on appropriate contexts so as to make the connotational meaning of a word clear and easier to Moreover,

All different uses of each structure work should be

Cultural information is closely associated with meaning. The customs, beliefs, and all the other products of the people of the target language constitute an essential part of the lexical system reflected in the collocations of words. When introducing or explaining new vocabulary, the teacher should not neglect such cultural insights; otherwise an important aspect of the lexical meaning will not be learned. For example, French man or English man should be introduced with their cultural dress instead of Pakistani dress.

Word-word association. There are other facts about meanings too. Sometimes words have meanings in relation to other words. Thus students need to know the meaning of ‘vegetable’ as word to describe any one of a number of other things- e.g.

carrots, cabbage, potatoes, peas, onion, etc.

‘Vegetable’ has a general meaning whereas ‘carrot’ is more specific. We understand the meaning of a word like ‘good’ in the context of a word like ‘bad’.

Words have opposites (antonyms) e.g. Public ® Private

Accept ® Reject

and they also have other words with similar meanings (synonyms) – e.g. Bad ® evil

Say ® tell Famous ® popular Receive ® accept

Even in this example, however, one thing is clear: words seldom have absolute synonyms, although context may make them synonymous on particular occasions. As far as meaning goes, the students need to know about meaning in context and they need to know about sense relations.

What a word means can be changed, stretched or limited by how it is used and this is something students need to know about.

Types of Meaning

There are at least four kinds of meaning, which can be differentiated when discussing the semantic content of words meaning and forms. They are lexical, grammatical, connotational and idiomatic meaning.

a) Lexical Meaning

This type is often called the dictionary or denotational meaning, which is common to all speakers of the same language. It does not change from one situation to another. Nor is it affected by personal experience. Pupils can learn it by connecting the form with the

category of things that often accompany it. For example, the meaning of the abstract word ‘devoted’ can be specified by a list of associated words and ideas as follows:

He is a devoted father She is a devoted wife

He is devoted to his work

She is devoted to her children.

Or word ‘work’ can be learned in such way:

Work, work, everywhere work, People work every day Mothers work

Fathers work Teachers work Nurses work Work at home Work at school Work every where

Work, work, work, work.

When teaching such vocabulary, the teacher must improve the pupils’ awareness of any specific lexical items that are associated with it.

b) Grammatical meaning

Grammatical meaning is essential for understanding the language. It is determined by the syntactic relationships within the language or by grammatical signals. The following are two examples:

The girl hit the cat yesterday and the other sentence is;

The cat hit the girl yesterday

The lexical meaning of the word girl, hit and cat is the same in both sentences; yet the grammatical meaning of girl and cat is different because of their relationship with the verb ‘hit’. In the first sentence ‘girl’ is the subject of the sentence. In contrast it is the receiver of the action (or object) in the second, because it bears a different relationship to the verb ‘hit’. But if the main verb is ‘saw’, and not ‘hit’ in the first sentence, the word ‘girl’ will have the grammatical meaning of experiencer rather than the performer due to the peculiar properties of the verb ‘saw’ which are different from those of the verb ‘hit’. It is clear that grammatical signals such as:

the, his, many, several, etc. control meaning and help in discovering the exact meaning of the word. Pupils, therefore, should be taught the skill of recognizing these signals by giving them useful exercises and drills practicing awareness of the grammatical

environment of the work like the following:

There twenty-eight pupils in my class. The student was ed one question.

The replied to the teacher’s .

Intonation and inflections are also determinants of grammatical meaning. They are discussed in some detail in the previous unit, which dealt with grammar teaching.

c) Connotational Meaning

Knowing the lexical and grammatical meaning is not always enough to communicate accurately and appropriately in the target language. There is also the meaning, which is related to the culture of the target language. This meaning is an essential part of the total semantic system. Some words or phrases are associated with special connotations or interpretations, which have developed from personal experiences. Hence, connotations meaning is subjective, unlike the objective denotational (i.e. lexical) meaning, because it carries with it personal feelings, judgment of experiences. For example, the behavior of person may seem to some people ‘polite or good’. Yet the same action can be judged by other people as ‘awkward or bad’ according to their personal interpretations or experience.

However, such cultural insights create a problem to Pakistani learners. English language teachers rarely explain the cultural content or connotational meaning when introducing new vocabulary. In other words, teachers tend to focus on the denotational or lexical meaning at the expense of cultural understanding.

d) Idiomatic Meaning

Idioms, proverbs and clichés are an integral part of language and are extensively used. Therefore, pupils must learn them as part of the vocabulary system.

First of all, idioms and their variations, pupils frequently encounter phrasal and prepositional verbs, so they must be taught as individual lexical items. However, idioms, a special form of collocation, give rise to a problem in learning because they often carry cultural content with them. Their meaning is also vague and cannot be understood from the individual words. That is, the literal meaning of the words do not contribute much to comprehension of the expression. For example, the phrase

‘It was raining cats and dogs’ means that it rained heavily, not cats and dogs which have no connection with raining (Collins 1961, p.14)

Nevertheless, some idioms are less difficult than others because their meanings are more clear. Examples include: look for (try to find), have the upper hand (be in control), keep someone in the dark (not tell someone anything), put forward (suggest) and give up (stop doing something).

Other problems confronting the teaching of idioms are:

The difficulty of grouping them in specific categories, and
the difficulty of recognizing what idioms can undergo changes, as some of them do not alter their structure. For example, the expression ‘turn a deaf ear’ cannot be made passive, It would be ridiculous to say a deaf ear has been turned or will be turned, etc. But some changes are possible. For example, we could say ‘keep in touch, he has been in touch, he will be in touch, ’.

In teaching such expressions it is more effective to indicate what changes the idiom can undergo. In addition, the teacher has to present them as individual lexical items and to teach them in appropriate relevant contexts.

Word Use

What a word means can be changed or limited by how it is used and this is something students need to know about. We often use words only in certain social contexts. Students need to recognize metaphorical language use and they need to understand what stylist and topical contexts words and expressions occur in.

For example. We can have headache, toothache, or stomachache, But, we cannot have a legache, or throatache.

Word Formation

Though English and Urdu are different languages and each has a different syntactic system and formation. There are certain English words in colloquial Urdu (e.g. radio, cinema, computer, telephone, etc.) But these are exceptions. Pakistani learners of English do not have the advantage of same features or similarities in the alphabet, spelling, pronunciation, derivation, affixes, and the like. This has to be taken into consideration when teaching English vocabulary to Pakistani pupils. This is not an easy task for the teacher. He has to describe the words that show:

Internal change in form, g.,

man-men, foot-feet, sing-sung, ride-rode, etc.

External change in form, g.,

happy, happiness, happily, or kind, kindness, kindly, etc.

Both internal and external changes in form, g.

maintain, maintenance, explain, explanation, explanatory, etc.

No change in form but a difference in function, e.g. sheep as singular or plural, records as noun or verb.

The process of word formation is an effective aid to vocabulary building. Syestematic presentation and practice of selected affixes enable pupils to learn an entire system of vocabulary rather than individual words. The teacher should use the lexical characteristics of English to help his pupils make greater use of varied vocabulary. He should make every effort to teach derivational forms or affixes that may be attached to a word.

Knowledge of affixes will help pupils to:

make words from already known ones,
increase their ability to utilize the vocabulary system,
learn words when they are presented for the first time,
understand the basic meaning of other related words if their root is familiar to them, g. define (root word), definition, definable and redefine,
be aware of the correlation between various affixes and their functions and meanings; e.g., -tion signaling a noun, –able an adjective, –ly an adverb of manner, un- signaling not, re– signaling again, etc. and
improve their spelling skill especially in

Words can change their shape and their grammatical value, too. Students need to know facts about word formation and how to twist words to fit different grammatical contexts. Thus the verb ‘run’ has the participles ‘running’ and ‘ran’. The present participle ‘running’ can be used as an adjective and ‘run’ can also be a noun. There is a clear relationship between the words ‘death’, ‘dead’, ‘dying’ and ‘die’.

Students also need to know how suffixes and prefixes work. How can we make the words potent and expensive opposite in meaning? Why do we preface one with im– and the other with in- ?

Students need to know how words are spelt and how they sound. Indeed the way words are stressed (and the way that stress can change when their grammatical function is different-as with nouns and verbs, for example) is vital if students are to be able to understand and use words in speech. Part of learning a word is learning its written and spoken form.

Word formation then means knowing, how words are written and spoken and knowing how they can change their form.

Word Grammar

Just as words change according to their grammatical meaning, so the use of certain words can change the use of certain grammatical patterns. Some examples will show what this means:

We make a distinction between countable and uncountable nouns. We can say ‘one chair’, or ‘two chairs’. There are also nouns that are neither countable nor uncountable but which have a fixed form and therefore collocate only with singular or plural verbs, e.g, ‘people’, ‘the news’, ‘mathematics’, etc.

Then, there are modal verbs like ‘can’ and ‘must’, which the students need to know. When students do not have this kind of knowledge they make mistakes e.g.

‘He said me to come’. (wrong sentence)

‘I must to go’. (wrong sentence)

There are many other areas of grammar that students need to know about: what are phrasal verbs and how do they behave?

How are adjectives ordered?

What positions adverbs be used in?

What we have been saying in this section is that knowing a word means for more than understanding (one of) its meaning(s). Somehow our teaching must help students to understand what this knowledge implies both in general and for certain words in particular.

Activity–1

PRESENTATION OF NEW WORD

There are various procedures of explaining the meaning of a word, most important of which are the following:

World Wall Activities

Teachers can arrange many instructional activities and games to make use of the Word Wall while placing lexical items curricular priorities and student needs will determine, in large part/ the nature of the activities integrated into the classroom. It can be assumed that students will make reference to the Word Wall at other time?/ on their own, when editing their written work/ when engaged in problem-solving activities/ when reading/ and so forth. The incidental learning that takes place as a result or the ever-present Word Wall is likely to contribute to students’ vocabulary learning.

For building the vocabulary of words the teacher may arrange activities in the following categories:

Reading
Writing
Listening
Speaking

Vocabulary Expansion. The teacher identifies a useful word/ which is likely to be unfamiliar to most students/ that is repeated throughout a reading passage. The teacher defines the word and then- puts it on the Word Wall. Students scan the reading passage for the word and highlight it throughout the passage. The class then discusses other contexts in which the word might appear.

Synonyms or antonyms. The teacher generates a set of sentences with synonyms or antonyms of Word Wall entries underlined. Students must replace the underlined word with its counterpart from the Word

Wall.

Crossword puzzles. Using lexical items from the Word Wall, the teacher makes a crossword puzzle. Definitions can be used as clues, or sentences with blanks can be used if context clues lead students to the solution. Software are also available for the practice of crossword puzzles. Which is a very interesting and helpful activity for the expansion of vocabulary.

Demonstration

This technique involves:

Direct In this procedure, a new word is taught by the direct association of its reference with a real object or a picture of that object. Students can also lean from word wall by direct association. This technique is preferable for

young learners or referring words to concrete objects available in the classroom or school environment.

Acting. The teacher may dramatize or mime the situation by means of gestures, dialogues or role-playing to help the pupils understand the meaning of a word. This technique is more applicable in items involving action or movement such as walking, writing, speaking, eating and the

Word These are useful instruments for explaining and practicing vocabulary. Among these games are crossword puzzles, word chains, category words and word-wheel puzzles. Word games can be used at all stages of learning. (Examples are provided in the preceding topics). Here also word wall technique can be used.

Explanation

This technique consists of

(a) Description

The meaning of a new word is taught by describing and defining objects or referents. This can be done by limiting their class function, location, or qualities. The teacher may explain the words beforehand or as they arise. However, the teacher must be careful not to overemphasize word explanations at the expense of other language activities or class time, as this approach will undermine the teaching strategy.

The teacher may leave some words to pupils to guess or infer their meanings from context. He should choose such words carefully; otherwise the process will be time-consuming. It is useful in this respect to explain to pupils how meaning can be deduced from context. The teacher may also encourage pupils to work out meaning for themselves by asking them to look up words in their dictionaries provided it doesn’t take too much of the class time.

Synonyms and Antonyms

The meaning of a word may be explained either by giving the semantic equivalent or opposite of the word. Examples: Bus and truck, stop and go, stand up and sit down, etc.

However, the teacher should be very careful when employing this technique because:

the given meaning might be more difficult than the target word itself;
not all synonyms or antonyms occur in the same situation or can be used in exactly the same way. Examples include; interchangeable words like lift and raise, bright and sharp, etc. Each of these forms has its own connotations usage.

some words have two different meanings, like old, young or new, light, dark or heavy; in these situations, the teacher should explain to pupils which meaning of the word intended.

Homophones

These are words pronounced like another but having different meaning

(Heir, here, hair), (beach, beech), (deer, dear), (fair, fare), (sun, son), etc.

Translation

A new item can often be explained in simple words in the target language. This may not be true in some cases. The word cannot be elicited or its meaning is too difficult for students to understand. In these circumstances the teacher may use mother tongue. This strategy of translation can save time especially at the early stages of learning foreign language.

However, translation should not be used too often.

Context

The presentation of vocabulary items around a topic or a center of interest enhances the process of learning. This is especially the case if the teacher is following a communicative approach. However, the teacher should be careful in the choice of words or phrases to be explained and of the texts he utilizes for this purpose, Thus he should provide the students with short authentic texts, and ensure that they have understood the main points of the passage before discussing words and phrases which are supported by the context to see how they can be related to one another.

There are several techniques that the teacher can employ in the teaching of vocabulary in context. Thus he may:

Ask vocabulary questions about the target word so that students can elicit or guess its He may also ask the class, questions such as:

‘Does anyone know/understand the meaning of this word? Who knows the opposite of this word?

Can you find another word in the passage which means….?’,

or he may provide the class with the meaning of the word or phrase, then ask them to find the target word. In this respect he may help them find the required item by telling them in which paragraph or sentence it is, etc.

List words, which are semantically related and discuss them

Analyze the internal structure of a word or a collocation and ask pupils to interpret its meaning, e.g.: breath-taking, dishonest, friendly, helpful

Give related forms to the unknown item g.: act, actor, actress, acting;

Ask pupils to find out words or phrases that show cause and effect, bad habits, hard work etc.

Teaching such exercises requires a flexible, oral approach to make the lesson lively and interesting and to lead the students to a reasonable guess.

e) Collocation

The teacher can discuss the meaning of new vocabulary by means of collocations. This technique is useful in teaching vocabulary because it arranges words that normally occur together. For example, the word car may involve some words that associate with it such as:

driver, car accident, collide, traffic lights, garage, windscreen, headlight, steering wheel, brakes, etc.

Other types of collocations are multi-word verbs i.e. phrasal verbs, some idioms, compound words (noun + noun, adjective + noun, verb + adverb, etc.), clichés and other expressions.

Students should be encouraged to record or note down normal collocations.

3 Visual Aids

This method involves the use of photographs, drawings, maps wall-picture, flash cards, figures, slides, transparencies, video films, and other illustrations. The significance of these aids is that they present vocabulary in a visual context. One way of presenting new items through them is as follows:

1 Show some objects on a poster, or on a wall-picture, without any writing.

Say the words for each object aloud.
Show the mouth movements involved in saying the
Get students to familiarize themselves with the
Once the students are familiar with the vocabulary, point at the objects and ask the students to tell you what they
Show the written forms on the board.

BIRDS, CLOUDS, TREE, SUN

Point at the objects again and get the students to read the corresponding word from the board.

Activity–2

TECHNIQUES FOR CREATING INTEREST

In teaching new vocabulary the teacher needs to create interest so that the pupils can follow the presentation attentively and enthusiastically. External motivation is very important. Here are some suggestions for making the teaching interesting:

The teacher may draw a picture on the blackboard, or show a figure of the referent. Students try to guess the relevant word and write it on the board (for beginners age 4-5).

Teacher will say: What is this?

If the response is incorrect or there is no response, point to the picture and say: This is a bed. Say bed. Encouraging the pupils to repeat the word.

The teacher can make this exercise easier by giving the first or the last letter of the word for the pupils to complete it. (For age 5 and above). First start from three letter words then move to complex words. E.g.

If the response is incorrect or there is no response then teacher gives the clue e.g.

He may scramble the letters of the new word. Thus the teacher first pronounces the word, then he writes the letters (out of order) on the chalkboard. Students are asked to rearrange the letters of the word in the right

APLEP, LAPM etc

With regard to the form of words the teacher may use prefixes and suffixes to form as many words as possible with root

Examples:

Correct: correction, correctly, corrected etc.

Direct: indirect, direction, directional, directions, directive, director, directorate.

As a teacher what you have to do is write many words on the Quickly say one of the words on the board, a student may be asked to part to it.

Another way is; use the target word in an appropriate sentence. Write the sentence on the blackboard and give the class a number of simple clue words which are normally associated with the target word. Ask the pupils try to guess the word by means of the cue-words, and underline

Teaching vocabulary is clearly more than just presenting new words. This may, of course, have its place but there are other issues, too. For example, students see a lot of words in the course of a week. Some of them are used straight away, others are not. Should we teach some words (which we need for structure practice, for example) and not teach others (which occur incidentally in reading texts, for example)? Is there any way in which we can encourage students to really learn a word? We will look at ‘Active’ and ‘passive’, Interaction with words, and discovery techniques.

At elementary levels it certainly seems good idea to provide sets of vocabulary which students can learn. Most of these early words will be constantly practiced and so can, presumably, be considered as ‘active’. But at secondary levels and above the situation is rather more complicated. We can assume that students have a store of words but it could be difficult to say which are active and which are passive. A word that has been ‘active’ through constant use may slip back into the passive store if it is not used. A word that students have in their passive store may suddenly become active in the situation or the context provokes its use. In other words, the status of a vocabulary item does not seem to be a permanent state of affairs.

Experiments on vocabulary suggest that students remember best when they have actually done something with the words they are learning. There is a great advantage in getting students to do more than just repeat them. Tasks such as changing them to mean their opposites, making a noun an adjective, putting words together, etc.

EXAMPLES OF VOCABULARY PRESENTATION

As a language teacher you must know that vocabulary teaching is as important as the teaching of structure, therefore, we will look at a range of activities, which are designed to teach and practice words and their various uses. We will look at presentation, discovery techniques and practice, etc.

Not all vocabulary can be learnt through interaction and discovery techniques. Even if such techniques are possible, however, they are not always the most cost effective for learning new words. Some form of presentation and /or explanation is the best way to bring new words into the classroom. We will look at some examples.

Realia

One way of presenting words is to bring the things they represent into the classroom—by bringing ‘realia’ into the room. Words like ‘postcard’, ‘ruler’ ‘pen’, ‘ball’, soap, egg, apple, flower, etc. can obviously be presented in this way. The teacher holds up the object (or points to it), says the words and then gets students to repeat it.

Pictures

Bringing a pen into the classroom is not a problem. Bringing in a car however is. One solution is the use of pictures. Pictures can be board drawing, wall pictures and charts, flashcards, magazine pictures and any other non-technical visual representation. Pictures can be used to explain the meaning of vocabulary items: teachers can draw things on the board or bring in pictures. They can illustrate concepts such as above and opposite just as easily as hats, coats, walking sticks, cars, smiles, frowns, etc.

Mime, Action, and Gesture

It is often impossible to explain the meaning of words and grammar either through the use of realia or in pictures, slides on power pint. Actions, in particular, are probably better explained by mime. Concepts like running or eating are easy to present in this way; so are ways of walking, expressions, presentations (‘to’, ‘towards’, etc.) and times (a hand jerked back over the shoulder to represent the past, for example).

Contrast

We saw how words exist because of their sense relations and this can be used to teach meaning. We can present the meaning of ‘empty’ by contrasting it with ‘full’, ‘cold’ by contrasting it with ‘hot’, ‘big’ by contrasting it with ‘small’. We may present these concepts with pictures of mime, and by drawing attention to the contrasts in meaning we ensure students’ understanding.

Enumeration

Another sense relation we looked at is that of general and special words. We can use this to present meaning. We can say ‘clothes’ (Shalwar, pant coat, shirt scarf) and explain this by enumerating or listing various items. The same is true of ‘vegetable’ or ‘furniture’, for example, teacher can say:

From the following sets of words pick out the word which does not belong to the set:

potato, tomato, apple, carrot,
milk, tea, juice, water,
dog, cat, donkey, cow,

Explanation

Explaining the meaning of vocabulary items can be very difficult, especially at beginner and elementary levels. But with more elementary/secondary school students such a technique can be used. It is worth remembering that explaining the meaning of a word must include explaining any facts of word use (see 9.3.2) which are relevant.

Translation

Translation is a quick and easy way to present the meaning of words but is not without problems. In the first place it is not always easy to translate words, and in the second place, even where translation is possible, it may make it a bit too easy for students by discouraging them from interacting with the words.

Where translation can quickly solve a presentation problem it may be good idea, but we should bear in mind that a consistent policy towards the use of the mother tongue is helpful for both teacher and students.

All of these presentation techniques either singly or in combination are useful ways of introducing new words. What must be remembered with vocabulary presentation, is that pronunciation is just as important as it is for structural material. We should not introduce words without making sure that students know how they are said. Not only will this make that they can use the words in speech, it will also help them to remember the words.

PRESENTING THE SOUNDS OF WORDS

Through Modeling

Just as with structures the teacher can model the word and then get both choral and individual repetition. When the teacher is modeling the word he or she can use gesture, to indicate the main stress in a word.

Through Visual Representation

When teachers write new words on board they should always indicate where the stress in the word is. The teacher can do this by underlining, e.g.

Words should be presented in such a way that they make an impression on the students’ minds. That is presentation should be vivid and motivating so as to make students feel that they need the new words.
New vocabulary should be presented in appropriate situations or with the words they normally collocate with as well as with structural environmental signals, i.e. noun and verb signals or with associated prepositions or markers
Students should have a specific understanding of what the new word refers to. That is its denotation and connotation meanings have to be clear.
There must be enough practice in the receptive use of the target words for the students to learn Repetition is also an effective technique especially for young learners. The teacher should check whether the pupils can recognize the new forms and identify their meanings.
Students must practice the use of the new words, especially productive vocabulary, with the correct use of stress, pronunciation and

The teacher should encourage students to record new vocabulary in their note-books for future use. The teacher may provide the class with the equivalent meaning in the mother tongue for each foreign word.

VOCABULARY LEARNING STAGES IN READING LESSON

Besides previously discussed methods, there are several other ways to introduce new vocabulary items. The following are the most appropriate techniques applicable to any vocabulary in a reading lesson:

doze passage
Free writes / speed writes

Journal entry

Recognition Stage

At this stage the teacher presents the phonic form, the graphic form, the lexical meaning and the grammatical position of each new word. He also demonstrates how to associate each new item with certain other words, ideas, functions and subject areas. In these

situations the teacher:

First pronounces the word two or three times with the students listening. They may repeat the word after him if the need arises. A difficult word, however, should constantly be repeated.
Creates a situation, or uses an appropriate context or communicative language function to show how the new word is normally used. He may also ask questions related to the function of the target word or simply make a statement including the item under

Clarifies the meaning of the unknown item through definition, demonstration, visual aids, synonyms and antonyms, or even translation, or dictionary

Shows the visual form of the new word and its collocation. This can be done on the chalkboard or on flash cards such as:

So those students can recognize its spelling and visual configuration. If there is any spelling problem related to the target word, the teacher will draw the pupils’ attention to it. The pupils may then write it down in their vocabulary books.

Receptive Stage

During this stage, the teacher provides the learners with exercises that stress reception rather than production, which may further illustrate the meaning. Furthermore he presents language functions or exercises of different kinds of context in which the new item can be used so as to show the class its connotative meanings, Students should be aware of other meanings of the word they are trying to master especially if it is an active vocabulary item. While using ‘Look and Say’ method, the teacher will introduce the following words:

At this stage, it is also necessary to check their understanding of the meaning. To do this the teacher may ask the students questions and their answers will determine whether or not they have understood the meaning of the relevant word.

Productive Stage

At this stage, the teachers will concentrate on how to use the newly learned word productively. For this purpose he has to provide the class with exercises that help students develop the ability to use the target word correctly in sentences. Students are requested to use it in situation or contexts. As an alternative technique the teacher may ask them questions, the answers to which require the use of the target word. As shown in the picture below:

EXERCISES FOR VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

The teacher can make his teaching of the meanings of words interesting in various ways:

She may ask students to give a single word for a specified meaning or phrase. Examples: An electronic calculating machines that process data and recalls information at very high speeds (computer). – A book or list of names, facts, or telephone numbers (directory).

If the teacher uses real objects, she can wrap them in a piece of cloth and let the pupils guess what the object is by feeling

The teacher can perform an action in such a way as to be slightly ambiguous, and the pupils guess what the meaning

The teacher gives the class a list of words and a list of meanings. Pupils connect each word on the list to its meaning with a line.

Another type of exercise is the use of memory. This activity is used for practicing words that have already been The game goes like this: the teacher shows the students some objects or pictures for one minute, then he puts them away. The pupils write or say the names of as many of the objects as they can remember.

The teacher may use multiple-choice Example:

Please me a telegram

receive b) buy c) send d) discuss

By using games or riddles such as those suggested below:
What do you do: to bread if you want to make sandwich?
How is: a road when it has ice on it? A shoe if you wear it for too long?

Milk when you leave it for a long time?

What is it?

You wear them to cover your legs.

You read it in the newspaper when you want to buy something. You spin it to make a sweater.

Rearrangement of words into sentences is another technique to facilitate learning the specific words and their associates. Example: my, this pen, is. For elementary classes start rearrangement of small, simple and one syllable words for example:

OXB, NPE, GBA

As a variation of this exercise pupils are asked to match words in column A with words in column b and C which are related in meaning. Example:

A	B	C
ICE	ROAD	TRAFFIC LIGHT
SCHOOL	MELT	CLASSROOM
CAR	TEACHER	WATER

The foregoing exercises give a good idea of just what has to be done to ensure learning on the part of the pupils. They are just as sample. The resourceful teacher can think of many more useful and practical exercises.

The best way of developing students’ vocabulary is to give them a chance to encounter the language in authentic contexts, situations or exercises. The following examples are specimens of vocabulary exercises that are useful for vocabulary building. However, the English language teacher is requested to design his own exercises to help pupils increase and develop their vocabulary.

Inference Exercises: Here the teacher may present to his students short appropriate contexts containing the target words. Then he asks them to infer the meaning of these unknown words from the given context. Examples:
1. Synonyms:
  1. I have never seen such a big

It is really (very large, huge).

Indicate the synonyms of the underlined words:

Familiar: close, intimate, fraternal, confidential, chummy. Annoy: irritate, bother, irk, vex, provoke, aggravate, peeve, rile.

Antonyms in brief context:
1. The two boys resemble each other in appearance, but they in behavior (differ).

I have lent Yousif another five rupees; that is the fourth time he has

money from this month (borrowed).

Antonyms formed by using prefixes:

Fill in the blanks with a word beginning with il-,im-,in-,ir-,un-,dis-,which is opposite in meaning:

A B

Direct

Logic

Regular

Honest

Happy

(in-)

(il-)

(ir-)

(dis-)

(un-)

Homonyms:

Homonyms are words that sound alike but have a different meaning and are often spelled differently for example:

My younger brother ate eight biscuits for breakfast.

The exercise will be in the following form:

Direction: Complete the following sentence by using appropriate word;

blue, blew: I have
two, too : These girls are very

Area of reference exercises: These are useful for practicing, revising and developing vocabulary. In such exercises students are asked to make word clusters (or groups or sets) or to match words with others with which they are most commonly Examples:
1. Word-sets:

School: Teacher, students, principal, classroom, playground, library etc. Business: import/export, shareholders, stock market, capital, account, retail, etc. Post Office post man, letters, postage, stamps, scale.

Hospital: doctor, nurse, patient, operation, intensive care, surgery, etc. Classroom: Chairs, desks, bags, chart, chalkboard, teacher pupils, etc. Media: newspaper, television, radio, journals, periodicals, circulars, etc.

Other useful exercises of area of reference are matching exercises. Teachers tell that two small words can be put together to form a new word. This new word is called a compound word. The new word has entirely new meaning.

For example:

STORE	+	HOUSE
A		B
Ice		stop
Police		cream
Post		bag
Sun		flower
Exercise		station
Bus		office
Shopping		fly
Butter		book

Collocation Exercises: Collocation is useful for learning vocabulary since it deals with words that normally occur together. Collocation exercises need not necessarily use difficult or passive vocabulary. One variation of collocation is a completion Examples:

a of cigarettes a of tea

a of beans

a of matches, etc.

Another type of collocation exercise is the completion of expression such as: Swim like

Sharp as Strong as Weak as etc.

Scale Exercises: In such exercises, students arrange given words either in ascending or descending order starting with the largest or smallest Examples:

grape, lemon, orange, grapefruit. 5, 1, 3, 9, 6, 4, 7, 2, 8

room, flat, house, factory.

Gale, wind, breeze, storm, hurricane, etc.

Semantic Field Exercises: These aim at establishing relationships between words in the general area of meaning. One type of such drills is to ask students to give as many terms as they can, belonging to a certain category or area of meaning. For example, the teacher may ask the class to write down all the terms they know related to family relationships, mass media, sports, etc. As an example of family relationships, students may give words like: mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, parents, cousin, nephew, grandfather

As a variation of this type of exercise, the teacher may provide the class with a picture or drawing of an object with numbers on specific parts. Then he asks students to list the target word for each number in the drawing. Suppose the teacher

gives the students a drawing of the human body with certain numbers in it, the exercise then goes as follows:

Number in drawing Term required 1 ……………

2 ……………

3 ……………

4 ……………

5 ……………

6 ……………

7 ……………

8 ……………

9 ……………

Compound Exercises: Here the aim is to produce one form for compound phrases. For example, the form for the person who plays football is football player. What is the form for the person who;

Teaches English (English teacher)

Pays taxes (taxpayer)

Drives a bulldozer (bulldozer driver) Draws maps (map drawer)

Word-structure Exercises: These exercises constitute an effective way of expanding vocabulary and a useful means of inferring word meaning. They involve the use of prefixes and suffixes attached to the root word. The teacher can employ such words in various ways. Thus he may ask students to work out the meaning of affixed forms either in context or by definition. Examples:
1. Give the meaning of the underlined words:

He found a lot of misprints in the book.
People usually dislike humid
She tried to pass the driving test, but she was
One can buy almost anything one needs at a

Find the definition in column ‘B’ which matches the word in column ‘A’.

A B

Trilogy of, on, with two sides

Polymath able to speak many different languages Bilateral series of three related books, plays, etc.

Multilingual a person with great skill in many branches of knowledge.

Finish the following sentences by adding the suffixes –less and –full to the root word:

That man can move the truck, he is power .
Amjad does not take care of his things, he is care .
My foot hurts, it is pain .

VOCABULARY GAMES AND ACTIVITIES

Vocabulary games are essential to the learning process because they:

give students a chance to revise the words they have already learned;
vitalize learning;
create a relaxed atmosphere in the classroom;
motivate students to communicate in English;
Activate reluctant or unwilling

However, vocabulary games require, among other things, careful preparation and organization on the part of the teacher before presenting them to the class. In addition, the students should be aware of the aim of the activity and of the manner in which it is going to be conducted.

There are hundreds of vocabulary games of various levels, objectives and types. The teacher is advised to consult books dealing with such games to choose from them what best serves his teaching purpose. We list here some popular games for general consideration or orientation.

The teacher chooses a five – letter word such as, table, and asks students to write it across the top, putting one letter above each of the five squares as shown in the diagram; then he asks them to write the words noun, verb, adjectives, adverbs down the left-hand side.

T	A	B	L	E
Teacher	apple	bag	Lamp	egg
think	ant	begin	Leave	erase
test	angry	busy	Lazy	equal
tooth	ask	beautiful	Luckily	ear

The teacher chooses a word and asks students to make at least five words from this word, such as, beautiful:

bat, beat, bet, tea, fit, flute, but, bite, lift, tub, eat, etc.,

One student thinks of an object available in the classroom. Then he asks the class what it is. He could say, for example, I can see (or think of) something beginning with ‘M’, what is it?

(map).

A variation of this guessing game is ‘Twenty Questions’ which is well known by language teachers. A student thinks of a person, object or event, which the other students of the class have to guess within a limit of twenty

Students are given a jumble of letter cards; on each card there is a letter of the target word. The task for students is to rearrange the letter-cards in the correct This activity is very useful for spelling as well as for vocabulary.

This game is often called ‘odd man out’ or ‘intruder’. The teacher provides the class with groups of words in the same semantic field but in each group there is one word, which does not belong to the others. For example:

Silver, copper, wood, gold (wood) Traditional, old, modern, ancient (modern)

The students must spot the intruders and explain why they do not belong.

This game is a useful activity. The students try to find as many words as they can, beginning at the top of the wheel and moving in a clockwise direction, as shown in the

(AN, ANT, TOWARD, DIET, TRIP, PAN etc.) (TUB, BAT, TOP, PEN, NET, TEN, NOT, etc)

Other useful vocabulary activities are the following:

Finding antonyms or synonyms of known

Classifying words under appropriate categories, e.g. food, fruit, vegetables, animals, furniture, sports, relatives, flowers,

Writing words that sound the same, room, spoon, noon,

Cutting out and labeling

Preparing lists of words related to touch, smell, sound, feeling, e.g. touch, smell, sound, feeling, g. touch: soft, hard, rough, smooth, sticky, damp, icy, wet, etc.

Preparing recipes, shopping lists,

String words: Teacher says or writes a sentence like this:

I went to market and I bought apples;

Then he asks individual students to say the sentence with an additional word each time e.g.

I went to market and I bought apples and bread. I went to market and I bought apples, bread and milk, and so on. The game can be played alphabetically.

Crossword puzzles: This puzzle is filled with the parts of a house. You can make your own puzzle. Provide clues about the words. Usually pictures of the objects are provided to tell students how to fill the words across and down the cross words puzzle word.

		S
	R
W

	F

								S
				R				T
W	I	N	D	O	W			A
A				O				I
L				F	L	O	O	R
L								S

VOCABULARY TESTS

Tests are necessary to see how pupils are progressing and to check their grasp of lexical items. A good teacher is always assessing his students’ progress either through formal tests or informally by the routine questions he asks in the classroom. In addition, testing vocabulary motivates students to study. It also supplies information. However, vocabulary tests should be valid and reliable to meet these objectives.

The teacher, when designing a vocabulary test, should be aware of what he is going to test, whether he is after understanding words, meanings or producing other synonyms, or both comprehension and production of words. Also the teacher should not make the instructions or the wording of questions difficult or tricky so that students can understand quite clearly what is required, and what is going to be tested.

Vocabulary tests are numerous and of different levels and aims. However, the most common ones that are often employed by foreign language teachers are:

Words and their connotations;

Words and their opposite—antonyms: e.g.:

She tried to conceal her feelings, but her eyes the truth. (revealed)

Fill in spaces (from a list or without),

Complete sentences from option;

Do you (fill, feel, fall, fell) better today?

Synonyms choose the word or phrase that has the same meaning as the underlined word, e.g.:

The play was disappointing to the audience but it was highly appreciated by many critics.

easily rejected (b) violently attached

Word formation; g.: He intends to become a doctor. Do you know what his are? (intentions)

Another type of word formation is spelling of combination, e.g.: happy + ness= happiness

Definitions; g. use one word instead of the underline words. The first two letters are given to you:

Before going to England, a student is advised to find a suitable furnished room to live in beforehand. ac…. (accommodation)

Words and idioms: Choose the answer which best describes the underlined idiom:

Old-man-out; e.g. table, chair, book, sofa, bed (Book because it is not furniture)

This can be either adjectives with nouns, e.g. premeditated murder, voluntary retirement, etc. or nouns with verbs; buy souvenir, discuss topic, etc.

Cloze In such tests, a passage is taken and words are deleted from it at regular interval. The teacher can modify the test by supplying the first letter of each

missing word or by deleting one class of words (nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc.), or by providing a list of the target words.

There are another types of vocabulary tests. The teacher should refer to books dealing with language testing for further exercises and drills.

Activity–3

SUMMARY

Vocabulary teaching is an important factor in English teaching. In our country the teaching of English is based on two elements viz. (a) Vocabulary, (b) Structure. Therefore the new technique of teaching English is based on the mastery of structure and acquisition of vocabulary.

Types of Words

Structure words: these are very important words in English. They have a little meaning in themselves. Their meaning is only determined in the context in which they are They hold a sentence together. Since they have a meaning and they are functioning in a sentence they are called ‘function’ words. They are also known as ‘structure’ words and ‘form’ words. They are pronouns, helping verbs, prepositions, articles, and interrogatives. Function words are taught through drill and practice.
Content Words: These are the words which stand for ‘things’ for action and for ‘qualities’. Active and passive vocabulary is usually called content words because they carry lexical meaning in themselves.

Nature of words and kinds of meaning

Words have more than one meaning. The following aspects help us to understand the nature and meaning of the words.

No similarity of words in different languages

Except for highly technical words, no two words in different languages have the same meaning.

More meaning for one word

In English the number of words having more than one meaning are few. There are four types of meaning for a word , i. e.,

Lexical: It is a meaning of a word as defined in a
Grammatical meaning: The second kind of meaning is syntactical conveyed by the word order.
Connotational: The meaning, which carries personal feelings, judgment or experiences, is called connotational

Idiomatic: The idiomatic words do not convey literal meaning. The literal meaning of the words do not contribute to comprehension of the

Techniques to be adopted for presentation of a new word

The presentation of any new word involves giving students its sound, sense, and the shape. The following techniques are to be adopted while presenting a new word:

It includes showing of actual objects or the performance of actions by the teacher or learner. Word games can be used at this stage of learning.
Explanation: In this technique the teacher gives definitions or explanations in target language (English) itself or the teacher uses the target language word in a definite context. It includes telling the synonyms or antonyms of words giving their meaning in mother
Visual Aids: It includes showing of actual objects or the performance of actions by the teacher or the

Creating Interest:

The teacher is expected to help the students to increase their vocabulary by creating interest while presenting new words:

By using prefixes and suffixes
Scrambled the letters of new words
By drawing the picture on the blackboard or show the picture and write the name with one or two missing
Using target word in an appropriate
Rearranging words into
Using Cross words, word chain, word puzzles

Vocabulary teaching procedures:

Recognition stage: teacher presents the new word in phonic and graphic form and gives the lexical meaning and grammatical position of the new word. Teacher creates interesting situation for familiarizing the students with the new
Receptive Stage: Teacher develops practice exercises. For teaching new words the most popular method is by providing the student with a nearest mother tongue equivalent of it. The other way is to explain its meaning in English or to elicit the meaning of new word from the student.
Productive Stage: The practice should be at productive level as well as the application Productive level means to repeat what the teacher has said and application level means that the practice is given in speaking, reading and writing. People should be asked to solve some exercises to have command of the new vocabulary words. Students may be asked to use the new words in the sentences of their own.

Developing exercises and vocabulary tests

Antonym exercises may be developed by using prefixes
Synonym exercises may be developed by asking students to underline the word which has similar meaning from the given words.
Matching exercises, word sets can be

Collocation exercises are very effective for teaching and testing the learning of new
Scale and semantic vocabulary exercises
Compound and word structure exercises

Vocabulary Games:

Vocabulary games are essential to the learning process. Vocabulary games and activities should be prepared and organized very carefully. The teacher should consult books for creating, wheel games, guessing games, odd man or intruder game, making a word table game, classifying words, sound the same words, string words, crossword puzzles etc.

Vocabulary test should be developed according to the grade levels and learning objectives.

SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

Directions: Encircle the correct answer.

The vocabulary which is used in every day speech is
1. content vocabulary
2. passive vocabulary
3. active vocabulary

The meaning of a word may change from
1. person to person
2. one situation to other
3. one school to other

English words have
1. no meaning
2. one meaning
3. more than one meaning

There are at least kinds of meaning of a
1. 2
2. 3
3. 4

The meaning of a word that are common to all speakers of the same language is called
1. dictionary meaning
2. grammatical meaning
3. Connotation meaning

Idioms are special form of
1. lexical meaning
2. collocation
3. connotation

A technique, which arranges the words that normally occur together, is called
1. Antonyms
2. Demonstration
3. Collocation

A procedure which uses the photographs, drawings, maps, wall pictures, flash cards and other illustration is called
1. visual aids
2. collocation
3. acting

Teacher presents the phonic, graphic, lexical, and grammatical meaning at

stage.

receptive
productive
recognition

Teacher provides exercises to develop the ability to use the target word correctly in sentence is called
1. Recognition stage
2. Productive stage
3. Receptive stage

EXERCISES

1 What are two major issues that influence the effectiveness of teaching English Vocabulary?

2 What are the various types of words?

3 Write a short note on four important types of meaning in English words.

4 What do you think are the most appropriate procedures of teaching vocabulary at elementary levels?
5 What are the main techniques for teaching of a new word? Explain with examples.

6 Which of the following words would you not teach to beginners? Why? orange table car pilot pocket angry companion conductor.

7 How can you create interest while presenting the following words to first grade students:

tree bird nest clouds rain.

8 What words relating to the family would you teach to elementary students? How would you teach them?

9 Prepare a vocabulary test of 10 items for 4^th class comprising the following types of items:

Odd-man –out (three items)

Matching noun with verbs (three items)

Word formation (two items) Classification of words that sound same (two items)

10 Prepare the following vocabulary Exercises for grade-2:

1. Semantic field	2.	Scale
3. Collocation	4.	Word-sets
5. Compound	6.	Word-structure
7. Antonym & synonym

Answers to Self-Assessment Questions

1.	c	2. b	3. c	4. c	5. a
6.	b	7. c	8. a	9. c	10. b

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Harper, Jeremy. (1991). The Practice of English Language Teaching. UK: Longman. Nuttal, Christine. (1987). Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language. London:

Heineman Educational Books

Whitman, A. and Demarest, K. (2000). Communication Works. NJ: Prentice Hall.

UNIT–5

TEACHING READING AND LISTENING

Written by: Prof. Dr. Rehana Masrur Reviewed by: Dr. Aisha Bibi

CONTENTS

Page #

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 116

Objectives …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 116

The Importance of Reading…………………………………………………………………. 118

The Importance of Listening in Language ………………………………. 118

Levels of Listening Comprehension and Activities ……………………………….. 119

General Procedures and Techniques of Teaching Listening …………………….. 121 Problems Faced by Language Learner ………………………………………………….. 121 6. Principles of Teaching Reading …………………………………………………………… 122 7. Reading Readiness …………………………………………………………………………….. 123
Methods of Teaching Reading …………………………………………………………….. 124

8.1 Alphabetical Method …………………………………………………………………. 124

8.2 Word Method …………………………………………………………………………… 126

8.3 Sentence Method ………………………………………………………………………. 127

8.4 Phrasal Method…………………………………………………………………………. 129

8.5 Story Method……………………………………………………………………………. 130

8.6 Phonetic Method ………………………………………………………………………. 130

Choosing the best Method of Teaching Reading ……………………………………. 130 10. Materials of Teaching Reading ……………………………………………………………. 131

10.1 Whiteboard ………………………………………………………………………………. 131

10.2 Flash-cards ………………………………………………………………………………. 131

10.3 Pictures ……………………………………………………………………………………. 131

10.4 Actions ……………………………………………………………………………………. 131

10.5 Substitution Table …………………………………………………………………….. 132

10.6 Games……………………………………………………………………………………… 132

Activity-2 ………………………………………………………………………………… 133

Types of Reading ………………………………………………………………………………. 134

11.1 Intensive Reading ……………………………………………………………………… 134

11.2 Extensive Reading…………………………………………………………………….. 134

11.3 Loud Reading …………………………………………………………………………… 134

11.4 Silent Reading ………………………………………………………………………….. 135

Speed and Comprehension in Silent Reading ………………………………………… 136
- Activities to Develop Speed and Comprehension ………………………….. 137
- Exercises to Improve Skills in Reading and Comprehension ………….. 137

Planning a Reading Lesson …………………………………………………………………. 139

Activity-3 …………………………………………………………………………………………. 140

Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 140

Self-Assessment Questions …………………………………………………………………. 141

INTRODUCTION

Communicative abilities can be classified as receptive and productive skills. The former includes listening and reading, while the later comprises speaking and writing. Although they will be treated separately, they are interdependent. Thus one may listen, and speak or write, or read and write, and so on. In this unit we will discuss some basic principles that apply to both reading and listening, despite the fact that the activities are performed with different media (written and spoken text) there are underlying characteristics and skills which apply to both when being practiced by native or non-native speakers of the language in question.

Reading can be described as the process of extracting meaning from written or printed material. That is, the ability to decode meaning from graphic symbols. Reading involves the recognition of the alphabetical system, the correlation of the graphic symbols with formal linguistic elements, as well as intellectual comprehension and mechanical eye movement. Thus the main purpose of reading is to understand the meaning of:

word
relationship between ideas

For doing this job efficiently teacher must know the types, methods, stages and techniques/skills of teaching reading, that lead to better comprehension.

Teacher must be able to structure the reading activities in the light of principles in order to develop better understanding of reading content.

OBJECTIVES

In this unit you will:

Understand the importance of teaching listening and reading, and to identify the problems faced by language

Learn the principles of teaching

Be able to understand the basic readiness reading skills for teaching reading English at elementary

Learn and apply the different methods of teaching Reading in the light of principles of

Be able to distinguish among different types of readings and prepare reading material for elementary

Learn the skills and techniques for developing reading speed and comprehension at elementary

Be able to develop exercises and organize activities and plan reading lesson for improving reading

Understand the requirements for listening

Learn and apply the levels of listening

Understand the general procedures and techniques for teaching listening

Be able to test the listening

THE IMPORTANCE OF READING

The main goal of teaching Reading is to train pupils to read efficiently and get information and meaning from the material with full understanding. Besides this general aim, there are other reasons for reading such as the following:

It helps pupils to understand basic linguistic forms — phonemes, words, structures, sentence patterns and language functions.

It helps pupils to recognize visual symbols, appreciate rhythm, and familiarize them with English spelling and improve their

Reading at elementary stage takes the form of oral practice or rote recitation, and pupils usually read aloud, words, sentences, short paragraphs, simple dialogues, songs and the

After grasping the essentials of sound symbol relationship and having mastered the basic techniques of reading, pupils are guided to read. The objective is to develop their ability to comprehending specific information implied to the reading

Reading helps pupils to select what they wish to read. Here, reading skills have practical or recreational purposes. People may sometimes read books, magazines, newspapers, and journal either for enjoyment or to acquire general

Reading is a window through which learner can see other cultures and gains more general or specific knowledge.

IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Aural comprehension is the skill of listening, understanding and responding in an appropriate way. This skill provides the information for learning a foreign language. Listening is a vital part of the language acquisition process. Unless the learner hears accurately and understands correctly, he will not be able to respond adequately.

A lot of reading and listening improves the language learning. In other words, one of the main advantages of listening and reading for students is that it improves their general English level. The teacher’s task is to improve opportunities for the pupils to listen to living English used in everyday situation. In this regard a lot of practice in listening is needed in order to increase the keenness of hearing so that pupil can:

distinguish sounds, words, and
associate meaning with

infer meaning from speakers discourse.
process
understand conversational English in all kinds of speech
understand, evaluate, organize, take notes, and retrieve

In our schools listening comprehension is less stressed skill in the language classroom. The skill is often not taught and practiced at all in English classes. As a result after seven or many years of schooling our graduate find it difficult to listen adequately the target language, although they have a good grasp of grammar, vocabulary reading and composition.

LEVELS OF LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Training pupils in listening comprehension involves three levels of activity:

Elementary level: at elementary level, pupils learn to identify sound patterns, meaning of words, phrases or expression and to recognize grammatical elements or communicative

Secondary level: at this level the pupils practice aural comprehension to select from short conversations the elements which gives the gist of a message.

Advanced level: at this level aural material is used to deduce meaning or outlines from a lengthy spoken message.

The following model activities may stimulate teachers to produce their own. They are sequenced to meet different levels of learning.

Listening for stress, rhythm, and intonation. Lively dialogues and the normal conversations in English are useful to familiarize pupils with the sounds or features of pauses, stress, rhythm, intonation and emotional overtones (e.g. anger). These are important because of their effect on the spoken language as opposed to the written form which the pupils may already
Games and competitions are another kind of listening exercises which help pupils recognize the sounds of words, word classes, word meaning, idioms, colloquialisms, false starts, etc. Activities that require quick word recognition are useful in sharpening listening skills, therefore pupils should have frequent exercises in the phonological, syntactic and semantic codes of
Closely related to word recognition is identification of key words. In this activity, pupils listen to a single sentence, and then they are asked to give orally, or to write, the key words subject, verbs, object, and other For example:

“The boy went to market to buy fruit: Key words to be identified would be, boy, market, buy, fruit. This simple activity develops the listening skill because it encourages pupils to focus on key words so as to grasp the basic message, and to disregard less important information.

Another listening comprehension activity is This technique is an excellent exercise to call pupils’ attention to the occurrence of words in sentences, and expand their knowledge of vocabulary. The procedure of giving the dictation goes like this:
1. Pupils listen to the word, sentence, or passage read by the teacher or on the tape) at slow to normal
2. Then the passage is read with pauses for pupils to When it is completed pupils are instructed to check their dictation as they listen to the passage for the third time.

Another technique to help pupils record what they hear for retention is multiple-choice exercises where they are given a sentence orally, and required to match one of its words from options provided.

Listening for drawing. This activity requires vocabulary related to shape and orientation and some preparation. The procedure is simple. The teacher tells the class to draw figures and objects in certain specified places and ways in order to produce a particular picture. No gesturing is allowed. When the task is finished, pupils can compare their drawing with the original. If the competition is desired, the pupils whose drawings are closest to the original can be granted marks.
Listening to dialogues; another useful technique is the use of short taped conversations or dialogues of English talking in everyday situations. For this activity, the following procedure is recommended:
1. the pupils listen to the recording, answer general comprehension questions and discuss new
2. The pupils listen to the recording for the second time, and write down interesting and useful
3. The teacher discusses with them functions and expressions, correct
4. Finally, pupils working in pairs may try to write a dialogue similar to the one they heard by the teacher or on tape.
5. Radio, videotapes and films: Using radio program and videotapes are sources of language This technique requires careful preparation and specific guidance. Before showing the film, the teacher tells about the background of the film and some explanations about the topic. The teacher gives the pupils some questions to answer about the incidents and events of the film. After that teacher shows the class the film for the second time. If time allows, she may conduct a class discussion by using the material of the film as the topic of the discussion. If the necessary equipment is not in the class, the teacher can assign pupils to listen to the broadcast of the radio station, or to

watch a television documentary and take notes and record opinions to be discussed later in the class.

Listening for gist: In this exercise pupils listen to a passage with the aim of extracting main idea from They are not expected to concentrate on specific words, or phrases or secondary information. The procedure for this activity is simple. The teacher plays the tape only once. Pupils then tell her in short sentences what the passage is about. The objective is to help them become good listeners. Pupils can make notes as they listen so that they can retell, in their own words, what they have understood and can remember. If the passage contains a problem that can be solved by the pupils, the teacher may conduct a class discussion using the notes taken by the pupils while listening to the material.
Other Techniques There are many other activities of listening Here are some of them:
1. Telling a story and asking pupils some questions about
2. Reading a poem, a passage or playlet and asking pupils to state specific

Stimulating telephone

Conducting mock interviews, and writing ideas and
Listening to news bulletins on the radio or watching television

GENERAL PROCEDURES AND TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING, LISTENING

The preceding section presented various ways of teaching listening comprehension which depends on the type and aim of each aural exercise. There are other steps that should be taken into consideration in the teaching process. These procedures are necessary to the presentation of any listening activity. They are as follows;

The listening material should not include structures and vocabulary beyond the pupils’ level of proficiency.
Before presenting the listening material, the teacher must tell the class the purpose of the activity, the nature of the task they are going to undertake. She should give the brief introduction to give them a chance to anticipate what they are about to

The number of time pupils need to hear the passage depend on the length and difficulty of the passage, the nature and purpose of the set task, and the level of the pupils’

Pupils may work on the required task as they listen to the selection.
When the pupils have completed the required task, the teacher may either read the answers to them or provide an answer key and have them correct their own
The teacher must check the pupils’ progress in order to help them deal with the difficulty of the listening material or the questions to be answered

PROBLEMS FACED BY LANGUAGE LEARNER

Language learner may encounter difficulties with sound symbol relationships. In English there is not a one-to-one correlation between the sound and the written

Examples are:

The sound of ‘c’ in word like ‘car’ (kar), ‘core’ (kor) or ‘city (siti);

There is also problem of reading directions. Urdu is read from right to left, the opposite direction to English.

Cultural aspects are another problem, which requires guidance on the part of teacher when training the pupils in the reading

However, pupils should not start any kind of reading before they are familiarized with the material that they are about to read. A child is not expected to read words he has not heard and said several times. He must not be overpowered at the beginning. Instead, he must be given graded material beginning with pictures to identify the reading of simple sentences, paragraphs, and short passages. The vocabulary and content should be of some relevance to the pupils environment and interest.

PRINCIPLPES OF TEACHING, READING

Teaching, reading in English, like the teaching of reading in vernacular, demands the initial activity of oral preparation. The other principles of teaching reading at elementary level as follows:

Reading in grade one and two should be devoted to the gaining of oral control of many basic structures of

The transitional material prepared should be presented to the pupils through the use of chalkboard, flash cards, charts

In the first few months the use of textbooks should be avoided in the teaching of reading in English. The transitional material should be used. Charts, Chalk board, and flash cards can be used during the transitional period, or before the

The teaching method to be used should be based on the goal of reading for a particular
In the teaching of reading, real understanding should be stressed more than speed. In other words, the teacher must not overlook the development of comprehension over speed.

The teacher should prepare teaching aids like flash cards and charts to make the reading more meaningful and interesting to the

Environmental activity should be made an integral part of reading at elementary Drills on words, phrases, and sentences are recommended.

Teacher should make use of songs, games, and rhymes to make learning more interesting and pleasant to the learner.

The teacher should motivate the teaching of the letters of the alphabets by using meaningful stories, songs, poems, and other pictorial

The teacher should teach the pupils to make quickly the letters of English alphabets but should not tell them at the beginning the names of the letter. This is done because the pupils may not learn wrong association between letters and their sounds which results in spelling

Teaching of reading starts not by reading the letters of the alphabets but by teaching words as a whole.

READING READINESS

This stage starts with the beginning of grade-1. This is often called the getting ready or maturing period. The concept of readiness for learning is basic to all instruction. This concept is based on the principle that effective learning can take place only when the learner is ready for it. Readiness refers to the condition of the learner in terms of his capacity to profit from instruction. Readiness is closely related to the concept of maturation physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual. It can be said that pupils learn effectively only when they are ready to learn, when they possess the necessary background, abilities, habits, skills and interest in learning. This stage covers reading in grade-1 and grade-2. Reading readiness can be developed systematically. The following activities can be utilized in developing reading readiness.

Using excursion or field trips to interesting
Naming and interpreting
Teaching the names of objects found in the
Presenting pictures or object to gain
Learning to identify colours, names and simple number concepts.
Singing songs and reciting
Learning to hold a pencil open the textbook turn
Writing new words in their vocabulary
Reading items on display boards, charts
Interest in copying English words, captions, numbers, sayings, mottoes,
A curiosity about learning letters, words, captions, labels, numbers, , which pupils can see around them.

Eagerness to follow the lines of print as others read from books, charts etc.
Labeling objects or pictures found in the classroom.
Working out puzzle
Engaging in rhymatic activities like games, acting and
Playing language, colour, and matching
Filling up blanks with letters, words, and the

An extensive reading approach:

Benefits of extensive reading

Material selection
Cultural consideration
Orientation
Extensive reading and writing

METHODS OF TEACHING READING

Important methods of teaching reading at elementary level are:

Alphabetical method
Word method
Phrase method
Sentence method
Story method
Phonic method

8.1 Alphabetical Method

The method starts the teaching of reading by using the letters of alphabet as the first teaching method. It is also called the ‘ABC’ and ‘spelling’ method. It is used in west as well as in east.

Procedure:

Following steps can be taken to teach by this method:

The pupil is taught the names of the letters of the alphabets one by one, until the pupil can identify each letter, repeating ABC…………….XYZ until known by And pupil is able to recognize the learned letter in all forms E.g.

Then the pupil is taught to combine the consonants with the vowels in order to form syllables like

ba, da, di, la, ma, po, ko, ab, ri, and so on.

Once he has mastered the syllables, he can combine the familiar syllables into familiar

Combine words into phrases and

Reading passages Thus the procedure is:

Letters® words ® phrases ® sentences.

The following steps are considered while teaching reading by alphabet method;

First step Motivate the teaching of letters by using songs or rhymes which

interest the pupils. Pictures may also be utilized in this step.

Second step Present and teach the names of letters one by one. When letters have been presented properly, their names are used into songs.

Third step introduce familiar words into pupils speaking vocabulary.

Fourth step Reading of words which are composed of familiar letters. Pictorial devices may be used in this step to make reading more meaningful to the pupils. Example:

Word Method

At the word level, the concern is with the association of form and sound symbol., spelling, and sound.

Procedure:

In this method the whole word is given for reading from the beginning. Words are presented with the help of audio visual aids. Teacher may use the picture of ‘apple’ with the word ‘apple’ written under it. When using flash cards the teacher first sound name , which the pupils repeat it. She then shows the card and repeats its sound. The class repeats as group and as individuals. The word is tested by showing any card for a short time until some pupils say the right sound. The teacher repeats the sound, and class or group repeats after her. For example teacher shows the ‘bag’ and writes the word on the blackboard. The pupils are taught to read it at sight by associating it with the accompanying picture. E.g.

BAG

This method is also known as “Look” and “Say” method or ‘See’ and ‘say’ method. It follows the following principles:

Word is the smallest unit of
Presenting complete word for learning is
A word has its own characteristics for it helps the eyes in recognizing
The basic units of thought are words and accompanying picture or actual object or another audio visual aid helps in
The word repetition of the word by looking at the picture and blackboard enhances the learning of that

This method is considered better than the alphabetical method on the basis of following advantages.

Advantages

Learning by this proceeds from simple to complex .
It is a natural method.
It proceeds from concrete to abstract.
It is an easy
It proceeds from known to
It is based on the human psychology of learning by

Disadvantages

All words cannot be taught by using pictures of real objects.
Only one word is taught at a time. Therefore, it is a slow
Some words alone cannot give same Many words present different meaning in different context. Like:

‘TABLE’…………….. TIMETABLE, MATHEMATICAL TABLE etc.

Despite these limitations many scholars recommend this method.

Sentence Method

This is the next stage of word method.

Procedure

At this level the teacher gives pupils’ practice to read sentences. The pupils may read sentences from dialogue materials familiar to them, for the sake of meaning intonation and stress. The tape recorder helps in this respect. The teacher must see if the pupils are repeating meaningful segments. Word reading should also continue. This method is just opposite to alphabetic method. Sentence is the unit of speech. Therefore, it is adopted as a unit of reading. The following activities provide techniques for teaching reading at elementary stage:

The teacher shows or draws the pictures of familiar words in their order of

First of all teacher selects a sentence and teaches it by conversation. Then he shows the flash cards with a picture on it and writes half sentence on the chalkboard and asks the pupils to complete with the help of picture.

Example:

Asking pupils to read sentences with words they already This can be practiced by cue cards (i.e. cards with a word on each) which pupils place in the desired order.
The teacher writes sentences on the chalkboard or on overhead transparencies for pupils to

Pupils may practice reading sentences in the class with the teacher or with cassette/ tape-recorder etc.

Teacher does many exercises of reading by selecting words from the sentences. Thus the procedure of this method is :

Sentence Phrase Words Letter

Songs are an excellent technique for improving pupil’s pronunciation, rhythm, and They create pleasure in the classroom and stimulate the learning of the foreign language. Moreover they offer a pleasant way of practicing or reviewing vocabulary.

For example:

Advantages of Sentences Method

It facilitates listening and speaking.
It develops the eye-word

It helps to develop listening and reading

It makes use of visual aids.
It is a natural method.

Disadvantages:

Teaching of alphabetic through this method is
It is time consuming

This method requires trained and experienced

The readers find it difficult to read a sentence without the knowledge of words and

Phrasal Method

A phrase is a short sentence or expression that acts as an adverb, telling the reader when something happened. It is a combination of word and sentence method. It is based on the assumption that phrase convey meaning:

Procedure:

The teacher prepares a list of phrases and write on the He can present phrases with other material aids like flash-card, pictures, charts etc.
The teacher reads the phrase and pupils repeat it several times.

Advantages

Phrases are more interesting than
Rapid growth in learning/teaching has been found by this

It helps in extending the eye-span.

Disadvantages

Like word methods all phrases cannot be taught by using
It places emphasis on meaning rather than on

It is not recommended for first three stages of elementary

Story Method

It is advanced stage of sentence method.

Procedure:

In this method elementary level pupils are told stories in four or five
The story is illustrated with the help of pictures.

Pupils are made able to recognize the words first and then

Before recognition stage pupils are required to learn the story by heart and then read

Advantages

It helps to create interest in
It gives a complete unit of thought

Disadvantages

It encourages guessing in the
It fails to develop a habit of reading

It puts a heavy load on the memory of students.

Activity-1

CHOOSING THE BEST METHOD OF TEACHING READING

One approach to teaching beginning reading in English is the use of Global or Context method. The Global or context method can be best in teaching beginning reading in English in primary grades. In these methods, the sentence is made the unit of recognition, instead of the words or letters. In Global method short and simple sentences are presented orally first in order that the pupil may understand the meaning; hence making reading meaningful to learner. This oral presentation of the sentence or sentences is followed by a written presentation on the blackboard or the chart. The sentences are read several times by the individual pupils. Then the sentences are broken into words, phrases, and syllables. Every single word or phrase is first introduced and developed before it is read. That is followed by a drill.

MATERIALS OF TEACHING READING

Various types of materials that may be used by the teachers for teaching English reading as follows:

Whiteboard

It is a useful aid. All methods of teaching reading in English made use of whiteboard. Words, phrases and sentences are read from whiteboard every day.

Flash-Cards

Teacher can prepare flash cards to show pictures, words, phrases sentences etc.

For Example prepositions like on, in, under can be taught with the help of flash cards. See the flash cards:

Pictures

Teachers should make simple and interesting arousing pictures. Teachers should take this point as important and integrated part of teaching. Without which teaching of reading is meaningless. Especially noun (all types) can best be taught by pictures.

Actions

Teacher must perform some actions before the class or ask class to do so. For example the teacher puts the pupils in pairs and asks them to tell each other:

Substitution Tables

Teacher can take the help of substitution method to teach reading.

For Example:

He She	as		Apple
I	am	Eating	Fruits
We You	are		Cake

Substitution tables prove very efficient for teaching tenses, vocabulary, and reading.

Games

Teacher can also make use of certain games in teaching reading. For example:

Matching parts of sentences or matching sentences with the pictures for example:

Matching words of column A with column B for example:

A B

Police book

Note room

Class stop

Bus station

Ice man

Brave cream

Game is an important skill for teaching reading games can be organized by dividing students into two teams. An equal numbers of questions and answer cards are placed on the table into two separate bundles. One of the member from team A takes up the question card and flash to team B then a member of team B may pick up an answer card. If the answer is correct then the team B scores a point. In this way the game proceeds. Such games make lesson

Activity–2

TYPES OF READING

There are four main types of reading. And these four types falls into two major categories:

Intensive Reading

It is a classroom activity carried on under the guidance of
It is mainly concerned with text and involves focusing upon new words, structures, expressions, functions, and

It is carefully guided so that thorough understanding of the content may be

Intensive reading is a part of loud

Extensive Reading

Extensive reading is usually done at home for pleasure. It is also called silent reading.

Extensive reading is done to acquire general information.
It is usually done at home or in the library for

It has the supplementary role in the process of learning a foreign

The material takes the form of short stories, novels, poems, magazines, and

Loud Reading

This type of reading is also known as oral reading. It falls in the category of Intensive Reading.

This type of reading starts with the early stage of learning to read foreign language. The purpose of loud reading is to:

enable the students to read with correct pronunciation, word stress, pauses, intonation and understanding.
stimulate the rapid association of sound-word.

enable students to read with

understand the meaning
prepare students for effective silent

In conducting a reading loud activity the teacher is advised to consider the following points:

While the books are closed, the pupils listen to the text recorded on a tape. This form may be called Undivided Model Reading.
After that the teacher reads the passage sentence by sentence with pupils repeating after each sentence. This form is called Divided Model Reading. It ensures more participation on pupils part because they read after their teacher instead of listening This technique allows the best pronunciation, rhythm and intonation to be followed at once by the pupils.
The next step is individual reading. Good pupils may start first so that they may provide examples for other classmates who will have a chance to read the passage.
During individual reading, the teacher may ask other pupils to correct mistakes made by the reader. This method encourages pupils to listen carefully and to follow up the
Individual student should not read the whole passage or for a long time. Other pupils should be given the chance to participate in reading
Choral reading is recommended for improving
The passage to be read aloud should be short, complete and topical.
While reading pupils should not be interrupted by question about points in the Question may be asked at the end of the activity.
Conversation or dialogue passages must not be read by one Such passages are to be dramatized. The teacher assigns the role of part to each pupil.
Finally, the activity of the reading aloud is not to be carried on for a long time in

order to avoid boredom or sacrificing other more important language skills.

Advantages

It is a natural Which actively involves all students in the same activity.
It trains sensory organs such as, eyes, ear, and mouth etc.

It develops the skill of speech with correct pronunciation, intonation and word

It develops comprehension level and speed of

Limitations

Allowing too much loud reading makes the reader habitual, which stops him from becoming an extensive reader.
Younger children cannot sit passively while other classmates doing loud They pay no need to what the other student is doing.

This method has more advantages than its limitations, therefore it is not possible for a teacher to ignore this method

Silent Reading

This type of reading is done for understanding and comprehension. It is a very important skill that needs practicing by pupils. Teachers of elementary level must develop the habit of silent reading as early as possible. This skill requires more teacher guidance and assistance in the early stages of learning the language. It should be introduced only after the new words have been learned.

Procedure

Pupils are asked to read a passage
Pupils are helped in right sitting position, the proper distance, and the right eye movement to increase the span.

To attain the increase in the eye span pupils are required to read the passage within given

Silent reading under pressure of time makes pupils force themselves to read
Pupils should not be allowed to make sound, whispering or moving lips while
The question should have logical

Teacher should first ask easy questions then difficult one.
The structure of question should be in the following manners:
1. Question should be answerable by ‘yes’ or ‘no’, or ‘true’, ‘false’.
2. Information questions (who, what, where, when, how much, how many, how long) should be answerable directly from the
3. Question (why or how) requiring the pupils to draw ideas from the
4. Inference questions: Answer of such questions are not stated in the
5. Questions that require the pupils to form an

The words and expression selected for special study should be written on the chalkboard, explained and used in sentences by the teacher.

When to Start Silent Reading:

The right time to start silent reading is:

When the pupils have practiced basic structure of the
When the pupils are able to recognize words.
When they are able to pronounce words

Advantages of Silent Reading

It is time
It saves energy as
It develops the ability to read with
It is useful for later It prepares the pupils for future learning.
It develops the habit of self and deep

Limitations

If planned properly according to the above cited procedure then it is useful despite of the following limitations.

It is not suitable for Young pupils cannot sit quietly for longer time.
It cannot be checked if pupils are actually

SPEED AND COMPREHENSION IN SILENT READING

To promote silent reading successfully, speed and comprehension must be considered. The development of speed, accuracy and depth of comprehension is important of the reading program at any grade. Every reading activity must observe speed and comprehension. The greater the speed the greater degree of comprehension, it means speed of reading and degree of comprehension go side by side. The speed, accuracy, and comprehension depend on the readability of the material. The first reading of unfamiliar material does not produce rapid association and thorough understanding. The elementary school pupils should be trained to comprehend accurately with reasonable speed. Many linguistics has suggest the following standards for testing the speed of reading:

Grade II 50 Words Per minutes

Grade III 90 Words Per minutes

Grade IV 140 Words per minutes

Grade V 170 Words per minutes

Grade VI 200 Words per minutes

Grade VII 230 Words per minutes

It is observed that if a grade II pupil’s speed is below 50 words per minutes at the end of the year, it is suggested that teacher should review his teaching procedures and techniques.

Activities to Develop Speed and Comprehension

There should be systematic practice for the development of speed. The following activities are suggested in developing speed in reading:

Provide systematic flash-card drill on words and
Producing words or phrases seen in one glance.

Showing the pupils how to read by

Rereading easy material under time
Providing pupils with easy and interesting reading
Reducing the amount of oral

Training in self- correction of the errors.
Giving specific questions to guide silent

Directing attention to most important points.
Directing attention to the sequence of
Unlocking difficult words in different

Using the same word in different
Using new words in original
Using words in context.

Exercises/Activities to Improve Skills in Reading Comprehension

Arranging in correct order the parts of the scrambled sentences. Example:

It is also called heart of the Punjab. It is situated near Ravi river. Lahore is a beautiful city.

Pupils are asked to re-arrange the sentences in proper sequence, such as:

Lahore is a beautiful city. It is situated near Ravi river. It is also called heart of the Punjab.

Beginners are asked to rearrange the letters of a scrambled word. Such as:

NEP, TAC, OWC, ABG, YEE, RCA, etc. A teacher can start from simple and one syllable word and can move to more complex words.

ii) Making up simple sentence that describes a picture Such as;

This a farm house. There is a goat and a hen. There is a cow. There are trees in the farm.

A farmer is working in the farm on tractor.

Finding picture that answer given question:

Example:

Instruction; Listen and circle:

Teacher reads the question and pupils circle the picture:

Studying sentence in which many adjectives, adverbs or phrases modify the predicate. Example:

Every teacher in the elementary school has to realize that rapid speed in reading does not mean that it gives better understanding. Generally reading speed increases as children read more. When reading speed remains low, it is usually a symptom of difficulty in comprehension. Many children who read slowly do so because they do not really understand many of the words they are asked to read, poor mechanics of reading, or of lack of motivation.

The best way to increase a child’s reading speed is to help him find easy to comprehend material which he enjoys and encourage him to read rapidly, and correct their bad habits of reading which are persistent (such as pointing with fingers to reading sentences or words or regressive eye movements)

PLANNING A READING LESSON

The plan of a reading lesson may contain the following sequence.

The teacher writes on the chalkboard day and the date, lesson number, part number if any, and page.
The teacher motivates the class by reviewing the material of the previous lesson regarding content, vocabulary, patterns, spelling and other language
The teacher presents some of the new words and the structure that will appear in the section she has plan to
The teacher tries to arouse the interest of pupils in the reading (Reading readiness stage) in the following way:
1. If the passage is a part of longer story then relate it to the whole story before starting the silent
2. If the passage is new, brief the class on the main

If there is a picture, ask questions from pupils about

The more interesting the teacher can make the reading topic, the easier it will be to

Now the pupils are ready to read the passage silently.

After silent reading, the teacher asks the few comprehension questions to evaluate their ability to comprehend what they have read.

The next step is Model Reading. The teacher can read the passage aloud with pupils listening to repeating to give them an example they should imitate.

After Model Reading, pupils may read the passage aloud and individually. The teacher should not overuse reading aloud as the usefulness of this skill is limited. Its main function is to practice special pronunciation problems.

The class may do some of the exercises on words or patterns usually included in the reading textbooks.

The lesson ends with the teacher assigning new home work on material done orally in the class. These steps are systematic but the teacher is free to omit some of them if time does not allow her to do all of them, or if she wants to emphasize certain points.

Activity–3

SUMMARY

We have discussed the teaching of receptive skills in some detail and we have stressed the importance of listening and reading in language learning. We have provided the techniques and methods for developing the listening and reading material.

In showing a considerable variety of listening and reading exercises we have explored some of the many ways to help students acquire the confidence to use their receptive skills with English text.

Listening levels

At all level listening comprehension should be based on carefully planned activities. Games and competitions help pupils to recognize the sound of words, stress, rhythm, and Intonation. Dictation, multiple choice exercises, listening for drawing, and dialogues are Useful techniques to develop the identification of words and their meaning.

Principles of Teaching Reading

Oral control on basic English structure should be presented. The teacher should prepare and use different teaching aids to make the reading more meaningful and interesting.

Methods of Teaching Reading

A suitable method of teaching from the following may be selected:

Alphabetical
Word method
Sentence method
Phrasal method
Story method
Phonetic method

Material of Teaching Reading

Blackboard, flash cards, pictures, actions, substitution tables, games, can prove very efficient teaching reading material.

Types of Reading

The following main types of reading and their advantages and limitations were discussed;

Intensive reading
Extensive reading
Loud reading
Silent reading

Activities and exercises to develop speed and comprehension were also discussed. Important points and guidelines for planning reading lesson were given.

SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1 Briefly discuss the importance of teaching reading and listening in learning English language.

2 Suggest some activities for developing listening comprehension skills.

3 What are important principles of teaching reading?

4 What is meant by Reading Readiness? How can Reading Readiness be developed?

5 By which approach you will teach the following nouns to grade one? Bus driver, nurse, teacher, postman, policeman, school.

6 Compare the advantages of word method and alphabet method: which method is more appropriate for beginners?

7 Plan a game for teaching the following action words: Eating, Playing, Walking, Sitting, Running

8 How can games help in teaching of reading: Write down the effectiveness of different games for teaching reading to beginners.

9 Plan a lesson for introducing the parts of body by word method to grade one pupils.

10 Plan a lesson for teaching the following words by sentence method: my, you, I, we, he, she.

UNIT–6

TEACHING OF WRITING AND SPEAKING

Written by: Dr. Naveed Sultana Reviewed by: Prof. Dr. Rehana Masrur

CONTENTS

Page #

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 146

Objectives …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 146

Stages of Writing. ……………………………………………………………………………… 147

1.1 Controlled Writing ……………………………………………………………………. 147

1.2 Guided Writing…………………………………………………………………………. 154

1.3 Free Writing …………………………………………………………………………….. 163

Teaching Mechanics of Writing…………………………………………………………… 165

General Considerations to be kept in Mind while Teaching Writing…………. 168 3.1 Choice of Script………………………………………………………………………… 168 3.2 Choosing the Style ……………………………………………………………………. 168 3.3 Writing Material ……………………………………………………………………….. 168 3.4 Posture…………………………………………………………………………………….. 168
Measures to Improve Writing ……………………………………………………………… 169

Guidelines to Punctuation …………………………………………………………………… 169

5.1 The Principal Marks of Punctuation………………………………………….. 170

5.2 The Use of Capital Letters………………………………………………………….. 174

Procedures and Techniques (Stages) of Teaching Speech ……………………….. 175

6.1 Stage 1: Mechanical Practice ……………………………………………………… 175

6.2 Stage 2: Meaningful Oral Work ………………………………………………….. 176

6.3 Stage 3: Free Oral Production …………………………………………………….. 180

Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 185

Self-Assessment Questions …………………………………………………………………. 186

Exercise……………………………………………………………………………………………. 187

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………… 188

INTRODUCTION

Writing is an active means of communicating ideas. Writing is different from speaking because it is the comprehensive combination and collection of expressions as well as grammatical idiomatic and orthographic accuracy. Hence writing is less flexible in errors than in speaking.

Writing is a major classroom procedure, an important language activity (e.g. dictation, handwriting, composition, summary, written exercises. Tests etc). So learning to write, is learning to use grammar with sequential order.

In its functional sense, it is equated with speech since both are used for passing or conveying information. Hence a learner practices in writing what he has practiced orally, and expresses through it what he understands and wishes to convey. While oral practice is necessary to become fluent in speaking.

Learning to speak is a lengthy complex process. Many foreign language teachers realize that fluency in speaking is the most difficult skill to develop. Some requirements such as fluency of teacher, conducive classroom atmosphere, pupils’ participation, variety of learning activities, clear objective etc. are essential for the development of the speaking skill. Perhaps the lacking of these requirements this skill is frequently neglected or often conducted poorly in English classes.

Although writing and speaking skill are discussed in the unit individually but both are not separate in actual practice. Because they are equated and practiced simultaneously.

So as teachers of English you would like to know when to begin writing and speaking and how to make this process a source of pleasure for your students.

OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

Understand the overall role of productive skills in learning English

Learn know the stages for effective

Learn and practice the mechanics and general considerations of writing and

Be able to understand know the stages, procedures and techniques of teaching

STAGES OF WRITING

Learning to write is a gradual process which begins with simple copying and ends with free expression. Pupils should be trained systematically, under the guidance of the teacher, through several stages of writing experience, namely: handwriting, copying dictation, controlled, guided and free writing. Such gradation is necessary for developing, logically and cumulatively, the writing skill. Thus we cannot teach pupils to write a paragraph before teaching them how to write a sentence. That is, the mastery at one level is necessary before the pupils proceed to the next level. For pedagogical purposes the writing programme will be divided into three main stages (i) controlled writing (ii) guided writing, and (iii) free writing. In the words of Geoffrey Broughton and others, “Generally the controlled stage concerns itself with the production of accurate language in context, the guided stage with the organization of material which is given, and the free stage with the production by the student of both context and language.”

Hence they will be discussed separately with the procedures and techniques of teaching each of them.

Controlled Writing

In the beginning all writing is controlled. This stage includes handwriting, copying (or transcription), dictation, spelling and other parts of grammar. These aspects of writing are completely controlled by the teacher. Here, the students are able to use appropriate words and learn correct grammatical patterns. They learn correct sentence formation by making a good choice of vocabulary and structures. They learn suitable use of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, interrogatives etc. so the main function of all these aspects of controlled writing is to teach pupils the mechanics of writing accuracy and readiness for further activities. For this purpose, they should be practiced systematically and frequently especially at the initial stages of learning English in order to foster habits of writing. Following skills are included in controlled writing.

Handwriting

This skill is the first writing activity. It is a form of imitative writing in which pupils learn how to write the alphabet and familiar words of specific significance. Pupils start the activity with strokes like these: | | |, ///, , etc; then with straight line letters

such as: i, l, v, w, x etc. After that, they proceed to practice curved-line letters, such as s and c; then they write combined letters composed of straight and curved lines such as b, B, d, D, p and q. To ensure the initiation of correct habits in writing, the first written work is to be done on four parallel lines; later on, they write on two lines and eventually on one line as their ability develops.

Examples of small and capital letters Small letters

Group 1: Letters to strokes

\| \| \| \| xxx	/ / / / \| \| \| \|		\ \ \ \ \| \| \| \|	xxx
Examples of strokes (\| \| \| \| / / / / \ \ \ \)
HATE,	WHAT,	EAT,		WAIT,	MEET
HATE,	WAIT,	WHAT,		EAT,	METE
HATE,	WAIT,	WHAT,		EAT,	MATE

Group 2: The second group consists of letters formed in the circle. The basic ‘o’ should be nearly round.

o o o o	c c c c	· · · ·	o o
c c · ·	o c · ·	o · c ·	c o

Group 3: Circles and strokes.

oll	oll	oll	oll	oll	oll	oll	oll
d	b	d	b	b	d	b	d
d	b	q	qq	qb	p	p	p
q	b	p	p	d	b	d	p b d p

Group 4: Curves

c c c	o o o o	c o c o	u u	n n
s s s	s s s	s s s	s s s	s s s s
s s s	j j j j	s j n u	u u
s u j	j s u	s s u	s u j
Group 5: Strokes and Curves.
h h	u u	h h	n n	u u	f f
h h	u u	h h	u u	m m	m
n n	u f	f f	h h	m n	f f

Capital letters

Group 1: Round capitals based on the circle.

Group 2: Capitals formed by strokes.

Group 3: Capitals formed by strokes and curves.

D S	P D	R S	B J	J R	U U	Y Y	S P
Group 4: Numerals.
0	1	2		3		4
5	6	7		8		0
4	3	5		2		1

Examples of Strokes, Circle and curve This is my book

He was sleeping

My handwriting is straight Your cat is beautiful Where is her doll?

God is great

Copying: (Transcription)

This phase of writing skill is usually assigned or practised as soon as the pupils can write with ease the letters and the combinations of letters for the words or phrases they have already mastered. That is to say, the material meant for copying should be familiar to the pupils because the purposes of this activity are:

to reinforce previously learned words and patterns;
to develop young learners’ consciousness of spelling and to fix the correct written forms in their minds;
to draw pupils’ attention to punctuation marks;
to train pupils further in

The material for transcription can be taken from the reading passages that have been studied. This material should be short and form a coherent context so as to avoid boredom and mechanical copying. At the beginning, the teacher may give pupils two or three sentences; then, as they gain experience with the language, he may increase the copying assignment accordingly. Short dialogues and substitution drills are good exercises for this activity which should be practised frequently especially at the initial stages of learning English.

The following activities are examples of effective techniques that can maintain pupils’ interest in copying.

Activities that can maintain pupil’s interest in copying:

Fill in the blanks: In this technique pupils fill in the blanks by copying model sentences in their classwork copybooks or on duplicated sheets.

Example: I am so glad you could pass the test. I – – s – gl – – – ou c—d p – – – th – t – – t

Scrambled sentences: Pupils are asked to rearrange given words presented in random order to as to make correct meaningful sentences. Example: the book/ bought/Ali/yesterday.

Putting sentences in correct order: Pupils rewrite a set of sentences in the correct order so as to make a simple discourse or a short dialogue.

Example: I’m going fishing. May I come with you?

Where are you going, Ali?

Magazine pictures: The teacher brings to the class magazine pictures or draws figures on the board, or puts pictures in the projector, and then he asks pupils to write corresponding lines of dialogue.

Matching questions and answers: In this technique pupils copy questions and their appropriate responses.

Example: Where are you going? How are you?

What time do you go to school? Very well, thank you.

At seven thirty (7.30). Home

Correcting sentences: The pupils change the sentences by adding yesterday/ tomorrow or the point of view, or the subject or the gender of the subject,

Sentence building: Pupils are given linguistic forms on a chart and are asked to select the components that may correctly be used together in order to create

Example:

I Arabic

Ali spoke orange juice

She took maths

They tickets

Ali and Laila studied milk

You English

Laila and I bought tea

a radio

Crossword puzzles: Pupils fill in crossword puzzles with given words that go with their standard of English.

Sentence completion: Pupils are given a set of related sentences with some deleted words in each:

Then they are asked to fill in the missing words. The teacher may provide the required words, depending on the nature of the sentences.

Suitable verbs and prepositions:

Examples: Write ten sentences from the table;

He wants I want

a pen books a horse

the red ball a picture

ride on. play with. look at. read.

write with.

He wants a pen to write with. He wants books to read.

Present indefinite tense

He
She	runs
It (cat)		Fast.
I
You
We	run
They

Present continuous tense

He She

eating

biscuits.

mangoes. fruit

You We

They

are

Present perfect tense

He She

has

taken

tea. milk. food.

You We

They

have

Present perfect Continuous

She It

has been

Sitting Standing Running

since morning.

You We

They

have been

Activity–1

Substitution tables A, B.

Write suitable pronouns in the first column of the table.

TABLE – A

——-

had eaten

MEAT.

fruit. vegetable.

Write four appropriate verbs in their correct form in the last column of the substitution table B.

Table B: Future continuous Tense

He
She
It	will be
You
They
I
We	shall be

(c) Dictation

After there has been sufficient practice in imitative writing (handwriting and copying), the next step is dictation. This type of writing skill is an essential activity for the development of spelling consciousness in learners, so it should be given at frequent intervals. Dictation is, however, more difficult than copying because the pupil here uses the mind’s eye with which he visualizes the spelling of a word and English spelling does not always correspond with the sound (e.g. know, through, enough, right, write, etc.). Dictation material should be brief, familiar and not beyond the pupils’ range of comprehension. If dictation is presented properly, it will be a valuable instrument by which pupils can practice other aspects of language learning such as aural comprehension, distinguishing sounds and words, comprehending the meaning of a passage, and recognizing grammatical forms and accuracy.

Objectives for Dictation Lesson
1. To develop the skill of
2. To develop the skill for correct use of punctuation and
3. To develop the skill for using the grammar.
4. To develop the skill for enhancing the vocabulary.
5. To develop the skill for improving
6. To develop individual ability of concentration for enhancing the communication skills. Which will absolutely develop the self-confidence of the

Important Points for Dictation
1. Dictation focuses on recall and
2. Spelling is the most valuable tool in the first few years of
3. Dictation DOES NOT develop writing skills or grammar
4. Dictation DOES NOT require comprehension of

General Procedures used for Dictation

The teacher reads the passage at normal Students listen, but do not write.
The teacher reads a sentences or part of a longer Students repeat the sentence silently. Students write by remembering the words.
Extra time for writing will be
The teacher reads the sentence for the last time while students check what they have
The entire passage may be read one more time at normal
The teacher or student writes each sentence on the board. Students check their own work for daily practice. Students do not check their own papers when the teacher is using the grades for a specific purpose or evaluation. Occasionally, they may be asked to check each other’s

Guidelines for Dictation
Teacher can show a short section of a video.
Students must be encouraged to listen to the BBC News and take notes. (These can be recorded on a regular tape-recorded or on a video.)
Teacher can read all or part of a poem aloud for the class or tape it himself/
Teacher should save these tapes with your notes and lesson plans for following
Teacher can find an important text in a textbook under use. Develop a set of sentences from it. This would require around 20 minutes time. Ask other teachers what texts they are using; share ideas.
English teacher has a ability to identify topics
He/she has also he ability to learn facts about many subjects
Teacher has the ability to organize ideas

Full dictation:

The teacher dictates sentences while the pupils write out.

Gradually simple dictation is expanded to more complex ones. At a later stage pupils can be given a short paragraph, a dialogue or a passage selected from the textbook. The procedure for this goes as follow:

The teacher assigns the passage to be prepared at home for
The teacher reads the passage at normal Students listen, do not write.
The teacher dictates the assigned passage to his He dictates in units like these: his son Ali/did not get a car/until last year. Each sentence has to be repeated twice at a fairly slow speed.
The teacher reads a sentence or part of a longer sentence. Students repeat the sentence Students write by remembering the words.
Punctuation marks should be
Difficult words can be written on the
When the dictation finishes, the teacher reads the passage once
Immediately after that correction starts. Each pupil may check his own work or exchange his copybook with his neighbour. Correction should be done in red ink. This technique of self-correction saves the teacher’s time and secures instant The teacher, however, has to collect the dictation copybooks once a month to check pupils’ correction.
Pupils are required to write their misspelled words in the correct forms three times
The teacher summarizes the most common errors made and discusses them with the class, giving suggestions for avoiding them in future.

To help pupils improve their spelling, the teacher may provide them with some suitable generalizations which can help in developing their ability to spell correctly. Examples of these generalizations are: forms of plurals of nouns, of numbers, of letters, of words ending in ‘y’, doubling final consonant, suffixes, combinations and abbreviations. All these exercises have proved to be very helpful.

Guided Writing

When the students learn to organize their ideas and write systematically, they need some guidance from the teacher. If the writing of letters, applications and invitations are related to life, that would be wonderful. This second stage involves two graded steps of composition writing, namely controlled composition/directed composition and semi- controlled/guided composition.

Controlled composition

In controlled writing, pupils are usually provided with the needed keywords and expressions or a model of some type with directions for manipulation in rewriting the model. The aim of this is to ensure that what pupils write is grammatically correct. This activity of controlled writing may take any of the following forms:

Missing Words: A passage or isolated sentences are given with some deleted The task is to supply the missing items. Examples:
- Fill in the blanks (with cued words in parentheses) (look) I at our I can see Ali and Omar. (run, sit) Ali but Omar . (enjoy) They themselves.

This is our There four walls and (number) windows. There one door. There one blackboard. There

(number) students in the room. There a teacher. He

teaching us. We learning English.

Word Ordering: A group of jumbled words is given to pupils who are to re- arrange them to make a complete sentence, e.g. speak, he, French, can, fluently. He can speak French fluently, or can he speak French fluently?

Re-arrangement of sentences: In this exercise a group of jumbled sentences is Pupils re-arrange them logically to build up a complete paragraph. Example:

Re-arrange the following sentences to build up a good paragraph. (The first and last sentences are in their right order.)

Many centuries ago a man lived in Spain.
He climbed a mountain and jumped in the
He made two wings and put them on his
Then he believed he could fly like a bird.
But he forgot to put a tail on his
He looked at the birds for a long
So, he fell down and was badly

In answering this, the sentences may be put in this order: 1 + 6 + 4 + 3 + 5 + 2 + 7.

Imitation of specific patterns: In this activity, the teacher gives the class a model sentence and a group of substitutes which are to be patterned after the model. Example:

The model sentence: Ali cleans the car every day. Substitutes: Fatima, house, morning.

Parallel sentences: Fatima cleans the house every morning.

Alternative forms often require the selection of the appropriate pronouns, verb tense, subject-verb concord, and the like.

Example:

Model sentence: The pupils walk to the class with books in their hands. Substitutes: girl, go, home, bag.

Parallel sentence: The girl goes home with a bag in her hand.

Parallel paragraph: In this exercise, a model paragraph is given with directions for rewriting it by employing specific language manipulations. Pupils substitute some words in the model paragraph for others to get a new paragraph grammatically parallel to the given In the beginning, pupils should be provided with simple short passages based on their interests, knowledge and experience. It is important that pupils write about something familiar and interesting to them. Variations on writing activity are multiple substitution exercises or conversions. Pupils either change or expand and structural patterns of the model passage which serves to suggest content and ideas. Change can be achieved in the following ways:
- Change the
- Change the subject and verb to the plural or vice-versa.
- Change by adding yesterday, tomorrow, now,
- Change the point of view of the paragraph, affirmative to negative and the

Sentence expansion: In this activity, the model paragraph is given with numbers inserted in the sentences. Some modifiers are also supplied. Pupils are asked to rewrite the paragraph by inserting an appropriate modifier in place of each of the

Example:

The (1) teacher walked (2) to the (3) class with a number of (4) books in his (5) hand. As he entered the classroom, the pupils were talking (6) but he smiled (7) and greeted them.

old, English, history, unpopular
quickly, confidently, slowly, impatiently
big, noisy, quiet, happy
English, thick, colored, folded
shaking, right, outstretched, tied up
softly, quietly, loudly
pleasantly, attractively, in a friendly manner

The pupil selects a suitable expression for each of the numbers.

Sentence completion: In this exercise a part of a sentence or phrase is omitted and the pupils are required to supply the missing Guidance for writing should still be provided so that pupils can add the correct and proper forms. Example: Directions: Ali is a young artist. He is riding a bus on his way to an interview for a job in T.V. He is excited. First he takes the wrong bus, then the right one. Here is the dialogue between him and the first bus conductor. Fill in the missing part of the dialogue.

Conductor : Fares, please. Where ? Ali : To Amman Street, please.

We don’t go .

Ali : you? I thought the bus. Conductor : No. This is a 23. You want bus number 18.

Ali : one? Where one? Conductor : Get off at the .

(He gets into the 18 at the next bus-stop), etc.

Guided writing using pictures: In this writing activity, the teacher shows the class a large picture or wall chart. He gives any necessary vocabulary or structures. Then he asks pupils to write about it, or he may ask questions about things or objects in the picture in order to elicit a series of statements that will form a composition.

Dicto-Comp: Another type of controlled writing is dicto-comp. This activity involves two aspects of writing skill. The first one is dictation and its function is to check the accuracy of spelling and punctuation, while the other is text The procedure for this activity goes like this: the teacher reads a short passage of some interest or tells the class an interesting story. After that he asks some questions about the content of the material and he gives some cue words to help pupils recall the incidents. Then he asks them to rewrite the material previously read.

Sentence-combining exercises: The teacher, in this writing activity, gives the pupils a group of simple sentences (with or without connectors), and then asks them to combine them into more complex ones to form a paragraph or Here is an example:

Ali returned home from school at 2 o’ clock yesterday. He read the newspaper. He had dinner with his family. After dinner, he sat with his children in the garden. The garden is beautiful and shady. He has two children. Their names are Sameer and Laila. They are too young to go to school. They have good friends. They play with them.

One possible way of joining these simple sentences into more complex ones is the following:

When Ali returned home from School at 2 o’ clock yesterday, he read the newspaper and had dinner with his family. Then he sat with his children, Sameer and Laila, in their beautiful and shady garden. The children are too young to go to school, but they have good friends to play with.

When drilling such exercises, pupils may try various combinations, or change the tenses, or change the names of the persons or pronouns, etc.

The foregoing exercises in controlled composition are not exhaustive. A competent English language teacher can devise or adapt other exercises. It is preferable, however, to base the exercises on materials that have been previously read or learned by pupils.

Semi-controlled composition

The second type of guided writing is semi-controlled composition which is an important step in moving from controlled to free composition. At the previous stage, pupils were manipulating language using new words and topics provided by the teacher. Now the control is relaxed and pupils can add specific ideas or constructions to their composition. However, there is still some structural control or guidance in order to develop the ability to write correct English. Suggestions regarding the content or form of what pupils should write are also given. Exercises used at this stage include:

Written interviews, real or imaginary: There are different types of interview One technique is for pupils to conduct interviews with friends or with teachers. Pupils can pretend they are interviewing famous people, football players, and the like. The teacher may give the class some key words, directions and a few lines which can stimulate pupils to develop the dialogue.

Pictorial exercises: The teacher gives the class a series of pictures or film strips. The pupils are asked to write about the content or the sequence of events in these pictures, guided by the teacher’s questions or discussion.

Narrative exercises: The teacher reads a story or an event. He writes some leading questions on the The pupils’ task is to retell the story in written form, or to summarize it.

Short story completion: In this activity pupils may complete a dialogue of which the first few lines are given, or write an ending to a story by using their Example:

The family was sitting in the living room, watching a favorite programme on the

T.V. when they heard a strange movement in the house. The children got afraid and started to cry but the mother hushed them. The father turned off the television and went to see what was going on. Suddenly he was a strange face looking through the window. The father shouted ‘Who is it?’ (It was a stranger who lost his way and came to the house to…)

As a variation of this exercise the teacher presents the class with appropriate outlines or key words of a story whose theme is also given; then he asks the pupils to write a new story.

Letter writing: In this activity, the teacher reads a letter of some interest. He also shows the method of writing letters (writing address, salutations and ending), gives some key words or expressions and the theme of the reply. Pupils write a letter on the basis of the information

At this stage, the letters should be personal or friendly. Most pupils have friends or relatives who live abroad. They can write about events of home life, about things they know or care about, and so on.

Cued dialogue: The teacher writes on the board some brief cues for a dialogue. Pupils write out the complete conversation.

Close exercises: The teacher gives pupils a passage in which some words are The pupils fill in the missing words.

Changing spoken to written English: The teacher gives the pupils a transcript of spoken English and asks them to change it into a piece of formal

Changing a narrative to a dialogue, or a dialogue to a

Writing an account or a report on a written article or a

Writing a summary or an outline of material which pupils have There are other forms of guided writing such as answering a series of questions about a person or event, note-taking from a lecture or talk and integrated composition, i.e. writing a composition subject based on a comprehension passage, and so on.

Examples: Composing a letter

Model for composing an application

Composing an invitation

Composing an essay

The chief characteristic of an essay is that it should have a beginning a middle and an end. All early practice of essay writing should be with a given outline. Example ‘Best Friend.’

Introduction: Many friends – best friend – lives near my
General description: Handsome – tall – age – dress – hair –
Character and responsibilities: Polite – respectful – hardworking – good
Conclusion: Interests – likes and dislikes – attitude towards

Composing a story: The most interesting device of teaching a story is to have a series of pictures related to the events of it. The teacher will have to fetch the picture from a stationery-shop or prepare it himself / herself. Often such pictures are available at the shops. The teacher will show one picture at a time, ask questions about it and develop the story with the pupils’ answers. Of course, the teacher will organize the pupils’ ideas. A

large number of stories can be developed in this manner. Some of these stories can be the following:

The cap-seller and the monkey. The fox and the crane.

The man and the lion.

The woodcutter and his axe.

Key-words of the story may be written on board and pupils may develop it.

Example, ‘The two cats and the monkey’:

Two cats —— piece of cake —- to divide in two equal halves —- a clever monkey —-

brings a scale —- put one piece in each pan —- one pan becomes heavier eats a little

bit. The other pan becomes heavier– monkey continues eating bit by bit. Takes the last

and runs away. Moral.

A good teacher is always ready to take some pains of preparing a few questions in advance for teaching a story or composition. For a composition of Postman, the following questions may be asked:

Teacher’s questions	Pupils’ answers	Key-words
1. Whose picture is this?	That is the picture of a postman	Postman
2. What is the colour of his uniform?	The colour of his uniform is khaki.	Khaki uniform
3. What is he wearing or his head?	He is wearing a turban on his head.	Turban
4. What is he holding in his hand?	He is holding a bag in his hand.	Holding bag
5. Does he come on foot or on a bicycle?	He comes on a bicycle.	Bicycle

Teacher’s questions	Pupils’ answers	Key-words
6. What do you see in the picture?	I see the post-office, a letter, post-card and a pencil.	Post office Letter Post-card
7. What is the postman’s duty?	His duty is to deliver letters and parcels.	Parcel Deliver
8. Is his duty hard?	Yes, his duty is very hard.	Hard Duty
9. Is he dutiful?	Yes, he is dutiful.	Dutiful
10. Do you wait for him?	Yes, we wait for him every day.	Wait

Besides pictures, another interesting and effective teaching device is that of field trips. Teachers often arrange picnics and educational tours for the students. When they return, they feel happy to write on about of the picnic or the journey. Such field trips provide sufficient material for productive writing.

Free Writing

You know that one of the aims of education is to develop individual talent. For this purpose creative writing should be encouraged. Some students possess an inborn ability or aptitude for writing, school must provide an outlet to their expression. This will develop their power of originality and creativity.

So this stage involves free composition. Pupils having practiced controlled and guided composition, are now able to write few sentences some originality of thought and free from common errors.

This activity requires adequate preparation. Thus, the teacher must instruct pupils in the mechanics of free composition such as: the date, adequate margins, the title (correctly- capitalized), indentation (leaving an inch-wide space at the beginning of each paragraph) and clear handwriting. The teacher must teach them the qualities of a good paragraph such as:

unity (the unity of thought in all sentences within a paragraph);
coherence (the linking of sentences);
emphasis (the ordering of sentences and ideas);
clarity (the elimination of ambiguities to show relationship and progress of thought) and,
correctness (careful use of vocabulary, correct spelling and punctuation, good use of grammatical structures and a good conclusion that draws the paragraph together).

To train pupils to build up a long composition effectively, the teacher may analyze some models of composition to show the class the unity and coherence of all the paragraphs.

As for the topic, the teacher has to present the class with a subject that is either of particular significance to them or that lends itself to facility of expression. That is, the topic should be meaningful and interesting to the pupils, or else composition classes will be boring. It is advised to start with descriptive and narrative topics or letter-writing and later on expository writing or essay-writing.

Adequate planning for the composition lesson requires the teacher to follow these steps: preparation, writing, correction, and re-learning.

Preparation

In preparation for a composition, the teacher introduces the subject the pupils are going to write about, clarifies any difficulties in it and writes necessary outlines or

vocabulary and expressions related to the subject. This presentation may take the form of a short oral introduction, or of showing the class pictures, slides or even a film.

The teacher, then, conducts a discussion with the class. This provides the pupils with a good opportunity to communicate facts and ideas from their own experience, to express themselves freely and to use English in a realistic context. At the same time, the discussion is useful for the teacher to get acquainted with some of the language problems of the pupils so that he can remedy them in due time. Before the discussion starts, the teacher writes an outline on the blackboard to stimulate pupils on the subject. Then taking the points on the outline one at a time, he calls on individual pupils to give information about the particular point. And by encouraging the rest of the class to ask further questions (to get more information), or to make additional comments, the teacher can engage the whole class in a lively discussion on the target subject. Another possibility is to organize the class into ‘buss’ groups of four or five pupils for further discussion of the outline in order to allow for more oral preparation.

The teacher then takes up the next point on the outline and discusses it with the class in the same way as he did with the first one, and so on until all the points are covered. The pupils, while discussing the subject, can write the words, expressions or structures that have been brought out by the discussion and that may appear in the composition they are going to write. However, the teacher should direct them to select the most relevant items to the subject.

When the discussion is finished, the teacher gives assignment for the next composition lesson. He asks pupils to prepare a rough draft of a composition on the subject they have discussed orally. If they have shown interest in the subject he may direct them to other sources where they can gather more information. Pupils may consult appropriate books and newspapers, or they can discuss with friends and family members.

Writing

On the next day of the composition lesson, pupils will be ready to begin writing. It is desirable to have them write their composition in the classroom, under the supervision of the teacher. They may write a rough draft at home, but the final copy should be written in class. This is to ensure that they write from their own knowledge and are not tempted to copy the information from outside sources such as parents, relatives or friends who may do the writing for them. While they are writing, the teacher moves about the room to give individual help where needed bout he must be careful not to distract the pupils’ concentration.

Correcting compositions

In correcting pupils’ compositions, the teacher may correct all mistakes, or select some of them. He may also circle those errors that he feels they can correct themselves because the correct forms were given during the discussion stage. The teacher should refrain from writing the correct alternative forms. Instead of writing corrected items on the pupils’ papers, he may use abbreviations or symbols characterizing different types of

errors. There are many symbols, and every teacher can develop his own correction symbols and give them to his pupils at the beginning of the course.

When correcting composition, the teacher must also indicate features that lead to ambiguity, redundancy in expression, incoherence or lack of sequence and subject development. These are important in writing creatively.

Re-learning

The final step in the procedure of composition writing is the reinforcing or re- teaching process. Thus, after correcting and returning the compositions, the teacher reviews with the class the common mistakes he has come across. Bad compositions as well as good ones are to be discussed and analyzed. This will provide pupils with feedback on their writing. To reinforce some grammatical constructions or other items involved in the writing of the composition, the teacher may give the class exercises (oral or written) with the purpose of re-teaching. Pupils are required to correct mistakes pointed out by the teacher and the teacher should make sure that the pupils check their compositions.

TEACHING MECHANICS OF WRITING

Mechanics of writing includes the following:

Make letters of the right shape and size.
Giving proper spacing between letters, words and
Using capital letters and other punctuation
Controlling the small muscles of the fingers and wrist to have fluent movement in

Teaching writing mechanics has three stages as follows:

Preparation for
Learning to
Mastering a mature style of hand-writing.

Preparation for Writing
Free hand writing

The writing work should begin as an exercise in art. The students should think that they are having practice in art work. The teacher should allow them to draw on chalk board on large sheets of brown paper fairly large shapes of various size and directions.

Controlled drawing

The above shapes should be drawn within lines on the paper to give controlled practice to children.

Acquaintance with written forms

Students must be quite familiar with written forms before they begin their writing practice. To familiarize the students with written forms the teacher may write the names of the students on their books, note-books etc.

Learning to Write
Script writing

After having some practice in drawing, the child starts learning to write the letters of the alphabets. He learns small letters first and capital letters afterwards. Generally he learns letters in graphs of four or five letters of similar shape and not in their proper order.

For this the teacher should demonstrate the shape and form of the letters on the chalk-board.

Learning the alphabetical order

At about the end of first year, the order of letters in the alphabets can be taught as follows:

Capital letters group one—round letter based on circles g. O,C,Q.
Capital letters group two—letters formed by strokes g. A, I, L, E, F etc.
Capital letters group three—letters based on curves g. B, D, P, R, S, U, Y etc.

(iii) Mastering a Mature Style of Hand-Writing

It generally begins in third year and continues throughout the remaining school period. It is expected that the students acquire the adult style of hand-writing in common use around them. Special attention be given to those items which directly influence the legibility of hand writing. The aspect of letters formation required special attention.

Writing Scripts

The English letters have their origin in Roman Script. At present, English has mainly three kinds of scripts: (a) Print script, (b) Cursive script, (c) Rounded cursive script.

Print Script

This type of script the students come across in their text-books. In it the letters of a word are not joined together. It is easier to learn. This kind of script has the following advantages:

It is easier for
It is considered easier even by
It follows the maxim, “from easy to ”

It has beauty, cleanliness and
No strokes are needed to join the
This is the script, which the students find in their Readers so the children can compare their letters, and find their mistakes.
Learning it involves less eye and physical strain.
It is suited to the muscular and motor development of the young
It needs practically no

Disadvantages of Print Script

Some letters such as ‘a’, ‘g’ sometimes appear alike in print script.
Print script cannot facilitate speech, which is a must for good
It consumes much time and
At a later stage it appears

It is said that it has to be given up at later stage and cursive script adopted because our aim is to enable the students to write at speed. They can do it more effectively in cursive writing. Pre-school children should, however, start learning to write in print script if English is taught to them.

Cursive Script

Cursive script is also called running writing in which letters of a word are joined together by curves etc. It is uniform, rhythmic, natural and speedy. It is used by most of the English knowing people all over the world. Pre-primary school fined it difficult and so it is better to teach them in print script.

Rounded Cursive Script

It is also known as Marion Richardson’s script. In it only some letters of a word are joined together, since it combines some characters of both the scripts (i.e. print script and cursive script) it has advantages and disadvantages of both.

Taking into consideration the advantages and disadvantages of all the scripts the modern methods of teaching favor print script. Research findings also support that the beginning of teaching writing be made with print script and then at some later stage they be asked to change to cursive script. The Handbook of suggestions for teachers says, “In the beginning, the symbols used should resemble those they (pupils) have been accustomed to see in print.” After that cursive script must be introduced. A pamphlet of British Board of Education says, “The end is to equip the individual with a final cursive hand-writing, which is easily learned and legible.”

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS TO BE KEPT IN MIND WHILE TEACHING/WRITING

Following considerations must be kept in mind while teaching writing.

Choice of Script

The beginning is made with print script and then change over to cursive writing.

Choosing the Style

There are two main styles of writing: (a) vertical, and (b) slanted. In vertical style letters are written in vertical fashion (/). It is best style of writing. The slanted style is of two types: (i) Forward slant (/), and (ii) Backward slant (\). Forward slant is better than backward slant because the later hinders speed. The teacher must emphasize the vertical style. The teacher should see to it that student do not write letters in more than one style. The letters necessarily should have uniform style.

Writing Material

For teaching writing the following material is mainly needed:

White/Black-board and marker/chalk.
Tray of sand,
Kinder-garten box,
Paper and pencil,
Exercise book, and
Flash

The children can start writing with soft chalk and at the later stage they should learn to write on paper. To write on paper large sized soft lead pencils may be used. Pencil writing should be followed by writing in ink. Special writing inks and good ink and glazed paper should be used.

Posture

Posture is an important consideration that has to be kept in mind while teaching writing. Students should be made to adopt good postures during writing. At their desk they should sit comfortably in erect position. Both their feet should rest on the ground. The body should lean slightly forward from the hips but should not touch the desk. The head should be so held so that his eyes are about 13 inches (30 cm) away from the paper. The chest should be clear of the edge of the desk. Both forearms should be within 2 or 3 inches of the elbows and should rest lightly on the desk.

So if we follow these considerations our writing may possess following qualities.

Legibility,
Attractiveness,
Uniformity,
Distinctiveness,
Good styled,
Speedily, and
Correctly

MEASURES TO IMPROVE WRITING

Following measures are likely to help the students in acquiring good hand-writing:

Use of four-lined note-books.
Sitting in proper posture.
Having the proper position of
Use of calligraphy note-books.
Arranging
Showing model hand-writing.
Checking
Holding the pen
Using black-board for difficult words.
Motivating pupils to find their own
Use of proper writing
Individual
Sympathetic
Adequate
Arranging hand-writing

For improvement of handwriting it is desirable to give adequate exercises in writing viz. Transcription, dictation and composition should be given to the students.

GUIDELINE TO PUNCTUATION

Punctuation is the traditional “mechanics” of writing. It’s a common assumption that punctuation marks signal pauses in speech, but punctuation plays a greater role than that. Punctuation marks both signal grammatical boundaries and express meaning. Some punctuation marks indicate sentence boundaries, periods, question marks, and exclamation points, mark sentence boundaries indicate whether a sentence makes a statement, asks a question, or expresses an exclamation. In contrast, commas, semicolons, and colons mark grammatical units within sentences.

Quotation marks and apostrophes express meaning within sentences. Quotation marks are used most often to indicate who at someone is saying in dialogue, but a more sophisticated use is to express irony, as in My Son “loves” to wash the dishes. Apostrophes are used in contractions to join two words and in possessive nouns to show relationship. Researchers have documented that learning to use punctuation, like spelling and capitalization, is a developmental process. Beginning in the preschool years, children notice punctuation marks and learn to discriminate them from letters (Clay, 1991) so punctuation is the art of using correctly the various stops and marks in writing. The correct use of these stops and marks helps the reader to understand the passage exactly as it was meant by the writer. But the wrong use of these either changes the very sense of the passage or marks it quite meaningless.

The Principal Marks of Punctuation

The following are the principal marks of Punctuation:

1. The Full-Stop (Period)	(.)
2. The Mark of Interrogation	(?)
3. The Mark of Exclamation	(!)
4. The Comma	(,)
5. The Semi-Colon	(;)
6. The Colon	(:)
7. The Hyphen	(-)
8. The Apostrophe	(’)
9. The Dash	(—-)
10. The Inverted Commas	(“ ”)

Let us deal with the use of each in turn.

The Full-Stop. – (a) It indicates the close of an Assertive or an Imperative Sentence; as,
1. It is very cold
2. Keep

(b) It is also used after initials and abbreviations; as,

P.A. – Member of the Provincial Assembly.
N.A. — Member of National Assembly.
M.B. Hashmi – Mister Muhammad Bashir Hashmi.
A. – Master of Arts.

The Mark of – (a) It is placed at the end of an Interrogative Sentence; as,
1. How old are you?
2. Where are you coming from?

(b) It is also placed in the Direct from of Speech, after Asking a question; as,

“How far is the post office from here?” asked the stranger.

Remember that it is neither used after a polite request nor after a question asked in an indirect manner; as,

Will you please lend me your
He enquired of me what the time by my watch was.

The Mark of – (a) It comes after words, phrases or sentences expressing a wish or some sudden feeling of joy, grief or surprise; as,
1. May you live long!
2. How beautiful the rose is!
3. Alas! He has been
4. Hurrah! We have won the
5. Nonsense! Don’t waste your

(b) It is also used after an Emphatic Nominative of Address; as,

O King! Pardon me. (Or) Pardon me, O King!

The Comma. – It indicates the shortest pause in a sentence and is chiefly used: –

To separate several words of the same Part of Speech in a sentence: as,
1. Asif, Arif and Iftikhar are real
2. Eat, drink and be
3. We require honest, intelligent, obedient and healthy young

To separate pairs of words of the same class; as,

We treated alike rich and poor, young and old, men and women, high and low, weak and strong.

Before and after a word in the Vocative Case; as,
1. Here is your book,
2. Friends, Muslims, countrymen, lend me your

Between words and phrases in Apposition; as,

Quaid-i-Awam Z.A. Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan, is a man of parts.

After Absolute Constructions and the Participle Phrases; as,
1. The sun having set, the moon appeared.
2. Having taken her meal, she set to

Before and after words or phrases like “well,” “all the same,” “of course,” “However,” “at last,” “on the whole,” “indeed” and “therefore,” when used independently in a sentence; as,
1. Well, I know
2. The result, on the whole, is not

To separate a Direct Speech from the Reporting Verb; as, He said to us, “Life is not a bed of ”

To mark off words, phrases, Clauses and parenthetic expressions inserted in a sentence; as,

His condition, to tell you the truth, is very critical.

To mark of words like “yes,” “no”, “well,” ; as,
1. No, he is not

To indicate the omission of a word or words in a sentence; as, To err is human; to forgive, (is) divine.

To separate the date of the month from the year; as,

A Lahore-bound plane landed at Islamabad on January 30, 2011 due to bad weather.

To separate the Co-ordinate Clauses expressed at full length; as,
1. Life is short, time is
2. I went to see him, but he was not at

To separate always, or almost always, an Adverb Clause from the Principal Clause; as,

Naseem will succeed, because she works hard.

But the Comma is not used when the Adverb Clause is either too short or is very closely connected with the Principal Clause; as,

She helped you more than (she helped)
Think before you speak.

To separate Noun Clauses from one another; as,

Nobody knows who he is, where he lives and what he does.

Remember that a Noun Clause is not, usually, separated by a Comma from the Principal Clause; as,

Nobody knows where he has gone.

The Semi-Colon.–It indicates a pause longer than that of the Comma, and is used: –
To separate closely connected clauses from one another; as,

Honesty of purpose has many advantages over deceit; it is the safer way of dealing with men; it is an easier way of dispatching business; it inspires men with greater confidence.

To separate the clauses of a Compound Sentence, when they contain Commas; as,

He was a brave, young man; and we respected him.

The Colon.– It marks a still longer pause than the semi-colon. It is used at the writer’s discretion, if he thinks that the pause is not sufficiently marked off by a Semi-colon. But no fixed rules can be given on this

Note that it is often used with a “dash” after it: –

To introduce a quotation; as,

The Holy Quran says: “The believers are but a single brotherhood.”

Before enumeration, examples, ; as,

The principal parts of a sentence in English are: the Subject and the Predicate.

Between sentences grammatically independent but closely connected in sense; as,

Man proposes: God disposes.

The – It is used to connect the parts of a Compound word; as,
1. Maid-servant.
2. Twenty-eight.
3. Brother-in-law.

It is also used to connect the parts of a word divided at the end of a line; as,

Bright-en.
Laugh-ed.
Writ-ten.
Need-ed.

The – It is used: –
To denote the Possessive Case of Nouns; as, Aslam’s pen was stolen by his uncle’s
To show the omission of a letter or letters; as,
1. Don’t=do
2. I’ve=I
To form the Plurals of letters and figures; as,
1. Dot your i’s and Cross your t’s.
2. Add three 5’s to six 9’s.

The – It is used: –
To indicate an abrupt stop or change of thought in a sentence; as,

Computer technology—Whether we like it or not – controls much of our lives.

To mark off the parentheses or words used in explanation or in an explanatory and emphatic manner; as,

There shall come a time—a blessed time—when Kashmir will become a part of Pakistan.

To resume a scattered subject; as,

Rich and poor, high and low, old and young—all fought for freedom. Sometimes, Brackets are used instead of “Dash” to mark off a parenthetical sentence (i.e. a sentence which is not grammatically a part of the passage into which it is inserted); as,

He gained from Heaven (‘t was all he wished) a friend.

The Inverted —these are used to enclose the exact words of a speaker or a quotation; as,

“Do not kill women and children, and also spare the old and the aged” was the order of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH).

Note that a quotation within a quotation is marked off by single Inverted Commas; as,

The counsel replied, “What I mean to say is that ‘I have killed the man’ was not said by my client.

The Use of Capital Letters

Punctuation and capitalization go side by side. One is just as important as the other. The following lines should, therefore, be read with due care and attention.

Capital Letters.—Capital letters are used: –

To begin a sentence; as,
- We are
- Do not shed the blood of your

To begin each line of poetry; as, Peace hath her victories.

No less renowned than war.

To begin all proper Nouns as well as Proper Adjectives; as,

Farhat and Tasneem live in Lahore. They like Pakistani goods.

To begin all Nouns and Pronouns referring to God; as,
- Praise be to God, The Cherisher and Sustainer of the
- Three do we worship, and Thy help do we

To write the Pronoun “I” and the Interjection “O”; as,
- It was
- Have mercy upon us, O God!

To begin the names of days and months; as,

Nikhat was born on Tuesday, the 6^th of August, 1944; and Farhat, on September 25, 1946.

To begin the first word of a direct quotation; as, She said, “Life is but an empty ”

To begin Common Nouns which are personified; as,
- O Death, where is thy sting!
- Frailty, thy name is Woman!

To begin single letters standing for words as titles, initials and certain abbreviations; as,
- Arshad Ali Rana, M.Sc.
- Syed Samshair Ali, B.Sc. (Hons.), Sc.

To begin the names of books, newspapers, journals, public institutions, important historic events, important words in headlines, etc.; as,
Holy Quran Madrasa-tul-Banat
The “Pakistan Times” The Independence Day
The Muslim League The History of Islam

PROCEDURES AND TECHNIQUES (STAGES) OF TEACHING SPEECH

Speaking, listening, reading and writing are the four necessary language skills. Speech is one of the primary skills and it provides the basis from which the remaining three skills derive. Fries say that “speech” is the most important aim in language teaching. In our Schools and Colleges, stress is laid on reading. While modern educationists are of the view that teaching language should be started with oral presentation because it can be a great help in the learning of reading and writing skills because both of these skills are based upon the spoken language. So speech is primary, original, un-derived and the only one of the skills that can be self-sufficient in practice. Although learning to speak is a lengthy, complex process. Hence as an English teacher some stages/steps should be adopted for developing the speaking ability in students. Specifically three components may be distinguished in teaching oral communication: mechanical oral practice, meaningful oral work, and free oral production.

Stage-1: Mechanical Practice

The first step in teaching speaking is to train pupils in sound discrimination, oral vocabulary, verb forms and grammatical patterns. These elements are necessary to acquire a basic knowledge of linguistic competence. Thus pronunciation should be stressed from the beginning because habits acquired at the start of language study are often difficult to change later on. Pupils, therefore, must practice hearing and understanding what is said or heard and must pronounce it correctly.

This activity is best carried out in the language laboratory where pupils can work at their own pace. They record some sentences, after a model, and then listen to each recording in order to correct any pronunciation problems. They continue this process until they gain some insight into the nature of the phonological rules of English.

At the same time, the teacher should draw pupils’ attention to the rules of grammar and of sentence formation. These elements are interdependent and should be developed concurrently. Pupils must, for instance, know that a word may have different pronunciations or meanings in different situations. In addition, they must know the rules of question formation and other types of sentences (statements, imperative, negative, passives, etc.). This is meant to help pupils differentiate grammatical from ungrammatical utterances, so that they can speak English fluently as they progress in language learning. However, the vocabulary, structures and other language patterns should be carefully selected and of high frequency. The speaking activities should be controlled in order to eliminate the possibility of errors in pupils’ responses.

Examples of Mechanical Drills

There are many types of manipulative drill where there is complete control of the pupils’ responses. Typical examples of these are repetition, ‘mim-mem’ and substitution drills.

Here are some examples or activities:

Teacher : My book was lost. Class : My book was lost.

Teacher : (giving a cue for substitution), The English Class : the English book was lost, etc.

Teacher : The girls are playing.

Pupil : What are the girls doing? etc.

Teacher : Waleed is going to Malaysia on his vacation. He’s wealthy.

Pupil : Waleed is wealthy enough to go to Malaysia on his vacation. (Followed by choral repetition, etc.)

Teacher : English easy.

Pupil : I thought English would be easy, but it turned out to the difficult. Teacher : Ali is playing.

Pupil : What is Ali doing?

The foregoing drills are simple types of manipulative skills. These exercises are structurally controlled so that the pupils always know beforehand the pattern they are required to illustrate. Their main function is to help pupils acquire the skill of producing the sounds and structures of the language automatically. But the overuse of mechanical drills may induce boredom and a distaste for language learning. The teacher, therefore, should be careful in handling such drills.

Stage-2: Meaningful Oral Work

At the second stage of learning to speak English, the structural controls are progressively relaxed. Having automatic control over basic patterns by means of the Habituation process, and having increased their linguistic competence through practice in various types of manipulative drills, pupils can handle meaningful activities fairly well. The pupils now understand what they are saying structurally and semantically. But there is no real communication taking place because there is still control of the response and the speakers do not add new information as they are still subject to some restraints. Furthermore, the initiative is still left with the teacher or with group leader.

This stage introduces the pupils to social formulae: greetings, introductions, complaints, asking for information, etc. it also gives them expressions with which to express their ideas creatively. It produces few incorrect sentences, and these are corrected by members of the group, not by the teacher.

Procedures and Examples

For drilling guided oral fluency, the teacher provides the class with the situation and content of what is to be said, and pupils communicate within this general framework. Topics and exercises should follow closely the interests of the pupils in order to encourage pupil-pupil interaction and to make English classes a lively and cheerful experience. Material can be drawn from different sources such as textbooks, pupils’ compositions, English newspapers or magazines, language games, classroom objects, and

the like. It is also important to make situations as concrete as possible. Persons, places and things should be named rather than referred to as generic concepts. Contextualization highlights the social setting of language use. It also motivates the pupils because they are practicing the language as it is actually used by native speakers.

The teacher should make the following points clear:

Setting: Where are the people talking? What sounds do they hear? What is the weather like? And so on. This will help pupils visualize the scene and stimulate them to talk.

Action: What actions initiate or terminate the conversation, and what do the participants do during the activity? Are they standing, sitting, walking or so? How are they reacting? This will inject humor and liveliness into the classroom situation.

Emotion: Pupils must be encouraged to express their feelings and opinions. The pupils will feel the vitality and expressiveness of English.

Function: Pupils should know why someone says something and what it means. Understanding the purpose makes the drill meaningful and eliminates habituation practice. With these points in mind, the teacher has to explain structural items that the pupils may use in the questions and answers. And, if the teacher wants to introduce new patterns, it is best to drill them thoroughly before using them in the activity.

Once the teacher has explained procedural steps and the teaching method, including the rearrangement of the class to meet the requirements of the activity and the encourage everyone to participate, he starts drilling the speaking activity. The methods suggested for this stage are guessing games, simple role-playing and dialogues, and the like: Here are some examples or activities:

Example 1:

Teacher : Some pupils are playing Pupil 1 : Who is playing?

Pupil 2 : Ali and Sami are playing.

Example 2: Question and answer exchanges between the pupils

Pupil 1 : What time did you come to school? Pupil 2 : I came at eight

Pupil 3 : Shall we go swimming? Pupil 4 : No, let’s go shopping.

Example 3: Dialogue adaptation

Pupil 1 : Why didn’t you come on time? Pupil 2 : Well, I couldn’t find the way at first Pupil 1 : Did you ask somebody?

Pupil 2 : Yes, a policeman.

Example 4: Short conversations

Pupil 1 : did you go to Lahore last summer? Pupil 2 : Yes, I visited the Badshahi Mosque. Pupil 1 : How was your trip?

Pupil 2 : Fantastic Lahore is a beautiful and exciting city.

The pupils select different places and vary the adjectives accordingly.

Example 5: Directed discourse in which the teacher guides the pupils

Teacher : Ali, ask Sameer where he went last night. Ali : Where did you go?

Sameer : To the home for watching TV. Teacher : What drama did you see?

Sameer : Aynic Wala Jinn.

Teacher : Ahmad, ask Sameer if it was funny. Ahmad : Was it funny?

Sameer : Yes.

Teacher : Tell us three things about Aynic Wala Jinn. Sameer : O.K….

In the above example, the teacher is setting up a situation that makes the pupils do the work. The teacher is not asking the questions; he is guiding or directing pupil A to ask pupil B. His main concern is to encourage pupils to use their imagination and to talk about their own experience or opinions.

Example 6: Oral guessing games. Such games provide pupils with good practice in formulating questions, a skill that does not receive sufficient attention in English classes. Questions are usually put by the teacher or written in the textbook. Here is an example: What is it?

In this activity, a pupil is asked to leave the classroom. The class then selects a small object, such as a piece of chalk, and hides it. The pupil returns and tries to discover its location by asking the class yes/no questions, using the following prepositions: in from of, near, far from, on … left, in, on, under, between, etc.

The pupil moves around, asking questions from different positions in the room until he discovers the location of the object.

Example 7: Prepared talks. The teacher assigns a topic or a choice of topics for a prepared talk. The pupils write an outline of what they want to say. This is to encourage thoughtful preparation. Then they give their talks in the class without using the notes they have written.

As a variation of this technique pupils may talk about what they did in the summer, last night, etc.

Example 8: Playlists. The Teacher divides the class into appropriate groups. Each group is asked to prepare a sketch using their ideas and making use of the teacher’s suggestions. When the sketches are ready, individual groups present them to other members of the class, or to other classes or to the English language club.

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INTRODUCTION

OBJECTIVES

1. IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING

1.1 Importance of Oral Language Learning

1.2 Importance of Written Language Learning

2.1 School Curriculum

2.2 Advancement

Activity-1

3.1 Elements of Language Teaching

3.2 General Aims of Teaching English

3.3 Aims of Teaching English at Elementary Level

4. PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING/TEACHING

4.1 Psychological Principles

4.2 Linguistic Principles

5.2 Motivation

5.4 Principle of Contrast

5.5 Principle of Control

5.6 Principle of Habit-formation

5.7 Principle of Guidance

5.8 Principle of Consistency

5.9 Principle of Integration

6. CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

6.2 Factors to Consider in Classroom Design

6.3 Grouping for Instruction

7. PROBLEMS OF TEACHING ENGLISH AT ELEMENTARY LEVEL

7.1 Non Unified Curriculum

7.2 Large Class Size

7.3 Lack of Teaching Material

7.4 Problem of Good English Teacher

7.5 Faulty Methods of Teaching

7.6 Non- uniform English Syllabus

7.8 Defective Examination System

8.2 Provision of Supplementary Material for Teachers

8.3 Examination System and Evaluation

8.4 Refresher Courses

9. SUMMARY

10. SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

12. BIBLIOGRAPHY

ASK YOURSELF

ASK YOURSELF

Exaimipie:

c) Learning Key Words In Major Subjects

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carrots, cabbage, potatoes, peas, onion, etc.

a) Lexical Meaning

b) Grammatical meaning

c) Connotational Meaning

d) Idiomatic Meaning

Word formation then means knowing, how words are written and spoken and knowing how they can change their form.

(Heir, here, hair), (beach, beech), (deer, dear), (fair, fare), (sun, son), etc.

driver, car accident, collide, traffic lights, garage, windscreen, headlight, steering wheel, brakes, etc.

BIRDS, CLOUDS, TREE, SUN

Correct: correction, correctly, corrected etc.

Direct: indirect, direction, directional, directions, directive, director, directorate.

bat, beat, bet, tea, fit, flute, but, bite, lift, tub, eat, etc.,

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Procedure:

Procedure:

Advantages

Disadvantages

Procedure

Procedure:

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(b) It is also used after an Emphatic Nominative of Address; as,

Examples of Mechanical Drills

Procedures and Examples

Example 1:

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