ele3104 – english language teaching methodology for young learners

Compilation of Notes of ELE3104

By Cg Mohd Ridzuan al-Kindy™ (IPG KDRI)

ELE3104 – ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

METHODOLOGY FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

TOPIC 1: LESSON PLANNING

Principles of Lesson Planning

Identifying Target Group

Teacher need to identify the target group – pupils.

The factor that need to be considered:

o Background of pupils – family, daily life

o Area of the pupils live – rural or city

o Level of cognitive of pupils

o The exposure level to the English

Characteristics of successful English learners:

Integration of Language Skills

Sometimes it is necessary to integrate other skills in

the focus skill in a lesson.

Remember that, it is difficult for pupils to master the

skill, thus the integration of skills need to be done

correctly to ensure pupils learn the language better.

Guide to plan an integration of language skills

o Think of what children usually do when listening

to, speaking about, reading or writing

o Think of what language (vocabulary and

structure) pupils need to do activities.

o Decide what language students already know /

learnt.

o Check the amount of time available and decide

how much can be taught.

o Think of interesting task that student can do to

make they learn the target skill.

Selection of Language Content

Four basic skills in English:

o Listening

o Speaking

o Reading

o Writing

Integrated skills:

o Grammar

o Vocabulary

o Literature

Educational Emphasis

Infusion of Thinking Skills

o Incorporated in the learning outcomes to enable

learners to solve simple problems, and express

themselves creatively in English.

ICT Skills

o These skills have been added to cater for

schools that have ICT facilities.

o Schools that do not have ICT facilities are not

obliged to teach these skills.

o Include working on computers and using

courseware.

Value and Citizenship

o The values contained in the secondary Moral

Education syllabus have been incorporated in the

learning outcomes and include patriotism and

good citizenship.

Multiple Intelligence

o This is illustrated, for example, in the way

children interact and talk with one another (verbal

intelligence), and the application of kinesthetic

intelligence as seen in role-play activities.

Learning How to Learn

o Incorporated in outcomes to enable learners to

take responsibility for their own learning even at

an early age.

o Enable learners to remember words, recall ideas,

and look up meanings of words in simple

dictionaries.

o Set learners on the path to become independent

life-long learners.

Knowledge Acquisition

o Make use of subject matter disciplines such as

science and geography, and incorporate

educational emphases such as the environment

and consumerism to provide contexts for

language use.

Future Studies – Preparation of Real World

o Meet the challenges of the real world by focusing

on language use in society.

o Achieved through structuring the curriculum in

terms of the interpersonal, informational and

aesthetic uses of language.

o Also achieved by making use of real-life issues

for classroom.

Have positive attitude towards English and speakers of English

They motivated to learn English for certain reason

Make effort to get into situation where English is used and often use it.

Consciously try out new strategies for learning and remember new vocabulary

Prepare to take risk, make mistake in the use of language and try to improve it.



Format of Lesson Plan

General format of lesson plan:

o Subject

o Year

o Date

o Time

o Theme

o Topic

o Focused skills

o Integrated skills

o Learning outcome

o Intended learning outcome / behavioural

objective

o Vocabulary

o Sentence pattern

o Previous knowledge

o Moral values

o Thinking skills

o Multiple intelligence

o Resource

o Stages of lesson :

Set induction

Presentation

Practices

Production

Closure

Topic 2: Testing and Evaluation

Principles of Language Testing and Evaluation

Testing is a systematic way to measure changes in

an individual behaviour. (R.M. Gagne,1965)

Required pupils to show explicitly in the form of

activities

Measuring instrument: observation and formal test

(e.g.: exercise, quiz)

Always happened in the class during the lesson and

on-going process.

Purposes / Aim

Criteria of a Good Test

A good test need to fulfil the following principles:

Test Characteristics

Validity

o Refer to what level the test is able to measure

what it is supposed to measure

o Also can be said as tests for determining whether

the test is measuring the concept / skills that the

teacher thinks is being measured

Reliability

o Refer to the degree to which a measurement

procedure produces similar outcomes when it is

repeated.

o When designing an assessment, need to consider

whether the results achieved will be consistent.

Determine pupils’ behavioural changes

Determine pupils achievement in certain lesson

Place pupils in suitable group according to result

Motivate pupils to revise / improve

Train pupils make appropriate preparation for public examination

•Determine the reasons why you are assessing the students

•Design an assessment that will fulfil your needs

The purpose of the assessment and task fluffiness

•Ensure assessment is both valid - in that it tests a relevant skill or ability

•Reliable - in that the same result would be achieved if assessment repeated later.

The validity and reliability of the assessment

•To compare the candidates abilities with a common measure – objective criteria or candidates performance

The referencing of the assessment

•Consider the difficulty level of the items

•Consider how well the assessment differentiates between the candidates - to provide maximum information the assessment

The construction quality of assessment items

•Grades awarded are very concise summaries of students’ abilities.

•Should be clear and easily understood

The grading of the assessment



Objectivity

o Refer to the accuracy of an examiner in marking

any candidates answer.

o Examiners need to give same marks of the same

answer of candidates according to marking

scheme

o Closed-ended question has highest objectivity

rather than open-ended question.

o To improve the marking for open-ended question,

the analytical marking scheme and moderation.

Administrability

o Refer to the smooth implementation of the testing

process in room / examination room.

o The whole process of conducting the test from

beginning stage of preparing the question papers

until the ending stage of marking the candidates’

answer script can be carried out smoothly.

Assessibility

o Refer to the result of the candidates’

achievement which can easily interpret and

assessed by the way providing clear and useful

information according to the objective of the test.

o This mean:

The result is easily collected and converted to

statistical form

Clear picture of interpretation that can guide

the analyser to make follow up action

Types of Tests

Formative and Summative Assessment

Aspects Formative Summative

Concept

A type of formal and

informal test to

assess the

effectiveness of skill

mastering and

progress of learning

in class.

A type of formal test

to access pupils’

achievement in

certain schooling

level

Aim

To ascertain the

effectiveness of skill

mastering and

pupils’ progress

To correct

weaknesses

immediately in class

To determine pupils’

achievement based

on a few learning

units and arrange

their grades level

accordingly

Activity

To carry out formal

or informal test

individually, in group

or in class during

learning

To use a few period

to carry out formal

test in class or year

(cohort)

Time

To carry out after

teaching one or

several skills

To carry out after

teaching a few

learning units

Format

Informal –

observation /

questioning and

discussion

Formal – paper &

pencil test in short

time

Formal – paper &

pencil / oral test

within suitable

period

Target Individually, groups

or whole class

The whole class or

year (cohort)

Coverage

Cover certain skill

(informal) or a few

skill (formal)

Cover a few learning

units or certain

schooling level

Record

No record (informal)

and the use of check

list / performance

record (formal)

Profile record /

certificate

Follow

Up

Action

Correct

weakness

immediately /

carry out

remediation /

enrichment

Replacing pupils

in suitable

learning group

Place pupils in

suitable group /

class

Plan and modify

lesson /

curriculum /

panel’s plan

Award certificate

based on

achievement in

examination

Formal and Informal Evaluation

Formal Informal

Formal assessments

have data which

support the

conclusions made from

the test (standardized

measures)

Informal assessments

are not data driven but

rather content and

performance driven.

Standardized

measures

Non-standardized

measures

Pupils will be assessed

and graded according

to standardized grade

Pupil will be assessed

according rubric scores

Pupils achievement

written in % or grade

(standard score)

Pupils achievement

written in score (such

10/15 – in non-standard

score)

Assess overall

achievement, to

compare a student's

performance with

others

Assess criterion

referenced measures

or performance based

measures

More to quantitative

measurement

More to qualitative

measurement



Written test, oral test,

examination,

coursework, monthly

test

Questioning and

discussion,

observation, self-

assessment test,

homework, in class

exercise

Norm-referenced and Criterion-referenced Evaluation

Aspects Norm-referenced Criterion-

referenced

Concept

Relative-

achievement

evaluation (shows

performance of

group of candidates

in form of normal

graph)

Objective-

referenced

evaluation

(determine

individual

achievement based

on minimum

criterion fixed earlier

Aim

To compare and

distinguish

performance

between candidates

/ group

To determine ability

to master learning

based on the certain

fixed criterion

Uses

Summative test to

distinguish

candidates in

performance level of

distinction, credit,

pass and fail

Formative test to

improve T&L based

on the test result

Target

Comparison of

performance among

candidates

Determination of

performance

individually or in

small group

Question

Charac-

teristic

Arranged from easy

to hard, and with

discrimination

among candidates

Have almost the

same level of

difficulty based on

learning objective

Grading

Passing mark /

grading is

determined after the

test result

Passing mark /

grading is

determined before

the test is carried

out

Coverage Wide range of

learning skills

Limited learning

skills

Example

Public examination

as UPSR, PMR &

SPM

Oral test, MUET,

Coursework, written

exercise

Norm-referenced Evaluation

o Obtained normal graph from candidates’ score

Alternative Assessment

An on-going process involving the student and

teacher in making judgments about the students’

progress using non-conventional strategies.

(Hancock,1994/1)

Form of alternative assessment:

o Portfolios

o Scrap book

o Rubrics & checklists (criterion-reference)

o Anecdotal records – teacher, or person who is

observing, writes down their observations of the

student providing a record of student growth,

strengths and needs.

o Oral performances

o Projects

o Performance tasks

Reason / Purposes:

Students are able to display knowledge in many different ways.

Students who are not skilled test takers will be able to succeed in showing their abilities and therefore build self-esteem.

Alternative Assessment methods do not interrupt class time as do traditional tests, but instead are measurements of day to day growth.

Gives ongoing information on strengths and weaknesses of each student providing the teacher opportunity to work within those.

Not tied to a specific culture or language, but rather, is free from prejudice and unfair assumptions.

Directly connected with the curriculum and therefore provides a direct reflection of what is being taught



Test Specifications

Also known as Test Specification Table (Jadual

Spesifikasi Ujian - JSU) in Malaysian school.

Purpose of preparing Test Blueprint

o To guide for teacher to construct questions follow

accurately to test blueprint

o To ensure the appropriate weightage for various

topics and their skills level reflect accurately the

pupils’ overall ability.

Important elements:

o Topics / skills

Refer to curriculum specification

o Skill level

Follow the Bloom Taxonomy level (6 levels)

For diagnostic test simply use 3 levels – easy,

moderate and hard

o Number of items of according topic and skill level

TOPIC 3: THE TEACHING AND ASSESSING OF

LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS

Principles of Teaching Listening

Purposes of Listening

Aim of Teaching Listening in KBSR

Approach to Teaching Listening in the KBSR

Auditory Discrimination

o Distinguish specific sounds from a background of

different sounds

o Recognize the meaning of sound signals heard.

o Enjoying speech rhythms and patterns of sound.

o Understand and interpret intonation patterns.

Comprehension Skills

o Follow directions

o Note details

o Understand main ideas and supporting details

o Listen and respond critically to faults in argument

o Make inference

Types of Listening Activities

Process Involved in Listening

Hearing vs Listening

o People do not pay attention to everything we

hear.

o People begin listen when they pay attention to

the sounds they hear and make an effort to

interpret them.

Top Down Process

o Listener hears something and it remind him of

something in the previous knowledge.

o Listener tries to relate what he had heard with

what he already knows.

o This will help listener to understand the

knowledge better.

Bottom Up Process

o What the listener hear does not trigger anything

in his previous knowledge.

o Slow building up of meaning block by block.

o Much harder.

o Teach students on how to listen to the meaning,

not sound and words.

o Try to guess the meaning of unknown words from

the context.

o Work at understanding the whole message.

Listening is an Active Process

o Good listener constructs meaning when they are

listening.

o Do not passively receive what speaker says.

o Identify main ideas.

o Agree and disagree with the speaker.

o May be disappointed or satisfied with the ideas.

Purposes of Listening

Maintaining good social

relations

Entertainment

Obtain information

Academic purposes

Develop pupils’ ability in understanding the information they had listened.

Encourage pupils to respond to what they had heard in various ways.

Able to respond to a number of familiar topics by the end of the primary school.

Processes Involved in Listening

Hearing vs Listening

Top-down Processing

Bottom-up Processing

Listening is an active process



Listening in a Foreign or Second Language

People learn new things or words by repeatedly

hearing in their environment.

This is how little children learn their own mother

tongue.

People in urban areas are familiar with English

compared to the people in the rural areas.

Selection of Learning Materials

Speakers

Type of text

Content of text

Listeners

o Number of speakers

If there are more speakers, the listener

will have to deal with :

Interruptions

Changes of turns

Changes of speakers

Monologue is easier to follow than a

dialogue

o Variety of English

The more familiar a listener is with a

particular variety (the accent, the

regional words and phrases used, etc.),

the easier he would find the listening.

o Speed of delivery

People who speak fast are generally

more difficult to understand than those

who speak slowly

o Amount of planning

Pre-planned talks are easier than

unplanned or spontaneous speech like

conversations.

o Amount of performance features present

The texts that are spontaneous are more

difficult than scripted texts that do not

have any of these features.

o Amount of support available

Face to face communication

Gestures

Facial expressions

Pictures and illustration

o Level of sophistication of language

Avoid texts with words and structures

beyond the listeners’ understanding

o Length of text

Try to not use very long texts because

they tire the listener and put a strain on

his short term memory

o Relevance

Choose texts that are relevant to pupils’

interest level, their maturity and the

communicative need for English.

o Difficulty of argument of concepts

A short text with many ideas may be

harder than a long text with very few

ideas.

o Redundancy

Texts where ideas are repeated in many

different ways are easier than texts

where there is no repetition of ideas.

o Unfamiliarity of content

When the content is unfamiliar, the

listener will have difficulty understanding

what he hears.

o Level of language proficiency

Do not choose a listening text with too

many difficult words and sentences that

are long and complex

o Attention span

Decide on the length of the listening

input because younger and less able

pupils generally cannot concentrate for

very long.

o Interest

Affect the learners’ motivation

Determine what kind of input will interest

the pupils.

o Previous knowledge

Difficult to understand the text and to

respond to it if the listener has very little

or no previous knowledge.



Situation

Task

Guidelines/Principles for Teaching Listening

Teaching Listening Strategy For Beginner Learner

Characteristic

o Many people in this group cannot even

distinguish an English speech sound from the

noises in the environment.

o They have no idea where a word or phrase

begins and where it ends.

o They have no idea of the rules of English

pronunciation or grammar.

Suggested T&L strategies:

Make sure pupils understand clearly

Provide a context for listening

Pupils know what they are listening

Ask straightforward question of the overall text

Prepare the pupils for the main listening task (pre-listening task)

Ask questions that are appropriate for the level of proficiency of the student and type of text

Use formats and that require minimum writing

Arrange the questions in the order

Do not ask questions on information closely packed together on the tape

Give chance to read through the question before listening to the tape

Make sure at least some of your questions require higher order skills

Decide on the number of times the students would be able to listen

Encourage the students to ignore the bits they do not understand

Make sure that distinguishing between one speaker and another is not difficult

Check all recorded material

Ensure the quality of the tape is excellent

Choose a period that is suitable for a listening lesson

Finding the best listening input and listening tasks that pupils enjoy it.

o Amount of background noise

Learn to make sense of what we hear, in

spite of the noise

The ability to cope with noise comes at a

rather late stage but for pupils in the

earliest stages, distinguishing the sounds

of the new language above the noise in

the background may be very frustrating

o Number of chances for listening to the input

Earliest stages: allow pupils to listen

many times

Later stages: learners need to cope with

listening to the input only once

o Difficulty of task

Simplifying the listening task

To find out which items on a list the

speaker mentions.

o Length of input

Do not give more than one to three

minutes’ worth of listening materials to

process at any one time.

o Type of input

Use teacher-made material with the

following features;

i. Short basic sentences

ii. Clear pronunciation

iii. No background noise.

Select word/ideas/events that can be

visual supported e.g.:

i. Actions

ii. Objects

iii. Colours

iv. feelings

Pupils at this stage will have to listen and

understand are words related to object in

the classroom.

i. Chalk, chair, stand up, Take out

your books, close your bag.

Use a great deal of visual support in the

form of pictures, gestures, facial

expressions and dramatization.

Conduct activities that focus on specific

aspects of listening:

i. Minimal pair discrimination.

ii. Statement using intonation pattern

o Speed of delivery

Do not slow down your speech to much.

This does not help the pupils

o Outcome of listening

Do not expect full comprehension.

Build in a lot of redundancy so they can

get the answers without too much

difficulty or anxiety



For Intermediate Learner

Characteristics:

o Pupils have fairly good grasp of phonemic

system of English.

o They would still have difficulty with authentic

texts.

o They would not be able to handle such as

features as hesitations, false starts, background

noise.

o Intermediate student can remember longer

phrases and sentences.


For Advance Learner

Characteristics:

o By this stage, the student would have become

very proficient in the language.

o They can process the language almost

automatically without paying conscious attention

to it.


o Use a variety of text.

o Select the kinds of texts that useful for students’

present and future needs.

o Students should be given practice in listening to

all the major varieties of English

British English

American English

Australian English

Assessing Listening

Discrete feature tests

o Minimal pair test

Choose one of two alternatives (50% chance

element in the test)

Various combination of the same sound

contrast

E.g.: Listen and discriminate the initial sound

of transport

bicycle motorcycle

helicopter car

Task-based tests

o Text selection:

o Editing text for taping:

Kind of Listening Test

Test specific aspects of listening

(Discrete feature tests)

Test skills in accomplish different types of listening tasks

(Task-based tests)

Choose kind of listening task: E.g.: listen to instruction

Number of speaker in listening text

Talk / Story that read aloud easier to be understood rather than conversation / story that told

Presentation of text ; read aloud or taped (Tape the test is more recommended)

Ideally : use real language

A lots of interruption in real conversation

Teacher needs to edit the written text so that it more like spoken text

Identify most important ideas and say more than one way in the text

Join sentence using simple conjunction

Do not read the text very slowly, otherwise give slightly longer pause between sentence.

Text should not too long. Preferable : 3-4 minutes for young children

o Length of input

They can listen to longer stretches of say

5 to 10 minutes each time

o Type of input

Their listening input can include two-way

communications with more than one

speaker.

At least some of the input must be

authentic or semi-scripted so that they

can develop strategies for dealing with

normal speech.

When you first introduce non-scripted,

authentic material, make sure there is a

lot of redundancy.

With less proficient students, the

listening input can be given in two

versions: authentic and edited.

At this level, pupils still need guided

practices in specific aspects of listening

skill.

At this level of global comprehension,

you can set question that focus on

discourse level (e.g. at the level of

paragraph or argument)

Focus on such skills as predicting

outcomes and drawing conclusion.



o Construct items:

Objective item:

Short-answer item:

o Channel conversation

o Summary close

o Listening to the tape

Considered to :

How many times listen

What condition would they listen

Decide skill will be tested and weightage will be given in each skill

When listening, the pupils write in the same time

Writing is the way pupils express the understanding

Try to minimum the writing when the test

1. The alternative need to be simple

2. The items follow through the sequence of the tape

3. Chance given to read first the question before listening

Chance to look the question first

Arrangement of question is according to tape sequence

Should be enough interval between items ; allow pupils to finish writing the answer

To record pupils’ understanding in non-verbal way

E.g.: Draw a face according to description listened

Put in details into an incomplete picture based on description listened

Label the equipment used in the process

Prepare a summary of main points

Pupils fill in the blanks in the summary

after listen

Train auditory memory : for higher level

Students read question

Listen the tape & write down the answer

Listen the tape again (check)

Write final answer



Principles of Teaching Speaking

Types of Speaking Activities

Integrated Activities

Assessing Speaking

Topic 4: The Teaching and Assessing of Reading

Skills

Principles of Teaching Reading

Reading Readiness (First Steps)

Stages in a Reading Lesson

Strategies in Teaching Reading


Assessing Reading

Topic 5: The Teaching and Assessing of Writing

Skills

Principles of Teaching Writing

Writing Readiness (First Steps)

Stages in a Writing Lesson

Strategies in Teaching Writing


Assessing Writing

Topic 6: The Teaching and Assessing of

Vocabulary, Spelling and Dictation

Purpose of Teaching Vocabulary, Spelling and Dictation

Techniques and Activities for Teaching Vocabulary,

Spelling and Dictation

Assessing Vocabulary, Spelling and Dictation

Topic 7: The Teaching and Assessing of Literature

for Primary Schools

Purpose of using Literature in the Language Classroom

Designing Activities based on Literary Texts

Assessing Literature

Topic 8: The Teaching of Grammar

Approaches in Teaching Grammar (Overt and Covert)

Purpose of Teaching Grammar

Techniques and Activities for Teaching Grammar

Assessing Grammar

Topic 9: Integration of Language Skills and

Language Content

Purpose of Integration

Ways of Integration

ele3104 – english language teaching methodology for young learners

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