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Rumpelstiltskin

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Fifth assignment : Lesson plan

SINGULAR  AND  PLURAL NOUNS

LEVEL: Form 2 (Beginner to Intermediate)

THEME: PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT

TIME: 60 minutes

AIMS:

To be able to learn and understand singular and plural nouns, identify them and answer the exercise on the website given by the teacher. 

  TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

One computer per pair of students with an Internet connection, and a Web Browser.

Websites:

http://explorer.justenglish.com/magazine/biography/pablo-picasso (1)

http://www.better-english.com/grammar/sinplu.htm (2)

  

 

PREPARATION:

1. Find suitable websites for the activities.
2. Create an exercise for the students based on the information on the site.

PROCEDURE:

Introduction (10 minutes)

1.     Teacher tells a story and asks the students to identify the singular and plural    nouns in the story.

2.    Teacher introduces the topic and explains the rules of singular and plural nouns.

Pre Activity (15 minutes)

1.    Teacher asks the students to browse on the first (1) website and read the article about Pablo Picasso.

2.   The students are required to find at least 5 examples of each singular and plural nouns in the article.

3.   Teacher asks volunteers to give their answers and discuss it with the students.

While Activity (15 minutes)

1.   Based on the article, the students are required to identify 5 sentences that have singular and plural nouns.

2.    They are required to change the nouns form from the sentences.

(eg. From plural forms to singular forms and vice versa)

3.   Teacher will call out pair to present in front of the class.

4. Teacher discusses the answers with the students.

Post Activity (10 minutes)

1.    Teacher asks the students to browse on the second (2) website.

2.    The students are required to complete the exercise given in the website.

3.    They are given 5 minutes to finish the online exercise.

4.    Students will report their scores to the teacher.

5.    Teacher discusses the correct answer with the students.

Conclusion (10 minutes)

1.    Teacher receives feedbacks from the students regarding the lesson of the day.

2.    Teacher instils the moral values.

3.    Teacher congratulates the students on their effort.

Follow – up activity

The students are required to construct 10 sentences using singular and plural nouns. They need to email it to the teacher rodhiahamzah@yahoo.com

Fourth Assignment : The History of the Pencil

             History of the Pencil by Mark Marchant 

     The history of the pencil dates back to the 16th century at Borrowdale . A thunderstorm toppled some trees and uncovered a black substance that marked the hands of people who touched it. This was graphite. In its natural form, graphite is messy and soft. To make it easy to use, people first wrapped a sliver of graphite inside a roll of sheepskin or rope. Today, the graphite is inserted into a wooden case for easy handling.

   Graphite melts at very high temperatures. This made it perfect to use in cannons. Graphite-coated cannon balls continue to fire with great accuracy, even when a cannon gets very hot. This made graphite a very valuable weapon. So the British Government took over the graphite mine at Borrowdale. For many years, armed guards took the precious graphite all the way down to the weapon factories in the naval shipyards in the south of England. Local people tried to smuggle out the graphite, which was nearly as valuable as gold. To stop this, the British Government created a law in 1752 to punish people caught smuggling graphite to hard labour in prison colonies overseas. However, this harsh new law did not stop the smuggling!  

   The Borrowdale mine remains the only major source of graphite in its near-pure form in the world. Smaller graphite mines exist in parts of China, which now produces most of the world’s pencils. Nowadays, the best grade graphite at Borrowdale is totally exhausted. But England’s pencil industry continues to thrive in the nearby town of Keswick. Keswick’s first pencil factory opened in 1832. This is now owned by the Cumberland Pencil Company and still produces a wide range of high quality pencils.

Article Review

http://callej.org/journal/12-2/Acar_Kobayashi_2011.pdf

Title: Whys and How’s of Language Exchange Meetings

Journal-volume: CALL-EJ, 12(2), 1-10

Authors’ names: Adam Acar (adam.acar@gmail.com)

                        Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Japan

Hideo Kobayashi (kobayashi-h@mrg.biglobe.ne.jp)

Kinki University, Japan

Designation: “Tandem Language Learning”

Background: According to Cziko (2004), “Tandem Language Learning or language exchange is a language-based communication between two learners who speak different native languages and who intend to learn each other’s native language as an L2”. Language learning offers a positive feedback since it involves peer to peer interaction. Learners tend to learn and communicate well in using the language once it involves language exchange meetings. However, there is a limited choice and variety of books and research regarding this topic.  This paper investigates the primary factors that influence language exchange activities and the correlates of a satisfactory meeting. It involved 64 English learners who posted a profile on language exchange websites. From the study conducted, it is found out that language exchange partners change languages randomly, rarely follow a lesson plan and they hardly ever correct pronunciation and grammar mistakes. Besides that, there is also a great significance between topics discussed with the language exchange partners and satisfaction towards the conversation.

Summary of the research

        i.            The aims:

This study was conducted in November 2009. The aims is to find out the underlying reasons behind face to face language exchange meetings virtually. The researchers find out that there are a limited number of books and studies that discuss on the inter-cultural language study and computer-mediated cross-cultural communication via the internet. English learners were surveyed through meetings with their language exchange partners for more than 3 times. It explores the “whys” and “how’s” Japanese-foreigner language exchanges their meetings. The conversation patterns were observed in order to get a solid data that support this study.

      ii.            The methodology:

This research is a survey research. The methodology used in this research is quantitative in nature. Two most popular exchange websites were selected on Alexa.com which is mylanguageexhange.com and conversationexchange.com. They were selected as the researchers believed that websites with low traffic might have high turnover that will gives negative impacts on the response rate. An invitation of the online survey was sent to 500 members on mylanguage.com and 100 members on conversationexchange.com. They were selected based on the most recent members who logged in last 30 days. The questionnaire was in Japanese.

    iii.            The subject/sample:

The participants are Japanese and they listed English as their second language. The age of the participants ranged from 18 to 65 years old.

    iv.            The findings of the research:

The researchers find out that an approximate of 76% of Japanese who create online profiles to find English language exchange partners were females. 24 out of 100 people who were Japanese native speakers were males. An approximate of 64 participants was residing from 7 different countries. 35 participants mentioned that they had a chance to meet the language exchange partners face to face. 25 of them stated that they met their language exchange partner regularly. There are two significant findings emerge from this research:

1.   Native speakers experienced a cross-cultural experience in language exchange and unstructured format throughout the meetings.
2. Language exchange partners switch languages randomly, rarely follow a lesson plan and they also find it hard to correct on grammar and pronunciation.

Most of the respondents stated that they managed to increase their inter-cultural awareness and also experienced cross-cultural communication with foreigners helps them in studying English. Participants prefer to have language exchange as an opportunity to for cultural enhancement than as a language study tool. The study also finds out that they were less concern on grammar and pronunciation since minor or no corrections are made throughout the meetings. Besides that, they also find out that there is a great significance between topics discussed with the language exchange partners and satisfaction towards the conversation. Participants felt that they managed to increase their satisfaction towards their meetings whenever they talk about personal problems or topics that interest them.

Reaction

  i.            Does the research interest you?

Yes. The research interests me. The title itself captured me as it state on “whys and how’s language exchange meetings”. I personally agree with the researchers that throughout language exchange meetings, people will learn and expose more to second language. Tandem Language Learning or language exchange is good in term of exchanging culture and also education. From the research itself, they managed to prove that Japanese who created their profile online agreed that they involve in the language meetings for the purpose of studying English. I would like to associate it with facebook and twitter. Through this two social network, people are being connected virtually. We can always view people’s profile and even be their friend. Here, we already enter the first stage in making communication. People who surf and make friends in social network are expose to new culture and language. For example, Korean Pop lovers always search for new friends online so that they will have new friends to exchange their interests in Korean Music. I find it somehow as amusing since I have few friends that to the extend they did went to Korea just to explore the country and makes their relationship with the Korean Pop lovers closer. Despite the weaknesses and disadvantages of social network, I somehow believe that if we tune and use the network in a right way, it will bring benefits to us. As for me, I find it useful sometimes as it teach me a lot in understand and improving my English and also learn new languages.

   ii.            Do you think the research well conducted?

Well, from my point of view I think that the research is well conducted but somehow there are some weaknesses that I can identify there. The research is an online survey that chose people randomly based on a time given frame. They chose the two most favourable web sites in language exchange meeting. Here, they are making a good choice since popular sites will promise a big number of internet surfers. However, since the findings stated that almost 76% of the surfers who created their profile in the given sites are women, I think that the researchers are over generalize the data. They are making assumptions towards the Japanese based on the data the received. More than half of the results are referring to women thus they should make the data in a more specific way. Besides that, it is also found out that 64 participants were a resident from 7 different countries. Here, I was wondering if the 64 participants are making language exchange meeting so that they will learn English or is it because they are in the society and wanted to mix in with it. Here, the researchers are being over generalized again since they should collect data by assuring on how long they have been staying there and how well will they rate themselves in English. Nevertheless, I believe that the data will help people especially the Japanese since it suggested reliable sites for them to browse. They have a solid data that supports each of their findings and I think it is very useful. They should focus more on gathering balance data from both gender and as well as correct information about the surfers.

   iii.            What is/are the implication(s) of the research in the teaching and learning in ESL (in the general and Malaysian contexts)

Japan is being classified as the most homogenous country in the world. Unlike Malaysia that has many races, tribes and religions, it differs in terms of language use. The research I can say did not help Malaysia a lot in terms of Malaysian contexts since our second language is English. It can be used as a support for Malaysia academician or researchers to investigate in term of language exchange in the two countries. I believed that in order to make English as their second language, they need to carry out the survey to investigate the reasons behind the meetings and also number of people who use the service. Honestly, I think that Malaysian can use this research as a reference only or a study that can differentiate between language exchange meetings in Malaysia with Japan.