Final Term Assignment of Literature 3
(Even Semester 2013/2014)
Dear all,
To complete all requirements for finishing Literature III class, write an article on “Literature and English Language Teaching”. Feel free to choose the focus of your article, but keep in mind that it is related to the given subject, for instances:
- The Advantages of Using Charles Dicken’s Works in Reading Skills Development
- Using Short Stories to Develop Vocabularies
- Using Alfred Tennyson’s Poems to Facilitate Pronunciation Skills Development
- Short Stories as an Effective Reading Comprehension Materials
- Employing Drama to Improve Students’ Speaking Skills
- Using Literary Works to Develop Cross Cultural Awareness
- Learning English Grammar Through Short Stories
- Employing Jonathan Swifts’ Works to Develop Reading Comprehension Skills
- Teaching English through Romantic Poems
- Literature Appreciation for Boosting Essay Writing Skills.
The article can be based on a real English teaching experiences or the result of a field or library research. Write the article in 750 to 1.250 words. Develop it in an appropriate scientific article structure (see Scientific Article Structure). At least, it should include the following sections: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Discussion, Conclusion, and Reference List. Use the APA Citing and Referencing Style.
To get insights, the following articles are worth reading.
- Using Short Stories to Teach Language Skills https://parlindunganpardede.wordpress.com/articles/language-teaching/using-short-stories-to-teach-language-skills/
- The Role of Literature and Culture in English Language Teaching http://relinguistica.azc.uam.mx/no007/no07_art09.pdf
- Four Good Reasons to Use Literature in Primary School ELT http://203.72.145.166/ELT/files/56-2-7.pdf
- Literature in ELT Setting: Paving the Way for Critical Students http://file.upi.edu/Direktori/FPBS/JUR._PEND._BAHASA_INGGRIS/197104242006042-NIA_NAFISAH/Paper/Literature_in_ELT_Setting.pdf
- Benefits of Using Short Stories in the EFL Context http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/pta_nov_ore.pdf
- Using Drama Activities and Techniques to Foster Teaching English as a Foreign Language: a Theoretical Perspective. http://www.qou.edu/english/conferences/firstNationalConference/pdfFiles/muntherZyoud.pdf
- Using Literature in EFL Classes for Teachers. http://www.cce.ufsc.br/~clafpl/1_Dolores_Aronovich_Aguero.pdf
- Literature in the Language Classroom (http://www.melta.org.my/ET/1991/main6.html)
- Using Poem to Teach English (http://www.finchpark.com/arts/Poems.pdf)
- The Benefits of Using Drama in the ESL/EFL Classroom (http://iteslj.org/Articles/Boudreault-Drama.html)
Post your article in the reply section below by Saturday, December 14, 2013
Good Luck!
Universitas Kristen Indonesia 
Right here is the right website for everyone who hopes to understand this topic.
You understand a whole lot its almost tough to argue with you (not that I actually would want to…HaHa).
You definitely put a new spin on a topic that has been discussed for
ages. Great stuff, just wonderful!
Retno Candrawati / 12.121.570.02
TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS USING STORIES
Abstract
Teaching English to Young Learners refers to a more specialized area of teaching English which deals with younger students. Younger students are assumed to be about 3 to twelve years old. Young learners’ consentration levels are relatively short in learning, so they easily get bored in studying. Here, teachers have to teach using some simple ways, like games, stories and other activities. One of the ways to teach English to young learners is using stories. Stories have simple words, simple expression, and also simple structure and grammar. Stories make they fun when learn English.
Introduction
Teaching young learners is not easy, but it is certainly challenging; “comforting’ it might be for the teachers to be ‘in charge of the proceedings’ with a traditional model of teaching, they should not ignore stories are made for children, and that young learners are also children. An area, therefore, which is less developed, is the possibility of using children’s stories for the production of a wide variety of language and learning activities. These can lay the foundations for the development of more positive attitudes towards the foreign language and language learning.
Young Learners
Young learners are children from the first year of formal schooling to eleven or twelve years of age. They are relatively mature children with both adult and childish features. They can read and write in their first language. They are still young to learn structure and grammar. They are able to listen to a text and say what it is about. They still like playing games, singing songs, saying rhymes and introducing their own thoughts and ideas. Children like reading story, they enjoy reading story over and over again. Have a copy of some storybooks, so that they can read and touch in their free time. These activities may make their relationship with books stronger.
Why use stories?
There are some reasons why teachers should use storybooks :
Storybooks can enrich the pupils’ learning experience. Stories are motivating and fun and can help develop positive attitudes towards the foreign language.
Stories exercise the imagination and are a useful tool in linking fantasy and the imagination with the child’s real world.
Listening to stories in class is a shared social experience.
Children enjoy listening to stories over and over again. This repetition allows language items to be acquired and reinforced.
Listening to stories develops the child’s listening and concentrating skills.
Stories create opportunities for developing continuity in children’s learning (among others, school subjects across the curriculum)
Choosing stories
Children have already formed their schema of what a story is since early childhood. Teachers can choose from a wide range of storybooks of this kind: traditional stories and fairy tales which are common in most European cultures; picture stories where children can build up their own version of the story; fantasy stories; and animal stories. A carefully selected story can give information about life in the target language. The successful choice, however, is not enough to ensure the good use of a story in class. Teachers need fun activities in teaching children. The activities designed for each story and the exploitation of the rich material in the story itself are very important also. Besides the activities that children like, teachers should prepare the syllabus and lesson plan before teaching young learners. The lesson plans illustrate in practice the use made of each story.
The story itself and the activities, built within the corpus of the text, are the structuring components of the lesson. The stages of the lesson, where extra activities can be inserted, are clearly defined. In this way, the context assumes great importance; young learners can more readily make associations between the language needed and the language produced. Children can thus store new knowledge more easily and retrieve it when they find themselves in a similar context.
Some stories consist of pictures in stories. The pictures have a central role to play in the story-based syllabus and the learning to-learn process. They can be a stimulus for forming hypothesis, predicting, sequencing and exercising memory. Words are better associated with pictures. In addition, a story is more memorable if it can be related to a sequence of pictures. This quality of theirs makes pictures a useful tool for the design of activities, especially oral or written ones. They can help in practicing speaking and writings skills: the story can be reconstructed orally or on paper (guided tasks) with the help of key-visuals from the storybook. Moreover, they can provide high face and content validity as stimuli for pure writing or speaking tasks in a conventional testing situation.
Conclusion
A story-based framework of teaching and learning can become a very powerful tool in the hands of a teacher. A well-organized story session can intrigue the students and make them want to explore many features of the language. As teachers, we want to make students autonomous, lifelong learners. We will have made a large step towards this aim if we make them learn consciously and assume responsibility for their learning. Learners can be guided to reflect on the process of learning even if they are young.
References
Loukia, N. (2006, April 1). Teaching Young Learners Through Stories: The Development of a Handy Parallel Syllabus. VI, 25-40.
Brewster, J., (1991), «What is good primary practice?» in Brumfit C, Moon J, Tongue R
(eds) Teaching English to Children. From Practice to Principle, edition published by
Longman Group Ltd, 1995.
https://parlindunganpardede.wordpress.com/articles/language-teaching/using-short-stories-to-teach-language-skills/
Arlin Adriana 1112157003
Storybook to develop Reading Skill
Nowadays, English is one of international languages that used by many people to communicate one each other’s in each field they worked. Including in Education part, in this era people have to be able in at least English. So, today many schools in Indonesia use English as a foreign language. Starting from kindergarten to Universities student. Learning to read in English as a foreign language poses a problem for many children in Indonesia. Bjorklund (2005) said that the young learner ability to learn foreign languages is higher than the ability of adults. The early age children are at a sensitive period (critical period) to learn the language, because brain development reached excellent flexibility.
A fairytale, a fable, or a mere narrative story or using a storybook has the advantage of creating a magical, but also a meaningful context for learners, especially younger ones. However, this type of literature has considered an old-fashioned way of widening children’s imagination and knowledge. Actually, this is the easier way to introduce and develop their English until they have passion to study about it more.
Why a storybook?
A book is the simple and easier thing for adult get every time at everywhere to be showed to the children. In kindergarten usually has a lot of storybook at each class. Even though the students were not able to read yet but they like to take a book. Actually, they can make their own story based on the pictures that they saw in the storybook.
To get an idea of what storybook would be appropriate for a particular group of children, follow these steps:
1. Ask what the storybook theme they loved.
2. Think about those stories in terms of cognitive complexity and emotional content.
3. Look for storybook that answers the question: what “story gifts” would I like to give someone who is dealing with these issues at this level?
4. Choose stories that meet those requirements, and ask one or more students to read the storybook in front of the class.
http://www.storydynamics.com/Articles/Performing/tell2yp.html
For kindergarten students, a storybook is such a special gift to them because they can choose one the most favorite to see. When they tried to read the words or sentence for some students that were already able to read simple sentence, then it will develop their reading skill. It was their pride if they could read the storybook (words) in front of their friends. If there is a difficult word to say, the teacher can help them improved. After the student read the storybook at school, the teacher may asked them to read a storybook too at home and re-tell the story in the next day at school. That is effective to develop their reading skill.
Conclusion:
As Teachers has to choose the best method to teach young learners. One of the best methods is telling story by reading a appropriate storybook to develop students’ reading skill. And of course the process of its must be continuity whether at home or school. A storybook that has an interactive and creative design, colors or pictures are the most favorite choices for young learners.
Reference
Bjorklund, D. F. (2005). Children’s Thinkung:Cognitive Development and Individual Difference. ISBN.
Cupp, C. J. (1999). Issues and Trend in Literacy Education.
Lcf Club. (t.thn.). Dipetik December 2013, 12 , dari http://www.lcfclub.com/ar-tech-english-to-your-kid.asp
Story dynamic. (t.thn.). Dipetik december 2013, 12, dari The way to tell story to children: http;//www.storydynamic.com/Articles/Performing/tell2yp.html
Teaching Literature To Children
Abstract
Literature is associated with advanced university students or other high level adults. However, children’s literature is an important part of English language literature as a body of work and using it for EFL/ESL teaching has many benefits for students.
Children’s literature can be used successfully as the content base for an integrated-skills EFL/ESL classroom by giving a creative teaching approach and suitable supplemental activities. Students can learn new vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking and writing.
Choosing a Book
In teaching literature, choosing the right book may be the most difficult and most important. In a study of the increasing popularity of using literature in the second language classroom. Radhika O’Sullivan observes that It is all very well to point out the advantages of teaching literature but the key to success in using literature in the ESL classroom depends primarily on the works selected. If the selection is too easy, students will feel bored and you will have difficulty designing enough activities. If the selection is too difficult, students will feel frustrated and you will be overwhelmed. The following guidelines may help you narrow down the field of choices.
When evaluating potential books, look at:
• The length and complexity of the story. Simple, short stories with repetitive language work best for young EFL learners.
• Does the book look overwhelming? Type that is too small, or too many words on a page, can intimidate young students.
• The level of vocabulary. How much of it will be review for your students? If students know less than 75% – 80% of the vocabulary, they may lose confidence in their ability to understand the story.
• Illustrations should be interesting and should help students understand both the vocabulary and the story.
• Finally, select a book that you think you will enjoy. It will be difficult to convince students to be enthusiastic about a story you don’t like.
A selection of recommended titles is provided in the Appendix.
Preparing to Teach
Lesson Plan
We need to think about the teaching objective, consider how much time we need to spend with the book, create a plan to teach effectively and design the worksheets and wordlists.
Allow Enough Time
Spending enough time with the book is very important. In order for young students to fully absorb an English language book, they must interact with it extensively.
Use What You Find
Look for features of the book that we can highlight in the classroom. For example, How to be a Tudor in 20 easy stages uses the simple past tense. We can emphasize to the students about the use of simple past tense.
Developing Materials
If we want to have the most valuable activities for our students which fit their needs, we have to develop the materials by ourselves. It is very challenging and time-consuming, can be very rewarding. It is a good learning experience which may help give us insight into our teaching. To go a step further, Brian Tomlinson asserts that the most meaningful learning takes place when students are “involved intellectually, aesthetically, and emotionally” in their own education. When teachers choose to use student-created materials, instead of pre-fabricated, one-size fits all published ones, they can begin to accomplish goals like these.
Workbook
Young students need hands-on activities. A teacher-created workbook can act as a basis for one of those types of activities.
Keep things simple. The workbook need be nothing more than a collection of papers stapled together. On the first day of teaching a new book, allow students to illustrate the covers of their own workbooks. This can provide a personal connection to the story at the outset of their study. You can use the pages as a place for students to draw artistic responses to the story. For example, if they’ve learned “house/mouse/train/rain” in class, then the lesson wrap-up may include time for them to draw a picture featuring the vocabulary words and labeled in English.
Flashcards
Assign different vocabulary words to different students and have them help make flashcards. We can collect and laminate the drawings and use them for various activities in follow up lessons. It is amazing to see the rapt attention students are willing to give materials they created themselves.
Cassette Tape
Many books are available with a companion cassette tape, which often includes versions of the story set to music or with sound effects. These tapes are well worth the investment and, if possible, students will benefit from purchasing their own copy as well so they can listen at home. The story set to music is more entertaining for your students, who might express it by borrowing from Emma Goldman, and saying, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your EFL classroom.”
If no tape is available, don’t despair! If you are a virtuoso, you could set the story to music yourself and record it. If not, you could coerce your older, higher proficiency students to read the story and record it as a class project. You could enlist precocious young ones to make drumming sounds at pre-determined intervals or, if you have truly musical students, you could find some way to use their talents. My sixth grade students particularly enjoyed noticing how “easy” the literature for first graders was as it gave them a real sense of their own progress.
Types of Activities
• Listen to the story on tape/as read by the teacher without looking at the text.
• Listen to the story and read along.
• Listen to the story and put illustrations depicting parts of the story in order.
• Read the book silently.
• Read the book to a partner, then switch.
• Write your favorite words/new words/words starting with A from the story in your notebook.
• Write a portion of the story in the workbook.
• Answer (or practice asking) simple who, what, when, where, and why questions about the story.
• Play pictionary. Divide students into teams. One member of the team draws a picture on the board while team members try to guess what it is within a limited time period.
• Speed reading game. Call out a word from the text, then let students race to find it. The first one to find it reads the sentence aloud. A word of caution: this game is rather hard on books.
• Have students display the flashcards they made, let them be the teacher and ask the class, “What is this?”
• Make up a dance or do actions to the words of the story. A good example of this kind of story is The Foot Book. The text repeats, “Left Foot/Left Foot/Right Foot/Right.” Students can get out of their chairs and jump from left to right as
suggested by the text.
• Do the opposite of dancing. Have students “freeze” a moment of the text by acting out exactly what is described in the text at some specific moment, and holding perfectly still. You could photograph these moments if you have a digital camera.
• Do a verbal fill-in-the-blank exercise. As you read, stop at random and have students shout out what word comes next.
• Check comprehension of key concepts by asking students to draw pictures. For example, students could demonstrate understanding of the difference between “I like kimchi.”/”I don’t like kimchi.” by drawing two different pictures.
• A note about memorization. A lot of students really do enjoy memorizing the books. Allow them to recite what they’ve memorized in teams. Many students love to show off their English, and feel very proud of being able to produce a minute or so of non-stop English.
Conclusion
Using children’s literature can be an effective and enjoyable way to teach language. Students who are enthralled by a story forget their worries and anxieties about the new language. In an interview with Tova Ackerman, storyteller Dvora Shurman says that, The best way to teach is not to impose teaching, but to allow the listener to become so involved in hearing a story that his ‘defenses’ are no longer active. It is our sense of enjoyment, excitement, and emotional involvement that is a necessary condition for learning, and using literature in the classroom can provide the content base for the magic.
References
• Ackerman, T. (1994) Storytelling: A Way of Freeing the Imagination. An Interview with Dvora Shurman. The Journal of the Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching, 2. Retrieved December 31, 2003, from http://www.njcu.edu/cill/journal-index.html.
• Burns, A. (2003). Reading Practices: From Outside to Inside the Classroom. TESOL Journal, Volume 12, 18-23.
• Haynes, J. (2001). Four Stages of Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved December 31, 2003 from http://everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php.
• O’Sullivan, R. (1991). Literature in the Language Classroom. The English Teacher. Retrieved December 31, 2003 from http://www.melta.org.my/ET/1991/main6.html.
• Peck, S. (2001). Developing Children’s Listening and Speaking Skills in ESL. In Celce-Murcia, Marianne, (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. (pp. 139-149). Boston, USA: Heinle & Heinle.
• Tomlinson, B. (1999). Humanising the Coursebook. Humanising Language Teaching, Year 3, Issue 4. Retrieved December 31, 2003 from http://www.hltmag.co.uk/sep01.
USING SHORT STORIES TO DEVELOP VOCABULARIES
Maria Helena Pude
11 121 50 909
Universitas Kristen Indonesia
Abstract
It is no doubt that vocabulary plays an important role in the academic lives of EFL learners. This is because if foreign language learners lack a mature vocabulary, their other language skills suffer radically. According to David Wilkins (1972, P. 111) “Without grammar, very little can be conveyed. Without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed.” Vocabulary, is the basic material of the language, is used in expressing ideas and thoughts when communicating. Therefore, the teaching and learning of vocabulary in any foreign language classroom form a very significant place. Since vocabulary knowledge is a building process that occurs over time as the students make connections to other words, using short stories in the term of developing vocabularies would be best. The aim of this paper is to discuss the role of short-stories in developing vocabulary of EFL learners.
Key words: vocabulary, short-stories, language, developing
Introduction
In teaching English nowadays, vocabulary instruction forms a very important aspect that must be taken care off. This is because the knowledge of vocabulary determines and decides the level of a foreign language learner. This is because the knowledge of vocabulary also plays a very important role in all the fourth language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Indeed it is a good thing if one has lots of knowledge regarding vocabulary because this will make a foreign language learner an effective speaker, good listener, reader and writer. In contrast, lack of vocabulary significantly affects these four language skills. Therefore, the teaching and learning of vocabulary needs special attention both from teachers and learners. Therefore, a deliberate and structured approach needs to be taken for enriching vocabulary of EFL learners. This implies the appropriate strategy, material and methodology by EFL teachers. However, the success of it, is determined by the results these all produce while achieving the stated aims and objectives. Once again, the aim for both teaching and learning this vocabularies is to measure the competent level in establishing successful communication and independent and autonomous learners, the present paper investigates the role of the use of short-stories in developing vocabularies.
Why short-stories?
Teachers believe that teaching English should start for the children in their early age. It is said that that time, their brain are in an excellent level to observe things easily. Despite teaching, teachers should be able to deliver the message well. Therefore, as one of the literature source, short-stories would be the best choice to be used.
Not only to consider it shortness but also an easy material to comprehend. Short-stories also came in variety of choices which can be applied for all ages in any classroom. This made short-stories the appropriate material to teach or learn English. Literature, in the form of short-stories, makes learning English an enjoyable and attractive process for EFL learners. It also help to stimulate students’ interest about the target culture and language
The way to conduct the teaching of vocabularies using short-stories
Choosing the material
This first step is considered important. Teachers should know what material (types of short stories) that is suitable for the classroom. Teachers may choose materials that will raise learners curiosity so this will make them interested even more to learn. In the other hand, teachers may also choose materials that are familiar for the learners as this will make them more comfortable to get involved in the discussion about the material. In addition, teachers may give learners a favor to choose what sort of short story that they are interested in. Therefore, choosing the best material for teaching is quite a crucial action.
Aspects to ponder
1) Responses
To develop vocabularies mastery using short story, they would be few aspects and steps that teachers should ponder upon. If the focus is vocabularies, teachers should prepare the test that enable them to test the mastery level of vocabularies for each students. However, it is of course different between children and adult learning / teaching activities. Children will immediately let you know whether they have understood your teaching or not. It is different with teenagers/adult who tends to examine your teaching in silent. But that does not mean that they would not doubt anything. They will, somehow. Let say if the teachers trying to develop the vocabularies during the lesson, he/she can simply ask them or give them a simple task to do as the below example:
“The witch did not speak to me,” said the hunter.
In this sentence, the word in bold is a verb. Ask the learners to find the noun or adjective for the word.
2) Listening and repetition
The teaching activities should be conduct with audio or video since the learners often need to hear a story many times in order to master it properly. Repetition is necessary. Children are actually eager to share their feedback but very shy to approach. Unlike teenagers/adult who can simply make a small interruption during your explanation. One of the methods you can use to test them is to give them chances to interrupt you by asking them the question regarding the material. Teachers can ask learners to tell their reflection about the short story using their own words whether is by written or oral task. This will enable the learners to find new vocabularies and develop it by themselves.
3) Tones / Pronunciation
Pronunciation is also important. It tells the learners whether the word you say is a verb or noun or adjective or adverb. For example, the teacher use the story of Cinderella as the main text and ask the student to listen while he/she is reading the text. Each pronunciation has to be accurate to enable the learners to observe what you are trying to say. Teachers can ask the learners to jot down the words that they pronounced with the correct spelling. This is also one of the ways to test the student vocabularies.
Conclusion
The vocabulary knowledge, influences EFL learners capability especially in reading comprehension skill. It is commonly noted that in EFL classrooms the students with reading problems have poor vocabularies. The mastery of vocabulary can support EFL learners in speaking when they are communicating to people, in writing when they are writing and translating the meaning, in comprehension when they read and listen. In short, the lack of vocabulary can hinder them to completely understand the message that teachers are trying to deliver. “Thus the lack of vocabulary knowledge results in lack of meaningful communication as the other language skills get affected with it.” (Al-Dersi, 2013)
Studies proved that reading stories has the potential to greatly increase an EFL learners’ vocabulary repertoire. The use of short-stories in EFL classrooms for developing vocabulary of EFL learners is an enjoyable, inexpensive and highly efficient method. It should be recommended for all EFL teachers and learners. However, this does not mean that story telling should replace all other methods of vocabulary teaching; rather it should be used in addition to those methods in order to boost development further. EFL teachers need to acknowledge the incremental nature of vocabulary learning, and to understand that an effective vocabulary learning program needs to be principled. It is also believed that by using short-stories, the learning process can be more comfortable and easy.
References
Bibliography
Al-Dersi, Z. E. (2013). The Use of Short-Stories for Developing Vocabulary of EFL. English Language & Translation Studies, , I (1).
Teaching vocabulary in the literature classroom. (2001, March). English Journal , 1-8.
Drama in Teaching English
Abstract
Improving student’s English speaking skill is one the major aims of English learning process in most of the schools or other English learning centre. This is done due to handle the intense challenges of globalization which requires a good communication skill. Variation of teaching approaches and techniques distributed by teachers to reach this aim. One of the most familiar techniques that is used to improve student’s speaking skill is drama. this technique, give student opportunity to speak. Actually, speaking is not easy for language learner because not only focus on memorizing vocabularies but, speaking needs much practice. With drama performance, students can practice their speaking in front of their friends. Furthermore, drama is interest and enjoyable. Overall we can say drama is like a context for speaking and listening
Introduction
English as international language has become the major lingua franca in the interconnected globalized world, and this is the main reason why English teaching development is dramatically spread out in most part of the world. Basically the ability to speak in a foreign language involves many components that speakers need to obtain in order to be able to communicate effectively. For that matter the improvement of of speaking ability involves both the acquisition of linguistic forms and the knowledge of communication contexts, which determine not only manner but also content of verbal expression. In communicating the ability to interpret and respond to nonverbal clues such as facial expressions and tones of voice is very important and plays an essential part, that is why students ought to be facilitated with a good learning environments so different forms of social interaction can be simulated in order to acquaint them with different kind of communication contexts and linguistic forms.
Why Drama
There are many learning theorist that have studied in this field, here are some of them, the first and perhaps one of the most influential among them is Vygotsky (1987), says that the development of language depends entirely on social interaction. He postulates that knowledge entails self-regulation and that social interaction enables individuals to construct knowledge which is meaningful to them.
Next theorist is Hymes, in the matter of language perspective, he mentions, “communicative competence must include not only the linguistic form of a language but also a knowledge of when, how and to whom it is appropriate to use this form” (Hymes, 1966 cited in Paulston and Bruder, 1976: 55). These two theoretical concept as the base of the application of drama and questioning techniques to improve learners’ speaking ability in that the two techniques support interaction and that drama provides learners with opportunities to learn to communicate in contexts where most, if not all, components of communicative competence exist.
The third theorist is Esslin, he points out that drama is not the words but the situation in which the words are delivered that matters. Drama techniques are defined as strategies to communicate or convey the intended meaning which involves a wide range of activities. Drama refers to a work of art which will be exploited as a resource for language learning in the present study. The benefits of drama techniques or drama to speaking development are extensively acknowledged.
Another theorists are Hamilton and McLead (1993), according to them, drama is beneficial especially to speaking development. Wessels (1987) adds that drama can reinforce a need to speak by drawing learners’ attention to focus on creating dramatic situations, dialogues, role plays, or problem solving exercises. They all believe that by using drama technique, the improvement of student’s speaking ability will able to rise greatly.
And the last one is DiYanni (2000), according to him the elements of drama consist of plot, the sequence of events, character development (the element which makes things happen in drama), dialogue (which functions in advancing the plot, creating settings, and revealing character), staging (the presentation of drama in performance), and theme (the central idea or motif of the play). Meanwhile, drama techniques utilized in a language class have generally been divided into seven types, including games, mine or pantomime, role playing, improvisation, simulation, storytelling, and dramatization. The present study combined drama elements and types of drama techniques into an arrangement of instruction in order to broaden learners’ opportunities for nourishing their speaking abilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_(narrative)
Elements of Drama
a. Plot
According to Wikipedia plot is a skill term defined as the events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, in a sequence, through cause and effect, how the reader views the story, or simply by coincidence. One is generally interested in how well this pattern of events accomplishes some artistic or emotional effect. An intricate, complicated plot is called an imbroglio, but even the simplest statements of plot may include multiple inferences, as in traditional ballads.
Gustav Freytag considered plot a narrative structure that divides a story into five parts, like the five acts of a play. These parts are: exposition (of the situation); rising action (through conflict); climax (or turning point); falling action; and resolution.
Exposition introduces all of the main characters in the story. It shows how they relate to one another, what their goals and motivations are, and the kind of person they are. The audience may have questions about any of these things, which get settled, but if they do have them they are specific and well-focused questions. Most importantly, in the exposition, the audience gets to know the main character (protagonist), and the protagonist gets to know his or her main goal and what is at stake if he or she fails to attain this goal and if he eventually attains. This goal this phase ends, and the next begins, with the introduction of conflict.
Inciting incidents is the point of the plot that begins the conflict. This phase happens right before the rising action, the protagonist faces the conflicts for the first time and still haven’t had the clue how to overcome them. While Rising action is the phase where the protagonist understands his or her goal and begins to work toward it. Smaller problems thwart their initial success and, in this phase, progress is directed primarily against these secondary obstacles. This phase shows us how the protagonist overcomes these obstacles.
Climax is the point of climax is the turning point of the story, where the main character makes the single big decision that defines the outcome of the story and who he or she is as a person. The dramatic phase that Freytag called the “climax” is the third of the five phases and occupies the middle of the story. Thus “the climax” may refer to either the point of climax or to the third phase of the drama. he climax often contains much of the action in a story, for example, a defining battle.″Climax″ is the highest point of the story.
Falling action, Freytag called this phase “falling action” in the sense that the loose ends are being tied up. However, it is often the time of greatest overall tension, because it is the phase in which everything goes mostly wrong. In this phase, the villain has the upper hand. It seems that evil will triumph. The protagonist has never been further from accomplishing the goal. For Freytag, this is true both in tragedies and comedies, because both of these types of plots classically show good winning over evil. The question is which side the protagonist has put himself on, and this may not be immediately clear to the audience.
Denouement it is what we call the resolution or where the story’s mystery is solved. In this stage all patterns of events accomplish some artistic or emotional effect.
b. Setting
The setting of a play, like that of a short story, is the place and time where the events of the drama take place. But unlike a short story, where the setting can be somewhat easy to overlook, in a play it dominates the audience’s experience of the drama. It quite literally forms the backdrop for the action. Sometimes there are multiple settings in a single play; sometimes the entire story unfolds in one place. In many cases the setting itself can function as a character; in every case the setting for the drama establishes the emotional atmosphere, or mood, for the story. Keep in mind that the setting constitutes more than the physical characteristics of the set, such as the way a room is decorated or how the furniture is arranged. It also includes the historical and cultural moment in which the story takes place, or its social context.
c. Character
A character is a person depicted in a narrative or drama. Characters may be flat, minor characters; or round, and major. The main character in a story is generally known as the protagonist; the character who opposes him or her is the antagonist. Character is revealed by how a character responds to conflict, by his or her dialogue, and through descriptions.
d. Staging
Staging is the transformation of that idea into performance. Staging includes not only the physical set, but also the lighting, sound system, backdrops, costumes, furniture, and scenery employed in the production. Another element of staging is the physical movement of the actors. Do they stand still, flail their arms, pace back and forth frantically, sulk in a corner? How close to one another do they stand? Do they look at one another or avert their eyes? What gestures do they make?
e. Theme
The theme of a drama refers to the central idea of the play. It can either be clearly stated through dialog or action or can be inferred after watching the entire performance. Or in other word we can say theme is the meaning of the play.
Drama techniques for teaching in class
An attractive alternative is teaching language through drama because it gives a context for listening and meaningful language production, forcing the learners to use their language resources and, thus, enhancing their linguistic abilities. It provides situations for reading and writing. It is very useful in teaching literary texts as it helps in analyzing plot, character and style. To make drama useful for teaching English, there are some activities that teachers can use in their class.
a. Charades
A warming up activity such as charades are good in gauging your class’s interest and talent in drama. You could have your class play it in a substitute period. Divide the class into teams. Each team, usually after a collective discussion, gives one member of the other team who has volunteered to mime, a name of a film or a book to guess (of course, films are by far more popular). Initially it is a good idea if you choose the titles as you can ensure that they are easy to mime. Do not forget that these should be in English! Only one member of the team is shown the name/title and he or she has to mime it without mouthing any of the words for his own team members who have to guess it. If they guess it correctly within the stipulated time period (three to five minutes) they win a point. The actor can indicate the number of words in the title and, also, there are common gestures for articles and prepositions which can be discussed before the game begins. Students can be creative in getting the title/ name across to their team mates. For example, they could indicate that they are miming a rhyming word instead of the exact word if that is much simpler. Sometimes it helps to break up big words and students could indicate that they are doing so. This game is going to tell you a lot about your students. It will also loosen up the atmosphere of your class and prepare you and your students for doing drama.
b. Questioning in Role or Hot Seating
Questioning in role/hot seating involves one of the learners ( the teacher could also take on the hot seat in case there aren’t any student volunteers). Students who are being questioned in a role about their motives, character and attitude to a situation or other people are stimulated to think deeper and wider. In literary texts, it can be used to deepen characterization. In case the level of the learners’ questions remains literal, or barely relevant, the teacher should intervene and give lead. This technique operates in a controlled manner and is, therefore, very useful for the teacher who is new to drama. Texts about characters who have done heroic feats, lived an adventurous life or been in the news for some reason or the other, can be used for hot seating or questioning in a role.
Aims of the Activity
• Comprehension and interpretation of character
• Taking down notes
• Practice in report writing
Procedure
The class is told that they are newspaper reporters at a press conference to interview the character after his/her adventures.
The ‘character’ (a learner who has volunteered to take on the role) sits in the front, facing the rest of the class and answers questions posed by the reporters. He is interviewed for no more than 10 minutes. The reporters ask not just questions, but, also take notes in order to write a news story or a more descriptive feature article for the next edition of their paper. In case of a large number of learners in the class, about three learners can team together and pose as reporters from the same newspapers. The whole activity can be made more dramatic by asking the learners to make their nameplates with newspaper names and display them on their desks. A learner can be given the role of a moderator who introduces the “character” and ensures a smooth functioning of the conference. After the interview is over, the teams of “reporters” work together for the write-up. The learner who has been questioned in the role of the character can join one of the teams of the reporters.
Follow-up
The reports are read aloud in class and the learners discuss with the teacher which are the good ones and why. Good reports are put up on the class wall magazine.
Variations
Different learners can volunteer as the character to be interviewed. Later, the class decides which learner gave the best interview and this
c. Telephone Conversations
Telephone conversations test the learners’ ability to react quickly and, though the learners are free to say whatever they like, they have to bear in mind whatever is said by the other speaker and continue the conversation accordingly. This technique helps in enhancing the speaking-listening skills of the learners.
Aims of the Activity
• Being able to sustain a meaningful telephone conversation
• Interpretation of character
Procedure
The class is divided into groups of two learners. The learners sit with their backs to each other so that they can only hear their telephone conversation partner. The learners in each group are to imagine that they are two different characters. A particular situation from the story/text is taken for which every pair has to build up a telephone conversation. You could ask them to discuss another character or some specific event from the text. You could also go beyond the text and give them a conflicting situation and ask them to resolve it as the “characters” they are role playing.
Follow up
The conversations can be later written down in the note books. Each learner writes down the entire conversation that she has had with her partner. These can be exchanged and read by different pairs.
Conclusion
Learning English can be fun and effective as long as it is delivered with suitable approaches and techniques. Drama is an appealing teaching strategy which promotes cooperation,collaboration, self-control, goal-oriented learning as well as emotional intelligence and it is one of the most recommended techniques that is very beneficial for learning process. One of the greatest advantages to be gained from the use of drama is that students become more confident in their use of English by experiencing the language in operation. There are a lot of topics out there that are interesting and can attract students attention, and all of these depends on the teacher willingness whether he or she always update his/her teaching materials. Many activities can be done by using drama techniques such as games, story telling, or even by using pictures as media, and these activities really can motivated students and also improve their English skills especially in speaking skill.
References
DiYanni, R.. (2000). Drama: An introduction. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Esslin, M. (1976). An anatomy of drama. New York: Hill and Wang.
Freytag, G. (1863). Die Technik des Dramas (in German). Retrieved 2009-01-20 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure
Hamilton, J. and McLead, A. (1993). Drama in the languages classroom. London.
Hymes, D. (1966). Teaching and Training in sociolinguistic. (Unpublished ms).
Paulston, C.B. and Bruder, M.N. (1976). Teaching English as a second language: Techniques and procedures. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Winthrop.
Swartz, Larry (1995). Drama Themes. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1987). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press Center for Information on Language Teaching and Research.
Wessels, C. (1987). Drama. Oxford: Oxford University press.
Abstract
Improving student’s English speaking skill is one the major aims of English learning process in most of the schools or other English learning center. This is done due to handle the intense challenges of globalization which requires a good communication skill. Variation of teaching approaches and techniques distributed by teachers to reach this aim. One of the most familiar techniques that is used to improve student’s speaking skill is drama. this technique, give student opportunity to speak. Actually, speaking is not easy for language learner because not only focus on memorizing vocabularies but, speaking needs much practice. With drama performance, students can practice their speaking in front of their friends. Furthermore, drama is interest and enjoyable. Overall we can say drama is like a context for speaking and listening
Introduction
English as international language has become the major lingua franca in the interconnected globalized world, and this is the main reason why English teaching development is dramatically spread out in most part of the world. Basically the ability to speak in a foreign language involves many components that speakers need to obtain in order to be able to communicate effectively. For that matter the improvement of of speaking ability involves both the acquisition of linguistic forms and the knowledge of communication contexts, which determine not only manner but also content of verbal expression. In communicating the ability to interpret and respond to nonverbal clues such as facial expressions and tones of voice is very important and plays an essential part, that is why students ought to be facilitated with a good learning environments so different forms of social interaction can be simulated in order to acquaint them with different kind of communication contexts and linguistic forms.
Why Drama
There are many learning theorist that have studied in this field, here are some of them, the first and perhaps one of the most influential among them is Vygotsky (1987), says that the development of language depends entirely on social interaction. He postulates that knowledge entails self-regulation and that social interaction enables individuals to construct knowledge which is meaningful to them.
Next theorist is Hymes, in the matter of language perspective, he mentions, “communicative competence must include not only the linguistic form of a language but also a knowledge of when, how and to whom it is appropriate to use this form” (Hymes, 1966 cited in Paulston and Bruder, 1976: 55). These two theoretical concept as the base of the application of drama and questioning techniques to improve learners’ speaking ability in that the two techniques support interaction and that drama provides learners with opportunities to learn to communicate in contexts where most, if not all, components of communicative competence exist.
The third theorist is Esslin, he points out that drama is not the words but the situation in which the words are delivered that matters. Drama techniques are defined as strategies to communicate or convey the intended meaning which involves a wide range of activities. Drama refers to a work of art which will be exploited as a resource for language learning in the present study. The benefits of drama techniques or drama to speaking development are extensively acknowledged.
Another theorists are Hamilton and McLead (1993), according to them, drama is beneficial especially to speaking development. Wessels (1987) adds that drama can reinforce a need to speak by drawing learners’ attention to focus on creating dramatic situations, dialogues, role plays, or problem solving exercises. They all believe that by using drama technique, the improvement of student’s speaking ability will able to rise greatly.
And the last one is DiYanni (2000), according to him the elements of drama consist of plot, the sequence of events, character development (the element which makes things happen in drama), dialogue (which functions in advancing the plot, creating settings, and revealing character), staging (the presentation of drama in performance), and theme (the central idea or motif of the play). Meanwhile, drama techniques utilized in a language class have generally been divided into seven types, including games, mine or pantomime, role playing, improvisation, simulation, storytelling, and dramatization. The present study combined drama elements and types of drama techniques into an arrangement of instruction in order to broaden learners’ opportunities for nourishing their speaking abilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_(narrative)
Elements of Drama
a. Plot
According to Wikipedia plot is a skill term defined as the events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, in a sequence, through cause and effect, how the reader views the story, or simply by coincidence. One is generally interested in how well this pattern of events accomplishes some artistic or emotional effect. An intricate, complicated plot is called an imbroglio, but even the simplest statements of plot may include multiple inferences, as in traditional ballads.
Gustav Freytag considered plot a narrative structure that divides a story into five parts, like the five acts of a play. These parts are: exposition (of the situation); rising action (through conflict); climax (or turning point); falling action; and resolution.
Exposition introduces all of the main characters in the story. It shows how they relate to one another, what their goals and motivations are, and the kind of person they are. The audience may have questions about any of these things, which get settled, but if they do have them they are specific and well-focused questions. Most importantly, in the exposition, the audience gets to know the main character (protagonist), and the protagonist gets to know his or her main goal and what is at stake if he or she fails to attain this goal and if he eventually attains. This goal this phase ends, and the next begins, with the introduction of conflict.
Inciting incidents is the point of the plot that begins the conflict. This phase happens right before the rising action, the protagonist faces the conflicts for the first time and still haven’t had the clue how to overcome them. While Rising action is the phase where the protagonist understands his or her goal and begins to work toward it. Smaller problems thwart their initial success and, in this phase, progress is directed primarily against these secondary obstacles. This phase shows us how the protagonist overcomes these obstacles.
Climax is the point of climax is the turning point of the story, where the main character makes the single big decision that defines the outcome of the story and who he or she is as a person. The dramatic phase that Freytag called the “climax” is the third of the five phases and occupies the middle of the story. Thus “the climax” may refer to either the point of climax or to the third phase of the drama. he climax often contains much of the action in a story, for example, a defining battle.″Climax″ is the highest point of the story.
Falling action, Freytag called this phase “falling action” in the sense that the loose ends are being tied up. However, it is often the time of greatest overall tension, because it is the phase in which everything goes mostly wrong. In this phase, the villain has the upper hand. It seems that evil will triumph. The protagonist has never been further from accomplishing the goal. For Freytag, this is true both in tragedies and comedies, because both of these types of plots classically show good winning over evil. The question is which side the protagonist has put himself on, and this may not be immediately clear to the audience.
Denouement it is what we call the resolution or where the story’s mystery is solved. In this stage all patterns of events accomplish some artistic or emotional effect.
b. Setting
The setting of a play, like that of a short story, is the place and time where the events of the drama take place. But unlike a short story, where the setting can be somewhat easy to overlook, in a play it dominates the audience’s experience of the drama. It quite literally forms the backdrop for the action. Sometimes there are multiple settings in a single play; sometimes the entire story unfolds in one place. In many cases the setting itself can function as a character; in every case the setting for the drama establishes the emotional atmosphere, or mood, for the story. Keep in mind that the setting constitutes more than the physical characteristics of the set, such as the way a room is decorated or how the furniture is arranged. It also includes the historical and cultural moment in which the story takes place, or its social context.
c. Character
A character is a person depicted in a narrative or drama. Characters may be flat, minor characters; or round, and major. The main character in a story is generally known as the protagonist; the character who opposes him or her is the antagonist. Character is revealed by how a character responds to conflict, by his or her dialogue, and through descriptions.
d. Staging
Staging is the transformation of that idea into performance. Staging includes not only the physical set, but also the lighting, sound system, backdrops, costumes, furniture, and scenery employed in the production. Another element of staging is the physical movement of the actors. Do they stand still, flail their arms, pace back and forth frantically, sulk in a corner? How close to one another do they stand? Do they look at one another or avert their eyes? What gestures do they make?
e. Theme
The theme of a drama refers to the central idea of the play. It can either be clearly stated through dialog or action or can be inferred after watching the entire performance. Or in other word we can say theme is the meaning of the play.
Drama techniques for teaching in class
An attractive alternative is teaching language through drama because it gives a context for listening and meaningful language production, forcing the learners to use their language resources and, thus, enhancing their linguistic abilities. It provides situations for reading and writing. It is very useful in teaching literary texts as it helps in analyzing plot, character and style. To make drama useful for teaching English, there are some activities that teachers can use in their class.
a. Charades
A warming up activity such as charades are good in gauging your class’s interest and talent in drama. You could have your class play it in a substitute period. Divide the class into teams. Each team, usually after a collective discussion, gives one member of the other team who has volunteered to mime, a name of a film or a book to guess (of course, films are by far more popular). Initially it is a good idea if you choose the titles as you can ensure that they are easy to mime. Do not forget that these should be in English! Only one member of the team is shown the name/title and he or she has to mime it without mouthing any of the words for his own team members who have to guess it. If they guess it correctly within the stipulated time period (three to five minutes) they win a point. The actor can indicate the number of words in the title and, also, there are common gestures for articles and prepositions which can be discussed before the game begins. Students can be creative in getting the title/ name across to their team mates. For example, they could indicate that they are miming a rhyming word instead of the exact word if that is much simpler. Sometimes it helps to break up big words and students could indicate that they are doing so. This game is going to tell you a lot about your students. It will also loosen up the atmosphere of your class and prepare you and your students for doing drama.
b. Questioning in Role or Hot Seating
Questioning in role/hot seating involves one of the learners ( the teacher could also take on the hot seat in case there aren’t any student volunteers). Students who are being questioned in a role about their motives, character and attitude to a situation or other people are stimulated to think deeper and wider. In literary texts, it can be used to deepen characterization. In case the level of the learners’ questions remains literal, or barely relevant, the teacher should intervene and give lead. This technique operates in a controlled manner and is, therefore, very useful for the teacher who is new to drama. Texts about characters who have done heroic feats, lived an adventurous life or been in the news for some reason or the other, can be used for hot seating or questioning in a role.
Aims of the Activity
• Comprehension and interpretation of character
• Taking down notes
• Practice in report writing
Procedure
The class is told that they are newspaper reporters at a press conference to interview the character after his/her adventures.
The ‘character’ (a learner who has volunteered to take on the role) sits in the front, facing the rest of the class and answers questions posed by the reporters. He is interviewed for no more than 10 minutes. The reporters ask not just questions, but, also take notes in order to write a news story or a more descriptive feature article for the next edition of their paper. In case of a large number of learners in the class, about three learners can team together and pose as reporters from the same newspapers. The whole activity can be made more dramatic by asking the learners to make their nameplates with newspaper names and display them on their desks. A learner can be given the role of a moderator who introduces the “character” and ensures a smooth functioning of the conference. After the interview is over, the teams of “reporters” work together for the write-up. The learner who has been questioned in the role of the character can join one of the teams of the reporters.
Follow-up
The reports are read aloud in class and the learners discuss with the teacher which are the good ones and why. Good reports are put up on the class wall magazine.
Variations
Different learners can volunteer as the character to be interviewed. Later, the class decides which learner gave the best interview and this
c. Telephone Conversations
Telephone conversations test the learners’ ability to react quickly and, though the learners are free to say whatever they like, they have to bear in mind whatever is said by the other speaker and continue the conversation accordingly. This technique helps in enhancing the speaking-listening skills of the learners.
Aims of the Activity
• Being able to sustain a meaningful telephone conversation
• Interpretation of character
Procedure
The class is divided into groups of two learners. The learners sit with their backs to each other so that they can only hear their telephone conversation partner. The learners in each group are to imagine that they are two different characters. A particular situation from the story/text is taken for which every pair has to build up a telephone conversation. You could ask them to discuss another character or some specific event from the text. You could also go beyond the text and give them a conflicting situation and ask them to resolve it as the “characters” they are role playing.
Follow up
The conversations can be later written down in the note books. Each learner writes down the entire conversation that she has had with her partner. These can be exchanged and read by different pairs.
Conclusion
Learning English can be fun and effective as long as it is delivered with suitable approaches and techniques. Drama is an appealing teaching strategy which promotes cooperation,collaboration, self-control, goal-oriented learning as well as emotional intelligence and it is one of the most recommended techniques that is very beneficial for learning process. One of the greatest advantages to be gained from the use of drama is that students become more confident in their use of English by experiencing the language in operation. There are a lot of topics out there that are interesting and can attract students attention, and all of these depends on the teacher willingness whether he or she always update his/her teaching materials. Many activities can be done by using drama techniques such as games, story telling, or even by using pictures as media, and these activities really can motivated students and also improve their English skills especially in speaking skill.
References
DiYanni, R.. (2000). Drama: An introduction. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Esslin, M. (1976). An anatomy of drama. New York: Hill and Wang.
Freytag, G. (1863). Die Technik des Dramas (in German). Retrieved 2009-01-20 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure
Hamilton, J. and McLead, A. (1993). Drama in the languages classroom. London.
Hymes, D. (1966). Teaching and Training in sociolinguistic. (Unpublished ms).
Paulston, C.B. and Bruder, M.N. (1976). Teaching English as a second language: Techniques and procedures. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Winthrop.
Swartz, Larry (1995). Drama Themes. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1987). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press Center for Information on Language Teaching and Research.
Wessels, C. (1987). Drama. Oxford: Oxford University press.
FAIRY TALES TO TEACH ENGLISH
By : Yasinta Purwanti
A. Introduction
English teaching has increased recently in the entire world, not only in schools but also in factories and elsewhere. The knowledge of English is required by many employers and in many other parts of people’s life. It will be important to understand English very well in the future and this is the reason for finding better and more enjoyable ways how to start teaching young learners. As a result of this, English teaching has started to be increasingly important. Most language teachers concentrate on vocabulary, grammar, sometimes on pronunciation which is covered in textbooks, but there are more pleasant, practical and useful ways to introduce and practice all these common requirements. Children love fairy tales and stories and learning through pleasure is the way to reach the goals.
B. About Fairy Tales
B.1. The Concept of Fairy Tales
A fairy tale is a story which involves folkloric features such as fairies, goblins, princes and princesses. The fairy tales is a sub-class of the folk tale. The oldest fairy tales were told and retold from generations before they were written down.
B.2. Characteristics of Fairy Tales
Fairy tales are considered to be a part of folklore. (Ashliman, 2004; Hallett & Karasek, 2009; Kready 1916; Chinen, 1989) in “Fairy tales in teaching english language skills and values in school stage II” (Lepin, 2012) said about main elements of fairy tales.
1. Fairy tales usually begin and end with “special” words like “Once upon a time…”, “In a far-far away land… “, “Like days long ago…”, “There once was…”, “Long, long time ago…”, “They lived happily ever after”, “They lived for many, many joyous years…”
2. Place and time are unknown in fairy tales. Setting is often enchanted; castles, kingdoms, far-far away lands and enchanted forests.
3. Princes and princesses, heroes and heroines are often included in fairy tales as well as poor farmers, youngest sons, wise old women, beggars and soldier.
4. The main character often wants to make life better. For example, in the fairy tale The Magic Porridge Pot poor little girl went to the forest to find some food for her and her mother.
5. Fairy tales usually include clearly defined good characters and bad characters.
6. Fairy tales involve magic elements.
7. The plot of fairy tales focuses on a problem or a conflict which need to be solved.
8. Fairy tales usually include moral or a lesson to be learnt.
C. Using fairy tales in the language classroom with young learners
C.1. Young learners
Young learners are children of the primary school from ten to twelve years of age. Wendy Scott and Lisbeth Ytreberg in their book Teaching English to Children say about young learners have the definite views about what they like and do not like doing. They are relatively “mature children with an adult side and a childish side“. Moreover, they are able to make some decisions about their own learning” (1990, 4).
For that reason, the teacher should involve young children in the learning process and let them participate in the nature of English lessons, for example by giving them the choice what they want to read or allow them to bring the materials they want to work with in the classroom.
Another point to be made about teaching young children is that teacher should make chance for sharing experiences because they are “an invaluable source of language work and create an atmosphere of involvement and togetherness” (Scott and Ytreberg, 1990, 6).
Young children also have difficulty in sitting still. Therefore, most activities for younger learners should “include movement and involve the senses”. The activities are accompanied by jumping, clapping, moving hands, moving from one place to another will always help the pupils to learn more (Scott and Ytreberg 1990, 5).
The length of time children can concentrate on doing one activity varies from child to child. Wendy Scott and Lisbeth Ytreberg suggest that since concentration and attention spans of young children are short, “variety is a must – variety of activity, variety of pace, variety of organization, variety of voice” (1990, 5-6).
C.2. Why use literature (fairy tales) in English classes
Fairy tales as a part of the children’s literature could be a valuable source for teaching English as a foreign language. Fairy tales are considered as supplementary teaching materials for English language learners because of many reasons (Hanlon, 1999). First, they are short. It is easy to distribute copies of tales to a whole class and discuss during a class period. The second, they are fun. Many tales are entertaining and most of us have fond memories of stories we have known since childhood. The third, they are memorable. The fourth, they are found in infinite variety everywhere. The fifth, they are universal. They have similarities in stories with universal themes from all over the world. The sixth, they are infinitely meaningful.
C.3. Criteria for a selection of the suitable literary work (fairy tale)
The teacher’s choice concerning whether or not to use such literary text/fairytale to be worked with has to be based on a judicious decision. It is essential to take students’ intellectual maturity, life experiences, emotions and interests. Therefore, in order to make the students understand and enjoy the text, it must not be too much above their normal reading proficiency (1987, 6). The text/fairy tale should include a reasonable number of new words in order not to make the students look up every other word in a dictionary which might discourage them as a consequence.
However, not only language features of the text are necessary to be taken into account. Collie and Slater claim that “interest, appeal and relevance” of the text are far more important and can lead students “to overcome enthusiastically linguistic obstacles” (1987, 6 – 7).
D. Conclusion
An English teacher has obligation to provide possible ways for the development of student’ English language knowledge. Fairy tale is one of possible ways to develop student’s achievement and to bring amusement into the classroom teaching at the same time. Fairy tales as a literary genre not only brings the world of fantasy, enchantment and entertainment but also has a wider educational function.
References
Collie, J.& Slater, S. (1987). Literature in the language classroom. A resource book of ideas and activities. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press.
Hanlon, T. L. (1999). General Guidelines for Teaching with Folk Tales, Fairy
Tales, Fables, Ballads, and Other Short Works of Folklore retrieved on December 11, 2013 from http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/studyg/studygfolk.htm
Lepin, Maria. (2012). Fairy tales in teaching english language skills and values in school stage II. University of Tartu, Estonia.
Scott, Wendy. A. and Ytreberg, Lisbeth. H. (1990). Teaching english to children.
England: Longman Group UK Limited.
I am really sorry, sir. Actually, I have finished my work on Friday evening , but because I got sick yesterday. I forgot to post my work.
Name : Nanda Dwi Kurina
Student Reg. No : 0812150006
(Sent via e-mail)
Using Short Stories to Develop Vocabulary
Abstract
Learning a foreign language has become a necessity in this globalization era. Learning a foreign language cannot separate with learning vocabulary. Every student that learns a foreign language, especially English should have many vocabularies to master the language. Many ways is used to make the students’ vocabulary increase. The purpose of this article is to investigate the advantages using short story to develop vocabulary.
Keyword: foreign language, short story, vocabulary
Introduction
In this globalization era, there is a vast growth in every aspect. Education, technology, medical sciences, gadgets and gizmos, almost everything and anything which makes our lives easier is being developed and almost of them using English. Because of that learning the foreign language is very important. As a universal language, English should be master to every people in the world. Many ways is conducted to make people have good English in their life, especially for students because most employers prefer their workers to be able to speak and write English fluently. There are many multi-national companies in Malaysia who need Malaysian work force, but they want and need the ones who are proficient in using the language, as they are going to deal on the international level. Most of reference books and articles are written in English. In colleges and universities, it is important for students to look up for references. They make many courses to help them learning English and insert the English subject in the curriculum of school, even many school became an international school.
Learning English cannot be separated by vocabulary. Vocabulary is the part which the most important in the Foreign Language learning, especially in English learning. Bintz (2011) stated that “many teachers believe that defining words before reading a text is an effective instructional technique to support vocabulary growth and enhance reading comprehension; however, research indicates otherwise. One of the ways of increasing vocabulary is using the short story”. The students is expected to have many vocabulary in order to they can mastery their English.
Why Short Story?
Short story has a central theme or topic. Short stories have been used to inculcate moral values and ethical teachings. Many strategies can be used to increase the vocabulary of the students. Reading short stories become one of good ways to learning vocabulary. Using short stories to learn English, it can expand their language awareness and vocabulary, motivate them to learn the language and enhance their language proficiency. By reading short story, it can help the students find new vocabularies and then they will search its meaning by using the dictionary. The more the students read short story, the more they have vocabulary. The students are very easy to memorize new words and they are not easy bored in learning English, it makes them enjoyable with the lesson that the teachers explain, because the children can play their imagination by the words and pictures based on the story. Short story can help and encourage many children to sustain them interesting to work. Birlik and Salli (cited in Collie and Slater, 1991, p.196) stated that the advantages of using short stories for language teachers: short stories are practical as their length is long enough to cover entirely in one or two class sessions; they are not complicated for students to work with on their own; they have a variety of choice for different interests and tastes; and they can be used with all levels (beginner to advanced), all ages (young learners to adults) and all classes (summer courses to evening classes).
Conclusion
In conclusion, vocabulary is the most important to learn a foreign language because vocabulary is the basic of the mastery of foreign language. So, the learners are expected to increase their vocabulary. Many ways that used to learn vocabulary and one of the ways is by using a short story to develop vocabulary. They can read the short story and then they can search the meaning that they think difficult from the dictionary. It is expected can developing the students’ vocabulary.
Reference List
Bints, William P. Teaching vocabulary across the curriculum. Middle School Journal. 2007 (45).
Birlik Nurten, Salli Deniz. (2007). Short stories in teaching foreign language skills [Web log post] Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3325/is_1_11/ai_n29356481/
Using Short Stories to Develop Vocabularies
Introduction
In the era of globalization, English has become increasingly important in the world. However, learning to read in English as a foreign language poses a problem for many children in Indonesia. Bjorklund (2005) said that the young learner ability to learn foreign languages is higher than the ability of adults. The early age children are at a sensitive period (critical period) to learn the language, because brain development reached excellent flexibility. In the process of increasing age the brain flexibility reduced. Thus, teaching English is more appropriate as early as possible. However, this requires a method of teaching and how delivery in accordance with the characteristics of its development. My expectation as an English teacher that children in learning experience can feel an enjoyable experience and essentially increase the interest and ability to be able to go deeper acquiring English. Connie Juel dan Cicilia Minden-cupp (1999), the ability of children to recognize words while reading influenced by the way of teaching or the teaching methods used by teachers.
Teacher have to mix and match many methods to find the best method. As a toddler teacher, I have to find the interest of the children. In fact, some of the best ways to teach English to kids include storytelling, drama, songs, games, and craft. All these methods of teaching English are informal, but highly effective. With the help of English songs and stories, you can teach kids the English phonics. Kids are able to learn the sounds of various letters in an effortless manner. Similarly, there are games and crafts that teach kids English grammar and vocabulary. http://www.lcfclubs.com/ar-teach-english-to-your-kids.asp. As a teacher, I have practiced the methods above and children really enjoy English time. My students is around 2-4 years old and really love to sing and listen story. They can sit and listen carefully when story time. They are really enthusiastic and ask the teacher although sometime using Bahasa Indonesia.
A fairytale, a fable, or a mere narrative story has the advantage of creating a magical, but also a meaningful context for learners, especially younger ones. However, this type of literature has been considered an old-fashioned way of widening children’s imagination and knowledge. This research work aims at evaluating the importance of the introduction of storytelling for children in the teaching of English as a foreign language at the elementary level and how this can be a useful means as input for the acquisition of new foreign vocabulary items.
What is short story?
Short story is an invented prose narrative shorter than a novel usually dealing with a few characters and aiming at unity of effect and often concentrating on the creation of mood rather than plot. One of the interest stories for children is tale. A tale can be defined as fiction. It is sometimes referred to as a story, but what differentiates it from the story is that it is generally short and deals with the supernatural world of magic, fairies, witches, elves; elements that play an important role in a tale. Under the super ordinate tale or fairytale – a term implying magic, morality, wisdom and fun –, we can mention some of its different categories: the myth, the legend and the fable. A myth is a story that originated in ancient times dealing with ideas or beliefs which are sometimes fictitious. A legend is a story handed down from the past and that may not be true. A fable is a short story not based on facts, often with animals as characters; it conveys a moral. A tale generally starts with “once upon a time…”, “There was once…” or “Once there was…” a formula that has become specific to the tale and this is found in no other literary form. The themes of a tale deal mostly with morality and teaching the principles of good behavior. Most of the time, in a tale, the hero is not named; s/he is usually known only as “a young boy”, “a little girl”, “a princess”, “a king”. In some tales, we may refer to her / him using a nickname, for example: “Tom Thumb”, “Cinderella”, “Sinbad”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, and “Rose-bud” (“Snow-White” in some versions), a name we always find the significance of in the tale, and which is in relation with the height, the build, the color of the skin of the hero, his clothes, his behavior or other features specific to her / him.
The way tell story for children.
Quick Feedback-And Its Absence
The biggest difference between child audiences and adult audiences is that young children let you know immediately how you’re doing. If you’re not connecting with them, they squirm, interrupt, or get up and leave. If you’re succeeding, they settle in to a comfortable position and gaze at you in rapt adoration. With feedback like that, it’s much easier to change direction or hold the course, as needed.
Older elementary and adolescent audiences, however, may not give feedback. For many of them, to be “cool” means to hide all expressions of enthusiasm. Don’t expect them to make an exception on your account until they know and trust you. But don’t be fooled by their studied indifference, either. Adolescents are as hungry for storytelling as preschoolers; they just don’t dare to show it the way youngsters do, and don’t yet know how to show it the way adults do.
Repetition and Listening
Most young children need to hear a story many times in order to master it cognitively and emotionally. Be prepared to provide the necessary repetition, especially if you will see children more than once. Just as adults may come up to you after a performance to tell about their own experiences, children need and want to share back with you. But children often have less ability to wait until the end to do their sharing – and the more you’ve touched them, the more urgently they may need to tell you about it. So it may be up to you to find ways for them to tell their stories and reactions. You might try:
• a making-up-verses participation song
• a structured storytelling opportunity with a partner
• a time after your storytelling when you sit and listen.
Toning
Your tone of voice tells children more about you than your words do. In our society, it’s common for adults to treat children with condescension. Stand in any public place long enough, and you’ll hear an adult address a child with a syrupy-sweet tone otherwise reserved for talking to pets – or with a shrill tone that suggests exasperation or blame.
Older children have usually become sensitized to such affronts to their dignity, and have learned ways to resist disrespectful or authoritarian treatment – whether through disruption or withdrawal. The essential technique for telling stories to older elementary children and adolescents, then, is to completely purge your telling of any trace of condescension or “lecturing.” Talking down to them will produce more dramatic results than waving red at a bull. If you tell with the same respect you’d give to your adult audiences, on the other hand, they’ll respond in kind.
Participation: Tool or Goal?
The role of audience participation varies in importance with the age of your audience. For preschool children, physical participation might be the only way to ensure their attention for more than a few minutes. Young children think by doing. For them to imagine the rabbit going to sleep, they may need to stretch their own arms and yawn. To fully enjoy the Fleeing Pancake’s sass, they may need to join in taunting each character. Of course, such participation also makes it even easier to know whether you’ve engaged their attention! Don’t think that preschoolers won’t listen to a quiet story or to one that allows only an internal response, however. Often they will. But when that magic doesn’t happen through other means, participation is the surest route to engaging younger children in your story. Older children, on the other hand, for whom the approval of their peer group has become essential, may be very reluctant to take an adult’s suggestions in any visible way. For such children, their participation may be the sign that you’ve finally won them over after weeks of work – not the tool that wins them.
Demands on Repertory
What stories should you tell to children? The quality of the stories, should be as high as – or higher than – the quality of stories that you tell to adults. To paraphrase music educator Lenci Horvath, don’t tell a story to children that isn’t worthy of being passed along to their grandchildren. While the quality needs to remain high, the cognitive range may need to be narrower. The youngest children need the simplest treatment of the issues, the boldest images, and the highest contrast between characters. Where can you find such high quality stories with simple, bold lines? The largest storehouse is oral tradition. Many folktales, fairy tales, legends, myths, tall tales, etc., are perfect for children of various ages. Of course, you may also find appropriate stories in classic or contemporary children’s literature, or in your own experience or imagination. Emotionally, children tend to favor stories with themes relating to their developmental issues. Adolescents and preschoolers, for example, are both engaged in widening their worlds. So both groups tend to respond to stories that deal with their efforts at greater independence, including themes such as:
• fear
• competence
• hope vs. despair.
To get an idea of what stories would be appropriate for a particular group of children, follow these steps:
1. Ask what stories they already love.
2. Think about those stories in terms of cognitive complexity and emotional content.
3. Look for stories that answer the question: what “story gifts” would I like to give someone who is dealing with these issues at this level? (Don’t overlook the gifts of playfulness and zest!)
4. Choose stories that meet those requirements, and that you love and want to share.
http://www.storydynamics.com/Articles/Performing/tell2yp.html
How can short story improve vocabulary of students?
There are so many kinds of tale and as a teacher we have to choose a good tale for children. The tale must be appropriate with their age. The tale depends on the story teller. Teacher has to a good story teller for their students. Teacher must be making a tale as a simple one. Teacher has to choose simple words that familiar to the students. The text should be kept as close to its original form as possible. This would be the best way to conserve its authenticity and its aesthetic, cultural message. At the same time, the structure of the text should suit the learners’ knowledge about language and textual organization. Vocabulary is variable to consider when choosing a text. It is very necessary to include basic and repetitive vocabulary, and information; new words in contexts learners know. Teacher must always be aware of which part of the vocabulary is new and so try to adapt its introduction in the text or prepare the learners. If the text is really complicated for children, teacher has to make words be simple when s/he tells the story.
I have learned and practice the article above. Before I start tell story, I prepare myself first. I prepare the tools that can help me when tell story. The tool has relation with story. I usually use animal’s characters, miniature or doll of animal. Picture is also best property to help us to tell story. When tell story, I make repetition words that be new for them. When story runs, I try to make my voice tone dynamic. So the children will not be bored. The face mimic is also very important.
The process of repetition is process to acquiring a new vocabulary. When I show a picture, I mention name of the picture repeatly. And when my face mimic is changing, I also repeat the sentence that related. Example, when the story tells character is sad. My faces mimic practice crying mimic and repeat the word like “I am crying”. That’s really effective to improve their vocabularies. At the end of the story I ask the children to mention the picture name again and they are able to mention well. When I also practice face mimic, the children also can mention the words related.
Conclusion
1. Teacher has to choose the best method to teaching young learners. One of the best methods is telling story.
2. Teacher has to choose the short story that appropriate with children’s age.
3. The process of acquiring vocabulary is when repeating words and face mimic.
Reference
Bjorklund, D. F. (2005). Children’s Thinkung:Cognitive Development and Individual Difference. ISBN.
Cupp, C. J. (1999). Issues and Trend in Literacy Education.
Lcf Club. (t.thn.). Dipetik December 2013, 12 , dari http://www.lcfclub.com/ar-tech-english-to-your-kid.asp
Story dynamic. (t.thn.). Dipetik december 2013, 12, dari The way to tell story to children: http;//www.storydynamic.com/Articles/Performing/tell2yp.html
So sorry sir, for being late posting my assignment .
Employing Drama to Improve Students’ Speaking Skills
Abstract
Speaking skills can be developed in children by employing a beehive activity of techniques and methods. In a classroom situation children can develop speaking skills and boost their confidence by having dialogues using drama. Engaging in dialogues will enable young students to respond to asked questions precisely and at the same time improve their speaking skills. Drama in a classroom can be improving the speaking skills of students. Drama will train students’ voice projection and pronunciation of words. Drama will boost confidence in students in that they would not be shy to face the crowd. Stage fright is usually eradicated by drama.
Keyword : speaking skills, Drama, Dialogues
Introduction
The age we live in may be defined as the communication age. Effective communication is considered one of the most important skills that individuals should have. Receptive and expressive language abilities constitute a significant aspect of effective communications in terms of language skills. One of the expressive language elements is speaking skill.
Speaking is the most common and important means of providing communication among human beings. The key to successful communication is speaking nicely, efficiently and articulately, as well as using effective voice projection.
Furthermore, speaking is linked to success in life, as it occupies an important position both individually and socially. As is the case with many basic skills, one of the important periods to improve speaking skill is, incontrovertibly, during primary education. Speaking skills acquired and developed during primary education are significant with regard to both acquisition and permanence. Therefore, it is essential that efficient and effective teaching methods are employed in order to improve speaking skills during primary education. In our view, a favorable technique in aiding primary school students to acquire and develop oral skills is the use of creative and educational drama activities. No matter where this technique is applied, creative drama may be considered a method of learning –a tool for self-expression, as well as art.
The benefits of drama techniques or drama to speaking skills are extensively acknowledged. (Hamilton & McLead, 1993) stated that drama is beneficial especially to speaking skills. (Wessels,1987) adds that drama can reinforce a need to speak by drawing learners’ attention to focus on creating dramatic situations, dialogues, role plays, or problem solving exercises. Other aspects that add to the benefits of drama techniques in language learning are also clarified by (Mattevi & Makita, 2005). They posit that the use of drama in an English class not only enables English teachers to deliver the English language in an active, communicative, and contextualized way but also equips language teachers with the tools to create realistic situations in which students have a chance to learn to use the target language in context. Furthermore, (Dougill & Taylor, 2005) remarked that drama techniques can satisfy primary needs of language learning in that they can create motivation, enhance confidence, and provide context in learning a language. It is also great fun. All these views seem to confirm the benefits of drama in the enhancement of students’ speaking skills.
Elements of drama, according to (DiYanni, 2000) consist of plot, the sequence of events, character development (the element which makes things happen in drama),dialogue (which functions in advancing the plot, creating settings, and revealing character), staging (the presentation of drama in performance), and theme (the central idea or motif of the play). Meanwhile, drama techniques utilized in a language class have generally been divided into seven types, including games, mine or pantomime, role playing, improvisation, simulation, storytelling, and dramatization. The present study combined drama elements and types of drama techniques into an arrangement of instruction in order to broaden learners’ opportunities for nourishing their speaking skills.
Conclusion.
Drama is a series of real events invested with a dramatic unity and interest. Teacher can use drama to teach about speaking to students because students like drama. Drama techniques provide students the opportunity to use their emotional content that is mostly neglected by other methods. Drama helps language learners learn and pronounce new vocabulary and expression in a proper environment. Dramatization as an activity type to support students’ speaking skill suggesting that role-plays can be performed by students based on prepared texts. To improve students; speaking skill, teacher can role and plan drama activities, such as alphabet dialogue, so students can increase their speaking skill when they do drama
References
Musimba, M. (2009). How to develop public speaking skills and confidence in young students. Retrieved July 6, 2012 from http://www.helium.com/items/1457588-how-to-develop-public-speaking-skills-and-confidence-in-young-students
Click to access Drama.pdf
Dorit, S.(2007). Improve-Speaking-Skills. Retrieved July 6, 2012 from http://www.scribd.com/doc/28656718/
Dougill, J. 1987. Drama activities for language learning. London: Macmillian.
DiYanni, R. 2000. Drama: An introduction. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Hamilton, J. and McLead, A. 1993. Drama in the languages classroom. London:
Center for Information on Language Teaching and Research.
Jong-Usah, K. 1988. A Level of English Speaking Ability of Students at the
Lower Secondary Education Level. Master’s Thesis. Secondary Education,
Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University.
i’m sorry sir for being late this posting.
Using Short Stories to Develop Vocabularies
Absract
Vocabulary is just as important as grammar for communicating in a language. Explaining the meaning of a word, pronouncing it a few times. To improve our vocabulary, short story is a good way to develop vocabularies because by short story, we can find many new words there.
Introduction
Vocabulary learning through stories has been of interest to children. Children who acquire a substantial vocabulary are often able to think more deeply, express themselves better, and learn new things more quickly. They are also very likely to be successful not only learning to read, but also in reading at or above grade level throughout their school years. Research shows that children who reach school age with smaller vocabularies, less depth in prior knowledge and background experiences, and fewer experiences with hearing, reading stories and exploring with print are more likely to have significant problems in learning to read. We know now that if we boost children’s language and literacy experiences early in life, later difficulties can be alleviated or even avoided. Short stories can be a good choice when learning a language because they are short. It’s like reading a whole book in a few pages. Children only have to read 5,000 or 10,000 words. So they can quite quickly finish the story and feel that they have achieved something.
Why short story?
they usually encounter new words when they read. If there are too many new words for them, then the level is too high and they should read something simpler. But if there are, say, a maximum of five new words per page, they will learn this vocabulary easily. They may not even need to use a dictionary because they can guess the meaning from the rest of the text (from the context).
Conclusion
A good way to develop vocabularies for children is by reading short stories. the brevity of short stories can keep struggling them from feel overwhelmed with the comprehension process. Seeing those benefits that stories can give, it is just correct to conclude that reading short stories is helpful to children and to all.
http://mextesol.net/journal/index.php?page=journal&id_article=62
http://www.englishclub.com/esl-articles/200003.htm
i’m sorry sir for being late this posting.
Using Short Stories to Develop Vocabularies
Absract
Vocabulary is just as important as grammar for communicating in a language. Explaining the meaning of a word, pronouncing it a few times. To improve our vocabulary, short story is a good way to develop vocabularies because by short story, we can find many new words there.
Introduction
Vocabulary learning through stories has been of interest to children. Children who acquire a substantial vocabulary are often able to think more deeply, express themselves better, and learn new things more quickly. They are also very likely to be successful not only learning to read, but also in reading at or above grade level throughout their school years. Research shows that children who reach school age with smaller vocabularies, less depth in prior knowledge and background experiences, and fewer experiences with hearing, reading stories and exploring with print are more likely to have significant problems in learning to read. We know now that if we boost children’s language and literacy experiences early in life, later difficulties can be alleviated or even avoided. Short stories can be a good choice when learning a language because they are short. It’s like reading a whole book in a few pages. Children only have to read 5,000 or 10,000 words. So they can quite quickly finish the story and feel that they have achieved something.
Why short story?
they usually encounter new words when they read. If there are too many new words for them, then the level is too high and they should read something simpler. But if there are, say, a maximum of five new words per page, they will learn this vocabulary easily. They may not even need to use a dictionary because they can guess the meaning from the rest of the text (from the context).
Conclusion
A good way to develop vocabularies for children is by reading short stories. the brevity of short stories can keep struggling them from feel overwhelmed with the comprehension process. Seeing those benefits that stories can give, it is just correct to conclude that reading short stories is helpful to children and to all.
Employing Drama to Improve Students’ Speaking Skills
Abstract
Drama can foster language skills such as reading, writing, speaking and listening by creating a suitable context. Drama is a powerful language teaching tool that involves all of the students interactively all of the class period. Drama can also provide the means for connecting students’ emotions and cognition as it enables students to take risks with language and experience the connection between thought and action. Teaching English as a foreign language inevitably involves a balance between receptive and productive skills; here drama can effectively deal with this requirement. Through drama, a class will address, practice and integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening. Drama also fosters and maintains students’ motivation, by providing an atmosphere which is full of fun and entertainment.
Introduction
English as a foreign language consists of four skills namely: writing, listening, reading and speaking. These four skills are usually considered as integrated system because each other. To most people, speaking is the most difficult part in learning a foreign language because it is usage sense involves the manifestation either of the phonological system or the grammatical system of the language.
Learner are often hesitate to speak because they are afraid of pronouncing the words correctly or the students feel really shy about talking in front of other student, although everyone knows that the best way to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language is learning how to speak the language, because success is measured in terms of ability to carry out conversation in the target language. Therefore if the students do not learn how to speak in the language classroom, they may soon get boring and lost interested in learning foreign language. On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in the class can be a lot fun, raising general motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be. One way to improve students speaking skills is the students have to be more active than the teacher and the students also have to be confident. It can be tried through drama method.
Why use drama?
Collie and Slater (1987) focused on the positive contributions language learning through literature could make in that literary texts constituted valuable authentic material as it exposes the learner to different registers, types of language use.
Writers such as Maley and Duff, (1978) and Wessels, (1987) have pointed to the values and uses of drama:
‘Drama can help the teacher to achieve ‘reality’ in several ways. It can overcome the students’ resistance to learning the new language:
• by making the learning of the new language an enjoyable experience
• by setting realistic targets for the students to aim for
• by creative ‘slowing down’ of real experience
• by linking the language-learning experience with the student’s own experience of life
Drama provides cultural and language enrichment by revealing insights into the target culture and presenting language contexts that make items memorable by placing them in a realistic social and physical context.
By allowing reading and the adding of some characterisation to a drama / theatre text, learners became personally and fully involved in the learning process, in a context in which it is possible for learners to feel less self-conscious and more empowered to express themselves through the multiple voices (Vygotsky, 1987; Bakhtin, 1981, 1986) of the differing characters.
One of the drawbacks in the use of literary texts such as novels and poems is that many of them contain language forms that learners of a language find difficult to understand. This could be overcome by simplifying them, often leading to a loss of ‘literariness’ – leading to criticism that the texts became pale imitations of the original writing. The lack of suitable texts in the traditional body of literature, in my view opens the door for the inclusion of drama in language learning curricula as it tends to use much more naturalistic language than in poems and novels. Drama texts help to address the need for sufficient texts for worthwhile reading in which suitable materials can be accessed.
Types of Drama:
1. Tragedy — In general, tragedy involves the ruin of the leading characters. To the Greeks, it meant the destruction of some noble person through fate, To the Elizabethans, it meant in the first place death and in the second place the destruction of some noble person through a flaw in his character. Today it may not involve death so much as a dismal life, Modern tragedy often shows the tragedy not of the strong and noble but of the weak and mean,
2. Comedy — is lighter drama in which the leading characters overcome the difficulties which temporarily beset them
3. Problem Play — Drama of social criticism discusses social, economic, or political problems by means of a play.
4. Farce — When comedy involves ridiculous or hilarious complications without regard for human values, it becomes farce.
5. Comedy of Manners — Comedy which wittily portrays fashionable life.
6. Fantasy — A play sometimes, but not always, in comic spirit in which the author gives free reign to his fantasy, allowing things to happen without regard to reality.
7. Melodrama — Like farce, melodrama pays almost no attention to human values, but its object is to give a thrill instead of a laugh. Often good entertainment, never any literary value.
Types of Drama of Historical Interest:
1. Medieval mystery plays — dealt with Bible stories and allegorical mysteries.
2. Chronicle plays — dealt directly with historical scenes and characters.
3. Masques — were slight plays involving much singing and dancing and costuming. They were usually allegorical.
Drama is the most dependent of art forms — director, actors, scene and costume designers must interpret before the audience does.
The Place of the Actor
1. The player should respect his play, his part, his fellow players, and his audience.
2. He should have imagination enough to create character for us instead of merely exploiting his own personality.
3. He should have a technical equipment in his ‘voice, facial expression, bodily poise, gesture, and by-play that enables him to project the character as he conceives it.
Conclusion
Drama is an appealing teaching strategy which promotes cooperation, collaboration, self-control, goal-oriented learning as well as emotional intelligence skills. Drama bridges the gap between course-book dialogues and natural usage, and can also help to bridge a similar gap between the classroom and real life situations by providing insights into how to handle tricky situations. Drama strengthens the bond between thought and expression in language, provides practice of supra-segmental and Para-language, and offers good listening practice. If drama is considered as a teaching method in the sense of being part of the eclectic approach to language teaching, then it can become a main aid in the acquisition of communicative competence. Drama activities facilitate the type of language behaviour that should lead to fluency, and if it is accepted that the learners want to learn a language in order to make themselves understood in the target language, the drama does indeed further this end. One of the greatest advantages to be gained from the use of drama is that students become more confident in their use of English by experiencing the language in operation. Drama in the English language classroom is ultimately indispensable because it gives learners the chance to use their own personalities. It draws upon students’ natural abilities to imitate and express themselves, and if well-handled should arouse interest and imagination. Drama encourages adaptability, fluency, and communicative competence . It puts language into context, and by giving learners experience of success in real-life situations it should arm them with confidence for tackling the world outside the classroom.
References
http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/Drama.htm
Click to access muntherZyoud.pdf
http://efkipunirow2008.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/improving-students%E2%80%99-speaking-skill-throught-sociodrama-at-the-eleventh-grade-of-sma-n-1-paciran/
Click to access 9789460915376PR.pdf
Click to access muntherZyoud.pdf
Using Short Stories to Develop Vocabularies
Abstract
The first major distinction that must be made when evaluating word knowledge is whether the knowledge is productive (also called active) or receptive (also called passive) and even within those opposing categories, there is oftentimes no clear distinction. Words that are generally understood when heard or read or seen constitute a person’s receptive vocabulary. These words may range from well-known to barely known (see degree of knowledge below). In most cases, a person’s receptive vocabulary is the larger of the two. For example, although a young child may not yet be able to speak, write, or sign, he or she may be able to follow simple commands and appear to understand a good portion of the language to which he or she is exposed. In this case, the child’s receptive vocabulary is likely tens, if not hundreds of words but his or her active vocabulary is zero. When that child learns to speak or sign, however, the child’s active vocabulary begins to increase.
Introduction
Less proficient students in secondary schools, especially those in lower grades, had problems understanding the materials set for students at their age mainly due to a lack of vocabulary and an inability to master the structures of the language (Latsanyphone & Bouangeune 2009). This gravely hindered their understanding and progress in learning English compared to more proficient students. As a result, they found it more stressful in the classroom to ‘digest’ the materials given to them and this lowered their level of motivation to learn English. Poor language command among less proficient young adults has raised a set of issues among teachers, parents and ministers concerning the appropriate approach to develop English literacy for these weaker students.
With permission gained from the Education Planning and Research Department of the Malaysian Ministry of Education, this research explored a specific approach to developing the English proficiency of less proficient secondary school students in Malaysia. The selection of the weaker students was based on the band score for School Based Oral Assessment (SBOA) and a writing test outlined by the Ministry of Education. For the purpose of this paper, less proficient students were those who scored below the Satisfied Band for both the SBOA and the writing test. The focus of the research is based upon the learning process using simple, yet interesting materials in the classroom in order to cater to the needs of the disadvantaged students. Specifically, this research shall explore the effectiveness of using a story-based approach in order to help these students increase their English vocabulary in more enjoyable and productive ways. A story-based approach, as discussed in this paper, refers to the use of children’s stories as students’ primary reading texts in the classroom.
Why Short stories
The analysis of the data from the vocabulary tests, students’ learning diaries and interviews clearly shows that the use of children’s stories to develop vocabulary among less proficient young adult learners was effective and was perceived positively by both the students and the teacher. To conclude, all the students involved in this study scored higher marks in the post-test, which indicated that the stories may have had a positive influence. To some extent, this result reflects the potential of children’s stories in helping less proficient students who lack high frequency words to develop their vocabulary which is considered as the most important element in second language learning (Nation 2001). The finding is also consistent with an earlier discovery by Muller (2005) which reported that her students remembered vocabulary better by reading stories.
The finding, that all the less proficient students felt less stressed, enjoyed reading children’s stories and increased their vocabulary through the reading shows that children’s stories may be effective teaching materials in developing enthusiasm and motivating less proficient students to learn and improve their English. Cultivating interest and motivation for students to learn a second language is one of the key factors in determining the success of second language learning (Brown 2001). This is evident in the research in which the students revealed that they would read more children’s stories in the future and would also recommend the use of children’s stories in learning vocabulary to their friends.
The fact that the teacher did not view children’s stories as too childish for young adult learners was another significant finding of this research. It supported the statement given by Lovelock (2002) that children’s stories are not too childish for less proficient adult learners. The stories are not considered too young for young adult learners because the age gap between children and young adults is not wide. More importantly, the less proficient young adults are in the same stage of linguistic development as the children who need to gain more vocabulary, especially the high frequency words in order for them to be independent readers and be able to use English in their social activities.
Conclusion
Children’s stories are still not widely used in helping less proficient young adult learners to develop their vocabulary. Perhaps it is because there are still not many studies world-wide that relate children’s stories to young adult learners. This research allows one to see the potential and the effectiveness of children’s stories in increasing vocabulary among less proficient young adult learners. More importantly, it reveals that both the teacher and the less proficient students themselves have positive views on the use of children’s stories in vocabulary learning. However, further research is needed to investigate the best way to use children’s stories in helping less proficient students to learn vocabulary efficiently. The stories can to be attractive student’s attention, because they need challenging topics based on their everyday interests such as abot love and friendship. They also need a huge space for fantasy and creativity.
The stories be allowed using the English link with other subjects to across the curriculum, which I would to demonstrate in my article. They teach students to think. All skills, functions and structures may be taught by stories. Vocabulary, pronunciation and creativity may be developed.
Tommy Sangapan S.
0812150035
Class B
Using Poetry to Develop Writing Skills
Abstract
This article describes how poems can effectively be used to develop the students’ writing skills to make their writing better and more creative. A careful selection of poems appropriate to the students’ language requirements was incorporated into the curriculum of English Language Teaching. The use of poetry has contributed to students’ practicing effectively and meaningfully their knowledge of grammar; it offered them opportunities for vocabulary enrichment; it broadened their imagination, and freed them from the routine procedures in the classroom. Sample writings of poems produced by the students are included in the article to demonstrate how the efficient exploitation of this literary genre can maximize learner involvement and creativity.
Key words: poetry, poem, writing skills
Introduction
In the world of writing, one form stands out as different from all the rest: poetry. Poetry is not bound by the constraints of sentence and paragraph structure, context, or even grammar. In the magical world of poetry, you can throw all the rules out the window and create a piece of art, something that is entirely unique. That doesn’t mean writing poetry is creatively easy. It can be much more difficult to make a poem than it is to write an essay or piece of fiction. There’s so much creative space, and without any limitations whatsoever, it can be overwhelming.
In many EFL/ESL classes, textbooks play a prominent role in learning as a basic teaching material. Teachers generally tend to create supplementary grammar and vocabulary items by traditional structured-based exercises. As Kırkgöz (2003) stated such supplementary traditional mechanical drills may fail to provide adequate support for students to become creative producers of language, turning them into passive recipients. In searching for methods that would help students to develop their writing skills, poems can be used as a useful tool to supplement textbooks.
The purpose of this article is to illustrate how poems can be put to work in language classroom and to show how, even low and intermediate level students can develop their writing skills by composing English poems in parallel with the poems that they have studied with their teacher.
Discussion
Why Poetry Develops Your Writing Skills?
1. Meaningful Imagery
While other creative writing forms may use vivid imagery to create pictures in the reader’s mind, no other form comes close to what can be achieved with imagery in poetry writing. Most writing forms attempt to explain something – a scene, a situation, an idea, a set of instructions, an experience. Poetry doesn’t bother to explain. It shows. It paints a picture, takes a snapshot, and then pulls you into it. In a poetry workshop, you will hear this over and over: show, don’t tell. When you master the art of showing readers a scene through imagery, you can easily apply the concept to your other writing, creating work that comes alive in a reader’s mind.
2. Language, Word Choice, and Vocabulary
A poet’s vocabulary is paramount. Of course, language is essential to all types of writing, but in poetry, words must be selected carefully in order to generate an emotional response from the reader. In fiction, readers connect emotionally with characters and their plights. We get to know the characters, understand them, and we come to relate to them or even think of them as friends (or enemies). Characters rarely appear in poetry, so instead of using the emotional connection forged between people, a writer must grab the reader’s heart by appealing to their senses, using words and images that make readers feel. This is achieved by learning how to use language that evokes emotions without telling readers what they should be feeling. The meaning of each word in a poem must be weighed carefully. Connotations can mean the difference between a poem with depth and a poem that feels flat. Finally, every single word must be necessary to the poem. Therefore, poetry teaches writers how to be economical with language.
3. Musicality
A poet must be constantly aware of meter and rhythm. Poems and song lyrics are often compared, confused, and intermingled, and with good reason. Both poetry and music must pay attention to cadence and melody. Think about how you feel when you hear a particular piece of music. You tap your feet, shake your hips, and bang your head. Our bodies respond physically to music. Poetry writing is a natural ability to marry musicality with language. When this musicality is brought to other forms of writing, readers feel it in their bones and muscles. They will have a physical reaction.
What is Poetry?
There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. Wordsworth (2011) defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;” .According to him poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define.
How to Write Poetry?
1. Begin with an idea or inspiration. Inspiration may come at any time very unexpectedly. It may be a specific person, place or thing that evokes some sort of strong emotion. It may be more of an abstract idea or release of emotion. It may be a tiny thing at the right moment, such as a leaf tossing in the wind a certain way.
2. Brainstorm. Write down everything that comes to mind. Don’t think much; let instinct take over. Be uninhibited in what is written down and let all feelings pour out. Remember everything can be thrown out later.
3. Think about form and begin to organize thoughts. Poetry comes in many forms, from epic poetry that has a story to dramatic poetry intended to be performed. Try them all out. One will come naturally. Maybe different poems fit different forms. Try free verse, which has basically no restrictions at all.
4. Remember rhythm and meter. There is a difference between the two, and both are equally important in poetry. Meter is the established pattern of the poem, while rhythm refers to the sound when it is spoken. Take both into consideration while writing a poem.
5. Use a lot of descriptive words. Create imagery with words, trying to appeal to all the senses in a literal way. Use symbolism, and metaphors. For auditory interest, try alliteration; the repeating of similar sounds in a sentence or phrase. All of this adds life and interest to a poem.
6. Get outside opinions. Don’t be afraid to share work with others. Learn to accept criticism and grow from it.
Some Example of Poetry
A Recipe of Love
The recipe of love must always include
Some herbs and spices for fortitude;
A tablespoon of forgiveness –
A clove of loyalty –
A cup of faith –
And a sprig of honesty;
A pinch of patience –
A teaspoon of trust –
A cup of friendship –
And a bit of lust;
Mix all these herbs and spices well –
No other recipe could ever excel;
Add (Bride’s Name) and (Groom’s Name) for proper effect;
Then blend the whole in two cups of respect.
Conclusion
Writing is about connecting with readers. And poetry writing helps you develop skills for connecting with readers mentally (language), emotionally (images), and physically (rhythm). Many young and new writers are impatient with poetry. They were forced to read archaic poems in school and came away with a bad taste for poetry. But poetry is like music; there’s something for everyone. Look around a little and you’ll find a poet whose work speaks to you.
Poetry will show you how to improve your writing by taking your craftsmanship to the next level. It forces you to whip out your magnifying glass and look at your writing up close. Whether you apply poetic concepts to fiction, blogging, or article writing, your engagement with poetry will help you produce better writing. If your writing is good today, it can be great tomorrow.
References
Kirkgöz, Yasemin. 2003. Comparative Education Review. The University of Chicago Press.
Wordsworth, William. 2011. The Prelude: Or, Growth of a Poet’s Mind. Oxford University Press.
Roimma Limbong
0712150040
Class B
Using Short Stories to Develop Vocabularies
Abstract
Now days English has become an international language and it is the only one language that can be used to communicate in the all parts of world. Realizing that issues, everyone needs to learn and be master in it. There are many materials teaching, that teacher can use to help the children to develop their vocabularies; using games, song, short story, and etc. Short story is the easy and suitable materials teaching can use to develop students vocabularies, beside that it can improve children listening skill, speaking skill, reading skill, and writing skill. The purpose of this article is to familiarize and motivate English teacher, that short stories is an effective way to develop student vocabularies.
Introduction
In learning English, most of the EFL learners assume that English is hardest subject at school, university, or English course. The reason are varied and dissimilar each other such as, the grammatical structure which is considered confusing, the word that are not easy to pronounce, the lack in ability of listening, the unconfident to speak in public, and especially the excessive vocabulary that cannot be memorized all and so on.
What is vocabulary?
Vocabulary is one of the language components which have to be mastered by the students in learning a new language. It means vocabulary is the important component in learning English, if the students lack in vocabulary, they will face difficulties for using English. Vocabulary is an important element in language. So, in the first step to learn English is learning vocabulary because it is very prominent in language and it is always taught in language classes. In order to mastery English, we can learn it starting in beginning level; kindergarten (3-6 years). In this age, the children have good phase to learn everything. Therefore it is very important to learn vocabulary from the very first time, introduction vocabulary to the student facilities the learners to achieve their skills in English. There are many ways can teacher use to develop children vocabularies.
Why short stories?
Short story is a literary work that tells a series of event in a specific setting.
Short stories are a very useful tool for teaching and learning a second language. The short and controlled writing style makes the stores easy to digest for the non-native speaker. Short stories tend to focus on one primary theme or topic, and this makes them much easier to follow that a longer work that has numerous plots and multiple characters. Another advantage for the non-native speaker is that short stories tend to be written with a natural dialogue and conversational tone.
Moreover, short stories format offers a number of benefits for children. Reading a short story is a much less daunting task for a child than reading a longer book or novel. Children are easily engaged by the short story format, because they are able to focus on the central theme or topic. For children stories teach them moral lessons which will be planted in their young minds and that they can ponder upon as they grow older. Other than that, they help in the enhancement of children’s imaginative thinking which leads to creativity. According to some experts, children are being trained to think imaginatively while listening or reading stories in accordance to how the writer describes the setting, characters, and events that took place in the story. More than that, children are taught to focus their attention to a specific topic so that if they will be engaged to more complicated brainstorming or emersions they won’t have any difficulty. One thing more, their vocabularies will be developed. As a result, this will help them develop their communication skills both in oral and written communication. Traditionally, short stories have been used to inculcate moral values and ethical teachings. In addition to the benefits of reading short stories, encouraging children to write their own short stories has a number of benefits as well. It provides a forum that engenders creativity, develops writing skills and increases the child’s vocabulary.
Conclusions
Short stories are an ideal teaching material to help the children in learning developing their vocabularies, because vocabularies are first important skill that children have to be learnt. Besides it, using short stories in English language teaching can make learning more fun and interesting.
References
Kwiatkowska, G. (2007) Techniques In Teaching Vocabulary At The Beginners Level.
http: //www.profesor.pl/ mat/pd7/pd7_g_ kwiatkowska_20070420.pdf
Leibacher, Herb. (2012) Benefit of short story. http://EzineArticles.com/5019035
Xiaowei, Fu. (2010) Strategies of Learning English Vocabulary from Pop Songs.
Neeta Yuliana
0812150027
Class A
Employing Drama to Improve Students’ Speaking Skills
Abstract
Speaking is one of important skill in English to communicate with others. To develop speaking skill, drama is one of the best choices. Students enjoyed play drama. The students liked the drama, because they can express themselves through gestures, facial expressions and intonation of speech. In addition, they can learn how to speak and produce word through drama. Teachers can choice drama to improve students’ speaking skills. Many activities about drama, such as role play, can do in class to learning speaking in English.
Keyword : Speaking, Drama, Learning speaking.
Introduction
In English subject, there are many skills that should be learned by the students to master the four basic of language, the skills are: listening, reading, speaking and writing. Beside the four skills, they also have to master the grammar properly. Many students feel difficult in practicing speaking. They are not confident to practice what they have learned in school. There are many definitions of drama techniques.
Drama can be used as an excellent tool to build some of the communication skills necessary for language acquisition, especially speaking. One of the primary objectives in Drama education is effective verbal and non-verbal communication. This includes listening and receiving information, expressing ideas, analyzing situations and developing connections, reading, writing and dramatizing situations and stories, and working in an environment which promotes cooperation, trust and respect for all participants. Drama is an obvious fit for the EFL and ESL Classroom (Wahl, Feb.5, 2006)
1. Why using drama in speaking class?
Holden (1981) defines drama as imaginary situations the students are allowed to be themselves or another person. This definition is consistent with Stern (1993) who defines them as activities involving varied situations in realities.
Moreover, Maley and Duff (2005) stated that drama techniques provide students the opportunity to use their emotional content that is mostly neglected by other methods, for examples, student’s personality, past experience, and imagination as medium to contextualize the language.
Drama activity provides the context for the acquisition of vocabulary; in Drama the children and the teachers can take on roles which make a wide variety of language and social interaction possible. Using drama has clear advantages for language learning. It encourage children to speak gives them the chance to communicate, even with limited language, using non-verbal communication, such as body movements and facial expression. There are also a number of other factors which makes drama a very powerful tool in the language classroom. Some of the areas where drama is very useful to language learners and teachers are outlined below.
2. Advantages of using drama techniques for language learning
According to Helderbrand (2003), drama helps language learners learn and pronounce new vocabulary and expression in a proper environment. Many language learners have difficulty in retaining vocabulary and expression and in using them in an inappropriate situation. Through drama, vocabulary and expressions are presented within contexts which help them relate the meaning with proper situation. Moreover, learners’ pronunciation and intonation with the help from the teacher are practiced and developed through the repetition of the lines from the scripts during the rehearsal. In addition, drama removes the focus on English textbook instead of memorizing the dialogues from textbook. Drama activities such as role-play and simulation lead learners to use the language learned within the textbook in real situations. Besides, drama builds confidence in the learner’s ability to speak and motivates the students of English.
Advantage of this practice is that, psychologically speaking, when learners perform the drama, more psychological effort is needed to learn and retain the content as well as to synchronize their physical performance. Following Asher’s (1977, cited in Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p. 75) opinion on right and left brain involvement, both hemispheres of the brain might be involved in the learning process, and this would lead to more substantiation of learning material.
3. How can drama be used in speaking class
As like Lights, Camera, Action article: The Importance of Drama in the Curriculum, Lori O’Keefe mentions Meriah Rankin, a woman who found that drama class helped her to express herself. “I used to be terrified of getting up in front of class and speaking,” Meriah said, “but now if I have to get up and talk I feel no nervousness at all.” Peterson (2012).
Lazaraton (1996) considers dramatization as an activity type to support students’ speaking skill suggesting that role-plays can be performed by students based on prepared texts (103-135). This can be related to the motivation and self-confidence that the teaching style had developed.
Six drama speaking activities for the EFL/ESL classroom are: (1) Greeting, (2) Channel Hoping, (3) Alphabet Dialogue, (4) Dubbed Movie, (5) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Advice, (6) The Fortune Teller with Two Heads (Clandfield, 2003).
4. Role of the teacher
Drama can add a change of pace or mood to the classroom. It is especially appropriate for young learner’s short attention spans. Dramatizing is learner-centered, so you can use it to contrast with the more teacher-centered parts of your lesson. It is active, so you can use it to make a class more lively after quieter or individual work.
When planning drama activities, teachers should take into account: (1) the learners’ interests, (2) the learners’ needs, (3) the learners’ ages, (4) and even the time of the day. Listen-and-do activities can be part of almost any lesson. Such activities help students:
• to acquire English by listening to instructions;
• to be active and enjoy doing things in English;
• to use nonverbal clues (e.g., gestures) to interpret meanings;
• to get used to understanding general meaning;
• to prepare for spoken interaction;
• to absorb good pronunciation and intonation patterns.
5. Conclusion
Drama is a series of real events invested with a dramatic unity and interest. Teacher can use drama to teach about speaking to students because students like drama. Drama techniques provide students the opportunity to use their emotional content that is mostly neglected by other methods. Drama helps language learners learn and pronounce new vocabulary and expression in a proper environment. Dramatization as an activity type to support students’ speaking skill suggesting that role-plays can be performed by students based on prepared texts. To improve students; speaking skill, teacher can role and plan drama activities, such as alphabet dialogue, so students can increase their speaking skill when they do drama.
References
Clandfield, L. (2003). At the Improv SIX drama speaking activities for the EFL/ESL Classroom. In Taken from the speaking practice section. Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
Helderbrand, B. (2003). Drama Techniques in English Language Learning. The Korean TESOL Journal 6(1), 27-38.
Holden, S. (1981). Drama in language teaching. London: Longman.
Lazaraton, A. (1996). Teaching oral skills. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd ed). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Maley, A., & Duff, A. (2005). Drama Techniques Third Edition: A resource book for communication activities for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peterson, D. (2012, July 6). About.com Guide. Retrieved from 7 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills Get Over Your Fear of Speaking in Class: http://adulted.about.com/od/tipsforadultstudents/tp/7-Tips-For-Improving-Your-Public-Speaking-Skills.htm
Richards, J., & Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stern, S. (1993). Why drama works: A psycholinguistic perspective. In J. W Oller and Richard-Amato (Eds.) Methods that work. Rowley, MA: Newberry House Publishers.
Wahl, S. (Feb.5, 2006). Language Acquisition through Drama. National Reading Recovery and K-6 Classroom Literacy Conference. Colombus, Ohio.
Using Drama Activities and Techniques to Foster Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Abstract
Drama can foster language skills such as reading, writing, speaking and listening by creating a suitable context. Drama is a powerful language teaching tool that involves all of the students interactively all of the class period. Drama can also provide the means for connecting students’ emotions and cognition as it enables students to take risks with language and experience the connection between thought and action. Teaching English as a foreign language inevitably involves a balance between receptive and productive skills; here drama can effectively deal with this requirement. Through drama, a class will address, practice and integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening. Drama also fosters and maintains students’ motivation, by providing an atmosphere which is full of fun and entertainment. In so doing, it engages feelings, attention and enriches the learners’ experience of the language.
Introduction
There are many reasons in favor of using drama activities and techniques in the language classroom. First of all it is entertaining and fun, and can provide motivation to learn. It can provide varied opportunities for different uses of language and because it engages feelings it can provide rich experience of language for the participants.
Maley (2005) listed many points supporting the use of drama and these are:
1. It integrates language skills in a natural way. Careful listening is a key feature.
Spontaneous verbal expression is integral to most of the activities; and many of them require reading and writing, both as part of the input and the output.
2. It integrates verbal and non verbal aspects of communication, thus bringing together both mind and body, and restoring the balance between physical and intellectual aspects of learning.
3. It draws upon both cognitive and affective domains, thus restoring the importance of feeling as well as thinking.
Fleming (2006) stated that drama is inevitably learner-centered because it can only operate through active cooperation. It is therefore a social activity and thus embodies much of the theory that has emphasized the social and communal, as opposed to the purely individual, aspects of learning. As mentioned before drama can foster the oral communication of the students, let us now find out how drama can do that.
1.Why using drama in EFL classroom?
Using drama and drama activities has clear advantages for language learning. It encourages students to speak, it gives them the chance to communicate, even with limited language, using non-verbal communication, such as body movements and facial expression. There are also a number of other factors which makes drama a very powerful tool in the language classroom. Desiatova (2009) outlined some of the areas where drama is very useful to language learners and teachers, and they are listed below;
1.To give learners an experience (dry-run) of using the language for genuine communication and real life purposes; and by generating a need to speak. Drama is an ideal way to encourage learners to guess the meaning of unknown language in a context. Learners will need to use a mixture of language structures and functions.
2.To bring the real world into the classroom (problem solving, research, consulting dictionaries, real time and space, cross-curricular content) When using drama the aim can be more than linguistic, teachers can use topics from other subjects: the students can act out scenes from history, they can work on ideas and issues that run through the curriculum . Drama can also be used to introduce the culture of the new language, through stories and customs, and with a context for working on different kinds of behavior.
3.To emulate the way students naturally acquire language through play, make believe and meaningful interaction.
2.Students Communication
Using drama to teach English results in real communication, involving ideas, emotions, feelings, appropriateness and adaptability. (Barbu,2007). Teaching English may not fulfill its goals. Even after years of English teaching, the students do not gain the confidence of using the language in and outside the class. The conventional English class hardly gives the students an opportunity to use language in this manner and develop fluency in it, and this is because students lack the adequate exposure to spoken English outside the class as well as the lack of exposure to native speakers who can communicate with the students on authentic matters. So an alternative to this is teaching English through drama because it gives a context for listening and meaningful language production, leading the students or forcing them to use their own language resources, and thus, enhancing their linguistic abilities. Using drama in teaching English also provides situations for reading and writing. By using drama techniques to teach English, the monotony of a conventional English class can be broken and the syllabus can be transformed into one which prepares students to face their immediate world better as competent users of the English language because they get an opportunity to use the language in operation.
3.How can drama or dramatic activities be used in ELT
3.1 Mime
Mime emphasizes the paralinguistic features of communication. It builds up the confidence of learners by encouraging them to get up and do things in front of one another. Mime helps develop students’ power of imagination and observation and can also be quite simply “a source of great enjoyment” with students tending “to be very enthusiastic about this aspect of drama”
3.2 Role Play
Ideas for role play could be obtained from situations that teachers and learners experience in their own lives, from books, television programmes and movies or from their daily interactions with other people at school/ university or in the work place. After choosing a context for a role play, the next step to follow is to provide ideas on how this situation may develop. It is important to take into consideration the learners’ level of language proficiency when using and implementing role play activities in the Fl classroom. Assuming a role is an essential element in drama. Role taking is so flexible that when applied in education, it will suit all personalities and teaching circumstances.
3.3 Simulation:
A simulation activity is one where the learners discuss a problem within a defined setting, In simulation activities, the students are either playing themselves or someone else. Simulation activities are also interaction activities with various categories of dialogues. One category would be social formulas and dialogues such as greeting, parting, introductions, compliments, and complaints. Simulation exercises can teach students how to function in a social situation with the appropriate social niceties: for example, students could practice how to turn down a request for a date or a party. Another category of simulated interaction activity is community oriented tasks, where students learn how to cope with shopping, buying a ticket at a bus stop etc. This sort of simulation helps students’ communicative participation in the community and at the very least helps them in the task of collecting important information.
3.4 Improvisation
Improvisation exercises could involve an entire class of learners or smaller groups. Once the context has been provided the learners will participate spontaneously in the exercise. A whole class improvisation exercise could involve the participants at a market where some are the buyers and others the sellers. The teacher role is to provide the context and the participants act out their roles spontaneously without any planning. It is important to keep in mind that much of the content for the improvisation activities could come from the participants’ own background and experiences. Spontaneous improvisation gives learners practice in language and communication skills, and they have the opportunity to develop their emotional range by playing roles unfamiliar to them and outside their own experience.
4. Role of the Teacher
In using Drama in the classroom, the teacher becomes a facilitator rather than an authority or the source of knowledge. The teacher who too often imposes his authority or who conceives of drama as a kind of inductive method for arriving at preordained correct answer will certainly vitiate the developmental values of drama and possibly its educational value as well. Classroom drama is most useful in exploring topics when there are no single, correct answers or interpretation, and when divergence is more interesting than conformity and truth is interpretable. Education should strive not for the acceptance of one voice, but for an active exploration of many voices. Using drama activities and techniques inside the classroom has changed the role of the teacher. The class becomes more of learner-centered rather than a teacher centered one. The teacher is merely the facilitator.
5. Conclusion
Drama is an appealing teaching strategy which promotes cooperation, collaboration, self-control, goal-oriented learning as well as emotional intelligence skills. Drama activities facilitate the type of language behavior that should lead to fluency, and if it is accepted that the learners want to learn a language in order to make them understood in the target language, then drama does indeed further this end. One of the greatest advantages to be gained from the use of drama is that students become more confident in their use of English by experiencing the language in operation. Drama in the English language classroom is ultimately indispensable because it gives learners the chance to use their own personalities. It draws upon students’ natural abilities to imitate and express themselves, and if well-handled should arouse interest and imagination.
References:
Barbu, Lucia (2007) Using Drama techniques for teaching English. Retrieved on 17/7/2010 from http://forum.famouswhy.com/index.php? Show topic=1150
Desialova, Liubov, (2009) Using different forms of Drama in EFL. Classroom. Humanizing language teaching Magazine, issue 4 Retrieved on 17/7/2010 from http://www. hltmag.co.uk/aug09/sart07.htm.
Fleming, Mike (2006) Drama and language teaching: The relevance of Wittgenstein’s concept of language games. Humanizing language teaching Magazine, issue 4 Retrieved on 20/7/2010 from http://www. hltmag.co.uk/jul06/mart0l.htm.
Maley, A. and Duff, A., (2005) Drama Techniques: A resource book of communication activities for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Using Poetry to Improve Reading Skills
Abstract
In learning English, reading is a very important part in learning the language because it is one of the four language skills. Through reading students can receive information (messages) from writer to readers. In the literature, the poem is very effective to help students in improving reading skills such as how know to read a poem by pronunciation and intonation well.
Keywords: poetry, skills, create, improve
Introduction
In learning, reading is a very important part in learning the language because it is one of the four language skills. Reading skills are not enough to help students in learning English. In the literature, reading skills can be improved by reading poetry. Poetry is a results paper the reflection of a poet or a situation that is lived, observed, or experienced. The idea from events or circumstances made by a poet into a solid and beautiful language. The reader or listener can feel it as a paper containing the beauty and messages. Reading poetry can motivate students to improve reading skills, especially reading in English. The students can also read a good poetry based understanding, and mastery of the content of the poem read out when the students read a poem can be enjoyed by others people who hear it. In improving reading skills, it would require further efforts to get a good reading. Reading poetry is a good strategy in the process of learning English. Reading poetry will not only improve students’ reading skills and will even the improve students’ vocabulary, can master the pressures and intonation patterns in accordance with content of poetry, and even the students will understand how to face expressions and movements in accordance with the contents poetry. In the literature, poetry match to improve reading skills. In addition, the poetry is also easily learned, to understand by all people both from the students and adults.
Discuss
Why poetry?
Do not suspected that the reading of poetry and the pleasure liked by many people. After the most highly honored literary arts, poetry is now a frequently ignored and even mocked the art form. Why would anyone spend time teaching reading poetry?
First, a beautiful and meaningful poetry. That should be reason enough to learn. Initial exposure and generous to create a poem. Poetry combined with the familiarity of poetic forms, allowing students to enjoy and to understand more deeply poetic masterpiece that are the foundation of Western Civilization: The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, Shakespeare, to name just a few. Students who have spent years reading poems and poetry ridiculous even to the children will easily overcome the intimidation normally associated with to read the works more difficult of poetry.
Second, reading poetry do not only improve students ‘reading skills even improve students’ vocabulary, can master pressures and intonation patterns in accordance with content of poetry, and even the students will understand how to face expressions and movements in accordance with the contents poetry.
Why read?
Poetry is not meant to be read silently to yourself. Poetry is meant to be heard. Difficult poet to choose the words that not only have special meaning, but the specific sound: A combination of words which must be read slowly or a combination that should be read quickly; rhyme scheme that underlines the meaning of the poem, even a satirical phrase weakens the poetry by way they sound.
The best way to understand the poetry is by reading loudly. This requires careful reading and attention to punctuation. Students must pay close attention to punctuation correctly reading a poem. Resist the temptation to stop at the end of the line; students need to pause only when punctuation tells them.
Reading poetry aloud is also a good exercise in public speaking and elocution skills that most people are very less. Learn to speak clearly and beautifully in public is a very valuable skill.
How to read poetry?
1. Look good posture and eye contact, stand up straight and look directly to the audience. No bending, not shake from side to side, not leaning on a table or podium, and not at the floor or ceilings.
2. Start by reading the name of poet and poetry and be careful to read at speed, a natural ease. The temptation in reading is to read too fast. Reading poetry loudly more slowly as necessary. Be sure to read the title of pause between poetry and started the first line.
3. Say each word clearly. Furthermore, it can express facial expressions and gestures match the content of poetry. A happy or ridiculous poetry reading needs a far different style from a sad or tragic poetry.
4. Avoid reading poetry to singing.
5. Do not stop at the end of a line of poetry. Stop creating a wave effect is destroys a sense of the poem. Read the full sentences the poem at a time, stopping only when there is some punctuation, such as reading prose, only slower.
6. Pronounce the words right.
Conclusion.
Reading poetry can help students to improve their reading skills, especially in learning English. Reading skills not come automatically, so that the students need many practice reading poetry so that when students read a poem can be enjoyed by other people is hear it.
Click to access Newsome-LSfinal.pdf
http://www.englishpractice.mobi/practice-your-english-skills-by-reading-poems/
http://angelinainlouisiana.blogspot.com/2009/11/how-to-conduct-poetry-recitation.html
Name: Christine Valentina Sitorus
Students’ Reg Number: 0812150033
Class: BS – A
Using Short Stories to Develop Writing Skills: To Make a Summary of a Novel
Abstract
In learning English, there are several aspects to be studied. These aspects are listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar. Writing skills is the ability to write down word for word, sentence by sentence, and then gradually to a more meaningful that couple the word for word or sentence by sentence with a specific purpose. For example, to provide information, express ideas or thoughts, feelings pour out, and so forth.
Summary or synopsis of the novel is a summary of the existing a novel in stories, summary of the novel is a form of shortening of a novel by taking into account the intrinsic elements of the novel. Make a synopsis is an effective way to present the bouquet (novel) is in the form of a short length. The purpose of this article is to show the advantage of learning short stories to develop writing skills, especially to make a summary of a novel.
Keyword: short stories, writing skills, and how to make a summary of a novel.
Discussion
What is a short story?
A short story is a written work, but usually under 10,000 words. It has fewer characters than a complete story, and the plot is usually complete within a few pages. In addition, a short story is a work of prose fiction that is long enough for an average reader to finish in one sitting rather than several as the longer novel or novella normally takes. Short stories are also sometimes described as works of fiction that can be read at one sitting rather than at several the ways the novel generally is read. Of course, this definition is geared toward a reader with average reading ability and is just a general guide as opposed to a hard and fast definition.
In my opinion, the difference between a short story and a novel is that a short story has a unity of theme, character and plot that is much more focused than a novel. Here are some other ways of stating the difference:
• Short stories tend to concentrate on one major event or conflict.
• Short stories have only one or two main characters.
• Short stories create a single specific effect.
• Short stories are more compressed than novels.
• Short stories do not have sub-plots.
What is writing skills?
Rosenberg claimed writing skills are specific abilities which help writers put their thoughts into words in a meaningful form and to mentally interact with the message. Writing skills is one of the 4 English language skills in addition to listening, speaking and reading. Writing skills include productive or produce other than speaking skills. Writing learning in schools has not been through the correct process. Teachers often delegate the task of writing without giving proper steps to be able to produce good work. Writing is not simply a matter of putting words together, it is a recursive process, and it is a process of revision and rewriting. Writing is not the only activities combine words. Writing is a process repeated, namely process of revising and rewriting. The writing skills you have or will have should be enough to bring clarity and comprehensibility to your readers. If they basically do not understand any or most of the things you write, or the way you write, again, it is not worth writing. You will be defying the primary purpose of writing to be bringing across a message clear and comprehensible enough to be understood.
How to make a summary of a novel?
Learning a formula to write summaries of novels takes a good deal of practice at first. Jensen (2008) stated that there are 6 steps how to make a summary of a novel:
1. First you must outline your novel. You must go through the manuscript chapter by chapter, and write about the action in that chapter. We must find out who wants what, who or what gets in the way and what the results.
2. When you’re finished, name each chapter summary the way writers named chapters in previous centuries. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it’s a tool you can use to heighten interest.
3. If you’re like most people, your chapter summary will be long, twenty pages or more. So now you want to condense further.
4. Go through the chapter summary to extract all the best bits in this way, making this reduced novel synopsis as compelling as possible. To get a sense of what is needed, take a look at the books on your shelves.
5. We must focus on the action of the protagonist and on the people or complications that get in the way of his or her desired goal and include enough description and dialogue to keep the writing lively, but remember that it all must follow in good cause and effect order, and you must include the full story. We must allow tension to build throughout the novel synopsis in the same way it builds in the novel. The beginning will unravel slower than the end, where you should forego description and raise tension with short vowels, shorter sentences, and a sense of urgency.
6. Finally, edit and polish your novel synopsis until there is nothing left to remove. Sentences should be dense and tight, dialogue swift, crisp, and sparse.
Conclusion
In conclusion, writing skills are improved as students draft and edit the summary. Students can also work with peers throughout the writing and revision process, so it also helps with cooperative learning. Therefore, many benefits exist to teaching summarizing skills. Short stories are a very useful tool for teaching and learning a second language. The short and controlled writing style makes the stores easy to digest for the non-native speaker. Short stories tend to focus on one primary theme or topic, and this makes them much easier to follow that a longer work that has numerous plots and multiple characters.
References:
Jensen, Jennifer. (2008). Retrieved Nov 15, 2008 from How to Plot and Write a Novel: Plan Your Novel Writing with the Snowflake Method | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/how-to-plot-and-write-a-novel-a78629#ixzz1zo7kpwmD
Rosenberg, Dawn. Why writing skills are important. Retrieved from http://careerplanning.about.com/cs/miscskills/a/writing_skills.htm
Rosenblum, Rebecca. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.rebeccarosenblum.com/2011/03/23/what-is-a-short-story/
Using poetry to Develop Writing Skills
Abstract
In English Learning, writing is one important thing which is required a mastery of language. Poetry is not bound by the constraints of sentence and paragraph structure, context, or even grammar. In the magical world of poetry, you can throw all the rules out the window and create a piece of art, something that is entirely unique. Poems are easier to remember. The lines are short and many words and grammar structures are frequently repeated. This enables us to remember grammatical structures and vocabulary when we need to use them in writing, speaking and even in the exams. There are ways to develop writing skill like using poetry. By using poetry the reader can explore their imagination or their experience all the time.
Introduction
Writing, as one recognized by the public-speaking skills. Writing is a skill that requires a good mastery of language. In learning languages, writing is an advanced proficiency. Semi (1995: 5) argues that the teaching of writing is the foundation for writing skills. Writing skills is one of the language skills students need to be taught in an integrated manner with other language skills. The material is usually associated with writing a paragraph or discourse. Writing is about connecting with readers. And poetry writing helps you develop skills for connecting with readers mentally (language), emotionally (images), and physically (rhythm). Many young and new writers are impatient with poetry. They were forced to read archaic poems in school and came away with a bad taste for poetry. But poetry is like music; there’s something for everyone. Look around a little and you’ll find a poet whose work speaks to you. There are some way to develop writing skill like, using poetry. In the world of writing, one form stands out as different from all the rest: poetry. Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people. Homer’s epic,The Oddysey, described the wanderings of the adventurer, Odysseus, and has been called the greatest story ever told.
Discussion
The advantage of using poetry in writing skill.
Another advantage of using poems in the classroom is that they provide students with insight into developing cross-cultural awareness (Lazar, 1996). Poems create a context for enhancing learner’s understanding of the cultural values of English-speaking people, which is part of gaining true fluency in language learning.
Conclusion
Writing, as one recognized by the public-speaking skills. Writing is a skill that requires a good mastery of language. In learning languages, writing is an advanced proficiency. Using poetry in writing skill can help the reader to develop their skills for connecting with readers mentally (language), emotionally (images), and physically (rhythm). There are ways to develop writing skill like using poetry. By using poetry the reader can explore their imagination or their experience all the time.
References
http://contemporarylit.about.com/od/poetry/a/poetry.htm
http://www.writingforward.com/better-writing/how-to-improve-your-writing-with-poetry
Lazar, G. (1996). ‘Exploring literary texts with the language learner’ TESOL Quarterly, 30
(4), 773-775.
Semi, M. Atar. 1995. Dasar-Dasar Keterampilan Menulis. Bandung: Mugantara.
The use of word games to improve vocabulary in a short story
Abstract
According to Tarigan (1986) Use of word games to improve vocabulary is a good method than using the old method. Due to this method has many benefits and can be done inside or outside the classroom as well as can be done people to the group.
Introduction
Child’s vocabulary is very low and it should be emphasized as well as teachers and educators should know and observe how the alternatives to improve the vocabulary that is owned by the child and improved according to their individual needs. Therefore, teachers or educators should try to use words in a short story game.
Word games are games that use a word. The games is looking for a word or phrase and generate meaning. The sport aims to improve English vocabulary that you have on students and according to their needs. The game is very useful for teachers to use this method because it says the game is generally very useful for use by students in the class include: to improve concentration, teach and improve social with each other. With this game using classroom conditions and children will feel calm and will lead to social proximity to one another in class.
The role of wordplay in the short story is to be used to improve students’ vocabulary because without knowing the parents of children up to love the game. The game is usually considered as entertainment. In addition to playing here we can also learn English. In general, the students enjoyed and appreciate the variety of games and exercises that include the use of word games.
Why play a very useful word in the story?
By David Betteridge and Michael Buckby (2010, p.12-13) have shown that there are some benefits that can be taken by using a play on words in a short story in English classes to improve English vocabulary, namely:
A. Wordplay can unwittingly make more students enjoy the subject matter. When students feel more relaxed in following the lesson, then they will be better able to absorb the lessons and remember the subject matter.
2. The game is done in the classroom will encourage students to communicate and interact with one another.
3. The game offers a sense of “achievement” when students successfully complete a game or guess the answer to the riddle.
4. With the game, teachers can teach more than subject matter using the usual methods of teaching.
5. No effort required or the material to be able to incorporate many elements of the game in class. All children love to play and this can also help maintain the atmosphere and improve concentration.
Word game that is often used an educator (teacher) in the short story is the anagram word games and word search. Anagram game is a game that aims to find the words that appear in the text and word search games, Word Search is a game to find words or phrases that have been specified and generates meaning.
The use of measures to improve the vocabulary word games through the short stories, among others:
A. Self-Inventory List Name
Make a list of words arranged in order of easy to difficult, the student is examining the words that (already) known or is not yet known. After that students can use the dictionary to see how he determined the exact knowledge of the words that have been examined earlier.
2. Self-Inventory List Name In Discriminative
By using this can determine the extent to which the students learn and master something said. And use the symbols or signs of X, Δ, O, #, the students expressed how far and how well he knows every word in a list of selected words.
Example:
X means “I acknowledge and understand it, I often use it”.
Δ sign means “I know a little bit”.
O sign means “I have never listened to”.
The teacher can list the words that there is something the subjects of study that must be learned by the students: for example the words associated with the figure of speech.
3. Sharp discrimination in the choice of words
This technique is usually used to show the differences between the meanings of words. The tasks performed by high school students may be asked to check or determine the best words and the right to complete the sentences.
4. Match
Techniques that locate and determine the appropriate word choice and fit in a sentence or statement.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above description that the game is said to do in the process of teaching and learning English and using a short story in class to improve English vocabulary that is owned and according to their individual needs. This word game has been studied very useful in improving the English vocabulary such as David Betteridge and Michael bukcby (2010, p.12) who have discovered the benefits of word games.
References
Bright, J.A & McGregar, G.P. (1970). Teaching English as a second language. Essex: Longman Group.
Larcom, David L. (1997). English is fun (1th ed.). Jakarta. PT Indah Corp Kesaint Blanc.
Newton, Anne Covell. (1976, July). Word-Search Puzzle. Forum English Teaching Forum A Journal For The Teacher Of English Outside the United States.
Taylor, Linda. (1992). Vocabulary in Action (1th ed). UK. Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd.
Learning English Grammar through Short Story
Rudolf/ 0812150024
BS – B
Abstract:
English is a necessary for every people and english is so important to improve our knowledge and we can get better job and we can get much more connection to know the other people. In this modern life, we know that every people always have difficulties to learn English. But we never realize and we never know what their solution are and then this is a good solution to solve their problem. The most important to learn English is to master English grammar because grammar is the basic of english to learn at first. If you do not comprehend or master English grammar, you never be able to master English. But every people always feel so lazy to learn English grammar and then this is the best way to learn English grammar to use short story. Because short story is more effective to study than to teach them about grammar, it will make them feel so bored to learn english grammar. Thus, the purpose of this article is to help the students in learning English Grammar through short story.
Key words: Grammar,short story, students
Introduction
In learning language, Grammar is one of part important to learn English and in learning English Grammar is challenging the students to face this material. But in learning English Grammar is so difficult for them and they do not know what they have to do and they feel confused what they should learn at first. This is the way how to learn English Grammar by using media to make them easier to understand or to comprehend this material. In learning English Grammar by using short story they can find out many kinds of grammar to comprehend many theories. By using short story is more effective than they can be taught such as we can study with our lecturer. According to Fotos (2011) stated that Grammar is fundamental to language. Without grammar, language does not exist. However, nothing in the field of language pedagogy has been as controversial as the role of grammar teaching.
Discussion
Why short story?
In learning English Grammar through short story is suitable for the students and by using short story is more effective than the other media. By using short story, we can find out many kinds of structures in sentences. Short story is to retell about someone experience or funny story. Usually, a short story only focus one accident to explain what the main idea of the story. Short story just explain about the main purpose of the story. Thus, Admin (2011) stated that using mini-stories and following these three simple steps will help you overcome both of these problems that most English students face with a single blow. Teaching grammar in short practices every day as post #2 mentions does help. In addition, pointing out grammatical errors to students in their journal entries, paragraph writing, etc. seems much more effective than doling out worksheets or completing exercises from books. Another way to teach from context is to have students find parts of speech in newspapers, or in passages from short stories, etc.
Westwood (2011) Oddly enough, having students diagramming sentences often appeals to male students with mathematical minds. This “architecture” of sentences has interested some very reluctant learners in the past. Of course, it is good for teaching the structure of English and it also aids those learning foreign languages.
Conclusion
Learning grammar is the challenges work for the students. Without grammar, the students cannot learn the language because grammar is fundamental to language. Using short stories in learning grammar can give some advantages. For instance, the students can know the rules of grammar through short stories such as adverb of time, comma use to capitalization and etc. Thus, the short story is the suitable method in learning grammar for students.
References
Admin.2011. 3 Easy Steps To Learn English Grammar With Mini-Stories
retrieved on July 5,2012 from http://www.shortstoriesforchildren.net/3-easy-steps-to-learn-english-grammar-with-mini-stories
Fotos, H. N. (2011). Teaching grammar in second language classroom. New York: the Taylor & Francis e-Library.
Westwood.2011 retrieved on May 10, 2011 from http://www.enotes.com/grammar/discuss/how-teach-english-grammar-94949
USING SHORT STORY TO DEVELOP VOCABULARY
Abstract
A person’s vocabulary is the set of words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develops with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language.
Introduction
Vocabulary is commonly defined as “all the words known and used by a particular person”.[1] Knowing a word, however, is not as simple as simply being able to recognize or use it. There are several aspects of word knowledge which are used to measure word knowledge. Vocabulary helps students learning in English skill such as in listening, speaking, reading, writing and structure. Therefore, vocabulary mastery is a necessity for teaching, so vocabulary is should be taught to student by short story.
Discussion
During his/her infancy, a child builds a vocabulary by instinct, with zero effort. Infants imitate words that they hear and then associate those words with objects and actions. This is the listening vocabulary. The speaking vocabulary follows, as a child’s thoughts become more reliant on his/her ability to self-express in a gesture-free and babble-free manner. Once the reading and writing vocabularies are attained – through questions and education – the anomalies and irregularities of language can be discovered. In first grade, an advantaged student (i.e. a literate student) learns about twice as many words as a disadvantaged student. Generally, this gap does not tighten. This translates into a wide range of vocabulary size by age five or six, at which time an English-speaking child will have learned about 2,500–5,000 words. An average student learns some 3,000 words per year, or approximately eight words per day. After leaving school, vocabulary growth reaches a plateau. People usually then expand their vocabularies by engaging in activities such as reading short story, playing word games, and by participating in vocabulary-related programs. To practice the vocabulary, many methods can help one acquire new vocabulary such as: Memorization, Although memorization can be seen as tedious or boring, associating one word in the native language with the corresponding word in the language until memorized is considered one of the best methods of vocabulary acquisition. By the time students reach adulthood, they generally have gathered a number of personalized memorization methods. Although many argue that memorization does not typically require the complex cognitive processing that increases retention (Sagarra & Alba, 2006) it does typically require a large amount of repetition, and spaced repetition with flashcards is an established method for memorization, particularly used for vocabulary acquisition in computer-assisted language learning. Other methods typically require more time and longer to recall.
Conclusion
A good way to improve your vocabulary is to read a lot of reading as an example of short stories. With a lot of reading we can increase our vocabulary, memorize it little by little is a good way to develop our vocabulary then associate those words with objects and actions.
References
Liu, Na. 1985. Factors affecting guessing vocabulary in context
Sagarra, Matthew. 2006. The Key Is in the Keyword: L2 Vocabulary Learning Methods With Beginning Learners of Spanish.
Meddleton, Ivor G. 1956. A study of the oral vocabulary of adult : an investigation into the spoken vocabulary of the Australian worker.
Pretty Simanjuntak
0812150040
Story Telling as an Effective Tool in EFL Classes for Primary School
Abstract
Story is an account of something that happened. It is universal and functioned as a bridge of cultural, linguistic and age-related divides. Stories can be imaginary, traditional, or based on true experience, for example someone’s life. In learning English, story can be used as a good tool. It can enhance students knowledge in vocabularies and reading comprehension. But storytelling is the more effective tool to learn about the four language skills in English in the classroom. By using storytelling, the students are practicing to write their own story, read and memorize the story, retell the story in front of the class with their style, and listen to the other storytellers. Storytelling is a means for sharing and interpreting experiences. Stories are universal in that they can bridge cultural, linguistic and age-related divides. According to Davidson (2004), storytelling also can be used as a method to teach ethics, values, and cultural norms and differences.
Keywords : storytelling, four language skills, EFL classes, primary school
Introduction
English is now a necessity for people since it is an international language used by other people from other countries. Learning English has started from the earlier stage of education that is in kindergarten till the university. In primary school, the students get English lesson three or four times per week to maximalize student’s achievement in English. Teachers always try every fun methods for their young learners so they do not think that Englsih is so boring. Teachers tend to choose teach English by using songs, games, role plays, videos and other fun ways to make their young learners get more interesting in learning.
Discussion
How to develop storytelling in the classroom?
At its core, storytelling is the art of using language, vocalization, and/or physical movement and gesture to reveal the elements and images of a story to a specific, live audience.By using storytelling activity in the classroom, it involves all students. Each students can be the storyteller and the listener too while other student is presenting the story. The teller’s role is to prepare and present the necessary language, vocalization, and physicality to effectively and efficiently communicate the images of a story. The listener’s role is to actively create the vivid, multi-sensory images, actions, characters, and events—the reality—of the story in their mind based on the performance by the teller, and on their past experiences, beliefs, and understandings (National Storytelling Association, n.d.). Here are some steps to do by students.
Before the students take a part as a storyteller, the first thing to do is create their own story, can be their own experience of something, a folklore, fairy tale or an interesting story. The students should write their story with their own words and style. According to Rachmadie, Suryawinata, and Effendi (1988), every writer possesses his/her own individual style, treatment, grammar and words. In this process, the learners are practicing writing skill.
To improve the learners’ reading skill, of course after they have finished conduct the story, they must read it twice or three times to understand and memorize the plot and the point of the story. This activity could help the learners to enhance their reading comprehension.
The most important part of storytelling activity is when the student present the story in front of the audience. However, many English learners had to face this truth, to actually practice it in the real world. The EFL students have to gain confidence while speak English in front of people. By practicing storytelling, they acted out a piece of text and told a story, they can express and feel free to communicate with the audience or not.
Pederson (1995) found the benefits of storytelling in enhancing listening skill. He stated that the listening skills were developed and more natural and complete language input was possible. When being the listener, the students will attentively concentrate with the storyteller to get the message. Effective storytelling is an interactive process and cannot be accomplished successfully without a strong ability to listen to the audience, and adjust the storytelling as the story performances evolves.
Conclusion
To conclude the effectiveness of using storytelling as a tool in learning English for primary students, Morgan and Rinvolucri listed the benefits of storytelling such as improved listening comprehension, grammar presented in true-to-life contexts, and numerous opportunities to encourage oral production. Hopefully in the future English teachers still make storytelling as one of the main strategic in teaching English.
References
Rachmadie, S., Suryawinata, Z., & Effendi, A. (1988) Materi pokok : Translation. Jakarta : Penerbit Karunika.
Davidson, Michelle (2004). A phenomenological evaluation: using storytelling as a primary teaching method. Nurse Education and Practice 4 (3): 184-189.
National Storytelling Association. Retrieved 1997, from http://www.eldrbarry.net
Pederson, E. M. (1995). Storytelling and the art of teaching. English Teaching Forum, 33 (1), 2-5.
Morgan, M., & Rinvolucri, M. (1983). Once upon a time : Using stories in the language classroom. New York : Cambridge University Press.
USING SHORT STORIES TO DEVELOP VOCABULARIES
Abstract
Vocabulary is central to language and of critical importance to typical language learner. Without a sufficient vocabulary, one cannot communication effectively or expresses the ideas in both oral and written form. It means that students are enhanced to master English vocabulary and its grammatical rules to make good communication to the other people. So, teaching vocabulary for the purpose of providing the students language skill. There are the discussion short story can develop vocabularies children which provide by the techniques or method which students able to understand the meaning of it and make it simple to learn.
Introduction
Vocabulary is one of the important aspects of the language. By learning vocabulary, it will be easier to express our ideas exactly. Vocabulary helps students learning in English skill such as in listening, speaking, reading, writing and structure. Therefore, vocabulary mastery is a necessity for teaching, so vocabulary is should be taught to student by short story. In other things, teacher should be able to create the important thing for learning to study by the methods, techniques and media to develop student’s vocabulary, so the student can learn English as effective as possible. One of the ways to develop vocabulary is by reading. Reading materials can be articles, advertisements, folktales, myths, fables, fairytales, legends, hero tales, or short stories and some song lyrics that we can find in newspapers, magazines, internet sites, and cassettes easily. In English learning, Short stories is enrich vocabulary. However, developing short stories’ vocabulary is not an easy matter for the learner. Moreover, the teacher has to manage the teaching-learning process well.
Discussion
Vocabulary development is key to a student’s success and “determines how well students will be able to comprehend the texts they read in the upper elementary grades, in middle and high school, and in college,” according to the Texas Reading Initiative.To practice vocabulary with a young student, memorization techniques, such as:
Matching. Students read the text of vocabulary, when they finish read it, student try to find a difficult words, and look for the meaning of it, write a difficult list of vocabulary words and a synonym for each chapter of short story.
Narratives. Teachers ask the student to verbally tell his favorite story, whether it be personal or from another source. Next, give him a list of vocabulary words and ask him to re-tell the story in writing, incorporating every word from the vocabulary list at least once before the end of the story. Review it to make sure that all words are used in their proper context.
Listening. Comprehension is the most important part of reading, but according to the Texas Reading Initiative, “if a reader does not know the meanings of a sufficient proportion of the words in the text, comprehension is impossible.” Therefore, vocabulary and comprehension are inevitably linked. The student will gather the meaning of the words based on the context in which they are used and the character with which they are spoken.
Hickman, (2004: 725) also adding her state that the success in story read practice for the increased comprehension and oral language development of English-language learners is dependent not only on the teacher’s selection of texts and vocabulary words but also on the implementation of the lesson design. The basic elements of this story read-loud practice include the following steps :
1. Introduction (previewing) the story and new vocabulary words.
2. Reading a passage from a narrative or informational text out loud, focusing on literal and inferential comprehension
3. Rereading the passage, drawing attention to the vocabulary words
4. Extending comprehension, focusing on deep processing of vocabulary knowledge
5. Summarizing what was read and any content knowledge that was learned
Vocabulary mastery is one of the components to master English as foreign language. It means that the students have ability in understanding and using the words and meanings. The students not only know the words, but also their meaning. Therefore, students can learn English language more easily and understanding its intention from the meaning of those word. It also plays on important part in English skill; listening, speaking, reading, and writing skill. The larger vocabulary students master, the better they perform their language. By having a limited vocabulary, the students will find difficulties in mastering English skill.
Conclusion
Short story has the strengths and interest in teaching-learning process especially for children. The fact that children recognize the meaning of significant words from the story leads to infer, that short story is effective for building vocabulary. The students are very easy to memorize new words and they are not easy bored in learning English. Because it has many strengths interest, English must be learned by the student in the early stage in order that elementary students will be accustomed to enjoy the lesson.
References
Amawati, Dewi. 2009. A Comparative Study On Vocabulary Mastery Between The Students Who Use Magazine Short Story And The Students Who Use Storybook With Strip At The Eleventh Grade Of Sma Negeri 1 Baturetno In 2007/2008 Academic Year. Surakarta
Sisworowati, Dwi Retno. 2011. Increasing Vocabulary Mastery Related To Request And Command Using Short Story At The Sixth Year Students Of Sd N 1 Kluwan Penawangan. Surakarta
Hickman, Peggy. Storybook reading : improving vocabulary and comprehension for English-language learner. 2004. 57:8
Name : Welliana Febrianti Iba
NIM : 0812150004
Class : BS-A
Short Stories as the literary work: An Effective Reading Comprehension Materials
Abstract
Reading skill in learning a language is the main goal in learning a foreign language but sometimes it is not easy to reach that skill. Actually the way to have the ability of reading comprehension, learners should learn to read and know as many as vocabularies. However, which reading material is that will be more effective to help increase the reading comprehension. Some researchers have agreed that short stories as a form of literary work can help to enrich the ability of reading comprehension of foreign language learner.
Key words: Short stories, reading comprehension, reading skill, learning a foreign language, literary work.
Introduction
Reading as one of the four skills in learning English does not only has the learners to master the vocabularies and grammar, but also the ability to gain the messages or intentions of the text or what the writer`s conveying. Certainly the ability needs the high interest, concentration and ability to modify and then produce the thoughts or ideas of the texts. As Stern (1983) stated in Maibodi that in the twentieth century the concept of learning as it is understood today, has been greatly influenced by the psychological concept of the learning process, which includes not only the learning of skills or the acquisition of knowledge, it is also refers to learning to learn and learning to think; the modification of attitudes, the acquisition of interests, social values or social roles and even changes in personality (p. 18).
To comprehend the reading material, some researchers argue that short stories are the effective material that can help the learners to comprehend the reading skill. Short stories which are called as literature usually have the interesting and pleasure contents that also culture so they can enrich the reader`s appreciation of the culture.
Discussion
Why short stories
Short stories are the part of literary works that are simple, universal, and cultural decoding. Short story is a piece of fiction which contains intentions or messages and is described in the unity of theme, effect, plot, setting and characterization. Short stories are claimed as an effective one in improving four skills especially in English. By reading the short stories, the learners can enjoy the each sentence until comes to the end of the story. Because of the short or simple contents, learners can read and easily remember the vocabularies as each text provides different theme with some vocabularies. Moreover, as the short stories actually contain the entertaining contents with ending of the story, therefore learners will effort to read and know the sentences so they should be able to finish the reading. As Mudoch (2002 stated in Khatib) that “short stories can, if selected and exploited appropriately, provide quality text content which will greatly enhance ELT courses for learners at intermediate levels of proficiency” (p. 9). The improvement also based on the survey of Lao and Krashen (2000) in Hongkong that the group who reads literary texts showed improvement in vocabulary and reading.
Arigol (2001) revealed that using short story in teaching learning process is more efficient and easy since the story is short and simple with more imaginations and something interesting in the world. Moreover, it requires more attention and analysis as readers should get the message when reading it. It makes learners becomes more relax with the texts and reduce the learner`s anxiety. It can lead the learners to the cultural awareness and regarding of other people as usually short story contains the habit or way of some culture. The reading short story can help the learners to be more creative and raise the critical thinking skill especially when produce some idea about the text`s intention. In addition, short story is good for multicultural contexts because it uses the universal language.
How to comprehend the reading through short stories.
Text selection
The text which will be read should simple and short, actually for one or two times of reading. The text should be available for the learners` level of vocabularies, literature, grammar or linguistic intellectual and their general knowledge for instance about something that familiar or can be imagined by the learners.
Procedure
Before comes to the reading, the learners should be led to know about the vocabularies in the text, and the view of cultures or background of the text, about how and why the text is written.
Give the time for reading. Before going to the wide discussion, give some feeds back about the text orally. This way is done to know about their listening and speaking ability. Then lead them to the deep analysis until they can produce the idea about the text and compare or discuss with the critical thinking. Teacher certainly should be the controller of the discussion and be aware that the reading comprehension should in relation with the text. The learning is closed by giving some written text to measure their comprehension of the text.
Conclusion
In summary, literary work as short stories actually can help increasing the ability of reading comprehension. Besides of the simple and short form and content, short stories certainly contain of entertaining story which can help the learners to read more relax and enjoy every lines of the text until they come to the ending of the story and get the messages and intentions. In addition, short stories are written with cultural background, so the readers can get the positive view of other culture and people.
References
Khatib, M. (2012). Enhancing reading comprehension through short stories in Iranian EFL learners. Retrieved July 1, 2012 from http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/…/4245 – Vol 2.
Short story definition. (n.d). Retrieved July, 1 2012 from http:// homepage.bnv- bamberg.de/…/short_story/sho…
Maibodi, A. (n.d). Learning English through short stories. Retrieved June 28, 2012 from http:// http://www.ijls.net/volumes/…/hajimeibodi1.pdf
Cruz, J. (2010). The role of literature and culture in English language teaching. Retrieved June 28, 2012 from relinguistica.azc.uam.mx/…/no07_art09.pdf
Ghasemi, P. And Hajizadeh, R. (2011). Teaching L2 reading comprehension through short story. Retrieved June 28, 2012 from http://www.ipedr.com/…/15-
ICLLL%202011-L000… Vol 26
Yuliana Nining Rahayu (0812150003)
LEARNING ENGLISH GRAMMAR THROUGH SHORT STORIES FOR STUDENTS
Abstract
In English language, Grammar is fundamental to language. Without grammar, language does not exist. However, it must be conducted with the suitable media that can help the students in learning grammar. Incorporate a grammar lesson through short stories that it can reinforce the students’ grammar skill. For instance, while giving students something interesting to read, they can see the rules of grammar as like comma use to capitalization. Thus, the purpose of this article is to help the students in learning grammar through short stories.
Key words: Grammar, short stories, students
Introduction:
In learning grammar as one of the important part in language is the challenging work for the students. However, there are many students have some problems in learning grammar. For instance, they have not good skill to learn grammar because grammar has many rules that make them unethusiastic in learning language process. In a learning grammar, the students must be selected the learning media that can help them in learning grammar process. Short stories is one of the suitable method that can help the students in learning grammar. In short stories, the students can find the kinds of grammar because there are some rules of grammar in short stories. Grammar is an aspect of language about which learners have different opinions. Some learners are very interested in finding out or learning grammar rules and doing lots of grammar exercises. Others hate grammar and think it is the most boring part of learning a new language. Whatever opinion you have, however, you cannot escape from grammar; it is in every sentence you read or write, speak or hear. Grammar is simply the word for the rules that people follow when they use a language. We need those rules in the same way as we need the rules in a game. If there are no rules, or if everybody follows their own rules, the game would soon break down. It’s the same with language; without rules we would not be able to communicate with other people. Fotos (2011) stated that Grammar is fundamental to language. Without grammar, language does not exist. However, nothing in the field of language pedagogy has been as controversial as the role of grammar teaching.
Discussion
Why short stories?
In learning English grammar through short stories is the suitable method that can make the students more easly to classify the kinds of English grammar. Usually, a short story will focus on only one incident, has a single plot, a single setting, a limited number of characters, and covers a short period of time. Thus, short stories can give the student opportunity to learn grammar more. Admin (2011) stated that using mini-stories and following these three simple steps will help you overcome both of these problems that most English students face with a single blow.
Step 1: Listen To Your English Mini-Story
Once you have a mini-story that focuses on the English grammar structure that you want to learn, you need to listen to it many times. this will allow you to begin assimilating the grammar structure before you begin to study the grammar rules. this will make it much easier to understand.
Listen to your English mini-story several times a day. and do this for several days. it is important that you understand the story well and grasp its internal structure implicitly before you try to memorize any of the rules. Otherwise the rules just won’t make sense.
Instead you want to use the grammar rules to explain what you have already seen in the story because that is how children learn to speak their mother-tongue. First they learn how to talk. then they go to school to study grammar. so, why learn English any differently?
Step 2: Study Your Grammar Lesson
So, after you have listened to the mini-story several times and understand it, now it is time to study your grammar lesson. Now this is where most English student make the fatal mistake of getting bogged down in the details.
Most want to learn all the rules and exceptions to each rule.and waste lots of time where it isn’t profitable. At this point in you English learning process you want to speak English fluently like a native. and native speakers make lots of ‘grammar’ mistakes.which means that if you speak too perfectly you won’t sound like a native.
There is nothing wrong with that.if you are the head English professor in some fancy language university where you want to impress everyone. but if you’re like 99% of the English students I know — you just want to be able to express yourself clearly and easily.
So, don’t get bogged down in the details and all the exceptions to the grammar rules. instead of spending weeks trying to learn how the grammar doesn’t work.you can spend just five minutes watching a quick video to understand how it does work.
Focusing on the basics.means that you can spend your effort and energy on what is most important — developing your fluency.
Step 3: do Your Grammar Exercises
Now that you understand the basic concepts of the grammar structure. it’s time to put your skills into practice. so, this is where you want to do some basic English grammar exercises.
Not only will you be practicing what you are learning. but you will also be testing yourself which means that you will be able to evaluate if you really understood what you learned correctly.
Conclusion
Learning grammar is the challenges work for the students. Without grammar, the students cannot learn the language because grammar is fundamental to language. Using short stories in learning grammar can give some advantages. For instance, the students can know the rules of grammar through short stories such as adverb of time, comma use to capitalization and etc. Thus, the short story is the suitable method in learning grammar for students.
References:
Pauline Lovingood.2011. English grammar through short stories. Retrieved on July 3, 2012 from http://www.ehow.com/info_8244440_english-grammar-through-short-stories.html
Admin.2011. 3 Easy Steps To Learn English Grammar With Mini-Stories
retrieved on July 5,2012 from http://www.shortstoriesforchildren.net/3-easy-steps-to-learn-english-grammar-with-mini-stories
Fotos, H. N. (2011). Teaching grammar in second language classroom. New York: the Taylor & Francis e-Library.
Using Short Stories to Develop Vocabularies for Children
Abstract: To make a story we have to require a lot of vocabulary, but how can we accumulate a lot of vocabulary. The more we read the more new word that we get. The short story is one of the supporting tools to help us to improve vocabulary.The purposes of this article is to show the advantages using short stories to develop vocabularies.
Keywords: short-story, vocabulary
While reading literature from a certain region of the country, hold a vocabulary project about words that relate to that state or region. There are many projects to help us to learn new vocabulary words. Go through the entire list of projects so that you offer something to interest everyone. Monitor all scores and encourage us to improve, Bodeeb(2012). You will usually encounter new words when you read. If there are too many new words for you, then the level is too high and you should read something simpler. But if there are, say, a maximum of five new words per page, you will learn this vocabulary easily. You may not even need to use a dictionary because you can guess the meaning from the rest of the text (from the context). Not only do you learn new words, but you see them being used naturally, Gronot.
Disscusion:
The short story is a valuable tool in teaching the students about the importance of literature. Literature is forced to compete in the contemporary technological context with various forms of media such as television, movies,video games and the Internet. The short story itself was a similar form of entertainment in an earlier age when the forms of entertainment were far more limited. Poe’s stories and other short story genres–such as the detective stories–all appealed to the reader’s desire to be entertained. Nevertheless, a well crafted short story introduces the student to the world of literature. Encouraging students to read short stories helps to ween them from an over-dependence on electronic media; it teaches them that reading and literature are pleasurable activities as well
The short story format offers a number of benefits for children. Reading a short story is a much less daunting task for a child than reading a longer book or novel. Children are easily engaged by the short story format, because they are able to focus on the central theme or topic. Traditionally, short stories have been used to inculcate moral values and ethical teachings. In addition to the benefits of reading short stories, encouraging children to write their own short stories has a number of benefits as well. It provides a forum that engenders creativity, develops writing skills and increases the child’s vocabulary.
How to Improve Vocabulary by using short stories?
As much material to read as possible. Assign reading assignments from challenging texts which will expose students to a variety of new vocabulary. Use a variety of sources, such as magazines, academic articles, short stories and poetry. Make lists of vocabulary that we don’t know or over difficult words. Feature a word of the day bring in an obscure word that we likes. Makes craft projects that pertain to new vocabulary, such as having them draw pictures to illustrate new words or asking them to make collages of action verbs from magazines and newspapers. Play games that involve new vocabulary, such as charades, Scrabble or Pictionary.
Conclusion:
the best way to teaching vocabulary and teaching a new languageis by integrating new words into their everyday experiences. Memorization can be helpful, yet it is not the most efficient learning strategy for most students while words are easily forgotten over time. Teaching vocabulary using short story is not about the weekly test, but rather, preparing for the future.
http://www.helium.com/items/1762322-educat-teach-communicat-writ-vocabulary-spell-language-word-technique-language-english
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2008/2/08.02.01.x.html
http://www.ehow.com/info_7885599_value-short-stories.html
Name : yesi kartika sari
SRN : 0812150015
Short Stories as an Effective Reading Comprehension Materials
Abstract
Learning the basic elements of story structure is an essential part of language arts education. Short Stories as an Effective Reading Comprehension Materials help students to build reading comprehension skills. Many students learn most effectively when they have a solid example to work with, making short stories a useful tool when teaching story structure.
Introduction
Reading comprehension is fundamental to ultimate educational success. In today world we receive so much information via radio, television and multimedia experiences yet none of these avenues has the ability to educate as the fundamental skill of reading. Because reading is the most essential skill for success in school and society. A child who fails to learn to read will most likely fail to reach his or her full potential. Just like what Wainwright (2007) said Reading comprehension is a complex process which comprises the successful or unsuccessful use of many abilities. When we read, we should be able to recall information afterwards. What we can recall and how much we can recall depends on many factors.
Also Perfetti (1994) stated we can expect the comprehension of written language to approximate the comprehension of spoken language. When that happens, then reading comprehension has developed, for practical purposes, to its limiting or asymptotic level. (It is possible for reading comprehension skill to develop so as to exceed listening comprehension skill, but that is another matter.) All other limitations are imposed by linguistic abilities, relevant knowledge, and general intelligence. If we make things more complex than this, we push on to the concept of Reading comprehension all these other important aspects of cognition, with the muddle that result from conceptual conflation.
A short story, by definition, is a work of fiction that is of shorter length than a novel. The short story format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas (in the 20th and 21st century sense) and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because of the fragmentation of the medium into genres.
Why short stories: because short story is a literary works that tells a series of event in a specific setting. These series of events are the product of the writer’s powerful mind and imagination. They are the result of contemplations, and realizations done by the writer either during his gloomy or happy days. Short stories are the outlet of the writer’s emotions. It is through short stories that a writer directly or indirectly expresses his ideals, beliefs and opinions regarding issues that continually confronting the society. Thus stories are written due to several purposes such as to inspire, to educate, to entertain and to provoke one’s emotions.
The advantages using short story for reading comprehension: For children stories teach them moral lessons which will be planted in their young minds and that they can ponder upon as they grow older. Other than that, they help in the enhancement of children’s imaginative thinking which leads to creativity. According to some experts, children are being trained to think imaginatively while listening or reading stories in accordance to how the writer describes the setting, characters, and events that took place in the story. More than that, children are taught to focus their attention to a specific topic so that if they will be engaged to more complicated brainstorming they won’t have any difficulty. One thing more, their vocabularies will be developed. As a result. This will help them develop their communication skills both in oral and written communication.
Conclusion
To conclude, you will find ideas for using short stories to develop students’ reading comprehension, including active reading and vocabulary skills. The brevity of short stories can keep struggling readers from feel overwhelmed with the comprehension process. Seeing those benefits that stories can give, it is just correct to conclude that reading short stories is helpful to students and to all.
References
Perfetti, C. (1994). Reading skill : Some adult comparisons. journal of education psychology , 86, 244, 255.
Wainwright, G. (2007). How to read faster and recall more (third ed.). spring hill road bagbroke: oxford OX5 1RX.
Leibacher, H. (2010). Benefits of Short Stories. http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-Short-Stories&id=5019035
Using Short Stories to Develop English Teaching
Abstract
English as an international language, takes an important role in many aspects of life, including education. The use of various genres of literature, as a means, has occupied a very important place in language teaching. Literature has been an appendage to language teaching. This article tries to explore various rationale behind the use of short stories in the language classroom. In addition to this, it presents some of the techniques of teaching short stories to develop communicative competence.
Keywords: English teaching, short stories.
lntroduction
Short stories can be used as one of the means to achieve the ultimate goal of the language teaching program. The ultimate goal of language teaching program is to develop communicative competence in language learners. For this, the users should possess the rules of lexico- grammar and the rules of the language use. Short stories can be used for this purpose.
Why short stories in the language Programme:
The purpose of teaching short stories in the language classroom is obviously different from the purpose of teaching them in the literature classroom. In the former case, the short stories are used as a means to develop communicative competence, while in the latter case; they are used as a means to develop ‘literary competence’. The study of short stories makes short stories themselves the content or subject of the course whereas the use of short stories as a resource draws on short stories as one source among many different kinds of texts for promoting interesting language activities.
Linguistically speaking, short stories develop language awareness in learners. Similarly short stories are authentic materials for language learners. They can be used as a huge authentic source of new vocabulary items and grammatical structures. The learners can see how the words and structures can be manipulated in a variety of ways to create meanings in a text. From psycholinguistic perspective, short stories facilitate language acquisition by providing ‘…meaningful and memorable contexts for processing and interpreting new language’ (Lazar, 1999).They are highly motivating which always encourage hypothesis formation and make the language learners inquisitive. The use of short stories in the language classroom is based on the ‘pleasure principle’. That is to say in the language program, we no doubt have to concentrate on teaching of various aspects and skills of language, and it is assured that it is the pleasure of exploring the text that motivates the learner and ‘pushes’ them ahead without making them aware that they are being pushed. A good story is experienced pleasure. From sociolinguistic viewpoints, short stories help language learners get knowledge on how the language operates in the society.
Techniques of teaching short stories:
As we discussed above, there is a distinction between the study of short story in the literature classroom and the use of short story as a resource for language teaching. That is to say the short story can be taught and learnt for different purposes. The teacher can adopt the following three stages to teach short stories in the language classroom:
I Pre-reading
lI While- reading
III Post- reading
I. Pre-reading: This can be regarded as a warming up stage in which the activities that can be supportive for while reading are adopted. Most of the activities of this stage sign post the learners to the actual reading. The preparatory activities help the learners to focus their attentions on the topic, and they activate the prior relevant knowledge and already known language. In this stage, the teacher is required to give the clear instruction to the learners. The learners should know what they are expected to do before reading the actual text.
Objectives:
-To make the students interested in the topic.
-To signpost them to the text.
-To activate the learner’s prior linguistic and non-linguistic knowledge.
-To develop some kind of ‘schema’ about the story they are going to read.
Activities
-Look at the pictures and title, and guess what the story is about.
-Underline the difficult words (No need to read the passage thoroughly).
-Find the synonyms/ antonyms of the words given on the board.
-Underline or read aloud the sentence that contains….(word).
-Underline or read aloud the sentence that contains if clause/ relatiue clause/ No sooner…than…etc.
-Write a readable story with the help of the following outline. (The teacher gives a skeleton of the story similar to the one they are going to read.)
II. While-reading: This is the actual reading stage. The main purpose of while reading activities is to develop the skills of eliciting the message from the written text. In this stage, the comprehension of the text, establishing
the relationship between what is actually read and what the learners are going to read, macro-level prediction (predicting in a general way what is going to be read) and micro-level prediction (prediction in a specific way, what words and or sentences are going to be read), interpretation of the overall meaning of the text are of primary importance.
Objectives
-To develop the skills of eliciting the required information from the story.
-To developthe skills of interprteting the overall meaning of the text.
-To engage the learners in prediction and matching what is actually read and what they expect to read.
Activities
-Read the first, second paragraph and tell or writein short what will happen next.
-Read the story and write whether the statements given on the board are true or false.
-Pick out all the phrases that suggest physical action of …( the name of the character).
III. Post-reading stage: This stage consists of all the activities which are done after the whole task of reading the story is completed. Some of the post-reading activities can be the extension of the while reading activities whereas others can be the activities that are loosely related to the theme of the story itself.
Objectives:
-To check whether the students have understood what they were expected to understand.
-To provide them with the opportunity to express their attitudes towards the story.
-To make them able to transfer the information ofthe story to the context.
-To check to what extent they have completed while reading activities successfully.
-To find out why some of the students have failed to understand the story.
Activities
-What would happen if………?
-Write 5 sentences about the character you like most.
-Draw the picture of the character you like or hate most.
Conclusion
Learning English has weaknesses and deficiencies that occur due to various factors in the environment of education, is a benchmark for teachers to be more creative and innovative in delivering the material. One technique that can be used to teach teachers to teach English is to use a short story, where the use of short stories can be innovative, creative, effective, and achieve the targets in English language learning materials is expected.
References:
Brown, H.D. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New York. Longman
fuddell, D. 2001. Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language. Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Employing Drama to Improve Students’ Speaking Skills.
Abstract
Speaking is the most common and important means of providing communication among human beings. The key to successful communication is speaking nicely, efficiently and articulately, as well as using effective voice projection. Furthermore, speaking is linked to success in life, as it occupies an important position both individually and socially. Speaking skills can be developed in children by employing an activity of techniques and methods. In a classroom situation children can develop speaking skills and boost their confidence by having dialogues using play telephones or real mobile phones. Engaging in dialogues will enable young students to respond to asked questions precisely and at the same time improve their speaking and listening skills. Drama in a classroom situation leaves no stone unturned in improving speaking skills. Drama will train pupils’ voice projection and pronunciation of words. Drama will boost confidence in pupils in that they would not be shy to face the the crowd. Stage f right is usually eradicated by drama.
Key-word Children, Drama , speaking
Introduction
The age we live in may be defined as the communication age. Effective communication is considered one of the most important skills that individuals should have. Receptive and expressive language abilities constitute a significant aspect of effective communications in terms of language skills. One of the expressive language elements is speaking skill.
Speaking is the most common and important means of providing communication among human beings. The key to successful communication is speaking nicely, efficiently and articulately, as well as using effective voice projection. Furthermore, speaking is linked to success in life, as it occupies an important position both individually and socially.
As is the case with many basic skills, one of the important periods to improve speaking skill is, incontrovertibly, during primary education. Speaking skills acquired and developed during primary education are significant with regard to both acquisition and permanence. Therefore, it is essential that efficient and effective teaching methods are employed in order to improve speaking skills during primary education.
In our view, a favourble technique in aiding primary school students to acquire and develop oral skills is the use of creative and educational drama activities. No matter where this technique is applied, creative drama may be considered a method of learning –a tool for self-expression, as well as art. Speaking skills acquired and developed during primary education are significant with regard to both acquisition and permanence. Therefore, it is essential that efficient and effective teaching methods are employed in order to improve speaking skills during primary education. Speaking is an art which can be learned and developed over time. Research has it that young children master a language and speaking skills better than adults. It is ideal to teach and develop speaking skills and confidence in young students. There is a saying which goes, ” if you want them to learn and understand catch them young.” Children can competence in reticing poetry in class, this goes a long way in improving oratory skill. The more they recite poems to an audience the more they harness their speaking skills and in the end they become refined and confident young students.
Why using Drama
Role play occurs in all early years settings and forms an obvious route to the achievement of the early learning goal, ‘Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences’ (Communication, language and literacy). children will have opportunities to take part in drama activities as part of their development in the speaking and listening element of the curriculum for English. Drama, in its specific dictionary definition, is the art of acting, of putting on a play. Drama is a general term embracing a variety of techniques that allow the individual to adopt a character and act out a story. Drama techniques allow the individual to experience aspects of life and relationships they would not normally experience; to become people they would not normally be and to tell a story alone or with others. Role-play encourages speaking and listening skills and leads to shared understanding, effective communication and cooperation. Public speaking is one of the most common (and one of the most intense) fears. A good theater class will eradicate this phobia.
Conclusion
I just remembered that my student in 5 years old learn to speak through the drama classes, twice times in one week during one hour we did it consistently and clearly I saw their could improve their speaking. To speak competently and creatively to explore, develop and sustain ideas through talk. Using dramatic techniques, including work in role to explore ideas and texts; create, share and evaluate ideas and understanding through drama. Drama class will help you stay calm while all eyes are upon you. You’ll learn posture, poise, eye-contact and projection. Also, debating in a political-science class, or perhaps participating in a mock-trial at law school, dramatic skills will add power and emotion to your statements. Theater class will make you well, theater training won’t help you pass a multiple choice test. However, drama skills will make an oral presentation a truly inspiring experience. Speaking skills is ability to speak target language to communicate with others that consist of accuracy, fluency and comprehensibility. Role play refers to the changing of one’s behavior to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role or consciously to act out and adopted role. Children need to learn to adapt their talk to the listeners; use a range of ways to express themselves; use talk to clarify their ideas and sustain their talk to develop thinking and reasoning. Speaking should include putting thoughts into words and sharing in groups; taking opportunities to speak at some length to explain ideas in different situations; giving a talk or presentation using gestures, aids and rhetorical devices. It is essential that children are provided with planned opportunities for speaking in a range of contexts, including: to different audiences, such as class, the teacher and other adults; with different levels of formality such as with peers, to another class, a whole-school assembly and for different purposes, such as recounting events and telling stories, explaining, describing, justifying views and persuading others.
http://www.helium.com/items/1457588-how-to-develop-public-speaking-skills-and-confidence-in-young-students
http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/improving-speaking-and-listening-skills-ks2-3514/
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=Employing+Drama+to+Improve+Students%E2%80%99+Speaking+Skills&oq=Employing+Drama+to+Improve+Students%E2%80%99+Speaking+Skills&gs_l=serp.3…
http://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essay-on/Effects-Of-Creative-Educational-Drama-Activities/61201
WRITING SHORT STORIES TO IMPROVE WRITING SKILLS
Abstract
In learning, students can’t be separated from writing activities especially in the subjects of English. Writing is a skill the most difficult because it requires a good mastery of vocabulary, sentences and correct spelling and proper punctuation. Students can be motivated to be able to pour ideas or feelings in writing. In the literature, short stories are very effective to help students in improving writing skills so students can be creative to create good literature and the results can be enjoyed by others.
Keywords: writing short stories, skills, improve, create.
Introduction
English learning is less effective for students, especially in writing. Writing is an activity that must be faced by students in the learning process. Generally, writing is the most difficult skills in comparison with other language skills such as listening, speaking, and reading. Heaton as cited in St. Y Slamet (2008: 141) stated that writes is a difficult and complex skills. This is because the ability to write must be based on a variety of components such as a good mastery of vocabulary, sentence structure correctly, spelling and punctuation appropriately.
Writing skills are not enough to help students in learning English. In the literature, writing skills can be enhanced by writing short stories. Short stories are the literary works of fiction which made-up story. Write a short story can motivate students to improve writing skills, especially writing in English. Students can write a short story through their imagination based on real or sheer life. Then the imagination is poured into an interesting story to be read and enjoyed by others.
Discussion
Writing is the most important part of learning. According to Big Indonesian Dictionary, writing is a labor of mind or feelings in writing. In generating ideas, writing skills do not come automatically but through lots of practice writing and carried out regularly.
There are several goals written by Hampton (1989):
1. The writer can write without much help.
2. The writer can write which can be read can be understood by himself and others.
3. The writer can write smoothly and easily understood.
4. The writer can write their own ideas instead of copying what has been written so it can be read and understood.
In addition, there are several kinds of writing skills are as follows:
1. Comprehensibility skills are communicated by writing messages or information.
2. Fluency skills are recognize the sequence of movement of the voice, recognize pieces of words, recognizing the distance between the spaces and words, and write quickly.
3. Creativity skills are able to write freely about what is desired by the student.
In improving writing skills, it would require further efforts to get the good writing. In the literature, writing short stories is a good strategy in the process of learning English. Short story is a work of literature the most suitable for improving writing skills. In addition, the short story is also easily learned by all people as among students and adults.
Nuryatin (2010: 3) stated that short stories can be divided into two forms:
1. Short-short stories are the stories written in one or half a folio page or more.
2. Long-short stories are the stories written by thirty folio page or more.
There are things that must be observed in writing a short story that is the building blocks. There are several the building blocks of the short story as follow:
1. Themes and Message
The theme is the essence of a story. Message is the author’s moral message that is conveyed to the reader.
2. Characterizations
There are two techniques to illustrate and develop the characters in the story are:
a. Analytical technique is the author tells the character directly.
b. Dramatic technique is the character expressed through the physical and behavioral description of the character, environment and the lives of the characters, the character of grammar, the mind of the characters, and description of other figures.
3. Plot
The flow is divided into several sections to establish cause-effect relationships in a story as follows:
a. Development of a story or exposition.
b. Disclosure event or complication.
c. Height of the conflict or turning point.
d. Completion or ending.
4. Setting
Literary works which include the state of the place, time, and atmosphere.
5. Viewpoint
The position of the author in bringing the story consists of:
a. Direct role as the main character involved in the story.
b. Acting as a third person and served as observers.
6. Narrative / Stylistic
Language can create a tone that is able to demonstrate the interaction among characters. In addition, language can also lead to the right atmosphere as spooky, romance and war scenes.
Teachers can create a variety of writing activities to improve English writing skills. Teachers can ask students to write short stories are more complex. Therefore, the teacher must provide instruction to write a short story by providing step-by-step how to write a short story right is as follows:
1. Use short sentences and then followed with a short paragraph.
2. Master basic grammar and notice the composition appropriately
3. Use simple vocabulary.
4. Try correcting the text and do not forget to keep a lot of practice writing.
From the above discussion, the student should be able to write short stories well so writing skills to be improved. That way, the work could be a reference to motivate students to skillfully write short stories in English.
Conclusion
Writing short stories can assist students in improving writing skills especially in English learning. Students can develop their imagination based on real or sheer life with their ideas or their feelings in a short story. Writing skills don’t come automatically; therefore students need lots of practice writing. That way, students can write a short story so well that writing skills are increasing.
References:
International, SIL. (1999). What are writing skills? Retrieved March 16, 1999 from http://www.sil/org/lingualinks/literacy/referencematerials/glossaryofliteracyterms/ whatarewritingskills.htm
Stewart, Jennifer. (2009). Tips for writing a short story. Retrieved 2009 from http://www.write101.com/shortstory.htm
USING LITERARY WORKS TO DEVELOP CROSS CULTURAL AWARENESS
Dian Maya Margareth 0812150038
Abstract
Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience and language is an important carrier of culture. We learn about books and literature; we enjoy the comedies and the tragedies of poems, stories, and plays; and we may even grow and evolve through our literary journey with books. English teaching is not only a professor of language itself, but should include the language of the culture behind the spread of load, therefore, foster cross-cultural awareness English teaching is of great significance. Modern teaching English should focus on analysis of cross-cultural awareness in a variety of obstacles, and explore cross-cultural awareness training an effective way. The purpose of this article is to show the advantages of learning literature in developing cross-cultural awareness.
Keyword: literature, literary works, language, culture, cross-cultural awareness
Introduction
Language and culture have a strong interdependent relationship and must be acquired together, as one supports the other in the construction of communicative and social competence. Bennet (2003) stated, “the person who learns language without learning culture risks becoming a fluent fool”. The importance of developing intercultural communicative competence alongside linguistic competence is rooted in the need of students to interact effectively with people from other cultures. In fact, what is considered appropriate in one culture is usually inappropriate in the other one. Today, it is widely accepted that literature in the EFL classroom can be a medium to transmit the culture of the target language. Besides, literature in the EFL classroom can provide a powerful tool in students’ language development. Aase (2001) claimed ‘Through literature the learners can experience how language can be used in different situations, for different purposes, and to varying effect’.
It is a fact that language is a part of culture, in other words, it is in-separable. Tomalin and Stempleski (1998) argued that “communication, language, and culture cannot be separated.” They further assert that in order to communicate successfully, we have to be fluent culturally and linguistically. It is only logical then that if we learn a foreign language, we also need to learn its culture to develop cross-cultural awareness. Using literary works to develop cross-cultural awareness has some advantages, but there are four basic advantages: to expand the students’ vocabulary, to open the students’ mind to ambiguities meaning, to explore other cultures and beliefs, and to appreciate the contribution literature has made to history.
Discussion
Why do we learn literature?
Literature represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. But, literature is more important than just a historical or cultural artifact. Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience. We learn about books and literature; we enjoy the comedies and the tragedies of poems, stories, and plays; and we may even grow and evolve through our literary journey with books.
Ultimately, we may discover meaning in literature by looking at what the author says and how he/she says it. We may interpret the author’s message. In academic circles, this decoding of the text is often carried out through the use of literary theory, using a mythological, sociological, psychological, historical, or other approach.
Whatever critical paradigm we use to discuss and analyze literature, there is still an artistic quality to the works. Literature is important to us because it speaks to us, it is universal, and it affects us. Even when it is ugly, literature is beautiful.
What is cross-cultural awareness?
Cross-cultural awareness refers to the exchange are recognized in cross-cultural communication is beyond language, cross-cultural communication, requiring that their culture behind the language of both have an overall understanding of relevant knowledge and the corresponding reserves. There are four levels of cross-cultural awareness: in the first level is noted that some cultural characteristics of the surface; second level is the other culture and their own culture for significance differences especially for some meaningful be aware of cultural identity, cultural conflicts often occur; in the third level, for their own culture has a significant culture features, or intellectuality, in the theory, be able to understand; the fourth level is the most difficult to achieve, at this stage the students can put themselves in each other shoes, really understand each other’s actions, often long-term life experience can be obtained.
The first advantages by using literary works to develop cross-cultural awareness is to expand the students’ vocabulary, there are quite a number of lexical items which could be understood only if we know the cultural background of the foreign language. In relation to this, Brown (1996) suggested that “culture is really an integral part of the interaction between language and thought.” Cultural patterns, customs, and ways of life are ex-pressed in language; culture-specific world views are reflected in language. If that is the case, when we read a text in a foreign language actually we also try to understand the thought of foreign people which is very much influenced by their culture.
Second, is to open the students’ mind to ambiguities meaning. While people will “say what they mean and mean what they say” in an ideal world, language in our world is, in reality, maddeningly and delightfully ambiguous. If you go through life expecting people to play by your rules, you’ll only be miserable, angry and disappointed. You won’t change them. Ambiguity, double entendres and nuance give our language depth and endless possibility. For example, “My Brother’s Keeper” is a title of a film. Those who do not know the cultural back-ground of the title would think that it is an ordinary title and would not be able to enjoy the film as much as those who do. The title is taken from the Bible (Genesis 4:9) in which God asks Cain, who has murdered his brother, Abel, where his brother is, and Cain replies, “I am not my brother’s keeper.”
Third, is to explore other cultures and beliefs. Literature, on the other hand, allows you to experience the cultures and beliefs of others first-hand, from the inside looking out. The only other way to have such a personal understanding of others’ beliefs are to adopt them yourself which most of us aren’t willing to do. If you understand where other people are coming from, you are better equipped to communicate meaningfully with them and they with you.
Finally, is to appreciate the contributions literature has made to history. The pen is mightier than the sword, when a country undergoes regime change, the new regime imprisons, exiles or executes the intelligentsia–scholars and philosophers–who are seen as the keepers of the culture, creators of ideology, and instigators of revolt. See Russian, Chinese, and German history for examples. In American history, see the copious examples of pro- and anti- slavery literature as well as Thomas Paine’s and Thomas Jefferson’s contribution to the American Revolution.
Conclusion
In conclusion, raising cultural awareness through literature is a great opportunity for the students to increase their world knowledge as they will have access to a variety of contexts, which is inevitably related to culture. The four basic advantages by using literary works to develop cross-cultural awareness: to expand the students’ vocabulary, to open the students’ mind to ambiguities meaning, to explore other cultures and beliefs, and to appreciate the contribution literature has made to history. By raising cultural sensitivity students will not only foster openness to diversity, but they will also develop cross – cultural communication to understand and interact effectively with people of other parts of the world.
References
Aase, F. (2001). Culture bump and beyond. Valdes.
Bennet, T. (2003). The rules of culture. Tokyo: Japan Foundation Asia Centre.
Brown, D. (1996). Learning a second culture. Valdes.
Cantatore, G. (2007, 11 02). Retrieved 07 02, 2012, from http://www.culturosity.com.
Stempleski, B. T. (1998). Cultural awareness. Oxford University Press.
Short Stories as an Effective Reading Comprehension Materials
Abstract. Many ESL/EFL experts agree that content knowledge is an important factor in the learning process of reading comprehension. The short story’s distinctive features, i.e., its brevity, modernity, and variety make it appealing and interesting to language learners and a value source for the improvement of second language reading comprehension. The short story can offer learners adequate linguistic, intellectual, and emotional involvement and enrich their learning experience.
1. Introduction
Reading comprehension, as a fundamental language skill, requires a complex acquisition process which can account for the way that learners comprehend what they read. Many researchers and educators have made untiring attempts to find more efficient ways of enabling the learners to become more proficient readers. However, it is necessary to point out here that reading is not simply a linguistic decoding; rather, it is the comprehension of the text’s meaning.
Therefore, a good number of ESL/EFL experts do agree that content knowledge is an important factor in the learning process of reading comprehension. A valuable source of knowledge is, undoubtedly, literary texts, and more appropriately for reading comprehension purposes, the short story. Using the short story to enhance students’ reading proficiency has another privilege. The short story is a compact literary genre in which much is left unsaid in order for the reader to draw implications. Therefore, it makes students sensitive to the hidden and implied meaning. While in reading non-literary material students learn to read the lines and decode the meaning, in reading short stories they learn to read between the lines. Regarding the issue of literary organization, Arens, Swaffar and Byrnes (1991) observe that “students have greater success with texts that convince, inform and persuade- texts with rhetorical illocution- than they do with readings that are purely descriptive” (115).
Indeed, the short story as a multi-dimensional literary genre can be profitably used in the acquisition of various language skills. The short story’s distinctive features, i.e., its brevity, modernity, and variety make it appealing and interesting to language learners. When the short story is chosen based on the students’ level of English proficiency, it can offer them adequate linguistic, intellectual, and emotional involvement and enrich their learning experience. Thus, this paper proposes that the short story can provide ESL/EFL learners with a suitable study resource which is both delightful and instructive to improve their linguistic proficiency and reading comprehension. Consequently, the researchers aim to put forward a variety of strategies to make the teaching of the short story enjoyable and an academically enriching experience in aiding reading comprehension. These strategies include the design and implementation of motivation building techniques which facilitate overall reading comprehension, listening and spoken skills, and cultural orientation.
2. Discussion
Using literature in the language classroom leads the learners to become better readers. Among the literary forms, indeed, the short story is an engaging literary genre and can therefore be utilized for language learning purposes. Almost all modern short stories have the following unique characteristics which make them especially suitable to be used in reading comprehension classes: universality, non-triviality, personal relevance, variety, interest, economy, suggestive power, and ambiguity; moreover, each learner’s interpretation has validity and an almost infinite fund of interactive discussion is guaranteed.
The short story creates the tension necessary for a genuine exchange of ideas in class discussions. In addition, the short story pushes the students out of a passive reading state into a personal connection with the text and then beyond, extending the connection to other texts and to the world outside of school. Closely related to the issue of implied meaning, Knutson (1993) argues that there are two processes through which proficient readers figure out the meaning of a text. One is what she terms “bottom-up process” and the other she calls “top-down process” (13). The bottom-up process is when the reader decodes the individual elements of the text to build a total meaning; however, in the top-down process the reader starts with forming hypotheses and making predictions. It is obvious that these two strategies are used simultaneously by a successful reader. With regard to the above argument, the advantage of using a short story rather than a nonliterary text is that some pre-reading activities which can be nicely applied to the short story (such as the discussion of the topic and narrative structure) are very useful in facilitating the readers’ top-down process. The short story offers certain advantages for material design for ESL students since this genre includes short textual material to be satisfactorily handled in a one or limited teaching sessions.
3. Conclusion
In the long run, the teacher’s role is a facilitator who guides the students as they draw inferences and form learning experiences through personal involvement with the text. The exposure of the students to literature as ESL material can ensure that they enjoy, understand and appreciate a life-like material while they are improving their linguistic proficiency. Thus, it will be to the overall benefit of the ESL learners if the instructors promote the use of stories as a tool to introduce, accompany, and supplement tried and basal teaching techniques. The power and emotional impact found in a short story can offer the learners deeper meaning about the acquisition of language skills. Finally, short stories invite students to engage in a more active and informed discussion of their involvement with the text and their own personal experiences relevant to the world of the text.
4. References
C. Kramsch, and O. Kramsch. The Avatars of Literature in Language Study. The Modern Language Journal. 2000, 84 (4): 553-573.
Ehrlich, Marie-France, Kurtz-Costes, Beth, Loridant, Catherine. 1993. Cognitive and motivational determinants of reading comprehension in good and poor readers.
Journal of Reading Behavior 25(4), pp. 365-381.
G. Lazar. Using novels in the language-learning classroom. ELT Journal. 1990, 44: 205-214.
K. M. Arens, J. K. Swaffar, H. Byrnes. Reading for Meaning: An Integrated Approach to Language Learning. Prentice Hall, 1991.
Memory, David M. 1990. Teaching technical vocabulary: Before, during or after the reading assignment? Journal of Reading Behavior 22(1), pp. 39-53.
Abstract
Reading is one of the four skills of learning that a student has to master in learning the language. It is a basic and a complementary skill in language learning. There are some methods to develop their reading habit like using short stories. Using short stories very effective as an reading comprehension material. Much benefit to the students if their using short stories like the students can develop they imagination about the story while the read and the students get muck knowledge if they reading seriously and understand meaning from the text.
Introduction
Reading is one of the four skills of learning that a student has to master in learning the language. It is a basic and a complementary skill in language learning. Reading requires the reader to focus attention on the reading materials and integrate previously acquired knowledge and skills to comprehend what someone else has written. Chastain (1988) claims that sometimes erroneously called a passive skill because the reader does not produce messages in the same sense as a speaker or writer. Reading nevertheless, requires mental processing for communication to occur. Reading is a receptive skill in that the reader is receiving a message from a writer. Also, referred to as a decoding skill, the terminology implies the idea of language as a code, one which must be deciphered to arrive at the meaning of the massage. Enter the short story. This genre is perfect for the classroom because its conciseness allows teachers to model concepts immediately. Furthermore, short stories help teachers to provide multiple examples in a brief period of time. So whether you are looking for short stories to teach literary elements, lists of short stories to add to your curriculum, or ideas for helping your students to write stories themselves, this guide will give you plenty of support. There are some methods to understand text which we read like using short stories. Using short stories as an effective reading comprehension material is a one method in reading comprehension. Many students like reading such as comic, novel and short stories. That’s why reading using short stories as an effectives in reading comprehension because the can develop their reading skill while using short stories. In every story has moral message to the reader. One of effective ways in giving moral to the children is by using fairytale. Most of children in this world like hearing fairy tale story. Through read it, the readers have already known about the characteristic of the actors and plot of the story in the fairy tale, it will easy for them to comprehend the text by guessing the meaning of the words in the text. If they can comprehend the text, they will enjoy the reading activities and can improve their ability in reading comprehension.
Why stories?
The short story format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas (in the 20th and 21st century sense) and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because of the fragmentation of the medium into genres. Since the short story format includes a wide range of genres and styles, the actual length is determined by the individual author’s preference (or the story’s actual needs in terms of creative trajectory or story arc) and the submission guidelines relevant to the story’s actual market. Guidelines vary greatly among publishers. Patricia Dreher Abel (1990) said Theme, symbolism, foreshadowing … there are so many literary elements for readers to understand in order to comprehend and appreciate what they read! Novels are great for reinforcing this knowledge, but may be too lengthy to introduce and teach specific elements properly.
Students need multiple examples of literary elements being used in writing in order to understand them and identify them on their own, so the short story is perfect for this! Below are some resources to help you use short stories to teach literary elements. Additionally, you will find ideas for using short stories to develop students’ reading comprehension, including active reading and vocabulary skills. The brevity of short stories can keep struggling readers from feel overwhelmed with the comprehension process, and teachers will find them easy to modify and organize for different audiences. For these reasons, teachers using stories to raise reading comprehension may also find these links helpful.
Benefits of Short Stories
Herb Leibacher a short story is a literary work that tells a series of event in a specific setting. These series of events are the product of the writer’s powerful mind and imagination. Short stories are the outlet of the writer’s emotions. It is through short stories that a writer directly or indirectly expresses his ideals, beliefs and opinions regarding issues that continually confronting the society. Thus stories are written due to several purposes such as to inspire, to educate, to entertain and to provoke one’s emotions. For children stories teach them moral lessons which will be planted in their young minds and that they can ponder upon as they grow older. Other than that, they help in the enhancement of children’s imaginative thinking which leads to creativity. According to some experts, children are being trained to think imaginatively while listening or reading stories in accordance to how the writer describes the setting, characters, and events that took place in the story. More than that, children are taught to focus their attention to a specific topic so that if they will be engaged to more complicated brainstorming or emersions they won’t have any difficulty. One thing more, their vocabularies will be developed. As a result, this will help them develop their communication skills both in oral and written communication. Those benefits mentioned above are only among the many benefits of reading short stories. Seeing those benefits that stories can give, it is just correct to conclude that reading short stories is helpful to all.
Conclusion
reading is the most important thing in four skill, because if they like read they will get much knowledge and more information. to be a good reader the reader must understand about the text (reading comprehension). There are some method to make the students like read and understand about the text, one of them is using short stories. Using short stories in reading comprehension is very effectively material. Because they can develop their knowledge and imagination after reading the short stories they also will develop their reading skill when they read the short stories.
References
http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-Short-Stories&id=5019035
http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/124754.aspx
Chastain, K. (1988). Developing Second Language Skills. (3rded).Chicago: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
The Use of Storytelling in Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners
Abstract
Storytelling is the art of using language, vocalization, and/or physical movement and gesture to reveal the elements and images of a story to a specific, live audience. A central, unique aspect of storytelling is its reliance on the audience to develop specific visual imagery and detail to complete and co-create the story. This article is aim to provide and alternative teaching methods for teachers in teaching vocabulary in a meaningful and enjoyable way. Provide information about the advantages and disadvantages of learning vocabulary using storytelling based on students’ perception.
Introduction
English is one of the subjects that could be taught elementary students today. However, some teachers find that teaching English to young learners is not an easy to do. Most teachers in the traditional English classroom still use conventional methods in teaching English, for example, memorizing and translating strategy in learning vocabulary as a basic step in learning English.
The use of those methods makes the lesson run in a very monotonous situation and most students feel lacking in interest and motivation in learning English as an official subject. Consequently, English is regarded as horrible subject by most elementary students in traditional English classroom. For the reason above, teachers have to find other method in teaching vocabulary to young learners, which provide a fun and enjoyable situation. It is agreed that if students are learning in a fun and enjoyable situation, it will be easier for them to understanding and absorb to material. Therefore, the use alternative methods which provides a fun and enjoyable learning situation is needed, is storytelling is one of the methods that can be use in teaching vocabulary in young learners.
Cameron (2001: 159) states “Stories offer a full imaginary world, created by the language, which allows learners to enter and enjoys as they learn language”. From the statement we can conclude that storytelling offers an enjoyable learning situation. In such as enjoyable and fun situation, students may learner better because they will be highly motivated to be involved in teaching learning process.
Concerning the English teaching learning process in most rural elementary schools which still uses conventional methods, this study was aimed to find an alternative teaching method that can be applied in classroom to help young learners in acquiring many English vocabularies in an enjoyable and interesting way. For that reason, a study on the use of storytelling in teaching vocabulary to young learners was conducted.
1. Definition of Storytelling
Storytelling is one of methods commonly used in language learning. According Cameron (2001: 160), “Storytelling is an oral activity and stories have the shape they do because they are designed to be listened to and, in my situations, participated”.
From the definition above, it can be concluded that storytelling is the use of in language oral activity to deliver events in words and sometimes by some improvisations.
2. The Advantages of Using Storytelling in Teaching Learning Process
Storytelling has many advantages to be used in teaching learning process. Stories are useful tools for growing learners’ language awareness. Wright (1989: 5) says “Stories help children become aware of the general ‘feel’ and sound of the foreign language”. Through storytelling, learners will be introduced to language items, sentence contractions and pronunciation indirectly. Learners will be guided into language understanding smoothly, without any pressure or force.
3. Guidance for Using Storytelling in Classroom
Using storytelling can be a very useful teaching strategy if it is applied properly in the teaching learning process. As stated by Cameron (2001), stories provide a full imaginary world created by its language, which can be entered and enjoyed by the learners while they learn language. The main point is how to make a storytelling activity in the classroom become effective and helpful in achieving the learning objective.
4. Definition of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is one of the language elements that have an important role in learning a language. Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary defines vocabulary as a total number of a word in a language that is known and understood by its users. In addition, Brown (2001: 377) states, “vocabulary is the basic building blocks of a language”. It can be said that vocabulary is a basic elements of language that enables people to understand and to use the language.
5. The Important of Teaching Vocabulary in Language Learning
Vocabulary is an essential element and has an important part in a language, so that learning vocabulary is a crucial thing in language learning. In line with this, Cameron (2001) states that the foundation of learning a foreign language is building up a useful vocabulary. According to statement, it can be said that knowing and being familiar with words in a foreign language is very important in learning that language.
6. The Advantages of Using Storytelling in Teaching Vocabulary
The advantage of using storytelling in teaching vocabulary is storytelling can make the learners curiosity of word’s meaning increase. They will try to find meaning of words in stories willingly, so that they will not feel under pressure. In line with this, Wright (1995) says that children want to find meaning in stories, so they listed words with their own purpose. If learners can find the meaning of new words, they are rewarded by understanding in stories.
Conclusion
The use of storytelling was effective in improving students’ vocabulary mastery. They were several factors contributing to the effectiveness of the storytelling: the stories’ selection, the use of story aids and the words’ repetition in the stories. The use of storytelling had several advantages in teaching English vocabulary based on students’ perception. Storytelling provided students with the interesting and enjoyable learning situation which also motivated the students in learning English. Storytelling was also helpful in improving students’ retention of the words learned. The use of storytelling had also several disadvantages base on the students’ perception. The unfamiliarity with words found in the stories can lead the students’ confusion.
References
Brown. (2001). Definition of vocabulary. America.
Cameron. (2001). Definition of storytelling. America.
Eldrbarry. (1997). What storytelling is. an attempt at defining the art form. Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.eldrbarry.net/roos/st_defn.htm
Wright. (1989). The advantages of using storytelling in teaching learning process. America.
.
Using Short Stories to Develop Vocabularies
Abstract
Vocabulary is an important element in language where in the first step to learn English is learning vocabulary because it is very prominent in language and it was always taught in language classes. Therefore it is very important to learn vocabulary from the point first time, introduction vocabulary to the student learning facilities to achieve their skills in English. There are some improvement that can be found in vocabulary class, namely (1) the quality of teaching learning process in the class improves (2) the students can remember the meaning of the words easily (3) the students motivation to learn is improved (4) the students are active in the teaching learning process (5) the students can pronounce the words correctly.
INTRODUCTION
Stories guide us through our whole life – since the moment we were born and it can not be changed when we become teenagers or adults human. When we were children, our parents told us or read us stories about the fairy tales. When we were older we can heard stories in radio or watch them on TV. As pupils we had created our own stories at school during to time. As adults human we like listening the songs with strong stories in themselves, watching the soap operas or films or to read the books or magazine stories. The stories are for all of us, not just for the children.
I choosed this topic using the stories in English teaching and then to develop vocabularies because I’d sure that stories are important not only in our mother tongue. The children had been enjoy the stories listening, they were feel familiar with the narrative storyline, and they can make predictions about what will happen in the future. That short story was looked as an ideal introduction to the foreign language where they present language in a familiar and memorable able context. Stories could help us in learning and it could be more fun.
A lot of books wrote about story-telling and about the young learners, but I would like to summaries my tasks unto the pupils at secondary school. It’s mean to the children and teenagers from 12 until 15 years old, because I’d work with them mostly. I want to use stories as a supplementary teaching aid and I’d follow national curriculum and I always using a coursebook in lessons. Nowadays some of coursebooks are very excellent, they have develop all skills and they have using different techniques to motivate students in their learn, e.g. stories, songs, cartoons. Another reason for using this stories just as part of a lesson which adolescents just have three lessons of forty-five minutes session per week.
Why Short stories
The stories are very important for children in learning their mother tongue, and these are important to learning any foreign language too. It’s cause that it’s so good to start using stories in my teaching English as soon as possible. In the Primary school “children enjoy listening to stories over and over again. This frequent repetition allows certain language items become acquired while others will being overtly reinforced. Many stories contain natural repetition of the key vocabularies and structures. To help the children to remember every detail, so they can reach graduated learn to anticipate about what to happen in the next story. Repetition also encourages participation in the narrative”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2)
The stories also motivating, challenging and great fun for children. They “can help develop positive attitudes towards the foreign language, culture and language learning”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:1) Using “stories allows the teacher to introduce or revise new vocabulary and sentence structures by exposing the children to language in varied, memorable and familiar contexts, which will enrich their thinking and gradually enter their own speech”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2) “Listening to stories helps children become aware of the rhythm, intonation and pronunciation of language”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2) Stories also provide opportunities for developing continuity in children’s learning. They can link English with other subject areas across the curriculum.
The stories also “develop the different types of ‘intelligences’ that contribute to language learning, including emotional intelligence”.(Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2) Stories “develop children’s learning strategies such as listening for general meaning, predicting, guessing meaning and hypothesizing”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2) Stories can develop all children’s skills.
The stories address universal themes which go beyond the useful level of basic dialogues and daily activities. “They allow children to play with ideas and feelings and to think about issues which are important and relevant to them”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2) They also provide “ideal opportunities for presenting cultural information and encouraging cross-cultural comparison”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2)
For the teachers of the stories also allow “to use an acquisition-based methodology by providing optimal input”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2) It is great to use real storybooks because they “add variety and provide a springboard for creating complete units of work that constitute mini-syllabuses and involve pupils personally, creatively and actively in an all-round whole curriculum approach. They thereby provide a novel alternative to the coursebook”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2).
On the teaching process was provided by the school to use the preaching method, discussion, questioning, group work and delivered with a natural language. Tips – tips made by the primary school in the acquisition and use of vocabulary are (1) rewriting the vocabulary they have learned, (2) write a vocabulary based on the instruction of teachers with a theme that has been determined, (3) create synonyms and antonyms of vocabulary, and (4) develop vocabulary in simple sentences. In addition, teachers also have the capacity and capability in carrying out their professionalism.
And on the secondary school students like stories as well as primary school pupils. They want them, maybe not all the time, but basically they all need them. Stories are largely based on words. They give mean to words. “Learning English through stories can lay the foundations for secondary school in terms of learning basic language functions and structures, vocabulary and language learning skills”. (Ellis and Brewster, 2002:2) It is obvious that we should choose different types of stories and different topics for secondary school students. Also the sources of stories are different. The students also able to create their own stories if they have the right input.
Conclusion
The stories are something ideal tool in learning language as they guide us through our whole life. However, it’s not only learning our mother tongue, but also the other foreign languages through stories can make our effort more interesting, amusing and memorable. The students have something amazing ability to absorb language knowledge when their activities are familiar and enjoyable to themselves. To teach foreign language on the based on of storytelling about the activities which is both familiar and it is fun exactly.
The stories are for all, not just for children, it is why that I using the stories in my teaching adolescents where it as important as using them in young children taught. The stories can to be attractive student’s attention, because they need challenging topics based on their everyday interests such as abot love and friendship. They also need a huge space for fantasy and creativity.
The stories be allowed using the English link with other subjects to across the curriculum, which I would to demonstrate in my article. They teach students to think. All skills, functions and structures may be taught by stories. Vocabulary, pronunciation and creativity may be developed.
References
Ken Retno Yuniwati. (2008). increasing vocabulary mastery by using short stories. Universitas Muhammadiyah, Surakarta. Retrirved july 1, 2012, from http://etd.eprints.ums.ac.id/353/
Gail Ellis and Jean Brewster. (2002). Using stories in teaching English. Retrieved july 1,2012, from http :// http://www.is.muni.cz/…/USING_STORIES_IN_TEACHING
Christopher Brumfit, Jayne Moon and Ray Tongue. (1991) Teaching English to Children from Practice to Principle. Retrieved july 1, 2012, from http://www.is.muni.cz/…/USING_STORIES_IN_TEACHING
Vandrick, S. (1997). Reading and responding to novels in the university ESL
classroom. The Journal of the Imagination in Language and Teaching, 4.
Retrieved July 1, 2012, from http://www.njcu.edu/CILL/vol4/vandrick.html
Abstract
Literary texts have always been an important source of material for ESL/EFL classes as they demonstrate a wide range of language use in authentic contexts. Particularly short stories are the most widely used literary genre in the foreign language classroom, with all levels of proficiency, all age groups and in many classroom activities. This paper aims to present a few suggestions on how a short story can be adapted in a university level intermediate EFL class for three different language focuses: grammar, writing and speaking.
Literature in Language Teaching
After being a notable source of material in the era of the Grammar Translation Method until the end of the 19th century, literary texts have been considered as a valuable variety for the ESL/EFL classes to supplement the main course materials for the in-class and out of class activities of language teaching, learning and practice. This interest in using literature in language teaching lies in three interrelated elements: authenticity, culture and personal growth. First of all, literary texts can be more beneficial than informational materials in stimulating the acquisition process as they provide authentic contexts for processing new language. Since literary texts contain language intended for native speakers, literature stands as a model for language learners to become familiar with different forms and conventions. Containing real examples of grammatical structures and vocabulary items, the literary texts raise learners’ awareness of the range of the target language and advance their competence in all language skills. Second, using literature in language teaching has the advantage of providing cultural information about the target language. Literary texts increase foreign language learners’ insight into the country and the people whose language is being learnt, which fosters learners’ ability to interpret discourse in different social and cultural target language contexts. Lastly, since literature enables students to understand and appreciate other cultures, societies and ideologies different from their own, it encourages personal growth and intellectual development. Differentiates between efferent reading and aesthetic reading: In the former, the aim is to use a text to gain information, such as reading to answer comprehension questions. In the latter, on the contrary, the reader relates his world experience to the text and explores the text in terms of language use. Underlining that literary texts are in the second category, emphasizes the importance of selecting the appropriate literary text and adapting it considering the linguistic and conceptual level of the learners. If selected or adapted appropriately, literature in language classes is today considered to be not only suitable for advanced level adult learners but also appropriate for young learners and lower level students.
References
Pordromou. (2000). Grammar translation. New York: Longman.
Collie, P and Slater. (1991). Literature in language teaching. Cambidge.
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Making Effective Use of Short Stories in English and Foreign Language Teaching
Abstract
Mastering of a foreign language is one of the important things that needed in modern society and globalization era. It is because language is one of instruments which has important functions in communication. Short stories help students to learn the four skills–listening, speaking, reading and writing–more effectively because of the motivational benefit embedded in the stories.
Introduction
A short story, by definition, is a work of fiction that is of shorter length than a novel. Edgar Allan Poe, the master of the form, stated that a short story should be able to be read in one sitting.
Teaching English as a second or foreign language for children is a challenging work. With the difficulty normally associated with getting foreign language learners to read, short stories quite readily lend themselves to capturing and holding the often brief attention spans of learners in societies which are predominantly non-reading ones. Get the learners interested in the story’s beginning and leave it from the, Poe will more than likely do the rest with his inimitable, attention-grabbing style and in-depth visual imagery.
One of the most effective long-term methods of learning a language is that of an on-going series of readings. In fact, among the ways native speakers of English, French and other languages continue to improve and grow their first language (L1) skills, reading ranks very high up on the list. Whether or not language learners are able to wade through a complete book or novel, reading short stories is a time-proven method of language learning and acquisition.
English language teachers and learners need never lack for fresh, original short stories to read or use for language teaching or language learning.
Why short stories?
Short stories are a whole different way of writing. It contains much less details than a a normal story, thus forcing the reader to think and wonder more and make his/her own conclusions.
Short stories are often used to teach some kind of lesson. Characters in short stories doesn’t need to have names, they can be universal, thus the reader can relate to a certain character. Humans need stories like humans need air.
Short stories are important because they can be read in a short period, and can provoke a reader into thought, consideration and sometimes action — as can all stories.
With short stories, you can feel and imagine the ravings of a man slowly being tortured to death as he waits to be slowly, methodically sliced in two by the descending cold steel from which, it seems no escape.
Conclusion
Dealing with the research above, short stories help students to more creatively. In addition, with short stories, instructors can teach literary, cultural, and higher-order thinking benefits. However, before novice instructors attempt to use short stories in their EFL classes, they should understand the benefits of short stories and plan classes that meet the needs of their students. Short stories are familiar and enjoyable for students.
References
Erkaya, O.R. 2005. “Benefits of using short stories in the EFL context.” The Internet Journal Article, Retrieved June 27, 2012, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED490771&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED490771
Lynch, L. 2009. “Making effective use of short stories in English language teaching.” The Internet Article, Retrieved June 27, 2012, from http://bettereflteacher.blogspot.com/2009/04/making-effective-use-of-short-stories.html
Lynch, L. (n.d). “Using short stories in English language teaching.” The Internet Article, Retrieved June 27, 2012, from http://www.squidoo.com/shorts_for_English_teaching
Employing Drama to Improve Students’ Speaking Skills
Abstract
Many English teachers in Ghana, West Africa encounter the challenge of teaching classes with shy and reserved students. Not all Ghanaian students are quiet, but typically a great number do not want to stand out in the classroom. Unfortunately, this limits opportunities to use English and communicate with each other. How can teachers help these students become more confident and motivated when communicating in English? Introducing drama is one approach to overcome this challenge.
Introduction
Reflecting on my teaching experience in Ghana for the past six years , I have realised that an area of teaching I have not paid enough attention to has been that of providing my students with adequate opportunity to put what they have been studying into use.
Combining this with my recent experience in Yayasan Pangudi Luhur with some groups studying at the rather unusual times and in intensive classes over the last couple of years, where the students are from quite different walks of life, from teenagers to late middle aged business men, and therefore find it difficult to find things of common interest to motivate them to participate, I decided to turn to drama as a way of trying to get them more interested in producing some language. In this paper, I hope to show where drama can be applied, why it can be a useful resource, looking at the benefits in terms of situation and motivation, and say what it is, before going on to look at how to employ it.
Why using drama?
Drama can enrich the classroom in 2 ways: Firstly through the situations it allows in the classroom and following from this, the opportunities it provides to look at a fuller concept of communication, involving the nature of speech and other paralinguistic clues to meaning; and secondly through the way it can motivate students. As the classroom is fairly fixed in its setting, it doesn’t provide much opportunity for learners to fully use their language. To give learners the opportunity to use language we need to increase spatial, temporal, hypothetical and social distance. Thornbury (2001) compare the request ‘Book, please!’ with ‘I wonder if you could bring me the book that’s on the top shelf in the cabinet at home, please.’ Clearly the second utterance involves a lot more language practice than the first in terms of its increased social and spatial distance. Using drama can provide the opportunity for students to give more meaning to their utterances in different contexts than the usual classroom environment allows.
What is drama?
The terms ‘drama’, ‘role-play’, ‘simulation’ and ‘improvisation’ have been interpreted in different ways by different people in different environments, from therapists to actors, to teachers. And they mean different things according to the environment and its implications. I am only interested in the context of teaching and learning English and a definition that Susan Holding proposes suits my purposes well.
Drama is applied to classroom activities where the focus is on the doing rather than on the presentation. In other words, the students work on dramatic themes, and it is this exploration of the ideas and characters of their target language which is important, for it entails interacting in English and making full use of the various features of oral communication. The students have the opportunity to experiment with the language they have learnt, and the teacher has a chance to see how each person operates in a relatively unguided piece of interaction (Holden, 1981)
From the definition mentioned above, 4 important points arise for my implementation of drama:
1. Drama is used to practice language, or give learners the opportunity to proceduralise language from their developing inter-language to make it more available for future production.
2. The language comes from the learners, therefore their own internal level of language and interests dictates what they will choose to practice.
3. The language learners produce will be contextualised by the situation and dependant on the whole text.
4. There will be some spontaneity in the activity and the students will be acting in real time.
As an example of what activities can be used under the broad heading of drama, Maley and Duff (1978) grade their activities, going from non-verbal to verbal and increasing in complexity. For some examples from their book ‘Drama Techniques in Language Learning’, They begin with simple confidence building activities, such as falling and being caught to promote trust or simply following instructions, such as relaxing and tensing certain muscles on the request of the teacher. They then move on to observation tasks such as memorising the features of a room and discussing success with a partner to promote discussion. After this comes interpretation tasks such as co-operatively inventing a story from a set of pictures and helping a different group to work it out. Next comes creation and invention such as creating a sketch from a randomly chosen setting, for example ‘on a picnic’ and theme, for example ‘Nobody loves me’ and performing it to another group. They then move on through problem solving tasks to even working with literary texts (p. 158).
One important point to note, concerning all their activities is that they involve more than just language, be it movement, acting, pictures, other realia, sounds or whatever and therefore should give more meaning to the language involved.
How to employ drama?
Susan Holden (1982, p. 22) suggests 4 stages to a drama exercise:
1. Presentation of exercise.
2. Discussion.
3. Experiment (showing to rest of group).
4. Discussion.
The presentation can be done through pictures, sounds or words and should set the atmosphere, the mood and relationships between the people and the setting, thus creating the context and meaning of the language to be used. Gillian Porter Ladousse also suggests role-cards for the characters in the scene, to further enable the learners to envisualise their character’s feelings, role and status. (Porter Ladousse, 1987) however done, the presentation or cueing should go along way to creating the meaning of what the learners will be doing.
The discussion will allow the learners to plan what they will do or say in the activity. Language can be put in by the teacher or not. It is up to the teacher how obvious he wants to be in showing the learners that they are practising a part of functional language or not. The discussion itself will also supply the learners with good language practice, using persuasive language, agreeing, disagreeing etc. The Experiment stage is where the learners try out their scene, maybe miming first, maybe practising on their own or in pairs or small groups before showing their performance to another group if required.
The second discussion provides an opportunity for analysis of how it went, again providing further spoken practice of suggesting, criticising, praising etc. The analysis should be based on both linguistic and paralinguistic features and should bring the activity back to the learners real selves, allowing them to put their own personal thoughts and feelings into their analysis, comparing with themselves and hopefully making the activity more personal and memorable.
Conclusion
Finally and briefly, I would like to look at Holden’s drama activities, make a connection between more modern theory and her ideas and go back to an observation I made connected to situation. Holden has employed its essence throughout her book, generally moving from an idea to a mime to adding words (either by the same group or a different one). One very important result of this approach is that the meaning, showed by mime, is made clear before the words are added, thus perfectly contextualising the language and making the whole discourse relevant, so providing practice of the skills of spoken language. From modern acquisition theories, though, I would like to make one slight criticism and tentatively suggest a small modification.
I suggest working in 3 groups to come up with 3 mimes, which are performed. The groups then work on adding words to each other’s mimes, inventing the words for only one party in a 2 way dialogue. Then whilst one group performs their mime, the other 2 groups perform the words for one of the parties in real-time, having to adapt their original work to fit with the 2nd parties lines. In this way, language is vital to meaning and the language choices occur in real time.
References
Alan Maley & Alan Duff. (1978). Drama techniques in language learning. Cambridge University Press.
Holden, Susan. (1981). Drama in language teaching. Longman.
Gillian Porter Ladousse. (1987). Role play. Oxford university press.
John Dougill. (1987). Drama activities for language learning. Macmillan. Dornyei and Sarah Thurrell. (1992). Conversation and dialogues in action. Prentice Hall
Teaching English for Children Through Stories: As a Fun Way
to Learn Language
Abstract
To learn English as a foreign language in some of countries has aim to help students to communicate fluently in the target language due to English is an International language. Realize or not in this globalization era, everyone needs to learn it. Using stories can be one more tool to reach the goals, to reach some of the goals of curriculum in any school in the countries. Stories can be used to arouse interest and increase motivation among students, especially young learners who are learning English as a foreign or as a second language. This article is aim to familiarize and motivated English teacher who teach children-young learners that stories is a fun way to teach English or to learn language.
Key words: stories, children
Introduction
Teaching English as a second or foreign language for children is a challenging work. Lack of vocabulary, difficult in pronouncing words correctly, lack of focus, low motivation and self confidence are some of the reasons why students finding harder to improve their ability in mastering English. It makes the goals of curriculum or school system couldn’t reach effectively and decrease of quality. In order to make the situation of teaching learning better, found that stories is a great tool for teaching English in context and developing children’s cognitive and language skill. Teaching the language through the stories allowed children to use varied strategies from different language methods. This combination had a great impact on learners because learning become fun, motivating, rememberable, and lasting. It gets the students excited in following the lessons. It is a very relaxed and fun way to learn. Relax will help brain works well, especially in learning.
Stories invite active meaning making. Language learners can benefit from storytelling because stories help them to develop the ability to understand spoken language and engage in thinking skills. Besides, with the stories children develop learning strategies such as listening for general meaning, predicting, guessing meaning and hypothesizing. Moreover, through the stories, the learners became aware of cultural values different from theirs, sharpen their memory and develop the ability to predict and infer. Telling stories provides the opportunities for students to speak the foreign language creatively, integrate information and knowledge they learn from other sources, and become more confident in the ability to express themselves spontaneously.
Why stories?
Ellis and Brewster (adapted from Loukia 2006: 27) give several reasons why teachers should use storybooks: storybooks can enrich the pupils’ learning experience. Stories are motivating and fun and can help develop positive attitudes towards the foreign language; stories exercise the imagination and are a useful tool in thinking fantasy and the imagination with the child’s real world; listening to stories in class is a shared social experience; children enjoy listening to stories over and over again. This repetition allows language items to be acquired and reinforced; listening to stories develops the child’s listening and concentrating skill; stories created opportunities for developing continuity in children’s learning (among others, school subject across the curriculum)
Furthermore, stories are a great way introducing, practicing, revising, and improving pronunciation skills and teaching culture using the target language, therefore motivation and interest increase. Teachers can choose from a wide range of storybooks, such as: traditional stories and fairy tales; pictures stories where children can build up their own version of the story; fantasy stories; animal stories, shortly, the stories which are suitable for use in EFL/ESL classroom.
Stories applying
Before entering the class a teacher should has planned for the topic will discuss-adjusted to the lesson plan/action plan. Bringing stories as the tools to make learning English fun, it has to choose the story before starting the lesson. In choosing story these aspects has to be considered: whether the books is authentic or has been adapted and simplified for children; the book’s relation to the curriculum (school, family, Christmas, clothes, animals etc) the content must be relevant interesting and meaningful; whether the book provides attractive visual support to help students understand content; its language suitability as it pertains to students levels: the length of the story and organization of ideas: its relation to the target language and culture.
After choosing the story, it comes to how to use it effectively and organize it as the part of the lesson plan. It should provide a context for the story and present the main characters; it should identify linguistic objectives for example what vocabulary and sentence structures the teacher wants students to learn; teacher should decide how long to spend on the story; teacher should determine how to present, practice and revise language and vocabulary (the exersice); teacher should follow-up activities related to the topic.
After having considered all elements needed thoroughly and successfully carry out the storytelling aspect, the unit can be designed. For making teaching and learning more enjoyable it depends to the creativity of the teachers. It comes directly to the story reading and warming them with some questions and telling them what should they do after listening to the story. Next, teacher begins to read the story. Show them the cover of the book and talk about what they see (pictures, title etc). Teacher read slowly and clearly, making use of gestures, facial expressions and intonation that could help students follow the story. Reading story aloud allows children to make connections between oral language and the print that represent that oral language. The purpose of this reading story is to give students oral language input and a bridge to literacy in the new language. While reading the story, sometimes teacher allows the students to make some interpretations what happen next or other situations. Then slowly teacher can comes up to the topic, such as do some vocabulary work through games, matching activities, retell the story and it will help them to flashback about the story and it will good impact for learning activities. They will have a good response for this because children love story and the goals of the study could reach.
Conclusions
Finding methods or tools in teaching English will be helpful using story. Stories are an ideal tool to utilize in learning the language as it is the central axes of the whole process. Stories make the children’s learning the foreign or second language more interesting, amusing, and memorable. Students have an amazing ability to absorb language when activities are familiar and enjoyable for them. Hence, teaching foreign language using stories as basis creates a learning environment that is both familiar and fun.
References
Martínez, B. I. 2007. “A story-based approach to teaching English -A classroom experience-.” The Internet Encuentro Journal, Retrieved June 20, 2012, from http://www.encuentrojournal.org/textos/Illan.pdf
González, N. I. 2010. “Teaching English through Stories: A Meaningful and Fun Way for Children to Learn the Language.” The Internet Article, Retrieved June 20, 2012, from http://www.redalyc.org/redalyc/pdf/1692/169216302007.pdf
Loukia, N. 2006. “Teaching Young Learners Through Stories: The Development of a Handy Parallel Syllabus.” The Internet Loukia Article, Retrieved June 20, 2012, from http://www.readingmatrix.com/articles/loukia/article.pdf