It’s already the third week of PBEY 3102, and I still feel a bit lost in managing my blog.. huhuhu... Time is not waiting for me, and I must follow the pace of this course even though I still lost in the world of B.L.O.G.
As in other courses, it is not the lecturer who will talk and merely gives the input to us, but we are the one who should search for the information and share it with the members of the class. Thus, we were divided into 6 groups in which each group will be discussing on one sub-topic of Chapter one. We were given about an hour to discuss about our sub-topic and to prepare a power point presentation, and another one and a half hour was the presentation time. Sadly, there were only four groups who managed to present their topic, while another two groups will present their topic in the next class (and my group is one of the two groups...^_^).
Generally, this week’s lecture is about “working with young language learners”. Based on the book “Teaching English in the Primary Classroom” by Halliwell, children come to the classroom with certain skills, instincts, knowledge and experiences that a teacher should identify and exploit to enhance the language learning in the classroom. In her book, Halliwell had list out six qualities that children bring into the language classroom and each group of us had been given one quality to be discussed and presented. So, from my understanding on the presentation;
· Group 1 was presenting the sub-topic 1.1, Children’s ability to grasp meaning. The group suggested that a teacher can use action song, picture cards and stories to help children make meaning of targeted vocabularies for example. Besides, they’d also emphasised on the importance of repetition as what have been suggested by the theorist, Jean Piaget, in which he suggested that repetition can help children to learn and remember and recognise better.
· Group 2 was doing 1.2, Children’s creative use of language. The group had pointed out that in communication, the most important thing is to get the message across, regardless of the language used (e.g.: grammar or vocabulary). Hence, they suggested that a teacher could use games in the classroom due to its unpredictability, fun and allowing authentic communication to enhance learners’ learning in the language classroom.
· Group 3 was sharing their understanding of the third sub-topic, Children’s capacity for indirect learning.
· Group 4 was discussing the 1.4 sub-topic which is about children’s instinct for play and fun.
Since group 5 and 6 are going to present their topics in the next class, we have to wait till next week to finish all the six qualities listed by Halliwell in her book.
