Individualized learning plans for advancing students’ four skills A personal account.doc

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Individualized learning plans for advancing students four skills:

A personal account

Jamel Abdenacer ALIMIe-mail:[email protected]

16 August, 2006.

[I]t can be said that only when autonomy is being

allowed to function is education taking place at all.

For where autonomy is repressed or ignored - in

other words where the learner has no say and nobeing - then what we have is not education but some

sort of conditioning procedure; the imposition and

reinforcement of dominant opinion.

Kenny (1993:440)

In recent years, the field of English language teaching (ELT) has seen a growing interest inteacher-led individualized learning (TLIL) (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 30; Frydenberg

1982; Jordan 1997: 116). This relatively new approach, whereby the teachers professional

competence is used to make the learners actively involved in their own learning (Dam 2002:

41), has generated numerous studies especially, in connection with English for Specific/

Academic Purposes (Cotterall 1995; Lee 1998). Its relevance for English for General

Purposes (EGP) at lower educational institutions, in contrast, has been translated, so far, by a

rather limited number of large- to small-scale course projects (McDonough 1998: 25). As a

result, the whole concept, in practice, has, remarkably, remained hardly mapped at the

individual student level across many ELT settings, including Omans EGP classes.

The present paper is in line with the ongoing efforts to fill in the gap in the area of teacher-

supervised individualized learning(see, for example, the collection of contributions in Graves

[Ed] 1996). It specifically aims to give a detailed account of an individualized learning (IL)

course syllabus which I have recently developed for advancing the four macro skills of one of

my former students in Grade 12 at Sohar School for General Education, Oman. It also aims to

critically examine the potential strengths and weaknesses in each of the macro skills focused

on.

To this two-fold end, the remainder sections will, therefore, be structured according to the

following format:

1. TLIL: A Brief Overview

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2. Background of the TLIL Course Syllabus

2.1 Macro Context of the Course Project

2.2 The Student Subjects Profile

3. The TLIL Course Syllabus: Description and Critical Examination

3.1 Description

3.2 Critical Examination

4. Implications

1- TLIL: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

Teacher-led individualized learning, at its most basic conception, refers to the contracting

out of elements of a taught language course to solo work, but with teacher prompting and/or

evaluation (Jones 1998: 379). The purpose of such a type of learning, as Armanet and Obese-

jecty (1981) argue, is, specifically,

to base the course on the learner himself, with the introduction of a pedagogybased on specific objectives and a shift away from the traditional dominance of

the teacher to a situation in which the teacher act[s] as the supervisor of self-

directed learning (26).

Two major inferences readily arise from the above quotations:

a- The approach at issue here is symptomatic of the disappointment with the traditional

notion of the average student and aiming for the middle in teaching (Brumfit and

Roberts 1983: 193; quoted in McDonough and Shaw 1993: 243-4).

b- It is also organically bound up to the concept of autonomy as an approach to

learning the latter being perceived as desirable for the philosophical, pedagogical

and practical merits it offers (Cotterall, Op.Cit: 219-20) and for the unique opportunityit presents in having students take some significant responsibility for their own

learning (Boud 1988: 23; quoted in Cotterall, Op.Cit: 219).

From a TLIL teachers angle, both inferences entail two basic modes for implementing the

course/module in target one involving pairs or small groups where learners share the same

assignments or activities; the second addressing just one learner at a time. The illustration, and

subsequent implications, of the latter mode of TLIL will be dealt with in Sections Three and

Four, respectively. A firm grasp of the import of either Section requires it is believed

some familiarity with (a) the wide, external context of the Course, and (b) the learning

variables of the student subject here involved. These are looked at next.

2- BACKGROUND OF THE TLIL COURSE SYLLABUS

2.1 Macro Context of the Course Project:

The English language is taught as a foreign language in the Sultanate of Oman. Even though,

it occupies an outstanding position in all walks of life here, coming only second after standard

Arabic. It is particularly considered indispensable for pursuing careers in such fields as

banking, stock-exchange markets, tourism, medicine, marketing, engineering, the Navy, and

PDO (Petroleum Development of Oman), which are attracting more and more Omani

graduates. It is also required for continuing higher education studies at some of the facultiesaffiliated to SQU (Sultan Qaboos University), where admission is strictly reserved for

approximately 2000 lite Grade 12 graduates per year1.

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The prestige attached to English is, to varying degrees, equally visible down to EGP and

Basic Education (BE) institutions. As yet, the attention being paid to this language tends to

suffer from many factors that continue to impede the rise of a reasonably proficient learner

generation. Such a plight is traceable back to many sources. These, most importantly, concern

1- the still shaky methodology to ELT at BE as well as EGP schools,

2- the mismatch between the intents of the teaching materials and the

actualities of the learners2,

3- the authoritarian, top-down educational framework that teachers have

to accommodate to,

4- the high rate of illiteracy amongst the local population, and

5- the noticeable lack of faith in the majority of EGP students not only

in in-class English language instruction but also in schooling as a

whole (see End Note 2 for a hint).

Despite such appalling factors, both BE and EGP schools do, fortunately, host an increasing

number of students with high levels of aptitude, talent, motivation, intelligence, gift in

language learning, and aspiration for the future. The TLIL course plan to be detailed later on

concerns one of the many students who correspond to the latter profile features. The next sub-Section will further highlight some of his major variables.

2.2 The Student Subjects Profile

*Name: Mazin al-Shibli

Age: 19 years

Grade: 12 (Pre-University or College level)

Stream: ex-Science / EGP

Level at English: Fairly good

* Observable Classroom Behaviour: (drawn on Stern 1975, in Johnson and Johnson [eds]1998: 141; McDonough and Shaw 1993; Waters and Waters 1992)

- Has a positive attitude to his studies

- Adopts a tolerant and outgoing approach to English

- Invests himself actively in the English Language periods

- Is highly motivated and takes an independent role in learning

- Shows sufficient technical know-how about how to tackle the form of English

- Seizes every opportunity for practice

- Shows predisposition to check his output continuously and learn from his mistakes

*Personality Factors:

- Has a high degree of self-knowledge, maturity and self-awareness

- Is outgoing, self-confident, intelligent, and well-organized

- Thinks clearly and logically

- Is adventurous and willing to engage in new experiments

- Is very cooperative with teachers and peers

- Shows empathy with English speakers

- Is a mature, balanced individual, possessing an open, questioning mind, and willing to

adopt an active, independent approach to study (Waters and Waters 1992: 265).

*Detected Areas of Strengths: reading; speaking; vocabulary; pronunciation*Detected Areas of weaknesses: listening; writing; grammar

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* Post-graduation Ambitions: To join the Faculty of English Studies at SQU

* Immediate/Short-term Needs: A 10-to-12 week TLIL Skills Course in the hope of securing

optimum chances for obtaining the highest mark possiblein the end-of-semester-one English

examinations

It is worthy of notice, at this point, that the data given just above have been collected over the

current school year and the year before. The instruments used included daily in-class

observation, informal continuous assessment, formal class tests, regular conferencing

sessions, and personal communication. No needs analysis procedures in the usual technical

sense of the term were undertaken prior to the design and implementation of the Course as

such. As yet, there were extensive deliberations about the components of the project, during

which the subject expressed his wish that tasks be inspired (and not merely reproduced) from

the prescribed Our World Through English Textbook 3 (English Language Curriculum

Department 2004-2005) and conform to the format of the mid-year exams 3. An informal

contract of mutual commitment for successfully carrying out the various steps of the Project

was also signed. The following Section will provide a detailed account of the Course

Syllabus at issue.

3 THE TLIL COURSE SYLLABUS: DESCRIPTION AND CRITICAL

EXAMINATION

3.1 DESCRIPTION

The present sub-section concerns the description of the Course Syllabus for Mazin Al-Shiblis

12-week integrated skills course (see Appendix for full details). The said project, as the

sample extract below shows, presents a miscellany of features which may conveniently be

WEEK /UNI

T

SYLLABUS

1 Focus : Summarizing

Tasks :- Scanning for WH- and H-questions

- Reading for general and specific details

- Writing a short evaluative comment on a news story in a local paper

- Giving an oral account of a hot TV news story

- Listening for main ideas in a Video recording at the LLC and jotting

them down

Linguistic focus : The present perfect tense

Functional focus : Reporting a news event

Culture focus : Sequencing news details in English mass media (thetop-down pyramid)

Feedback session :- Learner: Briefing about what has been learnt and how

- Teacher: Handing back submitted work with feedback

Handing out of the Tasks for Week 2

Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Factual

Description

________________________________________________

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2 Focus: Factual Description

Tasks:- Writing a short text based on a set of details at random

- Reading the introductory sentences of a text and completing it with

details from a table of information

- Speaking about features of two towns in Oman

- Listening to a script about the life and work of a famous French explorer

(J.Cousteau)- Identifying facts and opinions in a reading passage

Linguistic focus: Contrastive connectors

Functional focus: Observing objectivity

Culture focus : Knowing about other peoples life and careers

Feedback session:- Learner: Briefing about what has been learnt and how



Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week:

Interactive Writing

(Adapted from Graves [Ed] 1996: 256-7)

highlighted under the following rubrics (Richards and Rodgers 2001: 18-34):

3.1.1 ApproachTheory of Language: The Course draws on views of language as particularly held in

Competency-Based Language Teaching thus, favouring the definition of a series of short-term goals, each building upon the one before, so that the learner advances in knowledge and

skill (Page 1983:292; quoted in Richards and Rodgers 2001:143).

Theory of Learning: The Project also displays affinities with the Counselling-Learning

view of learning especially, with regard to its model of teacher as counsellorand of learner

as client(Curran 1976; see also Richards and Rodgers [Op.Cit: 90-9] for a detailed discussion

of this approach to language teaching and learning).

3.1.2 Design:Objectives, Syllabus, Learning activities, Roles of learner, and MaterialsThe Course chiefly aims to advance the LSRW skills of one learner subject in preparation for

the January examinations. It is spread over twelve weeks in total. It comprises a wide range of

tasks, each cluster of them operating under the umbrella of one specific objective and

targeting a miscellany of linguistic, functional, and cultural sub-aims. It expects the student in

case here to assume full responsibility for his own learning with the teacher supplying

constant guidance and support before as well as during the end-of-the week feedback sessions.

To this end, it relies on both semi-contrived and authentic (or real-world) materials from such

sources as newspapers, TV, and radio programmes.

3.1.3 Procedure:Given its very conception and rationale, the Course syllabus has not in any way fed into

lessons. With exception to the occasions where the student subject would give an oral

presentation or talk, the rest of assignments was carried out at home overnight and handed

back to the teacher for prompt feedback the following day. The daily feedback andconferencing sessions were routinely held at the school library and the Language Recourses

Centre, and concentrated on the progress in the SLRW skills for the most part. Here below is a

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brief critical examination of the major strengths and weaknesses in each of the macro skills

just referred to.

3.2 CRITICAL EXAMINATION

3.2.1 STRENGTHS

The Course at issue derives its strength from various sources. These, most notably, include

a- the single-focus strategy it adopted over the 12-week life (see Figure 1 below)

thus, offering the student subject ample opportunity to concentrate on just area of

focus at

WEEK/UNIT FOCUS

1

2

3

4

5

6

78

9

10

11

12

Summarizing

Factual Description

Interactive Writing

Narrating

Giving Instructions

Guided Writing

Editing and proof-readingAchieving Impact on Audience

Listening for General and Specific Details

Storytelling

Inferencing

Making Comparisons

a time and to advance steadily in that given area from different points of departure

(Lin and Brown 1994:154),

b- the integration of the macro skills, be they receptive (i.e., reading and listening) or

productive (i.e., writing and speaking), coupled with an adequate variety of sub-

skills in each instance (see Figure 1 above),c- the care taken to expose the student to truly non-simplified, authentic genres of

discourse. The listening texts were, in most cases, dealt with live off the radio or

TV programmes hence, allowing familiarity with the features of natural spoken

English (e.g., word and sentence stress patterns; intonation; strong and weak forms).

The reading materials to a less degree of real-world authenticity were chosen

mainly on the basis of relevance to the mid-year examinations, their linguistic

accessibility and their utility for the Units area of focus,

d- the quest for automatizing the learners oral communicative performance via a

miscellany of activities which are, most likely, to occur in day-to-day encounters.

Attention was also paid to correctness; yet, most of the stress was placed on the use

of appropriate language and on self-engagement in natural, meaning-focusedcommunication (Bygate 1987),

e- the emphasis on purposefulness and readership in the production of written texts.

The latter was to be approached as an instance of language in use (Brown and

Yule 1983:1), which implies, amongst others, a real concern for its diverse

linguistic, cognitive, and social dimensions (Miller 1998:341-8), and, not least,

f- the sense of self-realization which the learner demonstrated throughout the Course.

3.2.2 WEAKNESSES

The Project at issue was not without a few inherent foibles, though. These could particularly

be discernible in the following points:

a- an overt neglect of syntactical and lexical expansion (With the exception of Unit 7,

which focused on editing and proofreading, there appears to be no or little emphasis

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on the grammatical and vocabulary mechanisms of the L2. The items in the

Linguistic Focus and the Functional Focus were drawn attention to but with no

significantly further insistence. This has occurred despite the need of the student

subject for advancement in these two key areas).

b- The somewhat heavy demands of the listening tasks (Though already trained in

dealing with the types of tasks proposed in the TLIL course syllabus, the said student

frequently complained about the difficulties he had encountered when carrying out

the listening assignments. These included not only the task requirements as such but

also the incapacity of having a fairly good grasp of the flow of incoming data)

c- Insufficiency in the number of writing tasks for evaluative and narrative purposes,

coupled with an utter lack of activities for fostering free-writing one of the

essential components of the writing exam).

These foibles notwithstanding, the Course it should be re-emphasized was of

considerable effectiveness and utility in helping the student subject advance confidently

through the macro skills areas it has set for target. Such a positive achievement was, as has

been discussed so far, profitable for the learner here concerned. It was equally profitable, as

will be briefly considered below, in rethinking the status of the ELT classroom, materials and

methodology as ordinarily prevailing here in the Sultanate and elsewhere.

3- PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

As could emerge from the previous Sections, the TLIL approach to language learning is

deeply anchored in the belief in teacher-learner dialogue as principal means of fostering

autonomy (Cotterall Op.Cit.:220). Its half-way position on the minimum/maximum learner

independence continuum, as illustrated in the Figure 2 below, makes it, in my view, more

minimum maximum

leaner learner

Independence independence

classwork homework Self

access/teacher-

led autonomy

Teach-

yourself

Full autonomy Naturalistic

immersion

(From Jones 1998: 379)

eligible for ensuring that dearly-sought objective and, thus, a more robust starting point in

effective learning than any of the above-mentioned ones.

The idea of supervising an individualized course syllabus isin addition to inferences (a) and

(b) in Section One also indicative of the recent shifts in perceiving the agency of the

classroom and textbook in L2 instruction (see the collection of papers edited by Tomlinson1998). The act of gathering students within the confinements of a same space and of

subjecting them to a mass-minded syllabus seems no longer sustainable. For, as argued, it

stems more out of compulsion, practicality and tradition than evidence from second language

acquisition theory and research. In contrast, personalizing learning materials is seen more

productive and in congruence with insights from GLL researches, wherepersonal experience

andself-investmentare two of the most paramount features (Sub-section 2.2).

The repercussions of the said model on the L2 teachers persona and career hardly need any

elaboration. Its immediate effects, as personally experienced, would surely involve quicker

emancipation from the classroom constraints and routine, better awareness of learners as

distinct individuals, more tact when intervening during feedback, and fine counselling skills.

Its far-reaching ones would elevate the teacher from a mere syllabus deliverer to a genuine

educator in the sense encapsulated in Introductory quotation above.

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4- CONCLUSION

The present paper has attempted to give a detailed account of a course syllabus which was

conceived and designed for an Omani 12th grader within a teacher-led individualized learning

framework. The sections comprised provided, in turn, a brief overview of the TLIL approach,

an outline of the Project-related context, a description and critical examination of the saidcourse with relevance to its approach and efficiency in addressing the student subjects SLRW

skills needs.

It has not been our intention, though, to describe in depth the supervision and implementation

phases of the Project. Nor could it have been feasible to include a supplementary part for a

proper evaluation of the experiment at issue. That will, understandably enough, necessitate a

separate paper in its own right.

These serious limitations notwithstanding, it is hoped that, by undertaking the sort of course

detailed above, ELT teachers at BE and EGP institutions, regardless of their often compelling

working conditions, will launch out into similar course syllabuses. The immediate rewarding

effects will surely be lived in many manifestations not least in a warm handshake amid the

somewhat cold atmosphere where teachers are hard-pressed tosimply cover the curriculum.

5- END NOTES

1- To my best knowledge, around 50 thousand Grade 12 candidates nationwide sit for the

End-of-Secondary-School-Education examinations each year. Out of these, 5 to 6

thousand fail and only some dozens of them are allowed re-admission the following

school year; other 5 to 6 thousand who score 85 % plus can either join SQU (the only

university in the country) or one of the eight Higher Education colleges which are

scattered around the main regions of the Sultanate. The remaining 38 thousand or so

obtain heir General Certificate but with no or little avail. Getting a seat at SQU is a

matter of fierce competition left for a few hundreds of very gifted and talented

graduates.

2- According to one of my Sri Lankan colleagues, there are three types of Omani

students: Those you can teach; those you cant teach; and those who defiantly tell you

Teach us if you can!

3- The content in each of the components of the mid-year and end-of-the-year

examinations for Grades 9 onwards is, without any exaggeration, a 99% replication of

that in the OWTE (Our World Through English) Textbook and Students Self-Access

Book. The element of surprise, even in the Listening Section, is negligent. And on

purpose.

6- REFERENCES

Armanet, C.M. and K. Obese-jecty (1981), Towards student autonomy in the learning of

English as a second language at university level,ELT Journal 36, 1: 24-28.

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Boud, D. (Ed) (1988),Developing Student Autonomy in Learning, 2nd Ed. , New York: Kogan

Page.

Brown, G. and G. Yule (1983),Discourse Analysis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brumfit, C.J. and J.T. Roberts (1983), A Short Introduction to Language and Language

Teaching, London: Batsford.

Bygate, M. (1987), Speaking, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cotterall, S. (1995), Developing a course strategy for learner autonomy,ELT Journal 49,

3: 219-27.

Curran, C.A. (1976), Counselling-Learning in Second Languages, Apple River, Ill.: Apple

River Press.

Dam, L. (2002), Plenary: Developing learner autonomy- preparing learners for lifelong

learning. In A. Pulverness (Ed),IATEFL 2002: York Conference Selection, Kent: IATEFL,41-52.

English Language Curriculum Department (2004-2005), Our World Through

English.Students Book 3, Muscat: Ministry of Education and Youth.

Frydenberg, G. (1982), Designing an ESP reading skills course,ELT Journal 36, 3: 156-63.

Graves, K. (Ed) (1996), Teachers as Course Developers, Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Johnson, K. and H. Johnson (eds) (1998), Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics,Oxford: Blackwell.

Jones, J.F. (1998), Self-instruction and success: a learner-profile study, Applied Linguistics

19, 3: 378-406.

Jordan, R.R. (1997), English for Academic Purposes: A Guide and Resource Book for

Teachers, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kenny, B. (1993), For more autonomy, System 21, 4: 431-42.

Lee, I. (1998), Supporting greater autonomy in language learning,ELT Journal 52, 4: 282-90.

Lin, L.Y. and R. Brown (1994), Guidelines for the production of in-house self-access

materials,ELT Journal 48, 2: 150-6.

McDonough, J. (1998), Autonomous learning. In K. Johnson and H. Johnson (eds),

Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics, Oxford: Blackwell, 25.

McDonough, J. and C. Shaw (1993),Materials and Methods in ELT, Oxford: Blackwell.

Miller, K.S. (1998), Teaching writing. In K. Johnson and H. Johnson (eds),Encyclopedic

Dictionary of Applied Linguistics, Oxford: Blackwell, 341-8.

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Page, B. (1983), Graded objectives in modern-language learning,Language Teaching16, 4:

292-308.

Page, B. (1983), Graded objectives in modern-language learning,Language Teaching16, 4:

292-308.

Pulverness, A. (Ed),IATEFL 2002: York Conference Selection, Kent: IATEFL.

Richards, J. C and T. Rodgers (2001),Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, 2nd

Edn. , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Stern, H.H. (1975), What can we learn from the good language learner?, Canadian Modern

Language Review 31: 304-18.

Tomlinson, B. (Ed.) (1998), Materials Development in Language Teaching, Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Waters, M. and A. Waters (1992), Study skills and study competence: Getting the prioritiesright,ELT Journal 46, 3: 246-73.

7- APPENDIX

A Detailed Account of the Course Syllabus for Mazin Al-Shiblis 12-week

Integrated Skills Course.

WEEK

/UNIT

SYLLABUS

1

2

Focus : Summarizing

Tasks :- Scanning for WH- and H-questions

- Reading for general and specific details

- Writing a short evaluative comment on a news story in a local paper

- Giving an oral account of a hot TV news story

- Listening for main ideas in a Video recording at the LLC and jotting them

down

Linguistic focus : The present perfect tenseFunctional focus : Reporting a news event

Culture focus : Sequencing news details in English mass media (the top-downpyramid)

Feedback session :- Learner: Briefing about what has been learnt and how



Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Factual

Description

__________________________________________________________________

Focus: Factual Description

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3

4

Tasks:- Writing a short text based on a set of details at random

- Reading the introductory sentences of a text and completing it with details from

a table of information

- Speaking about features of two towns in Oman

- Listening to a script about the life and work of a famous French explorer

(J.Cousteau)

- Identifying facts and opinions in a reading passageLinguistic focus: Contrastive connectors

Functional focus: Observing objectivity

Culture focus : Knowing about other peoples life and careers




Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Interactive

Writing

Focus: Interactive Writing

Tasks:- Writing a letter to Aunt Agony

- Reading a news story and writing a letter to the Editor in reaction

- Taking part in a phone-in radio programme in English

- Watching a TV interview with a politician and noting down the major themes dealt

with

- Writing a letter of invitation for a party

Linguistic focus: modals and imperative moodFunctional focus: Voicing out grievances and other emotions

Culture focus : Taking a stand for a good cause




Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Narrating

__________________________________________________________

Focus: Narrating

Tasks:- Giving a short talk in class about the life and work of Mahatma Ghandi

- Producing a time-line with key events about oneself

- Writing a brief summary report about the war between the Incas and the Portuguese

(from the school LLC)

- Telling about things done, heard of, or witnessed not a long time ago

- Reading a print text about the Chernobyl Disaster and answering a set of

comprehension questions

- Completing a narrative text base on orderly sequenced pictures

- Listening to a script and sequencing events in the right order they occur in the

listening script

Linguistic focus: Adverbs of sequence and frequency; past irregular verbs

Functional focus: expressing ones ideas coherently and cohesively

Culture focus : Sharing ideas about past civilizations

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5

6

7




Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Giving Instructions

____________________________________________________________

Focus: Giving Instructions

Tasks:- Listening to scripts about asking for/giving directions and drawing the route suggested

on a street map

- Listening to two dialogues at a restaurant and jotting down the expressions and words

used by each of the interlocutors to open /close up the conversations

- Giving a shot talk about how to find ones way around a large library

- Reading random instructions and sorting them in a logical order

Linguistic focus: Imperative mood; sequencing adverbs; modal shouldFunctional focus: Requesting; apologizing; thanking

Culture focus : Approaching people from different cultural backgrounds




Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Guided Writing

Focus: Guided WritingTasks:- Analysing and commenting on an illustrated situation in 40 to 50 words

- Writing a detailed story based on illustrations and vocabulary prompts

- Reading a hot news story and writing a few ideas to tell how it may plausibly fold out

in the near future

- Listening to short excerpts and writing down what might have happened before

Linguistic focus: Past conditional

Functional focus: Making hypotheses in the past

Culture focus :Influencing peoples opinions through mass media




Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Editing and proof-

reading

_______________________________________________________________________

Focus: Editing and proof-reading

Tasks:- Identifying and correcting errors in form and content in a paragraph, based on a chart

- Identifying errors of usage in a formal letter-Rewriting a jumbled letter of job application according to standard lay-out

- Writing a short letter to the Editor of a newspaper to draw attention to a serious

mistake in an article

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8

9

- Recording a conversation in English between two classmates and spotting out types of

mistakes made

Linguistic focus: Errors in usage

Functional focus: warning someone about a serious mistake

Culture focus : Showing politeness and tolerance with other peoples mistakes

Feedback session:

- Learner: Briefing about what has been learnt and how- Teacher: Handing back submitted work with feedback


Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Achieving Impact on

Audience

_______________________________________________________________________

Focus: Achieving Impact on Audience

Tasks:

- Writing a letter of complaint to the Editor- Reordering six sentences to obtain a coherent paragraph

- Listening to a set of utterances and matching them with the appropriate meaning they

each convey

- Reading an argumentative text and picking out the words and phrases the writer has

used to defend her case

- Reading a UNICEF advertisement and identifying the adjectives and adverbs with

emotional load

- Giving a talk in class about the plight of children in Darfour in order to arouse the

audiences support and sympathy

Linguistic focus: Expressions of advice

Functional focus: Writing with audience readers in mind

Culture focus : Rhetorical and stylistic devices in Anglo-Saxon writings




Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Listening for General

and Specific Details

_______________________________________________________________________

Focus: Listening for General and Specific Details

Tasks:- Listening to an interview about health diseases in Africa and completing a Cause-

Effect-Solution chart

- Listening to short scripts and identifying where the people are and what they are

talking about

- Listening to an extended script about the civil rights movement in the USA and

completing a semantic map

- Listening to an interview about Tsunami and answering a set of comprehension

questionsLinguistic focus: WH- and H-questions

Functional focus: Asking clarification questions

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10

11

12

Culture focus :Familiarizing with the concept of world citizenship

Feedback session:

- Learner: Briefing about what has been learnt and how



Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Storytelling

__________________________________________________________

Focus: Storytelling

Tasks:- Telling a story, based on a series of illustrated sequences

- Reading the first part of a narrative text and completing it with a logical ending

- Watching a film/ TV series programme and giving a presentation about it in class

- Expanding orderly sequences notes into a three-paragraph discourse stretch

- Giving a short talk about addresses of classic stories available on the WebLinguistic focus: Transition markers; irregular verbs in the simple past form

Functional focus: Telling a story in English

Culture focus : Getting familiar with world literary classics




Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Inferencing

_______________________________________________________________________

Focus: Inferencing

Tasks:- Establishing thematic relationships between sections of a written text

- Listening to five scripts and making logical inferences about where the people come

from and do for their living

- Listening to short texts and drawing on personal world knowledge to construct

meaning

- Inferring the meanings of unseen words from context in a text

Linguistic focus: Referents

Functional focus: Paraphrasing a given discourseCulture focus : Familiarizing with allusion and figurative language




Explaining of the Focus in target for the coming week: Making Comparisons

Focus: Making Comparisons

Tasks:- Orally describing the demographic and otherwise changes that have occurred to

Muscat

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- Listening to a tape script and completing a two-column chart with relevant notes

- Reading a text about car manufacturing and completing a statistical bar chart

- Writing a genuine weather forecast bulletin for the coming days

- Telling about resolution for the Year 2006

- Listening to an interview with an Eskimo girl and completing a table of information

about the Eskimos way of life now and in the past

Linguistic focus: Regular and irregular adjectives and adverbs

Functional focus: Expressing uncertaintyCulture focus : Knowing about different patterns of life across the globe



- Evaluating the Course Syllabus

(Adapted from Graves [Ed] 1996: 256-7)

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Individualized learning plans for advancing students’ four skills A personal account.doc

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