From G's to gents..

When i read through this blog, im really interested in what jasmin has called up. you know, the part with english for a 'lady' and how an ESP course could be done focusing on that. i'd love to share with you guys something similar being done down in MTV (yesm i know.. not a solid source of information) with a show call from G's to gents. we're all aware of the variety of english nowadays. this program is some what like an on air ESP course where hip hoppers, who we know that speaks a different form of english(african american) laden with colloquial mixed up and slangs, where taught how a be, act and talk like a gentleman. of course our focus is on the language, nevetheless, it's quite an interesting fact =D

Do ESP teachers need to be content experts?

The teaching of ESP is indeed an interesting area to be studied. My personal opinion is that ESP is more interesting than general English because ESP is learnt in context. It is the nature of ESP to be associated with the contexts that the learners are going to use the language. Lets say we're teaching ESP for medical students, surely we can not run away from medical jargons and tongue twisted phrases and lexicons which we don't normally use in every day life (unless ur mom's a nurse!). OR we're teaching pilots-to-be. Maybe we'll be using phrases like 'traffic issues', 'wind shear', 'wake turbulence' and 'bird strikes'. How interesting. We get to learn so many new things!.

Imagine this. You go to work one day and your HOD tells you that you are just the right person to design an ESP course for lets say Architecture students. and it just happens that u're no big fan of buildings and designs. (Don't u feel grateful that at least we know how to do Needs Analysis?!). Anyway the point I'm going at is that do you need to know all the adjectives to describe buildings or all the terms and concepts used by architects to describe sustainable architecture? In other words, is there a need for ESP teachers to be content experts?.

Well the answer is NO (don't we all feel relieved,pheww.) Debra-Lee in an ESP Newsletter published in March 2005 said that ESP professionals do not necessarily need to be content experts to teach English to learners with specific needs. There are, however, certain qualities or criteria that these people need to have to enable them to become better ESP teachers. These are the criteria as proposed by Lee (2005);

1. Curiosity and a willingness to learn about the content subject
2. Tolerance for content ambiguity (You are not the expert and your students may not be either.)
3. The willingness to let your students be experts
4. Confidence in your ability as a language, not content, teacher
5. The willingness to ask for content help (i.e., your colleagues in the Science Department or a conversation with an in-field expert)
6. The ability to adapt content materials to meet the levels and needs of your students
7. The willingness to forgo a vocabulary-driven class
8. The ability to tie language to content (discourse analysis/concordancing)
9. The ability to share your enjoyment of language learning with your students
10. Understanding that it is your language ability that makes you a great ESP teacher
11. Flexibility

Now we know that we don't have to have a degree in architecture in order to teach ESP to future architects. And we also know now, thanks to Debra that we need to have positive attitudes towards the content subject to encourage us to want to know more about the learners. After all, our aim IS to train them to become competent English users who can function effectively in their line of work/study.

So what can we do to increase our knowledge in the content subject? These are the steps suggested by Debra;

1. Talk to your students.
2. Attend a content class.
3. Read content journals/magazines; even widely read magazines
4. Read content textbooks.
5. Talk to colleagues in the content field.
6. Surf the Web.
7. Read the ESP Journal and EAP Journal, which are great resources for discourse and corpus studies in content/university fields.
8. Read online journals, such as ESP World or The Internet TESL Journal.

Having taken the efforts to increase our knowledge in the content subject and polished our language teaching skills help us to gain more confidence in delivering ESP lessons. Now that we're armed to the teeth, we can conduct the course that we've designed for Dr. Normah's class with not much problem... hopefully :)

bus drivers?

I got an email earlier this semester from INTEC's English coordinator stating that the bus drivers of UiTM, Section 17 Campus were asking for an English course. At first I laughed real hard but then it come to my thinking, it is actually a good thing to do. Despite the fact that INTEC or UiTM lecturers do not really have all the time in the world for such course, it is for the betterment of UiTM as well. Why not have bus drivers who can speak English fluently? and of course, INTEC students comprise of non Malays and those who are not very fluent in Bahasa Malaysia. There might be cases where the bus drivers cannot communicate with them. Or else, not just the bus drivers, the drivers as a whole, might need to communicate not just with the lecturers, staffs but also the visitors who are coming to UiTM.

Just last week, I bumped into a few Japanese people here in INTEC/ UiTM Section 17 Campus. They were smiling and they greeted me, so I replied with a smile as well. I wonder where they are from, but lets say the UiTM drivers fetch them from KLIA, or their hotel where they are staying, they must be something to talk about right? With the drivers of UiTM being fluent in English, the international or we can say the highest level of foreign or second language, it is something significantly beautiful to have. While driving, they can promote UiTM and share information with the visitors and this will leave impact to the visitors as UiTM drivers are able to entertain them.

I am actually excited over the establishment of this course. I actually offered to take part either in teaching or designing the course. From what I have learned from our ESP class, I know exactly what we need to do in designing a course such as this. The needs of the learners! We need to do a need analysis to locate and identify what are the needs of this drivers. I think I am going to contribute my thoughts to the Coordinator. Via email. Now. =)

~Irda Haryani Tahir~

ESP Course Evaluation

Well, so far I have only commented on the posts made by others. So I suppose this is my turn to start one before AP Dr Normah starts giving marks for the entries..ehmm.. Anyway I personally feel that it's appropriate as this is the last stage in the course design but not necessarily means the least important one. Besides, I'm still struggling to finish this part for the termpaper.
Dudley Evans and St. John (1998) identify five key roles for the ESP practitioner:
*teacher
*course designer and materials provider
*collaborator
*researcher
*evaluator
Hence it's important for the course developer/ESP practitioner to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the course from several aspects, explicitly and implicitly. This process is also recommended to be carried out at different phases of course execution. The common ones would be the mid-course and post-course evaluations. The information gathered is supposed to help the course developer to improve any weaknesses that the learners have encountered while the strengths are also highlighted and continued. The evaluation can take in many forms ranging from formal distribution of questionnaire and interview to informal discussion and class observation. Learners are also encouraged to voice their opinion at any point during the course and it should be noted so that all this information is utilized in improving the future course. Students may express their attitude towards the subject matter, instructional methods, activities, teacher's role and so on. Evaluation of the course is a brave step for the teacher because the evaluation will also include the teacher herself/himself. Students' feedbacks on the teacher/instructor is vital so that "dia tak syok sendiri" while executing the lesson in class. As the saying goes - The best 'mirror' for a person is his/her bestfriend and the same also goes for teachers...their students are their 'mirror'. (But not many will be happy if the comments tend to be negative ones, right?)
This subject somehow made me wonder if the present PPSMI policy which is still debatable did go through an ongoing evaluation in order to ascertain its effectiveness in improving students' command of English. If the policy did get reviewed periodically since it was first introduced in 2003, I personally believe the findings should be made public and any necessary measures that have been taken should also be informed so that the policy will not be blamed for the lack of motivation to do science courses among the students esp. malays. So now it's the job of the DPM to decide within the next 14 days, whether to continue.. or not to continue.. this 'controversial' policy.

Speaking Like a Lady

I was attracted to one of the chapters in Dr. Holmes required reading reference book this semester. It was something about speaking like a lady. It got me thinking, now wouldn't that be an interesting ESP course? I had a friend once who was looking around for grooming classes around KL, and I had the time of my life laughing at her... probably because I was young and shallow and the idea of doing things the 'proper way' did not appeal to me. I asked her, "why on earth do you want to go to a grooming class?" (in not-so-polite a fashion)... and she said (in an unladylike manner) "because I want to be able to walk and talk like a lady". This was greeted with more laughter and sneers on my behalf (you have to know her to be able to laugh as hard as I did).

Back to ESP. It stands for English for specific purposes right? So would the course 'Speak Like a Lady' be an acceptable ESP course? I mean specifically the speaking aspect. I can imagine it now. A bunch of women, not only just learning how to speak English but doing it the 'ladylike' way. I can only imagine what that would be like. I suppose it would mean taking care of the pronunciations, and the tone of voice as well as the content proper for a woman. Of course it would be impossibly outdated since we are after all fighting for equal rights.

So, if such a course existed, would you go?

Traditional or Communicative Classroom?

I was reading through several articles for my Course Design project when I realised that in designing a good course, we need to look deeper into a lot of things. Designing a course does not solely mean it's about what the students need (yes, it's a factor, but not the only factor). Another point that I would like to highlight is the importance to understand the structure of the course itself, and the type of approach that we plan to use in our classroom. What is the best approach to make sure that students will listen, and will be interested in the course? Yes, needs analysis is important, but we need to explore more on how to ensure that our needs analysis doesn't go astray due to poor approach in teaching ESP.

Imagine this:

I was in my grammar class. The class began with me greeting my students. When I was in a chatty mood, I would ask them about their weekend, or the latest celebrity gossips, but most of the time, I just greeted them with a smile. I started my class with the textbook on my right and the name list on my left. I began my class by discussing (not!) – clarifying the given homework. I would call a random name and the student will answer the posed question. The activity continued until all the homework questions were answered.

I would then continue the class with a fresh topic. Again, I would open the textbook to the designated page, and read the grammar explanation from the book. I asked whether the students understood, then I started to explain. When it came to the parts of speech, I would explain with such a confident tone, but when it came to explaining the differences between the present perfect and the present perfect continuous, it began to be more painful. The worst part of teaching grammar was that some tenses can be so difficult to explain. Theoretically. Then when I was done on the explaining part, I would pose some questions and the students would take turn answering them.

I have just described a typical traditional classroom. By now you probably guessed that I had a lot of those.

I can recall coming out of classes feeling like I had run for an election candidate. When I managed to entertain the class, I always felt good as if I just won my first parliamentary seat but if it went badly, I felt like losing the election with the lowest number of votes. Always there I was, in the centre of the class, talking, being stared at, desperately thinking of something entertaining to do or say. It can be very tiring to be the one who does the talking.

My first degree was in English Language and Literature, and not TESL. To be exact, I am not a trained English teacher. I never learned any of the methodologies or theories of teaching ESP, and haven’t got any clue what kind of approaches had I been doing in my class. I was taught that way, and taught that I should teach that way too.

During my first teaching year, that was what I did. Until I realized that my students did not have the desire to communicate at all, and merely attending my class for the sake of attendance, and examination. There was no real communication and they hardly practice what they have learned in class.

Since the college had few twinning programmes with local universities, sometimes it really helped to be sent to the courses organized by them. I started attending short courses on language teaching. Even though most of the courses are short ones, they did help me to improvise my teaching approach.

This is an example of what happened in my (much-improved) grammar class. There were more role plays and simulation games in class. The students dreaded the activities in the beginning, but once they were familiar with the approach, they began to enjoy themselves in English class. I start posing some debatable questions or problems instead of expecting a direct answer. I was more interested to hear them communicate instead of being the one in the centre of attention.

(I later learned about the term ‘communicative approach’ when I enrolled for my Masters.)

According to Jeremy Harmer (2001), what matters in these activities is that students should be able to use a variety of language rather than just one language structure. In other words, such activities should attempt to replicate real communication. Hedge in her Teaching and Learning in Language Classroom also agree with the notion by stating that the ability to communicate effectively in English is now a well-established goal in English Language Teaching (ELT). Thus, I can’t agree more with both statements as I also believe that the products of our teaching should be able to accommodate what the real world has to offer. Thus, to be able to accommodate to the real world experience, I do believe that students need to practice the language used in contextual situations. Hence, I should be preparing them for effective communication instead of exams!

However, there were certain issues that need to be addressed when I tried to adapt the communicative approach in my classroom. I am not 100% sure how efficient the communicative approach when applied on different contexts and culture. Is the communicative approach really appropriate and suitable for all cultures or is it a culture bound approach?

In Malaysia for example, a tremendous number of students (and teachers) still expect the traditional teaching approach – if the teacher doesn’t put on a good show, and does something boring like making the students read, write, or do grammar exercises, the students are likely to leave the class complaining. The teachers are expected to be the one in the centre stage, not the students. To quote a (not-so-polite) student of mine, “Teachers are paid to teach the students, then why are we the ones who should do the talking?”

We cannot deny that such mentality still exists in Malaysia education culture. If we were to compare our culture to the Western culture alone, there lie huge differences that separate us from them. Peace Corp website (2006) states that Americans tend to be baffling frank with each other even if that causes disagreement. This is probably related to their individualistic culture where everybody concerns more of himself/ herself than the community at large. However, we Malaysians (and Asians in general) have this quality of face, of honor, integrity and pride. We are such a hierarchical community that we can hardly tolerate any violation against the norms of the community.

To relate this to language learning, the differences in culture do play a part in establishing communicative approach in classroom. Educators, teachers and lecturers in Malaysian community have always been respected and the students are always expected to show similar amount of respects towards their lecturers or teachers. Thus, to be communicative and outspoken in class are taboos for some. This is especially different from the Americans where their culture allows them to be openly unrestrained in classrooms.

The question now is, should we change our approach to suit our culture, or should we change the culture to suit the approach?

Remember when I presented my needs analysis in class, I’d mentioned about the reason for designing the ESP course for the class was because I intended to propose the same ESP course for Foundation of Engineering Program at TATiUC. Guess what? Someone had revised it! Which is good… if only this person had created an ESP course for the engineering students that is. Last week when I went to visit TATiUC, a colleague of mine, Ms. Bee informed me that Mr. Zoom, English lecturer cum General Subjects Co-ordinator had revised the syllabus and included Mass Communication theories (in public speaking topic) and speech writing in the content. What would engineering students who work as technicians, assistant engineers etc. do with Mass Communication theories and writing speeches? Personally, I think the students would be better off with the knowledge and skills on how to deliver good presentations at the workplace and how to use English effectively in performing their job functions at work. But hey…that’s just me, a Master’s student who is still struggling with assignments, tests, projects, research papers and thesis her own. Who am I to argue with Mr. Zoom the General Subjects Coordinator who possessed Master of Education in TESL from UPSI. And you wanna know what’s the best part of it all? Mr. Zoom urged the other three English lecturers to propose the syllabus to MQA as soon as possible before I return to work and do some damages. Ms. Bee and the other English lecturers disagreed with the content of the new syllabus but followed along. “He’s the boss. Sapa berani?” (Ms. Bee’s own words). I guess he knew I would enroll in this course and learned how to analyze students’ needs in learning English language heheh.. That’s why he said that.

Anyhow, clearly Mr. Zoom has not analyzed the needs of these engineering students for learning English. In fact, I think he created the syllabus based on what he thought the students may need. Hence, I intend to show him the questionnaires that I forced my fiancé and his colleagues (some are TATiUC former students) at AE Technologies Sdn. Bhd. (Balakong, Selangor) to fill up and a copy of the needs analysis I’d written for Theories and Practices in ESP course in the attempt to revise the syllabus again! Because of this class, I am now prepared going to a battle with Mr. Zoom - fighting for an ESP course that meet the needs of engineering students when they take up employment in the near future.

p/s: Mr. Zoom has a Degree in Mass Communication. ;=)

Hate them, Understand them, Love them

I remembered when I was assigned to be the class teacher of form 3 Mutiara(2005). It was the most challenging class I have ever taught. Those who were expelled from other schools and those who were expelled from our school, came back in, expelled again and came back in again are all in the class. The boys are well known for their rude and obnoxious behaviour, and the girls, well… I guess they know about make-up and sex better than I do.

I was so worried because I really have no idea how to approach this group of 38 Malay teenagers. I’ve no experience mixing with this type of people my entire life. The first day I came to class the boys started showing their true colours. They made fun and mocked their friends and me. I wanted to explode, but this was only the first day and I didn’t want to start on the wrong foot. I was going to be their class teacher for the rest of the year!

Where teaching is concerned, all teachers in the school dreaded to enter the class. Some of them entered but never bothered to teach. Their reasons were, the students were not interested to learn, too stupid to be taught and teach them anything and they would still fail.

I started the lesson by asking them their ambition, hope and expectation in education and in life. I told them every teacher in the school wanted to help them and wanted to see that they actually become useful human being. I persuaded them that the only way to change their future was through education. They promised me that they would try to change their behaviour.

I admit that I took months to understand the needs of these students. Perhaps that was because I didn't learn ESP before. I didn't know the proper way to conduct needs analysis. Anyway, for this particular class, I was not worry if I finish or even follow the syllabus or not. I taught to prepare these kids for the future (So that they can at least get a job at Starbuck). So, in their case, I used primary 2 and 3 English books. Surprisingly, they liked the books because they knew that they could do and understand the exercises. Once in a while, I will use forms 1, 2 or 3 books with them just to give them some challenges.

I learned from my experience. As teachers, we MUST always understand our learners’ capability and their expectations of us. Often we, teachers expect the students to meet our expectations – Yes, you can do that IF you have analysed and understood you learners’ capability.

As for their social problem, well, I try not to judge them based on what they do with their life outside the school. I treated all of them equally. Even though I could not change them totally, I think my accomplishment was at least they listen to me in my class, do my work and respect me as their teacher. And by the way, I met a few of them working at Starbuck, Kenny Rogers and Pizza Hut - speaking to customers in English. Now I know exactly where to go for discounts ;)

Beyond Average

To relate to Idot's situation in dealing her mature student, I must agree that we teachers have to kinda find a way or best, a solution to engage with this considered "special" student. In teaching those beyond average age students sometimes cause a hay wire. I do have studentS - mostly African - who are 30+ and yet they have to take the foundation English! Just imagine,they have to learn those basic grammar and sit in the class full of "kids". I do pity them and I dont even want to tell them that I am younger. Most of them were either English teachers in primary school or diploma holders back then in their country. Each and everytime they would be the one who ALWAYS know the answer and would finish the exercises given. Sometimes, they even argue with me of certain grammar rules and way of pronunciation and all.. Fuuh... But knowing the fact how English was brought into their education system (which I just discovered when doing Dr.Richard's class presentation), I didn't simply said they were wrong. Instead, I explain the "genuine" one and told them why they view it as different from what they supposed to. Indeed, I must say it a frustrated - for them to know the reality. But to think about my professionalim, I cant let these "beyond average" age students to think or to tell the young students that 'teacher is wrong' or worse, 'teacher is stupid'.

I dont see much positive outcome when the 30-ish students have to sit in class with the 18,19 and 20-ish students. In my case, these mature students were those who would always give "the look" and have an attitude in class. Thus, in a way they disrupt the class and make me feel uncomfortable. Though not all of them caused problems, majority did. In one of my colleagues' class for example, there was this one mature student who were a teacher and after dealt with few arguments with her - about English - the only solution was to exempted her from the course.

So, a question to ponder here... is it suitable to place more mature or "beyond average" age student(s) together with young, energetic, want to know all and a lil bit slower in one class

and why there's STILL an unwanted or less desired course designed for the students???

unique = ESP

It caught my brain to think more profoundly about ESP when Kak Annie told the class that she didn't follow the syllabus when she was teaching in Akademi Laut Malaysia (if I'm not mistaken this is the correct place). She needs to teach all the Captains and the content of the syllabus are basically focusing on grammar, while the learners are not really needing this. Thus, she located the needs of learners precisely and cone out with her course design. The result? The Captains asked her where she did her Masters. One brilliant idea I got from her experience. The moral of the story here is that the original inventor of the course did not do the homework. How can you teach someone who is already well verse of content, the same content over and over again, wthout making them feel annoyingly bored?

This reminds me of a student that I am currently teaching. As you know, I am teaching in INTEC, which means that I am teaching those brilliant, young, excitedly wanting to go abroad students. Most of them are 17, 18 and 19 years old. however, in one of my classes, among all the 17s, 18s and 19s years old students, there is one private student (while the rest are sponsored), 23 years old boy and he is like only 2 years younger than me. From the very beginning of the class, I somehow can sense from his attitudes and physical that he doesn't want to be there. simply because he is sorrounded by students acting more like children to them. He constantly will have this look on his face showing that he is just simply bored. I noticed this from the very first time I went to the class. There and then I know, I have to do something about this. After a while, he is absence from classes and this has ben going on for a while. I don't know about other lecturers, I am sure they are very good at this, but I can see that that boy, likes to study on his own. He is a brilliant student and what I do is i text and call him for everything. Assignments, due of assignments and even when I need to see him for consultations. He will not make it for class, but he will come to me for consultatons.

Basically, what I did here, is to design a course specifically and especially for this special student. He used to be top students in MRSM and MMU. When asked to do a small investigation (matriculations level), he came out with a Masters' level research. Yet, he is a student of mine, located in a class full of students who are still naive and asking for everything.

~Irda Haryani Tahir~

Genre Analysis

Sounds familiar after all the struggle(S) in Prof. Haz's class... (phew). I have something to share with you on genre analysis, happy reading!!
http://www.linguist.org.cn/doc/su200511/su20051106.pdf

It really is important to run an analysis on the needs of the learners before actually implementing it on them. I had the experience of teaching a module created by certain individuals without them being aware of what the learners of the course need from that particular course. In fact, what I had to teach during that semester was what they had learnt in their previous semester. Can you imagine how bored the students were; having to learn something which they already know, and maybe some, knew the subject at the back of their palm? When my students asked me why they had to learn what they were already taught in previous semester I really had a hard time giving logical explanations. Seriously, the students were not dump to not notice that there was something wrong with the management somewhere and it definitely wasn’t a pretty scene at all to see or hear them complaining to the higher management regarding this matter. Trying to find an explanation to this, I had to ask the right people to explain to me what was really going on. And true enough, every module which was under that particular faculty was hay wire. Why? Because nobody really knew what the learners need and need not learn. They just verbally instructed people to come up with modules for these purposes and for that purposes without considering if that was what the learners need in class. Therefore, it really is vital for us educators to run a need analysis on the learners before executing our so called ‘first-rate’ ideas.

Diane Sima a.k.a Cheyenne

Needs analysis with low proficiency students

Hi Friends,

This year I have to teach a weak form 3 class, 3 Jujur. Counting from A to J, this would  be the 10th class. There are 32 students in the class. The first time I entered the class, I always ask the students the English marks they scored for last year's final examination. This, for me can give me the general idea of the students' proficiency level.

Next, I will initiate a discussion in the class to see how well the students can speak. If they refuse to speak, each of them will have to stand up, introduce themselves to the class and give a little information about their background(Typical, I know). Class streaming is done every year in my school, so this activity actually helps the students to get to know one another. 

I found out that the students could not converse in English although they could understand me sometimes. When I started the lesson for that day, I made some of the students to stand up and read a text. To my surprise, I have a student who could not read at all. All he was saying was "Saya tak tahu bacalah cikgu." I persuaded him. Not wanting him to feel embaressed, I stood next to him, I helped him by whipering the word one by one and he repeated after me loudly for the class to hear. Well, that was for the first day, with one of the students.

In the next lesson, I asked the class to prepare 4 exercise books for English. One of the Malay boys behind was making some noise, trying to attract my attention. It turned out to be that he has not bought any exercise book at all for the year. Well, I let him off this time, but I warned him that he better be ready with the 4 books next time. 

Two days later, I saw the boy (Hafizi) at the school canteen with the discipline teacher. When Hafizi left, I asked En. Hairi what was the boy's problem? Well, he turned out to be a son of a security guard who often beats him until his head bleeds (seriously!). Drinking pipe water is a norm since he has no money to buy drinks. And here I am asking him to buy 4 books for English? What was I thinking?

When I saw Hafizi again in my class, I asked him, "Kalau saya bagi awak buku budak yang sudah pindah boleh tak? Awak tukar nama kat depan, buku tu elok lagi." I was worried if he was offended. But, he looked at me and said, "Boleh lah cikgu". And guess what, since then, he never misses to hand-in his book to me and he completes all his work. (Later I went to MYdin to get a set of exercise books for him).

The point of this story is that, without realizing it, some of the things that I had done with my class are a part of needs analysis research. Getting to know the students' proficiency level and background really help teachers into the heart of the students. And mind you, my needs analysis research will not end here with 3 Jujur. Later, I need to find out the different aspects of language that need to be improved and on and on....

Love Letters and Needs Analysis

So I decided to ask my students who are the new batch - foundation - 1st sem - to write me a love letter. Well, I did the same thing before - when I was teaching in INTEC. And my concern was to get to know what do the students need, what do they expect to get from me and what are they lack of so that I can help them and at the same time making the class more lively - more effective and of course - so that they like me! :)
I didn't do it since.. Until the previous ESP class when Dr.Normah assign us to do a need analysis for our proposed course, it came to my conscience that it actually helped - much! So why did I stop doing the good thing? oh yes, I am still adjusting.

As expected, the students gave positive response towards the idea of me-trying-to-give-them what they need and ask for. They were excited when I told them to write me a love letter - without mentioning their name - and that they can write their expectations towards the class, the lesson and me generally! Some of them, of course would try to kiss-my-arse but as a whole, they know what they want. Basically, they expect:

1. to improve their communication skill (though I suppose their 1st language is English)
2. to expand their vocab and use correct grammar in speaking and writing
3. to have a fun and excited language games in class (students just want to have fun...)
4. not to be scolded if they are late (I have to rethink about this - like...more than twice!)

And to think about it again, I must say it is a good idea though. Besides of getting to know your bunch of new students, you are to get love letters! heeeeeeee... rite?

Ms.Azyyati

I have to agree with both Sara and Kak Fauziah. (Perhaps you could post your future thoughts in new entries so this blog would look livelier. :P)

Yes, Practice makes perfect. I believe so as well. As any great leaders of the world, they would still admit that the butterflies will still be theire, in their stomach, whether it's their 1st or 100oth delivery of speech. Even us teachers still have the nervousness in us before entering the class (especially when we're not so well prepared for the class haha.)

I remember during my short stint of teaching Diploma students in a rural college in Terengganu, I once decided to do the class presentations in the main hall, so the students would have the opportunity to use the microphone hehe. Frankly, I was experimenting on students' responses - whether they'd do better than they used to in the classroom.

The result?

They're either:

a) Sweating throughout the process
b) Getitng paler by minutes
c) Memorising their texts (it's not spontaneous public speaking)
d) Code-switched with BM
e) Lost of words the moment they heard their own voices from the speakers

Some were terrified to the fact that they had to stand in front of everyone (even though it's the same classmates) and delivered their speech. But some did quite well.

Why? Because they practiced.

My 2 cents. :)

Forum on Oral Communication Anxiety/ Apprehension

Hi Classmates,

First of all, I would like to congratulate and thanks Miya for initiating this Class Blog. For the purpose of TSL 756 Forum Participation Assessment, I would like to introduce a simple topic for us to deliberate.
The topic read as follows: Oral Communication Anxiety /Apprehension

To start the ball rolling, let us identify a few possible reasons for students' inability to effectively deliver presentations. Then we can continue to propose some training strategies designed to help students develop a proficiency in the area of oral presentations.

For the records, according to Krannich (2004), the fear of delivering a speech or a presentation ranks as the number 1(one) fear among most people, including students as well as adults from many diverse backgrounds.

OK then. Over to all of you. Feel free to contribute your ideas and where necessary, I shall become the moderator.

Regards.