TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in the Primary ESL classroom

TOPIC 6

PLANNING REMEDIAL AND ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES

6.0 SYNOPSIS This topic aims to enhance learners knowledge of remedial and enrichment activities for listening and speaking skills. It provides examples of the activites suitable for remedial and enrichment work and focusses on the advantages of carrying out remedial and enrichment activities and finally, a sample remedial and enrichment activity for classroom practice.

6.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the topic, you will be able to: demonstrate an understanding of the definition of remedial and enrichment activities. plan and design suitable remedial and enrichment activities.

6.2 FRAMEWORK OF TOPICS

Planning Remedial and Enrichment Activities

Enrichment activities Drama Storytelling Elocution

Remedial activities Phonological Awareness activities

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TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in the Primary ESL classroom

6.3 CONTENT:

ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES In a mixed-ability class, when the teacher conducts activities or gives exercises there will be students who finish their work faster than their peers. These students may be better in their work and have a higher language proficiency level to enable them to finish their work ahead of the rest of the class. When they have completed their work it is better to keep them occupied to prevent any disruption to the rest of the class. This is because when the students finish their work ahead of the rest of the peers, they might end up disturbing their friends who are struggling to finish their work and they could be talking to their friends who have finished or they may be wandering aimlessly around the class. What can a teacher do in this situation? The answer is to give these students some challenging activities enrichment activities. These are language activities that require students to work individually, in pairs, or groups. They are carried out with the aim of improving students ability in a particular area or a general area. They are usually carried out after a skill or several skills are taught. The focus can be on fluency and /or accuracy. The main purpose is to provide opportunities and assistance to empower students with the language and skills necessary for academic and social success.

a. General Principles for planning listening and speaking enrichment activities How are students identified? The teacher needs to identify the students who can be included for the enrichment activities. Firstly, identify the students based on the accuracy of the task completed. Once the students have been identified the teacher gives strict instructions for the enrichment activities. When are the activities carried out? The activities can be carried out after students completed an assigned task within the lesson. The teacher can ask the students for the enrichment activities to sit in a corner to prepare for the activity. How can we determine which type of activity to be carried out? The teacher has to give specific instruction on the particular enrichment activity that can be carried out. The selection of activity depends on the lgp/wsl/kj 2012

TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in the Primary ESL classroom

specific area taught. Nevertheless, enrichment activities are suitable to reinforce all listening and speaking skills. Amount of time available The type of enrichment activities to be carried out also depends on the time available. If there is time constraint then an activity which does not need a lot of time can be done. Nevertheless, students can be given time to prepare for the activity and present it in the next lesson.

b. Examples of listening and speaking enrichment activities that can be carried out. Dramatisation Storytelling Elocution Poetry recitation Jazz chant Nursery rhymes Information gap activities Problem solving activities Ranking activities Projects Simulations Role play Vocabulary games, word puzzles

c. Advantages of carrying out enrichment activities Keep students occupied with language activities As a reinforcement of language learnt Motivate students to learn more Further strengthen students language ability Boost self-confidence and self-esteem Learning satisfaction Promote learner autonomy

d. Suggested enrichment activitiy: Elocution The teacher plans to give elocution as an enrichment activity. The teacher prepares the topics for the students identified for the activity. Students are given 3 minutes to prepare the content of the topics. The teacher can check on the students from time to time to make sure the students adhere to the requirements of the task. When the time is up, students present their lgp/wsl/kj 2012

TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in the Primary ESL classroom

work to the rest of the class one at a time. The teacher gives encouragement in the form of praises.

TASK 1 What are the problems teachers face in carrying out enrichment activities? Present your work in class.

REMEDIAL ACTIVITIES In a mixed-ability class, when a teacher conducts a lesson and gives activities or exercises there will be students who are not able to follow the lesson like their peers. They are slow in their work and their language proficiency level is weak. As a result, they are not able to follow the class at a normal pace. In this case, the teacher needs to give these students extra guidance or coaching to enable them to follow the lesson. This extra work from the teacher is called remedial work. It is the extra work that is carried out during class or after class which specifically focusses on the problem areas experienced by the student(s). It can be regarded as a reinforcement or additional support given by the teacher to help students.

a. Purpose for carrying out remedial activities To help learners overcome gaps and errors in their English, especially fossilized errors. To make learners notice their mistakes or errors and discover for themselves what is wrong and what is right. To reactivate, consolidate and clarify previously presented language items. To help students who are slow achievers in a particular area especially students who still cannot grasp the information that has been taught. To monitor learners errors, mistakes or slips.

b. General principles for planning remedial activities How are students identified? The teacher needs to identify the students who need remedial work. Firstly, identify the students from their learning behaviour in class, for example, their response throughout the lesson especially the response to the activities and work assigned throughout the lesson. If they

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TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in the Primary ESL classroom

consistently show lack of understanding in the lesson taught then they should be identified for remedial work. The frequency of mistakes One of the steps is to check the frequency of mistakes the student makes throughout the lesson. Some mistakes are found very often in the learners speech. Others are rarely found. This can determine the type of remedial work suitable for the student concerned. The teacher should carefully study each mistake chosen, try to find the reasons why the learners make the mistake, and look at ways for re-teaching or correcting, using new techniques and procedures and a new way of looking at and explaining the problem. The feelings of the learners. If the learners are not really worried by the mistakes or they see no value in correcting them, remedial work will probably be unsuccessful. The learners should be able to see that it is possible to make great improvement and that they are really learning something useful. Remedial work should not be just a reminder of the learners past failures instead it should enable learners to see it as a way of getting the informed correction that they do not get outside the class. The effect of mistakes on understanding Some mistakes are found frequently in a learners work but they do not make it difficult for anyone to understand what the learner is trying to say. Mistakes with a and the, plurals, agreement, and many pronunciation mistakes are like this. Other mistakes, like the use of stress, vocabulary, and certain sentence patterns, make it very difficult for someone to understand what the learner is trying to say. These kinds of mistakes need to be addressed. When are the activities carried out? The activities can be carried out when the class is doing assigned work and the teacher can give the students who need remedial work more attention and further teaching. Advantages of Remedial Activities To enable the learners to catch up with their peers and to participate equally in class To boost the learners self-confidence and self-esteem To arouse interest in learning that will lead to life-long learning

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TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in the Primary ESL classroom

Suggested remedial activitiy: Onset and Rime activity Students have problems with [l] and [r], so the remedial activity is phonics onset and rime activity / minimal pair drill. Teacher prepares a chart (as below) to drill students. Teacher says the onset followed by the rime and students follow. This step is repeated until the students are familiar with the [l] and [r] problem.

Onset l l l l + + + +

rime ack = lack ick = lick ink = link ock = lock

Onset r r r r + + + +

rime ack = rack ick = rick ink = rink ock = rock

Task 2 Think about this; What other listening and speaking remedial activities can you think of? Can enrichment and remedial activities be carried out at the same time? Justify your answer.

Task 3 Select a target level- from Level 1 (Years 1, 2, or 3) or Level 2 (Years 3, 4, or 5) Select any two listening and speaking content standards (KSSR) or one intended learning outcome (KBSR) each for listening and speaking skills for the target level selected. Design at least two enrichment and two remedial activities for the above. Provide justification for your choice of activities Present your work in class

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TSL 3105 Teaching of Listening and Speaking Skills in the Primary ESL classroom

Reference I.S.P. Nation & J. Newton: (2009) Teaching ESL/EFL listening and speaking. New York :Routledge. Further readings: Brown, H.D. (2000). 4th ed. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching New York: Longman. Chitravelu, N. et. al. (2005) ELT Methodology: Principles and Practice Selangor: Fajar Bakti. Harmer, J. (2007). 4th ed.The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Longman.

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