SPEAKING SECTION (REVISED) April 18, 2011

Hi students!!!!

Today, we are going to improve our speaking skill.

First, look at the picture below and answer the following questions!

1. What do you see on the picture above?

2. Who is he?

3. What does he wear?

Well, students, I think after answering the questions above, now you know what we are going to discuss. Today, we are going to discuss about THE CONTROVERSY OF UNIFORM.

The text about the controversy of uniform belongs to DISCUSSION TEXT.

Before going further into our focus today, that is speaking skill, it is better to know what DISCUSSION TEXT is. Click here to learn more about DISCUSSION TEXT :  DISCUSSION TEXT

Have you already understood about DISCUSSION TEXT?

Good job!

Okay, now, we are going to have a little speaking practice to improve your speaking skill. Please work in pairs and discuss about PROS and CONS of WEARING UNIFORM at SCHOOL.

To help you in your discussion, watch this video first

Have you finished watching the video?

Now visit the following links to improve your content of your discussions:

http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=59

and,

http://www.youdebate.com/DEBATES/school_uniforms.HTM

Please use the following questions as the guide in your discussion:

1. Why students should wear uniform?

2. What are the advantages of wearing uniform?

3. What are the disadvantages of wearing uniform?

Have you finished your discussion?

Excellent!  

The next step we are going to do is exchanging pairs. Each of member of your group should be exchanged to other group and present the result of the discussions.

The result of the discussion should be in the right generic structure of discussion text (ISSUE, ARGUMENT FOR AND AGAINST, CONCLUSION)

Give suggestions to your friends’ result of discussion.

After exchanging pairs, now, each group may present the result of the discussion in front of the classroom.

If only you have something to ask, please feel free to contact me via e-mail ilfivo@rocketmail.com 

Thank you!!!!

Lima

WHAT IS DISCUSSION TEXT?

DISCUSSION TEXT is a type of text which presents two points of view about an issue. This text usually presents the controversy about something.

The generic structure of this type of text consists of:

• ISSUE (The phenomena or thing that happens or exist in life)
• ARGUMENT FOR (Argument which supports the issue)
• ARGUMENT AGAINST (Argument which doesn’t support the issue)
• CONCLUSION OR RECOMMENDATION

Here is one example of DISCUSSION TEXT (taken from Making Sense of Functional Grammar by Gerot and Wignell (1994))

GENE SPLICING

ISSUE

Genetic research has produced both exciting and frightening possibilities. Scientists are now able to create new forms of life in the laboratory due to the development of gene splicing

ARGUMENTS FOR

Point

On the one hand, the ability to create life in the laboratory could greatly benefit mankind

Elaboration

For example, because it is very expensive to obtain insulin from natural sources, scientists have developed a method to manufacture it inexpensively in the laboratory.

Point

Another beneficial application of gene splicing is in agriculture

Elaboration

Scientists foresee the day when new plants will be developed using nitrogen from the air instead of from fertilizer. Therefore, food production could be increase. In addition, entirely new plants could be developed to feed the world’s hungry people.

ARGUMENT AGAINST’

Point

Not everyone is excited about gene splicing. However, some people feel that it could have terrible consequences.

Elaboration

A laboratory accident, for example, might cause an epidemic of an unknown disease that could wipe out humanity.

CONCLUSION

As a result of this controversy, the government has made rules to control genetic experiments. While some members of the scientific community feel that these rules are too strict, many other people feel that they are still not strict enough.

The text above is discussion text. To learn more about this text, I suggest you to visit:

http://understandingtext.blogspot.com/2009/02/example-of-discussion-text-on-nuclear.html

and

http://typeoftext.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-is-discussion-text.html

SPEAKING SECTION April 1, 2011

SK : Berbicara

3. Mengungkapkan makna dalam percakapan transaksional dan interpersonal sangat sederhana untuk berinteraksi dengan lingkungan terdekat

KD:

3.2 Melakukan interaksi dengan lingkungan terdekat yang melibatkan tindak tutur: menyapa orang yang belum/sudah dikenal, memperkenalkan diri sendiri/orang lain, dan memerintah atau melarang.

(Note: The bolded words are the focus of this speaking material)

Well, students,

After learning about listening last week, now we are going to learn speaking. In this section, you will focus on greeting somebody else and introducing others.

Now, look at the pictures below. Then, answer the following questions.

1. What do you see on the picture above?

2. What people usually do before they shake hands?

3. What do you think the man and the women do on the pictures above?

Now read the following dialogue examples about INTRODUCING OTHER :

DIALOGUE A.

Jane             : Diana, this is Veronica. She is my classmate.

Diana           : Nice to meet you, Veronica. I am Diana Parker.

Veronica   : Nice to meet you too. So, you’re Jane’s sister?

Diana          : That’s right.

DIALOGUE B

David             : Hey, James. How it’s going?

James            : Fine thanks, how are you?

David             : Not so bad. Thanks.

James            : Who is your friend beside you?

David            :  Oh, James, this is my girlfriend, Anne.  Anne, this is my best friend, James.

Anne             : Hello, James. I am Anne. Anne Rice.

James           : Hi, Anne. I am James Cook. Nice to meet you.

Well, David, Anne, I think I have to go now. See you.

Anne and David : See you.

The bolded sentences on the dialogues above are the expressions of introducing others. Look at others example of introducing others below:

A.  This is my friend, Jack

B. my brother, Bob.

C. my sister, Cindy.

D. my father, Mr. Harris.

Usually, after being introduced to someone we never know before, we says one of the greetings on the examples below

a. Nice to meet you

b. Glad to meet you

c. Pleased to meet you

d. It’s a pleasure to know you

And to respond the greetings above, people usually says:

a. Nice to meet you too

b. Glad to meet you too

c. Pleased to meet you too

d. Thank you

e. Hi

Now, click the link below to listen to the audio recording about expressions of introducing others

http://www.eslgold.com/images/sp_intro_people.mp3

To improve your pronunciation, repeat the expressions you hear from the audio recording above.

After that, please watch the video below to improve your understanding about the material.

Next, do the following exercise by clicking the link below http://www.mediafire.com/?n4z2hwoy510e3oo

Finally, work in groups consists of 3 persons and make a conversation using expression of introducing others. Then, perform it in front of the class next meeting.

Wish you luck, students!

I wish you can learn something from this post.

LimaAzmi

Sources and References

1. http://www.eslgold.com

2. http://www.youtube.com

3. Interchange Student’s book by Jack C. Richards

Teaching Speaking Website Review March 28, 2011

WEBSITE REVIEW

The website http://www.eslgold.com/speaking.html is a website that gives the readers, especially teachers, many sources for improving their teaching plan. This website covers many materials that focus on speaking improvements. From this website, the teachers are able to obtain:

1. Sources for teaching speaking such as phrases for conversation, text book recommendation, topics for conversation, lesson plan and and idea, supplementary material, testing speaking, links,and tips for teaching speaking.
2. Online quiz that the teachers can use in the classroom teaching and learning activity.

EFL learners are able to access this website for their self-learning. This website facilitates the EFL learners to practice speaking English with native speaker online via skype. This website also provides learning material and self-learning links for each proficiency level (beginner, low intermediate, and so on). EFL learners can also get common vocabularies and phrases that are commonly used in the daily conversation. Moreover, software for pronunciation practice is available there.

Through this website, the teachers are able to improve their teaching and modify their lesson plan with the ideas that they could get from this website for example the teachers can conduct a speaking test with the idea of testing speaking in this website. The EFL learners can also do such a self-study using this website, for example they can apply the vocabularies and phrases that are provided in this website.

However this website is not so practical in terms of the categorization of each article. I suggest the website owner should improve the way of categorizing each articles.

Overall, I think this website is very useful for English teachers and EFL learners to improve their teaching or learning activities so that I recommend the teachers and the EFL learners to access this website to improve their teaching or speaking ability.

Listening Section March 19, 2011

Hello students,

In this section we are going to have some exercises of listening. We will also learn about discussion text here.

Are you ready?

PRE-LISTENING ACTIVITY

Now you have to follow these following instructions:

1. First of all, look carefully at the pictures below.

a.

b.

2. Then, please match the sentence below with the suitable pictures above. Write down the letter corresponding to the picture next to the right sentence. You can write the answer on the comment box.

– The teenagers are smoking.(____)

– We appreciate those who are not smoking in the public place. (___)

3. Then, find the Indonesian meaning of some vocabularies below:

Example 1. Book :buku

a. Cigarette

b. Effect

c. Diseases

d. Cause

e. Advantages

f. Public place

g. Death

h. Health

i. Stress

j. Weight-loss

4. Discuss about the pros and cons of smoking with your friends. You can find the reference at http://www.buzzle.com/articles/cigarette-smoking-pros-and-cons.html You can also find other reference for your discussion, for example magazine article or website.

5. Send the report of your discussion to ilimaarifki@rocketmail.com. The report should not be more than 60 words. Write the name of the group members and the e-mail should be entitled discussion report-name of group members (example: discussion report- jovina and listy)

WHILST LISTENING ACTIVITY

3. Now, please read the following questions.

a. What is the monologue about?

b. What are the advantages and disadvantages of smoking?

c. Why should people avoid smoking?

d. How many diseases caused by smoking are mentioned on the monologue? What are they?

e. What kind of text is the monologue?

4. Answer the questions above by listening to the audio recording of the short monologue. You can download the audio file here and write the answers on the comment box.

POST LISTENING ACTIVITY

5.  After listening to the monologue and answering the questions above, you are going to do some exercises about vocabularies item you learned from the monologue. You can download the exercise vocabulary-exercise . Send the answers of the exercise to ilimaarifki@rocketmail.com

6. Now you have listened to a kind of text and learnt some new vocabularies. To improve your listening skill and your vocabulary mastery, please listen to the monologue about Internationally Standardized School at home and summarize the monologue in at least 50 words.

7. You should also find the words on the monologue about Internationally Standardized School that you do not know their meanings and find the meaning on the dictionary. You can download the audio monologue here.

8. Write your summary and the meaning of the words that you have found on the dictionary on the comment box.

9. Now students, your next job is to do self-study about the text type that you have listened to. You can find the material of the type of text at http://understandingtext.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-is-discussion.html . We will discuss the result of your self study in our next classroom meeting.

Have a nice day and good luck !!!!

Hello world! March 10, 2011

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