FLL point of difficulty and language learning strategy
This assignment seeks to explore the FLL point of difficulty and language strategy among the Saudi Arabian students learning English. The selection of this topichas been based on the fact that many students in Saudi Arabia experience difficulties in speaking in accurate and accurate English in spite of learning the language for nine years as a compulsory subject (Akasha, 2013). This issue is believed to have emanated from the education system which is not effective in addressing such a difficulty among the students. No doubt, Saudi Arabia’s English curriculums place emphasis on the rules of grammar with little or no consideration of the way to make use of such rules in the students’ improvement of their skills of speaking. As such, it will be important to give advice by use of modal verbs and proposing a lesson plan that will seek to address such difficulties in a classroom setting.
Procedurefor the Lesson Plan
Greetings and Role (5 minutes)
Firstly, I will greet the students using a song “Hello” for almost two minutes and here it goes:
Hello, hello
How are today?
I am good,
I am fine
I am wonderful
At this stance, the musical intelligence approach is important as it attracts their attention. Though the song, the students get to learn grammar in communicative situation. This session is also important since it helps in the creation of the atmosphere that is comfortable for the general sharing among the students and reduction of their anxiety (Miller, & Endo, 2004).
Discussion of the Previous Lesson learning (5 minutes)
It rests with the teacher to review the previous lesson learned involving all the pupils in the discussion, expected to take a period of five minutes. The last lesson learned was about modal verbs. At this stage, the teacher evaluates the students at a personal level, though it is needful for the teachers to monitor their progress. In this case, it can be necessary for the creation of awareness that the strategy employed whenever a teacher starts a class. This step makes them have an in-depth understanding of the lesson learned and its connection to what he or she is going to teach. This approach is a powerful tool to help the students conduct self-assessment and keep the track of whether they have gained an understanding of what was taught or not an can apply them in the communicative situation.
Introduction of the Theme of the Lesson of How to Speak English Fluently (5 minutes)
During this time (five minutes), I will warm up the students and introduce the topic and provides an explanation of the theme of how to use modal verbs in speaking English in a fluent manner. I will introduce my personal feelings to invite the suggestions of the students. In this case, I will tell them that I have a bad toothache and am feeling unwell. Based on this situation, I will apply Bloom’s Taxonomy model by asking them questions like what should I do? Such a question is linked to their existing knowledge of the language learning strategy. By doing so, I will be able to ascertain their understanding of the previous lesson learned concerning the modal verbs (Miller & Endo, 2004)
Discussion of the Modal Verbs (10 minutes)
I will inform the students that the area that what we are covering on that day is how to give advice by use of the modal verbs. This part will take longer (ten minutes) as compared to others. At this stance, it will be important to make a connection existing understanding of the subject by utilizing the Bloom’s Taxonomy. Furthermore, it will be crucial to ask them what they know regarding the concept of the modal verbs. I will also pose a question of whether it can be possible to use such verbs when advising someone. This case will mean I will be connecting their previous knowledge to the current learning. In this case, I will give the learners some group activities and individual activities where they need to apply modal verbs learned previously. Such activities will utilize pictures having words that involve the various modal verbs, shown in Figure 1 in the appendix.
Giving Advice on the Problem Introduced (5 minutes)
Within this period (five minutes), I will try to give the students an explanation on how to advise by applying modal verbs, and as well the affirmative and the negative modal auxiliaries. The affirmative responses would be “You could, might, should, or ought to go to the dentist.” In the negative modal auxiliaries, the students may use the terms like you ought not to eat sweets or you should not eat sweets. It is worth to identify that the strength of the modal auxiliaries increases from could, might, should, and ought in that order.
Listing and compiling Examples Model Verbs in English (10 minutes)
The explanation that the teacher will provide is based on the multiple intelligence of Gardner (Miller & Endo, 2004) including linguistic or verbal, mathematical or logical, spatial or visual, rhythmical or musical, interpersonal, naturalist, body or kinesthetic, intrapersonal presentations in ten minutes. In the verbal or linguistic perspective, the teacher explains the scenario which comprises the conversation between the daughter and her mother. This is a perfect example where the daughter seems to have some issues and her mother uses modal verbs to advise her.From this scenario, the students get to know the various linguistic or verbal aspects involve when a person is giving advice and thus enhancing further their understanding of the concept of modal verbs.
In the logical or mathematical approach, the students will identify the problem and the advice required (Jeremy, 2015). I will give the students a game where they will to play based on how they should give advice in various situations. In this game, the number of pieces of advice required to continue will be recorded. The players move from the top to the bottom selecting their own way that begins from Go and a coin is flipped, where heads stand for one move and tails for two moves. Alternatively, the players can roll a die and the then follow the number of squares, and a turn is lost on the Danger squares. This intelligence is important as it enhances the student’s thinking and counting skills which are important while communicating in English.
In the visual or spatial context, they should observe some issues and pose questions on what needs to be done using the modal verbs. In this case, pictures are used with words so as to help the learners connect the modal verbs learned with the kind of advice they need to give based on the activity portrayed in each picture (Jeremy, 2015). It is worthy identifying that every picture carries a different message. This form intelligence is helpful in evaluating the students’ skills of interpretation of any visual presentation and giving the relevant advice for each scenario.
Also, the students will also need to listen to the musical or rhythmical presentation played by the teacher on PowerPoint. This aspect tests the listening and interpretive ability of the learners. To this end, learners will be able to identify the various modal verbs that have been used in giving advice (Jeremy, 2015).In effect, the learners will be able to list all the modal verbs used in the music and relate with what they learned in the previous lesson.
The intelligence of the body-kinesthetic is also crucial during the lesson. I will use a role playing activity to know which students performs better using body-kinesthetic in their attempts to give a piece of advice confidently using the modal verbs (Jeremy, 2015). This activity is important since it encourages participation of the students during the lesson and thus enhancing their knowledge of modal verbs.
I will also adopt a naturalist intelligence by using activities such as asking the students questions concerning the need to recycle cans, plastics, paper, and plastic bottle. In this case, they need to give advice using the modal verbs on how they are going to arrange the things. This approach is important since it will show me the ability of the student to interact with the environment.
The intrapersonal intelligence will involve the activities like telling asking the students to give the own personal feelings or opinions while giving pieces of advice. The activities include asking the students to give their stand on their use the problems that others pose in class. The importance of this intelligence is that it enhances the thinking skills of learners.
Finally, I will use interpersonal intelligence to demonstrate the feelings of the students through their body language and facial expressions. Students will be asked to write any problem and then ask for advice from their colleagues. This aspect helps in determining the way some students react to some situations which require them to give advice.
Homework (5 marks)
The students will complete the homework by giving the answers to the exercises in their workbooks page in groups of 8 as indicated in the appendix.
Revision (5 minutes)
After the activities above, I will tell the students will go back to their seats and their usual groups. Each one of them will tell and explain to others what they have performed in their groups of intelligences and the way the applied modal verbs in giving advice. In this case, I will be utilizing some steps of the method of Jigsaw teaching in my lesson.
Conclusion
The aim of this lesson plan is to help the learners identify their difficulty in speaking English fluently, where the teacher assists them how to improve in such skills by use of the modal verbs. The Saudi Arabian students have a problem speaking English despite the fact that this language has been made compulsory for their nine years of study. It is important for the teacher to use all the materials and models available such as the Bloom’s Taxonomy to enhance the knowledge of the students regarding the subject PLL point difficulty and language learning strategy.
References
Akasha, O. (2013). Exploring the Challenges Facing Arabic-Speaking ESL Students & Teachers in Middle School.Journal of ELT and Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 12-31.
This article studied the challenges that confront the Arabic-ESL learners and teachers in the Middle schools where it was found that Saudi students have issue with speaking English Fluently, even though English is a compulsory subject for nine years. This article provided the background information concerning the difficulties that the teacher needs to handle in class. Additionally, it is useful in pointing out the language learning strategy that the teacher can use to address such an issue among the students.
Jeremy, B., eds. (2015). Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage (4thed.). Oxford University Press.p. 853.
This article provided different forms of modal verbs that are used in modern English. The usefulness of this article in lesson planning was that it aided the educator in identifying the different modal verbs as well as their examples as the benchmarks for the classroom responses. Also, the teacher gets to know how such verbs are applied in modern English for an effective teaching and learning.
Miller, P. C., & Endo, H. (2004).Understanding and meeting the needs of ESL students.Phi Delta Kappan, 85(10), 786-791.
In this study, the authors examined the needs of the ESL students that need to be addressed by the teachers in the classroom while teaching and found out that speaking English fluently is one of the needs. The importance of this article to the lesson planning is that it helps the teacher identify the need among the students that call for an appropriate approach to resolve while teaching. Also, it provides a guideline on how the teacher can plan for effective teaching by engaging the students throughout the lesson.
