IMPROVING SPEAKING SKILL
Submitted to assignment for writing in professional context 2
Lecture : Cunong Suraja
By:
Nur Endah Ramadhania
07211210255
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF TEACHING AND ADUCATION
IBN KHALDUN UNIVERSITY BOGOR
2009
INTRODUCTION
Many students equate being able to speak a language as knowing the language and therefore view learning the language as learning how to speak the language, or as Nunan (1991) wrote, "success is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the (target) language." Therefore, if students do not learn how to speak or do not get any opportunity to speak in the language classroom they may soon get de-motivated and lose interest in learning. On the other hand, if the right activities are taught in the right way, speaking in class can be a lot of fun, raising general learner motivation and making the English language classroom a fun and dynamic place to be.
Speaking is fundamental to human communication
Just think of all the different conversations you have in one day and compare that with how much written communication you do in one day. Which do you do more of? In our daily lives most of us speak more than we write, yet many English teachers still spend the majority of class time on reading and writing practice almost ignoring speaking and listening skills. Do you think this is a good balance? If the goal of your language course is truly to enable your students to communicate in English, then speaking skills should be taught and practiced in the language classroom.
Teaching Speaking
A. Strategies for Developing Speaking Skills
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language that they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. These instructors help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn.
1. Using minimal responses
Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in different types of exchanges. Such responses can be especially useful for beginners.
Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying, without having to simultaneously plan a response.
2. Recognizing scripts
Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts. So do the transactional exchanges involved in activities such as obtaining information and making a purchase. In these scripts, the relationship between a speaker's turn and the one that follows it can often be anticipated.
Instructors can help students develop speaking ability by making them aware of the scripts for different situations so that they can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in response. Through interactive activities, instructors can give students practice in managing and varying the language that different scripts contain.
3. Using language to talk about language
Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything when they do not understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner has not understood them. Instructors can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever the participants' language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and phrases to use for clarification and comprehension check.
By encouraging students to use clarification phrases in class when misunderstanding occurs, and by responding positively when they do, instructors can create an authentic practice environment within the classroom itself. As they develop control of various clarification strategies, students will gain confidence in their ability to manage the various communication situations that they may encounter outside the classroom.
B. Definition of Speaking
Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. In public speaking, as in any form of communication, there are five basic elements, often expressed as "who is saying what to whom using what medium with what effects?" The purpose of public speaking can range from simply transmitting information, to motivating people to act, to simply telling a story. Good orators should be able to change the emotions of their listeners, not just inform them. Public speaking can also be considered a discourse community. Interpersonal communication and public speaking have several components that embrace such things as motivational speaking, leadership/personal development, business, customer service, large group communication, and mass communication. Public speaking can be a powerful tool to use for purposes such as motivation, influence, persuasion, informing, translation, or simply entertaining.
Many language learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a language. These learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others, much more than the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language. They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire, and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments in spoken communication.
Language learners need to recognize that speaking involves three areas of knowledge:
* Mechanics (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary): Using the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation
* Functions (transaction and interaction): Knowing when clarity of message is essential (transaction/information exchange) and when precise understanding is not required (interaction/relationship building)
* Social and cultural rules and norms (turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants): Understanding how to take into account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason.
In the communicative model of language teaching, instructors help their students develop this body of knowledge by providing authentic practice that prepares students for real-life communication situations. They help their students develop the ability to produce grammatically correct, logically connected sentences that are appropriate to specific contexts, and to do so using acceptable (that is, comprehensible) pronunciation.
C. Developing Speaking Activities
Traditional classroom speaking practice often takes the form of drills in which one person asks a question and another gives an answer. The question and the answer are structured and predictable, and often there is only one correct, predetermined answer. The purpose of asking and answering the question is to demonstrate the ability to ask and answer the question.
In contrast, the purpose of real communication is to accomplish a task, such as conveying a telephone message, obtaining information, or expressing an opinion. In real communication, participants must manage uncertainty about what the other person will say. Authentic communication involves an information gap; each participant has information that the other does not have. In addition, to achieve their purpose, participants may have to clarify their meaning or ask for confirmation of their own understanding.
To create classroom speaking activities that will develop communicative competence, instructors need to incorporate a purpose and an information gap and allow for multiple forms of expression. However, quantity alone will not necessarily produce competent speakers. Instructors need to combine structured output activities, which allow for error correction and increased accuracy, with communicative output activities that give students opportunities to practice language use more freely.
Structured Output Activities
Two common kinds of structured output activities are information gap and jigsaw activities. In both these types of activities, students complete a task by obtaining missing information, a feature the activities have in common with real communication. However, information gap and jigsaw activities also set up practice on specific items of language. In this respect they are more like drills than like communication.
Information Gap Activities
* Filling the gaps in a schedule or timetable: Partner A holds an airline timetable with some of the arrival and departure times missing. Partner B has the same timetable but with different blank spaces. The two partners are not permitted to see each other's timetables and must fill in the blanks by asking each other appropriate questions. The features of language that are practiced would include questions beginning with "when" or "at what time." Answers would be limited mostly to time expressions like "at 8:15" or "at ten in the evening."
* Completing the picture: The two partners have similar pictures, each with different missing details, and they cooperate to find all the missing details. In another variation, no items are missing, but similar items differ in appearance. For example, in one picture, a man walking along the street may be wearing an overcoat, while in the other the man is wearing a jacket. The features of grammar and vocabulary that are practiced are determined by the content of the pictures and the items that are missing or different. Differences in the activities depicted lead to practice of different verbs. Differences in number, size, and shape lead to adjective practice. Differing locations would probably be described with prepositional phrases.
These activities may be set up so that the partners must practice more than just grammatical and lexical features. For example, the timetable activity gains a social dimension when one partner assumes the role of a student trying to make an appointment with a partner who takes the role of a professor. Each partner has pages from an appointment book in which certain dates and times are already filled in and other times are still available for an appointment. Of course, the open times don't match exactly, so there must be some polite negotiation to arrive at a mutually convenient time for a meeting or a conference.
Jigsaw Activities
Jigsaw activities are more elaborate information gap activities that can be done with several partners. In a jigsaw activity, each partner has one or a few pieces of the "puzzle," and the partners must cooperate to fit all the pieces into a whole picture. The puzzle piece may take one of several forms. It may be one panel from a comic strip or one photo from a set that tells a story. It may be one sentence from a written narrative. It may be a tape recording of a conversation, in which case no two partners hear exactly the same conversation.
· In one fairly simple jigsaw activity, students work in groups of four. Each student in the group receives one panel from a comic strip. Partners may not show each other their panels. Together the four panels present this narrative: a man takes a container of ice cream from the freezer; he serves himself several scoops of ice cream; he sits in front of the TV eating his ice cream; he returns with the empty bowl to the kitchen and finds that he left the container of ice cream, now melting, on the kitchen counter. These pictures have a clear narrative line and the partners are not likely to disagree about the appropriate sequencing. You can make the task more demanding, however, by using pictures that lend themselves to alternative sequences, so that the partners have to negotiate among themselves to agree on a satisfactory sequence.
With information gap and jigsaw activities, instructors need to be conscious of the language demands they place on their students. If an activity calls for language your students have not already practiced, you can brainstorm with them when setting up the activity to preview the language they will need, eliciting what they already know and supplementing what they are able to produce themselves.
Structured output activities can form an effective bridge between instructor modeling and communicative output because they are partly authentic and partly artificial. Like authentic communication, they feature information gaps that must be bridged for successful completion of the task. However, where authentic communication allows speakers to use all of the language they know, structured output activities lead students to practice specific features of language and to practice only in brief sentences, not in extended discourse. Also, structured output situations are contrived and more like games than real communication, and the participants' social roles are irrelevant to the performance of the activity. This structure controls the number of variables that students must deal with when they are first exposed to new material. As they become comfortable, they can move on to true communicative output activities.
Communicative Output Activities
Communicative output activities allow students to practice using all of the language they know in situations that resemble real settings. In these activities, students must work together to develop a plan, resolve a problem, or complete a task. The most common types of communicative output activity are role plays and discussions .
In role plays, students are assigned roles and put into situations that they may eventually encounter outside the classroom. Because role plays imitate life, the range of language functions that may be used expands considerably. Also, the role relationships among the students as they play their parts call for them to practice and develop their sociolinguistic competence. They have to use language that is appropriate to the situation and to the characters.
Students usually find role playing enjoyable, but students who lack self-confidence or have lower proficiency levels may find them intimidating at first. To succeed with role plays:
* Prepare carefully: Introduce the activity by describing the situation and making sure that all of the students understand it
* Set a goal or outcome: Be sure the students understand what the product of the role play should be, whether a plan, a schedule, a group opinion, or some other product
* Use role cards: Give each student a card that describes the person or role to be played. For lower-level students, the cards can include words or expressions that that person might use.
* Brainstorm: Before you start the role play, have students brainstorm as a class to predict what vocabulary, grammar, and idiomatic expressions they might use.
* Keep groups small: Less-confident students will feel more able to participate if they do not have to compete with many voices.
* Give students time to prepare: Let them work individually to outline their ideas and the language they will need to express them.
Discussions, like role plays, succeed when the instructor prepares students first, and then gets out of the way. To succeed with discussions:
* Prepare the students: Give them input (both topical information and language forms) so that they will have something to say and the language with which to say it.
* Offer choices: Let students suggest the topic for discussion or choose from several options. Discussion does not always have to be about serious issues. Students are likely to be more motivated to participate if the topic is television programs, plans for a vacation, or news about mutual friends. Weighty topics like how to combat pollution are not as engaging and place heavy demands on students' linguistic competence.
* Set a goal or outcome: This can be a group product, such as a letter to the editor, or individual reports on the views of others in the group.
* Use small groups instead of whole-class discussion: Large groups can make participation difficult.
* Keep it short: Give students a defined period of time, not more than 8-10 minutes, for discussion. Allow them to stop sooner if they run out of things to say.
* Allow students to participate in their own way: Not every student will feel comfortable talking about every topic. Do not expect all of them to contribute equally to the conversation.
* Do topical follow-up: Have students report to the class on the results of their discussion.
Through well-prepared communicative output activities such as role plays and discussions, you can encourage students to experiment and innovate with the language, and create a supportive atmosphere that allows them to make mistakes without fear of embarrassment. This will contribute to their self-confidence as speakers and to their motivation to learn more.
D. Goals and Techniques for Teaching Speaking
The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situation.
To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, instructors can use a balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output, and communicative output.
Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading passages, and the language heard and read outside of class. It gives learners the material they need to begin producing language themselves.
In the presentation part of a lesson, an instructor combines content-oriented and form-oriented input. The amount of input that is actually provided in the target language depends on students' listening proficiency and also on the situation.
For students at lower levels, or in situations where a quick explanation on a grammar topic is needed, an explanation in English may be more appropriate than one in the target language.
Structured output focuses on correct form. In structured output, students may have options for responses, but all of the options require them to use the specific form or structure that the teacher has just introduced.
Structured output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specific language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with previously learned items. Instructors often use structured output exercises as a transition between the presentation stage and the practice stage of a lesson plan. textbook exercises also often make good structured output practice activities.
In communicative output, the learners' main purpose is to complete a task, such as obtaining information, developing a travel plan, or creating a video. To complete the task, they may use the language that the instructor has just presented, but they also may draw on any other vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies that they know. In communicative output activities, the criterion of success is whether the learner gets the message across. Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of it interferes with the message.
In everyday communication, spoken exchanges take place because there is some sort of information gap between the participants. Communicative output activities involve a similar real information gap. In order to complete the task, students must reduce or eliminate the information gap. In these activities, language is a tool, not an end in itself.
In a balanced activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities from these different categories of input and output. Learners at all proficiency levels, including beginners, benefit from this variety; it is more motivating, and it is also more likely to result in effective language learning.
E. Motivating Learners
Learning to communicate in another language takes a long time. It is one of the most challenging tasks your students are likely to undertake, and they can easily become discouraged and bored with it. This section presents techniques that language teachers can use to keep their students interested and motivated by helping them understand the language acquisition process, connect language learning with their larger educational and life goals, and succeed as language learners.
A self-evaluation worksheet, available in pdf format, allows instructors to assess their current and potential motivation techniques. A supervisor observation worksheet enables supervisors to support instructors' development of such techniques.
F. Teaching Culture
Of all the changes that have affected language teaching theory and method in recent years, the greatest may be the transformation in the role of culture. This change reflects a broader transformation in the way that culture itself is understood.
Traditionally, culture was understood in terms of formal or "high" culture (literature, art, music, and philosophy) and popular or "low" culture. From this perspective, one main reason for studying a language is to be able to understand and appreciate the high culture of the people who speak that language. The pop culture is regarded as inferior and not worthy of study.
In this view, language learning comes first, and culture learning second. Students need to learn the language in order to truly appreciate the culture, but they do not need to learn about the culture in order to truly comprehend the language. This understanding can lead language teachers to avoid teaching culture for several reasons:
* They may feel that students at lower proficiency levels are not ready for it yet
* They may feel that it is additional material that they simply do not have time to teach
* In the case of formal culture, they may feel that they do not know enough about it themselves to teach it adequately
* In the case of popular culture, they may feel that it is not worth teaching
In contemporary language classrooms, however, teachers are expected to integrate cultural components because language teaching has been influenced by a significantly different perspective on culture itself. This perspective, which comes from the social sciences, defines culture in terms of the knowledge, values, beliefs, and behaviors that a group of people share.
Resources: Teaching Speaking
Brown, and G. Yule. (1983). Teaching the spoken language. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Schmidt, R. W., & Frota, S. N. (1986). Developing basic conversational ability in a second language: A case study of an adult learner of Portuguese. In R. R. Day (Ed.), Talking to learn (pp. 237-326). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
http ://esl.about.com/library/lesson/blask/html
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http ://Columbia.edu /yukki/papers/ html
Thursday, January 14, 2010
WRITING IN OROFESSIONAL CONTEXT 2
THE TEST OF SPEAKING LEARNING
By:
RANTI LARASWATI
07211210292
UIKA
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF TEACJING AND EDUCATION
IBN KHALDUN UNIVERSITY BOGOR
TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………..……………1
A.Analisycal work of speaking ………………………………………………………….…..……2
1. English speaking test…………………………………….……………………….……2
2. Basic of theory test……………………………………..……………………………...3
B.Toefl Test Speaking…………………………………………………………………………….4
1.Speaking Test……………………………………………………………………….….4
2. Toefl Text Books for Preparation………………………………………………………5
3. The Toefl Speaking Section……….………………………….………………………..5
4. Fun Activities for the Toefl Speaking………………………………………………….6
C. English to speak and speaking to learn………………………………......................................7
INTRODUCTION
It is known that English is a tool of international communication in the world. As the first foreign language. Since many scientific books are written in English. Therefore, teacher and student should pay more attention to it in order to be able to master it easily. In English language we know is English language is very important for education and all activity, especially in our life. The time that is given at school is very limited, the student should get a good technique for studying English and teachers should get many various way for transferring it in teaching. Test in front of class is vey use full because language is tool of communication, everybody in the world needs to communicate to each other in order to do or get what they want or need in their life. In this case everybody must be able to express their felling and though by using a tool of communication that language.
A. Analysical work of speaking test
1. English speaking test
As has been mention before, speaking test is a prosedur which a student is asked to speak and is assessed on the basis of what he say. At a primary level, speaking might involve pronounciation, intonation, and stress. At a functional level, however speaking is not just a correct pronounciation speech pattern and intonation at this stage speaking also requires the correct use and the idiomatic use of target language.
When speaking skill is developed in English foreign language classes there must be a testing program to measure the learners achievement.
The second, to measure a specific aspect element of speaking skill such as:
Structure, Vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, and stress. A speaking test for functional purpose refders to an integrative pragmatic test, while the letter refers to a discrete point test. The following classification chart shows the possible types of a speaking test.
2.. The approach of assessing speaking skills..
Basically speaking test can be classified into two broad approaches the direct and indirect test. A direct speking test refers to procedures learning’s speaking ability by asking the learner to speak.
3. The scoring procedures of speaking assessment
Assessing speaking skills in English as a foreign language classes in one of the many language skills, especially in term of scoring procedures. That is due also to the fact that speking ability involves.
4. The scoring proceduresof speakind test
The scoring of a discrate point is different foim if a functional speaking test daveloving a scoring procedure in a discrete point speaking test is much sample than that of the integrative pragmatic test for functional purpose. This is because in a discrete point test, their rather only focused on a single element of language.
A.Problem of speaking learning
We all know that the success class will depend on the method or technique that the teachers carry out. Based on the above statement, the writer try to find the technique for the test on speaking ability effectively in accordance with curriculum.
B. Limitation of speaking learning
In this case the writer would like to present the test of speaking ability. It will discusses by presenting the theory of some books.
C. The purposes of speking learning
In this research, the writer would like to write the purpose of the study as follows
1. to give descriptions about use and the advantages of the test of speaking ability
2. to give some descriptions about the procedure of the test speaking ability
3. to give some contribute ideas to English teaching process
2. Basic of theory test
A speaking test is one way that learner is asked to speak and is assessment on the basic of what he say. The test requires the examiner to demonstrate their spoken English proficiency by respond.
B. Toefl Test Speaking Practice Ideas
A.Speaking Tasks to help ESL Students Prepare for the Toefl Exam
Preparing for the Toefl is a daunting task. Finding fun ways to practice the test format in a more relaxed way helps students feel less pressured.
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Part of preparing students for a Toefl test, is ensuring that they understand the format, question configuration, and section breakdown of the test. This process usually includes use of a worthy textbook, software for practice, if possible, and as much repetition and training that students can undertake.
B.Toefl Text Books for Preparation
There are many Toefl textbooks, such as Deborah Phillips Longman’s Preparation Course for the Toefl Test ( Pearson ESL, 2005 ) to name one. Online, students can also find many resources to guide them into the test preparation. The ETS website offers students opportunities to practice tests.
The teacher, however, can suggest some activities that will help the students understand the structure of the test, through lighter, more enjoyable tasks. These activities will help all students improve their speaking skills, whether they are undertaking the Toefl test or not. This kind of practice would not replace regular exercises, but does enable students to comprehend the meaning of a limited time cut-off point given to the testers, in which to prove their knowledge.
C.The Toefl Speaking Section
Most answers that students have to give verbally, after reading or listening, demand a 45 second to one minute answer. Therefore, an interesting way of rehearsing for this section is to include talking tasks in the classroom that call for an answer limited to this time allotted.
D.Fun Activities for the Toefl Speaking Practice Section
Below are some ideas that the teacher can implement into the warm up, ending, or middle part of a lesson, to help students relax, smile and reduce tension.
C. LEARNING TO SPEAK AND SPEAKING TO LEARN
Most students graduate from college having had no instruction or practice in public speaking, and, indeed, harboring a deep dread of having to speak to an audience. When asked, five or ten years after graduation, what they wished they had learned in college, to speak effectively and without fear is generally near the top of the list.
The use of speaking assignments across the curriculum not only develops the ability to speak coherently and persuasively, but also helps students learn a course’s subject matter. It is for these reasons that Pomona College’s general education program requires all students to take at least one speaking-intensive course. My experience in teaching such courses has been overwhelmingly positive. Students learn the material better and they learn to speak more effectively. They are well aware of these benefits and thankful for the opportunity to take speaking-intensive courses.
As students taking multiple-choice tests, we could guess at some answers and be rewarded if we got more than 90 percent right. As professors, we are not shown a list of possible answers, should not be satisfied with guesses, and should not be pleased if 5 or 10 percent of what we tell students is wrong. To give an effective and accurate lecture, we need to know the material.
The second reason why we understand a subject better after we lecture on it is that we learn by doing. The virtues of active-learning strategies are widely acknowledged. We understand concepts better and retain them longer when we express these concepts in our own words. Writing assignments are one way to do this, speaking assignments are another.
We have all had moments of insight when we try to explain a subtle or complex point to our students. As our mind works hard to formulate a persuasive explanation, we suddenly recognize a new analogy, a different argument, a fresh interconnection. There is an intimate relationship between logical reasoning and effective speaking. Good logic not only underlies clear speaking, but can be shaped by it.
What To fulfill their general education requirements, each Pomona College student must pass at least one course that has been approved as “speaking-intensive.” There are no traditional public-speaking courses at Pomona. Just as writing need not be confined to English courses, so we encourage speaking across the curriculum. The college’s curriculum committee recommends that several principles be followed in designing speaking-intensive courses to help students develop the ability to speak clearly, logically, and persuasively.
1. Students should receive some instruction on the principles and practice of effective speaking. This instruction might consist of a few general guidelines, or it might be a detailed list of dos and don’ts. One of the things I tell students is that we are all prone to nervous habits (fiddling with a button, putting a hand in a pocket, saying “um”) that distract listeners and signal the speaker’s nervousness. Speakers are usually unaware of these habits and one of our jobs as a supportive classroom audience is to alert them to these problems. I also tell students that audiences have more confidence in speakers who don’t rely much on notes: someone who reads a speech may be just reciting what someone else wrote. A memorized speech can have the same effect. The goal is to give an extemporaneous speech that tells the audience that the speaker knows the material and is expressing it in his or her own words. I also advise students to have lots of eye contact with individual members of the audience, instead of looking at notes, the floor, or the back of the room. There is disagreement too. Some experts say that a speaker should stand in one place and move about as little as possible; others believe that the energy conveyed by movement has a positive effect on an audience.
2. Students should be given sufficient advance notice so that they can prepare for their speaking assignments beforehand. While memorization is strongly discouraged, students should be encouraged to learn the material and to practice before a friend or a mirror.
3. Students should express their own thoughts, not simply read or recite speeches, poems, plays, or songs. Speaking-intensive courses are intended to help students learn substantive material--not memorize lines--and to state ideas and arguments in their own words.
4. The student must be in the spotlight. Student participation in classroom discussion is not sufficient to qualify a course as speaking-intensive. Each student should be a primary speaker--for example, by giving a classroom presentation or leading a focused discussion. If a student can sit passively and merely interject an occasional comment, then the energizing fear of embarrassment is absent and so is the chance to develop effective public-speaking skills.
5. The student should receive specific suggestions shortly afterward (through written comments, conferences with the instructor, or peer evaluations) on how they can present their arguments more effectively. Just as the development of good writing skills requires useful feedback, so does the development of good speaking skills. At the conclusion of each presentation, I give the class a few minutes to write down constructive suggestions. I then collect these and give them to the speaker at the end of class. If everyone says “slow down” or “speak up,” the speaker will know this is a serious problem. This exercise also encourages everyone to think about what works and what doesn’t. I make written suggestions too. One enlightening practice is to write especially popular phrases (such as “um” and “basically”) at the top of the page and tabulate how many times these are used by the student.
6. Students should have opportunities to improve their speaking abilities after receiving this feedback. Obviously, you cannot become an effective speaker by giving one speech. On the other hand, just as one writing-intensive course is not sufficient to make a good writer, so one speaking-intensive course is not enough to make a good speaker. Instead, these courses should be viewed as opportunities to nurture and develop skills that will be honed over a lifetime. In practice, the curriculum committee has approved courses with as few as two speaking opportunities per student.
7. A speaking-intensive course normally should not have more than 20 students; otherwise, there may not be enough time for all students to have multiple speaking opportunities. I have taught speaking-intensive classes with more than 30 students, but there was adequate time because of an emphasis on work outside the classroom rather than lectures.
8. Courses in languages other than English may be approved as speaking-intensive. The use of a foreign language does not preclude students learning by speaking and learning to speak persuasively and without fear.
Why In addition to these guiding principles, I have learned much from my experience with two quite different courses that are both writing-intensive and speaking-intensive: an interdisciplinary statistics class and a finance class for economics majors. In each class, I divide the students into three-person teams. If the enrollment is not divisible by three, I make one or two four-person teams.
In the statistics course, each team is given nine projects (twelve if the team has four members) to do over the course of the semester, each with a specific due date. The team members work together to collect and analyze the data, with one student writing an essay and one giving an oral presentation. Normally, the student who writes the essay also makes the oral presentation, but this is not required. During the semester, each student makes three project presentations. In addition, each student writes a statistics term paper and gives an oral presentation of this paper.
In the finance class, the teams manage competing financial intermediaries and prepare weekly memos justifying their decisions. The results are determined by a computer simulation program I wrote that is based on a secret historical period in an unnamed country, with each week in the course corresponding to three months of real time. The country and time period are revealed and discussed at the end of the course (and must consequently be changed each time the course is taught). The teams use spreadsheets or write their own computer programs to assist their decisions.
The weekly memos not only explain the teams’ decisions, but also answer a set of questions intended to focus the students’ attention on relevant information. These questions are assigned a week in advance and depend on the historical period and the performance of the teams.
The team members work together outside class to make the weekly decisions and answer my questions, with one student writing that week’s memo. Half the teams have one student give an oral presentation of the team’s answers to my questions. Each student makes at least two oral presentations during the semester and, in addition, each team makes a group presentation at the end of the semester that recaps their performance.
One challenge in designing a speaking-intensive course is to keep the entire class actively engaged in the weekly activities outside the classroom, even though only a small number will be giving oral presentations. The use of teams seems an effective strategy and also develops team-working skills and builds considerable camaraderie.
One issue I have wrestled with is whether each week’s oral presentations should be on the same topic. The first time that I taught my statistics class as speaking intensive, I assigned all teams the same topic each week so that the students might benefit from comparing their approaches and results. I soon found that if more than two or three people speak on the same subject, the presentations become repetitive and the class becomes bored; after a few weeks, I began assigning each team a different topic. In my finance class, I now ask half the teams one set of questions and half another set, and have only half of each group make oral presentations.
Because thinking on one’s feet is an important objective, I tell students to ask each speaker challenging questions. If the questions lag, I fire away. Even “dumb” questions can be useful, as they force the speaker to explain things differently and perhaps more clearly. Students find spirited exchanges among the speaker and various audience members to be not only beneficial, but a great deal of fun. I have also noticed that students tend to ask tougher questions of the more accomplished or arrogant speakers and to take it easy on those who are struggling.
In each of these courses, the oral presentations take up a lot of class time (from 30 to 60 minutes each week), and much of the traditional course work is consequently done outside the classroom--in the statistics course, reading the textbook and gathering and analyzing data; in the finance course, analyzing the weekly results and making decisions. This has been a dramatic change from my accustomed role of giving lectures and answering scattered questions. What I have come to realize is that the focus of the course should not be on me, but on helping students learn the subject matter and develop intellectual skills that will serve them well throughout their lives. For both of these goals, I am now convinced that students can learn more by speaking than by listening.
THE TEST OF SPEAKING LEARNING
By:
RANTI LARASWATI
07211210292
UIKA
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF TEACJING AND EDUCATION
IBN KHALDUN UNIVERSITY BOGOR
TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………..……………1
A.Analisycal work of speaking ………………………………………………………….…..……2
1. English speaking test…………………………………….……………………….……2
2. Basic of theory test……………………………………..……………………………...3
B.Toefl Test Speaking…………………………………………………………………………….4
1.Speaking Test……………………………………………………………………….….4
2. Toefl Text Books for Preparation………………………………………………………5
3. The Toefl Speaking Section……….………………………….………………………..5
4. Fun Activities for the Toefl Speaking………………………………………………….6
C. English to speak and speaking to learn………………………………......................................7
INTRODUCTION
It is known that English is a tool of international communication in the world. As the first foreign language. Since many scientific books are written in English. Therefore, teacher and student should pay more attention to it in order to be able to master it easily. In English language we know is English language is very important for education and all activity, especially in our life. The time that is given at school is very limited, the student should get a good technique for studying English and teachers should get many various way for transferring it in teaching. Test in front of class is vey use full because language is tool of communication, everybody in the world needs to communicate to each other in order to do or get what they want or need in their life. In this case everybody must be able to express their felling and though by using a tool of communication that language.
A. Analysical work of speaking test
1. English speaking test
As has been mention before, speaking test is a prosedur which a student is asked to speak and is assessed on the basis of what he say. At a primary level, speaking might involve pronounciation, intonation, and stress. At a functional level, however speaking is not just a correct pronounciation speech pattern and intonation at this stage speaking also requires the correct use and the idiomatic use of target language.
When speaking skill is developed in English foreign language classes there must be a testing program to measure the learners achievement.
The second, to measure a specific aspect element of speaking skill such as:
Structure, Vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, and stress. A speaking test for functional purpose refders to an integrative pragmatic test, while the letter refers to a discrete point test. The following classification chart shows the possible types of a speaking test.
2.. The approach of assessing speaking skills..
Basically speaking test can be classified into two broad approaches the direct and indirect test. A direct speking test refers to procedures learning’s speaking ability by asking the learner to speak.
3. The scoring procedures of speaking assessment
Assessing speaking skills in English as a foreign language classes in one of the many language skills, especially in term of scoring procedures. That is due also to the fact that speking ability involves.
4. The scoring proceduresof speakind test
The scoring of a discrate point is different foim if a functional speaking test daveloving a scoring procedure in a discrete point speaking test is much sample than that of the integrative pragmatic test for functional purpose. This is because in a discrete point test, their rather only focused on a single element of language.
A.Problem of speaking learning
We all know that the success class will depend on the method or technique that the teachers carry out. Based on the above statement, the writer try to find the technique for the test on speaking ability effectively in accordance with curriculum.
B. Limitation of speaking learning
In this case the writer would like to present the test of speaking ability. It will discusses by presenting the theory of some books.
C. The purposes of speking learning
In this research, the writer would like to write the purpose of the study as follows
1. to give descriptions about use and the advantages of the test of speaking ability
2. to give some descriptions about the procedure of the test speaking ability
3. to give some contribute ideas to English teaching process
2. Basic of theory test
A speaking test is one way that learner is asked to speak and is assessment on the basic of what he say. The test requires the examiner to demonstrate their spoken English proficiency by respond.
B. Toefl Test Speaking Practice Ideas
A.Speaking Tasks to help ESL Students Prepare for the Toefl Exam
Preparing for the Toefl is a daunting task. Finding fun ways to practice the test format in a more relaxed way helps students feel less pressured.
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Part of preparing students for a Toefl test, is ensuring that they understand the format, question configuration, and section breakdown of the test. This process usually includes use of a worthy textbook, software for practice, if possible, and as much repetition and training that students can undertake.
B.Toefl Text Books for Preparation
There are many Toefl textbooks, such as Deborah Phillips Longman’s Preparation Course for the Toefl Test ( Pearson ESL, 2005 ) to name one. Online, students can also find many resources to guide them into the test preparation. The ETS website offers students opportunities to practice tests.
The teacher, however, can suggest some activities that will help the students understand the structure of the test, through lighter, more enjoyable tasks. These activities will help all students improve their speaking skills, whether they are undertaking the Toefl test or not. This kind of practice would not replace regular exercises, but does enable students to comprehend the meaning of a limited time cut-off point given to the testers, in which to prove their knowledge.
C.The Toefl Speaking Section
Most answers that students have to give verbally, after reading or listening, demand a 45 second to one minute answer. Therefore, an interesting way of rehearsing for this section is to include talking tasks in the classroom that call for an answer limited to this time allotted.
D.Fun Activities for the Toefl Speaking Practice Section
Below are some ideas that the teacher can implement into the warm up, ending, or middle part of a lesson, to help students relax, smile and reduce tension.
C. LEARNING TO SPEAK AND SPEAKING TO LEARN
Most students graduate from college having had no instruction or practice in public speaking, and, indeed, harboring a deep dread of having to speak to an audience. When asked, five or ten years after graduation, what they wished they had learned in college, to speak effectively and without fear is generally near the top of the list.
The use of speaking assignments across the curriculum not only develops the ability to speak coherently and persuasively, but also helps students learn a course’s subject matter. It is for these reasons that Pomona College’s general education program requires all students to take at least one speaking-intensive course. My experience in teaching such courses has been overwhelmingly positive. Students learn the material better and they learn to speak more effectively. They are well aware of these benefits and thankful for the opportunity to take speaking-intensive courses.
As students taking multiple-choice tests, we could guess at some answers and be rewarded if we got more than 90 percent right. As professors, we are not shown a list of possible answers, should not be satisfied with guesses, and should not be pleased if 5 or 10 percent of what we tell students is wrong. To give an effective and accurate lecture, we need to know the material.
The second reason why we understand a subject better after we lecture on it is that we learn by doing. The virtues of active-learning strategies are widely acknowledged. We understand concepts better and retain them longer when we express these concepts in our own words. Writing assignments are one way to do this, speaking assignments are another.
We have all had moments of insight when we try to explain a subtle or complex point to our students. As our mind works hard to formulate a persuasive explanation, we suddenly recognize a new analogy, a different argument, a fresh interconnection. There is an intimate relationship between logical reasoning and effective speaking. Good logic not only underlies clear speaking, but can be shaped by it.
What To fulfill their general education requirements, each Pomona College student must pass at least one course that has been approved as “speaking-intensive.” There are no traditional public-speaking courses at Pomona. Just as writing need not be confined to English courses, so we encourage speaking across the curriculum. The college’s curriculum committee recommends that several principles be followed in designing speaking-intensive courses to help students develop the ability to speak clearly, logically, and persuasively.
1. Students should receive some instruction on the principles and practice of effective speaking. This instruction might consist of a few general guidelines, or it might be a detailed list of dos and don’ts. One of the things I tell students is that we are all prone to nervous habits (fiddling with a button, putting a hand in a pocket, saying “um”) that distract listeners and signal the speaker’s nervousness. Speakers are usually unaware of these habits and one of our jobs as a supportive classroom audience is to alert them to these problems. I also tell students that audiences have more confidence in speakers who don’t rely much on notes: someone who reads a speech may be just reciting what someone else wrote. A memorized speech can have the same effect. The goal is to give an extemporaneous speech that tells the audience that the speaker knows the material and is expressing it in his or her own words. I also advise students to have lots of eye contact with individual members of the audience, instead of looking at notes, the floor, or the back of the room. There is disagreement too. Some experts say that a speaker should stand in one place and move about as little as possible; others believe that the energy conveyed by movement has a positive effect on an audience.
2. Students should be given sufficient advance notice so that they can prepare for their speaking assignments beforehand. While memorization is strongly discouraged, students should be encouraged to learn the material and to practice before a friend or a mirror.
3. Students should express their own thoughts, not simply read or recite speeches, poems, plays, or songs. Speaking-intensive courses are intended to help students learn substantive material--not memorize lines--and to state ideas and arguments in their own words.
4. The student must be in the spotlight. Student participation in classroom discussion is not sufficient to qualify a course as speaking-intensive. Each student should be a primary speaker--for example, by giving a classroom presentation or leading a focused discussion. If a student can sit passively and merely interject an occasional comment, then the energizing fear of embarrassment is absent and so is the chance to develop effective public-speaking skills.
5. The student should receive specific suggestions shortly afterward (through written comments, conferences with the instructor, or peer evaluations) on how they can present their arguments more effectively. Just as the development of good writing skills requires useful feedback, so does the development of good speaking skills. At the conclusion of each presentation, I give the class a few minutes to write down constructive suggestions. I then collect these and give them to the speaker at the end of class. If everyone says “slow down” or “speak up,” the speaker will know this is a serious problem. This exercise also encourages everyone to think about what works and what doesn’t. I make written suggestions too. One enlightening practice is to write especially popular phrases (such as “um” and “basically”) at the top of the page and tabulate how many times these are used by the student.
6. Students should have opportunities to improve their speaking abilities after receiving this feedback. Obviously, you cannot become an effective speaker by giving one speech. On the other hand, just as one writing-intensive course is not sufficient to make a good writer, so one speaking-intensive course is not enough to make a good speaker. Instead, these courses should be viewed as opportunities to nurture and develop skills that will be honed over a lifetime. In practice, the curriculum committee has approved courses with as few as two speaking opportunities per student.
7. A speaking-intensive course normally should not have more than 20 students; otherwise, there may not be enough time for all students to have multiple speaking opportunities. I have taught speaking-intensive classes with more than 30 students, but there was adequate time because of an emphasis on work outside the classroom rather than lectures.
8. Courses in languages other than English may be approved as speaking-intensive. The use of a foreign language does not preclude students learning by speaking and learning to speak persuasively and without fear.
Why In addition to these guiding principles, I have learned much from my experience with two quite different courses that are both writing-intensive and speaking-intensive: an interdisciplinary statistics class and a finance class for economics majors. In each class, I divide the students into three-person teams. If the enrollment is not divisible by three, I make one or two four-person teams.
In the statistics course, each team is given nine projects (twelve if the team has four members) to do over the course of the semester, each with a specific due date. The team members work together to collect and analyze the data, with one student writing an essay and one giving an oral presentation. Normally, the student who writes the essay also makes the oral presentation, but this is not required. During the semester, each student makes three project presentations. In addition, each student writes a statistics term paper and gives an oral presentation of this paper.
In the finance class, the teams manage competing financial intermediaries and prepare weekly memos justifying their decisions. The results are determined by a computer simulation program I wrote that is based on a secret historical period in an unnamed country, with each week in the course corresponding to three months of real time. The country and time period are revealed and discussed at the end of the course (and must consequently be changed each time the course is taught). The teams use spreadsheets or write their own computer programs to assist their decisions.
The weekly memos not only explain the teams’ decisions, but also answer a set of questions intended to focus the students’ attention on relevant information. These questions are assigned a week in advance and depend on the historical period and the performance of the teams.
The team members work together outside class to make the weekly decisions and answer my questions, with one student writing that week’s memo. Half the teams have one student give an oral presentation of the team’s answers to my questions. Each student makes at least two oral presentations during the semester and, in addition, each team makes a group presentation at the end of the semester that recaps their performance.
One challenge in designing a speaking-intensive course is to keep the entire class actively engaged in the weekly activities outside the classroom, even though only a small number will be giving oral presentations. The use of teams seems an effective strategy and also develops team-working skills and builds considerable camaraderie.
One issue I have wrestled with is whether each week’s oral presentations should be on the same topic. The first time that I taught my statistics class as speaking intensive, I assigned all teams the same topic each week so that the students might benefit from comparing their approaches and results. I soon found that if more than two or three people speak on the same subject, the presentations become repetitive and the class becomes bored; after a few weeks, I began assigning each team a different topic. In my finance class, I now ask half the teams one set of questions and half another set, and have only half of each group make oral presentations.
Because thinking on one’s feet is an important objective, I tell students to ask each speaker challenging questions. If the questions lag, I fire away. Even “dumb” questions can be useful, as they force the speaker to explain things differently and perhaps more clearly. Students find spirited exchanges among the speaker and various audience members to be not only beneficial, but a great deal of fun. I have also noticed that students tend to ask tougher questions of the more accomplished or arrogant speakers and to take it easy on those who are struggling.
In each of these courses, the oral presentations take up a lot of class time (from 30 to 60 minutes each week), and much of the traditional course work is consequently done outside the classroom--in the statistics course, reading the textbook and gathering and analyzing data; in the finance course, analyzing the weekly results and making decisions. This has been a dramatic change from my accustomed role of giving lectures and answering scattered questions. What I have come to realize is that the focus of the course should not be on me, but on helping students learn the subject matter and develop intellectual skills that will serve them well throughout their lives. For both of these goals, I am now convinced that students can learn more by speaking than by listening.
Writing in professional context 2
Developing speaking skills
By:
Anggi Mardianny
07211210254
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF TEACHING AND EDUCATION
IBN KHALDUN UNIVERSITY BOGOR
2009
PREFACE
Alhamdulillahhirabbil’alamin, in the name of Allah, the beneficent and the merciful. Thank to Allah the Almighty lord of the world who has given the writer mercy, blessing, and health until nowadays.
Shalawat and salam to our prophet Muhammad SAW, who has brought us to the lightness. The last messenger came to human being in order to illuminate them by straight a way.
The purpose of this paper is to complete one of assessments writing in professional context 2.
Introduction
Language is means of expressing our ideas, opinion, felling and thinking. There are many kinds of language in the world, one of those is English. English is one of the foreign languages which are learnt in Indonesia . The aim of English teaching is in order that. The student can have language skills, there are reading, listening, speaking, and writing in English. Learning a foreign language is to learn how to communicate by the as the target language, either spoken or written. There is not easy to master that particularly the former one while the spoken language is regarded as the prime channel of communication in language. Since the years ago, the experts, particularly the linguist have been making many kinds of attempts to facilitate the teacher in language teaching as well as language acquisition either second or foreign language. It can be proved by being developed the methods. The community language learning related to develop speaking skill with underlying reason as follows to provide an alternative way for the English teacher to improve their teaching methods of speaking, and than to facilitate the student in developing their speaking skills, and to encourage the students to be more active and creative in learning to speak English..
Many people think that knowing a lot of words is a key to fluent speaking. It's true! However, there are many people who have wide idiolect and problem with fluency. They try to learn more and more words because they think vocabulary is their problem. They don't realize the problem is somewhere else. They always try to use exact translation of the word they want to use, but it causes that they often get stuck. If you have same problem remember that almost all words can be swapped by some other words. If you'll be speaking and suddenly stop, trying to get to your mind translation of some word, forget it! Try to say what you have on mind in other words - practicing it is a real key to fluent English conversation.
Teaching and learning speaking
1. Definition of Speaking
Brown and Yule stated in their book. “Speaking is to express the needs–request, information, service, etc.”
The speakers say words to the listener not only to express what in her mind but also to express what he needs whether information service. Most people might spend of their everyday life in communicating with other. Revell defines communication as follow: “Communication, of ideas, of opinions, of feeling.” Therefore, communication involves at least two people where both sender and receiver need to communicate to exchange information, ideas, opinions, views, or feelings. Meanwhile, Jones stated, “Speaking is a form of communication.”
We can say that the speaker must consider the person they are talking to as listeners. The activity that the person does primary based on particular goal. So, it is important that everything we wants to say is conveyed in an effective way, Because speaking is not only producing sounds but also a process of achieving goals that involves transferring messages across Therefore, speaking process should pay attention how to say as well as to whom appropriately.. “How you say something can be important as what you say in getting your meaning across.”
Ideas, opinions, views, or feelings. Speaking is an activity used by someone to communicate with other. It takes place very where and has become part of our daily activities. When someone speaks, he or she interacts and uses the language to express his or her ideas, feeling, and thought. He or she also shares information to other trough communication.
2. English teaching learning
In all of the teaching learning process there are four factors which will help and facilitate the process teacher. Interaction between teacher and students, method, and materials. A teacher is an important factor to facilitate the process. As the target of teaching learning process is the learners so the teacher’s attention should be focused on how the students can be involved in the learning process. This means that the role of teacher changes over from the presenter of the materials the guide, helper and facilitation in learning process. However,” it must be remembered that the teacher it still the person specially trained to guide the student help him select appropriate learning materials, and create a positive classroom environment”. In teaching speaking the teachers have to urge the student feeling free to speak in the target language and guide them to convey their ideas correctly.
1. Technique of Teaching English Speaking
Every student who studies English will study about all components, which in that subject. Those components are reading, listening, writing and speaking. All components have great correlation and support each other; one of those items will be discussed by researcher is teaching speaking. As one of the language skills, speaking can be complex process. The first speaking has some points to show speaking and productions are relate in the mind of individual for the learners. The learners also need production to get interaction in receiving messages, result according to Hymens, “Communication competence”
Sometimes students-perhaps especially those at the lower levels-can be anxious about speaking in class. One way to overcome their reticence and increase their opportunities to speak is to use pair work and group work. Pair work and group work are configuration of people for doing activities, rather than activity types per se. Pair work, as the name suggest, involve two students working together to complete task or exercise target language. Group work is three or more students working together.
3. Developing Speaking skill
Considering the function of language that is as a device of communication, it can not be devised that speaking is one of the ways to gain the function of that. Unfortunately, it is not an easy task for teacher to get their students to speak, although the teaching speaking has a prominent place in all methods and approaches. The problems which arise is there has not been a method yet considered to be the best or most effective one. Beside, there are much more factors that add in the complexities of teaching speaking.
4. Strategies for Developing Speaking Skills
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language which they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. These instructors’ help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn.
1. Using minimal responses
Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in different types of exchanges. Such responses can be especially useful for beginners. Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying, without having to simultaneously plan a response.
2. Recognizing scripts
Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts. So do the transactional exchanges involved in activities such as obtaining information and making a purchase. In these scripts, the relationship between a speaker's turn and the one that follows it can often be anticipated.
Instructors can help students develop speaking ability by making them aware of the scripts for different situations so that they can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in response. Through interactive activities, instructors can give students practice in managing and varying the language that different scripts contain.
3. Using language to talk about language
Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything when they do not understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner has not understood them. Instructors can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever the participants' language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and phrases to use for clarification and comprehension check. By encouraging students to use clarification phrases in class when misunderstanding occurs and by responding positively when they do, instructors can create an authentic practice environment within the classroom itself. As they develop control of various clarification strategies, students will gain confidence in their ability to manage the various communication situations that they may encounter outside the classroom.
E. Developing Speaking Skills in the Young Learners
When teaching young learners we constantly have to keep in mind the fact that what we have in front of us is a mixed class with varied abilities, expectations, motivation level, knowledge and last but not least, different learning styles. Thus, we need to vary our approaches and offer as much opportunity as possible to make the whole class find a little something to hold on to, expand and grow. Developing speaking skills definitely deserves a closer look and the article provides a few guidelines to keep all the students involved and interested.
1. The Basics
Young learners are like sponges, they soak up everything we say and how we say it. Thus clear and correct pronunciation is of vital importance, since young learners repeat exactly what t hey hears. What has been learned at an early stage is difficult to change later on. One of the rules that apply here is: slowly and steadily, through constant revision and recycling. Furthermore, I always strive to achieve a positive and relaxed atmosphere in my young learners’ classroom, as this proved a decisive factor in achieving maximum results. With the help of mixed activities, such as dialogues, choral revision, chants, songs, poems and rhymes students’ speaking abilities grow, their pronunciation gets better and their awareness of the language improves. When applying the above-mentioned tools into my teaching practice, I try to keep in mind that interaction is an important way of learning. Therefore, increased oral emphasis should be included in our teaching to give the students as much speaking time as possible.
2. Shadowing a Tape or a CD
Many textbooks for young learners offer shorter texts written as comics, introducing characters learners can relate to and through which they get to know the language, the culture and the people of a certain country. Instead of simply following the text (with books either open or closed), I often divide the class into various parts or teams (e.g. A and B, depending on the number of roles in the comics) and then the learners read with the tape. Choral reading has always proved a lot of fun and children are excellent at imitating, thus producing brilliant copies of the original. Do not forget to change roles after the text has been read a few times. Further on, as you see learners getting familiar with the topic and vocabulary, make them work in pairs.
If they want to, they can also perform in front of the class keep in mind that at an early age they are mostly extroverts and love showing off their English. However, there may be students who are terrified of being exposed, some are in the so-called silent phase never force these students to speak in front of the whole class. Instead, give them some other role e.g. they "act" as a ringing phone in the comics, appear as the voice of a dog or the like. I can tell from my own experience that this does bring results and eventually also these students come out of their shell and express themselves in English. Needless to say, each and every attempt should be accompanied by our approval and appraisal, the same being the case with other speaking activities the learners are involved into. Do encourage them constantly as this builds their motivation and self-awareness.
A slow progression from choral shadowing to smaller-group shadowing and finally to pair-work is advisable as students gain confidence through each stage and providing them with a lot of opportunities widens our chances of success in trying to provide a stimulating environment for all – the courageous and the shy ones.
3. Learning the Dialogues
Textbooks are usually filled with situation dialogues, helping the students learn language in real-life situations, therefore offering them the tool which opens many doors to various subjects. But learning these dialogues by heart is a definite no-no. It is much better and far more useful to substitute the words so that they are true to students and their world. Thus each student uses his/her own variation, there is an obvious transition from pure imitation to conscious changing, which speeds up remembering and offers varied communicative opportunities. By imitating, sharing and discussing students benefit modeling, understanding and picking it up seem to be natural. Through imitating, interacting and internalizing the process is later on understood explicitly on a higher level, by practicing social phrases in everyday situations the learners are building a basis on top of which new information is to be added from lesson to lesson. Note: with young learners, grammatical points should be taught implicitly only, after they are 11 and up, the explicit approach can be used as well.
4. Songs, Poems, Rhymes and Chants
Throughout our English lessons students are learning to speak, express ideas, share opinions and exchange information. Using songs, poems, rhymes and chants is a wonderful way of making students sing/talk and at the same time (unconsciously) work at their grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation. Try to include the above-mentioned activities by providing learners with those that require total physical response, shortly known as "TPR". Year by year, children get highly enthusiastic about songs like: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes") where (excessive) body movements are required. Confidence and motivation are built through the process. Sometimes new lyrics can be added to traditional songs, making things a bit different and out of the expected. e.g. "Row, row, row your boat" can easily be changed into "Fly, fly, fly your plane" the movements change accordingly and so does the rest of the lyrics. It is basically the teachers’ call what and how to change the song, and it is always welcomed by the learners. After telling them the new lyrics is your own invention, maybe they can try and come up with another version as a part of their home assignment (trust me: even parents get involved in the process and the list of newly written songs has become endless and a true inspiration when a bit bored with the originals).
Conclusions
Sometimes students-perhaps especially those at the lower levels-can be anxious about speaking in class. One way to overcome their reticence and increase their opportunities to speak is to use pair work and group work. Pair work and group work are configuration of people for doing activities, rather than activity types per se. Pair work, as the name suggest, involve two students working together to complete task or exercise target language.
The discussions and explanation precluding section can be concluded as follows:
1. learning a foreign language is to learn how to use the language, as a target language for the various kinds of purposes
2. speaking can be one of the tools to gain the purpose
Bibliography
Brumfit, C,J., and J.T. Robert. Language and language teaching. London: Batsford Academic and Educational Ltd., 1983.
Pattison, Pat. Developing Communication Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/speaking/stratspeak.htm
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Klancar-SpeakingSkills.html
Developing speaking skills
By:
Anggi Mardianny
07211210254
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF TEACHING AND EDUCATION
IBN KHALDUN UNIVERSITY BOGOR
2009
PREFACE
Alhamdulillahhirabbil’alamin, in the name of Allah, the beneficent and the merciful. Thank to Allah the Almighty lord of the world who has given the writer mercy, blessing, and health until nowadays.
Shalawat and salam to our prophet Muhammad SAW, who has brought us to the lightness. The last messenger came to human being in order to illuminate them by straight a way.
The purpose of this paper is to complete one of assessments writing in professional context 2.
Introduction
Language is means of expressing our ideas, opinion, felling and thinking. There are many kinds of language in the world, one of those is English. English is one of the foreign languages which are learnt in Indonesia . The aim of English teaching is in order that. The student can have language skills, there are reading, listening, speaking, and writing in English. Learning a foreign language is to learn how to communicate by the as the target language, either spoken or written. There is not easy to master that particularly the former one while the spoken language is regarded as the prime channel of communication in language. Since the years ago, the experts, particularly the linguist have been making many kinds of attempts to facilitate the teacher in language teaching as well as language acquisition either second or foreign language. It can be proved by being developed the methods. The community language learning related to develop speaking skill with underlying reason as follows to provide an alternative way for the English teacher to improve their teaching methods of speaking, and than to facilitate the student in developing their speaking skills, and to encourage the students to be more active and creative in learning to speak English..
Many people think that knowing a lot of words is a key to fluent speaking. It's true! However, there are many people who have wide idiolect and problem with fluency. They try to learn more and more words because they think vocabulary is their problem. They don't realize the problem is somewhere else. They always try to use exact translation of the word they want to use, but it causes that they often get stuck. If you have same problem remember that almost all words can be swapped by some other words. If you'll be speaking and suddenly stop, trying to get to your mind translation of some word, forget it! Try to say what you have on mind in other words - practicing it is a real key to fluent English conversation.
Teaching and learning speaking
1. Definition of Speaking
Brown and Yule stated in their book. “Speaking is to express the needs–request, information, service, etc.”
The speakers say words to the listener not only to express what in her mind but also to express what he needs whether information service. Most people might spend of their everyday life in communicating with other. Revell defines communication as follow: “Communication, of ideas, of opinions, of feeling.” Therefore, communication involves at least two people where both sender and receiver need to communicate to exchange information, ideas, opinions, views, or feelings. Meanwhile, Jones stated, “Speaking is a form of communication.”
We can say that the speaker must consider the person they are talking to as listeners. The activity that the person does primary based on particular goal. So, it is important that everything we wants to say is conveyed in an effective way, Because speaking is not only producing sounds but also a process of achieving goals that involves transferring messages across Therefore, speaking process should pay attention how to say as well as to whom appropriately.. “How you say something can be important as what you say in getting your meaning across.”
Ideas, opinions, views, or feelings. Speaking is an activity used by someone to communicate with other. It takes place very where and has become part of our daily activities. When someone speaks, he or she interacts and uses the language to express his or her ideas, feeling, and thought. He or she also shares information to other trough communication.
2. English teaching learning
In all of the teaching learning process there are four factors which will help and facilitate the process teacher. Interaction between teacher and students, method, and materials. A teacher is an important factor to facilitate the process. As the target of teaching learning process is the learners so the teacher’s attention should be focused on how the students can be involved in the learning process. This means that the role of teacher changes over from the presenter of the materials the guide, helper and facilitation in learning process. However,” it must be remembered that the teacher it still the person specially trained to guide the student help him select appropriate learning materials, and create a positive classroom environment”. In teaching speaking the teachers have to urge the student feeling free to speak in the target language and guide them to convey their ideas correctly.
1. Technique of Teaching English Speaking
Every student who studies English will study about all components, which in that subject. Those components are reading, listening, writing and speaking. All components have great correlation and support each other; one of those items will be discussed by researcher is teaching speaking. As one of the language skills, speaking can be complex process. The first speaking has some points to show speaking and productions are relate in the mind of individual for the learners. The learners also need production to get interaction in receiving messages, result according to Hymens, “Communication competence”
Sometimes students-perhaps especially those at the lower levels-can be anxious about speaking in class. One way to overcome their reticence and increase their opportunities to speak is to use pair work and group work. Pair work and group work are configuration of people for doing activities, rather than activity types per se. Pair work, as the name suggest, involve two students working together to complete task or exercise target language. Group work is three or more students working together.
3. Developing Speaking skill
Considering the function of language that is as a device of communication, it can not be devised that speaking is one of the ways to gain the function of that. Unfortunately, it is not an easy task for teacher to get their students to speak, although the teaching speaking has a prominent place in all methods and approaches. The problems which arise is there has not been a method yet considered to be the best or most effective one. Beside, there are much more factors that add in the complexities of teaching speaking.
4. Strategies for Developing Speaking Skills
Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language which they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. These instructors’ help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn.
1. Using minimal responses
Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in different types of exchanges. Such responses can be especially useful for beginners. Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying, without having to simultaneously plan a response.
2. Recognizing scripts
Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts. So do the transactional exchanges involved in activities such as obtaining information and making a purchase. In these scripts, the relationship between a speaker's turn and the one that follows it can often be anticipated.
Instructors can help students develop speaking ability by making them aware of the scripts for different situations so that they can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in response. Through interactive activities, instructors can give students practice in managing and varying the language that different scripts contain.
3. Using language to talk about language
Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything when they do not understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner has not understood them. Instructors can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever the participants' language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and phrases to use for clarification and comprehension check. By encouraging students to use clarification phrases in class when misunderstanding occurs and by responding positively when they do, instructors can create an authentic practice environment within the classroom itself. As they develop control of various clarification strategies, students will gain confidence in their ability to manage the various communication situations that they may encounter outside the classroom.
E. Developing Speaking Skills in the Young Learners
When teaching young learners we constantly have to keep in mind the fact that what we have in front of us is a mixed class with varied abilities, expectations, motivation level, knowledge and last but not least, different learning styles. Thus, we need to vary our approaches and offer as much opportunity as possible to make the whole class find a little something to hold on to, expand and grow. Developing speaking skills definitely deserves a closer look and the article provides a few guidelines to keep all the students involved and interested.
1. The Basics
Young learners are like sponges, they soak up everything we say and how we say it. Thus clear and correct pronunciation is of vital importance, since young learners repeat exactly what t hey hears. What has been learned at an early stage is difficult to change later on. One of the rules that apply here is: slowly and steadily, through constant revision and recycling. Furthermore, I always strive to achieve a positive and relaxed atmosphere in my young learners’ classroom, as this proved a decisive factor in achieving maximum results. With the help of mixed activities, such as dialogues, choral revision, chants, songs, poems and rhymes students’ speaking abilities grow, their pronunciation gets better and their awareness of the language improves. When applying the above-mentioned tools into my teaching practice, I try to keep in mind that interaction is an important way of learning. Therefore, increased oral emphasis should be included in our teaching to give the students as much speaking time as possible.
2. Shadowing a Tape or a CD
Many textbooks for young learners offer shorter texts written as comics, introducing characters learners can relate to and through which they get to know the language, the culture and the people of a certain country. Instead of simply following the text (with books either open or closed), I often divide the class into various parts or teams (e.g. A and B, depending on the number of roles in the comics) and then the learners read with the tape. Choral reading has always proved a lot of fun and children are excellent at imitating, thus producing brilliant copies of the original. Do not forget to change roles after the text has been read a few times. Further on, as you see learners getting familiar with the topic and vocabulary, make them work in pairs.
If they want to, they can also perform in front of the class keep in mind that at an early age they are mostly extroverts and love showing off their English. However, there may be students who are terrified of being exposed, some are in the so-called silent phase never force these students to speak in front of the whole class. Instead, give them some other role e.g. they "act" as a ringing phone in the comics, appear as the voice of a dog or the like. I can tell from my own experience that this does bring results and eventually also these students come out of their shell and express themselves in English. Needless to say, each and every attempt should be accompanied by our approval and appraisal, the same being the case with other speaking activities the learners are involved into. Do encourage them constantly as this builds their motivation and self-awareness.
A slow progression from choral shadowing to smaller-group shadowing and finally to pair-work is advisable as students gain confidence through each stage and providing them with a lot of opportunities widens our chances of success in trying to provide a stimulating environment for all – the courageous and the shy ones.
3. Learning the Dialogues
Textbooks are usually filled with situation dialogues, helping the students learn language in real-life situations, therefore offering them the tool which opens many doors to various subjects. But learning these dialogues by heart is a definite no-no. It is much better and far more useful to substitute the words so that they are true to students and their world. Thus each student uses his/her own variation, there is an obvious transition from pure imitation to conscious changing, which speeds up remembering and offers varied communicative opportunities. By imitating, sharing and discussing students benefit modeling, understanding and picking it up seem to be natural. Through imitating, interacting and internalizing the process is later on understood explicitly on a higher level, by practicing social phrases in everyday situations the learners are building a basis on top of which new information is to be added from lesson to lesson. Note: with young learners, grammatical points should be taught implicitly only, after they are 11 and up, the explicit approach can be used as well.
4. Songs, Poems, Rhymes and Chants
Throughout our English lessons students are learning to speak, express ideas, share opinions and exchange information. Using songs, poems, rhymes and chants is a wonderful way of making students sing/talk and at the same time (unconsciously) work at their grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation. Try to include the above-mentioned activities by providing learners with those that require total physical response, shortly known as "TPR". Year by year, children get highly enthusiastic about songs like: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes") where (excessive) body movements are required. Confidence and motivation are built through the process. Sometimes new lyrics can be added to traditional songs, making things a bit different and out of the expected. e.g. "Row, row, row your boat" can easily be changed into "Fly, fly, fly your plane" the movements change accordingly and so does the rest of the lyrics. It is basically the teachers’ call what and how to change the song, and it is always welcomed by the learners. After telling them the new lyrics is your own invention, maybe they can try and come up with another version as a part of their home assignment (trust me: even parents get involved in the process and the list of newly written songs has become endless and a true inspiration when a bit bored with the originals).
Conclusions
Sometimes students-perhaps especially those at the lower levels-can be anxious about speaking in class. One way to overcome their reticence and increase their opportunities to speak is to use pair work and group work. Pair work and group work are configuration of people for doing activities, rather than activity types per se. Pair work, as the name suggest, involve two students working together to complete task or exercise target language.
The discussions and explanation precluding section can be concluded as follows:
1. learning a foreign language is to learn how to use the language, as a target language for the various kinds of purposes
2. speaking can be one of the tools to gain the purpose
Bibliography
Brumfit, C,J., and J.T. Robert. Language and language teaching. London: Batsford Academic and Educational Ltd., 1983.
Pattison, Pat. Developing Communication Skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/speaking/stratspeak.htm
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Klancar-SpeakingSkills.html
ERROR ANALYZING
IN USING CONJUNCTIONS OF THE SENTENCES
Writing in Professional Context 2
Name : Hani Rahman
NPM : 07211210023
Class : 5A
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF TEACHING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF IBN KHALDUN BOGOR
2009/2010
INTRODUCTION
Some students has an opinion that writing is a difficult activity because it needs skills, but the other students say that writing is an interesting way for expressing feelings, ideas, critics, suggestions, and many others. There are some reasons why they don’t like writing than speaking. In speaking, may be we just need a confidence and some information without regarding words choices, grammar, punctuation and many other rules; but in writing, there are some aspects which are noticed, like as: words choices, punctuations, grammar and structure and many other rules in writing. Grammar in generally used to mean the structure of a language. By learning some aspects of grammar, we can probably learn to write sentences that are more mature and well-formed than we now write. In this paper, I give a title “Error analyzing in using conjunctions of the sentences” because I often find some mistakes which are made by my self and also my friends in using conjunctions. Therefore, I will analyze about the mistakes in using conjunctions in order that me and my friends can solve their mistake about using conjunctions. It is a small mistake but it has a big effect for conveying the information so that the purpose of our written can be understood by the readers well. Conjunctions extremely important words in our language because they express relationships between ideas, thus contributing to clarity smoothness in writing
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Most conjunctions are historically derived from other parts of speech, particularly from prepositions. Like prepositions, conjunctions are members of a small class that have no characteristic form. They function chiefly as non movable structure words that join such unit as parts of speech, phrases, or clauses.
A conjunction is a coordinating when it connects two (or more) parts of a sentences that are equal in rank-that is, parts that have the same grammatical structure or that function so identically that they can be thought of as having the same grammatical structure. The great English writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge went so far as to say that “a good writer may be known by his pertinent use of connectives. And another great English writer, Thomas de Quincy, said “all fluent and effective composition depends on the connectives”.
For constructing a good composition, it must be a parallelism of each sentence. When two or more sentences parts are joined by a coordinating conjunction, they are said to be in parallel structure, which means that every sentences of a composition are equal in rank and have a relationship from each other. In English structure, there are two main kinds of coordinating conjunctions, they are: coordinate conjunctions and subordinate conjunctions; and then will merge all two groups classify them according to the relationship they express between sentences or parts of sentences. Coordinate conjunctions join structural units that are equal grammatically. On the contrary, subordinate conjunctions will be taken up in detail later under the syntactic structures each one introduces.
DATA FINDING
1. Coordinate conjunction
The coordinate conjunction joins structural units that are equal grammatically. The conjunction comes before the last unit and is grammatically independent of this unit. Units joined are labeled compound . Compound units may be classified according to the formal structure of the units (parts of speech, phrases, clauses) or according to the function of the units (subject, predicate, and object). Coordinate conjunctions covering:
And
But
Yet Or
Nor For
so
Except for ‘for ‘and ‘so’, the coordinating conjunctions can connect virtually any kind of sentence parts, from single content word to independent clauses. This is one of the characteristics that make coordinating conjunction and conjunctive adverbs separate groups. Examples:
In the house and on the roof
Waiting patiently but not enjoying the delay
Curious yet afraid
Structural units joined by coordinate conjunctions
Part of speech (single word)
Conjunction and, or
The old woman slipped and fell on the pavement (compound verb)
A pronoun and a noun may be joined in the coordinate conjunctions, for example:
Auxiliaries may also be joined by coordinate conjunctions, for example:
We can and will succeed
A comma after the last coordinate auxiliary is optional, depending on whether the user would pause in speech.
Functional units joined by coordinate conjunctions
Coordinate units consisting of parts of speech, phrases, or clauses may also be classified according to their function in the sentence
Compound subjects How much she pays for her clothes or where she buys them does not interest her husband. (subject consists of noun clause)
Compound predicates They went out for dinner but returned in time for their favorite television program. (predicate consists of verbs and modifiers)
Compound objects He said that he was tired and that he was going to bed. (direct object consists of noun clauses)
Compound modifiers Anyone who doesn’t like the new policy of this company and who would like to resign is free to do so. (modifier consist of adjective clauses)
2. Correlatives conjunctions
Such paired conjunctions, called correlative conjunctions, serve to intensify the coordination. This correlative pair expresses addition, with greater emphasis placed on the second element. The correlatives are two-part coordinating conjunctions, as follows:
Both… and
Not only… but (also)
Either…or (else)
Neither… nor Not… but
Not… nor
Never… nor
Whether… or
These two-part conjunctions may join independent clauses or parts of sentences.
Examples:
Either you will apologize or I will bust your nose
Punctuation with coordinate conjunctions
Commas used with coordinate conjunctions appear only before the conjunctions. If only two words, two phrases, or two independent clauses are joined by a coordinate conjunction, no comma is used before the coordinate conjunctions. Examples: He said that he was very tired and that he was going home to rest. Sometimes, however, a comma may separate long dependent clauses. Example: Because he didn’t like to work in a tropical climate, and because he felt his abilities were not recognized by the company he worked for, he decided to look for a job in a colder climate.
3. Subordinate conjunctions
A subordinate conjunction introduces a clause that depends on a main, or independent clause. It never separated from its clause by a comma. Like coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions express a relationship between two ideas. For reference, here is a list for the chief subordinating conjunctions.
After
Although
As
As…as
As if
As soon as
As though
Because
Before
Fewer than
Fewer…than
However
if Inasmuch as
In case
In order that
In that
Less than
Less… than
Like
More than
More… than
No matter how
Now that
once Provided (that)
Since
So (that)
So…that
Than
Though
Till
Until
when
where
Whereas
Wherever
while
DATA ANALYZING
I have explained the types of conjunctions and their functions in compounding phrases, clauses and sentences. Now, I do like to explain some mistakes are often made by students in my class.
Faulty parallelism is a mistake happens because students have not understood yet about compounding the parts of speech or the functions of the units (subject, predicate, object, modifier, or complement) in the sentences. In addition, students often do a faulty parallelism in their sentences because they cannot distinguish the function of the words in every sentence. Faulty parallelism occurs when different grammatical structures are used coordinately for the same grammatical functions. For instance:
Nominal function
Faulty parallelism I’m reading about the origin of the violin and how it developed through the ages.
Correct to: I’m reading about the origin and development of the violin
Faulty parallelism Swimming in the lake and to walk through the woods are his favorite pastimes.
Correct to: Swimming in the lake and walking through the woods are his favorite pastimes.
Or To swim in the lake and to walk through the woods are his favorite pastimes.
Adjectival function
Faulty parallelism Mary is tall, with blond hair, and who has blue eyes
Correct to : Mary is tall, blond, and blue-eyed
From the table above, we can conclude that faulty parallelism can be avoided by recognizing the functions of the words in the sentences. in the example of number one, there is a faulty parallelism because it is not a parallel Compounding phrases. "The origin of the violin" is the first object of the sentence and it is a noun phrase, and “how it developed through the ages" is the second object of the sentence belongs to a kind of clause. Therefore, in order to make it becomes a parallel we must change it through compounding phrases, so the correct sentence is "I’m reading about the origin and development of the violin”.
Second the mistake which is often done by students is clauses not logically parallel- The boy was tall, dark, and very methodical. (The first two items refer to the boy’s appearance, the last item to one of his habits. Logical parallelism is required even with independent clauses that are joined coordinately. The example of clauses not logically parallel is
clauses not logically parallel Mr. Jones is our neighbor and he has a large house.
One way to eliminate such faulty coordination is to reduce one of the independent clauses. Therefore, the clauses above can be parallel- Mr. Jones, our neighbor, has a large house. However, the coordinate items must be arranged according to some logical principle. Thus we might have a climactic order (such as from less important to more important), a spacial order (such as from near to far), an order according to size (such as from small to large), or temporal order (such as from earlier to later. For instances:
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. (Francis Bacon) (Climactic order)
As a small boy, a grown man, and a senile invalid, he had always looked at the gloomy side of life. (temporal order).
An awareness of parallelism is important not only for the negative purpose of lining up related ideas in similar grammatical forms. Such a use of “positive parallelism” is especially important in formal English; the parallel structures help the reader or listener to see the relationship between many complexities of thought that are being expressed.
It is because nations tend to stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves at all. (George Gissling).
Third, the mistake which is often done by student in using conjunction is punctuation. Commas used with coordinate conjunctions appear only before the conjunction. Commas may separate items representing the same part of speech, the same type of phrase, or the same type of clause. If only two words, two phrases, or two dependent clauses, no comma is used before the coordinate conjunction- men and women are welcome. If three or more items are coordinated, commas separate the items. However, a comma before the conjunction preceding the last item is optional.
Besides that, generally, it is advisable to use a comma before the coordinate conjunctions for, in order to prevent misreading it as a preposition- the girl did all the shopping and cooking, for her mother was in the hospital. A semicolon may appear before a coordinate conjunction joining clauses if there is already internal punctuation within one or more of the clauses.
CONCLUSION
There are two types of conjunctions, coordinate and subordinate. The coordinate conjunction join structural units are equal grammatically. On the contrary, subordinate conjunctions will be taken up in detail later under the syntactic structures each one introduces. Some mistakes are often done by student in using conjunctions in their composition are: faulty parallelism, clause not logically parallel, and error in using punctuation especially when a conjunction is used.
SUGGESTION
I suggest you to read many grammar books because it can help you to write a good composition well. A good composition can’t be separated with structure, grammar, and other rules in writing, so we must notice all of that.
REFERENCES
1. Azar, Betty schrampfer. 1989. Understanding and Using English Grammar. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
2. Frank, Marcella. 1972. Modern English a Practical Reference Guide. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
3. Thieven, Richard C, and Birtney, Robert C. 1964. Reading for Introductory Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & world, Inc.
4. Whison, George E. and Julia M Burks. 1980. Let’s write English Revised Edition. New York: Litton Educational Publishing.
5. Wilis, Hulon.1976. Grammar and composition. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
IN USING CONJUNCTIONS OF THE SENTENCES
Writing in Professional Context 2
Name : Hani Rahman
NPM : 07211210023
Class : 5A
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF TEACHING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF IBN KHALDUN BOGOR
2009/2010
INTRODUCTION
Some students has an opinion that writing is a difficult activity because it needs skills, but the other students say that writing is an interesting way for expressing feelings, ideas, critics, suggestions, and many others. There are some reasons why they don’t like writing than speaking. In speaking, may be we just need a confidence and some information without regarding words choices, grammar, punctuation and many other rules; but in writing, there are some aspects which are noticed, like as: words choices, punctuations, grammar and structure and many other rules in writing. Grammar in generally used to mean the structure of a language. By learning some aspects of grammar, we can probably learn to write sentences that are more mature and well-formed than we now write. In this paper, I give a title “Error analyzing in using conjunctions of the sentences” because I often find some mistakes which are made by my self and also my friends in using conjunctions. Therefore, I will analyze about the mistakes in using conjunctions in order that me and my friends can solve their mistake about using conjunctions. It is a small mistake but it has a big effect for conveying the information so that the purpose of our written can be understood by the readers well. Conjunctions extremely important words in our language because they express relationships between ideas, thus contributing to clarity smoothness in writing
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Most conjunctions are historically derived from other parts of speech, particularly from prepositions. Like prepositions, conjunctions are members of a small class that have no characteristic form. They function chiefly as non movable structure words that join such unit as parts of speech, phrases, or clauses.
A conjunction is a coordinating when it connects two (or more) parts of a sentences that are equal in rank-that is, parts that have the same grammatical structure or that function so identically that they can be thought of as having the same grammatical structure. The great English writer Samuel Taylor Coleridge went so far as to say that “a good writer may be known by his pertinent use of connectives. And another great English writer, Thomas de Quincy, said “all fluent and effective composition depends on the connectives”.
For constructing a good composition, it must be a parallelism of each sentence. When two or more sentences parts are joined by a coordinating conjunction, they are said to be in parallel structure, which means that every sentences of a composition are equal in rank and have a relationship from each other. In English structure, there are two main kinds of coordinating conjunctions, they are: coordinate conjunctions and subordinate conjunctions; and then will merge all two groups classify them according to the relationship they express between sentences or parts of sentences. Coordinate conjunctions join structural units that are equal grammatically. On the contrary, subordinate conjunctions will be taken up in detail later under the syntactic structures each one introduces.
DATA FINDING
1. Coordinate conjunction
The coordinate conjunction joins structural units that are equal grammatically. The conjunction comes before the last unit and is grammatically independent of this unit. Units joined are labeled compound . Compound units may be classified according to the formal structure of the units (parts of speech, phrases, clauses) or according to the function of the units (subject, predicate, and object). Coordinate conjunctions covering:
And
But
Yet Or
Nor For
so
Except for ‘for ‘and ‘so’, the coordinating conjunctions can connect virtually any kind of sentence parts, from single content word to independent clauses. This is one of the characteristics that make coordinating conjunction and conjunctive adverbs separate groups. Examples:
In the house and on the roof
Waiting patiently but not enjoying the delay
Curious yet afraid
Structural units joined by coordinate conjunctions
Part of speech (single word)
Conjunction and, or
The old woman slipped and fell on the pavement (compound verb)
A pronoun and a noun may be joined in the coordinate conjunctions, for example:
Auxiliaries may also be joined by coordinate conjunctions, for example:
We can and will succeed
A comma after the last coordinate auxiliary is optional, depending on whether the user would pause in speech.
Functional units joined by coordinate conjunctions
Coordinate units consisting of parts of speech, phrases, or clauses may also be classified according to their function in the sentence
Compound subjects How much she pays for her clothes or where she buys them does not interest her husband. (subject consists of noun clause)
Compound predicates They went out for dinner but returned in time for their favorite television program. (predicate consists of verbs and modifiers)
Compound objects He said that he was tired and that he was going to bed. (direct object consists of noun clauses)
Compound modifiers Anyone who doesn’t like the new policy of this company and who would like to resign is free to do so. (modifier consist of adjective clauses)
2. Correlatives conjunctions
Such paired conjunctions, called correlative conjunctions, serve to intensify the coordination. This correlative pair expresses addition, with greater emphasis placed on the second element. The correlatives are two-part coordinating conjunctions, as follows:
Both… and
Not only… but (also)
Either…or (else)
Neither… nor Not… but
Not… nor
Never… nor
Whether… or
These two-part conjunctions may join independent clauses or parts of sentences.
Examples:
Either you will apologize or I will bust your nose
Punctuation with coordinate conjunctions
Commas used with coordinate conjunctions appear only before the conjunctions. If only two words, two phrases, or two independent clauses are joined by a coordinate conjunction, no comma is used before the coordinate conjunctions. Examples: He said that he was very tired and that he was going home to rest. Sometimes, however, a comma may separate long dependent clauses. Example: Because he didn’t like to work in a tropical climate, and because he felt his abilities were not recognized by the company he worked for, he decided to look for a job in a colder climate.
3. Subordinate conjunctions
A subordinate conjunction introduces a clause that depends on a main, or independent clause. It never separated from its clause by a comma. Like coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions express a relationship between two ideas. For reference, here is a list for the chief subordinating conjunctions.
After
Although
As
As…as
As if
As soon as
As though
Because
Before
Fewer than
Fewer…than
However
if Inasmuch as
In case
In order that
In that
Less than
Less… than
Like
More than
More… than
No matter how
Now that
once Provided (that)
Since
So (that)
So…that
Than
Though
Till
Until
when
where
Whereas
Wherever
while
DATA ANALYZING
I have explained the types of conjunctions and their functions in compounding phrases, clauses and sentences. Now, I do like to explain some mistakes are often made by students in my class.
Faulty parallelism is a mistake happens because students have not understood yet about compounding the parts of speech or the functions of the units (subject, predicate, object, modifier, or complement) in the sentences. In addition, students often do a faulty parallelism in their sentences because they cannot distinguish the function of the words in every sentence. Faulty parallelism occurs when different grammatical structures are used coordinately for the same grammatical functions. For instance:
Nominal function
Faulty parallelism I’m reading about the origin of the violin and how it developed through the ages.
Correct to: I’m reading about the origin and development of the violin
Faulty parallelism Swimming in the lake and to walk through the woods are his favorite pastimes.
Correct to: Swimming in the lake and walking through the woods are his favorite pastimes.
Or To swim in the lake and to walk through the woods are his favorite pastimes.
Adjectival function
Faulty parallelism Mary is tall, with blond hair, and who has blue eyes
Correct to : Mary is tall, blond, and blue-eyed
From the table above, we can conclude that faulty parallelism can be avoided by recognizing the functions of the words in the sentences. in the example of number one, there is a faulty parallelism because it is not a parallel Compounding phrases. "The origin of the violin" is the first object of the sentence and it is a noun phrase, and “how it developed through the ages" is the second object of the sentence belongs to a kind of clause. Therefore, in order to make it becomes a parallel we must change it through compounding phrases, so the correct sentence is "I’m reading about the origin and development of the violin”.
Second the mistake which is often done by students is clauses not logically parallel- The boy was tall, dark, and very methodical. (The first two items refer to the boy’s appearance, the last item to one of his habits. Logical parallelism is required even with independent clauses that are joined coordinately. The example of clauses not logically parallel is
clauses not logically parallel Mr. Jones is our neighbor and he has a large house.
One way to eliminate such faulty coordination is to reduce one of the independent clauses. Therefore, the clauses above can be parallel- Mr. Jones, our neighbor, has a large house. However, the coordinate items must be arranged according to some logical principle. Thus we might have a climactic order (such as from less important to more important), a spacial order (such as from near to far), an order according to size (such as from small to large), or temporal order (such as from earlier to later. For instances:
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. (Francis Bacon) (Climactic order)
As a small boy, a grown man, and a senile invalid, he had always looked at the gloomy side of life. (temporal order).
An awareness of parallelism is important not only for the negative purpose of lining up related ideas in similar grammatical forms. Such a use of “positive parallelism” is especially important in formal English; the parallel structures help the reader or listener to see the relationship between many complexities of thought that are being expressed.
It is because nations tend to stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves at all. (George Gissling).
Third, the mistake which is often done by student in using conjunction is punctuation. Commas used with coordinate conjunctions appear only before the conjunction. Commas may separate items representing the same part of speech, the same type of phrase, or the same type of clause. If only two words, two phrases, or two dependent clauses, no comma is used before the coordinate conjunction- men and women are welcome. If three or more items are coordinated, commas separate the items. However, a comma before the conjunction preceding the last item is optional.
Besides that, generally, it is advisable to use a comma before the coordinate conjunctions for, in order to prevent misreading it as a preposition- the girl did all the shopping and cooking, for her mother was in the hospital. A semicolon may appear before a coordinate conjunction joining clauses if there is already internal punctuation within one or more of the clauses.
CONCLUSION
There are two types of conjunctions, coordinate and subordinate. The coordinate conjunction join structural units are equal grammatically. On the contrary, subordinate conjunctions will be taken up in detail later under the syntactic structures each one introduces. Some mistakes are often done by student in using conjunctions in their composition are: faulty parallelism, clause not logically parallel, and error in using punctuation especially when a conjunction is used.
SUGGESTION
I suggest you to read many grammar books because it can help you to write a good composition well. A good composition can’t be separated with structure, grammar, and other rules in writing, so we must notice all of that.
REFERENCES
1. Azar, Betty schrampfer. 1989. Understanding and Using English Grammar. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
2. Frank, Marcella. 1972. Modern English a Practical Reference Guide. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
3. Thieven, Richard C, and Birtney, Robert C. 1964. Reading for Introductory Psychology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & world, Inc.
4. Whison, George E. and Julia M Burks. 1980. Let’s write English Revised Edition. New York: Litton Educational Publishing.
5. Wilis, Hulon.1976. Grammar and composition. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
LEARNING
COUNTABLE and UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Created by :
Eka Yuli Andriani
07211210288
Semester 5 B
FAKULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE
IBN KHALDUN UNIVERSITY
2009-2010
INTRODUCTION
English is one of the main subjects in the school. The students are expected to master language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The primary goal of learning English for this level as the expectation of the Competency Based Curriculum for students is to make students have knowledge and capability to use English in four language skills. The students hope to be able to change singular noun to be plural form. There are two kinds of noun if we see form the form of the noun; they are singular and plural nouns. Singular nouns which refer to one in number, for example: book, car, lamp, etc. plural noun is noun which refers to more than one in number which usually signed by adding “s” or “es” at the end of the word, for example: books, cars, lamps, etc.
Then, Plural noun is divided into two kinds; they are regular and irregular plural noun.
In English, nouns heading noun phrases are typically either countable or uncountable (also called count and mass). Knowledge of countability is important when translating from a source language without obligatory countability distinctions to a target language that does make number distinctions. Nouns is a word that refers to thing, place or people. First, according to Elaine and Darcy Jack (1985: 64) nouns is a kind of class word which refers to living or unloving thing and person, for example cat, book, John, etc. they classify nouns into singular nouns, plural nounsm countable nouns, uncountable nouns, masculine nouns, feminime nouns and neuter nouns. Second, Patricia K. Werner and Mary Mitchel Church (1951: 48) say that nouns is a word which refers to thing, idea, quantity and emotion, for example home, love, students, etc. they classify nouns into two main categories, they are abstract and concrete nouns.
Nouns is a word that refers to thing, place or thing. According to Betty (1985: 23) noun can be classified based on the way we see it. If we see from the way see it, noun can classify into two; they are concrete and abstract noun. Then, if we see from the form, noun can be classified into two they are singular and plural noun. If we see from the way to count, we can classify into two; they are countable and uncountable noun.
THEORITICAL FOUNDATION
A noun can be countable or uncountable. Countable nouns can be "counted", they have a singular and plural form. A Countable Noun is a noun that has both a singular and a plural form. The plural is normally made by the addition of '-s'.
eg: A horse Two horses
Nouns that do not have plural forms are called uncountable nouns or mass nouns.
For example:
• A book, two books, three books .....
• An apple, two apples, three apples ....
Uncountable nouns (also called mass nouns or non count nouns) cannot be counted, they are not separate objects. This means you cannot make them plural by adding -s, because they only have a singular form. It also means that they do not take a/an or a number in front of them.
For example:
• Water
• Work
• Information
• Coffee
• Sand
Countable
(use a/an or a number in front of countable nouns) Uncountable
(there is no a/an or number with uncountable nouns)
An Apple / 1 Apple Rice
I eat an apple every day. I eat rice every day. (not I eat a rice every day.)
Add (s) to make a countable noun plural There is no plural form for an uncountable noun
apples rice
I eat an apple every day. Apples are good for you. I eat rice every day. Rice is good for you.
A computer= Computers are fun. To make uncountable nouns countable add a counting word, such as a unit of measurement, or the general word piece. We use the form "a ....... of ......."
An elephant=Elephants are large. Rice=a grain of rice
Water=a glass of water
Rain=a drop of rain
Music=a piece of music
You can use some and any with countable nouns.
Some dogs can be dangerous.
I don't use any computers at work. You can use some and any with uncountable nouns.
I usually drink some wine with my meal.
I don't usually drink any water with my wine.
You only use many and few with plural countable nouns
So many elephants have been hunted that they are an endangered species.
There are few elephants in England.
You only use much and little with uncountable nouns.
I don't usually drink much coffee.
Little wine is undrinkable though.
You can use a lot of and no with plural countable nouns.
No computers were bought last week.
A lot of computers were reported broken the week before. You can use a lot of and no with uncountable nouns.
A lot of wine is drunk in France.
No wine is drunk in Iran.
Making uncountable nouns countable
You can make most uncountable noun countable by putting a countable expression in front of the noun.
For example:
• A piece of information.
• 2 glasses of water.
• 10 litres of coffee.
• Three grains of sand.
• A pane of glass.
Sources of confusion with countable and uncountable nouns
The notion of countable and uncountable can be confusing. Some nouns can be countable or uncountable depending on their meaning. Usually a noun is uncountable when used in a general, abstract meaning (when you don't think of it as a separate object) and countable when used in a particular meaning (when you can think of it as a separate object).
For example:
- glass : A glass of water. (Countable) | A window made of glass. (Uncountable)
Some supposedly uncountable nouns can behave like countable nouns if we think of them as being in containers, or one of several types.
This is because 'containers' and 'types' can be counted.
Believe it or not each of these sentences is correct:-
Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two coffees a day. (Here coffees refers to the number of cups of coffee) You could write; "Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two cups of coffee a day."
The coffees I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian. (Here coffees refers to different types of coffee)
You could write; "The types of coffee I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian."
Rules For Using Singular
Countable Nouns Rules For Using Plural
Countable Nouns
1. A determiner must be used before noun(or adverb if adjectives are used, such as a, the, this, one, ours, his etc. 1.A determiner is optional before noun(or adverb if adjectives are used.
2. The article "a" or :an" can be used. 2. The articles "a" or "an" can't be used.
3.Only the number one can be used to state the amount. 3. Any number bigger then two can be used to state an amount.
4. Possessive adjectives my be used such as my, his, our etc. 4.Possessive adjectives my be used such as his, our, etc.
5. Quantifiers can't be used.
5. Quantifiers can be used, such as some, any, many, a lot etc.
6. A demonstrative adjectives can be used such as this, those etc. 6. A demonstrative adjectives can be used such as this, those etc.
Examples of Countable Nouns:
Nouns Nouns In The Singular Form Nouns In The Plural Form Nouns Represented By A Number
dog The dog is big. The dogs are big. There are six dogs in the room.
boy The boy is tall. The boys are tall. There are three tall boys in my class.
car Our car is green. All the cars at work are white. There are six cars parked on my street.
window The window is big. The windows are clean. The room has three window.
ANALYSIS / DATA
When we speak of nouns as being countable or uncountable, it is mean that some things can be counted while others cannot. Countable nouns name individual items that can add up, there can be one or more of them. Other things can not be counted, they are considered collective rather than individual items. In many cases this distinction is easy to understand. We all recognize that we can count items like books, tables, eggs, or mountains. We can easily imagine one or more of such items. And most of us recognize that it is not impossible to count other things like water, dust, air, or ice cream. These things can not easily be separated into individual items.
But many nouns are uncountable for less obvious like peace, happiness, wealth and knowledge are countable. So are many activities such as swimming, eating, and debauchery, and some conditions such as confusion, frustration, satisfaction, and certainly. These nouns are considered uncountable because they are not easily identified as single things, the idea of happiness can consist of many different things and can be different for different people or because they refer to general activities rather than specific instances, eating refers to the activity in general, not any particular example.
The name of most disciplines are also uncountable, for example, sociology, medicine, anthropology. Nouns ending in –ism are also usually uncountable, for example feminism, optimism and patriotism. Some uncountable nouns like money, homework, work and gossip very confusing for learners. Of English because they seem to refer to particular items, yet they are treated as general.
Noun can be classified basically into two categories, they are singular and plural noun. Singular noun is noun which refers to one in number, for example: book, car, lamp, etc. plural noun is noun which refers to more than one in number which usually signed by adding “s” or “es” at the end of the word, for example: book, cars, lamps, etc. then, Plural noun is divided into two kinds; they are regular and irregular plural noun.
Regular plural noun is noun which denotes more than one that has rules, for example: book --- books, car ---- cars, lamp --- lamps, etc. singular with end “y” and there is a consonant before it, so “y” is changed into “I” and added by “es”. Singular with end “y” and there is a vowel before it, so “y” is not changed but only added “s”. Irregular plural noun is noun which denotes more than one that has special rules, for example: child --- children, mouse --- mice, fish --- fish, etc. so we should know the in forming regular plural noun there are some rules whether by adding “s” or “es” at the end of the singular noun.
Then, in forming irregular nouns, there are several rules that different from regular noun such as noun that have vowels’ changes, the noun that end in – f or – fe only added with –s to form their plural, the noun that end in – f or – fe must be changed to –ves, etc. The students also using plural nouns in their writing, plural nouns is one aspects of the sentence, so the students must mastering how to form plural nouns with correct grammar in their writing.
The plural nouns are taught for increasing ability of the students in forming plural nouns, differentiating plural nouns, and using plural nouns in the sentence.
Senior high school students have already studied about nouns; like using singular noun and plural nouns but sometimes most of them still make mistakes in form plural nouns. This happened because the students might not be able to form what the regular plural nouns and irregular plural nouns. When the writer did teaching practice before, the teacher said that the students do not know all the rules to form plural noun. Then, while doing teaching practice the writer found some students made mistakes in using plural noun.
CONCLUSION
Here are some rules we came across:
1. Countability comes with a determiner such as, a or an.
What quickly became clear to us was that most uncountable nouns can easily be made into countable ones with a few adjustments.
Let's take milk; this can become a glass of milk. Coffee can become a cup of coffee, some would argue that a coffee is also correct. Is it therefore correct to say "I'd like a water"? Probably, yes. Sand can become a grain of sand, luggage becomes a piece of luggage, and so can courage become an example of courage? Impatience, a moment of impatience? It would seem so. What about chicken? We can say a chicken or some chicken. So some nouns can be both, depending on your meaning. Wood, can be for making a table or a wood can be a forest.
Let's get back to chicken, if we can take a piece of chicken and say I have some chicken, can we also take a chair, detach the leg from it, hold it up and proudly declare you have some chair? It seems not. And can we not saw away at a table, take a chunk of wood from it, walk into work and say, "Look, I have some table?" It seems not. Why? Well, the reason seems to lie in boundaries. When you have a table leg, it is no longer recognizable as a table, the definition of "table" has been lost, the boundary has been broken. However, getting back to chickens, when you rip a leg off a chicken (preferably a dead one), it is still recognizable as chicken, its boundary hasn't been broken. Similarly if I take a cup of sugar and pour some on the table it is still sugar, uncountable. So a rule is formed;
2. When a noun is separated and the boundary isn't broken it is uncountable.
This rule was nicely backed up by Woody Allen running around in one of his films, seemingly at last a proud landowner, dirt scooped up into his hands declaring, "I have some land!"
Or is it?
What became clear to us, as we began drawing on our instinct as native speakers and English teachers, is that there were often no right or wrong sentences. It's just a case of different sentences can conjure up different images in the mind of the listener. We also quickly drew the conclusion that some of this could well confuse a learner. And it was just there that Scott Thornbury came to the rescue. Scott, by the way, is the author of "How to Teach Grammar" (Longman), a recommended book from this session. He says that different level learners need to know different things, especially about grammar. One of the mistakes of some teachers is to tell students the wrong information about a grammatical point, information they may not yet need to know.
Take a simple example. When you teach beginners the use of "some" and "any", you would tell them that "some" is for positive sentences and "any" for negatives or questions. You would not need to tell them that you can use "some" in questions if you expect the other person to say yes, and "any" if you want them to say no. As in, "do you want some more wine?" or "do you want any more wine?" This is knowledge overload and the same is true for countable nouns. For a beginner you may teach that a person is countable and the plural is people. You may not want to say at this stage that people can also be countable if you are talking about a race, as in China has 56 peoples. At this point in our session we looked at handout 2 COMMON QUESTIONS. This is a list of common questions that students ask about this topic. If you open that now then the comments below will make more sense.
Comments on COMMON QUESTIONS
1. "Fish" is the singular and plural form. In more formal and old English you may have seen "fishes" for the plural, this is however, rare nowadays. Whilst some of us felt fishes was correct to describe different species, others felt saying 2 types/species of fish was the correct usage. Referring back to boundaries, if a fish farmer were to say to you "Would you like some fish?", is he offering to sell you a batch of trout, or is he inviting you to taste his dinner?
2. One people, two peoples. How many peoples are there in China, by the way?
3. A would be the normal answer. D is correct if you are referring to a specific fire.
4. B. is more common.
5. 1. ia A, 2. should be "The science".
6. 1. Fruit. 2. Fruits or fruit.
7. Knowledge is uncountable.
8. "Do" can be used as a noun, as in "the do's and the don'ts". While we say that's a don't, we wouldn't say that's a do, we'd say that's a must or a must-do. However, if we say a do, we could be referring to a party (as in "what a dry do!"...a party with little alcohol). Alternatively, it could refer to a hair do!
9. Time is countable. One time, two times. How many times? However, when we say how much time do you need? it is uncountable, the units of time (minutes, seconds or hours etc...) could be countable. This was a tricky one for the philosophers of the group who insisted that time doesn't exist, therefore how can you count it? If time is just an abstract concept and the only moment is now, how can you measure time?
10. Sheep and deer are like fish, in the sense they are both singular and plural countable nouns. Cattle, though is uncountable. You could say a head of cattle, to refer to one. There are many unusual collective nouns in English, such as a herd of cows, a school of fish, a flock of seagulls, an army of ants, does anybody know what a group of starlings are called?
12. Countable and more colloquially uncountable.
13. A. a paper is often used to refer to a thesis or a newspaper.
14. Experience can be either countable or uncountable, and the meaning doesn't change. I have a lot of experience, or many experiences. Character, can be either but the meaning changes. He has a lot of character, means he has a strong personality, however, many characters in a play refers to the people of the play.
15. "in good condition" is for inanimate objects, "in good health" for people.
16. Consult a good grammar book for the correct usage! Good ways of teaching it maybe through using collocations (e.g. there's plenty of time), set phrases (e.g. there's little time to waste), humor (e.g. "there are little people in the class today." "Really and where is Snow White?") or physical realia (e.g. use glasses or bowls with a lot or a little water).
17. See first handout on UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS. We also agreed that, "the" is specifying or identifying, and "a" is classifying.
Also, consider the phrase "Save the Whale!" Why is it "the" whale? It's not one particular one we have seen, is it? Apparently not. This is an example of a culturally identified stereotype. We are referring to all whales. If we said, "Save whales!" it may only refer to some whales, somewhere, in a vague kind of way. However, why do we say, "we must save time" not "we must save the time"? And as some people argued, can we save time anyway? Can you put it in a box and keep for when you are older? Doesn't everyone get the same amount of time? And before philosophy takes over, as it certainly did with us in this session, this seems a good moment to stop.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Azhar, Betty Scramper. 1985. Fundamental of English Grammar. New Jersey: Pretice Hall Regent Englewood Clifts.
Azhar, Betty Scramper. 1989. Understanding and using English
Laycock, Henry, 2005 'Mass nouns, Count nouns and Non-count nouns
COUNTABLE and UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Created by :
Eka Yuli Andriani
07211210288
Semester 5 B
FAKULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL SCIENCE
IBN KHALDUN UNIVERSITY
2009-2010
INTRODUCTION
English is one of the main subjects in the school. The students are expected to master language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The primary goal of learning English for this level as the expectation of the Competency Based Curriculum for students is to make students have knowledge and capability to use English in four language skills. The students hope to be able to change singular noun to be plural form. There are two kinds of noun if we see form the form of the noun; they are singular and plural nouns. Singular nouns which refer to one in number, for example: book, car, lamp, etc. plural noun is noun which refers to more than one in number which usually signed by adding “s” or “es” at the end of the word, for example: books, cars, lamps, etc.
Then, Plural noun is divided into two kinds; they are regular and irregular plural noun.
In English, nouns heading noun phrases are typically either countable or uncountable (also called count and mass). Knowledge of countability is important when translating from a source language without obligatory countability distinctions to a target language that does make number distinctions. Nouns is a word that refers to thing, place or people. First, according to Elaine and Darcy Jack (1985: 64) nouns is a kind of class word which refers to living or unloving thing and person, for example cat, book, John, etc. they classify nouns into singular nouns, plural nounsm countable nouns, uncountable nouns, masculine nouns, feminime nouns and neuter nouns. Second, Patricia K. Werner and Mary Mitchel Church (1951: 48) say that nouns is a word which refers to thing, idea, quantity and emotion, for example home, love, students, etc. they classify nouns into two main categories, they are abstract and concrete nouns.
Nouns is a word that refers to thing, place or thing. According to Betty (1985: 23) noun can be classified based on the way we see it. If we see from the way see it, noun can classify into two; they are concrete and abstract noun. Then, if we see from the form, noun can be classified into two they are singular and plural noun. If we see from the way to count, we can classify into two; they are countable and uncountable noun.
THEORITICAL FOUNDATION
A noun can be countable or uncountable. Countable nouns can be "counted", they have a singular and plural form. A Countable Noun is a noun that has both a singular and a plural form. The plural is normally made by the addition of '-s'.
eg: A horse Two horses
Nouns that do not have plural forms are called uncountable nouns or mass nouns.
For example:
• A book, two books, three books .....
• An apple, two apples, three apples ....
Uncountable nouns (also called mass nouns or non count nouns) cannot be counted, they are not separate objects. This means you cannot make them plural by adding -s, because they only have a singular form. It also means that they do not take a/an or a number in front of them.
For example:
• Water
• Work
• Information
• Coffee
• Sand
Countable
(use a/an or a number in front of countable nouns) Uncountable
(there is no a/an or number with uncountable nouns)
An Apple / 1 Apple Rice
I eat an apple every day. I eat rice every day. (not I eat a rice every day.)
Add (s) to make a countable noun plural There is no plural form for an uncountable noun
apples rice
I eat an apple every day. Apples are good for you. I eat rice every day. Rice is good for you.
A computer= Computers are fun. To make uncountable nouns countable add a counting word, such as a unit of measurement, or the general word piece. We use the form "a ....... of ......."
An elephant=Elephants are large. Rice=a grain of rice
Water=a glass of water
Rain=a drop of rain
Music=a piece of music
You can use some and any with countable nouns.
Some dogs can be dangerous.
I don't use any computers at work. You can use some and any with uncountable nouns.
I usually drink some wine with my meal.
I don't usually drink any water with my wine.
You only use many and few with plural countable nouns
So many elephants have been hunted that they are an endangered species.
There are few elephants in England.
You only use much and little with uncountable nouns.
I don't usually drink much coffee.
Little wine is undrinkable though.
You can use a lot of and no with plural countable nouns.
No computers were bought last week.
A lot of computers were reported broken the week before. You can use a lot of and no with uncountable nouns.
A lot of wine is drunk in France.
No wine is drunk in Iran.
Making uncountable nouns countable
You can make most uncountable noun countable by putting a countable expression in front of the noun.
For example:
• A piece of information.
• 2 glasses of water.
• 10 litres of coffee.
• Three grains of sand.
• A pane of glass.
Sources of confusion with countable and uncountable nouns
The notion of countable and uncountable can be confusing. Some nouns can be countable or uncountable depending on their meaning. Usually a noun is uncountable when used in a general, abstract meaning (when you don't think of it as a separate object) and countable when used in a particular meaning (when you can think of it as a separate object).
For example:
- glass : A glass of water. (Countable) | A window made of glass. (Uncountable)
Some supposedly uncountable nouns can behave like countable nouns if we think of them as being in containers, or one of several types.
This is because 'containers' and 'types' can be counted.
Believe it or not each of these sentences is correct:-
Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two coffees a day. (Here coffees refers to the number of cups of coffee) You could write; "Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two cups of coffee a day."
The coffees I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian. (Here coffees refers to different types of coffee)
You could write; "The types of coffee I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian."
Rules For Using Singular
Countable Nouns Rules For Using Plural
Countable Nouns
1. A determiner must be used before noun(or adverb if adjectives are used, such as a, the, this, one, ours, his etc. 1.A determiner is optional before noun(or adverb if adjectives are used.
2. The article "a" or :an" can be used. 2. The articles "a" or "an" can't be used.
3.Only the number one can be used to state the amount. 3. Any number bigger then two can be used to state an amount.
4. Possessive adjectives my be used such as my, his, our etc. 4.Possessive adjectives my be used such as his, our, etc.
5. Quantifiers can't be used.
5. Quantifiers can be used, such as some, any, many, a lot etc.
6. A demonstrative adjectives can be used such as this, those etc. 6. A demonstrative adjectives can be used such as this, those etc.
Examples of Countable Nouns:
Nouns Nouns In The Singular Form Nouns In The Plural Form Nouns Represented By A Number
dog The dog is big. The dogs are big. There are six dogs in the room.
boy The boy is tall. The boys are tall. There are three tall boys in my class.
car Our car is green. All the cars at work are white. There are six cars parked on my street.
window The window is big. The windows are clean. The room has three window.
ANALYSIS / DATA
When we speak of nouns as being countable or uncountable, it is mean that some things can be counted while others cannot. Countable nouns name individual items that can add up, there can be one or more of them. Other things can not be counted, they are considered collective rather than individual items. In many cases this distinction is easy to understand. We all recognize that we can count items like books, tables, eggs, or mountains. We can easily imagine one or more of such items. And most of us recognize that it is not impossible to count other things like water, dust, air, or ice cream. These things can not easily be separated into individual items.
But many nouns are uncountable for less obvious like peace, happiness, wealth and knowledge are countable. So are many activities such as swimming, eating, and debauchery, and some conditions such as confusion, frustration, satisfaction, and certainly. These nouns are considered uncountable because they are not easily identified as single things, the idea of happiness can consist of many different things and can be different for different people or because they refer to general activities rather than specific instances, eating refers to the activity in general, not any particular example.
The name of most disciplines are also uncountable, for example, sociology, medicine, anthropology. Nouns ending in –ism are also usually uncountable, for example feminism, optimism and patriotism. Some uncountable nouns like money, homework, work and gossip very confusing for learners. Of English because they seem to refer to particular items, yet they are treated as general.
Noun can be classified basically into two categories, they are singular and plural noun. Singular noun is noun which refers to one in number, for example: book, car, lamp, etc. plural noun is noun which refers to more than one in number which usually signed by adding “s” or “es” at the end of the word, for example: book, cars, lamps, etc. then, Plural noun is divided into two kinds; they are regular and irregular plural noun.
Regular plural noun is noun which denotes more than one that has rules, for example: book --- books, car ---- cars, lamp --- lamps, etc. singular with end “y” and there is a consonant before it, so “y” is changed into “I” and added by “es”. Singular with end “y” and there is a vowel before it, so “y” is not changed but only added “s”. Irregular plural noun is noun which denotes more than one that has special rules, for example: child --- children, mouse --- mice, fish --- fish, etc. so we should know the in forming regular plural noun there are some rules whether by adding “s” or “es” at the end of the singular noun.
Then, in forming irregular nouns, there are several rules that different from regular noun such as noun that have vowels’ changes, the noun that end in – f or – fe only added with –s to form their plural, the noun that end in – f or – fe must be changed to –ves, etc. The students also using plural nouns in their writing, plural nouns is one aspects of the sentence, so the students must mastering how to form plural nouns with correct grammar in their writing.
The plural nouns are taught for increasing ability of the students in forming plural nouns, differentiating plural nouns, and using plural nouns in the sentence.
Senior high school students have already studied about nouns; like using singular noun and plural nouns but sometimes most of them still make mistakes in form plural nouns. This happened because the students might not be able to form what the regular plural nouns and irregular plural nouns. When the writer did teaching practice before, the teacher said that the students do not know all the rules to form plural noun. Then, while doing teaching practice the writer found some students made mistakes in using plural noun.
CONCLUSION
Here are some rules we came across:
1. Countability comes with a determiner such as, a or an.
What quickly became clear to us was that most uncountable nouns can easily be made into countable ones with a few adjustments.
Let's take milk; this can become a glass of milk. Coffee can become a cup of coffee, some would argue that a coffee is also correct. Is it therefore correct to say "I'd like a water"? Probably, yes. Sand can become a grain of sand, luggage becomes a piece of luggage, and so can courage become an example of courage? Impatience, a moment of impatience? It would seem so. What about chicken? We can say a chicken or some chicken. So some nouns can be both, depending on your meaning. Wood, can be for making a table or a wood can be a forest.
Let's get back to chicken, if we can take a piece of chicken and say I have some chicken, can we also take a chair, detach the leg from it, hold it up and proudly declare you have some chair? It seems not. And can we not saw away at a table, take a chunk of wood from it, walk into work and say, "Look, I have some table?" It seems not. Why? Well, the reason seems to lie in boundaries. When you have a table leg, it is no longer recognizable as a table, the definition of "table" has been lost, the boundary has been broken. However, getting back to chickens, when you rip a leg off a chicken (preferably a dead one), it is still recognizable as chicken, its boundary hasn't been broken. Similarly if I take a cup of sugar and pour some on the table it is still sugar, uncountable. So a rule is formed;
2. When a noun is separated and the boundary isn't broken it is uncountable.
This rule was nicely backed up by Woody Allen running around in one of his films, seemingly at last a proud landowner, dirt scooped up into his hands declaring, "I have some land!"
Or is it?
What became clear to us, as we began drawing on our instinct as native speakers and English teachers, is that there were often no right or wrong sentences. It's just a case of different sentences can conjure up different images in the mind of the listener. We also quickly drew the conclusion that some of this could well confuse a learner. And it was just there that Scott Thornbury came to the rescue. Scott, by the way, is the author of "How to Teach Grammar" (Longman), a recommended book from this session. He says that different level learners need to know different things, especially about grammar. One of the mistakes of some teachers is to tell students the wrong information about a grammatical point, information they may not yet need to know.
Take a simple example. When you teach beginners the use of "some" and "any", you would tell them that "some" is for positive sentences and "any" for negatives or questions. You would not need to tell them that you can use "some" in questions if you expect the other person to say yes, and "any" if you want them to say no. As in, "do you want some more wine?" or "do you want any more wine?" This is knowledge overload and the same is true for countable nouns. For a beginner you may teach that a person is countable and the plural is people. You may not want to say at this stage that people can also be countable if you are talking about a race, as in China has 56 peoples. At this point in our session we looked at handout 2 COMMON QUESTIONS. This is a list of common questions that students ask about this topic. If you open that now then the comments below will make more sense.
Comments on COMMON QUESTIONS
1. "Fish" is the singular and plural form. In more formal and old English you may have seen "fishes" for the plural, this is however, rare nowadays. Whilst some of us felt fishes was correct to describe different species, others felt saying 2 types/species of fish was the correct usage. Referring back to boundaries, if a fish farmer were to say to you "Would you like some fish?", is he offering to sell you a batch of trout, or is he inviting you to taste his dinner?
2. One people, two peoples. How many peoples are there in China, by the way?
3. A would be the normal answer. D is correct if you are referring to a specific fire.
4. B. is more common.
5. 1. ia A, 2. should be "The science".
6. 1. Fruit. 2. Fruits or fruit.
7. Knowledge is uncountable.
8. "Do" can be used as a noun, as in "the do's and the don'ts". While we say that's a don't, we wouldn't say that's a do, we'd say that's a must or a must-do. However, if we say a do, we could be referring to a party (as in "what a dry do!"...a party with little alcohol). Alternatively, it could refer to a hair do!
9. Time is countable. One time, two times. How many times? However, when we say how much time do you need? it is uncountable, the units of time (minutes, seconds or hours etc...) could be countable. This was a tricky one for the philosophers of the group who insisted that time doesn't exist, therefore how can you count it? If time is just an abstract concept and the only moment is now, how can you measure time?
10. Sheep and deer are like fish, in the sense they are both singular and plural countable nouns. Cattle, though is uncountable. You could say a head of cattle, to refer to one. There are many unusual collective nouns in English, such as a herd of cows, a school of fish, a flock of seagulls, an army of ants, does anybody know what a group of starlings are called?
12. Countable and more colloquially uncountable.
13. A. a paper is often used to refer to a thesis or a newspaper.
14. Experience can be either countable or uncountable, and the meaning doesn't change. I have a lot of experience, or many experiences. Character, can be either but the meaning changes. He has a lot of character, means he has a strong personality, however, many characters in a play refers to the people of the play.
15. "in good condition" is for inanimate objects, "in good health" for people.
16. Consult a good grammar book for the correct usage! Good ways of teaching it maybe through using collocations (e.g. there's plenty of time), set phrases (e.g. there's little time to waste), humor (e.g. "there are little people in the class today." "Really and where is Snow White?") or physical realia (e.g. use glasses or bowls with a lot or a little water).
17. See first handout on UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS. We also agreed that, "the" is specifying or identifying, and "a" is classifying.
Also, consider the phrase "Save the Whale!" Why is it "the" whale? It's not one particular one we have seen, is it? Apparently not. This is an example of a culturally identified stereotype. We are referring to all whales. If we said, "Save whales!" it may only refer to some whales, somewhere, in a vague kind of way. However, why do we say, "we must save time" not "we must save the time"? And as some people argued, can we save time anyway? Can you put it in a box and keep for when you are older? Doesn't everyone get the same amount of time? And before philosophy takes over, as it certainly did with us in this session, this seems a good moment to stop.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Azhar, Betty Scramper. 1985. Fundamental of English Grammar. New Jersey: Pretice Hall Regent Englewood Clifts.
Azhar, Betty Scramper. 1989. Understanding and using English
Laycock, Henry, 2005 'Mass nouns, Count nouns and Non-count nouns
Story Telling Can Improve Speaking Ability for Beginner
by
Henny Handayani
07211210197
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Activation is a technique of teaching English that ask student to active in speaking. And story telling is one of way for teaches students to communicate creatively in learning English. As a second or foreign language, English is not easy to learn by the students at the beginning of the study. For them, English is likely to be one difficulty in learning. One of the basic skills in English is speaking. Speaking is the ability that requires the process of communicative competence, pronunciation, intonation, grammar and vocabulary improving. For the beginner, speaking exercise of story telling is difficult to try. Naturally, they feel confused on the rule, like: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency. Some of students are afraid to be active in speaking. This phenomenon makes many students have low scores in English. The lessons must be relaxed and comfortable. So, the students feel confident, they will not need to try hard to learn language.
It will just come naturally and easily. In addition, they say that learning English is confusing activity. For them, English is different from Indonesian. The students also say that they frequently get bored when learning English, especially speaking in story telling. Some of the teachers state that it is caused by the teaching technique which is applied by them. They are unable to create an interesting classroom situation. The teacher tells that when teaching learning process occurs in the classroom, students often seem unwilling to learn. Some of them are singing, some are laying their head and writing something that is not related to the material. In conclusion, they do not pay attention to the teaching-learning process.
CHAPTER TWO
TEACHING SPEAKING OF STORY TELLING
Storytelling is a creative art form that has entertained and informed across centuries and cultures (Fisher, 1985), and its instructional potential continues to serve teachers. Storytelling, or oral literature, has many of its roots in the attempt to explain life or the mysteries of the world and the universe--to try to make sense out of things (Tway, 1985). In doing so, the characters and themes in the stories have become cultural and often cross-cultural archetypes of historic and continuing importance (Lasser, 1979). Even in today's technological world, we have not changed to such a degree that the archetypes presented in traditional oral literature are no longer applicable (Livo and Rietz, 1986.
Highlights for beginner educational story telling is dedicated to helping children grow in basic skills and knowledge, in creativeness, in ability to think and reason, in sensitivity to others, in high ideals, and worthy ways of living--for children are the world's most important people. This study investigated the relationship between reading comprehension and oral storytelling as abilities. Reading comprehension was measured by the Reading Comprehension subtest of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test. Storytelling was measured by (a) the Oral Production subtest of the Language Assessment Scales using the standard scoring protocol and (b) a story structure analysis. A comparison of the standard scoring protocol and reading comprehension revealed no relationship, while the comparison of the story structure analysis and reading comprehension revealed a significant correlation. The implications of these results for language assessment of bilingual students are discussed.
1. Nature of Story Telling
Storytelling has been used as a means of communication since earliest times. Many religions started with a person who told stories that conveyed values in a memorable and moving way, and which were also capable of being understood at many levels. Storytelling however today is becoming one of the key ingredients to managing communications, education, training, and innovation in the 21st century. Educators have long known that the arts can contribute to student academic success and emotional well being. The ancient art of storytelling is especially well-suited for student exploration. As a folk art, storytelling is accessible to all ages and abilities. No special equipment beyond the imagination and the power of listening and speaking is needed to create artistic images. As a learning tool, storytelling can encourage students to explore their unique expressiveness and can heighten a student's ability to communicate thoughts and feelings in an articulate, lucid manner. These benefits transcend the art experience to support daily life skills. In our fast-paced, media-driven world, storytelling can be a nurturing way to remind children that their spoken words are powerful, that listening is important, and that clear communication between people is an art.
2. Basic Concept of Story Telling
To build children's storytelling skills, Plourde (1985) recommends activities that focus on role playing, generating character, helping students find an appropriate voice, and developing the ability to make logical conclusions. Plourde elaborates on a dozen techniques appropriate for children in kindergarten through grade 6. One, for example, has the teacher or one child relate the beginning of a familiar fairy tale and another child make up an entirely new ending. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (1984) offers several suggestions for making low-cost crafts materials that facilitate storytelling. Among them is the construction of a simple mini-cinema illustrating sequential events of a story. These stages of the story may then be presented with a flexible strip of drawings operated by pulling a string.
Gross and Batchelder (1986) present exercises for older elementary and middle school students designed to improve group dynamics and create a learning environment for storytelling. One technique involves using a circle to practice games inspired by modern dance education and Native American rituals. These exercises help older students who are apt to be self conscious to become more confident, willing to participate, and supportive of the storytelling process. Music--classical or popular, recorded or live--can also be used to set the scene for storytelling, as can puppets and other simple props. (Sidorsky, 1985) But effective storytelling is a versatile strategy that stirs the imagination and enables children to visualize with few or no visual aids at all.
CHAPTER TRHEE
A. PROCEDURE
For a classroom teacher who wishes to use storytelling, it is best to begin by choosing a simple story with only a few characters and an uncomplicated plot. The story should have action, the plot should be understandable to the listeners, and the events of the story should have a definite climax that leads to a conclusion the students will find satisfactory. Folk and fairy tales are the easiest kinds of stories for beginning storytellers to communicate (Ramey, 1986; Taub, 1984). In selecting these or any story, it is important to keep in mind the age of the children in the audience. Scott (1985) advises the storyteller to be flexible, to expect unexpected reactions, and to remember that enjoyment the first and chief consideration. Scott and other researchers (e.g., Ramey, 1986) emphasize that a storyteller need not be a "performer," but rather a person who has good memory and listening skills, who sincerely likes the story chosen for telling, and who knows the story so well that it can be recreated for an audience without any uncertainty or panic. Storytellers who are too "actorish" usually fascinate the audience, but at the expense of the story.
The second consideration in effective storytelling should be to encourage exploration and experimentation with language (Schwartz, 1987). Constructing meaning through use of language is an implicit goal in storytelling. A language development focus can recommend retelling. Stories that are told and retold develop a patina with each new telling. Children's participation in storytelling provides not only novelty to stimulate the child's curiosity, but also enough familiarity to allow a child to perceive relationships and to experience success at using language (Wason-Ellam, 1986).
B. ANALYSIS
Perhaps storytelling's greatest value for a teacher is its effectiveness in fostering a relaxed and intimate atmosphere in the classroom An experienced teacher or storyteller, explains how this practical and general objective can relate to the other benefits from using storytelling: It can 1) introduce children to a range of story experiences; 2) provide young students with models of story patterns, themes, characters, and incidents to help them in their own writing, oral language, and thinking; 3) nurture and encourage a sense of humor in children; 4) help put children's own words in perspective; 5) increase knowledge and understanding of other places, races, and beliefs; 6) introduce new ideas and be used to question established concepts without threat to the individual; 7) lead to discussions that are far ranging and often more satisfying than those arising from formal lessons; and 8) serve as the most painless way of teaching children to listen, to concentrate, and to follow the thread and logic of an argument.
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A.CONCLUSION
B.SUGGESTION
After read many books and finished this paper, the writer would like to put forward suggestion as follow:
1. The beginner must be encourage to use English every time
2. The beginner need to develop their ability especially of speaking English
3. The teacher shouldn’t force the students in making their speak but she should be able to make students interest in learning English especially in story telling
4. The teacher be able to select a good technique in teaching English especially in teaching speaking.
Bibliography
1. Lillian M. Logan and Virgil G. Logan a Leona Paterson. Creative Communication, Teaching the Language Art, Mc Graw Hill Ryerson Limited, Canada.1972.
2. Paul Roberts, Understanding English, Cornell University,1958.
Henny Handayani
07211210197
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Activation is a technique of teaching English that ask student to active in speaking. And story telling is one of way for teaches students to communicate creatively in learning English. As a second or foreign language, English is not easy to learn by the students at the beginning of the study. For them, English is likely to be one difficulty in learning. One of the basic skills in English is speaking. Speaking is the ability that requires the process of communicative competence, pronunciation, intonation, grammar and vocabulary improving. For the beginner, speaking exercise of story telling is difficult to try. Naturally, they feel confused on the rule, like: grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency. Some of students are afraid to be active in speaking. This phenomenon makes many students have low scores in English. The lessons must be relaxed and comfortable. So, the students feel confident, they will not need to try hard to learn language.
It will just come naturally and easily. In addition, they say that learning English is confusing activity. For them, English is different from Indonesian. The students also say that they frequently get bored when learning English, especially speaking in story telling. Some of the teachers state that it is caused by the teaching technique which is applied by them. They are unable to create an interesting classroom situation. The teacher tells that when teaching learning process occurs in the classroom, students often seem unwilling to learn. Some of them are singing, some are laying their head and writing something that is not related to the material. In conclusion, they do not pay attention to the teaching-learning process.
CHAPTER TWO
TEACHING SPEAKING OF STORY TELLING
Storytelling is a creative art form that has entertained and informed across centuries and cultures (Fisher, 1985), and its instructional potential continues to serve teachers. Storytelling, or oral literature, has many of its roots in the attempt to explain life or the mysteries of the world and the universe--to try to make sense out of things (Tway, 1985). In doing so, the characters and themes in the stories have become cultural and often cross-cultural archetypes of historic and continuing importance (Lasser, 1979). Even in today's technological world, we have not changed to such a degree that the archetypes presented in traditional oral literature are no longer applicable (Livo and Rietz, 1986.
Highlights for beginner educational story telling is dedicated to helping children grow in basic skills and knowledge, in creativeness, in ability to think and reason, in sensitivity to others, in high ideals, and worthy ways of living--for children are the world's most important people. This study investigated the relationship between reading comprehension and oral storytelling as abilities. Reading comprehension was measured by the Reading Comprehension subtest of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test. Storytelling was measured by (a) the Oral Production subtest of the Language Assessment Scales using the standard scoring protocol and (b) a story structure analysis. A comparison of the standard scoring protocol and reading comprehension revealed no relationship, while the comparison of the story structure analysis and reading comprehension revealed a significant correlation. The implications of these results for language assessment of bilingual students are discussed.
1. Nature of Story Telling
Storytelling has been used as a means of communication since earliest times. Many religions started with a person who told stories that conveyed values in a memorable and moving way, and which were also capable of being understood at many levels. Storytelling however today is becoming one of the key ingredients to managing communications, education, training, and innovation in the 21st century. Educators have long known that the arts can contribute to student academic success and emotional well being. The ancient art of storytelling is especially well-suited for student exploration. As a folk art, storytelling is accessible to all ages and abilities. No special equipment beyond the imagination and the power of listening and speaking is needed to create artistic images. As a learning tool, storytelling can encourage students to explore their unique expressiveness and can heighten a student's ability to communicate thoughts and feelings in an articulate, lucid manner. These benefits transcend the art experience to support daily life skills. In our fast-paced, media-driven world, storytelling can be a nurturing way to remind children that their spoken words are powerful, that listening is important, and that clear communication between people is an art.
2. Basic Concept of Story Telling
To build children's storytelling skills, Plourde (1985) recommends activities that focus on role playing, generating character, helping students find an appropriate voice, and developing the ability to make logical conclusions. Plourde elaborates on a dozen techniques appropriate for children in kindergarten through grade 6. One, for example, has the teacher or one child relate the beginning of a familiar fairy tale and another child make up an entirely new ending. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (1984) offers several suggestions for making low-cost crafts materials that facilitate storytelling. Among them is the construction of a simple mini-cinema illustrating sequential events of a story. These stages of the story may then be presented with a flexible strip of drawings operated by pulling a string.
Gross and Batchelder (1986) present exercises for older elementary and middle school students designed to improve group dynamics and create a learning environment for storytelling. One technique involves using a circle to practice games inspired by modern dance education and Native American rituals. These exercises help older students who are apt to be self conscious to become more confident, willing to participate, and supportive of the storytelling process. Music--classical or popular, recorded or live--can also be used to set the scene for storytelling, as can puppets and other simple props. (Sidorsky, 1985) But effective storytelling is a versatile strategy that stirs the imagination and enables children to visualize with few or no visual aids at all.
CHAPTER TRHEE
A. PROCEDURE
For a classroom teacher who wishes to use storytelling, it is best to begin by choosing a simple story with only a few characters and an uncomplicated plot. The story should have action, the plot should be understandable to the listeners, and the events of the story should have a definite climax that leads to a conclusion the students will find satisfactory. Folk and fairy tales are the easiest kinds of stories for beginning storytellers to communicate (Ramey, 1986; Taub, 1984). In selecting these or any story, it is important to keep in mind the age of the children in the audience. Scott (1985) advises the storyteller to be flexible, to expect unexpected reactions, and to remember that enjoyment the first and chief consideration. Scott and other researchers (e.g., Ramey, 1986) emphasize that a storyteller need not be a "performer," but rather a person who has good memory and listening skills, who sincerely likes the story chosen for telling, and who knows the story so well that it can be recreated for an audience without any uncertainty or panic. Storytellers who are too "actorish" usually fascinate the audience, but at the expense of the story.
The second consideration in effective storytelling should be to encourage exploration and experimentation with language (Schwartz, 1987). Constructing meaning through use of language is an implicit goal in storytelling. A language development focus can recommend retelling. Stories that are told and retold develop a patina with each new telling. Children's participation in storytelling provides not only novelty to stimulate the child's curiosity, but also enough familiarity to allow a child to perceive relationships and to experience success at using language (Wason-Ellam, 1986).
B. ANALYSIS
Perhaps storytelling's greatest value for a teacher is its effectiveness in fostering a relaxed and intimate atmosphere in the classroom An experienced teacher or storyteller, explains how this practical and general objective can relate to the other benefits from using storytelling: It can 1) introduce children to a range of story experiences; 2) provide young students with models of story patterns, themes, characters, and incidents to help them in their own writing, oral language, and thinking; 3) nurture and encourage a sense of humor in children; 4) help put children's own words in perspective; 5) increase knowledge and understanding of other places, races, and beliefs; 6) introduce new ideas and be used to question established concepts without threat to the individual; 7) lead to discussions that are far ranging and often more satisfying than those arising from formal lessons; and 8) serve as the most painless way of teaching children to listen, to concentrate, and to follow the thread and logic of an argument.
CHAPTER FOUR
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A.CONCLUSION
B.SUGGESTION
After read many books and finished this paper, the writer would like to put forward suggestion as follow:
1. The beginner must be encourage to use English every time
2. The beginner need to develop their ability especially of speaking English
3. The teacher shouldn’t force the students in making their speak but she should be able to make students interest in learning English especially in story telling
4. The teacher be able to select a good technique in teaching English especially in teaching speaking.
Bibliography
1. Lillian M. Logan and Virgil G. Logan a Leona Paterson. Creative Communication, Teaching the Language Art, Mc Graw Hill Ryerson Limited, Canada.1972.
2. Paul Roberts, Understanding English, Cornell University,1958.
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