Instructions:

Read the following material carefully. The units on Listening and Speaking Skills have been included for revision/reinforcement purposes. You are also required to pay special attention to the units on Reading and Writing skills - these will provide you with sufficient background material for the classes to follow and will shape your understanding of ELT.

Teaching Listening and Speaking Skills

Listening
The four basic language skills comprise listening, speaking, reading and writing. Without doubt they all contribute to the learning and development of a language. However, each aspect has its own specificities and importance in the language learning process and needs to be given due attention. Activity 1 1. What is listening? 2. Distinguish between listening and hearing. 3. Why do we listen? 4. How do we make meaning out of an aural text? 5. Do you consider listening to be an important language skill? Think of, and write down, five reasons for your answer.

What is Listening? Listening is the capacity to process information coming from an aural source. Such information is first filtered by the perceptual processes of the listener and absorbed into the short-term memory. Selected information is then stored into the long-term memory for retrieval at a later stage, if and when required.

What are Receptive Skills? Receptive skills are the ways in which people extract meaning from the discourse they hear or see, and listening is one of the most important receptive skills. Hearing may be incidental, but listening is a conscious act which people deploy in order to access an aural input or text.

Reasons for Listening Reasons for listening can be of two broad categories: instrumental or pleasurable. When we listen to achieve some goals, we have some utilitarian or instrumental purpose in mind. When we listen, for example, to songs to enjoy them, we are listening purely for the sake of deriving pleasure. Instrumental listening can be pleasurable too.

Use of Our Schemata When we engage in a listening activity, we employ various means to make sense of the aural input or aural text. First of all, we need to have a basic knowledge of the language. Furthermore, we use our pre-existent knowledge of the world (Cook 1989, as cited in Harmer 2001). Such knowledge is referred to as our schema ( plural: schemata). It consists of mental representations of situations we come across, experience or are exposed to. When we hear particular words or any discourse, our schematic knowledge is activated and we are able to recognize what we hear because it fits into patterns that we already know (Harmer 2001). Moreover, when we recognize a piece of aural text we have expectations about the kind of text we are going to confront. For example, some key words and phrases may inform us about the subject of the text. We thus draw upon our schemata to make sense of what we are listening to. This gives a greater chance of success to the interaction than if both the listener/s and speaker/s did not know anything about what is being said.

Processing of an Aural Input Usually, as mentioned above, listening is a conscious act and we are very active mentally in a listening situation. First of all, we try to make sense of the aural input. Most often, we get actively engaged in an analysis of the aural text. Analysis of a listening text can be through top-down or bottom-up processing. In top-down processing, the listener gets an overall or general view of the text. This is facilitated if the listeners schemata allow him/her to have appropriate expectations of what he/she is going to come across. In bottom-up processing, on the other hand, the 2

listener focuses on individual words and phrases and achieves understanding by putting the detailed elements together to build up a whole (Harmer 2001). According to Harmer, it is useful to see acts of listening texts as interactions between top-down and bottom-up processing. Sometimes the individual details help to get an overall understanding, sometimes an overview allows the processing of details.

Listening Skills
While listening to an aural text, we apply different skills to process the text, depending on the purposes for which we are listening. Such skills include:

1) Identifying the Topic. Listeners pick up the topic of the text with the help of their schemata. This allows them to process the text more effectively as it progresses.

2) Guessing and Predicting. Listeners sometimes try to guess what is being talked about in order to understand, and sometimes they look forward and try to predict what is coming. Subsequently, they confirm what they have predicted or readjust what they had thought.

3) Listening for General Understanding. Listeners want to understand the gist of the discourse without requiring the details. Listening for a general comprehension implies not requiring the meaning of every word and not feeling the need to analyze all the details in the text. This is a top-down approach.

4) Listening for Specific Information. We also listen for a specific piece of information. For example, when we listen to the news, we may concentrate only on the particular item that interests us, generally ignoring all other information.

5) Listening for Detailed Information. Sometimes we have to listen to something in order to understand all the details. For example, when we listen to instructions or directions, we make an effort to listen to all the details.

6) Interpreting Text. We usually access more than what the words of an aural text literally mean. We use a variety of clues to understand and interpret what the speaker is implying or suggesting. We use our schemata to make sense of the text, or to fill in the gaps left by the speaker.

The Importance of Listening

Listening is an important language skill for some very important reasons. To start with, listening is one of the two major tools through which we access language, the other one being our capacity to read. It is the very first medium through which we access language from our birth. It is the primary source of language for young children who have not yet developed the ability to read and for all the people who, for various reasons, cannot read or do not have access to reading.

Listening is the only medium through which we access the sounds of a language and all the suprasegmental features of the language, such as tone, pitch, stress, pause, etc. Hence, listening is a pre-requisite for speaking and, at a later stage, for reading. Without knowing how a language sounds, we cannot engage confidently in speaking in the language, and without knowing how the sound patterns of the language function, reading its graphics serves little purpose.

Listening and speaking, as compared to reading and writing, is the most natural and a very practical channel of communication. These oral skills can be very spontaneous and fast. They require a minimum amount of resources. Imagine how tedious it would be to have to communicate to people through writing all the time!

Listening is a major source of information. There are so many sources which communicate to people through the aural medium, for example, through the radio. Long ago, people learnt the art of living through oral stories and other such means of communication.

Listening is also an important social skill. If we talk to people without listening to what they have to say or to their reactions, then the channel of communication is a closed one and there is no interaction as such. People who, in an exchange, do not listen to the other participant/s are often considered as arrogant or boring.

Listening can be a major source of pleasure and relaxation. Listening to the cooing of their baby can be such a joy for parents. Listening to the sounds in nature can be very soothing. The entire music industry relies on the pleasure people derive in listening to music or songs.

The Teaching of Listening skills

Activity 2 Should we as educators develop the listening skills of our children at primary school level? Give reasons.

Your answer to the above question is most certainly yes, for it is evident that listening serves the following purposes: It is the medium through which our learners can access the target language in its oral form and, hence, become familiar with the sounds, intonation patterns, rhythm, stress and other suprasegmental features of the language, as well as its vocabulary and structure. It is an important element in the oral communication channel. It is a major source of information and learning. It is a social skill.

It is a channel through which our learners can be made to appreciate the language through songs, stories and other pleasurable activities.

For the majority of our Mauritian learners, English is more a foreign language than a second language. For most of them, the only exposure to the language is obtained at school. Hence, the teacher has to provide a maximum amount of exposure to the language so that the learner is able to derive all the benefits that such an exposure can bring him/her in his/her learning of the language. And the most important source of exposure to the language is through the aural medium, that is, through listening. Activity 3 Write down some of the ways in which we can develop and sharpen the listening skills of our learners while at the same time providing them with exposure to the language. Listening as a skill cannot be taught in isolation, for it is closely associated with speaking. However, there can be some activities that are more focused on listening. There is also no doubt that listening activities should be graded according to the needs of our learners. It will serve no purpose to expose any category of learners to listening texts that are out of their reach.

Listening to Sounds of the Environment Learners at the very beginning of the primary cycle need to be led to sharpen their listening skills. One way to bring this about is to make them listen to familiar sounds and have them identify those sounds, for example, the barking of dogs, the singing of birds, especially those that can be identified as belonging to particular birds, and the sound made by the wind blowing through leaves. This can be accompanied by imitation of the sounds. Such an activity will help the children pay attention to what they usually hear, become aware of the amount and quality of sounds that relate to specific aspects of their environment, and thereby sharpen their listening skills as well as relate the sounds to sounds they can produce themselves and work their articulation. At the same time, the teacher will know if the children are listening properly and are paying attention to what they are listening, for this has important implications in the language learning process. The use of some songs, for example, 6

Old McDonald had a cow provides the learners with not only an awareness of the different sounds that exist in the environment, but also the way those sounds are referred to in the language, for example, cows moo.

Use of Story Telling Listening at lower primary level can be enhanced by the use of story telling. This is an interesting activity for children to construct an understanding of time, place, context, sequencing, cause-effect and other such abstract concepts. It also provides them with language in a meaningful context through which they expand their vocabulary and internalize usage of grammar as well as sentence structures without explicit teaching of these. However, for story telling to be effective in the target language, the children need to be highly supported, for example, through the use of visual aids such as pictures and paralinguistic features such as gestures and appropriate body language. They can be made to participate in the story telling activity by inviting them, for example, to make sounds or say lines or parts of the story that are predictable through their recurrent use in the story. Story telling can further be exploited as a language activity through, for example, role-playing. At a more advanced stage, such aspects as the content, the characters or the moral of the story can be discussed. Extension activities can consist, for example, of continuing the story, or of providing a different ending to the story. In lower classes, the pictures of the story may be jumbled and the children can be given the task of sequencing them correctly. Alternatively, children may be given a set of pictures which they examine on their own to get familiar with them and also to try to understand the sequence in which they are. They then listen to the story and in pairs or groups put the pictures in the order required by the listening text. Otherwise, if they have already been able to sequence the pictures before the listening, they can verify if they have got the sequencing right. They may be asked to draw a sequence or a character from the story, which will allow them to express their understanding of the story.

Use of Poems and Nursery Rhymes Other aural sources that provide exposure to the language at a preliminary stage are simple poems and nursery rhymes. Through their use of metre, rhythm, rhyming 7

words and repetition, they provide language that is organized and easy to memorize and repeat. They are also fun. Examples can be Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Baa Baa Black Sheep and so many others that are easily available in nursery rhyme books. Engaging the learners in reciting simple poems or in singing nursery rhymes exposes them to the language while at the same time helping them to internalize specific language structures and develop an amount of vocabulary. It also gets them involved in developing their articulation, tone, expressivity, etc.

Developing Phonemic Awareness At a later stage, when the learners have an amount of vocabulary at their disposal, they can be made to sharpen their phonemic awareness. For example, they can be made to identify rhyming words in nursery rhymes or poems. This is better done through the aural medium than the written medium, for most often rhyming words are easier to identify through listening to the sounds than by reading. For example, in the following lines,

One, two Tie my shoe

two and shoe are rhyming words as they both end with the /u/ sound. This is easier to detect through listening than by reading. Children can be led to say words having a required sound, for example, I, tie, my, buy, high, fly, all of which end with the /ai/ sound. This also is easier to detect through the aural medium than through reading. Through such phonemic awareness activities, the children become unconsciously aware of the pronunciation of English words. This may help them to recognize the words more easily in their written form, and decipher them by sight rather than by decoding the combination of letters of which they are composed, for very often the same letter combinations are not pronounced in the same way, as in the words pour and sour.

Other phonemic awareness activities can consist of making children differentiate between sounds which are similar in their production except for one variable, for example, the only difference between the sounds /p/ and /b/ is that of voicing (refer to explanation in section on Speaking), and the difference between the words sit and seat lies in the length of the vowel sound. Without being told these facts, children can be made aware of the differences in sounds by simple games. For example, the teacher can read a list of words having a specific difference in their sounds, as in: sit, fit, hit, bit, ship, lip, hip, mill, fill and seat, feet, heat, beat, sheep, leap, heap, meal, feel, in a jumbled order and ask the children to raise their right hand when they hear words such as sit and stretch their arm in front when they hear, for example, seat. In order to see to it that the children are genuinely differentiating between the sounds and not simply following the movements made by their friends, the teacher can ask individual children or specific groups to perform the movements. Listening Comprehension For more advanced learners at the primary level, listening comprehension activities help not only to access aural information, but also to sharpen the listening skills and concentration of the children. This is because an aural text, as opposed to a reading text, is characterized by a pace of its own and does not stop or repeat itself if we have not paid attention to what is being said or have missed some information. Even when the teacher reads the text for the pupils, s/he will adopt a reasonable pace and will not repeat continuously the same information. Hence, pupils are taught to pay attention continuously to the incoming information.

Listening comprehension involves a number of language skills, though the listening may be the specific focus. Listening comprehension tasks are of the same nature as reading comprehension tasks, that is, listening for getting a general idea of what the aural text consists of, accessing the topic with which the text is dealing, listening for general understanding, that is, to arrive at the gist of the text, retrieving specific information from the text, listening for details, understanding vocabulary from the context, identifying the main points raised in the text, etc. (as outlined earlier). Additionally, a listening comprehension text offers the possibility of identifying the 9

number of speakers, their gender, the tone of the text, the pace at which it is delivered, etc.

Although listening comprehension is not examined formally at primary level, listening comprehension is a skill that is very important to develop among our students for this is a key to language development. Listening comprehension tasks should help students develop their listening skills rather than test their listening comprehension. Our aim is to help students improve their receptive skills. Listening tasks should aim at helping students arrive at the meaning of words and provoking an examination of the material. For example, we can make students fill forms on the basis of information which is read out to them. This will help them become better listeners. By having them, for example, agree or disagree on whether a statement is true or not, or by engaging them in a discussion on information based on some listening material, we are engaging the students in exploring the material and bringing them to a greater understanding of the language and text construction rather than challenging them to give correct answers in test-like conditions by asking them who, why, which etc questions.

Additionally, we need to strike a balance between the level of the task and the level of the text. If the text is of a high level, we can set tasks that are simple for the students to access. For example, if we make the students listen to a meteorological bulletin that contains a lot of technical vocabulary which may not be accessible to all of them, we may engage them in a discussion about what the broadcast was about, ask them what the topic was, and some of the basic information that they could capture from it, before leading them towards tasks of a more challenging nature.

Listening comprehension tasks can be devised by making use of popular songs. Music is a powerful stimulus for student engagement. The use of music and songs in the classroom makes a connection between leisure and learning. Song lyrics can be very useful texts in the classroom. We need to choose songs that are appropriate in terms of topic and subject matter, as well as having appropriate language. Students can be asked what the song is about (listening for general understanding). They can be 10

given a worksheet which requires them to identify specific details from the song. They can be given the verses in the wrong order and asked to place them in order (in sentence cards). Students can be given the lyrics with words blanked out and asked to provide the missing word/s while listening to the song, or complete half-finished lines. We may ask students what the title of the song might be. We may also use other recorded materials such as stories or radio broadcasts as listening comprehension texts. It is, however, important to allow the learners to become familiar with the spoken form of the language, especially of recorded materials such as songs, for it may happen that the learners take some time to become attuned to the way the words are said before being able to recognize them.

Some Other Examples of Listening Activities:

Telephone Conversation The teacher can model a short telephone conversation and let children practise it in pairs. Taking a phone call is a genuinely communicative act. Children can be made to take messages and deliver it to the person for whom it is meant. They can be made to listen to recorded telephone conversations and say, for example, how the people greet each other, or find other such specific information. Telephone calls can be roleplayed.

Resource People One way of ensuring genuine communication via listening is to invite resource people to talk to the class. This gives the children exposure to some live listening. Live listening offers an extra dimension to the listening experience. It can be in the following forms:

Reading Aloud This is an enjoyable activity, especially when done with style and conviction. 11

Dramatic Reading This gives students exposure to expressive language.

Story Telling Stories, as mentioned earlier, are excellent listening material and teachers or resource persons are ideally placed to tell stories.

Interviews At an advanced stage, interviews are an ideal way to engage students in listeningspeaking tasks. Students need to be encouraged to use their natural curiosity and their need for clarifications or elaboration to ask questions on specific topics which a resource person or the teacher can answer. Such live interviews can be very motivating. In such situations, students really listen for answers to questions they themselves have put or questions on topics which are of interest to them. This activity can take the form of hot seating as well.

Our task as teachers is to make the learning process for our students an interesting and fruitful one. If our students somehow do not have enough motivation in the task we are going to engage them in, we need to create that interest and motivation. We need to give them clear and achievable purposes. They need to understand the purpose of the tasks to better participate in them.

Problems in the Teaching of Listening Skills

Activity 4 What, according to you, are the problems that you may encounter in the teaching of listening as in the activities outlined above? Give reasons. Suggest how these problems can be dealt with.

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The teaching of listening presents a number of problems that need to be addressed. These generally have to do with the language, the topic, the type of tasks students are asked to perform, and the expectations the students have of the listening tasks. For listening activities to be successful, students should be told exactly what the listening purpose is and they should be given clear instructions about how to achieve it. They should be given tasks that are achievable and texts that are comprehensible in order to make them feel confident with the tasks.

Language Unfamiliar words or long sentences can pose a problem so far as the understanding of a text is concerned. To listen successfully, students have to recognize a high proportion of the vocabulary in the text without paying conscious attention to it (Paran, 1996 as cited in Harmer, 2001). When students are engaged in a listening task, unknown lexis can act as a barrier to understanding. This can cause them to stop and think about the meaning of the word, and thus miss the next part of the text (Underwood, 1989 as cited in Harmer, 2001). At the same time, comprehension will be degraded and unless the listener is able catch up with the flow of the text by understanding new elements that put them back on track, they will lose interest in the text and disengage from the receptive task. According to Stephen Krashen (as cited in Harmer, 2001), comprehensible input aids understanding of the language and thereby language acquisition. The teacher can adapt the listening text so that the language is accessible to the students. Most importantly, s/he needs to support the learning through the use of visuals and realia, as mentioned earlier. However, language need not be oversimplified; it needs to pose some challenges so that the child makes use of his faculties to derive understanding, and it is not important to understand the meaning of each and every word to derive meaning from a text. Moreover, the more we expose the pupils to the language, the more they will learn it.

Use of Authentic Language Students should get practice in following listening material and extracting meaning from it even if a few of the words are not accessible to them. For this, students have 13

to come into contact with real language, so that they make an effort to understand, and this can be brought into the classroom through the use of authentic texts such as songs and radio broadcasts. Authentic language is normal, natural language as used by competent speakers of the language. It is language which students will encounter in real life.

Because of its authenticity, such language is unlikely to be simplified, spoken slowly or be full of simplistic content. Hence authentic texts have to be carefully chosen so that they suit the level of students. These can be specially designed listening material, which may be simplified while at the same time being natural and approximating authentic language use. Tasks should be so designed that they help the students understand the language better. According to Farrel (1998) (as cited in Harmer, 2001), A gently paced sequence of activities with small tasks leading to bigger ones . can enable students to watch television soap operas in English and end up understanding far more than they might have thought possible. Hence, there are specific ways in which the problems of language can be addressed.

Pre-Teaching One of the most important ways in which the language problem can be dealt with is to prepare the students for the vocabulary that they are going to encounter in the listening activity. This can be done by tapping their prior knowledge and activating their schemata on the topic to be dealt with in the listening task. Such a preparation can familiarize them with the concepts that will crop up in the listening task, as well as familiarize them with some of the difficult words. However, understanding words in context is a skill that pupils need to develop and we need to give them the opportunity to engage in authentic listening for general understanding. It is, therefore, good to familiarize them with the topic and pre-teach them some of the most probably unknown and difficult words to activate their schemata and create interest and let the students engage with the text to discover more. The tasks should be challenging enough to enhance learning. They should be difficult but achievable ( Scrivener, 1994b as cited in Harmer, 2001).

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Choice of Topics Topics which we choose to work on should be of interest to our students and familiar enough in order to activate their schemata. We also need to create interest in the topic we are going to make them listen to by engaging them in some pre-listening work, such as showing a picture related to the topic, asking them to guess what they are going to listen to, or by activating their schemata by doing some brainstorming on the subject matter. We must also expose them to a variety of genres, such as songs, recorded conversations, stories, radio dramas, etc in order to cater for their various needs and to keep their interest sustained. We must ensure that they experience a range of appropriate texts.

Extensive and Intensive Listening

We can help students improve their listening skills and gain valuable language input through the practice of intensive and extensive listening.

Extensive listening comprises listening at length. There is no doubt to it that the more our pupils listen to the language, the more familiar they become to it, the more language they acquire, and the more they improve their comprehension skills. They also get better at listening activities. Provided the input is appropriate to their level and is reasonably comprehensible, they will gradually recognize and acquire more words and sentence structures and enlarge their schematic knowledge, which will in turn resolve some of the language deficiencies they started with. For this, we need to make use of a collection of appropriate recordings such as age-appropriate songs, radio broadcasts, audio stories or drama. We should motivate our students to listen to the material by giving them good reasons for doing so. We can make them talk about their experience of listening to the material, or about the ones they have enjoyed the most. We can make them keep a record of what they have listened to, write comments about these which can be posted on a comments chart, etc. Such tasks make students value what they have listened to, and give them a purpose for listening further.

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Intensive listening comprises listening which is more dedicated to an in-depth study of the listening text, as outlined earlier in the listening comprehension activities. Both kinds of listening activities provide learners with the opportunity to listen to voices other than only the teachers. They have the opportunity of coming across a range of different characters and people. The listening activities provide a significant source of language input. Additionally, as Penny Ur points out (as cited by Harmer, 2001), in real life discourse is rarely replayed. Hence, we must make our pupils extract as much information and work as much as possible on a listening text on one hearing only. Extracting important information from a text after listening to it once only is an important life skill, for, in real life, we rarely have the opportunity to listen to the same spoken text again and again. Hence, the kind of tasks we give to our pupils for the first audition of a listening material is critical in training them to listen effectively. However, it is also true that in face to face conversations we do have a chance to repeat and clarify matters. Hence we can use the same listening material for further tasks which are more challenging than the ones achievable through one audition only. In fact, the more we allow our students to listen to an audio material, the more they will assimilate the information and language features in it and the more secure they will feel about it. So we may set general understanding and prediction tasks for first listenings, and use the material again for detailed comprehension, interpretation and language tasks, as well as for appreciation. However, we must not bore our students by playing the same extract over and over or by making useless repetitions.

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Speaking
Activity 1 1. How would you define Speaking? 2. What are the purposes for which people speak? 3. List some of the features of oral language. What purposes do these serve? 4. Do you consider teaching oral English as an important aspect of the teaching of the language at primary level? Give five reasons for your answer.

Speaking is the ability to convey our thoughts, ideas, feelings, requirements and opinions through the oral medium. As opposed to listening, which is a receptive skill, speaking is a productive skill in the sense that we use the language resources at our disposal to produce information. It is one of the two productive skills we have at our disposal, the other one being our ability to write. Speaking can be considered as the primary and most important of the two productive skills, for it allows us to organize our thoughts and develop them further, discuss and reorient them as required. This can be witnessed when we see our thoughts and ideas becoming clearer to ourselves not only when we engage in a conversation on the topic with others, but also in the way we organize and clarify our thoughts and ideas by engaging in a loud or silent conversation with ourselves. It is also witnessed when we do so in the process of writing. Speaking is also the very first medium through which we start to express ourselves since a very young age, and quite naturally, just by being exposed to and having the possibility to interact in a language, and by using the resources at our disposal, such as our breath force and of our speech organs. It is spontaneous and can be very effective.

Productive Skills in the Classroom

Language use is determined by factors such as the purpose of our communication. The setting, the channel we are using to communicate by, the type of communication which we are involved with determine the form in which we try to achieve that purpose. When learners speak in lessons they have the chance to

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rehearse language production in safety, experimenting with language that they will use later for studies or communicative purposes in or outside the classroom. Hence, when they are working on their language production, they should be operating towards the communicative end of the continuum. Activities which can be situated at the non-communicative end, such as language drills, are excluded from the category of productive skills (Harmer, 2001).Language production means that students should use all language at their disposal to achieve a communicative purpose rather than be restricted to specific practice points.

Production can only continue in combination with the practice of receptive skills. For example, a conversation between two people is a blend of listening and speaking; comprehension of what has been said is necessary to determine what to say next. Since reception and production are closely related, we cannot have students practice skills in isolation, which, anyway, is not possible. Skills are integrated: the practice of one leads onto the other. It is also a fact that production enables reception: productive skill work helps students with their receptive skills. When students have tried a speaking activity, they are better attuned to understanding other people speaking in the same context. The teaching of productive skills is thus closely bound up with receptive skill work. The two feed each other. When a student produces a piece of language and sees how it turns out, the information is fed back into the acquisition process. Normally we modify what we say as we go along, based on how effective we think we are being. We also get feedback in various forms from the people with whom we are communicating and know whether we are managing to get our message across. Spoken texts can act as models to follow, for example, to get students give spoken directions, they will benefit from hearing other people doing it first. However, productive work need not be imitative. Texts can act as stimuli. For example, listening to a story may provide the stimulus to the pupils to tell their own stories.

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Problems and solutions

Students find language production tasks difficult, especially if the language is a second/foreign language for them, and they do not have the opportunity to use the language often in real life situations, which is the case with the majority of our Mauritian pupils. Most specifically, the tasks at the communicative end of the continuum prove to be challenging to them. We can help our pupils make the most of such activities in various ways. To start with, we need to match the tasks we ask our pupils to perform with their language level. We need to ensure that they have the minimum language they need to perform the task. Hence, before we ask our pupils to take part in a spoken activity, we must make them aware of key vocabulary and help them with phrases and questions that will be helpful while they perform the task. It must be remembered that language that has just been acquired is not available for instant use, and that exposure and practice in meaningful situations is necessary before new language can be used fluently. We need to implement production activities that will provoke the use of language that is newly acquired. However, language production activities that which are at the communicative end of the communication continuum are not just practice activities. In order to make our pupils use their language more productively, we need to engage them in tasks on topics that are familiar to them and that are of interest to them. We need to create interest in the topic and communicate enthusiasm. We also need to ensure that there is a purpose to the task, that it has some outcome, and that the students are aware of this. Moreover, our pupils should be led to cultivate the habit of speaking spontaneously. Instant fluency and creativity is not possible: it needs to be built up. Students should be given restricted tasks and be prompted to be more spontaneous gradually.

When speaking, we construct words and phrases with individual sounds and we use such features as pitch, intonation and stress to convey meaning. We should help our students to acquire good speaking habits, improve their pronunciation and be exposed to a variety of language features such as stress, tone, pace, pause, rhythm, etc.

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Speech Sounds
Human beings can make a lot of sounds with their mouths. Some of them can be voluntary sounds, for example, clearing the throat or clicking the tongue, while others are involuntary sounds, for example, sneezing or snoring. However, not all the sounds that human beings can make are used for the production of speech. The sounds that we use to produce speech are called speech sounds. Words and sentences are made up of combinations of these sounds which are called phonemes. On their own, these sounds are meaningless, except when words are made of single phonemes. A case in point are the English words a and I, which are words on their own though they are made up of a single phoneme each ( // and /ai/ respectively).

The English language has twenty vowel phonemes and twenty four consonant phonemes.

The vowel phonemes are of two categories: the Monophthongs and the Diphthongs.

The monophthongs are those vowel phonemes that are pronounced at one specific place in the mouth. There are twelve monophthongs in English, as follows: /a/ as in the words father, car, mark, fall // as in the words bag, cat, flag, matter /i/ (short /i/), as in the words me, he, hit, sit, milk, finger /i:/ (long /i:/) as in the words fee, heat, meal, teacher /u/ (short /u/) as in the words to, put, full, should, wound /u:/ (long /u:/) as in the words too, shoes, sure, juice, cool, ruler /e/ as in the words get, well, fresh, breath // as in the words a, the (in front of consonant sounds), mother, winter /:/ (long /:/) as in the words girl, herd, heard, curd, word, journey / ^/ as in the words sun, butter, munch, funny, flood, enough, come / / as in the words on, not, hot, plot, bottle / :/ (long ):) as in the words bore, law, floor, door, thought

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The diphthongs are those vowel phonemes that are produced by starting at the position of one specific vowel sound and gliding towards the position of another specific vowel sound. There are eight dipththongs in English, as follows:

/ai/ as in the words my, buy, tie, fly, kite, climb /ei/ as in the words play, say, weigh, lay / i / as in the words toy, soil, spoil, loiter /i/ as in the words here, fear, mere, cheer /e/ as in the words there, bear, lair, fare, fair, share /u/ as in the words sure, poor, tour /ou/ as in the words go, so, no, ago, sow, low, flow, dough /au/ as in the words how, now, cow, lousy, bough

The twenty four consonant sounds of the English language are: /p/ - pair, pepper, shop /b/ - bad, rabbit, shrub /m/ - man, summer, farm /t/ - tap, letter, but /d/ - do, ladder, bud /n/ - nose, minor, moon /f/ - fall, toffee, rough /v/ - voice, even, of /k/ - cut, quiet, lacquer, shake /g/ - grow, sugar, bag /s/ - safe, loose, bliss /z/ - zoo, lose, boys // - sure, sugar, ocean, usher, brush / / - pleasure, treasure, garage / / - think, catheter, myth // - the, leather, breathe /t/ - chair, butcher, fetch / / - journey, adjourn, judge, 21

/l/ - long, rely, ill /j/ - yawn, lawyer, /w/- we, weather, jewel /r/- run, tree, carriage /h/-hot, his honey // - gnaw, ignore, sing

Speech sounds are usually produced by using the air stream mechanism while we are breathing in (pulmonic ingressive air stream mechanism), or while we are breathing out (pulmonic egressive air stream mechanism). The speech sounds of some languages, like Arabic, are produced by using both the pulmonic ingressive and the pulmonic egressive air stream mechanisms. The speech sounds of English are produced by using the pulmonic egressive air stream mechanism only.

Speech sounds can be either voiced or voiceless. The voice box in which the vocal cords are found is situated in the glottis, the place in the throat where the Adams apple is found. Normally, the air stream flows through the voice box on its way in or out of the lungs. In the production of speech, the vocal cords can remain wide open, allowing the air to pass through freely. The sounds which are produced in such cases are voiceless. Otherwise, the vocal cords become taut, the passage through the vocal cords closes down and the air has to squeeze through, causing the vocal cords to vibrate. In such situations voiced sounds are produced. This process is triggered by the brain, depending on whether we want to produce voiced or voiceless sounds. We can hear the difference between voiced and voiceless sounds in their realization. For example, /p/ and /b/ are both produced at the same place in the mouth and in the same manner. What produces the difference between them is the state of the glottis. In the production of /p/, the vocal cords are wide open, hence the sound produced is voiceless. In the production of /b/, the vocal cords are closed and the air has to squeeze through, causing them to vibrate, hence producing the voiced counterpart of /p/, that is, /b/. It is quite difficult to feel the vibration, except in some cases. For example, when we produce the sound /v/, if we place our fingers on 22

our lips, we can feel the vibration. We can also place our fingers on our temples to feel the buzzing.

Diagram of the vocal cords

Speech sounds are produced by using various parts of the mouth such as the lips, the tongue, the teeth, the alveolar or teeth ridge (the ridge behind the upper teeth), the hard palate and the soft palate (also called the velum).

Diagram of the mouth

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The air stream on its passage out of the lungs is modified at various places in the mouth and in various manners by the use of the articulators in order to produce the various speech sounds. For example, when both lips are pressed together and the air is then released through the mouth, the voiced sound /b/ is produced if the vocal cords are made to vibrate while if the glottis remains wide open, the voiceless counterpart /p/ is produced. On the other hand, if both lips are pressed together and the air is allowed to escape through the nose gradually, the /m/ sound is produced.

All vowel sounds are voiced. In the production of vowels, the mouth remains open. The vowel sounds are produced at different places near the tongue and by stretching or rounding the mouth.

Features of Spoken English

Pitch Some people have a high-pitched voice while others have a low-pitched voice. This is a natural feature. Our pitch also rises or falls depending on whether we are excited, angry, or bored when we are speaking. Pitch is thus used to communicate emotions and mood as well.

Intonation We also consciously alter our pitch to change the tune of our voice in order to convey meaning. This is called intonation and it is a crucial factor in speech. According to Kenworthy ( as cited in Harmer, 2001), intonation is used to put information in the foreground by using a high or wavering pitch, in the background by lowering the pitch, to signal ends and beginnings of conversations, or to show whether a situation is open or close. Intonation is also used to convey emotion, involvement and empathy. Variation in tone can indicate whether an utterance is an exclamation or a question, for example when we are exclaiming Really! or asking Really? Intonation hence modifies the

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intention of what we are saying. We thus perform different functions by choosing different tones to express ourselves while using the same language forms. For example, the word well can express agreement, doubt or disagreement depending on what we want to express and we modify our tone accordingly. In tag questions we use intonation to show our certainty about what we are saying and to indicate the response we expect as well. For example when we say, The weather is fine today, isnt it? with a falling tone we confirm what we believe is the case and when we say the same thing with a rising tone we express our uncertainty about what the answer will be. Intonation, therefore, conveys meaning in important ways: we recognize the difference between a statement and a question, we are aware when someone is expressing surprise or doubt or is being rude.

Pause Pause is a natural feature of spoken language. This is made visible by the use of punctuation marks such as full stops, colons, etc in written language. Normally there is no pause between words in speech. Pauses occur at sentence boundaries or when we want to achieve some special effect, such as getting the attention of our listener. Hence pauses, just as all other characteristics of spoken language, serve a communicative purpose.

Pace The pace at which we speak may be determined by a number of factors. We speak at a normal pace for our usual deliberations. We may increase our pace in some situations to show characteristics such as urgency, excitement, concern etc. Sometimes we reduce our pace, for example, to create suspense, as in a story telling activity.

Stress Languages differ in the quality of their articulation by being either syllabic, tone or stress-timed languages. French, for example, is syllabic in nature. This implies that

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each syllable is pronounced with equal force. In tone languages like Mandarin, saying the same word by raising or lowering the tone can cause a difference in meaning.

English, by nature, is a stress-timed language. This means that, in continuous speech, some syllables in the words of English are made more prominent by placing a stronger breath force on them, while the other syllables become less prominent. This is done to serve a communicative purpose. Usually, words which carry content meaning, that is, verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs, are stressed. All the other words, such as conjunctions, articles, modals, auxiliaries, etc, which carry grammatical meaning in the context of the sentence, are usually unstressed, unless the speaker wishes to place stress on them purposefully.

Hence, all monosyllabic nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are stressed, as follows (the stress is marked by placing \ above in front of the stressed syllable): Nouns: \boy, \shoes, \mill, \moon, \soil Verbs: \go, \come, \went, \clean, \show Adjectives: \cool, \good, \nice, \calm Adverbs: \fast, \here, \more, \so

Disyllabic nouns, adjectives and adverbs carry the stress on the first syllable, for example, Disyllabic nouns: \market, \basket, \father, \record, \village Disyllabic adjectives: \ugly, \heavy, \bitter Disyllabic adverbs: \very Disyllabic verbs, on the other hand, carry the stress on the second syllable, as in: ca \ rry, de \ cide, whis \ per, be \ gin etc. This allows to differentiate between nouns and verbs in cases where the same word can be used as a noun or a verb, with a change in the quality of the vowel as a result of the differing stress, as in the following cases: Nouns: \record, \filter, \desert, \export, \whisper, \market Verbs: re \ cord, fil \ ter, de \ sert, ex \ port, whis \ per, mar \ ket

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Stress thus makes some syllables become more prominent in the production of some words, has an effect on the way words are pronounced in continuous speech, and serves the grammatical function of differentiating between nouns and verbs. We can identify where stress is placed on a word by the way the word is pronounced, for example, in the word particular, the stress is on the syllable ti as it is the most prominent syllable when we say the word, as follows: /p \tikjul/.

In continuous speech, grammatical words, being normally unstressed, become weak. Some examples of grammatical categories in their weak forms are as follows:

Strong form

Weak Form

I am I shall I will You will He will She will I would Has not Have not

Im Ill Ill Youll Hell Shell Id Hasnt Havent

Sentence Stress In continuous speech, apart from the normal stress within words, stress is placed on specific words within the sentence to show focus. For example, if we say He wants to \stay here, we may mean to say he wants to settle down here, whereas if we say He \wants to stay here, we may mean to say that it is his desire to stay here, he is not being forced.

The use of these devices contributes to our ability to convey meaning. They allow the expression of emotion and intensity. Students should be led to develop and deploy 27

such suprasegmental features and devices if they are to develop their communicative skills fully

Use of Non-verbal Features There are also some paralinguistic or non-verbal features which convey meaning while we are engaged in oral speech. These include facial expressions such as frowning, smiling etc, the distance at which we speak to people, or the use of gestures such as shrugging the shoulders, etc.

Language Processing The speakers productive capacity in language is also dependent on the rapid processing skills that talking necessitates. Language processing involves the retrieval of words and phrases from memory and their assembly into syntactically and propositionally appropriate sequences. Effective speakers need to be able to process language in their heads and put it in coherent order so that it comes out in forms that are comprehensible and convey intended meaning. By implementing meaningful speaking activities in our English language lessons, we help our students develop habits of rapid language processing in English.

Pronunciation Teaching Even without specific pronunciation teaching, many students acquire a good pronunciation in the course of their learning. However, paying attention to the pronunciation of students will help them improve their pronunciation, thereby improving comprehension and intelligibility, which should be the prime goal of language teaching and for effective communication.. There are a few sounds in the English Language which cause particular difficulties to Mauritian learners of the language, especially where the sounds do not exist in their mother tongue, a case in point being the pronunciation of the voiced and voiceless counterparts of the th sound as in the words the, this, then, therefore, bathe, further, breathe etc (voiced) and think, thank, thumb, mathematics, truth, warmth, bath etc (voiceless). Our learners have the tendency to pronounce these sounds as z and s. Since th as in the word think and s are distinctive sounds in English and 28

mispronunciation of the word can send the wrong signal to the listener, for example, if the speaker says sink instead of think, then it is evident that our learners need to be led to pronounce the sound properly. In the case of th as in the word the which is pronounced as ze by some of our learners, the meaning of the word will not be in doubt since the two versions are not distinctive words, but the quality of the speech is definitely spoiled. Other sounds that our learners have the tendency to distort through their faulty pronunciation are sh which is often pronounced as s, h which remains silent even when it should be pronounced, and r which is often pronounced as its French counterpart, among some others.

Usually children have the tendency to pronounce sounds the way they perceive them, or the way they are used to pronouncing similar sounds in their mother tongue. In most of the cases of mispronunciation, the children are not aware of the situation. We, as the guardians of their learning, need to train their ears to the subtleties of the sounds of the language so that they achieve the required effect in their production of the language in its oral form. We can work towards making them develop an intelligible pronunciation though they cannot achieve native speaker like quality.

Pronunciation can be taught in an overt way through the practice functional dialogues, for example, telephone conversations, giving directions, asking for information at an information desk and other such productive skill activities where meaning depends on how we convey it orally. Remedial work can consist of making the children say tongue twisters, or by making them differentiate between sounds in minimal pairs. It is perfectly possible to work on the sounds of English without using any phonemic symbol. Minimal or contrasting pairs and exercises e.g. clap or touch to differentiate between contrasting sounds helps students concentrate on detail, especially when listening to differentiate between the small differences in the sounds. We must lead our students to differentiate between sounds which are especially confusing for them, for example, // and /s/. The teacher can also say a list of words with one having a different pronunciation though the word may have the same spelling as the others and the children may be asked to identify the odd 29

one. An example of such a list can be: for, pour, sour, draw, door, bore, soar. Evidently, sour is the odd one out.

Pronunciation can be taught in discrete slots but it must be remembered that pronunciation is not a separate skill, it is part and parcel of our oral production. It should form an integrated part of our speech. Moreover, the sounds of the language must be introduced gradually, not all at once.

Creating Awareness of Intonation

Intonation the ability to vary pitch and tune- is an important meaning carrier in oral speech too. Often it is difficult to identify the different patterns of rising and falling tones, but we can usually hear when people are being enthusiastic or bored, surprised or are really asking a question rather than confirming something they know. We need to give our learners the opportunity to recognize such moods and intentions through the way we model them. For example, in order to make them aware of all the different meanings of yes depending on the tone we use, we can use the word with the appropriate emotions or make them produce the word by matching their intonation to pictures of faces with different expressions or by the teacher modeling out. The point here is that we are not simply identifying specific intonation patterns, which are an important aspect of spoken language and a very natural behaviour, but we are also training the ears of the students to discern such patterns which carry a lot of meaning and also we are raising their awareness of the power of intonation. It trains them to listen more carefully to what messages are being conveyed to them. The more they are aware of how English is spoken, the greater is the chance that their own intelligibility levels will rise.

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Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT)

CLT brought a shift from the Behavioural Approach to language teaching to the significance of language functions rather than focusing solely on grammar and vocabulary teaching. The guiding principle of CLT is to make students use language forms appropriately in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes. It is based on the premises that exposure to the language and opportunities to use it are vital for the development of the language skills of the students. CLT activities involve students in real or realistic communication where the successful achievement of the task is more important than the grammatical accuracy of the language used. Mistakes are considered as a part of the process of learning. Students are provided with a desire and a purpose to communicate. The focus is on the content of what they are saying, not a particular language form. They are made to use a variety of language rather than just one language structure. CLT activities attempt to replicate real communication. CLT aims at making students develop and enhance their ability to communicate rather than just learning bits of language without focusing on their use in communication.

Language Practice Activities

Constant practice in meaningful activities is crucial to language development. As far back as in the 17th century, Comenius said that languages are easier to learn by practice than from rules. For such practice, the teacher can use a variety of strategies in the classroom to help the students develop their oral proficiency. For example, role-play allows the broadening of the classroom to include the world outside, and allows students to use a wider range of language than more taskoriented activities may do. Role play offers the possibility to create situations for authentic language use. It also brings in an element of fantasy which children can

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easily relate to. Moreover, children easily take on roles assigned to them. Hence, role play is one of the most productive tools in oral language development. Games can be used to make the practice of oral English interesting and meaningful. Games that are designed to provoke communication between students frequently depend on an information gap so that the students get engaged in talking about the gap and solving the puzzle, putting the information in the right order or finding similarities and differences between pictures.

Television and radio games imported into the classroom provide good fluency activities.

An example of a game is to make children guess what an object is. The teacher says that it is, for example, an animal or plant or fruit. The children need to ask a number of questions to be able to guess what it is. They cant ask the same question twice. The teacher answers only by yes or no. This activity also sharpens the listening skills of the children. The class can be divided into two groups to add an element of healthy competition in the game. The rule can be that if one group cannot guess after having asked five questions, the other group has the turn. Marks may be allocated to winners.

Another oral activity can be to make the children construct a story in groups based on a number of familiar and easily available objects placed on their table, such as a water bottle, a purse and a cap. Otherwise, they can construct a story collectively by contributing a sentence each to a clue provided by the teacher.

Songs, as mentioned previously, are an excellent tool for language activities. Apart from the possibilities they offer for listening activities, songs can lend themselves to various types of oral activities. The children can sing the song in chorus, or sing a line one at a time, or one group can sing the part of the male lead while another group sings the part of the female lead and some join in the chorus if there is one, depending on the song chosen.

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Language skills are not taught in isolation, as mentioned earlier. They are interrelated and the development of one leads to the development of another. Hence, the teaching of listening includes an amount of speaking and there can be no speaking without listening. The activities outlined above do not constitute an exhaustive list of all that can be done in the classroom to develop and enhance the listening and speaking skills of our learners. There has been a large amount of research on methods of teaching language skills effectively which have been put at the disposal of teachers. It is up to teachers to make judicious use of them

The Role of Teachers

Kahlil Gibran has said (the wise teacher) does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.(Gibran, 1991;76, as quoted in Harmer, 2001). To cater for the needs of students in todays world, teaching can no longer be the transmission of knowledge. It should rather be the creation of conditions in which students learn.

Under the influence of communicative theories as outlined above, emphasis has been placed on learner-centred teaching, that is, teaching which places the learners needs and experience at the centre of the educational process. The students learning experiences and their responses to them should be at the heart of a language course. Most specifically for the development of listening and speaking skills, as for the other language skills as well, the measure of a good lesson is the student activity taking place, not the performance of the teacher. The role of teachers is to be facilitators and they should as well be good animators so as to make students produce language. They can do this by setting activities clearly and with enthusiasm. They can also be participants in the activities. In this way they can prompt covertly, introduce new information to help the activity move along, ensure continuing student engagement, and maintain a creative atmosphere.

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34

Teaching Reading Skills

Introduction
It would be difficult to embark upon a consideration of strategies for the teaching of reading without taking into account the importance of this skill. All teachers are undoubtedly conversant with the reasons that impel us to do so and of the various advantages attached to being literate. Let us briefly go through these.

Reading provides a very good basis for language learning in a country where English is not the Mother Tongue. Texts contain a variety of structures and syntactic features and, through exposure to these, learners consciously and unconsciously absorb the rules for their use. Moreover, texts deal with a range of themes and contain vocabulary related to these. Being engaged with these texts naturally helps the learners to learn the language. By using texts as a basis to teach language, the teacher is ensuring that teaching is contextualised and therefore meaningful. Consequently learning takes place more effectively.

Using reading to teach language allows a greater flexibility in terms of teaching strategies. Since an extensive stock of reading materials is readily available (though the teacher may need to adapt them according to the needs or profile of the learners), the teacher can easily ensure that diverse texts are chosen. The element of novelty will help to keep the learners interested and motivated. Interest and motivation, as we know, are key factors in the learning process.

Texts are concrete materials that children can touch and see. The visual element is not only a stimulus or an attraction but also an aid to retention as

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learners remember more easily when they see. Moreover, learners can revert to the texts and go through them at their own pace.

All children like stories and derive pleasure from listening to their favourite ones over and over again. Going through the same text a number of times reinforces the learners awareness that print conveys a message as well as their ability to follow the story line and to recognise and understand new words.

Reading can lead to language production because it triggers a response in the reader. Children react to what they read/listen to. Thus they can be encouraged to talk or write about certain elements and this ascertains that they use the language. Through use, their knowledge of the language is inevitably reinforced.

In a literate society, reading constitutes one of the main ways through which information is obtained. Thus, though the importance of reading has so far been considered in relation to language learning, we cannot ignore the functional aspect. The teacher has the responsibility of making all learners literate so that they can manage their day to day life.

The Reading Continuum

Reading skills develop gradually in a number of phases. These have been described as follows: Role Play Reading, Experimental Reading, Early Reading, Transitional Reading and Independent Reading (see

http://www.myread.org/images/myread_stages.pdf for details). The learner starts by developing familiarity with reading conventions then proceeds to making sense at word level, sentence level and text level. It is important for teachers to be aware of these stages as activities and materials must be chosen in relation to these. Additionally, an awareness of these stages helps the teacher to determine the progress of individual learners and to set targets.

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Activity 1 1. Consider the stage of reading your pupils have reached. 2. Are all pupils at the same stage? 3. Identify reading materials that are appropriate for them.

Let us now look into the objectives of teaching reading at lower and upper primary levels.

Objectives of Teaching Reading at Lower Primary Level

The objectives of teaching reading at lower primary level are to develop: form perception and visual discrimination visual sequential memory and visual retention the ability to make letter-sound associations simple word recognition the understanding that print contains a message/story the ability to read short and simple texts the ability to follow a sequence the ability to enjoy and respond to the text

Objectives of Teaching Reading at Upper Primary Level

The objectives of teaching reading at upper primary level are to develop the ability to: read age appropriate texts fluently and with understanding recognise different lay outs and conventions infer meaning from context further increase sight vocabulary

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engage in sustained silent reading read aloud with appropriate pronunciation, pace, intonation, and pitch

respond to the text read a variety of age appropriate texts for information and pleasure

Early Reading Experiences

Early reading experiences constitute a crucial stage for the learner and it is the time when positive attitudes towards reading can be developed. The teaching of reading at lower primary level can prove to be challenging, especially if the learners have had limited or no exposure to the target language. The teacher must ensure that the appropriate conditions exist by creating a language rich environment. The classroom space must be optimised so that learners are exposed to print in various forms, e.g. a class library, posters, notices, labels, drawings, childrens works etc. Reading must be a daily activity and the teacher must model good reading behaviours. We shall now describe some activities for the teaching of reading at lower and upper primary level. All activities relate to the objectives stated above.

Form Perception and Visual Discrimination It is important to develop the learners ability to recognise patterns and letters so that they are eventually aware of the sequence of letters in words and sequence of words in sentences.

Activities: Picture matching

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Shape matching

Letter matching

d
Word matching

n
boy

n
boy

d
cat

cat

Tracing and copying regular shapes, letters and words

aaaaaaaaa bbbbbbbbb cccccccccc cat cat cat cat cat boy boy boy boy boy

Phonemic Awareness Phonemic awareness is an important aid to decipher words. The phonics approach involves teaching reading by training learners to associate letters with their sound. By doing so, learners can blend sounds to read words or sound out words to spell

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them. In order to raise phonemic awareness, the teacher can make children practise auditory discrimination by contrasting sounds (e.g. kit/sit), by analysing or isolating sounds (e.g. underline the words that end like cake: dog, rake, ball, shake) and by blending sounds (e.g. using a picture of a cat say the word slowly with the children, stretching it so that individual sounds c-a-t are made prominent). A number of activities based on the phonics approach are easily available on the internet and in books. Devoting some time to research these will allow the teacher to find a selection of materials that will facilitate the teaching of reading.

Whole Word Recognition The use of whole word recognition is also a very useful technique for the teaching of reading. We cannot rely only on the phonics approach, especially as English is an irregular language. In teaching any subject, it is always best to resort to a variety of methods. The use of whole word recognition leads to developing basic sight vocabulary. It is essential for children to build up a bank of words that they recognise instantly. This contributes to reading fluently.

The teacher can use the following approach: after doing word to word matching, children are asked to observe the word carefully and trace or copy it. A simple activity consists of reading the word on a word card, placing the card face down and trying to write the word from memory. Frequent practice will ensure that the word is committed to memory. Children must be encouraged to say the word aloud when they read or write it. The more frequently they encounter these words, the easier it will be for them to retain them. Playing games or doing activities involving the reading of these words on flashcards the look and say method- can be used regularly to provide practice and also to assess progress.

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Visual Sequential Memory As part of the early reading experiences, children should be taught to read a sequence of words- initially as a phrase, and then as a sentence. Word cards used to teach sight vocabulary can be placed in a succession as shown below:

a on a

cat the cat mat on the mat

The learner is thus gradually led to read a sentence.

Whole Language Approach

The teaching of reading cannot be limited to reading words and sentences in isolation. The whole language approach involves making children engage meaningfully with the text in order to construct meaning. As learners consider a word, they view it in context, namely in relation to: (i) the correspondence between symbols/letters and the sound they represent (grapho-phonic) (ii) the meaning of what is being read (semantic) (iii) the grammatical structure of the sentence/phrase (syntactic). The teaching of reading is thus always in context rather than in isolation. This approach provides ample opportunities for the teacher to teach literacy across the curriculum. Moreover, it ensures that children are provided with daily experiences to read and write for real purposes.

An example of using the whole language approach is as follows: After reading a story, the teacher can discuss specific characters by having children answer questions or express their views. S/he can also have the children act out

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parts and draw or describe the character depending on the level. A few tips to make a story reading session successful are: Find something interesting to read. Change your tone of voice, use low and high pitch, use squeaking sounds, whistles and other mouth noises. Involve the children in the reading, e.g. make them read repetitive words/sentences with you. Discuss the characters in the story with the children do they like them? etc. Play with the ending, e.g. What happened to ? What if? Most important -- laugh and have fun with the children.

The teacher must bear in mind that teaching reading entails not only teaching a set of skills but also developing the right attitude. Therefore, it is important for learners to see a purpose in the tasks set and to enjoy the reading lesson. Reading skills develop concurrently and not in a sequence, i.e. we cannot wait for the learner to acquire all the vocabulary (in fact that is hardly possible!) and then proceed to reading texts. Reading texts to the learners even before they can read will teach them the basic conventions such as the direction of print. Moreover, it introduces new words to them, it shows that print contains a message and, with the help of the teacher, they learn that they can respond to the text. Gradually, they are brought to read simple texts with words they can decode- either through phonics or the look and say method.

Activity 2 1. Discuss the need to adopt a number of approaches to teach reading to young learners. 2. List the factors that will guide your choice of the aids you will use.

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Let us now see how the young learners become independent readers.

Becoming Proficient Readers

At upper primary level, the teacher will build upon, reinforce and extend the skills already acquired previously. The scope of the reading lesson becomes broader as new types of texts with different layouts are introduced, more words are taught, sentence structures become more complex, etc. Moreover, learners must become independent readers and must take to reading for pleasure. It is unfortunate that the importance of reading for pleasure is downplayed, so much so that in Mauritius reading is too often limited to academic purposes. Reading for pleasure is, in fact, an effective way of developing fluency and aids in improving pace, constructing meaning, developing vocabulary and increasing knowledge about a variety of topics. Children who read extensively have more chances of becoming more proficient language users. Given these benefits, it is imperative for the teacher to develop a reading culture.

Stages in the Reading Lesson The reading lesson can be divided into three main stages, namely: pre-reading while reading post reading

The Pre- Reading Stage In this stage, the teacher introduces the text to the learners. The purpose is to lead them into the text by focusing on the characters, themes/issues and new words they will come across. The teacher thus elicits prior knowledge and views about the topic.

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Words that impede understanding are explained using a variety of strategies. Pictures, realia, anecdotes, printed materials, etc are some of the resources that can be used. The While Reading Stage Here the teacher will lead the learners through the text. This is done by making them interact with the text at word level (What does the word mean? What word could have been used instead? Would the meaning be the same? Is there a better word?), sentence level (What new information has been given? Why is there an exclamation mark at the end of the sentence? What word goes here?) and text level (What is going to happen next? Is this what we had anticipated? How does this character appear here? Why did s/he do/say this?).

The Post Reading Stage At this point, the text has already been read and the teacher will take the learners beyond the text. The aim is to make the learners use their newly acquired knowledge critically and creatively. This allows them to reinforce their understanding of the text and also to dapple further in the language while carrying out the tasks. Tasks focusing on the whole text are worked out. Some examples of such activities are: 1. Answering questions. 2. Unscrambling letters to spell words correctly. 3. Reordering jumbled pictures and/or sentences in the correct sequence. 4. Rewriting the story. 5. Discussing issues/events/characters. 6. Writing a letter/diary based on a situation. 7. Designing a poster based on the text. 8. Role Play. 9. Changing the ending.

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While teaching reading, the teacher must realise that s/he is not teaching the learners to read a text but rather using a text to develop skills that will enable the learners the read any text. S/He must make sure that the approach adopted helps her/him work towards that end. Activity 3 Describe the ways in which the teachers approach to teaching reading at upper primary level differs from that at lower primary level.

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Teaching Writing Skills

Introduction
At the outset, the answer to the question: Why teach writing? appears obvious. Writing is naturally a very important skill and mode of communication. But we should be careful about adopting a very narrow view by focusing only on the academic aspect. In Mauritius, a lot of emphasis is placed on written exercises given that the teaching is geared towards examinations. While it is necessary to prepare children for the examinations, we must not forget that we have to equip them for life and, therefore, the need to develop functional literacy must be kept in mind. We should therefore, through our teaching, endow them with the appropriate knowledge and skills to produce a variety of texts for different purposes and readers.

Where Does the Teaching of Writing Begin?

For most children, the teaching of writing starts even before they enter primary school. As the children are exposed to printed material at home or elsewhere in their environment, for example, when they observe others reading and writing, they acquire the notion that: Print contains a message Reading/writing takes place in a specific direction (left to right) There are different types of texts (book, newspaper, list, bill, letter, poster etc).

As the children imitate adults or older siblings, they start to scribble and draw. By doing so, they unknowingly learn to hold pencils or pens the appropriate way. When the school takes over the teaching of writing becomes more formal and structured. Let us therefore turn to the objectives of teaching writing at primary level.

Objectives of Teaching Writing at Lower Primary Level

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The objectives of teaching writing at lower primary level are to develop the learners ability to: Shape letters correctly Spell words correctly Follow directionality of print Use mechanics of writing Use appropriate punctuation marks Write simple sentences that are grammatically correct Produce a variety of simple texts

At upper primary level, the teacher will build upon and extend the knowledge and skills acquired earlier and work towards the achievements of new targets.

Objectives of teaching writing at upper primary level

The objectives of teaching writing at upper primary level are to develop the learners ability to: Write grammatically correct simple and complex sentences Express ideas with clarity and fluency Spell words correctly Use more extensive vocabulary Produce texts with appropriate layout and conventions Write coherently Produce a variety of texts for different purposes and readers

The Writing Continuum

The writing continuum indicates the different stages the children go through on the way to becoming proficient, i.e. independent writers. These stages are as follows: Pre-conventional, Emerging, Developing, Beginning, Expanding, Bridging, Fluent, Proficient, Connecting and Independent writing. For more details, log on to

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http://www.learningtowrite.ecsd.net/stages http://www.misd.klz.wa.us/parentsfamilies/parentsources/continuums/writingconti

nuum.pdf ; and http://lindaslearninglinks.com/earlywrtgdev.html . As in the case of reading, the stages mark a progression in the skill but it is important to bear in mind that all learners do not progress at the same pace. It is important for teachers to be aware of the stage of development the learners have attained and to take measures to make them progress to the next one. Let us now go through examples of activities that can be carried out at different stages to develop appropriate writing skills.

Activities for the Teaching of Writing at the Early Stages

In the early stages, children express their thoughts through drawing and by scribbling. They gradually move on to forming letters and producing sequence of letters- their way of writing words. The teacher must encourage them to talk about their drawing and to read their scribbling because, by doing so, they are showing the awareness that print contains a message. As children become involved in more structured instruction, fine motor skills develop and they learn to follow patterns, trace dotted letters, copy letters and eventually words. Direction of print is brought out and the words/phases/sentences are read aloud. As with all skills, the more one practises writing, the more adept one becomes. Activity 4 Consider how you can make a reading activity lead to the teaching of writing at lower primary level.

Becoming Proficient Writers

At upper primary level, pupils must be encouraged to write texts on various topics and for diverse purposes. Moreover, their writing must not be aimed only at the teacher! Letters, compositions, stories, poems and posters are examples of texts they can produce. The variety of texts ensures that they are writing for different purposes, organising the content differently and aiming at different readers.

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Process Writing
Think of yourself, an adult, writing a letter or an assignment. Have you considered the number of times you have gone forward and backward, revising, changing, adding ideas, etc before completing your task? How fair is it, therefore, to provide the learners with a model and expect them to produce a good piece of writing solely by basing themselves on that? Whereas a model gives a helpful insight into text layout and type of information to include, it is detrimental to creativity and originality. A model can turn out to be too rigid and not allow learners to add their own input. Let us look into the features of process writing and then examples of activities to make learners engage in it. Writing is a process that involves at least five distinct steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. But producing a text is not a linear process. It is known as a recursive process because we constantly revise what we have already written thereby returning to the prewriting stage to develop and expand our ideas.

Prewriting At this stage, the writer generates ideas. The learners can be involved in the following activities: Picture description Brainstorming Questioning Referring to stories/texts (across the curriculum) read previously with the same themes Drafting This is a crucial stage where the writer puts his/her ideas into sentences and paragraphs. Ideas are developed (relevant details are given) and connected. Some activities that can be useful to the learners are: A writing frame with the outline of the story Last week I saw a puppy abandoned near a sugarcane field... It was ... I wanted to ...but... My father helped me to ... We took it home and ... 49 Now Pluto is part of the family and ...

Cues and prompts

This can constitute a series of questions to help the writers include all relevant information. Questions as given below will help children include descriptions in their writing. They also help children who have difficulties during the planning stage. What happened first? When did it happen? To whom did it happen? Where did it happen? Then what happened? What did you see/hear/say? What did it look like story beginnings, story Alternatively, a series of (shape, colour, size etc)?endings and connecting words can be provided.

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Expanding Ideas/Sentences

To enhance a piece of writing, it is necessary to use a variety of sentence structures and to include details. The following activity can be carried out prior to the written task in order to provide the necessary practice. 1. Take a simple sentence, e,g. I saw a puppy. 2. Distribute word cards among the children. E.g. of words on the word cards: yesterday, last week, last Saturday, during the weekend, abandoned, brown, skinny, wet, hungry, in a ditch, near a sugarcane field. 3. As a whole class, group or pair activity, the children are asked to expand the sentence by adding as many words as possible. A variety of sentences on the same topic can thereby be obtained: e.g. Yesterday I saw a skinny puppy near a sugar cane field. During the weekend, I saw an abandoned wet puppy in a ditch. I saw a hungry brown puppy near a sugar cane field last week.

Revising and Editing Revising and editing are essential as they allow the writer to correct spelling and grammatical mistakes, get an overall impression of the text and bring about improvements (such as details, clarifications) where necessary. The teacher can prepare a checklist that enables the children to focus on essential features of their writing and make them develop the habit of going through it before submitting their work. The checklist can include the following features; it can be modified according to the task given: ____Each of my paragraphs has one main idea. ____I have used the correct verb tense. ____I have used correct punctuation. ____My spelling is correct. ____My handwriting is legible. 51

To ensure there is variety in the lessons, the teacher can encourage peer or group editing. The children will find it fun to play the teacher and correct their peers work. This is, in fact, another way of learning.

Publishing It is rather unfortunate that learners tend to write only for their teacher. In real life situations, writing is geared towards various readers and we compose our texts according to the purpose and audience. It is important to develop that same flexibility in children right from the start and this can be achieved by: Providing them with opportunities to share their writing with the rest of the class and answering questions based on what they have written from their peers; Asking them to direct their writing to different readers, e.g. o You are Goldilocks. Write a letter to the bears to apologise for having entered their house and eaten their porridge. o Make a poster to encourage the pupils to keep the school yard clean. o Make a card for your father/mother on father/mothers day.

Activity 5 1. How do the activities described above help pupils become more creative and original in their writing? 2. Are creativity and originality important features of writing? Why? 52

Spelling
Spelling mistakes often mar the quality of the writing and understanding. A consideration of spelling is of utmost necessity before we end this section. The following strategies can be of assistance to the learners:

Whole Word Approach/Visual Memory

This is effective for high frequency words, i.e. words we often come across while reading and writing. As mentioned above, in the section on Reading, learners memorise the words as a whole and practice using the look-cover-write-and-check approach.

Phonemic Approach:

Again, as mentioned above, learners segment individual sounds in the word and write down the letter or letter strings most likely to represent those sounds. Irregular words, however, have to be taught differently.

Syllabification

Through this approach, learners break down the words into syllables, e.g. recover: re-co-ver.

Morphemic Approach

This involves breaking down the word into the smallest units of meaning within the word, e.g. uncovered: un-cover-ed. Knowledge of prefixes and suffixes is useful here. Word within Words

This also involves breaking down the word and writing it, e.g. stable: s-table; airplane: air-plane; pullover: pull-over.

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Spelling Rules

These have to be memorised by the learners but frequent recall and practice will ensure that this takes place. For instance, adding a double consonant before ing if preceded by a short vowel. Examples are: letting, hitting and beginning.

Whatever the strategy used, it is recommended that teachers draw the attention of the learners to these words whenever they come across them. As such the learners can see the words used in a context; not only is the meaning clear, but by frequently observing the word, the learners memorise it more easily.

Activity 6 1. What are the most common spelling mistakes among your pupils? 2. Choose four mistakes and match each one with the strategy you deem most appropriate.

Reading and Learning

Purposes for Reading

Introduction
Any reading programme must take into consideration the following imperative: that every child should, as far as possible, be able to read effectively and competently a wide variety of authentic texts 1. To be able to read efficiently, interaction between the reader and the text is essential.

An authentic text is a text which has not been written for language teaching purposes. It would thus be representative of the real world. Examples of such texts are newspaper articles, songs, traditional fairy tales, guidebooks, news reports, and so on.

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It is the teachers responsibility, therefore, to facilitate the learners acquisition of critical skills to read accurately, fluently and with understanding. Through a range of interesting activities, the pupils need to be exposed to a variety of print, print conventions and cues to facilitate the acquisition and construction of meaning.

Definitions of Reading
The term 'reading' refers to a complex system of deriving meaning from print that requires all of the following: the skills and knowledge to understand how (phonemes) speech sounds are related to print; the ability to interpret unfamiliar words; the ability to read with fluency; adequate background information and vocabulary to support reading comprehension; the development of appropriate active strategies to construct meaning from print and the development and maintenance of a stimulus to read2.

Activity 1 Write a short definition of reading, and then compare your answer with the given definitions below.

Various definitions of reading have been propounded and while they reflect the perspective or schools of thought from which they are issued, they however share some common features, namely, the ability to understand, interpret, pronounce, speak and acquire meaning, among others.

Adapted from the U.S. Department of Education policy, the Reading First initiative (No Child Left Behind Act, 2001)

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Some definitions of Reading: Reading is a basic life skill. It is a cornerstone for a child's success in school, and, indeed, throughout life. Without the ability to read well, opportunities for personal fulfilment and job success inevitably will be lost. (Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading, 1985)

Reading is not a simple mechanical skill, nor is it a narrow scholastic tool. Properly cultivated, it is essentially a thought-getting process [] It should be developed as a complex organization of patterns and of higher mental processes. It can and should embrace all types of thinking, evaluating, judging, imagining, reasoning and problem solving. (Gates, 1949)

Reading is the process of constructing meaning from written texts. It is a complex skill requiring the coordination of a number of interrelated sources of information (Anderson et al., 1985).

Reading is the process of constructing meaning through the dynamic interaction among: (1) the reader's existing knowledge; (2) the information suggested by the text being read; and (3) the context of the reading situation (Wixson, Peters, Weber, & Roeber, 1987).

[Reading is] a complex process by which a reader reconstructs, to some degree, a message encoded by a writer in a graphic language. (Goodman, 1970)

Reading is a problem-solving process. As readers, we try to discover what the author means while, at the same time, we build meaning for ourselves. We use our own language, our own thoughts, our own view of the world to interpret what the author has written. [...] The reader is as active in searching

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for meaning as is the writer in creating written language. (Goodman and Burke, 1972)

From the above definitions, it can be seen that reading is far from being a simple, passive activity. In the words of Manzo and Manzo (1995), Reading is a tool, and its definition is influenced by the readers purpose and the demands of the situation. [...] Simply put: reading is comprehending, interpreting, and applying textual material. This definition implies that reading involves more than, and extends further than, the printed page. The reader brings a great deal of information and experience to the page and extends comprehension beyond the information and perspective presented on the page. (Teaching Children to be Literate, Pg. 10)

Activity 2 Now that you have read the above quotes, discuss the importance of reading in the primary curriculum. Is there any particular quote which strikes you more than the others? Explain why.

Importance of Reading
People read for different reasons and purposes. In fact, they want to derive something from the writing, whether it be ideas, entertainment or sense of belonging. In the end, reading is about the readers attempt to discover what the writer has produced and showcased in his or her text. There is no doubt that reading is seen as being beneficial and is often promoted. Let us consider some of the main reasons put forward to advocate reading:

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1. Reading is perceived as a way to improve ones mind and thinking. Texts can instruct, inform, entertain, motivate and inspire: New ideas and experiences are presented to us and we may visit places we have never been by visualising the descriptions. We are introduced to people we have never met, and get to understand their perspective. Reading also allows us to be in touch with the past, to understand our history in a way that becomes meaningful to us. Finally, reading broadens our general knowledge, making us more aware of issues, and preparing us for discussions.

2. Reading has the capacity to engage not only our intellectual faculties but also our emotional engagement. Stories can fascinate, shock and entertain. We may laugh, cry, or feel the suspense from the content of books. Through suspension of disbelief, we may picture ourselves within the narratives or identify with the protagonists.

3. Reading also provides opportunities for physical development. Simply turning the pages of a book helps in fine tuning motor skills. It stimulates the muscles of the eyes and also affects chemistry of the body by utilizing the brain. Moreover, reading has an effect on senses such as sight, sound, touch, and smell. The importance of the book as a physical object tends to be understated but teachers need to realize the importance of familiarising pupilss with the text as an object to be discovered.

4. Educational researchers have found that there is a strong correspondence between reading and academic success. In other words, a pupil who is a good reader is more likely to do well in school and pass exams than a pupil who is a poor reader.

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The following graphic3 illustrates the links between vocabulary, reading ability and academic success:

5. Good readers can understand the syntax and the organizational structure of a piece of writing. They learn how to use various sentence structures to make a point. Reading helps to build on the students own natural writing skills and style.

6. Students can understand ideas, follow arguments, and deduce meaning. They can thus determine the meaning of many of the unfamiliar words from the context. Good readers are therefore better equipped to handle texts and efficiently construct meaning.

7. Researchers have found that those with large vocabularies tend to be good readers. Indeed, one of the best ways to build and broaden ones vocabulary is through extensive reading. Reading can also significantly improve spelling, especially in todays world where colloquialisms, slang and contracted forms of words are quite common; possibly due to the predominance of fast

Graphic obtained from <http://esl.fis.edu/parents/advice/read.htm>

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communication technologies. Grammatical rules are also gradually acquired while reading.

8. Reading is a good way of introducing students to rhetorical devices such as metaphors, dialogue, imagery and so on. Moreover, when dealing with narrative texts, they also learn about plot development, characters and motivation, tone and style.

Activity 3 Can you think of any other reasons why reading should be considered as important?

Purposes for Reading

Efficient readers learn to use different strategies for different kinds of reading. They know when to read quickly skipping over some of the words, how to skim for general information, scan for specific information, and how to study for tests. The teacher, therefore, must not only help to develop and stimulate reading skills but also show to the pupils that there are different purposes for reading and that these purposes have their own strategies. Once students have familiarized themselves with the basic decoding skills, they can begin to read for a variety of purposes.

Activity 4 Before reading on, can you think of some of the purposes for reading? What sort of skills and/or knowledge would be required for each purpose?

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Let us now consider some of the different purposes for reading.

Reading for information

One of the main reasons we read is to gather information. Reading for information, therefore, consists of reading informative passages to obtain some general or specific information. This would result in a more utilitarian approach towards reading (as opposed to reading for pleasure, for instance), involving the use of certain reading/thinking strategies different from those used for other purposes. Teachers also need to make sure that their pupils are able to read and interpret supplementary aids such as charts, graphs, maps, and tables which are very often found in such texts and which provide additional information.

The reader engages with types of texts where he can understand facts about reality and the world. Informational texts need not be read from beginning to end; readers may select the parts they need.Examples of informational and instructive texts would include: School manuals Science articles Dictionary and encyclopaedia entries Historical accounts Newspaper articles Webpage from the internet Maps Guidebooks Recipes

Activity 5 Taking into consideration the texts mentioned above, what other skills and/or background knowledge would you need to inculcate in the young learner in order to enable him to access information from these texts?

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Reading for information usually involves three processes, namely, identifying the key words you are looking for, skimming and scanning the text, and retrieving the information. What is skimming? Skimming is a reading technique that can help you to:

read more quickly decide if the text is interesting and whether you should read it in more detail

Skimming is a fast reading technique which is used to obtain the gist of a piece of text (i.e. to quickly identify the main ideas, facts or keywords in the text). One good way to do so is to read the first and last paragraphs of sections of texts to get a summary of the whole text. Moreover, at paragraph level, the first and last sentences can give you an idea of what the paragraph is about. Such sentences are called topic sentences.

How is 'skimming' different from 'scanning'? The term skimming is often confused with scanning. Note that skimming is used to obtain the gist of a piece of text. For instance, if my students are doing some research on the eruption cycle of a volcano, they might skim through the text to see whether it contains useful and relevant information before reading in more detail. Flipping through the pages of the text might give them an idea of the organization and relevance of the ideas. As we will see below, scanning is used to obtain specific or more precise information from a piece of text. For instance, if I want to find a particular phone number, I will scan through the telephone directory.

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How do you skim read? Do not read every single word. You may use cues such as pictures or even the title to give you some background information. The aim is to let your eyes roam across the text in search of key words.

What is meant by scanning? Scanning is a fast reading technique which allows you to look for specific information in a text. Scanning can be used to look up a phone number, read through the small ads in a newspaper, or for browsing timetables, lists, catalogues or web pages for information. Note that you don't need to read or understand every word. Scanning is also useful when studying or looking to find specific information from a book or article quickly since there is not always time to read every word. Sometimes you can use both skimming and scanning. After you have skimmed a piece of text to decide whether the text is useful, you can use scanning techniques to locate specific information. Once you detect a keyword, or a first or last sentence, slow down your reading to read for more understanding. You might also want to pay particular attention to bolded or italicised words, information tables and headings. Remember that you can always go back to the text to verify the information gathered by re-reading.

Revision: Reading to Learn Skimming: reading to gain an overall understanding of the content of the text Another purpose for reading requires reading carefully and slowly. As we have seen Scanning: reading to locate specific information in the previous section, skimming allows the student to Re-reading: reading to confirm meanings and understandings, and to clarify details.

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have an overview of what the text covers. Headings and sub-headings will give him an idea of the structure and organization of the text. From there, the learner will attempt to make links between the material and his own background knowledge. Once he has got a general idea of the contents, it is time to read a bit more closely. The meaning of difficult words is deduced either from contextual information in the text or with the help of a dictionary. Reviewing the material will allow the student to see if he can answer questions about the text. A more active reading strategy is called SQ3R (survey, question, read, recite, review). It gives more information about a method for studying, asking and answering questions, and reviewing material. More information on reading to learn will be given in the next section.

Reading for Comprehension Reading for comprehension is the process whereby the reader makes or creates the meaning from the content presented in the text for the purpose of interpreting a message. As each subject is different and each individual learns in a different way, an individual may have to adapt his or her reading style to suit the material being read. He may use a style of reading known as reading for comprehension. Comprehension reading, sometimes also known as study reading, is a method of reading a particular passage, chapter, or entire written work several times very carefully so the individual can understand the material more effectively. By reading the material more slowly than he would normally read, and/or by reading the material aloud, the student can often gain a better understanding of the material. This style of reading contrasts with skimming and scanning as it allows the pupil to understand the information covered by one piece of text rather than finding the gist or specific items of information in that text. Note, however, that reading for comprehension can be a time-consuming process since it requires the pupil to read

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very slowly, and even at times, to re-read the text. The table below shows you the stages involved in reading for comprehension:

Focus on and retrieve explicitly stated information

Readers recognize information presented in the text and relate it to what they seek. Specific information is typically located in a single sentence or phrase.

Make straightforward inferences Interpreting and integrating ideas and information Examine and evaluate content, language and textual elements

Readers go beyond the surface meaning of texts to fill in the gaps in meaning.

Readers attempt to construct a more specific or complete understanding of the text by integrating personal knowledge and experience with meaning. Readers base themselves upon their interpretations and weigh their understanding of texts against their world view. They can reject, accept or remain neutral to the texts representation. Readers may reflect upon the use and effectiveness of authors devices to convey meaning.

(Adapted from Mullis, et al, 2006.)

Reading to Perform a Task

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Reading to perform a task involves reading various types of materials for the purpose of applying the information or directions in completing a specific task. Here the reader is not just trying to understand the text but also to accomplish a certain activity.

Examples could include tasks including directions for creating a time capsule or birthday card, instructions on how to write a letter to your headmaster and so on.

Reading for Literary Experience When a person reads for literary experience, he becomes involved in:

settings imagined or fictitious events actions and consequences characters atmosphere feelings ideas

The reader gets an appreciation of language and knowledge of literary forms to the text. This is often accomplished through reading fiction. The early reading of most young children tends to be centred on literary and narrative text types. In addition, many young readers also enjoy acquiring information from books and other types of reading material. This kind of reading becomes more important as learners develop their literacy abilities and are increasingly required to read in order to learn across the curriculum.

So what does reading such texts bring to pupils?

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 Pupils are able to explore the human condition. They are able to associate narrative events with personal experience. They can consider the connections between emotions, events, and possibilities. Young readers are able to explore situations and feelings they have not yet encountered. The texts may present the perspective of the narrator or a principal character, or there may be several such viewpoints in more complex texts. Information and ideas can be directly provided or retrieved through dialogue and events. Short stories or novels sometimes narrate events chronologically, or sometimes make more complex use of time with time shifts such as flashbacks.

Teachers are encouraged to use a wide variety of literary tests such as short stories, poems, fables, historical fiction, science fiction, and mysteries.

Reading for Pleasure You might wonder why we have placed this section as the last one. Indeed, we feel that reading for pleasure is one of the most understated purposes for reading. Everyone seems to approve of reading for pleasure but very often, it is up to the teacher to promote such an activity. Let us not forget that, after the parents and peer group, teachers also are perceived as role models. A teacher who encourages his pupils to read not just for the sake of learning or finding information, but for literary appreciation and entertainment will find that the more his pupils are involved in reading, the better readers they will become. Reading for pleasure is usually associated with narrative texts, especially popular fiction. While reading to learn is carried out in view of obtaining more insight into or information on a specific topic, reading for pleasure has no strict guidelines. The 67

reader is in charge of his own reading experience. The theorist Krashen has argued that reading for pleasure is an important factor in second language acquisition. The only requirement "is that the story or main idea be comprehensible and the topic be something the student is genuinely interested in, that he would read in his first language" (Krashen, 1982: 164). To stimulate light reading, schools can provide a library and make provisions for library classes or reading periods (drop everything and read sessions, for instance) where pupils can browse and take out reading materials of interest.

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READING FOR LEARNING

Introduction
Human existence has centred on the development of oral traditions and over the years, spoken language, as a tool of communication, has gained in importance. However, with the vast amount of information surrounding us in the 21 st Century, reading as a skill and the ability to read for different purposes has taken greater proportions. Advanced levels of literacy are fast becoming fundamental for tomorrows adults.

Reading, therefore, is an indispensable skill and as a means of communication, it is as important as speaking. We have already looked at the different purposes and uses of reading, which are also a clear indication about where the value of reading lies. Yet, the question that we need to ask ourselves is, how much of reading do we or our pupils actually cover? Too often, we are dependant on visual sources of information while pupils take it for granted that all the required information will come from the teacher. As a result, on both sides, active engagement in reading is negligible.

Far too often, pupils reading is limited to textbooks and these remain central to teaching at school level. Although they are not the only source of information, they are generally treated as one. More than simply using any reading material as a tool for constructing knowledge, what matters most is how it is used. Rather than treating the reading text as the only source of knowledge, pupils should be trained to learn with texts a process via which pupils interact with the texts as they build their own meaning and knowledge. After all, reading is regarded as a conversation between the reader and the author.

Reading activities at school

Activity 1 What is your opinion of the following statement/observation? In the classroom, reading is done for the sake of reading.

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Very often, our teaching is based on picking a reading text that is assigned as classwork/homework. In subsequent lessons, either the teacher or the pupils or both read the text aloud. The questions are then attempted and answers are corrected as the teacher accordingly provides the information in the text. The focus then is on simply reading for the sake of answering questions. Unfortunately, this leads to a lack of involvement in the reading process because the objective is the final product of questions and answers, and not interacting/enjoying the text.

This unit supports the view that learning with texts should be more of the pupils responsibility. As aforementioned, it is not only about what the pupils will learn, but how they will learn. The teacher, therefore, is not the sole giver of knowledge/information. In a successful English language class, there is a careful balancing act between both content (what) and process (how). Reading, in fact, has been defined as a skilful activity, where the reader is always asking questions to himself/herself and about the text. These are the questions that create the interaction between both reader and text. For examples, skilled readers often ask themselves some of the following questions: what is the text focusing on? What is it about? What is the author trying to say? What is the meaning of the text (or certain specific words/expressions)? What is about to happen next? The skilled reader often takes a position vis--vis the text responding positively/negatively to the text (I agree/disagree with the content/ I dont think the author is quite right here). This approach to reading enables the reader to be actively engaged with the material, responding to it by being on the lookout for specific information and especially inferring from the text.

It is important to remind ourselves of the levels of comprehension: Reading the lines (literal) Reading between the lines (interpretative) Reading beyond the lines (applied)

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Skilled readers often use certain strategies in a constant bid to interact with the text. These can be broadly categorised as follows:

Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the structure and content of a reading selection

Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content and vocabulary and check comprehension; using knowledge of the text type and purpose to make predictions about discourse structure; using knowledge about the author to make predictions about writing style, vocabulary, and content

Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea, identify text structure, confirm or question predictions

Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up

Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the information and ideas in the text

(Source: National Capital Language Resource Center, George Washington University)

It is important, therefore, that reading as a skill also incorporates strategy instruction. Integration of these, for any subject, improves the pupils ability to comprehend the text and to develop familiarity with the content. Struggling readers, on their part, will require explicit instruction of these strategies.

Instruction in reading strategies is, therefore, a must in the language classroom it plays a determining role in turning pupils into effective readers. Strategies also need to be implemented during the three phases of reading: before (pre-reading), during (while-reading) and after (post-reading). You have already had a glimpse into the reading phases in the previous unit. The following contains more details that will enable you situate the use of reading strategies:

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Pre-reading This is the foundational stage where the reading task is planned in order to seek meaning. It is important here to determine what exactly the purpose of reading the material is. As a result, a decision generally by the instructor has to be taken regarding whether more linguistic or background exposure is needed to help in comprehension. More importantly, it has to be decided whether a bottom-up approach (a broad view of the passage/text that seeks for overall meaning) or a topdown approach (a more detailed and focused approach on certain specific words, phrases, and expressions) will be adopted.

While-reading This phase is where comprehension is constantly monitored. Therefore, predictions are checked and the reader takes the most important decision of selecting the most significant parts of the text that require attention. This phase does not include a single reading often, there are more focused readings (on specific parts) conducted in order to recheck comprehension.

Post-reading This stage comprises evaluating ones comprehension of the text, which often takes place via post-reading activities. Generally, and traditionally, these activities have always been in the form of questions set on the text but they can also take the form of summarising key ideas, drawing/inferring conclusions, discussing other situations on the basis of information provided in the text.

How learners comprehend a text depends largely on how well their prior knowledge has been tapped. Comprehension of a text builds upon the readers existing knowledge, and from thereon, he/she constructs new knowledge. Prior knowledge is often dealt with in the pre-reading phase. It is generally defined as ones knowledge of the world as well as how stories develop. Pupils and readers of different ages use their knowledge of the world to answer questions that are geared towards developing familiarity with the text during the pre-reading stage. They also use their 72

knowledge of how stories develop in order to make predictions about possible turns in the story they read. A combination of these provides a high level of participation from the pupils. It is also important to note that prior knowledge is not only activated in the pre-reading activities but also for while and post reading activities. Cognitive scientists use the term schemata, which Rumelhart (1982) has defined as the building blocks of cognition, to describe how people use their knowledge of the world in order to keep/organise information in their minds.

Role of Reading in Language learning/teaching

Reading plays a crucial role in language learning/teaching because of its ability to feed ones existing knowledge in different ways:

Firstly, reading helps in better acquisition and mastery of the target language. A variety of texts provides the reader with vocabulary building and enhancement, greater awareness of grammar as well as sentence and discourse structure. Rather than only learning the language as a set of rules, readers interact with the language in authentic contexts and can even work out the relations/ structures by themselves, given the amount of exposure to texts.

Moreover, reading helps in developing content information. The need to obtaining information about a particular subject that is being studied can be one of the greatest sources of motivation to read which also boosts language learning.

Furthermore, reading enhances ones cultural knowledge and cultural awareness. A variety of media caters for a more diverse source of information all over the world be it newspapers, magazines, popular fiction, novels or the internet, amongst others. The readers cultural capital is

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enhanced as he/she also breaks away from traditional cultural stereotypical depictions and prejudices.

There are four basic steps involved in reading for learning: What is the purpose/objective of the reading activity? This should be clear to the reader. Reading for the sake of reading demotivates the reader as he/she does not have a definite focus. The reader should also draw from his/her prior knowledge in order to predict the content material an endeavour that facilitates comprehension.

Focus on parts of the text that are relevant to the reading purpose/objective. The reader engages in a selective process here which allows him to sieve all the material and information and ultimately, pick only the most relevant or useful one(s).

Select relevant reading strategies, in line with the objective set. It is important that the reader does not stick to one strategy only, but rather chooses a variety of strategies that will be helpful in attaining the reading objective. The ability to use different strategies is a definite sign of a skilled reader.

Encourage the reader to constantly check comprehension while and after reading. This ability to self-monitor comprehension enables the reader to shift to another strategy should the existing one(s) do not facilitate comprehension of the reading material.

Reading Purpose and Approach

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Reading purpose/objective, as aforementioned, is crucial to the reading process. Because the teacher has told me to read is simply not a good reason enough for reading. Readers/pupils must be told exactly what is expected of them from reading the given text. Reading, above all, must be relevant to their experiences which is why authentic material and contexts are considered more useful for the pupil. In addition, the way that pupils read or are made to read is important. As a result, reading in a way that matches the text (that is, the correct and natural way) helps the reader in his/her endeavour.

The question that demands some debate here is: what about reading aloud? Traditionally, in the language classroom, reading aloud is a must. It is a view that stems from the belief that reading aloud will breed greater familiarity with the target language, and will, therefore, be of more benefit to the learner. Reading a text aloud entails word recognition, speaking with an emphasis on pronunciation and intonation. Very often, pupils with limited language skills, find reading aloud a tedious process understandably so, because more than anyone else, these readers are more conscious of making mistakes. This reduces fluency and especially the confidence to deal with the target language. Faced with the complex processes starting from word recognition to pronunciation, the reader often compromises on comprehension. Reading then becomes an act of word calling utterances of words without the meaning making process.

However, reading aloud can be effective in other cases. One of them is certainly when the teacher himself/herself reads aloud to the class. The teacher is capable of using the correct intonation, via which the making meaning process is made easier. With the pupils following along as the teacher reads, the transition from words to phrases to thought units is easier. Moreover, the other technique that can be employed is known as read and look up. In this case, the pupil reads a sentence, a few lines or a paragraph and then he/she is asked to look up (away from the text) and shares what the text is about, in a way, paraphrasing what he/she has read about. Such a technique enables the pupil to focus more on the ideas conveyed rather than word recognition. 75

The teacher also plays a key role in verifying the level of difficulty of the text. It is important for the teacher to note whether the story and the plot are familiar to the pupils and whether the text is organised in an easy way (generally in a chronological order). The reading material must also be thematically relevant to the readers experiences hence the relevance and importance of prior knowledge/schemata. Depending on the age of the reader, the use of pictures and other forms of visual aid in the text can prove extremely helpful as these help the reader situate the text in its context.

Reading objectives can vary there is no need for teachers/pupils to look only for information in a given text. Let us have a look at some of the basic reading objectives that can be applied to the classroom:

Provide the gist/summary of the passage (oral/written) Identify the main idea(s) put forward in the text Accordingly, determine the relevant/supporting details Sequence the events (most texts in language classes are built on a beginningmiddle-end structure)

Identify specific information in the text Find out about the meaning of words/expressions (with the view to enhancing vocabulary)

Paraphrase/discuss/analyse ideas which learners can also compare and contrast

Draw/infer conclusions from the text, comment and share opinions

Skilled reader v/s Low achieving reader

It would be remiss to turn a blind eye to low achievement in the primary education set-up of the country. Low-achieving pupils, in the language class, are those who

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have difficulty with the four language skills and especially with reading and writing. There are different reasons that account for this lack: the inability to decode polysyllabic words, limited vocabulary, lack of fluency and comprehension as well as difficulties with the mechanics of writing and to get their thoughts organised. The cause and the result, more often than not, is low self-esteem and no motivation, which creates a situation of Learned Helplessness an expression associated with struggling readers and writers to show their negative self-image as being unable to go beyond the realm of failure. The act of reading and writing no longer is pleasurable if one is struggling.

The skilled reader, on the other hand, demonstrates the ability to comprehend texts quickly and successfully. One of the reasons is that they are able to tap on their prior knowledge in order to construct meaning. More significantly, the skilled reader, apart from reading fluently and with intonation, is able to use the reading strategies on his/her own. He/she also has no difficulty in decoding words and has a good range of vocabulary items.

On the other hand, there are also readers who depict some degree of fluency and accuracy in reading but are unable to go beyond a literal level. What is lacking, in this case, is the correct use of strategies in order to reach the higher levels of interpretation and application.

Therefore, in order to enable pupils to become skilled readers, explicit strategic reading is crucial. This creates a situation whereby the pupil engages in metacognitive learning a cognitive process whereby an individual develops the ability to think about and control his/her own learning.

Reading as a cross-curricular skill

Reading is not only a skill limited to the development of English language. Reading cuts across the curriculum and one of the strategies that can be used to ensure

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pupils become effective readers is the KWL strategy. The following is an example of a KWL strategy sheet:

K What I know

W What I want to know

L What I learned and still need to learn

In the above, the first column is filled by pupils before the reading begins. It seeks to activate their background/prior knowledge. Then the pupils move to the second column, where they mention what they might learn about the topic drawing from the headings, titles, pictures located in the reading text. Finally, the third column is filled after completion of the reading and this becomes a way to also summarise their new knowledge. This opportunity to crosscheck is also part of meta-cognitive learning because the pupil revisits his/her strategies of

previewing/predicting/skimming, in light of the new knowledge learnt at the end. More importantly, the pupils are engaged in the process of learning via the KWL strategy.

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ACTIVITY 2: 1. In any lesson or subject, vocabulary is the key to comprehension and understanding of concepts. Do you think it is important for you as a teacher to dedicate some time to vocabulary building/explanation prior to the lesson? If so, how would you go about? Hint: look for the root word/word attack, word wall, word of the day strategies. 2. Sequencing is also an integral part of effective reading skills. It is used in other subject areas, such as History, Science and Mathematics. How can you as a teacher use Sequencing as a strategy in your class? Hint: Jumbled sequences, sentence strips, writing How To essays or oral descriptions. 3. How far will Jig-Saw reading help you to attain your objectives?

Linking reading and writing

We often think of listening and speaking as being intricately linked. Reading and writing can be viewed in the same light, as both processes are intertwined. Yet, these skills are taught independently. Integrating both reading and writing, especially at upper primary level, enables pupils to use their writing skills to think about what they will read and to understand what they have read (Vacca 2005). As a matter of fact, the impact that active and interconnected use of language skills listening, speaking, reading and writing, has on our cognitive functions cannot be undermined. One of the most powerful ideas put forward to help bridge the two skills is the creation of Learning Logs, in which entries are made, based on different lessons. The first entry is written at the before-reading phase, where the learner records what he/she knows about the material (this could range from Animals in the Environment to the Battle of Grand-Port, that is, any Science or History lesson). The second entry is made after the lesson has been done the after-reading phase. This entry focuses on what the learner has understood and he/she also highlights the misconceptions which may have been there in the previous stage.

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Through writing, pupils are exposed to different types of learning. Writing a narrative essay, for instance, enables the child to tap on his/her imagination while in Science subjects, his/her writing may be linked to analysis and synthesis. Too often in Mauritius, writing is limited to answering questions or readymade essays classic examples where reading and writing are treated as distinct skills and not integrated. Learners can, therefore, be called upon to paraphrase/summarise the material of a text, to contextualise it or to re-write the ending based on their predictions. Let us consider the following example: A Bear is of a Poem (source: and

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/index.asp)

about

composing

performing poetry meant for 6-8year olds in the UK. This activity is about: using familiar childhood stories, students will work together to create a poem that is found in the language presented in the picture books they read. Children will look in texts for writing that inspire themlooking for favourite words, phrases, and sentences. Working together, students will combine their words and phrases to create a class poem. When complete, the new piece will be shared as performance poetry.

A variety of informal writing activities (which are not necessarily graded) can be also used. The idea is to enable pupils develop higher order thinking skills which can be practised through writing about reading. Classroom practices need to be designed in such a way that pupils use writing to read and reading to write.

The benefits of effective reading are manifold. It is important, therefore, for teachers to reinforce this skill everyday. The reading objectives/strategies outlines above should not merely be restricted to the language classes only. The skills of reading are not only bound to the English/French classes. How many teachers use the objectives mentioned above? Of do we focus on giving/explaining information that is already in the text? Reading skill is not even about the classroom it is a skill that every human being needs beyond the confinements of the class in his/her real life.

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Activity 3 Overall reflection: 1. Is reading a skill that is only meant for the language classes? 2. How much time do we spend on practising reading skills on a daily basis? 3. Will the teaching of reading strategies help learners in other subjects as well as language classes? How?

Unit 4 - DEVELOPING A READING AND WRITING CULTURE

Introduction
Reading and writing, as any other language skill, are of prime importance to the learning process. However, their relevance is even more significant in the Mauritian primary sector, as in the present system, more emphasis is laid upon written skills than upon oral ones. Thus, the child who fails to read and write properly can hardly envisage to serenely engage in the academic learning process within the existing parameters. Teachers, therefore, have a particularly important responsibility in ensuring that their pupils eventually come to the realisation that reading and writing 81

are not solely associated with the performing of tasks that are meant to be assessed. On the contrary, they should appreciate that these skills can effectively help them to both achieve academic goals and attain self-fulfilment as members of a society where the capacity to read and write are fundamental standards of social integration.

For this subpart of the unit on literacy development, the discussion on reading has been conducted separately from that on writing. Even if we advocate the need to develop these two skills concurrently, yet, it has seemed more plausible to us to discuss the different approaches to developing a reading and a writing culture separately so as to avoid any risk of confusion on the part of our readers.

Developing a Reading culture

Reading, a language skill made up of elements like decoding, comprehending, monitoring and focusing, and carried out through coordination between the eyes and the mind, is an important activity upon which the development of another skill, like writing, strongly depends. Learners should first be visually exposed to the concept of print before being able to produce written output. Furthermore, the reading act itself stands at the very core of any learning process, as hardly any educational project can be undertaken without the use of written material. Considering all these reasons, the academic pertinence of the reading act is most obvious.

Over and above the scholarly significance of reading as a language skill, the philosophy of reading for readings sake should be properly valorised as early as possible at primary level. Indeed, pupils should not solely perceive the reading act as a means to an academic end, i.e. reading to acquire cognitive competence or revisit prior knowledge in specific subject areas. Children should be sensitised to the

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entertaining and pleasurable features of this activity. Furthermore, they should also appreciate that reading can help in their linguistic, cultural or moral edification.

Irrespective of the specific elements that we seek to promote for the different levels of reading proficiency (basic, intermediate and higher order), the development of a reading culture aims at enhancing in the child equally valuable qualities, like confidence, motivation, collaboration and the ability to relate new reading experiences with his prior or present life experiences.

Establishing the Reading Profiles and Adapting Relevant Reading Activities

The nature of activities that can be carried out to develop reading fluency should be in tune with the reading stage that the child has reached. It is generally argued that the stages of reading can be categorised in the following way: beginner reading, experimental reading, developing reading, transitional reading and independent reading.

Reading stages

Beginner: The reader, who may not understand the full meaning of the text, relies a lot on another person while reading aloud and may not associate meaning with written words

Experimental: Known texts can be tackled with increasing confidence, but support is still needed for new texts. Meaning can be predicted to some extent via illustrations, etc.

Developing: The process is underway, but the reader still refers to known/predictable texts. A variety of texts are explored and silent/independent reading begins.

Transitional: Different types of texts are read and texts are used in interesting ways, e.g. via comments and inferences. Independent/silent reading is reinforced.

Independent: The reader is able to choose from a variety of texts. He reads on purpose and appreciates the various facets and features of the text.

Beginner readers, for instance, should be exposed to books that contain limited text, but substantial visual elements to allow them to talk about and derive meaning from this visual support. The childrens favourite texts should be reread as often as

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possible and the teacher should actively model reading behaviours and provide different forms of support, such as through guided reading, echo reading (process during which a skilled reader reads a text aloud with a view to enabling the learner to imitate) and choral reading. Books should not only be chosen for the type of story that they contain, but also with regard to the possibilities offered for enhancing oral features. Poems, rhymes and songs can be particularly useful to that end, due to their rhyming, rhythmic and repetitive features.

The Daily Reading Slot

One of the ways in which a reading culture can be fostered is by identifying a slot say of half hour in the daily classroom routine during which pupils and teacher will engage in reading. Since this reading activity is essentially meant to be performed silently, it is mostly appropriate for independent readers. However, it is still possible for a teacher working with beginner or intermediate readers to implement this daily exercise by providing the required level of reading support to his pupils. The objective of such an activity is to ensure positive habit-formation in the pupils. The latter, by seeing their friends and teacher being engrossed in reading, will ultimately realise that reading entails a strong element of enjoyment. During this daily slot, the pupils and the teacher do nothing else than read and it is this philosophy that has led to the DEAR concept, i.e. Drop Everything And Read.

Other Ways of Fostering a Reading Culture

So that the child does not end up by associating the reading activity with yet another learning exercise, the teacher should see to it that a wide variety of reading materials are made available. It is important that the concept of print does not become solely associated with books or magazines in the childs mind. Consequently, the teacher should as far as possible expose the children to a wide variety of reading materials coming from their

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environment, such as TV programmes, song lyrics, articles or reviews on famous TV serial or video game heroes. To draw awareness even more strongly on the validity of these authentic forms of written material, the teacher should make sure that they are always displayed on the classroom walls. An important consideration, here, is the provision of a wide variety of reading materials to suit the varying tastes of pupils.

Closely associated with the daily reading slot, an activity like the authors chair can also be implemented. This activity, in fact, acts as a follow-up to the reading act itself. The authors chair is meant to provide a platform for the pupils to share their reading experiences with their peers. When the child is given the opportunity to talk about his reading experience, the implicit message is that other skills can be developed simultaneously with the sharpening of reading abilities. The child may, indeed, be required to share his reading experience in writing, but he may as well be invited to talk about it, as in the case of the authors chair.

Over and above the written or oral representation of the story read, the pupil should also be allowed to express his story through diverse other means, like reading with expression, miming, role playing, etc.

It is equally important for the teacher to prompt the one sitting in the authors chair while conducting the activity, particularly if the speaker is shy and/or unwilling to talk about his reading experience. To that end, the teacher should mostly use open-ended questions, as they are more likely to elicit suitable responses from the pupils. For instance, they may be asked to infer about the storys ending or to make statements about things that they liked or disliked in the plot; about what had prompted them to choose these particular books; about their impressions concerning the illustrations (if any) and about whether they would recommend such a book to their friends.

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The setting up of classroom book clubs is also seriously recommended for its numerous benefits. The teacher should make sure that the books are regularly changed and he should also guide the pupils in their choice of texts. Some of the guidelines that can be considered in selecting reading texts for the classroom are: firstly, the element of enjoyment that these texts will provide to children; secondly, the opportunities that will be offered for the child to fully engage with the texts and to relate the content to their own life and finally, whether the text can be a prelude to interesting written activities.

The teacher can and should also take an active part in the process of experience sharing, by imparting to his pupils stories that he would have read.

It also serves a commendable purpose to include in the classroom library copies of stories that the pupils themselves would have written on their own or in groups, either as part of their normal English language lessons or as part of creative writing workshops. These stories can be colour-illustrated and compiled. The child definitely feels valorised when he sees that stories that he has produced are displayed side by side with famous story books.

A reading culture can be successfully developed if the child is surrounded by books as much as possible. Thus, it is vital that the books in the classroom remain everywhere visible and are not locked in cupboards. Reading material should be accessible on all occasions, and this objective can be met if, for example, reading corners are set up and books and magazines displayed on shelves.

A teacher can also promote reading habits among his pupils by devising and implementing a number of games and activities based on the reading act. An example of such an activity can be a quiz on a story that the teacher would have photocopied and distributed to the whole class. The very idea of participating in a positive competition and the hope of obtaining reward will 86

surely galvanise the pupils interest and eagerness to read avidly. Over and above the fact that these games are an indirect way of checking whether the pupils have all done their reading assignments, they also serve to check whether the pupils are capable of reading to remember. Thus, the teacher can make out whether the pupils are capable of holding information in their long term memory and of using them afterwards.

In line with the above suggestion, it is also advisable that teachers keep record of the pupils reading proficiency so as to be able to better trace over a continuum and monitor more efficiently the progress made. The record kept can be both qualitative and quantitative, i.e. in terms of the texts level of difficulty and/or with respect to its length. Different types of observation grids have been developed to that end, but the teacher is sovereign in designing the type of observation record material that will best allow him to keep track of his pupils progress in reading.

Activity 1 In the light of the various issues discussed in relation to the development of a reading culture, devise an observation grid that can help you to properly follow the progress made by your pupils in reading. Refrain from restricting the opportunities for reading to language classes only.

Developing a Writing Culture

Writing is a language skill that calls for coordination between the brain and the hand. Often regarded as the skill that calls for the highest degree of language mastery, its development depends on the prior tapping of other skills, like listening, speaking and reading. However, it is more and more being argued that writing should be concurrently developed with the other language skills through a blended approach

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to language learning. In this way, the objectives targeted in one skill will be supported by activities conducted in other skills.

In the light of the various observations made regarding the teaching of English, it appears that estimable results are more likely to be obtained if a culture of writing is implemented within the classroom setting. This implies that, in order for writing to become ingrained in the classroom routine, the teacher should see to it that pupils write as often as possible preferably on a daily basis over and above prescribed formal written activities, like class work and homework. In other words, writing should not be viewed as an activity that is performed at a specific moment of the day during the English language lessons. It is already a plus point for the enhancement of English language proficiency that the teaching of most other subjects at school is done in English. But what equally matters is an understanding on the part of the teacher and of the pupil alike that writing exercises can be performed for the very sake of writing and not always to express cognitive understanding in a given subject area. Children should be made to realise that writing remains, before anything else, a means for them to express things relevant to their own lives and that they can have recourse to this mode of expression on their own and not only when they are directed to write something as part of a formal assignment.

Writing Prerequisite: Making the Child Feel Valorised Given that a vital element of any writing endeavour remains the valorisation of the writers experience, it is imperative for the child to feel important as a person. If this basic requirement is not fulfilled, all ensuing attempts will be doomed to fail, as a child who has a poor opinion of himself in the classroom will definitely turn away from any effort to share his personal experiences. For this reason, the teacher should ensure that the classroom environment allows the childs personality to blossom. In this way, the pupil will promptly and spontaneously learn to put forward his own life experiences whenever he engages in any writing project that requires such an input. This implies that the positive facets of his personality should be highlighted.

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Written Activities to Valorise Self-Perception Whenever possible, children should be invited to express themselves on aspects that are relevant to their own life, e.g. their preferences in different respects, their hobbies, what they dislike in life, their reactions and feelings in the light of various happenings, the different people in their close surrounding and neighbourhood, what they aspire to become in the future, their role models, etc. This expression may not be done exclusively through writing. Other modes of expression, like drawing, picture and word cutting from newspapers and magazines, can be used either as a prelude to the writing act itself or as a support for it. Also, writing need not always be in the form of a conventional paragraph or text. During the initial phases, the child can be made to express himself through a questionnaire on his life, for instance. What matters at the beginning is that the child feels that he has been able to express in writing something that pertains to his life, even if it is through short responses. Charts and tables can also be examples of less conventional modes of written expression on a variety of topics.

Developing a Writing Culture: the Different Stages

It is important for the teacher to consider the learners profile and to adapt the level and variety of proposed written activities accordingly. At standard I level, for instance, some of the different activities that may lead up to the carrying out of written activities can be listed as follows: Drawing of basic shapes Tracing Letter recognition Name recognition Word recognition Name writing Word writing

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Still in relation to the initial writing stages, the teacher should see to it that not too much emphasis is laid upon error correction, as a too forceful emphasis on this element may deter the child from engaging actively into writing, which he will fail to associate with an enjoyable exercise. Instead of aiming at correctness in an area like spelling, for example, the teacher should provide scope for what is commonly referred to as inventive spelling. The latter is regarded as a form of natural and creative expression that enables the young learner to communicate on a subject of his choice in an independent way, i.e. without having to bother about and feel curtailed by correctness of form. The use of inventive spelling can eventually give rise to the elaboration of the childs own word bank. Advocates of this school of thought postulate that, with time, the child will correct himself and adopt the right spelling.

As far as upper primary pupils are concerned, exercises like shared writing, group writing and conference writing are effective and interesting means of remedying problems that learners may face when they write on their own. Through these activities, the pupils use texts that they already know as models and they then produce new texts from the original ones by working collaboratively. With time, the carrying out of such activities can lead up to individual writing assignments, like independent compositions and other forms of extended writing.

Developing a reading culture at lower primary and doing the same at upper primary imply different things. For this reason, the grading of written activities for learners of different ages can be performed by carrying out the written activities at word level, at sentence level, at paragraph level and, ultimately, at text level.

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What Do We Mean by Good Writing Skills?

Good writing

Proper spelling

Grammatical correctness

Mastery of syntactic structures

Interesting ideas

Interesting style

Proper punctuation

Right choice and large variety of words and expressions

One reason why writing is often perceived as a tedious and difficult task by pupils is because it entails various components. In contrast with speaking, which is viewed as a more spontaneous, natural and less formal exercise, writing calls for an amalgam of skills that many learners find difficult to make.

Consequently, the task becomes daunting for the teacher in turn, who often feels that the pupils are not improving rapidly enough or that they are not making any improvement at all.

What Should Be the Teachers Posture in Such a Situation? Instead of setting writing assignment titles that are dull in many respects, teachers should opt, instead, for those that will foster authentic and interesting responses on the part of pupils. Teachers, indeed, need to take time to investigate and reflect on the childs interest and experiences, so that any written output becomes an engaging, meaningful and interesting reflection of his life experiences. Writing should be an enlivening activity during which the child feels that he has things to share on topics that

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relate to his own life. It is only then that the concept of writing as an act of selfexpression acquires any meaning. At present, however, the many components of proper writing skills represented in the chart above act as a disincentive in the eyes of most young learners. The factors to be considered are so numerous that the young learners feel that it hardly leaves any space for self expression.

The Importance of Informal Writing Exercises

Keeping a daily journal and maintaining classroom correspondence are some of the practical and interesting ways in which the objective of developing a writing culture can be met. Dialogue journals (the seeking of written responses from the child in reply to culturally-correct personal questions addressed to him via his journal) are, for example, an efficient way of meeting a number of objectives. Over and above the obvious advantages related to language learning, dialogue journals represent a creative way for the teacher to establish an informal link with his pupils. Some of the benefits associated with the use of dialogue journals can be listed as follows:

The primary objective of language as a means of communication is reinforced. The writing act is connected with real life through the choice of discussion questions, e.g. how did you celebrate Christmas?

Writing fluency is obviously enhanced in all respects (spelling, vocabulary, grammar, syntax, punctuation, etc), as the pupil writes on a regular basis on topics that are relevant to him.

The traditional teacher-pupil stricture associated with written work submission and correction is loosened and the pupil feels a greater freedom to express himself to the teacher.

The teacher can decide about the most effective way of remedying shortcomings noted in the pupils journal entries. It is naturally understood that if formal errorcorrection is systematically carried out, the purpose of the exercise will be

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defeated, as the pupil will end up by viewing the activity as yet another form of evaluation. The teachers discernment is very significant when it comes to errorcorrection in such an activity. Often, teachers find it apt to correct mistakes as part of a whole-class activity and by taking care to preserve the childs anonymity. The activity can, therefore, turn out to be a provider of information for error-correction and remediation during regular language classes. The child is given the opportunity to ask questions in writing to his teacher, something that he may not dare to do orally when the teacher is physically present in front of him. Interesting issues or remarks of a general nature made by pupils may be taken up as discussion topics with the whole class. Again, in the light of the teachers discernment, some sensitive issues noted may be taken up in an informal way with the child or with concerned persons outside the classroom.

Using Samples of Authentic Writing

In order to arouse in the child an awareness that people write about different things in different ways and that the end product takes different shapes, he should be exposed to a large sample of authentic writing from his surrounding environment, such as posters, newspaper adverts, articles, songs, lyrics, etc. Here again, the objective is to make the child realise that writing should not be solely associated with the textbook or with formal assignments for the sake of formative and/or summative evaluation. He should be made to realise that he lives in a world where he is constantly surrounded not only by peoples talk, but also by written material and that he should make the most of this written input. Too often, the child fails to realise that these forms of authentic written material do constitute a valid source of written input.

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Dictation

Often viewed as a traditional and outdated form of written activity, dictation when performed with upper primary pupils can serve a number of commendable purposes. For instance, it is a particularly effective way of stimulating awareness concerning the importance of punctuation. It also calls for the simultaneous use of various language skills, namely listening, writing and reading, as the child is made to reread and revise his work before submission. This activity can also help to raise awareness regarding oral competence, as the child is exposed to appropriate reading aloud skills (volume, pace, intonation, articulation, pronunciation, etc.).

Awareness of the Different Writing Genres

As far as possible, children should be made to realise that writing can take the form of different genres, like reporting, narrating, describing, literary writing (poems, fables and short stories) and factual/instruction texts. Thus, they should both be exposed to samples of such written genres and be given the opportunity to express themselves in these different genres.

Activity 2 The use of English as a medium of instruction in Mauritius renders it possible to teach the language while working on subjects other than English itself. Explain how you would use the opportunity given during non-language subjects (like Mathematics, for instance) to enhance your pupils proficiency in English.

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