INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU

KAMPUS DATO’ RAZALI ISMAIL

21030 KUALA NERUS TERENGGANU

PROGRAM IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PENGURUAN (PISMP)

AMBILAN JUN 2020
SEMESTER III TAHUN 2

TASK 1 : WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT

NAMA PELAJAR : NURUL YASMIN BINTI OSMAN

ANGKA GILIRAN : 2020092340343
NO KAD PENGENALAN : 010624-11-0144
KUMPULAN/UNIT : TESL4 JUN 2020
KOD DAN NAMA KURSUS : TSLB3093 LANGUAGE ARTS IN THE PRIMARY
ESL CLASSROOM
NAMA PENSYARAH : MR. CHAN SEONG LONG
TARIKH HANTAR : 23 March 2022

Ulasan/Komen/Maklum Balas Pemeriksa/Pensyarah :

Tanda Tangan Pemeriksa/Pensyarah : Tarikh :

Pengesahan Pelajar
Saya mengesahkan bahawa maklum balas yang diberikan oleh pensyarah telah saya rujuki dan
fahami.

Tanda tangan Pelajar : YASMIN Tarikh : 7/4/2022

 LANGUAGE ARTS IN ESL PRIMARY CLASSROOM

1.0 Introduction

First and foremost, language arts focus on integrating the skills of listening, speaking,
reading and writing together without separating the skills in the classroom making all of the skills
to complement each other to improve the efficacy of the learning process. Language Arts can be
incorporated in a variety of strategies such as learning through songs, poems, and stories.
Language arts is important to develop the student's comprehension and capacity for use of written
and oral language.

2.0 Roles and Purposes of Language Arts

Firstly, teaching language arts in the primary ESL classroom will contribute to the
development of intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, linguistic, aesthetic and moral values.
However, the most superior purpose of language arts is to enhance the effective learning in the
classroom by improving students’ communication skills in the language. Language arts in the
primary ESL classroom has been proven to improve the language proficiency of a student by
acquiring them to actively speak, write and communicate what they have learnt. Pupils will also
develop self-confidence to speak up. It can also develop intrapersonal development as pupils will
learn to identify feelings and connect with them. Besides, it can improve the aesthetic elements
as language arts provides opportunity to freely create their own imaginations. For instance, the
standards for language arts in Year 1 and 2 explore stories, rhymes, and songs to encourage the
active imagination and interest of pupils, thus encouraging them to use the English language
widely (Ali Bin Ab. Ghani, 2010). As learning foreign language might be hard enough for young
learners, the lesson should at least be meaningful and enjoyable for them to instill love in English.
One way to build their self-enthusiasm is by using songs, which will encourage them to show
more reaction when learning English (Cormier, A, 1985). The usage of a song in teaching them
phonics will help them to pronounce the words in a correct way. To our knowledge, English words
are not pronounced exactly as the spelling, unlike the Malay language. Besides, Haja (2002)
believes that one of the obvious mistakes done by these learners is to pronounce English words
likewise when pronouncing Malay words. They tend to follow the way the words are spelled. The
pupils pronounced Tamil incorrectly as the exact spelling. The first syllable of Tamil, /ˈtæmɪl/
should be pronounced as /tæ/ and not /ta/. Thus, the simplest solution to correct their
pronunciation is by teaching them using a song, directly from a native speaker. The catchy and
repetitive lyrics of the song will help them to memorize on how to pronounce the words correctly
compared to the usual traditional classroom lecture.

3.0 Multicultural issues or concerns among young learners

Firstly, in this globalization era, the English Language has been used as the lingua-franca
worldwide, as one of the most spoken languages by both native and non-native speakers. The
most common issue is that the non-native speakers are not speaking English the exact same way
as the native speakers as the English language has been localized and adapted according to the
speaker’s native. This is where multicultural issues arise in our melting-pot country, with mixed
races students. In this scenario, it is safe to say that teachers can group them into their respective
races by only listening to their accents in English. For example, if teachers were assigned a group
work for speaking skills and the group consists of two Malays and one Indian, that Indian pupils
might be embarrassed and shy to speak because of the differences between their accents in
English. Also, kids do not like to be different from others as they will be considered as the odd
one.

Another multicultural concern among young learners is that they are not being able to
interact well with other pupils from different backgrounds. The simplest way is that they tend to
look at pupils who are different from them as weird. For example, for a young kid who has been
living his entire life in a Malay community, might not be able to react positively to the differences
among them if he is suddenly being enrolled in a multicultural classroom. For instance, he might
not be able to comprehend the sensitive issue that should not be addressed, especially religious-
wise. He might be questioning his Indian friends, about them not eating the meat. In this scenario,
teachers should properly teach pupils about multicultural society and be a good role model for
respecting other people’ culture.

Lastly, multicultural issues that can be a threat to our younger generations is racism. In a
multicultural classroom, the minor group of students will be left out. For example, there are some
pupils who choose friends based on their skin color. Some of the students might be embarrassed
about their skin colour. Without even realising it, the teacher might be more focused on the major
group of students in the classroom because of their numbers. In a socio-cultural diverse school,
the common situation that we have seen is that all of the students and even the teachers would
be in their group of ethnicity. They allowed the cultural diversity to divide the school into groups.
For example, people can see that they do not mix up with other people from other races. We tend
to see the Malay students will hang out with their fellow Malay peers and vice versa.
4.0 The use of bibliotherapy to address the issues or concerns

Firstly, bibliotherapy is the use of selected literature to help young learners to develop self-
understanding and resolve real life issues. In this case, teachers can read a story and lead pupils
to do reflections. All the multicultural issues above can be solved by instilling good moral values
in students. Many theorize that teaching character education enhances students’ positive self-
esteem, multicultural tolerance, and higher order thinking (Williams, 2000). Though many
programs promote social responsibility and ethical values, few comprehensive counseling
programs that include character education focus on the importance of teaching multicultural
aspects of character education to young children (Lee, 2001). Bibliotherapy can be used to foster
good character development among students.

One of the ways is, the teacher can read them a motivational story book like Mulan. You
don’t have to be that typical fair-skinned princess with a ball-gown princess to be successful, just
like Mulan. During the reading, the teacher will ask the differences and the similarities between
Mulan and themselves. Teachers can stress that pupils need to be themselves. After the reading
session, the teacher can assign a follow up activity such as mirror me, asking pupils to list out
what she likes the most about her physical appearance and what they dislike about. Now is the
most important thing, teachers should highlight that each one of them is beautiful and unique in
their own way.

Next, teachers can use different children's story books according to the themes. By
selecting children’s books with diversity. Teachers can highlight self respect and ways to cope
with differences. The follow up activity can be the sharing session using keywords such as “I am
embarrassed when”. After that, pupils can be more empathetic and understand how to respect
their friends’ feelings. A good character and self respect will help them to accept their differences
and unite them as a one community.

Lee (2001) identifies culturally responsive schools as schools that appreciate and
celebrate diversity instead of forcing conformity; schools which build the community of the school
on its diverse nature instead of allowing diversity to divide the school, and schools which refuse
to compromise academic standards and maintain high expectations of all students despite their
culture.

5.0 Conclusion
 Language arts play an important role in preparing learners to face life challenges and to
facilitate their learning process in English Language.

References

Ali Bin Ab.Ghani. (2010) Primary School Curriculum Standard Document, Malaysian Education
Ministry.

Cormier, A. (1985) The Relationship between Music and French as a Second Language,
University of Western Ontario.
Frazier, K. N., & Gallman, L. E. (2011). Using bibliotherapy to promote multicultural character
education in school age children. Retrieved from http://counselingoutfitters.com/
vistas/vistas11/Article_89.pdf

Haja Mohideen Mohamed Ali. (24-26 September 2002). Getting students to use English with
fewer errors. International Conference IPBA.

Lee, C. (2001). Culturally responsive school counselors and programs: Addressing the needs of
all students. Professional School Counseling, 4(4), 257-261.

Williams, M. (2000). Models of character education: Perspectives and developmental issues.

Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education, & Development, 39(1), 32- 40.