listening skills - action plan

8/10/2019 Listening skills - Action Plan

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ACTION PLAN: SYSTEMATIC PRESENTATION OF LISTENING SKILLS

NAME: ZURAIMI BIN MOHD ZUBER (850728115451)

INSTITUTION: POLITEKNIK SULTAN IDRIS SHAH

PART A

INTRODUCTION

I am teaching English language at Politeknik Sultan Idris Shah and have been teaching for three

years since 2011. Apart from my teaching responsibilities, I am also involved in developing

assessment items for English language subjects and also responsible for managing my

departmentsstaff trainings.

Since I am teaching at a polytechnic, most of my students are of technical background.Most of the students are from Electrical Engineering Department, Civil Engineering Department

and Information Technology Department. Some of them are from Department of Department of

Commerce and Tourism and Hospitality Department. The students have to take English language

subjects in polytechnic as a requirement for them to complete their diploma.

There are three English language subjects that students have to take throughout their

studies. These include Communicative English 1 which focuses on developing their oral

communication skill, Communicative English 2 which focuses on developing skills to cope with

their working environment and Communicative English 3 which focuses on job hunting and job

interview skills. Besides, the students also have to sit for MUET (Malaysian University EnglishTest) as a part of the requirements for them to further their studies at local universities.

The group that I have chosen to carry out this action plan on is DKA1A students. This

group consists of 46 Diploma in Civil Engineering students who entered Politeknik Sultan Idris

Shah after finishing their secondary school. Out of the total number, 7 students scored an A for

English language subject in SPM; 13 students achieved B; 12 students achieved a C while 14 of

them achieved either D or E for the subject.


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PART B

THE ACTION PLAN

Aims and expected outcomes

The aim of this plan is to expose students to listening for main ideas and listening for details.

Besides, students are also expected to carry out a group discussion using the inputs that they get

from the listening activity. Thus, by the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. Identify at least five questions posed throughout the video.

2. Identify at least one opinion from one of the teenagers for each questions posed

throughout the video.

3. Carry out a group discussion on the topic Cyberbully by using the questions as a guide.

Strategies chosen

There are a number of strategies that I am going to use in the lesson. These include:

1. Questioning: As to promote active participations from the students I will employ

questioning strategies while carrying out the activities. According to Nystrand and

Gamoran (1997), only authentic discourse can engage students, and it is important that

the questions asked to be able to stimulate pupils to think and reflect on the consequences

of their ideas. To make my lesson in line with this, I will pose question to lead them to

think of their past experience and put themselves in the shoes of the victim in the video

that I am going to use. I will also ask question to make them think of possible ways of

solving the problems identified. By asking such questions, I believe that my students will

participate more actively during the lesson as well as think critically and creatively.

However, it is important also to note that there is a limit to this strategy. Based on

previous lesson, I noticed that some students are reluctant to respond to questions. This is

partly due to their low confidence level which is rooted in their lack of proficiency in

English language.

2. Activation of prior knowledge: Brown (2006) states it is important that a listening activity

make use of students prior knowledge in order to improve listening comprehension.

Parallel to this statement, I plan to activate my students prior knowledgeto enable themto understand the listening text that they will listen. This will be done through

questioning strategy that I have mentioned before.

This strategy also has its own drawbacks as I am dealing with a very big class

which consists of almost 50 students. Therefore, it is important to note that I might not be

identify whether the students are able to use their prior knowledge or not.


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3. Use of authentic listening material: Based on my observation, most of the listening

activities carried out by my colleagues are audio text based listening tasks. For example,

the students are asked to listen to audio texts played and answer questions based on the

texts they listened to. The tasks that are involved usually include filling in the blanks,

answering wh-questions and answering true-false questions. In other words, most of the

post listening activities are worksheet based activities. In terms of listening materials

used, the texts that are usually chosen for this kind of activity are audio texts which

involve pre-recorded dialogues, a talk on a subject matter, a speech or a long and dull

audio text of a person reading an article.

However, I found that most of the audio texts used are not real in a sense that they

do not represent the actual listening that the students do in real life. It is often the case

that the students do not experience the listening situation as represented by the texts

usually chosen for listening activities. Therefore, they find such listening text as boringand dull since they cannot relate it with their real life situation. They only listen for the

sake of answering the worksheet given and not to get new knowledge from it, which I

think goes against the objective of teaching listening skills.

Therefore, in this lesson I will use a video which shows an actual event where

teenagers give their opinion on the case of cyber bullying which has caused Amanda

Todd to commit suicide. The language used by the teenagers is not scripted and is more

real than the language used in audio texts that are normally used in listening tests or

tasks. I believe that using an audio text which portrays the real discussion will help the

students grasp what kind of language that they should use in the group discussion thatthey are going to carry out in the production stage.

Despite the fact that using authentic listening audio material can help students to

understand the language use in actual situation, the students might also face difficulties in

understanding the content of what is presented in the material. This is because the

speakers in the audio material are native speakers. Hence, they might find it difficult to

follow what is being said by the speaker. This in a way might impede their understanding

of the text.


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Procedures of the plan

Stage 1 Procedures Teaching Aids

Set

induction

(Warm up)

Duration: 5minutes

1. Lecturers shows a picture to students and asks them an

issue that comes to their mind when they see the

picture. (The issue is a road bullySteering Lock LadyDriver)

2. Lecturer illicit students responses on the issue.

Picture of a

steering lock

Rationale: This stage is important to carry out as a warm up and to draw students attention

towards issue that is about to be brought later. This issue is chosen because it is a common issue

and students are familiar with the incident that happened.

Stage 2 Procedures Teaching Aids

PreListening

(Activatingprior

knowledge)

1. Lecturer plays a video recording of Amanda Todd.2. Lecturer illicit students responses on the video.

Questions that can be asked:

What happened to the girl?

What did she/he/ others do?

Why do you think this happened?

What would you do if you were in her situation?

Video posted onYoutube by

Amanda Todd

four hours beforeher death.

Rationale: This video was chosen as I believe that it can trigger students emotion and createawareness in them about the seriousness of the issue. I will also ask question to guide students

thoughts towards the issue that is about to be discussed in the video that is going to be shown instage 3. This is important to be done to activate students prior knowledge of the issue and also to

familiarize the students with the difficult words that are going to be used in the video that will be

played in stage 3.

Stage 3 Procedures Teaching aids

While

listening

(Gettinginputs)

1. Lecturer tells students that they are going to listen to

responses from some teenagers regarding this issue.

Lecturer also informs the students that the video willbe played three times and that they will have a task to

carry out.

2. Lecturer plays the video for three times

1

st time: Lecturer asks students to watch and listen

only.

Video from

youtube Teens

React toCyberbullying.


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2

ndtime: Lecturer asks students to jot down questions

asked throughout the video.

o Lecturer asks students to sit in groups of five.

Provide an A3 paper for each group.o Then, the students are to share the questions

that they managed to jot down.

o After that, lecturer appoints one student fromeach group to become a spy. The spies need to

go to other groups and spy on the questions

that they missed out. Once they are donecollecting the missed out questions, they are to

report back to their respective group.

o The students need to write the questions that

they get in the A3 paper provided.

3rd

time: Lecturer asks students to jot down responsesfrom at least one of the teenagers for each of the

questions asked.

3. Lecturer asks students to go back to their group and

share their findings. Lecturer reminds the students that

it is important for everyone to be involved in thissession since they are going to use the inputs in stage

A3 papers and

marker pens.

Rationale:The video for this stage was chosen because it portrays what a real discussion really look like. Iprefer this type of video to be shown because it shows how people give opinion in the actual way

compared to pre-recorded audio texts which portrays very artificial and unreal discussions.

The video also will be played three times to get the students adapt themselves with the speed of

speech of the speaker. This is important to be done so that the students will have a second chance

to clarify word, phrases and information that they are not clear of.

Besides, students will also be given tasks to carry out during the second and third time the video

is played. This is done so that the students will have a purpose in listening. In the second play of

the video, the students are required to jot down questions posed during the discussion. This isplanned to be done this way so that I can present the listening sub-skills namely, listening formain ideas and listening for details, in a systematic way. This is important so as to give a clearer

purpose of listening in each stage.


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Stage 4 Procedures Teaching aids

Post

listening

(Production)

1. Lecturer asks each group to choose FIVE questions

that they think are very important to ask their friends

regarding the issue. The questions are to be dividedbetween the group members. As a result, each person

will be assigned with one question from the fivequestions chosen.

2. Lecturer tells the students that they are going to carry

out a discussion which is similar to the discussion inthe video they watched.

3. Lecturer asks the students to take turns asking

questions. All students are expected to give theirresponses to each of the questions posed by their

friends.

Rationale:

This activity will be carried out as to give students an opportunity to use the inputs that they get

to further improve their speaking skill, which is productive in nature. It is important to connect

listening and speaking to make students aware that there are purposes in listening where they can

listen to understand an issue further or they can listen for vocabularies and expressions that canbe useful to improve their proficiency level.

Closure 1. Lecturer reflects back with the students on the

activities that have been carried out throughout thelesson.

2. Lecturers discusses on the processes that have

experienced themselves in each stages by makingthem aware of the purposes set for listening.

3. Lecturer discusses the importance of listening with apurpose with students.

Rationale:

This stage is also important to create awareness in the students of the challenges that they face in

listening as well as making them aware that there are strategies that they can use to overcome the

difficulties. Besides, the students can also be made aware of how listening to authentic and actualconversations can help them improve their proficiency level.


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PART C

REFLECTION

The Strengths of the Action Plan

After carrying out the activity, I was able to identify the strengths of the action plan that I carried

out. Most of my students were able to identify the questions posed during the discussion in the

audio texts thanks because in the beginning of the activity, I have set some tasks for them to

carry out. Therefore, they have a purpose in listening to the material and tend to focus while

listening to the audio material.

Besides, I found that most of my students were able to use the points that they jot down

during the while listening stage in their group discussion. I also found that some of them even

used a number of polite expressions in carrying out a group discussion.


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The Limitation of the Action Plan

There are some limitations to this lesson plan. I found that it is difficult for me to monitor my

students when they were carrying out the group discussion. This is due to the class size which is

almost 50. Therefore, I find it hard to point out and correct mistakes made by my students

throughout the lesson.

Besides, I found that some students really struggle to understand the audio listening

material. This is due to the speed of speech of the native speakers in the video. This makes it

hard for them catch the words uttered by the speaker. As a result, they find it a challenge to grasp

some of the main ideas in the discussion. This is due to their proficiency level in English

language. Besides, I believe that this is also partly due to their being not familiar with listening tospeech of native speakers.

The Impact of the Action Plan on Me


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There are a number of things that I learned while preparing this action plan. These include the

importance of a thoughtful planning, the importance of referring to various sources and the role

of reflection in improving my teaching methodology.

While preparing the action plan, I realized that I have to consider variety of factors in

planning a lesson. This involves the activities that I am going to carry out, the materials that I amgoing to use in the lesson as well as my students background knowledge and level of proficiency.

I realized that I overlooked at some of these factors while preparing for this action plan. For

example, I overlooked at my students level of proficiency. This result inmy mistake where I

chose a material which is difficult for some of them, especially those who have low proficiency

level to comprehend. Therefore, I realized that I need to consider a lot of factors in planning my

lesson next time.

In preparing the action plan, I was also required to relate my action plan with some of the

theories and principles in English Language Teaching. In doing so, I have to read from a number

of sources to achieve a better understanding of what I am about to plan and carry out. This hasbroaden my view of my teaching perspectives. I realized that there are still many strategies that I

am ignorant of. As I read through the articles written by experts in ELT, I came to understand

that teaching is a creative process and I have to be flexible at times in carrying out my lesson.

This in a way has improved my knowledge and skills as an English language lecturer.

This action plan also requires me to reflect on my teaching activities. While doing the

reflections, I realized that there are a lot of mistakes that I did while carrying out the activities.

Upon realizing the mistakes, I began to think of the causes of the problems and ways to improve

my lesson. Doing a reflection also has enabled me to be empathetic towards my students. As I

stepped back from the lesson and see the implementation from the eyes of a student, I came tounderstand the challenges that my students face in understanding listening in second language.

Therefore, I realized there are still rooms for improvement for the activities I carried out as to

make my students become a proficient listener as well as speakers of English language.

In a nutshell, I believe that this action plan has improved me to become a better educator.

I have learnt that I need to be careful in planning my teaching and learning activities for my

students, I have learnt that I need to read a lot to broaden my perspective in teaching

methodologies and I have learnt that it is important to step back to see the loopholes in my

teaching processes.


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References

Brown, S. (2006). Teaching Listening.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nystrand, M. & Gamoran, A. (1997). The Big Picture: Language and Learning in Hundreds of

English Lessons in Nystrand et al. Opening Dialogue: Understanding the Dinamics ofLanguage and Learning in the English Classroom. New York: Teachers College Press pp. 30-

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listening skills - action plan

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