The role of language integration in english teaching and learning

Before asking students to read aloud a text, the teacher can read the text once or can play the tape if available.After that he gives students time for preparation about 3 minutes.. Besi

INTEGRATED READING TEACHING

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PageChapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Development

Section 1 Literature review

I Reading skill in English

II Integrated language skill activities

Section 2 Suggested activities

Chapter 3 Conclusion

References

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Teaching English involves four skills speaking, listening, writing and reading Thefour skills are closely related However, in secondary school teaching focuses mainly onreading skill and it is often taught separately From my point of view, the reading textshould be exploited more effectively Therefore, I would like to use the post reading stage

to exploit the texts in order to teach skills in integration, to bring life into the lessons, tobring the lessons nearer to students’ interest

2 Aims of study

The three main objectives of this study include

- to review some literature related to the reading skills and skill integration

- to suggest some techniques in order to enrich post-reading activities

- to provide some lesson plans where the techniques are applied

3 Scope of study

The object of my study is just gifted students in an underprivileged province As aresult, the suggested activities can be applied to teaching reading in the similar context

CHAPTER 2 DEVELOPMENT

SECTION 1 Literature review

I Reading skill in English

1 The nature of reading

Reading is always a necessary activity in both real life and in language learningand teaching Much effort has been spent on finding out the nature of reading However,there is not yet a unique definition of reading

The most simple and perhaps provisional definition of reading is that of Karlin Heclaimed that reading is a process of converting the print-graphic symbols into meaning.Manthody, E and Gricharts, J (1974:92) provided a more specific definition: “reading is

an active, interactive, productive and cognitive It involves an active search forinformation and interaction with the text, it requires the constant constructiveinvolvement of the reader in what he is doing and it demands the use of higher ordermental ability.” Sharing the same opinion, Frank Smith (1985:102) added that “reading isunderstanding the author’s thought”

In conclusion, all of the definitions involve the recognition of words and theproduction of meaning They are the basic elements of reading process

2 Types of reading 2.1 Skimming and scanning Skimming is the technique of reading for general sense or the gist of the text The

reader wants to know what is in the text but on a rather superficial level Skimming ismost useful at the pre-reading stage It programs the reader’s brain Thus, at the whilereading stage, he will be able to read faster, to understand the material better and so toremember it longer It is recommended that skimming complex passages first in 30 to 60seconds

Skimming involves 6 steps:

1 Read the title

 2 Read any subheadings

 3 Look at pictures, charts, etc that are included

 4 Read the first paragraph

 5 Look for the main points of each paragraph (usually in the first or last sentence)

 6 Read the last paragraph

Scanning is looking for specific information in a reading passage Scanning saves thetime and directs the reader to useful information

Low, M.G (1965:7) figured out secrets to good scanning:

1 Look for the key words or phrases (date, number, ect)

2 If you can not find them, try other words which mean the same

2.2 Intensive and extensive reading

Intensive reading activities aim at helping students not only in the detail comprehension

of short texts but also in the interpretation of the writer’s intention In general, intensivereading is often less encouraging because it is expected that the whole material is to bedealt with in detail and all structures are to be explained Consequently, it takes too longand interest is surely lost

In contrast, extensive reading activities are more enjoyable They are often employedwhile reading for pleasure or reference

2.3 Silent and aloud reading

There is no doubt about the efficiency of silent reading over aloud reading inaccomplishing most of the reading tasks Silent reading focused on the meaning of thetext, thus, students would be more concentrated on the comprehension and understand thetext better Aloud reading slows down the reading speed considerably Some studentshave the habit of vocalizing with or without realizing its danger In fact, most of us speak

at about 100-125 words per minute This is much slower than we want to be whilereading In order to break this habit, try to push yourself read faster than you canvocalize

II Integrated language skill activities

1 Speaking and listening

1.1 Reading the text aloud

We must distinguish reading texts in phonetic intonation and reading texts inordinary spelling Only the formal one needs practicing because it gives extra practice inpronunciation, word stress and rhythm Students and teachers have a chance to checkstudents’ pronunciation Aloud reading should be practiced after students have fullyunderstood the texts Thus it should be left until teachers have presented and studentshave practiced all new language items: structure, vocabulary, etc Before asking students

to read aloud a text, the teacher can read the text once or can play the tape if available.After that he gives students time for preparation (about 3 minutes)

The preparation is really important because if students are asked to read aloudwithout readiness, they are often so discouraged and nervous that they can not make ameaning speech, mispronouncing some words, reading too fast, phrasing improperlywhich leads to wrong use of pause

Aloud reading can be employed in almost every text in the book However, itwould be more interesting and purposeful if it is used as the post reading activity

Besides, oral reading can provide students with a chance to share information.One student can bring to class a text whose topic is somehow related to that of the textthey have learned For this kind of oral reading, it is not necessary for teacher to readfirst and to give the whole class time for preparation However, the student who is incharge of oral reading surely needs to prepare carefully at home Teachers may ask somestudents to select texts in advance as home assignment, choose the most suitable one,and give time for them to present in front of class At that time, the whole class practicetheir listening skill, indeed active listening

This work can also be done in-group These students will prepare his passage athome and then in class they work in-group, each student reads his/her part in order tomake a meaningful message

After students read texts orally, it is necessary for teachers to give their comment

on students’ intonation, stress, pronunciation, rhythm, and to write the words whichstudents mispronounce and the sentences they use wrong intonation in the blackboard forfurther practice.

However, it is worth mentioning that the oral reading is employed at the postreading stage The text for oral reading should not be too long and time-consuming If thetext is from the course book, teachers should choose a short paragraph If the material fororal reading is from other resources, the text must be short enough (about 200 words) Inthe schools where tape recorders are available, students’ performance can be recordedand played back for children to listen They then compare between their voice and thevoice in the tape record provided before by their teacher It is good way for students toself-correct

1.2 Discussion

Classroom discussions are one of the most important ways students come tounderstand a subject Discussion serves diverse social as well as academic purposes.Through discussion, teachers and students establish a supportive environment forlearning Students also reveal themselves and teachers can build bridges from whatstudents know to what they need to know

The form of discussion is diverse When a student are new to a topic, discussionsare used to help learners actively understand new concepts, comprehend the content oftext and its important terms Discussion can also be called for when the content issuitable for students to link the topic mentioned to the real world

Thus, the second form of discussion will be suitable for the post reading stage.However in order to have an effective discussion teachers must encourage fullparticipation from their students Firstly, analyzing the classroom climate and buildingcooperation need to be done The classroom climate which has great impact on students’reason for working (or not working) together can be explored through observation,personal interview or even surveys The focus is in the degree to which students seethemselves as members of class learning community, the amount of cooperation in aclassroom, the positive or negative mood of students Basing on the result, teachers

designs which techniques and types of discussion are used Cooperation is also essentialfor effective classroom discussions to build cooperation among students and students,students and teachers Teachers can take the following steps:

- Establishing norms concerning group responsibility, responsiveness to othersand cooperation (rather than competition)

- Coping with conflict: in classroom discussing, conflicts are almost certain.However, it is essential that teachers talk about conflicts in a positive and productivemanner rather than communicating prediction for failure For example, teachers should

not give statements like: “ I knew I shouldn't have put you in with that group." “/ knew

you shouldn't handle if\ “You never gets the right answer” Instead, teachers reminds

their students of norms they have set up ‘I am quite surprised that you really forgot

some of the rules we made for how we treat one another Let's start again and let us see

if we can do it better."

Discussion can be held in small groups or whole class The whole class takes theforms of lectures: with teachers talking, asking questions, offering feed back andstudents responding and listening

Another form of whole-class discussion involves students asking each otherquestions and offering responses in a whole-class setting It can be used as a vehicle forreasoning, generating ideas or forming conclusions Whole class discussion takes a shortamount of time, which is shorter than small-group discussion does and easier to manage

In comparison with the whole class discussion, the proportion of members whoactually participate in the small group discussion is larger However, when choosing thistype of activities, teachers have to face with another difficulty It is very difficult toorganize and manage small group discussion as well When organizing small groupdiscussion, teachers bear in mind the number of students in that class, the size and shape

of the classroom In almost Vietnamese schools, a small classroom (25m2) holds 45 - 50students Therefore, there lacks space for each group In these classes 5 or 6 students canmake an optional group Teachers also have to choose who should be in one group.Mixed groups are always better than homogenous group because mixed groups provide

various opinions But Vietnamese teachers generally do not make a new arrangement,they select students who sit next to each other into a group Arranging students in thatway can not form a fixed group.

That which form of discussion is chosen is totally based on the content goalswhich teachers want to achieve According to content goals, discussion can becategorized into 3 types: topic discussion, debate (issue-oriented) and problem solving

1.2.1 Topic discussion

Topic discussion helps students comprehend the content of the lesson, apply whatthey have learned, relate his own knowledge and experience to material This type ofdiscussion mainly focuses on the content of the text with consideration for implications

of the content in the outside world This activity can be done is pair or group of 5 or 6students

If students’ level of English is low, their background knowledge is limited and thetopic is quite complicated, the teachers need to give some suggestions or elicit someresponses from the good students

1.2.2 Debating

Debating helps students appreciate not only the author’s perspective but also otherstudents’ point of view During debating, students listen to others’ beliefs and feelingabout a topic; they analyze, evaluate and even change their own ideas as a result In thisdiscussion, the content is only the reason for issues to emerge In this activity, teacherscan use both small group discussion and whole class discussion

In the case that much time is left, teachers need also to expand some wordsconcerned in word study part

There are different ways to hold this type of discussion:

- Teachers let their students discuss in pair in 7 minutes and then ask two or three pairs to present

- The teacher may ask students to discuss in-group of 4 or 5 in 5 minutes andthen select students who are “For” forming a group and the rest forminganother group Then let each group in turn express their opinions

When one student from “For group” shows one advantage, the students of

“Against group” surely want to argue This makes discussion exciting and meaningful However, in this case teachers must work hard to control the discussion To prevent students from overexciting teacher needs to ensure that students argue in a polite manner However, there is one advantage of this type of discussion The whole class discussion itself can not encourage the timid students Thus, teachers should pay more

attention to them Teachers may elicit their response like “What do you think? What

about you? 'We may wish to listen to another voice?”

………

………

………

………

………

………

1.2.3 Problem-solving

Problem-solving is a specific form of discussion in which students read and study in-depth about a problem emerging from the text and device a number of possible solutions This activity does not focus on the text, therefore, students hardly directly make use of the knowledge they have read and learned from the text This type of discussion requires students’ wide background knowledge and language knowledge As a result, solving problem is suitable for schools or class specializing in English teaching

1.3.

Text retelling

It is a type of text reproducing exercises which converts reading vocabulary into speaking one Before this type of exercises is attempted, the basic structures of the language must have been mastered According to William Mackey (1965), this activity may follow these steps

- Ask students to read silently the passage

- Make them close their books and listen to you reading the same passage

- Call on one or two of them to say in their own words what they have just heard' Thus the activity can be used in teaching the post reading After finishing the while reading stage, teachers read aloud the text again or play the tape And then teachers let students to prepare for 5 minutes Before retelling text in front of the class it is not

necessary for students to represent all the information given in the text, just thedecisively influencing content of the text

1.4 Listening

1, 4.1.Listening and response during discussion

Discussion provides students with real t-life listening situations During thisactivity students are always motivated to listen to their friends hin order to show theircooperation, to get information their partner gives and their partner’s opinion as well Allthese make the conversation go on

Listening to friends during discussion has both good side and bad side Firstly,during these activities students are always clear about the content of what they are going

to listen to, who is going to speak with what sort of voice Secondly, the speaker isalways visible and directly interacting with the listeners, which facilitates the decodingprocess of his listeners At least, students can make use of nonverbal language used bythe speaker Moreover, the speaker’s presence also catches listeners’ attention However,listening to friends during discussion has its limitations to some extent For example,noise during discussion prevents students from catching the speaker’s voice Besides, thespeaker’s errors in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammatical structures may beimitated by others Furthermore, the discourse will not be repeated hence, no explanationand comprehension check can be made after the discussion finished

Therefore, teachers should bear in mind this feature while managing discussion.They may record the students’ discussion, the whole class one, then play back forstudents to self recognize their mistakes and correct them While students report theirdiscussion, teachers should not pay too much attention to the speaker but checkingothers’ response to encourage the whole class to listen actively to the speaker or teachersmay ask students to paraphrase the speaker’s speech and then check the writing of somestudents

1.4.2 Listening to texts in the course book

After students have read through the text, they understand its content in a generalway Thus, asking students to listen to the text at the post reading stage does not provide

them with practice in listening comprehension This activity just helps students topractise their pronunciation and intonation.

The typical procedure is teachers at first collect one paragraph in the text (whichcontains language items analyzed in that lesson), then play the record of it The next step

is asking students to repeat in chorus This sounds rather boring and mechanical

1.4.3 Listening to text - related tape recording

This activity offers students a chance to practice listening skill most effectively.Unlike the first activity mentioned above, listening to text - related tape recordingprovides students with authentic material, as a result, students listen to native speakers,learn their use of language In comparison to listening to texts which are already read,this activity is much more purposeful Students have real reason for listening that is tocomprehend the text Moreover, because the listening text is related to the main text interms of content It is much easier for students to predict what they are going to listen toand guess unfamiliar words Short response is the most suitable type of listening activity

at the post reading stage Penny Ur (1996: 113) in “A course in language teaching”

offers seven sub-types: obeying instruction, ticking off items, true-false, detectingmistakes, cloze, guessing definition, skimming and scanning

SECTION 2 Suggested activities

READING 1

SAFE ONLINE

In this lesson students start by talking about how they use the internet, they then watch

a video about online safety and read about staying safe online They do a speaking activity based on the video and the text, and finish by making a poster with their top tips for staying safe online.

PRE-READING STAGE

Cyberbullying is a problem that everyone who uses the internet needs to be aware of February 11th is Safer Internet Day in the UK This video was created for schoolchildren

in the UK to watch to warn them about the dangers of cyberbullying

Do the preparation task

1 Preparation: matching

Match the vocabulary with the correct definition and write a – h next to the number 1 – 8.1…… laugh it off a An unkind name for someone who is strange or different 2…… a loser b try to ignore a problem by pretending it's not serious

3…… a text c believed to be

4…… supposed to be d an SMS

5…… a freak e a bad dream

6…… deleted f an unkind name for someone who is worthless

7…… a nightmare g someone who uses computers or mobile phones to hurt

someone 8…… a cyberbully h removed

Answers

1 Preparation: matching

1 b 2 f 3 d 4 c

Watch the video and do the exercises

2 Check your understanding: ordering

Write a number (1–8) to put the sentences in the correct order

………… Joe receives a text after class

………… A girl calls Joe from a phone box

………… Joe is friends with the mean girl

………… Joe receives a message on the computer

………… The police come to school

………… Joe is smiling again

………… Joe's mum watches his video

………… Joe and his mum speak to the head teacher

Answers

2 Joe receives a text after class

3 A girl calls Joe from a phone box

1 Joe is friends with the mean girl

4 Joe receives a message on the computer

7 The police come to school

8 Joe is smiling again

5 Joe's mum watches his video

6 Joe and his mum speak to the head teachers

Transcript for Cyberbullying – let’s fight it together

JOE: Um … Hi My name’s Joe I don’t really have anyone to talk to, so … I thought I’d tell my story like this When it all started, I just tried to laugh it off But it just went

on and on

Text on mobile phone screen: No Number

YOU LITTLE KISSASS!

Message deleted

Text on computer screen: Anon5446:

HEY FREAK

joebpruett: hu’s dat

Anon5446: YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE LOSER!

joebpruett: is dat u Kim?

Anon5446: TEACHERS PET

TOMORROW U BETTER WATCH OUT GONNA GET KILLED

JOE: Well, that’s it I just can’t take it any more

JOE: (on video camera) I thought they were supposed to be my friends, but they’reall laughing at me I’ve

got to get them to take notice

Text on screen: Cyberbullying is bullying

It ruins lives

Cyberbullying

Let’s fight it together

Ben Folds - Still Fighting It - Lyrics

Good morning, son, I am a bird wearing a brown polyester shirt

You want a coke? Maybe some fries?

The roast beef combo's only 9.95

It's okay, you don't have to pay, and I’ve got all the change

Everybody knows it hurts to grow up and everybody does

It's so weird to be back here let me tell you what

The years go on and we're still fighting it, we're still fighting it

And you're so much like me, I'm sorry

Good morning, son, in twenty years from now

Maybe we'll both sit down and have a few beers

And I can tell you 'bout today and how I picked you up

And everything changed it was pain, sunny days

And rain I knew you'd feel the same things

Everybody knows it sucks to grow up and everybody does

It's so weird to be back here let me tell you what

The years go on and we're still fighting it, we're still fighting it

You'll try and try and one day you'll fly away from me

Good morning, son, I am a bird

It was pain, sunny days and rain

I knew you'd feel the same things

Everybody knows it hurts to grow up and everybody does

It's so weird to be back here, let me tell you what

The years go on and we're still fighting it, we're still fighting it

Oh, we're still fighting it, we're still fighting it

And you're so much like me, I'm sorry

WHILE READING STAGE

Reading passages

How do you make sure you stay safe online? Everyone who uses the internet needs toknow how to use it safely Read about online safety in the UK

96% of young people in the UK regularly use the internet to communicateaccording to a survey of 24,000 British people aged 9-11 A report shows that only40% of young people know that personal information shared online stays onlineforever There are about 250 million tweets generated every day and around 800million Facebook users - that means a lot of information is shared online So areyoung people using the internet safely?

Private or public

Do you know how to change your privacy settings on social media? For example,you can click on the ‘flower’ icon or on ‘settings’ on Facebook to get to your privacysettings Then you can decide who sees your posts and personal information: friends,friends of friends or everyone Do you want everyone in the world to be able to see youremail address or just friends?

The BBC Share Take Care campaign is all about helping everybody, from little kids

to the over 55s, to make their online activity safer and protect themselves on theweb The campaign says adults and teenagers need to be more careful with personalinformation and images online An online security expert from the BBC was given onlythe names and the home town of two pairs of mothers and daughters in the UK and then

he searched online for information that they had shared in social media One motherand daughter pair are keen Twitter users They had frequent personal Twitter chatsthat they thought were private but were in fact public! Now they both know that Twitterhas a private messaging function and their chats really are private The other mother wasvery embarrassed when the security expert showed her a picture of her partner in hisunderpants! She had forgotten about posting the photograph and quickly removed

it The security expert also found lots of their personal details like dates of birth,addresses, maiden names, favourite football teams and popstars Nothingembarrassing, but potentially useful information for a cyber criminal

Be kind and stay safe

Everybody knows that we should be polite and kind to people in real life andonline Unfortunately sometimes this doesn’t always happen Where can you report

online abuse or unkind messages to yourself or your friends? Do you know how toreport inappropriate content online? For example, if you see an inappropriate tweet onTwitter you can click on ‘more’ and then choose ‘Report tweet’ You can then blockall further tweets from that user

Even well-liked celebrities can be targeted by cyberbullies Tom Daley, the BritishOlympic diver, was abused online His father died during the 2012 Olympic Games andTom received some very cruel tweets about this

Here are our top five tips for staying safe online:

1 Be nice! Treat people online as you do in real life

2 Don’t post anything online that you wouldn’t want people in real life to see

3 Check your privacy and security settings on social media sites and keep them as

private as possible Make sure you know exactly who can see your posts

4 Don’t ever post personal information like your home address, your email or yourphone number

5 If you see something online that worries or upsets you, tell an adult about it straightaway

Exercise 1

Read the text about online safety and do these exercises to check your understanding

1 Check your understanding: matching

Match the vocabulary with the correct definition and write a–h next to the numbers 1–8 1…… social media a to publish something online

2…… to chat b a person who does something illegal, for example steals

money, online 3…… personal details c to tell a person in authority about a problem

4…… cyber criminal d to exchange messages online with another person

5…… to post e information about a person such as your birthday, your

address, your phone number 6…… to report f websites where people can create and share written messages

and photographs