HOME LANGUAGE

STUDY UNIT 2
Pg. 13 . The Environment + Language Acquisition
A language is not learnt in isolation. Children learn from adults, their peers and in school. Babies begin to speak in
an environment where:
 1 + languages are spoken
 they hear people around them speaking
 people speak to them directly
 the contexts in which they hear/try to speak make sense to them
Babies + young children learn to talk when:
 they are highly motivated
 observe/listen carefully to people around them
 come to understand that language is useful and powerful
 have fun and enjoy themselves as they play
 practice what they learn
 are rewarded
Parents/family members are great teachers because they know their baby will learn to speak. They:
 help when needed, by sometimes initiating or responding to a child
 extend what the child is trying to say
 accept and understand that mistakes are necessary to development
 do not punish their babies when they say something wrong
 encourage them to keep on trying
 reward/support babies’ efforts
Teachers must keep the following in mind when planning lessons:
 conversation is a great vehicle for language development
 children become skilled language users when they communicate with each other and with older
children/adults
 a partnership/attempt to create meaning between adults and children encourages language skills and
confidence
 teachers must be aware of pupils’ prior knowledge and use this in planning
 teachers should share information with parents which will promote conversation between parents and
children
 children should be encouraged to think out loud about their experiences
 teachers learn from the mistakes children make when speaking
Language and thinking are linked. Teachers need to encourage pupils to think and communicate using language.
Language has two components: understanding + speaking
Six stages of language development:
 babies react to different sounds/speech which they must hear often
 vocalization (sounds) occurs from 3 months to 1 year
 babies are physically capable of forming words and start to do so. They know the meaning before they can
voice the words
 children begin to make sentences of 2/3 words and imitate the speech patterns of those they hear
 children expand vocabulary rapidly, using longer sentences, speaking to others and learning grammar
through what they hear others do
 by age 5/6 children learn that language also includes reading and writing and they can make their ideas or
feelings known by making marks on paper
Children first acquire language before they start using expressive language. Listen  speak  write
Communication skills
Communication means that:
 children can receive a messages
 children are able to interpret what they receive correctly
  children can respond adequately
teachers can improve communication skills by:
 providing materials and situations conducive to communication
 helping children to develop listening and speaking skills by telling stories, singing songs, playing games etc
 Use taped stories to ask questions and discuss
 Speak to children and encourage them to communicate their thoughts and feelings
Factors that indicate whether children are developing and improving:
 Confidence
 Articulation
 Language production
 Vocabulary
 Communication
 Understanding language
 Playing with words
 Listening skills
Cognitive, social and emotional development depend upon a child’s ability to understand words and communicate
with them orally or written.
Elements of language
 Thinking – good teachers focus on the connections between thinking and language and provide challenging
and authentic learning experiences
 Listening - & speaking are closely related. Media and note taking can be effective in learning
 Speaking – saying what has been thought. Speaking depends on thought, vocabulary, voice and the ability
to produce a variety of sentences
 Writing – expressing thoughts. Personal, formal, creative uses
 Reading – reading begins when we learn the alphabet and how single letters together make words
Approaches to Language Teaching
 Separate subjects – textbook based
 Integrated language teaching – All aspects of language are studied together. Teaching of the skills and
application
 Whole language – focuses on children’s own experiences. Projects such as publishing a newspaper, a lot of
reading and use of language in meaningful situations.
NCS Grade R – 9
Languages learning area includes 11 official languages as well as Braille and South African Sign Language
Additive multilingualism – all learners learn their home language and at least one additional language; learners
become competent in their additional language while their home language is maintained and developed; all learners
learn an African language for a min of 3 years by the end of the General Education & Training Band

Home language – learners come to school able to speak and understand the language. School supports this
competence in reading, writing, visual and critical literacies
First additional language – assumes that learners have no knowledge of this language. Introduced in Gr. 1. It starts
by developing learner’s ability to understand and speak the language. Builds literacy on this. By the end of Grade 9
these learners should be able to use their home and additional language effectively and with conference
Second additional language = those who wish to learn 3 languages. May be an additional/foreign language. Less
time may be allocated to learning this language than the others and the purpose is to use it for general
communicative purposes
Purpose of language
 Personal – relationships, personal growth + pleasure
 Communicative – social contexts
 Educational – thinking, reasoning and info
 Aesthetic – create, interpret and play
 Cultural – appreciate languages, cultures and heritage
  Political – assert oneself, challenge others, persuade others, sustain and transform identities
 Critical – understand relationship between language, power and identity; to think for yourself and avoid
brain washing
How does the Language Learning Area contribute to the curriculum?
 Develops reading + writing which are the foundation of other literacies
 Medium for learning other subjects
 Encourages intercultural understanding, access to other views and a critical understanding of the concept of
culture
 Stimulates imagination and creative activity
 Provides a way of communication information
 Develops the critical tools necessary to become responsible citizens
Language Learning Outcomes
1. the learner will be able to listen for info and enjoyment and respond appropriately and critically in a wide
range of situations
2. the learner will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in spoken language in a wide range of
situations
3. the learner will be able to read and view for info and enjoyment and respond critically to aesthetic, cultural
and emotional values in texts
4. the learner will be able to write different kinds of factual and imaginative texts for a wide range of purposes
5. the learner will be able to use language to think and reason, as well as to assess, process and use info for
learning
6. the learner will know and be able to use the sounds, words and grammar of the language to create and
interpret texts
STUDY UNIT 3
The communicative approach is currently the favoured approach to language teaching.
The difference between learning a home and additional language is that those doing FL have a greater emphasis
placed on studying the formal aspects of grammar and literary studies. The communicative approach focuses on the
application of grammatical rules. This approach aims to improve a learner’s competence and proficiency.
Competence: having the necessary ability, authority, skill and knowledge
Proficiency: being able to do something in a skilled or expert way because of training or practice
Communicative competence implies being able to use the target language appropriately in any given social context
in order to communicate effectively.
Principles underlying the development of communicative competence:
 the primary purpose of language is interaction and expressing meaning through written and spoken
discourse
 listening, speaking, reading and writing need to be integrated and developed simultaneously
 communicative competence implies grammatical, sociolinguistic and strategic and discourse competence
 Language can be used for basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) or cognitive academic language
proficiency (CALPS)
 The degree of accuracy and fluency varies according to the activity and errors are more tolerated
 Learners need to be exposed to as many authentic learning situations as possible through group/pair work
and taking responsibility for themselves
The role and responsibilities of the teacher in the communicative approach
The teacher is no longer an instructor, but is actually a facilitator who must make an environment conducive to
learning and establish situations that are likely to promote communication. Also ensure that you are very proficient
in the language.
Guidelines for planning communicative activities
 The emphasis is on language usage, not language study. So the explanation of grammar should be short and
followed by activities
 Activities should be learner centred and they should make daily input
 True communication involves an information gap, where one learner knows more than the other in a certain
aspect
 Communication must be purposeful and feedback must be given
 Communication must be authentic
 Pair and group work is beneficial
 Fluency is more important than accuracy
 Basic communication skills are integrated into each lesson and learners are expected to perform efficiently
in these skills
 Learners should be made aware of the appropriate socio-cultural language forms
 Accents are acceptable as long as one can still understand the speaker
Literacy is the ability to listen, speak, read and write in order to function effectively at an appropriate level. All of
these skills are closely related and their first purpose is communication, followed by expressing needs, enjoyment
and development of social skills.
Language processes are:
 Visual symbols – those that a child sees, writes and reads
 Verbal symbols – those that the child speaks and hears
Principles to apply in an integrated approach to language instruction:
 Focus on the language in which the child is learning
 Emphasize the social uses of the language
 Arrange activities that are appropriate to the child’s development
 Help children think
 Respect cultural and language differences
 Integrate speaking, listening, reading and writing
Competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing can be found on pg. 28
The roots of literacy:
 Children become aware that print is part of the environment
 They learn that written language is also found on its own
 They talk about written language
 They discover that written language has different uses and forms
 They learn how to analyze and explain written language
Children with different backgrounds will have experienced language in different ways. Children in rural
communities may have only been exposed to oral stories, while urbanized children may have had stories read to
them from a young age. This will influence how they fare with language in primary school.
STUDY UNIT 4
The media has affected the ability of people to listen, concentrate and hold a conversation because there is no need
to continually focus on someone speaking on tv or on the radio etc.
Listening is very dependent on speech. The four basic communicative skills can be divided in two ways. Speaking
and listening are the skills necessary for face-to-face spoken interaction, while reading and writing are necessary
for written communication. Another way of classifying is into the categories of productive or receptive skills.
Reading and listening are receptive; and writing and speaking are productive.
Listening is: the ability to interpret any aural input with specific reference to meaningful sounds (communication)
in any language that is understood by us.
Learners need to be taught:
 To listen to people not only to get info but to share or try to understand
 To consider how they think as they listen so that they can improve their skills within school subjects
 Listening well is a purposeful activity for which personal responsibility is necessary
 Continuous speech of a native speaker at a normal pace in a normal situation
 How to select relevant information and focus on key ideas through effective listening
 We not only listen for communicative purposes but also for aesthetic purposes – music, movies, nature
Four basic elements of any communication:
 Sender
 Receiver
 The message
 The feedback/reaction
Listening tasks should be designed on the pattern of: predicting, listening, confirming and responding
Contextualize the text that pupils are going to hear so that it is more interesting and realistic to them.
The purpose of a listening task also determines the choice of material used. There are many possible reasons, such
as Comprehension, Giving instructions, Short-term memory testing, Role play, Transferring info etc. see pg. 33
Take note of the characteristics of good and bad listening on pgs 34, 35. keep these factors in mind when preparing
a listening task for a class and try and minimize negative factors while ensuring that there will be many positive
factors.
When selecting suitable material, include variables such as (pg. 35):
 Age
 Dialect and accent
 Subject matter
 Background noises
 Ungrammatical language usage
 Gender
 Speed
 Stress and intonation patterns
Try to use authentic text, speech and samples that could be found in everyday life. The actual exercise should be
between 30 seconds and 2 minutes long. Do immediate feedback if possible.
Some activities that may encourage and improve listening skills:
 Word play – rhyming pairs, identify rhyming words in poems, think of substitutions for well known
rhymes, complete rhymes
 Sentence completion
 Listening to directions and giving directions
 Listening to a story
 Give oral instructions
 Identify sounds
 Listen for appreciation/enjoyment
Music can be used to enhance listening skills. An activity can be created where pupils can write about the feelings
evoked by the piece or the meaning of the content in a particular song.
In order to assess listening skills, often a checklist is sufficient. Generally pupils do very well on these tests and a
class average may be 70%. Set guidelines for specific types of listening skills and discuss them with pupils before
embarking on a task. Also, get pupils to evaluate their own listening skills. Another activity may involve recording
pupil’s responses to listening performances or keeping a portfolio of written reports.

Oral Skills
Spoken language is exclusive to mankind. Children’s oral language competence should steadily improve as they
progress through school.
When children begin school, generally teachers take over the role of guiding and encouraging their speech
development.
Speaking is used for:
 Talking about social or emotional issues
 Discussing ideas, attitudes, opinions and values
 Participation in small groups
 Appreciation of theatre, music, poetry, etc
Aspects of oral work which are essential in classroom activity:
 Conversation
 Discussion
 Telephoning
 Giving announcements
 Debating
 Holding formal meetings
 Storytelling, both the teacher and pupil
 Riddles and jokies
Oral work should involve asking relevant questions, listening and telling stories, sharing ideas, persuading others,
negotiating, thinking aloud, summarizing ideas etc.

Talking must be natural and clear. Pupils should feel free to take risks and confident that their contribution is
valued. The teacher should not dominate classroom conversation. Each learner should be given an opportunity to
speak.
Informal oral work – should not be idle chatter but purposeful, directed talking. Should never become chaos. The
discussion could include the latest movies, current events, interesting books etc. a good conversationalist is
enthusiastic about what he/she is saying and cares about what others are saying.
Formal oral work – can be unnatural because children often memorize their speech. Also, a parent might have
written the child’s oral for them. Formal oral work involves the practice of social courtesies, and examples of
practical speech activities for many occasions.
Impromptu oral work: opens up possibilities for many exciting activities, such as dialogues, role play, stories,
guessing games, etc
The talking tips on pg. 45 are incoherent
Oral group experience ideas:
 Choral speech
 Chants and raps
 Songs and poetry
 Performing a drama
 A reader’s theatre
 Miming and related discussions
 Puppets
Assessment of pupils’ work may involve self-assessment by learners, as well as teacher’s assessment of learner’s
oral competency. Assess regularly and unobtrusively. Some assessment criteria include: participation, fluency,
shyness, stuttering, courage, confident, abstract ideas
Mastering the art of communication is essential. ‘the limits of my language are the limits of my world.’
STUDY UNIT 5
Teachers should teach children how to write well, give them plenty of opportunities to do so, link their skills with
real life situations and give children different learning tasks based on their own aptitudes.
Formal writing
This type of writing has been quite a fail because teachers placed the emphasis on capital letters, neat handwriting
and correct spelling, but not on the writing itself. Here are some suggestions for an effective writing programme:
 Learners need to master sentence structure, punctuation, spelling and a wide variety of vocabulary
 They also need to learn how to express themselves in clear, logical, well-constructed sentences
 Reinforce learner’s ability to write by frequent, purposeful practice
 Written work should be seen by students as having a purpose
 Written work should be followed by editing and proofreading, evaluation, constructive guidance and
feedback and presentation to an audience if possible
 Learners should be given the opportunity to do written work everyday
 Writing should flow from oral activities where learners are given the opportunity to practice organizing
their thoughts and expressing them clearly
Paragraphs:
The first sentence must be the topic sentence which outlines what the theme of the paragraph is. An entire
paragraph should centre on one specific idea.
Essays:
Descriptive – describes a scene . discursive: the pupil outlines their point of view by discussing a certain topic.
Narrative: centres on a story. Reflective: recording your thoughts on a topic
Three writing stages:
 Prewriting – drawing a picture
 Writing – write a related text
 Post writing – read it to a teacher or friend
Letters: must be formal in this category. Must have a specific purpose and be direct.
Creative writing
Learners are expected to create and make something out of words using their feelings and imagination. May be
prose, poetry or drama. It requires an informal approach. Pupils should not write to please the teacher but feel free
to write what they really think. Teachers should encourage self-expression by using experiences and situations
which extend the learner’s spoken and written vocabularies. Develop an awareness of sensory images and stimulate
their imagination through using examples of great writing. Stories may be sad, happy, funny etc. children should be
encouraged to write plays as early as grade 4.
Ways of encouraging writing:
Make sure that children do not feel in fear of being judged or assessed. Also try and remove the stigma that writing
is drudgery. As a teacher, you need to ‘teach writing’ so that pupils feel enthusiastic and confident. Some ideas
include trying out new starting points for writing, encourage journal writing, beware of too much writing, display
work, publish a book with extracts from the class etc.
Assessment of writing:
The teacher must have a clear idea of : what, why and how she intends to evaluate. Factors to be looked at include:
 Sentence structure
 Vocabulary and spelling
 Effective writing communication
 Punctuation and correctness of language
 Paragraphing
Teachers should assess pupils’ writing ability holistically, but taking an overview of the bulk of the work. Also,
realize the contribution that writing makes to the writer’s mental, emotional and social development.

Teaching reading skills

Reading is vital to language development, their ability to learn across the curriculum, and to function as individuals
in society and as adults in the working world. Reading enriches and extends a learner’s experience of life.
Classroom reading should emphasize a meaningful experience and total literacy. Developmental reading provides
experiences that help learners recognize and identify words, see how various kinds of reading tasks are performed
and become proficient in reading many kinds of reading material. Information processing in reading refers to what
happens in areas such as social studies, maths etc. embedded lessons are brief lessons taught to learners in
conjunction with actual reading situations. Reading materials include literature such as poems, stories, plays,
magazines and newspapers. Reference materials such as dictionaries, almanacs and encyclopedias may be used too.
Basal reading series: collection of reading selections with teacher guides to teaching skills. Usually supplemented
by a series of readers/short novels of which a couple of copies are available for learners to read when they are
finished their basal readers
Computer-based reading: requires a computer and appropriate software
Miscellaneous reading aids – audio books, word-matching games etc
A structured reading programme that matches pupils’ needs is necessary. Recommended reading lists should be
formulated and discussed with pupils.
Good language passages, poems, verses and reading laboratories can be used to boost reading and language
development. Reading remains the most important skill learnt in school and teachers should never loose sight of
this.
Directed reading experiences: usually in tiered groups according to ability. Groups meets for about 20 minutes.
There are several steps to this:
 Preparation
 Survey reading
 Rereading
 Practice
 Extensions
Reading logs are a way of allowing children to log everything they have read, at home or at school
Reading conferences consist of discussing learner’s reading logs, reading silently and discussing what has been
read, reading orally from familiar material to allow the teacher to check intonation etc, reading orally from
unfamiliar material so that learners are confronted with unknown deviations from a text, undertaking tasks that the
teacher identifies as being of interest to the learner, writing at the teacher’s request or involuntarily that the pupil
wishes to share with the teacher
Reading period: may vary in time and not always be organized the same way. A possible breakdown may be:
 Reading aloud
 Class lesson
 Reading time
 Sharing time
Some components of reading performance:
 Word recognition – sight recall and context clues
 Reading comprehension – individual meanings/literal meaning/multiple or competing meanings
 Oral reading (mechanical reading)
A successful reading programme aims to instill a lifelong love for reading in a child. This may be encouraged by
showing personal delight in reading, emphasizing the uses of reading, encouraging your learners to join their local
library etc.
There is a relationship between reading and writing. Writing experiences influence the development of reading
strategies. It will help children to enjoy vocabulary in books they read and improve their spelling.
Assessment of reading : remember that the language spoken at home will influence the language they speak at
school. Try and simulate real-life experiences in the classroom.
When evaluating reading, look at:
 Intonation
 Reading
 Speed
 Fluency
 Volume
 Accent
 STUDY UNIT 6
The aim of a reading programme should be to instruct your class in such a way that they will develop general
reading skills, so as to:
 Enjoy, understand and appreciate the contribution of reading to their general development
 Be able to verbalise their reaction to texts
 Understand the difference between illustration and text
 Develop an awareness that people are usually the main theme of a story and reading stories will help
them to understand humans better
 Develop an ability to indicate how texts are connected to the era, place and culture from which they
originate
Van Tonder says it differently:
 Be able to experience and emphasize with all forms of literature
 Be able to identify themselves with characters and events
 Acquire knowledge of the basic structure of literary forms
 Have a basic literary metalanguage that enables them to express opinions on texts
 Be helped to develop their language skills, emotional and intellectual experience, and awareness of the
normative
The chief aim: children must learn to love reading!
Choose books that interest children and read them in a way that will draw them in.
Two strategies for approaching literary instruction:
 Text-experiencing teaching : recognizes the vital role of the reader. The aims are:
o Developing the emotional element
o Verbalizing learners’ attitudes to the text
o Enlarging the experiential world of the learners
o Promoting a positive attitude
 Text study: focuses on analysis of particular texts. The aims are:
o Acquiring essential knowledge
o Expanding their expectations
o Applying newly acquired insights
o Broadening their literary tastes and aesthetic appreciation
Learners must be given an opportunity to experience and respond to texts so that they become genuinely involved
in them. Thus, text experience comes before text study.
When choosing books to read, make sure that they are interesting to the readers. On pg. 65, see the book report
template provided. Make sure that literature applies in some way to the lives of the children.

The integrated approach to literary instruction provides for interaction, both affective and cognitive, between text
and reader. It is both heart and mind. All the aspects of language should receive attention – listening, speaking,
reading and writing. The text always remains the point of departure. The integration model provides a framework,
or a process, that can be used to achieve the various aims while developing the essential skills. The model’s
components are semantic, cognitive, communicative, interactive and creative at one and the same time.
Selection or development of meaningful activities are determined by:
 The nature of the text
 The developmental level of the learners
 Teaching aims
All the relevant factors have to be taken into account, such as:
 The need to promote involvement, perception, insight, interpretation and appreciation
 The fact that teaching methods, classroom atmosphere and the learner/teacher relationship all have their
effect on learner response
 The highly individual nature of response, the fact that it is active not passive, and that is should be
developed and enhanced
 The possibility of guiding learners towards greater insight, a critical approach and a deeper involvement of
books by means of various activities
  The deepening and broadening effect that classroom opportunities can have on a child’s perception of life
The focus must always be on the interaction between the reader and the text. You need to continually check
whether the activity supports the text and the reader’s response to it, in order to develop a higher level of
understanding and appreciation.
COMBRINK’S MODEL OF INTEGRATION
See pg 65 for all of the details. In brief:
PHASE 1
How to teach: prepare the necessary atmosphere and background to the text
Learner involvement: learner’s must acquaint themselves with the necessary information and prepare themselves to
interact with the text
PHASE 2
How to teach: plan how you will divide up the text and how you will work activities
Learner involvement: allow learners to get involved with the narrative and develop listening/reading skills
PHASE 3
How to teach: Give learners an opportunity to verbalise their response to the text
Learner involvement: learner’s need to indicate what they liked/disliked about the texts, parts they had difficulties
with, identify with characters, and basically get creatively involved with the text
PHASE 4
How to teach: divide the class into groups and discuss responses they got in phase 3. share your own response to
the text. Give an ongoing appreciation and assessment of the text
Learner involvement: become aware that everyone has a different opinion which is neither right nor wrong.
PHASE 5
How to teach: the text-experience is over and it is now time to study the text. Casually discuss milieu, conflict etc.
discuss viewpoints and interpretations, character portrayal, structural elements, cause and effect, tension building
techniques and so forth.
Learner involvement: spot character traits, stereotyped characters, dialogue, action, conflict, language usage
PHASE 6
How to teach: everything that was fragmented during the previous phase must be put back together again. Point out
the theme of the story. Use various media to develop stimuli for responses to the text. Do research about the author
or period in which the text was written.
Learner involvement: develop speaking and writing skills, develop comprehension and insight by approaching the
story from various angles etc
PHASE 7
How to teach: give opportunities for comparing their original reaction to the text to how they feel now
Learner involvement: express their views on the text again and compare with their first response. Develop insight
and perspective by relating the text to their own lives
PHASE 8
Appreciation can be done in primary school, but they should not be expected to assess it. Assessment in primary
school simply involves expressing whether they like the story or not and validating their answer.

Teaching Poetry
One of the most glorious tasks of a teacher is to introduce a class to the world of verbal artistry. It largely depends
on the teacher whether the pupil learns to love poetry or not. Learners should be able to explore and discover a
sense of pattern, play on words, good choice of words, pleasurable play of sounds etc.

Some ideas for encouraging an interest in poetry:

 Make the poem real to your class
 Cut up the poem and allow pupils to rearrange it in the correct sequence
 Ask learners to portray a poem visually
Literary instruction:
 Means reading with a particular purpose
 Means of expanding learners’ knowledge of human nature
 No in-depth study takes place here. The ideal is to help learners experience the fictional world and nurture a
love for reading.
STUDY UNIT 7
OBE has its origins in a meeting held in 1948 from whence Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
developed. Today, William Spady, an American, is commonly associated with OBE. OBE has been packaged as
Curriculum 2005 in South Africa in order to realize the vision of our country to create a fully democratic and
productive people through a curriculum that is of high quality and relevant for all. Keywords related to RSA’s
vision include:
 Access
 Non-discriminative
 Relevance
 Quality
The changing economic world has also necessitated a change in curriculum in order to prepare learners for the
workforce.
Some claims of OBE:
 All learners can master the desired outcome if the teaching methods and time are varied
 Learners do not attain the outcomes through a set of prescribed learning experiences in one programme or
grade
 Learner’s progress must be continuously assessed
 Prior learning is recognized and the teacher isn’t the only source of knowledge
 Learner’s are taught to take responsibility for their learning
 Assessment is enabling rather than punitive
See pg. 72 & 73 for a table comparing OBE with the previous philosophy.
Learning area: an area concerning similar subjects, such as Languages
Learning programme: eight learning areas are divided up into learning programmes. It is a document which shows
how the curriculum should be implemented at schools
Learning outcomes: something that he learner can demonstrate he/she has gained from the learning process
Assessment criteria: means of establishing whether an outcome has been achieved
Multilingualism: many different languages spoken. English: 8.6%. IsiZulu 22.9%; IsiXhosa 17.9 %, Afrikaans 14.4
% and so forth.
Children should be taught in their home language and explore the intricacies of it, while doing a second language
in a more communicative form. Respect for other languages and cultures must be instilled.
The ability to use the dictionary is one of the most important skills for pupils to learn. It can be used for many
different purposes. It will enable them to become independent readers and language users. To determine whether a
dictionary is appropriate, one can look at some of the following pointers:
 Are the cover and pages durable?
 Is the size ideal to fit into a school bag?
 Are the definitions comprehensive?
Group work
Group work can lead to great opportunities for conversation between children. It gives children an opportunity to
practice a second language.
Guidelines for dealing with potential problems in groupwork:
 Organization – explain instructions so that children know what to do at certain stages before hand
 Noise – remind children to listen to each other and not talk extremely loudly
 Space – train the children to quickly rearrange furniture. Tell the principal what you are planning in
advance
 Work – give each group a definite task to complete with questions to answer
Learners should be taught to :
 Listen to each other
 Take turns
 Stick to a topic
 Use appropriate vocabulary
 Think before they speak
  Talk in a normal voice
 Interrupt politely
Questioning skills and techniques
Questions are meant to achieve the goals of: helping learners to form relationships between objects and ideas;
prompting learners to speak about their thoughts and feelings; leading learners into becoming interested in new
things. Questions work bets when learners have an opportunity to answer them mentally before someone answers
out loud.
Try to avoid:
 Questions with yes/no answers which encourage guessing not thinking
 Questions with answers to which the pupils know the teacher doesn’t really care
 Encouraging a forest of hands and selecting the most eager volunteer
 Naming a learner and then asking the question. Then no one but that learner will think of the answer
Types of questions:
 Recall – ask the learners to remember info, names of words etc
 Convergent thinking technique – ask learners to compare similarities or contrast differences and seek
relationships
 Divergent thinking technique – ask the learners to predict, “what would happen if…?”
 Evaluation – ask the learners for a personal opinion or judgement and then ask them to explore their
feelings
 Observation – ask the learners to watch of describe what they see
 Explanation – ask the learners to state cause/effect, reasons, and/or descriptions
 Action – ask the learners to move their bodies and perform a physical task
A checklist to gauge how effective your questioning techniques are: (see pg. 80)
 Do most of your questions require a yes/no response?
 Do your facial expressions give away which answer is right/wrong?
 Are you the only person in the class answering or asking questions?
Assessment
Learners are assessed on how well they achieved the specific outcomes (assessment criteria, range statements and
performance indicators)
What assessment means for the learner:
 Learners are continuously assessed – by themselves, their peers and by teachers
 Learners are assessed in a variety of ways
 Learners are required to show that they understand and apply knowledge
 Learners are assessed as individuals and for their contribution to group work
 Learners are told exactly how they will be assessed and why they are being assessed
 Learners are encouraged to take responsibility in their learning and an interest in each other’s progress
learners can be assessed in a variety of ways:
 Observation
 Self-assessment
 Peer assessment
 Portfolio
o Written assignments
o Interviews and oral presentations
o Projects
o Practical assignments
Lesson planning
When planning lessons, look at the following factors.
 Ensure that you have fully grasped the subject that you plan to teach and are fully aware of the demands of
your profession as a first language teacher
 Knowledge of the education department and immediate school environment you intend teaching in is
crucial
  You need to know a considerable amount about your learners so that you can select activities suited to their
frame of reference and interests
Lesson plans must have the following aspects:
 Grade
 Learning area
 Programme organizer/theme
 Learning outcomes
 Intro (actualization of existing knowledge/recent work covered/problem statement)
 Presenting the learning content; introduction of new content/skills
 Teaching aids
 Conclusion
 Application
 Assessment
*extension and homework
the three phases of a typical lesson:
 Introductory – the first five minutes of the lesson must capture the attention of the pupils or you will have
lost them for the rest of the lesson. #truestory. Link prior knowledge to the current lesson content. Choose
themes from the pupil’s life world. Also, when marking homework check up on possible deficiencies from
a prior lesson and areas that need to be worked on
 Middle phase (presenting the learning content) – ensure that you have a logical sequence of work. Plan
what you will do, and what the learners will do. Keep them actively involved in the learning process.
Always have a plan B on hand in case the learners don’t understand the work or the plan isn’t working out.
Reinforce new info immediately through exercises.
 Concluding phase – this is a time for summarizing and revision; application of new information; evaluation
of whether learning outcomes have been achieved ; feedback to the pupils as to how they have done;
motivation for pupils.
o Three kinds of homework: 1) preparatory activities 2) extension of classroom activities 3) practicing
and drilling activities
 Review – look over your lesson. Evaluate what worked and what didn’t etc.
 ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE
STUDY UNIT 2
The American linguist, Bloomfield, has observed that normal human beings do not need to be taught to speak.
Many humans function very well in their society without every learning to read or write, because speaking
provides them with the necessary tools for effective oral communication.
The successful exchange of knowledge is crucial to every person’s well being. The home and the family are
instrumental in the early acquisition of language.
Children learn the ‘rules’ of language without being taught and are able to construct sentences and understand
words they have never heard before, among other things.
Some current trends in additional language teaching:
 Learners speak more than teachers
 Various approaches should be tried
 Total physical response is widely used
 Words and expressions are not used in isolation, but in context
 Learners are encouraged to speak to each other in the additional language
Language teaching focuses primarily on developing learner’s communicative ability so that they are able to interact
with others in a meaningful way. The teaching of an additional language requires a unique approach, methodology
and assessment. Build on the learner’s knowledge of their own language. We live in a global community and
respect for diversity is important.

There is much speculation as to how an additional language is acquired. There are two different ways that can be
discussed:
 Consciously learning – the person has informal knowledge of the language and explicit formal linguistic
knowledge. The person consciously learns new words and how to apply grammar rules
 Acquiring – a language is learnt from being in a social environment where it is used on a daily basis as a
means of communication
It is generally accepted that young children learn a language naturally and easily, speak relatively faultlessly and
without an accent. In contrast, old children struggle to learn an additional language and usually speak it with an
accent. Research has been conducted into this phenomenon and it has been found that a combination of factors may
contribute to successful language acquisition:
 Biological factors
 Affective factors
 Motivation
 Time allotment
 Cerebral dominance (hemisphericity)
 Learning conditions
When teaching an additional language, mere teaching of rules, grammer, and spelling will not ensure that children
can use the language. One has to give children the opportunity to apply these tools in practical situations. We must
include in our teaching the ability to do things with language and express meaning.
Communication means that:  children can receive a message, children are able to interpret what they receive
correctly, children can reply with an adequate response
You can improve communication by:
 Providing materials and situations conducive to communication
 Help your learners to develop listening and speaking skills by telling stories, singing songs and playing
games
 Tape stories for children to listen to
 Speak to your learners and encourage them to communicate their thoughts and feelings
Factors of progress:
 Confidence
 Articulation
 Language production
  Vocabulary
 Communication
 Understanding language
 Playing with words
 Listening skills
Children learn thousands of words just by being around caring adults who talk to them and respond to their efforts
to communicate.

Elements of language:
 Thinking – a school programme that is challenging and rich in authentic language experiences will
stimulate thinking
 Listening
 Speaking
 Writing
 Reading
Two approaches to language teaching:
1. separate subjects
2. integrated language teaching
the additive approach to multilingualism:
 all learners learn in their home language and at least one additional official language
 learners become competent in their additional language, while their home language is maintained
and developed
 all learners learn an African language for a minimum of three years by the end of the GET
Purposes of language:
 personal
 communicative
 educational
 aesthetic
 cultural
 political
 critical
six learning outcomes. First 4 cover five different language skills – listening, speaking, reading, viewing and
writing. Outcome 5 deals with the use of languages for thinking and reasoning. Outcome six deals with sounds,
words and grammar in texts.
Outcome 1: listening
Outcome 2: speaking
Outcome 3: reading and viewing
Outcome 4: writing
Outcome 5: thinking and reasoning
Outcome 6: language structure and use
Integrate outcomes.
STUDY UNIT 3
The communicative approach acknowledges that a language is a system of rules for usage (grammar) that is
exemplified in use in the various modes of listening, reading, writing and speaking. Learning structures and new
vocabulary is important; however, preparation for effective communication will be inadequate if only this is taught.
Children acquire the language they need to know in order to be communicatively competent in their home
language speech community. The child’s use of language at a given stage and the communication of meaning take
precedence over grammatical accuracy. The CA approach supports the idea that language teaching should not
merely involve providing a set of language results. It supports the view that takes into account the effect use of
language by the learner.
Competency: having the necessary ability, authority, and skill knowledge
Proficiency: being able to do something in a skilled or expert way because of training or practice
If you have communicative competence it implies that you are able to use the target language appropriately in any
given social context in order to communicate effectively.
Principles underlying the development of communicative competence:
 language is a system for expressing meaning
 all four basic communicative skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) need to be integrated and
developed simultaneously
 communicative competence implies grammatical, sociolinguistic, strategic and discourse competence
 language could be used for basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) or cognitive academic
language proficiency (CALPS)
 the degree of accuracy and fluency would vary according to the focus of the activity. Error tolerance is
greater in this approach
 learners need to be exposed to authentic language and situations
The teacher’s role is largely facilitative. You need to be very competent and proficient in the language you are
teaching
See pg 22 for presentation methods using CA
The teacher must facilitate (make things easier) for the learners by planning suitable activities and situations where
the teacher facilitates the learner’s exposure to and communication in the additional language.
The most important requirement for the language material that is used during the communicative approach to
language teaching is that it must bring about authentic, real and credible language utterances. Use real objects to
teach the meaning of words. According to the CA, all language teaching must be linked to the type of activities or
tasks that learners will have to face in the additional language one day
To be literate means: being able to read and write the language that you can speak. It means having a basic
knowledge of or ability in a specific discipline
Language processes are : visual symbols (those that a child sees, writes and reads) and verbal symbols (those that a
child speaks and hears)

Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading

Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing
Oral Skills: Listening and Speaking
Written Skills: Reading and Writing
All of these skills should be taught in the language classroom.
Listening: learn to follow instructions, increase vocab, give messages, react to questions, participate
Speaking: experiment, describe events, participate in conversations, take part in creative drama activities
Reading: use the school/public library to access materials, react to written signs in the real world, predict what is
going to happen next in a story, read and discuss a story
Writing: enjoy writing ideas down, write different types of written exercises such as lists etc, find more topics to
write about and expand their writing accordingly, learn to use the correct format of writing for different purposes
STUDY UNIT 4
Children today lack aural concentration due to the visual nature of the media. It is not so much the ability to learn
as it is the ability to concentrate that is needed today. Learners need to be taught how to listen purposefully through
activities that require active participation on their part. Listening is a process of hearing, recognizing, and
interpreting the spoken language. It is an activity of the mind, not the ear!

In the additional language, the teacher focuses on receptive listening skills, and not reflective skills. You will also
pay more attention to intensive listening skills rather than extensive skills. The additional language learner is still
trying to master basic grammar and phonology and thus needs a very clear context in which to listen.

Listening and speaking are the skills necessary for face-to-face spoken interaction, while reading and writing relate
to the written communication.
Listening skills refers to: the ability to interpret any aural input with specific reference to meaningful sounds
(communication) in any language that is understood by us.
Learners need to be taught:
 to listen when people speak, not only to get info but also to establish a basis for sharing how they feel
 to consider their own thinking process as they listen
 that meaningful listening is not a passive experience and requires responsibility
 to select the relevant info and focus on key ideas
 find a purpose for listening and it will be easier
Four elements of any communication: the sender, receiver, the message, feedback (reaction). It is on this pattern of
predicting, listening, confirming and responding that listening tasks should be designed. Knowing the purpose of
listening helps children to focus and concentrate better. Also, contextualize the text learners are going to hear. The
purpose of the listening tasks also determines the choice of material used.
Some possible reasons for listening as set out in the core syllabus:
 comprehension
 giving instructions or directions
 short-term memory testing
 identification and discrimination of sounds
 identification and selection of tone, intonation, mood, atmosphere
 selecting and rejecting
 role-play
 transferring information
 evaluating and reformulating
 listening for pleasure
There should be a logical progression from basic listening skills of paying attention, concentrating on auditory
perception and auditory memory to more demanding tasks such as critical listening.
Children should demonstrate the ability to:
 situ quietly and listen
 respond to oral directions
 reproduce sounds
 follow directions
 identify their full name when they hear it
 listen to differences in pitch
Children should also be able to demonstrate listening for enjoyment and for meaning.
Learners should be able to identify classroom and environmental sounds, the source of sounds, rhyming words etc.
There are many factors that hinder effective listening as seen on pg. 33 and 34

When selecting suitable material, include variables such as: number of speakers, gender, register, speed,
incomplete sentences, dialect and volume, background noises, subject matter. Authentic natural speech in informal
or formal context is best.
More listening activities:
 listening to a story
 giving oral directions that the children respond to
 identifying classroom sounds

when assessing listening, here is an example of a listening checklist: Does the child?
 Listen to others attentively?
 Listen to an entire presentation and not just part?
 Show understanding of what is heard
 Remember important details
 Remember important details in sequence
 Listen attentively for a long time
 Listen respectfully
 Know how to listen
Some self-assessment questions for pupils:
 Do I keep in mind the main idea of what I’m listening to?
 Do I wait until the whole presentation is finished until I judge it?
 Do I try to understand how the presentation is organized?
 Do I keep in mind what it is that I am listening for?
Evaluation of listening should take place on a regular basis. Students can be asked to write a report based on what
they have heard.

ORAL SKILLS
Thinking and speaking are related.
A period of silent incubation is normal for those learning a new language. They may understand the words, but not
speak it for a while.
Comprehensible input refers to a text that is meaningful to the learners. Roughly tuned means the language is
meaningful but not too challenging.
For speaking activities, the best thing to do is to allow children to speak to each other in the applicable language.
Types of speaking activities:
 Naming items
 Demonstrating the ability to : wait a turn to speak, imitate correct speech patterns, speak in unison,
summarize a story
 Describing
 Applying rules for: interviews, discussions, orals
 Naming body parts
 Naming activities in action pictures
 Repeating songs, rhymes or poems
 Sharing info and experiences
 Role-playing a realistic situation
In bilingual teaching, the role of the home language is important for it provides a springboard for teaching the
meaning of vocabulary in the new language.
Error tolerance is high as children will gain a fear of speaking out loud if they are constantly corrected. We want to
avoid anything that causes fear or anxiety. It is counterproductive to focus on errors
By the time children reach the intermediate phase, they should be able to:
 Identify non-verbal messages and symbols
 Interpret the meaning of non-verbal messages and symbols
 Demonstrate the ability to interpret non-verbal messages through pictures
 Identify body movements as a means of non-verbal communication
 Demonstrate the use of body language as a means of non-verbal communication
 Demonstrate good dramatization techniques
  Identify meanings conveyed by facial expressions
 Identify messages conveyed by signs
 Identify messages conveyed by symbols
Message: facts/ideas you want others to understand
Learners must be able to identify body movements and facial expressions as a means of non-verbal communication
STUDY UNIT 5
Literacy can be defined as the ability to listen, speak, read and write so that we can function effectively at an
appropriate level. Learners develop reading and writing skills when they become aware that print is part of the
environment and understand that written word can be found everywhere in books, magazines etc.
Commonly used approaches to teach reading:
 Look and say (whole word/ sentence)
 Language experience
 Phonic
 Syllabic
 Eclectic (combined)
A programme for reading during the junior primary phase entails:
 Introductory: [incidents reading] captains and phrases, key words labels, word attack skills, sequenced
sentences, games  enjoyment motivation
 Formal: class reader, sentences, comprehension  extending language experience
Some ideas for introductory reading:
 Captains/labels
 Word frieze
 Matching pictures to action words
 Sentences on flash cards with matching pictures
 Snap with words
 Pictures and books
 Graphs
 Pictorial graphs
 Picture books
 Nursery rhymes
 Information books
 Make your own books
 Alphabet scrapbook
 Sequence game
Fundamentals of Reading Instruction:
 Language Ability: the task of the teacher is to help learners acquire an adequate oral language background
based on their needs, interests and level of understanding. This is all necessary before a learner can start
reading
 Reading Skills: the child’s level will determine what materials the teacher chooses
 Reading Techniques: focuses on how reading should be done. The final aim of teaching formal reading
should be to guide the learner into becoming an effective, independent reader.
Learners should be able to:
 Engage in reading like behaviour
 Construct meaning from visual texts
 Read along with a teacher in shared reading sessions
 Move from the introductory reading phase to the formal reading phase
 React to written signs around them
 Predict what is going to happen next in the story
 Read and discuss a story
 Develop a comprehensive sight vocabulary by reading well-known texts
 Form positive reading habits that will enable them to enjoy the written word
 Identify capital letters and small letters
The process of second language writing is usually mastered at the end of the primary phase

WRITING
The final step and culmination of all language skills learnt up until now. Language experience and communication
form the basis for writing.
During the initial period of learning a second language, the emphasis should be on the listening, doing and
speaking aspects of communication.
The objectives of additional language teaching are aimed at functional oral skills, that will help learners to
communicate effectively.
The aims of teaching an additional language are to enable learners to progress in:
 Understanding the additional language
 Speaking the additional language
 Reading, enjoying and understanding the additional language
 Communicating successfully in writing
The approach is aimed at the correlation of written and oral language.
Five stages in the development of writing skills:
1. Transcription: copying/rewriting words/sentences which the learners are already familiar with
2. Reproduction (dictation): learners reproduce (copy) sentences/words that they already know. Alternatively,
they can write down parts of a rhyme that they have learnt
3. adaptation: children change words or sentences to form new ones or opposites
4. creative writing: must be linked to a theme or interesting incident
5. Composition: does not take place in junior primary. A formal approach to punctuation or structural aspects
is not recommended.
Learning objectives for writing in the junior primary phase:
 Copying names or captions
 Forming letters and characters
 Writing words, phrase or short sentences within a framework to explain an idea or convey info
 Begin to experiment with written language creatively
 Write down their thoughts in their own inventive writing forms
 Find more topics to write about and expand their writing
 Ask the teacher to help them form a personal dictionary
 Begin to apply some basic rules of punctuation etc.
Learners become writers when:
 Their attempts at writing are acknowledged
 They watch and write things with the help of more experienced writers
 Experienced writers act as models for them to observe and imitate
 They see their teaching writing
Sometimes, the learner tries to spell without asking for help, sometimes asks for assistance etc.
Writing activities should:
 Flow from oral work
 Have meaning and purpose for learners
 Be a creative experience for the learners
 Reinforce the use of language
Labels – effective to extend vocabulary, emphasis and consolidate meaning, pave the way for correct spelling
Creative writing – learners’ reaction to the world around them and their attempts at expressing their thoughts in
writing. Aims of creative writing:
 Allows learners to express their feelings or emotions and to use their imagination
 Stimulate the individual learner’s thought processes
 Important factors which influence creative writing
Factors important in creative writing:
 Intellectual ability
 Reading ability
 Proficiency in oral language
 Encouragement in the classroom
  Socioeconomic background
 Integrating speaking, reading and writing activities
 Positive attitude of the teacher to the second language program
Spoken language + meaningful situations = creative writing
Creative writing can begin when: students have the need to record their thoughts in written form; students have a
good knowledge of and can converse in their second language; students have the necessary emotional and
intellectual maturity to learn this skill
A weather chart, class newspaper and stories all help foster creative writing.
STUDY UNIT 6
Non-literary texts – articles/newspapers; literary texts – poetry
Van Tonder states the aims of reading:
 Be able to experience and emphathize with all forms of literature so that they can develop their own taste
and opinions and discern the quality of a text
 Be able to identify themselves with characters and events, thus preparing them for adult life
 Acquire knowledge of the basic structure of literary forms
 Have a basic literary terminology that enables them to express their opinions on literary works
 Be helped to develop their language skills, emotional and intellectual experiences and awareness of the
normative
The aims of text experience:
 Developing the emotional element
 Verbalizing learners’ attitudes to the text
 Enlarging the experiential world of learners
 Promoting a positive attitude
Aims of text study:
 Acquiring essential knowledge
 Expanding their expectations
 Applying newly acquired insights
 Broadening their literary tastes and aesthetic appreciation
Text experience comes before text study.
Choice of reading matter is crucial! Make a wide selection including: short stories, poems, plays, stories of conflict
and family relationships, emotive stories, adventure tales etc. an important aspect is the applicability of literary
events on the lives of children.
Look for literature that:
 Shows children the feelings they experience are experienced by others too and are therefore normal
 Investigates the various facets of emotion which can promote a positive self-image in children
 Can teach children to handle emotions by reading about how other people handled them
 Indicates that a single person experiences various emotions, even conflicting ones.
An integrated approach means involving the heart and mind in literary instruction.
Selection of text are determined by:
 Nature of text
 Developmental level of the learners
 Teaching aims
Factors:
 Need to promote involvement, perception, insight, interpretation and appreciation
 The fact that teaching methods, classroom atmosphere and teacher/learner relationships all have their effect
on learner response
 The highly individual nature of response, the fact that it is active rather than passive and that it should be
developed and enhanced
 The possibility of guiding learners towards greater insight, a critical approach and a deeper involvement in
books by means of various activities
 The deepening and broadening effect that classroom opportunities can have on a child’s perception of life
Make sure that the activities you are doing always support the text and the reader’s response to it to develop a
higher level of understanding and appreciation.

COMBRINK’S MODEL FOR LITERARY INSTRUCTION

Phase 1: prepare to read the text by involving students emotionally with the text. Create the right mood
Phase 2: first reading of the text. Read aloud, clearly and with feeling.
Phase 3: opportunities for individual response. Allow children tow write down how they honestly feel about the
text. Perhaps they can share responses. There is no right/wrong answer
Phase 4: opportunities for sharing responses.
Phase 5: developing and structuring responses. Deal with technical aspects of the poem. Present the poem in an
original way and use interesting activities
Phase 6: overall summarizing activity. Read the poem again
Phase 7: assessing individual responses. The class is required to give another response to the text and compare it
with theirs from phase 2
Phase 8: assessment and appreciation of text. Learners are asked to say in their own words whether they like or
don’t like the poem
Learners may be helped to discover the following aspects of poetry:
 Good choice of words
 A sense of pattern, division into strophes, rhyme etc
 Play on words and their meanings
 The pleasure of sound (alliteration)
Some ideas to make poetry interesting: cut the poem up and allow the class to arrange it in the correct way/ omit
the title and allow them to put their own in / use pictures and other media / put the poem to music / allow the class
to act the poem out
Concluding remarks on literary instruction (Van Tonder)
 Literary instruction is reading with a purpose
 Literary study is a means of expanding the learners’ knowledge of human nature
 The focus is on quantity, not in depth study
 Light reading is best to foster a love for reading
STUDY UNIT 7
OBE – originated in 1948 in Boston where a group of behavioural scientists decided to embark on the process of
classifying outcomes of the educational process. The results were ‘Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives’.
William Spady is associated with OBE today. In SA OBE has been packaged as Curriculum 2005. the aim was to
produce education that was relevant and of high quality for all learners regardless of race, colour, gender, age,
religion or language. Rapid changes occurring in the global economy, technology and education have necessitated
a change in curriculum to prepare children to be productive citizens. Learners should be taught not only content,
but also skills, values and attitudes.
Some other points:
 All learners can master the desire outcome if the teaching time and methods are varied
 Learners do not attain outcomes through a set of prescribed learning experiences in one programme or
grade
 Learners progress must be continuously assessed
 Learners are required to take more responsibility for their own learning and academic progress
 Assessment is enabling not punitive. Focuses on what children know, not what they don’t know. Peer and
self-assessment form part of the process
See pg. 76 and 77 for a comparison between OBE and the previous philosophy
Definitions:
 Learning Area: the language learning area focuses on improving communication between all people.
 Learning programme: a document according to which the new curriculum is implemented in the various
schools. Includes sets of learning activities
 Specific outcomes: high quality demonstration that a learner has gained from the learning processes and
occurs at the end of the varied learning experiences
 Assessment criteria: describe the observable evidence that an outcome has been achieved
Multilingualism – we have 11 official languages which all receive parity of esteem but not parity of use. Only
8.6% of the population speak English as their first language. IsiZulu accounts for 22.9% of speakers followed by
IsiXhosa at 17.9%.
When the communicative function of an additional language is enjoyed, there is room to enjoy the cultural aspect
of the home language. This can include the wonder of the written word, the amazing sounds of the spoken word,
humour, witticism, etc.
Teach respect for the languages and cultures of others.
Why learn an additional language?  the focus is on communicating freely and with confidence with others in the
second language environment. Reading and writing is also important.
Being able to use a dictionary properly helps with vocabulary, building other parts of speech from a given word,
checking spelling, pronunciation, looking up the correct idiom etc.
Some pointers on the right dictionary:
 Are the cover and pages durable?
 Will the book fit into a school bag?
 Is the print large enough?
 Are the definitions comprehensive?
Etc.
Group work needs to be carefully planned, but solves a lot of problems for the teacher because it provides
opportunity for conversation in the additional language.
Some problems involved in group work, but which can be solved:
 Organization
 Noise
 Space
 Work
Learners should be taught to listen to each other, take turns, stick to a topic, use appropriate vocabulary, think
before they speak etc.
QUESTIONING SKILLS & TECHNIQUES

All a teacher’s questions should help make children think. They may help children to form relationships between
objects and ideas, prompt children to speak about what they are thinking and how they feel about them, and lead
children to become interested in new things. Questions work best when every learner answers them mentally.
Avoid:
 Questions with yes/no answers that encourage guessing
 Questions with answers that are of no interest to the asker
 Do not encourage a forest of hands and then pick the most eager volunteer
 Do not name a learner and then ask the question
Types of questions:
 Recall
 Convergent thinking technique
 Divergent thinking
 Evaluation
 Observation
 Explanation
 Action
A checklist for gauging how effective your questioning techniques are may include:
 Do you spend as much time planning the questions you will ask as you do planning the lesson?
 Are you the only person asking questions?
 Do your questions usually give so much information that it is impossible to get the answer wrong?
Etc.

ASSESSMENT
Crucial to OBE. Learners are assessed on how well they demonstrated their competence in achieving the specific
outcomes. Learners should be informed of the criteria and it should be written out simply and clearly.
Learners must be assessed in continuous ways by themselves, in a variety of ways, required to show their
understanding, told exactly how they will be assessed, encouraged to take responsibility etc.
Types of assessment:
 Observation
 Self-assessment
 Peer assessment
 Portfolio – written assignments, interviews/orals, projects, practical assignments
Ensure that you explain the meaning of certain fixed expressions, such as, “good morning”, “Listen to me”, “turn
to page…”.

LESSON PLANNING
You will need to select activities that integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Before you can start
designing successful and realistic lessons, you need to have a sound knowledge of the following areas:
 A full understanding of the demands of your profession as an additional language teacher
 A knowledge of the education department and immediate school environment you intend teaching in
 Knowledge about your learners so that you can select activities suitable to their frame of reference and
interests
 Every activity you organize should have a purpose
Two overriding principles of successful lesson planning are: variety and flexibility
A lesson plan should generally have:
 Grade
 Learning area
 Theme
 Program organizer
  Learning outcomes
 Introduction (prior knowledge and problem statement)
 Presenting the learning content
 Teaching aids
 Conclusion
 Application
 Assessment
Introduction – the first five minutes can make or break a lesson. Link prior learning to the current lesson. Check the
understanding of children through their homework from the previous day.
Middle – present the contents systematically and in a logical sequence. Determine what you are going to do and
what the learners are going to do. Your approach should be learner-centred and not teacher-centred. Monitor the
progress of pupils during the lesson at all time and make adjustments according to their progress. Keep learners
actively busy.
Concluding – for summary/revision. Learners should have an opportunity to apply what they have learned.
Evaluate whether the learners have achieved the lesson objectives. It also helps the teacher to evaluate his/her
teaching methods and make changes if necessary. From this phase the teacher can work out if any revision of the
new content is necessary.
Review – after presenting a lesson, review it. Ask yourself a variety of questions: how do I feel about the class?
What contributed towards the success/failure of the lesson? Have I achieved my main objectives? What was the
class atmosphere like? Did learners learn anything?