Journal of English Language Teachers’ Interaction Forum ... · When Children Interact with...

==========Journal of English Language Teachers’ Interaction Forum. VIII.1. (Jan. - Mar. 2017)=========

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From the Editor’s Desk

When Children Interact with Like-minded Adults

Lev Vygotsky, the Russian psychologist (1896-1934 ) remarked in the context of child languagelearning that language (first, second or foreign)is best learnt when children get opportunities tointeract with like-minded adults and peers, ontopics of their own choice and interest. To be inthe company of better informed persons is apleasure for children; especially if hundreds oftheir inquisitive queries are going to be discussedand answered.About fifty students of Class XI of Govt. VictoriaGirls’ Higher Secondary School Chittoor(Palakkad district, Kerala) assumed the role ofadults and, for twenty days they interacted withthe younger learners of the same school (ClassV to IX). Summer vacation became somethingdifferent for them. Stories, games, rhymes, actionsongs, translation of film songs, watching TV,reading newspapers, conducting morningassembly, interviewing strangers—all wereplanned by adult resource persons, butimplemented by the ‘novice tutors’ (Class XIIstudents). Their proficiency level was aboveaverage. Part of the learners belonged tobackward areas and classes. The twenty dayprogramme was a combined effort of teachersof that school, parents, local MLA, andacademic support (study materials: print andCDs) was provided by ELTIF.The number of learners increased day by day.Quite a few who had their own usual way ofenjoying holidays, those who planned visitingrelatives, those who joined tuition classes, thosedidn’t have any idea of the English camp—mostof them joined the camp, knowing about it fromtheir friends who had been attending the campfrom the beginning. The same was the case withyoung tutors as well.The young tutors were given an orientationprogramme on ‘How not to teach English’. (itwas later revealed by the teachers of that schoolwho too attended the orientation programme,that the ‘don’t’s’ prescribed to the novice tutors

were new information to them as well.) Someof them were as follows: (i) Learning atmospheremust be fear-free and friendly. (ii) Nopunishment of any sort. (iii) Let learners askquestions; not tutors. (iv) No need of a textbookto teach communication skills. (v) No need ofteaching grammar rules. (vi) Maximize activities.(vii) Minimize traditional teaching. (viii) Not justindoor activities, but outdoor, as well. (ix) Letlearners too have a say on what activity to do.(x) No test or exam.The valedictory session echoed muchconfidence in the words of the young tutors andwitnessed more enthusiasm among the learners.(A detailed report by the Coordinator is givenelsewhere in this issue.)What I personally felt after studying andevaluating the twenty-day programme was (i)the novice teachers are not prejudiced againsttheir learners, (ii) they are concerned about theduty assigned to them with adequate supportand guidelines, (iii) they have no external pressureon them since they are not bothered aboutdocumentation of what they do or did since theyare not bound by their students’ marks,percentage of pass, moderation, prestige of theirschool etc. (iv) the novice tutors are open mindedto criticism—at the end of each day’s teaching,there used to be a session in which self and peerevaluation of teacher-performance was done,(v) they are willing to change in any direction,something which is difficult if not impossible forregular teachers, (vi) right or wrong, noviceteachers don’t have unconditional faith in thedivinity of textbooks, (vii) novice teachers arenot slaves to their own teacher beliefs, and aboveall, (viii) they didn’t inflict fear of English in theirstudents.I was just telling myself, learning would beslightly better if the so called ‘experiencedteachers’ were able to function like these novicetutors, at least once week !

P.Bhaskaran Nair (Editor)


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Teachers report that practices related to CCE (its inconsistencies notwithstanding) helps them‘understand’ learners better. This points to arole of assessment different from e-valuationi.e.,the application of a pre-set criterion to judgethe worth (value) of a learner’s performance.A test irrespective of its structure/modality is aresearch tool, a means of obtaining informationthat helps answer a questionof pedagogicrelevance. Data has to be described qualitativelyfirst; even quantitative scores are based onqualitative differences . Qualitative data relatingto learning in school is a potentially valuableresource for understanding the nature of learningbetter. Teachers are well positioned to generatesuch data, since children are around them mostof the time.Ongoing observation ofperformances during lessons (as for cce) canstop with description; no judgementapplied toaward marks or grades. The descriptive database teachers can thus create over time wouldbe a valuable resource for research into learning.The analysis of data, and model building basedthereon initial by experts can go on to includeteachers. Inquiry oriented practices of teacherswith some autonomy is a prerequisite forprofessional development.

Caveat These ideas were first put together asthe base for a live presentation to be followedby a small interaction phase. Converting it to astand alone and decontextualized written text hasinvolved some thinning of tonal variation. Butwritten texts have the advantage of potential toreach a wider audience. It is hoped that readerswill imagine there is a conversation or dialoguebeneath the surface of this necessarily one waycommunication.

The school curriculum in India –the perspectiveon learning-teaching and what happens inordinary classrooms – has changed remarkablyin the wake of NCF2005. Classroompracticespromoted by current syllabi andtextbooks followed in all the states provide ahelpful and hopeful setting. It is possible to saywith some confidence that there is wider andmore varied learner participation during lessonsnow, as compared with what was typical at thebeginning of the this century. Child-friendly andattractive materials textbooks following themodel of the NCERT textbooks of 2006 and2007 have supported this change in the natureof classroom of transactions. Many books invitespontaneous engagement with at least some oftheir contents.The emphasis on ‘activities’including open ended ones promotecollaboration among learners. The label CCEhas come to represent the whole new orientationto the curriculum in common discussion. It isquite true that the official CCE packagepromulgated by the CBSE and various statesseen as is a cumbersome machinery. Manyobservers have highlighted conceptual andpractical problems with the scheme. Even so theessential principles of CCE are sound, and itspositive aspects are spreading even if very slowly.Remember that it was seen as a powerful enoughcomponent of quality education to bespecifically endorsed in the RTE 2009.

One noteworthy feature of the present scheme(with an emphasis on cce) is the markedlyreduced the scope for didactic teacher talk.Classroom management oriented teacher talkhas possibly increased. But interestingly thishas

Assessment That Fosters Our Understanding of Learners:One Strand of Professional Growth

Prof. Jacob Tharu(Formerly of the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad)

[email protected] 9391042313


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an element of genuine communication.Instructions relating to activities need to beunderstood—in the here and now— and notmemorized for reproduction later. The enhancedlevel of activityand participation of students callsfor attention to their ongoing performance fromthe teacher. Also, something other thanstandard explanations and single correctanswer is heard in classrooms. This is becausethere is some space now for children’s voices.Ofcourse, much needs to be done to capture andbring to life and promote the spirit of the NCFand of cce. Two ideas are associated with theelusive notion of cce are explored in this essay:the formative mode of assessment and the aimof bringing assessment closer to teaching.

Newer perspectives on evaluation ineducation

Evaluation , assessment, testing are generallyused interchangeably in the context of education.The primary focus is on the progress made bystudents. The key feature of the process is theapplication of a criterion or standard whenscoring or valuing students’ answers. Testsshould have relevant scoring guidelines. Thismakes sense:we all accept that scoring must beconsistent. However, there are significantaspects of such standards/criteria that we takefor granted. One is that they are pre-set andfixed. In a way this makes sense. They representlearning objectives andwhat we test shouldmatch them. But let us look closely at objectives.We seethat a learning objective is an expectedlearning outcome — something based on a hope,and noton any law of psychology. Teacherstransacting the curriculum hope(along with itsdesigners) that their efforts (inputs) will lead tothe expected outcomes. When a test isadministered after a unit has been completedsome students will produce the expectedperformance, others will not. This is of coursequite normal. What we fail to notice is that theformal system simply converts thehopes intoexternal requirements. This leads to thedeclaration that studentsperformances are lessor more satisfactory (bad or good). Some

students get the message :You have failed. Manysincere teachers finding that some haveperformed poorlywould wonder whether thiscould also be because the teaching inputtakenas a whole was inadequate in some ways.However, the system virtually forces them (andexperts and other stakeholders too ) to say thatpoor performance was /is solely the student’sresponsibility or fault. Of course it is fashionablefor luminaries to proclaim that teaching is notthe same as learning, but this is usually done onsafe ceremonial occasions. The entry made inthe marks register (sometimes countersigned byhigher authority) stays with the child forever.Thesystem thus treats learning objectives as fixedcriteria (requirements) applicable to one and all.

A second aspect of objectives is that they aredecided upon (pre-set) in advance. The hiddenand quite problematic assumption here is thatwe can predict the nature of learning . The claimis that since we know (control) the teachinginputs we also know the appropriate learningoutcome . In other words, every student shouldlearn what is taught. This comes from theaxiom: Teaching = learning (for normal children).Thus a range of good to poor learners arecreated .The stress is always on the qualities(often apparent inadequacies) of the individuallearner. The appropriateness and effectivenessof the curriculum is not questioned.The simplisticpremise that the curriculum is ‘good’ issomething that teachers should be worried about,and many are. But they have to comply withmany things specified by the system, its servicerules.The system based on a prescribed syllabuswith pre-set objectives cannot easily bechanged. But better ways of dealing withevaluation can be introduced. One of these isapproach of formative assessment .

Formative assessment .

The term formative assessment is familiar andmuch is already known.A couple of points areworth stressing.Firstly, formative applies to howtest results are interpreted and usednot to theinstruments . Tests (sets of items) used


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formatively are not necessarily different fromother tests, though they should ideally be closelyrelated to the current syllabus segment andhandled in a user friendly manner. The keynotion in the formative perspective isfeedback:information about progress going tothe teacher and to the learner. This informationcomes from the past: the test has already beenadministered. But the true value of thisinformation lies in the potential link to the future.Making entries in the marks register is a trivialbackward looking clerical operation. In apedagogic perspective, the focus would be onclues to what might be desirable as the ‘nextstep’. For the teacher this could be a quickrevisionof some specific topic, or re-teaching itusing a different strategy, modifying what wasplanned for a subsequent lesson, and so on. Forthe student what is useful is endorsementrelatingto how questions were tackled, or alerts aboutapparently having gone astray. Such feedbackcould influence future study patterns. Formativeassessment is rightly seen as a resource forquality enhancement since feedback can suggestways of doing things better—in the future .

Bringing assessment closer to teaching is a morecomplex matter. At the surface it is easy to seeand practice. In fact the continuous dimensionof CCE is based on such a process. The problemwith many mandated CCE packages was theheavy emphasis on recording scores (high orlow) for each student many times in a term. Thisreduced it to a series of mini-unit tests. Studentsvery rightly complained about being tested inevery lesson every day. The recent policydecision to bring back external board levelexaminations and detention at the elementarylevel is regrettable. This does not automaticallylead to scrapping CCE, though there isconsiderable confusion about this matter. Itshould be possible to reclaim a space for thespirit of CCE in which teaching and assessmentcome together meaningfully. This will be a longprocess but certainly worth our commitment asa community. In the section that followscontributions teachers can make to the larger

discourse of learning and learning objectives ineducation are explored . This perspective goesbeyond that of formative assessment as aspecific procedure .

Observing children in class

One salient aspect of the setting of teachers’work is the close contact they have every daywith a large number of children of different agesand from different cultural backgrounds. Theextent of direct face to face interaction may belimited. Even so, being there allows the teacherto observe children in varied contexts over andover again. Most of the non-scholastic qualitiesof students (under ‘comprehensive’ in CCE)cannot be captured through structured tests. Thisis what led to the stress on observation oflearners’ performance as it occurred. Leavingaside what is needed for assessment under cce,how can we take advantage of the opportunitylying in teachers’ ongoing proximity to children?What can we learn from the morecomprehensive picture of children engaging inlearning activities that can be built up throughobservation? A little more information about thenature of observation will help here.

Ways of studying the social world—methodsof social science

Research tools such as the questionnaire ,interview, test, are quite familiar. These are usedto get answers (statements) from the persons(respondents) being studied. Observation isanother widely used method.This has its originsin anthropology. Early anthropologists studiedcommunities that were different and relativelyisolated from so called ‘modern’ societies . Theformer preserved most of their old traditions thathave little in common with urbanized and‘modernized’ societies, as for example in 18th

century Europe. .Anthropologists studying theculture of these communities preferred or ,rather,found it necessary to use observation as themethod of obtaining information (data). Why ?

The need to know the local language is obviouslya major pre-requisite for field research. Even


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with that taken care of, researchers can usequestionnaires or interview schedules, only whenthey already have a fair amount of knowledgeabout the contexts of their respondents. Eachitem or question is related to a topic . This wouldsomething the researcher has some knowledgeabout in her/his own context. Assuming thecultures have common features, the effort is tofind out what ‘they’ (the respondents) know orfeel about this topic, or some aspect of it. Inother words they are building on an assumedbase of shared knowledge and experiences. Thismakes itreasonable to expect that the questionswill make some sense to the respondents. Theanthropologists who went to remote and strangecommunities could not safely make any suchassumptions about the target cultures.Theycould not start with questions such as : Do youprefer cooked or raw food? Do you have femalegoddesses? How do you choose your leader?They had to ‘be there’ quietly (after obtainingpermission or acceptance) — observing andlistening . This was the first step in the effort toget some idea about the local culture.Interestingly, the field of astronomy has somesimilarities. For the study of the heavenly bodies,only observation—from very far off! — waspossible. After hours and hours of observationor stargazing certain patterns were noticed, andthen it was possible to formulate theories orhypotheses.

Observation in the teacher’s setting

What has all this got to do with sincere andhonest teachers trying to do their demanding jobswell in spite of many difficulties? In one sense,nothing; teachers do not make policy or engagein fundamental psychological research. But fromthe perspective of educationists (experts makingtheories)everything.

If we pause to reflect on the process of formaleducation , we will see that children’s learningin instructional contextsis something quiteunknown and mysterious, just like strangecultures and the stars. Even after decades,centuries rather, of formal instruction we know

very little about classroom learning in general,let alone its realization specific settings :leveland subject area. Schooling covers children ofmany ages, from many psychological and culturalbackgrounds, engaging with a range of materialentities and ideas associated with the curriculum.The formal system based on learning objectivesand achievement tests simply declares that ‘this input will normally lead to this learningoutcome’ with regard to each segment of thesyllabus. We have to live with this in order tosurvive, but we need not stop with accepting it.We can and must strive for better understandingof the processes of learning.

Where do teachers come in? One thing teacherscan do is collect data from the classroom tocontribute to better understanding of learning.The models of learning we have now, like allmodelsneed to be reviewed and revised asrelevant empirical data is available. Formaleducationpolicy has no provision for any such‘scientific’ approach. An obsession withmaintaining supposedly high standards from thedistant past (the good old days) ensures thatlearning objectives-demands-requirements arenever analyzed . At best, they are made evenheavier.This is a problem that lies in the realm ofcultural politics not educational theory. There isno simple solution or even any clear strategyfor tackling it. It is in this context that we mightlook to teachers.

Teachers as observers of children in anunobtrusive bystander role can collect rich datapertaining to various aspects of learning .In thisquest, we have a powerful and unfailing ally: thechildrenin our schools, every last one of them.They are rightly called learners because onething they do and always will do is learn. Theworry many parents and often authoritiesobsessed with control have is that they couldlearn wrong things , never that they will notlearn. Thus even without declarations aboutdiversity, it is true that children will learn in diverseways from the textbook and teacher, and lifeoutside school as co-constructors of


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knowledge.Learning cannot of course bestudied directly. The internal process of learningpresumably involves multiple components andstages supported by teaching-learning activities.Some clues (only clues ) to these hiddenprocesses lie in students’ visible and henceobservable performances—what they say, write,ask about, overtly do, express as feelings andemotions.These could be elicited responses orthose occurring spontaneously. Teachersnaturally located amongst children haveprivileged access to these performances. Thereis a whole range of possibilities for them toobserve in a continuous mode. The wonderfulthing about such engagement on the teacher’spart is it does not require approval (permission)from above. It lies safely in theteacher’s sacredspace.

This image of teachers observing children andcoming up almost effortlessly with potentiallysignificant information admittedly seems quitenaïve and romantic. Even so it is important toidentify and celebrate this possibility. It pointsto an area of brightness and initiative standingout against the long standing dreary backgroundnarrative of teachers wearily struggling to copewith endless,mindless tasks hour after hour.Wherever it is possible we need to assert thatteachers are not just existing, but are alive andproactive. And go on to find ways of promotingtheir autonomy and sense of self efficacy.

It is important to note that any meaningful socialstudy requires planning, attention and sustainedeffort. Not long ago, eager and self-consciouslyopen minded (anti-numbers oriented )researchers occasionally needed to be remindedthat a collection of teachers stories, audio orvideo recordings of language learners(users) inauthentic settings did not in themselves compriseresearch findings . Such data sets need to beframed by general aims, questions, selectedstrategies for analysis and frames forinterpretation. By the same token, observationsby teachers (in focus here) need to be planned.A useful move is to beginwith what the individual

teacher sees as feasible, and gradually extendingthe scope of the exercise. One scholastic or co-scholastic area andwithin it a narrower theme,at a specific grade level is an illustrative startingpoint. (It should be clear that no detailed plan isbeing worked out here: only a listing of someoptions.)

Teachers as researchers

Efforts to involve teachers in educationalresearch has a fairly long (not whollyunblemished) history. Experience shows thatteachers can easily be relegated to the role offield assistants in expert guided research, even‘situated’ action research. The well meantposition ‘experts take is that they/we shouldsupport teachers to study problems relevant tothem. This is important, but there is often alurking strand focused on ‘solving’ a practicalproblem usually an impediment to higherachievement levels. Officials higher up in thesystem are looking for good practices that canbe upscaled. Local concerns and the authenticityof the emerging practice can get submerged.

The suggestion here relating to observation byteachers does not come from a clear researchquestion. This is not any form of apology. Thereis a conscious attempt to invoke a newperspective on the value of a rich descriptivedata base. Its relevance is argued first.

We have reached a point in our history of publiceducation (framed also by therecent Right toEducation Act) where we desperately need newideas to tackle the challenges before us.We havebeen confronted consistently over several yearswith massive shortfalls in achievement levels,added to which are stubbornly high dropoutrates. All this in spite of the enormous resourcesincluding human effort (much if it sincere, it mustbe acknowledged) —going into schooleducation further supported through SSA,RMSA. A major round of syllabus revision wascompleted a few years ago.Technology aidedinnovations in instruction — both materials andtechniques—have been promoted . The chanting


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of the promise of salvation through ICTcontinues, even as unused TV monitors andeven desktop systems are being displaced bysmart phones and tablets. But the facts on theground relating to learning levels remain grim. Itis increasingly difficult to explain (explain away) low learning levels to any significant level usinglearner factors (motivation, ability(merit),parental support —all low, of course). Thecurriculum is good but student are not ‘suitable’argument is not tenable. (It is indeed deplorablethat the main argument in support of bringingback external examinations and detention is thatthe absence of the ‘fear of failure’ amongstudents can be rectified.) The ‘new’ ideasneeded will have to come from efforts closer tofundamental research, not tinkering.

This is where a data base of teachers’observations (seen and noted) holds greatpromise .It would include descriptions ofperformances associated with children’slearningin its myriad forms that occurs in school settings.Subsets from this huge and mutli-layered database can be analyzed to locate trends andrelationships –pointers to diverse patterns oflearning. Ideas and insights emerging here couldstimulate the formulation of many different smallmodels of ‘learning from instruction in school’to study further. The initiative at this later stagehere would need to come from experts— tryingto do their job sincerely and honestly. Specificsmall studies can then be worked out that couldgo back teachers .One necessary condition forthis process to move forward is a willingness onthe part of experts to recognize teachers as co–constructors of research knowledge on learning,and work with them.

A message of hopeThe main argument in this essay is that plannedobservations during lessons by teachers bothenhances their knowledge (in its best sense) ofchildren and is a potential contribution toresearch that feeds into curriculum renewal. Itseems reasonable to claim that this fostersprofessional growth. A less proper claim is thatexperts (especially in ELT) would benefit,possible more from involvement in this process.

For teachers, the suggestion here endorses thefreedom to act in small ways on the teacherssense of plausibility —an elegant phrase thatN S Prabhu gave us. Moments where choices/decisions have to be madedo come up often inthe classroom. It is not a matter of choice if it isall pre-ordained. The small measure of freedomhere is important for teachers. Inputs fromoutside aimed at promoting professionaldevelopment (especially the continuing variety)need some existing professional practice tobuild on.

For experts stagnating in the practice of peddlingknowledge produced elsewhere and finished(packaged nicely which also means made static),a new mode of interaction with teachers isoffered.A highly desirable initial condition(mindset) is a willingness to listen. This does notcome easily.However, generations of studentshave been fidgeting and listening to teachers, andteachers have been listening (more docilely) toexperts at seminars and in-service short courses.The time for listening practice to be carried tothe next hierarchical level has come, perhaps.

Collaborative learning involving various types ofpartners is one bright hope for our future.


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Evaluating Running, Walking, Hopping and JoggingGeetha Durairajan

Professor, Department of Materials Development, Testing and Evaluation, EFL University Hyderabad

[email protected]

About a fortnight ago, I was asked to talk aboutthe basics of evaluation to a group of post-graduate students. I spoke about evaluation andhow it is a part of our everyday lives; about theroles of evaluation within and outside educationand then went on to talk about the differencesbetween testing and evaluation; how we needan instrument to test, but can evaluate using arule of thumb measure etc. As a part of thediscussion on testing, we were looking atdifferences between subjective and objectivetype items. Categorizing the various item typesunder these two headings was very easy, butthe group was not very clear about what madean item type subjective or objective.

As is my wont, I created an example and wroteit up on the board. (I believe that an examplespeaks a thousand words!) The example was avocabulary item where the student had to findthe odd man out. The two items were:

1. a. run b. walk c swim d. jog

2. a. run b. jog c. walk d. hop

I had about 40 odd students in class and askedfor a show of hands to find out who had chosenwhich answer. (As I always do, I kept a pokerface and did not give out the answer, to makestudents decide and to let everyone participate).

About half the class remained silent and passiveand did not raise their hands. I counted hands,repeated, asked for answers and got no reply!

Since it was a one-off lecture, I decided not topress for answers and was just going to continue,when the penny dropped!

I got a research associate who was alsoattending the lecture to actually run, hop and jogand show the difference… and then, in a shot,all hands went up.

I felt mortified for I had taken something forgranted which I should not have done!

I had assumed that at the post-graduate level,such simple mono syllabic words would be easyto access; in fact it never occurred to me thatwords like ‘jog’ and ‘hop’ would not beunderstood!

Although I had been told that a large number ofstudents in this class were from regional mediumbackgrounds and also from rural areas, I hadnot paused to think of ‘easy’ and ‘not easy toaccess’ words...

When everyday life includes running to catch abus or train, and where one walks a fewkilometers to reach the nearest bus stop, thenotion of jogging does not exist! It does onlyalong with Nike, Reebok and Puma… and themetros and well-to-do people who have theluxury of going for a jog every morning (and thattoo by taking out the car and parking itsomewhere first…)

Two simple vocabulary items and I learnt thatone has to hop into a learner’s mind and jog inhis shoes, to problematise learner–centrednessand understand what it truly means.


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How to Integrate Language Skills through Andragogy?Dr J. John Sekar

Head, Research Department of EnglishThe American College, Madurai

[email protected]

AbstractEnglish language classrooms in India should facilitate learners to become skilled in English languagecommunication. English is the international communication tool among non-native English users around theworld, and with native speakers. It is seen as the language of development at personal and societal levels.Skills, therefore, acquired in EL classrooms should enable learners to use them in their majors and thereafterat workplaces in life. English is also viewed as the language of promotion. The need of the hour is notacquisition of knowledge about English, but of skills of English language communication for academic study,careers, and promotion. The National Skill Development Corporation of India aims at promoting skillsdevelopment. One of the basic soft skills is English language skills. Indian economy is one of the fastestgrowing economies in the world with the projected GDP growth rate of 7%. India’s demographic dividend isexpected to increase to 1.14 billion in 2026 and 83% of the increase is expected to be in the age group of 15-59. If this dividend is harnessed by 2025, India will have 25% of the world’s total workforce and India’s percapita income will be around $4000 and it is currently less than $1000. It is expected to go up to $9802 in 2040and $20,836 by 2050. The United Nations Development Programme advocates for change and connectscountries to knowledge, experience, and resources to help people build better life. It is in the hands ofthousands of English language teachers in India to help learners of English realize their life goals by enhancingtheir communication power in English. This qualitative research paper argues for integrating four languageskills through a shift from pedagogy to heutagogy to turn students into productive and industry-readyprospective employees and entrepreneurs.Keywords: Integration of Language Skills, andragogy, heutagogy, discreet skill, segregated approach, content-based instruction

IntroductionELT in India has been practised throughexploitation of literature as medium of acquisitionof language competency from the secondarylevel onwards. A paradigm shift in Englishlanguage curriculum was felt in 1980s when CLTmade inroads into teaching first at the tertiarylevel and then at secondary level. Four macro-skills replaced literary content to a significantextent in the language curriculum though literary

pieces continued and continue to dominate theGeneral English language curriculum in a majorityof universities and their affiliated colleges.However, a very few autonomous colleges werebold enough to introduce skills-based Englishlanguage courses skills. Unfortunately, one of themajor drawbacks of skills-based curriculum isthe treatment of these fours skills in isolation asif they were totally unrelated. CLT researchcompartmentalized language into four discrete


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skills for the sake of convenience, but such adivision has pedagogical disadvantages withunequal or disproportionate importance beingto given to one and neglecting the other.Moreover, teachers and learners have mistakenthe teaching-learning of a specific skill for theacquisition of language as a whole. They fail torealize that language does not function in termsof skills in isolation. CLT treats all skills workingtogether in an integrated manner and it does notmean the teaching of skills in isolation for theirown sake. The shift appears to be a transitionfrom bad to worse. CLT stresses the mantra‘language is communication’ and not ‘languagefor communication’ as it is often (mis)understood.Again, it does treat language both as mediumand communication. Above all, teachers cannotbe present all through students’ life forscaffolding their learning of English. Hence, thereis a dire need for inculcating learning skills tolearn independent of teachers.

Research QuestionsThe questions that are addressed in the reflectivestudy are1. What is the difference between pedagogy,

andragogy, and heutagogy?2. What are the major components of LSRW?3. Why should skills be integrated in the

curriculum?4. How can integration be achieved?

Review of LiteratureLanguage skills integration refers to two or moreinter-related skills. It combinesproduction (speaking and written) and reception(reading and listening). Rebacca (2001)compares skill integrated teaching to a tapestry.Along with teacher, learner, and setting, four skillsbecomes the most important strand in weaving.Skills are also integrated with knowledge ofvocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, syntax,meaning, and usage. Desta Kebede andGetachew Seyoum (2012) compare skillsintegration with building blocks and claim that itis essential component of language teaching.Moreover, integrating language skills helps

language learners develop their ability in usingtwo or more of the four skills in contexts andreal life situations. According to Hinkel (2006),communication becomes meaningful if it happensin integrated language skills and not through anisolated one. In other words, communicationdoes not run well if people use only one languageskill at a time. Language skills should thereforealso be integrated in the language teachingprocess and in real life. Abraham (2012) assertsthat the good command graduates possess inintegrating these skills could have a significantand long-lasting effect in enhancing theiracademic success. The implementation of skillsintegration in a learner-centred, realistic modeis therefore vital as it enables learners to developtheir communication skills.

DiscussionThe terms “pedagogy,” “andragogy,” and“heutagogy” may look like high sounding wordsdue to their foreign etymology, but they simplymean dependent learning, self-directed learning,and self-determined learning. Since ‘peda’means child, pedagogy concerns children beingtaught and their learning in schools. ‘Andra’means adults and therefore helping adultslearning while ‘heuta’ means lifelong andtherefore learning lifelong. Children depend onteachers for their learning while adults areindependent of teachers but direct their learningand if learning is to take place lifelong, therelearners should be determined to learn.Pedagogy and andragogy enjoy academic andinstitutional value when English is taught andlearnt. However, whatever English languageskills they learn should be complemented andsupplemented by adult learners outside of theclassroom. It can be the virtual learning, or onlinelearning, or learning at libraries, or at the languagelaboratory, or at home with books and e-sources. They direct their learning with thepossible inputs from teachers in classes.Pedagogy treats learners as dependent childrenwhile androgogy recognizes learners as adults.The following table illustrates the importantfeatures of pedagogy and andragogy:


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Pedagogy Andragogy

For children For adults

Dependent upon teachers for learning Self-directed

Teachers assume full responsibility for howof and what of teaching Learners are responsbile

Teachers evaluate learning Self-evaluation by learners

Learners face tasks with little experience Learners bring greater volume & quantityof experience

Teachers’ experience is more influential Learner experience becomes the sourceof identity

Learners are told what they have to learn Learners’ ability assesses gaps betweenwhere one is and where one needs to be

Learning is a process of acquiring Learners want to perform a task, solve aprescribed matter problem, and live in a satisfying way

Content units are sequenced according to Content is relevant to real-lifesubject matter tasks and is organized around life/work

situation

Learners are motivated by external pressure, Learners are influenced by internalcompetition for marks/grades motivators such as self-esteem, recognition, better quality

life, self-confidence, and self-actualization

Learning English communication skills is alifelong process since it is infinite and it cannotbe learnt only in classes and outside classesduring the academic period in learners’ life.Learners must learn skills to learn lifelong. Theyshould be self-determined. Technology hascome to their help in the twenty first centurywhere knowledge and skills learnt at collegebecome outdated within the following five years.Graduates cannot go back to colleges for furtherlearning from their workplace. They should haveacquired the culture of learning themselveslifelong. Bill Ford (1997) explains the objectiveof heutagogy as “knowledge sharing and notknowledge hoarding.” When they are students,they acquire both competency and capability.Cairns (2000) as quoted in Gardner (1007: 252)makes a distinction between competency andcapability: “Competency is a proven ability in

acquiring knowledge and skills while capabilityis characterized by learner confidence in theircompetency and as a result the ability, to takeappropriate and effective action to formulate andsolve problems in both familiar and unfamiliarand changing settings.” Hence, lifelong learningis viewed as a progression from earliermethodologies like capability development. It isrequired to appropriate learners’ needs atworkplace in the present century.

The European Commission (2000) defineslifelong learning as “all purposeful learningactivity, undertaken on an ongoing basis with theaim of improving knowledge, skills andcompetence.” Hence students in colleges shouldbe prepared to develop five dispositions:curiosity, initiative, independence, transfer, andreflection. These qualities are further explained:


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Disposition Rubric

Curiosity Explores a topic in depth, yielding a rich awareness and/or little-knowninformation indicating intense interest in the subject

Initiative Completes required work, generates and pursues opportunities to expandknowledge, skills, and abilities

Independence Educational interest and pursuits exist and flourish outside classroomrequirements. Knowledge and/or experiences are pursued independently

Transfer Makes explicit references to previous learning and applies in an innovative(new & creative) way that knowledge and those skills to demonstratecomprehension and performance in novel situations

Reflection Reviews prior learning (past experiences inside and outside of theclassroom) in depth to reveal significantly changed perspectives abouteducational and life experiences, which provide foundation for expandedknowledge, growth, and maturity over time

Lifelong learning is largely a consequence of thechanges in society that have been brought aboutby information technology. Knowledge is beingproduced at an increasingly rapid rate to theextent that knowledge and skills acquired atcolleges become outdated sooner thanknowledge produced. Moreover, lifelonglearning enriches human life since learning andeducation are not necessarily just linked to workbut life.

Language SkillsLanguage was disintegrated into listening,speaking, reading, and writing in that order onthe sound rationale that children start theacquisition that way in all cultures. The ordermoves from the social to the academic and fromthe informal to the formal. Here are some of thethoughts associated with skills:

Listening1. Human beings use their ears to receive

individual sounds and use their brain to convertthem into messages that mean something tothem in a speech community.

2. Listening requires focus and attention, andpeople who have difficulty in concentration arepoor listeners.

3. Listeners therefore need to listen to a varietyof voices as often as possible.

4. By listening they learn how to speak. Listeningnot only helps them understand what otherssay, but also help them speak clearly(pronunciation, word & sentence stresses, andintonations).

5. Good listening skills bring benefits to theirpersonal lives: a greater number of friends,social network, improved self-esteem andconfidence, better grades and the like.

Speaking1.Learners need at least one listener.2.There are three kinds of speaking situation:

interactive, partially interactive, and non-interactive.

3.Interactive speaking situations include face-to-face conversation and telephone calls inwhich they have a chance to ask forclarification, repetition, and slower speechfrom their conversation partner.


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4. Partially interactive speaking situationsinvolve giving a speech to the audience withno interruption during the speech.Nevertheless, the speaker can see theaudiences and judge from the expressionson their faces if they are being understood.

5. Non-interactive speaking situations meanrecorded speech for broadcasting and finally,

6. Speaking is a skill that most language learnerswish to perfect as soon as possible becausespeaking fluently can build up theirconfidence level while speaking to others.

Reading1. Reading can develop independent of listening

and speaking but it develops along with themin societies with a highly developed literarytradition. It can help build vocabulary thathelps listening.

2. Learners use their eyes to receive writtensymbols and brain to convert them intomessages that mean something to them in aspeech community.

3. It is an important way to gain information inEnglish language learning and therefore it is ahighly valued skill.

4. It is a complex cognitive process of meaning-making: complex interaction between the textand the reader; shaped by the reader’sprevious knowledge, experiences, attitudes,beliefs, and language community whichsocially and culturally situated.

5. It is a process that requires continuouspractice, development, refinement, creativity,and critical analysis.

Writing1. Writing is the process of using symbols to

communicate thoughts and ideas in a readableform.

2. It is hardest skill since it involves thedevelopment and presentation of thoughts.

3. Knowledge of grammar, punctuation, choiceof vocabulary and sentence fluency areinvolved and the result of writing is called‘text.’

4. Motivation for writing includes research andscholarship, publication, correspondence,

examinations, networking, keeping history,dissemination of knowledge and the formationof legal system, translation.

5. Purpose may be a personal enjoyment or use:taking notes for study and exam (personal),blogging publicly (unknown audience), aletter to friend (targeted audience).

Background to Segregated ApproachEnglish was taught in India through what ispopularly patronized by teachers as GrammarTranslation method. Due to the influence ofStructural and Behaviourist approachesprevalent during the firs half of the twentiethcentury, it was taken for granted that languageteaching could be naturally divided into LSRWskills and such a division was reinforced byapproaches and methods includingCommunicative Language Teaching. Fifty yearsafter the adoption of CLT in India, the desiredresults are far from ordinary learners of English.However, the current pedagogy is to integratethem wherever possible. The shift was seen inCLT that advocated acquisition of“communicative competence” (Dell Hymes,1972). Canale and Swain (1980) developed atheory that language competence includedcommunicative competence, grammaticalcompetence, and sociolinguistic competence.Current research verifies that the centralinnovative characteristic of CLT is theintegration.

Disadvantages of Segregated ApproachSkills-based approach was understood be awelcome alternative to literature-based languageteaching. Several terms are employed to referto the teaching of language on the basis of skills.Some of them are discrete skill, isolated skill,single skill, and segregated skill. However,disintegration of language into four skills also hadits own pedagogical problems. One, itemphasizes one skill at a time in the languageclassroom and therefore it leads tocommunication deadlock. Two, classroomhighlights a given skill intentionally orientedtoward the development of only that skill. It


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therefore sounds artificial. Three, each skill istreated separately as if other skills are no wayrelated to the one that is focussed in the class.Four, all the four skills are not separated in reality.For instance, listening precedes speaking andreading precedes writing. Five and finally,motivation, interest, and class motivationplummet when language is presented or taughtin a fragmented way. Learners do not see theconnection between skills because they do notuse any one of these skills in isolation. Moreover,they do not know where and how vocabularyand grammar play a role in such a discreteapproach. It results in the compounding ofconfusion.

Rationale for IntegrationIt is rare in real life to use language in terms ofisolable and discrete structural elements.Widdowson (1978) is the first linguist to call forintegration to raise learners’ proficiency levelsand to enable advanced language learning. Heargued that although separation is“administratively convenient as in divide andrule,” language comprehension and productiondo not take place in discrete units. On the otherhand, it takes place in the form of discourse inspecific social contexts. Moreover, English islearnt and taught for purposeful communication.Purposeful communication can not be served ifEnglish is viewed as a single at a time ignoringother three skills. On the other hand, it permitsmore focused teaching and more intensivelearning. The pragmatic objectives of Englishlanguage learning underscore the importance ofintegrated and flexible instruction. The objectiveis to enable learners to gain access to social,vocational, educational, or professionalopportunities. Integration leads to the use ofauthentic language and learners are exposed toauthentic language and are involved in activitiesthat are interesting and meaningful. Learnersrapidly gain a true picture of the richness andcomplexity of English when they use it forcommunication. English thus becomes not justas an object of academic interest but a realmeans of interaction among learners. Besides,

teachers get an opportunity to track students’progress in multiple skills at the same time. Skillsintegration allows mutually supportive growth inall the four macro and micro skills becauselanguage instruction promotes the learning of realcontent rather than the dissection of languageforms. Consequently, the learning of authenticcontent through language is highly motivating tostudents of all age groups. Finally, the significantrole of background knowledge becomes evidentwhen language skills are integratedcommunicatively.

Modes of Skills IntegrationTeachers and researchers need to choose theappropriate models of modes for integrating skillsin a way that is beneficial to learners. The mostfamiliar mode to teachers of English in India islanguage through literature module which wasexperimented in 1980s, but teachers’ attitudewas that of teaching literature for aestheticpurposes and not using it as a mode forenhancing learners’ communicative competence.Thus there was almost nil difference betweenEnglish Major Classes and General EnglishClasses as far as their approach to literature wasconcerned. The universities’ question papermodel bears a witness to this piquant reality.Some of the models that teachers can try withoutcompromising on the communication objectivesof General English curriculum are1. Content-based (sometimes also called

theme-based)2. Task-based3. Text-based (also called genre-based)4. Discourse-based5. Project-based6. Network-based7. Technology-based8. Corpus-based9. Interaction-based10. Literature-based11. Literacy-based12. Community-based13. Competency-based or14. Standards-based


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This paper investigates why the first two modescan be used for skills integration: content-based(CBI) and Task-based (TBI). CBI is otherwiseknown as Content Integrated LanguageInstruction.Content-based Instruction (CBI) is the mostimportant mode of skills integration. Learnerspractise in a highly integrated way all the languageskills while participating in activities and tasksthat focus on important content in areas such asscience, math, and social study. The goals ofCBIi. help students develop communicative

competenceii. introduce concepts and terminology relevant

to a subject areaiii. reinforce content-area information learnt

elsewhereiv. teach specific learning strategies for reading

and writing or general study via the means ofinteresting content

There are three models of content basedinstruction.1. Theme-based: Skills are fully integrated in the

study of a theme and it works effectivelybecause themes are chosen for theirrelevance, importance, and interests to thestudents, a key factor for their motivation.

2. Adjunct: Language and content courses arelinked through instructor and curriculumcoordination. Two separate courses areconducted but they are carefully linked.

3. Sheltered: Learners are taught the subjectmatter and the language course work ismodified to students’ level of proficiency.

Task-based Instruction (TBI) can simply beunderstood as learning-by-doing method. Itreflects the natural process of languageacquisition by children in all cultures. Parents andelders at home ask children to do several actionslike ‘open the door and see who knocked thedoor?’ or ‘call the mom who is in kitchen,’ or‘open the window, child,’ and the like. Childrenlisten and carry out the instruction and in thisprocess they internalize language structures anduse them for communication unconsciously. TBIcan therefore be characterised as follows:

1. It involves communicative tasks in the targetlanguage.

2. Activities require comprehending, producing,manipulating, or interacting in authenticlanguage.

3. Attention is oriented to meaning rather thanform.

4. Pair work and group work are often used.5. Tasks become increasingly complex and

multifaceted at higher levels of skilldevelopment when students are more ableto handle such transactions.

Task-based teaching is the closest classroomsimulation of real-life integration. Such integratedclassroom activities called ‘tasks’ includelistening to/watching tapes/TV/You tube, playinggames, working on information gaps, andproblem-solving exercises. Group work or pairwork demand the use of language (LSRW),share and discuss information, and poolinformation. Language practice exercises forgroups and pairs of learners combinei. listening and speakingii. reading and speakingiii. reading, writing and speaking

Nunan (1989) outlines the principles ofdesigning teaching materials and modules forintegrating a variety of language skills:

i. Use of authentic language modelsii. Continuity of language work from

comprehension to productioniii. Explicit connections of classroom language

practice to real world uses (presentation &interviews)

iv. A systematic language focus that enableslearners to identify and analyze languageregularities

According to Nunan (2001), in integratedinstruction, language skills are taught andpractised on the basis of learning objectives.Teaching learning objectives are

i. language features needed for communicationand used in the context of communication

ii. thematic and cohesive stretches of discoursefor language input, rather than a focus on


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discrete vocabulary items, patterns, orgrammar points

iii. Discourse-based approaches to instructionafford an opportunity to learners to focus onorganizing and presenting information inparticular contexts. For example, learning toorganize and explain one’s ideas in writingcan prove to be highly useful in structuringoral presentations

Challenges in Skills IntegrationSkills integration is not without its own challenges.In the Indian context, most teachers of Englishare not familiar with skills teaching since theuniversity English language curriculum continuesto be literature-based and –biased. In institutionswhere skills-based instruction has beenintroduced under autonomy, teachers pine forgoing back to teach literature in languageclassrooms since they believe that students needto be exposed to human values rather thancommunication that is anyhow not assuredthrough skills-based instruction. Richards andRogers (2001) say that teachers and learnersresist integration in certain cultures. Teachersthink that complex integrated instruction withmore than two skills places greater demands onthem. Teachers therefore need to be versatileand well-trained. They need to be familiar withdiscourse-based instructional models and theymust pay more time and effort to prepareintegrated teaching materials. Large classroomis the main problem where individual attentionof acquisition of language competence could notbe assured nor monitored. Moreover, unevenacquisition of skills by learners creates a seriousproblem. For instance, a particular skill may getmore or less attention than learners’ proficiencymight require. Some contend that integratedapproach might overlook the quality of thelearning product since it focuses on the learningprocess. Above all, integrated tests and testinghave become a failure since language proficiencyis not a unitary trait.

SuggestionsThe following can be given some serious thoughtas part of follow-up action:

i. Research guides can encourage their wardsworking in colleges to undertake research onmodes of skills integration, teachers’ attitudeto integration, and problems related to testingas well in the Indian context.

ii. National level workshops to English teacherscan be conducted on materials productionand teaching strategies using different modesof skills integration.

iii. Skills integration can be included as acomponent in MA English curriculum andB.Ed English curriculum for trainingprospective college and school teachers.

iv. English teachers of autonomous colleges in aparticular region can network amongthemselves through consortium in an effortto promote awareness for professionaldevelopment in the area of skills integration.

v. Professional Associations like ELTIF andELTAI can hold conferences and workshopsto their members on the theme.

vi. English teachers can undertake actionresearch on the different aspects of skillsintegration: teaching, learning, testing, andmaterials production.

vii.MPhil scholars can be encouraged to addressthe issue as part of their dissertation.

ConclusionsWith current emphasis on both fluency andaccuracy in English language learning, integratedlanguage teaching-learning and integrativeteaching models need to be encouraged forresearch in the first instance and experiment inteacher training institutes before it isimplemented in institutions. English languageinstruction lacks depth and substance when it istried through literature. Four macro-skills arerelated and connected in two ways: the directionof communication (in or out) & the method ofcommunication (spoken or written). Skillsintegration is a necessity and not a luxury forlearning English as a foreign or a second languagein India. Teachers and learners must beencouraged to move from pedagogy toheutagogy through andagogy in acquisition ofEnglish language competency and capability forcommunication purposes throughout their life.Learners should become independent ofteachers with the help of technology.

(Continued on page:38)


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Task-based Approach in Second Language Teaching:Role-play in the Classroom

Yogesh L. PatelController of Examination,

Shree Somnath Sanskrit University, Gujarat, [email protected]

AbstractLanguage teaching is not just about teaching languages, it is also about helping students todevelop themselves as people. Task-based language teaching (TBLT) proposes the use oftasks as a central component in the language classroom because they provide better contextsfor activating learner learning processes and promoting second language learning. Task-Based language teaching has attracted the attention of second language learning which wascoined and later developed by second language researchers and educators in reaction toother teacher-dominated, form-oriented methods. Role play is a technique in which studentsare presented with a real or artificial environment and they are exposed with some kind ofcase or situation and they need to exhibit the same in form of roles. A brief outline of task-based teaching and a brief historical sketch of role-play are given in this paper.This paper focuses on the need of task-based language teaching in classrooms and role playas a instructive method which serves as a multi-skill developing weapon where the studentsnot only develop a broader perspective about a task or new role but also the horizon ofunderstanding others behavior resulting into empathy, teamwork, better communication andinterpersonal skills.

Keywords: Task-based Language Teaching, Role-play.

IntroductionEnglish becomes the most essential language inthe world. Almost all the people from manydifferent countries around the world use it tocommunicate. The area of English has alwaysbecome a special interest. Among the recentinnovations in the field of second languageteaching, task-based language teaching isprobably the most promising and productiveone, the one which has drawn much attentionfrom both second language teaching professionand second language researchers.Task is “...an activity which involves the useof language but in which the focus is on theoutcome of the activity rather than on thelanguage used to achieve that outcome.”Role-play is an effective technique to animatethe teaching and learning atmosphere, arousethe interests of learners, and make the languagelearning impressive. Role play is very important

in teaching English because it gives students anopportunity to practice communicating indifferent social contexts and in different socialroles. In addition, it also allows students to becreative and to put themselves in anotherperson’s place for a while.

Why use a Task-based approach?

Tasks can be easily related to students real-life language needs.

Tasks create contexts that facilitate secondlanguage acquisition (i.e. an L2 is bestlearned through communicating).

Tasks create opportunities for focusing onform.

Students are more likely to develop intrinsicmotivation in a task-based approach.


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A task-based approach enables teachers tosee if students are developing the ability tocommunicate in an L2.

Definition of Role-Play:Role-play refers to activities where studentssimulate a scenario by assuming specific roles.In the classroom, students can work through asituation and practice behavior for the real world.Alternatively, the role-playing activities may beused to shed light on any complicated topic. Tobe effective, students must take on the roles thatthey are assigned and assume the vantage pointof a specific character. Some students may playthemselves while others are given roles thatrequire them to behave in a way that they wouldnot normally conduct themselves.

History of role-playThe idea of Role play as a medium for instructioncan be traced back to the Greeks. Probably thefirst role-play session was run when a masterteaching a pupil, said to him: “Act as if I am acustomer and you are serving me”. The pupilplayed his role. The master played his role as awould-be-customer. When they discussed theirroles afterwards, play was used as method ofinstruction (Corsini, Shaw & Blake, 1961). TheViennese psychiatrist Moreno was the first toexamine role-play in a scientific way. Moreno(1946) created the psychometric measure, atechnique that studies interpersonal attractionand group membership in institutional settings(e.g., reform schools). He used role-play forpsychiatric objectives. These plays are knownunder the names of psycho-drama and socio-drama. In psycho-drama, the enactment and itsemotional and behavioral confrontations are thecentral activity; discussion and analysis areminimal (Joyce & Weil, 1980). The educationaluse of role-play became more and morewidespread. During the 1970s and 1980s theuse of role-play increased even further and role-play is now common-place in universitycurricula, business, and industrial trainingprograms.

Reasons for using Role-plays in ClassThere are many good reasons for using role-plays in class: Role-plays help students cope with real-life

situations, commonly used expressions,forcing them to think “on their feet”;

Role-plays help students work together as ateam or group, and communicate in order tounderstand each other, because role-playsare not simple acts of reading or reproductionthe information from a piece of paper;

Role-plays can be adapted to the needs ofthe students, they may use specific vocabularyfor specific situations, as learning English issometimes done for a specific purpose;

Role-plays give learners more responsibilityin their learning, encouraging interaction;

Role-plays offer students the chance toevaluate their learning progress and their levelof English.

Role play can improve learners speaking skillsin any situation, and helps learners to interact.As for the shy learners, role play helps byproviding a mask, where learners with difficultyin conversation are liberated. In addition, it isfun and most learners will agree that enjoymentleads to better learning.

How to teach using Role-play? The teacher should prepare the students by

asking questions before performing a roleplay.

The questions should incorporate the majorparts of the role play and the vocabulary/idioms involved. After the question answersession the students should be comfortablewith what they need to do.

Allow the students a few minutes to studythe role cards and work out some keysentences. The teacher can help the studentswhere ever needed.

Each role play should be performed at leasttwice with the students changing roles.

In group situations the stronger students canact out the role play to the whole class.


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The teacher can take one of the roles ifneeded.

Avoid making corrections until the role playis finished.

Role-play CardsRole play cards can be a very useful tool. Role-play cards invite students to assume the role ofa specific person or character and to react to astimulus or prompt as that person.

Values of Role-playsRole playing allows people to make mistakes ina non-threatening environment. They can testseveral solutions to very realistic problems, andthe application is immediate. It also fulfills someof the very basic principles of the teaching-learning process such as learner involvement andintrinsic motivation. A positive climate oftenresults in which one can see himself as otherssee him. The involvement of the role playingparticipants can create both an emotional andintellectual attachment to the subject matter athand. Role playing can often create a sense ofcommunity within the class.

Problems in Role PlayingThe major drawback in role playing is theinsecurity of class members. Some may reactnegatively to participating in a situation whichwill be discussed and possibly criticized by othermembers of the class. And role playing takestime. The class discussion of a five-to-ten-minuterole playing situation may extend to several timesthe length of the situation itself. The relationshipof the people in the group is a crucial factor inthe success of role playing. At times it mayemerge as a negative factor. For example,previous interpersonal difficulties experienced bygroup members may arise in class to corruptthe role playing situation. Also, if the group haspeople of different status, they may be reluctantto become involved for fear of being humiliatedbefore the members of the class who are smarteror more popular. These difficulties with themethod are formidable, but they are notinsurmountable. Nor are they so extensive that

they should prohibit us from experimenting withrole playing. The potential benefits of the methodquickly overbalance the difficulties which seemso apparent in the initial preparation stages.

Principles for Effective Role PlayingAs a teaching technique, role playing is basedon the philosophy that meanings are in people,not in words or symbols. If that philosophy isaccurate, we must first of all share the meanings,then clarify our understandings of each other’smeanings, and finally, if necessary, change ourmeanings. In the language of phenomenologicalpsychology, this has to do with changing the selfconcept. The self concept is best changedthrough direct involvement in a realistic and life-related problem situation rather than throughhearing about such situations from others.Creating a teaching situation which can lead tothe change of self concepts requires a distinctorganizational pattern

The Role of a Teacher (Some of the possibleTeacher roles):Facilitator - students may need new languageto be ‘fed’ in by the teacher. If rehearsal time isappropriate the feeding in of new language shouldtake place at this stage. As students practice therole-play they might find that they are stuck forwords and phrases. In the practice stage theteacher has a chance to ‘feed-in’ the appropriatelanguage. This may need the teacher to act as asort of ‘walking dictionary’, monitoring the classand offering assistance as and when necessary.Spectator - The teacher watches the role-playand offers comments and advice at the end.Participant - It is sometimes appropriate to getinvolved and take part in the role-play yourself.

Error Correction There are many ways to correct mistakes whenusing role-play. It is rarely appropriate for theteacher to jump in and correct every mistake.This could be incredibly de-motivating! Somestudents do like to be corrected straight after arole-play activity, while the language is still freshin their minds. Sentences with errors can be


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written on the board for the group to correcttogether. Self-correction - If you have the equipment torecord the role-plays either on audiocassette oron video, students can be given the opportunityto listen to the dialogue again and reflect on thelanguage used. They may find it easy to spottheir own mistakes. Peer-correction - Fellow students may be ableto correct some mistakes made by their peers.Students could be asked to listen out for bothgreat bits of language they’d like to usethemselves, and some mistakes they hear. Becareful to keep peer-correction a positive andprofitable experience for all involved. Making anote of common mistakes yourself and dealingwith them in future classes ensures that thestudents don’t lose motivation by being correctedon the spot or straight after the role-play.Negotiate with students and ask them how theywould like to be corrected.

Methodology of Task-based LanguageTeaching:a. Pre-task (e.g. opportunity for pre-taskplanning)Below are some of the ways to do Pre-task:1) Allow the students time to plan

2) Provide a model3) Do a similar task4) Pre-teach key linguistic itemsb. Main-task (e.g. pre-emptive and reactivefocus on form).1) Whole class vs. small group work2) Set a time for completing the task3) Vary the number of participants4) Introduce a surprise element5) Presentation by each group at the end of theTask.c. Post-task (e.g. language practiceactivities).1) Students give a report2) Repeat task

Putting it into practice:The example is based on Task-based approachwith a simple and straight-forward structure. Thetask included in this paper involves easy anddeliberate integration of various skills forlanguage learning.

Task-: Role Play: Doctor Vs. PatientLevel: Beginner/ IntermediateTime: 30-40 minutesMaterial: CardsLanguage Functions: Giving & taking advice,narration, discussing, expressing views.

Pre-TaskBrainstorm by asking the following questions on the topic ‘Seeing a Doctor’.a. Why do people visit a doctor? Or why do you visit a doctor?b. What are some common sicknesses that take people to a doctor?c. What do you do when you catch cold?d. Do you always visit a doctor when you have a headache?e. Have you ever been bitten by a dog? What should you do when beaten by a dog?

Task Preparation1. Pair students in groups of two: patients vs. doctors.2. Make one student a patient, the other a doctor.3. Cut out a patient card on A and a doctor’s card on B and hand it over to learners accordingly.4. Allow the participants some time to study the cards.


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Task-RealizationPatients: Based on their cards, the participants write down possible short-dialogues todescribe their situations to the doctors.Doctors: Based on their cards, participants write down and practice possible shortdialogues to advise patients on his/her health problems.

Post-Task1. Learners can use internet or library to read some more information on remedies for the sickness they have.2. Learners’ groups take turn to role play their dialogues.3. The facilitator can collect the written dialogues as a part of over-all assessment.

Patient’s Card: 1Illness Description:Youhave caught cold, fever and headache for twoweeks. You have been taking medicine athome, but your situation hasn’t improved.Your body hurts and you don’t feel like eatingor drinking anything. Every time you eatsomething, you vomit it out.Task: You aregoing to see the doctor today. Plan a dialoguewith the doctor.

Patient’s Card: 2Illness Description:Youhave serious food poisoning and yourstomach hurts badly. You visit the toilet at leastfive times in 30 minutes. You have been takingmedicine at home, but your situation hasn’timproved. You don’t feel like eating or drinkinganything. Every time you eat something, yourush to the toilet.Task: You are going to seethe doctor today. Plan a dialogue with thedoctor telling him/her how you feel.

Patient’s Card: 3Illness Description:You feelvery sick. You have fever and headache. Youfeel tired, your joints hurt badly and you feelvery weak. You don’t feel like eating anything.You have been keeping warm, but still feelbad.Task: You are going to see the doctortoday. Plan a dialogue with the doctor.

Doctor’s Card: 1Illness Description:Yourpatient has been suffering from bad cold,headache and fever for two weeks. Thepatient has taken medicines, but does not feelbetter still. To make things worse, the patientcan’t eat. Every time the patient eats, he/shevomits.Task: Plan a dialogue with the patient,giving him/her at least five remedies.

Doctor’s Card: 2Illness Description:Yourpatient has been suffering from serious foodpoisoning. The patient visits the toiletfrequently. He/She has taken medicine and stilldoes not feel better. To make things worse,the patient can’t eat. Every time the patienteats, he/she visits the toilet.Task: Plan adialogue with the patient, giving him/her at leastfive remedies to the problem.

Doctor’s Card: 3Illness Description:Yourpatient has fever and headache. The patientfeels tired and his/her joints hurt. He/She haslost his/her appetite. Task: Plan a dialoguewith the patient, giving him/her remedies tothe problem.


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Patient’s Card: 4Illness Description:A sorethroat is making you feel terrible. You havehad a sore throat for a day now and it onlygets worse. Now you can’t eat anything orelse your throat hurts badly. Your situation isvery discomforting and you had passed asleepless night.Task: You are going to seethe doctor today. Plan a dialogue with thedoctor detailing your situation.

Patient’s Card: 5Illness Description:The lasttime you went playing football you broke yourleg. The broken leg hurts badly. You can onlywalk when someone supports you. You feeluncomfortable and spend most of the time inbed.Task: You are going to see the doctortoday. Plan a dialogue with the doctor detailingyour situation.

Doctor’s Card: 4Illness Description:Yourpatient has a sore throat and he/she can neithereat nor sleep at night. The patient feels terriblybad. To make it worse, fever and headachehave worsen the situation. Task: It is yourjob to help the patient. Plan a dialogue withthe patient, giving him/her at least five solutionsto the patient.

Doctor’s Card: 5Illness Description:Yourpatient has a broken leg. It hurts badly andthe patient can’t walk. Task: It is your job tohelp the patient. Plan a dialogue with thepatient, giving him/her at least five solutionsto the patient.

Conclusion

To sum up, incorporating role-play into theclassroom adds variety, a change of pace andopportunities for a lot of language productionand also a lot of fun! It can be an integral part ofthe class and not a ‘one-off’ event. It’s fun andmotivating; quieter students get the chance toexpress themselves in a more forthright way; theworld of the classroom is broadened to includethe outside world - thus offering a much widerrange of language opportunities. In addition tothese reasons, students who will at some pointtravel to an English speaking country are given achance to rehearse their English in a safe

environment. Real situations can be created andstudents can benefit from the practice. Mistakescan be made with no drastic consequences.

Role-playing can boost self-esteem, increaseclassroom morale, encourage participation andcreate confidence. Children who engage increative learning learn faster, retain more of whatthey learn, and are more prone to apply theirlearning outside the classroom. The techniquesof role playing afford another approach toinvolving students in their own learning processtoward the clarification of self concepts,evaluation of behavior, and aligning of thatbehavior with reality.

References

1. Richards, Jack C., and Theodore S. Rodgers. 1986. Approaches and methods in language teaching: adescription and analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2. Feng Liu & Yun Ding, “Role-play in English Language Teaching”, Asian Social Science, Vol. 5, No.!0,October 2009.3. Shaw, M.E., Corsini, R.J., Blake, R.R., & Mouton, J.S. (1980). Role playing: A practical manual forgroup facilitators. San Diego, CA: University Associates, Inc.4. http://www.learnenglish.de/Teachers/roleplays.htm5. http://bible.org/seriespage/teaching-through-role-playing


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Enhancing the Vocabulary Knowledge of ESL Learners:Findings on Secondary School Students

Mereena AlexanderDOS in Linguistics, KIKS, University of Mysore, Mysore

[email protected]

AbstractVocabulary knowledge is a dominant means to explicit ones understanding and perception, either verbally ordrafted. Indeed, neither literature nor language survives without vocabulary. It shows words are mightyweapon. Therefore, the study of vocabulary is essential for English as second language learners in India. Onecannot be fully proficient in vocabulary knowledge but can broaden the knowledge. The present study is anattempt in improving English vocabulary knowledge of the ESL students of Mysore, Karnataka; it is alsointended to find the effectiveness of vocabulary knowledge through different techniques useful for secondaryschool students. The procedure worked for this research is by the way of pre-test session and post-testsession. Therefore in pre-test, an effort was made to examine the area of difficulty of the students. Theerror made by the students were observed and examined closely. After the pre-test session, the post-test wasadministered. Then through statistical analysis the data collected is analyzed. The result through statisticalanalysis explains that teaching vocabulary words benefits the school students through various techniques.So presenting the target vocabulary words through makes a remarkable difference in terms of overall performanceof the students.Keywords: ESL Learners, Secondary school students, Vocabulary knowledge.

Vocabulary knowledge is central to anylanguages, its learning and function acts as acritical importance in learning a languageespecially for English as Second Language(ESL) Learners. Zimmerman (2009) statesvocabulary learning as a prolonged course ofaction throughout one’s life. It is a very importantmeans to express ones understanding andperception, either verbally or drafted. Indeed,neither literature nor language survives withoutvocabulary. Therefore, the study of vocabularyis essential for English as second languagelearners in India. Vocabulary efficiency is vitalfor reading comprehension, one cannotunderstand text without what most of the wordsmean. Efficiency over a required knowledge ofvocabulary can make a second language learneras effective speaker, good listener, reader andwriter. Therefore, the vocabulary knowledge ofsecondary school students should be enhancedby giving them proper method to develop theirvocabulary skills. Hence an effective approachfor an ESL learner must be administered. Byevidence through various vocabulary learning

techniques, students could enrich theirvocabulary knowledge. However, the successof any methodology, material and strategy isdetermined by the results these all produce whileachieving the stated aims and objectives. As thegeneral aim of any ESL learners is to developtheir vocabulary efficiency, the present paperinvestigates the results produced by the variousvocabulary techniques so as increase theirvocabulary efficiency level. Currently, the research on the significance ofvocabulary knowledge has been improved(Herman, 2003; Jones, 1995; Laufer, 1986;Read, 1988; Zareva, 2005). The research onthe renaissance of vocabulary learning and isexpecting that the outcome of this developmentwill bring advanced awareness into the frame ofvocabulary and the vocabulary aspect will bringa widened perceptive in language applicationstates Bachman (2000). In the matter of factmany researchers are giving their thought tovocabulary learning states Zahar, Cobb andSpada (2001) and Meara (1980) the vocabularylearning is no longer an ignored field.


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The view of ESL learners in learningvocabulary knowledge acts as one of thesubstantial element and at the same time crucialcondition for learning a language (Laufer, 1986).Nonetheless, the area of language research wasignored to a great extent by many greatresearchers (Harlech-Jones, 1983; Laufer,1986; Read, 1988). Vocabulary development among genders isone of the most significant factors used in ESLresearch to distinguish among male and femalelearners. The results of these studies indicatecontradictory findings, because some focus thesuperiority of males over females, others insistson girls being better language learners than boysand still some others exhibit that gender isinessential in second language learning.Regarding, the field of vocabulary learning, therole of gender has also taken up a prominentplace. Studies that address gender diffe-rencesin the several aspects related to lexical acquisitionare vast. Results are uncertain within this areaas well, with changeability depen-ding on theaspect examined. A number of studies haveexamined perceptive and effective vocabularyknowledge of learners, and have reacheddifferent inferences. Nyi-kos’ (1990, cited inSunderland, 2000, p. 206) study womenperformed better than men in recollection testof German vocabulary. Meara and Fitzpatrick(2000) and Jiménez and Moreno (2004) alsopointed out that female learners performedbetter than males in productive vocabulary. Byin contrast, Boyle (1987) determined that,exceptionally, boys are superior to girls in thecomprehension of heard vocabulary.Furthermore, exceptional variations were foundin consideration of females in the mean numberof words produced in reaction to the lexicalavailability test (Jiménez & Ojeda, 2009). A setof recent studies compiled in Jimenez (2010)also point to mixed results on gender differencesor tendencies. Gender is acknowledged as acomplicated and delicate issue. Likewise,regarding the role of gender in vocabularylear-ning method, Jiménez (2003) observed thatgirls were superior to boys in quantitative andqualitative terms.

From a qualitative perspective, Jiménez (1992)claimed differen-ces in favour of females inproductive vocabulary in written exercises.Jiménez (1997) states that woman outperformsmen in the election of word topics related topublic matters. In a quantitative study of the samedata, these authors (2007, 2008) also found outthat female learners developed considerably newevidences than their male gender, andconsiderably more types in their written forms.However, there were very slight differences inthe most common words used by girls and boysto which these belong. Also, the type of wordknowledge examined, the learning context, orthe assignment used for data gathe-ring seem toplay a significant role in the establishment ofgender dispositions. Moreover, the vast numbersof studies address second language vocabularylearning in secondary school contexts. In thispaper we present a study which analyses thevocabulary efficiency of secondary schoolstudents of ESL learners. Our main aims arefirstly to investigate the between whole ofvocabulary techniques and gender of ESLlearners, secondly to investigate between eachvocabulary techniques on male and femalegender.

Research QuestionBased on the objectives that were going to beachieved in the current study, the followingquestions were posed1. Is there any significant difference between

male and female students in vocabularyefficiency of secondary school students?

2. Is there any significant difference in variousvocabulary tests between male and femalesecondary school students’ vocabularyproficiency?

Research HypothesesWith regard to the research questions

posted above, the following hypotheses wereformulated to be tested through the current study1. There is significant difference between male

and female students in vocabulary efficiencyof secondary school students.


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2. There is not any significant difference in thetest between male and female secondaryschool students’ vocabulary proficiency.

MethodThis study used a qualitative study which usedclassroom action research design. Qualitativeapproach was applied since the study was tryingto capture the process that happened from theactors involved in the study (Bogdan & Biklen,1992; Hammersley &Atkinson, 1983; Lincoln& Guba, 1985; Spradley, 1979, cited in Hatch,2002:7). The process captured were how far isthe efficiency level by administering varioustechniques helped to improve the student’svocabulary efficiency level. Classroom actionresearch was employed as the researcher triedto emphasize on action applied for improvingsome problems found especially in retrieving thewords that had been learnt or stored in thememory. The study on each gender groups wascompared through the administration of thevocabulary techniques.

Participants of the studyBased on the random sampling from 9th grade,student of 14 years of age a total of 40 availablestudents participated from Government Englishmedium school from Mysore, Karnataka whoseconsent were obtained to participate in thisstudy.In order to implement the treatment of the studyand test the hypotheses of the study, the followingmaterials were used:

Materials and Data ProcedureAfter receiving the authorities’ cooperation atthe school, the researcher started the researchwhich lasted about three weeks to accomplish.A vocabulary test was developed by theresearcher to test the initial vocabularyproficiency of the male and female studentparticipants of the study prior main test. Theinitial test included a list of 50 various vocabularyword tests with a question and multiple choicesin which students ought to choose one answerfrom the given multiple choice. This test was aresearcher made test designed based from shortstories of Panchatantra tales and from the text

books of the students to test vocabularyefficiency of the secondary school students.

Main TestAfter the initial test, the secondary

schools students took the main test. The test wassimilar version of initial test whose words hadbeen revised to prevent testing effect. The testcontained various vocabulary techniques likesemantic feature analysis taken from the storiesof Panchatantra tales consisted of five tables fortest, Dolch word search puzzles consisted of fiveword search puzzles, Homophone pairsconsisted of fifteen words, vocabulary wordsconsisted of twenty words, cross out the oddones that doesn’t belong with the others in thegroup consisted of fifteen words were given tothe male and female students. Data’s werecollected in single session in regular class time.A student has 60 minutes to complete thevocabulary efficiency test. At the beginning ofthe test, clear instructions were given both orallyand in sample written form to make themunderstand what they were being asked to do.No dictionaries, no grammar books notes or anyother help was permitted as support.

ResultsThe data obtained from the main test ofsecondary school students were analyzed byStatistical Packages for the Social Sciences(SPSS). The results were used to answer theresearch questions.

Research Question 1: Is there any significantdifference between male and female students invocabulary efficiency of secondary schoolstudents?

Table 1 Chi-Square values between Genderand Vocabulary Proficiency words

Pearson Chi-Square 9.158(a) 7 .242

Likelihood Ratio 11.383 7 .123

Linear-by-Linear .091 1 .762Association

N of Valid Cases 40

Value df Asymp.Sig.(2-sided)


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a 12 cells (75.0%) have expected count lessthan 5. The minimum expected count is .50.The Chi-Square value (X2 = 9.158) of both maleand female students of secondary schoolstudents, sig.value p= .242 (which is greaterthan .05).Consequently, the first hypothesis is wrong whichstates there is significant difference betweenvarious Vocabulary techniques (semantic featureanalysis , Dolch word search puzzles,Homophone pairs, vocabulary words, cross outthe odd ones that doesn’t belong with the othersin the group) and the gender group (male andfemale) among the 9th grade students isconfirmed.Research Question 2: Is there any significantdifference in various vocabulary tests betweenthe gender group’s male and female secondaryschool students’ vocabulary proficiency?1. Semantic Feature Analysis through CharacterAnalysis

Table 2 Chi-Square Values between Genderand Semantic Feature Analysis Values




N of Valid Cases 40


a 18 cells (100.0%) have expected count lessthan 5. The minimum expected count is .50.

The results of the Chi-Square test illustrated inTable 2 and the bar diagram shows that thereare statistically no significant difference betweenthe gender groups and the semantic featureanalysis values.

2. Dolch Word Search Puzzle

Table 3 Chi-Square Values between Genderand Dolch Word Search Puzzles




N of Valid Cases 40



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a 12 cells (75.0%) have expected count lessthan 5. The minimum expected count is .50.

The results of the Chi-Square test illustrated inTable 3 and the bar diagram shows that thereare statistically no significant difference betweenthe gender groups and the Dolch word searchpuzzle values.

3. Homophone Pairs

Table 4 Chi-Square Values between Genderand Homophone Pairs



Linear-by-LinearAssociation 2.870 1 .090

N of Valid Cases 40


a 16 cells (100.0%) have expected count lessthan 5. The minimum expected count is 1.00.

The results of the Chi-Square test illustrated inTable 4 and the bar diagram shows that thereare statistically no significant difference betweenthe gender groups and the semantic featureanalysis values. The Chi-Square value (X2 =5.843) and the sig.value p=.558 (which is

greater than .05). The findings do not provideevidence that gender matters in the performanceof vocabulary knowledge in Homophone Pairs.

4. Vocabulary Words

Table 5 Chi-Square Values between Genderand Vocabulary Words



Linear-by-Linear Association 7.478 1 .006

N of Valid Cases 40


a 10 cells (83.3%) have expected count lessthan 5. The minimum expected count is 1.00.

The results of the Chi-Square test illustrated inTable 5 and the bar diagram shows that thereare statistically no significant difference betweenthe gender groups and the semantic featureanalysis values. The Chi-Square value (X2 =8.133) and the sig.value p=.149 (which is greaterthan .05). The findings do not provide evidencethat gender matters in the performance ofvocabulary knowledge in vocabulary wordvalues.

5. Strike out the odd ones out


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Table 6 Chi-Square Values between Genderand Strike out the odd ones out



Linear-by-LinearAssociation 9.275 1 .002

N of Valid Cases 40


a 16 cells (100.0%) have expected count lessthan 5. The minimum expected count is .50.The results of the Chi-Square test illustrated inTable 6 and bar diagram shows that there arestatistically no significant difference between thegender groups and strike out the odd ones. TheChi-Square value (X2 =15.571) and sig.valuep=.029 (which is greater than .05). The findingsdo not provide evidence that gender matters inthe performance of strike out the odd ones.Consequently, the second hypothesis is rightwhich states there is no significant differencebetween various Vocabulary techniques and thegender group (male and female) among the 9th

grade students is confirmed.Discussion & Conclusion This surveystudy among the students of government schoolin Mysore, Karnataka, helps to check theefficiency level of various vocabulary words of

ESL student. The research finding testifies to thehypothesis that through various vocabularytechniques had helped the researcher to find outthe vocabulary proficiency of the students.As Wright (2004, p.3) states “stories areparticularly important in the lives of students:stories help students to broaden their vocabularylearning which additionally helps the students tobecome good readers.” So, the results of thisstudy finalizes that the use of various vocabularywords techniques integrated into syllabus canhighly improve the interest and creativity of veryyoung learners and these kinds of activities canbe used not just for young learners but for veryyoung learners, as well. Comparing the students’ performance ofvocabulary tests between the genders led theresearchers of the current study to conclude thatthere was no significant difference between maleand female ESL learners’ vocabulary learning.Female students revealed slighter higher scoreand their interest to learn vocabulary than malestudents. Thus, we testify there is differencesexist between male and female in terms of theirvocabulary level after training.On the whole, students appreciated theimportance of vocabulary, that words are majorbuilding blocks for any language. This findingwas similar to other research work such asEmadin & Moghadam (2007), Tabtimsai (2003)indicating that vocabulary learning techniques canhelp improve students’ learning outcome.

ReferencesBachman, L. F. (2000). Modern language testing atthe turn of the century: Assuring that what we countcounts. Language Testing, 17 (1), 1-42.Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (1992).Qualitativeresearch for education: An introduction to theoryand methods (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn andBacon.Boyle JP. 1987. Sex differences in listeningvocabulary. Language Learning, 37(2), 273-284.Cobb, T. (1999). Breadth and depth of lexicalacquisition with hands-on concordancing.Computer Assisted Language Learning, 12 (4), 345-360.


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Emadin, Ahmad & Moghadam, Masoud Yazdani.(2007). The effect of teaching word formationknowledge on sentence restatement and inferencing.Goulden, R., Nation, P., and Read, J. (1990). How largecan a receptive vocabulary be? Applied Linguistics,11, 341-363.Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (1983).Ethnography:Principles in practice. London: Tavistock.Harlech Jones, B. (1983). ESL proficiency and a wordfrequency count. ELT Journal, 37(1). 62-70.Hermann, F. (2003). Differential effects of reading andmemorization of paired associates on vocabularyacquisition in adult learners of English as a secondlanguage. TESL-EJ: Teaching English as a secondor foreign language, 7 (1), 1-16.Hatch, A.J. (2002). Doing Qualitative Research inEducation Setting. New York: State of UniversityNew York Press.Jiménez, R. M. (1992). Errores en la producción escritadel inglés y po-sibles factores condicionantes.Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid.Jiménez, R. M. (1997). Análisis de los interesessociales y personales de alumnos navarros desecundaria. In R. M. Jiménez Catalán (Ed.), Lostemas transversales en la clase de inglés. Pamplona:Go-bierno de Navarra. Departamento de Educación yCultura.Jiménez, R. M. (2003). Sex differences in L2vocabulary learning strate-gies. InternationalJournal of Applied Linguistics, 13, 1, 54-77.Jiménez, R. M., & Moreno, S. (2004). L2 wordassociations and the va-riable sex: An outlineaccording to an electronic tool. In A. R. Celada, D.Pastor, & P. J. García (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27thInternational AEDEAN Conference. Salamanca:Editorial Ambos Mundos (CD Rom format).Jiménez, R. M., & Ojeda, J. (2009). Girls’ and boys’lexical a-Availability in EFL. International Journalof Applied Linguistics, 158, 57-76.Jiménez, R. M. (ed.) (2010). Gender perspectives onvocabulary in fo-reign and second language.Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.Jones, F. R. (1995). Learning an alien lexicon: A teachyourself case study. Second Language Research, 11(2), 95-111.Laufer, B. (1986). Possible changes in attitudetowards vocabulary acquisition research. IRAL,XXIV (1), 69-75.

Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry.Beverly Hills, CA: SageMeara, P. (1980). Vocabulary acquisition: A neglectedarea of language learning. Language Teaching andLinguistics: Abstracts, 13, 221-246.Meara, P., & Fitzpatrick, T. (2000). Lexical: Animproved method of as-sessing productivevocabulary in an L2. System, 28, 19-30.Meunier, L. (1995-1996). Human factors in a computerassisted foreign language environment: The effectsif gender, personality, and key-board control.CALICO 13, 2-3, 47-72.Nation, P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in anotherlanguage. Cambridge, England: CambridgeUniversity Press.Nyikos, M. (1990). Sex-related differences in adultlanguage learning: Socialization and memoryfactors. Modern Language Journal, 74, 273-287.Read, J. (1988). Measuring the vocabulary knowledgeof second language learners. RELC Journal, 19 (2).12-25.Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview.New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Tabtimsai, Khemika. (2003). The development ofvocabulary learning strategies exercises formathayomsuksathree students ofThamakavittthayakom School, Thamaka,Kanchanaburi. Master’s Degree Thesis, SilapakornUniversity.Wright, A. (2004). Storytelling with children. (Eighthimpression). Oxford: University Press.Yang, Y. (2001). Sex and language proficiency levelin colour-naming performance: an ESL/EFLperspective. International Journal of AppliedLinguistics, 11, 238-256.Zahar, R., Cobb, T. & Spada, N. (2001). Acquiringvocabulary through reading: Effects of frequency andcontextual richness. The Canadian Modern LanguageReview, 57 (4).Zareva, A. (2005). Models of lexical knowledgeassessment of second language learners of Englishat higher levels of language proficiency. System, 33,547-562.Zimmerman, C.B. 2009. Word Knowledge: Avocabulary Teacher’s Handbook. New York, USA,OUP, 154 p.


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Integrating the four skills in the English classroomDr.Raji DhinakarAssociate Professor

Hindustan University Chennai

AbstractOne major drawback of teaching English as a second language (TESL) has been identified as the treatment ofthe four language skills in isolation. This awareness came much late—may be in the post-structuralistera—but has been on the centre stage ever since the dawn of Communicative language teaching (CLT)methodology in the 1970s in the west, and in the following decade onwards in India. Efforts have been thenon to present the second language in its totality. These changes of whether disintegration or integrationaffected only the school classrooms; college and university instruction went on as usual with its traditionalReading-Paraphrasing of literature. Still worse has been the case in professional colleges because of theinherent neglect of language in the technology curricula. It is against this backdrop, this paper proposes acurricular framework for a skill-integrated approach. Communication is not the sum total of language skills;the division is exclusively for analytical purposes for linguists, especially applied linguists, argues this paper.

The whole world is becoming a global marketand businesses becoming diverse and resultriveted professional and technocrats are facingnewer challenges in communication every day,success in this competitive, environment dependsnot just on acquiring knowledge and hard skills,but also developing effective technicalcommunication skills.Listening is an important communicative processand is crucial to effective communication.“ You are not listening to me “ says the teacher“ Sir, I am listening to you “ the student replies“ No, you are not “. The teacher emphaticallysays. The problem is simple. The student is notable to focus 100% on what the teacher isspeaking, and the teacher able to sense it, goodlisteners are good speakers. Listening begins withphysical hearing of the message and taking notesof it.Listening comprehension involves perceiving andinterpreting the sounds, messages, Decoding ofverbal messages requires the ability to perceiveand recognize speech sounds and sound patternsaccurately as well as the ability to recognize theway sounds combine to form syllables andutterances.The listener has to recognize stress andintonation patterns.

Strategies for Effective ListeningComplete comprehension of an oral message ismore challenging than reading &listening in acommunication opportunity and takingadvantage of such opportunities makes a persona dedicated professional.

Activities for Listening Students should be provided in advance witha taste which leads to some kind of clear andvisible or audible response. It is better to givean instruction like :1) Listen and find out where the family are going

for their summer holidays. Mark the placeson your map, giving them a purpose meansthat the students can listen selectively forsignificant information, as we do in real life.

2) Stories: tell a joke or real life anecdote; retella well knownstory, read a story from a book.If the story is well chosen students are likelyto be motivated to pay attention andunderstand to enjoy it.

3) Songs :- Singing a song or playing a recordingof it.

4) Using videos from the internet for texts ofmanageable length for lesson

5) Listening :- obeying instructions ; studentsperform actions or draw something inresponse to instructions. The listening


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passage consists of a number of statementssome of which are true and some false.

6) Detecting mistakes :- The teacher tells a storyor describes something the class knows, butwith a number of deliberate mistakes orinconsistencies.

7) Longer responses : - Answering questionsnote taking, paraphrasing and translatingsummarizing and long gap tilling.

8) Extended responses : - A problem isdescribed orally. Students will suggest asolution.

SpeakingLike listening, speaking is crucial to effectivecommunication. Students need to interact orallywith their teachers and classmates, makeexplanations during tutorials, practical sessions,takes part in seminars and workshops, technicalpresentations, academic interactions, viva vocetest and soon.Half the world is composed of people who havesomething to say and cannot; the other half havenothing to say and keep saying it.

Strategies for SpeakingGroup discussion, presentation dialogues basedon situations can be conducted for speaking.Presentation has to be planned, prepared,organized and rehearsed properly andsystematically delivered. What is important issaid in a presentation but how it is said is moreImportant. The most important element in apresentation the speaker’s performance. Evengood speakers like Kennedy and Churchill wereextremely fearful of speaking in public knowingthe purpose, audience and occasion helps toreduce speech anxiety knowing the introduction,body and conclusion well in advance gives thespeakers the confidence to control his/ herspeech anxiety.

Speech anxietyFinally practice make one perfect, if thepresentation is well rehearsed. There is nothingto fear and there may be. Little or no stagefright at the time of presentation because thespeaker is familiar with the situation.

ActivitiesA simple dialogue is learnt by heart and studentsperform it in pairs and then again in various waysmoods, roles, imaginary situations and contexts.

Describing picturesEach student has to say as many sentences aspossible and 2 minutes to say as many sentencesas they can picture differences. Things incommon and role play can be done in the class.

Solving problems : How to solve disciplineproblems in the college and giving suggestions.Short presentations like ‘ show and tell ‘describe. About me.

ReadingReading makes a man complete — FrancisBacon quick efficient and imaginative readingtechniques are essential in order to achieveperformance depends on the quantity and qualityof reading. Reading is a complex communicativeprocess of receiving and interpreting the writtenword.An engineering student has to read and interprettextbooks, research papers and articles intechnical journals, web materials, directories,technical reports, laboratory instruction sheets,reference material etc.,Different kinds of strategies are used for differentkinds of reading A knowledge of between 95 %and 98 % of the words in necessary for fluentreading and understanding of a text. It is definitelyhelpful to raise students’ awareness of them withexplicit recommendation and class roomdiscussion, eliciting individual students’experience of how they have used particularstrategies for reading.

WritingWriting is fundamentally different from other fourskills, not only because it is visual as contrastedwith oral/aural, but also because of how it isproduced and the way it communicates. Writingcannot normally ‘be picked’ up but has to besystematically taught. In speech, studentsexpress their ideas in a linear fashion, as theyoccur to them. In writing, they have time torewrite and edit.


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Writing tasks

1) Creative writing a story based on a title,a pictures series of pictures or first or lastsentence.

2) Instruction : - Directions how to get somewhere (b) An instruction to prepare tea etc.,

3) Describing a person, place, view, etc.,4) Writing E Mails, letters, reports etc.,

The four skills can be integrated for teachingas well as testing purpose for example ‘Reading comprehension ‘ tests reading apassage and understanding speaking at theanswers orally and writing the answers forthe purpose of examination.

Good task skills produces good learning. Thetasks should activate students primarily in thelanguage items it is meant to teach or practise.Roughly speaking, the more English the studentsactually engage with during the activity, the morethey are likely to learn. If we are practisingparticular grammatical form, then studentsengage with it repeatedly in different contexts .We should try to activate as many students aspossible simultaneously rather than one by oneand to minimize time spent on classroommanagement or organization.On the whole, we learn by doing things right.Continued inaccurate use of language itemstends to result in fossilization of mistakes and

unsuccessful communication impedes progressin fluency.It is therefore important to select, design andadminister tasks in such a way that students arelikely to succeed in doing them most the timeafter all practice makes a man perfect.Ramachandra studied in Hindi medium in theschool and then joined IIT, Roorkee. Now heis with Google, USA. He picked up English byrepeating dialogues loudly from subtitles whenhe watched English films during college.The integration of skills in the language classroomcan be defined quite simply as a series ofactivities or tasks which use any combination offour skills:Listening, speaking, reading and writing in acontinuous and related sequence.a) Listening to a passage and note making. from

the notes, learners can be asked to write ashort note.At an elementary level: Reading- speaking-listening activityLater it can involve writing- conversation-listening- reading- speaking

b) Information Gap Activityc) Cloze dialogues – ( Reading& Writing)d) Information is transferred from one mode to

the other – linguistic to tabular or tabular tolinguistic.

ReferencesAslam, M. (2003). Teaching of English. (New Delhi, Foundation Books.Dakowska, M. (2005)Teaching English as a Foreign Language. (Re-print) Chennai, Yes DeePublishing.Mani. P. and S. Deepthi (20100. Rnglish for Teaching. New Delhi, Camridge University Press.Tickoo, M. L. (20040. Teaching and Learning English; A Sourcebook for Teachers and Teacher-Trainers. Hyderabad, Orient Longman.


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Effectiveness of Video Based Programme in Teaching

Grammar to theHigh School StudentsM.ChanravathanaDept of Education

Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science andHigher Education for Women, Coimbatore.

[email protected]. Barani Sree, M.Ed Student

AbstractIn India, English is the second language in primary, secondary and higher level of education. But most of thelanguage learners in at all levels ignore to learn the grammatical side of the foreign language and they wantto get pass in English language examination. So it is the responsibility of researchers in English to examinewhat kind of Teaching should be initiated for the effective learning of English. Here comes the role of videobased programme which could be attempted by the investigator to find out whether video based programmehas any influence in learning Grammar easily because the prevailing paradigm in the regular school systemis computer mediated communication. Hence this study was undertaken with a sample of 100 studentsfromIXstandard from Government and Government Aidedschool in Ramanathapuram by Random Sampling onQuasi Experimental basis. The result showed that the Experimental group taught by video based programmesperformed better than the Control group taught by Traditional method and irrespective of the type of school,the students of Joint family belonging to Experimental group got better post test score.

Introduction Education is regarded as the richest and highesttreasure of man. Through education, a societytransmits its way of life to the succeedinggeneration. Education is thus a social activity.The form of education provided is determinedin large part by the values of the society.An organized system of education must meetthe real situations of a community. Our educationmust train persons who will be able to assumethe responsibility of a leader in the social, political,industrial or any cultural fields. In ancient India,education constituted a real training for living lifeaccording to spiritual and moral values. Therewas a radical change in the aims of educationwith the advent of British rule in India. LordMacaulay wanted an educational system whichmight bring about the cultural conquest of thepeople of India by British people. The roots ofthe need to speak and converse in English canbe traced to colonial times, when the Britishenforced their language on the Indian people.English is used extensively as a second languagein our nation before and afterIndependence.Modern English is sometimes

described as the World’s Lingua Franca. It canbe argued that not much has changed in the past60 years since Indian Independence from Britishcolonialism in the need and use of the EnglishLanguage.The vestige of British influence canalso be seen in the teaching methods used atpresent in the country over the years.

Place of Englishin IndiaIn India, English is the second language inprimary, secondary and higher level of education.As recommended by Dr.RadhakrishnanCommission (1948) and Kothari Educationcommission (1964-66), English has become themedium of instruction in the Higher Education.Even at school levels, English is used as themedium of instruction. But most of the beginnersand language learners in primary and secondarylevel ignore to learn the grammatical side of theforeign language, they just skip it and they wantto get pass in English language examination. Soit is the responsibility of researchers in Englishto examine what kind of Teaching should beinitiated for the effective learning of English. Herecomes the role of video based programme which


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could be attempted by the investigator to findout whether video based programme has anyinfluence in learning Grammar easily because theprevailing paradigm in the regular school systemis computer mediated communication whichprovides education with tools for sustaininglearning communities and associated knowledgemanagement tasks. The Internet and the WorldWide Web also provide access to learning inalmost every subject and in a variety of mediaanywhere at any time of the day and to anunlimited number of people(Oginni) 2015.So itbecomes imperative to use technology whichalso includes video based programme in teaching.Video based programe is the package of audio-visual aids with suitable pictorial representationsthat will improve the interaction and attention ofthe learners in any subject. “Video, a kind ofmultimedia material consists of verbalpresentations displaying simultaneous images,narration and on-screen text” (.Mayer 2002).This innovative method of teaching English willmake the students feel easy in learning a foreignlanguage and enable the learner highly toparticipate in the effective classroom conditions.Suitable illustrations will enhance practicalexperience of the learner. Because of thesereasons, it is said that the video basedprogramme can be used as a tool to enhancethe process of learning in classroom situation.Hence the investigator has selected this topic tofind out the “Effectiveness of Video basedprogrammes in teaching Grammar - Articles andAdjectives to VII standard students “with thefollowing objectives.

Objectives of the study· To prepare a Package of Video BasedProgrammes containing Grammar- Articles and

Adjectives with definition, explanation, rules ofusage, suitable illustrations with animation, textimage to teach to the students of IX Standard.· To identify the achievement level of thestudents of IX standard in learning Grammar byusing Traditional method and Experimentalmethod in their pre-test and post-test.· To analyse the effectiveness of teachingGrammar through Video Based Programmesamong the students of IX Standard in relationto the variables namely type of schools and typeof family.

MethodologyQuasi- Experimental Design was selected forthe present study. The sample consisted of 100students of IX Standard belonging toGovernment and Government Aided school inRamanathapuram out of whom 50 formed theConventional Group and 50 students were inthe Experimental Group on random basis. Thetools selected for the present study were Videobased programme package on “Articles andAdjectives” which includes sound, text,animation, color, graphics and pictures explainingthe meaning, kinds and usage of articles andadjective, reported by the investigator with thehelp of the experts an achievement test toolconsisted of 5 True or false statements, 5objective type questions, 5 short questions anda Paragraph writing. The tools were preparedafter establishing Reliability and validity.

Analysisand DiscussionThe obtained data was analysed usingDifferential analysis and depicted in the followingtables.

Table 1: Anlysis of Achievement Scores ofthe Students Taught Through TraditionalMethod

Method Variable No. of students Mean S.D ‘t’ value

Traditional method Pre- test 50 16.18 4.94 0.0030 NS

Post-test 15.12 4.73

NS – Not Significant


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The ‘t’ test was applied to find out whether thereis any significant difference in the pre-test andpost-test scores obtained by the students, taughtby the traditional method. The result shows thatthe calculated ‘t’ value is 0.0030 which is notsignificant. Hence the null hypothesis, “There isno significant difference in the pre-test and postscores of the students taught through traditional

method is accepted”. The reason for this maybe due to the lack of interest on the part of thestudents due to mere lecture method which maycreate monotony.

Table-2: Anlysis of Achievement Scores ofthe Students Taught Through ExperimentalMethod

Method Variable No. of students Mean ‘t’ value

Experimental method Pre-test 50 16.08 2.183*

Post-test 17.16

* Significant at 5% level.

It is inferred from the above table that the t-value is significant at five percent level whichindicates that there is significant differencebetween the pre-test and post-test scoresobtained by the students, taught by theExperimental method. So the null hypothesis,“there is no significant difference between the

pre-test and post-test scores obtained by thestudents, taught by the Experimental method”is rejected. This may be due to the effect ofthe video based programme in learning EnglishGrammer.

Table-3 Comparison of the AchievementScores of the Two groups in thePost test

S. No No. of students Method Mean Score ‘t’ value

1 50 Traditional method 29.96 12.706**

2 50 Experimental method 34.20

** Highly significant at 5% level

It is understood from the above table that the t-value is highly significant at five percent levelwhich indicates that there is highly significantdifference between the group taught by theTraditional method and the Experimental methodin their posttest scores studying in Governmentschool. So the null hypothesis, “there is nosignificant difference between the Traditional

group and the Experimental group in theirposttest scores” is rejected. This may be due tothe fact that the Experimental group evinced keeninterest in learning English Grammar through thevideo based programme.Table 4: Achievement Score of theExperimental Group in Relation to the Typeof Family in Government School

Type of school Type of family No. of students Mean ‘t’ value

Government school Nuclear family 11 6 4.04265**

Joint family 39 20

** Highly significant at 5% level.


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The above table indicates that ‘t’ value obtainedis higher than the table value at 5 percent levelof significance. This shows that there exists highlysignificant difference between the students ofNuclear family and Joint family in theExperimental group. The high mean score of thestudents of Joint family reveals that they get moreinfluenced by the Video Based Programme thantheir counterpart – the students of Nuclear family.

Hence the null hypothesis “there is no significantdifference between the students of Joint familyand those of Nuclear family in the Experimentalgroup belonging to the Government School” isrejected.

Table-5: Achievement score of theExperimental Group in Relation to the Typeof Family in Government Aided School

Type of school Type of family N Mean S.D ‘t’ value

Government Aided school Nuclear family 23 12 6.78 4.13**

Joint family 27 14 7.93

** Highly significant at5% percent level

It is inferred from the above table that ‘t’ valueobtained is higher than the table value at 5percentlevel of significance. This shows that there ishighly significant difference between the studentsof Nuclear family and Joint family belonging tothe Experimental group in Government AidedSchool. The high mean score indicates that thestudents of Joint family are much influenced bythe Video Based Programme than theircounterpart namely students of Nuclear family.Hence the null hypothesis “there is no significantdifference between the students of Joint familyand those of Nuclear family in the Experimentalgroup belonging to the Government AidedSchool” is rejected.The Analysis and Interpretation of data resultedin the following findings which justifies theeffectiveness of Video based programme inTeaching English Grammar.

FindingsAnalysis of the achievement score of thestudents taught by Traditional method revealedthat there is no significant difference in the pretestand the post test scores of the students of thisgroup.The Experimental group taught by the VideoBased Programme showed significant differencein the pre test and the post test scores. Thereason may be that this group was motivated to

learn Grammar by the Video Based Programmeresulting in their better performance in the posttest.Statistical analysis also revealed that there washighly significant difference in the post test scoreof the group taught by Traditional method andthat of the Experimental method. TheExperimental group got high mean score.It was also inferred from the analysis that inthe Experimental group of the Governmentschool, the students belonging to the Joint Familyperformed better than the Nuclear familyThe same result was obtained in the case ofthe Experimental group of the GovernmentAided School where the students of Joint Familygot higher score than their counterpart in theNuclear family. The reason may be that thestudents of Joint Family might have got motivatedby this Video based programme than theircounterpart in the Nuclear family.

ConclusionTeachers begin to understand that languageacquisition was not a passive process butdepends on the learner’s interest, habits,background and attitude. However it wasdifficult for traditional English Grammar teachingmethods to address these concepts untilmultimedia and video based packages addressspecific learning objectives and oriented towardsthe learner cultural background, efficiently


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addressing most students’ sensory and culturallearning needs. To facilitate the process oflearning in English, efficient video basedprogrammes and multimedia materials should beintegrated into learning materials to give a break-off to conventional classroom conditions andtraditional teaching materials since Technologyprovides us with powerful tools to try outdifferent designs in Education. Today the

ReferencesMayer.R.E. & Moreno.R. (2002).Animation as an Aid to Multimedia Learning.Educational Psychology Review, Vol.14(1), March 2002. Plenum Publishing Corporation 1040-726X/02/0300-0087/0! C 2002Retrieved on December 20,2016NCERT (2000) “National Curriculum Framework for School Education”, New Delhi.Oginni ‘Niyi Israel. Effects Of Mathematics Innovation And Technology On Students Performance InOpen And Distance Learning. Original scientific paper Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti UDK: S37.025 DOI: 10.17810/2015.24Retrieved on December 20, 2016Websites· https://ydraw.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Stop-Motion-Aids-Multimedia-Learning.pdf· http://research.rs/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/7-Israel.pdf

ReferencesBlaschke, L.M. (2012). Heutagogy and lifelong learning: A review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning. International Review in Open and Distance Learning, 13(1), pp.56-71.Nunan, D. (2001). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge: CUP.European Commission. (2000). Commission staff working paper: A memorandum on lifelong learning. Retrieved on 3 September 2003 at www.see.educoop.net/education_in/pdf/lifelong-oth-enl-t02.pdfGardner, A., Hase, S., Gardner, G., Dunn, S.V., & Carryer, J. (2008). From competence to capability: A study of nurse practitioners in clinical practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing 17 2), pp.250-258. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.206.0188.xHake, B.J. (1999). Lifelong learning in late modernity: the challenges to society, organizations, and individuals. Adult Education Quarterly, 49 (1), pp. 79-90.Hinkel, E. (2006). Current perspectives on teaching the four skills.TESOL Quarterly,40 (1),pp.109-131.Kebede, D., & Seyoum, G. (2012). The Implementation of Language Skills Integration in Teachingand Learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL): Jimma College of Teachers’ Education in Focus.NAWA: Journal of Language and Communication, 9 (1).Knowles, M. (1975). Self-directed learning: A guide for learners and teachers. New York:Cambridge Adult Education.Richards, J.C. & Rogers, (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge: CUP.Widdowson, (1978). Teaching language as communication. Oxford: OUP.

prevailing paradigm in the regular school systemis computer mediated communication where theprimary form of interaction is between studentsand instructors, mediated by the computer. Letthe teaching community utilize the benefits oftechnological advancement thereby producegood, knowledgeable, efficient and skilled futurecitizens.

(Continueatiom from page:17)


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Creating Visual Literacy throughPicture-illustrated Story Books

B Nagalakshmi Dr.N Rajasekharan NairResearcher, Dept. of English, Professor, Dept. of English, Hindustan

University, Chennai. Hindustan University, [email protected] [email protected]

AbstractTo an onlooker, a 3 year- old little Johnny with a picture book in his hand means either he is looking at orstaring at the pictures. but actually he is “reading” from the pictures. Most of the times the parents chide thechildren for only glancing through the pictures and not reading from the picture storybooks. Hardly are thoseaware of the cognitive processing and comprehension the pictures create in the children. Researchers incognitive psychology, anthropology, and history have heightened the awareness of the fusion of image andword in knowledge. We live in age that we are awash by multimodal imagery existing both inside and out.With these images knowledge is construed and powerfully permeates into reading and writing. This paperthrows light on the rationale for creating visual literacy, juxtaposition of pictures and texts in picture storybooks, colours used in picture books, brain processing of visuals and texts, harnessing both the hemispheresof the brain, developing comprehension skills using picture storybooks and take away techniques forteachers to design activities to help make picture storybooks in the classroom by the students.

IntroductionLet the children be part of the grand weddingceremony of pictures and texts and becomespellbound at the story unwind by the newlywedcouple. Because a well crafted picture book isan exemplification of a dynamic marriagebetween pictures and words. The way visualshave cast a magic spell on the children is palpablein the revolutionary growth of children’s literaturein the recent years. Children are baited by thecolour, shapes, sheen and stuff of the picturebooks and drawn into the world of literature andreading. Creating visual literacy in the elementarylevel will snowball early literacy skills in theimmediate future and digital literacy andperformance literacy in their later period. Humanbeings’ life is surrounded by images at all times.Even a second of life is unimaginable withoutimages, as right from one’s wake-up to till onegoes to bed, even in dream we are carried awayby a stream of mental images triggered by visualimages. Damario (1999) connected this type ofcontinuous stream of mental imageryaccompanying our waking and sleeping lives

with the development of what he called our coreand autobiographical identities.

A perfect blend and brew of pictures andtexts in Picture storybooksLeonard Marcus (2002) writes, “A picture bookis a dialogue between two worlds: the world ofimages and the world of words.” (cited inOlshansky P.125)Lee Galda and Kathy G. Short have defined, “apicture book is a book in which both illustrationsand printed text are essential to the story, childrenmust be able to ‘read’ pictures and text tounderstand the story in its fullest sense.”Illustrations are not only an extension of the textbut also a necessary component forcomprehension. Olson’s (1992) following words captures theroles of picture and text in picture story booksin a nutshell.“Picture can provide additional information towords for the visual learner, and words canprovide additional information to pictures for theverbal learner. One informs the other. Whenchildren are educated with both the visual and


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the verbal modes of learning (the verbal modeof being presupposed), they can move back andbetween these domain without effort( p.51).Although the two languages picture and wordsare used to make meaning, they function verydifferently. The relationship between picturesand words can be summarized simply as‘pictures, a visual medium can perform the verbalfunction of telling a story and words, a verbalmedium can perform the visual function ofpainting a picture.’ They are complementary toeach other. What is Visual Literacy?The term visual literacy has no traces until 1969,when Debes described the concept as a set ofcompetencies that “a human can develop byseeing and at the same time having andintegrating other sensory experiences”. Hefurther argued that these visual competenciesenable individuals to communicate with others,establishing a clear connection between visualliteracy and language education. (Cited in LottieBaker, 2015)Children of today are immersed in a visual cultureof television, World Wide Web, videos, virtualreality games and other gadgets. With the toomuch exposure and use of these, children areunable to analyse, interpret or think criticallyabout images. They should have the ability tosee, and read the images in the fullest sense sothat they can recognize the significance of whatthey are seeing. So it is high time to create visualliteracy which will enable the childrencommunicate effectively through bothcomprehending and creating images in a varietyof visual images. The hybridisation of image-word demands a reconfiguration of pedagogy.This led the National Council of Teachers ofEnglish (NCTE) to establish a committee onvisual literacy and to incorporate into theirstandards for the English language arts (IRA/NCTE, 1996), jointly created by NCTE andIRA (International Reading Association), asemphasis on visual literacy. The standardssuggested the teachers to challenge the studentsto analyse critically the texts they view and tointegrate their visual knowledge with their

knowledge of other forms of language. Thisresulted in teaching of imagery and its myriadforms into the teaching, reading and writing.(cited in Fleckenstein preface xiv)In order to cater to the multiplicity of intelligenceof our students, Gardner said, ‘education canno longer conduct business as usual’. It must bebusiness as unusual. One step in that direction isacknowledging the play of imagery in formingour representation of the world, our sense ofliving in the world. Such a move provides uswith a framework that we can use to shift ourmethodologies and attend to the differentintelligences our students bring with them intotheir classrooms. Our classrooms becomemarked by opportunities not just for imagisticlearning, but for the integration of imagistic andlinguistic learning”. (ibid, p.42)

Brain processing of visuals and textsRobert Lindstrom (1999) has emphasized theimportance of sight in perception andcommunication. Lindstrom, author of TheBusiness Week Guide to MultimediaPresentations, explains:‘of all our sense receptors, the eyes are the mostpowerful information conduit to the brain. Theysend information to the cerebral cortex throughtwo optic nerves, each consisting of 1 millionnerve fibres. By comparison, each auditory nerveconsists of a mere 30,000 fibres.Nerve cells devoted to visual processing.....account for about 30% of the brain’s cortex,compared to 8% for touch and 3% for hearing.With all the bandwidth the brain, it’s no wonderwe perceive the world and communicate invisual terms. We register a full-colour image, theequivalent of a mega byte of data, in a fractionof a second.’ (cited in Nancy Fry and DouglasFisher p.7 ) Geoffrey and Renate NummelaCaine’s research in neuroscience to educationaltheory and practice challenges the previouslyaccepted notions that the brain naturallyseparates emotion from cognition. They throwlight on the importance of personal engagementand motivation in learning and also offering a


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visual, tactual or kinaesthetic learner theopportunity to engage in reading and writingactivities that have picture-making at their coreso as to enhance the student engagement andmotivation and ultimately results in studentlearning. Based on current brain research, theCaines offer a wealth of guidelines for teacherswhich include establishing classrooms designedaround the principles of orchestrated immersionin thinking, and active processing of theexperience to deepen students’ meaningfulprojects over time, relaxed alertness to supportcreative understanding through reflection.Significance of harnessing both thehemispheres of BrainEarlier researches on brain processing studyreveal that the left hemisphere was thought togovern all sequential, logical, analytical, verbalthinking while the right hemisphere was thoughtto govern more intuitive processing and non-verbal holistic thinking. While there remainssome truth to these distinctions, researchers nowrecognize that the brain functions in a much morecomplex and sophisticated manner, withinvolvement of both hemispheres in mostactivities, (Canine & Canine, 1994 cited in BethOlshansky) While a person performs the verbaltasks of reading or writing, he must create mentalpictures in the process. In the same way an artistis planning out an art using his analytic skills.Recently most of the classroom activities aredominated by logical, analytical, verbal thinking,while the capacity to think in more intuitive,holistic ways remains virtually untapped, exceptduring the occasional special arts classes.Schools have failed to harness the power ofbrain that underlie in non verbal realm andthereby underutilizing the students’ availablebrain power. Though reading and writing areregarded as complex mental processing thatinvolves a certain amount of thinking in terms ofpictures and the art of engaging in theseprocesses is undeniably linear in nature. To read,the eyes move from left to right along definedlined words and sentences. Readers sound outindividual letters or letter blends and then

combine them to read individual words; theypiece together words to read sentences; and theystring together sentences to read paragraphs.Writers are arranging letters, words, sentences,and paragraphs in a sequential, liner fashion, tobe read and understood. When words arearranged in non linear fashion like magnetsscattered on a refrigerator door, readers find itdifficult to read and attempt it to make sense asartistic expression. In both reading and writing,readers move from parts to whole in order tomake meaning. In contrast to this, reading apicture or creating an art is a non linear activity.Readers of a picture get the whole image beforetheir eyes look into various parts to digest andcontribute to meaning making. The artists oftenenvision the whole image before creating an art.The two distinct medium pictures and wordsengage their audience in very different kinds ofthinking. Words work more as sequential parts-to-whole thinking whereas pictures fashion innon sequential, non linear whole-to-partsthinking.Picture storybooks augment comprehensionskills Picture story books help develop thecomprehension skills of the students. GlendaRakes has claimed that by combining visuals andtexts, comprehension skills can be developedto great extend. ‘Using positron emissiontomography (PET scans), medical researchershave been able to demonstrate that differentareas of the brain become active whenindividuals are exposed to verbal and visualinformation. When individuals were asked tolook at and remember verbal information, tworegions in the brain’s verbal domain – the lefthemisphere – become active and whenpresented with visual information, the righthemisphere is lit up.Given this information, the use of visuals, ininstructional materials takes on a larger dimensionthan when simply thought of as decorativesupplements to texts. The use of visuals withtext can provide that dual code that can, in turn,


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increase comprehension’. (cited in Nancy Fryand Douglas Fisher . p.11-12)

Power of colours in Pictures:Children choose books based on pictures andattractive colours. Role of illustrators ispredominant as the choice of pictures and useof colours are made by them. Choice and useof colours in pictures make a great impact.Recent research concerning, the benefits of usingcolour in presentations indicated:· Colour visuals increase willingness toread by up to 80 percent· Using colour can increase motivationand participation by up to 80 percent· Colour enhances learning and improvesretention by more than 75 percent (cited inLyndell Burmark “The Power of Colour”, 2007.P.15)

Activities for the students to make their ownpicture booksTeachers can design activities and tasks to nudgeout the creativity of the students. The studentscan rise to the level of the authors and illustratorswith the assigned tasks of making their ownpicture books. A journey of several miles startswith a single step. The students can be dividedinto small groups. One group of students can beassigned with a task of drawing pictures ofanimals, birds, scenery, objects of daily life, anyother mythological characters, human figures orimaginative figures. Students can be suggestedto draw the simple sketches of figures so thatthey may not pressurise themselves forperfection. The students may be given easy- to-follow instructions for producing their artworkusing paint, colour pencils, crayons and othermaterials usually they have. The artwork for thestudents can be collected and given to the othergroup of students to produce text and storyline.To begin with simple steps, like description ofthe drawings can be done by the students. Thiswill develop and channelize the verbalizing skillsof the students. This practise over a period oftime can be flooded with innovations forimprovisation and innovations. As a narrative

structure involves a beginning, middle and end,a small story can be created with a few picturesand a sequential few lines comprising thesenarrative formulae. With an exotic variety ofcolour papers, charts, glitter pens and any suchstationery that always drive the children crazyafter can be made into good use for planningand designing of picture books such as ragbooks, zigzag books and scroll books. Any welldesigned picture book can provide children withexperiences in exploring the physical elementsof bookmaking such as the dust jacket,endpapers, print type, paper, and arrangementof print and illustrations.With well planned strategies illustrations and textcan be integrated effectively to make picturebooks into a ‘seamless whole’.Conclusion

This paper deals only with the printed versionof the picture books and their digital cousin digitalversion of stories remain unexplored. Modernage children are digital natives and born up inthe world of gadgets and technologies. As digitaltechnologies are mushrooming and accessibleto children, their use and abuse of this deserve astudy. Hence the types, impacts of electronicvisuals are reserved for future research. Acomparative study on print version ofstorybooks and electronic versions such as CDROM storybooks can be done in the future.


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