INTERESTAmirah Athirah Mohd Alias

OVERVIEW

What should the teachers do?

How? Why?

Relationship – Affective

Filter Hypothesis (Krashen)

Materials/Activities

Interesting – suitable with

students’ interest - grab their attention

- Relate the lesson with past

experiences- Gain new

experiences, generate new

idea- Fun and can give students enjoyment

When Teaching Songs And Poetry In ESL Classroom, Teacher Should Find…

INTEREST

How?• Aesthetic values of the materials – catchy lyrics,

nice music, positive words etc.• Topics/themes should be suitable and interesting

– grab students’ attention.

Animals, colours, environment, ambitions

Politics, war

• Conduct a lot of activities (using song lyrics and poetry).

• For examples:

Finding synonyms and

antonyms

Find new vocabulary

Word search puzzle

Singing/reading aloud

Answering questions orally

or in written work

Complete the lyrics/poems

Why?• Children can focus on doing something about 10-15

minutes only.

• Interesting materials and a variety of activities conducted in class may help teachers to keep students integrated with the lessons.

• Teachers can grab students’ attention during T&L.

• Motivate them to learn more – find the lesson very interesting and fun.

EXPERIENCES

How?

• Teachers should choose materials that enable the students to gain new experiences/relate the lesson with their past experiences.

• Ask the students about their opinion (new).

• Ask them to share their past experiences with the whole class.– What, when, where, who, why, how?

* Ask students - past experience on their birthday

Happy Birthday to Meby Bruce Lansky

Happy birthday to me.

I like what I see!There’s plenty of junk food,and the presents are free!

* Ask students to predict what had happened to the duck/how was the mother’s feeling?

Five Little Ducks

Five little ducksWent out one day

Over the hill and far awayMother duck said

"Quack, quack, quack, quack."

But only four little ducks came back.

Why?

• It may help the teachers to create a lively and effective lesson whereby the students can:– build imagination, make prediction– relate to their past experiences (schemata)– develop cognitive and thinking skills

• Teachers can activate interaction with students – create an active T&L session.

ENJOYMENT

How and Why?

• It helps the teachers to create an enjoyable lesson.

• Teachers will be able to help in students develop their imagination and creativity.

• Teachers teach them about self appreciation.

Singing songs or reading poetry together.

Ask students to create their own lyrics, poems.

Ask students to perform their works.

Affective Filter Hypothesis (Krashen)

• Krashen (1982) - for optimal learning to occur, the affective filter must be weak.

• A weak affective filter means that a positive attitude towards learning is present.

• Teachers must provide a positive atmosphere that is conducive to language learning.

• Lo and Li (1998) - songs provide a break from classroom routine, and that learning English through songs develops a non-threatening classroom atmosphere in which the four language skills can be enhanced.

Ability of a teacher to grab students’ attention and interest is very important.