~Stop Dawdling,sweeties!~

In this blog, I am not totally focusing on ENGLISH, but also sharing some useful information using language medium which is ENGLISH.  Let's move to more general and interesting topics. Now, I am going to talk about DAWDLING CHILDREN. What is dawdling?

Dawdling can be defined as taking more time than necessary. Children always have this kind of problem as they are not conscious of time and easily distracted.

"hurry up!"

"faster!"

"let's go!"

These are some examples of words that parents always used to make their child stop dawdling. If the parents not yell these kind of words, children might continuously dawdling and taking more and more time to get ready. Unfortunately, this situation can make parents become depressed and easily get angry because of their children are taking longer time to get ready or doing anything. There are some reasons on why the dawdling happens.

1. They can be easily distracted by surrounding such as television, games, toys and storybooks. 

2. They love procrastination as they think that time is not important.

3. They don’t have much responsibility or things to think compared to adult. What they know is enjoying everything around them.  That is why children always do everything slowly. 

So, how we cope with this kind of problem? Here, i suggest some ways that can be helpful for parents as well as teacher if they are facing dawdled students especially from primary school. 

                           1. Limited and specific instructions

Make sure that children follow your instruction and never repeat the instructions again and again. Train the children to hear your instructions to avoid them neglect you on first time the instruction was given. Instead of say "hurry up!", parents or teacher are encouraged to be more specific like "please  wear your clothes now and come here in 5minutes". In classroom settings, teacher can instruct them by say "finish your works before the class end, if not, you are not allowed to go home!” By giving a specific instruction, the dawdled children will focus on their work and finish earlier.

2. Avoid distractions

  Make sure that the children focus only on your instructions not to other      things like toys, games or television. Turn off the television and keep away all the toys and games. You may hold their hands and look at their eyes to show that you are serious.  It is also important to make them pay attention 100% on you.

3. Motivation

Motivation is very useful to drive someone to do something or achieve their goals. In dawdling issue, external or extrinsic motivation is helpful to push the children do the tasks in a short time instead of taking longer time for simple tasks. Parents can offer children’s favorite foods like pizza, burger or Kentucky Fried Chicken. In example, “you can eat this pizza once you finish your homework”. For teachers, you may say “I will give you stars if you finish all the exercises”. As the result, children are motivated to do their works and not procrastinated.

~Extrinsic Vs Intrinsic Motivation. Which one is the BEST?~

  which one is the best?

Intrinsic motivation is also known as internal motivation. Intrinsically motivated activities are ones for which there is no apparent reward except the activity itself. People seem to engage in the activities for their own sake and not because they lead to an extrinsic reward...Intrinsically motivated behaviors are aimed at bringing about certain internally rewarding consequences, namely feeling of competence and self satisfaction, (Deci,1975)

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Abraham Maslow (1970) claimed that intrinsic motivation is superior than extrinsic motivation. According to his hierarchy of needs, one is motivated to achieve his or her self-actualization where one realizes his fullest potential once he or she fulfills the basic needs, safety and communal needs as well as needs of esteem. So, one will strive to achieve his goal because of his own sake no matter what extrinsic rewards are present. Meanwhile, Jerome Bruner (1962) is praising the autonomy of "self-reward" which is the best way to help adults and children to free from the control of rewards and punishments. 

Extrinsic motivation is also known as external motivation. Human beings are driven to act or behave by the anticipation of some rewards. Examples of external rewards are praises, grades and positive feedback as well as fear of punishments. As the result, it helps students to see the reasons on why they do something and its relevance on long term goals especially in learning English. However, extrinsic motivation also bring negative impacts to students which are (1) turns them to become dependent on short-term rewards, (2) train them into a bad habit of looking for teacher only when the rewards are present.

SO, WHICH ONE IS THE BEST???

In my opinion, both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are useful in teaching especially in the context of second language learning. This is because students need more support,encouragement  and drive to initiate their interest in learning English. So, the teachers can use both motivations in classroom learning.Maybe teacher can give positive feedback (extrinsic) and at the same time, teach strategies to make learning enjoyable so that they are looking forward to learn for their own sake (intrinsic). So,here there are some suggestions :

(1) Teacher provides verbal praises and encouragement for short-term rewards.

(2)Encourage students to reward each other with compliments.

(3) Teacher displays enthusiasm and excitement in class

(4) Tell them the long-term rewards in learning English as second language.

(5) Give opportunity to students to "learn" language for their own sake.

(6) Encourage healthy competition among students to achieve self satisfaction.

You may watch this video and have better understanding on Extrinsic and Intrinsic motivations :)

~Teaching Literature~

Literature is an enjoyable subject but it also can be boring for some people. So, as a future teacher, i should know how to make the learning session becomes more interesting and enjoyable especially for teaching poetry. Poetry needs more understanding and thinking. We should not only see it on the surface but also the implied meaning behind every single words in that poem itself. Thus, i suggest some useful ways to teach poetry effectively and more interesting especially for lower form students of secondary school because they are so playful and can be easily distracted.

The River

  The River’s a wanderer,
A nomad, a tramp,
He doesn’t choose one place
To set up his camp.

The River’s a winder,
Through valley and hill
He twists and he turns,
He just cannot be still.

The River’s a hoarder,
And he buries down deep
Those little treasures
That he wants to keep.

The River’s a baby,
He gurgles and hums,
And sounds like he’s happily
Sucking his thumb.

 The River’s a singer,
As he dances along,
The countryside echoes
The notes of his song.

The river’s a monster
Hungry and vexed,
He’s gobbled up trees
And he’ll swallow you next. 

<I use this poem, The River by Valerie Bloom as an example :) >

First of all, we can play some background musics which are suitable for the particular poems. The music is very useful to set up the moods and feeling of the poem itself. For an example, the poem of The River by Valerie Bloom is all about the changing faces of the river which has been described on each stanza. So, we as teacher can play the music of water flowing to let the students imagine the environment of the river itself and enjoy the sound provided. Then, ask them to recite the poem together with the background music. Let them to recite with their intonation to see their understanding even though it might be wrong intonation.

After that, the teacher can play an audio on the poem recitation by the poet itself  and let the students hear and compare their recitation whether it is right or wrong intonation. There are certain words have been stressed out by the poet to emphasize their importance and meaning in the poem.Then, you can ask them recite the poem again using the right intonation. Besides that, you can show some related pictures to describe more about the poem. For example, you can show the picture of water flowing to represent river as a wanderer which keep moving or flowing.

The River's a wanderer to show that it keeps moving and flowing

 You can show the picture of river where the water is flowing according to its landscape.The River's a winder

The River's a hoarder which collects everything such as rubbish

The River's a baby which symbolizes innocence, safety and calmness

 The River's a singer.

 River is described as an entertainer and melodious

.

~Are you a GREAT English Speaker?~

Everyone wants to be a good English speaker but they are afraid of doing mistakes that will cause embarrassment and confusion.Are you unmotivated to speak in English? Are you shy to share your opinions just because of you are not so good in English? some people might have problems in pointing out their thoughts or opinions with their friends because do not want people to laugh at them. Some people are good at written English but unable to speak it out using the right pronunciation. Sometimes they have to repeat what they have said to be understood by others. Unfortunately, it will cause embarrassment or even misunderstanding. So, they decided to not speak  in English at all.  However, we should remember that practice makes perfect.SO,LET'S LEARN HOW TO SPEAK ENGLISH CONFIDENTLY!

1. Mindset

You have to be OPTIMISTIC and NEVER GIVE UP when people say bad thing about your language. Learn from your mistakes. You should think positively and believe that You Can Do it! Positive mindset will bring constructive change that make you happier and easier to avoid negative thinking. Positive mindset will drive and motivate you to achieve your goal which is improving your English speaking skill. 

2. Practice

Practice plays a vital role in helping you to speak English confidently. You HAVE to converse in English with your friends or even your family members at home. By doing that, you will get used to English and comfortable as well as gain confidence. You need to practice converse in English with your friends so that you are able to share your opinions in class and answer the questions in English easily. So, when your teachers ask questions, take the opportunities to answer. Don't be afraid of doing mistakes, JUST SPEAK! Everyone learns form their mistakes.You need to put aside your shyness and participated actively in group discussions. 

3. Entertainment

Don't you realized that you are learning English while singing or watching English movies? You can listen to your favourite English songs and repeat the lyrics to yourself. By doing that, we are not only listening to music but also understand and practice to pronounce the words in the lyrics.You also can watch how native speakers of English pronounce words correctly in English movies. Lastly, it will build our self confidence and we will have no problem to speak English clearly and confidently in future because we already familiar with English words. In conclusion,learning the correct pronunciation can help learners gain confidence while speaking in public or organizations.

~Encourage Children to Learn English~

Children has more advantages compared to adults  in second language acquisition because after the critical period for language acquisition has passed, which is around puberty, it becomes more difficult to acquire another language fully. In addition, children has nothing much to do and to think, so they can focus in second language acquisition while adults busy working and have insufficient time that slow down the process of acquiring another language. Thus, parents should see this situation seriously and help the children to acquire their second language which is English that has been an international language for ages. So, how to encourage your children into learning English?

1. Reading Materials

Parents should expose their children to English reading materials includes of newspaper, magazines, short stories or even fairy tales that attract their attention as they tend to use their imagination while reading. Parents can read some fairy tales for bed time stories to make the children interested in learning English and start to learn basic English. Indirectly, parents encourages them to read more and have better understanding in English.

2. Entertainment

Entertainment is another useful medium to encourage children to learn English. Music can attract their attention and they will enjoy learning with the help of music and even better for the memorization. Parents can teach some simple English songs to their children like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,Old MacDonald Had A Farm, Baa Baa Black Sheep and London Bridge is Falling Down. There are also alphabet and number songs to help children learn ABC and counting.Thousands of videos can be watched  online and freely from many websites. So, the parents should learn how to use technology in learning so that the children would not feel bored or distracted. There are also many English cartoons like Dora The Explorer and interactive kid show like Barney which help children to learn speak and understand English language.

Here, there are some links on English songs for children that you may use for children learning. 

 Baa Baa Black Sheep

Old MacDonald Had A Farm

Twinkle Twinkle

London Bridge is Falling Down

Let's sing together! :)

3. Spend Time

Children need attention and care from the parents, thus parents should spend more time with them and help them gain knowledge especially in acquiring English as second language before they reach their critical periods. Parents should practice converse in English with their children to make them used to English. In addition, children will learn faster with the conducive environment where everyone speaks in English even it is just a simple English. Parents also can bring along their children to the nearby public library where there are lots of books includes of English short stories or novels that are suitable for all ages. Children will enjoy reading and eager to learn more on English

 In conclusion, ENGLISH IS FUN!

~Learning English as Second Language~

Since Bahasa Malaysia is our first language, learning English as a second language potentially develops some negative feelings within the learners such as the sense of fragility and defensiveness. They might felt silly when they used  the wrong choice of words or even not be able to communicate face to face. However, in today's global world,  learning English becomes necessary as it is a key to access the knowledge where most of the printed or written materials are in English. Thus, there are lots of advantages in learning English as second language in terms of communication, job opportunities and  education.

Communication

There are millions of people speak English all over the world which turns English to become an international language and medium to communicate. Furthermore, learning English is beneficial when we meet up foreign people and we able to communicate, understand what they talking about and make friends with them. Besides that, we will not encounter any problems or feel worried for being misunderstood when study abroad or visit a new place or country. Even though we only have basic in English as some people do not manage to get proper education, but at least we can speak and understand simple things. In addition, communication becomes a vital part of today's global challenges where people talking to each other through phone, sending emails, chatting and  sharing the information using medium of English even they are from different countries. 

Job Opportunities

Master in English will open the door to wide employment opportunities includes of business, teaching profession as well as translator. People who are interested in business should be able to read and speak English fluently as the data are written in English such as memo, contract and emails. English has become global language in business world to make the transaction becomes clearer and easier as it involves lots of communication between customers and suppliers. Thus, the knowledge in English and ability to speak English fluently are very helpful in seeking for the job as the employers are more interested in people who are bilingual. 

Education and Information

As we know, most of the references and text books are written in English. Thus, learning English as second language enable the learners to understand better without translating the text one by one. Furthermore, most of the researches and journals are written in English which require us to have knowledge in English. In addition, internet provides us with large amount of information which most of them are written in English.

here, there is a good example of why learning English as second language is very beneficial :-)