Prepared by LUK Ching Man, Jasmine
Unit Summary:
Through analysing authentic advertisements from both the teacher’s and the students’ selections, students learn how to create an advertisement of their own design with proper inclusion of basic components of advertisements, and use of language to produce a positive impact on the readers.
Total Number of Lessons (40 mins each):
Ten in five sessions
Background:
This series of lessons features a secondary Year 4 class of about 40 students in a school situated near Central Kowloon.
Like many others, the school adopted Chinese medium of instruction in 1998. Most of the students came from the nearby public housing estates, and their English ability was at intermediate, or lower-intermediate level. According to their teacher, the students were very well-behaved. They were interested in learning English. However, like many students from similar backgrounds, they were only prepared to learn English inside the classroom, and seldom took the initiative to learn it outside. Thus, their exposure to English was limited. A group of students we interviewed expressed problems in understanding some of their teacher’s teaching points during the lessons. However, they welcomed the highly interactive teaching style of the teacher and the ample opportunities for them to participate in every stage of the lesson. They also found the learning tasks quite interesting.
Their teacher, Mr Stead, was a British native English speaker employed on the NET Scheme. He had been working in the school since he joined the service in 1998. Mr Stead had ample experience in teaching young and adult students learning English as a second or foreign language in the UK. As a professional teacher of English, Mr Stead believes that a student-centred discovery method is the most effective way to induce learning in students (pre-interview). He thinks that in addition to fulfilling linguistic objectives such as teaching grammar, changing students’ attitude towards learning English is more important (post-interview). To enable students to become life-long learners of English, teachers should help students realize that learning English can be fun and interesting after all.
Lesson Highlights:
Using authentic materials
No textbooks were used in this unit. Teaching materials included mainly authentic advertisements from newspapers and magazines, and worksheets designed by the teacher. Students also contributed to the teaching materials by bringing into the classroom advertisements of their own choice.
A student-centred discovery approach
Due to the versatility of the vocabulary and language structures used in advertisements, no target language patterns had been singled out in this unit. However, students were guided to discover the key features of language used in advertisements, for example, positive adjectives, repetitions, alliterations, imperatives, etc.An integrated task-based approach
The series of lessons integrates the four skills: reading authentic advertisements, writing texts for advertisements, reporting verbally evaluations of advertisements to peers, and watching TV commercials (not shown in this package due to technical problems).A high degree of learner autonomy
Due to the teacher’s professional belief that a student-centred discovery method is a more effective approach to induce learning than the traditional transmission approach, students were given a lot of autonomy in their learning. For example, they were actively involved in every stage of the lesson, and were constantly encouraged to discover the teaching points through responding to the teacher’s initiation. They also brought in advertisements of their own selection, and were free to move around the classroom to choose advertisements they would like to report on. Students were also encouraged to bring into the classroom dictionaries to handle their diverse need for different vocabulary and expressions in the process of creating an advertisement.Assessment for learning purposes
To make sure that students took the learning tasks seriously, the teacher presented the advertisement creation task as an assessment (Lessons 9 & 10). Through the use of the assessment criteria (see Worksheet 4), the teacher was able to convey key topic-related requirements and expectations to the students, and ensure that they studied the requirements well and applied the knowledge to the learning task. (Note: There was originally a drama activity. Due to technical problems, it is not included in this unit.)
Discussion Questions:
1. What strategies (both discourse and methodological) has the teacher used to explain vocabulary (both concrete and abstract) to the students? Evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies based on the students’ responses.
2. If you were the teacher (a non-Cantonese-speaking NET), how would you explain abstract concepts such as ‘visual impact’? (Lessons 1&2)
3. How would you comment on the rapport between the teacher and the students? Identify evidence from the lesson excerpts to support your comments.
4. Sometimes, the students were not responding well to the teacher’s initiation. Identify two to three such typical instances (e.g. Lessons 5&6) and note how the teacher attempted to solicit appropriate responses. If you were in a similar situation, what would you do to get appropriate student responses?
5. Identify ONE practice in the lessons (could be a task or a teaching method) that you think you would adopt and/or adapt for your teaching (not necessarily about the same topic). Please justify.
6. Imagine you were a student in this class, tell your teacher what you liked, and not so liked about this series of lessons, and explain why. What suggestions would you give your teacher for further improvement?
7. If you are doing a similar unit with your class, will you adopt and/or adapt the teaching approach and activities used by Mr Stead in this unit? Why or why not? And how would you do it?
8. Rate this unit in terms of the features of an effective learning task described on p.41 of the English Language Syllabus for Secondary Schools, 1999. The rating scale ranges from 5 (strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree).
The learning task of this unit motivate learners by: Rating a) appealing to the imagination b) providing challenge c) developing confidence d) providing a sense of achievement e) expanding interests f) providing enjoyment g) providing learners with opportunities to take responsibility for their own learning
9. Describe how the tasks of this unit match the five features described on p.43 of the English Language Syllabus for Secondary Schools, 1999:
a. A task should have a purpose;
b. A task should have a context;
c. A task should involve learners in a mode of thinking (high/low order) and doing;
d. The purposeful activity in which learners engage in carrying out a task should lead towards a product;
e. A task should require the learners to draw upon their framework of knowledge and skills.