November Issue

English Messages A Monthly Newsletter by and for teachers in Bahrain

November 2012 Year 2 Issue 5

Laying the foundations for a successful and secure future

We, as educators, are aware of the fact that our students' future largely depends on what they learn and ac-

quire today. As education providers we are making great efforts to provide all students with equal opportu-

nities to develop their communication skills, acquire essential knowledge and core values so that they could

get ready for the future.

Worldwide more and more people and countries are increasingly interested in learning English as a key pre-

requisite for any educational success. It is now the established language of science, technology, scholarship,

commerce and most importantly communication in most countries. Thus, mastering the English language

has become the cornerstone of education in the 21st century, and it is really impossible for both students and

scholars to lead a normal and successful life these days without being competent at English at some level of

proficiency.

In Bahrain, for instance, English is now the

main language of business. Most financial in-

stitutions, service industries, and governmental

transactions use English as a basic means of

communication.

Therefore, together we have to work harder

and multiply our efforts to help our students

learn English and consequently lay the founda-

tions for a successful and secure future.

You Will Find in our Fifth Issue:

Grade Six Test Specifications

School Songs Contest

Recover From Demotivation

Teaching Spelling: A

New Approach

The Art of Storytelling

Culture and Langua

ge Teaching

Free Poster

Teaching Resources:

Unforgettable Days

English Messages

General Guidelines: The Basic English Language Examination measures three skills: lis-

tening, reading and writing. The total mark of the exam is 100.

The exam should be:

valid (i.e. it should offer an appropriate way of measuring

what it claims to measure)

reliable (i.e. the results produced should be as free as possible from errors of measurement)

impactful (i.e. the effect it has on individuals and on classroom practice should be positive)

practical (i.e. the demands it makes on the resources of the test developer and the test administrator

should be compatible with the resources available)

When preparing questions consider the following points:

Instructions are clear, brief, specific, and easy to understand

The task should be familiar, manageable, valid, appropriate

to learners' age, sex, interests and culture.

The text should be:

authentic (modifying and adapting texts that reflect genuine use of

the language)

of reasonable length and difficulty of similar style to text types

they have in lessons

copyright free

The questions should be:

graded as they shift from the easiest to the more demanding

well-organized to follow the structure of the text

clear (not ambiguous)

Visuals should be:

clear

suitable

stimulating to students

English Language Unit Basic Education

Specifications for Test Items Writing: Primary Level, Grade Six

LISTENING section:

at least one distractor should be added in questions that require students to choose

correct answers from different choices

the script is well-recorded and clear

Consider the following points in the READING section:

don't test general knowledge in the passage

topics should not lead to writing questions

questions should not lead to direct lifting of answers from the text

Cloze tests should consider that:

the topic sentence is complete with no gaps to fill in to enable students to bet-

ter understand the whole paragraph

there are at least five words between each gap

Consider the following points in the WRITING section:

the different types of writing tasks: guided, semi-guided and free

the space and time allocated for the writing are sufficient

topics should be within the interest and experience

topics should not be similar to the ones used in the reading section

Letters and emails:

Students should be aware that all five parts of the letter (the heading, the

greeting, the body, the closing and the signature) are in place and used cor-

rectly

Names and addresses of sender/receiver are provided

Finally, have someone else review and do your items/tests.

Guidelines for the Different Exam Sections. (Grade Six)

Page 3

Year 2 Issue 5

Well, this year we are planning to organize a national school songs contest. We hope it will be held in the second semester. Schools have to get ready for the contest by choosing one of the songs in the CD which we distributed during our first meeting with primary school teachers. During the contest we expect to see very beautiful shows. Indeed, schools have the right to choose as many students as they want. In addition to singing, students should act out/perform the song as each song has a special theme or story. This is why schools are encouraged to use special costumes, background music and PowerPoint presentations… The following criteria will be used in assessing students’ performance: Rhythm, Performance, Clarity/Quality of voice and music, Confidence, Facial expressions, and costumes. In the end, all schools should have one team. (ONLY Cycle One). We will inform you about the place and date of the contest, but most probably it will be next March or April. Get ready and do your best to train your students well.

Page 4

Year 2 Issue 5

School Songs Contest

Reasons Why You Should Use Songs to Teach EFL

Language teachers are advised to use songs as part of their classroom teaching repertoire. In fact, scientific research has proven that teaching Eng-lish through songs really helps our students improve their English.

Page 5

Year 2 Issue 5

2- You’re demotivated by not knowing

what to do next Your end-goal might be nice and clear, but if you

haven’t taken time to chunk your end-goal down

into smaller goals, you’ll get stuck, confused and

demotivated when it’s time to take action. Some

projects are small and familiar enough that they

don’t need a plan, but if you’re often worrying that

you don’t know what to do next and you don’t

have a clear plan, then this might be the source of

your demotivation and frustration.

How to get motivated again: If you want to keep

your motivation flowing steadily through all stages

of your projects, take time to create clear project

plans and to schedule your plans into your calen-

dar.

Use your fears to point you to the potential risks

you need to manage in your plan. Write down all

your, “I-don’t-know-how-to” concerns and turn

these into research questions. The first part of any

planning stage is research, and you’ll find new re-

search questions along the way, so realize that con-

ducting research should be part of your action plan

at every stage of your project. Ask yourself what

smaller goals need to be achieved for you to

achieve your end-goal, and finally schedule dead-

lines for yourself.

How To Recover From Demotivation

1- You’re demotivated by lack of clarity about

what you want:

When you haven’t consciously and clearly articu-

lated what you want, your picture of your future will

be vague. We like what’s familiar and so we resist

what’s unfamiliar and vague. If you’re not clear

about what you want to create, then it makes sense

that you’ll lack motivation to act because you’d

rather stay with your current familiar reality.

How to get motivated again: If you want to create

something different from what you’ve been experi-

encing, it’s not enough to just know what you don’t

want. You need to know what you want instead, and

you need to articulate a clear and specific vision of

what you want to create so that you can become fa-

miliar with that new outcome and feel comfortable

to move towards it. Take some time to articulate

what you want and why you want it. It’s always im-

portant to know where you would like to go.

Suggested Strategies & Activities to

Develop Students' Spelling

Recent studies highlight the importance of developing

spelling in order to develop students' reading and

writing skills. This calls for the need to teach spelling

using different strategies in meaningful context.

The following are suggested strategies that teachers

can adopt to teach spelling:

Develop phonemic awareness through the use of

meaningful context, such as, the text book materials,

songs and stories that provide repetitive reinforce-

ment of words.

Explore sounds by helping students to notice the

sounds in different words using rhyming words.

Discover spelling patterns that help students in rec-

ognizing the associated pattern with certain sounds,

such as, ch, sh, tion, gh.

Websites Containing Spelling Activities &

Games

http://www.kidsspell.com/

www.spellingcity.com

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/

interactive/literacy.html

http://pbskids.org/games/spelling.html

http://www.ehow.com/info_8418079_kinds-

spelling-games.html

http://www2.sd5.k12.mt.us/elrod/multiage/

Spelling.html

Use games to motivate students and help them

know the words. There are many useful games,

such as:

1.Hangman

2.Matching (match the picture with the word)

3.Fishing (works best with suffixes and prefixes)

4.Memory Game (flipping words down and

search for matching words)

5.Letter Scramble

Challenge more able students by asking them

to use all the new words in a short story.

Assign homework to the less able by asking

them to form the new words from letters cut from

magazines or newspapers.

Use interactive spelling sites and competitions

such as the Spelling Bee.

Develop visual awareness of the words through pro-

viding pictures and flashcards. Word Walls can be

used to display the targeted words.

Teach words in small chunks rather than giving long

lists weekly. Two to three words can be taught daily.

Provide sufficient time to practice and offer feed-

back on any misspelled words. Use the Look, Say,

Cover, Write, Check strategy.

Encourage self-assessment and peer assessment

against words lists.

Help students with their dictionary skills.

Let students keep their own Words Journals

Know your students' needs through their writing and

weekly dictation and reteach common mistakes.

Assign Spelling Buddy to help students with their

spelling.

Use Letters Cards to help students form the new

words which help in their awareness of the construc-

tion of words. Writing the words in the air and using

dough.

Use different activities to reinforce the words, such

as, words with gaps, word search, cross words.

By Mrs. Ameera Al Balushi

Curriculum Specialist

Page 6

Year 2 Issue 5

Since the human race began, people

have told stories to each other, to pass

on family lore, values and beliefs, com-

mon history and heritage, to teach fac-

tual and conceptual information, to en-

tertain, and to form bonds of friendship.

Storytelling is an art, a tool, a device, a

gateway to the past and a portal to the

future that supports the present. Our true

voices come alive when we share stories

What are the most important aspects of

storytelling?

For the listener?

– The story is engaging

– The storyteller is engaging

– The listener can participate in the story-

telling

For the storyteller?

– Choose the right story

– Make the storytelling fun and interesting

– Include the listeners in the storytelling Characteristics of Young Learners

impulsive

inquisitive

energetic

spontaneous

social

entertained

Crave our attention…

and our love…

How children learn • Children are active learners and thinkers.

(Piaget, 1970)

• Children learn through social interaction.

(Vygotsky, 1962)

• Children learn effectively through scaffold-

ing by adults. (Bruner, 1983)

Teaching approaches for young learners

We help children learn language when

what we ask them to do is…

•Purposeful

•Meaningful

•Social

•Supported

•Enjoyable

•Full of practice

Rationale for using stories

• Stories use a holistic approach to language

teaching.

• Stories support natural acquisition of lan-

guage.

• Stories can introduce children to other cul-

tures and attitudes.

• Stories help children develop critical think-

ing skills.

• Children love stories! Techniques for storytelling

1.Vary the pace, tone and volume of voice.

2. Pause where appropriate.

3. Disguise your voice for different characters.

4. Make sound effects where possible.

5.Ask questions that involve children.

6.Do not be afraid to repeat, expand, and

reformulate.

(Adapted from Brewster, Ellis, & Girard 2004)

Other helpful tips

• Use routines for starting and finishing story-

telling, for getting children’s attention

• Create or bring in visuals and realia for sto-

rytelling (e.g., pictures, puppets, masks)

• Build a visuals and realia bank

• Encourage children to tell the story to a

friend/parent (and imitate your storytelling!)

• Have storytellers observe each other to pick

up new techniques and develop own style. By Mrs. Reem Alaradi — Curriculum Specialist

English Messages

The Art of Storytelling

Page 8

English Messages

Culture and Language Teaching

Introduction

A full mastery of a language does not just mean un-

derstanding the rules and using the four skills per-

fectly. It also requires a full mastery of the culture

of that language. In EFL classes, cultural factors

concerning English language are often neglected.

Culture receives undue attention partly because of

the insufficient culture-oriented realia and materials,

and partly because of the unreasonable and imprac-

tical teaching syllabus that leaves out cultural

knowledge in most tests. Above all, English teach-

ers mostly fail to provide language learners with the

cultural aspects of the English language. It is now a

widely accepted fact that language classrooms must

address the cultural elements of the English lan-

guage.

Why is teaching culture important?

Cultural awareness in today’s world of globalization is highly

significant. Rather than their own culture, EFL learners should

also be aware of the English-speaking countries cultures. This

is often referred to as intercultural awareness, which has always

been talked about as thought it were a 'fifth skill' - the ability to

be aware of cultural relativity following reading, writing, lis-

tening and speaking. Claire Kramsch points out: "If...language

is seen as social practice, culture becomes the very core of lan-

guage teaching. Cultural awareness must then be viewed as ena-

bling language proficiency…. Culture in language teaching is

not an expendable fifth skill, tacked on, so to speak, to the

teaching of speaking, listening, reading and writing.” Conse-

quently, many researchers insist on The EFL learner’s exposure

to the culture related to the English language and consider this

consistent with the language-acquisition process.

Although most of our English textbooks at primary levels start with everyday spoken English which aims

at intercultural communication, most of the drills designed for starting dialogues with native speakers are,

nevertheless, far from the authentic situations in which they are to be used. For example, the sentence

“where are you going?” or “what’s your name?” is not explained by the teacher in detail and he does not

point out in which circumstances to use either. A student will not get a satisfactory answer if he asks an

English-speaking friend he runs into about where he is going, for it is impolite for people to ask this kind of

questions in English-speaking countries, though it is quite common for people to raise such questions when

they come across one of their friends in the Arab world. Such problems arise directly as a result of the lack

of cultural awareness relating to English language.

Page 9

Year 2 Issue 5

In such an environment, a student confronted with a

real situation of intercultural communication and

who may be excellent in reading and writing, will

often fail to communicate successfully with a native

speaker of English if the topic touches on the culture

of the English language. For instance, in a reading

material of acknowledgements to a book, there runs

a line that “I owe many thanks to my students at this

school who were the guinea pigs for many of the

exercises used in the units.” The ignorance of the

usages of the culture-loaded word “pig” in American

culture will unmistakably lead to the confusion and

puzzlement of Arab learners of English: in American

culture, pig can mean wise and loyal and innocence;

whereas in our culture, the image of pig usually

symbolizes stupidity and filthiness. In this example,

there are words in the vocabulary of language that

inform people’s ways of behavior. Just as G. Lazar

has argued, “our students’ comprehension is fre-

quently impeded not by linguistic features, but by

cultural ones. Language can never be divorced from

culture.”

What can a teacher do? As a result, to make a better understanding of the

English language and to ensure the success of inter-

cultural communication that takes place increasingly

in today’s globalization, teachers have to reconsider

the importance of cultural factors in the EFL class-

rooms and to incorporate the teaching of culture into

the teaching of English. Such a model of teaching

culture is determined by the inseparable relation-

ships between language and culture: language is

transmitted by and transmits culture.

The teacher can use reading materials, stories (to be

told orally), and pictures as sources for cultural in-

formation. He can also use other things that will

help his students get a panoramic view of the target

culture. The teacher can also use other sources of

information as materials to develop students’ aware-

ness of the foreign culture by utilizing one of the

learners’ five natural powers of sight, hearing, feel-

ing, tasting, and smelling such as: foods or fruits

culturally specific to the English Language, art

works shown in museum, video, CDs, TV, songs,

internet, and souvenirs.

What about students? Being exposed to all these cultural factors is not

sufficient for students to cultivate the intercultural

awareness. It is suggested that students should be

encouraged to take an active part in the revealing of

the cultural information. For this purpose, certain

types of activities should be designed to make stu-

dents aware of every aspect of culture. Activities

like prediction, discussion, research, and celebration

of foreign festivals can be used in the cultural con-

sciousness-raising process.

Conclusion In conclusion, the teaching of culture should be

considered as an integral part of teaching English as

a foreign language. Meanwhile, teachers should de-

velop an awareness of the cultures related to the

English speaking countries, so that they would be

able to present the foreign cultures as they are to

help students form a positive attitude and develop

better understanding of the language components.

By Teacher Feryal Ali Khader

Arad Intermediate Girls’ School

English Messages

Henry Ford

The English Department at A’ali Intermediate Boys School organized a

very exciting Scrabble Game Competition which involved different

boys and girls schools from several governorates. Mrs. Nawal Al Sada,

the English Language Curriculum Specialist attended the competition

and expressed her deep satisfaction with the high level of participant

students and the outstanding organizational efforts made by the Senior

teacher Mr. Jaafar Meerza.

By the end of the competition valuable prizes were given to the win-

ners for the final high scores they got. The school principal seized the

opportunity to thank the English Department at A’ali Intermediate

Boys School for their contributions and active participation in devel-

oping and improving school life.

English Messages

Scrabble Game Competition at A’ali Intermediate Boys School

The English Language Curriculum Unit at Basic Educa-

tion has organized a series of events and meetings to de-

velop a new English Language curriculum which reflects

the new orientations of the Ministry of Education and

responds to the growing needs of students in Bahrain.

Reviewing international literature and understanding the

strengths of some successful world curricular documents

is the first stage in the process of curriculum construc-

tion, and for this purpose last month Mr. Emad Abdulla

Al Sediri presented a workshop entitled : “Constructing a

National Curriculum: Contemporary Trends.”

The meeting was an opportunity for the curriculum team

to discuss a variety of issues regarding educational out-

comes and the major components of the next curriculum

document. As well as that, specialists took their time to

explore and examine a wealth of contemporary trends in

curriculum development processes.

English Language Curriculum Development

MOE

Kingdom of Bahrain Ministry of Education

Directorate of Curricula English Language Unit

(Basic Education)

[email protected]

Tel +973 17 27 86 16

Fax +973 17 24 34 72

Editorial Team Dr. Nawal Al-Khaja

Mr. Emad Al-Sediri

English Messages

1- Grammar:

Complete the sentences with was or were.

I …………............. happy last night.

You …………............. angry yesterday.

She …………............. in London last week.

He …………............. on holiday last summer.

It …………............. a cold morning.

We …………............. at school two days ago.

You …………............. at the cinema last weekend.

They …………............. at home last Thursday night.

The cat …………............. on the roof yesterday morning.

The children …………............. in the garden last month.

2- Vocabulary:

Label the following pictures.

3- Speaking:

A- What did you do last week? Tell your teacher.

4- Writing:

Last week you were sitting in the school library.

Suddenly, you heard someone screaming, “Fire!

Fire”. Write about what happened and what you did.

“Life isn't simple. But the beauty of it is you can always start

over. It'll get easier.” Alacia Bessette, Simply from Scratch, 2010