Assignment Paper

W​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍​RITER, PLEASE REFER TO THE ESSAY REQUIREMENTS IN THE FILE ‘ECA TSL 508 Essay Requirements’ ECA TSL 508 Essay Requirements Topic of Essay Designing a Phonological-based instruction teaching package for low-proficiency ESL learners at primary one to develop proficiency and enjoyment in English reading (reading skills) and writing (spelling skills) and critically evaluate the teaching package – Singapore Context Two parts: • Part A – Designing a teaching package (lesson plans for two lessons using two distinct methods/approaches & sample materials) • Part B – Critical evaluation of your teaching package Answer the following question. (Total 100 marks) Question This ECA is an individual project and has two parts: Part A (50%) A. Design a teaching package that consists of TWO lessons to teach a group of ESL/EFL learners two to three specific areas of language among the following: • listening • speaking • reading • writing • vocabulary • grammar For each lesson, you must adapt one distinct teaching method/approach covered in the course (i.e. method/approach X for Lesson One, and method/approach Y for Lesson Two). Each lesson should be at least 40 minutes but no longer than 60 minutes. The two lessons will be for the same group of learners. You will decide: • the age group, proficiency level, etc. of the learners you want to target at • when the two lessons will be conducted (e.g. on the same day, on different days in the same week or in different weeks) Begin your ECA with a succinct introduction and discussion of the specific areas of language you choose to focus on. Then provide: i. two lesson plans (one for each lesson) using the template below Note: The two lesson plan tables must be placed in the main ECA paper (i.e. not in appendices) and will be included in the word count. Lesson Plan Template (Please refer to sample lesson plan, worksheets and PowerPoint slides) You may use them to rewrite the lesson plan.) If the lesson needs PowerPoint slides, you need not create it. I will create it or use the current one. Lesson No Topic/Sub-topic Lesson objectives Lesson duration Phases/Stages Activities/Questions Materials/Resources In this column, you should provide detailed (step-by-step) explanation of each activity/task/question. You should provide brief explanations of the materials/resources here, and make references to respective appendices for samples. For example, (See Appendix 1, 2, etc. for sample materials) ii. sample teaching materials (placed in appendices) for each lesson Note: You may adapt suitable teaching materials from ESL/EFL textbooks or websites; however, you must properly acknowledge these sources both in your in-text citations and list of references. Sample materials placed in appendices will not be included in the word count. For non-Microsoft-Word materials, pictures of the materials are to be embedded in JPEG or GIF format in the Microsoft Word document and placed in the appendices. Part B (50%) B. Critically evaluate the teaching package you have designed in Part A. To do the critical evaluation, you should i) examine how the two distinct teaching methods/approaches were chosen, adapted and used for planning the two respective lessons and their accompanying teaching materials/resources. ii) compare the two methods/approaches, and critique them in terms of their efficacy and contextual appropriateness for teaching the specific areas of language to the specific group of ESL/EFL learners you have chosen to focus on. Note: It is important that your critique of the two methods/approaches is done with specific references to the teaching package you have designed in Part A. Hence, your evaluation needs to be supported with relevant evidence/examples from Parts A, as well as relevant discussion of the areas of language and the group of learners you have chosen to focus on. To substantiate your points, you should also make references to relevant course readings and other recent publications in the field of ELT/TESOL/Applied Linguistics. About the learners • low-proficiency primary one student (Singapore) • ESL setting • Students comes from low-income, and or dysfunctional family • Students attends the phonics tuition program offered by the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC)Singapore. It is a non-profit self-help group for the Chinese community that offers programs and assistance schemes to help the less-privileged in the community to maximise their potential and strive for social mobility through self-help and mutual support. In 2021, CDAC supported more than 17,700 households through its various programmes for students, workers, seniors and families. • Students attend a 60 minutes phonic class once a week. About the Learn-To-Read Value Based Phonics Program for primary one and two • Basic to intermediate • Basic is conducted in semester 1 and Intermediate level is conducted in semester 2 • Once a week/60 minute • 36 weeks of lesson throughout the year • Skills o (1) learning the letter sounds, o (2) learning letter formation, o (3) blending- for reading, o (4) identifying sounds in words-for writing and o (5) high-frequency words o (6) develop positive character through moral value stories, the 3 Rs: Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. • Every lesson includes a 5-minute moral value story o A requirement by CDAC movement • A classroom with tables and chair – adult size o No space for classroom movement activities • Phonic techniques used o drive-Thru Blending o Segmenting cheer o Arm tapping o Clapping hands o *** due to the classroom setting, the above mentioned are commonly used thorough out the program with the help of interactive PowerPoint, YouTube videos to support the phonics learning, games and supporting activity-sheets for each lesson A rough guide to ECA 3850 to 4000 words • 600-700 words: Succinct introduction & discussion of the specific areas of language you choose to focus on • 700-900 words: Lesson Plan 1 • 700-900 words: Lesson Plan 2 • 1500-2000 words: Critical evaluation of the teaching package you have designed • conclusion You may include Definition of Phonological-Based Instruction Phonological-Based Instruction in the ESL Context What is explicit phonics instruction? Reading Spelling Components of learning to read Within the two larger processes of decoding and comprehension, students need to develop specific skills to become fluent readers. These are: phonemic awareness, phonics (letter/sound recognition), reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. All these elements need to be present in a good systematic phonics program. Systematic phonics instruction There are different approaches to teaching reading and teaching phonics. With many students failing to learn to read in English​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍​ speaking countries, three different governments set up inquiries to establish which method was most effective to teach reading: National Reading Panel (2000, USA); National Inquiry into Teaching Literacy (2005, Australia); Rose Report (2006, UK). All three concluded that the most effective way to teach reading was with explicit, systematic phonics. English is a rich and wonderful language that has a complex written code (the alphabetic or phonic code). This is a result of historic ‘borrowing’ of words from other languages that have kept the spelling conventions of those languages. Teaching reading with systematic phonics ensures that all students learn this written code in a systematic way starting from simple and advancing to complex. Students also learn the underlying reading skills that will help them become good decoders and encoders (spellers) of the English alphabetic code. This, of course, needs to take place alongside a language-rich and knowledge-based curriculum that will enable students to comprehend texts of increasing complexity. Reading skills taught with explicit systematic phonics Blending Students learning to read with explicit systematic phonics are encouraged to sound out letter/s in words and push the sounds together into words. This is called ‘blending’. Each letter is sounded out separately and blended from left to right, throughout the word. This is the most reliable strategy to read a new word. Segmenting Students learn that spelling is the reverse activity of blending. When spelling, they learn to isolate each sound in the word and represent it with a spelling. This is called ‘segmenting’. Phoneme Manipulation Students learn to identify and isolate phonemes in words and to manipulate them by deleting, adding or swapping sounds in the words. This skill helps the reader to self-correct when making errors in reading. What do theorist says about teaching children to read? Theories for teaching reading skills have changed over the years as research has helped educators understand how children learn and develop. Educators still argue over the best approach to teaching children to read. The most prominent argument in the reading classroom today is phonics versus whole word. However, these are not the only approaches for teaching reading in use in today’s classroom. Emergent Literacy Emergent literacy is a theory that states that children begin developing reading skills as infants. As their parents read to them, these infants develop a feeling for language and associate reading with comfort and love. As they grow, they learn how books work and begin to associate the symbols on the page with words. Eventually, they are able to decode the words on the page themselves. Behaviorist Theory The behaviorist theory of reading was developed in the 1970s but is still used in some schools today. According to this theory, children learn language by repeating words and sentences given by their teachers or on workbook pages. To learn to read, children must work through and develop a series of isolated skills. Phonics, which teaches readers to associate letters with their sounds, is the best-known example of a behaviorist approach to reading. Social Constructivist Theory The social constructivist theory emphasizes the child’s environment as she learns to read. This theory states that children gain knowledge within their culture and that they learn best with the help of an adult. Whole language approaches to reading, which emphasize the overall meaning of a text rather the sounds of individual letters, are examples of social constructivist theories. Top-Down Theory According to the top-down theory, reading is a natural process that children learn when they live in a language-rich environment. Repeating words, phrases, sentences and even whole books helps new readers internalize language and begin to read fluently. Mistakes are seen as positive indicators that a child is willing to take a risk. Balanced Approach A