Wednesday 26 April 2017

Teaching Practice

Practices for Teaching Vocabulary
Mr Ashok Pandya
Department of Communication Skills, MEFGI - Rajkot

Words have power to destroy and heal. - The Buddha
Whatever and wherever we are today it’s because of our words that we have used in our life. Using minimum words and conveying maximum thought is heart of communication. One of the problem with vocabulary is that students (we also) do not remember new words for longer time, I had question in mind that how we can teach vocabulary in such way that students can remember it for longer time. I tried to find out answer. There are some techniques that I have come across which teacher can experiment for example teaching words with different images, showing movie scenes in which character uses that particular word, using it in their conversation, recording that conversation, creating story by using that particular word, creating what’s app group etc. I have experimented some of the techniques.

1.   Teaching words with different images:
Science says whatever we see we can remember it for longer time. When I teach anything and when   I use any word that students find difficult I explain that word by showing image of that word for   example ‘LIONIZE’ means to treat someone as celebrity, after explaining usage of that word, I       showed an image of that word on projector screen (type particular word on Google and click on       image)

I also explain it with white board.


      
2.   Creating WhatsApp group:
In my lab, Students have created WhatsApp group for learning vocabulary. I have advised them to introduce any new words with images in group and then they are supposed to make sentence of that words.



3.   Teaching through particular movie scene:
Students like when you talk about movie. Movies are source of learning. Students might not remember text but they remember dialogues of the movies. For example, I taught word ‘ENTREPRENEUR’ by showing movie clip of English Vinglish.


Now questions are: have they learnt words in a better way? Are they able to use effective words? Are they now able to remember words for longer time? Answers of these questions will be written in my next article.

Tuesday 11 April 2017

Resources for Teaching Reading Comprehension

Resources for Teaching Reading Comprehension
Dr Pooja Mehta
Department of Communication Skills, MEFGI - Rajkot

I was in search of some good resources for reading comprehension. There are various books of and on reading comprehension available but from them what to choose and how to customize was the issue. At the same time to give something as an exercise which is latest or at least updated is also the point to be considered. While searching for the resources I came across two good websites. I would like to share them with you. 

1) The New York Times: Articles and Questions


It makes teacher's task easy. It has latest articles on various issues, the good part is, with questions for comprehension and analysis. Even there is Before Reading material provided as well as a stimulus for after reading analysis. This may work with students good at language. 

2) Student New Daily


This is also similar kind of a website but may work better with students as it is for students, keeping their level and need in mind. You find sections such as Daily News Article, Friday's Editorial Cartoon, Friday's News Quiz, Wednesday's Media Bias etc. Moreover, you find notes on key words, questions and answers, other resources etc all in a printable format.

We can customize these resources as per the need and use them not just for reading comprehension but for varied purposes. Hope this may be useful. Happy Musing!