LAN6271 Teaching ESL Learners

Using an appropriate syllabus, you are required to submit for this assignment, a suitable language teaching unit of work for a group of students with similar needs to your learner from Assignment Needs Analysis.This unit of work should include enough detail to be sufficient for at least 3 hours (3 lessons) of teaching and learning and aim to address the needs you indicated and prioritised in your first assignment. You can develop a syllabus for a longer period of time, e.g., a week, month or school term however, the longer the period of time you select, the less level of detail you can incorporate.

Start planning early and look through the syllabus types covered in the unit material before deciding on the syllabus type you would like to select.
The process
There are 4 parts to this syllabus design assignment:
1. Justification of syllabus type selected
2. Unit of work
3. Justification of how the unit of work exemplifies the syllabus type
4. Anticipating problems

While formulating and selecting the appropriate syllabus for the learner, it is highly important to consider the specific learning needs of each learner. As far as the learner groups are concerned, Khang and the other learners are 17 to 18 years of age, with basic understanding of the English language. All the learners are boys, hailing from Vietnam, with Basic English knowledge skills, however lacking in the grammatical skills. It has been observed that each of the learners belonging to this learner group have basic knowledge in English, as English was a compulsory language in the Vietnamese schools.

However, they are unable to communicate effectively in their second language. Although the five students belonging to this group also possess the expertise of writing English flawlessly, they need to improve their grammatical knowledge as well. These students often commit minor grammatical errors, such as they fail to distinguish between Singular and Plural Numbers, and unnecessarily use “s” after the common nouns. However, such mistakes committed in speaking the English language can be detrimental to their future career, as they wish to hone and enhance their English communication skills as they need to get admission in the Edith Cowan University, by completing the degree. The short-term learning needs of the students are to speak English correctly, without committing the grammatical mistakes, while their long-term needs constitute their ability to use English in the context of conducting business activities.  

The speaking proficiency level of the child lies somewhere between 1 and 2, while his writing ability lies somewhere near to 2. It becomes clear that the learners belonging to this group not only lack the general language ability, but at the very same time, also need to possess specific skills and expertise. Hence, for teaching this learner group, a syllabus has to be chosen, the content of which can help the child getting endowed with multiple skills that can play an important role in his language learning process. Hence, the skill based syllabus has been formulated for the learners group. This will be beneficial in helping the learners get an insight ito the speaking as well as the writing skills necessary for learning a foreign language. As part of the Skill based Syllabus process, the students will be asked to summarize and paraphrase readings, guess vocabulary from the contexts in which they are used, conduct dictionary work or analyze the paragraph structures as well.

It is evident from the above discussion that English language acquisition for professional purpose forms the integral aim of the learners here. Hence, it is unnecessary to offer structured syllabus to the students. Considering the vocational needs of the learners, a situational syllabus is also being chosen for the students. The syllabi formulated for the students intend to prepare the students for future situations, such as while passing the immediate admission test at the universities, or helping them communicate freely during business meetings and business negotiations in later life. Since the students cannot communicate freely with each other, learner-centered teaching approach would be adopted for the students. This will help the students learn English by conversing with each other in life-like business scenarios created within the classrooms (Valencia, 2017).

The situational syllabus intends to improve the communicative speaking power of the students. Consequently, the syllabus type chosen will focus primarily on the set of basic vocabulary and pronunciation technique of the learners. Besides, it will also create a learner-friendly environment that will encourage the learners to freely interact with each other, and learn through exchange of vocabulary (Fester & Johnson, 2015). The entire teaching procedure involves the act of situational presentation of new sentence patterns and drills to practice the patterns. The teacher needs to move from controlled to freer practice of structures and from oral use of sentence patterns to their automatic use in speech, reading and writing. This method is the most effective for the learners, as this method only will help in enhancing the English communication skills of the students, making them business-ready in future.

Overview of the lesson plan

 Justification of how the unit of work exemplifies the syllabus type

As outlined above, for the concerned student, the lesson plan would be integrated by situational syllabus as the student particularly lacks in making minor grammatical mistakes. In this context, it is essential to mention that prior to make a fruitful design of situational syllabus, three basic procedures have been kept in consideration. The first one is the listening situation; the second one is analyzing as well as matching the situation with the daily life and getting engaged in a conversation based on the particular situation. The above outlined lesson plan that has been designed according to the concerned student’s needs and the basic principles of situational analysis. It has been signified in the initial section of this assignment that according to the need of the student, the syllabus would be integrated by situational presentation of new sentences and varied interactive sessions. According to the lesson plan, in the first lesson, the student will be interacted with the complete lesson plan as it is necessary at the very first to inform the student all about the activities, so that he can prepare himself according to the outlined activities.

Thereafter, according to the first lesson, the teacher will communicate the basic rules of tense and engage the student into an interactive session where the teacher will teach the student the basic rules of communication through friendly interaction. The next lesson plan indicates that the teacher will start with the stress and intonation practice as the student unnecessarily uses the syllable – “s”. According to the lesson plan, the teacher will engage the student in an interactive session, where the student will be allowed to give a speech about him. The distinct lesson follows one of the typical lessons of situational learning, which is the oral practice. The student is in need of practicing upon his phonetics and on his grammar. Therefore, delivery of a speech all by himself will help him identifying his flaws, so that he will be able to improvise those sections immediately. Therefore, it can be said that the first two lessons will successfully exemplify the chosen syllabus type.

Most significantly, the unit work has strongly focused on enhancing the writing skills of the concerned student. It has been identified in the previous account that the student lacks proper grammatical sense, which is reflected through his speaking and writing ability. In order to become successful in professional life, along with the speaking efficiencies, one needs to have a strong grasp on writing. In the official position of a manager, an individual is required to have the ability and flexibility to write official mail, write advertisement, making report and write report presentation. Without all the aforementioned abilities and only with the help of a fluent speaking ability, an individual cannot become professionally successful. The Unit of work has considered this aspect with utmost priority and has therefore formulated the lesson plan according to the need.

The third and fourth lesson activities are indicative of the plan that the student will be engaged in interacting with his classmates about his past experience as a student. According to the third lesson plan, the student will be given lessons about tense first and he will have to give two vocabulary tests. Here question may arise about the fact that the typical lessons of situational analysis concentrate on interactive sessions only and not on written vocabulary session. It is to justify here that the purpose of formulating vocabulary tests for the students is to prepare him to make interaction with one of his classmate regarding any past experience. Therefore, it is justifiable to prepare the student for the interactive test through taking comprehensive tests. It should be contemplated here that the lesson plan 4 aptly exemplifies the chosen syllabus type. It is because; situational syllabus is applied when a student needs to have communicative speaking power instead of grammatical knowledge. It has been mentioned previously that the aim of the situational syllabus is to chiefly improve the communicative power of the student. Therefore, it can be said that both lesson plan 4 and lesson plan 3 will fruitfully accompany the fundamental motif of the lesson plan.

Nevertheless, the fifth and sixth lesson plan activities will cover the student’s need of improvising on numbers. It has been understood from the previous assignment, that the student has a poor knowledge regarding the application of singular and plural number and it affects his communication highly. Similarly, like the previous two plans, the fifth and sixth lesson plans contain one comprehensive test and one interactive session. According to the fifth number lesson, the student will be given thorough information on the singular and plural forms through power point presentation. Here, it is essential to mention that the utilization of power point for teaching the concerned student about singular and plural form will successfully attract the student as well as increase his enthusiasm.

On the other hand, according to lesson six, the student will be asked to describe about some pictures, which will be shown on a digital blackboard. It is required to mention that the student will be requested to talk about each of the graphics shown in the blackboard for 60 seconds each. Therefore, it seems that both of the lessons exemplify the sole aim of situational learning. It is because, in time of giving description of the graphics which will contain singular and plural figures, the student will have the opportunity to practice on his communication skills and at the same time could improvise his problem with numbers.

The seventh lesson plan is about improving the pronunciation style of the concerned student. It is required mentioning here that it is one of the fundamental concerns of the situational learning style to enable the student to speak with proper pronunciation with varied social contexts, therefore it can be said that the lesson seven also appropriately exemplifies the chosen syllabus types. For improvising the pronunciation style of the student, according to lesson activity seven, the student will engaged in a reading activity where he will start repeating the sentences, which he will listen from an audio.

Therefore, lesson seven is found to be apt for accomplishing the need of the student as well as the chief motive of considered syllabus type. Finally, in the lesson activities of plan eight, the student will be engaged in a classroom conversation. It has identified at the initial assignment that the student wants to improve his communication style in order to pursue business education. Therefore, the lesson plan 8 is found to be focused chiefly on the situation of the student and thus it should be contemplated here that the plan entirely supports the syllabus type. By having a group conversation, the student will gather confidence for future as well as an idea about how to talk with a group of fluently English-speaking people.  

Anticipating Problems

The above section is indicative of the fact that the designed lesson plan is able to fruitfully exemplifying the chosen syllabus, which is the situational syllabus type. However, it should be kept in mind that there are several negative sides related with the application of situational syllabus. One of the most probable issues, which can take place, is lack of grammar sense (Hussain & Sajid, 2016). It has been understood from assignment on that the student already has a good amount of sense in English grammar. Therefore, it can be anticipated that too much concentration on the communication style may make negative effect upon the student’s sense of grammar (Melrose, 2015). As per the consequence, it can be said that the student may become weak in other fundamental areas of English grammar.

On the other hand, in time of making interaction with the student, the teacher may not get proper response from the student. Most significantly, in time of pursuing the classroom interaction, it is possible that the student will keep his mouth shut due to lack of comfort and lack of confidence. Most significantly, it should be kept in mind that situational analysis is appropriate for short term teaching and learning goals (Harsono, 2015). Therefore, the student cannot attain his long term objectives regarding communication. Moreover, in time of repeating the words from the audio for improvising his pronunciation style, it is a possibility that the student may not understand the audio. As per the reason that the student will not give concentration on grammar and will only get prepared for getting communicational success in one particular premise, the student’s ability to talk fluently on an international society may not prove successful. Most importantly, it can be anticipated that as the student has grammatical flaws, it would not be easy for the student to accomplish all the designed plans for writing from the starting. The student may find it hard to understand the rules of writing reports and writing curriculum vitae. The difficulty in understanding the rules can come from both the student and the teacher side, as initially it will not be easy for the teacher to understand the writing ability of the student.

However, it should be also kept in mind those behaviorist approaches to language, which is one of the chief characteristics of situational learning, cannot explain as well as accomplish the predominant features of language learning (Thayniath, 2017).  

Reference List:

Fester, A. M., & Johnson, D. (2015). Exploring discrepancies between beliefs and practices in ESL curriculum and syllabus design.

Harsono, Y. M. (2015). Developing learning materials for specific purposes. Teflin Journal, 18(2), 169-179.

Hussain, S., & Sajid, S. (2016). Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching: A Short Review. PARIPEX-Indian Journal of Research, 4(6).

Martin, L., 2014. ESL through film-a course development case study using a negotiated syllabus.

Melrose, R. (2015). The communicative syllabus: A systemic-functional approach to language teaching. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Thayniath, S. (2017). An Introduction to Syllabus Design. Language in India, 17(1).

Valencia, J. A. Á. (2017). Examining Language-Learning Websites: Discourses about Language, Learning, and Learners. Revista Folios, (45), 127-143.