Teaching of Literacy Skills EDU 410 VU

Lesson No. 1

Teaching of Literacy Skills

Topic 1: Concept of Literacy

What is literacy?

The term literacy refers:

1. often mainly to reading,

2. sometimes to reading and writing,
3. and rarely, to reading, writing, speaking and listening

The activities of reading, writing, speaking and listening in a learning environment are included
in literacy.

The National Literacy Trust defines: “We believe literacy is the ability to read, write, speak and
listen well. A literate person is able to communicate effectively with others and to understand
written information.”

As such, these skills are essential components of literacy, and the active ability to combine these
skills is known as developing or engaging in literacy skills.

These skills are critical in communication.

In today’s world, media and technology are essential components of communication. For
example, when you use your laptop to obtain information from some website; you are using the
literacy skills.

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Topic 2: What is Meant by Literacy Skills?

We use the term of Literacy Skills in many contexts: for instance, while reading, while writing,
while speaking, etc. We also talk about literacy rate of a country, and compare it with that of the
other. So what do we mean by this term? What are the skills related to “Literacy”? Let us try to
define it in more detail.

Literacy skills are those which help in:

 developing literacy, and

 improving literacy

Each skill contains several sub-skills. For instance: reading.

When you are reading a text on the page of a book in front of you

 you pass though unfamiliar words, and search for their meanings to understand the
individual words contained in the text
 you connect the words to understand the meaning of the text as a complete set
 these activities help you read and understand the text of the book
 these sub-skills are involved in the “reading” skill

As such the “Reading” skill includes a number of sub-skills, which collectively help in
developing “Literacy,” Same is the case with the other skills.

Using literacy skills students gain knowledge though reading as well as using media and
technology. These skills also help students create knowledge through writing as well as
developing media and technology.

All skills that are needed for reading or writing are included in literacy skills. They include even
such things as awareness of the sound of language, awareness of print, and relationship between
letters and sounds.

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Topic 3: Different Types of Literacy Skills

There are different types of literacy skills:, e.g.:

 Reading: even if you read a sentence, it is literacy skill because you had that level of
literacy which enabled you to read the sentence. Reading a book, newspaper or thesis etc.
is all included in literacy skills.
 Many sub-skills are involved in the reading skill, like reading the words, understanding
the words, connecting the words, connecting the meaning of those words, and then
collectively understand the message.
 However, there could be different levels as reading a children story book would require
different level of literacy than reading a book of philosophy. There could also be different
versions of the same text available for adult reading and for children reading requiring
different levels of reading skills.
 Different levels of skills are also involved in writing a sentence and writing a book.
 Listening requires familiarity with the sounds; because while listening you pick up
different sounds, understand them, and connect these sounds with the message for overall
understanding. These are all included in literacy skills.
 Words are also essential part of literacy skills.

Extra Reading

o Literacy is the ability to read and write, but also includes skills like critical thinking,
listening, speaking, viewing and presenting.
o Numeracy is being at home with numbers, and knowing the smartest way to solve
mathematical problems.

(Literacy and numeracy are globally ranked in the top three skills that employers look for in
an employee).

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Topic 4: Learning Literacy Skills

Literacy skills help students gain knowledge through reading as well as using media and
technology. These skills also help students create knowledge through writing as well as
developing media and technology.

There are two ends to the concept of learning literacy skills.

1. Students’ concern is to learn these skills

2. Teachers must ensure that their students learn all the main and the allied sub-skills
included in literacy skills.

Literacy is the ability to read, view, write, design, speak and listen in a way that allows you
to communicate effectively. The power of literacy lies not just in the ability to read and write,
but rather in a person’s capacity to apply these skills to effectively connect, interpret and
determine the workings of the world in which they live.

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Topic 5: Significance of Literacy Skills

Figure 1
Figure 1 presents a very basic level of literacy – some
alphabets, a musical note, some pictures – it is, most
likely, connected with very young children who are
starting to learn. For them, nevertheless, these are the
literacy skills that they have to learn, and proceed to
improve forward.

Figure 2
A much more complicated situation is presented by Figure 2.
It is a highly developed and advanced model of literacy.
For instance, computer literacy will require knowledge of
technology, writing, typing, reading, how to download
information from web, how to search, save, how to put/ retrieve
information in/ from mail, etc.

Literacy skills provide the basics to proceed for learning and gaining, and creating knowledge in
any discipline. The level of these skills may be different according to the level of learners.

Extra Reading

If it were up to us, the benefits of reading and writing would be mentioned and celebrated on
every broadcast of morning and evening news: "It's 11 o'clock, have you read to your children
today?" Here are 5 powerful facts about literacy.

1. Reading aloud is vital.

Research proves that reading aloud to children every day puts them almost a year ahead of
children who do not receive daily read-alouds and that is regardless of parents' income,
academic or cultural background. On top of that, pediatricians are now prescribing read-
alouds alongside their nutrition and health advice in recognition of the proven benefits on
brain development and vocabulary acquisition.

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2. Literacy saves lives.

According to UNESCO, improvements in women’s education explained half of the reduction

in child deaths in the past twenty years. Mothers who are educated are more likely to have
their children vaccinated, and more likely to send them to school. Imagine what will happen
when every child and adult can read, write and learn all they want and need to know.

3. Literacy teaches you to own and value your own story.

The Education for All Global Monitoring report states that there is a clear link between
literacy and a positive self-image. Building confidence as a reader, writer, listener and
speaker is transformational in a person's life. These core abilities are used every minute of
every day to read the world. More than that, reading stories gives a greater understanding of
self. Suddenly there are characters who feel the same feelings as you, who share your
struggles, your hopes and your dreams. Literacy brings us out of isolation and into a
community of readers and writers.

4. Literacy gets you to the goal.

Studies have shown that people who write down their goals are 80% more likely to achieve
them. Having documentation of our goals and reading them back to ourselves on a regular
basis keeps our motivation at the forefront of our minds and allows us to start to create
action plans. This is productive literacy in action. Simply having the ability to write down
what you want to do and where you want to go leads to an impressive head-start.

5. Literacy empowers.

The ability to seek out and understand information gives us all independence to make
choices, to advocate for ourselves and to learn about our community and world. People who
can read and write are powerful in society and studies show that literacy leads to greater
self-reliance and civic engagement.

http://www.litworld.org/blog/2014/8/29/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-power-of-literacy

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Topic 6: Literacy Skills in Classrooms

Development of literacy skills is strongly connected to the development of a country. Supporting

young children’s language and literacy development has long been considered a practice that
produces strong readers and writers later in life, who then contribute positively in the country’s
development and growth. Literacy skills are also strongly connected to classroom learning,
which again ultimately contributes to the country’s development and growth.

Figure 3 presents a picture of a

classroom that is not using any
technology, which is a very
important helping factor of the
modern classroom. While Figure 4
shows a modern classroom, where
each student is using technology
and is learning in an interactive
Figure 3 Figure 4
manner. Notice that there are no
heavy bags in Figure 4.

Classrooms help to a great extent in improving literacy skills that provide the base for the
development of a country. For instance:

 Literacy rate in Pakistan – 58%

 Literacy rate in USA – 90-95%

As such, the literacy skills being used or developed in the classroom connect with the
development of the country at the macro level.

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Lesson No. 2

Levels of Language

Topic 7: What is Language?

The connection between language and literacy is powerful. Some language and literacy
learning happens naturally during play and everyday experiences, and some depends on clear
instructions from observant and sensitive adults. Language and literacy are connected from
infancy onward. Speaking, listening, reading, and writing develop concurrently (together)
rather than sequentially (one after the other).

 Language is a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to

express our feelings, thoughts, ideas and experiences.

 Language is the key to communication.

 The basic purpose of the system of language is communication. It means whenever

we have to communicate with others, we have to use language in one or other way.

 Purposes, modes or styles of communication can be different, e.g. chit-chat with a

friend, talking with teacher, reading a philosophy book, writing a story, etc.
Nevertheless, in each case, a system of language is used.

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Topic 8: Different Levels of Language

1) The first level of language is Phonology which is related with sound

2) Next, Morphology, is the level of words and forms in language. It is what one normally
understands by grammar (along with syntax).
3) Syntax comes next and is related with clauses, phrases, and sentences. It involves
differences in meaning that occur by changes in word order
4) Semantics is the area of meaning.
5) Pragmatics is the last and is related with use of language

 All languages are known as systems of communication.

 The systems of languages may be different from each other but they follow the
same levels that start from the basic one (phonology) and go up to use of language
(pragmatics).
 When we study language scientifically in stages like above, it is known as
“linguistics”

Extra Reading – Short Note

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. There are three aspects to this study: language
form, language meaning, and language in context
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Topic 9: Phonology

Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages. It is a branch
of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in languages. The
phonological system of a language includes a list of sounds and their features, and rules which
specify how sounds interact with each other.

Sounds are represented by signs or

symbols in a language, as in this
chart which represents sounds in
English language. It is called the
“International Phonemic Chart of
English”. There are 26 alphabets
in English and 44 sounds related
with those alphabets. These
sounds help us to know the exact
pronunciation of particular
alphabets.

Phonology, therefore, is the study of sounds, and the combination of sounds, that is, how are
these sounds organized.

 Sounds are known as “phonemes”

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Topic 10: Morphology

Morphology is a sub-discipline of linguistics in which forms and structure of words in a

language are studied. In easier words, one can say that sounds combine to form words, and that is
Morphology.

Morphology is the study of how things are put together, like the make-up of animals and plants,
or the branch of linguistics that studies the structure of words.

In morphology, the word part morph- means "form" and -ology means "the study of." So, those
who study how something is made or formed are engaged in morphology. In biology, the
morphology of fish might investigate how the gills work as part of the respiratory system. In
language morphology, you might study how prefixes and suffixes added to a word change its
meaning.

 Words in a language consist of one element, or elements, of meaning which are known as
“morphemes”
 Number of “phonemes” (sounds) combines to give a “morpheme” (word).

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Topic 11: Syntax

Syntax is the sequence in which words are put together to form sentences. In English, the usual
sequence is subject, verb, and object. (Note: Syntactic languages, such as English, use word
order to indicate word relationships).

 “Syntax” is a Greek word, which means “order”

 If words are not put together in certain order in sentence, they will just be morphemes
and will not form a proper sentence to convey any meaningful message
 To understand a sentence, a proper order, or sequence of words is necessary. This order
or sequence is called Syntax.
 Word arrangement is essential to communicate properly

Verb

Subject Object

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Topic 12: Semantics and Pragmatics

 Whenever we enter the sphere of “meaning”, we are talking about “semantics” and
“pragmatics”.
 “Meaning” is what we use the language for—to communicate with each other, to convey
'what we mean' effectively.
 Both semantics and pragmatics have to do with the meaning of language, and link
language to the world.

The branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. It is concerned with the meaning of
a word, phrase or text. Similarly, analysis of word meanings and relations between them is also
studied here.

Extra Reading

SEMANTICS

The most general definition of semantics is that it is "the study of linguistic meaning", or "the
study of the meaning of words and sentences"

PRAGMATICS

Pragmatics is the study of "how to do things with words", or "the study of the contribution of
context to meaning".

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Lesson No. 3

Certain Terms
(related to language and language learning, and literacy)

Topic 13: Acquisition and Learning

Language acquisition is the process by which children acquire the capacity to perceive and
comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate in a
natural way and not consciously.

GLOSSARY

 Acquisition: Gaining, Attainment, Acquirement

 Perceive: Notice, Identify, Make out, Sense, Become aware of
 Comprehend: Understand, Know, Grasp

Children acquire language through a subconscious process during which they are unaware of
grammatical rules. They get a feel for what is and what is not correct. In order to acquire
language, the learner needs a source of natural communication. The emphasis is on the text of the
communication and not on the form. Young students who are in the process of acquiring English
get plenty of “on the job” practice. They eagerly acquire the language to communicate with
classmates.

Language learning, on the other hand, is the result of direct instructions in the rules of language.
It certainly is not an age-appropriate activity for your young learners. In language learning,
students have conscious knowledge of the new language and can talk about that knowledge.
They can fill in the blanks on a grammar page. Research has shown, however, that knowing
grammar rules does not necessarily result in good speaking or writing. A student who has
memorized the rules of the language may be able to succeed on a standardized test of English
language but may not be able to speak or write correctly.

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Topic 14: Difference between Acquisition and Learning

 Acquisition is implicit, but learning is explicit.

 Acquisition is age-related, but learning is not.
 Acquisition is not effort related, but learning is.

Therefore, teaching literacy comes under the heading of learning.

GLOSSARY

 Explicit: Clear, Obvious, Precise, Unequivocal

 Implicit: Hidden, Implied, Understood, Tacit

Acquiring language is said to be a subconscious process. It’s the act of internalizing language to
which you have been exposed without the deliberate memorization of a word and its definition.
With acquisition, you don’t need to be aware of the learning process. Acquisition of language
occurs from your environment where your surroundings provide the input and language
acquisition just happens magically with repeated exposure to the target language.

Learning is a conscious activity. It’s what we do when we look a word up in the dictionary. It’s
also what happens when we learn rules about how language works or purposefully study lists of
vocabulary and grammar forms. Enrolling in a language class involves deliberate learning. Here,
the language will be learned through memorization and direct study.

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Topic 15: Native Language

 It is the language that a person acquires in early childhood because it is spoken in the
family and/or it is the language of the region where the child lives.
 Also known as mother tongue, first language, arterial language, or L1.
 Native language is the one that the child learns from their parents in home environment.
 Children growing in bilingual homes can have more than one mother tongue or native
language
 Child acquires the words, sentences, rules of the language, etc, of L1 automatically from
immediate family and the surrounding environment.

Topic 16: Second Language

 It is the language other than the mother tongue that a person or community uses for
public communication, especially in trade, higher education, and administration.
 It is a language learned by a person after his or her native language, esp. as a resident of
an area where it is in general use.
 A person's second language (or L2) is a language that is not the native language of the
speaker, but that is used in the locale (setting, area, locality) of that person.
 It is next to native language
 The user of the second language (L2) often has the same or almost the same competency
in this language as in their native language (L1).

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Topic 17: Foreign Language

 A foreign language is a language

originating from another country.
 It is also a language not spoken
very commonly in the native
country of the person.
 For instance, Italian or French
language in Pakistan.
 Teaching foreign language should
start from the very basics

Topic 18: Regional Language

 A regional language is a language spoken in an area of a sovereign (independent, self-

governing) state, whether it is a small area, a federal state or province, or some wider
area.
 A regional language is a language spoken in an area that is part of a larger nation state.
 For instance, Punjabi, Sindhi, Hindko, and Sareiki are regional languages of Pakistan
among many others.
 Regional language becomes the native language (L1) of the people in that particular
region. For instance, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto or Balochi are the native languages of the
people of their respective areas because these languages are spoken and understood in
those particular areas only.
 A dialect is a variety of a language which has different pronunciation, grammar or
vocabulary than the standard language of the region. For example, Shahpuri dialect (also
known as Sargodha dialect), or Utradi, a form of Sindhi language regarded as a dialect of
Sindh; spoken mainly in Upper Sindh.

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Lesson No. 4

Stages of Language Development

Topic 19: First Stage

Introduction

Language development is the process by which children come to understand and communicate
language during early childhood.

 From birth up to the age of five, children develop language at a very rapid pace. The
stages of language development are universal (common) among humans.
 However, the age and the speed at which a child reaches each highpoint of language
development differ greatly among children.
 Thus, language development in an individual child must be compared with norms
(standards) rather than with other individual children. In general girls develop language at
a faster rate than boys.
 Language development reflects the growth and maturation of the brain. After the age of
five it becomes much more difficult for most children to learn language.
 There are six stages of language development.

First Stage

Sounds: Infants, from birth, make and respond to many sounds. Crying, gurgling, and cooing are
important first steps in the language-development process.

 This period is also known as Pre-Linguistic Language Development stage

 The child is learning to control the sounds they can produce and to string these
sounds together in vocal play. In this stage, the child is not yet able to manipulate
these sounds into proper words.
 The foundation of L1 is created during this stage.

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Topic 20: Second Stage

Babbling: All of the sounds found in all languages are encompassed in children’s first
babbling. Gradually, babbling becomes more specific with native language syllables
being consistently practiced.

 This period is also included in the Pre-Linguistic Language Development

stage
 At this time, the child starts ‘babbling’.
 Sounds are given intonations (pitches, tones) learned from the family.
 The child begins to produce a series of consonant-vowel syllables and may
develop utterances, but has yet to produce proper words.
 Babbling continues during the first year of the birth and then normally
finishes.

Topic 21: Third Stage

Holophrases: The first word evolves to many single words or syllables that stand for a variety
of meaningful sentences or phrases in different situations. “Car” said while
looking out the window may mean, “Look at the car outside”.

 Holophrases are related with nouns

 They are context related, because child has a specific meaning in their mind
 They may be having only one word, but for the child they express a complete
sense.
 This stage starts from 10 – 13 months.

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Topic 22: Fourth Stage

Two-Word Sentences: Two-word sentences appear between eighteen and twenty months of
age and express ideas concerning relationships: e.g.

 “Mommy-sock” (possessor-possession) –
my mother owns these socks
 “Cat-sleeping” (actor-action)
 “Drink-milk” (action-object)
 A vocabulary of about 300 words is typical.

At this stage, the child has not attained competency in rules of grammar. The child has simply
attained capability in putting two words together in some logical relationship.

Topic 23: Fifth Stage

Telegraphic Sentences: Simple three or more word sentences usually comprising at least one
noun and verb that stick to the grammatical standards of the culture's
language.

 At least 50 different words

 No function words (is, are, am) and grammatical morphemes –
e.g. “Mommy juice”, “baby fall down”
 Reflecting the order of the language (maintaining sequence of
the language) – e.g. “kiss baby”, “baby kiss”
(SVOENG – SOVURDU)
 Creatively combining words – e.g. “more outside”, “all gone
cookie”.

Telegraphic sentences are short and simple. Similar to telegram, they omit function words and
endings that contribute little to meaning. For example: “Where Daddy go?”, “Me push truck”.

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Topic 24: Sixth Stage

Joined Sentences: As language development proceeds, children learn to join related

sentences logically and express ideas concerning time and spatial
relationships. They come to understand social expectations for language
use.

 At this stage, child learns to complete the sentences with the so far
missing elements (functions, endings)
 Child learns to use language as is done by their adults
 Child acquires all these skills unconsciously and naturally
 The vocabulary extends to about 1,000 words
 Child also learns the rules, forms and norms for using these words as
is required by the language

GLOSSARY

A spatial relation specifies how some object is located in space in relation to some reference
object. In the beginning of language development, early spatial concepts include: in front of,
behind, top, etc.

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Lesson No. 5

Some Guidelines

Topic 25: Need for Guidelines

 Guideline is a general rule, principle, previous example, or piece of advice; a line by

which one is guided.
 Guidelines always help us to determine a course of action especially when we are
planning or designing something.
 By discussing different examples, we will try to focus on certain guidelines for teaching
literacy skills.

Topic 26: Language Development

 There are different stages starting from sounds, and going to babbling, holophrases, two
word sentences, telegraphic sentences, and finally joint sentences.
 It can be observed that language starts with simple sounds which develop into
understandable conversations.
 During the language development process, the child moves from the simple to complex,
and broken sentences or incomplete sentences to complete sentences (this is the
guideline).
 The acquisition of language is one of the more remarkable achievements of early
childhood. By age 5, children essentially master the sound system and grammar of their
language and acquire a vocabulary of thousands of words.
 Literacy skills are related to language development – so the same guidelines apply.

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Topic 27: Language Model

 Sounds develop into forms and words, which mature into clauses and sentences,
followed by meanings and proper use of language.

Baby makes One-word Holophrases, Full

sounds stage Telegraphics conversation

 Both models follow the same pattern of "from simple to complex”, “from incomplete to
complete”.
 Guideline: start with the basics and move on to the complex.

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Topic 28: Literacy Models

Basic Model Complex Model

Literacy is fundamental for learning in school. It

has an impact on an individual's ability to
participate in society and to understand important
public issues. And it provides the foundation upon
which skills needed in the labour market are built.

 It is possible that an individual fails to reach the level of the complex model; but anyone
who has reached the level of the complex model must have passed though the level of the
basic model.
 Guideline: we should start from the basics when teaching literacy skills

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Topic 29: Literacy Classroom

 In literacy classroom, we teach all of the skills needed for reading and writing.
 They include such things as awareness of the sounds of language, awareness of print and
the relationship between letters and sound.
 When we say somebody is literate, we mean that s/he is able to read, write, speak and
understand the subject matter – all these skills contain within themselves several other
skills.
 Literacy classroom is a combination of several skills and corresponding sub-skills

Topic 30: Starting from Basics

 The models discussed previously guide us that we should start from the basics when
teaching literacy skills – start with the simple and move to the difficult from there
onwards – step-by-step

o Alphabets
o Sounds
Sequence to follow for attaining any of the major
o Words
literacy skills like reading, writing, speaking, listening.
o Pronunciation
o Order of words
o Sentences
o Reading
o Writing, etc.

Above is based on the guideline for a literacy classroom: from easy to difficult.

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Lesson No. 6

What Should Literacy Do?

Topic 31: What is a Code?

Code is the message conveyed through communication (read, view, listen) and encode (write,
speak, present) – uses alphabet, sounds, spelling conventions, sentence structure, etc.

 In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert

information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form or
representation, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a channel or
storage in a medium.
 Literacy is connected to certain codes – in the effort to attain literacy, you are trying to
achieve a competency to deliver your code effectively.
 The basic purpose of language is communication – the more refined the literacy skills,
the more effective the communication is.

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Topic 32: Code Breaker

Code breaking ability is the ability to decode (read, view, listen) and encode (write, speak,
present) – uses alphabet, sounds, spelling conventions, sentence structure, etc.

 When you are making or delivering a message, you are encoding; when you are trying to
understand a message, you are decoding
 The encoding of a message is the production of the message. It is a system of coded
meanings, and in order to create that, the sender needs to understand how the world is
comprehensible to the members of the audience.
 The decoding of a message is how an audience member is able to understand, and
interpret the message.
 Literacy skills refine a person’s ability to encode and decode

Communication Model

Encode Decode

Sender Channel Receiver

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Topic 33: Meaning Making

(One of the most important objectives to be achieved by literacy)

The ability to draw on prior knowledge, interpret and make meaning of texts and inferred
meaning

 Meaning making is a lengthy process, involving different stages

 Depends upon individual’s level of knowledge, and how refined it is
 Because of difference in the levels of knowledge in various people, the same message
may be understood differently by different people.
 Making meaning out of a message is a very important target of literacy

Topic 34: Using Text

Ability to draw on prior knowledge (mental storage, back-up, schemata), interpret and make
meaning of texts and use them for different purposes. This is another important target of literacy
skills.

 If a student is given an assignment and has to add information from a particular reference,
but is unable to do so, it means that s/he is not literate enough to use that text.
 Texts have different purposes, for instance, letter to a friend, application to a higher
authority, trying to answer a question in a question sheet, etc. have different objectives
and different audiences.
 Literacy skills teach you to make proper codes for using text efficiently

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Topic 35: Analyzing Text

Analyzing involves digging deeper into the meaning of the text. It goes beyond memorizing
facts, dates, and names. It requires more than main ideas and details. Analyzing means forming
an educated opinion about what you have read.

 Understand and act upon the knowledge that texts are not neutral but position and
influence the audience through various means.
 For instance, a joke may be funny and may make the audience laugh, but if it humiliates a
certain part of the community it is not in good taste. We reach to this conclusion after
analyzing the text of the joke. We are using our background knowledge for this purpose.
 Texts are not neutral – they have different purposes, and influence different persons
differently.
 For example: text in a philosophy book or in a story book – both have different purposes
and different effects on the readers. Similarly, a news in a Newspaper will have different
effect on different people.
 You cannot understand a text properly without analyzing it.
 Literacy skills help you learn to analyze text competently

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Topic 36: Examples

 Following processes are involved when you read:

o Coding
o Decoding
o Using text
o Interpreting meaning
o Analyzing text
 The same processes are used when you write, except for “decoding” where you “encode”
the text instead.
 Eliminating one process (or literacy skill) will have drastic effects on coding and
communication.
 Literacy skills target all these areas.

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Lesson No. 7

Literacy Classroom

Topic 37: Student-centered

Student-centered learning is focused on each student’s interests, abilities, and learning styles,
placing the teacher as a facilitator of learning.

 While teachers are an authority figure in this model, teachers and students play an equally
active role in the learning process. The teacher’s primary role is to coach and facilitate
student learning and overall comprehension of material. Student learning is measured
through both formal and informal forms of assessment, including group projects, student
portfolios, and class participation. Teaching and assessment are connected; student
learning is continuously measured during teacher instruction.

o In student-centered classrooms, students are directly involved and encouraged in the

discovery of their own knowledge. Through collaboration and cooperation with
others, students engage in experiential learning that is authentic, holistic, and
challenging. Students are empowered to use prior knowledge to construct new
learning
o This classroom teaching method acknowledges student voice as central to the
learning experience for every learner, and differs from many other learning
methodologies (e.g. teacher-centered)
o Target of teaching: every student must advance towards achieving learning goals –
facilitate every student to learn.

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Topic 38: Teacher-centered

Teacher-centered learning is focused on teacher’s interests, abilities, and learning styles, placing
the teacher as the center of classroom.

 Teachers are the main authority figure in this model. Students are viewed as
“empty vessels” whose primary role is to passively receive information (via
lectures and direct instruction) with an end goal of testing and assessment. It is the
primary role of teachers to pass knowledge and information onto their students. In
this model, teaching and assessment are viewed as two separate entities. Student
learning is measured through objectively scored tests and assessments.

o Teacher’s interest and learning style are important here; i.e. the teacher
makes students learn in the same style as she used to learn, for instance, if
the teacher was an audio-learner the students will be required to learn
through lectures. Visual-learners may not be able to follow the teacher
properly.
o This classroom teaching method acknowledges teacher voice as central to
the learning experience for every learner.

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Topic 39: Roles of Teacher

A teacher can adapt different roles in a classroom. These roles decide not only the dimensions a
classroom can take, but also the quality of teaching and learning.

 The role of a teacher is not eliminated even from the modern classrooms which use a
significant amount of technology.
 A teacher decides through different roles in
a classroom that class is teacher-centered or
student-centered. For instance, if the teacher
keeps controlling the class, it becomes
teacher centered.

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Topic 40: Details of Teacher’s Roles

Teachers assume a wide range of roles to support school and student success. Whether these
roles are assigned formally or shared informally, they build the entire school's capacity to
improve. Because teachers can lead in a variety of ways, many teachers can also serve as leaders
among their peers.

Among the most important roles a teacher may assume is that of learner. Learners exemplify
continual improvement, demonstrate lifelong learning, and use what they learn to help all
students achieve.

 Jeremy Harmer
https://www.google.com.pk/#q
=jeremy+harmer+practice+of+
english+language+teaching+pdf
(this is a continuous string – no breaks)

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Topic 41: Activity Based

Where teaching and learning are based on different activities related to the topic; for instance,
sequencing, sorting, measuring, predicting, testing, acting out, role playing, observing/
comparing, memorizing, dancing/ singing/ chanting/ making music, mixing, joining, tracing/
painting, etc. – all these activities can be conducted in a literacy classroom.

 Activity Based Learning (ABL) is a methodology where children of different

ages are grouped together in one class and learn at their own pace through
teacher-facilitated exercises.
 It is a student-centered classroom.
 Activities are related to the topic, learning target and objectives.

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Topic 42: Conclusion

The principle behind the activity based approach is that children are “doers” and learn the
language because they have encountered and used it in a realistic situation.

 Children learn best from experience.

 Children learn by doing, using their senses, exploring their environment of
people, things, places and events.
 They learn from first-hand and concrete experiences as well as “vicarious”
(second-hand) forms of experiences, (e.g., storytelling, listening to another
person, reading a book and looking at pictures, watching television or listening to
the radio).
 Children do not learn as effectively when they are passive. Active engagement
with things and ideas promotes mental activity that helps students retain new
learning and integrate it with what they already know.
 If it is not possible to always provide concrete, first-hand experiences for the
student, efforts must always be exerted so that the student will be able to
understand the concept in a clear and concrete way.

A teacher in literacy classroom:

Teacher
a) encourages student–faculty contact
b) encourages cooperation among students
c) encourages active learning
d) gives prompt feedback
e) emphasizes time on task
f) communicates high expectations Student Student
g) respects diverse talents and ways of learning
(Chickering & Gamson, 1999, p.76)

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Lesson No. 8

Teaching Alphabets

Topic 43: Alphabetic Principle

The alphabetic principle is composed of two parts:

i. Alphabetic Understanding
Words are composed of letters that represent sounds.
o Alphabets are letters, and letters are sounds; e.g. CAT has three letters that
represent three different sounds.
ii. Phonological Recording
Using systematic relationships between letters and phonemes (letter-sound
correspondence), to retrieve the pronunciation of an unknown printed string or to spell
words.

o Phonological recording is the utilization of reading abilities to transform written

symbols into noises and words. It is a necessary component to understanding
symbolic imagery.

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Topic 44: Introducing Alphabets

A new alphabet is introduced to a child.

 Normally, this stage of teaching alphabets is related to pre-schoolers or toddlers

 For us this is just an alphabet, but it is a whole new concept for a pre-schooler or
toddler – if drawn on the whiteboard, these are new shapes for the young children.
 Whenever introducing a new letter, always relate it to a picture of an object which
the child is already familiar with – it creates a context for the child and makes
learning easy. The picture will make the letter stick to the mind of the child.

Three terms for teaching alphabets stage:

 Pre-school: stage before the school stage

 Toddlers: 3-4 years (have just started walking)
 Kindergarten: nursery stage (classroom is just like a playroom for the children, they learn
while playing)

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Topic 45: Alphabetic Order

 Introduce in a particular order

 Plan from easy to complex – incomplete to complete (easy concepts provide base for the
next level)

The first picture above represents the natural order of English alphabets, but the second
picture starts with easier sounds and proceeds to the difficult ones. ‘A’ and ‘C’ have more
than one sound, while ‘B’ has only one sound, and so forth.

Extra Reading:
o Alphabetical order is a system whereby strings of characters are placed in order
based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an
alphabet.
o To determine which of two strings comes first in alphabetical order, their first
letters are compared. If they differ, then the string whose first letter comes earlier
in the alphabet is the one which comes first in alphabetical order. If the first
letters are the same, then the second letters are compared, and so on. If a position
is reached where one string has no more letters to compare while the other does,
then the first (shorter) string is deemed to come first in alphabetical order.

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Topic 46: Relate with Sound

 When introducing your child to the 26 letters and each letter’s (sounds), do not simply
begin with the alphabet ‘A’.
 Working in alphabetical order is not the most effective way for a child to learn the sounds
made by each letter.
 Always relate a letter with a sound which is familiar to the child so that the child gets a
clear concept.

Extra Reading

Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing of the English language by developing
learners' phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes—in order
to teach the correspondence (association, correlation) between these sounds and the spelling
patterns (graphemes) that represent them.

Phonics instruction helps children learn the relationships between the letters of written language
and the sounds of spoken language. Children are taught, for example, that the letter n represents
the sound /n/, and that it is the first letter in words such as nose, nice and new.

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Topic 47: Practice

 To practice is to do something again and again in order to become better at it.

 It requires repeated performance or systematic exercise for the purpose of acquiring skill
or proficiency.
 It involves action rather than thought or ideas.

Alphabets for pre-shoolers are not easy. All alphabets are new to them.

Following three points are to be kept in mind when teaching alphabets to children:

i. Components and definition of alphabetic principle

ii. The phonemic awareness and decoding
iii. Letter-sound correspondence to enhance word recognition

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Lesson No. 9

Activities with Alphabets

Topic 48: Letters on String

 Select the order of the alphabets you want to
teach the sounds of (e.g. one of the two
orders discussed in Topic 45 earlier).
 Cut out cardboard alphabets
 Hang them on a string according to the
chosen order

Letters which have to be taught are hanging on the wire. In a way, they look like something real.

Topic 49: Large Letters

 Besides being almost as tall as the child, these letters can be decorated with pictures of
objects beginning with that letter.
 Any material can be used for making these big letters.

Making these letters will involve several other activities, engaging all students and enabling
active learning.

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Topic 50: Alphabet Cookies

Letters in the form of cookies can also serve as an effective source of teaching letters.

Topic 51: Letter Cards

Print out the letter cards, and have the young student colour the letters with crayons or paint
markers.

Many activities can be carried out with above material.

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Topic 52: Letter Boxes

 Take small containers.

 Take letter stickers.
 Fix one letter yourself and tell the child to fix the same letter by picking from the sticker
sheet.

This creates a student-centered classroom involving all students in performing the required skill.

Topic 53: Letter Pounding

This activity also helps the students in identifying and recognizing the letters, and placing them
as required.

 Take boards printed with letters (or paste a sheet printed with letters on the board)
 Take letter shapes
 Tell children to fix the letter shape on its place on the board.
 This is essentially a matching activity
 It is better to conduct this activity in pairs or groups.

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Lesson No. 10

Alphabetic Principle

Topic 54: Lack of Alphabetic Understanding

Children who lack alphabetic understanding cannot:

 understand that words are composed of letters

 associate (connect, relate) an alphabetic character (i.e. letter) with its corresponding
phoneme or sound

When we go on reducing the bigger chunks of language and start moving towards the minimum
part of the word, sentences are reduced in to words and words are reduced in to letters (letters
have sounds). The problem with children who lack alphabetic understanding is that:

o they do not understand that words are made of letters,

o and that these letters represent sounds (which we call phonemes).

As a result, concepts get intermingled in their minds, confusing them, and they are unable to
distinguish letters.

 They are also unable to identify a word based on a sequence of letter-sound

correspondences (e.g. that “mat” is made up of three letter-sound correspondences: /m/
/a/ /t/).
 As a result, they cannot blend letter-sound correspondences to identify decidable words.
 Such children also cannot use knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to identify
words in which letters represent their most common sound
 As such, the fail to identify and manipulate letter-sound correspondences within words.

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Topic 55: Alphabetic Principle Skills

To develop alphabetic principle across nursery/ kindergarten to grades K-3, students need to
learn two essential skills:

1. Letter-sound correspondence
Comprises initially of individual letter sounds, and progresses to more complex letter
combinations.
2. Word reading
Comprises initially of reading simple words, and progresses to compound words,
multisyllabic words, and sight words.

Extra Reading

Sight words are commonly used words

that young children are encouraged to
memorize as a whole by sight, so that
they can automatically recognize these
words in print without having to use
any strategies to decode

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Topic 56: Kindergarten Skills

1. Letter-sound correspondence: identifies and produces the most common sound associated
with individual letter (letters giving more than one sound
are normally not used at this stage).

2. Decoding blends the sounds of individual letters to read one-syllable

words – when presented with the word “fan“, the student
will say: “/fffaaannn/, fan“.

Topic 57: First Grade Skills

1. Letter-sound combination produces the sounds of the most common letter sounds and
combinations (e.g. th, sh, ch, ing)

2. Decoding sounds out and reads words with increasing automaticity,

including words with consonant blends (e.g. mask, slip
play), letter combinations (e.g. fish, chin, bath),
monosyllabic words (e.g. cat, sun, moon), and common
word parts (e.g. ing, all, ike).

3. Sight words reads the most common sight words automatically (e.g.
very, some, even, there)

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Lesson No. 11

Lowercase Letters

Topic 58: Importance of Lowercases

English alphabets have both upper and lower case forms. Both forms of each letter are
considered to be the same letter; that is, they have the same name and the same pronunciation
and they are treated (virtually) identically when sorting in alphabetical order.

Importance of Lowercases Upper case (capital letter) is used only at the start of a
sentence when the first word of the sentence is capitalized.
We also capitalize the pronoun, and the proper nouns as
well as most adjectives formed from proper noun. This is a
very limited usage; lowercase (small letter) is used
extensively.

o Lowercase is faster to write,

o easier to read,
o and saves space on the printing material.
o It is also easier on the eyes,
o and do not burden coding-decoding systems.
o It provides fluency in writing.

The invention and application of lowercase letters have been highly beneficial to the reading and
writing of text.

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Topic 59: When to Teach Lowercase Letters

Uppercases first, for two reasons 1. Uppercase letters are easier to visually distinguish than
lowercase letters – take for example the uppercase ‘B’ and
‘D’ versus. the lowercase ‘b’ and ‘d’.

2. Uppercase letters are easier for beginning writers (e.g.

‘E’ versus ‘e’). Even when instructed with lowercase
letters, it is often noticed that young children naturally
prefer uppercase.

It is important to expose young children to all kinds of letters, even different kinds of fonts.

So they should be introduced and exposed to small letters soon after the upper cases.

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Topic 60: Letter Confusion

There are certain small letters which might

create confusion for learners, e.g. ‘b’ and ‘d’. e

It should be noted that some lowercase letters very closely mimic their capital letter partners, e.g.
Cc, Kk, Oo, Vv, Ww.

So there should be more practice for the letters that might be confusing for learners.

This picture helps to clarify the confusion.

It relates the letters with a picture.

This picture is also helpful in clearing up the concept.

Teacher can use similar material.

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Topic 61: Lowercase Letters - Some Activities

 Skill is activity based; it develops and improves with practice

 Teaching literacy skills should be activity based
 Activity provides practice
 Every classroom should be activity based
 Activities should be interesting
 Teacher should know which activity should be introduced at what
time – timing is important
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Lesson No. 12

Introducing Sounds

Topic 62: Phonemic Code

The phonemic code is the specific print=sound relationships written English is based on. For
instance: cat /c+a+t/.The English phonemic code of phonograms (distinct written letter or letters
that represent specific sound(s)) is complex.

It is related to the letters and the sounds associated with them. A standardized set of symbols
used in phonetic transcription.

Topic 63: Importance of Phonemic Code

Students need to learn the phonemic code because this phonemic code is the basis for written
English and the foundation for proficient reading. The linguistic fact IS English is a phonetic
based system. learnt and decoded if taught effectively.

Learning the phonemic code (sound the print represents) is an essential

sub skill for developing these proficient reader pathways.

This knowledge provides essential building blocks for developing the foundation
of proficient phonologic processing.

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Topic 64: Problem with Phonemic Code

The English phonemic code of phonograms (distinct written letter or letters that represent
specific sound(s)) is complex. Letters and sounds do not have a one-to-one correspondence.
There are 26 letters and 44 sounds.

Some letters represent more than one sound. Many sounds are
made from a combination of letters. For instance: the letter ‘c’ in
‘car’ and in ‘cigar’.

Combination of letters: ‘sh’ or ‘th’.

There is overlap where one sound can be written several ways: /k/
from ‘k’ for kite as well as from ‘c’ for car.

Although it is difficult, even then English language is learnt and decoded if taught effectively.
Most patterns are predictable and decoded easily.

Topic 65: Keep in Mind

Assembling word parts - The most common type of reading

strategy in 3rd grade. The child breaks the word into small
pieces. Often these are not real words and letters are used in
several word parts. "plank" is read as "plan-ant" or "literature”
is read as "lite-rat-ture'even

Common phonetic errors - These are accurate and phonetically

correct decoding of irregularly spelled words. "honey' is read as
'hone-ee' or 'prank' is read as 'prahnk'

Limited code knowledge - The child has an incomplete knowledge

of the spelling code. As a result, they will write the correct
number of sounds, but the incorrect spelling. "made" is written as
"mad" or "pout' is written as 'pot'

Letter naming - The child reads the word by saying the letter names.
"punch" is read as "peeuhenseeaetch"

While teaching, one must keep these things in mind and must try to look
for the effective solution to these issues.

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Lesson No. 13

Some Terms
Phonology and Phonetics: Topic 66

Phonology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization of sounds in

languages. It is the first level of language also.

Phonology is about the patterns of sounds, especially different patterns of sounds in different
languages (Arabic, Urdu, English), or within each language, different patterns of sounds in
different positions in words etc.

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Phonetics

Phonetics deals with the production of speech sounds by humans, often without prior knowledge
of the language being spoken. For instance, /k/ or /b/sound and different origins of these sounds.

Phonemes: Topic 67

Phonemes are the smallest units of sounds in a language. If a phoneme is changed, the word may
change, e.g. change the l sound in 'lack' to a b and the word changes to 'back'.

In English, the sound e in 'pet' and i in 'bit' are examples of vowel phonemes, the sounds j in
'judge' and sh in 'ship' are consonant phonemes.

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Phonics; Topic 68

Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing of the English language by developing
learners' phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identifies, and manipulates phonemes.

The purpose is to teach the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns
(graphemes) that represent them.

Importance of phonics

Learning phonics will help you to learn to read and spell. Written language can be compared to a
code, so knowing the sounds of letters and letter combinations will help you to decode words as
you read.

Phonemic Awareness: Topic 69

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual phonemes. Phonological
awareness includes this ability, but it also includes the ability to hear and manipulate larger units
of sound.

Conscious awareness that words is composed of separate sounds and the ability to identify and
manipulate those sounds. Phonemic awareness can be developed by:

1. Recognizing beginning and ending sounds

2. Isolating sounds

3. Combining sounds

4. Breaking or segmenting words into its separate sounds

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Lesson No. 14

Consonant Sounds
What are these? : Topic 70

A consonant is a letter that represents a speech sound produced by a partial or complete

obstruction of the air stream by a constriction of the speech organs.

There are 21 consonant letters in the written alphabet (B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R,

S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z), and there are 24 consonant sounds in most English accents.

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Consonant Phonemes: Topic 71

A consonant phoneme is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the
vocal track.

Manner of Articulation: Topic 72

The manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the articulators (speech organs
such as the tongue, lips, and palate) wh en making a speech sound.

One parameter of manner is that how much air passage is blocked while producing some sound.

Different sounds are produced due to different positions of speech organs.

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Lesson No. 15

Different Consonant Sounds

Different Types : Topic 73

A consonant sound is produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by a

constriction of the speech organs. This is related to manner of articulation also.

It means different positions of speech organs and the resultant air passage produce all these type
of sounds. Example: flute

Stop: Topic 74

The definition of a stop consonant has three parts. First, either the tongue or the lips close off the
air flow entirely. Second, this closure causes a build up of pressure, and third, there is a release
of this built up air.

There are 6 different stop consonants. /p/, /b/, where the pressure is built up by the lips being
closed; / t/, / d/, where the pressure is built up by the tongue raising and closing off the air flow;
and /k/, /g/, where the pressure is built up by the back of the tongue reaching up an touching the
back of the throat, causing the pressure to build up there.

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Nasals: Topic 75

Nasals are consonants that are formed by blocking the oral passage and allowing the air to
escape through the nose. The examples of a nasals are /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/.The air stops at the lips and
goes through the nose instead.

Fricatives: Topic 76

A fricative is a consonant sound that is created by constricting the vocal tract, causing friction as
the air passes through it The examples of English fricative sounds (the v sound, f sound, th
sound, z sound, s sound, sh sound, and h sound).

Affricates: Topic 77

A complex speech sound consisting of a stop consonant followed by a fricative; it is a

combination of stops and fricatives. It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a
single phoneme or a consonant pair. Examples: /t͡ʃ/ (catch) and /d͡ʒ/ (jury).

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Approximant: Topic 78

An approximant, in phonetics, a sound that is produced by bringing one articulator in the vocal
tract close to another without, however, causing audible friction. Approximants include
semivowels, such as the y sound in “yes” or the w sound in “war.” /r/ and /l/ are also
approximants.

Lesson No. 16

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Points of Articulation

Topic 79: What Does It Mean?

Sound is produced simply by expelling air from the lungs. However, to vary the sound quality in
a way that can be useful for speaking, two speech organs normally need to come close to each
other, so as to create an obstruction that shapes the air in a particular fashion.

The point of maximum obstruction is known as the place of articulation, and the way in which
the obstruction is formed and released is known as the manner of articulation.

It means different points of speech organs and the resultant air passage produce different type of
sounds.

Topic80: Different Points

Bilabial: Both lips are almost closed, as in p, b or m.

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Labiodental: Lower lip contacts upper teeth, as in f or v.

Dental: Tongue tip (part just behind the tip) contacts upper teeth, as in the two th sounds (e.g.
thin vs. this)

Alveolar: Tongue tip contacts the alveolar ridge (the gums just behind the teeth), as in t, d, n, or
l; or tongue blade contacts the alveolar ridge, as in s or z.

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Post alveolar: Tongue blade contacts the post alveolar region behind the alveolar ridge, as in sh,
ch, zh, or j; or tongue tip contacts the post alveolar region as in s.

Palatal: Middle of tongue approaches or contacts the hard palate, as in y.

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Velar: Back of tongue contacts the soft palate (or "velum"), as in k, g.

Glottal: No obstruction anywhere but in the vocal cords down in the throat, as in h.

At a Glance:

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Different points because different types of obstructions and this way different sound are
produced.

Module EDU 410: Teaching Literacy Skills

Topic: Teaching Consonant Sounds

Kindergarten:

When the child turns 4-5 years old. The child will go to kindergarten usually for 2 years that is
when they are at age 5 and 6, before they proceed to primary school at age of almost 7.

Introduction: Consonants produce sounds that are more consistent and easier to identify than
vowels. Therefore, they make a good starting point for learning sounds.

Initially, work should be done on identifying beginning consonant sounds (ex: t-t-t tulip).

After that, activities can focus on identifying final consonant sounds (ex: cat ends with the t-t-t
sound).

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Viewing the word in the context of a picture will help reinforce this skill.

Introduce only the hard sounds of c, /k/ (cat) and g, /g/ (gum) in kindergarten. The soft sounds of
c (cent) and g (gym) should be introduced later in grade 1.

Presentation:

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How we should present these consonant sounds to young learners? There are different
approaches for this purpose. For instance:

Reliability: Some teachers like to deal with the letters based on their reliability (in other words,
how many different sounds might that letter make... For example, although “c" is a common
letter in the English language, it is not as reliable as the letter "v".

Frequency: Another method some use is to introduce the most common sounds first (s, t and
r). This allows the children to quickly begin forming words.

Points to Remember:

Identifying beginning consonant sounds

Distinguishing between two or more beginning consonants sounds.

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Identifying ending consonant sounds.

Choosing words that have a particular beginning or ending consonant.

And above all! Practice:

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Some Activities: worksheet

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Trace and print the letters:

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Color the letter D

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Lecture # 18

Topic # 87 - Consonant Sounds at Higher Level

Higher level means that the students are already familiar with the concept of consonant sounds.
They have learnt these sounds in their early classes. For instance, the students at secondary or
higher secondary stage. The students at your stage are also considered as higher level students.

Teaching consonant sounds at higher level requires the clarification of the concepts like ‘voiced’,
articulation etc. We are going to talk about them one by one.

Topic # 88 - Voiced & Voiceless

There are certain consonant sounds which are articulated from the same point. The difference
between such two sounds are of voicing.

Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate.

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Put your hand on your throat and pronounce the sounds produced by f, s, p, and t. You shouldn’t
feel any vibration happening in your throat. Now try the same exercise, but pronounce the
sounds produced by the letters v, z, b, and d. Did you feel the difference? You should feel
vibration in your throat. The reason is that the first group of sounds are “voiceless” and the
second group of sounds are “voiced”.

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Tell your students to make this experiment on their own. They are already familiar with the
sounds, but these concepts are to be taught to them.

Topic # 89 - Place of Articulation

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Presentation

• Explain each of these places of articulation in detail.

• List the English consonant sounds that occur at each place of articulation, along with
their IPA symbols.

• Provide audio examples for you to hear and contextualize these sounds.

• Practice

Topic # 90 - Manner of Articulation

Stop or Plosive, Affricate, Fricative, Nasal, Lateral, Approximant. Clarify the concept and tell
them to make experiment on their own.

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Give them the reason for different types of sounds produced due to different manners. For
instance /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/.

Topic # 91 - Symbols and Chart

Make the familiar with symbols related to consonant sounds. They should be able to pick these
symbols and read them in dictionaries.

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Give them the understanding about the consonant chart showing the place and manner of
articulation side by side. It will help them to differentiate between two different types of sounds.

And above all audio-video aids for sounds and practice for these sounds.

Lesson No. 19

Topic no 92

Vowel Sounds

There are 21 consonants and 5 vowels in English. But as we know there are more than 21
consonant sounds in English, similarly vowel sounds are also more than 5. There are five vowels
in English a, e, I, o, u the number of vowel sounds is subject to greater variation; there are 20
vowel phonemes in British English, 14-16 in general American and 20-21 in Australian English.
This variation in vowel phonemes is due to difference of accent.

Five vowels make 19-21 sound sometimes in single place and sometimes there sounds get double
sometimes there are . and symbols to create different sounds, here is one important thing that
these are sounds not letters they can be seen in the picture below:

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Single sounds and different combinations of sounds give us a variety of vowel sounds. Just like
consonants number of sounds in vowels also increases.

Topic no 93

Vowel Sounds Pronunciation

While producing vowel sounds your breath flows freely through the mouth, it means there is no
obstruction while producing these sounds.

In consonants air passage is blocked at point of articulation with different manner of articulation
but is vowel sounds there is no blockage at all and there is continuous flow of air and there is
continuous shaping of sounds.

Vowel don’t involve air blockage, but instead require a more continual sound flow and sound
shaping. Phoneticians describe vowel production in term of HAR:

H: Height (whether the tongue is high mid or low in the mouth)

A: Advancement (how front or back the tongue)

R: Rounding (whether the lips are round, for sounds like “oo” of “boot”.

In following picture air passage and rounding while vowel sounds is shown.

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Topic 94

Types of English vowel sounds

There are mainly three types of vowel sounds:

1) Monophthongs
2) Diphthongs
3) Triphthongs

Monophthongs: A vowel that has a single perceived auditory quality is called monophothong. A
monophothong (Greek Monophthongs from monos “single” and phthongs “sound”) is a pure
vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which
does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. There is no alteration in
position of tongue.

Diphthongs: diphthongs are combination of two vowel sounds i.e. /ai /.

Triphthongs: Triphthongs are combination of three vowel sounds.

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These three types of vowel sounds give us variety of sounds and this way number is also
increased.

Topic No 95

Vowel Triangle

A triangular or a figure on which vowels are shown according to the position of the part of the tongue that
is highest in their articulation. It shows the position of the tongue and jaw according to the vowel sound(s)
required when speaking.

We can summarize this account of the vowel system by considering the relative position of each vowel in
a graphic that abstractly represents its phonetic properties.

This triangular helps us in teaching and explaining different positions of vowel sounds.

Topic No 96

Short Vowels

A mono- phthong is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively
fixed, A vowel that has a single perceived auditory quality and which does not glide up or down towards a
new position of articulation. A short vowel is also a mono-phthong.

A short vowel sound in any word is that does not allow the vowel within it to generate that vowel’s long
sound and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation.

Topic No 97

List of short Vowels

Please see the video lecture to understand this topic.

Topic No 98

Vowel Sounds

Schwa

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The most frequently vowel in English is schwa and it is always associated with weak syllables. In
quantity it is mid (half way between close and open) and central (half way between front and back). Most
specialists describe the schwa sound as lax, not articulated with much energy.

For example, the schwa sound is found in the following words:

The a is schwa in adopt.

The e is schwa in synthesis.

The I is schwa in decimal.

The o is schwa in harmony.

The u is schwa in medium.

Topic No 99

Short Vowels

Short Vowels on Triangle

This triangle helps to understand the position of a vowel sound in our oral cavity.

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Topic No 100

Long vowels
Symbol of long vowel is /a:/, in short vowels there are two dots as part of symbol. Sound in short
vowels is not stretched but in long vowel sound is stretched. Long vowel is also a
monophothong. A long vowel sound in any word that generates that vowel’ s long sound and
which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. You can use it to
understand the basic usage for the long vowel sound. These long vowel sounds are often used in
larger words as well (installation) or even in two lettered words, like car, /ka:/.
Topic 101: Long Vowels

Long Vowels on Triangle

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Topic No 102

Long Vowels

Long Vowel Sounds

Look at the figures and note the difference in the position of oral cavity while producing these long
vowels:

The next picture depicts how to produce sound e’:

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The next picture depicts how to produce the sound o’

For more clarity on this topic, please see the video lecture.

Topic No 103

Short and Long Vowels

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In this topic we have revised the long and short vowel sounds.

Topic no 104

Diphthongs

What Is a Diphthong?

A sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single word, in which

the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another (as in coin, loud, side ).

It means :There are two vowel sound. There is a different beginning and different end. The
position of tongue changes because it glides from one position to another position.

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To understand different diphthongs, these are divided into three groups depending on the ending
sound.

Topic no 105

1st Group: Ending on Schwa

There are three diphthongs ending on Schwa sound.

Examples:

/iə/ as in here

/eə/ as in hair

/ʊə/ as in tour

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Topic no 106

2nd Group: Ending on /I/Sound

There are three diphthongs ending on /I/ sound.

Examples:

/eI/ as in take

/ɔI/ as in toy

/aI/ as in tie

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Topic no 107

3rd Group: Ending on /ʊ/Sound

There are three diphthongs ending on /ʊ/ sound.

Examples:

/əʊ/ as in show

/aʊ/ as in mouth

Topic no 108

All in One Glance

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Topic no 109

Triphthongs

What Is a Triphthong?

A vowel sound in which the tongue changes

position to produce the sound of three vowels
one after another.

It means : There are three vowel sounds. There

is a different beginning and different end. The
position of tongue changes because it glides
from one position to different positions.

Sometimes, triphthong is defined as a diphthong

+ ə.

Examples

Lower /ləʊə/

Fire /faɪə/

Player /pleɪə/

Loyal /lɔɪəl/

Tower /taʊə/

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Topic no 110

Triphthongs on Triangle

You can perceive three sounds have been combined and tongue glides from one to another.

Topic no 111

Difficulty with Triphthongs

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Topic no 112

Triphthongs in one glance

Three vowel sounds are produced from a limited space and there is a quick gliding of the tongue.
So difficult to perceive and distinguish.

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Topic no 113

5 Steps in Learning Phonics

Topic no 114

Step-1- Learning a-z.

Step-1- Learning a-z.

First of all, we need to learn each alphabet
without differentiating between
consonants and vowels.

Step-2 CVC words with one vowel.

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Step-3 CVCV words with two vowels.

Topic no 115

Step-4 words with double/triple consonant blends.

Consonant blends (also called consonant clusters) are groups of two or three consonants in
words that makes a distinct consonant sound, such as "bl" or "spl."

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Topic no 116

Advance phonics: diphthongs and diagraphs.

A digraph is the combination of two successive letters that represent a single sound like ‘ph’ or
‘th’.

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Topic no 117

Teaching Vocabulary

Vocabulary: Words used in a particular language.

Even at certain places , it has been defined as the total number of words in a language (Collin’s
Dictionary, 1989:1629)

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A single distinct meaningful element of

speech or writing, used with others (or
sometimes alone) to form a sentence and
typically shown with a space on either side
when written or printed.

Two dimensions:

1.Content words. In language, content

words are words such as nouns, most verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs that refer to some
object, action, or characteristic.

2. Function words which function primarily

to express the grammatical relationships
between other words in a sentence.

Function words include determiners (for

example, the, that), conjunctions (and, but),
prepositions (in, of), pronouns (she, they),
auxiliary verbs (be, have), modals (may,
could), and quantifers (some, both).

Topic no 118

To Know a Word

Knowing a word means:

· Having the ability to recognise it in

its spoken and written forms.

· Knowing its different meanings.

· Knowing its part of speech [eg. a

noun, a verb]

· Being able to pronounce it properly·

Being able to use it correctly within a
sentence in an appropriate grammatical
form

· For technical words, recognizing it in

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context

· Being able to recognise different types of English e.g boot/trunk, lift/elevator

A teacher needs to cover all of these aspects while teaching vocabulary .

Topic no 119

What Makes a Word Difficult?

• Pronunciation

Spelling

Length and complexity

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• Grammar

• Meaning

A teacher needs to keep all of these difficulties in view while teaching vocabulary .

Topic no 120

Stages in Teaching Vocabulary

What Do We Mean by ‘Stages’?

To effectively acquire new vocabulary, students must go through four essential stages:

first, they notice a new word with help;

secondly, they recognize the word at first with help, then on their own;

and lastly, they are able to both recognize and produce the word.

It means they gradually move from passive vocabulary to active/productive vocabulary. They
attain this knowledge step by step which is explained through different stages

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Topic no 121

1st Stage:

Understanding New Words

1.Introducing nouns, things, objects, animals, etc. Visual elements work best with concrete
nouns, but try to go beyond flashcards and illustrations. Try to use real objects whenever
possible, or even sounds, smells, and tastes.

2. Introducing adjectives
Opposites, like “big” and “small”, “long” and “short”, are usually illustrated with pictures, but
here’s another case where realia (real life objects) will help you teach new adjectives; the use of
real life objects is wonderful for words like “soft” and “rough”.

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3. Introducing abstracts

There are things you simply cannot teach with a flashcard. What works best in these cases are
synonyms, definitions, substitutions. For instance, teaching the difference between “early” and
“late”,

Topic no 122

2nd Stage: Recognising New Words

Bingo
Bingo is one of the most versatile games
employed by teachers. For younger
learners, make bingo cards with
illustrations, and call out each word. For
those who can read, do the opposite, make
the cards with words.

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Matching
Another type of exercise with countless possibilities. Students may be required to match
opposites, synonyms, or a word with its definition, as well as a picture to a word.

Fill in the blanks (with options)

Hand out a piece of written text (anything

from a description, song, letter, to even a
short story) with blank spaces that must be
filled in from a list of words. You can
adapt this to longer texts, and also have
longer word lists.

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Topic no 123

3rd Stage: Producing Vocabulary

Descriptions

From a newspaper photo of a recent event to a personal account of a recent trip, there are
countless things students can describe while putting new vocabulary to good use.

Fill in the blanks (no options)

Supply students with a piece of written text

with blank spaces that have to be filled in with
any word that fits. You may give them
indications for each space, like “noun”,
“adjective” or “adverb”, if they’re advanced
students.

Mind maps or brainstorming

Tell students they need to think of words they

can use to describe the weather. Write
“weather” at the center of a blackboard or
whiteboard and circle it.

Write every word

supplied by
students as “rays”
that shoot out this
circle. They
should reply with
previously taught
words, like
“chilly”,
“scorching”, or
“mild”.

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Guess what I'm thinking

Students take turns describing something, like a place: “I’m thinking of a place that is so huge it
takes visitors hours to see all of it.

It is a breath taking building, very old, but with a modern glass pyramid in the front.”

Topic no 124

Idioms and Collocations

What are Idioms and Collocation?

Idiom: a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of
the individual words (e.g. hang one’s head; see the light ).

Collocation: a word or phrase that is often

used with another word or phrase, in a
way that sounds correct to people
who use it (day and night, come to the
point)

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Idioms and collocations are a part of vocabulary. These are taught at advanced stages and not at
the level of beginners because it is essential that learners must know the words separately which
are now being used together (as idioms or collocations).

Topic no 125

Difficulty: Idioms and Collocation

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Idioms and collocations might be quite challenging for most of the learners :

• Combination of correct words

• No proper translation

• Tricky use of words

• No grammatical rules

• Difficult to use

• First language interference

Topic no 126

1stStage: Introduction

We know that there are three stages involved in learning vocabulary:

• Introduction

• Recognition

• Production

Lewis (2000) claims that “make and do” collocations provide a useful starting point for
introducing the idea of collocations to learners.

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But there is no reason why it should be ‘make a decision’ rather than ‘do a decision’. We
need to make them aware that this is simply the way we say things in English.

Give students a text, and ask them to chunk it, so they can pick collocations or idioms (they
must be familiar with the words that co-occur).

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Teach them the meaning and use of the collocations or idioms they have picked from the
text.

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Topic no 127

2nd Stage: Practice

To practice or to recognize refer to the same stage. Practice has a crucial role in learning.
However, it is more crucial for collocations/idioms as there is no rule for students to refer to.

The only way to help learners to remember collocations/idioms is to expose them to

collocations through practice and revision activities.

Any kind of filling in the blanks, matching, error correction and odd word out type of
activities can be used to practise collocations/idiom at all levels. For example, error
correction activity would be useful both for writing and exam practice.

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Students can work in two groups working on two sets of collocations/idioms separately and then
presenting it to the other group.

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Topic no 128

3rd Stage: Production

Provide students with certain words and tell them to make collocations by using those words.

Tell them to use these collocations in some composition (essay/story).

Tell students to use correctly the given collocations/idioms in exercises where needed.

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These are some activities that can be used at

the production stage for learning
collocations/idioms.

Topic no 129

Teaching Spellings

What Do We Mean by ‘Spellings’?

The process or activity of writing or naming the letters of a word.

For instance: c a r: car

The way a word is spelled.

Spellings are important because these aid in reading. These

help to strengthen the connections that are shared between
sounds and letters.

Spellings are important also because these help us in writing.

Without, correct spellings, writing means nothing.

Keeping in view the significance of spellings, the

competitions are held at international level as ‘Spelling Bee’.

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Topic no 130

Strategies for Teaching ‘Spellings’

1. Use three kinds of experiences for the learner: auditory (listening), visual (seeing) and
kinaesthetic (through movements). In other words, allow students to hear the correct spelling
of words, see the spellings, and have 'hands-on" experiences.

Here are a few ideas for young learners who do best with kinesthetic experiences.

A) Spell words using Scrabble™ tiles, Boggle™ letter cubes, magnetic letters, or even letters cut
from newspapers and magazines.

A) Spell words using Scrabble™ tiles, Boggle™ letter cubes, magnetic letters, or even letters cut
from newspapers and magazines.

B) Trace the correct spellings of words. Or spell words by gluing string onto construction paper.

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C) Find spelling words on cereal boxes, toy packages and other everyday items.

2. Teach spelling words that make sense to the child.

you should include words from the student's science and social studies lessons, as well as words
related to news events and special calendar days.

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Give students the foundation for spelling successfully. That means making sure students
understand the sounds made by consonants, short vowel sounds, long vowel sounds, diphthongs,
and more. Teach some of the most consistent rules.

4. Simplify spelling whenever possible. Introduce words that have similar patterns at the same
time. For example, teach aloud, around, count, ground, and sound during the same week. Group
tricky words together. Show students er words in one list: perfect, alert, concern, perfume,
expert. Then show them ur words in another list: turkey, return, hurricane, curtain.

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4. Simplify spelling whenever possible. Introduce words that have similar patterns at the same
time. For example, teach aloud, around, count, ground, and sound during the same week.

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Group tricky words together. Show students er words in one list: perfect, alert, concern,
perfume, expert. Then show them ur words in another list: turkey, return, hurricane, curtain.

5. Provide lots of practice in lots of formats. Oral exercises, puzzles, worksheets, and games
all have their place in successful spelling programs. Spelling homework is important, too. All of
these activities, believe it or not, can be fun!Group tricky words together.

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Topic no 131

Some More Strategies for Spellings

Word Walls

Teachers use two types of word walls in their classrooms. One word wall features “important”
words from books students are reading or thematic units.

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Making Words

Teachers choose a five- to eight-letter word (or longer words for older students) and prepare sets
of letter cards for a making words activity (Cunningham & Cunningham, 1992).

Then students use the cards to practice spelling words and to review spelling patterns and rules.

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Word Sorts

Students use word sorts to explore, compare, and contrast word features as they sort a pack of
word cards. Teachers prepare word cards for students to sort into two or more categories
according to their spelling patterns or other criteria.

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Spellings as a sub skill hold a very basic importance among literacy skills. Without having
command over spellings, one neither can read nor write.

Topic no 132

Literacy classroom

In literacy classroom we teach all of the skills needed for reading and writing. They include such
things as awareness of the sounds of language, awareness of the print and the relationship
between sounds and letters.

Literacy classroom is combination of different skills and sub skills related to reading and writing.

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The picture is example of literacy wall different words images and their relationship and use is
shown in a certain order.

Topic no 133

Teaching spellings at higher stage

Teaching spellings to beginners in early classes demands some easy strategies, but to elder
students like 7th and 8th graders can be conducted with higher level activities

When you are teaching something it is very important to involve student’s cognition for a long
term learning.

There are certain activities which can be used for higher learners.

Using missing spelling chart

For instance: Hear and spell listen to the word and then spell it. Words with audio will be
used to hear and spell.

In this image students can be given activity to spell

the word and provide missing letter. In this chart
one letter is missing in each word but others charts
can also be used with two letters missing.

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Shuffling the spellings

Another activity is, spell the word by guessing letters here. The word ‘water’ can be guessed.

Another activity is, spell the word correctly by changing the position of two letters. For instance,
‘radlcai’: radical.

In each activity thinking of students is involved, and they learn the things by thiking by using
their cognition.

Remove extra letter

Another activity can be remove extra letter and spell the word correctly. For instance,
‘subtstitute’: substitute we have removed ‘t’ before ‘s’.

But you should make sure before these activity spelling skills of students must be strong they
should be pretty sure about right and wrong spellings of words.

Topic no 134

Word study

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There is an alternative to traditional spelling instruction called “word study” which is not based
on the random memorization of word.

A word study program is a cohesive approach that addresses word recognition, vocabulary, and
phonics as well as spelling.

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Word study provides students with opportunities to investigate and understand the patterns in
words. Knowledge of these patterns means that students needn’t learn to spell one word at a
time.

Words can be taught on the basis of sounds as well. Chart below shows example of some sounds
and words based on those sounds.

Topic no 135

Explaining word study

Word patterns are focused in this type of study. Take for example the difference between hard c
as in cat and soft c as in cell. After collecting many words containing the letter c students
discover: c is usually hard when c is followed by consonants (as ic clue and crayon) and the
vowels a o and u

Topic no 136

How word study is done?

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Word study is based on the notion that where a student is in his or her spelling development can
serve as a guide for instruction.

At the start of word study program, teachers use a spelling inventory to determine which stage of
spelling development each student is at and then groups students for instruction.

Groups can be made on the base of students learning stage, in the light of above image students
can be divided into three groups.

Once groups are created, teaches develop differential instruction based on the stage of
development each student have achieved.

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Teachers select a group of words that match children’s development. Because the space of
children’s progression through the stages varies, rarely would all the students in a class be
studying the same list of words.

Students and teachers alike must become word detectives. Spelling rules are not dictated by
teacher for students to memorize. Rather, spelling patterns and generalizations are discovered by
students.

Topic no 137

Listening

To hear something with thoughtful attention. Research shows that 45% of our time is spent on
listening. We listen more than speak. Listening comprehension is the receptive skill in the oral
mode..

If the listening skill is used in a proper way we can master the tools of communicative skills.
Thomlison (1984) defines listening as, “Active listening, which is very important for effective
communication”.

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Topic no 138

Types of Listening

There are different types of listening depending upon the situation and the environment, where
the listening takes place. Few important types are given here:

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Whole-person listening-understanding the speaker, his words, thought, motive etc.

* Appreciative Listening- Listening for appreciation and pleasure.

* Attentive Listening –attentively listening each and every word.

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* Casual Listening- Listening not very attentive, listening casually without any interest.

* Evaluative Listening- Listening to evaluate or judge something.

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* Comprehensive Listening- listening to understand the message the speaker is communicating.

Discriminative Listening- listening type the objective is to focus on the sounds. At its most basic
level this is akin to distinguishing the speakers gender, or the number of people in a
conversation.

Topic no 139

Principles of Listening

Pay Attention

Focus on the speaker. Look at him or her because facial expressions and body language can
communicate as much as language.

For example, there will usually be more engagement with the listener in making eye contact and
use of hand gestures.

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Practice Active Listening

Ask the speaker to slow down or repeat when you don’t understand or just want to be certain
about what you heard.

Repeat back what you think you heard him or her say, as there can often be a gap between what
we thought we heard and what the speaker intended.

Pay Attention to Structure

In a formal lecture or speech, the speaker will usually let you know ahead of time the
organization of the discourse: “Today we will discuss the two types of sentences, Type One and
Type Two,’’

and then what will follow is a description of Types One and Two. These devices, called
“discourse markers,” actually help the listener in organizing and understanding the lecture.

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*Listen for Key Words What words does the speaker emphasize? Usually the speaker will let
you know by stressing the main point: “Let’s talk about the TIME we will meet tomorrow….”

The stressed word “time” signals that the time of tomorrow’s appointment is the main point, as
does the marker “Let’s talk about—”

Topic no 140

Teaching Principles of Listening

*Make Explicit

how to understand and manage conversations, which may have been something a mystery. In
addition, key terms such as “active listening” and “discourse marker” should be introduced and
exemplified.

Model

This can be provided by traditional print example dialogues as well as film clips, and teacher
modelling with volunteer students: e.g., the teacher might say,

“ tell me something of importance to you, and I’ll listen actively. The rest of the class, pay
attention, and then let’s discuss what goes into active listening.”

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Practice

This might be especially important in active listening, which few people, really know how to do,
as we are used to either sitting quietly while a speaker finishes his speech or interrupting.

Active listening takes practice, but is worth it in terms of improved listening skills and
relationships.

Topic no 141

Teaching parts of speech

A traditional term for categories into which words are classified according to their functions in
sentences. A category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its syntactic functions.

In English main parts of speech are

 Noun
 Pronoun
 Adjective
 Determiner
 Verb

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 Adverb
 Preposition
 Conjunction
 Interjection

People count ‘articles’ also as parts of speech.

This classification has been made according to the functions of words.

A noun is a naming word. It names a person, place, thing, idea, living creature,
Noun quality, or action.
Examples: cowboy, theatre, box, thought, tree, kindness, arrival

A verb is a word which describes an action (doing something) or a state (being

Verb something).
Examples: walk, talk, think, believe, live, like, want

An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It tells you something about the
Adjective noun.
Examples: big, yellow, thin, amazing, beautiful, quick, important

An adverb is a word which usually describes a verb. It tells you how something
Adverb is done. It may also tell you when or where something happened.
Examples: slowly, intelligently, well, yesterday, tomorrow, here, everywhere

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A pronoun is used instead of a noun, to avoid repeating the noun.

Pronoun
Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they

A conjunction joins two words, phrases or sentences together.

Conjunction
Examples: but, so, and, because, or

A preposition usually comes before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase. It joins the
Preposition noun to some other part of the sentence.
Examples: on, in, by, with, under, through, at

An interjection is an unusual kind of word, because it often stands alone.

Interjections are words which express emotion or surprise, and they are usually
Interjection
followed by exclamation marks.
Examples: Ouch!, Hello!, Hurray!, Oh no!, Ha!

An article is used to introduce a noun.

Article
Examples: the, a, an

Knowing parts of speech using them correctly and understanding how they relate to one another
is an important early step in creating strong writing skills.

Topic no 142

Teaching at first stage

Begins with noun, its most easy concept and available in our surrounding. A noun is a person,
place, thing or idea. Get students to list as many nouns as they can. Put them in categories on an
overhead or white board as they say them.

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At second stage teach them adjectives, take the list of nouns students come up with, and start
asking for words that describe each one. List those in front of each word. These are adjectives.
An adjective is a word that describes a noun. Give them the reason and tell them the link of
adjective with nouns. In the following picture adjectives of a noun “popcorn”.

After that take pictures of noun and ask children to tell the characteristics.

After teaching adjectives teach the children verbs, ask students to look at each noun adjective
pair and give it something to do for example; little birds fly. Explain that this action word is verb.

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Bring this type of images which are elaborative and showing the actions. And whatever students
learn make them to practice the things.

Topic no 143

Teaching at second stage

List how the words do things. For example little birds fly slowly. Tell students that how
something the action does is an adverb. An adverb describes a verb adjective or other adverb.

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Make another sentence to go with your first group. Ex: look at the little birds. They fly slowly.
Explain to students that “they” in second sentence refers to “little birds” in the first. “they” takes
the place of the noun “birds” and is a pronoun. Here is table of pronouns.

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Add these words to second sentence: around the neighborhood. “Around is a preposition that
implies a relationship. Where to they fly? Around the neighborhood.

Preposition tells the relationship of sentence.

In the next step Identify or add the two final parts of speech, the conjunction and interjection.
“Look at the big and the little birds. Wow they fly slowly around the neighborhood”.

“and” between the little and big birds is

conjunction it’s like gum, it connects two
words and sentences. You can see the list of
conjunction in the image.

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Interjections are the words which perhaps may not have proper meaning in dictionary but they
convey or express some emotions, you can see the list in the image below.

Topic no 144

Recognizing the parts

How can we recognize category of some word in sentence? We need to look at the function
performed by that part in the sentence. See the example of adjective and adverb: if we cannot
recognize the words there will be no proper decoding of the words. In some words adding “ly” to
a word make it adjective from adverb but this rule does not imply in each word.

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The train is fast. It is describing train (a noun). So an adjective here.

The train is moving fast. It is describing the action, so the adverb.

Topic no 145

Teaching tense

Tense is a form of the verb that indicates time. A verb tense not only indicates past, present, and
future action but also indicates whether the action is ongoing or complete.

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The tense of verb shows the time when an action or condition occurred. In English the tense also
may provide emphasis and may determine whether or not an action or condition was continuous
or recitative.

There are three basic tenses: past, present, and future. Verb tenses are absolutely necessary for
fluency in English. Without proper knowledge of tenses oral, written fluency is affected and
mind is unable to do proper decoding as well.

Topic no 146

Simple or indefinite tense

Verb tenses receive a lot of attention in English instruction. Sometimes these are considered as a
difficult area.

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Remember this chart from the previous topic. These are total 12 tenses in English. First of all we
will talk about “present simple” tense. It is about some routine, habits and scientific facts.

Routine: I go to my office at 8:00 am.

Habit: he takes tea in the morning.

Scientific fact: the sun rises in the east.

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This table shows form of helping verb along with subject. Different form of verb is used with
different subjects.

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Topic no 147

Progressive or continuous tense

progressive tense is that something is in action

now.

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Present continuous tense:

Formula for present progressive\continuous subject+verb to be+verb+ing.

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Past progressive/continuous tense:

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Future progressive/continuous

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Positive: the Moscow state circus will be performing for the next three weeks.

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You can also have a negative version: the Moscow state circus will not be performing for the
next three weeks. The question version: will the Moscow state circus be performing for the next
three weeks?

Topic no 148

Perfect tense:

Present perfect tense: present perfect tense means that some activity has been started in past
and completed in present.

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Past perfect tense:

It means something started in the past and completed in the past.

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Future perfect tense:

Some activity had been started in the past and have completed in the future.

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Topic no 149

Perfect continuous tense

Present perfect continuous tense:

It means some actin has been started in past some part of action is completed and some is
continuous.

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Past perfect continuous tense:

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Future perfect continuous tense:

It is used to express a continued or ongoing action that will start in future and is thought to be
continued till sometime in future. ( an ongoing action in future will continued till sometime in
future).

Topic no 150

General tips for tenses

1. Put the verb tense in context.

2. Give students more language to use.
3. Introduce students to the system
4. Focus on one time frame at a time.
5. Focus on only one tense at a time but show it in relation to other tenses in that time
frame.
6. Practice.
7. Review.

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Topic no 151

Summing Up Tenses

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Simple Continuous Perfect Perfect

Continuous
Present V1 with ‘s’ Helping Helping Helping
or ‘es’ Verb+V1 with Verb+ V3 Verb+V1 with
ing ing

Past V2 V1+ed Helping Helping Helping

Verb+V1 with Verb+ V3 Verb+V1 with
ing ing

Future Helping Helping Helping Helping

Verb+V1 Verb+V1 with Verb+ V3 Verb+V1 with
ing ing

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Simple Continuous Perfect Perfect

Continuous
Present Do, Does Am, Is, Are Has, Have Has been, Have
been
Past Did Was, Were Had Had been

Future Will, Shall Will be, Shall be Will have, Will have been,
Shall have Shall have been
By changing helping verbs, we change the tense if we the same formula.

Topic no 152

Helping Verbs

Helping verbs are verbs that, as their name suggests, help the main verb in a sentence by
extending the meaning of the verb. They add detail to how time is conveyed in a sentence.

As a result, helping verbs are used to create the most complicated verb tenses in English: the
progressive and the perfect aspects. Helping verbs are known also as Auxiliary verbs.

Simple Continuous Perfect Perfect

Continuous
Present Do, Does Am, Is, Are Has, Have Has been, Have
been
Past Did Was, Were Had Had been

Future Will, Shall Will be, Shall be Will have, Will have been,
Shall have Shall have been
By changing helping verbs, we change one tense to another.

Example: I am reading.

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I was reading.

I have read.

I had read.

Topic no 153

Regular/Irregular Verbs

A verb in which the past tense is formed by adding the usual -ed ending is known as a regular
verb.

Examples: Walk, walked and walked

A verb in which the past tense is not formed by adding the usual -ed ending. Examples of
irregular verbs are sing (past tense sang); feel (felt); and go (went).

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The difference between regular and irregular verbs must be known by the time you teach tenses.

Topic no 154

Articles

An article is a word used to modify a noun, which is a person, place, object or idea. Technically,
an article is an adjective, which is any word that modifies a noun.

Usually adjectives modify nouns through description, but articles are used instead to point out or
refer to nouns.

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The definite article the is the most frequent word in English. We use the definite article in front
of a noun when we believe the hearer/reader knows exactly what we are referring to. • because
there is only one:

The Pope is here.

The President of USA is visiting France.

- We have already mentioned: Anwar has topped. The boy is really intelligent.

- We say something about all the things referred to by a noun:

- The kangaroo is found in Australia.

- We talk about some musical instrument: she plays the piano.

- We talk about system or service: the airline is not doing well or call the police.

- Talking about the whole class: the rich or the doctors

- The name of kingdoms: the USA or the UK.

- Geographical feature: the Himalayas, the Atlantic

- Names of newspapers: The Pakistan Times

- The families: the Jacksons

- Famous buildings: the Badshahi mosque, the Empire State building.

- Organisations: the UNO

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Topic no 155

Types of Sentences

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By looking at the structure and meaning of the sentence, we can come to know the type it has.

Topic no 156

Clauses & Phrases

A clause is a unit of grammatical organization next below the sentence in rank and in traditional
grammar said to consist of a subject and predicate.

The subject is what (or whom) the sentence is about, while the predicate tells something about
the subject.

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A phrase is a sequence of two or more words that make up a grammatical construction, but
lacking a complete meaning and hence not a complete clause or sentence:

shady lane(a noun phrase); at the bottom (a prepositional phrase); very slowly (an adverbial
phrase).

A sentence must have a subject (expressed or not), a verb, and a complete thought (or
"predicate") supplied by a variety of constructions.

A clause contains a subject and a verb, but can or cannot contain a complete thought.

A phrase is a collection of words without a subject/verb or complete thought.

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Topic no 157

Types of Clauses

As is evident from the name, independent clause can work on its own, dependent clause cant
give any meaning without the independent clause.

Topic no 158

Independent Clauses

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“Main (or independent) clause is a clause that expresses a complete thought and can stand as a
sentence.
Examples:

I met the boy who had helped me.

She is wearing a shirt which looks nice.

The teacher asked a question but no one answered.

He takes medicine because he suffers from fever.

He became angry and smashed the vase into pieces.

In the above sentences each underlined part shows main clause. It expresses complete thought
and can stand as a sentence that is why a main or an independent clause is normally referred as a
simple sentence.

Topic no 159

Dependent Clauses

Subordinate or dependent Clause

Subordinate (or independent) clause is a clause which does not express complete thought and
depends on another clause (main clause) to express complete thought.

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Subordinate clause does not express complete idea and can’t stand as a sentence. A sentence
having a subordinate clause must have a main clause.

Example:
He likes Chinese rice which tastes good.

The clause “which tastes good” in above sentence is a subordinate clause because it does not
express complete thought and can’t stand as a sentence.

It depends on main clause (he likes Chinese rice) to express complete thought.

Similarly: I met the boy who had helped me.

Topic no 160

Types of Dependent Clauses

A subordinate (dependent) clause may function as a noun, an adjective or an adverb in sentence.

On the basis of their function in a sentence, subordinate clauses can be divided in to following
types.

1. Noun Clause
2. Adjective Clause.
3. Adverb Clause

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Noun Clause

“A dependent clause that functions as a noun in a sentence is called noun clause.”

A noun clause performs same function like a noun in a sentence.

Example:
1.What he did made a problem for his family.
2. Now I realize what he would have thought.

Adjective Clause

“A dependent clause that functions as an adjective in a sentence is called adjective clause.”

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Example:
1.He wears a shirt which looks nice.

2.The book which I like is helpful in preparation for test.

An adjective clause works like adjective in a sentence. The function of an adjective is to modify
(describe) a noun or a pronoun. Similarly a noun clause modifies a noun or a pronoun.

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Topic no 161

Adverb clauses

Adverb Clause “A dependent clause that functions as an adverb in a sentence is called

adverb clause”

Examples:
1.Don’t go before he comes.

2. Although he tried a lot, he couldn’t climb up the tree.

An adverb clause like an adverb modifies a verb, adjective clause or other adverb clause in a
sentence.

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It describes the situation in main clause in terms of “time, frequency (how often), cause and
effect, contrast, condition, intensity (to what extent).”

Topic no 162

Related to Grammar Modals

A modal (also 'modal verb',‘ modal auxiliary verb', 'modal auxiliary') is a type of auxiliary verb
that is used to indicate modality – that is, likelihood, ability, permission, and obligation.

They are different from normal verbs like "work, play, visit..." They give additional information
about the function of the main verb that follows it.

Examples include the English verbs can/could, may/might, must, will/would, and shall/should.

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Some characteristics of modal verbs:

• They never change their form. You can't add "s", "ed", "ing"...

• They are used to indicate modality: they allow speakers to express certainty, possibility,
willingness, obligation, necessity, ability.

• They are NEVER used with other auxiliary verbs such as do, does, did etc. The negative
is formed simply by adding "not" after the verb.

• They are NEVER followed by to, with the exception of ought to.

Topic no 163

Using Modals

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Modal verbs are used to express functions such as:

Permission

Ability

Obligation

Prohibition

Lack of necessity

Advice

possibility

probability

Topic no 164

Forming Questions

There are two basic ways to form questions:

1. By using helping verb in the beginning of the sentence.

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Example: Do you go to school?

Are you coming here?

Simple Continuous Perfect Perfect Continuous

Present Do, Does Am, Is, Are Has, Have Has been, Have been

Past Did Was, Were Had Had been

Future Will, Shall Will be, Shall be Will have, Shall Will have been, Shall
have have been
2. By using Question Words or sometimes known as ‘W’ family words in the beginning of the
sentence.

(What, where, when, who, whose, why etc)

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We have to keep in mind the principles related to tenses while forming questions using the
question words. We can’t afford to ignore the grammar rules.

Topic no 165

Punctuation

Punctuation means: the marks, such as full stop, comma, and brackets, used in writing to
separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning.

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While teaching Punctuation, pay attention particularly on the use of comma(,), semi colon(;) and
colons(:).

Topic no 166

More about Listening

Listening Strategies

Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and
recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the
input.

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Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic,
the situation or context, the type of text, and the language.

This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what
is heard and anticipate what will come next.

Top-down strategies include :

• listening for the main idea

• predicting

• drawing inferences

• summarizing

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Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the
combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning.

Bottom-up strategies include:

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• listening for specific details

• recognizing cognates

• recognizing word-order patterns

Bottom-up strategies include:

• listening for specific details

• recognizing cognates

• recognizing word-order patterns

Topic no 167

Metacognitive Strategies

Strategic listeners also use metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate their listening.

Metacognitive strategies refers to methods used to help students understand the way they learn;
in other words, it means processes designed for students to 'think' about their 'thinking'.

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• They plan by deciding which listening strategies will serve best in a particular situation.

• They monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the selected strategies.

• They evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their listening comprehension
goals and whether the combination of listening strategies selected was an effective one.

Topic no 168

Listening for Meaning

• Figure out the purpose for listening. Activate background knowledge of the topic in order
to predict or anticipate content and identify appropriate listening strategies.

• Attend to the parts of the listening input that are relevant to the identified purpose and
ignore the rest. This selectivity enables students to focus on specific items in the input
and reduces the amount of information for short-term memory.

• Select top-down and bottom-up strategies that are appropriate to the listening task and
use them flexibly and interactively.

• Students' comprehension and confidence improve when they use top-down and bottom-
up to construct meaning.

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• Check comprehension while listening and when the listening task is over.

Comprehension means‘understanding’.

Monitoring comprehension helps students detect inconsistencies and comprehension failures,

directing them to use alternate strategies.

Topic no 169

Listening Activities

1. Construct the listening activity around a contextualized task.

2. Define the activity's instructional goal and type of response. It means: main idea, sounds,
text type etc.

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3. Check the level of difficulty of the listening text.

4. Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view.

5. Use pre-listening activities to prepare students for what they are going to hear or view.

Sample pre-listening activities:

• looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs

• reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures

• reading something relevant

Topic no 170

Speaking

The action of conveying information or expressing one's feelings in speech.

Speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing and receiving
and processing information (Brown, 1994; Burns & Joyce, 1997).

Its form and meaning are dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participants
themselves, their collective experiences, the physical environment, and the purposes for speaking

It is often spontaneous, open-ended, and evolving. Often predictable. Language functions (or
patterns) can be identified (Burns &Joyce, 1997).

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Topic no 171

Types of Speaking

There are different types of speaking depending upon the situation and the environment, where
the speaking takes place. Few important types are given here:

One-on-One: student-teacher or student-student where students are asked to discuss or explain

some question or problem.

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Small-Group or Team-Based Oral Work: Smaller-scale settings for discussion, deliberation,

and problem solving.

Full-Class Discussions (Teacher- or Student-Led): Typically less agonistic, argument-based,

and competitive than debate and deliberation but still dialogic in character.

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In-Class Debates and Deliberations: A structured consideration of some issue from two or
more points of view.

Speeches and Presentations: Classically, the stand-up, podium speech delivered by an

individual from an outline or script. Also includes group presentations or speaking.

Oral Examinations: Can take place in the instructor’s office, in small groups, or before a whole
class.

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Topic no 172

Principles of Speaking

Purpose:

Audience:

Logistics:

Content:

Organization:

Credibility:

Performance:

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A speaker's skills and speech habits have an impact on the success of any exchange (Van Duzer,
1997).

Topic no 173

Teaching Principles of Speaking

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The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to
make themselves understood, using their current proficiency.

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Topic no 174

More about Speaking

Speaking Strategies

Speaking strategies can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their
confidence in using it. The instructors help students learn to speak so that the students can use
speaking to learn.

Using minimal responses

Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to
indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses to what another speaker is saying.

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This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what
is heard and anticipate what will come next.

Recognizing Scripts:

Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges -- a
script.

Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social
and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts.

Using language to talk about language: Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to
say anything when they do not understand another speaker Instructors can help students
overcome their shyness.

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By using clarification phrases, they can manage the communication and they can become
confident about using the language.

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Topic no 175

Pronunciation

Tips for improving Pronunciation:

• Learn the Rules

• Learn the Meaning and Pronunciation

• Listen

• Record Yourself

• Write Things Down

• Consult Technical Sources

• Practice

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• Word Stress

The stress placed on syllables within words is called word stress or lexical stress. Some
languages have fixed stress including English also.

/ˈneɪʃ(ə)n/

/təˈɡɛðə/

• Sentence Stress

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Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence. For example:

1. What did he say to you in the garden?

2. How long are you going for?

Intonation describes how the voice rises and falls in speech. The three main patterns of
intonation in English are: falling intonation, rising intonation and fall-rise intonation.

Where’s the nearest post-office? (falling)

Are you thirsty?(rising)

Topic no 176

Some Tips for speaking

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Practice is the main key for the success in speaking skill.

Topic no 176

Speaking Activities

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All of these activities can be conducted in classroom for improving speaking skill.

Topic no 177

Reading

Reading is making meaning from print. It requires that we:

• Identify the words in print – a process called word recognition

• Construct an understanding from them – a process called comprehension

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• Coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic and
accurate – an achievement called fluency.

Reading in its fullest sense involves weaving together word recognition and comprehension in a

fluent manner

Topic no 178

Reading Proficiency

All of these types of reading involve certain steps of reading proficiency: Cognitive Skills,
Reading Fluency, Comprehension and Metacognition.

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These steps collectively help in proficient reading. It is worth mentioning the higher steps are
more complex as compared to the lower ones.

Topic no 179

Skimming and Scanning

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Skimming and scanning are two very different strategies for speed reading. Skimming refers to
looking only for the general or main ideas. With skimming, your overall understanding is
reduced because you don’t read everything.

You read only what is important to your purpose. Skimming takes place while reading and
allows you to look for details in addition to the main ideas.

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While scanning, you look only for a specific fact or piece of information without reading
everything. You scan when you look for your favourite show listed in the cable guide,

for your friend’s phone number in a telephone book, and for the sports scores in the newspaper.
information you need. Scanning also allows you to find details and other information in a hurry.

People who know how to skim and scan are flexible readers. They read according to their
purpose and get the information they need quickly without wasting time.

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Topic no 180

Reading Strategies

Instructors can help the students by applying theses strategies:

• Previewing: reviewing titles, section headings, and photo captions to get a sense of the
structure and content of a reading selection.

• Predicting: using knowledge of the subject matter to make predictions about content,
vocabulary, structure writing style, and context.

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• Skimming and scanning: using a quick survey of the text to get the main idea,
identify text structure, confirm or question predictions

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Whereas context means the main picture.

• Guessing from context: using prior knowledge of the subject and the ideas in the text as
clues to the meanings of unknown words, instead of stopping to look them up.

• Paraphrasing: stopping at the end of a section to check comprehension by restating the

information and ideas in the text.

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You can employ these techniques/ strategies for the reading activities.

Topic no 181

Integrating Strategies

Instruction in reading strategies is an integral part of the use of reading activities in the
language classroom.

Instruction in reading strategies is an integral part of the use of reading activities in the
language classroom.

Before reading: Plan for the reading task:

• Set a purpose or decide in advance what to read for

• Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed

• Determine whether to read text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from
the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)

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During and after reading:

• Monitor comprehension

• Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses

• Reread to check comprehension

• Ask for help

After reading: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use

• Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area

• Evaluate overall progress in reading and in particular types of reading tasks

• Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task

• Modify strategies if necessary

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This way, you can use these three phases of techniques/ strategies for the reading
activities.

Topic no 182

Summing Up reading Strategies

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All of these or some of these strategies can be used in a classroom to conduct reading
activity.

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Topic no 183

Writing

The activity or skill of writing. Writing is a method of representing language in visual or tactile
form. Writing systems use sets of symbols to represent the sounds of speech, and may also have
symbols for such things as punctuation and numerals.

Words spoken are symbols of affections or impressions of the soul; written words

are symbols of words spoken. And just as letters are not the same for all men,

sounds are not the same either)

although the affections directly expressed by these

indications are the same for everyone, as are the things of which these impressions

are images. Aristotle (1938: 115)

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Topic no 184

Types of Writing

There are different types of writing depending upon the situation and the environment, where the
writing takes place. Few important types are given here:

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Normally, There are four main types of writing: expository, persuasive, narrative, and
descriptive.

Narrative – Writing in which the author tells a story. The story could be fact or fiction.

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Persuasive – Writing that states the opinion of the writer and attempts to influence the reader.

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Descriptive – A type of expository writing that uses the five senses to paint a picture for the
reader. This writing incorporates imagery and specific details.

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Expository – Writing in which author’s purpose is to inform or explain the subject to the reader.

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You must have noticed that the purpose of writing makes it a different type of writing.

Topic no 185

Writing Strategies

Here are some strategies that might help you when you teach writing:

1. Choose writing objective.

2. Find a writing exercise that helps to focus on the specific objective.

3. If possible, tie the subject matter to student needs.

4. Provide feedback through correction activities that call on students to correct their own
mistakes.

5. Have students revise work.

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The writing skill of students must be improved with the help from instructor. The students should
become good writers. And what do the good writers do?

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Topic no 186

Teaching Principles of Speaking

Understand your students’ reasons for writing. It is important to understand both and to convey
goals to students in ways that make sense to them.

Provide many opportunities for students to write. Since writing is in part a physical activity,
it is like other physical activities—it requires practice, and lots of it.

Make feedback helpful and meaningful.

If you write comments on students’ papers, make sure they understand the vocabulary or
symbols you use.

Clarify for yourself, and for your students, how their

Writing will be evaluated. Students often feel that the evaluation of their writing is completely
subjective.

Topic no 187

Writing Process

There are certain steps related to writing and writing process: starting from finding an idea and
finishing at your final draft.

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By following these steps, you can help your students to improve their writing skill.

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Topic no 188

Criteria for Writing

There are four criteria for writing: Task response; cohesion and coherence,

Vocabulary and grammar

By focusing on these criteria, you can help your student to improve writing skill.

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Topic no 189

Cohesion and Coherence

These are two terms particularly related to writing.

Cohesion means the connection of ideas at the sentence level and Coherence means the
connection of ideas at the idea level.

Cohesion

Coherence

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These two qualities make your writing worth reading.

Topic no 190

Writing Activities

Brainstorming about people, places, and feelings:

Write down or tell a partner the names of people you could describe, then quickly and briefly
describe each one.

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Name several places you have visited and list descriptive words for each place. List and describe
some memorable feelings you have had, and explain the situation in which they occurred.

Talking and listening in pairs or groups:

Take turns telling about an interesting person, thing, incident, or object. Encourage the listeners
to ask questions and add ideas.

Record possible writing topics or ideas as they arise during the discussion.

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Looking at art:

Study paintings, photographs, drawings, or sculpture in magazines or art books. It may even be
useful to take a trip to a local museum or art gallery.

Jot down notes and questions about the artwork, then write down.

Role playing:

Pretend to be any character and write about it.

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Observing with all senses:

Use all of your senses to observe something and then write about it as you felt.

Remember!

You are training your students to create good writings.

Topic no 191

Approaches and Methodologies

Basic Terms

What do we mean by approach, method and technique?

An approach is an enlightened viewpoint toward teaching. It provides philosophy to the whole

process of instruction. You can call it a theory.

A method, on the other hand, is an organized, orderly, systematic, and well-planned procedure
aimed at facilitating and enhancing students’ learning.

Technique means a strategy a teacher applies through specific steps in the teaching process.

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Garcia,1989

Topic no 192

Grammar Translation Method/GTM

The grammar translation method is a method of teaching foreign languages derived from the
classical (sometimes called traditional) method of teaching Greek and Latin.

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You can use GTM for translations, for word lists, grammar etc.

Topic no 193

Audio Lingual Method/ALM

The Audio-Lingual method of teaching a foreign language is also known as the army method. It
originated from the behaviourist theory of learning languages and was introduced to teach
language to troops during World War 2.

This method relies on repetition drills and as a result it was used to teach large numbers of
students at the same time.

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And above all audio-video aids for sounds and practice for these sounds.

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Topic no 194

Tips for improving Pronunciation:

• Learn the Rules

• Learn the Meaning and Pronunciation

• Listen

• Record Yourself

• Write Things Down

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You can employ teach these skills by using ALM.

Topic no 195

Direct Method

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The direct method of teaching, which is sometimes called the natural method, and is often (but
not exclusively) used in teaching foreign languages, refrains from using the learners' native
language and uses only the target language.

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Topic no 196

Speaking strategies

Asking about language: By using clarification phrases, they can manage the communication and
they can become confident about using the language.

The train is fast.

It is describing train ( a noun). So an adjective here.

The train is moving fast.

It is describing the action, so an adverb.

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Asking about language: By using clarification phrases, they can manage the communication and they can
become confident about using the language.

All of these skills can be taught by employing Direct Method.

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All of these skills can be taught by employing Direct Method. The Communicative approach
emphasizes the ability to communicate the message in terms of its meaning, instead of
concentrating exclusively on grammatical perfection or phonetics.

Topic no 198

Communicative Method

The Communicative approach emphasizes the ability to communicate the message in terms of its
meaning, instead of concentrating exclusively on grammatical perfection or phonetics.

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Topic no 199

Cooperative Learning

Cooperative Learning is an approach to teaching that makes maximum use of cooperative

activities involving pairs and small groups of learners in the classroom.

Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) is also known as Collaborative Learning (CL).

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Small-Group or Team-Based Oral Work: Smaller-scale settings for discussion, deliberation, and
problem solving.

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Talking and listening in pairs or groups:

Take turns telling about an interesting person, thing, incident, or object. Encourage the listeners
to ask questions and add ideas.

All are the examples of Cooperative Learning which can be employed in your classroom
also.

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