Introduction
Nowadays, teachers do not utilise newspapers in their classes. Practical teachers prepare all sorts of realia and the teaching tools to be used when they are doing their practical months. Thus, we see them independently going to classes carrying rolled up mah-jong papers, cellophane tape and the record book. When the practical month is over, they take a back seat and the mah-jong papers are gone. ICT might take place of the white papers and manila cards, but the lack of overhead projector hampers the teacher’s ICT-savvy intention to use Microsoft power point in their teaching. It is a good idea to own one, but since it is a thousand ringgit budget, teachers rather save the money for something more economical. Newspapers become the saviour, at least in urban schools, to become the teaching aid for teachers. Teachers are encouraged to utilise the materials that is a combination of texts and graphics for their students.
Below is an article I found in one of the English blogs on the Internet. The blogspot is m6hakimi.blogspot.com. This article tackles the issue in education. Since teachers do not utilise the newspaper, the staff at the Newspaper-in-Education committee take the initiative by conducting a series of workshops for subscribing schools all over Malaysia to show teachers of various subjects on how to utilise a newspaper as a teaching tool.
Here, based on the task number 6, I have selected 20 words which have more than two syllables coming from noun, verb, adverb adjective one preposition and one conjunction. Since I want only minimum three syllable words, I omit personal pronouns. Then, to fulfil task number 7a, I write short notes on the eight parts of speech. For task 7b, I identify the functions of the twenty words that I have chosen according to the parts of speech. For task 8a, I include short notes explaining the tenses. For task 8b, I choose fifteen words and I write a sentence for each word. My sentences are simple and straightforward only.
2a Read an article related to Issues in Education
3 Length of words is 533
4 Website: http://m6hakimi.blogspot.com
5 Enclose the article as appendix.
6 Select twenty words from the article
1. attended
2. conducted
3. illustrate
4. scurrying
5. was interesting
6. happily
7. naively
8. creatively
9. primary
10. valuable
11. electronic
12. career
13. various
14. Maria
15. newspaper
16. spectacle
17. activity
18. on top of
19. ourselves
20. Yabba dab a doo
7 a) Short notes on the eight parts of speech
Definitions
Noun
It is the part of speech (or word class) that is used to name or identify a person, place, thing, quality, or action. Most nouns have both a singular and plural form, can be preceded by an article and/or one or more adjectives, and can serve as the head of a noun phrase. Examples are: I see the cheeky Zahid sings terribly with his friends in the noisy class.
Pronoun
It is a word (one of the traditional parts of speech) that takes the place of a noun, noun phrase, or noun clause. A pronoun can function as a subject, object, or complement in a sentence. Pronouns are a closed word class in English. Example of personal pronouns are he, she and it. Sample of sentence : I see the cheeky Zahid sings terribly with his friends in the noisy class.
Verbs
It is the part of speech (or word class) that describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being. Verbs are divided into three types, the verb to be, verb to do and verb to have. Verb to be uses words such as is, are, was and were. verb to do are action verbs such I see the cheeky Zahid sings terribly with his friends in the noisy class.
Adjective
It is the part of speech (or word class) that modifies a noun or a pronoun. Adjective: adjectival.mIn addition to their basic (or positive) forms, most descriptive adjectives have two other forms: comparative and superlative. Sample of a normal adjective describes the character of the noun that follows: I see the cheeky Zahid sings terribly with his friends in the noisy class.
Adverb
The part of speech (or word class) that is primarily used to modify a verb, adjective, or other adverb. Adverbs can also modify prepositional phrases, subordinate clauses, and complete sentences. Usually students use adverb to add information on regular actions such as I see the cheeky Zahid sings terribly with his friends in the noisy class.
Preposition
A word (one of the parts of speech and a member of a closed word class) that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. The combination of a preposition and a noun phrase is called a prepositional phrase. A word group (such as in front of or on top of) that functions like a simple, one-word preposition is called a complex preposition. Example is: as I see the cheeky Zahid sings terribly with his friends in the noisy class. The preposition in is used to show the place
Conjunction
The part of speech (or word class) that serves to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. The common conjunctions--and, but, for, or, nor, yet, and so--join the elements of a coordinate structure. Usually students use and, because to join ideas in their sentences.
Interjection
A short utterance that usually expresses emotion and is capable of standing alone. Interjections are generally considered one of the traditional parts of speech. In writing, an interjection is typically followed by an exclamation point. Examples are such as Oh no,I lost my keys. Wow ! Look at that plane. Syyyy ! Please be quiet !
Article
In grammar, a type of determiner that precedes a noun. Basically, there are two types of articles in English: the definite article (the) and the indefinite (a/an).The definite article does not take into account the first sound of the noun, but the indefinite article, a and an, takes into consideration the amount of the noun and the first sound. : I see the cheeky Zahid sings terribly with his friends in the noisy class.
B Functions
Functions of the Twenty words according to the parts of speech
Verbs
1. attended
2. conducted
3. illustrate
4. scurrying
5. was interesting
Adverb
1. happily
2. naively
3. creatively
Adjective
1. primary
2. valuable
3. electronic
4. career
5. various
Nouns
1. Maria
2. newspaper
3. spectacle
4. activity
Preposition
1. on top of
Pronoun
1. ourselves
Interjection
1. Yabba dab a doo
8 a Short notes on tenses
Simple present tense
The simple present tense tells an action in the present time which is not finished. This can be a habitual action, such as the sun shines, trees grow and brush teeth every day) or a general truth, such as Malaysia is a developing country.
Simple Past Tense
We use the Simple Past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past. Sometimes, the speaker may not actually mention the specific time, but they do have one specific time in mind. For example, I saw a movie. When the time is mentioned, it makes the reader know when the action took place, such I see the cheeky Zahid sings with his friends in the noisy class.
8 b
Past tense
1) Yesterday, I attended my English morning class.
2) I happily sang the Teacher’s Day song in front of my class.
3) The class was conducted by me.
4) Maria was my student
5) The pearl was a valuable ornament for me.
Present tense
6) I read the newspaper everyday.
7) She illustrates what she meant with drawing
8) A few students are scurrying along the first level corridor, they seldom walk.
9) It is a good experience to stand on top of Mount Tahan and enjoy the spectacle.
10) I am standing on top of the administration building to see the surrounding.
Future tense
11) The movie that we will be watching is interesting.
12) We will drive to the cinema ourselves
13) My child is at primary school now.
14) Yabba dab a doo! This night will be our best night out.
I will buy an electronic dictionary tomorrow
7a)
Write short notes on the eight parts of speech
Noun, pronoun, verb adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, articles
Simple Future Tense
We use the Simple Future to show an action that will happen. This Simple Future has two different forms in English: "will" and "be going to." Although the two forms can sometimes be used interchangeably, they often express two very different meanings. Example for the usage is, Standard five pupils will sit for the UPSR examination next week.
8b Choose FIFTEEN of the words and write a sentence for each word.
Past tense
1) Yesterday, I attended my English morning class.
2) I happily sang the Teacher’s Day song in front of my class.
3) The class was conducted by me.
4) Maria was my student
5) The pearl was a valuable ornament for me.
Present tense
1) I read the newspaper everyday.
2) She illustrates what she meant with drawing
3) A few students are scurrying along the first level corridor, they seldom walk.
4) It is a good experience to stand on top of Mount Tahan and enjoy the spectacle.
5) I am standing on top of the administration building to see the surrounding.
Future tense
1) The movie that we will be watching is interesting.
2) We will drive to the cinema ourselves
3) My child is at primary school now.
4) Yabba dab a doo! This night will be our best night out.
5) I will buy an electronic dictionary tomorrow.
Appendix i Article
9 Personal Reflection
It is difficult for me to prepare this assignment. This is because I am a Maths teacher and I usually use Bahasa everyday. I do not know what tenses are and I usually read Utusan Malaysia and other Bahasa papers everyday. I avoid reading The Star or New Straits Times. I do not read English novels, but my colleagues do. Teaching in a rural school, that is SMK Air Molek, there is no need for me to learn English. So whem the lecturer asked all of us to prepare a topic on English, I became very afraid. I am afraid because I got this assignment last minute and I hope that I can get ideas on how to do this assignment and get an A. These are my problems. So I went home and the next morning I consulted my friends who teach English. They helped me by showing me what tenses are. I entered their class too. I did not feel embarrassed learning like other students because I forgot English already, and the English language has forgotten me too. So, I had to start from zero and I have understood tenses. I got exercises from my friend and I know when to put an ‘s’ for verbs in simple present tense. Alhamdulillah, my effort is useful, where I can understand the grammar and tenses and I still want to learn grammar as well. I kill two birds with one stone, that is to make this assignment and learn grammar, like I was in standard three.
When I start doing this assignment, I used the Internet to find article, and luckily I found a good article from this blog www.m6hakimi.blogspot.com. It is full of English articles and I selected one article related to education. It is called Newspaper-in-Education. From what I have learnt, we can read the English newspaper, and also use the paper when we teach. What I understand is the newspaper can be used for Science, Mathematics and also History. We use the pictures to show our students. Now we can find many pictures that have Independence Day celebrations. I have other problems too , such as I need to prepare for Hari Raya, my child will take the UPSR exam and I have a mountain of work at school, but I still want to learn more about English this semester. To study for a degree and being a teacher, mother and other roles is a big challenge for me. Pray for me sir and I want to get A for English Language Proficiency 1 ! Thank you.
Appendix i : Article
Nie In Schools
If I could illustrate the Star-NiE (Newspaper-in-Education) Workshop that I happily attended recently in one word, that word would be “out-of-this-world”!
Gathering 65 teachers from 11 Southern zone Mara Junior Science Colleges (MRSM), the workshop, conducted by Mallika Vasugi and Maria Ovinis, opened our eyes to a newspaper’s use as a valuable reading material for class.
As a warm up activity, we were asked to come up with the longest word we could find. Each of us had a letter cut out from the newspaper, and we had to find other letters from other colleagues ourselves. The funny thing was, we pasted the letters on our foreheads in order to get noticed.
It was quite a spectacle to see a room full of normally serious teachers scurrying around with letters on their faces. One teacher naively had a letter on top of her head.
One teacher had a large ‘L’ on the bridge of her nose and I was giggling inside! Oh my God !, I nearly used that letter as well !Everybody had to intelligently select a good letter so it can be used later.
The workshop had an interesting activity where we were asked to utilise the pictures and words in The Star newspaper to prepare a one-page portfolio of ourselves. Our primary aim will be to have fun.
The activity showed us that not all teachers selected the word ‘teacher’ as their ambition since primary school.
The participants’ early career expectations were surprisingly varied, from stewardess to pilot and engineer.
In the end, we really got to know our new friends, who came all the way from various MRSM Southern Zone colleges.
The workshop ended with a bang. We creatively designed wedding gowns one would never dream of wearing.
But this was NiE after all, and newspapers replaced expensive Euro Moda materials, glue substituted threads and needles.
The teachers almost got carried away when they became designers ala Salvatore Ferragamo, Gucci and Den Wahab.
Designing a wedding gown in just 15 minutes, equipped with only glue and scissors really made us crack our heads.
The more recently-married teachers could be seen desperately trying to remember and replicate their wedding attires.
The models and designers wore their stuff down an improvised catwalk!
I would say that the workshop was relevant and it did give us some useful ideas.
It is now up to us to adapt the activities based on our students’ proficiency levels.
The Star has made teachers’ lives so much easier by recommending specific sections of the paper, such as Nation, World, Business and so on, to be utilised for specific activities. Yabba daba doo !It had finally ended.
We could just ask the students to pick a pullout for the day’s activities, removing the need to comb through the entire newspaper.
Mary Schneider recently wrote (in her column But Then Again, which appears on Mondays) about electronic news.
“20 years from now, other paper products might also disappear.
“The Star might only be available online, all books might have to be downloaded into an electronic reader …”
It is a scary thought to lose newspapers as teaching materials. I better start collecting newspapers from today!
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