Abstract
English language is a vital factor in one’s career. The thirst for improvement and the impact for the language are developing in leaps and bounds particularly among the tertiary level students. English Language Teaching to such tertiary level students who are the speakers of other languages is the need of the hour. Students of Engineering colleges have to be trained for their professional career which includes making them highly communicative imbibing the four skills LSRW. At the same time, it is the prime duty of the teachers to give the students enough exposure on the current relevant events and enhance their language. The writer aims at achieving both at a single throw using authentic materials. Enough approaches have been made using articles, reports and news items from newspapers and magazines. The result is that the students found the class interesting, enlivening and entertaining at the same time paved way for language learning. The success of the methodology adopted is measured by the interest shown by the students.
Key words: ELT, authentic materials, engineering students, professional career, LSRW.
“The mediocre teacher tells;
The good teacher explains;
The superior teacher demonstrates
The great teacher inspires.”
Introduction
This is an age where language is not only viewed and valued as a medium of communication but also as a tool to enhance one’s capabilities. Further, the language has in fact become a means to gain social and economic power. In this era of globalisation and advent of many multinational companies, language plays a vital role in engineering professionals’ achievement in multicultural environment. The students have to be equipped not only with the academic knowledge but also make them highly versatile in usage of English. Thus they are empowered to meet the challenges in their professional environment. Therefore, the teaching learning process of English language is more than a mere academic activity. It is the teacher who has to innovate, interest and use novel methods and teaching aids to inspire and enlighten the students.
Teaching is to show or explain to someone how to do something; or give information about or instruction in a subject or a skill. Whatever be it the prime motive of every teacher is to make the learner understand what he/she explains or teaches. Teaching English effectively to the speakers of other languages (TESOL) is also the need of the hour. The unparalleled spread and shift in teaching language in terms of teaching methods, curricula, and application of learning theories have made the teachers of English feel the need to incorporate diverse ideas into the teaching of the language. As far as the engineering students are concerned, the teachers have to train them language, communicative ability and practical language. Times are changing; so are methods. With the dawn of the up-to-the-minute technology, various methods such as CALL, CLT, ICT, Content Based Instruction, Communicative Activities and Games, Curriculum Development so on and so forth have been adopted. Language teaching hence should be teaching the present day challenges rather than perpetuating it. Grammar, syntax, vocabulary, phonetics and semantics are some of the embellishments of the language that should necessarily be used in proper proportion. One should not only read the rules of grammar, but also know the rules of using it. One should learn the language naturally just as one learns the mother tongue. Here, materials chosen by the teacher remains fundamental and imperative.
How important are teaching materials?
Teaching materials play a vital role in ELT. Text books, worksheets, videos, audios, pictures, internet, software and music are some of the diverse range of materials which teachers rely on. The main reason behind this is to support teaching and enhance the learning process of the students. In spite of the fact, tailor-made materials are available in plenty and also readily; the teacher decides on his/her own source. S/he continues to design her/his own materials spending time on finding, selecting and making it. Especially, if the classroom has a mixed ability students, the teacher has to adopt a method that will suit their needs to understand/comprehend the language. At this point in time, it is highly inevitable on the part of the teacher to design a suitable material to make teaching interesting and appropriate based on the lesson to be taught.
Hypothesis
Whenever the teacher designs the material, the focus should be on the curriculum and the syllabus. Only then, teaching becomes fruitful. The teachers’ self-designed material bridges the gap that exists between the usual textbook to be taught and the learning objective of the curriculum. There are four main reasons why the teachers wish to produce their own material and they are contextualisation, individual needs, personalisation and timelines (Block, 1991), which the writer agrees. The reason behind adopting such methods is to integrate theory and practice in language teaching and this paper clearly elaborates on how authentic texts can be incorporated in ELT for the tertiary level students in engineering colleges.
What are authentic materials?
As cited Nunan (1989) by Musallam, “any material which has not been specifically produced for the purpose of language teaching” and Peacock (1997) by Alenjandro G. Martinez “material that has been produced to fulfil some special purpose in the language community” defines authentic materials.
Some of the sources of authentic materials are Newspapers, Magazines, Television, Internet and Radio. (Miller, 2003) as cited in Authenticity in FL classroom. Hence TV commercials, Interviews, Audio lessons in Internet, News item, Weather forecasts, Advertisements, Statistical studies, Debates, Instructions for the use of equipment, Poems, Brochures, Recipes and so on fall under the category of authentic materials.
Why Authentic materials for Engineering students?
As far as the Engineering students at the tertiary level are concerned, English text is only a pretext. A resourceful teacher can convert a newspaper, a story, an article in a magazine, an audio lesson downloaded from the net and even messages in the mobile phones as an effective aid to make the class appealing. It also helps the learner enhance the knowledge on current affairs as everything relates to the present time. As a teacher of English in an Engineering college, the writer aims at designing the lessons based on the syllabus but from authentic materials. The students are expected to have a very good exposure on the current events and varied forms of technical writing. It also becomes the prime notion to hone all the four skills – Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing of the to be professional graduates. The teacher should also not forget that the students who come to study engineering courses will be on the technical and scientific domain. The following are the reasons why they need communication skills:
- To reach a better and lofty prospects.
- To share the emotions, ideas and knowledge.
- To have a cordial working environment.
- To lead or be a member of a team in a friendly way.
- To gain inter-personal communication.
- To work in a multi-cultural environment.
To make such professionals aware of the above mentioned and to train them, it becomes imperative for a teacher to bring in varied material into teaching.
Use of authentic materials for pre-final year students
The III year students in Engineering colleges have Communication Skills Laboratory as a part of the curriculum, where they will be tested on the language skills. As a part of speaking skills they have group discussions, presentation skills and mock-interviews. Group discussions, as everyone knows will test the students’ communicative ability, at the same time their emotional quotient also. A recent study by The Hindu stated that even though students get employed and place themselves in a company, due to lack of Emotional quotient they fail to continue to work in the company or sent out by the company themselves. To stress the importance of emotional quotient the writer quoted life examples of why ‘emotional intelligence’ is very much necessary to fit them in a working environment. Daniel Goleman has a due mention here. His book Emotional Intelligence- Why it can matter more than IQ has been mentioned by the author many a time in her class. (Appendix A)
In order to fine tune the students with communication ability, there by developing proficiency the teacher should aim at assimilating in them the language and soft skills. The author thought the best source to bring in learner centred approach where the learners play an active role is nothing but the authentic materials. With the abundant material and the technology available today, it is possible for the teacher to exploit the maximum to realize the objective of teaching the language.
The following are some of the articles and news items used by the writer to hone the skills, particularly for group discussion of the pre-final students of the engineering colleges where she worked and works at present:
- Have MBA, no job? – According to a study, only 21 percent of the MBAs surveyed are employable. – The Hindu, Education Plus, Monday, August 27, 2012.
- Only 3 p.c engineers are job ready: The need of the hour is to focus on not opening more colleges, but improving the quality in existing institutions, says National Employability Report. – The Hindu, Education Plus, Monday, March 19, 2012.
- Will metro rail solve the traffic problem? – The Hindu, Metro Plus (Voice your views), Wednesday, November 30, 2011.
If such news items, articles and reports are discussed before allowing the students to discuss, the writer could find students coming up with their points. It enables those of who may find it difficult to speak and finally surprises the teacher by bringing in their points.
The teacher does not stop with this. To train the students on some of the questions to be faced by them in the interview or to know themselves, she doesn’t choose any other material other than news paper. Here, she finds Proust questionnaire (a questionnaire which is a fortnightly feature that alternates with the Saturday Interview) in The Hindu which comes in handy. She uses the questions in the Proust questionnaire to train the students; at the same time does not fail to introduce how and why the feature is called so. Some of the questions that she makes them answer are:
- How would you describe yourself?
- Why did you choose engineering as your field of your study?
- Why do you think the company should hire you?
- What is your idea of happiness?
- Who are your heroes in real life?
- Who is your role model? Why?
- What do you consider your greatest achievement?
- What is your most marked characteristic?
- What are your greatest strengths?
- What is your weakness? Have you ever attempted to change it?
- Which living person you most despise? Why?
- What do you want to achieve in life?
In addition to this, to train them on Presentation skills, the writer makes her teaching as Presentations which in turn has been tried by many of her students in her class. Even the students of I year are capable of doing very good presentations. The writer wishes to emphasise: “By adopting presentation techniques the teacher of English in an institute of technology distinguishes herself/himself from ‘also ran’ type of teachers, wins more respect …more importantly, obliquely trains the future executives in the art of making presentation.” (Nilavu et.al, 2012) The writer though adopts presentation techniques, as a part of theory inputs she has used an article to make the students motivational speakers. It is ‘How to be a motivational speaker’ (The Hindu, Opportunities, Wednesday, April 25, 2012). The article guides the students on the following:
- Who is a motivational speaker?
- Why should one be a motivational speaker?
- What will a powerful motivational speaker convey?
- How to connect with your audience?
- How to introduce your topic?
- How to use the properties and tools?
- How to ask for feedback?
- How to design a perfect professional portfolio? (Provided you become a professional speaker)
Hence, authentic materials – News papers and story books – have really helped the writer in her lab classes and in fact, the students also benefited out of it.
Use of materials with I year students
The first year students in engineering colleges, though they are aware that they have a subject Technical English and they need to pass or score an ‘S’ or ‘A’ grade in their examinations, there are a lot more they should know and read. Here too, creating interest among the students in language learning becomes important to her. The writer introduced the students to reading books such as The Alchemist, Who Moved My Cheese?, Social Intelligence, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Life of Pi, The World is Flat, Chronicles of our Time, Age Less Body, Time Less Mind, Self Help Classics and so on.
While teaching ‘If- clauses’, the students are exposed to statements from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho like:
- If I became a monster today, and decided to kill them, one by one, they could become aware only after most of the flock had been slaughtered, thought the boy. (Coelho, 7)
- If God leads the sheep so well, he will also lead a man, he thought, and made him feel better. (Coelho, 33)
Then the writer started to teach the conditional clauses. The reason behind being teaching conditional clauses to the students at the same time make them get exposed to the statements from the book, the writer and the book as a whole. It will also make them realise that apart from learning conditionals, they have learnt something else too.
‘Ingreedients’: Eating is an art, no matter what the food – is an article in (The Hindu, Magazine, Sunday, August 12, 2012). This article helped the writer not only in teaching the etymology of the word ‘ingredients’ but also made the students tell the process of how Bruschettta with Tomato and Basil is made. It explained the etymology as: “Ingredient – Any of the substances that are combined to make a particular food: ‘entering’ from the verb ingredi, from in-‘into’+ ‘gradi’ – ‘walk’. So ‘to walk in’ Greed: Back formation from greedy, having an excessive desire or appetite for food, from Old English graedig, of Germanic origin.” The recipe given was then explained as a process as Process description is a Part- B exercise in the Technical English paper.
Other than the said above, the following is a part of the syllabus in Technical English as per the university curricula for which the author uses authentic texts:
- Reading comprehension
- Jumbled sentences
- Note-making
- Writing instructions
- Paraphrasing
- Creative writing
- Letter writing
- Report writing
- Interpretation of Graphics
These are the areas in Part – B section of their Technical English paper. The topics may be pretty easy, but not for all. In engineering colleges, nearly 30% in the class may be from Regional medium of instruction and 20% – 30% from schools where they have been used to rote learning. Hence, the teachers in Engineering colleges have to face such a mixed-ability group. The teachers’ role doesn’t stop with making them get pass marks. A sincere teacher should also focus on the all-round growth of the students.
Whichever topic the writer decides to teach, the following is the methodology adopted:
An interesting news item is chosen, read carefully and then proceeded as follows:
- Questions may be raised related to the news item.
- Vocabulary used shall be discussed.
- Some interesting incidents related to the topic will be narrated.
- The topic to be given as exercise will be discussed.
- Finally, the students may be asked to do the respective exercise.
When such a methodology is adopted, the learner may feel that they discuss something closely related to them and come forward to discuss be it social, political issue or the current events. As part of teaching, the teacher should then teach them the formats involved in exercises such as Note-making, Report writing, Letter writing, Interpretation of graphics and so on.
1. Teaching Reading Comprehension
The taken news item from a story book, paper or a magazine is read out and explained. Then the students are advised to comprehend the passage and answer the questions that follow it.
2. Teaching jumbled sentences
A short passage is taken and the sentences are jumbled and dictated to the students. Based on the discussion made the students will find it easy to rearrange the jumbled sentences. The teacher then explains the connectives used in the passage and how the sentences must be linked. (Appendix B)
3. Note-making
A detailed explanation on how to make notes of a specific article is explained to the students. Enough idea of how to choose important points and categorise under specific sub-headings is given and experimented with their choice of article from any authentic texts. (Appendix C)
4. Teaching Instructions
Writing a set of eight instructions is an exercise in Technical English. Here, the teacher needs to teach them instructions on to be followed in various places at various point of time – such as – Chlorine plant, Chemistry laboratory, Language lab, Library, Clinical lab so on and so forth. To break the monotony and to make the class interesting the teacher started the class with the SMS she received. She gave the set of sentences which she received as some health tips:
- Answer the phone by left ear.
- Don’t take medicines in cold water.
- Don’t have huge meals after 5 p.m.
- Drink more water in the morning and less at night.
- Sleep from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
- Don’t answer through mobile phone when the battery is down to one bar as the radiation is 1000 times stronger.
- Forward this to people whom you care about.
The teacher then explained that instructions are imperative sentences and should start with a verb. One can also use modals such as ‘must, should, ought to, need to’ while framing instructions. Since the material is an SMS, sure the learner learns it no minute.
5. Paraphrasing
As a part of language learning the students should also be capable of condensing the given material in to one-third of its word limit, at the same time give enough explanation on the topic. It improves the comprehending and analytical ability of the students. (Appendix D)
6. Creative writing
The writer wanted to check the creativity of the students. To experiment it, she gave the first two paragraphs of the story of Guy de Maupassant “A dead woman’s secret” to the students and asked them to develop their own story. To the surprise of the teacher, she found that no student has gone through the story and it came out to be a real testing as each student gave a different climax. The students felt that it helped them to really search for words even to express certain emotions and thoughts.
7. Letter Writing
Students are taught different forms of letter. Particularly, for Formal letters like Letter to the Editor and Job Application letter, the teacher can site as many examples as possible. She can give various contexts for the Letter to the Editor and how to apply for various posts to various companies using authentic texts such as newspapers and magazines.
8. Report Writing
Report writing is another descriptive part in the Technical English paper which the teachers have to concentrate on. Various types of Reports such as Reports on Industrial visits, Survey reports, Fire accident reports and Feasibility reports have to be taught to the students. Here, to make the students aware of the words and vocabulary pertaining to the writing of reports the writer uses news paper reports and reports in magazines.
9. Interpretation of Graphics
The students are taught to interpret graphics – a table, graph, flowchart or a pie chart – into language. While interpreting, the students are expected to use proper connectives. Authentic materials such as weather reports, weather forecasts, tables in the sports column could be used for such interpretations as it will definitely interest the students.
Conclusion
The teacher of language should not forget the fact that ‘variety is the spice of life.’ A total revamping in the teaching methodology is needed bringing in innovation. He/she plays a key role in enlivening and entertaining the language class. Of course, she is responsible for the tool she will experiment and its subsequent success/failure of the tool as promoting language learning is her ultimate aim.
The following are some of the articles/reports discussed on various aspects at various points of time by the writer to expose the students to update and to add variety in the language class rooms:
- Study plan for UPSC: Some useful tips for aspirants planning to take the exam.(The Hindu, Education Plus, Monday, December 10, 2012)
- Finding the best fit: The campus recruitment scenario is changing and more complex than ever before. How ready are you to meet the challenges? (The Hindu, Education Plus, Monday, November 19, 2012)
- Win with English: With a new speaking section, the new TOEFL iBT promises to be exciting (The Hindu, Education Plus, Monday, October 15, 2012)
- Winning with English (The Hindu, Education Plus, Monday, July 30, 2012)
It is appropriate to state a quote by Tafani from UNESCO Declaration on Media, 1982, “We live in a world where media is omnipresent. An increasing number of people spend a great deal of time watching television, reading newspapers and magazines, playing records and listening radio…The school and the family share the responsibility of preparing the young person living in a world of powerful images, words and sounds.”(p.82). Yes, the teachers should shoulder the responsibility of preparing the young minds by exposing to them the positive side by selectively filtering out the negative news and images.
Thus, the positive sources available in media as quoted above are lively and omnipresent. Using these authentic texts in ELT kindles interest in the students mind and thus avoids monotony in the usual text book sources. Thus it is concluded these type of sources i.e., powerful images and words, are used to make them imbibe and use the skills of LSRW effectively.
Appendix A
(This is an excerpt from Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ used by the writer to make the students understand that Emotional intelligence is highlyimportant)
He was a seasoned engineer, heading a software development project, presenting the result of months of work by his team to the company’s Vice-president for product development. The men and women who had worked long days week after week were there with him, proud to present the fruit of their hard labour. But, as the engineer finished his presentation, the Vice-president turned to him and asked sarcastically, “How long have you been out of graduate school? These specifications are ridiculous. They have no chance of getting past my desk.”
The engineer, utterly embarrassed and deflated, sat glumly through the rest of the meeting, reduced to silence. The men and women on his team made a few desultory – and some hostile- remarks in defence of their effort. The Vice-president was then called away and the meeting broke up abruptly, leaving a residue of bitterness and anger….
Finally the engineer went to see the Vice-president, reminding him of the meeting, his critical remarks and their demoralising effect….The Vice-president was astonished – he had no idea that his remark, which he meant as a throwaway line, had been so devastating. In fact, he thought the software plan was promising, but needed more work – he had not meant to dismiss it as utterly worthless at all. He simply had not realised, he said, how poorly he had put his reaction, not that he had hurt anyone’s feelings. And, belatedly, he apologised. It is a question of feedback, really, of people getting the information essential to keep their efforts on track….
In a sense, criticism is one of the most important tasks a manager has. Yet it’s also one of most dreaded and put off. And, like the sarcastic Vice-president, too many managers have poorly mastered the crucial art of feedback. This deficiency has a great cost….
Consider the alternative
An artful critique can be one of the most helpful messages a manager can send. For example, what the contemptuous Vice-president could have told the software engineer – but did not- was something like: “The main difficulty at this stage is that your plan will take too long and so escalate costs. I’d like you to think more about your proposal, especially the design specifications for software development, to see if you can figure out a way to do the same job more quickly.” Such a message has the opposite impact of destructive criticism: instead of creating helplessness, anger, and rebellion, it holds out the hope of doing better and suggests the beginning of the plan for doing so. An artful critique focuses on what a person has done and can do rather than reading a mark of character into a job poorly done.
Appendix B
Passage given for Jumbled sentences:
The hunters and gatherers of the late Palaeolithic period made other important advances. They tamed, or domesticated, wild animals such as wolves, which became the first hunting dogs. The people realised that the seeds from grasses they picked could be sown in the ground to produce more plants. Once these discoveries had been made, people could settle in permanent groups and form communities. The first farming communities began about 12,000 years ago. Farmers planted early forms of wheat and barley that grew wild on the hill side, and domesticated animals such as sheep and goats for milk and meat. The farmers needed sunshine and water for their crops. The first communities settled on the banks of rivers in the hot lands of the Middle East and North Africa. Some farmed the fertile soil on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia. Others settled in the valley of the River Nile in Egypt.
(Source: Visual Encyclopaedia, Copyright Orpheus Books Limited UK)
Done by Mr. Raghav Raj, I year Mechanical
Appendix C
Note –making
Healthy Food
- Food and supplements
(a) Alter how genes function
(b) Needs right proportion of nutrients
- Choose the right supplement
(a) Have the right dose and maintain your diet.
(b) Right amount of nutrients from green veggies, fruits, nuts.
- Sources
3.1 Selenium
(a) 70-200 micro grams
(b) Tuna, cod, turkey and sunflower seeds or one brazil nut a week.
3.2 Folic acid
(a) 800 milligrams daily
(b) Half cup of lentils, papaya, spinach, avocado or cantaloupe
3.3 Beta-carotene
(a) Converted by body into vitamin – A
(b) Sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots, and mangoes.
Source: The Hindu
Done by :Ms. Jasmine Mary, I year EEE
Appendix D
Paraphrasing
Handling children with Autism
Autism has affected around eight million people in India. At the inaugural address of the South Asian Network conference, Sonia Gandhi said, “People with autism cannot enjoy their rights and the reason is lack of support and public policies. They are people who can understand and learn things slowly than normal people. As good humans, we need to respect and treat them as equal members.” Government uses the word ‘public health crisis’ to refer to autism. Parents of such affected children have to face lots of difficulties in the upbringing of their children. These children need help from all the sides including – at first parents, doctors, teachers and other professionals. But there is a lack of full professional help mainly due to the unaffordable and expensive cost. Existing resources like teachers and para-professionals and technology must be utilized effectively. Schooling for these children affects their childhood. Getting trained in a good school is a challenge for them. But most schools lack the needed requirements to take in such children. Resource teachers, other special aids for such children are always in lesser number. Some schools don’t want to train such children. They don’t realise the potential of such young minds. Mostly, their manners and problems in social communication can pull back these kids from leading a normal life. Even disorders like cerebral palsy, there are special schools, but for autism, it is still less. Apart from being kids, after growing up, their hardships and struggles in getting soft skill, higher education, and getting jobs are very high. An encouraging and motivational example is SAP labs in India, where training in IT is given to them. There can be a happy feature for these children through the team support of parents, schools, government agencies and in general the whole society. This can enable them to achieve success inspite of their disability.
Source: The Hindu, Metroplus, April 3, 2013.
Done by Ms. Priyadarshni, Ist year, EEE.
References
- Block, D. “ Some thoughts on DIY materials design”. ELT Journal. 45(3). 1991. 211-217.
- Coelho, Paulo. The Alchemist. Harper Collins Publishers: USA. 2006.
- Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Books: New York. 1996.
- Martinus, A. “ Authentic Materials: An overview.” Karen’s Linguistic Issues. February 2002. Retrieved on 10. 03.2013.
- Miller, L. “Developing listening skills with authentic materials.” ESL Magazine, 6 (1), 16-19. (2003).
- Nilavu, et al. “Teaching as a Presentation: Some strategies and Techniques as applied to ELT at Tertiary Level.” Ed. Ganesan. Chennai. Conference Proceedings. International Conference on Professional English. 15.02.2012. 469-471.
- Tafani, Vilma. Teaching English Through Mass Media. Acta Didactica Napocensia. 2(1)2009. Retrieved on 10.3.2013.
- www.api.ning.com. Al-Musallam, Enas I. Authenticity in FL Classroom. 1-6. Retrieved on 10.03.2013.
About the author
The writer Ms. R. Nilavu did her Masters of Arts and Philosophy at Annamalai University, Chidambaram. Currently, she pursues her Ph.D at the University of Madras in ELT. She is also doing her PGCTE at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. Her interests are writing research papers in ELT and presenting papers in Conferences and Symposia. She has published articles in National journals and has published 4 books. At present she is an Assistant Professor, Department of English, LOYOLA –ICAM College of Engineering & Technology, Nungambakkam, Chennai.