Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Student Loan Consolidation

For those who have a combination of government as well as personal student education loans, you might want to consider personal education  loan consolidation. The majority of college students qualify to get a few Government assist with university. However once the Government assist is actually worn out, after that numerous use personal financial loans. An individual will be from university as well as prepared to start paying back the actual financial loans, many times your own expenses is actually larger than you are able to spend about the repayment programs that include the person financial loans. Consequently, it's to your benefit to think about bringing together because most of the financial loans in to 1 repayment as you possibly can. Whenever you do this which, a person not just may cut costs about the rates of interest however you may also lastly take a look at your own checkbook without having to be worried about composing an additional mortgage payment sign in confirmed 30 days.


The majority of loan companies that focus on loan consolidation associated with student education loans will require all your financial loans into account while you start this particular personal education loan consolidation procedure. Based on that may be obtainable in your loved ones to assist, the co-signer provides you with the somewhat reduce rate of interest on a single amount of cash. This particular reduce rate of interest, obviously, may decrease your repayment monthly somewhat.

Having a loan consolidation mortgage, you will see costs put into the actual mortgage quantity. They are known as origin costs plus they are billed through the loan provider to pay for their own expenses upon studying your own require as well as delivering a person using the greatest mortgage readily available for your circumstances. The actual ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATES billed about the loan consolidation mortgage will be different somewhat using the increase as well as drop associated with rates of interest usually. Nevertheless, the majority of student education loans relaxation about the LIBOR Price and also the LIBOR doesn't vary because rapidly because perform a few of the additional mortgage angles obtainable.

Using the loan consolidation of the personal financial loans, you will have to start having to pay about this mortgage inside thirty – sixty times, with respect to the loan provider you select. Whilst your own student education loans usually didn't have to be paid back till 6 months following university had been more than, that won't function as the situation using the mortgage loan consolidation. Because you are usually from university whenever this particular loan consolidation is required anyhow, which shouldn’t impact your own fundamental mortgage payment programs.

As being a University Move on offers gained a level as well as ideally a few monetary experienced. Make use of your discovered understanding to start producing wise monetary choices. Go over your own student education loans as well as learn how to greatest start having to pay all of them which means that your monetary long term is going to be graced having a excellent credit rating as well as satisfaction simply because you earn great choices.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Graduate from Junior High School go to Vocational High School

For Students who will graduate  from SMP = Junior High School you must Read this Article. The new program of the Ministry of Education to introduce reforms in education is changing the field. Students and parents are entitled to better access to information, analyzing profiles and curriculum.

The Vocational Guidance has played an important role in connecting the school to the world of work. may be it means you  Can't to obtain a degree, but should be more flexible and to "listen" to the developments of the time

The rapid developments in the international economy are creating new requirements, which should be able to meet tomorrow's workers. The organization of the business world is changing rapidly and the concept of the local market is replaced with the international market.

In all this maze of decisions you need to take to find what you like, what you will offer adequate labor market and adaptability to future work in the Career Guidance requested:

- To advise and contribute to your self
- Identify your interests
- Accept yourself
- To detect the specific skills and abilities you have.
- Be equipped to wide open roads to follow in life.

Vocational High School in Pinrang:

SMK NEG 3 PINRANG     JL.POROS PINRANG-PAREPARE KM.3  Kec. Mattirobulu   
SMK NEG 4 PINRANG     Jl.Poros Benteng Maccobbu     Kec. Paleteang
SMK Neg 1 Pinrang             Jl.Langnga TassokkoE     Kec. Watang Sawitto      
SMK Neg 2 Pinrang             Jl. Kesehatan               Kec. Watang Sawitto    
SMK Neg 5 PINRANG       Jl. Poros Pinrang - Polman KM.26 Bittoeng  Kec. Duampanua



Thursday, May 26, 2011

Educational Software for your Children

Our Children  are being raised in the time of a technological revolution. They are surrounded by hi-tech gadgets that are more accessible than they ever have been. Playstations 3, Nintendos, iPad, smart phones and social networking sites are a daily part of our children’s lives, and part of the way they learn, communicate and entertain themselves. In short, they learn in ways that we did not. 

If you Have PC or Notebook in your home Don't let them waste their time just for play game or browsing , install some Educational  Software in your PC, Namely :



Canorus is a free music score editor. It supports note writing, scripting support, import/export of various file formats, MIDI input and output and more! Note that Canorus is still in early stage of development and not nearly all the features are implemented yet!

Canorus is free (libre) software, licensed under GNU GPL. This means that the program source code is available to public, anyone is welcome to research how the program works, participate in its development, freely distribute the program and spread the word! Canorus runs on Linux, Windows, MacOSX and others! Read more on About Canorus page.

The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Unlike most planetarium software, Celestia doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy.

All movement in Celestia is seamless; the exponential zoom feature lets you explore space across a huge range of scales, from galaxy clusters down to spacecraft only a few meters across. A 'point-and-goto' interface makes it simple to navigate through the universe to the object you want to visit.

Celestia is expandable. Celestia comes with a large catalog of stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft. If that's not enough, you can download dozens of easy to install add-ons with more objects.

Multiplication Station will teach your child to add, subtract and multiply ... Guaranteed! Version 0.5.0 is a complete rewrite of previous versions, and brings the code into alignment with the latest versions of TuxMathScrabble and TuxWordSmith.

The application can be configured for addition, subtraction and multiplication. The number ranges can be configured, and the grid size can also be configured to suite your preference. Only the most important configuration variables are shown by default, the remainder being configurable by selecting the "ShowAll" toggle in the Administrator control panel.

There are no more user accounts, or separate administrator account. The data-recording functionality has also been removed in the interest of simplicity. The countdown timer is still there, however, to keep kids focused.

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.

jMemorize is a free open-source Java application that manages your learning processes by using flashcards and the famous Leitner system. jMemorize makes memorizing facts not only more efficient but also more fun. It boosts your whole learning experience and features categories, statistics and a visually appealing and intuitive interface.


 If you want to get the software just clik the name of software  above, be wise and give the best education for your Children


Tuesday, May 3, 2011

What a difficult matter to teach English in the Village

My interest in using storybooks for teaching English began when I was teaching middle-school students in Rajang.  My search for material which could provide a basis for conversation and writing in my classes led me to try some of the many all-English storybooks available.  this  experience has been so successful that it motivated them  to learn English.

The middle-school students had been exposed to a lot of English vocabulary.  Nevertheless, when I presented them with a page of English writing with no or very little new vocabulary,  I was surprised to find that they seemed to have great difficulty with it.  “Teacher, very difficult!” they would say to me.  I concluded that they were lacking in ability to process English.  
Their English training has focused mainly on the level of single words (vocabulary lists) and translation into their native language.  Reading selections in their elementary and middle-school texts are short and usually accompanied by native language support.  Perhaps this is why the students had not moved to the point where, upon encountering words memorized, they were able to instantly connect them to the mental concepts embodied.  Their processing probably was mainly occurring in their native language..

The ability to interconnect various mental constructs without reverting to native-language processing is essential not only to reading comprehension, but to conversation as well.  The project described in this paper with the elementary school children convinced me that early introduction of longer selections could be extremely beneficial in EFL training.  Rather than waiting until the later grades, extensive reading should be introduced as early as possible, in order to take advantage of the facility with which children under the age of 12 acquire language. 

The key to the success of such reading, however, is to keep the number of new words or idiomatic phrases per page down to a maximum of one or two.. This point can’t be over-emphasized.  The whole idea of such reading is to keep the reader engaged in the story.  It requires that the reader be able to get the meaning without stopping often, if at all, to find out the meanings of new words. If new items seriously impede understanding, students get discouraged; and it may turn into another grammar-translation exercise.

Monday, April 25, 2011

How to Write a Memo

Memorandum (also more commonly memo) is a brief written record of communication, used in office, whether business, government, education institution or legal office (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Memorandum). The usual structure for a memo includes some or all of the following:

MEMORANDUM
TO : the person or group receiving the memo (recipient).

FROM : the person writing the memo (sender).

C.C. : (Carbon Copy) the person or group who should be informed about the memo

DATE : usually a formal manner of writing the date (month/day/year).
For example: February 22nd , 2009


SUBJECT : a short specific topic discussed in the memo. This should be in bold. (instead of SUBJECT:, it’s also acceptable to use RE: which means regarding or reference)

introduction: explains why the memo has been written and what topic will discuss. You can start your idea of this introduction by responding this sentence,” I’m writing because..”. When the memo is long, the introduction is in a single paragraph as an executive summary of the memo itself.

body: discusses the topic in detail. It explains a thing exactly and list items when possible. In a long memo, the body contains discussion of background information. You can use this phrase “the facts are…” to develop the body part of a memo.

conclusion: explains what will or should happen next, when
the follow up will occur and why the date is important. In
most memos, the conclusion is in form of actions. The main
idea of this part is that “I will” or “I propose that you …”

Points to remember in writing memos:

• in short, begin your memo by stating the purpose and end it by letting the recipient know the action.
• Memos are concise and focus on a single purpose. It’s usually not more than one page. If you have more topics, write a separate memo for each. If you have an attachment, put it in separate sheet of paper.
• Use bullets in listing to highlight the items.
• Use 1 inch margins all around.
• Use block style paragraphs (left justified).
• Single space your memo, unless the memo is very short.
• Use an easy-to-read 12-point font
• Don’t use complementary close (e.g., sincerely) and don’t sign a memo at the bottom.
• Check the spelling and proofread carefully for mistakes and missing words.
• Add your initials beside your name at the top to indicate that you have read and approved the memo.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

How to Make an Invitation

As we know, a written invitation is more effective than a spoken one. If we invite someone orally, he/she may forget to come because it is the nature of human to easily forget something. In making a written invitation, you must be careful to include the following information:
1. your full address;
2. the date, time, and place;
3. any necessary explanation regarding the kind of event or programme.
The format of personal invitation is similar to the one of personal letter. The illustration is as the following:

1. The Heading

It consists of three lines. The first line contains your address. The second one is the name of your town and postal code (if there is one). The third shows the date. The most common written date is month day, year.

2. The Salutation
It greets the reader. The usual form is the word “dear” followed by the person name who is addressed to. There is a comma after the salutation.

3. The Body
The body is the real letter itself. In a common personal letter, the first line is indented. The example can be seen on the letter above.

4. The Closing
If the closing consists of more than one word, only the first word of the closing is capitalized.

5. The Signature
The signature is below the closing whether the letter is typed or hand-written. It should not trail off the space of the right margin.

Monday, April 18, 2011

What is Your Favourite Colours

Honestly I say now I don't have any idea to make a post so I just give you a light post, this is a lesson for my students he he. Colours can make our life bright and interesting. Imagine how boring our life would be if there were no colours. We cannot enjoy the beauty of flowers, rainbow, butterflies, etc. Wherever we are, we will find colours: at home, at school, in the park, in the garden, etc.

We will also find colours from the time we get up in the morning until the time we go to bed at night. So, colours are very meaningful in our life. Here are the colours:


Friday, April 15, 2011

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is a good activity for students who want to get work experience before they graduate from school. They will get the chance to work in a company although they have not graduated yet. The company will place them in the division which is related to their educational background. For example, in a supermarket, students with a Hotel and Tourism background are placed in the Fresh Section. They deal with the bakery and salad bar. In a bank, students from an accounting programme are placed in the administration department.

They are assigned to execute stock inventory, file and arrange in-coming and out-going letters. Indeed, the students will not be placed in the high position, but it still gives many advantages to them. What do the students actually gain in being an apprentice? Of course, they will earn money, but the valuable experience is the most important thing. In an apprenticeship programme, they will improve their competency and learn to interact with people whom they meet in the working environment. By having more knowledge and network with a company, they will get a clearer future after graduating from school.
 

To be an apprentice, the students have to get an accompanying letter from the headmaster at school. This letter will inform the company that they are students who are willing to have a temporary job there. The company’s personnel department will inform about the requirements. Some company may give a test, but the others may not. Being an apprentice is very beneficial. It gives not only money, but also invaluable experience. So, never be hesitant to take a chance for apprenticeship.
Source: C’nS Vol.1 No.7

How To Learn a Foreign Language

If you want to speak a language fluently just visit their country , meet with native speaker  and surely you will speak fluently .  A person who has widely travelled and had opportunities to live in many countries would have naturally acquired more number of languages than a bookworm set out to master languages through guide books sitting at home. To develop language skills, it is essential to give a potential atmosphere. For instance, if you are keen to make your children speak good English, put them in a school where everyone speaks only in English. If this is not possible for some reason, expose the children constantly to an appropriate atmosphere wherein they will be automatically compelled to learn the language. If you can speak a language easily, then do it with your children so that you are able to work on their language skills in day-to-day interactions. Yes experience is the best teacher is the best quote here.

Making children watch  films on DVDs will help them acquire language easily. Starting to learn language during the early part of one's life has more advantages compared to postponing it to a later stage. Mastering grammar does not bestow language skills; rather it comes by constant practice. Finding a teacher or school is very important for beginners since repeatedly speaking and listening a language has not better alternative in quickening the language learning.

While learning a new language, start thinking in that language. This method may be slow and challenging at first, but besides letting you acquire language skills quickly, this method will also make the learning stay permanent in memory. In other words, while trying to learn a new language, you should act as though it is the only language you know on this earth, which will enable you learn the language faster. On the other hand, if you are going to follow the translation method, the initial part of a given sentence would have gone off the mind by the time you come to the tail end of it.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

ICT as a Life Skill

Information and communication technology has changed the community. ICT has a major role in influencing how the way we live, work, and learn. While this is not strange if we see people using their laptop on the train, or when you walk into a mall and see where to eat or a cafe, a few people open a laptop or Ipad and mobile phone to access the internet as well as their email.

Thousands of people are planning a holiday abroad, they use the internet as well as to plan their finances online. With technology, You can also follow courses of any kind, anywhere, at any time and in any way you wish. Besides the changes that are seen clearly, technology also has entered the private spaces in everyday life. Television and radio, for example, has been bringing technology into the central room of our homes. Directly or indirectly, ICT has become a life skills align with read write and calculate as well as the english Language . Life skills is the modern term for the basic skills; the skills required of society in order not to lag behind in their social and economic life.

A Person  who do not have ICT skill  will have difficulty to obtain a job, get a promotion or even retain their jobs. In social life, they will not feel the benefits of simplicity in all fields that use the technology.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

When the best time for children begin to learn English Language

One important question now is When the best time for children begin  to learn English Language.  Most experts believe that when a child is introduced to a second language at an early age their chances of becoming more proficient in the target language will be higher. However, it is not necessarily true to say "the earlier the better". It is suggested that the most efficient time to learn another language is between 6 and 13.
However, children who learn in pre-to-early teens often catch up very quickly with children who learn from an earlier age. Also this does not mean that languages cannot be learnt later in life. The experience and environment at school and how language is taught and practiced play a vital role in language acquisition, regardless of how young or old the child is.
Whatever the age, when children learn a second language, they develop skills that will help to create opportunities in their future. They acquire the lifelong ability to communicate with others under diverse circumstances. Indeed, regardless of the level of proficiency, learning a second language and learning about different cultures generally broadens a child's outlook on life. It also opens up alternative educational and career opportunities.
adaptation from : The child as a learner


Thursday, March 24, 2011

How can we teach English to the Students

From the past to the present time, the problem around the students at school is not yet shifted. At every period, there is always a problem about students, including missing classes, being reluctant to learn, being dropped out, and those who prefer working to completing their study. Moreover, there are also stories about teachers who are heavy-handed and unfair to their students, or teachers who deliver uninteresting presentation, or teachers who assess their students not in accordance with the students’ hard work. 

All of these problems demonstrate inharmony between the needs of the students and those of the teachers. In fact as adults and teachers, they should have been more knowledgeable and can accommodate the students’ needs, not only their intellectual aspects but also their needs as youth in their developmental age. By understanding their students, the teachers are expected to be able to better teach and communicate with their student so that they can create learning and school atmospheres convenient for their students and can reduce the problems as faced by the teachers and the students in their school. Therefore, the teachers of Junior High Schools (SMP) should understand the characteristics of the students aged 12 – 16 or often called the youth. 

The youth have unique characteristics. They are no longer children but not yet adults. In their age period, the youth are looking for self-identity, so some of them often look childish but some others want to be treated as adults. This is influenced by the surrounding environment they consider more suitable for them as a reference, than their teachers or parents. This often causes the problems for the youth so that this becomes a challenge for adults, including teachers.  

One of the youth’s needs is that they want other people to listen to them. The awareness to listen to other people is often ignored by the adults so the youth are more interested in their environment and peers. It is a good opportunity for teachers, being adults having some great influence to the youth, to approach their students by listening to them as one of the effective and empathetic communicative strategies.

If we are willing to listen, the students can help us achieve what we want in English language learning including motivating them to be more interested in learning English, because the youth can propose ideas about how to make English language learning to be more interesting. 

Adaptation : From DBE3 handout

Monday, March 21, 2011

CONTEXTUAL LEARNING IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIFE SKILL

Learning in the classroom, is basically intended to help students SURVIVE or even COLORING of life. Therefore, learning in school should not be directed to just know, remember, or understand the science. They should be able to take advantage of science that he learned to provision them in recognizing and addressing the problems of life, or even in creating something useful for life.

Skills to be able to survive or even coloring of life was known by the term Life Skills or life skills. Life skills can be grouped into four groups, namely: 
(a) Personal Skills, 
(b) Social Skills, 
(c) AcademicSkills
(d) the competence of the Vocational.

In Junior High School , there are only 2 groups of life skills that will be developed, i.e. Academic Skills and Social Skills. From the academic Skills will be developed Skills in solving problems and in decision-making. Of Social Skills will be developed the skills to work in groups and cooperative learning skills.

During this, the level of JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL has developed a pattern of contextual learning. Contextual learning pattern has some, among other demanding students for active and creative, using high-level thinking ability, utilizing environment around, and work in groups. Look, contextual learning has contributed to the development of life skills. However, even though it has trained intensively, contextual learning has not been applied firmly.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Culture and Character Education

Issues of culture and character of the nation has now become the spotlight community. The spotlight was on various aspects of life, enshrined in numerous writings in print media, interviews, dialogues, and talk show on the electronic media. In addition to the mass media, the community leaders, experts, and the observers for education, and social observers spoke about issues of cultural and national character in the various forum seminar, both at the level of local, national, and international. Issues that arise in the community such as corruption, violence, sexual crimes, the destruction, the fight of the masses, the life of a consumerist economy, political life is not productive, and so on to be a warm discussion topics in the mass media, seminars, and on various occasions. Various alternative solutions proposed as regulation, legislation, increased efforts in the implementation and application of the law.

Another alternative that many proposed to to solve  at least reduce, the issue of culture and character  is education. Education is considered as a preventive for alternative education building new generation a better nation. As an alternative to the preventive, education is expected to develop the quality of young people in a variety of aspects that can minimize and reduce the causes of the various issues of culture and character of the nation. It is recognized that the results of education will look its impact in the not very soon, but it has staying power and a strong impact in the community.

The curriculum is the heart of education . Therefore,  the curriculum at this moment should be e give greater attention to the education of the culture and character of the nation than the previous period's curriculum. The opinions expressed of the leaders of society, education, the quality of education and other community members in various mass media, seminars and gatherings organised by the Ministry of national education in early 2010, describes the existence of a community needs a strong education culture and character of the nation. Moreover, if examined, that needs it, are imperative, is a human quality as formulated in Indonesia National Education Goals.

Public concern about the education culture and character of the nation has also become a concern of the Government. Various efforts to the development of education culture and character of the nation has been done in various Directorate and the various government agencies, especially in the various units of the Ministry of national education. That development efforts with regard to the various level and line education although it is not yet comprehensive. The desire of the community and the Government's concern regarding the education of the culture and character of the nation, eventually accumulate on Government policy concerning the education of the culture and character of the nation and became one of the Government's flagship program, at least for a period of 5 (five) years.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Develop social skills, cognitive and emotional of the students

Students will be easier to build understanding if they can communicate his ideas to other students or teachers. In other words, build understanding will more easily through interactions with the social environment. Interaction allows the improvement of the understanding of students through the discussion, asking each other and mutual explained.

Interaction could be improved with study groups. Submission of ideas by students can refine, deepen, stabilize or improve the idea because getting the responses of other students or teachers.

Therefore the teaching and learning activities to encourage students to communicate the idea of the creation and his findings to other students, teachers and other parties. Thus the teaching and learning activities allow students to socialize with appreciate the differences ( opinion, attitudes, abilities, achievements) and practicing to cooperate. It means teaching and learning activities to encourage students to develop an attitude of cooperation so entwined mutual understanding with harmonizing knowledge and actions

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Understanding The culture and Character Education

National education serves to develop and shape the character and the civilization of the nation's dignity in order to develop the nation's life, aiming to the development of potential learners in order to be faithful and righteous man to God, have good, healthy, knowledgeable and had, ably, creative, self-sufficient, and become citizens of a democratic and responsible (UU Sisdiknas). Whereas culture is the values, morals, norms and beliefs (belief), thoughts shared by a society/nation and underlying the behavior of a person as himself, a member of the society, and citizens. The culture set someone's behavior regarding something that is considered to be true, good and beautiful. 


Furthermore, the character is a character that is formed from the values, morals, and norms underlying the way of looking, thinking, attitudes, and how to act in person as well as differentiate itself from other people. The character of the manifest of the character of someone who became a member of the community of Nations.

Education culture and character of the nation's education that develops the cultural values and character in self learners so that became the basis for them in think, behave, act in developing himself as individuals, community members, and citizens. The values of the culture and character of the nation owned learners made them as a citizen of Indonesia that have specificity compared to other Nations.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Reversal Of Meaning Study

In the minds of some practitioners of education, the meaning and the nature of learning often simply defined as the acceptance of information from the source of information (teachers and textbooks). As a result of teachers still give the teaching activities as information transfer activities from teachers to students.

For the purposes of the implementation of the process of contextual-based learning, teachers need to do a reversal of meaning from the nature of learning. On the view and this paradigm, meaning and nature of learning is defined as the process of constructing meaning/understanding of information and experience. The process of building the meaning can be done by students or with other people

The process  is filtered by the perception, thoughts (early knowledge), and the feeling of the students. So learning is the process of absorbing knowledge in teachers. Thus, teaching is the teacher's participation in the activities of building understanding of students. Participation can be intangible such behavior, asking for an explanation of the crisis to ask or present situation seemed contrary to the understanding of students so that students are driven to improve his understanding.

Friday, March 4, 2011

How to teach writing skill in Junior High School

Writing skills is one of the 4 English language skills in addition to listening, speaking and reading. Writing skills include productive or produce other than speaking skills. Writing learning in schools has not been through the correct process. Teachers often delegates the task of writing without giving proper steps to be able to produce good work.

Writing is not simply a matter of putting words together, it is a recursive process, It is a process of revision and rewriting. Teaching writing means We create a pedagogy that helps students see writing as continuous process of Revising and rewriting as They invent, plan, Their draft text.

Writing is not the only activities combine words. writing is a process repeated, namely process of revising and rewriting. Teaching writing means that we create a science education that helps students see that writing requires steps to find, plan and create a draft text.

Furthermore Carderonello and Edwards (1986:5) explain in their book Raugh Draft as follows: specify that there are five components in the process of writing, namely:
- Inventing: Namely to find and generate ideas / ideas of students, what will students write or tell, steps can find ideas in many ways such as reading, talking, brainstorming, questions, etc. mindmapping.
- Planning: the stages of how students are trying to determine how to convey ideas. This stage students will be raised the issue, purpose, reader, text structure and tone of the text to be written.
- Drafting: In this stage, students tried to form a material or materials into text. Draft sustainable written, from draft 1, draft 2 and draft 3 to be the final result.
- Revising: revise including adding a new idea, another idea of eliminating some of the words or ideas that do not need or reconstruct what has been written in the draft.
- Editing: Editing is polishing a piece of writing from various aspects such as, spelling, tenses, choice of words and others.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

How to Improve Listening Skill & Develop Listening Activities

Both of teachers and Students usually find difficulties in teaching learning Listening, what make listening difficult subject, what strategies we must imply to develop our student's skill in listening, that's rock. Before we make a strategies we must know the first what is the listening?

Listening is the ability to understand what others say and why they have to said it.

Listening comprehension is the psychomotor process of receiving sounds waves through the ear and transmitting nerve impulses to the brain.

Listening is an active proccess of understanding the text by activating various kinds of knowledge, such as background knowledge (knowledge of the content), grammatical (knowledge of the language), phonological knowledge (knowledge of sounds) and knowledge based on learners experience
.
Principles for Designing Listening Techniques
1.Preparation is important
2.Intergrate 4 skills
3.Techniques should be intrinsically motivating
4.Techniques should utilize authentic language and contexts
5.Carefully consider the form of listeners’ responses
6.Encourage the development of listening strategies
7.Include both bottom-up and top down listening techniques

Here are exercises that can be used to teach listening skill :
a. Give student exercises to develop their ability :
1. To distinguish between sounds in English
2. To identify stress in words, and sentences
3. To distinguish different words in a stream  of speech

b.Give students monolog exercises that help them
1. Understand the meaning of what is said
2. Learn how different intonations and word stress can change the meaning of a message

c. Give student exercises that help them manage conversation and dialogs  
1.Listening to passages where word sounds are blended or left out
2.Changing the level of vocabulary
3.Increasing the number of topics being spoken about.
4.Increasing the number of topics being spoken about
5.Increasing the number of speakers in a conversation
6.Increasing the amount of new information, which is presented

Other ideas for listening exercises :
Teacher can simplify listening text so that students can understand it easily.
Listening exercises should be graded according to the students’ level and move from simplified material to non-simplified authentic material.
Listening exercises can be supported visually with photograph, illustrations, cartoons, diagrams, maps, written texts, advertisement, etc.
Teacher can use listening materials from english language radio or TV programs, movies and songs.









Friday, February 25, 2011

Contextual Teaching And Learning 1

Models of learning have created many decades ago. Learning approach was originally developed by Bruce and colleagues. Learning model has a broad meaning and part of the learning model is a learning strategy.

Various learning strategies have the same components. For example, that all learning begins with student interest and motivate students to engage in the learning process. But each one-stage learning strategy has different stages. For example, the stages of activities in different hands-on teaching with pangajaran cooperative. These differences are mainly taking place between the opening and closing in learning. It should be understood by the teachers if we want  this strategy can be implemented well.

Each student has their own way to absorb information, called modalities. There are three categories: Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic (VAK). Teachers should find out beforehand modalities which students belong. Students with Visual modality would be easier to learn through what they see, students with auditory modality would prefer to learn through what they hear. While students with kinesthetic modalities easier to understand the lesson when learn while doing light movements

Learning strategy that could include the cognitive, affective and psychomotor approach to strategy is Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL).

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