Koponen, Libby. Taylor-Butler, Christine.
Perspective
Title: Speaker
Name Fluency
Vocabulary Grammar
Pronunciation Total
1 2
3 4
5
Example of Marking Sheet
This is the marking scale to help the teacher score the students’ performance.
Fluency: Pace, flow, and comfort with words.
Effective use of strategies: ability to interact and make him or her understood.
Vocabulary: Correct and effective use of vocabulary.
Grammar: Accurate use of grammar structures.
Pronunciation:
Volume, intelligibility of pronunciation, and intonation.
Marking Scale
Conclusion
This paper aims to share experience about teaching strategy in this case Four Corners Modification Strategy. As the teacher already explained before that these students have no
background of English, this strategy has come up with the conclusion that students participated well during the reading and speaking activities in teaching and learning
processes. In teacher’s observation during the teaching and learning process toward this strategy, students had proved that they can improve their English using the FOUR CORNERS
MODIFICATION STRATEGY. Four Corners Modification Strategy helped the students to learn about how to join in
discussion group, the ways to read and write a short paragraph, how to respond the questions in an interview and how to write questions to the other corners. During the implementation of
Perspective
this strategy, the class was more lively and enjoyable although there were still some weaknesses occurred like crowded in class and so on.
Suggestion
First suggestion is addressed to the English teacher to provide interesting strategy including Four Corners Modification Strategy to teach English especially the reading and
speaking competency. Second suggestion is addressed to the English teacher too but, here it concentrates on
how to manage the reading and speaking class well. There are some considerations that teacher should care to, for the implementation of Four Corners Modification Strategy as
follows: 1. Time
Time must be scheduled very well at the beginning before having reading and speaking class with the strategy because in reality students need more times in groups or corners’
discussion. 2. Reading texts
In providing the reading texts that are going to be presented by the students, at the very first time the teacher must consider the students’ background knowledge and student’s
access to the books. So in teaching reading and speaking using Four Corners Modification Strategy, both time and reading texts are important to arrange very well on the beginning.
3. Instruction Instruction for implementation should be explained clearly by the English teacher in order
to make students take good participation. To help students getting good achievement for this strategy implementation, the English teacher has to tell the students at the beginning
that they will have high score if they can ask questions in depth.
Furthermore, this suggestion is addressed to the next researcher who will conduct a research using the Four Corners Modification Strategy. Basically, the researcher must master the
Perspective
concept of this strategy then cares with some items that are important to support the implementation as stated above for better improvement on speaking competency.
Additionally, Four Corners Modification Strategy is not only useful for teaching English especially speaking but it also can be used for other subjects at schools on different levels that
implement group discussion and participation. References
Baker, J. and Westrup, H. 2003.
Essential Speaking Skills: A Handbook for English Language
Teachers.
London: Continuun International Publishing. Brown, H.D. 2001.
Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, 2
nd
edition.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Celce-Murcia, M. ed. 2001.
Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language, 3rd edition.
Boston, MA: Heinle Heinle. Despirt,
Debbie. 2009.
Four Corners
activity
. online,
http:www.suite101.comcontentfour-corners-activities-a170020, retrieved 1
st
April 2012.
Friederike, Klippel. 1985.
Keep Talking: Communicative Fluency Activities for Language Teaching
. Cambridge University Press. Kagan,
Spencer. 2005.
The developer
of Four
Corners Strategy
, online,
http:u101tech.sa.sc.eduNRCtoolboxoutputarchivefiles_pdf03_03.pdf, retrieved 1
st
Mei 2012. Schoenherr, Andrea Buckner.
Four Corners Teaching Strategy its game format
. online, http:www.ehowway 5809507 four-corners-teaching-strategy.html
,
retrieved 1
st
Mei 2012.
Thornbury, S
.
2005.
How to Teach Speaking.
New York: Longman. Ur, P. 2006.
A course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Perspective
USING ICT TO ENHANCE THAI STUDENTS’ LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGES AND CULTURES OF
THE ASEAN COMMUNITY
Uthai Piromruen Eastern University of Management and Technology
Sripatum University, Thailand
Narongchai Pinsaimoon Ramkamhaeng University, Thailand
Abstract
This project was aimed to 1 help students learned languages and cultures of the people in the ASEAN community, 2 to use the Internet and computer as
tools to assist students’ learning, and 3 to evaluate the students’ gain of knowledge of cultures and skills in using the ASEAN languages. The study
groups were 18 students enrolled in the English Course of Reading of ASEAN Cultures and Languages in the second semester of 2012 academic year at
Sripatum University of Thailand. The students were divided into 3 groups of 6 persons Each to select one language and three types of native cultures from the
10 members of ASEAN community. Each group searched information from the Internet websites by using computers and other resources as available for the
content needed. Each group conducted the study by learning and practicing conversation in the language chosen, and wrote two essays on the chosen topic
of cultures. Students’ reports were reviewed by the instructor of the course on the essays written and their group presentation of language skills. Result of the
study found that students were mostly engaged in using electronic tools such as computer tablets, and smart phones rather than printed materials. Results of the
pre and post t-test of reading comprehension among study groups found significant gains of knowledge on culture and language study. However, the
pronunciation of language learned posted difficulty for their practices. They needed more trainings on language skills but the study topic were challenging
on their curiosity to learn more.
Keywords: Electronic tools , ASEAN Community, Knowledge and Language Skills
Perspective
Background of the Study
Thailand has announced her joining with ASEAN community in 2015. All government sections are to be involved in making the preparation for the Thai people to
prepare themselves before joining the new community. For the education section it will be involved in the social and cultural aspects of the ASEAN third pillar. This study was
conducted as a preliminary pilot project for adult college and university students to use ICT as tools to gain knowledge and understanding of languages and cultures of the people of the
ASEAN community. Moreover, the study was conducted to challenge students who were enrolled in the English course on Asian plus 3 studies and to experiment whether or not ICT
can enhance their learning and understanding of the new context and environments.
Purposes
1. To help students learn the languages and cultures of the people in the ASEAN community.
2. To use the Internet and computers to assist students’ learning.
3. To evaluate the students’ gain of knowledge of cultures and skills in using the ASEAN languages.
Study Questions
1. Can students learn the languages and cultures of the people in the ASEAN community?
2. Can the ICT tools such a s the Internet and computers assist the student’s learning?
3. How much the students gain the knowledge of cultures and skills in using the ASEAN languages?
Delimitation of the Study
The study covered the selected content of languages and cultures of 10 countries from the ASEAN community. These were Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore,
Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand. Three areas of the cultures recommended for the group to be selected from each country were Food, Festival, Life styles,
Clothes, Currency, and Entertainments. .
Periods and Length of Time to Study
Perspective
The study was conducted in paralleling with the course of English 216 Academic Reading during the 2
nd
semester of 2012 academic year for 10 weeks. It took one and a half hours for each week plus three sessions of group presentation and evaluation. Altogether were
15 hours of the study.
Benefits of the study
It was expected that the study would not only bring new knowledge and understanding of the ASEAN community to both instructor and students but it also to explore the effectiveness
of using ICT to supplement the normal English teaching course.
Review of Related Literature
Since the advent of Information and Communication Technology ICT into education from the previous decades, ICT has been employed
to teaching and learning the subject matter in schools, colleges and universities. Many research studies reported the effectiveness of using ICT
to support learning opportunities such as authentic, and problem-based learning, student-centered learning environment, collaborative learning and
increasing motivation Bransford, Brown, and Cocking, 1999.
There was also a report on transforming ICT into teaching and learning by
embedding ICT into everyday classroom practices. Sutherland, et.al, 2004. Moreover, ICT can provide the basic technology for assisting language teachinglearners to acquire important
communication skills in English Ebrahimi, 2011. Although ICT could be applied in teaching and learning across a wide range of subjects such as English, history, geography,
mathematics, modern foreign languages, music and science, there still have creative tension between idiosyncratic and institutional knowledge construction. Sutherland, et. al, 2004.
It is interesting to test the hypothesis that by embedding of ICT into teaching and learning in the classroom and using students’ most preferred electronic tools would enhance
the students’ knowledge and understanding of the new information, rather than creating
tension between their creative idiosyncratic and the old method of institutional construction. There was, however, a warning on the application of ICT into the field of education
on teaching and learning. As of 2004, a review and contextualization of the literature on teaching ICT as a subject implied that there was limited, systematically-derived, quality
Perspective
information. Wikipedia, 2013. Nevertheless, this preliminary study attempted to use ICT as
a tool to supplement the regular classroom situation by focusing on the students’ preference in using ICT tools such as computers and Internet online. Students were allowed to explore
new information beyond the traditional text-based content in the classroom on their own digital literacy approach whereby the teacher acted as a facilitator to provide supports for
their active and collaborative learning.
Methodology 1.Populations and Study Groups
The population of this study was a total number of undergraduate students enrolled in the English Reading Course on ASEAN Studies in the Department of English for Business
Communication, Faculty of Liberal Arts, during the second semester of the 1012 school year.
Three study groups were formed to undergoing their study with 6 members for each group. 2. Conducting of the study
2.1
Each study group was allowed to choose 3 countries, selected one language to study and practice, and three types of cultures of their interest. The group
selected the following countries:
Group 1: Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia. The language selected for presentation was Malay.
Group 2: the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The language selected for presentation was Tagalog.
Group 3: Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. The languages selected for presentation was Laotian.
As for Thailand each group was assigned by the instructor to study the main type of cultures and submitted a report but not to make a presentation.
3.Research tools.
Reading comprehension test and questionnaires. Each student was given the pre-test of reading comprehension before conducting the study and the post test after
completing the presentation. 4. Learning study tasks for each group.
Perspective
a Learning and practicing conversation on the language chosen. b Searching for information on cultures of the country selected.
c Reading and writing 2 two essays on the topic chosen with 200 words.