Topic:             Pollution

Level:             Secondary

Time:             60 Minutes

Online:             25 Minutes

Functions:     To raise general awareness of the topic
                       Reading comprehension.
                      To introduce related vocabulary.
                      To encourage learners to use computers for language learning.
 

Language:      Simple present, Simple present Passive.

Material:        15 computers with Hot Potatoes Software for 30 students, two students on one computer.

Pre Computer Activity

The teacher invites the students to describe what they understand by the word "pollution". What they already know about it? Students may discuss either in groups, or in pair work, or may answer individually. The teacher encourages the responses without confirming or rejecting the ideas.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        (5 Minutes)

Then the students are asked to start Computer Activity 1. The students are supposed to have acquaintance with the use of the software.

Computer Activity

Students start working in pair. They answer the question with mutual discussion.                                                                                                        (5 Minutes)

Computer Activity 2                                                                                                                                                                                              (20 Minutes)     Computer Activity 3                                                                                                                                                                                              (10 Minutes)
  Computer Activity 4                                                                                                                                                                                             (15 Minutes)

Post Computer Activity

Students sit together in groups of four or five and discuss what kind of pollution their city is facing. The teacher may give them ideas, if the students are not sure/clear.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 (5 Minutes)

As homework assignment, the students can be asked to find out causes of pollution in their city.

The next day there will be a regular session in the classroom where attention will be given to translation of the main text into native language. Alternatively next week this session can be conducted before the CALL session to check which order is more effective.
 
 

The very first issue to be rationalised is that of non-authenticity of material. The designed exercises are based on the text taken from the textbook that is taught at secondary level in Pakistani schools. The text taken from that book, therefore, is not authentic but specifically designed for teaching of language. There are good reasons for not selecting an authentic text for this course.

First, an external board gives examinations, for secondary level, based on the same book Therefore this book is a compulsory part of the syllabus and a paper of  75 marks is set according to it. Therefore the book cannot be ignored while designing the teaching material for the students. The institute cannot afford to teach any other book or course or syllabus along with teaching the prescribed syllabus, nor can students do.

Secondly, introducing entirely a new syllabus design for English language teaching with a new set up may be confusing for the students and in some cases for the teachers as well. Furthermore teaching a new syllabus as an additional part is obviously time consuming and will be an extra burden for the students. At secondary level, students are quite busy in other subjects like Chemistry, Biology and Physics that are introduced for the first time at this level. Extra work for language learning may well affect their over all performance. Therefore it is in the benefit of both the students and the institution itself to introduce variations gradually in the teaching methods for convenience of the learners as well as the teachers.

The existing textbook is boring and non-motivating for the students. Learning the same text with innovation will be highly interesting for the students. On one hand it will enhance their participation in the lesson that is simply absent in the current teaching method, on the other hand it could show whether computer assisted language learning is really effective in the context of this particular institution or not.

The lesson plan emphasises maximum participation of the student, broadening his/her vision about the topic. The learner is no more a student, 'receiving' knowledge from the teacher but an explorer, discovering himself/herself. The role of teacher is not that of a giver, but that of a guide and a facilitator.

Activity 1

For pre computer activity, the teacher will use top down approach to activate the schematic knowledge of the students. Then the student is encouraged to discover himself/herself the accuracy of his/her guesses that s/he has made in pre-computer activity. This activity gives learner confidence that s/he knows about the topic that s/he is going to learn.

Activity 2

This activity aims at improving reading skills of learners. In a usual session, a lot of time is devoted to the reading of main text and students are not even then able to read and translate the text in their native language. Lack of general awareness of the topic in real life is another disadvantage. But Activity 2 has been designed to teach them how to skim through the text quickly to find the answers and thus be well aware of main vocabulary and the theme of the lesson. This activity will give learners awareness of the text that they are to translate the next day. With such a background it will be easier for the students to translate the text in classroom.
 

Activity 3

Vocabulary exercise for activity 3 will help the students to be aware of relevant topical words. At this stage learner should not be expected to know the exact meaning of the words however s/he should make guesses in the context of the text s/he has read in Exercise 2. Constructing important vocabulary this way will not only be interesting but also helpful to remember the spellings of the words. Learners may be asked to check the exact meaning themselves. The words constructed this way may well motivate learners to know their meaning as well.

Activity 4

This activity introduces authentic text about the topic in hand. On one hand it gives new and fresh ideas about the topic, on the other hand reading an authentic text makes learners confident that they are able to read something out of their textbook which may even be exciting for many students and they may well try to do something practical as suggested in the text.

This exercise introduces various kinds of gap filling including using nouns, adjectives and correct form of verb. This variety has been maintained to show that this sort of gap filling exercise can also be used to teach grammar, tenses, prepositions etc. quite successfully. Furthermore it also proves that authentic texts can be used in Hot Potatoes and if teacher prefers s/he can use relevant authentic texts along with using a course book.

Though all these activities can be conducted in a traditional classroom situation, with less or more variations, the experience shows that while doing it on the computer (Ahmad 1985), students feel more enthusiastic, involved and motivated. Once the teachers and the students are convinced that computer-assisted language is effective, the same software can be manipulated in a number of ways to teach different kinds of language for different levels.