Bristol Group MOE WKC English Teacher Training Project

Day 5 Session 2 (Tuesday, 14 Oct. 2014, 11:00-12:30pm)

LANGUAGE DEMANDS OF SUBJECT CONTENT AND ACCOMPANYING TASKS

This lesson was conducted by Andrew where he put the focus of this class on genre-based approach. Language demands of CLIL subjects can be used in integrating genre-based approach because in most subjects, there are different genres (text types). Therefore, genre-based approach facilitates students to widen an awareness of the principles of various genres in different text types.

At the beginning of the class, he explained about genre which means a speech event/ a written text of a particular type such as presentation, lecture, letter and report. Then, he highlighted that each genre has:

·         A communicative purpose

·         A typical method of communication

·         A typical type of audience or target reader

·         Particular conventions such as structure, style, content and language features.

Then, he moved on to the first activity where the participants were instructed to identify features of text at ‘text’ level and at sentence or word level. The text given was about linear dimensions of Airbus 380. The participants were suggested to discuss among their friends in order to complete the task.

Next, the activity conducted involved a cross-check activity where participants needed to complete the blanks in the tables of the purposes of genres. Participants were divided into pairs with A had the answer while B had the blank purposes. Thus, the participants who were B must ask their pairs who had the answers (participants who were A). It encouraged communication among participants in completing the task given.

After that, Andrew introduced the Academic Word List (AWL) which is an important source of vocabulary. It is very useful to help participants in preparing lessons for students.  Other than that, the last exercise given was an individual task where participants had to complete some blanks in a process of writing a report. This lesson was very valuable to the participants because it helped us in gaining knowledge on genre-based approach and features of different genres. Moreover, participants were also attained information on the AWL, the process of producing different genre-types and self-assessment of genre-based work. 

-          Rosilawati Muhamad Ramli (Kota Bharu Polytechnic)

-          Normazliza Zahid (Kangar Vocational College)