1ST ASSIGNMENT: LESSON PLAN: An English Listening Teaching Plan on "An African tourist guide”

LESSON PLAN

Day/Date	:	Monday/11th March 2013			Time	:	10am – 12pm
Student	:	IIUM, CFS Level 6 Students			Duration	:	2 Hours
Enrolment	:	/30
Subject	:	English (Listening)
Topic	:	“An African tourist guide”
General Objectives				1.       Understand the various use of computers and computer software in language classroom 2.       Develop computer mediated communication for lessons for language classroom 3.       Develop computer mediated communication using INGLES 4.       Implement computer software to enlarge classroom interaction 5.       Explain how listening is a skill that can be develop
Learning Outcomes				At the end of the lesson, students should be able to: 1.       Improve their listening skills 2.       Able to understand, comprehend and reflect on information given through the software 3.       Able to acquire necessary skills to extract important information in a long speech/ narration 4.       Able to identify at least four benefits of listening 5.       Recognize internal and external barriers to listening and know what to do to overcome them
Contents				1.       Activity 1 & 2: “An African tourist guide”
Language Skills				Listening
Values				Instil the spirit of UkhuwahFillah among students of the classroom
Prior Knowledge				Students have learned the following item in previous classes: 1.       Simple past tense
Instructional Aids				Computer, INGLES Software(http://www.mansioningles.com/listening47.htm) Microsoft PowerPoint, Speakers, Headphones, Questions and answer sheets.
Set Induction				1.       Greetings and opening remarks 2.       Ice-breaking session, short games to introduce students to listening (Telephone Booth) 3.       Teacher asks the following questions: a.        How do you feel after the game? b.       Do you have difficulties understanding the words/phrases? 4.       Introduces the software to use in Activity 1 and Activity 2
Content Development				Step 1 Teacher introduces INGLES to the students for Activity 1. Teacher then plays some recordings and asks the students to collect ideas and main points. Teacher gives 3 minutes for the students to jot down their findings on the answer sheets. Once finished, teacher collects the answer sheets. Step 2 Teacher explains the use of INGLES further then later proceeds to Activity 2. Teacher then plays some recordings and asks the students to collect ideas, main points, reflect upon it and present it to the whole class. Each student is given 3 minutes to prepare and random students are chosen to present their ideas to the whole class. Step 3 Teacher then collected the answer sheets from Activity 1 and assesses the presentation of Activity 2. Teacher then asks the students about their experience and feelings about the class. Teacher the reemphasize the importance of listening and its barriers as well as ways to overcome it.
Conclusion				1.       Exercise collected from students 2.       Recap activities done briefly 3.       Ask for student’s opinion 4.       Reemphasize the steps of listening skills, its limitations and ways to overcome it 5.       Reemphasize the value of appreciation towards the spirit of UkhuwahFillah
Evaluation of Learning Outcomes				1.       Evaluation of Activity 1 a.        Teacher plays some recordings through the computer, and then gives 3 minutes for the students to analyse and jot down the important events/ideas on answer sheet. Once finished, teacher collected the answer sheets. 2.       Evaluation of Activity 2 a.        Teacher plays some recordings through the computer, explains about the task students needed to do. The students then are required to analyse, jot down, reflect and present their findings. Each student is given 3 minutes for both analysing and presenting. 3.       Evaluation of Learning Outcome a.        Teacher collected the answer sheets from the first activity (Activity 1) and assesses the presentation for the second activity (Activity 2). Teacher then ask the students about their experiences and values learnt throughout the class session.
Extended Work				1.       Teacher then assign students with some activities they can do at home using the software INGLES.
Lesson Evaluation/ Reflection
Supervisor’s Comments

Reflections on Islamization of knowledge

The topic of discussion on the Islamization of knowledge bears heavy significances and wisdom to attain the full truth of our purpose on the pursuit of the knowledge bestowed by Allah S.W.T throughout the universe. In this topic, we deal with the integration of knowledge which in our own words, we might describe integration as being an individual and student, the knowledge from our constant learning does not limit oneself, it somehow integrate with our own understanding of the world.

Through the 'lense' of Islam, Allah S.W.T has mentioned in the Qur'an that says, "Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding"(al-Imran: 190) Everything which has been created by Him is indeed for mankind to always point out to Him, the Almight. This ayat further elaborates how man who in pursuit of knowledge as he acquires, must reflect upon the source of knowledge itself. In Surah Yunus, Allah S.W.T explains, "It is He Who made the sun a shining thing and the moon as a light and measured out its (their) stages, that you might know the number of years and the reckoning. Allâh did not create this but in truth. He explains the Ayât (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) in detail for people who have knowledge."

The virtues and conducts in gaining and applying knowledge, must be uphold in individuals and students' processes of study and education. To Islamize one's knowledge means to interpret its notions from an Islamic point of view and interpretations. Allah S.W.T has made men to be vicegerents on the earth. We are equipped with intellectual gifts from Allah S.W.T to ponder and scheme through knowledge and utilize reason with correct injunctions and views from the Islamic perspective. 

The class session also provided truthful facts of having to be able to Islamize the existence of any acquired knowledge. We discussed the question of "how does Islam and universal knowledge reintegrates?" along understanding two pronged strategies of reintegration of Islamic values and Islamization of knowledge. 

Reflections on CALL in Language Skills

We believe that the skills are all require the semantics value of it. Meaning that in the process of acquiring the skills we also have to have the capacity of understanding the meaning of english language. In listening skill, we know that we will understand the words because we know the meaning. Therefore, we also would like to say a few things about this on the islamic perspective that Islam does concern about acquiring this skill and the process of it. If a child would listen to something they usually pick up the words by listening and repeating them,therefore listening also has consequences to a child's learning process. We should ensure the child would listen to a good content of knowledge so that they will learn something valuable at the same time in line with islam. In todays technology era its inevitable to see kids playing the internet and gadgets, its a big worry that children might listen to immoral stuffs therefore as adult we should check on them and guide them in the listening and learning process.

We also believe that speaking skill simultaneously develops with listening skills. If a child listen and repeat the word they would probably do it without noticing or understand its meaning. It could be the sentence is ungrammatical or worst it could be immoral as well. Should speakers speak with correct grammar and with a good content. This is what islam asks us to do, we should speak with good intention and good content with good words so that receiver will gain its positive meaning, as for the learner of speaking skill will extract the good meaning at the same time speaks only good things.

Writing also is another way of  speaking your words and what you mean, the only difference is that you will write it not speak it. Writing a good material requires a person to have a good writing skill. In wider range of view, the knowledge and wisdom that Allah S.W.T had scattered for mankind to ponder, reflect, and utilize is all up to the person who gains the knowledge. Writing skill, on another scale, has been approved to improvise the language efficiency of the user by continuous drilling in constructing sentences through grammar and vocabulary choices. As CALL improves writing skill of a speaker, programs and softwares which language scholars have invented and applied in analyzing and explaining the importance of writing seem to be able to be reflected as such during the period of the chaliphate in 655 A.D who previously wrote extensively on the revelation of the Prophet S.A.W.  The intense hearing, listening, and writing skills they've adopted upon preserving the Quranic indentions were insurmountable to be compared with how much technologies have shifted the human abilities in explaining language and expanding knowledge.

Thus, in all scopes of language learning through the usage and assistance of computers, we, as creations of Allah S.W.T, complete with various gifts and abilities to reflect and ponder must be able to utilize our knowledge of acquiring language skills beyond what we can see. In this technological world, as an example, we should feel as most fortunate because of the averseness of having to improvise our ways of communicating at the tips of our hands.

Lecture 8 on Corpus Linguistics

In linguistics, corpus (plural corpora) is a large and structured set of texts (now usually electronically stored and processed). A corpus may contain single texts in single language (monolingual corpus) or text data in multiple languages (multilingual corpus). Multilingual corpora that have been specially formatted for side-by-side comparison are called aligned parallel corpora (Webster’s Online Dictionary). A corpus can be defined as a collection of texts assumed to be representative of a given language put together so that it can be used for linguistic analysis. Usually the assumption is that the language stored in a corpus is naturally-occurring, that it is gathered according to explicit design criteria, with a specific purpose in mind, and with a claim to represent larger chunks of language selected according to a specific typology. In general there is consensus that a corpus deals with natural, authentic language. (Tognini-Bonelli, Corpus linguistics at work, 2001:2)

A corpus is a collection of texts, designed for some purpose, usually teaching or research. A corpus is not something that a speaker does or knows, but something constructed by a researcher. It is a record of performance, usually of many different users, and designed to be studied, so that we can make inferences about typical language use. Because it provides methods of observing patterns of a type which have long been sensed by literary critics, but which have not been identified empirically, the computer-assisted study of large corpora can perhaps suggest a way out of the paradoxes of dualism. (Stubbs, Words and Phrases, 2002:239-40).

The expression Corpus Linguistics first appeared in the early 80s.Corpus Linguistics is the study of language/linguistic phenomena through the analysis of data obtained from a corpus.Corpus Linguistics is now seen as the study of linguistics phenomena through large collections of machine-readable texts which are called corpora.Since corpus linguistics involves the use of large corpora that consist of millions or sometimes even billion words, it relies heavily on the use of computers to determine what rules govern the language and what patters (grammatical or lexical for instance) occur. Thus it is not surprising that corpus linguistics emerged in its modern form only after the computer revolution in the 1980s. The Brown Corpus, the first modern and electronically readable corpus, however, was created by Henry Kucera and W. Nelson Francis as early as the 1960s.

What Corpus Linguistics does is that it gives an access to naturalistic linguistic information. As mentioned before, corpora consist of “real word” texts which are mostly a product of real life situations. This makes corpora a valuable research source for dialectology, sociolinguistics and stylistics. It facilitates linguistic research. Electronically readable corpora have dramatically reduced the time needed to find particular words or phrases. A research that would take days or even years to complete manually can be done in a matter of seconds with the highest degree of accuracy. Plus, it enables the study of wider patterns and collocation of words. Before the advent of computers, corpus linguistics was studying only single words and their frequency. Modern technology allowed the study of wider patters and collocation of words. Furthermore, it allows analysis of multiple parameters at the same time. Various corpus linguistics software programs and analytical tools allow the researchers to analyze a larger number of parameters simultaneously. In addition, many corpora are enriched with various linguistic information such as annotation.

Corpus Linguistics facilitates the study of the second language. Study of the second language with the use of natural language allows the students to get a better “feeling” for the language and learn the language like it is used in real rather than “invented” situations.Corpus linguistics studies the language by using randomly or systematically selected corpora. They typically consist of a large number of naturally occurring texts, however, they do not represent the entire language. Linguistic analyses that use the methods and tools of corpus linguistics thus do not represent the entire language.