Wednesday, January 28, 2009

TEACHING IN ENGLISH

LEARN THE LANGUAGE; LARN THE SUBJECT

Guest Lecture by Dr. S. Malaikkani
To the St. Anthony School Teachers
On 20.12 2008
1.Imporance of English – need – economic importance – World’s first Language – Modern Language – A practical life tool - Almost an Indian Language – Future of it – Soft skills vs Hard skills – Spoken English vs Technical English.

2. Teaching English and Teaching in English – the first – method of teaching the language - the second - a method of teaching the subject – the first one needs common
vocabulary – the second needs subject vocabulary

3. Mastery of the language – both common and technical – follow study skills
LSRW - Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics - a good collection of quality books – Reference skills – Using the Library – Using the Net – learn the nature of English - A tough Language – Learn to simplify it

4. Methods of teaching – teaching for scientific thinking – Dvelop your own style of teaching – Formula for teaching MARKS – Learn the use of Technical and Scientific English

5. Old Methods of teaching – Lecture Method – Translation Method – Socretic Method – Q&A – Story method ect.

6. Modern Methods - Key Word Method – Embedding Learning Techniques in teaching – Memory- techniques based teaching – Indivisualized – Instruction – An approach to make all the students learn in the class room itself – No poor Students or slow learners

Prepare your own materials – e-contents – use the already prepared standard materials – Group work

Motivate the students towards self-learning – manage your time in the class room
Make the students to think like great scientists – ask to put their thoughts in writing – Try to create innovative bent of mind and do experiments and invent new working models.

Use electronic Gadgets in the class room – Encourage Students to use them in their learning

10. Self- in-service methods – News Readers Model – Modern Advertisements

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

English words can be classified into two types; small words and big words. The small words are unstressed in speech and big words are stressed in speech.The big words are meaningful words but the small words are grammatical words. Pronoun, helping verbs, preposition, and conjuntion are small words. Nouns, adjectives, adverbs, main verbs and interjections are big words. In all the language communications, the small words are used more than 70 percent. (in Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing)

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Research in Education

PARADIGM SHIFT IN RESEARCH IN EDUCATION
Article by Dr. S. Malaikkani


A historical perspective of the field of research will reveal the growth of it slowly first and vigorously at present. In olden times research was restricted to disciplines like science, Maths, Philosophy, and language. Scientific research was alone considered as the original research. There were two different types of researches in science namely fundamental or basic research and applied research. Later Social Sciences like Philosophy, Social Science, Education, Psychology etc. also tried to emulate it.

Aristotle was the forerunner of the present day research and he collected data, created information out of it and produced a knowledge pool and tried to use it for the benefit of the mankind. He verified the collected data and brought out in book form and was the first scholar to author more than 150 books by his hard work.

After a long break, Francis Bacon taught the students how to

1. Observe nature
2. Collect data
3. Form Hypotheses
4. Analyze the data and interpret it
5. form a conclusion and prove the hypotheses

In hid book ‘Novum Organum’, Bacon had explained in detail how conduct research both in the field and in laboratory. He emphasized that Nature contains everything and people should develop the spirit of enquiry and try to find out the truth. Charles Darwin emulated the principles dictated by Bacon and observed Nature, collected materials, and produced evidence to prove his hypothesis based on the ‘ The Theory of Evolution’.

Education Research was of recent origin and heavily depends on the Disciplines like Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy and Biology. The Russian psychologist was the first to conduct an experiment with his dog’s salivation. He created the S - R bond theory in Education. Later, studies conducted on the following areas.

1. Curriculum
2. Methods of Teaching
3. Evaluation
Recently efforts were made to analyze the behavior of teachers in the class room. Flanders did a wonderful analysis of teacher’s behavior and demonstrated that teacher’s behavior plays a vital role in imparting education to children. This is the research which brought educational research into the class room.



Simultaneously different types of researches were introduced and it was very much useful to make educational research more empirial and scientific. Some of them are the following.

1. Survey research
2. Experimental research.
3. Case study
4. Ethnographic Study

The advancement of statistics helped researchers to analyze data precisely and come to clear solutions.

The latest trend has been the use of computers and internet to conduct research at all levels. They are useful to select a topic, to collect related literature, to conduct research and pool data, to analyze it and to interpret it. Today quality research cannot be undertaken without computer and internet.

The important paradigm shift in education research today is from the teachers to the learners.
Class room management, class room environment, Student’s behavior, their learning style, self-learning, and speed-learning are the major thrust areas of study throughout the world. Other areas of interest are the Communication Information Technology (CIT), learner- friendly text books and new pedagogical techniques.

In foreign countries, research in education has reached advanced levels and they conduct research in the use of e-books, online-learning, e-learning, web-learning, and virtual class room learning. The quality of our education depends on the quality of our research in education.

All the ills of our education system can be removed by the findings of the latest research.
Unfortunately Indian Teachers and Students possess knowledge about their books and not
about the latest research findings. Indian teachers conduct research merely for increments and promotion opportunities. They don’t have any idea of socio-economic benefit of their
theses. Most of the theses are not published and they sleep in the shelves of the libraries.
They are unaware of the saying “Publish and flourish”.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Elctronic Gadgets For Joyful learning

ELECTRONIC GADGETS FOR JOYFUL LEARNING

Dr.S.Malaikkani


Education plays a vital role in today’s modern society and it has become a big business and the students are the customers and pay authorities. They expect joyful learning both in the classroom and out of the classroom. The Kothari Commission Report on Education observes that “ The supply of teaching aids to every school is essential for the improvement of the quality of teaching. It would indeed bring about a revolution in education”. In spite of applying all the electronic gadgets to all the educational institutions, the standard of education had not improved. Today the stress is on learning
rather than teaching. Most pf these gadgets are available in the students’ homes. They utilize these gadgets only for entertainment. There should a paradigm shift in the minds of the teachers to guide their wards to make use of these gadgets in their learning.

The Microsoft Giant, Bill Gates once observed that
“The Single most important use of information technology is to improve education.” Unfortunately in India all the electronic gadgets are not used properly in their learning. A Lot of research should be carried out towards the better use of the electronic gadgets like Radio, Television, Tech and Computer. The present paper deals with some innovative uses of these gadgets by the students in their learning.

Plagiarism in Research

STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF RESEARCH IN HIGHER

EDUCATION


Quality of higher education depends on the latest research trend in the universities and colleges. The research in higher education is drastically going down and it has to be arrested immediately. Indian higher education is growing quantitatively rather than qualitatively. The human resource minister ina recent conference of Indian University Vice chancellors made a sharp comment. He observed that “Higher Education has become a sick child”. This statement was not refuted by anyone of the Vice chancellors present there and they silently acknowledged it. Another shocking news is that none of our universities has been included in the top two hundred universities of the world. Yet another bitter truth is that the MNCs ( Multi-national Companies), the foreign job opportunities providing agencies in India demand world class quality from our students.

These MNCs are ready to provide jobs for all the Indian graduates and postgraduates but the pity is that they find only ten percent of them are employable. This is a deplorable condition and the falling of standard of Indian Education system has to be arrested immediately.

Our education system from LKG to University should undergo a sea-change. The solution for these problems lies in the findings of the latest research. Our research guides and scholars should change their mind set and try to find solutions for all the ills at various levels of the present education system.

The first sickness to be eradicated is the prevailing trend to plagiarize theses. Plagiarism has become a plague eating away the pith of the higher education. It has to be found out and condemned and punished severely.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Exam Techniques

EXAM TECHNIQUES


All students harbour exam phobia in their hearts and it is due to wrong study habits. Normally students read books or notes and it will not help them to retain the learnt materials int heir memory. Group Discussion, going through model question papers,
Note-making, quick drawing of pictures, use of memory techniques and developing
Good Handwriting are some of the basic ideas students should have in their minds. All the students should be aware of their Mark Scoring Curve. That means the students’ marks should not go down in their exams. Poor HM will heavily bring your marks down.

Good handwriting: some students regret that their HM is very poor and it cannot be improved. This is WRONG notion and anybody’s HM can be improved at any time. Only thing is that they should not write more than five words in a line. The letters should be bold enough to read without any difficulty.
Time Management in the exam hall is another important factor. Many students how to manage their time in the exam hall. To overcome this problem divide the time by marks and find out how many minutes you can use for one mark. Suppose you have write for 100 marks and the allotted for you is 3 hours, you have 1.8 minutes per mark. If you answer a big question of ten marks you cannot write the answer for the question for more than 1.8 minutes. If you write the answer for 20 minutes for the same question, you cannot answer the other questions.
The next most important factor is the facing the answer paper. Most of the students keep their note books not facing them. They should face the answer paper and read the answers while they write. When the students read their own answers, they can correct their careless errors and rectify them. This will help the students to score 5 to 10 marks extra in each paper. This will provide the students with mind-hand coordination.

Underline the key words

Try to please the examiner and write neatly and legibly.

Use separate sheet for rough work.

Don’t write anything on the question paper.

Write the question numbers correctly.

Don’t write excess questions and repeat any question again.

When you commit errors strike them out neatly.

Diagrams should be drawn wherever possible.

Show your creativity and originality.

Read the instructions in the question paper carefully and strictly adhere to them.

At the higher education level group learning based on the syllabus will yield fruitful results.

As soon as you receive the question paper, read it carefylly and without stress.

Answer all the questions without leaving out anything.

Don’t indulge in malpractice.

Don’t try to help your neighbors.

While preparing for the exam, expect the unexpected.

Language teachers are carried by good handwriting.

In all papers avoid spelling and grammatical errors.

To score good marks, write apt quotations in your answers.

Provide more examples.

Show your creativity by writing how the theory part can be useful in a practical way.

Key word method in Teaching

Indian class rooms are overcrowded and even the most experienced teachers find it very difficult to control it. This is true for all the teachers irrespective of the level of teaching. The teachers should know the psychology of their children and know how to motivate them in the right way.
Their mastery of the subjects or their training in B.Ed or D.T.Ed will not help them to overcome this mess in the class. They have to know the learning strategies and teach
them to their students. This will motivate them positively and silence them to learn the materials in the class room itself.

The standard of education has been going down. A number of researchers has been undertaken to find out the cause and eradicate it. Nevertheless the quality of Indian Education does not improve in any way. The college teachers pass the bug on the school teachers and the school teachers blame the parents for the students’ poor learning.
Further the teachers scold the students for their poor performance and them to bring their parents and make complaints about their children for not learning properly. Even some teachers tease their students and ask them to go out of the class rooms.

The latest trend in teaching is embedding learning techniques in teaching. The teachers should master the learning strategies first and based that they should teach and this help the students to learn every thing in the class room itself. Another method is the key word method. The teacher should take notes and before starting teaching he should write the key words on the blackboard and then ask the students to memorize the key points in the classroom itself. This will lead to joyful learning among students.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

A FEW SELF-TESTING QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS

A FEW SELF-TESTING QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS


By Dr. S.Malaikkani

1. What is learning? 2 .What is rote-learning? 3. What is self-learning? 4. What are the basic skills of learning? 5. What is your learning style? 6. What is joyful learning?
7. What is the self-learning formula? 8. What is speed learning? 9. What is tearful learning? 10. What is creativity in learning? 11. How do you make your text books learner-friendly? 12. Do you like to improve your handwriting? 13. What are reference skills? 14. Who is the best learner? 15. What is group learning? 16. What is the Royal Road to learning? 17. How can you learn all the materials in the class room itself? 18. What is life-long learning? 19. What is LTM in learning? 20. What is the final goal of education? What is the best self learning technique?

21. What is motivation? 22. What are the two types of motivation? 23. What is time management in the class room? 24. What is the secret of time management? 25. How do you manage your studies outside the classroom? 26 Do you know how to use electronic gadgets in your learning?

27. What are memory techniques? 28. Do you like to improve your memory power? 29. What is the concentration power of the human brain? 30. What is memory technique based learning? What is the unique memory technique? What is the power of your brain?

31. What is the higher order function of the brain? 32. Do you have the habit of thinking continuously? 33. What is brainstorming? 34. Have you learnt to think like a scientist?
35. What is originality in thinking? 36. What is creativity? 37. Do you know how to
produce new working models? 38. Do you engage yourselves in doing experiments?
39. What is innovation? 40. What is the difference between invention and discovery?
41. What is serendipity? 42. What are the different types of thinking? 43. Have heard of the young scientist award? 44. How do you use your learning to improve your life?

45. How will you improve your Spoken English? 46. Do you know how to use a good dictionary? 47 Which English is important, Spoken English, or Technical English?
48. What is a thesaurus? 49. Do you have a good collection of books? 50. What is life time achievement? 51. What are soft skills/key skills/life skills? 52. What is mark-scoring graph?
A FEW IDEAS AND DEFINITION ON LEARNING

Learning – A habit, an experience, Modification of behavior

1. It occurs through Memorization, 5 senses, 6th sense, and 7th sense and better through an integration of all these senses

2. LSRW – these basic study skills and 5 percent through mere reading, 70 percent through listening,

.3. Group learning – the Royal Road to learning

4. Note making, and note taking – the best self learning techniques and the unique memory techniques

5. 100 percent learning occur through Repetition, reciting, recalling and reviewing

6. A collection of new ideas

7. Learning is for thinking, and creating new ideas

8. Innovation, experiment, and invention are the final goals of education

9. Life Long Learning (LLL) leads to Life Time Achievement (LTA)

10. Brainstorming, Picking the minds of others, creative writing and publishing the new ideas help to further learning

11. Use of electronic gadgets make learning joyful

12. Motivation and time management help in speed learning

13. Each Individual follows a style of learning

14. Interest, attention, concentration, futuristic thinking and motivation help to accelerate learning

15. Mark Scoring Curve is important in learning

16. Ex am techs play a vital role in learning

17. Hand writing is another booster in learning

18. Students should learn self-learning formula

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Survival skills for Students

Study skills
Note making
Time management
Exam techs
Class room learning
Self learning skills
Communication sills
Interview skills
Group learning
Good Handwriting
Good Health
Relaxation techs
Etiqutte
Personality Development
Self motivation
Cognitive abilities
Good Memory


Students who are much interested may contact me over phone or e-mail and learn more about these topics.

My cell no: 94441 74259
e-mail: malaikkani@yahoo.co.in