Sum up MELTA forums

Forum is one of the elements of active discussion especially in improving teaching English in Malaysia. For me, I have come out with the title “does on-line discussion help language students to improve their language”. I was so grateful because my topic became a hot topic of the week as my friends responded vitally relating to my topic. What I am so proud of my topic is that one of the UPSI lecturers has responded to my topic. I feel like it is an honor to me to receive a response from a lecturer as it gives an impact that my topic is a good topic to be discussed. On the other hand, there are advantages and disadvantages of the on-line discussion that we have discussed. Firstly, it gives a room of improvements for students to develop their language skills. It promotes student centred learning as students can get access to internet even outside of the class. So, for the beginner, it will lower students’ anxiety and it will encourage students’ affection domain to write what ever they like. Despites, there are disadvantages that we need to be taken into consideration. Firstly, most students are not interested in online discussion. They would think that the discussion would be very boring and helpless. The teacher should encourage or drill them with a topic and the task is compulsory for them to respond. If not, the online discussion would not be going to work. However, the online discussion has more advantages rather than disadvantages. So, the online discussion should be implemented as it gives lots of benefits for students’ language development.

Letters

Letters is one of the elements to figure out how the author’s life affects their writings.The author wrote the letters back one century. At first, it is hard for me to comprehend the phrases and sentences used because the author used lot of figurative languages in delivering the speech in the letter. Moreover, the experiences presented in the letter do affect the written poem by poet. The letter presented is a beautiful masterpiece also as it comprises figurative language that makes me hardly to understand the letter itself. Letter is a tool especially for the poet to express their own feelings or gratitude towards the recipients such as members of family or friends.

Presentation

When it comes to a position paper presentation, I feel very anxious as I do not have confident in delivering speech in front of the class. Moreover, presenting my position paper in front of Dr Edwin would make my body giggle and it is hard for me to open my mouth to speak up. However, I try my best to perform my best presentation for Dr Edwin as he is very critically in giving comments and ideas. So, what I did was when presenting my position paper, I have taken notes of what I am going to talk on the presentation. So, it is easier for me to deliver my speech and it is easier for Dr Edwin to comprehend what I am trying to say. When presenting my position paper, Dr Edwin was attracted to my definition of gentleman. He said it is a good definition and it is interrelated to my position paper. My definition of gentleman is being a gentleman is a matter of virtue and honesty of having a station in life which one can fill with dignity. Recount on my thesis statement Joe’s treatment of Pip makes him a gentleman suits the definition after all. After completing my position paper, Dr Edwin asks me to reworking on my fourth point and the conclusion. Thank God, I have completed my presentation.:)

Use of poetry in ESL classroom

Teaching poetry in ESL classroom would be very interactive if the teacher knows how to deal with it. The teacher plays a big role in introducing poem in class. Students sometimes will get bored in learning poem as the poem is hard to comprehend and understand it. I admit that the use of diction is an issue here, but the teacher has to introduce them with an easy poem and deliberately teach them a bit difficult poem. This would provide a room of opportunities for them to learn inference and assumption skills before they go beyond the difficult poem. The teacher needs to initiate them with a good pre presentational stage whereby they can get attracted with what the teacher is going to teach. Moreover, the students tend to focus on the poem as the teacher has initiated them with an interesting set induction stage. Set induction stage would be very essential as the students’ schemata or past experience will be activated and it helps them to understand and infer the poem critically.

Uniforms – hegemony, equality beneath it

In ‘The Long Walk to Freedom’, the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, it elevates an issue on the use of uniform. There are reasons why uniform is being used as it is for identification, status, element of disciplinary, symbol of control or standardization. Sometimes, people use uniform as a norm like police or army. The most popular reasons are identification and status. Identification means to classify or segregate identity between people while status it shows hierarchy and equality that differentiate people. This is when the word hegemony appears. Hegemony exists as an element of racial elements which a minority has controlled over the majority. The best example would be between whites and blacks. White has the power to control over the black because they are fully equipped with full-loaded guns and weapons while the black is still using traditional weapon which is bow and arrow. So, the white tries to dominate the black by scaring them with the AK-47. Worse comes to worse, the white has the power to control over the politic in Africa. They can participate in politic to control over the economy growth and the state itself in general.

The use of ‘autobiography’ in ESL classroom

It is tremendously good if the teacher is willing to teach autobiography in English classroom. Teaching autobiography can be educational and can be the element of entertainment. Occasionally, it is good for students to learn autobiography as it promotes a real life situation. What I mean here is of course the autobiography is the writer or someone past experience and they are willing to share their past experience with us. So, it provides a real process of learning and most of the students really like it rather than just stick on the text book instead which would be promoting students anxiety. The use of the autobiography is appropriate and suitable in class and outside the class. It means here the reading session would not be over and the students can read the autobiography without the teacher consent. Most autobiographies, they are written in a enjoyment manner because the use of language or diction is very simple and easy for students to comprehend. Teacher has no worry to assign his or her student to read as the autobiography could encourage learner centered approach. What ever it is, the autobiography