CHAPTER: 10 SKILL OF TEACHING ENGLISH

CHAPTER: 10

Skills of Teaching English

 

This Chapter Deals with

Introduction

Meaning of Teaching Skill

Types of Teaching Skill

Meaning of Different Teaching Skills

Characteristics of Teaching Skill

Skill of Questioning

Good Qualities of a Question

Kinds of Question

Components of Questioning skills

Merits of Questioning Skill

Demerits of Questioning skill

Micro-Teaching Lesson on Questioning Skill

Skill of Explaining

Importance and Need of Explaining Skill

Components of Explaining Skill

Suggestion for making effective Explanation

Merit of Explaining Skill

Demerit of Explaining Skill

Conclusion

                                     Skills of Teaching English

Introduction: The act of teaching is an art as well as science. For effective classroom teaching a teacher should possess the knowledge of teaching skills. The activity of teaching is not as simple as it seems to be. The task of teaching is a complex phenomenon. It is a challenging activity for those who want to be in the profession of teaching or want to be a devoted teacher. Teacher training institutions prepare the teachers for the schools. During the training period, the behavior of the teacher trainee is modified. Taking a teacher trainee to a school classroom after teaching him some theory may be compared with taking a person to drive a bike, who has learnt only the theory of driving a bike.

                    Practical experience is needed for developing the skills and confidence of the teacher trainee and that should be bit by bit. So, in teaching learning process a teacher should be trained by giving various teaching skills. A teacher while taking a class of 35 to 40 minutes exhibits a number of skills. All the skills of teaching cannot be attain or learnt overnight. Micro-teaching is one of the best methods which help the pupil teachers to learn the skills of teaching very well.

Meaning of Teaching Skill: Teaching skills are specific instructional activities and procedures which a teacher repeated a number of times during the course of teaching. According to Prof.B.K. Passi “Teaching skills are a set of related acts or behavior performed with the intention of facilitates pupils’ learning.” For example, the teacher of English explains many things contained in the poem that he is teaching in the class room. A teacher in class room uses many skills like introducing, explaining a points, illustrating with examples, writing on the black board, reinforcing the students at appropriate time etc. according to Allen and Ryans (1969) there are 14 skills but according to Prof. B.K.Passi there are 13 skills which are basically used in class room teaching.

Types of Teaching Skill

Allen and Ryans (1969) have suggested the following 14 skills -:

(I)    Stimulus Variation

(II) Set induction

(III)             Closure skill

(IV)             Silence and nonverbal cues

(V) Reinforcement

(VI)             Asking questions

(VII)          Probing questions

(VIII)       Divergent questions

(IX)             Attending behavior

(X) Illustrating skills

(XI)             Lecturing skills

(XII)          Higher order questions

(XIII)       Planned repetition and

(XIV)       Communication completeness

Prof. B.K.Passi (1976) has described the following 13 skills in his book “Becoming better Teacher: A micro-teaching Approach” -:

(I)                   Writing instructional objectives

(II)                Introduction of a lesson

(III)             Fluency and questioning

(IV)             Probing questioning

(V)                Explaining

(VI)             Illustrating with examples

(VII)          Stimulus variation

(VIII)       Silence and non-verbal cues

(IX)             Reinforcement to student participation

(X)                Increasing pupils’ participation

(XI)             Using Black Board

(XII)          Achieving closure

(XIII)       Recognizing attending behavior.

 Meaning of Different Teaching Skills

(I)                   Stimulus variation -: The skill of Stimulus variation helps the teacher to draw the attention of the students. The skill of stimulus variation means changing of gesture and positions by the teacher which helps him to keep pupils attention at high level during the teaching process. It also helps in making teaching learning process more effective and interesting.

(II)                Set Induction -: Immediate Involvement is necessary in the process of teaching. The skill set induction means the introduction of the lesson. This skill helps in making a bridge in between the previous and present knowledge. The skill of Set induction is also technically known as Introduction skill.

(III)             Closure -: The effectiveness of teaching is depends more upon the skill of closure. It means to sum up task properly in an effective way in the class. It helps the students to relate new knowledge with the previous knowledge.

(IV)             Silence and Non-verbal cues -: The skill of Silence and non-verbal cues helps the teacher in maintaining discipline among the students and also it encourage pupils participation in the class room teaching.  

(V)                Skill of Reinforcement -: Reinforcement skill means accepting students responses. Teacher’s smile verbal praise to the students which helps him to encourage pupils’ participation more and more.

(VI)             Skills of Fluency in Questioning and Probing questions -: Fluency in Questioning means asking question as many as possible in a given period of teaching and probing questions and Probing Question concerned with the questions which helps in development of the cognitive aspects of the students.

(VII)          Skill of Explaining -: An explanation is a set of interrelated statements by using what, why, how, when etc which is made by the teacher in order to define the concept of ideas more clearly.

(VIII)       Skill of Illustration -: When the teacher need the help of examples, charts, pictures, models in order to explain the concept is called the illustration skill.

(IX)             Use of Black Board -:The effectiveness of presentation depends upon the proper use of Black Board. The necessary components of black board writing skill are clarity in hand writing, legibility, neatness and rationale of black board work etc.

(X)                Skill of using Audio Visual Aids -: It implies the effective use of appropriate teaching aids to make teaching effective and interesting. This skill helps in achieving the desired objectives. The effective use of audio visual aids helps in making the pupils more active and attentive in class room.

(XI)             Skill of class room Management -: This skill involves various activities are performed by the teacher in order to create conducive environment for learning in class room. The social and educational activities of the teacher need special skills which helps him to manage class properly.

(XII)          Skill of increasing pupils’ participation -: The direct behavior of the students can be observable if the teacher maximized the pupils participation. In order to maximize pupils participation, this skill required the components of Questioning, encouraging and accepting the students.

(XIII)       Skill of Lecturing -: The skill of lecturing implies the effective presentation of the content. For effective presentation, the teacher uses various techniques and tactics through his skill. This skill is also known as communication skill. The teachers are more responsive to possible miscommunication.

(XIV)       Skill of giving assignment -: The skill of giving assignment enables the teacher to know the learning outcomes. This skill consist the pupils to organize and assimilate the learnt material.

(XV)          Skill of planned repetition -: The skill of planned repetition is more powerful skill in focusing and highlighting important points of teaching.

(XVI)       Recognizing attending behavior -: On the basis of pupils behavior, the teacher select his own activities. The teacher also decides the interesting and bore activities.

Characteristics of Teaching Skill: On the account of the above discussion, the characteristics of teaching skills are as given below -:

• Teaching skill are the desired instructional activities.
• Teaching skills are verbal and non-verbal in nature.
• Various activities and actions are included in teaching skills.
• It helps in developing communication competency.
• It helps in presenting the content in an effective way.
• It helps in developing the power of expression.
• It helps in creating conducive environment for class room teaching learning process.
• Through various teaching skills, the teacher can also develop his professional skills.
• The competencies in various teaching skills are possible only through experiences.

Out of all the teaching skills prescribed by Prof. B.K. Passi, in the next chapter there are few teaching skills are discussed keeping in view of the syllabus. In the next chapter the following skills are discussed with micro lesson plan.

Skill of Questioning

Questioning skill is considered is one of the most important tools of teaching. By asking questions a teacher can easily draw the attention of the students and also he can able to stimulate them and cultivate their interest and curiosity. Questions are fundamental to the concept of learning. A good question is a key to all educative activity. A good teacher must be good a good questionnaire. It is the most effective instrument to make the teaching learning activity meaningful and effective. It enables the students to understand the subject deeply. In favor of questioning skill, great Greek Philosopher Socrates says that “Questioning is an integral skill of a good lesson. He emphasized the teacher should present the subject matter in such a way that a learner may recognize the truth and he may identify himself with it”.  According to Prof. Raymont, “The acquisition of a good style of questioning may be laid down definitely as one of the essential ambition of younger teacher”. By questioning the teacher can able to know the followings-:

v  To test the previous knowledge of the students.

v  To introduce the lesson.

v  To stimulate the interest and curiosity of the students.

v  To keep students attentive.

v  To develop expression ability of the students.

v  To maximize students participation.

v  To stimulate thinking of the students.

v  To help the students to understand the subject matter deeply.

v  For recapitulation.

v  For evaluation.

v  To know the effectiveness of teaching.

Good Qualities of a Question

For framing good questions the teacher must have mastery over the language and the power of clear and logical thinking. He must possess the qualities of good questions. There are some qualities of a good question are as given below-:

v  Questions should be relevant and meaningful.

v  Questions should be point and brief.

v  It should not be framed in ambiguous language.

v  It should be based to the age and intelligence level of the students.

v  It should not encourage guess work.

v  It should aim at one answer only.

v  It should be from simple to complex.

v  It should be objective.

v  It should be reliable.

v  It should have validity.

v  It should be properly distributed to the whole class.

v  It should not suggest answer any way.

v  The language of the questions should be accurate and correct.

v  It should help in developing confidence of the students.

v  It should develop the reasoning power of the students.

v  Questions should not be rephrased and repeated.

v  The disposition of the teacher should be sympathetic during the time of asking questions.

v  Teacher should give hints to hard questions.

v  Adequate time should be given for answering.

v  The difficulty level of the questions should not be more than 50%.

v  Try to put many questions fluently as possible.

v  To revise the lesson.

Kinds of Question: Generally questions are of three kinds which are discussed below:

v  Introductory Question.

v  Developing Question

v  Recapitulation or Evaluative Question.

v  Introductory Question-: This type of question is asked to know the previous knowledge of the students and to introduce the lesson in an effective way. This helps the teacher to proceed from known to unknown. These questions also prepare the minds of the students to receive new knowledge. It helps in making a bridge in between previous and new knowledge.

v  Developing Questions-: this type of question are said to be the backbone of the lesson. It helps to formulate generalization, to focus attention on important points, to develop lesson step by step, to stimulate mental activity, to arouse imagination, to compare facts and events and to assimilate new knowledge.

v  Recapitulation or Evaluative Questions-: These types of questions are asked at the end of the lesson in order to know how far the students have grasped the concept. These questions help the teachers to assess his teaching. To answer these questions sufficient time should be given to the students.

Components of Questioning skills: The teacher asks the questions to the students for many reasons. Generally, the following components are involved in questioning skill-:

1.      Prompting.

2.      Seeking further information.

3.      Refocusing.

4.      Redirection.

5.      Increasing critical awareness.

1)                     Prompting: In such questions, the teacher puts questions with the purpose of prompting the students for speaking. The teacher can ask such questions when the students express his inability to answer or accepts frankly that “he does not know”. Here the questions serve the purpose of cues and hints.

2)                     Seeking further information: When the students are unable to answer any questions or answer partially, then in order to receive complete and correct answer, the teacher can ask such questions by accepting that the answer given is correctbut the student should reveal more. There can be alternative answer to the asked question. In this way the teacher can seek maximum information from the pupils by asking questions such as -: what else do you say? How can you make it clear? etc.

3)                     Refocusing -: When the teachers are not satisfied with the pupil’s answer, then the teacher tries to draw the attention of the students towards different situations where the similar problem can arise. In this way, transfer of learning is more possible.

4)                     Redirection -: The purpose of this type of question is to redirect the attention of the students on some key point or some typical situation. Here the question makes the students to reach a situation which compels him to rethink and speak on the desired lines. This type of questions is also helps in developing reasoning power of the students and encourages the students for maximum participation.

5)                     Increasing critical awareness -: This type of questions bearing ‘why’ and ‘how’ are asked so that the teacher can develop critical awareness in the students. The students have already given a correct response to the questions put by the teacher. But the teacher wants to enhance the critical ability of the students. So he asks further, why is it so? How can you justify? What you have said? All these questions increase critical awareness of the students.

Merits of Questioning Skill: The following are the merits of questioning skill-:

v  Questioning ensures active participation of the students and keeps them alert.

v  It helps in developing thinking and reasoning power of the students.

v  It helps in increasing critical awareness.

v  Prompting is done easily by questioning.

v  It helps in developing understanding of the students.

v  It gives redirection.

v  It helps in refocusing.

v  It helps in seeking further information.

v  To list the required knowledge questioning is used.

v  It helps in finding out the weakness of the teaching learning process.

v   It helps in increasing the self-confidence of the students.

v  It helps in developing Interest, curiosity among the students.

Demerits of Questioning skill: The following are the demerits of questioning skill-:

v     The teacher may not be efficient in framing good questions and in handling     the answer.

v     Weak and shy students may not be benefitted from this method. Their participation should be encouraged.

v  This method cannot be applied in all subjects.

v  It appears artificial in nature.

v  It is a dull process.

v  It unable to cover all the aspects and points.

v  Sometimes it creates depression among students.

v  Knowledge and understanding acquire through this method.

v     This method requires organization through explanation, narration, description or summarization by the teacher.

MICRO LESSON ON QUESTIONING SKILL

Pupil Teacher’s Name      : ……………………….                                                          Date: ………………

Roll No                                  : ……………………….                                                          Skill: Questioning

Subject                                  : English                                                                                      Duration: 5 Minute

Topic                                     : “A Tale of Two Birds”                                                       Class: VI

 

Content	Pupil Teacher’s Activity	Student’s Activity
“A Tale of Two Birds”	Dear students, yesterday we read the chapter “A Tale of Two Birds”. Today we shall discuss the questions : ·             Where did the two birds live? ·             Who parted them? ·             Where did one bird come? ·             Where did the second bird come? ·             What the first bird come into? ·             What the second bird grew into? ·             What is the theme of the story?	The students listen to the teacher carefully and they ready to respond the questions. Ans-In a forest Ans-A big storm Ans-Near a cave where a gang of robber lived Ans-Outside a Rishi’s Ashram Ans-A wicked one Ans-Good and sympathetic Ans-One is known by the company one keeps

Observation Schedule

Components of the skill	Evaluation
	So, so	Normal	Good
1.       Prompting. 2.       Seeking further information. 3.       Refocusing. 4.       Redirection. 5.       Increasing critical awareness. 6.       Question are well distributed in        class	0      0      0      0      0      0	1  2  3       1  2  3       1  2  3       1  2  3       1  2  3       1  2  3	4  5  6        4  5  6        4  5  6        4  5  6        4  5  6        4  5  6

CHAPTER:11 SKILL OF EXPLAINING