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Expanding ambient technologies for blind and partially sighted people has rapidly grown over the last few years, enabling people to become more independent in their daily lives. Ambient intelligence is already becoming commonplace in the environment through the widespread use of computing, mobile devices, and information appliances, thereby increasing the ease of communication “between individuals, between individuals and things, and between things.”^[1]

A new ICT device has been developed that will help those with impaired or no sight safely navigate through airports. This report will explain some of the technology that will go into this device and how it will work in terms of providing directional assistance in a place like an airport where one’s surroundings are not familiar and confusion is easy when there is a lot of noise and movement.

Understanding Ambient Technologies

The field of ambient technologies focuses on providing “greater user-friendliness, more efficient services support, user empowerment, and support for human interactions.”^[2] In this way, the devices that come from the use of this technology will offer for “opportunities for social integration and independent living for elderly people and people who are disabled.”^[3] Interestingly enough, this technology may also advance in terms of being able to tune into any cognitive limitations and the devices incorporating ambient technology can then adjust themselves to that person’s specific abilities and limitations.^[4]

This emerging type of technology is supporting a new way for human beings and technology to interact so that “devices will no longer be perceived as computers, but rather as augmented elements of the physical environment.”^[5] The movement to an information-based society will “be populated by a multitude of hand-held and wearable micro-devices and computational power and interaction peripherals.”^[6] This provides a host of opportunities for many people who might not have been able to be as interactive with their environment due to some physical disability.

Complexity and Challenges

Ambient technologies still has a long way to go in terms of reaching its objectives. There are a number of overriding challenges to this emerging technology. Generally, it is perceived that ambient technologies must be “reliable, continuously available in space and time, consistent in its functionalities and interaction in private and (crowded and potentially hazardous) public spaces.”^[7]

In 2005, IBM researchers identified a number of areas that would need to be addressed before ambient technologies could achieve some of the aforementioned benefits. These challenges include “the distribution of interaction over devices and modalities, the balance between automation and adaption and direct control, the identification of contextual dependencies among services, health and safety issues, privacy and security, and social interaction in ambient intelligence environments.”^[8] A number of other challenges are present that must address the unique qualities of each user of the device, including their “abilities, needs, requirements, and preferences.”^[9]

The complexity and challenge of designing a device that can be used for an airport is extensive. The device must take a lot of external factors into consideration, including noise, language barriers, security, and communications interference. It is hoped that improvements in voice synthesis and recognition will help in noisy environments as well as assist those who might not be able to use keyboards or other object manipulation inputs.^[10] Additional enhancements will be needed to incorporate the development of an automatic language translation component,^[11] which would be imperative in certain situations like an international airport or for during international travel.

A further challenge is to introduce this device into existing information system environment within airport and have it integrate with any number of different system environments. Currently, there is no standardised operating system across global environments. In terms of a device that would be helpful in an airport, there would need to be the “deployment of networks of sensors in closed spaces” that would help with GPS localisation capabilities.^[12] Universal access is also a critical issue and challenge because it is vital that these types of devices be affordable and available to all who might need it to compensate for their physical limitations.

Device Capabilities and Benefits

The user of the device can configure it so that the device understands the user’s specific requirements related to their physical disability of blindness. Having this capability will allow the user to make appropriate decisions, feel more confident, and achieve greater independence and social interaction.^[13] This is done through a voice recognition system, which is considered a user adaptive interface that allows the user to interact with the device so that it can also verbally navigate the user in the right direction.^[14] The device is then used as if it was an electronic guide dog that can help the person by letting them know about “nonfamiliar physical obstacles”^[15] as well as provide the proper directions on how to get to the right destination. This device would also interact with other ambient technologies that may incorporate other user adaptive interfaces, such as scent recognition and output and tactile recognition and output^[16] that can be used to fulfil other personal needs usually done with one’s physical eyes.

The device is able to overcome some of those external factors found in an airport. It will be a micro-device that the user can conveniently wear in some fashion around their neck or wrist so that they can continue to carry their luggage or belongings but still be guided by a device that can work with an airport information system to guide them through the airport to their appropriate gate or other destination whilst navigating certain objects that are not visible to the sight-impaired person, such as people, baggage, and signs.^[17]

The device can integrate multimedia content, including sound and graphics^[18] to help those with partial or no sight find their way, with interactive sensorial and motor abilities^[19] which allows the device to interact with the travellers as if they were getting help from another human being. In other words, partially sighted or blind travellers will be able to ask the device questions and receive a response that will help them navigate through the airport. It is important that the user interface on this device be as “straightforward and meaningful without the user being overwhelmed by options and menus.”^[20]

To address the various information system environments in airports, an environmental-level adaption can be used because it “extends the scope of accessibility to cover potentially all applications running under the same interactive environment rather than a single application.”^[21] This will enable the device to run successfully in all environments, thereby reducing some of the insecurity for the user who may be apprehensive about how the device will affect their experiences.

Device Enhancements

As ambient technologies further progress, devices using this technology will be characterised by “increasing ubiquity, mobility and personalization.” The devices could be reconfigured,^[22] according to which network the user has come in contact with – at an airport, a store, a bank, etc. This will be important because of the critical need to solve some of the cognitive overload, confusion and frustrations^[23] that will result as human beings — visually impaired or otherwise — try and adapt to a new way of interacting with each other and their surrounding environment.

Ambient technologies must also advance in their alignment with other technologies in terms of “miniaturization, low power devices, wireless devices, security and encryption, biosensors and scalability.”^[24] Many of these other technologies could hold the answer in terms of advancing the goal of ambient technologies to meld the idea of technology and human interaction into one action. Further research is also being conducted on an open source and standard for networks that will allow for widespread accessibility and adoption of ambient technology devices as well as more effective communication regardless of their location^[25] so that these can be used in such public and global places as airports.

As with most technology, there will be many glitches that will need to be overcome. It can be difficult, especially for those who are partially or completely blind, to learn to depend on a device to overcome their physical limitations only to find that it has malfunctions.^[26] Therefore, it is imperative that a number of tests be conducted and backup information systems be developed to minimise any technical glitches. Other technical issues related to security and privacy can arise from a device’s network being compromised by viruses and works if there is not great care taken to insure that the networks are not vulnerable to attack.^[27] This would involve further research into how numerous protective tactics now in place, such as proxy firewalls and intrusion detection system,^[28] can be integrated with ambient technology in devices to keep people safe, especially in public areas where larger networks may be breached.

To further the development of ambient technologies for such devices as an airport device for the blind and partially blind, it is recommended that candidates for the device be involved in the design life cycle and testing phase to ensure that the user interface is capable of delivering on its objective and that the subject using the device feels confident that it will improve their interaction with their external environment.

Conclusions

There is a wide demand for devices like the one developed for use in an airport because there are far-ranging benefits involved in its creation and implementation in the marketplace. However, there are many technology, legal, privacy, and security issues to overcome as well as detailed explanations about these devices so that those who need them the most can quickly feel comfortable with the idea of interacting with technology in a way that also responds to them and their cognitive abilities and limitations.

However, it is clear that as devices come to market, such as the airport-enabled solution, more people will feel comfortable using them to enhance their interaction with others and provide a more independent way of travelling for those who might have felt previously inhibited. Although standardisation can be a slow process, this will provide time to achieve greater enhancements to various devices, such as the airport information and navigation device, so that some of the other challenges can already be solved to make implementation more likely. The growth in this market is explosive and real opportunity will be realised as ambient technology delivers lower cost and user-friendly devices.

References

Emiliani, P.L. and Stephanidis, C. (2005). Universal access to ambient intelligence environments: opportunities and challenges for people with disabilities. IBM Systems Journal, 605-619. Available from: http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/journal/sj/443/emiliani.html.

Gill, J., ed. (2008). Ambient intelligence: Paving the way. Cost 219. Available from: http://www.tiresias.org/cost219ter/ambient_intelligence/Ambient_Intelligence.pdf.

Gill, J., ed. (2005). Making life easier: How new telecommunications services could benefit people with disabilities. Cost219. Available from: http://www.tiresias.org/cost219ter/making_life_easier/making_life_easier.pdf.

Raisinghani, M.S., Benoit, A., Ding, J., Gomez, M., Gupta, K., Gusila, V., Power, D., and Schmedding, O. (2004). Ambient intelligence: Changing forms of human-computer interaction and their social implications. Journal of Digital Information. Available from: http://journals.tdl.org/jodi/rt/printerFriendly/jodi-155/147.

1

Chirag Patel

The world has come very far with respect to technology. In reality, technology, social media, and smart phones have breached the mainstay in our everyday lives in a short period of time. Gone are the days of cassette and VHS tapes. Gone are the days of typewriters and cursive handwriting. Those outdated technologies have been replaced with tablets, smartphones, and social media websites like Facebook. The same types of technologies have found its way into healthcare. Lambert, K., Barry, P., & Stokes, G. (2012) state that, “Social media has infiltrated all of our lives both personally and professionally.” For better or for worse these technologies have blended into our everyday lives with no end in sight therefore, knowing they aren’t going away and how we use them will say as much about ourselves and as society as a whole.

Today’s technologies allow us to be more connected to one another. Both patients and healthcare providers have information available at their fingertips including a patient’s personal health information (PHI). On concern could be stated as such, “How safe are today’s technologies and will patient’s personal health information be compromised?” The U.S. Department of Health and Human services created HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HIPPA is a federal law that protects medical information of patient’s and is enforced by the Office of Civil Rights.

According to Lambert, K., Barry, P., & Stokes, G. (2012), “The use of social media may expose professionals and healthcare entities to liability under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as well as individual state privacy laws. HIPAA, as modified by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), governs the permitted use and disclosure of PHI by covered entities, including hospitals, physicians and other healthcare providers. The HITECH Act provides breach notification requirements and expands various requirements to business associates.”

So why take the risks? Like anything in this world sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. A few advantages of today’s technologies and social media sites include accessibility. Patients can now play an active engagement in their health care. Social media and various apps allow an individual to do their own research on their conditions. It can give a patient a feeling of empowerment when otherwise they would feel helpless. Social media and varying apps allow for individuals to connect with support groups and message boards that can lend much needed empathy from people who are going through similar situations. We’ve heard the stories of bullying on Facebook but on the flip side there are stories of triumph and support when used in a way that garners sympathy and empathy. Facebook can be both an advantage and disadvantage depending on how it is used.

Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers have advantages as well. They too can have the latest research and decision making support tools available to them at palm of their hands. Access to real time information such as the latest prescription recall or access to the most recent white paper of medical breakthroughs benefits both the healthcare provider and ultimately the patient. This collective online and mobile brain trust allow for healthcare providers to create robust medical strategies that can help in the decision making. Online and smart phone resources include mobile apps like Epocrates ®, Medscape, and even AHRQ ePSS an app designed by the United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). Online communities’ such as American Medical Association provide resources from varying topics including: managing your practice; medical ethics; legal issues; and career development.

In general, most individuals prefer to keep their health status confidentiality hence, the patient-doctor confidentiality relationship. But with smartphones and use of social media the totality of a person’s health information could be vulnerable if safeguards are not in place. Solomon, P., et al. (2012) suggests that healthcare providers who have access to patient information made aware of strategies and facility policies in order to safeguard patient privacy. They should also be mindful and place themselves in a situation where access can be vulnerable i.e. leaving a computer on and unsecure. Solomon, P., et al. (2012) state emphatically that “Confidentiality is a legal right for clients as well as a professional ethical responsibility of providers.” A break in trust serves to weaken the relationship between the healthcare provider and the patient.

Let’s go back to our original scenario. The nurse worked a night shift while her friend attended a concert. The lead singer of the concert the nurse missed is now her patient. At the end of her shift, what does she do? Our group chose the following conclusion:

You go on Facebook, on your day off, and talk about the night you had at work and how you didn’t really feel as bad having to miss the concert, because you actually got to meet Jerod in person and even “Got his number!” You then post a picture of Jerod on Facebook and Instagram, figuring that most of your contacts would never recognize him anyway. It’s your day off and your personal time, so no harm, no foul, right?

The scenario above is a plausible outcome in the world with which we live in. However, there are a lot of things wrong with the nurse’s line of thinking. It is not unreasonable for the nurse to think that her personal Facebook page is her private business. However, in the New York trial of Romano v. Steelcase (2010) the Supreme Court stated that, “It is reasonable to infer from the limited postings on plaintiffs public Facebook® and MySpace® profile pages that her private pages may contain material and information that are relevant to her claims or that may lead to the disclosure of admissible evidence. To deny defendant an opportunity to access these sites not only would go against the liberal discovery policies of New York favoring pretrial disclosure, but would condone plaintiffs attempt to hide relevant information behind self-regulated privacy settings.” In other words, what the nurse posts on her Facebook could be used against her for several reasons 1). The photo was taken while she was working, 2). The photo violates a patient’s right to privacy and confidentiality and 3). By violating the patient’s right to privacy and confidentiality she could be setting herself for termination of employment and/or criminal or civil violations. Those are possible consequences that may prove costly in the long run. The nurse should stop and ask herself if the notoriety would be worth losing her reputation and career over.

In summary, there are many advantages and disadvantages to smartphones and use of social media. Advantages include active engagement for patients in their health status; readily available resources in real-time; and ease of use and accessibility for all users both front-end and back-end. Some disadvantages include lack of privacy; accountability for posts on personal social media sites; and data integrity and vulnerability. Do the Pro’s outweigh the Con’s? One can only say that training, awareness, and professional and ethical responsibilities should dictate an individual’s actions. As the old saying goes, “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” A good warning that should be heeded by all.

References

Kosieradzki, J. (2011). Social media and privacy: when personal posts intersect with the business of litigation. Journal of Legal Studies in Business. (17), 51-64

Lambert, K., Barry, P., & Stokes, G. (2012). Risk management and legal issues with the use of social media in the healthcare setting. American Society for Healthcare Risk Management. 31(4), 41–47. doi: 10.1002/jhrm.20103

Romano v. Steelcase, 907 N.Y.S.2d 650, 658 (N.Y. Sup. 2010)

Solomon, P., Molinaro, M., Mannion, E., & Cantwell, K. (2012). Confidentiality Policies and Practices in Regard to Family Involvement: Does Training Make a Difference?. American Journal Of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 15(1), 97-115. doi:10.1080/15487768.2012.655648

In recent years, with the revolutionary changes and remarkable innovations on functional and intelligent materials, a growing trend on functional and smart wearable products have been introduced and accepted by the market. Clothing is one of the most common branches. For some fit or tight fit functional clothing, more design elements on human anatomy, physiology, pathophysiologic and biomechanics have been undertaken by them to enhance the special functions such as body protection, recovery, rehabilitation, treatment, shaping and performance enhancement.

Mannequins, as one of the efficient design tools, also known as human model, are frequently-used by fashion designers, patternmakers and manufacturers, which equip them with tangible or virtual 3D model. Besides, digital 3D human models are increasingly adopted to enhance the efficiency and sustainability in these human centred disciples. Geometry human model (G-model) presents the basic dimensional information of human body. In front of these new revolutions on design and technology trends, the traditional G-model may not respond well to the emerging new requirements on design and manufacturing progress of functional clothing. The digital human body applied to fashion and functional design and manufacturing need be endued with more efficient information of the human body. There is a necessity toward launching functional human model, as an accelerating, enhancing and inspiring tool for fashionable and functional product design, especially for functional clothing design.

Body temperature is a vital feature of human beings, which indicates the comfort and health status of the human body. As a heat transfer system, human body requires well-balanced thermoregulatory control loop. Clothing is often regarded as the second skin of the human body which can fulfil the functions of balancing the heat and moisture conditions and thus provide thermal comfort.

Besides, problems like sub-health and ageing population gradually attract more attentions on healthcare. Due to the significant importance of body temperature in indicating the pathophysiologic features of the human body as emphasized by medical researchers in clinic, functional clothing with thermal functions like rehabilitation and treatment will be a meaningful, practical and innovative functional product to take care of the human body, like a special wearable medicine.

Science and technology are changing the life of the human beings. Unquestionably, functional and smart products are the ongoing trend for the future. The thinking of the insiders, like researchers, designers or product developers, must be progressive with the tidal current of advances in science and technology.

To develop thermal related functional products, a visualised and quantified human model is essential and prerequisite. Without accurate and reliable thermal information revealing the inside secrets of the human body, the process of functional product development is like that a blind man feels an elephant. Aworkmanmustsharpenhistoolsifheis to dohisworkwell.There is a knowledge gap and a tool absence for accurate and visualised functional design and manufacturing. To launch the thermal human modelling (T-model) is a far-sighted and necessary step.

With the rapid developments of medical imaging and anthropometric technology, 3D body scanning and 2D Infrared thermography (IRT) provide relatively accurate and visible information of the human body, which help to further understand human body from physical, physiological and pathophysiologic aspects. 3D body scanners, as instruments to capture the whole body and create a set of dimensionally accurate data, are widely used in many areas, such as human modelling and human-centred product development in fashion industry. IRT has been used as an effective and non-invasive medical diagnosis tool, which helps to monitor the skin temperature distribution and evaluate the health conditions of the human body in an ocular way. These two facilities lay a solid foundation for the practicability of thermal human modelling.

1.2 Aims and objectives

According to the knowledge gap and the tool absence for accurate and visualised functional design and manufacturing, besides the practicability based on the increasingly advanced medical imaging and anthropometric technology, five major aims and objectives of the research had been set up as shown from a to e.

An in-depth discovery of the potential relationship among physically anthropometric parameters and physiological properties like body temperatures.
A systematic approach on constructing visualised, quantified and individualized 3D thermal human modelling (Ti-model) with physiological features.
A systematic approach on constructing visualised, quantified and individualized 3D thermal human modelling (Ti-model) with pathophysiologic features.
Averaged 2D thermal images to be comparable with individual’s IR images to detect the invisible abnormity of individuals for healthcare and diseases monitoring.
3D thermal human modelling (Ta-model) to be comparable with Ti-model to detect the invisible abnormity of individuals for healthcare and diseases monitoring.
1.3 The significances of the research

This study will provide brand new and far-sighted solutions for the accurate accomplishment of functional products development, in special for functional clothing, with quantified and visualised T-models. The multi-disciplinary research broadens the field of vision for the human being and presenting the connections of physical, physiological and pathophysiologic features from aspects of statistics, 2D and 3D. The significances of the research are to be made in two aspects.

For theoretical foundation, this research will built up a linkage between physical and physiological features of the human being which can awake the thinking on further quantitative between them and providing advisable index in functional design application. Besides, this study will advance the knowledge on the commonality of the skin temperature distributions of the human beings, which have great meaning for physiological study, clinic diagnose and ergonomic design applications.

For individual applications, this new model can be applied to functional product development. Especially for functional clothing developers, they will be able to do 3D functional design, 3D pattern making and virtual fitting in an accurate, efficient and traceable way. In the times of 3D printing technology, it is an indispensable tool and platform for the antecedent parties in healthcare areas.

1.4 Research methodology

A multidisciplinary methodology crossover thermal physiology, medical diagnose, computer graphics, ergonomics and functional design is adopted to accomplish the aims and objective of the study. The medical imaging and anthropometry technology help to acquire physical and physiological data of the human body from individual experiments. From the viewpoint of statistics, 2D and 3D dimensions, generalization and individual approaches on human thermal properties are to be analysed by means of statistical software, mathematical programming software and 3D design software.

1.5 Thesis organization

This study has been conducted in the background stated above. The overall organization of this thesis is shown in Figure 1-1.

Chapter 1 is the general introduction of the whole thesis including the background the research, aim and objectives of the research, significances of the research and research methodology.

Chapter 2 is the theoretical foundation of the whole thesis including the literature review on two emphasized and carried out research areas, human thermal function and clothing, and 3D human model applied to Computer Aided Design in fashion industry.

Chapter 3 introduced the research methodology of this study. The developments of medical imaging and anthropometry technology, an in-depth and specific foundation had been taken to further understanding human body in physical and physiological aspects. The computer graphic technology provided dependable software and tools to achieve the desired research aims and complete the interdisciplinary research.

The employment of the data acquired from the individual experiments were introduced in Chapter 4,5 and 6 which constitute a systematic understanding platform of the human body from the viewpoint of statistics, 2D and 3D dimensions, universality and individuality on thermal properties.

In Chapter 4, statistic analysis by means of correlation analysis and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were conducted to find out the relationship among anthropometric parameters and body temperatures, which built up quantified connections of physical and physiological features of the human beings.

Individualized thermal human modelling methods and results were introduced in Chapter 5. In this chapter, systematic introductions and illustrations were presented step by step on how to construct a Ti-model with physiological and pathophysiologic features. The first step was to pre-process the 3D body scanning data including data alignment, data cleaning and component selections. Simultaneously, skin temperature data sets were pre-processed by plotting into 2D thermal images with physiological or pathophysiologic features by mathematical programming. The last step was thermal model construction. The 2D thermal images with physiological or pathophysiologic features were projected to 3D human body and the corresponding Ti-model with physiological or pathophysiologic features was created. This chapter was to quantify and visualise the invisible body code conveyed by the skin temperatures in the aspect of three-dimension and individualization.

Chapter 6 introduced the studies on distribution regularity of skin temperature from two dimensions with averaged IR images and its application on three-dimensional thermal human modelling (Ta-model). In the programming environment of Matlab software, mathematical calculation and anatomical landmarks of the human body were combined to find out the regularity of skin temperatures distributions of the human beings. The mapping process from 2D IR images to 3D individual G-model created Ta-model. The examples of comparing with individual’s IR images and Ti-model had been presented, which helped to detect the invisible individual differences for healthcare and diseases monitoring. This research progress bridges over the gap between science research and technology applications on thermal studies with quantified and visualised methods.

Chapter 7 were the conclusions of the works and the suggestions for future research work were brought forward. Bibliography and Appendix I to V for previous chapters were sequentially attached behind Chapter 7.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the research, and definition of key terms.

Background of The Study

Writing is a complicated skill, writing is a skill that the language teacher must teach to their students. And also it is very important because writing van give the student chance to show or express their personalities, and to mastery and to develop the English ability (Scot and Ytreberg,1992). In addition, because of writing, the learners learn to communicate with other people in order they will understand each other, or to read the message and they need to write it. (Raimes, 1983). That its why writing will give benefit for students if they mastered this writing.

Writing is not skill where the students get easily and naturaly. It means, English as Foreign Language learners are not taught how to write a good narrative story in English language. However, to teach writing not only about grammar, the mechanics of the alphabet or the spelling, but also the learners need to see the ideas or concepts in English language.

Lack of vocabulary is also the problem when the teacher ask students to write. The students look confused and asking their friend about what is the English language for some words.

High school students are asked to write simple and short sentences, messages, short announcements, and also to write narrative, and other type of paragraphs (Depdiknas, 2006). In the statement above, the teaching of writing at high school is a simple one. However, writing is productive skills besides speaking, but still look complicated skill for SMA students to master. It is a complex activity that need a variety of skills.

Due to that condition, the researcher tries to find out a kind of technique that can help students write sentences or a simple paragraph and encourage them in the writing activity. The researcher assumes that one of the good ways of teaching writing is by using media. Instructional media is important in teaching and learning processes in order the students can enhance and promote learning and support the teacher’s instruction. The use of media needs to be planned carefully.

There are so many kinds of media that can be used in the teaching writing process. One of them is short movie. Short movie can be the basis of the most difficult side: motivate students to write. Short movie as the media are very useful for teaching English writing, especially to attract and giving the anxiety to the students’ attention and to deliver the information. So, in teaching writing, the teacher can use short movie to motivate the students to write, to help, to stimulate and to guide students to write a narrative paragraph.

In this research, the researcher tries to implement the using of movie strategy into the teaching of narrative paragraph. A narrative paragraph is a paragraph that retells events happening in the past. It focuses on individual participants, uses correct grammar: past tense, focuses on a sequence of events, and it uses action clauses.

To make a good narrative paragraph, it would be better if the teachers use short movie to make the learning process clear and make students understand, and the students will arrange the sentences in a good chronological order.

The researcher believes that picture series is applicable for the students in SMAN I MANYAR GRESIK because it may guide, help, motivate and encourage the students to express and show their ideas, opinions, and thoughts onto paper.

1.2 Statement of The Problem

The research problem in this research is in a question form: “How can 11^th grade of SMAN I MANYAR students’ ability in writing narrative paragraphs be improved by using short movie?”

1.3 Purpose of The Study

According to the problem above this research is to describe how the 11^th grade students ability in writing narrative paragraph at SMAN 1 MANYAR can be improved by using short movie.

1.4 Significance of The Study

The findings of this research can be useful for the teacher and other researchers. For the teachers, the finding of this study can give the alternative way or technique in teaching writing narrative texts.

1.5 Scope and Limitation of The Study

The research is focused on the teaching and learning process by involving the 11^th grade students of SMAN I MANYAR GRESIK in short movie to improve their writing ability in narrative texts. The improvement is focused on four components: organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanic. Those components are analyzed using analytic scoring rubric for writing.

1.6 Definition of Key Terms

In order to avoid misunderstanding, the researcher defines several important terms in this proposal:

Short movie is a movie that has a short duration about 15-20 minutes length.
Narrative is a piece of text which tells a story and has generic structure begins from orientation, complications, and resolution.
Writing ability is a way that needs skill of communicating a message to a reader to express idea, thoughts and feelings.
Improve is make something to be better. From low to high.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter aims to provide a review of the literature related to the teaching of English in Indonesia, the problem of writing, the previous research and the media.

2.1 The Teaching of English in Indonesia

English is the international language which is used in communication, or an activity every time. Mastering English is getting important. In Indonesia, English is a compulsory subject. But it seems that the teaching of English as a Foreign Language is not to lead the students to be able to communicate, but only to prepare the students to pass the national examination (Kam & Wong, 2004:181).

But nowadays, many teachers and learners realize if learning English is not only the skill that we need to pass the exams, but also for communication. Saukah (2000) states that the purpose of teaching English as a foreign language in Indonesia is that the learners will master to use English for communication; in written or oral language. The ability to communicate is the way how we are able to understand and show to express something.

Writing is one of four language skills which has important role in teaching English as a Foreign Language. Brown (2001), writing is simple as putting the ideas or concepts into paper. Compared to speaking, writing is more difficult because writing has the typical characteristics of language that are more complex than those of spoken language such as the degree of formality.

Naturally, the process of writing needs the different set of competencies and skills which not every writer has. As beginners, Senior High School students, of course, cannot be expected to master and apply all those writing skills.

The students still have a lot of problems in expressing their ideas in writing form. The curriculum expects students to be able to write simple message and simple paragraph at Junior High School. This expectation has not been achieved yet because the students still find it difficult to express and show their ideas in the written language especially in English. This statement based on fact that most of the students’ paper cannot be understood well because there are so many errors.

2.2 Previous Research

Research on using short movie strategy has been conducted by some researchers. Sumarsih (2006) did a study using short movie to teach English at the XI IPA-1 students of SMA Negeri 8 Medan. The study showed that the first score of the students’ test was 42,5 for the total improvement from the first competency test to the third competency test was 68,75%. The conclusion is that the student achievement was improved by using the media such as short movie.

So the points that we can conclude from using short movie strategy in teaching writing are (1) stimulates the students to be active in English classes during the activity, (2) activates the four language skills (speaking, listening, readning and writing at the same time), (3) produces a fun English class as the best way to learn English, (4) increase students’ achievement.

Media for Teaching Writing

Listiyaningsih (2002), to facilitate the teaching and learning process, several kinds of media can be used as useful means of teaching in interesting ways. In fact, teaching and learning activities are communication processes. So, using media in teaching writing are good to encourage and stimulate the students to be actively involved during the teaching and learning processes.

The media are:

Short Movie
Sound speaker
Proyektor

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter contains the description of the research methodology. It includes research design, population and sample, subject and setting, data collection, and data analysis.

3.1 Research Design

In this study, the researcher uses Classroom Action Research because the researcher wants to improve the students writing skill. The researcher uses short movie as instructional media to improve the students writing skill. It will be brought by the researcher as a new teaching technique in the class. Particularly, the aim of this study is to find a new strategy or technique in learning English writing which can help the teacher to solve classroom problems.

The researcher implemented the CAR by Kemmis and Mac Taggart (1998). There are four phase or steps in this action research: (1) planning an action, (2) implementing an action, (3) observing and (4) reflecting.

3.2 Population and Sample

The population of the study consisted of 360 students ; 124 male students and 236 female students in SMAN 1 MANYAR Gresik 11^th grade .

The sample of this study consisted of 36 students of class XI IPS 2: 16 male students and 20 female students, which chosen by cluster sampling at SMAN 1 MANYAR Gresik 11^th grade .

3.2.1 Subject and Setting

This research was conducted at SMAN 1 MANYAR Gresik 11^th grade.. This school had thirty (30) classes and each level had ten (10) classes. The subjects of this study were class XI IPS 2, at the academic year 2013/2014. The class consists of thirty six (36) students.

The reason why the researcher chose this class because this class had the most problems in writing.

3.3 Data Collection

3.3.1 Intrument

The instrument of this research;

First, document collection was conducted by collecting students’ papers at the end of the steps to be evaluated. The data that researcher test are two data in cycle 1 and cycle 2. Both of the cycle are test which will have different movie that will be showed to the students. And the papers the students submitted not just the result of narrative paragraph, but also all their drafting in order to evaluate their progress when they write before.

Second, field notes were used as instruments to know what was happened such as the condition and the setting of the class, the atmosphere of the classroom and the other unexpected things that happened.

Third, interviews were conducted in two types; at the beginning of the study in order to gather data about the students’ problems in writing and at the end of to find out the students’ understanding the implementation of the narrative paragraph using short movie strategy.

Finally, questionnaires was applied at the end of the cycle to know about the students’ responses and attitude in the implementation of the approach.

3.3.2 The Procedure of Collecting Data

The researcher did the steps proposed by Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1998) as illustrated below;

The researcher explains the research procedures start from preliminary study and research implementation; including planning, implementation, observation, and reflection which is appropriate with the illustration above.

Planning: The teacher plans about the lesson plan, materials, media, the instruments.
Implementation: In this part, the teaching and learning processes are carried out by the researcher, helped by a collaborator or teacher to observe the students’ progress during the process of learning.
Observation : the process of recording and gathering all of the data during the teaching and learning processes.
Reflection: the researcher and the collaborative teacher are discussed the result of the implementation if it is success or not.

3.4 Data Analysis

In evaluating the students’ writing scores and results, the researcher uses analytic scoring rubric whose components of writing are scored partly and separately based on the composition such as; content, language use, and mechanic. The researcher wants the students will has minimum target score at least 60.

Table 1. Scoring Rubric of Evaluating the Students’Writing Products

Components of Writing

Level

Scale and Descriptor

Content:

Vocabulary
Chronological order

4

The content is relevant to the topic and easy to understand.

3

The content is almost complete, relevant to the topic.

2

The content is relevant to the topic but is not quite easy to understand.

1

The content is not quite relevant to the topic.

Language use:

Use Past Tense

4

No grammatical inaccuracies

3

Some grammatical inaccuracies

2

Several grammatical inaccuracy

1

Frequent grammatical inaccuracies

Mechanics:

Spelling
Punctuation
Capitalization

4

It uses correct spelling, good punctuation, and capitalization

3

It has occasional errors of spelling, mistaken punctuation, and capitalization

2

It has frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization

1

It has no mastery of convention – dominated by errors of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization

Adapted from J.B. Heaton (1990:111) with some modification.

From the scoring rubric of writing narrative in table 1, the maximum score is 12 (3 x 4) and the minimum is 3 (3 x 1). So, to identify the final score of the students’ achievement in writing narrative is based on the following scores category in the table. And the scoring is:

Data Display

There are four kinds of data that collected in this research and most of them were in the form of qualitative data. They were collected from document collection, field notes, interviews, and questionnaires.

1

What It Takes To Be a Teacher

“Choosing a career is a challenging, exciting, and perhaps even a threatening task for most today” (Morales, 1994, para. 1). “You may have a clear idea about a career you’d like to pursue. Then again, you might not have a clue” (Mariani, 2011). In today’s society there are thousands of careers to choose from. Woman, as well as men are open to career options from Computer Engineering to Teaching. As our society begins to advance there are many careers which can one day be taken over by more advanced technology, such as computers. Teaching however, is a career that will always be in demand. Teachers are responsible for teaching fundamentals which are needed in everyday life. Not only is teaching a promising career, it is also a rewarding and beneficial career. Pursuing a career as a teacher is very demanding, however, it can be a rewarding career.

“Teacher: one who’s occupation is to instruct” (Merriam-Webster’s, 1993, p. 1059). “The teaching process can be broadly defined as the transmission of knowledge” (Morales, 1994, para. 14). “Teaching developed into a profession after the early 1800’s when the first teacher training was founded in Europe” ( The World Book Encyclopedia, 2011, p. 68). Since the 1800’s, teaching has long evolved and become extremely important to society. “Whether in elementary or high schools or in private or public schools, teachers provide the tools and the environment for their students to develop into responsible adults” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). Teaching is a career which I have always found interest in. “A puzzling question comes to mind: Why would anyone choose to teach in this day and age when there is such a wide range of careers from which to choose and when becoming a teacher is being made tougher and tougher?” ( Morales,

1994, para. 3). For me the answer to this question is simple. Teaching is a rewarding, and beneficial career. There is so much more to teaching then showing students how to read, and

write. According to the United States Department of Labor (2009) “Teachers play an important role in fostering the intellectual and social development of children during their formative years”.

The path to becoming a teacher will require years of schooling. “The traditional route to becoming a public school teacher involves completing a bachelor’s degree from a teacher education program and then obtaining a license” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). “Aspiring secondary school teachers most often major in the subject they plan to teach, while also taking a program of study in teacher preparation” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). Along with years of schooling, “Every state requires a public elementary and high school teachers to obtain a teaching certificate before teaching in that state” (The World Book Encyclopedia, 2011, p. 68). As technology continues to grow and people become more knowledgeable the requirements to becoming a teacher are gradually becoming more difficult. “Evidence of tougher certification requirements is widespread. State legislators are mandating teacher accountability by passing laws that make it more difficult to enter the teaching profession” (Morales, 1994, para. 4). Being able to teach is not the only skill teachers need to have in order to land a teaching position. “In addition to being knowledgeable about the subjects they teach, teachers must have the ability to communicate, inspire trust and confidence, and motivate students, as well as understand the students’ educational and emotional needs” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009).

Although teaching may look simple there are many responsibilities a teacher holds. “They plan, evaluate, and assign lessons; prepare, administer, and grade tests; listen to oral presentations; and maintain classroom discipline” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). Teachers also hold another responsibility as stated by April Whatley, “ Teacher educators are those individuals responsible for the development of future teachers” (2009). When one decides on becoming a teacher they must first realize there are certain job conditions they will be forced to work with on a daily basis. “Teachers may experience stress in dealing with large classes, heavy

workloads, or old schools that are run down and lack modern amenities” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). A positive aspect of being a teacher is the hours and vacations you receive.

Unlike any other job most teachers work normal 40 hour work week, but have two months of paid vacation. “Many teachers work more than 40 hours a week, including school duties performed outside the classroom” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). During the summer teachers have the advantage of a long vacation. “Most teachers work the traditional 10-month school year, with a 2-month vacation during the summer” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009).

Teachers salaries range widely depending upon where one works, how much they work and what degree they hold. “Median annual earnings of kindergarten elementary, middle and secondary school teacher ranges from $47,100 to $51,180” (Krasna, 2010). Throughout the day teachers deal with students who can often cause stress when they become disobedient. There are also other factors that teachers deal with on a daily basis that can cause stress, such as grading large amounts of work. “Teachers may experience stress in dealing with large classes, heavy workloads, or old schools that are run down and lack modern amenities” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). Throughout most of the day teachers are working with students. “Teachers are sometimes isolated from their colleagues because they work alone in a classroom of students” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009).

Like any other career there are many positive and negative aspects to becoming a teacher. One large advantage is all the paid vacation time a teacher has. All the extra time a teacher has allows them to pursue other things. “ During the vacation break, those on the 10-month schedule may teach in the summer sessions, take other jobs, travel or pursue personal interests” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009). Being a teacher also has its disadvantages, “One challenge is that there isn’t always a clear answer to the questions people face” (Krasna, 2010). In today’s society it is becoming more difficult to land a job as a teacher. The credentials to become a teacher becoming more difficult. Although, it is getting more difficult to land a job as a teacher, teaching is a career that will always be needed, regardless of what time period one is in, or where they are located in the world. “Schools in the United States and Canada hire new teachers each year. Some opportunities occur because experienced teachers retire or leave to pursue other career paths” (The World Book Encyclopedia, 2011, p. 68). There are many opportunities to increase you position as a teacher. “Master of education programs typically prepare their recipients to be elementary secondary or special education teachers and can offer courses in teaching methods , curriculum and instruction , classroom management and mathematics” (Krasna, 2010). According to the U.S. Department of Labor (2009)

With further preparation, teachers may move into such positions as school librarians, reading specialists, instructional coordinators, and guidance counselors. Teachers may become administrators or supervisors. In some systems, highly qualified experienced teachers can become senior or mentor teachers, with higher pay and additional responsibilities. They guide and assist less experienced teachers while keeping most of their own teaching responsibilities.

Being a teacher is an extremely beneficial career, although, it is definitely a career that is harder then it looks. Throughout all the research I have done, I have come to realize this is definitely a career I want to pursue and commit my studies to. There are many benefits to becoming a teacher. Teachers impact many lives and help many people. To attain my goal of one day becoming a successful teacher I will need to earn my degree in teaching. I hope to one day be able to lend the world my knowledge, and be considered a teacher. “Teaching offers inner rewards; a sense of having contributed to the betterment of humanity, a sense of having made a difference in this ever-changing world” (Morales, 1994, para. 14).

VIDEO CONFERENCINGWHAT IS VIDEO CONFERENCING?

A Video Conference (known as video teleconference) is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies which allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmissions simultaneously. It has also been called ‘visual collaboration’ and is a type of groupware.

In other word Video Conferencing is a communications technology that integrates video and voice to connect remote users with each other as if they were in the same room. Each user needs computer, web cam, microphone, and broadband internet connection for participation in video conferencing. Users see and hear each other in real-time, allowing natural conversations.

Video Conferencing differs from a videophone calls in that its designed to serve a conference rather than individuals. It is an intermediate form of video telephony, first deployed commercially by A T & T during the early 1970s using their picture phone technology.

Video Conferencing is becoming increasingly popular as a way to facilitate meetings, and save time and money on travel and accommodation.

HOW IT WORKS

Video Conferencing can be used in a host of different environments, which is one of the reasons the technology is so popular. General uses for video conferencing include business meetings, educational training or instruction and collaboration among health officials or other representatives. Thus far video conferencing has been helping in different sphere of life. The most usage field of Video conferencing –

Interviewing prospective students and staff
Presentations
Seminar presentations to remote audiences
Business meeting
Distance Learning
Telecommuting
Telemedicine
BENIFICIAL OF VIDEO CONFERENCE

The biggest advantage or benefit Video Conferencing has to offer is the ability to meet with people in remote locations without incurring travel expenses or other expenses associated with face to face communication. Business meetings, educational meetings, healthcare conferences and more can all be easily conducted thanks to video conferencing technology. Individuals living in remote areas can also use video conferencing to keep in touch if you will, with the world at large.

More people are easily accessed and contacted using video conferencing. Because of this technology information and knowledge are often disseminated at more rapid rates, and collaboration between people occurs more willingly and freely. Students can take advantage of video conferencing to take classes at distant locations that would normally be unavailable. They can also take classes that will accommodate busy schedules.

Video Conferencing can stimulate better brainstorming, knowledge sharing and information gathering. Businesses can use video conferencing to provide presentations to key members of an organization or to solicit new clients in a professional manner, regardless of their location. The possibilities for communication are virtually endless thanks to video conferencing technologies.

Video Conferencing provides with the ability to meet and to work with others over a distance. The following list includes several examples of the benefits for businesses using video conferencing:

Reduce travel costs.
Improve use of executive time.
Speed up decision-making.
Keep meetings brief and more focused than face-to-face meetings.
Enable top management to quickly and effectively communicate with employees sitting in multiple locations.
Allows virtual project management via video and data conferencing with geographically dispersed peer groups at short notice.
Provides an effective way of delivering cost-efficient training to individuals without the requirement to consistently travel to central locations.
Creates a medium for conducting interviews.

Working out of home has never been easier or more practical. Videoconferencing makes it possible to stay connected with people in a very real way. Videoconferencing allows users to save resources by meeting with clients and/or colleagues via videoconference. This reduces travel expenses, while maintaining face-to-face contact.

For a minimal cost, it is possible to set-up a fully functional videoconferencing system that works in a professional and reliable way from your home office.

HOW TO DO THIS

Video Conferencing used to be something of a black art. Today, easy-to-use and manage technology means that users need know little about how the equipment actually works, What’s important is what it can do, now how it does it.

Video Conferencing has become popular over the last decade. Video conferencing is when two or more parties communicate in real time in separate locations with both video and audio signals. Technology used in Video conferencing

Video Input

Video Output

Audio Input

Audio Output

Data Transfer

Data Compression Software

Acoustic Echo Cancellation

This is the technology/software used for video conferencing. The software is usually used for Video Conferencing. So start video conferencing in your preferable work and make your world easy and trouble free.

Victims of Bullying

Schools offer more than educational opportunities; they offer many opportunities for social interaction for youth. These social opportunities also offer many opportunities for children to become victims of bullying. In the last ten years, there has been a dramatic rise of research on bullying in the United States. This research has been spurred by continued extreme school violence where the perpetrators of the violence had been victims of bullying.

Bullying encompasses a range of various aggressive behaviors, which are targeted at an identified victim (Espalage, 2002). It is differentiated from fighting because it involves an imbalance in strength such that the individual targeted has difficulty defending him or herself. Bullying has been a common obstacle of childhood for many generations (Olweus, 1995). Many people believe that bullying is a natural part of growing up that does not cause serious harm but help to toughen children up (Pianta & Walsh, 1995). On the other hand, extensive research in this area has identified consequences for the victims of bulling (Olweus, 1995).

There have been many high profile cases of victims of bullying who have retaliated by horrific school shootings (Kumpulamen, Rasanen, & Puura, 2001). A number of recent studies have investigated the immediate and short-term effects of peer victimization (Espelage, 2002; Espelage & Swearer, 2003; Nansel, Overpeck, Pilla, Ruan, Simons-Morton, & Scheidt, 2001). Rejection from a peer group has been linked to adverse psychological and physical consequences (Kumpulamen et al., 2001). Victims have been noted to be at risk for increased levels of depression, anxiety, and psychosomatic symptoms (Nansel et al., 2001). School avoidance and feelings of isolation are common among victims. Furthermore, it has been reported that these victims of bullying are developing post-traumatic stress disorder (Kumpulamen et al., 2001). This reveals the detrimental impact that peer rejection may have on youth and the importance of more research on the long-term impact bullying has on victims.

The media has portrayed “bullies” and “nerds or geeks” in numerous films, thus bringing awareness of childhood social hierarchies and the desire to be accepted as part of a group. The “nerds” are social outcast who are commonly victimized by their peers and often blamed for not being tough enough. Recent research and pop culture movies like “Mean Girls” have brought more attention to girls and their bullying behaviors. There is limited research on the prevalence and effects bullying has on girls (Brinson, 2005).

Many bullies experience mental health difficulties. One study found that one-third of bullies have attention-deficit disorder, 12.5% were suffering from depression, and 12.5% had oppositional-conduct disorder (Kumpulamen et al., 2001). Bullies then in turn take out their frustrations on someone the see as weaker than them. These bullies are also seeking to impress their peers. The rejection felt by the victim can have a direct impact on their lives.

Several authors suggest that youth who are continually victimized may be at risk for poorer psychological functioning as adults (Espelage, 2002; Nansel et al., 2001). There has not been much research in this particular area. Little is known about how these victims function as adults. Research suggest that adolescents do not simply grow out of emotional problems with age, which implies that youth who have poor social skills may continue to experience difficulty in their area of maintaining relationships as adults (Nansel et al., 2001). Espelage (2002) found that many victims of bullying continue to think about their experiences of being bullied and recall painful memories well into adulthood.

Depression and suicidal ideation have been found to be common outcomes of being bullied for both boys and girls. Bullies themselves have been prone to depression (Espelage, 2002). Bullying behaviors has similarly been found to transfer from the classroom to the streets, male bullies having been found to be seventeen times more likely to be frequently violent outside of the classroom and female bullies over one hundred times more likely to be frequently violent on the streets (Brinson, 2005). Longitudinal research has found that bullying and aggressive behavior were identified as being characteristics of those students who later became involved in criminal behavior (Nansel et al., 2001).

Statement of Problem

There have been limited mixed-methods studies on the phenomenon of bullying (Espelage & Swearer, 2003). There has been no research that has attempted to explore the long term effects of bullying on individuals who have experienced it. This study will use a mixed-methods approach to explore both the long term effects of bullying on individuals that were bullied in their youth.

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of this concurrent, mixed methods study is to explore and generate themes about the long term effects bullying, that occurred in childhood, has on men and women. The quantitative research questions will address the prevalence of bullying between male and female participants that they encountered at school when they were in their teens. Qualitative open-ended questions will be used to probe significant resilience factors by exploring aspects of the bullying experiences and how they impacted the person’s adult life.

Theoretical Framework

Several theories have sought to explain the existence of bullying behavior. Some developmental theorists perceive bullying as a child’s attempt to establish social dominance over other children. This dominance is established through developmentally appropriate actions; in the early years, when children lack complex social skills, they bully using physical means. As these overt acts are punished by disciplinarians, and as children develop a larger repertoire of verbal language, bullying becomes more verbal in nature. Finally, when children gain the skills to understand and participate in intricate social relationships, they begin to use these relationships as a more covert type of bullying in order to establish power and social dominance (Smith, 2001).

Resilience theory is defines as a person’s ability to cope or adapt to stressful situations. In different environments, resilience can have different meanings. In a high crime neighborhood, resilience could mean just surviving unscathed from the violence. This is having the ability to overcome a challenging set of circumstances with success. Studies in resilience theory demonstrate that resilient individuals are those who grow and develop as a result of trauma. Rather than being stunted by life difficulties, they recover from the traumatic events with an increased sense of empathy, enhanced coping skills. (Pianta & Walsh, 1998).

Peer rejection theory provides an important context for socialization that fosters social skills that children learn and use through out their lives. Rejection theory is based on the premise that children that are rejected by their peers are not given the same opportunities to socialize and develop socialization skills. This further distances them from their peers (Cole & Gillenssen, 1993).

Life course perspective is an appropriate lens to use when reviewing bullying and the after effects it has on the victims of it. Research has shown that bullying can cause victims to have varying degrees of posttraumatic stress syndrome (Houbre et al., 2006). Elder (1998) researched the social pathways in the life course. This research revealed that individual’s lives are influenced by their ever-changing effects of their experiences.

Research Questions/Null Hypothesis

Research Question #1:

How are men and women impacted by the bullying they encountered as youth?

Null Hypothesis #1:

There will be no statistical significant difference in how men and women are impacted by bullying that they encountered as youth as measured by the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire.

Research Question #2:

How did bullying as a youth affect men?

Null Hypothesis #2:

There will be no evidence that being bullied in their youth will have an impact on their adult lives as men.

Research Question #3:

How did bullying as a youth affect women?

Null Hypothesis #3:

There will be no evidence that being bullied in their youth will have an impact on their adult lives as women.

Research Question #4:

What are the implications in their current life that they feel resulted from the bullying they encountered as youth?

Null Hypothesis #4:

There will be no statistically significant evidence of implications in their current life that were a result from bullying that they encountered as youth.

Research Question #5:

How do they feel their bullying experiences impacts their ability to socialize with people now?

Null Hypothesis #5:

There will be no evidence that bullying experiences in their past will impact an adult’s ability to socialize with other people.

Definition of Terms

Bully/victims: individuals who both bully others and are victims of bullying (Espelage & Swearer, 2003).

Bullying: aggressive behavior that occurs repeatedly over time and includes both physical and emotional acts that are directed towards another individual with the intent to inflict harm or discomfort (Olweus, 1993).

Bystander: individual who observes a bullying incident (Olweus, 1993).

Emotional Scarring: the association of negative feelings with the recollection of painful memories of being bullied (Espelage, 2002).

Peer: an individual belonging to the same groups based on age, grade, and status (Olweus, 1993).

Victim of Bullying: an individual who is exposed repeatedly over time to aggressive behavior that is inflicted by his peers with the intent to cause harm or discomfort (Espelage, 2002; Olweus, 1993).

Assumptions

The assumptions made about the participants in this study are that they are of sound mind to participate in this study.

The assumptions made that all of the participants will answer the web survey honestly.

The assumptions made that all of the participants were bullied in their youth.

Delimitations

The research recognizes the following delimitations for the study:

The sample size will be dependent of the amount of people who respond to the email of inquiry at this study.
All respondents are mentally competent to answer the questions in the online survey.
The participants have the potential to be spread out across the United States.

Limitations

Quantitative research looks for generalizability of the research findings to the larger population (Crestwell, 2005). Generalizability is not as important to qualitative research that is seeking to explore a phenomenon and the impact it has. If more men respond then women to this survey, then it would not be an equally distributed sample. Socio-economic status is not asked in this study.

Abstract:

The term ‘oracy’ meaning:

‘the ability to speak fluently and articulately and to understand and respond to what other people say’.

was first used by Wilkinson in 1965 (Definition, Microsoft Encarta World English Dictionary).

Since that time the fact that it is central to all aspects of the learning process and activities in which children engage in school has been increasingly recognised. The development of talking and listening skills is central to the reading process and to participation in all curricular areas.

This term my focus was teaching oracy and literacy to year 4 children in an interactive and communicative environment created through the use of drama.

By the end of the series of lessons I wanted children in year 4 to be able to identify social, moral and cultural issues in stories. Drama was employed as a tool to create roles showing how behaviour could be interpreted from different points of view.

I shall present a discussion of the rationale behind the activities I have chosen, the ways in which the children engaged with them and the success of this approach to the teaching of oracy. I shall support my work with research evidence in the areas of talking and listening, the wider area of literacy, and research pertaining to effective teaching and learning generally.

I will discuss what I found when I assessed the progress made by the children and the implication this has for my future role as a teacher by linking my work with the Professional Standards for Qualified Teacher Status and Requirements for Initial Teacher Training.

Introduction:

The acquisition of language, a complex process, is essential for effective communication throughout life. Creating opportunities for the development of oracy in the classroom is essential if children are to develop the ability to communicate. With research showing that children are increasingly spending time in solitary activities related to computers (MacGilchrist et al., 2006, p.12), thereby reducing opportunities for talking in the home, it is essential for schools to act as facilitators in the development of talking and listening.

The National Literacy Strategy defines literacy thus:

‘Literacy unites the important skills of reading and writing. It also involves speaking and listening which, although they are not separately identified in the framework, are an essential part of it. Good oral work enhances pupils’ understanding of language in both oral and written forms and of the way language can be used to communicate. It is also an important part of the process through which pupils read and compose texts.’

(National Literacy Strategy: Framework for Teaching, p.3).

The lack of reference to talking and listening as a separate area has been addressed in later recommendations with an acknowledgement that ‘language is an integral part of most learning and oral language in particular has a key role in classroom teaching and learning’ (DfES, 2003, p.3). The document is highly prescriptive in the means through which contexts for talk should be established.

This paper will present work carried out with a year 4 class in respect of oracy taught through drama. I will evaluate the opportunities given to children for developing oracy and the ways in which children responded to the tasks.

The role of talking and listening:

For the past fifty years researchers have been making a clear case for the importance of talk in the learning process. The psychologists Vygotsky and Bruner have demonstrated the fundamental importance to cognitive processes and learning of speaking and listening (Lambirth, 2006, p.59).

Talk is both a medium for teaching and learning and one of the materials from which a child constructs meaning (Edwards & Mercer, 1987, p.20). I wanted the talking and listening activities to act as a medium for teaching and learning through the children’s interaction. My aim was that they would be teaching and learning from each other through their discussion group work. Their construction of meaning would come about as a result of their understanding of the text and the dilemmas faced by David (see appendix 2).

Opportunities for developing talking and listening:

Developing talking and listening skills is a complex process which must be carefully managed in the classroom. In all curricular areas oral skills should be constantly being developed through a range of activities and, like other areas of the curriculum, should be differentiated to allow for a range of abilities within the class (see appendix 2). Different subjects offer opportunities for different kinds of talk (DfES, 2003, p.4). It is therefore a very important feature of effective teaching to give children as many opportunities as possible to engage in a variety of types of talk. Children make sense of the world as they learn the communication skills to interact with others in their culture (Lambirth, 2006, p.62).

Light and Glachan have shown that children working together and sharing their ideas orally can develop solutions to problems that they could not manage to solve independently (Light & Glachan, 1985). Carnell and Lodge suggest that more school learning should be based on talk and dialogue between pupils as ‘it has the power to engage learners in learning conversations, keeps them open to new ideas and requires both honesty and trust (Carnell & Lodge, 2002, p.15).

Planning the activities:

When planning the activities I sought to involve the following aspects:

Modelling appropriate speaking and listening;
Encouraging sensitive interaction;
Ensuring goals are set with clear criteria for success;
Planning opportunities for children to investigate, apply and reflect on language in use.

(DfES, 2003, p.19) (see planning appendices 1 & 2).

I chose to provide opportunities for talk in the context of drama, giving the children opportunities to engage with one another. Research has shown that children learn more effectively when given opportunities to share ideas. Grugeon points out that this is a skill, like others, and must be taught. ‘Children who are expected to work together in groups need to be taught how to talk to one another. They need talk skills which enable them to get the best out of their own thinking and that of all other members of the group (Grugeon et al., 2001, p.95). For this reason I modelled the activities for the children so that they would have a clear understanding of what they were required to do and how best to go about the tasks in hand (see appendix 2). Some of the children were tentative in respect of their engagement at the beginning of the exercise but the group work gave them opportunities to develop their confidence and self esteem.

Developing appropriate talking and listening:

It is important to be aware of the difference between incidental talk, in which children engage in the course of an activity, but is not directly related to the learning intentions, and talk which is a main focus of the activity. In my drama activities, I wanted children to be focused on their talk through appropriate activities which would engage them and hold their interest. When planning the activities I was aware of the need to engage pupils on the basis of their prior knowledge ‘To prompt learning , you’ve got to begin with the process of going from inside to outside. The first influence on new learning is not what teachers do pedagogically but the learning that is already inside their heads (Gagnon, 2001, p.51). It was with this in mind that I decided on David’s dilemma. I felt that the children would have sufficient previous knowledge of the ideas presented to be able to identify with the characters and the dilemmas faced by them (see appendix 2).

Establishing Rules:

In all conversations there are rules, for example, only one person talking at a time. Cordon suggests that ‘ children receive little help in understanding and appreciating the ground rules for group discussion’ (Cordon, 2000, p.86) an issue that I felt it was important to address through the establishment of guidance for the children. This is vital to the process so that all children have equal opportunities to participate in the talking and listening activities.

Aims:

My aims in the drama activities were:

To encourage purposeful talk, the skills associated with which the children could later transfer to other areas of their learning.
To develop children’s ability to work in a group.
To enable children to develop the confidence and competence to present their work to a group of their peers.
To develop children’s skills in forming opinions, responding to other children’s opinions and oral presentation skills.
Drama as a tool for developing talking and listening:

I chose to approach the teaching of speaking and listening through drama as it affords many opportunities for children to develop their speaking and listening skills. Drama helps children to understand their world more deeply and allows them an opportunity to find ways to explore and share that understanding (Wyse, 2001, p.213).

Research about learning has shown that children learn most effectively when learning is meaningful to them. Learning happens in the process of coming to new understandings in relation to existing knowledge (MacGilchrist et al., 2006, p.52). For this reason I gave children the opportunity to create their own scenarios in acting out David’s dilemma. In the group activities I wanted the talk to be open-ended so that the children could question, disagree with, extend and qualify each other’s utterances (DfES, 2003, p.7).

After their group activities children had the opportunity to share their ideas with the class, giving them important experiences in presenting their opinions and listening to the views of others. Children were actively engaged in tasks which gave validity to all of their ideas and opinions. When given opportunities, children are keen to engage with issues on text and challenge the conventions of the story (Baumfield & Mroz, 2004, p.55). I wanted children to have experience of challenging the ideas they were faced with by developing their own responses to scenarios and the behaviour of characters.

Links with reading:

The development of effective talking and listening skills is vital to the reading process. Before their oral work, children were finding main ideas in the text to support their viewpoints (see appendix 1). Only after the children had established the supporting information they wished to use, were they in a position to verbalise their ideas. Reading and talking were also linked through the requirement that the children orally summarise the salient points in a written argument. Through a discussion of the ways in which authors are able to develop their ideas children can develop ways in which to present their own ideas to an audience. Effective questioning was essential to this part of the process to provide a framework for the development of the children’s ideas in the correct context. As children have more experience and gain more confidence in this type of activity they are able to act as effective peer questioners, a very useful aspect of pupil self-assessment. Through this process children can measure the success of their own learning. Baumfield and Mroz advocate the development of a community of inquiry to develop pupils’ critical analysis of text (Baumfield & Mroz, 2004, p.58).

Developing opportunities for talk:

In the classroom a variety of types of talk occur throughout the day. The ways in which children interact with each other is very different to the way in which they interact with the teacher who does 70% of the talking in the course of a day

(Baumfield & Mroz, 2004, p.49). This clearly means that children are not being given sufficient opportunities to develop talking and listening skills critical to success in all other areas. To enhance the role of talk in shaping and developing learning requires a reduction in the teachers role as classroom controller and a shift towards an enabler of talk for thinking (Myhill, 2006, p.19). After the initial modelling and discussion, it was important for me to let the groups work, as far as possible, along the problem path independently.

It was my intention to give children a variety of opportunities to engage in different types of talk. They had opportunities to talk in small groups when working on their scenarios and afterwards had opportunities to present their work to the whole class.

Talking in groups:

Working in groups has been shown to develop a sense of belonging in children, something which I regard as very important in the classroom. Osterman has pointed out that, ‘There is substantial evidence showing or suggesting that the sense of belonging influences achievement through its effects on engagement (Osterman, 2000, p.341). She goes on to say that children with a well developed sense of belonging in school tend to have more positive attitudes to school and each other. As shown in appendix 3 some of the children were lacking in confidence in the initial stages of the activities, something which I would seek to develop in children through more exposure to this type of activity.

Resnick has pointed out that while the majority of learning in schools is individualistic in its nature, this is contrary to other aspects of life such as work and leisure activities which are much more social in the nature (Resnick, 1987). It is essential, therefore, that children develop the skills needed for group work so that they have ability to engage in participatory aspects of education. When planning the group activities for the children I was conscious of making sure that each child had a part to play in the development and presentation of each activity. Francis has pointed out that the majority of talking and listening activities involve the teacher doing most of that talking with the children interjecting at suitable gaps in the teacher discourse (Francis, 2002, p.29), something which I wanted to avoid by giving the children ownership of the activities. This would ensure that all children were engaged in the process and less likely to be passive. At the same time children had to be able to quietly listen to the views of others, thereby developing strategies for turn-taking. All the children engaged in the process very well.

Assessment:

Assessment for learning is a very important aspect of the teaching and learning process and from the point of view of my own professional development the ability to effectively assess pupil learning is a very important competence to have. As Dann has pointed out, ‘if assessment genuinely seeks to give some indication of pupils’ level of learning, pupils will need to understand and contribute to the process’ (Dann, 2002, p.2). In assessing the effectiveness of the activities it is important to assess the appropriateness of the children’s talk for the task. The children participated in the assessment process through their involvement in the plenary sessions. This was coupled with my observations of children’s success on the task (see appendix 3). All of the children achieved the objectives and reported that they enjoyed the activities. Children’s talk is a very good indicator of their understanding of a task. The fact that all the children experienced success with the tasks and were able to carry them out using appropriate language was demonstrative of their understanding of the characters and dilemmas with which they were faced. Talking and listening is very valuable to assess understanding particularly with children who have special educational needs and may have difficulty with written tasks.

Myers has presented research carried out in primary schools which suggests that children who participate in group work enjoy the experience of working with others and find it very helpful in the learning process (Myers, 2001, cited in MacGilchrist et al., 2006, p.159). My evaluation of the drama activities leads me to agree with this, particularly in light of the comment made by one of the children ‘I wish we could always do drama with English’(see appendix 3).

Children’s language, like most of their learning, responds to encouragement (Fontana, 1994, p.78). This is an important idea to bear in mind when giving the children feedback and it is important to praise their efforts at contributing. I would hope that this would encourage the children who were initially reluctant participants in their efforts in the future.

What I have Learnt:

I have developed a greater degree of understanding of the role of talking and listening in the curriculum as well as an understanding of how children progress in this area and what they should be expected to achieve. I hope to build on this in my future development and feel that I have made progress in terms of the standards laid out by the Training and Development Agency.

Appendix 1:

Literacy planning:

Appendix 2: Lesson Observation Sheets:

Appendix 3:

Evaluation:

Evaluation: Week 2

All groups were very engaged and enjoyed the task. They said that they wished they could always do drama with English.

Possible action to be taken:

More use of drama when teaching English.

Assessments

Child’s Name

Objective achieved?

Comments:

Action:

Andrei

More able

v

Very animated – leader of group

Speaking ad listening skills

Leo

Middle Group

v

Co-operative

Robert

Middle Group

v

Tentative at first – more engaged with script

Confidence building

Oona

Middle group

v

Good directional skills

Use of props (desk)

Good team player

Danielle

More able

v

Works well in her team.

Alexandra

SEN

v

Tentative – very aware of being stared at.

Confidence building

References:

Baumfield, V. & Mroz, M. (2004) Investigating Pupils’ questions in the primary classroom in E.C. Wragg (Ed.)(2004) The RoutledgeFalmer Reader in Teaching and Learning. London:RoutledgeFalmer.

Burns, C. & Myhill, D. (2004) Interactive or inactive? A consideration of the nature of interaction in whole class teaching. Cambridge Journal of Education, 34, 1, 35-49.

Carnell, E. & Lodge, C. (2002) Supporting Effective Learning. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

Cooper, P. & McIntyre, D. (1996) Effective Teaching and Learning. Buckingham:Open University Press.

Cordon, R. (2000) Literacy and Learning Through Talk: Strategies for the Primary Classroom. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Dann, R. (2002) Promoting Assessment as Learning. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Department for Education and Employment (1998) The National Literacy Strategy: Framework for Teaching. London: DfEE.

Department for Education and Employment (2003) Speaking, Listening and Learning Handbook. London: DfEE.

Department for Education and Skills (2003) Speaking, Listening, Learning: Working with children in key stages 1 and 2. London: DfES.

Edwards,D. & Mercer, N. (1987) Common Knowledge. London: Metheun.

Francis, P. (2002) Get on with your talk. Secondary English Magazine, 5, 4, 28-30.

Gagnon, G.W. (2001) Designing for Learning. London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

Grugeon, E., Hubbard, L., Smith, C. & Dawes, L. (2001)(2^nd edition) Teaching Speaking and Listening in the Primary School. London: David Fulton.

Lambirth, A. (2006) Challenging the laws of talk: ground rules, social reproduction and the curriculum. The Curriculum Journal, 17, 1, 59-71.

Light, P. & Glachan, M. (1985) Facilitation of individual problem-solving through peer group interaction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 5, 3-4.

MacGilchrist, B., Myers, K. & Reed, J. (2006) The Intelligent School. London: Sage Publications.

Myhill, D. (2006) Talk, talk, talk: teaching and learning in whole class discourse. Research Papers in Education, 21, 1, 19-41.

Osterman, K. (2000) Students’ need for belonging in the school community. Review of Educational Research, 70, 3, 323-367.

Resnick, L.B. (1987) Learning in school and out. Educational Researcher, 16, 9, 13-40.

Training and Development Agency (2002) Qualifying to Teach: Professional Standards for Qualified Teacher Status and Requirements for Initial Teacher Training. London: Training and Development Agency for Schools.

Thompson, P. (2006) Towards a sociocognitive model of progression in spoken English, Cambridge Journal of Education, 36, 2, 207-220.

Vygotsky, L. (1972) Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT.

Wyse, D. & Jones, R. (2001) Teaching English Language and Literacy. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Introduction

Studying at the university requires adjustment so that the student can effectively function and pursue his chosen field of study. One’s academic life, gaining access to educational materials, and interaction with classmates and professors are all important factors in the adjustment process. Yet, they are not the only factors that should be taken into account. This adjustment process becomes even more important for international students. They have to adjust to the culture of the location of their university, they have to take into account the language, the social norms, the idioms and metaphors being used by the society that the university belongs to. If they fail to adjust in the social context, their education might not be maximized, and, worse, they might not be able to understand a lot of things in their schooling.

This essay takes a look in the adjustment process that international students have to face, particularly their context and their learning styles. It discusses how context and learning style affects their adjustment process. In doing so, this essay presents several theories and principles regarding the learning process. Furthermore, it presents several recommendations on how international students could better adjust in the university. More than just a theoretical presentation, this essay also takes into account the personal experiences of the author and will deal with some of the challenges being faced by international students in the university. This understanding is very important so that the international students, and other university students and professors would come to better strategies in helping international students cope with the university life and all its rigors and demands.

University Culture and the International Student

The university promotes scholarly studies and the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. In addition to this, the application of this body of knowledge in the society is also taken into account. Because of the process of globalization, university culture is also being internationalized in the sense that the university is being integrated into the global processes defining the world at this time (Bartell, 2003). Given this internationalization of universities, international students necessarily come to the fore. In a study conducted by Neville, students at the university who have previously enrolled expressed fear that they may not do well in the university because of the pressures of family, society, and of the economic side of their schooling.

As an international student, I have also experienced some of these challenges. Since I am far away from my family, I feel homesick at times, unable to focus on my studies. It takes courage and resolve in order for me to truly pursue my university education. Yet, because of the importance of my university education and the interactions with others, I painstakingly work towards improving myself in pursuing my education.

International Students and Speaking English

Another challenge that international students face is the issue of language. Since English is recognized internationally as the language of the university, international students have to learn this language so that they can converse fluently and intelligently with classmates and professors. For international students who are already fluent in this language, they have surmounted an important barrier. Yet, those who have not done yet, they need to work more in learning English, otherwise, they will fail to interact and converse with others, which is an important part of university life.

Universities therefore need to help international students who speak English as a second language in improving their English skills. This is the only way for them to truly make the connections that will help them complete their university education. Speech and language laboratories could be established and part of the learning processes of international students. This way, they will be able to interact better and have more opportunities in improving their English language skills.

As an international student who entered the university, I experienced a kind of culture shock because the university promotes a culture of literacy (Nevile, 1996). Although I was already a bit fluent with the English, I was not a prolific writer. So I had to attend some writing workshops and tutorial sessions so I could improve the way that I write in the English language. With this process, I was able to improve some of the things that I faced.

In addition to this, I also talked with other international students regarding the struggles that they face and the difficulties that they are having. In the process, I managed to have a support group that could easily help me deal with homesickness and other difficulties of being an international student. The interactions with other international students helped me become more prepared in dealing with the rigors of university life.

Maximizing Adjustment to the University

For international students who want to make the most out of the university, there are several tips that could be followed. For one, improving English skills is a must. It might take more time and effort to do so, yet, it is of utmost important that English skills become excellent. International students should also form support groups that could help them deal with homesickness and other challenges of being in a foreign society. The emotional support given by others makes a lot of difference in the adjustment process. Lastly, international students should be able to maximize all available resources at their disposal through consistent and persistent studying and pursuit of knowledge. This is the best way to deal with the adjustment process.

Conclusion

This essay has looked at the experiences of international students in adjusting at a university. Universities do have a culture of literacy, which the international student may not be prepared for. As such, they need to double their efforts in learning, in interacting and talking with others—friends, professors, classmates, and other international students—and gaining access to all forms of educational resources. By establishing support groups and mentoring relationships, international students could do well in their university education and prepare them for excellent work even beyond the university. Through this, they could contribute better to their society and their world.

Reference

Bartell, M. (2003). Internationalization of universities: A university culture-based framework. Higher Education, 45 (1), 43-70.

Nevile, M. (1996). Literacy Culture Shock: Developing Academic Literacy at the University. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 19 (1), 38-51.

Introduction

The core of phonetic is to identify the characteristics of the sounds which human begins can use in language. Sounds can basically be divided into two types: vowels and consonants. Vowels are produced by altering the shape of the vocal tract by positioning of the tongue and lips. Consonants are sounds which are produced by the partial or complete construction of the vocal tract.

The picture of how your mouth looks when you say sounds. (Sharon Widmayer and Holly Gray) image of articulators

Your lips, teeth, tongue, nose, and roof of your mouth are all important for pronunciation. The epiglottis is also important. That is the thing that you use to hold your breath and to swallow. It closes your windpipe so the air cannot come out.

The components of teaching the sound of English
1. Vowels

Vowels are usually described by reference to five criteria, and these are adequate as a basic point of reference, although some vowel sound require more specification:

the height reached by the highest point of the tongue (high, mid, low) ,
the part of the tongue which is raised (front, center, back),
the shape formed by the lips (unrounded or spread, rounded)
the position of the soft palate for oral vowels, lowered for nasal vowels,
the duration of the vowel (short, long)

Some Generalizations (Not Rules) about English vowels and spelling

English vowels have “long” and “short” forms.

The long form is the “name” of the letter: The short form is as follows:

Long vowels are usually (but not always) indicated by a second (silent) vowel in the same syllable:

Short vowels usually stand alone within a syllable and are often followed by “double” consonants:

2. Consonant sounds

Consonant sounds have three basic features in their articulation: place of articulation, manager of articulation, and voicing.

Consonants produce sounds that are more consistent and easier to identify than vowels. Therefore, they make a good starting point for learning to read.

Initially, work should be done on identifying beginning consonant sounds (ex: t-t-t tulip).

After that, activities can focus on identifying final consonant sounds (ex: cat ends with the t-t-t sound)

When children learn to recognize the sounds of consonants at the beginning and end positions of words, they gain the ability to look at a word and make a reasonable guess as to what it might be. Viewing the word in the context of a picture will help reinforce this skill.

(for example, a picture of a dog with the word DOG underneath. The ability to sound out the D and G letters will help the child identify that the word is DOG, not puppy or dalmation)

The ideas and activities presented in this section will help children develop the following skills:

identifying beginning consonant sounds
distinguishing between two or more beginning consonant sounds
identifying ending consonant sounds
distinguishing between two or more ending consonants
choosing words that have a particular beginning or ending consonant

The following diagram shows the names of the various parts of the mouth involved in the production of English consonants:

A = nasal cavity
B = alveolar ridge
C = hard palate
D = soft palate or velum
E = lips and teeth
F = tongue 1 – tip 2 – blade 3 – body
G = uvula
H = larynx and vocal cordsv

For each consonant, two parts of the mouth are involved, and the name given to it reflects this. Starting from the front, some consonants are made using both lips – try saying /p/ /b/ /w/ and /m/ – and these are called bilabial consonants (bilabial = two lips)

Now try /f/ and /v/. This time it’s the bottom lip and top teeth which are involved. These are labiodental consonants (labio = lip, dental = teeth).

For nearly all the other consonants, the tongue will interact with another part of the mouth. The name of the consonant doesn’t include a reference to the tongue however, just the point of the mouth which it meets. So for instance, sounds made by an interaction between the tongue and the teeth are just called dental sounds. These are /t/, /d/ and the voiced and unvoiced “th” sounds: / °/ as in this and /?/ as in thick .

If you run your tongue back behind your teeth, you come to a bony ridge called the alveolar ridge. Several sounds are made on or just behind the ridge – /s/ /z/ /t/ /d/ /n/ /r/ and /l/

Moving back from the alveolar ridge you come to a similarly hard but smoother zone – the hard palate. /j/ as in yellow is a palatal sound, are as the highlighted consonants in the words sheep, measure, cheap and jeep. There is also a palatal version of the /r/ consonant. If you found it strange that it was classed before as alveolar, you may have been saying the palatal version.

Notice that there is now a difference in the way the tongue is used. For the dental and alveolar sounds, it was the tip of the tongue which was involved. For palatal sounds, however, it’s the blade of the tongue, and as we move further back to the velum (the soft part of the palate, closest to the throat) it’s the back, or body, of the tongue. The velar sounds are /g/ and /k/ and the final consonants in sing and in bottle – often called the “dark” l.

This leaves only the consonant /h/ which is produced by air passing from the windpipe through the vocal cords, or glottis. It’s therefore a glottal sound.

Place of Articulation tells us where the consonants are produced, but we also need to consider Manner of Articulation – how they are produced. The most important categories are:

Plosives: Plosive sounds (also called stop sounds) are formed by the air being completely blocked in the mouth and then suddenly released. For example, /k/ and /g/ are formed when the back of the tongue rises to the velum and momentarily blocks the air. These are therefore velar plosives. The other plosive consonants of English are the bilabial plosives /p/ and /b/ and the alveolar plosives /t/ and /d/. Some varieties of English – London English for example – also include a glottal stop which substitutes for the /t/ consonant between vowels. Imagine a London pronunciation of butter, for example.

Fricatives: Fricatives are formed when the two parts of the mouth approach each other closely, not completely blocking the passage of the air, but forcing it through a confined space. The air molecules start to bump against each other causing audible friction. Try the palatal fricative – the sh sound. You can feel your tongue up close to the alveolar ridge and the air passing through the small space left. The full list of English fricatives is : labiodental fricatives – /f/ and /v/; dental fricatives – the two “th” sounds; alveolar fricatives – /s/ and /z/; palatal fricatives – /E?/ as in in sheep and /E’/ as in measure; and the glottal fricative /h/.

Affricates: Affricates are really a plosive and a fricative combined. The air is initially blocked, and then released through a narrow passageway like a fricative. English has two affricates, the initial sounds in cheap and jeep – / E / and /E¤/. These are usually classed as palato-alveolar affricates, as they’re made in a position half way between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate.

Nasals: when a nasal sound is produced, the air is prevented from going out through the mouth and is instead released through the nose. There are three English nasals – the bilabial nasals /m/ and /n/ and the velar nasal /A‹/ – the final consonant in sing.

Approximant: Approximants are a bit of a hotch-potch category, and contain some of the most problematic sounds in English. We’ll look at them in detail another time, but for now will classify them together as sounds produced when the airstream moves around the tongue and out of the mouth with almost no obstruction. The English approximants are the alveolar approximants /l/ and /r/, the palatal approximant /j/, as in yes, and the dark l – the velar approximant – as in bottle. Keep in mind, however, that this is a simplification.

This leaves the third distinguishing category which we discussed in the last article – voicing. If the vocal cords are vibrated when the sound is made, the sound is voiced. If the are not, it is unvoiced. Several of the English consonants come in pairs. They have the same place and manner of articulation and are distinguished only by voicing (1). For example /t/ and /d/ are both alveolar plosives, but /t/ is unvoiced while /d/ is voiced. In the summarizing chart below, where pairs occur the unvoiced sound is always given first.

3. Sounds in connected speech

Sounds are seldom produced in isolation. In connected speech (that is, any sequence spoken at natural speed), many sounds tend to be altered of modified by the sound immediately before of after them, especially at the boundaries between words.

According to the Excerpt from Study Guide, Connected Speech is the key to gaining a natural, smooth-flowing style of speech. People do not speak in separate words; they speak in logical connected groups of words. Even native speakers sometimes “stumble over their words” because they are unaware of the “little tricks” for avoiding the pitfalls. Trained actors, of course, are able to deliver lengthy, complex, and even “tongue-twisting” passages flawlessly. This is not a gift. They have simply learned the “rules” for linking one word into another with intention. When you’ve finished this tape, you’ll know the rules, too; and with practice you’ll become a fluent, polished speaker.

These are the steps for speaking in connected speech:

– Direct Linking: Linking final consonants directly into vowels

– Play and Link: Linking final consonants fully played and linked to fully played non-related consonants.

– Prepare and Link: Prepare for the final consonant, and execute related consonant that it is linking into.

– Weak Forms: A lot of the very small connecting words in speech are so de-emphasized, or unstressed, that they often take on a Weak Form.

– Contractions: We use these words so much that, we usually contract them together.

– Word Endings and Contractions: Common Word Endings (Suffixes).
These are mostly unstressed, and should be treated like weak forms.

– Dialogues Practicing Word Endings and Contractions: These dialogues have a double emphasis. Practicing both Word Endings and Contractions within a context.

Conclusion

If other aspects of pronunciation are dealt with efficiently, sounds do not present such a problem. Again, much of the difficulty which students have when pronouncing English sounds comes, not from a physical inability to form them, but from language interference. This occurs when the student knows how an English word is spelt and pronounces it as if was written in his own language.

It is important for a teacher to know how sounds are formed so that he understands what his students are doing wrong.

References

John Haycraft. (1978). An introduction to English language teaching. Longman: Longman Group Ltd.1978

Jones, D.(1998). The Pronunciation of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/consonants-intro.htm

Kelly, G.(2000). How to Teach Pronunciation. Harlow: Peason.

Ladefoged, P.(2005). Vowels and Consonants: Oxford: Blackwell.

Steele,V.(2005) Connected Speech (Onlline).

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/(2005, May 29)