Having taught English Language for lower secondary level for the past four years, I have noticed that majority of students perceived English Literature Component as complicated and challenging. When I did revision on the Form One poems and short stories with my Form 3 students, I was sadly surprised that many students were unable state the ‘persona’ in William Shakespeare’s Life Brief Candle or even name the poet who wrote The Lake Isle Of Innisfree. This worries me as Literature Component is one section by itself (Section E) in Paper 1 of the PMR English Language examination. Hence, it is vital that students have full understanding on the literary elements of these particular genres.
Hence, this gave me the impetus to create an engaging yet effective module for all the PMR candidates in acing the Literature section in their PMR examination. Since I have a keen interest in Education Technology and the Word Wide Web, I felt it is only appropriate that I apply my knowledge for the benefits of my students. Besides, I strongly believe that by incorporating Information Technology (IT) into English Language methodology, it would be a winning formula in enhancing students’ interest and understanding towards the poems in the English Literature Component.
The module, aptly named L.I.T. Module is a multimedia-based module that stimulates the audio-visual sensory element of teaching and learning process. L.I.T. stands for the 3 fundamental components of this module which are Learn, Interact and Test. Each component consists of interactive activities that stimulate multi-sensory learning. In this context, multi-sensory learning takes advantage of the way the senses—hearing, sight, and touch, mainly—reinforce one another while learning.
To be honest, L.I.T. Module is a labour of love. It is a painstaking process and it requires a great amount of attention for proper technicalities. However, I strongly believe that the end results justified the means of this research. Despite the fact that there are commercially targetted courseware sold to these students, I sincerely believe that the best person who can design the best lesson to suit the students’ various needs is the teacher herself.
The multimedia-based material was chosen as they appeal to my students. As stated by Tony Buzan in his book, The Power Of Creative Intelligence, “we need to stimulate the brain creatively in order to sustain the power of concentration.” L.I.T. Module was developed in order to sustain the students’ interest through interactive games and activities.
Alhamdulillah, the hard work paid off. My L.I.T. Module was awarded Bronze Commendation during the Creative Teacher Showcase, in conjunction with the 18th MELTA International Conference recently. Apart from that, I shared my Action Research with the other English Language practitioners during the 2009 District Level Action Research Seminar. I'm inspired to work harder and learn more about E-Learning, technogogy, courseware and materials development.
Since the new English Literature Component will commence next year, I'm planning to develop new L.I.T. Module to cater to the current literary texts. It might be a gradual and painstaking process but I'll do my best to help my students to understand and appreciate the reading materials better, Leen's Language Lab's style!
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