EL Teaching and Learning Resources [Nurhayati]

• Picture books to stimulate reading/comprehension skills

Picture books are powerful tools of instruction for teachers because of their simple and often compact plot outlines which favour students with short attention spans and their emphasis on visual texts to provide contextual clues.

The short sentences found in picture books will not intimidate students who perceive themselves as weak readers.

Students could either pay attention to specific grammatical features of the sentence or infer and predict possible expansions in the plot using the accompanying pictures as clues.

An alternative could include blurbs (for novels) or summaries to feature articles.

• Podcasts to encourage listening for information and critical listening

Personally, I'm a big fan of podcasts from BBC Radio 3. However, the content here may be more suitable for higher-ability students (JC/IP) and are targetted more on expanding content knowledge and critical response rather than providing a grammar focus.

Podcasts that deal with relevant issues or subject matter that are relevant and close to home would work best for students. I recommend BBC World Service Forum and World Have Your Say podcasts.

Local podcasts would work as well as long as they provide clear diction and enunciation as well as relevant issues to expand on in the classroom. 93.8LIVE on podcast.sg is a good start.

http://www.podcast.sg/938_campus.asp
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/forum
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/whys

For a full list of BBC podcasts, click here.