my tank is almost empty

Daddy God, my ever loving Father, I am writing this to you just as I am. I maybe physically drained & preoccupied but I would like to end this day remembering how great your love is for me. I simply cannot contain the overflowing joy and gratitude in my heart for all that You have done, that even as You already know what my prayers are and what this life will bring further, I desire to express how grateful I am as you open your floodgates of heaven once again and hear my prayers.

You know the times when I would ask for more when You have actually given me everything that I needed, those times when I held ill thoughts and feelings just about anything that irritated me, when I couldn’t stop complaining and grumbling over littlest things, when I kept on wanting what I do not have instead of appreciating what I have,  those times when I was living a life of condemnation and bitterness, when i did things my way which eventually would turn into pains, sufferings, disappointments and frustrations. You know the times when I was bombarding you with endless, insensible questions, even to a point of questioning and denying Your existence just to go with the flow of pragmatic beliefs and philosophies of academic freedom, those times when I felt like I was the worst person ever existed…

Yet God, while I was in dwelling in the lowest and darkest points of my life, You were always there for me. And as I am looking to the person that I am now,  you are reminding me once again that my life is a testimony of your great love, and that YOU ARE REAL. Despite of who I was and what I have done, You remained still, sitting patiently beside me,  watching me in everything that I do, even when it was so hurting and I was still failing You. That even when I kept on wandering in the wilderness of this world over and over again, You have showed me, in endless times and ways, that You are my Father, who would always open Your loving arms to hug me in your loving embrace, so sweet and warm, as if I have only done goodness all my life. That even when I was condemning myself, feeling so small and low as I looked down at my growing sins instead of facing You up there, You would only see that little spark of goodness in me, looking into my heart as if I am a saint, and not a sinner.

You have made me realized, that every single moments of what I have gone through, that the life I was complaining and grumbling about and the ill feelings and thoughts that I had towards the world, is just a part of a Beautiful life package that You have specially prepared and wrapped for me. There are tons of marvelous things in life that I should rejoice for, that there is beauty even in suffering and pain, and that there’s just a lot of amazing wonders in this life that I cannot comprehend only if I only learn to see through it. You have been so patient to me even when I have been trying to get rid of You, and even when I kept on looking at what I don’t have, you ask me to be thankful for everything, if only I let go and let You, God.

Daddy God, I thank You for your love and grace of transforming me from a monstrous freak into a joyful servant, from being a whiner to a winner, from being a great grumbler to a person filled with gratitude, for turning me into a conceited nobody to a humble somebody. Thank You for giving me a life of greater meaning and purpose, for turning my condemnations into actualization that I am in fact a well-loved and highly favored child of God! That even when I was looking down at myself so often, You are in fact building a character that magnifies Your presence and surprisingly, I can be an influence of joy and goodness too.

Thank You for planting a good spirit in my heart, for annointing me with gifts that I used to take for granted in selfish intentions and benefits, but now is of great use to Your kingdom! Thank You Lord for the relationship that You have built with me, as many were called but You chose me. Thank You for inviting my sinful nature into Your Holy Presence, for speaking to me whenever I needed a voice to tell me what to do and where to go. Thank you Lord for surrounding me with the most wonderful people this world has, for the lives of every person that are crossing my path, for bringing their lives into mine gives me reasons to pose a stupid smile on my face, even in the most exhausting part of my day. You are truly amazing Daddy God, I don’t deserve all your blessings but You have given me a life of endless possibilities.

And with this, I cast all my burdens upon You my Father, all my worries, fears, anxiety, insecurities, pains, ill feelings and thoughts flowing though my human veins, so that I will live each day with a conscious and heightened sense of Your presence, that I will only be conscious of Jesus in my life, that I may only take glimpses of Your goodness in all things. And that I may place and surrender my life to You completely, with no reservations. Let Your will be done, In Jesus name. Amen. 

This has been one of the most nervewracking writng tasks so far, and I just feel like posting a dreaded paperwork that consumed my weekend so that I have to be reminded of how much effort and time I take into my graduate studies and that I cannot simply give up and quit.

I.INTRODUCTION

Language, as described by James Gee (1999), reflects the situations in which we are communicating. In a Discourse Analysis (DA), it is viewed communicatively with which highlights language in use- its forms (what was said) and functions (what is done), in situational and cultural context. Given a classroom setting, language reflects in how teachers and students modify speech through the use of appropriate language in specific communicative learning situations. DA pays attention to the context of classroom learning which is evident in observable behavior such as speech (spoken discourses), gestures and written text. In an language learning class of an early childhood education setting, for instance, discourse analysis could provide information about children’ way of how it is to learn and develop language by looking at how they talk, respond and write about specific topic in a given teaching-learning situation) which in result, provide guidance to teachers by exposing the ways in which language is used.

In order to analyze and describe the classroom discourse transcribed from a personal teaching lesson, I chose the Discourse Analysis model (DA), also known as the Birmingham model developed by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975, 1992). Sinclair and Coulthard (S&C) discovered that language in the classroom followed a highly structured communication patterns in a very rigid sequence. The discourse analysis of a classroom teaching is generally found in teacher-centered situations and may appear contrary to real conversational language due to the constant verbatim repetition and turn-taking restraints between the highly structured, speech interaction between teacher and pupils.

Thus, the purpose of this paper is to understand the dynamics of classroom communication, specifically, in finding the gap between the teacher-elicited and student-elicited discourse, so as to provide insight into looking closely at the form of classroom talk in order to identify areas in improving classroom discourses that is adaptable to the teaching approaches of a preschool setting.

As to how and to what extent the Birmingham model could be usefully applied in an English class of Preschool level will also be investigated. Further justification of the S&C model precedes my analysis explanations in the Discussion section, while a transcript of the data sample is appended.

II.METHODOLOGY

A.LESSON DATA- Lesson Background and Participants

The transcribed instructional lesson segment comprises of a thirty-minute excerpt recorded from a creative writing lesson during English class, dated February 6, 2012, conducted at my Kindergarten 2 (K2) children in an Education Centre in Singapore.The lesson revolves around a content-area book entitled “Respect”, consisting of 16 pages showing pictures of children showing respect to different group of people, in different settings. Fifteen (15) children were involved in the lesson, in 5-6 age group, whom mostly are using English as the native language, and ranges from beginner to intermediate proficiency level. The children have a prior knowledge about the topic (Respect), learned from the previous lesson on the same topic.

B.MODE OF ANALYSIS

Two separate recordings were made of the same lesson from this class. Specifically, the audio transcription is divided into two. The first part consists of the Introduction (Tuning-In) and Lesson Development (Teaching & Discussion) where classroom talk is teacher-initiated and students elicited responses. The second part consists of two separate excerpts on the Writing Practice segment (Follow-Up Activity and Evaluation) where the children are engaged and involved in the activity, with correction and facilitation only in the teacher’s part.

I chose Discourse Analysis model (DA), also known as the Birmingham model, to analyse the classroom discourse transcribed. The recording follows a structured, teacher-led talk, where the discourse is heavily dependent on the teacher’s questions and instructions. This fits well with the Birmingham model and it is worth noting that Sinclair and Coulthard’s model is taken from teacher-lead primary school classroom settings where spoken discourses are of more the same type. This focuses on the actual progression of the lesson which can be actualized through informing, directing, eliciting or checking of the teacher. In addition, the five rank scales of this model namely lesson, transaction, exchange, move and act corresponds to the lesson transcribed as well, where the each structure exists in every rank (above the lowest) and can be expressed in terms of the units next below it (Sinclair and Coulthard 1992). In other words, the structure of lesson consists of transactions; transaction consists of units of exchanges, exchange units of moves, and move units of acts.

Following this hierarchy, teaching exchanges consist of three-move structure (Initiation-Response-Follow up or IRF) which will serve as the bone of my data analysis. IRF structure is characterized by the teacher-led discourse, where the teacher asks a question or provides information, the student responds or reacts, and the teacher provides some degree of comment or evaluation. The first part of the recording, for instance, focuses on the actual progression of the lesson which can be actualized through informing, directing, eliciting or checking of the teacher. Specific examples will be thoroughly explained in the data analysis.

C.PROCEDURES

The lesson was recorded in order understand the dynamics of classroom talk so as to help English language learning of my children in a preschool level. In order to answer this goal, I chose to obtain the data with instructional segment of the lesson comprising of Tuning- In (Review and Introduction), Lesson Development (Teaching/ Discussion) and Follow-Up Activity (Writing Practice & Evaluation) where classroom talk is more evident in teacher instructions & questions, pupil elicits and turn taking.

Although the instructions and discussions are generally teacher-led, the children are given opportunities to participate in a Question-and-Answer discourse to which they were not only reactive but active learners as well. Children are able to answer and ask questions based on their prior knowledge and related experiences and give insights and responses. The choices are available the children which determines their freedom to interject, question and provide additional information on the topic, yet somehow this presents some difficulties in labelling utterances in a natural discourse according to the DA model. During the follow up activity, the children were given ample time to practice the writing conventions into their own writing, which requires minimal initiatives from the teacher and mostly on correction and facilitation.

III.DATA ANALYSIS

The Birmingham Model is easily applied to the discourse analysis of this paper in the context of the IRF structure. Examples are labelled numerically from the written transcript appended. The initiation moves (Opening Move), response moves (Answering move) and follow-up moves is commonly found in most parts of the transcript as for this discourse transaction:

3.Teacher Eva: Today, we are going to write three (3) sentences about Respect. (Points to the unfinished sentences written on the board). The title of our writing today is Respect. How do you spell respect?

4.Children: (in unison) R-E-S-P-E-C-T

5.Teacher Eva: That’s correct. Now don’t forget children that when you write, you must follow the (show the three lines)

6.Children: (in unison) Lines

7.Teacher Eva: The lines! You must write along the lines. Now look at the title Respect (Points to the word). The first letter is…

8.Children: R

9.Teacher Eva: Correct, Now when you write the title, you must write in…

10.Children: Big Letter

11.Teacher Eva: That’s correct. Big or Capital letter.

12.Children: Capital letter

13.Teacher Eva: Good, now let’s start reading these sentences. Number 1…

In this example, the opening move in the first exchange is initiated by the teacher (Line 3), followed by an answer of the children (Line 4), and feedback to confirm the answer and initiate the second exchange (Line 5). The IRF structure is neatly evident in this transaction, divided into five (5) exchanges, with which was structured into three (3) moves, as evident in the table below:

Move

Exchange 1

Exchange 2

Exchange 3

Exchange 4

Exchange 5

Initiation

Line 3

Line 5

Line 7

Line 9

Line 11

Response

Line 4

Line 6

Line 8

Line 10

Line 12

Follow-Up

Line 5

Line 7

Line 9

Line 11

Line 13

Table 1- Analysis of Lines 3-13 in IRF Structure

In this table, an evident pattern is noticeable among Lines 5, 7, 9 and 11 with which the act is structured in this format:

Follow Up+Initiation to the Next Exchange

Confirm Answer/ Response+Transition Question for the next exchange

The Birmingham Model is very applicable given the highly structured, teacher-led discourse (Teacher-elicit) when there is a limitation of participant’s role . However, for the exchange where the children participates in a natural discourse where they elicit questions, responses/ answers and feedbacks, this model is not too adaptable. As for this example;

90.Teacher Eva: Now, in here, you will write about your friends. What must you write here?

91.Children: (in Unison) Friends

92.Teacher Eva: About your friends. Do you respect your friends?

93.Children: (in Unison) Yes!

94.Chloe: Must not laugh.

95.Javier: You cannot laugh when your friends fall down

96.Teacher Eva: Yes, that’s true. If you fell down and your friends laugh at you, how do you feel?

Children, in this transaction, are into a more natural talk, with which they are also involved in providing follow-up information that is not accounted for IRF structure. As for like 92, as the teacher asks “Do you respect your friends?”, two (2) pupils specifically provided a response (Lines 94-95), not including the Line 93 unison answer “Yes!”.Lines 95 attempts to provide feedback to another child’s response in line 94. Given this, the teacher evaluate (line 96), as a follow-up move, making it a bound exchange to the original opening move of teacher elicit, “Do you respect your friends?” From here, the discourse can continue with another bound exchange, with the pupil acknowledging the teacher’s correct evaluate in line 96, and the teacher expanding on the correct answer as a follow-up. The teacher concludes the exchange with an acknowledging feedback, but the IRF structure fails to account for the shift of roles, as when the pupil

118.Teacher Eva: Okay, again please raise your hand when you want to say something and let me call you first before you speak. How do you show respect to your teacher?

(Children raise their hands)

119.Teacher Eva: Yes, Mahaan?

120.Mahaan: Cannot shout to teacher.

121.Joshua: If you shout to teacher, it means you’re angry.

122.Chloe: (To Joshua) Cannot be angry to Teacher right?

123.Joshua: Yes, cannot. Then mummy scold you also.

124.Teacher Eva: Yes, mummy will scold you.

In this exchange, the teacher is no longer the sole source of information as the children offer interesting or relevant information. Although the teacher begins with a ‘real’ question in Line 118 (“How do you show respect to your teacher?), the initiation of the child inform exchange from Lines 120 to 123 contain real information to the teacher and other children, who has then become the second knower. The teacher’s response in Line 124 only repeats what the child says in Line 123, without further evaluation or Follow-up Move.

SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS BASED ON THE ANALYSIS

The teacher-led discourse in the beginning of the lesson (Lines 3-13) neatly follows the structure of the IRF moves of Birmingham model. It is evident and therefore applicable in a highly structured classroom talk. But as the discourse becomes natural as illustrated in Lines 90-96 (such as when the children elicited responses and gain information from each other, rather than the teacher-elicited talk), the structure has become less rigid, that makes the Birmingham model difficult to fit. In Lines 118-124, the children have initiated, responded and followed up the moves and the teacher does not lead the discussion, the model seemed to be even more difficult to apply.

In the case of drills in a large-group teaching, Birmingham model is applicable in a teacher-elicited classroom interaction. Raine (2010) points to the fact that the Birmingham model does not account for ‘an exchange category specifically for drills’ and calls for such a ‘drill exchange’ with a ‘drilling act’ as a head (ibid. p. 14). As for this exchange:

13Teacher Eva: Good, now let’s start reading these sentences. Number 1…

14  Children: Everyone des…

15 Teacher Eva: … deserves. How do you read this?

16 Children: Deserves…

17  Teacher Eva: Everyone deserves…

18 Children: Everyone deserves…

Lines 13-18 correct and model the pronunciation of the sentence for the children to repeat. The type of drilling represented in Table 16 highlights on the correction and pronunciation. In this case, drills would require different act, but would still follow the IRF moves. Drill exchange follows the IRF through:

Initiation

Drill Initiates(Line 16)

Response

Drill Corrects & Models Pronunciation (Line 17)

Follow Up

Drill Repeats (Line 18)

Table 2 Analysis of a Drill Exchange through IRF

In the segment of correcting errors and pupil’s initiated talk, there is a change of structure in the discourse as well, where the three-move IRF model is also not applicable, as for this excerpt:

137.Teacher Eva: Very good, when do you help mummy?

138.Chloe: Mummy is carry heavy things I help him.

139.Teacher Eva: I help her.

140.Chloe: I help her. And cannot shout to mummy. You shout then you’re angry.

141.Teacher Eva: Very good.

The data transcribed in this excerpt can be analysed as below:

Line 137

Very good, when do you help mummy?

Follow up- from previous Exchange

Re-Initiate- New exchange

Line 138

Mummy is carry heavy things I help him.

Respond- The child answer the question.

Line 139

I help her.

Follow Up- Correction

Line 140

I help her.

And cannot shout to mummy. You shout then you’re angry.

Respond- Self Correction

Re-Initiate- New Exchange

Line 141

Very good.

Follow Up- confirms the new exchange but does not make necessary feedback/ evaluation

Table 3 Analysis of Lines 137 to 141, in making correction and preceding a new exchange

The responses to teacher elicits is bound to the original elicit, defined as the bound exchanges a Re-Initiate (Rii), structured as IRiiF RRiiF R (Sinclair and Coulthard, 1992). With this, it can be noted that the bound exchanges in an evaluation or comment in the follow-up move require a new initiation for following pupil responses, possible interpreted as pupil Initiates new exchange. As for this example, lines 140-141 is bound Re-Initiate and Follow-up to the previous IRF moves. After the pupil made a self-correction as in Line 140a in regard to information provided in the previous exchange’s respond, the pupil reinitiated an informative exchange. The child’s comment in the follow-up move and beginning a new initiation with an informative require interpretation, without following the IRF structure. The comments in the follow-up move are restatements of pupil replies, providing grammatical correction or completing the desired response.

IV.CONCLUSION

Despite of difficulties in application to varied types of discourses, Birmingham’s model is helpful among teachers for better understanding of classroom talk and its structure, especially for teacher-elicited class dynamics. As for the exchange on giving instructions about writing convention and in drills of reading and pronunciation, IRF structure can contribute in creating greater awareness of teacher feedback and develops explicit teaching, particularly in terms of providing grammatical accuracy and repetition.In the case of IRF model, it is also relevant to take note the intentions of the speaker in each acts or utterance, rather than its grammatical relevance. Through analysing the individual parts in classroom discourse, teachers can better understand that the language can be more effective in creating classroom procedures even in a pre-school setting.

On the contrary, in a preschool setting where learning is mostly student-centered even in discussions and teaching, the IRF structure does not practically fit the instruction as it limits the exchanges and ways of communication. Teaching approaches for younger learners follow a more communicative methodology which requires children to initiate and resource information through their prior knowledge and related experiences. However, modification of the original Birmingham model is introduced to fit the less rigid discourse structure nowadays. For traditional, Socratic Q&A approach in classroom discourse, the initiator of an exchange does not only solely on the teacher, but even to the children as they share their thoughts about the topic given to them. There is an evident variation of the roles of teachers and students in initiating information, responding to questions and in giving feedback, which allows a more communicative dynamics.Also, as mentioned by Raine (2010), drill exchange is helpful in a language learning classroom interaction, such that of my K2 English Class, whilst still following the IRF moves of the original Birmingham model.

The implication of studying the discourses has given me a better understanding of the classroom talk, specifically with the discourse structures that I am consciously and unconsciously applying in my class. As a teacher, the analysis based on Birmingham model will be useful in the evaluation of the children’s strengths and developmental spots in a spoken discourse, which in turn suggests other possible ways to structure the teaching discourse of less teacher-elicited but more student-centered. Children, even as young as 5 to 6 years old are capable of initiating exchanges and it is necessary for me as a teacher to facilitate this discourse to a more effective communicative class dynamics.

Being able to analyse the transcribed lesson has also helped me understand the underlying functions behind the usual classroom discourses, and that it can be varied and modified based on the classroom dynamics that is applicable to my class. For teacher-elicited discussion, for instance, IRF is fit in order for the children to follow through and respond to the initiated communication, while the teacher corrects and gives feedback to what has been given in the responses as well in a structured type of discourse. On the other hand, a student-elicit class has to change, vary and adapt the flexible Birmingham model for a more effective discourse as applicable to a communicative setting.

V.APPENDIX

TRANSCRIPT OF CLASSROOM INSTRUCTIONAL SEGMENT

Class: K2A of 15 children, ages 5-6 y.o.

Date Recorded: February 22, 2012

Subject: Creative Writing

PART 1- TUNING IN (Review & Introduction) AND LESSON DEVELOPMENT

1.Teacher Eva: So let’s see if you remember what we have talked about (show the Book Cover)

2.Children: (in unison) Respect!

3.Teacher Eva: Today, we are going to write three (3) sentences about Respect. (Points to the unfinished sentences written on the board). The title of our writing today is Respect. How do you spell respect?

4.Children: (in unison) R-E-S-P-E-C-T

5.Teacher Eva: That’s correct. Now don’t forget children that when you write, you must follow the (show the three lines)

6.Children: (in unison) Lines

7.Teacher Eva: The lines! You must write along the lines. Now look at the title Respect (Points to the word). The first letter is…

8.Children: R

9.Teacher Eva: Now when you write the title, you must write in…

10.Children: Big Letter!

11.Teacher Eva: That’s correct. Big or Capital letter.

12.Children: Capital letter!

13.Teacher Eva: Good, now let’s start reading these sentences. Number 1… (Points to Sentence 1)

14.Teacher Eva: Let’s say your mummy, do you show respect to mummy?

15.Chloe: Yes.

16.Children: Everyone des…

17.Teacher Eva: deserves. How do you read this?

18.Children: Deserves…

19.Teacher Eva: Okay one more time…

20.Children: Everyone deserves…

21.Teacher Eva: Then what must you write here?

22.Children: (In unison) Respect!

23.Teacher Eva: Now how do you spell respect?

24.Children: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

25.Teacher Eva: Very good, now from the beginning. (Points to the sentence)

26.Children: Everyone deserves respect.

27.Teacher Eva: Now you see, the word respect here is not written in big letter because it is not the title.

28.Chloe: and not the beginning!

29.Teacher Eva: Very good Chloe! And also you see, I do finger space between the words. Can you write these words together?

30.Children: No!

31.Teacher Eva: Good, now for number 2. (Points to sentence 2)

32.Children: I show…

33.Teacher Eva: What must you write here?

34.Children: (In unison) Respect!

35.Teacher Eva: Okay, one more time.

36.Children: I show respect to older people by…

37.Teacher Eva: One more time, respect is not in a big letter here, it’s a…

38.Children: Small Letter!

39.Teacher Eva: Why?

40.Trevor: Because it’s not title.

41.Teacher Eva: Very good, now let’s read again… (Points to the words and read along with the children)

42.Children: I show respect to older people by…

43.Teacher Eva: Okay, now that’s my question for you before we read number 3. How do you show respect to older people?

44.Mahaan: Let them go first!

45.Yishan: Must give money!

46.Chloe: By showing respect!

47.Teacher Eva: Okay, wait. I cannot understand if we all talk at the same time right? Raise your hand and wait for your name to be called. (The children raise their hands)

48.Teacher Eva: Yes, Vernice?

49.Vernice: Some old people don’t have money can’t buy food so must give them money.

50.Teacher Eva: That’s great! So we must help older people. Yes Yi Shan?

51.Yishan: Cannot shout at old people.

52.Teacher Eva: That’s a good point. Why you cannot shout?

53.Kit Yeng: Because it’s rude and not nice, later mummy scold you

54.Teacher Eva: That’s true.Now who are these older people?

55.Ryan: Grandmother

56.Wei Ren: Mummy, Daddy

57.Walter: Mother

58.Teacher Eva: That’s correct, now you must raise your hands so we can hear each other.

59.Walter: Brother

60.Teacher Eva: Yes, older brother. Whoelse? Jun Xian?

61.Jun Xian: Sister

62.Teacher Eva: Older sister

63.Jun Xian: Mummy

64.Teacher Eva: Aside from mummy?

65.Children: Daddy

66.Teacher Eva: Okay, now we have mummy, daddy, older brother and sister, grandmother.

67.Joshua: Also grandfather

68.Teacher Eva: Good!

69.Joshua: Write only one word?

70.Teacher Eva: Okay, now Joshua has a good question. Do you want to know what is it?

71.Children: (in Unison) Yes!

72.Teacher Eva: Joshua is asking if we should write one word?

73.Children: No!

74.Teacher Eva: Good, you will write in words about how you show respect to older people. How do you show respect to older people Joshua?

75.Joshua: I help mummy

76.Chloe: I help mummy also.

77.Teacher Eva: That’s a good idea. Helping mummy or daddy is a wonderful way to show respect.

78.Chloe: Where to write teacher?

79.Teacher Eva: Another good question. Over here (points to the underline), you will write a complete sentence. For example, Joshua said he shows respect to older people by helping mummy. So over here (points to the underline and writes), Joshua will write- by helping mummy.

80.Now don’t forget, when your sentence is finished, you must end it with a…

81.Children: Full Stop!

82.Teacher Eva: Okay, full stop or period. Now for number 3, let’s read altogether (Points to the words and read with the children).

83.Children: I show …

84.Teacher Eva: What must you write here?

85.Children: Respect

86.Teacher Eva: How do you spell respect?

87.Children: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

88.Teacher Eva: Good, now without looking

89.Children: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

90.Teacher Eva: Very good! Okay from the beginning (Points to sentence 3)

91.Children: I show respect to my friends by…

92.Teacher Eva: Now, in here, you will write about your friends. What must you write here?

93.Children: (in Unison) Friends

94.Teacher Eva: About your friends. Do you respect your friends?

95.Children: (in Unison) Yes!

96.Chloe: Must not laugh.

97.Javier: You cannot laugh when your friends fall down

98.Teacher Eva: Yes, that’s true. If you fell down and your friends laugh at you, how do you feel?

99.Ryan: Sad

100.Mahaan: I’m angry

101.Teacher Eva: That’s why you cannot laugh.

102.Javier: You must help!

103.Teacher Eva: Very good!

104.Chloe: And when mummy carry heavy, you must help!

105.Kit Yeng: And cannot be angry to mummy and daddy

106.Teacher Eva: That is correct! You cannot be angry to mummy and daddy and even to your friends.

107.Kit Yeng: Must be happy!

108.Teacher Eva: Now how do you show respect to your friends?

109.Joshua: Do not shout to friends and they shout at you also.

110.Teacher Eva: That’s correct. At this time, I will show you some pictures and tell me how these children show respect. (Shows picture 1). What is she doing? Yes, Walter?

111.Walter: Rub the Board

112.Teacher Eva: Good! Now how do you show respect to your teachers?

113.Erica: Must help teacher rub the Board

114.Teacher Eva: Yes, helping your teachers is one way to show respect.

115.Chloe: Must keep your own toys.

116.Javier: And must put back toys

117.Erica: And rubber and pencil

118.Mahaan: And crayon

119.Vernice: Colour Pencil also

120.Teacher Eva: Okay, again please raise your hand when you want to say something and let me call you first before you speak. How do you show respect to your teacher? (Children raise their hands)

121.Teacher Eva: Yes, Mahaan?

122.Mahaan: Cannot shout to teacher.

123.Joshua: If you shout to teacher, it means you’re angry.

124.Chloe: (To Joshua) Cannot be angry to Teacher right?

125.Joshua: Yes, cannot. Then mummy scold you also.

126.Teacher Eva: Yes, mummy will scold you.

PART 2- WRITING PRACTICE (Follow Up Activity and Evaluation)

Note: In this part of the Lesson, the children are tasked to write and complete the sentences based on their prior knowledge and related experiences. They are doing the activity on their own and the teacher’s role is to make correction on writing convention and facilitate insights on the topic about “Respect”. Two separate excerpts were taken into account for data analysis.

EXCERPT 1- Correction of a Writing Convention

127.Teacher Eva: Look at your title Haqkil, is this correct?

128.Haqkil: (Shrugs shoulders).

129.Teacher Eva: What is wrong here?

130.Haqkil: This? (Points to the word “respect”)

131.Teacher Eva: Which part here?

132.Haqkil: (No answer)

133.Teacher Eva: Should you write the title in small letter?

134.Haqkil: Ah, must be big letter (Erases the whole word and rewrites).

135.Teacher Eva: Do not forget to write along the lines.

136.Haqkil: Okay.

EXCERPT 2- Facilitation of sharing a related experience

137.Teacher Eva: So how do you show respect to older people?

138.Chloe: I show respect.

139.Teacher Eva: And how do you show it?

140.Chloe: Cannot shout to friends.

141.Teacher Eva: Good, but how about older people?

142.Chloe: Older people…

143.Teacher Eva: Let’s say your mummy, do you show respect to mummy?

144.Chloe: Yes.

145.Teacher Eva: And how do you show respect?

146.Chloe: I help mummy.

147.Teacher Eva: Very good, when do you help mummy?

148.Chloe: Mummy is carry heavy things I help him.

149.Teacher Eva: I help her.

150.Chloe: I help her. And cannot shout to mummy. You shout then you’re angry.

151.Teacher Eva: Very good.

152.Chloe: Cannot be angry to mummy.

VI.REFERENCES

Gee, J. (1999) An introduction to discourse analysis. London: Routledge.

Gonzales, M.J., Ignacio, T.P. & Tayao. L.G. (1997). Applied Linguistics for Communication Arts. UP Open University.

Raine, P. (2010). An application of the Sinclair and Coulthard (1975) method of

discourse analysis. Retrieved from

http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/essays/raine_sinc-coul.pdf.

Sinclair, J. and Coulthard, M. (1975). Toward an Analysis of Discourse: the English Used by Teachers and Pupils. Oxford University Press.

White, A. (2003). The Application of Sinclair and Coulthard’s IRF structure to a classroom lesson. Retrieved from

http://course.zjnu.cn/kcjx/uploadfile/APPLY%20SCAIL.pdf