ARBA MINCH UNIVERSITY

                                         POST GRADUATE STUDIES

           DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

                         CALL INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT (TASK 1 & TASK 2)

                                      WRITEN REPORT ON BOTH TASKS

                                            By: Elias Kuche –SMA/007/05

                                            Submitted to: Ato Tesfaye H/M

                                                                                                                                           AMU

                                                                                                                                           Aug 2015

Introduction

In this report, I included all the activities I had done in the classroom with my students. My students had different needs, preferences and styles of learning so that I selected tasks appropriate for their needs and designed it to suit to individuals according to their difficulties. Providing special assistance for students who have problems of learning, helps students to get effective teaching and makes their learning meaningful. In line with this, I chose tasks which were appropriate for students with different impairments.

General Description

In this task, I was given an assignment based on Computer Assisted Language Learning. The tasks are:

    1. Grammar Lesson for Grade 11 visual impaired students.

    2. Grammar Lesson for Grade 11 hearing impaired students.

To run both activities (tasks), I used the current English grade 11 students’ text book of the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia. The first task was about grammar lesson for visually impaired students. I took an appropriate task for these students from the text book of page 20 (section B1.3) on “Language focus: The present perfect.” I transferred the lesson in to power point presentation software by selecting the lesson, then moved to the “edit” section and click on the “take a snapshot.” Then, I passed it in to power point. Finally, I moved to the slide show section in my computer to record and narrate the task so as to suit it appropriate for visually impaired students. The lesson was designed in the form of listening. This is because my students were visually impaired. To accomplish it, first I designed pre-task questions for discussion in order to familiarize students with the lesson. Then, I entered in to the main parts of the lesson by narrating it. I told students to complete activities provided at the end of the task with their partners and finally discussed on the answers with the class.

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The second task was grammar lesson for hearing impaired students. I selected a suitable task for these students from grade 11 English text book of page 32 (section A 2.6) on “Language focus: Comparing things.” I showed them useful languages for comparing number, quantity, and qualities of things. Based on the given notes, I told them to do the activities given under the task. In order to help the hearing impaired students, I designed visual supported presentation in relation with the tasks so that it made them understand the lesson more clearly and answer questions accordingly. After contextualizing the visual support with that of the written lesson, students had more understanding on the task and gave correct answers for the activities. Finally, students were evaluated and given feedback on their work through the whole class discussion.

My reflection about the tasks and their usability in my context

The tasks I selected for grade 11 visual and hearing impaired students were appropriate and good at their level and they were not too much difficult for students to do them. In addition to this, both tasks were familiar with student’s background knowledge so that they were usable in the classroom teaching-learning at the student’s grade level.

Generally, teaching students by considering their difficulties, needs and other learning variables helps them to understand the tasks given in the classroom specifically and improves the teaching-learning process in general. Therefore, understanding learner’s variables and designing appropriate tasks with suitable teaching methods made my work effective. Therefore, this report on the tasks helps other teachers to consider the learner differences while designing and selecting tasks for the classroom.

The end!

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