Rationale:
The English language course encompasses the experience, study, and appreciation of language, literature, media, and communication. It involves language processes: speaking, listening, reading, viewing, writing, and other ways of representing. At this level, the use of English language to think, learn and communicate effectively in a wide variety of communication situations is given a central importance. English language is essential for Bhutanese students for their success in life, including further education, work and social interaction. Therefore, they must be aware of the strategies – speaking, listening, reading, writing, and viewing - to construct meaning and to solve information-related problems.
Aims:
The language course aims to help students to:
- Understand the basic features and functions of language in general.
- Understand the basic features of the English language.
- Understand the purposes of language as an instrument for social interaction.
- Understand the current trends in English language including social appropriateness and gender sensitivity.
- Develop their listening and speaking skills in order to help them interact effectively.
- Develop their interest in reading and their ability to interpret a variety of written texts.
- Develop their ability to write for a variety of purposes and audiences in a variety of forms using the writing process.
- Know and use literal and figurative language effectively.
- Develop mastery on their use and knowledge of correct grammatical structures and conventions, including pronunciations.
- Acquire sufficient vocabulary and language structure practice.
- Develop their confidence and competence through the use of a range of media and computer technologies.
Learning Experiences:
In the course of studying language, students will:
- Engage in activities and discussions in which they try to imagine a world without language; invent a language of their own; take advantage of the multi-lingual nature of Bhutanese classrooms to show how the same idea can be expressed in different languages and structures.
- Engage in activities in which they practise language for formal and informal situations; discussions on the use of slang; to arrive an understanding of how a language changes over time to meet new demands particularly language that is sensitive to gender and age.
- Explore the relationship between language and grammar.
- Learn the conventions of standard English.
- Students will practise English sounds; examine the structures in which sounds appear – letter, syllable, word, sentence, paragraph – to hear the changes each structures brings to sounds in the light of intonation and pronunciation.
- Students will learn Standard English word order and how it differs from the other languages they speak. Teachers need to take advantage of the fact that students speak several languages to show how language works.
- Students will learn the language protocols used in greeting, welcoming, expressing sympathy, and love. Teachers should advantage of the fact that students know these protocols in several languages.
- Participate in regular programmes to enhance their ability and interest in reading.
- Write extensively for various purposes such as personal, transactional, and poetic writing.
- Interact with a variety of reading materials which require different kinds and levels of interpretation.
- Glean information available in mass media and use it in their day to day communication.
- Practise the language skills developed earlier to enhance their ability to speak with proper pronunciation and stress; to listen carefully to understand what others are saying and to respond appropriately. This can be done through activities such as panel discussions, debates, extempore presentations, and elocution exercises and classroom conversations.
- Develop their language competence through exercises such as note-taking, summarizing and paraphrasing to enhance their study skills.
- Use information technology to create and evaluate texts and to retrieve, process, produce and communicate information.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of Class XII, students are able to:
Language
- Discuss how humans acquire language.
- Discuss the purposes that language serves in human interaction.
- Describe the basic features of the English language.
- Demonstrate a sound knowledge of grammar and sentence structure.
- Use a rich vocabulary in their speech and writing.
Speaking and Listening
- Speak and write in clear and grammatically correct English in personal and public situations.
- Listen to others, distinguish their message, stress, tone and intention and respond appropriately.
- Speak in public at different kinds of functions using appropriate conventional forms of address, lexicon, register and idiom, and know the social appropriateness of such.
- Use a repertoire of structures, rhetorical devices and internalised those through careful and constant listening and use.
- Recognise the need to use language that is sensitive to the matter of gender and age.
Writing
- Communicate in coherent and grammatically correct writing in a wide range of forms – personal, transactional, poetic.
- Use writing as a way of learning, taking time to explore, clarify and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences and relationships.
- Use writing to develop critical thinking skills – review, analyse, hypothesis, recollection, summary, evaluation.
- Take notes from meetings, their reading, and other sources and use their notes to construct an accurate report of proceedings or research findings.
- Present a portfolio of their own writing by following the writing process, containing samples of their best work:
· Personal (letters to friends, diaries, autobiography, wishes, dreams…)
· Transactional (information, explanation, argument, narration, report, descriptions, persuasion, biographies…)
· Poetic (plays, skits, short stories, novels, poems…)
Reading and literature
- Read a wide range of texts – fiction and non-fiction – independently.
- Distinguish the different forms of literature and the purposes they serve.
Viewing/media literacy
- Respond critically to programs in mass media.
- Use mass media equipment to publish stories or make films or newspapers.
- Become critical viewers of the newspapers and news programs.
Posts
