English PTT 1 After Third Part

Jamhuuriyadda Federaalka Soomaaliya
Wasaaradda Waxbarashada Hiddaha

Iyo Tacliinta Sare.
ENGLISH
PRIMARY TEACHER TRAINING
YEAR 1
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Course overview
This is a two-year course, which mainly emphasizes how to help students build
the fundamental language skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, as
well as critical thinking, observation and presentation in English for non-native
speakers. A focus on strategies to build vocabulary and essay writing skills will
be a part of the program. The course includes studies of various literary genres:
short story, poetry, role-play drama, and narratives. Helping learners progress in
critical reading and writing skills are also focus areas of the course.
This course applies learner-centered approaches to support all learners. The
learners engage with learning in different ways. We know that each learner has
unique talents and skills that shape learning, and we work to promote personalized
learning that will give each learner the critical thinking, problem-solving, basic
English skills and other skills needed to contribute to our communities and lead
successful lives after completion of this course. Being learner-centered, learning is
personalized, engaging, competency-based and not restricted to the classroom.
Learners are responsible for their learning, and they also benefit from supporting
each other’s progress, so every learner gets the skills he or she needs to succeed
and contribute to society. This approach incorporates learners’ interests and
skills into the learning process and give learners the skills and tools to obtain the
knowledge they need to stay engaged, learning throughout their lives and
fully engage learners in achieving learning outcomes.
This course utilizes learning resources that are effective and locally available
and authentic. They will help in developing learners’ individual learning
strategies, values, attitudes and generic skills.
In this course there are various assessment strategies which include,
performance measures, evidence of positive effects on learning, external reviews,
and self-reports, some embedded in instruction and some summative in nature.
This is to demonstrate the learners’ acquisition of
knowledge and skills.
The goal of this course is to adopt an integrated approach to the teaching of English
as a second language where literacy and relevant related skills are incorporated
with the basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, all
geared towards creating a significant and representative learning contexts that
encourages learner-interaction, self-expression and use of language skills.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, the learner should be able to:
■ Develop their communication skills for effective and fluent

communicate effectively.
■ Develop the individual learner’s four language abilities (reading,
writing, speaking, and listening) through a variety of creative learning
experiences in English.
■ Develop ability to utilize Basic English skills and appreciate its
improvement
■ Acquire basic theoretical and practical knowledge about the profession
and demonstrate dedication towards professional commitment and
competence in teaching English.
■ Know how to use and implement the Somali English curriculum in
planning learners’ lessons and selecting appropriate teaching strategies
■ Analyze factors that promote and hinder effective English language
learning when planning learners’ lessons
■ Apply acquired knowledge of appropriate strategies for teaching English
language learners in planning, teaching and evaluating English language
learning.
■ Establish safe, motivating and interactive English language learning
environments
■ Comprehend and use a range of teaching strategies and resources to
deliver effective English language learning lessons
■ Apply appropriate formative assessments to monitor learners’ progress,
provide constructive feedback which supports learners to reflect upon
and improve their English language learning outcomes
■ Analyze outcomes of formative assessments to evaluate planning and
target setting to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning of
the English language.
Course outcomes
Demonstrate knowledge and acquisition of essential concepts of basic
English language learning skills: Reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.
Analyze a written text by presenting topic sentence indicating basic observation

and context for the passage, note-taking and summary writing.
Tackle challengess of learning English as a non-native speaker in terms of, syntax,

sentence patterns, grammar, verb tenses, and subject-verb agreements
Acquire critical thinking skills in English language through the use of reliable
sources of information, analyzing, drawing conclusions,
making decisions, and prioritizing information in research.
Attain essential skills needed for professional career in English teaching, which
include communication, leadership, interpersonal, adaptability, teamwork, self-
management,
problem- solving and organizational skills
Course content
This is a two-year course, which has seven (7) chapters in year one and seven (7)
chapters in year two all focusing on the objectives of teaching English to primary
school teachers .
The course contents are:
NO MODULE 1 YEAR 1 NO MODULE 2 YEAR 2

1 Introduction to En- 1 Grammar II:
glish language learn-
ing (for non-native • Parts of speech 2
speakers): • Verb Groups
• Specific uses of • Noun and Pronoun
Language group
• Language as • Determiners
means of com-
• Adjectival
munication
• Basic language • Adverbials
skills
• Mother tongue
acquisition and
second lan-
guage
learning
develop-
ment
2 Grammar I 2 Reading and Writing
• The Principle • Elements of Reading

Word
• Elements of Writing
• Classes
• Affixes
• Elements and Pat-
terns of a Sentence in
English
• Forms of Sentences
3 English Speech 3 Study skills
Models of Pronunciation • Reading for Study Purpose
 The Speech Organs • Referencing
 Teaching pro- • Library Science Skills
nunciation
 Word stress and Intona-
tion
4 English syllabus and Sub- 4 Introduction to Literature stud-
ject material ies:
• The Syllabus • Poetry
• The Functions of the • Drama
• Syllabus • Proverbs and Idioms
• Objectives • Riddles and
• Approved Subject Tongue Twisters
resources • Reading story
books/class readers
5 Teaching methodology in 5 Measurements and evalution
primary school I procedures in primary schools
• Teaching produc- • Rationale for Evaluation
tive • Steps and procedures of
• skills testing
• Teaching receptive • Types of evaluation and
skills contents
• Audio-visual pro-  Functions of a Test and
grammes in primary Other Summative Assessment
schools
• Administering Tests and
Examinations
• Using Test and
Examination Results
6 Planning and teaching En- 6 Introduction to Microteaching
glish
 The Principles of Microteach-
Language: ing
 Microteaching cycle
• Schemes of work
 Micro-teaching lesson plan
• Lesson plan
• Pupils’ Progress
Record
7 Structured Writing: 7 Research project:
• Social writing • Research Problem.
• Academic writing
• Study writing • Research hypothesis
• Creative writing
• Research methodology
• Research data handling
• Writing a research report.
Teaching and learning methods

In this course, we shall employ a learner-centered approach. In a learner-
centered approach, we view learners as active agents, where they bring their own
knowledge, past experiences, education, and ideas, which impacts how they take
on board new information and learn. In classrooms that are learner-centered,
the teacher takes on a facilitator’s role, which is to plan, guide and manage class
activities to ensure that the objectives are met effectively.
Under this approach, the suggested teaching and learning methods are;
■ Self-Assessment Rubric
■ Grouping
■ Illustrating and mapping
■ Filling in the Gaps
■ Discussion
■ Presentations
■ Debating
■ Role-playing
■ Dramatization
■ Project work
■ Story-telling
Course assessment
Teacher student’s performance can be assessed in many ways depending on the
nature of the task and the purpose for which evaluation is done. Evaluation can
be done in the following ways:-
■ Open-ended questions and response

■ Oral questioning
■ Peer teaching
■ Discussing
■ labelling
■ Self-grading
■ Written assignments
■ Observation and practical skills
■ Administering short quizzes and tests
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING………............1
Lesson 1: Specific Uses of Language ………………………………………..3
Lesson 2: Specific Features of Languages……................................……………8
Lesson 3: Language as a means of communication……………………..13
Lesson 4: Promoting basic language skills in school……………………...20
Lesson 5: First language acquisition and second language development......31
CHAPTER 2: ENGLISH STRUCTURE………........................................................43
Lesson 1: The Principle Word Classes ……………………………………...44
Lesson 2: Affixes……………................................................................................……70
Lesson 3: Elements of a sentence…………………………….........................76
Lesson 4: Basic Sentence Patterns………………………….......................…81
Lesson 5: Form of Sentences………..........................................................................85
CHAPTER 3: ENGLISH SPEECH 1………............................................................91
Lesson 1: Models of pronunciation …………………………....……….…92
Lesson 2: The speech organs……………….........................................................…100
Lesson 3: Teaching Pronunciation………………………….....................…103
Lesson 4: English Stress………………………….......................................…106

CHAPTER 4: ENGLISH SYLLABUS AND SUBJECT MATERIALS………..113
Lesson 1: The syllabus …………………………………………………114
Lesson 2: The Functions and content of a syllabus ……………………119
Lesson 3: Objectives of a syllabus ……………………………………..123
Lesson 4: Approved course books and resource teaching and learning materials
………………………………………………………………127
CHAPTER 5: TEACHING METHODOLOGY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS……..132
Lesson 1: Teaching productive in primary schools ……………………133
Lesson 2: Teaching receptive skills in primary schools ……………….144
Lesson 3: Audio-visual aids in primary schools ………………………..154
CHAPTER 6: PLANNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE…………160
Lesson 1: Scheme of work………………………………………………..162
Lesson 2: Lesson plan……………………………………………………167
Lesson 3: Pupils Progress Record and Records of work………………172
CHAPTER 7 STRUCTURED WRITING…………………………………………..177
Lesson 1: Social writing…………………………………………………179
Lesson 2: Academic writing……………………………………………..189
Lesson 3: Study writing………………………………………………….194
Lesson 4: Creative writing……………………………………………….200

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH
LANGUAGE LEARNING
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Chapter Objectives:
At the end of this chapter, the learner should be able to:
■ Describe the major features and main uses of language

■ Apply specific methodologies in teaching English in primary school.
■ Identify and explain basic language skills in the order in which they are
generally developed
■ Distinguish between acquisition of First language and English language
learning
■ Explain the impact of first language on English language teaching and
learning
Chapter Content
1. Specific uses of language
2. Language as mean communication
3. Basic language skills
4. First language acquisition and English language learning development
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Lesson 1: Specific Uses of Language
Language as a means of Communication
Speaker Language Listener

Message
Information
encodes decoder
Lesson objectives:
By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to:
■ Outline barriers to an effective communication in the use of English

Language
■ Describe different means of communications
Lesson content
■ Introduction to different means of communication

■ Barriers to an effective communication
Lesson Learning Activities

1.1 Means of communication
This is Saussure’s model of communication. It will be essential to explain this to
teachers or invite teacher to explain what they understand about his model.
Feedback
Message
Sender Encoding Decoding Receiver
Channel
Noise
3
Activity 1: Work with a partner
We are going to discuss the principles of communication with a partner, then
present to the class.
This is a dynamic process of transmitting information from one person or place
to another. Through communication, we share news with each other from one
medium to another through verbal, non-verbal, written and visual modes.
The means of communication are divided into:

1. Sender
The source from which the message comes from. The sender i s the presenter or the
speaker.
2. Message
This is the information or data that is transmitted to the receiver from the sender.
3. Receiver
The audience to whom the message is directed .
4.Mode
The channel or medium through which the message is transmitted to and from
the sender and vice-versa.
During communication processes, two things normally happen;
a. The message is termed as “noise” if the encoded and decoded information
between the sender and the receiver do not correspond. We say the message
does not make sense. In such instances, there is no correspondence, thus we
say we have noise.
b. The message is said to be a “message” if the encoded and decoded information
between the sender and the receiver corresponds. We say the message
makes sense. In such instances, there is correspondence, thus we say we “got”
(understood) a message.
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1. 2 Barriers of Communication
Activity 2: Discussion
We are going to discuss the major communication barriers, and how such barriers
affect the teaching process in primary schools. Note to trainer: This discussion
should be done using a role play following all of the elements of the model. Or ask
teacher trainees to turn and talk to the person next to them about these barriers.
Physical Barriers
Physical barriers lead to inefficient communication due to obstacles in the surrounding
environment. For example, old computers, poor internet connections, background
noise, poor lighting, and temperature fluctuations affect communication efficiency.
Similarly, distance between transmitter and receiver is among the main causes of
communication barriers that leads to ineffective communication.
Psychological Barriers
Sometimes strong emotions such as anger, sadness, nervousness, and personal
resentment affect our mental health, and communication may not be effective.
These inner feelings are known as emotional noise or psychological barriers, and
are powerful barriers to communication. The current pandemic has increased
stressors among communities and these, in turn, have affected levels of anxiety,
depression and other mental health issues.
Semantic Barriers
Learners who speak the same language may have a hard time understanding each
other due to regional dialects and generational gaps (using different expressions or
terms).
The terminology and local informal expressions can affect communication and what
is understood even with the best intention.
Physiological Barriers
If the recipient or sender is unwell or has some types of physical impairments, it is
a barrier to communication. For example, reduced vision and hearing impairment
are physiological barriers, which can cause ineffective communication or require
different communication tools.
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Sociocultural and Gender “Noise”
A learner often fall into expectations based on stereotypes or biases related
to sociocultural background and gender of their peers, which hinders effective
communication.
Examples of sociocultural and gender noise include non-verbal cues, knowledge,
language, misinformation, behaviors, attitudes, and customs.
Lack of sociocultural and gender knowledge and political scenarios can be a barrier
to communicating with other learners.
Information Overload
Among others, information overload is one of the common barriers to communication.
Be it from online or offline resources, it takes time to process large quantities of
information. Furthermore, too many details can be overwhelming and distract the
reader forming a basic understanding. Additionally, knowing how to identify, vet,
and select information sources are important skills to develop to know what
information is most reliable, balanced, up-to-date, and rooted in facts.
Poor Listening Skills
This is equally one of the most common barriers to communication. Often, a learner
does not listen to a conversation fully and end up making an assumption. This can
also be due to physical barriers or differences in opinions.
Ways of overcoming Communication barriers
Now that we have a good understanding of communication barriers and their types,
it is time to secure practices that will help us overcome these barriers.
1. Using clear and common language that the other learner understands
2. Before initiating communication, it is important to confirm whether the timing is
convenient. Cross-check whether the time is ideal to communicate or not
3. Conveying things in a simpler form and in one-by-one manner.
4. Cross-checking whether the receiver has understood the message in the right sense.
5. Acknowledging any emotional feedback by the receiver.
6. Avoid overloading the message with too much information or information that
requires interpretation, explanation of context, and language that is not accessible to
most listeners.
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Lesson review questions.
1. In a presentation define communication.

2. Role play the various means of communication.
3. In small groups, explain the causes of communication breakdown.
4. With your partner, discuss the ways of overcoming communication barriers.
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Lesson 2: Specific Features of Languages
Figures
of Smile
Metaphor
Speech
Hyperbole Personification
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
Idioms
Lesson objectives
By the end of the Lesson, the learner should be able to:
■ Define the figures of speech

■ Identify and explain the various types of figures of speech
■ Site examples of different figures of speech
Lesson content
1. Categories of the figures of speech
2. Simile
3. Metaphor
4. Personification
5. Hyperbole
6. Onomatopoeia
Lesson learning activities
2.1 Figures of language
Activity 3: Group work
In groups, we are going to search and discuss different features of languages and
how each feature enhances the teaching process in primary school.
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1. Types of figures of speech
There are two types of languages
i. Prescriptive language
ii. Descriptive language
Prescriptive language describes when people focus on talking about how a

language should or ought to be used. It gives hard rules about what is right (or
grammatical) and what is wrong in English language.
For example
Never end a sentence with a preposition’ or that starting a sentence with a
conjunction like ‘And’ or ‘But’ is a big no is a prescriptive language.
A descriptive language is a study of a language, its structure, and its rules as its
speakers from all walks of life, including standard and nonstandard varieties, use
them in daily life,
For example
Instead of just saying “I like you,” descriptive language makes it possible to say
things like “I burn for you like the sun as it sits fixedly in the bright sky.” Note the
metaphor, simile
A figure of speech which, is a word or phrase that is used in a non-literal way
to create an effect. functions as literary devices because they express the use of
language. In most cases, the figure of speech uses descriptive language
Spoken or written language has two metaphorical aspects.
1. Literal aspects
2. Idiomatic aspects
Literal language is straightforward language use and uses the actual definition and
meaning of a sentence.
In idiomatic language, it is metaphorical and the meaning of each word or phrase
depends on the context in which it is used. When using metaphorical expressions,
words break out of their literal meaning. Example, the phrase “as fast as lightning”
simply means high speed, not literally lightning.
9
In groups we are going to give examples of the figures of speech from movie
scenes, television shows, radio programs with which we are familiar. We will
explain the effect that the figure of speech used had.
Kinds of Figures of Speech
The following are some of the examples of figures of speech
2.2 Similes
This is comparing of two things that don’t really have anything in common using
words “as” and “like”.
Examples:
“She is brave like a lion” Here you can perceive the woman’s courage is compared to
that of a lion. This is a rare absurd comparison, but it brings out the clear image and
emotional quality of the sentence.
The sentence literally could have read “she is brave,” but using a simile emphasizes the
character of the subject.
Other examples of similes include:
1. quite like a mouse
2. as tall as a mountain
3. as strong as an ox
4. precious like an angel
2.3 Metaphors
A metaphor and a simile are really the same but a metaphor do not use the
comparative words “as” and “like”. For example-Abdi is a lion.
This is a direct comparison, which symbolizes the braveness of Abdi.
10
Other examples include:
■ Love is a battlefield.
■ Osman is a tortoise.
■ She is a shining star.
■ Amina is an angel.
2.4 Personified objects

Non-human entities are personified or represented as humans. We give emotions,
or an unnecessary idea of human qualities, such as gestures and speeches. This
will be represented as living objects.
Example:
The sun smiles early in the morning.
Here we have taken an object, the sun, and give it human attribute of smiling.
Other examples
■ Time rans away from him.

■ The car died in the middle of the road.
■ Love is blind.
2.5 Hyperbole
Hyperbole means excessive or exaggerative description of an object, things or
situations.
Example:
He was thinning like a toothpick, because he was away from home.
Obviously he is not just thin like the toothpick but we exaggerate to emphasize
how thin he is.
Other examples
1. This shoe has lost the ransom of the king.

2. He is like a charcoal.
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2.6 Onomatopoeia
This is a figure of speech where words or phrases indicate sounds. Onomatopoeia
refers to those words that imitate the sounds of an object or person.
For example
The bees buzzed around in the garden.
Here the word ‘buzzed’ is indicating the sound coming from the bees.
Other examples
1. The leaves were rustling.
2. The door was squeaking.
3. He closed the book with a thud!
Lesson Review Questions
1. In groups analyze specific features of language giving examples.

2. In small groups state and explain the various types of figures of speech.
3. “The fire eats the dry houses into ashes”. Using a presentation identify the figures of
speech used in this statement and explain its significance.
4. “Time flies”. Using illustrations, analyze the figure of speech used in this statement.
5. Using examples,differentiate between literal and idiomatic use of language.
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Lesson 3: Language as a means of communication
Note to the Teacher Trainer: It will be important to explain the model above. It
is called “levels of linguistic structure.” It begins with Phonetics, then Phonology,
Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics.
Lesson objectives
By the end of the Lesson, the learner should be able to:
■ Explain the rules of phonological and derivation

■ Discuss various types of linguistic structures
Lesson content
■ Phonology and phonetics

■ Morphology
■ Syntax
■ Semantics
■ Pragmatics
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Specific learning activities
3.1 Phonology and phonetics
Phonology studies the different patterns of sounds in a language. It studies how
the sounds combine and how they change when in combination as well as which
sound can contrast to produce differences in meaning. The smallest unit of sound
is called a phoneme. There 44 distinct phonemes in the English language that are
used to build words.
Below is a chart of phonemes.
Graphemes (let-
ter(s) that most
Phoneme (sound) Examples
commonly make
the sound)
/b/ b, bb ball, blubber
/d/ d, dd, ed dog, ladder, pulled
/f/ f, ph Fish, phone
/g/ g, gg Go, egg
/h/ h Hen
/j/ j, g, ge, dge j, gel, cage, edge
cow, kick, chick, school, access,
/k/ c, k, ck, ch, cc, que
pique
/l/ l, ll Leaf, dill
/m/ m, mm, mb Monkey, hammer, lamb
/n/ n, nn, kn, gn New, banner, know, gnome
/p/ p, pp pink, pepper
/r/ r, rr, wr Red, mirror, wrong
Sun, case, bless, cede, grace, scis-
/s/ s, se, ss, c, ce, sc
sors
/t/ t, tt, ed turtle, butter, worked
/v/ v, ve Violin, give
/w/ w Wet
/y/ y, i yak, union
Zebra, buzz, daze, fase, is, xylo-
/z/ z, zz, ze, s, se, x
phone
/th/ (not voiced) th thing, thumb
/th/ (voiced) th then, weather
/ng/ ng, n wing, think
/sh/ sh, ss, ch, ti, ci Sheep, passion, chef, lotion, official
/ch/ ch, tch Church, catch
/zh/ ge, s massage, measure
/wh/ (with breath) wh When, what, where
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/a/ (short vowel) a, au cat, laugh
/e/ (short vowel) e, ea red, head
/i/ (short vowel) i Igloo
/o/ (short vowel) o, a, au, aw, ough pot, want, caught, awful, ought
/u/ (short vowel) u, o umbrella, won
/ ā / (long vowel) a, a_e, ay, ai, ey, ei lazy, cake, pay, paid, whey, weigh
e, e_e, ea, ee, ey, we, cede, please, breeze, key, field,
/ ē / (long vowel)
ie, y baby
/ī/ i, i_e, igh, y, ie bicycle, hive, high, by, pie
/ō/ o, o_e, oa, ou, ow motion, hope, boat, soul, bowl
/ū/ u, u_e, ew, ue human, mule, view, hue
/oo/ (short) oo, u, oul hook, put, would
/ōō/ oo, u, ou, u_e mood, youth, Ruth
/ow/ ow, ou, ou_s how, out, mouse
/oy/ oi, oy boil, boy
/a(r)/ ar Jar
/ ā (r)/ air, ear, are chair, bear, hare
/i(r)/ irr, ere, eer mirror, here, beer
/o(r)/ or, ore, oor or, more, boor
/u(r)/ ur, ir, er, ear, or, ar Burn, birth, fern, earn, work, collar
Phonetics
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and
perceive sounds. It is about the physical production and perception of sounds
of speech. In general, phonetics is the study of physical aspects of speech, all
possible speech sounds and the sounds we make when we talk
Phonetics in the study of a language is important because, they describes
how sounds are produced, classifies sounds into consonants and vowels, and
represents speech sounds with symbols.
Phonetics has three branches:
a. Articulatory: Production of sounds

b. Acoustic: Transmission of sounds
c. Auditory: Perception of sounds10
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3.2 Morphology
This is the study of words and how they are formed in relation to other words. It
involves analyzing the structure of words and parts of words such as stems, root words,
prefixes, and suffixes.
It is important to know what a morpheme is with respect to morphology. A
morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning. Learners being able to know what
morphemes are and how to identify them. This will help with both reading and
spelling as well as with vocabulary development and reading comprehension.
Derivational rules:
English grammar rules are generally considered as a way to form a new word from an
existing word by introducing a prefix or suffix.
Examples:
Example words ending in -er
1. Teach – Teacher
2. Learn – Learner
3. Own – Owner
4. Fight – Fighter
Example words ending in -or
■ Visit – Visitor
■ Invest – Investor
■ Advise – Advisor
■ Invent – Inventor
Example words ending in -ar

i. Lie – Liar
ii. Beg – Beggar
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3.3 Syntax
The purpose of syntax is to study sentence structure and sentence formation. It
sets rules for creating coherent and grammatically correct sentences (prescriptive
grammar) by focusing on word order, phrases, clauses, and the relationships among
them..
Word
Word classification can be deduced from its form and function. For example, if the
word is adjective, verb, adverb or conjunction sometimes the meaning of the word
can be determined from the context within which it appears.11
Example:
He is a teacher. He teaches English grade 5.

In the above sentence, we can know from the context that the word “teacher” is a
noun and the word “teaches” is a verb.
Phrases
There are six different classes of phrases in English. They include:
Noun Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Adverb Phrase, Prepositional Phrase, Verb Phrase and
Genitive Phrase.
Each phrase has different basic structure.
For example
A noun phrase contains a noun plus other words to describe it but, doesn’t contain a
verb. The noun is the main element in a noun phrase.
Example:
1. Musa bought a beautiful car: Beautiful car is noun phrase
2. Musa bought new beautiful car. - New beautiful is an adjective phrase
3. Asha droves very carefully. -very carefully is an adverb phrase
4. The cat is on the table. -on the table is a prepositional phrase
5. I was thinking about you. -was thinking is a verb phrase
6. This is Musa’s college. - This genitive phrase showing possession. Here the
interpretation could be Musa do not own the college but he goes to that college.
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Clause
A clause is a group of words that contains subject. Clauses can be divided into
independent clause (Main clause) and dependent clause (Subordinate clause).
Example:
If I get money, I will buy a car. (If I get money is a subordinate clause whereas I will buy
a car is the main clause).
Sentence
A sentence is the major language unit that is normally created by phrases and clauses.
To identify a sentence, it must be marked by a capital at the beginning and a full
stop at the end. The set does not only contain a single clause (a simple set), but also
many clauses (connections, complex and complex complexes). It means that every
clause is built in smaller levels in these clauses.
Example:
Zeytuna travelled to Bosaso in the year 2020. She visited her uncle who is a businessman
and a politician.
3.4 Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning, references, truth. There are four semantics
categories: agent, object, action, and location.
Many words have very similar or opposite meanings, and you should be able to
tell the subtle differences between them. Students should always be exposed to a
variety of words and expressions with similar meanings to expand their linguistic
repertoire. It is also important for the learners to know the opposite meaning of
words.
Examples:
Words with similar and their meanings
word Synonyms (similar Antonyms (opposite
meaning) meaning)
1. Warm Hot Cold
2. Good Nice Bad
3. Wonderful Great Awful
4. Beautiful Pretty Ugly
5. Clean Tidy Dirty
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6. Bright Clever Clumsy
7. Friend Pal Enemy
8. Baby Kid Adult
9. Big Huge Tiny
10. Afraid Scared Brave
11. Sad Upset Happy
12. Happy Joy Sad
13. Optimistic Hopeful Pesimistic
14. Expensive Dear Cheap
15. Short Dwarf Tall
3.5 Pragmatics
This is the natural use of language for communication purposes. Generally, it is a
study of the relationship between language and its users. Therefore, pragmatic is the
study of how the literal and inscriptional aspects of linguistic meaning passed by the
principles that refer to the physical or social context in which the language used is
determined.
1. In pairs describe phonological and derivation rules.
2. In small groups explain the principles of phonology
3. Using examples, Illustrate syntax and its various components
4. In a presentation, discuss semantics, morphology and pragmatics
19
Lesson 4: Promoting basic language skills in school
Lesson objectives
■ Identify the four language skills

■ Explain (at least) one effective strategy for teaching each of the four
language skills
Lesson content
■ Receptive skills
√ Listening and Reading
■ Productive skills
√ Speaking and Writing

Lesson learning Activities
In groups, We are going to discuss the four language skills for learning English and
illustrate some specific strategies of teaching the language in primary school.4
20
4.1 Listening
Real listening involves listening without judgment. It means that you can hear
anything, taking it all completely in, and not closing it up. It can move people to
perceive what they could not see before, feel a range of different feelings within
the course of a conversation. Real listening is also called active listening
Real listening has three basic steps:
1. Hearing - the sense through which a person or animal is aware of sound.
It is the ability to hear
2. Understanding – the act of comprehending what you have heard
3. Judging - This is evaluating of what you have heard to to allow you form an
opinion. Evaluating is important for a listener in terms of how what he or she has
heard will affect his or her own ideas, decisions, actions, and/or beliefs
Listening and hearing are different. Listening is an active process of receiving
information (and having the motivation to do so for various purposes), while
hearing is a physiological behavior establishing contact with the person with
whom you are speaking to (receiving and having the physical ability to receive
and perceive the “sounds” someone is making). When teaching language skills for
English, Somali, or other languages, listening and reading are called receptive skills
because the individual is receiving information/inputs that s/he uses to reflect
on, understand, and gain knowledge and skills and for enjoyment and learning.
Writing and speaking are called productive skills because the individual has to
be able to use language to produce evidence of knowledge and understanding
(e.g., through answering questions, through engaging in conversations, through
writing different types of texts, etc.)
How to Teach Listening
1. Give learners a listening assignment as homework to listen again.
2. Speak slowly and naturally.
3. Use video for the learners to watch as they listen.
4. The content should be interesting and purposeful.
5. The language used should be natural including hesitation, restatement and
various accents.
21
Listening tasks
1. Giving directions
2. Learners listen to a dialogue on a listening device
3. Learners provide information that was given before
4. The teacher asks questions about the information that has been given before.
5. Learners take notes about what they have heard.
Listening tips
Listening selections should be short for beginners and progress in level of difficulty
when learners have an increased knowledge and understanding of letters, letter sounds,
words, and sentences and correctly can respond to questions about what has been said.
1. Use accurate and clear pronunciation
2. Use vocabulary at an equivalent or slightly higher level of proficiency as the
majority of learners
3. Use pictures and other visual aids to represent some key words
Sample Listening Strategies
1. Use Read Alouds.
A Teacher Read Aloud involves a teacher reading to learners a story/text,
providing opportunities to model what good reading is, building vocabulary and
learning and practicing other comprehension skills. You should expose learners
to a variety of Read Aloud texts such as stories/narrative texts, poetry, songs,
proverbs, and riddles.
2. Dramatised Listening
In this strategy, the teacher trainees are given key word to listen out for. Each
time they hear ‘their’ word, students must perform a certain action, which
helps to demonstrate the meaning of the word. This strategy is good in revising
vocabulary.
3. Listening dictation
In listening dictation, students are given a partially completed sentences

with mising word or words, Teachers read out the missing statements in short
sentence-length chunks and repeat each sentence twice. Speak at a normal pace,
but pause after each sentence to give students time to process the sentence by
filling in the blanks from what they have heard.
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4. Listen-up
This strategy is basically for developing fluency in recognizing words and to
identify main ideas in a text. It can also be used to recycle vocabulary or to help
students to notice certain types of words.
The teacher prepares a list of words (about 10 at most) from a short text, about
200-250 words maximum. Students copy down the list in a column. The teacher
reads the text aloud, a little more slowly than normal reading speed, and students
tick each word every time they hear it. At the end of the reading, count up the
number of ticks for each word and this will help to identify the main ideas in the
text.
5. A Listening round
This technique ensures that all students have a voice and that students who might
otherwise monopolize a conversation do not limit anyone else’s opportunities to
participate.
In a Listening round, students share their ideas in a group. Each participant has a
turn to offer her or his answer. Nobody should interrupt the person who has the
floor. Agreement, disagreement or surprise can only be communicated. Nobody
can pass. If a participant’s answer is similar to or the same as prior ones, the person
has to start by acknowledging peers who had similar ideas.
A Listening round provides opportunities for noticing and hearing new language
for English language learners. It gives opportunities for forced language output
for all students.
23
4.2 Speaking
We can say that spoken language means speaking or expressing our thoughts and
feelings and it entails production skills of a language.
Types of speaking tasks
Teaching speaking in class activities
a. Use dialogues and conversations found in the textbooks.
b. Have the learners repeat a phrase or grammatical/sentence structure.
Check whether they also know what the phrase or sentence using a particular
sentence or grammatical structure means
c. Practice dialogues that are long enough to introduce and/or practice different
grammatical and sentence structures.
d. Have learners make short replies to the teacher’s or learner’s questions or
comments that include yes/no and a short restatement of what the question
was asking (For example, when asked “Are you doing well?” the response would
be “Yes, I am doing well” or “No, I am not doing well”, etc.).
e. Use dialogues such interviews, role plays, or debates to teach learners how to
exchange and obtain information. These dialogues can also be used to introduce
or practice high frequency words that someone would use socially or academic
vocabulary that can be used when studying and talking about various subject
areas..
f. Use dialogues to establish or maintain social relationships, such as personal
interviews or everyday conversation role plays (to build social language).
g. Have the learners make short speeches, oral reports, or oral summaries. h.
Give learners the opportunity to initiate oral communication.
i. Use intrinsically motivating techniques such as student self-assessment of progress
and noting areas of growth (e.g., in vocabulary, in reading with greater automaticity
and with fewer errors, in being able to read a blog post in English on line without
having to use a translator app or dictionary, etc.).
j. Use authentic language in a meaningful context.
k. Develop speaking strategies.
24
Speaking skills teaching approaches
a. Design activities that are authentic and motivating.
b. Use corrective feedback to address mistakes when learners are speaking
through; Explaining to the learners that you are focusing on helping them to
understand assessment of their learning.
1. Encouraging learners to ask questions about their feedback.
2. Making a regular time to discuss feedback with learners on an individual or
small group basis.
3. Praising the learners when they are able to self-correct on their own or are
increasingly able to do so.
c. Emphasize key words, rephrase, and check for listener comprehension periodically
by asking the listener to restate what they understood or to ask clarifying
questions.
d. Use gestures or body language to emphasize or illustrate key words or concepts.
e. Use drilling techniques by having the learners simply repeat a phrase or structure.
f. Compliment and praise the learners after a speaking session.
g. Provide sentence starters or sentence chunks to help students to produce oral
language. (e.g., Today, I . . . , Tomorrow, I will; If I was a doctor, I would . . . , If I was
a teacher, I would . . . , etc.).
The major aim of teaching listening and speaking skills is to enable the learner
to express him/herself accurately, fluently, and independently through oral
communication in different contexts and for different purposes and audiences.
Listening and speaking activities may include reading and writing as learners
listen and say or express in written form what they have listened to. These are
basic skills and learners need to be specifically taught how to speak and listen
and take turns in listening and speaking activities.
25
4.3 Reading
Before teaching reading, it is important to pay attention to the following points.
The teacher should integrate the aspects of reading fluency and phonics
simultaneously.
Fluency stands for decoding of text and reading with accuracy and speed without
stumbling over or omitting key words and with the ability to recognize and (self-)
correct errors easily.
Phonics is a precursor to fluency and it deals with understanding the correspondence
between letters and sounds. Phonics entails print and is a foundational skill for
reading. Fluent readers rely on their knowledge of letter-sound relationships as well
as their knowledge of prefixes, root words, and suffixes, to decode words. However,
being able to decode and associate sounds with the correct letters or letter blends
does NOT mean that someone can read with comprehension. Reading comprehension
requires a larger set of skills.
Teaching reading skills
The following are reading strategies for teaching the English language for non-native
speakers.
Skimming
When you are looking for a general idea, skimming is employed. For young learners in
primary school, they can skim the text by looking at the pictures. In doing so, they
can begin to get a general idea about the text. For young learners, we call
this “Picture Walk.”
Scanning
When you are looking for specific information in a text then you need to scan. For
example, figures or names.
Teaching reading skills
■ Provide reading materials that are of interest to the learners in terms of

age, culture, interest and reading level of the learners.
■ Focus on helping learners understand the meaning of the text and on
developing fluency when reading aloud or on their own with a gradual
reduction in the number of errors, an increase in the number of words
read per minute without errors or the need to self-correct, etc.
26
■ Label items for materials learners see every day around the room.
■ Post announcements around the classroom.
■ Read aloud while the learners follow you with the printed material that
you have provided.
Reading activities
a. Take learners to the library to obtain library cards.
b. Have learners check out books with your help that are at or just above their
independent level of reading comprehension.
c. Have learners give a short oral presentation about the parts that they liked about
the book.
d. Have learners read the advertisements in the newspaper.
e. Have learners create picture books for new English learners like themselves.
Have them include captions or sentences to accompany pictures. For low literate
learners, don’t worry initially if they are using invented spellings (spellings that
represent how the word is written phonetically).
f. See information on teacher Read Alouds under the listening section above.
g. Model fluent reading. Students learn how to become fluent readers in
their first language and in other languages like English when they hear fluent
readers demonstrating reading with accuracy, at a conversational rate, and with
expression (pausing and varying pitch at appropriate places in the text).
h. Repeated Reading: Modeling fluent reading can be facilitated through
different types of repeated reading through echo reading, choral reading, and
partner reading. In echo reading, the teacher reads clauses or sentences first
and the students then repeat after the teacher. In choral reading, the teacher
and students read the same texts together. In partner reading, students are
paired and take turns reading. When pairing students, fluent readers should be
partnered with less fluent readers.1
1 For more strategies on how to promote reading fluency and reading comprehension for different
grade levels, see Learning Systems Institute. (2016). Landscape Report on Early Grade Literacy.
Washington, DC: USAID and Global Reading Network (GRN). https://allchildrenreading.org/word-
press/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/USAID-Landscape-Report-on-Early-Grade-Literacy.pdf.
27
i. Using the “Thinker’s Spinner”: This activity was derived from work done by the
non-profit organization Save the Children to promote reading comprehension:
a) create a spinner out of card stock or manila paper. Divide and label the spinner
into four sections: predict, explain, summarize, and evaluate; b) when using the
spinner initially, explain each thinking task and demonstrate each in the context
of a story or text just read. (E.g., Predict: “What do you think will happen next?
What do you think will happen five years from now?” Explain: “What are the
causes behind the event?”; Summarize: “What were the main characters? Where
did the story happen?” Evaluate: “Do you think the author used good evidence
or arguments to support the main idea? Why or why not?”).2
4.4 Writing skills
Writing is a form of communication that allows learners to express and organize their
thoughts, feelings, and ideas on paper (or virtually through emails, text messages,
chat rooms and blog posts) through writing. Students do not need to wait to write
words, sentences and paragraphs until they have mastered the conventions of
spelling. Writing should be taught on its own and also integrated with reading
instruction across all subjects and related/connected to what the students are
learning and experiencing. Students should learn to write for different purposes,
for different audiences, and about different content areas.
How to teach writing
1. Writing what the teacher dictates followed by a review and identification of a
few areas for follow up support (e.g., letter blends, words with more than one syllable,
grammatical structures, punctuation use, etc.).
2. Copying text word for word followed by reading aloud individually or as a
group followed by listening or reading comprehension questions.
3. Filling in blanks in sentences or paragraphs (such as in cloze exercises3).
4. Summarizing of a passage.
5. Writing the next paragraph or lines in a story, poem, or song.
2 Ibid, p. 36. See also Escamilla et al. (2014). Biliteracy from the Start: Literacy Squared in Action.
Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.
3 Using ESL Cloze Exercises (teaching-esl-to-adults.com)
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6. Encourage learners to talk about what they will write, how they will organize
their ideas (in what order), and use a mind map to help them organize their ideas
before they start to write. Create opportunities for them to revise, publish, and
share their writings.
Tips for teaching writing
Brainstorming
Brainstorming encourages learners to come up freely with ideas. Therefore, during
a brainstorming session, learners should not criticize an idea as this will reduce
the generation of ideas and limit creativity. The idea behind brainstorming is to
get one’s ideas out no matter how odd or imaginative as long as it is relevant to
the topic around which the person is brainstorming.
Listening
Listening plays an important role in your ability to write. Listening in childhood
builds your vocabulary, an internalization of and the ability to generate phrases
and sentences of varying levels of complexity. “Internal listening” is part of the
writing process.
Outlining
Outlining is a tool that helps you organize your ideas as you write, visualize
the potential structure of your ideas. This allows writers to understand how to
connect information to support a treatise claim and a treatise claim. For instance
making a shopping list.
Therefore, the productive skills of writing and speaking are more complex as it
takes step further to actually enable the learner in producing a new language.
Some final thoughts: It may be helpful for teachers to organize their writing and
reading lessons into units. For example, a unit on fiction, a unit on non-fiction, a
unit on poetry, etc. Within each unit, they can break lessons to focus on different
types of texts that relate to that particular unit (e.g., for non-fiction, explore
biographies and travel journals; for fiction focus on ads, stories, plays, etc.)
29
Lesson Review Questions:
1. With your partner, role play the tips of teaching English skills
2. In a presentation illustrate the difference between productive skills and receptive
skills
3. In small groups outline the specific differences between;
i. Hearing
ii. Listening
iii. Understanding
iv. Judging
4. With a partner read text, listen to video clips, participate in dialogues and write
text summaries to practically engage in various English Language Skills.
30
Lesson 5: First language acquisition and second language development
Lesson objectives
■ Understand how first language acquisition helps in the learning of a

second language like English
■ Explain the theory of imitation (sometimes called “behaviorism” or
“theory of feedback and reinforcement”).
■ Apply the formal learning with support from the teacher.
■ Describe linguistic dynamics
Lesson content
■ Features of first language acquisition

■ Theory of Imitation (sometimes called “behaviorism” or “theory of
feedback and reinforcement”)
■ Formal learning with support from the teacher
■ Linguistic dynamics
31
5.1 Features of First Language Acquisition
I am going to explain how first language acquisition affects the learner’s second
language learning in primary school.
The first language is generally the language of one’s home and that one hears and
learns to use as an infant. It is the process by which humans acquire the ability to
recognize, understand, create and use words and sentences for communication in
one’s first (or home) language.
The first language acquisition stages
There are five stages of language acquisition:
1. Cooing
2. Babbling
3. The one- word stage
4. The two- word stage
5. Telegram Voice
1. Cooing :( 2-5 months). The child is capable of:
1. Producing vowel-like sounds, such as “I “and “u”.
2. Vowel sounds repetition.
3. Expression of satisfaction or pleasure.
2. Babbling: 7-9 months.
Babbling involves the ability to articulate sounds like ba-ba-ba-ba or ma-ma-ma
which at times can almost sound like real speech.
1. The “one-word” stage: 11 – 19 months. The child is capable of :
3. Recognizing a few simple words commonly heard in conversation and within the
household. The child mimics words or simple phrases like milk, cat and spoon.
4. The “two-word” stage: 19 – 21 months. The child can produce simple sentences.
These sentences may be incomplete or grammatically incorrect but convey
meaning.
32
For examples: baby chair, daddy car, more milk, cat bad.
The phrase baby chair may be taken as:
1. An expression of possession = (this is baby’s chair).
2. As a request = (put baby in the chair).
3. As a statement = (baby is in the chair).
5. Telegram Voice: (2 – 3 years old). The child produces a large number of words
that could be classified as multiple-word speech that form more complete
sentences. There are also physical developments such as running and jumping. A
good example of a sentence of interest at this stage is:
■ This shoe all wet.

■ Go bye-bye daddy.
■ Cat drink water.
5.2 Interpretation of the theory of imitation (or behaviorism)

1. Through imitation
2. Through correction
3. Developing morphology
4. Developing syntax
5. Developing semantics
1. Through imitation (behaviorism)
According to the theory of imitation or behaviorism, children mayunderstand
what a sentence is, but they expressing themselves if they understand using
shorter phrases or sentences that convey they have understood the key words in
the sentence. For example, this is how your child repeats the following sentence.
Mum is hungry - mum hungry
The cat is sleeping - cat sleep
33
2. Through correction
The importance of corrective feedback when learners develop speaking skills
was introduced in the previous lesson. A child will construct sentences that may
have some errors in grammar and syntax, despite the adult’s repetition of what
the correct sentence is. Teachers and parents can support children internalizing
correct grammatical structures and correct syntax through corrective feedback.
Some forms of corrective feedback include a) clearly indicating that what the
student has said is incorrect and providing the correction (explicit correction);
b) reformulating what the student has said but providing the correction without
explicitly indicating what the student has stated incorrectly (recasting); c)
indicating that what the student has stated is not understood and asking for
the student to repeat or reformulate what was said (clarification request); and d)
directly eliciting the correct form from the student by asking questions and by
pausing to allow the student to complete the statement and/or to reformulate
what s/he was going to say (elicitation).4
Example:
Child: My teacher holed the baby rabbits.
Mother: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits? (an example of two forms
of corrective feedback--clarification request and recasting).
3. Developing morphology
The child goes beyond telegram voice and identifies the grammatical function of
the nouns and verbs used.
4. Developing syntax
In the formation of questions and the use of negatives, the child goes through 3 stages:
■ Stage 1 (18 – 26 months)

■ Stage 2 (22 - 30 months)
■ Stage 3 (24 - 40 months)
4 For more information on different types of corrective feedback when learning a

second or foreign language, please see Tedick, D. and Gortari, B. (1998). “Research
on Error Correction and Implications for Classroom Teaching.” The Bridge, ACIE
Newsletter. Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of
Minnesota, v1. http://www.carla.umn.edu/immersion/acie/vol1/May1998.pdf
34
5. Developing semantics
Semantics is the understanding of word meanings and the relationships between
words. Children’s semantic development is a gradual process beginning just
before the child says their first word and includes a wide range of word types.
Example:
A one-year-old child can;
Name some common objects, follow simple one-step directions, identify some
body parts, answer basic yes/no questions, understand some locations words
(e.g., in, on) and understand simple what, where and who questions
A two-year-old child can;
Understand a variety of word types (e.g., nouns, verbs, pronouns, prepositions,

etc.), understand some simple concept terms (e.g., big/little), begin to follow
simple two-step directions, include basic emotions words in vocabulary (e.g., sad,
happy, mad) and understand some basic grammatical markers (e.g., -ing, plurals)
A three-year-old child can;
Name parts of objects (e.g., wheels, door handle, etc.), sort objects into categories
(e.g., foods, animals, clothing, etc.), identify items that are the same or different,
understand exclusionary term ‘not’ (e.g., find the hat that is not blue), use some
shape, colour, letter and number words
A four-year-old child can;
Describe the function of common objects (e.g., chair is for sitting, car is for
driving), describe differences and similarities between objects, provide common
antonyms (e.g., wet vs dry) and synonyms (e.g., fast and quick), identify things
that go together (e.g., ball and bat, fork and spoon) from a small group of items
and describe an object using 3 or more adjectives (e.g., size, shape, texture,
appearance, etc.)
35
A five-year-old child can;
Sort items based on different categorization qualities (e.g., items that move, come
from a farm, living vs nonliving, etc.), use a growing variety of words based on
personal interests and experiences (e.g., musical terms, sporting words, cultural
customs, etc.), understand temporal concepts (e.g., before, after, yesterday, today,
tomorrow), provide simple definitions for some known words (e.g., genius means
someone who is really smart) and use past knowledge to help them understand
new word meanings.
A six-year-old child can;
Name categories and subcategories (e.g., Clothing – household items), describe

an item with four or more terms (e.g., category, parts, description, place of origin,
etc.), identify less obvious differences and similarities between objects (e.g. a
bicycle is different from a motorcycle because one has an engine and the other
you pedal), understand superlatives (e.g., big, bigger, biggest), understand more
conjunction words (e.g. unless, so, while, since, etc.) and understand ordinal
position (e.g., first, second, third, fourth, etc.)
5.3 Formal learning with support from the teacher
This is the process by which the learners learn a language other than (L2) their first
language (L1).
Example:
In Somali English classes, Somali learners are developing English language
learning (ELL) skills. The acronym ELL is now more commonly used in kindergarten
through grade 12 (Form 4) classes (while in the past ESL (English as a Second
Language) and EFL (or English as a Foreign Language) were used).
The concept of acquisition and learning of a language other than the first
language (L2). The ideas related to acquisition and learning come from a
respected language expert, Stephen Krashen.
36
1. Acquisition
Krashen’s theory suggests that the acquisition of language involved the gradual
development of ability to use a language without a teacher—that language acquisition
can be self-taught.
Example:
Children who “learn” a second language through long-term interactions will
continue to use the language in L1 with native speakers of that language.
2. Learning
This is a conscious process of accumulating knowledge about language features such
as pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. It is taught by a teacher in a classroom
setting..
3. Affective factors
This is the negative feelings, which can create a barrier to an acquisition of a language.
For example:
■ Stress
■ Pain
■ Insecurity (including speaking L2 among those whose L2 language levels
or native L1 speakers are more advanced)
■ Lack of motivation
4. The age factor

Adults have less difficulty in acquiring another language when they were young or
while attending school where the language was offered. This can pose challenges
when trying to develop proficiencies in an L2..
Children can learn more easily L2 in classroom settings if they are provided with
engaging and real-world opportunities to develop and use the four language skills
frequently (every day or nearly every day) for the period of time needed to become
proficiency in L2 There is no age limit to learning, or to learning a new language!
37
Teaching approaches
There are various approaches involved in teaching L2:
See specific strategies for developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing
skills in English as an L2 in the previous lessons in this manual.
1. Grammar translation approach
This involves teaching foreign languages starting with grammar and translation of
text. The grammar rules learnt are applied in translating sentences between the
target Language (L2) and their first language (L1).
2. Auditory approach
This involves learning to speak a language through the formation of habits. It

emphasizes a spoken language because it is believed that oral practice and that oral
language development (including increasing one’s vocabulary of high-frequency
words as well as social/academic vocabulary) is a predictor of reading fluency and
comprehension.
3. Communicative approach
Language is learned through communication and the focus of the classroom is to

encourage learners to engage in speaking activities that simulate real communication.
It emphasizes the function of the language (what it is used for) instead of the form
of the language (correct grammar or phonological structure).
4. Learner focus
The focus on the learner shows that the fundamental change has shifted from
an interest in teachers, textbooks and methods to an interest in learners and the
learning process.
Example:
A Somali (L1) speaker’s production of -in the kitchen there are three women’ that
shows a challenge in learning some aspects of English syntax/grammar.
It is also an indication of the natural L2 acquisition process in action as well as a
clue to the active learning in progress as the learner tries to communicate in a new
language.
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Transfer
Transfer also known as cross-linguistic influence involves using sounds, expressions or
structures from the L1 when learning the L2. We have:
i) Positive transfer – which involves the use of a feature from the L1 that is similar to
the L2 while learning the L2.
Example:
i) A Somali learner producing ‘I have twelve years old’ in English L2 as a direct

translation of the Somali structure)
ii) Negative transfer – which involves transferring an L1 feature that is totally different
from the L2 while learning the L2.
Example:
A Somali learner producing ‘I have 12 years’.
Interlanguage
This is a dynamic rule-based linguistic system developed by a learner of a second

language (or L2) who has not yet reached proficiency.
It is characterized by over-generalization of the L2 rules and preservation of some
features of the native language (or L1). Interlanguage can go through a process of
Fossilization, which means the process of transition between the L1 and L2 as the
result of the inability to overcome the obstacles to acquire native proficiency in the
L2 meaning.
5.4 Linguistic dynamics
Linguistic dynamics focuses on motivation. Motivation in L2 acquisition is divided

into two categories:
i) Intrinsic motivation
Learners with an intrinsic motivation want to learn the L2 in order to achieve
some other goals such as completing a school graduation requirement. Under this
motivation, learners do not plan to engage in social interaction using the L2.
39
ii) Extrinsic motivation
Learners under this motivation want to learn L2 so that they can understand better
and get to know people who speak that language. Usually this is for social purposes
in order to take part in the social life of a community using the language.

1. In groups find out the features of First Language Acquisition.
2. Using illustrations identify the features of Second Language Learning.
3. using examples highlight the implication for Second Language Teaching.
4. In a presentation, discuss the theory of imitation (behaviorism).
5. Explain motivation in Language Learning.
6. In small group micro teach to illustrate the teaching methods of English
language (as an L2).
40
CHAPTER REVIEW QUESTIONS
PART A: CONCEPT MASTERY QUESTIONS
1. Define communication and discuss the different types of communication.
2. State and explain the barriers to effective communication.
3. What do we mean by?
■ Language can be used metaphorically in a literal sense?

■ Figures of speech.
4. Explain the main features of English language as a means of communication.

5. Language acquisition is one of the typical human traits because non-humans do
not use language to communicate. Illustrate the first language acquisition stages.
6. Explain why a Somali learner who attends English classes in UK will learn English
faster than another Somali learner learning English in Somalia will.
7. Discuss the tips in teaching the four skills of languages.
8. What are the types of language learning motivation in second language
acquisition?
9. Transfer, interlanguage and motivation are the components of communicative
competence. Discuss.
10. Define a simile and give three examples.
11. a) Human attributes to non-human objects
b) Explain the personification in each of the following sentences
i. The wind howled in the night.
ii. Lighting danced across the sky.
iii. My alarm clock yelled at me to get out of bed every morning.
iv. The wind whistled throughout the yesterday.
12. Distinguish between a metaphor and a simile.
13. In a paragraph, discuss the principles of communication.
14. Communicative competence is the ability to use the language accurately with
flexibility. Discuss.
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15. Discuss the teaching methodologies in teaching English language (ELL) in primary
schools.
16. Distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in linguistic dynamics.
17. Explain the advantages of using brainstorming as a strategy for teaching writing
skills.
18. During communication process, we have either a message or noise. Distinguish
between a message and noise and give a scenario in which both are produced.
19. Describe the dynamic process of transmitting messages from one person or place
to another.
PART B: PLANNING A LESSON
As a teacher, you are required to plan for a lesson on English language learning
and teaching.
In your lesson plan;
1. Incorporate engaging activities to promote acquisition of the four skills of

English language development as a second language
2. Seek feedback from other teacher trainees and the trainer on how to improve
the lesson plan to meet the target
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Chapter 2
ENGLISH STRUCTURE
Chapter Objectives
By the end of this chapter, the learner should be able to:
■ Classify the principal word classes and order words used in sentences
■ State the elements of English sentences
■ Discuss the basic sentence patterns in English
■ Define and use affixes appropriately
■ Identify different sentence forms and provide examples
Chapter Content
■ The Principal Word Classes

■ Affixes
■ Elements and Patterns of Sentence
■ Forms of Sentences
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Lesson 1: The Principle Word Classes
Lesson objectives
By the end of this lesson, the learner should be able to:
■ Define and categorize words into their word classes

■ Name the parts of speech
■ Explain the functions of parts of speech in English language
Lesson content
■ Introduction to word classes

■ Parts of speech
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1.1 Introduction to word classes
In the first half of the twentieth century, structural linguists classified words into
word class, known today as parts of speech. They divided these parts of speech into
content and function words. Content words carry the meaning of a sentence or
phrase, and the function words build grammatical or structural relationships into
which the content words can fit in the sentence. Content words include Nouns,
Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs, while function words are Prepositions,
Conjunctions, Interjections and Articles.
Here, we focus on the parts of speech and their use in the grammatical description.
Read the following sentence
Koshin works in a school
Note that words are basic units that make up a sentence. In this case,
1. Koshin and school are in the same word group
2. Koshin and works are in different word groups.
3. By this, we mean that,
4. Koshin and school belong to the same word class.
5. Koshin and works belong to different word classes.
Example 1
Study the sentences below and categorize the words, which belong to the same
word class
1. The principal is driving a new car while speaking on the phone The principal,
car, and phone belong to the same word class Driving and speaking belong to
the same word class.
2. Bankers count money and save them in the bank Bankers, money, and bank
belong to the same word class Counts and save belong to the same class
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Exercise 1
Categorize words that belong to the same word group in each of the sentences
below
1. The customers walked in as the cashier opened the door.
2. The students play football as the teachers watch in the field.
3. Mohamed Farah ran fast as the audience cheered cheerfully.
4. Hassan bought an expensive blue coat for his father and a new dress for his mother.
The table below show different words classes, their definition and examples to
illustrate them
Word Definition Examples
Classes
Noun Name of people, place, brother, car, Koshin, house, Lon- don,
things, animals, or cat, love
ideas
Adjective Modifies nouns big, foolish, happy, talented, tidy

Verb State of being or action be, drive, grow, sing, think
words
Adverb Modifies verbs happily, recently, soon, here, there
Preposi- In some cases gives rela- at, in, of, over, with
tions tion to the location
Determin- Quantifiers a, an, my, some, the

er
Conjunc- Linking words and, because, but, if, or
tion
Interjec- Show exclamation or Ouch!
tion surprise
Generally, there are eight major word classes as illustrated in the table above.
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Criteria for Word Classes
Categorizing of words into word group depends on:
1. The meaning of the words
2. The form of the words
3. The pattern of the sentence
1. The meaning of the words
This depends on the meaning the word carries (in context). Words that carry the same
meaning are put in the same word class.
Names of people, places, things, ideas, or animals are put in the same word group
called nouns.
Similarly, words that modify a noun are put under the same word group called
adjectives.
For instance,
Koshin, car, phone, teacher, money, the school are all names thus, belong to the
same word group, noun.
Similarly, cook, drive, eat, run, shout, walk, indicate an action and thus belong to
the word class called verbs. (Words like be and exist indicate a state of being and
are also verbs.)
For example
The principal talked to the students in school.
The verb “talked” can be replaced with another action word because they belong to
the same word group or class
1. The principal talked to students in school.
2. The principal spoke to students in school.
3. The principal explained to students in school.
4. The principal read to students in school.
5. The principal lectured to students in school.
In principle, all these words are action words and they belong to the same word group,
verbs and they can replace each other.
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2. The form of words
Some words can be assigned to a word group based on their form. Different forms of
the words have different suffixes like –tion, -ment, -able, -ly - ance, etc.
Therefore,
1. Nouns always take the form -tion ending. Hence, words word ending with the
suffix–tion belong to the same word class. (By the way, nouns can also have
other suffixes than -tion!)
2. Adverbs always end with –ly. Hence, words ending with the suffix -ly belong to
the same word class
3. Other nouns take the form – ance ending. Hence, words ending with the suffix
–ance belong to the same word class
4. Many adjectives end in -able or –able
a. action, condition, contemplation, demonstration, organization, repetition, etc
= Nouns
b. Nicely, cheerfully, carefully, slowly, etc = Adverbs
c. Governance, performance, assistance, acceptance, etc = Noun
d. Similarly, acceptable, credible, miserable, responsible, suitable, terrible
= Adjectives
Many words also take suffixes that change in their form under certain conditions.
For example,
Nouns can take a plural suffix, by adding an -s at the end of their regular form:
■ Car -- cars
■ Dinner -- dinners
■ Book – books
Please note that in English, the ways to make nouns plural differ depending on
whether the noun ends in -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, or -z. We add -es to the ends of these
nouns.
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Verbs also take the following suffixes at the end of their regular form:
■ walk -- walks -- walked – walking
3. The sentence pattern

A sentence has the following elements in its pattern
Subject + Verb + Object
The subject normally appears in the first position followed by the verb, and maybe
the object
For example
Mother cooks lunch for her children
The word cook is an action as it comes after the subject mother
The cook is sick today
The word cook is a noun as it is the subject of the sentence. Let us consider the
inflections in both sentences,
Mother cooks lunch for her children.
The inflection is cooked, cooks, cooking, hence they are Verbs
The cook is sick today.
Inflection is cooks, which is the plural of cook, hence, they are Nouns
The parts of speech

Parts of speech is a group of words with the same grammatical principles. That is words
are grouped in accordance with its syntactic functions. There are eight major parts of
speech.
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1. Nouns
Nouns are naming words. They are names of people, places, things, animals, or ideas.
For example,
1. Names of people: Nageye, Koshin, Hassan, Nasima, Jawahir, e.t.c.
2. Names of places: Kismayo, Galkayo, Market, Mogadishu, Afgoye, e.t.c.
3. Names of things: house, Flag, Television, Mobile phone, bus, moon, sun, e.t.c.
4. Names of animals: camel, goat, lion, elephant, cow, chicken, e.t.c
5. Names of ideas: love, religion, power, happiness, sadness, humility, e.t.c.
Exercise 2
a) Nouns are naming words. Identify the nouns in the paragraph below and
state what each noun is naming using the table below. The first one has been done
for you.
b) Write a sentence of your own using the nouns identify
Husni, a village boy, is known for his happiness, humility, and love for everyone,
but this day, Husni was different as he was sad. After a very long walk in the sun,
Husni headed for his home full of sadness. The only camel he had taken to the
market in Balad to sell did not fetch a buyer. On his way back home, he decided to
go to his brother, Hussein, to inform him what had happened and maybe borrow
him some money. He reached his brother’s home and told him about his unlucky
day for food. He asked him if he could lend him some money. Hussein is selfish. He
only gave him money for transportation. The money was just enough for bus
fare. Full of sadness, Husni left his brother’s house and walked away slowly.
Word Type of of noun
1 Husni Name of a person
2
3
4
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Types of nouns
a) Common nouns
Common nouns identify general names of people, places, and things. They are written
with lower cases unless they are at the beginning of a sentence.
For example;
1. Name of people: boy, man, woman

2. Name of places: town, supermarket, doctor, teacher, restaurant, beach, etc.
3. Name of things: bridge, mountain, book, colour, etc.
4. Name of animals: lion, elephant, camel, goat, etc.
Examples in sentences
The words in bold are common nouns.
1. The doctor in the hospital is a dentist.
2. The supermarket in town belongs to a teacher.
3. The beach along the ocean attracts many tourists b) Proper nouns
Proper nouns identify the particular name of a person, thing, idea, place, days of the
week, names of companies, and months of the year. They must always begin with
capital letters irrespective of the position in the sentence.
For example
1. Specific names of people: Hassan, Koshin, Ali, Nageye, etc.

2. Specific names of places: Mogadishu, Liido Beach, Doctor Amina, Indian Ocean,
Bakaro Market, Mount Kilimanjaro, etc.
3. Specific names of things: Black Shoes, Titanic film, Aden Ade Airport, etc.
4. Specific names of ideas: love, poverty, sadness, silence
5. Names of days of the week: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, etc.
6. Names of the months: January, March, May, June, etc.
7. Names of titles of books: The Queen Arawelo, The Rule of Mohamed Siad Barre
8. Name of companies: British Broadcasting Cooperation, Somali National
Television, etc.
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1. They could not stop going to Dahabshiil during Eid holiday.
2. I live in Hargeisa.
3. The first day of the week is Saturday and the last day is Friday.
4. Koshin and Hafsa are out in Bakaro Market.
5. Have you ever read the book entitled Queen Arawelo.
c) Collective nouns
These nouns refer to a collection or group of things or people as a whole. Collective

nouns indicate more than one person, animal, or thing in a group.
For example,
A pride of lions, a crowd of people, a bunch of keys, a herd of camels, a choir, etc. Collective
nouns are treated as singular; therefore, the subject as a collective noun
should correspond with a verb in the singular form. We write collective nouns in
lower case unless it is at the beginning of a sentence.
Examples in a sentence
In each sentence, the word or phrase in bold is a collective noun

1. A herd of camels was being driven to the seaport for export to Dubai.
2. The crowd of people stood along the road as the president was passing by.
3. “Where is my bunch of keys?” my father asked.
d) Abstract nouns
Read the words in the box. Can you see, touch, smell, taste, or hear them?
love beauty time happiness sadness humility.
These nouns are intangible. We cannot touch, smell, see, hear or taste them. Such
nouns, which we cannot perceive with our five common senses, are called abstract
nouns. Abstract nouns are uncountable and can also express ideas, concepts, or
qualities.
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Functions of nouns in a sentence
Nouns are very important in a sentence. They function as:
1. A subject of the verb
Read the following sentences

1. Muna cooked dinner last night.
2. Najmo went to the market very late.
3. The lion killed a goat.
In the above sentences, the nouns come before the main verbs. Such nouns are
called the subject of the verb. In this case, the subject is the doer of the action.
2. An object of the verb

Read the following sentences.
1. Koshin drove a car
2. Ali sold the camel.
3. The lion killed a goat.
In the above sentences, the nouns come after the main verbs. Such nouns are called
the object of the verb. In this case, the object is the recipient (receiver) of the action.
1. Mohamed Salah scored a goal.

2. Hamisi operate computers because that is his profession.
3. Ayaan gave a pen to Najma.
4. Mujahid watched football from his room.
2. Pronouns
A pronoun is word that is used in place of or a word that replaces a noun.
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Examples
1. Abdul is a teacher. Abdul teaches English is Lafole School.
Abdul can be replaced with the word ‘He’ and the sentence will read
-Abdul is a teacher. He teaches Lafole School.
2. Maymun works in a bank. Maymun is an accountant.
Maymun can be replaced with ‘she’ and the sentence will read
-Maymun works in a bank. She is an accountant. He and she are called pronouns.
Types of Pronouns
I am going to find out other pronouns and explain what nouns they stand for.
a) Personal pronouns
They substitute nouns. They can either be singular or plural. For example: he, she, it,
you, they.
b) Subject pronouns
Subject pronouns substitute the subject of the verbs and will always come before
the main verb. The personal pronoun is particularly linked to the person.
In grammar we have
- First-person: I / we
- Second Person: you
- Third Person: he, she, it, they
Example in sentences
1. They sell foodstuffs in Hamarweyne market.

2. He recites Quran fluently.
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c) Object pronouns
Object pronouns substitute object of the verbs and always comes after the main
verb
- He calls her every morning from the office
Examples:
1. Me/us
2. You
3. Him/them
4. Her/ them
5. It/ them
d) Relative pronouns
. Relative pronouns can refer to people, places, things, animals or ideas.
Relative pronouns include which, that, who, whom, whose, where, and when
Example in sentences
1. The car that passed here is my father’s.
2. The driver who won the championship tried hard.
3. Pasta, which we eat, is from Pakistan.
e) Possessive pronoun
They are pronouns that show something belongs to someone:
Examples: his, its, hers, ours, theirs.
f) Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive pronouns can act as either an object or indirect object.
Examples: myself, ourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves
1. The students did the cleaning themselves.
2. Sabirin has grown up and can walk by herself.
3. I drew the picture myself.
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g) Demonstrative pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns are used to point at specific things or persons. The same
words are used as demonstrative adjectives when they modify nouns or pronouns.
Examples: this, that, these, those
1. That is my class
2. Those teachers are teaching in the neighbouring school.
3. This is the person who won a scholarship to study abroad.
4. These things belong to our neighbour.
3. Verbs
Verbs are words that give information on what the subject is doing or on a state of
being. They are often doing or action words. They refer to precise physical actions
It was i. Along with nouns/pronouns, they form the main part of a sentence
together with the subject in English. They tell us about what took place, is taking
place, or will take place.
1. Verbs show the time when the action took place. It could be past tense, present
tense, continuous tense, or future tense.
2. Verbs should always agree with the subject. Singular subjects should agree
with verbs in the singular form.
3. A verb expresses:
i. A physical action (e.g., “to swim,”“to write,”“to climb”).
ii. A mental action (e.g., “to think,”“to guess,”“to consider”).
iii. A state of being (e.g., “to be,”“to exist,”“to appear”).
4. Verbs always come after a subject noun or pronoun.
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1. She took the job offer.
2. The cat slept beside the fireplace.
3. The sun sets in the east.
4. Sabriye plays football for his team.
4. Adjectives
Adjectives tell us more about nouns. They describe nouns. When we use adjectives in
a sentence or writing, it makes the noun more specific and modifies it to be more
interesting. Because of the modification characteristics of the adjectives, they always
appear before the noun under modification.
Types of adjectives
1. Adjective of opinion: beautiful, expensive
2. Adjectives of size; big, small, large
3. Adjectives of shape; round, square,
4. Adjectives of color; blue, black
5. Adjectives of origin/material; Italian, Somali, Ethiopian/ wooden, plastic, woolen
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5. Adverbs
Adverbs are modifying words. They tell us more about the verbs
■ They tell us how the action is taking place, e.g., slowly, quickly
■ They modify adjectives, e.g., very tall, too long
■ Describes another adverb, e.g., too quickly, very carefully
Types of adverbs
1. Adverb of manner: describes how the action happened. It ends with –ly. e.g.,
carefully, slowly
2. Adverb of time: tell us the time of action (when), e.g., lately, during, yet, etc.
3. Adverb of place: tell us where the action took place, e.g., here, there, nowhere, out,
etc.
4. Adverb of degree: e.g., almost, nearly, almost, just, enough, etc.
5. Adverb of frequency: tell us how often the action happens; e.g., never, sometimes,
always, etc.
6. Articles
These are words that define a noun as definite (specific) or indefinite (non-specific). There
are three articles.
a) Definite articles (the)
“The” is the definite article ( also called specific). It reduces the meaning of a noun to
one specific or particular thing or person.
The definite article indicates singular, plural, or non-count nouns.
Examples
1. Call me the boy - we are talking of a particular boy.

2. Tell the boy in a red shirt to go home – A particular boy in the red shirt.
3. The house belongs to Hassan. He built it two years ago. We are talking for specific
house.
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b) Indefinite articles (a, an)
i) Indefinite article ‘a’
This article precedes a noun that begins with a consonant. This article refers to general
nouns.
Indefinite articles represent only singular articles.
Examples
1. We should carry a gift for the wedding tomorrow - Unspecified gift
2. I am going to bring a dress for my mother - any dress
ii) Indefinite article ‘an’
This article precedes a noun that begins with a vowel. This article refers to a general
noun.
Indefinite articles represent only singular articles.
Examples
1. We should carry an umbrella because it might rain. = any umbrella will do
(unspecified).
2. I am going to buy an exercise book for my brother = Unspecified exercise book.
7. Prepositions
A preposition is a word that establishes a relationship between a noun/pronoun

and an object. It gives the position of a noun/pronoun in relation to the object.
It is followed by a noun or pronoun. This noun or pronoun is called an object
of the preposition. Together, the preposition and the object make a prepositional
phrase.
Examples of preposition: in between, beside, under, to, into, opposite, on, over,
etc.
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In small groups discuss and write sentences of your own using correct prepositions
to show the following relationships.
1. The students were in class at 9.30 am and lesson was starting at 9.45 am
2. The family went out for dinner when they finished watching news
3. The students were running and entering their classes when the bell rang.
4. My school is in the middle of two streets
5. Amina always sits close to her mother to learn how to cook
Other words may come between the preposition and the object. These words become
part of the prepositional phrase.
Examples
i) The water arrived in big bottles. In bottles is a prepositional phrase.
We can add in another word between. Then,
In big bottles.
Big - gives more information about the phrase and itself becomes part of the
preposition phrase
ii) The water arrived in very big bottles.
Prepositional phrase adds useful and interesting details and makes a composition to
be understood easily.
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Exercise 3
Identify preposition phrases in the sentences below:
1. The cat jumped high over the window.
2. When the sun is hot, we sit under the shade.
3. I found my pen in the bag, which I thought I had lost it.
4. Amina lost her ring at the shore beach.
5. The teacher stood behind the big class as one student explained a lesson.
A preposition can clarify four phenomena: how, where, when.
Let us read the sentences below and discuss what the underlined prepositions are
describing.
1. The water arrived in big bottles. (How did the water arrive?)
2. Zainab came from the market that morning (Where did Zainab come from?)
3. Aisha bought a new dress on Eid day (When did Aisha buy a dress?)
Note to the Teacher Trainer: It would also be valuable for learners in the early
grades of primary to talk about prepositions in phrasal verbs (phrases that have
verbs in them). For example, “get up,” “get off,” “get down,” climb up,” etc. are
phrasal verbs with prepositions (up, off, down).
Types of prepositions
a) One-word prepositions
These are prepositions that has only one word as shown in the table below
On in To between next
Over under Opposite below By
For Before Behind Below Beneath
Beside Through Beyond Inside at

Like Near Nearer Of Off
On Onto Opposite Out Outside
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b) Two-word prepositions
These are prepositions that has two words as shown in the table below:
close to Apart from Back to
As for Due to Far from
Near to Ahead of Left of
As for Aside from Out of
Out of Far from Prior to
Next to Next to Up to
Ahead of Opposite of Because of
Because of Right of Such as
c) Phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs combine a base verb with another word, usually a preposition to
create a completely new meaning
Phrasal verb Meaning
Check in To register at a hotel or airport upon arrival.
Look after Take care of something
Look for Search for something
Look up Find the meaning from the dictionary
Care for Take care or something or a person
Come back To return to a place
Clean up Tidy or organize things up
Get away To escape from something
Give in To surrender.
Hand out To distribute something free to other people
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Exercise 4
Use the prepositions given above to fill in the blank spaces
The teacher asked Maryam to write the topicmy composition.
2. “Can you pour the juice ________________the glasses?” My mother ordered me.
3. Hamdi’s house is to our school.
4. The prime minister came to our school and ate lunch us.
5. He was standing right the supermarket.
6. The cat jumped the table.
7. It is getting hot, turn the air conditioner.
8. The house_________that hotel and that bank belong Muna’s family.
9. My mother is busy today,_______________she is cookingten guests tonight.
10. My brother is good_________English. He speaks like an English native.
11. I am concerned he is not one us.
12. Ali came late again even _____________ the warning from head teacher.
13. The prime minister was talking the president.
14. In English exams we shall cover preposition, adjectives _Adverbs.
15. We shall assemble at the playground we arrive.
16. My father’s car is parked ______________ _______ his office
17. She was left at home to ____________ _________ the baby
18. __________ _____ in the dictionary for the meaning of the new words
19. The teacher asked students to ____________ ____ answers from the text book
20. Hassan is a Somali, he ____________ _______ Somalia
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Using Prepositions
i) A prepositional phrase can act as an adjective.
Remember, adjectives describe nouns or pronouns. As an adjective, a prepositional
phrase describes the noun and answers the question “which?”
Examples
1. The girl in the blue dress.

The Prepositional phrase describes which girl. (in the blue dress)
2. The glass across the counter.
This prepositional phrase describes which glass. (Across the counter)
ii) A prepositional phrase as an adverb.
Remember, adverbs describe verbs. A prepositional phrase as an adverb describes

how, where, or when the action happened.
Examples.
1. Ali ran between his home and school.

The prepositional phrase describes where Ali ran (between home and school)
2. Ali ran in the morning.
The prepositional phrase describes when Ali ran (in the morning).
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3. Ali ran with an injured foot.
The prepositional phrase describes how Ali ran (with an injured foot).
iii) Prepositions as Nouns.
The noun in a prepositional phrase is the subject of the sentence. The noun is
important when deciding the singularity and pluralism of the subject to ensure it
corresponds with the verb in the sentence.
Example:
1. Neither of the runners wins the race.

Neither is the subject of the sentence. It is a preposition too. It is in the singular. The
verb won must be singular too because the subject is singular and must correspond
with the verb.
2. Rakia, along with her sisters, enjoy the dance.
Rakia is the subject of the sentence and is singular, therefore, the verb must be
singular as well.
8. Conjunctions
Let us read the sentences below

1. You cannot succeed in life. You must work hard.
2. Balgisa bought a book. Fatima bought a pen.
The pairs of sentences above can be joined together to form one compound sentence.
1. You cannot succeed in life so you need to work hard.
2. Balgisa bought a book and Fatima bought a pen.
The words like so are called coordinating conjunctions when they link two sentences.
Therefore, conjunction connects words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. These
phrases or clauses that are being connected are called the conjuncts of the
conjunctions. There are many conjunctions in the English language, but the most
common ones include and, or, but, because, for, if, and when.
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There are three basic types of conjunctions:
1. Coordinating conjunctions
2. Subordinating conjunctions
3. Correlative conjunctions
a) Coordinating conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions link items that agree grammatically equal (parallel

structure) - two words, two phrases, or two independent clauses. There are seven
common coordinating conjunctions in English, and you can remember them using the
mnemonic device FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
Coordinating conjunctions are placed between the items that it links together.
Linking Words
Coordinating conjunctions link two nouns, verbs, adjectives, or other types of words.
1. The data was collected through surveys and interviews.
2. I don’t like to run or swim.
3. He was clever but lazy.
Linking Phrases
They can also join different types of phrases.

1. The boy waved his hand, and he said goodbye quietly.
2. The exam was difficult, yet most students passed it.
3. She usually sleeps in the day, or she sleeps at night.
Linking Independent clauses
A group of words with at least one subject and a verb is called a clause
1. Today Elechi Amadi is one of the most widely read African novelists, but he
achieved little fame during his lifetime.
Note: In the sentence above, the coordinating conjunction but creates a
relationship between two independent clauses. Notice that the two clauses also
work as independent sentences.
Today Elechi Amadi is one of the most widely read African novelists. He achieved little
fame during his lifetime.
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b) Subordinating conjunctions
Linking words like because, if, although, since, until, and while are examples of
subordinating conjunction.
A subordinating conjunction introduces a dependent clause.
Example
1. Because I woke up late this morning. I went to school without eating breakfast.
(dependent clause)
■ Because I went to school late this morning, I missed the first lesson.
■ I missed the first lesson because I went to school late this morning.
c) Correlative conjunctions
Conjunction always comes in a pair and is used to join grammatically equal elements
in a sentence.
Either … or, neither … nor, not only … but also, and both … and are common pairs of
correlative conjunctions. In most cases, a comma should not be used between the two
elements.
Examples
1. The civil war that broke up not only affected the soldier but also the civilians.
2. Neither he nor his mother was at the meeting.
When using correlative conjunctions, parallel structure (elements in the same
grammatical form) should be used.
1. She planned to collect data by either using an online survey or conducting phone
interviews.
Starting a sentence with a conjunction
Beginners are often taught that sentences should not begin with coordinating
conjunctions. However, sentences beginning with conjunctions are not completely
wrong, and skilled authors may use it effectively for emphasis.
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Example
1. The students always seek to gain favors from their teachers. But what will they gain
if they don’t work hard then fail exams?
A subordinating conjunction can come at the start of a sentence, if and only if the
dependent clause is followed by an independent clause.
2. Until the students score the required cut-off point, they will never gain admission
to the university.
3. How long will the strike go on? Until the company addresses the workers› plight
satisfactorily, the strike will go on.
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Exercise 5
Use the conjunctions in the box below to fill in the blank spaces
where, and, while, but, because, when, or, so
1. Parents sent their children to school ______________ they want them to have
a better life in future.
2. My friend Amin __________ I go for swimming every Friday afternoon
3. My father goes to work ____________ my mother stays at home to take care
of the children
4. My father work hard _________that we can afford what we want
5. You can go to the cinema, _________ you can visit your aunt.
6. Aliya likes oranges,______________ she dislikes lemons.
7. My uncle came home from abroad ________covid-19 cases were so raising up

8. This is the village________________ the primary school will be built.
1. Using illustrations define the term word group and explain the two types of
word classes.
2. In groups, explain the eight parts of speech.
3. Explain the different types of nouns giving examples of each.
4. Describe the function of a noun in a sentence giving examples of each in a
sentence.
5. Illustrate the types of pronouns giving examples of each in a sentence.
6. Discuss in small groups the importance of an adjective in a sentence.
7. Highlight the types of adjectives giving examples of each.
8. In pairs, form and practice a dialogue demonstrate using sentences the use
conjunctions.
9. In groups, discuss the meaning of various phrasal verbs and use them in sentences
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Lesson 2: Affixes
Lesson objectives
■ Explain the relation between learning common affixes and word

knowledge and comprehension
■ Define and state the function of affixes
■ Deduce meaning of new affixes
■ Build vocabulary using affixes
Lesson content
■ Root word and affix

■ Importance of affix in building word knowledge and comprehension
skills
Many words in English consist of word parts. These include root words, prefixes,
and suffixes. The general term for prefixes and suffixes is affixes (affix is the singular
form of the word). Learning how to break words into parts (root words, affixes,
and suffixes) can be very helpful in building vocabulary, including academic
language, as well as in strengthening decoding skills (for words) that support
listening and reading for comprehension for English language learners.
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There are two ways to figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words (and thus
build one’s vocabulary and comprehension): 1) looking for clues outside the
word (using the context) and 2) looking for clues inside the word (using word
parts).
I am going to explain the importance of affixes in English giving examples for each
type of affix.

2.1 Root Word and Affixation
A basic word to which affixes are added to is called a root word. It is also called the
base because it forms the foundation of a new word. The root word is mostly a
word in its own right.
The affixes are the suffixes and prefixes which are attached to the root word to form
a new word. A suffix is added at the end of the root word while a prefix is added at
the beginning of the root word.
For example,
Consider the root word friend
i. When a suffix -ly is added to the root word, we have friendly
ii. When the prefix un- to the new root word, unfriend, we have unfriendly.
iii. The two new words formed have different meanings:
■ Friendly = A warm welcoming person

■ Unfriendly = A person who is not friendly
I am going to find out about prefixes and suffixes and use them to form a new word
with the root word of my choice, and then I am going to compare the difference in
meaning of the root word and the new word formed.
Note: Some other root words, which are the basis of a new word, do not form a
stand- alone word on their own, i.e., they do not make sense on their own.
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For example,
The prefix re- and the Latin root -ject, make up the word reject. That is the word –
ject does not make sense on its own.
Apart from forming new words, affix analysis can be used to find the meaning of
the newly formed words. This is done by analyzing the different parts of the word
and the meanings of those parts.
In most cases, the meaning of the root word changes when a prefix or a suffix is
added.
Example
1. Nice is an adjective while nicely is an adverb

2. Literate and illiterate have opposite meaning
3. Careful and careless have exactly the opposite meaning5

In groups, we are going to find out the meaning of commonly used prefixes and
suffixes, and then we are going to give examples of each.
Examples
Consider the root words and the prefixes and suffixes. The root words are in bold font.
1. Root word: friend
friends, friendly, unfriendly, friendship
2. Root word: normal
abnormal, normality, normalize, abnormality
3. Root word: mature
immature, maturity
Note: The “e” is dropped off the root word for “maturity.” Consider the spelling rules
to follow when adding suffixes to root words or consult your dictionary.
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4. Word root: play
He plays football.
5. He played tennis.
(The suffix “ed” forms the past tense.)
6. He skipped playfully.
(The suffix “fully” forms an adverb.)
7. This game is not playable.
(The suffix “able” forms an adjective.)
2.2 Significance of affixation

a) Building your vocabulary
English learners can develop and increase their vocabulary by reading texts of
increasing complexity, listening to and participating in conversations with a wide
range of people, learning how to decode and break words into syllables, including
identifying root words, and learning affixes as a prerequisite. It is advisable to
learn common roots words and their affixes as a starting point.
For example
Word knowledge is built using affixes and knowing their meanings. In the examples
below, “un,” “il,” and “ir” are prefixes that mean “not”
i) Prefixes
1. Tidy – untidy (not tidy)
2. Comfortable – Uncomfortable (not comfortable)
3. Legal – Illegal (not legal)
4. Responsible – irresponsible (not responsible)
In the examples below, adding certain suffixes changes a word that was a verb
into a noun or an adjective into a noun.
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ii) Suffixes
1. Manage – Management (from a verb to a noun)
2. Nation – National (from a noun to an adjective)
3. Hope – Hopeful (from a noun to an adjective)
4. Use – Useless (from a noun to an adjective)
5. Happy – Happiness (from an adjective to a noun)
By adding the affix, the new word formed has a different meaning from the root
word
b) Deducing the meanings of words with multiple syllables.
Many times, you can make out the meaning of a word by identifying the root word
and applying your understanding affixes.
For example
The prefix un-, il-, ir-, dis- mean the opposite of the root word Suffix – less means
empty while - ful mean something is full Here’s an easy example with the word
“disrespectful”
Step 1: Divide the word onto affixes and root word
■ Disrespectfully” breaks down to disrespectfully.
Step 2: Deduce the meaning of each part of the word

1. Dis means negative (not)
2. Respect means obey
3. -ful means full of something
By breaking the word into syllables (which include a prefix, root word, and suffix),
we can then deduce the meaning of disrespectful as this gets you to something
like
“Not-respect-full,”
Therefore, the meaning of disrespectful is lack of respect
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Exercise 5
1. Disobedience
2. Illegal
3. Sleepless
Remember, when adding a prefix or suffix to a root word, the word’s meaning
or part of speech may change.
For example, Impossible = im + possible. “Im” means not; therefore, impossible
means “not possible
1. Unnecessary = un + necessary. “Un” means not; therefore, unnecessary means
“not necessary”
3. Sleepless = sleep + less; therefore, sleepless means having had less sleep
We are going to find words that are long and difficult to spell. We are going to divide
the word into affixes and root words and try to spell them. We are then going to
explain the difference in spelling the words before and after dividing into root
words and affixes
1. Identify the root word and the affix in the words below:
a) careful b) insincere
c) Misinterpretation d) Mismanagement
2. List various prefixes and suffixes and give their meaning.
3. Using illustrations describe how affixation as a technique is used to find the
meaning of a word.
4. Giving examples state the significance of using affixes.
5. Highlight giving examples the difference among prefix, suffix, and root word.
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Lesson 3: Elements of a sentence
Lesson objectives
By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to
■ Explain elements of sentences

■ Apply the elements of sentences correctly
Lesson content –Review of parts of speech
■ Subject
■ Verb
■ Object
■ Complement
■ Adverb (and adjective form of the word “adverbial”)
3.1 The subject of the sentence
By definition, a subject is part of a sentence that contains the person or thing

performing the action in a sentence. The subject of a sentence comes in three
forms
a. Subject as a noun or pronoun
b. Subject as a verb
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a. Subject as a noun
Read the sentences below
1. Hamdi walked to the supermarket.
2. The news reporter reads the news at 9.00 pm.
3. He was teaching students in class yesterday.
4. The dog barked at us.
Hamdi, t news reporter, dog and he are the doers of the action. They are subjects
in form of nouns (news reporter, dog, Hamdi) and pronouns (he).
b. Subject as a verb ( or “gerund” which is a word that is ordinarily a verb but that
sometimes acts as a noun in sentences)
Read the sentences below:
1. Writing a book is an interesting exercise.
2. Swimming is the most enjoyable thing to do during leisure time.
3. Cooking is my favourite career.
Cooking, writing and swimming are verbs that act as a subject. Such verbs are called
gerunds. Gerunds end with –ing and comes at the beginning of a sentence.
Exercise 7
Identify the subject and the form of the subjects in the following sentences:
1. Singing in the world has become a well-known career.
2. Youths are singing in various platforms to entertain their audience nowadays.
3. The house was built by a famous engineer.
3.2 Verb
We explored the part of speech called “verb” in a previous lesson. Verbs are often action
words (or states of being) in sentences that often tell us what the subject is doing.
Read the sentences and state what the subject did of each sentence did:
i. Zamzam left in a hurry.
ii. The cat sat by the window.
iii. Ali visited his friend at the hospital.
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Exercise 8
Find the verbs in each sentence
1. Hani made a cake for the classroom.
2. She wakes up very early before anyone.
3. We come to school for national exams.
3.3 Object of a sentence
It is the noun that the action is directed to. It answers the questions who or what
the subject did . An object receives the action done by the subject of the sentence.
Let us read the following sentences:
1. I took my brother when I went to the river.
2. Hani baked a cake for the class.
3. She mailed the present to her mother.
My brother, a cake, and the present are objects in the previous sentences. They receive
the actions done by the subjects of the sentences (I, Hani, and she). Objects can be
nouns or pronouns.
Types of objects in sentences
1. Direct object
2. Indirect object
3. Object of preposition
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1. Direct object (object of the verb)
1. Aisha hugged her brother, then she hugged her sister.
2. He closed the door.
3. Amina held her hands against her cheek.
4. She carried the carton with a lot of care.
Her brother, her sister, the door, her hands, and the carton all receive the actions done
by the subjects directly. They are therefore called direct objects of their sentences.
b) Indirect object
1. Miski passed the money to her mother.
2. He presented the prize to the winning captain.
3. When giving jewelry as a present, I’m giving to someone I care about.
Her mother, the winning captain, someone I care about are indirect objects. They
are all preceded by the word “to.”
Indirect object receives the action for direct object. In the presence of indirect
object, question; to whom, for whom, or for what is answered.
c) Object of preposition
a. Amina comes from the city. b. He lives near the park.
c. Abdi lives among his new friends.
city, park, new friends, are the objects of preposition
Words like “in,”“on,”“at,”“by,”“near” are commonly used prepositions that are
followed by the objects of prepositions. These objects comeimmediately after
the preposition.
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1. With a partner, present the elements of a sentence.
2. Subject in a sentence can take different forms. In groups explain each giving an
example in a sentence.
3. Using illustration explain the importance of a complement and give examples in
a sentence.
4. In small groups describe the types of objects as an element of sentences.2
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Lesson 4: Basic Sentence Patterns
Lesson objectives
By the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to
■ Identify and explain the basic patterns of sentences

■ Construct a grammatically correct sentence
■ Figure out the kinds of words to use when writing.
Lesson content
■ Word order in a sentence in English is generally
√ Subject + Verb (S + V)
√ Subject + Verb + Direct Object (S + V + DO)
√ Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object (S + V + IO + DO)

4.1 Word order in a sentence
In groups, we are going to explain the importance of learning sentence patterns in

English language writing.
Read the following sentences then thereafter, build your own sentences following
the same pattern:
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1. Amina gave.
2. Amina gave her a gift.
3. Amina gave me a gift for her.
‘Amina’ is the subject of the sentence
‘Gave’ is the verb
‘Her’ is the object receiving direct action. It is called a direct object.
‘Me’ is an indirect object, receiving action on behalf of the direct object. The gift
does not belong to me but to her.
The arrangement of the elements of a sentence is called the pattern of a sentence.
The sentences above form three common patterns of sentences in English.
1. Amina gave. (Subject + Verb)
2. Amina gave her a gift. (Subject + Verb + Object)
3. Amina gave me a gift for her. (Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object)
These are the three most common forms of simple sentences used by English
language learners.
1. Subject + Verb (S + V)
Form the simplest pattern of a sentence. The simple sentence can have
1. Single subject, such as Amina.
2. Compound subject like Amina and Hamdi.
3. Single verb ran
4. Compound verb like ran and jumped.
Examples.
1. The cat jumped.
2. Ali and Hassan are swimming and playing.
3. Amina and Faiza studied.
4. Samir read and studied.
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2. Subject + Verb + Object of the Verb (S + V + DO)
It has three elements: subject, verb and direct object. The object, which could be a
noun or noun phrase, receives the action. The object of the verb is also called a direct
object.
Examples
1. Ilyas sent a letter.
2. She washed the car.
3. Amina and Ikram bought clothes.
4. Abdi and Abukar chased and beat the dog.
3. Subject + Verb + Indirect Object + Direct Object (S + V + IO + DO)
One tip to use to recognize an indirect object is to consider if the words “to” or “for” can be
placed in front of them. If so, then the sentence includes an indirect object.
Examples
1. Ali gave me his mother a present.
Ali (Subject/Pronoun) + gave (Verb/Past Tense) + (to) his mother (Indirect Object)
+ a present (Direct Object).
2. She sent her friend a letter.
She (Subject/Pronoun) + sent (Verb/Past Tense) + (to) her (Indirect Object) + a
letter (Direct Object).
3. The teacher gave weaker students tutorial classes.
The teacher (Subject/Noun) + gave (Verb/Past Tense) + (for) weaker students
(Indirect Object) + tutorial classes (Direct Object).
4. Hamza builds his mother a house.
Hamza (Subject/Proper Noun) + builds (Verb/Present Tense) + (for) his mother
(Indirect Object) + a house (Direct Object).
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1. Work with your partner to differentiate between direct and indirect objects by
giving examples in sentences. What tip can you provide to help you (or others)
recognize whether something is an indirect or a direct object?
2. Using examples, list the three basic patterns of simple sentences used in
English.
3. Illustrate with sentences the three basic patterns of simple sentences.
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Lesson 5: Form of Sentences
Lesson objectives
■ Identify and explain different forms of sentences.

■ Use different forms of sentences correctly.
■ Improve speaking and listening skills.
Lesson content
■ Declarative sentences
√ Affirmative sentences
√ Negative sentences
■ Interrogative sentences
■ Imperative sentences
■ Exclamatory sentence

We are going to form three groups, Group A is going to make declarative sentences,
group B interrogative, and group C imperative sentences. Then we are going to
exchange our activities with the groups. Each group to read the sentences and
tell if they agree or disagree with what the group has written giving explanation
of the answer.
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5.1 Declarative sentences
We make statements or express opinions using declarative sentences. Declarative
sentences end with a full stop (or period).
Types of declarative sentences:
a) Affirmative
b) Negative
a) Affirmative declarative sentences
Essentially an affirmative sentence, which is also called a positive sentence, states the
truth or provides a fact.
Read the sentences below
1. Teachers teach.
2. Boys swim.
3. He slept.
5.2 Interrogative sentences
We ask questions using interrogative sentences. These are WH-questions.
Interrogative sentences take three forms
1. Auxiliary verb + subject + main verb
2. Verb be + subject
3. Wh-word + Auxiliary verb + subject + main verb
1. Auxiliary verb + subject + main verb
These questions require Yes or No answers
Examples
1. Did you go to school?
2. Did your mother go to work?
3. Do they live here?
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2. Verb be + subject
These questions require Yes or No answers.
Examples
1. Were you at home?
2. Is he your brother?
3. Is it near?
3. Wh-word + Auxiliary verb + subject + main verb These interrogative questions
require direct answers. Examples
1. Where were you last night?
2. Who was with you yesterday?
3. What were you doing at home?
4. Why did you come from school early?
5. When is your wedding day?
5.3 Imperative sentences
These sentences are commands.

Forms of Imperative sentences
1. Verb!
Example
1. Stop!
2. Wake-up!
2. …+ Verb + ….
Examples
1. Please stand here.

2. Please eat your food.
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5.4 Exclamatory sentences
An exclamatory sentence shows emotion. It ends with an exclamation mark.

Examples
1. Happy birthday, Amy!
2. Thank you, Mother!
3. I hate you!
4. Ice cream is my favorite!
1. Illustrate using examples the declarative sentences.

2. Work with your partner to distinguish between affirmative and negative giving
examples of each.
3. State and explain giving examples of the three forms of interrogative sentences.
4. Describe using examples of imperative sentences.
5. In groups explain the main features of exclamatory sentence? (Hint: It is related
to punctuation.)
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1. Discuss the criteria of classifying Words into word classes.
2. Explain with examples the difference between content and function words
3. With examples discuss the root word, prefixes and suffixes, and their importance
to language skills development.
4. State and explain the elements of English sentences and its basic patterns.
5. Discuss the various types of adverbial phrases and clauses in English.
6. Identify and explain different forms of sentences in English.
7. Explain the three types of preposition and give examples in sentences.
8. Discuss the two basic patterns that are used when putting together a sentence.
9. Explain with examples the differences between interrogative and declarative
sentence
10. Imperative sentences are said to be both a command and a request. Using
illustration, justify this statement.
11. State the elements of the simplest sentence; then write five simple sentences of
your own.
12. Study the following words
i) Mislead
ii) Misbehave
iii) Disconnect v) Happiness
vi).Unhappy
vii) Disobey
For each word above,
i. Identify the root word
ii. Identify the suffix or prefix where applicable.
iii. Try to deduce the meaning of the words. Do not use the dictionary.
13. Using a subject as a verb, write five correct sentences of your own.
14. Identify the sentence pattern for each of the following sentences
i) The school organizes a tour to the national theatre.
ii) Computers keep children busy.
iii) Students asked the teacher many questions.
iv) I will come.
v) The students wrote English exams.
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15. Study the sentences below and identify what types of sentences they are
i) Watch out for the dog!
ii) Read pages 45-90 for homework.
iii) Do you like pizza?
iv) Have you seen my cat?
v) The zookeeper showed us a parrot.
vi) The balloon is not blue
vii) Hurrah! We won the game.
16. Define what a complement is in a sentence.
17. Use the prefixes to write the antonyms of the following words:
i) Legal -
ii) Appropriate -
iii) Responsible -
iv) Advantage -
v) Comfortable -
18. Study the sentences below and identify the parts of speech of the words
embolded
i) On Saturdays I work from nine to five.
ii) If we finish our work quickly we can go to the movies.
iii) I left my shoes under the kitchen table.
iv) What did she ask you to do?
v) I bought a beautiful dress at the mall.
PART B: WRITING TASK

On individual basis use the knowledge on English structure learnt, write an Essay of at
least 150 words on
The Importance of Trees.
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Chapter 3
ENGLISH SPEECH 1
Nasal
Cavity
Hard Palate
Oral Cavity
Alveolar
Ridge
Velum
Uvula Lips
Pharynx
Teeth
Epiglottis
Vocal Cords
Esophogus
Chapter Objectives
By the end of the chapter, the learner should be able to:
■ Respond to all attempts at communication with attention, respect, and
affection.
■ Imitate and play with speech sounds.
■ Name and point at which part of the mouth a sound is made.
■ Apply the correct stress and intonation for every day speech in English.
■ Explain the standard pronunciation models.
■ Identify a didactic priority in teaching English pronunciation to foreigners.
■ Illustrate the structure of the human speech organs
■ Differentiate between active and passive speech organs.
■ Explain the functions of the parts of speech organs
■ Define and describe intonation.
■ Teach pronunciation in primary schools.
■ Explain the importance of pronunciation in the communication process.
Chapter Content
1. Models of pronunciation
2. The speech organs
3. Teaching pronunciation
4. Word stress and intonation
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Lesson 1: Models of pronunciation
Lesson objectives
■ Explain the standard pronunciation models.

■ Outline characteristics of Received Pronunciation.
■ Distinguish between Received Pronunciation and General American.
■ Explain what is means for English to be a Lingua Franca.
■ Identify a didactic priority in teaching English pronunciation to non-native
English speakers.
Lesson contents
■ Pronunciation models
■ Dialects
√ Received pronunciation
√ General American
√ Lingua franca
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1.1 Standard Pronunciation Models
In this chapter we shall discuss the development of speech, language and
intellectual skills covering models of pronunciation, sounds of English,
consonants, vowels, phonetic transcription, pronunciation and remediation of
pronunciation problems, word stress, sentence stress and intonation.
The development of English speech and language skills are not independent but
are fostered through social interactions, play, observations, manipulating objects
and listening and attention skills. Here are some of the standard Pronunciation
Models used in classrooms.
a. Good modelling
We learn by listening. For instance, we learn new sounds and words through
listening. Therefore, listening is an essential aspect of learning English speech.
As a teacher, be a model in accurately and clearly pronouncing letters, words,
phrases, and sentences in the classroom.
A model English teacher praises a learner who may not pronounce a word
correctly but tries. Such a teacher can ask a learner to repeat the word using skills
s/he is learning, or the teacher can repeat the word correctly and ask the learner
to show s/he understood through repeating the word back or coming back to
the learner later in the lesson when the word is again needed and asking the
learner to try again. Rephrasing a word or sentence is one strategy to provide
corrective feedback. Asking a student to repeat a word or sentence is sometimes
necessary. Saying the word or sentence again may help the learner to hear and
understand his/her mistake/s.
b. Symbolic sounds
Introduce easy words and sounds to the new learner. This is done by using
symbolic sounds. Symbolic sound is copying the sound that is related to the
word or the name of what produced that sound.
Examples
-“moo” for a cow
-“beep beep” for a car.
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Activity 1: Critical thinking
I am going to name other symbolic sounds that I used when I was young and explain
the significance of the symbolic sounds in vocabulary development.
c. Motivating sound games
Use of sound games always influences the learner.
Example,
When students have a running game
On your marks… get ready…. GO!! (and off the runners run)
Say “On your marks…. get ready ….GO”, (and let the runners run.)
Doing this recurrently for sometimes, learners will automatically step in and say “GO”
Whenever you say “On your marks … get ready …
The essence is to encourage the learner to use his/her voice as a tool to initiate and
request. We are not focusing on the correct words or sentences, but just saying them.
Here students are actually learning expressions or phrases in English. The game
is a tool to support learning.
d. Listening and attention
Listening and attention skills are the basics to speech and language development.
The achievement of these skills is vital in being successful in the classroom. They
are enhanced by collaboration with others who have the same focus. Learners
comprehend knowledge in different degrees; some find these skills more difficult to
develop than others. Therefore, a teacher needs to do activities in the classroom that
all learners can enjoy and focus on and that allow all learners to perform at their
ability level while learning from others at higher ability levels.

We are going to find out what will be the effects of these activities on learners’
listening and attention skills.
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e. Observation skills
Focusing on a particular task requires observation skills. Learners should have a

shared focus to help in developing their observation skills. Shared focus implies
looking at everyday activities and discussing them together.
Improving observation skills
1. Look for details
Take some time each day to pause what you’re doing and try to pick out as many
details as you can from your surroundings. There are usually big or attention-
grabbing things in your environment, but try to move past these objects to find
some of the smaller, less noticeable attributes.
For example, you might immediately notice the pen, chair and desk in a class, but
try to pick out details about the items on the desk, pictures on the walls and even
the colour of the floor.
2. Avoid distractions
Electronic devices, busy surroundings or even your own thoughts can easily
distract you from observing the places and people around you. Instead of
listening to music on your walk or commute to work, try paying attention to the
sounds and sights to see what you notice.
3. Keep an observation journal
It can be helpful to carry around a portable journal with you so that you can write
or draw the things you notice. Focus on things like the:
■ Objects around you, including their placement, shape, size and color.
■ People present, including what they’re doing and what they’re wearing.
■ Things you see, hear, touch, taste and smell.
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4. Quantify things as you notice them
As you observe, try to be as specific as possible. A great way to do this is to avoid

generalizations like, “There were some people in the break room.” Instead, count
exactly how many people there were.
1.2 Dialects
Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary,

spelling, and grammar. There are also regional dialects. There are over 170
dialects in the English language that are spoken around the world. These include
Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA)
1. Received Pronunciation (RP)

2. General American (GA)
1. Received Pronunciation (RP)
This is commonly called Received Pronunciation or BBC English Received

Pronunciation. This is what we call today British English. It is spoken English
without any trace of an identifiable regional dialect within the United Kingdom
(or UK).
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Characteristics of Received Pronunciation
i) “h-sound” (/h/) is pronounced in some languages and is silent in others (such as in
Portuguese). as opposed to other accents, which do not.6
For example,
Received Pronunciation /h/ Other pronunciation /h/
/h/ audibly spoken /h/ silent

Hour ‘our for hour
hurt ‘urt for hurt
honour ‘onour for honour
history ‘istory for history
ii) RP has a silent /r/ while other accents speak /r/ audibly
For example
Received Pronunciation /r/ Other pronunciation /r/
/r/ audibly spoken /r/ silent

Hea’t for heart Heart
Ca’ for car Car
Fou’ for four Four
Fo’ for for For

iii) RP has long /ah/ sound as opposed to others with short /a/ sound
For example
Received Pronunciation /r/ Other pronunciations /r/
Long /a/ sound Short /a/ sound

Bathe
Bathroom that
Fake
bad
hate
path
Date
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We are going to search for and list other sounds of RP that have different
pronunciations from other accents
2. General American (GA)

This is basically called American English and it is widely spoken by the majority
of Americans. It is also called Network English or Newscaster Accent because it is
commonly used in media houses, movies, and audios within or developing materials
for U. S. audiences.
Characteristics of GA
i) /r/ sound is retained in most words – /r/ is spoken audibly
General American Pronunciation Other pronunciations /r/

/r/ /r/ sound audibly /r/ sound silent
Heart H-e-a-’-t for heart
Car C-a-’- for car F-
Four o-u-’- for four
For F-o-’- for for
ii) Rounded vowel (/o/) is open in some words. Some vowel sounds in English might
change depending on the sound that immediately follows it.
General American Pronunciation /o/ Other pronunciations /o/

Vowel /o/ is open Vowel /o/ is retained
top Top
hot Hot
shot Shot
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iii) Short /a/ sound is used in GA
General American Pronunciation /a/ Other pronunciations /a/
short /a/ sound long /a/ sound
bathroom bathe
that make
bad made
General American accent is popular within the following regions speaking it.
Some parts of the United States such as: the Northern States and states in the Midwest,
and some African countries,

1. In a presentation, outline the standard pronunciation model.
2. In groups explain the dialects of English language giving examples.
3. Giving examples to distinguish between Received Pronunciations (RP) and
General American (GA).
5. Illustrate the rules of word stress.
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Lesson 2: The speech organs
Lesson objectives
■ Illustrate structure of the human speech apparatus.

■ Differentiate active and passive speech organs.
■ Describe broad articulation.
■ Explain the functions of the parts of speech organs.
Lesson content
■ Active and passive organs of speech

■ Broadcast articulation base

2.1 Active and passive organs of speech
Organs of speech are divided into two groups
1. Active organ of speech
2. Passive organ of speech
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1. Active organ of speech
It includes the vocal cords, the posterior wall of the pharynx, the soft palate with
a small tongue, lips, and tongue. They constitute some movements and in the
process of forming sounds they inhabit one or another position.
2. Passive organ of speech
It comprises of teeth, alveoli, hard palate. They are static, they don’t move or they
are motionless.80
Components of active speech organs
The major active speech organs responsible for formation of sounds include:
1.Lips;
2.Lower jaw;
3.Tongue.
Diaphragm, lungs, pyramidal cartilage, vocal cords, and pharynx are parts of the
active speech organs though not the major ones.
Components of passive speech organs
Passive organs of speech help the active organs in forming sound. They perform
an auxiliary function. These are:
1. Teeth;
2. Alveoli;
3. Solid sky;
4. Upper jaw;
5. Oral cavity, nose, pharynx.
2.2 Broadcast articulation base of speech

Articulatory base of speech is the correct pronunciation of the sounds of a
particular language. When one articulatory base of one language is transferred to
the pronunciation of another language, an accent is formed.
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Phases of articulation base
There are three phases in articulation base of speech.
a) Excursion
It is the preparation of the organs of speech for the pronunciation of sound and
the initial movement of the organs of speech.
b) Excerpt
It is the position of the organs of speech at the moment of pronouncing.
c) Recursion
It is the return of the speech organs to their original position.
Sound pronunciation process
When pronouncing voiceless consonants, the vocal cords are not tense and they
spread apart.
When pronouncing voiced consonants, the vocal cords vibrate and become
tense coming together.
Thus, when the vocal cords are tense and closed, and the flow of air makes them
vibrate, a voice arises that we hear when pronouncing vowels, consonants, or
voiced consonants.

1. In a debate distinguish between active and passive organs of speech.
2. In a class presentation name components of active (mobile) speech organs.
3. List the components of passive speech organs.
4. In groups define broadcast articulation base and the articulatory skills used in
the pronunciation of the sounds of English.
5. Explain the three articulation phases.
6. Describe the sound pronunciation process with your partner.
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Lesson 3: Teaching Pronunciation
Lesson objectives
■ Teach pronunciation in classroom

■ Explain the importance of pronunciation in the communication process
Lesson contents
■ Definition of pronunciation
■ Importance of pronunciation in language learning
■ How to teach pronunciation

3.1 Pronunciation
Pronunciation is the main module of spoken language and can lead to precision
and clarity in active communication. Pronunciation is the product of speech that
contributes to conveying meaning of what is being said.
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Importance of pronunciation
Understanding pronunciation plays a key role in clear communication. Therefore, the
goal of learning/teaching pronunciation is important because
1. It develops spoken language that is easy for listeners to understand.
2. It develops spoken language that can communicate effectively.
3. It enhances confidence, establishes and creates a positive self-image.
4. It enables students to develop clarity, communication, and confidence outside
the classroom.
Students with good English pronunciation are easier to understand even if they make
mistakes, while students with poor pronunciation are often afraid to express their
opinions in public, regardless of their English language proficiency level. Good
pronunciation can improve self-confidence, while poor and incomprehensible
pronunciation can even have social impacts, such as anxiety and isolation when
speaking English.
How to teach pronunciation
In order to achieve efficient communication capacity in classroom, each pronunciation
sequence should contain the following sections:
1. Intonation
The English Language teacher should show English intonation to his/her student
and how it differs from language to language. For example, the most unique
characteristics of Somali intonation are continuous patterns unlike English which
occurs in specific syllables in words, and can be accompanied by higher intonation
(which is called “pitch.”) English has a rising and falling intonation. The work of a
teacher is to emphasize those differences.
Changes in intonation can convey vital information about the speaker’s attitude
and emotions. Intonation also indicates whether a sentence is a statement or
question. Changes in intonation also tell your listener if you have finished
speaking or if you are going to add additional information to the sentence.
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2. Stress and rhythm
“Stress” means the emphasis you put on the specific syllable of the word. “Stress”
in English is also an important variable in sentence making or speaking. At the
sentence level, the wrong stress placement can change the whole meaning of
the sentence, and that’s something English language learners need to be very
careful about.
Stress helps the rhythm. Linguists use the term “rhythm” to refer to the measured
movement of language or the flow of music. It is necessary to learn to distinguish
between types of rhythms. The teacher must present to the learner how the
timing of rhythm of the sounds of syllablesand how it differs from the stress
timing. Syllables and stress in English are the two elements of rhythm that affect
speech delivery. Intonation, stress, and rhythm are aspects of what is called
“prosody” In English.
3. Consonants and vowels
Learners need to know all the consonants in the language they learn. Consonants
may look similar in different languages, but they are recognized differently.
The teacher should ensure that the learner does not replace the appropriate
consonant with another, and the student does not omit some consonants. The
consonants are separated or are properly represented in pairs (what are called
“blends” in English). Understanding vowels is the foundation for reading and
writing the English language. Try stringing a line of consonants together and
ask your child or students to make sense of what they see. They will soon realize
that vowels give meaning to words and create patterns that assist their ability to
read correctly.
1. In pairs define pronunciation and explain why it is important to learn how to
listen to, speak, and understand English.
2. Pair up and discuss the importance of pronunciation in the communication process.
3. In a presentation, outline the features to consider when teaching pronunciation.
4. In groups, define intonation and why it is important in communicating
effectively.
4. In a debate, distinguish between stress and rhythm and why they are important
to communicating effectively.
5. In groups, explain why learning vowels and consonants can be confusing.
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Lesson 4: English Stress
He bought apples, peaches, pears and orange
l’ll have two pencils, a black pen and some ink.
We went to paris, brussels, amsterdam, and london
I saw Esther, Jane, Neil and Susan
Lesson objective
■ Correctly pronounce words that change parts of speech depending upon

word stress.
■ Explain the relationships between word stresses and parts of speech.
■ Read words with accurate stress.
■ Describe patterns of sentence stress.
■ Define intonation.
■ Explain the types of intonation.
Lesson contents
1. Word stress
2. Sentence stress
3. Intonation
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4.1 Word Stress
Word stressmeans pronouncing one syllable of a multisyllabic word (word with
more than one syllable) with greater emphasis (stress) than the other syllables in
the word. Inaccurate word stress will result in:
1. Difficulty in understanding native English speakers
2. Difficulty in Native English speakers understanding non-native speakers
3. The native speaker is forced to listen to every word, which is boring, difficult
and tiring.
Rhythm has two elements, namely the syllables and the stress.
Word stress occurs when a sentence, word or syllable is pronounced louder and
more clearly than the nearby sentences, words or syllables. Stress in English
affects the rhythm of the words in a sentence. If you place the wrong stress on
one of the words in the sentence, the whole meaning of the sentence will be
altered.
Example:
1. Incorrect: Asha is preSENT in the program. (Present here is a noun.)
2. Correct: Asha is PREsent in the program. (Present here is a verb.)
4.2 Stress in English placement

One word, one syllable
Every word in English language has only one stress no matter the length of the
sentence. Generally in English you do not place stress on consonant sounds.
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For example
Words like “present,” “management,” and “international” have one stress each.
The following are some of the rules to observe during word stress
Number of Sylla-
Rule Examples
bles
Two-syllable nouns Stress the first syllable PREsent, EXpert, Export, IMport
Stress the second syl-
Two-syllable Verbs PreSENT, exPORT, imPORT
lable
Two-syllable adjec-
Stress the first syllable HAPpy, BIGger, HOTter
tives
Words ending with Stress second last syl-
IoNic, MezZOic
-ic lable
Words ending with Stress the syllable be- InterNAtional, ReLAtion, Super-
–sion and -tion fore –sion and -tion VIsion, mission
Words ending with GeOgraphy, BiOlogy, PhiLOso-
Stress the third last
–cy, -ty, -phy, –gy, phy, NaTIonal, GeoLOgical, His-
syllable
and –al TOrical
Stress the first part of CLASSroom, BLACKboard,
Compound nouns
the word MULTI-vitamin
Compound Adjec- Stress the first syllable Single-WOrd, Quick-WITted,
tives second part word Ten-Minute
Stress the second
Compound verbs Give-UP, Fly-BY, Get-OVER
word
Basic Sentence Stress Rules
Sentence stress is the pattern of stressed and unstress words across a sentence.
1. New Information:
When new information is being communicated, then stress the word that conveys
the new information.
A: Are we going to the restaurant?
B: Yes, we’re going to the Italian restaurant.
A: I thought we were going to the YEMENI restaurant.
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2. Ideas that contrast
Stress the words that are being contrasted.
Example:
Halima likes sports, but she doesn’t love them.
The black shoes are nice, but the red shoes are better.
I said Wednesday not Thursday.
3. Negation: Always stress the negative word in a sentence.
1. I will NOT answer that question.
2. He’s NOT coming.
3. She DOESn’t care for Sushi.
4. There’s NO WAY I’m touching that spider.
4. Clarification: Always stress the word that needs clarification.
1. Did you say FORty?
2. No, I said WEDNESday.
3. So, it’s not sixTEEN?
4.3 Intonation
This is the tonal variation (intonation) when speaking language. In other words, it is
the pitch variation and pace one uses when speaking sentences.
Types of Intonation
Keep in mind that the English language has a rising and falling intonation. How
does this resemble or different from Somali?
1. Falling Intonation
The falling intonation describes how the speech falls on the last syllable of the last
word. This tone is often used in the Why-questions:- what, where, when, why (and
how).
In addition, we also use falling intonation if we want to emphasize things or we
want to be definite or clear with our words or intentions.
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Example:
1. When giving commands. For example:
a. Put the cup down. (The voice falls on the word “down”).
b. Stand against the tree. (The voice goes down on “tree”).
2. In exclamation sentence:
a. That is brilliant!
Rising Intonation
The rising intonations can be placed at the end or on the last syllable of the word in
a sentence. This is common in Yes- no questions.
Example:
1. In questions:
When does the meeting start? (The voice rises up when saying “start.”) Would like a
cup of milk? (The voice rises up when saying “milk.”)
2. When listing items:

I would like some eggs, some bread, some oil and some sugar.
Falling-rising intonation
The falling-rising intonation shows how the speaker’s voice falls and then rises at the
same time in the same sentence. We use falling-rising intonation if we are indefinite or
not sure with our words or ideas presented.
We also utilize falling-rising intonation if we are asking questions related to asking
permission, request, or an invitation to someone. Falling-rising intonation sounds
politer than using falling intonation or rising intonation.
Example:
1. Ex^cuse /me – Is this al^ri/ght?
2. Do you ^need /something?
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1. Using examples, define word “stress.”
2. Illustrate the rules of word stress with a partner.
3. In a group, explain why sentences are stressed.
4. With a partner, define “intonation.”
5. In a class presentation, describe three types of intonation.
6. In a debate, differentiate between stress and intonation.

1. English speech and language skills do not just evolve on their own. They are part
of a bigger picture involving social interactions, play, observation, manipulating
objects, listening and attending. Discuss several specific activities that can be used
to help develop speaking skills in English .
2. Explain the differences between the Received Pronunciation and General American.
3. Illustrate using examples the different features in pronunciation between the
Received Pronunciation and General American.
4. Discuss the three articulation phases.
5. Describe the sound production process.
6. Underline each stressed syllable in the following words. Explain your answer.
a) Geological
b) Geology
c) Gave-up
d) Classroom
e) Taller
f ) Policy
g) Dictation
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h) Cement (verb)
i) Cement (noun)
j) Decision
8. In spite of the importance of clear and accurate pronunciation, it does not
always get the attention it deserves on the part of teachers. Some focus on the
grammar and other areas of the language instruction giving little or no interest to
pronunciation. Discuss some of the challenges that may have led teachers to ignore
or neglect teaching pronunciation.
9. Highlight the characteristics of typical accent features of the RP and GA.
10. There are different types of intonation in English language. Identify and explain
each one of them.
11. State two problems of lack of improper word stress as far as communication is
concerned.
12. Every now and then, parts of sentences are stressed. Explain why we need to
stress parts of sentences.

1. Word stress is among the essential parts that play a significant role in English
language learning. Explain.
2. In not less than 100 words, write an essay on
The Importance of Pronunciation in Developing English Language Skills.
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Chapter 4
ENGLISH SYLLABUS AND SUBJECT MATERIALS
Chapter Objectives
By the end of the chapter, the learner should be able to:
■ Explain the meaning and purpose of syllabus
■ Explain the functions of syllabus in teaching English Language in Primary
School
■ Use the approved subject resources of English Language
Chapter Content
■ The Syllabus
■ The Functions of the Syllabus
■ Objectives
■ Approved Subject Resources
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Lesson 1: The syllabus
Lesson objectives
■ Define syllabus
■ State the aims, goals, and objectives of an English Language syllabus
■ Highlight the subject content
■ Describe the components of an English Language syllabus for primary school
Lesson contents
■ Introduction to syllabus and its components
■ Aims
■ Goals
■ Objectives
■ Subject content

1.1 Introduction to the syllabus
What is a syllabus?
This is an outline or summary subject topics with short- and long-term

objectives to be covered by each grade level in each subject. More simply,
it is a framework to guide the teaching of a subject. The choices around
how to teach to the syllabus remains with the teacher. Some syllabi (plural
of syllabus) may summarize all the topics to be taught in a year; others,
over an extended period of time.
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As a teacher, you should be able to extract all the topics and sub-topics, learning
outcomes (what students should be able to know and do by the end of the lesson
or a series of lessons), and activities.
You must use the syllabus for your planning to ensure that all topics and sub-
topics are covered and assessed within the given time frame.
A syllabus for both lower and upper primary should have the following components.
■ Educational goal
■ Purpose of the respective primary education level (lower or upper)
■ The subjects to be taught
■ The general and specific objectives for every subject
■ The outline of topics (content) per subject and grade level
■ Weekly allocation of time per subject
■ Assessments to be used
■ Approaches/teaching strategies
1.2 The Aim

An aim is a broad statement of intent that describes in general terms the
expected outcomes in life after undergoing in a systematic process of schooling. The
results of the aims may be determined long after the completion of school life.
Aims are also seen to be at different levels. For example: national aims, school aims
and individual aims.
■ The aim of the Somali National Curriculum is to produce individuals with
enriched moral, social, intellectual growth and attitudes applicable for the
transformation of an individual as well as the Republic of Somalia. These aims
include:
1. Encourage within the community the attainment and application of necessary

skills, knowledge and attitudes relevant for the development in a continuously
transforming world.
2. Promote within the society:
■ Concern for proper management and utilization of the physical environment.
■ Self-responsibility in promoting peace at individual, family, community,
national and international levels.
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■ Civic awareness committed to mutual understanding of enhancing
diverse cultures and resolving differences without violence.
■ Promote faithfulness, fidelity, self-reliance, tolerance, co-operation,
diligence, openness, inquiry, positive thought, honesty, justice, fairness
and peaceful coexistence.
■ Consciousness of the need for and the active promotion of social justice in
the context of Islam and mutual consultation.
1.3 The Goals

Goals are occasionally treated in the same category of aims. Goals are broad
intent to foster nationhood and national unity. Thus, they are not easily measured.
Teachers should be encouraged and provide with help in developing and using
SMART goals. That is;
Characteristics of Goals
■ Goals are broad, generalized statements about what is to be learned.
■ Concepts/procedures that are critical to your subject area.
■ Skills and knowledge you want your learner to have and to be able to apply,
etc. (learning outcomes)
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1.4 The Objectives
Objectives are formulations of educational intent which are more specific and precise.
They are written to clarify aims and goals. They are specific, measurable, and
achievable within the set time limit.
Objectives should target four areas:
1. Audience: At whom is the objective aimed (e.g., learner)
2. Behavior: This entails what the subjects or the course intends to achieve after
the learning process in terms of knowledge acquisition, application of skills, and the
general attitude of the learner.
3. Condition: The classroom and the school environment should promote the
learning activity. The general environment outside the school settings is supposed
to enhance conducive learning for the learners, too.
4. Degree: The extent at which the course book and its content are acceptable to the
society, learners and the nation.
1.5 The Subject Content
The subject content illustrates the topics and sub-topics for each particular year of the
primary education cycle for which the teacher is responsible.
Instructional Objectives
Instructional objectives are short-term education intents. They can be realized before
the end of the lesson either partially or fully.
For example: “Before the end of the lesson, the learner should be able to construct five
grammatically correct sentences using the simple present tense.”
Instructional objectives have three basic attributes:
1. The behavior expected from the learner (e.g., “to construct sentences using
simple present tenses”)
2. Conditions under which (evidence that) the behavior to be demonstrated
(Five correct sentences)
3. The level of performance required (five grammatically correct sentences)
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1.6 The Assessments
A learner’s performance can be evaluated in many ways depending on the nature
of the task and the purpose for which evaluation is done. Evaluation can be done in
the following ways: -
■ Observation
■ Discussion, grouping and awarding grades or scores for pieces of work produced
■ Oral questioning as the lesson progresses and level of cognition.
■ Administering short quizzes to diagnose problems and determine the level
of achievement.
■ Giving written assignments to engage learners in independent work and to
measure their individual abilities.
■ Administrating tests at the end of the term to report on the learner’s
progress.
■ Assigning learners to carry out projects that involve problem-solving and
creativity and then assessing the project work.
Activity 1: Presentation
The Somali national curriculum is a uniform document and highly structured. For
example, it is necessary for a child from an urban area to learn about road safety and
the environment as well as to teach road safety to a child from rural areas, adapting
the information provided to suit the specific context of the learner.
1. I n g ro u p s, explain the aims of the Somali’s English Language syllabus
2. In a presentation, highlight the goals and the objectives of English Language
syllabus
3. In a paragraph, describe the components of the Somali syllabus.
4. In groups discuss why we really need a syllabus to teach?
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Lesson 2: The functions and content of a syllabus
Lesson objectives
By the end of the lesson the learner should be able to:

■ Highlight the information that is included in a syllabus.
■ Explain the functions of a syllabus.
■ Describe how a syllabus helps the learner and the teacher.
Lesson Contents
■ Brief introduction about the aims of a syllabus
■ Information typically included in a syllabus
■ Functions of a syllabus
■ Explanation of how syllabus helps the learner and the teacher

2.1 Brief introduction about the aims of a syllabus
The learner should be able to glance through the syllabus quickly and get a sense
of who is teaching the subject, what they will learn from the subject, the materials
they will need to participate in the respective subject lessons, who they should
contact if they need help with any aspect of the subject, and what they will have to
do to succeed in the subject.
2.2 Information in a syllabus
Biographical and contact information for the teacher: a paragraph about the
teacher’s background and relevant qualifications for teaching the class.
Topic description: a paragraph that explains what the topic is about.
Course materials: a list of textbooks and other instructional materials that will
help the learners to participate in the subject.
Subject learning goals: a set of statements that shows learners how the subject
will be relevant to them, what they will know, and what they will be able to do in
relation to the subject by the end of the school term.
Academic integrity: a statement about the school’s guidelines, policy, school
rules and academic honesty.
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2.3 Function of a syllabus
■ To control the nature of education provided in all the schools by
ensuring that all learners in the country receive similar education.
■ To list the selected topics/sub-topics for each subject in sequence (from
simple to complex) and to group topics according to the term and year
in which it is to be covered.
■ For English language syllabus plan topics and skills in the acquisition
of English language for non-native speakers so that each topic and skill
builds on the preceding topic and skill in a logical order. Some skills
related to English language proficiency for non-native speakers will be
revisited at appropriate times throughout the course for reinforcement
and additional practice.
■ To ensure that what is selected is achievable within a given grade level
and ability of the learner.
■ To provide the objectives of a given grade level and guide its teaching
■ To provide appropriate methods of teaching of a given topic and skill
and relevant assessment techniques.
2.4 How a syllabus helps a learner and a teacher

1) Establishes an early point of contact and connection between a learner and a
teacher
Provides biographical information that will help students to learn about the
teachers’ professional training, experience, and areas of expertise.
2) Helps set the tone for your subject
√ The primary school syllabus provides clarity and shared knowledge around
subject area and grade level expectations for the course.
3) Covers topics to be taught
√ By planning your subject, preparing the necessary lessons, and including them
in your syllabus, you help the learner to have one central document that lays out
critical subject area and grade level course information for everyone.
4) Clarifies learner’s responsibilities for successful term work.
√ It helps the learner to be aware in advance of course expectations and outcome
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to set their mind and to plan for the academic term.
5) Helps learner to assess their readiness for the subject.
In addition to specific subject and grade level prerequisites, the learner should
be given some idea about what they should already know and what skills they
should already have before taking the subject, so they can realistically assess
their readiness. Your syllabus can provide information about the challenges the
learner will face, the assumed skill level, the skills they will build upon, and the
skills they will learn during your subject.
6) Provide support to the teacher in fulfilling his teaching duties
The syllabus can highlight major ideas, topics, and information that will be
covered during the course as well as include key questions or issues for the
learner to be aware of that will be explored over the course period. For English
language learners (among non-native speakers), the syllabus should identify
the key skills that will be developed and practiced in the four language domains
(reading, writing, speaking, and listening) to help all levels of learners achieve
English language proficiency.
7) Identifies information on course books.
√ It gives details to the learners the tittle of the course book and supplementary
books to be used in the subject.
8) Can include information on resource materials that supports learning outside
the classroom as well.
9) Can serve as a learning contract
As an agreement or contract defining mutual obligations between the teacher
and the learner can be included in the syllabus.. The teacher will need to be
familiar with institutional policies regarding attendance, examinations, learning
disabilities, classroom behavioral expectations, and academic integrity and
include relevant information related to these in this section of the syllabus.
10. Can support differentiation
The syllabus can also include details about how the teacher plans to support
different groups of learners. This may include steps for how to organize the
learning space (e.g., to accommodate children with a physical disability), how to
vary the pace and speed of covering certain topics or skills (e.g., for struggling
learners), how to adapt some learning assessments for some groups of learners
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(e.g., learners with hearing or visual impairments, learners who have trouble
processing language in print when reading/writing), and different teaching
strategies that may need to be used to help them show what they know. Learning
how to differentiate in appropriate ways for different learners requires patience,
time, and practice—along with support from peers and head teachers/teaching
coaches.

In small groups, discuss how a syllabus can help the teacher and the learner to
interact with one another effectively.
1. Using illustrations, list the information that is included in a syllabus.
2. In groups discuss the functions of a primary school syllabus.
3. Role play to show in small groups how a syllabus helps the learner and the
teacher.
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Lesson 3: Objective of a syllabus
State the Objectives
Select the learning Experiences
Organise the Learning Experiences
Evaluate the Learning
Lesson objectives
By the end the lesson, the learner should be able to:
■ Highlight the objectives of the English Language syllabus
■ Explain the features of an effective syllabus
■ State the benefits of a syllabus
■ Discuss the importance of an English Language syllabus to a learner
Lesson content
■ Objective of the syllabus
■ Features of an effective syllabus
■ Benefits of a syllabus
■ Importance of an English Language syllabus to a learner

3.1 Objectives of the syllabus
The primary English syllabus has the following objectives:
1. Improve the capability the four language domains in English (reading,

writing, speaking, and listening).
2. Improve in interpersonal communication
3. Analyzing, writing about, and responding to various text types
4. Develop the ability to complete spoken, listening, reading, and written language
tasks in English with increased language proficiency.
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5. Develop the learner’s capacity to monitor personal thinking processes through
the application of meta-cognitive strategies.
6. Improve the skills needed to articulate personal experiences (real or imagined) in
spoken and written language.
7. Stimulate in the learner a willingness and ability to contribute opinions on
range of issues or the subjects during discussion and other oral activities.
8. Encourage an appreciation of for the English Language and the value in
learning the language.
9. Expand an understanding and appreciation for the varieties of English and
dialects used across the globe.
10. Advance a critical awareness of the use of language devices used in different
types of writing.
11. Improve the ability to read and respond to questions and tasks related to a
variety of text types in English for pleasure, insight, and learning.
3.2 Features of an effective syllabus

■ The syllabus in its entirety is a subject-preparation tool. It helps the teacher
to formulate how the subject will be taught.
■ It describes the subject goals and explains the subject structure and
assignments, exams, review sessions, and other activities required for learner
to learn the core textbook.
■ The syllabus expresses to the learner a clear idea of the subject content and
the knowledge and skills they will gain throughout their time learning the
subject.
■ It gives learners room to do extensive practice in the form of various
classroom activities, homework and subject oriented assignments.
3.3 Benefit of a syllabus

■ It provides the framework about the learner’s responsibilities in order to suc-
ceed in the subject.
■ The syllabus outlines a teacher’s duties towards the overall development of
the learner.
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■ The syllabus defines the learning materials/activities that support the
learning process outside the classroom settings.
■ It ensures learners and the teacher are able to develop a shared understanding
about what will be covered in the grade level subject by stating the
objectives and goals to be achieved at the end of the year for each respective
subject.
■ The primary schools’ syllabus can influence learners’ attitudes for the subject
by showcasing the content of subject and presenting it in ways that
may help make the subject more relevant for learners.
■ It significantly provides information that will facilitate the academic success
of the learner.
■ It enlightens learners about the structure of the class (an overview of topics and
sub-topics to be covered), goals and learning outcomes.

We are going to describe the main objective of the English Language syllabus
Importance of syllabus to the learner

A syllabus is a tool that provides the road map to realize an effective learning process.
A syllabus is significant to a learner in a primary school in the following ways:
■ Provides description of the topics and concepts to be taught while
preparing for the evaluation at the end of the academic year for that
subject.
■ A syllabus also mentions the time allocated to different units and chapters
which can help learners to plan on how to best prepare for chapters with
high or low coverage.
■ Having a clear understanding of your syllabus and the time allocation to var-
ious sections will definitely help the learner to decide how much time s/he
should dedicate to each section of the learning process
■ The evaluation (which is at times an examination) for each subject are
designed as per the syllabus prescribed for that subject.
■ At the beginning of the subject session, it helps the learner to carefully read
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the entire syllabus and get an idea of the subject structure.
■ Before starting a chapter or unit, it helps the learner to make a list of the
topics to be taught in the academic term or the year.

We are going to discuss the features of an effective syllabus and the significance
of syllabus to learner centered learning process.

1. In a presentation, highlight the objectives of an English Language syllabus (and
of syllabi generally)
2. In groups describe the features of an effective English Language syllabus.
3. I l l u s t r a t e u s i n g e x a m p l e s the importance of an effective syllabus to a
learner centered learning set up.
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Lesson 4: Approved course books and resource teaching
and learning materials
Lesson objectives
■ Evaluate and approve an appropriate course books
■ Enhance learner’s learning support.
■ Apply correct principles in selecting the course books.
Lesson content
■ Description of an appropriate course book
■ Characteristics of approved course books
■ Adapting course books
■ Principles of teaching and learning resource selection
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4.1 Description of appropriate course book
Approved course books provide the teachers with critical instructional tools to use to
plan learning activities to meet grade level and subject area learning objectives.
The course books are aligned with the national curriculum framework. Course
syllabus , schemes of work, and lesson plans should be designed to help
learners gain knowledge and skills that are laid out in the course books
and national curriculum framework. .
Teaching materials such as course books are designed to support teaching and
learning for the respective country context and should promote inclusivity and
gender sensitivity through the selection of content, illustrations, captions, and
other components of the materials. Effective usage of course books and other teaching
and learning resource materials help learners not only to build an knowledge and
skills related toa particular subject, but also to develop their individual learning
strategies, values, attitudes and behaviors that honor differences and enable all learners
to thrive within schools.
Textbooks are one of the main teaching resources that have been approved.
In groups, we are going to discuss how a teacher is able to select an appropriate text
book to have effective teaching then present in class.
4.2 Characteristics of approved course books
1. Consistency and Accuracy
Approved primary English course books should be factual, correct and consistent.
Factual descriptions, and terms for the language modelsused, ought to be coherent.
For instance, an example of a model to teach elements of the body in English
should be up-to-date, clearly labeled, accurate, and draw upon information from
reliable (expert) sources. They should also be culturally and gender sensitive.
2. Perfect organization of language
An approved resource ought to have clear structure ranging from the units to
topics and chapters and use language that is accessible to those who will be using the
resource regularly. It is helpful if key terms and concepts are clearly defined at
the beginning of the chapter or unit. These terms and concepts should be used
consistently throughout the resource.
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3. Efficiency
Time is precious elements in the learning process. An approved course book is worth
using to provide good returns on the time invested in developing and delivering it.
Therefore, approved course books should be very efficient (helping teachers save
time having to find multiple resources to teach some subjects) and beneficial to the
learners. A course book that is efficient implies easy to appreciate with measurable
objectives and clear aims to be achieved for units and chapters throughout the course
book.
4. Relevance
Approved course books need to be clearly aligned to the national curriculum. This
helps teachers to focus on what is essential to cover during lessons and to lay this out
within their schemes of work.
Approved course books should show where it came from and who made it. You can
always have more confidence in the relevance and timeliness of a resource when you
know its source.
4.3 How to adapt course books
Approved course books should allow a comprehensive approach to learning and
teaching modes designed to actively involve learners in class activities that help them
to grow their knowledge and skills for respective subjects and grade levels.
The following are the ways of adapting and choosing key content and skills that are
covered in course books.
■ Include content, and ideas in classroom discussions and provide relevant
examples, sociocultural contexts, and images to help to make the content and
ideas more clear.
■ Select questions, topics, and learning tasks suitable for group work, an
approach which helps in creating an active learner-centered classroom.
These should focus on questions that are open-ended, topics that are
complex, and learning tasks that would benefit from multiple viewpoints
and collaborative problem-solving.
■ Model openness when soliciting ideas from all learners during classroom
discussions as this is also helpful in broadening the knowledge of the teacher
and the learner and in ensuring that discussions and similar activities
promote inclusion.
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■ Encourage learners to ask questions of you and other learners in a respectful
manner to encourage them to widen their knowledge and understanding.
Values of a designed course book

The major objectives of course book designing is to support the delivery of content
that will help to achieve learning goals that are laid out in the national curriculum
framework for primary grades and subject areas. Course books are also designed
to reflect the values, challenges, needs, and complexity of the respective country
where the course books will be used.
Effective learning design is a result of productive group effort among the content
specialists, learning practitioners, and learners. Course book designing is guided by few
values.
These are:
■ To honor the experience, skills, and expertise of the classroom teacher
and to help him/her to achieve the goals for respective subject and
grade level.
■ To solicit feedback from classroom teachers about how useful the course
books are in lesson and assessment planning and instructional delivery.

1. On individual basis Explain the value of having access to approved course
books.
2. Discuss the characteristics of approved course books with your partner.
3. In a debate explain some of the challenges that will arise after implementing
a course book?
4. In groups describe the considerations to keep in mind when adapting course
book content for one’s respective students?
5. Using examples, highlight some of the values embedded in course book design.
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1. Discuss the different components of a primary school English Language
syllabus.
2. Distinguish between goals and aim of a syllabus.
3. Objectives are formulations of educational intents which are more specific
and precise. Support this statement by illustrating the four aspects an objective
should target in developing a primary school syllabus.
4. Illustrate the three basic characteristics of an instructional objectives
5. Describe ways of developing an evaluation for the learners in primary school
6. What are some of the information included in a syllabus?
7. Explain the function of a primary school syllabus.
8. Discuss how syllabus can help learner and a teacher in delivering learning
activities.
9. Outline the objectives of a primary English syllabus.
10. State the features of an effective syllabus.
The aim of the Somali National Curriculum (which is like a lengthy syllabus) is
to produce individuals with enriched moral, social, knowledgeable, skills and
attitudes necessary for the growth and survival of the individual and the Republic
of Somalia. In not less than 150 words, explain how the Somali national
curriculum/syllabus effectively enriches the learners under the following
sub-headings:
1. Concern for physical environment.
2. An individual responsibility to preach peace.
3. The growth of civic consciousness.
4. Values of loyalty, self-reliance, tolerance, co-operation, diligence, openness,
inquiry, critical thinking, honesty, justice, fairness and peace.
5. Promotion of social justice, in the context of Islam and mutual consultation.
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Chapter 5
TEACHING METHODOLOGY IN PRIMARY SCHOOL S
Chapter Objectives
■ Express words through basic English skills to produce language.
■ Describe the necessary pedagogical practices that promote student-centered
learning.
■ Develop positive attitudes towards teaching English basic skills.
■ Acquire skills to understand and interpret English basic skills.
■ Develop specialized language and vocabulary relevant to the subject.
■ Interpret assignments, questions and select relevant and appropriate responses.
■ Work productively with a group.
Chapter Content
■ Teaching productive skills
■ Teaching receptive skills
■ Audio-visual aids in primary schools
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Lesson 1: Teaching Productive skills in primary schools
Lesson objectives
■ Express words through speaking and writing for a variety of purposes.
■ Develop the academic language and vocabulary relevant to the
speaking and writing tasks in English
■ Interpret assignment questions and select relevant and appropriate
responses.
■ Write well-structured and coherently presented assignments without
plagirism.
■ Improve communication skills through writing and speaking.
■ Work productively with members of a group.
■ Define the term “audio-visual aids.”
Identify some of the benefits of and considerations when using “audio-

visual aids.”
Lesson content
■ Teaching writing skills
■ Teaching speaking skills
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In groups we are going to research and find out the role of critical thinking in enhancing
English productive skills.
1.0 Introduction
Productive skills in English are writing and speaking skills because learners need
to speak clearly and coherently as well as to write a range of texts that can be
understood by a wide range of other persons who speak and/or write in English.
Equipped with these skills, learners are able to transfer information, convince others
of diverse opinions and beliefs, and share concepts, ideas, and feelings through
writing and speaking.
It is important to note that these skills reveal observable evidence of language
acquisition and level of language proficiency. The more we are able to write and speak
in English, the more we are able to produce coherent communication and written
texts. A high level of proficiency in oral language is a positive predictor of reading
fluency and reading comprehension.
Through productive skills (speaking and writing), learners are able to take notes,
fill in forms, and write emails, letters, text messages, reports or stories. Given that
teaching productive skills is aimed at helping learners become more proficient in skills
that contribute to improvements in reading fluency and comprehension, English
language lessons should be strategically planned to include speaking and writing
activities in every lesson.
These activities should be scaffolded to ensure that foundational literacy skills
in speaking and writing have been developed and if delayed are re-introduced,
practiced, and reinforced until all learners are actively talking in class, learning
how to self-correct and take risks in speaking longer without prompts and with
increasing accuracy, and writing and revising their work for a variety of purposes and
audiences.
Why is teaching productive language skills important?
1. They are the recognizable indication of language acquisition.
If the speaker or the writer produces language over time that is increasingly clear,
appropriate for the audience, and coherent using vocabulary, phrases and sentences
that are grammatically correct with minimal errors, it is a proof of the progress in the
learner’s language development.
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2. Productive skills constitute the basic life skills
In real life situations, people generally need to stay informed, to convince and be
convinced of certain views, to share ideas and request and receive information, and to
take notes, fill in forms, and write emails, letters, text messages, and other types of
writing.
1.1 Teaching Writing Skills
I am going to discuss some specific teaching techniques a teacher can employ to
teach writing skills.
Teaching technique is a way of implementing activities which takes place in

a classroom to support learning. It is a particular strategy used to accomplish an
immediate learning objective. Just like any other skill, writing skills require techniques
to attain its learning objectives related to literacy/language development.
Before looking at some specific techniques, it is important to note that writing
which is a dynamic process focuses on the progress and the development of new skills,
rather than just the completion of assessment tasks.
Writing is a well-organized learning process that is used to communicate information,
clarify thinking, and learn new concepts, views, and information. Learners should
learn strategies to foster invention and discovery. Reading with comprehension
a variety of texts and writing clearly for a variety of audiences are among the
most challenging—and rewarding—language skills.
Achievement in language teaching is depends on resources, methodologies,
and language analysis in the classroom—and trying and assessing different specific
strategies to promote the four language domains.
1. Writing focused on a picture
In this technique, we describe the picture in question, then arrange the sentences
from the description into a logical sequence. Learners observe a picture given by the
teacher, then they can write the description about the picture. This encourages
the learners in writing to describe what they can see, improve their ability in
writing, understand how to describe something, and improve their creativity. This
technique is sometimes called “picture walk.” This is a valuable activity to use with
beginning English speakers as the books they are first introduced to are often
picture books.
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Classroom setting
Students are asked to use the given picture and describe Abdi’s physically
characteristics. That is, we only describe what we see and not what we know about the
picture.
The teacher ensures the learners describe the picture fully, asking questions and pointing
as needed to encourage the writer to add details.
The teacher can explain if appropriate for the lesson that some of the words they may
be using to describe the picture are called adjectives.
At this point, learners have hopefully come to understand that adjectives are
descriptive words and have been developing a vocabulary of high frequency
words, some of which are commonly used adjectives relevant for describing
familiar things and people.
2. Writing using a model
This is the technique inwhich learners are able to review examples of different types
of text provided by the teacher as a model. to help learners better understand the
structure, tone, and vocabulary commonly used in different types of text. Learners
can imitate the example which is used by the teacher. At this point, learners can
change the content of the text as per the teacher’s instruction.
Using models helps learners to better understand the forms of different text types
more easily.
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3. Dictation
In this technique, the teacher dictates while the learners write what they heard. That is,
the teacher reads out words, phrases, and sentences orally and learners write what the
teacher said.
Dictation helps language learners to improve spelling, vocabulary, listening skills,
and understanding of the texts shared by the teacher. It is best to use dictation for
learners starting at grade 3 and higher when learners can recognize words and
sentences, have mastered high frequency words, and are able to write complete
sentences (even with errors). The teacher can dictate a series of phrases or
sentences to the students. The students and the teacher can then collaborate
to create a corrected model of the focus text, and students should be taught
how to correct their errors. The dictated text can be practiced several times over
the course of a week to practice and learn conventions, grammar, spelling, and
vocabulary.1 (Dictation is especially effective when it is contextualized—related
to what the learners are reading/learning in class already.)
With respect to spelling, an often overlooked language skill, the teacher can give
students a particular phoneme (or root word) to explore, analyze, and practice.
The teacher can provide a list of words that contain this phoneme (or root word)
in advance, color-coding each word to represent the level of English language
proficiency needed (beginner, medium, and advanced). A few words can either
be selected or assigned—the number and selection would be dependent on the
ability or age of the student—to analyze in more depth through various games
and activities, while ensuring learners have the skills to segment/decode their
chosen words into phonemes and syllables.2
Dictation can also be used to help students who work in groups to recreate a
heard text by taking notes and pooling their knowledge as a group to reconstruct
it in written form.3 The group can work together to ensure that the dictated text
is grammatically correct, has no spelling errors, is using the specific vocabulary
that was included, is correctly punctuated, etc. This type of activity also helps
to grow English language learners’ knowledge and application of terms to use
when talking about language (called metalanguage) which will enable them to
Better understand why the teacher is using the approaches s/he is using to promote
language proficiency in the four domains.
4. Writing centered on a given topic
Before learners write, the teacher gives a topic to write on. Learners have to give an
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opinion about the topic given by the teacher. It is best to explore a debatable topic
by presenting a question that has multiple possible responses or viewpoints. This
technique helps learners to improve their critical thinking by exploring possible
responses and the strength of the evidence to support them.
The learner’s ability to write sentences and paragraphs that are logically structured
and sequenced-as well as to apply techniques like brainstorming and outlining
processes can be developed and improved through this approach. For learners
with low proficiency levels in writing, they can engage in this activity orally, sharing
ideas with a partner with stronger writing skills, and can review, organize, and
revise ideas in writing with the support of a peer and the teacher. Key words can be
underlined and used as part of word study to bolster vocabulary.
5. Fill in the blank
In this technique, the teacher writes a question, sentence, or passage with blank
spaces where one or more words are missing in each blank. This kind of exercise
is called a close exercise. The learner is given the opportunity to fill in the blank
spaces through thinking through and writing the missing words. This gives the
learner an opportunity to learn vocabulary, understand the content of sentence
or text, improve knowledge of grammatical structures, and practice using context
to determine word meaning. In constructing close exercises, the question,
sentence, or passage chosen should be at the level of language proficiency of
most learners in the classroom. Learners should be encouraged to first read
through the question, sentence, or passage to get a general sense of what it may
be about before they start to fill in the missing words.
6. Writing built on jumble letters/words/sentences
In this technique, learners should rearrange the jumbled letters/words into the
right word/sentence/paragraph. This technique can improve learners’ spelling,
vocabulary, sentence structure, and logical reasoning through structuring
sentences and paragraphs. For learners in early primary, this exercise can help
build decoding skills, support learning of letter blends and spelling, and grow
vocabulary. This is also an evaluation technique for the teacher to ascertain if the
learners’ ability in writing words, sentence,s or longer texts is improving and to
use additional strategies and provide remedial support learners as needed.
7. Writing in a group
In this technique, the teacher divides the learners into several groups or into
pairs. Each group is given a written task to do by the teacher, then learners
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have to discuss in their respective groups how best to draft, revise, and finalize
the written task. Those paired or grouped should be of similar ability in terms
of language proficiency. Depending on the writing task, this is a particularly
effective technique to use for learners in upper primary on longer written
assignments such as writing essays or stories. Revision and provision of feedback
can be guided through the use of a rubric or checklist that focused on different
aspects of effective writing (e.g., structure and logical sequencing of the written
draft; coherence of ideas within and across paragraphs; use of topic sentence;
use of correct grammar and syntax; vocabulary use (relevance, variation,
appropriateness), etc.).
Example
Class activity
Teacher tells the learners what they will talk or write about; for example, festivals. Pose
the question; what is festival? The teacher has to be certain that all learners understand
the topic. To support learners with this type of activity, it is important to provide
sentence starters and review models with learners in advance of what they have to
do to complete a draft.
Then the teacher divides the class into groups and each group is asked to
discuss one unique festival (group 1; wedding party, group 2; Independent
day party, group 3; graduation party and group 4: Eid festival party).
The teacher gives learners time to discuss, and afterwards to present their findings.
This strategy is important because it creates relation between learners and as well
as improving teamwork.
1.2 Teaching speaking skills
1. Brainstorming
In this technique, learners express their thoughts freely. Learners are trained to build
their ideas by making use of the art of story-telling and real-life experiences. The teacher
asks learners to relate the stories to any real life situations they know or have experienced.
Brainstorming can help learners to improve their critical thinking ability through
relating issues to real life situations and to build learner’s confidence, which is
important for learners to have or grow communication/ speaking skills.
2. Reporting
Students are asked to stand in front of the class or to his or her partner and talk
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about their daily lives experiences before class as a warm up before the lessons
begins.
You are going to group the class in pairs. Each partner in turn is going to report
their experience while at home. Thereafter the teacher is going to select students
to give their reports in front of the class.

We are going to divide the class into two groups. One group will choose a topic
for group discussion. The other group will act like an observer group. The role
of the observer group is to note down the positive and negative qualities of the
speaker who is participating from the group discussion. Finally, we are going to
share our writings with the class for discussions.
3. Question and answer session
A class is divided into groups where each group takes turns to ask and answer
questions. This is a good learning strategy to develop speaking skills in English
because it requires the learners to be attentive and and to listen actively.
Also, it improves their thinking capacity that they can frame and respond to the
questions accurately. Question and answer is also a problem-solving technique. As
learners’ spoken proficiency in English improves, they will be able to
ask and respond to questions that have multiple parts, with phrases
and sentences of increasing complexity, and using a wider range of
vocabulary.
Question and answer activity can be conducted in two groups as well. One group
can be tasked to ask questions and the other group respond to the questions.
Learners can be encouraged to choose any topic they want or to select from a
list of topics related to the subject area they are learning. A vocabulary “bank” can
be provided as a reference to use throughout the group work. A variation of the
activity is to have learners ask and answer questions in two groups that include
academic vocabulary they have been learning in a particular subject area.
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4. Dialogue and conversation
Dialogic teaching means engaging learners with their developing ideas and
helping them to speak through agree-disagree situations. In dialogue teaching
the teacher can elicit ideas, explain ideas, and clarify points and purposes of what the
students will do in class.
During dialogues, the teacher’s role in encouraging listening, speaking and thinking
is crucial. The teacher provides a platform by asking questions and encouraging
learners to do the same.
Dialogic teaching allows the teacher to have access to learner’s ideas and learners
to have the opportunity to gain new information a n d opinions and to ask and
questions.
5. Lead-in activities that promote speaking skills
A lead-in activity can determine how successful a class will be. A teacher has to
find a lead-in activity that is interesting and captures the learners’ attention from
the beginning of the class. Exploring the meanings of proverbs is an effective
speaking activity that can also serve as a lead-in activity at the start of some
lessons. A proverb can be defined as a short, traditional saying, which articulates
some clear truth or comparable experiences. Proverbs have been used as
teaching tools for teaching moral values and social skills. Considering the good
values expressed throughproverbs, a teacher can use proverbs to teach English
as a foreign language as a lead-in activity as part of teaching language skills. It is
a good way to combine the learning of vocabulary, grammar, sentence patterns,
and moral values. The selection of proverbs can be determined by language
proficiency levels of the majority of learners as well as age-appropriateness. If
possible, some proverbs selected could be those that are similar in both Somali
and English. This would be an effective way to boost biliteracy skills.
6. Role-play
Role play is a student-centered approach of teaching, which can help learners
develop their speaking skills as well as their knowledge of language used in social
situations. It can be used to develop t h e learner’s interest in a wide range of
topics and real word situations and over time confidence in speaking in English.
Role play is an effective way of promoting learners’ listening comprehension
skills as well as building in opportunities to practice using vocabulary and
different grammatical structures. For learners with low levels of English
proficiency, the teacher should begin with short role plays and model how
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to participate in a role play with one or two learners who are comfortable
speaking in front of their classmates. Role plays can also be used to act out a
key issue or challenge that will be explored in a reading selection that will be
used in class.
Activity 5: Role play
In pairs students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of
social roles. The teacher is going to give information to the students such as who
they are and what they think or feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student in one
group “You are Dauud and sick, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened
last night, and Yasmin the doctor will prescribe medicine after listening to your
explanation”. Other group can role play teacher and student, customer and
shopkeeper, bus conductor and passenger and many others that the teacher
will direct.
7. Storytelling competition
This is a very enjoyable, whole-class, free-speaking activity for which students sit
in a circle. For this activity, a teacher starts to tell a story, but after a few sentences
he or she stops narrating. Then, each student starts to narrate from the point
where the previous one stopped. Each student is supposed to add from four to
ten sentences. Students can add new characters, events, descriptions and so on.
Activity 6: Storytelling completions
We are going to have a storytelling completion. The teacher is going to

narrate a story then we choose a story of our own, we are going to practice
the story, then we present in class individually.
The teacher is going to begin to tell a story and then inviting different
learners to add sentences orally to the story s/he has started to tell.
In writing activity in groups we are going to build upon sentences that
other students have contributed. The final story can be read aloud - when
written or retold orally - when completed as a speaking activity.
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5. English-speaking pairs or groups
This technique will encourage speaking only in English. Ask the learners to choose
a partner or to form a group of friends and to start discussing a topic in English. The
list of topics can be generated in advance with the students. The teacher can
circulate as students discuss a topic for a short period of time monitoring how
well learners are able to sustain speaking in English and offering English words as
needed. (A word bank could be shared with learners in advance as well.) The time
for these paired/group discussions can be extended over time. For learners with
limited English language proficiency, it would be helpful to provide them with a
question or a few sentence starters that relate to the topics listed to help them
get started or to sustain the conversation.
1. In small groups, explain the term “productive skills.”
2. In a presentation, state the procedure of teaching productive skills.
3. With illustrated examples, highlight the important points to be noted
about productive skills.
4. In pairs describe the teaching techniques of teaching writing skills in classroom.
5. List each teaching techniques’ objectives of teaching writing skills in classroom.
6. Role play in peer groups to illustrate the teaching strategies for teaching
speaking skills in classroom.
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Lesson 2: Teaching Receptive skills in primary schools
Lesson objectives
■ Acquire skills to understand and interpret listening and reading materials.
■ Develop specialized language and vocabulary relevant to the subject.
■ Interpret assignments, questions and select relevant and appropriate
responses.
■ Listen and read fluently well-structured and coherent texts.
■ Use cognitive processing while listening and reading.
■ Work productively with a group.
Lesson content
■ Teaching reading skills
■ Teaching listening skills
learning activities
2.0 Introduction
As was mentioned in earlier chapters, receptive skills are reading and listening
skills. These skills enable the learners to receive and process language delivered
through reading and listening tasks.
The two receptive skills--reading and listening--have similarities in terms of
specific teaching strategies used to promote the development of listening and reading
comprehension. In this respect, the general description applies to both listening
and reading skills. Listening and reading are called receptive skills because they both
involve receiving information.
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When teaching receptive skills it is important to note that
1. The objectives of teaching receptive skills is to assist the learners to develop the
essential skills to understand and interpret spoken or written materials.
2. Most of the time weread or listen for a purpose to acquire some specific information.
However, we read and listen for other purposes, including for growing knowledge
and skills, to build understanding and to foster relationships, and for pleasure
Students should read books at their instructional level and have time to look
through available books that might be of interest to them.
3. Listeners and readers make use of reasoning and processing skills while listening or
reading.
When teaching receptive skills,
Phase Practice
These are activities that will get learners ready tongue
twister, etc.). It shouldn’t take a lot of time. Five minutes
maximum. Organizing the learners and the topic
Warm-up through:
Plan activities to surface already existing knowledge

about the topic (e.g. using related photographs or charts,
discussion of related quotes, etc.)
Pre-teaching of Vocabulary (i.e. pre-teaching
key vocabulary needed to listen and read with
comprehension.)
Lead-in
Pre-teaching of Syntax (e.g. the tenses, sentence
forms, time expressions, form of certain verbs, relative
pronouns etc.)
Plainly teaching the learners the specific reading
or listening strategy (e.g. applying background
Teaching technique
knowledge, skimming, scanning, locating referents,
decoding, determining mean from context, etc.)
The learners’ application of the strategy. They do
the learning task first individually, then they review
Strategy practice
answers or discuss ways to complete the task
successfully in pairs or groups.
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True/false exercise
Reading Passage for Matching
language learning
WH-questions
(e.g. riddle, chanting,
Sentence completion
Matching words with their meanings.
Finding synonyms or antonyms of given words.
Text work Deducing the definition of words from the text.
Finding verb tenses.
Categorizing connecting words.

Appraising/Reviewing
Note: This may be easi- Re-telling the story. Summarizing the text.
er to facilitate if stu-
dents are split based Putting into practice a chart with the main ideas talked
on their reading levels over in the text.
(which have been
Joining the text with other texts.
assessed in advance)
and the appraising/ Connecting the texts with the learners’ lives.
reviewing takes place
as a guided reading
lesson.
Linking Linking the text with the world.
Using the text as a facilitator for teaching other mod-
Applying the text
ules such as writing, speaking, or grammar.
2.1 Reading skills teaching strategies
A good reader or listener never starts reading or listening completely from the
beginning. S/he uses previous knowledge to guess what the text will be about. In
addition to that, a good reader or listener always looks for related hints to help in the
effort to make sense of the text. Such a person recalls and connects the information in
the text to other texts (text-to-text connection), to him/herself (text-to self connection),
and the real world (text-to-world connection). It is important for teacher trainees
to learn all three of these strategies.
Teachers have to train the learners to make use of these strategies so that they can
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become better readers and listeners.
Note: All of the strategies proposed below are important for promoting the
development of reading skills. Each should be introduced and practiced according
to the reading unit/lesson being taught. These strategies may vary according
to the learning objectives as well as range of needs among the students. It is
recommended that teacher trainees not use all of the below strategies at once
but focus on one or two per unit or lesson and spiral back as needed as learners’
skills develop and deepen.
1. Predicting
This is using information from the passage (e.g. title, headings, pictures, diagrams,
words in bold type) and any personal knowledge to predict what the text is about.
2. Skimming
This is reading a text quickly to get its general idea of what the text is all about. For
younger students, this strategy is called “picture walk” (because it is generally
done using picture books.) When skimming, the reader gets the general overview
of the content. Skimming is done by
Looking at the title or heading, subheadings, pictures, captions and quotes.
3. Scanning
This is reading a text quickly to get specific information. This may be a date, a name or
a figure. Scanning is also known as reading for specific details. When scanning, read the
questions first so that you know what specific information you are looking for.
4. Previewing
This is surveying a content to have a general idea about the content before reading the
text. To preview, we look at the title, sub-titles, and a picture and sometimes reading
the first sentence of each paragraph.
5. Questioning
This is forming questions about the text and the writer’s intentions. This helps learners
get involved actively with a text instead of reading it inactively.
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6. Making connections
Readers compare the information in the text to self, to other texts or to the world.
Good readers take advantage of the relationship they make between the current
passages with:
■ The personal experiences (text-to-self ),
■ The content from other texts (text-to-text),
■ The knowledge about the world (text-to-world).
Making such comparisons increase wider revelation and understanding.
7. Inferring
Making meaning of the text by reading between the lines and using background
knowledge. The objective is to construct meaning beyond what is literally expressed.
Through inference, readers are adding information that is not plainly stated. Inferring
requires a high level of English language proficiency, including a wide vocabulary,
agility in decoding, re-reading, and determining meanings of unfamiliar words in
context, and strong reading comprehension skills.
8. Summarizing
This is giving a brief account of a text using one’s own words (paraphrasing). When
summarizing we find the key words. We do not give explanation or examples. A
summarized text is much shorter than the original text. This strategy helps learners to
incorporate the main ideas in a meaningful way.
9. Background knowledge
This is using the already known information to enhance the understanding of new
ideas. By having prior knowledge, readers try to make sense out of what they read.
10. Impromptu questions
Impromptu questions depend on how much the memory can retain because these are
questions that asked without prior knowledge. They are called recalling questions.
It shows how much specific information or a general idea from a text you can recall
without referring back to the text.
11. Comprehension questions
The comprehension questions objective is to get both an overall and a detailed
understanding of the text. These may be through:
■ True or false questions.
■ WH-questions
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■ Completing Sentence
■ Matching
For low literate learners, the following specific strategies shoul be used to teach
to help them develop foundational reading skills:
Letter naming and letter recognition
Start with the letters in your learner’s, family and friend’s names. In this case, the
letters will have meaning, and the learner will invest in wanting to remember
them. Make sure the learners write their names on a poster and hang it in their
rooms at home and classroom. Ensure that the posters are decorate with the
letters of the alphabet. This will attract the learner and make it easier for him or
her to remember The posters should be hanged at eye-level. Show how the letter
is formed. Is it a straight line? Curve? Make sure you recognize a point in your
letter.
Teach the learners songs about the alphabet and let them sing regularly. Let the
learners match letter sounds with pictures and play games with letter cards. Make
sure the posters are decorate with the letters of the alphabet. This will attract the
learner and make it easier for him or her to remember The posters should be
hanged at eye-level.
At this point, the learners can begin to write the letters.
Letter sound associations
Letter-sound correspondences should be taught first one at a time and not their
names because knowing the names of letters is not necessary to read or write.
For the learner to read a whenever he or she looks at a letter he or shoe should
think of the sound not the name. As soon as the learner acquires one letter sound
correspondence, introduce a new one.
We suggest teaching the letters and sounds in this sequence a, m, t, p, o, n, c, d,
u, s, g, h, i, f, b, l, e, r, w, k, x, v, y, z, j, q
This sequence was designed to help learners start reading quickly because;
Letters that occur frequently in simple words (e.g., a, m, t) are taught first.
Letters that look similar and have similar sounds (b and d) are separated in the
instructional sequence to avoid confusion.
Short vowels are taught before long vowels.
Lower case letters are taught first since these occur more frequently than upper
case letters.
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Activity 1: Class activity
The teacher is going to introduce a new letter and its sound say m. He or she is
going to show a card with the letter m and says the sound “mmmm”
Students in class are going to say after the teacher and practice the letter sound.
Then the teacher is going to say a letter sound and the learners are going to listens
to the letter sound the teacher said then identify the letter from the alphabet board
provided
3, Phonological and phonemic awareness
As an English teacher, ensure that all reading programs in class teaches
phonological, phonemic awareness and phonics skills and engage the class to
do activities to help learners build sound skills (make sure they are short and fun)
Example
Assist the learners to think of a number of words that start with the /m/ or
/ch/ sound, or other beginning sounds.
Make up simple sentences with words that begin with the same sound,
such as “Nobody was nice to Naima’s neighbour”.
Help learners to play simple rhyming or blending games, such as taking
turns coming up with words that rhyme for example go – no) or blending
simple words (/c/, /a/, /t/ = cat).
Read books with rhymes. Teach the learners rhymes, short poems, and songs and
practice the alphabet by pointing out letters that rhyme wherever you see them
and by reading alphabet books.
In Phonological and phonemic awareness a learner understands the following
when reading Sentence
Understanding that the sentence they hear, “Thecatisfat” is comprised of four
separate words “The cat is fat”.
Word
Understanding the words “cat” and “fat” rhyme.
Understanding two words become one in a compound word: cat + fish = catfish
Syllable
Understanding the word “cat” as one syllable.
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Phonemic Awareness
Understanding and manipulating the three sounds in “cat” = /k/ /a/ /t/
Activity 3: Class activity
We are going to divide the class into three groups.
Group 1: sentence game; Sentence say a sentence, “The cat is fat” let each
student in the group to read on one in the sentence and ask them how many
words are there
Group 2: Rhyme game: Say a few words that rhyme, “cat, fat, bat”.
One member in the group to say another word and the rest to give each a word
that rhyme. Let them take turn to say the words and their rhymimg words
Group 3: Repeat the beginning sound game: /c/ - /c/ - cat, /c/ - /c/ - cake, /c/ - /c/
- car. Let each learner in this group to come up with another word with sound
/c/ the repeat the sound and read the word. The other members in the group to
repeat after him or her
4. oral language skills
a. Encourage partner talk (Turn and Talk)

Encourage students to talk through their ideas with a partner before sharing their
ideas with the group. Some students talk more with a peer than in a large group
setting and this offers opportunities to talk aloud and express ideas.
b, Role-play: Explore other student’s viewpoints
Encourage role-playing to help students to develop understanding and empathy
for another viewpoint, for example, Teacher: “Let’s all pretend to be the boy
tramping through the hot jungle. What is he feeling when he sees the snake?
What would he say?”
c. Encourage conversation.
Every social interaction gives students a new opportunity to practice language.
Some of your students might need a little guidance from you to engage in
conversations, so inspire interactions whenever you can. Ask questions, rephrase
the student’s answers, and give prompts that encourage oral conversations to
continue.
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vocabulary development.
a. Say the word aloud and have students repeat the word. For visual support,
display the words and their definitions for students to see, such as on a word wall,
or flip chart. Showing pictures related to the word can be helpful, as well.
b. Ask students to repeat the word after you have read it in the text. Then remind
students of the word’s definition. If a word has more than one meaning, focus on
the definition that applies to the text.
c. Play word games like vocabulary Pictionary to practice the new words. Include
words you have taught in the past for additional reinforcement.
2.2 Listening skills teaching strategies

1. Model Listening Skills
Try to model good listening skills by repeating what learners have said. This will show
your learners are listening to every word they say.
2. Know Your Learners
Studies show that learners are more inclined to listen to teachers who know them than
teachers who don’t take the time to get to know them. They are also more likely to
listen to people they know on a personal level.
3. Hand Signals
A great way to improve listening skills is to use non-verbal gestures. This strategy
requires the full participation of all learners, and it is obvious if learners are not paying
attention to the end of the statement. It is important to use statements that are
attention getters and not to shout or to call out student names but rather use
statements that invite all learners to direct their focus to the upcoming activity
and to see how this relates to the lesson’s key objectives.
4. Talk Less
Listening what you say does not guarantee that learners are actually learning. What
you want to do is talk less and let the learners talk more. Try several mini-lessons
throughout the day to allow learners to listen for a shorter time and discuss what
they have learned in small groups or with a partner. Mini-lessons can be used to
introduce a key topic or big idea. This key topic or big idea can be taught using
several mini-lessons, especially if it is related to a complex topic that requires
time to unpack and explore.
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5. Utilize Technology
Listening to others is as beneficial as listening to yourself. Now that you have all
the educational technology, why not try it? Choose a movie, documentary or app
carefully to review/practice with learners what they have already learned. This can
also include short audio segments where subject area content, including academic vocabulary
or everyday language, is presented and used in engaging and age-appropriate ways.
6. Give Learners a Listening Task
Another good way to encourage active listening is to give learners an assignment. Ask
learners to collaborate and discuss what the teacher heard you say.
7. Have Learners “Check-in” with Each Other
There will be times when learners miss what you said, and instead of interrupting you
to find out what it is, you can ask them to “check in” with a neighbor. Give learners
a few minutes each day to compare their notes or talk to their neighbors about
anything they may have missed or needed clarification on. To check-in with each
other, learners can use a strategy called “turn and talk” in which they literally turn
to their neighbor and talk about what they have learned/understood and what
they still have questions about.
8. Listening for Questions
Whichever way you decide you want your learners to learn, through you, film or
educational technology, let them listen with determination. When learners have
a purpose, they tend to listen more. The next time you teach a lesson, take a break after
a few minutes and have learners write down a question they have about what they just
heard. Use some of those questions to guide what learning activities and follow-
up support to be integrated into lesson planning and instructional approaches.
1. State and explain the procedural stages of teaching receptive skills in classroom.
2. Illustrate the important points to consider when teaching receptive skills in
classroom.
3. Describe the strategies of teaching reading skills in classroom.
4. Illustrate the strategies of teaching listening skills in classroom.
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Lesson 3: Audio-Visual Aids in primary schools
Lesson objectives
■ Define the term audio-visual aids
■ State examples of audio-visual aids
■ Highlight significance of the use of relevant and available audio-visual
aids in schools
■ Develop proper attitudes towards audio-visual teaching aids
Lesson content
■ Definition of audio-visual aids
■ Examples of audio-visual aids
■ Significance of audio-Visual Programs in primary school
Specific Learning Activities

3.1 Definition
Audio-visual aids are teaching or educational resources focusing on both the senses
of hearing and the sense of sight.These can include films, recordings, photographs, audio
recordings, online videos, handouts, whiteboards, PowerPoint slides, and television
programs used in classroom instruction, library collections, etc. to enhance the
learning experience and to improve teaching quality.
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According to Dike (1993) audio-visual aids are those materials which do not depend
solely upon reading to carry meaning. Information is conveyed via the sense of hearing
as in audio aid, and vision, visual resources or through a combination of both senses.4
The term “ audio-visual” materialsis commonly used to refer to those instructional
materials that may be used to convey meaning without complete dependence
upon verbal symbols or language.5 Therefore, textbooks or reference materials are
not audio-visual materials.
3.2 Examples of audio-visual materials
1. Images
They are among the most common types of visual media being used in schools today
because the images can be attractive and compelling.
2. Videos
They can contain very engaging content. Some learners prefer to watch videos because
they want to see how a video can bring to life in ideas and emotions. For students
who learn more easily by visualizing or hearing language spoken, videos are
useful instructional tools.
3. YouTube and Similar Digital Platforms
The use of YouTube in teaching English language c a n play an important role in
helping learners understand their English lessons. YouTube videos that focus on
concepts learned in subject area classes using a range of social and academic
language can help students to improve their levels of proficiency in speaking and
listening with comprehension in English lessons. Students can also watch and listen to English being
spoken using a range of dialects withYouTube videos. YouTube and similar platforms that share
information and lessons on a range of topics can be used where available and
without cost limitations to support a range of classrooms, including those with
limited print resources.
All videos from YouTube or other online sources should be previewed in advance as some
of those available online are not-appropriate, and not reliable in terms of accuracy and
balance of content and viewpoints, and are out of date. The teacher viewer should ensure
that the content is also gender and culturally sensitive and does not present biases or
4Dike , V.W. (1993). Library Resources in Education. Enugu: ABIC Publisher.
5Anzaku, Francis. (2011). “Library Experts Speaks on Audio-Visual Material.” A paper presented at the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultured Organization (UNESCO) World Day for Audio-Visual Heritage. Lafia.
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discriminatory beliefs toward any group or individual.
4. Infographics
They are visually attractive and present facts in ways that are very simple to
comprehend. They contain valuable material and narrate stories in a beautiful
and direct manner.
5. Data Projectors
They are used to broadcast an image from classroom computer, document
camera, laptop and any other Video Graphics Array (VGA) compatible device.
3.3 Significance of Audio-Visual Programmes in primary schools
Many schools in the 21st century are embracing the use of audio-visual aids as teaching
resources.
1. Extending Experience
Audio-visual materials when used strategically and have been reviewed and
selected in advance can support instruction and engage learners’ interest. Well-
selected audiovisual materials can also help explore ideas and concepts relevant
to different subjects in other ways than through written communication. For
English language learners, audiovisual materials presented in English can also
help develop listening comprehension skills among non-native English language
learners. Audiovisual materials should be previewed in advance, should be
initially used for short periods of time to lead into, build upon, or review core
concepts and skills. Audiovisual materials in English should also be previewed
to ensure that the language level of proficiency in English is aligned with the the
language proficiency levels of most students in the class. The materials should
also be reviewed in advance for age- and language level appropriateness and to
ensure the materials are gender-sensitive, inclusive, and culturally sensitive.
2. Encouraging Participation
Audio-visual resources can offer rich prospects for learners to develop communication
skills while actively engaging with content that can be related to solving significant
problems. Students are more likely to learn better if they are engaged activities that
include the use of visual content that can quickly understood and appeals to the
senses..
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3. Stimulating Interest
Learning takes place successfully when the teacher provides a learning situation in
which a learner will learn because of his natural reactions to the provided resources
that can serve as. instructional aids. One caution when considering using audiovisual
materials is to consider those learners who may have visual and/or hearing impairments.
As with classes where activities focus on using print materials and oral activities, the
teacher will need to consider a range of activities and learning resources to use to ensure
all students can learn. If available, the teacher can check to see if there are applications
(apps) and other modalities to ensure learners with visual or hearing impairments are not
excluded (e.g., close captioning/subtitles for videos; dictation option).
4. Individualize Instruction
This is also called differentiated instruction (and was briefly introduced in earlier
lessons.) Audio-visual resources provide a means of personalizing teaching. This
strategy enables the teacher to work with learners, some of whom can work
individually or in pairs/groups to review recently learned content by reviewing
audiovisual materials pre-selected by the teacher. Production of audiovisual
resources by learners themselves is another way of individualizing instruction. The
teacher will need access to devices and have had practice using devices and
apps that they can use to teach learners how to develop audiovisual materials
to support their learners and the learning of their peers (e.g., how to create short
videos on YouTube or how to present key ideas learned in a particular subject
using PowerPoint or some other presentation app, etc.).
5. Make learning permanent
Relevant, age-appropriate, and subject area relevant audio-visual materials can play
a main role in making learning everlasting. Audio-visual approaches do seem to
help in the acquisition, the preservation and the recall of key concepts and skills
in well-planned lessons. Audiovisual materials are not a substitute for good teaching,
however, and shouldn’t be used to replace direct instruction.
Remember:
■ What I hear, I forget
■ What I see, I remember
■ What I do, I know
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Using illustrations define audio-visual aids

In a presentation list and explain various examples of audio-visual aids in
primary schools
State and explain the significance of audio-visual aids in primary schools
In groups discuss the considerations to keep in mind when deciding to
use audio-visual aids in primary schools

1. Discuss in groups, the components and the teaching strategy of productive
skills in an English language classroom setting
2. Explain the receptive skills and how it advances in teaching English language
in primary schools
3. State and explain various types of audio-visual aids that can be used in teaching
English Language in primary schools
4. Explain why using audio-visual aids can be more effective than using text-
books to support learning.
5. Giving clear examples, discuss the differences between listening and hearing.
6. Discuss the procedure a classroom teacher can employ in teaching a receptive
skill.
7. ‘Making connections increase deeper vision and understanding’. Discuss this
statement in relation to reading or comprehending a text.
8. Group discussion is one the best strategies in learner-centered classroom
setting. Explain the procedure of forming an effective group discussion
9. Discuss the objectives of receptive and productive techniques in teaching
English Language.
10. Discuss how a teacher can teach a listening skill in a classroom.
11. Highlight assessment methodologies for receptive and productive skills in
teaching English Language.
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12. Illustrate how the use of technology especially to deliver Online learning
classes can contribute to the development of education in Somalia.
13. As a teacher, what are other innovative teaching aids that you can use to
teach your learners? How will you address the needs of learners who may find it
difficult to use these teaching aids?
1. Teaching English basic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing requires
specific strategies. In not less than 200 words explain the specific strategies of
receptive
2. In teaching writing, picture description is one of the strategies used. Study the
picture below and write a composition of not more than 200 words on the title
given below. Focus on the picture as a guide.
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Chapter 6
PLANNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE
MY FIRST DAY AT THE AIRPORT
160
Chapter objectives
■ Explain the meaning and the purpose of a scheme of work.
■ State the purpose of a lesson plan.
■ Develop pupils progress records.
■ Design a scheme of work, lesson plan and record of work.
Chapter content
■ Scheme of work
■ Lesson plan
■ Pupils’ progress record and records of work
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Lesson 1: Scheme of work
Lesson objectives
■ List the purpose of scheme of work.
■ State the parts of scheme of work.
■ Describe the format of scheme of work.
■ Prepare scheme of work.
contents
■ Purpose of scheme of work
■ Parts of scheme of work
■ Format of scheme of work
1.1 Purpose of Scheme of Work
The teachers write at the inception of an academic term a subject-specific work
plan referred to as a scheme of work. This is a comprehensive plan that usually
describes the syllabus and guides coverage of subject area topics throughout the
term to monitor the progress of the original plan. The final source of reference
for schemes of work and syllabi is the national curriculum framework.
162
The following are the purposes of scheme of work:
1. To support the teacher to plan his/her lessons effectively by ensuring that
all the necessary teaching & learning resources are collected early enough.
2. To assign sufficient time to teach each skill or topic and sub-topic for a
particular subject.132
3. To provide an extensive plan for public holidays, examinations and any
other official functions.
4. To aid the teacher to have clear vision of the topics covered and time left to
cover the remaining topics, thus adjust accordingly, or to return to certain
skills or topics if additional remediation/practice is needed.
5. To help the teacher to read widely on subject area content and hence, to
gain greater confidence in subject area knowledge.
6. To help a new teacher know where to start from.
7. To assist the teacher when preparing lesson plans.
1.2 The parts of scheme of work
A scheme of work is a plan that elaborates on what will be covered in each week
of the academic term. It can be very detailed or brief. It entails how many lessons
will be required to cover a specific topic. Planning and coordination between
departments is effective as well as designing an integrated work plan among
teachers teaching the same subjects. Furthermore, it can be used to write lesson
plans.
The scheme contains the topics and sub-topics against the time available for
teaching each topic. The teacher can create a map over the course of the year
by identifying appropriate learning resources along with relevant sections of
the student’s course book and the teacher’s guide, outlining the learning and
teaching activities in a sequential and coherent manner. The scheme of work
can also be updated to include where the teacher may need to circle back to
certain skills or topics.
Within the scheme of work, the teacher can have administrative information
such as the specific subject, class, term and the year when the scheme will be
operational.
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The following are the specific components of an effective scheme of work for a
primary school:
1. It gives a title. For example: English scheme of work, grade 4, 1st term 2021.
2. Week: It refers to the week of the term when a given topic in the scheme of
work would be taught. For example: 2nd week.
3. Lesson: This means the specific lesson to be covered outlining the topics.
4. Objectives: This specifies what the learners are expected to achieve at the
end of the lesson.
5. Topic & sub-topic. It indicates what topic or sub-topic will be covered in a
given lesson specifying the main points of the lesson.
6. Learning activities: These are activities that the students will be expected to
learn in order to cover the content presented to them by the teacher.133
7. Learning resources: These are materials which the teacher is supposed to use
to teach and achieve the outlined objectives. For example: Primary English
student book, the teacher’s guide, pictures, charts, maps, objects, models,
radio, and audio-visual materials.
8. Reference: These are the supplementary text books and other printed/
electronic material including journals, periodicals and magazine used during
the learning and teaching process.
9. Remarks: These are comments a teacher makes after teaching a given lesson
in order to ascertain the stated objective of that particular lesson has been
achieved. For example: The lesson taught.
10. Evaluation procedures: This entails how the learner’s progress will be
assessed against the planned lesson objectives. For example: The teacher
can administer quiz, test or oral questions in order to examine whether the
objectives were achieved.
NOTE to Teacher Trainer: It is important to emphasize with the teacher trainees
that they should have a day/week/month/year plan to know exactly what
students should be able to know and do by the end of the grade level/year
for the respective subject area. If more than one teacher is teaching a grade
level/subject area, it is essential that they work together to plan out the day/
week/month/year plan.134
164
1.3 The format of scheme of work
ENGLISH SCHEMES OF WORK GRADE 4 TERM ONE, 2021
• • •
• •
•
165
•
• •
•
Activity 1: Review
I am going to review the scheme of work for English Grade 5 for this academic
year. Then divide the subject into units of work.
After that sub-divide each unit into essential topics that must be covered in this
term and the topics that were previously covered during the last term.
1. using illustration, define and explain the aim of scheme of work.
2. Using examples describe the components of an effective primary school
scheme of work.
3. With your partner, discuss the format of scheme of work and prepare one
using the English Primary textbook lessons.
4. In a presentation, outline some of the administrative information that the
teacher can include in the scheme of work.
5. Do you think a scheme of work can have shortcomings throughout its
implementation? In groups highlight some of those challenges and share
them with your classmates136
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Lesson 2: Lesson plan
Lesson objectives
■ Define a lesson plan
■ Explain the significance of a lesson
■ Outline the steps of making a lesson plan
■ Describe the formulation of lesson plan objective
■ Prepare a lesson plan with its components
Lesson content
■ Description of a lesson and its components
■ Significance of a lesson plan
■ Steps of making a lesson plan
■ Objectives of a lesson
■ The format of an effective lesson plan
2.1 Components of a lesson plan
A lesson plan is a step-by-step layout of what a teacher intends to do with his/
her pupils in the subject of a lesson’s period in order for the pupils to change
attitudes and behaviors/increase learning as outlined in the lesson’s objectives.
The teacher needs to consider the following aspects about the learners: age;
culture, religion, economic status, ability, level or grade; and learning style
differences.137
167
A lesson plan therefore has the following components:
1. Objectives of the lesson.
2. The introductory activity.
3. The lesson development step by step with detailed descriptions of learning
activities.
4. Conclusion
5. Chalkboard layout
6. Self-evaluation by the teacher (comments).
2.2 The use of the lesson plan
A lesson plan is necessary because:
1. It stimulates the teacher to collect or make teaching aids and other resources
ahead of time.
2. It helps the teacher to refine his/her objectives and gain insight that enables
him/
her to become more orderly and effective.
3. It assists the memory of the busy teacher.
4. It helps the teacher to focus on the problems that are likely to arise ahead
of the time and make adjustments where necessary.
5. It helps in guiding the development of a lesson in an orderly sequence
beginning from known to unknown and ensuring that there is continuity
and flow of the content.
2.3 Stages of creating an effective lesson plan
1. Deciding the kind of things, you want the pupils to learn, and stating what
is to be learnt in the form of precise instructional objective(s).
2. Specifying an appropriate sequence of learning tasks.
3. Describing the teaching methods to be used to lead pupils towards the
attainment of the stated objectives.
4. Describing how the pupils will demonstrate what they have learned or
determining how to tell whether or not the procedure has worked.
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2.4 Lesson plan objectives
Lesson objectives are the key element in creating effective lesson plans. Without
stated objectives, there is no exact measure of whether a particular lesson plan
produces preferred learning results.138
An effective objective with measurable terms must have the following elements:
1. State what students will learn.
2. Offer suggestion of how the learning outcome will be measured.
Lesson objectives tell the students what they will learn. For an objective to be
complete, it must be measurable. The teacher won’t be able to produce the
desired goals of learning and teaching process unless his/her objectives are
measurable.
Anatomy of lesson objectives:
1. The objectives ought to be written as a single sentence. Example: By the
end of this lesson the learner should be able to: State five benefits of
learning the English Language in primary school.
2. An action verb can be used to state the objective of a lesson. This will
help the learners to understand what they are going to learn and how
they are going to be assessed. Example: The verbs like remembering,
understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating are an
excellent starting point for writing effective objectives.
3. The objective helps the teacher to know that learning has taken place. The
teacher should be able to generate an assessment that proves the learner
has stated the five benefits of learning the English Language in primary
schools.
The organization of an effective lesson plan
Regardless of the various design that exists in making a lesson plan, below is
current sample of a lesson format.
169
2.5 A sample of a lesson Format
NAME OF THE STUDENT/TEACHER ______________________REG. NO_______
SCHOOL________________________ CLASS_____________
SUBJECT: ______________________ NO: _________ _______ DATE: ____________
TOPIC: _________________________
SUB-TOPIC: _____________________
Lesson Objective(s):
By the end of the lesson, learners should be able to:
1. ________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________
Teaching & learning resources: References:

Introduction: (5min)
Lesson Development: (30 min) Conclusions: (5 min)
Remarks: (Self-evaluation)
Explanation of part of a lesson plan
Introduction:
This may be done through the use of resources and asking questions,
demonstrations and other activities. It will depend on the level of the learners
and the topic being taught among other considerations. The aim is to capture
the attention of the learners. In order to maintain this attention; the teacher
will need to stimulate the learner’s imagination, interest and enthusiasm. At this
stage, the teacher should explain clearly to the learner what the lesson for the
day is about.
170
Lesson Development
This is the actual teaching of the content. It involves teaching and learning
activities such as lesson explanation, observation, experimentation, and
drawing. This section needs to be divided into steps with each step sequenced
logically to enable learners follow the sequence.
Conclusion
The conclusion enables the teacher to wrap up the lesson systematically and
logically by giving a summary of the topic covered.
Self-aluation
This is an honest analysis of the lesson in terms of its strengths and short-
comings. The teacher should build on the strengths and find remedies for the
short comings.140
We are going to plan a lesson using the syllabus and identify the following
components.
1. Classify two or three objectives that will be achieved during the lesson.
2. Find at least two different resources that will be used.
3. What methods to be used to teach and reasons why.

1. In a class presentation. describe lesson plan and identify its components.
2. Using examples, highlight the significance of a lesson plan in delivering a
lesson.
3. Illustrate the steps of making a lesson plan.
4. In groups explain the objectives of a lesson and its main parts.
5. In pairs discuss the format of an effective lesson plan.
6. Individually, prepare a sample lesson plan.141
171
Lesson 3: Pupils Progress Record and Records of work
Lesson objectives
■ Define what a class register is
■ Explain what a progress record is and how it is different from a class
register.
■ Make a sample progress record.
■ Explain what a record of work is
 Prepare a sample record of work.
Lesson contents
■ Class register
■ Learners’ progress record
■ Record of work
3.1 Class register
The class register is documentation that records pupils’ attendance and
absenteeism. The teacher should mark the class register the first time he/she
gets into the classroom and after break.
172
Progress record
This document records the progress of every learner based on the results of the
continuous assessments for a given grade in a year.
Importance of progress record
1. Shows the progress and performance of each pupil in a particular subject.
2. Enables the pupils to measure their own progress.
3. Can provide inputs on teaching methods are successful for the majority of
learners.
4. Ensures to define the consistence of the learners’ performance.
Quality teachers often use informal assessments (formative assessments) daily
to keep a record of each student’s progress and to inform adjustments that
may be needed in teaching approaches, remediation for struggling learners,
and additional practice opportunities. Anecdotal notes and ongoing records
can be very helpful for teachers over the course of the academic year.142
3.2 Sample of progressive records:
Subject: English Language
Name of Term I Term. II

1 2 3 Ave Total % 1 2 3 Ave Total Mean %
student Exam Exam
Mohamed
Abdiaziz
Halima
Muna
3.3 Record of Work

This is a document that is prepared to show the work covered in each class
within each week of the term. The teacher should fill this document before the
week ends.
The record of work helps the teacher in the following aspects:
1. It indicates the progress achieved in each class in terms of syllabus coverage.
2. In case of absence, transfer or any other reason, the record of work covered
could assist the teacher taking over to have starting point.
3. It serves as a quick reference to the teacher on the work covered,
173
4. It helps the teacher in setting valid examinations and tests because he/she
will test on what he/she has covered.
Sample record of work
Week,
Topic Lesson Subject Comment
Date.
• Classifying
tenses • Learners have
1,
I challenges in making
Grammar 2 and • Construct
10.03.22 grammatically past tenses of regular
3 and irregular verbs
correct
sentences
In groups we are going to prepare work record for three English lessons we have
taught as teachers in a Primary school.143
1. Explain what is a class register with your partner.
2. In groups, discuss what a progress record is and its components.
3. Why do we need a progress record? Discuss in groups
4. In a class presentation, discuss what a record of work is.
5. Prepare a sample record of work individually.
6. With your partner, discuss what else would included in the progress report
that is missing from the sample given above? Why would you include this/
these?
7. Debate on the differences between assessment and evaluation? Give
several examples of assessments. Give several examples of evaluations.
8. In schools, do we need to evaluate other factors other than the students?
Discuss in groups
174
1. Discuss the purpose of a scheme of work.
2. A scheme of work is a plan of what will be covered in each week or session
of the learning program or subject. Describe the parts of a scheme of
work.
3. Every scheme of work must have administrative information indicating
the subject, class, term and year when the scheme will be operational.
It also gives a title. A scheme of work of English, grade 4 1st term 2021.
Draw a sample scheme of work for English grade 4.
4. Outline the elements of an effective lesson plan.
5. Define what the purpose of a lesson plan is and discuss its components.
6. Describe the anatomy of a lesson objective with clear examples and
illustrations.
7. What are the steps for making an effective lesson plan?
8. Analyze the parts of an effective lesson plan with an illustration.
9. Differentiate between a class register and a progress record.
10. Explain the significance of a progress record in classroom settings.
11. Draw a sample of progress record and record of work.144
175
PART B: WRITING TASK:
1. In a role play assume that you’re on a teaching practice in one of the famous
primary schools in Jilib. The supervisor will assess your lesson preparation,
teaching skills, lesson delivery, application of the code of conduct, and
professional appearance.
a. Individually, prepare a lesson plan choosing a topic of your own from
the student’s book grade 5.
b. Individually, explain the process of the lesson delivery starting from
the preparation to the lesson’s delivery.
c. Individually explain how are you going to introduce and conclude
your lesson?
d. In groups come up with some of the follow up questions that we may
ask your learners at the end of the lesson?
2. It is parent’s day. All parents and caregivers are invited to the school to
witness the progress and achievements of their children. As a teacher of
grade four English, you’re required to provide the progress record of your
learners, namely Asha, Mustafa, and Samira (who is a blind student in your
class).
Clearly illustrate what your progress record for each learner looks like for
that academic term marking the completion of grade four English.
3. Some students do well on the school exams, but poorly in the national exams
such as grade eight or Form 4. Explain all the possible factors that might
lead to this. You should be able to indicate which of these factors might
be specific to a learner based on their sex, level of proficiency in English,
disability status, etc.145
176
Chapter 7
STRUCTURED WRITING
177
Chapter Objectives
■ To understand different types of writing to persuade and analyze
information.
■ Communicate ideas in different types of writing.
■ Know how to help learners write accurately, coherently, and appropriately.
■ Know how to help learners write legibly and neatly in good handwriting.
■ Recognize emerging issues in the teaching of writing.
■ Identify and address special needs in writing.
■ Distinguish between a paragraph and an essay.
■ Know different notetaking methods to help learners take useful notes.
■ Know how to help learners summarize key ideas of a text.
Chapter Content
■ Social writing
■ Academic writing
■ Study writing
■ Creative writing
146
178
Lesson 1: Social writing
Lesson objectives
■ Communicate ideas in writing.
■ Write accurately, coherently, and appropriately.
■ Write legibly and neatly in good handwriting.
Lesson content
■ Letter writing
√ Informal Letter
√ Formal letter
■ E-mail writing
1.1 Letter Writing
1. Informal letters
179
In groups we are going to discuss the differences between formal and informal
letters, and provide some examples for each type.
Many times we write letters to our friends, family members or relatives for
various reasons. For example, if we want to inform them about our academic
performance, school fees requirement, our new house, etc. Such letters are
called informal letters and are also known as friendly letters.
Part of an informal letter

Sender’s address (The person writing the letter)
■ Date the letter is written
■ Salutation/Greeting
■ Body of the letter
■ Conclusion
■ Signature of the sender (The person writing the letter)
Informal Letter Format
Sender’s address here

Write the date
Salutation/Greeting (Dear (Name of your friend)
Body of the letter –This is the explanation why you are writing the letter. It could be
more than one paragraph depending on the reasons you are writing the letter
Conclusion (could be; yours sincerely, friendly, faithfully, etc)
Signature of the sender (Sign your name.)
180
Example
Read the sample letter
Zainab
Ahmed P.O.
Box 113-10111
Berbera
8-11-2020
Dear Halima,
We are fine and busy with our routine duties. I believe you are fine as well.
You might be interested to know that this term I was position three in our class
up from position ten last term. I hope to work even harder and clinch the
coveted
position one soon!
Back home, my parents keep telling me that they miss you since you used to
visit us almost every day. They always tell me you are a girl whose character
they like.
This makes me want to copy you. Perhaps this is why this term 1 improved after
organizing a private study timetable, like you told me.
Please write and tell me when we could meet next. I’d be glad if you stayed with
us during the forthcoming holiday – at least for some days.
Hearty greetings from mum, dad and everyone else here at home and at school.
Yours sincerely, (Zainab signature) Zainab149
181
Activity 2: Read on
We are going to read the letter and discuss the reasons why Zainab wrote the
letter to
Halima; then we will write our own letter.
2 Formal Letter
A formal letter is also called official letter. Unlike informal letters, official letters
have their own format of writing. A writer of a formal or official letter doesn’t
have to include personal details in the letter.
There are three major types of formal or official letters
a) Application letters
b) Apology letters
c) Business letters.
Writing Application letters
Application letters are written for the purpose of securing a job or a chance
to study at a particular educational institution. They are written to request or
be considered for a job or admission. An application letter should be as brief
as possible with all the necessary details required such as qualification and
experience.
Parts of application letter
a) The address
Unlike personal or friendly letters, application letters have two addresses. They
contain the address of the writer also called addresser (sender’s address), and
the receiver of the letter (addressee). The sender’s address appears at the top
right-hand corner of the page. This is followed by the address of the receiver of
the letter just a line below the sender’s address, but at the left-hand side of the
paper.
182
The sender’s address should possess the following items:
■ Name of the place where the writer is located
■ Postal address if available
■ Name of the city from which the writer is writing
■ The date of writing.
The receiver’s address should possess the following items:
■ Title of the receiver, if not their full name
■ Company’s, Institution’s or Organization’s name150
■ Postal address of the receiver if any.
■ Location of the company or organization.
■ No date written in this part of the letter.
b) The salutation
It is a polite way to gain the attention of the letter recipient. It appears just a line
below the receiver’s address. Usually for the salutation, you would use
■ “Dear Sir/ Madam”, when you don’t have the receiver’s name
■ Dear… (Write the surname), if you know the receiver’s
c) The Reference/Subject
This is a brief sentence stating the subject of the letter. It states the main reason
for writing the letter. It is normally abbreviated as ‘RE…..’ or ‘REF…..’(To denote
refer to …)
For example,
If you are applying for a Teaching Post, then the subject/title will be
■ RE: Application for a Teaching Post
Or
■ REF: Application for a Teaching Post
d) Introduction:
A brief introductory statement to state the purpose of the letter.
The body
183
This is the main part of the letter. It contains details of the purpose of writing.
The body consists of the following features:
■ A brief education and academic qualification or background section.
e) Any other required details like age, and work experience. Conclusion
This comes at the end in the left hand corner. It consists of the signature and
name of the writer.51
It is always advisable to use the words
■ Yours faithfully…Name of writer
■ Yours sincerely…Name of writer
It would be helpful to create a bank of words that can be used to start and/
or end a letter (or email which is a digital letter) to expand the students’
repertoire of words in English.
Structure of an Application letter
Sender’s address (Addresser)
Date
Receiver’s address (Addressee)
Salutation
Re: / Ref:
Introduction
Body
Conclusion
Ending1
184
Example
Read the sample letter and answer the questions that follow
Ifraah Abdullahi Omar,

Jowhar,
21st June, 2020 The
Manager
Prime Goods, itedMogadishu
Dear Sir/Madam,
RE: Application for Post of Accountant
I hereby submit my application for the above-mentioned post in your company

following the advertisement that appeared in the monitor newspaper of
15thJune,
2020.
I am a Somali national and citizen aged twenty-nine. I have a degree in
accounting and a postgraduate diploma in the same field from Somali National
University, Somalia.
I have seven years of experience in the field, having worked with ABC power
supply Limited, Somali Power Investments, Mogadishu. I believe I have the
capability to render my services efficiently to your company.
Please find attached to this letter copies of relevant academic credentials. I will
appreciate any positive response accorded with utmost delight.
Yours faithfully,
(Signature)
Ifraah Abdullahi Omar153
185
Quesions
1. Why do you think the writer is writing the letter?
2. What job is the writer applying for?
3. How does the writer convince the company that she qualifies for the job?
4. Analyze the above example letter against the formal letter components.
5. Write an application letter to Somali National Universality asking for a
vacancy to learn at the institution.
1.2 E-mail writing
An e-mail is basically a letter that is sent electronically. This implies we must
have internet to send an e-mail. It is universally used form of communications
now. Because email is electronic it is efficient and fast. For you to use email, you
must have an electronic account called email account.
An email can either be formal (official) or informal (friendly). Regardless of the
type of email, they all have the same parts. The only difference is the language
used depending on the audience. We use official language for official emails and
friendly language for informal emails
Parts of an email
1. Subject line
2. Salutation
3. Body
4. Closing remarks
5. Signature
1. Subject line
This is the subject of the email. It tells us the objective/aim of writing the email.
It is a requirement to have a subject line in your email, so that the receiver can
exactly predict what the mail is about before reading it.
For emaple,
School’s opening date
Once the recipient reads the subject line, he/she can guess what the message is
all about before reading it.15
186
2. Salutation
This is the initial line of the email. It is the greeting line of the email.
For example,
Hi Mr. Ali (For friendly email) Hello Sir (For official email)
3. The body
Full information about the reason for writing the mail is shared here. It is the
main reason for writing the mail.
For example
I really appreciate you for attending my wedding party. I have attached full video
recording of my wedding.
4. Closing remarks
It is the last line and conclusion of the email. In the closing remark, you reiterate
any request made in the body of the email.
For example
Looking forward to seeing you soon. Appreciate once again.
5. Signature
The signature,name, and title of the writer is here
For example Yours sincerely (Abdullahi’s signature) Abdullahi155
Example
School’s opening date Subject line
Hi Ahmed Salutation
I hope you are fine and this message finds you well. I am fine too.
I am writing this message to let you know that the schools will be Body
opening on 1st August. Hope you will be ready by then. Thank you. Hope to see
you in school that day. Thanks again. Closing remarks Yours
sincerely
Abdullah’s signature Signature
Abdullahi
187
1. In a mini-lesson explain the features of the two types of letters.
2. Individually name the different types of formal letters.
3. In small groups describe the difference between informal and formal
letters in their structure.
4. List and explain the parts of an e-mail individually.
1. In pairs write an email to one another letting each other of the opening
date of school in the following term56
188
Lesson 2: Academic writing
Lesson Objectives
■ Describe the parts of a paragraph.
■ Distinguish between a paragraph and an essay.
■ Write accurately, coherently and in an appropriate style, the various
types of writing.
■ Solve emerging issues in the teaching of writing.
Lesson content
■ Paragraph writing
■ Essay writing157

In groups discuss “which grade should we start writing English/Somali/Arabic
paragraphs? If different grades why?
189
2.1 Paragraph writing
What is a paragraph?
A paragraph is a group of sentences focused around one main idea or sentences
focusing on one main idea. The main idea is called topic sentence and is generally
the first sentence. The topic sentence contains the topic of the paragraph.
All the other sentences in the paragraph support the topic sentence and are
called supporting sentences. Supporting sentences could be examples, and/or
opinions. Generally ane paragraph has about four to eight sentences all talking
about the same idea. Apart from the topic sentence and supporting sentences,
a paragraph generally also has a concluding sentence. A concluding sentence is
a paraphrased version of the topic sentence.
Structure of a paragraph
1. Introduction
Contains topic sentence, which is the general statement that introduces the
idea of the paragraph.
2. The body
Consists of the supporting ideas. Each supporting idea has its details which
could be examples. The supporting ideas are either in chronological order or in
the order of importance.
3. Conclusion
Contains paraphrased topic sentence as your opinion.
Characteristic of a good paragraph
1. Unity
A paragraph must be focused around one main idea, with the supporting
sentences giving details and clarifying the main idea.8
2. Order
A paragraph starts with the main idea. The supporting sentences should be
organized chronologically or in order of importance. It must be well-structured.
3. Coherence
The sentences in a paragraph should all relate to and be about one idea;
therefore, they should be connected to one another or related.
190
4. Completeness
All sentences in the paragraph must clearly and sufficiently support the main
idea.
Example
My Favorite TV Program
My favorite TV program is 60 minutes. It usually has three different stories about
people or events in the news. Frequently, there is an interview with a health
education experts, business people, sports, business, or the arts. Sometimes
the stories are about ordinary people who do something special or unusual.
60 Minutes has excellent reporters and a variety of interesting stories on many
topics. I always learn something new from 60
Minutes, so I try to watch it every week.
After reading the above paragraph I found out that
i. Topic sentence
- My favorite TV program is 60 minutes
ii. Supporting sentences
a. It usually has three different stories about people or events in the news.
b. Frequently, there is an interview with a health education .experts, business
people, sports, business, or the arts
c. Sometimes the stories are about ordinary people who do something
special or unusual.
iii. Concluding sentence
60 Minutes has excellent reporters and a variety of interesting stories on
many topics. I always learn something new from 60 Minutes, so I try to watch
it every week.
Note to the Teacher Trainer: Before moving on to the next section on
essay writing, it would be helpful to ask teacher trainees to practice
writing a paragraph following the guidance just provided and to have a
peer teacher trainee provide feedback on how successfully the teacher
trainee’s paragraph follows the guidance provided.59
191
1.2 Essay writing/composition
What is essay?
An essay which is also called a composition, that analyses a topic. An essay
is an extended piece of writing with several paragraphs. It has a bigger topic
which can be sub-divided into other subtopics but all talking about the main
topic. These subtopics are discussed in different paragraphs. The subtopics are
used to support the main topic; the sub-topics are usually phrased as reasons
or arguments to support the main essay topic. Each paragraph follows the same
procedure of paragraph writing as earlier discussed.
Just like a paragraph, an essay has an introduction, a body and a conclusion.
1. introduction
It has introductory paragraph, commonly called opening paragraph. It is the
first paragraph of the essay or composition. Introductory paragraph introduces
the main topic of the essay. It is the same paragraph the captures the interest of
the reader and gives the general idea about the topic. It prepares the reader to
guess about the topic before reading it.
2.Body
It has several paragraphs. Each paragraph supports the main idea or topic of the
essay. Every paragraph represents one subtopic usually phrased in the form of
a reason or argument. Each paragraph has a topic sentence, supporting details,
and a concluding sentence.
3. conclusion
It has a concluding paragraph that summarizes the content of the essay and
restates the main ideas presented throughout the essay using different phrasing.
Difference between a paragraph and an essay
Paragraph Essay or Composition
Has one paragraph Has at least three paragraphs
Do not have subtopics Has subtopics
Has supporting sentences Has supporting paragraphs
Has concluding sentence Has concluding paragraph
192
1. With examples define a paragraph and write a sample.
2. Individually, name and explain the components of a paragraph.
3. Using illustrations state the characteristics of a good paragraph.
4. In groups distinguish between a paragraph and an essay/composition.
5. In pairs, write an essay about your school and exchange your essay with
your partner for constructive feedback .161
193
Lesson 3: Study writing
Lesson Objectives
■ Summarize a text.
■ Read and comprehend the key ideas in a text.
■ Write accurately, coherently and in an appropriate style, the various
types of writing.
■ Apply notetaking methods and tools to take notes.
Lesson content
■ Summary writing
■ Note making
2.1 Summary writing
Definition
A summary is a reduced form of a text which gives the reader a clear idea about
the main points in it. The key to writing a summary is to identify the most
important ideas and to identify what details/ideas are less necessary or less
important. Full clarifications and examples should also be omitted from the
summary. Most significantly, the summary should be written using your own
words. (Paraphrasing)162
194
Writing a summary
1. Read the text.
Read the article more than once to make sure you’ve comprehensively
understood it. It’s effective to read in three phases:
a. Skim the article to get a general idea of its topic and overall shape.
b. Read the article carefully as you highlight the main points and taking notes
as you read.
c. Scan the article again to confirm you’ve understood the key points, and re-
read any particularly important or difficult passages.
Easy ways to identify the key points as you read. a) Begin by reading the
abstract
An abstract contains the author’s summary of the key ideas and what to expect
from the article.
b) Be keen on headings and subheadings.
These will give you a good idea of what each part is about.
c) Read both the introduction and the conclusion and compare them.
What did the author set out to do, and what was the outcome?
d) Group the text into sections.
Break down the text into smaller parts that will enable you to easily manage the
text and understand its sub-points.
Some articles may not be divided into sections. But most articles and essays will
be structured around a series of sub-topics.
Write a word or phrase in the margin next to each paragraph that describes the
paragraph’s content.
Identify the key points in each section.
Pick out its most important points from each section. These are the important
ideas that your reader needs to know.
Note: A summary (or summarizing) does not involve paraphrasing every
single paragraph of the article. You aim to pick the essential points, leaving out
background information or supplementary details.163
195
Write the summary.
Given that you know the main points that the article aims to communicate, you
need to put them in your own words. Avoid copy and paste.
Check the summary.
Read through the article once more to make sure that:
a) You’ve precisely represented the author’s work. b) You haven’t missed any
necessary information.
Note to the Teacher Trainer: To check for understanding, it may be helpful
to include an activity here asking the teacher trainees to summarize the
key ideas in a coherent paragraph from a short professional article/journal
and to have the summary reviewed by a peer. Or each teacher trainee can
share with a peer orally the key ideas to solicit their feedback and to note
differences in what each identified as essential to include and how they each
decided on what to include/exclude.
2.2 Notetaking techniques and tools
Activity 1: Class presentation
I am going to prepare notes for my class with the following features: notes that I
will easily formulate the questions and show relationships between the topic and
subtopics. I will choose the effective method to do this then I present in front of
the class.
Learners find Notetaking as one of the most difficult tasks to do but it is inevitable
exercise in learning. Notetaking is important because
1. Note taking helps to summarize the whole lesson, making it easy to
understand.
2. It highlights only the important points.
3. It is easier to revise and study from the notes taken later.
There are various methods of taking notes. Here we will discuss three effective
methods of notetaking
1. Mapping method
This is a more visual way to organize class notes. It is very effective when learning
about relationships between topics.
196
Procedure
1. Begin the map with the main topic.
2. Branch off the main topic and write subtopics.
3. Write any important information under each subtopic.
In this method, the class notes are organized into easily understood summaries.
This method is effective because it shows the main points, details, study hints
and summary written in one place.164
For example
WORD CLASS {𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀 𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇}
Content words {𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 1} Function words {𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 2}
Key details Key details
- Nouns - Articles
- Verbs - Conjunctions
- Adverbs - Interjection
Key details Key details

- Nouns - Articles
- Verbs - Conjunctions
- Adverbs - Interjections
197
Advantage of using mapping method of notetaking
1. Notes are well and neatly organized
2. Shows relationship between topics and subtopics
3. Easy to formulate study questions from it
2. The outlining method
In this method we use heading and bullet points to organize topics and
subtopics. This method is useful when learning topics that include most details.
Procedure
1. Write the main topic with a single bullet point
2. Write the subtopic under the main topic but indent it slightly
3. Write the important details below the subtopics and again indent slightly
For example
■ WORD CLASS {Main topic}
■ Content words {Subtopic 1}
■ Nouns {important detail 1}
■ Verbs {important detail 2}
■ Adverbs {important detail 3}165
■ Function words {Subtopic 1}
■ Articles {important detail 1}
■ Conjunctions {important detail 2}
■ Interjections {important detail 3}
Advantages for outlining method
1. Notes neatly organized
2. Easy to see relationships between topics and subtopics
3. Easy to formulate study questions
3. The Charting method
In this method we use columns to arrange notes. This method is useful when
learning facts or relationships between topics.
198
Procedure
1. Write the main topic as the headline.
2. Draw columns depending on the number of subtopics.
3. Write important details under each subtopic in each column.
WORD CLASS {Main topic}
Content words {Subtopic 1} Function words {Subtopic 1}
• Nouns {important detail 1} • Articles {important detail 1}
• Verbs {important detail 2} • Conjunctions {important detail 2}
• Adverbs {important detail 3} • Interjections {important detail 3}
Advantages of charting method

1. Notes are easy to review.
2. Details are highlighted for each topic.
1. Individually, list several effective methods of note-making process.
2. Using graphic organizer state the advantages of each of the effective

methods of note-making.
3. Brainstorm and explain how one can identify key points in summary writing.
4. outline the importance of summarizing a text.166
199
Lesson 4: Creative writing
Lesson Objectives
■ Communicate ideas in writing.
■ Develop a story.
■ Write accurately, coherently, and in an appropriate style (depending
on purpose and audience), and recognize various types of writing.
Lesson content
■ Elements of creative writing
■ Types of creative writing
■ Developing a story
We are going to divide the class into two groups.
For group A: Invite the group to narrate their favourite story that they either
they read about or was told by someone.
For group B: Invite the group to act their favourite story that they either read
about or was narrated by someone.
4.1 Elements of creative writing
Basic Aspects to Consider
1Title
Explanatory writing must have a heading or title to ensure the reader knows
what he or she is about to read.
2 structure
You must have an organized structure generally broken into three parts and
they are:
200
i. Introduction
Factual writing should start with an introduction, which states the main topic of
the composition in an informative way. This must capture the reader’s attention.
This implies that you must write your introduction in an interesting way.167
ii. Body
This is the main part of writing and contains supporting paragraphs. The body
may contain two, three, or more paragraphs depending on the number of facts
or ideas the writer has gathered. The writer provides more information about
the topic or thesis statement.
iii. Conclusion
The Conclusion signals the end of the composition, conclude composition, the
writer must restate the main idea of the composition as a summary.
3Praphing
A good writer should break his work into logical paragraphs. Unlike creative
writing where it is difficult to know where a paragraph should start, factual or
explanatory writing is easier because points are distinguishable.
4 Language
You must use persuasive language for the reader to be convinced about your
findings on the topic you have written. You will not persuade your readers to
agree with you if you do not support your findings with logical reasons and
evidence (through specific examples).
Secondly, use a language that your audience is familiar with. This is possible
after having identified your audience. If you don’t know your audience, then
write more generally.
5 Illustrations
You must support your writing with relevant examples or illustrations. This will
convince the readers to accept your writing or point of view expressed.
6 Punctuation marks
We have already known the punctuation marks play a vital role in written English
because they infer meanings. To determine meaning in factual writing, a writer
should use a fair number of punctuation marks to express his/her message.
These include full stops (periods) to end sentences; commas to connect related
ideas; question marks for questions, and quotatation marks to indicate the
direct words of someone.
201
4.2 Types of creative writings
1. Argumentative writing
An argument is a situation in which two people or parties disagree or squabble
over a particular issue, which can be referred to as a dispute.
At one point in time, if not all times, people get themselves involved in arguments.
These arguments normally take place in different places involving different
people of all walks of life. The topics range from minor to major. They might
involve politics, economy, culture, and many other aspects that encompass the
different spheres of life.168
One common feature of these arguments is that the parties involved try as
much as possible to out-reason the other. Sometimes this might involve using
supporting poems, proverbs, quotations, etc.
Activity 3: Debating
We are going to divide the class into 2 groups then we debate on the topic
“Education is better than money.”
2. Explanatory essay
The Term ‘explanatory’ comes from the word ‘explain’ which refers to giving
details about something that has happened. In this type of writing, a writer is
expected to find reasons as to why certain things have occurred. It can be a fire
outbreak, the failure of students in a national exam, rampant road accidents,
name it.
The aim of making explanations is to identify the reasons that have led to the
occurrence of such events. As such, writers have to establish facts. For this reason,
explanatory writing can also be referred to as ‘factual writing’. Sometimes it is
referred to as expository because facts are exposed.
3. Descriptive writing?
Descriptive is the way of giving a picture of somebody/ something in words. In
other words, it is a clear and detailed representation in words of the image of an
objective or subjective phenomena such as a person, a scene, or an emotion.
Description generally uses words that appeal to the five senses and always
involve two elements: the object described and the observer. According to
these, a description can be of two types: objective and impressionistic.
202
a) Objective description seeks to report accordingly the appearance of an
object independent of the observer’s attitude or feeling about it.
b) Impressionistic description focuses on the mood or feeling the observer has
towards the object rather than upon the object, as it exists in itself. It expresses a
feeling, attitude, or opinion of the observer about the thing described.
For example
Objective Description- Mogadishu has a population of about 1 million. It is
the
biggest city in Somalia.
Impressionistic Description- Mogadishu is a delightful city with numbers
of magnificent places to visit. It also has interesting people from all over the
world. It is really worth visiting.16
Describing a person
Note to the Teacher Trainer: The teacher trainer can provide suggestions to
teacher trainees about some activities to use to support this lesson. These could
include asking students to brainstorm adjectives with the teacher writing the
adjective list or asking for student volunteers to create a brainstorming list.
a) Adjectives for describing a person’s appearance:
Age: toddler, youngster, middle aged, old, elderly, in his/ her early
thirties forties/ late fifties etc.
Face: long, round, oval, attractive, beautiful, ugly, unshaven etc.
Hair: long, medium-length, short, straight, curly, wavy, dark, black, fair,
white, plaited, bald, dread locks, pony tail, dirty or shaggy.
Beard: goatee, moustache, unshaven.
Forehead: High, low etc.
Ears: round, small, large, ugly, beautiful, protruding or slanting.
Eyes: red, sparkling white, sleepy, large as though they are about to
explode, , brown, blue etc.
Nose: long, pointed, flat, shapely, large like a barrel of a rifle or too small.
Mouth: big, small, average size etc.
General appearance: Handsome, good looking, beautiful, lovely,
203
pretty, attractive, well-dressed, smartly dressed and casually dressed.
b) Adjectives for describing a person’s personality
Happy Unpleasant
Cheerful Unfriendly
Friendly Unkind
Pleasant Cruel
Amusing Lazy
Kind Dishonest
Polite Silly
Teacher trainees can help students to create a personal “word wall” or

vocabulary list with easy to understand definitions in their notebooks
and how to add to this “word wall” or individual vocabulary lists as they
learn new words.
4. Narrative writing
A narrative is a story. The term ‘narrative’ is derived from the word ‘narrate’
which, means to recount, recite, describe, report, or tell about something that
happened. In narrative writing, we tell about an incident or event we have
witnessed or heard about. It could be a sad or a happy encounter
A good narrative sets the scene, describes the events, and provides an ending.
When we write a narrative, we want the reader to feel close to the scene and
events.70
To do this and to make the story real, we use details about people, place, time,
sounds, feelings, conversations, and actions.
Examples of Narrative stories
1. A fatal road accident
2. Interesting Eid festival
3. A wedding I attended
204
4.3. Elements of development of a story
The development and stages of any story has been explained by one literature
expert by the name Freytag. These stageswere later formalized into an illustration
called Freytag pyramid. According to Freytag a story undergoes five stages. They
are
■ 1. Expository (introduction)
■ 2. Raising Action
■ 3. Climax
■ 4. Falling action
■ 5. Resolution (conclusion)
Please note that in many cultures, stories can be structured in a variety of ways.
However, most stories, regardless of culture and when the story was created,
continue to have many of these components.
Let us look at the Freytag pyramid to shed more light on the elements of a story.
We shall also explain what happens at every stage
Climax
Fa
on
ll
ti
ing
Ac
ing
Ac
ti
Ris
on
Exposition Denouement
1. Exposition
Background information of the plot that includes information on the characters
and the setting/s (where/when the story’s events take place). The characters are
introduced at this point
2. Rising action
Several major events occur that add suspense or tension to the plot. At this
point, there is conflicts between the characters or characters and settings71
205
3. Climax
The most suspenseful stage of the plot. It is the turning point for the protagonists
4. Falling actions
Three events or fewer events that unravel the conflict between the protagonist
and antagonist that lead to resolution
5. Conclusion
This is the resolution stage where conflict has been resolved. This is where we
get the moral lesson of the story. It is also called denouement.
1. Using illustrations explain the five elements of a story.
2. in small groups, describe the different types of creative writing.
3. in groups, explain the elements of creative writing.
4. Illustrate Freytag pyramid of story development.
5. Give examples of description in descriptive narrative.172
206
1. i. What do you understand by the following terms?
a) Topic sentence
b) Supporting details
c) Conclusion
ii. Read the following paragraph and answer the questions that follow.
I believe Mr. Zakariye is the best candidate for the position of English teacher
at Lafole School. Mr. Zakariye comes to the department with excellent
university certificates. First, He has a strong educational background. He
holds two master’s degrees, one in English Literature and another one
in linguistics. He is also experienced. He has taught in a refugee program
in Kenya, in a business program in Afgoye, and in a university program at
Lafole College. Finally, Mr. Zakariye is truly professional and well respected.
He has written several articles and presented at conferences. His colleagues
and students comment on how hard he works for his classes. I am certain
that Mr. Zakariye will make lasting contribution to our teaching staff.
Questions
Write;
Topic Sentence: _________________________________________________________
Supporting point 1: _____________________________________________________

Detail 1: ______________________________________________________
Detail 2: _______________________________________________________
Supporting point 2 ______________________________________________________
Detail 1:________________________________________________________
Detail 2:_________________________________________________________
Supporting point 3:______________________________________________________
Detail 1: _________________________________________________________
Detail 2: _________________________________________________________
Concluding sentence: ____________________________________________________
207
2. Following all procedures of a paragraph, in pairs write a paragraph about
“Education is key to life” and share the paragraph with your partner to give
feedback. Read the paragraph to the class after incorporating the feedback.
3. Identify and explain the five stages of developing a story
4. As a teacher, explain how storytelling will help students to enhance their
communication and other language learning skills.
5. Identify and explain the characteristics of a good paragraph.
6. List three examples of formal letters.
7. Explain the content of the body of the letter in formal letters.
8. Describe significance of reference in the formal letter.
7. Define the following terms
i) Paragraph
ii) ing
iii) ning
8. Distinguish between skimming and scanning as used in reading a text.
9. Using illustrations, highlight the mapping method of note-taking.
10. Make distinctions between mapping and outlining methods of note-taking
11. What is the advantage of using the charting method of note-taking over
the outlining one? Which of these methods may be most helpful for low literate
English language learners? Which of these methods may be most helpful for
advanced English language learners? Why?
12. Explain three main parts of creative writing.
13. . Draw andlabel neatly and clearly a diagram of Freytag pyramid illustrating
the development of stories.
14. In story development, differentiate between rising action and falling action
in Freytag pyramid.
208
Note to Teacher Trainer/Trainees: Writing lessons should be contextualized and
presented to students through mini-lessons, independent practice, sharing for
a variety of audiences whenever possible, and published.
1. Write a narrative of at least 150 words explaining “THE WORST ROAD
ACCIDENT YOU WITNESSED.
2. Your brother lives in London. You have passed your grade 12 exams and you
are supposed to join university. Write an email to him telling him of the
performance on your exams. Also, request that he sponsors your university
education.174
209
List of References
1. https://allchildrenreading.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/
USAID-Landscape-Report-on-Early-Grade-Literacy.pdf.
2. Ibid, p. 36. Escamilla et al. (2014). Biliteracy from the Start: Literacy Squared
in Action. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.
3. teaching-esl-to-adults.com
4. Tedick, D. and Gortari, B. (1998). “Research on Error Correction and
Implications for Classroom Teaching.” The Bridge, ACIE Newsletter. Center
for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition, University of Minnesota, v1.
http://www.carla.umn.edu/immersion/acie/vol1/May1998.pdf
5. “How to Play Four Corners”: 10 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow

6. https://planipolis.iiep.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ressources/somalia_
national_education_plan_2011.pdf
7. Escamilla et al. (2014). Biliteracy from the Start: Literacy Squared in Action.
Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing, pp. 54-66.
8. Marsh, J. (October 16, 2019). “How to Use Dictation in Spelling Instruction,”
How to Use Dictation in Spelling Instruction | Edutopia.
9. Dictogloss (education.vic.gov.au)
10. Dike , V.W. (1993). Library Resources in Education. Enugu: ABIC Publisher.
11. Anzaku, Francis. (2011). “Library Experts Speaks on Audio-Visual Material.”

A paper presented at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultured Organization (UNESCO) World Day for Audio-Visual Heritage.
Lafia.
12. Graphic Organizers for Teachers Grades (K-12) - TeacherVision.
13. Graphic Organizers – Learning Disabilities Association of America
(ldaamerica.org).
14. https://www.theteachingspace.com/blog/mind-maps
210

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Jamhuuriyadda Federaalka Soomaaliya

Wasaaradda Waxbarashada Hiddaha

■ Develop their communication skills for effective and fluent

Analyze a written text by presenting topic sentence indicating basic observation

Tackle challengess of learning English as a non-native speaker in terms of, syntax,

NO MODULE 1 YEAR 1 NO MODULE 2 YEAR 2

• The Principle • Elements of Reading

Teaching and learning methods

■ Open-ended questions and response

Lesson 1: Specific Uses of Language ………………………………………..3

Lesson 2: Specific Features of Languages……................................……………8

Lesson 3: Language as a means of communication……………………..13

Lesson 4: Promoting basic language skills in school……………………...20

Lesson 5: First language acquisition and second language development......31

CHAPTER 2: ENGLISH STRUCTURE………........................................................43

Lesson 1: The Principle Word Classes ……………………………………...44

Lesson 3: Elements of a sentence…………………………….........................76

Lesson 4: Basic Sentence Patterns………………………….......................…81

Lesson 5: Form of Sentences………..........................................................................85

CHAPTER 3: ENGLISH SPEECH 1………............................................................91

Lesson 1: Models of pronunciation …………………………....……….…92

Lesson 2: The speech organs……………….........................................................…100

Lesson 3: Teaching Pronunciation………………………….....................…103

Lesson 4: English Stress………………………….......................................…106

Lesson 1: The syllabus …………………………………………………114

Lesson 2: The Functions and content of a syllabus ……………………119

Lesson 3: Objectives of a syllabus ……………………………………..123

CHAPTER 5: TEACHING METHODOLOGY IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS……..132

Lesson 1: Teaching productive in primary schools ……………………133

Lesson 2: Teaching receptive skills in primary schools ……………….144

Lesson 3: Audio-visual aids in primary schools ………………………..154

CHAPTER 6: PLANNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE…………160

Lesson 1: Scheme of work………………………………………………..162

Lesson 2: Lesson plan……………………………………………………167

Lesson 3: Pupils Progress Record and Records of work………………172

CHAPTER 7 STRUCTURED WRITING…………………………………………..177

Lesson 1: Social writing…………………………………………………179

Lesson 2: Academic writing……………………………………………..189

Lesson 3: Study writing………………………………………………….194

Lesson 4: Creative writing……………………………………………….200

■ Describe the major features and main uses of language

■ Explain the impact of first language on English language teaching and

Language as a means of Communication

Speaker Language Listener

■ Outline barriers to an effective communication in the use of English

■ Introduction to different means of communication

Lesson Learning Activities

The means of communication are divided into:

Ways of overcoming Communication barriers

1. In a presentation define communication.

■ Define the figures of speech

Prescriptive language describes when people focus on talking about how a

2.4 Personified objects

■ Time rans away from him.

1. This shoe has lost the ransom of the king.

Lesson Review Questions

1. In groups analyze specific features of language giving examples.

By the end of the Lesson, the learner should be able to:

■ Explain the rules of phonological and derivation

■ Phonology and phonetics