Translation

Today I make my students write sentences in Malay on a given topic. Any sentences that they might use in their Malay language essay of the same topic. Then I ask them to translate the sentences into English and made them read it aloud for the whole class the Malay and also the English version of their sentence. I would correct any errors they made on the spot. I did this because all this while when they form sentences for their essay and speaking task they would come up with all sort of sentences which used English word but totally wreck the English structures. This is due to their direct translation of Malay to English. Hopefully they would realised their mistakes now. Even though it will be tedious task for me but hearing them making correct sentences can really make my day.

Teacher's Nightmare

Teaching Public Speaking to a bunch of students who doesn't have any sense of English is a nightmarish experience to any teacher. I tried everything that I could to instill confidence and also correct their English. I use videocam to record their presentation to identify their errors and point it out to them. At first I was doubtful that this will work because I was afraid that the students will experienced stage shocked in front of the camera. However, it was the opposite they tend to enjoy speaking in front of the camera. So, in the end I manage to get them talking. That was last year's story, now I have a new group of students waiting to be polished. It is a nightmare all over again and hopefully it will end with a good ending.
tq

Public Speaking "do not" list

When you have even one person who actually read your writing it will you encourage to keep on writing. Again thanks to Waliz for her comment makes me write again.

I have here a few tips which I used to give to my students for public speaking. I don't actually prepare extensive notes for my lectures sometimes it comes naturally through my interaction with the students and also from the problems they faced when making presentation in class. I will then try to solve their problem with tips and ideas to make their presentation better.

Here are a few don't s

• memorise your public speaking scripts
• be too ambitious to talk about a topic which is very popular but you are not familiar with
• speak too fast,
  
• rush, take time to relax yourself before you start
  

***Practise with script first and then turn the script into short notes. This will make you familiar with your topic and also help you to develop confidence. For script making and notes go here