BALI'S KECAK DANCE

Kecak (pronounced: /'ke.tʃak/, roughly "KEH-chahk", alternate spellings: Ketjak and Ketjack), a form of Balinese music drama, originated in the 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.[1]Kecak was originally a trance ritual accompanied by male chorus. German painter and musician Walter Spies became deeply interested in the ritual while living in Bali in the 1930s and worked to recreate it into a drama, based on the Hindu Ramayana and including dance, intended to be presented to Western tourist audiences. This transformation is an example of what James Clifford describes as part of the "modern art-culture system"[2] in which, "the West or the central power adopts, transforms, and consumes non-Western or peripheral cultural elements, while making 'art' which was once embedded in the culture as a while, into a separate entity."[3] Spies worked with Wayan Limbak and Limbak popularized the dance by traveling throughout the world with Balinese performance groups. These travels have helped to make the Kecak famous throughout the world.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

LEVEL: Form 3
TIME : 35 minutes
AIMS : To find specific information on websites and use it to complete worksheet given. And to practise using adjectives to describe people (writing)
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:
One computer per group of 2-3 students, with an Internet connection and a Web Browser.
Websites: www.famouspeople.com
PREPARATION:
Locate sites dedicated to famous people.
Using the information on the site and prepare a worksheet.

PROCEDURE:
Teacher shows the students a few pictures of famous people in the world. Teacher asks the students about what they know about the people, such as what make them famous and their significant contributions.
Teacher distributes worksheets to the students and ask them to answer the questions if they know. Teacher informs the students that they can get the answer to all question from website.
Teacher sends the students to chosen website and ask them to find information and complete the worksheet given.
As all the students finish, teacher asks students to exchange the worksheet with other group. Teacher discusses with the students about the answers.

FOLLOW-UP:
Based on what the students have learnt today, write an essay (not less than 250 words) about their most favourite personality and post it to class blog.

ESL Website Evaluation

Address of the website: http://www.members.iinet.net.au/%7Eadelegc/index.html


1) What does the application attempt to “teach”?

The application attempts to teach grammar, vocabulary and listening. It is designed for children who are in low and intermediate level. The activities are divided into three categories: grammar, vocabulary and listening and the user is free to choose any topic that is placed under each category. The activities in this application are more on drilling and practice where the user has to complete exercises. It is good for the users who intend to reinforce or do revision of what they have learnt in school.

2) What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?

In order to learn/understand the content, the users are expected to answer the exercises given or in other words, the concept of this application is ‘learning by doing’. By answering the questions, the users are hopefully learn new things or maybe strengthen their schemata about English language. The learning process occurred as the questions in the exercises stimulate the user’s understanding of the previous lesson in classroom, thus will then encourage them to think critically about the best answer that suit the questions. Apart of that, learning process also enhanced as the users make correction of the mistake that they have done in the exercises. The correction will help the users to avoid repeating the same mistake in the future. In conclusion, by answering the questions, the users learn the content by gaining new knowledge and information, at the same time reinforces their understanding about English language.

3) What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/ access/ use the application?

In order to use the application, the users are required to have basic computer skill; they should be able to access to the internet to browse the website. Apart of that, the user should know on how to use cursor to click on categories that will enable them to enjoy the activities in this website. As all of the answers of the questions have to be typed, the users also need to have good typing skill. The users should also familiar with Windows Media Player for the listening activities; they should recognize which icon they have to click to start, pause, stop or adjust the volume of the audio.

4) While you are “playing”/ “accessing”/ “assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in your classroom, or with your teacher, or with fellow classmate, or in self-study?

The activities in this application are more to individual basis. The two activities: grammar and vocabulary reminds me about myself in the classroom completing exercise sheets given by teacher. The activities are more or less the same but the advantage of using this application for learning grammar and vocabulary is when the users can check their answers immediately and no longer have to wait for the teacher to return the checked exercises (that normally will take for ‘some’ time to be returned). By using this application users do not have to depend too much on teacher to monitor their performance and this application actually leading it’s user to be autonomous learner who is responsible for their own learning.

The other activity is listening activity, which reminds me about my English teacher reading passage where I have to fill in all the blanks. Digging up the past, I think I would prefer doing the listening activity using this application rather than listen directly from my teacher. There are a few reasons: 1) this application allows me to listen again and again when I am not clear with some of the words or sentences. Compare to my previous English teachers, normally they only repeat twice and if I missed figuring out the words, I would loss the opportunity to answer the question, thus it was very frustrating for me at that time. (2) The level of distraction during listening activity using this application is very minimum; the users can spend their own sweet time filling all the blanks. Compare to the real situation in classroom when the listening activity take place, it is difficult sometimes for the students to concentrate on each and every words that teacher uttered. This is because classroom setting is not really conducive for listening activity, for example; some naughty classmates disturb the listening activity by making noise and sometimes the teacher’s pronunciation is not very clear . Thus, using this application for listening activity is the best and it did remind me about my English teachers and listening activities in my classroom.

5) Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?

Silent Way is one of the theories that have been applied in this website. According to this theory, learning is facilitated by problem solving involving the material to be learned. Silent Way also advocates less learning ‘by being told’ and more learning by discovering for oneself various facts and principles (Brown, 2000). And yes, even though the users of this website are children, the activities designed in this website let them to do everything on their own, thus it inculcates the user towards being independent learner. There are only questions and the users have to solved it. There are no examples or guidance offered to the users to help them in answering the questions. They are depended on their own self and totally involve in discovering the ways and making decision to solve the problems. The only thing in this theory that goes against the concept of the activities in this website is that learners should cooperate with each other in the process of solving language problems.

Another theory that in someway related to this application is Audiolingual Method. It implies that there should not be explanation in language learning. Language is taught by inductive analogy rather than deductive explanation. Through the activities in this website, users are tested to discover the answers for the questions and there is nothing provided to help them out. So the users will go through the process of repetition; in which the users have possibly do trial and error, then they will gather all the clues/hint that will stimulate themselves in further understand the language.

In terms of drilling and practice, this application applied Grammar Translation Method. This theory stresses that; people should do a lot of drilling in mastering the language. This application provides its users with a lot of questions especially on grammar. This will give the users opportunity to do countless exercises on any topic that they wish. Thus, the more practice they done, the better their language will be.

6) How well is the Constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website?

As mentioned earlier, this application is more to individual basis as the users will work independently/individually to complete the task. This is synchronize with the Constructivist theory where the learning process is control by the learner; the learner should be encouraged to explore their world, discover knowledge, reflect and think critically and teacher should not attempt to simply pour information to learner’s mind (Santrock, 2006; Ambrose, 2004; Brooks & Brooks, 2001). There are number of details that proved that some of the Constructivist theory applied to this website: (1) the instruction of the exercises do not mention about working in pair or discuss with friends, (2) Compare to some other ESL website, the answers for exercises in this website do not equipped the users with extra explanation; it just give the exact answer for the users to check their work. Thus, this will avoid users to sit still and be passive learner by simply accept all the answers without knowing, aware or curious either the answers are right or wrong. In short, this website encourages its user to explore freely on their own to find extra information regarding the topic/exercises. (3) Another aspect of the activities in this website that match with Constructivist theory is that it ‘makes mistakes work for you (the user)’. For example, the users are some kind of being ‘forced’ to make correction of each mistake that they have made. This occurs when the users want to check their work, the system of this website will informed the user if they gave wrong answer on some questions and they have to correct it if they want to continue to check the other answers. Thus, by hook or by crook, the users have to make their own decision to put the best answer to correct the mistake. Therefore, the experience of correcting their own mistake without depending on others, develop their potential to be more responsible of their learning process and increase their confidence level as they are capable to find the way to help themselves. In addition, this will also encourage the user to be aware of not repeating the same mistake in the future.

7) In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation your evaluation – was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely and obedient servant to the students?

In my opinion, I strongly believe that the computer is not a replacement for teachers but it is regarded more as an assistant in teaching and learning activity. It is impossible for the computer to completely take over the teacher’s role in educating students because its function is limited. The teacher is the best for language teaching; teacher is more understanding and sensitive towards his/her students feeling, mood and interest. Teacher can adjust and match his/her teaching with what the students want or in other words, teacher knows the best what is good for his/her students. This is something impossible for computer as it is very rigid and depends on what is programmed on it.

One of the important aspects in language learning is communication. Teacher is much better in improving students’ communication skill compare to computer. This is because, in language classroom the students can interact directly with their students without any boundary. This activity will give the students experience to response spontaneously to the teacher or classmate. Apart of that, the students can learn about non-verbal communication such as body gestures, voice-tune and facial expression that are demonstrated by the teacher. The teacher can also give tips to the students on how to response or handle real-life situation by choosing the right words at the right time. Students’ communication skill will improve from time to time as the teacher guide the students by giving comments or feedbacks about the students’ performance.

8) Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

The probability of using this application in my future English classroom is quite big but I will use it only for exercises or revision activity for my students. It is also depend on other factors: it must be suitable with the proficiency level of my students, learning styles and also their learning interest. I will fully encourage my students to do activities in this website if the students have a preference of completing the task individually and they are good with computer. Their learning styles and interest should not be ignored; if majority of the students in the classroom are visual and kinesthetic learner, I will avoid using this application. This is because of: (1) the face validity is not very appealing. The design of this website is too ‘formal’ in which there are only limited pictures and colors used in this website. Furthermore, it is lack of animation (something that most children love and it is very good in attracting children’s interest to this website). I found out that the design of this website is more suitable for adult learner (2) The activities restrict the student’s learning experience as the type of activities available is only; ‘question and answer’ and ‘listen and fill in the blank’. I believe this website is not a choice for the students who learn the best by doing or moving. If the website is interactive and attached with language games, the website is not considered as bored and not interactive anymore.

9) Suggestion/ Recommendation.

It was found out that the content of this website is sufficient for English language learning. However, there are still rooms for improvement especially in terms of presentation. As the users of this website are children, effort should be made not only to attract their attention but also to maintain their attention span. There are number of suggestions that can be considered: (1) the design and the type of activities in this website should be more creative and interactive- the website can be improved by adding suitable doses of cute icons, pictures, animation, videos, games, songs and music. It is also great if the activities in this website vary and not restricted to question and answer type only. For example, the language learning activity can be exciting if the children can play language game like Hangman to learn spelling and Tic-Tac-Toe for vocabulary and speaking practice. The users can enjoy the game without realizing that they are actually learning the language. Apart of that, instead of listening to passage read by a speaker, the listening activity can be very interesting and authentic if it makes use of real life conversation or famous songs. (2) Interaction; it is not impossible for the admin of the website to put some features that allow the users to interact with other users or English teachers around the world. This interaction will give them the opportunity to openly discuss about their problems, opinions or anything related to English. The sharing session where the response and feedback are gathered will hopefully engage the users with language learning activity and at the same time improve their English.

Salam and hi,nice to meet you, bloggers. I am Siti Anisah bt Mohd Hatta. Love to be called as Nisa. im originally from Pasir Puteh, Kelantan and now im in my last semester, part 8 doing Tesl, alhamdulillah :)

• to be honest, the computer software that i knw how to utilize is not much, just the basic requirement that all students need to master in completing their assignment; Microsoft Office Word, MO Power Point, MO Excel, MO Publisher, Front Page and thats all.

• im not very into computer technology so much, so my skills and knowledge in this field is limited but sometimes im having fun burn some CDs of my favourite songs and movies..and now im looking forward to learn how to format computer as i always have problem with my computer and spent more than thousands to fix it but still not satisfied with the result.

• i used to have free internet at my parents house, so doing the last sem break, everyday i enjoyed myself to have long chat with friends via yahoo messenger, watch and download videos, dramas and movies on youtube. Besides that, i found its relieving to browse some website that give me inspiration in life and bring me closer to God like iluvislam.com. I also love to download recipes from Martha Steward and other cooking delight website. Latest, i spend some of my time touching up my new facebook.

That is all for the time being...see you again