Article critique

1.     Summary

We are living in the context of globalization. Most people own a smart phone that they can access to Internet at anytime. The new smart phones equip with high-resolution camera, so the owners can capture picture easily. Photographs can be integrated in our teaching because a picture can be described in a thousand words. Baker, Lottie (2015) did a research on integrating visual literacy in language learning with photographs. In his paper, she define the word ‘visual literacy’, provide a rationale for connecting visual literacy to he language classroom, and give examples of instructional techniques with photographs. She has defined visual literacy as the competency to make meaning from what we see and to create images that convey implicit and explicit messages to others.  Baker, Lottie (2015) suggested four instructional strategies using visual images such as photo analysis, mystery photo, collaborative stories, and selfies.     

2.     Strengths

Baker, Lottie (2015 presented an important technique of integrating visual literacy in language learning with photographs. She raised Ansel Adams’s words ‘a photograph is usually looked at–––––seldom looked into’. The quote supports the tittle of the article because it makes the audiences to understand the article easily. The author has defined the term ‘visual literacy’ very well with some supported sources. Moreover, she gave a brief purpose in the introduction, so the audiences have ideas what will be discussed in the article. She organized each part in a logical way.  

3.     Weaknesses

Baker, Lottie (2015) have written an important and timely article on integrating visual literacy in language learning with photographs. Despite its may strengths there are a number of small, but important, weaknesses. The author stated four mains strategies about using visual images. However, the strategies are lack of experiment evidences, so they seems be based on her opinions. Her strategies might not be applicable in some circumstances. Example, most low-level students’ parents do not allow their children to use smart phone.     

4.     Usefulness

Except young English learners, her strategies are very useful for adult English learners and teachers. Images can be integrated with different content areas and activities. First, images can be used to create meaningful oral interaction. Example, the teachers can provoke students by asking them to express their feeling about the images. Second, images can help students to develop critical thinking. For example, the teachers can ask reasoning questions to foster students’ thinking skills. Third, images open up the students’ perspectives not only from the local perspectives, but also to understand visual from different global perspectives. Fourth, images can be used as a potential for scaffolding. For example, new English learner can start from labeling items in photographs. The last, images can be linked content with language. For instance, we use images to complement content learning goal

Reference:

Baker, Lottie. How Many Words Is a Picture Worth? Integrating Visual Literacy in         Language Learning with Photographs (n.d.): n. pag. American English. US, Department   of State, 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2016.

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Approaches, Methods, Procedures and Techniques

Approach: People use this term approach to refer to theories about the nature of language and language learning which are the source of the way things are done in the classroom and which provide the reasons for doing them. An approach describes how language is used and how its constituent parts interlock- it offers a model of language competence. An approach describes how people acquire their knowledge of the language and makes statements about the conditions which will promote successful language learning.

Method: a method is the practical realization of an approach. The originators of a method have arrived at decisions about types of activities, roles of teaches and learners, the kinds of material which will be helpful and some model of syllabus organization. Methods include various procedures and techniques (see below) as part of their standard fare.

          Wen methods have fixed procedures, informed by a clearly articulated approach, they easy to describe. However, if a method takes procedures and techniques from a wide range of sources (some of which are used in other methods or are informed by other beliefs), it is more difficult to continue describing it as a ‘method’. We will return to this discussion when we discuss post method realities in B2.

Procedure: a procedure is an ordered sequence of techniques. For example, a popular dictation procedure starts when students are put in small groups each group then sense one representative to the front of the class to read (and remember) the first line of a poem which has been placed on a desk there. Each student then goes back to their respective group and dictates that line. Each group then sends a second student up to read the second line. The procedure continues until one group has written the whole poem (see Example 5 in Chapter 19C)

          A procedure is a sequence which can be described in terms such as First you do this, then you do that…. Smaller than a method, it is bigger than a technique.

Technique: a common technique when using video or film material is called silent viewing (see Chapter 18, B1). This is where the teacher plays the video with no sound. Silent viewing is a single activity rather than a sequence, and as such is a technique rather than a whole procedure. Likewise the finger technique is used by some teacher; they hold up their hands and allocate a word to each of their five fingers, e.g. He is not playing tennis and then by bringing the is and the not fingers together, show how the verb is contracted into isn’t.

Another technique is to tell all the students in a group to murmur a new word or phrase to themselves for a few seconds just to get their tongues round it. 

Reference:

Harmer, J. (2010). Popular Methodology. In The Practice of English Language Teaching (Fourth Edition ed., p. 62).

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ASEAN toward 2015: Challenges and Opportunities for Cambodia

Association of South East Asia Nation was formed on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand by five founding countries: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia to promote political and economic corporation between its members and other countries. Currently, the ten countries in Southeast Asia such as Brunei Darussalam, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippine, Singapore, and Vietnam are the members of ASEAN. Cambodia becomes the last member of ASEAN on 30 April 1999 after the observation on the political situation, and got the consensuses from its members. Similar to European Union, Asian is divided into three main pillars, which are ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), ASEAN Security Community (ASC), and ASEAN Socio Community (Association of Southeast Asian Nations, 2012). The purpose of creating ASEAN are to accelerate the economic growth, to promote regional peace and security, to enlarge corporation and relationship, and the main arm is to end the war and conflict in the region. However, Cambodia, one of the developing state in the region, seems to be not ready for the regional integration as it has not done quite enough to conclude itself in the region where the others are far more developed compared to Cambodia. Therefore, this essay will show the possible challenges and opportunities that Cambodia would face, joining the integration in 2015.

First, the most concerned problem in Cambodia is the lack of human resources. In fact, our educational system is not strong enough to produce qualified human resources for local and regional completion. The quality of education was every important. We are weak in some areas compared with other countries. We have a lot of schools but the quality is low (Khieu, 2012). Moreover, some Cambodian students study two or three universities but their skill force is the key concerned to compete with other countries. An ILO survey of 500 firms conducted in 2013 suggests that more than haft of the establishments were not satisfied with their employee’s performance (Heng, 2014). Language proficiency is another challenge that hinders the Cambodian in the integration. “It’s more than just a bridge, your major in business, law or whatever, you won’t be able on the stage to compete” (Bun, 2010)

Second, even though ASEAN integration focus on Economic integration, it will obviously affect the Cambodian society. Currently, we fact two main issues in Phnom Penh, they are flooding and traffic congestion. The traffic jams is due to small and narrow roads which are not available for expanding, and increasing in needs for vehicles by the city dwellers (Tim, 2011). Flooding impacted much of the city as heavy rains fell Tuesday afternoon, causing traffic jams as motorists flocked to major thoroughfares in order to avoid smaller roads with poor drainage (Cambodian Daily, 2014). After integration, large amount of newcomers will come to Cambodia for various purposes such investments, job opportunities, and tourist purposes. Therefore, when people can freely travel cross by Cambodia, the situation of traffic congestion will be worse and worse. In addition, the integration will bring us more social issues such as social crimes, human trafficking, and drug trafficking.

In contrast, the integration has a positive effect on the economy and future development of industrial base in Cambodia. Cambodia could likely to attract more foreign investments because Cambodia has relatively low wages. “In the regional context, Cambodia should benefit from the implementation of the AEC to attract investment from services firms to serve the region and the world (Phnom Penh Post, 2012). Sophana (2013) argued that once Cambodia economic is interwoven into ASEANs, Cambodia absorb any company that wishes to partner with local businesses for production and export. Cheap labour is considerable for investors come to Cambodia. Cambodia's daily wage of 200 baht (6.6 U.S. dollars) is considerably lower than the 300 baht (10 U.S. dollars) in Thailand (Roongrote, 2013). By having similar geographical proximity, Thai government has planned to build and expand roads and railways to link the two neighboring countries (Roongrote, 2013). “By 2015, Cambodia will become the daughter of rich family. We will no longer be the daughter of the poor family that no man wants to marry with (Sophana, 2013)”.

Another opportunity for Cambodia is the increased number of tourists. Cambodia will attract more tourists because of its attractive ecotourism sites and cultural tourist sites. In tourism, there will be ‘one billion tourists, one billion opportunities’ by 2015 (Thong, 2013). According to the ministry of tourism, in the first nine months of 2013, Cambodia received 3.5 million international tourists, a growth rate of 18.6 % over 2012. In 2014, the number of tourists is expected to be around 4.2 million international tourist arrivals. The forecast made by mister of tourism, the number of international tourist arrivals will reach five million by 2015, and 7.5 million by 2020. By increasing the number of tourists, Cambodia will create more jobs such as front office, housekeeping, food and beverage services, food production, travel agencies, tour operations, hotel and services. These job titles will create 800,000 direct jobs for Cambodian by 2020 (Thong, 2013). Tourist factor is now a priority for Cambodia as tourism is becoming an important driver for economic growth.

In conclusion, the integration is coming in the very short period of time in 2015. However, Cambodia does not seem to be ready for ASEAN integration. What the Cambodia might face after the integration in 2015 might be both challenges and opportunities; however, challenges seem to be higher than benefits (Chhay, 2012). The Cambodian government and citizens must take action together to improve the standard of people and economy and society. Cambodian people should be aware of current trends in the region and follow up the any situations including political and economic issues not only in Cambodia but in the whole region (Chan & Chhoun, 2012). Significantly, the government should improve the quality of education, industrialization, and the condition of cities to ensure that we will integrate successfully with other countries in the region.    

References

Association of Southeast Asian Nations. (2012). Overview. Retrieved from:http://www.asean.org/asean/about-asean

Association of Southeast Asian Nations. (2008). ASEAN Economic Community blueprint. Retrieved from http://www.asean.org/archive/5187-10.pdf 

ASEAN Economic Community (n.d.). Association of South East Asia Nations. Retrieved from: http://www.asean.org/communities/asean-economic-community

Phnom Penh Security Plc. (2013) Research paper on Tourism Sector in Cambodia. Retrieved from http://pps.com.kh/PPSUploadFiles/iv/424_en-us.pdf

Khieu, K. (2012, August 28). AEC: Cambodia sees challenges. The Nation. Retrieved from http://www.nationmultimedia.com/aec/AEC-Cambodia-sees-challenges-30189153.html

Heng, P. (2014, June 5). Educational Reform: A long-term Strategy to Prepare Cambodia’s Youth for ASEAN Integration. Khmer Times. Retrieved from http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/1945/educational-reform--a-long-term-strategy-to-prepare-Cambodia---s-youth-for-asean-integration/

Bun, T. (2010, February 10). The importance of speaking English. The Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved from http://www.phnompenhpost.com/lift/importance-speaking-english

Tim, V. (2011, August 15). What cause traffic jam in Cambodia?. Khmer Bird. Retrieved from http://khmerbird.com/featured/what-cause-traffic-jam-in-cambodia.html

Sek, O. (2014, July 23). No End in Sight for Chronic Phnom Penh Flooding. Cambodia Daily. Retrieved from http://www.cambodiadaily.com/archives/no-end-in-sight-for-chronic-phnom-penh-flooding-64718/

Surasak, T. (2009, September 2). News Analysis: Cambodia viewed as "best" investment venue for Thais. Xinhua. Retrieved from http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2013-02/09/c_132162078.htm

Thong, K. (2013, November 6). ASEAN and the rise of tourism in Cambodia. Tourism of Cambodia. Retrieved from http://www.tourismcambodia.com/news/localnews/11287/asean-and-the-rise-of-tourism-in-cambodia.htm

Chhay, C. (2012). Cambodians will compete will ASEAN countries. The Phnom Penh Post. Retrieved fromhttp://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodians-will-compete-asean-countries

Chan, M., & Chhoun, S. (2012, March 26). ASEAN economic community 2015: Challenges vs. opportunity. Cambodia Circles. Retrieved from:http://cambodiacircles.com/articles/54/asean-economic-community-2015-c

Customs and other import duties (% of tax revenue) in Cambodia. (2012).Trading Economics. Retrieved fromhttp://www.tradingeconomics.com/cambodia/customs-and-other-import-duties-percent-of-tax-revenue-wb-data.html

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