Oral drill

Oral drill    20/11/2013

        Oral drilling to learn sentence patterns is an age-old practice.  When  there was a strong stress on Communicative English which dominated the scene for last 20 over years,  I believe many English teachers if not all had abandoned this ancient practice of oral drilling.  It is the drilling until a learner learn the pronunciation of the words, phrases / sentence patterns.  

        Ya, I did drill my students on Forms of the Verb only.  Actually,  I should have drilled more.  Just spare 10 minutes a period for this oral practice.   In language learning, actually, a person learns faster by listening and sighting the words /audio-visual learning. 

     The sounds effect on a person is so much powerful than the silent words learning.  Sound effects stay on forever.  This is how I remember the songs that I learnt in Primary One and the Form teacher Mdm Wong Bao Ing as well.  She had taught us so many English songs, if I am not mistaken.   I still can sing those songs that I learnt in Primary One.  Oh, ya, it is also because there have been repetitions and rehearsals every now and then for me to remember them.  I might forget the verses of a complete song but the tune is always there. Look, if you don’t know how to pronounce an English word,  it is near to impossible to remember the word and then to be transferred to our permanent memory unless you have camera-like memory that you remember it in sight.

        Knowing an English  word without knowing the sounds of the word is “dumb” learning.   Language is meant for communication, especially the oral communication.   The ability to communicate orally will highly facilitate the written communication.   

        Tenses are important in the English language.  To grasp the concepts without mistakes, besides reading and creating situations to practise the usage, I see drilling the tenses can prove to be effective to reinforce the learning.   Isn't it true that a habit forms after practising it again and again?   Drilling to form the habit is a short-cut to learn words, phrases and sentence patterns but don’t over do it.  Drill can kill and makes a person ill, so never use the whole period for this activity or it will bore the learners to “death”.    

        Immediately after drilling, learners are expected to produce the target words, phrases or sentence patterns in sentences creatively.

     Drill the tenses they have learnt in order to reinforce the learning.

For example:

        We  clean our classroom every day.      (Simple Present Tense)

        We are cleaning our classroom now.       (Present Continuous Tense)

        We have cleaned the windows.            (Present Perfect Tense)

        They look sparklingly clean now.

        We have been cleaning our classroom since 7a.m. 
        Now it is 10 a.m.  We have cleaned it for  3 hours already.

        
        Then ask the learners to use a word to create to their own sentences with the 3 tenses as indicated.  This activity can make learning fun, creative and exciting, too.  You can involve the whole class asking them to compose in writtern words first before the oral presentation. 

        Ya, to piano play a song, you need to know the pattern of the song and through practices,  you memorise the musical notes and which key to press one after another.   It is by attentive listening to the tune.  Ya, a song has a fixed pattern / musical notes to remember.  So is a language, like English.

        Piano-playing a song needs to practise and practise to remember the musical notes.  It is learnt by habit and this habit will become spontaneous / natural /intuitive.  Isn't  it  language learning done in a similar way, too?

Some discovery in music learning

Some discovery in music learning     18/11/2013

        Music learning can be fun if you can play the songs you like well.  It is entertaining, too.  You can enjoy yourself fully if you can play the songs from memory knowing which keys and fingers to co-ordinate with. 

        M………….the knowledge of the musical notes enables me to play the Level 3 songs compliled by Lina Ng without difficulty.  This knowledge enables me to know which key and which finger to play on.  The musical notes are alike to the grammar of a language.  When you have the good knowledge of grammar, you can improve the target language on your own.  

The more I play the more I see the similarities between the piano playing and the language.  

        Ya, knowing which one is Middle C and that is the door to get in to explore the world of music.  Any key right to Middle C, the pitch ascends on the key moving eastwards.  On the other hand, any key left to Middle C, the pitch decends on the key moving westwards.  You will see the repetition of the key right to Middle C ---DEFGAB, CDEFGAB, CDEFGAB and CDEFGAB.  To the left of Middle C, it is BAGFEDC, BAGFEDC, BAGFEDC and BAGFEDC.  There are 4 sets plus on right hand side of Middle C and 3 sets plus 2 keys on the left. 

White keys                        black keys

4X7 = 28 + 1                     4 X 5 = 20

3 X 7 + 2 = 23                  3 X 5 = 15 + 1

White keys + black keys

52 + 36 = 88

       To play L3 songs by Lina Ng, you need to know what sharp# and flat b mean, too.  To play #sound, you press the black key going eastwards and press the black key going westwards, you got flat b sound.  Of course you also need to know what a dot on top of the note and on the right hand side of the note (bean sprout-like symbols) mean.

        To play a song well, you need to know the rhythm (tune/melody), pitch (high / low/both) and tempo (timing: fast, moderate or slow).  For the rhythm, it is better to start with the songs that you know so well.  In this case, you can catch the tempo easily as you know how to sing the song.   

        Up to this stage, I can play quite a few songs from memory.    To play a song from memory.  You have to practise and practise and practise…………. until it has become spontaneous and automatic.  The song with high regular patterns is easier than the song with low regular patterns. 

        For the song, “Can Can Dance” , I can play fairly well now from memory because it has regular patterns.  The notes on the right hand side of Middle C:

                C  | DFED | G   G | GAEF |

          D    D  | DFED | C1C2BA | GFED |

                C  |  DFED | G  G |  GAEF |

          D   D   | DFED  | C  DE | C   ||

        Note:  C1 is Middle C

The notes on the left hand side of Middle C:

        .               .

        G                     G

        E              F

        C              D

        Ya, you have to play the song with both hands simultaneously.   It is difficult to do it if you are a starter.  But practice is the answer to overcome this hassle.  I have done it with a lot of practice and patience.  I must admit that playing the piano requires a lot of patience and endurance to play a song well.    It is good for me as I need to discipline myself in this respect. 

     Ng………….besides, “Can Can Dance”, I can play “Litter Buttercup”, “Mor Li Hua”, “Expectation Waltz” and “Cradle Song” from memory.  For “Blue Bells of Scotland”, I still have a bit to go with that irregular pattern and I have started “Alouette”, too.  With mind focused and a lot of practice, I believe I can develop my Music intelligence a bit further, too. 

Interests

Interests           4/Nov/2013

        Ya,  interests cannot be forced upon.  M..... I picked up the old hobby: piano playing after a lapse of 5-6  years.  Piano playing is a skill like a language.  You have to practise the piano daily for at least half an hour to be fluent.

        I went for piano lessons from November 2002 until October 2003 with my son, Adou when we were in Kuching.  When we came back to Sibu in November, 2003, we went for piano lessons in March, 2004 for a few months / half a year. 

Then my son, Adou protested and insisted that he wanted to play the guitar and so he went for the guitar lessons.   He learnt from 2004 until 2006.  He stopped in 2007 because he had to sit for the SPM examination.   

Without my son’s company, I also quitted the lessons and played at home with all the earnest for a year / two and gradually  the fire went off especially when I moved the piano into the room.  So I seldom touched it and soon it became the place where I put things.  Until October, 2013, I pushed the piano out again to the sitting room and I started playing it.

        This time, I play the piano with a new mindset .  I only choose the songs I like to play and want to play well.  So I try to practise the same song many times until I can memorise the song.   It is the playing of the music by hearing.  It is the practice until it has become spontaneous.  It is spontaneous that I play the music without thinking too much of the notes.  It is about which key to press and which finger to co-ordinate with.
        Last time, I was too ambitious as I wanted to play as many songs as possible.  When I played, I referred to the notes all the time.  Thus I fumbled through and learnt with a lot of frustration because I could not remember the keys and the fingers to co-ordinate for each song well.  With the new understanding of playing the music by hearing, I can play these old songs so much better that ever before.

        So far I have memorised 3 songs in a month’s time and am still practising them.  I am playing Level 3 by Lina Ng.  The songs that I can play from memory are “Can Can Dance”, “Little Buttercup” and “Mor Li Hua”.   For “Mor Li Hua”, I still need to play for a least 20 more times to be as good as I play the song “Can Can Dance”.

        Ya, my son, Adou also started his guitar lessons again in October this year with the same teacher.  He likes this teacher so much so that they have become good friends.  They go for dinner together after guitar lessons on Friday.   
        Adou's guitar teacher is actually major in computer science but he is so music-inclined that he took up the music course.  He teaches guitar and violin to earn a living now.  His 2 other siblings are doctors in Taiwan.  He is different and hence he was once teased to be the "bad durian" in his family.
        The guitar teacher had  the knowledge of computer that my son, Adou could dig.  Thus he was looking forwards to the guitar lesson weekly.  From 2004 /5 onwards, he got the knowledge to download games to play, movies to watch,........  The guitar teacher became so handy to him for computer knowledge and problem he encountered.  Ng......I learnt computer from my son, Adou.  It was no doubt a double gain.
         The guitar teacher also showed him the sect of Buddhism (密宗) and he was quite attracted to a certain extent.  He went to attend the religious functions occasionally.  He read quite a number of books by 卢胜彦。 

        Actually my son, Adou has long fingers to play the piano but he just does not like this musical instrument.  He told me he liked playing the guitar long before we got enrolled to learn the piano lessons in Kuching.   I don't have the long fingers to play the piano.  My little fingers especially are so short.  Imagine the little finger is more than half an inch shorter than the first joint of the fourth finger.  So when I need to use the little fingers to press the black key, I need extra effort and care.
        We don’t care about the music examinations as we don’t like to be pressurised.  So  from the very beginning, we told the teacher before the lesson started.  We can’t enjoy music  if we take exams and then we only play that few boring songs to prepare for them.    We learn at our own pace.  I feel that we learn better when we are not under the pressure of exams to prove.
        At one point/ another, of course, I was tempted to ask Adou to sit for the piano / guitar exams.  But the requirements of the examins just put me off.   So I had to forget about it.

        Music is like a language learning in many respects.  Music has the theory and tune to learn and language, the grammar and pronunciation.  Trust me, you can learn better by hearing than with mind focus on notes by looking.  You have to practise the song to remember it.  For the language, you have to use it to learn it and become a part of you.    From music, I see the drill / practice to form the habit and this habit will become so natural that it will become automatic.  This is the wonder of our minds to learn the skill: music / language.