GUIDE TO THE TEACHERS USING BURMESE WEBSITE IN THEIR CLASSROOMS
Script Lessons
Lesson 1 and 2
These lessons are intended to assist the students for the recognition and reproduction of the basic Burmese scripts by their sound and names. Students should be asked to listen and repeat after what they can hear on the web till they are able to identify and say the names of the scripts.
Lesson 2- 40
These lessons are intended to teach the students how to read and write Burmese. Teachers should help the students to take the proper steps in writing the Burmese scripts. Students should also be asked to practice reading using the reading lessons.
Drills
In the Drills on this website, students are asked to do the drills using the keyboard. In a classroom it is found to be more effective to use the hard copies of the drills replacing the keyboard instructions with real handwriting. For example the following instruction on the website would be changed on the hard copy as below.
Website: 1. With the cursor next to the consonant script, press "Shift+j" to add "yá pín há htò" to each of the following consonant scripts.
Example: မ မျှ
1. မ
2. လ
Hard Copy: 1. Attach "yá pín há htò" to each of the following consonant scripts.
Example: မ မျှ
1. မ
2. လ
Quizzes
Students should take the quizzes of each lesson only after they have done the drills.
Begining Burmese Lessons
These lessons are designed for learners of Burmese who have already learned to read the script.
When these lessons are used in class, the role of the teacher is to facilitate the learners' consolidation of the vocabulary and structures presented in each lesson.
Presentation and Practice
As students have been asked to look at the lesson ahead of class, the teacher may assume that the students understand the structure and vocabulary presented in the dialog.
a. The teacher should read out the dialogs in each lesson line by line and have the students repeat. As all the lessons present a dialog with a male speaker and a female speaker, after choral repetition, the male students take the role of the male speaker and the female students may take the role of the female speaker. Next, students should practice the dialog in pairs.
b. The teacher uses the sentence patterns (e.g., greetings, questions, etc.) presented in the lesson for real classroom communication.
Production
Role-plays: The teacher describes a situation which requires the students to use the sentence patterns and the vocabulary presented in the lesson, together with previously learned language presented in previous lessons. Students are formed into groups and asked to take roles and to work together on a role-play (e.g., shopping for a ball pen). Each group presents the role-play. Teacher checks for comprehension by asking the details of what they heard in the role-play presented by another group.
Students may also be asked to do the Drills for homework.
Intermediate Burmese Lessons
Websites Linked
Students should be asked to check the websites linked with each lesson for prior and more knowledge about the content they are going to study.
Reading
Teachers should ask the students to read the texts at home with the help of the recording of each lesson on the website. Teacher will test the students' reading skill and understanding of the text in class. The syntax in each lesson should be explained as needed.
Speaking
Students' speaking skills should be developed by raising the questions related to the text first and later asking the students to explain about the text.
Writing
Students should be assigned to do the Drills on the hard copies.
Listening
Students should be encouraged to listen to the recording of the text frequently. The teacher also should tell the class a different story using the words and syntax they have learned in each lesson.