New Life, New Degree: October 2011

My FOUNDATION B.Ed TESL in

This is some information about TESL in IPGs around Malaysia; I am studying TESL in IPG Kampus Tun Abdul Razak by the way... This is some information base on the experiences that I have gone through in my Foundation TESL course throughout this three semester. Each IPG may differ from one to another...

Semester One, I have to conclude that it was the easiest of all three semester in Foundation B.Ed TESL in IPG. Well, for newbie, the reason is that during your semester one, there will be NO EXAMINATION and we are differ from other courses that was provided in the IPG because our examination is tested base on the stuffs that we have learnt throughout the THREE SEMESTER. The best things about life experience during semester one was that you will go for camping for about four days (maybe differ from each IPG) and at the end of the semester, for semester one, you will have Exhibition for your Social Studies.The exhibition is focusing on two main topic: Culture & Communication.
Well, let's focus on the core subjects now before I continue talking about Foundation B.Ed TESL in IPGs.
There's will be only four core subjects in Foundation B.Ed TESL, there are:

1.Language Description-you will learn grammar
2.Language Development-as the title said it, to develop your language (Speaking, etc.)
3.Social Studies
4.English Studies- you will learn Literature (Short Stories, Poems, Play, Novel)

In semester one, I experienced writing critical essay for my 1st assignment; Well, the assignment for this will be differ from each IPGs...Well, in IPGs concept, there will always be somebody or someone who will become your Group Leader and followed by Subject leader...this is the hierarchy.

Tutor (your group lecturer)
|
Group Leader
|
Subject leader (for each subjects)
|
Normal students

Life in semester one, won't be hectic; What you need to do is finding new friends, knowing them; Well, this is pretty important for your life in semester two. Besides that, my hint is that, you should always seek for advices from your seniors, since we cannot deny that they have gone through as they have faced the examination before us. Some early hints will make you wake up as early as semester one, this is because semester one don't have examination and it will surely make you lazy after one semester. Besides that develop teamwork during semester one is pretty much important because you really need it in your 2nd semester.

Okay, enough about semester one; Let's continue about Semester Two. Let me go straight to the point, semester two will be a lot more busier than semester one, this is because, your lecturer know you already and this means more work. You will experiences reading William Shakespeare's Play the whole semester and at the end of the semester two, you will need to present a play on what you have learnt. Well, take notice that, this will also be your mark for your final examination as it is an assignment for English Studies. Preparing the drama, not an easy task as we will have less help from our lecturer; well, we are in a teacher trainee college, so indeed they are training us to become a teacher, which is a good thing. Besides from drama, you will have English Society in your semester two. In English Society, you will have to organize activities for English of course; While experiencing this, you will expose to paper work writing and how an English Club should work in a school. About English Society, it will be good if your cohort have less class, more classes or group means you might experience some conflict; This is because you really need some unity in this and ENGLISH SOCIETY ALSO BRING SOME IMPORTANT MARKS IN SEMESTER TWO. Plus, for my TESL IPG, at the end of the english society, we will visit some schools at our areas. For Social Studies, what I experienced is that, my assignment asked me to do action research/ Survey base on what I have learnt in Social Studies. However, some lecturer will give you critical essay like what my seniors experience in the past, during their semester two.

Furthermore, in your semester two; you will face your Mock Examination. (Mock=Fake) The exam usually test before Gawai holidays (for Sarawak IPGs) ; Well, for first timer Mock Examination wasn't easy. Talking about examination, my lecturer have rank the subjects from the hardest to the easiest.

1.Language Description (well, about the command of language, Semester two stuff is quite challenging if compared to Semester one)
2.English Studies (you need to read all the literature, this subject you cannot afford to have a last minute study)
3.Social Studies (easy, if you have read well)
4.Language Development (Just like MUET and school exam)

Some of my coursemates have fail in Social Studies in Mock Examination before; I have admit that thou it is just a Mock Examination, it wasn't easy. For Semester, in your social studies, you will focus on Environment and Gender issues. You will learn about Glass ceiling, Kyoto Protocol, etc. Well, you will see a bigger world after studying this; You will know what is gender stereotyping. Quite fun actually, if you learn to see things at this stage. For your language Description, in your semester two, you will learn about the sentence patterns, Subject Verb Agreement and etc. Well, you have to search and even invent some clues to remember the rules etc, well that's what I experience.

Lastly, I will tell you about Semester three in Foundation B.Ed TESL in IPG. Once you reach semester three, your spirit for studying will definitely become low, this happen to all group of TESLian in my IPG Kampus Tun Abdul Razak. Furthermore, this is what I call ClimaX for Foundation B.Ed TESL. Like what happen in the other two semester, assignments will be given to you after the third week or the fourth week, depend on your lecturer. Well, for semester three, you spend more time inside your IPG rather than visiting outside or camping. This is because less activities for semester three. For English Studies, you will read novel for the whole semester. For my cohort in IPG, during this time, I learnt "The Mango Season" by Amulya Malladi. Like Play in Semester Two, each IPG is differ from one another for what we learn for English Studies. Besides that, for your semester three, you have to get ready to prepare the Final Examination (The only true final examination that you will face in your Foundation life). For my IPG, like what I posted in my last post, we did scrapbook about the novel that we have read. Since I able to cross check with my friends in IPG Kampus Batu Lintang, during their semester three, they did magazine instead of scrapbook; Well, the concept is still the same anyway. The only best thing about semester three is that for your social studies assignment, you will be asked to do video about Conflict or Globalization in Education. Most of time, we will tend to choose conflict because it is easy to do and make. To precise and make you alert, a 10min movie clip. For your language description, you will learn stuffs like for example, reported speech, lexical devices, Ellipsis and many more...

That's all for me; I have to prepared for my Final Examination now...good luck for your journey as well, if you are a new TESLian this year in your Campus and just want to know more about what will happen next in the coming semester; That's all from me, Adios!!!

-Sean Chen-

Hope this guide help ;D

if you like to ask questions, feel free to post the questions in the comments, I will try my best to answer it base on my personal experiences...

Time flies indeed; I still remember that the time that I make decision to go into this field of education wasn't easy enough...yet after one and a half year here in teacher trainee college, I already get use to my life here already; Plus after having my time here, I personally didn't feel regret about my decision last year.

In this one and a half year...

I managed to learn more about leadership, friendship and administration . Well, it wasn't easy at first because I am one of the oldest in my class, PPISMP BI 2610. While writing this post, my current stress and tension is only my Final Examination from 8th to 11th of November 2011. The examination is indeed important to me because that will determine whether I worth to continue my B.Ed TESL next year in IPG Kampus Tun Abdul Razak. Plus, I am happy that all my lecturers have high hope for my class, well this hardly happen in secondary school days (especially in Form 6), here, they really don't want us to fail. I was happy as well because I also have finished my last assignment for foundation year last Monday.

This is the front page of my scrapbook

Talk about assignments, at first when I was in semester one TESL foundation; everything seem hard, but now everything seem to be easy; Anyway, final examination is approaching...I have prepare the for the worst to come...