Media Studies and Journalism

Media studies is a discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history, and effects of various media; in particular, the mass media. Media Studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass communication, communication, communication sciences, and communication studies.

Developing Instructional Materials for ESL Courses: A Study Guide

In a teaching-learning situation, instructional materials can be authentic or real objects used as alternative channels of communication to help the teachers concretize some abstractions so they can convey vivid information to learners. Furthermore, instructional materials can define the goals, objectives, approaches, methods, strategies, and techniques of the syllabus as well as the roles of the teachers and the learners (Wright, 1987) with reference to the learning domains (cognitive, psychomotor, and affective). The rationale behind having instructional materials is that they serve as a resource for presentation, activities, stimulation, and ideas for classroom learning (Cunningsworth, 1995) as well as a platform to induce or enhance creativity. Meanwhile, Kurt (2017) defines instructional design as the creation of instructional materials, modules, or lessons. It can also be a technology to develop the learners’ experiences as well as to promote the acquisition of specific knowledge and needed skills for a certain degree program. Factors in designing instructional materials include the following: learner, context, resources and facilities, personal confidence and competence, copyright compliance, and time ((Malley, 1998). Five (5) of the most popular instructional design models are the ADDIE Model, Merrill’s Principles of Instruction, Gagne’s Events of Instructions, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and Kemp Instructional Design Model. Digital learning terms include 21st Century skills, App flow, Asynchronous learning, Synchronous learning, Blended learning, among others. The exercises call for further discussions and application on the learning domains (cognitive, psychomotor, and affective); sample printed materials (flyer, leaflet, pamphlet, and brochure); factors in designing instructional materials; and design creatives. Assessment requires the students to submit a compilation of the different Projected and Non-projected instructional materials.

A Pragmatic Study on Listening: Theory and Practice

Hearing or listening capacity is a big gift from the Creator, an invaluable present. In reality, many people live with an unexpected misfortune, the deaf status. One important thing missing, hearing, or listening ability. Nevertheless, they can also survive and adapt to their life activities, live normally. Excellent! Why is listening important? To begin with, it is important to present only two general definitions of ‘listening’, though a variety of definitions of listening are available. The first, Goss (1982) defines listening as “the process of taking what you hear and organizing it into verbal units to which you can apply meaning”. The second, Wolvin and Coakley (1996) define listening as “the process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to aural and visual stimuli”. Based on the two definitions, listening is something to do with getting the ‘meaning’ uttered by the speaker or sounded by the audio or audio-visual media. Accordingly, the idea that assumes listening as passive activity is not acceptable. Listening needs the listener’s cognitive involvement and concentration, different from ‘hearing’. Hearing is unintentionally done, with no specific target of getting the meaning or the speaker intent. Therefore, getting people to listen to each other is not an easy objective. Unfortunately, listening has come to be viewed as a passive, simple act that we just do. The word “just” is all too frequently used to describe listening in the admonition “Just listen.” This reduces listening, then, to the non-active, receptor, part of human communication. Listening may be one of the most, if not the most, a complex of all human behaviors (Wovin, 2010:2). Thus, listening is the active involvement of cognitive skill in understanding the ‘meaning’ or the ‘speaker intent’.