Week 14

Learning Through Projects

After reading this week's articles "Benefits of  Project Work in Foreign Language Classrooms" by Bülent Alan and Fredricka L. Stoller and "Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning " by John Larmer and John R. Mergendoller, I learned how we can motivate our students to learn a second language through projects.

Both articles are very similar, they describe the steps that students must follow to create a project, and they provide examples of how project based learning has helped students to get very good results while learning a language.

As a future teacher, I would definitely use Projects to help my students learn and understand their target language because by doing it, I would be motivating them to work as a team, helping them to feel motivated towards the language, and at the same time being independent.

RATED: 4

Week 13

Participation and Technology

In this week's articles "10 Benefits of Getting Students to Participate in Classroom Discussions" by  Maryellen Weimer, and "Increase Student Interaction with 'Think­Pair­Shares' and 'Circle Chats'" by Kristina Robertson, we read about how to boost participation among language learners and the positive outcomes of doing it. Besides this, we had the opportunity of experiencing how technology can help us to promote participation.

Weimer's article was very helpful because as the name of it says, the author exposes the benefits of making students participate in classroom discussions. Something that I learned from this article is how participation can provide feedback to teachers. While listening to the way his or her students express their ideas, teacher can identify what areas of the language they need to emphasize, for example. Moreover, a wrong answer from a student can help teachers know what is not clear enough for students. Similarly, Robertson's article provides examples of two different activities that can be performed in the classroom in order to boost students' participation. These activities are "Think­Pair­Shares" and "Circle Chats". What I liked from this article is that the author explained the steps of each activity in a very clear and detailed way. In conclusion both articles resulted very interesting and helpful.

Moreover, in our weekly task this week we had the chance to experience participation through technology by providing our own ideas about the previously mentioned articles in a website called Nicenet. It was very easy to share my thoughts here. Thanks to this task I learned that taking an online course does not mean that you will not have the chance to participate actively.

RATED: 5

Week 12

Introducing Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL)

This week's article "Twenty Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom" by Hayo Reinders introduced a different way of using technology to improve language education: Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). In my personal opinion, it was a very useful article because it not only provides meaningful information about what MALL is and how it works but it also provides 20 different and useful examples of exercises in which MALL can be used.

I found very interesting the description that the author provides about MALL. Reinders said that mobile devices, and more specifically  mobile phones "help minimize the separation between the classroom and the outside world". I wanted to recall this quote because I think what it says is true, and I have experienced that. This semester I've been able to use my mobile phone to do many of my tasks for different class, specially those classes that are online. Today's technology allow us to download apps for free that can be very useful, and I have been able to get apps for the platform we use for those classes, and for other websites that result very useful too.

As stated in the title of the article, the author also proposes ideas for using MALL to improve language education. I really liked those ideas because they are very easy to execute. Also, I think that students would feel motivated to practice their target language when they realize that they will be using their mobile phones in order to do so. Such activities are designed to practice the for skills of a language (listening, reading, writing, and speaking) individually or more than one at the same time, and also to learn more aspects of the language like vocabulary. In this activities students are required to send texts, take pictures, record audios, and post information. In other words, students are asked to do all the things they do with their mobile phones just for fun. I believe that that is the main point of MALL, and the key of its successful. With MALL students do not feel like they are doing just one more boring homework, but they really have fun by completing these tasks.

Finally, the article also provides some examples of challenges that can be presented while using MALL such as lack of access to mobile phones, privacy considerations, etc. I really appreciate the fact that the author recognizes that using MALL does not mean that there will not be any difficulties, and the fact that he took the time to think about some possible solutions to such challenges.

In conclusion, this article was extremely useful and interesting.

RATED: 5

Week 10

Enhancing Vocabulary through Technology

After reading this week’s articles, Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension by Andrea I. Constantinescu, and Online English-English Learner Dictionaries Boost Word Learning by Ulugbek Nurmukhamedov, I have acquired significant knowledge about how CALL and technological resources can help second language learners to improve and expand their vocabulary.

In the first article, we can find a description about the relationship between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. Something I learned from this article is that one of the main advantages that CALL has to enhance those areas of the language is multimedia. The author states a few examples of studies that have been developed about how technological resources have been part of the process of boosting vocabulary and reading, and its results. Finally, we are presented with a variety of teaching principles proposed by the author in which the expanding of students’ vocabulary is perceived as the main way to improve their reading skill, and it is done using technology.

The second article was very helpful and interesting, thanks to it I realized that there are dictionaries that are designed specifically for learners of English. Before reading this article I was not aware of the many options that learners have to clarify doubts, besides the regular dictionaries designed for native speakers of English. The author provides specific examples of this type of dictionaries, the way we can all access to them, and the best way to use them. 

In conclusion, among many other things, this week’s articles allowed me to learn that vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension are closely related, and that CALL can help to enhance both of them. Additionally, I learned that there are technological tools that have been designed to help learners of English to improve their knowledge of the language, like online English-English learner dictionaries. 

Week 9

Collaborative Writing: The Future of Group Work

In the two required articles for this week, a new way of using technology to teach a second language was introduced: collaborative writing.

The first article I read for this week was “Online Collaborative Writing Using Wikis” by Paul Sze, in this article I found an example of a collaborative writing task. The teacher asked his students to write in a wiki. A wiki is an online platform in which anyone can add information and edit information that has been previously added by other users. What I liked from this article is that the author provides a very good description of the task he assigned to the class, the way they worked in it and finally, of the results obtained. The author also provides some other examples in which collaborative writing can be applied using wikis. Thanks to this article I learned that students can feel very satisfied with a result as a wiki, in which not only their classmates and teachers, but also their friends, relatives, and literally anybody can appreciate their final work.

In the second article, “Process Writing and the Internet: Blogs and Ning Networks in the Classroom” by Isabela Villas Boas I learned that effective writing must consider the reader’s background knowledge, needs, interests and ideologies. In order to engage students in interactive and social writing, the author proposes two technological resources, blogs and Ning. A blog is a website with different entries that students can use to practice their writing skill. A list of benefits of its use is provided in the article. Ning is a group social networking site, similar to a blog but with a wider audience and more technological resources, such as multimedia. The author also provides a free alternative to Ning which is Grouply. Finally, two examples of collaborative writing tasks are provided using the platforms previously mentioned, all the process and the results are clearly exposed.

In summary, thanks to this week’s articles I was able to identify an innovative way to promote group work using technology and to know the benefits of applying it into the lessons.

Week 8

Technology for Writing and Reading

Thanks to this week’s articles, Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction by Jarek Krajka, and Using Internet­Based Children's Literature to Teach EFL by Larry J. Mikulecky, I could confirm one more time that technology and internet can be very useful tools to teach specific skills of a second language, in this case writing and reading.

Something I learned from Mikulecky’s article is that internet can provide a big amount of material that we, the teachers, can use with our students to practice their skills. Mikulecky mentioned that there are some websites that allow students to get literature in English to practice their reading skill, and at the same time it allows them to overcome some barriers that were common in the past, like problems of access, and expense. At the end of this article, the author included some links to websites that can do what was mentioned before.

On the other hand, Krajka’s article talks about the benefits of using internet to teach writing. One of the benefits mentioned here, and that I think is one of the best, is that thanks to internet students can be exposed to real usage of the language. By using internet they can communicate by writing e-mails to other people, including people from other countries in which their target language is the native tongue. Besides this, the author provides some examples of how teachers can apply internet to their lessons in order to teach or practice writing.

In conclusion, it has been demonstrated one more time that technology and internet can become great tools to teach a second or foreign language, and its skills. With this articles, I have learned how to apply CALL to teach writing and reading. 

Week 7

UTILIZING CALL TO TEACH SPECIFIC SKILLS.

After reading this week’s articles The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills by Julia Gong, and Using Original Video and Sound Effects to Teach English by Shahla Yassaei I have acquired new knowledge on the way that CALL can be used to teach specific skills in a second or foreign language.

There are many different things that I learned from the material previously mentioned. First, in Gong’s article I was able to learn the theory on how CALL is useful to teach speaking to second or foreign language learners. Something that I read here and that I believe that every teacher should know is that students tend to feel more comfortable practicing speaking using computers than practicing with a real person because they feel less afraid of making mistakes while pronouncing.

On the other hand, in Yassaei’s article I was able to read how to apply in a real class the principles stated in Gong’s. My personal opinion of this article in particular, is that it is very useful because it provides several ideas that can be used to teach specific skills using CALL and specially video and sound effects. What I liked the most from this article is that it shows how simple it can be to apply technological resources to our lessons. Thanks to it, I realized that finding these kinds of materials is really easy, the author even said that TV shows like The Simpsons can become a teaching tool if we use them properly. 

In conclusion, from this week’s material I learned that by using CALL to teach speaking (or any other skill) we can help our students to feel more comfortable, be more engaged in the content being studied, and to be exposed to the way the target language is used in real life.