Final blogpost

The most useful aspect of CALL has been the exposure to the amount of resources available online. Whether or not each of the tools we signed up for will be used for instruction is secondary. The idea of being introduced to what is public and available is useful because when the resources are needed, I know where to find them. Setting up accounts with Youtube, Twitter, Second Life, etc, have saved us all the time of learning about them and registering for them when the time comes to use them.

The second aspect of the class I found most useful is the exposure to blogs. Implementing the use of blogs in an ESL classroom is a useful resource. Students will be able to journal whenever they want, wherever they want. They will have the benefit of editing their own work multiple times, without having to worry about rewriting the entire entry by hand. This is also beneficial for the instructor, in that there will be no need to carry around multiple notebooks, and return them in a timely fashion. Students can comment on each other's blogs as they please, and receive immediate feedback on their work. I found blogger.com to be an easily accessible blogsite, and my exposure to it in this class has been extremely beneficial.

ePortfolio

Working on the eportfolio the past few days has been an interesting experience. I discovered a lot of great CALL tools, and learned about their potential to help students acquire their L2. Putting all the required elements together seemed a little daunting at first, but it was good to see the final production of the semester come together.

The most difficult part of the eportfolio was the required abstract and sources. I already had a research-paper topic in mind, but it's difficult to write an abstract when you're not sure where your research is going to take you. I did the best I could, and wrote as if I knew where the results would take me. Finding sources is always difficult, but luckilly I had some help because of all the research I've done on SoftChalk at work, in the LCLC. I think blended learning is an interesting topic, and I truly think it's the future of teaching.

The most satisfying part of the portfolio was seeing it all put together in the end. Lots of work this semester, and it's nice to have something to show for it.

Second Life

Upon further use and exploration of Second Life, I don't think it is something I would implement in an ESL class. While it has some benefits, I don't think they outweigh the negative. I think the inital setup alone may be troublesome for some students, because the tool requires certain capabilities of a computer, and students may not have access to those types of computers. It would be ideal to use Second Life with students in the classroom, but this would only happen under the circumstances that the school provides the instructor with the tools necessary to allow this to happen.

The activities and exercises I would use Second Life for are all tasks that students could complete with real people, in authentic contexts. While it may be easier and less expensive for some students to experience these tasks virtually, the point of the task for me is to allow students to have the experience.

While Second Life does have some benefits for ESL students, I have yet to be sold on its unique benefit to instruction.

Video Conferences

I think video conference has great potential, especially in foreign language and ESL classrooms. The reason they can be so beneficial is that language learners benefit so much from speaking and listening to others speak. This is a great way to bring a guest speaker into the classroom, without the scheduling and hassle that generally accompanies the process. Speakers can appear from any part of the world, which live guest speakers cannot (usually).

The drawback of this tool is that it may be difficult for some students to use, as exemplified by our demonstration on Tuesday. The teacher may need to guide students through the process several times before they are comfortable doing it on their own. Another possibility would be to use video conferencing in the classroom only, and not independently.

E-Journaling

In the article, the authors discuss how students created e-journals as a response to the speech acts they were assigned. Students were given some structure on the assignment, and generally enjoyed the activity. Although students may have enjoyed the experience, it may have been sort of a stretch in terms of a CALL tool, but rather, a way to incorporate technology into the classroom without adding any significant improvement to the lesson. It's nice to include technology into activities, but students need to feel that they're using the technology for a purpose, and not just for the name.

One suggestion for e-journaling is to create a scavenger hunt activity where students are required to visit locations around town, then create e-journals on their experiences. The journals will be available to their classmates, so that students who were assigned to different locations will have the opportunity to read and comment about what his or her classmates experienced while visiting the given location. This way, students are using technology in a way that they cannot use paper and pen.

3/16 post- 7 things about wikis

Before starting this program, I wasn't too familiar with what wikis are, and what their many uses are. I can now see how beneficial they can be for group work, and how great of a tool they are for collaboration. The article mentions that they came about in the 90's by scientists and engineers who created them as knowledge bases. This seems to be the case with many online platforms, such as facebook.

The article mentions a few downsides of wikis, and one of them in particular has the potential to be troublesome for ESL students. If you are teaching a class that does not have much technological experience, the initial setups and modifications that wikis require may be difficult to deal with. This can be a time-consuming task for both students and teachers, and the benefit of the wiki must be worth the time spent setting it up.

What about the idea of creating a "class wiki," where the entire class collaborates on one page, in specifically assigned tasks. While the project has the potential to be chaotic, it may be easier for the teacher to monitor one giant wiki, as opposed to a bunch of smaller wikis. I'm still not behind wikis 100%, but I think they do have potential in ESL classrooms.

March 11th reading blog

This reading, Negotiation in Cyberspace, deals with some of the benefits of synchronous feedback and error correction with NNS. One of the interesting points was that implicit learning takes place when a native speaker drops a preposition, and a native speaker rephrases the comment, this time with a preposition, for example.

I think this type of communication and feedback is a great way to get students to correct their work, almost unintentionally. My question would be that since these types of activities can be time-consuming when completed outside of class, so will these types of activities take place in lieu of class time? I don't see these types of activities happening during class, so will this be extra work students complete outside of class?

Project Proposal

The intended audience of the project will be study abroad students in Chicago taking a required culture class to become better antiquated with the city and help ease their cultural transition as they will be staying in the Chicago for six months or longer. The CALL tools we will be utilizing for our project are wikis and blogs.

The blogs project is meant to be a weekly journal where students are free to discuss any experiences they have had in Chicago, or any feeling of culture shock, etc. It is intended as a more open-ended forum for the students to record their reactions and have a place to compare their experiences over time, and with peers. The benefit of using an online forum is that the instructor will not have to carry an arm load of journals home, and the blogs will be easier for other students to access and read. Also, the students will not be deprived of their journals while the teacher is evaluating/reviewing them. The main goal will be the cultural benefits and the secondary goal will be writing fluency as the blogs will not be graded for grammar errors, and again, the purpose of the class is to ease the students’ transition into US culture and to create a community of solidarity amongst the classmates. Creating this environment in the class will, in theory, help the students have a better overall study abroad experience and lower their overall affect so they can perform better in their other classes.

The wiki project will be assigned at the beginning of the semester, so the students will have all semester to complete their task. The students will be asked to perform two tasks. First, they will be asked to visit major tourist sites of their choosing from a list ranging from museums, to going to a sports game. Second, they will be asked to visit places that they might miss if they were to just visit museums and tall buildings. These places could include restaurants, or anywhere recommended by a native Chicagoan as non-tourist places that shouldn’t be missed. The students can choose to work in pairs or as individuals. Each pair or individual will submit two wiki pages, one for each site visited. Out of the two projects, this one will focus more on accuracy although the class is not intended to be a grammar/writing class. The main goal, once again, will be for the students to become more acquainted with the city and to help lower their overall affect. The secondary goal will be giving the students the opportunity to practice their writing skills. The wiki format will also provide students with a forum for submitting multiple drafts over time, so any evaluation will be more heavily weighted on the process, and not necessarily the product. The students will have a follow- up writing class where they can just focus on honing their grammar and writing skills.

The students will be using the following sites:

www.blogger.com
www.wikispaces.com

Podcast #2- Planning a Vacation

Podcast #2 - Planning a Vacation

The podcast can be found at the following link: http://ecrofford1.podbean.com/

This podcast was created for a beginning- intermediate speaking course. We have created a pre-listening activity and a post- listening activity for this podcast. This lesson is meant to introduce students to the vocabulary and dialogue involved with planning a trip.

Pre-listening activity:

Below is the vocabulary list for the unit we are about to begin. Before listening to the podcast at home tonight, work through this list and try to define as many of these words as you can. After you have completed your list as best as possible, get in a group with 1-3 other classmates, and share your definitions. Try to come up with complete, logical definitions for each of the words. If none of your group members can define a word, look it up in your dictionaries, and copy down the definition.

Vacation

Travel

Trip

Flight

Depart

Departure

Arrive

Arrival

Destination

Luggage

Suitcases

Airplane

Airport

Travel Agent

Reservations

Tickets

While listening to the podcast:

During the podcast, try to gather some information about the trip the speaker is taking. Some information you should listen for:

Where is the woman going?

Where is she leaving from?

When is she leaving?

What time is her departure?

What time is her arrival?

Is she traveling alone?

How much luggage can she bring?

What airport is she leaving from?

Is the travel agent helpful?

Post- listening activity:

Take the information you uncovered, and type it into your blog in summary form. Include the main points, using as much of the vocabulary list as you can.

For the next assignment, you may work alone or with a partner.

Choose a location you would like to visit, and do the following:

Come up with 5 questions to ask a travel agent.

Some examples you can use:

How much are your tickets?

What time is departure?

What time is arrival?

What is your destination?

If you buy more tickets, is the cost less?

You may use some of these questions, but also come up with your own questions to answer.

After coming up with 5 questions, try to do a little bit of research, and answer the questions yourself. If you have trouble finding information, work with a classmate to plan your trip together. Use the internet to answer your questions. Type up a short blog postt using complete sentences, much like the one you did after listening to the podcast, and give us the important information that you discovered. Use as many vocabulary words as you can.

Chui/Savignon Feedback Article

It's tricky to prioritize focus areas when giving feedback to students, because accuracy and meaning are both so important when learning/teaching a language. A couple of interesting points by Zamel were brought up in this article, and the most interesting to me was the idea that many teachers look at a student's essay as complete once it's been edited, while in actually, the writing should be looked at as an ongoing piece of work. When I was an undergrad here at UIC, I had a professor named Tony Grosch, and the phrase he most emphasized with us is the notion that "writing is a process." A piece of writing was never complete, in his opinion, and he always encouraged us to treat our students' essays as an ongoing writing assignment that they always have room to improve.

Because there's so much for ESL students to grasp, I think this theory is an important one to employ. Students should tackle each aspect of the language as it comes, and giving them feedback on their written work will give them a tangible exercise that they can continuously work on.

I found it interesting that some people argue that error correction has no benefits. If students see and understand their errors, and have the chance (if need be ) to speak to the instructor to clarify, I don't see how they wouldn't improve their written language acquisition.

I do like the idea of giving feedback over the internet. I have done this many times with students, granted they weren't ESL students, but I found this a great way to give students extra opportunity to correct their work, and experiment using online resources.

Google Wave for ESL Instructors

Episode 1:

We created a podcast geared towards instructors with the purpose of introducing Google Wave (www.wave.google.com). This episode is the first in a series of instructional videos and ideas concerning Google Wave. This podcast is a general overview, but future episodes will be more specific.

Google Wave is pitched as the new generation of email, and the capabilities of the tool far surpasses basic email. As instructors are listening, they should be clicking and exploring the few features we selected to highlight. We suggested a few hypothetical projects that students may use Google Wave for, and directed instructors towards the specific gadgets that are the framework for these projects. Students can plan trips using the itinerary, pinpoint specific locations on Google Maps, video chat with people from all parts of the world, and do much, much more.

Activities within Google Wave:

Trip Planning
Map Building
Slideshows/Powerpoints
Blogs
Twitter Updates
Concept Maps
Video Chatting

For more information on Google Wave:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ

Our podcast can be found at:
http://ecrofford1.podbean.com/

Voicethread for ESL

I think if monitored effectively, Voicethread has the potential to be beneficial to students. The idea of having a platform that can hold images, documents, and videos, has the potential to allow students to continue learning outside of the classroom. The fact that people from all over the world can participate gives students the opportunity to collaborate with other ESL/EFL students, particularly those at different levels, or with different L1's.

Chapelle and Jamieson mention how research indicates that students should be exposed to different varieties of English, including pronunciation variations, and different dialects. I think Voicethread has potential to introduce students to several different aspects by embedding videos or sound clips into the thread. Since teachers have control over the material selected, they can be sure that students are engaged in authentic materials. If monitored correctly, I think it could be a useful tool.

Language Learning Videos

For the first blog, I assumed the role of a native English speaker attempting to learn Arabic. I found a video clip that instructs you on how to make a popular Arabic appetizer. The speaker of the video spoke rather quickly, especially in the beginning. A student would need a good amount of Arabic to understand what he was saying. What I like about the video is that it has visuals that correspond with the spoken instructions. The ingredients and the amount required are written on the bottom right of the screen, so the learner can read the words and numbers while simultaneously listening to them be read. Overall, I would say the video has potential, but may be too difficult for lower levels.

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/aswaat/video_s.php#/0/baba_ghanouj_elementary/

For the second video, I assumed the role of a teacher teaching an Arabic course. I chose a video with a man giving out his address and phone number. This video is more clear- cut than the first video, partly because students can see the speaker in this video, rather than just hear his voice. He also speaks much slower than the first video's speaker did, so he's easier to understand. I think this is a more valuable resource than the first one, because the instructions and information given by the speaker are simpler and more straightforward than the first. Because he's just giving names and numbers, students will be able to comprehend the information much quicker.

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/aswaat/video_s.php#/0/buswaab_add_and_phone/

CALL Vocabulary

http://a4esl.org/q/h/vocabulary.html

The initial appeal of this site to me is that it is a self- study vocabulary site. Students read a definition/example of the vocab word in question, and they have the option of either answering it, or asking for a hint. These questions can also be used in the classroom, if the teacher prints them out, rather than make them computer based.

The categories are first identified in terms of their difficulty- easy, easy-medium, medium, medium-difficult, etc- and then further sectioned by specific themes, such as days of the week or parts of the body. You can also find words categorized by the letter they begin with. For teachers, this would be an easy resource if you're looking for vocab for a specific purpose.

While I like some aspects of this site, I wouldn't use this as the entire vocabulary lesson, but rather, only one aspect of the lesson. I don't find the tests to be communicative tasks, because they don't include anything but the tests. I like the categorization of the words/tests, but I don't think the activities are strong enough to stand on their own.

SLA Reading Resource

http://www.eslgold.com/reading.html

The above website is a well-organized site that allows you to access a range of materials and resources, spanning from low beginning readers, all the way to advanced readers. The site offers exercises, quizzes, reading strategies, and articles/topics for discussion. One of my favorite parts of the site is the textbook recommendation link, which recommends books based on the specific level and skill you are targeting.

I chose one activity to explore, and it was based around the article "American Art in Delaware." The lesson included pre-reading vocab (with a matching activity), and pre/post-reading questions. While I personally would chose to modify some of the activities, I think the starting point that these activities offer is great.

Experience with CALL- post #1

I haven't had any official experience with CALL, other than reading articles and researching its place in the ESL world. I think technology in ESL classrooms is important, so I'm looking forward to learning all the aspects of computer- assisted learning. One question I could pose is do you think ESL students will be motivated by the idea of using computers to assist language learning, or is there a possibility that computers may intimidate some students?