Task 4: Designing an ESL Call Website

This task had me thinking and I came up with the BEhive website.
At the BEhive, any ESL learner can get to know more about the BE verb.
To check the website out, please click on the link below:

The BEhive

Making the website was tedious, but it gave me a new experience. Wix is a cool site to build your own website. I hope the website is alright.
Have fun!

Task 3: Web Based Lesson Plan

To download the lesson plan click this link:http://www.mediafire.com/?6gg6w5guwmmfyy5
To download the Oreo Moment Photo Competition worksheet click: http://www.mediafire.com/?95ppjda3p05uq6v

The lesson plan can be viewed below:

Web Based Lesson Plan: Oreo Moments

LEVEL: Form 2 (High Intermediate – Advanced)

TIME: 9.00 a.m. – 10.10 a.m. (70 minutes)

AIMS: By the end of the lesson, students should be able to differentiate between adjectives and adverbs by:

1.   writing 3 sentences using adjectives;

2.   writing 3 sentences using adverbs;

3.   writing 4 rules/criterias of an “Oreo Moment” Picture Competition by using 3 adjectives and 3 adverbs.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

1.   Computers for each students (computer / language lab)

2.   Stable internet connection for all computers

3.   Microsoft word in each computer

4.   Working speakers

5.   Whiteboard and whiteboard markers

PREPARATION:

1.   Teacher makes sure that all of the technical requirements above are met in the language lab.

2.   Teacher downloads around 10-15 Oreo Moments pictures, the Oreo Moments campaign advertisement and some Oreo commercials in case the internet connection did not work during the lesson. 
3. Teacher makes sure that each computer has a copy of the word document "Oreo Moment Photo Competition".

4. Teacher makes sure that all students have and know how to use an email account.
5. Teacher makes sure that the Oreo she will be munching on is edible.

6.   Teacher keeps a broom nearby in case any Oreo crumbs fall to the floor.

PROCEDURE:

STAGE	INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITY
SET INDUCTION (5 minutes)	1.   Teacher greets students and prepares students to begin the class. Teacher checks that each student is in their place and gets a working computer. 2.   While doing all the above, the teacher is munching on a piece of Oreo. 3.   Teacher explains that the year of 2012 is the 100th birthday celebration of the Oreo cookie. Teacher shows the official Oreo website to the students (http://www.nabiscoworld.com/oreo/). 4.   Teacher then asks students if they have any special moments with Oreos. Teacher can include her own experience of first eating Oreos with her friends. -       When I was in Standard 4, I went on a school trip to Cameron Highlands. While on the bus, my friends and I shared snacks to eat. One of my friends brought with her a pack of Oreos and I had never seen or eaten any before. So she taught us the Oreo “Twist, Lick, and Dunk” routine – which we thought was very disgusting, especially when minus the milk. We all thought that she was joking and did not believe her. But a few days after the trip, I saw an Oreo commercial on the television and saw that it was true. So in the end we all apologized to our friend for not believing in her.
DEVELOPMENT (60 minutes)	Activity 1 (20 minutes) 5.   Teacher tells students that in conjunction with their 100th Birthday Celebration, Nabisco is doing a campaign called “Oreo Moments – Celebrate the Kid Inside”. Teacher shows the campaign advertisement (http://www.nabiscoworld.com/oreo/birthday/) 6.   After the video ends, teacher asks students what do they feel about the video – teacher writes the adjectives and adverbs from students’ responses on the whiteboard. 7.   Teacher asks to the students whether: -       they know that the words that the teacher has listed are adjectives and adverbs; -       they know the difference between adjectives and adverbs? 8.   Teacher explains to students the differences between adjectives and adverbs by using the following picture, taken from the Oreo Moments Gallery on the website: Picture 1: "100 just like Oreo" Teacher uses the root word “happy” in the shown two sentences below to demonstrate: Sentence 1: Grandma is happy with her Oreo cake.         (Adjective) -       Teacher explains that happy is an adjective because it describes the noun Grandma. Sentence 2: Grandma is looking happily at her Oreo cake. (Adverb) -       Teacher explains that happily is an adverb because it describes the verb looking. Teacher summarizes to students that an adjective describes a noun while an adverb describes a verb (with some exceptions, teacher can explain that in another lesson). 9.   Teacher asks students to open the Oreo website (http://www.nabiscoworld.com/oreo/) and see if they can find any adjectives or adverbs. Teacher goes around the language lab to help and facilitate the students in finding any adjectives or adverbs. Activity 2 (20 minutes) 10.   After about 5 minutes, teacher asks students to open the Oreo Moments Gallery page (http://www.nabiscoworld.com/oreo/moments/). 11.   Teacher explains that in this page, they can see pictures and videos taken by all sorts of people to capture their “Oreo Moment”. 12.   Teacher then asks students to look through the gallery and pick 3 pictures. For each picture, students need to describe it by writing two sentences – one using an adjective; the other using an adverb. A total of 6 sentences is needed, and should be written in their grammar exercise book.    Activity 3 (20 minutes) 13.   Teacher then asks students to close their books. 14.   Teacher now shows students the AmbassadOreo Contest page and asks if they would like to enter. However, the contest is open to Americans over the age of 18 only. So, the students cannot enter. 15.   Teacher asks if they would like to try and create their own rules for their own Oreo Moment Competition. 16.   Teacher asks students to open a Word document on their desktops titled “Oreo Moment Photo Competion”. 17.   Teacher explains that the students now have to imagine that they are the organisers of their own Oreo Moment Photo Competition and they have to create the rules of the competition. 18.   Students need to fill in the “Oreo Moment Photo Competition” document by writing four rules of the competition. Two rules of the completion must include an adjective, and the remaining two must include an adverb. For example: -       The winning picture must have a smiling baby; or -       The winning picture must have a boy carefully eating an Oreo. *students must highlight adjectives with the colour blue, and adverbs with the colour green. 19.   Teacher gives students about ten minutes to complete the “Oreo Moments Photo Competition” rules. Teacher reminds students to also fill in their names. 20.   When everybody has finished, teacher asks students to save the file as “Oreo Moments Photo Competition <students name>” and email that file to the classmate sitting next to them. 21.   Teacher explains that when the students go back home and receive the email containing their friends Oreo Moments Photo Competition rules, they will need to go through the Oreo Moments Gallery and find a winning photo based on the rules given by their classmate. They will need to present the winning picture in class next week.
CONCLUSION (5 minutes)	22.    Teacher explains to students that adjectives and adverbs are very important in cherishing special moments in writing. It is much more interesting when we use adjectives and adverbs. 23.    Teacher reminds students to find a winning Oreo Moment picture based on their friends rules.
FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITY	1.  Students need to open the email that their classmate sent them and download the “Oreo Moments Photo Competition” document. 2.  Students open the word document and read the rules that their classmate has written. 3.  They need to go through the Oreo Moments Gallery (http://www.nabiscoworld.com/oreo/moments/) and find a winning photo that best follows the rules outlined in the word document. 4.  They will have to present the winning picture in class next week.

JCross Exercise

JCross Exercise - Natural Disasters

Try and figure out the natural disasters:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?cboxexeovulmedb

Task 2: Article Review

Title: Blogging in teacher professional development: Its role in building computer-assisted language teaching skills

International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 2010, Vol. 6, Issue 3, pp. 73-87.

http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu/viewarticle.php?id=1047

Authors: Puvaneswary Murugiah (USM); Hazita Azman, Azizah Ya’acob and Siew Ming Thang (UKM)

*This article is based on a research project funded by a research grant provided by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

      The research aims to explore how Smart School English language teachers are exposed to technical skills and can build and pedagogical knowledge required to teach in technology-enriched schools through blog interactions in an English community of practice (CoP). The samples of the research are a CoP of five female English teachers from five different smart schools in the Klang Valley. Before the research was carried out, the teachers were gathered, briefed on the research, and are introduced to each other. In the CoP, the teachers were required to post blog entries regarding their teaching practices and reflections of their lessons. Then, they are required to comment on other teacher’s postings in the blog. Three research team members became the moderators of the blog, providing technical assistance and also sharing their own views. After a five-month duration, the blog postings were analysed (1) to reveal teacher’ current CALL skills levels, (2) and to explore the extent of which the teachers’ sharing experience through blogging effects the technological and pedagogical skills necessary for teaching in a technologically-driven teaching environment. The analysis of teachers’ CALL skills is based on Hampel and Stickler’s skills pyramid (2005). The research revealed findings that through blog interactions, Smart School English language teachers: (1) are exposed to new CALL skills; (2) are enhanced of their existing skills; (3) and are provided peer support through sharing and collaborating with other CoP members.

      The research does interest me because it gives an insight to the challenges that Smart School English teachers are facing, different from the experience I had during my practicum session in a normal school. In a normal school, English teachers are not expected to have a high literacy level of computers and technological equipment. This is because of the limited amount of facilities and equipment in a normal school. From the article, I found out that the proper facilities maybe present in Smart Schools, but it does not mean that the teachers or students know how to use them. This is evident from a blog post from teacher N, stating that some of her students did not know how to create an email account. The research has a good and valid aim to be explored but there is an issue with the very limited number of blog entries. Over the span of five-months, only 6 blog entries and 24 comments were recorded. This may be caused by time constraints on the teachers’ side. It is understandable that the teachers may have not much time to spend on blog postings and comments, due to other more pressing teaching responsibilities at school. I recommend that the research is to be extended for another five months – cover the whole teaching year – so that more blog entries can be recorded. Though it does seem to be a long time, it would provide more enriching data to the findings of the research. Implications from the research include the development of teachers’ computer skills. The research revealed that some of the teachers are not as computer savvy as needed to, despite being in a smart school. This indicates that teacher training in CALL is still not very effective and still needs improvement – especially for English smart school teachers. The creation of community of practice in this study has proven to increase teachers’ computer skills and also provide the appropriate support that the teacher needs. Computer literacy in students also has to be monitored. As most students nowadays are very familiar with social networking sites, we overlook that some of them do not even know how to use email. From the blog postings of the teachers, we can also see that they are very happy and excited to include new software or technology in their lessons as it encourages students’ participation and creativity. However, time constraints, bureaucracy, and technical difficulties can hinder the use of CALL in the classroom. There needs to be a better system to support the teachers in what they are doing as the benefits of CALL in the Malaysian classroom can be very helpful and beneficial to both students and teachers. 

J-Cloze Exercise

So this week we learnt to use the J-Cloze function in the Hot Potatoes 6 application. The application is very useful and easy to use. It definitely helps a lot in speeding up the process of making an electronic cloze passage. Teachers don't have to fuss much about designing the exercise, but just write in the passage and the application can help to make gaps for us. I will definitely use this in the future. Cloze passage making has become much easier!

Cloze Passage Exercise: The Founding of Malacca
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B07eYJZU-Q6_R0J4N3dpSTNTVldBbV9XUjNJMm5QZw
p/s: I can't upload it on MediaFire so I've uploaded it on Google Documents instead

Task 1: ESL Website Evaluation

Name of Website: www.manythings.org

1.   What does the application/website attempt to “teach”?

       The website attempts to teach ESL learners common English used in a typical daily life – at least in a typical American life. Almost all of the materials are based in an American setting and it provides practise space for ESL learners to improve their English. Most of the content focuses on new vocabulary, listening, pronunciation (speaking) and reading. Not much teaching emphasis on grammar and writing is given besides quizzes and games.

2.   What sort of things are the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?

       The user is expected to improve and perfect their language, in terms of their vocabulary, pronunciation, listening, with a side of grammar, reading, and writing by doing the games and activities offered on the web.

       To encourage their users in learning English every day, the website has a special feature called the Daily Page (http://www.manythings.org/daily/). The Daily Page offers the users a selected collection of things that they have to learn or do on that particular day, and the content changes every day. So users have daily ‘lessons’ that they have to complete every day and it definitely promotes students to learn and practise their English every day. The Daily Page features the following:

·         Word/Proverb/Slang of the Day

·         Quiz of the Day

·         Daily Listening

·         Daily Pronunciation Practise

·         Daily Vocabulary Word

·         Popular Search Engines

·         and Dictionary links

3.   What sort of computer skills does the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?

 Reading the About page of the website (http://www.manythings.org/e/about.html), it states that the site design follows most of the Guidelines for Designing a Good Website for ESL Students (http://iteslj.org/Articles/Kelly-Guidelines.html) and that Guideline 1 is: Make your site usable by everyone if possible.

       Based on Guideline 1, the creators of the website would want their content to get through to even the novice/beginner computer users. So the users are expected to just have the very basic skills of the computer and Internet surfing. The most that the users would have to do is to learn how to set up their audio device – be it speakers, headphones or earphones – and install Java and Flash applications on their browser. If the users find that their Internet browser is incompatible with Java or Flash – or they just cannot seem to understand what Java or Flash is – they can still opt for similar content in HTML form.

       The website is simple and easy to use, so it will be very easy for the users to use and learn.

4.   While you are “playing”/”accessing”/”assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

       The Read Along section and pronunciation practise from the website really reminded me of the activities that I did in English Class during Primary and Lower Secondary School. Most of my English teachers asked the class to read along a text together and we would all read together in unison. The pronunciation practise is also very similar to what I had to do in class. Normally there would be a few words highlighted in the text given by the teacher. The teacher would say the words out loud and we students would repeat the word a few times until the teacher is satisfied with our pronunciation. Then the teacher would explain the meaning of the word to us.

       The quizzes in the website are also very much alike the cloze passages that I’ve done in exercise books, test and exams. So the quizzes were not unfamiliar to me and it would definitely help ESL students to get more practise by doing these quizzes.

5.   Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying in the application?

Upon going through the website’s contents, I can see that there is a lot of influence from the Audiolingual Method. This is evident through the way new vocabulary and pronunciation is introduced. The website makes it that the new word can be repeated from two to infinity, stressing on its pronunciation, while the student tries to repeat the word with the correct pronunciation. The introduction words and phrases are depended on mimicry, memorisation of set phrases, and over-learning (Brown, 2001).

The website also has some elements of the Grammar Translation Method, especially in terms or memorising new vocabulary and their meaning. The vocabulary exercises are disconnected from each other and very little attention is paid to the context of text in the grammar quizzes (Brown, 2001).

6.   How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website(s)?

       According to Santrock (2009), the constructivist approach is a learner-centered approach that emphasises the importance of individuals actively constructing their knowledge and understanding with guidance from the teacher. Based on that definition, we can say that the website is true to the constructivist theory in the sense that it provides accessible material for ESL students to do their own construction of knowledge and understanding. The students can go to this website and explore the available activities and materials to improve their English. The teacher can help guide the students through the website and suggest specific activities to different students, according to which area that they need the most help in. So, the students can take a more active role in their learning by doing more activities in the area that they are weaker in and also explore additional knowledge that they would like to do.

7.   In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on whether the computer was a “master” or a “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation – was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

A master will control you and tell you to do things. A slave on the other hand will do anything that they are told to do. While doing the evaluation, I found that the computer was neither the master nor the slave. The computer did have a little control as in giving instructions on the exercises but the website users are free to choose what activity that they want to do. The computer also could not do everything that the users may need, for example, live feedback on reading and pronunciation performance. The only feedback that the website can immediately give is in numerical, statistical form – very helpful feedback but not really a hundred percent informative and cannot cover subjective areas that need human interaction. Thus, the computer’s role, according to my evaluation, is as a facilitator to language learning and teaching. The computer could not entirely replace the role of the teacher and it also could not do everything that the students want them to do.

I also personally believe that a teacher’s role in language learning and teaching could not be replaced by a computer because language is such a complex human ability and is hard to replicate in a computer without being stilted and unnatural.

8.   Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

Yes/No? Give reasons:

       Yes, because I find that the website offers a wide and rich compilation of materials that I can use in my English lessons. The exercises are perfect to be used in schools’ language/computer labs as it does not take long to load – thanks to the simple design of the website.

       If I could not access the Internet at school, I could just easily download the listening/reading exercises that are available in MP3 format, and play it on a computer, MP3 player or CD player in my listening/reading class.

       The materials available also range in different levels of difficulty, making it easier for the teachers to pick out the appropriate materials with the level of their students.

Suggestions/Recommendations:

     My biggest suggestion for the website is that they highlight the Daily Page as one of their main features of the website. Currently, the Daily Page is located inconspicuously under ‘Others’ in the main menu of the page. It is not even included in the quick menu, located on the right side of the web page. I think that the Daily Page is a very useful web page for students who are eager to learn English on their own, every day. It gives them some structure as to what is to be learnt on a particular day – as it can be overwhelming to some ESL learners when they have to decide what they have to learn on their own. I find it a huge waste that this Daily Page is not highlighted enough, considering the benefits students can have from this web page.

     Another suggestion that I have for the website is that they provide instructions to their Listen and Read Along Player – example here http://www.manythings.org/listen/loneliness/. Even though it is a simple player to use, I did have some trouble figuring out how the player works. It took me some time to figure out that the button with the number on it indicates how many times the recording will repeat itself.

     Lastly, I think the web designers can do a better job with the web design, layout and organisation of the website. I know that they want to make the website fast to load and available to everyone, but I do not think that it would hurt to use more fun and vibrant colours for this website. Also, a few relevant pictures would do wonders to make the web page livelier and encouraging to students. It is important to make a website fast loading and available to everyone, but what use is it when people are not going to use it when they are put off by the dull colours and the absence of pictures. Reeling people in is as important as making the website accessible to all.

References:

Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Pearson Education Company.

Kelly, C. (2000, March). Kelly - Guidelines or Designing a Good Web Site for ESL Students. Retrieved March 12, 2012, from The Internet TESL Journal for Teachers of English as a Second Language: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Kelly-Guidelines.html

Santrock, J. W. (2009). Educational Psychology. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Help! button

Wish I had this button on my keyboard...