This week had a few interesting reads. Dr. Reppen's work on corpus is something I am familiar with as she gave a presentation on her corpus work during a course I took last semester. She is very enthused with corpus, and thanks to Dr. Biber, I became familiar with the BYU corpus which can be used in classrooms. It takes a while to get used to, but the website is very useful. I find myself using it today when writing papers, developing assignments for my students, or when I am curious about how certain words are used in English. Recently, I used it for the presentation I on vocabulary gave during the Peaks Conference here at Northern Arizona University. I was using the BYU corpus for backup when it came to understanding how words were used in the English language.
Also, earlier in the week, we were advised to download AntConc by Dr. Smart. Class was canceled and so we were not able to use the activity during class, but I am glad to have this program on my computer, it like the BYU corpus, I'm sure will come in handy... though I am not quite sure how to use it yet.
The AntConc Concordance download: http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.html
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Grockit Activity
Activity: Answer the Questions about Cigarette Addictions
For: Adult ESL students at the beginner to intermediate levels
Helps build: Reading and writing skills, computer skills, typing
1. Tell students they will watch a video on addiction.
2. Tell students that they will watch this video and answer questions online.
3. Have all students go to https://grockit.com/r/gn0
and pause the video.
4. Students should click Create an account at the top, then begin watching the video and answering the questions.
5. Encourage students to watch the video again.
6. Go over the questions as a class.
(Note: The teacher should create a grockit account before beginning this activity in order to moderate the activity)
For: Adult ESL students at the beginner to intermediate levels
Helps build: Reading and writing skills, computer skills, typing
1. Tell students they will watch a video on addiction.
2. Tell students that they will watch this video and answer questions online.
3. Have all students go to https://grockit.com/r/gn0
and pause the video.
4. Students should click Create an account at the top, then begin watching the video and answering the questions.
5. Encourage students to watch the video again.
6. Go over the questions as a class.
(Note: The teacher should create a grockit account before beginning this activity in order to moderate the activity)
Week 5 - Interesting Activities
This week in CALL class has been exciting. We were introduced to Socrative and Grockit; both great tools for CALL ESL teaching. Thus far, I have used Socrative in my CALL class. The students enjoyed the quiz, at least, from my perspective. The Socrative interface is simple, clean and sleek. The colors are also soothing, if that makes any sense, and makes the quiz low-pressure. I tested my students on grammar--present progressive, simple and active/passive. They were quite familiar with each of those, except a few had no idea about active and passive. One of my students said to me "I'm sorry Miss, but this class doesn't matter," after I told him to get to work. It was painful to hear that, but I did not take offense. I realize the repuation of CALL in the PIE. It is lax; students feel as though the course has no significance. From my perspective, they feel this way about all classes. Anyway, I enjoyed using Socrative with my students. I also gave a shot at using Google Doc. This was not successful. My students were being very silly on the google doc, typing exploitives and crude sentences, deleting others' work, and deleting the entire prompt. I will not be use Google Documents, again... though, I do understand their desire to be silly, as even our class was silly with the google document activity in class on Monday. The anonymity allows for humor which is something we all need!
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy:
My philosophy of teaching is
one of an open environment. I believe that students should be able to make
mistakes and also learn from them. My teaching philosophy is based on the
importance of having an integrative and communicative approach to learning. In
this approach, students are able to freely and openly communicate and
participate in interaction amongst their peers and classmates, as well as the
instructor. I feel that an open environment allows students to be more
comfortable and relaxed as they express themselves, and makes for a better
learning environment—providing room for growth both linguistically and personally;
as a teacher is not only a student’s instructor, but his mentor, counselor and
guide.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Review of non-CALL Website
The following website was reviewed:
http://www.livemocha.com
It is designed for all language learners of English and numerous other languages of the world. I use this website to study Arabic, French and Turkish. The website provides reading, writing, spelling and grammar skills activities, as well as speaking activities and pronunciation. You can make friends from across the world and they can help you learn their native language as you help them learn yours.
Does the website offer anything extra that cannot be done in more traditional ways, e.g. with pencil and paper or chalk and talks?
Yes, it offers a voice recording section where learners can recite certain phrases or vocabulary words or respond to dialogue. Native speakers of that language then evaluate the student. It offers a chat room where you can talk with native speakers and gain fluency, you can also see them if they choose to open their webcams!
Do you intend to use the website for whole-class teaching, e.g. using a computer plus projector and wall screen/interactive whiteboard?
Yes, it could be done in this way. For example, I could showcase one of the pronunciation activities on the projector and have students practice pronunciation with their partners. Or I could have a native speaker willing to volunteer his/her help to talk about life in their country. Students could listen to a native speaker and learn intonation and tone.
Do you intend to use the website in a computer lab, i.e. where each learner works at an individual computer?
Yes, this could be possible and not too bad of an idea if I want students to practice speaking English with native speakers. They could spend time getting to know people from New Zealand, Australia or America and spend at least 15 minutes a week chatting in English with the native speaker.
Do you intend to integrate the website into your teaching?
Yes, as stated earlier, it could be used in the classroom especially for authentic needs (i.e. listening to a native speaker).
1. Does the site contain what you exptected, e.g. as indicated in its title or URL? No. URL seems like a coffee website
2. How easy is it to navigate the site? It is fairly easy. It seems to be user friendly, but students would need an introduction to the website before using it.
3. Does the site contain an appropriate mix of text, images, sound and video? Yes, there are plenty of images--each person on the website can create a profile and add pictures of themselves as well as pictures of their home countries. Sound is available in the activities, for example in the dialogue activity where learners listen to conversations, expressions and vocabulary in the second language. There is not much video provided.
http://www.livemocha.com
It is designed for all language learners of English and numerous other languages of the world. I use this website to study Arabic, French and Turkish. The website provides reading, writing, spelling and grammar skills activities, as well as speaking activities and pronunciation. You can make friends from across the world and they can help you learn their native language as you help them learn yours.
Does the website offer anything extra that cannot be done in more traditional ways, e.g. with pencil and paper or chalk and talks?
Yes, it offers a voice recording section where learners can recite certain phrases or vocabulary words or respond to dialogue. Native speakers of that language then evaluate the student. It offers a chat room where you can talk with native speakers and gain fluency, you can also see them if they choose to open their webcams!
Do you intend to use the website for whole-class teaching, e.g. using a computer plus projector and wall screen/interactive whiteboard?
Yes, it could be done in this way. For example, I could showcase one of the pronunciation activities on the projector and have students practice pronunciation with their partners. Or I could have a native speaker willing to volunteer his/her help to talk about life in their country. Students could listen to a native speaker and learn intonation and tone.
Do you intend to use the website in a computer lab, i.e. where each learner works at an individual computer?
Yes, this could be possible and not too bad of an idea if I want students to practice speaking English with native speakers. They could spend time getting to know people from New Zealand, Australia or America and spend at least 15 minutes a week chatting in English with the native speaker.
Do you intend to integrate the website into your teaching?
Yes, as stated earlier, it could be used in the classroom especially for authentic needs (i.e. listening to a native speaker).
Website Evaluation Form
1. Does the site contain what you exptected, e.g. as indicated in its title or URL? No. URL seems like a coffee website
2. How easy is it to navigate the site? It is fairly easy. It seems to be user friendly, but students would need an introduction to the website before using it.
3. Does the site contain an appropriate mix of text, images, sound and video? Yes, there are plenty of images--each person on the website can create a profile and add pictures of themselves as well as pictures of their home countries. Sound is available in the activities, for example in the dialogue activity where learners listen to conversations, expressions and vocabulary in the second language. There is not much video provided.
Digital Story Activity
Activity: Tell Me About You
For: Adult ESL students at the beginner to intermediate levels
Helps build: Reading and writing skills, computer skills, typing
1. Tell students that you want to learn more about their lives, the languages they speak and their families.
2. Tell students that they will create a book about themselves. The book will be online, and they should write at least four pages.
3. Show students the teacher story example: http://storybird.com/books/tell-me-about-you-a-story-about-my-life/?token=9axaqf9mzh
4. Send students to http://www.storybird.com
5. Tell students that they must create a username and password first by registering.
6. Direct students to the CREATE tab after registering and choose a background. After choosing a background, create your story! Answer the following questions per page.
Cover page: Tell Me About You: A story about my life
Page 1: Where do you live in Flagstaff?
Page 2: How many siblings do you have?
Page 3: What is your native language? Tell us something in your native language.
Page 4: What is your dream job?
Fin page: The end.
7. After students have created their stories, instruct them to publish and e-mail the links to you and then have three students volunteer to present their stories to the class.
http://storybird.com/books/tell-me-about-you-a-story-about-my-life/?token=9axaqf9mzh
For: Adult ESL students at the beginner to intermediate levels
Helps build: Reading and writing skills, computer skills, typing
1. Tell students that you want to learn more about their lives, the languages they speak and their families.
2. Tell students that they will create a book about themselves. The book will be online, and they should write at least four pages.
3. Show students the teacher story example: http://storybird.com/books/tell-me-about-you-a-story-about-my-life/?token=9axaqf9mzh
4. Send students to http://www.storybird.com
5. Tell students that they must create a username and password first by registering.
6. Direct students to the CREATE tab after registering and choose a background. After choosing a background, create your story! Answer the following questions per page.
Cover page: Tell Me About You: A story about my life
Page 1: Where do you live in Flagstaff?
Page 2: How many siblings do you have?
Page 3: What is your native language? Tell us something in your native language.
Page 4: What is your dream job?
Fin page: The end.
7. After students have created their stories, instruct them to publish and e-mail the links to you and then have three students volunteer to present their stories to the class.
- My digital story activity, create a story about your life:
http://storybird.com/books/tell-me-about-you-a-story-about-my-life/?token=9axaqf9mzh
Week 4 - The Internet is a Growing Community
This week I worked with Dan Isbell on Google Drawing. We wrote about Time Management. It was fun to create a "drawing" though I thought we'd literally be taking a paint pencil and drawing. It's more like shape-developing and designing. Anyway, here is our google image below:
For this week we read Dubravac, Ch. 4 which is about theories of second language acquisition. There are property, transition, and environmental theories. Wang & Vasquez purport that Web 2.0 is changing not only the world, but the university classroom. If you don't understand the difference between Web 1.0 & 2.0, they put it like this: Web 1.0 is that time where the internet was just reading and retrieving information. You go to a website, find out some information and you're done. Now, the internet is interactive. You create and share information along with chatting with people, writing comments, adding your ideas... it's more participatory. This more interactive phase of the internet is what they would cal Web 2.0. Wang & Vasquez (2012) state that language learning environments using Web 2.0 has broadened CALL research. This goes to show that the research field for studies in CALL is very open, and the road less-traveled. Perhaps, because it is still fairly new. The internet is only about 30 years old...
For this week we read Dubravac, Ch. 4 which is about theories of second language acquisition. There are property, transition, and environmental theories. Wang & Vasquez purport that Web 2.0 is changing not only the world, but the university classroom. If you don't understand the difference between Web 1.0 & 2.0, they put it like this: Web 1.0 is that time where the internet was just reading and retrieving information. You go to a website, find out some information and you're done. Now, the internet is interactive. You create and share information along with chatting with people, writing comments, adding your ideas... it's more participatory. This more interactive phase of the internet is what they would cal Web 2.0. Wang & Vasquez (2012) state that language learning environments using Web 2.0 has broadened CALL research. This goes to show that the research field for studies in CALL is very open, and the road less-traveled. Perhaps, because it is still fairly new. The internet is only about 30 years old...
Week 3 - Being an M.A. TESL Student
This week in class we spent designing digital stories and reading from Dubravac Ch. 3 and Levy (2009). I worked with Hongbo, and we designed a digital story from ebook.com. It was a bit confusing at first what with all the buttons and options, but it is quite nice. I like the idea of creating a story and publishing it for the world to see. Here is our digital story:
http://www.myebook.com/ebook_
In this story we discuss life as a MA TESL student which was odd, because Kristen and her partner also chose the same topic. Great minds think alike, I suppose. We gave it a colorful background design and black font which may not have been the best combination as the font is difficult to read, but nonethless, I am happy with our results.
In viewing other students' digital stories, I enjoyed Joe's group and Karen's group. It was funny to watch birthday cards "come to life," in a sense.
Dubravac discussed the history of the web and how webpages can be used for teaching. I remember when I first designed my own website, it was a webquest sort of format. Dubravac goes on to discuss additional uses for the web, including class management and professional development. Levy was quite an interesting read as he provides technologies in use for second language learning and goes into the following skills and topics: reading, writing, listening, speaking, pronunciation, and culture. Overall, this week was quite refreshing and I look forward to the next week.
http://www.myebook.com/ebook_
In this story we discuss life as a MA TESL student which was odd, because Kristen and her partner also chose the same topic. Great minds think alike, I suppose. We gave it a colorful background design and black font which may not have been the best combination as the font is difficult to read, but nonethless, I am happy with our results.
In viewing other students' digital stories, I enjoyed Joe's group and Karen's group. It was funny to watch birthday cards "come to life," in a sense.
Dubravac discussed the history of the web and how webpages can be used for teaching. I remember when I first designed my own website, it was a webquest sort of format. Dubravac goes on to discuss additional uses for the web, including class management and professional development. Levy was quite an interesting read as he provides technologies in use for second language learning and goes into the following skills and topics: reading, writing, listening, speaking, pronunciation, and culture. Overall, this week was quite refreshing and I look forward to the next week.
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