Week 10: Listenin' and Speakin'

This week in call was a warm introduction to authentic materials for learners as we come back from the nice spring break! Screencasting copies the screen and you get to either take pictures of it or video-tape what you do on the screen. It can be used to help learners understand how to navigate through new programs or websites. I use screen captures frequently in my CALL class. The students need to see where to go and where to click. But because I do not have a full wall display projector for the CALL class, and simply a television, it gets difficult to display things for the entire class to see.

UNC Narratives - http://newsouthvoices.uncc.edu/nsv/narratives
Authenic eposure to language.
Podcasts

Podcasts are quite helpful when it comes to learning language. The langauge is not always authentic, as it is read from a script and the speakers are usually speaking very slowly, but it is a great way to hear English. It is a type of exposure for learners.

Week 9: Twit, Twit, Twitter

     This week in CALL lead to a creation of my twitter account. http://www.twitter.com/chichicall
I believe that's the URL. With Twitter I can write updates as often as I like about myself, sort of a quick blog, that let's people know what I'm doing and where I'm goin'. I always felt like Twitter was a bit invasive. That anyone can know your whereabouts at any time. It's interesting... Anyway, I believe Twitter can help language learners see and understand the current topics English speakers discuss. It can open them to authentic language, cultural norms, formalities, and the everyday lifestyles of native speakers. For example, a simple browsing of twitter pages developed by American college students can allow learners to view pictures of the types of food eaten, venues gone to, relationships, and pets the students have or experience. Twitter allows learners to view the world through the eye of the native English speaker, and also learn things such as slang, colloquialisms, and informalities. Twitter doesn't, at first, seem like an educational tool, but once you look past the blog-ness of it all, it actually is a useful website and educational tool.

Week 8: Audioboo, baby

     The course began on Monday with Jena's excellent presentation on Audacity. I didn't know so many things could be used in audacity for students' language proficiency. Her presentation was fun and interactive. After Jena's presentation, we moved to Google Groups and Audioboo. Google Groups was quite interesting. I expected a clearer interface, but I'm sure the update of it is in the making. We commented on one another's MD#1. It was fun to do, I liked writing my opinion and noting the differences between MDs online. It was CMC! Google groups is both asynchronous and synchronous at the same time, I suppose. After this we went to Audioboo. It was exciting to record my voice over the computer. I felt like one of my PIE students. It was also nice to listen to my classmates' responses. Joe likes a restaurant called Bella Brava and Jena likes Campus Coffee Bean due to "fun" memories of studying for the comps there. Anyway, this week was a nice week. I read Diez-Bedmar and Perez-Paredez on CMC peer feedback which showed that learners tend to trust their own knowledge more than a native speaker when it comes to providing feedback through CMC.

Materials Development #1

     My materials development assignment comes from a previous lesson on whales. The students have already received instruction in using Google docs (which is what they use to begin brainstorming) and using Microsoft Word (which is what they use to highlight, underline, circle, and square the main idea, details, and conclusion of a summary paragraph). The lesson plan is designed for intermediate to advanced intermediate level students in an intensive English program. The students in this group are fictional, from Ball State University--majority from Kuwai, KSA, and UAE, with three students from Bhutan.

The Materials Development, Rationale, and Appendices A-C
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4oeg2ERlMDZVHNFMlYyRVhrQlk/edit?usp=sharing

The Google Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/152Hd7ipFD668SPdf4FdLk0KRTecRoetLqjZ89Gahtgo/edit?usp=sharing

Week 7 - Synchronous TBLT

This week was full of synchronous TBLT activities. We began the week with the computer lab, as usual and signed onto a new part of blackboard. First, we had to download a program, then we were all able to get onto the blackboard synchronous CMC! It was a little interesting as us graduate students are usualyl acting silly. But what I learned from this is that the task truly has to be meaningful. I used google docs last week with my students, asking them to type active and passive sentences on the document. Of course, they were being silly and the task was a failure. I am not sure how I could make that a more meaningful task so that the students would be less likely to fool around. One thing that's challenging for me as a teacher is making tasks meaningful. What does that mean, anyway? How is meaningfulness determined? Anyway, this week is finished off with the first materials development assignment.