Project Post: Wikispaces and Luxtutor Dictionary & Concordance

My project target audience is high intermediate to low advanced university French conversation and/or composition classes. Students will each post their final projects to a class Wikispaces page. This will include a summarized text of their presentation, embedded power points, images. My first intent is for them to display and share their hard work with their colleagues. The second objective is for them to use the target language in negotiating the questions they will use for the jeopardy game, in what order they will list their projects, which special links or graphics or media they will include. The third objective is for them to 'teach' (i.e. communicate successfully to) each other, so there will be a short exam in the form of jeopardy to test salient points at the end of the semester based on the information they post to assess their success. Units of study from which they will present will be in business issues or current events, historical units such as Charles De Gaulle/WWII/the French Résistance, colonization (Indochina, Africa, Caribbean), francophone culture or history, New Wave film genre, contemporary film to name a few areas of research.

Journal #9 Computer Mediated Communication, a couple options

Linguistic Funland http://tesol.net/penpals/

This site allows teachers to do a post or a search by age group for other teachers' classes who are also looking for penpals. There is also an individual listing option, by language, by age group where students can post and search. Your specific requests can be made such as whether you are looking for native speakers. As for setting up chatting opportunities, the teacher would have to use another program. Not ideal because it's not full service, but it might yield a serious group of students to work with.

http://www.nicenet.org/

Teachers with Internet access but without Blackboard will be able to set up several thread topics at a time, can view all of the responses, can edit or delete entire asynchronous threads. The teachers are given a class code which they give to the students. This is not a slick site, but it does appear to be operational and it is free. It was very easy to sign up a class. Texts should be kept at a minimum.

Post #8 March 4, 2010 EAP Note-Taking Practice

Welcome to English for Academic Purposes

Note-Taking Practice!

In this podcast you will hear about the cyclonic windstorm 'Xynthia', which recently hit Western Europe. Please complete the pre-listening activities prior to taking notes from the podcast.

Activity 1. Pre-listening. Useful Terms. Click on the terms below to be linked to Encarta On-line Dictionary for the definitions and pronunciation. Read all definitions before deciding which one fits this context. To navigate back to this blog page, simply click on the return arrow. The terms are also recorded on the podcast.

Xynthia, Lothar

violent windstorm

France's Civil Defence

battering waves

hard-hit

mobile home park

sea wall

coastal development practices

For further word searches: Encarta On-line Dictionary

From the list of vocabulary, we can see that the context of this podcast report includes references to the country of France, windstorms and some of their characteristics, the French Civil Defence Ministry, coastal phenomena, and mobile homes.

To reinforce your understanding of the above terms, do this simple matching activity alone or with a partner. (Answers are below in reverse order.)

1. Xynthia, Lothar

2. violent windstorm

3. Civil Defence

4. battering waves

5. The town was hard-hit by the cyclone.

6. mobile home park

7. sea wall

8. coastal development practices

a. devastated, struck, where much was destroyed

b. names of cyclones

c. edifice that protects a coastline from high waves

d. organism of government that protects its citizens similar to the

U.S. Department of the Interior or Human Services

e. seaside construction and planning, especially near residences

f. cyclone or tornado are types of violent windstorms

g. huge tidal water swells that cause flooding

h. Neighborhood of homes that are on trailers and can be towed

[e c g a g d f b ]

Activity 2. Pre-listening.

A. Content: Weather Patterns

With a partner, please click on 'cyclones', and familiarize yourself with some of the terminology used in describing these natural wind phenomena. Make a list of new and/or additional terms or interesting facts that you would use in discussing or reading about cyclones.

B. Connecting: Your Personal Background & Knowledge

Discuss any knowledge that you have of where previous cyclones have hit, the damage to those regions, the kinds of aid these areas received from the global community. How many could you name? Did you know anyone personally who was touched by these natural disasters?

Now listen to the podcast. On note paper, leaving large margins to each side of your sheet, begin writing as you hear the report. Note dates, places, people, events. As you write, leave space between items so that you can listen a second time, adding notes to embellish your note-taking. After listening twice, please work on the follow-up activities below, alone or with your partner.

LISTEN NOW! <= Click here.

Activity 3. Post-listening. Search for details. Please answer the following questions. If you cannot find the answers in your notes, listen to the podcast until you hear them.

1. What dates did Xynthia hit Western Europe? Describe the cyclone activity in detail.

2. In what year did Lothar hit?

3. Which countries in Western Europe were hard-hit by the storm?

4. Describe the types of damage which occurred in those countries, including death toll, damage to dwellings.

5. What was it that reached a height of 7 meters?

6. During what era was the sea wall near St. Aiguille-sur-mer built?

7. What kind of coastal development practice is being criticized in this piece and why?

8. What did 1 million French and 1 million Portuguese households lose during the storm?

9. What kind of delays were experienced in France and northern Spain?

10. What is the name of the Paris airport, and what transpired there during Xynthia?

11. Give the three wind gust measurements and the country where they were recorded.

With your partners, compare answers. Listen again to the podcast if necessary.

Activity 4. Post-listening. Search for meaning. Write a synopsis in your own words of this report on Xynthia, then with your partner, practice presenting the report to each other as if your were a TV journalist reporting the story.

To verify your answers, you may read the text of this podcast.

Text taken from wikipedia.org

NOTE TO INSTRUCTORS OF ADVANCED ESL /EAP

Overall, the Wiki resource and others like it, would be beneficial for this type of weekly exercise for an EAP class. Topics could be geared to the schools, students' interests, scholastic needs, etc. It would take time for the instructor to set up every week, but if the topics are of high interest, contain lots of new vocabulary, or are provocative in nature, class discussions would be exciting. If several instructors are teaching the same section, the weekly duty of selecting and setting up the podcast could be shared. Obviously public radio and other emissions can be used, but making one's own podcast enables the teacher's knowledge of students' interests to be taken more into account.

Varieties of pre-listening and post-listening can be done by having students work individually, in pairs or in threes. The advantage of paired work is combined knowledge, using the vocabulary to communicate. The advantage of working alone is that students will more easily identify their weaknesses. A combination of paired and group work would bring more variety, and would make students accountable to each other.

Just start at wikipedia.org and search the latest articles.

An additional post-listening activity could be done if pairs of students are each given a separate podcast to listen and prepare for class 'broadcasts'. This would entail using of all skills, and they would be required to use their new vocabulary in their class 'broadcasts'.

Yet another post-listening activity could be that each week a different group could post their findings on a wiki page, or a blog. And even more engaging (and time-consuming) could be a weekly newspaper that would afford students the opportunity of setting up sections, focusing on various areas of THEIR interest, by groups. Their activities could be construed as a service to fellow students. Discussion threads could be begun on one article per week, for example, or on all the topics if students are willing to moniter/answer them!

Happy podcasting!

Post #7 Feb 25, 2010 Concordances Lextutor.ca

Writing with an online concordance has its advantages in terms of ready resources for students to rely on. It can be a time-saving device, and once 'hooked' on the system and the real-time answers to vocabulary or grammar questions, I can see how students would not mind writing in this manner. BUT the online sessions should be timed periodically throughout a semester for both the students' and instructors' sakes. Having the actual documents posted on one site for the instructor eliminates the awkwardness of e-mailing documents, which I cannot tolerate myself, when faced with exorbitant amounts of students. The drawback is the learning curve for familiarizing oneself with the technology.

Luxtutor is amazingly academic, however, which is its strength. It's a maze of resources, best used for the advanced, or EAP writers. Just becoming familiar and even expert at navigating the concordance would be useful in the students' future academic writing. I'm smitten with this feature: concordance of both written and spoken language! The bonus for me, also a French instructor, is that Luxtutor has both English and French concordances. BINGO!

Journal #6 Podcast: Everyday Living in the USA! Schedule a Medical Appointment

WELCOME to EVERYDAY LIVING IN THE USA! Come, listen and learn with us!

Scheduling a Medical Appointment *** ESL / ESP Advanced Beginner or Low Intermediate Activity

Click on each of the words below for a link to Encarta Dictionary and the definition. To navigate back to this blog from the vocabulary site, click on the return arrow key of your server. Click on the above link to listen first to the vocabulary list below, and then to the podcast episode. Enjoy!

schedule an appointment
a checkup
medical
dental
health insurance
co-pay (copayment)

Pre-listening Activity 1. Test your vocabulary practice activity...Choose the correct definition for each word. (The answers are at the end of the activity.)

clinic

1. a medical center 2. an institution where children and teenagers are taught

dental

1. relating or belonging to the teeth 2. a building where goods are manufactured

schedule an appointment

1. a published work of literature 2. arrange to meet somebody

checkup

1. feeling or showing pleasure 2. to carry out detailed examination

medical

1. treatment given by doctors 2. used in education or by teachers

health insurance

1. financial protection for customers 2. medical expenses covered by employer

[ 1 1 2 2 1 2 ]

Now listen to the podcast by clicking on "Schedule a Medical Appointment" above.

Post-Listening Activity 2. Follow-up activity for comprehension…

After you’ve listened to this episode, take a look at the following comments. You will notice that the order of the following sentences are jumbled. Please put them back in order, according to the sequence of events in the episode you heard. The answer key is at the end of this activity, but try not to look until you’ve attempted to put the sentences in the correct order! Hint: You might want to review the meaning of your new vocabulary words.

A. The clinic appointment scheduler tells Mr. Kuma that they have a Japanese doctor on staff.
B. The clinic appointment scheduler asks Mr. Kuma to wait while she connects him to the medical department where he can schedule his appointment.
C. The clinic receptionist asks Mr. Kuma to state the purpose of his call.
D. The clinic appointment scheduler would like to know if Mr. Kuma has health insurance coverage.
E. The clinic scheduler tells Mr. Kuma when there is an opening in their calendar to schedule a checkup visit.
F. The clinic scheduler reminds Mr. Kuma to bring his UIC ID and his co-pay to his physical checkup.

[ C B E D F A ]

Post-Listening Activity 3. Group discussion questions. Spend a couple minutes brainstorming with your group and be ready to share your results.

1. There are many kinds of clinics, depending on their purpose. Name the kinds and purpose of a visit there.
Remember that some clinics are located inside hospitals. (Ex. Dental: when you have to get your teeth cleaned, or have a toothe ache.)

2. Imagine that you need to make a phone call to a hospital. What information will you prepare before you call? (Ex. your name, address, phone number, etc.)

3. Think about the hospitals in your own country. How are they different from those in the United States or other countries? Introduce the hospital system and admitting procedures in your own country to your group members, and discover the differences among other countries' systems.

Thank you for joining us and come back again soon!


Note to instructors. This episode is the first in a series for ESP medical/dental visits, which take place in both the doctor’s or dentist’s office as well as in the hospital. This first episode prepares the ESL/ESP student for questions that might be asked when scheduling their medical appointments. It will also allow the student to experience the turn taking and politeness features used in English that they can expect from the scheduler, and that they will be expected to use in return.

Instructors may find this dialogue at Literacy Net Only minor back stepping has been added, and a few details such as dates have been changed. The exercises are original and are in keeping with the typical communicative pre-listening, listening and post-listening process. The students will recognize this progression towards ACQUISITION of USEFUL VOCABULARY and FOCUS on FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE. For example, the follow-up comprehension exercise does not simply translate the statements from the dialogue. The statements are made such that the student will have to identify the function, not merely recognize the dialogue features. All of the stated vocabulary words are repeated in the jumbled statements, so that they first view the list, hear the audible list, may look up the meaning via the link provided to Encarta Dictionary, are given a chance to repeat the words, can catch the words in the actual hearing of the episode phase, then view the words embedded in the comprehension exercise based on our understanding that repetition aids in SLA.

ORAL post-listening activity. Follow-up questions in class might include: How does this experience compare with medical appointment scheduling in your country? What other types of information might you need to give or ask? After students complete the listening portion activity individually or in pairs, they can form groups and role play a similar scene for one another. This time they can go directly to an office to make the appointment. Perhaps one of the students might role-play taking his NNS grandmother to the office to navigate the scheduling of the appointment on her behalf? They could be asked to do the same for a dental visit, brainstorming as a whole group what additional words might be used for the dental office.

WRITING follow-up. To continue the follow-up above, the newly created dialogue can be written by the pairs or individually. An alternative writing assignment might be to write a journal entry about this event such as: Today I scheduled my first doctor appointment in the USA. … I was really nervous at first, but since I knew the questions that would be asked in advance, I managed quite well. OR, I bombed. I was so embarrassed. Oh well, better luck next time I have to schedule an appointment.

For a more personal or creative assignment, students may also write a narrative about a humorous or frightening medical mishap in their past. Instructors might ask them to describe a medical visit gone sour, or a humorous visit, some incident that has some connection to a medical visit. They can combine their new vocabulary and the functional use of the questions and answers, turn-taking and politeness features, combined with a review and practice of the past tenses in this assignment. Soon they'll be ready to play act Molière's 'Le Malade imaginaire' with flair! Here's to life in the USA. Thanks for stopping by.

Journal #5 Voicethread, Week 5

Voicethread has a global perspective in that it is available internationally. In terms of learning strategies for listening on line per Chapelle and Jamieson, it would adhere to their suggestions of need for motivation, modeling by other students, and a consistency or familiarity with the site. The fact that L2 can click on icons representing other students not only preserves the anonymity of the responders, but it makes it fun and kind of mysterious. These are engaging factors. Being able to 'point' to the items being discussed -as if on a white board- makes the visual component outstanding, easy to follow, and will certainly ease the anxiety factor that listening often causes. It might or might not be helpful to hear the other accents/grammar inaccuracies from the accuracy perspective, but it certainly would aid in improving fluency. That should be the aim of Voicethread.

Blog 4 February 4, 2010

feed//www.rfi.fr/radiofr/podcast/
For this blog I am giving the teacher's perspective of a popular podcast. Radio France network produces a news show daily at a slightly slower speed than normal French speech. This is indeed at minimum an intermediate (think 2nd or 3rd year college French) program. There is no written script, so the students who use this on a daily or weekly basis will have to listen numerous times. The repetition is a good thing to improve listening skills. It could be listened to in class, allowing the teacher to stop at any point to discuss the terminology or ideas. It would work quite well as content for reaction journals.

http://radiolingua.com/2010/01/lesson-73-coffee-break-french/
Let's switch to the student's perspective of this podcast. Students will love the idea of following a story, and learning how to converse, repeating after the instructor in a conversational manner. It is user friendly for English L1 students, who can follow episodes of this Scottish production at their own pace. The story line is conversational, and the explanations in Scottish English are excellent. The caveat is that the student will hear both English and French, which can be confusing. This is best for beginners to intermediates. It would be a good way for false beginners to review. This has a cost of 12BP/year.