Journal #14 CALL Class Synthesis

Embarking on this journey into CALL-land, I was excited but anxious. I would say that I now have a rudimentary knowledge of several CALL tools that would be useful in ES/FL learning, depending on the level of the students and access to technology of course. It is advantageous for intermediate to advanced learners, and is certainly helpful for ESP courses. Voice Thread (my favorite for Beginning High and on up) for community combined skills practice, Wikispaces for posting research or ideas throughout a semester or as a culminating event (Intermediate or Advanced), Blogspot for keeping up on topics and reading/writing practice and for teacher-student or student-to-student contact, Nicenet where Blackboard is not available, Lextutor and Word Champ for building vocabulary while reading online (my second favorite for intermediate or advanced levels), Survey Monkey for research projects when collecting data in the form of questionnaires, Photo Shop 3 for building Voice Thread or other viewing/listening practice, Podcasting for some dynamic listening activities, Youtube listening and viewing practice lists, Google Groups for collaborative team projects that would be great for writing practice, VoIP venues such as Google Chat or Skype or Meebo for conversation practice.

I am even more convinced now of the three keys to utilizing technology effectively and efficiently: 1) Instructor knowledge and ability to train students. 2) Time to train and use the tool in class must be built into the course syllabus. 3) The tool has to be an asset to the SLA process, and should be viewed as part of a task-based approach.

Going forward I am looking forward to using at least one or two CALL tools -in addition to Blackboard- in each of my FL classes, each semester, as enhancements, change of pace, and improved collaborative learning. I have benefitted greatly from the collaborative environment, the excellent instruction and support, and the great ideas from my colleagues. All around, it has been a great, encouraging learning experience. Thanks to all!

Journal #11 E-journaling, TBLT & Distance Learning

E-journaling can be a vehicle for 'practicing' what we 'think' as we write. It is a task that requires writing about what's in our heads, our "head voice". So as we think personal thoughts, we are actually hearing ourselves 'speak', to ourselves, in the language in which we are writing. For the ESL student, this will hopefully be in English, and as they write they can formulate their ideas. E-journaling ideas is comparable to conversational style, so it can conceivably assist the NNS 'practice' what they might say in a conversation. I think this is a process we all go through at times. Sometimes writing things down (in this case in a relaxed style) helps us to clarify what's in our heads, what we really think or feel about something, thereby preparing us for the moment when we are asked to speak on the same topic.

Task Based Language Teaching appears to be the newest frontier of research in SLA. The CARLA site is replete with teaching resources, professional and for the classroom. The 'teaching speech acts' project with its phased approach is seemingly well-planned, but data is missing on the content of the modules used. I would like to get feedback from a student as to the efficacy of the program. The bibliographies by speech act shows the level of dedication UMN has to the Carla project. http://dev-carla.umn.edu/speechacts/bibliography/index.html

Three of the most outstanding articles I have read in the SLA forum are on TBLT. J. Lee, (2000) McGraw-Hill provided tacit definitions of task, which amount to everything we do on a daily basis, through survival tasks. Lee updates the notion of 'communicative' exercises, which can often be masked drills and discrete-point activities, to being the purposeful performance of an activity/instruction/command. Language is not the object to be studied, as Doughty and Long state explicitly in their psycholinguistic analysis of distance learning and TBLT, but it is the 'vehicle' for communication. Lee, p. 35, states that discussions in academic classes have stated purposes, whereas language classes are missing this link. That depends. On the teacher, on the curriculum, on the student level. I think that languages lend themselves to studies in literature, current events, history, sociology, anthropology IN the target language, whereby the interest level is high, and the target language IS the vehicle for communication. Many gaps of knowledge are realized (Skehan and Doughty/Long), meaning is negotiated to complete tasks be they coming to a consensus, preparing details for a report, simulating authentic situations. I liked the definition of 'negotiating meaning' offered by Skehan, "the way learners encounter communicational difficulties while completing tasks, and how they do something about those difficulties." Having interned in a completely TBLT ESL listening/speaking class, I found that there is an inordinate amount of time spent in getting students organized and re-organized. My experience was definitely one where the role of the teacher was "to react to whatever language emerged, and then to help address the gap." I'm not convinced that much learning occurred except for a few students. I would use a combination approach, planning well, having specific knowledge-constructing and activating tasks in mind. Both Skehan's and Doughty/Long's papers were gave helpful parameters in giving teachers tools to set up pertinent, successful, task based activities in the classroom or online. For me, a priori one must accurately assess the needs of the students first. The difference between research on this topic done in segments of 5 to 20 minutes versus what really happens in the classroom is PARAMOUNT. There are two different realities.

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 #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.

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.