WEEK 4 REFLECTION

"Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."
Francis Bacon


DISCUSSION. This week was devoted to studying reading and writing improvement with the help of CALL.
We have read several articles related to this topic. Here are links to some of them: http://www.udel.edu/ETL/RWN/Encourage.html
This site provides with ideas of using TV, newspaper, telephone books, maps to stimulate reading
Renee Ybarra in his article Using Technology to Help ESL/EFL Students Develop Language Skills(http://iteslj.org/Articles/Ybarra-Technology.html) says that first of all when students use e-mail writing they can see what a native speaker has written while answering, then scroll up and down through the message which is visually helps them. Students get self-motivated to write in a new for them way and to communicate with a real native speaker and get a real respond.

Often, the students need to feel confident in their new language before putting it into print. So here irreplaceable assistant for us is word processing. Edyth E. Young, Ph.D., NCREL program director/research, Center for Literacy outlines "Content Literacy" (http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/content/cntareas/reading/li300.htm) writes about it. And it is so , because there you may find synonyms of the word, F7 button allows you to check your spelling. I would say any computer tool is a tool to improve the students’ writing whether it it is desktop publishing or online publishing or Internet communication.
Further the author provides us with some writing webs where online publishing can be accomplished. They are online magazines and educational organizations that post students' writing on the Web. Three examples are Midlink Magazine, The Young Writers Club, and International Kids' Space. The World of Reading posts book reviews that are submitted by children.

TASK. We also searched for the useful web sites that would work in our classroom.
These are my results
http://www.manythings.org/voa/words/73.html
An activity named “The origin of the word fireworks ”.
In our new vocabulary list of the Unit “Customs and festivals” there is the word FIREWORK. It saves time just to show the picture of the firework. But I think it is interesting to know the origin of this word (Condition) listening to the native speaker (Behaviour) for my intermediate 2nd year students (Auditory)


http://www.tolearnenglish.com/free/full/elvis/index.php
In our text-books we have a Unit “Pop Music” and in my opinion this lesson about Elvis Presley matches the lesson where we study music styles and learn biography of Madonna and read about Elton John. It is a significant supplemental online material for my group of 15 3rd year students of the History Department (Auditory). It contains of 4 steps: I. anticipation with the following questions

1. What do you know about Elvis Presley? Do you know any songs by Elvis Presley?
2. How old was he when he died?
3. Why was August, 16th 2002 important?
4. Who is Margaret Kennedy? What towns did she visit?
II. While-reading test with time limit (15 min.) which helps me to manage the time
III. Filling the gaps while watching the tape
IV. Grammar and vocabulary exercises (habitual actions in the past using would)
Moreover it has writing practice exercise - Write a short paragraph about yourself, explaining what you used to do when you were young (/younger), using given words – 1. to have a lie−in
2. to go to school
3. to watch TV late
4. to have good marks
5. to travel all over the world
6. to practise sports
7. to meet your friend
Students can do all these activities autonomously from each other (Behaviour) and get information about another well-known singer (Condition) through these exercises and are evaluated promptly online (Degree) with pointing their mistakes out.

Again with my favourite web site www.tolearnenglish.com I will include in the Unit “Pop Music ” the song What a wonderful world by Louis Armstrong (http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-70537.php ). Students like listening to the music, because it is an authentic and natural source of learning English words and idioms.
My 3rd year History Department students (Auditory) will listen to the song (Behaviour) and fill in the correct word. You can modify the activity: students will fill words without listening to the song, they will just read it as it is easy to guess what word should stay in what place. They will check their answers in percentage way online (Degree) and will sing and learn the song by heart (Condition). I prefer this site, because just in a case Internet does not work there is printable version both assignment and answers.

PROJECT TASK. Our project task was to describe some issue of our classroom that we would solve with the help of technology later on. Even all of us are from diverse countries I came to conclusion that we have similar problems with books, independent curriculum design, cheating and lack of motivation. And besides of these all of us have their own specific issues. For me it was difficulty my students to speak English.
During my study in this course I believe to solve this problem with CALL successfully.

Comments

  1. Hello, Nulifar!

    Wow! I see you have written about everything what you've done during last week in details.

    I like your summarizing of all issues in the classes of all our participants!!!

    Well done!
    Ruslana Shamanska,
    Ukraine

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Nulifar,
    Yeah! I do agree with Ruslana about your exellent summarizing of all issues in this week4. I don't have to go to Nicenet then just visit you here and read yours. Well, I got all what I want to know during the week we have learned. Good job!

    Best,
    Garunyawun

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Nilufar,

    You'll find your blog a great resource after the course is over because of the way you're recording the bits that are important to you. Don't forget that you can make the links active - highlight the URL, then click on Link when you are creating your post.

    Yours,
    Deborah

    ReplyDelete

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