Teaching English as a Foreign Language Online
Posted in groupwork, Learning Language Teaching, Teacher Skills on Feb 2nd, 2009
According to Mckay & Tom (Teaching Adult Second Language Learners, CUP, 1999, p. 26), working in groups helps students feel they are part of a community. They come to know each other as individuals & friends Pair- and groupwork serves an important pedagogical purpose, because it provides more opportunities for individuals to talk than does [...]
Posted in Collaborative Learning, Course Design, Digital Storytelling, E-Learning Design & Management, groupwork, Instructional Design, language learning e-tivities, Learning Language Teaching, Observations, Teacher Skills, Using Blogs in EFL, Using Wikis in EFL on Jan 11th, 2009
It looks like more and more language teaching is being done on the web. Let me summarize what online language teachers have on offer, what they do or could do in theory. I will list several examples from Curtis J. Bonk & Ke Zhang’s (2008) Empowering Online Learning, pp. 62-63. Types of resources & activities [...]
Posted in Collaborative Learning, groupwork, language learning e-tivities, Learning Language Teaching, Teacher Skills on Jan 10th, 2009
Heather McKay & Abigail Tom (1999, CUP, Teaching Adult Second Language Learners, pp. 21-22) suggest teachers differentiate among four types of mixed-ability activity. Unless the text is in quotation marks, it is my own interpretation. same input, same task What is different in this situation is the level of your students’ language proficiency. What makes [...]
Posted in Collaborative Learning, E-Learning Design & Management, groupwork, Learning Language Teaching, Observations on Jan 9th, 2009
Does studying 1-to-1 qualify as pairwork? And is it necessarily teacher-centered and bad? Anyone?
Posted in Collaborative Learning, Course Design, E-Learning Design & Management, Educational Technology, groupwork, Instructional Design, interactive CD-ROMs, Learner Skills, Learning Language Teaching, Teacher Skills on Jan 6th, 2009
Ian Forsyth (Teaching & Learning Materials & The Internet, 3rd edition, p. 135) defines interactivity as emulating the traditional classroom He lists the 5 Ts that cause interactivity to fail on the Internet (pp. 19 -23) time technology timid territoriality on topics training truss – an infrastructure requirement
Posted in Collaborative Learning, Digital Storytelling, Educational Technology, groupwork, Instructional Design, language learning e-tivities, Learning Language Teaching, Web 2.0 Buzz Words, Web 2.0 Tools on Dec 27th, 2008
A digital story is a personal experience represented in narrative format. The script is amplified by including video, music, still-frame imagery, and the author’s voice. A digital story typically lasts for two to three minutes. Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools p. 43 It must take ages to create such a story, but the idea [...]
Posted in Collaborative Learning, Learning Styles, Testing and Assessment on Nov 1st, 2008
Here is a summary of Keng-Soon Soo’s article “Theory and Research: Learning Styles, Motivation, and the CALL Classroom”, published in Call Environments: Research, Practice and Critical Issues (1999) edited by Egbert & Hanson-Smith (There is a newer 2007 edition of this text available) Learning style refers to how students approach learning, not to how well [...]
Posted in Collaborative Learning, Web 2.0 Tools on Oct 31st, 2008
It is not only wikis and blogs that you can use collaboratively online. Now it is possible to create graphs and charts together, as well as regular text documents and tables. What you Need Tool to Adopt a graph or a chart Gliffy an online word processor and a spreadsheet application in one; you need [...]
Posted in Collaborative Learning on Oct 31st, 2008
Quintessentially, in order for a collaborative task to succeed it is necessary to provide for the following: 1. The students in a group must perceive that they “sink or swim” together, that each member is responsible to and dependent on all the others, and that one cannot succeed unless everyone in the group succeeds. (I wonder [...]
Posted in Collaborative Learning on Oct 31st, 2008
Guided Reciprocal Peer Questioning The goal of this activity is to generate discussion among student groups about a specific topic or content area. Faculty conducts a brief (10-15 minutes) lecture on a topic or content area. Faculty may assign a reading or written assignment as well. Instructor then gives the students a set of generic [...]
