Task 3 Website

This link will bring Internet users to a Wix Website that is currently specialising in Teaching and Learning of Grammar knowledge of the Part of Speech: Prepositions.

Here are some of the details regarding this website:

1. This site is focusing on developing and improving students language skills in grammar aspects for prepositions because some students did know what and how to use them.
2. Accompanied by several fun and interactive activities, as well as videos assist learners' multiple intelligence and different learning styles such as Visual-spatial, Auditory, Musical and several others.
3. The inclusion of Hot Potato activities will further enhance learners's language acquisition and remember what they have learned better.
4. The students language proficiency being targeted starts from the beginner, intermediate and low-advance levels of all ethnics and backgrounds.
5. This site applied aspects of Bloom's Taxonomy from Knowledge to Analyze, with a bit of Evaluate level.
6. The students should be able to use the acquired prepositions knowledge to complete their tasks and applied them in the real world with the accuracy of more than 78% because the contents are not that difficult.
7. The visitors can chat with the website developer to ask for more resources and materials, or about anything else.

The link: https://nuranisharliani.wixsite.com/meister

Baby Eyes. - Bernard Shaw

Large Baby eyes smiling joyfully at me, 
Baby eyes as brown as can be.
Two deep pools most innocent and bright, 
To me are symbols of sheer delight.
May I greet you every single day? 
For you are sunshine on my way.
Other people see you smile so sweet, 
All are happier when you they meet.
Eyes are the windows to the soul, 
No difficulties for you reaching your goal.
So sweet baby go on life's way, 
Those Baby eyes have much to say. 

Bernard Shaw

Click on the picture for more information on the poet! 😉

Web Based or Web 2.0 Lesson Plan (15%)

FORM: 4  Zamrud                                         DATE: 8^th Mei 2018

LEVEL: Intermediate                                     TIME: 8.30 am – 9.30 am

THEME: People & Values

TOPIC: Learning vocabulary through song (Firework by Katy Perry)

OBJECTIVES: By the end of the lesson, the students should be able to use the new knowledge about vocabulary that they have learned to compose a short movie of their own with the words in the song, “Firework”

LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1.    Use newly acquired words based on the suitable contexts 

2.    Work together in groups to create a mind map of their own movies based on the   
        words that they have learned

3.  Create a visual storie for each group.

LANGUAGE FOCUS: Writing Skill, Speaking Skill, Listening Skill, Vocabulary knowledge

HOTS: Analyse, Apply, Create

EDUCATIONAL EMPHASIS: Critical and creative thinking skills are incorporated to enable learners to analyze information, make decisions, solve problems and express themselves accurately and creatively in the target language

MORAL VALUES: Self-Confidence, Appreciating Life, Teamwork, Enhancement of skills

INSTRUCTIONAL AIDS / TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS: Computer / Internet connection/  

                                                                                           Worksheets                                                       

Intro and Activity 1 –YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1lfYh-aUk0)

                                  Worksheet for the lyrics

Activity 2- Coggle (https://coggle.it/)
                      Worksheet for the movie creation

Activity 3- Storybird (https://storybird.com/)

                   Google (https://www.google.com/)

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE:

In the previous lesson, students have learned about the aspects of literary analysis such as theme, characters, plot and many others.

REFERENCES :

Thornbury, S. (2005). How to teach speaking. Harlow, England: Longman.

Thornbury, S. (2002). How to teach vocabulary. Harlow, England: Longman.

Nesamalar, C., Saratha, S., & Teh, S. C. (2005). ELT methodology: Principles and practice. Shah 

                 Alam: Oxford Fajar.

ESLvideo.com: Beth's Foolproof French Macaron Recipe

ESLvideo.com: Beth's Foolproof French Macaron Recipe: (beginning,listening,,,)

 Learn the tips and tricks associated with perfecting the French Macaron cookie, one of the hardest cookies to master.

Come and play this quiz to test your listening and comprehension skills, while learning a new recipe at the same time. CLICK THE LINK and ENJOY!!!

Task 1: 9th April 2018

 1. What factors influence the development of language learning using the computer more than 50 years?

           The use of technology to teach language actually supports the 21st Century Learning approach, as well as Education 4.0 that follows the Industrialization 4.0 in which learning becomes more integrative and interactive. Technology changes as the world advance to a new era. Learning with the use of a computer is interactive because students not only can interact with their peers but also the computers through games and quizzes which enable the students to have greater control and power on their own learning. Due to its student-centered style, students will be more open-minded as they no longer being restricted in traditional classroom’s routines. One of the example is Smart Classrooms. Other factors for this development are to complement the students who generally consist of the Y and Z generation or the digital citizens who due to the advancement of technologies, Internet, language applications, as well as Web 2.0, they are constantly being exposed and use these in their everyday life. For a more effective language learning, integration of technologies should be included in classroom lessons. Besides that, since the students will be the future citizens and employees or employers after their education has finished, the working sector require for ICT skills alongside the language skills for communicative, administrative, education and many other purposes so that the workers and people, in general, will develop in a holistic manner. This also will increase employability and give chances for lifelong learning to occur in an interesting manner. Aside from these, the development of language learning also occurs in parallel to three main concepts of Computer Assisted Language Learning of Behaviouristic, Communicative and also Integrative, in which some of their explanations could relate to the previous factors. In the early days, Behaviouristic spurred the computer and language integration in education aspect, as the bigger contents were divided into smaller parts whereby drilling practices were done until the learners achieve mastery before they can progress to another level which was a good technique. Additionally, with the positive motivations such as using educational games and negative motivations through punishments; educational punishments, immediate non-judgemental feedbacks from their chosen answers, the students will be more enthusiastic in learning the language but the teachers must not make drilling as too common. If not, the students will be less enthusiastic. However, we cannot deny that using computer actually make learning more flexible which supports the 21st Century teaching and learning as stated earlier. The advancement of CALL moved towards another factor which is Communicative, whereby students have to use the language in different contexts and locations, with implicit grammar teaching, in which computers acted as not only language tutors, but also the stimulus that triggers the students’ critical thinking, as well as the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956) such as evaluating, analysing and creating. In a way, interactions were emphasized in accordance with the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach that based on learning by doing. Plus, the learners retain language knowledge better. In a way, both behaviouristic and communicative CALL integrated the top-down and bottom-up in language teaching and learning that are learning in the wider aspect of knowledge before it was narrowed down, as well as learning the specific components of language before moving up to the greater components. Sims City, Bookwork Adventures and also other Simulation Games of managing farms, building towns and even solving crimes, are some of the samples of games. Students have the abilities to monitor their own learning and use the tools from the computer, such as Microsoft Applications to enhance their language learning. With the development of CD-ROMs and other multimedia access that lead to wider range of authentic resources of real-world contexts, they allow for the Integration CALL to be assimilated in language learners’ education as they involve all four main language skills while at the same time allows for worldwide interactions in online platform whereby e-mail can also be used, as well as multi-chat application like WhatsApp and Yahoo!. Students can also try to sign up in Pen Pal World or interact in forums in Dave's ESL Cafe. They can be considered as collaborative and cooperative learning approaches. These also reveal another factor of flexibility as learners and also teachers can teach and learn outside of classroom settings and at their own time regardless of the presence of Internet connection. Although, if they have that, it would be better. Students sometimes go to McDonald's outlets to do their works or discussions. All in all, all of the factors actually have the main theme of lowering the affective filters that hinder effective language learning, especially for the shy and introvert students. Therefore, these interesting experiences that differ from the conventional teaching and learning methods, can capture students’ interest and enhance their motivation to learn and use the language.

Bloom, B.S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. New York, NY: Longmans, Green.

ESL WEBSITE EVALUATION (10%)

Nur Anis Harliani Binti Mohd Sidek (2014211406)     ED2418A

ESL Website: Dave’s ESL Café ( http://www.eslcafe.com/ )

1.      What does the website or MOOC or app or tool attempt to “teach”? Are exercises or activities included in the website? What are the types of exercise or activities included? Are there immediate feedbacks? Are there different levels of difficulty for different proficiency levels? {You can any other comments you deem necessary)

 Dave’s ESL Café is the digital meeting place for ESL and EFL teachers and students from all over the world. For teachers, they focus more on job forums, forums in general, training forums as well as resume posting. But, under the option of idea cookbook, which is not literal recipes, but actually guidance for the educators whereby for language, there is some information on how to have fun with your students, how to teach grammar, holiday idea to be used in the class, ideas for teaching ESL/EFL to young learners and how to help your students improve in listening skills as well as many others. For students, however, it is a different thing altogether. The website attempts to teach the grammatical aspects of English Language more as they provided several options such as Grammar Lesson where there is a lot of input provided like adjective clauses, conditional sentences, confusing words, conjunctive adverbs, conversational language, countries, adjective forms and nationalities and many others. There is also information about idioms, phrasal verbs, slang and of course quizzes and students’ forums.

              Despite the extensive language knowledge, they only have one type of exercise or activities to help students in learning and test their understanding, which is quizzes. The questions are a lot but if they provided several others type of exercises, things might be more interesting and appealing to the students. The learners will have to answer the quizzes’ questions by choosing the correct answer based on the options given, to complete the gap in the sentences. After they click the submission or check button, they will receive immediate feedback on the correctness of the answers as well as the percentages of their performances, which are good things for the learners. It will be quite interesting if the website also provides the hint button and also timer, to challenge the students. As for the varieties of difficulties across proficiencies, some of the quizzes do have the easy, medium and difficult questions even though they are not stated. This can be seen as the sentences become longer and some contain difficult words. However, a few of them did not have such levels so, they are not that standardized. If they have questions of different proficiency levels, it will be a highly effective evaluation segment for language learners especially for the non-native. Aside from questions that focus on purely grammar knowledge, there are also questions about geography, history, idioms, words, and slang, as well as people, reading comprehension, science, world culture, writing and others. So the options for quizzes are diverse and interesting although the level of difficulties is not that clear.

2.   What are the learners/visitors required to do with regards to learning the content of the website or MOOC or apps?

          In order for learners or visitors to learn from the website’s content, they just have to open the website and use it however they want to. There is no need for a login or sign up to be done as it has a free access to everyone who wishes to use the website in the teaching and learning of English Language. Visitors or learners don’t have to pay for anything except if they want to purchase a Dave’s ESL Café Sponsored Announcement. Some of TEFL or TESOL certifications are being offered as part of English teacher training certificate programs regardless of where the educators come from. Of course, it is not entirely free and some payments, as well as steps, need to be taken for this purpose. As it is, any notes or information about language teaching and learning can be used and shared by everyone. This eventually makes it easier and less hassle for others. This is because many of the interesting learning tools or materials require one to either sign up, log in, pay a certain amount of money or even download certain software.

3.        Does the website or MOOC or app or tools present learners with something that cannot be done in a face-to-face classroom? If yes, how so?

          It is true that in some ways, using website does present learners with something that cannot be done in a face-to-face classroom such as according to British Council (2013), it allows for learners to independently improve their language while at the same time helping teachers by reducing some of their workloads. Due to some difficulties in creating meaningful spoken language practices, using tools like the website for ESL learning mediating the process whereby language can be put out there and giving for immediate feedbacks that enable someone to know whether they have understood what they have learned or not. It also supports the 21^st Century Learning since it involves technology and internet integration in education, whereby it manages to insert some enhancement in language knowledge.

Learning language becomes highly interesting when it moves from the traditional classroom and conventional ways of teaching and learning, especially since we are currently dealing with the digital generations of learners and also teachers. Therefore, they will be more motivated to learn the language as quite a few students consider ESL learning, as difficult as learning mathematical formula and equations.  Not only that, in a real classroom, it’s hard to do these in limited learning hours.  Aside from that, the learners could learn and practice their language in online forums where there are people from all over the world, with a different understanding and learning tips could assist in language development.  Further on, using a creative and interactive computer-based technology website as tools help in motivating the learners with severe reading disabilities to overcome their disabilities. All in all, it is a comprehensive input method that is hard to get in a face-to-face interaction, especially since some students may refuse to speak in the language.

4.         Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?

             For this website, I believe that some of the language learning theories underlying it are Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis (1982), Piaget’s as well as Vygotsky’s Theory (1962) in terms of scaffolding. For Krashen, language acquisition was interconnected with the comprehensive input from the use of technology devices and tools, as it only happens when the affective filter is low. Some of the negative filters on the learners’ learning ability are anxiety, boredom, demotivation and many others whereby the higher they are, the fewer students’ motivations will be. To quote Krashen, “the presentation of this input should be done in a way that does not put the acquirer ‘on the defensive’,” (Krashen, 1982, p 125) that is when the high amount of affective filter block the input from the brain. Educators should take note of the importance of learners’ mental conditions in language acquisition and development as their passions are involved. As it is, they could affect learners’ performances positively or negatively.

 If the environment; both inside and outside or educational settings, did not motivate students to learn, has a high filter and also did not allow for the presence of comprehensible inputs, then learners will not be bothered with the lessons or tasks given as an enhancement. Additionally, according to for Piaget and Vygotsky, a new technological tools of online peer learning that focused on online community in the forms of forums fits Piaget’s constructivist theory including the quizzes, whereby a learners’ ability to interact with their immediate environment including the use of technology will lead to better learning abilities, therefore, educators and also the learners need to scaffold other ESL learners with opportunities of effective learning strategies, especially the one that fits current generations’ preferences. As a Muslim scholar that I couldn’t remember has mentioned, “Teach and guide your children according to their era as theirs might not be the same as yours”. This also supports the notion of 21^st Century teaching and learning that want the integration of technologies and internet in education, especially for language learning and development.

5. An important criterion for evaluating a CALL program, task or activity is the

potential for language learning (i.e. will student learn something?) Does the

website or MOOC or app fulfill this criterion? If yes, how so? If no, why?

For this website, yes, it does assist and enable the students to learn language knowledge, particularly the grammar aspects. They listed out some grammar knowledge with their explanations and also examples to help them understand the lesson. Of course, with the several quizzes provided, the learners will be able to test their understanding right after they learned the grammatical aspects which can enhance their memory retention of the knowledge. The forums in Dave’s ESL Café become the effective platform for a group discussion (or blended learning) to be done either among their peers or with other learners around the world. They can learn new methods of comprehending grammar knowledge, such as a tip or two, as well as increasing their background knowledge of the world and its culture. The students might also be able to increase their confidence level in using the English Language for communication and comprehension purposes which are some of the important skills to be learned and developed in online learning that deviates from the traditional learning.

6. Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

            I have to admit that I might use this website in my own teaching whether as a government, private or tuition teachers but from the overall analysis of the website, it is more suitable for those with average to lower level learners as it is not as challenging for those who are in an advance level. Perhaps if the website’s administrator revised some of their quizzes and specify the difficulty’s levels, as well as increasing the grammatical and other ESL teaching and learning knowledge, then this platform can also be used by those with a high language proficiency. Aside from that, hopefully in the future, the website can include other samples of effective ESL teaching and learning methods as well as the materials for others to refer and revise to suit the teachers or students, and also creating other interesting language games for a highly interactive and interesting learning platform of English Language. The website indeed has potentials and it is not the best, but there are rooms for improvements and in a way, some students especially the average to the lower level ones can benefit from it.