Final Portfolio

See the majority of my CALL work from this semester in one place: LiveBinders!

Busuu Review

Busuu is a language learning website that lets you choose a language and take fun vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing, and listening and speaking lessons. It also lets you connect with native speakers of the language, like a social networking website. It allows you to make friends with people, similar to Facebook. You can form groups with different users. There are also games. It appears to be more academically oriented and is based on the common European framework of reference. When you sign up, it asks you what language you speak and which language you would like to learn. The website itself will be in the language you speak. Lesson levels only go up to B2, which is intermediate. The topics are fairly random. For example, a learner of Brazilian Portuguese would learn the vocabulary for skiing, even though skiing is not a common hobby in Brazil. The website tries hard to get you to buy and upgrade. The layout is fun and simple. The best aspect of the website is the ability to connect to and communicate with native speakers. They also have separate lessons for business, travel, and special courses in the language you are learning. When you participate in the exercises, you get something called Busuuberries. With Busuuberries, you can get discounts and buy learning items. Here's a fun video to watch about Busuu:

Materials Development 3

Overview
Lesson Plan
Tools:
Jeopardy Game
Jeopardy Sheet

Week 13 Reflection: Testing and CALL

One topic that I found interesting from this week's readings and discussions is whether or not testing students' English through technology privileges some students over others. The fact that it does privilege some students was made obvious during the PIE's placement test last summer. We had two new students from southern Africa who were completing their speaking tests in the CALL lab and it was apparent that this was their first time ever interacting with a computer. They did not know how to type or use a mouse or navigate electronic folders. The TA's administering the speaking tests waited until the other students in the group, who were mostly from Saudi Arabia and needed almost no instruction on opening files, using the mouse, pressing record, etc., had finished recording their tests to give personal help to the two new students. They did not understand what was going on and the language barrier made the situation even more difficult to explain. Luckily, we were in a situation where we could take the time to give individual help to them. I helped to administer the listening test to the same group of students, and filling in bubbles on the scantron was also a new concept. As much as we tried to explain, the students did not see the connection between the tiny circles with letters on the scantron, the questions on their paper test, and the passages they were listening to. When you think about it, that type of testing is so ingrained in Western culture that it is second nature for us, but is really a bizarre and complicated way to test, all for the sake of expediting the process. Our two new students were placed in the lowest level, despite having decent English skills, due largely to the complications that the technology caused. As I've tried to add technology to my lessons here and there, I've found that it becomes less about learning language and more about learning technology. This becomes very dangerous when it involves testing. A student who has never used a computer in their life is, of course, going to experience additional stress and difficulties during a computerized test than one who has grown up around technology, and in this way, the test is unfairly assessing their technology skills on top of their English skills. It's like asking someone who only knows how to drive an automatic to take their driving test on a stick shift.        

Week 12 Reflection: Culture

The main way that I learn about culture these days is through the internet, especially now that I am looking at jobs abroad. One of my favorite hobbies has become finding tiny, random cities in remote places on Google Maps, and then looking the name of the city up on Google. I first look at pictures of the city and if it looks interesting,  I'll look at the Wikipedia page about that city and try to learn about what life there is like. I'm doing something similar this semester with my CBI students. Our unit now is on maps and their main project is to choose a city that they have been to and are familiar with and to make a map of the 4 most interesting points in that city. About half the class chose their home cities, but the other half chose cities here in America or in Europe. Through making the map and doing a small amount of research on the cities and points of interest, the students are gaining a better understanding of what life in that city is like. One of the main ways students learn about culture today, especially in the EFL setting, is through the internet. The moment I found out that I was going to Romania for two years, I got on the internet and buried myself in research on the country, and it was research that never really stopped, even when I got there. That's the thing with learning about culture, instead of language items, via the internet - one topic can lead to another, which can lead to another, which can lead to another, so that the research and learning never ends. Such internet searches on language items would eventually get boring. As a teacher, I like the ideas that Guth and Helm presented with regards to teaching culture. I have used the access and produce strand numerous times - especially when I was teaching abroad, but I have never had the chance to put my students in contact with native speakers of the target language. It seems like a wonderful, yet potentially time consuming and difficult to monitor process. The idea of bridging is iffy for me. I think it's important for students, as well as teachers, to maintain separate spheres of life. I certainly would not want to bring my facebook page into my teaching, and would not expect students to be interested in bringing their facebook accounts into their classrooms. Learning goes on all the time, in and out of the classroom, and the students' social lives are learning opportunities that do not need to mingle with their classroom learning lives, in my opinion.

Culture CALL Activity

Joe, Erin S., and I came up with this activity in class on Wednesday. Joe typed it up and I am copying and pasting it below.

Our group's idea is to have adult or advanced level students explore the culture of the United States by browsing dating websites.  This would expose students to the great variety of personalities, values, and wants of individuals in the U.S.  Here is what we would do:

1. Give students a worksheet.
2. Have students join three dating websites (tall friends, farmer's, and okcupid).
3. The worksheet would guide them in searching for individuals in a certain range.  We would pre-screen the search parameters to avoid explicit posts. Students would search for individuals who are:
1. the same age as them
2. older than them
3. younger than them
4. from different parts of the country
4. The students would select a few people and describe:
1. What their interests are.
2. What their religious views are.
3. What their hobbies are.
4. What they want from a partner.
5. Students would then be asked to compare their home countries' values to what they have found; compare the similarities and differences between the age groups for their home country and what they have found.
6. Present their findings on a discussion forum.

Week 11 Reflection - Writing

Second language writing acquisition through the use of technology is probably my favorite form of CALL and the form that I can envision using the most easily in a classroom. Elola and Oskoz described the benefits of using blogs as a form of free expression that promotes creativity over the acquisition of perfect grammar, which is what I feel my students currently need the most (although there needs to be a definite balance). One thing I struggle with with my own students this semester is that most of them don't like reading and writing, even in their native language. It's laborious and boring to them because they have not been brought up in a culture that values the art of writing and the joy of reading. Add to this a focus on grammar and accuracy and their interest wanes even further. So an introduction to creative, free writing through the form of a blog might be an avenue to increasing student interest in and enjoyment of writing. One thing I wish that I'd had time to try in my reading and writing classes is a blog as a weekly "check in" of sorts for the students, where they could write about anything they wanted and did not have to worry about perfect grammar and accuracy. I think the fact that the world could read their work would increase the students' motivation to put something decent up, but the anonymity of it would also allow them a freer and more open voice. As a person who has kept a variety of personal blogs throughout the years, I've also grown to value their documentative nature. A lot of reflection and inspiration can come from looking back at entries from 5 years ago and seeing how much has changed in my life. I imagine it would be impressive for students to look back at the blogs they kept while attending the PIE and see how far they've come with their language ability and cultural adaptability.