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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
iTalki Review
italki was reviewed by Turkan, Quanya and Randy.
italki is a language learning social network site. One of the distinguishing features of this site is how it links professional teachers or informal tutors with learners of a particular language. Professional teachers are expected to conduct courses similar to classroom-based language classes and are paid for their service. The method of payment is through the italki credits. It is worth pointing out that iTalki takes 15% commission on the money earned by teachers. The classes are offered online through Skype and must be arranged to fit to the instructor's schedule. Informal tutors are "near-native speakers" in the target language. Both of these teaching roles require an online application.
There is also a language partners section of the site where you can link up with speakers of the language and practice the language. You can view the participants levels in the language, which helps you make decisions about your choice in language partner. Once your are language partners, then you follow one another to respond to messages.
In addition to Skype, site participants also interact through the "notebook," "answers," and "discussions" tabs where you can read posts by users from a specific language group. This way you can see the types of questions and comments that have been posted by users. This seems to be the asynchronous section of the site.
In general there seems to be a lack of professional teachers featured on the site. We looked at Turkish teachers and found only one professional teacher. What is nice about the message boards is that it seems users are fairly responsive in making corrections to postings in a timely manner.
italki was reviewed by Turkan, Quanya and Randy.
italki is a language learning social network site. One of the distinguishing features of this site is how it links professional teachers or informal tutors with learners of a particular language. Professional teachers are expected to conduct courses similar to classroom-based language classes and are paid for their service. The method of payment is through the italki credits. It is worth pointing out that iTalki takes 15% commission on the money earned by teachers. The classes are offered online through Skype and must be arranged to fit to the instructor's schedule. Informal tutors are "near-native speakers" in the target language. Both of these teaching roles require an online application.
There is also a language partners section of the site where you can link up with speakers of the language and practice the language. You can view the participants levels in the language, which helps you make decisions about your choice in language partner. Once your are language partners, then you follow one another to respond to messages.
In addition to Skype, site participants also interact through the "notebook," "answers," and "discussions" tabs where you can read posts by users from a specific language group. This way you can see the types of questions and comments that have been posted by users. This seems to be the asynchronous section of the site.
In general there seems to be a lack of professional teachers featured on the site. We looked at Turkish teachers and found only one professional teacher. What is nice about the message boards is that it seems users are fairly responsive in making corrections to postings in a timely manner.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Week 13
Computer-Based Language Testing
This week, we have discussed how computers are used for language testing. We know that technology nowadays makes many things a lot easier. I think it also works for testing. There are definitely great advantages that computers provide for testing and assessment. We have discussed its benefits over traditional methods of testing and it seems like there are many of them which encourages institutions and high-stakes testing services to incorporate computer-based testing. It is definitely a lot more practical to conduct a test through the use of computers. It is easier to collect the data. It can also provide advantages for listening and speaking skills in terms of practicality since you do not have to hire people to do interviews with students one-one-one. For these reasons, it will be time and money saving for institutions.
However, there are still some problems with computer-based language testing. These are usually related to technical problems while taking the test. The computers might not work, there may be internet-related problems which will prevent students to take the test or maybe affect their motivation causing anxiety. Another problem is about the computer using skills of the test-takers. Nowadays, although computers are common and majority of the students are familiar with using them. There could be still some test-takers who do not have enough experience using computers. Or we talked about the keyboards in our class discussion and how even different keyboards can possibly create problems for test-takers.
Still, other than these technical problems, I find computer-based language testing effective in many situations and they seem to dominate all different types of testing.
Computer-Based Language Testing
This week, we have discussed how computers are used for language testing. We know that technology nowadays makes many things a lot easier. I think it also works for testing. There are definitely great advantages that computers provide for testing and assessment. We have discussed its benefits over traditional methods of testing and it seems like there are many of them which encourages institutions and high-stakes testing services to incorporate computer-based testing. It is definitely a lot more practical to conduct a test through the use of computers. It is easier to collect the data. It can also provide advantages for listening and speaking skills in terms of practicality since you do not have to hire people to do interviews with students one-one-one. For these reasons, it will be time and money saving for institutions.
However, there are still some problems with computer-based language testing. These are usually related to technical problems while taking the test. The computers might not work, there may be internet-related problems which will prevent students to take the test or maybe affect their motivation causing anxiety. Another problem is about the computer using skills of the test-takers. Nowadays, although computers are common and majority of the students are familiar with using them. There could be still some test-takers who do not have enough experience using computers. Or we talked about the keyboards in our class discussion and how even different keyboards can possibly create problems for test-takers.
Still, other than these technical problems, I find computer-based language testing effective in many situations and they seem to dominate all different types of testing.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Non-essentialist Culture Teaching Activity
Dueling American Perspectives
Purpose: students will understand and compare contemporary American political views. This is important for student understanding of variety in the target culture.
Level: Advanced reading/writing class
Procedure:
1. Select some current event articles from a neutral source (e.g. Reuters)
2. Assign pairs an article and have them find the same story on FoxNews and MSNBC.
3. Ss should be directed to look at differences in how each source portrays the same story (word choice, etc) as well as the content found in the comment sections.
4. Ss will write a short comparison essay or blog post highlighting the different perspectives in the articles and different values they notice in the comments.
1. Select some current event articles from a neutral source (e.g. Reuters)
2. Assign pairs an article and have them find the same story on FoxNews and MSNBC.
3. Ss should be directed to look at differences in how each source portrays the same story (word choice, etc) as well as the content found in the comment sections.
4. Ss will write a short comparison essay or blog post highlighting the different perspectives in the articles and different values they notice in the comments.
-By Turkan and Dan.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Week 12
Teaching Culture through CALL
Language teaching usually goes hand-in-hand with the teaching of culture and in fact learning the target culture can help the improvement of the target language proficiency. With the readings and the discussions about teaching culture through CALL, I once realized how difficult it might be to teach culture and I also realized that through computers and internet, it has become easier to have access to different culture which makes the teaching process easier.
Today, students can find many different types of websites with authentic information and these websites provide lots of cultural elements in them. With so much information available on the internet, teachers can find ways to integrate them into the classroom. For instance, assigning students tasks to be completed using the information online, scavenger hunts, activities to analyze some cultural values and behaviors could be some of them.
Also, I think virtual worlds are great platforms to learn culture. Having access to native speakers of the target language and the target culture is quite easy today with many virtual worlds available. These can be used in and out of class and can be assigned as homework. In addition, I believe there are great sources for motivating the students.
Teaching Culture through CALL
Language teaching usually goes hand-in-hand with the teaching of culture and in fact learning the target culture can help the improvement of the target language proficiency. With the readings and the discussions about teaching culture through CALL, I once realized how difficult it might be to teach culture and I also realized that through computers and internet, it has become easier to have access to different culture which makes the teaching process easier.
Today, students can find many different types of websites with authentic information and these websites provide lots of cultural elements in them. With so much information available on the internet, teachers can find ways to integrate them into the classroom. For instance, assigning students tasks to be completed using the information online, scavenger hunts, activities to analyze some cultural values and behaviors could be some of them.
Also, I think virtual worlds are great platforms to learn culture. Having access to native speakers of the target language and the target culture is quite easy today with many virtual worlds available. These can be used in and out of class and can be assigned as homework. In addition, I believe there are great sources for motivating the students.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Week 11
Writing and Grammar
With last week's readings and discussions, I realized that online tools have so much to offer especially for writing and grammar. They make the teaching and even assessment process easier and more effective.
For instance, using simple tools such as Wordle can be a great way to show the students their word choice in a piece of writing. This visualization can help the students to notice which words they use frequently and whether they need to replace some of these words with others. It can also be a good way to start a writing prompt. Students can be given a word cloud and students can create their own story based ont he words in the word cloud.
In addition, there are many writing tools available. Sites such as turnitin or writecheck helps writers to learn about citations. With writecheck, students can also get help on their grammar, punctuation and organization. Blogs and discussion boards can be other ways to provide feedback to students' writing. Video feedback or screencasting are some others and these have been proved to be effective in several studies. One of the tools I always use to give feedback is the review feature of Microsoft Word. It is simple, easy to use and it is always available once you save it.
I believe that especially for writing and grammar, computers and online tools should be incorporated into classes since they have so much to offer and since they can improve the students better in many ways compared to traditional activities.
Writing and Grammar
With last week's readings and discussions, I realized that online tools have so much to offer especially for writing and grammar. They make the teaching and even assessment process easier and more effective.
For instance, using simple tools such as Wordle can be a great way to show the students their word choice in a piece of writing. This visualization can help the students to notice which words they use frequently and whether they need to replace some of these words with others. It can also be a good way to start a writing prompt. Students can be given a word cloud and students can create their own story based ont he words in the word cloud.
In addition, there are many writing tools available. Sites such as turnitin or writecheck helps writers to learn about citations. With writecheck, students can also get help on their grammar, punctuation and organization. Blogs and discussion boards can be other ways to provide feedback to students' writing. Video feedback or screencasting are some others and these have been proved to be effective in several studies. One of the tools I always use to give feedback is the review feature of Microsoft Word. It is simple, easy to use and it is always available once you save it.
I believe that especially for writing and grammar, computers and online tools should be incorporated into classes since they have so much to offer and since they can improve the students better in many ways compared to traditional activities.
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