Thelanguagemenu.com is bringing the world of language to you in a creative, comprehensive design for free. A groundbreaking new language learning website created to support teachers and students alike with their language training. All levels and age groups are catered to in a multitude of languages, worldwide.
Minority languages are greatly supported at thelanguagemenu.com. Aid is provided by helping the speakers of these languages to learn English, as well as by offering teaching assistance to people who are interested in learning them.
Thelanguagemenu.com has attracted vast amounts of international interest from both public and private sectors. The site has already acquired grants from the Cultural Fund of Finland-Denmark, the Cultural Fund of Finland-Norway, and is being considered for many more, including EU-administered grants.
Available now
• Featuring more 33 languages;
• Ready-made resources for download
• Grammar and vocabulary exercises
• Lesson plans with printable material
• Interactive and printable games
• 17 different tools with which you can make your own material.
• The possibility of creating bilingual material in 2112 language combinations
• 2000+ full colour, hand-drawn clip art custom-made for thelanguagemenu.com
Teachers in over 50 different countries are already providing a steady flow of input to the material-bank
Available in 2007
• Another 20+ tools
• 20+ interactive games
• Over 50 new languages
• Over 1000 new clip art images
• Power Point presentations for classroom use
• Audio files of dialogues and stories with accompanying texts
• A forum and blog
Veronica Gilhooly, founder of Learnwell Oy in Finland, is behind thelanguagemenu.com. After arriving on the net about one year ago, the progress made is nothing less than spectacular. Far from slowing the pace, Gilhooly enthuses: “This is just a small step in the right direction. There is huge global potential for this project, and I’m looking forward to developing it to its full extent.”
Thelanguagemenu.com is searching globally for collaborators of different languages, particularly those less taught, to enable the resource database to become more extensive. Anyone interested in working with this project should contact Veronica Gilhooly at:
Learnwell Oy –The Language Menu
Hietalahdenkatu 2 B
00180 Helsinki Finland
+358 45 130 1114
+358 50 531 1453
veronica.gilhooly@welho.com
office@thelanguagemenu.com
www.thelanguagemenu.com
March 1, 2007
Wired-up students
Wired-up students
Ubiquitous communications technology promises to provide a highly creative learning environment, argues Martin Raymond
Students are increasingly developing a mindset towards education that skips the boundaries of where lessons can take place, how learning is undertaken and how it is disseminated. Location will become less and less important; education will increasingly become seamless. In various research projects designed to asses the impact of mobile technology on how we learn, work and play, Future Laboratory researchers have already noted the emergence of trends such as continuous computing among the late teens - where students use mobiles, laptops and (authorised and unauthorised) hotspots to log on, tune in and bliss out on everything from exam sheet cribs to in-depth studies of the subjects they are working on.
For full article click on link http://education.guardian.co.uk/elearning/comment/0,,1688293,00.html
January 20, 2006
IATEFL - linking, supporting and developing teachers’ worldwide –IATEFL TEA SIG news
THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (IATEFL) was founded in 1967 to identify the needs of teachers from a wide range of educational contexts across the world, and to provide opportunities for them to share and benefit from each other's practical classroom experiences.
Since then we have grown steadily and have over 3500 members worldwide - many through our Wider Membership Scheme. Each year we have a conference attended by more than 1400 delegates, with over 300 talks, workshops and presentations. For more details about IATEFL and joining instructions please visit our website www.iatefl.org
IATEFL, Darwin College, University of Kent
Canterbury
Kent
UK CT2 7NY
Telephone 01227 824430
Fax 01227 824431
January 20, 2006
Students Guiding Students Through the Web
Students Guiding Students Through the Web
A Collaborative Web-based Project Developing Students'
Autonomy and Life-long Learning Skills
by Natalie Cigankova
Such a powerful tool as the Internet allows the teacher to use the wealth of on-line resources to enhance the students' learning at the Academic Writing lessons. As many educators have already noticed, a spontaneous, chaotic process of harnessing the Web by students is taking place independently from teachers, causing frequent cases of plagiarism and various citing errors in academic assignments. Even when students use the Internet for "proper" purposes, "one challenge for language teachers is to shape some of their computer-using experiences into language learning experiences" (Chapelle, 2001:2). The purpose of this article is to suggest one of the possible solutions: a collaborative web-based project aimed at incorporating the information technology (beyond word processing) into the process of developing advanced academic writing skills.
Background
Evaluating websites and writing critical reviews for peer reading, actively involves students into a purposeful language learning activity. The development of all language skills takes place when students read authentic and relevant texts on-line, write several review drafts, and discuss their contributions to the collective project and the content of the future Internet guide-book. The learning resources, collected by students for their own and other students' use, become tailored to the students' profiles and learning context, because the future users themselves have been involved in their careful selection and evaluation. The crucial importance of the relevance of on-line materials to local educational contexts and learner profiles has been emphasised by the applied linguists investigating the usefulness of on-line self-tuition courses (Sercu, Peters 2002:45).
Apart from developing their language skills using relevant and, thus, more effective learning materials, students acquire a valuable quality - an ability to study independently. Anyone who is engaged in teaching students to write in academic English aims at developing life-long learning skills, enabling the learners to achieve academic and professional success in future. Students will need to further develop their writing style while they are climbing their academic or professional career ladder. However, what is most important for students to develop, is the ability to learn without instructor, to find, evaluate, and choose materials that would be the most useful for them. The collaborative website review writing project aims at developing students' autonomy in learning and at "helping learners learn how to learn" (Wenden, 1991:11).
The Project
The purposes of the project work, exploring resources for student writers on the Internet, were to offer students a useful and motivating writing task, to help them develop a critical attitude towards the information on the Web, and to encourage students to develop knowledge through collaboration. Originating from well-known academic books and articles review writing, the activity fosters the process of students' learning how to find and evaluate information on the Internet, compare it with the information from traditional printed library resources, and synthesise it in writing website reviews. Similar activities were described in ELT literature (Dudeney, 2000; Sperling, 1999, Teeler and Gray, 2000); however, we aimed at developing a simple activity of review writing into a full-scale collaborative project connecting generations of students into a community of on-line learners.
Starting the project in 1999 with Latvian undergraduate students preparing to write their first academic papers, we aimed at introducing an activity that can help to use the Internet for developing student's on-line academic research skills and at proving that the use of the World Wide Web in academic writing instruction can benefit students. During three academic years as part of their study program the students analysed and evaluated the websites that might be of interest for writing students. The experience gained allows the author to suggest the following plan for the activity:
Stage 1. Pre-writing
Lower levels of language or computer skills Advanced level
Before the class: teacher chooses the websites according to the students' age and language level. A web page with links to the websites could save time at the lesson and make it more organised. Before the class: teacher tries different combinations of the key words for Web search to pre-view what students might see when looking for the websites for evaluation.
In class: teacher gives students a step by step instruction on paper, so that students would not get lost on the Web. Teacher may also want to pre-teach some difficult vocabulary that students will see on the websites. In class: students decide what they would like to find on the Internet (e.g. information on citing the Internet sources) and write down the task for themselves not to forget this purpose while searching the Web.
Teacher prepares students to use technology to the extent necessary for the lesson (mouse skills). Psychological preparation of students for working with authentic texts and information overflow.
Teacher decides how to manage the lesson time. Students decide how much time to spend on browsing, on reading and note taking, and on writing itself during the lesson.
Teacher can provide the students with the following guidelines for review writing:
1. Address
2. The purpose of the website and assumed readership
3. Currency: when the website was created and last updated?
4. Ease of use
5. Content
6. Links to other Web pages and websites
7. Interactivity
8. Special features
9. Recommendations (would the student recommend the website to other students?) Students discuss the list of possible criteria for website evaluation provided by the teacher or develop their own criteria working groups.Example criteria developed by students:
1. How inspiring is the website for writing? (Motivational potential)
2. Overall clarity, including the language.
3. How informative the website is?
4. The relevance of the information on the website; currency.
5. How can the website support writing students: does it contain dictionaries, sample essays and papers, e-books and reference resources?
6. Teaching qualities of the website: are there interactive exercises and self-tests?
7. Does the website offer information for students with different learning styles, e.g. sound, animation and other special features?
Stage 2. Web sites analysis and evaluation (students on-line)
Students read the content of the website and take notes answering the teacher's questions. First reading: for general idea or impression (e.g. the purpose of the website). Second reading: for specific details (the date of construction, the author or the university etc.). Students read the content, evaluate it according to their own developed criteria, and take notes on their findings.
Stage 3. Review writing (off-line)
Students organise their notes into review drafts according to the plan provided by the teacher. They can also compare the information from the website with the textbook or other resources. Students should realise that they are responsible for the accuracy of the information on the website if they recommend it to other students. They should mention the mistakes in their reviews. Students compare/contrast the text with the information in the textbooks and with other Web and library resources. They can also group the websites they visit according to some criteria (e.g. assumed readership, clarity, etc.). Students decide whether to recommend the website to other students or not. They should explain their decision and point to the mistakes and inaccurate information.
Students exchange the drafts with their group mates for peer feedback. They should find what they like the best in the review, and what is not clear for them and should be rewritten. Peer feedback. Discussion on the presentation guidelines. Students decide whether the reviews should be presented in paper form for publishing in a book or in electronic form for on-line posting.
Writing second drafts, which can be sent by e-mail to the peers for feedback if students continue writing at home. Rewriting and peer editing of the reviews. Discussion on the organisation of the book or a website for publishing the reviews.
This plan can be used with students of different levels of language and computer literacy skills. The teacher can further tailor it to accommodate the particular students' needs in the particular situations. Students' comments are collected and published in a self-published book to guide the next generation of students through the Web, so that they, in their turn, could contribute to the project and update the information in the Internet Guide for Writing Students.
Outcomes
All of the students evaluated the website review writing as a useful learning activity in their reflective essays and post-class interviews. The results of the formal assessment at the end of the term demonstrated a growth in the quality of students' writing in the target group, participating in the project, in comparison with the control group. However, the results of formal testing cannot reflect much more valuable outcomes, such as growing students' interest, confidence, and independence in learning. The analysis of students' reflective essays and post-class interviews generally support the results of yearly students' opinion surveys, showing an amazing change in the attitude toward the subject (from 70% negative and very negative towards 67% positive and very positive) and growth in students' confidence in writing, although such a change in students' attitudes could be explained by the excitement from the novelty of the Internet. Nevertheless, the experience of almost four years of using the activity allows me to conclude that in this case the difference between students' wants and their needs is very small.
Working over the project, students practice the following valuable skills:
• language and writing skills
Students read authentic texts, take notes, and rewrite their reviews several times to achieve the publishable quality.
• Information management skills
Students learn to cope with too much information on the website, to choose the relevant and to skip irrelevant information.
• Critical thinking skills
Students learn to evaluate relevant information, to compare and synthesise the information from different sources.
• Time management skills
Students learn to use the Internet to complete a concrete task in a limited period of time.
• Interpersonal communication skills
Students learn to work in collaboration to achieve the best results.
• Life-long learning skills
Students learn to understand their learning needs and preferences and how to satisfy them; they learn how to find on-line resources for further independent learning.
The skills that students obtain participating in the project can be transferred to other subjects, improving the overall quality of students' learning.
As possible drawbacks of the web-based project should be mentioned the anxiety of teachers and learners caused by the use of technology, the necessity of teaching computer literacy skills at the lesson, and a slow Internet connection or computer failure during the class. The teacher can reduce the negative effect by filling the website loading time with useful activities, e.g. giving the instruction on paper or organising short discussions on the students' experience of the Internet.
The highly positive results of the project allow the author to recommend this form of instruction as one that is useful, comparatively easy to organise, and highly stimulating.
References:
1. Dudeney, G. (2000). The Internet and the Language Classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. Jones, C. (1986). "It's not so much the program, more what you do with it: the importance of methodology in CALL" System 14/2
3. Sercu, L and E. Peters (2002). "Learning e-learning - a comprehensive investigation of course developers' and language teacher trainees' views regarding the usefulness and effectiveness of a multimedia self-tuition course" In: ReCALL Vol.14, Part 1 (pp.32-46). UK: Cambridge University Press
4. Sperling, D. (1999). Sperling's Internet Activity Workbook. Prentice Hall Regents
5. Teeler, D. and P. Gray (2000). How to use the Internet in ELT
6. Wenden, A. (1991). Learner Strategies for Learner Autonomy: Planning and implementing learner training for language learners Prentice Hall International
The following websites provide the information on website evaluation:
http://www.lib.umd.edu/UES/webcheck.html
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/
Evaluate.html
http://www.namss.org.uk/evaluate.htm
Biodata
Natalie Cigankova teaches Academic Writing and Grammar, Applied Communication, Methodology of Teaching EFL Writing, and The Internet for ELT courses at the University of Latvia in Riga, Latvia. She holds an MA in English Philology from the University of Latvia and is currently working over the Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics in the field of CALL/WELL and computer applications for linguistic distance education.
Natalie's interests are concerned with second/foreign language acquisition in the computer environment, computer discourse and computer mediated communication for language teaching. Now she is engaged in a new E-university project creating web-based courses for linguistic education on the WebCT platform.
Natalie can be contaced at:University of Latvia
Visvalza iela 4a, LV-1050 Riga, Latvia
Tel: +371 7034811
Fax: +371 7034813
E-mail address: ncigankova@hotmail.com
Source: http://www.developingteachers.com/articles_tchtraining/stdguidestdpf_natalie.htm
January 21, 2005
Using Computers to Teach English
Unfortunately, most of us don't have the luxury of having a computer in the classroom. If you have access through your school, make the most of it. There are thousands of sites with interactive activities that are great for students. If not, that doesn't mean that you can't use the internet at all.
Encourage your students to use the internet in English at home (assuming they have access) by assigning homework assignment involving the net. For example, you could have them look up information on the internet about their favorite celebrity, then write a report and present it to the class. The students will enjoy the activity, and they will get practice using the internet in English.
January 19, 2005
Computer Use in the Classroom
Computer Use in the Classroom
The following feature provides a discussion of tips and basic strategies for using a computer effectively in an ESL class setting.
Computers should be used as a language learning tool - just as any other piece of equipment (i.e., tape recorder, VCR, blackboard, etc.). It is important the computer NOT become the center of attention of the lesson. There are situations when activities at the computer can become the center of attention, however these situations should be avoided and left to students to decide when, and if, they want to utilize such activities (in self-access). Planning a lesson around such an activity requires the teacher to first consider the scope of a particular lesson. Once the content of the lesson is decided on, the teacher can then consider if the use of a certain computer based activity meets a desired objective of the lesson. At this point, the teacher can then decide at which stage of the lesson to use a computer and for what purposes.
Computers as a Language Learning Tool
For some tasks, computers can provide distinct advantages over more traditional approaches. The use of a computer for listening exercises often provides not only sound, but also visual input providing students with more contextual clues. Students interacting with a computer are also using motor skills as well, which can have a strong reinforcing effect on the learning process by connecting physical actions (clicking, typing) with desired results. Students are also allowed more control over their own learning process as they make the decisions when to repeat questions, exercises and sequences based on their own progress. In this manner, student needs and individual issues are further pushed to the forefront of any given activity, as it is the student making decisions for him/herself rather than the teacher for the group.
Probably the strongest argument for the use of the computer in the classroom environment is that of student self-pacing. Especially in the field of pronunciation, students can employ a computer to record themselves to compare their pronunciation to a target pronunciation. This can be repeated endlessly until a student is satisfied with his/her result. These pronunciation exercises are often combined with visual aids (such as intonation graphs) to help the student recognise how his/her pronunciation compares to the target pronunciation. Common tools such as spell checking can also provide the student with valuable self-analysis instruction.
Finally, with the aid of the Internet and CD-Rom based materials, teachers can quickly access documents addressing individual student needs. This is especially effective when teaching English for Special Purposes such as Business English. An example would be white papers put up on a company web-site discussing certain technologies in English that students are currently employing. Another example is glossaries provided for specific business sectors (port, banking, insurance, etc.). Using these materials, the teacher can often provide content addressing specific student needs, thereby improving motivation and effectiveness.
Making the student comfortable with the technology
Admittedly, the computer can be an overwhelming and imposing instrument to students and teachers. The complexity of the computer - not to mention the overwhelming choice of possibilities - can put students and teachers off as they lose time grappling with how to use the computer. There are a few basic principles that should be followed in order to help the student (and teacher) feel more at home using the computer.
The computer should always be turned on, booted, and the program loaded (preferably the exercise chosen) before the class begins. In this manner, students focus on doing the task at hand rather than getting to the point where they can do the task.
Students who are not comfortable using computers should be placed with students who are. These students should not be forced to use the mouse or type at the keyboard. As they become more familiar with the technology, they will often begin to play a more active role - even if they don't, the ability to use the computer is not the issue.
Students more comfortable with the computer should be strongly discouraged from using other resources available in the program itself, or in other programs. These students should be encouraged to explore these resources on their own by taking advantage of self-access programs.
Use of the computer should be phased in; instead of introducing a complex series of exercises to be done for a lesson, teachers should begin by doing a limited amount of work with the computer (i.e. one listening exercise followed by an interactive quiz).
Example Lesson
Programme: Accent Coach by Language Connect
Level: Intermediate to Upper Intermediate
The purpose of the lesson is to focus on how intonation affects understanding and production. A typical lesson could begin by asking students various questions using different intonations to receive various responses based on a sentence written on the board.
Example:
When did Tom drink five cups of coffee?
Tom drank five cups of coffee this morning.
Who drank five cups of coffee this morning?
Tom drank five cups of coffee this morning.
How many cups of coffee did Tom drink this morning?
Tom drank five cups of coffee this morning.
Students inductively learn the importance of intonation in this exercise. This can be followed by a discussion of the importance of intonation and the difference it can make in understanding.
At this point the computers (which have been turned on, program loaded and starting point chosen) can be employed to practice this by using the any one of a number of intonation lessons provided by Accent Coach by Language Connect.
As a follow up to this exercise, students can be given a standard response and a variety of questions to be asked for that response. Students can practice responding with the correct intonation. The teacher can walk about the room controlling the students' responses.
This exercise can be further improved by adding the recording element provided by the computer. By recording the voice students can compare their pronunciation with a target pronunciation.
I hope this short discussion can lead to further discussion of the effective use of a computer in an ESL learning situation in our forum.
Source: http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa100499.htm
January 18, 2005
PC w PC (Peer Correction with Personal Computers)
I often find that moving many more mundane classroom activities are made more interesting and motivating when taken into the computer room. Not only which, when students are correcting each other, the texts become very messy or sometimes the original is so hard to read in the first place.
To get around this, and to make things more interesting, the students are given a writing task, for example a formal letter of complaint, to complete in pairs. They then write it onto the computer before saving it onto a floppy disk or printing it out. The students the circle round the room correcting one another’s errors in turn, so A goes to B, B goes to C, and C goes to D. Then A goes to C, B goes to D and so on until each pair has seen everybody else’s work, and hopefully corrected some of the mistakes.
The students then compare their original with the “corrected” versions, and decide whether they think the “corrections” are really correct, or should they be changed.
April 11, 2003
FAME SEARCH. Level: Pre-Intermediate +
Again, this is a simple activity, which can lead to students doing a fairly natural piece of writing. Prepare a worksheet for students to fill in, using boxes like: Name, Date of Birth: Famous for? etc. Students use the Internet, perhaps specifying particular sites, for example www.imdb.com for movie stars.
April 11, 2003
HOLIDAY HUNT Level: Pre-intermediate +
This is a simple task. You ask the students, either alone, or in pairs/small groups, to find a pre-decided set of holiday information. It’s better if you pesonalise it a little, for example: “I would like to take my girlfriend to New York for her birthday. Her birthday is on 14th April, which is a Monday, so I would like to go the weekend before (11th – 13th) or after (8th – 20th). can you find out the following information: How much will it cost to fly there? How much will a three star hotel cost for two nights? What can I do in New York during the day?” Obviously this is not fixed, and can be altered to a more realistic destination, depending on where you are.
The beauty of this is that if you have limited resources, for example only one computer for your class, you can set it for different pairs during different lessons across the week before comparing the data they have found at the end of the week.
April 11, 2003
