Week 14: Assessing Language through ICTs

Based on the article: ASSESSING LANGUAGE USING COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY

By: Dan Douglas and Volker Hegelheimer

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Computer-based second language assessment ca be use for assessing purposes and score of language tests.  Something I learned from this article and that every teacher should know was the benefit of computerization provide assessments and evaluations that can be shorter, better more efficient and suiter for students. Besides, in the article there is a part where it discusses Computer-Based Authoring Options, there a high variety of online web tool that can contain the CMSs (course management systems) and these have available some extensions depending on the language proficient. Adding to this part of the article one example of online sources where teacher can develop language test including responses type like

multiple-choice, multichoice, true-false, fill-ins, matching, and short answers using an exact-matching strategy is Moodle (http://www.moodle.org/). Some of the advantages of using CMS is they are developed to track where and when the learner log in the course, teachers can set periods of time to complete the assessment, teachers can set up the number of changes that students have to complete the task, and animation. Another CMS that really called my attention was

Discovery School’s Quiz Center (http://school.discovery.com/quizcenter/ ) because like Moodle is a free online tool where teachers can create multiple-choice, short-answer, true/false, or essay-type test tasks. Something I want to remember from this article is all the online tools presented because they are free and very good option to replace paper based tests

Week 13: Interactive Power Point Presentations in ESL Classrooms

Based on the article: 10 Benefits of Getting Students to Participate in Classroom Discussions By: Maryellen Weimer

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Increase Student Interaction with "Think Pair Shares" and "Circle Chats"

By: Kristina Robertson

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The article started by defining what participation is, as we know participation is one of the 3 elements for effective learning and it is one instructional strategy.  The article presented 10 Benefits of Getting Students to Participate in the classroom, but I goint to mention the ones I think all teachers should know and use during their classes. First, participation engages students. Students can get motivated if the teacher is constantly make students question themselves why, also they will find meaningful, Second, their interest, make them wonder why, get them to think. Students can have their opportunity of seeking student input over a topic. Third, participation can be used to develop important speaking skills. As an English teacher one of our main objective is that students will be able to develop the speaking skill and participation help students to speak with their pairs.

Week 12: Project-based Learning and ICTs

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Maximizing the Benefits of Project Work in Foreign Language Classrooms

By: Bülent Alan and Fredricka L . Stoller

This article presented how by including project work teachers achieve language learning. Something I want to remember from this article is that teachers can include project-based learning projects but in order to be maximize the project has to include collaboration, communication and critical thinking. The benefits of project-based learning projects are: engaging, gathering information, motivating and promoting autonomy.  Besides, project-based learning projects can be use during any course, the project work can be create depending of contextual factors, language program objectives, and available resources. In the article the author mentions short examples of project work in agriculture, engineering, physical education, EFL and tourism, during the project works teachers showcased a real-world project. Something I learned from this article and that every teacher should know was that at the end of a project base students has to gather information, develop critical thinking and use the language. My favorite quote from the article was “project work can be more effective when teachers relax their control, when students regard the teacher as a guide, and when students provide feedback on the experience so that projects can be improved” (  Sheppard and Stoller 1995 ) . The article showed that the big success of project works in learning is because it focusses on real word subjects/ topics , collaboration  , language focus and emphasis on the final project.

Week 11: CALL in Teaching Vocabulary

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Based on the articles:  Online English-English Learner Dictionaries Boost Word Learning by  Dr. Eli Hinkel

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Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension by Andreea I. Constantinescu

As students we have read how technologies support learning in reading, writing, speaking and listening; however, something I learned from this article and that every teacher should know was that every teacher has to use online dictionaries for effective learning. Online dictionaries are very useful for English learners and they are really good substitute of the heavy and complex dictionaries. A very good feature of the online dictionaries is that they have audio pronunciations of the words; on the other hand, traditional dictionaries only came with phonetic symbols. Besides, according to the author today online dictionaries are learner-centered, corpus-based, and informed by second language research and pedagogy; moreover, regular dictionaries are designed for native speakers. The author explained what a learner’s dictionaries look like, but the most important future is that they are learner-centered. A belief of mine that was confirmed when the author said “Vocabulary is one of those things where the rich get richer.

 The second article focus on the achievement of acquiring vocabulary and reading comprehension by the use of technology. acquisition of reading skills is very important in L1 and L2, learners read a variety of text in order to acquire and comprehend new vocabulary. After the author presented the benefits of CALL for vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. CALL has a variety of software which contains high effectiveness because of its multimedia on reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition