Reflection - working on technologies

This post is not to be counted for the ICT module assignment. This is just a brief INFORMAL reflection about the work that I have done so far for this module.

I really enjoyed exploring new technologies throughout this module. Thanks to great lecturers and nice course mates, I could manage to use some tools that I wouldn't have been able to on my own. As I'm not a 'tech person', even though I am aware of the usefulness of technologies, I wouldn't have thought of discovering them by myself.

One thing I regret a bit is that I couldn't make much use of vocal tools such as vocaroo, voicethread, etc... Partially because I'm not a native speaker of English and I'm not confident in my English, although I really appreciate materials for listening and simply enjoy listening to English.

This is not the end of the journey. We, as language teachers, will need to work with technologies in any way in the future. I will try not to avoid online tools and will try to make language learning more interesting, interactive, and meaningful.

* One of my favourite places in the University of Warwick.

Padlet

Padlet is a useful online tool. It's free and those who have an account can work collaboratively.

You can also leave comments, add photos, videos or a new post on the wall and have interaction with people.

As this is a written form of technology, learners can take as much time as they need and work in their pace. Learners could feel comfortable even when communicating with people with different English proficiency levels.

As for teaching English, the teacher can create a wall and invite his/her learners to join the wall.

Here is an example. This should be accompanied with video clips and the texts from the book if the activities intended to encourage learners to work outside of classroom either individually or in pair/group.

Created with Padlet

The teacher should be able to teach his/her learners how to use Padlet. It is not terribly difficult because someone like me, who is not good at technologies at all, could manage to create a wall. However, I struggled for a while to understand how it works when it comes to adding and editing a new post. Also, it must have been impossible for me to start working on it without instructions provided in the ICT class. As for interaction, the materials should be interesting and maybe fun enough to draw learner's attention.

It was also difficult to find copy right free images in the Internet. The use of almost all of images about the works of Roald Dahl including book cover images is not allowed.


Here is the link to Padlet:

https://padlet.com/

FluentU

FluentU is a really good tool for autonomous learning. It has a variety of videos learners can choose from. Once you complete 'study settings', FluentU will provide you with appropriate videos.

This is an example. Language: English, Level: Intermediate

Videos vary from language learning videos to film clips.

Each video is accompanied with subtitles.

Also, if you put the cursor on each word, it provides you with explanations with images if possible. The video stops while the cursor is on a word.

If you click on the pop up window from a word, you will find divers examples using that specific word usually with some video clips.

Those videos will help you understand how the word is actually used with various contextualised examples.

You can also choose 'Learn' to actually learn some words.

If you click on 'LEARN', you will have instructions to focus on certain words.

One of the big problems in language learning is that whether or not materials are authentic, whether or not learners are exposed to the real use of their target language. It is good to use textbooks designed locally for learners in a specific context because the approaches might suit learners in that specific context. However, each individual has his/her learning style, interest, motivation, or preference. Some might not be satisfied with textbook-based teaching. FluentU will be an ideal tool for those who would like to learn languages by using films, different teaching approaches, and various materials which are not from textbooks. However, it would make learners frustrated if there were problems in accessing Internet or finding interesting materials. I also wonder what could the teacher do to help learners make a good use of this tool.


Here is the link to FluentU. You can sign up for free!

http://www.fluentu.com/

WordSift

WordSift is another kind of  free word cloud.

Though it is not attractive compared to Wordle, it is more academic and provide more interesting opportunities to engage with vocabulary.

One of the advantages of this tool is that the the data can be sorted by A to Z or Z to A, for example.

Another advantage is that, if you click a word, it can create a mindmap related to the word on the "Visual Thesaurus" with images on the left hand.

Here is an example. I clicked on the word "love".

If you place the cursor on the thesaurus, its definition(s) will appear. If you click on a word in the thesaurus, it will show a new thesaurus display beginning with the word you have selected. The users can go further and learn about the words more.

As this is less entertaining and attractive, WordSift would suit learners who want to learn about the words more deeply. I would enhance learners' autonomy, only when they are motivated to some extent. For, as all information is provided in English, some learners might be demotivated or less interested because of the lack of basic English knowledge.


Here is the link to WordSift.

http://www.wordsift.com/

The text I chose is from the official website of the musical - Les Miserables.

http://www.lesmis.com/uk/

Wordle

Wordle is an online tool for generating "word clouds" from texts that you like. A "word cloud" or "tag cloud" is a visual representation for text data.

You just choose text you would like to show and Wordle will give a word cloud.

Here is an example.

You can have your learners guess what the text is about or identify the topic. The most frequent words are showed in bigger size.

Font, layout and colour are easy to change. It is easy to make the text attractive. Wordle provides learners with a good opportunity to engage with vocabulary.

If you put one sentence,

it can be an exercise of putting words in the right order.

If the classroom is equipped with enough computers connected to the Internet, learners can choose their favourite text and create a word cloud. They can have their classmates guess the topic or make some grammar questions for their classmates to answer.


It is attractive and could provide a good exercise, however, some learners might find the text distracting or the text can make some people feel sick because of its layout or colour. It would be difficult to get attention for a long time.


Here is the link to Wordle. Give it a go by clicking "create". You should install and activate Java.

http://www.wordle.net/

The text I chose is from the official site of the musical - Les Miserables.

http://www.lesmis.com/uk/

Quizlet

Quizlet is an online learning tool. It's basically free of charge and you can create various quizzes.


You can embed what you have made on your blogger by looking at "More".

This is what I made to learn French from English.




The images are already there. You can add your own voice but you have to pay for the service.

You can also print it out for those who don't have access to the Internet.

This is another set to learn some British Expressions... pronounced in American English...




The learners can choose study modes. They can try some tests as well as games.


This can be used not only to entertain learners but also to provide them with serious questions. Thus, it can suit a wide range of age groups, levels, and needs of the learners.


Although this is a useful, quick, and fun tool, the teacher should be aware of the objective of learning and provide them with relevant questions. As it is hard to know who has tried and who has not, the set should be worth trying!


Here is the link to Quizlet.

http://quizlet.com/

Duolingo

Duolingo is a free language learning tool. It also helps with the translation.

You can log in and start learning languages you would like to learn. Language choice depends on your mother tongue. If you are a native speaker of English, you have nine choices. However, if you are a native speaker of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, or Italian, etc., only English learning is provided. You can still choose English as your site language and learn languages in the list below.

Duolingo invites you to start learning. You can learn in your pace.

You can learn anywhere anytime as it is available on smartphones.

It can record the result of your learning and you can carry on your learning.

Duolingo is interactive. You can add your friends to compete with.

One of the problems is that it sometimes provides wired sentences or questions seem difficult because of the lack of context.

For example, when learning French, I encountered a question;

"Select the mission word.

________ sont des garçons."

I should choose a word from "Ce, Ils, Vous".

I got it wrong by selecting "Ils". The correct answer was "Ce".

However, when asked "select all correct answers",

the correct answer was "Ils sont des garçons."


This is a interesting learning tool. You will be provided with various types of questions. However, getting wrong answers because of the lack of context or relevant explanations could be sometimes frustrating.


Having said so, overall, I think this can help learners to study autonomously unless they don't get frustrated by some types of questions.


Here is the link to Duolingo.

https://en.duolingo.com/