Reflection on CALL Experience

“We live in a world in which technological innovation is occurring at a high speed and digital technologies are becoming an integral part of our daily life” (Graham, 2003). As a result, foreign language instructors become more and more interested in incorporating technology into the learning process, and creating more effective learning environments by increasing access and flexibility.


The CALL class was especially beneficial for me because its primary attempt was to answer the question: How to blend face-to face and computer mediated instruction effectively? First of all, as instructors, we have to take advantage of the strengths of each environment and avoid the weaknesses. Moreover, technology should be used to make the lesson more effective and attractive. Thus, the lesson should not seem like separate activities forced together, but it must be a carefully planned learning unit. I firmly believe that if we incorporate technology in any lesson, students achievements would be higher than if we are relying on face-to-face instruction only.

CALL experience

The use of CALL tools in Second/ Foreign Language Acquisition is largely discussed by researchers and practitioners. Most of them argue that CALL tools have the potential to enhance language learning. Some of the pedagogical reasons for incorporating technology into the learning/ teaching process are: more engaging ways to present instructional materials; communicative, meaningful language use; exposure to target culture, use of more authentic materials; repeated practice opportunities.

An effective technique that is often used in teaching second language is blog writing. On the one hand blog writing has the potential to address learners’ needs in order to increase their abilities to communicate effectively through written language, and on the other hand it provides additional opportunities for writing practices. Moreover, blogs have the potential to foster and develop a larger learning community, and provide students with opportunities to organize their own learning. Blogs also give students opportunities to write for a larger audience, and practice fluency and accuracy at the same time. This technique allows students to use the target language in a creative way and engage in collaborative, meaningful activities (such as respond to the writing of their classmates, engage in dialogues).

Second Life

Advantages of Second Life for language Acquisition


Second Life is a program that allows its users to interact with each other through avatars. People who use this program not only “travel” throughout the world, but could also participate in various group activities. Because of its characteristics, Second Life is used for language instruction by many educational institutions. This program offers different, more engaging ways to expand a foreign language instruction. It is flexible and easy to be accessed by students and instructors. Thus, students could engage in interactive and collaborative use of the language by engaging in communicative/ meaningful activities (no drills, no memorizing, and no repetition). Most importantly, learners are exposed to the target culture (visiting authentic places; Moscow, for example, if they are studying Russian). By using Second Life, students not only have many language practice opportunities, but the learning process appears to be also personalized. The users of Second Life have the opportunity to decide how and where and with whom to practice the target language.

Disadvantages of Second Life for Language Acquisition

I do not see any disadvantages in terms of Second Language Acquisition. However, instructors have to plan some time for teaching the students how to use the program for language acquisition/practice.

Videoconferencing

I think that Meebo could be especially beneficial to foreign language instruction. One thing about Meebo that I like most is that the program allows us to have videoconferencing with native speaker. Thus Meebo not only provides an opportunity for authentic audience, but foreign language learners could be exposed to authentic input when engaging in conversations with native speakers. Meebo provides opportunities for negotiation of meaning, practicing pronunciation, exchanging of cultural information, and identifying gaps in the language through output activities.

The role of e-journaling in learning oral language skills

E-journaling was effectively incorporated in a study entitled A Web Based Approach to Strategic Learning of Speech Acts, conducted by Cohen and Ishihara (2005). In the upper mentioned study, e-journaling was designed as a way for the students to provide journal entries reflecting on their learning experience with the speech acts they study. The e-journaling provided an opportunity for the researchers to find out what do learners think about the testing materials; the value of immediate feedback; the disadvantage of not getting individualized feedback from a teacher. Moreover, the researchers had a chance to find out how do learners face the issue of their non-native status and their own cultural identity. In summary, the e-journaling conducted in this study allowed for interpretations of findings which would not have been possible otherwise.


E-journaling could be beneficial not only in terms of writing but in terms of learning oral language skills as well. Students could write journal entries describing their language learning strategies. Learners could focus on specific strategies used to comprehend and/ or produce the target language structure. Moreover, students could practice the target structure by producing any written responses as if they were spoken. If the instructor has access to the e-journals, he/ she can answer any questions that students might have, or even better, the instructor can interact with the students in the target language providing comprehensible input and individualized feedback.

Wikis and the Role they Play in the Process of Writing

I agree with the statement made in the online article Languages from a distance that writing is one of the most difficult language areas that has to be taught. Teaching writing is challenging in part because instructors not only have to teach complex essay organization and grammar rules, but also instructors have to make sure that students are aware of the fact that writing is a process. The stages of the writing process are: 1. Prewriting (This is the stage where the students should plan their writing by gathering information, and setting purpose and audience) 2. Drafting (Students are expected to turn in two drafts. With the first draft the student aims to get his/ her ideas across. The student does not have to worry about grammar and punctuation so much.) 3. Revising/ Editing (The actual revising and editing (including grammar mistakes) takes place during the second draft.) 4. The final stage of the writing process is publishing. A crucial question then is how do wikis make the practicing of the writing process possible. As it was mentioned in the online article Languages from a distance, wikis tend to provide opportunities for collaborative class work where ideas are exchanged, expanded, revised and edited. In this case students are engaged in the process of writing because they have to write from their personal perspective; proofread and comment/ give their classmates suggestions on how to improve the final product; correct their own errors (content or grammar). The most beneficial part of the wikis is that this process can exist regardless of specific location and time.

Computer mediated communication

The reading for this week tends to answer the question whether chatting holds the same potential for the development of grammatical competence as oral interaction.
Some benefits that interaction has to language development were discussed in this article. First of all, it was mentioned that interaction fosters negotiation of meaning. As it is often argued in SLA studies, negotiation of meaning provides enhanced input. Moreover, comprehensible input is crucial for the development of the grammatical competence. Second, negotiation of meaning fosters output. Third, providing feedback that focuses attention to form is also considered crucial for the development of grammatical competence. This study demonstrates the importance of the negotiation of meaning in language acquisition. Furthermore, the study shows that computer mediated communication has a potential to foster the negotiation of meaning in task-based interaction where as a result the grammatical competence will be developed.
Would you use computer mediated communication to supplement face to face interaction in your classroom? Does CMC have more or less benefits when compared with face to face oral communication (in terms of negotiation of meaning and development of grammatical competence)?

Project Proposal

The instructional activity that I am creating for the CALL class will be designed for intermediate learners of English as a foreign language. The CALL tool that I will be using for this project is SoftChalk Lesson Builder. I will create interactive vocabulary activities reflecting the receptive and productive stages in vocabulary acquisition. This instructional activity will expose foreign language learners to comprehensible input and output activities. This lesson will incorporate different modalities (audio, written, visual). Thus students will have the opportunity to see the written form of the target word; hear the correct pronunciation; and see visual images that illustrate the meaning of a particular lexical item. The lesson that I will create will constitute of three major parts.
1. Vocabulary presentation.
• Students will be shown visual images of the target words.
• Students will hear the correct pronunciation of the target words.
• Students will see examples of how to use a particular word in a meaningful context.
2. Receptive Recall.
• Students will do exercises where they have to be able to recognize the target vocabulary item.
3. Productive Recall.
• Students are encouraged to produce/ use the target vocabulary items in a meaningful context.
The purpose of this instructional activity is to demonstrate how foreign language (FL) classroom instruction can be complemented with on-line vocabulary learning units. In this lesson various skills are blended and integrated together in the language instruction (listening, reading, writing). The interactive activities created with SoftChalk are beneficial to foreign language learners because they give students opportunity to learn at their own time and pace. Most importantly SoftChalk allows students to receive individualized feedback.
If you think that SoftChalk is something you might be interested in, you can download the free trial version of SoftChalk LessonBuilder at http://softchalk.com/lb_trial.html

Tatsachen über Österreich / Facts about Austria

Designed for advanced students of German as a foreign language

Listen to the podcast and learn interesting facts about Austria.

Prelistening Activity
Discuss the following questions:
Have you ever visited a German speaking country?
If your answer is Yes then share your impressions with your classmates.
If your answer is No then discuss which German country would you like to visit and why.
Do you know some interesting facts about the German speaking countries?
Is there anything else that you would like to find out about the German speaking countries?

Listen to the podcast

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During listening Activities

First listening
Listen to the podcast and answer the following questions:
List three bordering countries of Austria?
How many states are there in Austria? How many states does Austria have?
What is the name of the capital city of Austria?

Second listening
Read the text and fill in the missing words. Choose the words from the list below. In case you need help with the meaning of the words click on each word for a link to an online German dictionary where you can see the English translation, German definition, example sentences, and synonyms. Then listen to the podcast once again and compare your answers.

Binnenstadt
Mitteleuropa
Mittelalter
Bundesland

Tatsachen über Österreich

Österreich, amtlich Republik Österreich, ist ein ______________ in Mitteleuropa. Das Alpenland grenzt im Norden an Deutschland und Tschechien, im Osten an die Slowakei und Ungarn, im Süden an Slowenien und Italien und im Westen an die Schweiz und Liechtenstein.
Die Staatsform ist seit der Verfassung einer bundesstaatlich organisierten parlamentarischen Republik, die seit 1922 aus neun Ländern besteht.Eines davon ist die Hauptstadt Wien.
Fünf der neun österreichischen _______________, Niederösterreich, Kärnten, Steiermark, Tirol, Salzburg sind bereits im ____________ entstanden. Oberösterreich wurde unter Joseph II. 1783/84 selbstständig. Vorarlberg war lange Landesteil Tirols und wurde 1861 eigenständig. 1921 kam das Burgenland, das bis dahin Teil Ungarns war, hinzu. Mit 1922 wurde schließlich Wien von Niederösterreich getrennt und zum eigenen ____________ erhoben.

Postlistening Activity
Click on this link to find out more about Austria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria
Discuss with your classmates what you find particularly interesting about Austria. Then write a short paragraph.

Note to the instructor
This podcast is specifically designed for German as a Foreign Language Students who have excellent vocabulary and grammar knowledge, but lack some specific cultural knowledge. The purpose of this lesson is to expand and deepen students’ knowledge and understanding of the target culture. This lesson provides specific cultural information about Austria. Moreover, students are challenged to listen to and learn specific facts about the geography of Austria.

Suggested activities

Pre-listening activities: The prelistening activity serves as schema activation activity. Students make use of their schema when they can relate what they already know about a topic to the facts and ideas appearing in the new lesson.

During listening activities: The purpose of the first listening activity is to give the student the opportunity to get the main idea. The second listening activity focuses students’ attention on very specific target words (not used in the everyday language).

Postlistening activities:The postlistening activity is designed in a way that encourages students to engage in learning activities out of the classroom. The performance of this activity supposes not only that the students are risk takers, but it is a way to connect the class activities to real-life situations.

Can learners use concordance feedback for writing errors?

The article written by Gaskell addresses the questions whether students could actually learn anything from concordances. The author argues that learning through concordances could occur if the following conditions are fulfilled:
1. The number of examples that second language learners are exposed to is increased.
2. The examples highlight the target structure.
3. Learners attend to the examples.
4. Learners receive feedback on the success of their interpreting.
The students who participated in the study stated that they had learned a lot from the concordances and that their English writing ability has improved. However, not all of the students believed that they would continue using concordancing as a possible language learning tool in the future.
The study described by Gaskell is designed for lower level learners. The results show that concordances appear to be more effective when considering lexical development, and less effective when considering grammar development. Do you think that advanced language learners’ grammar development would benefit from concordances?

Every Day Living in the USA

Schedule a Medical Appointment

Designed for ESL beginners

 It focuses students' attention on language use in  a specific social context, namely scheduling a medical appointment in the USA.

Before you listen

Activity 1: Vocabulary preview
Here are some words that you might find helpful while listening to the podcast. Click on each word below for a link to Encarta Dictionary where you will find the word definition, and  hear the correct pronunciation of the new words. Then test your vocabulary knowledge.

clinic

schedule an appointment

check up

medical

dental

health insurance

copay

Activity 2: Vocabulary test

Test your vocabulary knowledge before you listen to the podcast. Chose the correct definition for each word. Hint: Go back to the prelistening activity and look up the words in the dictionary in case you do not know their meaning. The anser is provided at the end of the activity. Try to do the activity without looking at the correct answer.

clinic

1. a medical center

2. an institution in which children and teenagers are taught

dental

1. relating or belonging to the teeth

2. building where goods are manufactured

schedule an appointment

1. arrangement to meet somebody

2. a published work of literature

check up

1. to carry out detailed examination

2. feeling or showing pleasure

medical

1. used in medicine or treatment given by doctors

2. used in education or by teachers

health insurance

1. an arrangement by which a company gives customers financial protection

2. payment for a medical expense partially covered by insurance

(1 1 2 2 1 2)

Click on the link below to listen to our podcast

Everyday Life in the USA: Scheduling a Medical Appointment

While you listen

Activity 3

Pay attention to the seven target words. How are they used in the dialogue? Are they accompanied by any specific words? Have you heard these seven target words before?

After you listen

Activity 4: Comprehension
Please do the following activity after you have listened to this podcast episode. Organize the sentences in the correct order, according to the sequence of events in the podcast you have heard.
 Hint: You may listen to the podcast as many times as you wish. The correct answer is provided at the end of this activity. Try to do the activity without looking at the correct answer.

A. The clinic appointment scheduler tells Mr. Kuma that they have a Japanese doctor on staff.
B. The clinic appointment scheduler asks Mr. Kuma to wait while she connects him to the medical department where he can schedule his appointment.
C. The clinic receptionist asks Mr. Kuma to state the purpose of his call.
D. The clinic appointment scheduler would like to know if Mr. Kuma has health insurance coverage.
E. The clinic scheduler tells Mr. Kuma when there is an opening in their calendar to schedule a checkup visit.
F. The clinic scheduler reminds Mr. Kuma to bring his UIC ID and his co-pay to his physical checkup.

[ C B E D F A ]

Note to the Instructor
This podcast is specifically designed for ESL students who have recently came to the United States from another country. Scheduling a medical appointment in the USA can be a frustrating experience for newcomers. Not only is a there new language, but customs may be different as well. With this podcast students can practice the language they need for scheduling medical appointment. The podcast we created reflects real-life situations and demands. The prelistening, during listening and postlistening activities are constructed to provide students with opportunities for communication that is using the language to express and interpret real-life messages. Moreover, students are encouraged to engage in activities that adjust their use of the target language to a specific social context. The original dialogue could be found at http://www.literacynet.org/vtd/dialog1.html

Suggested follow up activities

Comprehension
By doing the suggested comprehension activity students are expected to identify the function, not simply recognize the dialogue features. For this purpose the statements are narrated, not taken directly from the dialogue.
Class discussion
Students discuss the dialogue as a whole class. Instructors could use the following questions to facilitate discussion: Did you find any part of the dialogue surprising? Have you ever had a similar conversation with a healthcare professional? Were there any difficulties for you? Would a similar conversation take place in your own country? What would be different?
Pronunciation
Students listen to the dialogue and pay attention to pronunciation of difficult words, rhythm, melody, pausing etc. Students repeat difficult parts from the dialogue as a group and then practice in pairs.
Vocabulary
Students encounter the seven target words not only in the original dialogue, but also throughout the activities that accompany this lesson. Students may click on each vocabulary word from the list for a link to Encarta dictionary and look up the word’s definition and hear the correct pronunciation.
Role play
In groups, students create their own dialogue. Students role play the dialogue for their classmates. In this way, students engage in activities that adjust their use of the target language to a specific social context.
Writing
Students could describe how they schedule an appointment in the USA and their native country. They could outline the differences and similarities between those two cultures.

We hope you found this website helpful!

Cognition Hypothesis

According to Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis discussed in Task Complexity, theory of mind, and intentional reasoning: Effects on L2 speech production, interaction, uptake and perceptions of task difficulty, instructional design is set to trigger acquisition and language development. Robinson (2007) argues that instructional tasks should be designed on the basis of increases in their cognitive complexity. He points out that such tasks lead to more accurate but less fluent speech production. Moreover, research points out that these tasks result in more interaction and uptake of linguistic forms that have been salient in the input.


Do you think that individual differences in language ability as well as various factors relevant to the cognitive demands of tasks will lead to differences in learners’ speech production, and uptake in short and long-term memory? Can we as instructors be sure that instructional tasks based on the Cognition Hypothesis will result in greater uptake of linguistic forms?

Podcast in ESL Teaching and Learning

Evaluating podcasts from student’s point of view:


http://www.eslpod.com/website/show_all.php

This website offers podcasts in English for EFL/ESL learners who want to improve their English through a variety of interesting listening activities. Learners are able to find complete transcripts of the podcasts, definitions, sample sentences, comprehension questions, additional explanations, cultural notes, podcast newsletter, and information on new products and services.

As a non-native speaker of English, I think that it is really important to learn English how it is really spoken. The podcasts in this website are focused on real, current English. Moreover, the authors of the podcasts attract students’ attention by using various styles and exciting topics.

I did not focus on evaluating just one podcast because I think that all podcasts in this website are great.

Evaluating podcasts from teacher’s point of view:

http://www.eslpod.com/website/flash_player.php?issue_id=8091548

I think that using this podcast in an ESL classroom is a positive way to enhance language acquisition. First, students are exposed to an authentic input. Second, the topic used for this podcast is relevant. Third, the language is comprehensible and the target words are repeated many times. Finally, the podcasts is fun, educational, and as interactive as possible.

http://www.eslteachertalk.com/

This website could be used by current or future teachers. It offers podcasts and other instructional materials for ESL teachers. The podcasts address topics such as classroom management, lesson planning advice, and job search tips. Each podcast contains a game or activity that you can use in your lessons with supporting downloads and materials. As a teacher, I find this website extremely helpful.

Depth of processing and vocabulary learning

http://www.vocabulary.co.il/


http://www.vocabulary.com/

These two websites offer various activities which are designed to build vocabulary skills and to motivate English language learners to learn through fun practice. The vocabulary activities include word search, matching, crossword puzzle, and hangman.  Users choose the category (animals, cars, architecture, and winter weather) that will be used in the word exercise. It is important to note that there are vocabulary word exercises for all levels of English (easy, medium, hard). www.vocabulary.co.il can also help build vocabulary skills for exams such as TOEFL, the GRE, the SAT, and PSAT. Moreover, these two websites provide students with unlimited access, repeated practice opportunity (individualized instruction), build-in review of materials, contextualized vocabulary introduction with pictures and audio (helps improving various pronunciation issues).

Discussion of the websites in terms of depth of processing: The idea of Craik and Lockhart (1972) that the chance of new information being stored into long-term memory is not determined by the time that it is held in short-term memory rather by the depth with which it was initially processed is often discussed in SLA. It is accepted that tasks involving greater depth of processing lead to greater gains in short-term and long-term vocabulary retention. These two websites offer various productive tasks which require learners to engage in deeper processing of the words and this sets the expectation that these words will be retained better. Many SLA studies have suggested that learners benefit more from using the target words productively in original contexts than encountering them through reading texts.

Reading with CALL

For many NNS of English who have recently come to the United States, a visit to the doctor could be a frustrating experience. Not only is there a new language, but customs may be different as well. With this web site NNS of English can practice the language they need for getting medical help. The web site has reading activities at different language levels. The teacher has the opportunity to select CALL materials with appropriate reading texts. There are also some suggestions for teachers on how to use these reading articles. The web site includes evaluation of learners’ comprehension and language knowledge and provides learners with opportunities to interact with the computer for getting help with the language in the text. Extensive feedback is also provided.

One think that I find disturbing is the fact that important words and phrases are not emphasized on the screen as it was suggested in one of our readings. Do you think that the instructor should preteach the vocabulary or the learners should interact with the computer for getting help with the unknown words in the text?

http://www.literacynet.org/vtd/index.html

A question I am interested in is how the use of CALL affects the development of language learners’ four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing)? As we all know, using CALL technology for the development of speaking abilities has gained much attention in SLA literature in recent years. Computer-mediated communication allows students to engage in meaningful conversation in the target language and provides interactive speaking practice outside the classroom (using chat, videoconferencing). SLA research shows that there are significant gains in reading and listening skills as well. Do you think that gains in writing skills could be as significant?