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
Moving forward!
11 years ago
Your question connects well with our vocabulary discussion this past Tuesday. One solution to the issue you raise is to let the students create their own mini-corpus from the reading.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very useful site, Miglena. Would you please tweet the link with a brief description of the site? A lot of ESL teachers on Twitter would appreciate the post.
Terrie, thanks for the suggestion. A mini-corpus generated by the students would be the best solution. In this way the students will interact with each other and as we all know interaction leads to greater gains when considering language acquisition.
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