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.