One of the main concerns of teachers in general is the time they will spend on a lesson. The most important for them is to have enough time in order to cover the target contents contemplated in the MEP’s syllabus. But once that a teacher has the opportunity of knowing about CALL, the time is going to be just one more aspect and it won’t represent an obstacle for not using technology. It is very important for us, as teachers, to know how to manage our time as well as to know about the numerous benefits of CALL. If we know that CALL appeals to different learning styles and intelligences, that it can be personalized, that it develops learner’s autonomy and that it exposes students to authentic situations, we all would see how useful CALL is. As a student, I had the opportunity to work with “Virtual Mediation” which is a program that enhances communicative skills. What we had to was to comment on different topics seen weekly as well as to add comments based on Oral Presentations. Although in this moment I am not really into technology, I’d like to implement that kind of tools because the students can practice their writing and communicative skills as well as to interact with other partners by providing answers regarding a specific topic. This is exactly what Forcier means when he mentions in his chapter Learning with Word Processor Tools that: “Collaborative writing, however, is a technique that allows more than one student to engage in a writing activity together” (page 228).
Undoubtedly, the use of technological sources facilitates our life and at the same times the teaching process in the ESL classroom. In the light of the implementation of CALL it is easy to see that the teacher role has a very important aspect because he/she is the guide in this process. Nonetheless, the teacher is the person who has to keep the time control during this process. According to my own experience it is possible to have the relationship between time and the activities that as teacher we decide to use in our classroom. In other words, as teachers we have the possible to decide what kind of activities we want to use in order to provide to our students the skills that they need during the acquisition of their second language. On the other hand, I would like to use the CALL in my future classes and one example on how I will use this tool is with a game about the topic that I will teach; for example, Healthy Food. So I will make the game with some hyperlinks that will contribute with the motivation for my students. Additionally, this game will contribute with less frustration in my students because they will have an individual game based on the students’ needs. Therefore, I agree with Gookin who argued in his chapter Creating a Web Page “ … prove to the reader that the document is alive by animating the text. Nothing gets a Web- page- reading person into a cheery mood like blinking, flashing or sparkling text”(p. 342). In the same way, the YouTube video provide us an important aspect that belongs to the same idea of Gookin because they mention that as teachers we need to offer to our students an authentic language learning through different tools that we can use. Finally, in the wonderful campus of teaching we are responsible of use different activities that empower our students and in that way provided them the skills that they will use in their future.
CALL is a great tool to catch student's attention and motivation. They feel confrotable working with computers, and want to learn more about them with time. If we can relate that interest for computers to the process of learning a second language, students will feel motivated to learn it. In the reading Learning with Multimedia Tools the author mentions that "people learn better when they are involved in their learning" (p. 303), with that in mind, we can to encourage students to interact with programs to solve practices, listening activities, elaborate presentations and so on, for them to be 100% involved in the process. In my personal experience, I work in an institute with limited resources, so it is not that easy to incorporate technology into the class, however my students have a CD-ROM with grammar and listening practices so they can work on that to review topics or as homework. In my future classes I would like to inlcude movies for them to discuss and relate to the studied topics in order to have a better understanding of them. We, as teachers, have to come with ideas to shape CALL to our student's needs, and motivate them to expand what they learned into real life (the importance of computers in jobs, for example) so they can feel that what they are studying will really mean something for them.
The lady of this video considers the empowerment of students as one of the most important benefits of CALL in the educational process. It is true that students need to be comfortable around technology in order to have better job opportunities, but I see that this kind of empowerment is only practical for this specific life area. For me, as a teacher, the most important benefit of the use of CALL in the classroom is the benefit of “collaboration” (Theory of Research: Interaction via Computers, p.23) It “promotes collaborative learning and community building…networked students can collaborate to discuss real-life topics…they help each other learn how to explain and defend their thoughts and ideas”. I think that if a student is able to communicate their own ideas and opinions by speaking a second language, the communication target is already reached, and for me that is one of the most relevant objectives in my lessons. I would like to use technology in a way that my students can communicate with other native speakers, creating a trustful environment in which they feel comfortable enough to share personal opinions and ideas, improving vocabulary and pronunciation at the same time.
In a world that is technologically evolving at a hasty pase it is important for us, as students (in this moment) and as future teachers to keep on with the rapid changes that ae going on. said that, it is paramount to use and insert the technology in our daily classes to enhance the students skills towards the new technologies. The use of CALL in the classroom although might be seen by many as a loss of time due to the usual hurry in which classes are given (in order to try to cover all the contents) is important to include processes as CALL because according to Bruce, Peyton and Baston (Theory of research:Interaction via Computers, page 20)"technology also creates new social and electronical spaces that support collaboration and social interaction. This interaction is only one of the many benefits CALL gives to our classes, and the use of technology will work as a bridge to connect with people from far away and carry this social/technological interactions. Once the students are trained in the use of this technologies, will find much easier to get adapted to new technologies thanks to the background that is already setin the classes. That background will also help the students when they apply to get a job because nowadays the standards say that professionals have to be skilled at handling new technologies.
In my opinion, to integrate CALL into the teaching-learning process not only helps us, to use an innovative tool during the class; but also, it helps the students to learn by their own experiences, since they are motivated to create projects and to incorporate their own points of view and creativity. This video fits with the idea of constructivism, term that is explained by Forcier in the reading: “Learning and instruction” arguing that, following this perspective, “The student becomes the producer rather than the consumer of information. The teacher becomes the guide and facilitator of learning rather than the director of instruction” (p.11). By encouraging our future students to create different projects, such as a social web page (in which they can directly interact with English native speakers, telling stories and sharing different personal experiences with them), the learning process will be more dynamic and interactive, in which the students become self-sufficient people, besides learning by the authentic assessment, which “… allows the students to not only understand information but also develop this understanding in real world skills”. (Forcier, p.17). This supports what the lady expresses in the video, pointing out that CALL exposes students to authentic language and authentic situations.
Nowadays, more people are interested in the several technological advances and their appliances that improve humans’ life style. Thus, technology is presented in most everyday activities. In the field of education, technology has been very constructive because it has allowed people interact among others and develop different strategies in order to contribute in the learning processes. Precisely, the Computer-Assisted Language Learning has introduced the benefits of technology to the ESL classroom to enhance students be more proactive, creative and communicative. In my opinion, CALL is more than a simple tool, it consists on sets of several gadgets, which used in a suitable way and linked to the teaching objectives, they can be very successful in the English language classroom. We, as teachers, need to make clear that CALL is not a teaching technique or a method; it is just a notion that permits us to use technology in order to enrich our students’ learning process. By means of CALL, students have access to a series of tasks that they can solve at their own pace and reviewing them when necessary, students can be more autonomous in his/her learning process, students are exposed to authentic language and real situations and CALL also empowers students. According to Egbert’s Introduction: Foundations for teaching and learning reading, this author states that “as technology access improves around the world, teachers owe it to their students to explore the tools and resources it provides” (p. 8), this implies the role the teachers need to adopt towards technology inside the English language classroom for increasing what has been taught to students. Finally, I would like to make use of CALL in almost all of my English classes, but I consider that it would be interested to apply it when studying new vocabulary; then students are asked to create situations where they make use of those words. Other example would be that students are asked to perform a talk giving their opinion about any relevant topic using a gadget, e.g. Voicethread.
By including CALL into future teachers’ syllabus, they will get the knowledge about handling with technology while, and for, teaching English. In this sense, professors must be aware about students’ needs and preferences. According to the “CALL and its Evaluation” reading, “foreign language teachers have a professional responsibility to seek out and select what they consider to be the best set of CALL learning materials for their students” (64). Therefore, a English teacher must be always updated in order to use and implement techniques that complement the traditional learning process, this by using electronic tools that make them class more attractive and interactive. Besides, the author of the video states that one benefit of using CALL is that materials can be customize, individualized and personalized according to students’ needs. However, this method may be a challenge for those professors who are not well prepared to utilize CALL in benefit of student learning process. Therefore, this is not just an individual compromise, if not that all public institutions should capacitate teachers to easily learn how to handle with this recently, but amazingly useful tool for their classroom planning. To conclude, most future teachers are directly involved with different technological facilities that could help them to improve the learning process; and this by implementing different, and alternatives, techniques that make their classes attractive, fun and didactic. I would personally use CALL material in order to provide a customize teaching for students; as well as a complementary support for those pupils that may need extra help to achieve the course objectives.
I think that technology is the strongest tool teachers have in the 21th century. However I have hardly ever been in contact with CALL tools before, during my learning process. The closest approach that I have had with CALL were classes were videos or audios were used to enhance the understanding of English language for some topics like literature. I have had contact with wikis and some software by my own with support from some teachers that really take technology seriously as a teaching tool, as addressed in video 2. Even with this little background on CALL tools as language student, I have been in contact with CALL tools as part of my teaching training. As a student those little experiences made me learn that technology really improves interest in the materials studied and in the learning process. Thus I have built an eager-to-try teacher profile. I feel prompted to use multimedia in my classes to go deeper into topics, software to practice English and games on the net to make classes a little more interactive. Videos 2 and 3 in this blog accentuate the positive aspects of incorporating CALL in classrooms and that is why I felt identify with them. It may be read in (Introduction: Foundations of teaching and learning, pag 5) as well that students get involved with authentic tasks by using CALL, also that they develop a sense of autonomy and, as the video says, some kind of empowerment when using technology. In (Learning and Instruction, pag 25) the reading emphasizes the multiple intelligences and learning styles, which is the key of CALL tools. The use of visual and audio material along with kinesthetic activities potentiates language learning in a way that could hardly be achieved by traditional teaching. CALL has a lot of advantages, and it continues to evolve and improve itself, and I think that it is teacher´s responsibility to evolve as well and update themselves in order to improve learning and student´s capacities.
One of the main concerns of teachers in general is the time they will spend on a lesson. The most important for them is to have enough time in order to cover the target contents contemplated in the MEP’s syllabus. But once that a teacher has the opportunity of knowing about CALL, the time is going to be just one more aspect and it won’t represent an obstacle for not using technology. It is very important for us, as teachers, to know how to manage our time as well as to know about the numerous benefits of CALL. If we know that CALL appeals to different learning styles and intelligences, that it can be personalized, that it develops learner’s autonomy and that it exposes students to authentic situations, we all would see how useful CALL is. As a student, I had the opportunity to work with “Virtual Mediation” which is a program that enhances communicative skills. What we had to was to comment on different topics seen weekly as well as to add comments based on Oral Presentations. Although in this moment I am not really into technology, I’d like to implement that kind of tools because the students can practice their writing and communicative skills as well as to interact with other partners by providing answers regarding a specific topic. This is exactly what Forcier means when he mentions in his chapter Learning with Word Processor Tools that: “Collaborative writing, however, is a technique that allows more than one student to engage in a writing activity together” (page 228).
ReplyDeleteUndoubtedly, the use of technological sources facilitates our life and at the same times the teaching process in the ESL classroom. In the light of the implementation of CALL it is easy to see that the teacher role has a very important aspect because he/she is the guide in this process. Nonetheless, the teacher is the person who has to keep the time control during this process. According to my own experience it is possible to have the relationship between time and the activities that as teacher we decide to use in our classroom. In other words, as teachers we have the possible to decide what kind of activities we want to use in order to provide to our students the skills that they need during the acquisition of their second language.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I would like to use the CALL in my future classes and one example on how I will use this tool is with a game about the topic that I will teach; for example, Healthy Food. So I will make the game with some hyperlinks that will contribute with the motivation for my students. Additionally, this game will contribute with less frustration in my students because they will have an individual game based on the students’ needs.
Therefore, I agree with Gookin who argued in his chapter Creating a Web Page “ … prove to the reader that the document is alive by animating the text. Nothing gets a Web- page- reading person into a cheery mood like blinking, flashing or sparkling text”(p. 342). In the same way, the YouTube video provide us an important aspect that belongs to the same idea of Gookin because they mention that as teachers we need to offer to our students an authentic language learning through different tools that we can use. Finally, in the wonderful campus of teaching we are responsible of use different activities that empower our students and in that way provided them the skills that they will use in their future.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCALL is a great tool to catch student's attention and motivation. They feel confrotable working with computers, and want to learn more about them with time. If we can relate that interest for computers to the process of learning a second language, students will feel motivated to learn it. In the reading Learning with Multimedia Tools the author mentions that "people learn better when they are involved in their learning" (p. 303), with that in mind, we can to encourage students to interact with programs to solve practices, listening activities, elaborate presentations and so on, for them to be 100% involved in the process.
ReplyDeleteIn my personal experience, I work in an institute with limited resources, so it is not that easy to incorporate technology into the class, however my students have a CD-ROM with grammar and listening practices so they can work on that to review topics or as homework. In my future classes I would like to inlcude movies for them to discuss and relate to the studied topics in order to have a better understanding of them. We, as teachers, have to come with ideas to shape CALL to our student's needs, and motivate them to expand what they learned into real life (the importance of computers in jobs, for example) so they can feel that what they are studying will really mean something for them.
The lady of this video considers the empowerment of students as one of the most important benefits of CALL in the educational process. It is true that students need to be comfortable around technology in order to have better job opportunities, but I see that this kind of empowerment is only practical for this specific life area. For me, as a teacher, the most important benefit of the use of CALL in the classroom is the benefit of “collaboration” (Theory of Research: Interaction via Computers, p.23) It “promotes collaborative learning and community building…networked students can collaborate to discuss real-life topics…they help each other learn how to explain and defend their thoughts and ideas”. I think that if a student is able to communicate their own ideas and opinions by speaking a second language, the communication target is already reached, and for me that is one of the most relevant objectives in my lessons. I would like to use technology in a way that my students can communicate with other native speakers, creating a trustful environment in which they feel comfortable enough to share personal opinions and ideas, improving vocabulary and pronunciation at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn a world that is technologically evolving at a hasty pase it is important for us, as students (in this moment) and as future teachers to keep on with the rapid changes that ae going on. said that, it is paramount to use and insert the technology in our daily classes to enhance the students skills towards the new technologies. The use of CALL in the classroom although might be seen by many as a loss of time due to the usual hurry in which classes are given (in order to try to cover all the contents) is important to include processes as CALL because according to Bruce, Peyton and Baston (Theory of research:Interaction via Computers, page 20)"technology also creates new social and electronical spaces that support collaboration and social interaction. This interaction is only one of the many benefits CALL gives to our classes, and the use of technology will work as a bridge to connect with people from far away and carry this social/technological interactions. Once the students are trained in the use of this technologies, will find much easier to get adapted to new technologies thanks to the background that is already setin the classes. That background will also help the students when they apply to get a job because nowadays the standards say that professionals have to be skilled at handling new technologies.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, to integrate CALL into the teaching-learning process not only helps us, to use an innovative tool during the class; but also, it helps the students to learn by their own experiences, since they are motivated to create projects and to incorporate their own points of view and creativity. This video fits with the idea of constructivism, term that is explained by Forcier in the reading: “Learning and instruction” arguing that, following this perspective, “The student becomes the producer rather than the consumer of information. The teacher becomes the guide and facilitator of learning rather than the director of instruction” (p.11). By encouraging our future students to create different projects, such as a social web page (in which they can directly interact with English native speakers, telling stories and sharing different personal experiences with them), the learning process will be more dynamic and interactive, in which the students become self-sufficient people, besides learning by the authentic assessment, which “… allows the students to not only understand information but also develop this understanding in real world skills”. (Forcier, p.17). This supports what the lady expresses in the video, pointing out that CALL exposes students to authentic language and authentic situations.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, more people are interested in the several technological advances and their appliances that improve humans’ life style. Thus, technology is presented in most everyday activities. In the field of education, technology has been very constructive because it has allowed people interact among others and develop different strategies in order to contribute in the learning processes. Precisely, the Computer-Assisted Language Learning has introduced the benefits of technology to the ESL classroom to enhance students be more proactive, creative and communicative. In my opinion, CALL is more than a simple tool, it consists on sets of several gadgets, which used in a suitable way and linked to the teaching objectives, they can be very successful in the English language classroom. We, as teachers, need to make clear that CALL is not a teaching technique or a method; it is just a notion that permits us to use technology in order to enrich our students’ learning process. By means of CALL, students have access to a series of tasks that they can solve at their own pace and reviewing them when necessary, students can be more autonomous in his/her learning process, students are exposed to authentic language and real situations and CALL also empowers students. According to Egbert’s Introduction: Foundations for teaching and learning reading, this author states that “as technology access improves around the world, teachers owe it to their students to explore the tools and resources it provides” (p. 8), this implies the role the teachers need to adopt towards technology inside the English language classroom for increasing what has been taught to students.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I would like to make use of CALL in almost all of my English classes, but I consider that it would be interested to apply it when studying new vocabulary; then students are asked to create situations where they make use of those words. Other example would be that students are asked to perform a talk giving their opinion about any relevant topic using a gadget, e.g. Voicethread.
By including CALL into future teachers’ syllabus, they will get the knowledge about handling with technology while, and for, teaching English. In this sense, professors must be aware about students’ needs and preferences. According to the “CALL and its Evaluation” reading, “foreign language teachers have a professional responsibility to seek out and select what they consider to be the best set of CALL learning materials for their students” (64). Therefore, a English teacher must be always updated in order to use and implement techniques that complement the traditional learning process, this by using electronic tools that make them class more attractive and interactive.
ReplyDeleteBesides, the author of the video states that one benefit of using CALL is that materials can be customize, individualized and personalized according to students’ needs. However, this method may be a challenge for those professors who are not well prepared to utilize CALL in benefit of student learning process.
Therefore, this is not just an individual compromise, if not that all public institutions should capacitate teachers to easily learn how to handle with this recently, but amazingly useful tool for their classroom planning.
To conclude, most future teachers are directly involved with different technological facilities that could help them to improve the learning process; and this by implementing different, and alternatives, techniques that make their classes attractive, fun and didactic. I would personally use CALL material in order to provide a customize teaching for students; as well as a complementary support for those pupils that may need extra help to achieve the course objectives.
I think that technology is the strongest tool teachers have in the 21th century. However I have hardly ever been in contact with CALL tools before, during my learning process. The closest approach that I have had with CALL were classes were videos or audios were used to enhance the understanding of English language for some topics like literature. I have had contact with wikis and some software by my own with support from some teachers that really take technology seriously as a teaching tool, as addressed in video 2. Even with this little background on CALL tools as language student, I have been in contact with CALL tools as part of my teaching training. As a student those little experiences made me learn that technology really improves interest in the materials studied and in the learning process. Thus I have built an eager-to-try teacher profile. I feel prompted to use multimedia in my classes to go deeper into topics, software to practice English and games on the net to make classes a little more interactive. Videos 2 and 3 in this blog accentuate the positive aspects of incorporating CALL in classrooms and that is why I felt identify with them. It may be read in (Introduction: Foundations of teaching and learning, pag 5) as well that students get involved with authentic tasks by using CALL, also that they develop a sense of autonomy and, as the video says, some kind of empowerment when using technology. In (Learning and Instruction, pag 25) the reading emphasizes the multiple intelligences and learning styles, which is the key of CALL tools. The use of visual and audio material along with kinesthetic activities potentiates language learning in a way that could hardly be achieved by traditional teaching. CALL has a lot of advantages, and it continues to evolve and improve itself, and I think that it is teacher´s responsibility to evolve as well and update themselves in order to improve learning and student´s capacities.
ReplyDelete