Authenicity in CALL

Current and potential students – authentic tasks.  I have always liked using authentic tasks with my students.  Things they use everyday such as smartphones lend themselves to language learning tasks such as reading a map and directions (which also happens to be a test question for the adult education programs that use the CASAS test).  My students would use google maps on the computer or smart phone to find places they go nearby, then write the directions down in English, last they would share their directions with the class.  The others in class would listen to the directions following along with their fingers on the map to finally come to the place the student was talking about.  Maps were something they all used outside of class.  I have also done units on nutrition where they learn how to read nutrition labels, ingredients lists and to understand to spot misleading food packaging such as "Lemon flavored". 

How did I define authenticity?  I defined authenticity as lessons and tasks that has the learner engaged in real life activities which they can identify with and use outside of the classroom. 

Did the reading change my perspective?  While it didn’t really change my perspective it gave me more to think about when designing lessons or tasks and how to get feedback from students to make sure I am tweaking the lessons to meet their needs.  Having the short survey at the end of the activity is a great way to get that feedback so adjustments can be made to future lessons for that student. 

 

What is my working definition of authenticity in CALL context -  I would keep my current definition but add that "the authenticity of a lesson is held in the perspective of the student".  They are the ones who will determine if the lesson is authentic or not. We might feel that it is but unless it connects to the student then it wasn't authentic.  

Response to MALL

I agree with the author that short lessons that can picked up and do when they have a few minutes is the best way to reach students who use mobile devices for learning.  The key is how to make that school to home connection where the students find what they are learning is a benefit to both. 

They talk about a pull type of smartphone feature that would couple the GPS feature of the phone with an app that would pop up vocabulary or information related to the location of the user.  I have an app that kind of does that now called Foursquare.  Wherever I go it pops up information that users have added about the places I am near.  So for example, today I was at Costco so Foursquare located me and up popped a recommendation about the great deal they have on DirecTV over Time Warner Cable.  That wasn't of interest to me because I already have DirecTV but there are other user uploaded comments that might be of interest if I would click on the app and open it up.  We are always talking about finding real life, authentic language learning opportunities and Foursquare is definitely one of them.  I love my smartphone but sometimes the push features of my apps drive me crazy.  The amount of notifications I get are sometimes bothersome.  I would worry that sometimes they would ignore the push features if they happened too much. 

The author talks about QR codes and while for a time I thought they were really going to take off I haven't really found them very popular.  I don't see them around much or maybe I don't pay attention to them because I don't use them. 

I can see MALL as a benefit for teachers and students but only if all the students have the ability to participate.  If not, then I would see it as something extra that students could do to improve their language skills. 

Web 2.0 and YouTube

When I read the web 2.0 article I was grateful to see the authors explain the fact that a podcast is just a audio file and that its use is what makes it a "new technology".  My students often think they have the newest or hottest trend but really they are taking an old idea and putting a new twist on it.  People had been taking pictures of their food long before Instagram came out.  :) 

These new technologies are very easy and intuitive to use which readily lends themselves to language learners.  They can make videos, record themselves on their cell phones and then put it together for a finished product.  I have often encouraged my students to use their audio recorders on their cells so that they can hear themselves talk.  They can reflect on their recordings and make adjustments if needed.  They can also share these recordings with the other students. The possibilities are endless if you have the time. 

In the YouTube article the author says
"What do the digital natives want? Much of what they want educationally relates to their growing interest in and use of Web-based technologies. Prensky (2001) presents the following list of digital natives’ wants for education:
1. To receive information at twitch speed
2. To be able to multi-task
3. To have hands-on activities
4. To have graphics before text
5. To have random access to information
6. To be networked socially
7. To play games rather than do serious work
8. To have frequent rewards

The problem with meeting these educational needs is the disconnect between what the digital natives want and what many teachers are able to provide."  While I agree that is what digital natives want this doesn't really prepare them for the adult working world.  While we might get some of this in short doses the majority of our working lives are not hands on, game like, socially networked projects full of graphics with frequent rewards.  We are moving away from having self control and being able to handle delayed gratification.  Our student's stamina for sticking with a project, task or even a long test question is slowly being eroded away with the ideas that they have to have it in a bullet point, picture or make it obvious to the reader who just skims the information.  It is not preparing them for the word we live in.   

Website review

Well, I thought this was due Friday and with our moving to a new house I didn't have a chance to look at the assinment until now.  I know we didn't have to use the form format but I felt it was nicely set up so I chose to use it.  Well, anyway....here it is. 

 I chose to do the website review on usalearns.org.  This is a website sponsored by the federal government to help non native English speakers learn the language.  Its main purpose is to assist English language learners read, speak, listen and build vocabulary.
 
The website is interactive and self-paced.  The user choses which activities to do within the lesson.  Once all the activities are successfully completed they can go on to the next lesson.  There are lessons for beginners, intermediate and more advanced learners.  There are 20 units within the beginner’s lesson and each unit holds 20-30 mini lessons to complete.  It is quite comprehensive and there are no external documents within this website.

 For self motivated learners it meets the daily needs of the students in a multifaceted way, targeting spelling, vocabulary, pronunciation, reading, etc.  It gives the student various ways of meeting their goal of learning English with real life scenarios. Real life application is what most students seek out when they want to learn a new language.  They want to learn things that are going to be helpful in their daily lives.  This website meets that need. 

 This website gives ELL’s the practical use of English rather than academic.  Topics such as family, money, school, medical, food give the students language skills they can use immediately

 There is a practice portion to each lesson with feedback given in the form of a % success rate.  It will also tell the students if they have completed the lesson or unit as a glance.  It does this by partially or fully coloring in a box next to the objective.  After all the lessons are complete then there is an assessment that can be taken.  It too is given a % success rate.  As the student goes along, whether in lessons or assessment, the correct answer is given if the student misses it.  This immediate feedback is beneficial to the students.  

I think it is very easy to use and is intuitive.  The students should be able to navigate the site with little complication.  The layout is uncluttered and the website is nicely laid out.  I think the site meets the needs of ELL’s.  It is easy to use and the directions are simple.  The use of pictures to help connect the written to the visual is a nice touch.  However, it would be nice to incorporate video into the lessons.  There are audio clips but video could have a great impact on the students.

Software/Website Title: WWW.usalearns.org

 

Website URL: http://www.usalearns.org/index/welcome.cfm?CFID=18632521&CFTOKEN=57025197&jsessionid=3c30f5c9f7e41e3f91e0837806e2f694d255

 Grade/Age Level: high school through adult but could be used for younger children.  It features adults scenarios so children may not be as engaged because of it.

 

 

 

Hubbard and Levy

When I first read through the Hubbard article the first section to give me pause was when he discussed the dominance of vocabulary instruction in CALL.  He states that it wasn't so much state of the art teaching but instead that programmers found it easy to put them in computer programs.  Here I was thinking that there was some kind of educational pedagogy behind what was included in language learning computer programs just to find out that some of it was added for face value with little thought to best learning practices.  He does give credence to the fact that knowing vocabulary is inherently beneficial though.  Levy puts more emphasis on vocabulary, noting the sheer size of the task of understanding vocabulary.  I have always encouraged expanding vocabulary but in incremental steps.  There is no need to know all the words if you struggle putting a single sentence together. 

During my last teaching job I became familiar with Rosetta Stone.  My students used it for the first hour of class.  While there were many good things about Rosetta Stone there were some frustrating aspects as well.  My students really liked the self paced aspect and the ability to go back and do a lesson again.  They liked the different aspects of the learning process (speaking, listening, writing and reading).  Many of them were really good at one or two of those but were deficient at the others.  It gave them a chance to work on the things they felt they needed.  Some of the down sides were that many times the student would speak words of phrases and the software would not accept it as correct.  I would be there listening and found what they said was acceptable and understandable but the program would not pass them.  Other times the passed lessons would not save so the students would have to do them again.  That was really frustrating for them.  Even so they liked using the computers and Rosetta Stone.  It was a change of pace for them and gave them a chance to feel success learning a new language.