TEACHING EXPERIENCE USING TECHNOLOGY

This is not the first chance for me to demonstrate teaching using technology, but this is the first time to combine language learning and game of technology. The program that my team use for teaching is Bubble game. It helps the students to actively participate in language learning because they can give response to the material I give. This is, of course, one of the effort to promote student centered in teaching and learning process.

The game is actually a free software from the internet. We just need to download it freely and play the game with offline mode. There are many kinds of game but we prefer to use game containing grammatical competence in a language. What the students should do is just crossing the bubbles containing words based on grammatical structure. There are thirty three steps of game. It begins form the simplest one to the most sophisticated structure of sentence. For example step one asks the students to choose the right construction of sentence based on subject predicate-object. The next step would be about the arrangement of sentence containing subject-to be and complement. Time limit of each section is provided to challenge the capability of students in arranging the sentences. 

http://www.best1000games.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/lang3.png

To make sure the students can play game well, the teachers should firstly train the students about some basic grammatical structure in English. It happens because the game for educative purpose should reflect the process of education. First, the teachers should build the knowledge of students through example or modeling. After that, the teacher can lead their students to play. The assessment can happen in the process of playing game or in the end of game. If the teachers want to present a game to the students, they need to consider what the learning objectives will be achieved. The difficulty of game should also be considered. Playing game will lead the students to learn materials and assess their own learning by themselves. 

CALL (COMPUTER ASSISSTED LANGUAGE LEARNING)

Language learning and acquisition are developing time by time. Their existence have got some attention from another field of study. One of the serious attention come from technology field (Computer). CALL or Computer Assisted Language Learning is the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning (Levy 1997 :1).

Brief History of CALL

The first attempt to use CALL happened in 1960s. After about ten years, CALL is used for the importance of University. 

Variety of Activities of CALL

Like real education in the class, there are some types of activity:

· Multiple-choice and true false quizzes

· Gap-filling exercise/cloze

· Matching

· Re-ordering/sequencing

· Games

· Simulations

· Concordancing

· Web quests/searching

· Web publishing

· Online communication 

Multimedia CALL

The earliest form of Multimedia CALL was realized through combining a personal computer and a 12-inch videodisc player, which made it possible to combine sound, photographic-quality still images and video recordings in imaginative presentations. The next developed product of multimedia CALL is  interactive videodisc for language learners. In 1980s, the developer has adapted interactive videodisc into multimedia personal computer. Another program is Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) software to diagnose learner’s errors. 

Types of CALL Programs

There are four kinds of programs that have been developed till now:

· CALL-specific software : this application is designed to develop and facilitate language learning for example CD-ROM and web-based interactive language learning.

· Generic software : this application is designed for general purposes for example word-processors (Word), presentation software (Power Point), and spreadsheet (Excel).

· Web-based learning programs : online dictionaries, online encyclopedias, online concordancers, news-magazine sites, e-texts, web-quests, web-publishing, blog, wiki, etc.

· Computer-mediated communication (CMC) programs: synchronous-online chat, asynchronous-email, discussion forum, and message board.

The phases of CALL

There are three different phases in the development of CALL:

· Behaviourist CALL. This program uses computers as a tutor, presenting drills and non-jugdemental feedback.

· Communicative CALL. It focuses more on using forms rather than on the forms of themselves.

· Integrative CALL. It is based on multimedia computers and the internet.

Particular form of CALL (Speech Technology)

If we want to understand the speech, we should have linguistic competence such as phonology, lexical, semantic, grammatical, and pragmatic conventions that constitute a language. Complex cognitive processes account for the human ability to associate acoustic signals with meanings and intentions. For a computer, on the other hand, speech is essentially a series of digital values. However, despite these differences, the core problem of speech recognition is the same for both humans and machines: namely, of finding the best match between a given speech sound and its corresponding word string. Automatic speech recognition technology attempts to simulate and optimize this process computationally.

The use of Computers in the classroom

1) Teaching with one computer in the class

                - delivery of content (PowerPoint, word-processor, Webpages, etc.)

                - classroom activities/discussions mediated by the computer

                - Interactive whiteboard 

2) Teaching in the computer network room (network-based language teaching)

                - task-based group work /activities

                - computer-mediated communication (CMC): asynchronous/synchronous

                - tandem learning

3) Self-access learning (independent learning)

                - drills and exercises

                - word processing

                - resource searching

4) Distance learning (i.e. individual learners working by themselves, at a place and time of their choice and, to some extent, at a pace and in an order also chosen by themselves.) 

                - delivering online course content

                - CMC activities: email, discussion forum, chat rooms

                - tandem learning

                - community building

Principles of Using and Designing CALL Programs in Language Learning and Teaching    

        - student/learner-centeredness (to promote learner autonomy)

        - meaningful purpose

        - comprehensive input

        - sufficient level of stimulation (cognitively and affectively)

        - multiple modalities (to support various learning styles and strategies)

        - high level of interaction (human-machine and human-human)

References:

http://www2.nkfust.edu.tw/~emchen/CALL/unit1.htm

http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/CALL.html

http://www.stanford.edu/~efs/callcc/callcc-intro.pdf  

http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm 

http://interspeech2012.org/CALLS.html 

https://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/61 

http://llt.msu.edu/vol2num1/article3/ 

http://www.rong-chang.com/call.htm,

Teaching English with Computers and Mobile Devices

The existence of computer cannot be separated from the process of teaching and learning. Even there is no particular regulation managing the use of computer in language learning, many teachers believe that the computer can help them to provide convenient and effective learning for their students. There are some consideration that teachers should consider before using computer in the class:

1.      Make sure the teacher has a back-up planning to anticipate the web cannot be opened or because of offline condition.

2.      Be ready that everything in the beginning will take longer than usual.

3.     The teacher does needs to inform the pupils that the use of computer is only for learning not for other purpose such as gaming.

4.      At the beginning, the teacher needs to monitor the students’ work.

5.      Make sure that the teacher takes into account the student who dislike the computer.

6.      Always try to lead the students to finish their tasks early.

7.      Make sure there is no student can take advantage from situation using computer for example cheating.

8.      If there is a contribution of the student to support learning process, appreciate their effort and make sure that the teacher still teaches based on the purpose of teaching (objective)

9.      Make a group of online community to share the useful links on the internet.

When technology supports the process of learning happening inside of the classroom, another movement in MENA (Middle East and North Africa) maximize the use of technology to support youngsters in that area. The increase of young unemployment in Egypt should be handled as soon as possible. British Council conducts a symposium that focuses on encouraging young people to utilize their mobile service so they can enhance their personalities and employment opportunities by improving English language skills.

The number of mobile service users in Egypt is increasing. Most of the users are young people. This chance is used by the British Council to develop a pilot SMS English campaign with Vodafone so there will be more job opportunities in Egypt. After 10 days, the number of young job seekers is increasing. The next product of the British Council is LearnEnglish Mobile. This suite has particular features such as game, audio materials and learning tools. These application focus on short, engaging and interactive content for mobile phones.

After seeing how movement of people in utilizing technology, the next point will focus on how the teacher sees the social review of using technology in language learning. The main target of teaching language to all kinds of age and proficiency that they are digital natives. Here the main edtech to be crossed then:

1.      Teachers’ efforts to get to know the dynamics of using handled devices in EFL environment as a tool to enhance the teaching and learning experience.

2.      Picking and choosing from a variety of trustworthy apps available for the different purposes of an EFL class.

3.      Shifting from refraining to negotiating the use of the students’ handled devices as a tool for their learning in the classroom.

4.      Seeing the mobile device as a possible ally for out of classroom study routine.

5.      Finding out how to use apps to enhance the accessibility of content for impaired students

6.      Considering students’ feedback on your app suggestions so that you can stick to what really works.

Many researches have been conducted to know whether the computer is useful for education or not. It is time to find out how the expert views the position of computer in education. The computers can be:

1.      Tutors. They can individualize instruction, provide learning material at a controlled pace, and record student progress.

2.      Tools. They aid in reading, allow students to produce and format texts easily, facilitate revision of texts, and check for spelling errors. They store in a compact and easily accessible form all sorts of information that learners need, from style sheets to encyclopedic data.

3.      Ways to explore language. They make regularities, the beauties, and the difficulties of language something that students can examine and interact with in new ways.

4.      Media. They make possible new modes of communication and “hypertexts”, or “hypermedia”, which allow the intermixing of tables, charts, graphs, pictures, sounds, video, and text.

5.      Environments for communication. They are a new social realm that permits new forms of meaningful communication and reconfigures the relationships among students and teachers.

  

References:
https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/17869/ctrstreadtechrepv01990i00522_opt.pdf?sequence=1
http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/teach.htm, http://ictenglish.com/?page_id=38, http://tesl-ej.org/ej12/r5.html
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/raquel-gonzaga/mobile-devices-byod-possibilities
http://www.britishcouncil.org/organisation/press/learning-teaching-english-mobile
http://stu.westga.edu/~bthibau1/MEDT%208484-%20Baylen/final%20report/13.pdf
http://www.wise-qatar.org/content/how-can-mobile-devices-enhance-learning-classrooms
http://catlintucker.com/2014/01/5-tips-for-managing-mobile-devices-in-the-classroom/

M-Learning to Support English Language Learning

Mobile facilities exist to limit some difficulties in language learning. Students need to get real example of native’s conversation. They also need to save all of their files without using a big bag. They have to be ready with all kinds of materials in hand. These complex tasks can easily be handled by the help of mobile learning. They are easy and come in hand.

Here are some examples of mobile learning in language learning:

Laptops

This portable computer is made to help the users to do linguistic activities such as recording, typing documents, etc. It also provides with large capacity of hard disc to save many kinds of application (software) and data. Laptops usually consist of two main parts. They are keyboard and screen.

www.ilmubaru1.blogspot.com

Tablets

This tool is the form of slim laptop. Tablet has many varieties in term of thickness and breadth. They use touch screen for being operated. Users can also use optical keyboard if they don’t want to use touch screen. Many kinds of application are available. For example electronic dictionary, voice recorder even pdf files.

www.bgr.com

IPods

Another form of mobile devices is the IPod which was produced by Apple Company. It is a portable media player of digital audio files or MP3s that enables users to listen to them with high quality sound. The new version of IPods does not only provide audio. Students can download language learning easily and share texts and images or audio/video files with their peers and teachers.

www.9to5mac.com

Podcast

Podcasting is also classified as a variety of M-learning. The term podcast is formed through the combination of IPod (portable digital audio player). Podcasting is a form of M-learning in which a device a device is used to listen to or watch an audio or video broadcast. Broadcasts are published on the Internet and automatically download on to a desktop and laptop computer. It is already widely utilized in language learning, especially for offering authentic and the act of recording it.

www.virulentwordofmouse.wordpress.com

Cell phones

Short Message Service (SMS), voice-messaging, cameras, video recording and even Internet access for cell phone users are practical for language learning. These features allow language teachers to offer access to authentic content, communicative language practice, as well as completion of tasks to the students.

techwizardz.blogspot.com

PDAs

Personal Digital assistants are pocket-sized computers that are expandable with some hardware components like keyboards and wireless networks and can be equipped such as word processors, flash-cards, databases, and bilingual dictionaries. One of the primary roles of PDAs has been as a translator in language-learning classroom. Other than that, software programs such as ‘MobilLearn’ have managed to convert PDAs into ‘talking phrasebooks’.

en.wikipedia.org

Reference : Journal of Education and Practice, ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) Vol 3, No 7, 2012

PhotoPeach

Children are very interested in pictures. They enjoy reading a book which is full of pictures. They watch video to get information about something. Series of pictures will lead them to make an idea about something. This characteristic can be managed by the teacher to attract the students’ motivation to learn language through pictures.

In this modern era, series of pictures is easily created through internet or without connection to internet. One of the most interesting product in technology that support this opportunity is PhotoPeach. PhotoPeach is a Web-based slide show builder. The service directs you to upload your photos, either from your computer or an online service. 

To enjoy this Application, you just need to follow these simple instructions:
      

Sign Up for Free in Photopeach.com

   Fill the detail of identities 

You may create the slide show based on photos that you have

Upload the photos one by one

 You can give the title, description to each slide, and music.

Enjoy the result of your creation directly.

Sources :
http://photopeach.com
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2021311/review-photopeach-makes-online-slideshows-a-breeze-for-picasa-users.html