Podcasting for language learning

The video Podcasting in Plain English mentioned that anyone can do podcating, subscribe other's podcast and download it onto a computer or portable devices. Students could listen to the podcast to learn a language when they are walking, waiting, eating or doing other things as many times as they want. There are so many educational podcasts in all kinds of websites. But personally I prefer iTunes. Nowadays Apple's products are so popular that many have downloaded iTunes. You can search for podcasts and probably you will find your desire ones.

 

I found lots of great episodes on iTunes. I listened to one called "ESL-Gerunds as Subjects" The learning objectives for advanced students, according to Maryland Content Standards for Adult ESL/ESOL, would be able to write a detailed paragraph with topic sentence, and know how to use gerunds. The episode is short and sweet. It gives some examples of writing topic sentences with gerunds as the subject. It explains clearly what gerund is and how to use it in a sentence. It also claims that there are other ways to express the same meaning, but using the simple form of the verb should be avoided. I could use the examples in the video to teach how to write a topic sentence. A topic sentence should be not too broad or too specific. And then I would let students to brainstorm some evidence to support the topic sentence. Besides of using a gerund as the subject, I would also teach using a gerund as the complement, or the object of a sentence. I would ask the students to use gerunds to write about their hobbies.

The flipped classroom

What is flipped classroom? Generally speaking, it has three parts: students watch instructional videos at home, teacher scaffolds students' homework in class, teacher gives feedback and assessment after class. The videos should truely provide the comprehensible input for the students to help them finish the homework. Teacher need to control the time in class to make every minute valuable. In the flipped classroom, teacher does not need to explain everything to every student. Instead, the teacher provide help for individuals based on their own problems.

 

 

Why we want to flip the classroom? Some students may find it difficult to finish the homework by themselves. Although they feel like they understand what the teacher said, and took notes in class, homework can still be challenging. Group study is a way to change the scenario, but it also has many problems. For example, the advanced students may not want to waste their time to help others, or unwilling to help their competitors. The opinions from peers are likely to be wrong also. However, if the students discuss their homework in class, they will have chances to ask for help from the teacher directly. They do not have to write down their questions and struggle all night with their homework. Having a question and receive help right away will surely make them feel less frastrated.

 

According to Three Reasons to Flip Your Classroom, a flipped classroom can (1) increases comprehension of the material; (2) increases interaction with instructor and peers; and (3) increases critical thinking as a natural part of the learning process. The students can control their learning pace by pausing and repeating the videos. Therefore, they can understand the materials better. The teacher, although s/he does not truly teach the class, s/he still need to "lead the class from behind".

A serious game: The Migrant Trail

 

The Migrant Trail based on the background that every year the undocumented Mexicans steal into the U.S. In the game, you can play as a migrant or a patrol. You can see everyone has his/her own story and motivations. The game is telling us "Although the migrants have many reasons to do that, they should always respect the law".

I played every individual on both side. There are nine migrants and three patrols. As a migrant, I need to head north to the pickup before I run out of supplies and I must avoid getting caught by the patrols. The group will encounter many difficulties which are the real scenarios for the migrants. I only made it once among nine characters. The patrol side is much easier. All you need to do is follow the evidence the migrants left and you will catch them eventually.

Maryland Content Standards for Adult ESL/ESOL says that high intermediate ESL/ESOL learners will be able to read simple descriptions and narratives on authentic topics; follow specific written directions/instructions to perform an activity; identify fact and opinion in a text. Therefore, the learning objectives for high intermediate learners should be follow the instructions and understand the culture background.

 

There are lots of readings in the game. To be honest, if the students do not read the introductions and instructions, they are missing a valuable part of the game. The readings provide the basic information of the whole event. The students would know where is Mexico, Sonoran desert, and Arizona. What would the migrants do before they go into the desert? What is their motivations? The game provide adequate characters to let the player experience the migrants' feelings and the patrols' attitude. The player would feel the desperate of the migrants. When a group member twist his/her ankle or get sick on the way, s/he will be left behind. It is really hard to avoid the patrols in the game. Although a migrant once arrived at the pickup, it says the character now lives in fear that he could be deported at any time. I feel really sad about that. If the player do not pay attention at the readings, s/he would not have the strong feeling of the issue.

 

 

The teacher's job is to make sure the students have read the introductions carefully. For me, I will ask some questions to help they understand the readings better. For example, "What is the desert the migrants have to cross?" "How much the migrants have to pay for the party?" "How many found bodies or skeletons each year?" In addition, I will let them share their opinions of the game with their group members. Ask them "Do you agree with the Patrol C that the migrants should do it in a right way?" "What would you do if you tried VISA but failed? Would you risk your life in the desert?" By playing and discussing the game, students will have a better understanding of the issue.

 

 

Assessment: The assessment will be paper work. The teacher print out another migrant's file in the game that they did not read before, followed a few questions about the main idea and details in the reading. And then ask them to write a brief essay to argue with the migrant pretending they are a patroller.

A casual game: Sound Factory

In Sound Factory you play a role of a bored worker who wants to please his co-workers by making music from the old factory machinery. You need to unlock all the instruments in the limited time, in the meanwhile, you have to finish the work quota and turn off all the items when the boss is coming. I played the little game over ten times but stuck by the level three since it has a bug. My co-worker's satisfaction degree just stopped after the boss came and gone. I could not unlock items if they were not happy. Anyway, students would love to get involved in the game since creating music is really interesting, especially when they can keep unlocking amazing instruments. No matter you are an adult or a child, you will have much fun.

In the game, the player need to understand the instructions to pass the level. When the boss is coming, the player need to stop all the instruments quickly. If failed, the player also need to read the instruction to find out which part was not completed so that he/she could play better in the second try. Every instrument has a name, such as "Radio", "Whistle", Xylophone", etc. The students are expected to remember all the names of the instruments. According to Maryland Content Standards for Adult ESL/ESOL(p.11), the reading indicators of low intermediate ESL/ESOL learners can be: apply simple context clues to determine the meaning of new words; comprehend simple and compound sentences in authentic materials; identify main idea, chronological order, and simple transitions in texts on familiar subjects. The grammar indicators include future tense, present perfect tense, adverbs, conjunctions and so on. Therefore, I think Sound Factory is suitable for the low intermediate level or above.

The teacher could teach the words in the game. For the game itself, it is simple enough. Students should not have any problems to pass the levels. However, for the low intermediate learners, they might have questions about the names of the instruments. I will teach the prefixes, suffixes and the roots when teaching words. For example, the root "xylo" of "xylophone" means "wood"; and "phone" can indicate musical instruments. The students can remember the word easily once they understand the root. Then I will provide some words with the same root, such as "saxophone", and introduce a new instrument "water phone". Also, I will use the images from the game to teach vocabulary since students are familiar with them in the game.

Although I believe the walkthrough is not crucial for the game, I would give some tips to help the students. One tip is that you can click on the instrument's icon at the bottom to toggle them on and off immediately.

To assess whether the learning objectives had been met, I will give the students orders to see if they are able to response correctly. For instance, the students need to compose the xylophone when I say "xylophone"; when I say "stop the tea cup" they need to do the same thing. When the students are familiar with the vocabulary, I will show them the images of the instruments and ask them to say the words. In addition, the students can practice the simple past tense by telling what he/she did in the game. They may say "I composed the mouse choir, and then I turned on the radio..." For the higher level, the students may use some conjunctions to make it more clearer. The open-ended exercise will ensure every student has something to say.

Gamification in language learning

Gamification, as I see it, is using games to let users get involved and make progress when they focus on the activities. There are several features of game that can be used for other fields according to Tom Chatfield, such as measuring progress, rewards for effort, clear feedback, etc. Some elements were also mentioned in A Comparison of Computer Game and Language-Learning Task Design Using Flow Theory. The author believes the key points for a sucessful game/task should be (1)goals, (2) feedback, and (3) a skill/difficulty balance. Educators can use such features to motivate students to overcome challenges.

Gamification seems dominant in early childhood education. For the young kids, they cannot focus on the study for a long time. Therefore, playing games is the best way to teach kids. One common way to review words is to ramdomly point the word and the students say it out loud. I think one of the game's feature, the element of uncertainty, is the factor that interest the kids. In addition, many teachers love to sent out stickers to praise the kids. In the end of the semester, they children will get little presents according to the number of the stickers. It is the "reward" and "feedback" in the gamification. So I think gamification is not just playing games, but use the game's feature to teach.

Some think that playing commercial games is wasting time. However, Julie M. Syke argues that both educational and commercial games as potentially useful for language teaching and learning. Only, teachers need to aware that if the game can corresponde to the desired learning outcome. The games in the classroom should not be designed for purely entertainment purpose. In the article 7 Things You Should Know About Games and Learning, it says that nowadays games and game mechanics are increasingly being employed at colleges and universities. Teachers need to learn gamification and apply it in the classroom.

ePals

 

ePals is a community connects students and teachers all over the world for interactive projects. It develops the Peer-Assisted Learning Theory. Students would feel more comfortable to communicate with peers instead of teachers. Students from different countries can help each other in language learning, culture understanding and many other projects by sending emails. It is also a great opportunity to make friends. There are many wonderful projects in ePals, I would like to introduce three educational projects:

Who Are We? A McGraw-Hill World Languages Project
This project is designed for native speakers of English who are learning Spanish, and native-Spanish speakers who are learning English. Only classes that meet this description will be accepted! Classes will be paired together for project collaboration so that students have the opportunity to practice the target language with native speakers.

 The Way We Are--A National Geographic Project
In this introductory project, students will engage in a collaborative learning experience. Through email exchanges, students will build friendships and learn about the daily lives and characteristics of the local environment of students who live in another region of the world.

Let's Paint the Globe Green!
This project aims at connecting the eco-clubs of various schools and providing them with a platform where they can share their green practices in their cultural and environmental surroundings. It will not only help develop friendships across the globe, provide an understanding of various cultures, but also give them a global understanding of the Go Green concept.

Apart from the projects, I found that the in2Books program very useful. The program has students from around the world talking about their books and authors, posting their comments, writings, and reviews. However, the in2Books program is only available for schools in the U.S. If I have a chance to teach in the U.S. I will encourage my students to join the program. Students would develop deeper comprehension and thoughtful writing in the program.

 

 

Classroom 2.0

The networking website I chose is classroom2.0.

I think it is a great tool for new teachers like me.

I did not find the forum section helpful. Most of them were not very active. Most of them are from last year or even older.

However, I do think the member section is helpful. I can easily get access to other teachers' blog and learn from their skills and experiences. There are blogs and videos for you to chose. I think it is a very good platform for us to get to know other teachers who are more experienced. Seeing what they have been doing in their classrooms can inspire us or give us tips on similar situations.

http://www.classroom20.com/

A Learner is like a spider

After reading the Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age and watching the video "the network is the learning", the first thing that can be compared to a learner popped in my head was a spider.

As mentioned in Siemen's video, the network is the learning. In that sense, learners are like spiders working on their webs that connects to others and other sources. Learning is no longer an isolated activity thanks to the technologies we developed. Learning is continuous and associated with many other aspects. Nowadays, learners are facing the challenge of getting the ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts.


Siemens G. claims that Personal knowledge is comprised of a network, which feeds into organizations and institutions, which in turn feed back into the network, and then continue to provide learning to individual. A spider can sense everything through its web. Same with a learner who stays current by many different ways: networking, friends/family, the internet, books/journals, etc. A spider without a web can not survive. A learner without sources to stay current can't learn.

How blogging helps language learning

Young people are keen on Internet. Many have a blog. They post, make comments, log in everyday to see what is new. If teacher can connect blogging with learning, students would have more motivation.

 

Blogging, as a convenient way to express and communicate, can benefit language learning as well. Outside the traditional classroom, students would feel free to talk with each other and with teachers. If I post events and ask the students to give comments or think about solutions, students might have different point of views according to their backgrounds.  By viewing others' posts and adding comments, students can share the language and their different cultures. Someone outside the classroom can also make comments. Therefore, the interchanging of thoughts happens not only within the classroom but with the world.

 

Also, since blogs create a openly and frankly environment, students would be more careful when they post. They would think clearly and modify several times before they feel good to show to the audience. When teaching English, I would ask the students to post in English. They would care about the grammar and maybe look up a word in the dictionary or Google some sentences they are going to use. Writing is an efficient way to learn language, and the students are more likely to remember the knowledge when they try to figure it out by themselves.

 

High Intermediate Language Skills Writing Indicators: Draft, organize, write and edit a short paragraph using a topic sentence, supporting details and transitions.