INTERNET-BASED READING AND WRITING LEARNING STRATEGIES.

María José López Aguirre

Week 7: Using Internet - Based Children's Literature to Teach EFL.
Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction.
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The articles from this week give essential information about using Internet to enhance reading and listening skills. The first journal provides information about implementing Internet resources to develop the reading skill of young learners. It is important to acknowledge that young students become willing to acquire new knowledge by fostering an autonomous literature. Students are more interest in learning by being exposed to the vocabulary in a specific context in a reading rather than memorizing and looking for the meanings in dictionaries. Internet provides potential resources for reading materials that are accessible to students, and helps them to be independent readers by letting them select the materials they prefer, and practicing outside the classroom. Moreover, there are many tasks teachers can give to students in order to stablish specific purposes for the readings. The second article remarks the importance of applying Internet-based activities to improve the writing of L2 learners. Something that caught my attention were the amazing writing genres that serve authentic communicative purposes, such as creating a class website, e-mail connection, and web pages. Furthermore, students have the chance to work in a collaborative learning environment by acting in an electronic community in which they can interact, share files and offer peer feedback among them. What surprised me in this article was that teachers should analyze how they are going to integrate on-line activities into the syllabus in a connected way, and being aware of their students’ interest and necessities is crucial. So, when appealing to their style they are willing to create, analyze, and produce information and ideas more easily and efficiently. To conclude, Web-based networking tools offer excellent opportunities to conduct the improvement of reading and writing skills into ESL learning.

INTERNET INTO TEACHING SPEAKING AND LISTENING SKILLS.

María José López Aguirre

Week 6: Speaking and Listening Online: A Survey of Internet Resources

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The reading from this week “Speaking and Listening Online: A Survey of Internet Resources” presented important information about online activities that can be used to enhance speaking and listening skills. My initial reaction to this article was positive because I considered that having this kind of resources increases the opportunities for teachers to include CALL into their lessons, especially when teaching speaking and listening, and also facilitates students the acquisition of the target language. Something I want to remember from this article is that Internet plays an important role in learning a new language due to the fact that it allows students and teachers to be connected all over the world and provides a tremendous amount of information they want to encounter. In order to practice listening skills students can access websites that contain receptive communication activities (audio podcast, songs, news reports, interviews, movies, videos files, etc.) with their specific task (comprehension exercises, multiple choice/gist questions, gap fill exercise, etc.) So, they will have a specific purpose to listen or watch the materials. Something I learned from this article and that every teacher should know was that the synchronous activities, such as live chats and instant messaging, are considered beneficial to the enhancement of students’ aural/oral skills. These chat rooms allow users to communicate by writing or answering text messages in real-time interactions. What surprised me in this article was that ESL/EFL learners can successfully negotiate meaning with native or non-native speakers in order to give feedback and help themselves improve their mistakes in their learning. To conclude, these cutting-edge technologies are valuable tools that teachers should consider to apply into their lessons in order to enhance students’ second language learning and acquisition. 

HOW ENHANCE CRITICAL THINKING WITH TECHNOLOGY?

María José López Aguirre
Week 5: Critical Thinking and Technology
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This week article "Critical Thinking and Technology" was fairly interesting. It present information about how technology influence in many ways the critical thinking skills of learners. Something that caught my attention was the reasons why people learn. Intrinsic motivation play an important role in learning. Teachers need to recognize that students are most likely to become intellectually excited and motivated to work, when the learning objectives appeal to their attitudes and emotions as well as their ability to understand. Teachers also must be aware that people acquire knowledge naturally while trying to solve problems that concern them. Something I want to remember from this article is that knowledge comes from the ability to reason, understand, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate evidence rather than memorizing abstract information. Something that made me want to read more about was the information regarding to learning personalities, teachers should acknowledge that many people like visual input as opposed to auditory learning. For example, they like to learn and organize information inductively through experiences, and using visual aids such as pictures, diagrams, time lines or demonstrations in order to retain information easily. Technology offers teachers the opportunity to provide students a variety of visual resources in order to foster the ability to think critically and creatively, and benefit the acquisition of new knowledge.  Others prefer the speech or visual symbols of auditory information, such as written words or notations. Questions I still have are regarding about how technology can contribute to the critical thinking skill to those students that prefer auditory input. To conclude, teacher need to know their students learning personalities and stablish clear objectives for their learning before they decide if certain technologies can help them develop their ability to think critically and become active intellects.

THE BENEFITS OF USING INTERNET INTO ELT

María José López Aguirre
Week 4: CALL Me … Maybe: A Framework for Integrating the Internet into ELT
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The article from this week was really good. It share information about the implementation of Internet into English teaching and learning. Something that really impress me was the fact that there is an alternative framework for Internet integration into ELT in classrooms with access or no access to Internet.

The reading “CALL Me … Maybe: A Framework for Integrating the Internet into ELT” present the benefits of using Internet in Language classroom and how using it can improve the teaching and learning process of English. Something I want to remember from this article is that Internet offers exposure to English, along with the opportunity to manipulate the language and interact in it. Internet can be used to offer advice, facilitate analysis or conduct activities according to what student’s needs. It provides many resources that teachers and learners might exploit allowing them to use authentic or semi-authentic English Language Learning Materials. Something I learned from this article and that every teacher should know was that even if you have less access to Internet you can reproduce and save materials for use them offline. For example, printing pages or exercises, saving them on a flash driver to used them into the class. This technological tool can be used to engage students in a more interactive learning by stimulating creativity and fostering communication and collaboration. Something I learned and that I immediately wanted to share with a colleague was that mobile phones are more accessible than computers. So, teachers can allow students to use them in order to access to Internet just for academic purposes. To conclude, cutting-edge technology, such as Internet, is becoming a great tool for a good, and effective ELT.

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PODCASTING IN LISTENING STRATEGIES COURSES

María José López Aguirre

Week 3:

Integrating CALL into the Classroom: the Role of Podcasting in an ESL Listening Strategies Course.

Blending Technologies in ESL Courses: A Reflexive Enquiry.

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The readings from week 3 provide amazing information about the role of podcasting in listening courses. Podcasts are digital media files delivered over a network such as audio and videos that can be downloaded and reproduced in all source of devices (computers, MP3 players, etc.) In education podcasting is becoming popular due to the fact that it has the potential to foster an effective integration of in-class and out-of-class teaching and learning process.

The article “Integrating CALL into the Classroom: The Role of Podcasting in an ESL Listening Strategies Course” presents how the implementation of this phenomenon are improving the activities and materials into listening lessons. Something I want to remember from this article is that the use of podcast improve the teaching process. Teachers can provide students a wide variety of audios that they can listen out of class in order to review and practice what they have learned. This learning tool also serve to motivate students by given them control over the input they receive. Something that surprised me a lot about that is that new podcast episodes are automatically downloaded to students’ devices once they have subscribed, so they can easily decide when and how often to listen or watch it. In the article, “Blending Technologies in ESL Courses: A Reflexive Enquiry” it is focus on the blending of technology in second language teaching contexts. Something that caught my attention was that teachers are fixing their syllabus in order to incorporate this blended approach. They also have to consider some aspects such as planning and design, or performance issues because that would allow for specific analyses of impact on learners. To conclude, podcasting is a potential tool that is becoming popular in listening strategies course.

DEVELOPING LEARNERS’ AUTONOMY WITH ICTS

María José López Aguirre
Week 2: Effectiveness of the Integration of ICT Tools and Activities to Foster Awareness as the First Stage to Reach Learning Autonomy
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The reading for this week provide interesting information about the integration of ICTs to foster autonomous behavior in the learning process. My initial impression of this article was excellent I really agree with the idea that teachers should engage students with activities to promote self-evaluation and self-monitoring to help them get to know themselves as learners. Something I learned from this article and that every teacher should know was the fact that when using appropriate activities and including technology in the classroom, teachers can contribute to increase learners’ motivation, autonomy and thinking skills in a significant way, but it also requires more time, guidance and effort when teaching to them.

Something that made me want to read more about was the importance of computer assisted language learning (CALL) to help teachers anticipate learners’ needs; for example, assessing learners in order to identify their learning styles and discover what is relevant for them. In addition, CALL offers a great variety of available resources in order to cover learners’ interest and preferences. In that way, they are able to react on their practices and management of technologies and sources. It is important to acknowledge that the role of the teacher becomes critical in order to offer support, accompaniment and preparation to receive new knowledge.

My favorite quote from the article was “The more autonomous a learner becomes, the more likely he or she is to achieve high language proficient”. Finally, I think that it is important for students to develop their learning autonomy, so that they are going to easily enhance their learning process in order to reach their setting goals.

LEARNING WITH CALL

María José López Aguirre
Week 1: Computer and Language Learning: an Overview.
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This week reading presented useful and interesting information about Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). CALL embraces a wide range of information and communication technology applications and approaches to teaching and learning process.
The article “Computers and Language Learning” explains the three paradigms in which CALL was divided throughout the years (behavioristic, communicative, and Integrative). The most important stage that caught my attention is the Integrative CALL, a combination of task, project and content-based approaches to integrate students in an authentic context in which they would learn to develop various skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading) using technology as the main tool into their learning process.
A belief of mine that was changed was having the teacher as the most important language source of knowledge in the classroom. However, something that surprised me from this article was seeing the teacher as a facilitator of learning that offer information in multiple media. The current philosophy of CALL emphasizes on student-centered approaches. Teachers training stimulates learners to use multimedia and other resources effectively allowing them interpret and classify their knowledge using their own organizing schemes.
The quote I want to remember from the article was “Activities that encourage students to explore and be creators of language rather than passive recipients of it further the idea of the learner as an active participant in learning” (Brown, 1991). It confirmed my belief that students retain more information, considered as relevant knowledge, by manipulating language data in an autonomous way using a variety of computer software programs.