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Website Evaluation #4 - The Linguist

2006-11-05T23:16:00.000-05:00

Software/Website Title: The Linguist

Website URL: www.thelinguist.com

Grade/Age Level: Any age or ability level that wants to learn English

Language & Content:

The intended purpose of the website is to learn English through a system known as The Linguist System, which was created by Steve Kauffman’s and his own language learning methods. Steve has learned 9 languages with fluency and is in the process of learning two more. Steve used his knowledge and experience of learning those languages to develop a system to learn English through choice, listening, reading, reviewing content (vocabulary and phrases), writing, pronouncing, speaking, and measuring your progress through tests and tracking results. The Linguist is an on-line language learning system that is presented through on-line resources and one to one tutors to help you with the language. The tutors correct your writing and help you to practice speaking and pronunciation. There are multiple resources to read, study, and listen to in order to practice and familiarize yourself with English. These external documents are very effective in practicing English through mediums and content that is interesting to you. This system is very useful to English language learners of other countries or nationalities that want to learn English through limited resources because you can do everything over the Internet and it is very efficient. The website is also very easy to navigate and there are a lot of external sources to assist you with more information and resources about learning English. The system also offers practice and assessment through bimonthly feedback and frequent feedback from your own personal tutor. I think that the strength of this website is the ease of use and the ability to use it all over the world as long as you can use the Internet. I also think that the personal tutors are very helpful with real language acquisition because they provide accountability and personal feedback. Besides the fact that you have to pay from $39 to $79 dollars a month to use this system, I am not sure how this system could be improved. It would be nice if it was cheaper but it also might be worth the money. Without signing up and actually using the linguist I am not sure of ways in which it could be improved. And from what I have read from customer testimonials all the feedback is very positive.

Reading Reflection #5 - Autonomy in Language Learning (Healey)

2006-11-01T17:35:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed this week's reading by Deborah Healey on Language Learner Autonomy. It was very easy to read and I really agreed with everything that she discussed in regard to autonomy. The article was laid out very well so it was clear and to the point. The only word of caution that I would say about this article and topic relates to a point in Healey's article on page 392 which says that the concept of autonomy and individualized learning is a very Western/U.S. ideal. I have worked with a lot of Latino students or students from other cultures that have not had the same experiences in their education classrooms. Many Latinos are used to collective teaching both at school in their native country and in the home. As teachers we need to be careful not to force our own cultural ideas of autonomy onto our students and we need to be sensitive to their learning styles based on their cultural codes. Autonomous language learning goals might not be appropriate for every student.

Healey begins the article by defining the definition of autonomy. She states that the definition of autonomy for this paper follows Dickinson's (1987) definition of self-direction to refer to learner's attitudes and autonomy to refer to the instructional framework: the degree of independence the learner is given in setting language learning goals, the path to the goal, the pace of learning, and the measurement of success.

Healey then describes the 4 most common settings for autonomous learning as:
1) Programmed Learning - student controls time and pace and the teacher controls content, sequence, and evaluation.
2) Accreditation and training - student controls time, pace, and sequence and teacher controls content and evaluation.
3) Contract-based - Independent study where student and teacher negotiate all aspects of learning
4) Autonomy - Student controls all aspects of learning.

Healy next describes the conditions that enhance autonomy and learning both on the side of the learner and with the content. The 4 main learner issues are degree of self-motivation, preference for an independent style, knowledge of how one learns best, knowledge of what one needs to learn. These four aspects of a student will decide what is the appropriate degree of autonomy for the language learner in the classroom. The 3 main content issues that affect the degree of autonomy are whether or not the path to the goal is relatively unambiguous, what is to be learned can be explained clearly, and that appropriate resources exist for self-directed language learning.

Finally, Healy discusses five preconditions for motivation that should be set by the teacher for optimal classroom learning.
1) There should be an appropriate level of challenge or difficulty to keep students motivated to learn and the work should match their skill level.
2) There should be learning objectives that are meaningful to the learner by choosing software that can be customized to fit specific learners' objectives and by defining ways to reach the set objectives.
3) There should be a variation in teaching methods used. The teacher in an autonomous setting has the most important job to encourage students to use a variety of materials and methods to reach their objectives.
4) The teacher should give intrinsic and extrinsic feedback about success. Teachers need to give clear, understandable assessments to their students about how they are doing and what they need to work on. A lot of software does a good job of this but students should still be evaluated by their teacher and then the evaluation needs to be presented and discussed with the student.
5)There should be no barriers to learning made by the instructor or by the software. It is the teachers responsibility that the software that he/she uses with the students works properly and does not cause the students to struggle and get frustrated with language learning.

In conclusion, in order for a student to attain full autonomy, they must be able to control the content and the structure of learning, including the time, pace, the path to the goal, and the measurement of success. Computers and technology can help students to be autonomous by being a tool for success but we should remember that it takes more than technology to create truly autonomous language learners.

Activities 1 & 2

2006-10-29T20:25:00.000-05:00

Activity 1 - Search Engines

The three search engines that I used for this activity were Ask Jeeves (www.askjeeves.com), Alta Vista (www.altavista.com), and All the Web (www.alltheweb.com). The search engine that returned the most useful "Top 5" results was actually an exact tie between Alta Vista and All the Web. They both returned the exact same first five results which were a lot better than the results that were returned via Ask Jeeves. (Besides the first result the rest were skimpy at best and at least two of the links did not work.) But with Alta Vista and All the Web the "top 5" results were made up of informational sites about wikis in general and then about their connection with education. The first search result was Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/wikis/index.htm) which provided Wiki history, why it works, and its uses in education as well as a list of additional resources related to wikis. The second search result was an article about Wikis in online education from Wiki Ed (http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Wikis_in_Online_Education) that gave a lot of useful information about using wikis in online distance education like ours :). The third research result was actually a link to many, many pages tagged with "wikis" on del.icio.us and I could of spent many hours looking at different websites but the one that really struck me was a web essay that was comparing blogs and wikis in higher education (http://www.anne-marie.scott.dsl.pipex.com/). The fourth research result was a Wiki about Education that gave advice about how to use wikis in education. Finally the fifth search result was a great article from the Science of Spectroscopy called Using a Wiki in Education ( http://scienceofspectroscopy.info/edit/index.php?title=Using_wiki_in_education). This article covered everything from what a wiki is, ways to use a wiki in education, courses using wiki, wiki tools, wiki related links and papers on wikis, etc... It was very informational and definitely gave a lot of resources for further research. Alta Vista and All the web definitely returned the best search results of the three.

Activity 2 - Evaluation
The site that I am choosing to evaluate is the fifth research result of the wiki from Science of Spectroscopy at http://scienceofspectroscopy.info/edit/index.php?title=Using_wiki_in_education. This site is very thorough and has a lot of really specific and useful information. According to the website evaluation the two aspects that I really like are the Design, Organization, and Ease of Use and the Purpose and Content. This wiki is designed to provide very useful information about the definition of wikis, ways to use wikis in education, one-page wikis, and full wiki web sites, wiki related links (that are all very good) and academic research on wikis. The purpose of this wiki is to provide educational and scholarly/research information. It provides balanced objective and factual information with well supported arguments. The site is also well designed and organized, easy to read and navigate with a table of content at the beginning to help find what you are looking for. Overall, this is a very informational and well organized site about wikis and education.

Reading Reflection #4 - Enhancing and Extending Learning Styles Through Computers

2006-10-20T01:28:00.000-04:00

This week I read Classroom Practice: Enhancing and Extending Learning Styles Through Computers by Karen Yeok-Hwa Ngeow. I must say that I had very mixed feelings about this article. On the positive side I thought that it laid out very important principles with regard to learning styles that should be known and acknowledged by every teacher. Whether you are using technology or simply using the the whiteboard/classroom these are principles that will maximize the students ability to learn your material.

These principles are stated by Ngeow as follows:
Principle 1 - Learners who are more conscious of their learning styles make better use of learning opportunities. This means that as a teacher we should help students understand their preferred way or ways of learning so they are aware of their specific abilities and aptitudes.
Principle 2 - Learners learn better when they are provided with learning opportunities that enhance and extend their learning preferences. Teachers should aim to provide students with activities and lessons that best fit their learning practices while also exposing their students to other learning styles to either broaden their preferences or familiarize them about the different learning styles.
Principle 3 - Learners work better with new learning styles when they are given guided opportunities to practice them. Teachers should provide lessons or activities that allow students to use a variety of strategies or learning styles in their learning.

Ngeow continues to describe how these learning styles can be realized, understood, and utilized/practiced with the use of computers. Ngeow offers three ways in which learning styles can be realized and understood. First, students can figure out their learning preferences by creating learner profiles or filling out questionnaires about their learning preferences online. One of the sites that I found allowed the students to take the Keirsey Temperament Sorter 2 and learn about the different temperaments that people can possibly have. (http://www.keirsey.com/) Second, the teacher can have the students use Information Organizers to determine their learning styles. Third, teachers can extend the students learning styles by helping them to develop a better understanding of multiple intelligences theory (MI) through a website similar to http://pss.uvm.edu/pss162/learning_styles.html#2.

Finally, Ngeow offers examples of how to integrate software/computers into the classroom for effective teaching that addresses the different learning styles of the students. This part of the article is where I found myself feeling more negative and that these examples were too simplistic, out of date, and only directed at a narrow and specific audience (mainly ESL students that seem young and inexperienced). I do realize that this article is from 1999 and is almost eight years old and since technology changes so rapidly this is out of date, but I would have liked to have read something that offered some more practical suggestions for the current times and practices of the classroom. (I don't even have any idea what Choices is.) I also felt that a lot of her suggestions or examples for using the computer to fit learning styles involved activities that seemed simplistic and fru fru (lacking real content for language learners) or similar to time-fillers. At one point in her article she states that one person in the group (Organizing Collaborative Learning p. 313) could be the morale booster. I know that encouragement is important but in my high school class this seems to be quite childish and non-conducive to building communication skills for a foreign language. Finally, I felt as many of her examples (theme-based projects, role playing) of activities to do with the computer were directed for young student that were ESL. I found that in my head I had a hard time transferring those same activities to my Sophomore Spanish Boys Class. I understand that she could only use limited examples but this is why I found this article not as engaging and eye-opening as I though it could have been.

Tapped In - Professional Development

2006-10-15T23:22:00.000-04:00

I am a fairly new teacher and because of that I have had very limited experience with professional development. I have an understanding of what certain states, schools, districts require for continuing education of their teachers but have not had the opportunity of working towards any of these requirements. So when I was researching and looking through Tapped In, it was a very new and in a way "awkward" experience. I have to agree with Ellen that to some level I felt very exposed while I was searching. I turned off the feature where people can see my e-mail address but I still felt that it was very easy to get personal information. Also I felt that it was difficult to navigate around if you did not know exactly what you were looking for and that many of the "rooms" that had been there for at least over a year, had nothing in them. There were members of the "Spanish Teachers" room but nothing on the page. I know there were 14 members but no discussion or links or pathways. Simply names of people with their e-mail addresses. I found it difficult to find any information on what I was looking for in the short amount of time that I spent on the site. Maybe I just need some more time to play around with the site.
With that being said there were also many good things about Tapped In. It is a really wide forum that has many interesting aspects with interesting people involved. Also, if you did know of a office to go to (like Dan's) then you got a good amount of information to learn from and respond to. It definitely points out good resources for professional development in Dan's field of ESL. I guess I will just have to keep looking for my other fellow Spanish teachers on Tapped In. Overall, it was a good introduction into this type of forum/space for professional development. I am learning something brand new with technology every week and I am realizing how much I have no idea about and how much I need to and can learn. I hope I can keep up:)

Website Evaluation #3 - Don Quijote

2006-10-08T21:55:00.000-04:00

Software/Website Title:
Don Quijote

Website URL:
www.donquijote.org

Grade/Age Level:
Any grade level but I think it is most useful for beginning learners, intermediate learners, and teachers of Spanish.

Language & Content:

The intended purpose of the website is to provide resources and opportunities for Spanish Language learners. It also provides members a network of other people who are teaching or learning Spanish as well and makes communication accessible and easy to do. The content of this website is very diverse. First, there is a lot of information about studying abroad through the Don Quijote schools. These schools offer classes at any level in many locations all around Spain. The courses can be from 1 week to a semester. Second, this website offers a “Teacher’s Corner”, which is essentially a blog where teachers can meet and discuss issues/concerns/successes with other teachers. Third, this website provides a list of resources for language learners. These include: PALABRA DEL DÍA SPANISH LESSONS VERB CONJUGATOR SPANISH ALPHABET COMMON ERRORS SPANISH NUMBERS DICTIONARY TEST YOUR LEVEL LITERATURE SPANISH LOVE FRIENDSHIP SPANISH GAMES SPANISH MEDIA SPANISH LYRICS POPULAR SAYINGS JOKES IN SPANISH
WAP TRANSLATOR and the NEWS! Finally, there is an entire section dedicated to the culture of Spain. There is much more on the website but these are the main attractions.

The external documents that the website includes are resources about tourism in Spain and other activities/events that are happening in Spain currently. Also, this website has dictionary links and other external resources that are useful for the Spanish Language learner.

This website is interesting because it offers a variety of activities and attractions for both the learner and the teacher. I think that the “teacher’s corner” is a great way to get teachers together. Also, learners can search and find the news, grammar, and jokes all in Spanish at the same website.
This website is useful for the acquisition of Spanish through travel, study abroad, networking, and resources found on the site. It offers practice for grammar and vocabulary through lessons and activities (games, etc.) It also offers a “test your level” section which tests your Spanish abilities and rates you accordingly. Finally, this website offers assessment in the form of peer review/help through blogs and networks.

This website is very easy to use and because there is so much information you are always coming across something new. The tabs on the left hand side of the website are self-explanatory and the entire website is filled with pictures and auditory sound bites to help you out. The strengths of this software are that there is so much content that you can find really useful information and practice for mostly any learner or teacher. This can also be a weakness if you are not used to searching sites or technology. However, there is so much useful content at www.donquijote.org that I believe it is more of a strength than a weakness. Also, although you have to sign up to be member to use most of the resources, membership is free and it only takes a minute to sign up. Plus once you have your membership you instantly are connected to an entire network of students and teachers that are all interested in learning/teaching Spanish. The “network” aspect of this site is very cool. This software can be improved by adding lessons/content that is geared to higher-level Spanish learners. As of now many of the resources are at or below the intermediate level. I would like to see some more advanced literature, grammar, and dialogue for higher-level speakers.
Overall, Don Quijote has a lot to offer a Spanish language learner and is filled with many wonderful resources.

Reading Reflection #3 - Text and Task Authenticity (Guariento & Morley)

2006-10-04T21:54:00.000-04:00

William Guariento and John Morley - Text and Task Authenticity in the EFL Classroom

Although this article was not long it was very informational and brought up a lot of good questions and suggestions. The article begins by discussing "authentic texts" which is defined as texts which embrace both the written and spoken word, which help to bridge the gap between classroom knowledge and a students capacity to participate in real world events. (Wilkins)
These texts allow learning in the classroom to be useful and very motivating to students and should always try to be incorporated. However, these texts can be difficult to find and difficult to use with certain low-level users. The article then continues to question if these texts can be manipulated to suit the needs of lower level users or is it ok for these users to not completely understand the whole text. Will this help them or will it have a negative consequence of making them feel frustrated, confused or demotivated?
The article then turns its attention to "task authenticity" which is defined as a degree of instruction or focus on form, together with learner production that is now considered important for classroom based second language development. Guariento and Morley state that both task and text authenticity are important for maximizing the students ability to learn a second language. They also state 4 very important aspects of task authenticity which must be met in order to maximize results.
1) Authenticity through a genuine purpose - emphasis should be on meaning and communication which makes it an authentic task
2) Authenticity through real world targets - authenticity in terms of content, must be related to a real world task.
3) Authenticity through classroom interaction - communication about how best to communicate when tasks are negotiated and it is this process of negotiation that is authentic.
4) Authenticity through engagement - are students engaged by the task??

The authors seem to think that there is more flexibility with the audience that can benefit from authentic tasks and I would agree with them. I think that with "tasks" a teacher is able to more easily manipulate the situation to fit his/her objectives and that tasks can have a wide range of input/output communication opportunities. It is much easier to develop a task based on your learners and be able to change it on the spot if you feel it is demotivating or not engaging. With texts, there is not this amount of flexibility (most of the time).

However, I think that there needs to be a mix or interaction of text and task authenticity to maximize learning in an ESL or language classroom. With the increased use of technology and the internet in classrooms it allows teachers more choice in tasks and texts and can be very helpful. But I would also remind teachers that there could be dangers with only using the internet as it does not usually allow for spoken communication which is key to second language competency. Overall, if the tasks and texts are varied and the teacher strives to create authentic situations, students will find learning a second language to be beneficial and relevant.

Website Evaluation #2 - Quia

2006-10-02T01:19:00.000-04:00

Software/Website Title: Quia

Website URL: www.quia.com

Grade/Age Level: Any grade/age can use this resource!

Language & Content: (This can be used for many languages, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Japanese.)

1) What is the intended purpose of the software or website
The intended purpose of the website is to enhance teacher to teacher interaction, student/teacher to content interaction and student to teacher interaction in the subject you are learning in Quia. (Spanish for me) The website does this by allowing the instructor to create 16 types of games and learning activities, create quizzes any of 10 types of questions ( Multiple choice, True-false, Pop-up, Multiple correct, Fill-in, Initial answer, Short answer, Essay, Matching, Ordering), create classes and track quiz results, create class pages for communicating with students, maintain an online schedule and calendar, upload images and audio clips, copy and modify any of Quia's two million activities to suit your own needs, and finally share your activities with students, friends, colleagues, anyone in the world.

2) What is the content of the software or website and how is it presented?

The content listed above is presented on the website through tabs and other links that are very easy to use. Mainly the content is presented by subject area first, then insructer/student, and then type of content desired (quiz, game, grammar exercise, etc..). It is very easy to navigate through the site.

3) What external documents does the software or website include? Are they effective?
This website does not have many external documents. The only thing that comes close is a list of related textbooks in your subject area that you are allowed to test out in your classroom. Besides that there is really nothing in terms of external documents.

4) In what ways is the software or website interesting to the target audience?
It is interesting to the teachers because it provides a network of people that you can learn from and share ideas with. For the students I think it is interesting because they can learn and test themselves in their subject areas through games and activities that interest them. They can take the same list of 40 vocabulary words and practice them using up to 15 variations of activities. They also receive very quick feed back as Quia grades their quizzes and games on the spot.

5) For what language goal(s) is this software or website useful/effective?
In regard to Spanish language goals, this website is mainly useful for practice in vocabulary, grammar, and some writing skills. For other subjects it may be useful for memory, retention, writing and critical thinking skills, etc….

6) Does this program or website offer practice? Assessment? Feedback? Of what kinds? (give examples)
Quia offers practice of the subject areas through activities and games. These games/activities provide feedback through scoring the games and quizzes and providing correct answers. Quia also sends your scores to the teacher as requested. Finally, Quia allows you to communicate to your professor through the website so that your teacher can also offer you feedback based on your scores and activities.

7) Is this software or website easy to use? (i.e., navigation, layout, etc.)
Yes it is very easy to navigate through. There is a section for Instructors and a section for Students. Each section is laid out in a way that makes it very easy to find what you are looking for. The search engines are thorough and the tabs are very clear. Even if you are just visiting the site to find out what it is about, you will be very pleased with the Q & A section as well as the shared activities.

8) What are the strengths of this software or website?
One major strength of this website is the ability to share or receive shared materials/quizzes/activities with other teachers. There are hundreds of files under the “Spanish” section that teachers have created and are willing to share with other teachers. These shared files make it very easy to develop your curriculum using the internet and you can expand and add to the files to make them even stronger. Because of this you also have a built in network of people to gather ideas from, ask questions to, and share experiences. Another strength of this website is the way that student-teacher-content can all interact in a seamless motion. Students can go to the computer lab, practice their vocabulary or grammar and take a quiz. Quia then grades the quiz and sends the scores with areas of strengths and weakness to the teacher. The teacher then can have a better idea of what needs to be re-taught and what can be praised. Finally this website allows information to be shared across a variety of subjects, including but not limited to…Art, English, Spanish, French, German, Math, Science, Astronomy, History, Technology, Music, Medicine and Geography.

9) How can this software or website be improved?
This software can be improved by allowing other “formats” of language learning to be shared besides quizzes and games, maybe power point presentations, external documents, and other helpful websites, links etc…

Reading Reflection #2 - Interaction via computers (Peyton)

2006-09-23T09:33:00.000-04:00

In Joy Peyton's article, Theory and Research: Interaction via Computers, she lays out the importance of interaction and negotiation for effective learning and the positives and negatives that are associated with interaction via computer networks for both students and teachers.

Peyton first discusses this history of "interaction" according to Vygotsky in which he states all human learning is mediated through interaction with others. (1978) In the 70;s and 80;s the research done was based mostly on this definition with the focus on "oral" interaction. Scholars found that more proficient language users facilitated the participation of less proficient participants by interacting with them in oral communication, thereby supporting negotiation. More knowledgeable language partners would modify their own language by asking questions, repeating, rephrasing, and extending the learners sentences to provide a language and thinking model, and simplify their language so the learner could understand it. (Krashen, 1981) Therefore, the lower language learners received a comprehensible input and were encouraged to provide a comprehensible output. It wasn't until the 90's that researchers began to focus on the dynamic and outcomes of written interaction of students-students or students-teachers. (Journals, notebooks, etc...) However, all of this research did show a clear correlation between learning/language development and interaction/negotiation.

With the onset of computer networks and opportunities for written interaction beyond one-to-one to many-to-many the dynamic has changed and so has the findings/research. In her article Peyton describes some of the positive patterns for computer-mediated Interaction. First, she found that in student - student interactions the more proficient and knowledgeable language users were helping their partners communicate by asking them questions, answering their questions and repeating and expanding on what they were writing. As these interactions continued the students became more independent and developed more complex English. Second, Peyton found that using interaction with computers allows us to network our ideas and build/change our text based on others reactions. Instead of one final written document, the documents gets revised and revisited over and over all in writing. Instead of one author, there may be many. Sirc and Reynolds describe this as "sampling" a construction of meaning built from a blend of one's own ideas, others' ideas, and material one has read or heard in discussion. This is a big change from one-to-one interaction. Third, Peyton found that with many-to-many interaction there is less discrimination based on race, gender, and social status and that participation in computer-mediated discussions is more equally distributed than in face-to-face discussion. I completely agree with this last positive outcome of interaction via computers. This structure of communication allows us to share ourselves based on our knowledge and input rather than the color of our skin or how much money we have. It allows students to be themselves without worrying about being discriminated against and this is wonderful for our world. Hopefully this can allow us to cross cultural barriers across the world as well and students everywhere can communicate via the computer.

Peyton also lays out three challenges for computer-mediated interaction. They are as follows:
1) Because students seem to feel anonymous is some cases, this has led to an urge to play with language and display their wit and verbal audacity which can result in confrontational, inappropriate, and insulting dialogues. This can include swear words, obscenity, bigotry, and puerility. (Peyton, 1998)
2) Some teachers and researchers have argued that students have more time to think and compose their thoughts in written than in oral interactions. However rather than write complex thoughts or thoughtful prose, students try to keep up with the constant flow of language scrolling up their screens and the sudden competition may produce "graffiti-like" messages or "easy insults". (Peyton, 1998)
3) Even when the students are try to collaborate, network discussion can seem fragmented, diffuse, and off the topic until students and teachers find ways to establish and follow topic threads.(Peyton, 1998)
4) Finally, teachers accustomed to having a considerable amount of authority in the classroom may initially find it difficult to maintain control and establish order when students are free to write whatever they want, to whomever they want, whenever they want. (Peyton, 1998).

In conclusion, this new medium has created some great opportunities as well as brought up some potential dangers. However, in any medium whether it is one-to-one or many-to-many the quality of the interaction needs to be regulated in order for real learning to occur. If teachers can maintain a high quality in computer interaction then the students will be successful. This also goes to the point that computers should be seen as tools and as a way for teachers to broaden the tools that they have on their belt. Computer interaction should not replace teachers but should compliment their work. In the future I see great possibilities using a network communication in my own class to foster a higher level of language acquisition and to teach my students about other cultures and communities. There are dangers and they can be very real but with continued knowledge about the medium and with more familiarity in using it those dangers with not be so threatening to success.

Website Evaluation #1 - Spanish as a Second Language Blog

2006-09-17T12:39:00.000-04:00

Software/Website Title:
ssl4you Espanol Segunda Lengua Para Todos: Spanish as a Second Language
This is a blog that was started by a women named Teresa Sanchez from Zamora, Castilla y Leon, Spain

Website URL:
http://ssl4you.blogspot.com/

Grade/Age Level:
I think that this site would be appropriate for any age learner that was at or above an intermediate level of understanding Spanish who is interested in advancing their knowledge. A beginning Spanish learner/speaker might be able to use this site as well in certain aspects but it could be difficult at times.

Language & Content:
The site is a series of podcasts that are spoken in Spanish with a written English translation. It also provides resources for a Spanish Language learner such as materials and links that assist a learner with grammar, tests, dictionaries, etc... Additionally, there are posts about culture, movies, books, news, food, and music that engage the Spanish learner and teach them more about the Spanish way of life and culture.

EVALUATION:

The intended purpose of this blog website is to help Spanish Language learners through Podcasts (listening to small stories about every day life circumstances in Spanish), and additional resources which Teresa provides links to. The Podcasts assist learners with listening skills and sentence structure/grammar/vocabulary. The english translations provided assist learners when they run into comprehension issues.

The podcasts are presented to the user on the right side of the blog website. They are links that can either be listened to directly from the blog or downloaded from itunes. This is great if the user wants to put them on an ipod and take them on the road. The additional resources are provided by a link on the right tabs called "ssl4you resources for students". This brings you to another page in which the culture and links are provided for further Spanish instruction and assistance.

The external documents provided by links are grammar websites, tests to determine you Spanish level, dictionaries, and sites that provide you with certificates of accreditation in the Spanish language. The grammar site is very good, but since there are so many out there she could provide more links as needed. The dictionaries sites are fine as well as the "test your level" and "certificate" sites. Nothing special but helpful if you are a new Spanish language learner. However, in this area the blog could definitely become more advanced and expand on its resources page.

The blog is interesting to Spanish learners because there is often a lack of listening/speaking resources when learning a language. These podcasts are accessible and portable and because of that provides great flexibility and practice in hearing and reciting the language. These two functions are the most important aspects to master if you really want to learn a language. This site provides that practice for speaking/listening (language goals) in a very accessible way. (through podcasts) There is no feedback/assessment that comes with the podcasts but you are welcome to post/respond to the podcasts to Teresa and give your own feedback to her. However, it does provide links (on the resources page) to Spanish tests to analyze your level of understanding as well as accreditation websites that give you certificates for passing certain levels of Spanish language acquisition.

The website is very easy to use and navigate through. The links are clear and the podcasts are very easy to read, listen to, and learn from. Also, Teresa (the author) is very accessible through e-mail and questions through her blog.

There are many strengths to this website but the main strengths are the podcasts and grammar links. These two aspects really give the Spanish learner the tools to practice and improve on Spanish language acquisition. Personally, I really enjoy the book and movie reviews/recommendations as well as the Spanish food recipes. I am a big fan of cooking and I love Spanish food (paella, gazpacho, and tortilla espanola) which she provides her own recipes for. This is another great aspect of the website.

However, I think that the blog could be improved by adding more resource links, more cultural posts, and more podcasts that stretch the intermediate person's vocabulary and grammar. The podcasts are limited, there are only about 22 podcasts...therefore, it would be nice for Teresa to add more frequent podcasts to ensure that there is enough material. Typically she adds about 2-4 a month which is fine for most people, especially if this is not your main forum for practice. I would like to see more resources and links so that language learners can have adequate other resources to go to for extra help and practice. I also love when she posts on the culture and current events in Spain so the more posts on this stuff the better.

Overall, I really enjoyed this blog site and found it especially interesting since we as a class are creating our own blogs. It makes you realize how powerful and effective one person can be just doing what they love and sharing their information/knowledge with the world using the internet!!! I hope that one day I can be that helpful to others using the information that we are learning in this class!

Reading Reflection for Egbert: Computer Enhanced Language Learning Environments: An Overview

2006-09-10T18:31:00.000-04:00

Because I have had little previous experience with CALL and have not read any literature with regard to this subject the overview of CALL environments by Egbert was very enlightening. I appreciated the background information of Spolsky's Theory of Conditions for Language Acquisition which was an equation composed of the learner's knowledge in the present plus abilities, motivation/affect, and opportunity which equaled the knowledge and skills of the learner in the future. This theory points out the importance that the opportunity or learning environment has on language acquisition and how this component can be most directly influenced by me, the teacher. Egbert continues her overview by laying out the 8 conditions for optimal language learning environments.

They are as follows:
1) Learners have opportunities to interact and negotiate meaning
2) Learners interact in the target language with an authentic audience. (authentic = purposeful interaction)
3) Learners are involved in authentic tasks (those having the same types of cognitive challenges as complicated real-world tasks do.)
4) Learners are exposed to and encouraged to produce varied and creative language in their target language.
5) Learners have enough time and feedback, which facilitate the formulation of ideas.
6) Learners are guided to attend mindfully to the learning process. (mindful = they must be motivated to take the opportunities presented to them and to be cognitively engaged as they perform them.)
7) Learners work in an atmosphere with an ideal stress/anxiety level. (teacher's expectations must be reasonable and their goals attainable)
8) Learner autonomy is supported. (although not complete autonomy as teacher's feedback and mediation is important)

I really enjoyed reading about these conditions that are necessary for optimizing language acquisition and then reflecting on my Spanish classroom from last year. I definitely succeeded in providing some of these conditions and did not do so well with others. For example, I wish I had produced more opportunities for condition # 3 where they could use Spanish to perform tasks that would affect them in the real world.

Egbert continues to discuss how the 8 conditions and the relevance to CALL can be discovered through classroom research. Classroom research finds out what works for individual teachers and adds to the growing knowledge about CALL through developing hypotheses, gathering data, and then evaluating the findings. Egbert notes Purcell's six levels of research and six steps of research. What I thought was interesting was the importance of asking good questions for CALL research. You need to be specific/pointed with your research question yet general across courses and programs. You also need a very specific hypothesis in order to evaluate your data at the end of your research.

One problem that I have with this article is the confusion that I felt when dealing with Step 4 and 5 (determining how to test the research question and gathering data). I felt that Purcell and Egbert were unclear about the value of qualitative vs. quantitative research. I know that Egbert says that you should consider a design that works for your research question, however, what is the benefit of qualitative over quantitative and are we missing crucial analysis by using qualitative data? These are some questions that I would have liked to see answered better, especially if we as teachers are to perform experiments in our own classrooms. On the contrary, I do like how Egbert listed some new ways of collecting data through video and audio recordings to examine the student's behavior with technology. Overall I appreciated Egbert's goal of trying to connect what is being taught in a classroom using CALL and what is actually be learned through research.

Hi CALL Class!

2006-09-08T17:56:00.000-04:00

This is my first Blog ever and I am pretty excited. I hope you all will be able to see my blog at some point during our class.