Name:Isabel’s ESL Website: English as a Foreign/Second Language in Primary and Secondary EducationLink:http://www.isabelperez.com/1. What does the application attempt to “teach”?The application is called Isabel’s ESL Site and it attempts to teach English to ESL students, particularly addressed to Spanish-speaking students. The site offers guidance and activities on vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, and also culture. The moderator of the site, Isabel Pérez Torres, a Spanish secondary English teacher used her own resources for the site. Thus, the target group for this site is adolescents. This site is not only for learning English, but its focus is also in motivating ESL students to learn the language. Other than that, this site also provides other CALL resources for teachers! :)
The site integrates the four skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking into their various activities. Thus, students have a vast learning chance to practice all the four skills in the different focus of the English language. Most of the activities provided under different focus (be it grammar, vocabulary, etc) in this site are divided from easy to more advanced (sequential learning) to ensure the buildup of knowledge from basic to more complex. This enhances students’ learning process since the materials and exercises provided have the ability to make knowledge more concrete and meaningful to students. The learning process through this site is carefully calculated thus systematic for students.
This site teaches through examples, rule explanations, and various activities and exercises. For grammar, in order to teach verb tenses and their usages, which can be quite difficult for ESL students, the moderator created characters that represent each tense like present tense, present continuous tense, etc. These tenses are called ‘The Happy Verby Gang’ and each tense has an identity like the Present Simple Girl, Present Perfect Man, Lady Past Continuous, and also future tenses like ‘Going to’ Boy and Mister Will. A story is told for every tense, and the specific tense, for example simple present tense, is used repeatedly throughout the description as an example for how to use the tense. This way, students can discover for themselves the rule to using that specific tense and how and when to use it. Nevertheless, students are still given with information on verb tense use and verb tense form. Students are given examples too on how to use the specific verb tense for different purposes, like to make an affirmative statement, a negative statement, or a question. This approach to teaching tenses is very interesting and different from how students traditionally learn. Thus, it helps students understand the tenses better and more easily.
Other than that, the site is equipped with pronunciation activities. The moderator prepared a variety of words, where students can click on an icon to listen to the pronunciation based on the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Then students can practice their listening and speaking by practicing on their own based on the audio material. Another interesting activity the moderator has created is ‘Teaching with Songs’. The moderator used many new and old songs based on her students’ preferences to create various activities for all language skills. There are different activities for different songs, and more than 5 activities per song are available. Here students can listen to songs and do exercises like fill in the blank of the lyrics, identify words’ part of speech, transcribe words in the songs, write meaning of the lyrics, transform the lyrics to a different format of writing, and more!
Not only that, this site attempts to teach the English culture to students. Holidays that are celebrated by English speaking countries, English speaking singers, tales and more are embedded with other activities in this site, so not only will students be learning about the language but also the culture related to it. These cultures are introduced to students through grammar activities, writing activities and more but students can also access these exercises through the specific link provided by the moderator.
There are so many activities that can be done by students in this application. It would take weeks or months for students to be able to complete every activity in this site since the amount of material is so vast. The activities are complete from vocabulary exercises to culture exercises, and some of them are interrelated to one another for the more advanced students. The activities cater to students from different proficiency levels too, since the activities are from easy to difficult.
2. What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?This is an easy, free, public site that anyone with a computer and an Internet access can use. Students are only expected to go to the site, and browse through the website to learn the content. In order to learn the content, students would have to access the different components of English that they wish to learn; ranging from vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, etc.
For "The Happy Verby Gang" verb tense activity, students are required to read each "Gang's" description, where they can indiscreetly learn the function and practical use of the verb tense. Then, students can click on the links to that particular verb tense's use and form, to learn of the various forms and usages of the tense which the moderator has prepared. Then students can move on to the exercises provided for that particular tense, which has been divided into several levels. First, students will have to complete the exercises on the tense's form, after completing them students will have to complete the exercises on the tense's use, and lastly there will be a contrast exercises, where students would have to contrast between two different verb tenses like simple present and present perfect. There will be several exercises under every level, from easy exercises to more difficult ones.
But the moderator did not prepare teaching materials for other components, like for teaching nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and more. Teachers will have to conduct the teaching for these first and then students can continue to practice their knowledge using the materials the moderator has provided. The activities for every component are different and students will need to do different things to complete them. Most of the activities have been done with Hot Potato, thus students would have to type for some activities, click and drag for others, drag and drop for some, and more.
For the listening activities like pronunciation and 'Teaching With Songs', the moderator has provided with the audio components and all students have to do is click on them to listen to them. Then students can proceed to answer the questions to the activities provided. To some of the activities, the moderator has included videos from 'Youtube' that has the songs' videoclips which students are asked to describe or compare.
For some of the activities, like the listening activities, students are required to download a Microsoft Word file in order for them to complete the activity. Then, students would have to open Microsoft Word and do the activity through that program which they can later print out and pass to their teachers for evaluation.
3. What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?Students have to know only basic computer skills in order to use this application. This site requires students to know skills like typing, browsing, click and drag, drag and drop, copy and paste, and some of the activities also require students to download files. Because some of the links appear to be broken, students too have to be good at finding their way back to the site. :)
4. While you are “playing”/”accessing”/”assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in a self-study?No, when using this site, it doesn’t remind me of anything I did in the classroom. It’s not that the classroom experience is unfavorable to me, but the feeling and ambience of the learning process is not the same. Some of the materials used for classroom activities are quite similar to the ones in the site, but maybe because they are not printed in black and white on a piece of paper, I feel a much stronger inclination to complete the exercises. Perhaps it is the layout of the site, which is light, and with moderate use of colors, it makes it feel more fun to do. If one does exercises in class, with a teacher, with friends, or in self-study, he or she would normally only make use of printed papers and books to assist learning of language. If compared to doing exercises on this site, it makes the traditional learning a bit of a hassle since I would have to use pen and write untidily on the paper or book. But with this site, I can just click, and drag, and click some more. The biggest hassle would only be typing my answers out, which is nothing compared to writing it traditionally. Other than that, for some activities, the feedback is straight away. One click of an answer and I can already know if I got it wrongly or correctly. Plus, I don’t have to wait or the correct answers from the teacher, the site provides me with all that at a click. Perhaps it gives me a sense of responsibility to my own learning, which motivates me to go on and on. Although the activities are similar to what I’m used to in the classroom, but doing it in the site makes it seem less like a chore, I actually enjoy doing it and in fact, couldn’t stop myself from doing the activities.
5. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?There are five theories that are used in the site that I can pinpoint. They are the content-based instructional approach, the inductive learning theory, the active learning theory, the cognitive learning theory, and the Input Hypothesis.
The grammar teaching in this site, in regards to ‘The Happy Verby Gang’, is significantly very much stressed on inductive grammar teaching. This is where students are given materials where they can discover for themselves the grammar component, the rules and its usages based on the examples given to them. Hence, inductive learning is also known as discovery learning. By discovering the grammar rules on their own, before going into the technical explanation of the grammar component, students will be more aware of the knowledge on that grammar component. This is because they derive the knowledge on their own based on the examples of the practical use of that grammar component. When they become conscious of the rules, the knowledge is more strongly embedded to them and it helps with learning a second language. Once they’ve got the rules fixed in their minds, then they can confirm it and expand their knowledge by referring to the grammar forms and usages that are available at a click. Then students move on to strengthen the knowledge further more by doing the exercises, from easy exercises to the more difficult exercises like the contrast exercises. This method of learning, from discovering the rules, to expanding the knowledge on form and use, to doing the exercises from easy to difficult, this is very much related to active learning and learning cognitively. In the theory of cognitive learning, two things are important, the human mind is an active organized information processor, and prior knowledge plays a big role in learning. Thus, by making students actively engaged in discovering the rules, students have a basic idea of the grammar rule. Then, students refer and expand their knowledge by reading on the form and use of grammar, strengthening their prior knowledge, and later they have to actively think to answer the questions on that grammar component which completes the process of learning. By organizing learning this way, it makes use of the cognitive learning theory and active learning theory. Not only that, it makes learning coherent with the constructivist theory of learning, which will be focused on the next question.
The concept of ‘The Happy Verby Gang’ is very much content-based too. This is said because of the way the teaching of verb tenses is done. A scenario is created by the moderator to enhance the teaching of this grammar component, which is done to help student understand the grammar rules better and not be confused by the variations of tenses in the English language. Here, the ‘Gang’ is used as a vehicle to teach the grammar component itself.
The method of how the moderator organized the content of 'The Happy Verby Group' by giving the example, then the explanation or form and use, and then the exercises from easy to difficult (contrast exercises), is an example of Krashen's Input Hypothesis Theory (i+1). The learning progression takes place step by step according to the 'natural progression' of language learning. This can be seen when as students are able to complete one level of exercise (i), they progress to a more challenging exercise which they can comprehend (i+1).
6. How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website?“Constructing meaning is learning” (Hein, 1991), this is what is means by the constructivists. Personally, this is what learning is to me. No knowledge is readily out there, waiting to be picked and eaten like fruits, but it is what we see, embrace and make meaning of that are knowledge. In application, this site has definitely adhered to this theory. It can be seen again in ‘The Happy Verby Gang’, which has been created by the moderator of the site. By letting students to make meaning of the knowledge on verb tenses on their own using their sensory input, students have constructed the knowledge on their own by relating them to their own prior knowledge. Learning tenses in this site is solely based on the students’ competency in making meaning of what they read for each tense, but of course with some guidance by the teacher to assist them in case they go astray, and this is a hundred percent based on the constructivist theory of learning.
7. In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation – was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?Based on my evaluation, I don’t believe that the computer is a replacement for teachers. It is true that it is more fun, easier, and for some more complete, but it cannot fully be exchanged with teachers. The computer is programmed by humans before we can use it. So anything that is in the computer can never be as flexible as teachers. What is programmed into the computer is what is available to students. Since it is almost impossible for us to create a perfect computer, which can readily adapt to our every need and desire, we can never really turn to computers as a replacement yet. Computers act only as a mean to help teachers embed knowledge to students. Computers serve as the material to assist in students’ learning process, and teachers are the one that guide students to discovering that knowledge. Other than that, computers are lacking in emotion. This is an important reason why it cannot replace teachers. Yes, computers are interactive, but they are not interactive in the human way. Yes, they can make analysis but they cannot feel what the students feel, empathize on them, and direct them like a human teacher can. They are only a mean of personalizing students’ learning and making students feel more motivated and responsible in their own learning. But at the core of the computer, behind it is always a teacher as the programmer.
8. Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?Yes, I would definitely use this site for my future work. This is due its vast amount of activities and ideas for projects that students can do in class. Not only the amount is huge, the activities provided by the moderator are also very interesting and would be fun for students to do. I myself find the site delightful and I had a fun time browsing through the site. The use of songs, sound clips and activities created using Hot Potato really intrigues me. I bet students are going to like them a lot too. I could use the site as it is in class, I could use the ideas to make my own lessons interesting, I could also print out some of the activities for students to practice in class. Furthermore, I believe there are many beneficial points that come from this site since it is based on legitimate learning theories.
9. Suggestions/Recommendations.The first thing I would like to suggest is that it would be great if the moderator could provide teaching material like 'The Happy Verby Gang' for other components of English like nouns, adjectives, prepositions, etc. Then, students can learn on their own or refresh their knowledge with the one in the site. Some students have difficulty in understanding the grammar rules taught by teachers at school, so this kind of teaching method would definitely help these students.
The site moderator should provide answers to all the activities that are provided. This is because for some of the activities which do not have answers, it may be quite difficult for an ESL student to know or guess the answers to the questions. If this happens, teachers who are assisting students in the activities should be aware of the activities that are a bit confusing or difficult, and give guidance to students on how to answer the questions. Teachers could also first teach a topic and use a related activity, but they must make sure to check all the activities that are going to be used in class beforehand to make it easier for students to practice.
Although the activities are varied and as the students browse through they can see a pattern of difficulty levels in the activities, but some of these activities are not specified whether they are easy or medium or difficult. If the moderator address these levels and organize them sequentially, it would be much easier for students to access what they desire. If this can't be done, teachers would have to carefully pick and address them first.
This site is also not as organized as I would have liked it to be. So maybe a better system of organizing the content would make this site perfect. Some of the links are very confusing, and eventually leads to a broken link. It is better if the layout is something much easier for students to access. For example, it would be best if the moderator can put divide teaching and learning under a big topic, and the exercises should have another big topic even though they go the same page.
Other than that, the problem with this site is that its network server is a bit unstable. It would be better if the moderator can find a better host for her website because it is pretty disturbing to the learning process when students have to refresh the pages on the site very frequently. And finally, the site should be updated and maintained regularly so there won’t be any missing links.
References:
1. Brown, H.D (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New York: Longman.
2. Brown, H.D (2001). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Longman.
3. Hein, G. E. (1991). Constructivist Learning Theory. Retrieved 6 February 2009, from Institute for Inquiry, http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citapa.htm
4. Biology Success! Teaching Diverse Learners. (2005) Using Varied Instructional Techniques: Inductive and Deductive Teaching Approaches. [PDF file] Retrieved 6 February 2009, from http://www.landmark.edu/institute/grants_research/biology_success/samples/inductivedeductive.pdf
