Video Podcast for EFL Students

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=s5XyCm9RUgw

I have to admit that I am not good enough using technology, specially video editing software, but I tried to do y very best.

1.Description of intended students.

My students are 8th Spanish native speakers graders that are learning English as a foreign language. They are quite motivated to learn not only the language but also the culture that United States has. So, in order to help them to learn I planned this activity.

2.Description of Language Objective and Content Objectives for the individual podcast.

Languages Objectives: Provide the students the opportunity to listen to a native speaker, and to pay attention about what she says in relation to Thanksgiving, and based on the information they are provided, they have to write the answers for some questions. Then, they have to share with their classmates
Content objective.
Students will be able to appreciate the traditions of United Sates, understanding that they reflect the identity of each person that live there.

3.Description of the elements that make the podcast comprehensible.

I do think that this podcast is going to catch the students’ attention, because as they are interested in knowing about American parties and celebrations, they can be motivated easier, even though if the video they are shown is presented by an American native speaker. I do think that students are more motivated to learn and to participate in the activities the teacher plans for them, when they are expose to an authentic situation and the language is spoken by a native speaker.

4.Descriptions of the strategies that we have covered that have informed the choices that you have made with the podcast and how you will use it with students.

Based on the observations that I have made and also in the book I have read, I think that when the teacher has high expectations on his/her students they can notice this and feel themselves motivated to learn and do the things they are supposed to do. With this video I hope my students be able to understand a little more about American celebrations and also what this celebration means for American people. I also want them to improve their listening comprehension, by listening to an English native speaker.

Student Teaching and Job Shadowing Practicum at Sacajawea Middle School.

I did my teacher shadowing at Sacajawea Middle School. Supposedly I was going to work with the ESL teacher, but she already had three volunteers in her classroom. So, she decided that the best place for me to stay in was with the World Languagues Teacher NAMI MEIER. so, I was assigned to her classroom. She speaks Japanese, French, German, Spanish and English. The students whom I was working with were all native English speakers, and as they were studying Spanish the teacher was always motivating them through funny reviews, games and group work, in order to help her students to learn in a better way. She also knows that the students are able to acquire a language faster only if they can understand and practice it. For this reason, she was always motivating the students to participate in the class, she wanted to take advantage of my presence in the classroom, because they had not had the opportunity to work with a native Spanish speaker before; and as soon as they began to lose their shyness, they started to ask me questions in Spanish. They were asking me all the time; how can I say this? What does it means?

One thing that caught my attention in this school was that on november 20-26 it was conducting "Student Led Conferences". I suppose that you are wandering what Student Led Conference is about. The information that I got will help everyone understand why and what students are for. Students are doing Student Led Conference so that they are clear on the learning objectives and how well they are learning them, and what they need to improve on. It also brings parents into students learning process. It is for students to see that they control the learning and it is not just something that is happening to them.
I found that this is a good idea, because it helps students be aware and in control of their learning.

I really enjoyed to be in this school. The students were so kind to me, they made me feel so comfortable. I spent a very good time there. I learnt a lot from the teacher, she was pretty awesome.

Reflection 6: Responde to a question about English Teaching

http://www.everythingesl.net/askjudie/?i=4189&n=250

Ells with learning disabilities.

by Sandy Costin on Oct 01 2006 6:09 AM

How long do you continue to service ELLs who have already been classified with learning disabilites? They will continue to qualify for services because of the disablity.

Re: Ells with learning disabilities
by Claudio A. on Nov 27 2008 2:20 PM

Nowadays, classrooms are filled with an increasing number of students who have been identified as having "special needs", from English language learners, to children with behavioral problems, to those with learning disabilities, as well as some who are labeled "gifted and talented." Experienced teachers know, though, that every student has special needs on some days, and will sometimes be gifted and talented. Part of the skill of teaching involves being able to respond to those needs in a way that helps each student learn. These days, with the increasing diversity of classrooms coupled with pressure to cover more curriculum in less time and have all students perform at a standard level, even the best teachers can benefit from having a collection of best practices for differentiating instruction at hand.


I personally believe that those students must have access to high-quality instruction designed to help them meet high expectations. Teachers should employ strategies known to be effective with English learners, such as drawing on their prior knowledge; providing opportunities to review previously learned concepts and teaching them to employ those concepts; organizing themes or strands that connect the curriculum across subject areas; and providing individual guidance, assistance, and support to fill gaps in background knowledge. Another examples of sheltered English techniques are the use of visual aids, such as props, pictures, gestures, and facial expressions, to help convey meaning; encouraging children to expand and elaborate their responses to help develop oral expression abilities; and structuring oral input based on the level of understanding that children have.

Reflection 5: She already knows

The students whom I am working with, are Spanish language learners and the teacher in order to make this process easier, she is always planing funny activities for them keeping always in her mind the Comprehensible Imput Hypothesis (suggested by Krashen). According to this hypothesis, the students are able to acquire a language only if they can understand it. For this reason, the teacher is always motivating the students to participate in the class. In order to do that she has to find different didactive ways to make information more comprehensible for the learner by using different strategies like connecting new information to prior knowledge, using gestures, body language, drawing, etc.
The teacher had not had the opportunity to work with a native Spanish speaker before. Now that I am working with her, she is teaching with social interaction because she is encouraging her students all the time to ask me things in order to practice their Spanish with me. This strategy is resulting very effective because all the students, even those who were always afraid of speaking are taking risk and participating.

Reflection 4: A topic in Language education that I want to know more about.

In my years of study, I have learned many things about teaching, different methods and some very effective techniques. However, I realized that I did not know much about how to work with students with developmental disabilities. So, I would really like to know how to work with these students and also how could I evaluate them. Students with developmental disabilities are a rapidly growing minority on schools,this is the main reason why schools are facing the ethical dilemma of how to balance the rights of students with learning disabilities with the academic integrity of a course of study.

The other day, I was talking to the teacher who I am working with about this issue, and she told me that a small percentage of students with disabilities, specially those with severe cognitive disabilities, are not able to participate in the assessments that their teacher has developed for all the students, so they have to be assessed differently.

http://www.ncld.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=271

Reflection 3: A case of effective language teaching.

The students whom I am working with are all native English speakers. They are studying Spanish right now, and the teacher is always motivating them through funny reviews, games and group work, in order to help her students to learn in a better way. This is the reason why the students are always motivated and willing to participate in all the activities she plans for them.

These students began to learn spanish only three weeks ago,so they already know just some basic topics like the greetings, numbers, colors, months of the year, days of the week and some daily expresions. The teacher asked the students to create a list of words with different categories (greetings, colors, number, days of the week, months of the year and daily expresions), and the students had to clasify the words according to their categories. Each category had to be represented with different color. Students also could clasify the words by making some drawings that represent the actions of the word. For example, a man moving his hand could represent either Hola or Adios. what I like the most about the teacher is that she is always motivating her students to participate encouraging them not to be afraid of making mistakes and if they are having difficulties this is not a reason for fear or embarrasement.
The teache

Reflection 2 : Websites that might help.

I am doing my teacher shadowing with the World Languages teacher at Sacajawea Middle School. She is teaching a Spanish unit, and the main problem that students present is about pronunciation. But, as I am not going to teach Spanish to my future students in Chile, I looked for some websites that might help them in their process of learning the ENGLISH language and I found some.

http://voicethread.com/#home

http://voicethread.com/#q.b45155.i236192


I chose the link above(a Mini-story) because I firmly believe that when the teacher uses Listen & Answer Mini-Stories, students learn two to four times faster than students in normal English classes. In these stories, the teacher can ask a lot of easy questions while telling a story. The questions encourage students to think and respond quickly in English, without translation. This is the reason why I would use Listen & Answer Mini-Stories in all of my lesson sets.
Students' time is valuable and I want them to make maximum progress for each minute they spend with my lessons. I think that if I use listen and answer mini-stories, students will have more fluent speech, greater confidence, and better listening comprehension.

Reflection 1: Podcasting my way to mastery of English

While I was looking for podcasts for my students to use, I came across with some interesting websites in which I could find a lot of videos with very useful information not only for my future students to use, but also for me to learn from.


http://voicethread.com/#q

This website provide a wide range of information from which everybody can choose the one that is more suitable for them according to the topic they are interested in.

http://www.teachertube.com

This website is quite useful for any teacher because it does not matter what major they have, there are a lot of information available here for teachers to use.

In my personal case, I do not want to be a boring teacher, with very old fashion teaching methods and strategies, so I do think that these websites will help me to be always updated.

The Classroom Story.

Stone Fox.
Strategy: Teaching with High Speciation.
The teacher has high expectations of his students. So he feels comfortable and confident to their abilities.
This strategy is quite effective


Wine Box Sledding.
Strategies: Teaching through Social Interaction.
Students are support in L1 and also in C1
Students play role and have outdoor activities
These strategies are quite effective to catch students’ interest


Scene- Setter Visuals.
Strategy: Teaching Through Content
The creation of a pre reading activities facilitates the students’ process of learning, even more if they are exposed to images and videos.
Paraphrasing is another useful strategy to facilitate the learning process.
Very effective strategies.


Power Words.
Strategies: Multimodality (use of color, drawings, magazine pictures, charts stick on the wall, etc)
Students create a list of terms that they want to use. Also they have to classify words into categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.)
These are good strategies because each student learns different. For example, some can learn vocabulary faster classifying words into categories.


Spin-Off Stories.
Strategies: Teaching Through Content
After reading the story, students share some personal experiences related to their pets and also the teacher does. There is a kind of rapport between students and the teacher. Students can express themselves using the multiple intelligences. Some of them are better in expressing their ideas writing them and other is better in expressing their ideas through drawings.



All the strategies that I could find in the text are quite useful; after all, the purpose of each strategy is to improve students’ skills.

Personal thoughts about my future students

1. How do I make learning motivating for my students?

First, by making them aware of the importance of knowing English and all the opportunities that they can have in life if they learn English.
Secondly, by providing a variety of activities so that all of them can participate.
By showing them through those activities, they can use the language in different contexts
By taking their ages and interests into account when plannning a lesson.

2. What are the barriers for teachers to teach english in a way that's motivating to students now?

One of the barriers is the lack of knowledge of English students may have and that make them feel frustrated because they are not able to follow the class.
Another one is that students have just a few hours of English per week and this may mean that English is not so relevant in their curriculum.
Most of the times clases are based on grammar only so students do mechanical exercises all the time.


3. What do I need to know about my students in order to make the class more motivated for them?

Their social and cultural background, their interests and their expectations in life, also to know about the topics they would like to know about in their classes and the way they would like to work in classes.

"Teaching through content", "Teaching throught social Interaction", Teaching with hight expectation"

I firmly believe that we, as a future teacher, should try to incorporate these 3 stretegies in every class we teach in order to create a better class environment and to help our students in their process of learning.
I think that with a little imagination, teachers can create fun lessons that integrate conversation skills and tasks with various content no matter what the contents are and what level the classes are. Through trial, error, and determination, I think that many of the basic conversation, games and activities that EFL teachers use can be adapted to fit the needs of content courses.

Teaching through content is a very good way to keep our students motivated and engaged in the activities we planned for them. And based on this principle I think that the best way to accomplish the goals of the class is to encourage students to work in groups so they share their insight and also with the idea that those student who learn faster help those who learn slower and give them feedback.

I would like to be able to apply these three principles in my future classes. I would try to use the most effective strategies that I am learning here to teach my students in order to they can reach their goals.

Problem solving and social interaction.

The activity we planned is about the Mapuches' culture. Students have to follow the following steps:

1st and 2nd step

What do you know about Mapuches’ culture?

Students have to work in groups of 6, the have to Brainstorm, Ideas about what they know.
They also have to write the most important idea in a cardboard and then explain it in front of the class

The teacher gives a brief description and introduction about Mapuches’ Culture; Hometown, Traditions, Food and clothing.
Teacher brings some visual aids. (mapuches’ jewelry )

Brainstorm about students own culture
Students have to work in groups of 6. They have to brainstorm, Ideas about what you know
They also have to write the most important idea in a cardboard and then explain it in front of the class.


3th and 4th

Once the students have shared their ideas, the classroom as a whole decides which the most important concepts about both cultures are. Then, students compare the positive and negative aspects of each culture.

5th step

Students have to work in group of five and create four questions for a Mapuche guest speaker that is coming to the class. The questions have to be created based on what was discussed in class. The interview will be recorder in order to be analyzed in class and shared with the other English classes to make debates and exposition of the Mapuches’ culture.

Learning Through Content

The topic that I chose to teach is about the simple present and the final S/ES

Students have to read a paragraph. Then complete the paragraph about Sam's life using "he" in place of "I". They will need to change the verbs.
Students will know that the present simple tense is used to describe daily activities.

SAM'S DAY:
I leave my apartment ast 8:00 every morning. I walk to the bus stop and catch the 8:10 bus. It takes me downtown. Then I transfer to another bus, and it takes me to my part-time job.I arrive at work at 8:50. I stay until 1:00, and then I leave for school. I attent classes until 5:00. I usually study in the library and try to finish my homework. Then I go home around 8:00. I have a long day.


Sam _leaves_ his apartment at 8:00. _He walks__ to the bus stop and _______________ the 8:10 bus. It takes him downtown. Then_________________to another bus, an it takes him to his part-time job. ___________________________at work at 8:50.__________________until 1:00, and then _____________________for school. _________________classes until 5:00. __________ usually _______________ in the library and ______________to finish his homework. Then ______________home around 8:00.______________a long day.



This example was taken from a grammar book.

Video

In the learning process children learn by association, associating words with things.

"Gina's social and psychological distance to Spanish language, culture and speakers"

1. Social Dominance. Whose social group is more dominant?
I think there is not a great social dominance because the both languages (english & spanish)have a great number of speakers, and they are spoken almost simultaneously.

2.Integration Pattern. How much do learners integrate, or do they do most things apart from the mainstream?
Gina's interaction with the target language can be greater, because there are a great amount of spanish speaker and she can interact with then every time she wants.


3. Enclosure. To what extent does learner's group have their own resources for interaction, such as church, publications, clubs?
There is not information about it.

4. Size. How large is the group?
There is no information about the size of the group.

5. Cohesiveness. How much does the group "stick together"?
The two groups interact each other daily and because of this the second language learner is exposed to the target language and culture many times.

6. Cultural Congruence. How are the cultural patterns and customs of the home culture and the target culture alike or different?
Cultural patterns and customs are totally different.

7. Attitude. What attitudes do the home and target cultural groups have toward one another?
I do not know if the differences are respected but I think that should be a respectful attitude between cultures, understanding differences with tolerance.

8. Intended lenght of residence. How long does the learner intend to stay in the new country?
the learner would be inmerse in the spanish setting just a quarter


Psychological Distance

1. Motivation. Does the learner want to learn the new language?
Gina is always telling us how motivated she is to learn Spanish .She is very willing to learn.

2. Attitude. How does the learner feel toward the target-culture group?
Gina shows a positive attitude toward the spanish speaking culture, she wants to learn Spanish in a short period of time.

3. Culture Shock. Is the learner suffering culture shock
There is no cultural schock at all.

School visit: Bridgeport and Brewster

This has been the most interesting experience that I have had in the United States related to the teaching-learning process maybe because I had the opportunity to get into the classroom and see how an English native speaker teacher teaches to children whose first language is not English. The majority of the students in these both schools come from Mexico but some were born here that why some of them speak English as fluently as a native speaker does but some of them do not.

The fact that caught my attention positively was the size of the class. In Chile there are at least forty five students per classroom and in these both schools the largest class was about twenty nine students or so. Another thing that caught my attention was the fact that every teacher has his/her own classroom and he/ she can decorate according to their students need. I really liked the classroom atmosphere in Bridgeport.

In relation with the second school we visited I did not like it at all because in spite of having a big percentage of Spanish speakers, there were NOT any Spanish speaker teachers. So, I think is pretty difficult for these kids to learn. The only thing I liked from Brewster was its mission in which it was said that “…provide a positive environment where all students reach their greatest academic achievement potential, become self-directed, life-long learners who are able to comprehend, reason and communicate effectively.

Cheer in a positive maner
Lead by example
Always display school pride
Show respect to all
Success through sportmanship

Knowing our students

Anonymous.
(Elementary English teacher)

What I would consider a really successful English learning would imply the development of the 4 abilities in an integrated way and the possibility of applying what students have learned in different contexts. This can be made by designing learning activities (to develop the 4 skills) around a topic of the students's interests. Success should be measured to the extent they can produce oral or written texts based on the information (content, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc) they have learned from the activities, and also from their capacity to understand written and oral texts they read or listen to and to react and give opinions about some issues.
A bad learning would the opposite of what I have outlined before, that is it would be one that is solely based on one component of the language, for example only grammar or a list of vocabulary words out of context, without incorporating activities through which they can create or produce texts (orally and in a written form). Activities which lead to memoristic learning is an example of bad learning.

My trip to Seatle.

Last week Chile teach team went to Seatle, a very nice and big city.
Personally, I spent a very good time there, I went to the pike place public market, the acquarium, the space needle, but what I liked the most was the china town. It was just amazing.

I went to dance too, here is the link of the club, if you like to see it click on it.
http://www.clubcontour.com/

When we were comming back our van broke down. This was an funny experience.

Listening real English online

http://mansioningles.com/listening02.htm

Conditions:
Interaction
authentic audience
Expose to a variety of language
Right amount of time
Students- focused

What my teacher believes about technology

1.- What role do you think technology does take/can take in learning?
Technology is nowadays a fundamental element for learning provided it is not just another way of saying the same as in a paper and pencil work. Technology should be used in a creative and motivating way so that it can have real effect on the student. Although technology may facilitate the teacher's preparation of classes, it also implies being able to use technological resources (hardware), being updated with technological changes, and a capacity to understand and select the most appropriate information for classes. For the students, technology is a fundamental resource to be updated, to enlarge their knowledge about different topics and to develop their research abilities.

2.- what role should the learner take in the classroom?
The learner should have a very active role, this implies attention, concentration and willingness to engage in class activities and, finally, do them. The student should be an autonomous person who must be in charge of his/her own work, with initiative and self commitment.

3.- what role should the teacher take in the classroom?
the teacher should be a guide and councellor concerned with the student's activities, but above all, he/she should be able to provide students with different types of activities that foster their analytic and reflective capacities. The teacher should challenge the students' capacities and widen their horizons .

4.- what does good teaching look like?
In my opinion. good teaching is probably affected by multiple factors and made up of three main elements: an engaged student, an engaged teacher and life-like, challenging and motivating activities.

What role do you think technology does take/can take in learning?

I think the use of ICTs can improve learning: multimedia resources provide the same information in different ways, that provides input for the different learning styles; when working with computer programs students can work and repeat the same exercise as many times as they require and the computer will always be patient enough. The availability of information makes it possible for students to satisfy almost instantly their curiosity or desire to learn something else about the topics they are studying in class. But ICTs by themselves cannot make the difference, in my humble opinion, it is the way in which the teacher uses them that will make the difference.

What role should the learner take in the classroom?

A more active one, more independent from the teacher since all the information, say from the Internet is there for him/her to get. Therefore we may have more autonomous students, less dependent on the teacher's knowledge or lack of it if you want. I think learning to learn can be more easily achieved through technology. On the other hand, ICT can motivate students to develop different abilities or to make the most in spite of their capabilities.
Computers perhaps may encourage solitary work, so I think, it depends on the teacher to make it more collaborative, like group work , for example and in this way to help/teach them work more collaboratively

What role should the teacher take in the classroom?

Teacher , I think, may lose their central role, and they should become leaders and also managers of the class, but also facilitators, one who helps and also someone who is there learning with their students.
In my opinion ICTs represent a challenge for teachers because that means that we have to learn new things, and in some cases, we will have to learn things our students already know. This is a great challenge

What does good teaching look like?

It´s a difficult question to answer because teaching is a collaborative activity where teacher7student should work together. Anyway I would say, good teaching is getting the desire outcomes, helping to create an adequate learning environment, establishing an atmosphere of trust, helping and supporting students to discover their strong points and to strengthen their weak ones.

DEL.IC.I.OUS... Social bookmarking

www.delicious.com/chileteach

This link has several links inside that I consider are very useful for us because of some of these are related to the acquisition of English as a foreign language.

today I also learn about others interesting pages like
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ and http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Just enjoy them !!!

Martin Maximiliano

Third reflection: Bots as Language Learning Tools

Foreign Language Learning (FLL) students commonly have few opportunities to use their target
language. Teachers in FLL situations do their best to create opportunities during classes through
pair or group work, but a variety of factors ranging from a lack of time to shyness or limited opportunity for quality feedback hamper this. This paper discusses online chatbots' potential role in fulfilling this need. Chatbots could provide a means of language practice for students anytime and virtually anywhere.

Learning a language is not easy. Even under the best conditions students face cultural differences, pronunciation problems, ebbing motivation, a lack of effective feedback, the need to learn specialized language, and many other obstacles during their studies. Students in foreign language learning situations commonly face all of these general challenges while having little or no opportunity to use their language of study beyond the classroom, where students classically listen to a recording then repeat and/or write in a workbook. More recently, students might interact with some language software during laboratory periods. During class, students may or may not practice with other students and only in the smallest classes do students get a chance to practice one-on-one with their teacher. The practice students might obtain in class is often not very interactive and potentially plagued by lack of confidence, shyness, and unchecked mistakes in grammar and pronunciation (students in pairs or group practice).

Nowadays, there are 750 million EFL speakers in the world (Graddol, 2000), many of whom live in countries with relatively few native speakers and have little opportunity to practice English. A chatterbot’s purpose, as previously stated, is to carry on a conversation with a human being. This makes chatterbots a potentially valuable resource for EFL learners. Their value as learning tools is limited, however, by their still growing language abilities and design. In their present state they are most useful to higher level students. This is because most of them were designed to interact with and entertain native speakers.

Six ways in which chatbots can be potentially useful to the interested teacher are:

1) Free Speaking: This is a great way to give the students a chance to experiment. It is an excellent reward for those students who have completed their class work early. Depending on the class, the second time you assign students to free speak with a chatbot it may be helpful to give the students a topic to focus on. Assign a topic not attached to class work if this is meant to be a break rather than an extension of class.
2) Review: This has to be the most practical use of chatbots. In FLL situations it is common for students to spend a class covering material that they never get the opportunity to actually use. At the end of a class the teacher might reserve 10-15 minutes for students to try out their new language skills. This can be done with the textbook or without, depending on the teacher’s goals.
3) Self Analysis: Some chatbot WebPages provide a ‘view transcript’ function. This can be an excellent means of having students evaluate themselves, their partners, or even the bots. Simply have the students chat away in either of the above exercises, then view, print or email their transcripts to themselves.
4) For the Teacher: With the subscription of a bot like Jabberwacky, a teacher can keep track of studentbot conversations and get an idea of how students are progressing, what kind of language they need help with and perhaps most importantly, what kind of language and topics they want to learn more about.
5) For more advanced students, a piece of paper covering the screen except where he or she is typing (enter scissors and a little imagination), is a means of forcing the student to focus in on the audio and encourage them to reply as best they can. Though perhaps challenging and occasionally fraught with miscommunication, there is no risk to the
student’s confidence and when real communication occurs there is an invaluable sense of
accomplishment.
6) Finally, all of the above suggested uses assumed that computers were available in the classroom. In situations where this is not the case, similar exercises can be assigned as homework. If the teacher wishes to check and ensure the students are doing their assignments, again transcripts might be printed and brought to class or cut, pasted, and emailed to the teacher.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

In this article it is said that many Foreign Language Learning (FLL) students commonly have few opportunities to use their target language, and teachers to do their best in creating the opportunities in which students can talk with another through working in pair or in group, but sometimes we have to keep in mind that some students are shy and they are afraid of making mistakes while they are speaking.
All of us know that to learn a foreign language is not easy because it involves pronunciation problems and also imply knowing a lot of words. Foreign language learners have little or no opportunity to use their language of study beyond the classroom. They do not practice the target language in real context; they learn the language just listening to a recording then repeating and/or writing in a workbook. Shy students are always afraid of speaking in from of their class so if they had the chance to express themselves freely the would overcome their shyness and would be able to improve their confidence too.

Favorite Podcasts for ESL/EFL

For teachers' use.

I thought these link could be interesting for us as a future teachers of English.
http://coolpodcasts.wordpress.com/category/language-podcast/
http://www.myngle.com/?gclid=CJ3orvnPvZUCFQv7agod-SO5Qg
http://esl.about.com/od/teachingenglish/Teaching_English_Techniques_Resources_Certificates_Employment.htm
This link is useful for teaching listening comprehension.
http://volkerh.public.iastate.edu/projects/podcasting/

For students to practice.

We, as a future teacher can encourage our student to use the following link to look for foreign language lesson, audio book and more.
http://www.oculture.com/2006/10/university_podc.html
For students to practice their listening comprehension and having fun
http://www.rhapsody.com/musicvideos
This link is suitable for any language learning student, because in this page allows them to choose the language they want to learn.
http://www.myngle.com/?gclid=CJ3orvnPvZUCFQv7agod-SO5Qg


For Gina improves her spanish.

Gina I would suggest you to visit the next link if you want to learn Spanish as a foreign language
http://www.123teachme.com/
http://www.studyspanish.com/
http://www.myngle.com/?gclid=CJ3orvnPvZUCFQv7agod-SO5Qg

Ideas.

I would create a podcast in which I would include some videos of native speakers conversation in order to improve the students' listening comprehension and some music videos too in order to catch students' attention and get them involved in the activity they are in. Also I would add to this podcasts some interesting reading to help students to understand authentic texts and also helping them in the acquisition of new vocabulary.

Emerging Technologies.

Computer Assisted Language learning (C.A.L.L)

Most C.A.L.L. programs are geared toward receptive skills (reading and listening) because of the current state of computer technology.

Listening :http://www.mansioningles.com/listening00.htm
Reading:http://www.mansioningles.com/Lectura01.htm
Grammar: http://www.mansioningles.com/gram_ej01.htm



Computer Mediated Communication (C.M.C)

Using chat has been shown to help students routinize certain often-used expressions to promote the development of automatic structure that help develop speaking and writing (spelling)skills.
The attractiveness of instant messaging for language learners resides particularly in the addition of voice and video options for communication

Synchronous tools.
http://chat.aim.com/
http://www.ivideochat.com/

Asynchronous tools.
http://forum.khurram.ca/
http://www.blogger.com/


Drill and Practice.

You can learn about personal pronouns clicking in the following link. A short explanation will be given to you.
http://www.mansioningles.com/gram22.htm

Then you can practice doing some exercises
http://www.mansioningles.com/gram22_ej1.htm

Second Reflection.

Overview of Pronunciation in Language Learning.

“To be able to speak and listen in a second language, it is clear that language learners need something other than just phonemic correctness. As or more important seems to be the ability to comprehend and produce in a near-native-like fashion aspects of pronunciation such as stress, intonation, rhythm, and pacing, and to use gestures and body language appropriately; in other words, to have both linguistic and sociolinguistic competence” (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 1996; Florez, 1999). Most language learners feel that pronunciation is a crucial part of language learning. So, they believe the best way to improve their pronunciation is to practice, and many pronunciation experts agree that pronunciation teaching and learning must be situated in communicative contexts. Otlowski and Fraser (1999) concur with much of the current research that the goals of pronunciation teaching should be "developing functional intelligibility, communicability, increased self-confidence, the development of speech monitoring abilities and speech modification strategies for use beyond the classroom"

In order to reach these goals, some authors pay more emphasis on individual learners' needs, supporting a learner-centered approach that involves authentic tasks and the use of peers and groups for interaction and feedback to help learners be critical listeners and develop the ability to notice and repair their own and others' errors. In this model, the role of the teacher is facilitator rather than error corrector or ultimate speech model, it means that the teacher can offer various models, provide opportunities for practice, suggest specific techniques, and give encouragement and advice to learners as they work toward intelligibility.

Morley (1991) calls this role the "speech coach." Fraser (2000) calls for "high quality, effective materials, especially computer-based materials with audio demonstrations, for learners of ESL pronunciation" (p. 2). Such materials, according to Chun (1998), would have to "present authentic speech samples within their cultural contexts and call learners' attention" (p. 73) to specific features. She also suggests that the software must support pair interaction and emphasize natural discourse. It is supposed that the goal of the software is to improve clarity and accuracy of spoken communication and to help students develop effective communication skills. Connected Speech claims to do so by helping learners to identify suprasegmental features of spoken English, to reproduce them, and to be able to evaluate whether they did it well. The software covers pause groups, pitch change, word and syllable stress, and linked words, and also has exercises in minimal pairs and syllable recognition

In order to evaluate pronunciation software, we need to assess how well it teaches, or helps us to teach, in ways that will help students improve their pronunciation. There are some criteria that we have to keep in mind, but it does not imply that the software must meet all of these conditions.

1. Present Authentic Speech Samples and Natural Discourse.
The different versions (North American, Australian, and British English) and the inclusion of a variety of speakers in CS clearly demonstrate to learners that "English" is many different things.

2. Focus Learners' Attention on Both Segmental and Suprasegmental Features.

This is a real strength of CS. Learners can listen, produce, and learn about these features through a large number of exercises on any of three levels.

3. Support Social Interaction and Communication.
While the ultimate goal of CS is to improve students' oral communication, there are no opportunities within the software itself for authentic communication and no real examples of such.

4. Focus on Intelligibility.
According to Darhower (2002), the speech recognition does not always work, and when it does it does not always work well. In addition, whether the computer can recognize an utterance may not have any relation to whether the same utterance can be recognized by other speakers.

5. Support the Development of Metacognition and Critical Listening.
According to pronunciation research, this happens through real communication, which is not possible with CS.

6. Provide Opportunities for Practice.
CS does provide many opportunities for practice with both segmental and suprasegmental features. This practice is within the context of the audio clips, but because of the limitations of the technology, it is typically drill-based.

7. Provide Scaffolding and Individualized Feedback.
Help is presented in the form of both oral and written instructions.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Personal Comment.

From my point of view, this article has attempted to show how students can improve their speaking and listening performance through a software called "Connected Speech" in wich students can listen to native speakers' voice recorded and then repeat the patrons of the speech. However, the author says that language learners need something other than just phonemic correctness. (stress, intonation, rhythm, and pacing, and to use gestures and body language appropriately are needed). Some learners think that pronunciation is a crucial part of language learning so, as they need to produce a cohesive and coherent discourse in order to understand and be understood, they claim that the best way to improve their pronunciation is through practice. I think that this software is so beneficial for those teachers who are not educated in pronunciation or not confident about their own because it provides support and help. Nevertheless, for those learners who do not learn well through drill and repetition this software will not be useful and thet might be bored quickly.

The use of technology for second language learning and teaching

Through TELEPHONE we can encourage students to practice their speaking and listening comprehension, making them to work in pair in order to improve their speaking and listening performance focused on producing a cohesive and coherent oral discourse.

Chiquillos' blogspots

Sue: http://susanachileteach.blogspot.com/
Pamela: http://pamelachileteach.blogspot.com/
Carolina R: http://cromeroabarca.blogspot.com/
Francisco H: http://fhauyon.blogspot.com/
Carolina: http://carolinateachings.blogspot.com/
Abbie: http://abbielucay.blogspot.com/
Pilar: http://ewusemester.blogspot.com/
Francisco: http://learninginthestates.blogspot.com/
Paulina: http://pauinewu.blogspot.com/
Nina: http://learningfaraway.blogspot.com/
JC: http://juankspace.blogspot.com/
Marian: http://marianelace.blogspot.com/
Felipe: http://studyinginewu.blogspot.com/
Sandra: http://sandrainus.blogspot.com/

My first webquests - "Labor day"

LABOR DAY

1.- Which kind of activities do people do during the LABOR DAY ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day

http://labor-day-weekend.com/

http://www.ehow.com/how_2082085_celebrate-labor-day-family.html

2.- In what LABOR DAY consists on?

http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=316&display_order=1&mini_id=1060

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day

http://www.kidsturncentral.com/holidays/laborday.htm

3.- How LABOR DAY is celebrated in different states of USA

http://www.123greetings.com/events/labor_day/info/labor_day_celebrations.html

4.- Activities

Labor Day coloring pages:

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/coloring-pages/labor-day/index.html

Language learning and technology

"To gloss or not to gloss": An investigation of reading comprehension online.
Language Learning & Technology, Vol. 1, No. 2.


Summary.

The author of this article, talks about the use of glosses in order to improve reading comprehension online and her opinion is supported by other authors who claim that gloss provides a brief definition of some words in order to facilitate reading and comprehension processes for second language learner. In this article, some authors define gloss as “short definitions” (Nation 1983) and Pak (1986) refers to them as “explanations of the meanings of words”.
The author of the article, Lara L. Lomicka, says that online glosses can be found in the form of video, sound, or pictures. Icons, a type of picture, have also been used as glosses in order to help readers to understand the text in a better way.
In this article it's also said that some authors, Stewart and Cross (1991),studied the effect of glossing on reading comprehension and retention and according to them, elaboration glosses
"clarified the texts with statements, questions, or both," while bridging glosses "combined a statement and a question and acted as a bridge between prior learning and new information" (p. 5). According to them, these first two types of glosses are designed to help the reader process the propositions of a text. The third type of gloss used by Stewart and Cross, key point and vocabulary glosses (p. 6), underscore important statements or provided brief definitions of words.


::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::



I choose this article because when I began to study English as a foreign language the most dificult thing that I had to solve was to learn how to read and several times I found myself totally lost and it took me a lot of time to overcome this. This article is about the use of glosses as a tool for improving reading comprehension online and it is shown in this article how through technology students can improve their reading comprehension and acquire new vocabulary through images, icons and videos with and without sound.
I think that when students read a text and they don't understand some words they usually feel frustrated and they think that it is imposible for them to resolve it and the only thing they have to do is look for the unknow words in the dictionary, but this interfere in their reading comprehension because they can loss the main idea of the reading.

Inspiration Program.

My favourite page to teach English specially to beginners

http://www.mansioningles.com/

I like this page very much. It was the page that I used the most last year when I taught English to kids.

I used this page because it helped me in several aspects like:

1.- Interaction: I taught English in a rural area and the school had only one computer per classroom, so this page was useful for me in order to promote the interaction between students when they had to do some assigment.

2.- Authentic audience: As you see, in this page you can find a section in which students can have access to a short dialogues and practice their listening comprehension by filling out some exercises.

3.- Meaningful activities - students: there are not too many activities that students can do to enhance their language proficiency rather than listening, reading and grammar.

4.-Exposure to varieties o languagues: students are exposed to a different variety of english because of the tapes.

5.- Right amount of time and feedback: the amount of time depends on the time you want to spend reading, listening or learning new vocabulary.

6.-Motivating: this page is very motivating and it can helps students to inhance their language skills, but if they want to improve their speaking this page is not useful.

7.- Students-focused: this page is totaly focused on students.

8.- Authonomy: students learn what they want to learn noone tells them what they have to learn.

9.-Multimodality: It does not involve much multimodality because it only emphasizes listening and reading skills.

10.- Comfortable environment: it depends on the skills of the students. For some, reading is better than listening.

11.- To integrate skills: two of the four skills can be found in this page. Reading, listening are integrated but productive skills cannot be found.

12.-Clear objective: the objectives of this page are totally clear. To develop reading and listening comprehension.

My first performance in E.W.U

This is our first week of classes in EWU and me and another two people from Universidad de Playa Ancha (Panxo and Pilar) have to do an oral presentation about an article that we were given to read.


It's supposed that I should not feel nervous but I already am....

But we will do our very best.. or at least we hope so