It is said that writers with peer evaluation writes better. We never know how true this could be but it might differ from one person to another.
Wikis such as Wikipedia can be used to create and edit collection of interlinked web pages. This is an example of collaborative writing whereby many writers get involved in writing or editing on a topic. Wikis also supports hyperlinks.
The advantages of using Weblog and Wikis as tool for teaching are;
real audience.
easy to use and access.
encourage collaboration among students.
develop higher level of learning.
encourage creativity.
develop social skills.
encourage single-author writing.
There are also some disadvantages in using Weblog and Wikis in teaching;
collaborative learning does not apply to all situation.
lack reliability and stability.
open to spam and vandalism.
require Internet connectivity to collaborate.
may offer disorganized information.
Weblogs has been used widely to encourage learners to write. Several blogs that are used to teach writing are WriteShop and ESLGold. Students should be encouraged too to start a blog where they could write freely but with supervision by the teachers.
The use of CALL in the teaching of reading and vocabulary is not a new thing to us nowadays. In fact, there are a lot of reading activities that one can get from the Internet and the WWW. The endless links and activities could help language learners to learn the language in a very effective way too. The reading courseware is one of the reading activity that emulates classroom reading. With the integration of computers in the reading activity, reading has became more efficient for learner by providing immediate and interactive feedback.
Here are some of the advantage of reading courseware:
Certain features can be chosen according to the problem areas of a particular class.
Text of any genre can be shared among a set of driver text manipulation programs.
Online help can also be designed to take advantage of this commonality of generic text.
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Hypertext and hypermedia have been used in developing such language learning activities for so long. Hypertext is the simpler version whereby it only involves texts, while hypermedia consists of media, audio and it is more interactive.
The 3 uses of hypermedia in CALL are for reference, instructions and research. The interactive online dictionary, for example,uses hypermedia. Learners could access to the dictionary easily. In instructions, students were given tasks that are interactive with animation, for example. Hypermedia is also important for future research and for collecting data.
A. Introduction
The title of the research that was chosen to be reviewed is "The Efficacy of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in Fostering Autonomous Learning Among ESL Upper Secondary School Students". The research paper was taken from the Internet Journal of e-Language Learning and Teaching, Volume 4, issues number 1, dated January 2007, pages 32-45. The researcher is Ng Yim San from Methodist Girls' School Penang, Malaysia. To view the research, please click HERE.
B. Summary of the research
There is no doubt that the computer has been a very useful tool in teaching and learning nowadays. There are also a lot of ways that someone could utilize the computer. With the advancement of technology, second language learning could be easier by using Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). In the Malaysia context, the Ministry of Education is also in support with the use of Information Communications Technology (ICT) and has provided both hardware and teaching courseware to all government schools to assist teachers in the teaching and learning process. The interactive courseware which is also known as MYCD covers all four skills that are the listening, speaking, reading and writing skills which aims to develop student's self-directed learning.
Traditional classroom teaching was simply the teacher talking and the students listening (Jonassen, et al., 1999). Therefore, the researcher tries to look at the effectiveness of CALL in fostering autonomous learning among ESL Upper Secondary School students.
i. The aims of the research
The aim of this research is to gauge the effectiveness of the courseware, as well as general word processing programs and web-based activities on the speaking and listening skills, in fostering autonomous learning among students from a few schools in Penang. Other than that, the students' attitudes and preferences for using CALL in language learning are also investigated.
ii. The Methodology
The respondents for the study were chosen from four schools with a similarity of the medium of instruction and the sex of the respondents. Twenty five students were selected from the top-ranked class in terms of academic performance in; (1) an all-girl national type school, (2) an all-girl Chinese school, (3) an all-boy national type school, and (4) an all-boy Chinese school. These students were assumed to possess intermediary computer skills. They also have access to computers and possess the MYCD software.
The language skills focused for this research are speaking and writing skills because out of the four skills, these two skills are required by the students to demonstrate language proficiency as required in the school-based Oral evaluation Test (OET) and written tests in both school and public examinations.
Figure 1: Proposed Model of CALL in Fostering Autonomous Learning among ESL Form 5 Secondary School Students
The framework of the study proposed a model of CALL in fostering autonomous learning among the ESL Form 5 Secondary School Students in Malaysia. Based on the framework, the Malaysian situation is more to the traditional teacher-centred method whereby the teacher conquers the lesson. However, the framework proposed more opportunities for students to learn independently with CALL, whereby the teacher acts as a facilitator, and less intensive teaching is carried out. In the classroom, students were given tasks while the teacher will assist them. Students with computers at home could also carry out the tasks at home. Email, Internet and certain software were used in completing the tasks.
iii. The Subject/ Sample
All the respondents are 17 years old at the time of the study. On the average, all the respondents have been using computers for approximately 8 years and can be considered as computer literate. This study also verifies that all the respondents have access to computers at home. However, 5% of them prefer to access the computers in the school as their computer at home does not have access to the Internet. The respondents have either used websites with interactive features or at least heard of them. An example is the Commonwealth Essay Writing Competition website whereby the students have to use the online form in order to take part in the essay competition. Besides that, they were also given websites by teachers to surf to collect information on assigned essay topics.
iv. The Findings:
1. The students prefer to learn the English Language under face-to-face classroom environment. 72% of them prefer the face-to-face approach even though they had earlier shown a relatively high degree of autonomy. This supports Thang’s (2004) findings which suggested that learner irrespective of age or disciplines prefer a more classroom-centered approach of learning to the more autonomous modes of learning.
Table 1: Cross Tabulation of Student Preference to Attend Class Versus Preference to Use the "Self-Help" Program
Based on Table 1, even though the students prefer autonomous learning, they still prefer to learn English in a face-to-face environment. They still prefer to have the teacher available for guidance in the wired classroom although they are capable of learning autonomously. In short, it is found that nearly three-quarter of the students prefer the face-to-face approach and this preference is independent of their actual ability to learn autonomously.
2. Students would be more autonomous with regards to their writing skill compared to their speaking skills. Email was used as one of an effective CALL activity that contributes to learner autonomy by providing opportunities for language improvement through real life communication and increasing awareness of language shortcomings. MYCD also help in promoting learner autonomy among the students who use it. Students also use the Microsoft Word to write essays or summaries autonomously. The thesaurus and the spell-check capabilities enable students to look up for meaning of words or spelling easily rather than referring to the dictionary. The web processor also helps to correct writing errors. However, the MYCD did not provide essential speaking activities that could help learners to learn autonomously. There are not many speaking exercises modules provided.
3. The students indicated that using computers to learn English is convenient and there is a feeling of independence.
Table 2: Reason to Improve Speaking Skills
The programs are also interesting and useful for them in learning English. Approximately half of the respondents indicated that they possess the MYCD but chose not to use it because they think that the software is somewhat boring. In contrast, the students found Microsoft Word as a useful tool to learn autonomously. In conclusion, the students are motivated to learn on their own based on how useful and interesting the CALL applications are.
4. Based on interviews with the English Language Teachers from the four different schools, all of them have a computer lab each in their schools, which is being fully utilized. The computer software is used in classroom teaching with a difference in the degree of usage by each teacher. Unanimous agreed that not all students would be able to improve their language skills if they are not supervised. This depends on the students’ proficiency. The teachers also agreed that not all students can be left by themselves in the computer lab while the teacher tends to other matters since some students would lose focus by doing unrelated tasks, while some might be dependent on the teachers for guidance, and some students might have the tendency to surf the Internet to irrelevant websites, which is unrelated to the assignment at hand. Besides that, students do not ask more questions in class than in “traditional learning” besides questions that were related to computer system issues rather than the application software.
C. Discussion
The research interests me since this is one of the common environments in the classrooms all over Malaysia nowadays. It is also interesting to know the student's opinions and reactions towards any of the new method in making teaching and learning interesting as well as to keep updated to the current trend.
The research was well conducted as the researcher selected four different groups as the respondents for the research to avoid data misinterpretation due to bias of sex and the medium of language instructions. Both the Chinese school and the national type were chosen. This would even lead to a more accurate representation of ESL secondary school students.
In general, autonomous learning might already been practiced by many higher institutions of learning or even high schools out of Malaysia. However, as for the secondary schools in Malaysia, this is one of the current trends in the classrooms learning. Some implications would be the wide use of computers in classrooms as there is an awareness of the importance of incorporating technologies into classrooms nowadays. Students would also be able to access to the Internet easily and be comfortable with autonomous learning.
In conclusion, I strongly agree with the researcher that the effectiveness of the different CALL application in facilitating autonomous learning is highly dependent on characteristics such as usefulness, interesting content, interactivity, ease of use and ability to hold the interest of the targeted students. Besides that, more focus should be put on the speaking and listening skills, besides the writing and reading skills.
This week's lesson was on CALL and the WWW. All of us are aware that the World Wide Web (WWW) provides a lot of assistance in the language learning, for instance. Therefore, there is no doubt that there are a lot of advantages of the WWW.
Some of the advantages are;
Can access anywhere and anytime as long as there is an Internet connection.
Intrinsically motivating due to the animation and sounds provided.
Learners have instant access to authentic materials.
Appeals to shy students or introvert students.
Improve reading and writing.
etc.
However, there are also a few disadvantages of the WWW. There are;
Technical and financial problems.
Lack of training and familiarity.
Too much info provided on the WWW.
etc.
Whatever it is, the Internet is still a good resource in language teaching and learning. The users should know how to access to the specific sites for their own benefits. Therefore, teachers should provide links or URLs to the learners so that they could be able to access to the specific sites without wasting their time browsing through the Internet.
Nowadays, audio files could be downloaded easily from the Internet. Some can even be downloaded for free. There are many types of audio files that can be downloaded from the Internet. Language learners could download texts read in the targeted language and this can be used in language learning.
This week's lesson was on PODCASTS. A podcast is an audio file that can be downloaded from the Internet, while podcasting is the publishing of audio or video via the Internet. It can be listened from an MP3 player, iPod or any mobile phones that has podcast application. Podcast can be very useful for students who wish to listen to lecture notes provided that it has been recorded for the purpose of learning.
One advantage of podcast is its mobility. It can be carried everywhere in a small device and learners could listen to it anytime they wish to do so.
An example for language learning podcast can be viewed here. There are a variety of examples of listening podcast on this website which could be very useful for learning language.
In short, podcast has made language learning easier and it is an effective tool to be used in language learning.
The development of CALL started way back in the 1960s but only certain institutions own computers at that time. CALL has gradually developed since then.
There are basically three phases of the development of CALL which are;
The Behavioristic Phase is also known as Structural Phase it involves the grammar and audiolingual translation. Learners work at their own pace with non-stop drilling and practice. Here, the computer acts as the tutor. The main objective was on accuracy.
The Communicative Phase is also known as the Cognitive CALL. It focused on using forms implicitly which is in an inductive way. It generates original utterances. It lets the learners to communicate and at the same time avoid telling the learners that they are wrong. The main objective was on fluency.
The Integrative Phase is where multimedia takes place. It integrates various skills of language learning and technology.
Rahara N.S. Win
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Raharas’ Great Victory It was an easy win for Rahara NS on a warm day in
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