Week 4

This week I learned a lot about how to integrate technology into the classroom. By reading lesson plans written by my colleagues and by writing one myself, I thought about some of the isssues raised by the use of technology and I considered how to make it part of the curriculum, rather than just an add-on after the fact.

I found it interesting that the writing article mentioned the use of the Amnesty International website as part of a lesson on writing a formal letter. I did a similar lesson when I was working in a university in Asia. As it turns out, the parents of a few students thought the writing was too political and might somehow place their children in danger or put them on some kind of a list. The fact that the students were writing to real people and were writing for a real purpose to prompt a real change in the world was viewed by the instructors (and most of the students) as a positive, but a few parents held a different view. In the end, all the students wrote letters and all the students decided for themselves whether or not to actually send the letters. This may relate to Paulo Freire's ideas in Pedagogy of the Oppressed and his other work. Once learners begin to participate in the culture outside the classroom rather than just observe it from within the classroom, people take really take notice.

This week I investigated a lot of websites! Focusing on reading, writing and vocabulary was helpful this week but it is a kind of artificial split from listening and speaking. For example, the listening part of my classes is connected to writing because the students often take notes while listening.

I found one website that is very hepful for note-taking and another one that is very helpful for building academic vocabulary. These are parts of a great website which helps learners with all academic skills: English for Academic Purposes. I was very pleased with the lay-out and content of this site and I will be suggesting that my EAP students and TOEFL-prep students use it. I plan to incorporate this material into my lessons as well.

Another great site for building vocabulary is the Academic Word List. It not only lists the words, but also has some exercises the students could use to help understand the words. Building one's vocabulary is important for all skill areas and is really motivating as well.

One really fun website is http://www.freerice.com/ This is an interactive vocabulary test that students can play and by getting the answer correct, they donate a few grains of rice to the UN food program.

Another website I like had Fairytales with annotations. Fairytales are accessible for all kinds of learners and with annotations, it is easier for the readers to understand the vocabulary, which can be old-fashioned.

Finally, I found two other websites that are good for learning tasks related to reading/writing.

One is about extraordinary people who have done heroic things, and another is about "happy news" - currect events that are positive, not negative. This type of material is motivating for learners and teachers. Sometimes in our quest to find up-to-date and relevant source material, we end up introducing some depressing subjects into class. It helps to be able to provide material that is inspirational and fun as well.

Learning should be goal-oriented and learners should be able to identify clear results. However, we need to recognize the social and psychological motivators that will help students want to learn. Some students have a kind of mental block when it comes to reading and writing in particular. They see this as difficult in L1, never mind L2 (or L3 or L4...). I think technology can help by providing materials that appeal to these students, by helping them focus on communicating their ideas and by helping them learn about and connect to the real world around them. Sometimes authentic materials are the best option, other times I think adapted materials may work better. If I recall Vygotsky's point about the zone of proximal development (L + 1) correctly, materials with language too removed from the learners' starting point is not helpful. We need to use materials that challenge, but not overwhelm the students and we need to scaffold the materials so that students can understand.