PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD CATÓLICA DEL ECUADOR

FACULTAD DE COMUNICACIÓN, LINGÜÍSTICA Y LITERATURA

TOPICS IN LINGUISTICS

FINAL PROJECT PORTFOLIO

LISSETTE ARMIJOS

KAREN CAÑIZARES

ROGER FLORES

December 8th, 2014

1: Have you ever tried to incorporate a new technology into your classes? What

issues did you face in doing so?

In order to use technology pedagogically, I have adopted the use of the workbook in a

virtual way and I have decided to leave aside the use of a textbook itself, as students

were accustomed to. This means that students have to use a platform for submit their

assignments, practice some exercises, improve their four skills or even take quizzes or

tests. Nowadays, teachers expect to find students that are keen on the use of

technology; nevertheless, I have faced a lot of issues due to the lack of knowledge

about how to use technology in some of my students. They feel they are not able to

manage this kind of teaching method and they get frustrated because their level of

language is not the best and even worse, they cannot follow the use of the platform as

their classmates can. Thus, I have to change a lot of aspects of my teaching planning.

2: What are some benefits students can get from collaborative blogging?

I think some of the benefits that students can get from collaborative blogging is the

fact that as they interact with people around the world, they get to know other

cultures and they become more involved with the learning process of the specific

language they are acquiring. Furthermore, they can start a real or daily-life

conversation and leave aside the common exercises that come along with a textbook,

thus they can realize the type of vocabulary they need to improve or some of the

grammar rules they do not know really well, always focusing on the level of English

they are at that moment.

3: Which of the aspects of technology above are available to teachers and students in

schools in your country?

In Ecuador, students can join blended learning courses as well as distance learning

courses such as ¨coursera¨ or ¨edX¨ in order to learn other languages or improve their

skills of a specific language. On one hand, blended learning, some universities in

Ecuador offer a complete program for pursuing a degree or they just focus on language

teaching courses, thus they just have to meet the teacher on specific dates. On the

other hand, the most popular distance courses in Ecuador are, as I said before, courser

and edX sin they provide a well- structure teaching planning and also, students can

face regular assessments of the tutors. In general, students that join these types of

courses have to deal with e-mails, chat, blogs, websites, submissions and any kind of

online information.

4: How has the use of technology changed since you started teaching or learning a

language?

Few years ago, students were used to follow the exercises, quizzes or examples that

came along with the textbook and workbook. They were able to listen to some

recorded examples very rarely, and they had to take notes of every single grammar

explanation. Nowadays, students don’t have to take notes of every explanation

because it is not necessary since certain teachers are aware of several programs to

create language- learning platforms where they can provide the class explanation and

also, some extra explanation, videos, images or exercises that may help the students´

learning process. An example of a very useful platform that teachers can use

throughout their courses is ¨canvas¨.

5: What resources are available in your school? Consider the computers and the

software installed on them, the resources in the computer lab and the materials in

the library and on your network (if you have one) and that you use in your

classroom. Would you classify these as behaviouristic, communicative or integrative?

The resources we have available is the use of a blackboard where I can easily program

each lesson, create assignments, submit videos, activities, receive messages from my

students, verify the learning process and track the progress of each student.

Moreover, the teacher has access to the ¨Urkund¨ tool in order to control plagiarism

and to certify the authenticity of the students´ projects. Furthermore, the library

materials that teachers and students can access are: EBL, Ebrary, CABI, Netanatomy,

among others. I would classify all these resources as communicative and integrative

since they include aids in the learning process including every skill, and also, students

can work together using email, chat or social network in general.

6: Can you choose three benefits from those listed above that you think offer the

strongest reasons for the use of technology?

The strongest reasons for the use of technology are:

Technology helps students to increase the opportunities to be involved with authentic

interaction. They can be part of a real-life conversation and leave aside the common

and sometime unhelpful book exercises.

Technology helps students to find support in different skills. For example, if they have

to improve their writing skill, then they can search for exercises that focus on that

specific skill.

Technology encourages the learner autonomy since once they know how a specific

website works, they can become experts on searching for specific information.

Moreover, they don’t need the teacher guidance all the time, that is, they become

independent learners.

7: What do you think are the most difficult challenges teachers face in moving to

TLLT?

Some teachers may have to spend some money on extra courses in order to learn how

to manage different platforms or online tools. Also, teachers can rely entirely on

technology and plan all the lesson based on technological use, but if the internet

connection fails, then the whole lesson can go to waste. I think teachers have to think

of several activities or solutions if the internet connection doesn't work. Also, as I

mentioned, teachers may find that not all students are able to deal with technology

and they don't even have the interest of learning how to.

8: Which of the potential benefits for teachers above have you experienced yourself?

As the process of learning is developed by the teacher and the learner, I realized that

as teachers we should provide different activities according to the needs of the

learners. Therefore, I decided to tell my students to go to the web page Activities for

ESL/EFL students to practice different skills such as grammar, learn new vocabulary and

do puzzles and watch videos. The result was that they enjoyed it. Also, they found that

the web page does not provide traditional exercises so they were happy to their

learning outside the classroom. I liked the experience because I felt that my job was as

a facilitator instead of being a source of information. What I found surprising is that

learners were involved because they did what interested them.

9: How do you think computer-mediated communication can lead to increased

participation’?

Computer-mediated communication can lead to increased participation because

students know that they are no longer in an artificial communication process so they

have to express what they think in order to have interaction with other people, also it

is useful for participation because students have to face how is communication in the

real life, forget about fix expressions and try to do their best to understand what other

people is telling them. Also, as they feel more secure they will feel motivated to

practice what they learn and to improve what they did wrong.

10:Have you observed differences in your students communicative behaviour

during traditional classroom speaking practice and online communication?

There are differences in my students communicative behaviour during traditional

classroom speaking practices and online communication. In the class the majority of

them are reserved and they do not talk a lot. I have to ask them individually to get an

answer from them. I am sure that they understand what I say but I do not know what

they do not tell me. Therefore, I have an hypothesis. I believe that they are afraid of

saying something wrong, thus they do not want to feel ashamed and they prefer to be

in silent. On the other hand, in online communication they are more open, they feel

free to express their opinions, ask questions and interact not only with me but with the

rest of the class. Finally, I am sure that technology has an impact on it because even if

it provides amazing tools, it changed the way in which human beings communicate

with each other.

11: In what ways does reading a text in a book differ from reading a text online?

Reading a text in a book and online has its differences. Reading online allows learners

to look at in a dictionary the meaning of words that they do not know, also they can

use concordancers and it saves the waste of paper. The articles that are found online

are for general public and the level of complexity varies. However, a text in a book is

designed specifically for the level of the learner according with the vocabulary that he

or she is acquiring and the grammar structures that he or she knows. On the other

hand, the reading of a text online will be difficult because the grammar will be

complex, the vocabulary will be unknown and the student will face difficulties to

understand the correct meaning of a word in a different context.

12.Which of the above have you tried yourself? Can you think of additional

purposes for each of these uses of technology?

I used the videos too, I asked my students what kind of music they like to hear and

then I chose the songs that the majority of the class like the most. Also, we watched

viral videos to laugh about it and discuss why are they so popular?.

Youtube: After watching the video, learners can comment about the lyrics and discuss

why do they like or dislike the video to enhance the speaking skill.

Software: Learners can exchange videos with their classmates and they have to give a

brief feedback to them.

Tests: Add grammar exercises to improve what learners did wrong through email.

Mobile phones in class: Mobile phones should not only be used to answer to grammar

exercises from the textbook but also in a discussion topic they can write their opinions.

Poetry: Despite of using it as a warm-up once in a month learners can create poems

and they can do a contest to vote for the best. Therefore, they will improve their

writing and speaking skills.

13: How much training and support is available for teachers in your school, in the

use of technology? Draw up a plan for the kind of training programme that you think

would be useful, particularly for new teachers.

At my school there is not training to use technology in the classroom. Teachers have to

learn by themselves how to use it.

Plan for Training Programme:

Day 1: To know how to use Moodle, main features, assignments, information, videos,

images.

Day 2: To know how to put grades on Intranet.

Day 3: To Know how Infocus works in case of technological problems.

Day 4: Remember how to use basic programs such as microsoft word, powerpoint,

paint, excel so on. (Only if it is needed)

14: Talk to teachers in your school (or go online) and find out what kind of current

websites your colleagues recommend for both teachers and learners, and why.

EFL Training is a useful blog which is for teachers or for training teachers because it

provides information about learning terminology, teacher development and also

strategies for teaching.

Reflections of a Teacher and Learner is for teachers and learners. There is information

about the experience of Dave Dodgson when he taught English in Spain, his lesson

ideas, reflections, conferences, posts of general thoughts in education. This blog is

outstanding because it was the best blog of the month according with the British

Council Teaching English.

15: In section 19.2 , Levy lists five levels at which TLLT fits with current thinking in

second language acquisition and can support language teaching. Can you think of an

example of how technology could help with each of these?

Nowadays, technology is an essential part in teaching languages in the different levels.

An area that technology supports very effectively is project work, for example. It is

important to encourage learners to learn about things through language; in this way,

getting learners to do work about topics that are of interest in or topics that are taught

in other parts of the curriculum or lesson design, is a great way to improve their skills.

Technology makes this possible wherever they are in the world. Teachers and learners

can go online to read or listen to material about different areas of interest, and can

then write or speak about what they have discovered, telling others in the class or

other classes elsewhere in the world.

16: Review the three phases of CALL, identified by Warschauer, and some defining

characteristics of each phase. How would you situate popular programs like Rosetta

Stone in terms of these three phases?

Well, the three phases are: behaviouristic, communicative, integrative. In order to

situate Rossetta Stone’s software, we need to be aware of the characteristics of each

phase; for instance, in the behaviouristic, writing exercises can fit perfectly since the

software provides an on-screen keyboard for the user to type characters; this

accomplish the fact that the computer served mainly as a tutor or as a delivery

mechanism for learning materials. In the communicative phase, in which the computer

was still used for skill practice, grammar lessons can be used because, the program

shows the learner several examples of a grammatical concept, and in some levels the

word in which the learner should focus on is highlighted. Then the learner is given a

sentence with several options for a word or phrase, and the student chooses the

correct option. Finally, in the integrative phase, multimedia is the key since learners

can work together using email, chat, blogs and other communication tools; so, If the

student has a microphone, the software can attempt to evaluate word pronunciation,

for instance.

17: What new skills might learners and teachers need to acquire to use TLLT

effectively?

The using of technology for language learning and teaching involves many factors such

as emotional impact, ability with technology, resources among others. As it is well

known, technology is changing every day. So, changes in TLLT are rapid, and teachers

and institutions that wish to use technology as a teaching resource need to have an

“open mind” and they must be open to changes too. This because TLLT creates new

roles for teachers and learners; teachers, for example, can be seen as moderators on a

forum and learners as active agents that have to post comments or upload videos of

themselves. Therefore, what is needed is an awareness of how to use technology to

improve one’s teaching and enhance opportunities for learners.

18: This chapter listed many ways that technology can support the teaching of the

four skills, as well as vocabulary, grammar and intercultural awareness. Choose one

of these areas and develop a lesson plan where technology is fully integrated.

LESSON PLAN

1. Subject: English

2. Didactic unit: One

3. Objectives: To develop a basic domain of the language that will be used in a

basic way

4. Theme: To introduce oneself to the others

5. Methodology: Communicative Method.

6. Course: A1 – BREAKTHROUGH

7. Time: __ minutes

8. Date: November, 2014

CONTENTS ACTIVITIES DIDACTIC RESOURCES EVALUATIONS

Cognitive

Vocabulary:

Words that will

be necessary for

giving personal

information

To ask the

students general

questions like:

What’s your

favourite sport?,

What’s your

parents name?,

what is your

favourite music?,

Internet;

www.portfolio.com/voca

bularyforms

How to introduce

To introduce oneself to the

others in a good way: without

fear and mistakes.

To complete and create

Present Simple

Past simple

Procedural

Listening

Speaking

Writing

Attitudes

Respect others’

ideas in the web.

in order to

eliminate the fear

taken place by

the presence of

new people in the

student's

environment

Conversation

classes about

different

situations with

simple structures.

To relate an

event.

To talk in pairs

To write in the

about oneself and

about third

persons.

yourself?

https://www.youtube.co

m/watch?v=h-

VKSSd9hko

Multimedia laboratory

Greeting and

introducing; questions

and answers; saying

hello and goodbye

sentences with this tense.

http://www.majortests.com/sat

/sentence-completion.php

Listening for someone’s

personal information in a radio

broadcast and answer the

questions.

https://www.youtube.com/wat

ch?v=hJIhOMSXt18

19: A teacher who gives out homework for students to complete online after school

is making a number of assumptions about his or her learners, their (preferred ways

of) learning and their home situations. What are some of these assumptions, and are

there any pitfalls to be avoided?

With a mix of face-to-face and computer mediated learning, a teacher may assume

that, with an online homework, the students’ achievement can be higher because

students receive additional learning opportunities as well as, they have more resources

to do a better job. moreover, this offers, somehow, flexibility to both: learners and

teachers (or facilitators in the case of blended learning). Student sometimes get stuck

and abandon homework prematurely; however, if the homework is designed to appeal

to each student’s motivations, to use their abilities and to compensate for their

weaknesses, the more likely students are to invest energy.

20: Teachers often do not allow students to use mobile phones in class. What are

some ways in which mobile phones CAN be used effectively as learning tools?

Within the field of blended learning, technology allows learning to take place partly or

wholly online. Mobile devices allow us to learn anywhere, anytime, about anything.

These devices can be useful in vocabulary, for instance: a mobile-phone dictionary

applications. Bilingual dictionaries are available for mobile phones and they are for

free. This mobile-phone applications, can encourage students to expand their word

choice. Among other uses we have:

- Mobile phones for reading e-books and other digital materials;

- Messages in a chat room: teachers can use free group messaging applications;

- Mobile phones can be used as diaries: set reminders, make notes, and organize

schedules;

21: Do your students have access to Skype? Develop an activity that could be used

with Skype.

The social networks are really trendy today. Skype can be a useful tool for teaching. In

this line, Skype is a free communication software that allows users to make calls, send

instant messages and do video conferencing online all in real time. But, how teachers

can use it in language classroom? Here, there are some activities:

- Teachers can create a video conference in which he/she holds teaching

sessions with their students while being away from the classroom.

- Through video conference, teachers can have guest speakers to talk directly to

the students. These speakers can be for instance, colleagues, authors,

producers, or even students from higher levels.

- Skype can be used in a language classroom to help students improve their

linguistic skills via speaking to native speakers of the target language. (We used

this strategy in our class of Corrective Phonetics And Phonology with the Master

Milica Dragosavljevich in order to exchange some information about language

structures with students from Iowa University and the results were awesome).

- Use Skype as a tool to provide after school help to students needing extra

attention.

22: How can the internet be used to develop intercultural awareness? Design an

activity that has this as a focus.

Nowadays, the role of internet as a powerful mean of communication is so important

in all over the world. Internet is really useful as a medium for communication across

cultures. It helps to the the development of intercultural awareness because every

day, in social networks, YouTube or, in web pages in general, we are interacting with

people from different countries; so, we are creating an ability to communicate

effectively and appropriately with people of other cultures. And, in this way, learners

gain sensibility to the values and practices of people from different cultures; they will

realize that there are other ways of thinking outside their current social network: this

enables learners to explore aspects of different cultures, to see how people live, for

instance.

In this aspect, an activity, for B2 level, that can be carried out in language classroom is

to create a presentation in which each student talks about two differents cultures; a

comparisons across them, how they live, their likes, etc. This activity can be

complemented with typical food for example; however, the teacher has to adapt this

according to the students needs, availability and, why not, attitude.

GENERAL REFERENCES

Brown, James Dean. (1995). The Elements of Language Curriculum: A

Systematic Approach to Program Development. Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Dulay, Heidi., Burt, Marina., Krashen, Stephen. (1982). Language Two. New

York: Oxford University Press.

Hutchinson, Tom., Waters, Alan. (1987). English for Specific Purposes: A

learning- centred approach. United kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

Nunan, David. (1988). Syllabus Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Larsen-Freeman, Diane. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language

Teaching. New York: Oxford University Press.

“Welcome to English Teachers Websites”. (2014). Retrieved on november 28th,

2014 from http://www.englishteacherwebsites.com/

Bliblioteca virtual PUCE

http://www.puce.edu.ec/portal/content/Bibliotecas%20Virtuales/174?link=oln30.redi

rect