roles for computers in teaching the english language arts
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ROLES FOR COMPUTERS IN TEACHING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS. Table of Contents. Who is the author of the article ?. Introduction. Computers as Tutors. Computers as Tools. Computers as Ways to Explore Language. Computer as Media. Computers as Learning Environments. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
ROLES FOR COMPUTERS IN TEACHING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
Table of ContentsWho is the author of the article? Introduction
Computers as Tutors Computers as Tools
Computers as Ways to Explore Language Computer as Media
Computers as Learning Environments
Who is the author of the article?
•Bertram C. Bruce•The article is a Technical Report No.522 at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.•December 1990
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The IntroductionTechnologies uses in teaching the English language arts and its different devices have been spread around world. So, there is a question that has been raised ; what role should these technologies play in teaching and learning? In the article, the writer mentions five roles for the computers usage; tutors , tools , ways to explore language , medium and learning environments. In each role , the writer discusses some technical applications that enrich language arts field. These applications are designed according three issues ; the area of language arts , age of the learners and classroom kind .
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Computers as Tutors
The intelligent tutors: 1 -Performing and discussing
the task articulately.2 -Knowing how the
student’s progress and diagnosing his/ her misconceptions.
3 -Applying strategies for teaching.
Computers as TutorsSome examples of intelligent programs:
A- Iliad/ 1- Tutoring deaf children.
2-Generating syntactic variations of any given sentence.
3 -Allowing children to generate their own transformation rules.
B- VP2/ 1- It is for nonnative speakers in English.
2 -It has an explicit model of developing grammar
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There are a lot of programs that teach language arts but, these programs are not intelligent enough as tutors. So, the students should use it as helpers not as
complete tutors .
Computers as Tools
Word processing programs are the most famous tools that have been used by students in the classrooms . These programs help students in creating, revising and sharing texts. Word processing serve only as a tool in writing and reading skills.Some example of word processing programs:A- Bank Street Writer/ Providing menus of functions.B- Word Bench/ Controls details
of text format .
Computers as tools in:
A-Assistance in Reading
B-Generating Ideas and Planning
C-Finding Information
D- Viewing at Text
E-Viewing the Writing Process
Assistance in Reading
There are some programs that help the students who face unfamiliar words. These programs have speech synthesizers or stored speech .
Generating Ideas and PlanningA- CAC/ help students by giving advice on how to compose persuasive text.B- Seen/ a literature- oriented program.C- Writer’s Helper/ displays the trees of ideas.
D- Writing Workshop/ includes three prewriting programs.E- Writing a Narrative/ tutorial on narrative structure
and point of viewF- Mone/ allow a writer to build hierarchical
structures for ideas. “idea processors”“invisible writing” :- It is an optional technique in
some of word processing programs. This technique helps the student in “free writing”
Finding Information
Enrich students’ reading and writing skills.A- Dictionaries ( Oxford English Dictionary)B- Encyclopedias ( Grolier’s)
Viewing at TextA- Writer’s Workbench( AT&T Bell laboratories) / giving the author an uncluttered view of transitions.
B- Writer’s Assistant (Interlearn)/ allow the user to see only the first sentence of each paragraph.
C- The Electronic English Handbook / an on-screen reference tool for student during the composition process .
D- Compupoem/ help in writing poems
E- Poetry Processor / analyzing and revising a poem . Viewing a text by using some programs helps students to discover their problems in capitalization, punctuation, run-on sentences, sentence fragments, repetitions…..etc
Viewing the Writing Process
Because the computer helps in producing and storing text inside it and because some text editors offer a “ replay” facility, the student and teacher can see the process of text creation . Return to the Contents
Computers as Ways to Explore Language
There are computer-based microworlds that have been developed in science and mathematics to enable students to explore new domains ,text hypotheses , construct models , and discover new phenomena. The same technology will be so helpful in language arts. It supports students to think deeply about language patterns, conceptual relationships , and the structure of ideas. In this time, this technology is at the beginning .
Computers as Ways to Explore Language
A- Logo/ 1- famous programming language.
2 -It help students to create and explore models of language structure and use.
3 -An example of Logo language is Gossip.
4 -A gossip is a description of an action that has been given to a person by the student.
5 -The interest thing of such Gossip program is that the student can ask the computer to print out any number of gossip statements. The result of these gossip statements are funny and sometimes surprising statements .
6 -Students while they are creating their own Gossip programs, they face fundamental Qs about language that encourage them to explore and learn
the language by themselves .
Computers as Ways to Explore Language
B- Phrasebooks and Boxes/ 1- Two extensions of Logo.
2 -Allow children to classify words, create their own dictionaries and phrase books.C- Crossword Magic/ 1- Allows student to create crossword puzzles.
2 -Encourage students to explore the meaning of words and its spelling.D- Missing Links/ 1- Activities that encourage students to decipher a text in which various letters or words have been left out.
2 -Develop reading and Problem-Solving skills.E- Storymaker/ encourage students to create and manipulate
text units .
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Computer as Media1- Computers are not just providing printed texts, but also electronic mail, online documentation , and electronic encyclopedias in which the user reads directly from video screen .2- Computers have multimedia messaging . For example; Diamond .3- The conferencing systems that computers have equipped with a variety of fonts in different languages and orientations. 4- Computers are able to connect between related informational texts . This facilities the process of learning.5- Computers as a media tool helps to remove the boundaries between writers and readers. Students can create their own texts, replay to others , share some links…etc. these activities contribute to the reading and writing instruction.6- Note card ( a multiwindowed display) and Hyper text are great systems in enriching learning and communicating.
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Computers as Learning Environments
1- Computers enlarge the social interaction through feedback from other, peer tutoring , and sharing ideas. These interactions develop reading and writing skills. Some Examples : A- Quill Mailbag and Library / A1- Writers can share easily their products .A2- Mailbag is a simple electronic mail system in which writers can send messages to individuals , groups or to the whole class.A3- Library is a storing system of texts with its authors’ full name. This system facilities finding the suitable texts for student by selecting the topic. 2- Electronic networks create learning environments and contribute to language development.3- The networks make the exchanging of messages faster and easy the task of sending the same message. 4- Many students find the networks’ environments more effective in increasing writing skills.
The Conclusion 1 -Computers aid mostly in the
writing instruction.2 -Word processing programs
teach students the essential aspects of writing more than the teachers do.
3 -Computer networking and communities of students writers help largely in teaching ideals of writing across the curriculum .
4 -Computers with its different kind of systems and applications help in enhancing students’ motivation.
5 -There is still a lack of research how the use of computers can contribute strongly to language arts.
6 -Although there are many problems related to the use of computers in the education , but
they are still in fact intelligent .
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