Websites in CALL Essentials (Chap.6)

Inquiry Page

(http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/)

Just as its name, this website is meant to help learners get a better understanding of the inquiry concept. This website has five categories. That is, definition, process, environment, articles and slides. After I realize what does “inquiry” mean from the textbook and from this website, I focus more on the process part, which is regarded as the most beneficial part from my perspective. First step of the process is to ask questions. Since inquiry is a process of discovery, the purpose of asking questions is to motivate learners’ desire to discovery those they never found before. Actually I always think that to come up with some question is difficult, especially those are significant and to the point. Here this website provides some good questions such as “What makes a poem poetry?” “Why does the moon change shape?” After I see these examples, it downs on me that good questions are questions that people seldom think of and have the space to discuss further. What's more, a good question had better be an open question; that is, a question can involve various kinds of opinions instead of one single standard answer. The second step of the process is to investigate. At this section, learners may gather information as much as they can.

The ways of investigate include studying, crafting an experiment, observing, interviewing and so on. As for the third step, create, I think it's the toughest one. It involves the ability to analyze, synthesize, make connections, compare and contrast and so on. The fourth step of the process is to discuss. The main purpose of discussion may be to complement each other’s ideas. Through brainstorming together, learners usually can provoke unexpected knowledge sparks. And the final step, reflect, is what I consider the most crucial one. After each activity, we students are often asked to record his or her own reflection. And I think it does help me ponder on what I have learned from this activity. In what sense I can do better next time? Through reflection, I can remind myself of some valuable experiences and to bear them in mind instead of just let them pass with the passing of the time. I also suggest that learners can record their reflection as soon as the activity ends. At that time our memory of that activity is most refreshing and we can truly think what needs to be desired. This websites also provides slides and several links of relevant articles, which can help learners realize more about inquiry teaching and learning.

I would like to summarize it by mentioning two tips of creating inquiry projects listed in the textbook, which I think will be very useful. First, do not let tools limit your processes or products.Teachers should determine the language and project goals and structures and then choose appropriate tools. Second, teachers should help every student has a role or responsibility to take in their group; to let students have a keen sense of participation. In this case, inquiry-based activities can be carried out more smoothly.

Websites in CALL Essentials (Chap.5)

Filamentality (http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/)

This website is intended to help educators learn how to create their own websites. You may wonder what the word “filamentality” means in this case. Well, according to this website, “Filamentality is a fill-in-the-blank tool that guides you through picking a topic, searching the Internet, gathering good Internet links, and turning them into online learning activities. Support is built-in along the way through Mentality Tips. In the end, you'll create a web-based activity you can share with others even if you don't know anything about HTML or serving web pages.” I am deeply attracted by this description. As the topic of this chapter indicates, creativity is one of the most paramount elements that in designing activities for learners as well as for learners to carry out a task successfully. I used to think that build up a website is a difficult task, but after I come across this website, I change this thought in a sense. This website mainly consists of six categories: start a new page, search filamentality, a tour of the process, edit an existing page, activity formats and user guide. Each category is user-friendly so that I can know what I should do by following the instruction step by step. What piques my interests most is the activity format part. It is suggested that a specific goal for learning is the most important thing in the first place. It is when you know what you aim to achieve that you can carry out an activity efficiently. It also gives users a clear outline as to what can we create an activity. After setting the goal, we can assemble resources and promote learning. And this websites instruct us how to assemble resources and promote learning. For examples, we can make internet links by means of hotlist. It also gives us two useful examples of hotlist: China on the Net and A Hotlist on Colonial America. This chapter also mentions the concepts of input and output. Input and output take many forms, from lectures to diverse activities, and from essays to multimedia presentations. And I am also convinced that this website combines production with creativity very well. If teachers and learners can capitalize on this website wisely, this website is definitely an exceptional learning tool.

Websites in CALL Essentials (Chap.3)

Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab
(http://www.esl-lab.com/)

※Since the framework that Florez mentions in this chapter may not fully appropriate to examine this website, I may modify the content of the framework slightly by myself in order to describe this website more precisely.

Focus: This website focuses on daily English listening comprehension. And to train learners’ speaking accent further.

Preparation: Make learners well prepared to a websites that contains various kinds of authentic topics and the difficulty also ranges from easy to very difficult. There are quizzes after each piece of conversation. Also let learners think about what is the goal of their learning. If they just want to know more about American lifestyle, then they can opt “general listening quizzes.” And if they train their listening for academic purpose, then they can choose another category in this website.

Presentation: There are five categories in this website: generally listening quizzes, listening quizzes for academic purpose, 20-minute ESL vocabulary lessons, language learning and life tips and long conversations with realvideo. In each category are several pieces of items for learners’ practice. In each item, there are pre-listening exercises, listening exercises and post-listening exercises. Listening exercise is the conversation to train learners’ listening in other words, while post-listening exercises are some quizzes to test learners.

Practice: Learners can use the quizzes to see how much they understand form the conversation. As they get better, learners may also start to emulate the speaking accent in the conversation.

Evaluation: I think the quizzes are good materials for learners to evaluate their learning.

Extension: Learners may gather to share with each other what they have learned from this website. Just as the anecdote that be mentioned in the first page of chapter three, learners can use this website effectively through teamwork. Some students print the study guide, and some students discuss the sound bites as they listen.

Well, I think this website will be instrumental for my listening comprehension to some extent. In fact, my listening comprehension is not good, let alone speaking proficiency. Speaking and listening correlated with each other considerably. Only when I can comprehend others’ talking, I can reply him or her accordingly. For example, I hear the words “a mess” a few days before, but I mistook it as the word “amaze.” What extremely different meanings they are! Sometimes I listen to Studio Classroom Advanced program to improve my listening, but I do not know whether I do really progress or not. I just keep listening to it if I am free. But there are quizzes in this website, so that I can know whether I really comprehend the conversation or not. I agree that “opportunities for speaking and listening require structure and planning if they are to support language development,” and carefully planned CALL activities can use computers to support listening and speaking. And this website has already achieve this goal, at least from my perspective. As for speaking proficiency, apart from online talking or chatting, I think activities such as role-play, story telling, show-and-tell presentation, and radio drama are all very interesting and can truly sharpen one’s speaking ability, from my own learning experience.

Reflection on 3/23 Lab Class

Today's 3-hours lab class is very fulfilling because I learn how to use FrontPage software. It is a good initiation for me to learn more about this software. We spend 20 minutes of the first hour responding to others' postings. It seems that many of our thoughts are very similar to each other, and maybe it is so-called “Great minds think alike?” With the class goes on, we move to edit our own blog. Now I know how to change the color, even font types, by changing html codes. It's very practical! And then we use FrontPage software to publish our last week's notes onto our collective blog. It takes me about 30 minutes to publish this posting but still in vain because of some unknown problems. Since there are only two members (including me) in my group and we have 3 pages notes needed to publish, Julie and I are very busy in this work. By the time when today's class ends, we just publish one piece of our notes. I feel a little frustrated because we cannot work out the problem in class. Fortunately, I modify the content of our posting and at last it can be published when I back home and try it again and again. Perhaps this is the spirit of today's class topic “Creativity and Production.” Though our postings are not as splendid as other groups', we have tried our best. As for the third class, we discuss which option we would like to choose as our final project. And it's so subtle that Julie and I just sit beside each other but we communicate with each other just through Tapped In! Finally, we decide to design a lesson to help young ESL learners create their own stories. We will use WebQuest format and I think teacher's project that she show us today is a very good example for us to imitate.


After today's class, it also makes me realize the importance of “teamwork.” I really think Julie is a great partner because she teaches me many things that I do not know. I am a slow-paced leaner and cannot get into one situation easily. What's more, we just have two members in this group, so we need to hurry up in order to catch up other groups. When other groups have four people to brainstorm together, we just have two brains. So I feel a little busy as well as lonely! Two people in a group has its own merits and demerits, but now I think its disadvantages outweigh its advantages, at least from today's experience. Given this, we should work harder and harder than other groups, and hopefully I can get into the situation much more quickly.

Websites in CALL Essentials (Chap.2)

PIZZAZ! People Interested in Zippy and Zany Zcribbling.
(http://www.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html)

Goals: The website is designed to provide simple creative writing and oral storytelling activities with copyable handouts for use with students of all ages.

Presentation: This website is generally divided into five categories: poetry, fiction, bags of tricks, more publishing opportunities and other teacher resources. There are many links available in each category. Beside the links are descriptions about the links. Some links are useful handouts and some are interesting activities, which can truly sharpen learners’ writing and reading proficiency from beginner level to advanced level.

Appropriates: Since this website provides learners with ample links, learners can select appropriate ones of their own choice according to their level. Navigation is also clear. Yet it seems that some of the links are provided to teachers instead of students.

Outcomes: I cannot find extra documents for further learning so far.

Evaluation: The website does not provide any feedback or evaluation. But there are e-mail address and the author’s address; perhaps users can e-mail him if they have any further questions or suggestions.

Notes: This website is clear and easy for learners to understand what or how can they learn. So it is suitable for learners who do not have much technology technique or knowledge like me!

When I first take a glance at this website, I do not be attracted by it too much. Perhaps it’s because the website does not have too fancy appearance. It is a just simple and clear one instead. Nonetheless, as I examine this website closely, I soon realize that it is a useful and abundant treasury for beginners. It contains various kinds of activities to pique learners’ interests as well as to broaden their English proficiency. If there is anything the website can be improved, well, it seems that most of the activities are designed for beginners, and not for advanced ones like us. I also find that at least one link is invalid. Furthermore, some links are offered for teachers to teach, not for learners to learn directly. I also think that the author can design this website more vividly by using multimedia materials such as sounds-effect, animation, pictures, short films and so on.