“Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom”
By William Guariento and John Morley
This article is about text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom. The authors state that “an authentic text is one ‘created to fulfill some social purpose in the language community in which it was produced’”. This is one way of saying that the work that students do in the classroom should somehow be applicable to the students in the real world, or be leading them toward its use outside the classroom. If students recognize that what they are doing can help them right now, or in the future outside the classroom it can increase their motivation to learn. However, when you made an authentic text/task for lower levels unless it has been carefully chosen for that particular group it can lead to the students not wanting to do any more because of how that made them feel. The text/task must somehow be made known to the students that it is relevant to them, so that it engages their interest. Even if students don’t fully understand what they are reading as long as it engages their interest and it’s a part of an authentic text/task, that’s okay. But when using an authentic text make sure you are using it for an authentic task or all meaning will be lost. There are several ways to make a text/task authentic: “through real world targets”( i.e. a “clear relationship with real world needs”), through classroom interaction (group work in the classroom), through engagement (depending on the group and how it’s presented, it may or may not seem authentic).
Authenticity doesn’t depend on how hard or simple a task may be. Remembering items from a picture, playing bingo, conducting surveys in the classroom about things that are relevant to the students are all fairly simple tasks that can be authentic for the students.
When I first started reading this article I wasn’t really sure what it was saying. It just seemed to be talking in circles. However, as I continued to read I understood what it was stating. It was discussing making the students see that information in the classroom is applicable to them outside the classroom so that they are motivated to learn and how to go about doing that. It also gives ideas on how to know when some kind of text/task is authentic. I do know from classroom experience if students see that what they are learning is relevant outside the classroom, if they are interested in it, and if it isn’t to hard/easy for them they will maintain motivation and continue learning in the classroom. This article gives some great ideas about how to make a task authentic and what that task might look like. It gave me some ideas for this upcoming school year.
-Holly
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Website Eval #4
Software/Website Title: Breakout From The North Carolina Zoo
Website URL:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/5827/breakout.html#Anchor-Your-11481
Grade/Age Level: 3rd- 5th grade
Language & Content:
This webquest helps students learn about animals as well as geography and it uses math. It is for students from North Carolina or who are learning about North Carolina. They are to pretend that they are in animal in the North Carolina Zoo, and that they are breaking out. Depending on the animal they choose, the greater or lesser distance they have to travel (i.e. elephant has to go farther then a rat). They have to tell what they learn about their animal, what landforms they find about along the way, along with what animals they might meet, how many miles they might travel in day, and how long it might take to get where they are going. They have to answer several questions about problems they might face and how they would overcome those problems.
It has external documents, worksheets and websites, which are quite effective and go along with the website wonderfully. This website is very interesting with many links and presents the information in interesting ways. This website is very easy to use as all the information is on one page. However, one big drawback I see of this website is that there aren’t any evaluation rubrics or even information on how they will be graded. It gives the students suggestions on how to present their information but stops at that.
The processes/activities that they are supposed to do are outlined very well and in a very easy to follow manner.
-Holly
Website URL:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/5827/breakout.html#Anchor-Your-11481
Grade/Age Level: 3rd- 5th grade
Language & Content:
This webquest helps students learn about animals as well as geography and it uses math. It is for students from North Carolina or who are learning about North Carolina. They are to pretend that they are in animal in the North Carolina Zoo, and that they are breaking out. Depending on the animal they choose, the greater or lesser distance they have to travel (i.e. elephant has to go farther then a rat). They have to tell what they learn about their animal, what landforms they find about along the way, along with what animals they might meet, how many miles they might travel in day, and how long it might take to get where they are going. They have to answer several questions about problems they might face and how they would overcome those problems.
It has external documents, worksheets and websites, which are quite effective and go along with the website wonderfully. This website is very interesting with many links and presents the information in interesting ways. This website is very easy to use as all the information is on one page. However, one big drawback I see of this website is that there aren’t any evaluation rubrics or even information on how they will be graded. It gives the students suggestions on how to present their information but stops at that.
The processes/activities that they are supposed to do are outlined very well and in a very easy to follow manner.
-Holly
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Website Evaluation #3 webquest
Software/Website Title: WEB QUEST- ANIMALS ON THE OCEAN FLOOR
Website URL: http://education.nmsu.edu/webquest/wq/ocean/index.html
Grade/Age Level: 3rd-5th grade
Language & Content:
This webquest is to help students learn and explore what animals might be on the ocean floor. It provides several animals with pictures and or links along with a description of that animal. It has the students answer questions about that animal and it tells them to draw a specific thing about that animal as well. That is supposed to go on a specific page of that journal so the teacher knows what animal they are should be drawing and writing information about.
There are several weaknesses of this site. One is the external documents it provides. It just lists them; it doesn’t really tell you what they are or how to find them. I think if I were the student I’d be really confused by that. Also I feel like the tasks in this webquest could be a little more in-depth. All it wants the students to do is draw and add pictures to their journal along with answering a few simple questions. Also I think that they could add more pages or more assignments to make it a better webquest. It mentions a grading chart in the evaluation that I can’t find anywhere in the website. The title of this webquest is “Animals on the Ocean Floor” and to me that provides wrong information. I don’t consider whales and jellyfish to be animals that live on the ocean floor unless for this webquest they are considering the whole ocean the ocean floor.
The strength is that it does connect to another page, and it provides pictures and/or a link to go along with some questions. It also follows a pretty simple format that the students should easily be able to follow.
Website URL: http://education.nmsu.edu/webquest/wq/ocean/index.html
Grade/Age Level: 3rd-5th grade
Language & Content:
This webquest is to help students learn and explore what animals might be on the ocean floor. It provides several animals with pictures and or links along with a description of that animal. It has the students answer questions about that animal and it tells them to draw a specific thing about that animal as well. That is supposed to go on a specific page of that journal so the teacher knows what animal they are should be drawing and writing information about.
There are several weaknesses of this site. One is the external documents it provides. It just lists them; it doesn’t really tell you what they are or how to find them. I think if I were the student I’d be really confused by that. Also I feel like the tasks in this webquest could be a little more in-depth. All it wants the students to do is draw and add pictures to their journal along with answering a few simple questions. Also I think that they could add more pages or more assignments to make it a better webquest. It mentions a grading chart in the evaluation that I can’t find anywhere in the website. The title of this webquest is “Animals on the Ocean Floor” and to me that provides wrong information. I don’t consider whales and jellyfish to be animals that live on the ocean floor unless for this webquest they are considering the whole ocean the ocean floor.
The strength is that it does connect to another page, and it provides pictures and/or a link to go along with some questions. It also follows a pretty simple format that the students should easily be able to follow.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Reading Reflection # 3
I felt this was a very good article. This article approached using technology in the classroom from a very honest perspective giving both the good and the bad about it. In addition to that it also stated some areas where students might get hung up using technology in learning; such as software that is not user friendly and some that does not provide immediate feedback. It gives some suggestions on how to make learning better for the student and it tells how the students can make learning better for themselves. This article also discusses the control you, as the student, has over the control over the pace of the course. For some learners having complete control over the pace may work great for them, but for some (including myself!) they need someone else to control the pace and set deadlines or it takes forever to learn a language when they could have done it faster with deadlines.
There was one statement that I disagreed with “teachers can control the environments they establish and can choose to design classrooms and labs so that the equipment, software, and staff move in concert to enable learners to be self-directed."(p391) That is a great idea, but unfortunately it doesn't always seem to work that way and teachers don’t' always have control over how they design their classrooms, but you can make the best of what you have and try to enable the students to be self-directed with what you have.
I also liked how the article touched on learners from different cultures, and how their culture may not view independence or autonomy as a good thing and that you as a teacher need to work within that culture to give autonomy in a culturally appropriate light.
It seems to me that a lot of the students that I teach are unclear why they are learning English. There parents sent them to this school, so they have to learn and speak English because those are the school rules. So they are not very likely to be motivated when it comes to learning the language.
The way the author presented using autonomy in the classroom was very clear to me. I think that, yes, we do need to try as best we can within the boundaries of the culture to help the students become autonomous so that they can start internally motivating themselves to learn. We also need structure the classroom so that can happen.
-Holly
There was one statement that I disagreed with “teachers can control the environments they establish and can choose to design classrooms and labs so that the equipment, software, and staff move in concert to enable learners to be self-directed."(p391) That is a great idea, but unfortunately it doesn't always seem to work that way and teachers don’t' always have control over how they design their classrooms, but you can make the best of what you have and try to enable the students to be self-directed with what you have.
I also liked how the article touched on learners from different cultures, and how their culture may not view independence or autonomy as a good thing and that you as a teacher need to work within that culture to give autonomy in a culturally appropriate light.
It seems to me that a lot of the students that I teach are unclear why they are learning English. There parents sent them to this school, so they have to learn and speak English because those are the school rules. So they are not very likely to be motivated when it comes to learning the language.
The way the author presented using autonomy in the classroom was very clear to me. I think that, yes, we do need to try as best we can within the boundaries of the culture to help the students become autonomous so that they can start internally motivating themselves to learn. We also need structure the classroom so that can happen.
-Holly
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Reading Reflection #2
This chapter by Ngeow: Classroom Practice: Enhancing and Extending Learning Styles Through Computers seemed to be based on these three main principles:
"1. Learners who are more conscious of their learning styles make better use of learning opportunities.
2. Learners learn better when they are provided with learning opportunities that enhance and extend their learning preferences
3. Learners work better with new learning styles when they are given guided opportunities to practice them. "
This article discusses the multiple intelligence approach to learning and how to adapt it to CALL.
It states that "if learners are to enhance their mindfulness, it is useful for them to realize for themselves, as well as to share with their peers and others, the different ways in which they learn language and to understand and practice new ways of learning."
The multiple intelligence theory provides the opportunity for students to discover how they "learn best and see that each student possesses a different set of learning preferences and abilities."
The chart on page 308 provides some great ideas and suggestions for each of the multiple intelligences and how to use it with the computer along with what computer programs might go with each intelligence. "Diversity in learning needs and preferences calls for flexibility in teaching and learning approaches in the CALL classroom."
This reading seemed to me to be a little scattered. It seems like they took the idea of multiple intelligences and tried to tweak it to fit the computer classroom and it didn't seem to quite fit.
Also, how you apply this concept in the regular or CALL classroom depends on the age of the child. I think any kids much younger then grade 5 or even at grade 5 might not understand the idea of multiple intelligences and all of this information might just confuse them. I think the ideas in the article might best be applied to upper middle school and higher, and then a CALL multiple intelligence lesson might work.
-Holly
"1. Learners who are more conscious of their learning styles make better use of learning opportunities.
2. Learners learn better when they are provided with learning opportunities that enhance and extend their learning preferences
3. Learners work better with new learning styles when they are given guided opportunities to practice them. "
This article discusses the multiple intelligence approach to learning and how to adapt it to CALL.
It states that "if learners are to enhance their mindfulness, it is useful for them to realize for themselves, as well as to share with their peers and others, the different ways in which they learn language and to understand and practice new ways of learning."
The multiple intelligence theory provides the opportunity for students to discover how they "learn best and see that each student possesses a different set of learning preferences and abilities."
The chart on page 308 provides some great ideas and suggestions for each of the multiple intelligences and how to use it with the computer along with what computer programs might go with each intelligence. "Diversity in learning needs and preferences calls for flexibility in teaching and learning approaches in the CALL classroom."
This reading seemed to me to be a little scattered. It seems like they took the idea of multiple intelligences and tried to tweak it to fit the computer classroom and it didn't seem to quite fit.
Also, how you apply this concept in the regular or CALL classroom depends on the age of the child. I think any kids much younger then grade 5 or even at grade 5 might not understand the idea of multiple intelligences and all of this information might just confuse them. I think the ideas in the article might best be applied to upper middle school and higher, and then a CALL multiple intelligence lesson might work.
-Holly
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Software/Website Evaluation #2
Software/Website Title: Eye Witness to History
Website URL: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/
Grade/Age Level:
This software is intended for Upper Elementary through Adults who are interested in learning about history from the Ancient World through the 20th Century. This website would be easier to understand if your first language is English, but if you are pretty fluent in English you should be able to comprehend the general idea of what it's discussing.
Language & Content:
This website is intended for learning about history from 490BC to 20th Century. It uses quotes from primary sources to describe what happened, voice clips, film clips, maps, pictures, and it provides background for these first hand accounts.
This website gives you a large variety of information. It describes to you about many different parts of history. It informs you where they acquired their information and even how to cite each individual article for school use.
This website is fairly easy to navigate. On the homepage at the top there are approximately fifteen links to take you the various sections of history. On each linked section of history, there are another approximate fifteen links to take you to each article.
It doesn't reveal this information to you on this website, but according to http://www.ibiscom.com/ eyewitnesstohistory.com has won several awards for it's informational and unique perspective on history.
This website has many strengths. It includes an incredible amount of information and presents it in an interesting way. There are many interactive articles on this site along with film & video clips and even a store where you can buy books/DVDs/ toys about history, along with many other things.
The only way I know to improve the website at this time is to make it easier to access. At times I had difficulty accessing it.
-Holly
Website URL: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/
Grade/Age Level:
This software is intended for Upper Elementary through Adults who are interested in learning about history from the Ancient World through the 20th Century. This website would be easier to understand if your first language is English, but if you are pretty fluent in English you should be able to comprehend the general idea of what it's discussing.
Language & Content:
This website is intended for learning about history from 490BC to 20th Century. It uses quotes from primary sources to describe what happened, voice clips, film clips, maps, pictures, and it provides background for these first hand accounts.
This website gives you a large variety of information. It describes to you about many different parts of history. It informs you where they acquired their information and even how to cite each individual article for school use.
This website is fairly easy to navigate. On the homepage at the top there are approximately fifteen links to take you the various sections of history. On each linked section of history, there are another approximate fifteen links to take you to each article.
It doesn't reveal this information to you on this website, but according to http://www.ibiscom.com/ eyewitnesstohistory.com has won several awards for it's informational and unique perspective on history.
This website has many strengths. It includes an incredible amount of information and presents it in an interesting way. There are many interactive articles on this site along with film & video clips and even a store where you can buy books/DVDs/ toys about history, along with many other things.
The only way I know to improve the website at this time is to make it easier to access. At times I had difficulty accessing it.
-Holly
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Software/ Website Evaluation #1
Software/Website Title: 200 Words a day
Website URL: www.200words-a-day.com
Grade/Age Level:
This software is intended for young adults/ adults for whom English is their first language. It gives them an opportunity to learn Spanish/ French/ German/ Welsh with the 200 words a day approach.
Language & Content:
This website tries to get you to buy their software for learning 200 words a day. You could use it if you wanted to learn some new words before you travel, for business, or just for fun. They discuss how our brain learns with pictures and describe how easy it is to actually learn 200 words a day. This site gives you tips for how optimal learning occurs when trying to learn new words fast. They state that they provide truly multi-modal learning; using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Basic key phrases, questions, greetings and words are also included in their Cd's.
When you go to the website there are many links to navigate through to find out more information. You can go to the the specific language that you want to learn to find out what is included on each CD, or you can check out their testimonials page. You can also sign up for free emailed Spanish lessons every three days. This company provides translation services, a tutorial, word of the day, it gives a course background, and much more.
There is a lot of information provided on this website. I think this website could be improved by making it a little more succinct. The vast amount of information that it provides can be way too much before you even get to their ordering form.
The strength of this site is that does provide a lot of information for you to look over before you decide if you want to spend the $47 dollars per CD for approximately 4 Cd's.
-Holly
Website URL: www.200words-a-day.com
Grade/Age Level:
This software is intended for young adults/ adults for whom English is their first language. It gives them an opportunity to learn Spanish/ French/ German/ Welsh with the 200 words a day approach.
Language & Content:
This website tries to get you to buy their software for learning 200 words a day. You could use it if you wanted to learn some new words before you travel, for business, or just for fun. They discuss how our brain learns with pictures and describe how easy it is to actually learn 200 words a day. This site gives you tips for how optimal learning occurs when trying to learn new words fast. They state that they provide truly multi-modal learning; using visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Basic key phrases, questions, greetings and words are also included in their Cd's.
When you go to the website there are many links to navigate through to find out more information. You can go to the the specific language that you want to learn to find out what is included on each CD, or you can check out their testimonials page. You can also sign up for free emailed Spanish lessons every three days. This company provides translation services, a tutorial, word of the day, it gives a course background, and much more.
There is a lot of information provided on this website. I think this website could be improved by making it a little more succinct. The vast amount of information that it provides can be way too much before you even get to their ordering form.
The strength of this site is that does provide a lot of information for you to look over before you decide if you want to spend the $47 dollars per CD for approximately 4 Cd's.
-Holly
Sunday, June 24, 2007
CALL Reading Reflection #1 -Egbert et al
The key points in this article were the eight learning conditions, what was involved in each learning condition, and how it would look or work in the classroom. Other key points were about "exploring the CALL environment through research". It stated the 6 steps needed to do any type of research and also applied them to CALL and the research behind CALL. It then basically summed it up with the catch all phrase "'more research is needed in this area'".
My reaction to this article is that what was said in it made sense. The eight learning conditions are pertinent to classroom learning. However, I'm not sure how with the actual time given in a normal classroom you would be able to do all eight of those optimal learning enviroment strategies.
My reaction to this article is that what was said in it made sense. The eight learning conditions are pertinent to classroom learning. However, I'm not sure how with the actual time given in a normal classroom you would be able to do all eight of those optimal learning enviroment strategies.
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