JanineCALLblog

This article explains the reasons for fostering learner autonomy and variations in autonomous learning situations. It explains ways to implement more autonomous learning, including the use of technology.

In Western society, individuality and creative thinking are valued. For this reason, teachers should strive to facilitate autonomous learning. Healey describes different settings for autonomous learning that differ in sources of structure (teacher and learner) and content (fixed and variable). These elements vary according to learner issues and content issues. The learner issues include motivation, preference for independent learning, knowledge of individual learning style, and understanding of what one needs to learn. The content issues include the need for clear direction in learning goals, a means to clearly articulate what is to be learned, and availability of resources.

Technology can facilitate independent learning in a number of ways. It can provide appropriate levels of instruction, meaningful learning objectives, a variety of teaching methods, and feedback. However, technology may also hinder effective learning if it does not work properly, if the learner is not comfortable with the technology, and if access to hardware and software are not convenient. If these potential obstacles are not a problem, the use of technology is a great advantage in fostering autonomous learning because it allows students to control so many factors inherent in the learning process.

I think this article clearly explains several issues that must be considered in facilitating autonomous learning. I agree with the points it makes, however, in my mind, the biggest factor determining the efficacy of autonomous learning and the use of technology to facilitate it is student motivation. Motivated students will make maximum use of all available resources and will likely be successful because of the effort that they expend in reaching their goals. Autonomous learning is nearly impossible without a desire on the part of the student to learn autonomously. The other points are important, too, but their importance is predicated upon this first condition being met. The use of technology can increase motivation if it makes learning more enjoyable, so initial motivation is not necessarily the only factor to determine outcome, but I think that the issue of motivation should be given more consideration in this discussion.

Software/Website Title: Spanish Grammar Exercises

Website URL: http://www.colby.edu/~bknelson/exercises/

Grade/Age Level: Grade 8 through adult

Language & Content:

What is the intended purpose of the software or website?

The purpose is to teach and provide practice for Spanish grammar (especially verb forms), culture, and listening comprehension. The site is most appropriate for intermediate to advanced Spanish language learners and heritage students.

What is the content of the software or website and how is it presented?

The website includes dozens of grammatical and cultural topics. It has exercises with drop-down answer banks or fill-in-the blanks, many of which include listening comprehension portions from video and audio clips. The cultural components include imbedded links to pictures and/or short descriptions for the vocabulary within the exercises. The site has study modules, which are based on a cultural topic and include several components, and grammar exercises, which may have several linked exercises included. There are also teacher pages with lesson plans to use portions of the site.

What external documents does the software or website include? Are they effective?

The external documents include poems, photos, audio and video clips (with subtitles), song lyrics, and explanations. Some are effective for any Spanish language learner, but most are effective for students at an intermediate to advanced level. Most sections contain a lot of vocabulary and advanced structures.

In what ways is the software or website interesting to the target audience?

The site is interesting because it has a lot of inbedded links to readings, artwork, photos, audio (including music), and video clips. The information is current and varied, covering many different parts of the Hispanic world.

For what language goal(s) is this software or website useful/effective?

This site is effective for practicing grammatical structures and listening comprehension and for learning about Hispanic culture.

Does this program or website offer practice? Assessment? Feedback? Of what kinds?

This site offers dozens of practice exercises with immediate feedback in the form of displays of correct answers and short explanations for correct and incorrect answers.

Is this software or website easy to use?

This site is very easy to use. You need to have Quicktime Plug-in installed, and then all you need to do is click on the links and follow the written instructions.

What are the strengths of this software or website?

This site is very rich in content. The strengths include the visuals (photos, drawings), the inbedded links that explain vocabulary within the readings and lyrics, the audio and video clips (which are clearly enunciated), the clear instructions, the ease of use and immediate feedback on the exercises, and the current content.

How can this software or website be improved?

I found a few dead links for audio clips for exercises. Other than that, I can’t think of anything to improve. This is a very nice site with a huge amount of content for a free site.

This website is a wiki. It is a factual site that defines wikis, gives a number of examples of how wikis can be used in educational settings, lists a number of courses and descriptions of how the courses have used wikis, and lists links to wiki tools, demonstration videos, papers, lesson plans, illustrations, blogs, universities, and others. The site is very informative and contains many reliable, pertinent inbedded links. It it maintained by Jason Pearce of Lambda Chi Alpha and was modified within the last 2 1/2 months.

The site is well maintained and easy to navigate. I found no broken links, and the links are as described. It provides a large amount of both definitive and descriptive information. There is an index to the site and tools for those who would like to contribute to the wiki. Contribution and editing require a login.

For those who want a good overview of how people have used wikis in education, this site is a treasure trove. It provides a lot of concrete ideas of how to implement wikis in a class and also raises issues that must be considered when using wikis.

The three search engines I used for this assignment were: www.alltheweb.com, www.altavista.com, and www.vivisimo.com. The first two search engines listed identical results for the first 5 results on their lists. All three search engines clearly dilineated sponsor results from web results, but www.alltheweb.com and www.altavista.com listed websites that were more comprehensive than the ones listed on www.vivisimo.com.

Three of the first 5 results on www.alltheweb.com and www.altavista.com are detailed sites that explain what wikis are and how they are being used in various educational contexts. They discuss the roles of instructors and students, as well as strengths, challenges, and opportunities in using wikis. They also contain links to courses that have used wikis, wiki tools, and other related sites. The three sites are: http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/wikis/index.htm, http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/wikis_in_Online_Education, and http://scienceofspectroscopy.info/edit/index.php?title=Using_wiki_in_education
These sites provide ample explanations and imbedded links for anyone to understand how wikis are being used in education.

The other two URLs are: http://del.icio.us/tag/wikis and http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?wikiInEducation. The first site is an index of blogs and wikis. The second site is a forum that discusses the use of wikis. While these sites do not provide much information, they also contain some useful links to better understand the use of wikis and to search for resources.

This article explains three principles of language learning that teachers must consider as they plan lessons. The first is that students will benefit from understanding their own learning styles; the second is that students learn better when lessons align with their own learning styles; and the third is that students will benefit more from learning opportunities that differ from their preferred modalities when they are guided through these experiences.

Computers facilitate learning activities that are appropriate for many learning preferences. They also can help the instructor to evaluate students’ work and design activities that will expand upon their preferred learning styles. In this article, Ngeow describes a number of activities that may help students better understand their own learning and that will appeal to many different learning preferences. The instructor can facilitate cooperation and understanding of others by assigning students different roles. For example, when students write a newsletter together, some will be responsible for writing, others for graphics, others for editing, etc.

I appreciate this article for the specific ideas that it provides. I think that assigning students roles is a concept that can apply to any classroom activity, and as more projects are made possible by technology, organization will become increasingly important because tasks will become more complex. I also like the suggestions for educating students about learning styles and for helping them to expand upon their own preferences. These tools empower students and also make them better mentors inside and outside the classroom.

FL teach is a discussion site for foreign language teachers. It includes archives going back several years, a news server, and dozens of online resources with categories such as media, dictionaries, activities, and language specific sites.

The most valuable sections of this site, for me, are the lists of web resources. They are logically categorized and include brief descriptions of each site. It would take many hours to check out the sites, but I plan to read through a number of the listings to get ideas for my classes and to network with other foreign language teachers.

Dave's ESL cafe is a rich site with several teacher forums, information on degrees and certificates, job search advice, descriptions of different types of ESL programs, student resources, and other links.

The feature that I find most useful is the forums. There is a wealth of great information and ideas--so much experience available at one's fingertips. The community is supportive and generous in sharing advice and knowledge. A teacher can find information on just about any aspect of language education, and there are a number of places where students can get enrichment also.

I researched this site quite a bit when I was deciding what type of master's program to pursue, and I have also used the search feature to find ideas for lesson plans, both for ESL and for foreign language classes.

Software/Website Title: Multilingual Center Free Spanish Lessons

Website URL: http://multilingualcenter.com/free_spanish_lessons_02.htm

Grade/Age Level: Grades 8-adult

Language & Content:

What is the intended purpose of the software or website?
The purpose is to sell instructor-led Spanish courses provided online and via phone. This website provides sample lessons that include useful vocabulary, verb tenses, and grammatical explanations.

What is the content of the software or website and how is it presented?

The website provides written lessons on the alphabet, common verbs, definite and indefinite articles, healthcare vocabulary, grammatical explanations such as the uses of por and para, and multiple-choice quizzes on the above topics. There are also several lessons on similar topics that have an audio component of a native speaker reading the printed text.

What external documents does the software or website include? Are they effective?

There are no external documents. The only part of the site that requires any student input is the quizzes, which self correct online when the answers are submitted.

In what ways is the software or website interesting to the target audience?

The website is interesting for students who want to learn correct pronunciation by repeating after a native speaker. The site allows for unlimited repetition of the material. After the initial presentation of the content, there are a lot of examples that demonstrate the structures, and English translations or drawings are provided alongside the Spanish text. The quizzes also would help students know what sections they need to study more. Also, some of the grammatical content is on subjects that are difficult for English speakers to understand and remember, such as the uses of the verb “estar.”

For what language goal(s) is this software or website useful/effective?

This is useful for learning correct Spanish pronunciation and for learning the present tenses of common Spanish verbs. It also provides some basic vocabulary, especially related to health care and cars. Since it is a sampler, the content is not comprehensive, but it would be useful as a supplement to other materials and to review basic vocabulary and grammatical structures.

Does this program or website offer practice? Assessment? Feedback?

The only practice is in the form of repetition in the short audio grammatical presentations. Assessment is via the 8 short multiple-choice quizzes, which provide immediate feedback.

Is this software or website easy to use?

This is easy to use. The links take you directly to the content.

What are the strengths of this software or website?

The strengths are that the audio files provide plenty of time for repetition, English translations are provided with the content, and all the functions are easy to use. Also, the grammatical points are clearly presented and help to clarify some confusion on usage of the structures presented.

How can this software or website be improved?

This site has little content, and it is presented in a grammar-translation fashion. It would be interesting to have some cultural resources, interactive lessons, and more content, but the main purpose of the site is to sell the classes, so it gives a good idea of how those classes are taught.

"Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom" by William Guariento and John Morley

This article discusses the use of authentic texts and authentic tasks in foreign language classrooms. The ideal situation is for all activities to be authentic, and the use of genuine materials in the target language is usually a first step in achieving this end.

Although it may seem that beginning language learners cannot access authentic texts or execute authentic tasks, it is possible to modify texts, although modifications for beginners are often not well executed. It is also possible to modify the expectations for the use of materials so that beginners can use authentic materials, focusing on those portions that are comprehensible, to carry out specific activities. Guariento and Morley posit that the way students perceive tasks is more important than whether the instructor deems them to be authentic. A combination of task simulations and authentic discussions regarding those tasks is one way to incorporate material that is potentially useful to students in the real world and also to execute authentic classroom activities.

I think the authors are laboring over a distinction that cannot be made in a classroom setting. Most students realize that they must use simulations to practice potential situations that they will encounter in the target language and culture. Authentic materials are ideal, and if a glossary or some other means of making the materials comprehensible are used, then this will usually improve interest in the task. Using the target language in the classroom is a means in itself of conducting a simulation. When students and teacher share a native language, the classroom is an artificial situation to practice the target language, but most students prefer use of the target language if it is made comprehensible. I believe teachers should solicit student input in regards to classroom tasks and topics, and simulations should be made as genuine as possible, with the use of authentic materials adapted according to the students’ abilities.

Software/Website Title: Visual Link Spanish

Website URL: http://www.learnspanishtoday.com

Grade/Age Level: 6^th grade-adult

Language & Content:

What is the intended purpose of the software or website?

The purpose is to sell the Visual Link Spanish program.

What is the content of the software or website and how is it presented?

The content includes: sentence building, numbers, greetings, survival expressions, grammar, locations, colors, becoming acquainted, and daily objects. The words and phrases are printed on the screen with little drawings, and a voice says the content that you see, with time provided to repeat after the model. Quizzes require the learner to orally translate English words and phrases into Spanish.

What external documents does the software or website include? Are they effective?

There are no external documents.

In what ways is the software or website interesting to the target audience?

The content is interesting because it is high-frequency vocabulary and structures. The drawings that accompany the text help with memorization by association.

For what language goal(s) is this software or website useful/effective?

This is useful for learning to say common phrases and ask questions.

Does this program or website offer practice? Assessment? Feedback? Of what kinds?

The practice comes in the form of verbal repetition after the model. The assessment is a self-assessment. Phrases are spoken in English, and the learner must say them in Spanish. The feedback comes after a pause when the audio provides the translation. For example, during the practice, the screen will show “red” and “rojo.” The learner will repeat “rojo.” During the quiz, the voice will say “red” and pause. The learner tries to say the translation and clicks on the answer button on the screen. The audio will say “rojo.”

Is this software or website easy to use?

This is easy to use. The directions are written and/or spoken. The user doesn’t need to know anything except how to read.

What are the strengths of this software or website?

The strengths are that the structures and vocabulary are useful, there is a lot of repetition, and it is easy to navigate the site.

How can this software or website be improved?

More content could be provided without so many ads. A function could be added to provide a written component.