Thursday, March 10, 2011

.: Weblogs vs Message Board :.

Salam..


Both materials can be very useful teaching aids for teachers as they offer different advantages for language learning. In my opinion, to decide which one is suitable for teaching English as second language in Malaysian secondary schools depends on students’ differences and preferences. Teachers have to examine their students’ level of proficiency first before deciding which way is suitable. Referring to own experiences and articles read, using weblogs seems to be more suitable regardless to wide gap of students’ level of proficiency. It is believed that weblogs can benefit every levels of proficiency as long as teachers carefully design the lesson or task to be given to students through weblogs. The reason is weblogs are more systematic as it is arranged chronologically and controlled by teachers of respective group members in terms of the order of works in certain timeline as well as pollution control.

Teachers can utilize weblogs with every language skills namely reading, speaking, writing and listening. With hyperlink features, teachers can upload new entry in weblogs according to the objectives of the lesson and ask students to answer by posting on the comment part. For example, teachers upload one story and ask few comprehension questions or giving unfinished story and ask students to write the ending of the story for writing exercise. In addition, this way of learning is more familiar to Malaysian students’ attitude as only few of them will prefer and actively post new topics as what message board operating.    

Monday, March 7, 2011

.: Task 2: Correction :.

1.0         Introduction
The use of Web technology in teaching and learning has begun to change the face of education. The World Wide Web has become a useful instructional medium and provides new learning experiences for students that were not previously possible. Nowadays, students with the help of an Internet connection, can receive instruction, create and submit assignments, and ask questions to the instructor and fellow students also can actively participate in class discussion from home, office, or any computer lab. These characteristics brought the idea of discovering the advantages and disadvantages of Web-based instruction in teaching and learning process specifically for ESL classroom comparing to the face-to-face learning which commonly used by ESL teachers.
Basically all the selected researches were referring to the theoretical of Web-based CALL since the focus are on the use of World Wide Web as the key of the resources. According to Web-based CALL theory, students can search through millions of files around the world within minutes to locate and access authentic materials exactly tailored to their own personal. Students can publish their texts or multimedia to share with partner classes or with general public. On the other hand, the researchers also highlighted the interaction among teachers and students as most of the researches chosen are comparing between Web-based instruction and traditional method of teaching such as face-to-face learning. For that reason, it is believed this topic is very significant especially for future teachers in order to have clear view and useful guidelines towards producing an effective and meaningful lesson.      
Throughout this study, the focus is given towards learners’ preferences in choosing web-based instruction or classroom based instruction. The different variables that affect students’ preferences also been discovered based on other previous researches namely learners’ gender, learners’ learning style and type of software used.   
 
2.0         Learners’ Preferences : Web-based Instruction or Face-to-face Learning
According to Baker (2009), web-based instruction (WBI) is defined as instruction that occurs between teacher and student that is facilitated strictly by use of the World Wide Web. The teacher is able to post curriculum, notes, etc. on a particular platform for student review with no requirement of coming to school or campus. Alessi and Trollip (2001 as cited in Luik, 2006) distinguish two types of web-based learning: on-site learning (people learn in classroom using web-recourses) and distance learning.
On the other hand, face-to-face learning is defined as the more traditional form of education between student and teacher and non web-based methods such as paper textbooks (Baker, 2009; Watson, 2009).
Based on previous researches, four researches out of five researches chosen positively resulted that learners are more interested in web-based instruction rather than face-to-face method. Given the choice between traditional course offerings and technology-based course offerings, students are increasingly choosing technology as a vehicle for learning (Sivapalan, Fatimah & Khairun Nisya ,2009). On the other hand, research done by Manko (2010) indicated that classroom study was more effective, as 85% of those who studied in the classroom answered the survey questions correctly, compared to the 72% correct answers by the online ESL students.   

3.0         Learners’ Gender
Gender is one of the aspects that affect students’ preferences in choosing method of instructions. It was well-proven that when comparing boys’ and girls’ preferences, the result were fairly same (Luik, 2006). Based on the result, both boys and girls preferred more blended learning in which combining web-based and face-to-face instruction than wholly web-based learning. Boys preferred more wholly web-based courses than girls did but there was not any significant difference comparing boys’ and girls’ preferences about the blended course.  

4.0         Learners’ learning style
Terrell and Dringus (2000 as cited in Zacharis, 2010) measured learning styles of online learning students with a high level of computer literacy, based on the Kolbs's LSI. The study showed that learning style had no effect on success in online learning but it was determined on how the lesson was carried out by the teacher too. 

5.0         Type of Software
According to research done by Subarna Sivapalan, Wan Fatimah and Nur Khairun Nisya (2007), the findings indicate that almost half of the respondents felt that the search engine was useful in helping them locate information on the poems in comparison to the teacher while 73.1% of them also indicated that the voice clips helped them understand the poems better. Moreover, quarter and half of the respondents indicated that the information presented on the poet’s background and the meaning of the text in the multimedia platform was more useful than the information provided by the textbooks they currently use in their school. This result was also parallel with research done by Luik (2006). Thus, it is concluded that type of software used plays an important role in identifying learners’ preferences towards choosing the instructions to be used in language classroom.

6.0         Conclusion
In a nutshell, there is very few researches done conclude that learners prefer wholly web-based as medium of instruction. Even though it is proven that learners are very interested in web-based instruction yet they prefer more on incorporating both instructions.  Based on the discussions concluded, the researches done are very useful for ESL teachers as they could benefits from learners’ preferences whether to introduce the use of World Wide Web in teaching. Few suggestions on how to employ the method also can help teachers a lot in order to improve students’ achievement as well as increase their motivation in learning. However, it is quite difficult to make use of World Wide Web in local setting as the lack of infrastructures will be the obstacle other than in need of thorough studies in order to observe students’ differences and teachers’ readiness.



REFERENCES


Luik, P. (2006). Web-based learning or face-to-face teaching – preferences of Estonian Students. Retrieved on February 22nd, 2011 from http://www.aare.edu.au/06pap/lui06159.pdf

Subarna, S, Wan Fatimah Wan Ahmad & Nur Khairun Nisya Isha (2008). A Web-based Multimedia Approach to Literature in Malaysian Secondary Schools: Design and Learning Preferences. Retrieved on February 21st, 2011 from http://eprints.utp.edu.my/2061/2/MELTA_09_SUBARNA_%26_WAN_FATIMAH.pdf

Watson, J. (2009). Blending learning: The convergence of online and face-to-face education: Internet edition.  Retrieved on February 2nd, 2011 from http://www.inacol.org/research/promisingpractices/NACOL_PP-BlendedLearning-lr.pdf

Zacharis, N.Z. (2010). The impact of learning styles on student achievement in a web-

based versus an equivalent face-to-face course. Retrieved on February 21st, 2011 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCR/is_3_44/ai_n55503868/?tag=content;col1

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

.: New Alternative :.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a free web-based word processor, presentation, form, spreadsheet

and data storage offered for Google account users. It is a very useful
application where users can create and edit documents online while collaborating
in real-time with other users.

They are many features in Google Docs that offer a collaborative writing
activity in ESL class. With the friendly-user tool and familiar toolbar buttons,
teacher can easily creates shared folders and drag-and-drop items from own or
other useful web folders on writing activity or even upload instructions on
writing exercises for students. Once the students have done with that particular
work, they can share their essay on this useful Google application. In fact,
through the revisions' history, teacher can observe students' participation as
they need to log in Google account before doing any editing towards the selected
files. Moreover, Google Docs also come with data safety and privacy as teacher
can invite his or her respected students and able to control the documents
uploaded. This free feature also promotes collaborative writing through
notifications on any changes or editing done by teacher or friends via e-mail.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

.: TASK 2 :.

1.0         Introduction
The use of Web technology in teaching and learning has begun to change the face of education. The World Wide Web has become a useful instructional medium and provides new learning experiences for students that were not previously possible. Nowadays, students with the help of an Internet connection, can receive instruction, create and submit assignments, and ask questions to the instructor and fellow students also can actively participate in class discussion from home, office, or any computer lab. These characteristics brought the idea of discovering the advantages and disadvantages of Web-based instruction in teaching and learning process specifically for ESL classroom.
According to Baker (2009), web-based instruction (WBI) is defined as instruction that occurs between teacher and student that is facilitated strictly by use of the World Wide Web. The teacher is able to post curriculum, notes, etc. on a particular platform for student review with no requirement of coming to school or campus. The following research articles are critically viewed:
i)          A Web-Based Multimedia Approach to Literature in Malaysian Secondary Schools: Design and Learning Preferences,
ii)        Assessing and Comparing Interaction Dynamics, Student Learning, and Satisfaction Within Web-Based Online Learning Programs,
iii)       Comparing Traditional and Technological  Methods for Studying English as a Second Language (ESL),
iv)       Web-Based Vs. Classroom Instruction Of Statistics Dissertation  
v)        Web-Based Learning or Face-To-Face Teaching – Preferences of Estonian Students
in order to look at the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing web-based instruction based on the learners’ preferences between web-based learning and traditional methods of learning.  

2.0         Review and Summary
Basically all the selected researches were referring to the theoretical of Web-based CALL since the focus were on the use of World Wide Web as the key of the resources. According to Web-based CALL theory, students can search through millions of files around the world within minutes to locate and access authentic materials exactly tailored to their own personal. Students can publish their texts or multimedia to share with partner classes or with general public. On the other hand, the researchers also highlighted the interaction among teachers and students as most of the researches chosen are comparing between Web-based instruction and traditional method of teaching such as face-to-face learning.     
One of the most important parts should be emphasized is the objectives of all researches in order to find out the advantages and disadvantages of WBI in ESL classroom. Basically the selected researches aimed to discuss students’ perceptions of the web-based instruction through multimedia, to investigate the level of students’ perceived learning satisfaction, and students’ interaction, to find out the differences in effectiveness between traditional classroom methods and online technological methods and lastly to examine which phases of instruction it is preferred to carry out the web-based learning and in which phases students need direct contact with the teacher (Sivapalan, Fatimah & Khairun Nisya ,2009; Mason, 2008; Baker, 2009; Luik, 2006). From those objectives, the researchers directed the reader to the learners’ preferences before concluded with numbers of advantages and disadvantages of WIB in ESL classroom.
In order to guide the whole researches, there are few research questions addressed by the researchers. Referring to Sivapalan, Fatimah & Khairun Nisya (2009) and Baker (2009), the researchers addressed on the programs used other than questioned on the differences between two different methods of teaching in ESL Classroom like other selected researchers. However, the main concern is given to the question addressed by all researchers in achieving the main aim of this paper which is what types of learning, pedagogy, and interactive experiences describe the web-based learning environment as compared to classroom-based instruction?.      
The methodologies utilized by all the researchers were various based on the research questions they wanted to achieve. Nevertheless, all of the researches chose a quantitative approach as they used several kind of test in order to distinguish marks obtained other than utilizing questionnaires and surveys in collecting data on learners’ preferences. The validity and reliability score also well explained as they did pilot study and tested them with Cronbach’s Alpha. Clear and comprehensible explanation of every table is also included.
In order to achieve every objectives of the researches, the researchers used different sample namely from secondary school students up to university students. For university and college students, the sample participants were drawn from a population of ESL/EFL students which were divided into students who learned ESL in a traditional classroom environment and students who learned ESL online. The reason they were divided into two different learning environments was to obtain the data about online learning.  All the samples from every research have background knowledge in language yet learning it with different purpose whether as a second language or foreign language.         
The researchers successfully achieve the objectives of their researches even though there were some differences when comparing to the five selected researches. Four researches out of five researches chosen positively resulted that learners were more interested in web-based instruction rather than face-to-face method. Given the choice between traditional course offerings and technology-based course offerings, students are increasingly choosing technology as a vehicle for learning (Sivapalan, Fatimah & Khairun Nisya ,2009). On the other hand, research done by Manko (2010) indicated that classroom study was more effective, as 85% of those who studied in the classroom answered the survey questions correctly, compared to the 72% correct answers by the online ESL students.
On the whole, it is concluded that web-based instruction offers a new transformation of learning English either as second language or foreign language.  Moreover, the research questions also were addressed at the end of their study and achieving the goals of the research.

3.0         Reaction
As the current approach to the teaching English is more to teacher centred, opportunities for learners to partake in an active learning environment could be little. Thus, when presented with the opportunity to take control and manage their own learning through an interactive multimedia platform, learners begin to feel a sense of responsibility and ownership towards the learning activity. This in turn increases their motivation and interest to learn literature. The interactive nature of the web-based multimedia literature platform could also be another reason.  The web-based multimedia approach to learning literature is very much different from a book based approach which can make learning boring and lifeless. As the web-based activities include animation of texts and graphics, learners are constantly kept stimulated. This stimulus, the researchers feel, further supports the needs of learners, hence keeping them attentive and focused during the learning process. In addition, it has provided convenient and immediate availability to course material and course discussion. However, the demographic factors such as the learners’ background, age, country of origin have a great impact on which method was most effective or preferred.
The articles studied give a lot of information and enlighten me on few new things such as how the learners view web-based instruction done in classroom. With well conducted studies and proven results, it offers useful knowledge especially for teachers.

4.0         Conclusion
In a nutshell, all the articles were parallels in the findings of the research.  Even though the researchers came out with slightly different research questions yet at the end the advantages and disadvantages were clearly stated. Based on the discussions concluded, the researches done are very useful for ESL teachers as they could benefits from learners’ preferences whether to introduce the use of World Wide Web in teaching. Few suggestions on how to employ the method also can help teachers a lot in order to improve students’ achievement as well as increase their motivation in learning. However, it is quite difficult to make use of World Wide Web in local setting as the lack of infrastructures will be the obstacle other than in need of thorough studies in order to observe students’ differences and teachers’ readiness.


















REFERENCES



Mason, G. (2008). Assessing and Comparing Interaction Dynamics, Student Learning, and satisfaction within Web-Based Online Learning Programs. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, Vol.  4 No. 4. Retrieved on February 13th, 2011 from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol4no4/sher_1208.pdf



Luik, P. (2006). Web-based learning or face-to-face teaching – preferences of Estonian Students. Retrieved on February 22nd, 2011 from http://www.aare.edu.au/06pap/lui06159.pdf
Subarna, S, Wan Fatimah Wan Ahmad & Nur Khairun Nisya Isha (2008). A Web-based Multimedia Approach to Literature in Malaysian Secondary Schools: Design and Learning Preferences. Retrieved on February 21st, 2011 from http://eprints.utp.edu.my/2061/2/MELTA_09_SUBARNA_%26_WAN_FATIMAH.pdf


.: hypertext and vocabulary :.

hypertext???
The study done introduced the readers to many advantages of using hypertext in teaching and learning vocabulary.  Other than promoting a fun atmosphere in the classroom in which a good practice for teachers, it also offers teachers wider options of integrating multimedia in teaching, as in this case referred to vocabulary. However, the results showed that students failed to retain the vocabularies tested in the program. In fact, it also clarified that intentional vocabulary learning is more efficient than incidental learning. Therefore, this result questioned the usefulness and practicality of using hypertext to teach grammar.  

In my opinion, it is believed that the vocabulary learning can be more efficient if it is given enough opportunities to practice the words frequently. Hypertext can be very useful in introducing the words and the examples in sentences or text yet sufficient homework can help students to recall the words and be more familiar with those new vocabularies. Moreover, the idea of integrating of incidental and intentional learning also will offer more advantages as learners can benefits the lesson based on their own preferences. Nevertheless, the result might be different if it is conducted with different samples in different setting.     


psstt!! psstt!!: even the word hypertext itself needs vocabulary knowledge right?  

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

.: first task, first entry :.


The Grammar Aquarium website is chosen in order to complete the requirement task; Task 1 for TSL 641, Computer Assisted Language Learning. The website can be surfed through http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish/freeexercises.htm and useful for second language learner as it is created by non-English speaker. The main target of the website is the children aged 11 years old up to secondary school level of learning English. In addition, it is very helpful for EFL and ESL teachers in language learning classroom as well as for English language learner to be utilized as self-learning on their own.

The Grammar Aquarium website is designed to teach Grammar in particular. It emphasize on every topic of English grammar by providing adequate number of exercises for each of the topic. Other than providing exercises, it also offers many links to other popular websites in the explanation column of each grammar forms. It covers from the very basic form in English language, namely countable and uncountable nouns till the topic of Tenses. It is found very accommodating for English teacher because it provides Print-out edition of every exercises. Thus, teacher can print any of the exercises they want to use in the classroom as the handout for the students. On the other hand, website developer also includes few vocabulary parts, ‘Tricky Words’, in which emphasize on the common confusing words in English language.  

The application users are expected to learn Grammar through all the interactive notes and exercises provided in the website. In addition, they are supposed to answer the exercises offered in the website. However, the website is using very less interactive materials such as pictures and sounds which might be difficult for teachers to attract students’ attention and interest as learners are believed to have different style and strategies in learning language.     

There is no complicated computer skills needed in order to explore and utilize the chosen website. The website only utilizes simple skills such as features of a browser (back, refresh, forward buttons etc.) and understands the uses key words in a simple search as well as clicking the categories on the menu to find the grammar form needed. In addition, it is found that the website is quite easy for users as it put the notes, exercises and handouts in specific timetable. The notes section also gives opportunity for users to use and explore external links provided which link to other websites.  In fact, the website designer also direct users on how to use the website by briefly explain it as users successfully access the website.  

Using computer itself is slightly different with traditional method of teaching and learning process in language classroom which is usually will be ‘chalk and talk’ lesson. Referring to the learning experiences that most of students had, the website chosen is more to student-centered in which students can explore it by themselves, get familiar with how the website works for language learners and gain something beneficial for them. Furthermore, it provides more freedom for learners in choosing which grammar items they want to be tested as well as chances to learn better as mistakes done are being acknowledged only by the users themselves. In fact, the website can be very good learning material as students are not asked to copy notes and exercises like what students usually face in classroom. However, if the learners are given chances to use computer in computer lab at school, this website can offer various group activity by answering the exercises within 3 to 4 group members.       

Principle of using computer in language learning and teaching is must be closely related to second language acquisition theories. Therefore, it is found that the chosen website employs the Content-based instruction where it provides second-language learners instruction in content and language. As the website emphasizes only on grammar and few vocabulary knowledge, thus the users can focus on the subject matter than the language learning process since it can be use outside of the classroom. Keeping the students motivated and interested in language learning is the profound advantage of content-based learning, so, the notes and exercises in The Grammar Aquarium can make students learn language automatically as they are free to make mistakes and keep doing it.        

The constructivist theory of learning is always associated with active learning and related to learners’ prior knowledge. The theory is not fully applied to the Grammar Aquarium as not much communication and critical thinking skill is inquired except for answering exercises given. However, the exercises provided can build students’ schemata as they go through it and use it meaningfully in their daily communication.  

            It is believed that computer is neither a replacement for teachers nor a master to any users. It is more like a ‘library’ to the learning process where teachers or students can get many references, materials, exercises, teaching and learning aids in improving what we normally have namely books, journals, newspaper etc. The Grammar Aquarium is seen as a helper in enhancing the way second language learners acquire language other than using books, recording materials, etc.   

            The application seems very useful for my future work in terms of teaching grammar and creating slightly different way of learning language. In addition, the website designer also divides the topic well and uses linear link which might not confuse the students. In fact, minimum speed of loading the exercises makes it very applicable to use in one period lesson of teaching and learning grammar. It might be not as interactive as other websites with many pictures and interesting sound yet more meaningful since it is more content specific. Nevertheless, the website can be improved with more pictures and games such as hangman, word attack and many more before they move on from one topic to other topic.