Corpus Activity

1. Choose a text to use in class in an English for academic purposes class. 2. Go to http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/ and http://www.lextutor.ca/freq/eng/ 3. Paste the text on these pages and find the frequency of the words in the text and see which word families these words belong to. 4. Prepare pre-reading vocabulary exercise by choosing the appropriate vocabulary(5 words). 5. By using the same website, find the collocations for each word and use them in the exercise.

Mobile Learning

How effective do you think mobile learning tools are for the teaching of all four skills?

Can they serve equally well for  the development of each skill across differing proficiency levels?

(You can refer to any tool you are familiar with. )

workshop

Multimedia-enhanced listening and pronunciation teaching: Deciding on the tools

Listening websites

Elllo

British Council - Listen & Watch

Sounds English

ESL Lab

Smiling Town

English Central

Can 8 Virtual Lab

ESL Bits

http://esl-bits.net

Pronunciation websites

BBC - Pronunciation 

Many things - Pronunciation activities

Pronunciation power

Before You Know it (BYKI) software

Train your accent


Image you are teaching in an institution where listening/pronunciation components are mostly neglected or aren't taught effectively.

Above you can see hyperlinks to several websites for teaching listening and pronunciation. In the light of the research covered in the class, can you check the websites, evaluate them, and choose the ones that fit you contexts best?

Your way of podcasting in language teaching

Hello everyone, 

Among all the different uses of podcasting, using them as advance organizers attracted my attention the most. So I recorded a podcast including the headlines of our presentation, and a discussion question.

Can you all create an account in the famous podcast website podomatic and go to this  link where you will hear the podcast I recorded?

You can write your answers as a comment write under the podcast, share some podcast or or other links, and more importantly, get to know the website.

See you all tomorrow.

Selahattin.

Podcasts have been very popular in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. How do you encourage the use of podcasts in your classrooms as teachers of English?

Podcast resources

Grammar Girl

Breaking News English

Podcasts in English

TED Talks

Voice of America

BBC Podcasts

What does this model tell you in terms of aural comprehension and vocabulary learning?

At which stages do you think current teaching listening practices that you employ fall short?

Teaching Listening Comprehension Through Technology

Are you using a particular tool to teach listening?
What criteria do/would you use when deciding on a tool to teach listening?

Collaboration with Wikis

In Elola &Oskos (2010), it appeared that the groups working with help from a forum were more focused on the content of their knowledge building than the groups working with help a wiki. How could this happen? And how could you stimulate students to demonstrate the same processes (more focus on content, more continuous evolving work, etc.), while working with a wiki?

Anonymous Internet - Tor Browser

Hi everyone,

Because YouTube and Twitter are down, I thought maybe I could help a little bit. If you download the Tor browser, you can go online anonymously, and thus evade the bans. Here's how you do it.

1. Go to this link: Dropbox - Tor Browser, and click on 'download'.
2. Go to the 'downloads' folder on your computer, find the file, righ-click, and select 'unpack in Tor Browser.rar/'
3. Go to the folder 'Tor Browser' (which just appeared if you did everything right) and dubble-click the 'Start Tor Browser.exe' file.
4. Select your language and go through the installation process (mostly just clicking 'next')
5. The Tor Browser will start (it takes a little longer than a normal browser) > When first starting it, you have to say what kind of connection you have. Just click on 'connect', and you'll be fine.

How to get YouTube working in Tor Browser:
1. Open Tor Browser
2. Click on the onion symbol
3. Click on 'preferences'
4. Click on 'security settings'
5. Uncheck the box 'disable browser plugins (such as Flash)'
6. Close and re-open Tor Browser

I don't know for sure if it will work, but I feel I should at least try.

CALL and Reading

Online resources for reviewing vocabulary:

• Merriam Webster's Learner Dictionary
• Just the Word
• Visuwords - Visual Dictionary
• Snappy Words, Free Online Visual Dictionary 
• The Visual Thesaurus
• Urban Dictionary
• Complete Lexical Tutor Concordancer
• Vocabulary Test
• Practice Math & Language Art
• National Geographic Young Explorer

Online resources for pre-reading activities:

• Wordle
• Word it Out 
• Mindmeister
• Inspiration
• Simple Wikipedia 

Online resources for extensive reading activities

• Webquests
• Pinterest
• Blogs 
• Picture Books in ELT: http://picturebooksinelt.blogspot.com/
• B is for Books: http://bisforbooks.ca/
• Teaching Village: http://www.teachingvillage.org/
• An A-Z of ELT: http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/
• Wanderlust and Lipstick: http://wanderlustandlipstick.com/blogs/debbysdepartures/
• Kiwis Don’t Fly: http://kiwisdontfly.travellerspoint.com/
• Ortak Kullanım Hareketi: http://www.ortakkullanimhareketi.com/
• Ekmek Kokusu: http://ekmekkokusu.blogspot.com/
• Cognitive Daily: http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/
• Bir Dolap Kitap: http://www.birdolapkitap.com/
• No Time for Flashcards: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/
• Green Kitchen Craft Blog: http://www.greenkitchen.com/blog/
• Soule Mama: http://www.soulemama.com
• PBS - Nova
• 
  

DISADVANTAGES TO USING BLOGS

We know blogs offer unique opportunities for teaching a foreign language. However, here are some drawbacks to using blogs in foreign language teaching: -The vocabulary and topics might be inappropriate for students' proficiency levels. -They might contain inappropriate content. -Blogs written by native speakers do not follow a schedule unlike foreign language classrooms and textbooks. -Technical difficulties might get in the way of teaching/learning. -Some hosts may not update their blogs regularly which may result in boredom in students. -... Which one of these drawbacks is the most serious in your opinion? And what solution(s) would you recommend to overcome that? (You are welcome to mention other disadvantages as well.)

INTEGRATING SPEAKING INTO BLOGS

The literature emphasizes the use of blogs in teaching reading and writing. If you were to add a speaking component as well, how would you achieve it?

Process Approach to Writing & Micropublishing

The supporters of the process-centered approach in writing can be divided in the following two categories:

- Expressivism: Values fluency and writer’s  ‘voice’ as methods to become proficient writing. Composing is seen as ‘a creative act in which the process -the discovery of the true self- is as important as the product’ .

- Cognitivism: Sees writing as problem solving, emphasises the development of a writer’s mental processes and writing strategies, but agrees with expressivists that process is personal and repeats itself.

Which of these categories do you prefer, and why? And how would you shape writing exercises in CALL, according to your preference?

Merve: I like writing expressively and appreciate reading such pieces of readings in general. When it comes to teaching, though, we might need both cognitivism and expressivism in an orderly fashion. A progressive approach starting with the cognitive view of writing evolving to the expressive phases would help students build upon their skills easily and effectively.

Sonat: I think extensive reading is crucial. As Selahattin said, CALL may facilitate this process through the use of blogs as a discussion platform. As most of our students are reluctant to read extensively, it is a must for teachers to engage them through some tools that are appealing to their age and interest.

Most Important Issues in Reading Instruction

These are the most important issues in reading instruction (Grabe, 2009, p.46)

Which one do you think has gotten too little attention so far? 

And how could you teach this aspect, using CALL? 

Finally, do you think any of these issues have been claiming too much

attention from teachers, and why?

1. Ensure fluency in word recognition

2. Emphasise the learning of vocabulary   a) Electronic dictionaries   b) Multimedia glossing

3. Activate background knowledge

4. Ensure acquisition of linguistic knowledge and general comprehension skills

5. Teach recognition of text structures and discourse organisers

6. Promote development of strategic readers rather than mechanical application of strategy checklists

7. Promote extensive reading

8. Build reading fluency and rate

9. Develop intrinsic motivation for reading

10. Contribute to a coherent curriculum for student learning Merve I think item #6 is often neglected by teachers. Strategy training is essential if teachers are to make their students independent learners who can adopt, apply, and adapt different skills for various task types. I'm not sure how CALL can help teach such a skill. Item #7 can be one of the things exercised too often by teachers. Some texts which are meant to be scanned or search-read do not necessarily require the reader to understand everything in the text. Therefore, using a text beyond its requirements and analysing everything it gives is a waste of time and effort by the student. Selahattin: I agree with Merve on the teachers' neglection of sudent strategy training, and promoting extensive reading. Especially when it comes to extensive reading, many Ts think that encouraging Ss to read outside the classroom is enough. However, the in-class support of such an activity is mostly neglected. Arranging book clubs or reading sydicates could both help students feel motivated because they read for a genuine purpose and encourage them to be critical thinkers. Ideas in line with promoting extensive reading can easily and effectively be applied to CALL, as Ts can keep track of extensive reading activities by starting a discussion in the class blog, ask students to do a web-based research and present it in the classsroom, create onine boards about books they read with many visuals, and supplementary information from varied sources

Hello everyone,

Within the scope of our presentation on TPCK, we did also send a debate question to TED website.

As probably most of you are familiar with it ,TED is a famous online platform where you can start a debate, ask questions, and debate over topics already being discussed. You may also recognize the name from TED talks, too.

Here you can find the question that we asked on how teachers should train students for a tech-integrated classroom. 

The discussion had already started! So feel free to contribute!

Take care

Selahattin and Merve


(We are sorry for the late notice, but we had to wait until the question got approved and published yesterday. )

13th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning

13th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning is highly related to our course objectives. This particular conference is being organized by our department at Boğaziçi University and will be held at the premises of Kadir Has University. Please feel free to share this information with your colleagues.

13th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning
November 3-5, 2014
Kadir Has University Conference Center, Istanbul
http://www.mlearn.org/

Hello everyone!

Tomorrow, we will talk about technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) and we are planning to give you a mini workshop on how to increase teachers' TPCK through Pinterest.

To start with, we would like you all to:

- create a Pinterest account (Here you can find out more about how to create and use your Pinterest accounts) and

- follow the board we created for the workshop.

Feel free to discover Pinterest and our board.

We look forward to having a productive session tomorrow.

See you!

Merve and Selahattin

Technological Pedagogical Content knowledge and Teacher Needs

(Picture taken from: https://edutac.wikispaces.com/TPCK)

 As shown above, Schulman’s TPCK framework describes the connections between different types of teacher knowledge. In which domain(s) do you think you need to improve yourself more in order to have a more informed approach to teaching?

(Picture taken from: http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih4/technology/guide/lesson1.htm)

Technology as a complex phenomenon in language teaching

1                   Koehler and Mishra (2008) describe several factors that make the integration of technology into teaching complicated. These are:

·         Digital technologies are protean in nature.

·         Digital technologies are functionally opaque.

·         Digital technologies are unstable.

·         Teachers often have adequate (or inappropriate) experience.

·         Technology is often considered to be somebody else’s problem.

·         Classroom contexts are varied and diverse.

Which one (s) of these factors, in your opinion, might more commonly challenge language teachers? And why? (Explain in relation to technological pedagogical content knowledge).

WEB 2.0 ENGLISH

Where does the Web 2.0 English fall on Kachru's circles? How does the concept of World Englishes relate to the use of Web 2.0 for English teaching purposes?

FEEDBACK ON WEB 2.0

In what ways does feedback received on Web 2.0 differ from feedback provided in class?

Computer-mediated communication (CMC). Blake, R. J. (2008)

Most teachers of English are well aware of the fact that teaching a foreign language needs to be firmly grounded in interactionist notions. Through the proximal zone of development, negotiation of meaning, FonF, task-based learning, project-based learning, or pair collaboration that emphasize the power of human interactions, SLA process can be stimulated. Collaborative interactions should be encouraged. The context of computer-mediated communication (CMC), whether in real time (synchronous, SCMC) or deferred time (asynchronous, ACMC) appear to be very suitable for this purpose. Kern and Warschauer (2000) have labeled this communication in service of language learning as network-based language teaching (NBLT), which includes e-mail, discussion forums or electronic bulletin boards, blogs, wikis, and chatting with or without sound/video. However, as it is with all other tools of technology, it is the pedagogical design of the tasks that will make it valuable.

In this chapter, two different kinds of CMC are mentioned; asynchronous CMC and synchronous CMC.

A distinction is made for asynchronous CMC between first and second generation tools. What makes them different is that unlike the first one that uses HTML, the second one relies on a new technology (XML). First-generation tools include e-mail, electronic mailing lists, and discussion forums, also known as threaded bulletin boards. As for second-generation CMC Tools, blogs and wikis are good examples.

The second kind of CMC is synchronous CMC. Chat rooms have been used by many teachers for this kind of CMC. The problem is that chat rooms may be more suitable to improve speaking skills rather than writing. Chat room discourse consists of language that is much closer to oral discourse than to written (Sotillo 2000). SCMC has recently been used in pairs and small groups. ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, AOL’s Instant Messenger (AIM), PalTalk, and iVisit are good examples. Blackboard, WebCT, or Moodle are some learning management systems that offer their own internal chat programs within a more controlled learning environment that foster task-based interaction.

There are also tools such as Wimba and Breeze that are very efficient but costly. The Skype client, has many advantages as it is free when chatting from computer to computer with up to four people.

Intracultural CMC

Interaction hypothesis underlies the importance of face-to-face classroom negotiations in SLA. Such negotiations increase input comprehensibility through language modifications such as simplifications, elaborations, confirmation and comprehension checks, clarifications requests, or recasts. All these provide the learners with negative evidence. This type of negotiation has also been described in the literature as focus on form (FonF).

Intercultural CMC: Telecollaborations

For sociocultural, theorists, negotiation of meaning is often reduced in the classroom to nothing more than getting students to manage transactions that are devoid of real L2 cultural import. The implicit assumption they reject is that transactional routines are somehow culture free, the same the world over, which is false. Sociocultural researchers contrast intracultural CMC with intercultural CMC or intercultural communication for foreign language learning (ICFLL); (Thorne and Payne 2005a) to “draw attention to the complex nature of humans as sociocultural actors and technological setting as artifact and as mediators, rather than determiners of action and interaction” (O’Rourke 2005, 435). These ideas draw heavily on Byram (1997), who defines intercultural competence as “an ability to evaluate, critically and on the basis of explicit criteria, perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and other cultures and countries”. For intercultural CMC, the Cultura Project is presented as an example.

CMC and ICC

How can an effective ICC experience be implemented through CMC?
Do you think that students should necessarily be at a high level of proficiency in L2 to take part in CMC projects that seek to develop ICC?

CMC

Chat room discourse consists of language that is much closer to oral discourse than to written (Sotillo 2000).
As we all know well, the discourse via chatting on the Internet is  very limited. Do you think chat room English may create results we do not desire? What may be the role of a teacher in CMC to avoid the kind of language we don't want our students to use?

Some webtools

• Edmodo
• Livemocha
• Busuu
• Glogster
• Visuwords
• Wordia
• Puzzlemaker
• Wordle
• Mindmeister
• Inspiration
• Worditout
• Complete Lexical Tutor
• Tagxedo
• Zimmertwins
• Storybird
• Blabberize
• 4nmedia
• Speakingpal
• Big City Small World
• Urban Planet

What attracts you to technology?

taken from: http://smartblogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/digital-literacy1.jpg

On Monday, after our  brief introduction, I noticed that you all have experience in teaching English as a foreign language at different levels. Several of you have mentioned that due to limited resourses, you do not have much of a chance to use technology in your classes  but you would like to.

So, my question is, what attracts you to technology? Why do you think it is important to incorporate technology in your language teaching practice? Rather than theoretical responses, here I am looking for your candid opinions on this issue. Please respond by using the Comment feature.

Thanks :)