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).