Hello, everyone.
This week was a challenging week for me, but I found that I really did learn a lot. First, I had a great mixture of not only online instruction from this course but also of in person training at a conference this week. I am happy to share my experiences with you this week.
The first thing I did for our Webskills course was to read the following articles:
1. Technology Tip of the Month by Deborah Healey at http://pages.uoregon/edu/dhealey/techtips/sept200.html
2. Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials by Lindsay Miller
3. New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation by Maria Grazia Busa
4. The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Speaking Skills by Julia Gong
After reading these articles, I chose two websites that help with listening skills and commented on those on our discussion thread. I later chose two more and commented on those accordingly, for a total of four new websites that I have added to my “favorites.”
Next, I read a sample final project from a previous webskills course, and discussed my opinion of that sample.
On Sunday, I finally had time to open my Delicious account. My account can be found at www.delicious.com/borntotravel1970. However, to my surprise, it was harder to figure it out than I had expected. I hope I have time later this week to try to figure Delicious out.
In addition to a busy week in Courtney’s class, I had a busy week of presentations and conferences. First, I was invited to deliver two lectures at Wuhan University of Technology in Wuhan, China. I talked about some of my research on teachers’ beliefs on Focus on Form, grammar instruction and error correction. I also got to share my experiences in using a writing program called “Criterion” and how that site is great at helping learners to find their written errors. I later provided a workshop to undergraduates at the university on globalization and being an international citizen. The technology that I shared with them included Blogger and Nicenet, and they told me about a Chinese site called QQ. For Japanese majors, I shared with them a site called Mixi which is a social site as well as a blog site that I have used for many years now.
However, the best part of my week was spent in attending the Chinese International SLA (Second Language Acquisition) conference at Huazhong University of Science and Technology also in Wuhan. The highlight was that I got to hear Douglas Biber speak about Discourse Analysis, and I spent some time with him afterwards in discussing applications of discourse concordance tools in academic writing courses. This was amazing for me, as I had never used concordancing much in my classrooms. I had always thought of Discourse Analysis as a great research tool, but never as a teaching tool. I hope that after experimenting with some of the activities which Dr. Biber and I discussed that I can share some of them with everyone here in our Webskills course.
Well, as you can see, it was a busy week. I am glad that I could learn so much in just one week!
Take care, everyone!
Evelyn
Hi Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteYou had a very busy week it seems just like me!
I truly empathize as I had to plan for a major meeting and a quiz. Also, I had to make class visits to advertise the writing center on campus and brainstorm with the tutors on possible upcoming workshops in addition to my teaching load.When Friday came, it was not TGIF this week as the situation in my country was shaken by a big explosion in Beirut, so I rushed to pick up my kids from school to ensure their security.
Then,all weekend we stayed at home ,but I decided to explore more sites to distract myself and benefited from my search. I enjoyed reading through the AzarGrammar website. I am interested in the "criterion"that you mentioned, anyway for me to find it?
Hope next week will be a more relaxing one!
Paula
Hi Evelyn and Paula:
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I just want to tell you that I'm glad to hear that you had a great week. Being busy giving and attending lectures, conferences and seminars is satisfying and encouraging. On the other hand, I'm so sorry to hear about the situation in Beirut. That only reminds me of a similar situation I lived back in the 80's when terrorism used to place bombs anywhere that could kill anyone passing by. Fortunately it all finished in the 90's when the terrorist leader was captured and sentenced to life in prison. That was a relief and now we live in peace. I really hope with all my heart, Paula, that your country finds peace really soon.
Evelyn, I find interesting the idea of using the writing program called “Criterion” in teaching. I came across a Grammar Checker called Grammarly at www.grammarly.com which gives a great option to save time when correcting student's writings. Of course, there's a fee to be paid but I think it's worth paying for it if the product proves to be as good as it is described. I guess that it is one of the advantages CALL developments in writing skills have, and we all can be benefited from them.
Hi Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteI visited your delicious account. The websites you introduced in the list are very different, that proves once again that you like to be involved in various types of activity, in Romanian there is such a word as "multilateral" and it has a positive connotation, speaking about a person who is very active.
I found useful http://travelpass.intercity.co.nz/howitworks , as last year I taught English, specialization Tourism. The general level of students was low, and I had to adapt articles. Do you know any useful sources for teaching professional English, specialization Tourism?
I am so sorry about the explosion in Beirut and terrorist actions Xtian had to deal with in his childhood. It is terrible! Thanks God I didn't have such an experience. When I was little we had military actions in Transnistria, the part of the Republic of Moldova that didn't want to be free from the USSR. There where losses among military people, but it didn't last long. Nowadays, 90% of the people who live their have the citizenship of Russia. I still hope that this conflict can be solved and Transnistria will be reunited with Moldova.
I dream about the peace in the whole world! I suffer when I see children and people crying.
Ina
Dear Paula, Xtian, and Ina.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. First, let me say to Paula that I felt sad to read your comment about an explosion in Beirut. I cannot imagine having to worry about things like personal safety. It must be a struggle to live somewhere where a great deal of your time is occupied in just surviving. My heart goes out to you and your family. I hope that peace comes to you soon. Please keep us informed of the situation.
Thesedays in China, people worry that a war may break out between China and Japan, over the disputed islands that they think both are entitled to. Even though those islands are just rocks and are uninhabitable, both countries want to keep the fishermen protected and keep the land that they think is theirs. It is hard for my Japanese friends who live here in China now. Many Japanese companies have had to close down and there is a lot of violence directed towards Japanese people. Needless to say, it is a delicate issue.
Criterion is a great program for having students to submit their writing assignments. However, it is a paid account. Students must purchase login cards from ETS in order to use Criterion. They are cheap (about $15 US for a semester) but still this could be a burden on some students in some places. Anyway, Criterion offers all kinds of feedback on their writings, from lower level grammatical problems to higher order structure and development problems. I like this program because it saves me from having to deal with first drafts that are extremely poorly written. Students have to get a score of 4 or above on Criterion before I will look at their papers.
Ina, I once taught a Tourism class many years ago. Unfortunately, I have not stayed updated about good sources for this type of class. My link to New Zealand was just for personal use, as we are going to New Zealand for Christmas vacation this year! I will ask around and see if any of my teachers know of any good Tourism-based sources and get back to you if I find anything.
Xtian, I will check out Grammarly and see what it has to offer. Thanks for sharing the link.
Good luck to you all, and see you next week!
Evelyn