Reflection on Mark's Article

According to Mark Warschauter, CALL can be categorized in terms of three phases:
Behavioristic CALL---can be referred to as "drill and practice" programs which is based on the model of the computer as tutor, but do not allow enough authentic communication.

Communicative CALL---an extension of the computer as tutor and involves the computer as stimulus and the computer as tool. It focuses on building students' intrinsic motivation and fostering interactivity. It also focuses on stimulating students' discussion, writing and critical thinking, and empowering the learners to use or understanding language.

Integrative Call---based on two important technological developments - multimedia computers and Internet. The advantages of hypermedia are it is more authentic; skills are easily integrated through it; learners have great control oer their learning; it facilitates a principle focus on the content.

I agree with Warschauer's veiwpoint that Internet can be a medium of global communication and a source of limitless authentic materials. In my own teaching practice, Internet is an effective tool for supporting my teaching and students' learning, especially Youtube. Online grammar exercise is also a useful tool for supporting my teaching because I can save time for designing worksheets. Moreover, students like to do online grammar exercise more than worksheets.

Week 4 Reading

Language Learner Behaviour in a Virtual Environment
(Jannie Roed)
Researchers believe that t people behave differently when communicating online compared to a face-to-face situation. It is because when communication online, people show fewer inhibitions, display less social anxiety, and reduce their public self-awareness. They also tend to be more willing to divulge personal information and more honest and forth coming in presenting their personal viewpoints. Based on these findings, it seems that a virtual learning environment may constitute a more relaxed and stress free atmosphere than a classroom. The low level of inhibition and social anxiety, in particular, would be advantageous in foreign language learning, as it would result in increased language production. Roed has carried out a pilot project that explores communicative behaviour patterns among 13 first and second year students of Danish at the University of Edinburgh and University College London. Students solved a language task involving text communications, which were tracked and analysed. The findings are discussed in relation to research on psychological aspects of online behaviour.

I think it is true that people behave differently when communication online compared to a face-to-face situation because I am this type of person. Communicating online gives me enough time to think and construct my meaning and language. Therefore, it reduces the chances of making mistakes. I am afraid of making mistakes so I will be anxious and inhibit myself when confronting a face-to-face communication.

Although there are quiet a lot advantages of communicating online, it may not be workable in Hong Kong’s primary school. There are three concerns for this. Primary students are not mature enough. They are unable to manage their time and control themselves. Communicating online may become an excuse for them to be addicted to other online activities such as playing online games. Another concern is about parents. Parents may not expect their children to have too many online activities. If their children spend too much time with computer, they may become worried and may complaint the school. The last concern is about students again. It is difficult to control students to use English as a medium of communication online.

Sharing of an English lesson

I'm teaching a unit titled 'Changes of Hong Kong'. I could forsee how the students would be bored because they didn't know anything about the old Hong Kong and they assumed that it was unncessary for them to know about the changes of Hong Kong. In order to arouse their interest, therefore, I showed them two videos. One of the videos is about Hong Kong in the past and the other one is about the present Hong Kong. Students were asked to write down the difference between old Hong Kong and the present Hong Kong when they were watching the videos. Then, they needed to report the findings in groups. As a result, students were able to notice the main differences and I believed that they found it more interesting than just read the text and talk about the changes.

A useful website---teaching pronouns

I was designing a worksheet for tomorrow's remedial lesson. The worksheet is about pronouns. I found a useful website which provides about 200 exercises about pronouns.

http://www.wordpower.ws/grammar/gramch18.html

My favourite movie in 2009

Avatar--a romantic and amazing movie.
More important, another movie that advocating the message of saving the world.
http://www.avatarmovie.com/index.html

My teaching

I work in a primary school and I teach both junior and senior levels. I like my work and students although I do feel very tired sometimes. Luckily, we have long holidays to fresh up ourselves. :)

In my own teaching, I use the following IT things frequently:
1. E-book and audio CD provided by the publisher
2. PowerPoint for showing examples when teaching grammar and vocabulary
3. Yahoo searching engine to search and download information
4. YouTube for searching videos
5. Communicate with students through e-Class platform (e.g. email assignments, do discussions or votings)

I also communicate with some students through MSN sometimes after school.

I don't think we must incorporate IT into our teaching because the teaching can be worse if the incorporation is not necessary. However, the use of IT in a well planned lesson will be more interesting and effective thus students can ejoy it and learn things effectively.

Welcome to my blog

Hi, every one. Welcome to my blog. This is my second blog. I used to have a blog for communicating with my students four years ago. Then for some reason, I deleted it. If I was not asked for fufilling the requirement of the course I am taking (EN6482), I think I'll never create my second blog.

I am not a kind of 'IT' person because I  am not interested in it and I don't have time. When I start serving the net or doing something online, usually I'll spend several hours on it. It takes too much time but I can't control myself. The reality is I have too much school work and housework to do and they are more important. Therefore, I don't like spending time with doing 'IT' things.

Since I'm not interested in having my own blog (especially it will be assessed), I start to feel the pressure coming from it. I think I won't always update this blog except I 'm asked to do it. However, I do like to receive your comment, so do gvie me your comment if you want to. :)