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An Integrated Framework by Hubbard- Teacher's Fit

2010-03-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

In this article I will try to focus on the teacher's fit part as Hubbard (1987) language teaching approach was not fully explored and highlighted through evaluation. There is a framework and the way we consider the notion of approach in relation to the teacher's fit.

Evaluation can start with finding out the evaluator's beliefs and values in relation to the language (function & structure). There are other considerations like factors related to grammar including; patterns and rules' roles coupled with linguistic form- function relationship. We have to bear in mind the evaluator's needs think about his / her learning and language learning assumptions.

There are 2 kinds of language learning assumptions; 1. It is related to 2nd language learning processes to the learner (intrinsically) including; age impact, motivation and L1. 2. It's related extrinsic factors surrounding the language learning environment including; teachers, classrooms, students, and texts, leading to trustable kind of generalisations.

Hubbard's idea pointed us to the language teaching approach which refers to a combination of linguistic and learning assumptions., and reminded us that the evaluator 's views should be pretty independent, and quality of his/ her teaching should not be compromised.

His suggestion to replace the traditional approach a new revised one like consideration should be given to three common approaches'; behaviouristic, explicit learning , and communicative, added with their characteristics. He highlighted that the three differ in the way the bad habits being treated. Explicit learning approach errors interpreted as violation of certain rules, while in the acquisition approach errors look at as part of natural development as long as there was no interruption in the communication.

Language teaching approach operationalisation will rely on its connection with courseware evaluation. In this case we to think about computer qualities as delivery system for language input. A s we know computer are pretty good at number of activities like text alterations, and record keeping can prove to be useful for practical reasons, but not for others.

We need to figure out a combination of limitations and abilities side by side with language teaching generalisations to create a set of approach based evaluation criteria. Hubbard went on to highlight a partial list of the evaluation criteria required for explicit learning approaches: provides meaningful practices, gives prompts of various types, tolerates different correct answers, provides rooms for explanation on why correct answers are correct, and predicts wrong answers and provides reasons' interpretation.

Besides the above there are other issues like explanation roles, learner's differences treatment, the nature of learner to learner interaction and teacher - learner interaction, the nature of linguistic competence, culture role, memory nature, learner's feelings and motivation role can be considered the foundation of the evaluator's approach based evaluation criteria.

Well it may be sound theoretical to most teachers, but we need to assess those assumptions mentioned to see how they can fit well in our teaching. There is no doubt that the teacher's belief is bound to influence the nature of the language structure and function, but this will vary from one teacher to another. I wonder if all those assumptions mentioned can fit well the goals of language learning? or students' requirements and aspirations. Are we posing the question of teacher's fit from the evaluation perspectives only or there are perspectives we should look at and use to come up with a far more comprehensive evaluation.

John
https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Readings/Hubbard1988.pdf
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My words

2010-03-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

It was a great encounter to meet up with Dr. John and thanks for our tutor Dr. Christoph for inviting him to share us his very valuable expertise and knowledge about My words wesite set up, progress and advancement through the years. It is a very wonderful and effective teachology tool for all English teachers including NETs and LETs in the education field to make use of new IT technolgies in language learning.

Personally I've felt a sense of relief to hear and know about my words. Frankly this website http://mywords.ust.hk is useful to make us students and teachers alike to learn different words and phrases. Make use of them effectively in teaching and learning . For example you key in "go to shopping" to check whether it is correct by using my neighbours, show the words interface, ater and before the input, and show both words / phrases including all possible forms. It a unique tool since it can be incorporated with Microsoft and help us to write in a more accurate and fluent way. Apart from that it has all resources the person needs to improve his / her English.

In addition there is a grammar checking funtion toolbar to spot out all common errors learner make with a word and and find out all members of the word family. Check complex expressions with google is another feature we are glad to know about in this context. There is a possbility for the teacher or student to look out for less frquent expressions with google search engine. Learner or teacher may enjoy retrieving vocabulary from your personal word list and key word list.

Perhaps we need to consider the following questions:

Does the user need on going support all the time? If yes, do we need to deploy customer support for the user?
What are going to do if the system we are using crash with another system? How the service provider can assist in this regard?
As a new user for my words website what are challenges most likely we need to encouter? How to address them?

We need to be careful at the initial stage as new user to make sure learner knows how to use it whether he / she is a teacher or student. I would guess it is time consuming at the begining as we need to be familiar with system, provide more support and feedback for our students to make sure everyone knows how to use it effectively. Besides to that independent learning concept needs to be reinforced in the classroom to make this new IT teachnology more practical and needed by most learners.

Hubbard's Article on Courseware Evaluation Framework

2010-03-15T00:55:00.000-07:00

It is an overwhelming to read Hubbard’s article about the evaluation framework, it is seems to be an authentic in nature and presented in a well organized manner, which can help us a teachers to create and invent our own assessment for training and learning related to the classroom setting. At the end of the day we can have a deeper understanding and through knowledge on how to conduct a proper evaluation in a more clearer, versatile and meaningful way.But on the other I’ m a bit concerned about the amount of time and effort required to describe every single detail related to different tasks of the courseware! Mind instead goes through a checklist. I presume that there is a rationale of doing so this way as this article suggested. It is really an amazing experience for me and us all to expand our thoughts and horizons about new IT technologies to get the fruit of it all in teaching and learning combined. Well it might be tempting to use some of tools the article mentioned, but as language teachers we are pretty soaked with too administrative and teaching duties. I would guess we try to see which one of them can be applicable which is in this case teacher's fit. The teacher try to assess which teaching material can be used for a particular lesson and form.https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Readings/Hubbard1988.pdf

Hong Kong Copyrights Law

2010-03-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

http://www.ipd.gov.hk/eng/intellectual_property/copyright/edu_guide.pdf.What a pity to see such a document in a place full of all pirated copies of CD(s), DVD(s) and other published material you name it! Teachers are prone to copy materials from a wide range of sources and they are thinking it’s alright to do so as there is no one can come up and tell them ..Hey, no, you’re not allowed to copy! It’s illegal by law! I’m not really sure if there is any law to allow us as a teacher to copy from different sources without crossing the red light or what so called copyright.

Apparently this document is trying to draw the red line which on one dares to cross, otherwise the person considered to be a violator of such law and liable to prosecution in one way or another. What I am not sure about whether this new copyrights law contradicts or overrides the already established photocopying law! It’s time to find I would guess!

Practical consideration on Liou's Article

2010-03-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Readings/Liou%201994.pdfThe article mentioned above emphasize on acquiring the knowledge about; media, constraints (institutional needs) which include learners, and principles of design covering teaching pedagogy and theories related to language learning when we need to create considerations for a design in relation to the this courseware development mentioned here.
What we can say in short there are three essential elements we are required to consider when it comes to CALL development projects namely are learners, the technology itself, and language learning theory. Therefore we draw a comparison with the previous articles we’ve read that there are just 2 options to keep in mind for the departure point in relation to CALL development, but 3 three. It is logical for us to begin with analysis of learners’ need and such analysis should be related and guided by technology and what can do need I
Probably there is a question is popping out in my mind how we get on with web projects, well if there is a question or issue of heavy labour involvement, and how ready-made templates ready for teachers can they make teachers any better or easier!https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Readings/Liou%201994.pdf

Practical consideration

2010-03-08T01:09:00.000-08:00

Liou stating that the theory should be the prime motivational force for the teachnological advancement to lead CALL progress, and he aslo mentioned that other factors can be relevant like SLA theories and concepts like instructional design terms. Nowadays multimedia is becoming increasingly popular. His paper trying to concentrate on the practical consideration by creating a segment of English what is so called EFL interactive videodisc (IVD) courseware. There was a detailed explanation about online implementation and instructional design provided in this paper. Secondary processes including; data collection, analyses, content analysis and screen design. About 95% courseware was implemented and ready for pilot testing. This
courseware including; introduction, hyperscript, film and viewing. Hyperscript was introduced as a design by using hypertext format. Film intruction can be used with a great deal of control. Linkage between evaluation approches, implications, language classroom and recommendations were mentioned. I think this paper can help teachers to consider multimedia as platform for teaching and use them to enhance learning English as foreign language, but we have to consider many aspects like teachers' exposure to multimedia, technical support, students' interest and how to match their needs with an effective usage of multimedia tools to ensure a good time management and right resource management.

An Integrated CALL is Calling for CALL Evaluation

2010-02-28T05:41:00.000-08:00

This is a great article to read and explore as it is addressing and discussing a very demanding tasks which are very challenging in nature most teachers end up with on dailly basis and become the norms of the day.We consider this article very unique and exceptional as it provides us as teachers with another method to conduct assessment in more flexible framework which can lead teachers to create their own assessment procedures. Framework consists of the following sections; operational, description, teacher fit, and learner fit - and their interactions. Such a ramework is considered to be the most integrative one as it combines courseware, development and implementation.

http://www.ict4lt.org/en/warschauer.htm

SL Encounter

2010-02-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

Well, it was a great experience for me even though at the begining was very frustrating for me as I did not get anywhere. It was the first time for me I've tried such a website and SL needs someone who knows what he / she's doing otherwise the person on such a website will be lost and demotivated afterwhile. Probably it is pretty handy to know first more about SL and its web command functions, how to use and move around before things get too serious. SL may be useful for students who have a good command of English and IT knowledge about the internet and how make use of different functions. Otherwise weaker students may struggle a lot with it and need more guidance and instructions before they can try SL. We can consider this website useful and helpful to learn English if students feel there is a benefit and real improvement in their English as result of using SL.http://secondlife.com/

Theory-Driven CALL and The development process by Mike Levy

2010-02-07T14:15:00.000-08:00

This article points out about what is the theory-driven CALL is all about in relation to the development process. There was a review for theoretical frameworks used to encite CALL projects.The given description for the development process by using instructional design and CALL literature and the international survey findings comprising of eighteen countries and one hundred four CALL experts. Based on the Richards and Rodgers model (1986) which proposed that a suitable framework to describe both theory-driven CALL and projects usage to serve as departure point a lower level of abstraction. There is a wide range of development processes shown here including; from those that are linear and systematic to those that are iterative and transformational. Implications for theory-driven CALL are reviewed and the fit concept between pedagogy and the computer's capabilities are evaluated. There was some discussion about the formalist and procedural approaches to CALL revealed. There was an attempt to address the real conditions and derive generalisations and principles that are meaningful to CALL authors. In the introduction CALL looked at as theory-driven and this view is supported by many CALL authors. Theories are extracted from psychology like cognitive psychology and second language acquisition and on the other hand there was an evidence to show that a number of CALL projects are not driven by theory by using vocational language programmes and the reliability of theories was questionable as some of them well supported and other are not.The development process; the literature started with the instructional design as Andrews and Goodson (1980) compared 40 intructional design models . The generic model comprises of three stages; the analysis phase, synthesis and evalaution phase. The tasks linked with these three phases are summarised as follows: needs assessment, goals, measurements, skill types, learner characteristics, , instructional strategies, media selection and formative evaluation.The CALL survey points out to the CALL authors' theory and their influence. The development process: the CALL surveyif the respondents had a unique recollection of development process of some of CALL materials they were asked to provide description about the departure point and the process itself. There were number of categories shown including lower level task, higher level of theoretical framework, derivedfrom existing CALL applications and syllabus specifications. In addition to the above, experts also provided hints into development process whether the process was sequential and divided into discrete elements or whether the process was circular and less structured. What we can conclude from this article is the development process is a pretty dynamic and the theoretical departure point needs to be shown in that direction. The theoretical orientation requires to be in tone with the technological environment and working CALL programmes to go hand in hand with them. The fit is tackled through the development process. Ginsberg stated that the field is divided between those who are engaged in solving problems by developing theories and those who favoured to tackle problems by writing programmes which will assist CALL. Many experts are proceduralists believe that our understanding of CALL and knowledge Will progress by writing programmes and testing them with students. Therefore such approach will ensure that their programmes will cater for CALL context. The proceduralists will risk their work to be carried away by what the technology will offer , ultimately reaching the conjuncture where no theoretical foundations to substantiate their work. Whatever the case the theoretical framework must be applicable this particular environment. Taking the theory to the development process is considered to be an effective way to examine the theory strengths and weaknesses, but it came short of exploiting the technology capabilities to its maximum potential. Alternatively the learning opportunities and the resources that the technology can offer are neglected. The proceduralists and the formalists approaches have their limitations and strengths in this regard. We have to bear in mind that the dynamic nature of the development process and notion of fit, then the theory's objective and its application that are linked together will be achieved.

http://0-pdfserve.informaworld.com.lib.cityu.edu.hk/518258_732448028_746722498.pdf

Language Learner Behaviour in a Virtual Environment

2010-02-07T13:18:00.000-08:00

The author in his article explores how people intereact in different ways when it comes to communication online as they feel more relaxed and less stressed out. They bound to disclose private information related to themseleves and voice out their viewpoints in a more frank and honest way. These findings tend to reinforce the fact that an online learning environment may function well in a more chilled out and stress free surroundings in comparison with classroom. Therefore the level of worries tend to work well to the advantage of learning foreign language and it comes as a result of increased volume of language production. It is worth to mention that there is distraction of accent, no time frame to work on or to comply with, people can't be observed eliminating level of stress, introvert students will be at a big advantage while extrovert ones will be at the opposite side. There are number of drawbacks needed to be highlighted like there is no dominance of one group or another and this will change the dynamics of the old group. the online communication can reduce the anxiety level related to the language. This will not tackle foreign language students' problem, but it can serve as scaffolding platform, as worried students started to loosen up and gain more self confidence in engaging themselves in the targeted language conversation. Probably it is worth investigating those shy students' personalities to see if there is an impact on the classroom setting like whether they can maintain the same type of online personalities or not. Online communicaton has a great advantage as the level of participation tend to increase and students are very active in comparison with a normal classroom whereby students' participation vary a lot and it is not possible for the teacher to do the same. We have to remember in type of online communication there is no absolute protection from freeloaders. Language learners potray various behaviours as we seen in the above. The teacher needs to notice that computer based tasks are beneficial for the integrated part of language learning as we saw inactive students tend to become more active in online communication. Students behaviour alterations and perceptions related to them. So the behaviour patterns and perceptions vary a lot as some students may be stunned if confronted of their changed behaviour online and others may be feel more distracted. It is vital to set up some sort of explicit conduct code. In overall online environment in relation to language learning considered to be a pretty new for most teachers and students, and problems are bound to pop out without any expectations. This type of learning may be suitable for some students and certain levels of language teaching. We have to bear in our minds that it is a great and effective tool for us to use as it can dismantel barriers that prevent students from engaging in group task.

My experience with online communication tend to deal with questions raised by students in relation to a given task in the classroom, online submission for assignments and communication related to whatever being taught during the lesson. On the other hand students have access to my email around the clock to communicate and enter blogs not related to the classroom in a more free and relaxed environment.
http://0-web.ebscohost.com.lib.cityu.edu.hk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&hid=15&sid=d9c16a02-be02-40e0-aff6-8df6112fae35%40sessionmgr4

Mini Presentation

2010-02-01T04:05:00.000-08:00

It's unique opportunity to share with you all my experiences and journey with IT through working, learning and teaching. Being as learner for start was a great to learn the basics about IT and how to use such a technology at the workplace, then moved to apply IT in the education field to apply various tool in my teaching and finally using IT tools to communicate with my students. Computer normally used as tool to connect and communicate as a good model of communicative CALL. Probably there is a tendency toto use computers to act as integrative CALL, but it is going to take some time due to time constrains and other related limitations facing the teacher and students in many aspects.

Week three reading

2010-02-01T03:30:00.000-08:00

It is a wonderful topic to read and explore as I've learnt more about the five learning goals including active and creative mastery, autonomous learning , collaborative learning, corss cultural learning, and critical learning are essential components to keep mind for any classroom related to English language teaching. They are closely linked to goals that can assist teachers to introduce the internet into teaching.
The author draws our focus to wide range of teaching guidelines as they can lead us to organise classes to reach the above goals. They comprise of dual immersion as students engaged in learning language skills and technology at the same time and the teacher on the other hand provides the structure and support required (Beckman, 1999). Integration can aid the dual immersion to reach its aim if it is well integrated into the curriculum in which computers and other related technology will act as a platform to enrich the workplace for accessing resources and using them in language learning learning effectively. Project- based learning as students can embark on a project, add value by gaining in creating their own learning objectives and utilising the interentas resources to achieve these goals. Student -centred learning as curriculum and subject provided will tailor-made to fit student's needs and teacher needs to provide guidance related to project organisation and offering language specific instructions required during the project activites. Lastly learning with a purpose as students seek to learn with meaningul purpose to gain the required knowedge and make the right choice for them.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080328155030/http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/ifet.htm

Briefs

2010-01-11T04:14:00.000-08:00

My expereince started while I am studying my PGDE course as my tutor asked me to prepare a lesson plan. The tutor came that day and while I am conducting my lesson starting with with my power points, I had few problems with the computer resulted in few delays. After that I've learnt to manage it well by asking some help if needed from IT assistant or IT prefect. For the past few years I've started using computer in my teaching like including power points, using utube to let my students to listen for a song or watch a debate of famous people. Sometimes I like to use e-class to let students read the required assignment after I've post it on the e-class and then ask them to post their assignments on e-class. My expectations here to learn useful IT tools that can be implemented in my teaching and students can use them to enhance their learning.