KARINE's BLOG

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 14 May 2014 18:03:00 +0000

Reflection 14

Assessed Levels of Second Language

Speaking Proficiency: How Distinct?

By NORIKO IWASHITA, ANNIE BROWN, TIM MCNAMARA and SALLY O’HAGAN

This study investigated the nature of speaking proficiency at different level and found out that vocabulary and fluency were the factors that had the strongest impact on distinguishing between the proficiency levels. This consideration is particularly important in designing a high-stake test, such as TOEFL. First, it is important to understand what we mean by fluency and how a test can be useful in measuring this competency. Test usefulness includes 6 main qualities: reliability, construct validity, authenticity, interactiveness, impact, and practicality. Although there is a tension among these qualities, there is no total abandonment of any. Depending on the purpose of a test, some of these qualities may have higher degree than the others.

If we analyze the TOEFL speaking section, we can see that certain features of the test increase the degree of overall usefulness of the test. I completely agree that pronunciation, rhythm, stress, and intonation are important factors in speaking, which make our speech comprehensible and help us avoid miscommunications. So, the test focuses on it. The topics in the test require not only descriptions but also have test-takers justify an opinion or compare and contrast. If someone is good at describing, it does not mean that he or she is also good at comparing things or justifying an opinion. So, the test measures different types of talk to receive more accurate information about the candidates’ oral proficiency. Besides, the test limits the possibility of memorization of any topic for taking the test, thus increasing its construct validity. This yields the positive washback of the test on teachers and students in the sense that teachers should not have their students memorize the topics; if the student does not actually like coking, he does not have to say he likes it.

Although there is certain control over what happens in the interaction with the test tasks, there is little power over the examinee, while in other tests the interlocutor initiates interaction and asks questions, and the examinee is to comply and answer. The quality of authenticity is also enhanced as the test contains both independent and integrated tasks. This means that there is relatively high degree of authenticity and reliability in the speaking tasks, unless the topics are memorized. I think one concern relates to scorer reliability and inter-rater reliability, an issue which was discussed in our class.

This discussion leads to the pedagogic prescription which could provide the best investment for the development of speaking proficiency. It is not enough to expose our learners to the conventions of actual encodings, because speaking is not something that learners can be rehearsed to. The language that people actually produce as observable behavior presupposes a vast knowledge of language as unexploited potential. They draw on this knowledge pragmatically as a complement to a context. Thus, if we want our learners to become competent in speaking, we should develop both their memory-based knowledge and rule-based knowledge. Drawing on these two types knowledge, which interrelate and interact with each other, learners will be able to exploit the virtual language and adjust to the conventions of actual encodings as the context requires. This implies that we should focus our teaching on the language as a resource for making meaning, which includes both what is virtual in the language and what is actual in its encodings.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 14 May 2014 18:01:00 +0000

Reflection 13

Genre analysis: Structural and linguistic evolution

of the English-medium medical research article (1985–2004)

By Li-Juan Li, Guang-Chun Ge

This study encouraged me to draw parallels between its findings and my own thesis writing. Therefore, I would like to reflect on these parallels. Although the study investigated medical research papers, I think the moves, the tenses, and the use of personal pronouns could also be generalized to research of other disciplines. My research appears to conform to all the findings, except for the use of personal pronoun. First, I could observe the seven obligatory moves found by the study. Move 1 related to presenting background information has become obligatory which is explained by the researchers’ desire to present a clearer picture of the topic of discourse, to increase the credibility of the research, and to make it more convincing. Similarly, Move 6 describing data-analysis procedures has become obligatory as reference to approaches and techniques can attract professional readers and ensure that the methods applied are appropriate for the research design. Interestingly, Moves 8 and 9 related to non-consistent observations and highlighting overall research outcome, respectively, appear to be optional, and are not included in my research work either. Researchers tend to discuss their research findings specifically and directly.

Regarding the tenses, my own research is consistent with the finding of the study, which shows that researchers prefer to use simple past in presenting new research, to avoid immediacy, certainty, and generality to science, most probably because they realize that science is a collection of hypothesis and not a field of certainty. Simple present was more used in Move 10, in interpreting the research outcomes, and the present perfect was used very little.

The study showed that “I” pronoun was not used in the corpus of research articles, but the pronoun “we” was used. The reasons behind this include the increased number of co-authored articles, the emphasis on the reliability of their findings, the expression of politeness, and the solidarity with readers. In my thesis, I have used “I” once or twice, but I think it is well known researchers who could allow themselves to use this pronoun more often to stress the importance of their findings. The significance of this study was that it revealed the structural and linguistic changes in research articles and provoked a desire to think over our own research writing.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 14 May 2014 17:59:00 +0000

Reflection 12

Challenging stereotypes about academic writing:

Complexity, elaboration, explicitness

By Douglas Biber, Bethany Gray

I will start reflecting on this topic from the end of the study which claims that in academic writing researchers need to achieve two goals: ‘clarity’ and ‘economy’. These new goals were revealed and emphasized due to the investigation of a corpus of academic research articles which showed less elaborated and more implicitly stated meaning relations. Both of the goals are important for the reader to have no doubts about the intended meaning and to quickly scan through a research article and extract the essential information. However, these two constructs are in tension with each other. Achieving clarity is easier through elaborated sentences and explicit meaning relations; while ‘economy’ entails more compressed and implicit meaning relations. This creates a number of problems both for educators and novice researchers as how to teach and learn the skills of decoding academic writing and the skills of producing clear but compact academic articles.

To enable the novice researchers to become both successful readers and writers, I think, educators first should expose them to multiple research articles, raise their awareness about the style, structure, and discourse of academic writing, and help them decode the meaning behind the text, and improve their comprehension. Second, they can construct various activities where learners are to transform elaborated sentences into more compressed ones maintaining the meaning of the text, and the opposite. Or, they can do activities related to clausal and phrasal modifications. After they get practice, learners should be given opportunity to implement their skills and knowledge of academic writing in the production of their own articles.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 14 May 2014 17:58:00 +0000

Reflection 11

Investigating the viability of a collocation list

for students of English for academic purposes

By Philip Durrant

This class session was based on the discussion of collocations. We spoke about BNC (British National Corpus) which contains 100 million samples of written English. Another was the Word Smith which represents a corpus of spoken English, and still another is COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) with 450 million text samples. I think corpus linguistics is an impressive achievement in that it reveals patterns of frequency and co-occurrence, which are not intuitively apparent, either to use or analyst. The computer analysis of text provides detailed information about the co-textual relations of words in use: how they relate lexically in collocation, and how they relate to particular grammatical features in colligation. In short, they provide a vast amount of basic fact which could dictate what the content of language courses should be. However, I used could because I acknowledge the limitations of these descriptions.

Although corpus descriptions capture a linguistic reality that others do not, they represent partial reality, like all linguistic descriptions being necessarily limited. What they account for is one aspect of language behavior, namely the texts that language users produce, and these productions do not exhaust the possible. Moreover, they provide basic fact about text, but not about discourse. This means they do not reveal facts about the pragmatic aspect of behavior, how people use language appropriate to context to achieve a particular force and effect. We, as language teachers, need to understand what corpus findings represent. But we should also recognize that these findings are not absolute truths, and that description does not equal prescription; it just provides insights and direction for prescription.

For academic writing, the list of such collocations is more specific, though, as stated in Durrant’s study, cross-disciplinary collocations differ in type. The main finding of this study was that the type of these collocations does not tend to be lexical, which has traditionally been focused on, but rather grammatical. Our class also captured the discussion of lexical and grammatical collocations, the former being described as the combination of two lexical words, and the latter – as that off one lexical and one grammatical word. I think, the list of grammatical collocations is as important in academic writing as lexical collocations have been valued by researchers. So, both researchers and educators should not downplay the role of either type, and if these collocations are not sufficiently frequent in the language to be learnt implicitly, at least they can be learnt explicitly.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 14 May 2014 17:56:00 +0000

Reflection 10

The Effects of Repetition on Vocabulary Knowledge

By STUART WEBB

This major finding of this study is that if learners encounter unknown words ten times in context, sizeable learning gains may occur. However, to develop full knowledge of a word more than ten repetitions may be needed. I want to immediately base my reflection on its pedagogical implications - as to how we can make use of this finding to provide effective instruction in vocabulary acquisition, which is one of the main issues in an Armenian EFL classroom where vocabulary instruction is often based on word by word translation. As a result, we have learners who have generally poor comprehension of natural, unedited spoken or written material, even after a year or more of intensive language instruction. Thus, vocabulary is important for communication and it should not be suppressed.

The key of this study to our understanding of vocabulary teaching is the increased importance of cyclical syllabus, as a crucial criterion in designing a course, as it provides recycling of input. This recurrence of the item will allow a continual review of the item studied and an expansion of the item a step further. Regarding the type of instruction, I believe that effective vocabulary learning should focus on both explicit and implicit learning. Initially, we should teach our students at least 2000 high frequency words which account for 80 percent of what we regularly see or hear. We can maximize vocabulary considerably by teaching word families instead of individual word forms. It is important to give our students multiple exposures to items they should learn by providing variety of rich contexts, both written and spoken. Word association techniques and semantic mapping, collocations, lexical phrases, idioms have been proven to be successful ways to learn a large number of words in a short period and retain them over time. Language games have the added advantage of being fun, competitive, and consequently, memorable. As for the implicit or incidental learning, it also requires multiple exposures to a word which can be achieved by providing numerous authentic materials to students.

In my teaching, I use various useful vocabulary learning strategies. For example, I can encourage my students to guess meaning from context, study and practice in peer groups, connect a word to personal experience or previous learning, say a new word aloud when studying, use verbal and written repetition, or review new material at gradually increasing intervals. Finally, I want to emphasize that we should not forget what it means to know a word, which involves not just the translation of a word, but more than that; knowing its spoken and written contexts of use, its collocational patterns, its syntactic, pragmatic and discoursal patterns. It means knowing a word actively, productively, and receptively. Thus, having this understanding at the basis of our teaching, we can enhance the vocabulary learning of our students.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 14 May 2014 17:55:00 +0000

Reflection 9

Capturing L2 Accuracy Developmental Patterns:

Insights from an Error-Tagged EFL Learner Corpus

By JENNIFER THEWISSEN

Theories of error in foreign language teaching research provide for not only correct appreciation of student errors but also understanding of how L1 as well as L2 is acquired. Through a study of a learner’s erroneous linguistic performance which deviates from formal target language, researchers can obtain evidence how language is acquired or learned and what strategies the learner is employing in his/her learning of languages, and educators can learn information of how far towards the goal the learner has progressed and consequently what remains for him/her to learn. Therefore, I believe error theories in EFL/ESL research have significant value.

This study indicated that the EFL error developmental patterns tend to be dominated by progress and stabilization trends and that progress is often located between B1 and B2, whereas the performance range between B2 and C2 is characterized by a plateau‐like stabilization tendency. As it was mentioned in our discussion, the higher the level, the slower the progress. All the calculations were done by means of ANOVA, t-test, and r-test. Our class discussed helped me refresh my knowledge of statistics; ANOVA is used for measuring more than two groups, t-test can be of two types: independent t-test which measures the difference between two different samples, and paired t-test which measure the two different scores of the same sample. I have used these tools to measure the data for my capstone project.

This kind of investigation, although did not consider the influence of L1, contributed some cumulative evidence for a better understanding of the interlanguage and shed light on teaching and testing techniques as remedial pedagogical interventions which are inextricably linked with error analysis. Students do not pick up language features in a linear, highly predictable, sequential manner. Rather, the key for getting them to use, for example, grammar correctly lies in getting them to notice how grammar is used by proficient speakers, to notice the gaps in their performance, to explore through cycle of hypothesizing, testing, and verifying patterns and rules, to use the data they find and expose to large amounts of language through extensive reading. The question of how to put all of these techniques together is, in my conviction, most suitably answered by the task-based approach, as a needs-based approach to content selection – a productive pedagogical intervention.

Considering the significant research value of error-analysis, I think more and more data-based evidence is necessary for determining with confidence the nature of learning strategies and interlanguage, and for establishing a viable theory of foreign language learning and teaching – a concern and occupation of current research in applied linguistics.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 09:06:00 +0000

Reflection 8

Balancing Content and Language in Instruction:

The Experience of Immersion Teachers

By DIANNE J. TEDICK

To date, I hadn’t explored any research related to teachers’ actual experience of attempting to attend to both content and language in instruction. Unquestionably, Content-Based Instruction (CBI) whose primary mission involves balancing language and content in instruction is extremely complicated and difficult for teachers to put into practice. Teachers, particularly, immersion teachers, face challenges to the successful implementation of CBI where language acquisition suffers more. During our class discussions, I learned that there are two types of immersion programs: one-way where the majority of learners speak in the same L1, and two-way where half of the learners speak, for example, in English, and the other half speaks in French, as in Canada. Another categorization of immersion programs that we discussed is between Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). BICS, which lasts 1-2 years, aims to develop learners’ conversational fluency in everyday topics and is more contextualized; while CALP, whose duration is 3-5 years, is targeted at the development of academic skills, is decontextualized, highly abstract, and relies on the knowledge of language.

Providing a good quality immersion education is rather challenging. We need to understand the problems to be able to give them solutions. Thus, this reflective lifeworld research approach helped me identify the problems from the perspective of those, in this case immersion teachers, who had lived them, and the meaning – what it means to live this particular experience. The issues highlighted by them were: identity issues, external challenges issues, isolation issues, ongoing difficulty identifying what language to focus on in the context of content instruction, and increased awareness of the interdependence of content and language.

Based on our class discussion, there are 5 main principles to overcome these challenges: identifying and connecting language and content objectives, activating students’ prior knowledge, providing comprehensible input, enabling language production, and assessing language and content objectives. To further on, it’s also necessary to reinforce immersion teachers’ view of themselves not only as content teachers but also as language teachers. This can be done through teacher education programs. Also, good textbooks that balance language and content should be published. Certain materials might help teachers prepare to implement the CBI successfully. They should focus on strategies to help teachers to find the language, know when and how to focus in on it during instruction, and how to follow-up on it in assessment. This will also help teachers in understanding how to provide explicit instruction within the context of meaning-based instruction when students are developmentally ready for it.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:18:00 +0000

Reflection 7

On the relation between automated essay scoring and modern views of the writing construct

By PAUL DEANE

The article on automated essay scoring (AES) left the debate unsolved for me. I tried to identify the advantages and disadvantages of AES. On the one hand, it includes reliability, consistency, ease of scoring, less subjectivity, less bias, quick assessment. On the other hand, writing to a machine violates the essentially social nature of writing, reduces the validity of assessment, and ignores the communicative and cognitive perspectives of writing. According to the definition of writing construct, which serves the human communication purposes, the role of AES diminishes significantly as it cannot ensure validity. Another threat is that the use of AES might change the teachers’ instruction of writing and the learners’ perceptions and behaviors about writing competence – the system can be gamed.

I agree that AES can measure only certain aspects of writing, such as organization, vocabulary, grammar, mechanics, and style. But it cannot interpret meaning, infer communicative intent, evaluate factual correctness and quality of argumentation, or take the writing process into account. Nevertheless, whenever, I teach my students essay writing, I draw their attention to the communicative purpose of writing, quality of argumentation, and the writing process, as well.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:17:00 +0000

Reflection 6

A sound foundation? What we know about the impact of environments on learning and the implications for Building Schools for the Future

By Pamela Woolner, Elaine Hall*, Steve Higgins, Caroline McCaughey and Kate Wall

For me, the review of the literature on the impact of physical environment on learning was not convincing in the sense that it did not provide rigorous research findings related to that impact on such aspects as leaner attainment, engagement, attendance, or well-being. Unquestionably, the absence of comfortable furniture, temperature, ventilation, lighting, color, display, and other environmental conditions will affect negatively on the above mentioned learner aspects. However, it is unclear to what extent the presence of all these physical conditions could enhance language learning process.

This reflection reminded me of the article by Krashen who argued for providing access to good libraries, thus enhancing independent reading, as the research showed a positive correlation between enhanced independent reading and high test scores. The suggestion for future schools to make flexible environmental improvements is acceptable but not easily available.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:16:00 +0000

Reflection 5

Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom:

A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching?

By ANGELA CREESE and ADRIAN BLACKLEDGE

The discussion around translanguaging in bilingual classroom revealed a new role of codeswitching in a language classroom. In an Armenian EFL classroom, this would be considered a negative attempt both on the part of the teacher and the learner. Using L1 is attributed cross-contamination, careless language habits, and so on. However, in a complementary school, where ecological approach dominates, bilingual instruction can be beneficial for a number of reasons, including conveying complete information, engaging with diverse audience, making meaning, transmitting information, performing identities, keeping the task moving forward, etc.

Among these, I think, the performance of identities is prevalent. While in an Armenian EFL context, this identity is performed in the ecology outside the classroom, in complementary schools, there is the urge to negotiate multicultural identities. This makes links for classroom participants between social, cultural, community, and linguistic domains of their lives.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:15:00 +0000

Reflection 4

ELF on a mushroom: the overnight growth in English as a Lingua Franca

By COLIN SOWDEN

English as a Lingua Franca: concepts, use, and implications

By ALESSIA COGO

The debate between Colin Sowden and Alessia Cogo on the topic of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) provoked some questions to think over: what to teach? what kind of language is to be specified for the subject to fulfill its educational objective? I assume the answer is the consideration of what is appropriate for particular uses in communication, and for particular users in different communities.

The fact is that English has become the language of international communication which is primarily the result of two factors: the expansion of British colonial power, which peaked toward the end of the 19^th century, and the emergence of the US as the leading economic power of the 20^th century. The point is that English is international to the extent that it is not only the native speakers’ language, otherwise the international status of English would be undermined. The countries where English is a foreign language have also developed their varieties of English that are now recognized as varieties in their own right. All this variety of varieties considerably complicates the choice for practical teachers and for the people in authority who are responsible for structuring the language education in a particular country.

Ideally, the variety to be chosen depends on actual student needs. We, language teachers, have to choose between the British and the American varieties, as they represent the international role and usage of the English language. Whichever variety we choose, we should help our students to recognize the diversity of the language, which will help them as learners of the language in making judgments about it. We should be giving them the tools to achieve what they want in and with the language.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:14:00 +0000

Reflection 3

For What and for Whom Is Our Research? The Ethical as Transformative Lens in Instructed SLA

By LOURDES ORTEGA

The contribution of this article was that it provoked one important aspect – ethics as a valued research goal and professional and social responsibility for the field of instructed SLA. I agree with the argument that to be truly ethical, we must be prepared to defend what our research is for and who the beneficiaries of our research are. These moral values will inform the design, conduct, and dissemination of our studies. I think the achievement of this ethical goal will face a lot of obstacles – ideological, institutional, and others. But in the long run, it will generate rigorous and relevant research inspired by societal needs.

In light of this, I would like to add that SLA research should not be socially constituted, meaning that knowledge, in general, should be the privileged presence of scholars and researchers, but should not be democratized as common property. This means that SLA research is not an open field of interest in language to which everybody is invited. You need to bring special knowledge or expertise - there should be knowing where, between whom, or on what the most productive discussions will emerge.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:12:00 +0000

Reflection 2

Paradigmatic Controversies/Contradictions and Emerging Confluences

By YVONNA S. LINCLOLN and EGON G. GUBA

Coping with the paradigmatic controversies or contradictions, it became evident that emerging confluences are impossible unless there is a universal understanding of the truth. The article opened an array of issues which form the basic platform for understanding the nature of applied linguistics. The issues are related to axiology, accommodation and commensurability, action, control, foundations of truth and knowledge, validity and voice, reflexivity, and postmodern textual representation. Each of these issues represents one whole behind which are fighting carious philosophies.

My reflection on this article is through my general perspective on these issues. I believe that applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field that mediates between theory and practice of language acquisition and use. As linguistics concerns with the study of language, and pedagogy deals with the teaching of language, there should be relevance between these two. Applied linguistics establishes relevant concepts or models of language in the pedagogic domain, those that are most appropriate for teaching purposes. This field is not limited to the study of language learning, nor does it encompass all applications of linguistic theory. It concerns with the use of findings from theoretical studies of language for the solution of language-related real-world problems. The relation of applied linguistics to language teaching is based on the belief that such findings must be relevant to practical teaching of languages.

My argument is that applied linguistics should be academically instituted. It should be defined by certain rational principles applied to the data of everyday experience. Abstractions are devices for understanding reality not for replicating it. The essential distinction is between actual experience and the abstractions that are set up to partially account for them. The quality of research is measured by reference to some set of principles.

We need to become intelligent readers of research, draw this knowledge into interaction with our professional experience, and bring it to educational decision-making. We need to devise and conduct empirical analysis ourselves, to search for a model that will draw on and appeal to the learners’ experience as a language user.

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:11:00 +0000

Reflection 1

The Contribution of Written Corrective Feedback to Language Development: A Ten Month Investigation

By JOHN BITCHENER and UTE KNOCH

I would like to start my reflections with the acknowledgment of the significant role of applied linguistics which is a process of intellectual mediation between linguistics and pedagogy, whereby practical problems in which language is implicated are referred to theoretical ideas and, reciprocally, theoretical ideas are made relevant to the clarification of these problems. While reflecting upon the issues discussed in the classroom, I will focus on these clarifications as contributions to my understanding and knowledge of language learning and teaching.

Having read the article, I came to once again prove my beliefs about the corrective feedback to which I have always assigned a significant role in my teaching career. The article demonstrated this role stating that corrective feedback can have an influence on the long-term acquisition of certain linguistics forms. Although the study showed no differential effect of various types of feedback on accuracy development, I believe that the combination of written, oral corrective feedback and metalinguistic explanation could result in higher accuracy rates than any one of them separately. The other important implications were that we should adopt a targeted approach for a period of time and the error category to be focused on should be negotiated with learners. If we are able to provide additional feedback on more occasions, a high level of mastery is likely to be achieved in a shorter period of time.

Final Reflection: Bridging the Digital and Physical Worlds

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 03:24:00 +0000

The course of New Technologies helped us re-envision our language classrooms of the era of digital world. The shifts that we are experiencing now are having a profound effect on our traditional beliefs about learning, teaching, and schooling in general. While the technology is developing, our kids continue to outpace our own use of these tools. We, educators, need to take the responsibility not only for modeling and teaching the safe, effective, and ethical use of all the Internet has to offer, but also for equipping the students with the new literacies that are quickly defining our world. Due to this course, I had the greatest opportunity to take on this responsibility having gained the necessary knowledge, skills, experience, and confidence, for which I want to express my sincere gratitude to my instructor. Thus, I am ready and it’s high time to complement traditional teaching by implementing new technological tools before they become too recreational tools to be refused being used as pedagogical tools.

Knowing about these tools is not enough for making learning and teaching more effective. It is no less important to know how and why these tools are implemented. I found the educational benefits of blogs, podcasts, wikis, digital storytelling, digital video production, learning management systems, and Google for education really attractive and I am going to use them in my classroom to enable the students to practice the four new dimensions of literacy, to complement learning strategies, to support active learning, which forms the basis of constructivism, to provide anywhere-anytime access, and to foster learner autonomy. We need to be responsive to these innovations to bridge the growing divide between the physical and digital worlds.

With the help of blogs I will bring my learners from knowledge-based to higher levels of thinking as blogs increase students’ awareness of their language learning process, foster reflective learning and collaboration, reinforce students’ confidence and motivation in learning, and develop learners’ sense of the importance of English. Moreover, the research shows that blogs serve as a new reason to enjoy reading and writing, increase the impact and quality of writing skills, encourage a lot of pre-class reading and post-class reflection, and enable students to recycle vocabulary.

Podcasts and podcasting will serve my students as a new source of inspiration, a fresh start to arouse interest in learning and exciting tools to improve listening skills, to provide exposure to native speakers, to add a dimension of immediacy to listening practice, to develop learners’ skills of selecting and evaluating listening materials, to solve the problem of unproductive use of learning time, and to improve speaking skills.

I will definitely use wikis in my classroom as they can serve as an engaging platform for interactive activities and present course information. They can be ideal for building communities, collaboration, easy participation, valuable content, and evolution over time. Like blogs, wikis provide a new reason for reading and writing, hence a new technique to improve these skills.

With the help of digital storytelling and video production, I will empower my students to create products that are different than just papers and worksheets. Besides, developing technology skills, this creative work can enable the learners to synthesize a number of skills, including researching, assessing, organizing, problem-solving, presenting, and writing their own voice.

My hands-on project gave me a lot of practical experience in using the Moodle, as a learning management system, from the teacher’s perspective. I am going to use this online environment because it fosters active learning where learners are engaged in making meaning, analyzing, investigating, collaborating, sharing, building, and generating. This online space will help me organize the teaching and learning content related to both the traditional and new technological tools.

Regarding the mobile-assisted learning, I may or may not use it at this point, although I know about the twenty uses and benefits of its application. If we could achieve top quality education through open education resources and distance learning, this would establish education as a fundamental human right, would enable lifelong learning and a wave of innovation. I would like to see the results of the experimentation of education analytics which will open a new door to understanding the behavior of learning and assist in improving our own practices.

I am looking forward to the teaching opportunity where I will provide the learners with more flexible ways of supporting learning, using new technological tools in an appropriate way as supplementing approaches to the existing pedagogy. This course allowed me not only to learn about the above mentioned tools, but also to experience the educational benefits myself and to answer how I can incorporate the best-known principles about teaching and learning using technology as a tool for innovation.

Google for Education

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 02:28:00 +0000

Googling for education is a wonderful alternative to learning and teaching. The reasons are numerous. It enables Ls to extend their learning outside the classroom. It serves the various needs, preferences, and learning styles of Ls. They can get thousands of results by one search and find the answer to their question in an instant. It allows for anywhere-anytime approach to learning, increases engagement, communication and collaboration among and between Ts, LS, and parents to make sure that Ls take the ownership for their learning. Using technology prepares Ls for future career as almost all fields of life require skills of using technology. Ls become not only consumers but also creative producers.

To be able to create this stimulating environment we need to choose the appropriate tools which are free. Google offers apps for education which include Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Groups, Talk, Sites, Blogger, Maps, Google News, Analytics, etc. For example, science projects can be formed using google sheets, assessments can be administered using Google Forms, guests can be invited using Google Talks, and so on. It is no surprise that this rich environment can increase Ls’ engagement rate.

Security and privacy have always been an issue in education. With the help of Google’s Cloud, the institution can guarantee scalability, security and efficiency. Besides, all the data is in our control.

If we want to get started, we need to go to www.google.com/a/edu and sigh up. I found the support provided by the help center 24/7/365.25 really necessary and helpful. We can even stay up to date about the new features through Google Apps Release Calender. The introduction of chrombooks is also a great idea as they are easy to scale, customize and manage. There is also the possibility to connect with other schools, colleges, and universities using Google tools. The online training center will help to acquire skills for using the core tools in the classroom. Moreover, Google provides training for educators who are passionate about implementing new technologies in education.

Human mind is developing so fast, more than ever before, that it is challenging to manage to adapt to all these developments. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my instructor Dr. Madyarov for providing this fast array of educational opportunities which added a new platform to my teaching philosophy, hence to my teaching practice.

Cloud Computing

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 02:27:00 +0000

I got to realize how cloud computing can change the entire computer industry. By loading one application businesses will allow workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need to do his or her job. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles all the running of applications starting from the e-mail to complex data analysis programs.

Businesses are running all kinds of apps in a cloud these days including custom-built apps. Moreover, you don’t’ need to pay for all the people, products and facilities to run them. They are more scalable, more secure, and more reliable, and cost less. You don’t buy anything as it is all in your monthly subscription. I read that Google and Amazon already have most of their IT resources in the cloud.

The flexibility that eliminates the constraints of traditional computing environment in terms of time, space, power, and cost, attracts not only businesses but also educational institutions.

The second youtube material provided an efficient way of using software and IT in education. The fact is that our expectations from IT have changed as we want it to work on a wider array of devices. These needs demand more improved IT services. The idea is that if we use on-premises software developed uniquely for our educational community, we will be concerned about the security and flexibility of its use, as the needs are evolving and resources are shrinking. On the other hand, if we use software delivered over the Internet, that is cloud computing, we will have worries about the protection, storage, and management of data. Also, we may not tailor the Internet services to meet our specific educational requirements. Thus, the solution is to combine the on-premises software and Internet cloud services because the limitations of one can serve as the strengths of the other and vice versa. This way we can achieve flexibility and choice which are very necessary to meet our ever evolving needs in this era of technology.

Analytics in Learning and Education

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 03:53:00 +0000

The article Analytics in Learning and Education opened a new perspective for me to look at the process of learning and teaching. It is likely to establish a new platform on which the future of the higher education will be based. Big data or analytics, as new tools of observation, will enable us to watch the educational processes from a new dimension which has never been revealed before, and gather an astonishing array of data that will have the greatest impact on higher education.

Every click, every update, every social interaction as also mentioned by Daphne Koller in the video material, can leave a digital footprint. I had a chance to examine this footprint in the file posted in the Moodle. I immediately started thinking about correlational studies which could find the relationships between a number of variables. This kind of learner-produced data will give us new insights in teaching and learning and transform our practice from ‘clinical’ to ‘evidence-based’ practice, as in medicine.

The difference between academic analytics and learning analytics is that the former focuses on data analysis at an institutional level, whereas the latter focuses on a specific environment in which learning takes place. Both can bring valuable impact on understanding the learning process. One of the biggest values that I could observe is that analytics can help us identify Ls at risk and provide immediate intervention to assist him in his educational success.

I strongly agree that the most crucial factor is not just the transformation of our perceptions or concepts about what is actually happening in the learning process, but the corrective transformation of processes connected with teaching and learning.

It was interesting to find out about the implications of the learning analytics, and one that I found, in the article is that assessment is no longer end-of-course activity, and each L can find learning content relevant to his background.

The same conviction was put forth by Daphne Koller in the video material who presented that the content of online courses they provide worldwide for free is divided into modules for different Ss with different backgrounds which allows Ss to follow much more personalized curriculum where every single S has to get engaged with the material.

She also presented the way they graded the Ss’ assignments. The solution is peer-grading or self-grading which very well correlated with the T’s grading. I believe this solution is also a useful strategy for Ss to learn from their learning experiences where there is a lot of collaboration. One interesting fact about feedback was the finding of the study that a S who would pose a question at 3 am was likely to receive a response within 22 minutes. I am quite sure that the ability to interact actively and receive immediate feedback or be told when or where you are right or wrong is really essential.

Technology allows not only for personalized feedback based for example on the distribution of wrong answers on the map but also solves the 30-year old problem connected with personalized curriculum.

Mark Twain’s words help me describe Armenian universities as a typical example of providing lecture-based format of education where “a professor’s lecture notes go straight to the Ss’ lecture notes, without passing through the brains of either”.

We need active learning, interactive learning, and the learner performance will increase in all parameters.

Learning Management Systems

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 03:30:00 +0000

Before reading and watching about the Learning Management Systems (LMS) assigned for our homework, I had already got familiar with this educational environment for my hand-on project presentation. Nonetheless, the video material presented by Stephen Downes provided a more general view and comparative perspective on LMS and PLE (Personal Learning Environment). The first difference that he mentioned is that LMS is used by an educational institution or corporation and provides a repository of content and services. Individual learners can access this management system and obtain the content, perform various tasks, have discussions, conduct online conferences with each other, etc. In contrast to this, in PLE the learner is the center and he or she can access content from different sources, like Google Docs, Facebook, iBook, and others. In short, as Downes mentions the difference is that LMS is centralized, whereas PLE is decentralized.

I could identify two types of LMS. One is the Collaboration Management which can stand alone from LMS, and when someone doesn’t have access to LMS, he or she can join the collaboration. Another type is called Federation when two students access their LMS different from each other and these two systems then join a collaboration system. However, one disadvantage here is when someone wants to join the system, he or she will be locked out. The PLE network is different in that it connects individuals instead of LMS and here individuals are directly connected to each other by sharing resources, messages and other ways, and they are not required to join any LMS. If in PLE the learner is responsible for the management of his data, in the case of LMS when the learner leaves the institution, all their data remains there.

Although there is this disadvantage, I am sure that the organization of learning through LMS would be a great step forward for our Armenian reality. For example, Moodle is an alternative to online learning solutions whose modular design makes it easy to create new courses, adding content that will engage learners.
Moodle is an ideal online learning solution for the following reasons:

· Easy creation of courses from existing resources

· Course content which can be re-used with different learners

· Active learner involvement

· Enrolment and learner authentication which is simple yet secure

· Online learner and teacher management features

· An active support community to help solve problems and generate new ideas

· Affordability

Activities are at the heart of a course management system. Moodle was designed by an educator and computer scientist, with “social constructionist” principles in mind. A constructivist perspective views learners as actively engaged in making meaning, learners who can analyze, investigate, collaborate, share, build and generate based on what they already know, rather than what facts, skills, and processes they can parrot.

My exploration of the Moodle form the teacher’s position gave me a lot of practical experience, and I believe in the near future I will implement this online environment in my language classrooms.

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 03:26:00 +0000

These days it seems mobile phones are used everywhere by everyone; maybe more than any other technological device. This prompts us educators to find ways to take advantage of mobiles and use them in language learning.

Very often instructors ask the students to turn off their phones before the class starts not to get distracted by them. Surely, this is still necessary, but there are certain ways to use mobiles for educational purposes. I discovered a number of educational reasons for using them in the language classroom.

Thus, students can use the notes feature to collect everyday language and send their notes to the teacher. This helps to break the boundary between class time and daily activities. Students can use the camera feature to take pictures of text. Through the voice recorder, learners can record conversations outside the classroom. Another useful technique is to use the text messaging feature to reinforce vocabulary learning. This function can also encourage learners to improve their writing skills. They can start with shorter texts and then expand them into essays. The challenge for educators is to encourage that type of writing from which students can learn the language.

I found the technique of tandem learning rather encouraging for interaction. This is when two students learn each other’s native language by exchanging text messages. Mobiles can also be used for microblogging on Twitter and social networking. Through this device a lot of listening and reading materials can be distributed.

Despite certain problems connected with mobiles, such as lack of access, noise and disruption in class, cost, increased teacher workload, mobile-assisted language learning can serve as one supplementary means to boost motivation and enhance language learning process.

Distance Language Learning

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 02:25:00 +0000

One of the greatest opportunities provided by technology is the Distance Language Learning. In this learning environment both Ts and Ss differ from their classroom counterparts in terms of the roles they assume, the way of interaction, and the attributes and expertise required of them. My vision about the distance Ts’ and Ls’ roles was reinforced by the articles “Towards an Understanding of Attribute and Expertise in Distance Language Teaching: Tutor Maxims” and “Independent Language Learning in Distance Education: Current Issues”.

When I put the Ts’ and Ls’ roles on the continuum from traditional teaching/learning to the distance education, I can see the multiplied roles of Ts and Ls in this remote environment. Thus, the article by Cynthia White et.al showed the findings of 3 studies, one of which revealed that e-tutors’ roles include collaboration skills, basic technology knowledge, interpersonal communication skills, and knowledge of the distance learning field. The second study conducted with novice Ts who “learned distance through distance” implies that direct experience of distance learning is useful but not enough for professional development and awareness raising.

I found the third study useful in terms of identifying all the roles and competencies of an e-tutor. Among the roles are content facilitator, metacognition facilitator, process facilitator, advisor, assessor, technologist, resource provider, manager, designer, co-learner, and researcher. The competencies are related to pedagogy, communication, discipline expertise, and technology. I think this identification of roles and competencies can be useful in forming expectations about the roles of an e-tutor and identifying the gaps which need training. Besides, the tutor maxims listed in this article are really necessary along with recognizing the above mentioned roles to enhance the quality of e-tutoring and e-learning.

The second article by Cynthia White gave me some insights into the current issues of distance education and the Ls’ roles. Obviously, in distance education Ls are involved in self- management and environment management. They have to make numerous decisions and take on some of T roles. However, there are certain issues here connected with the isolated study context, less availability to provide immediate feedback and assistance, more awareness on the part of the L, and new kinds of skills and motivation.

To address these issues, Ross Paul and Anderson and Garrison debated one stating that learner independence can be fostered through high-quality materials and the other arguing that it can be achieved through collaborative experiences. In my opinion, a course could be effective if it provided a mixture of both approaches. What I found really important is when Ls develop effective interface between themselves and the learning contexts, and a new view of what it means to be a language learner.

I believe that if there is a triangulated evidence of Ts’ roles, and context of delivery, which includes support services, organization structures, feedback opinions, opportunities for interaction and so on, the e-learners are likely to achieve effective learning.

I tried to complete these by completing the online assessment questionnaire and doing the language learning course. While the questionnaire helped me gain understanding of the skills necessary for e-learning and build up expectations for the course, the course itself helped me make numerous decisions about my own learning, and this is an essential factor to argue that distance learning is a great means to foster learner autonomy which is a crucial criterion for effective learning.

Open Educational Recourses

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 11 Nov 2013 03:44:00 +0000

It is true that we are entering a world in which we will have to acquire new knowledge and skills on an almost continuous basis, as the world is changing at a rapid speed. To address the problem of growing global demand for lifelong education, the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement was put forth in 2001.

Throughout this course I learned a lot about the educational potential of the Internet as a global platform that has vastly expanded access to both formal and informal educational materials. The so-called Web 2.0 has blurred the line between producers and consumers supporting multiple modes of learning. The article titled “Open education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0” by John Brown and Richard Adler, was a new revelation for me. I got familiar with the idea of OER and its role in the modern world. I think, this new movement is a very necessary development for providing lifelong learning opportunities, as it provides open access to undergraduate and graduate level materials and modules for more than 1,700 courses.

One significant feature of the Internet is fostering social learning which focuses not so much on what we are learning but on how we are learning. I agree that knowledge is not a kind of substance transferred from teachers to learners, but it is the understanding of content which is socially constructed. My teaching experience has taught me that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it to others.

Another aspect of social learning is the opportunity not only to learn about the subject matter, but also to learn to be a full participant in the field. The traditional Cartesian educational system can very well characterize the Armenian educational system where students spend years learning about a subject and only after receiving this explicit knowledge they start getting the tacit knowledge of how to be a professional in a field. In contrast, the open source communities follow John Dewey’s perspective of “productive enquiry” which views learning as a process of seeking the knowledge when it is needed to carry out a particular task.

Although these extended connections were not developed to serve educational purposes, there are a number of examples of study groups which have been created to help students benefit from social learning. Such examples are the Terra Incognita project, the Harvard Law School course called “CyberOne: Law in the Court of public Opinion”, the Digital StudyHall, and others. The role that I see in these types of informal learning is that they can coexist with and extend traditional education. Some other examples of e-science and e-humanities communities, such as Faulkes Telescope project, Hands-on-Universe project, or Bugscope project, enhance the social leaning which creates a participatory architecture where participants learn about learning.

I strongly support the new demand-pull approach, in contrast to the supply-push approach, as the former provides students with access to rich learning communities built around a practice where understanding is formed through active, passion-based learning, and fosters lifelong learning that extends beyond formal schooling. As the article concludes, ‘this is a major step toward creating a 21^st-century global culture of learning to meet the demands of our constantly changing world.’

In the podcast about OER, Cable Green and Joel Smith speak about the challenges of access, impact, and sustainability, and how to deal with these challenges. They mention that the ultimate goal of OER is to increase the number of educated people and increase the quality of education they are getting. To meet the challenges of this movement, it was decided that having open licensed content is not enough; there should be data analytics to collect assessment data for the improvement of the quality of OER. This can also guarantee the accuracy, the completeness and the context of the content which is very important for the individual learner. OER needs to provide an instructional strategy, interactive exercises, and comprehension checks to provide effective instruction. High quality open content can be achieved if it is analyzed and revised on a regular basis, if it is useful and appropriate, and if it is shared, as sharing can bring better things; there is always someone outside who will find the gaps and fix them. First of all, we, educators should be responsible for providing this quality.

Virtual Worlds

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 02:55:00 +0000

While reading the first article titled Educational Frontiers: Learning in a Virtual World, I asked myself the question “What is it that we can do in the Second Life but cannot do in our real teaching?” – the same question which was posed in the article Virtual Worlds: Moving Beyond Today. These two articles, as well as the exploratory case study on learner participation patterns and strategy use in Second Life, helped me formulate my own understanding of the use of virtual worlds in an EFL environment.

It’s true that virtual worlds are engaging, stimulating spaces which differ from traditional courses due to 3D graphical design. They increase the sense of community, allow to make mistakes which are great opportunities for learning. Shifting Ss from the passive roles of survivors to the active roles of researchers and explorers requires a change in their perception of themselves and their willingness to participate. Another benefit is that virtual worlds can support Ls with different learning styles: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic.

Moreover, the exploratory study mentioned above found that the highly learner-centered nature of interaction represents a positive finding that lends support to one of the main benefits hypothesized for network-based learning. This kind of interaction may facilitate learner autonomy. Also, the participants commented positively on low stress atmosphere of virtual worlds compared to a regular language class. These findings coupled to the presence of errors suggest that Second life can be useful in developing fluency rather than accuracy.

However, both Cynthia Calongne and Donald Welch remind that’s it is not easy to set up a successful virtual environment. The latter requires a blend of technology, tools, content, student ownership, engagement, course structure, feedback and other factors.

I believe that this is s big challenge for course designers. Donald Welch hopes that soon we will take a step further. But in the Armenian EFL context, taking into consideration of the current situation in our EFL classrooms, I feel that this step is very far; but how far is this far, is a question.

Digital Games

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 02:51:00 +0000

There is the impression that computer games have always been attributed at best an insignificant, and at worst a negative role in children’s learning life. It seems that the only function of games is to create fun or relaxing atmosphere. However, studying all today’s material for homework Ts can discover digital games as a powerful educational tool in the 21^st century. The main perspective in all these materials was to advocate the media literacy in education.

Thus, I totally support the argument in the video material “No Gamer Left Behind” that putting people in the environment where they can experience what they need to learn, where they can make mistakes, take risks, and try new things, can bring better learning than just sitting in the classroom and throwing info at them. These simulated environments can help beginners become experts. Moreover, when Ss become not just consumers, but producers of simulation technologies, they are able to express individualization and creative skills. Similarly, these skills of innovation, creativity, problem solution, collaboration, production are advocated in the material titled “Grading with Games”, as they are necessary to survive in the developed world. I’d like to quote the speaker’s idea that we need to be able to work in a group where the group is smarter than the smartest person in the group. One important thing for me was that games do not separate learning from assessment, which is really a painful part of learning for Ss. The frequent feedback given by games motivates the learner, when he fails, to continue on to success. The same idea is stated be Sasha Barab who says that failure is motivating and not smth to be avoided. It’s true that we limit our Ss in the classroom to be vessels to be filled with information. But games can allow them a vast opportunity of trying on various roles, which helps them see themselves as people who could possibly have that future.

Obviously, we cannot do this in the real world for a 10-year-old boy, but in a game. This is the reason that Sasha Barab and Marc Prencky voice their concern about “powering down” our Ss at schools. We, Ts, need to win this competition be creating a space where children can be passionate about learning.

We need to understand the reason behind the increased interest in games. Thus, the reason is the combined weight of 3 factors, which is discussed in the article Digital- Based Learning by Richard Van Eck. The first factor is the ongoing research conducted by DGBL proponents. The second involves today’s “Net Generation” or “digital natives” who have become disengaged with traditional instruction. And the third factor is the increased popularity of games. I believe that time brings cognitive changes as well which dictate fundamental shifts, in this case, in education. Marc Prensky in his book Digital Game-Based Learning has identified the 10 main cognitive changes in the Games Generation. There are twitch speed vs. conventional speed, parallel processing vs. linear processing, graphics first vs. text first, random access vs. step-by-step, connected vs. standalone, active vs. passive, play vs. work, payoff vs. patience, fantasy vs. reality, technology- as- friend vs. technology- as- foe.

Along with all these incentives for the use of digital games, there is an issue raised by Harvard Health Publications where some researchers claim that exposure to violent media can contribute to real-life violent behavior, while others argue the opposite. Although there is no foolproof evidence that any particular behavior could produce the profile of a likely “shooter”, parents should protect their children from the hazardous effects of games by providing limits and guidance as necessary.

The game that I chose to play was Darfur is Dying. I immediately started playing the game without reading the instructions. I composed this experience to the argument stated in grading With Games that scientists have always learned the language of science by doing science. I will describe my experience by the principle of situated cognition explained by Richard van Eck in the article Digital Game-Based Learning. I practiced multitasking skills, inductive reasoning, frequent and quick interactions with content and visual literacy skills. This interaction required a constant cycle of hypothesis formulation, testing, and revision. And this happened with immediate feedback. From the language learning point of view, it practiced active reading skills, and from the moral perspective, it taught perseverance, sensitivity, and humanism.

I would sum up all my exploration described above in the consideration that games thrive as teaching tools when they create a continuous cycle of disequilibrium and resolution while also allowing the player to be successful, and the implementation of DGBL requires careful analysis and matching of the content, strengths, and weaknesses of the game to be studied.

Digital Video

noreply@blogger.com (KARINE) — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 02:36:00 +0000

I recognized the fact that digital video brings the power of studio production to the personal computer. With just a video camera or a phone, a computer, and a proper software, Ls can create their own innovative and unique movies for personal and educational use. They can take advantage of today’s technology and to make their learning more engaging, more purposeful and more efficient. This tool provides a huge audience, which makes learning more responsible and meaningful.

As a learner, I learned new interesting things from this lesson as how to shoot my footage effectively, how to transfer it to the computer, how to use editing software to build and enhance material. And how to export it to the Internet. The video material by Santa Fe University taught me the 7 steps of video production, starting from the Treatment step to the ‘getting it seen’ step. The Tutorial by Lights FilmSchool illustrated various framing shots, such as a fool shot, a medium full shot, a close shot, a close up, etc. Curtis Brownjohn’s material revealed a lot of filmmaking techniques including camera shots, camera angles, camera movement, conversation shots, focus techniques, composition, animation, and editing. Moreover, the other two materials helped me understand the basics of lighting and discover some interesting tricks of camera angles.

Here, I’d like to mention that I read a lot, but I learned through my experience. The point is that if listening, speaking, reading, or writing can help the learner retain 60% of information, doing can help him retain 90% of information. This means that technology as an educational tool provides the opportunity which fosters collaboration and creativity where real learning takes place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJVMXr2WGog

Creativity is an important component of learning as it brings the learner from the knowledge-based level to a level of the higher-order of thinking. I think educational technological tools can serve this goal providing room for exploring, reflecting, creating and sharing their creations with others across the globe.