ELTWeekly Issue#22, Worldwide ELT news
By Tarun Patel
Vision of a bilingual society within reach
MALAY is my mother tongue, the language of home and family, the language in which the most tender of feelings are expressed, the tongue with which the harshest of emotions are spewed!
My first two years of formal learning was in a Malay primary school in Rasah, Seremban, where I picked up the rudiments of kira-kira and alam sekitar. After that it was off to the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus Seremban where my love for the English language and literature was sown. I went on to read English literature and linguistics later.
Read the complete news at http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=34646
English in Brighton with us – English Language Centre in Brighton by liz Tyrrell & Sue Williams
Philippines’ challenge as English slips
A western academic publisher warns that the Philippines needs to maintain high standards of spoken English or risk losing valuable business in teaching and call-centre operations.
Paul Robertson, who publishes academic journals about the teaching and learning of English, says that in the last two years the Philippines has become “the mecca of English language learning” in its region.
On top of millions of its own citizens learning English, up to a quarter of a million foreigners have travelled to the Philippines to learn the language.
Read the complete news at http://australianetworknews.com/stories/200906/2598360.htm?desktop
English opens window to world
JAIPUR: Surge in the number of applicants for BA English (Honours) and postgraduate programmes in English in Rajasthan University (RU) is a recent trend.
This is due to the increase in job opportunities for students from this department. “There has been a rise in the number of applicants with the improving level of placements,” said Arun Soule, a professor of English, RU.
Looking at the increasing number of applicants in the department, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it is one of the most popular disciplines among the language programmes.
Read the complete news at http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Jaipur/English-opens-window-to-world/articleshow/4660292.cms
FTK and Educomp Co-Develop Vernacular Interface
FTK Technologies and Educomp Solutions have co-developed ‘MagiKeys’ — a software-based language interface for those who would like to learn computers but are not proficient in the English language. Magikeys, is based on FTK’s LooKeys software and co-branded with Educomp Solutions, which is an education solutions provider.
MagiKeys has been introduced into government schools in India. MagiKeys has been designed to cater to the needs of Indian government schools, allowing both students and teachers across India to use computers in their native language, all through an intuitive and easy-to-learn interface. According to FTK Technologies, the language barrier is the main obstacle for government schools that want to introduce computers to its students. Since pupils are more familiar with their native language, FTK and Educomp developed MagiKeys to make the process of learning computers easier. Educomp Solutions helped FTK Technologies create a special interface that functions similarly to LooKeys. As a result of which computer-aided teaching can be done in various Indian languages.
Read the complete news at http://enterpriser.cxotoday.com/India/Know_It/FTK_and_Educomp_Co-Develop_Vernacular_Interface/551-103222-449.html
Partners in English Language Learning
What is your mission?
Help English language learners become thriving members of our community by offering one-on-one tutoring and building bridges that foster cross-cultural respect, understanding and friendship.
What is your yearly budget, and how many paid employees do you have?
We operate on an annual budget of less than $17,000. Our part-time program Coordinator is PiELL’s only paid staff member. We occupy a small office at Lyman Gilmore Middle School, donated by the Grass Valley School District.
Read the complete news at http://www.theunion.com/article/20090615/WEBUPDATE/906159990/1001/NONE&parentprofile=1053
June 21st, 2009
ELTWeekly Issue#22, Worldwide ELT events
By Tarun Patel
Interactive Technologies and Games: Education, Health and Disability, Nottingham Trent University, October 27
Call for papers
The aim of the conference is to bring together academics and practitioners to showcase practice and to show how research ideas and outcomes can be mainstreamed. It will introduce a wider audience to key findings and products from research and will illustrate how practice feeds back into and informs research. Joint academic-practitioner papers are welcomed; the conference will create a forum for two-way communication between the academic and practitioner communities.
Compulsory and post-compulsory education is included within ‘education’. An emphasis will be placed on practical applications and guides to where currently available training resources and tools can be found and used.
A selection of papers will be published electronically in full, so presentations will be limited to 10 minutes for the key findings, with time for questions from the floor.
This is a cross-disciplinary conference which aims to give equal weight to the three themes to enable researchers and practitioners to learn from and cross-fertilise with other disciplines. Papers and exhibits which demonstrate adaption between the themes are particularly sought. It is not necessary to present a paper in order to exhibit.
It is hoped that Computers and Education will publish a special edition with selected papers from the conference in 2010.
Topics that will be covered by the conference, but not limited to, include:
Education
- Social and collaborative aspects of interactive technology
- Raising aspirations and achievement through interactive technologies and games-based learning
- Interactive learning tools and environments resources, e.g. Flash, podcasts, simulations, mobile games, Web 2.0 tool etc
- Implementation and ethical issues associated with games-based learning
- Learning theory, universal design and assessment in interactive technology-based learning
- Best practices in the use of interactive and innovative technologies for learning
Health
- GBL approaches to patient education
- Using contemporary games controllers to create new opportunities in health and rehabilitation applications (e.g., applications for Wii Fit, Wii Mote)
- GBL and virtual and enhanced environments for clinical assessment (e.g. after stroke)
- GBL and virtual environments for treatment (e.g. of phobias, ADHA, post-traumatic stress disorders, Amblyopia, etc
- ‘Modding’ for health
- Patient created content in serious games
Disability
- Approaches to making VE, computer and video games accessible by all
- Assistive technologies for people with disabilities and elderly people
- Practical applications of VE and serious games for the education of people with disabilities and elderly people (in e.g. work preparation, travel training)
- Location based services for navigation and reconnection of people with disabilities
- Art and music rehabilitation in 3D multisensory environments
- The engagement potential of serious games for young people at risk of social exclusion (e.g., offenders, those with learning disabilities)
- Design for All
- Including people with disabilities in the design of serious games, assistive technologies and VE.
Submissions
Those wishing to present papers should send abstracts, to a maximum of 500 words. For those hoping to exhibit, a 300-word (maximum) outline is required. The deadline for submissions is Friday 26 June, 2009 to be sent to, karen.krelle@ntu.ac.uk.
Final copies of accepted papers are required by Wednesday 30 September 2009.
There is a conference fee of £60 (concessions £30).
Important dates
Draft submission: 26 June 2009
Notice of paper acceptance: 31 July 2009
Final paper submission: 30 September 2009
Final Conference registration: 12 October 2009
Conference: 27 October 2009
For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://www.ntu.ac.uk/cels/outreach/events/61435.html
NEW SOUNDS 2010: Sixth International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech, Pozna?, Poland, May 1-3, 2010
We are happy to announce that the Sixth International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech New Sounds 2010 will take place on 1-3 May 2010 in Pozna?, Poland. The Symposium will be organised by theSchool of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Pozna? and will continue the tradition of the conferences on the acquisition of foreign language speech, organized originally by Allan James and Jonathan Leather.
The conference will cover a variety of themes related to the acquisition of a foreign language phonology, including among others:
· speech perception and speech production
· theories of acquisition of L2 phonology
· phonetics and phonology in SLA
· acquisition of second language phonotactics
· multilingualism and the acquisition of third language phonology
· the application of new technologies
· neuro- and psycholinguistic aspects of phonological acquisition.
Proposals of papers and posters related to the acquisition of second language speech are invited. The deadline for abstract submission is 1st December 2009. The submissions will be reviewed by our International Advisory Board. Invited plenary speakers are:
James Flege (University of Alabama at Birmingham, Professor Emeritus)
Allan James (University of Klagenfurt)
Martha Young-Scholten (Newcastle University).
Looking forward to seeing you in Pozna? in 2010!
New Sounds 2010 Organising Committee
Katarzyna Dziubalska-Ko?aczyk
Magdalena Wrembel
Ma?gorzata Kul
For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/newsounds/
Second International Conference on the Development and Assessment of Intercultural Competence, Tucson, Arizona, January 29-31, 2010
Conference Theme: Aiming for “The Third Place:” Intercultural Competence through Foreign Language Teaching and Learning
Keynote Speaker: Claire Kramsch, Ph.D. – University of California, Berkeley
Claire Kramsch is Professor of German and Foreign Language Acquisition at the University of California, Berkeley, and Founding Director of the Berkeley Language Center. Among her many publications is an edited volume, Language Acquisition and Language Socialization: Ecological Perspectives (Advances in Applied Linguistics Series, Continuum International, 2003); most recently she completed a manuscript on The Multilingual Subject. Her awards include the ACTFL Nelson Brooks Award for the teaching of culture; the MLA Kenneth Mildenberger Prize for Outstanding Research in the teaching of foreign languages and literatures; the Goethe Medal; the MLA Distinguished Service Award; and a UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Kramsch is past President of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, was co-editor of the journal Applied Linguistics and serves on CERCLL’s National Advisory Board.
Description:
Intercultural competence is [the ability] “to see relationships between different cultures – both internal and external to a society – and to mediate, that is interpret each in terms of the other, either for themselves or for other people.” It also encompasses the ability to critically or analytically understand that one’s “own and other cultures’” perspective is culturally determined rather than natural.
-Michael Byram, Professor, University of Durham
Globalization, having brought individuals in contact with one another at an unprecedented scale, has also brought forth a general challenge to traditionally recognized boundaries of nation, language, race, gender, and class. The challenge moves in two directions simultaneously: on the one hand, distinctions that were unnoticeable before have been rendered visible, and in the opposite direction, similarities across traditional boundaries have been recognized. The end result in both cases is that boundaries of social practice are being re-negotiated, re-assessed, and re-considered. For those living within this rapidly changing social landscape, intercultural competence–as defined by Michael Byram above–is a necessary skill, and the cultivation of such intercultural individuals falls on the shoulders of today’s educators. They should provide students with opportunities to help them define and design for themselves their “third place” or “third culture,” a sphere of interculturality that enables language students to take an insider’s view as well as an outsider’s view on both their first and second cultures. It is this ability to find/establish/adopt this third place that is at the very core of intercultural competence.
The conference aims to bring researchers and practitioners across languages, levels and settings to discuss and share research, theory, and best practices and foster meaningful professional dialogue on issues related to Intercultural Competence teaching and learning.
Strands:
- Intercultural Competence and Theory
- Intercultural Competence and Classroom Instruction
- Making Intercultural Competence Instruction Possible
- Intercultural Competence and International Education
- Intercultural Competence and the Global World
- Intercultural Competence and Media Representation
- Intercultural Competence and Language Practice
- Assessing Intercultural Competence
- Critical Considerations of Intercultural Competence
Proposal Types: Proposals are being accepted for papers, posters, and pre-/post-conference workshops. Please see the Proposals page for full details.
Lodging Information: See Lodging page for details.
Scholarships: Lodging and registration scholarships are available. Please see the Scholarship page for details.
For further details and pre-registration, please visit: http://cercll.arizona.edu/icc_2010.php
ELTWeekly Issue#22, Book of the week: Pathways to Teaching Series: Practical Strategies for Teaching English Language LearnersPathways to Teaching Series: Practical Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners
By Tarun Patel
Pathways to Teaching Series: Practical Strategies for Teaching English Language LearnersPathways to Teaching Series: Practical Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners
By Ellen Curtin
EDITORIAL REVIEWS
From the Back Cover
BCC for Curtin, Practical Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners
ISBN-10: 013513059X ISBN-13: 9780135130599
This book is for student teachers, experienced teachers new to English Language Learners, beginning alternative route teachers, and “career changers” who find themselves grappling with how best to teach English Language Learners on-grade level subject content in the regular classroom setting.
Who is this English Language Learner? How do I communicate with him/her? How do I prepare him/her for state standardized test? How do I teach them advanced reading skills when their vocabulary is so limited?
These are common concerns voiced by K-12 teachers as they express their inadequacies about teaching English Language Learners in the regular classroom. This text is designed to help answer these questions by providing the necessary information and research-proven teaching strategies that are best for all learners including the English Language Learner. The book addresses the specific role that regular classroom teachers now play in ensuring that English Language Learners are acquiring English through the content subject areas.
FEATURES FOR YOUR SUCCESS:
- Classroom Scenarios present readers with authentic voices from the classroom and actual classroom descriptions from practicing teachers representing a variety of cultural groups. The scenarios connect with the content of the chapter and exemplify unique challenges faced by real teachers and students.
- Guiding Discussion Questions follow each classroom scenario and are designed to stimulate group discussion and personal reflection about what goes on in a classroom.
- Author Insight features share tips and suggestions from the author’s own teaching experiences as well as those from other teachers in the field. These tips offer practical suggestions about things to look for, ask, or do.
- What Research Tells Us section provides a clear, concise synopsis of current research in the field providing teachers with the theoretical rationale for the Classroom Application Strategies section that follows. This research, contextualized within the parameters of No Child Left Behind (2001), will help prepare readers for state certification tests.
- Classroom Application Strategies section provides teachers with practical research-based teaching strategies that can be applied in K-12 classrooms. Each strategy or combination of strategies is clearly explained for use in the classroom. While many of these strategies are specific to teaching English Language Learners in the subject content areas, all strategies provided are extremely effective for all K-12 grade learners.
- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (May 2, 2008)
- Price: $31
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 013513059X
- ISBN-13: 978-0135130599
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
- Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
- Amazon.com Sales Rank: #348,410 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
ELTWeekly Issue#22, Article: Developing Good Speaking Skills
By Tarun Patel
Developing Good Speaking Skills
By Prof (Dr) Shefali Bakshi
The aim of spoken English is to enable students to communicate in the target language. It is important to: (i) expose the learners to maximum use of language. (ii) help them to see how language functions in different situations.(iii) help them to internalize the rules of grammar. Speech like writing, being a productive skill must follow enough receptive experience through listening or reading. There are four basic types of activity, which can be organized by teachers: 1- Controlled activities: To give students confidence and support. 2- Awareness activities: To increase sensitivity in students to what they at are aiming. 3- Fluency activities: To give students the practice they need to use English for Communication. 4- Feedback tasks: To allow students to reflect on their own performance so that they become aware of areas in which they have to improve. Art of Speaking, that is, Ability to talk is a social advantage and a step towards advancement.
Success favours those who can speak and write well. Oral and Written communication should be considered essential in every field of activity. Speaking should offer numerous opportunities such as: Questions & Answers, Discussions, Dialogues, Role Plays, Language Games, etc. Being able to speak English well is becoming an increasingly important part of everyday living. Fluency in speech demands a great deal of practice, which is best done in life-like situations. Materials of teaching Speaking skills could be Speech Drills for Vowel & Consonant sound, Pronunciation Exercises, Role Play, Speech Practice Tasks, Functions, Different Actual Situations for usage etc. Learning how to speak takes time and effort. It is best done as part of a course, as well as paying specific attention to the skills and strategies of oral interaction, along with pronunciation on the one hand and on listening on the other. Lets take an example from ACE series of Orient Blackswan.
An activity of daily day-to-day life is taken, where students enact the following first in a controlled way as the dialogues are given and then a semi controlled activity where the situation is described and then the situation 3, where the students themselves decide the appropriacy of the dialogue. This can be followed by a home assignment where different groups give different situations to each other and ask them to weave the conversation around it. The teacher guides and facilitates the discourse to a suitable end.
Prof (Dr) Shefali Bakshi is the Deputy Director at Amity School of Languages. She has done a Project on “A Study of Verbal Interaction in Waiting for Godot” for the M.A. degree and has ompleted her PhD thesis on “A Study of Verbal Interaction in the plays of Samuel Beckett” for the Degree of Ph.D. at University of Lucknow, India. She has conducted over 75 workshops on ELT in various parts of India for school teachers and principals.
ELTWeekly Issue#22, Article: ELT Jargon June 2009
By Tarun Patel
ELT Jargon June 2009
By Alex Case
behaviourism- the idea that the kids not being naughty is about all you can expect from a kindergarten English lesson
Communication Accommodation Theory- the discredited idea that host families in the UK actually speak to the students who are staying with them
communicative strategies- ways students can avoid having to communicate in the classroom, e.g. by complaining about pairwork because “I never know when I am making mistakes”
contrastive analysis- comparing yourself to your partner’s ex boyfriends and/ or girlfriends
Read the rest of article at http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/teaching/tefl/elt-jargon-june-2009/
Alex Case has been a teacher, teacher trainer, Director of Studies, ELT writer and editor in Turkey, Thailand, Spain, Greece, Italy, Japan, UK and now Korea, and writes TEFLtastic blog (www.tefl.net/alexcase)
*ELTWeekly would like to thankAlex Case for contributing this article.
ELTWeekly Issue#22, Research paper: EFL Writing: Product and Process
By Tarun Patel
EFL Writing: Product and Process
This paper presents a cyclical framework of teaching procedures for a comprehensive English-as-a-Foreign Language writing program.
It begins by providing examples of Greek students’ writing and identifying common programs. Next, it outlines two aspects of good writing: product (language, layout and organization, relevance to the task, regard for the reader, and clarity) and process (task/title analysis, planning, writing the first draft, evaluating and improving the first draft, and language problems versus writing problems).
Finally, it presents the four-part framework for teaching writing skills, which includes the following: awareness raising, support, practice, and feedback. It outlines the four components and presents specific procedures and materials for each stage of the cycle. The framework takes into account four ideas: what is taught is not necessarily what is learned; recycling is essential for learning; learners need to be actively involved in the learning process; and the more individualized the teaching, the more effective it is. (SM)
Download the full paper in pdf format by visiting http://www.eric.ed.gov
ELTWeekly Issue#22, Research Paper by Mohammad Hassan Hosseini
By Tarun Patel
Infusion of Emerging Online Technologies into ELT: The Need of the Hour
By Seyed Mohammad Hassan Hosseini* mhhosseini2002@gmail.com
Abstract
Today’s world context of the Cyber Age, which is characterised by ever-growing technological revolutions in the ongoing scenario of globalisation, has increased the value of English language, the language of the virtual world or the Second Life, as an international lingua franca (ELF). And ELT professionals’ main mission is to equip tomorrow’s citizenry with this international medium of interaction, with ELF. But the fact is that ELT has not been a success in many parts of the world, including in countries like Iran and India, hitherto (Hosseini, 2007). It is in this backdrop that the deficiencies in the present context of ELT call for new remedies and innovative approaches. This paper, as such, suggests the inclusion of online technology, as an effective educational apparatus, into the field for the benefit of language classes. The paper gives glimpse of the emerging online technologies and presents pragmatic guidelines for successful implementation of such innovations. Educational institutes – from primary to post secondary — could consider the proposed programme for enhancing the attainment of their educational objectives. The project may also be implemented state-/country-wise.
Introduction
English language, in the era of globalisation, has become a multi-purpose instrument enabling human beings not only to use it for communication in trade, business, administration and science education, but for influencing human behaviour and facilitating social cooperation as well. Interdependence in today world context is an indispensable value, and using English in communication is one way of promoting mutual understanding and interdependence. Globalisation has also contributed to the evolution of online technology, which has undoubtedly helped humans to achieve the optimum potential in every sphere of life. It is recently, however, that the present info-tech scenario has brought to the fore the significance of online technology in improving the quality of education in general and ELT in particular.
Online technology has given the language teachers a goldmine of materials for exposing learners to enormous opportunities for genuine learning, either individually or cooperatively. In virtual learning environments that take advantage of engaging activities and are scaffold by live instructors, students have the opportunities to use the language and share their language learning skills and strategies not only together but also with native speakers (Pegrum, 2007). This could happen through chat rooms, blogs1, wikis2, moodles3, podcasting4, vodcasting5, and other virtual worlds. In such virtual environments, students, with different backgrounds, learning styles, interests, and abilities and paces of learning, can acquire and practice a new language through available to them authentic, diverse, and at the same time comprehensible input. They provide portable access to learning, which can be personalised and flexible. One other major characteristic and significant feature of these virtual learning environments, as the nexus of innovation and empowerment, is that they have the capacity to supply a developmental window on to the learning process, allowing fuller formative feedback as well as providing a portfolio of learners’ contributions (Bradshaw et al., 2002). In structured implemented virtual learning environments no learner can abdicate their responsibilities.
It is such kinds of contributions of online technologies to language learning environments that have led to the success of language classes which are run with their scaffold. Comprehensible input, for instance, according to Krashen (1989), is one of the main prerequisites for the acquisition of language. Authenticity is also believed to be one of the main keys to language learning. Another reason for the success of these virtual spaces in language courses may be the fact that they are stress-free and hence contribute to lowering the affective filter of learners and encourage risk taking, which is an important predictor of SLA. Such learning spaces naturally thwart the boredom of learning the language occasioned by conventional classes and contribute to positive change in the attitudes of learners towards learning. A number of researchers like Mathewson (1976) and Zimbardo and Ebbesen (1970) have argued that favourable attitudes are likely to motivate students for further learning and help increase their attention or engagement in the learning process. And engagement in learning, as the main key to effective language learning, brings their academic success. Feeling of achievement, in its turn, escalates their confidence, positive attitudes, motivation, engagement in the learning process, and consequently academic achievement. As indicated in Figure 1, this is assumed to be a cyclical process. Such assumptions are in part based on SLA theory which clearly prioritises the significance of exposure, motivation, and confidence as three pivotal variables for the acquisition of language to occur.
Figure 1. The Cyclical Interplay among Attitude, Motivation, and Learning
Despite the importance attributed to the significant role of online technologies, as powerful resources for enhancing language learning, ELT sphere has not yet accommodated such innovations, especially in countries like Iran. This is while in some developed countries the focus is on concepts like ‘content-bound web-based collaborative language leaning’. The merits of such programs are believed to be immense in view of the fact that they have the capacity to be managed in such ways that could enhance the acquisition of academic language, in addition to language itself, more effectively.
Therefore, the infusion of online technologies into language courses must be taken into account as the need of the hour. Such programmes could be conducted independently at state level or even country-wise or in an attempt to back up the conventional language classes in schools, universities, and other educational institutes for the attainment of their ultimate curriculum goals. In the latter case, such technologies will mediate between teaching force and learning effect. That is, they will reinforce learning of students, in bona fide environments, which cater for different learning styles. With the scaffold of synchronous and asynchronous e-tutoring, learners will be able to learn in ways not previously possible. Such solutions are congruent with Piagetian, Deweyian, and Vygotskyian approaches to learning which aim at augmenting learner autonomy.
But the point is that the formal and structured integration of online technologies into language learning courses is not that easy. Van de Ven and Poole (1995) confirmed the idea when they stated, “the task of making the transition from traditional teaching to teaching with technology is much tougher than it seems. This is because the transition is as much a cultural one as one of mere methodologies. It involves a shift in teaching paradigms, a shift in the way of thinking about teaching (p. 198)”. Such a shift demands open-endedness of all the stakes involved. It exacts devotion, patience, perseverance, and expertise. For such programmes to be effective, a team of best of those experts who are committed to their profession and accountabilities are needed. Such teams, as illustrated in Figure 2, should consist of four main sectors: a Control Centre, a Teaching Sector, an Evaluation Sector, and a Logistic Sector.
Figure 2. Components of the Centre for ELT and Online Technologies
In view of the significant contribution of such a programme to the success of the profession, the following tasks are suggested for each sector (see also Appendix A):
Control Centre
………………………..
The coordinators in control centre, which is recommended to include some IT professionals, in addition to some language teaching specialists and some language testing experts, should take account of the following tasks:
- Detecting and analysing the learners’ needs;
- Clarifying the objectives;
- Designing the syllabus;
- Developing authentic and engaging instructional materials;
- Improving fair and motivating evaluation systems;
- Defining and configuring the services that are to be made available to learners, and
- Synthesizing and canalising the efforts of teaching sector and evaluation sector while keeping in mind the objectives and the curriculum.
Furthermore, the administrators in the centre should help teachers and evaluators to keep abreast of the latest developments in the areas of their concerns for the success of their online programmes. This could be done through providing them with some relevant electronic lists, electronic journals, online libraries and databases, and so forth. Formation of web-based English language teachers communities for sharing research and teaching experiences (e.g., through synchronous and asynchronous discussion forums) could also be effective. Such circles of experts contribute to the teachers’ professional success by virtue of the fact that they would serve as platforms to improve the quality of their classrooms’ wikies, blogs, and moodles. They would also be helpful for preparing shared banks of quizzes, tests, and tasks so as to lessen the burden of their responsibilities in the implementation of their innovations in their classrooms. Creating and monitoring opportunities for critical engagement of teachers, evaluators, and students through live and/or messaging systems should not be neglected.
Yeh et al. (2000) put forth the following guidelines for designing more qualified interactive websites, which could be considered by the control centre:
- Accommodating a variety of learning styles (e.g., through providing texts, graphics, and high quality audio and video media);
- Encouraging exploratory learning (e.g., via interactive tasks);
- Providing sequence instruction (in the web pages);
- Encouraging metacognition (design of learning strategies in the web pages),
- Using graphics to show relationships, and
- Providing downloadable educational software (e.g., games and songs).
And finally, the administrators should be cognizant of the fact that learners’ participation in the learning process can be stilted, or passive if they feel no control over their endeavours. Ineffective data delivery system, improper and insufficient tutor/moderator support, and absence of necessary feedback from the service providers can also jeopardise the learning process.
Teaching Sector
………………………….
The online English language teaching specialists, in teaching sector, should be aware of the fact that E-learning has changed their roles from the sole sources or transmitters of knowledge to moderators, e-learning guides, managers of a range of resources, and facilitators of the learning process. They may take into account the following accountabilities:
- Effective contextualised conveying of material through their virtual environments. This may be supported by audio and video conferencing, etc.;
- Practising participants through both online and offline exercises and quizzes;
- Providing learners with relevant, immediate, and comprehensible feedback. Mobile technologies could be fruitful in this regard also, and
- Bringing equal opportunities for all learners’ participation and enhancing their simultaneous interaction.
The important thing is that students should have primary skills in practical use of online technologies if they are to make use of such programmes more effectively. And it is teachers who need to empower them with necessary skills for entering virtual learning environments. Teachers ought to develop their computer as well as interpersonal skills. Practising them in working through different chat rooms and search engines in order to access, for example, to specific chat groups, web forums, and remote libraries and databases is essential. Teachers should also encourage them for offline interactions through emailing, messaging and / or threaded forums. Establishing and developing a culture of learning and capacity building in terms of developing their abilities for adhering to such a culture in which bilateral responsible interactive learning is emphasized should not be overlooked. These could be done through conducting some crash courses or orientation workshops.
Evaluation Sector
…………………………….
The language testing specialists who avail themselves of tools and techniques of e-assessment, including different types of rubrics and rubric generators, CBT / CAT and TOIA, the emerging assessment managing system, for example, may consider the following for contributing to the success of online courses:
- Focusing on intended ability levels of learners;
- Targeting at the assessment of test takers’ performances / abilities in real-life situations. Simulation tasks allow test developers to elicit contextualized, integrated performances that closely resemble those in real-life L2/FL interactions. (Mislevy, 1996; Mislevy, Steinberg, Breyer, Almond, & Johnson, 1999.), and
- Generating new tasks with the desired components in a structured manner which can be done based on a systematic analysis of prototype tasks with identified characteristics that are fed into a database.
Specialists, in evaluation centre, should consider that computerized delivery of tests through the internet should be on time, the allocated time for its completion should be clear, and the evaluator should be online in order to facilitate the process of test taking.
Logistic Sector
………………………..
And finally, the experts in charge in logistic centre should consider the following responsibilities:
- Appropriate course changeover and administration of new course;
- On time delivery of high-quality services, and
- Adaptation of the course for facilities, conditions, and needs.
The personnel in logistic sector should bear in mind that learners need to be provided with appropriate guidelines and time table. In addition, they need to have access to a wide range of communication tools such as more controllable video and audio programs in order to select the tools that better help them obtain ‘live’ content and information.
Conclusion
Concurrent with the shift from second to third millennium, the world is increasingly becoming digital and hence communications and the means of communications are being redefined. It is in such a context that online technologies are increasingly getting integrated into ELT via a range of approaches and programmes. The belief is that online educational spaces which are need-based, student-centred, and process-oriented make language teaching and language learning enjoyable as they offer flexible and attractive environments suitable for multilevel continues interaction. As a result, they lead to satisfactory teaching / learning experiences and thus enhance the effectiveness of language classes and lead to deeper learning.
Therefore, the prominence of the mission and the objectives of ELT need to be explored from different vantage points in this context, especially in countries like Iran. ELT has to move from instructivists to constructivists’ modes of pedagogy, which emphasizes students acquiring meta skills and knowledge for a lifelong learning. TESOL practitioners must exploit the emerging electronic tools in their language classrooms if they want to play their roles in the betterment of the profession, which is as one of the major thrust area of Education. In the process, they should also help students develop their technological savvy in virtue of the fact that it is crucial for their future professional success. Educational policy makers should also focus on establishing and developing virtual schools, universities, and other educational institutes.
Educators, however, should be aware of the fact that in spite of the ample options online technology provides to learners, it can still be harmful to them. Therefore, they should not be negligent of the pitfalls of virtual worlds as they, with their engrossing power and charm, can distance students from social life and leave them in a real island. Technology should empower learners, and not handicap them.
Notes
1. A blog is virtual learning environment that could offer immense possibilities in the field of ELT, for augmenting learner autonomy. It is useful especially for large classes. The point in a blog is that every step of the way or every journal entry is a final version on its own right. It is also a good platform to record processes and stages for end-users. To help students create their own blogs, teachers can conduct an orientation workshop, availing themselves of the guidelines at www.blogspot.com.
2. Wikies are almost similar to blogs. But in contrast to blogs that are good platforms to record processes and stages for end-users, in wikis it is the last version that counts. The best section in a wiki is the discussion where one can learn how a community interacted to get those results. This is in contrast with a blog where every step of the way is a final version on its own right.
3. A Moodle is a free, open source virtual learning environment. It can be used to provide structured additional learning materials to supplement face-to-face classes, or even to produce a simple online distance learning course.
4. A podcast is an online, pre-selected audio on-demand, delivered through a portable media device such as an iPod or MP3 player. Podcasting is a technology by which teachers can add to their online course, thereby diversifying the way the course content is delivered. This technology has built itself on the developments of cyber bulletin boards, web groups, weblogs, audioblogs and rss feeds. Using this technology, sound files are created in MP3 format and stored on the web. Then an XML file is created and uploaded on the same site. Users should download one of the client software to be able to listen to podcasts. They can store them on their computers, copy them on movable drives or MP3 players or ideally to their iPods and listen to them at their own discretion. Using a podcast, vocabulary, for example, can be learnt easily by listening to a corpus in which the world occurs. This gives a contextual meaning, usage, and focuses on pronunciation. Likewise, the subtle differences between synonyms can be demonstrated through examples of usage through corpus data. Similarly, collocations can be taught using examples of the linguistic units presented contextually.
5. A vodcast is similar to podcast with the difference that it deals with visual. It is an online delivery of video content on-demand through a video -MP3 player such as an iPod video.
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*The author holds an A.D. (ELT), a B.A. (ELT), an M.A. (TEFL), and a PhD (ELT). He has presented many articles in different (inter)national symposia and journals. His research interests are in the areas of teaching methodology and applied psycholinguistics with a focus on context of learning. His publications are varied including one recently published in Online Journal of ‘Language in India’-December 2007 issue. He has also presented papers in national and international symposia including recently at the International Forum on “New and Emerging Technologies in ELT”, held at Madras, India.