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Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
---- Arnold Toynbee
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
---- Terry Pratchett
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
---- Mitch Hedberg
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
---- Pablo Picasso
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns; he should be drawn and quoted.
---- Fred Allen
Drink coffee! Do stupid things faster!
---- unknown
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
---- Galileo Galilei
A magician pulls rabbits out of hats. An experimental psychologist pulls habits out of rats.
---- anonymous
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
---- H. G. Wells
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard
Technology will not replace teachers...teachers who use technology will
probably replace teachers who do not.
---- Ray Clifford
Any man whose errors take ten years to correct is quite a man.
---- J. Robert Oppenheimer
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill
Sleep is a symptom of caffeine deprivation.
---- Author Unknown
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
---- Franklin D. Roosevelt
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
Internet English (again)
Two years ago and at a previous university position I wrote about a proposal for a course titled Internet English. Well it looks like I will finally be able to teach a course approaching what this was supposed to be.
The class description from the syllabus I had to create the night before it was due (not having been informed any further in advance) is as follows:
This class will work on English communication. However English communication is more than just speaking. There are many modes of communication and this course will look at several of them with a special focus on using the Internet to increase opportunities to communicate.
This class is a combination of English communication practice and building awareness of how to take control of language learning opportunities that students may not have previously considered. Students will engage with material covered in class and connect with other English speakers outside of Korea via internet and other media.
I know that Aaron has conducted a similar course out of Japan previously in Spring 2006 and Fall 2006 and I am looking forward to it as well. This course is not going to be entirely focused on the Internet. I will be looking at some music videos and also doing a class or two on what I feel is the correct way to approach watching DVDs using English subtitles.
I am asking readers for suggestions. If you’ve taught a similar class in the past I would appreciate your thoughts on different types of activities or lessons to do with students. These students should be upper intermediate or higher in ability and be able to handle difficult tasks. I will definitely be doing blogs with them. I haven’t decided whether I should use blogger or one of the free wordpress hosted blogging systems.
Additionally this coming fall it looks like I will (95% chance) be teaching a course already titled English Communcation through the Internet. Much of what I do this summer will be revamped and reused for the fall based on my experience.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jun 14, 2007 at 10:08 PM
Teaching | Lesson_Plans |
Amanada wrote 318 words on Friday Jun 15, 2007 at 07:50 AM
I am teaching an “Internet English” class this semester.
I choose to use vox.com because it has built in community-much like flickr. It also has a “question of the day” and “vox hunt” (posting videos, mpds or photos on a certain daily theme).
Many of my students have had interaction with people who have stumbled upon their blogs—I don’t think this would have happened as easily if we’d used wordpress or blogger.
Also, vox is much easier to use than wordpress—easier to change templates, themes, and so on. It is a little bit more limited and is ad based, but those are small prices to pay for the community and ease of use it offered us.
Vox also made it very easy to comment and keep track of comments that were made on your blog and that made on other’s blogs. Great way to encourage continued communication.
My student’s are not at a very high level, and some of them only blogged “fluff,” but some of them did get into and began writing to be read.
As far as activities, I think it is important to teach them how to use an RSS reader—we’ve used Google Reader. We learned how to use Delicious, slide dot com, flickr, youtube, and more. They then added feeds to their Google reader that they wanted to keep up with.
With slide.com they were to use images to communicate. Some of them also explained or introduced their slide shows in English (which is what they were supposed to do). There were two slide.com assignments—one to intro some aspect of Taiwan culture and the other to define an abstract word such as hope, love, friendship, or peace.
With youtube, they interviewed a classmate or even themselves and then posted the result on their blog. That way their blog was not just written words, but also became a way to use oral skills as well.
amanda wrote 32 words on Saturday Jun 16, 2007 at 11:37 AM
Yesterday, I randomly thought of another reason I choose vox: I choose vox over blogger is because blogger is available in Chinese.
I wanted my students interacting with an English only interface.
Sean. wrote 93 words on Saturday Jun 16, 2007 at 01:30 PM
Amanda,
Actually having the students native language interface is a plus for me, especially for weaker students. I think this allows them to set up and post in English without having troubles navigating the backend in English. Setting up a blog is confusing for many people, especially the technologically challenged. I don’t want my students to give up and be frustrated because they can’t figure it out in English.
Having said that, for the class this summer I will be having advanced students and will probably require them to use an English interface.
amanda wrote 197 words on Saturday Jun 16, 2007 at 01:51 PM
I can totally see your point. This will be a choice that depends on what your purpose is—is it to solely encourage interaction in English or to help them to also understand how to navigate online in English-only environments.
But the English-mainly internet world is quickly changing. Many of the bigger sites are being offered in multiple languages. Flickr just went multilingual this week. When we were using slide.com I told my students about the language options and told them they could choose to work in English or Chinese on their slide shows. Some choose to work in Chinese only, some choose to work in English only, and some choose to go back and forth between the two languages.
Come to think of it . . . on vox, students were able to mark things as “good” in several languages, and on several of my students blogs their dates are in Chinese. I think vox is already in Japanese—without stopping to check though I can’t confirm this.
I really am interested in how your summer class goes, and if you post a link to your student’s blogs, I would be happy to go look, read, and comment.
Sean. wrote 53 words on Saturday Jun 16, 2007 at 01:58 PM
Amanda,
I haven’t decided if I will post a link here. I like to blog anonymously at this site, but with students I have to blog with my real name. Hmmm.. may share it via email with selected readers though.
Thanks for your thoughts and comments recently. Where in china are you based?
amanda wrote 91 words on Saturday Jun 16, 2007 at 03:37 PM
well, I’m in Taiwan.
And, as far as blogging anonymously . . . you could go by “Mr. EFL Teacher.” Asking your students to respect that you want to be anonymous online and offering that option to them . . . after discussing online privacy issues.
Of course that might totally backfire on you . . . since they will most likely somehow, eventually identify the school or post a picture of you and therein you would be found out and no longer anonymous . . . so uh, never mind.
simon wrote 160 words on Sunday Jun 17, 2007 at 05:56 PM
Hi,
yes, vox is now in Japanese. Personally I find it a bit of a pain that the various blogs revert to the language of wherever you are. I started up using english on blogger, but blogger insists on reverting to japanese. My Japanese ok, but clearly L1 is easier for the teacher.
On vox, I intended to use QotD (question of the day) but its in Japanese so, less useful of course!
Looking at many blogs (googling round for inspiration / to borrow /nab ideas) and considering my own, you should be aware that though the idea is a lovely one - autonomy, let the students write about what they want, what is relevant to them etc- THEY USUALLY DON’T WRITE! But I have Very Low students in an EFL setting with no extrinsic motivation (english is a required course) so this may differ for you folks depending on level, interest, reason for studying etc.
best of luck
simon
simon wrote 57 words on Sunday Jun 17, 2007 at 06:18 PM
Oh, request for help:
am examining blogging within the context of Computer Mediated Communication. A literature overview, plus evaluation of effectiveness of blogging as ESL tool.
Plenty on both CACD and email with regard to supposedly improved quantity and quality of student output, but simply cannot find anything about blogging in this respect.
Help anyone??
regards
Simon
amanda wrote 237 words on Monday Jun 18, 2007 at 11:53 AM
I beg to differ with Simon. Students WILL write.
I, too, have “low-level” students with very low self-esteems and low motivation as well. Our school is known for being a “bad school with bad students.” But, with the right encouragement, I can usually get many of them to actually enjoy learning and become more confident.
They just need to be encouraged. They’ve never done this—blogging—before and are just unsure of what to do.
Like I said before some of my students only blogged “fluff” but some of them really got into. Check out this post from a student yesterday. Sure there are some misspelled words, and some bad grammar—but she is writing from the heart, and this is probably a first draft. I personally also love that she plays with fonts and adds little graphics to her post—she is communicating. (Easily changing fonts and so on is hard in wordpress—you have to know html. Little face pictures in wordpress? Not so easy.)
Another thing, they WILL comment and respond to comments. Comments become like gold to them. The more comments they get the more blogging they will do. And, they will do it with an audience in mind.
I have to be active in encouraging it and modeling it (but that is easy with vox). And, in the last half of the semester, they really have been doing quite a bit of commenting on each other’s blogs.
Sean. wrote 59 words on Monday Jun 18, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Amanda,
I’m with you on this. I just finished submitting my grades for spring semester and now have the rest of this week to get ready for the summer semester.
Just curious how you got your students to comment on each others blogs. Have they recieved comments from students outside of your school, if so how were they discovered.
Sean. wrote 62 words on Monday Jun 18, 2007 at 04:53 PM
I took a quick look around Vox and have decided to use it for blogging this time around. It looks a little more flexible than eslblogs.org - it appears to be a cross between a free blogging platform and social networking. Should be interesting.
Hope I have enough time to play with it while I plan the other aspects of my course.
amanda wrote 240 words on Monday Jun 18, 2007 at 07:15 PM
Yes, my students have had “outsiders” comment on their blogs. And the reason is vox is like you said is a social networking platform so it has built in community.
Some of them joined the Blogging in English vox group for language learners. Some of them were discovered because they participated in QotD and Vox Hunt. Some of them have even made constant readers of people that stumbled upon them.
To encourage them to make comments, I first modeled it for them. I noticed when I didn’t comment, they didn’t comment either. I also encouraged them to make all their classmates their “neighbors”—that way when they log in they can see recent posts that their classmates have posted (this was at the beginning before showing them how to use google reader).
I also used the school’s online class emailing software to send occasional reminders that I’ve not been seeing their faces on their classmates blogs. I knew and they knew I couldn’t really grade based on amount of comments posted. But, I told them that if I didn’t see their faces on other blogs every now and then their participation grade would be lower.
But mostly once they taste how great comments can be they become self-motivated to comment on their own. So, I’d guess I have about 5-8 constant commenters all week long, around 10 who comment during class time, and the rest (around 7 who don’t comment regularly).
simon wrote 59 words on Monday Jun 18, 2007 at 10:16 PM
Thanks for the advice on commenting there Amanda. My first year doing this, so a very steep learning curve here.
Such sites as this one are remarkably helpful. Thanks scs for setting this up.
Btw an ESL blog which I found to be quite helpful and impressive (in addition to amanda’s here) is at this URL:
http://ourclass2006.blogspot.com/
regards
Simon
Sean. wrote 17 words on Tuesday Jun 19, 2007 at 07:03 AM
Simon,
glad you find my site helpful. Looking forward to more comments from you in the future.
Aaron wrote 34 words on Thursday Jun 21, 2007 at 07:47 AM
What kind of room will you be in, how often will you be there, how many students will you have, and what kind of access will they have to the internet outside of class?
Sean. wrote 29 words on Thursday Jun 21, 2007 at 07:55 AM
internet access outside of class is ubiquitous in Korea. Everyone has 100MB broadband. I’ll be in a computer lab Mon-Fri for three hours a day. Enrollment is 23 students.
Aaron wrote 95 words on Thursday Jun 21, 2007 at 08:22 AM
Three hours a day, five days a week? Wow! Is that a three-week intensive?
If you can install Skype, I’d think about using Kantalk.
Whatever you do, you ought to get them involved in some type of social network that includes profiles, tags, friends, communities, etc. That way it increasese their exposure to a global pool of potential conversational partners. Having EFL students of the same native language write to one another in a public space, using a foriegn language isn’t as exciting as having each individual communicate with his/her own group of international contacts.
Sean. wrote 37 words on Thursday Jun 21, 2007 at 08:27 AM
I don’t think we are allowed to install programs on the computers. But I can set it as a homework/extra credit task and model it for them using my laptop. Have bookmarked kantalk. thanks for the tip.