W11: Producing electronic materials

Notes on MEI 11
Multimedia in English Instructions 多媒體輔助英語教學
Date: 4/30/2012
Instructor: Chin-Wen Chien 簡靜雯
Topic: Producing electronic materials

Key Terms
. Electronic materials
. Authoring tool
. Server
. Virtual learning environment

Reasons for Creating Your Own Electronic Materials
1. Provide extra practice for weaker learners
2. Build up a collection of resources for learners’
self-study

Task 1: Dig into an ESL Website
1. In a group of 4 students, visit the following
links: http://a4esl.org
2. Try some activities on the website. Evaluate the
activities based on the following elements:
a. type of exercise
b. language focus
c. age level
d. proficiency level
e. effectiveness

Quiz Generator
1. Charles Kelly’s Online Quiz Generator
2. E. L. Easton English Quizzes
3. Discovery School Puzzlemaker.


Task 2: Create Your Own Quiz/Exercise
1. In a group of 4, visit any of the quiz/exercise
generators.
2. Make your own quiz/exercise.
3. Exchange your puzzle with another group. Try
to solve the puzzle.

Task 2- 20120430

Authoring Tool

1. Mediator

2. Macromedia Director

3. Neobook

4. Quandary

5. Clarity Software

6. Creative Technology

NICE MEETING WITH PROF. LIN

Today, I had a meeting with Prof. Robin Lin at noon and we talked about my future graduate. I was touched by his vivid, accurate, and wonderful advice for my graduate school and my future planning because he stood in my shoes and gave me some advice of my future studies. Here are his advice:

1. Set your goal: it should be clear and determined. Make a procedure of five to ten year and check it from time to time to remind you of the goal and enhance the determination. 

2. Make good use of your time: in graduate school, you have very limited time to study and do the experiment at the same time. It's unlikely for you to have jobs and have further studies in one period. Try to skip some of personal stuffs and focus on your profession. (Taking courses is the basic things at graduate.)

3. Have a large goal: our graduate is not the end of your studies but one of the choices. Try to aim high and have great progress. 

It was so great to talk with him because he is really a nice and considerate teacher. I like her belief and teaching style, and of your his profession is admired too. Besides, his devoted to education is second to none, and I decided that one day I's like to be such a nice guy and help my students in a right way. 

W10: Technology-based courseware

Notes on MEI 10
Multimedia in English Instructions 多媒體輔助英語教學
Date: 4/23/2012
Instructor: Chin-Wen Chien 簡靜雯
Topic: Technology-based courseware

Key Terms:
. CD-ROM
. DVD
. Electronic portfolio
. Interactive whiteboard






Using DVDs with Learners in the Classroom
1. Pairs of learners take turns to do a few CD-
ROMs activities.
2. The whole class can do activities together CD-
ROM content can be projected through a data
projector.
3. Computer room: work alone or in pairs


*Reflection 1:
 In the past, when I was still a child, I got to know the CD-ROM, and would like to use it as the main material to learn English for myself. However, not so many teachers know how to implement in class or the  functions of the CD-ROM are still limited, mos of them have only text and pronunciation, which are not suitable for child to learn on his/her own. Yet, as the highly competitively of the e-Learning  technology, there are more and more products are available, and their included almost the functions you can think of, e.g., the New Wow English. I love the picture-book style textbook, which is proper for primary learners like 1st or 2nd graders. 

New Wow English with Super DVD 


How to use
1. Subtitles are hidden.
2. Listen to short sections of a dialogue
3. Pairs role play the characters in the DVD.

Evaluation Criteria

• Title: Longman Super Kids
• 4 graders
• primary level
• vocabulary, sentence patterns, and communication
• They are almost the same as the original textbook.
• The material is in static state, but some of the words are marked into different colors.
• location, buying things
• Yes
• About 30%
• Weak (most of the feedbacks are the same.)

*Reflection 2:
In the class, we also evaluated the currently used CD-ROMs based on the upper format. We found out most of the content are the same according to the textbooks, and just add up the CD/recording functions. This can't suit primary kids because of their short attentive span but help them sort of improve listening skills. Besides, the games inside the CDs are not recommended  since the content of the games are meaningless and high-repeated. Students will get board after they played for more than three times. 

presentation

Advantages and Disadvantages of Computer-Based Testing

Advantages	Disadvantages
. Flexibility in location . Feedback is automated . Lower cost than face-to-face examining in terms of speaking and writing skills	. Reliability . Initial investment cost . Authentication . security

Task: Computer-Based Testing
Elementary and Junior High School Students




1. TASA臺灣學生學習成就評量資料庫
2. Word Smart Online
3. 英文單字線上測驗
4. 線上即時測驗


Adult learners
1. TOEIC (2)
2. 英語能力測驗檢測系統


In a group of 3-4, try one of the computer-based 
testing websites. Examine these websites in terms 
of the following elements:

Link	TASA臺灣學生學習成就評量資料庫 http://tasa.naer.edu.tw/3online-1-detail.asp?id=2
a. proficiency level	Primary level
b. language focus	Listening and reading
c. age	8-10
d. strengths	Ÿ   Have a connection between the sounds and letters. (build up awareness) Ÿ   Free of charge Ÿ   Clear instruction
e. weaknesse	Ÿ   There’s no positive response. Ÿ   Doesn’t combine the question and the mp3 file.
f. suggestions	Design the content according to different area Combine the questions and the mp3 file together

I like Chabody a lot!!!!

http://www.kidcastle.com.tw/2008-news/Media/KCSong.htm



Task: Cloze test
Self-study CD-ROMs usually include activities to practice all 
four skills: the receptive skills-reading and (1)listening- and the 
productive skills-speaking and (2) writing. Graded or (3) 
authentic texts can be provided for both listening and reading 
activities, and comprehension tasks, such as matching or (4) 
multiple chioce, supplied. The writing skill is less easy to provide 
practice for on a CD-ROM, and activity types are often mechanical, 
requiring learners to (5) reorder sentences or words, or to fill in blanks 
in a paragraph. (6) Free writing activities need to be corrected by a 
teacher, so are often not included on a CD-ROM. The (7) speaking skill 
is probably the most difficult to deal with effectively on a CD-ROM, and 
activities involving voice-recognition software are often flawed.

Midterm Micro Teaching

Its' my lesson plan tomorrow's micro-teaching. The topic is How's the weather? in Longman Book 8, Unit 1. I designed the situation in the concept of weather report, and even invite students to be weather reporters. Its' fun and interesting. Besides, I adapted a song, How's the weather, Mr. Lin, on the basis of a song from Youtube. Wish Joyce will like it!


Midterm Micro Teaching

英語教材教法課堂筆記 1

Date: 2012/4/20

I found something interesting in 華文世界

the syllabus that teacher taught today!

W9: Online Reference Tools

Notes on MEI 9

Multimedia in English Instructions 多媒體輔助英語教學

Date: 4/16/2012

Instructor: Chin-Wen Chien 簡靜雯

Topic: Online Reference Tools

We talked about some online reference tool this week and do some comparison and contrast between different type of worksheets and websites. 


Reflection: 
Nowadays, the online dictionaries become prevalent and convenient because the fast-chaning information. Though the traditional text paper dictionaries are still good, the online dictionaries takes less time to look up, and the data base can update in a day or in short period. That's the reason the online dictionaries are so popular among ESL learner. I also use this to prepare my cram school and tutor, and even invite my Ss to look up dictionary in order to learn the correct spelling, usage, pronunciation, antonyn and synonym. I was profoundly convinced that if we look up the words our own, we have more ownership of the words. Besides, I like to use concordancers and corpuses to improve my English writing, especially the word choice. I know a famous professor call 廖柏森, a translator prof. in NTNU. He has been at NHCUE long long time before. Some of his studies is about the tools that help Ss's wring, and one of them is the corpus. Corpus is a data base collecting the language data by the native speaker. By using the corpus effectively, we are able to learn the common colocation. Here's a list for good concordancers and corpuses (collected by Prof. 廖). I have thought of the function and benefit using concordancers and corpuses on my hugh school students, but we don't have computer in the classroom to operate in class. Maybe I can design a instruction handout for them to acquire the useful techniques. What's more, I have the experience of using concordancers and corpuses as the material of preposition instruction. It's a better way to teach preposition for the various usages in context. 

answer: over

Online Monolingual Dictionaries

1. Cambridge Dictionaries Online

2. Merriam-Webster Online

3. Oxford Dictionaries Online

4. Longman English Dictionary Online

Online Thesauruses

1. Thesaurus.com

2. Merriam-Webster Online

Task 1: Look at these two worksheets of dictionary practice. Find out the strengths and weaknesses, of these two worksheets. How would you modify these worksheets?

worksheet 1

worksheet 2

our results!

Implication: 
I'd like to try use worksheet 2 in my class as a routine vocabulary instruction!! By the way, I have the experience of using this kind of activity and asked Ss to search the definition and examples. You can turn to the link of Tonny English Learning Blog. Those example will be in the pop quiz to check Ss' understanding. I thought this activity is sort of time -consuming but it;s useful for immediate level students to broaden their words.  


Task 2: Evaluation Dictionary Practice Websites

1. TV411

2. Longman Dictionary Exercise

3. Studyzone

4. Dino

5. Action Dictionary

Implication:
I found most of the websites above is about the dictionary skills. However, I like the action dictionary the most. We teachers are able to use it as a good resources for the flashcards because the finding of the picture on the Internet is sometimes boring and the results didn't meet our needs. So, I adapted the website as the source of the flash card pics. It's quite a effective way. 




字典活動

Four categories of philosophy

1.    The discrepancy philosophy is the philosophy in which are built as a difference or discrepancy between a desired performance from the students and what they are actually doing.

l  Gap: what you expect and what Ss are doing

l  E.g.: to distinguish the voiced and voiceless sounds (pronunciation)

l  Observation to know the difficulty

2.    The democratic philosophy is the philosophy in which a need is defined as any change that is desired by majority of a group involved.

l  Get the information

l  E.g.: In a listening class, to be able to understand academic lectures and to take notes.

l  In GEPT preparation class,

l  Give another example!!

3.    The analytic philosophy is the need whatever the Ss will naturally learned next but based on what is known about them (Ss) and the learning process involved.

l  Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition

l  Literature Review

4.    The diagnostic philosophy is that a need in which anything that would prove harmful if it was missing.

l  English class for immigrant in Canada (language skills for survival)

1.       Problem: the question you ask the Ss what they are experiencing

2.       Priorities: Help Ss to identify the priority for the target group what the topic they are going to learn

3.       Abilities: Identify Ss’ overall proficiency or weakness ability to help teacher to determine the entry level (give pre-test, ask Ss’ weakness)

4.       Attitudes: Use to discover information about participants’ feeling and attitude toward the program.

5.       Solutions: the questions you can use to find out the solution to the problems