Activity 14 - Essay: The Use of the Mother Tongue in the English Class

The clash between the mother tongue and the target langauge in monolingual classes is an important topic to bear in mind. The aim of the paper I wrote was twofold: to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the use of the students' first language (L1) in an English-language (L2) classroom and to explain how and when to allow the students' L1 in class. The last part of the paper was a research based on a questionnaire which focused on the use of L1 in an English class (L2).

In general terms, it seems to be useless to deny the importance of the students' L1 when they are learning a second language, since all learners rely on their mother tongue while acquiring a second language. Besides, the prudent use of L1 in an English class shows students that the two languages can coexist without any problems, that is to say, that acquiring one language does not mean the exclusion of the students' mother tongue. However, teachers should not overuse or depend too much on the students' L1, since the main goal is for them to communicate in the L2.

Activity 13 - Blogs in Education. Create your own Blog

The goal of this activity was to create a Blog. As can be seen, my blog is now a reality. In this part, I will only focus on some specific aspects which I consider really interesting for anyone who wants to have a Blog. In order to create a blog, I used Blogger, a blog-publishing service that is nowadays part of Google.

Once you are registred, you can create your own blog. I attach here the general overview of the blog I have done:

Let us have a look at the most remarkable points which I considered interesting in Blogger:

1) Calendar: is a useful device in Blogger. It is easy to insert and practical. There are a couple of ways to attach a Calendar in Blogger as a gadget: from Google and from the Blogger itself.  I just focus on the latter: first of all, click on the "Design" label at the top-right of the page. Then, click on the "add gadget" label where you want to have the calendar. Finally, click on the label on the right which says "add more Google gadgets" and select the calendar option. Here are the steps in an image sequence:

2) Other design gadgets: As already seen above, gadgets in blogger are devices the user wants to have in his/her personal blog. There is a huge amount of different gadgets available on Blogger.

I used 4 different gadgets: 

(i) Logotip

(ii) Personal Information

(iii) Daily Calendar

(iv) Index

3) How to insert images / links and vokis: Blogger has the possibility to insert images, links, youtubes or even vokis. In order to insert images, click on the insert image label and select the image you want to upload. For links, click on the link label and write the webpage link. To upload Youtubes, click on the insert video label and search for the video you want. 

Finally, Vokis can also be uploaded in the blog. In order to insert a Voki, go to www.voki.com
and click on the publish voki now. Here is an image:

Then, copy the embed code to the HTML of your blog and the voki will appear once you publish the message. Here is the voki I inserted:

 

Activity 12 - Hot Potatoes

The aim of this activity was to create different exercises by using Hot Potatoes. In general terms, the Hot Potatoes software is a combination of five applications that give the user the opportunity to create exercises for the web. The applications are JCloze, JCross, JMatch, JMix and JQuiz. There is also another application which allows the user to compile all the activities into one single unit.

I created three different activities, but they were all related to a single vocabulary topic: Traffic. These exercises were more difficult than activity 11, and, thus, they were basically addressed to B2 students. Let us have a look at the different parts:

(A) Gap-fill / Cloze test exercise: A gap-fill test or cloze test is an activity which consists of a text with certain words that are removed. Participants were required to replace the missing words. In this case, the text was about "Traffic in our cities". Students could click on the "check" button to know the answers or use the "hint" button to get a free letter if an answer was unknown. Finally, there was also a [?] button to get a clue. In all the activities, a time regulator was included. Here is an image of the webpage:

(B) Matching exercise: In this activity, students were supposed to match the contexts with the correct vocabulary word. Students clicked on the responses in the white cell. Here is picture of the webpage:

(C) Traffic vocabulary crossword: A crossword exercise is a word puzzle activity that takes the form of white and shaded squares. Students were asked to fill the white squares with letters, forming words related to traffic vocabulary. They could click on the "check" button to know the answers or the "hint" button to get a free letter. Here is activity:



Activity 11 - Design a Listening Activity (and create your own sound file using VOKI or Audacity)

The aim of this activity was twofold. On the one hand, I designed a listening activity based on both the VOKI and the Audacity programmes. On the other, I applied the key issues I mentioned in the previous exercise so that I could realise whether they were fine or not.

Before presenting the activity, I think that having the link to these webpages will be really useful, so here they go:

•  http://www.voki.com/
•  http://audacity.es/

In relation to the content, students were supposed to practise the listening skill by revising the vocabulary of animals and their sounds. As can be seen, these group of elementary activities are addressed to children whose age is between 6 and 8. Here is the structure:

1)     Warmer: In order to introduce the topic to the students and to catch their attention, the teacher asks students to say aloud several animal words. While students answer the questions, the teacher writes up the words (e.g. cat, dog, owl, elephant, tiger, etc.)

In this warm-up, students brainstorm vocabulary about animals and produce output.

2)     Before listening to the song: The teacher explains to them that they are going to listen to a song about animals they know and the sounds these animals make. After this introduction, the teacher passes around a sheet of paper in which they fill in the missing words. Students can work in pairs. Here is the activity:

(A) Look at the pictures and label them

After this first activity, the teacher shows students what a Voki is. Then, he tells the students that Mr. Pepi, which is a frog, is going to sing a song for them. Here is Mr. Pepi:



3)        While listening to the song: the teacher plays the track and Pepi sings the song about animal sounds. The teacher can play the song twice and students can sing as well.

4)        After listening: Once the song is finished, the teacher writes up the sounds the animals make (e.g. woof, moo, tweet, oink, etc.) and students repeat the words so that they can familiarise these new words. After that, students complete the second half of the worksheet in which there are a couple of activities. Finally, the teacher plays the song for the last time and everyone sings. Let us have a look at the activities:

(B) Listen the song and match the sentences:

The cow                                                                   to whit to whooo

The dog                               GOES                                     oink

The cat                                                                               squeak

The owl                                                                              woof

The duck                                                                            meow

The bird                               SAYS                                     tweet

The pig                                                                               moo

The mouse                                                                         quack

(C) Listen to the song again and fill in the gaps with the words in the box:

  woof          cow          quack          whit          cat          goes          Oink          mouse

The dog goes _________

The ________ goes moo, moo, moo, moo

The duck goes ________

The owl says to __________ to whoo

The _________ goes meow, meow, meow, meow

The bird ___________ tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet

The pig goes ____________

The little _________ says squeak, squeak squeak, squeak

These are the sounds that the animals make

These are the sounds that the animals make



Activity 10 - Read and comment on the material seen in class: Key Issues in Teaching Listenings

The objective of this exercise was to provide five key issues that the teacher should bear in mind when teaching the listening skill. The following are the most important topics the teacher should pay attention to from my point of view:

(1)  The kind of input as well as the length of the recording depend on the age.

(2)  Kind of vocabulary in the listening so as to incorporate the listening activity to a whole lesson plan

(3)  Listening as a general activity or listening for specific activities

(4)  Listening activities should be catchy and interesting to motivate students

(5)  What is the aim of the listening activity? What resources are you going to use? Is the purpose clear?

This activity had a second purpose. Once the first part was carried out, we read the text and we considered other viewpoints. Here are my comments on them:

First of all, it seems to me that the best way of improving our listening skills is practising. The tip by Steve Brown and Marc Helgesen Practice, practice, practice is a key issue to take into account, since you learn to listen just by listening and this takes a lot of practice. Hence, we should provide a wide range of listening input to our students and use listening both to develop conversation and to facilitate acquisition. Secondly, I also think that teachers should always encourage learners to practice their listening skills out of class. Of course, we cannot assume that all listening should be based on authentic materials, but teachers should vary from listening to prepared texts and also from real, everyday texts. Another important point to bear in mind is that teachers should use pre-listening, while listening and post-listening activities so that students can follow the activity in a better and more efficient way. With respect to this, the concept by John Flowerdew and Lindsay Miller is crucial, as they want to give students practice in both bottom-up and top-down processing. In addition, teachers should always contextualise the listening they want to play; otherwise, students will be completely lost. What is more, I think that teachers should always integrate listening activities to other skills, such as writing or speaking. Finally, I do not think that the idea of uncover the spoken language by Michael Rost seems to be relevant, since listening almost always starts from meaning rather than from perceiving grammar of conversational speech.

I attach the .pdf file for anyone who is interested in it: http://moo.uab.cat/file.php/3784/Helgesen_and_Brown_2007.pdf

Activity 9 - Comment on the Wikis presented in class

The aim of this activity was to give feedback to our colleagues about their Wikis. As I do not think it is fair to publish our observations here, I will just provide general comments on them: 

• Watch out the Copyright! Some of you did not mentioned it.
• Wikis should be divided into levels.
• Links back to the index section should be provided as well.
• Be careful with the layout. Too much information can end up collapsing users!
• Avoid webpages which contain advertisements, especially those which may be inappropriate for children.

I hope it will be useful!

Activity 8 - Read the article "New Trends in using Technology in the Language Classroom" and comment on it

In relation to the students’ mother tongue or L1 in the acquisition of a foreign language, I think that using only the L2 in the foreign language classroom is not adequate, since this led to the idea that all use of L1 in the language classroom should be avoided or penalised. I think that this conclusion is, of course, nonsense. As Harmer (2007: 132) pointed out “whether we like it or not, students in our classrooms are going to be operating both in their first language and in the language they are studying”. Moreover, in some specific cases, the use of the L1 may be time-saving and more comprehensible for students (lower levels) than just going on and on in the L2. Nonetheless, teachers should not overuse this technique, because the aim of the class for students is to learn English (or any other foreign language). In addition, exact translation is always inaccurate. Finally, if students do not practise in L2, once they are exposed to real situations, they will be unable to manage the language. Hence, I think that a better way to encourage students to learn a second language is to take advantage of students’ L1 and to help them to improve language skills in the L2.

According to what Sílvia has mentioned before, I completely agree with her in relation to the use of technology. I think that any new approach to language learning has advantages and disadvantages, but the main point for teachers is to use technology as a helpful tool to encourage students in the acquisition of a foreign language.

Finally, I was surprised to find out that CMC approach seems to be as effective as face-to-face interaction (except for oral production). Therefore, I think that this paper provides more evidence for the use of CMC techniques when learning a foreign language. However, the author considers three important problems: “the most important barriers [...] were faculty acceptance, the demands of learning teaching methods, and lack of student discipline in the online learning environment” (Blake 2007: 83). I think that there is a huge gap between new technological devices and people’s mentality and it is this mismatch what really leads to a clash.

References

•        Harmer, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Harlow: Pearson Longman, 2007 (fourth edition).

•        Blake, Robert. “New Trends in Using Technology in the Language Curriculum” in Annual Review of Applied Linguisics, 27, pages 76-97, 2007. http://moo.uab.cat/file.php/3784/New_Trends.pdf