CALL for Virtual Learning Environments

Computer Assisted Language Learning, nice to meet you. Yes, we became CALL boys and girls this month, at the Use of New Technologies Applied to Teaching English Language module, thanks to Prof. Ms. Ana Julia Perrotti-Garcia.


Here is the result of our work these past 30 days.

Virtual Learning Environments

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For a complete article, check "Computer Assisted Language Learning:
Virtual Learning Environments"

Advanced Grammar to the nth degree

          The time we were waiting for finally came: time to dive into grammar structures and syntactic analysis. In this last module we were introduced to our newest friends: Professor Laura Fortes and The Grammar Book. We may have got more than we bargained for.

The Grammar Book - An ESL/EFL Teacher's CourseAuthors: Marianne Celce-Murcia, Diane Larsen-Freeman2nd Edition © 1999 •  854 pages 10 1/4 x 7 1/4
Level: Focus on Specific Areas 
ISBN-10: 0-8384-4725-2   |   ISBN-13: 978-0-8384-4725-3 
Buscapé results | DISAL | SBS

Let me explain. Our WebQuest this month was presenting a grammar topic from The Grammar Book and we got chapters 34 and 35, on Comparatives, Equatives and Superlatives. I knew I had a lot to learn about the topic, but going through all those details and information and also doing all the extra reading for the discussions in class with professor Fortes was tough. We managed somehow and here is the report on the work Maira and I did to create our presentation. Enjoy!


          Initially, we scanned chapters 34 and 35 of The Grammar Book to find out what its basic structure was. We could easily pinpoint the three main aspects presented by Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman: the form, meaning and use of comparatives, equatives and superlatives.

Our first impression was that the structures presented were much more complex than we imagined. Besides, we both teach at language schools, use didactic material produced by the franchise, and follow a more or less strict method, so we found interesting that the authors propose a different order of presenting the structures to students as well as more detailed definitions.

As our next step, we decided to choose how we would prepare our slideshow presentation: What is going to be our focus?  What can be interesting for our classmates to reflect about? We first selected the authors' suggestions for ESL/EFL teachers, because those seemed logical choices. We also highlighted structures that seemed interesting to us as students, teachers and simply as curious non-native speakers of the language. The challenge, however, was to summarize a complex and rich grammar resource like this one in a few slides to be discussed under 15 minutes.

Slideshow Presentation: degrees

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The presentation itself was supposed to be clear and appealing. Our experience in the classroom was an advantage since we enjoy standing in front of the class, sharing information and bringing up topics for discussion. Personally, we would like some more time to hear our classmate's opinions.

In conclusion, we could realize that most of the doubts concerning exceptions are common for both teachers and learners and it is our job to provide reasonable answers to these apparent unsolved problems of form, meaning and use.


Goodbyes! :(

I want to take this moment to say goodbye to our dearest friends Mariana Malaquias and Sandra Costa. They are going to take a break from the course and I just want to thank them for all the great moments and for all the help. I hope you keep in touch (say hello through the comments in the blog, at least, OK?). See you guys soon!

Class 4 - Didactic Material Analysis

In our September 3 meeting we examined one of CNA’s (Cultural Norte Americano, Brazilian language school franchise) student’s books, used for teaching the pre-advanced level students. This examination was made with the help of a list of questions used by MEC (Ministry of Education - Portuguese: Ministério da Educação - MEC, is a Brazilian government ministry) with this same objective. These questions were divided in three groups: 1) oral and written texts, 2) written comprehension and 3) linguistic-discursive knowledge: grammar and vocabulary. What we are going to present next is a summary of the results.

As for the topic of oral and written texts, we can say that the material brings texts which are representative of different spheres of social activity. It also presents texts of different genres and types, which represent the formal and informal registers. However, the texts do not present a diversity of original supports and do not indicate their source, which were apparently adapted.

As for the written comprehension, we can say that the reading activities present pre-reading and post-reading activities, promoting the development of strategies like information location, production of inference, and general and detailed understanding of the text. Moreover, the activities count on a plurality of interpretations, explore intertextuality and encourage the search of texts and information outside of the book. On the other hand, we could not detect the polyphonic nature of the texts.

Finally, from the linguistic-discursive point of view, we concluded that besides offering opportunities for the learner to use the language structures with appropriateness and correction, the material is grammatically correct and adequate to its thematic content. The linguistic input is contextualized and it is embedded in varied and authentic discursive practices. The vocabulary activities stimulate the understanding and use of expressions and idioms in the student, helping them develop organization and expansion strategies of their lexical knowledge.

Class 3 - Pro Dia Nascer Feliz

     On our third class on 27th August, we saw the first part of the documentary “Pro dia nascer feliz”, which showed the lack of infrastructure of the most schools in the countryside. Starting from the transport, which is done by very old buses carrying more students than they should, the total lack of basic facilities like water, toilets and illumination and many other essential things vital to give the students a proper place to study, the education on these areas seems to be left behind by the Educational System.  Besides that many students are not really interested in their education, because they do not see a purpose for that. On the other hand, most teachers are demotivated as they have no hopes about their or their student’s future. 
On the second part, we watched the educational reality at Colégio Santa Cruz, in São Paulo, where most students were born rich, with all kinds of facilities available and with motivated teachers. It was shown that these students just have a slight idea of what the world outside their school’s gates is, but they also feel uneasy as they seem incapable of thinking of a solution, because they are just teenagers.


     As a next step of the class, we divided ourselves in groups and used the jigsaw reading technique to analyze some relevant articles. Our group, in particular, discussed the text ‘Multiliteracies and Language - Orders of Discourse and Intertextuality’ by Norman Fairclough. In the text, the author presents the ‘designs of meaning’: the creative application of the language according to the needs of communication. He also mentions the marketization of the language, which is the language of some areas being influenced by the language of the market in order to achieve people in a more profitable way. According to the author, globalization is an economical, social, political and cultural process which leads to a global use of languages, changing the relationship between them in their cultural and linguistic aspect.    

References
FAIRCLOUGH, Norman. Multiliteracies and language. Orders of discourse and intertextuality. In: COPE, B. e KALAZANTZIS, M. (Eds.) Multiliteracies. Literacy learning and the design of social futures. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Pro Dia Nascer Feliz - Parte 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74jokEl7RQ4
Pro Dia Nascer Feliz - Parte 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqPVcpnN8cU&feature=related
Pro Dia Nascer Feliz - parte 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4t3ROgtrCQ&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Museu da Pessoa - Valéria Fagundes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ4tmPU23_M

Valéria Fagundes, 16 anos – Escola Estadual Antônio Guilherme Dias Lima, Inajá, PE
http://www.cecac.org.br/MATERIAS/pro-dia-nascer-feliz_e_os-problemas-das-escolas-brasileiras-25.6.2011-.htm

DIAS MAIS FELIZES EM MANARI
http://www.museudapessoa.net/historias/historias_ontemehoje_07_07_08.shtml

Class 2 - “New people in New Worlds”

     On our second meeting, we read and thought about the text “New people in New Worlds” (Gee, 1999) which described two different kinds of students: one born and raised in a wealthy family and another one, in a poorer family. Reading this, we could realize that the social context plays an important role when learning is concerned. So we teachers need to recognize our students social life before we start our practice, but the most important thing is that we have to contextualize language for the students that live in this new globalized world, so they can learn how to speak English effectively.

     To exemplify that, we studied examples from another text: “Situated and Explicit Pedagogy” (Mills, 2010) from the book “The Multiliteracies Classroom”, which shows a teacher with a class of students from all over the world trying to make her practice meaningful. For that, she decided to show the students a claymation movie and, after that, she asked them to make a movie themselves. In an exercise like that, the collaboration between students is essential, and that’s why she had good and bad results. She focused her practice in the world of the technology, so the students had to use digital cameras to prepare the movement of the characters in the movie. The instructions had to be very clear, and the concept of scaffolding had to happen for the work to be done.

     The learners had problems, but at the end the goal was accomplished, she taught the students how to interact using technology; she could teach other subjects besides English and the results were fairly good.

     The poster below is our attempt to represent this experience and the author’s ideas by using pictures and the main words related to it.

References
Gee, J.P. New people in new worlds: Networks, the new capitalism and schools. In COPE, Bill; KALANTZIS, Mary (Ed.). Multiliteracies: Literacy Learning and the Design of Social Futures. London: Routledge, 1999.
MILLS, Kathy A. Situated and Explicit Pedagogy”. In: ________. The Multiliteracies Classroom. Salisbury, Uk: Multilingual Matters, 2010.

ELT Approaches and Didactic Material Preparation - Class 1

At the beginning of the Module “Abordagens no Ensino de Línguas e Preparo de Material Didático” we started thinking about what underlays our teaching  practice. To know how to answer to this question, for four weeks we have discussed about approaches, methods, The Post Method Era, multiliteracies, knowledge, techniques, how to deal and interact with students, the role of the teacher, and how to choose a didactic book.

Our hopes for this module were the discussion and clarification of the influence of different approaches on the teaching material that we use. In that respect, the first question posed for our consideration - Which principles underlay your teaching? - was a great start. We quickly defined what a good teacher should be: someone who encourages others to pursue knowledge, but also pursues knowledge themselves; someone who has passion for its teaching practice and value interaction; a true educator who builds bridges between the learners and the world around them, creating the perfect environment to help them leave their comfort zone. Eventually, we realized that techniques alone were not the base for this educator’s practice; they were like branches and leaves of a tree that were subject to the change of the seasons. Following this metaphor, we could visualize this image:

EFL teaching tree

After that, we started talking about the differences between 'Method' and 'Approach'. Method is something that guides the teacher, it is the technique teachers use for teaching; Approaches are the principles that underlay the teachers’ practice.

Let’s see some Methods and Approaches discussed during the module:

METHODS AND APPROACHES	BRIEF EXPLANATION
Grammar Translation Method	- Beginning of the eighteenth century; - Students have to translate literature texts and analyze grammar in order to understand the structure of the language; - Interaction: Teacher → Students
Direct Method	- Classes taught in English; - Grammar is inferred by the student; - Interaction: Teacher ↔ Student
Audio-Lingual Method	- Used during the War Period ( 1940-1960) - Focused on Speaking; - Students had to memorize vocabulary and long phrases; role-plays; drills; pair work - Interaction: Teacher centered
Suggestopedia	- Teachers had to set the scene (adapted classrooms); - Use of posters and imaginary scenes; -Change of moods while reading; - Students can act the role of a different character; -Songs help set the plot; - Students are asked to give a class feedback
Community Learning	- Based on cooperation, not competition; - Students oral production were taped; - Interaction: Teacher ↔ Student ↔ Student. The teacher sits at the same level as the students.
Total Physical Response	- Focused on listening and comprehension, - Learner responds to language input with body motions; - Low anxiety learning; - Interaction: Teacher ↔ Student ↔ Student.
Silent Way	- Teacher makes students think, encouraging them to solve their own problems; - use of colored rods to figure out the patterns of language based on a few examples given by the teacher - Interaction: Student ↔ Student
Communicative Approach	- Students have to learn how to interact in English; - Focus on meaningful communication not structure; - Functional syllabus instead of structural syllabus; - Authentic and meaningful language input is more important; - Interaction: Student centered

After analysing all this methodologies and approaches, we have thought about how we teach, and what is the method we have been using in our practice; then we realized that we mix lots of methods to reach the communicative approach, and that is why we can say that we have a Post Method Pedagogy: we worry about teaching the student how to interact and, in order to do it, we merge different kinds of approaches.

How about you: Have you ever thought about which principles underlay your practice? As a language student, do you ask yourself which techniques your teacher is using and how well it fits your style of learning?