Assignment: J Cloze

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1)What does the application attempt to teach?

The application from the website (http://www.rong-chang.com/) attempts to teach various skills in learning English language and it ranges from beginners to intermediate learners. Skills such as reading comprehension, grammar, listening and speaking are among the highlighted ones. These skills are there for both levels. However, intermediate learners will be taught extra on sentence structure writing, dictation exercises and business English. Besides that, this application provides links to other ESL websites which are very beneficial for learners. The links include kids English, idioms, pronunciation, games, translation and many more.

2)What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?

Users from different level of language proficiency are expected to do different things. Beginners are expected to first choose the category that they prefer to learn. After that, they need to click on the selected topic and a new window will pop up with a lot of options to choose. As for reading, beginner users are provided with more than 500 reading materials which suit their level of proficiency. On top of that, each story is accompanied by an audio recording which enables learners to listen and indirectly improves on their pronunciation. The speed of the recording is exceptionally well-paced so learners may follow accordingly. The last interesting feature of each reading material is that users can choose one of five exercises below the reading passage after they have finished reading. Those five categories are vocabulary, cloze, crossword, sentences and dictation. Each category or link will bring users to other tab and there they can complete the task given. Besides reading, beginner users are expected to test themselves with grammar and jumbled-sentence exercises. There are more than 20 exercises with 9 grammar forms for grammar exercises and 200 options of jumbled-sentence exercises are provided. Users are expected to choose one of the options and answer the respective question at the popped up tab by clicking the correct answer. Feedback will be given if the answer given is right or wrong.

Intermediate learners have about the same content as mentioned with different level and some extra features. In sentence-structure writing practice, learners are expected to write (type in) complete sentences with correct grammar forms depend on the chosen category. Here, there are about 25 categories with different level of difficulties. As usual, the link will bring learners to a new window. Next, in online dictation exercise, users are expected to play the recording of a statement and then type it back correctly. There are 200 options for learners to choose. Lastly, in ESL business English online, users are expected to read articles on businesses related to ESL teaching and how to make money out of it. Users of this application also might want to have a look at the links provided at the left side of the page. Here, users are expected to find additional information regarding ESL provided.

3)What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?

In using the application, users are expected to have only basic computer skills. The skills involved are only clicking links and icons, playing a recording and typing skill. Links can easily be detected by the use of colours and they are underlined. Recording is noticeable as there is a music player clearly above reading passages. Lastly, typing skill the very basic of computer skill and if a user does not know how to type, he needs to learn first. If a user does not have a compatible player in his or her computer to play the recording, an installation needs to be done. The installation might need certain computer skills such as download, save target and run. Besides these needed skills, a novice user may use the application easily without problems.

4)While you are “playing”/”accessing”/”assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self study?

Yes, I do remember when I learned listening back in secondary school. The recording sounds almost the same as my teacher used to play back then. The pacing is slow and I manage to write back the sentence correctly. Therefore, I think the webmaster did an excellent job in inserting an appropriate recording for each reading passage to assist learners whether they are beginners or intermediates.

Besides that, the crossword puzzle reminds me of my exercise that I used to give my fellow students back during my practicum. The exercise is based on the reading passage in which the students need to understand first the text in order to answer the crossword puzzle correctly. It’s just during my practicum, I did the same exercise with additional features such as time and rewards.

5)Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?

I can point out two learning theories that I can find underlying the application. First of all, the cognitive theory founded by Jean Piaget. He argues that a child has to understand a concept before he or she can acquire the particular language form which expresses that concept. In my opinion, cognitive theory can be found in the “English for ESL Beginners (1) and (2)”. There, the application provides first the list of vocabulary and the meaning before learners proceed to the exercises. By providing the meaning, students can easily understand the whole text and relate to the text given.

Next learning theory is the audiolingual method which was introduced in 1950s. It was also known as the “Army Method”. For this application, the webmaster provides audio recording for each reading text. Audio-learners benefit best from this. Students can repeat the recording as many times as they like to monitor their pronunciation of certain words. Therefore, I think repetition of the audio recordings is very effective.

6)How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website?

I would say the constructivist theory is very well used in this application. According to the theory, a teacher acts as a facilitator to assist students in constructing knowledge. Besides that, constructivist theory also mentions the importance of one’s experience to relate to the knowledge received. As for the first argument, a teacher here can be replaced by the audio recording which assists and guides users to a better reading experience. For the next argument, I think most of the exercises closely related to students’ schemata. All reading texts are easily understood as they encountered to such contents in daily life. Therefore, their experience is used to understand the whole meaning of the texts provided.

7)In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation – was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

In my opinion, in relation to my evaluation of the application, I would say that computer was a merely obedient servant to students. This is because students or learners do everything by themselves and even though they answered wrongly, the computer can directly show the answers in one click. This is not good for students to learn the language. I think that this application best used as one of the tools for teachers in real world situation. This is mainly for one reason- teacher is the one who answers and attend to learners’ needs. Students might have a lot of questions in regards of given answers by the application. Although there is a comment tab and email address of the webmaster attached but true learning experience only occur when there is interaction between the teacher and students. There and then, students’ questions and needs can be attended by the teacher.

8)Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

Yes I would definitely use the application as a supplementary to my teaching aids. First reason would be it reduces my burden to come out with many different teaching aids inside the classroom. By having this application, I can just improvise and add here and there to the content to suit my students’ level of proficiency.

Next, it saves cost. With internet connection, I can find a lot of beneficial applications like this and use it inside the classroom. I do not have to buy teaching materials that would cost me a lot of money. Based on my teaching experience during my practicum, I spent quite a lot for the duration of three months as the computer lab is not accessible at most times.

9)Suggestions/Recommendations

I would highly recommend that the webmaster improvise on the physical layout of the web page. It is very dull with only a few uses of colours. Learners might be bored of the page after sometime as they see only the same design of layout. By improving that, I believe users will spend more time at this page and make full use of the exercises provided.

I think the quality of the exercises is excellent. However, I would recommend the use some easier passages for beginners. I feel that most of the texts have about the same level of difficulties. Therefore, by varying the level of difficulties in the beginner level, learners will have the motivation to proceed to the next questions after that have finished one correctly.

In-class Task 2 - Excel

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Electronic Worksheet

In-class Task 1

Question 1:

My full name is Khairul Azri bin Mohamad Khalid. I was born in PUSRAWI Kuala Lumpur on 14th of October 1988. I have one elder brother aged 27 and he is happily married. As the youngest, I would not say myself as spoilt. This is because I was taught to live independently. One not-so-interesting fact about me- I am colour blind. So if this course requires me being extremely creative with colours I hope I can get some exceptions for it. I am easy-going and adventurous person. I love to expose myself to new environments and experience. Recently, I worked at a cafe in KLCC. Although the payment is not that high, I learn loads of things there, meet various kinds of people and expose myself to a world that is totally beyond my expectations. If you happen to watch "Hell's Kitchen", you will know what I mean. I guess that is all for now. I wish I could write more about myself but worry not, for more information about me, do add me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=685614901

Question 2:

I would rate myself as a novice in computer skills. The main reason would be lack of exposures during my childhood time. I did not have a desktop computer or a laptop at home back then. Therefore, I did not quite know in details of major computer skills. However, in 2001, I attended a three-day basic computer course at UTM Jalan Semarak which taught me the basic usage of all Microsoft Office software. From there, time to time I learn more knowledge to be applied today.

Question 3:

I have ample knowledge of computer software. I would say I have a "balanced" usage of software. There are software for entertainment such as Soundforge, Ares, Youtube Downloader and others. For online gaming, I use Garena as the main platform to connect myself with online gamers around the world. As for social networking, I use Tweetdeck to organize all my social network accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Hardware wise, I just use and know the basic equipment such as mouse, headphone, storage devices and so forth. I do not have any idea of detailed ones such as the different types of RAM, speed and the rest of computer specifications. I definitely need someone's help or advise on particular hardware.

Question 4:

No, I have not experienced learning via computer or online learning yet.

Question 5:

Yes, I tried once and it was a huge success. Due to limitation of time and venue, I managed to use the media room only once. I used laptop, projector and speakers as my main equipments to run the lesson. It was a huge success because there was no technology malfunction at all. Besides that, the students were so attracted to the screen as I used eye-catching pictures and designs for the slides. I consider my lesson was a success also due to students' ability to understand my lesson and managed to answer the questions given correctly.

Question 6:

In my opinion, the use of computer or technology in language teaching is very wise. It gives advantages in three ways. Firstly, it is interesting. Students in Malaysia rarely get the chance to use computer for their language learning. Whenever their teacher wants to use technology or bring them over to the computer lab, they will be all psyched up thus their interest has been captured prior to the lesson. Next, technology or use of computer eases the teacher. By using technology, a teacher does not need to come out with his own activity. Instead, he can just use ESL cd or software which consists a lot of interactive activities. Lastly, technology saves cost. No excessive use of money is needed by using computer as medium of teaching. Despite of all the mentioned advantages, teachers might need to have back up plans if technology does not work as it supposed to be.

Question 7:

I expect to learn new knowledge from this course. I believe this course would expose me the functions of different beneficial software to be used in English language teaching. Besides learning new knowledge, I would like to see myself apply these knowledge in a real classroom in future. To achieve that, I expect to learn ways on creating a good lesson plan based on the use of computer or technology. Hopefully I will be able to cope with the course.