Rosetta Stone is a very useful learning and teaching website. On Rosetta Stone, students can learn a new language, practice it and play games to reinforce it. This interactive learning mode has literally turned the boring process of acquiring a language into an intriguing one.

Its live online sessions with studio coaches is my favorite feature. In my view, to really command a language, interaction and communication with native speakers is essential and beneficial. In a traditional way, we are supposed to find a native speaker on the street or even go to that country to find a speaker and practice the language. Now that Rosetta Stone has provided such a sophisticated platform, students can learn the most idiomatic language at home with the instruction from tutors who may be in the other end of the world!

Also the online community is where learners can exchange ideas of learning a new language with others. By playing games with other online learners and native speakers, language ability is improved gradually.

The only thing I dislike is that Rosetta Stone is not free! 

Questgarden is a website on which teachers and language learners can create and share webquests. So, what is a webquest? In my view, a webquest is like a language learning process involving role play. Usually, a group of four students is required to take up a webquest in which tasks are distributed to each group member, instructions are listed to help students proceed in their tasks. In doing these tasks, students need to refer to various resources. This is where they learn the language. For example, if the task is about finding world renowned architecture in the U.S., the students will check relevant websites and read tidbits on famous landmarks. They can absorb words and expressions used in description of tourist attractions by input. The following task may be about giving a presentation in which those students can make a speech on what they have studied and oral production takes place.

There are endless ways to design a webquest. It can be multifunctional and integrate four skills so that English learners can improve their comprehensive language levels. One of the shortcomings I have observed is that it takes a alarge amount of time to producing a webquest. Yet, the good news is that we can use those that already exist.

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ is a fun way to learn English. As we all know, children like having fun rather than sitting quietly and orderly in a classroom. However, I think this website about comic can change the awkward situation. Since children love comics, why don’t we use it at our disposal as a tool for learning English instead of blocking it out of their lives? Dialogues and narratives can be added to cartoon images and kids can learn basic grammar points like past tense and WH question patterns. Students can even carry out role play so that they can have a chance to practice and improve spoken English. Teachers can help scaffold and correct their pronunciation and intonation. In a word, it is suitable for kids to learn English.

BBC Learning English

Last week, I was introduced “BBC Learning English”. Actually, when I was an English major during undergraduate study back in shanghai, I already noticed this website. In my foreign languages college, teachers were and still are always recommending three media resources for learning English: BBC, CNN and VOA. As the largest media corporation in the world, BBC covers a whole bunch of topics in its daily program production. It has provided this English learning program for a long time. On this learning website, I can improve grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary skills. Interestingly, it even includes business English learning tab. Under this section, I can get familiar with English used at work, English needed during job interviews, etc. some of the listening material on the websites have been made into podcasts and can be found on itunes store such as “6 minute English”. This is really a good place for English lovers.

                                                           How Teachers Use Tech in Class
This semester, I has an observation class and have the opportunity to observe language courses in American Language Institute.

Having observed various classes, i find that some classes share commonality in terms of using technology. Especially in listening oriented classes, teachers prefer to play videos to help them with their teaching agenda. Here, I would like to elaborate on how technology of video is used in three different language classes and my views on these classes.

In class A, teacher A first posted a question on board, asking how many types of movies are there and what are they. After some students answered it, he showed all the genres on the blackboard. Then, he intentionally led students to talk about sci-fi movies. students responded with simple and fragmentary sentences. Finally, he cut to the chase! He said that he was about to play the movie “2012” and he played it until the class was over without any instructions directed at students.

In my view, what was supposed to be a good class was spoiled by this teacher. It is acceptable and viable to teach English with the help of video. Instructed properly, students can learn a lot from even a clip of a movie. It is impossible for students to learn anything by just cramming raw material to them. This can hardly be counted as input since students care about the plot than the language itself. Lack of discussion of the plot or science and technology, language analysis, preview questions, and vocabulary explanation left this classroom teaching useless.

Class B was about culture. Teacher B played a video about cultural differences between China and the U.S. After that, he broke students into groups and let them discuss whatever interested them. The discussion went on for ten minutes without the teacher’s inspection. Next, the teacher picked some students to narrate what they had covered in the discussion and air their opinions on cultural differences. Admittedly, teacher B is better than teacher A in terms of utilizing video material. At least, he got those students to talk about what was shown in the video. Oral production happened! However, I don’t think it can have an obvious effect on learning English. Instead, it may even hinder the learning process because most of the production was problematic and the teacher didn’t point out these errors. Without correction, these errors will be fossilized. Therefore, I think this teacher ought to execute his role more often as an assistant and facilitator. Since the video was easy to understand, there was no need to elaborate on that.

Class C is the most successful one in using video maybe because it was a movie class itself. Teacher C gave out handouts on which preview questions were printed. She introduced the plot of the movie which was about time travel. She intended to play the whole movie but cut it into three classes’ periods. She played the movie with several pauses when there was a need to bring up new vocabulary or when the plot was hard for students to digest. So, students actually were instructed to focus on the language. After watching it for 20 minutes, she gave out new handouts with questions like “why does he do that”, “if you were him, what would you do”, etc. students then worked in groups with the teacher inspecting each group and interjecting when necessary into their conversations which I consider as scaffolding. The after class assignment was about writing a short article on time travel. I think the teacher did a good job by connecting different skills together in a movie class and she did make learning language the main theme and purpose of the classroom.

So, the use of technology like video needs a lot of attention because whether teachers use it appropriately can affect students’ learning

This week, I read the chapter about “second life” in the book. I am so stunned and impressed by this advanced and sophisticated technology. I think of “second life” as the best teaching aide for content based instruction since background and content settings are its features. For example, if I want to teach the civil war in classroom, I can devise a civil war backdrop using “second life”. By putting historic figures like Abraham Lincoln in “second life”, students may feel themselves are in the civil war period. This type of immersion methodology can give them a better glimpse of the historical event, especially the main cause of the civil war.

“Second life” also can make abstract courses easy to learn for students. For instance, in a biological classroom, students might find it difficult to clear up the concepts of receptors, genes and DNA. By creating a scene of how inside of brain looks like with “second life”, students can have their avatars walking on every nerve inside the brain as if they were in a human brain and learnt the definitions by standing next them.

In the book, the author is worried that “second life” may not be safe and secure enough and other people may invade a preset format and violate the process in classroom teaching. in my view, as long as counteraction is taken and the software is locked, chances are slim that classroom teaching may be interrupted.

Overall, I think “second life” is a reliable teaching aide for content based instruction and will inject a lot of fun in the process of teaching and learning. It can stimulate students’ curiosity and help them learn more!

Teachers have a new way to design quizzes for students! Here comes quizlet.com.

On this website, teachers can design different kinds of quizzes such as multiple choices, match, cloze, etc. Almost all the teachers can use this website because it is so sophisticated that it covers various topics like literature, art, math, music, etc. Since the Internet provides tons of resources for teachers, why don’t teachers grab the chance to create quizzes with the help of computer as well? Besides, on this website, all possible typographies in accordance with different formats and kinds are already set up. All teachers need to do is to choose a template and type in questions and other related items.

As for students, they can do the tests on paper, but they can also finish them online. Online quizzes have one advantage over paper ones. Teachers can leave their remarks more easily online than on paper.

In a word, I do think technology has made a lot of progress and is considerate of every possible aspect. It really helps teachers reduce unnecessary burden. 

This week, I have learnt a lot about blackboard. To be honest, I never realized that there was so much about it. For me as a student, I always assumed that blackboard was a place where teachers put their assignments and I post my homework. However, this is a tip of the iceberg in terms of the usage of blackboard. Actually, both students and teachers can do plenty of things which they can hardly think of as possible.

Blackboard has broken all the old traditions and rules in classroom teaching and become a tool for interaction between students and teaching. For example, when students’ homework is presented on the blackboard, teachers can review more easily and give their critique on it. They can offer encouragement to students who are doing well in class and assignments or give objective suggestions to those who need to improve. Students can get feedback from teachers in time instead of waiting till class time.

Besides, blackboard can have various ways of packaging. It is very important to lighten students’ mood during teaching. the best way to do it is to reduce the presence of the concept of classroom as much as possible. To be specific, blackboard can be designed with a light color backdrop of cute pictures. Teachers can also arrange items on it in their favor. They can customize the blackboard according to their needs.

So many features are there in a blackboard that it is hard for me to elaborate on here. No wonder teachers who have tried blackboard would never let it go!

Last week’s class is very meaningful and fruitful for me. I have learnt a lot from both fellow students’ critique of my lesson display and their demonstrations. Most of us have employed technology to facilitate language teaching. Technology does make the process of teaching and learning diverse and multidimensional.

My three-minute demonstration is about travel. During my preparation, the only tool I used was the internet and PowerPoint. This is really astounding since I was always having the traditional idea that in order to prepare for a lesson, a teacher has to refer to a bunch of books, pen down syllabi and rehearse all night long. The presence of technology and this class have debunked my prejudice and helped me realize that being a teacher is not that hard. I should have discovered this huge amount of treasure trove the internet provides!! The fact is that the Internet is developing so fast that publishing houses have turned to online industry, issuing ebooks. Therefore, lessons can be planned online. Teachers ought to follow the suit to exploit what is available online and use means of tech designed to make teaching and learning more fun and simpler!