Assignment - CALL

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT
COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING

Luz Amparo Cuero Valencia

COFPMTFL99168

Luz Andrea Bolaos Benigno

PEFPMTFL2118447

Group: 2016-02

Dra. Maringeles Avendao Casassas

Tutor

August 21st, 2017

 Assignment - CALL

INDEX

Page
Introduction 1

1. Teachers role in CALL 2

2. Students role in CALL 2

3. Activities proposed: OPTION A 3

3.1 Activity 1 - Identifying past activities 3
3.2 Activity 2 - Sharing information about last weekend 4
3.3 Activity 3 - Discussing and exchanging information about past vacations 5

4. Conclusion 6

5. Bibliography 8

Appendix A: Assignment guidelines

 Assignment - CALL

Introduction

As we read and go deep into the content of this subject material, we feel really
overwhelmed with such an amount of information, we understand that this is the world
of information and technology and we also realize that language teachers have a huge
responsibility to assume our new role of facilitators.

The way the information is presented makes us aware of the necessity to cross
rapidly the holding bridge from the Analog technology to the Digital technology and cross
the other extended bridge from Digital technology to Web 2.0, even to Web. 3.0, because
as teacher we have always been behind in this matter.

It could be said that we are going around the branches and feel certain fear to
perform our new role of facilitators. We complain about having large classes which
makes it difficult to apply the communicative approach when in class; we want our
students to use the language, but most of us still do not apply digital technology in our
classes or have no idea on how to take advantage of the Web 2.0! That is why
sometimes people think that our role of teacher will disappear sometime in the future.

As Dr. Torres says, in the last 30 years knowledge technology has focused on
interaction and communication; exactly what we demand from our students, but we still
struggle to propose them activities that challenge their self-learning and face what is
happening in the real world nowadays. It seems not to be an easy task however we
have to study and learn what are the new skills our students need to develop (beside the
communicative ones) to be digital and communicative competent.

In order to train ourselves in this new role, we are presenting here three activities
in which we intend to apply new technologies through which we expect our students to
appropriate new language expressions, vocabulary and linguistic aspects to
communicate their ideas.

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 Assignment - CALL

1. Teachers role in CALL

The teachers role in CALL is to tutor and promote; this means students can learn
language by analysing and criticizing under the teachers guidance. The role of the
teacher in CALL is that of a tutor or facilitator of learners independent and autonomous
learning. In the case of network projects through computer-mediated communication, the
role of the tutor is that of a guide of group tutorials and a promoter of cooperative work
(Del, 140)

Moreover, teachers would fill the role of thinker, organizer and guide, resulting in a more
efficient and effective learning environment. However, the successful use of technology
requires that language teachers have the necessary technical competence as well as
pedagogical knowledge. At this point, the teacher becomes a facilitator of the resources
managing and making available materials and documentation for a course. Furthermore,
teachers need to know how to develop forums and wikis on the course locating relevant
information and solving technical problems.

Another role to be played by the teacher is the role of a designer of activities paying
attention to the diversity of the students by integrating external resources that motivate
students to participate in the language they are learning.

2. Students role in CALL

An important characteristic of CALL is student-cantered instruction. Students

with well-developed individual interests in a topic or area have greater knowledge about
the subject, value the topic area, and find engaging related material interesting and
enjoyable. They are more likely to make their own connections between the new material
and what they already know and value, and voluntarily spend time and effort to learn
more, build skills, and engage in related activities (Sansone, 203). This means,
Successful online students must learn the material, and must maintain motivation to
learn the material, on their own (Sansone, 200). At this point, we can talk about
autonomous learning, which will raise students comprehensive language application
ability.

Students should be able to take responsibility for their own learning, producing
information and transforming it into knowledge and learning. Students role at this point
consists of participating in the different spaces in the course. That means they have to

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consume and produce content. At the same time, they have to take advantage of the
different spaces of communication to socialize with other classmates and teachers
asking and answering questions

Students need to get involved in the processes of collaborative learning working

in groups, observing the learning of their peers and reading their contributions. This way,
students will be capable of accepting and taking advantage of the diversity of opinions
and answers. As a result, students will be able to take responsibility for their learning
having clear objectives, taking decisions and learning how to manage their learning
spaces.

3. Activities Proposed: OPTION A

Teaching context (location, educational level, number of students, nationality,

age, English level, etc.);

The activities proposed here are for students from a Latin American private university (in
Peru or Colombia) that are in second semester. They are 25 students between 17 and
20 years of age, coming from different majors and attending three hours of English per
week. Besides, they should do 1 hour of independent work per each hour of class they
attend. They are registered in the second level of English and according to the CEF
standards (Common European Framework) standards their English knowledge place
them in A1+.

3.1 Activity 1
Objective : Identifying past activities
Content : Activities done in the previous day
Topic : Verbs in Simple Past
Time : 1 hour
Skills : Integrated skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing.
In this activity students may use verbs such as woke up, took a shower, brushed your
teeth, went to school/work, watched T.V., and did homework, among others. They can
use what they already know

Pre-watching:
Students (Ss) will watch a video with vocabulary about verbs in Simple Past once or
twice: https: //www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oGPO9B2lZM

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While watching:
They will answer the question What did you do yesterday, imitating what the person
says, but using their real information.
Post-watching:
Students will call three partners and have a small talk asking each other what they did
yesterday. Students will write down the information they receive and post it with a voice
note in the class wall. Another option can be to post it on the Moodle course (most of
the universities in Latin America are using this platform nowadays).
Assessment:
The evaluation will take into account two aspects: a) that students are able to report the
information pronouncing the irregular and regular verbs correctly and b) that they are
able to write the sentences correctly.

3.2 Activity 2
Objective : Sharing information about last weekend
Content : Activities done during the weekend
Topic : Verbs in Simple Past and time expressions
Time : 2 hours
Skills : Integrated skills: Listening, Speaking and Writing.

In order to develop this activity, students will be taken to the Computer lab where they
will spend a two-hour class.

Pre-listening:
Students will begin this activity playing this online game:
http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/New_Snakes_%20Ladders/
Past_simple_tense.html to practice sentences and questions in Simple Past.

After that they can take about 15 minutes to write down in their notebooks or notepad
the new vocabulary they learn from the game and get ready to listen to two conversations
which audios will be provided by the teacher (posted in their Moodle course)
- Did you have fun? New Interchange 4th Edition Student Intro Book, unit 14,
page 92
- We had a great time! New Interchange 4th Edition, Student Book 1, Unit 7, page
44

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 Assignment - CALL

In this activity students will use vocabulary like: went to the movies, eat out, went
swimming/ jogging/skating, did homework, went shopping, relaxed, read a
book/magazine, visited friends/relatives, watched T.V., played video games, listened to
music, talked to friends, walked etc., and will use time expressions such as last
night/Friday/Saturday/Sunday, on Saturday morning/afternoon/evening, etc.
While listening:
When listening to the audios, students will pay special attention to the pronunciation of
the actions in past, to the unknown vocabulary, to the activities these people did on their
weekend and then prepare similar questions to ask to one of their partners within the lab.
Post-listening:
In this part of the class, students will ask and give information about what their did in their
previous weekend, applying the vocabulary they just learned and the one they alrea
Assessment:
In order to evaluate their progress, the teacher will create a rubric based on the criteria
the CEF states for Spoken interaction for learners who are moving from A1 to A2:
I can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange
of information on familiar topics and activities. I can handle very short social exchanges,
even though I cant usually understand enough to keep the conversation going myself.
(Taken from Table 2. Common Reference Levels: Self-assessment grid).
The criteria takes into account fluency, pronunciation, comprehensibility and accuracy.

3.3 Activity 3
Objective : Discussing and exchanging information about past vacations
Content : Vacation activities
Topic :-Regular/Irregular verbs reinforcement in Simple Past and time
expressions
Time : 3 hours
Skills : Integrated skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing

Pre-writing
To develop this activity students will brainstorm with the teacher vacation activities such
as: going to a travel agency, buying a ticket /map, exchanging money, making hotel/bus
reservations, taking a walking tour, trying local/typical food, visiting tourist places, using
local transportation, learning about nightlife in the place they visited, etc.

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 Assignment - CALL

Once they have a list of vacation activities, they will watch the video interview How was
your vacation? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v5AlmrqEug twice or three
times, to answer the following questions:
1. Where did she go for her vacation? / 2. How long did she stay there? /3. What are
the characteristics of the country she visited? /4. What about the activities you can do
there? / 5. Who did she go there with? / 6. Who did she meet?/ 7. How much was the
entire trip? /8. Where did she stay? /9. What did she eat? / 10. Did she enjoy her trip?
Give the reasons.
They will share the obtained information with their teacher and classmates.
While writing:
In this part of the activity students have to write a report about the most interesting
vacation they have had so far. The text will be between 180-200 words long providing
information to answer the same questions they answer about the video interview.
In this report they have to apply all they learned the last three classes.
Once their first draft is done, the teacher give them feedback about their spelling, etc.
Then students have to create a video in which they present their vacation experiences
to their partners. They have two options: a) to appear in it speaking reporting what they
wrote and showing the pictures of the place visited, the activities they did, the food they
ate, etc. b) or to create a cartoon with their voice, reporting what they wrote and the
characters showing the pictures, etc as in option a.
Assessment:
To evaluate their production, the teacher will use the same criteria used to evaluate
Activity 2, based on the CEF Speaking standards but this time for Spoken Production.

4. Conclusion

As we can see, computer technology in CALL can meet the multi-modal

information processing needs of people on the outside. It can communicate through the
media in the way of real simulation of the human with the outside world, which can greatly
result in eager students to increase their interest in learning. Students are delighted to
see pictures, animations, even some of their photos being shown in class. English
classes are more fun than before... (Li, 112)

Although many teachers are still using the old school methods (where technology
is not part of a class), there are more and more teachers that are introducing

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 Assignment - CALL

technological resources in their lessons in order to engage students which are involved
with technology every day and in different aspects, specially communicative aspects.

To summarize, traditional language learning and CALL are different in learning

environments, teacher and student roles, and teaching methods. First of all, traditional
and CALL language learning environments differ in language input and student practice.
Traditional language input is mainly supported by chalk and blackboards, teacher-
cantered courses, textbooks, recordings and slides, which not only are different from
students real life, but also place students in a passive position in the classroom.
However, Computer-based learning environments allow individuals to actively engage
in and regulate learning activities. Active engagement has long been recognized as
important for sustained learning, and learning online would thus appear to be particularly
beneficial for promoting motivated learning (Sansone,200).

CALL can stimulate students interest and sense of participation in learning,

which can put the real world into the classroom, share high information resources, gives
students richer language input, and make it easier and faster for learners to master
foreign language learning. On the other hand, the teacher and student role are different
in traditional language learning and CALL. In traditional foreign language learning, the
teachers role is only to impart knowledge; the role of students is passive, which creates
a lack of learning autonomy. On the contrary, student-centered learning is an important
feature of CALL, which promotes students individual learning while at the same time,
increases their ability to self-learn and grow their confidence. Confidence and self-
esteem are necessary conditions for learning. They are so important that for most people
they are by themselves sufficient condition for success (Satish, 83).

Thanks to technology, now we can say that creating activities using computers
and Internet, encourage, engage and improve our teaching - learning process
significantly since this foster our students autonomy. Of course, it is important to mention
that in spite of the computer is a useful tool in the classroom, it is only effective if the
teacher and the students give it a clear purpose.

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5. Bibliography

Bordbar, Farid. English Teachers Attitudes toward Computer-Assisted

Language Learning International Journal of Language Studies (2010)

Chapelle, Carol A. The Relationship between Second Language Acquisition

Theory and Computer-Assisted Language Learning Modern Language Journal
(2009)

Motteran, Gary Innovations in Learning Technologies for English Language

Teaching (2013) PDF Available at
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/C607%20Information%20and%
20Communication_WEB%20ONLY_FINAL.pdf

Philip Hubbard & Mike Levy (2006) - Teacher Education in CALL

Teymour Rahmati Kelahsarayi, Karim Sadeghi (2016) - Iranian Journal of

Language Teaching Research available at:
http://www.urmia.ac.ir/sites/www.urmia.ac.ir/files/9%20%28BOOK%20REVIEW%29.pdf

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 Assignment - CALL

APPENDIX A: ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment must be done in pairs and has to fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: between 6 and 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices if

there are any).
- Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Size: 11.
- Line height: 1.5.
- Alignment: Justified.

If for some reason you cannot do the assignment in groups, you will have to do it
individually (notice that individual assignments will be penalized. The maximum score a
student can get is 8/ 10). The individual assignment must have a length between 5 and
6 pages approximately (without including cover, index or appendix if there is any).

The assignment has to be done in this Word document and has to fulfil the rules of
presentation and edition, as for quotes and bibliographical references which are detailed
in the Course Guide (see section 2.4.3.). You will find it under the icon Course Guide.

Also, the assignment has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the
Course Guide. Sending it to the tutors e-mail is not permitted. Both members of the
group have to send the assignment.

In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be
found in the Course Guide.

The assignment mark is 70% of the final mark.

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 Assignment - CALL

Assignment:
You have to choose one of the following options:

OPTION A
Elaborate a sequence of three activities using technology. To do this, do not forget to
include:
teaching context (location, educational level, number of students, nationality,
age, English level, etc.);
type of activity (pre-reading, etc.);
objectives of the activities;
content (functions, grammar, vocabulary, culture, etc.) that students should
master;
skills that will be worked on in each activity;
timing for each activity;
how students will be evaluated.

OPTION B
Think about one of the theoretical aspects dealt with in the subject: Web 2.0,
connectivism, electronic portfolios, personal learning environment or assessment in
digital environments, always regarding teaching and learning second languages. Explain
a possible practical application of that theoretical aspect.
Include bibliographic references.
You can also include a personal opinion about this theoretical aspect or
approach.

Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the
cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions will
not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.

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