 |
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
 |
Break the Sound Barrier with your Students Learning English is like breaking the sound barrier. At first, the task may seem out of reach, impossible. However, after the student gets started with the proper tools and resources, the process becomes clear and feasible.  In this sense, after attending lectures, workshops, and discussion groups during TESOL 2005, I could realize that the tools to help students break the sound barrier and become proficient and accurate speakers of English are within our reach. The crucial point is incorporating the technological resources available into our lesson plans. Nowadays, the issue is not anymore a matter of using computers and the Internet to help students make sense of the bits and pieces of information and sounds that they receive in class. W e need to go beyond, aiming the blue sky, challenging our own capabilities as teachers and leading the students to explore this whole brave new world.In fact, if you decide to go in this direction, the phrase of the day will certainly be Project-Based Learning (PBL), which is directly connected to collaborative work. In my case, I would like to share some CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) concepts and applications that sparked my interest during the Convention and that relate the use of computers to the cooperation among students and teacher in order to achieve a result, the learning of some aspect of English.  Let’s take the idea of portfolios, for example. Nothing new. Collecting data, getting into the process of learning from your own learning, analyzing content, selecting material to include in the portfolio. But think about e-portfolios. It’s like rediscovering a concept with the magic of images and sounds that can be added to each memory book , digital story, biographical power point presentation that your students can produce, present, and share. English becomes a means, and not an end in itself.How about having a voice portfolio to analyze and improve pronunciation? I bet you have a very simple program in your computer that you’ve never given even tried, Voice Recorder. Go to Programs, Accessories, and then access Entertainment. The program to record sound is there. Just get a simple microphone and start playing with it! Have you ever thought how much your adult students would benefit from this approach? After a while, when you become a more audacious technology explorer, try using the voice recorder program called Audacity. It’s free and effective. Well, I haven’t even mentioned CAW, Computer Assisted Writing. Let's face it, writing can be much more fun in the computer. There are more possibilities of interaction, peer revision, lively exchanges between students and teacher than you could ever dream of. Take risks! Have you considered using bloggers with your teenage students to make them write more and better? You should. To have an idea on the many ways you can use weblogging as a learning tool that raises interest and builds in motivation on the students’ part, access http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/ (Blogs in Education). And how about some word 2003 applications, like inserting voice comments and text annotations into your students’ compositions? These perceptions are just a micro sphere of the vast reaches of cyber space. Being a fearless explorer of the wonders of technology is only the beginning of the process of incorporating technology in the classroom with a purpose, the acquisition of language. As Karen Price (director of Anne Dow Associates - a firm that does English language and technology consulting as well as multimedia materials development) pointed out at her presentation in TESOL, there are two ends of a continuum. On one end, there is the expert vision of technology, the expert tutor. At the other extreme, the synergy of individuals is critical. At this point, we are looking at our own reflections as teachers and how the way we teach affects our students. Carla Arena |
||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
||||||||
