How to teach English with technology - Summary

How to teach English with technology

Technology is the basis of our developing world; it has taken part in our personal and professional lives. Today children are aware of technology since they are born. In classroom, teachers are often far less skilled and knowledgeable than their own students. when using technology in classroom we are referring not only to computers but also to mobile phones, CD-ROM, flash cards, and other gadgets to be used in  classes, such as Interactive Whiteboards, which are recently well known in the first world countries. There are a great variety of programs installed in your computer, such as Microsoft word processor, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Messenger, Skyp, etc, which are quite useful when working with children.

Once you have acquired the necessary tools and knowledge for a good tech-teaching as well as your students, you are in turn to work with web pages, e-mail addresses, chat rooms and other important ways of communication among people. Before selecting the web page to be visited by your students, you have to make sure they are all potentially long ‘shelf life’-ones made by large institutions and commercial organizations, rather than personal homepages. Make a note of the particular pages you want your learners to work on, and take care of the content you are going to give your students. Besides we have E-mail, which allows us to keep in touch with other teachers around the world via mailing lists and discussion groups, thus helping in our professional development. It allows us to communicate with our learners outside the classroom, for example setting, receiving, marking and returning homework and other written assignments.

For these reasonable issues and else, we are in condition to say that technology provides us the chance to get students involved, as we did in MULTIMEDIA classes, where you as teacher, started the class by making a good introduction of the subject, then following the exercises from the book. I’d rather like to work a little more on the web in the computer room, but it was not possible because there weren’t enough machines for all the profesorado. You also taught us how to look for information on line, by using browsers, such as yahoo, ask, google, etc, where you can find how to make lesson plans, exercising texts and evaluating items as well.

All these considering, you have not to forget how much we all the students tried hard to do our best to upload all the assignments on the Net. Even when we knew nothing about blogger and wikis, we all got over them. Of course, it would be much easier if we have had the chance to work in the computer room. However, our teacher, I mean, you gave us some clues about creating blogs and then how to create a wiki, they were really useful for us, otherwise we would get lost. Some people like tech and others hate it; but you are the one to teach them how to use it, in order to put daily classes into the most enjoyable trips on the Net.

I think that we have all learnt, in different ways how to deal with technology, and we are still learning how to use it. I’m convinced technology will never stop, teachers are better if they know how to work with technology, so as to facilitate students’ tech-requirements.

Basic Project

HALLOWEN

ACTIVITY: Join the Pictures with the right word

                                                             

 The Old Witch

There was once a little girl who was very willful and who never obeyed when her elders spoke to her - so how could she be happy?

One day she said to her parents, "I have heard so much of the old witch that I will go and see her. People say she is a wonderful old woman, and has many marvelous things in her house, and I am very curious to see them."'

But her parents forbade her going, saying, "The witch is a wicked old woman, who performs many godless deeds - and if you go near her, you are no longer a child of ours."

The girl, however, would not turn back at her parents' command, but went to the witch's house. When she arrived there the old woman asked her:

"Why are you so pale?"

"Ah," she replied, trembling all over, "I have frightened myself so with what I have just seen."

"And what did you see?" inquired the old witch.

"I saw a black man on your steps."

"That was a collier," replied she.

"Then I saw a gray man."

"That was a sportsman," said the old woman.

"After him I saw a blood-red man."

"That was a butcher," replied the old woman.

"But, oh, I was most terrified," continued the girl, "when I peeped through your window, and saw not you, but a creature with a fiery head."

"Then you have seen the witch in her proper dress," said the old woman. "For you I have long waited, and now you shall give me light."

So saying the witch changed the little girl into a block of wood, and then threw it on the fire. When it was fully alight, she sat down on the hearth and warmed herself, saying:

"How good I feel! The fire has not burned like this for a long time!"

Assignment nº 5

E-mail: gengre and appropriacy

Hi! I LIKE YOUR SITE `Save the Whale[IV1] `

im[IV2]  preparing for a presentation at my school about why whales are in danger of extinction

i [IV3] want u[IV4]  to send me some staff about this, like brochures,postres,etc[IV5] !!!!![V6]  i[IV7]  need it by tonite[IV8] !!!!!![V9] 

CU[IV10] !

Hi! I like your site `Save the Whale `

I’m  preparing for a presentation at my school about why whales are in danger of extinction

I want you to send me some information about this, like brochures,posters,etc! Ineed it as soon as possible!

See you soon!

---

 [IV1]Is is wrong because It is referring to just one whale. The wright form would be Save the Whales: plural form.

 [IV2]Personal pronouns always Stara with capital letters at the beginnig of a sentence. And the apostrophe (`) is missing as well.

 [IV3]Personal pronoun “I” is always written with capital letter. Eather at the beginning or at the middle of a sentence.

 [IV4]It is an abbreviation standing for the personal pronoun (you)

 [IV5]It must be written with a final dot (.).

 [V6]Is this correct?

 [IV7]Personal pronoun “I” is always written with capital letter. Eather at the beginning or at the middle of a sentence.

 [IV8]It is a way of dropping out some letters unnecessary to pronunciation. It doesn`t mean it is OK! It is just used by young people.

 [V9]Is this correct?

 [IV10]It is used to make the Word (see you) shorter. But it is inappropiate using it in classroom because students may make a wrong use of the language.

 [IV11]Is is wrong because It is referring to just one whale. The wright form would be Save the Whales: plural form.

 [IV12]Personal pronouns always Stara with capital letters at the beginnig of a sentence. And the apostrophe (`) is missing as well.

 [IV13]Personal pronoun “I” is always written with capital letter. Eather at the beginning or at the middle of a sentence.

 [IV14]It is an abbreviation standing for the personal pronoun (you)

 [IV15]It must be written with a final dot (.).

Assignment n° 8

Using chat in language teaching:

Do you agree or disagree with the following statements? Why?

a-      With text chat, we need to teach learners to use “texts speak”, e.g. L8er for “later”.

b-       Voice chat is easier to use than text chat.

c-       The teacher requires a lot of technical knowledge to use text or voice chat with learners.

d-      It´s a good idea to teach learners some chat conventions, e.g. how to take turns.

e-       Using chat is best between classes who already meet regularly face-to face.

Development

a-      Yes, at least once or twice are enough for students to make progress. If the teacher explains the students some basic rules when making abbreviations, then the students will realized how to type texts speak. It is really necessary to do so, because students are internet users so they are constantly dealing with “texts speak”.

b-      In some cases the voice chat would be easier for students who don´t care much about pronunciation. But when students don´t feel confidents in pronouncing words, they are more likely to use text chat, even when they are at the same level in writing than those who prefer voice chat.

c-       Yes but not necessary. The teacher is supposed to be the source of knowledge in the classroom so he has to be prepared for the students´ questions in order not to waste time in learning what he could have learned just doing a course about using the internet access. But sometimes happen that the students know more than the teacher, in that case the teacher has to take advantage of it and allow the students to teach him in order to make them more interested on the topic.

d-      Yes, when students are lower writers than their pen friends they have to know how to make them notice they are still writing (…) or that they want to make a question (?).  

e-      Most students feel more confidents when they don’t see the other person when talking, that´s why they generally prefer to chat than talking face-to-face. In addition they are learners of English Standard Language. So chatting is a necessary tool for students to be aware of how the foreign language works.

Assignment n° 7

Using email: issues

a-  Your learners don´t have email accounts.

They probably not even know how to create an email account so you are the one on charge to make it possible. First of all, you can find out how much they know concerning to the internet by making them some questions, in order to explain what to do next as to get one.

b- Your learners don´t know how to send or open email attachments.

Considering most of them have an email account, not forgetting those who don´t, you can take your laptop to the classroom to give details about getting an email account. Then open yours and send one of your students some info so as to describe the only way to send and open email attachments.  

c-   Your learners use abbreviations such as CU (´see you´) or the lower case i in all their emails.

Firstly, you have to make them know what level of language you are going to work with. That, it is the universal written English, not the informal one, then as time passes correct them in every mistake they might have.

d- You would like to provide your learners with a weekly emailed summary of classwork covered, but have not time to do so.

So, one way to make a summary every week is to send them a page where they can find plenty of information about the topic to be developed. Not only this, but also the importance to let them know they can count on you if something is misunderstood. Then, they will have just to send you an email with some questions to be answered.

e- Your learners are reluctant to do the extra work that belonging to a class email discussion list involves, and do not contribute much.

There are some pupils not involved in class; the only thing they do is to be interesting in doing nothing so, why not asking them what makes them enjoy the most and work on it. For example, if they have to do a work about people they look up to, they may be motivating to do so.  

f-    In a keypal project, your learners don´t know what to write to their partner in another country.

If you are working on a specific topic, you can make some guide to be delivered among your students, so they will have some questions to do. However, they will have to make their own questions as well, in order to get involved in the conversation. 

g-  Your learners are upset by emails received from the partner country, as they find them “rude” or “aggressive”.

Make sure that your partner teacher who you are working with is monitoring his students as the way you do. Let him know you take care of what your students send them so you hope him to do it as well.