After I searched some vocabulary website, I concluded that vocabulary.com will be the most effective website for students' indivisual vocabulary leaning.
This website has mainly four parts for vocabulary enrichment: Root Word lesson part, Thematic puzzles part, Word list, and Test part. The part I like the most is the Root Word lesson part where students can get ideas of meanings of many affixes and roots. Using affixes and roots as a clue is an efficient way to learn vocabulary. Since other websites I searched do not have categories for roots or affix, I like this website the best.
In the thematic puzzles part, students can learn words which are categorized based on their theme, so if students want to learn many words in a specific topic, it will be useful. The problem this part has is that they do not have level category, so it may be inconvenient for students who want to build up certain level of vocabulary, not theme-categorized vocabulary.
The word list part does not have any quiz, so it may be very boring if students want to learn vocabulary form this list, but it'll be a good review list for learnt vocabulary. And in the test part, students can have various kinds of tests that will help them check the vocabulary they've learned.
Although this website does not have passages to see in which context each word is used, it will be an effective source to build vocabulary, especially for students' own independent study.
http://www.vocabulary.com/
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
CALL Reading Source #2
For CALL reading, I think a University Homepage can be a good material.
First, the teacher tell students what kind of information they are expected to get on the Internet. Then, they search on the Internet and find the page that has the information, read, and get the proper information.
At the beginning, the webpage should be designated so that students do not spend most of their time finding the proper page. Then, instruction to find the page gradually lessen, so that students can finally find the information by themselves.
I think this reading study provides not just an authentic materials, but also real life situation. Students can improve both their reading skills and skills of getting proper information.
I guess this is for high-intermediate students.
Example: find UIC OIS page for international orientation and find what you need to prepare for it.
http://www.ois.uic.edu/students/new/orientation/
First, the teacher tell students what kind of information they are expected to get on the Internet. Then, they search on the Internet and find the page that has the information, read, and get the proper information.
At the beginning, the webpage should be designated so that students do not spend most of their time finding the proper page. Then, instruction to find the page gradually lessen, so that students can finally find the information by themselves.
I think this reading study provides not just an authentic materials, but also real life situation. Students can improve both their reading skills and skills of getting proper information.
I guess this is for high-intermediate students.
Example: find UIC OIS page for international orientation and find what you need to prepare for it.
http://www.ois.uic.edu/students/new/orientation/
CALL Reading Source #1
I chose "Breaking News English" as a material for CALL reading. Each article has Warm-up, Before-Reading task, While-Reading task, and Post-Reading task, which are all well constructed for classroom activity. I think this material can be used for either prep homework or in-class material, since it has a lot of tasks for classroom discution.
First, students collect the background information of the topic through the Before-Reading task. Then, they read the article for the first time, and get the idea of the article. The reading should be repeated if necessary. After reading, they do the While-Reading task, and read the article again to check the answer. (The listening task will follow this task) Finally, they do the Post-Reading task and prepare for class discussion.
If the students are motivated to get wide knowledge about the world, this material will be a very good material because, through each tasks, we need to search and get general background information about the article. However, some students may feel that these tasks are hard for them or less meaningful for their English study, so teacher should be careful of those students when using this kind of material.
Each articles has mp3, so it can also be used for listening. I think it will work better when used for both reading and listening lessons.
I think this is for advanced learners.
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html
First, students collect the background information of the topic through the Before-Reading task. Then, they read the article for the first time, and get the idea of the article. The reading should be repeated if necessary. After reading, they do the While-Reading task, and read the article again to check the answer. (The listening task will follow this task) Finally, they do the Post-Reading task and prepare for class discussion.
If the students are motivated to get wide knowledge about the world, this material will be a very good material because, through each tasks, we need to search and get general background information about the article. However, some students may feel that these tasks are hard for them or less meaningful for their English study, so teacher should be careful of those students when using this kind of material.
Each articles has mp3, so it can also be used for listening. I think it will work better when used for both reading and listening lessons.
I think this is for advanced learners.
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/index.html
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
My Previous CALL experience (listening)
I took a CALL English class in my home country 2 years ago.
It was especially for listening, and it was called 'Three Round CALL system". As the name tells us, there are three rounds in the system.
In the first round, we watch a video (news, interviews, etc.) and catch what is talked in it. We first watch the whole video, and then we watch it again, with the video being cut into some parts. After that, we learn vocabulary and expressions used in it, and get general knowledge about the topic.
In the second round, we watch the video again, and catch the details of the topic. We watch it with small parts, too. After that, we review the vocabulary and expressions, and have small quiz about the topic.
In the last round, we watch the whole video and try to catch more details. Finally we have a quiz and measre how deeply we understand the video.
For many of us, this system worked effectively to improve our listening skills, and most of them liked the system.
Qestion: Can CALL be effective for all the four skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking? (I'm wondering if CALL can be more effective than other materials, especially in reading and writing.)
It was especially for listening, and it was called 'Three Round CALL system". As the name tells us, there are three rounds in the system.
In the first round, we watch a video (news, interviews, etc.) and catch what is talked in it. We first watch the whole video, and then we watch it again, with the video being cut into some parts. After that, we learn vocabulary and expressions used in it, and get general knowledge about the topic.
In the second round, we watch the video again, and catch the details of the topic. We watch it with small parts, too. After that, we review the vocabulary and expressions, and have small quiz about the topic.
In the last round, we watch the whole video and try to catch more details. Finally we have a quiz and measre how deeply we understand the video.
For many of us, this system worked effectively to improve our listening skills, and most of them liked the system.
Qestion: Can CALL be effective for all the four skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking? (I'm wondering if CALL can be more effective than other materials, especially in reading and writing.)
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