Monday, February 6, 2012
My new insight on technology use for educating ELLs
I recently just finished reading an article on how an ESL instructor implemented a blogging component to his class curriculum, which gave extraordinary results. This teacher's goal was to incorporate computer literacy alongside English proficiency. Many newcomers to this nation do not possess the same computer awareness or skills that are commonly learned in our American society. These individuals in certain cases, lived with limited access to computers and other forms of technology in their countries of origin (as stated in the article). Therefore they often are reluctant to use computers for academic endeavors, intellectual inquiry, or even for socialization purposes. In order to overcome this technological barrier, this instructor required his students to create their own blog, with designs and images that they identify with best. Class assignments were posted on the blogs with links to relevant videos and websites. The students were asked to share comments and have online discussions on their blogs. This innovative strategy proved to be ideal for exposing ESL students to English and have them practice their language skills in a interactive manner. The dynamic resources that blogging and the internet have to offer allowed the students discover new instances of language use and registers of English ranging from highly academic to colloquial. The students were very enthused about expressing their perspectives and conducting internet searches on diverse topics. Integrating this form of technology in the classroom is a effective way of engaging students to learn new aspects of the class content and actively share insights on it.
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Jonathan, you are right when you ask us all to take the individual background of each student into consideration. Some students may resist completing assignments online if they are not accustomed to doing so but I believe that it is our role as instructors to help the students become more comfortable with various types of assessments. For example, when it comes to using computers the student will have to use computers for the rest of their life especially if they are planning to stay in the United States. Here, it may be beneficial to offer specialized assistance to the student and prepare some practice activities so the student can get used to using the computer. However, by suggesting this I am not implying that other forms of assignments are to be discarded completely. A variety of assignments will also keep the students enthused and prevent them from giving minimal effort on later assignments.
ReplyDeleteI commented Sara's Interactivity about how I felt like online participation would definitely foster a foreign language skill, and I definitely can see this in an ESL aspect too. As I stated on Sara's blog, the best learning of a language comes when you get fully emerged in the language—when you're surrounded by people who don't speak your language and you're forced to adapt and speak only in the language you're around. For ESL students in America, they're in a country where they can easily not have to adapt, as they can remain in a community of like speakers. Even if they go to the grocery store, or any other task, it's not guaranteed, but it's totally possible to find someone there that speaks your language, which means you don't need to learn English. Online though, it's different. The majority of blogs I follow are not only in English, but are owned by Americans who speak English as a primary language, so they wouldn't even consider posting in any other language. While it's completely possible to translate using online features, (Google Chrome actually asks me if I want to translate as soon as I click onto a website not in English, which is pretty nifty because I can engage in a blog in Japanese or Norwegian, though I know not a word of either) they could choose not to, which would force immersion in English language would, I think, have the same effect on someone trying to learn English. When I was younger I would go on Omegle, which is a text-only Chatroullette, and I would get, all the time, people saying they didn't know English, or know English well, and would still try to talk in English. I feel like if a language learner went on a site like this (which by the way is primarily occupied by people trolling and trying to hook up for internet sex) they could refine their skills and see how native speakers engage in text.
ReplyDeleteThe one major problem with this, though, is that internet text is often REALLY informal, & ppl tlk like this so how can they lrn lng if txt is altred? The possibilities are endless, though, if fostered in the appropriate way.
Jonathan, thanks for the overview of the article. Any thoughts on how you can implement these ideas in your own content area classroom?
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