Reflection on Reading and Vocabulary

There were a number of applications brought up in class and the readings that I think have potential for teaching reading and vocabulary. Robert Godwin-Jones (2010) mentions how Lextutor has a number of useful tools for integrating texts and vocabulary. Another tool he mentions is Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) from Tufts University, which can be used to create concept maps. Students could possibly create concept maps around a concept that is important for a particular reading and then share those maps with the class. There seems to be support for the use of multi-media glosses for teaching reading and vocabulary (Chen, 2012). However, I'm not sure what is gained in using such glosses over traditionally created glosses, unless further information such as frequency and multiple aspects of word knowledge can be accessed through these glosses.

None of the readings mentioned how graded reader publishers are now offering their books for the i-pad and or in digitized format, although they mention the possibility of this. I think that there is a lot of potential in this area. Black Cat is one publisher that is now offering digital graded readers, which feature a number of interactive activities accompanying them. In the demo version of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, for example, readers can listen to the text being read out loud with the text being highlighted as the passages are read. A highlight and pen tool allows readers to highlight and mark places in their text. Students can click on comprehension questions to help them monitor their comprehension as they read. They can also click on hyperlinks to discover more information about the author and do vocabulary matching activities.

Using Socrative to Review Vocabulary

In this post, I describe the steps of a lesson plan that involves the integration of Socrative.com as a type of vocabulary review exercise. This is being used to help students review synonyms that students need to know associated with specific vocabulary words they encounter in the course readings. It is important that students know how to use synonyms for specific vocabulary words in an integrated reading/writing course because it is included in the ability to summarize and paraphrase what you read.

Introduction:

The vocabulary review includes a number of multiple choice type items that help prepare students for the key vocabulary/synonyms that will be featured on the achievement tests. It contains selected words from Reading Explorer 4, chapters 7A, 7B and 9A. Some of the review items are from topics covered in the readings, while others have been adapted from the Corpus of Contemporary English (COCA) to ensure they feature the most frequent collocations.  

Teacher Set-up:

The quiz involves students logging on using their smartphones. The teacher should access socrative.com and set up an account beforehand. Then, they can select the “import quiz function” and enter this number: “SOC-856897”.

This will allow you to add the quiz to your teacher module in socrative.com

Next you need to create a space race so that learners can team up into groups and compete against one another. To get an idea of how you can set up a space race using socrative, watch this quick youtube tutorial video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wNnVUKVIAc

Review of Steps:

• Access the main menu of socrative. 

•  Select space race. This will display the room number and ask you how many teams to assign students. If you have a class similar in size to mine (13 students), then you can choose 3-4 so that there are roughly 3-4 students in a group. You can auto select colors or give students a choice.

• Once you have selected these options, a new window opens that displays the room number, how many students have selected a team, and what colors have been selected.

• Students can google socrative.com using their smartphones. This will bring up either the student or teacher version. They should click on the student version. Then they will be prompted to enter the classroom number (which you will project on a screen to the class).

•  As students are logging on, assign them groups and have them choose the colors. Students should enter their names when they are asked to (this allows for you to view their individual performance). Once the site shows that every student has logged in, you can begin the space race. If a student doesn’t have a smartphone, then they can take turns submitting answers on a classmate’s phone.

•   After students have completed the space race and you have congratulated the winning team, ask students if there were words they didn’t know. What words gave them difficulties in the quiz? These are words that warrant more discussion and that they need to study to be prepared for the achievement test. 

Note: Once students complete the activity, I will also post the results as well.

Wordsift Review

As part of the requirement for the CALL: Eng 568 course at NAU, in this post I review the Web 2.0 program WordSift according to a set of evaluative criteria I have adapted from course handouts. 

WordSift is slightly different than a number of Web 2.0 technologies on the web in that it is designed specifically with English language learners in mind. In the "about" section of the site, it states that WordSift was created with the hope that it is " helpful in supporting English Language Learners." So this is perhaps a rare case where a program has been created with Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) specifically in mind.

Description of Features
WordSift allows for a text to be pasted into a text box, which is then "sifted" through in order to highlight various features of words in a text. Once the text has been processed, a word cloud is created that helps identify important word. The word tag feature is similar to other programs on the web such as Wordle. The word cloud is the focal point of the site, from which a number of interactive features feed off of.

At the bottom of the site is a "sort" feature which allows you to sort words according to frequency, word lists, and specific subjects.

Another feature of word sift is how it is integrated with the Visual Thesaurus. This means when you click on certain words in the word cloud, they are instantly displayed in the visual thesaurus.

 

A third aspect of the site is the key words in context display. This feature displays every example sentence in the text that contains the selected word. In the example below, sentences in Martin Luther King's speech containing the word "justice" are shown. 

The final feature of the WordSift is how pictures from the web are displayed based upon the word selected from the Tag Cloud.

Evaluation

Accessibility/functionality
Wordsift ranks high on the level of accessibility that it has. As long as the text pasted into the text box is in read properly by the program, then only an internet connection is needed. I tried a number of different texts and had no problem with functionality of the text reader. But there is a question of how accessible the definitions in the Visual Thesaurus are for lower level learners. In experimenting with different words in the Tag Cloud I found that the Visual Thesaurus gives some rather complex definitions for different words.

 Language Teaching Application
This software could be used by both teachers and students to preview vocabulary in a text and build background knowledge/schema. The fact that it integrates frequency information from word use in the text and the GSL and the AWL make it attractive to teachers using word lists to help determine the sequencing and coverage of vocabulary in their curriculum.

Comparability to Non-technological Means
Typical pre-reading activities in ELT classroom often involve discussing vocabulary words and showing pictures to ease the burden of difficult texts and activate background knowledge. However, teachers are hampered by time constraints and rarely cover these aspects adequately. If learners were sent the digital file of the text which is to be covered in class, they could, with some guided training, look up the words they don't know using the visual thesaurus and the key words in context.

Variation of Activities
While this site does not provide activities in the sense of pedagogical tasks, it does provide a number of different interactive features to help learners better understand words in a text. Nation (2001) has pointed out the importance of knowing a number of aspects of words to build depth of vocabulary knowledge. The different interactive features make a positive step in that direction.

Interactivity
The integration of the Tag Cloud with the other four features described above make this an interactive way of looking at vocabulary words in a text. A drawback on the interactivity is that the Visual Thesaurus does not provide definitions that are easily understood by all learners. If a learners dictionary was incorporated into the site, then it might improve the interaction learners have with definitions they can more easily comprehend.

Recommendation
I think this program could be applied to ELT classrooms where L2 reading is the focus. It could be integrated as part of the pre-reading. It might also be used to create multiple exposures to important vocabulary words or cross-reference words from a text with frequency lists. These aspects of using the software could be taught as part of course instruction.

Introduction

This is my 2nd year in the MATESL program at Northern Arizona University (NAU). In the past I have taught a number of different skill classes at the Program of Intensive English at NAU. I have also taught ESL in China and at Humboldt State University. Outside of teaching and studying, I'm interested in cycling and hiking.

I have experimented with a number of CALL applications as I have taught different classes. My current technology interest is in digital curation and CALL vocabulary applications. I am very excited to learn about different CALL technologies and the ideas other people in the class bring to the table for using them. As someone going on the job market for TESOL jobs, I have found that many employers are looking for teachers with experience with CALL, so I feel that this class will be very beneficial to my job application process as well.

My main expectation for this class is that it will help make me better prepared to evaluate the use of different applications for use in the language classroom. I think that there are a lot of teachers out there who simply use technology for the "it's cool" factor. Last year I attended a couple of presentations at TESOL where it seemed the presenters were simply introducing technologies to attendees because of the cool factor and not necessarily because they were beneficial for language learning and teaching. These were the presentations I ended up walking out on. So I hope that I can come away from this class with the knowledge of how to determine whether a specific application is appropriate or not for teaching various language skills.