CALL review 3

Of the four skills of a language, writing is perhaps the least interactive. However, through CALL, it could become interactive and collaborative. One of the most useful CALL tool that I will review today is the WIKISPACES. Wikispaces is a social writing platform education. It enables teachers to create a private space for students to communicate and to work. The teacher can give feedback on students' work whenever he/she wants. Wikispaces also allows embedding different contents such as youtube videos and voice clips. The fortes of Wikispaces are as following. The first strength is that it is free. It doesn't require any money, so teachers can create a friendly environment without extra cost. Second is that it increases teacher capacity and makes the teachers' lives easier. Feedback and correction can be given and shown very easily. It also makes classrooms a lot more fun because Wikispaces allows writing to be interactive. Wikispaces allows teacher-to-class interaction, teacher-to-student interaction, and student-to-student interaction which is a lot more than traditional writing. It is very accessible on computers, tablets, phones, and anywhere the Internet is available. Wikispaces also has a function of an SNS, which can help teachers to develop a personal relationship with the students. Wikispaces is definitely an awesome and a recommended tool to use.

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CALL Review 2

During the past few classes, we observed how multimedia can be used in speaking and listening classrooms. The most interesting one was the voicethread.
There are many ways of communication, especially now that the Internet allows communication across time and space. Traditionally, communication would be done one-to-one or one-to-many. What this means is that there is little, or minimal interaction. However, the Internet provides a third option, many-to-many. Many-to-many option is where many people can talk and many people can respond to it. So the speakers can talk to each other in multiple directions. Voicethread is the perfect example of a many-to-many communication.
Voicethread can be useful in speaking because it can provide authentic English, boost self-esteem while protecting the language ego. First of all, because Voicethread is online, native speakers of English can access the students' postings. Then the students will be able to get authentic native speaker's feedback. Second of all, when the students find out that their English is understood by a native speaker perfectly, then the students' self-esteem may be boosted. The reason for that is that participation of a native speaker could be viewed as a positive reinforcement that these students have never received before. Third, because the students are hidden behind the mask of anonymity, their language ego is relatively more protected than when they are confronted face-to-face.
Teachers can utilize Voicethread to let students do their own research and present on the topic. Students can come up with their own unique questions and ask it to the public via Voicethread. For example, one student could choose a topic of 'can boys and girls be real friends' and ask on Voicethread. Then after a while, the student can listen to all the opinions and replies and come up with a short presentation. This could help the student's listening skills, but also presentation skills as well as critical thinking skills by summarizing short talks and making a point out of it.

Interview Listening Exercise

 

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Skill practice assignment: Halloween

Pre-listening: 1) What do you know already about Halloween? For example, when is it? Where is it celebrated? 2) Have you ever celebrated Halloween? While listening: 1) Where does the speaker say the holidays come from? 2) What is the atmosphere of the town of Halloween? Post-listening: 1) Are the ghosts similar to ghosts in your culture? 2) If you were to live in the town of Halloween, what kind of a character would you be?

Wishy Washy Washer Woman Soundfile

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Wishy Washy Washer Woman