Can Students in Hong Kong Learn English through Second Life?

I think it is difficult for students in Hong Kong to learn English through "Second Life". One of the reasons is that it is not very convenient. First of all, they have to sign up and design their own appearance. Not many students in Hong Kong have Broadband at home. Some even do not have their own computer. All the sign up process may take very long if they are not using Broadband. Also, when they want to communicate with someone they know, both of them have to be on-line on the same server and at the same time. However, why don't they just chat face to face or talk on the phone or use MSN or ICQ? Won't it be a faster and more user-friendly tool? Some may say that it allows more than one person to talk at the same time, however, MSN or ICQ also have this function. I can't see any reasons why they have to use Second Life. Finally, as a language teacher in a Hong Kong secondary school, I notice that students are more misbehaved whenever they are in the MMLC or computer room, they won't listen to the teacher. They will simply go to the Internet and check email or browse through the websites they like. It's so difficult to manage them if you allow them to use computer during the lessons.

Reflection on Week 8

Copyright in Education Field.

The aim of the leaflet is to let teachers and students know how to make reasonable and fair use of copyright works for teaching and learning purposes in appropriate circumstances without violating the law. A new "fair dealing" exemption has been added to the copyright law in order to facilitate teaching. The law applies not only to printed works but also to works online. The objective is to allow teachers and students to make use of reasonable portions of copyright works in a fair manner for teaching and learning in a specified course of study. That course must be endorsed by the Curriculum Development Council or the course involves an assessment of students' ability and skills which leads to an award of qualification. If students make use of some of others' work, they have to cite the source and tell other where they find it. If teachers play a movie which is shown on screen, they cannot do it without any educational reasons nor can they do it just for killing lesson time.

I think many students do not pay attention copyright. It seems perfectly okay for them copy from others' work as long as they can submit the assignment. I have an experience of marking a student's composition and found that I had so many words which I did not know. The reason was because that student copy so many ideas online. Obviously, I knew that he copied the assignment. But when I told him it was not right, he just laughed at it. I think teachers need to emphasize the copyright ordinance to students so that they know the reasons behind. Otherwise, the situation will appear in universities and the education of Hong Kong will finally suffer.

Reflection on Week 10 Reading

Technology in testing: the present and the future. (Alderson, 2000)

This paper reviews the advantages and disadvantages of computer-based tests using the examples of the Test of ENglish as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and DIALANG.

The disadvantages mentioned in this paper include: 1) computer-based tests (CBTs) are limited in the item types they allow. Some item types may not be easily written using computers, 2) test taker should have known some computer knowledge, otherwise they may not be able to do the question due to the insufficient knowledge of computer skills, 3) productive skills may not be easily tested using computers when compared with receptive skills.

The advantages mentioned include: 1.) test takers can do the tests anywhere and anytime they like, 2.) the results will be available very quickly after the test. 3) some software allows test writers to construct tailor-made tests.

The writer also mentions computer-adaptive testing. In the tests, the computer estimates the user's ability level. Once it has reached a rough estimate of the candidate's ability, the computer will choose the next item which may close to the candidate's ability level. In other words, if the test taker can get it right, then a more difficult question will be shown.

I think computers do play an important role in testing. To certain extent, computer-based test can help teachers or employers know the candidates abilities without wasting much time and manpower. However, as mentioned before, computer-based tests restrict some question types. In other words, it may affect the validity of the tests. For example, MC items are difficult to write but easy to mark and most of the question types in computer-based tests are MC questions. Therefore, if teachers or employers do not pay attention to the distractors in MC questions, students may get the answers correct by chance or elimination and therefore affect the validity of the test.

Reflection on Week 11 Reading

Learner Autonomy and Tandem Learning: Putting Principles into Practice in Synchronous and Asynchronous Telecommunications Environments. Computer Assisted Language Learning. (Schwienhorst, 2003)

In his paper, he mentions three different perspectives to learning autonomy.

The first one is "individual-cognitive" perspective which reflection and awareness are paramount to learner's learning progress.

The second one is "social-interactive" perspective which students learn through meaningful interactions with native speakers and peers. In addition, interactions which involve scaffolding and feedback can help learners develop linguistics awareness.

The third one is "experimental-participartory" perspective in which learners are supervised and control during their learning process. It is believed that learners' awareness of language will be raised.

Tandem learning involves two learners' of complementary L1-L2 combinations so that they can learn from each other.

I think with the advance in technology, it is easier for students to meet people from all over the world. They can have more chances to practise using English to communicate with foreigners either orally or in written forms. I personally believe that all three perspectives are very important. The key notions mentioned in these three perspectives do help students in their language learning.

Writing and Speaking Appropriately

My friends sent me this video. I have watched it many times and each time I can't help laughing. However, I think it brings out a problem which is commonly neglected by many Hong Kong students, that is writing and speaking using the right tone and language. In fact, even adults will think that if a student's English is good, he or she can write and speak good English. Nevertheless, the fact is that we have to pay attention to genre and audience as well. One can write and speak very accurate English but fail to communicate effectively. This is not because of the accuracy but because of the context the language is used.

I showed this video to my F.4 students and they all laughed. You may show it to your students as well.

The Use of Hot Potatoes in English Lessons

Using Hot Potatoes, teachers can create their own online exercises where students can get access at home. Online exercises such as cross word puzzles, open cloze, matching, etc can be easily created with a few clicks. I think it is very a convenient and effective tool in English lessons. By varying the types of exercises students need to to do, they will be motivated. For instance, instead of repeating doing reading exercises, students will get bored easily. But with the use of IT and Hot Potatoes, students can experience something new. Therefore, by changing the types of exercises students do, they find the experience of learning English more interesting.

Top Ten Poetic Devices

A very interesting and useful video. British Council has run some courses for teaching poems and songs. Below is a video about top ten poetic devices. You can play it to your students as a lead-in activity.

Some online videos for social issues

As the introduction of NSS curriculum, students are required to take elective courses. For my school, they need to do learning English through social issues. Teachers nowadays may use newspaper to develop students' knowledge to the world. However, to boost their interest and strengthen their memory, teachers may use different teaching aids in order to give students more stimuli. Using videos, for example, is quite effective and interesting way to teach current news. Other than words, students can refer to sounds, gestures, facial expressions, etc. to get the gist of the news.

Go to the following website offered by RTHK and you can find lots of useful resources for teaching students social issues.

http://www.rthk.org.hk/index_eng.htm

Week 4 Reflection

Many research studies have shown that people behave so differently online. They react positively in a virtual world. For instance, they show fewer inhibition, display less social anxiety, and reduce their public self-awareness. In view of the advantages brought about by online communication, Roed (2003) conducted a pilot project, trying to explore the communicative behaviour patterns of first and second year tertiary students. 13 university students were given a communicative language task to do. They were sitting in the same room and each was given an identity. They needed to ask and answer each other questions so that they could find out the identity of other subjects. They were told to ask simple and elementary questions in order to keep the linguistic level simple so that all subjects could participate in the interview.

The researcher found that there are some advantages of using text communication. First, communication will not be affected by speakers of different accents. Also, there is no time pressure nor is there any interruption. Both help to reduce learners' anxiety. In other words, even passive students are more willing to communicate.

To me, I agree with the researchers. A teacher in Hong Kong may need to take care of more than 40 students in a class. Students have different characters. Some are shy and introverted. Some are very extroverted and talkative. Using text communication can suit learners with different traits. If we aim at training students writing skills. Text communication may help. If we want to train students speaking skills, I would say online communication may also be beneficial. For example, if we do not require students to have face to face interaction, their social anxiety may decrease. So, online communication does have a role to play in language teaching.

Reflection on Week 3 Reading

Warschauer, M., Shetzer, H., & Meloni, C. F. (2000) has written an article about Internet for English teaching. They, first of all, remind teachers the learning goals we have bear in mind when incorporating Internet in teaching. Notions like, active and creative mastery, autonomous learning, critical thinking, etc, are mentioned in their article. I think the gist here is to let teachers know they shouldn't be the slave of e-learning. They need to teach students to have a critical mind and equip them skills to select materials to learn.
They also include teaching guidelines which give teachers more information about how to integrate e-learning in the lessons. For example, teachers can introduce project-based learning and students-centred learning. One of the objectives is to get rid of spoon-feeding students.
Many English teachers, like me, may find using Internet in the lessons difficult since we may come up with so many technical problems. However, as long as we know how to seek help and be prepared for each lesson, using Internet in English lessons is beneficial to both students and teachers (at least, you can have a sense of achievement in the lesson!)

Some useful online resources

To train students' listening skills, I require them to listen to authentic texts such as disucssion, news report, etc. I think if students can listen to authentic materials, they can follow the speakers in the listening exam. The following links bring you toonline websites about news report or discussion:
http://programme.rthk.org.hk/rthk/tv/programme.php?name=thepulse&p=2862
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/
As for junior form studnets, I play songs to them. I quite like to play them songs in Les Miserables because the songs in Les Miserables usually carry messages which are so obvious and meaningful. Students can also refer to lyrics as well. Please see the video below:

To help students improve their pronunication, I refer them to the BBC website about pronunication, there students can learn how to pronounce vowels and consonants.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/sounds/
You may think of designing worksheets for your students using based on the materials online.

Using Technologies in Langauge Classrooms

I believe that integrating information technologies into regular lessons does help motivate our students to learn. Nowadays, students get bored with doing reading and listening exercises in textbooks. However, if you show them videos or music videos online, they will soon be interested and their attention will be on you. So, I think it is good to use IT in the lessons.