Week 11: Using Mobile Phones in the Classroom

Cristian Alberto Menjívar Alemán
Week 11: Twenty Ideas for Using Mobile Phones in the Language Classroom.

The reading for this week presents different ideas for using mobile phones in classroom. Something that made me want to read more about this article was that it describes 20 practical ways to use mobile phones to support second language learning. The author mentions that students nowadays have more access to a phone than a computer and that they prefer using their phones instead.

As teachers, it is important to have your goals set or what you are trying to achieve when you will use this tool with your students. You have to think if you want to teach any particular skill such as listening, reading or speaking so that the learning process really takes place.

Some of the activities the text mentions are quite impressive that will support and contribute in students’ learning process when using the phone for example: use the notes features to collect vocabulary, use the text messaging feature, use the mobile phone to keep a blog, use the mobile phone for microblogging on Twitter and some others.

On the other hand, there may be some barriers or problems when using mobile phones and some of them are that not all students may have a phone, the cost of mobiles phones and access to Internet, also increased teacher workload for example if the teacher has to reply to all student who may send messages.

All in all, the use of phones to support second language learning exceeds the cons of applying this method in the classroom.

Rate: 4

Week 10: Collaborative Writing Project

Cristian Alberto Menjivar Alemán

Week 10: Online Collaborative Writing Using Wikis.

My initial reaction to the article was quite impressive because it talks about an important tool that teachers can used in order to enhance students’ writing skills that is called wikis. Something that made me want to read more about it was the fact that it provides a real example of a teacher having applied this tool in his class. The teacher explained the process that took place in order to develop this writing activity. I consider really helpful these types of websites and online activities that will contribute in students’ writing skills.

It is also great to see that the teacher during the process provided the prompts so that student could continue on their own having a reference or assistance on what they should do. Students could also help each other, and this promotes collaborative work. For example they could check on their classmates writing, and they could add ideas or help them come up with new things to add.

Something that I consider really important is that teachers should provide students with an interesting topic, or things that are appealing to them that way they will feel motivated and enthusiastic to write more.  I would certainly apply these types of online activities in my class to improve students’ writing skills. 

Rate: 5

Week 8: Acquisiton of Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Skill

Cristian Alberto Menjivar Alemán

Week 8: Online English-English Learner Dictionaries Boost Word Learning and Using Technology to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension.

The articles assigned for this week provide relevant information about vocabulary, the use of CALL and technology. The first article provides a variety of different dictionaries that student can use to look up for new words or phrases they are not familiar with. Something that made me want to read more about this article was that it presents five important features that dictionaries should contain to enhance students’ vocabulary and learning.

The first feature mentioned is corpus-based dictionaries which mean content is based on real word. The second feature is word frequency meaning whether a word is used very often or not that often.  The third feature is collocations it refers to the word combination that usually go together. The fourth feature is authentic examples meaning that uses authentic examples to illustrate the use of words in context. The last feature mentioned is topical vocabulary which refers how the words relate semantically to different categories.

The second article talks about vocabulary acquisition to enhance reading comprehension. Something that surprised me in this article was that it mentions that an adequate understanding of academic texts requires a vocabulary of at least 7,000 words, also readers need to know the different meanings of words according to the context and words’ grammatical properties.

The article mentions the benefits of CALL for vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. It is interesting to see how technology keeps playing an important role for teaching. Multimedia is one of the tools used which has various types of content for example text, audio, video, graphics etc. 

To sum up, there is a close relationship between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension. Teachers and instructors should be aware of the important role that play multimedia and technology to apply it in their classes. 

Rate: 5

Week 7: Using the Internet to Enhance Reading and Writing Skills

Cristian Alberto Menjívar Alemán
Week 7: Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction and Using Internet-Based Children’s Literature to Teach EFL

This week we were assigned two different readings: Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction and Using Internet-Based Children’s Literature to Teach EFL, which provide very useful information to improve writing skills making use of the Internet.

The first text mentions how extensive readings help improve children’s vocabulary, grammar, reading, comprehension and writing skills. Students feel more comfortable looking for a text that appeals them the most rather than looking for new words or phrases on a dictionary. The internet plays a very important role because teachers can ask students to look for readings that also contain comprehension questions so that they can complete them outside the classroom.

The second article provides some suggestions on how to use the Internet in the classroom to enhance learning and how to write different writing genres. Something that made me want to read more about this article was the different genres and activities that can be made in order to improve student’s writing skills. Some of the ideas that the article mentions are writing an argumentative essay, notices and advertisements, a description of a book, film or play.

It is interesting to see how the Internet will enhance student’s writing skill since it will give them the chance to choose from among different activities, they can be authentic which will give them a real purpose of writing.

Rate: 5