Podcasting in ESl/EFL classrooms

It is a good idea to use podcasts in language teaching in general but I don’t think it is a good idea to use it in the classroom. Students can listen to podcasts and develop aural skills outside the classroom instead of reading. They can work on their listening and speaking skills when they are not in class by creating materials of their interests. And there are so many second language learners who are obsessed to develop their listening and speaking skills outside the classroom and sometimes it is hard to find a native speaker to practice the language.  So it will be a great opportunity for them to create audio and practice it meaningfully at home. Especially, not always the movies and talk shows on the TV are appropriate for the proficiency level of the second language learners and they cannot help them develop their second language.  But on the contrary it may cause some frustration and demotivation if they couldn’t understand due to the cultural differences. So podcasting can empower students by giving them opportunities to create and publish for a real audience and it also focuses on students’ oral and aural skills outside the classroom helping them to be better speakers and listeners. But all the activities written in the EsLEFl podcasting activities article, ESL teachers can do the same without using the podcasts. For example, students can role play while the teacher checks on them and podcasting could be as homework. I agree with Christofer Shamberg that kids now are consumers and creators of digital media and all these blogging and micro blogging can help students to be creative and learn how to use the technology effectively but I didn’t like the idea of using podcasts in the classroom. Even the research of the University of South Carolina by Lara Ducate and Lara Lomicka couldn’t prove any improvement in the ESL learners’ pronunciation after using the podcasts. It is true that the number of the students in the research was not enough and we cannot generalize the results but I still believe that it’s not a good idea to use it in the classroom. Podcasting could be used in English dominant schools in language lab classes and I think it would be perfect. Where the students practice meaningfully the form of the language for the whole session. But it is hard to use it in Language centers.

Using Blogging and micro blogging in ESL Classrooms

 

As an ESL teacher I would definitely like to implement both blogging and micro blogging in my teaching. Although I still have some technical concerns, but I liked the idea of blogging because it is different from other traditional types of writings and I think the young students will like it. Especially the ones who like using the technological devices and know how to use it. I think students will like the idea of using blogs in their language learning, because it will motivate them to write. Especially when they know that there are so many people who will see their blogs and read them. As will Richardson says students have real audience and the teacher is not the only one who will read their writing. By blogging students will communicate in more formal language, while by Twitter students will improve communicative skills in the target language but in more informal language. By twitting students can post short messages either on the computer or on their cell phones, which is easy for the students who have busy life. As it is mentioned in “Twitter and Language Learning: Training Communicative and Cultural Competence” communicative competence is consists of four components: grammatical, sociolingual, discourse, and strategic competence. By using twitter students can practice more informal language in order to express their ideas in friendlier environment. And it will help them handle communicative breakdowns by using a dictionary when they don’t know the meaning of a word in the target language. And this will help them improve their problem solving skills. In Twitter, students might interact with native speakers of English which will improve their English and their cultural awareness.

In my point of view, both blogging and micro blogging should be used as complementary to what has taught in the classroom and they shouldn’t be the only way of learning a language. They do provide language learners an authentic environment where learners practice the target language and by practicing I think the real learning happens. And it is great that by blogging or Twitting students can share their experiences and reflect on their classroom learning.

As an ESL/EFL teacher I would like to use Twitter and Blogging in my ESL/EFL classrooms. But I think there are two important aspects that any teacher must take in to consideration. The setting and the proficiency level of the learners. For example, if I am teaching in a language center I prefer to use twitter, because it is easier and less time consuming. While if I am teaching in an English dominant school I can ask students to write a summary of one of the Language Arts stories or write a reflection on that story by using the blogs. And instead of writing in their journals they will write in a more communicative place. While from learners of a language center I might ask to tweet short sentences once a day, of what they are doing in order to practice using the present continuous tense. 

 
 

Digital youth portrait

The best thing I liked in the stories of the children is to see how all these talented children are involved in the learning process. I especially liked Cameron the child who uses the green screen to make videos. He uses his love of technology in the learning process. And gives us a great example of how to use the students’ passion in order to motivate them to learn better. He helped his teacher to make the lesson more exciting and interesting and other students learned to use the green screen technology too. So the teacher is not the only one who teaches the learners but sometimes the students teach us too, so the learning goes both ways. All the stories taught me that these children have developed skills in “learning how to learn” by using their love and passion towards technology devices. And as a TEFL professional I realized that the learners learn better when they are interested in what they are learning. And they learn the best if the content relates to their own experiences, knowledge and interests. Another thing I realized is that learners have different styles and strategies and as TEFL professionals we must take that into consideration in developing our curriculum.

I think that the most amazing flattener is the Netscape. I liked the Netscape because it’s a great communication medium that made the Internet accessible to everyone. It creates a rich environment for learning especially the self-learning. For example the creation of the software and the internet millions of learners around the world had the opportunity to learn by themselves and even communicate to share their knowledge. So the Netscape really flattened the world by providing the education requirements of millions of learners all over the world.

The connection that I find between The Hole in the wall project and the other two sources is the use of Technology in educating the nations all over the world. The convergent of technology allowed so many countries to become part of the globalization. Another connection I find in them all is the self-learning of the learners by using the technology. And how to encourage the generations to develop nonstop learning process throughout their life time.