Assignment 1 - Web Evaluation

Assalamualaikum. 

The ESL website that I have chosen is Teach Children ESL! Here is the link (www.teachchildrenesl.com)

The website covers a lot of things including some grammar components, pronunciations and comprehension tasks. The website also has an abundance of flash cards that can be downloaded and printed for free. The exercises provided by the website are mostly worksheets such as fill in the blanks and word games. Everything in the website requires the user to download and print the content. Thus, there is no immediate feedback provided for the users. Looking at who would benefit the most from the website would be teachers with beginner students. There is nothing for advanced level users. 

The only thing that the visitors need to do in order to learn the contents provided in the website is to download and print the materials. Web-based learning activities is not yet available for the visitors. According to the website, the feature is 'coming soon'. For the time being, there is nothing much that the visitors can do, especially for students who want to learn on their own. The website is more likely to be used by teachers. Another good thing about this website is that the visitors are not required to register or log in when they want to download the materials available on the site.

Honestly speaking, I used a lot of materials from the website during my practicum, especially the flash cards. I also adapted the worksheets for my students. The two classes that I taught have low proficiency. In fact, my students (the last class, that is), can be considered as foreign language learners. They can barely differentiate 'he' or 'she'. They have no idea what is a chair or table (I wanted to teach them countable and uncountable nouns and asked them to tick (/) for things that they can count). At first, I thought that they were just fooling around but when everyone started to ask and some got the answers wrong, I realised that they were not joking. So, the classes after that, I had to use a lot of graphics so that they can see the words that I said. Hence, the use of flash cards really helped me during my days of practicum. 

The website does not actually provide learners with new things that cannot be done in a textbook or workbook. The website, I considered, as something traditional. It is nothing more than a workbook, online. However, considering the types of students that I had to deal with as well as the facilities available, this is the best that I could provide the students with something not from the textbook. Some of my students are not allowed to use the computer lab due to their misbehaviour. I made sure that I use the theme and topic from the syllabus but I always tried to use materials not from the textbook.

The website lacks activities that could give immediate feedbacks to the users. For language learners, the website may not be as much beneficial. However, teachers who teach ESL, may benefit from the website. The materials may be a hassle to be used since they have to be printed. However, in a traditional classroom, the materials would be considered as acceptable. Thus, it can be said that the website does not fulfill the criterion of a CALL program. It does have the activities and tasks for language learning but it is limited to be used by teachers only.

I would use the application in my future work provided that the school lacks of facilities such as adequate numbers of computers. I may even opt for materials from the website to teach low proficiency students. However, the application can be considered as old-fashioned and may not be interesting for students in urban areas.

Task 2 - Electronic Worksheet

Assalamualaikum, peeps!

Well, here is the link for an electronic worksheet that I've done using Microsoft Words. It's a grammar worksheet for countable and uncountable nouns. Toodles!


Click here to download.

Task 1 Sept 2014

Well. Hello and Assalamualaikum.

My name, as stated on my IC is S. Rabiatul Adawiyah bt Ahmad Khazali. I prefer to be called Rynn but you can call me Rabiatul just for professional purposes. I was born in Kuala Lumpur but raised in Kuching, Sarawak. I'm half Malay and half Melanau. I'm pretty proud to be known as a Melanau simply because I think that it's exotic.

My computer skills are not much. I consider myself as a novice. I have no problem downloading stuff, using the internet, searching for things or information, shopping, creating blogs and whatnot but that's pretty much it. I still have problems understanding Excel.

When it comes to computer software and hardware knowledge that I have, I can safely say that I have no (well, not much) problem using Microsoft Office. Computer hardware, on the other hand, may be something quite alien to me. When I have hardware problem, I will just a) ignore it until something more severe happens or b) send my laptop to someone who have the skills.

I can say that I experienced learning via the computer nearly all the time that I use it. I don't actually use the computer for leisure (unless it's for watching series) because I would usually do that with my phone or iPad. So, when I switch the computer (or in my case, the netbook) on, I would usually do it for educational purposes such as searching for online articles, searching for stuff that I can use for teaching etc. Once, I experienced 'helping' someone for an online course that he/she needed to score.

During my practicum, I tried to incorporate technology in my lesson but it failed. It was for the weakest class. I wanted to show them a video on friendship (It was a Vodafone video for friendship day). I managed to capture their attention by bringing them to the APD room (because the teachers would not bring them there) but once they were in the room, they started playing among themselves. They watched the video a few times but they somehow couldn't get it. I asked them questions about the video (what happened? Why do you think the girl acted that way? Would you do the same? etc) but they gave me answers that were meant to be funny. This was from the boys. The girls could actually answer my questions. The main reason of my failure was due to my inability to control the class when they were in the room. That was the first and last time I incorporated technology during my lesson. I wanted to do something with my other class but due to some limitations, I did not have the opportunity to do it.

I think, using computer/technology in language teaching is a great idea. The students in the current generation are more exposed to technology. It is a great way to show them that English is not limited within the walls of the classroom. It can help to show to the students that learning may not necessarily happens at school. Not to mention, their fondness towards social media could actually encourage them to learn English.

By the end of this course, I hope that I can improve my computer skills and actually use the computer more than to watch series or finish my assignments. The idea of developing a courseware excites me since that would be enough for me to consider myself as a tech-savvy (well, a self-proclaimed tech-savvy). Knowing how to analyse data for my AE would really really REALLY help me (T.T)

Speaking of AE, my chosen topic is 'Job Satisfaction Level of ESL Teachers'. I have big dreams for my topic. I hope that someday, someone out there would realise how much work ESL teachers actually have and how important it is for the students to be grouped according to their level of proficiency. People always think that being a teacher is easy and teachers have a lot of holidays. Maybe, someone out there would understand that being a teacher is never easy and being an ESL teacher is actually much much more worse. My supervisor is Prof Dr. Assoc Abu Bakar. My plan in order to finish my AE on time is to actually deal with Chapter 2 first. For me, it is the most difficult, pain-staking chapter to do. Once I'm done with Chapter 2, Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 would not be a problem. Right now, I also need to prepare for my questionnaire and my interview questions so that I can proceed with that as soon as possible.