Developing and Practicing Reading and Writing Skills

Examples on how to use evaluation factors of a web site or a software:-

GOALS : What can the software or the web site do? And how it serve educational goals?

PRESENTATION : How goals are presented at the software or the web site?

APPROPRIATENES: How well students be able to use the software or the web site to meet goals?

OUTCOMES: What do student produce using only the software or the web site? Do they need something extra?

EVALUATION: What can of appropriate feedback and evaluation does the software or the web site offer?

NOTES: Teacher here add note about what else is important to know the technology for his/her context.

Web Site Examples

Grammar Safari (Mills & Salzmann) mar/index.html

GOALS : Help students collect examples of grammar points. Useful for inductive grammar learning.

PRESENTATION: Illustrated instructions describe how to use Web browsers to search for terms. It has no preset search items.

APPROPRIATENESS: This is for intermediate to advanced students who can use inductive reasoning or has access to some strategy training. Graphics help with understanding the instructions. Help is provided on how to use browsers & which to use for specific goals.

OUTCOMES: Depends on browsers and search – could be a list of the items, a document in which the find capability can be used, or an exportable text.

EVALUATION: None.

Interlink Language Center reading lessons

Goals: Provide practice in extensive reading, speed reading cloze reading and science reading for ESL students Presentation: Cloze readings have reading on the left and exercises on the right. There is generous time limit. The read and listen exercise provides sentence by sentence listening and mouse over definitions of words.

Appropriateness: Students might have need initial instructions to understand how to use the site. Outcomes: Quiz like outcomes only.

Evaluation: When students click on the answer, they are provided with instant feedback that contains an explanation. They are also told which question they have to answer.

Notes: This site also has many skills not only reading. Site for reading skills:

Word Games

Goals: Word practice that is not specifically for ESL students but is useful for them as well as native speakers.

Presentation

Defintime

storyman

Appropriateness: Some of the words are esoteric, which might frustrate students.

Outcomes: Scores. Evaluation: Typically "wrong, try again"

Software Examples

Focus on Grammar The use of concordancers or software that reads through texts and lists incidences of chosen words in their context, not only helps english language learners to better understanding how to use grammar but can also help them to practice formulating rules from examples.

The principal aim of all teaching activities must, therefore, be the creation of a learning environment in which learners are asked to carry out authentic tasks. To be able to do so they are equipped with materials which are interesting for them and which motivate them to communicate with each other.

The learning aims of their approach in a way similar to the communicative approach. Competence is developed entirely through meaningful interaction. There is the necessity for the learner to acquire grammatical knowledge, and to develp this knowledge subconsciously. Data-Driven Learning (DDL): the idea, by Bernd R ü schoff, and_help/booklets/resources/menu_booklet_ddl.htm

Multiconcord is an example of a multilingual parallel concordancer. It is the result of work undertaken at the University of Birmingham as a contribution to an EC-funded Lingua project, coordinated by Francine Roussel, Universit é de Nancy II, to develop a parallel concordancer for classroom use. Programmed by David Woolls, with Birmingham University support from Philip King and Tim Johns. ICT4LT Module 2.4, Using concordance programs in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom.

Goals

Presentation

Appropriateness

Outcomes

Evaluation

Note