EFL Teaching Resources

A mind map is a diagram for representing tasks, words, concepts, or items linked to and arranged around a central concept or subject. 

         A mind map uses a non-linear graphical layout that allows the user to build an intuitive framework around a central concept. A mind map can turn long list of monotonous information into a colorful, memorable and highly organized diagram that works in line with your brain's natural way of doing things.

        An online source is material you find online. It can be an online newspaper, magazine or television website such as NBC or CNN. Peer-reviewed journals, webpages, forums and blogs are also online sources. Some other names for online sources are 'electronic' sources, 'web' sources and 'internet' sources. Since so many sources are available online, it's important to know which ones are reliable, and how to cite them.

below are the example of mind map containing EFL teaching resources 

for the clearer information, please kindly visit this website 

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Technology in Education

‘Why should we integrate technology into education?’ and What might be the negative impact of technology on learning?”

Yes, we should. As the first video provides us about the history of it, this technology mainly shows a significant progress of education field over the year. Thus, the integration of technology in education should be more evolved. It is the benefits give for motivated relevant teaching and learning encouragement among learners. The form of teaching materials may vary as technological resources evolve. Nevertheless, the integration of technology has to be designed a logical order so as not to lose the sense of the main goal of teaching.

Everything has positive and negative effect as well. Many articles and videos show positive effects of technology in Education. Yet, in this session, I'm trying to provide one of negative impacts of technology in learning process. That's Technology Changes the Way Children Think. One of the Psychology Today article says that the use of technology can alter the actual wiring of the brain. More than a third of children under the age of two use mobile media. That number only increases as children age, with 95% of teens 12-17 spending time online. have a watch the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKaWJ72x1rI or kindly read this article https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-power-prime/201212/how-technology-is-changing-the-way-children-think-and-focus.

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Netiquette; the Basic Etiquette on the Internet

Netiquette is etiquette on the Internet. Since the Internet changes rapidly, its netiquette does too, but it's still usually based on the Golden Rule. The need for a sense of netiquette arises mostly when sending or distributing e-mail, posting on Usenet groups, or chatting. To some extent, the practice of netiquette depends on understanding how e-mail, the Usenet, chatting, or other aspects of the Internet actually work or are practiced. So a little preliminary observation can help. Poor netiquette because you're new is one thing, but such practices as spam and flaming are another matter. 

Then, why anyone needs Netiquette? 

The basic answer, it is because once the one is holding a conversation online, she/he only interprets what people have written without considering their body language, culture’s background even their up coming problems. Thus, this Netiquette rules will prevent us to reduce a social blunders which commonly happens in online communication. 

source: Link

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The History of CALL

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is defined in a seminal work by Levy (1997: p. 1) as "the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning". CALL embraces a wide range of information and technology applications and approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages, from the "traditional" drill-and-practice programs that characterised CALL in the 1960s and 1970s to more recent manifestations of CALL, e.g. as used in a virtual learning experience and Web-based distance learning.

For the following is a brief history of CALL and its development in education.

• The Creation of CALL in the Internet.

The use of Communication in Technology became substantially wide for the computer users. They can search through millions of files around the world within minutes to locate and access authentic materials. Here is the time when the World Wide Web (WWW) steeped forward.

• The Applicable of CALL 

Michael Levy (1997) conceptualizes CALL as the use of a computer according to the functional roles of tutor and tool in Language Learning / Teaching

• The Innovation of CALL in Multimedia

In last of 1990, the innovation of technology started with the use of Multimedia. It allows media such as text, graphics, sound, animation, and video to be accessed on a single machine.

• The First PC improving CALL

The first coming of the personal computer (PC) brought computing within the range of a wider audience.

• The First Introduction of CALL

The history of CALL began in the 1960's with the introduction of the PLATO system, which is developed by the University of Illinois to drill and practice materials.

• The Integration of CALL

Here is the time when the integration of CALL began. There are important technological developments of the last decade; They are multimedia computers and the Internet.

• CALL and Comminucative Approach

This phase became prominent since in the '70s until '80s that lean on communicative approach teaching. Several types of CALL programs were developed and used during this phase. First, there were a variety of programs to provide skill practice, but in a non-drill format. Secondly, as communicative activities, it involved the computer as stimulus. In this case, the purpose of the CALL activity is not so much to have students discover the right answer, but rather to stimulate students' discussion, writing, or critical thinking. Then, it did involved the computer as tool. In this role, the programs do not necessarily provide any language material at all, but rather empower the learner to use or understand language.

for further information, please kindly visit this URL http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/539191/The-History-of-CALL/ and get the timeline :-)

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Language Testing-Assessing Writing

Being a student of English Teacher Department, it might not common anymore if we heard the word testing.  

A test here means a method of measuring a person’s ability, knowledge, or performance in a given domain. Such in particular semester, the students in English teacher department will also have this kind of course, named Language Testing. 

This course is discussed about assessment. there are two types of assessment, they are;
(1) formative and summative (2) Objective and Subjective (3) Formal and Informal. 

(1) Formative and Summative

• Formative assessment refers to educative assessment, is used to aid learning. In an educational setting, formative assessment might be a teacher (or peer) or the learner, providing feedback on a student's work, and would not necessarily be used for grading purposes. 
• Summative assessment is typically used to assign students a course grade. This assessment is evaluative.

(2)  Objective and Subjective. 

• Objective assessment is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. 
• Subjective assessment is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer (or more than one way of expressing the correct answer).

(3) Formal Informal

• Assessment can also be either formal or informal. Formal assessment usually implies a written document, such as a test, quiz, or paper. A formal assessment is given a numerical score or grade based on student performance, whereas an informal assessment does not contribute to a student's final grade such as this copy and pasted discussion question.

In line with it, learning language is attempted to master 4 kind of skills; Listening, speaking, writing and reading. as well as measuring those skills, in language testing, there also 4 kinds of assessing. Yet in this case, we only try to discuss about ASSESSING WRITING. 

For further explanation, please kindly visit here. The slide is downloadable. 

Source: Brown, H. Douglas. (2004). Language Assesment : principles and classroom practices. White Plains, NY:Pearson Education.

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Making Crossword Puzzle

  To create eclipse crossword puzzle, there are some steps that you have to do:

1. You have to download the software and install  it in your PC

2. After installing, there will appear the picture bellow 

        There are two options will appear. The first is the option to start a new crossword. The second is the option to open a crossword that you have previously saved. Then click “next” in the right bottom.

3. If you choose the first option, there will be lead in the first step of eclipse. Then you should click the option in red circle. Then click “next”

4. In step 2, you should write the answer of the crossword in the “word” column and then give the clue or the question in “clue for this word “column. After that click “Add word to list” and your words will be appeared in “word list” column. Click “next”

5.       Thie list of words that you have created will appear in column

 6. Write your title of your crossword in the available column. Then click “next”

7.  In step 5, you may customize the size of your boxes puzzle. Then click “next”

8. once you click next, The result of your crossword puzzle will appear. You can change the shape of the crossword you like by click the link in red circle. Then click “next”

9. After you find the shape that you like, you will be lead in the options bellow. If you want to save your crossword click the link save crossword, or you may save the crossword by selecting the available options (print crossword, save as a web page, publish crossword). You can also save your word list that you have created by clicking the link save word list. 

10. As a teacher, if you want to publish the crossword to website as your student’s assignment, you can save it as a web page and click “Interactive with JavaScript”. And the students can fill the crossword by browsing the link that you have shared. To answer the puzzle, just click the blank boxes to get started. And to check whether the answer is right or not, you can click “check puzzle” in the bottom. 

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Teaching English Using Hot Potatoes

Hot Potatoes is shareware from Half-Baked Software which is based at the University of Victoria in Canada. It is a program that allows you to make six different types of self-test exercises. These exercises can also quite easily be imported into an LMS like Moodle to be used for assessment of learning content.

Hot Potatoes was originally meant to create language exercises, and some Hot Pot exercises

(like jumbled sentence) have little use otherwise. However, most exercises can be used for any subject.

Hot Potatoes is shareware. That means you can freely download the application from this website http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/hotpot/

For further information regarding how to make Hot Potatoes, Please kindly visit à

            http://academic.sun.ac.za/forlang_s/ftp/section7_html/hotpot_intro.pdf

Below are the examples of Hot potatoes.

             1.     JMatch

 JMatch allows for the creation of extensive matching exercises, including drag and drop types. Unlike in JQuiz (where a list of questions can be created) only one task can be created per data file and it  displayed on one page. Just as with JCloze and JCross, JMatch is not so suitable for combination with a reading text, because this would complicate the display of the task. The interface window for a JMatch task looks like this:

          2.      JQuiz

   JQuiz is the most commonly used Hot Potato. With JQuiz you create multiple choice and short-answer quizzes. When creating an exercise, start by configuring the output of the exercise ( ). The output configuration screens are quite similar in the different Potatoes so I’ll go through them in detail once, for JQuiz, and show only the main screens for the other Potatoes.

      3.       JCloze

JCloze is the Potato module with which you can create gap-fill exercises. Gap-fill, a.k.a. cloze texts, are eminently suitable for vocabulary and text comprehension training, but they can be adapted to other uses as well.

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Culture Shock

Culture shock can be described as the feelings one experiences after leaving their familiar, home culture to live in another cultural or social environment. Many people associate culture shock only with extreme changes of going from one country to another, but it can also be experienced closer to home, such as when traveling from one city to another within your own country. Even the most open-minded and culturally sensitive among us are not immune to culture shock.

For a further explanation, you can visit my podcast audio here

How to deal with it?

here are some tips to avoid culture shock.

• Learn as much as you can about the new location before you go. This means the good, the bad, and the simply different — from time zones, to what side of the street people drive on, to climate/temperature, to foods, political system, culture, customs and religion(s), to "Can you drink the water?" and "What type of electrical outlets do they have?", and more. If there's a language difference, try to pick up a few simple phrases, e.g., hello, thanks, etc.
• Remember there will be people who fit the image you create of the typical "Person from Country X" and those who do not. Clinging to stereotypes won't help you to learn more about a new country and its people.
• Be open-minded and willing to learning. Ask questions. If you are going to a place where people speak a different language, consider taking a few courses in that language.
• Maintain a sense of humor. (Perhaps the most important!)
• Knowing that the move will be a challenge, give yourself time. Don't be hard on yourself. 
• Don't withdraw! Continue to experience the new culture. Travel within the country, and visit cultural events and locations, such as museums or historic sites.
• Build new friendships.
• Associate with positive people.
• Stay active, eat well, and get enough sleep.
• Bring a few touches of home with you, such as photos of favorite locations and family members, your favorite music, or favored knickknacks.
• Keep in touch with people at home by Skype, email, phone, postcards — whatever. This can give you some comfort while away, and it will help you to minimize reverse culture shock when you get back home.

source: http://www.hziegler.com/articles/culture-shock.html  

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