Podcasting in Language Classroom

   

    This week we have learned how to incorporate podcast in language teaching. I have no idea what podcast is until I learned this mod. I am glad that I found out podcasting is a wonderful resource for language teaching. It is not a great tool for training listening skills, but also great for learning about latest news, technology, and different cultures. Moreover, both teachers and students can easily access to it without difficulties.

     Yesterday was the big day for England. It seems that people are crazy about royal wedding. Therefore, I have found this episode:World News for School: 28th, April, 2011 on BBC World News for Children.  

      Before listening to the episode, I would have students brainstorm what a royal wedding should look like. After students have some background information about the royal wedding, they would listen to the episode for two times and meanwhile answer the following question such as when was the royal wedding? What people are crazy about the wedding? Why this day is special for the world? What celebrity attended the wedding? What people did in England to celebrate the wedding?. I would like to use these questions to check their comprehension and also lead them to discuss this issue in depth. After the listening activity, students may go home to find more information on England and England Royal Family. The follow up activities would talk more about British culture.       

        Podcasting has a wide variety of topics that can satisfy the needs of teaching and the interests in learning. I think it is a easy and effective way for students to learn about the world while learning English.

ePals

      I think the most useful features that e-Pal can benefit my students is it create a forum for EFL students to communicate can cooperate others all over the world. In EFL context, sometimes students are lack of motivation in English learning because they don’t see the necessity of learning English and using English as a tool for communication. They learn because they are forced to do so. Not all of the students have the chance to travel abroad so that it’s not easy for them to aware globalization.
    E-Pal is a great tool for students have the opportunity to use the language they learned and learn with other students. By working cooperatively, they can both share their own culture and learn other culture. Thanks to technology, students can communicate and learn with e-pals with email and discussion forum. It would be an exciting learning experience. 

       For my future teaching, I would like to use e-pal to mediate cultural awareness for my students. By following the activity guide, I would like to have my students well-prepared to learn and contribute their creativity. After they finished one project, I would upload their works I order to motivate them by enhancing the sense of achievement. By engaging them in cultural project, I would like to have students start to use digital media and Internet to develop digital literacy.

   

Box of Chocolates

Are we going to talk about how to make chocolates?

Or are we going to talk about how much do we believe in “life is like a box of chocolates” ?

Yes, I am addicted to all kinds of chocolate but A Box of Chocolate is actually a blog set by Cecilia Lemos, who is an English teacher in love with teaching, languages, books, music and art.

I think this blog is interest and useful me because it shares kinds of English teaching activities which are very useful. Last week, Cecilia shared three activities related to Valentine’s Day which I found very inspiring. The post called Love is in...The ESL Classroom! These activities are not only motivating because they are so related to students’ lives but also they can introduce how different cultures react to the same issue or festival. Because we don’t have Valentine’s Day in Taiwan and most students have misconception about this day. Therefore, I think it’s a good opportunity for them to think about it via English learning.

Besides, Cecilia has shared her beliefs on teaching and various activities with attached documents, which I think very helpful for me to teach high school students or advanced adult learners in the future.

There are still numerous of blogs and websites that share resources and ideas for teaching English. And I think one of the biggest reason accounts for recommendation of this blog is that this is set up by a teacher who seems to close to me. By reading her posts is like listening to my classmates’ speaking. Moreover, her passion for teaching language and life motivates me to be an English teacher just like her. I am glad that there are so many resources I can use which would facilitate my future teaching.  

Pay Attention!

After Watching the video Pay Attenyion!, I am considering the drawbacks  on  the quality of education if a teacher doesn’t know how to make a good  use of technology in teaching.

I had no idea on how serious the problem would be until I watched the data. Yes, indeed students range from young kids in elementary school to graduate students are engaging themselves in computer, the Internet, cell phone and i-pod. They are not only engaged with those technology. The majority of students actually indulge in them. Hence, there is no doubt that teachers should use the technology to engage and motivate students in learning and studying. I believe it’s each teacher’s dream that their students make as much efforts in learning as they do in playing video games and chatting with friends on line. Why not making the dream come true?

Another issue that the clip mentioned is the richness of information on line. Nowadays, the learning is no longer confined in a textbook, few pages of handouts or a classroom. Moving from a one room school house to a one world school house is the reality. Therefore, it is important for a teacher to remove the wall that restricted students learning. Due to the fact that students have different aptitudes, interests and ways of learning, it’s a teacher’s duty to enable students to learn with their own ways. And the variety in availability of resources enable both teachers and students to reach the highest effectiveness of learning and teaching.   

After watching this video, as a future educator, I swear that I would definitely cure my technology phobia and meanwhile, I would make huge efforts in polishing skills of using technology and resources on-line so as to benefit my future students.

There is another interesting and inspiring website : Transforming Teaching Through Technology related to the topic above.  There are much more information provided on how to integrate teaching and technology