I am writing this post to say THANK YOU to all the readers of my blog! I really enjoy reading your comments and evaluation of the tools! All of you have really great points. I would like to specifically thank English Language Teaching students studying at An-Najah National University in Palestine. This blog is mainly intended to you since it examines how such tools work in the Palestinian teaching/learning context. I believe you all will make great use of them and will have your own innovative ideas once you start teaching! I apologise for not being able to reply to and interact with all your comments and to discuss various issues related to technology in language teaching with you, but I definitely have read most of your comments and I am absolutely delighted by your critical and linguistic abilities! Your contribution is highly appreciated, and I am looking forward to teaching you all next year! 💖💙💛 We are going to do a great job discovering all these tools and more together!!
I promise I will be sharing more posts for you since you enjoy reading about technology and language teaching. Take care everyone, and see you soon!
This week's blog post is again about another tool for autonomous language learning, for I am continuously receiving questions from friends and students about how they can improve their language on their own without having to go to language classes. They always expect me to recommend websites and applications which teach them the language through explicit instruction, yet my answer is always that they need to find ways to use the language to accomplish tasks that they enjoy doing without receiving explicit instruction of language structures. In this post, I will be exploring how one's second/foreign language can be enhanced by using an application for karaoke singing.
Personally, I do enjoy singing despite not having the "talent" which will enable me to sing in concerts or participate in singing competitions; therefore, the best place for me to sing is karaoke parties. I also use a mobile application called Sing Karaoke by Smule to sing and to share my songs online with a community of karaoke singers. However, this particular mobile application can also be used for developing second/foreign language on various levels.
How can Sing Karaoke by Smule develop autonomous language learning?
First of all, language learning is best achieved when learners use the language in activities they enjoy doing. Learners can opt for singing their favourite artists' songs, and the lyrics will be displayed on the screen as the song goes on. In this way, the students encounter many familiar words in new contexts and get introduced to several new words that they can either guess from the context or will need to check in a dictionary. Therefore, the songs function as excellent contexts for introducing the students to new vocabulary and learning the spelling, pronunciation and usage of the vocabulary in context. Learners also get the chance to speak language at natural speed since the music is what controls when and how the words are said.
In addition, this application enhances learners' motivation through making singing a form of social interaction. Users of the application have the option of joining someone for a duet, and each participant can sing part of the song. In this way, the learners will be motivated to sing the song with the partner as well as to listen to it afterwards to evaluate their performance and that of the other participant. Moreover, some famous singers have accounts on this application, and they invite users to sing their songs along with them. For instance, here is an example of a duet that can be done for free with Ed Sheeran: (What can be more motivating than learning the language to sing a duet with Ed Sheeran!! 😜)
Users of this application can also be involved in real authentic communicative interactions where they are able to share comments and to read other people's comments on the songs that are shared with other users. In this way, users get involved in authentic language use where language production is the means of communication rather than the purpose of the interaction.
As a language teacher, I can encourage the students to practice their language through using this application by choosing to teach a particular song and then inviting them to sing it with me on an individual basis. In this way, the students' level of anxiety will not be high because they are unlikely to feel embarrassed to share their songs when the teacher is doing the activity with them. The students' understanding of the songs and the words in it will be maximised because their songs will be used for teaching in the classroom as well.
Any concerns?
despite the great advantages of learning language from songs, one might also argue that the language that is used in real-life communication is not always similar to the language of songs for two reasons. Firstly, some words might be pronounced differently in songs in order to suit the rhyme and the rhythm of the song. Secondly, some songs include poetic language that is full of similes, metaphors, personifications, etc., and this is not how daily language exactly sounds like. In addition, Sing Karaoke by Smule does not offer all of its features for free. Users are allowed to sing an unlimited number of duets with other users, yet if they want to share a song to invite people to sing with them, they will need a premium account. Therefore, when I decide to invite the students to sing a song with me, only I will need to have a subscription while they can join me for free. However, the features which help the students to develop their language, i.e. learning vocabulary, speaking, listening and interactive skills, are offered for free.
All in all, in addition to being a very popular fun activity, singing karaoke songs on Sing Karaoke by Smule can develop the students' language through introducing them to new vocabulary, teaching them pronunciation and allowing them to interact with other users through singing and posting comments and feedback.
Wordsiftis a tool for creating word clouds demonstrating the commonness of words in a text of your choice. The most common words come in larger font while the less common ones appear smaller as can be seen in the attached word cloud. All you need to do is to find a text on a specific topic, copy it, and paste it on Wordsift, and it will do the rest for you. I personally prefer Wikipedia texts, for they are generally objective, long and detailed, which more authentically demonstrates the frequency of words in a text. Look at the word cloud above which I have created using a Wikipedia article on Linguistics. By looking at the word cloud, it becomes clear that in the field of linguistics, potential common words could be: language, linguistic, study, grammar, and theory, while words such as discipline, documentation, writing, and speaker, though absolutely relevant to the field of linguistics, may be less common when talking about linguistics in general.
How Relevant is Wordsift for Language Teachers and Learners?
As can be seen from the example I have just given, Wordsift demonstrates the common words in a specific field, i.e., the jargon of the field. Therefore, teachers as well as students can test their knowledge of a specific field by creating word clouds with Wordsift, checking how many words they are familiar with and learning about the ones that they have not encountered before.
Due to my knowledge of their courses, I recommend students of English at An-Najah National University to create word clouds at the beginning of a certain module, like Drama, Shakespeare, Phonology, Syntax, etc., to keep the word cloud, and to highlight the new terms they encounter throughout the semester. In this way, the students get the chance to track their development of a specific field. In fact, it might be overwhelming at the beginning when the students encounter several technical terms that they are unfamiliar with; however, when they start to track their development gradually, they will definitely start feeling more secure and knowledgeable.
Moreover, Wordsift encourages learning vocabulary in context and through visualisation; therefore, it can function as a reliable tool for learning new vocabulary in context without having to translate the words into their first language. Here are some features of Wordsift which demonstrate how vocabulary learning becomes more visual and context-oriented through Wordsift:
First, after creating the word cloud, you will have the option of selecting any word which you want to learn more about, and Wordsift will create a simple map which illustrates the different contexts where the word is used and will organise related words in categories. In this way, your learning of vocabulary becomes wider, deeper and more systematic, for you will begin to learn vocabulary along with morphologically, syntactically and semantically related structures.
Second, Wordsift gives you the chance to select any of the words and to see the exact context where it occurred in your text. Therefore, learning vocabulary becomes more contextualised, for it is believed that knowledge of context makes it easier to remember the word and to use it more accurately in language production.
In addition, Wordsift has an image and video search options that are powered by Google. When selecting any word, you will be able to do a google image/video search on the same page, which also makes learning vocabulary more visual and interactive.
The last point I would like to talk about in Wordsift is that you can highlight words which belong to a certain genre like academic or scientific words, which also enhances vocabulary learning through grouping the words which fit together into categories.
Any concerns?
All the features mentioned above show that Wordsift is a very efficient method of learning vocabulary through contextualisation and visualisation. Nevertheless, you need to keep in mind that it is a computer programme that does all these tasks, and therefore the results might involve some inaccuracies on some occasions due to having words with multiple meanings. For instance, a google image search of the word discipline. which is synonymous with field in the context of linguistics, gave me results related to its meaning as will and self-control, which might leave students confused. Therefore, it is necessary when using Wordsift to have a look at the context in addition to the other features, for it demonstrates the word in the specific context that you have chosen.
In this post, I would like to evaluate the effectiveness of using Duolingo for language learning. To start with, it will be useful to watch this video which introduces Duolingo and its vision:
Duolingo is a programme which is designed for autonomous language learning and practice. To begin with, you should select the language that you would like to learn and your mother tongue (or any other language that you are competent with) in order to learn the target language. The journey begins with identifying your level of competency in the target language either by taking a placement test or by deciding to learn the language from the most basic level. Once your level is set, all you need to do is to start learning the language that you have chosen through various methods, such as translation, imitating sounds, repeating words, etc.
Advantages of using Duolingo
One major challenge that second language learners face is being motivated to practice the language on a daily basis. Language learners usually easily lose motivation even though consistency is key to learning a second language. However, Duolingo helps learners to overcome this problem by making language learning as a game that learners need to play everyday in order to keep their progress. The learners are required to gain a certain number of experience points everyday in order to keep developing their skills. Moreover, while learning the language and achieving more points, learners earn 'Lingots' or 'coins' that can be used to buy services which enhance the learning experience and make it more attractive. For example, they can buy a day of break without affecting their progress or a test which assesses their current level. In addition, Duolingo increases learners' motivation through allowing them to connect with their friends in order to track each other's progress. In this way the sense of competition between friends makes users motivated to achieve higher levels, and by achieving a higher level, students achieve more learning.
Language is presented in a very neat way, which enables learners to be fully aware of the level of language learning that they have achieved. Moreover, throughout the learning process, Duolingo gives the learners the chance to produce the language instead of being passive recipients. As a result, the students are more likely to remember what they have learned.
In addition to all of that, Duolingo is totally free of charge. While using it, learners will not be distracted by any screens asking them to subscribe or to check any advertisements.
Suitability for Palestinian Language Learners
I have heard that recently 3G has become available for everyone in Palestine, which means that Palestinian students as well as employees are able to use the commuting hours to learn and practice a second language that they aspire to learn. Furthermore, many students decide to take language courses in order to develop their skills; however, very few get the chance to practice the language outside the classroom. Duolingo is best used to support language learners; it might not be ideal to be the only source of language development, but it is definitely fantastic when learners use it to support language learning. I remember when I was doing a course in French, Duolingo helped me to remain on track with the course, and I even was always prepared for the following classes and for exams.
Moreover, many Palestinians aspire to learn Hebrew, since Hebrew is sisters with Arabic and it is spoken as a second language in Palestine. With Duolingo, many Palestinians will be able to learn Hebrew.
Any Limitations?
Despite all the advantages of Duolingo, it does not offer learners the chance to authentically develop communicative language skills, for it focuses on learning phonetic, lexical and syntactic structures with an emphasis on translation between the two languages, while authentic communicative situations are limited. In pedagogical terms, Duolingo seems to be following a behaviourist approach to language learning and teaching since it depends mainly on drilling, i.e. repetition, and translation. This is not to say that this is completely a shortcoming of Duolingo, for learners need more support to learn and produce accurate language structures. However, authentic communicative practice is also crucially important for developing language competence.
Teachers as well as students who only depend on PowerPoint for designing lessons and making presentations probably have wished that it offered more options such as adding YouTube videos to the screen and making a short quiz to start or end the lesson with in order to increase students' level of engagement with the lesson. Well, now there is an easy and free option for making powerful and interactive lessons which will enhance the classroom environemnt. This tool is TES TEACH with blendspace.
First, it will be so helpful to see this tutorial video which introduces the tool and offers a step-by-step guide to how it could be used:
What is special about TES TEACH with blendspace?
An example of the options that TES TEACH offers
When you use Tes Teach with blendpace, you will easily support your original lessons with online content to effectively illustrate your points and to give examples of what you are teaching. For instance, while designing the lesson, you can easily search online to find information, pictures and videos to support the content of the lesson. These online resources can be attached to the slides directly in a neat way without having to download them to your device first. I have designed a lesson using Tes Teach with blendspace to teach Macbeth. The lesson can be viewed simply by clicking here. I attached pictures from Google and videos from YouTube to illustrate the lesson further and to increase the students' engagement and understanding.Moreover, it linked me to 'Tes' where I could view what teachers have prepared and published about Macbeth, and many of the materials are free to use. In addition, the students can join the lesson using their computers to take a quiz which can test their preparation for learning about a certain topic and their understanding at the end of the lesson. Also, as a teacher, you can evaluate your students' engagement with the lesson or even with Tes Teach as a tool for teaching through the interactive options of 'like and comment'. Therefore, the teacher will be better able to plan for the next step after tracking the students' development and engagement through the various options that Tes Teach offers.
Some Pedagogical Underpinnings behind TES TEACH with Blendspace
Using computers along with the web supports blended learning, which is a term that refers to integrating technology with the traditional methods of teaching to give the students more space to work collaboratively and eventually independently. For instance, instead of telling the students the play of Macbeth and delivering all the knowledge by him/herself, the teacher can include what he/she expects the students to learn in the slides and ask them to watch the videos, read parts of the lesson together and share the knowledge with one another. In this way, the students work collaboratively to scaffold one another while doing the task, and with his/her observation of the students' development, the teacher can intervene to scaffold the students when he/she thinks it is getting too challenging for the students. As a result, the students' level of autonomy will increase, for they practice the skill of exploring knowledge by themselves. The teacher can also assign some tasks to be done as homework, which will give the opportunity for more engagement and interaction during the class.
Suitability for Palestinian Teachers
As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, the Ministry of Education in Palestine supports the use of technology in the classroom and is constantly providing more facilities and freedom to teachers to effectively use technology in classes. Hence, teachers can make use of Tes Teach with blendspace and design their lessons to enhance the students' understanding and engagement. Palestinian students are generally literate with technological tools and will easily accept and appreciate a tool such as Tes Teach with blendspace. However, English teachers will not be able to manage all their classes in the computer lab to make the students interact with the lesson. Nevertheless, this tool can still be used in the classroom with one computer device and a projector, and a smart teacher can make it as effective as when each student is using a computer. For instance, the teacher can divide the class into groups and make the quiz as a competition between the groups.
Any concerns?
A teacher needs to track his/her students' development and to see to what extent using the tool is efficient in order to know how to use it in future lessons. The students' response will determine how the teacher should use the tool and should determine the explicitness of instruction. Furthermore, teachers and presenters should be careful when using the online resources to design their lessons. These resources should be used to support the lesson and to make it more interactive and engaging; however, the teacher should keep the original content of the lesson and not over-depend on online resources to achieve the general outcome of a lesson.
This week's blog will introduce an excellent free of charge mobile application which gives its users the opportunity for communicating with people all over the world using the English language. This application is called Wakie.
Users of this application can choose for what purpose they are exactly using it, and one of the options is practicing the English language. Hence, the application links them with people who share the same interests and they start a voice call. In addition, users can choose to use the English language in conversations about more interesting and appealing topics such as discussing food and culture, singing and solving riddles.
Why should I use it?
While using Wakie, users will discover many advantages that they are unlikely to find in other software programmes, most importantly:
1. Wakie is absolutely free of charge. You get the chance to talk to people who share the same interest as you from all over the world with only having internet connection.
2. Using Wakie reduces language anxiety. When I was trying to know how people think of Wakie as a means for language development, a Russian user said: "I am using this application for three months now, and I am not afraid of the English language anymore". She explained that this is because she talks to learners who also aspire to improve their language, and being a stranger, she does not really care how they judge her language. Hence, she talks more freely and gets a great opportunity to practice communicative skills.
3. Wakie keeps you engaged and motivated. I also talked to an Indian guy who told me that he has been using this application for a year now. In addition to the reduction of language anxiety, using Wakie is fun because you get to discuss really interesting topics in the English language. For instance, after talking about his experience, this guy suggested that we sing together, which was a great fun experience. I personally will return to the application to sing and have lively chats with more people.
4. In addition to developing communicative skills, you will get the chance to expand your vocabulary. A Brazillian lady told me that she has been using Wakie for almost a year now, and she could expand her vocabulary through being involved in conversations about various topics. She added that her use of vocabulary has become more natural due to the consistent exposure to and use of the English language.
After talking to these people and hearing their experiences, I got really impressed with the level of engagement it offers. Learners usually get bored of a certain tool in a very short period because they feel that learning become mechanical and they are being instructed by a robot. On the other hand, Wakie, to a great extent, corresponds with the Vygotskyan theory which views learning as a socially mediated process. Through talking to people and sharing experiences together, users of the application collaboratively develop their communicative skills
Suitability for Palestinian learners:
The above mentioned advantages are international and apply to all language learning contexts. However, as a country where English is used as a foreign language, Palestinian students rarely get the opportunity to communicate in English outside the language classroom. Through using Wakie, Palestinian students will get a greater opportunity for using the English language for communicative purposes with people from all over the world. Moreover, smartphones and internet connection are almost available with almost all learners in Palestine, so they will not need any costly tools.
Any Conserns?
Well, talking to strangers is not always a good experience. Some users may not abide by the internet etiquette, especially if they are using the application anonymously. However, spam users usually get blocked after a short period of time because users report them when they misbehave. Moreover, each member has a rating out 5, so when using Wakie, choose to chat with users with good rating and avoid ones with low rating to ensure you are dealing with well-behaved individuals.
I would like to start this week's post with an anecdote. One of my students has once sent me a message (anonymously screenshotted here). I know you might not understand Arabic, so I'll tell you what her question was about. Basically, she was telling me that she was no longer interested in going to specialised institutions to learn English because she was not getting the education that she was expecting. Therefore, she has decided to start working on developing her own skills independently using different tools on the internet, especially YouTube. What she wanted from me was some recommendations for specific websites and YouTube channels which could help her learn autonomously. Thus, I recommended to her a few YouTube channels, most prominently English with Lucy.
English with Lucy is an amazing YouTube channel which offers to students free English lessons. Through her tutorial videos, Lucy not only explains language lessons about various topics but also helps students develop different strategies for learning the language independently. See the video below, for example, through which she recommends some tricks and strategies to make English (or any second language you are interested in learning) part of your everyday life:
Who can benefit from this channel?
Well, everybody can follow English with Lucy and benefit from her lessons. However, from my experience with Palestinian students majoring in English, I have found that they have always complained that the course plan does not offer enough modules which would "teach" them aural/oral skills or all grammatical structures they want to learn since a great deal of the modules largely focuses on topics such as literature, drama, TEFL, etc. My answer to this issue has always been that students could work on developing their speaking and listening skills (or any skill, of course) because the major aim of the undergraduate programme is to focus on developing the students' knowledge and competence of their specialisation, yet it definitely is not able to cover EVERYTHING!
Why this Channel in particular?
What I love about English with Lucy is that the videos uploaded on it are filmed with high quality. Learners will usually be highly engaged with the material and the explanation that she presents without getting distracted in any way. Moreover, having a teacher with a great smile and sense of humour is absolutely necessary for keeping learners motivated. In Lucy's videos, she brilliantly maintains a very engaging sense of humour. As a result, students get eager to watch more videos because they enjoy the funny way through which she addresses her topics.
In addition, some students may be in great need for English classes, but they might not be able to financially afford to get enrolled in ones. The great thing about YouTube, in general, and English with Lucy, in particular, is that students can enjoy the videos without having to pay a single penny. Moreover, students can kill two birds with one stone when watching videos presented by teachers whose first language is English. In addition to focusing on the content of the video and developing students' knowledge, Lucy offers an authentic context for learners which is very similar to the context of attending a lecture in an English-speaking country.
Besides the unique content briefly foreshadowed above, Lucy offers very helpful pronunciation tips which students, especially those majoring in English, can understand and practice quite easily, for they usually study pronunciation theoretically without getting the chance to apply the knowledge and master the skill. For instance, here is a video about the pronunciation of the -ed morpheme which is added to regular verbs to form the past tense:
Any Challenges?
However, the fact that Lucy is a native speaker and speaks with natural fluent English might be overwhelming for many students, especially for learners who have not got much exposure to natural spoken English. Nevertheless, I promise; just give yourself some time and you will discover that listening skills easily and quickly develop. From my experience with my students, this process happened much faster than they expected.
Moreover, Students need to be aware that Lucy is not the only teacher they can access online. She is absolutely competent, and watching her videos is both fun and rewarding, but they should always check other YouTube channels that are equally helpful. I suggest EngVid and Learn English with Papa Teach me.
