Rock your classroom!

Source: http://lyricstraining.com

Songs are common on textbooks of general English such as Headway and New English File. Some research experiences proved the effectiveness of songs on learning vocabulary (Coyle & Gomez Gracia 2014), while others indicated that listening speed, weak/strong forms, ambiguity of words' boundaries and immediate decoding are common challenges for beginners during listening activities (Renandya & Farell, 2010). However, dialogues and songs on textbooks are designed for a learning purpose, which is fine, but this adaptation makes them more artificial. For more authentic listening input, news reports, interviews and songs from the real life would appeal to students. Songs can particularly be a good choice if learners are acquainted with the melody and want to know what it means.

What is Lyricstraining?

Lyrics training is a FREE websites where you can find songs in different languages. The website provides a wide range of real live music according to their types and the level of your learners. Songs are offered as they are; with their original videos, singers and speed. The videos below shows how to use Lyricstraining.

Video 1: Getting started.

Video 2: An example of activity in the writing mode.

You can try any song, any level and anytime by clicking here.

Lyrics Training and Language Learning

You can choose some songs and present them in the classroom then ask students to dictate to you the missing words. This will be a good break from the course materials and motivate them for the course. Moreover, it will give them a chance to listen to different 'Englishes' that you don't teach such as British and American English. Since songs are similar to every day spoken language, students will be exposed to features such as omission which is common and formal classes tend to ignore it and focus on the full form. Songs can be a good source of vocabulary because they contain not only words in isolation, but junks of words such as similes, proverbs, phrasal verbs and idioms. You can even extend the activity by making related tasks; you can pre-teach some key vocabulary, discuss the theme, ask them to use 10 words in a paragraph, etc.

The site is accessible from everywhere, which makes it a good tool to initiate learner's autonomy. Audio, visual and music addicted learners can work on their own by listening to songs and get new input. They will also look up new words in dictionaries as they will be eager to know the meanings of songs. Then, hopefully, the language they learn there will be a part of their linguistic knowledge which can help them in their classroom, work or real life.

Consider these facts

Lyrics training is an online website, so you will need internet access if you decide to use it in your classroom. You will also need a large screen and speakers because if your learners are not able to see the lyrics and listen to the song, the whole activity will not work.

Another important fact for us in Sudan is the religion and the culture. Not all the online videos match our beliefs, norms and tradition, therefore make sure you pick APPROPERIATE videos to use in the classroom. Appropriateness also extends to language context. Some songs contain unsuitable language, for instance, taboo. So it is worth considering these aspects and be well prepared before using the website in the classroom. 

ELT Listening Songs Vocabulary

07:17:00

 Little Things Make a Big Difference

Source: www.teacherstore.de

A new trend

As the tool we are about to discuss in this post depends on mobile devices, let's have some research and experiences' insights into the use of mobile in ELT. Does your institution allow students to use mobile phones? It could be a question to think about. In Sudan, we are strict about the use of mobiles in classrooms and it's a common policy which is well justified. "It is still common for schools to ban mobile phones in the classroom (and there are good reasons for this), but this will become increasingly difficult as learners use their phones for more and more tasks" (Walker & White, 2013). Their claim is that teachers can make use of their learners phones to enhance learning through drill and practice tasks as well as looking up information tasks. They also suggested that to enable Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL), teachers have to trust their students and accept the fact that students can be creative by using mobiles. A national MALL project, with UK and local partners, has been launched in Bangladesh to run for nine years (2008-2017). The English in Action (EIA) project aims to rich twenty-five million Bangladeshis. Surprisingly, the project isn't only using smartphones, but also Nokia basic phones with SD cards. It is clear now mobiles can help and Socrative is one of the tools that you can use in your classroom.

Why Socrative?

First of all, this handy tool is super easy to use as we will see. The website has made it easier for both students and teachers by providing an app that can work on Android and Apple devices (see Android Apps or App Store) but actually it's not a must since you can do whatever you want by navigating on the website which enables you to use the same features in the same way.  In addition, it offers a quick formative assessment toolkit which is based in three types of questions: multiple choice, true/false and short answer questions. If you have a few extra minutes and are not sure what to do, you can use a Socrative quiz as a good break while reflecting on previous activity(ies). Moreover, You can use it to ease scaffolding. Say you are teaching writing a letter, you can design a simple true/false quiz that guides the learners to the components of letters, why they are used and how they are structured. Another use which is very helpful for my classroom (which consists of forty or more students) is polling or getting immediate insights from all the members. Here is an example of a quiz I made to review a communicative lesson, recognising digressions in lectures (on student's screen).

And here what I am seeing on my PC screen, which can also be seen from a mobile phone as well.

How to get started?

- Go to http://www.socrative.com/ and choose TEACHER LOGIN. You can get a free account or use your Google account to login directly if you have one.

- Once logged in, Socrative gives you a room code that you will share with your students. Students won't need to register but they must type their names and the room code.

- You will also be able to see a dashboard where there are four options: Start a quiz to publish a quiz you've already prepare,. Quick question is used for polling, scaffolding or warm up, Space race for a group-based competition and Exit ticket which is a three general questions checking how much they learned in that specific session.

- On the top left hand corner, exist three tools: the Dashboard (shown on the picture above), Manage quizzes and Live results. Let's suppose we clicked on manage quizzes.

- As you can see, there are four options again: Create quiz, Import quiz (if you want to use another Socrative teacher's quiz or if you downloaded Socrative Excel, filled it with a quiz and want to upload it), My quizzes (to duplicate, edit, delete or download a previous quiz you've created) and Report (provides reports of students performance on quizzes). Let's go to Create quiz.

- The screen above shows how a multiple choice question is edited. You can add a picture or provide feedback on the explanation bar. It's easy to work with the true/false and short answer questions as well.

Final comments

You can publish your quizzes on students' pace or your own pace. The flexibility of this tool is really considerable, however, we should also consider a few things if we want to use it. First, Do all my students have mobile phones and access to the internet? It will just ruin the activity if you try it with some students and leave the others. Secondly, you will not be able to get detailed answers. A multiple choice question is restricted to the options you have suggested, so are true/false and short answer questions. This may limit students' creativity so it is worth thinking about what to use it for. Finally, if you are using Socrative with more than one classroom, there is a possibility that students from other classes use it since the room code you use is the only one. This can be a disaster if you are doing the same lesson later with that class in addition to the fact that students can use any name to login since no password is required. If you take these issues into account, together with the content of the quizzes and polls, you will admire it. If that is the case, please leave a comment about your experience.

Classroom polls ELT Formative Assessment MALL Scaffolding Warm-up

11:07:00

A Call for 'MALL'

Source: http://itunesu.bluevalleyk12.org

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL)

Mobile phones are the most common technology we can find everywhere. Recently, ELT research started to investigate possible roles mobiles can play in language learning and how to deploy them to meet teachers and learners needs. There has been uncertainty about what is meant by "Mobile Learning" because the arguments were about which mobility is meant, is it the mobility of the devices or of the learners? (Hockly, 2012). However, for ELT, MALL is clearly addressing the device. It started when the British Council began launching some apps to assist language learners, then publication companies started to include applications in their materials' packages. Today's tool is basically a website but now has its own 'app' although you can still use the website.

Kahoot, a mobile tool your students will admire

Kahoot is a game based website designed to be created and controlled by one person (a teacher) from a computer and players (students) who login from their smartphones. The most common game you can use on Kahoot is called Quiz. Quiz is basically a multiple choice game with four options which can be reduced to two and can't exceed four. Teachers will need a classroom screen big enough to enable all students to see it otherwise it won't work because all the display will be on the main screen. Also, classroom speakers should be loud enough. Students will be able to see ONLY colours with shapes representing the options. The following tutorial video shows how to work with Kahoot.

                                                              Source: https://www.youtube.com

Some thoughts about using Kahoot

Kahoot works best for definitions, therefore you may use it to recycle vocabulary. Lots of ideas can be used here to create useful quizzes such as using synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, hypernyms, word groups and derivatives. With higher levels, you can try fixed expressions and collocations and with beginners you can check spelling and homonyms. A good strategy to make sure that students have learned the vocabulary is to recycle the same quiz at least once, with a good time gap and then compare the results. This technique gives an insight of students' progress which helps you to make good decisions about your own practice and teaching styles. For example, I teach an ESP course to a large class. Their main course is business English and their material is based on terms. The following picture demonstrates a sample of vocabulary quiz.

In addition to vocabulary, you can create grammar related quizzes. These can be about tenses, clauses, articles, etc. If you are to use a grammar quiz, you can guarantee better results by:

1. Sentence completion . . This question type hits directly on your learning outcomes and is useful for activities such as parts of speech, patterns and prepositions.

2. Vocabulary link . . To achieve a communicative goal while learning grammar, try to embed material vocabulary in your quiz.

3. A grammar trip . . My suggestion here is a full grammar lesson based on Kahoot. Say you are teaching adding 'ed' to verbs and the spelling rules related to them. You can design a quiz of fifteen questions, ten normal sentences where students work out the rules while playing, and five form-related questions to check that they understood the rules.

One more stop

Finally, to use Kahoot we should consider that both classroom and students meet the hardware and software requirements. ALL students must have smartphones with access to the internet and teachers must have big monitors and speakers. To some teachers, designing a Kahoot activity needs time that they can't offer. Actually it is a sort of material and test writing. So, loaded teachers may find it challenging to spare some time to create quizzes.

Kahoot fails to address all the outcomes, so you should be aware of when and why to use it. For instance, you cannot use Kahoot to practice a listening or pronunciation and, consequently,  will need another software. Being aware of all these pitfalls, you can now try it yourself and tell us how it worked in your classroom.

ELT Games MALL Vocabulary Warm-up

06:58:00

Making Videos to Teach and Learn English

Source: https://ctl.mesacc.edu

Communicative vs Digital Competence

As our world changes, new types of correlations affecting language learning emerge. A good debate to consider was presented by Walker & White (2013). Communicative competence, as it had already been described by a model, consists of four integrated areas: linguistic competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence. Digital competence, on the other hand, has also been described by four integrated areas: procedural competence, socio-digital competence, digital discourse competence and strategic competence. The assumption is each technology is designed for a specific type of learners, with a certain digital competence so teachers must be aware of these terms if they are to introduce new technologies to their learners.

According to Wikipedia, Screencast refers to any recording of a screen output accompanied normally by audio narration. So a screencast software, such as Screencast-O-Matic, allows you to record what is happening on your screen while you are talking. When recording, you can have a small screen containing a video of you and a larger one containing a video of your PC screen or vice versa depending on your need, so you are able to record three things at the same time: your voice, your video and your screen. The videos below show how to use Screencast-O-Matic.

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

How can it enhance teaching & learning?

A pioneer in the use of ELT training videos is Russell Stannard who created a wonderful website containing videos about learning technologies. Following the same approach, if you are a teacher trainer, you can make videos about any theme by having some PowerPoint slides and your voice, thus you don't have to repeat the same thing over and over again wherever you go and your trainees will have the advantage of getting back to what you said whenever they want. It also reduces your preparation time if you are a busy bee and you can use it in your lectures and workshops.

Productive skills are rarely dealt with specifically speaking, this tool allows your students to make their own videos with sufficient time to reflect, edit and reproduce them. Ideally, this task is practical for us in Sudan because the connection is not always stable, therefore being online to record does not apply in these circumstances, unlike other software such as Blackboard Collaborative where students must be online and respond immediately. Students will just need to download it then they might use their email to send it to you or bring it in a USB stick. In addition to appropriateness of use and reflection benefits, it gives teachers enough time to assess students' speaking performance. I used to have students speaking in front of me while asking them some questions. Later on, I started to audio record their speech in order to give them fair marks by listening again to the speech/dialogue and evaluate it in a better way. This is common worldwide and is adopted in IELTS, however, the immediate conversation does not reflect students' linguistic competence. When students speak at their own pace, at a time that works for them, they can produce a better output.

A reflective point

Although the use of Screencast-O-Matic by students is a great way to help evaluate their speaking skill, they can write a well structured text and just read it with good pronunciation which turns the activity into reading activity instead of a speaking one. Additionally, if you have a big class, you may confuse students' voice thus may not possibly decipher who recorded what. This dilemma can be worse if you have naughty students with high-tech abilities that enable them to play with the sound. So, it is recommended not to use it for formal assessment, unless you guarantee the procedure. It is still great as a speaking practice tool that works if you use it properly.

Digital Literacy ELT Reflection Speaking

10:44:00

Nudge your students and peers

Source: Tilly Harrison meeting room /CAL , University of Warwick

From Krashen to Webinars

The idea of input suggested by Krashen (1981, 1982, 1985) has been one of L2 pillars and since then has been reviewed and enhanced. One of the notable modifications has been Swain hypothesis (1985) which offers a triangle of input, interaction and output. While the input is the language learners are exposed to, the output is what they produce with that language. Students need to demonstrate how much they have learned by writing or speaking, but it is not always the case and sometimes we need to do something to help them produce that output. From this starting point came the idea of the "pushed output" (McDonough & Mackey 2006).  To force students talk, normal speech criteria are applied such as repetition, giving incomplete sentences or hints and recycling to name a few. The tool I'm talking about in this blog supports this notion as we will see.

About Blackboard Collaborative

It's a Webinar and Video Conference online platform. All you need to do is to type your name and join the session, but you must have a link of the room first. It's a great online tool for teacher training, which is very common and useful because teachers are loaded with work and sometimes trainers live in another country. It is really practical and reduces the cost of hosting and travelling with a time bonus. It also allows document sharing such as PowerPoint slides and also a live video of your screen if you want to share files on you PC, applications and websites. My recent experiences with Blackboard Collaborative were giving feedback to two mentees and a presentation to my peers. The video below shows a part of the presentation.

I don't want to go further with teacher training, instead I'd like to share some thoughts of using it and similar online conferencing applications. First, it can be used to encourage students to speak. You can arrange fixed times when all students login and individuals or groups make short presentations on different topics. It has exactly the same effect as traditional presentations in addition to other advantages. For example, students will be more comfortable in their homes and their output will be more, especially the shy ones. They will also do pretty well if you give them the option to switch off their videos and just talk or use slides while talking so that everybody follow.

Another useful speaking activity is role-playing. Assign roles to students, a reporter and two guests, a phone call, etc. These activities work differently on online bases while other classmates listen and add some ideas in the chat or just listen to their peers speaking then comment or ask questions at the end. I sometimes coach some students for debating competitions, by using this technology we can meet anytime and I can simply oppose their position during the online meeting, this will also allow me to push them to think of what to say, with the  flexibility to meet in the evenings during competitions instead of the phone calls I used to have and the time spent repeating the same thing to every single one of the three students. What's more? all sessions can be recorded and used for documentation or reflection purposes.

Easy as falling off a log

If you are a participant, you only need to type your name and click on Join Session. You will see the screen below.

The icons at the bottom are used by both participants and moderators. Here's a bit of detail about each of them (from left to right).

1. My Settings: to adjust microphone and camera settings.
2. Share Audio: to allow sound from your own mic.
3. Share Video: to allow live video from you webcam.
4. Put hand up: to draw attention to the speaker if you want to ask, comment or interrupt.
5. Open Chat: to send written messages, reply to a question or share a link.
6. The arrow on the top: to leave session.

 For moderators only:

7. The last icon on the right-hand bottom: to permit participant to use any or all of the features above / to record the session.

8. The + sign on the top: to share a blank white board, a file or your PC screen.

Some restrictions to avoid

Apparently, participants will need a good Wi-Fi to use Blackboard Collaborate effectively, otherwise they will see a hazy image or no image at all and can experience some sound cut offs. This can also happen with good connection if multiple users have their webcams on. A good trick for this problem is to ask participants to switch off their videos. A good microphone is also required for presenters and they should be in a quiet place, nobody likes hearing a barking dog or a slamming door while learning. One more thing to mention, Blackboard Collaborative is restricted to specific users and this limits your audience but all the features are more or less available on other similar and free software.

Collaborative Learning CPD ELT Interaction Output Teaching methodologies Video Conferencing Webinars

08:24:00

Bring joy to your classroom

Source: www.tripticoplus.com

Today's tool is a task-based one that promotes interactivity. What I mean here is the conversation that takes place among learners. There are many learning styles where this approach dominates such as collaborative and cooperative learning and  peer teaching  (Philp et al 2013). Leaners can share both their linguistic and cognitive knowledge with their classmates whether by providing a context to practise the language, corrective feedback or polishing their language.

A trip on Triptico

Interactivity with Triptico goes beyond the linguistic aspect and extends to the technological one by using an interactive whiteboard. You can still use it if you have a classroom monitor and speakers, in both cases it will make a great environment for your students because it has features of games such as being amusing and competitive. An example of an activity I created using Triptico can be found here.

The magic toolkit offers a wide range of activities that I can't address in a single post, however I will explain one of them in details. The example shown above is called 'Find Ten' where you ask a question and provide fifteen options of which ten are correct. You can divide into pairs or small groups (not more than five students per group) and give them some time to interact and find their way. A useful tip for teachers while students are doing an activity on their own is to move among them and 'volunteer' help. Another worthy tip to mention is to bend or sit down so that your head  is at the same level of the students. Finally, a member of the group can come to the interactive whiteboard and tab the answer his/her group think is correct. What is enjoyable about Triptico is that it's really 'funky, it will  'buzz' for a few seconds and suspense will be present, then 'hurray' if they get it right, the option will be green and a winning music is played or 'oops' if they get it wrong, a red colour and music is also provided. You can also write feedback or give more explanation at the back of the option card, this can be seen only if the option is picked. You can consider it as a motivation initiator for it breaks the ice and monotony of the session.

How can I create my own 'Find Ten'?

First, you need to subscribe on Triptico in order to be able to use its tools. You can sign up for a free trial period of thirty days.

The second tool bar shows Activity, where you ask a question about any feature or write a message and you will get an answer from Triptico team and users, My Saves, where you see the activities that you have created/started, My Details where you can see and edit your personal and membership details and Resources (shown on the picture below).

In the resources section, there are lots of useful choices coming under four categories: tools, timers, selectors and quizzes. Our target, 'Find Ten' is in the quizzes section. You will then find a menu icon, click on it and you will be able to see the screen below. 

Select (I'd like to create a new 'Find Ten' activity), type the question or the rubric on the title bar then type the correct answers/options on the green boxes and the misleaders on the red ones. The correct answer are not literally ten, you can edit the number of the correct answer from the icon that shows 10 on the bottom right hand side. After designing the activity, you can add more information or feedback about each option.

It is clear that you need hardware (interactive whiteboard or a monitor) and internet connection to use Triptico. Another constrain is that if the Trial period is over, you will need to pay £15 for a year's subscription ($23). If you are lucky and convinced your institution or if you are a decision-maker there, the website offers an institution subscription which can be used by all the staff. Lastly, bear in mind that Triptico has limitations with the tasks it offers, therefore it is not possible to use it to deliver all the aspects of language teaching.

Classroom Interaction Collaborative Learning ELT Peer Teaching Task-based Learning

16:51:00

Blended Learning

Source: www.Pinterest.com

What is it about?

The tool discussed in this post is supporting "blended learning" so it is worthy to talk about it before we look at Blendspace. To 'blend', in general English, is to mix or to combine. When it comes to ELT, there were lots of debates about what it means. Some discussed it can refer to three concepts (Sharma; 2010) : 1) a mixture of teaching methodologies e.g. communicative approach, Task-Based Learning (TBL), Total Physical Response (TPR), etc. 2) a mixture of face-to-face and online deliverables and 3) a mixture of technologies used to mediate interactions between a tutor and a learner. It is clear that technology is involved in two of the definitions so the widespread thought when we talk about blended learning goes in favour of the second definition and this is what I am dealing with here.

 As Whittaker (2013) indicated, blended learning is any combination of face-to-face and online deliverables and their share (the extent to which they contribute) of the course does not exclude them from the category. Thus if, for example, a teacher uses an online platform such as the Moodle to share a handout that students must read before coming to classroom, it is considered a blended course.

Blendspace

Blendspace is a website where you can design online lessons/activities. The website gives you a variety of resources such as youtube, images and other online materials. You can also type a text that suits the level of your students as well as using your own resources. To create a lesson, follow these steps:

- Go to https://www.tes.com/lessons and register an account or use your Gmail details to login.

- Click on New Lesson on the top left. You will then be able to see the following page.

- Start designing you lesson by simply dragging and dropping files from your device. You can add a document, a PDF file, an image or you can type a text and edit it.

- For online resources, you can use the search box on the top right hand side. Alternatively, you can use the vertical column on the right to search on YouTube, Google, Flickr, Gooru, or to insert a webpage or a file from your device or from Dropbox.

- If you are satisfied with you lesson, click on share and get the link to the lesson. You can share it on social media websites such as Facebook or you can embed it. Or if you want to share it with a specific group you can adjust the privacy settings.

What can I do with Blendspace?

There are lots of interesting activities you can do with this tool. For example, you can embed other educational webpages into  the slides and integrate them in your lesson. Similarly, you can make a video-based lesson where you address listening then make a multiple choice test to assess your learners' understanding and progress. You can see a simple lesson I have designed for A1-A2 students by clicking here.

Hopefully, not only beginners can benefit from the website, but also advanced learners as well. In my context, I teach university students who are eager to learn. Now I can use Blendspace as a platform where I can provide sub reading materials with a quiz. This works well in contexts where Moodle, or any other platforms, are not used or their access is challenging to some students.

Teachers can use Blendspace to evaluate their students because  they can see how well their students are doing. Teachers will also get useful feedback on their own material writing skills through the comments their audience use. Finally, the lessons are online and creative teachers can share their lessons to help any learner in the world. There are some examples of these teachers on the websites and their lessons are given the title "Featured Lessons".

Limitations of Blendspace

Having mentioned all the brilliant things you can do with Blendspace, there is another side that we must consider before using it. Learners need to have access to the internet in order to use the website. This can create inequality if some of the learners have and others don't. In addition, Blendspace supports receptive skills (reading and listening) but it can do nothing about productive skills (writing and speaking) except the comments part where there is some kind of interaction. Some students would prefer to work with their peers to learn, for those learners Blendspace offers nothing and collaborative learning  cannot take place.

blended learning ELT Teaching methodologies

16:22:00

Social networks to support ELT

Source: Rehabilitation Research & Training Center for Evidence-Based Practice in Vocational Rehabilitation (RRTC-EBP VR)

In my previous blogs, I talked about technologies that can be used in teaching by students' involvement. Today, however, my focus is on the teacher as an important resource of the process of language learning. We are now surrounded by social media and it is easy to follow social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The role of teacher's autonomy is an essential one to this process. "The teacher is at the epicentre of the learning process ... learning therefore depends first and foremost on the quality of the teacher" (Schwille et al 2007:15).

To begin with, I assume everybody who reads this post is able to login on Facebook. If not, please click here to register and follow the instructions. I would like to highlight two possibilities we can use social media for in order to promote teacher's awareness of the profession. Firstly, teacher's development or Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in its Craft Model and Reflective Model (Wallace 1991) suggests that teachers learn from more experienced teachers by looking at what they do and then try to implement it in their own contexts as well as assessing their own practice. Social media provides a wide range of experienced professionals sharing their practice, thoughts and experiments. Observing these practices doesn't only enhance those who have already started their careers, but also novice teachers and teaching students who can learn a lot of things that might not exist in their materials.

Secondly, teachers can use these networks to form E-communities of Practice. English teachers can form groups online and get together sharing ideas, resources and events to enhance their teaching. Face to face associations, communities of practice and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) such as IATEFL, TESOL, ASTEL (Association of the Sudanese Teachers of English Language) etc proved high efficiency and are becoming more and more popular, which pushed some scholars such as Stoll and Louis (2007) to draw attention to them. Online communities are now a necessity even for the established face to face communities as a backup and an engagement mechanism.

A clear application of this practice, for example, can be found on Facebook. There are lots of pages of associations and groups that you can Like or Join.

Source: ASTEL page as shown on www.facebook.com

The picture above shows ASTEL page on Facebook. There are other useful pages (click on them if you want to explore) such as English Language Teachers group in Sudan, Sudanese Researchers Initiative, IATEFL, TESOL International Association, Teaching English - British Council and ESL library. There are similar pages and groups on other social media websites like Twitter, it doesn't matter where but what really matters not missing the chance of getting connected online with other ELT professionals.

Why does it matter?

I recommend that teachers form E-communities for their own peers, e.g. a group of English primary school teachers based in Khartoum or other similar city/state/province/locality can launch a platform in which they share their practices, experiences, concerns etc.  There is also the benefit of getting in touch with regional and international communities where different contexts and practices are discussed. Other benefits include: reflection, collaboration, contextual appropriateness and encouraging teacher development as an ongoing process.

On the other hand, E-communities of practice cannot replace the face to face communities. For instance, if there is a debatable topic such as explicitly of feedback, forums and comment won't be a solution to reach an agreement, participants would likely want to engage in a meeting where they can explain, provide details and ask/answer questions to justify their point of view. Another constrain might be conducting and participating in workshops which require getting together in a room and come up with some products or conclusions.

Professional networks are as effective as language policies and having them online while teachers are checking their social media stories or communicating with friends facilitates the mission of learning to teach which reflects its shadow more or less in our real classrooms. 



Communities of Practice CPD ELT Professional networks

04:17:00

Source: http://f.tqn.com/y/google/1/S/v/D/-/-/google_docs_logo_and_icon.jpg

  

There is plenty of research supporting the use of Google Docs in ELT. One of them is task based Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), which demonstrated a dynamic side of the task (Pellerin, 2014). Moreover, a study on online teacher training mentioned "It is apparent from our analysis of the data that there was a high level of collaborative within the group, which spread equally among five group members" (Cullen, Kullman, & Wild, 2013). In their experiment, teachers used wikis as a writing medium.  

Google docs, also known as Google documents, is an online application that allows access and editing by many users. As Microsoft Word Documents, Google docs has all the features of choosing fonts, colours, sizes and other stylish features. Hopefully, you will not have to email your document to yourself or carry a USB stick because you will be able to reach your documents from any device, no matter where you are. It also has the capability to share documents and enables editing by multi-users simultaneously . Another factor that makes the application easier to use is that you don't have to keep pressing on (ctrl+s) or the save option all the time, as the application will save any changes automatically. What's more? it's 100% free.

How to get started?

You will need to have a Gmail account (which is also for free) in order to start using Google docs. Once this is done, you can access Google docs from here. Alternatively, you can go to Google drive then click on New which is on the left-hand top.

There are many options to create new documents, with some templates to facilitate the design of your documents. When you choose a template or create a new document, you will see a user interface similar to that of Microsoft Word Document. What is interesting about Google docs is that you can add people to edit it. There is a Share button on the top right hand corner and when you click on it you will get a screen as the one shown in the illustration below.

This feature allows you, as the creator of the document, to share it and specify who can see it, comment on it or edit it.

 Source: https://www.youtube.com

How can we use it in teaching?

Since many people can edit the same document, we can use it for collaborative writing. This can be achieved by assigning specific parts to each single student. For example, if you are teaching an elementary class, you can ask your students to write an essay about social network. You can break the topic down into 5 paragraphs: introduction, advantages, disadvantages, comparison of both sides and conclusion and ask five students to write it collectively. You can create the document then share it with them so you are updated with who did what and when did they do it. For an upper-intermediate class, you may wish to give the students the topic and let them brainstorm and construct it on their own. Options for collaborative writing are also subject to your own creativity and evaluation of the students, but in all cases it will add a blended learning flavour to your class and give your students an opportunity to work together and give/receive feedback on each others work. You can also ask students to write a short paragraph, they will be able to see what their peers write and can reflect on their own work. Here we can see the first student who logged in and started typing on a task which says "Write a paragraph about a nice place you have visited"

Teachers themselves can use Google docs to share their lesson plans, write a syllabus or a test together. Moreover, they can us it as a platform for their own development which increases collaboration in the work place and reduces travel costs as well as saving time.

I used to follow a writing portfolio style for grading my students. They would write their topics on their own then exchange their topic with a colleague to view it then students would write another draft based on their peers comments. They would then submit the two drafts and receive comments on the second. My students would then write a final copy and keep all three copies in the portfolios. Although this has been a fairly effective way of managing in the past, with the help of Google docs it is now made much easier. Students can write, share and edit their peers work whenever they want, wherever they are without a physical commitment and all this is monitored and recorded.

In order to achieve these aims, students need to have internet access either via their PCs, laptops or phones. This is because Google Docs is an online application. They also need to be familiar with working with the application. If they are unfamiliar as to how to use it, they may be excused for not using it. If it is the case, you can demonstrate how to use it in the classroom. Another issue to bear in mind is special needs groups who are unable, for one reason or another, use Google docs. For instance, if you have a student who is partially sighted or blind, he will not be able to see the displaying screen. For these groups of students, alternative ways can be found. For example, face to face meetings or other accessible ways to discuss with your students, bearing in mind that all equality issues should be addressed. This being the case, it is clear that Google Docs cannot be used. Also Google docs cannot be used by beginners who are still struggling to make correct sentences or write paragraphs. 

Finally, using this application is easy peasy lemon squeezy. Give it a try in your classroom and leave a comment or a suggestion.

blended learning Collaborative writing communication in the workplace

15:31:00

Voki, a Useful Tool for Language Learning

Source: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com

ELT research has being chasing technologies as and when they appear, considering how to make the best use of these technologies. An interesting study on the efficiency of e-speaking portfolios for EFL students (Huang & Hung, 2009). It shows that students benefit from the online speaking portfolios in six ways: they make students conscious about their speaking pitfalls, act as an extra context of practice, reduce speaking anxiety, improve students' proficiency because no immediate communication is required, allow rehearsals thus develop better proficiency and give teachers a better view of learners' competence. in this topic, I will deal with Voki which can give similar results to those mentioned.

An avatar is an electronic character replacing a real (or imaginary) person in games, movies, forums etc. Examples of famous avatars from movies can be found in Shrek, Madagascar and Aliens. Avatars are connected to having fun because the characters live in a virtual world where everything is possible.

Why is it useful?

Language teachers can use avatars to give students instructions or simply if a teacher doesn't want to show his/her own character on an online platform. The character changes but the voice is still recorded by the teachers. Some teachers adopting blended teaching can have 2 characters; a real one in the real world class and a virtual on online. Teachers who blog and want to add more fun to their posts can create an avatar and say something to their audience. In addition to these advantages, teachers can use recorded avatar videos to assess students performance in the spoken language, this way students, especially the shy ones, won't be put under pressure or stress, allowing more opportunity for them to show their real language competence.

This tool is not only for teachers, but students can really learn a lot from using Voki. I remember when I was learning French my teacher advised me to use a mirror and talk to myself. I haven't met him for seven years but I am sure he would recommend creating an Avatar as another option if he learnt about it. Autonomous learning can occur by just recording oneself then reply it as many times as we want and identify our own speech problems. We can also encourage our students to form pairs or small groups and exchange their avatar videos then give feedback. The following video contains my avatar to a group enrolled in the University Preparatory Programme (UPP).

How can I make my own avatar video?

Creating an e character is not challenging and you can learn it and teach it to your students. All you need to do is to follow these simple steps:

1. Go to http://www.voki.com/ home page and click on register on the top right-hand corner then fill in the form.

2. You will be sent an email containing a link to activate your Voki account, follow the link and you will find options for free or paid avatar. The free versions will be cool but for extra features you can try the paid one.

3. From the user's interface, click on Voki then pick the option Create. There are lots of varieties and you can choose a specific colour for the eyes or the hair, clothes or other features of your avatar. However, if you are working on a free version, like me, you will not be able to  use some characters which have a limited access to different drawing features.

4. Once you like the avatar, you can then add your voice. You need a microphone in order to upload the voice. You can also upload a voice file but with either ways be aware that with the free version, you have a limit of sixty seconds.



5. After getting the desired shape and voice, you will see the avatar saying your speech and you will also be able to see a Play icon and watch it as many times as you want. Don't forget to save the changes.

6. Finally, if you like the avatar, you can now publish it. You can share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, WordPress or blogger. You can also have a link of it or send it via email.

Restrictions

The free version of Voki allows learners to record up to sixty seconds. This means advanced students and students who want to debate in English are unable to enhance their language unless they subscribe. This restriction extends to presentations when students want to talk for three minutes and have some slides to show. Voki will show only avatars on screen, so you should consider three factors if you want to use it in your classroom: the level of learners, your objective of the activity and the time allowed.

Try Voki to teach languages in the suggested ways above or you can have your own creative ideas of using it. It is really simple ... get your avatar and if it fits, wear it.

e-speaking Portfolios ELT Language Learning Technologies Speaking

13:36:00

What is it about?

Nik's blog is an informative blog about learning technologies for English language teachers. The blog posts articles regularly to cope with the technology race and to raise awareness about modern educational advancements.

The blog is created by an experienced blogger, Nik Peachey. Nik's educational experience refers back to the 1990s and he has worked in different contexts around the world. Beside being a blogger, Nik is also an author, a technology consultant and a teacher trainer. He is currently the Head of learning of an online language school called English UP.
 

Navigation Facilities

The blog is easy to explore with simple clicks to guide teachers to their desired parts. There are five headings including the main page (which normally shows the most recent posts), More Articles, About Me, Nik On Twitter and Buy my Books. At the bottom of the post, where relevant, there's a subheading called "Related links" where you can go to postings of similar interest. On the right hand side, we can find useful advertisements for teachers, postings in a chronological order and a box of all the themes treated, with bigger font for the most visited articles. To make it even easier, there is a searching box if you know the name of the post/article you're looking for. Nik also offers his newsletter, all you need to do is to type your email in the subscription box and get your version sent to your email. All these services are provided for FREE.
 

Teacher's Friendly Guidance

 

Whether you visit the blog without a clear idea of what you want to read about, or you have a particular interest of an ICT teaching kit, you will gain some fruitful knowledge. The articles address the topics both directly and critically. Links of further explanations are provided for deeper understanding. Images are scattered to help leading teachers to their intended destinations. In addition, the articles follow a step-by-step style allowing you to practise as you read. Videos are shown in some articles adding a visual interactive aspect to the posts. Still doesn't work? You needn't worry because there is a space to comment below the blog. It can also be used to reflect on the article or discuss its content.
 

Give it a try

 

You can have a better insight of the blog by paying a visit to http://nikpeachey.blogspot.co.uk/

15:20:00