Week 3 Discussion 1: Aural/oral skills readings

“Using technology in teaching “ – the first discussion this week .We had to read : Miller L., Developing Listening Skills with Authentic Materials /April 2003 issue of ESL Magazine; Gong J., The Employment of CALL in Teaching Second/Foreign Language Skills / Post-Script, Volume 3. 1, July 2002; Busà M.G., New Perspectives in Teaching Pronunciation.

After reading we had to explain how we might use technology to improve our students’ aural/oral skills in at least one post on Nicenet .

There were similar but also different points of view about employing technology as a self-study method and as a useful tool in the English class. As teachers, I think we always have to learn how to spark creativity and encourage a long-lasting love of language while finding useful resources to help make our classroom productive. Of course, the considerable variety in teaching contexts and learning aims makes it difficult to set hard-and-fast rules that can be applied across different learning settings. In my opinion, face-to-face communication is as valuable as using technology in class and outside it. We have to use a balanced blend of them.

I have been using technology in my classes as you could see in my two previous posts. I should complete them with the software I use. For example ,“Welcome 2 “ CD-ROMs is a set of fully animated vocabulary & grammar presentation which ensures solid understanding thoroughly consolidated in special designed exercises. I have been using it with a group of 9 year-old students in private lessons. The girls couldn’t wait to get involved in the interactive learning. In the same area I can add the AeL CD-ROMs to which students have reacted positively because many who previously considered learning as work, now think of it as a game.

Part of my kids is involved in e Twinning partnerships. The e Twinning projects aim to encourage European schools to collaborate using Information and Communication Technologies . The project was born under the European Union's e-Learning program and is now part of the Lifelong Learning Program. The main concept behind e Twinning is that schools are paired with another school/s elsewhere in Europe. The two schools (or more) then communicate using the Internet ( for example, by e-mail , video conferencing, written papers , audio recordings ) to collaborate, share and learn from each other. It encourages and develops ICT skills as the main activities inherently use information technology. Being 'twinned' with a foreign school also encourages cross-cultural exchanges of knowledge, fosters students' intercultural awareness, and improves their communication skills. These projects last for any length of time ranging from only a week, to months, up to creating permanent relationships between schools. Schools (both primary and secondary) within the European Union member states, including Norway and Iceland, can participate in the eTwinning project.
I joined this e twinning community in 2007. Projects developed: “United in Diversity”, “Few words make European children friends”, “Meeting Point”, “The world is small”. My children had partners from all over Europe and made a lot of e-friends. They keep in touch with them via e-mail, Yahoo Messenger or registered mail.

At the level of my school we also had a Comenius partnership financed by the European Union with Turkey, Latvia and Lithuania as partners, for a period of 3 years (2006-2009). I was the coordinator and my children had another opportunity to learn how to use a forum and how to learn IT literacy in order to create English materials.

All of these don’t mean I wouldn’t have anything else to learn from this course (from my instructor and from my colleagues).

I have found out that I should try to create authentic environments of learning, which should always have the following features: visibility of the speakers, participation of the listeners, environmental features, and real-life language features. I realized that I should integrate listening with other teaching activities –for example some useful practice may be obtained by the use of pair-work or group-work (students take turns to repeat the listening part) and when students’ listening is improved through repetition to some extent, a role-playing and imitation are appropriate to them. It is a process that remembering is changed into understanding. This way the oral activities improve students’ aural abilities. After listening, reading the materials is also a good opportunity for others to practice their listening, which at the same time makes students be accustomed to varied accent. Furthermore, accuracy of pronunciation through reading is improved. Then, doing blank filling and writing down their opinion about listening materials will help students understand them correctly and fully.

Usage of more (than the usual 3 of mine) skill-building sites (already added up in my delicious treasure) will create a wider and more efficient way to capture my students’ interest. Introducing them to the world of web tools will be the best way to explore and develop their higher order thinking , more valuable because such skills are more likely to be usable in novel situations (i.e., situations other than those in which the skill was learned).