CALL Experience

The CALL class had a very positive influence on my perspectives on teaching ESL/EFL courses because it introduced me to a variety of CALL tools that I found very beneficial to use in my future classes. My favorite CALL tool is blogs and the main reason behind choosing this CALL tool is that I personally had the opportunity to use it on a weekly basis through this semester and witness its advantages. As a non-native speaker of English, I personally think that over the course of this semester, my writing anxiety has been reduced because of my frequent posts on blogs. Hence, I believe that encouraging students to use blogs can be very fruitful not only for improving their writing and reading skills, but also for giving them the opportunity to expand their audience and enter the world of blogging. So, I will definitely incorporate blogs in my future writing classes and I will always remember these lovely blogs we used to share in the CALL class.

Teaching with Blogs

Last week, I attended an e-Teaching Symposium held at UIC entitled “Teaching with Blogs: Tips and Best Practices from the Trenches. The presenter Dr. Jason Rhode – assistant director of the Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center at Northern Illinois University – gave us a very good presentation about this great CALL tool. In this Symposium the presenter shared lessons learned from incorporating instructor and student blogs into an online course as well as practical recommendations for those considering utilizing blogs in online learning. The presenter also reviewed sample instructor and student blogs and demonstrated a number of activities designed specifically for blogs.
I thought that this was a very good opportunity for me as a future ESL/EFL teacher and I really learned a lot from this seminar.
The symposium is posted on blogger. You can view it by clicking on this link http://uicblogs.blogspot.com/

blackboard

I really think that blackboard is a very good learning tool that can help language teachers and teachers of other subjects create personalized and engaging learning experiences that can result in better learning outcomes. I actually read a little bit about blackboard and I found that it is not only one of the most popular learning management systems in the world, but also its brochure mentions that currently more than 700 teachers are using it for over 2000 courses, a dramatic progress from only six in 1999 (http://www.blackboard.com).
The good thing about Blackboard is that it is equipped with some tools so that it can function as an authoring tool for the learning content, an administrative tool, and as a means of communication. The content authoring features in Blackboard can be used for pure online or blended learning. As an administrative tool, Blackboard is capable of recording all students’ access to the materials and it can help teachers - especially language teachers - see their students’ progress so that they can make further reflections.
As a communication tool, Blackboard provides emails (in one-to-one and public exchanges) and discussion boards. In addition, I read that Blackboard can also integrate other communication tools from other operators that can enable users to communicate using voice bulletin boards or voice emails.

Videoconferencing

As a non-native teacher of English, I would use videoconferencing in my EFL classes in order to invite native speakers to be my online guests and participate in a specific class discussion. I believe that by doing so students will be able to practice their listening and speaking skills and will have valuable opportunities to participate in discussions with native speakers of English. I do not think that I will be using videoconferencing outside of the classroom because some students may not have high-speed Internet connection, which will cause several technical problems. The other problem with videoconferencing is that it’s a synchronous tool and students may not be able to participate in the video conference outside of the classroom simultaneously. I think that I will use Tokbox or Meebo in my classes because they are Free and easy to use.

E-Journaling

In the article "A Web-Based Approach to Strategic Learning of Speech Acts" the authors documented how E-journaling can be effective in helping students improve their pragmatic skills of speech acts.

I think that e-journaling can be useful in an ESL setting. My favorite type of E-journaling is blogs. Based on my experience in the CALL class and specifically in creating blogs on a weekly basis, I really think that blogs can be very useful for ESL students. They can learn from each other’s ideas and feedbacks, and they can also share their opinions with the rest of the world, as it is not restricted to the classroom. I think that ESL instructors should incorporate blogs in their syllabi and encourage their students to use them in their classrooms.