Task 2 - ESL Website Evaluation

1. What does the application attempt to “teach”?

The website that I have chosen to evaluate is called Isabel’s ESL site; English as a second or foreign language in primary and secondary education (http://www.isabelperez.com/). The exercises, web-based materials, workshops and links are both for the process of teaching and learning. This website is divided into three clear sections which are CALL Methodology, My Own Materials and Selected Links.

Under the CALL Methodology, Isabel provides Webquests in 2 languages, Spanish and English (http://www.isabelperez.com/webquest/index.htm). The webquests is where teachers and learners can gain information about webquest, the examples and templates and generators. Besides that, Isabel also provides workshops, also in both Spanish and English (http://www.isabelperez.com/taller1/listas.htm). There are various links to her workshops such as blogs, podcasts, webtasks and hot potatoes. Next is Students’ Projects (http://www.isabelperez.com/students.htm#Projects). This is the place where she published the writings and projects of her students. Lastly, Isabel provides links to information related to CALL, New Technologies and TICs (http://www.isabelperez.com/tesllinks3.htm#call).

The second section of the website which is My Own Materials is where Isabel provides all the exercises and activities which can be used by both teachers and learners. This particular section is divided into four parts. The first part is Specific Exercises. The first specific exercises falls under Grammar, vocabulary and culture exercises (http://www.isabelperez.com/grammar.htm). There are a lot of exercises created by Isabel herself to teach her students and some of it is based on authentic materials. The second specific exercise is The Happy Verby Gang (http://www.isabelperez.com/happy/tenses.htm). Isabel has created a verb gang to make teaching and learning tenses more interesting and interactive. Reading and writing exercises is the third specific exercises (http://www.isabelperez.com/tests.htm). There are various activities that can be done along with word processor and also tests to see the achievements of the students. The final part under specific exercises section is Teaching with songs (http://www.isabelperez.com/songs.htm). Isabel creates activities for learners to practice vocabulary, grammar, sounds and others through songs. The second section of My Own Materials is Web-based activities (http://www.isabelperez.com/ccprojects.htm#treasure). Isabel has included the activities which use resources from the web such as treasure hunts, webquests and other projects. The activities are very meaningful as the learners can learn from authentic materials from the selected websites. The Web Learning Tube is the third section of My Own Materials (http://www.isabelperez.com/tube.htm). The Web Learning Tube is created from the lines and routes of a Tube or in Malaysia context, our LRT and Komuter. The Web Learning Tube is divided into two levels of difficulty which are; primary lines and secondary routes. The final section of My Own Materials is Other Classroom Resources (http://www.isabelperez.com/holidays.htm).

Last but not least is the Selected Links section provided by Isabel. Under this section, there are three parts which are specific materials (http://www.isabelperez.com/tesllinks.htm), authentic materials and edu-portals (http://www.isabelperez.com/newslinks.htm) and other links (http://www.isabelperez.com/links.htm) where teachers can use to aid the process of teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language.

2. What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?

This site is very simple. The user just has to click on the desired section and he or she is link directly to it. For example, if a learner would like to learn about Present Simple Tense, he or she has to click on The Happy Verby Gang. Then, choose the Present Simple Girl. On the Present Simple Girl’s window, there are explanation, examples and exercises on Present Simple Tense. To the exercise, the user has to click on the desired link and he or she can do the exercise directly on the webpage itself. The example can be seen in (http://www.isabelperez.com/happy/tenses/exercises/present_1.htm).

3. What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?

In order to operate/access/use the application, the fundamental thing that the users are expected to have is the internet connection. This is because, most of the activities and exercises have to be done directly on the webpage itself and in order to get the feedback, users have to be online all the time. There are also a few exercises and activities that need to be done using word processor. Hence, the computer skills that users are expected to have are the basic which are clicking and typing.

4. While you are “playing”/ “accessing”/ “assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

I was one of the fortunate students who had the experience of learning English language at the computer lab during my secondary school years. Even though the opportunities came very seldom (once or twice a year), I can still remember some of the activities that I had done with my English teacher and fellow classmates. One of the activities is very similar with the one in Isabel’s site (http://www.isabelperez.com/happy/tenses/exercises/habits.htm) where I had to fill in the blanks with the correct answers. However, during my time, we did not have to opportunity to learn using websites but we used CD-ROM/courseware instead.

I did also use authentic materials when I was a practicum teacher last semester. When I wanted to teach about natural disaster, I took a news article about flood from (http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/Frontpage/20080907151901/Article). This is similar with Isabel’s site where she provided link to authentic resources for teachers to use in the process of teaching and learning ESL (http://www.isabelperez.com/newslinks.htm).

5. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?

There are several theories of language learning and teaching that can be associated with this application. The first theory is the Audio lingual Method. According to Fries (1945), the Audilingual Method (ALM) was firmly grounded in linguistic and psychological theory. Structural linguists of the 1940s and 1950s were engaged in what they claimed was a “scientific descriptive analysis” of various languages; teaching methodologists saw a direct application of such analysis to teaching linguistic patterns. In Isabel’s Site, the Audio lingual Method can be found in the Teaching with Songs section where learners need to listen to a song and complete the exercises provided. An example can be seen in (http://www.isabelperez.com/songs/welcometomylife.htm).

The second theory is the Grammar Translation Method. According to Brown (2001), Latin was taught by means of what has been called the Classical Method; focus on grammatical rules, memorization of vocabulary and of various declensions and conjunctions, translations of texts, doing written exercises. From the Isabel’s Site, we can see that the Grammar Translation Method is being used in some of her exercises. For example, the exercise which related to culture in (http://www.isabelperez.com/dialogues.htm) where learners have to match the sentences with the translation into English or Spanish.

The final theory is the Community Language Learning. According to Nunan (1989), Community Language Learning is when the language is more than a system of communication. It involves whole person, culture, educational and developmental communicative processes. In this application, there are activities which are related to culture for example in (http://www.isabelperez.com/britishlife.htm) where learners have to answer ‘true’ or ‘false’ facts about British Life.

From here, we can see that there are several theories of language learning and or teaching underlies in this application. Those mentioned above are some of the theories that can be found in most of the activities.

6. How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website(s)?

According to Spivey (1997), constructivist theory is an emphasis on active processes of construction [of meaning], attention to texts as a means of gaining insights into those processes, and an interest in the nature of knowledge and its variations, including the nature of knowledge associated with membership in a particular group. Meanwhile, as stated in (http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Constructivist%20_Learning.htm), Constructivist Learning Theory states that learning is an active process of creating meaning from different experiences. In related to this application, there are activities where learners can gain knowledge and create meaning based on their past experiences. Some of the activities can be found in (http://www.isabelperez.com/hotpot/tussauds.htm), (http://www.isabelperez.com/bonfire.htm) and (http://www.isabelperez.com/exer/conquerors.htm). Besides that, there are also activities in this application which are related to Krashen’s Input Theory. Stephen Krashen (1985) stated that for example, borrowing insights from first language acquisition, stressed the significance of comprehensible input, or the aural reception of language that is just a little beyond the learner’s present ability (i+1). The activities can be found in the Web Learning Tube section where the activities moved on from easy to difficult level.

7. In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation – was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

From my evaluation of this application, I still stand strong on my opinion where computer can never replace teachers. To me, computer can only aid teachers and students in their process of teaching and learning. This is because, we as human beings need ‘human touch’ in some aspects of our life, if not all. Computers can help us in our learning but not throughout our learning process. We still need teachers to guide and support us in humanly manner such as setting the rules, making sure we follow the rules and appraised us. Computers are lack with these humanly manners. Other than that, specifically from my evaluation, this application did not put emphasis on pronunciation where as we know, pronunciation is one of the major skills that we need in learning any languages. We need pronunciation skill to communicate. We can not communicate 100% with this application as it did not respond as face-to-face interactions. Thus, computer can never replace teachers in the process of teaching and learning.

8. Would you like to use this application yourself in your future work?

Yes, I am surely would like to use this application because it is very useful. For an English teacher, this application can aid me in some of my aspects of teaching. For example, I can use the materials created by Isabel for her students for my own students. I can also make a full use of the workshops and links provided by Isabel to enhance my teaching. I can also use this application to improve some parts of my English language.

9. Suggestions/recommendations.

This website is a very good site for both teachers and students. However, I would like to suggest Isabel to improve the Home/Main page. This is because there are too many words on it. Even though she has aligned and divide the sections accordingly, visitors might have problems to detect the specialty of this site on the first glance. I myself was not that attracted to this application at first when I was surfing for ESL websites. However, when I clicked on the links only then I realized that this application is very good and beneficial. I would also like to suggest for Isabel to include pronunciation exercises, like the one in courseware, so that learners can improve their pronunciation alongside learning grammar, vocabulary and other interesting activities in this application.

References;

Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles (2nd edition). New York: Pearson Education.

Teaching with the constructivist learning theory. [Online article]. Retrieved February 8, 2008, from the World Wide Web : http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Constructivist%20_Learning.htm