Delicious week!
Teaching aural/oral skill is a main topic of the 3rd week of the course and we shared a lot on a discussion board for the websites we think they provide effective resources for aural/oral skill development. In fact, aural/oral skill is supposed to be the skill EFL learners found difficult due to some differences in sounds and features. Moreover, they rarely or scarcely have a chance to use or practice English with English speakers. Since this skill is a basic foundation for communicative competence, the students cannot turn their back on it.
Fortunately, many websites online have a vast variety of aural/oral practice exercises for teachers and students to try. And there are many authentic videos and audios for teachers to choose for their class. Many websites present listening activities in a more motivating and enjoyable way. This would help encourage EFL students to join in practicing listening and speaking with English speakers around the clock. Students can expose themselves to authentic language use and at the same time they become aware of stress, intonation, and rhythm. But the fact is there are many websites to be used, and teachers have to be selective to choose the right ones for their students. Well, to find ones to my class, it's very easy because we now have our own Delicious!
Links to Delicious of each individual classmates have also widen my views toward the WWW world where people all around can interact and share good things to one another -- just like the classmates and I have shared useful links for educational resources. It seems to me that the more we share, the more we get.
Also, this week we've shared what we've learned from studying the previous course projects. It's a good activity to let me see the overall concept of the final project of Webskills course. It seems that I have to make myself ready to exercise my creativity for the upcoming project. It may not be easy to come up with something creative at once. More reading, learning and observing are required. The first thing I can do now is make it clear about the learners and the setting. The project by Prem Bahadur Phyyak which I referred on the discussion board is going to be a good sample. It'll be good to do a needs survey to gain some information that would help for designing a right project for my students. There is still a long way to go. Cheer up, everyone.
You really hit the point regarding the project: more reading, more surveying and needs analysis. This what we also teachers to become more effective teachers. I am really pleased to have read your post. It really triggered my attention to something I missed before. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Tata, that lack of access to native speakers is one of the biggest challenges for students learning English in non-English speaking countries. The internet can be helpful, especially for listening skills, but I look forward to the day when chatting over the internet becomes as easy and error-free as meeting someone for coffee. Programs like Skype work well enough, but they're still overly complicated and too technical, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteRussell