Week 3 : The Use of Multimedia in English Teaching ZHANG Zhen

The Use of Multimedia in English Teaching ZHANG Zhen

What is multimedia?

          Multimedia is the field concerned with the computer-controlled integration of text, graphics, drawings, still and moving images (Video), animation, audio, and any other media where every type of information can be represented, stored, transmitted and processed digitally.

The Definition of multimedia

      The use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way.

The use of multimedia in English teaching

Components of Multimedia

      Text  ➤  It is fundamental element in all multimedia applications. 
      Graphics  ➤  It refers to images and pictures, such as chart, diagram, and photograph, which contain no movement.
      Animation  ➤  It is The rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement.
      Sound  ➤  It is speech, music, or any other sound that is stored and produced by computers. It has more advantages than tape recorder.
      Video  ➤  It is the visible part of a television transmission and broadcasts visual images of stationary or moving objects.

The Setting of Multimedia Classroom 

      (1) MPC—multimedia personal computer; 
      (2) VCD/DVD player—video compound disk/digital video disk; 
      (3) Amplifier and Hi-Fi acoustic system; 
      (4) Overhead/slide projector; 
      (5) Screen/curtain; 
      (6) Projecting apparatus; 
      (7) The Internet access; 
      (8) Cassette tape recorder; 
      (9) Camera recorder.

 The Necessity of Multimedia in English Teaching

The Necessity of Development of Modern Educational Technology
        Modern educational technology, which is characterized by more information and stronger intuitive, is a combination of modern education and modern technology.
The Needs of Quality Education 
        The answer is that multimedia is one of the ways to promote the development of quality education. Multimedia English language teaching can enable students to be involved in a variety of sensory organ in the learning process and stimulate the students in the corresponding cortical function area.
The Needs of Students’ Cognitive Mental
        Cognitive psychology studies have shown that 94% of the information learned through the visual and auditory access, of which 88% is obtained through the vision, 12% through hearing.

The Multimedia Teaching 

Advantages

       Arousing the students’ interest.

       Famous scientist Albert Einstein had a famous saying: “Interest is the best teacher”. So the interest has always been seen as the best helper to learn the knowledge.

       Improving students’ self-learning ability.

       The most important thing is teaching students how to learn and making students change from “want me to study” to “I want to learn” in thinking, from passive learning to active learning.

       Improving students’ innovative ability. 

       Meanwhile, multi-media teaching can also develop student’s ability to innovate. Things need to innovate, Einstein said: “Imagination is more important than knowledge, and is a source of knowledge”.

       Cultivating students’ communication skills. 

       Through multi-media teaching, we can create real-life scenes in the classroom. It is not only to shorten the distance between teaching and practice and give students the opportunity to use English to communicate.

       Increasing classroom capacity.

       The use of multimedia technologies can make students notice a clear knowledge and a new expansion by huge information capacity which shows by all kinds of media.

Problems

       Confusion  ⟹  Some English classes are totally dependent on multi-media, ignoring the role of teachers.  What is worse, some teachers have directly brought a CD-ROM courseware for their lessons, or copy other people’s courseware overall.

      Performance on behalf of the lead  ⟹   the teachers use the multi-media presentation to replace the guidance of teachers completely.

      Lack of special skill  ⟹  There are many multimedia teachers who just have half-baked knowledge. The preparation and workload of teachers increase virtually. And multimedia teaching requires teachers with multimedia computer operation experience. Owing to traditional educational system, many teachers are not good at computers.

     Over-use of multimedia  ⟹  The teachers turn the multimedia classroom into a show stage and what they act in class is nothing but a new generation of button-pusher.  Because of the teacher’s lack of enthusiasm and creation and his or her dependence on the multimedia technology, the teachers act as sole information-giver to the students.

      Lack of interaction between teachers and students  ⟹  The tie between the teachers and students becomes loose and it seems to them that teacher is only caring about the machine and they are also focusing on the screen.

 Strategies for Using Multimedia

Combining Modern Teaching Methods With Traditional Teaching Methods 

        Teachers should combine their strong points with modern teaching methods, which not only raise classroom teaching quality and efficiency, but also improve teaching and learning environment between teachers and students.

Viewing Multimedia as the Assistance to Teaching

        Multimedia enables students to manipulate and create material to learn by doing. But when we use computers in the teaching, we should understand they can only assist but cannot take place of all the other teaching methods. Therefore, multimedia can only be used as a supplement to classroom English teaching.

Building the Ideal Relationship Between Teachers and Students

       Teachers should play a leading role in the teaching. In the past, students were thought of to be passive knowledge receiver.

 Strengthening Teacher Training

       It is a challenge for teachers using multimedia because of heavy preparation work and increasing workload. They should know well about modern educational theories and techniques.

The Principles of Multimedia-Assisted Teaching

       (1) Scientific principles. Namely, courseware design cannot appear any errors; 

       (2) Subsidiary principle. We must always adhere to: Although multi-media teaching has many advantages, it is only a supplementary means, and does not substitute for the role of people; 

       (3) Interactivity principle. More interactivity between teachers and students, students and multimedia, more effective results we will have; 

       (4) Combination principle. Combine the advantages of modern teaching and the traditional teaching organically

           regardless of the difficulties lying ahead, we must admit that multimedia do make a revolutionary impact on language teaching. To be sure, it is a permanent task for a teacher to do more and deeper studies in the application of multimedia. It is no doubt that more practical and effective ways can be worked out to improve English teaching.

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Week 2 : Weblogs enhancing EFL students' English language learning written by Usa Noytim

  Weblogs enhancing EFL students' English language learning  written by Usa Noytim     

 Introduction  
     Weblog offer real communication in which writing and reading take place in an authentic environment and there is a real audience. There fore, Weblogs provide a genuine learning context for EFL learners who have limited opportunities to be expose to the target language in an authentic environment. This research aimed to address the limitations of lack of a genuine learning environment, especially the limitation of conventional writing in which the audience of student' written work is limited to the teacher and possibly to classmates.

The Study    

The setting and the participants

     The participants of this research were twenty undergraduate English major female students in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University. Their ages ranged from 22 to 24 years and they were in the fifth-year of their studies. These students undertook eight semesters of coursework and two semesters (second semester in the 4th year and first in the 5th year) of teaching practicum in secondary schools. After their teaching practicum, they returned to the university to undertake the coursework in the final semester. These students were preparing to become English teachers at a secondary level.  

 method
     The research was conducted in the second semester of academic year 2008. The students were enrolled in the reading and Writing for Academic Purpose II course. This couse aimed to enable student to develop reading skills in understanding a variety of written texts including academic resources and develop think skills and skills in writing periods on different two days.

     
 The finding 
    The findings indicated that the students perceived Weblog as a tool for the development of their English, in terms of writing, reading, vocabulary, and recording their learning experience. The students also viewed Weblog as giving an opportunity and freedom for self-expression in English, writing for both a local and global audience, fostering creative, analytical and critical thinking skills, creating social interaction and good relationships between writer and reader, and supporting the learning community. 

Conclution  

     In conclusion, Weblog can provide an exciting and motivating learning environment where students have a sense of ownership and readership. They can be use to enhance student analytical and critical thinking skills, create social interactions between student and the instructor, students and their peers, and students and a global audience. 

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Week 1 : Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes

Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes

What is a Weblog?

           A weblog can be thought of as an online journal that an individual can continuously update with his or her own words, ideas, and thoughts through software that enables one too easily do so. Furthermore, a weblog is interactive, in the sense that readers can respond to any given entry with a comment and even threaded discussions can take place depending on the software chosen.

Three Types of Weblogs for use in ESL Classrooms

The Tutor Blog

It run by the tutor for the learners. It serves the following purposes below.

- It gives daily reading practice to the learners.

- It promotes exploration of English websites.

- It encourages online verbal exchange by use of comment buttons.

- It provides class or syllabus information.

- It serves as a resource of links for self-study.

The learner Blog

          It run by individual learners themselves or by small collaborative groups of learners. The idea here is that students can get writing practice , develop a sense of ownership. Further they write can instantly be read by anyone else and due to the comment features of the software, exchange of idea is promoted.

The Class Blog

          It is the result of the collaborative effort of an entire class. The following are some possible uses such as

- In conversation-based classes it could be used like a free-form bulletin board for learners to post messages, images, and links related to classroom discussion topics.

- With intermediate and advanced learner, class blog might also useful for facilitating  project based language learning.

- class blog could also be used as a virtual space for an international classroom language exchange.

- for reading and writing classes. Individual learners can be given varying amounts of responsibility to publish material arising from posting on the discussion list.

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