Computer Assisted Language

Learning

Instructor: Natzyelly Gonzalez

Students: Jessica Morones

September, 2010
 Discussion Forum

Site visited: www.englishbaby.com

Name of the forum: President Barack H Obama

My comment:

“What an interesting topic!!! Personally, I really enjoy talking about the best
president of the United States Barack Obama. I consider that in his speech he
was trying to show how he really is. Additionally, I also consider that he was
trying to change what people around the world think about the American
country. He is a leader… and of course he is a clear example of honesty and
respect. President Obama is really trying to fix the international relationships the
USA had in the past…”

Purpose

Personally, I chose this forum because I really enjoy reading about U.S.
president Obama. Additionally, I wanted to know how this man has become so
popular that has influenced English learners to use language (trying to do the
best to post a comment about this man).

Analysis of the written discourse

It is important to start mentioning that the people who wrote comments about
president Obama´s administration, have a very good level of English, however I
could notice some spelling mistakes such as “Especialy”. In addition, I could
also find that the language used is nonstandard, in other words, it is very
informal.

The EnglishBaby web page is a very good tool that can be used as a way to
practice the language in real life, however, we as teachers need to be really
careful with how our students use the language in this kind of platforms. Even
thought I consider that we can integrate this web site (www.englishbaby.com)
into our classrooms, I also think that there are some disadvantages that we as
teachers will find. The following are some advantages and disadvantages we
can see about the employ of this sites:

Advantages

• Students have the chance to publish what they think about a certain
topic.
• It is a way of international communication: on these types of sites
because students can write comments or read what other English
speakers from different parts of the world have written.
• This web site is very good for advanced learners.
• Teachers can use the information in this web page to help students
become critical thinkers and analyze what other English user write to
notice the mistakes or see how the structure sentences.
• Students can learn about other cultures (a cultural window is open).

Disadvantage

• It would be very difficult for teachers to use this type of web sites if the
level they are teaching is low because most of the type, the topics are
very specific.
• In almost every case, most of the comments are very informal; as a
result, students could start writing non-standarly.
• There is not enough time to write comments when students are in the
classroom.
 Web 2.0

What is Web 2.0?

The term Web 2.0 is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate
interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design,[1] and
collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site gives its users the free
choice to interact or collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as
creators (prosumer) of user-generated content in a virtual community, in
contrast to websites where users (consumer) are limited to the passive viewing
of content that was created for them.

The Use of Web 2.0 in Language Teaching

In my opinion and according to my experience as teacher, I consider that Web

2.0 is an excellent tool that supports teachers during the teaching process. We
can bring reality into the classroom. A clear example of Web 2.0 is
www.youtube.com which is a web page that allows teachers to download
anytime of video which we can adapt as part of our daily lessons. Additionally,
students learn differently, in other words they have different learning styles;
using Web 2.0 can help teachers to cover their students’ needs. Definitely, Web
2.0 is changing the language teaching process.
 Useful Web Sites for
Teaching Languages

1. www.cnn.com

CNN web page delivers the most popular and new news from around the
world. This web site can easily work as a very good tool for teachers. I
consider that information from this page could help teachers of advanced
level (especially adults) because as they have a clearer understanding of the
language, they get interested in knowing about other cultures or what is
happening in the world. The following are examples of the type of material
provided on this page and the ways I might use them to support and improve
my lessons:

• Videos: this tool would be very good to help students develop

listening skills.

• News (articles): I could use an article to have my students to read,

get the main idea of the text, or look for specific information. In some
cases, I might be necessary to change some words that I consider
that mu students might find difficult to understand.

• The weather: it could help me when I teach the weather, so my

students can see real information.

2. http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org

This web page is an excellent source for teachers of children because it

provides many activities that we can download and adapt to our classes. In
this site we can find activities about the four skills: reading, writing, speaking
and listening. Additionally, we can have access to games and some other
activities.
Examples of activities I might use:

• Listen to a story: we can use this activity to help kids develop

listening skills and measure understanding.

• Make: this activity would be very useful in my class because my

student can have fun crating and making things in English.