Grammar and Constructivist Learning

Notes for 3/2/10 class

• Your beliefs about grammar acquisition?
• Participation metaphor vs acquisition metaphor for SLA
• a priori vs emergent grammar/ langue vs parole
• organic dynamism (micro change --> macro change)
• creative construction hypothesis
• "noticing" input/Inductive strategies
• consciousness raising
• metalinguistic knowledge
• discovering rules/negotiated meaning

Explore one or more of the following online grammar activities to determine if and to what extent they are constructivist. Tweet your findings.


http://a4esl.org/q/f/x/xz38mvt.htm

http://www.marks-english-school.com/games/g_presperf.html

Links to CALL 487 wiki's

Erin http://ecrofford1.wikispaces.com/
Kristen http://kristen01.wikispaces.com/
Bailey http://blschmid.wikispaces.com/
Nicholas http://hynso.wikispaces.com/
Jeffrey http://jeffreycall.wikispaces.com/
Bill http://billtesol.wikispaces.com/
Lisa http://esldepot.wikispaces.com/
Christine http://christinemarieanderson.wikispaces.com/
Jessina http://jmbranyan.wikispaces.com/
Jesse http://heylookatme.wikispaces.com/
Christina http://cindovina.wikispaces.com/
Maria http://mariacall2010.wikispaces.com/
Hanan http://callhanan.wikispaces.com/
Aja http://badandworse.wikispaces.com/
Sabah http://sktesol.wikispaces.com/

Missing wikis
Jay
Deena
Kazuaki
Miglena


More examples of wikis courtesy of Ryan Hunter
http://depaulelanovel01.wikispaces.com/
http://depaulelanovel02.wikispaces.com/
http://depaulelanovel03.wikispaces.com/

Notes on Thursday, 2/25, class

Discussion of blog assignments requirements

• make sure you have a blog roll
• need reader-friendly format/fonts
• add tags for all postings!

Discussion of wiki use for writing feedback/collaboration
wikispaces demo

• http://collegecomp.wikispaces.com/
• http://introtolit.wikispaces.com/
• http://techproject.wikispaces.com/

Pbwiki demo

• https://eps4151200910016grpa.pbworks.com/
• https://hre47012008910013.pbworks.com/
• https://epsy40812008910007.pbworks.com/

In-class and homework activities

• Sign up for free account in wikispaces at http://www.wikispaces.com/
• Give your new wiki a name, click "edit" tab to start adding content
• On main (home) page of your wiki, write a short "about me" text, followed by a bullet point list of your main areas of interest in CALL
• Tweet the link to your wiki with the tags #MATESOL #wiki
• Start in class and finish at home--> Find who else in class shares your interests and post a comment under the Discussion tab introducing yourself on their wikispaces page. You'll need to read everyone's wiki to do this, but you only need to post on the wiki's that describe areas of interest that you share.
  

Tips on composing and publishing your podcast

To be an effective instructional tool, a podcast needs to be well-crafted. The use of "show notes" goes a long way towards this end. You can read more about designing and using Show Notes at http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/27-writing-podcast-show-notes.htm

For each of your podcast assignments in LING 487, you must post both a link to your recording on Podbean and a description of your podcast in your blog (Blog post #6). Use the Show Notes format to create a blog entry that is both appealing and useful for your intended podcast audience.

You'll find additional tips here http://www.feedforall.com/effective-podcast-tips.htm

Lecture notes for Tuesday, 2/9

Asynchronous L2 oral practice using CALL tools

Cognition Hypothesis and resource-directing dimensions

• Then & There tasks (past & elsewhere)
• multiple POV
• location, causality
• intentional reasoning (theory of mind)

Task complexity, interaction and uptake

• task sequencing
• link input to output to increase interaction/uptake
  
• interaction and attention to input
• input vs output anxiety
• task difficulty and complexity

Questions to consider:

• How does this apply to instructional design of oral output lessons/activities?
• Can production CALL tools such as Voicethread, podcasting and YouTube posting increase student L2 uptake?
• If so, how?

Blog assignment for week of Feb. 2, 2010

For this week's blog assignment:

1. View or listen to one instructional video or podcast in your L2 and evaluate it from the point of view of a student. Include a link to the video or podcast.
   
2. Then view or listen to one instructional (or topic-based) video or podcast in an L2 you teach or intend to teach, and evaluate it from the point of view of an instructor. Include a link to the video or podcast.
3. Tweet your links with with the #MATESOL tag at the end of your post.
   

Then, read 2 classmates' blog entries, listen to/view one of the podcasts/videos evaluated each classmate and in the comments section briefly describe your evaluation of the podcast/video.

CALL for Listening Instruction

Notes for 2/2/10 CALL class:

Sources for audio input:

• Audio Podcasts
• For language instruction
• ESL Pod http://www.eslpod.com/website/index_new.html
• ESL Podcasting http://www.rong-chang.com/podcast.htm
• Free Foreign Language Lessons Podcast http://www.openculture.com/2006/10/foreign_languag.html
• Foreign Language Podcast Feeds http://opalmyth.com/key-terms/foreign-language-podcast-feeds
  
• Topic based
  
• podcast alley http://www.podcastalley.com/
  
• iTunes, http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts/
  
• Videos
• YouTube
• Lakota Speaking Lesson: the Silent Way http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxjMhi6jV2E
• Thai Language Lesson Playlist http://tinyurl.com/yfr9vq4
• How to Videos
• Expert Village http://www.expertvillage.com/
• Instructional and DIY videos http://www.5min.com/
• Content Videos
• Video Jokes http://www.thejokeproject.com/
• Real English Video Dictations http://eolf.univ-fcomte.fr/index.php?page=real-english-dictations-exercises
  

Resources
iPods & Podcasting for Whole Language Instruction
http://www.slideshare.net/gpoli/ipods-podcasting-for-whole-language-instruction

A question about toolbars

Recently one of my CALL 487 students emailed me the following question:

"Hi Terrie,
I was just surfing the interweb and came across this site: http://www.eslprintables.com/

I wanted to use some material from it but it asked me to register and then sent me a link to activate my profile/registration. It then said that in order to use the site I had to download their toolbar. My question is whether or not this kind of thing is common? I have declined to install the toolbar, but I'm not sure if sites do this frequently or why they might want you to do so...."

Here was my reply:
"Many sites give you the option to download a toolbar, but don't require it. Delicioius, Yahoo and Google, for example, do this. I generally don't download the toolbar because it seems to slow my computer down and clutter the top bar of my web browser. I looked around at the site and I think you were wise not to download the toolbar. There may be nothing malicious about the site, but there are other places where you can get the same kind of resources without downloading anything, and the eslprintables.com site looked a bit unprofessional....cluttered with ads and odd notes."

You can compare www.eslprintables.com to a site such as http://a4esl.org/ to see what I'm talking about. Just as we need to teach our students to be critical "readers" of the interweb, we also need to bring a skeptical eye to our own search for online ESL resources and CALL tools.

Do you have any examples of either excellent sites such as a4esl.org, or dubious sites such as eslprintables.com, to share?

Also, don't forget to tweet links to either sites you think teachers should steer away from or sites you think are useful resources (add #ESL and #MATESOL at the end of your Twitter post to make it easier to find).