One of the most compelling reasons why blogs are attractive is that they offer easy collaboration between authors and readers. In modern times, blogs are no longer just online journals (Dudeney & Hockly, 2007). In almost all blog entries, readers can leave a comment or a reaction. Via blog uploads, teachers can post a topic and invite students to discuss all together. These online discussions are particularly helpful when teachers and students cannot meet in person and when time in class is restricted. Instapundit, for example, was created as a part of a law class, by Glenn Reynolda who is a law professor at the University of Tennessee. His blog was created more than fifteen years ago and has been very interactive since then.

Another reason for my blogging decision is the fact that it can encourage learners’ independent and critical thinking to a certain extent. Arguably, reading is in a profound state of change from a linear to a multimodal approach that requires new kind of competency (Burke, A., & Rowsell, J, 2008). Since readers are now more of active agents than passive information receivers, this kind of change encourages pedagogical shifts of content-based to activity-based design. Blogs encourage students to share their personal thoughts, response critically and value diversity in opinions. It is suggested by Jalkanen, J. & Vaarala, H. (2013) that the transformation gradually allows learners to manifest their agency and ownership of the learning process. 

On the teachers’ side, blogging provides them with the opportunity to market themselves. Regular uploads of quality written work help build teachers’ images in their students’ eyes and potential customers, for instance new students or parents. Furthermore, blogs are easily linked and cross-linked to create larger online community (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Indeed, once a reader clicks on a blog entry, another site or blog post gets suggested as it is in the same category. Lastly, self-publishing encourages ownership and responsibility of the teachers as they are now writing for the public or at least writing for their students.  

 All things considered, if blogs are employed in the right way, it can be very beneficial to both teachers and students. They allow users to interact quickly regardless of geography, assist learners’ independent thinking and help teachers market themselves more effectively. 

 

Burke, A., & Rowsell, J. (2008). Screen pedagogy: Challenging perceptions of digital reading practice. Changing English, 15(4), 445-456.

Dudeney, G., & Hockly, N. (2007). How to teach English with technology. Essex: Longman.

Godwin-Jones, R. (2003). Blogs and wikis: Environments for online collaboration. Language Learning & Technology, 7(2), 12–16. 

Jalkanen, J. & Vaarala, H. (2013). Digital texts for learning Finnish: Shared resources and emerging practices. Language Learning & Technology, 17(1), 107–124.

From my perspective, the use of ICT in drilling is beneficial in numerous ways. First of all, as suggested by Dudeney, G., & Hockly, N. (2007), most learning English apps and programs provide students with extra practice, indeed, students can work on their own as much as they want to. What characterizes ICT English learning is the exclusion of peer pressure and embarrassment. Trial and error is crucial to language learning, however, students tend to shy away from their mistakes. With the help of technology, students are longer afraid of their own mistakes. Furthermore, machines do not get frustrated or emotional when they repeatedly receive a wrong answer. Thanks to this unique feature, students will not be anxious and worried when their answers are incorrect. 

Another advantage of ICT in drilling is the beautifully designed layout that can attract and encourage learners, especially young learners. A case study conducted by Wood in 2011 about how software supports children's vocabulary development showed that many of the animations reviewed succeeded in captivating children but not to illuminate word meaning: for example, a Greek statue that comes to life and tells a joke or a flamboyant quiz show host whose speech is full of puns. One of the salient examples I have found is the ELSA application which was  introduced in 2016 and has been used widely in Vietnam since then. This application is carefully designed with vibrant colors and numerous topics such as space, beauty, drink. Another feature of this application is the capability to give users immediate feedback. For example, when a student pronounces a new word, it immediately assesses his/her performance and releases a mark using percentage points. 

For all the reasons above, I am convinced that the use of ITC in drilling is effective, however, I believe that it should be used for further practice only. Students still need real learning environment where there are classroom interaction and adjustments to individual needs. Arguably, students can get bored easily when talking to a screen every day, thus, they need real interaction. Moreover, with current technology, machines are able to tell whether oral information received is correct or not, however, they are not able to point out the mistakes in every case. In this case, without the guidance of teachers, students can hardly notice their errors and gradually fossilization could be formed. 

Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge: MIT press.

Dudeney, G., & Hockly, N. (2007). How to teach English with technology. Essex: Longman.

Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching. Harlow: Pearson Longman,.

Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and methods in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge university press.

Wood, Julie. (2001). Can software support children's vocabulary development?. Language Learning & Technology, 5(1), 166–201

 

There are many ways of using ICT for communicative tasks, one of them is by using vlogs and vodcasts. As it was emphasized by Nunan (1991) that authentic learning materials had to be used in communicative language teaching, the use of vlogs and vodcasts is suitable because they provide learners with authentic learning materials, especially in this days and age when vloggers do daily vlogs and give viewers a close look at their real life. Videos and audios found on BBC or CNN news are also qualified in terms of authenticity, however, they are not largely applicable to daily life. Arguably, not many people speak like a news presenter to communicate on a daily basis. Out of seven functions of the communicative language suggested by Halliday (1975:11-17, in Richards and Rodgers, 2014), which are instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, heuristic, imaginative, representational functions, BBC news may only perform the last one. Whereas in most vlogs, the speakers do not only tell the story, but also communicate with viewers through the comment section, express their feelings, and use multiple situational language. Indeed, there are many vlogs about going to the grocery stores, reviewing a product or sharing travel experience. Another advantage of vlogs is that there are numerous topics which assists teachers to find materials that their students are interested in. Also because of the making-it-viral nature of vlogs, most of them are made to be suited for general public interest. Grower and Philips (1995) claimed that choosing an interesting topic to students can help tremendously in the learning process. In the appendix, there are ten recommend quality channels for ten general topics.  

Besides vlogs and vodcasts, teachers can also use websites or apps to support their communicative language teaching. Usually every website has its own app for mobile phones, for example, British Council learning English. This is a good website for learning English in general and communicative English in particular. It does not only have separate sections for different ages: kids, adults and teens, but also categorizes lessons according to learners’ levels. All the topics provided are neutral and situational, for example culture, stress or business.  Each section features a huge variety of interactive lessons, videos, games and podcasts. What is even more interesting about this website is the video zone. In each video, students are given a transcript, some listening tasks and a discussion topic to practice their productive skills. Although it should be pointed out that the discussion is via comments rather than oral practice. It is well advised that British Council learning English upgrade this feature into an oral form.

All things considered, ICT is considerably beneficial to CLT especially when digital tools are used effectively. As claimed by Sharma and Barrett (2007, p.10), the use of technology in teaching could be quick motivating and interactive.   

 

1.     https://www.youtube.com/user/TheEllenShow (Entertainment)

2.     https://www.youtube.com/user/ModelingTheMasters (Life coach)

3.      https://www.youtube.com/user/JamieOliver (Cooking)

4.     https://www.youtube.com/user/AsapSCIENCE (Science)

5.      https://www.youtube.com/user/zoella280390 (Beauty)

6.     https://www.youtube.com/user/gettheguyteam (Love life and Relationship)

7.     https://www.youtube.com/user/erikconover (Travel)

8.     https://www.youtube.com/user/WongFuProductions (Short films)

9.     https://www.youtube.com/user/watchcut (Experience)

10.  https://www.youtube.com/user/Americanvogue (Fashion)

Gower, R., Phillips, D., and Walters, S. (2005). Teaching practice handbook. Oxford: Macmillan Education.

Nunan, D. (1991). Language Teaching Methodology: A text book for teachers. London:Prentice Hall.

Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T.S. (2014). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (3^rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sharma, P., & Barrett, B. (2007). Blended learning: Using technology in and beyond the language classroom. Oxford: Macmillan.

 

 

 

 

According to Bachman, Palmer (1996) and Hughes (2003), reliability is essential to measure how good an assessment is. Hughes (2003, p.44) claimed that there are two elements of test reliability which are “the performance of candidates from occasion to occasion” and “the reliability of scoring”. The fluctuation in different test taking time is an extrinsic factor that is independent of wiki assessment format, but the reliability of scoring in wikis can be scrutinized. The grading systems provided by most wiki platform, for example multiple choice questions, are arguably accurate since they are based on a programmed tool, however, the scores achieved by test takers do not always show their actual language ability. 

The first reason is that it is a site where subsequent visitors can add to, delete or change the content as they wish (Dudeney & Hockly, 2007). As a result, work completed by a pervious student can be displaced, changed or deleted by another student. Even though some wiki websites offer a new feature that allows users to see what changes have been made by whom and when and to restore an earlier version of a page, it usually takes a lot of time and energy to trace back and make adjustments. 

The second thing attributable to the unreliability in scoring of wikis is that contribution is anonymous in most sites. This leads to serious unfairness in assessment as when students do a group project, the whole team get credit for one person’s work or a person may get credit for doing nothing. Such unfair results may start with students’ secret agreement which is considered to be an act of collusion. Furthermore, plagiarism is considerably harder to prevent on this platform as one can easily copy anther’ s pieces of work and take credit for it.  

For all the reasons above, it is well-advised that wikis should be used as a tool for language practice rather than language assessment. There has been a lot of research showing that wikis are excellent tools for online collaboration, especially collaborative writing, for example, a study conducted by Zelilha & Yildiz (2014, p.160) revealed that the use of wiki-based collaborative writing tasks led to the accurate use of grammatical structures “94% of the time”. The results of the study also suggest that students had positive experiences using wikis in foreign language writing, and they believed that their writing performance had improved. Wikis, therefore, are suitable for learning outcomes that involves cooperation.  

In conclusion, the use of wikis for online collaboration has been proved to be every beneficial, however, its use for language assessment has not been the same. Should it be used as an assessment tool, it is ideal that learners are honest, willing to collaborate and preferably adults.  

Bachman, L. F., & Palmer, A. S. (1996). Language testing in practice: Designing and developing useful language tests (Vol. 1). Oxford University Press.

Dudeney, G., & Hockly, N. (2007). How to teach English with technology. Essex: Longman.

Godwin-Jones, R. (2003). Blogs and wikis: Environments for online collaboration. Language Learning & Technology, 7(2), 12–16

Hughes, A. (2003). Testing for language teachers. Cambridge. Cambridge: University Press. 

Zelilha, A. & Yildiz, S. (2014). Use of wikis to promote collaborative EFL writing. Language Learning & Technology, 18(1), 160–180. 

Since mobile phones are designed to be carried with users anytime, anywhere, portability was one of the huge advantages of MALL (Chinnery, 2006). They can be just as easily utilized outside of the classroom as they can in it. Due to today’s hectic lifestyle, a number of learners might have to study in between their busy schedules, they might snatch a quick English lesson while commuting or having lunch. Arguably in those moments, they cannot always use computers or laptop, but they can resort to their potable cell phones. Also, lessons provided on mobile platforms are usually in a small chunk format that is appropriate and interesting to busy users (McNicol, T. 2004). Furthermore, mobile phones allow learners to revise knowledge frequently as they provide instant access. A case study conducted by Thornton, P., & Houser, C. (2005) with Japanese students showed that MALL can actually promote frequent rehearsal, spaced study, and utilized recycled vocabulary. Lastly, MALL outshines CALL in terms of affordability which means that if English is learnt with MALL, it could be more accessible.

Alongside advantages, MALL also has its drawbacks, for instance, inherent in the portability of mobile media are reduced screen sizes. As mobiles’ screen sizes are considerably smaller than computers, the amount of information shown on screen is restricted. It is difficult to read a long message. Furthermore, the visual quality shown on mobiles’ screens is incomparable to computers. Computer allow users to read long passages, use multiple functions on screens. According to Beatty (2003) young learners may enjoy having a bigger screen. If students need to improve their nonverbal communications such as texts or messages, CALL is a more appropriate choice for them.

In conclusion, a computer is better than a mobile phone for handling various types of information such as visual, sound, and textual information, but mobile phone is superior to a computer in portability. Both devices have their own merits and drawbacks, thus, the decision of choosing which is  dependent on personal situations. 

 

Beatty, K. (2003). Teaching and researching computer-assisted language learning. Essex: Pearson Education Limited

Chinnery, G. M. (2006). Emerging technologies: Going to the MALL: Mobile assisted language learning. Language learning & technology, 10(1), 9-16.

McNicol, T. (2004) Language learning on the move. Japan Media Review. Retrieved June 25, 2005.

Thornton, P., & Houser, C. (2005). Using mobile phones in English Education in Japan. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 21, 217-228.