After a series of sessions on CALL, I discover that technology is not only a presenting tool for language teaching. It is more than that. It is also out of my expectation. Information technology can be useful and effective tools to let students learn English and practise English on their own. All the four skills, including reading, writing, listening and speaking, can be enhanced through information technology. Moreover, the use of technology can make the teaching and learning of English more interactive and self-learning activities can be enhanced. For example, Wikis are effective tools to do process writing. Photo Story 3 is used for producing digital story which can practise writing and speaking.

Among all the tools I learnt in the module, I tried to use the “Who wants to the millionnaire” in the lesson. The students were interested in the game. They were eager to answer the questions, excited and actively participated in the lessons. Even as simple as a powerpoint, my students have great interest in the game. That’s amazing.

I also learnt to how to use different softwares and websites which are related to enhancing language learning and teaching. Most of them are new to me. I did not know much about them, like Hot Potatoes, Wikis, Producing Digital Story by Photo Story 3, Podcast and Tense Buster etc. After the lessons, I learnt about how to use this technology in language teaching. I cannot say that I am an expert. But I think it is only a beginning. I need to explore it on my own and find the opportunity to integrate it in my teaching.

I recorded a fable called The Fox Without a Tail. The software I used was Audacity. I thought whether Audacity can be used in my teaching. Can students record the stories using Audacity? The answer would be yes. Recording stories can help students practise reading aloud with appropriate intonation and stress. If time and the computer room both are available, it is worth trying.

When I chose the topic, I thought about my personal experiences, both valuable and unforgettable experiences. Finally, I decided to work on my first pet dog. I think it is worth to write both happiness and sadness in a story as a kind of memory. I can share my experience with others.

After I decided on the topic, I began to look for the pictures. However, I only found three to four suitable pictures. Then, I stopped and moved to the script. I wrote the script. But the script was quite long. I could not put too many ideas in one picture since it would make the story boring or too long. I abandoned some ideas and only kept the most interesting parts to make the story more attractive. Based on the script, I returned to the pictures and find more suitable pictures to match the script. I discovered that it was easier to select pictures by referring to the script. There were ideas which helped me choose the pictures. The process was easy and smooth. I only spent about 15 minutes on it. Then, I matched the pictures with the script. At the same time, the script was also revised. Some more pictures were added to enrich the content of the story.

Using Photo Story 3 to record the story was not so difficult. I could handle it. But there was still one problem which was related to the background music. I did not know how to lengthen the background music. That was okay. I finally solved the problem.

The digital storytelling was a reflective activity for me. It gave me the chance to put my personal experience and feelings into words and share it with others.

For me, information technology only plays a limited role in teaching and learning English. It is not a must to use it in the classroom. However, the experience of producing a digital story gave me some hints. That is, technology can work as a tool to facilitate students’ learning and also inspire teaching and learning. Digital story can be adopted in the classroom. It is a tool for students to practise both writing and speaking.

Sharing a digital story with others is a ‘fearless’. I could revise the story until the perfect one. I only need to show the recording of the story. I don’t need to tell the story facing a group of audience. Also, it is very conveninet that the story can be shared at any time and any place.

Lego Boy Story Board

The potential benefits of digital storytelling
There are two approaches of digital storytelling which includes guided story and free story approach. Both approaches can inspire students’ creativity by creating a new ending for the story or writing their own stories by providing pictures to the students. In addition, digital storytelling can enhance students’ speaking ability. When they read aloud the stories, they need to read aloud it with the correct pronunciation and intonation. Digital storytelling can be integrated into a writing lesson. After finishing a story, students can produce a ‘true story’ rather than just submit a piece of paper to the teachers. They have a real experience to read aloud the story, record it and share it with the other classmates. It is especially useful for those who are shy and not willing to speak in class.

winnieyau.wikispaces.com
It contains notes, exercise and websites of preposition of time.

I think wikis can be used in writing and teaching grammar exercises. In the mean time, I am teaching healthy life style in P.5. Students can first get some ideas on what healthy life style is. Some useful information and websites can be provided. They can search information and study the information on their own. Then, they can do an exercise which is about the vocabulary of the topic. It can also contain a note about how to organise different ideas in their writing. Moreover, wikis are good tools to create grammar exercises for the students to learn or revise on their own. They can study the grammar notes and examples. Exercises, like gap-filling or proofreading, are designed for consolidation. Further study can be done through visiting more websites.

Millionaire_vocabulary

This powerpoint is going to be used in a primary four class to teach and revise vocabulary about food items. The questions is organized into five different food categories. The students need to interpret the meaning of the food groups. Then, they identify which food item belongs to that category. I think this game is also good for teachers to test students’ vocabulary related to food. After answering the questions, teachers can also play an extended activity, for example, teachers get students into groups and let them write as many as food items of each category.

For the online listening materials I tried in class, I think the tasks are for testing. Listen and do the exercise. It is difficult for students to learn listening skills. When designing online listening tasks, there should be pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening activities to guide students and provide them with the content and vocabulary. For the tense buster materials, there are some exercises which can help students to work out some rules of grammar. But they are not obvious. The tense buster tasks are more for testing rather than learning. I think some grammar rule discovery tasks can be added to enable students to learn grammar on their own.

Quantifiers

This is a grammar rule discovery task which about finding the rule of quantifers.

In Lingonet, apart from pictures and putting the vocabulary in the semantic cluster, new vocabulary can be taught through showing the opposites of the vocabulary items. Students can revise the vocabulary they have learnt and at the same time they can make use of the previous knowledge to get the meaning of the new vocabulary. They can predict the meaning on their own. Learning vocabulary in opposite pairs is an effective way to for the students to remember.

Moreover, online dictionary with pictures can be linked to the new vocabulary. When students come across new items, they can immediately link to the dictionary and pictures and get the meaning. It is convinenent and efficient for students.

Vocabulary Mind Map