El Blog de Susana

Nadie te hablará

2012-01-18T10:51:00.000-05:00

¡¡No tiene desperdicio!!

http://www.canalsuralacarta.es/television/video/la-diana--artur-mas/8226/31

Manu Sánchez. La Semana Más Larga.

“Estos niños sacrificados bajo el durísimo yugo de la inmersión lingüística en catalán sacan las mismas notas de castellano que los de Salamanca, de Valladolid, de Burgos y de Soria; y no le hablo ya de Sevilla, de Málaga, de Coruña, etcétera, porque allí hablan el castellano, efectivamente, pero a veces a algunos no se les entiende”.

Artur Mas. Septiembre, 2011.

Somos madres, mantenemos nuestra casa limpia y pura

2011-11-12T20:17:00.001-05:00

Es que no me puedo creer que seamos parientes de los cangrejos. ¡¿Cómo es posible que vayamos para atrás?! Es que no me puedo creer que haya mujeres, qué digo, madres que no tengan otra aspiración que tener la casa limpia y pura (¿cómo se purifica una casa, con lejía o con amoniaco?). Estoy indignada. ¿Y qué les regalen un bolso de Luis Vuitton? Es que no me puedo creer las aspiraciones de estas mujeres, qué digo, madres.

Casualmente ayer asití a una charla de literatura que organizó el Departamento de Español de Penn State. La charla la dio Rosalia Cornejo-Parriego (University of Ottawa) y el título rezaba así: Feminism and the Left: A Troubled Relationship in Spain’s Transition to Democracy. Su charla se centró principalmente en la revista Vindicación Feminista (1976-1979) concebida como instrumento para movilizar y dar voz a los diferentes movimientos de mujeres (qué digo, ¿madres?).

Ojalá que estas madres, que alegremente cantan, lean algunos de estos ejemplares para que dejen de cantar estupideces cuando limpian el polvo de su casa. ¡Ay! Lo siento, de la suciedad de su casa.

Justamente su publicación nº 18 va dedicado a las madres. Le podían echar un vistazo.

Nº 18 Madres

Para más información sobre Vindicación feminista:
http://www.vindicacionfeminista.com/frameset1.html
http://www.unizar.es/gobierno/vr_institucionales/observatorio/vindicacion/index.htm

The Importance of the U-Shape Seating Arrangement in a Language Class

2011-10-21T11:37:00.000-04:00

Students and instructors ask me many times why we should change our students seating arrangement from rows to U-shape or horseshoe. The main reasons are because students can make eye contact with each other and the instructor can make eye contact as well with all the students. Doing so, all students feel included in the class. Also, instructor can reach and move closer to each student. For these reasons, it is essential to arrange your students seating using the U-shape instead of rows.

I would like to share this interesting article I just found in the net.

Atherton J S (2011) Teaching and Learning; Physical Layout [On-line: UK] retrieved 21 October 2011 from http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/layout.htm

Room Layout

The physical surroundings of a class can encourage or inhibit the kind of interaction, and hence learning, which you want. Making distinct efforts to arrange the furniture of a classroom to promote a particular kind of interaction also sends strong messages to participants who are used to conventional layouts that this class is something different. It may be a hassle (particularly when there are instructions to "leave the room as you found it") but it is worth it.

The ability to "make eye-contact" (look someone in the eye, however fleetingly) is—at least in Western culture—the key to establishing communication in a group, and it is particularly important for the teacher.

The traditional classroom layout, in rows, allows the teacher to make eye-contact with all the students (although it is important to keep looking around to move beyond a narrow arc of vision, if you want everyone to feel included). It facilitates traditional teacher-student delivery and questioning, or "teacher-centred" teaching. The students can also readily see a screen or board at the front. But in order to talk to each other, they need to turn in their seats or address the back of a fellow-student's neck.

For whole-group discussion, the U-shape layout is more effective. The students can make eye-contact with each other (although they still have to twist to talk to a person along the same side of the table). However, apart from those along the back, they also have to turn to see whatever the teacher is presenting.

If the group is too large to get around a U-shaped layout or a board-room table, the "fishbowl", with concentric circles of students, maximises the possibilities of discussion. Clearly this works better without tables, and it is useful to make efforts to ensure that over several sessions, everyone has their turn in the "inner circle".

For sessions involving small group working, it is useful to arrange tables at which four or five students can sit, to promote the easy formation of the small groups from the start of the session. It encourages talk within the small groups, and exchanges with the teacher, but communication between the groups can be awkward, and people still end up talking to others' backs. It does avoid the disruption caused by people moving about half-way through (although that is sometimes a useful "punctuation mark" in the session).

The moral of the story is, as ever, that there is no single solution: it all depends on what it is you want to do.

However, do be aware of the needs of students with, for example, sensory impairments. The extent to which you privilege their needs over the general social process of the class, or go for a utilitarian solution, is as ever a matter of fine judgement.

Patricia Ryan: Don't insist on English!

2011-04-14T21:31:00.000-04:00

Roscos Fritos de La Indiana

2011-01-16T20:29:00.000-05:00

Ingredientes:

Roscos Fritos

La cáscara de un limón
La cáscara de una naranja
Una cucharadita de matalahúva
3 huevos
1 vaso de azúcar
1 vaso de aceite (frito con una cáscara de limón y otra de naranja)
1 vaso de leche
1 sobre de levadura Royal (16 gr.)
Aprox. 1 Kg. de harina (o la que admita; debe quedar pegajosa)
La ralladura de un limón
Azúcar y canela para espolvorear los roscos una vez fritos

Nota: La medida es de un vaso de caña de café

Preparación:

Poner en una sartén el aceite y freír una cáscara de limón y otra de naranja. Una vez frititas, apartar el aceite del fuego y echar matalahúva.

Batir bien los huevos, el azúcar y la ralladura de limón en un bol. A esta mezcla, añadir el aceite y la leche, la levadura y la harina que admita. La masa debe quedar pegajosa. Una vez que esté todo mezclado hacer pequeñas bolas y abrir un agujero en el centro. Freír. En el aceite donde fríes la masa echar una cáscara de limón y otra de naranja. Una vez fritos, espolvorearlos con la mezcla de azúcar y canela.

Haciendo Queso Fresco

2011-01-11T20:53:00.000-05:00

¿Cómo hacer queso fresco? Mi hermano Jaime y Manuel el de Arriate organizaron, en la antigua escuela de La Indiana, un taller llamado “Al-Queso”, según él, para romper el boicot institucional al queso de fabricación casera. Fue durante un fin de semana de este diciembre, lo pasamos muy bien y lo mejor de todo es que aprendimos a hacer queso fresco. A continuación os explico cómo hacer queso fresco con leche de cabra. La verdad es que fue más fácil de lo que pensaba.

¿Qué necesitamos para elaborar queso fresco de cabra y queso tipo Burgos?

Ingredientes

6 litros de leche de cabra cruda de ganadería (se obtiene 1 kilo de queso)
Calcio (en polvo de farmacia). Se echa 0,3 ml de calcio por cada litro de leche. CaCl2: Cloruro cálcico disuelto al 50%. No puede darle la luz y se debe conservar en un lugar seco (no guardar en la nevera, pues precipita). En nuestra receta: 1,8 ml de calcio.
Cuajo (de farmacia). Se echa 0,35 ml cuajo por cada litro de leche. Conservar en la nevera. En nuestra receta: 2,1 ml de cuajo.
Sal
Agua
Jalea de membrillo o miel (opcional - para postre cremoso)

Utensilios

Pleita, expremijo y termómetro

Un termómetro
Olla grande (capacidad para 7-8 litros)
Un barreño mediano o palangana mediana
Colador de tela, gasa o muselina
Colador de malla
Cucharón colador
Cuchara de madera
Expremijo: tablón de madera con surcos para que escurra el suero
Pleitas de esparto o molde de queso
Una jeringuilla

¿Cómo hacemos el queso fresco?

Se cuela, con un colador de tela, la leche de cabra en la olla donde se va a calentar. Una vez colada, se calienta y se mueve constantemente, para que se caliente por igual, hasta que llegue a 75ºC (pasteurización). Apagamos el fuego.

A continuación, se deja enfríar la leche hasta que llegue a 40ºC.

Una vez que la leche alcanza esta temperatura, se echa el calcio con una jeringuilla (1,8 ml) en diferentes lugares (circularmente) y se remueve para que se mezcle bien. Se le añade calcio para reponer el que se ha perdido en la pasteurización.

A continuación se vierte el cuajo (2,1 ml), lo movemos bien y lo dejamos reposar entre 35-45 minutos. La temperatura de la leche no puede ser menor de 33ºC.

Nota: Si se da el caso en que la temperatura sea menor de 33ºC calentamos la leche al baño maría, nunca al fuego directo porque ya lleva el cuajo.

Al medir la temperatura, comprobamos si la gota que queda en el termómetro es transparente. Esto indica que la leche y el agua están separadas y todo está listo para el siguiente paso. Comprobar la textura tocando la cuajada con el termómetro.


Textura de haber cuajado

Una vez que la leche ha cuajado ya se puede cortar. La cuajada se corta en cuadraditos (2 cm) y se pone al fuego otra vez. Se remueve constantemente de abajo a arriba hasta que quede la cuajada granulada. Se calienta de nuevo hasta que llegue a 40ºC. Cuando alcance esta temperatura, apagar el fuego y seguir removiendo (30-40 segundos) para que la cuajada no se quede abajo.

Cortar la cuajada en cuadraditos

Nota: Si quieres hacer un queso tipo Burgos, echa la cuajada granulada en un vaso con agujeros con un cucharón colador y déjala reposar en un plato hondo (se puede echar trozos de carne de membrillo). Al rato, cuando ya ha escurrido el suero, meterlo en la nevera. Lo que sale en el vasito es queso tipo Burgos de leche de cabra.

Queso tipo Burgos

La cuajada granulada se deja reposar unos 15 minutos. Con una jarrita o taza, quitamos el suero que ha quedado en la superficie de la olla. Este proceso se llama desorar. Para desorarlo se puede usar un barreño y un colador para que no se desperdicie cuajada al quitar el suero.

Desorando el queso

Se coloca la pleita enrollada en el expremijo con la medida aproximada del queso (unos 20 cm de diámetro). El expremijo debe inclinarse un poco para que escurra el suero sobrante. El queso se va poniendo en la pleita mezclándolo con los dedos. No presionar o prensar el queso demasiado.


Mezclar más que presionar

Una vez formado el queso, se aprieta la pleita y se pone peso encima del queso para que suelte el suero. A los 10-15 minutos, se le da la vuelta al queso y se ajusta la pleita. Se le pone el peso otra vez. Es importante que al ajustar la pleita se mueva también de posición para evitar marcas profundas del principio de la pleita.

Ajustar la pleita

Poner cualquier tipo de peso al queso

Mientras preparar la salmuera si no se ha preparado antes. En un barreño o palangana mediana mezclar sal y agua. La salmuera se puede hacer con agua fría o caliente. Para 5 litros de agua fría se necesitan 3 kilos de sal. Para 5 litros de agua caliente se necesitan 2 kilos de sal.

Una vez que el queso está firme, pero no muy duro, se le quita la pleita y se mete en la salmuera. El tiempo en la salmuera varía según el peso del queso.

El queso debe quedar blandito, pero firme. Entonces, se echa en la salmuera dándole la vuelta a la mitad del tiempo requerido. Si el queso sale de 1 Kg. se deja en la salmuera durante una hora (800 gr. = 25-30 minutos) y se le da la vuelta pasados 30 minutos. Cuando se termina el tiempo en la salmuera, se mete en la nevera.

Es mejor comer el queso al día siguiente para que la sal se extienda por el interior del queso y esté más sabroso.

Listo: Después de una hora en la salmuera, ¡salió este magnífico y delicioso queso!

Variaciones: Queso Curado

Es el mismo proceso, pero antes de echar el calcio, se echa medio yogur (para controlar la acidez). Se remueve durante 5 minutos. A continuación se echa el calcio y el cuajo. Hay que dejarlo reposar durante 35-40 minutos. Debe reposar y curarse en un lugar húmedo y fresco. Con el suero que queda se puede usar para hacer requesón.

Variaciones: Postre Cremoso de Queso

Justo antes de quitar el suero y antes de prensarlo se coge un poco y se mezcla con nata y jalea de membrillo o miel. Se mezcla todo en una batidora. Conservar en la nevera.
Ese mismo día también se hizo un arroz para los del curso y las señoras de la Indiana hicieron roscos fritos. Como estaban buenísimos, pues le pedí la receta a Manola. Así que la pondré en otro post.

Más fotos del taller :)

Atendiendo a las explicaciones :)

Manuel, el monitor quesero, ajustando la pleita

Collage del taller

The Importance of Pronunciation

2010-11-18T10:21:00.000-05:00

I LOVE ACCENTS!

Video Tools for Teaching and Learning

2010-11-12T12:55:00.000-05:00

On November 2009 I participated in a workshop about different video tools we can use for teaching in our classrooms. As we were told and you may know, video is an excellent and potent tool for teaching and learning, specially in an online setting. You can communicate better with your students and both you and your students can present information to the class or to you.

In this workshop we explored 6 different video tools:

Screencast-O-Matic (video screen capture or screencasting tool)
EyeJot (video messaging)
Viddler (videoplatform) and Viddix (videoplatform) VIDDIX is a new, exciting videoplatform that allows you to connect all kinds of webcontent to your videos. This way you can really interact with your audience and deliver your messages more effectively.
UStream and LiveStream (live video broadcasts). Ustream is a interactive web streaming platform. It is great for host events, set up interactive conversations, create polls for your audience, etc. Also, you can look for the archived shows for a later review.

1. Screencasting

A screencast is a recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. Screencast-O-Matic is a FREE online screen recorder for creating screen capture video recordings. You do not need to download any software and you can upload your videos in their hosting. You work form your own browser.

2. Video Messaging

Video messaging refers to sending/receiving video messages to and from web browsers, phones, and/or email. Many of today's video messaging tools provide opportunities to do all three. Eyejot is a free online video messaging platform. You can create create and receive video messages in a spam-free environment. With no client to install, you can start using Eyejot immediately with any browser, on any platform. It even features built-in support for iTunes™ (and iPods™), mobile devices and social networks like MySpace™. Watch Eyejot video examples.

3. Video Content

You don't have to know how to create video in order to use video in your class. There are many sites on the web where faculty and other educators are sharing video lectures and other educational videos for you to use. Viddler and Viddix are videoplatforms. VIDDIX is a videoplatform that allows you to connect all kinds of webcontent to your videos, so you can interact with your audience. They offer free accounts.

4. Live Video Broadcasts

UStream and LiveStream (live video broadcasts). UStream is a interactive web streaming platform. It is great for host events, set up interactive conversations, create polls for your audience, etc. Also, you can look for the archived shows for a later review. With the UStream and LiveStream tools you can set up your own interactive TV channel, so you can broadcast live and you can record everything for later playback.

¿Qué es un blog?

2010-05-12T20:30:00.001-04:00

He encontrado esta explicación sobre qué es un blog y me ha parecido estupenda.

Blogs y Educación

View more presentations from Néstor Alonso.

¡No nos olvidemos del primo de Rajoy!

2010-02-15T18:22:00.000-05:00

Situación de los profesores de Español para Extranjeros (E/LE)

2008-02-15T19:27:00.000-05:00

Acabo de firmar esta carta. En ella se pide que la situación en la que los profesores de ELE nos encontramos en España cambie de una vez por todas. Si crees que esta causa merece la pena, firma digitalmente esta carta y ayúdanos a conseguir lo que s justo.

Para más información: http://por-un-convenio-digno.blogspot.com/

Carta a los Medios de Comunicación, al Instituto Cervantes y al Ministerio de Educación

La situación de los profesores de Español para Extranjeros (E/LE) es la que sigue:

No existe un convenio específico de Enseñanza de Español. Los centros privados que imparten Español como Lengua Extranjera (E/LE) se rigen por el Convenio de la Enseñanza no Reglada.
Paradójicamente, la mayoría de los centros, por razones de competitividad, se adhieren al Marco Común de Referencia Europeo de la enseñanza de idiomas y se someten a las certificaciones de calidad emitidas por instituciones como el Instituto Cervantes.
En el Convenio se exige a los docentes titulación oficial (Capitulo IV, artículo 11). Al no haber una específica, se da por hecho que es titulación universitaria. De hecho, prácticamente la totalidad de los profesores son licenciados, y más del 50% ha finalizado un post-grado E/LE.
La jornada laboral estipula para los docentes 1.446 horas anuales, estableciendo como módulo semanal de referencia 34 horas (Capítulo V, artículo 15), que en la mayoría de las escuelas se materializa en 6 horas diarias de clase. Es frecuente el contrato a tiempo parcial que, en muchas escuelas, contempla exclusivamente las horas lectivas, lo que no exime al profesor del resto de las obligaciones.
El sueldo para esta dedicación plena es, para un profesor titular, de 12.537 € brutos anuales, lo que supone de 700 a 800 € netos al mes. El pago por clase dada, de acuerdo con el convenio, supone entre 5 y 6 € netos por hora impartida, y son mayoría los centros que se ciñen al convenio.
Gran parte de los profesores tiene contrato eventual y a tiempo parcial. Los profesores con contratos temporales se ven sometidos a condiciones de constante inseguridad laboral y vulnerabilidad personal, ya que la eventualidad laboral garantiza a las empresas mano de obra sumisa.
Para evitar derechos de antigüedad, se contrata a muchos trabajadores de forma intermitente. En muchos casos la situación de inestabilidad se prolonga indefinidamente. De esta manera, además de perder los derechos de antigüedad, el trabajador no puede decidir sus vacaciones, ya que el empresario interrumpe la contratación según su conveniencia.
Los profesores, con vistas a mantener una mínima seguridad laboral, emprenden una loca carrera por acumular certificados de formación específica a cargo de sus maltrechos bolsillos, dándose la paradoja de que se cuenta en España con los mejores especialistas en E/LE (licenciaturas, master, doctorados y diversos cursos de especialización, muchos de ellos organizados por el propio Instituto Cervantes), con lo que los empresarios del sector cuentan con magníficos especialistas y aprovechan una fuerza de trabajo cualificada por el sueldo de un trabajador sin cualificar.
Por razones de dispersión e inestabilidad, la representación sindical del colectivo es mínima y, por tanto, poco resolutiva a la hora de negociar el convenio. Por todo ello:

Queremos denunciar:

1.- Un convenio que es inadecuado, ya que está destinado a la enseñanza no reglada, cuando para las escuelas ELE hay vigente, de facto, una regulación desde el momento en que se acogen al Marco de Referencia Europeo.

2.- Un convenio que es inoperante, porque deja a los profesores en una situación de total indefensión ante las múltiples puertas de atrás que abre a los empresarios.

3.- Un convenio que es injusto para sus acogidos, que no sólo son licenciados sino que en alto grado (calculamos que el 50 por ciento) son especialistas con masteres, cursos de especialización y publicaciones.

4.- Al gobierno y a las instituciones, que toleran y eluden esta situación, a la par que presumen del papel del español en el mundo, centrándose solamente en la cantidad que ingresa la industria del español y no en la calidad del producto que se oferta ni en las condiciones laborales en que se produce.

5.- A un sector, el de las escuelas, que está hundiendo uno de los mayores recursos económicos de nuestro país, al abandonar la calidad en pos del enriquecimiento inmediato.

Pedimos:

- Al Instituto Cervantes:

1. Que dé los pasos necesarios para legislar la enseñanza E/LE,

2. que tome medidas para dignificar la situación de los profesores, exigiendo un convenio decente en cuanto a horas lectivas, salario y regulación de la contratación,

3. que se replantee la ética y profesionalidad de sus certificados de calidad, que contribuyen a perpetuar la precariedad laboral.

- A todos los profesores afectados que se den a conocer, que expongan su situación y que se unan a esta búsqueda de alternativas.

- A los medios de comunicación que se hagan eco de esta situación que las instituciones eluden para no enfrentarse con los empresarios.

- A los empresarios que reflexionen seria y profesionalmente sobre el producto que están vendiendo, para entrar en un camino de calidad y dignidad.

Tu nombre en japonés

2008-01-27T19:32:00.000-05:00

Esta página es bastante interesante, puedes escribir tu nombre (o palabras) y lo reescribe en japonés. También, hay vocabulario básico en otras lenguas y otras cosillas interesantes.

http://lexiquetos.ohui.net/

2008-01-25T21:11:00.000-05:00

Este video lo he puesto en mi clase de español y no ha habido ningún estudiante que no se haya reído. ¡Es muy gracioso! El video se llama "One Semester of Spanish - Love Song". Mike es famoso ahora.

2008-01-25T19:20:00.000-05:00

Realmente hay videos ingeniosos, inteligentes y divertidos por ahí fuera. Échale un vistazo a éste. ¡Yo me reí mucho!

The CALL and the Net

2007-04-18T17:22:00.000-04:00

The CALL and the Net

In education environments, CALL (Computer-assisted Language Learning) has been utilized for language teaching since 60s, within different pedagogical approaches (Warschauer & Healey, 1998) and its correspondent development throughout the years. CALL is usually identify as CMC (Computer-mediated Communication) which allows learners to communicate with other learners (or native speakers, instructors, etc.) in the target language, as long as they are connected to the Internet and have the appropriate technology tools for communication (e.g., computer, micro, special software, etc.). CMC tool is often divided in ACMC (Asynchronous Computer-mediated Communication) and SCMC (Synchronous Computer-mediated Communication). The most popular ACMC tools are email and fora, which permit participants to compose messages whenever they wish. The most frequent tools in SCMC are chats or MOOs which allow participants to have a simultaneous conversation (written/oral) in real time regardless where they are located. CMC allows one-to-one communication and also one-to-many communication. (Kern & Warschaueecr, 2000). In the 90s, the use of SCMC, usually referred to as chats, was in an exploratory stage. Recently, many studies in CMC have been adopted the interactionist approach in Second Language Acquisition (Thorne & Payne, 2005). Many interactionist SLA studies focus on the importance of negotiation of meaning, focus on form, task based learning, and collaborative learning being very useful in online distance education (Blake, 2005).

In recent times, educators, researchers, companies, people in general have shown a great interest in the uses of computers for language teaching and learning. (Warschauer & Healey, 1998). Not long ago, the special uses of computers were restricted to certain people because programs were not easy to use and understand. Nowadays, programs are user-friendly and these programs are open to the mass, consequently more people may be able to use (and maybe go beyond) these new available technology tools. Therefore, the role of computers when learning a language has now become an important issue for educators and professionals (Warschauer & Healey, 1998).

The combination of CALL and Internet has reinvented the way in which computers are used for learning foreign languages. Internet-mediated communication has driven the use of new technological tools in educational settings such as Wikis, blogs, and podcasts, among others, and professionals are taking advantage of these new emerging educational tools.

References

Thorne, S. L., & Payne, J. S. (2005). Evolutionary Trajectories, Internet-mediated Expression, and Language Education. The CALICO Journal, 22/3: 371-397.

Warschauer, Mark & Healey, Deborah (1998). Computers and language learning: An overview. Language Teaching, 31, 57-71.

Blake, Robert (2005). Bimodal CMC: The glue of language learning at a distance. CALICO Journal, 22(3): 497-511.

Kern, Richard & Warschauer, Mark (2000). Theory and practice of network-based language teaching. In M. Warschauer & R. Kern (Eds.), Network-based language teaching: Concepts and practice. New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.

DIWE-Education al Software

2007-04-14T14:23:00.000-04:00

If you want to have more information about DIWE such as pricing, specifications and more, you can have a look in their Web Site: http://www.daedalus.com/

Pricing (April 14th, 2007): $189 per computer; Site Licensing $8.500 and up.

DIWE-Telecollaboration Program

2007-04-14T13:30:00.000-04:00

Telecollaboration Program

I just read about a program called DIWE, which stands for Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment. DIWE is a perfect collaborative tool that helps learners to develop their skills in writing and critical thinking. The software includes six primary features:

Invent: This feature of the software leads the students step by step in their first progress of their writing process.

Write: This feature of the software is a word processor that has a spell checking feature. It will help students to write and correct their essays.

Respond: This feature of the software helps learners to give an appropriate feedback to their classmates or peers displaying a writer’s draft and guiding the reviewer.

Mail: This feature gives the student the opportunity to communicate with public messages (to the entire class) or privates messages (to one classmate). CMC is fundamental for collaborative learning.

InterChange®: This feature of the software is great for collaboration projects because allows students share their opinions, talk, listen, review essays, and discussions on the topics, among others, since InterChange is a real-time conferencing program.

BiblioCite®: This feature helps students to write all the sources that they are using in their projects or essays in a properly formatted MLA Works Cited and APA References pages.

DIWE can be ideal for Foreign Language classrooms since it has the feature of spell checking in various languages (Spanish, French, and German) and a thesaurus.

Where in the world is Susana?

2007-04-09T21:31:00.000-04:00

Technology Integrated Curricular Unit Development Project

Aaron Dringus

Carmen Castro García

Susana García Prudencio

Julie Pfursich

Mandy Reinig

Description of the course

The following curricular unit has been developed for Spanish 003 at The Pennsylvania State University (UP). Spanish 003 is the third and final level of the Spanish Basic Language Program at Penn State. This course is designed for students who have completed Spanish 002 successfully at Penn State, have had the equivalent level at another university, and for students who have successfully completed four years of high school Spanish. There are no more than 22 students enrolled in each section of the course. The purpose of this course is to develop and improve communication skills such as listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Spanish.

Spanish 003 is a 4 credit computer enhanced one semester course in which classes are held twice a week for 50 minutes. Instead of having class four times a week, students are responsible for completing assignments online (ANGEL) each week. These assignments typically take 6 hours to complete and include lessons on vocabulary and grammar. There are listening comprehension and reading comprehension activities that include information on the culture of Spanish speaking countries, as well as a short activity on pronunciation (i.e., students are asked to listen to someone produce a word, and they must choose if the person was a native or nonnative Spanish speaker). The ANGEL activities are completed one week prior to when the topic will be covered during class time, therefore students are introduced to and practice new material through ANGEL prior to it being discussed in class. This allows students to finish the assignments at their own pace and to receive immediate feedback on their performance. Students are allowed to submit each activity twice, and the best score is used in the calculation for their final ANGEL grade. In addition to ANGEL, students complete eight written assignments, which are due at the beginning of the class on the dates indicated by the syllabus. They are instructed to write at least 100 words in Spanish on the given topic. Therefore, each week students are asked to write about a different theme and to use the target grammatical form and vocabulary. These writing assignments are hand graded by the instructor. Students performance is also evaluated on three written exams (each exam includes a listening, grammar, vocabulary, and writing section), an oral exam, and their in class participation. Participation includes class attendance, and contribution to in class activities.

The two in class periods are organized in the following manner: review of content seen on ANGEL (5 minutes), individual and group activities (35-40 minutes), introduction to what they will be learning on ANGEL for the following week (5 minutes). The individual and group activities include oral/written input, and oral/written output. The focus of these class periods is for the students to practice what they have learned on ANGEL so the classes are not teacher centered. The classes are well structured in that the instructor has a series of activities for the students to complete, but the students do most of the conversing in class.

The content of Spanish 003 includes a review of grammatical information learned in Spanish 002 such as object pronouns, the verb “gustar”, and preterit and imperfect tenses. The students then learn both the present and imperfect subjunctive tenses, informal commands, positive and negative expressions, the future and conditional tenses, and the present and past perfect tenses. The vocabulary consists of health conditions and medical treatments, travel, social demographics and conditions, and the environment and technology.

Description of the Unit

Unit content

The unit for this curricular is the future tense which includes three subunits: future tense, vocabulary (environment and technology), and probability in the future tense. For example, when expressing probability the future tense can be used as follows; if someone is asked the time and does not know, but is assuming it is around noon he could say, “serán las doce” to mean “it’s probably noon”.

As the students will be learning to communicate using the future tense, the unit is organized using technology enhanced activities to discuss what the world will be like in twenty years, an activity to practice the new vocabulary and lastly to figure out what the teacher of the class could possibly be doing and where she could be in the future. These three activities target each of the subunits of this unit. The activities presented here are described in further detail below.

Activities for Unit:

What’s Happening in 2025?

Class uses a Wiki to create a round robin story about the future

Scavenger Hunt

Students (in groups) use digital cameras to photograph items that represent the vocabulary words, and then use a Wiki to guess the correct word for each photograph.

Where in the World is Susana (Instructor)

Students use Skype and blogs to figure out where the instructor could be after being given clues via email.

Rationale for choice of unit theme:

As the goal of this curricular is to be implemented during class, this unit was chosen primarily because it coincides with the current Spanish 003 course syllabus. The future tense is fairly simple to construct, and students typically do not have problems with its form. In Spanish 001 students learn another manner of expressing the future, which is “ir + a + infinitive” (In English, “going to do something”). Many times students resort to this grammatical construction because they have been practicing it for two semesters, so they do not use the future tense as often as they could. These activities will help students become comfortable using the future tense, and will also help them understand when it is more appropriate to use “ir + a + infinitive” or the future tense. The vocabulary for this unit corresponds to the vocabulary being presented to the students on ANGEL and in the book.

Means used to conceptualize the content

As a group, we collectively decided on the curricular unit, and the content. As the main goal is to implement technology in the unit development, we decided to use many means of technology. The students are already comfortable using some means of technology such as email and instant message being that they are university students, and registered for a computer-enhanced course, but we wanted to integrate as much technology as possible to keep the students interested, and to help them practice different communication skills. Maintaining students’ interest is crucial in deciding what activities to utilize. We kept in mind that students are already using many of these technologies on a daily basis and wanted to take advantage of its common use.

Each activity is carefully designed to use one or more means of technology with the option to choose, i.e. use a blog instead of a Wiki. The first activity is an extension on one of the written assignments. Students are asked to write a 100 word essay about what the world will be like in the year 2025, including advancements in technology and the environment, to implement the vocabulary of the unit. This technology activity, however, requires students to not only produce sentences using the target form, but to also read and understand the sentences produced by their classmates.

The goal of the second activity is for the students to be able to produce both the target vocabulary word and a definition for the word. Many times vocabulary activities are boring, and do not encourage students to produce much in the target language. The activity created asks that the students go outside with their cameras and take pictures of the vocabulary words which ultimately allow them to apply the Spanish words to their world. The students then must share these photographs with their classmates and they have to guess the each other’s vocabulary word.

The material for the final activity is the most challenging because it expresses probability in the future. Students typically grasp the idea of the future tense quickly, but they forget that they can express probability by using the same tense. The idea for this activity stemmed from the idea of working in groups and creating some friendly competition in class while the students not only learn about the target form, but also they also learn about other cultures. The first two activities do not include cultural awareness, but the instructor can easily implement cultural learning in the third. For example, if the instructor is from Spain she can explain the types of food, the lifestyle, the geography, etc. to help the students guess where she will be. This can also lead into a group cultural discussion once the activity is completed.

Unit goals & objectives

Goals

Develop Spanish language communicate skills including reading, writing and speaking
To consider the reality of the first activity when postulating what the world will be like in the year 2025. This would overlap with what the students are learning in other courses such as science, sociology, ITS, etc.
Understand cultures different from their own
To integrate technology in a way that facilitates learning and acquisition

Objectives

Develop Spanish language reading and writing skills through the completion of written assignments
Develop additional Spanish language listening skills by speaking with classmates
Develop additional reading and writing skills by completing the Wiki (or blog) assignments

Activity Objectives (According to ACTFL Standards)

Activity 1

Students work cooperatively in groups using the language to create a round robin story and exchange ideas (1.1)
Students comprehend the created story in the target language (1.2)
Students produce the story in the target language (1.3)
Students develop their knowledge of technology by the use of the target language and the technology skills used in the activity (3.1)

Activity 2

Students engage in conversation negotiating photos being taken, creation and interpretation of clues, and creation of sentences for each word. (1.1)
Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on technology and the environment. (1.2)
Students present information, concepts, and ideas to their classmates regarding their photographs and vocabulary terms. (1.3)
Students demonstrate an understanding of the vocabulary terms of specific countries and their meanings. (2.2)
Students reinforce and further their knowledge of technology and the environment through the Spanish language. (3.1)
Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the images of objects that represent a specific word in their culture and those of other countries. (4.2)
Students use the language both in class, outside of class and on the Internet. (5.1)

Activity 3

Students work cooperatively in groups using the language to try and find the instructor (1.1)
Students comprehend and interpret the clues in the target language (1.2)
Students produce guesses in the target language (1.3)
Students produce guesses that reflect the culture and destination of the instructor (2.1)
Students read clues about the target culture of the instructor (2.2)
Students develop their knowledge of technology by the use of the target language and the technology skills used in the activity (3.1)
Students compare and contrast the clues given between various cultures. (4.2)
Students develop insights into their own future language use. (5.2)

Organization of content

This unit is organized so that students will use a variety of communication skills and various means of technology. The purpose is to integrate technology into class activities to facilitate learning. Each activity is organized using at least one means of technology, and focuses on only one goal. The first is to comprehend and produce sentences using the future tense, the second is to practice vocabulary, and the third is to use the future tense to express probability. These activities are to be incorporated into the unit for future and conditional tenses according to the Spanish 003 syllabus.

Evaluation of unit

The instructor of the class will walk around the classroom during the course of the activities to ensure that students understand the instructions and that they are on task. If students are having difficulty understanding the activities the instructor will make appropriate adaptations. At the end of each activity the instructor will survey the students for their opinions on the activities and if any changes need to be made. They will also be asked if the use of technology aided them in the learning process. The instructor will also evaluate the activities themselves to determine how successful they were and if any additions or changes are needed.

Student evaluation of unit

Students’ performance in each activity will be evaluated by the instructor. These activities will be graded for completeness, and it will count as part of the students’ participation grades. The instructor, however, will review each activity with the class and discuss problem areas seen in the writing. The students will be tested on this information during the second in class written exam.

Activity 1

Title: What’s Happening in 2025?

Activity Type: Project – Story Creation in Wiki

Language: Spanish

Also possible: Any

Topic: Grammar – Future Tense

CMC Tool: Wiki
also possible: Discussion Board

Group Size: Individual and Whole Class
also possible: Small Groups

Description:
The project must be preceded by the ANGEL lesson and written assignments.

As students have already been presented with and used the future tense on their ANGEL assignments, this activity will be a continuation of the lesson. Students will work individually to create a round robin story. Students will be assigned a date and time when they are to write their section of the story. They will comprise this story about the future on a Wiki, which the instructor will start. The instructor will have access the Wiki to give enhanced recasts/feedback on the story. At the beginning of the next in-class period the teacher will bring copies of the completed story and students will take turns reading the parts the wrote.

Student work should be assessed according to each point below.

Activity Objective – The purpose of this activity is to further the student’s knowledge and use of the future tense and their understanding of advanced technology through the use of Wikis.

Student Objectives:

1.1 –Students work cooperatively in groups using the language to create a round robin story and exchange ideas

1.2 –Students comprehend the created story in the target language

1.3 –Students produce the story in the target language

3.1 –Students develop their knowledge of technology by the use of the target language and the technology skills used in the activity

Pre-class Assignment: Students must watch their ANGEL video lesson on the future tense as well as complete their ANGEL written activities.

Students will also have to complete the readings and research on Wikis, including investigating how Wikipedia works.

Materials: ANGEL lesson, presentation, activities

Spanish/English Dictionary

Computer

Student Instructions

Prepare for the activity by completing the ANGEL lesson and activities
Prepare for the activity by researching Wikis and Wikipedia
Read the story as it is being written and think of possible ideas for your portion of the story
Write a continuation of the story at their assigned day and time
Read the completed story
Read orally their portion of the story during the next class period

Teacher Instructions

Set up a Wiki website
Assist students in creating accounts to post in the Wiki environment
Assign students a date and time to write their portion of the story
Needs to create the beginning of the round robin story
Needs to monitor story
Gives enhanced recast/feedback on student’s creation
Access students on the student objectives
Bring copies of the completed story to the next class

Variations: “Choose Your Own Adventure” Story – Students will create a story that can have different endings. The story will have the same beginning but the readers can choose their own ending. Each small group of students will be responsible for writing a different ending. The class as a whole will decide on the story topic and its beginning.

Resources:

www.wikipedia.com
www.wordreference.com – Spanish/English Dictionary
https://cms.psu.edu – ANGEL website
www.rae.es – Spanish Dictionary
http://www.actfl.org/files/public/execsumm.pdf - ACTFL Standards

Activity 2

Title: Scavenger Hunt

Activity Type: Project – Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt

Language: Spanish

also possible: Any

Topic: Environment and Technology vocabulary

General Tools: Digital Camera, Computers, E-mail, Spanish-English Online Dictionary and Photo Editing Software

CMC Tool: Wiki

also possible: Discussion board

Group size: Small groups

also possible: Individual

Description: Scavenger Hunt! Class is divided up into groups and each group is sent a different set of vocabulary words. They are asked to take pictures of these vocabulary words using a digital camera. They will post these pictures onto the class Wiki including a clue to their vocabulary word. The other class members must give the word and write a sentence using that new word.

Students Objectives:

1.1 – Students engage in conversation negotiating photos being taken, creation and interpretation of clues, and creation of sentences for each word.

1.2 – Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on technology and the environment.

1.3 – Students present information, concepts, and ideas to their classmates regarding their photographs and vocabulary terms.

2.2 – Students demonstrate an understanding of the vocabulary terms of specific countries and their meanings.

3.1 – Students reinforce and further their knowledge of technology and the environment through the Spanish language.

4.2 – Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the images of objects that represent a specific word in their culture and those of other countries.

5.1 – Students use the language both in class, outside of class and on the Internet.

Pre-class assignment: Students must watch their ANGEL presentation on the vocabulary as well as complete their ANGEL written activities.

Students will also have to complete the readings and research on Wikis, including investigating how Wikipedia works if they have not done it yet.

Students must gather their vocabulary words from their e-mail.

Materials: ANGEL lesson, presentation, activities, Spanish/English Dictionary

Student Instructions

Students check their e-mail for their vocabulary terms.
Negotiate in Spanish about which photos to take.
Take pictures that represent the vocabulary terms assigned.
They post these pictures onto the class Wiki including a clue to their vocabulary word.
Negotiate the clue in Spanish in regards to which word is being represented by the clue/photo.
The other class members must give the word and write a sentence using that new word.

Teacher Instructions

Teacher divides the class into groups.
Teacher assigns each group a set of vocabulary terms, which are sent by e-mail.
Teacher asks them to take pictures of items that represent the words.

Variations: A Wiki is perfect as a shared Internet encyclopedia. The theme of this Wiki could effortlessly be a number of things: family member, different places or any vocabulary activity.

Resources:

Activity 3

Title: Where in the World is Susana (Instructor)?

Activity Type: Discussion

Language: Spanish

also possible: Any

Topic: Grammar – Future Tense and Vocabulary – Technology and Environment

CMC Tool: Email, Skype chat, SCMC chat, blog
also possible: Wiki

Group Size: Small Groups and Whole Class
also possible: Individual

Description:
The project must be preceded by the ANGEL lesson and written assignments.

Class will be divided into groups of 2-3 students. Susana (Instructor) will email different clues to each group about where she will be and what she will be doing in the future (for example, in the year 2025). Students must meet via Skype chat and SCMC chat during assigned days and times to discuss the clues they were given, and then each group will post on a blog their answers and their steps in finding Susana (Instructor). Each group will have to guess where Susana (Instructor) is and post their guess in a final blog entry by a given date. During the next class period, Susana (Instructor) will tell the class if they guessed correctly.

Student work should be assessed according to each point below.

Activity Objective – The purpose of this activity is to be a wrap-up activity that combines what the students have learned in their grammar and vocabulary lessons as well as give the students an opportunity to learn about other types of technology.

Also possible: This activity would be enhanced if the What’s Happening in 2025? and the Scavenger Hunt activities were completed previously.

Student Objectives:

1.1 – Students work cooperatively in groups using the language to try and find the instructor

1.2 – Students comprehend and interpret the clues in the target language

1.3 – Students produce guesses in the target language

2.1 – Students produce guesses that reflect the culture and destination of the instructor

2.2 – Students read clues about the target culture of the instructor

3.1 – Students develop their knowledge of technology by the use of the target language and the technology skills used in the activity

4.2 – Students compare and contrast the clues given between various cultures.

5.2 – Students develop insights into their own future language use.

Pre-class Assignment: Students must watch their ANGEL video lesson on the future tense as well as complete their ANGEL written activities.

Students will also have to complete the readings and research on blogs and Skype Chat, including investigating how blogs and Skype work.

Materials: ANGEL lesson, presentation, activities

Spanish/English Dictionary

Skype capable headphones/microphone

Computer and email account

Student Instructions

Prepare for the activity by completing the ANGEL lesson and activities
Prepare for the activity by researching blogs and Skype
Choose a group of 2-3 students each
Read your assigned clues via email
Participate in Skype and SCMC chats to discover more clues
Create blog entries on your thought process and your guesses
Negotiate within your group to determine your final guess using the information you have obtained via your clues and other groups’ clues
Post your final guess to your blog
Participate in class discussion regarding all groups final guesses

Teacher Instructions

Think of a future career and place for yourself
Email each student group different clues to your whereabouts
Set up blog website
Assist students in setting up Skype accounts
Choose a SCMC chat environment
Assign days and times for Skype and SCMC chats
Assign a deadline for final guesses to your whereabouts
Monitor chats and blog entries
Access students on the student objectives
Hold discussion during next class session on students’ final guesses

Variations: “Guess Who I Am”. The instructor could assign students roles of famous people. These students would then need to give the other student groups clues to their identity. Each group would then have to work together to guess the student’s identity.

Resources:

www.blogabroad.com – Example of Blogs
http://www2.blogger.com/home - Example of blogs
www.skype.com – Skype chat website
www.wordreference.com – Spanish/English Dictionary
https://cms.psu.edu – ANGEL website
www.rae.es – Spanish Dictionary
http://www.actfl.org/files/public/execsumm.pdf - ACTFL Standards

Where in the world is Susana? (draft 2)

2007-04-01T18:11:00.000-04:00

Activity 1

Title: What’s Happening in 2025?

Activity Type: Project – Story Creation in Wiki

Language: Spanish

Also possible: Any

Topic: Grammar – Future Tense

CMC Tool: Wiki
also possible: Discussion Board

Group Size: Individual and Whole Class
also possible: Small Groups

Description:
The project must be preceded by the ANGEL lesson and written assignments.

Student work should be assessed according to each point below.

Activity Objective – The purpose of this activity is to further the student’s knowledge and use of the future tense and their understanding of advanced technology through the use of Wikis.

Resources:

www.wikipedia.com
www.wordreference.com – Spanish/English Dictionary
https://cms.psu.edu – ANGEL website
www.rae.es – Spanish Dictionary
http://www.actfl.org/files/public/execsumm.pdf - ACTFL Standards

Activity 2

Title: Scavenger Hunt

Activity Type: Project – Vocabulary Scavenger Hunt

Language: Spanish

also possible: Any

Topic: Environment and Technology vocabulary

General Tools: Digital Camera, Computers, E-mail, Spanish-English Online Dictionary and Photo Editing Software

CMC Tool: Wiki

also possible: Discussion board

Group size: Small groups

also possible: Individual

Variations: A Wiki is perfect as a shared Internet encyclopedia. The theme of this Wiki could effortlessly be a number of things: family member, different places or any vocabulary activity.

Resources:

Activity 3

Title: Where in the World is Susana (Instructor)?

Activity Type: Discussion

Language: Spanish

also possible: Any

Topic: Grammar – Future Tense and Vocabulary – Technology and Environment

CMC Tool: Email, Skype chat, SCMC chat, blog
also possible: Wiki

Group Size: Small Groups and Whole Class
also possible: Individual

Description:
The project must be preceded by the ANGEL lesson and written assignments.

Student work should be assessed according to each point below.

Also possible: This activity would be enhanced if the What’s Happening in 2025? and the Scavenger Hunt activities were completed previously.

Variation: “Guess Who I Am”. The instructor could assign students roles of famous people. These students would then need to give the other student groups clues to their identity. Each group would then have to work together to guess the student’s identity.

Resources:

www.blogabroad.com – Example of Blogs
http://www2.blogger.com/home - Example of blogs
www.skype.com – Skype chat website
www.wordreference.com – Spanish/English Dictionary
https://cms.psu.edu – ANGEL website
www.rae.es – Spanish Dictionary
http://www.actfl.org/files/public/execsumm.pdf - ACTFL Standards

–Where in the World is Susana? (draft 1)?

2007-03-30T18:55:00.000-04:00

Technology Integrated Curricular Unit Development Project

Project Description (1^st draft)

Description of Course:

This project is created for Spanish 003 at The Pennsylvania State University (UP). Spanish 003 is the last level of the Spanish Basic Language Program. It is a 4 credit computer enhanced one semester course in which classes are held twice a week for 50 minutes, and students are responsible for completing assignments on online (ANGEL) which account for the other two class periods. Students are also responsible for written compositions, written exams, and an oral exam. There are 22 students enrolled in this section of the course. The purpose of this course is to develop and improve communication skills when listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Spanish. The course follows a communicative information-based task approach.

Description of Unit:

This unit is comprised of learning the future tense in Spanish which includes three subunits: future tense, vocabulary (technology and environment), and probability in the future tense.

Description of Activities:

1. Future Tense – What’s Happening in 2025? As students have already been presented with and used the future tense on their ANGEL assignments, this activity will be a continuation of the lesson. Students will work individually to create a round robin story. Students will be assignment a date and time when they are to write their section of the story. They will comprise this story about the future on a Wiki, which the instructor will start. The instructor will have access the Wiki to give enhanced recasts/feedback on the story.

2. Vocabulary (technology and environment) – Scavenger Hunt! Class is divided up into groups and each group is given a different set of vocabulary words. They are asked to take pictures of these vocabulary words using a digital camera. They will post these pictures onto the class Wiki including a clue to their vocabulary word. The other class members must give the word and write a sentence using that new word.

3. Probability in the future tense – Where in the World is Susana (Instructor)? Class will be divided into groups of 2-3 students. Susana will email different clues to each group about where she will be and what she will be doing in the future (for example, in the year 2025). Students must meet via Skype chat and SCMC chat to discuss the clues they were given, and then post on a blog their answers and their steps in finding Susana.

Second Life -First Thoughts

2007-03-18T14:41:00.000-04:00

Second Life - First thoughts

Here, I will present some thoughts about Second Life.

1. Police vs. Mediator

How to keep students on task

How do you keep people close?

It is easy to get off task

2. SL provides an authentic communicative context

Where people communicate in language

Native speakers

Could it be unnatural?

Same problems as IM chat may exist

Provides more context than IM

Can present yourself however you wish (with physical form, etc)

People are reacting to physical appearance

3. What would entice a SL user to chat with a learner???

Could pay with game money, but this might make it less authentic

Here you have some Webs about Second Life… ENJOY!!

http://secondlife.com/

http://secondslog.blogspot.com/2006/06/understanding-sl-two-takes.html

A very good video introduction to Second Life: http://blip.tv/file/74378/

Second Life Video: http://www.chrisabraham.com/2006/12/smashing_second.html

Here, you have an example how Second Life looks like:

Source: http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6440/1193/1600/immersive.jpg

The SIMS as a educational tool

2007-03-18T12:56:00.000-04:00

The SIMS as a educational tool

Ravi Purushotma (MIT) comments in an article how games and technology can help learners, specifically adolescents, to improve their foreign language skills. He starts his commentary expounding his own experience in learning German in high school. He explains how tedious and frustrating it was to learn German and he relates the horrible experience he went through while he was learning German as a second language.

Purushotma explains how entertainment games can be modified for language learning purposes without sacrificing the entertainment value. Because of this marriage of education and entertainment he brings up the new term edutainment, which is a merge between education and entertainment. However, we have to be cautious and do not fall in the error of doing something that does not achieve the goal in education, focusing only in the entertainment part. Both terms must be balanced in order to attain pedagogical goals through entertainment.

This paper provides examples of embedding language instruction into games, Web browsing, and music. The author gives some examples and their pedagogical implications.

Purushotma starts with a commentary of the famous game The Sims®. The Sims® is a game designed to emulate normal everyday life. You can have a look in the official Web page at The SIMS and judge yourself about the visual and pedagogical implications. The author explains that the possibility of editing the language data in the game allows learners to use the target language. According to Hulstijn (1992) the modification of video games can result on incidental learning. Furthermore, pop-up explanations available for player and the software can be programmed to show two meanings for the same word therefore, the player (learner) has to choose which is appropriate for the context.

Purushotma gives an example of incidental learning when browsing the Web. He suggests that he replaced his ‘throbber’ with German vocabulary, as online flash cards. Hence, instead of seeing a commercial or corporate logo he could see a German word (with the corresponding translation) and an image while loading the web. Furthermore, if the learner makes his own flash cards for the ‘throbber’ s/he will retain that vocabulary better (Nikolova, 2002).

Who did not look for the lyrics of a song in another language? A very well known activity when learning a second language is looking up the lyrics of a song. It is great when learners can follow a song through synchronized lyrics and uses translator to look up unfamiliar words. Learners can use OCR-capable translator and with some programs as Winamp you are able to synchronize your lyrics. Please have a look in an intelligent file made by Purushotma here:

http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/purushotma/creating_synced_lyrics.wmv

Their pedagogical implications are quite clear, namely, exposition to oral input which heightens their listening proficiency, learning new lexical items, as well as cultural aspects of the new language.

To conclude this commentary of the commentary of Purushotma, we have to take into account that technology is an integral part of our everyday life. Because of this, it must also be incorporated into everyday educational life as “edutainment” which ultimately allows the world’s worst foreign language learner to enjoy learning a foreign language.

References:

Purushotma, R. (2005). Commentary: You're not studying, you're just…, Language Learning & Technology 9, 80-96. http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/pdf/purushotma.pdf

Nikolova, O. R. (2002). Effects of students' participation in authoring of multimedia materials on student acquisition of vocabulary. Language Learning & Technology, 6(1), 100-122. Retrieved October 4, 2003, from http://llt.msu.edu/vol6num1/NIKOLOVA/

Hulstijn, J. H. (1992). Retention of inferred and given meanings: Experiments in incidental vocabulary learning. In P. J. L. Arnaud & H. Béjoint (Eds.), Vocabulary and applied linguistics (pp. 113-125). London: Macmillan.

The Sims® http://thesims2.ea.com/
A replacement of your ‘throbber’: http://www.langwidge.com/langwidge_while_you_browse.html

EDUCAWEB

2007-03-11T21:03:00.000-04:00

***250 becas para estudiantes universitarios españoles***

Fechas:
Hasta el 15 de junio de 2007
Descripción:
Están dirigidas a titulados que deseen ampliar sus estudios en España o en el extranjero.
Más información:
250 becas para cursar estudios en España, Estados Unidos, Alemania, Francia, Canadá, China e India.
Organiza:
Obra Social 'la Caixa'
Correo del evento:
becas.fundacion@lacaixa.es
Teléfono:
93 404 6735

Correo:
becas.fundacion@lacaixa.es

***25 becas Fulbright***

Fechas:
Hasta 1 de marzo de 2007
Más información:
Convoca de 20 a 25 becas Fulbright destinadas a titulados superiores que estén interesados en programas de Master's, Ph.D. o, excepcionalmente, en proyectos de investigación predoctoral en una universidad estadounidense durante el curso académico 2008-2009.
Organiza:
Fulbright
Correo del evento:
adviser@comision-fulbright.org
Teléfono:
91 319 11 26
Fax:
91 702 21 85
Correo:
adviser@comision-fulbright.org

Mas información sobre becas congresos e información interesante en:
http://www.educaweb.com/edw/evento.asp?id=4193
http://www.educaweb.com/edw/agenda.asp

SCMC and Pragmatic Development

2007-03-11T20:17:00.000-04:00

I read an article of Julie M. Sykes about how pragmatic and development on Synchronous communication affects the pragmatics of a language. I think that it is very interesting to look the effects of oral and written chat environments on pragmatic acquisition. Sykes (2005) investigates this phenomenon using Spanish as a target language, although her quantitative findings did not accompany her as she would wish. However, in my opinion, she made an attractive qualitative study in this new field. There are not many studies that account for pragmatic acquisition in SCMC (Synchronous Computer-mediated Communication).

Sykes study looks at the connections between pragmatic instruction and SCMC by measuring the effects of written chat, oral chat, and face to face interaction in the target language –Spanish. Previous research indicates that there is a positive connection between the use of written chat and oral production (Payne and Whitney, 2002). Sykes goes beyond that and she looks at if students can perceive the pragmatic connotations within a language investigating the connections between synchronous CMC and pragmatic instruction. Her quantitative and qualitative results suggest that synchronous discussion have an effect on pragmatic development. Therefore, we can infer that the use of this technological tool and how the effectiveness of this instructional tool can be use in any classroom setting.

Sykes posts a nice literature review of previous SCMC research, specifically written chat discussions. She describes how current research supports the idea those similarities between SCMC and face to face discussions.

It is well-known that pragmatic discourse is not included very often in the foreign language curriculum, giving priority to linguistic features of the language. Sykes points out some factors to account for this lack of pragmatic in the classroom setting such as limited time, and inappropriate textbooks, among others. However, according to Sykes students must have available the pragmaticlinguistic abilities and sociopragmatic skills. For the development of her study, she borrows the definition of interlanguage pragmatic ‘the study of development and use of the strategies for linguistic action by nonnative speaker” defined by Kasper and Schmidt (1996).

The author concludes that SCMC is a great tool for pragmatic instruction and she recommend it for foreign language setting, giving more importance to written chat over the other means of communication.

Maybe, Sykes’s methodology was not very appropriate; the study design and the procedure was not very well described, therefore replications are difficult to reproduce, and sample size was small, consequently the statistical procedures fail, hindering the generalization of her results to the target population. Nevertheless, it is a good piece to start with and we have to consider that there are not many research studies that account for this type of pragmatic research. I believe that Sykes is in the right path, and her study might be seen as a pilot study in pragmatic acquisition through SCMC. Moreover, the author asks to researchers, instructors and publishers not to ignore the “possible uses of chat rooms for the inclusion of pragmatic information in the classroom” (Sykes, 2005:422).

References

Sykes, J. (2005). Synchronous CMC and pragmatic development: Effects of oral and written chat. CALICO Journal, 22(3): 399-431.
Payne, J. S. and P. J. Whitney (2002). Developing L2 oral proficiency through synchronous CMC: Output, working memory, and interlanguage development. CALICO Journal 20.1: 7-32.
Kasper, G. & Schmidt, R. (1996). Developmental issues in interlanguage pragmatics. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 149-169.

¡Aprende Español!

2007-02-27T12:22:00.000-05:00

¡Hola!

Are you ready to practice your Spanish? Here you have an amazing tool for practicing your Spanish. This blog is designed just for you! Add comments, questions, play, whatever you want to do! That is our blog.

I think playing is a good way of starting! Let's play. Click in the link below.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/s/z/szg127/actividad%20hot%20potatoes/index.htm

New world: podcast

2007-02-27T12:15:00.000-05:00

What is Podcasting? According to Stanford University, podcasting is a method of making audio files available over the Internet such that they can be automatically downloaded and listened to on your computer or loaded onto your portable audio player.

You can subscribe to podcasts via an RSS feed. To subscribe to the podcast feeds, download podcasting software and add the feed. The popular subscription services are iTunes, Odeo, and iPodder. These services allow you to search, select, subscribe, update, and manage podcasts.

(REFERENCE: http://itunes.stanford.edu/rss/)

Reflections on Bimodal CMC

2007-02-27T12:12:00.000-05:00

Reflections on Bimodal CMC

Susana García Prudencio

Many interactionist SLA studies focus on the importance of negotiation of meaning, focus on form, task based learning, and collaborative learning. Robert Blake (2005) investigates the bimodal (sound and text) CMC interactions of students immerse in a totally virtual first-year of Spanish curriculum. Blake’s data show to new veins of research: CMC can be used at the beginning levels, and investigate the effect of chat tools as a sound-exchange option.

Students are immersed in a program called Spanish Without Walls (SWW) that combines several multimedia language materials (CD-ROM, content-based web readings and flash activities, and a bimodal CMC tool based on Flash Communication Server software (allowing SCMC and ACMC). Students must chat live with their instructors and virtual-classmates (collaborative tasks). Fascinatingly, this chat tool make possible three different CMC modalities: (1) a talk button, (2) a chat window, and (3) a texpad window. The interesting fact here is that students need to take turns when using textpad or talk functions in order to communicate. However, when using the chat function, students can send text to anyone at anytime. Following this thread of turn-taking, Herring (1999) brings the discussion of turn-taking and shares the main problematic features about turn-taking in SCMC. We can refuse to admit that sometimes chat environments are propitious for violating turn-taking. However, as we can see here in these textpad and talk environments, this turn-taking cannot be violated since students must wait their turn in order to talk.

According to Blake, distance language instruction offers a viable option for those students that do not have access to the traditional classroom setting or just prefer this virtual environment.

Blake, supported by several studies, claims that online students performs as good as classrooms students and the fact that on line students pay more attention to written forms might explain why this students perform well in written measures. In addition, the flexibility of been able to work at their own pace, as well as, the feeling of less stress learning environment. Nonetheless, as Blake points out, the challenge for online learning lies in the students’ interest for the course and the attractiveness of the material.

Blake makes an interesting parallelism among networked exchanges and face-to-face interactions. In addition, he gives the opportunity to students to bring alive the language being studied since nothing can replace human interactions, not even a highly entertaining multimedia resources. Furthermore, Blake give to CMC a central role to within the curriculum in the online learning environment, albeit many FL professionals are skeptical about the efficacy of on line language courses.

Finally, I share with Blake his statement about that CMC, in distance language courses, is “one of the only channels available to establish the type of human interactions that help them to motivate us all to learn” (Blake, 2005:509).

References

Blake, R. (2005). Bimodal CMC: The glue of language learning at a distance. CALICO Journal, 22(3): 497-511.

Herring, Susan. (1999). Interactional coherence in CMC. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 4 (4) June 1999.

Class notes

Using SCMC in FL Classroom Setting

2007-02-27T12:11:00.000-05:00

The Benefits (and Disadvantages) of Using SCMC in Foreign Language Classroom Setting

Susana García Prudencio

I would like to describe some advantages of Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (SCMC) that I have found interesting while reading some of the papers for class. I will focus in synchronous written text; in addition some allusions to synchronous oral chats will be mentioned. The effects of the SCMC environments are very varied. Next, I will list the most important advantages, in my opinion, within SCMC environments:

Low stress environment. Students fell more comfortable in this familiar environment and the level of anxiety in class will be diminished. Besides, participation class could be positively affected with less anxiety.
Written text gives the opportunity to go back and re-read the recent conversation. Then, students can go upward to check their own messages, as well as, the others.

Students and instructors can print the conversations taken and work later on with them. Also, they can work with their interlanguage competence.
In written chats the students have more time to formulate their preverbal plan.
In written chats the students have more time to respond the other(s) question(s) or statements. Because of this, students’ responses are more complex due to the extra time and less anxiety.
Provides a great deal of additional interactive language practice.
Promotes not only written or grammatical skills but other cognitive and pragmatic skills too, such as oral proficiency, reading and listening abilities, accuracy, pragmatic competence, and lexical acquisition, among others.
Gives to the instructor and students the possibility to share any kind of file to work with (e.g. PDF file, images, word documents, etc.).
It is ideal for distance learning and hybridization courses.
Oral chats students can practice pronunciation and intonation, besides all cognitive skills that listening competence evolved.
Several scholars support the idea that SCMC share similarities with oral communication, in terms of participant roles, discourse functions, and negotiation of meaning.
It is ideal for collaborative projects and promotes creativity.
Facilitates more contact with the target language than in traditional classrooms settings. Therefore, students are exposed to more input and intake which help them to improve their target language.

However, SCMC environments also entail several disadvantages such the following:

It is hard to set up, therefore ICC (Intercultural Communication) is difficult to establish.
You need to be familiar with the interface, program or software need it for the SCMC environment.
It is possible to find digression in the discourse of the conversations, as you can find these off-task problems in any classroom setting.
Keyboarding.
It is usual to find typos in written chat environments.
No prosody: because there is no sound, it is hard to practice pronunciation and intonation.
Because prosody is not possible in written chats, emoticons or other kind of emotional expressions are required in order not to offend the other interlocutors.
It can be concerning the use of abbreviations, such as “b/w” (between) in English or “pq” (porque) in Spanish.
It can be seen as a mean in which simultaneous feedback is absence and messages are posted as soon as the system receive them (disrupted turn adjacency).

References

Sykes, J. (2005). Synchronous CMC and pragmatic development: Effects of oral and written chat. CALICO Journal, 22(3): 399-431

Herring, Susan. (1999). Interactional coherence in CMC. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 4 (4) June 1999.

Thorne, S. (1999).Chapter 3: Educational and foreign/second language uses of computer-mediation: A review of research. In: An activity theoretical analysis of foreign language electronic discourse. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.

Class notes.

Technology in FL Education. (APLNG 589)

2007-02-27T12:07:00.000-05:00

Some new acronyms and some new definitions

Susana García Prudencio

When talking about technology and foreign language education many acronyms and definitions jump into the scene. Many times you are not sure about this new terminology, above all when you are novel in this fascinating field. That's why my first words in this section account for the meaning of these abbreviations and these new definitions.

CALL: Computer Assisted Language Learning

ICALL: Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning

CMC: Computer-Mediated Communication

SCMC: Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication

ACMC: Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication

NCI: Networked Collaborative Interaction

WELL: Web-Enhanced Language Learning

ICFLL: Internet-Mediated Intercultural Communication in Foreign Language

MOO: Multiuser domain Object Oriented

CACD: Computer-Assisted Clasroom Discussion

The following definitions are from our Wiki space (TechaWiki) and mostly of them have been taken from Wikipedia.

Blog - a user generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. (Wikipedia).

Vlog - or Videoblog- (a portmanteau combining video, web, and log) is a blog that includes video. (Wikipedia).

Wiki - a website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove, and otherwise edit and change available content, and typically without the need for registration. (Wikipedia). Wikis are great for collaboration projects. (Class notes).

Podcast - a media file that is distributed by subscription (paid or unpaid) over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers. (Wikipedia).

Video podcast - (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. (Wikipedia).

Wiki Farm - is a server or a collection of servers that provides wiki hosting, or a group of wikis hosted on such servers. (Wikipedia).

Encuentro profes ELE

2006-11-25T08:56:00.000-05:00

XV Encuentro Práctico de Profesores ELE,

Barcelona 15-16 diciembre 2006

Si quieres más información: http://www.encuentro-practico.com/

2º Congreso Internacional E/LE en Internet

2006-11-25T08:50:00.000-05:00

Tras la excelente acogida del primer Congreso Virtual sobre E/LE (más de 200 congresistas, 98 países, certificado oficial...) abrimos este año la segunda edición, con un nuevo formato especialmente dirigido al trabajo en colaboración entre profesionales de la enseñanza del español de todo el mundo.
¿Te unes al equipo?

Tienes más información en: http://congresoele.net/cvele2007/