Technology in Testing

In this paper, Anderson (2000) explores the main advantages and some possible drawback of computer-based test on language skills. It is limited to test language skills on a computer, like speaking and writing skills which can hardly be assessed. But also, we can see some obvious advantages in computer-based testing. First of all, its flexibility allows tests be freed from traditional paper forms and the formal test administration. Secondly, users do not need to be restricted in a large room with others but on their own, while testers will find it convenient to collect and mark the test data, and the results can also be issued directly. Nowadays, with the access to internet, computer-assisted test is becoming more applicable and flexible. Besides, thanks to the larger capacity of internet database, the testing items and results can be stored for future use, especially for the development of testing, with less worry about the test security. Instead of fixed-format tests, computer-adaptive test shows its advantage in providing test users an adapted difficulty level according to their ability level, which makes the tests efficiently reflect users’ real place with possible pedagogical implications on teaching and learning.
Since this kind of test becomes pretty common in current testing including TOEFL, we’ve already seen the claimed advantages and disadvantages and we still have some doubts about the reliability and validity of computer-assisted testing, like whether the users’ ability can be estimated through computer and how, what feedback or diagnosis can be given to users through computer according to their performance in the test, and how to judge the test method and delivery medium, etc..

We can classify EduBlog like this

In Wu’s article (2006), ‘Blogs in TEFL: A New Promising Vehicle’, he provides EFL learners and teachers some possible ways to use a blog in classes, with a discussion about its advantages and potential shortcomings in practice.
Actually, I appreciate the way Wu categorizes the educational blogs: tutor blog, learner blog, and class blog. When being practiced as a tool in EFL classroom, tutor blogs can be a convenient teaching aid in updating assignments, class notes to reduce students’ confusion, and also any accessible hyperlinks to provide resources related to tasks. Besides, useful feedback collected from students’ recurring mistakes can be given and read for the entire class. All of these can be recycled in the future teaching. The class blog is supposed to be used in a collaborative way such as: in conversation-based classes, it is used as a free-form bulletin board for learners; it is convenient for intermediate learners or above to facilitate project-based language learning; and it can be used as a virtual space for an international classroom language exchange.
On the other hand, the writing and information is argued to be not professional, which results in students’ writing skills superficial and not accurate. In addition, the criticism that students receive could be “unproductive, hurtful or even offensive”, which may reduce their confidence and interest in the course. This is what we as teachers or instructors need to consider.

Exploring educational use of blogs

In Wang’s paper (2008), he gives a brief introduction of the origin and development of Blogs, also about the advantages and disadvantages. EduBlogs is introduced here about its usage, and some examples used in US classroom education.

Comparing with other internet tools, a blog has some common features: first of all, it is simple for any users to create. One can create his own weblog without any knowledge about HTML or RSS and can publish instantly to websites. It is easily kept up by oneself and this cost nothing but time. As well, one can give comments on others or receive others’ response through the “commenting” function on most blogs. Besides, the “linking” function is one of the distinguishing characteristics through which one can share songs, video and any other published works on net. In spite of its obvious advantage in engaging people in sharing information as well as knowledge and also in giving reflection, blogs also have some downsides, such as inaccuracy of information, intellectual property issues, and the volatile nature .
With the development of blog, it is now being widely used in a variety of ways ranging from journalism and publishing, to personal and the educational use of blogs.
According to Wang’s research, the cooperative learning through blogs do increase learners’ confidence and gain positive interdependence from the group project, and most can benefit from instant peer feedback and support. Also, social skills have been improved from working effectively with others. On the other hand, learners indicate that face-to-face interaction contributes more in promoting their success.

Here are some examples in US K-12 education:

using blogs in scholarship in higher education (http://teachable.org/blog) in which some news is provided about research findings, tools, and other interesting items about online teaching and learning;

Using blogs in instruction like some professors' blogs as a teaching and learning resource, from which students can get the latest news about the professor's experience and research program, also can get the electronic format of the lectures and share with others.

using blogs in english class in mainland, China

This project was conducted in writing class over one semester which met in ten 60 minutes lectures sessions once a week, at a high school in Zhuhai, China. The participants are made up of 30 senior 2 students from two different classes aging 16~17 who are interested in this program with their English proficiency level as intermediate.

At the beginning of the program, students were given introduction to the course content and ultimate goal and also to the internet environment that is blogs, in which they would be working through this semester. Because this coursework aimed to inspire students’ collaborative learning in improving writing skills with the aid of a blog and other online multimedia facilities, these 30 participants were divided into 10 groups with 3 in each group – one was responsible for doing writing assignment after group discussion; one for making comments on others’ assignments (at least two every time); and one for revising the writing based on the feedback from other groups or tutor. There would be two teachers as instructors monitoring and assisting students’ operation and learning process in every lecture.

All of the lectures were conducted in multimedia classroom in campus with enough number of computers and high speed internet access afforded. Besides, all of the participants have internet access at home, and particularly most of them can use mobile phone to get to internet, so that they could do the tasks at any convenient time out of class.

Seven texts would be involved in this program with different topics of which the content completely followed the text books in the curriculum of this course, ranging from robots and traveling abroad to geography and culture (see details in Appendix 1). As the best-known hosting services, tBLOG (www. tblog.com) and BLOGGER (www. blogger.co,) would be good choices, which are free and easy-operated with many degrees of comment controls. Since BLOGGER may not be accessible in mainland, China, tBlog was chosen in this program. What’s more important, English was the only language could be used in group discussion and posting.

Teacher was supposed to give comments on each group blog, and have a collective feedback on grammatical mistakes after reviewing each blog, and it would be posted on tutor blog right after every lesson. Students should revise their writing based on others’ comments. At the beginning of each lesson, the outstanding writing would be presented to everyone as a sample, and teacher’s collective feedback as well in order to reinforce their writing in a correct way.

review on EFL IVD courseware

Practical considerations for multimedia courseware development: An EFL IVD experience

Let’s say, English teaching in high schools of mainland, China, without any difference between CMI and EMI language teaching, all depends on whether the teacher is capable to use English as the only teaching language in class, and also the students are able to follow the lesson only in English. Usually, for convenience and effectiveness, except the open class, teachers use English in a quarter of each lesson, perhaps. Let alone communicating with students in English in class with almost 60 students. That’s why the students in China always are good at reading but poor in listening and speaking because lack of immersing in an authentic leaning environment. That’s why even after six years intensive learning, students still have not got ready for the necessary language proficiency for college study.
Actually, this program in Liou’s study (1994) is the most practical one for EFL students in China I have ever met in CALL course. There are three main advantages I found in this project. First, definiteness. Based on a well-grounded theoretical motivation not only in technological innovations but also in SLA, it has a quite clear objective to meet students’ needs of improving language skills in exploring a movie, like reading comprehension and speaking skills, active use of language, and access to the culture of a language. Second, systematic. The whole program contains four units, which are designed in order based on SLA theory, and every step with sufficient assistance in both language and operation. Third, it is operational. The minimal requirement for this courseware project is a multimedia classroom with this courseware, and teachers are not essential because every possible problem can be solved with the help of this software. Therefore, this EFL IVD project is really suitable for individual students’ learning and students can learn at their own pace without any interfering with others.
However, I also have some doubt on this project. Due to its design for individual learning, how to define communicative objective here? Of course, learners can communicate with the computer with this software, which means the tasks designed cannot be as flexible as what it says. That is why in the last unit, it follows the traditional teaching approach. Then, even though, teachers can find out the timing and process of each learner through the platform, it is very difficult to control the whole procedure of the whole class. So it is necessary to have a learning or a teaching plan for this program. In the process of individual learning, students can look up difficult vocabulary or any background knowledge through the learning “help”, but is it possible to conclude for the information which the user looked for at the end of the process?

We all have a second life online

Secondlife did surprise me with its 3D virtual world and the communicative methods. I believe one of the original aims of SL is for education which cost 815billion dollars. According to the introduction video, the educational objectives of SL are as following: to explain pedagogical relevance of SL; to overview the educational locations in SL; to show use of educational tools in SL; and to explore use of learning archetypes in SL.
There are sth. we cannot achieve in the real life, or I should say sth. we cannot take full advantage of. Such as, role playing, like you can choose a real role with prepared actor's lines and well-made scenes as well as costumes in Shakespeare's plays. Another example, the tutorials, like you can visit the Ohio University SL campus, which is attractive to those who want to experience the university life.
But what students show their enthusiasm in SL should be the virtual world. Once they are attracted in it, they will naturally learn how to communicate with others, collaborate with others. They need to build up their social network, and to find resources and information. That is how they will be learning from practice.
It is a pity that till now I can't play freely in SL, but I look forward to gaining more from it.

how to work in a virtual environment

Roed (2003)

As language teachers, we try our best to give students opportunities to speak out and to express their opinions in target language. And students are also clear about the best way of improving their proficiency is to practice speaking or writing the target language and to take the initiative to use the target language when given the opportunity. However, what is stopping them is their acute sense of self-awareness. This usually causes an unexpected silence or long-time pause in class because nobody wants to take the initiative. As a result, this kind of opportunity for students was reduced since teachers have to take the class efficiency into account. I think that is why we need a new approach with the computer assisting language learning, which brings the learners to a virtual environment.
In Roed’s research on text-based online communication, the most obvious benefit is that chatting online allows everyone to speak out without less anxiety about their accent and behavior in front of monitor; also no worries about being interrupted and judged by teachers and other classmates, so that students’ participation in online discussion is much greater than in face-to-face classes.
However, we are in a task-based chatting, which means there exists an invisible push behind the easy chatting. Therefore, we have some problems to face when working in a virtual environment. First, although the less-speech students act more actively, the extrovert students still play a dominant role in such an environment and they are likely to be more organized and clear about the task. Secondly, without a guide from teachers, students tend to be off the expected procedure easily, which requires the teachers to consider more in designing the task. Thirdly, it is more difficult to control students’ behavior when they get bored and anxious as long as they cannot get the answers or response from others immediately during the chatting. Last, how can students use their limited vocabulary to discuss with others and to work out the task? Also, it is impossible for teachers to correct their misusing language in forms and vocabulary.
A virtual environment in language learning is really a new word to most of us. It can encourage students to use target language, but in meantime, many problems appear. In my opinion, teachers should create more virtual environment instead of waiting for a lagging response in class, especially to the students who have few chances to open their mouth in class.

What Would It Look Like? - 15 Translation(s) | dotSUB

What Would It Look Like? - 15 Translation(s) dotSUB

It can be a good topic in English teaching
Questions for students:
What did you see in the video?
What did you hear in the video?
What did you think of at this moment?
Write anything flashing in your mind now!

love the lyrics

cross the universe



Words are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
are drifting thorough my open mind
Possessing and caressing me

Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

Images of broken light which
dance before me like a million eyes
That call me on and on across the universe
Thoughts meander like a
restless wind inside a letter box
they tumble blindly as
they make their way across the universe

Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

Sounds of laughter shades of life
are ringing through my open ears
exciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which
shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe

Jai guru deva om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world
Jai guru deva
Jai guru deva

how can we use internet in English teaching?

If we stop complaining about the limited access to internet, even the computers; if we change our viewpoint that IT technologies is no more than a teaching tool; if we view the world as a whole through internet and the pretty common English, what will we, the English teachers do with internet? How can we use internet for english teaching?
There are several learning goals for us to know: a. active and creative mastery; b. autonomous leanring; c. collaborative learning; d. cross-cultural learning; and e. critival learning. Due to the present situation and condition in most developed as well as developing cities in China, in the high school level, we can achieve at least collaborative leaning and even the cross-cultural learning.
Let's have a second look at the sample web projects described in this section which illustrates the ways that teachers are using the intenet in a variety of contexts.
First of all, all of the examples here have achieved the standards of the Integrative CALL, which means that "computers are used naturally and regularly together with other tools and media serving the creation of an enriched workplace for accessing resources and using language constructively".
Here, I have great interest in the examples of primary schools and high schools, which i think is pretty doable in my teaching school. For example, the "primary school E-mail cultural exchange" project which lasted for over 3 months, aims to enlarge students' vocabulary and in the meantime, develop students' writing skills and also it has achieved the "cross-cultural learning" goal. Obviously, it is a well-designed project which needs teachers to do a lot of preparation work before the performance. Because students have no access to computers and internet, it is an after-school and voluntary work. Teachers from Portugal and US made a detailed plan, carefully coordinating the objectives, activities and logistics. They chose a series of topics for the exchange and at the beginning teachers taught students some key vocabulary that would be helpful in the letters. Along with the project going, teachers play the minimum role as a guide and helper, witnessing the students' writing skills making great improvement.

We can learn a lot from each project and also they give us enough confidence in carrying out on our students.

the world is linked by English

I do find some useful linkings about english learning:

What can we learn from an english magazine? World fashion? Heat issues? New discoveries? or just striking models? Whatever you r interested in
http://www.english-magazine.org/

Do you feel frustrated when you cannot speak out the names of the food in front of you which you definitely know their chinese names? Yes, I do! And I also feel ashamed when I was stuck in the conversation about introduced Chinese meals. Perhaps, it is not only students but also ourselves that should learn from vocabulary
http://www.learnenglish.de/vocabpage.htm

Do you have problems in understanding english slangs? Are you complaining about the endless amount of slangs to remember? why not remember one sentence or phrase and then practise it everyday as your daily homework?
http://www.learnenglish.de/idiompage.htm
http://www.englishdaily626.com/

Everyone is interested in movies. Of course youtube is a "must" choice, but besides that, we can also use some websites about movie reviews which really can further our understanding on the movie but also make our thinking more critical.
http://movies.sky.com/sky-movies-home
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv-entertainment/film/

I will update awesome websites for english learning in the following days. Language learning should not be boring!

let's share

Call me Sunny please!
About myself, after graduating from universtity for my Bachelor's study, I have taught English in a high school in Zhuhai, mainland, China for four years. According to my teaching experience in my school, computers seem essential to teachers and students. There is a multimedia platform in every classroom. Teachers use computers to make powerpoint for every lesson, and we use computers as a tool in class, such as playing vedio, flash, sound and ppt. on text, grammar, reading and so on.