Podcast for ESL learners

This video is a vocabulary exercise for English language learners to accompany the book The Three Questions, based on a story by Leo Tolstoy ~ author: Jon J. Muth.

Glog: The Three Questions

Software Evaluation

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
Reading Horizons & Discover Intensive Phonics

The demo CD explores two different programs: Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics. These software programs are designed to teach phonics to K-12, adult, and ESL students with mild to severe reading disorders.

Language proficiency level targeted: For native speakers of English, the program targets those with below-average reading skills, particularly those reading below 6th grade level. For ESL students, the program may be helpful to students at varied proficiency levels; beginning or intermediate to advanced students who are encountering difficulties at higher reading levels, for example in (under)graduate courses.

Age range targeted: ages 4-9 and 10-adult.

Description of activities: Reading Horizons software was developed specifically for students ages 10+ who exhibit below-average reading skills. Discover Intensive Phonics targets students ages 4-9. Both programs teach decoding skills to help students learn the structure of the English language and thereby improve pronunciation, reading, and spelling skills. The method consists of three main components: 42 sounds of the alphabet (including blends and special vowel sounds), 5 phonetic skills, and 2 decoding skills. A few additional skills & rule exceptions are taught as well as vocabulary and pronunciation. The software can be used on its own or as a supplement to other classroom curricula.

2. EVALUATION:

Technological Features:

Speed of program operation: I encountered no technical difficulties with the interactive demo.

Reliability of operation: Reliable; no stalls or crashes occurred.

Screen management: The demo and website were easy to navigate. Tabs easily identified different sections to explore and the information was neatly organized and categorized.

User interface: easy to use and demo includes link to website, which contains additional information and downloads.

Exploitation of computer potential: It is a bit difficult to evaluate this component, because the demo is rather limited in hands-on interaction. This demo primarily focuses on “selling” the Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics software programs. However, from exploring the details on the demo as well as the company website, this software appears to be very interactive.

For ESL students, a pronunciation practice tool is a helpful feature that can be self-accessed at any time. This tool is made up of 4 key features: diagram, video, record, and “ABC”. The diagram is an animated visual to show learners proper tongue placement to produce the target sound while they listen to a native speaker making the sound. Using the video feature, learners can also watch the narrator pronouncing a sound. If the students’ computers are equipped with a microphone, they can compare their own sound production with that of a native speaker. Finally, the “ABC” feature shows how to write the letter associated with the sound. This pronunciation tool makes effective use of sound, graphics, video, and speech recognition.

Students have the ability to adapt certain features. For example, they can choose either a male or female voice for the narration and change background colors.

ESL students may also receive additional support in their native language during lesson instruction. Language support is presently available in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Haitian-Creole with more languages being added. This type of support provides clarification when a student is not clear on how to proceed within a lesson.

Lessons are progressive in nature, meaning that a student may not proceed to the next lesson until they pass their current lesson. The passing requirements set are student specific. Each lesson has a skill check feature. If a student is confident that he/she is proficient in the materials covered during a particular lesson, the learner can opt to take the skill check. If the student passes, he/she may bypass that lesson and proceed to the next lesson. If, however, a student fails or opts not to take the skill check, he/she will proceed with the entire lesson. Students are able to view their progress and test results and may return to previous lessons at any time. The results section specifies if/which section(s) a student failed so that the learner can review and retest that particular section to improve knowledge and scores.

Activities (Procedure):

As this phonics instruction is systematic and sequential in nature, so are the lessons. Reading Horizons programs are primarily instructional with a linguistic focus. The Discover Intensive Phonics program begins with assessment and instruction in phonemic awareness and then proceeds to teaching the 42 sounds of the alphabet, moving sequentially through blends, word formation, and seven skills for decoding multi-syllable words. Students also learn common sight words, sentence structure, word meaning, handwriting, spelling and listening and thinking skills. The primary activities are tutorials and drills that focus on the linguistic aspects of morphology and lexis. The way this is done is very interactive and makes good use of technology. Some activities are facilitative, such as the pronunciation and vocabulary tools. These tools are also well designed for ESL learners, incorporating visuals, sound & recording capabilities.

Teacher Fit (Design):

These software programs are not in the least ambiguous about their underpinning methodology. The instructional approach is phonics; teaching students phonemic awareness and strategies for decoding words. Thus, in evaluating “teacher fit”, one has to make some judgments on whether phonics instruction benefits ESL students and is grounded in current research. The demo CD, of course, heavily promotes the success and benefits of this approach in ESL education. However, I decided to investigate a bit on my own to determine current research outcomes. Well, it’s a bit like opening a can of worms. If you look long and hard enough, you can find as many people arguing for as against it. Although, it seems the general consensus is to include phonics as part of a more comprehensive approach to ESL education. Reading Horizons states that “students learn to read, spell, and pronounce 90% of commonly used English words”. I had some concerns in regard to comprehension; being able to read or pronounce a word is not equivalent to understanding its meaning and using it in appropriate contexts. I then learned that software designed specifically for ESL learners includes a vocabulary section. It lists vocabulary words associated with each lesson. When a student clicks on a word, he/she is provided with a picture and definition(s) along with sentence(s) that put the word into context. Students will then pronounce and then decode the word. There’s also a section called English for Special Purposes, which includes additional vocabulary words relating to travel, business, etc. This extra learning feature for ESL students is important to address comprehension.

The software component of these programs does not encourage collaboration and activities lack authenticity as they are largely instructional in nature: tutorials. The activities in the Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics programs can be used exclusively as a remediation program for students with learning difficulties. For ESL learners, activities are designed to be a core component of the curriculum or in the least supplementary to instruction.

Learner Fit (Design):

The Reading Horizons programs are adaptable to many different types of learners. Each of their programs is designed to meet the needs of K-12, adult, and ESL students, especially those with mild to severe reading disorders. I’ll evaluate “learner fit” taking into account these different properties, focusing on the program/features for ESL students:

Linguistic level: Since Reading Horizons offers programs for native speakers and varied levels of ESL proficiency, programs adapt grammar, vocabulary and registers to best meet the needs of the intended learners.

Response handling: the recording feature allows students to compare their utterances with that of a native speaker. I’m not able to determine from the demonstrations exactly how the program offers corrective feedback in a lesson. However, an assessment takes place at the end of each lesson and students must pass in order to proceed to the next lesson. The administrator (teacher) sets specific goals for each student and must monitor test outcomes closely. Students and teachers can review the results section to determine which areas of learning warrant extra attention.

Adaptation to individual learner differences: programs are designed for specific age groups and potential reading disorders (native & ESL learners). The vocabulary section adapts words for “special purposes” if activated by the administrator.

Learner styles: students are expected to learn decoding strategies requiring recall & memorization skills.

Learning strategies: these software programs encourage students to learn independently at their own pace. Phonics seems to fall under deductive reasoning as it teaches students specific rules and strategies. Reading Horizons includes visual-graphic as well as visual-textual learning.

Individual/Group work: the software programs themselves are designed for individual learners. However, additional workbooks are available for classroom use promoting collaborative learning though pair/group activities.

Learner control: learners have some control over esthetics (changing background colors) and choosing male/female narrator voice. Within lessons, learners can opt to test out of a section by passing a skills check test. It seems that learners also have some flexibility in choosing the order of decoding vocabulary words in a section, for example, and can search for words that interest them using the vocabulary tool. Overall though, the learner has little control as the lessons are sequential and one must pass each lesson to proceed to the next one.

Design flexibility/modifiability by the instructor: the instructor can adapt features of these programs to best suit specific students. For example, instructors set the “passing percentage” for each student and can grant access to additional information, such as the “special purposes” vocabulary.

3. SUMMARY:

As stated earlier, I think phonics instruction may be beneficial in ESL education for certain students. It’s a very methodical, rule-based method, which may not suit all learners. However, judging the software fairly in its own right as a Phonics teaching tool, I think Reading Horizons and Discover Intensive Phonics make good use of technology to teach these particular skills and creatively adapt their instructional programs to meet the needs of specific learners. As an instructor, I would be willing to try this software as an adjunct to other proven instructional methods with additional materials that extend learning to group interaction. If someone were looking specifically for phonics software to use with ESL learners with reading difficulties, I’d probably recommend this program.

4. PRODUCER DETAILS:

For more information about Reading Horizons & Discover Intensive Phonics, please copy and paste the link below into your web browser:
http://www.readinghorizons.com

From NPR: 'Cyberwar'

I heard this story on NPR this morning; it drove home our vulnerability in cyberspace. It's scary to contemplate the things mentioned in the interview. Technology in the wrong hands is a scary thing! It's worth a read or use the web address below to go directly to the NPR website to listen or download the podcast for later.


Clarke says he would like to see a separate government Internet network that would be constantly monitored for signs of attack.


Richard Clarke On The Growing 'Cyberwar' Threat
From Fresh Air on NPR
April 19, 2009


Richard Clarke served as a counterterrorism adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He spent much of 2001 warning members of the Bush administration about the possibility of an impending al-Qaida attack.

Clarke has now turned his attention to another potential security catastrophe: computer-based terrorism attacks. In his new book, Cyberwar: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It, he and co-author Robert Knake sketch out a scenario in which hackers could hypothetically cripple the United States from behind a computer screen.

"A cyberattack could disable trains all over the country," he tells Fresh Air host Terry Gross. "It could blow up pipelines. It could cause blackouts and damage electrical power grids so that the blackouts would go on for a long time. It could wipe out and confuse financial records, so that we would not know who owned what, and the financial system would be badly damaged. It could do things like disrupt traffic in urban areas by knocking out control computers. It could, in nefarious ways, do things like wipe out medical records."

Clarke says that cyberattacks can come from another country -- or from a lone individual. Malicious code may infect a computer via a security flaw in a Web browser, or it could be distributed through secret back doors built into computer hardware. And though the government has set up security measures to protect military and intelligence networks, he worries that not enough is being done to protect the private sector -- which includes the electrical grid, the banking system and our health care records.

"The Pentagon is all over this," he says. "The Pentagon has created a four-star general command called Cyber Command, which is a military organization with thousands of people in it to go to war using these [cyber]weapons. And also, Cyber Command's job is to defend the Pentagon. Now, who's defending us? Who's defending those pipelines and the railroads and the banks? The Obama administration's answer is pretty much, 'You're on your own,' that Cyber Command will defend our military, Homeland Security will someday have the capability to defend the rest of the civilian government -- it doesn't today -- but everybody else will have to do their own defense. That is a formula that will not work in the face of sophisticated threats."

Richard Clarke resigned from the Bush administration in 2003. He served as the national coordinator for counterterrorism in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations — and was the special adviser to President Bush on cybersecurity.

Clarke says that one common attack is for hackers to take over a series of home computers through backdoor security exploits. For example, malicious software can be downloaded onto a hard drive after you accidentally visit a compromised website. Your computer can then be used in conjunction with other compromised computers to engage in a large-scale attack. The average computer user may not realize when their computer has been drafted into a cyberattack.

"Maybe your computer will be running a little slowly that day," he says. "Maybe your bandwidth won't look like it's normal. But while you're doing your e-mails, your computer could be sending out denial of service attacks as part of a million other computers all trying to knock off a bank."

There are ways to make your computer less vulnerable to one of these attacks. Clarke recommends never using your work computer at home, where it may be unintentionally compromised by another member of your family. And, he says, make sure your online banks have more than just a password for security protection.

"Good hackers can get through any password," he says. "If you're going to buy things online, have a credit card for that purpose with a low credit limit. Don't do banking or stockbrokering online and have a lot of money at risk -- unless your stockbroker gives you more than just a password -- a two-step process for getting in. It won't just be a name and password."

Clarke now heads a security consulting firm in Virginia and is a contributor to ABC News. He also teaches at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. His 2004 memoir is entitled Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror. He is also the author of Your Government Failed You: Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters and The Scorpion's Gate.

Listen to this story at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126097038

History of the Netherlands in 5 minutes

This video is somewhat entertaining. Read quickly, because the pages move along pretty fast! Enjoy!

Do you speak GLOBISH?

According to Jean-Paul Nerriere, the man who coined the term "Globish", this "decaffeinated English" will become the world's most widely spoken language. WHAT???



http://www.globish.com/

Blog articles on "globish":
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/mar/29/globish-international-language
http://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/the-rise-of-globish/

Passages: A simulation game

I found this game on the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) website, which offers free teaching materials. This game is quite involved and will require preparation, but may be helpful for church or community groups who wish to get involved in refugee work and advocacy.

A simulation game designed to create better understanding of the problems facing refugees. Participants go through a number of steps which attempt to simulate the refugee experience, from flight to arrival in the refugee camp as well as the difficulties of integration and repatriation of refugees.

http://www.unrefugees.org/atf/cf/%7Bd2f991c5-a4fb-4767-921f-a9452b12d742%7D/Passages.pdf

Inspiration for our Video Podcast

Reading Prompt #12

*Ockey, G. J. (2009). Developments and Challenges in the Use of
Computer-Based Testing for Assessing Second Language Ability.
Modern Language Journal, 93(Focus Issue), 836-847.
*Cummins, P. W. & Davesne, C. L. (2009). Using Electronic Portfolios
for Second Language Assessment. Modern Language Journal, 93(Focus
Issue), 848-867.

Ockey argues that Computer based testing has failed to realize its anticipated potential. Describe and discuss on his reasons for his view, and tell why you either agree or disagree with him.

Cummins & Davesne offer an alternative to CBT with electronic portfolios. Comment on some of the ideas from this article that you'd be interested in trying out in your own classroom.

Ockey states that computer-based testing (CBT) has failed to realize its anticipated potential due to a number of factors. Issues that have played an important role involve challenges and limitations with forms of delivery, computer-adaptive testing, test security, and language skills assessment.

One major concern for CBT is ensuring test security. For large-scale, high-stakes testing, it’s difficult and expensive to develop large enough item banks to ensure test security. Web-based testing (WBT) makes assessments possible from any computer in the world, but creates challenges for confirming test taker identity. The storage and retrieval of assessment instruments are also vulnerable to breeches in security from computer hackers. This is becoming less of a concern though with continued improvements in internet technology. Another area of controversy concerns the assessment of language skills and test/task formatting. Language ability is divided into four skill sets: reading, listening (both receptive skills), writing and speaking (productive skills). Initially, test developers focused on assessing these language skills independently. More recently, however, CBT has started integrating one or more productive/receptive skills. Assessments have to take into account which type of tasks to use and task authenticity. Test scoring has proven to be a major challenge as well, especially in the assessment of writing abilities. Automated essay-scoring (AES) systems use corpus linguistics to assess text, but critics insist that although computers can assess quite accurately the mechanics of writing, they can’t interpret the feelings and meaning attached to it. So there still appears to be a place for human raters. Computer-human hybrid approaches seem to be a fair compromise.

It’s this combination of unresolved problems and related issues that have affected CBT development and Ockey’s view that CBT has failed to reach its potential. However, he remains optimistic in stating that it will be worthwhile to continue addressing these challenges in the future.

The concept of electronic portfolios is a refreshing one. There are situations in which formal testing, as outlined in Ockey’s article, is necessary and appropriate. These formal assessments offer a “snapshot” of a person’s abilities at that given moment. An electronic portfolio (EP), on the other hand, evaluates language ability and progress over time and incorporates a component of self-assessment. I think self-assessment is crucial in language learning, echoing Alderson’s view that “without self-assessment there can be no self-awareness” (p851). This self-awareness helps learners set goals and take responsibility for their own learning. I would like to incorporate this notion of self-assessment into my own classroom.

I think that an electronic portfolio says so much more about a person’s ability to function in another language than a test score alone. I thought it was interesting that the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) assessment scale made an additional distinction between spoken production and spoken interaction, because I think that these two contexts of “speaking” do indeed require different skills.

Electronic portfolios seem to better address concerns regarding authenticity, learning/assessment that reflects “real life” situations, and assessment of intercultural competence. I think EPs ought to be promoted and integrated into high school and college language curricula, because I see great value in this approach to language assessment. In ESL and foreign language programs, EPs positive format of “can do” assessments has the potential to encourage learner motivation and aid collaboration.

Limburgs: A regional language in the Netherlands

As an undergraduate, I wrote a paper for a linguistics class on my Dutch dialect, Limburgs. Well, it was considered a dialect when I was young. Since 1997, Limburgs has been recognized as a regional language. Actually, I'm not sure if Limburgs is officially recognized as a language by the Dutch authority, but it seems the European Union does recognize Limburgs as an official language. I'll have to get this sorted out when I return to Limburg for a visit in May.

As a child, I didn't give much consideration to speaking both Limburgs and Standard Dutch. I've come to appreciate my "linguistic" heritage more over the years and find that my identity is closely linked to this "dialect" and region of the Netherlands.

This link shares some interesting information and isogloss maps.

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/540/langdial/limburg.html

world mosaic: a tribute to flickr portraits

world mosaic: a tribute to flickr portraits, originally uploaded by pardeshi.

I love this! No words needed...

Reading Prompt #11

RICHARDSON Ch. 6. The Social Web: Learning Together
BLACKBOARD - Warschauer, M., Knobel, M., & Stone, L. (2004).
Technology and equity in schooling: Deconstructing the Digital Divide. Educational Policy, 18(4), 562-588.

Share an idea of two about how you could use the ideas from Richardson with ESL students.

What is the "digital divide?' And why do Warschauer et al argue that this term may longer be applicable. What are the issues they found regarding differences in technology use with ELLs and other low socioeconomic students. What are some ways you could address this in your own schools or programs?

Richardson’s chapter on the Social Web once again reiterates the notion of social interaction in education. I admit I’m getting a bit overwhelmed with the many ways in which technology can be used in the classroom and approached this chapter with a bit of skepticism. However, I was intrigued by Richardson’s discussion of Diigo. As my RSS feeds have gotten way out of hand, I think social bookmarking with a tool like Diigo may help me better organize information I want to keep track of. I’ve taken the first step by creating a Diigo account. For personal research, I will probably keep the sites I bookmark public. For classroom purposes, though, I like that you can create private groups and use features such as “annotation”, “highlight”, and “sticky notes” to draw attention to specific passages of text. I might experiment with using Diigo to respond to students’ blogs, as suggested in the example of humanities teacher, Clay Burrell (p. 94). I think Diigo would also be a helpful tool in collaborating with other ESL educators and colleagues to share resources.

Warschauer et al. shared an interesting discussion on technology and equity in different socioeconomic school settings. When hearing the term “digital divide’, one tends to think of the gaps that exist in terms of access to technology. The article cites studies, which indeed have shown that “computer and Internet access is distributed unequally by race, income, and education” (p. 563), but also that these gaps are slowly decreasing. Warschauer and his colleagues argue that one should consider not merely the distribution of technology, but also how this technology is used, particularly in education.

So in their study, they compared 5 high schools in low socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods and 3 high schools in high SES neighborhoods. Findings were differentiated in terms of “performativity” (measurable skills performance, but outside the context of purposeful learning), “workability” (how easily the technology could be accessed and used), and “complexity” (the integration of computers and teaching). Some clear differences emerged in the way technology was used in these different settings. In terms of performativity, the same pattern was observed across both socioeconomic contexts in that it was common for teachers to focus on technology skills as “an end in themselves” without integrating them into curricular goals. However, the impact appeared to be greater on students in low SES schools. Teachers in these settings operated from the view that most of their students had no home access to computers (although a greater percentage did than was perceived) and therefore focused much of their teaching on basic computer tasks. Their students were also more easily distracted by novelties of particular software programs. Workability issues were also a big factor in low SES schools, because these schools did not have the necessary resources to provide much-needed support for educators and equipment maintenance. But I think the complexity issue has the biggest impact on SES students. Teachers in low SES schools felt immense pressure to focus instruction on raising test scores, which tended to win out over “integrating technology” and as mentioned earlier, computer time that was used focused on non-academic tasks. Another “complexity” challenge was that low SES schools had roughly 3 times as many English language learners (30%) compared to high SES schools. Many classes in the low SES schools included students with varied levels of language ability, complicating teaching in all aspects, including technology. These schools did not appear to have structures and resources in place to address the needs of their large ELL populations. The researchers conclude that although many of the issues they studied were evident in both educational contexts, the social factors involved caused different results and should be addressed in educational policy.

I’m sure to face these challenges in the future. It seems a bit discouraging as many of these “challenges” require solutions at a policy or funding level. However, the issue of “integration” can certainly be addressed by engaging students in meaningful computer interaction. I think that many of the problems cited in the article describing learners’ difficulties with web searches and the overuse of spelling and grammar aids can be dealt with in the classroom. I don’t see these as huge obstacles, just some focused instruction for ELLs who need it. Perhaps entering the field of teaching with an attitude that views technology as an effective tool in collaborative education may go a long way too? If not, I may need to pursue a career in education policy instead!

Google Earth and UNHCR

What an innovative use for Google Earth application. This video shows how this technology brings awareness to the plight of refugees around the world by capturing current and relevant information and making it accessible to the general population.