The impact of physical environment on learning

The Devil is in the details

  In an article written in 2007 by Pamela Woolner, Elaine Hall et al, one can read a few practical suggestions regarding effective classroom environment. Below are the highlights of the things that positively influence student behaviour and attitude.

1) absence of environmental noise

2) adequate lighting

3) "horse shoe" arrangement of tables and chairs

4) colours

5) ventilation, air quality

   Here are some photos of  classrooms that, in my opinion, would be conducive to positive atmosphere in the classroom. 

 

Immersion programs

Language or Content?

    While teaching their subject to immigrant students, how should  teachers find a balance between the language instruction and the content? Moreover, to what degree can a teacher, not trained for language instruction, teach language along with his own subject? These are the main issues raised in the article called "Balancing Content and Language in Instruction: The Experience of Immersion Teachers" written by Laurent Cammarata and Diane J. Tedick in the Modern Language Journal in 2012.
  The study, discussed in the article, shows that most immersion teachers (with 5 years of experience) just take a stab in the dark in their attempts to balance language and content, often given the priority to the second. A sensible solution to this issue, proposed by the authors, is to create special programs and teaching materials that would guide immersion teachers in their attempt to arm their students both with content and necessary level of language.

Corpus-Based Language analyses

Language carries information

    "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world", Ludwig Wittgenstein says.
 Isn't he right? Language and brain have been interconnected for so long (since the times humans started to speak) that we have forgotten how it feels to live without thinking. To experience. To feel. To exist without the intermediary thought; to directly access and accept world. These are long gone for human beings.Our language, being the symbolic representation of our thoughts, carries a lot of information about who we are and our subconscious. It can thus be quite rewarding to analyze Linguistic corpora of various fields of human activity to find hidden patterns and meanings.
 This is what has been done by Li-Juan Li and Guang-Chun Ge in their research article called

Genre analysis: Structural and linguistic evolution of the English-medium medical research, published in 2009. One of the things discovered by the analyses is that modern Medical research writers mostly use past simple tense rather than  present simple or present perfect tenses. The implications are, as the authors say, that the research writers attempt to hedge their claims with the use of past simple, since present tenses are more certain and carry greater immediacy.

Translingualism in EFL 

Is the devil as bad as it is portrayed?

 The widespread belief in current EFL teaching is that using any language other than the target one in the classroom is to be avoided by all means. The "ecology" of the Target Language, in other words, is a highly valued asset in EFL classrooms. The main reason for such a radical view is the somewhat over-exaggerated fear of the negative interference from the native tongue.
   The article "Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom", however, tries to splash some more color on the white and black canvas of monolingual classrooms. Bilingual teaching , defined as "the use of two or more languages in instruction" might have its own benefits, the article states.
   Keeping the Universal Grammar in mind, the article views the availability of different languages in the classroom as a resource rather than a foe, a resource that

• promotes better participation
• makes meaning and transforms information
• makes social, cultural and linguistic links for classroom participants 

  Student code-switching, in other words, might actually be valuable in case of a careful and judicious use.
This is a comforting thought, I have to admit.
  Let me tell you what has recently happened with one of my EFL groups. I was talking about the English proverb "Every dog has its day", when one of my Russian-speaking students instantly came up with the Russian equivalent of the proverb.
 "I am sorry, people'', she said," I'd say the Russian version but I don't want to pay 300 drams'' (In my classroom each non-English word is worth 50 drams).
  With this article fresh in my mind, I violated the rule I have established myself and authorized the student to break the precious ecological environment of the English language (the black language of Mordor uttered in Elvish lands from Lord of the Rings comes to mind:)).
  The answer came quick;
   "И на нашей улице бидет праздник"
  What happened? No thunder broke from the sky. The students appreciated the help of the familiar language and I was glad to see that they learnt the proverb painlessly and quickly.
  And may the God of English forgive my little misbehavior.

Automated Scoring of Writing Quality

Machines and Human writing

  I am sitting in a lab with students preparing for TOEFL IBT exam. My left ear catches phrases like "In this set of materials...", "The listening passage discusses the difference between to types of bacteria...", while my right ear, to its great surprise, catches the second halves of the same sentences "... the reading passage is a news bulletin on a job announcement, while the listening passage..", " ... the reading passage casts a doubt on the information in the listening passage". The same "automated phrases" are also used in TOEFL writing, as experience has shown me. With a faint smile, I lazily pity the poor person who checks those essays. 

   

  However, a recent  discovery of mine, related to TOEFL and other high-stakes tests is that the essays, written by students, are not only checked by human scorers but also by special automated scoring engines (the  e-rater® in case of TOEFL).  The scores of the human rater and the program are compared and a final score is then assigned.

  The advantages of an automated engine are obvious:

a) Objectivity: A computer program has neither  interests nor judgments. There is no need to worry that it might have a prejudice against you just because you mentioned Justin Beaber as a person you thoroughly admire.

b) Financially economical: Needless to say a computer program is an ideal employee in terms of money. Once it is installed, it only required careful maintenance.The rest is obedience and hard work.

 Unfortunately AES can not be used as a sole evaluating tool of writing (in case of high-stakes exams at least). Although the results of AES have often correlated with human scoring, still it is almost impossible to imagine a computer program justly evaluating the highly complex nature of human writing. Let's have a look at the criteria that the AES take into account while evaluating writing:

• errors in grammar (e.g., subject-verb agreement)
• usage (e.g., preposition selection)
• mechanics (e.g., capitalization) 
• style (e.g., repetitious word use)  
• discourse structure (e.g., presence of a thesis statement, main points) 
• vocabulary usage (e.g., relative sophistication of vocabulary)

 While aspects such as prepositions, agreement between verb and subject and capitalization can be possible handled by an artificial intelligence, more complex parts of human language such as syntax, quality of argumentation, collocation, punctuation, appropriacy of vocabulary,etc seem impossible to asses without human intervention. The quality of argumentation, for example, has little to do with the complexity of vocabulary.

English as a Lingua Franca

Who does English belong to?

     I will start this post with an anecdotal experience. Here's a little piece of conversation I have recently witnessed between two of my students;

 Student A: " I have gone to Kharabakh last summer.  KHARAbakh, no ...KharaBAKH...  What's the right way of saying it?"

 Student B: "And is it right to say "have been" or "went"?" .

 Two questions standing in the queue of my thoughts. But before I can process either of them, it dawns on me that two of my students have just stopped the natural flow of their conversation because of their over-obsession with accuracy. It is one thing that an Armenian has to put his tongue twice between his teeth to pronounce an English word like "thousandth",(or "cenicero" in Spanish")  but why would an Armenian worry so much about the English pronunciation of an Armenian land? Is it KHARAbakh or KharaBAKH...? Who decides this? The English?

  After a brief pause I answered the first question, saying that past simple is preferable when speaking about a specific past event and, turning to the first student, I said smth that an English teacher would not normally say;

  "I think it's up to us to decide how to pronounce Kharabakh".

   Now, as you think of it, the truth is that English has long ceased to be confined to the English of the former British colonies, nor is it now restricted to any geographical location or nationality. The widespread use of English as a lingua franca  (ELF) has led to a change of perspectives as to what should be the model of language in learning English. Traditionally, we followed the model of the native speaker, supposing that the ultimate aim of the language learner is to communicate with the native speaker. However, such a perspective can no longer function. English is now used everyday between non-native speakers as a common tool for communication without any interaction with a native speaker. In fact, many EFL learners never ever meet the "perfect native speaker" in their lives! Keeping this in mind, how reasonable is it to promote the standard English in all circumstances ? Say an Armenian, Russian and a German work in the same office and interact in English, should it trouble them that their intralanguage deviates from the Standard English  as long as the communication is successful?
   Coming back to the question of "KHARAbakh or KharaBAKH" mentioned in the beginning. Not only has English successfully escaped from the British colonies and spread all over the world as a lingua Franca, it has also started to be shaped by the world. Whether English teachers accept it or not, billions of non-native speakers make "mistakes" (deviation from the accurate forms of standard English) every day all over the world. Is it right? Is it wrong? It is a fact. A non-native induced erroneous form "I am loving it" (EFL teachers, put your red pens in your scabbards. I know that "love" is a stative verb) became the slogan for McDonalds. Coincidence or a reflection of a tendency?
  In conclusion, I would like to say that whatever the case is, it's time for EFL teachers to stop blindly following the native model and prioritize the needs of their students in making decisions on what to teach, what to correct and what to leave as it is.
   

Paradigm controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences

  The vast ocean between theory and practice

    Some articles related to Applied Linguistics make me doubt whether they were written by humans. An article published in 2005 by Guba and Lincoln, called "Paradigm controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences" is a vivid example. The article raises some controversial issues among the practitioners of new and emergent paradigms, who are looking for key elements that would distinguish their paradigms from those of the others. An average reader, let's say an average language teacher, looking for some guidance for his teaching, will probably need some psychological help after reading this article. Abstract terms, ideas and theory without a hint of its applicability all flood together and leave the teacher clueless as how to improve his teaching the next day, how to make his lessons more effective. While it is clear that such articles might be useful for a narrow circle of researchers that speak the same language in which the article is written, the question is for who, in the long run, is all the research done? If it's ultimately intended for teachers, I am afraid, it will find its readers frustrated and will probably lose them after the first few pages.  
 P.S. I read Loudres Ortega's article called "For What and for Whom is out Research" after writing this post. The author brings up the issue of the "lack of relevance of SLA research for teachers". Research, as author states, is useful when it serves societal needs. Otherwise, it may face the issue of being useless.

Welcome to the Grey world of Applied 
 Linguistics 
Feel the Greyness

  5 multiplied by 5 is 25. Now try and say the opposite. Try to prove that in Europe numbers work in a different way than in Asia or that cultural differences, individual variables, the peculiarities of setting or participants involved may have an influence on a mathematical equation. Your chances, to say the least, are non-existent. Now step out of the black and white universe of natural sciences and go through the threshold of Applied Linguistics.There you are, embrace the Greyness.

      Here's the world where phrases like "take it with a grain of salt", "tentative claims", "non-conclusive data", etc come into play. In fact, they are much more common than words as "proven", "enough evidence", "generalizable", etc. Fortunately, linguistic research tries to shed some light on the overwhelming greyness.

  One issue, for example, that every teacher asks himself/herself at least once in life is how to give feedback.  In what form? How often? Recently I have read a 2009 article on Written Corrective Feedback by Bitchener and Noch. The article, based on a thorough longitudinal experimental study, shows that some  Corrective Feedback (CF) is a must in language teaching but does not distinguish any difference of efficiency between different types of CF (written/oral, direct/indirect). The study, focusing on a 10-month teaching experiment targeting on a single grammatical form (a/the in English), provokes obvious questions on its validity and practicality in day-to-day teaching. Here are a few questions that were raised during our class discussion of the article:

1) Both forms of corrections direct or indirect may lead students to improve their work (correct revision), but do they allow them to retain the information long-term?

2) Was the written corrective feedback the only means of imroving the students' skills for using ''a/the'' during the research period (remember that they had long intervals between the tests)?

3) Is it and if yes, how practical is it to apply WCF on a single-error category throughout a long period of teaching-learning process?

 These are all valid questions and come to show once again that research in Applied linguistics often times fails to bring any clearness and distinction in our understanding of teaching and language learning. Shades of grey, that's all we can hope for.

Cloud computing

Your data everywhere

   Cloud computing, according to this website, is the storing and accessing of applications and computer data often through a Web browser rather than running installed software on your personal computer or office server.

  The real meaning of cloud computing came to me when I had to work on the same data from different computers. I had to export the data via a USB flesh and then I had to keep deleting the old files in both computers and paste the updated files. This doesn't happen when everything is "in the cloud", stored somewhere in the web. As long as you have internet access, your files can be accessed from everywhere, any time. 
    Not only files can be stored online but also software. More and more companies and individual users are now saving valuable space in their PC and are using online software instead. 
  However, since the entire data is "in the cloud" (which, in reality, isn't a cloud at all but a set of mega-powerful servers), questions like "Who is protecting the data?", "Is it safe?", "What if there is a leakage of data?" arise.  Google assures the safety and confidentiality of the data it stores. However, very few would risk giving sensitive data in hands of a third party, irrespective of the company's reputation. 

Google Apps

"Let the robots do the mechanical work and let the human mind shine in the rays of creativity."

 This video, though not groundbreaking by itself, made me think about just how much of my work is done by google. 

 Gmail  diligently sends and receives my messages as well as filters them according to my preferences, Google calendar helps me to save a lot of free space in my memory by scrupulously reminding me abut my tasks and duties, Google Drive makes my documents reachable from every computer on this Earth (provided it has an access to the internet) and helps me to give  feedback to my Ss' writings in no time, Google maps knows my city much better than I do, Google hangout is just the perfect tool for group works, Google search engine is universally acknowledged as the real Superman (if there ever existed one)... Do I need to continue? 

  And the best part of it is that all this is free. And we take it for granted. What we forget sometimes though is that there are many people in the world (teachers in our case) who stay blissfully ignorant of all this. Not that a good teacher can't do her job without google apps. You would never hear me say that. The point is that these G friends (you can call them personal house elves if you wish:)) take away the mundane, the mechanical, the dull part of the job and  create a comfortable a space for  more sophisticated, more creative work for teacher.If you don't use Google products, certainly give them a try. They are real treasures right under your nose!

Academic Analytics

"gut instinct" vs data-driven decisions

AND

Learning that leaves trails

 Suppose you are an EFL teacher and the next agenda in your lesson plan is teaching types of clothes. You have a look at the textbook and you see a list like "vest", "shirt" and "bodywarmer". You prepare a great lesson plan, , go into the classroom, introduce the words and BOOM!: the students find the words confusing. They seem to be ok with the other new words but these devilish three for some reason just don't work! After the lesson you talk with your colleges and  hear smth like this: "Yeah, those three are always a problem". Each of them knows this that but they still follow the book's plan over and over again. The procedure repeats itself, the experience gets reduplicated and the problem persists.

  This story could have been completely different if you have just  looked into another source for guidance. Namely, if you read some research on the topic, you would have found the following:

"It's easier for the human cognitive system to differentiate between two new different items than two similar ones. Therefore, words that are similar  in some aspect (meaning/pronunciation/spelling) shouldn't be introduced together as they present a challenge for memory."

  See how sometimes research beats the "gut instinct" or the "experience"?  This is why we should steer towards a more data-driven decision-making and make a very judicious use of subjective personal experience and instincts. 

  Research is based on data. The more date we have, the more reliable and valid our research is. Now the amount of data we can get in the modern world is simply breathtaking. It has reached to the point of the so-called "Big data". Let's consider the field of education for example. Virtual Learning Environments like Moodle  track every single click that the learners make, thus yielding a complete virtual footprint. We get information about which pages in VLE are never visited by the learners , which of them are most popular, which learners are active and which, on the other hand, are "at-risk" and maybe need guidance. This data is analyzed via Learning Analytics ( the measurement, collection , analyzes of data for the purposes of optimizing learning) and is used to inform changes in the learning and the curriculum. Effective use of readily available data, that's what this is. 

  Now, do you feel a little in a daze? Do you feel like the Earth under your legs is shaking? That's right! The world is changing and moving ahead! Are you coming? 

 

Learning Management Systems (LMS) vs. Personal Learning Environments (PLEs)

The other side of the mirror

  Here are some nice definitions of the two terms:

  Personal Learning Environments (PLE) are systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. Technically, the PLE represents the integration of a number of "Web 2.0" technologies like blogs, Wikis, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, etc.— around the independent learner (from Wikipedia.com).

  An LMS, on the other hand, is an information system that administers instructor-led and e-learning courses and keeps track of student progress (from http://www.pcmag.com).

 As a student, I have only been exposed to PLE and found it to be a good tool in the hands  of a competent instructor. However, after exploring two PLE platforms 

(  www.edmodo.com, http://www.twiducate.com/ ), I was able to assess the appeal of these types of learning environments as well. As compared to LMS, PLE platforms are more student-centered and require a more autonomous learner.

  For more detailed and informative explanation on the differences between LMS and PLE, watch this video.

 

Distance learning

Mouses ready!

  This last week I was engaged in active participation in Livemocha. For those who don't know, livemocha is a language learning website that connects people who want to learn a foreign language. While registering, I mentioned English as my native language and Spanish as the language that I would like to improve. Below are two highlights of the experience I have had. One is positive the other is ... well, you'll see.

Great Free stuff!

 Here's how livemocha works. Language items are first introduced, then recycled through activities that integrate all four language skills. What's more,you can get feedback for your speaking and writing task from the community and the experts. All you need for this are coins which can be earned via assessing other learners' work. The whole system is based on the idea of a "swap-circle": help the others and the others will help you! Fair enough, isn't it?

Lack of ... smth

  As great as Livemocha is (and I am sure we will have even better distance learning tools in the future), I can't imagine it to be a substitute of formal learning. This may be my Taurus traditionalism steering the wheel of my mind, but to learn a language without a face-to-face human contact takes away part of the pleasure for me. People, learning a language in a group, enjoy the process because there is typically somebody in the group with a great sense of humor, there is someone super clever, someone silly, someone bossy, etc. There is the teacher, who can never be as perfect as the computer software, who will sometimes make mistakes but who will also sometimes be funny or kind or encouraging, who will, in short, display a range of human emotions, unknown to the computer. Maybe I am just an old-fashioned human being. I want my teacher to encourage me when I succeed and to show her disapproval when I don't. I am an old-fashioned human being. I don't want a perfect computer software, I just want an imperfect, good-old human relationship.

 After all, imperfection, as the highly talented actress Helena Bonhem Carter once said, is underrated.

Mobile-assisted language learning

 With just a little bit of help from my phone...

  

 90 percent of people in the entire world have a mobile phone network and 41 percent of the world's population has more than one mobile device. These are data taken from the most recent surveys done by Colley (in 2010) the Oracle (in 2011). The numbers, I imagine, have increased by now.

   How many of students nowadays keep exercise books, notepads or other paper-based learning equipment? Text, written on paper is non-transferable, non-printable, non-editable and non-interactive. Digital text, on the other hand, can be easily edited, converted to other formats, printed, shared and copied. When was the last time a student actually took the time to browse the pages of a paper dictionary? Why should he?

    According to the same survey mentioned above, 85 percent of mobile phones shipped worldwide by 2011 will have an in-built internet browsers and between 2010-2015 it is estimated that the mobile access to web will exceed the computer access. So what does this all mean? Basically, it means that  students worldwide constantly carry a tool with themselves which can potentially be used for education but which is being ignored. There is already quite a variety of mobile phone Apps for language learning. Here  are some examples:

• Speak English (improves pronunciation)
• Grammar
• English verbs
• English podcasts (lsitening and speaking)
• Toefl IBT preparation apps
• IELTS preperation
• Dictionaries
• Language games                                                                                                                                 Unless the educators start seeing all these as valid learning tools, there may be a danger of a potential gap between the way we understand learning and the way the learners do.  I would have to repeat myself here and re-post the quote I had in one of the earlier posts.
   “In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.”
  
  Eric Hoffer 
  
  Think of  this. Does your world still exist?

  

Open Educational Resources for TEFL

Mindblowing

 (The brewing perfect storm of opportunities)

      The world we live in is changing so fast (and has already changed so so much!) that some of us actually run the risk of waking up one day in the morning to find themselves in a perfectly strange world. Or wait, aren't some of us already living in a vacuum of an imaginary world that no longer exists? Let's do  a mini-test. Do you still think that knowledge is a "substance" and needs to be transmitted from the "knower" (the teacher) to the learner? Do you still think that practice needs to be preceded by theory? Do you still live under the false  illusion that learning implies a classroom, a board and a textbook? And finally, do you include words like "graduated from", "got high grades from...",etc. in your definition of an educated person? If you answered "yes" to to at least two of the questions above, you may consider reading this post till the end (doing so is encouraged anyway though:).

       Let's cast a look back at the old world. Remember the desks, the teacher, the classroom, the textbooks and the exercise books. How much have you written? How much have you read? What part of it do you remember? What part of it was forgotten or lost while you were counting the minutes till the end of the lesson? Were you interested? Now, isn't it curious? You probably mostly remember the things you were interested in. The cribs, the learning by heart, nothing helped. Your mind now only keeps the things that were relevant to your interests. Now, try to reverse the process. Start from the things that you are interested in. Say, it's Creative writing in English. Now if you agree to be the learner of the new world, here are just two steps I suggest you to do.

     a) Find Online Creative Writing forums

 Learning is a self-organizing system. Internet forums are there to unite people who share similar interests or problems. Jump in, take a share. There is no teacher. There are only collaborators. There is no teaching. There is social learning. Start writing from the offset. Get and leave feedback. Get a taste of a real audience. Fail, get feedback, fail again and again until you  succeed. Start from BEING a writer, not LEARNING how to be one.

b) Take an online Free Creative Writing course

     Now this may be a shock for even a fairly modern mind. Professional, highly-valuable courses from the world's best educators can actually be FREE. This, honestly, makes me feel proud of living in the age that I live in. Here's a list of websites that provide completely free online courses on a variety of topics:

• https://www.coursera.org/
• https://www.udacity.com/
• https://www.udemy.com/
• https://iversity.org/
• https://www.edx.org/
• https://novoed.com/
•  http://oli.web.cmu.edu/openlearning/forstudents/freecourses
• http://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses  

Here are some of the courses that are related to Creative Writing:

The Future Of Storytelling  

Creativity, Innovation, and Change  

Inanimate Alice:Digital storytelling 

Writers Tips – practical advice for creating better books

  

   This post has already extended far more than I intended. That's why I would just like to finish with a brief summary of what this all means. Basically, the opportunities that the internet, the flattening of the world and the open resourcing give us result in the mind blowing idea that an Internet connection, a computer and sufficient interest in a topic is just what it takes to become educated in the world we live in. So if you feel comfortable with your knowledge just because you have graduated from a decent University, I suggest you take a second thought. Go and check your neighbor that rarely leaves his house. Who knows how many online Universities has he graduated from?

Learning English via Video

Games

Where do you know all those words from?

-I just play games!

   Almost in every group there is one student who is typically not very proficient in grammar but shows a remarkable range of vocabulary. In most of such cases the student is either a regular gamer or movie watcher or is engaged in any other activity whose content is engaging and relevant to his/her interests. 

   A typical modern child is born surrounded by a variety of technological gadgets.  By the time  the kid starts school, his mind is full of characters and adventures from GTA, Sims, Call of Duty and a myriad of other games. These are words that have no limits except that of imagination. And a child's imagination, as is universally known, needs no additional kindling!

  Arguably, this new technologically abundant world changes  the perceptions and the ways we get and process information (McGrew-Hill, 2008). Children, used to fantastic, fun, graphically mesmerizing worlds with a lot of mysteries to unfold and challenges to overcome, are sent to schools where the processing of information is linear and the students' main role is that of a passive listener.

  A number of studies have been done to assess the effectiveness of video games in L2 learning. The results, though tentative, suggest positive outcomes. The main challenge of anyone that would integrate games into teaching is to to find a meaningful balance between fun and educational gains.  The question, in short, is the following "Can we integrate gaming into language learning without losing the fun aspect of it? Can games be manipulated and structured to serve pedagogical goals?".

Though there is no magical formula, these questions currently inspire heated discussions in EFL and ESL.

  Let's look at one specific case. Can the PC game The Sims be used to teach vocabulary? A study done by Jim Ranalli yields a positive answer. I tried to get a first-hand experience on the subject myself. The implications I got, which are briefly summarized in this presentation, are mostly promising. Though no way an alternative to traditional course-based learning, Sims and games in general, if scaffolded and structured appropriately, can help to supplement the main language learning course.

   If you  hurry to end reading this post just to articulate a harsh and firm "No", just  pause a second  and read this sentence:

 “In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.”

Eric Hoffer   

Video production in EFL

A step on a shaky field

  This week I have had a video production experience with my peers from the TEFL program. Our main goal was to get an experience in video shooting and editing with the purpose of evaluating the potential of video production in EFL.

  Creative projects are fun, engaging and sometimes inspiring. However,  all these often go hand in hand with a lot of time investment and , if technology is concerned, sometimes with a good deal of frustration. 

  The implications I got from my experience are still vague and non-conclusive.By itself, video production is a powerful tool but it's true application in  EFL environment is rather unclear to me. What would be the linguistic goals that would justify the massive investment of time,energy and creativity used in producing videos? This is the main question that I have. Right now there seems to be a lack of solid theory and research on this topic. The picture is still blurry. Any teacher using video production in EFL should be ready for an unsteady and uneven ground. The results, however, can potentially be rewarding.Now the next question is "Who will be(and already are) those pioneers ready to bring video production to EFL?". I suppose, as is the case with every innovation, the driving factors will mainly be passion and interest in the subject. We will see what comes.

   “Watch for the thing that will show itself to you. Because that thing, when you find it, will be your future.” 

Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha 

Digital Storytelling

Stories come alive

   Stories are inherent in human culture. We all love hearing and telling stories. In EFL classrooms, stories have had and will most probably continue to have their well-deserved place too. However, the only constant in the world we live in is the change. Modern technology enables us to refresh our understanding of the traditional paper and pen story writing. 

   Digital storytelling is the art of combining storytelling with some mixture of digital graphics. Digital stories abandon the notion of paper-based storytelling and make full use of sound and picture to enhance the story-telling experience. Have a look here to see some examples of digistories.

   The integration of digital sound and picture in EFL seems quite an intriguing and promising idea. The benefits are many and, arguably, outnumber the possible caveats. It's no surprise that a story with good visuals is a treasure for every child.  Remember how you turned the pages of the book with the hope of finding the pictures? Remember how words alone weren't enough for you? Or how you relished the changes in your mother's voice as she read a story at your bed? Confess to yourself, as a child you sometimes refused to give a chance to a pictureless book. This is because a book with only text is an almost-dead book. In a sense, it's like an unsociable child, reserved and reluctant to communicate. This may not be a problem for a book-loving adult but teenegers and especially children will probably cherish  good, powerful visuals and sound effects.

   Having said all of the above, I'd also like to stress out that making good digistories is an art. Both the visuals and the sound need to supplement the story and enhance the experience and not just repeat the same story. Therefore, a good deal of skill, talent and creativity is needed to make a good digistory. 

  So should our students create and consume  digistories? The research and the numerous examples in the net eloquently enough say "yes". You never know the potential of a tool unless you give it a chance and explore. In my opinion, digistories are worth to be given a chance and have quite a future.

  On a final note, here's a digistory I created myself. I used one of the 3D templates of Prezi which immediately set my story in the right context: a deep, maigical forest. I also added some sounds and ... ok, let's leave the old-fashioned texting. Let THE STORY come alive.

Wikis

 "Multiple pens, one paper"

  Remember the times people wrote long letters to each other to receive or send information? Well, that's clearly old-fashioned, isn't it? But would you think that even emails are now becoming, in some respect, old fashioned too? Suppose two people are working together over a distance on the same project. Suppose this project is a translation of a document. Each writes his own piece separately and sends it to the partner. Then, they have to proofread each others' writing  and again send the documents to each other. Finally, one of them takes the pain to merge the two pieces and make the translation a holistic piece. Two pens working separately on two different pages.

  Now imagine those two (and you can have three, four, ten collaborators!) pens working on the same document! One of the writers translating  a piece, the other simultaneously proofreading or writing his own piece, a third one maybe helping the first two with the vocabulary, etc. Do you see the magic? Wikis do this magic. They create, what can be called, a real-time collaboration, a platform for multiple individuals to join their efforts at the same time, at the same place.  Intrigued? Here are two wiki platforms you can start from: Pbworks.com, wikispaces.com.

  On a final note, have a look at this simple yet informative video on Wikis. These people know how to explain things.
Wikis in plain English.

Podcasts

 

"Ears, I say, not the eyes "

   I love podcasts. I really do. In the world where eyes are the main medium of getting information (reading, watching TV), many of us are running the risk of exploiting the natural capabilities of our eyesight. I often feel tension and pain in my eyes and this often leads to feeling demotivated to read. This is a shame, since I find a great pleasure in reading.

   This inner conflict of mine has recently been resolved by the introduction of podcasts and audiobooks into my life. I started to listen to wonderful books and to lively discussions via podcasts. It only takes me a few minutes to download them and to to send the mp3 files to my mobile phone. The rest is magic. 

  Podcasts are liberating and empowering in the sense that they help you to shift the tension from the eyes to the ears, to use the multiple mediums that human body has for getting and processing information. Podcasts are my absolute heroes. They are with me in the public transport, while washing the dishes, taking the dust and even while walking out the dog. 

  Given the amazingness of podcasts, why not use them in education as well? While researching the topic ideas such as "student-created podcasts", "teaching skills like synthesizing via podcasts", "giving the students the ability to meaningfully participate in the world", "real audience" ,etc invaded into my mind. Are there any disadvantages of using podcasts in EFL? Apart from some possible ethical and copyright issues, which are clearly not podcast-specific, I see none. So why not? I am very optimistic in the potential of podcasts in EFL. One of our responsibilities as teachers is to empower our students with choices. Podcasts seem a very viable audio alternative to the heavily text-dominated way of getting knowledge in our world. 

So close your eyes and get your ears ready, they have relaxed far too much :)

Using Blogs and Twitter in an EFL classrooms

 "Feedback, Collaboration, Community"

  In this post I will try to outline a sample EFL project that makes use of blogs and twitter as learning tools. My hypothetical situation is a group of teenage EFL learners who attend a course that develops learner's creative writing. Learners would be asked to read Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone with the Wind" and write a sequel to it afterward . Each group of 3/4 students would write its own ending to Mitchell's unfinished novel and would post the sequals in a blog created specifically for this project. Learners of the group would have to read the sequals of other groups  and leave feedback be either adding comments in blogs or making updates in twitter. Each students would have to post at least one comment for each sequal. The sequals will be both peer-assessed in the form of peer comments and tutor assessed. The latter will mainly be in the form of comments on the content but will also include some feedback on the accuracy and the organization of the narrative. 

  The main challenge might be to overcome the learners' fear of writing creatively in a foreign language. Activities of pre-writing stage, such as introduction and practice of free writing, narrative, descriptive writing, may help to lessen the anxiety related to writing in English.

  This project would be aimed at fostering collaboration among the students and would help them to have a first hand, authentic practice in creative writing. The technology used would help to realize the project in a cost and time efficient manner.