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IATEFL CALL Review | ISSN: 1026-428 February 2004

CALL ReviewThe Journal of the Computer SIG

FEBRUARY 2004... FEBRUARY 2004

In this issue...From the Editor From the Editor From the Editor page 2From the Coordinator From the Coordinator From the Coordinator page 3Creating a CALL Community for your Class using a Simple Blog-based VLE page 4Elements to Consider when Implementing an Internet Research Project page 8WorldCALL 2003 - A Review page 11IATEFL Annual Conference, Liverpool 2004 - Computer SIG Programme page 14[ Playing at ] Cowboys and Indians page 15Surrender Value: A call on CALL... Why are you doing what you are doing? page 18Book Review - The Internet & Business English page 20Competition - Win a copy of Technical English - Vocabulary and Grammar Competition - Win a copy of Technical English - Vocabulary and Grammar Competition - Win a copy of Technical English - Vocabulary and Grammar page 21Software Review - New Headway English Course Interactive Practice CDROM page 22Disclaimers... How Wise! page 27Practical Teaching Idea: Teachers, meet the Phraselator Practical Teaching Idea: Teachers, meet the Phraselator Practical Teaching Idea: Teachers, meet the Phraselator page 29A Process Approach to Writing Using Word ProcessorsA Process Approach to Writing Using Word Processors page 32An Approach to Lexis: Web-based Data-driven Learning...An Approach to Lexis: Web-based Data-driven Learning... page 33Practical Teaching Idea: Let’s Talk About Tri-Points page 35Quick Tips: Keyboard Shortcuts page 36Constructing Agreement and Disagreement in an Electronic Discusssion Forum page 37Good CoP, Bad CoP page 42

Constructing Agreement and Disagreement in an Electronic Discusssion Forum

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IATEFL CALL Review | ISSN: 1026-428 February 2004 - IATEFL CALL Review | ISSN: 1026-428 February 2004 - Page 3

FROM THE EDITOR...

NEW BEGINNINGS... NEW EDITOR... NEW LOOK... NEW IDEAS...

Gavin Dudeney

Welcome to the fi rst edition of the IATEFL Computer SIG Call Review for 2004!

Firstly I’d like to thank everyone who has worked on the newsletter before me ( a long list of august names which I won’t detail here in case anyone notices I’m an imposter!) and made it what it is. Many thanks also to all the people who responded to my desperate pleas for articles and to all those people who sent emails wishing me luck and offering help should I need it.

Because of all these people, my fi rst edi-tion as editor has been a joy to put together and I hope that all of you who are now reading it will enjoy it as much as I have.

I’ve attempted to include a variety of articles and I sincerely hope there’s something of interest to everybody in the SIG. So, let’s have a quick wander through what we have:

Graham Stanley from Barcelona Spain explains how Blogs can be used with classes, including plenty of links to use-ful follow-up resources. Following him, Hideto D. Harashima offers useful advice for those of us considering implementing Internet research projects in our teaching.

Susan Esnawy gives us her personal view of the WorldCALL conference from 2003 while Roger Hunt attempts to get us to consider why we work with technology and what we think we (and our ‘punters’) are getting out of it all.

On the reviews front, we have a look at The Internet and Business English from Summertown Publishing and the New Headway English Course CDROMs.

Suize Tombs (currently working in Tai-wan) offers some helpful advice on get-ting work via the web, including the pit-falls of ‘signing’ contracts at a distance.

Practical teaching ideas from Lindsay Clan-dfi eld (Teachers, meet the Phraselator), Nik Peachey (A Process Approach to Writing Using Word Processors) and Rolf Palmberg (Let’s Talk About Tri-Points).

Caroline Mei Lin Ho reports on a fas-cinating study entitled “Constructing Agreement and Disagreement in an Electronic Discussion Forum” and Nicky Hockly brings the issue to a close with a look at Communities Of Practice.

If you enjoy this issue, please consider contributing to the next (you’ll fi nd details on page 19) with articles, reviews, les-son plans, hints & tips, letters, opinions...

Right... having laboured late into a few nights to get this to the printers, I’m off for a well-deserved trip to the countryside for the weekend. (see picture below...).

Have a very good year, and I look forward to hearing from you all

Gavin

IATEFL CALL Review | ISSN: 1026-428 February 2004 - Page 2 IATEFL CALL Review | ISSN: 1026-428 February 2004 -

FROM THE CO-ORDINATOR...

A QUIET 2003.... BUT HIGH HOPES FOR THE COMING YEAR IN THE SIG

Tilly Warren

Dear Computer SIG members,

I am delighted to be writing this for a newsletter which follows so hard on the

heels of the last one – but the downside of such prompt production is that there is very little ‘news’ as such to report. First of all a big welcome to Gavin Dudeney our new Newsletter editor whose fi rst CALL Review you are holding. The other committee members remain the same: Geoff Taylor – web ‘wizard’; Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou – Discussion List moderator; Gary Motteram – advisory member.

We are holding another election for a committee member – this time an Events Coordinator – you should fi nd the ballot papers enclosed. You may have noticed (and lamented?) a distinct lack of events this year – we desperately need someone on the committee who can take responsibility for this area. Please do use your vote!! (email is fi ne as long as you include your IATEFL membership number.)

Talking of email, I have tried to contact the membership by email a few times but it is disappointing to fi nd how many addresses are either out of date or wrong (many e-mails are returned ‘undeliverable’). It should be possible to check the accuracy of the contact details for you held by head offi ce on the IATEFL website (your membership number gives you access). Please check these and let the offi ce know if there are

any mistakes. If you have not had any messages from me in the last six months then we do not have your correct email address. As well as letting the offi ce know you could e-mail me too ([email protected]) which would allow me to add you directly to the mailing list. If for any reason you do not want to be contacted by any of the Committee about Computer SIG issues then please let me know at the above address and we will respect your wishes.

Also enclosed should be nomination forms for the post of Computer SIG Coordinator. My term of offi ce will come to an end at the Liverpool conference in April 2004 and although I am happy to continue if no one else comes forward, this is a chance for the SIG to choose a new ‘leader / facilitator’. If you are willing to stand or know someone who you would like to choose, make sure the papers are returned by the deadline. Hopefully the election (if there is one) will take place before the conference, allowing the new Coordinator to be ‘initiated’ at Liverpool.

We have much to look forward to at the Annual Conference (see the SIG programme for starters!) and although we do not have a Pre-Conference Event this year, there are many talks, workshops and presentations on computer related issues throughout the conference. However if you are not able to come and meet us in person in 2004, I hope that you will feel able to contact us at any time with your ideas / suggestions / complaints so that the SIG stays focused on issues that are important to you.

Very best wishes for 2004,

Tilly


NETWORKED TECHNOLOGIES IN USE...

Creat ing a CALL Communi ty fo r your C lassus ing a S imple B log-based VLE

Graham Stanley - Barcelona, Spain

Graham Stanley is the coordinator of English for Tourism at Turismo Sant Ignasi ESADE (Universitat de Ramon Llull), and a teacher at the British Council in Barcelona. He is currently finishing the dissertation for his M.Ed. in ELT & Educational Technology (University of Manchester, UK). He can be contacted at [email protected].

“Weblogs.The unedited voice of a person! Will easy and inexpensive publishing technology change the face of politics, business, journalism, the law, medicine, engineering and education? Is a revolution underway, or are weblogs just the latest Internet craze? “ (post to BloggerCon: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/bloggerCon/ 2003http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/bloggerCon/ 2003http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/bloggerCon/ )

This article examines ways in which blogs (short for weblogs) are being used for language learning, and how different types of blog can be combined to form a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) by looking at some example CALL blog communities. Finally, blogs will be compared to the other technologies more commonly used in a VLE setting.

Origins:

Like me, you may have only recently heard of them, but blogs are as old as the Web itself. In fact, the fi rst ever website was a weblog (Winer 2002). They were fi rst conceived as a collection of links with notes arranged in reverse-chronological order. Since those days, and especially with the invention of web-based software that makes publishing web content easy and fun (Blogger, the most popular Blogger, the most popular Bloggersite’s motto is ‘push button publishing for the people’) there has been a blog explosion. More than anything else, blogs are being used as personal journals and for group project work. There are now an estimated 4.12 million weblogs, of which 1.4 are active (Blogcount, http://dijest.com/bc/November 2003), and there is a growing interest in using the technology in educational contexts.

Edublogs & EFL:

There are now many examples of blogs being used in education (edublogs), but few occurrences of EFL teachers using them, which is surprising given the potential they offer. One thing that does seem to be true is that those teachers who do use blogs, are very active. Aaron Patric Cambell is one example. He has defi ned three basic types of ELT blogs for use with students (Campbell, 2003a): The Tutor blog, the Learner blog, and the Class blog.

Cambell runs his own Tutor blog, called The New Tanuki (The New Tanuki (The New Tanuki http://thenewtanuki.blogspot.com/), which he uses to provide information to students about their course, links to language learning sites specifi cally selected for their interests and needs, and also for his observations and comments about his life in Japan, which no doubt can be followed up with his students in class. Running a Tutor blog is an ideal way of giving students extra reading practice, and of directing them to sources of interest on the Web.

It is likely that some of Campbell’s students have private Learner blogs. These usually have the same function as a traditional learner journal, which acts as ‘the basis for a private dialogue between teacher


and learner’ (Vickers & Morgan 2003), where students can record their thoughts and refl ections on learning, among other things. If desired, students can post homework assignments on their blog, and the teacher can respond with written comments and even corrections. What the learners write is for the teachers eyes only and the community that is formed (fi gure i.) can help build a closer teacher/learner relationship. This type of blog-based VLE is particularly useful when a teacher has large classes with limited contact time.

Figure i. - Private Refl ective Learner-Tutor Blog VLE

When the Learner blogs run by individual students are public and act as showcases for student writing, thoughts, photographs, etc., this gives students a real reason for writing by providing them with an audience that consists of more than just the teacher. It’s also a great way for them to individualise their learning, and the teacher can use what the students write as a basis for follow-up discussions in class.

Although it takes some students time to blogs at the beginning, when the idea catches on, it can lead to impressive results as the blog becomes a space for self-examination and self-reflection (see this example: http://linaeo.blogspot.com/ ). It is clear that blogs can be excellent http://linaeo.blogspot.com/ ). It is clear that blogs can be excellent http://linaeo.blogspot.com/learning tools, not only for developing writing, but for promoting autonomous learning in general.

When individual public Learner blogs are connected to each other through a Class blog a totally different type of community is formed. The class blog is a weblog which, at its most basic, can serve as an interesting extension to a face-to-face class (see http://cat-cult.blogspot.com), allowing all students and the teacher to post comments about the joint learning experience.

Barbara Deu’s Class blog (Bee online: http://www.beeonline.blogspot.com/ ) started http://www.beeonline.blogspot.com/ ) started http://www.beeonline.blogspot.com/life as a discussion space shared by the members of one class, but it has now developed into much more than this. It is a good example of a weblog that is now used as an inter-cultural meeting point for students of several classes in different parts of the world.

Bee Online is a class blog which has links to individual learner blogs that any of the other students can read, but not write to. The students use their learner blogs as private individual writing spaces, and If they want to communicate to each other, they do so on the class blog, using this as a discussion and debating space. When this type of e-learning community does not allow contribution from the general public, we can say it forms a private communicative learner-class blog VLE (see figure ii), with the central focus of attention being on the class blog.

Figure ii. - Private Communicative Learner-Class Blog VLE

TUTOR BLOG

LEARNER BLOG LEARNER BLOG LEARNER BLOG

CLASS BLOG

LEARNER BLOG LEARNER BLOG LEARNER BLOG


The Bee Online blog VLE is a good example of what Siemens calls a learning ecology(2003) offering ‘many opportunities for users to dialogue and connect’; a fl exible learning space that evolves according to learner needs in a ‘consistently evolving environment’.

If one goes to the blog Archives, the development of the site can be traced. At fi rst, the teacher was an active participant in the space, helping students get used to using the weblog. Barbara then encouraged discussion between students by inviting mystery guests (other teachers, myself included) mystery guests (other teachers, myself included) mystery gueststo contribute, and the latest stage of the class blog has been stimulated by an international exchange. Now the teacher acts as moderator, intervening only to suggest new topics, or to steer a discussion towards something that can be followed up on in class. The space has now become owned by the owned by the ownedstudents, who are the ones that generally decide what to write about, and how far to take a topic.

With the addition of comments and chat facilities on a weblog (which Bee Onlinehas now incorporated), the blog-based VLE opens itself up to contributions from the general public (see fi gure iii) and becomes more interactive.

The Public The Public

The Public

Figure iii. Public Communicative Learner-Class Blog VLE

This is similar to the ‘Weblog-based VLE’ described in Campbell (2003b:64), and allows the establishment of an ‘open dialogue with others’ that can deeply enrich the learning experience. Soon after I started posting as a mystery guest (see the Bee Online Archives – August 2003), Barbara told me that the students were talking about who I was and where I came from in-between classes.

Blogs vs Traditional VLEs

Commercial VLEs such as Blackboard and WebCT have become popular ways of providing Computer Supported Cooperative Learning (CSCL), offering a variety of built-in course delivery tools useful for online learning. These often include message boards, e-mail facilities, and chat. These controlled learning environments are good at emulating the private classroom online, allowing spaces for discussion, assignment setting, and tests.

This type of VLE is similar to a traditional classroom, being a closed, private environment for the group of learners concerned. A blog-based VLE, on the other hand, is useful for

CLASS BLOG

LEARNER BLOG

LEARNER BLOG

LEARNER BLOG


educators who are interested in opening up this environment. As a posting to Cyberdash (http://cyberdash.com/node/view/125) states, the blog-based VLE,as outlined in this article, is not meant as an alternative to a course management tool, but what it does offer is an opportunity for more open, cooperative, and creative learning, ‘eliminating the fi rewall around the classroom’ (Campbell 2003b:65) environment offered by VLEs such as Blackboard and WebCT.

How to get started:

There are many different sites offering free blog services, but perhaps the most reliable, and easiest to use with students is Blogger (http://blogger.com). Setting up blogs with students takes less than thirty minutes, and downloading the free Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/ ) makes publishing to a weblog only two mouse clicks away.

More information about blogging and ELT can be found at my weblog: http://blog-efl.blogspot.com

References:

Campbell AP(2003a) ‘Weblogs for use with ESL classes’ The Internet TESL Journal: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html

Campbell AP (2003b) ‘The Experience of Computer Supported Cooperative Learning Using Weblogs in the university Classroom: a phenomenological case study’ Dissertation submitted to University of Sheffield. university Classroom: a phenomenological case study’ Dissertation submitted to University of Sheffield. university Classroom: a phenomenological case study

Vickers C & S Morgan ‘Learner Diaries – An important tool for teacher and learner alike’ (2003) Modern English Teacher Vol 12 No 4

Winer D (2002) The History of Weblogs: http://newhome.weblogs.com/historyOfWeblogs (last updated May 17 2002, accessed 28 Nov 2003)


Elements to Cons ider when Imp lement ing an In te rne t Research Pro jec tHideto D. Harashima, Japan

Hideto D. Harashima is an associate professor at Maebashi Institute of Technology in Japan. He has been engaged in CALL since 1995. He obtained his MA in Linguistics from San Diego State University in the U.S.A., and is currently doing his doctoral study as e-learning with Macquarie University in Australia.

1.0 Introduction

In recent years the Internet has empowered us to get virtually any kind of information from all over the

world with just a few mouse clicks. It has especially benefi ted people in isolated or remote countries by providing an easy access to abundant information outside of the country. In Japan, for example, where most people have had little contact with Westerners or information in English, the Internet has given learners of English a new reason to learn the language. The reason is the hope that, with a good command of English and the Internet, they can obtain valuable information in the world without seeking a foreign informant, taking the trouble of going to a large library, paying money for foreign newspapers or magazines, or being frustrated with belated news delivery. Japanese people are beginning to realize that English has become more authentic, or meaningful, to their daily lives than ever before. They are at last beginning to use English as a common and convenient tool for learning about world events.

However, it is a regrettable fact that not many college students are familiar with methods of searching for information in English on the Net. With such a situation at hand, teachers in the CALL fi eld are increasingly under pressure to design good research projects or activities which effectively build up students’ interest in world affairs, their search skills, and their ability to process information. This paper will discuss some of the elements that all CALL instructors should consider for the betterment of an Internet research project, which will serve to prepare students for full-scale research.

2.0 Teacher Control

The fi rst element is the degree of teacher control over a student project. Students with little computer training background, who are the majority in most Japanese universities, are hopeless for Internet research, since they don’t know the basic technique of using a web browser and various other search tools. If a teacher dispatches such students into the high seas of WWW without much basic skill building, they will very likely be drowned or waste their time. If students are at novice level, “sheltered” research projects with substantial teacher control are more desirable.

Students at an elementary level of CALL should not be asked to surf the Net at random because they may very easily get lost. Rather, the teacher should guide them to a particular portal site with some links to selected resources. Students can use this site as a base from which to hop around following the links, and they can always go back to it. This way they can avoid getting lost or getting stuck in the maze of the WWW, which is also benefi cial to the teacher. It is safe for both the students and the teacher. Naturally, it cannot help but be somewhat primitive, for an activity that we are terming 'research'. Nonetheless, it can be interpreted as a good introductory research activity as it satisfi es the minimum defi nition of research by Nunan (Nunan, 1992): a combination of (1) a question, problem, or hypothesis, (2) data, and (3) analysis and interpretation of data.

One good site for such an introductory research project is the World Fact Book by CIA (http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/docs/profi leguide.html). This is a very informative resource site of basic facts about most countries in the world. With this resource a teacher can give students the task of doing geographical research on a particular country of their interest or comparing data from a selection of countries. The whole activity can be fairly controlled and there will be little room for panic.

3.0 Student Autonomy

Though the above is a good project at its introductory stage, it certainly lacks some important elements of legitimate research. The crucial one is autonomy. Research activity is generally understood as an

RESEARCH - PROJECTS...


autonomous inquiry into truth. Research is an active process of planning, hypothesizing, data searching, trial and error, experiencing frustration from unsuccessful searches, and feeling the excitement of new discoveries. Students are expected to experience those steps by themselves while engaged in research activities on the Internet, otherwise they will not learn the essence of what research is about. Teachers must always try to allow as much student autonomy as possible for a better research project.

4.0 Variety of Information Sources

Another element we cannot overlook in the above project is the limitation of information sources. If students are collecting data from one or a limited number of source(s) of information, they are not expected to give fair consideration to comparison of different, sometimes opposite, data elsewhere. Consequently, it doesn’t nurture critical thinking habits among the students. It is certainly not desirable. Research projects should be taken by a teacher as a prime opportunity to teach important elements of media literacy. Students should be encouraged to access multiple and varied sources of information on one subject as far as circumstances allow.

When students write a research paper by retrieving information from very limited sources, it tends to become a mere report on what they found there, report on what they found there, reportfor the activity inevitably breeds a passive attitude among the students. The paper may be full of citations and copies of data with no substantial or original arguments. Poor editing skills often add to the obscurity. Inevitably, the teacher is doomed to diffi cult decisions on the issue of plagiarism. To avoid such a situation, students must eventually be freed from tight teacher control; they must be given autonomy but with an emphasis on originality. They must be given a chance to get information autonomously and process it autonomously after being adequately introduced to the concept of polite behavior on the Net, or netiquette.

5.0 Search Technique Instruction

In the above the author argued that students must be led from teacher control to student autonomy as they develop Internet research skills. However, once students start out on an autonomous voyage into the universe of the Internet, the class can become chaotic. There will be a number of faces in anguish and dismay. It is therefore important for a teacher to introduce them to adequate search techniques before rendering them total autonomy. The most essential technique includes

how to use search engines and effective keywords.First, students must be introduced to some of the basic search directories, search engines, online libraries, databases, and other valuable resource sites. Attentive instruction on how to use search engines effectively should never be neglected. It is also extremely essential to teach how information is typically categorized. Advanced search techniques such as the Boolean search, title search, searching by language, searching by dates, etc., should be introduced, too. Practical tips such as Dodge (2001)will be a good help for introducing some important Internet search skills to students.

Second, an introduction of useful search keywords must be provided for students. Thinking up good keywords in a foreign language can be very diffi cult for students and teachers must pay special attention to this, for the ability to select effective keywords can be crucial in reaching the desired information successfully. Some helpful keywords for objective information search include data, records, numbers, statistics, stats, list, table, countries, standing, comparison, facts, recent, increase, decrease, etc.; some good keywords for subjective information search are opinions, views, review, analysis, discussion, forum, criticism, critic, argument, opposition, controversy, confl ict, difference, comparison, assessment, evaluation, and so forth.

As soon as students receive proper guidance on search technique, they will start to show skills in looking for information at their own discretion and according to their own capabilities. It is at this point that truly autonomous research begins to take shape.

6.0 Selection of research topics and methods

The next element we must consider for a better Internet research project is wisdom in the selection of research topics. Though student autonomy should be respected, giving them total freedom in choosing a research topic may not always be very educational. They would most likely choose an easy topic such as the private life of a popular rock singer. This kind of research activity may not be totally meaningless, but before letting students settle for amusing Net surfi ng, teachers need to lead the students to the awareness of two different search methods: the Internet search and the library search. Not all research topics are suited for Internet search; some may be better searched by a more conventional method, i.e. browsing through printed materials. Therefore, students must be led to an understanding of the advantages and


disadvantages of doing research on the Internet.One way of leading students to this awareness is to give them a list of different search queries and let them try to reach the answers for each query by the two methods. In the meantime, the students are required to record and report the differences in the time they spent on each method, in search results, and in levels of diffi culty.

The author tried giving his students a variety of search queries to which they had to apply the two methods, ranging from a simple question such as “What is the name of the pet dog of George W. Bush?” to more challenging one like “Is NAFTA a success or failure for Canada?” The students took them to the Internet and local libraries and reported their evaluations of the two methods. Eventually, the author learned empirically and from students' reports what kinds of queries were suited for each method, shown as below.

Areas of queries suited for the Internet research: current issues; statistics; frequently updated data; personal information; discussion results; controversial issues; institutions and their activities; IT-related information; business-related information

Areas of queries suited for the library research:historical or chronological events; established value, thoughts, theories, and systems; famous people in history; works of specifi c areas such as literature, art, architecture, etc.; information about the third-world countries; academic studies in depth

The author believes that it is worthwhile to introduce to students an activity, such as the one above, which leads to the awareness of the differences in the nature of research topics. Good research guidelines such as Wilson (2001), Pepperdine University Library(2001), and Brown-Daniel Library (2001) will help students do research by both methods. Meanwhile, if we intend to make our Internet research project fairly feasible, it is important to select research topics suitable for Internet research.

7.0 Objective or Subjectively Oriented Information

The fi nal element is whether we should guide our students to look for objective information or subjectively oriented information on the Internet. An activity of searching for simple objective facts/data may be straightforward and fun, but it does not stimulate students’ motivation for intellectual

investigation, nor develop their search skills or critical thinking habit very much. It could become a fact-fi nding game, and as soon as a fast student fi nds the answer, he/she gets satisfi ed and does nothing but idle around. It is also susceptible to plagiarism.

An activity of searching for subjectively oriented information, on the other hand, could elevate students’ overall research competence. By looking into some opinion sites on controversial issues or confronting values, students learn the importance of comparing multiple sources and thinking critically. They are pressed to duly understand the different views, and to create their own views through some dialectical processes. This course of activities has crucial importance to the students for developing their overall media literacy. It should be considered a vital element of a worthwhile Internet research project in preparation for a good full-scale research paper.

8.0 Conclusion

The author has so far argued for some important elements to consider when we try to implement an Internet research project to our classes in the context of Japanese universities. These elements must be relevant to many CALL classrooms elsewhere in the world. A successful Internet research project can be summarized as one that has a good balance between teacher control and student autonomy, being smooth yet challenging, and with a well-thought-out design by the instructor.

References

Brown-Daniel Library (2001) Library Researchhttp://www.tnstate.edu/library/library_research.htm

Dodge, B. (2001) Seven Steps Toward Better Searchinghttp://edweb.sdsu.edu/WebQuest/searching/sevensteps.html

Nunan, D. (1992) Research Method in Language Learning, CUP. 3.

Pepperdine University Library (2001) Seven Steps to Effective Library Researchhttp://rigel.pepperdine.edu/instruction/bisteps.html

Wilson, F. (2001) Effective Library Researchhttp://www.nceltr.mq.edu.au/resources/


WorldCALL 2003Banff, Alberta, Canada

Susan Esnawy, Egypt

Susan Esnawy has been an ELT at the Academic English for Freshmen Programat the American University in Cairo, Egypt, for 15 years. She has taught EAPand ESL/EFL for 20 years and is interested in the use of computers and the

Internet in English Language Teaching.

WorldCALL 2003 drew professionals in CALL and language teaching from over 40 countries

from different parts of the world. Participants enjoyed the beautiful setting of the Banff National Park, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. The Banff Centre provided a very good venue for the conference as participants managed to take walks and discover the beautiful surroundings and town. The conference was very well organized, due to the efforts of the hosts. Two activities were planned for the day before the conference: a tour of Johnson Canyon and Lake Louise at noon, which impressed participants with the beautiful natural scenery and few elks they saw! In the evening, the Conference Reception gave participants a chance to meet and get over their jet-lag and the altitude! The next day the conference started early. The following is only a selection of the contributions and, as usual, refl ects the interests and views of the writer of this report.

In the fi rst day keynote address, “Of Digital Divides and Social Multipliers: A Global Perspective on Language, Technology, and Development”, Mark Warschauer discussed the disparity between Warschauer discussed the disparity between Warschauercountries and regions as regards the spread of computer use and Internet technology (IT). He cited examples and studies of people’s reactions to the introduction of IT in their communities from India, Egypt, and Ireland. He concluded that the solution was not only providing hardware, but also preparing and training people in using this technology, and introducing them to the ways in

which it can be useful to them, and improve life in the community so that they could make optimal use of it.

Building on the conference’s theme “Call from the Margins”, the International Panel, chaired by Martin Beaudoin chair of WorldCALL 2003’s organizing committee, hosted presentations discussing the state of CALL in seven countries from Asia and Africa: Egypt by S. Esnawy, Thailand by C. Intratat, Iran by Fahimeh Marefat, South Africa by Nombulelo Monoana, Ukraine by Halia Kaluzhna, Kazakhstan by Sulushash Kerimkulova, and Vietnam by A. N. Truong. They discussed the available facilities in these countries and their institutions, the students and the teachers who use CALL and the Internet and their access to them, and the types of programs and activities used. Although the panelists’ talks refl ected the limited spread of CALL and the Internet in these countries, they emphasized the positive steps taken to date to spread the use of CALL. They all agreed that the use of CALL in these countries is on the rise and they hoped its spread would increase in the future.

Peter Ruthven-Stuart in “Bringing CALL in from the Margins into the Mainstream of Language Teaching” reported on a 52 item survey of the use of computers in language teaching and teachers’ attitudes towards it. Although the percentage of teachers who use CALL is not large, most teachers believe that its use in language teaching will increase and they want to

REVIEWS - CONFERENCE...


learn more about incorporating it into their teaching. Integrating CALL into language teaching requires both “Broad Integration” and “Deep Integration”; the former is achieved with the increase in the number of teachers using CALL in their teaching, while the latter, which is more challenging, requires that “ICT…become a central pillar of language teaching”. This requires changes in teachers’ perceptions of the role of computers in the learning process and in teaching styles. Ruthven-Stuart concluded that changes in teacher training and material development, and institutions’ recognition of creation of online materials are needed for CALL to be fully integrated into the mainstream and to have a signifi cant impact on language teaching.

Tannis Morgan and Stephen Carrey in “Intercultural Collaborative Learning in Online Forums” reported on a two-month study whose aim was to develop ESL undergraduate students’ reading and writing skills and make them aware of cross-cultural issues. Students from Mexico, Russia and Japan were involved in asynchronous text forums and discussed different teacher and student initiated topics. They wrote fi ve times a week and their contributions were evaluated on quality and quantity, but were not corrected by the teachers. Morgan and Carrey found that the international audience was a good motivator, but that the discussion threads became exhausted at about eight weeks. The forum exposed students to multiple perspectives on issues discussed in class and provided them with a chance to express their thoughts in depth, in authentic communication, and the freedom to choose their communication partners. Although students’ level of academic writing did not improve signifi cantly, the activity could be designed so as to improve academic writing skills through making up teams of students from different cultural backgrounds and involving them in online group projects and assignments.

Gina Mikel Petrie in “The Role of Visual Language in the Multimedia Language Classroom” presented the fi ndings of three qualitative pilot studies in which she observed classes and interviewed teachers. She found that although teachers and students were unaware of it, visual language is present in adult ESL classes. Students use visual language as a scaffolding device; e.g., in a Powerpoint presentation, they read everything off the screen without any additions. As for teachers’ perceptions, she found that some teachers view visual language as “a separate component” from language or “just another support to teaching that motivates students.” Some teachers worry about distraction due to

graphics or interference from print conventions, such as underlining which signals an important point in print, while in online texts it signals links. As regards navigational tasks, some teachers believe that students need to be guided through every step, while others assume that students can do them without teacher help, so they assign tasks in which students help each other, and any problems students face are attributed to their level of computer skills. Teachers who became aware of their assumptions about reading online started to change their ideas about it and to prepare students for such tasks.

Scott Gerrity in “Think, Do, Rethink, Redo: Lessons Learned in Developing a Multimedia Based Language Learning Web Site” discussed the different aspects of creating such a web site. He explained the tasks involved: web design, display, and navigation; creating the content; data and fi les management; and management of the project. Technological development implies having to change some features of the web site. In such a project, the teacher’s role changes into a project manager. When available, educational technologists help, but one has to know exactly what is needed from them. Gerrity’s recommendations for CALL web sites’ developers were: fi rst, one should determine navigation, manage structures and design issues, and plan for possible expansion. Second, a prototype should be made and tested fi rst, then one should adhere to it. Third, one should be consistent in documentation of data and fi les to facilitate their management. Last, one should select the authoring tools which refl ect one’s pedagogical approach and suit one’s materials.

Elena Nalon and Mauro Marangon in “Which Web Technology is Right for You? Case Studies


from the University of Padua Language Centre” presented their multimedia website CLAWEB, http://claweb.cla.unipd.it, which they developed to meet the needs of their students. They integrated several technologies, such as Flash, dynamic HTML, and advanced QuickTime to build their web-based materials. CLAWEB is a language portal made of independent web projects. Teachers build their learning environments and each site targets a certain course’s objectives. It is used for several activities: as a supplement to class work, a bulletin board, and for autonomous study and revision. There were some shortcomings and their solution was the project “Matlida” which is based on Keiron, a learning content management system. They used Overlib, a free software that makes it possible to add interactivity to texts, and PHPBB, a free discussion forum that can be used to develop writing skills. Matlida combines rich hypertextuality and free style which allows fl exible student movement. The interface of the platform is multilingual and records students’ responses, allowing tracking of their production and progress. It offers effortless publishing and integration with popular course authoring tools.

The conference scheduled one hour daily for poster sessions, which gave the audience a chance to read the posters and have discussions with the presenters. There were several interesting poster sessions, for example:

• Susan Esnawy “Combining In-class and Online in EAP Writing? Yes, It Worked!” described how the use of both helped graduate EAP students improve their academic writing skills.

• Al Evans “Learner Evaluated Content Conversations on the Web” described how in an economics class, taught by an ELT and an economics professor, students evaluated their performance in recordings of their class activities; students’ skills improved in both language and content area.

• Alida Abbott “CALL and Translation Technologies: A Discussion of Training, Tools, and Methods” discussed the effect of the new technologies on translation and the types of training benefi cial for translators.

The conference was a rich and benefi cial sharingexperience in CALL. It was exciting and informativeas the presentations spanned a wide variety ofpractices from different educational settings andcountries. We look forward to the next WorldCALL.

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IATEFL SIG PROGRAMME FOR LIVERPOOL 2004FRIDAY 16 APRIL

1030 - 1120 (50) WILLIAMS – Interactive whiteboards – lessons learned and lesson taught 1120 - 1155 COFFEE BREAK1155 - 1310 (75) BALDWIN – Resources on the Cheap: where they are and how to get them1310 - 1420 LUNCH1420 - 1510 (50) Open Forum – refreshments will be served! This is your chance to meet the committee, hear what we have been doing for the past year, have your say in the SIG’s affairs and raise issues of interest or concern. All are welcome, members and non-members alike.1530 - 1600 (30) CARBALLO CALERO – Computers: are they really a tool of motivation?1600 - 1630 COFFEE BREAK1630 - 1720 (50) EDMETT – On-line tasks in ELT

Peter WILLIAMSInteractive whiteboards – lessons learned and lesson taughtThis is the first time a talk on Interactive Whiteboards has been on the Computer SIG programme but as this is a use of technology that is becoming increasingly available it seems timely to hear how one Teaching Centre (The British Council in Kuala Lumpur) managed the transition to their use. Peter Williams is the Assistant Teaching Centre Manager (IT) at the BC in Kuala Lumpur.

Lucy BALDWINResources on the Cheap: where they are and how to get themAlways popular on the SIG programme is a session on the best websites for good quality, student-centred materials that our members can exploit as soon as they get back to work. This workshop promises a chance to discuss issues such as motivation and access to resources as well as a ‘whistle stop tour of the best ESL sites on the Web’. These sites cover a wide range of areas: listening and pronunciation; lexical and grammatical reference; corpora, collocation samplers and concordances; grammar, lexical and skills exercises; authentic texts and lesson plans and ideas. The session will also explore ‘ways in which the Internet can replace the teacher’ with many practical ideas for student-centred lessons. Lucy Baldwin works at CES Embassy in Brighton, UK.

Maria Victoria Fernández CARBALLO CALEROComputers: are they really a tool of motivation?To balance out what might otherwise seem as a blind love affair with computers and technology afflicting the Computer SIG, this talk discusses a real course where computers were used, investigating particularly whether the initial flush of enthusiasm could be sustained throughout the whole programme, and if not why not. The influence of individual differences which affect attitudes to CALL will be discussed. Maria Victoria Fernández Carballo Calero works at the Universidad de Vigo, Spain.

Adam EDMETTE-tivities: On-line tasks in ELTThis talk will look at a particular framework for web-related work, Salmon’s five stage model for on-line learning as outlined in ‘E-tivities’ published by Kogan press in 2002. The presenter will describe a project where ‘e-tivities’ were used, illustrating how the framework can be applied in an EFL context by showing students’ work which resulted from tasks undertaken during the project. Although focusing on a practical example the presenter will discuss the theoretical context, i.e. current on-line pedagogy in education and its relation to language pedagogy, thus rounding off the day with plenty to discuss and reflect on. Adam Edmett works for the British Council in Bratislava, Slovakia.


[ Playing at ] Cowboys& Indians

Gavin Dudeney, Spain

Gavin Dudeney is Project Director for the online training and development consultancy The Consultants-E (www.theconsultants-e.com). Author of the CUP title The Internet and The Language Classroom, he is webmaster for the IATEFL TTEdSIG and IATEFL PAL sites and editor of the Computer SIG Newsletter. This article first appeared in the TTEdSIG newsletter.

Earlier last year I was fortunate enough and very privileged to be able to deliver a training course to

38 teachers in the Indian city of Bangalore. Organised by a prestigious teaching organisation, this was one of a set of four two-week training courses in four different Indian cities. My particular course, “Creative Use of Computers in the Language Classroom”, was run over two weeks – the time shared with a local trainer who is a leading light in the fi eld.

A Wing and a Prayer

Before I left for Bangalore I was given plenty of opportunity to exchange views with my co-trainer, and the organisers, and they even went so far as to send me example coursebooks from the various regions, samples which shocked me, intrigued me and left me sitting on a plane bound for Bangalore (via Frankfurt) wondering what on earth had induced

But, I reasoned, I am a professional… I am reasonably well-qualifi ed, relatively well-experienced and some (mainly my mother, it has to be said) consider me to be something of an expert in my fi eld. I was going to be alright, it was going to be fun, rewarding and everyone was going to be delighted with the outcome.

Fast forward then through the most amazingly intense two weeks of fantastically friendly, open and receptive people, delicious cuisine, excursions, theatre evenings, building a network, dead snakes, cigarette breaks in the yard, late-night excursions into town, the obligatory souvenir shopping, and join me at the other end of this incredible journey…

The course fi nished at 6 o’clock on a Tuesday evening and, due to prior work engagements, by midnight I was sitting in the airport waiting for my fl ight back to Barcelona, reading through the participants’ feedback and preparing to write the report I had to turn in. On a purely empirical level, I found out that the course had been successful within the parameters that we had set – the people who had not had the skills we hadset out to share felt that they had indeed acquired them.

Those who had come with no skills (including the participant whose shaking hand I had held over a mouse after he had explained he had seen a picture of a computer once in a magazine and was, understandably, a little nervous at encountering one ‘in the fl esh’, as it were) had left with something they felt they could share with their fellow teachers. Those who had had basic IT skills felt they had learnt to apply those skills within the language teaching context, and – albeit to a lesser extent – those who had been technically profi cient beforehand had, at the very least, been given the opportunity to delve deeper into the fi eld.

School, Dazed...

But as I sat in that bustling airport, reading the feedback from the participants, trying to collect my thoughts and impressions on what had happened over the previous 14 days, I was particularly struck by the following comment (note to self: never again leave a blank box on a feedback form asking for

ISSUES - CULTURAL...


‘general impressions…):

“Gavin has always remained cheerful despite all the obstacles in his path. He did try his best to make the course interesting but maybe if he had done a little more in-depth study into Southern India and the problem of languages faced here, he wouldn’t have found himself at a loss. Anyway, it isn’t his fault that half of the course people didn’t have the language and the other half didn’t know how to go about operating a computer.”

Now I haven’t had a school report in many, many years – though some of my friends and colleagues might claim that I often act the age to be getting them – but this sounded a little like the kind of report I used to receive as a youngster: the ‘could do better’ approach so favoured by teachers when I was growing up. But – I refl ected - in the case of those halcyon days, the goal was at least (as defi ned by my teachers) potentially attainable. Here, I felt, was an extremely valid evaluation of the course through the eyes of one of the participants – a paragraph of enormous signifi cance for future courses of this nature. Yet I felt powerless to change that perception, both during and after the course itself.

Guru Go Home

And I think that was as accurate a summation of the potential pitfalls of teacher training – and indeed training in technology – that I have ever seen. One which needs to be broken down into its component parts in order to be understood, evaluated and acted upon.

There are two issues I’d like to deal with here:

1) The Global / ‘Native’ Market

“...maybe if he had done a little more in-depth study into Southern India and the problem of languages faced here, he wouldn’t have found himself at a loss.”

So-called ‘native experts’ (such as we are) are seen as desirable commodities. There is an assumption that we know what’s best for people, that we know our professional fi eld inside out and that there is something unique that we can bring to the training arena. We are no more responsible for this attitude than the people who purvey it – but we often end up taking on the role of ‘social (or professional) cachet’ –

rather like having Kenneth Tynan in your local theatre appreciation club or something, an attraction…

What is not touched upon in this assumption (presumption?) is that the world – despite its reduced size in the global era – is still a varied and complicated place.

Since I started my life as a teacher trainer in the use of technology I have been fortunate enough to be able to hawk my experience around a lot of different countries, from Australia to Colombia, taking in England, France, Portugal, Poland, Brazil… but I have mainly been working in the private sector, with materials and approaches to teaching that have been extremely familiar to me. And as such, I pride myself in my depth of experience and my ability to convey that experience to other interested parties. But whilst I may be considered to be somewhat of an expert in the use of technology, I am very much not au fait with au fait with au faitthe varied situations of teachers around the world. I read literature from all walks of life and all countries, I subscribe to numerous mailing lists, read a wide collection of newspapers, magazines, etc., but this is merely skirting the edge of an extremely wide playing fi eld.

Alien Perceptions

What I found in India was alien to me – the language was the same, the overall goal was the same (and, by the way, the food was delicious and the hospitality second to none…) but the situations – and I’d like to focus very much on the plural there – of the participants were totally detached from anything I had seen before. An enquiring mind and an interest in what they were doing were not enough to overcome the obvious gap in our shared realities, and I ultimately did them a disservice.

I don’t necessarily consider this to be a shortcoming of mine. I talked to people before I went, I read through the coursebooks they sent me, and whilst I was there I made every effort to understand where they came from and how they worked. But trying to understand in 15 days what people have spent lifetimes trying to understand is a physical and mental impossibility. I was left with a defi nable set of variables: we all spoke the same language (to varying degrees), we all taught English, we had all - at some point - experienced coursebooks…

But the more my co-trainer dwelt upon “the tyranny of the content”, the more time I spent dealing with comments along the lines of “in my school we would


never be allowed to do that” and the more I examined the textbooks with their George Orwell reading text followed by three pages of literary analysis, the more I realised that trying to do a Suzanne Vega song class (complete with audio, video and attractive worksheets prepared using Internet content) was pointless. Pointless for the stress it caused me, and pointless because most of the participants felt that this was not what they needed – that what I was doing ultimately had very little bearing on what they had to do.

There is much talk these days of the battle between global and local resources – the potential for coursebooks and materials which address the local needs and interests of the people studying them. Whilst this debate is raging in materials design, it seems to be being less widely addressed in training. And although this particular course seemed perfectly conceived (a ‘native expert’ and a ‘local’ trainer) the reality of the situation showed that what is normal and acceptable in Barcelona - or indeed in a swanky cosmopolitan school in Chennai - is not necessarily relevant to the rural school teacher in a small village in the Punjab.

2) Trainee Selection

“... it isn’t his fault that half of the course people didn’t have the language and the other half didn’t know how to go about operating a computer.”

In my experience, 38 trainee teachers from Manchester or Barcelona could reasonably be expected to have shared knowledge, a similar level of English, have used similar course materials, etc., and to be approaching any training situation from a relatively common starting point.

IT + TT = No - No

The complications I usually encounter in my line of work are ones of technical profi ciency – any training group of six or more participants will inevitably include people who are very profi cient in IT terms and who are there for the pedagogical aspect of using technology, and a number (increasingly unusual) who have little experience of using computers and are there primarily for the technical knowledge they might be able to pick up.

To encounter a group such as the one we were training in India is to be presented with an almost impossible task, a never-ending compromise in which

the trainers struggle to keep the technically profi cient gainfully occupied whilst imparting the basic skills the newcomers need, and – in this particular case – trying to grade language so as to include the less profi cient speakers in the group without appearing to be talking like an idiot to the totally fl uent.

It was a challenge, I’m afraid to say, that neither of us was able to walk away from two weeks later secure in the knowledge that we had risen to it suffi ciently. What we managed to achieve, in my opinion, is an ‘unhappy medium’ in which we catered for the needs and to the abilities of the vast majority in the middle ground of the group, whilst leaving a few at either end wondering why they had attended and what – if anything – they had got from the course.

The conclusion here is just as obvious, but sometimes it’s worth re-stating things so that people remember them. If the 38 people had been divided into three groups, had some needs analysis and previous experience interviewing been done, and had there then been three separate courses, then perhaps it might have been a success (as long as I’d also had time to get to grips with the complicated education system as well...).

Perhaps I’m asking too much here, perhaps that was as good as it was ever going to get, but I’d like to believe differently.

Is That It?

Having said all this, the course in Bangalore was one of the most interesting, exhilarating, nerve-wracking and rewarding experiences that I have ever had. I’m reminded of a Monty Python sketch where one of the team is dead and is complaining that he didn’t really understand the whole life thing and consequently didn’t get as much out of it as he might have – and could he have another try, please? - and is told “Sorry, that’s your lot, you only get one go”.

My only hope is that I will one day get another go at this. I would love to go back to India (something I’m currently planning with my co-trainer from the original course) and have another go, armed with more time to plan, more local knowledge – and with a carefully selected and graded group of participants. I owe it to them, and I think I owe it to myself. Perhaps then I might stop thinking of myself as a ‘cowboy’ (in the derogatory British English sense, I hasten to add) and more as a carefully prepared professional.

And maybe after that I’ll tackle China… (any offers?)


SURRENDER VALUEA call on CALL - Why are you doing

what you are doing?Roger Hunt, Spain

Roger Hunt is Director of Education at International House Barcelona. He has worked in ELT for nearly 25 years and is currently reviews editor for the TTEd SIG Newsletter. He can be contacted at: [email protected]

I studied French at school. My teacher was called Mr Pope. One summer after the holiday I went

back to school and saw Mr Pope gleefully rubbing his hands together and there was a new glint in his bespectacled eye. He knew something I didn’t and he was waiting for me, along with the rest of the lower sixth, to infl ict it: he had technology - the language laboratory. He would, at last, win. We would, at last, learn. Victory was his. Or so he thought. However, in spite of the summer he had spent learning how to use the latest and greatest, we stubbornly retained a mule like ignorance of the French language.

We sat, we plugged in and put on earphones, we listened, we repeated, and we repeated again. Mr Pope listened, occasionally he would bark and a head would be seen wandering and wondering where his voice had come from (ever seen ‘Pigs in Space’?). But we didn’t learn French. We remained studiously monoglot. The technology (or was it

Mr Pope?) had failed. Certainly we had failed in appreciation of this technological wonder; we couldn’t see the point. The whole exercise was meaningless - we perceived no validity in it, it had no surrender value. In other words, we didn’t get anything out of it. It gave us nothing we felt we wanted or needed.

Many years later on a ‘Dip’ course (now Cambridge DELTA) I gave an essay title to the candidates that suggested that language laboratories were lying around gathering dust - the great experiment had failed. All candidates’ essays showed agreement with this statement and were, disappointingly for me, unanimous in the belief that the technology was a waste of time. Students needed teachers and other students to talk with if they were going to learn to speak another language. I thought of Mr Pope and his dreams gathering dust and had to concede some rhyme in their reason because the lab hadn’t worked for me either.

I have out-lived the laboratory, the banda machine (yes, we had one when I started in language teaching), the audio-visual, the audio-lingual, the OHP (can’t be bothered anymore), the video, cassette recorder and reel to reel. I wonder about the future of the photocopier (it seems assured, but....). And what about the mouse, the computer, the on-line course? More dinosaurs or here to stay? I currently work in Barcelona, scene of the recent demise of a number of computer based schools which just went west leaving (estimates have it) up to twelve thousand students bereft and returning to the good old traditional ‘conversation’ type classroom where they learn how to speak. Apart from mismanagement, it may be that these schools went west because what they offered didn’t match what the students wanted. No surrender value. Or, ‘No surrender!’ by the course providers? Call me a luddite but students seem to like being clustered in a classroom in ‘U’ shaped seating arrangements with a whiteboard and teacher up front. Even before the demise of the CALL centred schools I mention above, students were drifting back to tradition to ‘learn how to speak’. So, do they want your computer based learning, or is this something you have decided they need because it’s what you do, you like it, it’s your hobby, source of enjoyment, everyone needs it, the world can’t live without computers, it’s the best way, they don’t know what’s good for them, I’ve got twenty megabytes left, or what? What is your surrender value?your surrender value?your

ISSUES - WEIGHING UP TECHNOLOGY...

We sat, we plugged in and put on earphones, we


‘Surrender Value’ could be classed in two ways:

What’s in it for them? (the students / punters / learners / customers / clients)

What’s in it for me? (You)

The answer to the two questions above is quite simple really: it’s another question. Have you identifi ed a market that wants what you offer? If ‘Yes’, fantastic! If ‘No’, maybe you should? (Or change your product to fi t a market that wants it.)

Some of the questions the students might be asking themselves follow; you might fi nd it revealing to answer them for yourselves with regard to the product you offer. If you can’t answer them, maybe there is something your product lacks.

- Will this course help me speak?- How does it help me speak?- Will this course help me understand spoken English?- How does it help me understand when I listen?- Do I get a certifi cate which my job/ university/school will acknowledge?- Will this lead to points which increase my salary?- How is this (on-line) course better from the one at the local school?- How is this (on-line material) different from a course book?- Will I meet anyone new?- Will this course help me use English on the phone at work?- Will it help me give my presentation on our developments in hydraulics in Seattle next month?- Will it help me when I have to take those four Japanese businessmen out to dinner next week?- (Please add to this list)

The second of my questions above ‘What’s in it for me? (You)’ you can answer for yourself!

PS: I am not a luddite. I can’t even write a shopping list anymore without a computer. I am a teacher though, and I listen to my students.

I’d love to hear your answers...

[ if you’ve got something to say to Roger or anybody else who has written for this newsletter, please write to the editor who will be delighted to hear from you. ]

CONTRIBUTE - WRITE NOW!

The IATEFL Computer SIG CALL Review is published three times a year - in Spring, Summer and Autumn. Contributions concerning any aspect of technology in ELT should be sent to the editor at the following address:

[email protected]

Please send contributions in any popular word processor format, including your biodata, a photo and any illustrations, along with a short abstract for the SIG website.

All submissions will be ackowledged and you will be given a definite publication date (where appropriate) by return of mail.

THIS NEWSLETTER NEEDS YOU

About CALL Review

The CALL Review is only available to members of IATEFL who have chosen to belong to the Computer Special Interest Group.

For details on how to join IATEFL, please see the back cover of this issue.


The Internet & Business EnglishBarney Barrett and Pete Sharma

Summertown Publishing, 2003 - ISBN 1902741773

Graham Stanley, Spain

Graham Stanley is the coordinator of English for Tourism at Turismo Sant Ignasi ESADE (Universitat de Ramon Llull), and a teacher at the British Council in Barcelona. He is currently fi nishing the dissertation for his M.Ed. in ELT & Educational Technology (University of Manchester, UK). He can be contacted at [email protected].

Five years ago, the phrase that “technology will not replace teachers…but teachers who use

technology will probably replace those who do not” technology will probably replace those who do not” technology will probably replace those who do not(Ray Clifford, Provost of the Defense Language Institute, Monterey, California) became popular among educators promoting the use of the Internet in EFL. It has also been over fi ve years since the fi rst ESL/EFL Internet book (‘Dave Sperling’s Internet Guide’, Prentice Hall 1997) was published.

Much has changed since Dave Sperling was a welcome pioneer, back in the days when few teachers had even heard of the Internet let alone used it with their students. Now it seems like every teacher is Internet-savvy. The impact of the Internet on our profession cannot be understated. We all check our e-mails, surf and use downloaded web materials in class. Some of us even teach online, have our own web-sites, involve students in online chats or keep professional development weblogs. You might think that there no longer a need for an introductory guide to the Internet. Or so it may seem to members of this SIG. Use of the Internet among most EFL teachers is still superfi cial, however, and many are still too daunted by the technology to make full use of it. Books like ‘The Internet and Business English’ go a long way to coaxing these teachers online.

‘The Internet and Business English’ is the fi rst guide ‘The Internet and Business English’ is the fi rst guide ‘The Internet and Business English’to appear aimed at Business English teachers, and perhaps the fi rst to focus on any specialist area of ESL/EFL. I welcome the day when there are more.

Is it too far-fetched to expect to see books of the type ‘Role-playing in the chat room with Young Learners’ or even ‘Student Writing with Weblogs – the DOGME approach’? Probably, but we are bound to see more specialist guides in the future.

The book is clearly written and well-designed, with a good balance between text and photographs. It is divided into three sections (an overview of the Internet, Practical Ideas, Reference) which make it useful both as a practical classroom recipe book and a place to go to look up terms and look for links. All of which make it an attractive guide for any Business English teaching centre’s resources shelf.

There is only one problem with a book like this. Checking the Business English links section in Dave Sperling’s book, for example reveals much about the nature of the dynamic beast that is the Internet: Of the 9 suggested URLs, only 2 are still available online. An obligatory solution is to provide a companion website, and this is what the authors have done here too, providing extra material and downloadable PDFs of some of the material in the book. As a business English teacher myself, and one who has been using the Internet with Business English classes for years, I still found a lot to be interested in. All-in-all, a very welcome resource book.

REVIEW - BOOKS...


COMPETITION... COMPETITION... COMPETITION...

Those nice people at Summertown Publishing have donated three cop-ies of another of their publications as prizes for this issue’s competition.

Technical English - Vocabulary and Grammar - Technical English - Vocabulary and Grammar - Technical English - Vocabulary and GrammarNick Brieger and Alison Pohl (ISBN: 1902741765) is a reference and practice book for learn-ers of technical English at intermediate level and above. According to the website, the book:

Increases knowledge of technical vocabulary & grammar, with 30 units covering key technical vocabulary drawn from: professional activities – health and safety, production and quality & company profi les – automotive, pharmaceutical, mining and telecoms.

20 units review core grammar in technical contexts1,500 key technical terms glossaryIdeal for classroom and/or self-study use

IATEFL Special Interest Groups SymposiumSpecial Interests, International Perspectives10 - 12 September 2004, Bielefeld Germany

Forms can be downloaded from the website on the SIG page (Special Interest Groups) Contact generalenquiries@iatefl .org for more information

In order to win one of three copies of this book all you have to do is answer the following three questions and send them via email to the editor at: [email protected] no later than April 30th, 2004. The first three correct answers selected at random from the ones received will be sent a free copy of Technical English - Vocabulary and Grammar by Summertown Publishing.Technical English - Vocabulary and Grammar by Summertown Publishing.Technical English - Vocabulary and Grammar

COMPETITION QUESTIONS

1. Who is widely credited with ‘inventing’ the World Wide Web?

2. What are MyDoom, SoBig and Badtrans?

3. Which of these languages is Google available in: Catalan, Estonian, Klingon, Tamil?

deadline: April 30th, 2004


New Headway English Course - Interactive Practice CD-ROMTom Walton, Spain

Tom Walton has lived and worked in Barcelona since 1982, principally in English language teaching and technology.

Currently he is webmaster at International House Barcelona. He can be contacted at: [email protected]

I should declare at the outset that, having had to use it in the classroom for a number of years, I am not a great fan of Headway, to say the very least. It always struck me as being

thorough, but dull, and it always seemed a choice between not doing the book at all, and coming up with something a little more “interactive”, or of everyone first doing three exercises on the present perfect vs the present perfect continuous, whether they “knew” it or not, followed by a killer four on the different uses of “going to”, followed by… Er, anyone still awake? Maybe it was that, if I had been the learner, it just wouldn’t have suited my learning style.

That said, Headway has always enjoyed a plethora of solid supplementary materials, added to which are now two interactive practice CD-ROMs, for the first two levels in the series, which link to the 14 units of the Student’s Books and Workbook and are designed to provide further practice and revision, for self-study either at home or in a school’s resource centre.

Getting StartedSet-up is pleasingly straightforward, non-existent in fact, particularly if Autorun is enabled on your computer. It is worth taking a quick look through the rather brief guide to be found in the case before starting, as otherwise any form of introduction is sadly lacking: from the first screen you are prompted to start selecting exercises, rather than easing in with a welcome or a guided tour, which would perhaps have been useful to the learner.

There is a case to be made for allowing the learner to be able to use the material as they wish, but some sort of guide, some suggestions as to how to use it would have been nice. Do you pick the listening option first, before doing the exercise, for example…? Why…? And in which particular exercises might that be useful/advisable…?

ContentsEach CD-ROM contains 84 interactive tasks (exercises, that is) that are linked to the material in the Student’s Book, and which provide practice in four areas, namely grammar, vocabulary, everyday English and Writing. There are fi ve different exercise types, matching, keying in, ordering (letters, words or longer phrases), “role-play” and “writing”.

Each of the exercises has a “check” option, which will tell you which questions you got right (though regrettably not why, or any other feedback); a “repeat” option, so that you can start the exercise again; and a “key”, which will display all of the answers. Most also have “listen”, “record” and “playback” buttons, with the reference and wordlist (dictionary) also readily available (see Figure 1).

It is possible to “personalise” the material, though in fact this only means the option to choose what order you do which exercises in. In effect what you have to do is to select which of the 84 exercises you want to do today, and these then display on a palette, referred to as the “task list”, so that to some extent it is possible for the learners to tailor what they do to their specifi c needs

SOFTWARE REVIEW...


Figure 1: the clean neat interface is one of the better features of the material

Figure 2: We’re going to practice “going to” and we’re going to use short forms…


The grammar exercises have you dragging and dropping and matching in the sort of standard exercise types that will be familiar to all. On occasions it distinctly recalls those four “going to” exercises.

Perhaps it’s just that the texts themselves are rather uninspired. Aren’t there just are so many more much more interesting texts out there in cyberspace that learners could be recommended to read?

Figure 3: In the beginning, there was Storyboard…

WritingThe “writing” exercises are all the old Storyboard-type, complete-the-text exercises which you do by entering words which then get added if in fact they are in the text (see Figure 3). There are pedagogical reasons why Storyboard was a good idea, one being that it requires you to really look and think about, and puzzle really look and think about, and puzzle reallyover, the text. But I would quibble over whether or not we could really describe this as being “writing”.

As with many of the other exercises, you can choose to listen to the text at any time, one of the better features of the material, I felt, though again the recommendation that in fact you should do this is perhaps missingshould do this is perhaps missingshould

Audio MaterialFor many of the exercises there is also audio material, with listening practice as well as record and playback facilities, so that the material also provides fairly extensive listening and pronunciation practice – though perhaps some real listening (and reading) comprehension tasks would have been better than merely being able to play the often random, uncontextualised phrases in an exercise.

Grammar Reference and WordlistFrom an always-visible menu a grammar reference section and interactive wordlist are available as support, which are thorough and a useful, if obviously fairly standard item on any CD-ROM of this nature.


Score RecordingThere is also a “score” available from the same menu, which gives you a rough idea of how much you have completed in each exercise. I say “rough idea” because in fact no matter how many times you call up help, your score remains unaltered and as much as anything your score is in fact really not much more than how much you have completed. If, no matter how many tries it takes, you eventually get it right, you score 100%. Now maybe for the sake of encouraging the learner that’s a good thing but, personally, I would have preferred something that really “tested” me and told me how well I was really doing.

Unfortunately, there is no built-in tracking system that will tell you which exercises you may have done on a previous occasion so that you cannot, for example, track progress over, say, a period of weeks. Likewise, your “score” is only today’s score.

Ease of Use and NavigationThe material is easy to use (so much so that it wasn’t, apparently, thought necessary to include a Help section!) and to navigate, with the clean, uncluttered and consistent interface being another of the material’s better features.

The program seems perfectly robust, the Macromedia technology it has been built with will give few running or incompatibility problems, though on a PC that only just came up to the minimum specifi cations (see below) I found that it was frustratingly slow, particularly in the writing exercises.

Fun Animation…?A “key feature” of the material is, according to the OUP website, the “attractive photos and illustrations, together with fun animation” which is supposed to “help to maintain student’s interest and motivation”. The photos are on the whole attractive, I agree, and the general design of the material is generally pleasing and easy on the eye.

However, I have my doubts about the “fun animation” bit. As someone who has two smallish children who like playing computer games, not to mention the odd hour (or ten) I waste myself playing “Age of Empires” and the like, I reckon I know a thing or two about what constitutes “fun animation”.

My idea of “fun animation” is not illustrating the phrase “Would you like some wine?” with a line drawing not illustrating the phrase “Would you like some wine?” with a line drawing notof a hand pouring wine into a glass, particular when the same hand pouring the same wine into the same glass then also illustrates the phrase “Would you like some coffee?” (now, would that be in the same glass?), not to mention the next two phrases as well. It’s not fun animation, and pedagogically it does not seem a very sound idea to illustrate language by an animation that does not match it.

Likewise the spaceshippy sort of sound you get when you drag exercises into your task list and the doorbell chime when you click on the unit list don’t seem the happiest of choices – and are certainly not my idea of a bundle of laughs. These sounds in fact only appeared on the pre-elementary level, but I assumed that this must (surely?) have been merely a problem with my version of the elementary level…

Would I Recommend This? On balance, if you are looking for something for technologically undemanding adults, to go on the shelf of your resource centre, this might be a reasonable choice which students will be able to use autonomously, without requiring an extensive tutorial to get them started. An alternative to it might be the fairly similar Macmillan Reward CD-ROM material, which is older, neither more nor less attractive visually, but which exists at four different levels, rather than the just two that OUP have so far produced for Headway1.

If a learner asked me to recommend something, I would be a little more reluctant. For a certain kind of learner, someone who likes methodically working through grammar and vocabulary exercises and, most importantly, someone who actually learns in that fashion, then it is probably learns in that fashion, then it is probably learns


perfect. In a class using Headway, it might also be useful to anyone needed to “catch up”.

But I am not sure that an exercise on CD-ROM is either necessary in order to discover that there is a difference in the meaning of the word “play” in the sentences “I play the piano” and “We’re going to see a play” – or is the best way of going about making that discovery, which would surely be to come across it in reading, preferably in reading authentic text.

Six out of ten, then, I’d say, as the material does what it sets out to do, achieving its rather limited objective of providing “further practice”. But is this really using new technology to its full potential? Is it being used for communication – and, more importantly, will it actually teach anyone to do that?

Technical RequirementsPC: Pentium II, 166 Mhz processor or above. Windows 95, 98, 2000 or NT4. 32 MB RAM. SVGA monitor (800 x 600 screen resolution with thousands of colours). Windows-compatible 24x CD-ROM drive. Microsoft mouse or compatible. Optional sound blaster card or compatible. Headphones. Microphone.

Macintosh: Apple Mac 8.6 or later. 166 Mhz processor or above. 32 MB RAM. 800 x 600 screen resolution with thousands of colours.

An online support line is available for any technical problems that might arise with the material.

PriceNew Headway Elementary Interactive Practice CD-ROM (ISBN 0194386805) - £13.00New Headway Pre-Intermediate Interactive Practice CD-ROM (ISBN 0194375692) - £13.00Packs of 10 are available for £75.00

Further InformationFurther information – including demo material – is available on the OUP ELT site athttp://www.oup.com/elt/global/isbn/3630/?view=get

1 OUP tell me that they are “more than likely” to produce further levels of the material but “probably not until 2005


Disclaimers... how wise!Suzie Tombs, Taiwan

Suzie Tombs began teaching English in 1992 in Taipei, Taiwan. Her background is in publishing and project management but before, during and after all that, she has taught in Vietnam, South Africa and Barcelona. She is currently teaching English and studying Chinese in Southern Taiwan and despite the details outlined in this article, wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, anywhere else right now.‘I’m so happy I’m not discussing curtains anymore with co-workers in an offi ce in London.’ She can be contacted at [email protected].

“TEFL Professional Network Ltd. makes no claims as to the validity or accuracy of employment information contained within any advertisement and it shall bear no responsibility for the outcome of any positions to which an individual might apply. Prior to accepting employment, Job-seekers are advised to fully research employers and request references where appropriate.”

How could I have been so stupid? What on earth was I thinking? Having taught English in

Barcelona for 18 months, I decided to return to Taiwan to get to grips with some outstanding fi nances. I’d taught English in Taiwan for 18 months from 1992-1994. Back then I was intrepid and fearless. I left the UK with 400 (pounds) and a one-way ticket. This time my priorities were different – I needed to start working, (and earning) as soon as possible.

I searched the internet to see what my options were. Various search engines listed hundreds of available jobs. The information and potential opportunities were overwhelming. I narrowed my search down to 2 or 3 of the more well-known sites.

www.tefl.comwww.tealit.comwww.daveseflcafe.com

The application process was all very convenient.

I entered my CV into the various databases and subsequently applied for several jobs. Over the next few days I got many requests and job offers. Telephone interviews followed and within 2 weeks I had accepted a job. The advertisement read:

“…teach English in remote mountain village, practise Tai Chi, swim and cycle among the tea fi elds and canals”. I signed the contract and faxed it back to the school. The deal was done.

Of course, this route is a risky one. There can be no way of knowing what you are heading out to, which obviously works both ways. At the time however, the pros: the school organizing accommodation for me; the job – ready to start 4 days after arriving; ability to start earning immediately, outweighed the cons: debts; teaching in beautiful Barcelona which is unfortunately saturated with teachers, therefore forcing the hourly rate down so low it’s diffi cult to get a good contract.

Three weeks later, I arrived in Taiwan on the tail end of a typhoon and was met at the airport by the 2 owners of the school. We drove for over an hour into the night, through gales and lashing rain. Finally, we stopped outside a large apartment block. In the darkness we took the lift to my new home on the 6th fl oor, turned on the fl uorescent lights which fl ickered to reveal a large empty apartment, and 10 or so large cockroaches scurrying around on the white tiled fl oor. There were many more. It took a week of frantic toxic spraying, chasing and squashing to make the place habitable.

During that time I discovered that there were indeed mountains, quite beautiful at that, but a long way off. For the future, always read between the lines, in reality, “rural mountain village” may mean “high security military zone next to a nuclear power research center, miles from anywhere”.

I had made a hasty decision. I’d tried to avoid the usual 2-3 months it takes setting up in a new country.

I worked 2 miserable weeks at the school, each night returning to my apartment to spray, chase and squash and then stare at the walls in the bare apartment. I decided to leave and start again, this time on my terms.

Accepting a job before arriving in Taiwan will almost certainly be a bad deal. Although the initial benefi ts are

CAREERS - GETTING A JOB ONLINE...


enticing, for example, return airfare paid on completion of the contract, bonuses etc, there are lots of “hidden extras”! The hourly pay is much lower than the going rate, there are often hours of unpaid paper work and extra curricular activities, and many contracts include a clause which “fi nes” the teacher should they break the contract prematurely. My contract stated the fi ne to be one month’s salary. Some schools withhold a percentage of the salary each month as a guarantee.In a twist of irony, I turned back to the internet to fi nd a solution. www.tealit.com (Teaching English and Living in Taiwan) has an excellent resource of legal, tax and visa information. For the naive new comer, signing a contract before arriving in a new country can be a minefi eld. If you think the job sounds dubious, cut and paste the following url to anyone who contacts you with a job offer:

http://www.tealit.com/q&a.htm

It asks the questions clearly in English and Chinese. Then, you can decide. Or, negotiate. This is just a selection of the questions raised:1. Are you an agent for a school?

2. If so, are you an independent person acting as an agent to different schools; a company incorporated as an agency; a busiban which also contracts out as an agent; a language institute which acts as an agent?

3. Are you getting a fee for introducing me to this job?If I sign with the school, are you willing to share part of the fee with me?

4. Before I agree to work at the school I need to see a complete list of the rules and obligations that the school has for foreign personnel. Can you provide me with this?

5. Will the school take a deposit? How much is it? Is it negotiable? Do you understand that a deposit will make it very hard for me to agree to work at the school?

6. During my contract, will I receive my pay from the school or from you?

7. How much will I be paid every month?

8. As a result of my accepting the job are you getting paid every month by the school? If so, how much?

9. How much will I be paid every hour?

10. As a result of my accepting the job are you getting paid every hour by the school? If so, how much?

11. How long have you been in business?

However, if you have done as I did and are now in Taiwan and want to quit your job, here are some guidelines:

1. Do not tell your employer that you are unhappy, this will cause “face” to be lost and create many more problems.

2. Contact the Foreign Workers’ Centre in your area. All centers are listed on www.tealit.comThey advised me to “tell a white lie” and leave. I

did.

The timing of the gods was quite amazing. At 10pm after work, in the middle of a typhoon, lashing rain, wind and soon to be fl oods, I headed for the bus station with all my possessions. Once there, I discovered there was a train strike and a public holiday the next day resulting in all buses being full, but eventually I got a seat and headed south.

Alden Su, a licensed Taiwanese Labour Attorney, writes for tealit. ([email protected]). From him I learned, that as stated in the Labour Standards Act, it is illegal for a school to collect a deposit, fi ne or withhold any money from its employees. You are also entitled to a free Arbitration hearing, which he told me, “is an effi cient means to resolve issues of illegitimate wage garnishing”.

Any employer who violates this act, risks a large fi ne and possible criminal prosecution. In 80-90% of hearings, the employee wins. Don’t be bullied into paying up or losing out. I have since met several teachers who did not know about this and therefore quit their jobs and paid the fi ne.

www.tealit.com has many documents you can download, in English and Chinese, that if presented to your employer, could help you negotiate a better outcome. There is also information available on how to get back any money withheld or owed to you.

Taiwan is a great place to live and teach English, but there are risks. To avoid a potential legal saga or midnight run, do as I didn’t…read the small print and do your homework.


Teachers, meet the PhraselatorLindsay Clandfi eld, Spain

Lindsay Clandfi eld looks at how you can use the latest, cutting edge military technology in your own classroom - and all you need is paper!

Lindsay Clandfi eld is a teacher and teacher trainer at Oxford TEFL in Barcelona. He is the editor of biTs, a magazine for elementary learners of English, and of the IATEFL Teacher Trainers SIG newsletter. He has written materials for Macmillan and Oxford University Press.This article fi rst appeared in iT´s Magazine, 2003

Have you ever had students who stubbornly insisted on looking every word up using

a bilingual dictionary? Many teachers have expressed particular annoyance at the handheld computer variety of translation device, which replaced dictionaries for some students (and were easier for them to hide). If this kind of thing got on youryour nerves, steel yourselves for the new your nerves, steel yourselves for the new yourgeneration of translation devices: the Phraselator.

The Phraselator is a hand-held phrase-based translation device, which literally “hears” a phrase in English and “speaks” it in another language (see the text on page x for more information). The Phraselator is currently only military technology, but is going into commercial production in 2003 and 2004. It is thought that one day people all over the world will be able to pick a Phraselator up at the airport on their way somewhere and get by without having to learn any languages at all!

Many teachers can scoff at computer translation programmes, because computers often translate whole expressions word for word and the result is bizarre, if not incomprehensible. The Phraselator is different in that it will do whole “chunks” of language. That is, it will hear a phrase and say the equivalent phrase in the target language. It is perhaps an improvement, but it is still essentially a portable phrasebook. Since its use in the battlefi elds of Afghanisatan and Iraq, its manufacturer VoxTec (a division

of Marine Acoustics Inc.) claims that the Phraselator has been effective in three areas: 1.) Giving specifi c information, 2) giving orders or directions, 3) asking questions with easily conveyed responses (see below for examples) . At the moment it also only works one-way, in that it takes English and translates into the target language. So it would be great for me when I want to explain a diffi cult pairwork activity in my learners’ L1, but wouldn’t help if my learner asked me a question about it afterwards. But the two-way Phraselator, VoxTec assured me, is on its way. My students and I could debate the merits of my activity through our Phraselators!

VoxTec do insist that the Phraselator is “not a replacement for learning conversational language, nor replacing linguists” and I also assume (hope) not a replacement for English teachers. There have been mixed reports on its effectiveness in Iraq. As James Meek, a reporter from the Guardian Weekly, wrote during the 2003 Iraq war : “If you want to tell someone to get out of a car slowly … (the Phraselator) is great. If you have to talk to farmers about intimate details of their lives, family, crops… and understand what they say back, it’s useless.”

So maybe students wouldn’t fi nd it that useful in English class after all and we will be spared the onerous task of confi scating all translation devices at the beginning of class. But what about a Phraselator for the teacher? Imagine having one hanging by your side, there just for emergencies in classroom management. VoxTec says that the Phraselator “was also developed with enhanced audio quality for use in a variety of environments”, and judging from its recent use, I imagine these to mean military environments. If this thing can hear my voice and be heard over the sound of gunfi re and bombs exploding, then I’m sure it could function in my class of junior teenagers! Can I get mine programmed with an intimidating, Terminator-like voice?

In the meantime, here are some things you can do with the Phraselator in class right now!

---------->

PRACTICAL TEACHING IDEA...


The Phraselator is a translation device that translates whole phrases in English into other languages. It is a verbal to verbal device. This means that it can hear and recognise a spoken English phrase and then say the translation for that phrase in a different language.

To use the Phraselator, you have to speak your phrase into the microphone. Out of the speaker you “hear” the phrase spoken in another language. At the moment, it translates from English into other languages, but soon there will be phraselators that can translate from English into another language and from that language back into English.

The Phraselator can be “loaded” with different mini discs for different situations. For example, if you were at a hospital, you could put in your “Hospital Card” and have all the phrases ready for that situation. The Phraselator can show you a list of what phrases are available on its computer screen.

The Phraselator was designed by a company called VoxTec for the United States Department of Defense. It was fi rst used in Afghanistan. There were more than 400 phraselators used by American military personnel during the Iraq war in 2003.

Here are some of the phrases from the phraselators that were used in Iraq.

“Stay calm”“Medical help is on the way.”“Are you thirsty?”“Take a deep breath in and out.”“Do you know where the weapons are stored?”“Drop the knife”“Everyone stop talking.”“Can you point to this location on the map?”“Kneel down.”“Do not enter this area.”

Six Things to do With a Phraselator

1 Read about the Phraselator

First you can use the text and picture on this page as a reading comprehension test. Ask learners to read the text quickly and then turn it over. They then tell each other everything they remember about the Phraselator. Then ask them to match the following question headings to the paragraphs (note: these appear in the same order as in the reading, so mix them up before you ask your learners!):

What is it?How does it work?How much does it know?Who uses the Phraselator?What are some examples of its use?

For higher levels you could rewrite the above questions so that they express the same idea, but perhaps a little more ambiguously.

2 Someone dropped the Phraselator

Tell the learners that you have a cheap Phraselator at home, but that someone dropped it! Now all the phrases in English are wrong, and so it can’t translate them that well. Provide learners with a set of incorrect phrases (these could be of your own devising or from the coursebook). The learners must rewrite the phrases correctly


and help you “reprogramme” the Phraselator.

3 A teacher’s phraselator vs a learner’s phraselator

After reading about the Phraselator tell learners that they are being contracted to create two new phraselators: a teacher’s version and a learner’s version. Divide the class into groups and assign them each one of the versions. Tell them to generate as many useful phrases for that version as possible. Give learners a time limit for this. Then compare different groups’ lists for their Phraselator. Who has the best list of phrases?

Sample learner phrases:

What is the word for __?Can I go to the bathroom please?Can you write it on the board please?

Sample teacher phrases:

Everyone please sit down.Open your books to page xx. Work in pairs for this activity.

4 The Human Phraselator

Ask a learner to take the role of the Phraselator. Tell them something in English, which they must say in their language to the rest of the class. This of course works best with monolingual classes. After they get the hang of it, ask learners to work in small groups and nominate a Phraselator for each group. Can the learners beat the ‘human Phraselator’?

5 The Phraselator Reloaded

This idea is somewhat similar to number 2 above, but instead of restricting it to teacher phrases and learner phrases give different groups completely different situations. Explain that they must “reload” the Phraselator with phrases from a specifi c situation. Some sample situations could be: In a restaurant, At the airport, Talking to the police, In a hospital. Or ask learners to come with their own situations. Give a time limit and ask groups to generate as many functional phrases for that situation as they can.

6 The Many Uses of the Military Phraselator

After reading about the Phraselator, ask learners to look at the sample phrases quoted in the article. Under what circumstances would they hear those phrases? Brainstorm a few ideas. Then divide the class into small groups. Ask each group to choose one of the sample phrases and generate as many different possible contexts, or sets of circumstances, where they might hear that phrase.

For example, here is what the phrase “Take a deep breath in and out” might generate:

· A soldier asking if a companion is injured.· A doctor examining a patient.· Someone giving advice to a rock singer before he goes on stage.· A mother talking to her son, who is crying.· A language teacher trying to teach pronunciation.· A yoga teacher giving a class in meditation techniques.

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A Process Approach to Writing Using Word ProcessorsNik Peachey, Morocco

Nik has worked as an ELT Teacher, Teacher Trainer and ICT trainer for both British Council and International House in schools around the world. He is also a materials writer and has worked on a number of CD-ROM projects for British Council and Longman ELT and contributed both teaching and training materials to a number of websites including including: www.leanrenglish.org.uk, www.in2english.com.cn and www.globalvillage.org.uk.

Do you have students that take back their writing assignments, glance at the mark or your comments for a moment and then never look at it again?

I’ve often found it very diffi cult to get students motivated to develop their writing skills in class, especially when it comes to redrafting, improving their content and trying to correct their own mistakes. The most effective way that I’ve found to overcome this and really implement a ‘process’ approach to writing has been by using word processors.

Students are much more willing to rewrite, alter and redraft their work if it doesn’t involve the painful process of repeatedly rewriting it by hand. With a word processor they can easily make alterations and move things around without having to start from scratch again. It also makes it much easier form me to mark and comment on their work. I usually do this using the ‘comments’ feature in word. This can be found by going to ‘View’ on the menu bar and moving down to ‘ToolbarsToolbarsT ’ and then clicking on ‘Reviewing’. The tool bar you get should look something like this (MS Word 97).

Once your students have done the fi rst draft of their text you can then highlight particular words or sentences that you think need to be corrected or developed and then click on the fi rst icon on the left-hand side of the toolbar. This will open up a fi eld into which you can type your comments. When your students come back to their text they will see parts of it highlighted in yellow and when they place the cursor over the yellow area a window like the one below will pop up with your comments in.

NP: Try to add more description here. Use some adjectives.

This will help to guide and encourage them to develop their writing, as well as making it much easier and quicker for them to do without having to start from scratch. There are also other advantages of having written work in a digital form:

• Homework assignments can be emailed in to you and returned by email • Writing work that has been developed to a suffi ciently high standard can be easily cut and pasted into a

student website• The work can become part of their digital portfolio• You or your students can paste the texts into Clarity’s Author Plus and make them into interactive

multimedia activities that you can save and use with other classes or as revision.

Since I started using ICT with my students to develop their writing skills I’ve seen a real increase in their enthusiasm for writing and a real determination to get their work to a high standard. It’s also made life much easier for me, as I no longer have to try to fi nd room between the lines of their writing to try to squeeze my comments into.

PRACTICAL TEACHING IDEA...


An Approach to Lexis - Web-based Data-driven Learning at the School of Foreign Languages, Eastern Mediterranean UniversitySteve Neufeld is the Academic Coordinator of the Modern LanguagesDivision at the School of Foreign Languages, Eastern MediterraneanUniversity. He has taught EFL in the Czech Republic,Turkey and the Sultante of Oman.

Background

The School of Foreign Languages, Eastern Mediterranean University is comprised of the

Intensive English Division -IED, and the Modern Languages Division -MLD, and offers tuition to around 9,000 students across the university. The Intensive English Division offers intensive instruction in English for students preparing for university programs, whilst the Modern Languages Division offers service language courses to university faculties and schools. Other foreign language electives are also offered.

The School has recently embarked on a structured approach to lexis. The ‘vision’ is to develop an institution-wide syllabus to encourage students to learn the ‘2,000’ most commonly used words in English and extend this to include the ‘570’ most commonly used academic words (AWL). Ultimately, this could be extended further on a faculty-by-faculty basis to add vocabulary specifi c to each discipline. This approach is based on considerable research by professional linguists in this fi eld, from West’s original 2,000 word General Service List (GSL) of 19531, up to exciting new developments in on-line corpora and freely available web-based tools. The research confi rms that students who have this basic lexical competence of the 2,000 GSL can understand 80% of the words in any written text, and competence in the additional 570 AWL words2

increases this to 90% coverage of words in almost any academic text. Paul Nation3 suggests that for academic texts to be fully accessible to a student, they do need to reach a 95% threshold, but this remaining set of lexis is largely discipline-specifi c.

ProblemIt is clear from the research of pioneers like Tom Cobb4, that a conventional EFL curriculum will only cover 500 to 600 words in the target lexis within a one-year intensive programme. Cobb’s research in particular illustrates the weakness in traditional course books, with the Headway series cited as a particularly poor choice in terms of the essential lexis students need. However, with a structured approach to lexis our expectation is that students will be able to cover to a certain extent up to 80% of the most common words within a one-year intensive preparatory programme, with 20 contact hours a week. Due to the density of the syllabi, developing more competence in the newly learned vocabulary as well as learning the remaining 20% must be done by students, on their own. There are several possible ways this could be encouraged, obviously through self-access materials and extensive reading programmes, as well as on-line activities.

The foundation steps in such a programme obviously begin with very structured vocabulary work and awareness of the key lexis through worksheets and in-class activities. However, the main way to get students over the threshold of the fi rst 1,000 words is to get them to actively use a monolingual dictionary and begin a fairly intensive reading programme in which other tools, such as concordances and vocabulary profi lers, are used to explore semantics, collocations, connotations, etc. which are all involved in ‘knowing’ a word. At the SFL a comprehensive pack of worksheets for the intensive preparatory programme covers approximately 1,800 of the GSL. This has been supplemented by the choice of the Longman WordWise dictionary which basically supports the concept of a set of the most commonly used words by highlighting the key headword entries. Such an approach needs to be complemented by a system that students can employ for learning vocabulary, such as Will Mcculoch’s WordSurfi ng5 approach.

However, at most we can expect students to enter the degree programme with a basic lexical competence in the 2,000 most commonly used words. Academic texts will still be inaccessible on this basis as they also need to know the 570 academic words to approach the 90% threshold. Even this still needs to be augmented by knowledge of discipline-specifi c vocabulary to reach the ultimate target of 95%

PROJECT REPORT...


coverage of words in any academic text in their fi eld.

Students in the SFL Modern Languages Division on average receive four hours of English language instruction a week in a 16-week semester. during both semesters in the freshmen year.. At this level, the students need to see the AWL words more frequently in appropriate reading texts, with specifi c activities to achieve minimum competence in terms of a lexical approach and data-driven learning principles. They also need to be given adequate coverage and practice of the bulk of the 570 AWL words that they need. Given the limited time available in class, the one obvious solution is to provide such a structured approach to lexis in an online environment.

PILOTThe SFL is currently piloting a corpus-based lexical approach with freshmen students in the engineering faculty. The online course6 has been designed with interactive activities and feedback mechanisms which facilitate independent study and require little direct involvement of teachers. The course is also available offl ine to students on CDROM, as our Internet backbone is quite weak, and not all students have access at home. It covers a subset of 190 words from the AWL (one third of the total), building cumulatively through a progression including recycling of not only the AWL words, but also the more frequently occurring K2 (second thousand) of the GSL. The corpus is based on 14 authentic texts chosen according to an engineering theme, but for the purpose of the pilot only two were chosen. Students were given a pre-test before doing the online activities, and will be tested after to determine what impact the approach has had. Each reading introduces approximately 25 new AWL words, as well as recycling targeted K2 words. In order to manage the target lexis, a ‘lexis matrix’ was developed in Excel to analyse the texts and track the commonly used AWL and K2 words. The aim is also to expose students to texts that contain not only the target AWL, but also additional vocabulary specifi c to their discipline. In the future, we plan to build our corpora based on the actual textbooks and readings used in the subject-matter courses.

The activities have all been generated by computer software directly from the texts, so no proof reading is required. This also means that virtually any teacher, with a minimum of training in the software to process the texts, can develop a standardized interactive corpus-based lexis ‘package’ within a relatively short period of time. However, teacher-training remains an issue, as many teachers are not familiar

or comfortable with such an approach to lexis.

This approach is something that would have been unthinkable even two years ago. The software, online corpora and freely available programs at sites like the Compleat Lexical Tutor have only recently appeared on the Internet. Thanks to the contributions and research of key individuals in this fi eld in the last decade, a whole new world of opportunity is available for all teachers and students to explore.

GET MORE...There’s more to the IATEFL Computer SIG than just the newsletter. We have our own website and an active Yahoo Group

You can visit the website at: http://www.paddocks64.freeserve.co.uk/CompSIG2/callsig.htm

To join the mailing list, visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IATEFLComputerSig/or send email to the following address: [email protected]

1 Lists are available on the Internet. One comprehensive source is the Compleat Lexical Tutor website created by Tom Cobb at http://132.208.224.131/2 The Academic Word List was developed at the School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and details can be found at http://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/div1/awl/awlinfo.html3 The best place to get an overview of Paul Nation’s contribution to this field is at his web page at http:/ / w w w . v u w . a c . n z / l a l s / s t a f f / p a u l _ n a t i o n /4 Tom Cobb has published numerous articles in this field, links to which can be found at his web page at http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/cv/5 See the WordSurfing website at http://www.wordsurfing.co.uk/6 The pilot course is available on the Internet at http://eps.emu.edu.tr/lexis/awl_courses/engineering_01


Let’s Talk About Tri-PointsRolf Palmberg

Rolf Palmberg works at the Department of Teacher Education at Åbo Akademi University where he teaches (E)FL methodology. He has given lectures, seminars and workshops at international conferences and numerous in-service courses on CALL and ICT for foreign-language teachers in Finland.

Suggestions for an Internet-based EFL lesson

Pre-computer workAsk the students if they know what a tripoint is. For the benefi t of those students who are unfamiliar with the concept, you could:

- use other current terms such as three-state-border or the Latin-based trifi nium - explain that a tripoint is the place where the borders of three neighbouring countries meet - use the translational equivalent in the students’ mother tongue, e.g. dreiländereck (German), drielandenpunt (Dutch), trijonction (French), or trifi nio (Italian, Spanish).

A tripoint in Andorra

Divide the students into groups of three or four and give each group a large-scale map of Europe. Ask the students to study the map in order to fi nd answers to the following questions about international tripoints in Europe:

- How many international tripoints are there in Europe? - Which is the westernmost tripoint? - Which countries have no tripoints? - Which country has the largest number of tripoints, and how many are the tripoints? - Andorra has two international tripoints, both with France and Spain. How many other triplets of countries (like Andorra-France-Spain) can you fi nd that have such double tripoints, and which are they?

Next, divide the students into new groups of three or four and ask them to compare each other’s answers.

Computer workTell the students to remain in their new groups and then ask each group to decide on their favourite dry tripoint (a tripoint that is on solid ground). Ask them to take into consideration criteria such as the tripoint area in general

PRACTICAL TEACHING IDEAS...


and the design of the actual tripoint monument. Remind them to give reasons for their choice of tripoint.

[Two very informative sites for this purpose are European tripoints and Jesper Nielsen’s Borderbase.]Next, ask the students to decide on their favourite wet tripoint (a tripoint that is in a river or a lake) using criteria of their own choice. Again, remind them to give reasons for their choice of tripoint.

Next, ask them to plan a trip from their favourite dry tripoint to their favourite wet tripoint. The trip must also include three other tripoints of their choice, irrespectively of whether the additional tripoints make the planned route longer or not. The plans must include detailed information about their starting point, mode(s) of transportation, border crossings, points of interest en route, resting places, and of course, their destination. As before, ask them to make notes of their decisions. [For a zoomable map, see e.g. Mapquest.]

Post-computer workRepeat the English names for the European countries and their adjectives (you may have to remind the students that some countries have different words for the actual adjective, for a person from that country, and for the country’s language).

Next, ask the students to prepare and present orally in class (using transparencies to clarify their presentations) their respective routes. Remind them to make realistic timetables (allowing time for travelling, tripoint sightseeing, eating and sleeping) and to make ample use of country names and adjectives relating to the countries in question. Allow time for questions after each presentation.

Finally, challenge the students to test their knowledge about European tripoints using The Tripoint Guru (a free, downloadable computer program which will work with all versions of Windows).

LinksEuropean tripoints: http://www.vasa.abo.fi /users/rpalmber/borders3.htmBorderbase: http://www.nicolette.dk/borderbase/index.phpMapquest: http://www.mapquest.comThe Tripoint Guru: http://www.vasa.abo.fi /users/rpalmber/tripoint.exe

QUICK TIPS - KEYBOARD SHORTCUTSChris Sion, Netherlands

Chris Sion has taught English as a Foreign Language and been involved in teacher training since 1973. He has worked in several countries in Europe and has held posts in private language schools, universities and in industry. In addition to numerous articles in teaching journals, his publications include “Recipes for Tired Teachers” (Alta Book Center Publishers),“Creating Conversation in Class” and “Talking Business in Class” (Delta), and “Talking to Yourself in English” (Training Etcetera). Chris is married, has two children, and lives in the Netherlands, very near the German and Belgian borders.

It’s never too late to learn something new - so here are a few quick keyboard shortcuts from Chris (they should work in all Microsoft products and a lot of other Windows-based programs too...). All you need to do is hold down the Ctrl key and then the key for the shortcut - e.g. Ctrl + N = New Document:

N = New Document O = Open Document S = Save DocumentW = Close Document P = Print Document A = Select AllX = Cut C = Copy P = PasteB = Bold I = Italic U = UnderlineF = Find G = Go to H = Find & ReplaceZ = Undo Typing Y = Repeat Typing 1 = Single Spacing2 = Double Spacing D = Font Options L = LeftE = Centre R = Right


Constructing Agreement & Disagreement in an Electronic Discussion ForumCaroline Mei Lin Ho, Singapore

Caroline Mei Lin Ho lectures with the English Language and Literature Academic Group, National Institute of Education, Singapore. She specialises in EL teaching methodology. Her doctorate in Applied English Linguistics from the University of Birmingham (UK) was in the area of electronic discourse analysis. Her research interests include computer-mediated communication and integrating ICT in EL teaching and learning. She can be contacted at : [email protected]

This article focuses on how participants in an electronic discussion forum (EDF) for young people in Singapore engage with each other asynchronously. Of specific interest is the nature of computer-mediated agreement and

disagreement within an online environment. Through an analysis of electronic message content, specific discourse features and strategies are identified which shape the dynamics and levels of electronic argumentation, and pedagogical implications considered for the classroom practitioner.

The Electronic Discussion Forum The study drew on messages from an EDF, `Young Voices’, set up by a Singapore Internet Service Provider for young people to voice their thoughts and experiences. Messages were selected based on the following criteria:

• threads which attract a minimum number of five messages,• messages of topical interest and currency to participants at the time of the study - specifically,

issues of general interest to Singaporeans and those which appeal to young people.

The different threads from where the unedited 370 messages were drawn are as follows:

• Concerns of young people• Current and topical issues at the time of the study • Singapore-specific issues• Electronic discussion issues.

The participants are largely in Singapore, aged between 13 and 20 years for whom English is the main medium of instruction in school.

Response Types in the ForumA message which responds to another message in the EDF essentially fills the `gap’ created by an initiation. Broadly defined roles are discernible from the data (see figure 1, below). Messages which offer a response can be broadly categorised as those which `agree’ and those which `disagree’. Participants may also remain neutral to the issues at hand or provide information elicited.

Agreement A message which reacts positively offers agreement and supports a position taken (Baym, 1996:325). Participants’ stance on a topic is aligned with previous views presented (Herring, 1996).

Unconditional AgreementMessages of unconditional agreement offer unqualified positions on issues

(1) Now I see your point. It’s quite true that making friends on the net is harmless.(2) That’s a very good point you bring up. Maybe because, if you were to read all the “looking for a friend” messages, some of them do give an intro. From this brief intro, someone can decide whether to e-mail this person or not.

RESEARCH - DISCUSSION FORUMS...


Figure 1: Response types and their realisations in the electronic discussion forum

Messages which offer positive evaluation can further be categorised into those which justify the position taken (`supports’) by providing further elaboration, detailed information and/or underlying reasons or evidence, and those which indicate general agreement on issues raised without elaborating on the underlying reasons or providing substantiating evidence to support one’s stand (`affi rms’):

Supports(3) I agree with you. Raffl esians are always faced with criticism that they are snobs, always showing off…I think it is all what people think and spread around…just becoz (because) raffl es happens to be a name that is always at the top, they think that they MUST be snobs. Actually, it is only a few black sheeps spoiling the reputation of the schools

Affirms(4) I felt the same too.

Hedged AgreementHedged agreement provides qualifi ed agreement in displaying features which temper a position taken through `stance qualifi ers’(Goffman,1981) which mitigate the force of a statement or position taken and decrease the extent to which the participant can be held accountable for the message content (italicized):

(5) This is only my opinion but I believe some guys like taller girls because they have longer legs.

By qualifying participants’ position, the softening effect from hedged agreements, in effect, strengthens their position rather than weakens it. This is a strategic device for participants to deliberately wield infl uence over others in the EDF and in manipulating the desired effect aimed at.

DisagreementA message which expresses disagreement offers a position which is `incompatible with prior messages’ (Baym, 1996:


325). The stance taken is opposed to and in confl ict with earlier views presented.

(6) Friend, I’m not a Raffl esian, neither am I speaking up for anyone. But, to be fair, I disagree (v) with the points you raised because the reasons given don’t sound at all valid.(7) I think that it is very unfair (adj) of you to say whatever you have said, sir alfred. Don’t you think that you think too highly of yourself?

Varying degrees of disagreement are evident:

Intensified Disagreement An extreme form of disagreement intensifi es or heightens the impact of specifi c points of disagreement on participants. This may take the form of deliberate attempts at mockery and insults, aimed at offending the addressee(s) to whom the message is directed:

(8) I don’t give a hoot how hip u (you)think u are, or how many languages u can speak.u want to make a statement across singapore? Go to the president himself and go explain to him about the differences in the wannabes and the real ones. Go ahead, go tell him.i’m oh sooooo (so) sure he will understand… No. btw (by the way), please don’t speak like u are a very cultured person, u look more like a good girl wannabe. U just make me want to laugh out loud.

A deliberate attempt at ridiculing and belittling the other participant is evident in the sarcasm of the emphatic ì’m oh sooooo sure he will understand…’ and the appeal to `please don’t speak like u are a very cultured person, u look more like a good girl wannabe. U just make me want to laugh out loud’.

Justified DisagreementJustifi ed disagreement provides reasons or examples in support of an opposing stand:

(9) Bengs and lians should be treated equally and if possible, with extra privileges. They help the Singapore economy buy buying branded stuff, help to solve the trouble the police has to go through by juz (just) even writing statements and help them to get rid of other gangs, thus making the number of gangs the police has to raid lower. They have foreigners a good impression of the unique sense of fashion and style here in Singapore.

Hedged DisagreementHedged disagreement features concession which is prefaced by partial agreements (italicised) before being followed by a discourse marker (`but’). A `temporal shift’ (Baym, 1996:335) is evident in the thinking of contributors from the initial show of support (`yes I agree’) for a point in the fi rst part of the message (`Bengs’ and `Lians’ causing trouble) to the contrasting perspective offered in the rest of the message (individuals’ personal make-up justifying the way they are:

(10) yes I agree that bengs and lians* do cause troubles but do anyone ever really fi nd out y(why) they would do such a thing?? Every one has a reason in doing things and maybe they should try to help them instead of condemning them....every one has their own decisions and u (you) are wat (what) u (you) r (are)and where u (you) are becoz (because) of a decision made...

(*`Lians’ and ‘Bengs’: Àh Beng’ - A Chinese male with little dress sense; wears clothes which do not coordinate in terms of colour and style. Often applies to those who are Chinese-educated, and may also refer to those with unrefi ned speech and mannerisms. The female version is Àh Lian’.)

Indirect DisagreementRhetorical questions realise an indirect form of disagreement aimed at eliciting a specifi c response from participants. The questions (italicised) provoke participants into adopting a particular line of thinking and manipulate participants’ perspectives on issues:

(11) I hate exams. I like learning a lot but I hate it when we get so much stress and pressure in Singapore. Why can’t teachers and principals just shut up about results. Why can’t we just enjoy studying? Studying is not just about exams. It is about


learning and having fun!!!

Neutral StanceMessages with a neutral stance neither strongly support nor oppose a stand. Participants take into account varied perspectives on an issue and refrain from taking an absolutist position with the `neutralising’ effect in italics:

(12) As my title suggests, I do not fi nd that this is an appropriate topic to debate on, as one cannot generalise on certain things. It is up to each and everyone of us to determine if we’re inferior or on the other hand, superior, to the opposite sex.

InformsMessages which `inform’ supply information (facts, advice to solutions) elicited in initiating messages and offer a non-critical expression of views. The following responds to a question on the right way to approach the opposite sex:

(13) Well, it’s just like the chicken & the egg thing. Does it matter who makes the move? More importantly, it’s the ̀ getting to know you’ that’s really important. Make friends & you’ll soon know if the cute hunk of a fella is what you thot (thought) he might be. There’s always no harm in having more friends. But bear in mind that real GOOD FRIENDS are hard to come by. Happy Clucking!

OverviewThe following table summarises the distribution of response types in the EDF

Response type Number of messages (N=333)Number of messages (N=333) Percentage of total number of responding Percentage of total number of responding messages (%) / Percentage of number of response type(%)response type(%)

AgreementAgreement 7878 23.523.5Affi rmAgreementAffi rmAgreementAgreementAffi rmAgreement

4646 59.0 59.0SupportSupport 22 28.2 28.2HedgedSupportHedgedSupport

10 12.8

DisagreementDisagreement 225225 67.567.5Intensifi edIntensifi edDisagreementIntensifi edDisagreementDisagreementIntensifi edDisagreement

150150 66.7 66.7Justifi edJustifi ed 4040 17.8 17.8Indirect 31 13.7Hedged 4 1.8

NeutralNeutral 2020 5.95.9InformsInformsInforms 1010 3.13.1

Figure 2: Distribution of response types in the electronic discussion forumFigure 2: Distribution of response types in the electronic discussion forum


A relatively higher proportion of disagreement (67.5%) is evident compared to other agreement types. This supports fi ndings from studies which attribute the higher incidence of opposing views that challenge issues raised to the use of computer (Baym, 1996). Of the messages which show disagreement, a higher proportion of messages comprise intensifi ed disagreement (66.7%) compared to the other forms of disagreement. This endorses the view that computer-mediated groups engaging in an impersonal, text-only form of communication become susceptible to extensive and often frequent instances of argumentative discussion (Cooper and Selfe, 1990; Kiesler and Sproull, 1992) to the extent of using insults, sarcasm and hostile language to belittle or ridicule opponents. The medium provides less inhibition with electronic messages existing independently of space and time, making it `easy to disagree with, confront, or take exception to others’ opinions’ (Zuboff, 1988: 370).

Pedagogical ImplicationsTeachers play a signifi cant role in enabling effective computer-mediated discussions. Disparate ideas have to be weaved together from the range of contributions, and students helped to synthesize ideas. These could include:

• providing an overview of a wide-ranging discussion • categorising ideas • summarising points of agreement and disagreement in one or several threads of the discussion • posing questions rather than giving answers • setting off new lines of enquiry • challenging ideas posed in ‘playing the devil’s advocate’.

Selected electronic messages from forums could be used for classroom discussion and analysis. Specifi cally, attention could be drawn to various ways of expressing counter-arguments or dissenting views and how differing degrees of agreement and disagreement are linguistically realized. Further, awareness of specifi c means whereby arguments are justifi ed and/or supported, and how the strength of arguments can be tempered or participants’ thinking manipulated in specifi c ways are critical in enhancing the nature of the electronic exchange.

Teachers need to be aware of the dynamics involved in electronic agreement and disagreement, and, specifi cally, the means by which messages are formulated to fulfi l specifi c purposes. Attention to these would inevitably raise the quality of computer-mediated discussion among participants signifi cantly, and provide for effective participant engagement in meaningful rhetoric and challenging online debates.

This article was based on a presentation shared in Singapore at a Seminar for Heads of Department, `Engaging learners, empowering leaders’, organized by the Ministry of Education, Educational Technology Division on 13 November 2003.

References (Contact the author for a complete list of references):

Baym, N.K. (1996) “Agreements and disagreements in a computer-mediated discussion.” Research on language and social interaction, 29 (4), 315-345.Cooper, M. M., & Selfe, C.L. (1990). Computer conferences and learning: Authority, resistance and internally persuasive discourse. College English, 52 (8), 847-869.Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Publisher.Hathorn, L. G., & Ingram, A. L. (2002). Online collaboration: Making it work. Educational Technology, 42(1), 33-40.Herring, S.C. (1996). Two variants of an electronic message schema. In Herring, S.C. (Ed.) Computer-mediated communication: Linguistic, social and cross-cultural perspectives, (pp.81-106). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.Jones, B., Valdez, G., Nowakowski, J., & Rasmussen, C. (1994). Designing learning and technology for educational reform. Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.Kiesler, S., & Sproull, L. (1992). Group decision making and communication technology. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 52, 96-123.Kotthoff, H. (1993). Disagreement and concession in disputes: On the context sensitivity of preference structures. Language in society, 22, 193-216.Linell, P. (1990). The power of dialogue dynamics. In Markova, I. & Foppa, K. (Eds.) The dynamics of dialogue (pp.147-177). Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Mabry, E.A. (1998). “Framing fl ames: The structure of argumentative messages on the Net.” Journal of computer-mediated communication, 2 (4). [Online] Available http://jcmc.huji.ac.il/vol2/issue4/mabry.html. Also in Sudweeks, F., McLaughlin, M. & Rafaeli, S. (Eds.) Network and netplay: Virtual groups on the Internet (pp. 13-26). Menlo Park, California; Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, UK:American Association for Artifi cial Intelligence Press and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.Pawan, F., Paulus, T.M., Yalcin, S., & Chang, C-F. (2003). Online learning: Patterns of engagement and interaction among in-service teachers. Language learning and technology, 7 (3), 119-140.Whitworth, B., Gallupe, R.B., & McQueen, R. (2001). Generating agreement in computer-mediated groups. Small Group Research, 32

(5), 625-665.

Zuboff, S. (1988). In the age of the smart machine: The future of work and power. New York: Basic Books.


Good CoP, Bad CoP

What’s the connection between goats and teacher training and learning? The answer, says Nicky Hockly, is in communities of practice (CoPs). Taking her cue from the world of business, she looks at how online CoPs can help ELT teachers develop professionally.

Once upon a time - but not very long ago at all in these fast-changing times - there was a girl who

had wanted, ever since she could remember, to own a goat. So, being a very modern computer-literate girl, she joined an online community called Goatweb, and started to learn all about goat breeding. Once she had learnt enough, her parents allowed her to buy her own baby goat, and she shared this joyous news with her new friends and fellow goat lovers on Goatweb. Unfortunately, as time went by, her goat got sick. Despite advice and support from her online friends in Goatweb, and visits from the vet, her goat eventually died. The girl was heartbroken. Now, it so happened that another member of Goatweb was leaving the USA (homeland of this particular girl) to return to his native land. He had several goats for which he had to find good homes (there being no provision on airlines for goat ferrying), and he offered the girl a mother and baby goat. Her parents agreed, but then a problem arose – how were they going to get the goats from one side of the US to their new home on the other side? The members of Goatweb sprang into action: calls were made, emails exchanged, messages posted, etc. They set up route maps for transporting the goats across the country between themselves, investigated livestock transport regulations and decided on dates. And, truck journey by truck journey, coffee break by coffee break, the goats were duly delivered.

The above true story (http://goatweb.com/index.shtml) illustrates a good community of practice (CoP) at work.

According to Etienne Wenger, a researcher at Xerox PARC who (it is popularly recognised) coined the term, a CoP is “a group of people who share an interest in something, and come together to develop knowledge around this topic, in order to use it in practice”. According to his later development of the concept, a CoP will contain three crucial elements: knowledge domain (that is, the common topic which

binds the group together), community and community and community practice.

Membership of a CoP is ideally voluntary, and the goals of a CoP will be negotiated, normally in reponse to a commonly perceived need or problem. We see the Goatweb CoP functioning in its response to the problem of moving the goats across the US – the members pulling together to solve it, and all this achieved through negotiation between group members.

Now let’s leave behind the world of goats and focus in on how the idea of CoPs can be applied to the ELT world, especially at teacher training level.

In real life (f2f, or face-to-face situations) – and certainly in the context of language teaching and training - CoPs have a natural tendency to develop. Consider groups of like-minded ELT teachers being drawn together in staff or teachers’ rooms, in coffee bars or around the photocopier. Indeed, the original business model of nurturing these communities came in part from observing people in these natural meeting places (often referred to as Schelling Points, after Richard Schelling) participating in informal peer training sessions which seemed, to the

THEORY AND PRACTICE - OF GOATS AND CoPs...


observers, to be more fruitful and less pressurised than the more structured training sessions which the company regularly organised.

Since those heady early days of conversations around the water cooler, working practices and technology have developed apace. The pressures of modern life and the adoption of networked and distance communications have given rise to the virtual equivalent of these meeting places - the online version being known as a ‘distributed CoP’ (or DCoP). DcoPs generally start as small websites (the meeting place or Schelling Point), with members using various modes of communication and knowledge sharing - synchronous tools (such as chat, instant messenging or video-conferencing) or asynchronous tools (such as postings to a bulletin board or a discussion list) - as their preferred medium of interaction.

But exactly how does a distributed (or online) CoP differ from a common or garden discussion list? The most important thing about a CoP is that it’s “a group that learns” (Wenger again). Members not Wenger again). Members not Wengeronly discuss issues, challenges, needs or goals, but actually try out tools or strategies to help them deal with these. In other words, a CoP leads to ‘creative practice’ in that members develop their own personal practice, and reflect overtly on the effects of trying out new things within the group. In this sense the learning that takes place in a CoP is constructivist in nature.

A well-functioning CoP will typically have a leader (a key figure for Wenger) who will motivate the group and keep it alive, and also a group of core members, who will contribute regularly to the group (e.g. via postings), and keep things ticking over. Then there will be ‘boundary’ members, who may contribute sporadically, or merely lurk, and may belong to several CoPs, thus transferring knowledge from one CoP to another. A boundary member may lurk on your CoP but be very active on another. Any CoP will have a range of competencies in the group, and these will come to the fore depending on the area of expertise needed at any one point to help the group approach issues or problems. The structure of a CoP is attractively democratic in this sense: every member has potential value for the group.

CoPs are an excellent tool for professional development for ELT teachers. There are several ELT related CoPs already well-established on the Net. Two of the best-known ones are Vance Stevens’ Webheads in Action (http://www.geocities.com/vance_stevens/papers/

evonline2002/webheads.htm), whose members explore issues related to applying technology to ELT classes, and Scott Thornbury’s Dogme (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dogme/), whose brief is to explore a pedagogy using minimal resources – a back-to-basics approach to teaching and learning. Both of these CoPs go beyond the standard discussion list, in that their members actively try out ideas and materials in their own ELT classes, and in this sense are continually evolving their own ‘creative practice’. Other, less public, CoPs also exist, with more springing up every day.

A CoP can evolve spontaneously in, for example, an online Masters in ELT course, where course participants form small informal groups, and communicate online, discussing how to apply new ideas and techniques to their practice, and reflecting on the changes these bring about for their own teaching. These are just a few examples of the real application of CoPS in the day-to-day lives of working and practising teachers and learners.

At its worst (bad CoP – usually imposed as a working practice by management or directors), a community of practice will stagnate and not ‘gel’ into a truly creative group of individuals who have an interest in sharing and growing. But in its purest form (good CoP – naturally occurring, peopled with interested and committed members) a community of practice will provide focus and support for its members, allowing them to cut through the fog of information overload and concentrate on those issues which are important – both to the group and to each individual member – and, consequently, to develop these in practice.

Nicky Hockly has been a teacher and teacher trainer for over 15 years. Coordinator of the IATEFL TTEdSIG, she was - until recently - pedagogical director of an online MA in ELT for Latin America. She is now Pedagogical Director for The Consultants-E ( www.theconsultants-e.com ). She can be contacted at: [email protected]

INCENSED? EXCITED? BORED?Have you been annoyed, excited, bored, frustrated or anything else by what you’ve read in this newsletter? If so - we’d like to hear from you. Send your letters, comments, articles, reviews or anything else to:

[email protected]

IATEFL CALL Review | ISSN: 1026-428 February 2004 -

Who’s Who in the Computer SIG

The Computer SIG is the IATEFL Special Interest Group for Computers in Language Education. It produces the CALL Review,

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