Week 9: Teamwork on Wikis

My first reaction reading the article “Online Collaborative Writing Using Wikis” was curiosity.  I had never heard about wikis before, and how useful it can be for ESL learners. Something that I want to remember from this article is the importance and developing that this activity can have in students' lives. These kinds of activities can make students work in groups, to develop writing skills and it facilitates the work team as well as it can use the student’s free time to help them to learn English in a funny and cooperative way.

I think every teacher should know about wikis. In my opinion, Wikis are not too known in our country El Salvador, I think it will be very important that more and more teacher starting to know about this interesting, and helpful tool that can be useful for teachers as well as for ESL learners. Something I would like to share with a colleague is Wikis. This is a good option, and tool that we, as future teachers, can use to make students work in teams, and develop their skills.

A question that I still have is how can we implement this way to teach in Salvadorian classrooms? I think it will be fascinating that activities as Wikis being implemented in Salvadorian teaching programs of colleges and high schools to inculcate the work team and an innovate way to acquire knowledge.- Rate: 5

Week 8: Teaching English with real stuff

My initial reaction to the article “4 Creative Ways to Use Authentic Materials for Teaching English” it was a curiosity reaction because I had never heard about teaching ESL through making exercises of real stuff like job applications, and reading articles from different websites or from newspapers like The New York Times. Something that I want to remember from this article is that not always is necessary to teach English with workbooks. It can be helpful to use a real website for news, documentaries, etc. Every teacher should know was that to teach in a better and effective way is important to use different and innovate ways. This kind of method where is used real newspapers articles or jobs application to teach English can be perfect not just to students can learn English, if not to learn more about the life, real situation, and global trends.  

Something I would like to share with a colleague is the importance of choosing the right material for Teaching English. As a future teacher, I think is mandatory to always look for material or topics that are relevant or interesting for students, and avoid to choose material interesting just for the teacher.

Can be implemented this method in places with no internet connection? This is a question that I still have, and I hope that in the future it could be a way to use this method in places or neighborhood with few or no access to the internet. - Rate: 4

Week 7: CALL for a faster process of acquisition of vocabulary

The first article “Online English-English Learner Dictionaries Boost Word Learning” is about dictionaries online. It talks about how important learn vocabulary is for students of ESL, and how the internet helps to acquire vocabulary faster as well as mention the features of the dictionaries, teacher application, advantage, and disadvantages etc.

The second article “Using Technology y to Assist in Vocabulary Acquisition and Reading Comprehension” is similar to the first one. This article is focused on the role of the vocabulary knowledge in EFL or ESL as well as the acquisition and improvement of vocabulary, and reading comprehension through technology.

When I started to read these articles, I surprised me because I did not know about the new ways to learn and how the acquiring process of vocabulary is developing through technology.  Sometimes that I want to remember from these articles is the innovation in the use of different dictionaries on the internet to create a better, and faster process of acquisition of vocabulary. A belief of mine that was confirmed is the use of the internet to improve in reading comprehension and learning vocabulary. I have believed that internet is a fantastic tool to acquire vocabulary; I’ve used by myself and I’ve recommended it because you can notice that is a completed different way to learn in comparison to learning through papers or traditional books. 

Week 6: Finding new ways for literature and writing

The first article is focused on using internet in Children's and younger’s Literature in ESL. I think this a pretty interesting and good article because talk about something that never or few times is spoken, literature. This article expresses the importance of extensive reading in L2. As is expressed in the article, I think if the only time that you use English is in English class, then there is a big problem because there is not enough English practice. Extensive reading is helpful for students to learn vocabulary and grammar, and if is united with internet it can be a powerful tool to learn faster in ESL. Every teacher should know and start to use internet to create a link between teacher and students to send or share material, books, activities etc to students can be able to have extensive readings and acquire vocabulary by themselves in different ways.

Websites such as Magic Keys, ByGosh, Children’s Digital Library etc. that are mention in the article are perfect examples for teachers can create a better learning process using not just books, but also attractive activities. Poems, stories, novels and even illustrated and animated vocabulary and the alphabet can be found in these websites. 

The second article titled “Using the Internet in ESL Writing Instruction” is focused about writing, and specifically the use of internet in the writing area to help students can be able to write in different aid. Also, the article mentions that there are three important points to help to improve writing skill. The three basic elements are web pages, e­mail connection and creating class websites.

I think we as teachers and future teacher should start using the internet to create a better writing and reading habit in students as well as improve the development of these skills. As teachers, using the internet to promote extensive reading, and writing in different aid will create more competitive students in ESL.