Third Assignment - Lesson Plan Based on a Website

Level: Form Two (Intermediate – Advanced)

Time: 90 minutes

Aims:
1. Students will be able to locate and use the information on a website

2. Students be able to use come out with as much adjective to describe something/someone and also when constructing sentences

Technical requirements: One computer for each pairs of students equipped with an internet and a web browser

Website: Click here

Preparation:
1. Locate a suitable website about strange buildings in the world

2. Prepare worksheet using the information on the site

Procedure:
1. Ask the students to sit in pairs and each pair will work on a single computer

2. Ask the students what are the characteristics of their dream houses

3. Ask the students to tell and write the adjectives to describe their dream house on the board

4. Provide the students with the prepared worksheet and ask the students to look and read the activity one. Ask the students whether they have any questions regarding the activity one

5. Browse the chosen website together with the students and tell them what the website is all about

6. Explain to the students that they need to fill in the boxes in the activity one in pairs based on the picture of the fifteen strangest buildings in the world from the website , click here

7. Demonstrate using the website and give appropriate example to the students. Tell the students that they need to describe the buildings by using as much adjectives as they can

8. When all the students have finished, discuss their answers. Ask the students to share with the whole class if they have used any adjectives that are unfamiliar to their friends

9. Discuss with the students other adjectives that they can use to describe the buildings. Deal with any adjectives problems that the students encountered

10. Then ask the student to do activity two individually, which is provided in the worksheet

11. For activity two, the students need to choose three strangest buildings from the website and ask the students to describe the adjectives of the people that might live in those buildings by using their own creativity

12. Ask the students to use as much adjective that they had learn in their sentences. Ask the students to present their work in front of the class

13. Deal with any problem that the students encountered and correct the students if teacher have to do so

Worksheet 1

Worksheet 2

In Class Activity - Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Egyptian hieroglyphs (pronounced /ˈhaɪ(ə)roʊɡlɪf/; from Greek ἱερογλύφος "sacred carving", itself pronounced [ˌhieroˈɡlypʰos]) was a formal writing system used by the ancient Egyptians that contained a combination of logographic and alphabetic elements. Egyptians used cursive hieroglyphs for religious literature on papyrus and wood. Less formal variations of the script, called hieratic and demotic, are technically not hieroglyphs.

Hieroglyphs emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on Gerzean pottery from circa 4000 BC resemble hieroglyphic writing. For many years the earliest known hieroglyphic inscription was the Narmer Palette, found during excavations at Hierakonpolis (modern Kawm al-Ahmar) in the 1890s, which has been dated to circa 3200 BC. However, in 1998 a German archaeological team under Günter Dreyer excavating at Abydos (modern Umm el-Qa'ab) uncovered tomb U-j of a Predynastic ruler, and recovered three hundred clay labels inscribed with proto-hieroglyphs, dating to the Naqada IIIA period of the 33rd century BC.The first full sentence written in hieroglyphs so far discovered was found on a seal impression found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen at Umm el-Qa'ab, which dates from the Second Dynasty. In the era of the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom, about 800 hieroglyphs existed. By the Greco-Roman period, they numbered more than 5,000.

Hieroglyphs consist of three kinds of glyphs: phonetic glyphs, including single-consonant characters that functioned like an alphabet; logographs, representing morphemes; and determinatives, which narrowed down the meaning of a logographic or phonetic words.

Assignment 2 - Facebook in Language Learning

Title: Facebook in the Language Classroom: Promises and Possibilities

Journal: Article. Click HERE

Author’s name: Geraldine Blattner and Melissa Fiori

This journal article is about how online social network, that is Facebook that can become one of the successful e – learning tools in language classes in this 21^st century. No doubt that Facebook is a large Social Network Communities (SNC) has become one of the fastest growing and best known sites on the Internet today (Blattner and Fiori, 2006). In this article, the researchers emphasize on how Facebook can help to instil the sense of community in language classrooms and also how this SNC able to enhance the growth of socio – pragmatic competence in language learners (Blattner and Fiori, 2006). Since Facebook was established by Zuckerberg in 2004, there is not much research conducted on the use of Facebook as one of the e – learning tools in classrooms. As for this research, the methodology that the researchers used is throughobserving and participating in one of the application in Facebook that is; Groups discussion. Basically, the Facebook users can join Groups that already exist or easily create a new ones based on their interest (Blattner and Fiori, 2006). The researchers were observing the Swiss French Language Groups discussion forums whereby the participants are from various regions of the world. Based on the observation, the findings that the researchers gather is that, the users who mostly university students have the opportunity to encounter realistic and authentic language through discussion forums associated with the same group (Blattner and Fiori, 2006).

Figure 1. Oui, je parle Suisse et alors [Yes, I speak Swiss and so what]

In the discussion above, this Swiss French group established a clear list of a few words and expressions that are further discussed by Swiss natives (Blanttner and Fiori, 2006). This provide more opportunity for the users to observe the contain language samples that are more authentic. Apart from that, this group discussion can become one of the reliable sources of pragmatic input for language as well as students are exposed to a large amount of information about conversational norms compared to textbooks.

In this article, one concept and one theory in language learning that the researchers were trying to convey to the readers. Firstly, a concept by Kasper (1997) that identified two types of activities for the language learners which is a) activities that can focuses on raising students’ pragmatic awareness and b) tasks which can provide opportunities for students to actually practice communication. Blattner and Fiori have proven that these two activities can be accomplished via Facebook (provided the students join and take part in the language group discussion). Secondly, a learning theory that originated from the Lev Vygotsky; Sociocultural Theory or also known called the school of Vygotsky. According to Kublin et al (1998) briefly state that;

"Vygotsky (1934/1986) described learning as being embedded within social events and occurring as a child interacts with people, objects, and events in the environment" (p. 287).

By joining Facebook, users are able to interact with people from various regions of the world and at the same time learn other culture. The users can observe and participate in different language group discussion forums in Facebook, where users are exposed to the authentic language interaction and also able to help in the development of socio – pragmatic awareness.

Does this research interest me? Yes, indeed. The researches are trying to situates today’s Social Network Community (SNC) can provide more than inter – personal communication but also as a way to learn. Apart from that, being in the 21^st century generations, high tech tools remain important because these tools can facilitate lifelong learning (Garrison & Kanuka, 2004). In my opinion, since not much research had done regarding the impact of Facebook in language learning, this research in not that well conducted in the sense that the researchers did not have a proper group discussion forum as well as subject/sample. In this research, Blattner and Fiori only observed Swiss French Group without exact amount of subject/sample and period. Maybe what the researchers should do is that, create one group and invite a few university students to join. Then the researchers observe their socio – pragmatic awareness within two to three weeks and record the findings that the researchers get. After I have read this research, there are few implications of this research to the teaching and learning of ESL in the general and Malaysian context. According to Dillon and Walsh (1992) and Smith et. al (2000), high tech e – learning technologies require educators to adapt to a new way of communicating with students and to modify classroom methodologies. Educators can use Facebook as one of the e – learning tools in a pedagogically meaningful way instead of only using textbook that provide limited exposure to authentic conversational norms. Secondly, by using high tech tools, it can help to promote constructivist practices in which students have to collaborate (Ertmer, 2005) and most important thing is that, high tech helps to promote critical thinking and more students – centred. Lastly, SNC provides more opportunities for the learners to learn authentic second language (L2) via wide interaction.

My Reflection

Basically, for this entry, I need to give my reflection regarding:-

1. Why do you think evaluation of CALL courseware, websites, materials etc important?

In my own personal opinion, it is very important for teachers and educators to evaluate any CALL courseware, websites, materials and etc that he or she is going to use for learning. The reasons why I think that it is important for us to evaluate all these because to determine whether the CALL materials are learner fit or suitable to the students level of proficiency in that particular class that we are going to teach. Not only that, evaluation is important because we can see whether the CALL courseware or website that we use is able to give positive impact to the students, where the students apply the knowledge that they get in class and bring it outside of the classroom. Meaningful learning is when students are able to relate what they had learnt in class with the real life situation that they had undergone. When teachers or educators evaluate the CALL materials, the authenticity of the materials is very important so that students did not think that what they are learning in class is useless. Not only that, it is important to evaluate whether the CALL materials are practical enough (in the sense that it is easy for teachers and students to use it). What is the use of superb CALL materials but they are not easy to use and to implement?.These are the reasons why it is important for us as educators to evaluate the CALL courseware, website and materials from my point of views.

2. How do you think Hot Potatoes JCloze may help your students learn English?

Yesterday,during CALL class was the first time I used the Hot Potatoes JCloze in order to create English exercises. It was hard at first but then,it was very interesting to me once I got to know how to use it.In my opinion, Hot Potatoes JCloze might be able to help my students in the sense that,when my students want to fill in the blanks with answers,they can get the hint by click on the '?' button. Then they will try to guess the answers (provided they know and still remember what they had learnt) until they get the correct answer to fill in the blank. For example, if the blank requires them to give the preposition of direction as the answer, they will keep on guessing the correct prepositions until they get the correct answer.This will encourage the students to think and never give up trying. Not only that, with interesting text, appropriate font, layouts as well as exercises that suite their level, InsyALLAH, Hot Potatoes JCloze may help my students to learn English. Not only that, by using Hot Potatoes JCloze, it will encourage students - centered learning as well as to give opportunity to students to use technology for learning. This is definately will interest them more to learn compare to chalk and talk method.

In class Task 2 - The Pencil By Ali Majod

For task 2, I have choosen the short story The Pecil By Ali Majod. Basicly, this task sheet is for Form 1 students and they need to choose four moral values based on the short story. When they are doing this task sheet, they need to copy the moral value and paste in the lower boxes.

First post first blog

Assalamualikum and Hi to all,

My name is Nur Hani Laily Bt Ramli.I am one of the students from U8B and currently doing my Degree in TESL.This is my final semester in UiTM Shah Alam and I am looking forward to get myself busy with all the assingments for this semester.Hehe...hopefully I can cope with all the stress throughout the semester.Amin.

Talking about rating my self based of my knowledge in camputer skills, I am in an INTERMEDIATE level.Not to say that I am trying to be humble but that is the fact about me.The only time that I really make use of the computer and internet,when I wanted to look for online journals,articles and any other additional information that I can use for my academic assingments.Not to forget,to check my mails,youtube and facebook.I am not into online or computer games.I do not really know much about the computer itself and this is my first time creating a blog.For the first half and hour,I was struggling to create this blog and the internet connection was so slow.Liyana and I were about to gave up but we realized that this blog was really important for us.

I only have few knowledge about software and hardware.Throughout my 5 years in university,I made used of the microsoft word,powerpoint presentation,microsoft publisher and microsoft excel to do my assingments.These are some of the software that I am familiar with and know how to used them.Like I said earlier,I am a novice computer users and I only know the basic things.As for the knowledge in hardware,I only have the basic knowledge about it,the important parts of the computer.Technically, I am not in 'good terms' with technologies.

However,I do experienced learning through online.During my secondary school,because I am from the science school,my Maths teacher taught us using some of the website that was very interesting,for better understanding and to captured our attention.I admit that at that time,my classmates and I were very mesmerized with the lesson.My history teacher was very good with computer and technology and during her class,we learnt history in computer lab.It was fun,easy learning and most important thing is that,the history was no longer a boring subject for me.

During my three months practial in Chinesse school, Yes,I did incorporate technology in my lessons especially for Literature.The students had the stigma that Literature equal to Shakespeare and Shakespeare equal to weird man with weird words(This was according to my students).So they thought that Literature was hard and what I did was,I used videoclips or songs to make my students understand the poems/shortstories better.They really enjoyed it and more or less,the understand the basic of the poems/shortstories.But,to me,technology seems do not like me much.There was time where I wanted to show my students about this particular videoclips for the lesson,the videoclip cannot be play and the worst part was,my mentor was at the back observing me.*sigh*
In my own personal opinion,it is good that in nowadays scenario,as future teachers/educators,we make use of the computer/technology in class because it is more interesting and we can do lots of things with technology.On top of that,students are more advanced with technology and they make use of it 24/7.But i still consider to make use of it during my lesson because like I said earlier,technology can be kind and at the same time can be cruel to me.

As for my expectation for this course,I hope that Prof Izaham and my friends that are good with technology can and will help me throughout my semester.After I heard the explanation given by Prof Izaham during the first class,I was really scared and worried because I know that I am not really good with it.But,I am willing to learn very hard in order to get a good grade.Hehe..InsyALLAH I was hoping that the assignments were not that hard and by the end of this course,I can proudly say that,’I LOVE TECHONOLOGY FROM HEAD TO TOE”.InsyALLAH.
Till we meet again.Assalamualaikum