Communicating Our Culture
Communicating our culture... with a little help from the web! This presentation will focus on the practicalities of using online tools to teach English Communication Skills to Japanese first-year college students, and on the development of a new approach where the use of the web 2.0 plays an important role. The web today is a great potential for access to information and different means of communication and interaction. From asynchronous discussions to real-time conversations, we can find a wealth of worldwide resources both static and human. Another positive factor of importance to EFL teaching and learning is that a majority of these resources are in English. Thus, in a subject area such as English Communication skills, use of the web enhances the learning experience and provides the students with contextualized learning opportunities in which the subject matter being studied -- that is, English -- is applied immediately. The aim of this project was to "expose" the students to a real audience while providing them with "working tools" which might prove useful in the future. This project was based in Japan, involved an EFL teacher and 13 first-year students from a Japanese college, and counted on remote collaboration from a Learning Technologist based in the UK to provide help with the ICT component. The course was organized as follows: * Students attended face-to-face classes to learn about communication techniques and skills * Tutorials on how to search for information online and how to produce their presentations were provided * For assessment purposes, students were asked to present a topic of their choice through an e-conference room and aiming at an online audience. E-room use rehearsal sessions were conducted before the official presentation day. * Teacher evaluation focussed on the integration of communication techniques and skills as well as their ability to negotiate meaning and understanding with the audience. Some consideration was also given to the effort shown in the research and preparation of the presentation. * Due to time constraints and other unforeseen circumstances, the original plan of uploading a recording of the presentations with student reflections to a blog and making it available for comments by others was not possible. At this time an informal peer evaluation was also carried out.
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Communicating Our Culture
- 2. Context
- 3. Looking at our own experience Photo by Carla Arena http://tinyurl.com/kkrgjh
- 4. Connecting the Classroom Making the world look closer together
- 6. The Learning Process Goal : Present to an international, online audience LIVE ! Practice English!!
- 7. Hard work Pays off Goal : Present to an international, online audience LIVE ! Practice English!!
- 8. The result of their hard work
- 9. Students’ Reflections Making a presentation to an audience other than just their classmates and teacher made the activity “ real ”. The audience did not all speak English the same way their teacher did (different accents, different words etc), so it was challenging . Explaining to someone who did not know the items or events was exciting but very scary.
- 11. Overcoming Barriers The value of technology is in the connections/ learning relationships we are able to establish with people. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaylon/124507320/sizes/l/
- 12. Overcoming Barriers (2) Time Zones An issue when connecting with the global village synchronously ! http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/60496147/
- 14. Thank You! Presentation for The 5th Education in a Changing Environment Conference Salford, UK September 2009 Elisabeth Fernandes [email_address] Cristina Costa [email_address]
Editor's Notes
- This presentation will focus on the practicalities of using online tools to teach English Communication Skills to Japanese first-year college students, and on the development of a new approach where the use of the web 2.0 plays an important role.
- Talk about how we met How we learn How we connect
- Connecting the classroom to the world Give them a platform/audience = a purpose to share their work A REASON to do what they fear the most= speak in a language that is foreign to them
- For weeks Students work and refine their presentations about Japanese Culture. Present about something they are the ‘experts’ in : their culture Present about something they like Present about something they are proud of : their country USING a language they are learning
- Talk about how students presented their work How it showed how much they had work Their effort to do such a brave things for the first year of college
- Making a presentation to an audience other than just their classmates and teacher made the activity “real”. Classmates and teacher already know about the items or events that were being presented, so it is not real. Explaining to someone who did not know the items or events was exciting but very scary. The audience did not all speak English the same way their teacher did (different accents, different words etc), so it was challenging. At the end the students were very proud of themselves, especially of the fact that they could answer questions from the audience – even the students who thought their English was “not good” were able to answer in simple terms. This experience provided an extreme “boost” to the level of confidence the students had in their English skills. English was no longer merely a subject in school. Through this experience they were actually able to communicate with people on the other side of the world and to see the usefulness of this so-called “international” language.
- Not in the spaces we are able to control and limit Explain about going through the firewall, installing software, saving stuff The dichotomy / distance in approach between educational and technical approaches