Reflection 1: Blog in ELT and Introduction to CALL

Hey everyone!

In this entry, I am going to share my reflection on lesson that I've learnt on the topics: Blog in ELT as well as Introduction to CALL.

So, what is blog exactly?

Simply put, ‘blog’ is just another word for personal diary or journal – an online version of it. Just like how you express all your personal thoughts, feelings and passions in your personal diary, a blog is a place where you choose parts of those thoughts, feelings and passions to share and express yourself to the world. Really, you can write whatever that you want. In fact it’s anything you want it to be – well, in my case, this blog is a journal of what I’ve learnt in my ELT class.

4 Types of Blog in ELT

From the lesson, I’ve learnt that there are 4 types of blog – weblog, tutor blog, class blog and learners blog. Similar to the definition of blog, weblog is a frequently updated website used mostly as an online journal. With the existence of Wordpress (https://wordpress.com/learn-more/?v=blog ) and Blogspot (https://www.blogger.com/ ) , blogs have become much easier to set up and maintain. Tutor Blog are blogs run specifically by educators to share information related to their subjects to their group of students. This reminds me, for this subject, our lecturer actually assign us to frequent her blog to get an updated slide for this subject every week – now that; is an example of tutor blog. Different from tutor blog, for class blog, both teachers and students are able to post in the main section and comment section. Each class blog belongs specifically to a pointed class and enable teachers to have collaborative discussions with the respective pointed class.

In ELT, I feel that Blog could serve so many purposes to both teachers and learners. From the lessons, I’ve learnt to understand that Blog could help learners to not only get precise extra reading from teachers, it could help  students to participate more in the lesson through online learning journal and collaborative discussion in the class blog. When we talk about language, it’s all about the practice. The more you practice the language, the better you get and blog is precisely one of the tools that would enable learners to practice their writing skills. 

What teachers can do to maintain students' interest in blogging

One thing about blog however, if it’s not maintained, it could die off very quickly. There are millions of people signing up to blogging every other day and if you don’t at least update your blog once per week or two week; you would lose the motivation and when it comes to that, you might as well say sayonara to your blog. From the lesson, I've learnt that being a teacher, you don’t want this to happen to your students. Therefore, to ensure active participation from your students, I've learnt that you need to actively update your blog with materials and references unavailable in class and act as a facilitator to encourage your students to write their blogs, read and comment on others. Besides, you could also tell your students to post their homework on the blogs. Or you can also do what my lecturer does – make the task of updating blog as well as participation in discussion as part of course assessment.

While being a public domain enable blogs to be accessible to all, I've grown to understand being public leads to questions regarding privacy (how much of yourself and your thoughts are you willing to share to the rest of the world?) and insecurities of making mistakes in own writings. Though utilising blog would enable teachers and students to optimise their teaching and learning, it would be difficult for teachers to do corrections on students’ works. If you have 100 students, just imagine reading, commenting and moderating comments of 100 blogs per day! 

So, what is CALL?

From the lesson, I've learnt that CALL is a term used referring to method of computer application to assist in language teaching and language learning, especially in situations where the teachers are not present. CALL heavily involves material designs, technologies, pedagogical theories and modes of instruction; it covers any process in which learners have to use computers in order to learn a language to helps in improving their language capabilities and proficiency. 

There are four types of CALL programs: CALL – Specific Software, Generic Software, Web – Based Learning Programs and Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). 

From my understanding, CALL-Specific Software (CSS) refers to specific software designed

to facilitate language learning - something like duolingo and prezi. On the other hand, generic software refer to the software that you already have in your computer - something like Microsoft word, processor and power point. Although these generic software are pre-installed in the computer, some of them could really help in language learning. Personally, I feel that 'synonym' function in Microsoft words have done a wonder in increasing my language repertoire! And although the word sounds sophisticated, CMC is really something that we use in our everyday life; it is application or website that facilitate us in our everyday communication. The moment I learnt this, I picture WhatsApp and E-mail; apparently I am right and those are exactly part of CMC.  I also learnt that there are 2 types of CMC - synchronous and asynchronous form of communication. Synchronous involves instant, direct form of communication like WhatsApp or WeChat while asynchronous offers the opposite of it.

All in all, I've learnt quiet a bit this week. I wish I could learn more about CALL next week. Hopefully, it'd be an exciting lesson.

 Until next time. Ta!