Materiały konferencyjne (WA)
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Browsing Materiały konferencyjne (WA) by Subject "computer-assisted language learning"
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Item Flipped teaching with screencasts at university level(2014-04-17) Łodzikowski, KacperThis paper presents best practices in teaching EFL and linguistics at the university level using the flipped teaching method. Its aim is to present screencasts (i.e. video lectures) as an alternative to pre-class reading assignments and in-person lectures because they engage students more than the former and save teachers’ time more than the latter. Flipped teaching emphasises pre-class preparation, which allows teachers to spend more quality time with their students in the classroom, focusing on practice or further exploration (Bruff, 2013). But in order for a flipped classroom to be effective, students must show up thoroughly prepared, which usually involves pre-class reading assignments. However, only 30% of students read the assigned texts (Hobson, 2004, p. 1-2). Instead of developing new reading strategies or forcing students to read with quizzes, an emerging trend in US higher education banished readings altogether in favour of screencasts. The main rationale behind this is that passive offline text is not enough for the current generation of digital natives raised bombarded with interactive (often online) audio-visual content (Pacansky-Brock, 2013, p. 1-13). The YouTube generation requires YouTube-style content. Existing research shows that the use of multimedia screencasts increases learner motivation and performance (Herreid & Schiller, 2013, p. 64). Apart from engaging students, screencasts can also be easily reused to reach a wider audience of learners, with no effort on part of the teacher, providing a cost-effective just-in-time alternative to regular lectures. This paper will show how flipped teaching – with a screencast as a supplementary or, at times, the only material – was successfully used at the AMU Faculty of English in two types of courses: TEFL and linguistics (English phonetics and phonology and Polish-English contrastive grammar).Item Using Web 2.0 technologies and collaborative work in teaching academic writing(2014-06-27) Jekiel, MateuszTeaching academic writing to ESL learners can be a difficult task: students are usually unfamiliar with academic style, have difficulties in producing a structured piece of writing and get easily discouraged by an examoriented approach, having to use old school pen and paper with no access to technology. Indeed, the gap between everyday writing tasks and the exam is significant: access to online dictionaries, linguistic corpora and academic articles, as well as being able to work in groups using Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. Google Docs) is a standard in today's professional writing. However, most students are less techsavvy than it is presumed: they are generally unaware of practical web tools, use Google search ineffectively and obtain information from unreliable sources. Hence, the implementation of a more practical approach with the use of web technologies and collaborative assignments in the writing classroom should be considered by ESL teachers. Incorporating collaborative practices in higher education can be beneficial on many levels: students become more conscious of their work, profit from peer correction and compose better works in terms of language and structure (Storch 2005). Moreover, using Web 2.0 tools can be especially advantageous, as it promotes cooperation skills, provides a userfriendly environment for peer reviewing and prepares students for future careers in networking (Brodahl et al. 2011, Kessler et al. 2012). In the following preliminary research, I compared individual pen and paper compositions with collaborative online works written on the same topic by two groups of 20 students on a comparable level of language proficiency (CAE). One of the groups practiced in class how to use Google Docs and search for reliable information online. The results show that students working in groups via Web 2.0 tools 1) generate more complex ideas, 2) learn from each other, 3) compose better texts in terms of language and content, 4) raise their awareness of plagiarism, and 5) develop a positive attitude to collaborative work. Therefore, collaborative exercises and webbased tools should be subject to more academic research and become a part of the writing course for ESL students.