The AnsWer of The QuesTion

1.    Have you analyzed / conducted the same activity before? If yes, in what subject?, if not, why?
I have not analyzed / conducted the same activity before because I have just got the link like this. I do not know it before.
2.    What is your opinion about the analyzing vocabulary levels through www.lextutor.ca?
Analyzing vocabulary levels thorough www.lextutor.ca I think it’s great. I have not done it before. Thus, when I opened this and analyzed my vocabulary, I realized that my vocabulary is still limited. 
3.    What do you think about your vocabulary levels after analyzing them through www.lextutor.ca?
Like what I said before that after analyzing my vocabulary through this site, I realized that my vocabulary is still limited. There are many common words I used in my essay. I should use many academic vocabularies as I am the seventh semester of English Education. However, in my essay I only used less.
4.    In what course do you need to improve your writing and academic vocabulary?
I need to improve my writing and my academic vocabulary in all of my English course because I think it must be done since I am English education.
5.    Are you familiar with the vocabulary levels given in www.lextutor.ca?
Some of the vocabularies given in this site are familiar with me and other vocabularies are not familiar.
6.    Have you learnt about those vocabulary levels?
Some of them I have learned.
7.    Is academic vocabulary important for you as a university student? if yes, what for?, if not, why?
Yes. Academic vocabulary is important for me. It is for improving my ability in English and absolutely for improving my writing skill.
8.    Do you think that this analyzing activity is useful to support your learning, especially in writing?
Yes. It is useful for my learning especially in writing.
9.    In what course/learning material do you think should be suggested to improve your writing ability and high vocabulary level quality?
In all of English course/English learning material because how can we understand the material if we do not know some vocabularies.
10.    Do you think that ICT/CALL/internet utilization is useful? Why? And in what manner?
Yes. It is useful in some life aspects because it one of the human need. Especially for this era.
11.    What is your impressions and suggestions of CALL subjects and activities?
My impression during learn CALL is very interesting although sometime it make me stress and confused when task online.  And my suggested for CALL subject is when learning process should be in the lab, so that we can practice directly while the instructor give material

FINAL TEST II ( AN ARTICLE ABOUT LINK)

http://www.grammar-monster.com

                Grammarmonster.com is a free link that provides many categories about grammar which can help the learner to know more about the rules/structure of language especially in English. In using this free course, you may follow these instructions below:

1.         Type the link on the column page

2.        Choose one categories that you will learn, for example The Eight Part of Speech

3.        Click one of the eight part of speech, for example Adjective

4.        Then, it will show you some choices about the Adjective. Choose one of them, for example “what are the adjectives?”

5.        Finally, you will see and read about the Adjective.

In this site, you will find not only about the grammar lesson, but also the grammar test. You can check your value about what you have learned in this course. To use this free test you only should have click “grammar test” and choose one of the categories like the number 2, 3, 4 of the steps above, then it will show you the question about what you have choose. If you have answered the question, directly you can see the result.

There are some English languages learning you can see and find if you open this site such as: Punctuation (apostrophes, brackets, colons, commas, dashes, hyphens, semicolons, speech marks), Part of Speech (verb, noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection), Easily Confused Word (includes many words), Miscellaneous (abbreviation, all of & all right, an or a, bullet points, capital letters, comparative, either & neither, extends a sentences, numbers, parenthesis, plurals, singulars, there, they’re, & their, to & too, vocative case, which, that & who, and who & whom) and many else.

Grammarmonster.com also provides free weekly grammar tips, fix grammar with technology and shop online. First, In Free weekly grammar tips, you only should have an e-mail. Type your e-mail in the column provided in the homepage. It is like a free registration and every week you will get the grammar tips in your e-mail.  Second, fix grammar technology actually is a free grammar checker. It is like software, you may download it by clicking the fix grammar technology (download free grammar checker) in the grammar-monster homepage. The last is shop online. You can buy many books about grammar in this shop online, you only should follow its instruction to order the book.

Everyone can access all the information and lessons on Grammarmonster.com. There is no registration page and you do not need to sign up to study on it.

LETS’ VISIT, GET THE KNOWLEDGE AND MAKE OUR ENGLISH BETTER…

FinaL Test I (SUMMARY OF COMPUTER-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING)

UNIT 1

INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER-ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING

CALL is the acronym for computer-assisted language learning. CALL began in the 1960s with mainframe-based drill and practice materials, especially those based on the University of Illinois' PLATO system. In the late 1980s and early 90s, the Apple Macintosh replaced the Apple II in many educational settings in the US and became an immediate favorite among teacher-developers because of the support of HyperCard, a powerful but easy-to-use authoring program. During this period, the use of the computer as a tool increased, especially as teachers developed innovative techniques for using email and word processors became integrated into writing classes. In 2009, published a four-volume edited set, Computer Assisted Language Learning: Critical Concepts in Linguistics (Routledge), an anthology of 74 key articles covering the whole field of CALL.

A.         Scope of CALL

There are some scopes of CALL. They are:

·         As researchers: into second language acquisition, human-computer interaction, what works for CALL

·         As consumers of CALL software for class use or building web activities into course work

·         As directors, helping students find and use supplementary CALL materials or web resources

·         As managers of computer-mediated communication among learners in and out of class

·         As software or web developers, either "from scratch" or adding new materials to existing templates

·         As coaches to help students develop software, websites, and general computer literacy

·         As CALL experts for your program, helping other teachers and administrators with CALL implementations

·         As CALL professionals, consulting on external projects, doing software reviews for journals, making conference presentations, writing papers, interpreting and applying CALL research, and/or  providing input to the field at large.

B.         Three Phases of CALL

·         Behavioristic CALL

The first phase of CALL, conceived in the 1950s and implemented in the 1960s and ‘70s, was based on the then-dominant behaviorist theories of learning. Programs of this phase entailed repetitive language drills and can be referred to as “drill and practice” that based on the model of computer as tutor.

·         Communicative CALL

The second phase of CALL was based on the communicative approach to teaching which became prominent in the 1970s and 80s. Proponents of this approach felt that the drill and practice programs of the previous decade did not allow enough authentic communication to be of much value.

·         Integrative CALL

Integrative approaches to CALL are based on two important technological developments of the last decade – multimedia computers and the internet.

UNIT 2

COURSEWARE EVALUATION, DEVELOPMENT, and IMPLEMENTATION

Courseware refers to software that is used to support formal language learning. In practice, courseware has been used to refer to everything from complete software packages that can be used without a teacher to software that is just a part of a language learning course, sometimes a minor or optional supplementary part.

                In this session, there are three dimensions of tutorial CALL. They are developing courseware, evaluating courseware, and implementing courseware developed by Richard and Rodgers (1982).

·      Development Module

Courseware development refers to the process of going from the idea of creating a piece of tutorial software through the final product. It should be informed by general principles of instructional design.

·      Evaluation Module

Evaluation involves three kinds of considerations. The first consideration then is the operational description of the software, which essentially focuses on the procedure level elements. The design elements essentially can be subsumed under the label "learner fit." Fit the students you are evaluating for. The approach elements, in this case approach-based evaluation criteria, can be subsumed under the label "teacher fit"—broadly.

·      Implementation Module

Implementation considerations are relevant during the evaluation process, but they become crucial when deciding how best to use software that is available.

In this session, there is a research about the implementation of computer in teaching English by Saadiyah Darus. In this research, found some results. 1) Most of teachers rarely use computer in teaching English. One of the strong reasons is they cannot operate computer to teach and they are not sure using computer in teaching. They felt that they don’t have competence using computer because of having less knowledge about ICT. Another reason is there is no guideless provided for them. 2) Many challenges faced by teachers in teaching English using computer, one of them is they do not have enough time to prepare their lesson because teaching by using computer needs much time, makes the lesson getting more difficult, limits the material that has to be taught, disturbs the learning process, and facilities limited.

UNIT 3

COMPUTER MEDIATED COMMUNICATION

Computer-mediated communication, or CMC, computers are a means through which teachers communicate with learners, learners communicate with one another and learners may even communicate with native speakers.  That communication takes place through variations in the following elements:  timing (synchronous or asynchronous), number and patterning of participants (one to one, one to many, or many to many), and medium (text, voice, or video).

Asynchronous text. The first use of CMC in language teaching almost certainly came through email exchanges from teachers to students and among students within classes. Email is an example of asynchronous communication, in that the interaction is not in real time.

 Synchronous Text. With synchronous text, or chat, the messages are exchanged in text form, but in real time. Some of the early research on CMC was built around a type of chat program, InterChange,  that was part of the Daedalus Integrated Writing Environment system.

UNIT 4

CALL ON THE WEB

This unit looks into the Web in more depth. The reason is that the Web represents the largest collection (by far!) of material that is accessible almost anytime and anywhere by almost anyone having a browser equipped computer and an Internet connection. The Web is also where you find the most common tool applications for CALL, in particular the browsers and online video players that give access to a seemingly endless collection of both dedicated and authentic English language material. The Web has been featured in many of the CALL articles and conference presentations since the mid 1990s, in particular practice-oriented ones. 

A.         Disadvantages of the Web

Because of the hype surrounding it for language learning, it is useful to begin with some of the disadvantages of the Web over alternatives

·         Text-based material on the Web is sometimes not as easy to read as material in paper format because of font color and background choices.

·         Sound and video sometimes take a noticeable time to transfer, even on fast connections.

·         Sound and video are typically compressed to speed up transfer: depending on the degree of compression and other factors they can be of noticeably lower quality than the original.

B.         Advantages of the Web

Despite the disadvantages, there are many good reasons for using the Web for certain language learning activities. 

·         Material can be found that is current.

·         Language reference and other learning support materials can be found.

·         Student and teacher publication opportunities exist.

·         A cultural window is opened through the authentic material readily available.

C.         Web-Based Language Learning (WBLL)

WBLL is language learning that involves the use of the Web and exploits Web materials, resources, applications or tools (Son, 2007). Given that occurs with Web activities on the Web, it is important to use well-designed WBLL activities to maximize language learning.

Based on the way creating, presenting and using materials on the Web, the following types of WBLL activities are proposed:

·         Pre-created Web activities adopting interactive language exercises that have been already created by others and are easily accessible on the Web.

·         Task-based Web activities making use of a variety of authentic Web resources for communications, information collections, problem-solving tasks, etc.

·         Teacher-made Web activities employing tailor-made language exercises modified by classroom teachers themselves for their own students.

UNIT 5

CALL AND LANGUAGE SKILL

Skills-oriented language teaching remains a common approach for classes as well as for self-learning, and computer-assisted language learning is no exception. In this unit, we look at how both tool and tutor software can be used to support specific skills. In particular, we will look at some websites that focus on these skill areas. Many of these are for free, but like everything else that's free on the web, the sites need to be looked at carefully for their pedagogical value.

There are some cases promising areas for CALL development. They are listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.

THE CHANGING WORLD OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

                Kurzweil (1999), predicted significant changes in areas of direct concern for English language teaching and research. In particular, he has made detail predictions about the changes he expects to take place in communication and education because of advances in technology. His analysis is based on his model of the speed of intellectual progress that he calls “Law of Increasing Chaos”. The idea is that with the increase of scientific understanding of how relevant systems and processes operate, a decrease occurs in what he calls “chaos”.

UNIT 6

CALL RESEARCH

So far, we have been going through this course with the implicit assumption that CALL works, that teaching language using computers in some way makes learning "better." But what exactly is "better?" Here are some possible interpretations:

·         learners pick up language knowledge or skills faster or with less effort (learning efficiency) 

·         learners can get materials or experience interactions that would otherwise be difficult or impossible (access)

·         learners can learn with more or less equal effectiveness across a wider range of times/places (convenience)

·         learners enjoy the language learning process more or are willing to engage in it more (motivation)

·         learners require less space, less teacher time, or less expensive materials (institutional efficiency)

A.         Call Research Trends

Over time researchers began to argue against comparative research (see for example Chapelle and Jamieson 1989), stating that the number of variables was too great. Research has continued in all areas of CALL but recently has focused on several identifiable areas, such as:

·         Computer mediated communication; especially, interaction in synchronous chat settings and email in tandem settings

·         Visual, text and sound annotation to promote comprehension and vocabulary acquisition

·         Effectiveness of online collaborative and constructivist activities, including development of communities

B.         Doing Research

Identifying a learning gap, creating a possible solution for it--in this case using technology--and then doing research on the effectiveness of that solution. There are several avenues available to teachers in the role of researchers of their own classroom or students.

·         Observation. When your students are using software or doing a computer-based task in a lab or other venue where you can--watch them. 

·         Tracking. Some software has built-in tracking features. If you are using a discussion board, all student posts can be reviewed.

·         Student surveys. Ask specific questions about usage note that it's best to do this as soon as possible after a CALL session sense memories fade rapidly.

·         Pre- and post-testing to evaluate outcomes of the use of technology.

·         Student journals. Getting students to keep a reflective journal of their experiences with software or other CALL activities is useful both for them and to the teacher.

UNIT 7

CALL LEARNER TRAINING

As Jones (1999) remarked with respect to using CALL materials in self-access centers, "it seems very likely that for most students CALL will need more learner training and more of the teacher’s presence than any other operations..."

There are three alternatives to CALL learner training. They are:

·         Try to build software in such a way that it adapts to the learner on a number of different levels.

·         Take the philosophical position that learners have a right to self-discovery and that left alone they will naturally move to the strategies that work for them and that are consonant with their learning style.

·         Acknowledge that learners would profit from training.

A.          Technical Training

Technical training naturally includes general computer literacy (which can be a major issue or not depending on your setting and students), but of greater interest here is learning technical skills and knowledge of particular value to language learning.

B.         Pedagogical Training

In a 2004 paper (Hubbard, 2004), there is a case for giving training not just on technical aspects but also on pedagogical ones, that is, how to use the tutorial software or tool effectively to meet specific learning objectives. Of course, in order to be effective at training students, it is necessary to thoroughly analyze the software, task, or activity you are assigning. You need to be sure that you can make the connections between given actions and learning objectives before you can expect your students to do so on their own.

C.         Learner Training for Effective Use of CALL

The goal of this chapter is to introduce the concept of CALL learner training and to provide guidance for making it a more central part of CALL than has thus far been the case. Like any other addition to the curriculum, learner training takes both preparation time and class time, and teachers wishing to implement it need to consider the obvious costs and weigh them against the potential benefits.

1.       Learner Training Research and Practice

A convenient classification for CALL applications has been provided by Levy (1997) in his distinction of tutorial versus tool uses of computer technology. According to Levy, a computer functioning in a tutorial role acts as a temporary teacher, providing instruction or guided practice, whereas a computer functioning in the tool role does not have these teaching attributes.

2.       Five principles for Learner Training

There five principles for learning training drawn from any experience over the last two decades using the computer in both tutor and tool roles.

·      Experience CALL yourself

·      Give Learners Teacher Training

·      Use a Cyclic Approach

·      Use Collaborative Debriefings

·      Teach General Exploitation Strategies

THE IMPORTANT OF WRITING

The writing skills are complex and sometimes difficult to teach, requiring mastery

not only grammatical and rhetorical devices but also of conceptual and judgemental elements. The following analysis attempt to groups the many and varied skills necessary for writing good prose into five general components or main areas.

·         Language use: the ability to write correct and appropriate sentences

·         Mechanical skills: the ability to use correctly those conventions peculiar to the written language – e.g. punctuation, spelling

·         Treatment of content: the ability to think creatively and develop thoughts, excluding all irrelevant information

·         Stylistic skills: the ability to manipulate sentences and paragraphs, and use language effectively

·         Judgement skills: the ability to write in an appropriate manner for a particular purpose with a particular audience in mind, together with an ability to select organize and order relevant information.

The actual writing conventions which it is necessary for the student to master relate chiefly (at the element stage) to punctuation and spelling. However, in punctuation there are many areas in which personal judgements are required, and test of punctuation must guard against being too rigid by recognizing that several answers may be correct unfortunately, test of punctuation and spelling often tended to inhibit writing and creativity.

Of far greater importance in the teaching and testing of writing are those skills involving the use of judgement. The ability to write for a particular audience using the most appropriate kind of language is essential for both native-speaking and foreign student alike. The use of correct registers becomes an important skill at advanced levels of writing. Failure to use correct register frequently results in incongruities and embarrassment: whereas native speakers learn to make distinction of registers intuitively, student of foreign languages usually experience problems in mastering this complex area of language. The various kinds of registers include colloquialisms, slang, jargon, archaic words, legal language, Standard English, the language used by educated writers of English. The purpose of writing will also help to establish a particular register: for example, is the student writing to entertain, inform, or explain?

A piece of continuous writing may take the form of a narrative, description, survey, record, report, discussion, or argument. In addition to the subject and the format, the actual audience (e.g. an examiner, a teacher, a student, a friend) will also determine which of the various registers is to be used. Consequently, the use of appropriate register in writing implies an awareness not only of a writing goal but also of a particular audience.

After the purpose of writing and the nature of the audience have been established, judgement is again required to determine the selection of the material which is most relevant to the task at hand (bearing in mind the time available). Organization and ordering skills then follow the selection.