WhatsApp and its Contributions to Teach Speaking

Since pandemic and therefore, virtual courses have started, education had the necessity of evolving and adapting to the brand-new needs and demands of a digital learning environment, which is constantly changing and offering tools and ways to develop our classes. In order to do that, several technological developments: devices, online applications, and even games features, have appeared offering an opportunity to face the challenges of the latest historical context. Actually, according to Bahadorfar M., and Omidvar R. (2014), technology and education have been successfully connected and it improved speaking opportunities: 

• Technology is the vehicle to get access with this modernized world. More than the process of communication, trade and transactions, today technology is widely used in educational sectors. Technological tools have been regarded as ways of helping students improve language skills such as speaking skill. Internet, podcasts, video conferencing, videos and speech recognition software are considered the best tools for teaching speaking skill. (p. 9)

Particularly, when it comes to teaching English in this digital era, teaching speaking has been an issue as a consequence of 2 main reasons, the first one is that since the on-line meetings don’t allow students to meaningfully participate in speaking activities due to the lack of interaction, students are not able to constantly practice and use the L2, thus, they don’t achieve a meaningful improvement of the speaking skill. In addition, the second reason is the emotional factors that influence the process of practicing the L2 through speaking, such as anxiety or insecurity. Therefore, it’s essential to take into account these factors in order to look for alternatives that can be useful to reach meaningful speaking experiences.

A simple and friendly tool to implement when it comes to practicing speaking in the EFL settings, is Whats App, due to the accessibility and versatility it offers. It allows students to constantly rehearse the speaking ability by monitoring their language output for mistakes by re-playing an audio recording. Furthermore, Han and Keskin (2016) suggests that at the same time their pronunciation is constantly improving by paying attention to their accent, intonation and speed of speech.

Regarding the application of this ICT's into the classroom settings, itself offers a wide variety of alternatives to be implemented. For instance, audio recorder allows students to constantly keep in contact with the L2 by both sending and receiving interactions. Therefore, this is an useful alternative that fosters the development of output, similarly when it comes to receive interactions that implies an input development. Additionally, as we mentioned before, the whole interactions made with this ICT's can be constantly revised and corrected in order to clean up pronunciation, intonation and the speed of the speech. In other words, the use of this ICT's rehearsal progressively the speaking ability.

References.

Bahadorfar, M. & Omidvar, R. (2014). TECHNOLOGY IN TEACHING SPEAKING SKILL. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Review. 2. 9-13. 

Han, T. & Keskin, F. (2016). Using a Mobile Application (WhatsApp) to Reduce EFL Speaking Anxiety. Gist Education and Learning Research Journal. ISSN 1692-5777.

No.12. (January - June) 2016. pp. 29-50.

Readlang VS Newsela to Teach Reading

Newsela vs Readlang to Teach Reading  

Reading is one of the skills included in the domains of "Language Arts Instruction" and through this skill, English language understanding can be improved being beneficial for students' acquisition of spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation.

When it comes to introducing texts in the classroom to promote English acquisition, it is important to be aware of the capabilities and interests of our students to promote them to read with love and interest. Texts can be modified or adapted considering leaner's levels of understanding. Subsequently, reading an article or a piece of writing can promote instances to discuss and express opinions orally. Hazaea & Alzubi (2016) consider that: "the use of the Internet for reading to improve the general ability for student comprehension of texts can be directly related to students’ personal needs and interests, thus promoting a more autonomous student role and sense of control over their own work that might result in a higher degree of motivation" (p. 78).

Newsela and Readlang are both useful ICT tools to develop scan and skim abilities. The options that are presented in Newsela as choosing the number of words and complexity of vocabulary are suitable for skimming to find general ideas on paragraphs without misguiding attention to unnecessary information. For scanning, as well as in Newsela, Readlang offers texts adapted to each level of proficiency in which students can focus on searching for specific and detailed information, avoiding reading long texts, and adapting the text for the learner's English dominance, language, and vocabulary. These options, allow us as teachers to provide a variety of texts responding to our students' needs without forcing them to read texts that they would not be able to understand.  

These tools are also quite useful to employ in the classroom for language learning. Newsela points out to be a good place for students to search for articles, research, papers, etc. So, as a teacher, we could implement this tool in 9th to 12th graders to read in class, and for research information when a work has been given. On the other hand, Readlang is an app that we could use to practice language, especially for 5th to 8th graders, the material that is offered in this tool such as vocabulary cards are perfect for class activities and to correct common mistakes among kids that are just learning English.

The limitations that can we can find while using these tools are the followings: 

- Employing Readlang, the excessive use of translation can lead students to stop acquiring language and vocabulary as they should to advance on the L2, in addition to this, the translations can be inaccurate sometimes, so teachers must bring up this tool for autonomous and truly responsible students. 

- Even though Newsella can be a very good tool for students to enrich vocabulary, it is mostly used for native speakers, so it is mainly focused on improving L1 reading skills more than on students learning L2 reading skills.

-Provided that students get used to easily translating extended texts and intelligent computers checking their wrong answers, the more they become lazy with reading actively to comprehend by their own words what is being read.

Giròn Garcia (2015) mentioned, "This means that reading is a thinking process through which readers must relate the written symbols they perceive to their knowledge of the language, of texts, of content areas, and of the world, in order to bring meaning to a text." (p. 78). What this cites points to, is the imperative need for active thinking in EFL and the reading process, we seek to comprehend and understand literacy, and students inserted in a technological environment are conducted to simplify every task given. To avoid this, teachers and educators should be careful with the repetitive use of Readlang and Newsela in EFL teaching. 

References.

    Giron-Garcia, Carolina. (2015). Literacy and technologies in EFL settings: Fostering reading comprehension on the internet. 

    Hazaea, AAlzubi. (2016). The Effectiveness of Using Mobile on EFL Learners Reading Practices in Najran University. a

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Padlet as a Tool to Teach Vocabulary

Considering the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers all around the world had to implement technologies to promote learning through online classes. Many difficulties manifested during remote classes such as lack of internet connection, not having proper facilities to study or learn, and, students' absence of participation and motivation. 

Now, referring to teaching English as a Foreign Language, classrooms were moved to "Zoom" or "Meet" video conference apps, this change led to look up for the use of more creative and didactic tools to teach vocabulary, and grammar, and foster a balanced literacy. In this sense, teachers have to get trained in the usage of ICTs in order to adjust their knowledge and methodologies according to the presented challenge. That need raised awareness of several digital applications that can be used both in online courses and also in in-person teaching. According to, Hsu et. al quoted Beltrán (2019) suggests: "Nowadays, there is a significant number of tools and online applications that support collaborative learning but their adoption in classroom courses is still in its early stages" (p. 202). Nowadays, diverse digital tools are being implemented in classrooms to make learning more interactive and engaging.

Mainly, a very useful and interactive tool to be inserted in classrooms is Padlet. Padlet has a dynamic interface that can be modified depending on the teacher's goals and motivations. Through Padlet, teachers, and students can interact by uploading different tasks and materials such as audio and video recordings, images, and files, and adding links to websites; connected to the content studied in class.

Some advantages of implementing Padlet in an EFL classroom are: 

• Promotes collaborative and interactive learning.
• Enhance students' participation and commitment. 
• Fosters all the materials implemented in classes allowing students to check them whenever they want or need them. 

Considering the advantages provided above, you can use Padlet to upload different materials implemented in your classes. If you want to teach vocabulary, recording videos or audio files are options you can consider to help your students' learning process. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that this tool can have some limitations for students such as not being attractive to students. To avoid this issue, students' voices need to be considered in the design and selection of materials they want to work with. Subsequently, students need to be taught how to use Padlet and learn about its characteristics and elements. If teachers and students develop active communication, both will benefit from the implementation of the interactive tool. 

Watch the following tutorial to see how Padlet works:

Write & Improve and Grammarly to teach writing

 

Tools to develop and improve the skill of Writing

Writing is one of the four basic skills of English and one of the complex ones for learners and Hinkel, Leki & Carson (1997) said that is particularly challenging even for the more advanced learner because it is necessary to take into account several factors such as grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and organization. This skill is an essential part of language learning due to is a reflective activity that students develop on a specific topic and structure their ideas.  

In this way, writing is one of the ways to communicate with people, regardless of the context. Unlike speaking, which is spontaneous, writing requires more time to think, which allows them more opportunity for language processing that is thinking about language. In addition, writing is a gradual process, which goes from less to more. Thus, teachers should work on this skill according to the level of their students to engage them with activities which are easy and enjoyable to take part in, so that writing activities not only become a normal part of classroom life but also present opportunities for students to achieve almost instant success. 

Thanks to the development of technology, different apps, and digital tools have been created to practice writing with activities of different levels. They suggest corrections to improve style, grammar, coherence, and organization, among other things. 

Write & improve

This digital tool is online and free. It belongs to Cambridge, and students and teachers can use it. The options it offers for teachers are that they can create online exercise books or send writing tasks to students. In this way, they can practice in the classroom or at home. On the other hand, students from 7th to 12th grade can use it because the levels are beginner, intermediate, and advanced. There is also an option about business, and another called Just for fun. There is a variety of writing exercises such as stories, emails, articles, reviews, and proposals. It provides feedback to the person who uses it. To work with this tool, you need to register with an email, and you just have to choose a task, write, and minutes later, the relevant corrections and comments will appear to understand the mistakes. In addition, it shows how to improve grammar and vocabulary. However, the limitations of this tool are that with each writing that the person does, it tells him/ her what level he/she is at, so sometimes it does not reflect that level. Another limitation is that the feedback is incomplete and will not compare to a real teacher's.

Grammarly

It is a free writing app that makes sure that everything you type is easy to read and mistake-free. This tool can spell check and even detect words used in the wrong context. It also can even fix commonly confused words such as lose/loose, practise/practice, etc. In addition, it has a good grammar checking system that can fix hundreds of grammatical errors and gives very good explanations as to why your structures are wrong. This app can be used by students from 7th to 12th grade in order to practice, develop and improve their writing in the classroom or at home. To work with Grammarly, you have to register with the mail. Once you have logged in, start to write. The number in the red circle shows the number of errors you have. If you click on that circle, it will take you to a new screen where you can see the errors and their recommended corrections. This tool gives you suggested corrections for each of the errors you make and a detailed description of the correct answer. In addition, by adding Grammarly to Chrome, all the spelling and grammar will be checked whenever you use Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere else you write on the internet. However, one of the limitations is that to ensure it corrects all the mistakes, the person will have to buy the premium version, and there is no mobile version to use on the phone or tablet.

References: 

https://writeandimprove.com 

https://app.grammarly.com 

Youtube and Lyricstraining to Develop the Skill of Listening

Listening Practice

The importance of good resources to provide input 

When we talk about listening reinforcement one of the first resource that we keep in mind are scripted dialogues in which people talk about specific topics. Nowadays it is almost a need, to provide authentic material that connect with the students’ reality. The authentic material allow students connect with the language in real contexts which is beneficial for practice intonation, pronunciation, rhythm and acquire vocabulary.   

Despite authentic material has a variety of forms such as movies or series, one of the most important is music. 

In recent years, studies have emerged around the use of music for teaching english and it’s benefits in the improvement of their skills, such as one that was made by Helen Doron English Academy which mention that music could help students in their process because “the rhythm of music, as well as the repetitive patterns within the song, help us memorize words.” But in addition to this, music also helps in the pronunciation of new words by imitation, even when the words are unknown. Finally it was demonstrated that the brain is completely active when it is exposed to this stimulus.

Directly related to listen music, singing is even more beneficial in learner’s process because it allows them to practice, recognize and imitate the movements of mouth and tongue for each sound in deferents rhythms. 

 To this now we have different platforms that provide a significant input on diverse ways.

One of the most common platforms for access to input is Youtube, a video platform in which you can find all kind of video that you could adapt to your needs, level and tastes. 

Another resource that is focused on skills like listening, writing and speaking is the website lyricstraining.com which is an amazing option to give input in a funny way helping with the engagement of students. 

This is a website in which students have the option to access to hundreds songs to sing karaoke and write the lyric at the same time. With this dynamic you can reinforce their listening skills and practice vocabulary using friendly resources for them. 

A simple way to apply this tool in class is preparing some options of different styles of song so the students could choose one to practice on different levels. First the student could try to complete the song in the platform, to next continue underlined key and new words. Finally student could write a reflection about the meaning of the song and try to write some parts without the lyrics using just their memory.

This type of activity is adaptable for different ages and levels of L2.   

 

How might you use it to foster language learning? Think about your target audience.

What limitations can you see with the use of this technology for the purposes of language learning?