Task 2: ESL Website Evaluation

1. What does the application attempt to teach?

The website that I have chosen is English-To-Go.com which is basically, a resource website for teachers. Users of this website need to subscribe to get full access of the resources. This website also provides tonnes of printable worksheets which are complimented with teachers’ notes and answer keys as well as ideas for English lessons covering the main areas namely Instant Workbook, Anna Grammar, Weekly Warmers and Max Vocab for teachers and SelfAccess for students.

Instant Workbook, (http://www.english-to-go.com/guests/featured_lessons_iwb.cfm?CFID=3312736&CFTOKEN=11362274), is an online exercise application which provides teachers with printable worksheets to be used in class. The exercises provided which are based on Reuters news articles, range from grammar, reading, listening as well as writing. Meanwhile, Anna Grammar, (http://www.english-to-go.com/guests/anna_grammar.cfm?CFID=3312736&CFTOKEN=11362274), is an online tutorial which provides explanation of common grammar confusion like the difference between “except” and “except for” as well as a worksheet for Present Perfect tense which teachers can use as supplementary notes in class and students can access for their own use. As for Weekly Warmers, (http://www.english-to-go.com/guests/weekly_warmer.cfm?CFID=3312736&CFTOKEN=11362274), the activities function as starter and are somewhat similar to set induction to stimulate the students before starting the next week’s lesson. Lastly, Max Vocab, (http://www.english-to-go.com/guests/max_vocab.cfm?CFID=3312736&CFTOKEN=11362274), provides teachers with worksheets to enhance students’ empowerment of English words. The exercises are grouped into three different levels which are Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced to make teaching across levels possible.

As for the students, SelfAccess, (http://www.selfaccess.com/sa/sa_home.php) , offers preparation for IELTS and TOEFL with exercises that aim to empower users’ English. Even so, most of the exercises are still applicable to intermediate and advanced school students. Besides that, based on the free sample lesson, (http://www.english-to-go.com/english/samples/music_sales.cfm), this application also attempts to integrate the four language skills which are listening, speaking, reading and writing in every lesson.


2. What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?

Since this site is meant for formal instruction in classroom, most of the materials have to be printed out to be usable (Instant Workbook). Hence, students’ activities include matching, gap-filling, summarizing, completing crossword puzzles and so on using the printable worksheets.

However, for online interactive students’ learning section which is SelfAccess, (http://www.selfaccess.com/sa/sa_home.php), students are required to perform gap filling and matching exercises, and answer cloze passages based on the recordings and reading texts.

3. What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?

In general, the users need to be technology-savvy to be able to make use of the site. First and foremost, teachers or schools need to be able to conduct online transaction since subscription to this site is required in order to get full access of its material. In order to do so, the users also need to have an online account like PayPal or their access is limited to only the free samples of materials.
Under SelfAccess which is designed for students, users need to be able to perform simple tasks like clicking their answers, clicking to read the passage, typing their answers and clicking to listen to the recordings. In brief, this application does not require the users to have advanced computer skills since the tasks are clicking and typing based.

As for the printable lessons, teachers only need to know the basic skills like printing out documents, saving, copying and pasting items. If the school wishes to use this application, the teachers need to be able to make parts of this application like Teacher’s Room only accessible to teachers while the SelfAccess is connected and accessible for the lab computers for student use.

4. While you are playing/accessing/assessing the application, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

I was not fortunate to have the luxury of using computers in school to assist language learning during my school years but this site relates to me as a teacher trainee. In most ways than not, this application reminds me of my practicum period because of the arrangement of the worksheets, and course outline, (http://www.english-to-go.com/livingEnglish/index.htm).

The viewed worksheets are arranged in such an order that I used to apply during my practicum. When I was a teacher trainee, my lessons were designed according to three stages which are Pre-activity, While-activity and Post-activity. I found that by using this arrangement, my lessons became more organized and I could easily track if my lessons related from stage to stage and flowed smoothly. I also noticed that my students could follow my lessons better and responded well. Since the worksheets from this site also follow the same order, I believe it is able to bring out similar results. In addition to the worksheets, Anna Grammar, reminds me of one online grammar tutorial that I really find helpful and I regard as my grammar guru which is Grammar Girl, (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/). Both tutorials provide explanation to frequent grammar confusions in such a way that is easily comprehended and accompanied with examples. To top it up, the presence of colourful graphics in the worksheets reminds me of one of my students who said that she felt more at ease to learn English when an article is supplemented with pictures. Personally, I also felt the same way when I was in school and I still feel that the graphics make wordy articles less scary but friendlier and more inviting.

Other than that, the provided course outline, (http://www.english-to-go.com/livingEnglish/index.htm), is almost similar to the English syllabus. The similarities include its specific language content for every unit. For example, in Unit 1 (intermediate), the language content consists of Simple Present Tense, Present Continuous Tense, prepositions and question tags. Moreover, the expected outcomes are also alike. Some examples of the listed outcomes are reading for details, using contextual clues to guess meaning as well as listening and note taking.
In a nutshell, I shall say that the materials of this application are very much alike with what I and perhaps my fellow course mates used to do during our practicum. Possibly, most of the applications were also designed using Hot Potato which EDU 641 students have just learnt.


5. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?

As for the grammar part, this application uses both deductive and inductive approach. In (http://www.english-to-go.com/english/samples/AGWpresperfect.cfm) , students are presented with rules first and then (deductive), they are drilled with three exercises. This is almost the same with Grammar Translation method in which lesson starts with grammar explanation (Thornbury, 2004, p.29) except that this application is conducted in English language, not mother tongue. Meanwhile, in (http://www.english-to-go.com/english/samples/music_sales.cfm) , students are exposed to prepositions in the passage first and the rules are taught later (inductive). Hence, supporting Direct Method and the Natural Approach in which input is processed most in inductive approach (Thornbury, 2004, p.49). Other than that, in Instant Workbook, the worksheets use top-down processing that means students are trained to process the information using their schematic knowledge of the text’s genre and topic before proceeding for more detailed areas like lexis, syntax and grammar (Wallace, 2003, p.42). The texts used can be categorized as ‘language focused’ texts since they are not primarily for reading but exponents of language structure (Wallace, 2003, p. 72).

The other approaches found in this application are Audiolingual method and Communicative Language Teaching method. The former method is applied due to use of recordings in Instant Workbook and SelfAccess while Communicative Language Teaching is applied mostly in speaking activities in Instant Workbook (Brown, 2001, p. 34 & 35).


6. How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website(s)?

As found in (http://tip.psychology.org/bruner.html) , Bruner claims that learning is an active process that includes learners to construct new knowledge based on their schemata or prior knowledge. In relation to this statement, this application (specifically Instant Workbook) can be suggested as a constructivist application in which students need to use their prior knowledge to complete the Pre-activities and the previous knowledge that students have gained during While-activities will be used for Post-activities. In addition, the tasks are also sequenced to be more and more difficult as students move on and this shows the use of Krashen’s Input Theory (Brown, 2000, p. 278) that says input should be slightly over the learner’s level of competence or i+1. Other than that, the tasks also require students to interact with their peers which is stressed by Vygotsky (Brown, 2000, p. 37 & 38).


7. Was the computer a replacement for teachers or merely an obedient servant to students?

My conventional thoughts are always firm that computers can never take over a human’s position. Hence, I agree that computers serve merely as obedient servants to the users. In relation to this website, it does not replace a teacher’s place but it is an assistant to both teachers and students.

Even though it is a good site for English teaching and learning, a teacher’s presence is still needed to ensure that learning takes place. Undeniably, this application is almost the same with our English syllabus and the materials are applicable across all proficiency levels, integrating all four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), providing FAQs and some tips for teachers to optimize the use of this application, (http://selfaccess.com/kb/index.php?CategoryID=3),as well as links for further teaching and learning, (http://www.english-to-go.com/links.html). However, imagining myself as an ESL learner, I require further explanation from a teacher as to why the answer of a particular question is this and not something else. Although this site has Anna Grammar that offers grammar tutorial, I still need a teacher to drill me and give other examples that are within my schemata to facilitate understanding. Furthermore, this application does not check the accuracy of my understanding or monitor my progress which is made possible by the presence of a teacher. Other than further explanation and extra examples, this site does not replace a teacher because there is no human touch that is important for second language learners to handle affective issues. For example, motivation for better attempt and consolation for continuous mistakes are unavailable from this application. Hence, this application does not replace the significance of an English teacher.

In addition to that, this application overlooks another area that is constantly neglected that is pronunciation. Past researches have shown the importance of pronunciation instruction, yet, it remains ignored, even in this website. As in this application, emphases on other areas like vocabulary and grammar outshine the attention on this part. This precisely stresses the need of a human figure not only for students to imitate appropriate pronunciation but also to check students’ articulation, stress and intonation.


8. Would you use the application in your future work?

As an English teacher, I would possibly use this application in the future. Especially beneficial for novice teachers, this site gives me fresh ideas of how to tackle certain difficulties like getting students to talk, captivating their attention and breaking away from the conventional chalk and talk or textbook-based lesson. Since novice teachers like me have less experience and still in the “adapting mode” this site will assist me to ensure the flow of my lesson without having me to crack my head looking for ideas. As for pundits, this site can also be useful to add varieties to the long years of monotonous teaching. Moreover, the worksheets are printable and ready to use, hence, saving my precious time for other school commitments. Other than that, based on the course outline suggested, the lessons are close to Malaysia’s English curriculum specification and that implies its suitability to be applied. Even though I need to invest a large sum of money to get full access to its content, I shall say that it is a worthy investment because of these advantages. Even if I am not using it I will suggest it to be accessible in the school’s self-access centre.

Nevertheless, I will only use this application for supplementary material and not as the backbone of my lesson. This is because the application also has some flaws like the absence of pronunciation part. Besides that, I believe that teachers should avoid from being over relying on this kind of site because teachers too need to project genuine ideas. We should not preach about not spoon-feeding our students but at the same time, we spoil ourselves with useful applications like the one in this site.


9. Suggestions.

Having accessed this site and other ESL sites, I have some recommendations for mutual benefits. Firstly, the interface of the main pages should be more lively and inviting. As a user, I prefer an interface that is friendly to the eyes which means more graphics and an interesting blend of colours. While interesting pictures are only present in the worksheets, I also found that its background which is in white can be too bright and cause strain to the eyes after some time. Besides that, a forum for further discussion for teachers will add to another advantage to this website because teachers can share their experiences, ideas and critics with one another. Other than that, there should be an allocation of pronunciation skill in the application to add balance with other skills so that this application is usable to mold students to be proficient not only in written form but also orally. Last but not least, perhaps there should be a free access for self-access learning as to provide opportunities for the disadvantaged students to benefit the luxury of online learning.


References:
Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4th ed.). New York: Pearson Education.
Brown, H. D. (2001). Teaching by principles (2nd edition). New York: Pearson Education.
Thornbury, S. (2004). How to teach grammar. England: Pearson Education.
Wallace, C. (2003). Reading. Oxford OX2 6DP: Oxford University Press.
Sukatan Pelajaran Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Menengah, Bahasa Inggeris, Pusat Perkembangan Kurikulum , Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, 2003.