CALL
ESL/EFL
application report
Kholoud al-shamrani
Language CDs are very useful and
widely used by the teachers in our schools. One of these CDs , which I also
used as a teacher of elementary and intermediate stages, is Alharthy's CD. It
is an effective way for students to gain mastery over the sounds of a language
through listening especially because the audio includes material from a native
speaker . It also helps to develop their vocabulary through looking at
different pictures without the need of translation especially in the early ages
of learning. The CDs in general, are very useful for teachers because they can
use them while monitoring the class or being busy with another activity ,all
they had to do is to play the material and present it by using the data show
" the projector". If the teacher wants to present a reading passage ,
she doesn’t need to read it or mime the story. The CD will present it in a good
way. Even more , the conversation is also presented with different characters.
The CD is full of vivid pictures which may interest the students. The teacher
can repeat the material over and over which gives the student the opportunity
to understand and even memorize the material. At the same time the teacher can
save her own efforts and let the computer helps her.
The negative side
of those CDs is that student may depend on it and don’t do the reading task for
example and waiting for listening. Sometimes ,I think the teacher should leave
the student to guess the meaning or even imagine rather than just listening and
watching. But in general I find it a very useful way for teaching and it is
much better than the old way which just depend on a book or a cassette .
There is a CD for each grade .This CD is
divided into two sections ( for the first and second terms). Each term includes
different materials according to the same division in the student's book. For
example unit 1 may includes 4 lessons. The first one represents a conversation
and an introduction to the whole title or the main subject of the unit. The second
one may includes a reading material which can be represented by a native
speaker/s and also includes several pictures. It is like watching a cartoon or
an animation picture. The third one may represent a grammar which also can be
driven from the previous conversation or passage .The last section is specified
for phonetics .
In the same CD
there is a section that the teacher can use in out class activities. It
includes puzzles and games . There is also another section which is a
dictionary for all the words and terms used in the book in this specific level
of teaching.
The CD also
includes different work sheets . The teacher can easily print them and just
give them to the students in each class.
I think this application can be considered useful for both teachers
and language learners and it helps them to improve their language skills as
well as providing a comfortable and funny environment which motivate the students . I have used it
and tested it by myself for almost 3 years. All I had to do is to pick up my
computer and play the CD after connecting it to the projector. Although it can
be considered as an old or out fashion application but I believe that the
teaching and learning process remains old and our school need a lot to progress
and developed.
Here are the advantages of this application:
v It provides a native speaker model
of the language
v It also provides different exercises and drills.
v It provides
different styles and pictures 'animation'.
v Available at
any time.
v It provides an explanation of
English grammar in both Arabic and English.
v It provides different worksheets for
each topics.
v Most drills include games. Provide funny environment
v It provides talking dictionary.
While
the disadvantages in my opinion is related to the development of computer
technology which consider the CD as a traditional method of learning.
This is the personal website of Ghanem
al-harthy
http://www.b7r11.com/vb
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق