THE PERCEPTİONS OF ENGLİSH LANGUAGE TEACHİNG STUDENTS ON ELT WEBSİTES

Assist. Prof. Dr. Hasan Bedir/ Cukurova University

Inst Emsal Ates Ozdemir/Mersin University TURKIYE

The Study

• Introduction• Definition of some terms• Purpose of the study• Methodology- Participants & Context

Procedure Data Collection Data Analysis

• Results & Discussion

A brief history of C.A.L.L.Computer Assisted Language Learning

(Warschauer, 2004)

Theoretical Background

• C.A.L.L. (Computer Assisted Language Learning) is in use since 1960 and in the eyes of many educational technology specialists, from that of tutor to that of tool (Warschauer, 2002). CALL is based on various teaching and learning theories depending on the era and its role.

• Internet is one of the most recent tools of CALL which is in use of SLA in last couple of years. It is based on “Integrative CALL” phase and socio-cognitive view.

What does “Integrative Call’’ bring new?

It is based on Sociocognitive approaches;

With sociocognitive approaches to CALL we move from learners interaction with computers to interaction with other humans via the computer (Kern & Warschauer, 2000)

What does “integrative call” bring new?• Use of multimedia and Internet

moving from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0

Excerpted from O’Reilly (2007)

Web 1.0 Web 2.0Ofoto Flickrmp3.com NapsterBritannica Online Wikipedia personal Web sites blogging publishing participation content management systems wikisdirectories (taxonomy) tagging (“folksonomy”)

Internet and the World Wide Web?

Are they synonymous terms ?

No....

Internet is a computer network connecting millions of computers all over the world.

The web is a subset of the internet and dates back to 1993s, however, Internet dates back to 1960s

Internet & ELT

Internet provides various materials that meet different student abilities.

Lee (2000): Internet-based activities are important in keeping the students interested and engaged in the current topic or activity. He suggests four kinds of activities to be used for this aim:

conversation, retrieval of information and publication

Felix (2002): The recent research based on constructivist learning approaches strongly suggest that the Internet and the Web have the potential to add something even to the best classroom teaching.

Advantages of Internet in ELT Macmanus (2005) lists these as; 5 Cs ( communication, culture, connection,

comparisons, community building)

Motivational power

Resource-based learning

Control over learning

Interactivity

Publication

Updatability

Purpose of this study; To raise awareness of prospective English

language teachers on the theoretical and the practical uses of the internet in language learning and teaching.

Research questions: 1. What qualities do the ELT students look for in an

ELT website? 2. What makes an ELT website insufficient for

them? 3. What are their views on the use of ELT websites

in the future?

Methodology

Participants & Context: 80 English language teaching department students. (preparatory class students)

They place at the B2-C1 level according to the CEFR (Common European Framework for Languages)

24 hours a week (writing, speaking, listening, vocabulary, academic study skills, grammar and reading)

Procedure: The assignment sheet (3 among 13 websites)

Why did you choose this website? Who is it for?

What are the good points of the website?

What are the bad points of the website?

How can an English teacher make use of this website?

Data collection: The assignment sheets were collected.

Interviews to clarify the vague points

Data analysis: Quantitative and Qualitative analysis

(spss for the frequency of prefferred websites)

(content analysis for the answers to the open ended questions)

Results

The students’ preferences of specific websites

The reason why they chose a specific website

The outlook of the website

‘ It appealed to me with its good graphics and multimedia files’

The name of the website The audience of the website The variety of authentic materials

(esp.listening)

‘I chose this website because there are lots of listening activities. I thought that it will help me improve my listening, so I will speak more effectively.’

Getting immediate feedback

To use as a reference source

To share ideas with other people

The bad features of a website for students

Not updated regularly Unknown author Too many ads No bilingual quizzes No texts for the listening

materials Navigation is slow Pay charge for using the

website

The good features of a website

Testing the English level of the users

Friends from different cultures (forums, chats on the website) communicating with the

native speakers

Linder (2004) ‘ five basic possibilities of the networking English classroom’

Real time communication with other network users (using the internet as a telephone or video conferencing device, Chat)

Deferred-time communication with other network users (email, mailing lists, newsgroups, and others)

Source of information ( text, images, voice and sound, especially on the World Wide Web)

Outlet for publication (text, images, voice and sound, especially on the World Wide Web)

Distance teaching/ learning

The ideas of the students on the use of ELT websites as pre-service English language teachers

To use as authentic materials (listening)

To update their knowledge (professional development)

To communicate

Implications and suggestions

English language teachers should be good guides for students to access ELT websites which are suitable for their needs.

They should catch up with the developments in the education world

Assist. Prof. Dr. Hasan Bedir/ Cukurova University hbdir@cu.edu.tr

Inst Emsal Ates Ozdemir/Mersin Universityinfo@emsalates.com

TURKİYE

Thank you...