№ 1. Электронные инструменты
в обучении английскому языку:
Blog, Google Reader
Аннотация
Сегодня невозможно игнорировать тот факт, что подростки и молодёжь получают большее количество информации из Интернет - ресурсов и социальных сетей. Распространение электронных гаджетов меняет стиль коммуникации, как на родном, так и на иностранном языке. Поэтому использование технологий и электронных ресурсов становится актуальной задачей особенно в обучении английскому языку, так как именно этот предмет в большей степени отвечает за формирование речевых навыков. К тому же, новые формы обучения придают привлекательность предметному содержанию и делают процесс изучения языка более интересным.
Данный документ представляет описание электронных инструментов, которые могут широко применяться в обучении английскому языку, как в классе, так и во внеурочное время. Здесь Вы найдёте подробное описание таких популярных среди учащихся инструментов как блог и Google Reader. Даже те учителя, которые раньше не пользовались этими ресурсами, могут убедиться, что на самом деле это совсем не сложно, главное только сделать первый шаг.
В данном документе приводятся ссылки на сайты, где можно легко завести страницу блога и вместе со студентами осваивать её через написание текста (поста) на интересную тему. А инструмент Google Reader поможет быстро найти созданные блоги и оставить комментарий.
Мы надеемся, что эта информация поможет сделать обучение английскому языку в Ваших классах чуть-чуть более необычным и привлекательным.
Internet Tools to Develop Communicative Skills
T echnologies have changed our lives dramatically. It is hard to imagine a single day nowadays without computers, cell phone, different gadgets and of course without Internet. And if you look at this situation more closely you will definitely come to the conclusion that nowadays it is absolutely necessary for teachers to use technologies in language teaching.
We try to teach using authentic material but why don’t we teach using authentic technologies? From their childhood our student absorb, exchange and manage information differently. They don’t write letters to share their ideas to each other any more. Nowadays they prefer social networks and blogging. They got used to deal with enormous amount of information daily so if you want them to memorize something, you should surround them with it and make them use it all the time.
This reality means that our usual face to face hours are not enough any more. Students will learn more from their habitual Internet surrounding than from artificial class situation. That looks frustrating, isn’t it?
Actually it is not. There is a simple way out. You can bring technologies into a class as first steps. It doesn’t have to be something big and complicated. Let it be a small site used as a tool to memorize words. Or let it be a short chat to organize students’ in- or out - class communication.
Yes, you can use the Internet tools out of class as well. And it doesn’t have to be all tools at once. You can always begin with one tine tool, use it for several classes, make sure you feel totally comfortable with it and only after that you can move on to another instrument or site.
And one more small detail about Internet tools. They help you to work in your own pace, they make the situation less stressful for students especially when they master their language at home, on their favorite sofa with a hot cup of tea.
To sum up, we should remember that our students are really willing to teach us something in exchange of language learning. So, let them be experts for some time. Ask them for questions and advice on how to deal with this or that site. This practice is strongly recommended to be in a foreign language though the explanations can be given both in a class and in the Internet.
This paper is aimed at giving the overview of key computer tools that can be used for language teaching. It provides short and clear steps how each tool can be used and where it can be found and downloaded.
And it also describes the methodological values of each electronic instrument (Blogs, Google Reader, Chats, VoiceThreads)
Technical Requirements
PC
Internet access
basic Web browsing and searching skills
Flash player and Java installed
Microphone
headphones
Blogs
B logs are the most widely spread ways to share information, opinions or ideas nowadays. It is a simple way to express what is in your mind and start a discussion. Technically a blog is a set of posts containing some media (video, audio, pictures) in it. In fact blogs give you a priceless opportunity to load your students with some information given in a foreign language. Of course you can choose a language depending on your goals and posted material but even 2-3 daily English sentences can work magic.
Who can use it? Anyone can have a blog. The most productive way to use them is to create a kind of a blog-web where a teacher and each of students have a separate blog. In this case everyone has a place to express themselves but still keeps an opportunity follow and comment other’s blogs.
What can we use it for? You can use your blog almost for everything. Think about skills you need to develop and create a post that can help with it. Explain grammar, share exercises, store lectures, plans and drafts, recommend and discuss books and articles, download audio and talk about it, announce test results, speak on the most common mistakes, or even pre-upload some materials for your lessons to keep students interested about what you are going to teach them.
Where can we use it? Blogs store all information on-line and they are available any minute for you, your colleagues or students. So, you can use blogs as a part of classroom activity (ex. as a grammar reference on a screen) or it can be a part of home work (ask students to find smth related to the topic, share it in comments to your post and explain how it is related). What is amazing here is that you don’t have to be on-line simultaneously to have a conversation. Students feel less stressed as they have enough time to think their answers over, to consult a dictionary or to wait for some inspiration.
How can I use it? Most of the sites where you can start your bog are very user-friendly and easy to manage. In brief you just need to register, find a site name and write your first message. Let’s see how it looks for www.blogger.com.
First of all you need to log in. You can do it with one of your existing accounts (Yandex, Google etc.) or create a new one.
Invent your blog name and register with it in the system. Consider using your real name for teaching site.
Name your blog and have a URL-address for it.
Choose basic design for your blog.
Congratulations! You have just created your personal blog and now you can write your first post in it.
Think of a title and post content. Welcome your reader if you want to.
Now you have got your post published and you can see what it looks like.
In case you are somehow not satisfied with the result you can edit it. Just press a pencil picture and change what you want to.
Remember you can format your text, add links, pictures, video etc.
That was easy, wasn’t it? Now you need to share your site with students. Just give them a link for your blog and ask about theirs.
Some links:
http://www.blogger.com/
http://wordpress.com/
http://mublog.ru/
http://blogs.yandex.ru/
http://blogs.mail.ru/
http://livejournal.com/
http://liveinternet.ru/
Google Reader
S o, now you know that blogging is simple way to develop written speech outside the class. What is even better about it, blogging unlike simple written paper tasks is really public. This fact tends to be very inspiring for students. Let them know that their text will be read not only by you but by their classmates as well. Start the first discussion in their blog comments and you will see how willing to write your students are.
But if you have more than 1 group with about 15 students in each that means that you have to check at least 30 blogs a day for new posts. Even opening that amount of sites is time-consuming. But the good news is that you don’t have to.
There are several special sites which allow you to subscribe to sites. This means you don't have to visit your favorite sites every day to see what's new; the new info comes to you. We will show you one of them –
Google Reader.
Imagine you have 30 students posting to their blogs in random. To follow their blogs you can go to http://www.google.ru/reader/ and activate your personal assistant that can help you with the situation.
Who can use it? Anybody: teachers, students, colleagues, parents, any Internet user who wants to be updated in time.
What can we use it for? To check different sites for news quickly and economize your time
Where can we use it? You can use it in a class in the beginning of a lesson to check students’ activity or written blog tasks or to draw their attention to some interesting posts
Still it is possible to use Google Reader out of a class. Just make sure you have the Internet access.
How can I use it? As usual, you will have to log in with any of your Google accounts. If you don’t have one, you can create it.
If you are attentive enough you will notice that the home page tells you about the help Google Reader can provide you with.
Any way, having logged in, you will see a big red Subscribe Button. Insert an URL-address of a blog you want to follow in the field under the button and press it. You are done.
After that you will see the added page in your subscribed list. When a new blog post appears, the name of the blog goes in bold which means you have unread posts. What is really nice you don’t have to go to the site page to read a new post, you can do it from Google Reader page. The whole post is shown in the big window on the right of the screen.
Now you don’t have to visit 30 pages to find out if there is something new there, you just visit one Google Reader page and it collects all the news for you. Your students will be impressed about how soon you come to comment on their blog posts. And if you tell them about the site they will be able to communicate more effectively.
  
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