Teaching english in modern times

TEACHING ENGLISH IN MODERN TIMES:
GOING MOBILE AND USING SOCIAL NETWORKS
Starting the year 2000 the Internet has affected the preferred learning styles of young people wanting to learn English around the world. Now if teachers are to remain relevant and effective, then they need to use 'learning technologies' to help students reach the world outside the classroom.
According to a research in 2007 by the British Council BBC 69% of learners around the world said that they learned most effectively when socializing informally.
This result suggests that a lot of students learn best from their friends and family. Perhaps that isn’t so surprising. The things we learn from our loved ones are often more immediately relevant to our lives than what we learn from a teacher in a classroom. Also, when we are relaxed (such as when we are at home or in a café), then we are more open to suggestions and new ideas. Does that mean teachers should start taking their students to cafés more? No, of course not. However, a lot of teachers take their students outside of the classroom once a term to try and create a different experience, atmosphere and dynamic for their teaching and learning.
There are other implications from the result above. For example, teachers might find they are more successful if they:
• organize group work in their classes
• make the exercises they give their students fun, since students are motivated when they are having fun
• give their students work to do outside of the formal setting of the classroom
• take on the role of 'facilitator' rather than the role of 'giver-of-knowledge'.
It feels like everyone has a mobile phone today. So smartphones are a great way to being online, communicate in English, check your partner’s blogs, do homework and send it to the teacher in no time, in short if your mobile has internet access all day long then you have the possibility to practice your English all day long.
What these findings mean is that sometimes young people get more new information from the technology they use outside of school than they do from their teacher in the classroom. Sometimes, young people learn more from using the Internet at home or in a café than they do at school.
When young people are on the Internet, they feel 'connected' to people and the world’s knowledge. In the classroom, they can feel 'disconnected' and 'isolated'. They sometimes feel that school isn’t particularly relevant to their lives.
The implications, therefore, are that teachers might:
• try to use 'learning technologies' in the classroom whenever they can, to make the learning experience relevant to their students
• show students how to find and access information and opportunities through technology
• focus on developing students’ networking skills (both online and face-to-face) so that the students become 'connected' to people who can give them information, help them learn and keep the learning experience relevant to the student’s life
• take on the role of 'trainer' rather than 'engineer'.
Given the globalized online world we live in, learning a new language has never been easier— nor as interactive, interesting, and social! From Twitter to blogs to social networks, there are numerous ways you can start your social language learning and keep it up while making new friends.
"With social networking, students share their work with a whole class. They care a lot more about it and are willing to do things to make it special,” -Allen Teng, a Woodland Park Middle School teacher.
Using social media and online publishing has helped serve students who otherwise wouldn’t have participated as much in a traditional classroom environment: The technology gives shy and reticent students an easier way to participate in classroom discussions, allowing them to type feedback in a chat session instead of having to raise their hand to offer opinions. The landscape of social media offers a wealth of resources and information where people can discuss and expand on hobbies, interests and passions - while creating connections with others who feel the same way. Learning a language is no different.
You might wonder how a student finds time both to study and socialize as much as they want. Well, it’s important to understand that successful students combine studying and socializing, and that combining the two things helps them to be successful at both.
The implications here are that teachers might:
• find out what social networking sites students like to use
• show students what free learning opportunities are available through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook
• show students how they can set up their own blog site for free using sites like Word Press or Blogger and even
• Take on the role of 'network administrator' rather than 'materials writer'.
A list of websites is to be used in order to make it easier and more attractive for the students to get online and practice their English lessons, we have:
BLOGS - A blog is a self-published, web-based collection of writing and sometimes photos. Blogs offer a hugely exciting platform for learners to express themselves in a new language. Also to improve their writing skills having their peers correct and comment their classmates blogs, essays, poems book reports and some contemporary topics, as well as post photos, videos and audio clips to augment their presentations.
Rather than just the teacher reading student work, an entire class can read, review and give feedback on other students’ writing task.
You can Build a class blog and create lessons based on blogs. Use reading tasks, make students skim read each blog and answer thematic questions. They then exchanged their opinions on each blog and decided which one seemed most interesting. We then had a language analysis task, with samples of text from each blog. Students examined differences in style (i.e. formality), lexis and tone, before focusing on the personal blog, which used more colloquial language. After a matching task where some key phrases were identified, students were set the task of writing a blog entry on something they had done that week. Remind your students that blogs can be written in Short posts, Informal or colloquial language, and must be in First person perspective.
YOUTUBE - has become a hot commodity in the classroom, especially in high school and language centers. Teachers are sharing videos from their classrooms, recording lectures, and asking their students to create and upload videos for tasks such as presenting a conversation. You might as well ask your students to interview and record (using a smartphone, webcam or digital camera) a native teacher for a listening/speaking task. Using YouTube encourage learners to do their best because they know their video is going worldwide.
Don’t forget that at the end of one of your classes, decide on a particular topic that your class would enjoy, take suggestions or choose a topic on your own that fits in well with your curriculum. Before the next lesson begins, go to YouTube and search for short videos on the topic your class has chosen. Once you have found appropriate videos, watch the video a few times and create a difficult vocabulary guide.
• Write a short introduction to the videos you will watch. The more context you provide the better your students will understand the videos they are about to watch.
• Include both the short introduction and difficult vocabulary list on a class handout. Make sure to include the url (web page address) of the YouTube video.
• You can create a short quiz based on the videos.
• Hand out the introduction sheets and go through the introduction and difficult vocabulary list to make sure everyone understands.
• Watch the videos together as a class. If you have a computer lab this will work better as students can pair up and watch videos repeatedly. Students can then work on the quiz sheet in small groups or in pairs.

TWITTER -
Twitter warmer: Focus on a Twitter feed from a news source such as the BBC or CNN. In small groups, learners can read one tweet and try to predict the broader details of the story. They can then exchange ideas with another group before checking fuller details online. Once you "follow" CNN, BBC, ABC, THE TIMES, etc. students can be given an item of new vocabulary, and search for authentic examples of use in real time. They can then derive the meaning from context (with appropriate support from the teacher). Another example is to practice of the present continuous- the immediacy of Twitter suggests the present continuous usage just like in Facebook.
FACEBOOK - Or you as a teacher can become the monitor and create a Facebook group from your own Facebook account. (Must add your students first), there you can post tasks for the students to write on, then choose the best three for voting. This competition style stuff will make them prepare well and hopefully students will improve their writing skill. Videos, links, and other “wall” items may be posted to assist them in their preparation. In fact, this is a means to continue the classroom in other settings with much flexibility. Furthermore, using your own personal network, you could invite “guests” into the group (if you have any native speakers as contacts, colleagues or ex-students from upper levels) so that they can contribute to the discussion boards. There is a real benefit to get other experts talking to your students. The students might establish fraternity with other students and much benefit can be exchanged. Finally, make sure the students always respond to the teacher’s original post for a grade, and then give points for when they respond to others in the discussion board. Your guests will have to become members of the group to post to the Discussion Board.
MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning) describes an approach to language learning that is assisted or enhanced through the use of a handheld mobile device.
MALL is a subset of both Mobile Learning (m-learning) and Computer-assisted language learning (CALL). MALL has evolved to support students’ language learning with the increased use of mobile technologies such as mobile phones (SMARTPHONES) - MP3 and MP4 players, PDAs and devices such as the iPhone or iPad. With MALL, students are able to access language learning materials and to communicate with their teachers and peers at any time, anywhere. Not only students but also teachers can Skype friends all over the globe for free, chat in English on their mobile, iPad, iPhone, etc. and download a variety of applications from websites like babbel or itaki to your phone in order to practice and improve your English.
GOOGLE+ - to create class circle of friends and chat about a certain topic like a debate or discussion forum. Google academic, google translator.
BABBEL - to become autodidactic, Babbel bets for the usage of modern methods and the available technologies, facilitating the foreign languages learning process through multimedia interactive coursesand fun exercises. The Babbel system helps you to improve your own level and to interact with people from other cultures. With Babbel Mobile you can practice through your iPhone, iPod Touch o iPad and take advantage of the many features Babbel offers you.
You may check out your Babbel-vocabulary using Babbel Refresh, which you can download into your computer so you can use it even if you do not have internet access. Besides all that if you consider your students are eager to learn English in their own free time, then you can recommend to explore Babbel and use the feature called GENTE-PEOPLE, there you can search for someone that speaks English (or other language you would like to learn), send him or her a message and offer to exchange classes. So our students could “teach” Spanish and they will be practicing their English in return. Also in Anuncios-Presentations one can post a question or even introduce itself in order to say whom he or she would like to meet. There’s also a chat zone. And this is particularly interesting because you have chat in English, chat in Spanish, chat in Portuguese, French, German etc. so this way is very interesting and your students would love to interact with foreigners while practicing their English. The user will have the right to receive and send emails to any Babbel members. So this way of practicing any language you would like to learn is indeed extremely interactive and will definitely be really appealing to your students.

ITALKI- It is a site to learn not only English but any other language you like. First create an account and start. Similar to Babbel but with little more responsibility, your students can be a virtual teacher or a partner. Your student should get a language partner by not only asking for classes but also offering to help with their Spanish. The student would get a notebook and they can answer some questions posted there like “write what happeed today” or “write about your school, home town, best friend, family etc” so once the user post thei comment or entry they will have to wait for a correction from a person online, then while waiting they may surf the site in other users diaries and help correcting them. If your student wants special or personalized help they can get in touch with a teacher and pay their fee per hour. Italki is also a very interesting and attractive way to learn new languages.
WIKIPEDIA - is a free encyclopedia, written collaboratively by the people who use it. It is a special type of website designed to make collaboration easy, called a wiki. Many people are constantly improving , making thousands of changes per hour. All of these changes are recorded in article histories and recent changes. Current State of Wikis in Education. Although the wiki was introduced more than ten years ago, its use is relatively new in academia (Chao, 2007; Evans, 2006; Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006). Higher education has only recently begun to explore the potential educational value of wikis as a means to promote deeper learning and integration of learning experiences from both inside the classroom and out (Chen et al.,2005). As a consequence, papers related to wiki use in education have finally begun to appear in recent years. A literature search reveals the current state of the wiki education. There are a variety of applications, primarily in writing assignments, group projects, and online/distance education, although innovative uses in other areas can be found as well.
Duffy and Bruns (2006) list several possible educational uses of wikis:
• Students can use a wiki to develop research projects, with the wiki serving as ongoing
documentation of their work.
• Students can add summaries of their thoughts from the prescribed readings, building a
collaborative annotated bibliography on a wiki.
• A wiki can be used for publishing course resources like syllabi and handouts, and students
can edit and comment on these directly for all to see.
• Teachers can use wikis as a knowledge base, enabling them to share reflections and
thoughts regarding teaching practices, and allowing for versioning and documentation.
• Wikis can be used to map concepts. They are useful for brainstorming, and editing a
given wiki topic can produce a linked network of resources.
• A wiki can be used as a presentation tool in place of conventional software, and students
are able to directly comment on and revise the presentation content.
Parker & Chao
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• Wikis are tools for group authoring. Often group members collaborate on a document by
emailing to each member of the group a file that each person edits on their computer, and
some attempt is then made to coordinate the edits so that everyone’s work is equally represented;
using a wiki pulls the group members together and enables them to build and
edit the document on a single, central wiki page.
Lamb (2004) reports that a wiki called "Why Use Wikis to Teach Writing" lists a number of the
medium’s strengths for the teaching of writing skills:
• wikis stimulate writing ('fun' and 'wiki' are often associated);
• wikis provide a low-cost but effective communication and collaboration tool (with an
emphasis on text rather than software);
• wikis promote the close reading, revision, and tracking of preliminary work;
• wikis discourage 'product oriented writing' while facilitating 'writing as a process'; and
• wikis ease students into writing for a wider audience
So once teachers know all about these webpages they will be prepared to advise students and encourage them to be autodidactic and also to try to make their students work as a whole class group online.
Yamaguchi (2005) recapitulates: "A computer is better than a mobile phone for handling various types of information such as visual, sound, and textual information, but mobile phone is superior to a computer in portability. And some students don’t have their own computer"
By 2010 half of the planet's population will have access to the Internet through a mobile device. - Informa Telecoms & Media, 2007
http://www.esldrive.com/teachingtools/mallsoftware.html
The Effect of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) on Grammatical Accuracy of EFL Students*
http://mextesol.net/journal/index.php?pagejournal&id_article50

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