Content

1st project

• Vocabulary Building with the Help of a Fresh Piece of News
• The best outcome
• Odd one out lessons - e-mail in the classroom

2nd Project

• The World of Work

History
I've been doing a training at ELTE on CALL, instructed by Nora Nemeth. This in-set teacher-training course takes a year; we spend every Thursday afternoon at the university, in the computer lab. First it was frightening and seemed to be far too difficult to understand anything, but Nora said to give it a try. And I did.

I've finished a course book with my senior group at the end of February so I decided not to start up with a new one but to try this new method of learning and teaching. It proved to be exciting and motivating both for the students and me. There are twelve students of mine in this group.

The Circumstances
At Puskas Tivadar Telecommunications Technical Secondary School there are quite good circumstances to start with. There is an Internet laboratory, a language laboratory and two other computer labs, both with multimedia access. We have a couple of CD-ROMs, two simple language teaching software and lots of students who are very much interested in computers and Internet. Most of them have some kind of exam in the field. I am familiar with word processing and Excel, can use the e-mail. During the course I am getting to know how to search the Internet and every Thursday - thanks to Nora - I go home with lots of ideas about using the computer for teaching purposes.

The First Steps
At the university Tamas Kokay introduced us the Oxford Advanced Students' Dictionary. I got to like it because of its many-sidedness. Very bravely I installed the two copies on two computers (unfortunately it cannot be used in network).

The first lesson
The exercises: I gave six-six words to look up to the students who were divided into two groups. They listened to the pronunciation and wrote one-one sentences to illustrate the usage. There were some words, which were illustrated with pictures or videos as well, so they tried out how it works. When ready they were allowed to try any of the four kinds of games. They had to learn the words as homework.

The second lesson
I decided to try the language teaching software in the language lab. Since we were at the end of their regular studies it seemed not to be strange to give them multiple choice type grammar and vocabulary exercises. Tantal gave this software with the laboratory.

The exercise: I sorted out 50 exercises of different kind and gave them 40 minutes to solve.

During these two lessons it became clear that the students like using computers and got motivated by the new way of learning. It was clear that I should make up a plan for the next couple of lessons. First it wasn't meant to be a project but it grew over the original idea. I am giving the outcome here.

The first CALL project

Vocabulary Building with the Help of a Fresh Piece of News

1. Reading, Understanding and Translating (2 x 45 min)
2. Checking with Quartext, which is a total deletion type of language teaching software (1 x 45 min)
3. Summaryzing, Simplification (2 x 45 min)
4. Follow up

The First and Second Lessons

Reading, Understanding, and Translating

Organisation:

Three students were seated next to one computer in the Internet lab. I had put on a piece of news to their computers. I had downloaded this news from the Internet the previous day, so they could see how update the exercise was. I divided the news into three and every group had a different part. I have html exercise sheet. (There was a previous version in word format, so this lesson can be held without this html worksheet.)

The exercises:

• They were asked to look up the meaning and the word categories in an Internet dictionary. I was only interested in the meaning and category concerned in the text.
• After looking up the words they were asked to understand their paragraph. In order to show their understanding I asked them to write two comprehensive questions for another group.
• The groups sat one place further to answer the questions. It was not too difficult because they had the words of the text prepared.
• After answering the question they sat to the next computer where they found the third part of the news. They had to translate it in two steps.
• First it was some kind of rough translation and then
• I asked them to make their translation sound good in Hungarian. They were advised to use the spell check both in English and in Hungarian. (The word list and the answered questions - had done by the other groups - made their job easier.

AID: Word processor and the dictionary (http://www.sztaki.hu/services/dictionary/)

Knowledge required: some familiarity with word processing, nothing about the Internet

After the lesson I copied their work on a disk, edited into one file, printed and then highlighted the mistakes. I gave them these sheets to learn the words and to think about the problems I marked.

Conclusion: There was no problem during the lessons. They enjoyed my hints on making their work easier. They learnt some word-processing as well. It was a good idea not to provide them with the whole text at the beginning because this trick kept them interested.  

The Third Lesson

The organisation

We worked in a traditional type language lab, where I had installed Quartext, a total deletion type language teaching software. I loaded the original textof the news up. The students worked individually.

The exercise

The program (with its Hopscotch option) let me check if the students had learnt the words at home. Every fourth word was deleted and they had to type them in.

The Fourth and Fifth Lesson

The organisation:

The students came to the lesson with their worksheet and I seated two of them to one computer. (They were provided with the completed, printed form of their worksheet after the second lesson.)

The exercises:

• First we discussed the problems frontally and they made some corrections on the sheet.

I asked them to simplify the text exactly in one hundred words, trying to avoid the use of passive voice, which was so characteristic in the original text.

I continuously gave help to them with word processing and any other way.

They were asked to take care of the layout. The text should consist of three paragraphs, should have a nice title, and no spelling mistakes.

Ten minutes before the end of the second lesson almost every pair had their well done job ready. I asked them to give their comments on the news to the text.

After the lesson I copied their work into one file and gave the sheet to them. Their homework was to compare the original text with the six simplified versions and the simplified versions to each other.

•   AID: Word processor and the dictionary (http://www.sztaki.hu/services/dictionary/)

Conclusion: I was not prepared for such a big waste of time, I wanted to do it in one lesson.

The Sixth Lesson, Follow-up

We discussed which the best solution is and why. We were talking about the topic (drug testing in schools) itself and our project as well. We highlighted the difference between the spoken language and the journalism.

Aid: No computers, no nothing but the outcome of the project, in its printed version.

How to use E-mail for Teaching Purposes

The first lesson

Preparation: I had a hand of a technician who created e-mail addresses for my group. In advance I sent a welcome message to them just for fun.

Organisation: Every student had its own computer and worked individually.

Exercise: They were instructed in the target language to make an address book, to create a group address and to write a message for the whole group about this very first experience with emailing. I am one of the group members so I could see their opinion and I was very happy with that.

The second lesson

Preparation: I asked our native English teacher to send a message to the group and I responded to their e-mail comments myself.

Organisation: Every student had its own computer and worked individually.

Exercise: They had to check their mail. I asked them to reply to the native English teacher with a nice joke and to write to the whole group about their weekend. They had time to reply for some of these new messages.

My second CALL project

THE WORLD OF WORK

It is a twelve-lesson project on finding and getting a job. It starts with getting to be familiar with the Internet.

The project consists of

• listening exercise
• how to search the net
• searching for job via Internet
• applying for a job with the help of the word processor
• writing one's own CV
• making arrangements on the phone
• going to a job interview

The first lesson

Listening exercises, a modern song

Aim: To make the students interested in working with the Internet.

Skills: Listening, writing.

1. We talked about the latest hits, their favourites and about Madonna's latest clip.
2.  
3. They were asked to take notes of longer parts of the lyric while listening. I told them not to write anything shorter than three words. At this stage they weren't given the worksheets. I put their findings on the board.
4.  
5. They worked in pairs. They filled in the sheet with the words from the board without listening the song for the
6. second time.
7.  
8. We listened to the song again so that they could complete the worksheet with the words, which were still missing and could check if they had been right.
9.  
10. Volunteers read out and translated the lyric verse by verse and I put the useful words and expressions on the board. Frontal work.
11.  
12. The students were provided with the Hungarian sentences. They had to find their original pattern in the text in pairs.
13.  
14. With the help of the original sentence they formed the new sentences individually.

The second lesson

How to search the Net

Aim: To get to know how to use the Internet for specific purposes.

Skills: Reading.

1. We talked about the Internet generally.
2. The students had a couple of minutes to search by topics or keywords freely.
3. I put the address of a lyrics server onto the board and they searched it for their favourite songs. I showed them how to copy it in a document file. They were asked to search for songs of which they had the record.
4. For homework they were asked to prepare a worksheet from a song.

The third lesson

Searching for job

Aim: To get to know how to use the Internet for specific purposes.

Skills: Reading for information.

Organisation: I checked the Internet access and took my students to the Internet lab. They worked in pairs.

1. As a warmer we filled in a worksheet of a song they prepared at home.
2. Vocabulary of finding job. I had put some nouns, verbs and adjectives in separate groups on the board in advance. We checked if they knew them and gave some more words to the word groups.
3. I told them to try different search engines randomly to find a telecommunication technician job since thy are training to be one. I had prepared for the case of failure so had a specific Internet address.
4. The students had a couple of minutes to search and to read the advertisements and choose one. Then they copied the advertisement into a word file. They were allowed to use a bilingual Internet dictionary to check the most important unknown words (http://www.sztaki.hu/services/dictionary/)
5. I asked them to look at the word list on the board again, and to give some important new words to it. They copied the board into their exercise books.
6. After the lesson I printed the advertisements and gave them to the students along with a copy of an official letter. At home they had to learn the new words, to study the advertisement and the letter of application as well.

The forth lesson

Applying for a job, letter writing

Aim: Writing an official letter.

Skills: Writing.

1. We revised the vocabulary frontally.
2. I asked them to list the important elements and the features of the official letter.
3. I asked them to write the letter of application with the help of the letter-pattern and the ad. Some of them needed my help with finding the important data in the advertisement. I put a stress on word processing as well, concerning font-size, paragraphs and many other things. (They were allowed to tell lies in their letter just to make it more interesting.)
4. When ready, we viewed the form and the neatness before saving the file.
5. After the lesson I printed the letters and gave them to the students along with a pattern of a CV. At home they had to check their letters and study the form and vocabulary of the CV.

The fifth lesson

How to write a CV

Aim: To complete the application with a CV.

Skills: Writing.

1. We had a couple of words about the letters, the characteristic problems frontally.
2. We discussed the grammatical form and the outlook of an official CV. We answered the vocabulary needs still with the whole group.
3. Students were instructed to write their own CV. They did not have to be down to earth with their personal particulars.
4. They checked the outcomes in pairs, made the necessary corrections.
5. We had a last look at the pattern comparing its form to the children's work and they saved the files.
6. I printed the CV-s and gave them to the students. At home they had to look for mistakes and learn the new words.

The sixth lesson

Clearing up

Aim: To correct the typical mistakes of the letters and CVs.

Skills: Writing, grammar.

1. As a worming up exercise we listened to the music and did the gap-filling exercises.
2. We discussed the typical mistakes of their official letters and CVs, spoke about grammar, style and layout.
3. I asked them to revive the vocabulary of making phone calls in pairs and then as a class.
4. They listened the conversations, took notes on the copies of the tape-script.
5. They were asked to learn the new expressions at home.

The seventh and the eighth lessons

Talking on the Phone/1

Aim: Making arrangements on the phone. (Collecting the vocabulary, practicisng)

Skills: Mostly speaking

1. I introduced how to use the CDs and what the aim of the lesson is.
2. The students worked through the conversation (disk 3, Talk to me). They could do this at their own speed.
3. They were given the scripts of the conversation in order to learn the expressions as homework.

  Talking on the Phone/2

Aim: Making arrangements on the phone. (Reacording their telephone conversations)

Skills: Mostly speaking

Conclusion: They enjoyed making the records. All of them had the exercise completed in time. I took the cassettes home and made some notes on the mistakes. Next time they were given the result.

The tenth and eleventh lesson

Job Interview/1

Aim: Preparing for a job interview

Skills: reading, writing

Conclusion: It was not easy to include all the previous information correctly. They realised that it is a part of a project and got to understand how the pieces build on each other.

Job Interview/2

Aim: Going on a job interview

Skills: speaking

Organisation: We went to the traditional language lab wihere conversations can be recorded. Students worked in pairs. They had the corrected script of their job interview.

Exercises: They were directed to make the record of the job interview with any changes to the original. They could do it as many times as they liked.

Conclusion: They enjoyed making the records. All of them had the exercise completed in time. I took the cassettes home and made some notes on the mistakes, like in the case of telephon conversations.

The twelveth lesson

Clearing up

Aim: To correct the typical mistakes of the interviews. To summaryze the whole project, checking the documents.

Skills: speaking

• Organisation: We worked as a group and didn't use any computers this time .
• Exercise: We discussed the whole project and talked about its future importance. They got marks on the project.

top

home