Assignment 1 (Website Evaluation)

Wesite: http://www.eslpartyland.com/

1. What does the application attempt to “teach”?

ESL Partyland is an English website that welcomes all ESL learners and teachers to the study of English as a second language. However, this website is also suitable for both (EFL) English as a foreign language learners and native speakers. Apparently, this website is made up to help to “teach” students to learn and practice the language and as for teachers, this website will be another additional tool for them in teaching the language to the students.

This website is divided into 4 sections which are Students, Teachers, Quiz Center and ESL Partyland Section. At the Students Section, there are 7 interesting topics and students can choose their preferred topic like dating and relationships. The exercises provided in each topic comprises of all the four basic skills of English which are reading, writing, listening and speaking and this website is responsible to “teach” the students acquiring these four skills. The reading section of dating and relationship topic provides the students with text on dating advice which “teaches” the students to scheme and scan the important information in the text as well as “teaching” them the valuable dating skills. Meanwhile, for writing section; students are “taught” to write a short paragraph of essay related to the questions given. For listening part, students are required to listen to the listening text and fill in the blanks of the listening text provided on the website. Lastly, for speaking activity, students are provided with questions of dating and relationships and are asked to discuss it with friends or any discussion forum. Apart from that, there are interactive vocabulary and grammar activities for the students to practice on

As for Teachers Section, teachers are provided with interesting ideas to teach English teaching with film and video and others. As for this activity, films are suggested to the teachers and the examples of activity that covers the four basic skills are provided. Next, for the Quizzes Centre, the activities provided meant to “teach” students on Business English, Grammar, Idioms and Slang words. The best thing that I like about this Quizzes Centre is the questions are separated in different categories which are from difficult to easy. The last section which is the ESL Partyland Store offers students and teachers to buy their English language products.

In short, this website “teaches” the students the four basic skills of English through interesting and interactive activities. Besides that, this website also “teaches” the students to become a fluent speaker of English language and as for teachers; this website really offers them with great ideas to teach English especially to teenagers.

2. What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with regards to learning the content?

The students need to identify their English proficiency level before they start doing the activities provided in the website. For instance, the activities in the “Quizzes Centre Section” are ranging from very easy to difficult level. Hence, students with the lowest English proficiency level are expected to complete the very easy task before they move on to the higher level exercises. It is important for the students to complete the activities according to their level as to avoid frustration and making wrong perception like English language is hard to be learnt.

Besides that, the students are expected to have general knowledge of other areas like movies, music, and places around the world as there are quizzes in this website that asks questions related to those stated above. Apart from that, students can choose are given the freedom to choose any type of activities they want to do in order to improve their knowledge in English language. For example, the complex sentence structures that emphasizes on grammar and picture vocabulary that emphasizes on vocabulary.

3. What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?

Basically, the students need to know the basic computer skills in order to access and use the website. The basic skills mentioned here are:

1) The use of mouse or touch pad. Students need to know on how to use the mouse or click the touch pad as they need to point the preferred questions or activities by using the mouse or touch pad before they can really start doing the activities. The activities that require a lot of mouse usage are the multiple choice questions and jumble sentence exercises.

2) Typing skills. Students need to know on how to type as they need to type their answers a lot especially in writing section.

3) Downloading files or software. Students need to know on how to download files or software because sometimes the activities in websites require different software and applications. If for ESL Partyland, there is one activity, “ESL Music Scavenger Hunt” which requires the students to link to the websites which use Adobe Flash Professional Software. Thus, students need to download the adobe files before they can play the songs in that linked website.

4) Browse a website. Students need to know on how to click on the attached links in order to open new pages to do the activities provided in the linked websites.

4. While you are “playing”/” accessing”/”assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

Yes, it does remind me of my practicum days! I came out with various kinds of activities with my students. I used to give them multiple choice questions to be answered in classroom and the questions was based on a poem entitled “There’s been a Death in the Opposite House”. Students enjoyed doing the multiple choice questions because it’s easy if compared to writing task activity.

I also introduced my students with ‘Wonder Words’. This activity is more or less like jumble up sentence exercises. What you need to do is to cross all the words provided in the paper and at the end of the task you will notice the jumble up letters. The letters need to be arranged in order to get a correct answer.

5. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?

There are some of the theories of language learning underlying this application. The first one is Silent Way. Through this application, students need to learn, discover and understand the answers of the activities provided in the website on their own. This is similar to the characteristics of Silent Way method.

“The Silent Way capitalized on such learning procedures”. (Brown, 2001)

“Learners should develop independence, autonomy…..” (Gattegno, 1972 cited in Brown (2001)

The second one is The Acquisition -Learning Hypothesis proposed by Krashen. Students learn and understand the knowledge of something through a conscious process which is in this case learning English via websites.

The 'learned system' or 'learning' is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious knowledge 'about' the language (Krashen,1980)

The third one is The Risk Taking Principles. Students make guesses on difficult questions and try out the language especially in reading task and jumble up questions in the websites.

“Successful language learners….must be willing to become “gamblers”in the game of language” (Brown,2001)

6. How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website(s)?

This website applies the constructivist theory of learning. This is because the students engage themselves in active process of learning in which they need to learn and discover the knowledge on their own.

Social constructivist scholars view learning as an active process where learners should learn to discover principles, concepts and facts for themselves, hence the importance of encouraging guesswork and intuitive thinking in learners (Brown et al.1989; Ackerman 1996).

Besides that, this website also applies the Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development as some of the questions or activities are just beyond the current skills and knowledge of the learners but still close to their proximity. When the learners experience success in answering the challenging tasks, the level of confidence will boost up and they will be more motivated to do more challenging tasks.

Next, the scaffolding is also applied in this website. Teachers can always give a suitable amount of guidance according to the students’ competency. Besides that, this website also applies the Discovery Learning theory which is part of constructivist learning theory. Students are expected to be responsible of their own learning and using the existing knowledge to discover facts and new truths to be learnt.

7. In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984). In reaction to your evaluation-was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

Computer is one of the high tech gadgets that we have nowadays and even though this technology is a useful tool to human beings, I still believe that computer can never replace teachers in classroom. For me, a computer is just a helper for the teachers to enhance students’ understanding on certain subjects like Math and English but never with arts and music as both need human touch.

Besides that, we will lose human-to-human contact if we replace live teachers with computers. This is because computers can only show and not tell like teachers did. For example, if the students do not understand about Science, teachers can help to explain the theories and give examples verbally but computers just can provide us with the writing and we need to read on our own. Basically, we will remember better of what we see and hear rather than we read. Thus, it is clear that live teachers are needed in classroom.

Computer maybe can gives grades to students but not the encouragement and advice as it is just an inanimate object that have no feelings. Apart from that, a joyful classroom environment can’t be created if computers replace teachers as there is no two way of communication happens between the teachers and students.

As for students, computer is not an obedient servant for them but it acts more like a helper too because computer can facilitates students in learning and doing their assignments. The use of computer in learning among the students can also help to lengthen their attention span as computer provides with colourful graphics and layout. However, still the students can’t order the computers to do all the work as computers are programmed to do limited tasks.

8. Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

Yes. Of course I will use the application in my future work. There are reasons why I feel like using it in future.

Yes. Give reasons

No. Give reasons

First: The topics provided in the websites such as music, movies, internet and dating and relationships are always being the cup of tea among teenagers. Thus, I believe that they will be interested to do activities based on these topics.

Second: The various types of activities that cater all the four basic skills of English language attract me to use this website for my students. It is just like a 4 in 1 interactive program.

Third: My students will be exposed to other ESL websites if I use this application as it attach other links of ESL/EFL websites that are obviously are beneficial for them.

Fourth: The activities provided in the websites are divided into categories which are from very easy to difficult. Thus, I can easily appoint different level of English proficiency students to do different activities.

Suggestions and recommendations:

1) This website should add in more colours as it looks dull with white as its layout.

2) Graphics or animations should be added to this website to make it livelier and attracts younger ESL learners to use this application.