A Delicious Week 3!

This third week was full of surprises for me. I gained a lot of knowledge and practice using different websites that develop Oral/Aural skills. I was impressed by the serious research I found on the article “The pedagogy-technology interface in Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training” by A. Neri, C. Cucchiarini, H. Strik and L. Boves. Where I learned how important is “the relationship between pedagogy and technology” if teachers use “Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) courseware” in their classes. 

I read how students can benefit from learning a second language in “a private, stress-free environment” using this software. Also I realize how convenient the Automatic Speech Recognition technology is for delivering instantaneous and individualized feedback to the students besides the fact that students can practice English at their own pace.

One of the best things of this article is that I learned about many CALL options to use with my students.

I feelt the necessity to do a brief research to see which systems are currently the most used. I found this link with an interesting comparison between the best rated products on 2012: http://esl-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ . To my surprise the first place was the brand Auralog with “Tell me More English” and it was not the most expensive either.

I remember that years ago, I used to pay high monthly tuitions to be enrolled in an English school with a lab with one of those impressive software.

Now besides the CALL systems, the students and teachers can use many free resources available using internet and our personal computer. This is what I found very convenient from this third week.

“Another system that simulates a real-world, game-like learning setting is the Microworld” L. Boves. I found this interesting article where describe how this system had been used to in children education.  http://www.courses.unt.edu/Ennis-Cole/articles/a27.pdf

I like the fact that I can advice parents to use this links or systems at home with their children or with themselves. I always have parents asking me: How can I study at home to learn English and help my children too? This is a great way to do it.

Also the experience with Delicious was really satisfactory. Now I can forget about creating a list (using word processor) of websites I consulted during the month. I actually can just upload them to my Delicious page, create the labels and share it with my colleagues! It sounds so easy to say it now, after I was struggling at the beginning when I was creating my page.

Without a doubt, all those links are going to help me teach English better to my students. Don’t you think?