UserPage:merrilee

Originally from Texas (USA), I teach EFL at a university in Korea where I am the EFL Foreign Coordinator. I teach English Conversation (for all majors), Tourism English, and various courses specifically for EFL majors (conversation, writing, speaking, etc.).

About Me

I like watching movies, reading and taking pictures. My favorite movie at the moment is 2047, and my favorite author is Abraham Verghese.

I'm in Texas right now visiting my family, and the picture above is of my niece and me a few minutes after I prodded her into pulling her first tooth.

Proposal for FET8611, Assignment 3

Project Aim:

To transform my students’ attitudes toward English to create a more optimistic, fun, and constructive perception through the use of ICTs that will positively affect both in and out of class study.

Target Audience:

Korean university students with very limited English skills and whose majors are not English. These students, most of whom are freshmen, are taking English Conversation II as a requisite for graduation. ICT skills among the students vary. Most are digital natives yet do not have detailed competence beyond what they need for daily use (email, SMS, chat, online games, updating personal homepages).

Project Overview:

• There are two components to this project: a) use of mobile learning via messages sent to students’ mobile phones, requiring students to craft an answer or response to me via email; b) as part of the course requirements, students will make weekly contributions in English to 43things.com, which is a social networking site based on shared goals.
• I will be working on this project alone.

My role:

• Research inhibitory factors that deter Korean EFL students from using English websites.
• Perform a literature search to find the relevant issues when integrating ICTs into Korean learning environments.
• Research the use of tools that allow text messages to be sent to mobile phones via the internet.
• Design individual and collaborative tasks that employ the ICTs that integrate students’ use of English for a period of 12 weeks.
• Two times each week, I will send an SMS to all my student’s mobile phones. The message will consist of either a riddle or a “Mad Gab” related to the week’s class topic and material. Riddles will require conceptual and creative thinking, usually on an individual level. Mad Gabs require students to repeat a phrase to a partner multiple times until the real phrase emerges. Alternately, the student can ask a friend to repeatedly read the phrase aloud until the listening student can decipher the actual phrase. This activity aids in English learning because it illustrates the linking in spoken English, which is very different from Korean.
  • Examples: 1) “Toe Stand Gel He” when spoken quickly will sound like “Toast and Jelly.” 2) “Police Taken Oats” when spoken quickly will sound like “Please take notes.”
• The text for this semester is Person to Person. Each week the class will focus on a topic such as family, personal information, and careers. Based on the theme, students will be required to create and augment their list of 43things they want to accomplish. Throughout the semester, additional assignments will be given for students to find other people’s goals they find interesting and write a journal entry about their findings. Also, students will link to others with shared goals and contact those people via the 43things.com site. This will provide students an authentic yet non-threatening way to network online with English-speaking individuals they have shared interests with.
• Evaluate the significance and consequences of the implementations of these ICT tools at semester’s end in December 2007.

Strategies

• Numerous scaffolding techniques will be employed to ensure that students do not suffer unnecessarily from cognitive overload or stress, which will inhibit language learning as well as participation in the activities.
  • Before introducing the idea of the biweekly SMS activities, we will practice such riddles and Mad Gabs in class prior to having students do this task at home when receiving the text messages.
  • Prior to requiring 43things.com involvement, the class will use basic printed materials from the site in class time to discuss the idea behind the site. Then in groups, the students will work together to think of possible goals as well as goal categories they might want to work toward.
  • I will do a class demo to show students how to create a user account on 43things.com, how to enter goals, how to view goals of others, and how to link to and contact others with shared goals.

Desired Outcomes

• Introducing an English website that is simple to use and seamlessly networks students to other individuals worldwide will help demystify the English web for my students and act as a motivation tool to more effectively engage students in English learning.
• Integrating into English learning the use of ICTs that EFL students are already accustomed to using (SMS) will lead to positive outcomes, as English will become a more natural part of students’ daily lives.

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