Listen and Discuss 1.6.

On the Web, College Classes With No Charge (or Credit)

1. What is e-learning?

2. What can be advantages and disadvantages of e-learning?

3. Listen, fill the gaps and check your answers.

Knowledge is free on the Internet at a small but growing number of colleges and universities.

About ________________schools around the world now offer course materials free online to the public. Recent additions in the United States include projects at Yale, Johns Hopkins and the University of California, Berkeley.

Berkeley said it will offer videos of lectures on YouTube. Free videos from other schools are __________________at the Apple iTunes store.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology became an early leader with its OpenCourseWare project, first announced in __________________. Free lecture notes, exams and other resources are published at____________________________. Many exams and homework_____________________ even include the answers. The Web site also has videos of lectures and demonstrations.

Today, OpenCourseWare offers materials from one thousand eight hundred __________________and __________________courses. These range from physics and linear algebra to_____________________, political science -- even scuba diving.

Visitors can learn the same things M.I.T. students learn. But as the site points out, OpenCourseWare is not an M.I.T. education. Visitors ______________________toward a degree. Some materials from a course may not be available, and the site does not provide contact with teachers.

Still, M.I.T. says the site has had visits by ____________________ visitors from almost every country. ___________________ of the visitors are from outside the United States and Canada.

There are links to materials translated into Spanish, ________________, Chinese and ________________. OpenCourseWare averages one million visits each month, and the translations receive __________________________ more.

Students and educators use the site, including students at M.I.T. But the largest number of visitors, about half, are __________________________________________.

Some professors have become well known around the world as a result of _______________________. Walter Lewin, a physics professor at M.I.T., is especially popular. Fans enjoy his entertaining demonstrations.

M.I.T. OpenCourse________________________ now includes materials for high school. The goal is to improve education in science, technology, math and engineering.

Discuss and Write1.6.

Problems and criticisms of CALL instruction

1. Divide the text into appropriate paragraphs.

2. Replace the discourse markers given in bold letters with their synonyms.

3. Make a list of problems and arrange them according to their complexity.

4. Write a report about measures that could be taken to overcome these problems.

The impact of CALL in foreign language education has been modest. Several reasons can be attributed to this.

The first is the limitations of the technology, both in its ability and availability. First of all, there is the problem with cost^] and the simple availability of technological resources such as the Internet (either non-existent as can be the case in many developing countries or lack of bandwidth, as can be the case just about anywhere). However, the limitations that current computer technology has can be problematic as well. While computer technology has improved greatly in the last three decades, demands placed on CALL have grown even more so. One major goal is to have computers with which students can have true, human-like interaction, esp. for speaking practice; however, the technology is far from that point. Not to mention that if the computer cannot evaluate a learner’s speech exactly, it is almost no use at all. However, most of the problems that appear in the literature on CALL have more to do with teacher expectations and apprehensions about what computers can do for the language learner and teacher. Teachers and administrators tend to either think computers are worthless or even harmful, or can do far more than they are really capable of. Reluctance on part of teachers can come from lack of understanding and even fear of technology. Often CALL is not implemented unless it is required even if training is offered to teachers. One reason for this is that from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, computer technology was limited mostly for the sciences, creating a real and psychological distance for language teaching. Language teachers can be more comfortable with textbooks because it is what they are used do, and there is the idea that the use of computers threatens traditional literacy skills since such are heavily tied to books. These stem in part because there is a significant generation gap between teachers (many of whom did not grow up with computers) and students (who did grow up with them).

Also, teachers may resist because CALL activities can be more difficult to evaluate than more traditional exercises. For example, most Mexican teachers feel strongly that a completed fill-in textbook “proves” learning. While students seem may be motivated by exercises like branching stories, adventures, puzzles or logic, these activities provide little in the way of systematic evaluation of progress. Even teachers who may otherwise see benefits to CALL may be put off by the time and effort needed to implement it well. However “seductive” the power of computing systems may be, like with the introduction of the audio language lab in the 1960’s, those who simply expect results by purchasing expensive equipment are likely to be disappointed. To begin with, there are the simple matters of sorting through the numerous resources that exist and getting students ready to use computer resources. With Internet sites alone, it can be very difficult to know where to begin, and if students are unfamiliar with the resource to be used, the teacher must take time to teach it. Also, there is a lack of unified theoretical framework for designing and evaluating CALL systems as well as absence of conclusive empirical evidence for the pedagogical benefits of computers in language. Most teachers lack the time or training to create CALL-based assignments, leading to reliance on commercially-published sources, whether such are pedagogically sound or not. However, the most crucial factor that can lead to the failure of CALL, or the use of any technology in language education is not the failure of the technology, but rather the failure to invest adequately in teacher and the lack of imagination to take advantage of the technology's flexibility. Graham Davies states that too often, technology is seen as a panacea, especially by administrators, and the human component necessary to make it beneficial is ignored. Under these circumstances, he argues, "it is probably better to dispense with technology altogether".

Find and present information 1.6.

Find and present the information about these organisations:

1. EUROCALL (Europe)

2. CALICO (USA)

3. SIGs within CALICO

4. Natural Language Processing (NLP)

5. Intelligent CALL (ICALL)

MODULE 2. Syllabus Design and Curriculum Development

Unit 2.1.From National Curriculum to a Coursebook Unit

Terminology to Study 2.1.

Choose 2- 3 terms and work out Word Map in Visual Thesaurus Style. For reference you might resort to A Handbook of English-Russian Terminology for Language Teaching

Curriculum

National Curriculum

Course

Programme

Course design/Programme design

Syllabus

Sylabus design

Threshold Level

Subject

Unit

Lead-in 2.1.