Reflection on Test #2

For this weeks reflection I wanted to reflect on the material that we talked about for the second test of the class. We wrote on Asynchronous CMC, Synchronous CMC, and corpora used for language learning purposes. These have all been discussed before so I will likely make this reflection a rather short one.
First of all I believe that all three resources above can be used in a language learning classroom and can be very effective when done properly. They would all take time though to implement because students must be thoroughly taught how to use the software/website before they can complete any activity/task/project. Also each resource have different advantages and disadvantages:

• For ACMC the benefits are that the students would have time to formulate their thoughts into coherent passages before sending them to anyone else which allows for greater focus on forms and accuracy. ACMC is also good for more input and output for the students and can provide a more informal register for them to practice their L2 like in a blog or through email. 
• For SCMC on the other hand students must have to think on their feet so to speak. This is beneficial when practicing real life situations and conversations and will force the students to focus on negotiating meaning with the other participants as well as thinking quickly in the L2. This also provides more input and output opportunities than a traditional classroom through Skype or an Instant messenger.
• Corpora can be beneficial especially within the realm of reading and writing. A corpus can show learners how the language is really used by showing them real-life data collected by researchers. This can help students learn strategies like inferring meaning from context because they are able to search for words with their collocates. Also, one can be a good resource to use instead of or in addition to a dictionary which can sometimes be confusing and hard to understand if a word has multiple meanings and the corpus can help clarify the definition. Lastly, corpora can be used when teachers are teaching different registers to their students and showing how academic prose and conversation differ, for example, or what parts of speech most commonly occur in a specific register.

These benefits are just a few of the benefits that students can get from these resources. Teachers should definitely research the different options out there to help spruce up their class material and provide the students with access to the L2 in different ways. As long as the teacher keeps in mind the possible difficulties that could arise with using any of the resources above they should be successful in implementing the technology into the classroom and facilitating learning through its use.

Reflection Week 8

listen to ‘Reflection Week 8’ on Audioboo

Reflection 3/4

This last week we talked and read a lot about the use of synchronous and asynchronous CMC in a TBLT learning environment. After reading the chapter in Dubravac and the article I have come to believe that it is definitely possible to integrate both types of CMC in a task-based classroom. On the other hand, I don't believe that it is necessary to use CMC in the classroom nor do I believe that integrating CMC into every activity benefits the students. The discussion board for this class makes it clear that both asynchronous CMC and synchronous CMC can be used in tasks for the students to use, as well as, the differences between the two types of CMC and what types of activity each one can be used to benefit the students. Since this has already been discussed in depth on the discussion board I will not say much about it here. Instead I will point out what I believe the pitfalls are to using too much technology in the task-based classroom are.

I think that there are many disadvantages to using technology in a classroom and sometimes they outweigh the advantages for the students. The teacher must first have access to the technology and have the use of a computer lab or every student must have their own personal computer. This presents a problem because it is still unrealistic to assume that all of your students have their own personal laptop that they are able to bring to class, especially if they are young learners. Then if they don't have their own the teacher has to have access to a computer lab. Computer labs have their own problems associated with them because they are usually full of security settings that make it hard to use some software. Also, the students would probably have to install the software onto each computer for the day which can pose problems when the installation process doesn't go like you think it should and it takes up class time. Additionally, the computers could be outdated and unable to run some of the newer software that the teacher may want the students to use. Once these potential problems have been addressed then the teacher still has to be able to walk the students through the software/site itself. This can be troublesome if students haven't had much experience with computers or this type of software on the computer. Also, the computers may crop up with errors or not be able to play any videos or be able to record the students voice because of the lack of a microphone/videorecorder. All of these issues can take up valuable class time, frustrate the students and cause the objectives of the task to never be met. These problems are just some of the many that can arise while using technology and this makes it hard to advocate the use of technology all the time in the classroom. I believe the best way to implement CMC and other technological resources for tasks in the classroom in moderation and only after the teacher has thoroughly explored the technology and believes that the benefits outweigh any potential problems that could arise.