Final Reflection

Final Reflection

 

First of all I really have to say that this course helped me a lot in getting into the topic of web 2.0 and learning about different methods of using it. Since I am not professional concerning such technical things, I benefited a lot from the information we got during the course. I did not expect that the web 2.0 offers that much language learning opportunities at all, especially for more advanced classes but also for the primary classroom.

What I liked a lot in that class were the various practical phases which made me getting to know the different possibilities of using the web, for example blogs, wikis and podcasts. By trying out things by myself and creating my indiviadual blog, I learned more than just the theoretical background. Since a lot of seminars are very much focused on theories and reading abstract literature, I am not used to such a free and independent way of working. However, I could really identify with these working phases since I prefer to be actively involved rather than sitting around passively. In my opinion there must be more opportunities to work creatively and become active at the PH in general.

Concerning blogs and wikis I think that they both offer a great number of language learning opportunities and advantages. Whereas wikis are more interactive since one can easily communicate synchronously with each other, blogs seem like a digital diary to me which can be personalized a lot.

Depending on what a teacher wants to achieve by using one of these tools for language learning, they can both be helpful. I personally would use wikis in the classroom in order to really make the pupils communicate and use the language actively since a conversation which takes place synchronously and without interruption is more likely to be successful. Because of that an exchange program without a specific topic would be perfect for the use of wikis since the main goal is to make pupils use the language actively.

On the contrary I see blogs as a very nice basis to provide information and deal with a special topic. Pupils are not only able to post things themselves but also to have a look at other blogs and comment on it. In that case the focus is not only on communication itself but also on a topic which could be the starting point for using a foreign language.

This differentiation leads me directly to our group work since we decided for a “Future Career Project” which is on wordpress. Using blogs seemed much more appropriate to us as we wanted the pupils to cope with the language but also to have a basis which provides information.

During the group work we were very much into the topic and the project nearly became kind of real life for us. As a result we discussed a lot and we always tried to find out which advantages and shortcomings such a project might have. Furthermore we sometimes thought about that much different problems, taking into consideration  indiviadual pupils and their abilities, that we had to force us to concentrate on the essential parts again. We tended to foget that the project is more fictional than real but that also made us cope with the topic and identify with it.

Finally I can say that our group work was very productive and intensive since we discussed every single step of the project together in order to come to a result.

 

All in all I am glad that I decided to take this course as gained a lot of knowledge concerning the topic. Furthermore I can really think of doing such a project in the future because it is in interesting and motivating way to use the foreign language.

project “reading journal”

29 students of a 9th grade read “If you come softly” by Jaqueline Woodson. During the reading phase the participants could decide whether to use the internet or just an exercise book. The ones who decided for the the internet got their own blog which was for free. The pupils had to write at least one post for every chapter. What was special about that is the fact that they could decide what they wanted to write about and comment on.

In this case language learning is promoted in very different ways. The pupils have the possibility to practice their English by writing posts and on the same time they can interact with each other by commenting on other blogs. Furthermore using the internet is very motivating for students since it is a combination of their private interests and learning. The fact that they are allowed to personalize and individualize their blog also raises the pupils´attention. What I also like about the project is the independence of the students. Because of the fact that pupils can decide on their own waht to write about, promotes making decisions and increases using language independently.

Finally one can say that it is a very nice project with a lot of language learning potential since pupils are free to use the foreign language and interact with each other. Communication is very important in language learning and because of that blogging is the right way to go. Writing on a sheet of paper is no interaction, but commenting on others´ posts is one kind of communication. And what would language learning be without it?

language learning

I used to attend a secondary school which started with Latin as its first foreign language and one year later English followed.I really benefited from Latin because with the knowledge of that language as a background I could manage English more easily. Especially learning vocabulary was less difficult for me since a lot of English words are similar to Latin expressions what helped me a lot to make sense of new terms and it supported understanding foreign texts. The use of Latin as background knowledge and the combination of both languages is one way which helped me to learn and memorize vocabulary.

In contrast to Latin, English interested me a lot and I was very curious about it because it was a new experience to learn a foreign language which is still spoken.

I have to admit that I was always lucky with teachers since they tried to make the lessons as interesting as possible by encouraging us to speak freely without fear of mistakes and doing a lot of interactive and creative work. This raised not only attention but also motivation. These two aspects make learning more interesting and less difficult.

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