All postings from the first to the sixth are done as the course requirement for SKBP 1023, Language & ICT course under Assc. Prof. Datin Dr. Norizan Abdul Razak.

My thanks for the people who visited this site, especially my coursemates who kindly left several comments, and also Datin Dr. Norizan herself for the many things she taught us for the whole semester.

However, this doesn’t mean the end of me or my blog. Ladiesman 1217 will still be around (SOMEbody’s gotta approve all those comments and share new posts, ain’t it?) so folks, i currently leave you to your thoughts. Until the next time, adios! Au revoir! See ‘ya!

1.Do you think that the computer can assist you to become a better language learner? If yes, elaborate why. If no, elaborate why.

Absolutely yes! I learn more and more of English everyday. Aspects, terms and rarely-used words can be gleaned from the Net from various sources such as Wikipedia and Princeton. Offline, i have games, interactive learning software and documents to supplement what i’ve already learned.

2.How effective is blogging in assisting you in the following: 1) confidence in writing 2) confidence in publishing your work 3) getting ideas to write 4) improving your writing skills

1) Blogging helps my writing confidence quite effectively because i get to be myself in my own space without getting that feeling of being watched. That way, i can express myself freely and write in ways that people would consider strange in the real world.

2) In this aspect, i don’t like to publish my stuff freely for anonymous people who snoop around the Net to check out. Its against my principles, so blogging is not effective here.

3) Getting ideas to write, now, blogging helps a lot. That’s because whenever i blog, i have to be connected to the Internet, so i can simultaneously open multiple websites that might(or might not be) related to my current thoughts and then mingle all these things freely in my mind, so i can write out my own original and creative ideas : )

4) It’s good to blog sometimes, not for the action of doing it, but for the effective way that blogs allow me to use full sentences and correct grammar, allowing me to maintain a certain standard of English. Otherwise, i would be stuck with debased SMS or email language all the time, and that’s a no-no for me.

3.If you are going to use computers to teach language one day, which language learning website will you recommend? Elaborate why do you recommend that website. If you dont have any recommendation and would like to develop your own website explain what, why and how.

I think i’ll recommend any site that has a translator software. I don’t like those complicated websites that come with all the bells and whistles and extra “padding” to make people attracted to them. In the end, people who start out with an empty mind will have a hard time finding the will to keep visiting those sites to improve their language levels. Meanwhile, translator sites are very simple, and allows people who are starting out at basic levels to experiment and play around with words, slowly building their vocabulary for that particular foreign language while not allowing their native language to rust, because translator sites provide two-way translating services.

Examples of such sites include:

Concordance:

The Advantages & Disadvantages of Online Language Testing

Advantages:

– More efficient in terms of administration, scoring and delivery

– The whole process is less costly than traditional pen-and-paper tests

– Improved test security resulting from encrypted electronic transmission methods

– More consistent and reliable; there is no way of cheating unless a hacker is involved

– Unbiased test administration and scoring; No alterations can be made to preset coding in the test software-No under-the-counter cheating

– The content can be tailored and customized according to localized needs; Tests for Malaysian students can be changed to have a more ‘Malaysian’ flavor to it

– Universally available as long as participants have a computer with an internet connection

Disadvantages:

– The language plays a major role. If it is English or any language that is not the mother tongue, not everyone is conditioned from childhood to learn this language, so they will be at a disadvantage during testing.

– Specialized software that could be hard to find is needed to calibrate and set up the test. This problem is compounded by the fact that many countries cannot conduct tests in languages other than the more common ones (Japanese, French, English, German, Spanish, Chinese) because those languages are simply unavailable.

– In the same vein as the problem of specialized software, it is hard to currently hire localized software experts and programming specialists that can run, conduct and maintain the entire online testing apparatus on a long-term basis. Importing such expertise can be very costly and the constantly-evolving and improving nature of technology means a new batch of computer graduates could find themselves outdated and outmoded by the time they are selected for the task of setting up online language testing systems.

– Not every part of the globe has the same technological level as the Western Sphere. If for example, such tests are conducted in Asia or Africa, a large part of the population will be alienated simply because countries in such areas lack the appropriate computer infrastructure that can be employed on a cheap and widely-available basis.

Here’s a website i found for testing one’s english grammar:

TOEFL Test

I tried one of the tests under the TOEFL section about vocabulary words, and my, it is quite good. Didn’t strain my brain much, but it didn’t make it a cakewalk for me either : )

Here’s a sampling of the test page:

As you can see, there is no time indicator here, which is fine by me, but not good if you are training for a timed exam like MUET here in Malaysia. Another good thing is that you don’t need to type anything, just choose one of the objective answers.

It is easy to scroll up and down the page if you missed something or just feel like double-checking to make sure.

For this test, there is no biasness at all, none of the colloquialism of any culture present here. The scoring system is spot-on, though analysis of answers is non-existent, but then again, this is supposed to be a vocab test, so its good enough if you learnt the synonyms for the question words.

As a whole, i highly recommend this test for people who have already reached the intermediate or advanced stage in learning English. It can be used for a lot of purposes, either as part of a placement test, a quiz, a filler in class, a simple exercise, you name it!

I think it is expedient for students to refer to literary material online when they wish to understand literature. Why?

– Just a click away within the “coziness” of one’s dorm room

– Online sources tap into the collective knowledge of the entire world wide web. It is easy to jump from reading up the actual work to a page analysing said work

There is no “best way” to use literature websites. Students always start out as an empty cup waiting to be filled with new knowledge. The way they navigate the website is up to them, because only the students know themselves inside out to find the best possible way to cultivate the interest to keep visiting any literature website and enjoy surfing them for hours on end each time and in so doing, better appreciate literature.

In the second literature website i found, http://www.sldirectory.com/libsf/resf/bookplans.html, the objective of this website seems to be to provide a highly detailed resource for literature teachers and students to tap into. This website even breaks the literature into several categoris: general, reports, fairytales/myths, genres, ‘how to’ sections for storytelling and literary discussion, poetry, nonfiction, elementary literature and secondary literature.

Like the previous website, this one also targets teachers and students, but it also widens the scope to include aspiring writers and casual readers dabbing at literary analyses. This would be an invaluable website for anybody looking to start his baby steps in the literary world!

The numerous links and exhaustive resource on hand in SLdirectory.com might overwhelm newbies, but to seasoned people who know what they're looking for, this is a great addition to their arsenal of go-to helpsites!

In the first literature URL, http://www.teachingliterature.org/teachingliterature/, the goal of the website is to be a helpful companion for people who wander into the world of literature. It aims to do this by providing activities related to literature, various articles on literature and links to other literature sites.

The target group would be literature teachers and students.

This website is very useful for me to understand literature because it comes equipped with comprehensive links to literary works, their analyses, author information and more.

The many analyses, works and other information provided by the website. This is the section on American literature.

Websites featuring more comprehensive details on the following literary works include:

CMC comes in two types, regardless of software or hardware used:

– Synchronous. Synchronous CMC means that everybody that’s supposed to communicate with each other is online at the same time, real-time.

– Asynchronous. This type of CMC does not have any time constraints on the participants. Anybody can post or send something and expect a reply anytime in the future.

Regarding the current possible applications of CMC, many researchers have posited its use in language learning. For example, Warschauer conducted several case studies on using email or discussion boards in different language classes. He claimed hat information and communications technology “bridge the historic divide between speech … and writing”. Hence, much attention has been given to the rise of reading and writing research in language learning due to the current Internet boom.

My sources:

Abrams, Z. (2006). From Theory to Practice: Intracultural CMC in the L2 Classroom. book chapter, forthcoming in Ducate, Lara & Nike Arnold (Eds.) Calling on CALL: From Theory and Research to New Directions in Foreign Language Teaching.

Warschauer, M. (1998). Electronic literacies: Language, culture and power in online education. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Warschauer, M. (2006). Laptops and literacy: learning in the wireless classroom: Teachers College, Columbia University.