Blog Task - Creating Hypertext & Hypermedia

Proton Going Hybrid?

Italdesign Giugiaro, working with the Malaysian automaker Proton, is creating a new design for a family of small, hybrid cars. The first prototypes, known as the 5porte and the Country, will be shown at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show.

Conceived as a low-impact city car, the four-seat 5porte claims to offer the same interior space as a D-segment car with the footprint of an A-segment car. The floor of the car has been raised to fit the hybrid drivetrain's batteries beneath it and the seats have been placed at the same level as an average person's hips to make entry and exit as easy as possible.

The plug-in hybrid system employs an electric motor powered by either the lithium-ion battery or an onboard 1.2-liter three-cylinder gasoline engine designed by Lotus to work as a generator running on gasoline, ethanol or methanol (click here to hear an explanation oh how hybrid cars work). Like the Chevy Volt, the gasoline engine never directly powers the wheels, they are powered by the electric motor only through a one-speed transmission. When not in use, the car can be plugged into any wall outlet to charge the battery, though the car's range before the generator kicks on hasn't been announced yet.

Task 2 - Article Review

The article to being reviewed is entitled "Developing linguistic and cultural perspectives of English as a foreign language through email discussion". The author of this research article is Bahman Gorjian, an assistant professor from the TEFL department, Science and Research Center-Alvaz Branch of the Islamic Azad University, Iran. He has a P.hD in TEFL and has published several articles and books related to TEFL and English translation including this article.

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of email discussion in the development of linguistic and cultural perspectives of English as a foreign language (EFL), in Iran.

Before continuing with the experiment, this article has reviewed several literature on this topic, and based on its reports, one of the biggest challenges faced in the EFL environment is the teaching the culture of the L2. However, research has recently reported that computer-mediated communication has improved the process of acquiring the L2 at the same time increased the learners awareness of the culture as well. Lately, email discussions has shown great potential in not only enhance the teaching of language linguistically, but also culturally. This is due to the positive attitude that learners have towards technology. Through email discussions, learners acquire the language through interaction. The key to its success is feedback. Email discussions enables extensive amounts of feedback. Feedback is crucial in improving writing because it helps a learner see the mistakes and ways to improve their writing and email discussions provides more opportunities to optimize the role of feedback.

Methodology of collecting data in this study involve subjects consisting of 400 non-native intermediate students majoring in English Translation at the average age of 17. Other than the students, 18 non-native instructors were also involved with an average 12 years of experience in teaching English Translation, with an average age of 32.These subjects were selected based on non-random judgment sampling. The students were then given TOEFL test to determine the students' writing proficiency in order to create groups of students that are balanced. The students who were selected as part of the research population are the ones who scored around the mean. 4oo hundred students were selected and were randomly divided into two groups; two hundred in the experimental group (CALL group) and the other half in the control group (non-CALL group). 18 instructors were selected based on non-random judgment sampling. The CALL group were given access to computers. They were able to send essays through email and received feedback through email discussions from outside the university. Meanwhile, the non-CALL group learned writing in a non-technological way which is by using pen and paper. They feedback were also hand written.

5 instruments were used in this experiment. The first was the TOEFL test mentioned earlier to determine the students' proficiency. It was used to form the homogeneous groups. The second is a pre-test. The subjects are required to write a two paragraph essay at the beginning of the experiment. The essay is culture-oriented. Third is the 12 topics given to both groups for the next 12 weeks to both the groups. The topics were taken from "Bailey and Powell (1979)". Fourth is the post-test. After 12 weeks, the students are given another two paragraph cultural-oriented essay writing test. This test will determine whether there is any difference in improvements between the two groups after 12 months. And fifth was the 5point Likert-scale questionnaire for the instructors to give their ideas on the role of email discussions in learning L2 cultural values.

In general, the findings of this research has shown that the CALL group were more proficient in terms of writing the cultural-oriented essays at the end of the experiment. Initially for pre-test, both the groups performed similarly. After twelve months however, the CALL group performed significantly better than the non-CALL group.

Responses from the instructors showed that the instructors agree that using computers are effective in facilitating the learners L2 culture development in their writing. More importantly, they believe that the interaction between teacher and learners is very crucial in learners L2 cultural awareness.

Personally, this research is rather interesting. I strongly believe that a language can only be improved through interactions, but more to speaking skills. This study however has proven that appropriate interactions can also improve writing skills as well. Not only that, at a technological age of today, the need to use computers have increased and this method of teaching writing utilizes one of the most important tools to mankind today.

I think this research was conduct quite effectively. The study clearly showed the difference in performance between the two groups. It has achieved its aim in answering that question.

In the Malaysian context, if applied properly, this method would definitely have significantly good results. Not all schools will be able to apply this method. It requires a sufficient number of computers that can cater to the number of students in the schools. For schools that are able to meet the requirements, this method should prove the have a positive effect on the students writing. However, this study focused on only cultural-oriented essays. The students in the experiment were to write about cultural values of the L2. In my opinion, in Malaysia, the topic of the essays can be changed to meet the students' needs.

Task 1 - ESL Website Evaluation

"Quia" (pronounced as key-ah) is a website that contains games and activities. This website does not only include activities and games for English, but also other subjects like mathematics, science, history and many more. Quia is an abbreviation for Quintessential Instructional Archive. It allows teachers to create their own activities and exercises as well as quizzes for the students to access and do on this website.

1. What does the application attempt to 'teach'?

The activities in this website covers two linguistic skills; reading and writing. There are no activities concerning the other two skills; listening and peaking. However, there are activities that teaches the students grammar, idioms, figure of speech, vocabulary and spelling, parts of speech, types of sentences and even poetry and literary devices.

Other than that, computers have become an important tool nowadays. It is used for almost everything. By using this website, it teaches the students to use this technology at an early age and meaningfully. In congruence to that, the website teaches the students to become autonomous learners. The activities on the website are always available to the students and encourages them to explore all the different games.

2. What sorts of things is the user expected to do with regards to learning the content?

There are two ways to access the activities in this website. One way is to register as a student and the other is by using the 30-day trial.

This website requires the user to register either as a teacher or student. As a teacher, this website enables you to monitor your students activities by providing a Classroom Management Tool. The teacher must first register an online class and the students will register as students and enroll in the class.This system will help keep track of the quizzes that the teacher has given the students, and the schedule of the quiz as well as the students' progress. There are two enrollment methods available; the Instructor Enrollment and the Student Self-enrollment. Depending on the capability of the students, the teacher can choose to let the students register themselves or do it for them.

After having completed the procedure the students will be able to "play games, take quizzes and view results".

The activities in this website are made out of games and quizzes. The students are expected to learn the skills mentioned above by playing the fun and interactive games. There are so many types of games and activities to choose from like quiz, matching, flashcard, concentration, word search, battleship and so on. The students themselves may choose any kind of activity that best suit or interest them. They can play the games as many times as they want until they fully understand the game. After the students have finished playing the games, they can proceed to the quizzes and test their understanding. An interesting feature available in some of the games in a two-player mode. The student can play the games while competing with a fellow classmate and reflect one another's progress.

3. What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/access/use the application?

First of all, the user is required to know how to use user interface. The user must be familiar with opening a folder on the desktop using the mouse, word processing software and also the internet.

The games in this website only requires the use of the mouse and the keyboard. The user must be familiar with clicking on icons and links and even select buttons to be able to play the game. Typing is also an essential skill the user needs to possess in order to type in letters into spaces provided. Other than that, the user must know the basic functionality of a browser. They must know how to navigate in and out of websites by navigating through links. The games uses flash, therefore the user must be able to identify if the plug-in is unavailable or not. If not, the user also must know where and how to install the required software.

4. While you are "playing"/"accessing"/"assessing" the application, does it remind you of anything you in a classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

Yes but only when I was in the US. My school back then fully utilized courseware in the process of teaching and learning. When it came to subjects like mathematics, the teacher would usually teach the basic concepts, then we have to complete exercises using the courseware where our scores were recorded. From there, the teachers will check where the students' face problems and will personally assist the students in that particular area. I've never gotten a chance to use any of this kind of applications after I came back from the US. I never had the exposure to websites like this. I wish I had though. I find the games in this website really fun even at the age that I am today.

5. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application.

This website mostly involve games and activities. The learning process is depended on the students themselves. This is the Constructivist Approach. The students will learn by playing the games and activities. They are able to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes as they play. The constructivist approach relies on the learner's prior knowledge. The learners will keep adding to their prior knowledge and construct new knowle

Krashen's Input Hypothesis can also be applied with this application. Even though this websites is not specifically set up for such a method, the teacher can accomplish the "i+1" with the learners. The teacher has access to the students' grades and is able to identify their level of ability. Through this information, i+1 can be applied. There are games for users of all levels of ability, from the 1st grade to adults. The teacher will be able to increase the level of difficulty every time the student inproves.

Most of the activities in this website use the drilling method. There are many variations of activities. Students can do many different activities on a single grammatical item and each one can be done ever so many times. This falls under the behaviorism theory.

6. How well in the constructivist theory of learning is applied to the chosen application?

The constructivism argues that knowledge in constructed or generated through experience. This theory also emphasizes on prior knowledge. A learner will construct new knowledge by building on knowledge learned in the past. (Orlich, Harder, Callahan, Trevisan, & Brown, 2007)

By using Quia, in a lot of ways, the learner is applying the constructivist theory. The activities in this websites are not all drills and exercise. The games encourage constructivism. There is no direct instruction from the application. The games requires the users to learn through the experience of playing. The games in this website allows the users to make mistakes. By allowing this, the students are given room to learn from past mistakes.

7. In the 1980s and the early 1990s, there was a major debate on 'whether computers was "master" of or "slave" to the learning process (Higgins & Johns, 1984). In relation to your evaluation - was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient slave for students?

I do not believe that computers will ever fully replace teachers. In language teaching, student teacher interaction in crucial. As human beings, we have the ability to judge and evaluate. Computers can only evaluate a students ability through marks and his progress in quizzes. Computers are unable to make judgments about the students personality. There are many contributing factors that make have some effect in the a student learns language. Teachers are able to connect with the students on a personal basis and understand the students in ways that computers can never comprehend.

A computers is not really an obedient slave. It is programmed to respond to certain commands in a specific way. Looking back on the role of a computer, it was created to help get certain jobs done much easier and more efficiently. Take word processing for instance, it is programmed to make typing much more tidy and quick. The software also includes programs like grammar error detection and spell check. It assists in areas that if were to be done manually, would take more time. Computers play a role in assisting. Therefore, it assists in facilitating learning the learning process by responding to the students when they make mistakes. A computer is not a slave but an assistant in the learning process.

8. Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?
Yes? Give reasons:
No? Give reasons:

Yes. The games in this website are for students of all levels. Exposing Malaysian students to this style of language learning would be a drastic change from the traditional method of language teaching. I would very like the students to be autonomous in language learning. This website would definitely be an encouragement for the students to take control of their learning. The games provided are graphically attractive as well as fun.

Suggestions and recommendations

The games in this website are mostly flash files. The games are animated and quite attractive. However, there are no pictures. I think pictures would definitely help the users especially in learning new vocabulary. Other than that, some sound effects would also make the games more interesting as it responds to the students actions and choices in the games.

The games that are available do no cover the listening and speaking skills. Language learners need exposure to genuine language. Learning these skills will require context. Language always more effective when it is taught in context and real life situations because it is more meaningful.