Научная статья на тему 'Teaching English for specific purposes (esp) via exeand Hot Potatoes software programs'

Teaching English for specific purposes (esp) via exeand Hot Potatoes software programs Текст научной статьи по специальности «Языкознание и литературоведение»

CC BY
111
14
i Надоели баннеры? Вы всегда можете отключить рекламу.
Ключевые слова
СМЕШАННAЯ (ГИБРИДНAЯ) МОДЕЛЬ ОБУЧЕНИЯ / СРЕДСТВА ОБУЧЕНИЯ / ТИПЫ ОБРАТНОЙ СВЯЗИ / ИНСТРУМЕНТ ОЦЕНКИ И САМООЦЕНКИ / КОМПЬЮТЕРНАЯ ПРОГРАММА / РАЗВИТИЕ ЯЗЫКОВЫХ НАВЫКОВ / BLENDED (HYBRID) LEARNING MODEL / LEARNING TOOLS / TYPES OF FEEDBACK / ASSESSMENT AND SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL / SOFTWARE PROGRAM / DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE SKILLS / DEVELOPMENT OF ESP COMPETENCES

Аннотация научной статьи по языкознанию и литературоведению, автор научной работы — Poghosyan N.V.

In the following article the didactic characteristics of Exe: e-learning XHTML editor and Hot Potatoes v.6.3 software programs as learning, teaching, assessment and self-assessment tools in ESP instruction have been thoroughly elaborated and introduced. Exe was launched onto the academic platform in the University of Auckland in New Zealand in 2004, but it has undergone considerable improvements since then. It has been developed as a pedagogical tool that allows teachers to create their own educational content in professionally sound ways for a range of purposes. In the ESP context Exe can be effectively used as a teaching and learning, assessment and self-assessment tool with the help of which teachers can offer structured educational resources in various multi-disciplinary subject areas connected with the core field of ESP studies. Another tool that has been thoroughly unveiled from the pedagogical point of view in this paper was Hot Potatoes: a fast edit software tool that was created by the Research and Development team at the University of Victoria. Hot Potatoes was first released in version 2.0 in September 1998 at the Euro CALL conference in Leuven, Belgium, and has been freeware since 2009. In the article the six applications offered by Hot Potatoes freeware suite have been analyzed as interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumble-sentence, crossword, matching / ordering and gap-fill activities. The latter can be effectively used in various academic situations and in the course of ESP study as well as for the purpose of developing learners’ receptive and productive language skills.

i Надоели баннеры? Вы всегда можете отключить рекламу.
iНе можете найти то, что вам нужно? Попробуйте сервис подбора литературы.
i Надоели баннеры? Вы всегда можете отключить рекламу.

ОБУЧЕНИЕ АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ ДЛЯ СПЕЦИАЛЬНЫХ ЦЕЛЕЙ С ПОМОЩЬЮ КОМПЬЮТЕРНЫХ ПРОГРАММ EXE И HOT POTATOES

В статье представлены дидактические характеристики компьютерных программ электронного обучения Exe XHTML редактор и Hot Potatoes v. 6.3 для изучения и преподавания английского языка для специальных целей, а также в качестве инструментов оценки и сaмооценки. Exe была разработана в качестве педагогического инструмента, который позволяет преподавателям в профессиональном контексте создавать свое собственное содержание образования для различных целей. Другим инструментом является компьютерная программа Hot Potatoes. Шесть приложений к Hot Potatoes могут быть использованы в различных учебных ситуациях, а также в курсе преподавания английского языка для специальных целей для развития рецептивных и продуктивных речевых умений учащихся.

Текст научной работы на тему «Teaching English for specific purposes (esp) via exeand Hot Potatoes software programs»

УДК 372.881.111.1

Н. В. Погосян

кандидат педагогических наук, доцент Ереванского государственного университета языков и социальных наук им. В. Я. Брюсова, Армения, г. Ереван e-mail: nairapoghosyan@yahoo.com

ОБУЧЕНИЕ АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ ДЛЯ СПЕЦИАЛЬНЫХ ЦЕЛЕЙ С ПОМОЩЬЮ КОМПЬЮТЕРНЫХ ПРОГРАММ EXE И HOT POTATOES

В статье представлены дидактические характеристики компьютерных программ электронного обучения Exe - XHTML редактор и Hot Potatoes v. 6.3 для изучения и преподавания английского языка для специальных целей, а также в качестве инструментов оценки и сaмооценки. Exe была разработана в качестве педагогического инструмента, который позволяет преподавателям в профессиональном контексте создавать свое собственное содержание образования для различных целей. Другим инструментом является компьютерная программа Hot Potatoes. Шесть приложений к Hot Potatoes могут быть использованы в различных учебных ситуациях, а также в курсе преподавания английского языка для специальных целей для развития рецептивных и продуктивных речевых умений учащихся.

Ключевые слова: смешаннaя (гибриднaя) модель обучения; средства обучения; типы обратной связи; инструмент оценки и самооценки; компьютерная программа; развитие языковых навыков.

N. V. Poghosyan

Ph.D., Ass. Prof., Yerevan State University of Languages

and Social Sciences named after V. Ya. Brusov, Yerevan, Armenia

e-mail: nairapoghosyan@yahoo.com

TEACHING ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) VIA EXE AND HOT POTATOES SOFTWARE PROGRAMS

In the following article the didactic characteristics of Exe: e-learning XHTML editor and Hot Potatoes v.6.3 software programs as learning, teaching, assessment and self-assessment tools in ESP instruction have been thoroughly elaborated and introduced. Exe was launched onto the academic platform in the University of Auckland in New Zealand in 2004, but it has undergone considerable improvements since then. It has been developed as a pedagogical tool that allows teachers to create their own educational content in professionally sound ways for a range of purposes. In the ESP context Exe can be effectively used as a teaching and learning, assessment and self-assessment tool with the help of which teachers can offer structured educational resources in various multi-disciplinary subject areas

connected with the core field of ESP studies. Another tool that has been thoroughly unveiled from the pedagogical point of view in this paper was Hot Potatoes: a fast edit software tool that was created by the Research and Development team at the University of Victoria. Hot Potatoes was first released in version 2.0 in September 1998 at the Euro CALL conference in Leuven, Belgium, and has been freeware since 2009. In the article the six applications offered by Hot Potatoes freeware suite have been analyzed as interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumble-sentence, crossword, matching / ordering and gap-fill activities. The latter can be effectively used in various academic situations and in the course of ESP study as well as for the purpose of developing learners' receptive and productive language skills.

Key words: blended (hybrid) learning model; learning tools; types of feedback; assessment and self-assessment tool; software program; development of language skills; development of ESP competences.

With the spread of globalization English has become the language of international communication. More and more people are using English in a growing number of occupational contexts. Thus ESP teaching/learning is becoming increasingly important as there has been an increase in vocational training and learning throughout the world.

ESP teaching is very different from EFL (English as a foreign language) teaching and there is a distinguishable methodology for teaching ESP, which arises mainly from two factors associated with the learners:

• the specialist knowledge that they bring - both conscious and latent; and

• the cognitive and learning processes that they bring with them from their experience of learning and working in their specialist field.

One of the major corollaries of these two factors concerns the kind of activities through which learning takes place [2, p. 187].

As blended (hybrid, mixed) teaching model was introduced in the course of English Language Teaching (ELT) recommending the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), many universities installed the Moodle (Open Source Learning Management System - LMS) on their server with the intention to apply it as a platform to conduct fully on-line or mixed/hybrid model courses in teaching and learning ESP.

From this viewpoint ESP teachers have always faced the challenge of learning, integrating and exploiting several important pedagogical software tools, e.g. the eXe: e-learning XHTML editor and Hot Potatoes v. 6.3 software programs as learning, teaching, assessment and self-assessment tools in an ESP instruction.

The aim of this paper is to thoroughly unveil and introduce the pedagogical aspects and instructionally sound opportunities of eXe and Hot Potatoes software programs within the format of an ESP course.

E-learning XHTML editor was first launched onto the academic platform in the University of Auckland in New Zealand in 2004, but it has undergone considerable improvements since then. EXe has been developed as a pedagogical tool that allows teachers to author their own educational content in professionally sound ways for a range of purposes.

As we know, the focal point of ESP is that English is not taught as a subject separated from the students' real world (or wishes); instead, it is integrated into a subject matter area important to the learners. Thus, ESP concentrates more on language in context than on teaching grammar and language structures. It covers subjects varying from accounting or computer science to tourism and business management. In this regard, the exe program can be effectively used as a teaching and learning, self-assessment tool with the help of which teachers can offer structured educational resources on various multi-disciplinary subject areas connected with the core field of ESP study. These resources can be packaged in standard formats later to be deployed into learning management systems (LMS) or depositories of different academic institutions or organizations where ESP courses are usually delivered. As an open source eXe can be extended or customized by any academic institution. And in this sense Yerevan State University of Languages and Social Studies after V. Brusov was not an exception.

One of the advantageous aspects of using it in teaching ESP is its easiness, quick functionality and offline capability. Teachers do not have to turn to instructional designers to help them along the way, because the editing tools are very easy to administer. Teachers can create, structure and organize the ESP content being offline, package it up into a zip file and then reconnect it back to the network. And if the ESP teacher is not using it in a learning management system, she/he can export it into a series of web pages, into an i-Pad or into a PDF file. It is a real advantage that the eXe brings. An ESP teacher doesn't need to know the intricacies of how to package the staff; the task is to get deep into the subject content area to be able to devise reasonable tasks that would develop the learners' linguistic communicative competences in the subject-specific field providing feedback opportunities. In this sense the program provides a great deal of support in putting together different assets: texts, audio and video files,

multimedia, images, mp3-s, animations and build up effective learning objects and introduce in meaningful lessons for the class.

Another reason that is important for the ESP teacher operationally, is that eXe allows to index all the packages into learning objects that can be searched later by the teacher for various reasons, e.g. for making some changes to suit the specific aim of instruction in ESP.

The eXe program possesses a great variety of i-devices on the authoring pane which give us some pedagogical structures within each page of our resource. Besides, they provide a wide range of opportunities for creating useful tasks for specific purposes in ELT. We can add an /'-device, use the rich text editor toolbar, delete or move an /'-device. Each /'-device has a heading, one or more fields, where we can enter a text and also images, rich media such as movies, video files, controls for working with the i-devices. The i-devices include: Activity, Case Study, Cloze Activity, External Web Site, Free Text, Image Gallery, Image Magnifier, Java Applet, Multi-choice, Multi-select, Objectives, Pre-knowledge, Reading Activity, Reflection, SCORM quiz, True-False Question, Wiki article (http:// exelearning.org). With all these facilities the eXe program encourages the ESP teacher to purposefully collect, organize and create ESP materials for the target audience. EXe is one of such tools that helps to give the message in a structured content to the audience. The outline pane of the program allows to structure the pages of the resource into a hierarchy. So, we can add pages, rename them, move a page around the hierarchy, etc.

When we consider the role of technology as an educational instrument, it is very helpful to specify the receptive (reading, listening) and productive (writing and speaking) language skills. Clearly, there are differences in the type of practice required to develop each of the four skills. In the area of the receptive skills of listening and reading, it is possible to identify a clear role played by the web-based environment that the eXe program provides. Watching and listening to the digital audio or video materials, learners have the opportunity to pause at will, and listen and read a transcript. Reading on-screen, learners can access meaning on demand by clicking on a hyperlink to find out the meaning of a term. The productive skills of speaking and writing are significantly different, in that the assessment of the output of speaking and writing activities does somehow rely on human resources or on Humanware [3, p. 20].

As we know, students are starting to learn and therefore master general English at a younger age and so to move on to ESP at an earlier age. Thus,

ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems and are generally designed for intermediate or advanced students. Being designed for adult learners, either at a tertiary level institution or in a professional work situation, learners are sometimes impatient with an ESP course that does not address their difficulties in such authentic micro-tasks. From this point of view an ESP teacher is urgently required to balance traditional approaches and technology within an ESP instruction.

Another software tool that was created to assist the ESP teacher optimizing his/her difficult yet comprehensive task was Hot Potatoes. It was designed by the Research and Development team at the University of Victoria, Humanities Computing and Media Center. It is a kind of fast edit software tool that includes six applications named J-Quiz, J-Cloze, J-Cross, J-Mix, J-Match, and the Masher (http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com). With the help of these applications the ESP teacher can create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Through the Hot Potatoes software, web interactive exercises and tests can be made only by inputting data, allocating settings and publishing them. The functions and the application methods of the software are introduced below:

The J-Quiz program creates question-based quizzes. Questions can be of four different types, including multiple-choice and short-answer. Specific feedback can be provided both for right answers and predicted wrong answers or distracters. In short-answer questions, the student's guess is intelligently parsed and helpful feedback to show what part of a guess is right and what part is wrong is provided. The student can ask for a hint in the form of a "free letter" from the answer.

The J-Cloze program creates gap-fill exercises. Unlimited correct answers can be specified for each gap, and the student can ask for a hint and see a letter of the correct answer. A specific clue can also be included for each gap. Automatic scoring is also included. The program allows gapping of selected words, or the automatic gapping of every nth word in a text.

The J-Cross program creates crossword puzzles which can be completed online. A grid of virtually any size can be used. As in J-Quiz and J-Cloze, a hint button allows the student to request a free letter if help is needed.

The J-Mix program creates jumbled-sentence exercises. The teacher can specify as many different correct answers as he / she wants, based on the words and punctuation in the base sentence and a hint button prompts the student with the next correct word or segment of the sentence if needed.

The J-Match program creates matching or ordering exercises. A list of fixed items appears on the left (these can be pictures or text), with jumbled items on the right. This can be used for matching vocabulary to pictures or translations, or for ordering sentences to form a sequence or a conversation.

In addition, there is a program called the Masher. This is designed to create complete units of material in one simple operation. The Masher can be useful when creating sequences of exercises and other pages that should form a unit. The Masher can also be used to upload Web pages not created with Hot Potatoes to the www.hotpotatoes.net server (http://www. halfbakedsoftware.com).

It should be noted in conclusion that using the eXe and Hot Potatoes tools in the ESP course is highly motivating as learners have the opportunity to work at their own pace and follow their own interests. Carefully chosen online materials can enhance the classroom component of the course. Many learners simply like using the computer. They like multimedia exercises, as they can make their own choices as to how to work through the materials. The instant feedback offered by software tools on different exercises is usually perceived as helpful and learners can make choices as to how many times they redo an exercise and assess themselves.

As representatives of the "Net Generation", learners today have high expectations when it comes to technology. A blended-type ESP course can undoubtedly help the 'digital natives' to develop their professional activity competence, which consists of

• cognitive competence (theoretical and practical knowledge of the industry);

• personal competence (communication abilities and social skills);

and

• technologically-professional competence (creative and constructive problem solving, communication skills, cooperation).

With all their inner capacities the e-learning XHTML editor and Hot Potatoes v6 programs are powerful tools that allow teachers to focus on their passion for the subject matter. In the course of ESP, teachers can organize their own content in pedagogically sound hierarchy, package them in internationally standard formats and link to different learning management systems, e.g. Moodle System, implementing an effective blended learning model while delivering the ESP course.

REFERENCES

1. Murray D. Computer-mediated Communication: Implications for ESP. English for Specific Purposes, 1998. - 125 p.

2. Tony-Dudley E. Developments in ESP: A Multi-disciplinary Approach. -Cambridge University Press, 2007. - 298 p.

3. Warschauer M. Comparing Face to-Face and Electronic Discussion in Second Language Classroom // CALICO Journal. - 1996. - 13 (2). - P. 7-26.

i Надоели баннеры? Вы всегда можете отключить рекламу.