Ghinwa Alameen
WBTU Theoretical Rationale
Sing n Learn is an interactive website that is meant to help learners practice some chosen syntactic, lexical, and phonetic aspects of the English language. The goal of this teaching unit, as it appears on the first page, is to teach learners that learning English is not a dull thing; it can be conducted in an enjoyable setting where they would be having fun and learning at the same time. This unit is not complete in itself; it is meant to be used as practice or supplementary practice for other teaching materials. It includes a variety of activities that teachers can use whenever they deem appropriate in their class.
The whole idea of the teaching unit revolves around the listening practice of popular songs that most of the anticipated population are familiar with. And even if students are not familiar with these songs, they are still considered a very motivating element especially for learners aged 12-18. Following Hubbard's (2004) principles for selecting and exploiting authentic materials on the web, I selected four songs with familiar content. Adolescent students are usually familiar and interested in this emotional content. They are also conceptually simple, so they would not provide too great a cognitive load for effective processing. Finally, they are close to the students' actual level (they are designed for intermediate-level learners).
This teaching unit uses a computer-based multimedia environment to enhance listening, grammar, and vocabulary performance. Brett (1997) showed in his study that using multimedia is more effective for comprehension and recall performance than using either audio or video plus pen and paper. That is why I used Hot Potatoes quizzes as an alternative instrument to the traditional pen and paper. Students will have all what they need on one screen. Besides, the clear layout of the website and the use of frames will allow the students more accessibility to the different components of the unit. The relative links and pop-up browser windows will help them get different contents simultaneously. They can listen to the song while doing the exercises, or read the lyrics and get the meaning of difficult words while listening or practicing. Jones (2003) confirmed in her study that students remembered word translations and recalled the passages best when they had selected both verbal and visual annotations while listening. Therefore, the students will have access here to verbal and written annotations of the same material, the thing that is expected to raise their recall ability.
This same aspect will create a more individualized, balanced and interactive approach to the unit. Students will have the choice of showing or hiding the lyrics (written version) of the song according to their needs and level. Therefore, this can be viewed as a partially "tool-oriented CALL application" (Hubbard, p48) since it offers the learner a partial range of control. After listening to the song, learners will go through a range of activities that takes from the song. However, they will have the choice of viewing the lyrics, or even working on the lyrics as a reading text before going to the activities instead of using them as only a reference. The lyrics contain glosses for the difficult vocabulary which were not rated as high-frequency words. Those words are only highlightened when the learners point at them, so that learners will mostly try to figure out the meaning themselves using contextual devices and not be over-dependent on the glosses.
The likelihood of students' acquiring linguistic input increases if their attention is drawn by using "input enhancement" (Chapelle 2003, p. 40). This can be accomplished by input modifications through any means that gets at making the meaning more understandable (using the introductory questions before every song, and vocabulary definitions). I also aimed to accomplish this by input elaboration, increasing the potential for understanding the input though addition of grammatical L2 elaborations (explaining what is meant by certain grammatical words that are mentioned in the activities or using simpler ones instead).
Following the first and second methodological principles for CALL by Doughty and Long (2003), I implemented more task-based language teaching using drag and drop, multiple choice and short answer activities. Chapelle (2003) outlines the critical characteristics of tasks that are likely to promote vocabulary retention; these are need, search, evaluation, and knowledge of correct meaning. Using some difficult words in gap or crossword activities will make them needed and very likely salient during the task. This approach can be extended to syntax and pronunciation. I deliberately chose songs that contain redundant use of negation and interrogation to make them salient by repetition throughout the song. They are also rich with shortened forms of auxiliary verbs and chosen vowel sounds. This will give the students more opportunities for production and correction where they have the chance to produce comprehensible output and correct its form. In addition, the learners are not under time pressure (which I chose to do) for immediate production, this will give them more time to plan their answers.
To make some aspects more salient, I provided short audio extracts of the song just above the intended activity, so that students' attention will be focused on this particular part (like sentences containing different vowel sounds, or passages to be arranged after listening). A post-test is included for the students to test their performance on the unit; other tests; however, can be implemented by the teachers for this particular end depending on the syllabus they are using.
The design of the website was done in a decorative way that would appeal to the designated population of learners using musical scale and signs on the first page as keys to access the content of the site. Navigation is also easy and self-explanatory using the lower frame that sends them to all relative links in the unit.
References
Brett, P. (1997). A comparative study of the effects of the use of multimedia on listening comprehension. System. 25 (1). 39-53.
Chapelle, C. (2003). The potential of technology for language learning. In Chapelle. Englsih Language Learning and Technology. Philadilphia, PA: John Benjamins Publishing. Pp. 35-68.
Doughty, C. and Long, M. (2003). Optimal psycholinguistic environments for distance foreign language learning. Language Learning and Technology. 7(3), 50-80.
Hubbard, P. (2004). Learner training for effective use of CALL. In S. Fotos & C. Browne (Eds.), New Perspectives in CALL for Second Language Classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 45-68.
Jones, L. (2003). Supporting listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition with multimedia annotations: The students’ voice. CALICO Journal, 21(1), pp. 41-65.