Question 1:
The BBC Learning English specializes in teaching English learners how to speak and use English in everyday life. It provides options of "Courses" whereby English learners can choose which course or level of English they wish to learn from and "Features" which allows the learners to learn English in a variety of settings, situations or sources.
Every option provided under the "Courses" and "Features" includes a video of the lesson. For example, every lesson will be demonstrated in the video first so that the learners can watch it first before they start the activity. Numerous activities are included in the website. Next, every lesson has its own set of activities suggested to be done. Most of the activities would help in initiating the learners to speak English such as some questions are provided for the learners to answer or discuss among a number of other students after watching the video. Besides, the activities are continuous whereby after they have done the first part of the activity from the lesson, they can move to the next activity as a continuation from the previous one. There are also activities like multiple choice questions regarding the video of the lesson as a recap and to test their understanding. There is some immediate feedback whereby learners can check their answers and their remarks, as well as are to be notified immediately whether they answer correctly or incorrectly. Moreover, there are different levels of difficulty for different proficiency levels whereby the learners may choose the levels of difficulty according to which course they choose from the option "Courses". There are Advanced, Intermediate, Lower-Intermediate and others.
Question 2:
The learners need to choose which "Courses" and "Features" as to choose the level of difficulty and setting or situation they want to learn from. Once they have done that, they could watch the video that is provided in each lesson, listen and take note of useful expressions, phrases and vocabularies that have been used in the video. Next, they will be required to do the next activity which is to discuss a set of questions among other learners in their group based on the video's topic. They will also need to answer a set of multiple choice questions as a recap from the video. Immediate feedback will also be given whether they answer correctly or not. At the end of each lesson, the learners should be able to learn new vocabularies that are being used in the video and get an idea on how to use them in real conversations as they can practice saying the vocabularies learned afterwards. Since the website uses genuine language, the learners can learn the real English to use in their everyday conversations.
Question 3:
Since this website incorporates discussion activity to be done in most of the lessons, I can see that this website has the effort to combine both online and face-to-face learning for the learners whereby this website is suitable and practical to be used in a face-to-face classroom. This is because the activities are also possible to be conducted in that learning environment as there a lot of discussions among a group of learners which they are required to do for the lesson's activity. Hence, there is no elements presented from the website that the learners cannot do in a face-to-face classroom provided they can still have the access to the videos or audios from the website which are also downloadable along with other materials.
Question 4:
This website is mainly based on the theory of language learning of constructivism whereby it emphasizes on the social interaction as well as cooperative learning for the learners are also required to construct their own reality representations or meaning making through their environment. This can be seen from the discussion activities included in most of the lessons in the website as it encourages the learners to interact among themselves and use the language. This also signifies Vygotsky's ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) as the learners are learning with appropriate stimuli with the assistance of competent peers or adult. In this case, the learners will learn from the video first and this will be followed by the guidelines provided by the instructor or teacher as they carry out the activities with the help of their assistance. In addition, this website makes use of the 20th century language teaching of CLL (Community Language Learning) which is a facilitative learning with small groups of "clients" in a circle, having the instructor or teacher as the counselor. Furthermore, there is also an inclusion of CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) that provides authentic and genuine language of English which is based on real life situations to encourage the learners to speak spontaneously and meaningfully. For instance, this website provides the learners with real situations on how English is used in school, university or working place.
Question 5:
This website’s
activities provide the potential for language learning for the English learners
as they will learn to speak and use English as well as learn new expressions, phrases and vocabularies while and
after they have done the activities. Hence, this website manages to fulfill the
criterion of having the potential for language learning for the English learners
who visit this website. Since each lesson provides activities that will help in
initiating the learners in speaking English in real life situations, the
learners will be able to learn from the videos and transcripts included as well
as to practice speaking using the set of questions given after watching the
videos and answering few questions related to the videos. The learners will learn
bit by bit on how to use English in their everyday life
situations such as making phone calls or finding direction to reach a destination and more.
Question 6:
I would like to use this website for my future work when I am going to be teaching secondary school students later on. I find the website interesting as it provides a variety of practical lessons and activities that I can use in class with my future students. I think the students will be able to do the activities well as they are very interesting and realistic, which are suitable and helpful for their future use too. I can just play the videos from the website, and the students can watch the videos, answer the following questions, and carry out the activities among them by following the guidelines from the website. This will be a good opportunity for the students to conduct their own learning as they do the ddiscussions while I facilitate and monitor them carrying out the activity. Besides, there are a lot of materials prepared for teachers to use in their lessons such as complete lesson plans, worksheets, and of course, videos or audios with transcripts that can be downloaded.
The link to the ESL website:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/
8/10
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Sir. =)
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