Transcript Computers and English class (second semester)

Blending Computers and English
Using Student PowerPoint
Presentations
Judy Yoneoka
Kumamoto Gakuen University
[email protected]
Overview of contents:
Third year elective course, seminar style
Second semester, 30 students
Pedagogy: Learn English through Computers,
not Computers through English
Computers and English
EDUCATION
COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH
EDUCATION
Stand alone CD-ROM programs
 CD-ROM dictionaries
 Authoring programs and tools for creation
of materials and tests
 On line English programs, courses and
sites
 On line English resources
 On line English educational software

COMMUNICATION
E-mail and keypals
 Chat and game sites
 On-line universities, MOOS
 1 way media access
 2 way media access

RESEARCH
CD-ROM and On-line research databases
 Literature resources
 Linguistics resources
 Corpus linguistics

TOPIC CHOICES
1. 16.6% (5)
2. 10.0% (3)
6.6% (2)
3. 16.6% (5)
16.6% (5)
33.3% (10)
communication
online education
educational resources
Internet research
web resources
corpus research
Examples

Links to home pages
– How to study TOEIC and TOEFL by E-mail

Use of Excel charts,etc.
– Internet Diffusion Rate in China

Creativity
– Museums on the Web

Creativity?
– Japanese English Research in corpora
Corpus Studies
 Corpus Work with CONC
 MOVIE
DATABASE
– Use of “OK" in Recent Movies
– Use of "fucking" in Trainspotting
– Research for Scottish English with Concordance
 JAPANESE
LEARNER DATABASE
(Complist)
– Use of “A” by Japanese Students
 OTHER
– Comparative Study of American, British and Australian English
Advantages of PowerPoint
 As
an English language/research tool
– Spelling check, grammar check
– Development of organization skills
– Especially for corpus studies, made students interested
in research
 As
–
–
–
–
a presentation tool
Creativity
Motivation
A natural “prop”
Audience can follow easily, lack of “sleepers”
Disadvantages of PowerPoint
 As
an English tool
– PLAIGARISM
– Need to develop discriminatory skills for
websites
 As
a presentation tool
– Tendency to read from the slides
– Beauty is only skin-deep?
Conclusions

A Good First Attempt, BUT the
presentations tended to
– lean more towards researching computers than
researching English
– lean towards on-line rather than off-line
applications
– need more effective use of notes
And a final note—
– The ubiquity of cell phone net and e-mail in
Japan today
» Availability: M-mail/web 95% vs. E-mail 41%
» Preference: M-mail 87% vs. E-mail 9%
» Type: Docomo 50+%, AU 30-%, J-phone 20-%
(I-mode)
(ez-web) (J-sky)
– Should the course be renamed “Computers,
Internet and English”?