Software/Website Title: Centro Virtual Cervantes
Website URL: http://cvc.cervantes.es/portada.htm
Grade/Age Level: Intermediate to advanced Spanish second language learners (in my opinion mostly university level). There are also links for children learning Spanish and for Spanish teachers/professors.
Language & Content:
This website is an virtual extension of the Instituto Cervantes, “a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991.” Its mission is to “promote the teaching, study and use of Spanish as a second language and to contribute to the advancement of the Spanish, Hispanic and Latin American cultures throughout the world.” It has over 44 branches in 22 countries as well as a virtual environment. The website is for Spanish students, teachers, translators and many other professionals who work with the Spanish language. This website has a mixture of content resources as well as lesson plans and exercises.
There is an overwhelming amount of material on this website, especially since it is entirely in Spanish. However, after looking around a bit I discovered that it is well organized. It has a section that talks about the site, links to media needed to run various programs, and page on navigation instructions. The three principle categories of this website are 1) Actos Culturales which contains information in the form of presentations on cultural topics such as the Museum Labrinyth and the Gardens of Andalusia (Al Alhambra), 2) Obras de referencia (Reference works) which include various articles, presentations, anthologies on various topics and 3) Aula de lengua (language classroom). The third section contains a lot of great resources such as “Mi mundo en palabras” which is an interactive website for children 7-9 who are studying Spanish, weekly activities in Spanish, Spanish mini courses, and a virtual translation classroom where you can find translation exercises and real time translation workshops (but you have to have Hotmail account). There really is so much information on this website that I’m still finding new programs and exercises. I was able to use almost all of the various programs (links) one day but the next day it told me that I needed to log in. So you need to be a registered member to access some of the services.
This website also has an index which includes hundreds of links to external Spanish website that cover language, internet search engines, literature, dictionaries, art, newspapers, magazines, etc. It is unbelievable!
For more advanced students, this website offers wonderful information on authentic culture, literature, grammar and translation. It is has more detailed and scholarly information than most websites I have seen for second language learners of Spanish. It can meet various language goals such as increased knowledge on literature, history and culture of Spain and increase knowledge of grammar and its use. Furthermore, use of this website will also increase reading comprehension in Spanish and exposes students to using the internet entirely in Spanish (new vocabulary).
This website includes a virtual Spanish classroom (Aula Virtual de español) which is an “Internet-based educational infrastructure set up to provide Spanish courses”. In another section you have three levels of lectures that offer interactive pre/post-reading activities, the text and information about the text. There is also a section that offers various interactive games such as Alphabet Soup, where students have to 10 verb forms from a written text. I tried to use the games but I had some problems running Active X on my computer. Feedback on the form of “solutions” is offered.
Overall, this website offers an unbelievable amount of scholarly, professional, authentic information and wonderful additional resources. It encourages comments and feedback. I do however feel this website is a little hard to navigate for non-native Spanish students because 1) it is mostly in Spanish (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing!) and 2) there is some much information that you need to dig under the various headings to find all the services offered. If you read the navigation information, it will help you get started faster. Maybe having more structure (similar to the site map) on the home page would help students find the various activities and resources easier.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
CALL Reflection #3
This week’s article, “Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom” by Guariento and Morley, highlighted some key points regarding the integration of authentic tasks in the language classroom and specifically addressed the question of whether authentic material can be simplified to meet the needs of lower level learners without losing its authenticity (pg. 348). Authentic texts are used in the communicative teaching approach to help connect classroom tasks with real world tasks and to help motivate students by putting them “in touch with a living entity, the target language as it is used by the community which speaks it (pg. 347).” As most of us know, finding authentic texts for immediate and advanced learners is fairly easy; however, when it comes to finding material that is authentic, yet simple enough for beginning level students, and motivational (cognitively stimulating) can be a challenge. The article states if authentic texts aren’t chosen appropriately with regards to lexical/syntactic simplicity and/or content familiarity, they can actually demotivate the students (pg. 348).
The authors offer us an alternative approach … emphasize the development of strategic competencies (language learning strategies) with the goal of partial comprehension (pg. 348). They justify this with the fact that this is what happens in reality (pg. 348). I agree with this as long as the authentic material is at a level that can be supported through scaffolding and, in Vygotsky’s terms, is within their “zone of proximal development”. In fact, I personally believe that content should be slightly above one’s language level in order to keep them motivated and challenged. In my own learning, I have found that I tend to work up to the level of my peers (the social organization in which I’m placed). I suppose this is somewhat similar to Vygotsky’s theory of social development.
The article goes on to talk about how one should not only focus on the authenticity of material used in the classroom but how it is used. Guariento and Morely outline four views regarding task authenticity: 1) authenticity through a genuine purpose, 2) authenticity through real world targets, 3) authenticity through classroom interaction and 4) authenticity through engagement (pg. 349-350). Before reading this article, I would have considered the first three views of authenticity; however, I had not considered authenticity through engagement before. I agree with the article in that this type of authenticity is the most important; “for unless a learner is somehow ‘engaged’ by the task, unless they are genuinely interested in its topic and its purpose, and understand its relevance, then the other types of authenticity may count for very little (pg. 350-351).” This view supports a throughout needs analysis and understanding of the learner. It also supports the development of independent learners, those who can understand and control their learning. All of the points are vital for ensuring a successful learning environment. Based on this, I can see how authenticity of engagement needs to be established before the other three views of authenticity.
The authors conclude that simple yet authentic, real world tasks for low level learners do exist (pg. 351). Such examples include games, simple surveys or practice in buying a train ticket (pg. 351). Although, beginning level students may not be able to engage in complex conversations in the classroom, they still are able to provide valuable input into the “teaching-learning process (pg. 351).” This is important because it provides them some control over their learning while hopefully making them more responsible, independent learners.
REFERNCES:
Guariento, W. & Morley, J. (2001). Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom. ELT Journal 55(4).
The authors offer us an alternative approach … emphasize the development of strategic competencies (language learning strategies) with the goal of partial comprehension (pg. 348). They justify this with the fact that this is what happens in reality (pg. 348). I agree with this as long as the authentic material is at a level that can be supported through scaffolding and, in Vygotsky’s terms, is within their “zone of proximal development”. In fact, I personally believe that content should be slightly above one’s language level in order to keep them motivated and challenged. In my own learning, I have found that I tend to work up to the level of my peers (the social organization in which I’m placed). I suppose this is somewhat similar to Vygotsky’s theory of social development.
The article goes on to talk about how one should not only focus on the authenticity of material used in the classroom but how it is used. Guariento and Morely outline four views regarding task authenticity: 1) authenticity through a genuine purpose, 2) authenticity through real world targets, 3) authenticity through classroom interaction and 4) authenticity through engagement (pg. 349-350). Before reading this article, I would have considered the first three views of authenticity; however, I had not considered authenticity through engagement before. I agree with the article in that this type of authenticity is the most important; “for unless a learner is somehow ‘engaged’ by the task, unless they are genuinely interested in its topic and its purpose, and understand its relevance, then the other types of authenticity may count for very little (pg. 350-351).” This view supports a throughout needs analysis and understanding of the learner. It also supports the development of independent learners, those who can understand and control their learning. All of the points are vital for ensuring a successful learning environment. Based on this, I can see how authenticity of engagement needs to be established before the other three views of authenticity.
The authors conclude that simple yet authentic, real world tasks for low level learners do exist (pg. 351). Such examples include games, simple surveys or practice in buying a train ticket (pg. 351). Although, beginning level students may not be able to engage in complex conversations in the classroom, they still are able to provide valuable input into the “teaching-learning process (pg. 351).” This is important because it provides them some control over their learning while hopefully making them more responsible, independent learners.
REFERNCES:
Guariento, W. & Morley, J. (2001). Text and task authenticity in the EFL classroom. ELT Journal 55(4).
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