Reflection On Learning Applications

Based on our friends' presentation on their lesson plan, we have discovered many new information and helpful computer learning applications that are available. Some of them are very educational and can greatly assist students in their learning process. We have listed down three of the applications that we find interesting.


ESL Games Plus

(Figure 1)

ESL GAMES PLUS (Figure 1) is an application which focuses on the grammar skill of learners by which it is claimed to be the most suited application in terms of behaviourism. This is owing to, the fundamental approaches of behaviourism are basically deal with drilling, learning through training as well as acquiring knowledge by means of reinforcement.   

Over and above, some of the grammar skills that learners may acquire are subject-verb agreement, countable and uncountable nouns and not to mention, possessive adjectives. Thereupon, this application is regarded to be exceedingly astute due to the captivating learning method, also, the techniques of drilling that are applied. Below shows the example of teaching processes which are provided by this application:

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At first learner or player needs to roll the dice in order to advance, then, when the player is stopped according to the number that shows up on the dice, grammar question will pop up and the player needs to choose the correct answer (Figure 2 & 3). Correct answer will assist player to move forward, yet, wrong answer will cause the player to move backward and stay at the previous box. Hence, this game assists learners in terms of exercising which is ideally suitable for acquiring grammar skills. 

     

Kahoot

(Figure 4)

 KAHOOT IT & GET KAHOOT (Figure 4) is another interesting online learning game site where students can choose from a set of interactive exercises provided by the teacher. On the other hand, teacher can customize the questions that will be answered by the students in the way they want. Not only that, teachers can also access to the numbers of correct answers that the students get while they are playing the game. Figure below illustrates the students - teacher interaction in the midst of the game. 

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Teachers can choose from any subject that they want and what kind of question that will be asked. This application falls under the communicative theoretical framework of Computer Assisted Language Learning. This is because there is a kind of interactive communication between the students and the teacher where the teacher can monitor and get feedback on how much the students understand the topic being taught by instant results of the quiz answered by the students. However, in this application, the teachers' role is not completely unneeded as the answers provided is objective and teachers will later need to explain further to the students. Apart from that, teachers are also clearly needed to provide questions relevant to the lesson being taught.

SpeakingPal

(Figure 6)

Meanwhile, Speaking Pal (Figure 6) helps to furnish the best learning process in respect of speaking and listening on the grounds that it provides a collaboration approach between learners and application which is exquisitely meet the requirements of communicative techniques in Computer Assisted Language Leraning (CALL).

This can be clearly proven when learners grasp English as a second language through self discovery. In other words, the application used will be considered to be the 'pupil' instead of tutor. It will also serve as the knowledge provider for learners. Besides, the knowledge gained by learners will be based on their own emphasis through which the focus of studying was on the use of form rather than on the forms themselves.

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As in Speaking Pal, learners will be taught to listen to a brief conversation between two people (Figure 7), as yet, after that, learners will have to communicate with the application themselves to the same degree like they are having a role play (Figure 8). Further, short dialogues are provided for learners in which learners' voices are recorded when speaking. At the end of the conversation, each dialogues that has been spoken by learners will be  given a rate and lowest rate of speaking sound will be focused on for correction (Figure 9). Learners will be able to listen to the right version of sound and it will give chances for learners to improve the way they speak according to the corrected version of the voice. Ergo, this application of Speaking Pal may assist students in the matter of communicative approach as elaborated in CALL.