Making Chat Activities with Native Speakers Meaningful for EFL Learners

1096 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Role of technology in education

Before reading the text “Making chat activities with native speakers meaningful for EFL Learners” by Jo Mynard as we know our current world, plenty of technologies and inventions are being invented all the time. It is comfortable to live in this modern age. These technologies were invented in order to facilitate our life, especially in communication. Also, teaching and learning English now are quite influenced by technologies. English can be learnt from many mediums, such as CDs, cassettes, and especially, the Internet. In my opinion, the Internet is one of the most genius inventions; with just one click it gives us a great deal of information. There are other benefits of the Internet as well, for example, we can now communicate instantly with people from the other side of the world by making chat.

In my opinion, the author tries to convince readers of learners’ communicative skills will be improved by making chat activities with native speakers. Although some learners may have used chat room before, they may never interact with native speakers in the target language. Also, we learn English only some lessons in the book or class. If we chat with native speakers, we will have more opportunity to use various vocabulary; not only limited in the lessons. In addition, from my real experience, my friends who have plenty of foreign friends from making chat are quite good at English. They always mentioned that making chat with native speakers helps them improve English better than studying in the class. There is no teacher interrupting them as well as correcting their errors. Personally, I agree with them in this point. Not only students will practice interviewing the guests, they can also be interviewed. Using cha...

... middle of paper ...

...peakers will improve learners’ communication skill, but this kind of activity also helps learners explore the world more widely without going abroad. The learners can learn another culture which makes them understand differences in each country. The most importantly, whatever learning should come from insight, making chat will increase the learners’ confidence to be able to communicate in actual conversation later. By the way, there are some points which contradict this text. Making chat might not practice learners’ pronunciation. The learners will not understand any accents because they just type the messages and there is no chance to hear the native speakers’ voice. In short, making chat is a good kind of activity to use in English class, but the teacher should add other activities which practice learners’ pronunciation in order to make learning more efficiently.

Show More
Related

  • Let Them Talk By Wayne E. Wright

    729 Words  | 2 Pages

    These discussions need to be meaningful and have purpose to create a higher chance of student engagement and participation. The article states, “cooperative learning is a natural way to provide opportunities across the curriculum” (Wright, 2016, p. 28-29). The smaller the group, the more likely the ELL student is to add to the conversation, as native English speakers typically dominant whole group discussions. It is important that every student in the small group contributes so the ELL student can hear and practice their own oral language. There are many activities that could be used to ensure this engagement, such as think-pair-share, that requires students to work together and actually get information from each other. Activities that cannot be completed alone and require the thinking of another student would be best for this

    Read More

  • Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    The thesis, or the main idea of the book, is that by using specific communication techniques, we can turn difficult discussions into productive learning conversations.

    Read More

  • Tia Bheri Analysis

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    David Crystal along with Deborah Tannen work together to defend the Internet language and the belief of the new language ruining the English language. Baheri states that the Internet has been blamed for illiteracy in children and stupidity in adults, and she disagrees. David Crystal’s research also proves the statement wrong and points to the opposite indicating that the Internet makes people better readers. I think that the Internet helps with reading faster and getting messages through. The Internet also opens us up to different ways of speaking, which helps us keep up with things and always remain

    Read More

  • Informative Essay: Does Technology Make You More Alone?

    564 Words  | 2 Pages

    With the entry of technology, humankind built up the capacity to communicate around the world. However, there were many debates whether technology changed the way of socializing with people. Despite the fact that technology has its positive sides, it ought to be found in a negative light. As technology made people's lives easier, they lost their social skills. The problem is that Nowadays' generation is failing to understand the epidemic of communicating via internet and its side effects.

    Read More

  • Technology Policies in The Classroom

    749 Words  | 2 Pages

    Have you ever thought that what happen if technological devices disappear all over the world? It is a fact that technology affects all aspects of people’s lives. If there is not technology, people will face many problems: cannot connect to each other, hard to find information, and everything can be delayed. Modern devices help our lives become more convenient and effective. So that it is obvious that the educators should take the chance to apply technological devices into the classroom because there is an inevitable trend towards technology in everyday life, the Internet is an optimum way for the students to learn, and using technology enhances the classroom by making learning more enjoyable.

    Read More

  • The Concept of Flipped Learning

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...is approach, the flip classroom is combined with Freire’s problem solving approach for second language learners (Marshall and DeCapua, 2013). The students are presented with a stimulus at the beginning of the session such as a photo or a story. The students explore the problem presented in the stimuli and how it relates to them. They are then required to bring to the problem the knowledge and understanding that they possess. Gaps in their understanding are revealed through peer interaction. The learners are then presented with the resource that they will need to explore in their own time and how it might assist them in bridging the identified gaps. This approach can be used to explore the cultural dissonance and discomfort that an ESL learner might experience. The active learning that is promoted improves the second language acquisition (Gass and Mackey, 20006).

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Teacher Talk In Language Classroom

    1782 Words  | 4 Pages

    A major proportion of class time is taken up by teachers talking in front of the classroom(Nunan & Bailey, 2009). No matter what teaching strategies or methods a teacher uses, it is necessary to give directions, explain activities and check students’ understanding (Richards & Schimdt, 1985). This clearly emphasizes the importance of teacher talk in language classrooms. Walsh (2011) claimed that teacher talk is more important in language classroom than any other classroom since in this context the language being used by teacher is not only the means of acquiring new knowledge; it is also the goal of the study.

    Read More

  • Technology Makes Kids Smarter Essay

    1867 Words  | 4 Pages

    This article addresses how children have mastered the art of technology from a very early age. The internet allows for faster learning than textbooks because it helps children choose an avenue of learning that suits them best. Research has proven that vocabulary expands at a quicker rate with the use of technology. This article provides information from a variety of news sources and a professional writer. Harsh Wardhan Dave is a media and communications specialist. Harsh Wardhan has a passion for finding the right blend of technology and creativity in his writings. This source is relevant to the thesis statement because it also validates that we need to make the most of technology and the internet while still providing a healthy balance as well as ensuring a safe environment so that we can provide our children the best of both worlds.

    Read More

  • Essay On Intercultural Competence

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    The study shows that online interaction has a positive impact on developing students’ communication skill and appreciation towards other people’s cultures. Chun (2011) investigated the effect of online communication tools used in asynchronous and synchronous communication to the students’ language style, and students’ performance in conveying various expressions related to speech acts in writing. The study found that while asynchronous communication contains longer and more complex sentences, synchronous communication reflected more engagement and evidence of the development of intercultural competence compare to asynchronous communication due to the lack of personal interactions. Online collaboration also enhances the development of opportunities that might not have been available in a traditional class setting. This opportunity enables the students to link theory and practice and has a practical dimension of their course by interacting with others (Dooly et al.,

    Read More

  • Personal Learning Environment Essay

    1287 Words  | 3 Pages

    The students had to participate in various internet-based tasks with the purpose of learning the English language. Most students showed interest and agreed with the use of technology when learning English; however others expressed different opinions about the use of technology in the learning environment. The study is relevant to technology-enhanced language learning because it showed that the use of technology can, not only increase the students’ motivation and learning opportunities, but also contribute to the development of the students’ English

    Read More

  • Computer Technology In Literacy Essay

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    They need opportunities to hear, write, speak, and read English. Technology can play an integral part in providing English Language students with valuable language experiences as they learn a new language”(2005, p.56). In other words, technology provides a rich linguistic environment for English language learners and facilitates the language class. Wang (2005) and Green (2005) show that the diversity provided by a technology system can usefully affect language education in terms of the four macro skills. Also, in their argument, they answer questions about how efficient the integrating of technology in language classes is and what kinds of services computer technologies provide for these classrooms. Wang notes that “the best way to learn a language is in interactive, authentic environments. ‘Computer technologies’ and the ‘Internet’ are powerful tools for assisting these approaches to language teaching” (2005, p.39). Hence we should consider how effective computer assisted instruction can be a supplemental teaching tool for the teaching and learning of English language

    Read More

  • The Impact of The Internet in Your Daily Life

    2351 Words  | 5 Pages

    A useful thing about internet is the electronic mail, as it gives us faster results than its regular and normal air mail. Internet gives information in any aspects of knowledge which is useful for student and for the business. Internet changes our life (and where sure to that). It gives us a lot of knowledge, advantages and disadvantage of course and we should be aware to that by using it and knowing what are those disadvantages. Though it gives a lot of advantages to us we should always look on the other side of it, for the reason of the social development growth especially to children. (Sonia79, 2005)

    Read More

  • Advantages and Disadvantages of Technology

    1380 Words  | 3 Pages

    Society has seen many benefits and opportunities from technology. Examples of the list of the benefits and opportunities include: keeping in touch with our friends and family, making new friends, learning from a distance, and much mor...

    Read More

  • Helping my Students to Gain and Apply Knowledge

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    I feel that the materials presented in class should be thought provoking enough where students can exercise their critical thinking skills. Working in groups and interacting with other students should be encouraged because this way, a student can learn how to collaborate with one another but also learn how to accept different viewpoints. When teaching English, it is important for students to have conversational experiences with one another because many times students would focus only on grammar and can potentially be problematic. I believe that oral speaking is the most important part of learning any language however, students who focus solely on grammar often lack skills to carry on a conversation because they are unable to effectively communicate their thoughts orally. Students must be able to not only understand grammar but to also practice true ...

    Read More

  • Communication Technology

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    People in the present society have turned from the use of the old means of communication to the more advanced and technological ways of communicating. Technology has made it easier for people to communicate in a faster, efficient, and cost saving means through the introduction of the communication channels. The world has turned out to be the centre for technology with different technologies emerging daily as the people continue to develop from time to time to cope with the growing technology. The benefits of adopting the communication technology are explained in this article which shows why people do not function without technology.

    Read More

More about Making Chat Activities with Native Speakers Meaningful for EFL Learners

Open Document