Tag Archives: iPhone

WeChat, do you?

These past few weeks I’ve been teaching a pre-sessional course at a UK university and have heavily experimented with using the instant messaging app WeChat in class. The predominant L1 is Mandarin, but with Thai and Arabic speakers too, it has been the perfect context for testing. The outcome has been surprisingly positive and a great learning curve for both the students and me.

 

Here are some activities I trialed:

 

Free chat WeChat

As a warmer at the beginning of class after a free study period and lunch break, I asked the students to chat about anything they liked. They chose food, the trip they went on at the weekend, and I spurred them on with questions. Admittedly the answers were very short, but it helped them feel comfortable with chatting open class and with the teacher.

 

Synonym race

This activity worked really well. I selected academic lexis the students had learnt during the course to date, and it was a novel and quick way to refresh the lexis and push the learners for more than one alternative way to say something. On other occasions I have made it a group activity where one phone in a group of four students is used, and a point is awarded for the first answer with an additional point if the synonym is spelt correctly.

 

Lecture summary and peer correction

I asked the students to consolidate their notes in groups of four, for a lecture they had attended that morning. The task was to compile a 100 word succinct summary of the lecture covering the main points. Once this was uploaded, the groups peer corrected the texts for content, language and grammar mistakes. Each text was read aloud open-class, and peers shouted stop at any point to correct the mistakes. The students enjoyed reading and correcting each other’s work.

 

Free writing assignment – out of class

I wanted to see if the quality of writing changed if the task was to be completed in students’ own time. I gave the students some questions to introduce them to the topic, then asked them to write a 100 word summary using information from their answers to help them. Some wrote as they would speak in chat style, but others continued to write in a clear and convincing academic style. When I asked the students how they felt about completing a writing task like this, they all agreed they enjoyed it because it gave them the freedom to manage their own time and complete the task when it was convenient for them.

 

If you try any of the activities above, I’d love to hear about it!

An app a day! Day 20 – Goodreads Social: Network and Reading

Goodreads is a social network app for iOS (iPhone + iPad), Mac OSX, Windows, Windows Phone, Android & Kindle.  Goodreads encourages users to rate books, read recommendations from other users, and catalogue books into read, currently reading and to be read. Goodreads helps learners to find new and interesting book titles by browsing personalised recommendations based on books they have already read, their tastes or a particular genre.

Goodreads is also a great way to encourage learners to write in English and comment on other users’ comments and be exposed to a wide audience that they can interact with about books and suggestions.

An app a day! Day 19 – Mindmeister for vocabulary brainstorming and essay plans

I have used Mindmeister in class with low-level learners to create mind maps of lexis on their iPads, iPhones, and Android Phones, when brainstorming ideas for a new topic. Mindmeister creates a tidy mind map that can be saved and referred to out of class, enabling students to review new vocabulary. Learners can personalise their mind maps or create collaborative maps that they share.

With Cambridge exam classes I have encouraged students to use Mindmeister to organise their ideas when writing plans for their essays, reports, proposals, articles, and letters. We have also created a model mind map for the plans as a collaborative task using an iPad which was later shared amongst all the learners.

An app a day! Day 17 Scribblenauts – Super power your imagination – Gamifying Learning

Gaming is becoming ubiquitous with language learning, and many enthusiasts are sharing their ideas and reflections on their blogs, like Graham Stanley (https://gamifyingelt.wordpress.com/) and Paul Driver (http://digitaldebris.info/).

Scribblenauts is not a explicitly a language learning app, but you can create items by typing them on the screen, and they appear, so in a sense it is very appropriate as an app to learn and practice English by gamifying the learning.

The idea behind Scribblnauts is that you create a super hero or super villain persona, and use the power of your imagination to create objects that are used to solve puzzles.

Available for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android Phone and Windows Phone.

An app a day! Day 16 – WhatsApp

Where would we all be without WhatsApp? Free real time messaging to anywhere in the world as long as you have a wifi connection or mobile data for your phone.

Whatsapp also enables a range of multimedia learning opportunities. Just as we all have many images stored on our phones, they can be shared and used as a discussion topic ranging from an object or picture that personifies the learner, or a description of a scene. Video clips can also be shared in the same way and used as a building block for discussions, script writing, pre and post clip imaginative writing exercises and text itself can also be shared.

Available for iPhone, Android and Window Phones.

An app a day! Day 14 – Memrise – Flashcards for Visual Learners

Memrise is particularly appealing to visual learners, because the learning is realised through the use of static image flashcards, audio and drilling the lexis and language chunks. Although the learners become prosumers, as they create and use the visual learning content to build their own multimedia vocabulary and/or set phrases, the language chunks are selected by Memrise. Learners are encouraged to upload their own ‘Mem’s” therefore personalising their learning experience to a certain extent. A good way to engage with English while on the go, with the option of competing against other learners too.

Available for iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone, Android Phones, Windows Phones and desktop computers.

 

An app a day! Day 13 – Evernote

The Evernote app enables the user to store handwritten notes, clips of web articles photos and images on iPads, iPhones, Android Phones, and Windows phones with the objective of creating a digital workspace that can be accessed from the device you own by syncing between. This way information can be stored and used on iPads, iPhones, Android Phones and Windows phones for use while on the move or in the study space. It also allows learners to make presentations using by selecting the presentation option, which will transform the notes into a presentation automatically.

Available for iPad, iPhone, Windows Phones, Android Phones

 

An app a day! Day 12 – Adobe Reader

indexAdobe Reader makes reading fun and colourful.

Functions include highlighting text, striking through, underlining, adding typed text, writing or drawing anywhere on the document, and adding a personlised signature.

I use this app regularly on my iPad to make notes and highlight key points in articles, and I have used it for writing notes on scanned student assignments, so it is as equally useful for learners and teachers.

Available for Mac, Android and Windows portable devices, and desktop computers.

 

 

An app a day! Day 11 – Learn English Verbs – Pronunciation by a Native Speaker!

Screen shot 2015-03-11 at 22.43.07Learn English Verbs – Pronunciation by a Native Speaker! has a lot to live up to as an “Award Winning memory App” that promises to “show you how to learn the verbs and their key conjugations 7 times faster than any other traditional method”.

Available for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch

 

An app a day! Day 9 – Video Editor: Horizon Video Recorder

Screen shot 2015-03-11 at 22.33.06If you are experimenting with learners using the video mode of their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, I can highly recommend this app. Horizon Video Recorder allows the user to capture and create a better quality clip because no matter how your device is held, it will always film in horizontal mode allowing for a clearer image in playback mode without cutting out some of the content.