The wiki way of learning: Supporting vocabulary, grammar and writing skills in ESL classroom Anna Bougia
Dec 17, 2014
The wiki way of learning: Supporting vocabulary, grammar and writing skills in
ESL classroom
Anna Bougia
Aims of this Presentation
To discuss the benefits of using wikis in ESL classroom
To familiarize ESL instructors with the use of wiki technology
To present and practice a number of successful examples of collaborative wiki activities (vocabulary-writing)
To motivate instructors to use the wiki platform as an e-portfolio
What’s a wiki?
The most well known wiki
Wikis in education
Since 2000 wikis have been used as a source of information and as a tool for collaborative learning in the educational settings.
Teachers in all over the world use WIKIS
http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis
21st Century skills for teachers
Amaldi-English Corner
E-portfolio Project
Teenagers’ Guide to Everywhere
Educational uses of wikis
Students
To develop research projects (share links, bibliography, resources)
To write essays, reviews, articles To write reflections on the learning process To Interact with peers-teacher
Educational uses of wikis
Teachers To build a knowledge base To share reflections regarding teaching
practices, recourses To create an e-portofio On-line teacher training platform
Literature review on wikis
Students’ perceptions for wikis
Students' perceptions of Wiki-based collaborative writing for learners of English as a foreign language (2010), National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan
86% preferred writing on wiki that in a word document
71.4% they were more aware of their language use
73.5% considered Wiki helpful to work on ideas and to plan the organization into outlines
Students’ perceptions on wikis
83.7% considered Wiki-mediated collaborative writing to be able to enhance peer interaction.
75.5% their writing ability was enhanced through member revising records in history on wiki.
Many participants reported that they learned vocabulary, spelling, and phrases as well as sentence structure by reading the work of others on the Wiki pages and learning from the writing produced by their peers.
Research on the use of wikis in second/foreign language classes
Wikis encourage interaction-active engagement. (Alm, 2006; Franklin & Van Harmelen, 2007).
Research on wikis & Motivation
Wiki has potentials for motivating students (Egbert, 2003; Fotos, 2004; Warschauer, 1996)
Motivation
Benefits in writing skills
Lee (2012, University of New Hampshire) revealed:
that collaborative engagement in wikis, peer feedback and scaffolding
Enhanced writing skills Changed students attitude towards writing Build confidence in writing
Benefits in Writing Skills
Mak and Coniam (2008,Secondary school, Shatin Pui Ying College Hong Kong)
students wrote more than what was required. sentences were more complex and creative
than usual.
Research on wikis & Grammar
Eola and Oskoz (2010,East Coast university)
Collaborative writing improved written grammar as well as the structure and the content of writing.
Castaneda & Cho (Ohio University, 2010)
Wiki writing improved grammatical knowledge
of Spanish forms of: imperfet and preterite & imperfect.
Research on wikis & Critical Reflection
Woo et al. (2011, Hong Kong, Primary School)
Results showed that engagement in creative problem solving and peer critique helped students to use their critical thinking and creative reasoning skills.
Research on wikis & Autonomy
Arnold (2012) Group members took responsibility for the
text and made formal revisions and content changes.
Kessler and Bikowski (2010) 80% of the students demonstrated
autonomy as collaborative learners by either adding new information on the wiki project, either deleting/elaborating information.
Examples of good practice
Writing Activity
Vocabulary Practice
E-Portfolio
Familiarizing Teachers with wikis
Writing activity
Activity Title: Write a paragraph about a talented person.
Level: Intermediate.
Learning Objective: To assist students developing descriptive writing skills.
Language focus: vocabulary for success-talented people).
Grammar Focus: Present Perfect.
Lesson Plan
Introduction of the topic / setting the scene Upload to wiki pictures of famous talented
people and ask students which one do they admire and why?
Exposure to good samples of writing in keeping with the lesson objectives (companion- internet).
Analysis of the sentence structures, vocabulary and writing conventions contained in the samples.
Lesson Plan
Clarification of writing task.(remind students the parts of a paragraph).
Individual or group brainstorming.(use wiki forum to exchange ideas about talent vs practice.
Initiate a debate or ask students to participate in a survey:
http://www.survs.com/app/9/wa/welcome?wosid=BcEcz44pJGszRW0fPGyecw
Selection or rejection of ideas. Sorting and ordering of ideas.
Lesson Plan
First draft. Discussions with other students and / or the
teacher. (invite teacher and your peers to become members of your wiki page and ask for feedback.
Second and subsequent drafts. Go back to history and revise your teacher’s and peers edits
Assign Roles
Practical Advice for Classroom UseModel Collaboration
Innovators
Debaters
ResearchersProtectors
Editors
Vocabulary Practice Activities
"Vocabulary is not a developmental skill or one that can be seen as fully mastered. The expansion and elaboration of vocabularies is something that extends across a lifetime."
(Kamil & Hiebert, 2005) Tools: QUIZLET, VISUWORDS FLASH STASH,
CONCORDANCER
http://quizlet.com/ http://flashcardstash.com/ http://www.visuwords.com/ http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/index.xml
Vocabulary Teaching
Meaning
Pronunciation
Stress
Spelling Word Family
Register
Grammatical Features Collocation
E-PORTFOLIO
http://www.wikispaces.com/
WIKI RESOURCES-EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE
http://aroundtheworldwithwikis.wikispaces.com/
http://esu4vocabularystrategies.wikispaces.com/
http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/~Educational+Magazines+%26+Blogs
Around the world with wikis
Vocabulary Resources
ICT Resources
Places to create wikis
Wikispaces
http://www.wikispaces.com/
Wikis on wetpaint
http://www.wetpaintcentral.com/news
Wikidot in education
http://www.wikidot.com/learnmore:education
Start writing!!!!!!!!!!
“BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD”, GANDHI