Task 1 - Website evaluation

Nurfateen Amira binti Hazmi

ED2418A

Website: http://englishbanana.com/

1. What does the website or MOOC attempt to “teach”? Are exercises or activities included in the website? What are the types of exercise or activities included? Are there immediate feedbacks? Are there different levels of difficulty for different proficiency levels?

     This English Banana website provides various types of English exercises not only for students, but can also be used for the teachers as a guide or examples or even used as teaching materials. It aims to help students in learning English, from grammar, vocabulary, to idioms and others. All contents are user-friendly, which means that the contents are easy to access and free for the users without the need to register for anything. This website provides free worksheets, games, books, podcasts, and resources that can be downloaded and printed. The worksheets and books contain exercises which mostly are for self-written with provided answer at the end of the exercises. The forms of questions are mostly “fill in the blank” type of question, “write the sentence”, and “choose the correct answer”. The podcasts provide audio for learning purposes as it talks about the topic, for example idioms and proverb. The games can be played directly on the page and it provides immediate feedback to the user. In terms of levels, the exercises provided in the website contain different levels of proficiency for the users, such as beginner, intermediate and advanced learners.

2. What are the learners/visitors required to do with regards to learning the content of the website or MOOC?

     The learners and visitors need to view the content just by clicking the keywords given on the page. This page provide free materials, thus learners and visitors are not required to register or sign up to access for the materials provided. The worksheets and books are mostly in pdf format which will be automatically downloaded once learners and visitors click on the title or topic they want. Once downloaded, they need to view the file in pdf. Learners can view the podcasts and games simply by just clicking on the topic they are interested with and it will be viewed on the page itself. The free resources linked learners to the other websites that provides free materials according to the topic given, which this gives more choices for the learners.

                       

3. Does the website or MOOC present learners with something that cannot be done in a face-to-face classroom? If yes, how so?

     Yes, this website presents learners with something that cannot be done in a face-to-face classroom. The games exercises cannot be done in a face-to-face classroom. I do not think it is suitable since it only requires one player and player needs to control the game by using the keyboards and mouse. The games provided are interactive but mostly focus on clicking on the objects and words on the screen. This applied to the worksheets too unless the teacher printed out the exercises, or doing a quick quiz session for the students by using the exercises given.

           

4. Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?

     The theory that can be related to this application is intrinsic motivation. It can be said that learners are most probably learning through the website because of their own motivation, either intrinsic or motivation. Edward Deci (1975) defined intrinsic motivation as doing the activity for their own sake in which the activity itself is the reward without any extrinsic reward. This self-determination theory can be genuinely applied on this method of language learning that is by using the website to learn English language. Even Maslow (1970) agreed that intrinsic motivation is more superior compared to extrinsic motivation. Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, this motivation falls into the self-actualization. This means that learners learn by themselves for their own benefit which in this issue it refers to learning the language through the website in order to increase their knowledge in English language.

     Discovery learning also can be applied to this website because the learners discover the language by them based on the materials given in the website. The learning also becomes more meaningful as what Ausubel (1963) stated that new learning was meaningful when it could be related in a non-arbitrary fashion to that which a person already knew. The students discover new information by their own selves and apply it on the existing knowledge that they have already learned.

5. An important criterion for evaluating a CALL program, task or activity is the potential for language learning (i.e. will student learn something?) Does the website or MOOC fulfill this criterion? If yes, how so? If no, why?

     I believed that this website fulfil the criteria of the potential for language learning, which means that students will be able to learn something from the website. The contents in the website are mainly for self-study, which means that student will learn by themselves, by their own motivation to gain the knowledge of the language. Worksheets and notes provided are proofs that it is about individual study of the language which do not involve any group work. Notes provided are varies from beginner level to advanced level and it includes the critical part in English language learning, that is grammar. Students will be able to learn and sharpen their grammar through the notes and exercises provided in the website. Besides that, they can also learn pronunciation through the podcasts. Meanwhile the games will be able to attract their interest in learning the language in a more fun way because it is interactive; music, moving texts and pictures, and colorful.

           

6. Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

Yes? Give reasons:

No? Give reasons:

    Yes, I would like to use the application in my future work if I am in the teaching line. The worksheets and notes given are easy to understand for various level of students and also easy to apply. It can be used as guidance in providing my own materials for teaching English language to the students. As some of the materials can be easily downloaded, it gives me the opportunity to print it out and give it to the students as their exercises to increase their skill in the language. I would also recommend to the students to play the games and listen or watch the podcasts to gain their interest in learning the language.