Reflection 3

Autonomy which has been simply defined by researchers that ability to take change of learners own learning. Interest in autonomy has increased considerably .The philosophy of autonomy and the rule of autonomy in global education is the main focus of educators in recent years, specifically to the role of CALL. To facilitative and enhancing language learning is the main topic of this week’s reading. As Healey (2007) well expressed that autonomy is more than sitting in a lab with material, more than being motivated to learn, more than having company in ones studies, and more than having choices in terms of topics. It means being able to make adult decisions about learning to become independent learners.
Mostly this article analyzed Oxford (2003) who systemized varying perspectives on learner’s autonomy. She presented four different perspectives on being which autonomy includes;
1) Technical perspective which focus on the physical situation
2) Psychological perspective which focus on characteristics of learners
3) Sociocultural perspective which focus on mediate learning
4) Political-critical perspective which focus on ideology, access, and power structure
In the background of the study, Healey (2007) stated about some issues concern in the literature related to the sitting, role of learning style and strategies, age variables, individual verses group work, control and the locus of power, and culture of relevance of autonomous learning.
In my opinion, the role of style and strategy is one of the most important points which can help learners to become autonomous learners. For example, there are different styles of learners. Some learn better through auditory, some through visual, and some through tactile/kinesthetic. However, CALL cannot work more effectively to make the learner autonomous. It is the role of a teacher to use different strategies in order to make students interested in using a computer to help themselves become independent learners.
I do agree with the idea that many CALL projects such as WebQuest can help by providing learners with a structure that gradually gives them more control and become independent learners.

Reading Reflection 2

As usual we have had another interesting article that really impressed me while Anderson (2003) well- defined the interaction. As he said “Interaction has long been defining and critical component of the educational process and context”. Preferred better Wagner’s (1994) definition that interaction is a mutual events that require “two objects” and “two action”. Whenever these two influence mutually to each other interaction happens. AS I found out from the article that interaction is key factor in highly learning program either formal or informal. Both formal and informal learning can result from interaction among students. He presented interaction process in three different ways such as student-student; student-teacher; student-content. Actually interaction with a teacher is often an important component of a formal learning experience but student-student interaction informal and it is more effective. For example in this course CALL since I have been in this class I feel free I interact my classmates. Frankly I learned a lot.

Website Evaluation

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Reading Reflection

The two articles mainly defined the definition of CALL in many angles. Specifically Egbert (2005) defined CALL briefly. CALL is focused not only on technology to dominate the class but is mainly used as an effective tool to facilitate language learning. In CALL practitioners need to prepare to meet a variety of needs. CALL pedagogy should be used in both theory and practice from many fields especially in second language acquisition. Egbert characterizes CALL as optimal technology-enhanced language teaching and learning environments. Also he added CALL as one of the vigorous and effective tool for teachers and researchers. Call has come to include many different technologies such as laptop computers, personal digital assistants, digital audio recorders, modem and cable Internet access, drill software and also to use the internet as a medium to support native and nonnative speaker interaction.
In terms of eight conditions he brought out from Egbert and Henson (1999) I do agree but I am a little confused about number 6 that learners have enough time and feedback, because it takes a lot of time to give them feedback. Also, sometimes more feedback can demotivate students when they see more feedback in their work. As a teacher one of the points that really impressed me was in Integrating ESL Standard point that learners should be able to communicate effectively in social and academic settings and that they have should also learn ways to continue their learning beyond the school settings. In school setting learners in general spend less amount of time than outside of the class and this will give the opportunity to interact outside of the school.