Webography: Using Blogs to Enhance Collaborative Learning in ESP Courses

Website 1
http://www.esp-world.info/contents.htm
This site provides access to the web-based digital journal named ESP WORLD (ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES ISSN 1682-3257) with free full texts of five years available online. It is started in May, 2002, boasting contributions and readership from various countries in the world with the aim to benefit the whole international ESP community. It is published 2 - 3 times a year and includes an archive and an online forum, chiefly edited by Ludmila Kuznetsova, the Russian ESP project coordinator.
Articles closely related to my webography topic can be identified through this website. So far, I’ve found several contributions are of great help. One is entitled “Teaching Writing and Reading English in ESP through a Web-Based Communicative Medium: Weblog”, written by Jafar Askari Arani, faculty member of Kashan University of Medical Sciences, English Department. It discusses how blogs develop writing, reading and communication skills in ESP under the Medical Science program, located at:
http://www.esp-world.info/Articles_11/TeachingReadingandWritinginESPthroughaWeb-BasedCommunicativeMedium.htm
Another is “Asynchronous Discussions in ESP courses” written by Helder Fanha Martins, which discusses on-line discussions in ESP courses, located at:
http://www.esp-world.info/Articles_4/Fanha%20Martins.htm

Website 2
http://e-flt.nus.edu.sg/v3n22006/kavali.htm
This site provides access to the article entitled “Weblogging: Innovation for Communication in English Class” included in the electronic journal of Foreign Language Teaching. In this article, the new innovative e-learning through the use of weblogs is introduced in details. It discusses the application of blogs at the tertiary level. Advantages of using weblogs are exemplfied through the research upon various areas like the effects of learner self-assessment of language proficiency, online listening experience, opinion essay writing on professional themes. It aims to show how weblogging can raise learners’ language awareness and get them prepared for effective communication in the network world. The research here is conducted in written and oral communication classes with related results discussed and presented.

The reason why I think it will be of great value to the study under my webography topic is because it contains lots of useful information such as class experiences of creating weblogs for learning purposes and using them for online activities with university ESP students, the methods employed for data gathering and treatment related to administering specially designed questionnaires, students' responses analysis, weblogging activities implementation, feedback to learners, learners’ performance evaluation in various online activities, and weblogging utility assessment. It is especially tailored to students on tertiary level with comprehensive knowledge about weblog applying in ESP courses provided.

Website 3
http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/default.html
This site provides access to the article “Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration” authored Bob Godwin Jones, Director of Instructional Technology Development Center, Virginia Commonwealth University. Bob Godwin Jones has contributed a lot in the area of teaching with modern means of technology. A good overview of blogs, RSS feeds, and wikis plus the potentials these tools offer in the field of education is displayed in the above mentioned article, which I think will help me greatly to understand how I can make the most of blogs to enhance collaborative learning in ESP courses.
A full list of resource links are also provided herein regarding computer-mediated communication, chat and discussion forums, blogs, RSS, and Wikis, which readers may find to be of great help.

Website 4
http://www.englishaustralia.com.au/ea_conference2006/proceedings/pdf/Chylinski.pdf
This site provides access to the paper titled “Keeping up with practices in language teaching with ICT and some applications to ELICOS setting” subscribed for the 19th Annual EA Education Conference 2006. It examines current ICT trends and new ICT tools as observed through the activities discussed by an online community of practice and analyzes conditions required for their successful implementation into language teaching so as to allow CALL ELICOS practitioners to make more informed decisions about their course design and delivery.
In this case, language learning environment is expected to be created in a conducive, creative and effective way.

Website 5
http://www.asian-esp-journal.com/index.php
This site provides access to Asian English for Specific Purposes Journal, a free online Journal that provides the users with basic knowledge about ESP in Asia. It boasts its user friendly and highly accessible links to the full range of topics concerning issues within Asian Zone. Issues that can be located here include second language acquisition in specialized contexts, occupational needs assessment, ESP curriculum development and evaluation.

What I think special is that it examines academically those issues and works on the integration of traditional approaches with the specialized new field of study. In addition, insights with regard to some newly emerging issues and subjects will also be dealt with. What's more, indices of articles, authors, key words, sbjects, together with book reviews are carefully listed so as to help the users to locate them easily and effectively.

Website 6
http://blogsforlearning.msu.edu/
This site provides access to a panoramic view of using blogs for learning in various areas. It is fantastic for it caters to the needs of both the instructors and the students. It deals with technical and pedagogical aspects of blogging in the classroom. Articles, RSS, case studies, interactive turorials etc. are all provided here to give you help in varied forms. Updated information concerning using blogs for learning is published and refrAeshed regularly. What's more, you can also approach some interesting user submitted blogs concerning different topics, which you may find surprisingly helpful to you in your own teaching and learning of ESP courses.

Website 7
http://www.shakespeare.uk.net/journal/jllearn/4_2/LEARN1.pdf
This site provides access to a PDF article entitled “Application of Blogging for Learner Development” included in Journal of Language Learning vol.4, no.2, 2006. It covers a wide scope of information related to using blogs to facilitate language learning. It touches upon topics like review of blogging in language learning, self-assessment of language skills and performance based upon a construction of research. It concludes by saying that weblogs in ESP classes are useful in terms of raising learners’ language awareness and learner development, being able to provide choice of various forms of activities, enhance students’ motivation and make them reflect upon their own performances.

Week 5 Task

I feel quite amazed at those scenarios depicted in the article entitled "Distractions in the Wireless Classroom". I don't think they are just individual cases. Such kind of incidents are most likely to happen in every wireless classroom. In this case, modern technology in a sense acts like a double-edged sword. It may on the one hand faciliate teaching and learning in the classroom, while it may on the other hand cause distractions of varied forms, which will sure affect teachers' instructions and students' performances in a negative way.

As a matter of fact, I think most of us have experienced such unhappy happenings in the past, in one form or another. Maybe we can't help guffawing, for those scenarios simply remind us of the embarrassing situations in our own classrooms. We may have frowned at cell phones' ringing, text message clicking etc. When I was once giving my Phonetics class, I found quite a few students surfing the web for trival news items, playing games or chatting on line. I'm sure not a single responsible teacher will be happy and let it go unattended when they come across such happenings. Question then arises. What can we do to tackle this problem?

Of course, it's much more complex than simply shut off the wireless, which seems to lead nowhere but a dead end. Actually, I am fairly impressed by those words ocurring in the report---"If the entertainment doesn't come from the front of the wireless classroom, it comes from the Internet." which just poses a new task to us teachers. That is to say, we need to make our class as lively as possible so that the students may feel like to participate actively and cooperatively. Of course there is sure more than one way to get things back onto the right track. We can see some very good and practical suggestions put forward in the article. For example, set ground rules for wireless use in the classroom, establish laptop etiquette, adopt best practices for using wireless in teaching in such forms as instructing, interacting, and improving.

So far we may have realized that the point is how we can make the most of modern IT in the teaching and learning environment. It's up to you to make the choice. As a teacher, the way how we teach our students speaks loudest.