:: My ESL website evaluation ::

The website evaluated: http://www.manythings.org/

1) What does the application attempt to “teach”?

Basically, the application focuses on all things matter to English language. Besides grammar, there is listening, speaking, and reading. It pretty much covers all aspect of English language, except less emphasis on reading comprehension. It also teaches learners other micro aspects such as vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation for easier understanding. Meanwhile, the exercises and quizzes are primarily focused towards improving one’s grammar and listening skills. Although reading comprehension is not included in the site, reading activity is naturally embedded with listening activity. The only thing missing is the comprehension feature. The lessons are not divided into levels, so learners have to know what level they are in and what aspects they need to improve on. So, indirectly this application is attempting to teach learners how to assess themselves, discover their weaknesses and strengths by doing the quizzes and fun lessons in the site. The application does encourage learners to try the easier quizzes first before moving on to the more challenging one. At least it will give a sense of motivation for learners to build up the momentum before going for the more challenging exercises. By focusing on grammar and listening skill, the site probably tries to replicate the usual atmosphere of classroom situation, where teachers heavily emphasized on grammar and students utilized a great deal of listening skills during lesson. As such, the sites clearly tailored for beginner to pre-intermediate learners, which is good since advanced learners never bothered using the internet to learn English anyway. Basically, this is probably not a place for upper-intermediate and advanced learners.

2) What sorts of things is the application user expected to do with the regards to learning the content?

First of all, the users are free to choose what aspect of English language they would like to learn. Since the website does not divide the section into levels, it does encouraged users to go for the easy quizzes first to warm up and get the feeling of using the application. Basically, it’s a straight forward application and easy for the learners to navigate. First, a user needs to choose what aspect of English they would like to practice. There are many to choose from, such as listening, grammar, pronunciation, spelling, etc. Of course, different section requires different approach. Example for listening activities, user needs to choose a topic, play a simple audio player, and answer question based on what the user listened. The navigational buttons are simple and clearly designed so that user would know what to click in order to finish the quiz. For matching games, user is required to use the mouse to drag and drop the answer to the correct spot. For the grammar section, the quizzes come in two designs, either Flash or simple HTML. For the HTML, user only requires to write down the correct answer in the blank provided, much like the Hot Potato worksheet. For the Flash version, it is a bit easier and interactive, because it involves Multiple Choice Question and requires user to use the mouse often. The web is designed in a simplistic manner that does not require a genius to operate. The instruction for the quizzes is also clearly stated so user would not have any problem knowing what he or she is expected to do in using the application.

3) What sorts of computer skills is the application users expected to have in order to operate/ access/ use the application?

The basic things, of course. Forget about knowing how to use the mouse, the keyboard, etc. They are not musical instruments! Well, maybe 10 years ago, it could have taken an advanced user to do it, but we are now in the golden age of ICT. Everything seems to be too easy for us, even for a little kids who nowadays know how to blog! So I would say it takes a very basic computer skill to operate the application. It is like surfing the web. Of course, they need to know what to click and where to click. If not they might end up clicking the browser’s close button. But kids and teenagers nowadays surf more sophisticated sites than this, especially for online gaming and social network sites. If they know how to open the Internet Explorer (which I doubt, because they prefer Firefox or Chrome!), then it should not be a problem. Most of the popular browsers will prompt users if they don’t have the necessary plugins such as Java or Flash, which is required to run some of the application. For browsers which require users to manually download the plugin and install it into the system, it might be a stumbling block for them.

Another thing is on the browser’s add-on and ActiveX controls. Certain browsers prevent sites from directly using certain add-ons or plugins even when it is already installed on the system, for security reasons. Whenever a site wants to run an add-on (e.g. Flash, Java, QuickTime, etc) for a certain applications, the browser will block it. To unblock, users need to click on the underside of the browser’s toolbar and allow the add-on to run, which can be a little tricky for some due to its small size. So, users need to be very attentive and aware of what goes around in the screen.

4) While you are “playing”/ “accessing”/ “assessing” the application, does it remind you of anything you do in classroom, or with a teacher, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?

Ohh... the good old days. Definitely a reminiscence. I remember playing educational software in a tuition conducted by my primary school teacher. The main character in that game was a frog and I enjoyed it a lot. My friends and I ended up using most of the tuition time mingled with that game until my teacher banned it from the class. A sad ending, but that was the moment where we realized how learning experience can be that fun!

I also remember when my sister bought me an educational courseware for my SPM examination. It is for science and physics subject. It allows one to simulate several science experiments, without having the risk of burning down the school lab. It also contains a lot of MCQ which needed to be answered first before I can do the experiment interactively. At least it got me going, unlike the old, lousy textbook.

Then, when I entered university, independent learning creeps in. We could not rely solely on lectures and lecturer’s notes. We had to find our own resource and reference, from the library and guess what, the Internet! I first experienced learning through websites during the third semester, where I had my third language (French) subject. Since explanation alone was not enough, I need an interactive websites to make myself understand the so-called French “conjugacion”. I stumbled upon a website which helped me a lot, especially in terms of pronunciation. Merci beaucoup Internet!

The latest one is that hot potato! It was so hot that I could feel it till now. Of course, it was only this week I learned it..

Overall, it was like any other day in class. Lots of quizzes and explanations and praises (If I got it right). It replicates the facilitation of a teacher in the classroom in some way. Plus, it’s fun!

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

There are several theories and techniques of language learning and teaching that underlie the application.

The first theory of language teaching that I can relate with the application is the Audiolingual Method. As mentioned before, the application slightly focuses more on speaking and listening aspect of English language. I tried the activities and one the technique comes to mind is Audiolingual Method. Several characteristics are clearly related with the method are repetitive drills and the use of audio. In the listening and pronunciation activities, learners are asked to listen to selected words repeatedly, in order to answer the question correctly. It also one forms of mechanical drill. Another main aspect for this method is the vocabulary used in the activity is strictly limited to a certain context, or alternatively, context-isolated. If a learner chooses a specific topic for the activity, then he/she is expected to go through the activity only on the topic selected. Plus, the application provides little or no grammatical explanation at all, so the learners have to discover it by themselves, or in other words, inductively.

Having a look at the techniques used in the application, interesting approaches used in the pronunciation activity are the use of rhythm and minimal pairs. In one of the minimal pairs quizzes, learners are asked to match the word uttered by the audio embedded in the activity. Another listening drill activity uses a background music, which replicates the rhythm of the words pronounced within the audio. This indirectly teaches learners the aspect of rate of delivery and clear articulation, which many people wrongly assume native speakers speak gibberish too fast. Ok, it might be true for Scottish. The background music in the activity reminds me of a method called Suggestopedia. Non-TESL human being might confused this with a another form of Wikipedia. The founder of this unique method was Bulgarian psychologist, Georgi Lozanov. According to this one time fan of Sebastian Bach (I made it up), “during the soft playing of baroque music, one can take in tremendous quantities of material due to an increase in alpha brain waves and a decrease in blood pressure and pulse rate”. Well, I didn’t feel anything unusual during the listening activity to be honest. Probably, the music in the activity is not baroque music after all. It’s just a looping sound of drums to me. But, because of the voice modulated in harmony with the musical phrases, in some way, I think Suggestopedia deserves to be mentioned.

In terms of learning theory, a case of motivation broke loose in the self-control theory. Since learners are in control of what they are learning in this quest of self-assessment, I want to draw on certain cognitive psychologists view on motivation. They said motivation is highest when we one can make one’s own choices, about what to pursue and what not to pursue. Now, put into the perspective of learners who learn through ESL websites, of course they have the power to choose what they want to click and what they don’t want to click. This in return motivates the learners to have the continuous autonomy to experience they own self-study. Having self-control-motivation leads to self-study discovery, and ends with self-assessment. This site of course, automatically teaches learners the art of self assessment. They are able to assess their progress through the marks calculated by the site, after finished answering a quiz or activity.

6) How well is the constructivist theory of learning applied to the chosen website?

Constructivist theory stemmed from the idea of Lev Vygotsky, who believes that the environment plays an important role in developing one’s perspective on learning. Looking at the word environment, in the context of the ESL website I am evaluating, I couldn’t help saying the website itself is the ‘virtual world’ or the ‘virtual environment’ where users will immerse themselves into it, in order to find their real existence, or to be more precise, why he/she is there in the first place. To gain knowledge of course, but how? That is the question. Who knows better than the self? As in the movie The Matrix, the user immerses himself as the chosen one, everything is reflected towards the self, individualistically speaking. The links, the buttons, everything in the website, is a unit acting as a part of the society, helping the user to develop and choose his own destiny. So user will choose what is best for him, and experience the glory and the downfall of a warrior through quizzes! Everything is about what is right and what is best for the self, based on what he/she thinks about the environment he/she is in. It is like a jigsaw puzzle, which needs to be constructed as pieces by pieces falls into place and shapes the knowledge gained throughout the learning process. With the help of the layout, the instructions, and structural patterns, learners will go through a series of self-discovery, which pretty much has been set up through how the site is being designed.

7) In 1980s and early 1990s, there was a major debate on ‘whether the computer was “master” of or “slave” to the learning process (Higgins and Johns, 1984).
In relation to your evaluation, was the computer a replacement for teachers, or merely an obedient servant to students?

I don’t have a firm believes in either of the statement. To say that the computer is a replacement for teachers is too harsh. Nothing can replace a role of a teacher than a real teacher himself. It doesn’t have that human touch which is part of students’ learning process. A man taught by a chimpanzee will imitate the sound of a chimpanzee. A man taught by a scholar will become a scholar. A man taught by a computer? It can be either a Frankenstein or a cyborg. The computer itself was created by a man. If a computer is to replace the teacher, we will lose the sense of human uniqueness. A computer will become a custom-made-knowledge-production-hub. The production will be so linear and produce the same product over and over again.

This is of course, if the computer permanently replaces the role of a teacher, which will never happen. If even a supercomputer could not be compared to a brain of a 5 year old child, what’s more a personal computer? To me the computer is not exactly a replacement, but more to an assistant, or a 1/100 working part of a teacher’s brain, depends on which teacher is being compared to.

Computer is never a servant to students; in fact, they are the servant to themselves. They have to do what they need to do in order to acquire the learning process. Unless if knowledge can be downloaded straight into the brain in just a click like what we used to do in torrent, probably I could say the computer is indeed an obedient slave to the students. But that’s only an IF. It is not an issue of who the servant is and who isn’t, but it is an issue of pure intention of seeking knowledge. They say, necessity is the mother of all invention. Man invented the computer to make life easier, but not to be a Master or to create a Slave. In the end, it is us who are a slave to Him, and to Him we will return.

8) Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work?

Of course I would. This application is very interesting not only for the students, but also to those who teach English. The first reason is because of its simplicity. Since I am a man of simplicity, I prefer to use things which don’t complicate things. The simpler it is the better. Simple here means easy on the eye. It does not cram so many things in one box. It makes unorganized items looked organized, visually of course. So simply said, it is simple.

The next best thing on why I like to use the application is its straight forward nature. You get what you click for. Some other sites are so tricky that when you click a link, it will go to the same page if you click from another link, which is of course, means for another link, for a different section of the page. See how confusing it is?! In short, you are actually going in circle; end up to the same exact page. But for www.manythings.org, it is so easy to navigate.

The site has been set up for optimal performance when browsing experience matters. When surfing the site, I feel like surfing at a REAL broadband speed (forget it if you still using dial-up!). The reason of the site’s simplicity is to complement its surfing speed. Since it doesn’t use any heavy application or add-ons, surfing experience enhanced greatly. Example, if users are to use the listening section, the mp3 file will take only seconds to load. I don’t like waiting as some sites took years to load, by the time it finished loading, my mind is already on something else. So this site really knows how to not to kill time. Speed kills!

Next is because of its price. Well, nothing comes free in this world, except supplication. Sadly, I still have to pay to surf this site. At least it is not as expensive as other sites which do charge a small amount of fee according to packages. So in order to surf and use all of its content, I only have to pay the Internet bill. Of course the bill depends on which speed do I signed up for. You can surf it for free though, if you use the library or your friend’s wireless internet, unless if your friend decides to charged for it.

Lastly, when talking about the future, we really need to take updates seriously. Since it is an online courseware, I am sure it is updated daily, if not monthly. New content and materials are important especially in an era where trends and knowledge are updated in seconds. So, to be able to look at the future trends, one needs to use things which are able to look at the current trends. As long as the site updated itself, I would use it in my future work.

Suggestions/ Recommendations:

Well, first time visiting the site, obviously it is not its layout or appearance that caught my attention. But I have to say the simplicity of the web lured me to investigate the content and so on. It would be really nice if the web can be designed in more colorful and interactive way, which can be a very good thing to attract kids alike. Although simplicity is one of the site’s main strength, it is not enough for kids who are famous for their visual craving. Since most of today’s commercial websites utilized the latest java and flash application, educational sites should do the same too. Education sites should be more attractive, and one example of sites that utilizes simple flash application is www.englishmaze.com. Although the content of this site need vast improvements, the idea and the appearance is something that other educational website should emulate. So they should not limit their website to only HTML and simple Flash, which can be a little boring for some after using it for quite awhile.

Put the visual aspect aside; let us look into the layout perspective. I think the site’s layout is nice. But in terms of the flow of the content, a lot can be improved. It is nice to divide section based on the proficiency level of the user, but by straight away giving quizzes and questions without any introduction about the topic can be very burdensome for the students. I think there should be a page that covers an explanation for each aspect of grammar before going for the quiz section. In this way, users can monitor their progress based on their previous link they have visited progressively, without having to trace back what section they had and had not visited. Alternatively, the sites can also create or put assessment service for each unique user. Of course, to do this the site has to create a free account service for each visitor. Once a visitor signed up for a free account and uses any of the quiz section, their progress and achievement will be recorded for later view. Not only they can attract more visitors to the site, they can also make further research and survey among their site users for educational purpose, and for their own benefit of course, without having to charge the users a cent. This can be a good win-win situation for both parties.