Tell @ ELI

Technology Enhanced Language Learning at the English Language Institute

Making CALL Interactive

Issue 8, Spring 2005
TELL ELI Archives

Using Word for Pre-Writing Activities
Mark McGrath & Scott Redfern
Nature of Activity: Interactive CALL Activity
Type of Activity: Group and Class Work
Proficiency Level: Beginners to advanced
Time: One to two class sessions
Skills: Speaking, reading, writing
Computer Skills: Creating Word files; accessing Word files on a local network
Equipment needed: Computer laboratory with local network, projector
For the regular classroom version of the activity, only one computer and a projector are needed.

Procedures:
1. Before students start writing, they will brainstorm ideas related to the assigned topic. During the brainstorming process, the teacher uses a Word program to type the ideas. The teacher’s computer is connected to a projector so the students see what the teacher is typing.
2. The teacher will then save the ideas generated during the brainstorming process and will make the file available via the local network.
3. Students will access this file and use it to support their outline writing.
Note – this activity can be used in a regular classroom with only one computer and an LCD projector. After the brainstorming session is over, the students will hand-write their outline referring to the discussion outcomes on the screen.

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Editing with Word
Mark McGrath & Scott Redfern
Nature of Activity: Interactive CALL Activity
Type of Activity: Small Group
Proficiency Level: Intermediate level to Advanced
Time: 20-40 minutes (depending on students’ level and essay complexity and length)
Skills: Speaking, reading, writing
Computer Skills: Editing Word files; accessing Word files on a local network
Equipment Needed: Computers for each group, a word processing program

Procedures:
1. Find an essay (or write one) that is appropriate for your students in terms of language complexity and topic (you can search the Internet for one).
2. Re-work it so it is missing certain important details such as transitions, topic sentence, details etc. (depending on the lesson goals).
3. Divide your students into pairs or groups of three.
4. Provide them with an electronic copy of the text. Working in small groups, the students will use Word to edit the essay and will submit the edited version of the essay to you by the end of the class session.
Variations: Reconstructing an Essay – Students may use the copy/cut & paste or drag & drop capabilities of Word for text organization and coherence practice. The teacher may mix the paragraphs and/or sentences in an essay, add unrelated sentences or paragraphs, and the students will be asked to reorder and edit it.

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Collaborative Writing and Text Illustration
Darunee Dujsik, Irshat Madyarov, & Sunhwa Choi

Nature of Activity: Interactive CALL Activity
Type of Activity: Group and Class Work
Proficiency Level: Beginners
Time: One regular classroom and one computer lab session
Skills: Speaking, reading, writing
Computer Skills: Formatting a word document, graphics, using different fonts
Equipment Needed: Computer(s), projector

Procedures:
1. In the regular classroom, the students and the teacher can collaboratively write a paragraph or a short story in a teacher/student shared writing session.
a. Brainstorming: The teacher leads the writing session and writes students’ suggestions and ideas on the board.
b. The teacher and the students create a text based on the brainstorming material.
Variation: Students work in small groups to create their stories.
2. In the computer lab: The story(s) students wrote collaboratively during the previous session is typed into a Word document. The students, working in small groups of two to three people, will format it and illustrate the stories so that the format and the images complement and aid the understanding and presentation of their texts.
Extension: The teacher will combine the stories created and illustrated by the groups during the semester in a booklet and will give it to the students at the end of the semester.
Note: This project might be used in classes that have a computer lab such as Culture, Literature, Strategies.

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Transcribing Role Play
Steven Surrency, Debbie Mitchell, & Meredith Moore

Nature of Activity: Interactive CALL Activity
Type of Activity: Triad Activity
Proficiency Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Time: One Computer Lab Session
Skills: Speaking, reading, writing
Computer Skills: Creating a word document, typing, saving.
Equipment Needed: Computers, one per triad

Procedures:
1. The teacher assigns a real life topic appropriate for the language level and class goals.
Language focus: Each situation can be designed to elicit certain grammatical structures (conditional, adverb clauses, etc.) or certain language functions (apologizing, requesting information, etc.)
2. The teacher divides the students into groups of three people.
3. Two students from each triad orally create a dialogue. This is impromptu. Students should not write what they plan to say.
4. The third student from the triad simultaneously transcribes the dialogue using a Word processing software. During the transcription process, the scribe seeks clarification as needed from the speakers.
5. Before printing the document, all 3 students should review the transcript to check for grammatical, vocabulary, and pragmatic errors.
Note: (optional) Students may exchange roles so each one of them gets the chance to transcribe.
Extension: On the next day, the students may perform the dialogues in front of the class.

Topic Ideas:1. You are invited for dinner at your conversation partner’s house. He/she serves shrimp, but you are allergic to shrimp. What would you say? 2. One of you is a clerk at Target. The other is a customer who bought a pair of shoes, wore them 3 days, and discovered they were falling apart. The customer brings them to the store clerk and demands a refund.

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Word Creations
Lisa Warner, Lisana Mohamed, Hellen Kantaras, & Ariadne Miranda

Nature of Activity: Interactive CALL Activity
Type of Activity: Small Group
Proficiency Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Time: One Computer Lab Session
Skills: Speaking, reading, writing
Computer Skills: Creating a word document, typing, saving.
Equipment Needed: Computers, one per group, printer

Procedures:
This activity will be performed in small groups, which will assure an active communication process between the students:
1. In the computer lab:
Writing a Menu
Using Word, students (working in small groups) will create a menu for an imaginary restaurant:
a. They will list dishes offered in the restaurant
b. They will provide short explanations of each dish including ingredients and the way the dish is cooked (i.e. steamed, fried, boiled, etc.)
c. They will add appropriate graphics to the menu and format it using different fonts and font sizes.
d. At the end of the class, they will print their menus.
2. In the regular classroom (follow-up to the computer lab session)
Going to a Restaurant: A Role-Play Activity
The students will exchange their menus and will use them in a role-play activity. They will pretend that they are having dinner in the restaurant for which they got a menu – one of the students will be the waiter, the other people in the group will be the guests. They will have to talk with each other and with the waiter, ask for and give suggestions, and decide what they want to order.
3. In the computer lab (follow-up to the regular classroom role-play activity)
Telling the Community About the Restaurant: A Writing Activity
Working in the same groups, the students will have to write a short essay for the local newspaper. The goal of the essay will be to present and evaluate the restaurant they visited.
a. The class will brainstorm about what they can include in their report (for ideas about how to organize the brainstorming session see Mark and Scott’s Word Pre-Writing Activities).
b. The students will use the outcomes of the brainstorming session to create their outline and to compose the newspaper report. The teacher will make sure that each student takes a turn to type on the computer during the composition process.

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Invite a Friend
Ray Cepko, & Amna Mohamed

Nature of Activity: Interactive CALL Activity
Type of Activity: Pair Work
Proficiency Level: Beginners-Intermediate
Time: 30 minutes
Skills: Speaking, reading, writing
Computer Skills: Formatting a word document, inserting tables, and graphics, using different fonts.

Procedures:
1. The teacher describes a context and provides a cultural background for a specific event.
2. The teacher describes the goal of the activity: to create an invitation card/letter for the event. The teacher provides a model of an invitation and writes the appropriate vocabulary on the board.
1. Working in pairs, the students use word processing software to design an invitation for a party including the pertinent information and using appropriate language and graphics.
Pre-requisites: Before this activity, the students should be instructed (1) how to format a word document using different fonts and tables, (2) how to search for graphics on the Internet and copy and paste them into their documents, (3) how to insert graphics from file or from the Clip Art section into a word file.

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