Background Information

The CALL materials within this site have been designed to support the EAP modules (5-hours per
week) on my Foundation Business and Humanities Pathway programme:

http://www.intostudy.com/en-gb/universities/newcastle-university/courses/international-foundation-in-business-and-management

http://www.intostudy.com/en-gb/universities/newcastle-university/courses/international-foundation-in-humanities-and-social-sciences

Students are aged 16-20 and are from a wide range of countries.

Learners began this course in September 2017 with an average overall IELTS score of 7 and will have
completed the programme by mid-June 2018.

Materials integrate multi-skills due to the timing of the activities as students are now consolidating
their learning and revising for final exams. The materials are set up in class and blended to some
extent, as students are expected to review and revise tasks throughout a three week period. Lessons
and learning outcomes (appendix A) are planned to accommodate evolving cognitive ability such as
the stages evident in Bloom’s taxonomy but ultimately to encourage students to reach higher order
thinking.

When planning content, we looked together at the module learning outcomes and examination
criteria and students selected the following as areas they wanted to improve:

- How to generate ideas when faced with a new topic

- How to widen range of vocabulary (with journal resources)
- How to write a final essay
- How to apply and transfer subject knowledge
- How to improve seminar speaking exam performance

As these activities are all relevant for exam preparation, I felt it important that students could revisit
them as often as needed, i.e. via their own accessible webpage
(https://foundationbusinessandhumanities.weebly.com/) as repeated exposure leads to more
successful learning (Ellis, 2005:45).

I produced a cyclical process where I could incorporate all of the student needs by linking them
together with one theme. I opted for ‘communication between staff and students’ as this is
something that learners have experience of. I also wanted to reduce overloading students with
multiple topic areas. Usually, I would design materials separately for a business or humanities
context but in this case, I considered Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis (1985) and how much
demand was already being placed on the learners with second language learning and digital literacy
needs. Therefore, a more generic context seemed appropriate.

A key factor when planning these lessons is how to incorporate meaningful CALL resources so I
followed the SAMR model when considering task design (Puentedura, 2013). In other words, shifting
towards transformation of learning activities as opposed to enhancement; the latter implying that e-
tools are used as a direct substitute and therefore do little to persuade the user of their importance,
posing a risk of stifling motivation.

1
A further key design aspect for these activities is ensuring they are accessible via phone throughout
the planned classes but with the option of tablet/laptop access too for home-based revision. The
teaching of transferable skills such as browsing effectively for research, online media, graphics,
presentations and video etc. (Godwin-Jones, 2016) needs to take into account this preference for
mobile phone accessibility; especially as students are interacting with a reduced screen size (Kress,
2010: 191). The underlying belief that using a mobile phone in the classroom can have negative
connotations (Thomas and Munoz, 2016) also needs to change to allow students and teachers to
fully immerse this tool as a natural vessel for enhancing learning. Not only must I plan for
accessibility but also the “habitus” of my learners - a need for speed and less concern with accuracy
(Kress, 2010:193). Consequently, I opted for the following CALL resources (see appendix B):

SLA and CALL theory

On our programme we encourage our students to be autonomous and to be both reflective and
critical thinkers, therefore our ethos connects with the constructivist learning theory. Vygotsky’s ZPD
(1978) fits well with my own style of collaborative learning with both teacher and peer scaffolding a
regular occurrence in learning activities. The promotion of learner autonomy also fits well with the
affective filter hypothesis (Li, 2017:35) and we strive to give our learners the confidence to engage in
self-directed study, to enhance the classroom experience. Generally my approach mirrors theory
ensemble (Hubbard and Levy, 2016) as it is eclectic and hybrid according to the type of task taking
place and the individual learner needs and this is evident when we look at the CALL activities that I
produced and how they transcend amongst all four of Li’s TELL stages (2017:14) summarised below:

2
As with all learning materials, there should be such variation in order to produce lessons that adapt
according to lesson aims; student needs; and learning outcomes.

3
Overall Evaluation (*Please refer to appendix C for individual task evaluation)

Students gave very positive feedback overall (appendix D) and during a focus group, the central
theme seemed to be about ‘ease’ of access and timeliness. Students told me that they get tired of
logging in to lots of different portals so having everything accessible through one website was
popular and suggests future course design improvements such as the possibilities available via an
LMS i.e. Canvas. Students and staff were also able to identify the benefits of using CALL for more
authentic task types in the sense that they mimic the real exam tasks that students are taking – a
seminar discussion and written essay. Elements which would not have been possible through more
traditional learning methods are summarised below:

 Enhanced materials with hyperlinks so students can have instant access to the original
sources used for answering the sample ‘w’ questions.
 Cyclical or blended process of learning to reinforce key themes outside of the classroom,
‘anytime, anywhere’
 Instant access to the materials via mobile phone
 Speed of access for retrieval of multiple documents used in a three-week period (paper-
based items are often misplaced by our teenage learners).
 Collaboration projected on the IWB enabling whole-group peer feedback

There remain areas for further development. One revision, after initial peer feedback, was to
formalise the instructions that I gave for accessibility. I had introduced students to the website in
class and I was able to monitor and guide them if there were any issues, yet to an outsider my tasks
were less clear from webpage viewing alone. I realised that I should reinforce these instructions by
adding them to the site. I also realised that in doing so, any absent students would have the
opportunity to catch up through site access.

An additional consideration is to look at tracking options in future, to ascertain records of who is

accessing materials outside of class and how often students are reviewing tasks. Attrition levels can
be high for self-study tasks so this is an important area.

Finally, for these particular revision tasks and these higher level EAP students, many of the H5P
options were not appropriate, and paper-based tasks worked better. However, our IELTS 5 students
need more traditional grammar input and could really benefit from the interactivity of HotPotatoes
for this purpose.

4
Appendices

5

Revision week 1:
Classroom Tasks
- Generating ideas
1. brain storm any ideas
related to the theme of
globalisation
2. compare ideas with those
on the site, by also considering
the 5ws approach
3. use the Menti app via the
site to create 5w questions
related to the theme of
‘communication between staff
and students’
4. collaborate whole group to
consider the submissions and
how initial ideas could then be
placed in different sections of
an essay plan i.e. introduction,
a main body paragraph theme,
conclusion
Appendix A: Lesson planning Activities and Objectives for ‘Communication’:
Rationale and Background
Using a test-teach-test approach to
establish student ability in applying the
5Ws method when generating ideas. The
theme of ‘globalisation’ is used as a model,
then students refine the process by
applying their own ideas to the theme of
‘communication between staff and
students’.
Weebly and Menti are used in class
initially, via mobile phones, and accessible
for review outside of class. Menti in
particular supports the ‘R’ stage of the
SAMR model as with it students can see
whole class submissions, in real time, to
widen collaboration, which enhances
learners’ “output” (Motteram, in
Tomlinson, 2013) .
Learning Outcomes
(Students will be able to….)
-apply the 5w method in order to
generate ideas related to the topic of
‘communication between staff and
students’
-develop ideas when faced with a new
subject area
-collaborate with each other to critique
whole class submissions
-evaluate how these initial ideas can then
be reformulated into a logical essay plan
6
CALL Applications
My Weebly website (R1) has an explanation of the
5w approach and examples based on the topic of
‘Globalisation’ for comparison.
Students can click onto each ‘w’ and they can also
access original sources for optional further reading.
The Weebly site links to a Menti task (R2) where
students then apply the same strategies to
generate ideas linked to the chosen core theme of
‘communication between staff and students’. This
resource will be useful for self study reviews as it is
setting the scene for later tasks (seminar discussion
and essay task). NB: Students’ submissions have
been stored in Ideas Generator 1 and 2
Both CALL resources are used in class initially and
students are advised to review them outside of
class. Students are informed that the activities are
all connected and will develop over a three week
period, to encourage ‘buy in’ i.e. that there is a
long term goal and that spending time reviewing
materials will help with the follow on tasks.
 - Academic Reading
and Vocabulary
1. gist reading to gain general
understanding of an article
abstract
2. highlight unfamiliar terms
3. apply strategies to try and
‘guess’ the meaning of the
words with both context and
consideration of any root
derivations
4. identify both stance and
main ideas from the text
Revision week 2
Week 2
- Vocabulary review
1.recap of vocabulary terms
via Quizlet app – whole class
- Seminar discussion
1. preparatory stage to look at
the task sheet and prepare
central arguments
2. links to previous lessons –
can any of the
themes/vocabulary terms be
linked to the 4 options?
3. seminar group discussion
(with peer observers)
4. feedback from peers and
teacher
The learners have individual needs when it
comes to vocabulary development. CALL is
often praised for encouraging autonomy
(Reinders and Hubbard, 2013) so
introducing students to CALL apps such as
Quizlet encourages them to be
autonomous and accommodates different
learning styles for vocabulary acquisition
e.g. rote learning with lists; kinaesthetic
match up, and a gaming function
Rationale and Background
In semester 1, students did not score very
highly in the seminar assessment task so it
was important to build this into the
revision classes. Here a task-based
approach was important and students
were encouraged to give peer feedback.
-apply macro and micro reading
strategies to better understand an
academic journal article
-extract key terms from an academic
journal article
-approach vocabulary development more
autonomously
-remember 5 new words and their 5 root
definitions
-locate the key terms in an abstract from
a journal article
-match terms and definitions
Learning Outcomes
(students will be able to…..)
-recall key terms from the journal article
-apply key terms to a seminar discussion
-discuss, argue and negotiate to reach a
group consensus
7
Academic Reading: Many of my students are
notorious for forgetting to bring back paper
handouts so in this case, CALL provided a practical
function by storing a link to the journal article, via
Weebly (R1). Students who forgot the text in
follow-on lessons were able to revise it with access
through their phone or laptop.
Vocabulary: Quizlet (R3) is available to students
anytime, anywhere but we started using it in class
both individually and whole group. The match
game was particularly interactive and when
transferred to the IWB, it became very competitive
as students were trying to attain the fastest time.
Students were encouraged to revisit the
vocabulary list outside of class also.
CALL applications
We revisited the Quizlet app to check progress and
students had improved their understanding of the
core terms.
No CALL apps were used for the in-class seminar
discussion but the task sheets were uploaded to
the Weebly site so that students could conduct
further group practice outside of class.
Revision week 3
Week 3
- Essay planning
1. general brainstorm of ideas
around essay title
2. themes formulated into a
logical essay plan
3. review with students a
‘good plan’ and a ‘bad plan’
i.e. latter lacking in detail
4. students produce essay plan
- Written essay task
1. timed written essay
- Review with grammar
gamble
1. anonymised samples from
all student essays were
collected for ‘grammar
gamble’. Students worked in
small groups to a) identify the
error in the extracts and b)
suggest how this error could
be resolved
2. whole class feedback
Rationale and Background
During a class review, students had stated
that they still had difficulty when
generating ideas. Spending time on writing
an essay plan was an important formative
assessment of how much progress had
been made in this area.
The timed task was an important trial in
advance of the final written exam.
Review and feedback was holistic at this
stage and a good opportunity to
consolidate. Students were very good at
identifying both their own errors and those
made by peers.
Learning Outcomes
(Students will be able to…..)
-consolidate and apply stages 1-4 to a
final written task
-produce an essay plan
-write an academic essay
-identify errors from own written
statements and those of their peers
8
CALL applications
Both the essay plan and timed essay tasks took
place in class and were paper based, as the actual
exam is in this hand-written format. CALL apps
supported both lessons however, as students were
able to log in to the Weebly site (R1) to recap key
ideas from the idea generator contributions,
journal article, vocabulary set and seminar
subjects. The students were happy that all of these
resources were available in one place, for ease of
access.
No CALL apps were used in this lesson.
‘Mark the word’ (R4) for grammar was inaccessible
via mobile phones so this became a paper-based
activity.
 Appendix B: Screenshots samples of CALL activities R1, R2, R3, R4

R1 Weebly site sample tasks ‘click and find’:

R1 Weebly site embedded Youtube Video resource:

9
R2 Sample of Student Responses on Menti

R3 Sample Activity from Quizlet: Vocabulary matching

10
R4 H5P Mark the Word task 1:

R4 H5P Mark the Word task 2 ‘Error Correction’:

11
 Appendix C:

Evaluation of CALL resources

Weebly (R1) Menti (R2) Quizlet (R3) H5P (R4)

Constraints *content is less secure *a new page has to be *a new page has to be *the only application
than a site controlled opened via hyperlink opened via hyperlink which does not adapt
by the university (makes return to (makes return to well to the mobile
*longer texts, e.g. Weebly homepage Weebly homepage phone, therefore can
journal article, read more difficult) more difficult) only be accessed via
better on a larger *restrictions on free *trial and error laptop/tablet
screen version meant needed to understand *mark the word will not
*students had to be splitting the task different functions e.g. recognise highlighted
reminded to move the between two links flashcards have to be issues with full phrases
screen to horizontal tapped to ‘flip’ or punctuation
view *student feedback
*formatting limited
restrictions for page
layout are timely and
frustrating at design
stage
Affordances *easily accessible via *very quick to access *no additional log in is *generally a wide range
mobile phone *all students can required of activity types
(adjusted screen looks collaborate ‘live’ in *allows for *easy to embed coding
better in this format – real time competitiveness with within Weebly
see appendix E) *whole class timer function
*re-access anytime contributions can be *can be played on
stored and retrieved mobile phone with
*we have used the ease
app before (familiar)
*no log in is required
Feedback to *in this case, Weebly *given by teacher in *immediate *immediate with
students is used to allow class as whole *application gives highlighted sections
students to recap contributions are right or wrong (green-correct, red-
lesson content projected feedback incorrect) but limited
*provides opportunity *CMC-Human and unable to explain
for peer reflection and interaction individual sentence
feedback problems
SAMR Level Redefines stored and Redefines Redefines traditional ‘mark the word’ is
accessible learner collaboration and vocabulary rote- certainly a modified
materials e.g. learners whole class learning tasks with a version of a paper-
may take notes from contributions. Every gaming aspect. Mobile based grammar gamble
or photographs of a class member can see phone adaptability but in this case it is not
whiteboard but this peer submissions and means revision can as effective. Clicking
function allows one can comment upon take place anytime, answers can be done
central storage area of them. anywhere (with randomly until the
materials for retrieval. internet connection) correct answer is found
but on paper students
have to work harder to
make one decision.

12
Appendix D: Student feedback

13
14
Appendix E:

Weebly Mobile Phone Screen Adjustment

15
Reference List:

Chokkattu, J., (2017), Samsung Galaxy X: Rumors and news leaks: Samsung's first Galaxy X phones
could arrive this year in very limited numbers, available at:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-foldable-smartphone-news/, accessed May 2018

Ellis, R., (2005), Instructed Second Language Acquisition: A Literature Review, Wellington: Ministry of
Education

Godwin-Jones, R., (2016), Looking back and ahead: 20 years of technologies for language learning,
Language Learning & Technology, 20:2, pp.5-12

Hubbard, P., and Levy, M., (2016), Theory in computer-assisted language learning research and
practice, In F. Farr and L. Murray (eds),The Routledge Handbook of Language Learning and
Technology Routledge, London: Routledge, pp.24-36

Krashen. S.D., (1985), The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications, New York: Longman, p.3

Kress, G., (2010), Multimodality a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication.

London: Routledge

Kress, G., (2017), Speech and writing in an era of social and semiotic provisionality: multimodal
representation and the growing dominance of the screen [conference paper] available at:
http://www.tefl.anglistik.uni-muenchen.de/conference-media-
literacy/medialiteracylmu2017programme.pdf, Accessed March 2018

Li, L., (2017), New Technologies And Language Learning, London: Palgrave

Motteram, G., (2013), Developing language-learning materials with technology, In B. Tomlinson

(Ed.), Materials development in language teaching, (2nd ed.), Cambridge: CUP

OFCOM, (2015), The UK is now a smartphone society, CMR 2015, available at:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/media/media-releases/2015/cmr-uk-2015, Accessed
March 2018

ONS, (2016), Statistical bulletin: Family spending in the UK: financial year ending March 2016, ‘An
insight into the spending habits of UK households, broken down by household characteristics and
types of spending’, chapter 7, available at:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/expendit
ure/bulletins/familyspendingintheuk/financialyearendingmarch2016#how-has-the-digital-era-
affected-uk-households-spending-habits, Accessed July 2017

Puentedura, R.R., (no date), SAMR: A Brief Introduction, available at:

http://hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/2015/10/SAMR_ABriefIntro.pdf, Accessed April 2018

Puentedura, R. R. (2013, May 29). SAMR: Moving from enhancement to transformation [Web log
post] available at: http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/archives/000095.html, Accessed April 2018

16
Reinders, H., and Hubbard, P., (2013) CALL and learner autonomy: Affordances and constraints, In M.
Thomas, H. Reinders and M. Warschauer (eds), Contemporary Computer-Assisted Language
Learning, New York: Continuum, p. 359

Thomas, K., and Munoz, M.A., (2016), Hold the Phone! High School Students’ Perceptions of Mobile
Phone Integration in the Classroom, American Secondary Education, 44:3, pp.19-37

Titcomb, J., (2016) Mobile web usage overtakes desktop for first time, The Telegraph [online],
available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/11/01/mobile-web-usage-overtakes-
desktop-for-first-time/, Accessed July 2017

Vygotsky, L.S., (1978), Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes,
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p.86

17