Course Outline

Instructional strategies and resources

Objective

Prepare students to live, work and study abroad, improve their international communication skills using podcasts to boost their listening and reading comprehension, speaking, writing and vocabulary development.

Distinguish between BICS & CALP 

Technology

Digital tools and emerging technologies have influenced teachers and students in their relationship with education. We used podcasts for they are an integral part of this relationship, valuable digital tool in ELT, enabling educators to produce authentic materials which are appropriate to the needs and interests of learners. Podcasting provides a relaxed opportunity to learn and practice English, improve listening and vocabulary significantly, and speaking and writing more accurately, as students can create and publish their own podcasts. One of the main objectives of the ESLPodcastLand program is to empower students therefore they can develop better conditions to face the demands of the job market and distinguished academic performance by using the skills they acquired throughout the ESLPodcastLand course. The program, contents, lesson plans, materials, activities, teaching platforms, social media contents, assessments, quizzes, videos, vlogs, podcasts produced by students and instructors, videos and photos of students in their activities, can be accessed through our websites or app.

I have been developing, building and testing educational spaces for years. I have worked on platforms and creating thousands of sites, materials, audios and videos for all levels including exam preparation, ESP, ESL and EFL. These are copyrighted materials and cannot be distributed or republished without permission. 

I am combining and implementing expertise and experience, educational knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and technological knowledge highlighting two main aspects: 

1 Some challenges that students might have in using the tool

As Google Drive might be operated by phone, tablet or desktop some non-native might have to get to know how to operate when in a different device he/she had learned firstly. Intuitive and easy to use, it is a popular free service that allows beginners get concerned in activities according to the lesson plan and objectives without losing focus, see updates in real time with coauthors, that would positively balance technology experience among the disparity of levels in a heterogeneous group. Because it encompasses Google Docs, Google Slides, which is analogous to Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Sheets, allocate collaborative editing simultaneously, automatic saved and with offline capabilities, one who was not familiarized with information technology, let us say never used a Word Processor, might resist at first, except for when glimpsing into a peer writing remotely in his/her Doc and being able to assists each other. This fantastic way to interact each other, and the exciting possibilities for collaboration and understanding willpower control and avoid external distractions of technology helping apprentices and proficient to apply the tools toward class assignments.

2 How we would deal with multi-levels (digital-natives and non-natives combined) using this tool in the same class 

Using a survey form that details what students can and cannot do. Once identified that one need extra support of the majority category, requires learning how to use the tool in a broad-spectrum, direction and time we might pair learners in proportion to their handiness level. Work in pairs or small groups. Giving the beginner the opportunity to manage the tool, assisted by one who is more experienced, therefore motivating both levels of technological abilities to teach and to learn something in English by now. Provide clear guidelines to all learners and endow with timed pattern doings and more guided activities to help students become familiarized with the latest tools allocating time for learners who are digital natives and have already followed what we are doing, turn and help their neighbors. It would in fact lead the digital natives to use the new technology in the way the teacher is requiring to. Make a second survey to assess students’ abilities to know if it would be needed to provide tutorials.

We offer security to users of our platforms. Most apps like Google Meet, Teams,  Hangout, Skype, and Zoom give us the option to make and receive calls by logging in to their study sites on a web browser without downloading any special software. Using a browser instead of downloading an app is an easy way to stay a little safer. 

Definition of Curriculum