Website Evaluation
Question 1
What does the website attempt to “teach”? Are exercises included in the website? What are the types of exercise included? Are there immediate feedbacks? Are there different levels of difficulty for different proficiency levels?
The website is basically a website on grammar and writing. It is designed to help the learners with their grammar and also in improving their writing skills. The grammar basically covers almost everything in the language including all parts of speech, punctuation, sentence parts and many more. This is the same with the writing component in which they include information from as simple as sentence combining skill up until the development of paragraph. This also includes the guide in writing essays and research papers. Explanations are given for all the components that are being discussed.
These are accompanied by the exercises on the given explanations. Despite leaving some components that are covered without any exercise, the exercises that are provided include the normal online exercises that only require HTML and there are also some that require the Java plug-in. The types of exercises are varied and it mostly depends on the component that is being discussed. These include the multiple choice questions, rearranging sentences, determining the parts of speech and many more variations. Some of the exercises were given immediate feedback, the right or wrong response as well as the total scores for the whole exercise. However, for some, the responses given are not clear, most probably because of the unclear instructions given at the beginning of the exercises, for example the exercise on subjects of the sentence.
In catering to the different proficiency levels of the potential learners, the website does not state clearly the level of difficulty for their exercises. For example, it has two set of exercises for adjectives. One of them is a set of multiple choice questions and the other one is to rearrange the adjectives accordingly. Looking at this, it does have the variation in the kind of exercise that somehow reflects the level of difficulty. However, it is not stated clearly for the learners to know which is which. This makes it hard for learners to try out what suits them better and it somehow forces the learner to try everything that is given there, in the whole set of multiple questions since they are not separate according to their level of difficulty.
Question 2
What are the learners/visitors required to do with regards to learning the content of the website?
Looking at this website, it would require the learners to read a lot. This is because one of its disadvantages would be the fact that most of the explanations are too wordy. Instead of using more point-form explanation, it uses more long sentences and a lot of whole dreaded paragraphs of explanations. It would be very tedious to actually read too much when it can actually be more direct and clearly stated.
Other than that, it is just a normal website that can be accessed and used easily. It does not require any subscription or registration for access, which makes it easier and free stuff is always good. Other than requiring the Java plug-in, there is not that many requirements for learners to be able to use this website for what it has to offer.
Question 3
While you are going through the website, does it remind you of anything you do in a classroom, or with a fellow classmate, or in self-study?
If I need to make a direct comparison on whether or not the website reminds me of anything that I did before, well I must say I had not done anything like it because I did not really learn the language through exercises and notes from any website or any computer application. But if I were to compare it to what I more or less did using the traditional paper-pencil way of learning, I would say it does remind me of it, in a way. It has the kind of explanation that textbooks would give you and the kind of exercise that workbooks would give you. Therefore, I think the website is lacking in terms of providing something new to the learners or its visitors.
Question 4
Does the website present learners with something that cannot be done in a textbook/workbook? If yes, how so.
If we were to talk about whether or not the website provides learners with something that cannot be done in a textbook/workbook, I would say not entirely. The reason for this is, despite having the various kinds of exercises for the different components of the language, one way or another; the exercises can still be done using the traditional paper-pencil, workbook exercises. It is just the matter of making it easier for the students to work and perhaps making it look more exciting since now, rather than having to cross out words and writing it down in a blank space or a box, they can now just drag the word down to where they need it to be.
In my personal point of view, it is this exciting aspect of computers that makes learning using them more interesting that just staring at the black and white worksheets. If what the website provides is were to be compared with what the computer has to offer, there are a lot more changes that could be made. For example, considering that the website provides exercises that mostly uses only the HTML instead of the more interesting Flash or Java plug-in required exercises, most of the exercises provided are mostly the basic multiple choice questions. The obvious advantage of having this on the computer instead of the workbook is that it provides the learners with immediate feedback rather than having them to check the answer from the back of the book. Therefore, there could be more interesting exercises provided that would maximize the computer ability.
Question 5
Can you pinpoint some theories of language learning and/or teaching underlying the application?
When going through the website, it can be seen that the website does takes into account some of the theories in language learning and teaching. For the most basic part, it has rote learning which is related to the behaviorism theory where learners learn through drilling. And this would come from the many exercises that it provides. A plus point for their exercises is that it goes beyond just the basic drilling according to the behaviorism theory. The website seems to also consider what Chomsky said about the theory of mind from the mentalist perspective where learning is seen as a rule-governed activity. It means that while getting engaged in the exercise provided, learners will somehow learn the patterns and the rules on how the language is used. Through these rules, the learners would be able to use the language more effectively because now, they do not only memorize but they also understand the patterns which they occur.
What it is lacking would be in terms of the cognitive and the affective domain. This is because it does not provide much problem solving exercises and the exercises are not authentic enough to motivate the students to learn by making relationships in what they have learned and what they might encounter in real life situations.
Question 6
An important criterion for evaluating a CALL program, task or activity is the potential for language learning. Does the website fulfil this criterion? If yes, how so?
Partly, it could be said that the website does provide some potential for language learning because it provides the explanation needed for understanding the language and how it should be used from the very basic rule of the language to its usage in a more complex writing. Other than the explanation given, it also gives the learners the opportunity to practice what they have learned through the exercises provided in the website. The exercises are not merely pointless games. They are real exercises meant to test ones understanding on the language rules. However, despite having this potential for learning, I personally feel that the learning potential that the website has to offer is very basic because the explanation were not that effective and the exercises are very much content based. Content based exercise lead to rote learning and drilling and it would not be as effective as the authentic ones.
Question 7
Would you like to use the application yourself in your future work? Give reasons.
I do not think that I would actually use this website for my future work. For one thing, there are other websites that offer more effective language learning experiences than this one. Also, this website does not look that appealing and thus, I do not believe that it would motivate learners to learn the language, what more when they are not motivated learners to begin with. Another issue is that the exercises are very much content based and like how most theories believe, authentic materials are the more effective ones. Apart from the exercises, the explanations given are also too wordy. I do not think that people would like to read those long explanations on the computer because it takes up a lot more focus to read from a computer screen than reading it from the book. Therefore, I would definitely find a website that explains things in a simpler way and preferably in point-forms. For these reasons, unless I have no other choice, I do not think I will choose this website in my future work, or at least, not as the main website for my work.
Good, 8.2/10
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