How to use chat

Chat in language teaching

It is a technology that many learners will often be familiar with and will use in their social lives, so it is worth exploiting in the classroom where possible. Having said that, although the types of cultural exchange described above are hugely motivating to students, they will probably take place no more than a few times a term or semester.


We look at the use of chat in the classroom, where the teacher can link up classes and groups in different locations, as part of collaborative project work or for one-off chat sessions such as those described above. We also look at the most likely application of chat, which is outside the classroom, where learners in the same class chat together(or with the teacher) to improve their English as part of their homework or self-study activities.



Type of chat

• Text chat


• Audio or voice chat


• Public chat


• Private chat


• Free topic chats


• Collaborative, task-oriented chats


• Informative or academic chats


• Practice chats

Chat programs
_ The video function will only display two users at once, so the video conferencing facility is less useful for larger groups of learners, but very well suited for one to one teaching or tutorials. It is also worth bearing in mind that more sophisticated types of software like this require a reliable broadband connection to work well.



Why use chat in language teaching?

• Does using text or voice chat with learners improve their English? _ Studies to date seem to point to text chat providing opportunities for negotiating meaning, seem as key to language acquisition by many linguists, but it has also been noted that online chat, especially text chat, does not follow the same rules of interaction as face to face conversation. Text chat can often appear disjointed: conversation threads get lost or questions are ignored; there are overlapping turns; and conventions for taking the floor are not automatically clear. Voice chat is more likely to make learners produce more fluent language.


• What kind of English should learners use in chat? _ Which abbreviated forms, for example, CU L8r for see you later, are the norm. We would recommend that students generally use standard written English conventions in text chat and email.


• What technical skills do teachers and learners need to be able to use chat?


• What benefits does the use of chat bring to the classroom?


• Is it better to use text or voice chat with learners?

How to start using text or voice chat with learners

_ We would suggest starting out with text chat, and then moving on to voice chat once learners have had a chance to practise with text chat
_ Initially it is a good idea to use chat in class with your learners a couple of times , to help them become comfortable with it, so that they can then go on and use it outside class.

Step 1 - Install and learn to use the software

Step 2 - A practice chat class

1. Allow your learner time to get used to using text chat, then let them experiment with voice chat, in the same chat software.


2. This is the time to teach and practise any netiquette or turn - talking conventions that you would like your learners to use in text or voice.

Step 3 - Contact with another class

1. It is well worth first getting the two classes to email each other to cxchange some personal information, so that learners at least feel they know each other a little before chatting online. You might even want to first set up a collaborative email exchange or a blog or wiki project, and to use chat as part of such a project.


2. Once learners feel that tey know each other a little, and are more comfortable not only with the medium but with chatting to each other, you could introduce a voice chat.

How to structure a text or voice chat lesson

First, ask yourself what learners will get out of your chat. If the chat is to be held, as we suggest, between classes in different countries, there are, as we have said, several benefits for your learners:

• contact with other learners/cultures, and the motivation that this brings.


• 'real' communication with a real purpose.


• use of a new medium in the classroom.


• a chance to practise written and/or spoken English.

There are several possible groupings for running chats between two classes in different geographical locations:

1. If leaerns in both classes have access to individual computers, they can simply be put in pairs, with one learner form Class A being paired with one learner from Class B.


2. If there are enough computers available for learners to work in small groups on a single computer, clear guidelines for turn-taking in each group need to be provided by the teacher.


3. In the single computer classroom, an entire class can use one microphone for a voice chat, with the teacher allocating turns, introducing topics and signalling the various staes of the lesson.

_ For text chat, we would recommend that learners work only in grouping 1 above.

_ For voice chat all three groupings 1,2 and 3, can be used.

_ Whichever of the above groupings most suits your context, it is not good idea to simply put two classes together via chat and leave them get on with it(To make someone to be hurry up). Providing a clear structure for learners to follow will give them a sense of purpose and also provide security, which is especially important if your learners are communicating in a foreign language at a distance with people who they do not know very well, and if they are unfamiliar with the chat medium.

Any chat lesson, whether using text and/ or voice chat, should include the follwing broad stages

• An introductory/warmer phase: This phase may include detailed introductions and an exchange of personal information if learners are chatting together for the first time or it may consisit of a simple exchage of information


• The main content of the chat: This may consist of one main task, or a series of short tasks, which learners eed to complete, and could be based on a worksheet which learners have been given before the chat.


• In this stage learners may summarise what they have covered or achieved in the chat, and say goodbye. The teacher might have set a brief closing task, such as asking learners to tell each other one thing they have enjoyed about the chat.
  

A sample text chat lesson plan

1. Before the class - The teacher needs to first make contact with the teacher of a similar class in terms of level, class size and access to technology.
2. Classroom management issues - Ideally learners are put in pairs for the first chat, with one learner in Class A and the other in Class B, each sitting at an individual computer. For classes with fewer computers than learners, learners can either conduct the chat in pairs or consecutive learners or pairs of learners, each given 5 minutes to chat, and with the chat encounters spread out over several classes.
3. During the chat - First hand out worksheets, which your learners will need to complete during the chat itself. Note that each partner has a slightly different worksheet, with worksheet A for learners in Class A and worksheet B for learners in Class B
4. After the chat - Each learner now has information about an individual in the other class, and can draw up a profile of that individual. This can be in the form of a written text or a grid, and ideally should include a digital photo of the learner. Learners in Class A could be asked to decide whose profile from Class B is closest to their own: in other words, who is most like them.

A summary of issues on using text and/ or voice chat with learners.

• Try the software out in the computer room with the class before setting up the 'real' chat .
• When using chat between your class and a class in another country, allow them to first make contact with the other class, for example via a blogs project or email, before getting them to use chat.
• Set a clear tast, or series of tasks, for the chat, so that learners are not left wondering what to chat about.
• Ensure that it is clear to learners what the purpose of using chat is. As we entioned earlier, there is not much point using chat if the learners involved are perfectly able to talk face to face!
• The ideal group size for a text or voice chat is small. From this study, an ideal group size is about 6 to 8 people for text chat, and 3 to 5 people for voice chat.
• Record the chat. Most text chat programs will allow you to log (record) the text conversation as a transcript, which can then be used for analysis and/ or a also allow recording, with the chat recorded as an audio file.
• Have a contingency plan! If your school's Internet connection is down, or for any reason you are prevented from being able to use the computer equipment, ensure that you have a backup plan to do something else with your learners!

Internet-based project work

Why do Internet-based project work? - A natural progression from using individual web pages and websites in the classroom is to move on to online project work.

1. They are a structured way for techers to begin to incorporate the internet into the language classroom, on both a short-term and a long-term basis. It is well worth looking around on the internet to see if something appropriate already exists efore sitting down to creat your own project.


2. More often than not, they are group activities and, as a result, lend themselves to communication and the sharing of knowledge, two principal goals of language teaching itself. The use of projects encourage cooperative learning , and there ffore stimulates interation.


3. They can be used simply for language learning purposes, but can also be interdisciplinary, allowing for cross-over into other departments and subject areas.


4. They encourage critical thinking skills.

- Project work online can range from a simple low-level project like making a poster presentatoin about a fmous person to high-level investigative work where learners research a subject and presentation about a famouse person to high-level investigative work where learners research a subject and present polemical views and opinions in a report or debate. inorder to prepare for Internet-based project work, you will need to do the following

• Choose the project topic -Will your learners be researching famous people, anevent or an issues
  
• Make the task clear - what information will they need to find-biographical, factual, wiews and opinions?
• Find the resources
• Decide on the outcome

Basic projects

- A low-level project - My favourite actor

• Three lesson periods of at least 45 minutes each (two if the first lesson is done for homework)
• access to the Internet for the second and third of the three suggested lessons.
• word processing software such as Microsoft word or OpenOffice.

- This particular project aims to provide the opportunity to focus on these language areas

_ First lesson (Kind of brainstorming )- If you are short of class time, a good deal of this first lesson can be done for homework and then finished off with the collaborative element in the second lesson. Be careful, however, to emphasise that what you are looking for at this stage is what they already know, and that they do not need to go to the Internet for any information at all.

_ Second lesson - This second lesson requires a fair bit of work on the part of you, the teacher. If you think you may be short of time, limit the names of actors in the first lesson to a small selection that you have already researched. Before the lesson you will need to find useful sites to match the choice of actors your learners made. You can use the skills you acquired in Charper 3 to accomplish this. Remember that for biographical information you can search using a part phrase such as "Johnny Depp was born in" In the next stage, you will need to provide them with a model biography. Check out some useful sites and rewrite one example to your students' language level. You may decide to do some comprehension work on your model text at this time, working on the structures and vocabulary areas that you want them to include in their biographies.

_ Third lesson - This third lesson involves making the final product. by now your learners will have collected all the information they need and will also have seen your model biography, so they should be in a position to come up with one of their own.

A high-level project - Global warming - You may want to work beforehand on some of the language areas useful for the activity, for example giving opinions, agreeing and disagreeing. However, this will depend on the level of your learners. While the lower level project we have just looked at is an ideal opportunity for developing specific communication skills, this project goes deeper into a topic and encourages more complex thinking and reasoning processes.

• three lesson periods of at least 45 min each
• access to the Internet for the first and possibly second of the three suggested lessons.
• optionally, access to video recoding equipment for the third lesson.

First lesson - This lesson can easily be done in 45 min, but learners would benefit from more time for their research into the topic and for the subsequent discussion of their findings, if that time is available.

Second Lesson - This second lesson will also fit into a 45-min period, but again the depth and quality of their preparation will improve if they are given more time. Learners will, in the third lesson, be role-playing a television debate. So they divide the class into groups, working towards the role-playing.

e.g.

• TV debate presenters.
• scientists who deny that global warming exists, or that it is potentially dangerous.
• environmental campaigners wanting to inform the public of the dangers
• TV studio audience.

Third lesson - Here your learners will have the actual debate. If it is possible, simulate a TV studio in your classroom by moving the tables and chairs around, creating spaces for the four groups and encouraging your learners to decorate them. Make sure that the stages of debate do not overrun. The worst thing that can happen is that you run out of time to conclude the debate properly.

Internet -based simulations

_ The more traditional approach has teachers cutting up prepared role-cards in order to simulate these contexts. The Internet largely does away with this approach, giving learners access to authentic websites that provide stimulating and relevant content that enables them to carry out these simulations.

- Look at the book page 54

Webquests are mini-projects in which a large percentage of the input and material is supplied from the Internet. Webquests can be teacher-made or learner-made, depending on the learning activity the teacher decides on.

• Short-term webquests - It may spread over a period of a couple of classes or so, and will involve learners in visiting a selection of sites to find information , and using that information in class to achieve a set of learning aims.
• Long-term webquests - After completing a longer-term webquest, a learner will have analysed a body of knowledge deeply, transforming it in some way. Learners have to transform the information they quire, turning it into a new product: a report, a presentation, an interview or a survey Long-term webquests might last a few weeks, or even a term or semester.

Step 1 - Introduction

_ This stage is normally used to introduce the overall theme of the webquest. It involves giving background information on the topic and, in the language learning context, often introduces key vocabulary and concepts which learners will need to understand in order to complete the tasks involved.

Step 2 - Task

_ The task section of the webquest explains clearly and precisely what the learners will have to do sas they work their way through the webquest. The task should obviously be highly motivating and intrinsically interesting for the learners, and should be firmly anchored in a real-life situation.

Step 3 - Process

_ The process stage of a webquest guides the learners through a set of activities and research tasks, using a set of predefined resourses. These resources are predominantly Internet-based, and are usually presented in clickable form, that is, as a set of active links to websites within the task document. It's important to bear in mind that it's much easier to click on a link than to type it in with any degree of accuracy.

Step 4 - Evaluation

_ The evaluation stage can involve learners in self-evaluation, comparing and contrasting what they have produced with other learners, and giving feedback on what they feel they have learnt and achieved.

Webquest creation

• Research skills
• Analytical skills
• Word processing skills

Exploring the possibilities stage

• choose and chunk the topic - to decide on a macro topic and then break it down into micro chunks of topic areas
• Identify learning gaps - Webquests are good for dealing with critical thinking skills, problem solving and group dynamics which are learning gaps
• Inventory resources - This involves collecting the resources for the webquest, including links to appropriate websites, images with which to decorate the webquest and media files.
• Uncover the question - You need to ensure that you have a central question or idea which has no single answer, and which necessitates research and interpretation.

Designing for success stage

• Brainstorm transformations - This involves deciding what your learners will be doing wth the information they find on the websites. BD identified this stage as what happens between 'learning inputs' and 'learning outcomes' This is where you flesh out the tasks in the process stage, guiding your learners through the information they uncover, and helping them towards an understanding and transformation of that information as they work towards the products they need to put together.
• Identify real-world feedback - This means that you might try looking for ways in which the information necessary for the webquest might be gathered from real people - by the use of e-mail, polls and questionnaires.
• Sort links into roles - The Links you identified in the inventory resources section should now be assigned to the various sections of the process stage of your webquest.
• Define the learning task - This reffers to the products which are the direct result of working through the webquest.

Creating your webquest stage

• Write the web page - If you're familiar with web design tools you will be able to turn your webquest plan into a website and put it on a web server. but this is, perhaps, a slow way of preparing a webquest. The easiest way to do this is to use word.
• Engage learners - Now you have your webquest in place, think about an engaging and stimulating introduction as a lead-in to the quest itself. Hopefully your webquest will have plenty of motivating tasks and websites in it, so the final thing that you need to do is to get learners involved from the outset, and to draw them to a conclusion that clearly demonstrates what they have covered and that rounds the quest off satisfactorily.
• Scaffold thinking - In this stage you need to think about the instructions given in the webquest itself. These instructions should not only guide the learners through the webquest, but should also deal with the learning gap identified in the exploring the possibilities stage, and guide them towards answering the question.
• Decision : implement and evaluate - The final stage is to try out the webquest with a group or two, take feedback from them and also consider how it went for you, and make appropriate changes for future use.

Usig website

Using websites in the classroom

- you can choose from authentic(written for Internet surfers in general) sources or ELT - specific sites (made by, and for, teachers), monolingual or mulitilngual sites, sites with muli\timedia, or just simple text, for those on slower connections.

- Just as the Internet is becoming more of a collaborative medium, so should your use of it in your teaching.

- You can use web pages in the classroom in a varitey of way

• as printed pages, with no computers. (Indeed, a lot of activities using web pages will onl necessitate the printing of one or two pages, which can subsequently be photocopied)


• with one computer with an Internet connection. ( This can be enhanced by connecting the computer to a daa projector or even an interacitve witheboard, allowing for greater sisibility in class)


• in a computerlab with a set of networked and connected computers

- We would therefore recommend that, if you plan to use the internet, you should talk to your learners and explore the reasons for using this resource with them. this cn be done at lower levels in their own language or in English with higher-level classes

ELT websites or authentic websites?

- as with all authentic mterials, the level and language challenges posed by these sites can be largely mitigated by the type of task you expect your learners to carry out.

- A well-designed task will allow your learners to deal with authentic sites, guiding them through not only the text, but also the layout and navigation problems that may otherwise impact on their learning experience.

- Of course there are plenty of ELT websites which provide content that your learners can use, for example language practice activities they can do on their own. They provide valuable opportunities for more controlled lnguage work and are often a great help to learners who need to brush up on ertain aspects of the language or to prepare for an exam.

- Authentic sites can be chosen to fit your learners' interests. This is a key factor in keeping motivation high in your electronic classroom. When evaluating authentic sites for possible incorporation into your teaching, try to find ones which have an easy structure and navigation, and with smaller chunks of text per page.

- They can be guided towards being comfortable with understanding the content of a site and identifying whatthey need to know or find out without getting boggeddown in having to understand every word on the screen.

How to find useful websites

1. search engines - there is a large variety of search engines, perhaps the most well-known is Google, which currently indexes over twelve billion web pages. Keywords are good for exploring word relationships and lexical areas. ( what google knows about a page is generally the page address on the web, the page title, when it was last updated and a few keywords associated with the content itself. These keywords are defined by the designer of the page, and can resonably be expected to accurately reflect the content of the page. The key to good searching in Google is to define your keywords properly )


2. Subject guides - Yahoo! currently claims to index nearly twenty billion pages, and is still the search venue of choice for many people who remember when it was the only way of searching the Internet. subject seaches helpdefine and refine ideas and contexts.(Yahoo! derives its description of subject guide from the fact that it divides its content into subject areas, and subdivisions of those areas.


3. Real language searches - A real language search such as Ask allows the user to type simple questions as search queries. ( Learners can benefit from an exposure to all three types, as they activate different linguistic and mental processes .) A real search can provide useful practice in questoin formation

or you can use meta search sites

How to evaluate websites

- Having found potentially useful websites, the next step is to evaluate how useful and appropriate they are for the classroom. You will also need to think about the aims and objectives of your lesson.

1. Accuracy (Who wrote the page?, Is the page conent reliable and actually correct?)


2. Currency ( Is the content up-to-date?, When was the page last updated?)


3. Content ( Is the site interesting and stimulating?, Is it attractive and easy to navigate?)


4. Functionality ( Does the site work well? Are there any broken links?, Does it use a lot of large files or alternative technologies e.g. Flash ?)

- Another thing to bear in mind as a language teacher will be the linguistic accuracy of the web page. If this important to you, you will need to add this to your evaluation criteria. This again will depend on the purpose of the site in your lesson plan.

- As far as content is concerned, note that criteria such as ease-of-use and interest are taken into account , but you may also want to consider adding a further set of criteria here along the lines of appropriateness.

- Careful preparation and investigation in the lesson planning stage can go a long way towards making the learners' experience enjoyable and trouble-free

Planning lessons using the internet

- The first thing is to plan your session well: visit the websites you intend to use and make sure you know your way around them properly.

- Planning a web-based lesson, rather than one where the web content plats an ancillary role, is not intrinsically different from planning a more traditional one. we like to divide a typical web-based session into three parts (www): warmer, web, what next.

- Make a note of the particular pages you want your learners to work - you can use the favorites option in Internet Explorer, or Bookmarks in Firefox to log web addresses for the later use- and make sure you're familiar with the content.

- The warmer part of the lesson is the kind of thing we all do as a matter of course, with introductory activities, interest-generating ideas, and so on.

- We prefer to take learners to a computer room for this part rather than spend the entire class in there. This has the double advantage of allowing more group to use the room and of keeping learners to stretch their legs and provides a change of pace. On the potential to disrupt your class, so careful planning of the logistics may be necessary.

- you may even chose to incorporate the use of websites more consistently into the curriculum of the course you are teaching - perhaps substituting a part of the course materials you are using for websites

- Make sure your learners have a clearly-defined task to achieve and a clearly-defined time frame in which to achieve it.

- Once the group has got what you intended from the computers, it's time to move them back to the classroom for the what next stage of the lesson This part should deal with the tasks set for the web part and then proceed with more familiar follow-up activities to round off the lesson

Sample lesson plans _ page 37-39

Working with lower levels of language proficiency

Choosing the right websites can go some way towards raising their comfort levels, though you may need to have shorter lessons than the higher level one described above. Websites which are more suitable for lower levels will include

• websites with simple, clearly presented text.
• websites with non-linguistic data which is easy to interpret (e.g. data in the form of a chart, such as a weather page)
• websites with visuals - a task can be based around the visuals only.
• ELT websites, where the content has been written, edited, and prepared with this audience in mind.

Look at Page 40 to 41

Web teaching dos and don'ts

- Planning carefully and adopting a structured approach to the way you use websites in the classroom should give you the confidence to try out different ways of introducing your learners to Internet content.

- Don't discount simple text-based websites which might be very beneficial in your own context. Apart from anything else, they are less likely to malfunction or cause problems when you go to use them.

1. Whenever you use technology you should always have a backup plan in place.
2. Use the knowledge of other teachers and of your learners to help you with the technical side of the lesson.
3. If it's a lesson that involves relatively few web pages, try saving them to your computer hard disk.
4. Unless you are working on something like an email pen pal exchange, it is rarely conducive to have learners working alone on computer.
5. As was mentioned in chapter 1, try to arrange the computer room in such a way that you can easily maintain control over learner activities. An ideal layout is to have the computers around the outside walls of the class
6. Not all of the content that you come across with your learners will necessarily be suitable for them