Week 13: Final Project: LEARNING ENGLISH IDIOMS WITH WEB 2.0 TOOLS

MAKING ENDS MEET:

A WIKI CALLED ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND CULTURE THROUGH IDIOMS AIMED AT ADVANCED LEARNERS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE SCHOOL OF MODERN LANGUAGES OF THE UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DE VENEZUELA 

Problem Statement

 

As far as I can tell, awareness is not raised sufficiently among advanced students of the School of Modern Languages of the Universidad Central de Venezuela about the importance of learning English sayings and proverbs. Neither are new technologies sufficiently applied in the courses given. The end in view is that students use new technologies to expand on their knowledge and broaden their communicative competence in their second language, so that they improve their performance as translators and interpreters. Furthermore, I am convinced that students’ and teachers’ attention is not drawn sufficiently on the proper use of sayings and proverbs in specific occasions or situations. That is, students should not only be able to recognize sayings and proverbs but also to learn to use them naturally with the aim of sounding as native-like as possible. Therefore, the design of a wiki called English language and culture through idioms can be considered a preliminary study of a research to be carried out with the purpose of broadening the knowledge and the communicative competence of advanced learners of the English language in the School of Modern Languages at the Universidad Central de Venezuela.

Week 12: E-assessment

What is E-assessment?

According to Wikipedia, electronic assessment is the use of information technology for any activity related to assessment. The term e-assessment is becoming widely used as a generic term to describe the use of computers within the assessment process.

According to our Professor Evelyn Izquierdo (2009), there is a difference between assessment and evaluation, assessment is the gathering of a student’s performance over a period of time and evaluation is when a mark is assigned after the completion of a task.

Among the assessment tools that we as teachers can use to assess our students are concept maps, concept tests, knowledge surveys, exams, oral presentations, and portfolios, among others.

Cambridge IGCSE English: An experiment in E-assessment

The Cambridge International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is the world's most popular international qualification for 14–16 year olds. In the following video the Cambridge IGCSE authorities show an experiment on E-assessment that they have carried out. I hope you find it interesting too!

Cambridge IGCSE English: An experiment in E-assessment

References

• Cambridge IGCSE English. Retrieved on January 5, 2010 from http://www.cie.org.uk/qualifications/academic/middlesec/igcse/subjects
  
• E-assessment. Retrieved on January 4, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-assessment
• E-testing. Retrieved on January 6, 2010 from http://www.efutures.org/graphics/e_testing.html
  

• Izquierdo, E. (2009). E-assessment. Retrieved on January 4, 2010 from http://www.slideshare.net/EvelynIzquierdo/e-assessment