Chinese Continuers Examination

The NSW Higher School Certificate - Suggested Ideas on how to prepare.

The HSC Chinese Continuers examination is a three hour exam that is made up of a 25% listening section, 20% speaking section,  40% reading and responding section and 15% creative writing section.  There is an assessment component that is examined internally in school and the HSC exam is prepared by BOSTES and all students enrolled in the course take the same exam.  You can find details of requirements and past examination papers at the BOSTES site. 

All HSC examinations are rigorous and challenging with the Chinese Continuers course being no exception.  If anything, the Chinese Continuers course has proved demanding for students and much dedication and time is needed to do well in the course.  Recently, I presented a workshop for teachers and students which included resources and suggested examination preparation and strategies.  

Although the presentation was prepared for a particular course, teachers and students may find some worthwhile ideas and strategies to use while preparing for their own courses and examinations.  

The Prezi for the workshop is below.  

             

Games Based Learning in the Languages Classroom

Below is a Prezi that I created to present some ideas and thoughts about using games based learning activities in the languages classroom.  Although this was created for language teachers, you could use these ideas for any subject area.  As the Prezi is basically an outline of my presentation and does not include the discussion around the content with the participants and myself, feel free to contact me to discuss any of the content. 

In an earlier blog entry I discussed some ideas on games in the classroom.  This entry is a recap on that but mainly about how teachers could in a sequential way, develop their own movement/language, paper and digital games.  All games have the same core elements, no matter which format you use to present or play your game.  With these core elements and understanding how they work, teachers can use games in their classrooms to deepen the learning of their students in a fun and engaging way.  

Like all teaching strategies and activities, its probably best practice not to not use games in every lesson, well you could, but that would be too much work and for the students, games may lose their fun factor.  Games based learning though, could be a part of your unit of work where games elements could be incorporated into learning activities or the final activity or assessment could be the a game that the students have developed.  Project based learning or problem based learning fits nicely here as students could work on a PBL based either on a game or make a game themselves.  As most of us would use a variety of strategies and activities in the classroom, GBL could be a valuable and useful additional tool.

Many teachers incorporate gamification into PBLs or classroom activities with a points, leader board, incentives or rewards.  Team work and collaboration is a big part of GBL and gamification and a great example of how you could use a learning management system to record and show progress is Classcraft.  I'm using Classcraft as a course LMS and the participants are enjoying the activity and engagement factors.  

The Prezi contains a link to a Dropbox file of the resources from the presentation.  The files' content includes;
1. Understanding the main parts of a game.
2. "Modding" or modifying a game -  a pre-requisite to making a game.
3. Making your own paper based game.
4. Creating your own basic digital or web based games.
5. Steps on how to create a board game.
6. Game links, resources and references.

If you are a teacher in NSW or if you are interested in furthering your knowledge in GBL, you may want to register and enrol in the Games Based Learning in the Languages Classroom online course they have at the AISNSW. 

Check out @Mr_van_W and his site https://mrvanw.com/ for more great stuff on GBL. 

Feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss anything in this post. 

Some notes on 

AFMLTA National Conference, 9-12 July, 2015

Opening - Senator Scott Ryan, parliamentary secretary to Minister for Ed, Vic

Saturday, 10 July

Keynote: Diane Larsen-Freeman - Pluralism

- language policy in Australia recognizes multiculturalism, social, economic diversity

-     how do these documents ie Australian language policy relate to pedagogy?  Theory is easy.

-     competencies of pluralism - multilingual, meditating and interpreting, using available knowledge  ie inter-comprehend

-     using pluralistic practice in the classroom, not just a goal - Elizabeth Ellis

-     averages conceal a great deal

-     language as a homogenous, static system is a normative fiction

-     language is dynamic, always changing (using language - changes it)

-     act of playing the game ie using the language - changes the language - language changes, its dynamic

-     using one language to scaffold learning another language, using one language to become pluralingual

-     hybridity with languages -  innovation - creating new words and language

-     arguing against repetition, but promoting iteration - Larsen-Freeman, 2012eg read+Youtube on the same topic

-     teaching adaptation - teach students to take their present system and mold it to a new context for a present purpose (Larson-Freeman, 2013) Stevick's idea of techniques eg 4-3-2 pair off with a partner, A talks for 4 minutes to a partner, then partner re-tells in 3, then you go to another partner and tell the same story in 2 minutes

-     semiotic agility, resources eg non-verbal

Prof Stephen Dinham - The nature and importance of instructional leadership

The Melbourne Declaration 2008

Goal 1: Aust'n schooling promotes equity and excellence

Goal 2: All young Australians become

-     successful learners

-     confident and creative individuals

-     active and informed citizens

Research shows progress

TIMSS study

PIRLS

PISA

-     Aust highly de-regulated education system and PISA test keeps going down, Germany has a highly regulated education system and the PISA is going up

-     teachers are a big influence on student learning approx 30% of learning attributed to teacher

-     Stephen's book to Four Fundamentals of student success

     - Focus on the student (learner, person)

     - leadership - adds value to the school

     - Professional learning for teachers

     - quality teaching

Leadership qualities

1.     External awareness and engagement

-     openess to change and opportunity

-     develop production

2.   A Bias towards innovation and action

-      using discretion, bending rules, procedures

-     bias to experimentation, risk taking

3.  Personal qualities and relationships

-     leaders have positive attitudes which are contagious

-     BMW bitching, whinging and moaning

-     intellectual capacity

-     moral leadership - example you set for other people

-     assist, feedback, listen to staff

-     treat staff and other professionally

-     expect high standard

-     provide professional, pleasant facilities

4. Vision, Expectations, Culture of Success

-     expect a lot, give a lot

-     clear, agreed, high standards

-     the standard things done well

-     recognition of student, staff achievement

-     creates a culture, expectation of success

5. Teacher Learning, Responsibility and Trust

-     Investment in teacher learning

-     all teachers can be leaders

-     responsibility recognition, empowerment, staff development

-     trust an aspect of mutual respect

6. Student Support, common purpose, collaboration

-     centrality of student welfare

-     teaching and learning prime focus of school

-     creates an environment of purpose

7. Focus on students, learning and teaching

-     leadership takes time

-     leaders build on what is there

-     consistency, yet flexibility in policy

-     stand for something

Workshops

CLIL Web 2 tools

App Smashing - Joe Dale

 Sunday - Joe lo Bianco

Impossiblising - the challenging of

- Tube Tongues - London tube languages spoken

-     London - 300 languages spoken in schools

-     Bianco - making schools multi-lingual

-     mother tongue based 2nd languages, ie not the national or "supra" lang eg English

-     Myanmar - home language, plus national language integrated into the school, can be up to 7 languages

-     Papua New Guinea - 800 languages as official languages of the education system (Baki 2005), local schools use local language. Decentralized language decision making

-     Malaysia - National Schools ie Malay medium and Venacular schools - non Malay Chinese and Tamil

-     To increase student numbers in NSW and Vict, offer ore languages

-     NSW 5 out of 6 discontinue lang by Yr 12

-     Principled flexibility - see photo Possibilising MLE

Tony Urban CLIL

Using technology to infuse language content in class. Practicum teachers (pre-service)

Flipped lesson

Teachers had to think about presenting 1 lesson per week using an web 2 tool. These were incorporated into their teaching pracs.

 Sample web 2 tools

-   live binder

-   print friendly

-   Read the Words (text to speech)

-   Present Me - screen record and presentation

-   22 Frames - video editor

-   LyricGaps - find lyrics and create activities

Re-purpose, re-tool, re-mix to present new content Edmodo code in photo or terban@ut.edu

Photos from the conference and around Melbourne

More iPad and App smashing ideas

TIP: If you need a bigger image of the images below, install the Chrome extension Hover Zoom, then hover over the image.

There's been a lot of discussion since iPads, tablets and smartphones have been used at schools regarding how distractive they can be.  Most of the distraction for students using devices could be that the activity they are doing are not engaging enough or the lesson has been poorly designed around the use of the device.  

Devices, can be a powerful tool for teachers and students.  BUT the successful use of devices will only happen if good planning and integration of them into the classroom is made.  

Hopefully, these suggested activities below will help make your lesson more engaging.  I've posted before about app smashing,and the ideas below include more easy to use apps such as Thinglink and Cute Cut, two free apps that are worth downloading onto yours' and your students iPads and tablets. 

Below is a Prezi I recently presented at teacher inservice.  You can download the activities, which include an iBook embedded in the Prezi either by scanning the QR code or the clicking onto the Dropbox link.  A few pages of the ebook are below.

                     

FluentU app

The FluentU app is a welcome addition to the list of practical apps out there for foreign language learners.  FluentU uses the concept of flipped learning and applies it to video and audio. 

If you have used the FluentU web video resources before, then you'll like the app even more.  For those downloading the free version only, you will find that most of the functions are available.  When I tested it out, I found that the free version had enough tools and applications and I find it even better than their web version.

Another strong point with the FluentU app are the mobility and accessibility it provides.  Being an iPhone app, and soon to be released Android app, great language tools are just a press of a touch screen away. 

Once the Android app comes online, this could well be the goto app for language learners.



Below are some of the apps features and some things to help you get started.  There is also a short video introduction below.  You will also need to register an account. 


Dashboard: This should be the first place to go to set you level, language and app settings. 

Once your settings have been confirmed, Browse will probably be the main page you will use.  When on the Browse page, you will find the app's functions at the top of the screen and easy to use. 

All: This application includes all the videos, audio and flashcards of your selected level in one list.

Video: Shows the videos only.  When in your level, once you select video, you will find there is an extensive amount of videos to choose from.  Most of these videos are linked to Youtube videos produced by independent video producers.  Videos can only be used with wifi and are not downloadable.

What FluentU has done, and done very well, is to texualize the video scripts which includes explanations, the vocabulary meaning, pinyin for Chinese, and audio.  Unfortunately, to access the Learn function you need to upgrade your plan.  I found there was no need to upgrade, but have a look and if you think you need it, then upgrade.

You can also favourite a lesson which adds this to your Favourites list on the dashboard. 

Audio lists the sound recordings available in your level based on topics.   Audio introduces vocabulary and plays short sound files that demonstrates the new words in a series of sample sentences.  These are set up similarly to the videos with vocabulary explanations, audio and pinyin for Chinese. 

 In Audio, the Learn function is accessible and has some useful tools with detailed explanations, sample sentences with audio and translations. The Already Know function lets you skip something you have studied and do not need to go over again. A bonus with Audio is that once you have downloaded the lesson, you can still assess the audio file and everything else off line.

Flashcards is different to Audio in that the vocabulary is grouped in either word usage, parts of speech or grammar items, such as "Personal Pronouns" or "20 Essential Newbie Verbs".  Like Audio, the vocabulary has explanations, sample sentences all with audio and translations.  

FluentU has really hit the mark with their app and I think it is one of the best language apps that I have come across.  

Watch the video below to see how to navigate the FluentU app. 


                              

Suggested Activities

With FluentU, teachers can select the lessons appropriate for their students and create reading, writing, listening and speaking tasks. Some activities could be;
1. Flipped Learning: The teacher could set a note taking activity so students could demonstrate understanding and mastery of the lesson's content.  If there are any questions, students can ask the teacher next lesson or via classroom communication methods such as email. 
2. Peer Teaching: Students could be instructed to select particular lessons or vocabulary items and ask to prepare these to present to the class or mentor and coach other students. 
3. Self Study: Just instruct the students to go for it!

This is a very good language learning app.  It engages the user, it's easy to use, it has a nice clean interface, clear and precise language explanations, video, audio and the tools are very well thought out and useful. 

The FluentU app is available on iOS and, at the time of this writing, they are working at getting the Android version. 

.  

iPad's Text to Speech Function

The iPad has many powerful functions that are useful for students and teachers.  One of these functions is the text to speech function.  The text to speech function can read out, in just about every language, text from the web, in ebooks, Pages and just about everything that is in text form on your iPad.  

For students and teachers, there are many ways to use this function in language learning and teaching.  You can refer to my post on SpeakIt! which has similar functions and capabilities to the iPad's speech to text. 

Watch the video to see how you can set your speech to text function on the iPad.  


                             

SpeakIt! is a useful tool for learning languages

SpeakIt! Chrome extension is a text to speech tool that basically can read out texts from web pages. It is easy to use and the great thing for language teachers and students is that it can convert text to speech in a variety of languages. So far you can set it to read English - male or female voice, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, these languages have a female speakers voice. 

You can also set the speed and pitch of the voice, it takes a bit of adjustment to get it right, but once set, the text is read out in an audible but robotic tone, but it's easily understandable and is as good Siri and most computer or web generated speech that I have come across. This is a handy supplementary tool for teachers and students and comes at the right price. 

I could not get SpeakIt! to work with web based PDF documents, but it reads web pages without much fuss.  So if you have a text you have saved on your blog or website it works fine, but is not so happy with Google Doc. 

Some ideas for teaching activities are;

1. Reading Set the students a reading text and have them repeat after each sentence or short section.  But you'll need to monitor they do not start talking like a robot!
2. Listening (combined with Reading) activity  For example, students could work in small groups or on their own to complete a listening-reading activity.  This could be an unseen text of one of your Google Doc or blog posts in [language].  This could be turned into a listening-reading activity by having the questions placed below the text. The student could highlight as much as they think they can listen to in one playing, and repeat the process to gain full comprehension and answer the question.                                                                                                                                                     The advantage of having a combined listening-reading text is that students can sound out the new vocabulary, and find it in the dictionary if needed, especially useful in character based languages such as Chinese.                                                                                                                                                                                                     This method also allows students to work at their own pace through the text at the speed they are comfortable with.  As most students have varying listening skills, this is another way of differentiating the task.  

This type of listening activity may be best used to supplement the listening resources you already use.   SpeakIt!, Siri and other digital reading apps are still someway off from sounding like native speakers.  

To activate SpeakIt!, first click on the SpeakIt! icon, highlight the text you would like read out then click the icon.   Right click to set your options, high light the text you want read out then click the SpeakIt! extension.  Watch the video below for an demonstration. 

                                  

Test SpeakIt! out on the Chinese and French texts below.

Chinese sample text

小明你好！

  我已经在中国两个星期了，这里人很多，但是中国人都很热情我喜欢中国人，他们帮助我学汉语。我觉得说汉语难，但是听汉语不难。我的汉语老师是王老师。他去年去了澳大利亚，今年五月再去了。

French sample text

Il était une fois une maman cochon qui avait trois petits cochons. Elle les aimait beaucoup, mais comme il n'y avait pas assez de nourriture pour qu'ils puissent tous manger à leur faim, elle les a envoyé tenter leur chance dans le vaste monde.

Find iSpeak in the Chrome store.