Reading Prompt #3

The challenges which Soares had met are also the problems to the teachers who are the beginners of blogs. Students at this generation are immersed to lots of new technologies, so if a teacher wants to make a blog be attractive and valuable to the students, he or she should learn enough about blogging. However, even if the teachers have adequate knowledge, there’s still a question that if the blog really plays the role as a language learning tool in education. According to what Soares mentioned, students are motivated in class but reluctant at home, and she was disappointed that only half of the students turn in the assignment. A lot of students don’t even think about using the blog as a learning tool, or some just have computer problems. So for the future using of blogs with students, Soares thought that it is important to provide students the opportunity to express themselves and communicate with real readers in class (because the students tend to be interested in class work, not home work). Peer feedback and correction should be considered. She also suggested that when students are familiar with blogging, it’s a good way to communicate with people outside their class blog.

Levy describes several types of technologies, among which I am most interested in the Pronunciation-Training Technology. The best way to learn a new language is talking to native speakers of the target language. However, it’s impossible for people who live in where those languages are seemed as foreign languages. Thus, the pronunciation-training technology is a good choice for those language learners. They can have their own language tutors to make them improve the pronunciation. Nevertheless, when we use this technology, we should be aware that technology is merely a learning tool, it cannot replace the teachers, and we use it only because it satisfies the pedagogical needs of education.