An Integrated Framework by Hubbard- Teacher's Fit

In this article I will try to focus on the teacher's fit part as Hubbard (1987) language teaching approach was not fully explored and highlighted through evaluation. There is a framework and the way we consider the notion of approach in relation to the teacher's fit.



Evaluation can start with finding out the evaluator's beliefs and values in relation to the language (function & structure). There are other considerations like factors related to grammar including; patterns and rules' roles coupled with linguistic form- function relationship. We have to bear in mind the evaluator's needs think about his / her learning and language learning assumptions.



There are 2 kinds of language learning assumptions; 1. It is related to 2nd language learning processes to the learner (intrinsically) including; age impact, motivation and L1. 2. It's related extrinsic factors surrounding the language learning environment including; teachers, classrooms, students, and texts, leading to trustable kind of generalisations.

Hubbard's idea pointed us to the language teaching approach which refers to a combination of linguistic and learning assumptions., and reminded us that the evaluator 's views should be pretty independent, and quality of his/ her teaching should not be compromised.

His suggestion to replace the traditional approach a new revised one like consideration should be given to three common approaches'; behaviouristic, explicit learning , and communicative, added with their characteristics. He highlighted that the three differ in the way the bad habits being treated. Explicit learning approach errors interpreted as violation of certain rules, while in the acquisition approach errors look at as part of natural development as long as there was no interruption in the communication.

Language teaching approach operationalisation will rely on its connection with courseware evaluation. In this case we to think about computer qualities as delivery system for language input. A s we know computer are pretty good at number of activities like text alterations, and record keeping can prove to be useful for practical reasons, but not for others.

We need to figure out a combination of limitations and abilities side by side with language teaching generalisations to create a set of approach based evaluation criteria. Hubbard went on to highlight a partial list of the evaluation criteria required for explicit learning approaches: provides meaningful practices, gives prompts of various types, tolerates different correct answers, provides rooms for explanation on why correct answers are correct, and predicts wrong answers and provides reasons' interpretation.

Besides the above there are other issues like explanation roles, learner's differences treatment, the nature of learner to learner interaction and teacher - learner interaction, the nature of linguistic competence, culture role, memory nature, learner's feelings and motivation role can be considered the foundation of the evaluator's approach based evaluation criteria.

Well it may be sound theoretical to most teachers, but we need to assess those assumptions mentioned to see how they can fit well in our teaching. There is no doubt that the teacher's belief is bound to influence the nature of the language structure and function, but this will vary from one teacher to another. I wonder if all those assumptions mentioned can fit well the goals of language learning? or students' requirements and aspirations. Are we posing the question of teacher's fit from the evaluation perspectives only or there are perspectives we should look at and use to come up with a far more comprehensive evaluation.

John
https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Readings/Hubbard1988.pdf
rsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

My words

It was a great encounter to meet up with Dr. John and thanks for our tutor Dr. Christoph for inviting him to share us his very valuable expertise and knowledge about My words wesite set up, progress and advancement through the years. It is a very wonderful and effective teachology tool for all English teachers including NETs and LETs in the education field to make use of new IT technolgies in language learning.

Personally I've felt a sense of relief to hear and know about my words. Frankly this website http://mywords.ust.hk is useful to make us students and teachers alike to learn different words and phrases. Make use of them effectively in teaching and learning . For example you key in "go to shopping" to check whether it is correct by using my neighbours, show the words interface, ater and before the input, and show both words / phrases including all possible forms. It a unique tool since it can be incorporated with Microsoft and help us to write in a more accurate and fluent way. Apart from that it has all resources the person needs to improve his / her English.

In addition there is a grammar checking funtion toolbar to spot out all common errors learner make with a word and and find out all members of the word family. Check complex expressions with google is another feature we are glad to know about in this context. There is a possbility for the teacher or student to look out for less frquent expressions with google search engine. Learner or teacher may enjoy retrieving vocabulary from your personal word list and key word list.

Perhaps we need to consider the following questions:

• Does the user need on going support all the time? If yes, do we need to deploy customer support for the user?
• What are going to do if the system we are using crash with another system? How the service provider can assist in this regard?
• As a new user for my words website what are challenges most likely we need to encouter? How to address them?

We need to be careful at the initial stage as new user to make sure learner knows how to use it whether he / she is a teacher or student. I would guess it is time consuming at the begining as we need to be familiar with system, provide more support and feedback for our students to make sure everyone knows how to use it effectively. Besides to that independent learning concept needs to be reinforced in the classroom to make this new IT teachnology more practical and needed by most learners.

Hubbard's Article on Courseware Evaluation Framework

It is an overwhelming to read Hubbard’s article about the evaluation framework, it is seems to be an authentic in nature and presented in a well organized manner, which can help us a teachers to create and invent our own assessment for training and learning related to the classroom setting. At the end of the day we can have a deeper understanding and through knowledge on how to conduct a proper evaluation in a more clearer, versatile and meaningful way.But on the other I’ m a bit concerned about the amount of time and effort required to describe every single detail related to different tasks of the courseware! Mind instead goes through a checklist. I presume that there is a rationale of doing so this way as this article suggested. It is really an amazing experience for me and us all to expand our thoughts and horizons about new IT technologies to get the fruit of it all in teaching and learning combined. Well it might be tempting to use some of tools the article mentioned, but as language teachers we are pretty soaked with too administrative and teaching duties. I would guess we try to see which one of them can be applicable which is in this case teacher's fit. The teacher try to assess which teaching material can be used for a particular lesson and form.https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Readings/Hubbard1988.pdf

Hong Kong Copyrights Law

http://www.ipd.gov.hk/eng/intellectual_property/copyright/edu_guide.pdf.What a pity to see such a document in a place full of all pirated copies of CD(s), DVD(s) and other published material you name it! Teachers are prone to copy materials from a wide range of sources and they are thinking it’s alright to do so as there is no one can come up and tell them ..Hey, no, you’re not allowed to copy! It’s illegal by law! I’m not really sure if there is any law to allow us as a teacher to copy from different sources without crossing the red light or what so called copyright.

Apparently this document is trying to draw the red line which on one dares to cross, otherwise the person considered to be a violator of such law and liable to prosecution in one way or another. What I am not sure about whether this new copyrights law contradicts or overrides the already established photocopying law! It’s time to find I would guess!

Practical consideration on Liou's Article

https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Readings/Liou%201994.pdfThe article mentioned above emphasize on acquiring the knowledge about; media, constraints (institutional needs) which include learners, and principles of design covering teaching pedagogy and theories related to language learning when we need to create considerations for a design in relation to the this courseware development mentioned here.
What we can say in short there are three essential elements we are required to consider when it comes to CALL development projects namely are learners, the technology itself, and language learning theory. Therefore we draw a comparison with the previous articles we’ve read that there are just 2 options to keep in mind for the departure point in relation to CALL development, but 3 three. It is logical for us to begin with analysis of learners’ need and such analysis should be related and guided by technology and what can do need I
Probably there is a question is popping out in my mind how we get on with web projects, well if there is a question or issue of heavy labour involvement, and how ready-made templates ready for teachers can they make teachers any better or easier!https://eportal.cityu.edu.hk/bbcswebdav/courses/02EN6482/Readings/Liou%201994.pdf

Practical consideration

Liou stating that the theory should be the prime motivational force for the teachnological advancement to lead CALL progress, and he aslo mentioned that other factors can be relevant like SLA theories and concepts like instructional design terms. Nowadays multimedia is becoming increasingly popular. His paper trying to concentrate on the practical consideration by creating a segment of English what is so called EFL interactive videodisc (IVD) courseware. There was a detailed explanation about online implementation and instructional design provided in this paper. Secondary processes including; data collection, analyses, content analysis and screen design. About 95% courseware was implemented and ready for pilot testing. This
courseware including; introduction, hyperscript, film and viewing. Hyperscript was introduced as a design by using hypertext format. Film intruction can be used with a great deal of control. Linkage between evaluation approches, implications, language classroom and recommendations were mentioned. I think this paper can help teachers to consider multimedia as platform for teaching and use them to enhance learning English as foreign language, but we have to consider many aspects like teachers' exposure to multimedia, technical support, students' interest and how to match their needs with an effective usage of multimedia tools to ensure a good time management and right resource management.