CALL Plan Report.

Tran Thi Lien Huong.

Having a chance to work and study with a native speaker is hard for those language
teachers who belong to the “old generation of teaching English” in Viet Nam like me.(I
would like to devide teachers of English in Viet Nam into two kinds, the old ones are
those who have few or no chances to approach modern technology facilities in teaching
and learning; and the new ones are those who have chances to work with modern
facilities since they were students). In Viet Nam at the time I was a student, only few
teachers had chances to study abroad and only them could deal with native speakers,
work with them and learn updated teaching methods. I know that, those people benefited
a lot from the learning process. I wanted to have a chance like them to improve not only
my English but my teaching techniques as well but for some reasons, both subjective and
objective, my dream have not come true. Recently, I have heard that there have been
some master programmes in which the students have chances to work with native speaker
teachers. I can not express my feeling at that time, a little bit nervous, a little bit happy, a
little bit worried. Even though, I still decided to enroll one course. My wish has won
others.
In some first subjects, I had got a lot of challenges and difficulties because this is the first
time I study with foreigners, but I could manage to pass them. Anyway, they have some
things common with what I have learned and known so far. When I knew that the next
subject is CALL ( computer assisted language learning), I was really nervous. I did not
know exactly what I was going to do in the subject and how could I manage to pass it
while my using computer skill is not really good. This conusing feeling disappeared when
I first saw the teacher of the subject on internet. In his speech, he frankly showed his
thoughts, his expectations from us in the subject and the way he was going to use in
teaching us. From the time, I have had a possitive feeling for the thought that I was going
to work with a helpful, friendly teacher. And the learning process has improved that my
feeling is right . As a teacher, I recognise that it is a very good way to deal with students
and I can learn that from him. Although I still got difficulties, challenges and in the
process of learning, sometimes I felt shocked because the large amount of knowledge the
teacher wanted to transfere to us. Moreover, in the subject, we have to do most of the
things ourselves. We discussed a lot to find out and get useful lessons; we read a lot of
journals, articles and websites to know what CALL really is, its developing process, how
it has distributed to English education and what the teachers of English from all over the
world think about it. After that, we had to write daily journals to show what we got and
how we thought about those things we had read. This way of learning is so different from
what I was familiar with. For so long time, I and those of my time have passive attitudes
to learning anything. I mean when we learned, we had habits to listen to the teachers and
took notes as much as possible what the teachers talked to us. In the class times, we did
nothing but listening and taking notes. That is why when I learn in new methods, it took
me some time to get aquantance. Further more, the teaccher also asked us to show our
feeling, present what and how we understand ,about some points. Now, I realise it is a
good way to activate students but when I was asked to do so for the first time, I did not
dare to do for the fear of being thought to show off . Although at that time, I had a lot of
things to talk and to share with the teacher and others. However, what I benefit the most
from the subject is a wide range of websites available on the internet and how I can take
advantages of them. I am really eager to discover them to enrich my teaching and
knowledge. Before, I have not imagined that there are such things available. I am happy
with my discoveries. What I have just got from the subject like I have been given a
fishing rod to fish knowlege, from now on, I can go fishing whenever, wherever and
whatever I want.
I have some intentions to do after finishing the subject. First of all, I will apply the
methods, techniques, games I have been taught and what I can learn from such available
websites as http://delicious.com, http://learningcall.net, http://blip.tv/file/1855424,
http://www.uoregon.edu , http://searchenglish.britishcouncil.org, http://eleaston.com,
http://www.manythings.org, http://www.dailygrammar.com/, www.jamaby.com,
http://www.onestopenglish.com/, http://esl-lounge.com/, etc. Teaching pronunciation
now is an interesting job with the help from http://international.ouc.bc.ca/pronuciation/,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml, I can also provide my
students with a lot of techniques coming from the experience of many English learners all
over the world to study English better and faster. With such websites as
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/ , http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com, I can get a
variety of puzzles for revisions, and I can make some myself to make my class times
relaxable and funny to my students.etc.I think that will make my students become more
active and motivated in my class times like what we did in the subject. Secondly, I will
access on the internet more often to learn from other teachers’ experience to improve my
teaching and knowledge. I will also take part in some forums to exchanges experiences,
share teaching and learning problems and discuss about some possible solutions for them.
I think that will make my teaching career become more enjoyable and interesting. Now I
have known the ways to use technology to teaching such skills as listening, speaking,
pronuciation, reading and writing, I will design CALL programs and activities to vary my
class times and I know clearly that if I need any information, I can search on such the
website as:
http://www.iateflcompsig.org.uk/media/callpresentpastandfuture.pdf.
Making class times more and more interesting and motivating to students is a desire of
almost every teacher in the world. I am not an exception. From the time I chose the job as
a teacher of English until now, I have done my best to find out many different ways to
vary my lesson plans and make my class times become the most wanted ones in the eyes
of my students. To do this, I keep learning from other teachers who work near me and
also those who are so far away from me to enrich my teaching techniques. This seems to
be impossible for those teachers in the 1980s-1990s in Viet Nam, but it is ok for me now
with the help of the internet.

In conclusion, I want to say that although I can not get and apply all the knowledge I
have been taught in the subject on my real situations, I have also benefited a lot from this
subject. It gives me an overview of CALL and good knowledge to improve my life and
my career. I also want to send my special thanks to the teacher who has been really
helpful, friendly to all of us, who has given us good teaching which helps us so much in
understanding and learning such a difficult subject as this one.