Finding resources in MERLOT for use in my courses is not
particularly easy. First of all,
there isn’t a category that accurately matches my teaching situation. The closest
category I can find is ESL under World Languages. This may seem appropriate since I teach English courses to
non-native speakers. However,
teaching of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) is often loosely
split into English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language
(EFL). The former generally means
that English is the main language of the general environment in which the
instruction takes place and learners must use it in their daily life. For example, students in the USA who
are not native speakers of English would be considered ESL learners. In contrast, EFL generally refers to
learning of English in an environment where it is not the first language and
perhaps not widely used, and it is often taught as an academic subject. My own setting is an EFL setting. I teach English courses which are
breadth requirements for students in a Japanese university and none of the
approximately 250 students that I currently teach are English majors. One example of how this difference
manifests itself is in looking for writing resources. I could find several resources such as online writing labs and
downloadable worksheets but they are geared for a much higher proficiency level
than that of my students.
Secondly, doing a search can be somewhat complicated. Let me give an example of trying to
find resources in one of my main areas of interest: reading instruction. The first step I took was to go through
several links, finally drilling into the ESL resources area, and then did a
search for the keyword “reading” from within there. It returned only one resource, which, from reading at the
description, actually seemed to be a content-based unit not focused on reading
skills. In addition, it is a broken link with no access to the actual materials
anyway. Using an advanced search inputting “reading” into a variety of fields returned
six resources, but four were for other languages and one was a journal. Though the one remaining resource is
geared towards younger learners in an ESL environment, I thought I would have a
look at it. However, I am unable
to actually run it on my computer; I get an error message that I need to be
connected to the Internet even though I am connected. So, I went back into advanced search, and
I found that I had to go through several searches to be able to actually choose
ESL as a category again. Once I
did that, though, I managed to get 31 resources listed in the results. Most of these seem to be only partially
related to reading and as I checked through them I found one I thought I might
want to come back to later to look at again so I saved it to a collection. However, in this process I lost my
search results and had to use a combination of my browsing history and
re-creation of what I had done to get back to them.
While I did manage to find a couple resources for evaluation and
potential use, it was quite a convoluted process doing so.
Ultimately, for this assignment I decided to review a
website called English Language Centre Study Zone, located here: http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/. This site was created by the
English Language Centre of the University of Victoria, New Zeeland. It is geared towards adult learners of
English, and has five levels. It
attracted me because it had reading exercises and the lower levels were consistent
with many of my students’ proficiency levels.
First of all, I would like to address the quality of
content. Language teaching, when
compared to many other academic disciplines, is much more focused on skill
building than what is traditionally referred to as content. The structures and vocabulary, and perhaps the cultural background, of a language could be seen as content, but it is
fairly common within TESOL to aim to give learners skills and support in
managing their own language learning and use effectively. That said, over the five levels, this
resource presents students with a variety of practice exercises and some
limited instruction, all of the types of which are commonly used within TESOL. On the site there are two distinct
types of readings, referred to there as either reading or themed reading. The regular reading passages offer
multiple choice comprehension questions, vocabulary previewing, gap fills,
restructuring the story, and guided summary writing. The two uppermost levels offer the themed reading passages,
which have much greater variety of exercises, including various previewing and
reviewing activities and critical thinking exercises. As a resource in support of this particular educational
program, the content seems quite appropriate and is pedagogically sound. Where I would say it falls somewhat
short is in the limited number of readings and exercises available. At the lowest level there are only two
reading passages, and a total of only 18 of the regular reading passages spread
over four levels. The fourth level
also has a themed reading and the top level has only the themed reading.
Secondly, I would like to address another drawback, which is
related to its potential effectiveness.
While students could use it for their own practice, it does not really
represent a stand-alone instructional tool. Not only is there the issue of the limited amount of
practice it allows, there is also the fact that there is almost no explanation,
description, or demonstration of skills or content; it is almost exclusively
practice exercises. There are
brief descriptions of scanning and skimming in exercises in the highest level
only, and which I think are meant merely as reminders to learners who have had
previous classroom instruction in these strategies. Since the specific target learners are ESL students
receiving instruction in the English Language Centre in Victoria, use of this
may be effectively scaffolded within that environment and the learning
objectives are likely more clear than just on the website. Furthermore, as is, this website has
some drawbacks for more general use and applicability. As mentioned, the number of readings
are limited. There also appears to
be no functionality for new users adding new readings and exercises, which I
believe would greatly enhance its usefulness to TESOL instructors and
learners. At this point it can
only be used as a limited practice tool.
Thirdly, I would like to address the ease of use. First of all, for all of the regular
reading exercises the appearance and navigation are consistent, distinct, and
fairly attractive. There is always
a colorful banner across the top with a breadcrumb trail all the way back to
the home page. There are also
clear buttons for moving forward or back through the questions or on to the
next exercise. Unfortunately, this
is lost in the themed reading pages.
Once you click a link to a themed reading you are presented with a list
of text-only links in outline form.
Once inside the exercises there are sometimes attractive visuals, but
the banner is no longer present and the pages are primarily text. The navigation buttons are also
different and inconsistent, don’t generally include a “home” button, and can be
counter-intuitive (e.g. “next exercise” on the left and “go back to contents”
on the right). In the regular
readings, there is feedback to users.
For example, a countdown clock is displayed during exercises that have a
time limit, whether an answer is correct or not appears, the number of completed and
total questions for a passage get displayed, and sometimes hints as to why an answer is
incorrect or points to a particular area to look for the correct
information are presented. The material does not
require a lot of documentation or instruction on how to use it, and for the
target users it seems likely to be very familiar and easy to use. However, as a public resource it is not
particularly flexible as content cannot be added nor edited. The site also
seems somewhat visually attractive at times, but could be improved in this
respect with increased visual support of the content and more interesting
feedback pop-ups.
