REFLECTION 3

Reflection on presentation week 1 (Group 1&2)

During the first week of CALL presentation, Group 1 presented a research journal entitled “A Study on the Use of Computerised Concept Mapping to Assist ESL Learners’ Writing skill” by Pei-Lin Liu. The group’s skill was writing skill and the article they chose is a study on computerised concept mapping treatments on writing performance. Based on the literature review, Novak and Canas (2008) and Ausubel (1963) supported the concept mapping treatments because they believed that the mind is hierarchical. Thus, concept mapping allows learners to plan beforehand on what they are going to write so their writing will be organised. The subjects or participants of study are from different levels which are low, middle, and high levels of students. After the nine weeks of experiments, the result shows that the high-level subjects prefer individual mapping than cooperative mapping. It may be true as advanced learners are prone to work independently while low and middle-levels subjects like to exchange opinions and rely on others’ ideas as well. Group 1 also presented a website that focuses on improving ESL leaners’ writing skills which is WriteWell. The WriteWell website is very helpful for beginners because it provides basic guidelines on how to write essays and learners can choose any template to help them write. The feature is ‘Template Library’ and a lot of essay templates can be found there according to the users’ levels. For instance, there are argumentative essay, short story, persuasive essay, research paper, etc. The templates provide step-by-step instructions using easy sentences so it is very convenient for ESL learners. Not only beginners can benefit from the site but other students of all levels of education can use it to improve their writing skills and competency.

On the other hand, Group 2’s skill is reading skill. They presented a research article entitled “Computer-Assisted Second Language Vocabulary Learning in a Paired-Associate Paradigm: A Critical Investigation of Flashcard Software” by Tatsuya Nakata which studied the use of flashcard software in vocabulary learning and the result shows that iKnow! software is the best flashcard software among all other flashcard software. However, there is no basic guideline provided so users may experience a little difficulty at first. To add, the group chose a website called Merit Software which is online and web-based reading comprehension software as a learning platform. As noted, reading comprehension is the least scored skill in every examination such as MUET and EPT. So, the chosen website for reading skill was expected to provide a lot of features and guidelines on how to do well for the particular skill. However, Merit Software is not very helpful because it is not organised and we personally think that the exercises are too difficult for the levels of students. The site is outdated and we find it hard to use because we have to search around and look for the features. To add, learners might find it unattractive because of its old-school appearance so the site has to be updated to suit the 21st-century style of technology.