Self- learning Module in TTL II
A Module in Using Open- ended Tools in Facilitating Language Learning
Open- ended tools or productivity software applications are ICT tools, which help the teachers
and the learners make their learning together concrete, efficient, encouraging, and meaningful.
It helps meet the demands of the learners in the 21st century classrooms.
Palmer(2015), teachers need to demonstrate 21st century characteristics to be able to meet the
demands of the learners in the 21st century learners.
These characteristics in the context of language teaching are briefly presented for teachers to:
1. create a learner centered classroom and make instruction personalized because learners have
different personalities, goals, and needs.
2. facilitate the students' productivity skills so they can produce, when assisted and given the
chance, movies that are helpful to enhance their language proficiency;
3. learn new technologies since technology keeps on developing and learning a tool once is not
an option for teachers;
4. go global to allow students to learn languages, culture, and acquire communication skills
virtually;
5. be smart and allow the use of devices as aids to language acquisition;
6. do blogging. This will give teachers real experience to see the value of writing for real
audience and establishing their digital presence;
7. go digital to help promote the "go paperless" advocacy and to help level up the language
learning experience of the students through digital discussions and alike;
8. collaborate with other educators and students to give opportunity for the sharing of great ideas
beyond a conversation and paper copy;
9. use web chats to share research and ideas and stay updated in the field;
10. connect with like-minded individuals through using media tools like the social media;
11. introduce Project-Based Learning to allow students to develop their driving questions,
conduct research, contact experts, and create their projects for sharing with the use of existing
devices present:
12. build positive digital footprint that aims to model appropriate use of social media, produce
and publish valuable content, and create shareable resources
13. code as it is today's literacy which helps boost students' writing skills as the feeling of writing
a page with HTMLis amazing;
14. innovate to expand their teaching toolbox for the sake of their student by engaging social
media for discussions and announcements and using new formats like TED talks in presenting
their lessons; and
15. keep learning.
Steps in Preparing Process Guides and Graphic organizers using
Here are some process guides that you may implement to help your future students to do their
assignments and perform various tasks supported by productivity software application tools.
Step 1: The Relevance of Providing Process Guides and Graphic Organizers in Language
Teaching
Discuss the relevance of using process guides and graphic organizers to allow students to
become more efficient and productive in performing their learning tasks. Provide examples on
how to guide them through the process of writing, reading, listening, and speaking.
Step 2: Examples of Process Guides as Scaffold in Language Teaching and Learning
Brainstorm and analyze some examples of process guides in language teaching and learning.
Follow the procedures below for the brainstorming activity.
1. In a small or large group, select a leader and a recorder (they maybe the same person)
2. Present the question or idea to be brainstormed: What are specific examples of process guides
that you need to prepare a reception scaffold in teaching reading?
3. Present the following sample steps of teaching reading and let the students research and
develop a guide for each step. Let them use word application creatively in introducing the guides.
In the development of the process guides, they may use charts and graphs or graphic organizers.
Package the process guide using pamphlets or brochures. The steps are:
a. teach the sounds of individual letters;
b. teach the sound blends;
C. teach whole words;
d. present meanings;
e. teach word parts;
f. put words in contexts; and
g.
teach reading comprehension
4. To enhance your process guide, you may consider completing the following graphic
organizers identified according to different purposes (Ware, nd, cited by World Links, 2008):
Purpose Graphic Organizer
To compare and contrast two or more concepts Venn Diagram
To describe a concept Frayer model, Bubble Diagram, Concept Map
To make decision - T Chart
To show causes and effects Fishbone Map, Inductive Tower
To show sequence (as in a process) -Flow Chart
To identify basic components Story Map, 5Ws Chart
Using Presentations in Teaching Language Skills
Language teachers can use computers to create visually and audibly calling presentations that
utilize a variety of media tools. By using presentation software applications, students can also
develop their project outputs and reports to be able to share in the class or in the World Wide
web. Both teachers and students can learn variety of skills in the process of planning, developing,
presenting, and evaluating their presentations.
In language teaching and learning, presentation software applications have a lot of uses. It can be
used as a presentation tool in an innovative skill integration task, and the other as a novel writing
tool. In both cases, students can use language actively for speaking, listening, reading, and
writing (Schcolnik & Kol, 1999). While it is true that presentation software is commonly used in
business and other disciplines for presentation, this is also a very powerful tool in the language
classroom.
Presentations, allow language learners to experience a world or real language environment and
opportunity in language courses, i.e. Filipino English, Mother Tongue and Foreign Languages,
For instance, presentation software applications allow language learners to:
1. present their language reports with audio, visual images and animations
2. develop and present their group projects using real-world visual presentations;
3. present charts, tables, graphics, charts, and others that are useful to facilitate students
understanding of any language concepts,
4 show data stored in graphic organizers that cannot be fully presented by a printed material;
5. develop digital stories or story books;
6. show results of any survey, questionnaire and other forms of language assessment activities;
7. articulate and crystallize their ideas using the special features of presentation software apps;
8. experience language learning process through the integration or contents in the presentations;
9. enjoy developing their projects; thus, are highly involved;
10. commit to the quality of their work, both content and form, because they don't only present
what their classmates hear but what they also see;
11. present information in condensed form and focusing on salient points because of the limited
area in slide presentations; hence, avoiding digression and drifting;
12. innovatively communicate their ideas and express themselves in ways they feel comfortable.
Specifically, the integration of presentation software applications to language teaching and
learning is very beneficial in developing the students four language skills. In their study
Sehcolnik and Kol (1999) were able to present how presentation software activates the four
macro skills:
1. Reading- In our courses, students first read some of academic articles on a topic of their
choice, knowing that they will have to present their conclusions in class. They analyze the
articles critically, compare and contrast the ideas presented, synthesize and evaluate. Finally,
they select highlights for inclusion in their presentations: This process is comparable to the
process students go through when reading to write a paper. In both cases, reading to transmit
information requires clarification of ideas and presentation of those ideas in such a way that
others will understand.
2. Writing- When composing slides, students have to condense the information they have
gathered to present only the main points. In this type of 'minimalistic' writing, key concepts and
words have to be retained, while the 'chaff is discarded. This information reduction process is in
itself a difficult but very profitable language task. While writing a minimal list of points on the
screen, students can organize a suitable sequence for the points and divide the points into slides,
At the same time, students need to take into consideration slide layout, A slide cannot be too
cluttered, the size of the font has to be large enough and the location of the elements on the
screen has to be balanced. All these force students to re-read, re-evaluate and re-write what they
have written again and again.
3. Speaking- The material that students have read, organized and summarized has to be
presented orally to convey a clear message to an audience of peers. Just as they would in a purely
oral presentation, students have to rehearse' the pronunciation of difficult words, time themselves,
and make sure that they have all the English lexicon needed for their speech. The added value of
computer presentations is that the repeated revisions of their slides (to be seen by all of their
peers) give students extensive exposure to the content of their 'talk', helping them remember
what they want to say and giving them more self-confidence. Many students have had no
experience speaking in front of an audience in their native language, The computer mode seems
to minimize their tension and feeling of insecurity when having to speak in English.
4 Listening -The class listens to the oral presentation. Listening to a non- native speaker is not
easy, and visual elements facilitate comprehension. We give the listeners a task requiring them to
write down three new facts that they learned about the subject and one question to ask the
speaker at the end of the presentation. When listening for a purpose, the listening is focused and
thus perhaps made easier.
Other studies confirm that the use of presentation software facilitates the acquisition of the four
macro skills, Brooks and Gavin (2015) stressed that most teachers recognize the spoken
component of presenting, as students are required to speak when giving their presentations.
Moreover, they are required to research and plan out their presentations for a properly structured
academic presentation. In doing so, students are required to use their reading and writing skills.
Students also have the opportunity to practice their writing skills where they are asked to give
presentations that include some type of component. When they are preparing for these
presentations students will have to write out the appropriate information on their poste in their
PowerPoint slides. Finally, students have the opportunity to practice their listening skills when
they act as the audience members for the other groups' presentations. If these students are given a
simple task to do during the presentation, or are expected to use the knowledge disseminated
through the presentation for a specific purpose, this will allow them to use this opportunity to
practice their listening skills. The communicative nature of presentations also allows audience
members to improve their listening skills more than listening to a tape or a lecture would because
they are able to confirm their understanding by asking questions and interacting with the
presenters.
In preparing language presentations, there are various factors that must be considered to ensure
that the language competencies are also developed and demonstrated. The following are some
guidelines that Brooks and Gavin(2015) shared in designing presentations:
Basic Instructional Design in Preparing Presentations
1. Setting Up the Presentation Class- It is not enough to simply tell students to go and do a
presentation. Students have to be taught the skills involved in giving a presentation. This can
include such things as when to use eye contact, how to organize a presentation, how to connect
with an audience, how to use body language and manage time, and how to construct an effective
PowerPoint presentation. Since oral presentations involve multiple communication and language
skills, it is important to focus on the specific presentation skills that are needed to present in front
of others. These included things like voice projection, eye contact and the use of gestures.
2. Organization of the Presentation -Proper organization of information is one of the most
important competencies that must be developed among students. Hence, before beginning to
work on developing presentation, it is important to understand the genre of oral presentation.
There is a need to learn how to separate the presentation into meaningful sections and present
each section separately to reduce the cognitive work that is required in the presentation.
3. Presentation Skills- developing oral presentation is very important to consider in developing
oral presentations to spend time to consider the macro and micro skills that are needed. These
micro level skills include the genre specific language items, such as the vocabulary and grammar
that students need to be successful in oral presentation. These are important to the students for
two reasons. First of all, they allow students to be successful when they are presenting in the
class.
Secondly, the language and grammar that students learn in the course of giving a presentation
will be useful for them in other situations that involve spoken English (Thornbury, 2005).
4 The Use of Visual Aids- Visual aids are important part of oral presentations because they
provide support for both the speakers and listeners during the presentation. Visual aids can be
used to give more details about the topic, help the audience members to understand what is being
said, and act as a concrete reminder of the message for both the audience and presenter.
The type of visual aid used can vary depending on the topic of the presentation. Visual aids help
cater to different learning styles and some of the students who are not savvy at paper written
presentations are motivated at using presentation software applications.
In language learning. It helps students who are comparatively weaker at acquiring a language to
be motivated to participate in the presentation and become valuable members of their groups,
which helped to facilitate a more positive group dynamics
5. Performing Self-Reflections - The final stage of each oral presentation involves students
writing a self-reflection of their presentation. Through this activity, writing skills are further
enhanced together with the ability of the students to do self-reflection.
Using Spreadsheets in Language Learning
Spreadsheets are very helpful in introducing some lessons in language courses. Through
spreadsheets, one can teach with tables and charts, make a table and a graph, compute students
grades. Spreadsheet programs are not only beneficial to business and mathematics courses but
are also beneficial to language courses. Apart from being built around a grid of cells that hold
numerical data, it also contain text, dates, and other content that can be presented in language
courses tor discussions.
The following are essential ideas that teachers may consider when employing spreadsheets in the
language classrooms:
1. Reinforce learning scientific and mathematical languages that are also relevant in language
leaning.
2. Add well-designed charts and tables to reports to enhance students' non-verbal reading skills.
3. Allow students to create their own charts, graphs, tables, and the like, to develop and enhance
their language and spatial skills.
4. Give students completed chart and see if they can reconstruct underlying worksheet. This goes
a long way toward helping them to understand the relationships between the data and the chart.
5. Require that language reports and research papers contain some type of chart to help support
their findings. Encourage them to look for samples form the World Wide Web
6. Let students explore websites that have 1table presentation for language teaching and let them
discuss how these were used to facilitate the acquisition of language competences
7. Let the students look for charts in language learning material like textbooks, workbooks and
others and discuss why these wet used.
8. Teach the language and principles of financial literacy and management as it is also important
to learn these concepts in the context of purposive communication and life skills
9. Explain numerical concepts by showing the relationships between numbers and their concrete
representation in charts and graphs. As language teachers, this is needed to understand language
researches with quantitative designs.
10. Demonstrate how spreadsheets are useful in preparing assessment and evaluation tools for
students performance
With the advent of web-based word processing software and with the exposure of a lot of
students in exploring new innovative media tools, explore the following online Microsoft Word
Alternatives (Investintech, 2020)
1. Drop Box Paper
Dropbox Paper is a free online word processor offered by the online cloud storage provider To
start using it, you will need a Dropbox account. Once logged in, you get full access to the online
suite. The minimalist interface is very intuitive and its simplicity allows you to focus on your
content. You can also do many things that go beyond creating a textual document. You can add
rich media, such as audio, video and images. Dropbox Paper also allows you to access apps that
let you embed Trello cards, Youtube videos or Slideshare decks. Other collaborative features
include document link-sharing, creating and assigning checklist items to members or embedding
one of your Dropbox documents. Dropbox Paper, overall, does an excellent job at creating
dynamic documents you can share and access online
2. Office Online
For Microsoft Word and Office aficionados, the best possible free online alternative for their
document editing needs is Word online, which comes as part of the Office Online suite.
Although free MS Word web app is not a full-fledged version of its paid counterpart, it allows
you to open, create and edit Word documents online. Also, it offers some additional benefits of
online software tools. For example, enables you to access and see updates from co-authors
literally from anywhere in real time with only an internet connection and the latest 2016 version.
You can share and collaborate on documents. An equally alluring feature of Office Online is its
cross-platform compatibility. So, if you're a Chromebook or Linux OS user, MS Word web app
is the most elegant way to get access to Microsoft's document editing features-for free!
3. Google Docs
Google Docs allows you to create, collaborate and share documents, spreadsheets, presentations,
drawings and even forms. Google Docs is packed with features, which can be further extended
with various add-ons. While it will automatically save the file online and store it there, you can
also have the documents published as a web page, downloaded or emailed as an attachment in
Word, ODDT, PDE plain text or RTF formats. You can invite collaborators to work on the
document with you or only allow others to view it without the ability to edit. If you are
apprehensive of having to depend on the internet connection for document processing, don't
worry. You can enable Google Docs offline access and keep editing your documents even when
you are disconnected from Internet. All it takes is a free Google account.
4. Etherpad
Etherpad is an online document editor primarily intended for collaborative editing in, as the site
claims, "really real time". It's an open source, highly customizable tool for online document
collaboration with friends, fellow students and classmates, or colleagues at work. One of its
advantages, especially appealing to users who are reluctant to use services which require email
registration, is that there is no sign up with Etherpad. All you need to do is start a new pad and
share the link to it with your collaborators.
You can also invite them by email if you prefer. After that, you can start working on the planned
wnting project together, in real-time, even if you are miles apart.
5. Zoho
Zobo offers around 20 free online applications including Writer for word processing. You can
link your Zoho account to your Google and Yaho0 accounts, as well. The Writer's interface
should not cause anyone problems as it is comfortably familiar. When working online there's
always the risk of losing data due to a lost network connection, accidentally closing your browser
or having your browser crash.
Luckily Zoho automatically saves your documents for you, as you finish typing. Zoho Writer is
well-equipped with features that allow you to work easily online: two-way desktop sync, large
file transfer, encryption, file recovery, two-step authentication, in-app chat, and more. You can
import and work with MS Word documents, allowing you to insert images, and edit content as
needed. Zoho. Writer offers all the standard text formatting and document creation features and
can export to DOCX, ODF, PDE, Latex, RTF, TXT and even HTML. It can plug into Echosign
for digital signatures, publish the document to a blog or make it public for all to see. Zoho Docs
is completely free to use.
6. OpenOfice
The Open Office package includes six programs that use the same engine making them
inherently the same and extremely easy to lean and use. The 6 applications included in the Open
Office suite are: Writer (word processor), Cale (spreadsheets), Impress (presentations), Draw
(graphics) and Base (database manipulation) and Math (mathematical equations). Writer can
even natively do some things that Word cannot, like open PDF files without the addition of a
plug-in or commercial add-on. As the software is open source, it is maintained by a large
community meaning help and bug fixes are freely available and quickly created. This is perhaps
the leading free desktop alternative to Microsoft Word/Office. You can install this suite on
Windows XP to Windows 10, macOS (OS X) and Linux
7. AbiWord
AbiWord is a free word processing application very similar to Microsoft Word. It is available for
Linux distributions only. The software is fully compatible with not only Microsoft Word, but
also [Link], Word Perfect, Rich Text Format and more. It has advanced document layout
capabilities and can do mail merge as well, which allows you to automatically fill in specific
form fields in documents with information from databases and comma separated or tabbed text
files. It is a highly useful feature if you need to work with many formats at the office.
Additionally, the software can be enhanced and expanded with freely available plug-ins that will
give you even more features and functions.
8. Jarte
Jarte is based on Microsoft WordPad Engine, but is still free. There is a paid version of the
software that adds on some extra functionality, but the free version is more than adequate and
fully compatible with Word and WordPad documents. Features include an ergonomic tabbed
interface, small resource requirements, portability support for touchscreens, and quick loading
time. It also has built- in spell checking and can export to HTML and PDF files. Jarte allows you
to insert images, tables, hyperlinks and everything else that you have come to expect from Word.