L544
CALL Software/Website Evaluation #2
Website Title: Word on the Street
Website URL: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/word-street
Grade/Age/Proficiency Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Adult ESL classroom
Language & Content:
1)
Intended purpose
Word on the Street is an exciting new
English Language learning/teaching program co-produced by the BBC and the
British Council. Word on the Street looks at how English works in everyday life
and presents lively aspects of young British culture. Each half hour episode is
filmed in a different place in the UK and features drama, interviews and
reports to help learners improve their English language skills.
2)
Content
There
are 20 main topics and 5 episodes per each topic, so in total 100 video clips
of episodes followed by a few tasks provided. On the main page, users can see a
brief introduction of the website in the middle, and a list of topic titles on
the right column so that users can click it and move directly to the specific
topic. If scrolled down a bit, it shows three tabs for learners to help choosing
the episodes efficiently; episodes categorized by ‘Most recent’, ‘A-Z list’,
and ‘Most popular’.
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| [Figure 1. Main content] |
If
the users click one episode, a video clip is shown with a brief description below
it. Transcript and preparation questions are offered with hidden arrows, and it
can be used or not based on the needs from learners or teachers. Each episode
includes 2-4 tasks created for learners’ individual comprehension check.
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| [Figure 2. Content of episode ‘Halloween’] |
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| [Figure 3. Comprehension task] |
3)
External documents
There
are no external documents that guide or support for the learning content.
However, the website contains Cambridge
Dictionaries Online on the very right column of the task section, so
learners are able to look up the new words while watching the video or doing
the tasks. The result of vocabulary looking-up shows with a pop-up box, not
with moving to or opening a new window, so it is a very handy tool to use for
the learners.
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|
[Figure
4. Cambridge Dictionaries Online]
|
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| [Figure 5. Result of dictionary look-up] |
4)
Interesting?
Since the website provides live
visual and auditory materials, it can motivate and capture learners’ interest
at first sight, compared to the studying context with only written resources
provided. Besides, all the episodes contain a real-life British everyday lives
and views with a variety of interesting topics. Learners may have fun in
choosing about which topics they would like to explore first.
5)
Language goal(s)
The main language goal of this English
learning website is Listening comprehension skill. The primary learning
materials are a number of video clips filmed by BBC and British Council, and all
the task questions are based on the content of the episodes. Thus, it helps and
improves learners’ listening proficiency. Inside a big frame of listening
content, in addition, some episodes more focus on language usage with specific
Grammar lessons or Idiom expressions, titled with ‘Language focus’. More examples
of screenshot will be in the next part.
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| [Figure 6. Learning video episode and tasks] |
6)
Practice / Assessment / Feedback (with examples)
As mentioned above, all the
practices start with watching a video clip. After watching it as many as
needed, learners go ahead the task sections to check their comprehension and
understanding about the content, as an assessment. Clear instruction guides
learners how to complete the task correctly. Each episode offers different
numbers of tasks based on the content (usually 2-5 tasks). With numerous tasks,
I categorized their types as 4 learning domains; Comprehension check, Grammar,
Idiom expressions, and Language use.
a. Comprehension check
After watching the video clip, learners can check
their comprehension with different types of questions, such as True or False
question, Reordering, Multiple choice question, Matching, etc.
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| [Figure 7. Task instruction] |
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| [Figure 8. T/F Question] |
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|
[Figure 9.
Reordering]
|
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| [Figure 10. Matching] |
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[Figure 11. Multiple-choice question]
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b. Grammar
The
video clips also provide a wide range of grammar lessons followed with tasks.
It covers from the basic lesson as 5W1H question forms to the advanced lesson
as the Tense.
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| [Figure 12. 5W1H Question forms] |
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| [Figure 13. Rearranging question of How question] |
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| [Figure 14. Tense question 1] |
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[Figure 15.
Tense question 2]
c. Idiom expressions and
Vocabulary
The website also offers practices for useful English expressions and
vocabulary learning.
d. Language use
Small parts of tasks consist of
specific English language use, such as a comparison of formal and informal
expressions, or expression in certain context (e.g. hotel, airport, shopping).
In
terms of feedback after accomplishing the tasks, learners can immediately check
whether they got correct answers or not by clicking ‘Check Answers’ button. If
there are any incorrect ones, they can click them again to edit. After
completing all the tasks, it shows the final score of the tasks with accuracy
percentage and the number of correct answers.
7)
Easy to use?
‘Word
on the Street’ is one of the submenus on ‘Learn English’ website, provided by
BBC and British Council. There are other submenus that help English learners
other than ‘Word on the Street’, such as Magazine,
Vocabulary games, Grammar exercises, or Stories & Poems. But I specifically
chose the domain of ‘Word on the Street’ separately because it itself already
has abundant teaching/learning resources there, and each submenu seems to have
different target learners. As long as the learners get to the main page of Word
on the Street correctly with provided short-cut link http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/word-street, they can easily
access to the learning materials and tasks because it is well-organized and
easy to navigate.
8)
Strengths
a. Amusing video clips and
Plentiful task activities
=> All the topics and video
episodes can capture English language learners’ interest and motivation. Also,
each episode includes 2-5 task activities so that learners can assess their
understanding by themselves. Instruction is very clear and the layout is also
very neat and well-organized. Learners might feel like exploring popular
British sightseeing areas and tasting its culture through the lessons with live
visual resources.
b. Integrated learning
=> Learners are able to
study not only listening skill but also grammar, vocabulary, and idiom
expressions in each lesson. With one episode video clip, developers seem to try
to approach from multiple perspectives, and they created tasks for each
learning purpose. Furthermore, teachers might be able to expand this into
reading lesson with transcript, or even communication (speaking) class with
preparation questions for discussion.
c. User comments
=> Under the main learning
content, there is a platform for users to leave comments about each episode. On
this area, online English learners from all over the world can share their
feelings, questions, opinions, worries, etc. They are able to teach and learn
from each other as well using this space.
d. Online Dictionary
=> As mentioned
previously, an online dictionary called Cambridge
Dictionaries Online is provided on the right of the main task area.
Learners can look up the new words right away while doing the tasks, and the
result shows as a pop-up box that users can check and close quickly and easily.
e. No need of Join/Log-in
=> The website is absolutely
free to use, and also does not demand join-in or logging-in by users.
3)
Suggestions for Improvement
a. Control of the Speed in
Listening
=> Considering the low
level of learners especially in listening skill, it might be better if the
developers could provide video clips with a function of controlling the speed
of video play. If the speed is too fast, learners can first start with a lower
speed, repeat watching the episode, and then keep increasing the speed until
the normal level. Reading transcript before or after watching the video might
help those low listening level of learners as well.
b. Intensive Tasks
=> Although there are 2-5
tasks per each lesson, the number of questions per each task is a bit small
(4-6 questions). Various types of task can allow the learners to study
extensively but not intensively because of this scant number of questions per
each task. It would be better if supported by more questions added in each task
domain.
c. Grammar explanation
=> In the episodes of
‘Language Focus’ in particular, they are focusing more on the English grammar.
Therefore, a briefly summarized grammar explanation could be added below the
video clip or on the script. Program developers also could offer the external
document of Grammar lecture note as a Word file attachment or an external
webpage.
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