Lexitronics

Here’s a site that some of you may enjoy investigating further:

http://www.valodas.com/

A student needs to register, but it is free.  You then download the software (it is PC-based, with Windows, Linux and Mac versions.) The students then indicate their native language and the target language (there is an L1 English to L2 Turkish option, as well as an L1 Turkish to L2 English option.)  A ‘target list of words is then downloaded (there are levels, e.g. basic or higher.)  The system keeps track of the words they are learning, and if the learner can copy and paste a text into a ‘profiler’ which will identify words that they know, and suggest words that they should learn.   So, this could be used for simplified texts (e.g. simple Wikipedia) or authentic texts.

In terms of English, our Common English Lexical Framework might provide a focus for students to use this tool to help them ‘boost’ their vocabulary knowledge.  The nice thing is that each user has their own ‘deck of cards’ and therefore can build their own vocabulary according to their needs and abilities.  It has testing options, spelling tests, and the option to analyze a text according to the words that the student actually knows, which are powerful features that the other flashcard systems don’t have.

Here are the screen shots of the ’system’ – http://www.valodas.com/index.php/Help/Screenshots.html

Lexitronics Ways with Word Courses at: http://lexitronics.org

The walls of our classrooms are finite, but the walls in Web2.0 go on forever…  It made me think of a really simple Web2.0 tool called Wallwisher.  WallWisher posters can contain any media element: picture, graphic, video, audio, etc.) and, furthermore, it’s free.

Here is an example of a WallWisher ‘project’ I used with my students  — the task was a ‘warmer’ to get them to share ideas about places that they like in Cyprus.  Some didn’t have any favourite places in Cyprus, so they chose to feature their favourite places in Turkey.  Doesn’t really matter…you’ll get the idea if you look at http://wallwisher.com/wall/cte319-favs

Walls are free to create.  Students can create their own walls as well (possibly a way to share images, etc. related to a content topic? Pictures related to sports, biology, history, religion, etc.)  There is no interactivity as in VOICETHREAD, but it is really easy to set up and all a student has to do is double-click on the wall to post something.  They have a limited number of characters to type in (which most students would find easy to stay within) and then they can include a link to a website, picture, video, etc.  Possibly a good way to get students on the road to collaborative activities.  The only real work in terms of the teacher is to set up a blank wall.  However, once students figure this out, you could just delegate that as well, and each student could take turns being a ‘wallwisher’ organizer (and moderator, as no doubt a few students would attempt to do something silly on the wall.)

In the end, if you did want some kind of visual for the classroom, you could print out the page.  Or simply show it on the smartboard at breaks, etc.  As with paper-based posters, it seems that students quite like to showcase their creativity.  Published their ideas on a WallWisher wall is a good outlet for this kind of creativity…sort of like a graffiti wall.

Lexitronics Ways with Words Courses at: http://lexitronics.org

The Ways with Word Courses - which currently comprise Write Like an Academic and LexiCLIL are both open to individual users for no fee at present at http://lexitronics.org. More courses are in the pipeline for the new year, including, hopefully, the next in our series of eReaders.  Updates will follow!

Will update the links shortly – but just to note that the Lexitronics Scribd account – http://www.scribd.com/lexitronics seems to be working exceptionally well as a publishing base for various Lexitronics research and articles. Really, all credit to the Scribd community for an outstanding project…

Now that we have opened our Write Like an Academic and LexiCLIL online courses at http://lexitronics.org a very obvious question is  what is LEXICLIL? LexiCLIL  suggests an approach to CLIL (Content and language integrated learning) that is heavily driven by a lexical focus . It is also strongly corpus-informed and as with most of our lexitronics work draws on the principles and tools of Web 2.0 to a very large extent.  The course material might hence be of interest to anyone working in CLIL, but also practitioners in EAP, ESP, as well as more generally in ELT…