Incorporating Online Tasks into English Language Learning

To answer the following question after reading Chapter 6 of the required reading:
Drawing on your experience at your university, where do the language learning tasks (ideally that involve IT) fall on the flexibility continuum? Give one or more examples to illustrate. Can tasks that are "liberated" or "free" be easily incorporated into your teaching?

Incorporating Online Tasks into English Language Learning

The China Central Radio & TV University (CCRTVU) organizes 44 provincial RTVUs and up its teaching resources. The idea of founding the RTVUs system comes from the Open University in Britain. Dalian Radio and TV University, which is my work place, is one of the RTVUs.

While making use of television, radio, and computer networks and so on, efforts have been made in other forms of teaching and learning, such as self-study, tutorials, question-and-answers and practice. RTVU runs its school carrying out the policy of "lenient-in and strict-out", running school with multi-levels, multi-functions and multi-forms. It trains qualified personnel with all sorts of patterns.

In my school, the English teaching has been completely student-centered, which means a lot of online tasks are incorporated into the students’ language learning. In the following text, I will take the course English Writing as an example to further illustrate what kinds of online tasks are conducted in my current teaching.

In the current practice of my own work place in China, Dalian Radio and TV University, where most of the students are adult and not necessarily to attend every tutorial, the class attendance rate of the course of English Writing is comparatively lower than the other courses, simply because of the students’ negative attitudes, which quite effectively dampens the teaching enthusiasm on the part of many writing teachers and the learning morale on the part of the few willing and conscientious learners.

It is under such circumstances that the traditional way of testing English Writing is changed through an online assessment system called Electronic Testing and Assessment System (ETAS), mooted by China Central Radio & TV University, with the aim to encourage students to take responsibility for their own writing and to focus on the process and progress rather than on the product or even the grades alone. This system breaks the students’ grade into 70% of process assessment and 30% of final test, the process assessment consisting of 4 parts: self-study report, offline assignment, online quiz and online discussion.

This practice of online assessment is based on the principles of communicative teaching approach and process teaching approach, striving to influence the students on becoming more confident writers, being more conscious of their own writing process and strategies they employ in resolving their writing problems.

The online assessment decomposes the writing process of the whole semester into 8 self-study reports, 4 online quizzes, 4 offline assignments and 8 online discussions, which stretch along the whole semester and make writing a dynamic, flowing process.

The students, who take the module of English Writing as a compulsory course, should enroll the online testing and assessment system first by identifying their matriculation number, and then they are divided into groups according to their user names for online peer assessment. At this starting point, students begin the online assessment.

As aforementioned, students begin to accomplish a set of tasks consist of four main types (namely self-study report, online quiz, offline assignment and online discussion), and the tasks are achieved seriatim with different types taking turns. For every task, there is a time limit of 7 to 10 days, and at this period of time, students are provided enough time for drafting, revising and selecting.

Upon reaching the deadline of each task, the teacher begins revising students’ assignments, marking online quizzes, as well as evaluating their online discussions and self-study reports. After all those laboring, the students can get the feedback via ETAS.

The last step of the assessment is just like the traditional testing, to conduct a real test which requires the students to write a timed composition online. The time slot of the test is notified on the online bulletin board, and the test is conducted at exactly the same time throughout the country, down to the 44 Radio and TV Universities.