1. Reflect on your experience in the BENL courses that you’ve taken.
The memory of registering during
the first day in IIUM remains fresh in our memory. Despite feeling happy, we also felt confused on whether taking English as our degree was the right choice, still
lingers in our mind. However, as years passed by, we then realized that we had done
the right thing. Throughout the four years of being English major students, we gain
so much knowledge as well as experiences. Our perspective towards English as a
language changes. We no longer view English as a mere language. It is now more
than that, more meaningful. Language had also changed our perspectives toward
viewing the world and others. Through English, we managed to gain a better understanding
about the world and people, making us more conscious of others as well as
ourselves. The most valuable part of being an English major is to be able to
view knowledge of language and literature from an Islamic perspective. This is
truly a beneficial and significant input in order to produce better human being
to be the khalifah in this universe.
2. Think of the assignments which require you to apply the use of computer in order to assist its completion.
In our second year, we were
assigned with an assignment which requires us to travel and later record our
experiences during the travelling in a form of a travelogue. This assignment is for
our American Literature class and it is related to the novel that we have
studied; “Innocent Abroad” by Mark Twain. Our task is to search for humorous
attitudes of the Malaysian citizen. In order to make our travelogue accessible for
everyone, we decided to create our travelogue in a blog form using Blospot.com. This
requires the use of computer as well as the internet as the blog can only be
created and accessed with the presence of the internet. Required skills and
knowledge is needed to create the blog, hence we learn quite fast on how to
create it with the help from our own member in the team. By posting our
travelogue on the blog, readers can access them publicly and can even post
comments on our blog so that we can get feedbacks and communicate with them.
3. Concepts in CALL used in order to complete the assignment.
As we create and manage our blog,
we applied a few concepts related to Computer Assisted Language Learning
(CALL). We believed that our assignment is closely related to the third phase
of CALL which is known as Integrative Call. The first concept used under
Integrative CALL is ‘Learner- learner interaction’. Among the knowledge that we
managed to attain is the knowledge of managing a blog through discussion and application
which is gained through discussion as well as the process of trial and error
with our group mates. The second concept applied is the computer as a vehicle
for interactive communication. Visitors can post comments and ask questions on
the blog and as the administrator, we will be able to respond to their comments
and questions as soon as we receive the notification. This leads to the third
concept which is interaction via international and local network. The blog is
accessible at any time and from any parts of the world. For instance, a visitor
from China can read the blog and post a comment and we will be able to respond
to the comment directly from Malaysia. This creates an international network.
The fourth concept used is using computer as a database. Materials that we
managed to collect during our travel such as pictures and information is
recorded and kept in the computer.
4. What have we acquired?
Throughout our travel and the
process of completing our assignments, we manage to gain loads of information about
the places that we had visited as well as knowledge regarding computer as a
tool for language learning. The use of computer aided by the internet will help
to broaden the perspective of teaching and learning, making it more accessible,
interesting and interactive. The value of teamwork is another thing that we
manage to acquire throughout completing the given assignment.
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