 |
||
 |
|
|
Teachers Page: How to use "Word-Scape"
For Teachers of EFL/ESL who'd like their students to improve TOEIC / TOEFL scores.
I made this app for myself (Mick Short). The extra book “Wordscape” newly included in the syllabus made class times a bit tight and I wanted to create an “assistant teacher” in the form of an app so as to take some of the work out of the classroom. I also wanted a way to test students knowledge that didn't involve lots of marking of paper tests. Using quizzes and games in an app I could automate this process ( and make it fun!) : see below for 'how to use' for teachers. (My basic premiss was that if I could create something useful to me it might also be useful to someone else, i.e. other teachers, enjoy! :)
|
The book “Wordscape” was written Anthony P. Newell, Naoko Yagi and Garrett DeOrio. 450 words were selected as essential vocabulary for intermediate to advanced students of Politics and Economics (Waseda University) having considerable overlap with TOEIC and TOEFL needs. |
|
The App “Word-Scape” How it Works: Each chapter has a story of a fictitious country called 'Saykania'. In each chapter, Saykania experiences a different model of governance and/or economic model in each story, and in this way target vocabulary is included in each chapter. |
|
|
Click on the Unit button to go to that Unit's Menu. |
Click on “Reading & Listening:Storyteller” to go to the chapter. |
|
|
|
|
Go back to the Unit menu to Study the Unit Vocabulary, tap the button to hear the word and read it's native language equivalent and read the English description ( there's also an association with an icon so you have four ways to help memorize new words – sound / image / English description / Japanese equivalent).
Once familiar with the new vocabulary the student can move onto test this knowledge in the quizzes. |
|
|
|
|
|
Icon / Sound Match Quiz and |
Description Match Quiz |
English / Japanese Match Quiz |
|
|
|
On making a wrong choice a blooper sound occurs and some accuracy% is taken away from the score. On a correct choice the student is rewarded with an animation and score update: |
||
|
|
|
On completing the quiz an award screen shows: |
The student can then choose “Share” to send their 'certificate' to various social media or (more useful for the teacher)they can email it to their teacher ( you might want to make a separate address for this as some students will try umpteen times – which is great but does tend to clog your email). |
|
|
|
|
To give your students a real test set them the "Bomb Quiz Game" version of the above: |
||
|
|
|
On getting a correct answer a fairy animation plays adding more time by lengthening the fuse and on a wrong answer a dragon burns it shorter! Quick responses give you ( the teacher) a fair idea of the students accuracy. |
||
Quizzes and games are fairly short but tend to invite repetition and so the student tends to spend much more time studying the new vocabulary than by traditional methods. By having the student send results via e-mail the teacher can have an almost automatic way of testing and scoring results.
At the moment this app is in the iPhone domain but should there be sufficient interest, that will be extended to android. In class testing the only way around this was for students to borrow their friends phone ( although you do of course have to remind them to type their own name into the subject line of the email). |
||
The App has three main advantages over similar fare:
1. Being based on the book “Wordscape” it has content that has been through rigorous pedagogical testing.
2. You can use it as a stand-alone app or include the complete package of App + Book. (The book has many additional quizzes and articles regarding vocabulary).
3. Due to the automated nature of the quizzes it makes following student progress very easy ( text regarding scores gets sent alongside the 'certificate' so entering this into excel or similar to chart progress is a pretty straightforward copy and paste).
Any input regarding how to improve the app is of course welcome.
|
||
