Audio Conferencing Lesson
 

My Instructional Technology programme at Nova requires me to do an online project, at present I am considering building the various components for the Audio Conferencing Lesson into a theme based around the teaching of communicative skills. I have chosen to do this by way of Greetings in Spanish. The key here is the development of communicative skills which, to my mind, is essential to achieving success in both foreign language teaching and learning.

Also linked to this is my desire to develop and master expertise in effective techniques for teaching Spanish at a distance.

My justification for the selection of this theme is primarily communication-based. In short, if the message is not understood, then effective communication has not taken place.

The emphasis in the school system in Jamaica is often on the reading and writing skills. It is assumed that the listening and oral skills will come naturally. Pressure is mainly brought to bear in many schools when the external examiner is coming to conduct the oral examinations, namely the regional Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) O'L’vels and the UK-based General Certificate of Education (GCE) O’ and A’ Levels.

I believe that especially in a situation where Jamaica is a small island country and our immediate neighbours are not English-speaking that through learning to communicate effectively, we can deal with conflict resolution and we can build trust and build the bridges to mutual understanding and cooperation in our bilateral, regional and international relations, and the promotion of international peace and security and even peace at the community level. In our daily interaction the tools of communication are keys to our survival.

A summary of my project as proposed is outlined below:

Project
 

Theme:

The theme of the lesson is "Learning through Communication: Adopting the Communicative Approach to Teaching and Learning".
 

Aims and Objectives:

The aim of the audio conferencing lesson is to develop the oral and listening skills in students through the adoption of a communicative approach to teaching. Based on the theme, the lesson will focus on:

• An approach for analysing the goals of communication.

• Identification of factors affecting good and weak communicative performance among students.

• Forms of Greetings in Spanish.

Target Audience:

The target audience will be comprised of High School students in Grades 7 – 9. The demonstration audience will be the MA students in Cluster 14 at Nova Southeastern University, Kingston Campus.
 

Constraints:

The drawbacks are most likely to be related to the usual human problems that might be encountered in distance education (eg. personal eye-to-eye contact that is usually present when the teacher is physically located in the classroom) and technical problems that can occur communicating through the use of computer aids in the classroom.
 

Requirements:

Appropriate audio-visual aids (eg. graphic illustrations, pictures and recordings) will be prepared in advance to avoid technical difficulties during the presentation.
 

Expected Outcome:

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to utilize the tolls learnt to communicate effectively in everyday situations as well as in formal settings, eg. meeting and greeting people, introducing themselves to strangers, attending meetings and communicating ideas to an audience.
 

Specialized Interest:

The MA students will also be exposed to training in effective techniques for teaching Spanish at a distance.
 
 

For further information and an overview on what distance education is all about, you may wish to try http://www.uidaho.edu/evo/dist1.html. For enquiries and comments, you can contact me at: nsalmon@nova.edu.
 

Back to Nadine's Villa Home Page.