Interactive teaching of professional English using multifunctional presentations
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2010 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | MEFANET 2010, 4. konference lékařských fakult ČR a SR s mezinárodní účastí na téma e-learning a zdravotnická informatika ve výuce lékařských obor |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | |
| Field | Informatics |
| Keywords | e-learning; English; biology |
| Description | The contribution brings an overview of teaching methods applied in the courses of advanced English for the Masaryk University students. Special emphasis is given to interactively taught Powerpoint presentations during courses headed by a teacher combined with individual web based homeworks availabe at the Information System of the Masaryk University. Interactive teaching comprises a lot of students responses and comments to presented images, schemes, audio and video files. Each student is asked to answer at least 30 times per a lesson. The questions relate to typical professional topics ranging from cell stucture to anatomy, physiological processes, professional tools and instruments, practice in a laboratory etc. Fill in exercises covering numerous aspects of grammar (tenses, adjectives and prepositions), simple and multiple choice tests, blind schemes descriptions are taught interactively. The materials used in such multifunctional presentations are compiled from different web avilable sources, e.g. interactive whiteboards (IWB), online test(Learning English Online), digital resources (Oxford iTools). Conversation covers some 15 min during each lesson. It is held either in couples or a large group moderated by a teacher. Conversation topics are unknown at the begining of the lesson. Students make their choice from three alternatives of different complexity level and demandingness. The conversation starts immediately after the choice to prove actual knowledge and ability to respond. In this way, vocabulary, frequent idioms and dialog phrases are practised. Contrastingly to traditionally taught English, the interactive teaching brings more self evaluation for students and feedback for teachers. It also promotes students ability to respond to unknown or unexpected professional topics. The contribution brings an overview of elearning of professional English in the field of Biology. |
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