Week 4 - Reflection # 1 - Using CALL In Writing And Reading Activities

Hello Donna and classmates

I have found this week's discussion topic very interesting because English students regardless of their age or L2 proficiency have a hard time reading texts and writing in English. I have to admit that this is a cultural issue in my country since primary, high school and even college students are not encouraged to read and write in our mother language in the right way. I remember the time I was a high school student, my literature teacher used to make us read classic novels and then write summaries (that most of the time my parents had to help me do). Then for the monthly quiz or exam, we had to know by heart the whole book or plot, and the characteristics of the characters because the questions were tricky and sometimes we got bad marks because we paraphrased the information or didn't write the exact words of the author. To be honest, that situation discouraged me to improve my reading and writing skills. From my experience working in a private school, I can say that this way of teaching reading and writing has changed, but not enough to state that we, Ecuadorians, are keen on reading or writing every time we can. It is not common to see people reading books while waiting for the bus or on the bus, at malls, in parks. However, it is more common to see people reading local newspapers or tabloids.

After giving you a picture of the reading and writing interest among people in my country, I can express my opinion about the articles I read. Firstly, they offer teachers (either L1 or L2 teachers) a great source of ideas, websites and activities that can be applied in order to make these skills more appealing as well as authentic or realistic to our students. I think the idea is very simple: “MAKE IT REAL”. However, we should not forget to explain our students how to use different writing genres because this is important information they need to know in order to write accurately. These samples or writing tips are usually found in textbooks. After giving these instructions, the internet plays an important role in order to make our reading and writing classes more interesting and meaningful. Constant Teacher's guidance before, while and after doing the activity is a must in order to be able to achieve our goal.