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For 5th posting,students are required to list the url of the online test. We also required to try the test, explain what is the test all about and write the advantages and disadvantages. Actually, the website can  test us either in vocabulary or grammar.

My first choice is:

1)http://www.examenglish.com/

Using this website,we can do a lot of online test such as vocabulary test, listening test, grammar and reading test. For the vocabulary test,there are 10 questions and we only have 10 second to answer each questions. If we can not get the answer in the time given, the answer will automatically appear and our mark will be deducted.

2) http://www.iqtest.com/

This is another site that we can use to do online practice. For this test, we are required to answer the practice test first. For the practice test, we should complete the questions in 60 seconds or less. Then after we click the “finished” button,the answer will appear straight away. After that we can take the real test. During the test, we must read and respond to a total of 38 statements in thirteen minutes or less. If we take longer, we will be penalized, or if we get through the test in less time than thirteen minutes, our score will be increased.

3) http://www.graduateshotline.com/

ADVANTAGES :

• immediate result
• focuses in the specific topic
• interactive
• save time
• immediate feedback
• can help student to improve their vocabulary.
• Enhancing student-to-student and faculty-tostudent
• communication.
• Enabling student-centered teaching approaches.
• Providing 24/7 accessibility to course materials. Providing just-in-time methods to assess and evaluate student progress.
• Reducing “administrivia” around course management.
• Enhancing student-to-student and faculty-tostudentcommunication.
• Enabling student-centered teaching approaches.
• Providing 24/7 accessibility to course materials.
• Providing just-in-time methods to assess and evaluate student progress.
• Reducing “administrivia” around course management.

DISADVANTAGES:

• 1. Students who need a social charge may struggle with the concept of online education. On the same token that online classes are great for people who are shy, they are not as good for people who need the social buzz of the campus atmosphere.
  2. Depending on the teaching methods and coursework delivery, there could be an element of dishonesty. This disadvantage is overrated. Cheating happens online and on-campus – your instructor knows the truth!
  3. Students should have the discipline to work independently. There is a lot of interaction online with your instructor and other students, but you may need to schedule your time appropriately so that you get your classes and homework done.
  4. Students of online learning may need to acquire new technical skills. (This could also be considered an advantage, but I was short on disadvantages, so I decided to use it here.) Seriously though, without some computer knowledge, students could get frustrated and disappointed with frozen computer screens or downtime.
  5. Of the disadvantages of e-learning, possibly the most influential is that students do not have face to face interaction with the instructor, as they would in a traditional classroom setting. Purists debate that online education and the lack of face to face instruction is diluting the culture of learning.
  
  
  
  
  Summary for page 299 in OTL :
  
  
  The team constructed the placement test using the LearningCare web-based system. LearningCare does provide a relatively simple interface for test development, scoring and statistics keeping, which made it a good platform for the development of the pilot phase of the online test. Specification for the test include information on content, format and timing, criteria levels of performance and scoring procedures(Hughes, 1989). Styles and topics of texts will reflect the kinds of written texts that are to be found in teaching materials of the various training modules.

Computer- mediated- communication or CMC can be defined as communicative transaction that occurs through the use of two or more networked computers. It has traditionally referred to those communications that occur via instant messages, e-mails, and chat room ( computer- mediated- formats).It also has been applied to other forms of text- based interaction such as text messaging. Research show that CMC focuses largely on the social effect of different computer-supported communication technologies

According to Levy ( 1997: 79 ) based on Use of Computer- Mediated Communication to facilitate Second Language Acquisition  from the book Online Teaching and Learning in ELT , CMC as concerned with communication between two or more participants via a computer covering technological platforms. There are benefits of using this medium :

1) provides more equitable platform and less threatening forum for second language discussion.

2) increased participation among students.

3) more decentralized role of the dominal teacher.

The term web-based computer applications refers to all CMC modes such as E-mails, e-lists, e-forums, chat rooms,online discussion groups, mailing list and blogs.

The grammatical in accuracy,miscommunication,inappropriate language use and the different types of language function found commonly in communication online could pose as a problem to those who are new and just learning how to use CMC. The use of CMC in Malaysia is obviously among students. Based on Chapter 4 in  Reading in Online Language Learning and Teaching, some researchers gave the impression that e-mail is less formal than writing and meant to be fast and simple ( Zubaida, 2000).

1) simplification of the syntax by applying subject or modal deletion (Murray,1988)

2) loose grammar and spelling mistakes (Zubaida, 2000)

3) abbreviated forms like ” btw, fyi , and asap ” ( Zubaida , 2000)

4) simplified spelling ( e.g. wanna) ( Zubaida, 2000)

Critics also claimed that e-mails lack the non-verbal cues normally found in face-to-face communication such as facial expressions, eye contact and voice quality. This lack of non-verbal cues has been overcome by the development of paralinguistic cues such as emoticons and smiley. These are the common paralinguistic cues in CMC reported by researchers.

1) the use of emoticons will represent facial expressions such as smiling,angry, or sad

2) special icons or pictograms

3) capital letter

4) trailing dots (…) and dashes (-) to signal open endness in e-mail

5) quoting previous mail.

According to David Crystal on his blog, Netspeak  is an alternative to  “netlish”, “weblish”, “internet language”, “cyberspeak”, “electronic discourse”, “electronic language”, “interactive written discourse”, ” computer mediated communication (CMC), and other more cumbersome locutions.Netspeak have different term. Each term has a different implication such as Netlish for example is plainly derived from ‘English’ and is of decreasing usefulness as the Net become more multilingual, “electronic discourse” emphasizes the interactive and dialogue elements. CMC just focuses on the medium itself. Maybe unsurprising to see Netspeak, as a term, being given some popular currency such as following the Orwellian introduction of Newspeak and Oldspeak in 1984, then later developments such as Doublespeak and Seaspeak , and media labels such as Royalspeak and Blairspeak. Internet is an electronic global and the internet medium. Each of these has consequence for the land of language. Evolution of netspeak illustrates a real tension which exists between the nature of the medium and the aims and expectations of its users. People have strong expectation  of the internet, and established users evidently have strong feeling about how it should be used to achieve its purpose. The language of geeks has had a strong influence on Netspeak hitherto or not gradable. Its jargon appealing to a relatively young and computer- literate population. Netspeak is succint , and funtional enough , as long as we remember that ‘speak ‘ here involves writing as well as talking , and that any ‘speak’ suffix also has a receptive element , including “listening and reading”. There is a widely held intuition that some sort of Netspeak exist ,a type of language displaying features that are unique to the internet and encountered in all situations, arising out of its charecter as a medium which is electronic , global, and interactive. Salient features of Netspeak is taken from one or other of its situational manifestations, have already began to used outside of the computer- mediated -communication, even though the medium has become available to most people. Many firms and organizations have replaced the letter “a” or  “at” in their name by an @ such as : @llgood, @tractions, @cafe and so on. Internet is clearly a predominantly written medium, the quetion of how speech is related to writing is a the heary of the matter. The linguistic basis for the intuition is examined in detailed but the fact that people are concious of something is demonstrated by the way other varieties of language are being affected by it. For example , a comic courtroom skecth on television will borrow freely legal language , assuming that viewers will recognize, the linguistic allusions and individuals can introduce reference to legal language into their speech.

This discussion is according to David Crsytal blogs by google books.

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is my first time using wordpress….i never use this thing before…it quite difficult for me for the first time user…but it’s quite interesting too…actually this site is for my course…English language study for language & information technology subject…it is interesting to leran about computer n a lot of  new thing…i hope i will get a better result for this subject…i hope so n i will study hard for this semester…love u all…