USING HOT POTATOES® TO EMPOWER STUDENT’S WRITING
Sri Rejeki Murtiningsih
Universitas Muhammadiyah
s.r.murtiningsih@gmail.com
Abstract
Information literacy is very important for students and teachers so they can support each other. For example, students have to be able to fulfill the requirements that are set by the teachers and the teacher(s) will try hard to make the students understand of what they deliver. Writing class can be a boring class for teachers if they do not have alternative ideas of how to modify the activities during the class or provide students with plenty activities. Similarly, the students will not be motivated in joining the class or prepared for the next class if the class is monotonous.
Hot Potatoes® is a software that can be downloaded from the internet for free. It is very easy to use and fun software both for teachers and students. This software is a great alternative for teachers to empower the students’ ability and one of them is writing ability. This software will help the teacher to provide activities and games for the students to improve their writing ability. On the other side, the students will be provided with a set of fun activities by the teachers which can be done at their free time. They do not have to deal with papers all the time. Instead, they will also learn how to deal with information technology.
This presentation is aimed at demonstrating the using of Hot Potato® software to empower the students’ writing. The presentation also aims to give teachers with alternative activities to be used in writing classes.
Introduction
One of our colleagues in Language Training Centre had a brilliant idea whether we could give something different for the students for the writing class. She said that this could be something for a change. Writing class had been very identical with the paper and writing and sometimes it was quite boring for the students as well as the teacher especially when the students did not consider that the subject they were learning was not as important. Then, other friends coined that we might be able to use the Internet to have the idea. Everybody agreed that it was great thought but we had not any idea what software we could use to implement the idea This paper tries to demonstrate the use of a software which can be used as an alternative activity for English teachers in teaching writing. The software, called Hot Potatoes®, can be downloaded from the internet for free.
A. Teaching writing
A writing class is often perceived as a boring and time consuming class. It is boring because most classes discuss about the accuracy of the grammar as well as the information. It is time consuming because the teachers may take a long time to make the students understand what is being taught. In the place where I work, for example, writing classes strongly focuses on the grammar accuracy which the most of the students have obtained previously in their high schools. Most teachers are often trapped by giving translation focused method in teaching writing (Haffernan, 2001). Moreover, most of the students have average to low degree of English language proficiency, thus, the teachers have to deal with one thing for quite a long time before they actually move to the more complicated issues. Consequently, the students find it boring to attend the class if the teachers do not have a new method in delivering the materials. Similarly, the teacher will have negative impressions towards the students which, at the end, affects the teachers’ commitment.
The issue of teacher-students’ commitment in writing class happens not only in
Considering the issue above, Harmer (2007) suggests it is necessary for the teachers to find alternatives activities outside the classroom to approach the practices of writing skills. Internet can be a good choice to create the activity. In his book, Harmer gives an example of using blogs to encourage the students to get engaged in the writing exercises. In line with Harmer, Benson (2001) maintains that Internet can facilitate the students to learn about many things whenever they want. In the perspective of writing practices, Intern provides authentic materials and various softwares which can be used to approach the writing practices.
B. Hot Potatoes®
Hot Potatoes® is a software which consists of several activities that enables the teachers to create interactive activities. In the case of writing classes, the teacher can use this alternative to make quiz for the students.
To obtain this great software, simply go to www.halfbakedhotpotatoes.com or go to Google and type Hot Potatoes. Click and follow the link to install it to your computer. The following display should appear:
As seen on the display, there are six different activities that might be useful to create writing exercises or quizzes for the students.
a. JCloze
It is an activity which gives unlimited number of options for each gap. The teacher can also provide a hint for the students to help them choose the correct answer.
b. JMatch
JMatch provides matching or ordering alternatives. It can be used to match pictures, texts or the translation of vocabulary.
c. JMix
JMix provides a jumbled-sentence exercise. Many varieties of sentences can be created from this exercise such as words and punctuation in the main sentence. The screen of J mix will look like the following:
d. J Cross
This exercise allows the teachers to create a crossword puzzle. The puzzles can be written across or down. The hints to help the students solve the puzzle are also provided.
The clues of the JCross will look like this.
e. JQuiz
It is a question based exercise. There are four kinds of exercise categories can be chosen from JQuiz, they are multiple-choice, short answer, hybrid, and multi select. Each activity has their own types. JQuiz provides unlimited number of options with feedback of each option.
i. Multiple choice
In this type of question, the students have options to choose the correct answer. Every time the students choose the incorrect answer, in addition to the feedback, an X will appear. When the students hit the correct one, there will be a J and the feedback as well.
ii. Short answer
The students have to type the answer in the box, and click the ‘Check’ button to see whether their answer is correct. The page will match the students’ answer and the correct answer. If the answer is incorrect, the feedback will come out. Hints are also provided to help the students find the correct answer.
iii. Hybrid
It is the combination of the two. First the students will have to write down the question in the box and click the ‘Check’ button. When after several attempts they cannot get the correct answer, the question will change into a multiple-choice to make the students easier answering the question.
iv. Multi select
It gives the students opportunity to select the correct answers.
The display of JQuiz is presented below:
C. Conclusion
Writing classes can be uninteresting if the teacher does not have a good technique in teaching writing. On the other hand, the students also need to have commitment to get engaged in the activities provided by teacher. Providing alternative activities for the students that the students can do outside the classroom in their free time is one way to make the class more interesting, especially when the exercises are presented in various way. Hot Potatoes® is a great way to provide the students with the activities which can improve the students’ engagement on writing classes. Hot Potatoes® provides various activities which can be done online or in the students own computer. In addition to use this software to writing class activities, this free software can also be used for other general purposes.
References:
Benson, P. (2001). Teaching and Researching Autonomy in Language Learning.
Haffernan, N. (2001). An integrated approached to teaching academic writing.
Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching.
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