I can understand the general position of the class regarding google scholar and I appreciate the input. In fact, I rarely use google scholar due the resources the university provides, but this discussion has given me the motivation to look into possible pedagogical methods in which to use google scholar.
Nonetheless, I am reminded of my experience in the EFL environment I was in, where numerous times the student one was speaking to might have been famous or fairly often a scholar with high merits or credentials (of course classes were expensive so that sometimes set your audience). In such cases of scholars, I usually think of the individual who might appreciate a statement such as this is a good research tool but scholars often use …. (a statement that is fairly simple if they have studied habitual actions). Even if their conversational ability places them at a lower intermediate level. Therefore, I sometimes consider not only what gives the student the most bang for their time but also what gives them the most sense of value for their dollar (not always the same in ESL I suppose). (mixing the idea of being principled with also being product orientated).
On one side to this, one observation I had made was that if sometimes a student appeared particularly happy at the end of a lesson to have someone as a teacher, that might be indicative of the student not being satisfied with the lesson (not that I had many complaints, but everyone got a few after several years and that was generally agreed upon as a good indicator). Looking back, I wonder if this is due to ‘focus on emotion’ similar to when we as speakers are focusing on form. That is, I don’t want my emotion of being highly dissatisfied to show through so I am focusing so much on that emotion that it displays as an over exaggeration. Sometimes I want to give them tidbits they will enjoy (such as above) and might learn from if their background is appropriate even if their displayed English is not.
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Kris, I think two of the absolute strengths of GoogleScholar lie in the fact that it provides citing info for the hits, it gives you a chance to 'test drive' search terms and strings for efficacy in digging up info, and IT'S FREE!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOf course the electronic databases available through the UTA library are fabulous, and quite essential when doing hard research - although I think a judicious use of GoogleScholar can have its earned place at the academic research table.
But I am thinking that for EFL/ESL teaching, for our students learning about available research tools, in many cases access to electronic databases will most generally not be available to them because they are cost-prohibitive. (If you want a quick self-administered stress-test, just visit JStor or LLBA and see what a sub costs. And, there are levels of subs ... it's kinda like the level plans for cable tv and broadband speeds.)
Of course it depends on the students. My students, this semester, didn't even have computers. So even GoogleScholar would not be appropriate. Of course, if I were teaching a student at a University then they would have access. Plus, I think the library provides free access to people in the community if they come in to the library and request it. I think I have heard that? In which case, they could get access without paying. And of course, for the students I mentioned in my original post, the price would not have been a concern.
ReplyDeleteI do see the point of showing GoogleScholar, but some students might benefit from knowing more, I suppose.