Halina napisała:

Personally I think that this program is a very good idea. It has a lot of

advantages as it uses the idea of learning by doing which facilitate the

process of learning. Additionally it encourages students to learn introducing

some sort of competition. In my opinion the only disadvantage of 'Alf' is that

some students do not have the access to the internet at home and so they

cannot use this program regularly.

Adrian napisał:

The introduction should be a little shorter and you should go to the part

about learning English earlier. Intro Alf is a good idea, but I was

particularly interested in Kon Alf, Group Alf and Game Alf. Kon Alf is a

perfect option for all the students because conversations are neglected in

schools, mostly because the lack of time in the classroom. Each student has

individual timing and can go through all the excercises as often as he/she

would like to. I think that it is the best feature of the Alf program. Game

Alf is a very 'fresh' idea and it can encourage sudents to compete between

themselves. As we know many teenagers are playing games, whose main idea is to

gain points and take position in the ranking, through the internet. and

combining competitiveness and language games is the perfect choice-brilliant.

Jacek, Ela I Basia napisali:

Comments on the documentary film „Marzenia Pana Marka”

The film can be divided in several parts:

First, I was impressed by the way the documentary film was produced. It was done in a professional way, with a lot of examples and illustrations in order to show the Message in the best possible way. The film is full of funny scenes, beginning with the image of Alf (main illustration of the educational software „Alf”) and ending by the moment when a student is putting knowledge in the head of another student by means of a shovel (this knowledge is represented by books and other materials). In addition, there were many exaggerations played by the teachers as well as the students, which sometimes could seem ridiculous.

The film also includes some diagrams. For instance, one of these diagrams represented the different subjects divided in groups, depending on whether they are more theoretical or require more practice. Thus, History is unquestionably the subject that requires a lot of theory. It is followed by Geography, which, however, requires more practice. Mathematics, even though they are mainly theoretical, require much practice. Computer science is widely based on practice, which is extremely important also in taking a driver's licence.

We faster forget theoretical knowledge rather than practical knowledge. In fact, it is much easier for a beginner to learn reading at the beginning rather than speaking a given language. Then we have writing, which requires knowledge of grammar and listening comprehension (all what is in our head)

Thus, from the easiest thing to the hardest we have: reading, writing, listening comprehension and finally speaking.

The last part was dedicated to the promotion of the software „Alf” and its extraordinary features.

The software itself was divided in four categories, each of them is of course public-oriented but each of them has its own task.

Firstly, there is IntroAlf, as the name suggests it was designed to introduce the software by showing how it works. Then we have KonAlf (the most important part of the software) which lies on exercises, mainly speaking of English. The third part is GameAlf, learning by playing different games. Finally, we have the last part of the program that is GroupAlf, meant for working in groups.

Anna I Alicja napisały:

During the last classes of Methodology we were watching a film. There was said that in order to be good at English we should posses both theoretical and practical knowledge. We can develop it through exercises and different set of activities.

There are four major skills (from the easiest to the most difficult ) : reading, writing, listening and speaking. The first two easy to learn when third and fourth involves intensive and fast thinking. It is more convenient to base classes on reading and writing because there is often a lack of necessary equipment in the school for practicing the last two skills. What is more, three hours of English per week is definitely not enough and more gifted and ambitious students have to learn on their own. They look up to dictionaries for unknown words and phrases, listen to English auditions in radio, attend to private lessons and try to build up own, more complicated sentences. On of the very popular and effective program of self-study English is called “Alf”. It consist of many exercises which help students not only improve their vocabulary but also teach how to speak correctly and pronounce English words clearly.

Moreover, there are activities connected with writing some words properly without mistakes and oral test preparing for oral exam – they are based on building up sentences, questions and negotiations.

All in all, the program is incredibly useful and worth possessing, it gives not only pleasure but also the opportunity to learn on our own . It is very helpful for elementary studies because the knowledge necessary to communicate in foreign language cannot be passed only through classes.

Beata napisała:

The program ALF is in my opinion a great idea. It's a chance for students to

speak English not only at school, but also after school at home. This program

shows, that it is possible to learn foreign languages with pleasure. We all

know that learning with pleasure brings enormous effects.

What I would change in ALF is a game. The idea with this game is very good,

but I think this presented game can be a little bit boring for teenagers, who

are rather interested in other types of games. It should be more modern to

encourage young people to play and learn.

Małgorzata I Krystyna napisały:

Comments referring to usage of the Alf Programme at schools:

-The Programme is very convenient for beginners, it helps them to become familiar with basis and to gain spontaneity;

-Shy students may learn to speak fluently, because of conversation assignment, they can do exercises at their homes and it is not stressful for them;

-Students have also possibility to check the answers and they have certaintywhat they did wrong;

-The Programme provides variety of exercises and large amount of materials from which they use;

-The Programme is attractive and it encourages students to work.

Izabela, Justyna i Beata napisały:

On the last class we watched a film which concerned learning English by students and then a presentation of a program which can be used to learn more effectively.

Learning of English is classified to groups of subjects which are more practical than theoretical so the most important skills which each learners of foreign language should master are:

1.reading

2.writing

3.listening

4.speaking

The most difficult skill is speaking and learners have to devote a lot o time to practice it in order to speak fluently.

A program Alf which help to learn English at home/at school contains different types of exercises which assist to develop each of four skills essential to master a foreign language.

Alf helps to develop speaking skills (konAlf), can be used at groups of students to repeating statements (groupAlf) or to learn by usage of different games (gameAlf).

The students can listening, repeating, creating statements in written forms and by speaking into the microphone. The students are tested by program and they get marks.

Personally, we think that a program ALF may be really useful for students who want to learn English but especially for these who learn at home. It can give them opportunity to use language and make many exercises, which they cannot do at school because of different reason such as lack of time. At home student can decide how long or how many times wants to do each exercise. The students have also an opportunity to decide on which domains they wants to focus on.

In our opinion, this program is not practical at school. Firstly, there are too many students in the class and it is not possible to engage each person e.g. to conversation. Moreover, a lot of schools are not well equipped and this program needs special equipment (computers for each students, microphones). We think that this program is good for someone who wants to develop his English and lessons at school is not enough for him.

Thanks Alf he/she can practice writing, speaking or practicing vocabulary. The graphics and a plan of each lesson are good prepared so students are not tired after exercises.

Karolina i Marcelina napisały:

We think that computer programme”ALF” has both, advantages and disadvantages. It is good for beginners and for shy people. For example when someone doesn’t like speaking English in the classroom because of shyness, he or she can develop speaking skills by KonAlf. Some exercises as groupAlf are very interesting and funny. GroupAlf helps to retain friendly atmosphere in the classroom. It is also useful for practising some skills such as grammar, listening, paraphrasing and reading. This programme can develop children’s memory and imagination. Thanks to colourful tables it is easier to remember and associate different things. What’s more it is easy to operate and it is important advantage. On the other hand exercises can become boring after some time and students can be bored and don’t want to work with ALF any more. The self-motivation is necessary for working with this programme. To sum up, we would like to say that this programme is a good solution for students who want to learn and work also at homes.

Ktoś inny napisał:

English is a subject where is little theory and much more practice. So the practical knowledge of language is important and necessary to speak fluently and understand the language. We need to introduce the knowledge in life and daily situations. The skills which mean that we know English: reading comprehension, writing, listening comprehension and speaking. But unfortunately in schools each skill is not realised. In schools the teachers do not pay enough attention to conversations. They focus on doing tests, exercises and writing essays. The teachers often complain that students do not learn at all. In my opinion methods of “spreading” the knowledge to heads of students presented in this film are inappropriate. Examples are following: The teachers were beating the heads of students with books. During the lesson the teacher started shouting, beating the table with stick and said that he was going to do tests during each lesson. There are better methods to encourage students to learning English and be interested in it. To speak fluently English you need to know a lot of words, build the sentences and exercise speaking.

In later part of film they were talking about computer programme Alfa which is for children learning English. I think that it is a good method of learning English.

Jeszcze ktoś inny napisał:

Having watched the presentation I think that the programme is perfect to encourage students to learn English. Although I'm not a teacher yet I agree with youthat speaking activity is neglected the most of all. The Alf is a great solution to the problem.

However I think that there are used too many eye -catching colours what spoils the general appearance and it's difficult to focus on one thing and it gets more complicated. It's only my opinion.

I support the main idea of the programme :)

Łukasz napisał:

  • ALF is a good alternative to traditional methods of learning English. It is good for the youth as young people often use their coursebooks in a wrong way, which results in poor effects of language learning.
  • To me, the programme is well-adjusted to the young language learners, who often find it difficult to encourage themselves to study. ALF provides them with an accessible form of learning the language, especially its most important aspects that are also often neglected in terms of availability of materials at schools, I mean speaking and writing.
  • Students can practise their speaking skills by ‘talking to the computer’, by asking questions or answering those asked by the computer. As for writing, students are to come up with different written utterances suggested by the programme.
  • In my opinion, the programme may turn out to be beneficial especially for those students who want to work at home on their own, practicing their language skills. They can improve their language without teacher’s interference. Besides, it introduces a positive change into a classroom where a teacher can evaluate his students’ progress. What I find positive is also the possibility to run group work by means of the programme, in case of which only one computer and some additional equipment are required.
  • Another positive aspect of the programme is the availability of all the essential information and tips that one can receive via the Internet.
  • ALF GAME is something what I also like about the programme. The students can learn vocabulary by means of entertainment. Although the game is not too sophisticated,
    I think it can satisfy those who want to have fun and learn at the same time.
  • Despite the fact that ALF is not devoted to more advanced students, it is a very good programme for younger language learners, who want to improve their language skills outside school.

Anna I Joanna napisały:

The film titled „Marzenia Pana Marka” was directed by Marek Potempa. It explained usage of the computer programme called “ Alf”. It was created especially for students of English language who would like to improve their fluency.

“Alf” consists of various excercises divided into few different options : Kon Alf, Group Alf, Game Alf. What is more, programme mainly concentrates on practical process of learning. It gives students an opportunity to practice grammatical structures and vocabulary by creating sentences. It also checks student’s pronunciation during conversation with the programme. Students’ mistakes are corrected and repeated as many times as it is needed to memorize correct structure of the sentence. The exercises can be done with the teacher, group or individually. It is advantageous because it is kind of entertainment which is available for everyone to use on the Internet. The only drawback of the “Alf” is its poor computer graphics.

In our opinion, this programme is useful for students who intend to learn English apart from school. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a chance to check how it works on our own yet.

Patrycja I Izabela napisały:

During our last classes we have watched a film "Marzenia Pana Marka" that showed the advantages of ALF, the computer programme that helps people to learn English. In our opinion the programme is very sophisticated and serviceable.

By using it, you can practise practical skills of using English in a more interesting way. From our point of view, this method of teaching can particularly appeal to young learners.One of the advantages of ALF is the fact that all the answers are checked immediately, which is impossible while ling alone with the help of dictionary or a course book. The teacher is not able to spend so much time on helping an individual student during classes as well. So thanks to ALF a lot of time and effort is saved.

On the other hand it is abvious that the computer programme cannot replace the real teacher who can give advise and supervise a student’s progress. What is more, using ALF in a class with a group of students requires special equipment which is not available in all schools.

In conclusion using ALF is very practical while learning individually because it saves time and is more interesting than traditional learning aids. However, it would never replace a real teacher’s directives and explanations of more complicated issues which are basis of understanding tenses or other grammatical difficulties.

Anna I Jan napisali:

Last time on our methodology classes we have seen a movie which presents a traditional way of teaching and learning vs. recently introduced computer program – ALF. Its aim is to make learning vocabulary and creating sentences easier for students.

English language is more practical then theoretical science, so the skills are of great importance. Process of learning English does not finish on theory. The essential is to practice a lot. There are four main skills:

  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Listening
  • Speaking

The most difficult skill is speaking, because you have to master previous skills to become fluent speaker. In traditional way of teaching, you are given a long list of words, which you should learn by heart at home. You try to pronounce it at home, but unfortunately, you are not sure whether your pronunciation is correct or not.

The program ALF is a remedy for all this difficulties. It helps you to pronounce the words correctly, it checks whether your grammar is correct, your ability of translating is checked. This program has a great advantage – you are able to converse with your computer. It is very important if you have no opportunity to converse with a native speaker. You can choose different levels of difficulty, appropriate to your knowledge of English. In my opinion, this computer program is helpful for students practicing at home, to learn in a correct way, without mistakes. Unfortunately, it requires a computer for each student to work with it at school, which is rare in Poland and difficult to achieve.