| Preface |
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| Acknowledgment |
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| Introduction |
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| Section 1 Commentary |
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Chapter 1 Reflection: How Now Shapes the Future Emerging Trends from the LCTL Trenches |
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1 | (9) |
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This chapter is a commentary on the state of foreign language education in the digital age. |
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| Section 2 Technologies across Continents |
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Chapter 2 The Structural and Dialogic Aspects of Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs): A Case Study |
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10 | (23) |
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This case study contributes to the growing body of research on Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs) by examining their structural aspects (i.e., layout and format) and dialogic nature (i.e., interaction and negotiation) from the language learner's perspective. This exploratory study draws on data from 15 student teachers of English as a Second/Foreign Language at a private graduate institution on the East Coast of the U.S. As required by their technology elective, participants who were enrolled in a beginner-level LMOOC of their choice kept a log of their learning process/progress over a period of eight weeks. At the end of the course, they were invited to fill out a post-project questionnaire to reflect on their overall experience. The goal of the project was to educate student teachers on the pedagogical underpinnings of LMOOCs while exposing them to online language learning. In this study, the focus was primarily on self-reported system interaction and profile data since the Author was not involved in the design of any of the LMOOCs. Data collection instruments included a needs analysis, weekly LMOOC logs, and a post-LMOOC questionnaire. According to the questionnaire results, student-teachers' motivation was "satisfactory," and only four out of 15 student teachers completed their LMOOCs. Results further showed that structural aspects (i.e., content, materials, and procedures) rank higher than dialogic aspects (i.e., scaffolding and feedback). This questions the over-reliance on content transmission and instructivist (or teacher-instruction) approaches in LMOOCs, especially since MOOCs enrolment numbers rely heavily on learner's self-motivation to sign up and complete a course. |
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Chapter 3 Mind Your Hashtags: A Sociopragmatic Study of Student Interpretations of French Native Speakers' Tweets |
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33 | (26) |
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This chapter explores how French language learners in three different second and third year French courses (intermediate and advanced levels) understand and interpret hashtags using the popular microblogging tool Twitter. The present study highlights how this social media service may provide an authentic and dynamic platform that enhances the language learning experience, while developing students' multiliteracy skills in a second language (L2). Data from 18 students at a large southeastern university were examined via 579 analyzed tweets, 171 of which contained hashtags. In this project, we investigate the relationship between students' ability to access information in the hashtags and to understand the nature of the larger tweet in which it appears. The results of this study suggest that language learners have a tendency to glance over the hashtags and make guesses based on the information contained therein. The incorporation of cultural and linguistic elements linked to microbloggers' social tagging is an interesting and important aspect to add in foreign language classes. Learning about and understanding hashtags can promote the development of noticing cultural references, a skill that is indispensable for successful autonomous communication across national boundaries and for online communicative practices. |
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Chapter 4 Challenges and Perspectives of Language Education Technology in Brazil: From Confronting Native Language Loss to Implementing EFL Classes |
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59 | (24) |
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Our chapter aims to explore the challenges, advances, and perspectives of language-education technology in Brazil. Language-education is an extremely important topic for Brazil because many indigenous languages are nearing extinction due to the legacies of colonization and the fact that Portuguese, the national language of Brazil, is the only official language and thus the single most utilitarian method of communication. This issue is further complicated by Brazil's increasingly globalized economy, which, for many individuals, demands the acquisition of a foreign language in order to compete. The English language has been introduced into the curriculum of the vast majority Brazilian public schools over the course of the past few decades. Additionally, several private, for-profit English learning enterprises now have widespread services throughout the country. But rates of English (and even Portuguese) fluency still vary greatly among the population. This raises a number of critical questions that will be discussed in this work. Why is learning a new language such a challenge? Which methodologies can be utilized to increase language acquisition and build fluency? What are the new technologies that are used in teaching a second language in Brazilian schools, and how is their impact being measured? Are Brazilian teachers prepared to integrate new technologies and innovative methods of teaching and learning? Our methodology involves bibliographical research including a literature review, a case-study, and participatory research through semi-structured interviews. Our results have shown that several technologies are being implemented in Brazil, and that as a theoretical framework, educational communication has been recognized as a powerful tool to incorporate such technologies in language education. Overall, the use of learning technologies is common and growing among students, while it is increasing at a more institutional pace among teachers. |
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Chapter 5 Teaching Spanish in the Digital Age: A Flipped Classroom or Just Hybrid? |
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83 | (21) |
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Many hybrid programs have been created in higher education institutions in the US for the last 15 years, most of them consisting of the combination of classroom instruction and an online platform. However, the flipped classroom has become very popular recently as a result of this hybrid model of instruction. The purpose of this chapter is to respond to the following questions: What is a more recommended model for teaching Spanish in the digital age? What kind of activities should we focus on, as instructors, in the classroom? What works best for students to study and practice outside of the classroom? Both models will be described with their advantages and disadvantages so that instructors can choose the one that better fits their courses. |
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Chapter 6 Beginning Chinese as a Foreign Language Online Course Design: Utilizing Multiple Digital Modes and Assessments |
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104 | (40) |
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The explosive worldwide growth of the internet inspired the initial emergence and further implementation of distance teaching and learning in a multitude of areas, including languages. The change from the traditional classroom environment to a more diversified and flexible distance setting has been embraced by many educators, administrators, and students, yet it has also generated doubt and resistance from others. Students may potentially benefit from more efficient uses of multimedia resources with increased critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills. Meanwhile, critics also highlight the potential drawbacks for distance learning students, including isolation from peers, lack of engagement, and insufficient technical support. This chapter concerns the ways in which distance online learning content can be designed and developed through the utilization of multimedia and cultural-enriched materials for first-year-level College Chinese Foreign Language (CFL) courses. Discussions about employing virtual interaction, including student-content, student-instructor, and student-student interaction in course design and course design development. The chapter will end with discussions of the current challenges and new directions for a better practice of teaching and learning of Chinese language courses at a distance. |
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| Section 3 Web Collaboration across Languages |
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Chapter 7 Creating a Micro-Immersion Environment Through Telecollaboration |
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144 | (26) |
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This chapter offers an innovative approach for implementing telecollaborative activities in order to enable students to connect with peers in real-time, with the goal of creating a micro-immersion experience called a "Virtual Language Exchange". This chapter describes and compares two intermediate Spanish classes participating in Virtual Language Exchanges via Skype: one paired with peers from the target language and culture, and one paired with peers from within the class itself. Students from both groups participate in meaningful interactions in the target language in order to complete the assigned task-based activities. The chapter argues that finding new ways to bring the target language to life by using technology, like the Virtual Language Exchange experience described here, can benefit students' foreign language development in multiple ways. |
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Chapter 8 Developing Key Competences for Life-Long Learning through Virtual Collaboration: Teaching ICT in English as a Medium of Instruction |
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170 | (18) |
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This study presents the findings from a group of forty-nine fourth year undergraduate students who were trained in a blended learning environment over two months in order to acquire base knowledge and hands-on experience about information and communication technologies (ICT) and their possible applications to the EFL classroom. The course was taught in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) and participants worked in a wild designed specially to facilitate discussion and collaboration in the foreign language. Data were gathered from the participants' answers to an end-of-course questionnaire that featured eight five-point Likert-scale questions and five open-ended questions; quantitative and qualitative analyses were then performed upon the answers. Our findings and discussions elaborate on the impact the course had on the participants' perceptions regarding the acquisition of key competences for life-long learning. |
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Chapter 9 Translanguaging in Multilingual Chat Interaction: Opportunities for Intercomprehension between Romance Languages |
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188 | (20) |
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In this contribution, intercomprehension between Romance Languages (RL) will be analyzed as a particular setting of multilingual interaction in the globalized and digital world. Intercomprehension is a multilingual practice where interlocutors collaboratively achieve meaning through the use of typologically related languages and other semiotic resources, exploiting the similarities existing across languages and the opportunities of transfer they offer. The communicative contract underlying this particular typology of multilingual interaction stresses that each interlocutor should master at least one RL and use it productively and, at the same time, try to understand the RL of the other speakers. Through the analysis of multilingual exchanges in chat-rooms of the platform Galanet, the need to take a more open stance towards the communicative contract will be evinced. Particularly, three behaviors related to the breakdown of the communicative contract and respective consequences will be critically analyzed: the use of a taboo language (English), the use of other linguistic resources not included in the contract and the production of utterances in target languages. These communicative behaviors will justify the need to enrich the understanding of intercomprehension by adopting a translingual lens and, thus, by abandoning a still prevalent monoglossic orientation in research dealing with this multilingual communicative context. |
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Chapter 10 French-Chinese Dialogical Interaction via Web Collaborative Blog-Writing: Code-Switching to Extend Online Tandem Language Learning |
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208 | (28) |
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This qualitative study explores how a French-Chinese web collaborative blog-writing project provides a space for understanding the various metalinguistic approaches that foreign language learners' use to facilitate foreign language learning and intercultural communication. It adopts a multilingual-plurilingual approach, an interlingual approach and a web collaboration approach as a framework. Qualitative data was collected from the blogs and online interactions of 22 French Foreign Language (FFL) learners in China, and 24 Chinese Foreign Language (CFL) learners in France. The findings reveal the increased development of N'F'L and CFL learners' metalinguistic awareness, plurilingual competence, and bilingual skills that is accomplished through web collaboration. Implications regarding web-based tandem language learning and peer-assisted web collaboration are discussed. |
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| Section 4 Less Commonly Taught Languages |
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Chapter 11 Yiddish in the 21st Century: New Media to the Rescue of Endangered Languages |
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236 | (17) |
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This chapter offers the first scholarly analysis of teaching the Yiddish language in the digital age, and argues that new media have a tremendous potential for rescuing endangered languages. It investigates the pedagogical advantages and disadvantages of using digital technologies in teaching languages, as well as the ensuing challenges for teachers and students. A brief overview of the history of the Yiddish language and culture is followed by examination of such new digital platforms as Yiddishpop.com, Mapping Yiddish New York, The Grosbard Project, Yiddish audio and visual materials available online, such as videos, sound archives, online newspapers and dictionaries, as well as distance learning opportunities. |
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Chapter 12 Korean Foreign Language Learning: Videoconferencing with Native Speakers |
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253 | (24) |
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This article presents intercultural and linguistic exchanges by foreign language learners in an exploratory study of Internet-based desktop videoconferencing between Korean learners at a university in the United States, and their counterparts at a South Korean college. The desktop videoconferencing project was designed for foreign language learners of Korean to assist in developing linguistic competence, as well as intercultural communicative competence, by providing the learners with the target language and culture through real-time, one-on-one communication. The study shows the emerging themes that recur in a video-chat. It also reports on the Korean language learners' self-rated proficiency in their target language. Challenges and difficulties in video-conferencing are examined, followed by a discussion of the effectiveness of synchronous one-on-one video-conferencing for language learning in general, and in Korean language education in particular. |
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Chapter 13 Globalization and Possibilities for Intercultural Awareness: Multimodal Arabic Culture Portfolios at a Catholic University |
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277 | (19) |
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This case study explores the teaching and learning of Arabic at one Catholic university campus, with a focus upon the complex interactions between language and culture in a postmodern globalized context. Specifically, it examines the use of "multimodal culture portfolios" as a means to engage students both linguistically and culturally in classroom and community discourses. Through their interactions and co-construction of knowledge with other participants, these students are led to think about the multiple communicative contexts that are shaping and being shaped by them. Data collection was conducted through survey questionnaires and students' responses to the assigned culture portfolio. The participants were made up of students enrolled in first year Arabic courses during the 2012 spring semester. The purpose of this exploratory case is to attempt to understand students' investments in Arabic and their cultural knowledge of the Arab world pre and post their enrollment in the Arabic courses. It also seeks to understand their socialization into the culture assignment and the main challenges they faced in accessing, interacting with, and reflecting upon cultural aspects related to the Arab world. This study's findings are significant for enriching the general conversation on intercultural proficiency in classroom discourse, curricular decisions, roles and challenges of teachers, and the involvement in target language communities, particularly in less commonly taught languages such as Arabic. |
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| Section 5 Teacher Education and Learning Strategies |
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Chapter 14 The Role of Multi-Media in Expanding Pre-Service Teachers' Understanding of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms and Furthering Their Professional Identities |
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296 | (19) |
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This chapter details a qualitative study conducted with pre-service elementary school student teachers enrolled in a Masters course on cultural and linguistic diversity at one university teacher education institute in France. The study aimed to evaluate the impact of the course on the student teachers' understanding of culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms and questioned whether the use of multi-media resources throughout the course could contribute to fostering a greater sense of empathy towards their future culturally and linguistically diverse students. The data analysis reveals that the use of video in particular, in combination with theoretical readings, was highly instrumental in helping the students to understand the concepts linked to second language acquisition and in providing them with strategies for their linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms. The authors question whether the use of multimedia is sufficient to foster a sense of empathy in students and suggest further pedagogical interventions. |
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Chapter 15 Investigating Mobile Assisted English Foreign Language Learning and Teaching in China: Issues, Attitudes and Perceptions |
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315 | (19) |
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This study aims to investigate how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and students in China spontaneously use apps for smartphone and tablets to support their informal language learning. It also seeks to determine EFL teachers' perspectives on informal and formal Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). A total of 240 smartphone and/or tablet users (186 students and 54 EFL teachers) from four colleges in Guangdong China participated in the survey. Twenty-eight teachers selected from the survey participants were interviewed afterwards. Analysis of the survey data showed that all participants were using apps to learn foreign languages informally. Survey data analysis also revealed that the most frequently used apps were based on form-focused behaviorist activities rather than learner-centered constructivist activities. A comparison of usage between EFL teachers and students revealed no significant difference in their choice of apps, yet students expected guidance from EFL teachers in using apps and resources to facilitate language learning. Finally, while the survey data indicated EFL teachers had positive attitudes towards informal MALL, the interviews revealed that many of them held negative sentiments toward MALL in the classroom. We interpret this difference in attitudes as a reflection of the teachers' concerns about learners' self-control and autonomous learning skills, as well as concerns about required teachers' knowledge and perceived changes to teachers' roles. We conclude by discussing the implications of MALL for language teacher education and professional development. |
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Chapter 16 Mexican Heritage ELL and Native English Speaker Interaction: A Case Study of Tandem Language Learning Strategies |
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334 | (31) |
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This case study explores 1) the potential of a dual language program that provides an English Language Learner (ELL) and a Spanish Learner (SL) with opportunities to engage in authentic as well as mutual language exchange; and, 2) the multiple types of language strategies employed by adolescents to teach and learn language from one another in tandem learning situations. Findings from a transcription analysis of 12 English and Spanish videotaped sessions of one dyad reveal novel and in depth information about strategies utilized in compensatory, administrative, and social ways to extend the flow of communication in tandem learning. Findings indicate that tandem language learning not only provides a space for language learners to engage in plural strategies to promote teaching and learning, but also learner metacognition when peer learners employ interlingual and plurilingual measures to compensate for language gaps. Implications for the study of online tandem language learning are also highlighted. |
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Chapter 17 The Impact of Blog Peer Feedback on Improving Iranian English Foreign Language Students' Writing |
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365 | (22) |
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The present study is an attempt to investigate (a) whether using blog peer feedbacks have any statistically significant effect on improving Iranian students' EFL writing skill, and (b) whether participants at different proficiency levels react differently to blog peer feedbacks, as far as their writing improvement is concerned. To this end, sixty Iranian female English Foreign Language (EFL) learners were selected based on their performance on the Oxford Placement Test (OPT) and were then divided into two groups. The first thirty-participant group was taught through the conventional face-to-face method; the second thirty-participant group, which consisted of the same proficiency level members as the first group, received blog peer feedbacks as the treatment. After three months of instruction, a post-test was administered and the results were subjected to statistical analysis. The ensuing analysis revealed that using blog peer feedbacks can have a statistically significant impact upon improving the writing skills of EFL learners. |
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| Compilation of References |
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387 | (62) |
| About the Contributors |
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449 | (8) |
| Index |
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457 | |
Biežāk uzdotie jautājumi par e-grāmatām