reducing distance in language learning (using technologies)
DESCRIPTION
This presentation considers ways to use emerging technologies as a tool for improving foreign language instruction.TRANSCRIPT
Reducing Distance in Language Learning through Social Networking,
Video Development, and Website Integration
Eileen O’Connor, Ph.D. [email protected]
Empire State College / State University of New York (USA)
June 2014
Reducing Distance in Language Learning through Social
Networking, Video Development, and Website Integration
Reducing Distance in Language Learning through Social Networking, Video-Development, and Website Integration
The need for global communications and interactions in the fast-shrinking world requires 21st century skills and understanding. Language and linguistics instructors are essential educators who provide students with opportunities to develop strong foreign-language communication and cultural skills. In this paper, resources for documenting, sharing and across-geography interacting that can strengthen communication skills and encourage cross-cultural connections will be considered. Readily available tools for social networking (such as Facebook), video incorporation, and website development will be presented and suggestions for their use and integration into and across courses be will be highlighted. With ready access to global information and communication, language instructors can now have their students study, analyze, reflect-on, and immerse-themselves in different languages and cultures. Students can demonstrate their growing use of language through integration of video and audio in the works that they develop; readily accessible e-media can make this form of expression easily mastered. By providing students with a complex, stimulating, and memorable experiences of language, linguistics, and culture, students can be moved far beyond textbook, grammar, and language-lab studies. A conceptual / academic framework that can support and justify the inclusion of these tools that encourage interpersonal interactions and communications will be addressed as well.
The role & importance of foreign language instruction
Address global demand • 21st century
skills• Commerce &
trade
Develop cultural understanding & awareness• Present/ popular culture• Economics, geography,
history
Develop foreign language fluency• Learning
through integration of usage with technology
Motivators to improve foreign language acquisition
Ways to ensure & monitor success• Self video (easy /
private)• eJournals,
websites & Facebook (growth over time)
Quick access to foreign languages & cultures• Internet in other
languages• Social networks / virtual
meetings• Sharing & support
Digital natives preferences• Interactivity• More than text• Multiple
intelligences
Integrating emerging tech & internet can support foreign language instruction in many areas
Emerging Technologies & Internet
Language Performance
Cultural understandi
ng
Teacher resources
All technologies can be adapted to support these different areas
Ways to use internet-accessible resources in language instruction
Educational Framework
Educational frameworks – and possible example applications
Immersion / usage / communication (from language and linguistics literature)
Community of Practice (Lave & Wenger) in the target language
Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky)
Sharing the learning experience - YouTube
Motivation for the learners
Safe ways to try – can listen and learn before speaking
Technologies with which students are comfortable already
Analysis and study
Comparing different events & cultures
Assessment that are authentic
Live recordings of language usage
Embedded assessments in the portfolio or Facebook; observe growth over time
Visiting peers / badge
Ways to use internet-accessible resources in language instruction
Websites & Facebook
Facebook / Websites – can store student work, as will be seen in the next slides
Website Facebook
Text Unlimited More restrictions
Images can be uploaded?
Yes Yes
Videos can be uploaded?
Yes Yes
Make links to other sites?
Unlimited Through Likes / somewhat limited but easy
Ease of creation Can be more challenging, but new methods are improving quickly
Easy Today, many of the
suggestions for foreign language instructors can
be addressed by both platforms
Easy to develop & free website tools – many templates available
Consider: www.wix.com or www.webbly.com
Robust, but more involved, websites from Google are available too
Even translation programs built into web-site building features
Have your students test and see the accuracy & quality of these services
Facebook & Website – authored by the students
Quick development & updating Easy integrating & storing e-resources Videos can be uploaded
Post of ongoing learning Can be shared with the world – but after a safe time
Sharing with the class & with groups Have students analyze examples from other countries
Live cultural studies possible Students will need to understand and interact with other
cultures for jobs, trade, and interactions
Ways to start students using Facebook, an example . . .
http://iltl.wordpress.com/2010/11/11/using-facebook-for-language-learning/
• Practical suggestions for starting quickly and reliably with Facebook – a scaffolded approach
• Students are guided through things-to-find about another country
• Has students finding videos in the target language – an extra boost to learning the language
Another example: my Professional Facebook page
Videos can be added to Facebook
Ways to use internet-accessible resources in language instruction
Self-videotaping (ie. YouTube)
Video & self-video (YouTube) uses – visual & audio together
Video / Internet
Target language exposure
Cultural exposure
Self video
Practice in safe
environments
Demonstrate growth over time
Use video to have students demonstrate increased language proficiency over time
Increased
fluency
Progressive taping
Stories, plays, vignettes
Safe environment for practice
Ways to use internet-accessible resources in language instruction
Emerging ideas – based on technology
Using ideas surfacing from emerging technologies, such as . . .
Badging & peer review
Have students review the web-posted work of their peers Offer student-offered best practice badges
Expands dedication, interest, and commitment Can be separate from the course evaluation too
Have peers review work -- offer badges based on the “Votes” of classmates
Ways to use internet-accessible resources in language instruction
Virtual reality
Using Second Life – a collection of virtual reality locations
Requiring actual visits to different cultures and exhibits
Talking to avatars from other countries Making machinima in other language
That is, videotape the avatar(s)Demonstrate performance
Virtual locations
Moscow
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Moscow%20Island/191/186/21
Integrating language education through the use of e-tools – ways to think
Across courses – create a learning journal / growth over time / meeting individuals from other countries
Analyzing cultural examples – comparing to textbooks / interview others from different countries
Gathering insights and writing papers that use info and images from other websites, virtual location
Requiring communications with social networks, forums, and virtual reality in other languages
Ways to use internet-accessible resources in language instruction
Gathering ideas, resources, and professional development from other language / linguistics professionals
Some examples follow
Many language instructor resources available
Materials and resources – via the web or Facebook
Instructor networks and social networks – join communities on an ongoing basic
Attend conferences
Foreign Language websites vetted by instructors
Website with different foreign-language cultural perspectives
Facebook pages devoted to Language Learning
https://www.facebook.com/LLTJournal
Center for Language Education & Research (CLEAR)
https://www.facebook.com/CLEARatMSU
Learn from links from these trusted organizations
Get quickly to quality, web-accessible resource
Learning language improvement through video usage
http://sisaljournal.org/archives/sep12/hirschel_yamamoto_lee/
Initial results appear to indicate that student videos are correlated with a positive effect upon students’ interest in, enjoyment of, and confidence in speaking English, but not with perceptions of increased general English ability or ability to interact in English. . . . Taken together, the qualitative and quantitative data point to a pattern whereby, over the eight month course of study, students appeared to be developing a greater interest in and enjoyment of communicating in English.
Research & journals online too
Her research investigated what kept adult English learners of Italian motivated during a beginners' course. Though the students joined the classes for a variety of reasons and were taught by different teachers using different approaches, it quickly became apparent that maintaining motivation was closely connected to the social elements involved.
. . . "We found that those most likely to stick with it were the ones who developed a social bond within a group,“ . . . "For them, learning Italian became part of their social identity: something they do one evening a week with a group of pleasant and like-minded people. For both groups [in the study], social participation was the driving force for sustaining motivation."
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/19/language-learning-motivation-brain-teaching
Find articles & research
Consider workshops in using technologies in language instruction, created by and for teachers
Locate professional development, such as this self-efficacy in language-learning online webinar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw4sOfUS6p8
Find compiled repositories of resources
Commercial applications are available too
Ways to use internet-accessible resources in language instruction
Making this happen
Planning & training for technology acquisition Partner with
other disciplines• Computer & writing instructors
• Modules to share among all disciplines
Students self-support• Peer training• Badging• Students help other students
Integrate tutorials• Place in your course
• Integrate the many supports and links available Have students
participate in creating technology
supports
Integrating technologies can help support the VITAL role of language education
Address global demand • 21st century
skills• Commerce &
trade
Develop cultural understanding & awareness• Present/ popular culture• Economics, geography,
history
Develop foreign language fluency• Learning
through integration of usage with technology