situated mobile language learning...

Situated Mobile Language Learning

SIMOLA

SIMOLA project has been funded with support from the European Union LifeLong Learning Programme, Multilateral Projects KA3 (ITC).

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

2012

Book cover design

Laimute Varkalaite

Layout design:Aiste Kojelyte

Laimute Varkalaite

Support by the European Union LifeLong Learning Programme, Multilateral Projects KA3 (ITC).

Project Number 511776-LLP-1-2010-1-UK-KA3-KA3MP

ISBN 978-609-452-020-4

Authors:

Emma Procter-Legg

Annamaria Cacchione

Sobah Abbas Petersen

Julita Piguleviciene

Gytis Cibulskis

Rebecca Adlard

Robert Fekete

Marieke Dankers

Diederik Boerjan

Partners:

University of Brighton, United Kingdom

Study Group, United Kingdom

Regional Community College of Amsterdam, Netherlands

University of Molise, Italy

Baltic Education Technology Institute, Lithuania

Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Hungarian e-University Network, Hungary

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Japan

Contents

Introduction 7

Bellerbys College Oxford – Walking Tour Activity 19

LingoBee Learning Activities 25

Cloudbank Exploratory Study with Children 31

Lingobee – Lithuanian language learning for Erasmus students 37

Lingobee – to bridge the formal and informal learning 43

LingoBee Learning Activities 49

LingoBee Online Summer School with HuEUN 55

Accompanied use of Lingobee proves most effective 61

Introduction

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Mobile User Guide Lingobee is a mobile app to collect, annotate and share words or phrases to support your language learning. This guide shows you how to use Lingobee on your mobile phone.

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LingoBee is a product of the SIMOLA Project Number 511776-LLP-1-2010-UK-KA3-KA3MP funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme.

Start-upTo start the application, click the Lingobee icon on your home screen or in your applications tray:

Lingobee automatically checks for updates on start-up. You can disable automatic updates in the Settings (page 16).

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BrowseAfter start-up you can browse words in your Favourites or from your Usergroup. Use the buttons at the bottom to switch between the two lists.

Show Favourites• Definitions you have added yourself or marked as Favourites.• Favourites are stored on your phone and can be viewed witout an Internet

connection.

Show Usergroup• Words in the Usergroup are stored online and cannot be browsed without an

Internet connection.• You can join a different Usergroup in the Settings (page 16).

Refresh• Refresh the wordlist to see new entries.

Search, Filter, Sort• Full-text search in Favourites or Usergroup.• Filter list by categories.• Sort list by date or alphabethically.

Add new word• New words are automatically shared with the Usergroup and added to your

Favourites. • Upload to Usergroup might be delayed if there is no Internet connection.

Touch or tap any word in the list to see more information.

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DetailAfter tapping a word in the Favourites or Usergroup lists, the Detail screen shows up with pronunciation support, definitions and tools to rate, flag or add them to your Favourites.

Text-to-Speech• Speaks out the word to give an idea how it is pronounced.

User profile• Touch the photo or name of the user who contributed this definition to bring

up her/his profile.

Star rating

• Star rating for this definition. • Definitions with higher ratings are shown first.

Audio comment • Play an audio comment by this user.• Audio comment might take a while to load (!).• Crank up volume when audio comment is playing.

Web link• Starts the browser and shows a web page added by this user.• When finished with the web page, hit phone’s back button to return to Lingobee.

13Add to Favourites

• Only visible if the definition is not yet in your favourites.• Adds this definition, not the whole word (!).

Remove from favourites• Only visible if the definition is currently in your favourites.• Removes this definition, not the whole word.

Rate definition • Rate or adjust your current rating for this definition.• Definitions with higher ratings are shown first.

Flag definition• Flag a definition as spam / wrong / inappropriate.• A message is sent to the group admin to check the definition.

Add definition• Add a new definition or comment on a previous definition. • Edit definition if it’s your own.

Back• Go back to the Favourites or Usergroup list.• Does the same as the back button on your phone.

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EditAfter pressing the Pen icon in the Browse or Edit screens, the Edit screen is shown where you can add a new word or definition.

Select category• Select categories for the new definition.

Add picture• Add a picture to the new definition.• The camera will start.

Add audio comment • Record an audio comment to this definition.• The audio recorder will start.

Add web link• Add a web link to this definition.• The browser will start.

Save • Save the new word or definition.

Save • Go back to the Favourites or Usergroup list.• Does the same as the back button on your phone.

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MenuPress the Menu button on your phone to bring up the the menu options.

My Profile• Edit your user profile and set you profile image.• Internet connection required.

Usergroup• Join a Usergroup. • Internet connection required.

Settings • Edit application Settings (page 16).

Feedback• Send feedback directly to the developers. • Use for bug reports, ideas how to make Lingobee better.• Internet connection required.

Help• Show help information for the current screen.• Internet connection required.

About• Show general information about the app.

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SettingsPress the Menu button on your phone and then select Settings to bring up this screen.

Automatic updates• Default is ON to automatically update the app to the latest version.• Disable if you have an unreliable internet connection to speed up start-up.

Geo-tagging• Default is ON to automatically add geo tags, e.g. to plot entries on a map.• Disable if you do not want to add location information.

Visual swipe hints • Default is ON to show swipe hints when there is more than one definition. • Disable if you do not want to visual swipe hints.

Vibration swipe hints • Default is ON to vibrate when coming to the first or last definition.• Disable if you do not want vibration swipe hints.

Use custom camera • Default is ON to use Lingobee’s own camera to add pictures. • Disable if you have problems with the camera or prefer the default camera.

Operating language• By default Lingobee uses the default language on your phone.• Use this setting to force another language. • This is independent of the language you are learning.

17Wipe my data• Delete Favourites, Settings and Lingobee account information

from phone. • If you borrowed a phone, use this before returning it.

Feedback and SupportThere are two different support channels for:

a) questions and suggestions relating to language learning in your Usergroup,

b) technical issues and requests for additional features in the application.

Language learning questions like...

• what kind of words should I add?• do I have to provide a definition each time?• can I provide a definition in my mother tongue or in another

language?• do I have to add media to each entry?• can I comment on definitions instead of adding a new one?• do I have to provide profile information about me?• can I use the phone to make calls or send txt messages?• when do I have to give back the phone?• etc.

...should be directed to your teacher or group admin.

Technical problems and suggestions like...

• the camera does not work,• sound is not played back properly,• the application does not start up

or behaves funny,• can I add my entries automatically

to Twitter or Facebook?• it would be cool to add video, • etc.

...should be sent directly to the developers via Menu > Feedback

The developers may not be able to respond to each message, but they do welcome your feedback as it helps to make Lingobee better!

Bellerbys College Oxford – Walking Tour ActivityEmma Procter-Legg

21Activity: The activity was a walking tour of Oxford with the aim of promoting language learning and interaction with the local culture. The activity also enabled the students to have a clear understanding of how to use the LingoBee app independently.

Where: This activity took place at Bellerbys College Oxford, part of Study Group UK.

Context: Bellerbys College Oxford is an international university preparation college, educating students from 14 upwards on a range of courses including, English Language Preparation, GCSEs, A levels, the Bellerbys Foundation Programme and the Extended Foundation Programme.

Who: We ran this activity with two different groups the first time involving a group of six Foundation students, the second time with a group of A level students. The second group were students in the second year of their A levels here at Bellerbys College Oxford. They were attending an additional lesson a week, as part of the LingoBee field trials, where students were taught about British culture and language through the LingoBee app.

The A Level students involved were aged between 17 and 19 years old. They were a mixed nationality group made up of 2 Chinese, 2 Vietnamese, 1 Kazakh and 1 Iranian student, with a range of IELTS scores ranging from 6.5 through to 8.5. All the students knew each other well and most were in the same classes for a number of subjects.

Why: This activity was designed to encourage students to engage with their local area and to ask questions of the cultural items they see around them everyday. This prompted them to open their eyes to the wider context of living in the UK. It also provided a useful introduction to the full range of features of the LingoBee app and how it might be used outside of the classroom.

What: In advance of both lessons I planned a 25 minute walk which was to occupy a 55 minute lesson. I had identified discussion points on the route which provided the opportunity to develop language, learn about culture and created a moment where students could add to the LingoBee repository. These discussion points consisted of a zebra crossing, some terraced houses, a brewery, some stocks and a barber shop for

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the first group and a zebra crossing, pelican crossing, stocks and graffiti for the second group. Before we left for the walking tour I explained the task and told the students that we would walk, stop, discuss and then enter any words or phrases into LingoBee. During the walk additional questions were raised around new language on the discovery of a Christmas market, a mews and wondering how to describe goose bumps, as it was a cold day. These incidental moments and suggested points of interest for questioning new language were identified as ‘LingoBee moments’ and we have since used this phrase in class to describe when the app should be used.

The students found this activity really engaging and were able to enter lots of new content to the LingoBee repository. They found that the activity explained the LingoBee process and this enabled them to have a clear understanding of how to use the app. Following the lesson students independently created more content and we used this new content in the classroom in conjunction with the LingoBee website. This allowed us to look at maps where the entries had been made, the photos they had taken and the words that had been

23written on an Interactive Whiteboard. Again this was very successful as it allowed for further discussion and language learning across the whole group of students.

Quotes:

Gil said “I really enjoyed the lesson and discovered new parts of Oxford!”

Bai said “I used LingoBee more frequently for taking pictures after the lesson with the walking tour.”

Key points:

• Running an activity similar to this soon after introducing students to LingoBee will help them to understand how to use all the features of the app.

• This activity helped our students to understand when and how they might use LingoBee to improve their understanding and engagement with local culture and language.

LingoBee Learning Activities Annamaria Cacchione

27Activity: The activity consisted in the creation of a Facebook group to provide Erasmus students with information about the course of Italian as L2 and the use of LingoBee app.

Where: University of Molise, Campobasso, Italy.

Context: The UNIMOL is based in Campobasso, main centre Molise region (Centre-South Italy). It comprises the faculties of Economy, Agriculture, Humanities, Engineering and Medicine. It hosts about 80 Erasmus students per year. The UNIMOL offers a 40-hours course of Italian as L2 (target level: A2) to all Erasmus students.

Who: The Facebook group was opened by the teacher/LingoBee researcher for the second trial group at the beginning of the second 2011-12 term. The group was composed of 8 Erasmus students: 5 students from Turkey, 1 from Spain, 1 from Poland and 1 from Portugal (all females). They were in a class of 13 stu-dents coming also from Poland and Spain. They (the trial group students) were recruited on the basis of their motivation and of their L1 type (giving preference to distant languages as Polish and Turkish). They had Spanish/Galician, French, Chinese and (good) English

as L2. Only one of them had studied Italian before. The course lingua franca was English.

Why: This activity aimed to provide students with support and guidance in using LingoBee, in order to increase the level of their engagement. It was not the only support tool, the other consisting in several sessions on LingoBee incorporated into the course.

What: The Facebook group was opened as a space to share practical information between the course participants (such as changes in the course timetable), besides being a “normal” Facebook group in which sharing any kind of contents: ideas, greetings, pictures, music, links etc. In so doing, the group creator thought it could foster socialization and communication both between the students and between the students and the teacher – thus indirectly fostering interaction and communication also in the new target language.

The Facebook group as well as the other support measures were introduced due to the fact that the outcomes of the first trial (with the first Erasmus group) did not come up to expectations, especially if considering that they were able to use Italian since

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the very start of their studies (they were all Spanish-speaking people). Thus, it was decided to 1) select them according to their motivation and the L1 type; 2) provide them with an extra support – Facebook group; 3) reduce their autonomy by incorporating part of the LingoBee use into the classroom. The outcomes of the second trial seemed to confirm the effectiveness of these pedagogical changes.

The group worked very well and it naturally became the place in which talking about LingoBee. Sometimes the teacher asked the students about their entries, sometimes some student asked others how to fix problems. Around the end of the course, most of the posts were made in Italian – while before they were all in English – giving evidence of the progresses made in learning Italian.

It can be worth mentioning that the use of Facebook as a support tool in teaching languages was previously tested with success by the LingoBee researcher with another group of Erasmus students coming from Turkey and Hungary.

Post thread about LingoBee in April 2012.

Photos:

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Post thread of May 2012.

Posts in Italian (June 2012) by a Turkish- and a Portuguese-speaking student.

Key points:

• Opening a Facebook group can help students involved in a mobile language learning new experience by providing them with informal support and guidance, within a space of free talking and interaction (i.e. without changing the very “nature” of the Facebook page).

• In general, opening a Facebook group can be useful in:

– promoting socialization between students, thus indirectly fostering communication also in the new target language,

– keeping tracks of progresses in learning pro-cess and of the interlanguage of each student.

Cloudbank Exploratory Study with Children Sobah Abbas Petersen

33Cloudbank is the predecessor to Lingobee (http://cloudbankblog.blogspot.no/).

Activity: Cloudbank was introduced to a class of students as a mobile app to support them to learn Figures of Speech in English. In addition, the aim was to explore the role(s) that Cloudbank could play in supporting the students with their learning processes.

Where: The activity took place at the Trondheim International School (THIS) in Trondheim, Norway.

Context: THIS is an international school in Norway that provides primary and secondary education in English, based on the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. The IB pedagogical approach uses an enquiry based mode of teaching and learning where the students learn by enquiring into a topic or a theme, called a Unit of Inquiry. The main subjects in the curriculum are Literacy, Mathematics, Norwegian (as a second language), and the Unit of Inquiry.

Who: The study was conducted with the students in Year 4. There were 28 students who were 9 or 10 years old. The students represented a diversity of cultural backgrounds; there were students from 12 different

countries and as many as 10 different languages were spoken by the children. Apart from 2 students, English is either their second or third language. Several of the students have parents from different backgrounds; thus they are used to a multi-lingual home and school community. The class teachers were native English speakers from Australia.

Why: The study was conducted to see if Cloudbank could support the students learn Figures of Speech in English. In addition, we were interested to see how the technology would be suited to children, the role that it could play in a classroom and how it could support learning as well as the pedagogical approach.

What: The study was started where Cloudbank was used for a limited activity within the classroom, which is using figures of speech in English. The students were given the freedom to explore the functionalities of the app, the affordances of the mobile device as well as to use it for other activities. The teachers initially believed that the application will be beneficial for learning figures of speech in English. In this study, the teachers took a back seat approach and let the students lead the way.

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The study revealed that Cloudbank is beneficial for supporting learning in other areas too such as mathematics, new words in both English and Norwegian and figures of speech in Norwegian. The use of the Cloudbank application proved a success in the classroom and it revealed a number of interesting issues about using ICT and mobile technologies in the classroom, which are both social and pedagogical in nature. Some of these address collaboration among students and peer support among the students, ownership of the knowledge leading to retention of the knowledge as well as how the students appropriated the technology into the different learning activities in the classroom. It also highlighted how the technology stimulated discussions about the cultural aspects of languages.

Photos:

The students contributed figures of speech, mathe-matical terms and new words and discovered creative ways of describing their contents.

Key points:

The main points that were observed during the study are as follows:

• Collaboration among students – the students extended the descriptions of contents from others and discussed to agree on the best descriptions to enter into the Cloudbank repository. They showed pride in helping each other.

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• Relevant source of reference – since the mobile devices could be easily moved to the students’ desks, they became the first source of reference. Since the content was created by the students, it became the most relevant and a trusted source of reference.

• Ownership of knowledge – students felt owner-ship of the knowledge in the Cloudbank reposi-tory and this helped retention of knowledge.

• Spurred discussions about the different cultures and languages among the students.

Lingobee – Lithuanian language learning for Erasmus studentsJulita Piguleviciene Gytis Cibulskis

39Activity: Lingobee was introduced to the students and adults learning Lithuanian language. The learners were invited to use Lingobee to see if it can assist them in collecting language related items that can support them in their language learning process.

Where: The activity took place at Kaunas University of Technology in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Context: Kaunas University of Technology offers programmes and courses to international students at the university. There are Lithuanian languages courses offered for beginners and advanced learners.

Who: The study was conducted with students groups over one semester. The study participants were Erasmus students from different countries. All of the students were beginners in Lithuanian and had lived in Lithuania for a short period of time.

Why: The studies were conducted to see if Lingobee could support the students to learn Lithuanian by supporting them to capture language related content outside of the classroom. It was envisaged that students would capture a new word or a phrase that

they came across in their every day activities outside the classroom.

What: Lingobee was introduced to the students during the meeting with Baltic Education Technology Institute representatives and they were invited to use it. Lingobee was not a part of the formal course in Lithuanian and students were asked to use it additionally. The students who were interested were provided smart phones and encouraged to use it. The teacher of Lithuanian language gave students tasks how and where they could use Lingobee.

Some of the students found Lingobee useful and interesting and they contributed words and expressions to the Lingobee repository. Some students were more active than others and bursts of activity by some students were noticeable from time to time.

Photos:

The contents captured by the students varied from every day words and phrases to words and expressions that were related to the themes of studies in the university.

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Key points:

Teachers support and interest to use new technologies teaching Lithuanian Language is very motivating aspect. It is a challenge to motivate voluntary users to use Lingobee and use it as a bridge between the outside and the classroom without any support. During this activity teacher accessed the Lingobee repository and provided feedback using Lingobee very often. E. g. in the figure above, the teacher added a comment and translation of phrase “old car” to Lithuanian language “senas automobilis” or “sena mašina“. Also the teacher used some time during the lessons to talk about Lingobee related activities and encourage students to provide content through Lingobee.

Lingobee – to bridge the formal and informal learning Sobah Abbas Petersen

45Activity: Lingobee was introduced to adults learning Norwegian. The learners were invited to use Lingobee voluntarily to see if it can assist them in collecting language related items that can support them in their language learning process.

Where: The activity took place at the Department of Language and Communication, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway.

Context: The Department of Language and Communication at NTNU offers language classes to international students at the university. Courses are offered for beginners and advanced learners. Students are offered 60-80 hours of classroom teaching as well as some activities using various technologies for supporting pronunciation and understanding of different Norwegian accents and dialects.

Who: Three studies were conducted with three different students groups over three semesters. The study participants were university students from different faculties. The students were from all parts of the world and included students from Europe

as well as Asia and Africa. Most of the students were beginners in Norwegian and had lived in Norway for a short period of time.

Why: The studies were conducted to see if Lingobee could support the students to learn Norwegian by supporting them to capture language related content outside of the classroom. It was envisaged that students would capture a new word or a phrase that they came across in their every day activities outside the classroom.

What: Lingobee was introduced to the students during a lecture and they were invited to use it. Lingobee was not a part of the formal course in Norwegian and students were asked to use it voluntarily. The students who were interested were provided smart phones and encouraged to use it.

Some of the students found Lingobee useful and inte-resting and they contributed words and expressions to the Lingobee repository. Some students were more active than others and bursts of activity by some students were noticeable from time to time.

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Photos:

The contents captured by the students varied from every day words and phrases to words and expressions that were related to the culture. For example, “Fårikål” is a traditional Norwegian dish made with lamb and cabbage.

Key points:

It is a challenge to motivate voluntary users to use Lingobee and use it as a bridge between the outside and the classroom. However, here are some suggestions that can help this process:

• The teacher accesses the Lingobee repository and provides feedback using Lingobee. E.g. in the figure above, the teacher has flagged the word “fåriskål” which is misspelt.

• The teacher accesses the Lingobee repository to gain an insight into the students’ interests and uses these as input for classroom discussions.

• The teacher uses a few minutes during the lessons to talk about Lingobee related activities

and encourage students to provide content through Lingobee.

• Design various tasks and activities that would encourage the use of Lingobee.

LingoBee Learning Activities Rebecca Adlard

51Activity: Using multiple entries on the LingoBee app to respond to and further students’ cultural experiences around the UK.

Where: USISC (University of Sussex International Study Centre), part of Study Group UK.

Context: USISC is an educational provider working with University of Sussex Foundation, International Year One and Pre-Masters students. All students are enrolled on the English programme as well as on indi-vidual subject courses. Students study at USISC for approximately 9 months to a year.

Who: At USISC six Chinese Pre-Masters students used LingoBee over a period of nine months. The students chosen to take part in this pilot were new arrivals in the UK, all with a minimum overall IELTS level of 6.5. The group consisted of five women and one man, all over the age of 21 and all smart phone users and Internet savvy. Participants did not have specific LingoBee lessons and initial face-to-face sessions were phased out to encourage group autonomy. Dialogue was continued through a journal on a Virtual Learning

Environment and on the LingoBee app itself through the entries.

Why: Chinese learners were targeted to trial the LingoBee app in particular since they constitute a significant part of the overall student numbers at USISC. This was partly in response to observations that Chinese learners often appear to struggle to connect with the target culture, and therefore potentially miss out on a large number of linguistic items, which are often embedded in culture. Their academic studies generally cannot bridge the cultural divide and many ‘noticed’ items relating to culture went ‘unnoticed’ in the classroom due to rigorous time restraints in the formal academic learning context.

By giving them LingoBee as a tool for language and cultural acquisition we aimed to encourage these students to actively search out cultural items that appeared new, odd or interesting. They were encouraged to record these items even if they did not understand them. Entries could explain where they were when they saw or witnessed the item, or give an explanation of the item, or ask a question about it. This

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allowed us to respond to the initial student entry and expand the experience by adding a further entry. Other participants were encouraged to also add to others’ entries in the same way.

What: Our belief at Sussex was that students ideally would identify the cultural items which interested them themselves. Our response would be to expand upon or help to explain these items once they had been recorded on the LingoBee app. We aimed for a linking of ideas or concepts in order to help students engage with the target culture. We seeded the repository with examples, beginning in one of our face-to-face sessions when a participant mentioned the cocktail a Bloody Mary; in discussion the researcher asked if anyone knew who Bloody Mary was historically, this led to an entry on Queen Mary I, it also led to an entry on Worcestershire sauce as a key ingredient in the cocktail. This in turn then led on to the non-alcoholic version of the cocktail: a Virgin Mary, leading to an entry on Queen Elizabeth I, and also a link to the pop band The Virgin Mary’s.

Once a student had entered an item, the researcher would add a multiple entry; for example, a student

entered graffiti having seen it on a wall in Brighton. The researcher then added a further entry about the graffiti artist Banksy with links to websites about him and his work.

Photos:

a) Student entry made on a visit to Scotland.b) Researcher’s added entry giving more information.c) The web link added by the researcher.

53What the students thought:

Dora said “I think LingoBee provides a platform for students to learn UK culture and also to help each other in a new way. At first it provides a guide to or brief impression of UK culture, then it grabs students’ interests and encourages us to explore more things and cultural aspects on our own.”

Key points:

• Seeding the repository with examples of cultural ‘absurdities’ to encourage participants to engage with and explore the culture around them will promote useful and interesting entries and en-courage students to engage in a dialogue with each other through the app.

• Participants who used LingoBee while travelling around the UK, recorded and shared some inte-resting slang and idioms all encountered in real contexts.

• Students with an intrinsic enthusiasm for learning about an L2 culture will find formal learning more rewarding and the transition into a new culture easier.

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LingoBee Online Summer School with HuEUNRobert Fekete

57Activity: Lingobee Summer School was introduced to a mixed audience during the first period of 2012 in conferences and workshops in Hungary as a tool to support existing learning processes and help them exploring the world of mobile learning with a use of Lingobee.

Where: The activity took place at University of Miskolc, Hungary, and workshop venues in Budapest, Hungary. Moreover, most of the activities went online with no any face to face meeting to test how manageable is an informal learning process with the use of web tools and online communication methods only (QR codes, microsites with instructions, newsletters and social networking).

Context: The Hungarian e-University Network is an association representing ODL/e-learning unites and experts of 19 Hungarian HEIs, all active in course development and offering high quality courses in ODL and/or blended methodology. The HuEUN offers models to its partners in the area of educational technology how to implement high quality learning support through new methods and give tools to mobility and local students to reach the most valuable

and recent resources in their schools. Testing this approach with Lingobee was the key point to this informal learning process development and the most important part of mapping out possibilities in the Lingobee user experience.

Who: The trials was conducted by a group of members of the HuEUN partnership containing Phd researchers (from University of Miskolc and ELTE) and IT experts expanded by adult language learners from Eduverzum online language school and high school students from Sulinet Hungary which is the basic online community for teachers/students in the country. The trial is used for learning English, as well as extending Hungarian dictionary skills with in-situ environment. The group was reached through three main channels:

• Landing pageThe page had 498 unique visitor in the first term (first period of 2012).

• Newsletter71 subscribers.

• facebook group16 member.

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This mixed audience results 31 registrated users and 118 posts in the hungarian user group of the app. Eduverzum’s “English for All” group had 16 users with 84 entries.

Why: These activities was designed to see if Lingobee as an application could engage students/users attention and motivate them to use it together as a learning tool. There were only a few instructions and tasks and they were given the freedom to get acquainted with the functions. They could use the app as a tool, which supports their learning, as they preferred.

What: In the first section of the activities, the mentors took the observer’s approach and let the users lead the way and make content what they want. They had a Moodle with an English course and they posted entries to Lingobee according to their course sections. Beyond the course related content they had topic-based sections about the holidays during their free time. Some asked what kind of words they should send to the app at that time, but generally with a few instructions, the app itself could show the way what was this kind of activity about.

It was followed by a social network presence with a Facebook group, which was opened as a surface to show alternatives, and communicate other tasks covered by simple stories to a smaller audience. We think, one of the most important features of Lingobee besides the potential of rich content upload (text, sound, picture) is the feature of categories, which

Different spaces for various instructions.

59can ensure the ways of future development and customization of the app. That’s why we attached so called time periods (e.g. sports week) and cover stories to all the existing categories, and manage the activities around these stories. It was clear, what kind of content the tasks need, and the users uploaded quite much words in a relatively short term.

Visual elements of topic making (interior and gastronomy).

As our trials was not specifically about testing Lingobee as a language learning tool, but exploring the possibilities of its extended use in the future and testing the level of engagement in the area of user experience, it was nice to see the activity during the short period. Combined with online instructions on mobile sites and topic-based activities on Facebook, Lingobee showed its potential in the field of mobile learning as well as the strengths of collaborative content creation outside of the classroom.

Key points:

• Covering the whole process from scanning of a QR code to making entries in the app using only a phone.

• Exploring the model/models which can be delivered directly to teachers.

• Opening a Facebook group or social channels in general can be useful to supply the lack of social functions of the app.

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Accompanied use of Lingobee proves most effectiveMarieke DankersDiederik Boerjan

63The Amsterdam Regional Training Centre [ROC] has for the past two years acted as a testing site for the Lingobee mobile application. The Dutch edu-cational institute twice tested Lingobee in 2012 for a period of three months among two groups of students. This article discusses the set-up and results of both testing periods.

Research question

Lingobee was submitted to field-testing in the Nether-lands by two groups of students of the Amsterdam Regional Training Centre. In all cases the research ques-tion pertained to the extent to which the Lingobee mobile application can support entrants in acquiring a national language and culture.

Testing groups

The research group provided by the Amsterdam Regional Training Centre is very interesting from the SIMOLA/Lingobee-project perspective. The foreign entrants that go there to learn Dutch (participants in a civic integration programme) come from a wide variety of countries:

Group 1 – testing period: January, February, March 2012.

• Number of persons: 12.• Proportion of men/women: 4 men, 8 women.• Age group: 21 to 49 years old.• Country of origin: Somalia (3x), Dominican Republic,

Iraq (2x), Thailand (3x), Ethiopia (2x), Morocco.• Average level of education: primary education.

Group 2 – testing period: April, May, June 2012.

• Number of persons: 8.• Proportion of men/women: 3 men, 5 women.• Age group: 22 to 49 years old. • Country of origin: Kurdistan, Poland, Egypt, Ghana,

Morocco, Philippines, Iraq, Thailand.• Average level of education: secondary education

(secondary school).

Approach and mode of operation

The Amsterdam Regional Training Centre interpreted the research question as widely and openly as possible. Students from both research groups were given the largest possible level of liberty after being given 12 mobile Android telephones with an Internet

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subscription. The first group was only given verbal instructions. The second group was given both verbal and visual (filmed) instructions. Since both groups did not simultaneously have telephones at their disposal, the choice was made to exclude Lingobee from being part of the Dutch lessons at school. However, the second group made a day trip to Schiphol airport, during which the participants were asked to use Lingobee in two’s for the theme of ‘travel’. The ensuing results were discussed in class.

Conclusions and recommendations

General advantages and disadvantagesBeing able to create personal lists and the use of the cloud function were highly appreciated by both students and teacher. Due to the fact that students can use Lingobee to capture words, images and audio at any time and any place, the learning process does not depend on specific teaching hours. Students are in principle able to learn throughout the day.

One disadvantage was that Lingobee could only function under the Android operating system, due

to which the students had to carry a second mobile telephone with them besides their own mobile te-lephone. By making Lingobee suitable for other ope-rating systems such as iPhone and Blackberry, students will be able to use their own telephones. We believe that this will increase the chances of Lingobee being used more intensively.

Upon completion of the second testing period, it appeared that the second group had entered many more Dutch words and definitions than group one. This can have various reasons:

Approach and mode of operation

Firstly, it is recommended that the verbal instructions be accompanied by an instruction clip, as applied in group two. We also believe that a more frequent and effective use of Lingobee can be achieved if students are able to create categories themselves. Beginning with an assignment, as applied in group two, can also be a good starting point. In short, the accompanied use of the application proved to be the most effective method for our target group.

65Educational level

The educational level of group two exceeded that of group one. The students in the first research group were quite simply not capable of learning how to use Lingobee or a modern mobile telephone. Two students almost immediately handed back their mobile tele-phones because they found them too difficult to use. Three students were faced with technical problems during the testing period.

If Lingobee is to be applied as a serious educational tool, then the teacher should be placed in a controlling position in which he/she can approve/disapprove definitions, etc. Since the students make frequent language mistakes, there is a risk that the target lan-guage is learned wrongly. It is noteworthy that even we, as native speakers, sometimes had trouble defining a Dutch term!

Language differences and lack of time

It is noteworthy that in both testing groups the students’ responses to each other’s language and culture-related questions were marginal, due to which

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sadly no real discussions were held or genuine contacts made. A possible explanation for this might be that the students came from different countries and that they obviously did not speak each other’s language. Another reason might be that the students are all grown up and have jobs, a family and little time to spend. Our impression is that most students use Lingobee as a matter of duty and that they were relieved to hand back the mobile telephone. The fact that they are made responsible for a telephone temporarily given to them by the school might also play a part in this respect.

Looking at the future, we believe that Lingobee might, for example, be successfully used for specific groups, such as dyslectics and members of certain professions, such as technicians.

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