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Tools and Tenets for Language Acquisition in the Digital Age

Tools and Tenets for Language Acquisition in the Digital Age. Dr Liam Murray, University of Limerick Elaine Riordan, University of Hull. Gamebreaker ? MS universal translator that keeps your voice and accent: http :// tinyurl.com/MS-universal-translator (6:00 - 6:45 min)

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Tools and Tenets for Language Acquisition in the Digital Age

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  1. Tools and Tenets for Language Acquisition in the Digital Age Dr Liam Murray, University of Limerick Elaine Riordan, University of Hull

  2. Gamebreaker? MS universal translator that keeps your voice and accent: • http://tinyurl.com/MS-universal-translator(6:00 - 6:45 min) • Tenets & Themes: history of the InterWeb - Usenet groups alt.hypertext • Alt.hypertext.links.english.FAQs.mushrooms.spinach. • Foreign language teachers are the drivers! Introduction

  3. Move beyond ability to read and write the ability to read and write varied text types and genres the ability to be autonomous and foster skills for independent work Pragmatic awareness and discourse awareness ELT literacies: EAP, ESP, EFL = linguistic, pragmatic and cultural literacies = current practice in ELT Multiple literacies

  4. Information gathering and sharing, record-keeping, dissemination and communication of ideas via online modes • “mastering ideas, not keystrokes” (Gilster, 1997: 1) • Dual affordances: • Abundance of materials for teachers • Autonomous learning and communication for learners • Digital native/immigrant (Prensky 2001) Web literacies / digital literacies

  5. Repurposing • 58% of research into Web 2.0 tools for language learning stems from EFL (Wang & Vásquez, 2012) = forerunners Patterns

  6. CMC

  7. Sørensen (2007) Serious Games in language learning and teaching – a theoretical perspective. • Meaningful context for language acquisition • Games are not necessarily about memorizing or providing correct answers, but rather about the performance of skills within a specific system of thinking and acting. • Task-/Challenge-based LL. Elements of www.mingoville.com – based on game models that are school based and school initiated, BUT - awareness of and reference to children’s engagement in online game activities off school. • Question: anything surprising or new here? Games-Based Language Learning

  8. • Challenges – to be confronted with a problem you have to solve • Reification – to create, produce and make experiments • Socialities – to communicate and take part in communities and social networks • Achievements – to get acknowledgment and enjoy respect • Pleasure – to interact in sensitive and pleasurable situations • Exploration – to explore and act on basis of curiosity • Self interpretation (Sørensen2002) Elementsof www.mingoville.com

  9. Different tools offer different affordances • Technology is neutral – it does not fall into any of the theories or methodologies – how it is used in not neutral (Blake 2008) • As teachers, we need to mediate the tools for our specific purposes • Today’s technology is suitable for social and situated learning; social constructivism; scaffolding; and autonomy… Social media -> Social Learners? • Implications: Audio / Visual / Kinaesthetic / Social Learners? So…..

  10. What CMC offers: • Lowers the affective filter • Fluid and multiple identity construction • CoPs without time and space restrictions • Differing discourse/pragmatic strategies • Emotional and social presence • Multiple voices heard “instead of merely simulating other modes of interaction, technology mediated communication is, in and of itself, the real thing…” (Sykes, Oskoz and Thorne 2008: 529) CMC & F2F

  11. Changes to: • Learning environment: fewer restrictions • Teacher role: facilitator; mentor; advisor; “social mediator”. • Learner role: agent; self-directed • Activity types: interaction and interactivity • We need to make informed decisions! • Convergence and divergence • MOOCs http://www.ot12.org/(Massive Open Online Course) – It’s an event! Open for facilitators and participants. Implications for ELT

  12. MS Universal Translator: http://tinyurl.com/MS-universal-translator • Implications • RALL / “Apps for everything”. See Robert Godwin-Jones’ articles on emerging technologies: http://llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/emerging.pdf • Future impact: technologies to facilitate teachers rather than replace teachers • Future proofing: evaluation • ‘Multimedia language learning materials comprise, as with all learning resources, some gems amongst a lot of mediocrity’ (Murray and Barnes 1998: 259) • Evaluation remains key. Conclusions

  13. ‘There is no question that the landscape on which teachers and teacher educators live and compose their teaching lives are rapidly shifting landscapes’ (Clandinin 2008: 385)

  14. Questions?

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