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Learning Languages through Technology
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Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL), introduces Learning Languages through Technology, edited by Elizabeth Hanson-Smith and Sarah Rilling.
While posing important questions about how learning proceeds with new technologies, this volume demonstrates how teachers captivate the imagination of learners, from schoolchildren to postgraduates, by providing real-world purposes for language. The authors are from educational institutions in many regions of the world, and describe technology use from the lowest levels, such as word processing and scanning, to high-end multimedia and interactive communications through voice and video on the Internet.
Technology is perhaps the best means to creating an environment conducive to language learning. Technology can support teachers in making language learning faster, easier, less painful, and more engaging, and helps create an optimal language learning environment. Learning Languages through Technology reflects the many and varied ways teachers are currently using computers and the Internet and provides a rich resource for both novice and expert educator.
The volume is divided into four sections:
• Language Development Online: Skill Building through Technology
• Content-Based and Task-Based Learning: Collaborative CALL
• Authentic Audience in a Web-Based World
• Constructivism in Professional Development
Features throughout the volume are helpful to pre- and in-service teachers: each chapter opens with a preview of ideas to ponder before reading, and each of the four sections begins with a preview of the chapters and concludes with a thought-provoking issue in technology and pedagogy. Follow-up questions for class discussion, further research, and activities appear at the end of each section, leading readers further into the discussion of the role technology plays in learning—both currently and in the future. Appendices list the tools, software, and Web sites helpful in using technology with learners.
Volume Editors: Elizabeth Hanson-Smith and Sarah Rilling
Product No: 363
Pages: 332 pp.
ISBN: 978-193118536-3
Date: January 2007
Price: US $49.95 (member $39.95)
Audience: Technology; Teacher Education
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: Introduction: Using Technology in Teaching Languages
-- Elizabeth Hanson-Smith and Sarah Rilling, United States
Section 1: Language Development Online: Skill Building through Technology
CHAPTER 2: Using Synchronous Communication Collaboratively in ESP
--Dafne González, Venezuela
CHAPTER 3: Problems of Time and Exposure in Vocabulary Acquisition: An Electronic Solution
-- Marti Sevier, Canada
CHAPTER 4: Using Online Academic Writing Modules in an IEP Environment
-- Randi Reppen and Camilla Vasquez, United States
CHAPTER 5: Developing a Web-Based Listening Course
-- In-Seok Kim, South Korea
CHAPTER 6: Issue: CALL and the Nonautonomous Learner: Build It, but Will They Come?
-- Thomas N. Robb, Japan
Section I: Questions and Activities
Section II: Content-Based and Task-Based Learning: Collaborative CALL
CHAPTER 7: Making Content Connections Online via the GLOBE Program
-- Theresa J. Kennedy, United States
CHAPTER 8: CALL and Content-Area Teaching
-- Bernard Susser, Japan
CHAPTER 9: Meaningful Tasks with Video in the ESOL Classroom
-- Nicolas Gromik, Japan
CHAPTER 10: An ESL Owl Takes Flight: Social and Cultural Issues in an Online Writing Lab
-- Sarah Rilling, United States
CHAPTER 11: Issue: Mismatch or Missed Opportunity? Addressing Student Expectations about Technology
-- Maggie Sokolik, United States
Section II: Questions and Activities
Section III: Authentic Audience in a Web-Based World
CHAPTER 12: First Steps in Experimenting with Computers
-- Teresa Almeida d’Eca, Portugal
CHAPTER 13: Real-World Contexts, Skills, and Service Learning for Secondary School Language Learners
-- Mary Jewell, United States
CHAPTER 14: Redefining the Blog: From Composition Class to Flexible Learning
-- Graham Stanley, Spain
CHAPTER 15: Issue: The Teacher’s Critical Role in Effective Online Courses
-- Latricia Trites, United States
Section III: Questions and Activities
Section IV: Constructivism in Professional Development
CHAPTER 16: Virtual Basegroup: E-Mentoring in a Reflective Electronic Support Network
-- Anne Dahlman and Sarah Tahtinen, United States
CHAPTER 17: Reinvention of an Online Teacher Education Course: From Cooperation to Collaboration
-- Klaus Gommlich and Theresa Minick, United States
CHAPTER 18: Implementing an Online ESL Teacher Education Program
-- Andreas Schramm and Ann Mabbott, United States
CHAPTER 19: Issue: Tools for Online Teacher Communities of Practice
-- Vance Stevens, United Arab Emirates
Section IV: Questions and Activities
References
Contributors
Index
Chapter 1
Introduction: Using Technology in Teaching Languages
Computers and other electronic technologies have come to permeate many daily activities, whether checking bank statements and booking vacations online or sending e-mail and recording voice messages on a cell phone. It should come as no surprise, then, to find that to a great extent, these technologies have been co-opted by the field of education in general, and TESOL in particular. In 1999, Carla Meskill posed a scenario hypothetically taking place twenty minutes into the future (that is, in 2005) in which a high school student on his way home from class opens his laptop on a train and interacts with his private electronic tutor. He reviews the day’s lesson (a courtroom simulation); examines the video recording and text discourse; makes notes about vocabulary; and prepares for the next day’s lesson using keyboard, voice, and video tools (Meskill 1999). What is amazing is the degree to which that scenario has come true, especially as various technologies—cell phones, laptops, iPods, personal digital assistants (PDAs)—converge. Most teachers have probably been to conferences where the hotels, convention centers, and Internet cafes are totally “wired” (that is, wireless) for Internet use. Open your laptop and you are online; open your cell phone and you are online. Access to the Web can take place anytime, anywhere.
Permeation of technology is seen everywhere. Whole countries, such as Turkey, are building the electronic infrastructure to connect all students, and eventually all citizens, to the Web for educational purposes. The University of Western Cape, in South Africa, recently welcomed its first e-learning students from the Universities of Dar es Salaam and Zambia to a transnational, multi-institutional online degree program in information technology (IT) and telecommunications policy. In the United States, Maine’s laptop initiative put portable computers in the hands of all schoolchildren, who took them on virtual and actual field trips, collecting data and writing reports for such varied projects as community oral history and the investigation of local water quality (Curtis 2003). The University of Texas at Austin, College of Education (n.d.) laptop initiative seeks “to immerse future teachers in technology-rich environments so that they become competent in using technology learning tools in their instruction” (¶1). Other laptop programs in the schools have proven highly successful in engaging students in academic literacy skills (Warschauer et al. 2004), and there is talk of a solar- or hand-powered “$100 laptop” (OLPC 2006, ¶2) that would give even the poorest child a jumpstart into the digital world. Collaborations between and among classrooms and teachers are taking place daily, around the clock and around the world (e.g., the GLOBE project described by Kennedy in chapter 7 of this volume).
Integrating technologies into language pedagogy has become a reality for TESOL practitioners even as students around the world increasingly need both English and technology skills for their future careers in the workforce (Shetzer and Warschauer 2000; Thatcher 2005). Personal computers, cell phones, and PDAs are but a few of the electronic devices that teachers increasingly are using to meet the digital needs of diverse learners in the twenty-first century. Interestingly, English is not the only beneficiary, as technology is also allowing less commonly spoken languages, such as Welsh, to spread and strengthen.
Learning Languages through Technology offers a broad survey of how language learning takes place with and through computer technologies. Each chapter situates practices within specific contexts and supports those practices through research. The authors, from educational institutions in many regions of the world, offer examples of a wide variety of technologies, from the lowest levels, such as word processing and scanning, to high-end multimedia and interactive communications through voice and video on the Internet. Where appropriate, an appendix to each chapter lists the tools, software, and Web sites that its authors have found helpful in using technology with learners. This volume demonstrates how teachers captivate the imagination of learners, from schoolchildren to postgraduates, by providing real-world purposes for language while also posing important questions about how learning proceeds with new technologies. Text, video, and voice tools have become relatively inexpensive and increasingly easy for educators to use, and they play an important role in creating lessons and communicating with students and fellow teachers. Describing authentic, collaborative tasks that involve learners in using and expanding their language and technology skills together, each author contributes to the description of tools and technologies that can provide learners with multiple avenues for language development.
Technology for Learning Languages
With technological tools increasingly available in educational contexts around the world, ESOL professionals are incorporating a variety of applications into their administrative and teaching duties. Three types of practices typify current technology uses for teachers:
ESOL teachers and administrators are turning to computer technologies to make many of their tasks more efficient. Many studies, including Sokolik’s (see chapter 11), indicate student approval of new technologies. To understand why using technology can make language learning faster, easier, less painful, and more engaging, we refer to the conditions that make language learning possible, which we as educators try to incorporate each time we prepare our lessons. The following eight conditions for optimal language learning environments were outlined in Egbert and Hanson-Smith’s (1999) now classic CALL Environments: Research, Practice, and Critical Issues:
A technology-rich environment can support all these conditions and thus become an optimal setting for language acquisition, a setting that breaks out of the constricted environment of the typical paper-and-chalkboard classroom. However, these eight conditions refer to learner activity, and it is often unclear to teachers how they can best provide a technology-rich environment that supports these types of activities. This volume meets the need for examples of instructional activities that pre- and in-service teachers can use to prepare computer-supported curricula.
Technology provides two paths to optimal language learning conditions: software (which increasingly is delivered over the Internet) and Internet communications. If one thinks for a moment of multimedia CDs or DVDs, it is evident that learners are exposed through such materials to a wide variety of language (Condition 4); they get instant feedback (Condition 5); they are able to repeat words and phrases as often as they wish during practice (Conditions 5, 6, 7, and 8); they are given rewards and incentives to practice, such as games and entertaining challenges, as well as opportunities to explore and manipulate language (Conditions 6 and 7); and they are able to access the disks where, when, and as often as they want (Condition 8). Adding the Internet to this mix, especially live text and voice chat, curricular collaborations, and Web-based media projects, provides abundant opportunities for interaction with native speakers and peers, the negotiation of meaning, authentic audience, and authentic tasks (Conditions 1, 2, 3, and 4).
Short of adoption by a target-language-speaking family before the age of seven, technology is perhaps the best environment that language teachers can devise for learning, as even the earliest studies suggest. (For meta-analyses of a broad range of quantitative studies on the effectiveness of teaching and learning with technology, see Glennan and Melmed 1996; Waxman, Lin, and Michko 2003.) As technology spreads through the kinds of infrastructure currently projected—wireless anytime, anywhere; free access at libraries and community centers; access to the Internet through a home’s electrical current—technology is only going to get better.
Research on Technology in Language Learning
A sign of the maturity of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is that a respectable body of research, including quantitative as well as structured qualitative and action research studies, has come into existence over the past five years or so. More than five thousand research and pedagogy articles on CALL, published since 1988, have been compiled into a database documented by Jung (2005). While early writings about CALL often focused on the how-to-do-it aspect, there is now a considerable body of quantitative investigation in CALL, often using the unique features of technology as part of the research. The following are just a few examples: a study of the appropriateness and acceptability of synthesized speech in various CALL software programs (Handley and Hamel 2005; Petrushin 2001); recordings of keystroke and eye gaze to investigate usability (B. Smith and Gorsuch 2004); computer-based pre- and posttests and chronological profiles to measure learning gains and assist performance (Belz 2004); an examination of developing conversational skill in recordings of synchronous voice chat (Payne and Whitney 2002); patterns of repair or negotiated interaction recorded in text and voice chat (Jepson 2005); and an analysis of students’ reflections using the computer’s ability to record visual and aural interaction in a voice conference (Levy and Kennedy 2004).
Further indications that CALL research has come of age are the appearance and increased recognition of highly respected, refereed online journals in the field, such as Language Learning & Technology, Reading Online, and TESL-EJ. According to a study published in Nature, articles appearing online are over 300 percent more likely to be cited than those appearing in paper text alone (Lawrence 2002), so the presence of both appropriate research and a technologically appropriate distribution of its results has been a major advance in the field of CALL. Beatty, as long ago as 2003, listed eight journals and newsletters devoted to computer technology in language learning, seven international annual CALL conferences, and nine professional organizations focusing on CALL issues. Those numbers continue to grow every year. Recent issues of two major journals, System (2004, volume 32) and Computers and Composition (2005, volume 22), have focused on concerns specific to language learners in technology-enhanced environments, demonstrating the importance given to learners in online environments and the interdisciplinary nature of and interest in such research. Each of the chapters in this volume has found support in the now solid body of research about CALL, which has gone well beyond anecdotal evidence and how-to articles.
Another significant indicator of CALL’s respectability in and importance to the field of language pedagogy is the changed focus of research. Early studies in the field made a concerted effort to compare so-called traditional courses to computer-assisted courses. The effort has proven futile. There is no single or unified traditional method, nor is there a single or unified approach to CALL. And there is no way to readily compare paper-and-chalkboard classes to computer-mediated classes; the introduction of computer mediation changes far too many variables in types of tasks and individual motivation. In addition, such comparisons imply that computers could perform the functions of teachers, which, in most respects, they do not (Egbert, Chao, and Hanson-Smith 1999). In case after case, teachers report that integrating technology into instruction goes beyond merely changing the media for completing course tasks and delivering assignments. Instead, students are engaging in authentic learning projects (e.g., WebQuests, slide shows, photo Weblogs [Web + log, or blog], and video productions) that are facilitated by the use of technology, and they are involved in quite different processes than more traditional forms of paper-based research and writing. Researching language learning or language development tasks in computer-enhanced environments must focus on context-sensitive, unique loci—each with its own cultural and rhetorical reality—from which other teacher-researchers can gain insights (De Pew and Miller 2005; Warschauer 2000b).
Research on language learning with and through technology also crosses disciplinary lines, resulting in new research methodologies (Chapelle 2004) with concomitant instructional implications. Simply scanning the tables of contents of online journals indicates that recent studies in CALL draw on research in second language acquisition, foreign and second language learning, composition studies, applied linguistics (including corpus linguistics), and the cognitive and social sciences. Studies also cross international boundaries (e.g., studies of European Union teacher attitudes toward computers in education; Kollias et al. 2005; Veermans and Cesareni 2005). In addition, universities are gradually learning new ways to value research and service that integrate twenty-first-century technologies into instruction (Gruber 2000). Of greatest importance, research informs classroom practice, as demonstrated by the chapters in this volume.
Learning Languages through Technology reflects the fact that there are now as many ways to use computers and the Internet as there are traditional, land-based methods of teaching, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find classrooms that do not somehow make use of electronic technologies, even if it is simply a student e-mailing a teacher about next week’s test. While many students around the world are just being introduced to technology in education, their responses universally reflect those of the students involved in the Maine laptop experiment mentioned earlier; as diSessa (2000) puts it, computers offer children the opportunity to learn “with a pleasure and commitment that only a privileged few now feel toward school learning” (p. ix). In turn, instructors are “reinvigorated by a new way of teaching that encourages real-world problem-solving and individual student initiative” (Curtis 2003, ¶1). Many of the chapters in this volume demonstrate this new attitude and the high motivation that characterizes much of the experimentation with CALL. Rather than contrasting CALL to the traditional classroom, many carefully planned research projects are comparing how different types of computer and Internet use can affect learning (see Chen, Belkada, and Okamoto 2004, who look at different types of group work in a Web-based course; Trites, chapter 15 in this volume). The Questions and Activities at the end of each section in the volume are intended to lead the reader further into this discussion of the role technology plays in learning—both currently and in the future.
The Organization of This Volume
This text is divided into four sections. The first, Language Development Online: Skill Building through Technology, deals with what might be thought of as current best practices in using technology within the four skill areas of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The authors embed considerations of grammar, vocabulary, rhetoric, and culture in various ways throughout these chapters because teaching with and through technology seems to lend itself particularly well to holistic language approaches.
The second section, Content-Based and Task-Based Learning: Collaborative CALL, proves how well the Internet supports content-rich curricula, both in the exploration of content Web sites and in the ability to ensure that students work collaboratively, locally as well as globally. In contrast to instructor-based learning, in which much of the input comes from the teacher and interaction often takes place primarily between the teacher and the class as a whole (e.g., lecture mode), computer-mediated communication tools dominate how this section’s authors plan and conduct courses and activities. The locus of power in the classroom shifts from the sage on the stage to students and student teams. Many of the activities involve local group work as well as collaborations with peers throughout cyberspace. Instead of depending upon imagined scenarios and hypothetical situations, students apply their technology skills in tasks with large doses of authenticity.
The third section, Authentic Audience in a Web-Based World, describes several different educational settings—elementary school, high school, an intensive English program, and graduate teacher education courses—all delivered either through blended (on- and off-campus) or wholly online courses. As learning increasingly takes place outside the walls of a school, teachers must be alert to reducing isolation, promoting interconnections among students and between students and themselves, and fostering social interactivity that is both emotionally rewarding and educationally inspiring.
The last section of this volume, Constructivism in Professional Development, offers practical advice for structuring meaningful educational scenarios that can be applied in subject-matter courses and language courses, as well as in teacher education. Constructivism (and its related variant, connectivism; Siemens 2004), as theme and approach, runs throughout the entire volume. It implies the creation of meaning, beyond simply putting two and two together or getting the correct answers on a test, and the social interactivity that supports, enhances, and reinforces learning. Constructivism is perhaps the simple answer to the question, “How do people know as much as they do with as little information as they get?” (Landauer and Dumais 1997, ¶1). While behavioral approaches break down learning into its smallest parts, each to be mastered bit by bit, a constructivist approach provides large quantities of input—usually in a hands-on fashion. This approach allows students to interact with the materials and each other, to explore and create, all the while relying and expanding on what they already know, both individually and collectively, to construct and use new meanings. The sum is always greater than the parts, and individualization in learning takes place as students, consciously or unconsciously, absorb new concepts and vocabulary, making them their own. Important aspects of such learning opportunities, particularly as enhanced by technology, include reflecting on one’s own educational processes, collaborating with others to complete projects, and interacting socially to create and sustain communities of practice.
Each chapter in this volume opens with a preview of ideas to ponder before reading. Each of the four sections opens with a preview of the chapters it contains and concludes with a thought-provoking chapter focused on a particular issue in technology and pedagogy. Follow-up questions for class discussion, further research, and activities appear at the end of each section. We hope that these elements will be helpful to in-service teachers who are using or thinking about using technology, or for further classroom explorations of CALL with a teacher educator.
Section I Questions and Activities
Questions for Discussion
González (chapter 2) demonstrates how language skills can be integrated in an online learning environment (e.g., combining voice chat for speaking and listening, Web pages for reading, blogs for writing and reading, and online video for listening). How could you best integrate language skills into your educational context? Is it necessary or desirable to integrate all skills? Explore your institution’s resources, perhaps interviewing technology staff to discover what tools and support may be available to realize your goals.
Sevier (chapter 3) and Reppen and Vásquez (chapter 4) advocate the use of concordance programs to demonstrate and practice lexical patterns, such as collocations. What are the advantages of using concordance software for assisting learners with vocabulary and phrasal pattern acquisition? Could you use The Compleat Lexical Tutor (Lextutor; Cobb 2006) with your students? What would be the benefits for you as a teacher, researcher, or materials developer?
Language patterns in English for academic purposes and English for specific purposes texts, such as vocabulary and collocation choices, may differ from those in general reading texts such as newspapers. What e-texts could you use with Lextutor (Cobb 2006) for corpus investigation of language patterns in learner task/materials development? Using Lextutor, plan, gather, and explore a small corpus for a specific purpose (e.g., engineering lab reports to investigate graphic-textual interfaces, sample native-English-speaking student essays in a given subject area that display a specific rhetorical pattern). Use your findings to develop a teaching unit for your learners with concordance-supported materials and tasks. Try out the materials you developed, and share your pedagogical findings with other teachers.
Reppen and Vásquez (chapter 4) describe a number of writing tasks for university ESL learners. How could their learning modules be adapted for a different learner population (e.g., high school students, EFL learners)? Which would be most useful in your teaching context and why? What should be the role of models or mentors in such a tutorial environment?
Kim (chapter 5) bases his online listening course on a textbook he prepared for his students. His material is disseminated widely through an open university. He had technical support from his institution for developing the online course, and support from student assistants in addressing routine issues. Explore how you might obtain support from your institution to develop online courses or materials. What types of support personnel would be necessary for your project? Which skills do you already have, and which will you need to augment through further training or consultant assistance?
Robb (chapter 6) poses the problem of what to do when students are not as autonomous or self-guided as we educators would like. How do you support learners in developing autonomous learning strategies? What effect does tracking serve in your program or specific course, and how does tracking affect student participation and motivation in online (or other) activities? If you have used a course management system (CMS), what successes or problems have you had with student participation or motivation?
Activities for Further Study
Many educational institutions provide access to an online CMS. CMSs are also available free of charge online. Check out your institution’s CMS, or explore a free CMS such as Moodle (2005) or Yahoo! Groups (2006), both cited by González (chapter 2). (Your teacher may wish to assign each group to a different CMS in order to share information.) How would you integrate a CMS into your instructional objectives? What features do you find particularly helpful? Would any hinder the development of a community online? Are there any features you would like to add?
Explore the free concordance program Lextutor (Cobb 2006; described by Sevier, chapter 3), which links to corpus texts online. Search several words or phrases, choosing two or more corpora, to find out what you can discover about English vocabulary with a concordancer in different kinds of texts. Suggest specific lessons or units that would involve your learners in doing this kind of search, perhaps referring to specific vocabulary items or grammatical constructions from their own compositions.
Explore online one of the writing modules that Reppen and Vásquez developed for their intensive English program (listed in the appendix to chapter 4). Also explore other online activities for writing, such as those offered at Diana Hacker’s Web site, A Writer’s Reference, to accompany her book (Hacker 2003), or the OWL at Purdue (1995–2006). Are the exercises useful? Why or why not? Which might be most appropriate for your learners and why? How would you tailor your own lessons to encourage autonomous or supervised use of online writing resources for individuals or groups?
Begin a collection of online activity sites of your own using Web software such as Filamentality (2006) or The WebWizard (n.d.). Share your discoveries with classmates or fellow teachers.
Explore several Web sites for authentic listening, such as National Public Radio (2006), Voice of America (n.d.), or the British Broadcasting Corporation (2006). Using the authentic texts and digital media at these sites, prepare support materials, such as lesson plans and Web references, for your learners.
Explore some of the hundreds of exercises and activities at Randall Davis’s (1998–2006) Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab or at the Internet TESL Journal (1995–2006). Which of these might be useful for your students? Which of these are authentic activities? How would you guide your students in using these exercises?
Join Real English Online (Marzio and Hanson-Smith 2006), a support group for students and teachers using video and audio online. Try some of the free video-based exercises created by teachers (see the >LINKS area of this Yahoo! Group). Many of these lessons have been created with Hot Potatoes (Arneil and Holmes 2005), a free utility program that allows the user to create a wide variety of exercises with multimedia content. (Dreamweaver [2005] allows for the creation of similar materials, and it may be free at your institution.)
Download and try out Hot Potatoes (Arneil and Holmes 2005; or Dreamweaver [2005]). Many examples of activities can be found at Michel Barbot’s (n.d.) Hot Potatoes Exercises Web page. If you have problems, join the Hot Potatoes Users (2006), a support group for language teachers, and ask for help. Experiment with making online support materials, quizzes, and games for your learners with audio or video files.
Explore some of the multimedia activities available online, for example, Groupboard (n.d.) for drawing and chat, Sitepal (Oddcast n.d.) for voice mail, simple exercise generators at Quia Web (Quia 1998–2006) or Module Maker (McKenzie 2000), Interesting Things for ESL Students (C. I. Kelly and Kelly 1997–2006), or video trailers used for ESOL language learning at English Trailers (n.d.). Create one or more lesson plans for using such materials in a blended or wholly online class.
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