Group items tagged

Abstract "Digital storytelling is a compelling activity for the language classroom. Easy to use for both writing and speaking practice, digital storytelling can be a good way to motivate students to use the language both inside and outside the classroom. Many teachers report high motivation levels, and not only for their students! In this practical article I will briefly outline what digital storytelling is and give some tips on how to get started."

The article highlights the effectiveness of collaborative and cooperative language learning activities such as school exchanges and pairing students with counterparts abroad. It also bring up the issue of difficult assessment gets in the way and brings to the front solo performances and summative examinations.

I certainly agree with this as being an effective way to language learning. We in the military community use the group/pair work approach for many reasons. Pair work keeps them interested and motivated to learn. It also makes better use of class time. I also think that when the students are ready for the OPI, they generally do better than if they were in a traditional classroom. As for assessment, yes it is more difficult, but it is up to us as instructors to find ways to measure the students' performance based on the interaction. Once the student is in country, it will be up to him/her to communicate with others. That will be the true test.

" Using TPCK with digital story issues in educational technology Abstract Digital storytelling is recognized as a motivating students in critical thinking and reflective learni ng storytelling are readily available and much easier to use today than they were in years pa convergence of these facto rs has facilitated the inclusion of digital storyte lling in p educational technology courses . Some researchers have expressed concern over approach technology instruction over careful consideration of the educational value of the tool, speculating that such are unlikely to result in powerful uses of technology in schools. Mishra and Koehler (2006) proposed a conceptual framework technology an d pedagogy. With emphasis on the development of Content Knowledge (TPCK) , the model reframes for pre-service teachers. This case stud framework to a digital storytelling project in an u ndergraduate teacher education course. Keywords: digital storytelling, educational technology, Techn ological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, TPCK Journal of Instructional Pedagogies TPCK with Digital Storytelling digital story tell ing to investigate contemporary issues in educational technology "

Abstract This study contributes to the body of research that aims to understand the relationship between online communication and foreign language (FL) learning, in particular when teachers seek to provide authentic opportunities for interaction for their learners. The study was motivated by efforts made in the New Zealand context to overcome the geographic limitations of interaction between FL learners and native speakers. We report on the findings of an exploratory study into an online reciprocal peer tutoring program established to enhance the FL learning of a group of beginner eleven-year old students of Spanish, with particular focus on the benefits of written corrective feedback. The project aimed to examine the processes by which students tutored each other in the online environment as they responded to each other's texts. The analysis of the students' messages focused on (1) the aspects of language corrected by the tutors, (2) the frequency with which tutors accurately identified and provided input on errors, (3) the types of feedback provided by the tutors, and (4) what the learners did with the corrections and feedback. The findings indicate that the students were willing to contribute to peer correction and used different strategies and correction techniques to foster attention to linguistic form, although they were not always capable of providing accurate feedback or metalinguistic explanations.

make the most of the possibilities afforded to us by the effective use of the internet in order to raise achievement and participation, as well as to increase motivation and engagement.

I think this Blog is rich with possibility for utilizing social media for the teaching of a second language. Students so much into social media and they also get motivated by change in ideas and activities. The variety of possibilities that this blog offers provides a teacher with a good resource that would work for various language levels.

This is a really good suggestion Vivian! It is always nice to have plan B especially when using technology!

The author says that CMC helps in all of these areas, but doesn't provide any information about his sources. I think this shows the value of including links to other websites in blog posts about education!

Abstract: "Students deepen their content knowledge and collaborative skills as they interact with others across the globe. In order to deepen early childhood students' awareness and understanding of the world, teachers worked with their classes to develop and share school-based virtual field trips. The researcher sought to (a) identify the steps to create a school-based virtual field trip, and (b) understand how virtual field trips can promote global and/or content understandings. Qualitative results reveal that the steps taken to create a trip varied by grade. Students were motivated to teach other students about their school and were able to learn about different cultures. A variety of literacy skills were also utilized in the virtual field trips."

"Music is a wonderful tool to integrate into your teaching repertoire, especially if you are a foreign language teacher."

This sounds fun! I would love to try it next year!

The name of the book is "Self Efficacy: the exercise of control" Bandura.

Great!! This teacher is very clear with his purposes and instructions to students.

Hitosugi, C. I. (2011). Using a social networking site in Japanese class. In E. Forsythe, T. Gorham, M. Grogan, D. Jarrell, R. Chartrand, & P. Lewis (Eds.), In CALL: What's your motivation? Collected papers on the cutting edge of language learning practice (pp. 72-83). Tokyo, Japan: JALT CALL SIG. This is my article that I wrote a couple of years ago on NIng use. This is much shorter than the original one, but still conveys what I wanted; SNS has a place in classroom, students concern privacy.

Although this article is about British language education and it's two years old, my interest was piqued when I read it: ""Languages cannot be taught, they can only be learnt. The best way is to tell students right away that they are responsible for their own learning process, and the teacher is just a guide who has to motivate them."" Made me think about relevancy and how Tech is only one part of that.

Really interesting. I wonder if we changed the setting to the U.S. if the same difficulties would apply. I never really thought about grammar being discarded simply because students don't know it well enough. While I've found that most students we teach don't understand their mother tongue, I still think that the shift to task-based work had as much to do with the lack of real communication skills. Just teaching them grammar and relying on them to go abroad to learn to speak wasn't doing it. That being said, I think the mixture of methods is best, and by mixture I mean the integration of many methods into accomplishing a task. And I agree that the meta-learning is key.

I remember getting a comment from a student once, many years ago, that she had learned more about English grammar in my Spanish class than anywhere else... (sigh)

I found this site on Feedly and started following it; this guy travels around the world learning foreign languages; this article in particular discusses how to learn minority and endangered languages, however I find the innovation and his motivation to be the greatest factors in his success. He's not following someone else's path and as the actual process of learning a FL is such a personal thing, I think he's really on to something! From the site: "There are almost too many sites and resources for big languages like French, Spanish and German. When you're learning a language like these, the problem is usually deciding which resource to use rather than not being able to find one. But what about those of us who want to learn a less popular language (minority or endangered)?"

More classes move to online environments; students need to evaluate learning styles.

"Over the past academic year, my students and I have been experimenting with the use of a number of web based applications (often known as Web 2.0 tools). My aim has been to enhance our schemes of work by providing our students with new and exciting learning opportunities. In my opinion, using technology effectively has clear benefits for both teaching and learning and can help to improve motivation by engaging pupils in activities which, perhaps, step out of their ordinary school experience and which show them that it is possible to teach and learn about a subject using tools similar to those they use daily outside school. In other words, we have tried to use the types of tools with which they are often already familiar. I have written about each of these individual tools in separate posts, but I thought it would be useful to list the ten most used internet applications on one post. As ever, I aim to provide, not only a list of the web applications we have used, but also examples of practice which you may wish to follow or, indeed, improve upon. Therefore, each of the entries below has links leading to lesson plans which have incorporated the tools as well as working examples of students' work where appropriate. Without further ado, and in alphabetical order, my ten tried and tested internet tools for teachers are:"

from a FL teacher in England - who tries and tests a number of tech tools. Here are his 10 favorite web 2.0 apps.