This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics, Program of at Scholar... more This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics, Program of at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected].
While intercultural learning is a key goal of study abroad, it is often difficult to assess or ev... more While intercultural learning is a key goal of study abroad, it is often difficult to assess or even achieve. Recent models, such as linguistic landscapes (which looks at the language of public signs, including road signs, advertising billboards, street, and place names), can help students reflect on and make sense of their intercultural experiences in more intentional ways. By working through tasks based on the four areas of social pedagogies, which serves as the framework for this study, students became more aware of their surroundings and documented their linguistic landscape visually and in digital form. They posted their findings to Padlet, a social media tool, which allowed students access to a collaborative and co-constructive participatory culture. Open coding was used to identify two themes that emerged from the data: (1) students became aware of their surroundings; and (2) students developed a sense of cultural awareness. We also comment on how students reflected on the project. Students noticed otherwise unobvious aspects of culture and used those observations to shape their own ideas about the target culture as they worked toward constructing an intellectual community through engagement with different perspectives. Finally, students gained skills in intercultural learning as they reevaluated both their own and the target cultures while considering new perspectives as well as historical and cultural contexts.
This article examines social presence in virtual asynchronous learning communities among foreign ... more This article examines social presence in virtual asynchronous learning communities among foreign language teachers. We present the findings of two studies investigating cross-institutional asynchronous forums created to engage participants in online dialogues regarding their foreign language teacher preparation experiences in and out of the classroom. Both studies took place during Fall 2003 and were conducted between first-time teacher/graduate students in four methodology courses at three large state universities. In the first study, students participated in weekly online exchanges in the form of dialogue journals for reflective teaching. In the second study, students were provided with specific topics to address using a discussion board, related both to theoretical language learning issues as well as pedagogical classroom-related concerns. The data analyzed here consist of the contributions and responses submitted by all participants on their respective online forums. We analyze ...
IALLT Journal of Language Learning Technologies, 2018
Collaborative writing has been found to lead to more productive writing processes and enhanced fi... more Collaborative writing has been found to lead to more productive writing processes and enhanced final products in terms of a richer vocabulary, more accurate grammar, and better organization. The present study expands on this research strand by exploring if different group writing processes affect the quality of wiki texts composed by groups of intermediate German L2 learners. Defining true collaborative writing as involving both a balanced workload and a joint responsibility for the product from all group members, it measured collaboration in two ways. Results indicate that most of the 19 groups in this study had a somewhat unbalanced workload with wide variability in editing group members’ contributions. Although the wiki texts differed greatly with regard to quantitative measures of length, accuracy and cohesion, no correlation was found in terms of workload or co-ownership. While holistic ratings of the texts concerning accuracy and cohesion seemed at times incongruent with the a...
With the increasing popularity of Web 2.0 tools, it only follows that these technologies are adap... more With the increasing popularity of Web 2.0 tools, it only follows that these technologies are adapted to our foreign language classroom practices. Research shows their numerous advantages as participatory tools that foster communication and collaboration. This study focuses on one such tool, the wiki, and describes the implementation of three different wiki projects (micropedia, branching story, and pre-reading) in three university intermediate foreign language classes (French, Spanish, and German). The objective is twofold: to investigate (1) the type of collaboration that wikis foster, and (2) students' perceptions of this collaborative work. Results from a post-experimental questionnaire point to the positive effect of wikis on students' motivation to use the foreign language, while revealing varying degrees of satisfaction with collaborative work.
... Below is a description of a travel blog project. ... The travel blog was active for almost a ... more ... Below is a description of a travel blog project. ... The travel blog was active for almost a 2-month period (spanning the two trips) and students from both sides, as well as the teachers, friends, and family, actively contribut-ed by posting either with entries or comments. ...
This paper reports on a year-long project in which students participated as both readers and writ... more This paper reports on a year-long project in which students participated as both readers and writers of blogs. Specifically, this study examines the steps students progress through while reading and writing blogs, students' reactions to blogging, and how self-expression is characterised in the blogosphere. Data from student blogs, reports, and focus group interviews suggest that this project fostered both ownership and creativity; allowed students to experiment with language; facilitated expression in a relaxed environment; and provided students with a window into the target culture that their textbooks did not provide. Finally, we also report on questionnaires that were designed to assess students' reactions to the project. Examples from student projects are discussed.
This paper focuses on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) among foreign language (FL... more This paper focuses on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) among foreign language (FL) graduate students from three universities, who worked together to create a wiki. In order to investigate the nature of CSCL among participants, this qualitative case study used the Curtis and Lawson framework (2001) to conduct a content analysis of learners' collaborative behaviors. Transcript and survey analyses indicate that
paper reports on an investigation of podcasting as a tool for honing pronunciation skills in inte... more paper reports on an investigation of podcasting as a tool for honing pronunciation skills in intermediate language learning. We examined the effects of using podcasts to improve pronunciation in second language learning and how students' attitudes changed toward pronunciation over the semester. A total of 22 students in intermediate German and French courses made five scripted pronunciation recordings throughout the semester. After the pronunciation recordings, students produced three extemporaneous podcasts. Students also completed a pre-and post-survey based on Elliott's (1995) Pronunciation Attitude Inventory to assess their perspectives regarding pronunciation. Students' pronunciation, extemporaneous recordings, and surveys were analyzed to explore changes over the semester. Data analysis revealed that students' pronunciation did not significantly improve in regard to accentedness or comprehensibility, perhaps because the16-week long treatment was too short to foster significant improvement and there was no in-class pronunciation practice. The podcast project, however, was perceived positively by students, and they appreciated the feedback given for each scripted recording and enjoyed opportunities for creativity during extemporaneous podcasts. Future studies might seek to delineate more specific guidelines or examine how teacher involvement might be adapted to the use of podcasts as a companion to classroom instruction. Historically, with the advent of the communicative approach, there may have been some confusion as to the place and role of pronunciation in language learning. Terrell (1989), for example, suggests that those teaching from a communicative approach "have not known what to do with pronunciation" (p. 197). Likewise, Pennington and Richards (1986) discuss that pronunciation is often viewed as having "limited importance" in communicative curricula (p. 207). As a result of the perceived confusion with regard to the role of pronunciation in the communicative approach, language teachers struggle to find ways to practice pronunciation in class (Lord, 2008). Further, Elliott (1995) maintains that "teachers tend to view pronunciation as the least useful of the basic language skills and therefore they generally sacrifice teaching pronunciation in order to spend valuable class time on other areas of the language" (p. 531). Although teachers sometimes forgo pronunciation instruction to spend time on aspects of the FL that they find more important, pronunciation plays a significant role in comprehensibility (Anderson-Hsieh & Koehler, 1988). Leather (1999) points out that non-native speakers (NNSs) with poor pronunciation can
This article examines social presence in virtual asynchronous learning commu-nities among foreign... more This article examines social presence in virtual asynchronous learning commu-nities among foreign language teachers. We present the findings of two studies investigating cross-institutional asynchronous forums created to engage partici-pants in online ...
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics, Program of at Scholar... more This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Linguistics, Program of at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected].
While intercultural learning is a key goal of study abroad, it is often difficult to assess or ev... more While intercultural learning is a key goal of study abroad, it is often difficult to assess or even achieve. Recent models, such as linguistic landscapes (which looks at the language of public signs, including road signs, advertising billboards, street, and place names), can help students reflect on and make sense of their intercultural experiences in more intentional ways. By working through tasks based on the four areas of social pedagogies, which serves as the framework for this study, students became more aware of their surroundings and documented their linguistic landscape visually and in digital form. They posted their findings to Padlet, a social media tool, which allowed students access to a collaborative and co-constructive participatory culture. Open coding was used to identify two themes that emerged from the data: (1) students became aware of their surroundings; and (2) students developed a sense of cultural awareness. We also comment on how students reflected on the project. Students noticed otherwise unobvious aspects of culture and used those observations to shape their own ideas about the target culture as they worked toward constructing an intellectual community through engagement with different perspectives. Finally, students gained skills in intercultural learning as they reevaluated both their own and the target cultures while considering new perspectives as well as historical and cultural contexts.
This article examines social presence in virtual asynchronous learning communities among foreign ... more This article examines social presence in virtual asynchronous learning communities among foreign language teachers. We present the findings of two studies investigating cross-institutional asynchronous forums created to engage participants in online dialogues regarding their foreign language teacher preparation experiences in and out of the classroom. Both studies took place during Fall 2003 and were conducted between first-time teacher/graduate students in four methodology courses at three large state universities. In the first study, students participated in weekly online exchanges in the form of dialogue journals for reflective teaching. In the second study, students were provided with specific topics to address using a discussion board, related both to theoretical language learning issues as well as pedagogical classroom-related concerns. The data analyzed here consist of the contributions and responses submitted by all participants on their respective online forums. We analyze ...
IALLT Journal of Language Learning Technologies, 2018
Collaborative writing has been found to lead to more productive writing processes and enhanced fi... more Collaborative writing has been found to lead to more productive writing processes and enhanced final products in terms of a richer vocabulary, more accurate grammar, and better organization. The present study expands on this research strand by exploring if different group writing processes affect the quality of wiki texts composed by groups of intermediate German L2 learners. Defining true collaborative writing as involving both a balanced workload and a joint responsibility for the product from all group members, it measured collaboration in two ways. Results indicate that most of the 19 groups in this study had a somewhat unbalanced workload with wide variability in editing group members’ contributions. Although the wiki texts differed greatly with regard to quantitative measures of length, accuracy and cohesion, no correlation was found in terms of workload or co-ownership. While holistic ratings of the texts concerning accuracy and cohesion seemed at times incongruent with the a...
With the increasing popularity of Web 2.0 tools, it only follows that these technologies are adap... more With the increasing popularity of Web 2.0 tools, it only follows that these technologies are adapted to our foreign language classroom practices. Research shows their numerous advantages as participatory tools that foster communication and collaboration. This study focuses on one such tool, the wiki, and describes the implementation of three different wiki projects (micropedia, branching story, and pre-reading) in three university intermediate foreign language classes (French, Spanish, and German). The objective is twofold: to investigate (1) the type of collaboration that wikis foster, and (2) students' perceptions of this collaborative work. Results from a post-experimental questionnaire point to the positive effect of wikis on students' motivation to use the foreign language, while revealing varying degrees of satisfaction with collaborative work.
... Below is a description of a travel blog project. ... The travel blog was active for almost a ... more ... Below is a description of a travel blog project. ... The travel blog was active for almost a 2-month period (spanning the two trips) and students from both sides, as well as the teachers, friends, and family, actively contribut-ed by posting either with entries or comments. ...
This paper reports on a year-long project in which students participated as both readers and writ... more This paper reports on a year-long project in which students participated as both readers and writers of blogs. Specifically, this study examines the steps students progress through while reading and writing blogs, students' reactions to blogging, and how self-expression is characterised in the blogosphere. Data from student blogs, reports, and focus group interviews suggest that this project fostered both ownership and creativity; allowed students to experiment with language; facilitated expression in a relaxed environment; and provided students with a window into the target culture that their textbooks did not provide. Finally, we also report on questionnaires that were designed to assess students' reactions to the project. Examples from student projects are discussed.
This paper focuses on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) among foreign language (FL... more This paper focuses on computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) among foreign language (FL) graduate students from three universities, who worked together to create a wiki. In order to investigate the nature of CSCL among participants, this qualitative case study used the Curtis and Lawson framework (2001) to conduct a content analysis of learners' collaborative behaviors. Transcript and survey analyses indicate that
paper reports on an investigation of podcasting as a tool for honing pronunciation skills in inte... more paper reports on an investigation of podcasting as a tool for honing pronunciation skills in intermediate language learning. We examined the effects of using podcasts to improve pronunciation in second language learning and how students' attitudes changed toward pronunciation over the semester. A total of 22 students in intermediate German and French courses made five scripted pronunciation recordings throughout the semester. After the pronunciation recordings, students produced three extemporaneous podcasts. Students also completed a pre-and post-survey based on Elliott's (1995) Pronunciation Attitude Inventory to assess their perspectives regarding pronunciation. Students' pronunciation, extemporaneous recordings, and surveys were analyzed to explore changes over the semester. Data analysis revealed that students' pronunciation did not significantly improve in regard to accentedness or comprehensibility, perhaps because the16-week long treatment was too short to foster significant improvement and there was no in-class pronunciation practice. The podcast project, however, was perceived positively by students, and they appreciated the feedback given for each scripted recording and enjoyed opportunities for creativity during extemporaneous podcasts. Future studies might seek to delineate more specific guidelines or examine how teacher involvement might be adapted to the use of podcasts as a companion to classroom instruction. Historically, with the advent of the communicative approach, there may have been some confusion as to the place and role of pronunciation in language learning. Terrell (1989), for example, suggests that those teaching from a communicative approach "have not known what to do with pronunciation" (p. 197). Likewise, Pennington and Richards (1986) discuss that pronunciation is often viewed as having "limited importance" in communicative curricula (p. 207). As a result of the perceived confusion with regard to the role of pronunciation in the communicative approach, language teachers struggle to find ways to practice pronunciation in class (Lord, 2008). Further, Elliott (1995) maintains that "teachers tend to view pronunciation as the least useful of the basic language skills and therefore they generally sacrifice teaching pronunciation in order to spend valuable class time on other areas of the language" (p. 531). Although teachers sometimes forgo pronunciation instruction to spend time on aspects of the FL that they find more important, pronunciation plays a significant role in comprehensibility (Anderson-Hsieh & Koehler, 1988). Leather (1999) points out that non-native speakers (NNSs) with poor pronunciation can
This article examines social presence in virtual asynchronous learning commu-nities among foreign... more This article examines social presence in virtual asynchronous learning commu-nities among foreign language teachers. We present the findings of two studies investigating cross-institutional asynchronous forums created to engage partici-pants in online ...
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