Text reconstruction activities and teaching language forms

Even though there is a broad consensus that teaching language forms is facilitative or even necessary in some contexts, there are still disagreements concerning, among other things, how formal aspects of the target language should be taught. One important area of controversy is whether pedagogic intervention should be input-oriented, emphasizing comprehension of the form- meaning mappings represented by specific linguistic features or output-based, requiring learners to produce these features accurately in gradually more communicative activities. The present paper focuses on the latter of these two options and, basing on the claims of Swain‘s (1985, 1995) output hypothesis, it aims to demonstrates how text-reconstruction activities in which learners collaboratively produce written output trigger noticing, hypothesis-testing and metalinguistic reflection on language use. It presents a psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic rationale for the use of such tasks, discusses the types of such activities, provides an overview of research projects investigating their application and, finally, offers a set of implications for classroom use as well as suggestions for further research in this area

Virtual reality: Theoretical basis, practical applications

Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful multimedia visualization technique offering a range of mechanisms by which many new experiences can be made available. This paper deals with the basic nature of VR, the technologies needed to create it, and its potential, especially for helping disabled people. It also offers an overview of some examples of existing VR systems

Exploring the educational and motivational potential of virtual reality based apps in foreing language learning

Due to technological advancements, new tools such as Virtual Reality (VR) have been developed, whose usefulness has been explored in various fields, including education. Thanks to this, VR language learning is becoming increasingly popular. The purpose of the current study is to explore the potential of VR to improve the teaching-learning processes of foreign languages. To this end, first a literature review has been done on the use of VR for educational purposes and especially foreign language learning and then an analysis of two VR apps. Additionally, with the purpose of gathering valuable user feedback, a quasi experimental study was carried out with 30 English language learners. The study involved the testing of the two apps analyzed, as well as the evaluation of both apps in terms of usability, usefulness, attitude towards using, intention to use, playfulness and anxiety.Debido al avance de la tecnología, se han desarrollado nuevas herramientas como la Realidad Virtual (RV), cuya utilidad se ha explorado en diversos campos, incluyendo la educación. Gracias a esto, el aprendizaje de idiomas mediante RV también está ganando popularidad. La finalidad de este estudio es mostrar el potencial de la RV para mejorar los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras. Para ello, se ha revisado la literatura sobre el uso de la RV en educación y más concretamente en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras y posteriormente se han analizado dos apps de RV. Adicionalmente, con el objetivo de recoger feedback de los usuarios, se ha realizado un estudio cuasi experimental con 30 estudiantes de inglés. El estudio implicó la prueba de las dos apps analizadas, así como la evaluación de ambas en términos de usabilidad, utilidad, actitud hacia su uso, intención de uso, carácter lúdico y ansiedad.50 página

Una revisión de apps de realidad virtual para el aprendizaje de idiomas

Research in the area of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) has shown that the use of mobile devices such as smartphones may offer multiple opportunities for supporting foreign language learning. In addition, the development and increasing accessibility of emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) has opened new perspectives in the area of MALL, paving the way for a new research field called virtual reality assisted language learning (VRALL). In this context, the present study aims to identify the trends as well as challenges of VRALL by analysing the most popular of the currently available VR apps that can be downloaded from commercial platforms such as Google Play Store and App Store. However, results suggest that most of the retrieved apps are not specifically designed for foreign language learning, although they can be used for such a purpose. Furthermore, very few of the apps explore the real potential of VR, either providing novel teaching and learning approaches and new types of interaction, or offering novel learning scenarios that could allow the learner to experience a greater sense of immersion and thus facilitate the process of language immersion and language acquisition

Using Portfolios to Develop L2 Cultural Knowledge and Awareness of Students in Intermediate Spanish

In spite of many efforts and contributions from previous researchers, the need for a systematic and consistent approach to teaching culture is still unmet. This pilot study shows that the portfolio is a meaningful way to integrate language and culture in a structure that provides opportunities for students to learn about foreign culture while using other skills-reading, listening, writing and speaking. In addition, resources from the Internet, such as Gopher, World Wide Web, and Listservs have great potential for cultural learning out-side the classroom. Foreign language teachers should be encouraged to explore and experiment with portfolios in other content areas of language learning, since producing a portfolio involves higher-order cognition as well as all four communicative language skills

Reflections on the use of Project Wonderland as a mixed-reality environment for teaching and learning

This paper reflects on the lessons learnt from MiRTLE?a collaborative research project to create a ?mixed reality teaching and learning environment? that enables teachers and students participating in real-time mixed and online classes to interact with avatar representations of each other. The key hypothesis of the project is that avatar representations of teachers and students can help create a sense of shared presence, engendering a greater sense of community and improving student engagement in online lessons. This paper explores the technology that underpins such environments by presenting work on the use of a massively multi-user game server, based on Sun?s Project Darkstar and Project Wonderland tools, to create a shared teaching environment, illustrating the process by describing the creation of a virtual classroom. It is planned that the MiRTLE platform will be used in several trial applications ? which are described in the paper. These example applications are then used to explore some of the research issues arising from the use of virtual environments within an education environment. The research discussion initially focuses on the plans to assess this within the MiRTLE project. This includes some of the issues of designing virtual environments for teaching and learning, and how supporting pedagogical and social theories can inform this process

Realidad Virtual y aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras: Análisis de las 6 aplicaciones móviles más populares de Google Play Store y App Store para aprender inglés

Research in the area of mobile assisted language learning (MALL) has shown that smartphones offer multiple opportunities for supporting foreign language learning. The development and increasing accessibility of new tools such as virtual reality technology (VR) has opened new perspectives in the area of MALL, paving the way for a new research field called virtual reality assisted language learning (VRALL). In this context, the current study aims to explore the potential of VRALL by analyzing the 6 most popular VR apps from Google Play Store and App Store to learn English, with a special focus on language contents and the learning approaches provided. Results suggest that although VR technology provides new opportunities for language learning, VRALL is still on the fringes and more research needs to be done in order to take advantage of the real potential of VR.La investigación en el área del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por dispositivos móviles (MALL) muestra que los teléfonos móviles ofrecen una gran variedad de posibilidades para ayudar a aprender una lengua extranjera. El desarrollo y el fácil acceso a nuevas herramientas como la tecnología de realidad virtual (RV) han abierto nuevos horizontes en el área de MALL, preparando el terreno para un nuevo campo de investigación llamado aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por realidad virtual (VRALL). De este modo, este estudio busca explorar el potencial del VRALL mediante el análisis de las 6 apps de RV más populares en Google Play Store y App Store para aprender inglés, centrándonos en los contenidos lingüísticos y en los enfoques de aprendizaje que proporcionan estas apps. Los resultados indican que, aunque la RV aporta nuevas oportunidades para el aprendizaje de lenguas, el VRALL todavía permanece al margen, y se necesita más investigación sobre el tema para poder aprovechar el verdadero potencial de la RV

Visual authoring of virtual reality conversational scenarios for e‑learning

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to face-to-face activities being developed in a virtual format that often offers a poor experience in areas such as education. Virtual Learning Environments have improved in recent years thanks to new technologies such as Virtual Reality or Chatbots. However, creating Virtual Learning Environments requires advanced programming knowledge, so this work is aimed to enable teachers to create these new environments easily. This work presents a set of extensions for App Inventor that facilitate the authoring of mobile learning apps that use Chatbots in a Virtual Reality environment, while simultaneously monitoring of student activity. This proposal is based on integrating block-based languages and Business Process Model and Notation diagrams. The developed extensions were successfully implemented in an educational app called Let’s date!. A quantitative analysis of the use of these extensions in App Inventor was also carried out, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of blocks required. The proposed contribution has demonstrated its validity in creating virtual learning environments through visual programming and modelling, reducing development complexity

Expectations eclipsed in foreign language education: learners and educators on an ongoing journey / edited by Hülya Görür-Atabaş, Sharon Turner.

Between June 2-4, 2011 Sabancı University School of Languages welcomed colleagues from 21 different countries to a collaborative exploration of the challenging and inspiring journey of learners and educators in the field of language education.\ud \ud The conference provided an opportunity for all stakeholders to share their views on language education. Colleagues met with world-renowned experts and authors in the fields of education and psychology, faculty and administrators from various universities and institutions, teachers from secondary educational backgrounds and higher education, as well as learners whose voices are often not directly shared but usually reported.\ud \ud The conference name, Eclipsing Expectations, was inspired by two natural phenomena, a solar eclipse directly before the conference, and a lunar eclipse, immediately after. Learners and educators were hereby invited to join a journey to observe, learn and exchange ideas in orde