Qualitative Case Study on Cell Phone Appropriation for Language Learning Purposes in a Dominican Context

This research study investigated how a Dominican English language teacher and her students appropriated cell phone features for educational purposes inside and outside the classroom. The dissertation used a qualitative approach that focused on the teacher, and four students selected from a class of 23. Data collection took place for 8 weeks in an English language center located at a public university in the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2014. I collected data through interviews, conversations, classroom observations, and questionnaires. Data were analyzed to identify emerging themes that described how the teacher and students used their cell phones for different educational activities related to English language learning. Findings identified four major themes on how the teacher used different cell phone features for educational purposes: cell phone as connectivity tool, content delivery tool, research and reference tool, and assessment facilitation tool. Findings from the four student subcases indicated that they appropriated features in their cell phones in different ways, including: iPod as a cell phone (student 1), assessment and feedback facilitation tool (student 2), peer- and self-assessment facilitation tool and e-reader (student 3), and multimedia delivery and social interactivity tool (student 4). Themes across subcases and from the classroom in general indicated that participants used features that allowed them to use their cell phones as tools for data gathering and note taking, reference and research, collaboration, and repository. Findings from this dissertation shed light on how a teacher and students can make use of their own mobile technologies to support English language learning in a Dominican classroom with uneven access to technology

Connecting the Old with the New: Developing a Podcast Usability Heuristic from the Canons of Rhetoric

Though a relatively new form of communication technology, the podcast serves as a remediated form of the classical orator—merging the classical practices of oration with current methods of production and delivery. This study draws connections from the historical five canons of rhetoric and current usability studies to build a heuristic for developing and evaluating usable podcast design

The english language and the use of podcasts to improve the listening skill of english career students at Cotopaxi Technical University during the academic cycle march - august 2014

This project has been formalized on the use of Podcasts to improve the listening skill of future English teachers. It is a big contribution to all those who look for new ways of building up the listening skill properly. The present work has been divided up into three chapters that are set up as follows. The first chapter is based on the theory of English as a foreign language, English Teaching and Learning, Listening, Technology to learn English and the history of Podcasts. The categories bordered on this determine the conceptual framework and methods that will support the investigation….El estudio de la lengua inglesa visto desde un punto de vista pedagógico se mantiene en un entorno donde el aprendizaje parte de creativas metodologías y un sinnúmero de métodos de enseñanza. Sin embargo, un gran número de profesionales educadores se ha enfocado en el detallado manejo de reglas y estructuras gramaticales, sobre este idioma durante la clase, y no han tomado mucha importancia a los beneficios de desarrollar escucha. Ahora, esta investigación se enmarca en el estudio del uso de Podcasts durante las clases de inglés con estudiantes de la carrera de inglés de la Universidad Técnica de Cotopaxi, y ofrece una visualización sobre el uso intensivo y continuo de audio como parte del aprendizaje de inglés para mejorar y desarrollar la habilidad de escucha...

The Cowl - v. 69 - n. 17 - Feb 10, 2005

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 69 - Number 17 - February 10, 2005. 24 pages

Listening to the library: Preadolescent student perceptions of the impact of downloadable audiobooks on their literacy development

The purpose of this narrative inquiry was for me to learn from students about their perceptions of changes in their literacy practices from listening to downloaded audiobooks in their free time. Participants were preadolescent students from one international school in South Korea. Data were collected from regular recorded interviews over a period of two school years. Much has been written about audiobooks in popular media, and especially in educational publications, but there is a surprising lack of significant research about using audiobooks in education, particularly for fluent readers and writers with no learning difficulties. This research aims to fill a gap in the educational research and recent technological advancements in downloadable audiobook technology make this a timely topic. Narrative inquiry is shown to be an ideal methodology to present student 'voice' research. Results are presented as fourteen themes with sub-themes in four thematic categories, namely, what students gain (or not) from listening to audiobooks, characteristics of listeners, agency and organisational structures. This research found that participants were selfmotivated to listen to audiobooks in their leisure time and that they did perceive a change in their literacy practices, particularly in generating story ideas, providing a model of verbal fluency and learning vocabulary in context. However, the research also revealed that there are significant organisational structures, such as technical challenges and the influence of adults, which either enable or constrain a student's agency to listen to audiobooks. Additionally, it became apparent that these preadolescent audiobook listeners display notable characteristics such as the proclivity to multitask while listening, a preference for story regardless of mode and the ability to critically analyse both the story and narration. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of the implications of this research for educational knowledge and practice

Audiobooks to improve reading enjoyment

Sammendrag Denne studien undersøkte hvordan elever responderte til å lese en bok på engelsk mens de hørte på lydboken samtidig. Gjennom diskusjoner og opphetede debatter, var elevene veldig begeistret for boken. Men, det er mulig at det var mer boken enn lydboken som førte til at elevene var så engasjerte. Forskingsspørsmålene er som følger: Vil bruken av lydbøker mens man leser ha en positiv effekt på elevenes lesevaner? Vil lydbøker hjelpe elever til å få mer nytelse ut av deres leseopplevelse, noe som fører til høyere motivasjon for å fortsette å lese. For å svare på forskningsspørsmålet har jeg brukt et kvalitativt spørreskjema, notater og intervjue. Intervjuene var basert på den data som jeg samlet fra spørreskjemaet og mine notater. Informantene var bevist valgt ved at alle var elever som tok engelsk fordypning ved deres skole. Dette var en skole hvor jeg arbeidet som lærer, så jeg kjente mine informanter før prosjektet startet. Resultatene indikerer at svakere elever får mer ut av å bruke lydbøker en de sterkere elevene. De sterkeste elevene følte at det å måtte lese sammen med lydboken fikk det til å gå for sakte, å ødela deres leseopplevelse. Klassen som en helhet likte å diskutere boken, men det er uvisst om det kan linkes til bruken av lydbøker

Developing students\u27 reading comprehesion through whole language

The purpose of the study is to investigate the motivational affects of Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI) and generative themes applications in the effort to change students\u27 attitude and behavior in reading novels and volume reading materials to improve ninth grade reading comprehension. A descriptive six-week qualitative study on improving ninth grade students\u27 reading comprehension through teaching the concept of whole language and Transactional Strategies Instruction (TSI) was conducted