34 research outputs found

    Master of Arts

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    thesisThe purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the usefulness of online videogames for promoting second language (L2) acquisition. To achieve this goal, I analyzed the specific types of interaction that take place between English language learners while playing the online videogame entitled Guild Wars 2. Previous research has shown that there can be positive results on L2 acquisition from interaction that occurs while playing video games known as massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). MMORPGs immerse players in virtual worlds that are populated by hundreds of other people, and all are participating in the game in real time. Learners who opt to play the game in a foreign or second language (L2) are exposed to target language input in a context-rich environment in which they can interact freely with native-speakers and other language learners. Although research into the benefits of MMORPGs for L2 learners is still relatively new, the findings so far have been overwhelmingly positive. This study aims to move beyond the question of whether MMORPGs are beneficial and instead asks why and how they may be beneficial. The data from this study are gathered from the recorded screens of 3 volunteer ESL students as they interact in Guild Wars 2 for a period of about 10 hours over a 5-week period. In-game interaction is analyzed and placed into categories that are meant to capture the number and types of opportunities for negotiation of meaning and types of learning strategies used. This study suggests that MMORPGs are beneficial to L2 acquisition because they provide opportunities for L2 learners to produce large amounts of output, and the output produced by one player is a meaningful source of input for other players. Input and output allowed for connected interaction, in which focus on language form can lead to modified-output. Further, players have the opportunity to negotiate input as a means to complete game tasks. Finally, game tasks are similar to tasks believed to be beneficial in an L2 classroom

    A Computational Linguistic Analysis of Learners Discourse in Computer-Mediated Group Learning Environments

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    Communication, collaboration and the social co-construction of knowledge are now considered critical 21st century skills and have taken a principal role in recent theoretical and technological developments in education research. The overall objective of this dissertation was to investigate collaborative learning to gain insight on why some groups are more successful than others. In such discussions, group members naturally assume different roles. These roles emerge through participants’ interactions without any prior instruction or assignment. Different combinations of these roles can produce characteristically different group outcomes, being either less or more productive towards collective goals. However, there has been little research on how to automatically identify these roles and fuse the quality of the process of collaborative interactions with the learning outcome. A major goal of this dissertation is to develop a group communication analysis (GCA) framework, a novel methodology that applies automated computational linguistic techniques to the sequential interactions of online group communication. The GCA involves computing six distinct measures of participant discourse interaction and behavioral patterns and then clustering participants based on their profiles across these measures. The GCA was applied to several large collaborative learning datasets, and identified roles that exhibit distinct patterns in behavioral engagement style (i.e., active or passive, leading or following), contribution characteristics (i.e., providing new information or echoing given material), and social orientation. Through bootstrapping and replication analysis, the roles were found to generalize both within and across different collaborative interaction datasets, indicating that these roles are robust constructs. A multilevel analysis shows that the social roles are predictive of success, both for individual team members and for the overall group. Furthermore, the presence of specific roles within a team produce characteristically different outcomes; leading to specific hypotheses as to optimal group composition. Ideally, the developed analytical tools and findings of this dissertation will contribute to our understanding of how individuals learn together as a group and thereby advance the learning and discourse sciences. More broadly, GCA provides a framework to explore the intra- and inter-personal patterns indicative of the participants’ roles and the sociocognitive processes related to successful collaboration

    The explicit teaching of socioaffective language learning strategies to beginner EFL students at the Centro Colombo Americano: an action research study

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    Con la creciente popularidad del aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera en Colombia, parece haber un grado sustancial de presión sociocultural para que los adultos aprendan o mejoren sus habilidades lingüísticas. Sin embargo, también parece haber indicios de que muchos estudiantes colombianos de inglés como lengua extranjera no parecen ser conscientes o no estar familiarizados con el impacto o la influencia que sus creencias, actitudes, ansiedades, motivaciones y el uso de estrategias de aprendizaje de idiomas tienen en su proceso de aprendizaje de idiomas. Esta investigación-acción examina este fenómeno enfocándose explícitamente en factores afectivos y estrategias socioafectivas de aprendizaje del lenguaje entre estudiantes en un aula monolingüe de inglés como lengua extranjera en el Centro Colombo Americano en Bogotá, Colombia. Las estrategias de aprendizaje de idiomas a menudo se les han enseñado a los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera para ayudarlos a convertirse en aprendices más eficaces. Sin emabargo, La enseñanza de estrategias afectivas explícitas no ha sido abordada adecuadamente por los profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera porque, como Johnson (1994) argumentó, el campo de la educación en una segunda lengua está a la zaga de la investigación de la educación convencional en el sentido de que no ha prestado atención adecuada a la dimensión afectiva del aprendizaje de una segunda lengua (págs. 439-452). Horwitz (2001) brindó más apoyo y afirmó que discutir el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera sin considerar las reacciones emocionales del alumno al aprendizaje de la lengua era y sigue siendo un descuido serio. El propósito general de esta investigación de acción fue enseñar explícitamente estrategias socioafectivas de aprendizaje de idiomas para impactar positivamente las creencias, actitudes, ansiedades y motivaciones de un grupo de estudiantes principiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera. Diecisiete estudiantes principiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera participaron en este estudio de investigación-acción. Un cuestionario semiestructurado inicial y una escala de calificación proporcionaron los primeros datos sobre los factores y estrategias que debían abordarse. Los registros de observación y enseñanza proporcionaron información sobre cómo se llevó a cabo la instrucción basada en el afecto y cómo respondieron los estudiantes. Se utilizó un cuestionario posterior para determinar el impacto de este tipo de instrucción basada en el afecto en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes. Los resultados del estudio sugieren que la instrucción de estrategias explícitas en estrategias socioafectivas de aprendizaje de idiomas es útil para aumentar la conciencia del alumno sobre la importancia de prestar atención a sus propios sentimientos y relaciones sociales como parte de su proceso de aprendizaje, lo que puede mejorar la frecuencia y la calidad de participación e interacción de los estudiantes en clase. Los resultados también indican que factores afectivos como creencias, actitudes, ansiedades

    An Investigation Of The Relationship Between The Use Of Modern Digital Technologies, Language Learning Strategies, And Development Of Second Language Skills

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    Like many other areas of human knowledge, the field of language learning has undergone changes as a consequence of the application of digital technologies. Extensive exposure and anytime and anywhere access availability to data in a second or foreign language (L2) bring almost unlimited learning opportunities for digital age students, which affects their learning behaviors also known as language learning strategies (LLS). The purpose of the present study is to define preferred LLS patterns of digitally native L2 learners and to establish relationships between types of existing digital technologies, learners’ demographic characteristics, and the use of learning strategies to support the development of specific language skills and aspects. The setting for this study was made up by a medium-sized university in the northern U.S., particularly, its undergraduate student population enrolled in foreign language courses in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures during the 2021 fall semester. They were asked to complete a survey that contained the original validated version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) instrument (Oxford, 1990) and three additional sections disclosing the participants’ demographics, technology use experience, and targeted language skills and aspects. Both descriptive and inferential quantitative methods of data analysis were used in the study to elucidate the research questions. A number of analytic procedures using SPSS® Statistics software were performed to find out detailed statistic values of the research variables. Frequencies and descriptive statistics, analysis of correlations, extreme groupings t-tests to explore the relationships between the subsets of categorical variables, and factor analysis of LLS domains were implemented to identify meaningful patterns of technology use in L2 learning. Data from this study provide a view of how the Digital Natives themselves see their technology use and approaches to learning. Research conclusions based on obtained self-reported evidence allow us to make broader recommendations for changes in the L2 teaching methodology. They may also prevent instructors from making unsupported assumptions about their students\u27 mastery of educational technology, and, thereby, from neglecting to teach students the skills they need for academic success. Keywords: digital native learner, digital technology categories, language learning strategies, L2 language skill

    Issues of recognition and participation in changing times: the inclusion of refugees in higher education in the UK

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    Higher Education has become and an increasingly diverse and globalised system in which the binaries between ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ students, exclusion and inclusion have less resonance and analytical purchase. Drawing on longitudinal, empirical research with a group of refugees in higher education, this paper will argue that higher education can be marked simultaneously by belonging and recognition, deficit and exclusion. Complex differences and inequalities remain hidden and unspoken, raising new questions and challenges for pedagogy and for equal participation of students

    Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic’s Distance Learning on Students and Teachers in Schools and in Higher Education.

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    The worldwide imposed lockdowns forced schools and universities to digitise conventional teaching in a very short time and to convert teaching and learning formats partially or completely to Distance Learning. The changes in everyday teaching brought by Distance Learning were felt worldwide. With 22 double blind peerreviewed articles of researchers reporting on 17 different countries, the editors of this book want to shed light on the effects of Distance Learning in different regions of the world. This will allow for a value-free comparison of how the COVID-19 pandemic has been addressed in education in different parts of the world and what impacts it has had, is having or may have in the future
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