Fostering Intellectual Investment and Foreign Language Learning Through Role-Immersion Pedagogy

Recent scholarship has highlighted the importance of increasing the intellectual viability of lower-level foreign language (FL) study while facilitating connections between academic practice, learners’ lives, and global communities. This article reports on a content-based role-immersion simulation (RIS) designed to incite a critical orientation toward language learning, as 16 postsecondary intermediate Spanish learners adopted alternate identities and took part in a culturally grounded scenario centering on resolving problems related to drug trafficking and violence at the U.S.-Mexico border. Self-reported data from this qualitative study reveal that a majority of participants considered the simulation to approximate an intellectually stimulating real-world immersive encounter; however, some learners approached it as a language-learning exercise. The article elaborates on criteria that contributed to these divergent perceptions and concludes with implications for foreign language curriculum design

Communicative 2.0 : video games and digital culture in the foreign language classroom

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2006.I explore two core concepts in today's youth entertainment culture that will increasingly become central in future attempts to design affordable foreign language learning materials that hope to bridge the chasm between education and foreign popular culture. In the process, I outline a series of example applications that apply these concepts to developing rich foreign language materials -- starting with more experimental/long-term approaches such as using video game modding techniques to make language learning friendly video games and ending with more concrete, ready-to-go, applications like extending open source content management applications. The first concept I look at is that of "Remix culture." In short, Remix culture describes the way in which youth culture today more visibly orients itself around creating media by extracting component pieces from other people's media creations, then connecting them together to form something new. In the video game world this phenomena is more specifically termed 'modding.' In this process, amateur fans take a professional commercial game title and then modify it in creative ways that the original designers may not have considered.(cont.) Outside of video games, we see terms like "web 2.0" used to describe technologies that allow website viewers to play a role in authoring additions to the sites they are reading, or "mashups" where users use programming interfaces to rapidly create web content by mashing together pieces from different sources. The second emerging concept critical for curricular designers to follow is that of transmedia storytelling. Traditionally, one might assume a model in which distinct media forms are used to serve distinct cultural practices: television or novels tell stories, video games are for play, blogs for socializing and textbooks for learning. While initially this may have been the case, as each of the media forms above have evolved, they have expanded to cover multiple other cultural practices, often by extending across other media forms. By following the evolution of the interactions between these various media forms and activities within entertainment industries, we can find valuable insight when forecasting their possible interactions in the education industry.by Ravi Purushotma.S.M

Mobile and Accessible Learning for MOOCs

Many modern web-based systems provide a ‘responsive’ design that allows material and services to be accessed on mobile and desktop devices, with the aim of providing ubiquitous access. Besides offering access to learning materials such as podcasts and videos across multiple locations, mobile, wearable and ubiquitous technologies have some additional affordances that may enable new forms of learning on MOOCs. We can divide these into two categories: firstly, context-sensitive features including delivery of content for a specific location, enabling a seamless continuity of learning across settings, and linking people in a location with others in a virtual representation of that place; secondly social learning opportunities to connect people as they move within and across locations, to enable crowd-sourced learning. In this paper we explore these aspects of mobile and accessible learning for MOOCs, drawing on examples from MOOC courses, mobile toolkits, and crowd-sourced learning sites

Using Technology-Supported Enrichment Activities to Extend Student Learning in a Chinese as a Foreign Language Classroom

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether exposing middle school students to content above their ability level produced significant differences in students’ confidence in their Chinese as a foreign language competence in each of the following four areas: reading, listening, speaking, and learning vocabulary. Participants (N = 30) were sixth and seventh graders. Results of paired t-test analyses indicated that there was no significant difference in student confidence in Chinese reading competence, t(30) = 0.78, p = 0.22; in Chinese speaking competence, t(30) = -0.50, p = 0.31; or to learn Chinese vocabulary, t(30) = -0.80, p = 0.21. However, there was a significant difference in student confidence in ability to learn Chinese listening, t(30) = -1.78, p \u3c 0.05. It is suggested that exposing students to content well above their ability level can increase their confidence in ability to learn Chinese listening

Exploring the Strategies of Raising Motivation among ESL students in a non-English speaking context

Motivation, undoubtedly, plays a very crucial role in any learning process including second and foreign language learning. Such cruciality positions the maintaining and motivation raising in the integral part of learning and more so in the currently growing and more technologically advanced learning environments. This paper conceptually discussed the motivation raising strategies which have been employed toward English as second language (ESL) learners in two different dimensions, which are those strategies which depend on the role of an ESL teacher (i.e. pedagogical and material selection) and those which do not (i.e. parents, school institutions, media, and gender difference). Despite the existence of other external factors, we argue that teacher plays the decisive role on ESL learners’ motivation. From the critical review and more extended discussion, it is found that teacher’s awareness toward the cruciality of students’ motivation influences the strategies used by the teachers in order to raise motivation. The paper also re-emphasises the urgent needs for a more learner-centred learning as it is believed to have positive impact for learners’ motivation. This paper concludes by highlighting the significant contributions of the insights discussed within this study, especially for ESL teaching practitioners

A Phenomenological Study of Graduate Chinese Students’ English Writing Challenges

More students from China are looking to the United States for learning opportunities. However, such students have serious English writing deficiencies. This is due to significant differences between the two languages. This phenomenological study of five Chinese, graduate level students in the United States, informs us of these issues and provides a basis upon which we can explore viable instructional strategies to deal with such issues. The key findings suggest that the participants feel marginalized due to English language deficiencies, which is complicated by a deficiently structured English language instructional system. Based on these findings, several themes are presented that underpin the core challenges faced by the participants, as well as participants’ views of desirable support mechanisms to help their English writing process

The Construction of Cosmopolitan Glocalities in Secondary Classrooms through Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in the Social Sciences

Our article argues for content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in the social sciences, as part of a new literacy towards 21st century challenges at school. At first, we will show how multilingualism is closely juxtaposed with global discourses in a worldwide network of glocalities. Thereafter, for the conceptual framework of the suggested pedagogy, we explain why cosmopolitanism must constitute an integral part thereof, accompanying the genesis of classroom glocalities. The heart of our competence model for CLIL in the social sciences fosters the promotion of global discourse competence with adolescent students. In short, this learning aim is a hybrid of subject and language learning, incorporating the merits of language didactics as well as “21st century skills”. Finally, in the last step, we will present #climonomics, a simulation of a multilingual EU parliamentary debate about climate change and climate action for secondary students. This example intends to demonstrate how multilingualism through CLIL amplifies the magnitude of global discourses during a simulation yet realistic setting. It should provide ‘food for thought’ for similar initiatives in research and teaching, to encourage the facilitation of cosmopolitan visions in classroom glocalities

Finnish Ice Hockey Organisations as Multilingual Work Environments

This thesis studies the phenomenon of workplace multilingualism in the Finnish professional ice hockey community. The primary research material of the thesis consists of four interviews with members of the professional community: two staff members of team organisations, an international player, and a referee. The interviews focussed on gathering the respondents’ subjective experiences of multilingualism in their everyday work environment. They were asked to identify which languages were used in their work environment and what strategies and policies were in place to manage multilingualism. The study also explored how these individuals viewed possible difficulties and advantages which may arise from the multilingual nature of their work community. The interviews were analysed using a qualitative content analysis approach. The analysis revealed that the use of English as a lingua franca in parallel with Finnish was common in the organisations the interviewees represented. Self-translation and non-professional translations by members of the community were used to bridge gaps in participants’ language skills. The use of professional translators was not considered cost-effective or practical in the everyday ice hockey environment. While concrete multilingualism policies were not implemented, and management of multilingualism seemed to rely on implicit assumptions rather than explicit coordination, the interviewees were in general satisfied with the current state of language management in their community. Despite this, more efficient management of language issues in the future would be beneficial for ice hockey organisations not only from a practical viewpoint but possibly also in terms of facilitating better athletic achievements

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