Mobile learning scenarios in language teaching: perceptions of vocational and professional education students

Mobile devices play a significant role in society, in general, and a very limited one at the different levels of education. Smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices allows learning to occur anywhere, (and at) anytime. These powerful technological devices can enhance the teaching and learning processes by helping to promote collaborative and individual learning and broadening the boundaries of the classroom to different contexts of learning. Many students have mobile devices and their applications can provide access to learning outside the classroom, for greater flexibility and more dynamic learning. In this sense, the articulation of technological and methodological efforts allowed us to create learning scenarios supported by the devices that students take to the classroom (BYOD), and use them to motivate and involve students in meaningful learning. These devices offer the advantage of integrating various technologies in the curricular contents, such as in foreign and mother language courses, representing a set of possibilities of ubiquity that can have great impact on the learning process. Thus, we developed strategies with vocational and educational students’ methodologies, such as augmented reality, project-based learning, game-based learning, collaborative learning and gamification. In this text, we present the results of two mobile learning studies in teaching French as a foreign language (to 18-23 year-old-students) and Portuguese language, as a mother tongue (to 15-19 year-old-students), in vocational education, implemented as a mediation tool in education to promote the construction of learning and development of significant skills of collaborative work. From the data collection, through a questionnaire, with open and closed questions, we highlight the favorable perception of the students to the integration of mobile devices in learning, and the recognition of the benefits of the teaching strategies used throughout the year, in the increase of curricular learning.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Montclarion, April 11, 2019

Student Newspaper of Montclair State Universityhttps://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/montclarion/2338/thumbnail.jp

Communicative solutions through technology: An evaluation of ESL textbooks in Brazil

Textbooks are the main tools used by teachers and students in English as a Second Language/ English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) teaching settings; Therefore, it is important to select the most appropriate textbook that meets both teachers\u27 and students\u27 needs. This study examines three textbooks commonly used in Brazilian private schools: New Interchange (Richards, 2000), American Headway 1 (Soars & Soars, 2001), and Top Notch 1 (Saslow & Ascher, 2006), all of which are published by non-Brazilian companies, to see how well they address the urgent need for communication-based EFL textbooks in Brazil. The current study seeks to help teachers in that country become aware of the merits and weaknesses of a variety of different textbooks and choose the most appropriate one for their curricula.;The evaluation checklist, which was designed to assess the efficacy of the textbooks in this study, was organized around two research questions: 1) Do the selected textbooks provide culturally authentic and meaningful content and promote the development of communication skills through a variety of activities? and 2) What type of technology can be adopted to address weaknesses in the textbooks with regard to communicative activities? The three ESL textbooks chosen for this study were analyzed unit by unit, in a systematic fashion, using the evaluative checklist selected.;The analysis of textbooks revealed that all had some shortcomings, such as a limited number of pre-reading, pre-listening, and topic preview activities and the lack of communicative tasks whereby students must negotiate for meaning. Suggestions for improving these weaknesses through the use of three technologies (Powtoon, WhatsApp, and WikiSpaces) are presented and evaluated

There’s an App for That: Foreign Language Learning Through Mobile- and Social Media-Based Video Games

There is no doubt that the video game industry is undergoing a major upheaval, yet in spite of the recent reconceptualization of video games, educational games as a whole remain the pariah of the industry. Very little has been done in the wake of recent social and industry trends to adapt instruction of academic subjects, especially foreign language, for delivery through video games. Prior studies discussing the potential of games developed specifically for language learning have focused primarily on general principles and have offered no recommendations for platform, genre, or other aspects of design. Through an online survey as well as qualitative analysis of gaming forum discussions and student evaluations of an existing educational language game, this study goes straight to the learners and players themselves in order to determine the opinions and behavioral intentions of potential customers. By synthesizing these insights into consumer demand with theory and industry trends, this study argues that mobile or casual games that are intrinsically social and communicative hold the most potential for success, both in academia and in the industry

The Localisation of Video Games

The present thesis is a study of the translation of video games with a particular emphasis on the Spanish-English language pair, although other languages are brought into play when they offer a clearer illustration of a particular point in the discussion. On the one hand, it offers a descriptive analysis of the video game industry understood as a global phenomenon in entertainment, with the aim of understanding the norms governing present game development and publishing practices. On the other hand, it discusses particular translation issues that seem to be unique to these entertainment products due to their multichannel and polysemiotic nature, in which verbal and nonverbal signs are intimately interconnected in search of maximum game interactivity. Although this research positions itself within the theoretical framework of Descriptive Translation Studies, it actually goes beyond the mere accounting of current processes to propose changes whenever professional practice seems to be unable to rid itself of old unsatisfactory habits. Of a multidisciplinary nature, the present thesis is greatly informed by various areas of knowledge such as audiovisual translation, software localisation, computer assisted translation and translation memory tools, comparative literature, and video game production and marketing, amongst others. The conclusions are an initial breakthrough in terms of research into this new area, challenging some of the basic tenets current in translation studies thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, and its solid grounding on current game localisation industry practice. The results can be useful in order to boost professional quality and to promote the training of translators in video game localisation in higher education centres.Open Acces

The Urban Pedagogy of Walter Benjamin. Lessons for the 21st Century

Part 1: Walter Benjamin was a literary critic, essayist, translator, a collector of fine books and rare toys. His interests spanned Surrealism, Communism and theology. He grew up in Berlin at the turn of the 20th century, with Jewish parents. As an adult he visited and published travel accounts of Naples, Marseilles, Moscow and he came to know Paris intimately in the 1930s. He committed suicide in 1940, while attempting to escape from France as the Germans increased the tentacles of their occupation. Of his acquaintances, Brecht is probably the most famous, to scholars of the social sciences his at times fraught friendship with Adorno is often mentioned. He wrote essays on Kafka, Baudelaire, Brecht, Karl Kraus, technologies of mass reproduction, language, violence, photography, the storyteller and Surrealism. He wrote two academic dissertations, one on Goethe and one on allegory and its role in German tragedy. The latter was never accepted as his habilitationsschrift and resulted in his never qualifying as a university lecturer. He turned his attentions elsewhere: made a series of radio programs for children, retreated to libraries to research his never completed Arcades Project and wrote pieces for a number of journals. With such a varied set of concerns it is not surprising that since his death he has attracted the attentions of several generations of professional scholars and political activists, including media specialists, linguists, committed revolutionaries, theologians and students of urbanism. Modernists, antimodernists and post-modernists have tried to claim him for their respective causes. This collection thus appears as one further attempt to appropriate his work for a distinct cause, the study of culture in an urban environment, where the weighting is towards pedagogy, But, not a pedagogy by any means limited to classroom studies, instead one spilling over, into the education and experience of urban life. To become in short a handbook, constructed after the principle of montage, for those wishing to explore urban environments, intoxicated and inspired by Benjamin. How might educationalists and those interested in the study of cultural life read the work of Walter Benjamin? His essays, aphorisms and unfinished texts span numerous themes and can easily take on the appearance of a fragmented and esoteric set of concerns. The following entries have been crafted with the intention of developing insights drawn from these fragments and telescoping them into the present. Thus, generating a rupture or shock as the subsequent confrontation stops the time of the present, as we live it today, and an opportunity is created for the instigation of the educationally new and memorable. It is a mimetic project looking to found dialectical images not upon the return of the “educationally same”, but on the return of the “educationally new”. A critical commentary then, but only on the premise that Benjamin can, or should work for our particular historical juncture and interest in the role of urban pedagogy, the pedagogue and cultural studies. The essays in the three parts of this series vary in complexity, some presuppose a certain familiarity with the work of Benjamin. The accompanying critical dictionary of fragments, with entries at the beginning of each part in the series, is most clearly an introductory text presenting several of Benjamin’s key concepts, as well as applying them to a selection of contemporary socio-educational issues. The intention in the three parts is to present a number of suggestions, rather than a definitive set of final statements, on an urban pedagogy and what might have been Benjamin’s contribution to such a pedagogy for the 21st century. Part 2: In Part I, the emphasis was on Benjamin’s understanding of language, on how his views of translation might have relevance to our contemporary desire to communicate across generations and cultures. Taking these interests in communication as given, Part II is devoted to the question of change. Specifically, to how Benjamin experienced and recognised change, and most importantly, how he prepared for its interruption. He suggested the term dialectical image as a tool to achieve this latter goal. To the question of who experiences this change one of the dictionary entries suggests that it is necessary to understand Benjamin’s concept of the self. Also that, in order to understand in what direction change is going, that it is necessary to understand Benjamin’s concept of home. The essay in this Part takes up the question of violence. It is not viewed through dialectical images, which could have been a chosen strategy. Instead, the essay examines Benjamin’s personal and political understanding of violence. But, the essay does more than re-visit Benjamin, it considers how relevant his reflections, dearly paid for in an attempted suicide in the early 1930s, might be to the contemporary violence we experience in urban and other contexts and to the much voiced debate on postmodernism. Part 3: Part I of this series dealt with the topics of language and communication, Part II with the question of change, specifically its instigation and connection with dialectics and violence, this third and final Part builds upon these foundations to address most directly what the urban means in terms of the experience of moving through urban space. Benjamin looked to the poet Baudelaire and figures such as the prostitute and the rag picker for inspiration. Benjamin is for many, most known for his reflections on the flâneur strolling through the arcades. In attention to the small details of different kinds of flâneur Benjamin anticipated the work of Goffman on demeanour and the management of identity. As to the experience of moving through urban space he explored how perception could be altered through different kinds of intoxication and alienation. These topics are never far below the surface of more recent commentators and flâneurs, such as the International Situationists devoted to psycho-geography, De Certeau as he walks and writes pedestrian narratives and Iain Sinclair in his noticeably bitter reflections on the ‘tattered’ urban fabric of London. As with Part I and II, this Part includes a Dictionary of Critical Fragments to introduce the reader to relevant aspects of Benjamin’s work. The accompanying essays are the seeds of a new generation influenced by Benjamin, following in his footsteps and wishing to botanise the asphalt

The use of digital tools in pre-service teachers' professional development towards linguistic diversity in primary education

As language diversity in education gradually increases, several challenges for primary school teachers arise. According to previous studies, there are not many adequate teacher training programs that prepare teachers in linguistically diverse classrooms and, therefore, teachers that teach pupils with linguistically/culturally diverse backgrounds highly depend on their own engagement with plurilingualism. This shows the need for initial plurilingual(-oriented) pre-service teacher training and in-service teachers’ continuing professional development that focus on acquiring language awareness and obtaining strategies for promoting and recognizing linguistic diversity in the classroom. In addition, most teachers feel the need for further professionalization and tools to help them manage and acknowledge the diversity in their classrooms. Through a pre-post-intervention design, this study examined a) the effects of digital tools for teacher professionalization for plurilingual education on pre-service teachers’ attitudes and knowledge, and (b) how AR-games can be used to further language awareness and openness towards plurilingualism of pre-service teachers and their pupils. The participants reported that the digital tools contributed to their knowledge of linguistic diversity in the classroom, as well as ways to implement plurilingualism in their teaching practices and further language awareness

New media practices in India: bridging past and future, markets and development

This article provides a review of the academic and popular literature on new media practices in India, focusing on the country’s youth's use of mobile phones and the Internet, as well as new media prosumption. One particular feature of the Indian case is the confluence of commercial exploitation of new media technologies and their application for development purposes in initiatives that aim to bring these technologies to marginalized segments of the Indian population. Technology usage in turn is shaped by the socioeconomic location of the user, especially in regards to gender and caste. The potential of new media technologies to subvert such social stratifications and associated norms has inspired much public debate, which is often carried out on the Internet, giving rise to an online public sphere. In all of the writings reviewed here, the tension surrounding new media technologies as a meeting place of the old and the new in India is paramount

Virtual Reality Game Classroom Implementation: Teacher Perspectives and Student Learning Outcomes

This study explored the influence of the virtual reality game (VRG) House of Languages on the ESL vocabulary acquisition of intermediate school students and establish how VR technology aids in improving the ESL vocabulary skills. A quasi-experimental design helped determine the impact of the VR use intervention on the learning process over the traditional ESL vocabulary acquisition method. Participation of 64 students divided randomly into an experimental group and control group; each group contained 32 students and their teacher from a local suburban intermediate school in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The findings from this study of independent t-tests at the end of experimental period indicated that students using the VR game House of Languages had greater achievement in learning vocabulary than those using the traditional method in learning vocabulary. The findings of paired t-tests indicated that the students in both the experimental group and control group scored higher in the post-test compared to their pre-test scores. Also, the descriptive statistics used to analyze teacher’ and students’ perceptions surveys indicate a perceived usefulness of VRG in the learning process. In spite of the fact that the participants of this study were intermediate school students, the VR technology made it applicable to primary school and high school students. So, it would be essential to create awareness among the educators that the use of the new VR technology as an effective vocabulary acquisition method in learning process should be engaged in all K12 stages not only to improve the vocabulary acquisition but to go beyond that to enhance the degree of achievement

How to Analyze the Potential of Digital Games for Human Rights Education

Serious games that address topics related to human rights education have become increasingly available since the launch of Escape from Woomera in 2003, a game that raises awareness of the plight of refugees. A majority of serious games in the field of human rights focus on topics related to refugees and poverty in order to raise awareness and evoke empathy for the groups depicted. The paper introduces the Serious Games Design Assessment (SGDA) Framework as a tool to find out if a certain game might be used to achieve the objective the designer intended when designing the game. Using the game Bury Me, My Love, which shows the journey of a Syrian woman wanting to escape to Europe, the approach is explained in detail. The conclusion of the game-analysis shows that Bury Me, My Love can be regarded as a successful example of a serious game that introduces and engages the player in what it means to leave your home country as all game-design elements support the purpose. Keywords: human rights; games for change; serious games; game-design; teaching