Hey Siri: Should #language, , and follow me be taught?: A historical review of evolving communication conventions across digital media environments and uncomfortable questions for language teachers

This article presents a study on novel language forms and uses across evolving digital environments, and questions whether emerging digital communication conventions should have a place in language education. The study was motivated by the deepening gap between the content of and approaches to language instruction evident in popular mobile-(assisted) language learning (MALL) apps and the sophisticated evolutions in digital communication over the past 30 years. A team of researchers conducted an environmental scan to locate academic journals publishing on digitally-mediated language and language teaching/learning applications, and to determine topical themes and discussions. This scan was followed by a collaborative in-depth focused literature review to document technological advances and evolutionary changes in social communication across the lifespan of the WWW. The authors posit that language teaching theory and practice must attend to digital convergence and posthumanism, and pose uncomfortable questions for the language teaching profession, such as: What is the place of conversational digital agents in language teaching? Should new media grammar forms be specifically taught? Who is the arbiter of appropriate language use in digital communication

Mobile Language Learning: The Medium is ^not the Message

This paper repositions McLuhan’s (1964/1965) extension theory of technology in the context of mobile (-assisted) language learning (MALL), and explores whether and how the medium (i.e., the mobile device) impacts the message (i.e., the target language) and the means by which it is taught in MALL. A survey of recommended commercial MALL apps generated four top-ranked apps, which were reviewed, then trialed in an autoethnographic study of learning Italian to explore how language, communication, and language pedagogy were theorized, enacted, and assessed in each app. On the whole, MALL apps were found to repackage outdated language teaching pedagogies, and failed to capitalize on the affordances of mobile connection apart from piecemeal incorporation of gamification strategies and social media links. The article concludes with a call for professional educators to harness, not just consume, mobile technologies towards informed design-oriented MALL pedagogies.

Elementary School Language and Literacy Education for Civic Engagement: An Evolving Playbook for Postmodern Times

This paper argues for the need to postmodernize literacy education for civic engagement in an emerging new world order where humans are globally-connected in an invisible digital dimension, yet physically dispersed in greater degrees of complexity. The paper summarizes a university-school collaborative learning community’s evolving playbook on experimental multimodal and plurilingual language and literacy education, and illustrates project-based learning, inclusion of children’s linguistic and cultural knowledge in classroom learning, immersive ludic activities, collaborative problem-solving, and agentive participation in an elementary school classroom project

Diary of an Edu-Tourist in Costa Rica: An Autoethnographical Account of Learning Spanish

This article presents an autoethnographical account of my foray into Spanish immersion education in Costa Rica as a professor of multilingual education at a university in Canada. This language-learning journey was inspired by curiosity about the growing trend for Internet marketing of second-language learning as a form of tourism, which I label edu-tourism. I map the course of my edu-tourism experience, contemplating second-language learning in a local context, describing professionalism in private language teaching institutes, comparing pedagogical practice across various Spanish-as-a-second-language teachers, and documenting my experiential sociopragmatic acquisition of textbook Spanish

Mobile Language Learning: The Medium is ^not the Message

This paper repositions McLuhan’s (1964/1965) extension theory of technology in the context of mobile (-assisted) language learning (MALL), and explores whether and how the medium (i.e., the mobile device) impacts the message (i.e., the target language) and the means by which it is taught in MALL. A survey of recommended commercial MALL apps generated four top-ranked apps, which were reviewed, then trialed in an autoethnographic study of learning Italian to explore how language, communication, and language pedagogy were theorized, enacted, and assessed in each app. On the whole, MALL apps were found to repackage outdated language teaching pedagogies, and failed to capitalize on the affordances of mobile connection apart from piecemeal incorporation of gamification strategies and social media links. The article concludes with a call for professional educators to harness, not just consume, mobile technologies towards informed design-oriented MALL pedagogies

Rewriting traditional tales as multilingual narratives at elementary school: Problems and progress

For several years children at Joyce Public School have been rewriting traditional stories from localized cultural and linguistic perspectives, creating innovative, individualized narrative forms with digital technology. Our experimental multiliteracies research project is a collaboration of school and university teachers and researchers following a guided action research paradigm. The study has as one of its stated objectives the development of multilingual story retelling as a means of inexpensively supporting home language maintenance, fostering language awareness and aiding English as a second language learning in a community of high linguistic diversity. This paper tells our story thus far, focusing on how we have approached the creation of multilingual stories in heterogeneous, urban language classes, discussing stumbling blocks that have forced creative problem-solving and showcasing successes. Depuis plusieurs années, les enfants de l’école Joyce Public School réécrivent des contes traditionnels à partir de perspectives culturelles et linguistiques localisées, créant des formes narratives innovatrices et personnalisées avec des technologies numériques. Notre projet de recherche expérimental sur la multilitératie est le fruit d’une collaboration entre des enseignants de l’école et des professeurs et chercheurs universitaires sur la base d’un paradigme de recherche-action orientée. Un des objectifs de la recherche est le développement de la réécriture multilingue de contes en tant que moyen peu onéreux de soutenir la préservation de la langue parlée à la maison et de favoriser la conscience métalinguistique de même que l’apprentissage de l’anglais comme langue seconde dans une communauté à forte diversité linguistique. Le présent article rend compte de l’état actuel de notre recherche et discute de notre approche de la création de récits multilingues dans des classes de langue hétérogènes en milieu urbain et des embûches qui ont engendré une résolution de problèmes créative tout en mettant en relief un certain nombre de réussites

What Four Skills? Redefining Language and Literacy Standards for ELT in the Digital Era

Over the last 15 years, the rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) has facilitated a revolution in how we use language. Online environments have facilitated creative and variable spelling using code hybridization and stylistic use of mechanical conventions such as punctuation and capitalization, lexical coinages, new genres and conversational shapes, new social networks, and digital identities. The traditional four-skills paradigm of text-based grammar study framing English-language teaching curricula no longer adequately describes language and literacies in the Information Era. This article examines changing language conventions in English used in online environments, theorizing directions for new and variable language conventions. The article makes the case that understanding relative language standards in digital environments is essential for teaching and testing appropriate and contemporary English language literacies