Triadic scaffolds: Tools for teaching english language learners with computers

Active communication with others is key to human learning. This straightforward premise currently undergirds much theory and research in student learning in general, and in second language and literacy learning in particular. Both of these academic areas have long acknowledged communication's central role in successful learning with the exact intricacies of instructional conversations and the forms these take having been the focus of close analysis (Cazden, 1988; Gee, 2001; Nystrand, Gamoran, Kachur, & Prendergast, 1997; Tharp & Galimore, 1991; van Lier, 2000). In this examination of computer-supported classroom discourse, specific forms of instructional conversation employed by a veteran elementary teacher of beginning-level English language learners (ELLs) are examined. The focal teacher orchestrates instructional conversations around computers with children whose immediate needs are to learn the English language, specifically the "language of school" and the concomitant social complexities implied in order to participate in mainstream instructional activity. With these goals shaping language and literacy activity, their ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) teacher makes use of the computer to capture, motivate, and anchor learner attention to, and render comprehensible the target language they hear and see on and around the computer screen. The anatomy of the activity she orchestrates around the computer and the language she uses to support it -- labeled here as triadic scaffolds -- are the focus of analysis. Forms and functions of triadic discourse (teacher, learner, computer) are examined for their potential unique role in second language and literacy instruction

Using the World Wide Web to integrate Spanish language and culture: A pilot study

This pilot study investigates the potential role of Internet resources as a means to gain a deeper sense of the culture of the Spanish-speaking world for college students. Thirteen college students enrolled in the first quarter of Basic Spanish were instructed to utilize the Web to complete five activities that expanded on the aspects of culture studied in the class. Data collected demonstrate that the Web is a suitable tool to increase language and cultural knowledge, as well as a means to increase motivation. Pedagogical implications are discussed

Teaching languages online: Professional vision in the making

This experimental study examined the design and effectiveness of embodied interactions for learning. The researchers designed a digital learning environment integrating body joint mapping sensors to teach novice learners Chinese characters, and examined whether the embodied interaction would lead to greater knowledge acquisition in language learning compared to the conventional mouse-based interaction. Fifty-three adult learners were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The study adopted a pretest, an immediate posttest, and a delayed posttest on knowledge acquisition. Although higher scores were found for the embodied interaction group in both posttests, only the delayed posttest showed a statistically significant group difference. The findings suggested that active embodied actions lead to better knowledge retention compared with the passive visual embodiment. The body-moving process works as an alternative and complementary encoding strategy for character understanding and memorization by associating the semantic meaning of a character with the construction of a body posture

Guidelines on Conducting and Reporting on CALL Research

These slides are based on workshops presented at CALICO Conferences by (current and previous) editors of LLT

THE PRESENTATION OF SELF IN EVERYDAY ETHER: A CORPUS ANALYSIS OF STUDENT SELF-TELLINGS IN ONLINE GRADUATE COURSES

This study examines the patterns and substance of student self introductions in nine fully online graduate courses in education. A composite of social identity frameworks with an emphasis on language as the tool for self-presentation is first developed to guide the analysis and interpretation of these data. In particular Sfard and Prusack’s operationalization of the telling of identity, along with Bruner’s construct of turning points in self-tellings are discussed and employed as analytic lenses. The question of how, in a tightly defined social/academic context, adults use written language to present themselves to others is taken up through content analysis supported by linguistic concordancing. Two hundred twenty-three “Meet Your Classmates” entries are examined for their form and content. Entries composed by preservice teachers, inservice teachers, and doctoral students reveal differences regarding academic and professional identity-telling with the tenacity of institutionally situating and situated forces prevailing

The Dynamic Integration of Content and Language during Bilingual Discussion of Mathematics Word Problems

This study explores the discourse strategies adopted by a bilingual tutor to integrate content and second language learning, and support a student with limited English proficiency while discussing a set of word problems. Our findings reveal an integrated curriculum space wherein instructional focus oscillates between language and content. Pedagogical scaffolding was accomplished through strategic interspersing of pedagogical supports characterised by a linguistic focus (attention to words exchanged) or an epistemic focus (attention on mathematical ideas). Central to linguistically focused strategies was the deployment of oral translation techniques (literal translation, borrowing, modulation, and equivalence). By contrast, epistemically focused strategies entailed metaphorical gesticulation of abstract concepts in a more concrete spatialised form. It is argued that learning content in a second language requires more than vocabulary instruction at the beginning of content lessons. A more flexible approach is needed wherein English learners are provided with just-in-time support as new language naturally emerges