COMMENTARY: THE PROMISE OF DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP IN SLA RESEARCH AND LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY

Although digital scholarship is now well established in academia, there is no consensus about how it should be evaluated for tenure and promotion. Is digital publication acceptable as a way to disseminate research? Is the digital medium appropriate for conducting research? To what degree does creating digital materials--from research instruments to pedagogical materials--advance knowledge and thereby constitute scholarship? Recent calls for open access to scholarship (i.e., free publication and dissemination) through digital media (see Chanier, 2007) are stimulating a debate that hinges on just such questions. In that debate, departments holding traditional views hesitate to recognize digital media as scholarship while others hold that digital media promises to enrich scholarly exchanges. In 2001, the Modern Language Association entered the controversy by offering its Guidelines for Evaluating Work with Digital Media in the Modern Languages (MLA, 2001). These Guidelines are the work of the Committee on Information Technology, formerly the MLA Committee on Computers and Emerging Technologies in Teaching and Research. They aim to help departments achieve an informed perspective on this new scholarly medium. In this commentary, I offer additional thoughts to the debate by considering (a) how digital media necessitates a redefinition of scholarship in second language acquisition (SLA) research and language pedagogy, (b) what criteria might be used in evaluating digital scholarship, and (c) how digital media enhances and accelerates SLA scholarship beyond the possibilities of print publication

Requesting help in French: Developing pragmatic features during study abroad

This study is part of a larger project looking at the development of language ability among study abroad students in France. After confirming that students in the larger study made significant improvement in their proficiency and in their confidence when speaking in French, the current study looked at the development of pragmatic competence of six students. Using role plays from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), the study looked at requests for help, focusing on markers of formal address and direct versus indirect request forms used by students before studying abroad and at the end of their study abroad programs. The results showed that students increased their use of formal forms of address, direct requests, and indirect requests. Only students whose proficiency improved moved toward favoring indirect requests over direct requests.A heavy reliance on est-ce que questions dominated direct requests, especially for students whose proficiency did not improve. These findings encourage language program directors to reflect on how they might better prepare students to acquire pragmatic features before they go abroad, as well as continue pragmatic development when students reenter language programs after studying abroad

Factoring in previous study of other foreign languages when designing introductory courses

A theory of articulation for foreign language (FL) programs must consider factors that differentiate students in courses.This empirical study identifies one factor affecting horizontal and vertical articulation of first-semester French, Spanish, and Italian courses: whether students new to the language of the current class have experience studying another FL at the post-secondary level.This new variable—no other college language (NOCL) versus other college language (OCL)—was used to determine (1) whether NOCL and OCL students differ in anxiety level and plans to continue language study, (2) if anxiety levels differ between OCLs who have studied another Romance language and those who have studied a non-Romance language, and (3) classroom factors that foster comfort. Students completed a questionnaire including the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope 1986), MacIntyre and Gardner Anxiety Subscales (1989, 1994), demographic information, and an open question. Statistical analyses revealed that although neither group was extremely anxious, NOCLs were significantly more anxious than OCLs and NOCLs taking Spanish experienced significantly more anxiety than those taking French and Italian. There were significant differences for NOCLs and OCLs on the Input, Processing, and Output subscales, with significantly higher Input anxiety for Spanish than Italian students and significantly higher Processing anxiety for Spanish than for French or Italian students. No significant difference in anxiety was found between OCLs who had studied a Romance language and those who had studied a non-Romance language.No significant difference was found between NOCLs and OCLs in their plans to continue studying the language. Student-identified sources pointed to the importance of instructors and classmates in creating a comfortable classroom. Interview comments from randomly selected students reinforced these findings. The chapter concludes by suggesting that this new factor be considered part of interdisciplinary articulation:each language, like each discipline a student studies, affects learning other FLs subsequently

Reasons Students Take Courses in Less Commonly Taught and More Commonly Taught Languages

Although postsecondary enrollments in modern foreign languages in the United States continue to be dominated by the more commonly taught languages (CTLs), recent changes in enrollments, as documented in Furman, Goldberg & Lusin (2008), show encouraging trends for the less commonly taught languages (LCTLs). The overall increase in foreign language enrollments from 2002-2006 was 12.1%, with almost all of the 204 LCTLs included in the report showing above-average increases in enrollments in that same time period. In comparison, the percentage increase in enrollments in CTLs was below average. (See Figure 1 based on Table 1a, Furman, Goldberg & Lusin 2008, p. 68)