Technology and Foreign Language Learning

I believe that technology is a wonderful asset to have in any classroom, but especially in a foreign language classroom. Our future students will undoubtedly be more tech-savvy than this generation is as technology keeps advancing as such a rapid pace; therefore it will be even more a part of their lifestyle and teaching should be adjusted accordingly to keep up with the times. My particular article that I was assigned to read was “Promoting intercultural exchanges with blogs and podcasting: a study of Spanish-American telecollaboration” and I believe that the type of technology and media mentioned in this article would be something I, and other teachers, would definitely try to incorporate into their classroom. The use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) is only getting more popular in our everyday lives but we also see its usefulness in foreign language education. I believe that these types of tools – blogs, podcasting, social media connections, etc. --- are an asset, but shouldn’t necessarily have to replace traditional tools. For example, students may find it very helpful to listen to a native speaker talk about a concept through a podcast to get a new perspective and to get used to a different accent, but they should also be working just as hard in the classroom with face-to-face discussion where they aren’t hiding behind their screens, so to speak.

                As stated above, I personally feel that social networking tools are awesome and provide an opportunity to dig deeper into a topic that may not be fully discussed in a classroom. For me, I’m not always the one to participate in classroom discussions but I do have an opinion and it makes it easier to share it from the comfort of my own home and putting it on the internet on a blog, for example. Even over the past few years, our country has been rapidly turning to online responses, from business emails to now tweeting about popular television shows and sharing thoughts with the rest of the world. With language teaching, this helps us future educators because we can simulate real-life situations with social networking tools, share authentic materials that we discover online, and at the same time our students can learn from it all at once and have a lengthy discussion with each other. The message that I’m trying to convey here is that putting not only discussions online, but tools like articles about real people, podcasts with native speakers, thought-provoking tweets, are all things that contribute to a learning environment in which we can show our students that this language is a useful thing to know, or else we could not have access to these materials; essentially the options are limitless when you incorporate technology.

                Regarding the Second Life language learning, I think that this is a great opportunity for students to interact with real native speakers and practice their L2. This is a great tool that would surely speed up the learning process and gives an opportunity to students who cannot necessarily practice their L2 where they live --- there aren’t many opportunities to practice Spanish in rural New Hampshire! I think this idea is awesome, I’ve never seen anything like it before and I don’t really have anything negative to say about it!