Technology in the Language Classroom

Reading about the different types of technology that can be used in the classroom and their importance to students learning allowed me to further understand why teachers need to utilize technology to improve the learning process for students.  Throughout my time at UNH, I have only had two Spanish classes that really utilized technology in one form or another.  Only one other class used Blogs and Voicethreads, but other than that, I have only had to use my computer to watch a Spanish movie before class so we could discuss the film in class.

The role of technology is very important in the classroom.  It allows students to use fun and interesting methods to learn more about the material from class.  Most students highly enjoy using technology in their free time, so it makes sense to get through to them with technology.  Students can learn new computer and internet programs easily, because they are so accustomed to using them.  

In many ways, technology allows students to learn the information or use their knowledge to co-collaborate, revise their own work and view the work of other students.  While reviewing the work of others, students can see many of the mistakes that they have made in their own work and furthermore, learn from this to make corrections.  Technology also allows students to use all four parts of learning a target language: writing, listening, reading and speaking.  Voicethreads, for instance allow students to record their own presentations and listen to other students' presentations so that they can further their speaking and listening skills.  There are a multitude of ways that students can improve their reading and writing skills using technology.  Using blogs, for example, allows students to solely use the target language for reading other students' work and writing their own essays or long term assignments.

I believe that technology is something that every classroom needs to utilize.  It is a part of everyone's lives and is becoming a bigger part of life every single day.  It is important also, to remain current with your teaching so that students can connect with the teacher and the material.  Using out-dated textbooks or activities can cause students to be bored or tired with the topic.  When students are using new and exciting programs on the computer, they become more and more interested in what they are learning.

In my article for this week, which was about the usage of Wikis, it discussed many important ideas about the use of technology.  Wikis allow students to read and correct the work of other students as well as revise their own work throughout the semester.  It is a great tool for students to have because they can gain understanding of the language through real writing and reading from their peers.

Digital Technology for L2 Learning and Teaching

I think using technology in the classroom can greatly increase students' proficiency and confidence in their L2 learning, when used correctly.  After reading the article, I learned that the use of one particular online resource, VoiceThread, helped students not only to increase their oral proficiency and content knowledge, but also helped them to increase their cultural knowledge by completing digital news stories on current events in the Hispanic world.  Resources like VoiceThread are useful tools in the classroom because they allow students to use the knowledge they have, but also encourage them to self-critique and improve their L2 skills.  By hearing their own voices on these digital news stories, and by listening to their peers' assignments, the students could improve their proficiency by correcting their won mistakes and learning from the mistakes of others.  This constant self-improvement was a vital benefit of this online system. 
Having been a part of multiple classes which used online tools to promote L2 learning, I can say from experience that some tools are better than others.  There are many resources on the web that can be used to aide students in their L2 learning such as blogs, wikis, videos, conferencing systems, recording systems (such as VoiceThread as used in this article), and others.  In my experience, the key to using these resources, and indeed gaining the full potential of them, is to use them in ways which encourage new thinking and in-depth participation, as opposed to using them simply as substitutes for basic homework.  When used incorrectly, these online resources become a burden and a hindrance for the students, who see the work as busy work, something to be done without critical thinking solely for the sake of doing it.  I have had classes where the online homework was simply a way for the teacher to reduce their carbon footprint, and I believe that we students suffered because of that.  The online work was not though-provoking, interesting, or engaging, and, for me, proved to be detrimental because of these shortcomings. 
I think Second Life would be a useful resource for L2 learners who either cannot access good classes or teachers, or for L2 learners who simply want another way to improve their proficiency.  This might be a fun way for a teacher to encourage students to improve their proficiency by assigning a certain amount of time on Second Life as a semester- or year-long project.  Second Life might also be useful for L2 learners to keep up with or improve their L2 during breaks or time away from school, such as during the summer or during a semester with no L2 classes. 

Blogging, and Technology in General

I read the article entitled “Fostering reflective writing and interactive exchange through blogging in an advanced language course” by Lina Lee (!). After reading this article, I would definitely say that certain types of technology can be beneficial to students learning foreign languages, but I do not think that all types of technology/social media/social networking tools would be beneficial for this purpose.

            Since my first Spanish class at UNH, I have felt that blogs written in the target language are beneficial to foreign language students. As I read in the article, blogs allow students to reflect, write and read at their own pace, and since the learner is in charge of deciding what to write, how much to write, and when to publish it online, blogs promote learners’ autonomy. The open-ended nature of blogs allows learners to be creative, and collective group blogs allow learners to see multiple views on a subject. While I feel that blogs are, for the most part, very beneficial to students, I have seen their disadvantages in my own experiences with blogging. As mentioned in the article, some students’ blog posts on a certain topic will end up becoming very repetitive. For example, if the assignment was to watch a Spanish movie and then create a blog post to answer a few questions created by your professor, sometimes many of the students’ posts end up sounding very similar to each other. Another drawback to blogging in the target L2 language is when professors want their students to critique or give linguistic feedback to their peers regarding the blog posts. In my own experience I have found that most students simply say what they liked about the blog posts of their peers. While compliments are all well and good, they are not always constructive. I do not think that teachers/professors should expect their students to provide linguistic feedback to their peers because, like I read in the article, many students lack the confidence in their own L2 abilities to give constructive feedback to their peers. I think that students should read each other’s blog posts and comment on them if they choose, but I do not think they should be required to provide constructive, editing-like feedback to peers.

            With all of the new advances in technology coming out every year, every month and every day I feel like technology will continue to become more and more incorporated into the ways that students learn in this generation and in the generations to come. Students as young as elementary school aged are already navigating around smart phones, uploading pictures and videos to facebook and youtube, and reading stories on their kindles, nooks, tablets and laptops. Students are posting, blogging, listening and responding to different people from different places and cultures all around the world. When you really stop and think about it, the degree of connectedness that technology has provided is really quite amazing! With that being said however, I do not think every technological advance should be used for foreign language instruction. I think blogging is a good method, and I think some ways of connecting students to native speakers would serve as good methods (ex. emailing, facebook messaging, skyping with a “pen-pal” from the target culture). I think that teachers and professors should pick one or two technology-based methods of teaching/learning for their students to use, and they should keep it at that. If students want to explore and expand more on their own with other types of technology they should be encouraged to do so, but I think too many technological requirements could really frazzle some students who prefer more traditional methods of learning. If a class requires students to post in a blog and to contribute to their class Wiki page (like our LLC 791 class), I think that’s a reasonable expectation for all students. If a class required students to contribute to a blog, a wiki, a twitter, a facebook group, a skype account, a youtube account, and a “Second Life” account I can see where some students would get very overwhelmed. I think that if technology is used appropriately by the instructor and if the instructor knows how to create reasonable expectations for his/her students in regards to technology use, technology-based assignments can be very beneficial to many foreign language students.

            Also, in regards to using “Second Life” for language learning, I think that it is a pretty neat idea! Again, I think that teachers would need to be wary to not require their students to do too much technology-based work, but if this was used alone, in conjunction with one other tech-based assignment, or if this was used at the students’ own free will, I think this could be an extremely helpful learning tool, especially for speaking.

Technology and L2 Teaching

The article that I read this week was “Fostering Second Language Oral Communication Through Constructivist Interaction in Desktop Videoconferencing” by Lina Lee.  After reading this article, I do think that technology can be a very useful tool in teaching a second language.  First of all, the constructivist learning theory is an active, collaborative, and social learning process.  That is, learners work with others to create knowledge.  This cannot be done without actual interactions and in the case of learning a second language, the best interactions would have to be with expert speakers.  Just as this article states, there are not many opportunities for students in certain areas, in this case New England, to interact with native or expert speakers.  Primarily communication in New England is accomplished through English.  Since this is the case, other sources of authentic input and communication have to be found in order to support the constructivist learning theory.  Lee suggests and experiments with videoconferencing.  Technology utilized in this way is absolutely an asset to foreign language teaching.  Students are able to communicate with real native or expert speakers in real time.  Students must make adjustments on the spot because they do not know what to expect and they must creatively attempt to get their point across.  It simulates real communication in many ways.  Although it is not perfect, it is a lot closer to actual communication than class for maybe 3 or 4 hours a week is.  Students will hear different accents as well as develop new vocabulary that speakers from certain countries may use.  Videoconferencing could prepare learners for what abroad experiences will be like.  It would make students realize that they need to know much more than simply what they learned in the classroom.  Videoconferencing seems to be a very good way of exposing students to actual communication and beginning to provide them with real life practice.  I think it is a wonderful idea to use this type of technology.  Not all types of technology can be easily integrated into curriculum or even seen as effective, but this one on one experience is definitely worth a shot.  Native/expert speakers should be able to help students improve with not only their language use, but also their language use within a social context.  Talking and working through problems together seems like a very practical way to get language learners to truly use the language they know and to improve.

                Since I read an article about videoconferencing and agreed with the use of it, I would have to say that utilizing social networking tools in foreign language teaching can definitely be beneficial.  First of all, tools like Skype, Facebook, and twitter have the potential to connect second language learners with native speaker within seconds.  Be it written or spoken, these tools allow students to interact with people all over the world without leaving their native homes.  It may not be possible for all students to travel and gain actual expose to native speakers, and through social networking this flaw can be remedied.  As mentioned above, the use of Skype for videoconferencing seems like an extraordinary oral tool.  Written tools can be useful too however.   For example, students could chat via Facebook in real time.  This would require them to utilize reading comprehension and display their own written skills.  Not only that, but students could comment back to each other about pictures that they have posted or even activities that they plan to do.  At the same time that they practice their language skills, they might also be learning about culture by discussing what is happening in other countries or what the other person likes to do for fun.   Furthermore, these types of social networks are already familiar to students.  They grow up with this technology and it interests them.  By using such networks as a supplement to the learning process, it could possibly keep student interest and encourage them to participate directly in their own learning.  They would be able to take ownership of their second language learning.  Granted, all of this would have to be monitored by a language instructor to make sure it was being used properly.  Perhaps having a class Facebook page or constant check-in would be a good idea. 

                Finally, I thought that Second Life for Language Learning was a very interesting concept.  I like how it puts learners into real life scenarios.  Instead of just going over the vocabulary of ordering food in the classroom, students that use Second Life are actually able to simulate the situation.  It also seems to be a good tool in the fact that students are constantly practicing with expert speakers.  There is more possibility for one on one interactions than there are in a purely classroom setting.  Speakers within the virtual world will be able to correct students on the go and make them feel comfortable in a supportive learning situation.  Students will not worry about being wrong in front of an entire class, they will simply get help as they need it and they are able to enter the Second Life whenever they choose.  This way they can further their learning without the assistance of a teacher.  I think the idea of it is fantastic.  I would like to try it however before I completely make up my mind.  As someone who wants to keep improving their language skills however, I would sign up and go on almost every day.  I think that a program like this could get many students to do the same since it is a safe and even fun environment. 

Digital Technology for L2 Learning and Teaching

The technology article that I read was "Situated Learning through Social Networking Communities: The Development of Joint Enterprise, Mutual Engagement, and a Shared Repertoire" by Nicole Mills. This article described a study in which students in an intermediate French college course agreed to use Facebook as part of their course; the students were required to create fake Facebook profiles, assuming the identity of a character that they had created. All these characters "lived" in the same apartment building in Paris and interacted with each other through Facebook updates, notes, chats, etc. Personally, I would not like it if a Facebook assignment like this one was used in one of my foreign language courses but I see how it helped the students a great deal in this study. The students were able to interact with each other in a less stressful setting, focusing on using the grammar skills they had learned in class online while interacting with their peers. They also learned a great deal about the French culture, which was a great benefit of using Facebook; since the characters the students created all lived in Paris, it was necessary for the students to recognize film, music, artwork, etc. that was important to the French culture in order to interact and carry on conversations with each other. The students all learned to communicate in a rapid manner with each other, and assumed the roles of their characters in a way that both enhanced their skills in writing conversational French and writing descriptive French (i.e., the "notes" or "memoirs" the students would have their characters post on Facebook).

With what Mills calls the iGeneration becoming more and more involved with technology, it is important for education to incorporate this into the classroom in order to better engage students. Using Facebook as a part of the course curriculum also proved to be beneficial; 12 out of the 17 students who took part in this class said that the Facebook profiles made them pay more attention to grammar as they were posting in a public place that all the other students could see. This project also seemed to be beneficial in that it caused the students to engage with each other in the target language in different scenarios; some of the characters were a bit meaner than the others, some were apathetic, some were cheery, some were artistic and it was the role of the students to write on their Facebook profiles incorporating the "voice" of their character as best that they could. After reading this article, I think that Facebook is a good tool to use in learning a foreign language. Blogs and Wiki are also great tools because it allows students to collaborate and post information together, and then share ideas as a class. Skype could be a beneficial tool if a professor must travel and can't be in class so that the student can practice their speaking skills in a face to face setting with their professor or classmates. In my opinion, Twitter would not be a good way to supplement or support foreign language teaching simply because it does not allow its users to post an unlimited number of characters. It could be a good way to quickly remind students when an assignment is due, but I do not see the benefit of using it to supplement foreign language teaching.

I think that Second Life for Language Learning is a good tool for people trying to learn their L2 because it allows people from all over the world to interact with each other. It's great how teachers from the U.S., England and Australia can interact with students whom they might not otherwise have had the opportunity to instruct and they can give immediate feedback to the people who are participating in their activities. The only hinderance I can see to using this tool for L2 learners is that they can only see the cartoon characters on the screen - I think it is helpful to see the actual teacher and how they pronounce their words so that the student can imitate them in order to successfully pronounce words in the language that they are learning. Other than that, I think Second Life for Language Learning is a great method for learning a language on your own time and at your own pace and I think it is really beneficial because it places students in conversational settings with other students.

Digital Technology for L2 Learning and Teaching

The article that I read this week was “Engaging Study Abroad Students in Intercultural Learning Through Blogging and Ethnographic Interviews” by Lina Lee. Based on this article, I can see that for college students that are studying abroad, technology can be a great asset. Through Lee’s study, the students had the opportunity to express themselves based on free writing and assignment based topics at their own weekly pace and free of the stress of critique. Along with these assignments, students were to conduct interviews face to face with native speakers. Lee found that a majority of the students believed this assignment was helpful to their understanding of the target culture. As cultural understanding is one of the five C’s from the Standards of Foreign Language Learning, these assignments helped to progress the cultural understanding for the students who were studying aboard in their target language’s culture. I definitely think that technology is an asset in the classroom, especially with homework assignments. I believe that if all students have access to Internet, this can be used at any age level to communicate back and forth using the target language. Although it is not practicing oral communication, blogging requires quicker responses than essays take and allow the students to analyze their grammar usage. I think it is important that, as Lee mentions, “Carney (2007) argued that the post-comment structure of blogs results in brief exchange and lack of continuity. Thus, instructors should find ways, such as using guided questions, to engage students in reflective thinking in order to develop a deeper cultural exchange” (3) in order to maintain conversation through more than just a thread or two.

As well as blogging, I think that other forms of social media that incorporate a chat function, such as Facebook, can be helpful to students. Again, they do not have to worry as much about their oral skills, but rather their responses need to be quick and timed, but it still allows the students to visually see what they are saying and correct any grammar mistakes before sending it. Skype can also be a great tool because it can help students practice both chat functions and face to face functions. This can be particularly helpful to classrooms that do not have access to native speakers due to their geographical location. Both of these would be really helpful with classrooms that have a partner classroom in the target language. It would give both sets of L2 students a chance to practice their language. I believe that because Twitter offers such sort exchanges, it would not be as great a tool for communication, especially if students were using it to get more cultural awareness. As well, I think that Wiki is more used as a student to teacher basis. For example, in our class right now, while I read everyone else’s blogs and comment on them, I do not go and read the assignments in other people’s Wikis because I feel like that is more of a student/teacher resource than students/student.

Second Life for Language Learner looks to be a good tool because it creates people into characters that can then interact with other characters from around the world. It puts these characters in real life situations that allow them to use conversational and situational oral communication. Right now it seems that the program is only for speakers of other languages to learn English, but there must be other ones like it for L2 learners of other languages. It seems like a good idea because real teachers are also characters that lead the “students” in what to say and how to act. There is a person right there who is able to quickly help fix their grammar and pronunciation. It is very much like a phone call in that there is an immediate oral response, but you do not have to deal with the stressed of face to face interaction, like the usage of Skype might create. Although, seeing someones face as well as hearing their voice may be useful to some students because they are able to pick up on visual cues that the speaker may be presenting.

Discussion #4: Digital Technology for L2 Learning and Teaching

Based on the technology article you have read, do you feel that technology is an asset to teaching foreign languages or do you prefer not to use it? Why? How do you feel about using social networking tools, such as Blog, Wiki, Facebook, Twitter or Skype to supplement and support language teaching? Use examples to justify your answers. 

View this YouTube video and comment on the use of Second Life for Language Learning.

I think to be effective in teaching a language, the teacher must be, first and foremost, enthusiastic.  I have had a variety of teachers from different backgrounds and with different levels of proficiency and focuses.  In my experience, the classes in which I learned the most were the classes taught by teachers who enjoyed teaching and speaking the language.  I can honestly say that i only had one teacher who was not interested in the subject matter, and seemed only to work for the paycheck.  This class being a lower level university class, I don't think it slowed me down as much as it could have, but I still believe I did not learn as much as I should have in that class.

As far as the type of learning instruction, I think the cognitive-code method is the most useful for new speakers to learn as it focuses on what the student knows and applies it to new vocabulary, grammar, and concepts.  One characteristic of this method mentioned in the book is the teacher's ability to promote "creative use of the language."  I think this is vital to new language learning because it provides the student with an outlet for the knowledge they have gained through studying and reading, and allows them to apply their understanding in a new and potentially helpful way: creatively.  This creative approach will broaden the students grasp on the new language, and will also give more opportunities to learn by introducing new concepts and also applying new structure and vocabulary.

I believe that the amount of time spent speaking in the target language by the teacher should correlate greatly to the level of the class.  In my SPAN 401 class, for instance, I think that speaking to my students only in Spanish would not be beneficial to them this early on.  That is why I usually speak to them in Spanish and then translate my own words to English, so that they can hear the English they are familiar with and apply it to the Spanish they are learning.  As a student progresses, however, I think it becomes more and more important for the teacher to speak in the target language more exclusively.  At the higher levels of language learning, I think the teacher should speak exclusively in the target language, and also speak less, encouraging the students to speak more. 

effectiveness of language teaching

In my opinion, there is not one, single language teaching approach or method that will work 100% of the time for every student. After reading Chapter 3, however, I realized that several of the methods discussed could possibly be the most effective language teaching lessons but it is evident that there needs to be a variety of methods used in a classroom in order to reach all kinds of learners. Personally, I particularly enjoyed reading about the Grammar-Translation Method. This is most likely how I learned Spanish during the past ten years. Learning vocabulary lists, grammar rules, and constant repetition is how the language has really stuck with me but I know that this isn’t the case with everyone. I know that this works best for me because I am aware that I am a visual learner – I need to see the words and grammar rules written down in front of my face in order to retain their meanings and rules. I have a feeling that the majority of my future lesson plans will be presented using this method of teaching because that is what makes the most sense to me. Of course, this method isn’t perfect because I still believe that it is important to hear the language from a native speaker even if you may not understand what is being said, a lot of people just pick up the language from hearing words and phrases in context that isn’t necessarily the same as reading a textbook full of lists and rules.

            One of the methods that I consider to be weaker than the rest is the Direct Method. I don’t understand how this method could work as well because there doesn’t seem to be any logical fluency to the learning of a language according to this method. How does one avoid the use of translation and still understand everything? I believe that a student needs to be aware of what they are learning with some more explanation other than miming actions or using objects. I am trying to comprehend that the central tactic with the Direct Method is to use simple discourse when teaching the language but that is not very realistic because you would have to perform that flawlessly in an ideal environment using systematic structures constantly. Even for many highly qualified teachers, this seems idea seems very hard to monitor day to day.

            Ideally, I believe that the type of language instruction that should produce the highest levels of success is one that encompasses hearing the language constantly, written interpretation, visual aids, repetition, drills to practice new vocabulary, and analytic explanations of grammar functions. All of these methods mentioned in Chapter 3 have their strengths (and weaknesses) but if there was a tactful way to include all of these essential factors of language learning that would probably be the most effective and efficient language learning setting.

Effective Teaching Methods

There is no perfect method to teaching a foreign language. After reading chapter three and analyzing nine different methods, this cannot be more evident. A lot of the methods are logical on paper, such as the Audiolingual Method, but are not practical. I believe that not only would it be difficult for the teacher, but also super frustrating to a student if they were in a classroom where everything was taught in Spanish and there were no explanations. Yes, the student would come out of the classroom with paragraphs upon paragraphs of conversation that they can spew out to you, but do they actually know enough Spanish to hold a conversation or survive somewhere where they are surrounded by the target language? I believe that in order to effectively teach a second language, the teacher needs to be flexible and take guidelines and principles from a vast number of methods. I think that most methods explained have something good in them.

Grammar-Translation Method:

                Appreciate literature from the target language and teach culture

                Organic examples of grammar rather than produced

Direct Method:

                Learn to speak by speaking, starting with current situations

Cognitive Code Method:

                Meaningful learning, always understanding what they are being taught

Communicative Language Teaching

                Communication encouraged from the beginning

                Syllabus is based on students’ needs rather than a books order

Total Physical Response

                Listening comprehension is developed fully before intense speech

Natural Approach

                For survival

These are some of the guidelines or principles that I believe are important in foreign language teaching. I think that the vast majority of the instruction should be taught in the target language, but no exclusively. When something needs to be translated or explained, it can be done so in the L1 when it is beneficial for students. I think that speech should be encouraged early on. Although I also believe that grammar has its importance in becoming understandable, the basics for survival are what should be taught first, so common phrases and extensive vocabulary. I definitely believe that students should have a say in why they are taking the subject and what they intend to get out of everything. I believe that there would be a great difference in teaching to someone who wants to carry on the language and eventually become fluent as opposed to a student who just wants the basic survival knowledge. The former would need to be taught structure and the latter would need to be taught mainly vocabulary and common phrases. Curriculum that is tailored to the students’ needs is best, although extraneous for the teacher who would constantly need to be changing the course of the semester and how/when material is presented. Student feedback is definitely important to how best a class is going to learn. No class should really be taught in the same way because there are always going to be different sets of students with different needs and aspirations.