Incorporating project-based language learning into distance learning: Creating a homepage during computer-mediated learning sessions

2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882095445
Author(s):  
Fumie Kato ◽  
Ryan Spring ◽  
Chikako Mori
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Mediated Learning ◽  
Learning Program ◽  
Spring Semester ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Target Languages

This quasi-experimental study reports on the outcomes of a video-synchronous learning program in which an element of project-based foreign language learning was integrated. The project chosen was to cooperatively create a homepage. American students learning Japanese in the United States and Japanese students learning English in Japan made pairs and communicated in both their native and target languages via Skype to complete the project. The goals of this educational program were to increase intrinsic motivation in learners and improve their target language oral abilities, and identify challenges and problems with implementation. The program was conducted during the spring semester in 2017 and evaluated both quantitatively (via pre- and posttests) and qualitatively (via surveys and reflection papers). The results show that both groups of students had improved their mean length of utterance in their target language, a strong indicator of increased speaking ability. Furthermore, qualitative analysis showed their motivation levels increased as compared to previous similar programs. Although the majority of the students were interested in creating a homepage, there were some technical problems with the homepage creation software.

scholarly journals Prior Experience and Student Satisfaction with E-Tandem Language Learning of Spanish and English

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Litzler Mary Frances ◽  
Marimar Huguet-Jérez ◽  
Margarita Bakieva
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Student Satisfaction ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
High Level

Recent literature in the field of foreign language learning has indicated that classroom learning is not necessarily enough for students to acquire proficiency in a foreign language. Learners who achieve a high level in the target language often combine work in the classroom with activities outside it. At the same time, a number of studies indicate that, when foreign language learners do work with their target language beyond the classroom, it is often to practice the receptive skills of reading and listening as opposed to the productive ones of speaking and writing. For this reason, students at The College of New Jersey in the United States and Universidad de Alcalá in Spain were paired up to work in tandem to practice Spanish and English through a private Facebook© page and Skype calls©. This paper discusses the impressions of 195 participating students on both sides of the Atlantic to the activities as determined through a questionnaire. The overall objective was to determine if prior experience with the two applications and in using the foreign language in conversation has an impact on student satisfaction. The results indicate prior experience with the applications and with the target language correlates with a positive estimation of the activities. Additional variations were also found. Language instructors who wish to set up an e-tandem experience are advised to assist students with less experience so that they can benefit from the activity.

scholarly journals Foreign Language Learners’ Attitudes and Perceptions of L1 Use in L2 Classroom

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maram S. Almohaimeed ◽  
Huda M. Almurshed
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
English Classes ◽  
English Class ◽  
Attitudes And Perceptions ◽  
Preparatory Year

Whether to avoid learners’ first language (L1) or to make use of it in the second language (L2) classes is a controversial issue. Some studies have challenged the effectiveness of the monolingual approach to foreign language learning. This study investigates Saudi university learners’ attitudes and perceptions towards incorporating their L1(Arabic) in English class. This study also sheds light into the relationship between students’ perceptions and proficiency level in the target language. To this end, Gaebler's questionnaire (2014) was administered to 60 female learners studying in the preparatory year at a Saudi university. They were from three different English proficiency levels. The results showed that advanced learners hold a negative attitude towards the use of L1 in their English classes, whereas elementary and intermediate learners generally perceive the judicious use of their L1 positively.

scholarly journals Phonemic Awareness in English as a Foreign Language

EL LE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michela Gronchi
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Phonemic Awareness ◽  
Classroom Practice ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning Program ◽  
School Students ◽  
Early Deprivation

The present paper discusses the results of an action-research study involving a 15-year-old student who was diagnosed with severe dyslexia after coming to Italy through international adoption. The study investigates the literature on language acquisition in cases of early deprivation and the implications of the phonological deficit in students with dyslexia in a foreign language learning environment. The essay also reports the results of a learning program concerning phonological awareness that has been delivered in a two-month period to the student. The program outlines a possible methodological and practical framework for raising phonemic awareness in secondary school students with dyslexia and offers suggestions for classroom practice.

Game On With Kahoot!

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 40-53
Author(s):  
Eric D. Reynolds ◽  
Richard W. Fuchs ◽  
Peter Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Student Response ◽  
Bring Your Own Device ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Efl Students

The landscape of technology in language classrooms is changing so quickly that it's hard for us to keep pace. Games-based student response systems (GBSRS) in a bring-your-own-device environment have only recently become widely available for language classrooms; consequently, little research has been conducted into the efficacy of GBSRSs for foreign language learning. This quasi-experimental study explores the efficacy of one application called Kahoot! at a medium-sized university in South Korea for vocabulary learning and motivation. Both the traditional control group and the experimental group learned more vocabulary during the course of the study; however, no significant difference in vocabulary learning was found between the groups. The change in motivation level, on the other hand, was significantly higher for the Kahoot! group. Therefore, the findings recommend the use of the Kahoot! GBSRS particularly for often low motivated Asian university EFL students.

scholarly journals Applied cognitive linguistics and foreign language learning. Introduction to the special issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Hijazo-Gascón ◽  
Reyes Llopis-García
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Grammar ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Second Languages

Abstract This introduction provides an overview of the intersection between Applied Cognitive Linguistics and Second/Foreign Language Learning. First, the relevance of Cognitive Linguistics (CL) for Applied Linguistics in general is discussed. The second section explains the main principles of CL and how each relates to the acquisition of second languages: (i) language and human cognition, (ii) language as symbolic, (iii) language as motivated; and (iv) language as usage-based. Section three offers a review of previous literature on CL and L2s that are different from English, as it is one the main aims of this Special Issue to provide state-of-the-art research and scholarship to enhance the bigger picture of the field of Second Language Acquisition beyond English as the target language. Spanish as L2/FL in Applied Cognitive Linguistics is the focus of the next section, which leads to a brief overview of the papers included in the Issue, featuring Spanish as the L2 with L1s such as English, French, German and Italian. Polysemy, Motion Events Typology, Cognitive Grammar and Construction Grammar are the Cognitive Linguistics areas addressed in the contributions here presented.

Kommunikation und "Kommunikation" im Schulischen Fremdsprachen -Unterricht

1983 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-149
Author(s):  
Henning Bolte
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Conversational Analysis ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Response Formats ◽  
Teaching Learning

The article deals with the relationship between verbal communication as a teaching objective and as a medium of teaching/learning. This relationship is of special interest for foreign language teaching/ learning aiming at ccmnunicative competence in spoken language. The article enters into the question in which ways teaching/learning ob-jects are constituted in the course of ongoing interaction, how acti-vities with regard to such objects are stimulated and steered, and what kinds of activities are defined by the participants themselves as LEARNING or count for them as such. Psycholinguistic input-(in-take) output models are being argued against, because classroom learning is not simply characterized by ready-made prestructured in-put and predetermined output, but both have first to be constituted through some strategic form of social interaction. Two examples of foreign language learning in the classroom are pre-sented: first of an EFL lesson, where the distortion of target langu-age function potential is demonstrated and the "staged" production of language prof iciency within a pedagogic interaction pattern is shown; and second of a German FL lesson, where a grammatical item is focussed and exercised. The sequence is an example of rigorous reali-zation of the I(nitiation)-R(esponse)-E(valuation) pattern as the ba-sic pattern of sequential organization in the classroom. It clearly shows how LEARNING is defined/executed as standardized response for-mats and "conditioned" chains of I-R-pairs. Many of the performed linguistic deviations(of the target language)seem due to interaction mechanisms rather than to general principles of language development. Conversational analysis of teaching-learning discourse shows that learning is not merely to be considered as a direct conventionalized consequence of ( initiating ) teaching ( acts ). On the one hand the inter-action pattern is merely a framework wherein "inner" mental processes are evoked and organized, which can manifest themselves in various forms. On the other hand there is a strong tendency for the teacher to control the entire learning process and to make expected outcomes collectively significant and thus for the learner a tendency mainly to adjust to prefabricated response formats, which at the same time serve as evidence for didactically intended cognitions. Hence, the stronger the predetermination and imposing of LEARNING by the teach-er, the more learning tends to become a mere guessing game and pure-ly mechanical. The restrictions of traditional classrooms are obvious from these examples: restrictions with regard to the experience of functional potential of the target language and with regard to the embedding of focussed learning-items into a functional perspective. These re-strictions have to be changed in order to enable learners to parti-cipate in problem-constitution, to bring in own perceptions of con-cepts/problems and to bring in own problem-solving strategies as systematic parts of language development and as systematic parts of official classroom discourse, i.e. as objects of active mutual indication and interpretation. Conversational analysis can be an important tool for the study of such "alternative" structuring of classroom interaction and its con-tribution to a more learner-centered and functionally oriented (foreign)language LEARNING.

Interactive Learning Between Chinese Students Learning English and English Students Leaning Chinese on the Platform of Wiki

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongshuo Wang ◽  
Bin Zou ◽  
Minjie Xing
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Interactive Learning ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Legitimate Peripheral Participation ◽  
Chinese As Foreign Language ◽  
English Students ◽  
Learning English

This research investigates the interaction between English students learning Chinese in the UK and Chinese students learning English in China via a wiki platform. Activity theory and legitimate peripheral participation theory were employed as a theoretical framework; wiki was embedded as an interactive learning tool. The findings revealed that Chinese native speakers assisted English students learning Chinese as foreign language (CFL) by means of reorganizing word orders and restructuring sentence patterns. The usages of clarification and elaboration were more frequent than the usages of added and deleted information. Both CFL and English as foreign language (EFL) students interacted with each other in attending to language forms through the essay correction and revision process, and the interaction consequently enhanced their target language learning. The study suggests that wiki provides a dynamic platform, which encourages further integration into the syllabus to support foreign language learning.

scholarly journals Collaborative tasks and learning occasions in English as a foreign language

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 837-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marília dos Santos Lima
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Collaborative Dialogue ◽  
Learning English

The study reported here forms part of a program of qualitative research focusing on the use of collaborative tasks in learning English as a foreign language in Brazil. The research examines the concept of collaborative dialogue (SWAIN, 2000), understood as dialogue that constructs linguistic knowledge within a sociocultural view of language learning. The results indicated that the learners reflected upon the target language, tested hypotheses and reformulated their production in order to promote mutual comprehension in the learning process. The results also revealed that the interaction established during the production of the collaborative dialogue stimulated foreign language learning as the students noticed linguistic gaps in the target language, and sought solutions together.

scholarly journals Organizational Principles and Content of Early Foreign Language Learning in the USA

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-38
Author(s):  
Iryna Biletska
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Elementary Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Us Government ◽  
The Usa

Abstract According to the results of leading American scientists that convincingly demonstrate the effectiveness and necessity of early foreign language learning the features of teaching foreign languages at elementary level in the United States have been analyzed. It has been found out that the US government is working on the improvement of foreign language at elementary education all over the country. The attention is paid the languages that were not so popular, and now have obtained the status of “extremely necessary”, such as Arabic, Farsi and Russian, as they have become very important for the future participation of the state in world politics. The requirements for programs development of foreign language for elementary school have been described; such aspects as quantity of classes, curriculum project, teaching materials, teaching staff and knowledge of the students, the choice of languages, coordination and efficiency are taken into consideration. The short description of the content of foreign language teaching of elementary education has been presented. It has been indicated that success in foreign language learning as a device of foreign language communication depends on the level of listening, lexical, grammatical and spelling skills, as well as the abilities of listening, speaking, reading and writing, which are defined in the program for elementary school.

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