Mobile Technologies, Podcasting and Language Education

Author(s):  
Volker Hegelheimer ◽  
Anne O’Bryan

The increasing availability of mobile technologies is allowing users to interact seamlessly with a variety of content anytime, anywhere. One of these new Web 2.0 technologies, or technologies that aim at enhancing and creating opportunities for user collaboration, is podcasting (Wikipedia, 2008; O’Reilly, 2005), an online audio and video publishing tool. Podcasts are increasingly being used by language educators and learners, yet in the educational realm, podcasting is still in a development phase as teachers and students are just beginning to experiment with ways to best use the technology. Therefore, few guidelines exist in terms of researching this new technology, specifically with regards to language learning and teaching (Rosell-Aguilar, 2007). In this chapter we begin to close this gap by first providing an overview of podcasting. We then discuss the potential of podcasting to transform ways in which languages are learned. In doing so, we cite illustrative examples of podcasts currently being used by language educators and students, and suggest ways in which the effects of this technology on language learning processes may be researched in order to make pedagogically sound decisions about using podcasts for language learning and teaching. After presenting a case study investigating the use of podcasts at Iowa State University, we conclude with a reflection on the potential for podcasts to transform language learning and teaching.

Author(s):  
Erwin Pohan ◽  
Abdul Malik

<p align="left">Studies of character building have been being discussed in all disciplines involved in language learning and teaching. It means that it has a central position in creating the good human being life generally and teacher, as a model of change, particularly. The main points of character building are its universal values such as trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, caring, fairness, and citizenship. The good teacher's character can be seen from the quality of his/her character personally or inter/intrapersonal. Discussing good charactered teachers and students are still becoming a current and serious issue and challenge in the educational context. Therefore, the purpose is to explore the character building through media and language education. In this case, the focus is on the theoretical review of the implementing of character values in English language learning and teaching in the classroom. The sub-themes are (1) teacher's role in internalizing of character values in English language learning and teaching, (2) internalizing of character values in learning and teaching media and materials, (3) internalizing of character values in learning and teaching processes. So, the integration of the character values in the learning and teaching system is very needed in order to produce the best teacher and students with having high knowledge and best behavior. Then, the character values are not taught but implemented in real action model explicitly and in learning and teaching media and materials implicitly. They are conducted by teachers and students inside and or outside the classroom simultaneously, continuously, and consistently. They are also supported by references from inspiring good character values people from various countries in the world. In another word, they have been successful and consistent with the character values</p>


Author(s):  
Christina Nicole Giannikas

Digital technologies have become an important part of language learning and teaching across the globe at various levels of education. The advances in question have altered texts and tools available to teachers and students and have given practitioners and researchers a new understanding of L2 literacy development. More specifically, the successful attempts of integrating the blogosphere in language education suggest the improvement of L2 writing. Through blogging, students are given the opportunity to use the new language they are learning and new technologies to strengthen social bonds and express their thoughts and reflections on the online platform. This chapter elaborates on the use of the blog in teenage learners' L2 literacy in the digital age, and examines the impact that blogs have on the authorship, personal expression, writing fluency, and confidence of the L2 teenage language learner. The chapter also offers a theoretical, practical scope to establish the full perspective of integrating blogs into the language classroom.


2009 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 189-198
Author(s):  
Manuela Derosas

Since the early ’80s the adjective "intercultural" in language learning and teaching has seemed to acquire a remarkable importance, although its meaning is strongly debated. As a matter of fact, despite the existence of a vast literature on this topic, difficulties arise when applying it in the classroom. The aim of this work is to analyze the elements we consider to be the central pillars in this methodology, i.e. a renewed language-and culture relation, the Intercultural Communicative Competence, the intercultural speaker. These factors allow us to consider this as a new paradigm in language education; furthermore, they foster the creation of new potentialities and configure the classroom as a significant learning environment towards the discovery of Otherness.


Author(s):  
Liudmila Vladimirovna Guseva ◽  
Evgenii Vladimirovich Plisov

The article defnes the role of digital means in foreign language learning, establishes the reasons for the effective use of digital means and digital technologies, identifes challenges in mastering a foreign language in an electronic environment, as well as the prospects for the digitalization of foreign language education. When studying the issues of emergency off-campus learning organization, the results of surveys of teachers and students conducted in April 2020 at Minin University were used. image/svg+xml


IIUC Studies ◽  
2016 ◽  
pp. 173-182
Author(s):  
Md Yousuf Uddin Khaled Chowdhury

Brumfit (1979) has suggested that many commercially published ELT materials are little more than ‘masses of rubbish, skilfully marketed’. He perhaps rejects most of the published materials. However, in reality, it is observed that these ELT resources are the only available alternatives in the contexts where infra-structural limitations of language classrooms and the inefficiency of the language-teachers make the goal of language learning and teaching unreachable or unattainable for many of the learners. This paper, through a case study, aims at justifying the use of commercially published ELT coursebooks that are designed and used, considering the limitations and problems of the personally produced materials by untrained teachers. Nevertheless, these materials must consider the local market rather than the global markets so that they meet the needs of the local language learners and instructors. The case study implies that it is the selection or adaptation of the right materials for the specific learners that makes them effective or ineffective. It also suggests that the personally designed or locally produced materials too may make teaching and learning difficult and impossible sometimes.IIUC Studies Vol.10 & 11 December 2014: 173-182


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Robinson ◽  
Zhongfeng Tian ◽  
Tiffany Martínez ◽  
Aybahar Qarqeen

This study investigates how introducing translanguaging as a way to affirm language and culture impacted students’ understandings of learning and teaching in a TESOL certificate course offered at a university in the northeast of the United States. As researchers, teachers, and students committed to justice, we explored the impact of introducing translanguaging in a course that was originally designed as a Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) course through collaborative, qualitative approaches of thematic analysis and macro- and micro-level analyses of power based on our unique individual experiences in the classroom. We found across our analysis that introducing translanguaging provided opportunities to shift assumptions and that, overall, students demonstrated critical sociocultural understandings of language that are foundational in teaching for justice. Ultimately, while we recognize the need for more explicit discussion about the purpose and pedagogy of translanguaging, the shifts towards teaching and embracing multilingual and multicultural realities through translanguaging which the study identified can contribute to the field of language education by demonstrating how teachers might open up possibilities in teaching for justice.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir H. Abdalla

The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential benefits of using the intercultural approach to teaching English as a foreign language in the preparatory –year programme (male branch), Taif University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The intercultural approach is considered a viable means of foreign language education that seeks to address issues of culture in foreign language learning and teaching and how best to address them. Hence, this study intends to explore the attitudes of first year EFL Taif university students to the potential benefits of the intercultural approach to EFL. A sample of 200 EFL students participated in the study. Participants’ views on the topic of the study are collected via a questionnaire the researcher designed and administered to the participants. In addition, the views of 50 EFL instructors teaching in the preparatory programme were gathered by a questionnaire regarding the topic researched. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the collected data.


2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siylvia Velikova ◽  
◽  
◽  

This article investigates the meanings of key terms used to describe the theory and practice of language learning and teaching as an academic discipline and as a field of enquiry. The study discusses various manifestations of terminological variability and analyses four of the most frequent terms (methodology of language teaching, language didactics, language pedagogy, language education) which reveal the nature of language learning and teaching and its conceptualisation in the current “post-method” era.


RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822110616
Author(s):  
Jiao Li ◽  
Xuesong (Andy) Gao ◽  
Xuehai Cui

This report reviews studies on language teachers as materials developers in language education, particularly focusing on how language teachers act as materials users, materials analysts, and materials designers when engaging with language learning and teaching materials. We contend that the three dimensions of materials development – that is, materials use, materials analysis, and materials design – intersect with one another, and that language teachers play a critical role in all three. Therefore, this review concludes with a research agenda that centres on language teachers as materials developers to expand our understanding of their roles in materials development.


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