My Personal Mobile Language Learning Environment

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 49-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria A. Perifanou
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
Personal Approach ◽  
Learning Scenarios ◽  
New Applications ◽  
Support Students

Mobile devices can motivate learners through moving language learning from predominantly classroom–based contexts into contexts that are free from time and space. The increasing development of new applications can offer valuable support to the language learning process and can provide a basis for a new self regulated and personal approach to learning. A key challenge for language teachers is to actively explore the potential of mobile technologies in their own learning so that they can support students in using them. The aim of this paper is first to describe the basic theoretical framework of Mobile Learning and Personal Learning Environments. Secondly, it intends to assist language teachers and learners in building their own Mobile Personal Learning Environment providing a useful classification of iPhone applications with a description and examples. The paper concludes with the proposal of ideas for practical, personal language learning scenarios, piloted in an Italian language learning context.

My Personal Mobile Language Learning Environment

2012 ◽  
pp. 212-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria A. Perifanou
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
Personal Approach ◽  
Learning Scenarios ◽  
New Applications ◽  
Support Students

Mobile devices can motivate learners through moving language learning from predominantly classroom–based contexts into contexts that are free from time and space. The increasing development of new applications can offer valuable support to the language learning process and can provide a basis for a new self regulated and personal approach to learning. A key challenge for language teachers is to actively explore the potential of mobile technologies in their own learning so that they can support students in using them. The aim of this paper is first to describe the basic theoretical framework of Mobile Learning and Personal Learning Environments. Secondly, it intends to assist language teachers and learners in building their own Mobile Personal Learning Environment providing a useful classification of iPhone applications with a description and examples. The paper concludes with the proposal of ideas for practical, personal language learning scenarios, piloted in an Italian language learning context.

scholarly journals Telecollaboration and genres: a new perspective to understand language learning

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 7-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Rampazzo ◽  
Solange Aranha
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Discourse Community ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Previous Version ◽  
Learning Scenarios ◽  
Specific Community ◽  
New Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the first 15 minutes of ten initial Teletandem Oral Sessions (iTOS), which means the first virtual encounter among speakers of different languages who want to study the each other’s language. Our aim is to verify iTOS genre status within a telecollaborative learning environment. We understand genres as communicative events organized in standard structures used by members of a discourse community to achieve their communicative purposes (Swales, 1990) and assume that the teletandem context is composed of a specific community with shared objectives. A study of iTOS had first been proposed by Aranha (2014), who analyzed nine iTOS and identified some recurrence in their discoursal structure. Our data, ten iTOS, are part of a previous version of MulTeC (Multimodal Teletandem Corpus) (Aranha & Lopes, forthcoming) and participants are proficient in Portuguese and English. The video files were transcribed and the sessions were analyzed based on Aranha’s (2014) findings. We identified rhetorical organization for the sessions which was similar to Aranha’s, but varied depending on the learning scenarios, i.e. the learning context in which they occurred.

scholarly journals Setting Up a Language Learning Environment in Microsoft Teams

2020 ◽  
pp. 263-270
Author(s):  
Carolin Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Short Notice ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
The University ◽  
Support Students ◽  
Staff Skills ◽  
Do So

The Language Zone at the University of Leeds, UK, is well established as a hub for language learners across the campus, both those on language courses and those studying languages independently for a variety of reasons. It has been operating entirely online since March 2020 and will do so until the campus fully re-opens. This written account gives a brief overview of the changes made to the Language Zone’s services and provision of learning materials in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including how the team members’ roles were adapted to ensure staff skills were taken into account. In addition to showing how services were maintained when the campus was closed at short notice and teaching was moved online until further notice, the study outlines how the Language Zone developed a platform to support the 2020 summer pre-sessional programmes to be delivered completely online. Finally, reflecting on the recent achievements and considering how to support students in the future, it aims to inspire other self-access centres to think about what they can do to develop their services in response to the crisis and beyond.

scholarly journals Metacognitive Awareness and Critical Thinking Abilities of Pre-service EFL Teachers

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Dilek Cakici
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Metacognitive Awareness ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Efl Teachers

The primary aim of current study was to investigate the possible relationship between Metacognitive Awareness (MA) and Critical Thinking Skills (CTS) in a foreign language learning context. In addition, this research aimed to probe the effect of gender and years of pre-service English language teachers on the relation between metacognitive awareness and critical thinking abilities. 218 pre-service EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers participated in the study. Metacognitive Awareness Inventory and Critical Thinking Questionnaire were employed to gather necessary data. Obtained results confirmed that there existed a highly significant positive correlation between MA and CTS. Besides, the results indicated that there was a strong relation between the years of pre-service EFL teachers and their MA and CTS. Seniors were found to be more metacognitively aware and critical thinkers than their counterparts. Conversely, it was revealed that there was no gender effect on both MA and CTS. Finally, certain suggestions were set for tertiary institutions to develop metacognition and critical thinking skills in foreign language classroom settings.

Open Up the Classroom

2018 ◽  
pp. 22-46
Author(s):  
Hélène M. Andrawiss-Dlamini ◽  
Donata Puntil
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Visual Media ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Effective Learning ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Teachers Experiences ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Language Instructors

Language instructors strive to provide students with a language learning environment that is authentic and contextualised. This chapter encourages teachers to step out of the textbook and integrate audio visual media in language courses. It highlights the pedagogical benefits of these resources and addresses the possible challenges language instructors may face. Bringing examples from two languages (French and Italian), the chapter aims at providing guidance to all language teachers in using film excerpts and video clips in their teaching. With a focus on lower levels (A.2 to B1), it showcases how these tools can be implemented, detailing the criteria to take into consideration in planning the lessons. Three detailed examples are provided with the objective of enabling effective learning. The last section of the chapter reflects on the use of audio visual media in language teaching and offers insights from the learners as well as the teachers' experiences.

scholarly journals Confronting the Challenges of MALL: Distraction, Cheating, and Teacher Readiness

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Rastislav Metruk
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Teacher Perception ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Foreign Language Instruction ◽  
Academic Environments ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Feasible Solutions

Mobile technologies appear to be gaining in popularity regarding foreign language instruction they have recently proliferated in academic environments. M-learning opens up new possibilities and opportunities for both teachers and students, and it is inevitable that methodological approaches to pedagogy and ways of teaching foreign languages are accordingly adjusted and reevaluated. Despite the numerous significant advantages mobile technologies offer, scholars and educators have to take into consideration some barriers and limitations in this respect, and respond to both existing and future challenges. Moreover, the studies on MALL (mobile-assisted language learning) seem to be predominantly focused on benefits of specific technological advances when the advantages of MALL are discussed. This article attempts to present a critical review of the literature which deals with MALL as further research and exploration in this area is necessary, especially with regard to challenges and barriers language teachers face when m-technologies are employed. Three major drawbacks related to using mobile technologies in teaching are predominantly discussed, namely learner distraction, cheating, and teacher perception and readiness. Moreover, proposing feasible solutions to the challenges and barriers is also discussed in the article.

scholarly journals Review of doctoral research on second language teaching and learning in Spain (2008–2010)

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-107
Author(s):  
Raquel Serrano ◽  
Imma Miralpeix
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Immigrant Populations ◽  
Selection Of

This paper reviews a selection of doctoral theses on language learning and teaching completed in Spain between 2008 and 2010. A total of 16 theses have been identified as representative – in terms of the topics under investigation and the methodology employed – of the doctoral research undertaken in Spain. Current topics include the development of speaking skills, motivation, learner autonomy, pragmatics, learning context, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), language learning by immigrant populations and, especially, classroom teaching. A variety of research methods were employed in the theses under review, and while most of them focus on adult learners, some also consider children. The interest of researchers in these topics is consistent with the challenges faced by language teachers in Spain, as well as with the new realities of teaching in this country, with its recently-arrived immigrant population, the expansion of CLIL programmes and the use of new technologies.

scholarly journals The Use of the Educational Function of Media in Foreign Language Teaching

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-57
Author(s):  
Kinga Bajorek ◽  
Sławomir Gawroński
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Mass Communication ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Mobile Technologies

Abstract The use of mass communication in the field of foreign language teaching is not a new phenomenon, because traditional media have been in use in this area for a few decades. Nowadays, however, several tendencies confirming the scale of this phenomenon can be observed. Mass media, and new media in particular, are used both in the process of self-education and as an important tool used by foreign language teachers. Technological progress, the communication revolution, the spread of the Internet, and the development of new media and mobile technologies offer modern and more effective methods of language education. This article reviews the conditions relating to the relationship between mass media and language learning, taking into account the possibility of using one of the key functions of mass communication, namely its educational function. The authors, using literature analysis, defined and analyzed the causes of specific symbiosis between media tools and technologies as well as the methodology used in the field of foreign language teaching.

scholarly journals Using social networking technologies to promote language socialisation: English as foreign language teachers' perceptions in Saudi Arabia

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-136
Author(s):  
Khatmah Alanazi ◽  
Celia Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Foreign Language Teachers ◽  
English As Foreign Language ◽  
Efl Teachers ◽  
Networking Technologies

Teachers’ beliefs play a key role in their selection of language teaching methodologies; they affect teachers’ pedagogical practices and behaviours and are consequently integral in shaping the language learning classroom environment. This study investigated the beliefs of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) in relation to the concept of ‘language socialisation’ (LS) and its pedagogical application through the use of social networking technologies (SNTs) in a Saudi university language learning context. Data comprised a survey, which was administered to a total of 28 EFL teachers, of whom five male instructors were interviewed. Findings showed that the majority of teachers reported positive associations with LS as a teaching method, as well as positive responses towards the use of SNTs in the EFL classroom despite the fact that most participants had never used SNTs in their teaching. It can be concluded that, while the EFL teachers in this study acknowledged the potentially important role that SNTs could play in enhancing students’ language learning and socialisation, their lack of first-hand classroom experience with SNTs reflected the fact that there was little access to and training in the use of these technologies. This lack of provision needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency to ensure that Saudi EFL teachers and their students are given an opportunity to engage critically with innovative technologies that may enhance the quality of their pedagogical experiences. Keywords: English as foreign language teachers in higher education in Saudi Arabia, English as a foreign language, language socialisation, social networking technologies

scholarly journals Challenges for Language Teachers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junko Winch
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Language Classrooms

<p>There are students who are motivated to learn while others who are not in any language classrooms. Students in this study include not only motivated and unmotivated but also a Reasonable Adjustment (RA) student who have various issues. The aim of this study is to examine if the undergraduate students who learn language at a British university were motivated by three factors which are considered as the fundamental to motivation in psychology studies. The participants were 19 students who learn Japanese language in the Institution Wide Language Program (IWLP) a university of South of England. The participants studied in the experimental classes for one semester during the spring term of 2019. Then, students were asked to fill in a questionnaire at the end of the term, which became the data for this study. The questionnaires were analysed based on the three factors using qualitative analysis. The results showed that the majority of students agreed that they experienced three factors, which indicated facilitating students’ motivation. It was concluded that it is possible to manipulate the learning environment and make the majority of students motivated and facilitate language learning, but the RA student experienced only two of the three factors and was unable to feel motivated. </p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document