scholarly journals Examining English Language Learning Apps from A Second Language Acquisition Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 166
Author(s):  
Sayed Ahmad Almousawi

This study set out to explore dedicated language learning apps pedagogically while focusing mainly on aspects of second language acquisition. A total of 20 English language learning apps were collected for analysis. The study took one model of analysing course book materials and another, computer-assisted language learning model and combined them into one analytical framework with bespoke criteria, ensuring the analysis was most suitable for our case. The analytical framework which was developed reached a number of conclusions about dedicated language learning apps (DLLAs). The findings revealed that DLLAs tend to provide mechanical forms-focused practice without facilitating collaborative learning nor focusing on developing users’ communicative competence, which suggests that DLLAs reflect a behaviouristic view of language learning. The conclusion offers some suggestions to improve DLLAs and proposes that, for the time being, educators should look beyond DLLAs and instead investigate how can apps that are not designed for language learning (generic apps) be used in the manner of DLLAs to avoid the issues that this paper identifies with them.

ReCALL ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINE LEAHY

This article draws on second language theory, particularly output theory as defined by Swain (1995), in order to conceptualise observations made in a computer-assisted language learning setting. It investigates second language output and learner behaviour within an electronic role-play setting, based on a subject-specific problem solving task and the Internet as source of primary information. Students were given a task which includes the collaborative development of a marketing strategy for a chosen product. Data collected consists of the following corpora: emails exchanged between groups, the recorded discussions between each group’s members while engaged in the problem solving activity, oral presentation of the groups’ results as well as the individually written summaries. One area of particular interest is the analysis of the oral L2 output while solving a computer-assisted language learning task. How can the oral interaction be characterised? What kind of conclusions regarding the use of CALL can be drawn from the comparison of the oral interaction and the written output? Another area of interest is the analysis of the written L2 output. Is there evidence of second language acquisition and/or acquisition of content? Can such a CALL setting promote second language acquisition (SLA) and/or acquisition of content? Finally, the study aims to identify whether student-initiated focus on language form can be found. The article answers the questions posed above. Furthermore, the results of this study show that a very high percentage of all communication took place in L2 and occurrences of acquisition of content and language can be demonstrated.


Author(s):  
Christina Atika Yulina

This paper outlines a procedure for language textbook analysis from the perspective of second language acquisition (SLA) principles using a minimally modified version of Littlejohn’s three-level framework by Guilloteaux as a preliminary procedure to textbook evaluation for selection. The aim is to analyze to what extent does Indonesian ELT textbook for grade XI reflects the universal SLA principles. The universal SLA principles used as material analysis criteria in this paper were drawn from the literature selected by Guilloteaux. This analysis revealed that the Indonesian ELT textbook by the Ministry of Education and Culture reflected SLA principles closely. Although only in-use evaluation can determine the extent to which this textbook actually supports language acquisition, the evidence suggests that the textbook is potentially supportive to English language learning.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-375
Author(s):  
Krystyna Droździał-Szelest ◽  
Mirosław Pawlak

This paper reviews 25 doctoral dissertations on second language acquisition (SLA), English language learning and teaching submitted in Poland in the years 2006–2010. The theses were selected for review on the basis of the recommendations of Ph.D. supervisors from leading Polish universities and they are divided into six groups: learner autonomy, individual differences, language subsystems and skills, culture, assessment and miscellaneous. The dissertations are discussed with respect to their main findings as well as their strengths and weaknesses, and the paper concludes with an overall evaluation of the research in terms of its dominant themes and methodology.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (19) ◽  
pp. 11-19
Author(s):  
Olmedo Bula Villalobos

La tecnología ha tenido un gran impacto en la educación en los últimos veinte años. Con el desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías, se puede decir que la Adquisición de una Segunda Lengua (A2L) ha adoptado la Enseñanza Asistida por Ordenador (EAO) como una nueva y útil herramienta. Las diferentes aplicaciones y efectos de las computadoras en el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de un idioma pueden ser relacionadas con la adquisición de una segunda lengua, especialmente con el número de las aplicaciones de las computadoras en un ambiente de aprendizaje de un idioma. El propósito principal de este ensayo es explorar las conexiones existentes entre la Adquisición de una Segunda Lengua y la Enseñanza Asistida por Ordenador. Primero se muestran los antecedentes históricos de la EAO. Después las implicaciones y aplicaciones de la EAO sobre la A2L son discutidas. Asimismo la evaluación de la EAO en relación con la A2L y el futuro de la EAO son también analizados. Una de las principales conclusiones es que hay conexiones significativas y pertinentes entre la Adquisición de una Segunda Lengua y la Enseñanza Asistida por Ordenador.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramia DIRAR SHEHADEH MUSMAR

Integrating scaffolding-learning technologies has been recognized for its potential to create intellectual and engaging classroom interactions. In the United Arab Emirates, having language teachers employ computers as a medium of new pedagogical instrument for teaching second languages generated the idea of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) as a medium of an innovative pedagogical instrument for facilitating and scaffolding language learning, with an aspiration that it will lead to improved English language attainment and better assessment results. This study aims at investigating the perspectives of students and teachers on the advantageous and disadvantageous impacts of CALL on learning and teaching English as a second language in one public school in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The results show that CALL has a facilitating role in L2 classroom and that using CALL activities is advantageous in reducing English learning tension, boosting motivation, catering for student diversity, promoting self-directed language learning and scaffolding while learning English. The results additionally report that numerous aspects like time constraints, teachers’ unsatisfactory computer skills, insufficient computer facilities, and inflexible school courses undesirably affect the implementation of CALL in English classrooms. It is recommended that further studies should be undertaken to investigate the actual effect of CALL on students’ language proficiency. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Anna Hell ◽  
Anna-Lena Godhe ◽  
Eva Wennås Brante

<p>This study explores how newly arrived young students created meaning, communicated, and expressed themselves using digital technology in the subject of Swedish as a second language (SSL).  The qualitative case study presented in this article focuses on how the orchestration of teaching contributed to opportunities for digital meaning-making in the SSL subject in four classrooms at three schools in a city in Sweden. The notion of language as being fluid, which involves a critical approach to languages as separable entities, considers linguistic and embodied meaning-making, including digital technology, in social processes. This approach recognizes the roles of technology and digital meaning-making in young students’ second language acquisition. Moreover, technological innovations facilitate immediate and accessible communication.  In today’s language studies, ethnicity only is not considered an adequate focus of analysis. Furthermore, the meaning-making practices of newly arrived primary school-aged students remain under-investigated. In the present study, data collected in classroom observations and teacher interviews revealed three themes regarding the students’ utilization of digital technology to develop their multilingual skills. One insight was that the newly arrived students used digital technology strategically when they engaged in meaning-making activities with peers and teachers. When the students took the initiative in computer-assisted language learning, they displayed agency in meaning-making by being their own architects. The findings of this research provided insights into how the orchestration of teaching in Swedish as a second language to newly arrived students affects their opportunities to use multilingualism in meaning-making while employing digital technology.</p>


2017 ◽  
pp. 116-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edo Forsythe

This chapter will explore the background of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) with a focus on how CALL methodologies and digital technology have enabled the implementation of flipped learning methods. The chapter briefly explores the beginning of CALL and its growth through current mobile technology uses. Successive sections explore learner autonomy and digital technology, language learner motivation, sociocultural learning theory, communicative language learning and teaching, language learning strategies, and finally, task-based language learning. Each of these pedagogical foundations of second language acquisition are explored with suggestions for practical application of the methodologies that are directly tied to or supportive of flipped learning and digital technology integration.


Author(s):  
Edo Forsythe

This chapter will explore the background of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) with a focus on how CALL methodologies and digital technology have enabled the implementation of flipped learning methods. The chapter briefly explores the beginning of CALL and its growth through current mobile technology uses. Successive sections explore learner autonomy and digital technology, language learner motivation, sociocultural learning theory, communicative language learning and teaching, language learning strategies, and finally, task-based language learning. Each of these pedagogical foundations of second language acquisition are explored with suggestions for practical application of the methodologies that are directly tied to or supportive of flipped learning and digital technology integration.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document