Integrating Chinese Community into Canadian Society

The use of podcasting technology in language learning presents a unique set of challenges and holds a great deal of promise for digital natives as well as for newcomers to technology. The literature on podcasts in learning mainly focuses on student experiences in formal educational settings, while questions related to nontraditional students in freely-available language programs provided by non-profit organizations remain unexplored. Taking a case study approach, this research examines how podcasting enhances the English learning experiences of students in an English as a Second Language (ESL) course offered by a non-profit organization that provides community services to immigrants in Canada. This chapter discusses instructional and organizational benefits as well as the challenges of applying podcasts in language training. By triangulating the experiences of the students, instructor, and program coordinators, we are able to examine the effectiveness of such a program and offer recommendations for similar programs in the future.

Producing Pathways to Proficient Pronunciation with Learner-Designed Pronunciation Stations

The chapter reports on a study examining learning stations designed by English as a second language students in order to improve pronunciation. This on-going Design-Based Research study focuses on promoting, sustaining, and understanding an educational innovation (Bell, 2004). The longitudinal study identifies favorable and unfavorable aspects of learner-designed pronunciation station teaching. Results extend previous iterations of data collection and analysis of student assignments with reference to technology resources and online survey results as part of strategic (re)designing of the activity. This pedagogy fosters student responsibility for learning and utilizing learning opportunities they create. Discussion is provided about how poststructural theory corresponds with design-based research as data collection and analysis methodology to illuminate discourses of autonomy as agency, motivation and investment, and resistance. Design-based research frames the postmodern and action oriented design based research goals of “examining the assumptions underlying contemporary educational programs and practices” (Reeves, McKenney, & Herrington, 2011, pp. 60-61).

“Yeah, There’s an App for That”

To help students: 1) learn to use mobile applications as the basis for speech topic selection; 2) identify new outlets for using technology to acquire information and solve problems; 3) learn to use cloud based information management tools to identify and organize research; 4) explore public speaking tools that can improve presentation and delivery skills.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way we do things at home, in business, and of course, in teaching a world language. In addition to enhancing your understanding of how cloud-based technologies will strengthen your classroom activities, this article will also provide an example of how you can integrate two popular platforms to support communicative world language teaching activities.

Content and Language Integrated Learning in Higher Education

This chapter describes the online learning component of a blended model designed to promote Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at the University of Urbino, Italy. A technology-enhanced learning environment is presented along with an analysis of how CLIL was implemented across multiple university departments.

Use of Facebook by Foreign Language Instructors

Nowadays the widespread use of information and communication technologies in every field, especially in education, brings forward the idea of use of them by teachers and students intensively. Although teachers and students are far from each other physically, they communicate thanks to information and communication technologies, learn new information about their lessons, repeat this information, and reinforce what they learn in class. When taking learning and teaching into consideration, learning and teaching do not happen without communication and interaction. The importance of social media tools in information and communication technologies has been increasing in terms of education. Social media tools are generally called as social networking sites. Facebook is the most used and known tool among them. Facebook is a social network that provides communication and information exchange. People who have Internet connection in every part of the world communicate and interact among themselves via this social tool. In other words, people compose virtual social lives for themselves. People in these virtual lives identify themselves, communicate and get along with people who have the same cultural level via the facilities that the Internet provides. This case tries to find out the use of Facebook by language instructors via a questionnaire which was given to 160 English, French, and German language instructors at the School of Foreign Languages, Basic Languages Department of Anadolu University. Findings emerged related to every aim of the study. Some conclusions were drawn from the findings gained in the study. The results of the study revealed that Facebook has been used widely by instructors. There were some differences in the use of Facebook among English, French and German instructors. It was found that English instructors made extensive use of Facebook. Moreover, some instructors were found to create class pages and have some activities like communication, sharing class events, giving homework and sharing videos. Based on the results, the study was concluded by some implications to use Facebook in foreign language learning.

The Use and Uptake of Information and Communication Technology

In common with many countries, teacher education in Turkey has been facing a period of rapidly changing demands with respect to the use of information and communication technology. This chapter presents a case study of an initial teacher education department in Turkey. The study focuses on prospective English language teachers’ views concerning various types of information and communication technology deployed by their teacher educators, their views of the information and communication technology-related course, their subsequent engagement of the information and communication technology, its emerging challenges, and their expectations to utilize information and communication technology in their future teaching. Data were collected using a questionnaire, interviews, and portraits of three teacher candidates. The results of the study reveal that the majority of the teacher candidates have positive perceptions towards integration of technology in their courses; however, they are aware of the lack of the pedagogical use of information and communication technology within their courses, and see the need for more use of such tools in their preservice teacher education programs.

Technology Use and Acceptance among Pre-Service Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

This chapter reports two case studies done in a teacher training university to find the effects of two technology-based learning environments on learning and technology acceptance of pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language. In the first case, a learning management system was used to support writing ability in a writing course. In the second case, the effect of an educational blog on increasing phonological awareness was probed into. Both studies adopted a pretest-posttest control and experimental group design. The results revealed that, while controlling for the participants’ entry-level ability, the experimental group outperformed the control group in their final assessment. Perceptions of those who experienced technology-based environments were assessed by a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. It was found that most participants enjoyed using both technologies for learning, accepted them as valuable educational sources, and preferred to extend using them into other university courses.

Facebook, Identity, and Deception

This project uses the social networking site Facebook to explore notions of personal identity: Its conception, construction, and expression. Students begin the assignment by creating a fictitious Facebook account. Second, students work to create an online identity through this account that is dissimilar from the way they perceive themselves. Students conclude by presenting their fictitious Facebook profiles to the rest of the class, discussing how/why it differs from their “real” identities, how/why they made the decisions they did, etc.

The Digital Communication Journal

The digital communication journal assignment challenges students to write and respond to online posts that examine the connections between course concepts and their own academic, personal, and professional experiences.