Mentoring Teacher Assistants to Use Online Tools

This chapter indicates how a group of Teaching Assistants (TAs) was trained in the use of technology to help students enrolled in large first year Spanish classes excel in learning of Spanish as a foreign language. Framed by the Communities of Practice theory proposed by Wenger (1998), this study supports the theory that by examining their practices, trainees may become more effective in what they learn. Six TAs participated in the study and their reflection-on-action logs were examined and compared to the trainer's personal observations. Interpretation of the results was then carried out by comparing parallel and dissimilar ideas which were then used as focus for discussion. Outcomes support the theory that communities of practice and reflective inquiry are valuable teacher training tools.

Using YouTube and WeChat to Promote Communicative and Intercultural Competence in Japanese and Mandarin

Web 2.0 technologies are omnipresent in the lives of the digital natives who are the majority of learners in the language centre's non-specialist programme. However, there is no automatic transfer from personal to pedagogical use especially when linguistic and intercultural competence is also at play. The Japanese and Chinese teachers, who are the chapter's co-authors see technology as an affordance and thus necessary for developing their students' proficiency. The chapter examines learners' perspectives on the technology used and whether it facilitates the degree of engagement intended.

Indonesian Mobile Learning Information System Using Social Media Platforms

As a developing country, Indonesia continues to improve its quality as a state, in which the attempt to optimize all of its potential both in terms of economic, political, social, cultural, technological, educational, health, etc. This modern era, all aspects of life are depending on technology. This makes the technology becomes one of necessary in people's life. The utilization of technology has been used by all people in all aspects of life. Specifically, this paper tries to offer an innovation that has never been designed before, namely a platform of M-Learning in form of social media related to the development of technology for learning. Nowadays, internet users and smartphone ownership in Indonesia increased dramatically, then writers took initiative to design an innovation related to this case. Social media technologies provide the opportunity for teachers to engage students in online classes, thereby supporting the development of skills and learners to achieve competency. In addition to students, the opportunity is also open to outside the community to get information that can add knowledge. This case study provides a platform for M-Learning based learning that facilitate student learning also helps society size to obtain information more easily. The design of this platform using models UML (Unified Modeling Language) to design a visual model of this platform.

Multilingualism, Identities and Language Hegemony

This paper presents the findings from a case study of how five post-secondary ethnic multilingual students (three Bai and two Zhuang) at a local university in Southwestern China experience multilingualism and ethnic identities (de)construction and invest themselves in an active negotiation for legitimate membership in mainstream educational Discourses (Gee, 1990, 2012). The authors seek to understand how the perceived hegemony of Mandarin has impacted their social positioning and delegitimized their multilingual assets and ethnic identities in mainstream educational Discourses, and how they managed to negotiate their identities as ethnic multilinguals in different social Discourses. The authors argue that through the legitimate dominance of Mandarin, these students are not merely being positioned as members of a negatively stereotyped ethnic group but also concurrently participating in reconstructing the Mandarin language hegemony in those very Discourses, which runs the risk of further expanding the existing educational inequalities between Han and ethnic minority students..

Bridging Local and Global Experiences

To internationalize the K-12 curriculum and instructional practices, there is an increasing need to provide study-abroad opportunities for practicing teachers. In this chapter, the authors describe the design of a recent Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) program that offer practicing teachers from different grade levels and content areas the opportunity to bridge their local and global experiences. The intentional design of program activities at the pre-departure, in-country, and re-entry phases is detailed based on research regarding teachers' communities of practice, teacher change, and the cultural transition framework. In addition to program activities, the challenges faculty directors and participants experienced and the strategies employed to leverage these challenges into learning opportunities are discussed. Recommendations for similar study-abroad programs involving practicing teachers are also provided.

Corpora as Tools for Self-Driven Learning

Can EFL students be profitably introduced to compilation of DIY corpora for various ESP domains even at the undergraduate level? How can they benefit from self-directed exploitation of language corpora at such an early stage? What language skills can a corpus-based ESP course enhance? This chapter discusses the advantages and limitations of a structured approach to pedagogical corpus consultation and corpora as self-directed learning tools as applied in an innovative corpus-based ESP course. A multifaceted enquiry of students' assessment and perception of the course - initial feedback, questionnaire, and focus group – was conducted. Results indicate that although students perceived corpus use as a complex activity, their attitude to the corpus approach was positive and they recognised the benefits of corpora as self-directed tools. Suggestions for further improvements of such practices are also discussed.

Exploring Socio-Cultural Elements in Three Commercial English Language Learning Apps

Second language teaching and learning has experienced a change towards the use of mobile technologies inside and outside the classroom. The goal of this article is twofold: to compare and evaluate three different commercial English language learning apps (Duolingo, Babbel, and Busuu) that cover the four skills (speaking, writing, listening, and reading), and to analyze the learning theory supporting their design. These applications include in their homepage the option of interactive learning with friends. However, as this article shows, each app offers a different level of interaction and collaboration. The theoretical framework for this analysis is grounded on Vygotsky's Socio-cultural theory.

Constructing Knowledge-Based Feedback in the Context of an Interactive Spoken CALL Application

Modern Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) systems use speech recognition to give students the opportunity to build up their spoken language skills through interactive practice with a mechanical partner. Besides the obvious benefits that these systems can offer, e.g. flexible and inexpensive learning, user interaction in this context can often be problematic. In this article, the authors introduce a parallel layer of feedback in a CALL application, which can monitor interaction, report errors and provide advice and suggestions to students. This mechanism combines knowledge accumulated from four different inputs in order to decide on appropriate feedback, which can be customized and adapted in terms of phrasing, style and language. The authors report the results from experiments conducted at six lower secondary classrooms in German-speaking Switzerland with and without this mechanism. After analyzing approximately 13,000 spoken interactions it can be reasonably argued that their parallel feedback mechanism in L2 actually does help students during interaction and contributes as a motivation factor.

Understanding Idiomaticity in CALL

The primary aim of this chapter is to investigate the effectiveness of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) technologies, tools, and resources for figurative language in general and idiom learning in particular. The secondary aim is to explore the CALL training practices affecting the attainment of idiomaticity in English as a second or foreign language. Idiomaticity training is anchored in an online methodology of idiomaticity teaching that takes into account learners' interests and active involvement. Such focus is particularly useful for the purposes of diagnosis and achievement, and the research to date is a promising start to further work on idiomaticity. The chapter provides recommendations for idiomaticity training-and-teaching as well as time-tested practices for further theorizing and research. It is hoped that the practices and recommendations explored here will spur on more research in this vein. Pedagogical and research implications are also discussed.

Pedagogical Insights Into Hyper-Immersive Virtual World Language Learning Environments

This article shares pedagogical insights from a qualitative study examining the use of immersive social virtual worlds (SVWs) in language teaching and learning. Recognizing the language learning affordances of immersive virtual environments, this research examines the beliefs and practices of ‘Karelia Kondor,' an avatar-learner and teacher of languages with a decade of diverse experiences in Second Life (SL), one of the first widely used SVWs. Findings highlight the relevance of a hyper-immersive and emotionally engaging conceptual model informing language teaching approaches within these rapidly evolving environments. When supported pedagogically, the activities illustrated demonstrate the potential of these immersive approaches to create communities of practice and affinity spaces by fostering investment and autonomy in the language learning process through shared target language experiences. The article will conclude with a summary of pedagogical insights leveraging the affordances of these environments.