[5th Online Roundtable Discussion]
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Theme:
Language Learning Beyond the Classroom: The Role of Digital Technologies
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Invited Speakers:
Dr. Randall Sadler (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Dr. Mark Dressman (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Dr. Yuji Nakamura (Keio University, Japan)
Dr. Chun Lai (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Dr. Wen-chi Vivian Wu (Providence University, Taiwan)
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Moderator:
Ju Seong (John) Lee (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Date:
Tue, March 15, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. (Illinois, USA)
Wed, March 16, 2016 at 8:00 a.m. (Taipei, Taiwan)
Wed, March 16, 2016 at 8:00 a.m. (Hong Kong)
Wed, March 16, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. (Tokyo, Japan)
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Presentation:
12 Years of Telecollaboaration - What We've Learned
Dr. Randall Sadler (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
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Self-directed Language Learning via Multimedia: The Case of Moroccan Students
Dr. Mark Dressman (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)
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Faced with university infrastructures unable to keep up with surging enrollments, Moroccan students have turned to resources at hand—their own historical tradition of multilingualism, their love of conversation, and a vast array of digital technologies, from mobile phones to subtitled English programs on satellite television to Facebook, YouTube, and EngVid—to create an “invisible university” of instruction and instructional materials for themselves. As a consequence, Moroccan youth are remarkably proficient speakers of English as a fourth or fifth language, outscoring Korean youth on the TESOL speak test, despite Korean’s strong advantages in terms of length and quality of English instruction in school. Yet, a lack of L1 or even L2 or L3 literacy, as well as a lack of reading resources and opportunities to write for authentic audiences, hinders the development of literate proficiency among Moroccan students. In my presentation, I will describe findings from an ongoing ethnographic study of students’ English learning in three universities, and discuss possible implications for English instruction internationally.
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Videoconferencing-Embedded Flipped Classroom (VEFC) in Japan’s EFL Context
Dr. Yuji Nakamura (Keio University, Japan)
English Language Teaching (ELT) has been significantly transformed due to the globalization. Although instruction of teaching English as an International Language (EIL) has received a lot of attention around the world, ELT pedagogy has not always kept pace with the current realities. For example, in Japan the teacher-centered instruction is the most common practice focusing on one particular variety of English (e.g., American English).　The purpose of this paper is two-fold: First, it aims to report on the use of the Videoconferencing-Embedded Flipped Class (VEFC) model in the Japanese EFL context to allow pedagogically sound interaction between students in Japan and ELT scholars from overseas (e,g., USA, Brazil, or Indonesia). Second, it also discusses how implementing VEFC model improved the students’ EIL awareness, communicative skills, and motivation based on multiple data apparatus (i.e., the term-end paper submission, student-led oral presentation, course evaluation and the questionnaire) collected in spring 2015.
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Language Learners’ Self-directed Learning with Technology outside the Classroom: The Case from Hong Kong
Dr. Chun Lai (University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
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Learning involves the accumulation of experiences across a variety of formal and informal settings across time and space, and learning inside the classroom is only part of it. Thus, understanding students’ self-directed learning beyond the classroom is critical to gaining a comprehensive understanding of language learning. The normalization of technology in human life has made technology integral to language learners’ out-of-class learning experience. Language learners’ self-directed use of technology beyond the classroom for learning purposes is essential to enriching language learning experience and maximizing the potential of technology for learning. In this talk, I’ll share some of my research work on language learners’ self-directed use of technology for learning beyond the classroom, focusing on the nature of their self-initiated endeavors and the factors that influence their endeavors.
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The Use of Technology to Facilitate Language Learning Outside the Classroom in Taiwan’s EFL Context
Dr. Wen-Chi Vivian Wu (Providence University, Taiwan)
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In my presentation, I will share with all the participants how I incorporate technology into my EFL oral training class by using social network site as a communicational tool outside the classroom to enhance my EFL learners’ oral proficiency. Detailed instructional design will also be provided to serve as guideline for English instructors who wish to conduct a study like this.
Oral proficiency in a foreign language is the prerequisite for communication of ideas and intelligent conversation. The ability to speak a language is synonymous with knowing the language, since speech is the most basic means of human communication (Folse, 2006). However, inadequate communication and interaction between teachers and students, excessive teacher-led lectures, and relatively fatiguing test-based teaching methods still suppress the development of student communicative competence.
Technology, with distinctive features such as mobility, reachability, personalization, spontaneity, and ubiquity, is widely used to facilitate language teaching and learning. In particular, given the benefits and possible learning affordances that mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) offers, incorporating mobile devices appropriately can “have the potential to revolutionize the way we work and learn” (Peters, 2007, p. 1). In recent years, as young users in Asia have been communicating with each other via mobile messaging applications (such LINE, WhatsApp, and WeChat), research into the role of such instant and text messaging technologies in education has revealed their positive effects on providing platforms for socializing, sharing information, and communicating (Sweeny, 2010).
In view of this trend, innovative language instructors have been constantly seeking new pedagogy to match the potential of technology-enhanced instruction since the advent of new technology for learning. While previous studies have supported the adoption of technologies to facilitate language teaching and learning, research into enhancing English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ oral proficiency in a flipped classroom remains insufficient.
Flipped learning is an alternative approach that integrates technology into language learning, and that contributes to ample opportunities for students to learn (Hung, 2015; McLaughlin et al., 2014; Overmyer, 2012). In a conventional class, new knowledge is introduced in the classroom, usually via lecture, and students practice using the knowledge at home, via homework. Flipped learning reverses this paradigm, with information introduced to students before class using technology (such as mobile devices). This allows more advanced learning activities during in-class time, meaning students are given more opportunities to participate in meaningful engaging activities, thus enhancing the learning outcomes (Boucher, Robertson, Wainner & Sanders, 2013).
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