Week 10: Social Media Tools for Language Learning

This past week, we looked at certain social media tools and online games that could be used for language learning. As someone who rarely uses social media, maybe my opinion is a bit biased. For example, one of the social media tools that my group looked at in class was Tuenti. Judging from its described features and screen shots, Tuenti seems to be the Facebook of Spain. There is potential for language learners to join the network so that they could speak to native Spanish speakers. However, unless these interactions are presented in a certain way, I'm afraid that these language learners, who don't personally know any Tuenti members, may have the same problem that the two British language learners did with the French newspaper's discussion forum. Any way to connect with speakers of different languages can be a potential opportunity to improve one's language skills. However, finding the most appropriate and the most efficient tool for this goal is something different. Social media tools such as Facebook and Tuenti could be helpful for language learners, but it would be really hard to incorporate the use of this tool into a language classroom or even into a language course. Maybe co-opting a social media tool for language learning may not be the most practical use of a teacher's or a language learner's time. 

Week 10: Response to Jamieson (2005)

In this article, Jamieson discusses the use of computers in language testing. Apparently, the assessment of second language learners by use of computerized testing has been discussed for over 20 years. Jamieson presents the different ways in which technology-assisted assessment has evolved and progressed to new and better uses for second language learning. Perhaps I am too much of a skeptic, but the idea of a computer assessing the language abilities of a human seems a little idealistic. If it isn't yet possible to interact with a computer in a foreign language (as in a simulation of a conversation with two participants), then how will this same technology be able to assess the abilities that allow an individual to converse? If we're talking about vocabulary retention, writing, or reading comprehension, then computer-based assessment would be suitable. However, in terms of speech production (or even listening comprehension that accounts for variation between speakers), computer-based language assessment may not be adequate enough yet to reliably assess language learners. On the other hand, I find the feature of the Longman English Assessment which generates a custom list of study strategies to be very handy for second language learners. As with almost all of the CALL tools in this class, there are advantages and disadvantages to their usage. 

Week 9: Videocasts for Teaching Culture

In class last week, we discussed teaching culture through CALL. As I was (and will be again in the future) teaching a heritage language, the culture of the target language is part of the students' heritage. Therefore, a cultural 'exchange' wouldn't be appropriate in this context. However, using videocasts could be a way to promote the interaction of language and culture. Despite the fact that I don't speak Chinese, I found the videocasts of OMG Meiyu to be an interesting and popular way of explaining certain cultural expressions or idioms in American English. These 'snippets' of culture could be a great way to reinforce certain vocabulary with specific cultural contexts. One of the ways that this could be implemented in Wendat would be the integration of language with traditional crafts. We could film a short clip of a local artisan doing beadwork, moose hair embroidery, canoe making, or some other trade and then explaining the craft through integrating short expressions and vocabulary words. Each of these video 'snapshots' could extend Wendat language learning to a different area of cultural interest, thereby promoting a parallel linguistic and cultural revitalization. 

Class Qikpad Test

Week 9: 'Collective Intelligence'

The article by Woolley et al. makes the case for a collective intelligence factor which would explain the performance of groups on a diverse set of tasks. The authors explain that although a so-called 'general intelligence factor' has been found for individuals, this is the first attempt to see if such a factor exists for groups. After completing two studies, the authors agree that that there is some evidence for a collective intelligence factor (which is surprisingly enough not correlated with the average intelligence of group members!). Even the maximum individual intelligence of the group was not positively correlated with the overall group intelligence. Interestingly, the factors that were significant for predicting group intelligence include social sensitivity, the equality of turn-taking, and the proportion of females in the group. Although these findings are quite interesting, the idea of somehow 'measuring' intelligence makes me wary. Despite the fact that there are some references listed at the end of the article, there was no explanation of what criteria were used to measure the intelligence of individuals or groups. Assigning some sort of numerical values for social sensitivity and intelligence may be helpful for researchers, but does that actually tell us anything about the behavior and performance of groups?

Week 8: Comic Strips for L2 Writing

During our class discussions on L2 writing, I remembered an activity that I attempted in the language classroom involving comic strips. There are some free sites online that allow you to create your own comic strips and share them. The first site is Make Beliefs Comix (http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/) where you can choose from different characters, objects, scenes, thought or talk bubbles and panels. There is a way to insert accents and diacritics into the text (one of the pages on this site gives instructions for doing so). After creating the comic strip, you can print or email the comic to yourself, although there is no way to embed it or save it directly on this site (but you can take a screen shot and upload the image to another site).

The other site that seems to be user-friendly is ToonDoo (www.toondoo.com). You can create comic strips on this site and there are a lot more backgrounds, characters, effects, and objects available (and you can use foreign characters or diacritics). You also have the option of creating entire comic books and even your own characters. You can share the comic by emailing it, embedding it on another site, printing it, or downloading a version on your desktop. If you want a high-resolution image of your comic, then you need to pay for it. For me, the amount of options on this site are a little overwhelming so it took me a long time to make a short comic. 

I wanted to also share a comic strip that I made of one of the short exchanges we've used in previous classes to practice speaking. I made this strip from MakeBeliefsComix.com. 

Here is the translation of the Wendat:

In the winter...

A: I'm going outside.

B: Is it cold?

A: Yes, it's cold.

B: Wait for me! I'll get dressed.

A: Look! It's snowing!

B: That's true! Wow!

If you wanted, you could have students write their own comic strip and share them in class. Also, you could print off a blank one for students and have them fill in the bubbles with their own interpretation of what the characters are doing. If students continued making comic strips in class, then they could eventually make a short comic book to share at the end of the course. Anyways, there seem to be a lot of fun ways to integrate these tools into the foreign language classroom. 

Week 8: Thoughts on Hanna (2003)

This article looked at cross-cultural exchanges in the context of online forums. The case study focused on four language learners of French who participated in an online forum on the website of the French newspaper, Le Monde. Out of the four students, two posted messages in the forum about wishing to ameliorate their French language skills. Interestingly enough, these two students didn't receive overwhelmingly positive responses about advancing their language skills, but they were told that they need to participate as everyone else does in the forum: by discussing different news topics that interest them. The other two students, whose initial posts were about the news, were received favorably by other participants in the forum. Like the authors stated, the type of exchanges that are typically set up in foreign language classrooms can be limiting and artificial at times. Although students may be connecting with native speakers, when the topics are determined by the teacher, can these be considered 'authentic' exchanges? On the other hand, this type of carefully 'crafted' interaction may be necessary for beginning learners, who are probably not ready to initiate conversation or discussion with native speakers. However, for upper intermediate and advanced learners, this type of activity, in which students are encouraged to participate in cultural practices in order to practice the language, may be more beneficial and transferable to exchanges outside of the class.