Brave New Digital Classroom

Technology and Foreign Language Learning

Publication Year: 2008

Brave New Digital Classroom deftly interweaves results of pedagogical research and descriptions of the most successful computer-assisted language learning (CALL) projects to explore how technology can best be employed in the foreign-language curriculum to assist the second language acquisition process. Directed to all language teachersùwhether at the school or the postsecondary level, with or without prior experienceùthis book focuses on how to use new technologies effectively. Blake urges teachers to move beyond a simple functional competence of knowing how to use the tools toward first a critical competenceùrealizing what the various tools are good forùand ultimately a rhetorical competence of knowing how the tools will help transform the learning environment. This book examines the effective use of a range of technologies, from Internet sites through computer-mediated communication such as synchronous chatting and blogs, to distance learning. At the end of each chapter questions and activities demonstrate the interactionist, learner-centered pedagogy Blake espouses. An invaluable reference for experienced researchers and CALL developers as well as those of limited experience, Brave New Digital Classroom is also ideal for graduate-level courses on second language pedagogy. It will also be of interest to department chairs and administrators seeking to develop and evaluate their own CALL programs.

Published by: Georgetown University Press

Contents
Search Inside This Book
Book Details

pdf icon Download PDF (50.4 KB)
pp. vii-

List of Illustrations

pdf icon Download PDF (57.8 KB)
pp. ix-

Foreword

pdf icon Download PDF (45.9 KB)
pp. xi-xii

In the twenty-first century, technology is a part of nearly every aspect of life, and this is true of the field of second language learning and teaching. For several decades technically savvy teachers have been using technology with their language students, and research has been conducted on the effectiveness of using technology for language education. ...

Preface

pdf icon Download PDF (67.7 KB)
pp. xiii-xv

No language instructor, professor, applied linguist, graduate student, or department chair would deny the importance of using new technologies to enhance the learning environment—and the subject area of foreign languages is no exception. But the rapidly changing parameters of the technological field have made the first-time entry into using technology...

1. SLA, Language Teaching, and Technology: An Overview

pdf icon Download PDF (123.5 KB)
pp. 1-24

Why should any foreign-language educator or student in the process of learning a second language (L2) have any interest in technology given that L2 learning is such a social, if not face-to-face, process? The answer lies in looking closely at the facts of second language acquisition (SLA) and the resources at hand ...

2. Web Pages in Service of L2 Learning

pdf icon Download PDF (183.4 KB)
pp. 25-48

The growth of the World Wide Web (WWW, or more simply, the web) in recent years has been nothing short of staggering: from 2002 to 2005 the number of Internet users has increased by 183 percent (Internet World Stats, 2006). More important for American educational circles, a recent survey by the Pew Foundation reports...

3. CALL and Its Evaluation

pdf icon Download PDF (120.7 KB)
pp. 49-69

As discussed in chapter 2, the impact of the Internet is the central focus of CALL because of its prominent role in today’s FL classroom and in the lives of the students. However, the first applications of computer technology in the field of FL teaching were implemented in the 1960s on mainframe computers within a Skinnerian behaviorist framework...

4. Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)

pdf icon Download PDF (148.5 KB)
pp. 70-101

From the brief survey of SLA theories presented in chapter 1, it should be clear that best practices in FL teaching need to be firmly grounded in interactionist notions of one flavor or another: for example, the proximal zone of development, negotiation of meaning, FonF, task-based learning, project-based learning, or pair collaboration. ...

5. Distance Learning for Languages: Does It Measure Up?

pdf icon Download PDF (180.8 KB)
pp. 102-129

“Do you use technology in your foreign language classroom?” Few language teachers would dare to answer “no” to this leading question for fear of being classified as outdated or out of touch with best practices. Not surprising, most teachers routinely employ web pages to distribute syllabi assignments, cultural materials, webquests, and even lecture notes created in PowerPoint...

6. Putting It All Together

pdf icon Download PDF (123.3 KB)
pp. 130-145

With the publication of Brave New Schools, Cummins and Sayers (1995) challenged the language-teaching profession to radically rethink, if not transform, the FL curriculum using global learning networks along the lines of Freinet’s (1994) classic dialogic approach. Throughout this book on technology and language teaching, I have either explicitly...

E-ISBN-13: 9781589016521
E-ISBN-10: 1589016521
Print-ISBN-13: 9781589012127
Print-ISBN-10: 1589012127

Page Count: 240
Publication Year: 2008