Language Tasks and Mobile Technologies: A Paradigm Shift in Designing Task-Based CALL for Young Language Learners / Activités langagières et technologies mobiles : un changement de paradigme dans la conception des tâches en apprentissage des langues (original) (raw)
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Activités langagières et technologies mobiles : un changement de paradigme dans la conception des tâches en apprentissage des langues assisté par ordinateur pour jeunes apprenants Abstract This article examines how the use of mobile technologies (iPods and tablets) in language classrooms contributes to reconceptualization of task-based approaches for young language learners. The article is based on a collaborative action research (CAR) project in Early French Immersion classrooms in the province of Alberta, Canada. The data collection included digital ethnographic observation in the classrooms, students' artifacts, and interviews with teachers and students. The findings outline how the use of mobile technologies such as iPods and tablets contributes to reconceptualization of language tasks by allowing young learners to create their own learning environment and meaningful language tasks, as well as self-regulate their language learning process. The research also provides evidence...
Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 2014
This article examines how the use of mobile technologies (iPods and tablets) in language classrooms contributes to reconceptualization of task-based approaches for young language learners. The article is based on a collaborative action research (CAR) project in Early French Immersion classrooms in the province of Alberta, Canada. The data collection included digital ethnographic observation in the classrooms, students' artifacts, and interviews with teachers and students. The findings outline how the use of mobile technologies such as iPods and tablets contributes to reconceptualization of language tasks by allowing young learners to create their own learning environment and meaningful language tasks, as well as self-regulate their language learning process. The research also provides evidence of how the use of mobile technologies helps reconceptualize task-based approaches for young language learners that reflect learning principles from the interdisciplinary research fields of neurosciences and cognitive sciences, as well as Vygotskian sociocultural theories in second language acquisition (SLA).
A Task-Based Approach to Tablets and Apps in the Foreign Language Classroom
Currents in Teaching and Learning, 2018
Digital media not only shape our society and culture, but they also strongly influence approaches to teaching and learning in educational settings. In this teaching report, we present some examples of how to embed tablets and apps productively into classroom settings. We argue that the (English as a) Foreign Language classroom can profit from tablets and so-called story-making apps if they are combined with project- and problem-based learning, and, more precisely, with task-based language teaching (TBLT). If (future) teachers know how to design app-based tasks that meet the criteria of TBLT, they will in turn know one way of engaging pupils in authentic interaction in the foreign language while at the same time developing media literacy. We backup our hypothesis with some examples of how such tasks were designed in “Digital Media in the EFL Classroom,” a recurring seminar for future teachers at Cologne University (Germany).
International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching, 2014
The paper examines how the use of mobile technologies such as tablets and handheld MP3 players can support and promote oral language production among young language learners. It explores how the use of these mobile technologies in the language classroom supports pedagogical practices anchored in socioconstructivist theories of SLA that emphasize the role of dialogue and social interaction among young language learners. The paper is based on a collaborative action research project involving French Immersion teachers and their students in primary schools in a western province of Canada. Findings show that the affordances of mobile technologies contribute to the creation of innovative learning environments and authentic language learning experiences that support and promote the production of oral language among young language learners. The inquiry demonstrates the adoption of second language pedagogical approaches anchored in socioconstructivist theories of SLA that promote autonomy an...
This paper examines language teaching and learning activities in EFL classes in the French secondary school context with the aim of understanding factors affecting the design and implementation of such tasks. Participants are pre-service teachers in a university Masters in Teaching English programme with a practical component involving classroom observation and teaching. These student teachers designed communicative activities following a common design brief which leaves the technological component open (Samuda, 2005). Data include teaching materials and activity descriptions, reflective writing, questionnaire data, semi-structured individual and group interviews, and practitioner analysis of learner language. Analysis combines coding of the resulting tasks (Erlam, 2015) with qualitative analysis of questionnaire, interview and reflective writing data. Results suggest wide variation in proposed teaching and learning activities, in the design process, and in reflection on classroom implementation in both technology- mediated and non-technological tasks.
Technology-Mediated Task-Based Language Teaching
Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2021
Introduction The use of technology has grown exponentially during the last few decades, with technology having been increasingly incorporated into the second language (L2) learning classroom and curriculum (see Grgurovic, Chapelle & Shelley [2013] for a meta-analysis). Today’s world includes the almost seamless integration of technology into nearly all aspects of our lives, with many learners having come of age using mobile phone applications, text messaging, social media, gaming, and augmented and virtual reality for everyday tasks. Thorne and Payne (2005) point out how the ubiquitous use of technology for everyday cognitive activity is likely to affect learners’ development through childhood and well into adulthood, as these evolving patterns of technology in daily use have undoubtedly influenced how learners view and interact with learning environments. Considering that many of the technologies in use today have become a nearly universal aspect of our lives, it is necessary to consider how the tasks these technologies facilitate, as well as their mediating effects on L2 learning and teaching, have evolved because of them.
EDULEARN19 Proceedings, 2019
Since the turn of the century, the field of (first and second) language teaching has witnessed the steady rise to prominence of “task-based language teaching” (TBLT) as a pedagogic framework for the acquisition of linguistic competencies. TBLT is a Dewey-inspired experiential learning approach, in which learners engage in a meaningful, primarily non-linguistic activity – a task – “in order to attain an objective, and which necessitates the use of language” (Van den Branden 2006, p. 4). In recent years, TBLT has attracted increasing attention from educators exploring the use of technology to enhance the learning process. According to Gonzalez-Lloret, for instance, “TBLT presents an ideal platform for informing and fully realizing the potential of technological innovations for language learning” (2017, p. 193). Technology-mediated or technology-enhanced TBLT creates a surplus learning outcome, as not only linguistic/communicative but also technological/digital competencies are necessa...
Technology-mediated task-based language teaching: A research agenda
Language Teaching, 2020
This paper discusses key concepts in the emerging field of technology-mediated task-based language teaching (TMTBLT) and provides a research agenda for moving this sub-field forward in a theoretically sound and data-driven way. We first define TMTBLT and discuss the importance of considering technological affordances and specific learning contexts when matching individual technologies with particular tasks. We then explore the notion of task, specifically task complexity and sequencing, and how the introduction of technology may interact and modify tasks' features. Next, we examine the use of mobile apps and social media within a task-based language teaching (TBLT) framework and highlight areas primed for exploration or in need of reconciliation. Finally, we call for TMTBLT studies to capture and evaluate learner process data. Within each area above we propose a series of specific research tasks that incrementally build on previous research in both face-to-face and technology-mediated environments, which may help us better understand how tasks and technologies intersect to promote language learning.
Language Learning & Technology, 2018
Many reports suggest that the use of education technology can have a positive effect on language education. However, most of the research indicates that there is need for more detailed understanding of the pedagogical processes that support technology-enhanced language learning. This text takes a social semiotic perspective to examine multimodal interaction (Jewitt, Bezemer, & O’Halloran, 2016) of learners taking part in telecollaborative activities in a language classroom. The study aims to provide a detailed view of the ways in which the language teachers’ task-as-workplan (Breen, 1987, 1989), designed around different technologies, dovetails (or not) into the task-as-process (i.e., the way in which the learners interpret and act upon the task instructions). Comparing the teachers’ pedagogical design and intended purpose of different technology-supported tasks with the actual way in which the learners interact with the tools, the results show that the students often engage with th...