Blogghiamo in italiano: Microblogs in the Intermediate Italian language class for the students’ development of independent learning, cooperation and cultural understanding and exploration (original) (raw)
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XLinguae
Currently, a high proficient level in a foreign language is one of the criteria by which the qualified specialist is assessed. Under given conditions of economic and world politics, Russia actively participates in the world community life and expands its international relations. These factors determine the increased demand for teaching foreign languages. The use of computers becomes the integral part of the learning process, and its use in the teaching ESL opens up new opportunities for educators and leaners in their studies and allows solving fundamentally new tasks in the methodology of teaching a foreign language. In the framework of the education system, the computer technologies in the educational process is being actively implemented. The research states the use of Web 2.0 services, and microblogging, in particular, in the process of teaching foreign languages, is an indispensable resource for the formation of communicative skills of students. The presented research paper examines the microblogging as the additional interactive technology for teaching foreign languages and as the effective tool for building the communication skills of postgraduate students of non-linguistic Universities. Due to the fact that the term "interactive learning" is increasingly used in the field of information technology, distance education, use of Internet resources and work online, the authors will consider the main aspects of the computer linguodidactics development as a basic branch of knowledge, responsible for the development of interactive learning ESL. The results of the research are possible to use in the course of the methodology of teaching foreign languages, in developing teaching aids and courses in foreign languages.
Teachers as awakeners: a collaborative approach in language learning and social media
This paper provides an overview of the successful pedagogical project TwitTIAMO, now in its third year, where micro blogging (Twitter) has been used in Italian language teaching and learning to improve students’ communicative language skills, accuracy, uency and pronunciation outside timetabled lessons. It also explores the background and outcomes of two recent implementations to the project: (1) the implementation of a Twitter Champ, acting as a Knowledgeable Other (Vygotsky, 1978) and the development of her transferable employability skills; and (2) the use of a free speech- to-text tool to develop accuracy in pronunciation and writing. More broadly, the paper offers an overview of social media as a powerful tool to transpose classroom communities into online learning communities and enhance spontaneous and collaborative learning outside conventional classroom settings, based on Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) principles and current Personal Learning Environments (PLE) and Communities of Practice (CoP) theories.
International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology, 2014
This study examined the phenomenon of blogging as a technologically enhanced support to develop interaction and interrelatedness among learners in a foreign language course. A corpus of 62 blog entries and 30 comments the bloggers left on each other's blogs were analysed to find out whether blog may be used to promote connectivity and collaboration among students. The findings of the study revealed interaction between bloggers was limited; thus, the study indicates the restricted use of blog as a tool promoting collaboration in the foreign language classroom. Furthermore, the results identified some of the problems related to technology-based learning and teaching.
Microblogging as an Educational Tool to Advance Learning: Case Studies and Recent Reports
Microblogging is a form of online communication which users beam short texts via instant messages, emails, or text messaging. Microblogging can be considered as integration of blogging, text messaging and social networking. Some of the more well-known microblogging services are Twitter, Cirip, Tumblr, Pownce, and Jaiku. They allow users to create an account and post short text messages, Web links, audio clips and photos. Each post is limited to 140-200 characters. "Twitter by far is the most popular microblogging site with 3.3 million users and will be referred to most often throughout this paper" [1, p. 186]. In the area of education, several researchers have pointed out the benefits of using Twitter in language learning. Using Twitter in a language course has the potential to change the passive atmosphere of a classroom to a dynamic one. Besides exploring collaborative writing, it also promotes writing as a fun activity. It can also foster editing skills and develop lite...
Lazović, V. (2012). "The use of blogs in language teaching". Inovacije u nastavi, 25: 1, 120-126.
Blogs, another useful tool for all teachers, tend to completely substitute traditional and seemingly out-of-date noticeboards. There are numerous ways of using blogs in language teaching. For example, blogs can be used as modern noticeboards by teachers, as electronic portfolios of written work by students or as a way of sharing and collaboration between teachers and students, on one side, and between students, on the other. Moreover, a teacher can use an existing blog to provide information and find the source of data for lesson preparation or create their own blog with the access to different exercises and lesson plans, exchanging ideas with others. This paper examines how blogs can enhance teaching and learning of English in higher education. In the first part, it focusses on the use of blogs as part of modern way of teaching and informing students, presenting the concrete example of how beneficial and practical this way of virtual communication can be for any language course. Further, it highlights ideas, comments and suggestions given by the students who have had the opportunity to read and follow blogs created for specific language courses throughout one academic year.
Language Micro-gaming: Fun and Informal Microblogging Activities for Language Learning
Communications in Computer and Information Science, 2009
Learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge and instruction is a process of supporting that construction rather than communicating knowledge' . Can this process of learning be fun for the learner? Successful learning involves a mixture of work and fun. One of the recent web 2.0 services that can offer great possibilities for learning is Microblogging [2]. This kind of motivation can raise students' natural curiosity and interest which promotes learning. Play can also promote excitement, enjoyment, and a relaxing atmosphere. As Vygotsky (1933) [3] advocates, play creates a zone of proximal development (ZDP) in children. According to Vygotsky, the ZDP is the distance between one's actual developmental level and one's potential developmental level when interacting with someone and/or something in the social environment . Play can be highly influential in learning. What happens when play becomes informal learning supported by web 2.0 technologies? Practical ideas applied in an Italian foreign language classroom using microblogging to promote fun and informal learning showed that microblogging can enhance motivation, participation, collaboration and practice in basic language skills.
A tale of tweets: Analyzing microblogging among language learners
2011
In these days of ubiquitous tweeting, language teachers must consider whether microblogging is an activity that will bring benefits to the learning experience. Recent research (Junco et al., 2010; Messner, 2009, among others) indicates that Twitter is becoming increasingly popular in classrooms, but few studies (see for example, Borau et al., 2009; Junco et al., 2010) have empirically examined the linguistic, attitudinal or content-based outcomes of such implementation. This paper discusses the role of Twitter in an intermediate French class (4th or 5th semester of French at the University level), in which students tweeted weekly with each other and with native French speakers. The goal for using Twitter was to build community among learners in the U.S. and in France and to provide opportunities for creative language practice outside of class time. Data suggest that participants quickly formed a collaborative community in which they were able to learn, share and reflect. Attitudinal data and discourse analysis findings are presented to discuss the use of this medium in language learning.
Blogging in Foreign Language Education
2000
Education (FLE) through reviewing literature, critically analyzing potential benefits and concerns about blogs, and suggesting research needed to better understand blogging's influence on language learning. The chapter begins with a discussion of Web 2.0's potential impact on FLE and a detailed description and definition of blogs. Following this a comprehensive literature review of blog use in FLE and a critical examination of blogging's potential benefits and problems in key areas of FLE is offered. Finally, future trends for blogs and further research areas are suggested. Though blogs are a tool that have received relatively minimal attention in FLE literature to date, this chapter argues that blogs can be an important hub of learning in Web 2.0.