Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Chapter 10- Technology in Foreign and Second Language Instruction


TPACK is used when a teacher views their lesson and sees how technology can enhance the learning opportunity for the students. The teachers also need to know the right pedagogy to help the students’ learning of the content.

Teachers should look at technology not as an “add-on” but as a unified and crucial part of the lessons.

The difference between foreign language and second or additional language is foreign is when a language of study is used mainly in other countries. Second language is when the learner is in an English environment picking up their second language.

ESL has an advantage over FL because they have the opportunity and advantage since the language they are learning is a majority language spoken. For FL teachers have to find places and activities where the students could learn to excel their other language.

Common problems of ESL teaching and learning:
            -Developing academic language and background knowledge
            -Differentiating instructions
            -Integrating the students’ native languages

Common problems of foreign language programs:
            -Authentic materials, authentic perspectives
            -Creating audience and purpose

Translation tools:


It is important for the student to be able to use after taking a language class is the ability and confidence to use the language in a social setting such as an everyday conversation and with a person that speaks the language (i.e. native speaker)

A new approach to help students with their speaking and listening skills is Computer-assisted language learning (CALL)

ESL and FL learners also can use support from technology-based tools for authentic oral language practice, language sub-skill practice, presentations, text production, virtual field, trip immersion experiences, virtual collaborations, and productivity.

Support for Authentic Oral Language Practice and Assessment:
            -Multimedia software and interactive storybooks
            -Learning games on handheld computers
            -Language labs
            -Radio Broadcasts
            -Podcasts

Table 10.1 is Summary of Technology Integration Strategies for ELL and Foreign Language Instruction

Resource website for teacher presentation tools

To use oral presentation the approaches to presenting can be used with PowerPoint presentation, Keynote software, or home made videos.  This is good for students to learn how to present information effectively.

It does not matter which language the students are acquiring, they should have many opportunities to listen, speak, read, and write using the language.

As students are writing, they should present their paper aloud to the classroom or they could use an audio file on a program (i.e. Audacity)

Field trips can be very enriching for the students, but unfortunately there is not always the funding available for it. Another approach to this problem is virtual field trips. The teacher or student could go to the trip himself or herself and videotape their trip to show to the classroom.

There are also professional videotapes of the fieldtrips on http://www.virtualfreesites.com/tours.html

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