Language Learning and Technology

Columns
From the Editors News From LLT by Dorothy Chun, Irene Thompson, & Pamela DaGrossa p. 1 From the Special Issue Editors by Michele Knobel & Colin Lankshear p. 2-3 On the Net Let's Go to the Zoo! Sites for Young Language Learners by Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio pp. 4-16 Emerging Technologies Messaging, Gaming, Peer-to-Peer Sharing: Language Learning Strategies & Tools for the Millennial Generation by Bob Godwin-Jones pp. 17-22 Announcements News from Sponsoring Organizations pp. 23-24
Volume 9, Number 1 January 2005 Special Issue on Technology and Young Learners
Child-to-Child Interaction and Corrective Feedback in a Computer Mediated L2 Class Frank Morris University of Miami pp. 29-45 Triadic Scaffolds: Tools for Teaching English Language Learners with Computers Carla Meskill State University of New York at Albany pp. 46-59 The Design of Effective ICT-Supported Learning Activities: Exemplary Models, Changing Requirements, and New Possibilities Carmeron Richards University of Western Australia pp. 60-79 Commentary: You're Not Studying, You're Just... Ravi Purushotma Massachusetts Institute of Technology pp. 80-96
Reviews
Edited by Rafael Salaberry Internet for English Teaching Mark Warschauer, Heidi Shetzer, & Christine Meloni Reviewed by Shaofeng Li pp. 25-26 Technology and Teaching English Language Learners Mary Ellen Butler-Pascoe & Karin M. Wiburg Reviewed by Kaley Bierman pp. 27-28
Call for Papers

Theme: Technology and Listening Comprehension p. 97
Acknowledgment of 2004 Reviewers

p. 98
Contact: Editors or Managing Editor Copyright 2005 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors.
About Language Learning & Technology
Language Learning & Technology is a refereed journal which began publication in July 1997. The journal seeks to disseminate research to foreign and second language educators in the US and around the world on issues related to technology and language education. Language Learning & Technology is sponsored and funded by the University of Hawai'i National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) and the Michigan State University Center for Language Education And Research (CLEAR), and is co-sponsored by Apprentissage des Langues et Systmes d'Information et de Communication (ALSIC), the Australian Technology Enhanced Language Learning Consortium (ATELL), the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), the Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium (CALICO), the European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning (EUROCALL), the International Association for Language Learning Technology (IALLT), and the University of Minnesota Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA). Language Learning & Technology is a fully refereed journal with an editorial board of scholars in the fields of second language acquisition and computer-assisted language learning. The focus of the publication is not technology per se, but rather issues related to language learning and language teaching, and how they are affected or enhanced by the use of technologies. Language Learning & Technology is published exclusively on the World Wide Web. In this way, the journal seeks to (a) reach a broad audience in a timely manner, (b) provide a multimedia format which can more fully illustrate the technologies under discussion, and (c) provide hypermedia links to related background information. Beginning with Volume 7, Number 1, Language Learning & Technology is indexed in the exclusive Institute for Scientific Information's (ISI) Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), ISI Alerting Services, Social Scisearch, and Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences. Language Learning & Technology is currently published three times per year (January, May, September).
Copyright 2005 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors.
Sponsors, Board, Editors, and Designers

Volume 9, Number 1
Sponsors
University of Hawaiì National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR)
Advisory and Editorial Boards

Advisory Board Susan Gass Richard Schmidt Editorial Board James D. Brown Thierry Chanier Carol Chapelle Graham Crookes Robert Debski Robert Godwin-Jones Lucinda Hart-Gonzlez Philip Hubbard Jennifer Leeman Lara Lomicka Allan Luke Mary Ann Lyman-Hager Alison Mackey Carla Meskill Denise Murray Noriko Nagata David G. Novick Lourdes Ortega Jill Pellettieri Joy Kreeft Peyton Maggie Sokolik Susana Sotillo Leo van Lier Mark Warschauer University of Hawaiì at Manoa Universit de Franche-Comte Iowa State University University of Hawaiì at Manoa University of Melbourne Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Univ. of MD, University College Stanford University George Mason University University of South Carolina University of Queensland San Diego State University Georgetown University SUNY-Albany San Jose State University University of San Francisco University of Texas at El Paso Northern Arizona University CA State Univ., San Marcos Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC University of Cal., Berkeley Montclair State University Monterey Institute of International Studies Univ. of California, Irvine brownj@hawaii.edu thierry.chanier@univ-fcomte.fr carolc@iastate.edu crookes@hawaii.edu robert@genesis.language.unimelb.edu.au rgjones@atlas.vcu.edu lhart@umuc.edu phubbard@stanford.edu jleeman@gmu.edu lomicka@sc.edu a.luke@mailbox.uq.edu.au mlymanha@mail.sdsu.edu mackeya@gusun.georgetown.edu cmeskill@uamail.albany.edu denise.murray@mq.edu.au nagatan@usfca.edu novick@cs.utep.edu lortega@hawaii.edu pjill@csusm.edu joy@cal.org sokolik@socrates.berkeley.edu sotillos@mail.montclair.edu lvanlier@miis.edu markw@uci.edu Michigan State University University of Hawaiì gass@msu.edu schmidt@hawaii.edu
Editorial Staff
Editors Dorothy Chun Irene Thompson Associate Editors Managing Editor Web Production Editor Book & Software Review Editor On the Net Editors Emerging Technologies Editor Copy Editors Richard Kern Batia Laufer Pamela DaGrossa Carol Wilson-Duffy Rafael Salaberry Jean W. LeLoup Robert Ponterio Robert Godwin-Jones Guy Kellogg Kooi Cheng Lee University of CA, Santa Barbara The George Washington University (Emerita) Univ. of CA, Berkeley University of Haifa University of Hawaiì Michigan State University Rice University SUNY at Cortland SUNY at Cortland Virginia Commonwealth University Kapiolani Community College National University of Singapore dchun@gss.ucsb.edu thompson@roadstarinternet. net kern@socrates.berkeley.edu batialau@research.haifa.ac.il dagrossa@hawaii.edu wilson77@mail.msu.edu salaberry@rice.edu leloupj@cortland.edu ponterior@cortland.edu rgjones@atlas.vcu.edu gkellogg@hawaii.edu elcleekc@nus.edu.sg
Copyright 2005 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. The contents of this publication were developed under a grant from the Department of Education (CFDA 84.229, P229A60012-96 and P229A6007). However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and one should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
Information for Contributors

Language Learning & Technology is seeking submissions of previously unpublished manuscripts on any topic related to the area of language learning and technology. Articles should be written so that they are accessible to a broad audience of language educators, including those individuals who may not be familiar with the particular subject matter addressed in the article. General guidelines are available for reporting on both quantitative and qualitative research. Manuscripts are being solicited in the following categories: Articles | Commentaries | Reviews
Articles Articles should report on original research or present an original framework that links previous research, educational theory, and teaching practices. Full-length articles should be no more than 8,500 words in length and should include an abstract of no more than 200 words. We encourage articles that take advantage of the electronic format by including hypermedia links to multimedia material both within and outside the article. All article manuscripts submitted to Language Learning & Technology go through a two-step review process. Step 1: Internal Review. The editors of the journal first review each manuscript to see if it meets the basic requirements for articles published in the journal (i.e., that it reports on original research or presents an original framework linking previous research, educational theory, and teaching practices), and that it is of sufficient quality to merit external review. Manuscripts which do not meet these requirements or are principally descriptions of classroom practices or software are not sent out for further review, and authors of these manuscripts are encouraged to submit their work elsewhere. This internal review takes about 1-2 weeks. Following the internal review, authors are notified by e-mail as to whether their manuscript has been sent out for external review or, if not, why. Step 2: External Review. Submissions which meet the basic requirements are then sent out for blind peer review from 2-3 experts in the field, either from the journal's editorial board or from our larger list of reviewers. This second review process takes 2-3 months. Following the external review, the authors are sent copies of the external reviewers' comments and are notified as to the decision (accept as is, accept pending changes, revise and resubmit, or reject. Titles should be concise (preferably fewer than 10 words) and adequately descriptive of the content of the article. Some good examples are Social Dimensions of Telecollaborative Foreign Language Study "Reflective Conversation" in the Virtual Language Classroom Teaching German Modal Particles: A Corpus-Based Approach
Commentaries Commentaries are short articles, usually no more than 2,000 words, discussing material previously published in Language Learning & Technology or otherwise offering interesting opinions on theoretical
and research issues related to language learning and technology. Commentaries which comment on previous articles should do so in a constructive fashion. Hypermedia links to additional information may be included. Commentaries go through the same two-step review process as for articles described above. Submission Guidelines for Articles and Commentaries Please list the names, institutions, e-mail addresses, and if applicable, World Wide Web addresses (URLs), of all authors. Also include a brief biographical statement (maximum 50 words, in sentence format) for each author. (This information will be temporarily removed when the articles are distributed for blind review.) Articles and commentaries can be transmitted in either of the following ways: 1. By electronic mail, send the main document and any accompanying files (images, etc.) to llt-editors@hawaii.edu 2. By mail, send the material on a Macintosh or IBM diskette to LLT NFLRC University of Hawai'i at Manoa 1859 East-West Road, #106 Honolulu, HI 96822 USA Please check the General Policies below for additional guidelines.
Reviews Language Learning & Technology publishes reviews of professional books, classroom texts, and technological resources related to the use of technology in language learning, teaching, and testing. Reviews should normally include references to published theory and research in SLA, CALL, pedagogy, or other relevant disciplines. Reviewers are encouraged to incorporate images (e.g., screen shots or book covers) and hypermedia links that provide additional information, as well as specific ideas for classroom or research-oriented implementations. Reviews of individual books or software are generally 1,200-1,600 words long, while comparative reviews of multiple products may be 2,000 words or longer. They can be submitted in ASCII, Rich Text Format, Word, or HTML. Accompanying images should be sent separately as jpeg or gif files. Reviews should include the name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, URL (if applicable), and a short biographical statement (maximum 50 words) of the reviewer(s). In addition, the following information should be included in a table at the beginning of the review: Books Author(s) Title Series (if applicable) Publisher City and country Year of publication Number of pages Price ISBN Software Title (including previous titles, if applicable) and version number Platform Minimum hardware requirements Publisher (with contact information) Support offered Target language Target audience (type of user, level, etc.) Price ISBN (if applicable)
LLT does not accept unsolicited reviews. Contact Rafael Salaberry if you are interested in having material reviewed or in serving as a reviewer (salaberry@rice.edu). Rafael Salaberry Hispanic Studies MS-34 Rice University 6100 Main St. Houston, TX 77251-1892
General Policies The following policies apply to all articles, reviews, and commentaries: All submissions should conform to the requirements of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th edition). Authors are responsible for the accuracy of references and citations, which must be in APA format. Manuscripts that have already been published elsewhere or are being considered for publication elsewhere are not eligible to be considered for publication in Language Learning & Technology. It is the responsibility of the author to inform the editor of any similar work that is already published or under consideration for publication elsewhere. Authors of accepted manuscripts will assign to Language Learning & Technology the permanent right to electronically distribute their article, but authors will retain copyright and, after the article has appeared in Language Learning & Technology, authors may republish their text (in print and/or electronic form) as long as they clearly acknowledge Language Learning & Technology as the original publisher. The editors of Language Learning & Technology reserve the right to make editorial changes in any manuscript accepted for publication for the sake of style or clarity. Authors will be consulted only if the changes are major. Authors of published articles, commentaries, and reviews will receive 10 free hard-copy offprints of their articles upon publication. Articles and reviews may be submitted in the following formats: HTML files Microsoft Word documents RTF documents ASCII text If a different format is required in order to better handle foreign language fonts, please consult with the editors.
Copyright 2005 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors.
Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/editors.html
January 2005, Volume 9, Number 1 p. 1
FROM THE EDITORS

Happy New Year! Welcome to our special issue on Technology and Young Learners, a theme that runs throughout the articles, commentary, and columns of this issue. Special thanks go to Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear for serving as guest editors and for the time and attention they devoted to producing this issue. We acknowledge their contribution to bringing invaluable new ideas and perspectives to the journal. We are proud to report that our readership is growing in scope and diversity. Our readers come from over 145 countries around the world, and we welcome their comments and suggestions. As always, we wish to thank the National Foreign Language Resource Center of the University of Hawaii and the Center for Language Education And Research of Michigan State University for their continued financial support that allows Language Learning & Technology to remain free to our readers and free from advertisements. We thank our hard-working and dedicated reviewers who reviewed manuscripts for us throughout 2004. Their contribution has helped to make Language Learning & Technology a continued success. We are grateful to our Editorial Board, especially those members who have recently been rotated off after many years of service: Graham Davies, Patricia Paulsell, Larry Selinker, Seppo Tella, and Yong Zhao. And we are pleased to welcome new Board members Phil Hubbard and Lara Lomicka. Please note the Call for Papers for an upcoming special issue on Technology and Listening Comprehension to be guest edited by Phil Hubbard. We ask all readers who have not done so to fill out your free subscription. We thank all of you for your continued support and hope you will find our 2005 issues interesting and informative. The year 2005 will be celebrated as The Year of Languages in the United States. It is modeled after the successful European Union Initiative in 2001 and is being spearheaded and coordinated by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).The goal of The Year of Languages is to advance the concept that every American should develop proficiency in a foreign language. Language Learning & Technology invites our readers involved in foreign language education to take part in the celebration of The Year of Languages. Click here to learn more about it. A very happy, productive and peaceful New Year to you. Sincerely,
Dorothy Chun and Irene Thompson

Editors
Pamela DaGrossa
Managing Editor
Copyright 2005, ISSN 1094-3501
Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/editors.html
January 2005, Volume 9, Number 1 pp. 2-3
FROM THE SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS

The papers published in this issue of Language Learning and Technology are indicative of current research and exploratory intervention work dealing with the use of new technologies in language learning contexts involving children, teachers, and teacher education students. The range of papers represents diverse areas of interest within second and foreign language learning that is mediated by new technologies. These include new technologies as a language learning medium; sociocultural studies of new technology uses focusing on students' interactions with software interfaces and the social interactions occurring around the computer as students work; evaluative studies of ways of Internet use as a language learning resource; and students' new technology uses and purposes that are not usually associated with school-based language acquisition (e.g., gaming, text messaging, instant messaging, participating in fan-based Internet spaces). In the opening paper, "Child-to-Child Interaction and Corrective Feedback in a Computer Mediated L2 Class," Frank Morris reports findings from a study of corrective feedback on and subsequent repairs to written target language enacted during child-tochild, computer-mediated interactions within a fifth-grade, elementary Spanish immersion class in a southeast region of the United States. This study focusses on a typical teaching-learning activity within the school computer lab where students were paired, but without being told who their partner was or where s/he was sitting in the classroom. Each pair used the discussion function of Blackboard, a Web-based commercial course management interface, to complete an off-line, hardcopy jigsaw task. Morris found that implicit, negotiated corrective feedback more often led to immediate target language error repair than did other types of feedback, such as explicit negative feedback. Carla Meskill focuses on computer-supported classroom discourse in her article, "Scaffolding the Learning of At-Risk English Language Learners with Computers." At the center of her study is a very experienced elementary school teacher who works with beginning-level English language learners from low-income homes, in a mid-size, postindustrial city within the US. Meskill's analysis is grounded in the assumption that English is not a socially autonomous system, but is contingent on current and historical patterns of speaking and doing within socially defined contexts. The teacher explicitly recognizes the importance of not simply teaching her students to encode and decode, but how to recognize and navigate the "language of school" as well in order to help them effectively "participate in mainstream instructional activity." Meskill examines what she refers to as "triadic scaffolds," comprising teaching strategies, the computer's role in instructional scaffolding, and what is accomplished by students and their teacher within this teaching-learning context. Findings suggest that in this particular case, the target language interactions that occur between the students and their teacher while using computers may be just as important, if not more important, than the actual softwarebased language learning resources they are using. The third paper, by Cameron Richards, addresses ICT-supported learning activities. It reflects the author's commitment to ensuring that children's computer uses in language learning classrooms are not approached by teachers as merely "add ons" to the
From the Special Issue Editors
curriculum. Richards reports on the trial, refinement and development within teacher education programs of what he calls, "information and communication technologysupported learning activities." These activities are deliberately learner-centred, rather than computer-driven, and frame learning as a cycle of activity, analysis, reflection, and transformation. He calls for teacher educators to encourage their pre-service teaching students to see themselves as designers of "effective and integrated learning" and not as merely transmitters of information and skills. The issue concludes with Ravi Purushotma's account of the roles popular culture can play in supporting and enhancing foreign language learning. In "You're Not Studying, You're Just" Purushotma argues that popular culture offers a rich range of readilymodifiable texts that can provide valuable alternatives to traditional high school classroom approaches to foreign language learning dominated by textbooks and isolated lists of vocabulary words and grammatical structures. He makes his case by reference to The Sims. This simulation game, which is popular in many countries around the world, can be modified to create a bilingual environment that provides strong, contextualized learning support for the target language while maintaining much of the pleasure to be had from gaming. He concludes by discussing similar possible benefits to be had from modifying voice-activated games, music videos, internet browser software, and from loading language lessons to one's mobile phone for language learning on the go. Together, the four papers in this special issue trace important and useful terrain for subsequent research study. Purushomata's paper, in particular, points to important new areas of investigation. In assembling this issue we were struck by the absence of submissions reporting research into young people's language acquisition within informal, non-school contexts. A large and growing corpus of studies conducted outside the field of second language acquisition strongly suggests that children are using more sophisticated and complex digital technologies outside school settings than in their classrooms or kindergartens. Moreover, many of these studies address second language use and acquisition (cf., Marsh 2005). We recommend this corpus of studies to researchers working in the area of second and foreign language acquisition and strongly encourage the development of a similar focus within their research purview. As guest editors of this issue we extend particular thanks to our reviewers for their time and valuable feedback. We also want to acknowledge the work of Associate Editor Irene Thompson and Managing Editor Pamela DaGrossa in supporting and overseeing the production of this issue. Sincerely,
Michele Knobel & Colin Lankshear Special Issue Editors

REFERENCE Marsh, J. (Ed.) (2005). Popular culture, new media and digital literacy in early childhood. London: RoutledgeFalmer.
Language Learning & Technology
Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/net/
ON THE NET Lets Go to the Zoo! Sites for Young Language Learners
Jean W. LeLoup SUNY Cortland Robert Ponterio SUNY Cortland While the debate over the optimal age for second language (L2) acquisition continues into the 21st century -- that is, whether or not there is a clearly established critical period beyond which L2 learning cannot take place -- most people believe (rightly or wrongly) that "earlier is better" (Lightbown & Spada, 1999; Marinova-Todd, Marshall, & Snow, 2000). It is not the purpose of this article to review the age acquisition research nor even to take a stand one way or another. Presumably other articles in this volume will address this issue. We will simply begin with the premise that early language learning can be beneficial, if one follows some commonly accepted precepts of second language acquisition (SLA). Most research shows that L2 learning is facilitated by pedagogically sound instruction that involves meaningful input and intake of the target language (TL). The L2 should be presented in a contextualized manner and should, in some way, make a personal connection to the learner (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2004; Omaggio Hadley, 2001). Much of the literature suggests that the use of thematic units with younger learners fits the bill: The themes are of high interest to the learners, the L2 is presented in a contextualized manner, and -- when chosen properly -- the subject matter is meaningful to the young learner because a cognitive frame of reference already exists (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2004; Shrum & Glisan, 2005). In other words, L2 learning is facilitated because the young learner is already familiar with the topic or content in the first language (L1) context. Meaningful learning takes place when the new material to be learned is related to something already known (Ausubel, Novak, & Hanesian, 1978). Presentation of language in context seems to argue for the use of authentic materials in L2 instruction, even at an early stage. Using authentic texts to teach reading and listening skills provides language learners with real-life opportunities to use the TL (Omaggio Hadley, 2001). If the aim is to enable learners to manipulate the TL in real-life circumstances, then they must practice with real-life examples. The goal, of course, is to select the authentic texts carefully, not edit them, and construct an age- and level-appropriate task for the learner to perform (Shrum & Glisan, 2005). In the instance of young learners, use of authentic language, in context, of high interest, and of familiar nature to the learner would seem to be the best bet for success. With this in mind, FL instructors might do well to consider a trip to the zoo -- a virtual zoo. There are a good number of virtual zoo sites VIRTUAL ZOOS ON THE NET Virtual zoos on the Net are fruitful places for young language learners to explore. These sites are of high interest to youngsters, offer familiar content, and frequently have sections designed with educational activities for children. We will examine three sites below in some depth and will also explore a third site where young learners can create their own animals and write about them.
Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio
On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!
El Parque Zoolgico de Barcelona
The homepage of the Barcelona zoo contains links to many different pages offering a plethora of zoo resources. Information is available on zoo hours, entrance fees, zoo services, and the general makeup and philosophy of the zoo itself. The zoo schedule page is illustrated below.
In addition, realtime webcams exist for select animals at the zoo: chimpanzees, penguins, and Copito, the albino gorilla that has lived at the zoo since 1966. Quite a few links deal with Copito, who is a local celebrity. In addition to the webcam, there is a video, several magazine articles about him from his early days until his arrival at the Barcelona zoo, and a family tree depicting his lineage and offspring.
Also accessible are virtual "index cards," fichas, that provide information about the different species of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Each ficha gives a brief description of the animal, its geographic origin and habitat, social customs, and primary food source (carnivore, herbivore, etc.). A world map illustrates the precise location of the animals range.
The ficha also offers a list of identifying data including weight, length, gestation period, usual number of offspring, and longevity.
For those young learners who are more advanced, a detailed description of the animal is provided at the bottom of the ficha.
Many of these zoo pages contain simple language that would be accessible to young learners. Numbers and cognates make the TL even more understandable to learners in the beginning stages of language study.
Zoolgico de Baranquilla, Colombia
The zoo in Baranquilla, Colombia is another interesting site worthy of investigation. In addition to offerings similar to those of the Barcelona Zoo (general information, inhabitants and their descriptions, etc.), this zoo site has a specific site where youngsters can send in questions. The recipient of the questions is a cartoon figure, Zofo. Questions are submitted electronically on the form provided and answered on the Web site.
Another example of an activity specifically for young learners is the contest for "queen of the zoo" that the Baranquilla zoo just completed. This competition included 10 contestants from the animal world. Each contestant had a campaign ficha, containing her description and vital statistics. In addition, responses to personal questions such as "What famous personality would you most like to talk with?" The winner, Costea the Jaguar, chose the Spectacled Bear as her conversation target!
Zoo de la Palmyre, France The Zoo de la Palmyre in south-west France is another great zoo site including a good variety of useful information (zoo hours, location, animal names, etc.) for the the sorts of activities already mentioned. Most of this site uses Macromedia Flash for display and interaction. Moving animals make the site more visually attractive. Maps with driving instructions provide for a nice way to make geography more meaningful. By examining a zoo outside of a major urban center, in the Charente Maritime department in this case, we help reduce the all too common impression that France means Paris.
Information about animals on the site can be accessed by animal names or by location in the zoo. The first is quicker but the second gives the impression of visiting the zoo in its actual layout. There is also a search engine for looking up a fiche technique by the animal's name directly. Here below we see the listing of mammals.
The fiche technique for the polar bear includes information about the animal's class, order, and family. We see biological data about individual animals as well as information about how they live and what environmental threats they face. Students learn about their habitat and their eating habits.
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The interactive zoo visit uses Flash to let the visitor move a monkey around a map of the zoo. Touching the borne or post for each animal enclosure brings up a photo of the animal and a quiz.
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The giraffe quiz sample seen here uses humor to review information about the animal. To transport a giraffe one walks him uses a trailer with telescoping roof puts roller skates on him puts him in a big box and mails it at the post office
Another section presents the zoo's pedagogical programs for school classes and projects.
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The Palmyre zoo has a history of communicating with young people about animals in the world and the importance of conservation of the environment. In fact, the founder of the zoo began his career by bringing his animals to schools all over France to teach children about them. Now we can bring the children to the zoo through the Internet. OTHER SAMPLE ZOO SITES A Google search using the key words zoo and virtual in the TL will yield many possibilities for language teachers to explore. A few are offered below to get you started: Portuguese: Zoologicovirtual.com
Italian: Parco faunistico Le Cornelle
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German: Zoo Hannover
Making Your Own Zoo A final site worth mentioning is the Switch Zoo site.
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This site is specifically meant to be used for educational purposes, as the "Welcome, schools!" banner attests. This site is loaded (pardon the pun) with animation that will delight young learners as they "monkey" around with different animal heads, legs, and tails to create new and unique creatures. For example, they can take a cheetah...
...and convert it into a completely new animal of their own creation:
They can then write about their creations and title their stories in the TL. (Diacritics are supported in this environment.)
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A helpful FAQ file is available to instruct young learners how to operate the site and design their animals. While they are creating, animal facts pop up everywhere. In addition, there are other animal games to be played that require critical thinking on the part of the learner. While these are all in English, these features do add to the educational nature of the site. CONCLUSION When searching for authentic materials on the Web that are age appropriate and exciting for young learners, we need to look for the sites where native speakers target the same age level in the countries where the target language is spoken. School Web sites, magazines for kids, special interest sites, and collections of children's literature, songs, and rhymes, are among the valuable locations where language teachers can look to see what native speaker children are doing online. Zoo sites are a special case because of the high level of interest and affection that animals generate in children. In all, the variety of activities and approaches, the focus on presenting engaging material for young people, and the interdisciplinary value of this subject matter, including the ecological and conservation messages that are so prevalent, make these zoos a visit that is worth the trip.
REFERENCES Ausubel, D.P., Novak, J.D., & Hanesian, H. (1978). Educational psychology: A cognitive view (2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Curtain, H., & Dahlberg, C.A. (2004). Languages and children: Making the match (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Lightbown, P.M., & Spada, N. (1999). How languages are learned. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Marinova-Todd, S., Marshall, D., & Snow, C. (2000) Three misconceptions about age and L2 learning. TESOL Quarterly 34, 9-34. Omaggio Hadley, A. (2001). Teaching language in context. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle. Shrum, J.L., & Glisan, E.W. (2005). Teacher's handbook: Contextualized language instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Thompson Heinle.
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/emerging/
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES Messaging, Gaming, Peer-to-peer Sharing: Language Learning Strategies & Tools for the Millennial Generation
Robert Godwin-Jones Virginia Comonwealth University Marc Prensky likes to characterize the members of the millennial generation as "Digital Natives," for whom the Internet and new forms of digital communication are second nature, in contrast to the older "Digital Immigrants," who may have adapted to new technologies and tools, but don't have the same familiarity, commitment, or comfort level. The next generation's enthusiasm for instant messaging, videogames, and peer-to-peer file swapping is likely to be dismissed by their elders as so many ways to waste time and avoid the real worlds of work or school. But these activities may not be quite as vapid as they may seem from the perspective of outsiders -- or educators. Researchers point not only to such obvious by-products as computer literacy, communicative skills, and community building, but to less immediately evident benefits like identity creation (avatars in games/chat), collaborative learning (networking to develop game playing strategies), or even mentoring (helping others in game strategies or game-related fiction writing). Clearly these are aspects of the net generation's created "third space" (neither home nor school/work) which are central to many of their lives and which could prove instructive for educators seeking ways to connect to their students. While none of these technologies was developed to support language learning, they are being used for that purpose, sometimes directly, sometimes as a side benefit. Given the wide-spread acceptance and use by students of these technologies, it may be of interest to examine some of the ways in which they are being adapted for use in formal and informal language learning. Instant Messaging and Mobile Communication The use of pen pals for language practice and intercultural learning has a long history. Today email exchanges and tandem partners continue that tradition. Services such as ePals or eTandem facilitate the process of finding partners. The eTandem best practices document points to a variety of ways partners can communicate: e-mail, fax, telephone, video conferencing. Not highlighted (but mentioned in other contexts) is a means of communication that has become as ubiquitous to many young people as e-mail: instant messaging (IM). Despite continued issues with interoperability among different IM networks and programs, this has become a very widely used form of communication. In the United States, AIM (from AOL) continues to be the most popular system; in the rest of the world, MSN (from Microsoft) and ICQ are widely used. There have been several attempts to create an IM tool accessible to all systems, GAIM being one of the more recent projects allowing the user to login to multiple systems with a single interface. The nature of IM exchanges dictates particular language usage (short utterances, heavy use of abbreviations and code words, emoticons, and other symbols), especially if one considers that it is not uncommon for users to have multiple IM sessions running simultaneously. Because it is a synchronous medium, IM simulates face-to-face conversation, particularly in its informality. Some language instructors are sending their students out to find IM partners, recognizing that this is a tool students know and like to use. IM is often used in conjunction with other means of communication, its spontaneity being balanced by the more deliberate writing of e-mail or blogs. Many IM programs also now support audio exchanges in addition to text-based communication. Programs such as iChat or Trillian (and others) support video as well, if digital video cameras are being used by the participants. Most IM tools allow the capture of IM sessions, which may be of interest in a language learning environment. IM is not just a stand-alone activity, but rather a function that is incorporated into many on-line environments such as Learning Management Systems or multiplayer games. The multitasking prowess needed for
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Emerging Technologies: Language in Action
IMing while gaming or engaged in other online tasks points to the one of the new kinds of literacies evolving among and through the Digital Natives. Of great popularity among young adults as well is messaging on mobile phones, by way of SMS (short message service). SMS has been used for years in Europe and Asia and is beginning to be more widely known in the USA. While it is considerably more difficult to enter text on a mobile phone than it is on a computer, mobile text messaging has begun to be used in support of language learning. The BBC World Service's English section has been using SMS in conjunction with radio broadcasts of English language programs in French-speaking West Africa. There is also a project underway using SMS to deliver English instruction in China. In Europe, the EU has funded a major initiative called m-learning which uses mobile phones to reach young adults who have not done well in traditional learning environments. The idea is that through the use of the ubiquitous mobile phone one may be more likely to engage young learners in a time (of their choosing) and a place (away from formal institutional settings) more conducive to their learning preferences. The m-learning infrastructure is quite sophisticated, incorporating its own Learning Management System and speech/text tools. Among the m-learning projects underway are a Finnish language learning program (grammar and pronunciation) and Java-based review exercises from Great Britain. More and more Java-enabled phones are being sold, although they vary in memory and screen display size. Nokia, the leading mobile phone vendor, currently has some 20 models which support Java. Java support is of interest sin! ce it enables interactivity and could be used to create learning games playable on mobile phones. Marc Prensky lists a number of other examples of cell phone use in language learning. One of the more interesting new uses of mobile devices is moblogging or mobile blogging. Dave Winer, a well-known blogger and programmer, defines it this way: "Moblogging is any activity that occurs away from your normal blog-writing place whose purpose is to create content for your blog." The idea is that new posts to a blog can come from a digital camera, PDA, or cell phone, with text and/or pictures sent through wireless networks to update a blog. This becomes particularly compelling now that so many mobile phones also sport digital cameras, and some include the ability to shoot short videos. Blogging software, such as TypePad, have made it relatively easy to moblog. Kablog is a tool for use with the popular Movable Type blog software. As opposed to other services which send the new entry by e-mail or text messaging, Kablog allows users to log on directly to their sites for updating. Nokia has developed new software (Lifeblog) to enable blog posting from Nokia phones. The possibilities for moblogging in on-line journals (study abroad!) or field trips are compelling. Peer-to-Peer Networking and the iPod Phenomenon The surprising standout commercial success among small electronic devices recently has been the iPod, Apple's digital music player. While Apple has had success in selling digital music (with its own proprietary digital rights management) through its iTunes music store, the initial popularity of the iPod was built on the wide-spread sharing of music files through the original Napster and subsequent peer-topeer (P2P) networks (FastTrack, Gnutella, Bittorrent). Despite law suits and crackdowns on file swapping at many universities, P2P network file swapping remains wide-spread, with free downloads of music still at many times the rate of sales of digital music through iTunes and other on-line music services, according to most estimates. Although some language educators have recommended use of P2P for sharing of teaching resources, it has not been widely used for that purpose, due perhaps to the discrediting of the P2P process (through copyright infringements) and of P2P software (through intrusive adware and spyware). One interesting example, however, is the built-in P2P functionality of the Canadian LLEARN project for learning French (at the secondary school level). It is being use as part of the learning infrastructure to provide students a means to find and exchange resources. The P2P system which has generated the most buzz lately is Bittorrent, which is particularly well-suited for transferring large files, since it enables files to be transferred in smaller chunks from a variety of
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sources. Some software is being distributed now in this way (including language software), as well as media such as films from independent filmmakers. An interesting example of the use of BitTorrent is Fugu Tabetai's large collection of annotated Manga stories (over 4,000 pages), for learning Japanese. One of the powerful possibilities for using a P2P like BitTorrent is the potential integration of digital rights management to identify legal use and of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to enable searching and retrieving. As is, BitTorrent is not a good way to circumvent copyright since IP addresses for downloaders and uploaders can be tracked. Most digital music is encoded in the MP3 format, whose ubiquity, relatively small file size, and easy transferability to portable devices has been a boon to language learning. Many Web sites providing language learning resources feature audio in MP3 format (for learning, for example, Farsi, Italian, French). Several projects (such as one at the University of Washington) are in the works for equipping language labs with iPods or other digital music players, enabling untethered access to audio files for language learning. The Grand Island School District (Nebraska) has been using iPods with students learning English, mostly for help in improving pronunciation. This past fall, Duke University provided iPods to all members of its entering class. A variety of iPod uses for instruction are being explored there. In Spanish classes, students are able to listen to audio versions of texts they read, play back instructors' comments on assignments and assessments, review new vocabulary and its pronunciation, and of course listen to Spanish language music. The iPods are equipped with microphones, thus allowing students to record conversations and keep audio diaries. One of the benefits of using the iPod is its syncing capability with desktop or laptop computers, making it easy to transfer files. Another benefit of the iPod is one it shares with cell phones portable use in any environment the user chooses. While the MP3 player began as a device solely dedicated to playing music, Apple has, since the iPod's introduction in 2001, added additional capabilities such as personal calendars, games, and notes. The notes function is of particular potential interest to language teachers -- it uses HTML as well as Unicode encoding. This allows for formatting of the text but also linking of files to one another, as well as to music files stored on the iPod. The free iPod eBooks Creator transforms text files into notes for use on an iPod. This capability of the iPod has been used to create software such as the Talking Panda iLingo, which offers basic language tutorials in seven languages. Apple has recently introduced the iPod photo, which features a color screen and the capability of displaying digital photos. This adds the possibility of creating audio slide shows, displayable on the iPod or shared through connection to an external video display. While the iPod is currently the market leader, there are many more digital music players. Unfortunately, the rights management systems, file formats, and add-on capabilities of the different players are not standardized or compatible. Of course, the iPod as a digital device for doing anything other than playing music is a poor cousin to full-featured Palm or PocketPC handhelds. But PDAs have not achieved the wide distribution of MP3 players. Gaming Parents of teenagers who spend inordinate amounts of time finding treasure, zapping evildoers, and exploring imaginary worlds may take a dim view of electronic games and be skeptical about any potential benefit to their children. Nevertheless gaming is attracting the interest of educators and researchers, in part because it does consume so much of the time of young people today, at least in the industrial world. Researchers are studying this phenomenon, often by participating themselves in multiplayer online games, and are arriving at some surprising findings. Constance Steinkuehler, from the University of Wisconsin, has found that multiplayer online games are "sites for socially and materially distributed cognition, complex problem solving, identity work, individual and collaborative learning across multiple multimedia, multimodality 'attentional spaces' (Lemke, n.d.), and rich meaning-making and, as such, ought to be part of the educational research agenda" (pp. 15-16). She argues that given the time young people spend in such environments and their importance for socialization, enculturation and leaning, at the least they should be studied.
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Robert Godwin-Jones
Another researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Rebecca Black, has examined the interactions among participants in a Web community dedicated to anim fans. As is the case with many videogaming and fan sites, there is a good deal of reading and writing throughout this site. For the site she examines (cardcaptor.com), for example, participants create "fanfiction," extending the stories of the anim characters. Although the stories have Japanese or Chinese backgrounds, the fan contributions are written in English, often by non-natives. Black examines how the community of fans helps with writers' English language skills and with cross-cultural understanding. She points to ways in which this "third space" may provide adolescents -- especially those who are marginalized -- with means of finding help and encouragement for creative activities and self-improvement. She demonstrates how supportive the online community is for writers struggling to express themselves. In turn, she argues, these kinds of nontraditional (and unsanctioned) literacy practices help young people construct identity and develop community. In addition to this kind of peer-to-peer learning, some language instructors have leveraged students' interest in gaming to create activities tied to students game playing. Douglas Coleman (University of Toledo), for example, has used the game SIM COPTER as a basis for giving directions, as well for peer review of writing. The ESL students take on the role of a helicopter pilot and are given tasks to perform such as to find a given location and write directions. They will then re-enter the game as another character and try to follow the directions a classmate has created. Others have created their own games, such as Zip & Terry, designed to teach children English. The story revolves around an alien names Zip who crashes into the home of the Broccoli family and must learn English to fix his spaceship and get back to his home planet. T! he learner is put into the role of Zip and must interact with the Broccoli family and others in English. This game is a simplified version of what is being called a "serious game." There is currently a lot of net activity around this concept (also called social impact games), including a recent summit, an active Wiki and blog, and an ambitious project partnering Microsoft and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The central idea behind serious gaming is the promotion and creation of videogames for use in education and corporate or military training. The U.S. military has invested a good deal of work in the creation of serious games, such as the Mission Rehearsal Exercises (created at the University of Southern California). Of course there are many more language learning games and quite a bit of work has been done on creating and using simulations for language learning. However, there has not been the same degree of interest in the areas of massively multiplayer online games. This may be due to the newness of the widespread popularity of these games, but also perhaps to the negative reputation they enjoy as time-wasters, and to the complexity of their programming. Interestingly there are some intriguing parallels between gaming and language learning in the use of roles, improvisation, codes, and negotiated meaning. Multiplayer online games tend to encourage communication and cooperation. More research into how individuals in these environments express themselves, learn and contribute to a collective may point to some additional ways to harness gaming to language learning. If the millennial generation is increasingly drawn to the digital third spaces, it behooves us as language educators to do as we have done in the past, use technologies and tools intended for other uses, to create richer opportunities for language learning. RESOURCE LIST Language Partnering and Instant Messaging Gaim IM client Trillian IM client with audio and video capabilities iChat IM client from Apple Instant Messaging Gets the Picture article on integration of audio/video into IM Internet Audio Communication for Second Language Learning: A Comparative Review of Six Programs LLT article (January, 2003)
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Moblogging
Some CMC clients promoting language learning through chatting online from Vance Stevens Instant Messaging (IM) and Chat Tools from the e-Learning Centre ePals E-mail service with language translaton technology Language Learning in Tandem for finding language learning partners eTandem Europa EU sponsored tandem learning project Language Exchange Community service for finding language partner Diary Project exchange of diary entries Mobile Communication and SMS M-learning EU-sponsored mobile learning project M-learning project background includes sample material GCSE Bitesize Revision resources for learning through mobile phones (from the BBC) CTAD cell phone based language learning products New way to write essays on using cell phones in writing and language learning What Can You Learn From A Cell Phone? - Almost Anything! by Marc Prensky
Moblogging good intro to the topic of posting to blogs from mobile devices Mfop2 Moblogging service Textamerica Moblogging service AtomicLava Moblogging service Kablog Moblogging tool Photo Moblogging with the Treo 600 good description of how moblogging works Nokia Edges Toward Phone Blogging article in Wired Peer-to-peer Networking, MP3s, and iPods Comprehensive Japanese Software distrubted through Bittorrent Online File Swapping Endures article in USA Today Song-Swap Networks Still Humming article in Wired Is P2P Dying or Just Hiding? conference paper from Globecom 2004 Report: Universities Curtail Online Piracy Associated Press story Big Champage measures P2P sharing The ABC's of Online Film Distribution using Peer-to-peer networking MP3s and iPods iPods for the Language Learning Center from the University of Washington Building a Corpus of Comprehensible Text about using MP3s (by Greg Thomson) Technology: iPods proposal by Laura Hale iPods Assist with Spanish Accents project at Duke University iLingo language translator for iPod PocketMac iPod free tool for syncing with iPod MP3 Files Will Revolutionize Your Language Learning by Reid Wilson Language Impact's Language Learning MP3 Hub sample MP3s for language learning Audio books of Italian Literature in MP3 format Laguinguette articles in French with MP3 audio Easy Persian incorporates MP3 audio IPod eBooks Creator tool for transforming text files into iPod notes iPod Note Reader Videogaming and "Serious Games" Language Games from Link to Learning Quest Atlantis uses a 3D multi-user environment for teaching and learning
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Robert Godwin-Jones
The Education Arcade a consortium of game designers promoting educational uses of gaming Games-to-Teach partnership between MIT and Microsoft Gaming to Learn workshop sponsored by Mexcia X Serious Games Initiative use of games in education and training Serious Games Wiki good site for exploring the topic EAF 228 education course structured to appear like a video game (by Rod Riegle) Social Impact Games catalog of "serious games" Serious Games Summit most recent: Oct, 2004 ELLS Project joint American & Chinese language learning project using gaming Simulation & Gaming issue dealing with language learning Polyglot: Linguistic Realism vs. Simplicity in RPG Gaming language use in gaming Simulation as a Language Learning Tactic PDF format ICONS experimental Web-based simulation project MMOG Research links to papers by Constance Steinkueler on multiplayer online games Papers on anime fanfiction links to papers by Rebecca Black
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/news/
NEWS FROM SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS

Sponsors University of Hawaiì National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR)
University of Hawai'i National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC)

The University of Hawai'i National Foreign Language Resource Center engages in research and materials development projects and conducts Summer Institutes for language professionals among its many activities. UPCOMING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES Designing Effective Foreign Language Placement Tests (June 20 - July 1, 2005) In this 2-week Summer Institute workshop, participants will gain a solid understanding of the fundamentals of creating sound language tests, with a particular emphasis on designing tests to facilitate placement decisions. In the morning, participants will be introduced to various testing concepts in a clear and non-threatening manner. No previous statistical or measurement knowledge is assumed. Discussions of "real world" issues and problems from the participants' home institutions are welcome. In the afternoon, participants will get hands-on practice creating test items and analyzing test results. The use of commonly available computer programs (e.g., Excel) to facilitate test analysis will be highlighted. Participants are encouraged to bring data sets from their program's placement tests to practice setting up, analyzing, and interpreting their data. This workshop is aimed at foreign language teaching professionals with placement testing responsibilities who feel they have had limited training and experience in language testing concepts. Japanese for Non-Native Teachers (August 8 - 19, 2005) This Summer Institute workshop serves as an online professional development opportunity for nonnative-speaking teachers of Japanese language at the K-16 level. It is a 2-week intensive online language course in Japanese reading and writing especially for teachers who have learned Japanese as a foreign language. The intensive course, delivered entirely over the World Wide Web employing authentic language texts, focuses on the development and maintenance of communicative language skills at the Advanced Low ACTFL proficiency level, with a strong emphasis on written communication meeting high standards of literacy. The workshop, team taught by two native speaking instructors, is offered free of charge to eligible participants. NFLRC PUBLICATIONS NFLRC announces two Filipino (Tagalog) publications in 2004, both by Teresita V. Ramos. The first, Pakinggan At Unawain: Comprehending Intermediate Filipino (two-DVD set) focuses on watching while listening to promote understanding and to make learning Filipino a lively and engaging experience. The second publication by Dr. Ramos is a re-issue of a text originally developed in 1988. Tagalog for Health Care Providers is aimed at nurses, social workers, and public health professionals. Tim Murphey returned to Hawai'i in September to videotape the fifth in his series of teaching technique videos, Juggling with Language Learning Theories. Tim demonstrates how effective steps for learning to juggle are often parallel to effective steps for learning foreign languages, or, indeed, learning anything.
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News From Our Sponsors
Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR)
CLEAR's mission is to promote the teaching and learning of foreign languages in the United States. To meet its goals, projects focus on materials development, professional development training, and foreign language research. CONFERENCES CLEAR exhibits at local and national conferences year-round. We hope to see you at ACTFL, CALICO, MFLA, Central States, and other conferences. In May 2005, CLEAR will be hosting the CALICO conference here on the Michigan State University campus. Watch our Web site for details! MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT Coming Soon! Introductory Business German (CD-ROM) French Pronunciation and Phonetics (CD-ROM)
Products NEW! SMILE (tool for creating interactive online exercises) NEW! Hindi Small Group Instruction Guide (guide) The Internet Sourcebook for Business Japanese (Web links) The Internet Sourcebook for Business French (Web links) The Internet Sourcebook for Business German (Web links) The Internet Sourcebook for Business Spanish (Web links) Business Language Packets for High School Classrooms (French, German, & Spanish; PDF files) Modules for Assessing Socio-Cultural Competence: German (CD-ROM) Modules for Assessing Socio-Cultural Competence: Russian (CD-ROM) Business Chinese (CD-ROM) Pronunciacin y Fontica (CD-ROM) African Language Small Group Instruction Guide (guide and video) Thai Small Group Instruction Guide (guide) Foreign Languages: Doors to Opportunity (video and discussion guide) Task-based Communicative Grammar Activities for Japanese and Thai (workbook) Test Development (workbook and video) Newsletter CLEAR News is a biyearly publication covering FL teaching techniques, research, and materials. Contact the CLEAR office to join the mailing list, or check it out on the Web at http://clear.msu.edu/newsletter/. We welcome your submissions! PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Summer Workshops Each summer, CLEAR offers professional development workshops for foreign language teachers on the campus of MSU. For more information, go to http://clear.msu.edu/training/. Watch the Web site for updates about next summer's offerings! Onsite Workshops CLEAR offers foreign language teachers at K-13+ institutions around the country the opportunity to host a CLEAR workshop. These 1-3 day workshops are led by CLEAR's professional development staff members. For more information, visit http://clear.msu.edu/training/onsite/about.html.
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/review2/
REVIEW OF TECHNOLOGY AND TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS Technology and Teaching English Language Learners
Mary Ellen Butler-Pascoe & Karin M. Wiburg 2003 ISBN 0-205-32677-3 US $38.80 246 pp. Allyn and Bacon / Pearson Boston, Massachusetts, USA Support materials for this title may be accessed through www.ablongman.com Review by Kaley Bierman, University of Central Florida Technology and Teaching English Language Learners is a professional text designed with the goal of equipping future language teachers with the tools technology provides for the English as a Second Language (ESL) learning classroom. The book is broken into eight chapters with a preface and index. The chapters cover subjects including communicative language teaching, content-based instruction for ESL students, using technology for oral language skills, using technology for teaching reading and writing, teaching thinking skills, culture in the classroom, and assessment. Each chapter deals with the issues surrounding these topics and their connection with technology. The book uses an interactive style that introduces a question/answer format to relate the key issues within the text. For example, a sample question reads, "How does technology support language as communication in authentic settings?" Each section begins with a question like this one and is followed by a short answer to the question. Then examples and implications for the topic are shown. Each chapter ends with a summary of key ideas, a learning activities section for students to complete, resources for technologies, and resources for teacher development. The text supports the teaching method of communicative language learning. There is a chapter devoted to the history and development of this method citing such authors as Nunan and Brown. It also shows how to use technology when using the communicative approach in the classroom. This text is best used for CALL training for educators going into ESL classrooms. Professors using this text will find it presents many practical issues and ideas they will probably be addressing with their students; and students will find this text one they may want as part of their professional library due to the resources it provides in the field of educational technology. There are many strengths associated with this text. One that is helpful to those unfamiliar to the technology field is the use of visuals and illustrations that show Web sites and activities mentioned in the text. If the text mentions a Web site specifically, a picture of the site may be shown to clarify and illustrate. This is helpful not only to those who may not be familiar with the technical language or examples, but also for visual learners who learn best by seeing what they read. Another strength of this text is the resource list at the end of each chapter. This section gives Web sites, software programs, and other important sources that teachers may find helpful to implement the ideas presented in the chapter. The resource list may also be an incentive for those studying from this text to keep it as a resource for their classrooms. The text is also useful due to the fact that examples are presented from a variety of ESL levels. Those in the K-12 field will find helpful examples as will those involved in the adult ESL field. Another strong point in this text is the presentation of how technology will affect classrooms in the future. This is helpful because teachers need to be aware of the changes that may affect them in the future. Also,
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Review of Technology and Teaching English Language Learners
teachers may like that the text has learning activities associated with each chapter at the end of the chapters. They may assign these as activities for use in or out of class to help students make meaningful connections to the text. These activities are already designed for group work, which will also benefit teachers looking to save time during lesson planning. There are a few drawbacks to these activities, but these will be discussed separately. Finally, the text presents a variety of cross-cultural/inter-cultural issues related to ESL (and second langauge learning in general) and shows how technology can play a part in resolving challenges brought up by such issues in the classroom. For example, the text addresses, "How can technology be used to facilitate respect for cultural differences within an ELL class?" The text then gives an example of how prejudice may be overcome by the development of projects involving the World Wide Web. The accesss of students to perspectives from students all over the world is an important factor for teachers to keep in mind as technology, and the Internet more specifically, becomes a prominent pedagogical resource in the majority of classrooms. This book does have a few drawbacks. First, for those not familiar with technology or for those yet unfamiliar with some of the main challenges brought up by ESL learners, some of the writing in this book may seem foreign at first. The incorporation of terms from both the technology and ESL fields can make the reading difficult for some. Although it is apparent that the authors wanted their book to be an accessible souce for non-experts, it sometimes falls short of this goal with the extended use of technical terms and wordy sentences. A second problematic issue is that some of the suggestions may be unrealistic for many classroom teachers. For example, the book suggests that students be assigned teleconferencing to enhance their speaking skills. This is an excellent way for teachers to incorporate technology with the communicative approach. Unfortunately, many teachers do not have access to the technology needed for such an advanced activity, thus making it a less viable option. Another example shows how teachers have used international projects accomplished via the World Wide Web to teach language skills. Although in this case the technology is available to many, time and organizational management of this type of project may make it unusable for some, especially those with large classrooms. Although, this attribute has a weak side it is commendable that the book offers a variety of options for the use of technology and some of the examples do have alternate activities from which teachers can choose. Finally, the learning activities at the end of each chapter may be difficult for some students to perform. For example, some of the learning activities of chapter 3 require students to use examples from their classrooms and have knowledge of school policy in their region. This may be difficult for students who are not currently teaching or international students in MATESOL programs who would be unfamiliar with current regional policy. Thus, teachers using this text would need to take these issues into account and plan accordingly, either to avoid those exercises, or have the information available for the students to access. Overall, this text provides many insights into the use of technology to enable language learners to acquire English to their full capacity. With its many strengths teachers can take technology to a whole new height of usefulness in their classrooms. And, for those unfamiliar with technology, this book presents them with basic information about the tools that can make their classroom not only a technology friendly place, but a learning friendly place as well.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER Kaley Bierman is an MATESOL student at the University of Central Florida. She is in her final two semesters and hopes to graduate in May 2005. Her goal is to teach ESL in the United States. E-mail: kaley_bierman@yahoo.com
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/review1/
REVIEW OF INTERNET FOR ENGLISH TEACHING Internet for English Teaching

Mark Warschauer, Heidi Shetzer, & Christine Meloni 2000 ISBN 0-939791-88-9 178 + ix pp. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. 700 South Washington Street, Suite 200 Alexandria, Virginia 22314 USA http://www.tesol.org/ tesol@tesol.org Review by Shaofeng Li, University of South Florida Internet for English Teaching is an excellent resource book for the ESL teachers who are interested in using the Internet in their classroom or people who are enthusiastic about conducting research in this regard. It describes different aspects of the use of the Internet in teaching English and analyzes model programs across the world where the Internet is successfully employed to facilitate the improvement of the learner's English proficiency. The book is divided into eight chapters, each addressing one aspect of the topic in question. Ushering the reader into the concerned area, the first chapter, "Getting Started," presents features of the Internet and reasons why it should be introduced into the ESL classroom. The fact that computer-mediated communication (CMC) is asynchronous, synchronous, and based on hypermedia (or hypertext ) makes it possible and practicable to incorporate the Internet into language teaching. The authors list five reasons to use the Internet for English teaching: (a) it provides authentic language materials; (b) it enhances the student's level of literacy in conducting on-line communication; (c) it enables the student to interact with native and nonnative speakers for 24 hours on end; (d) it makes the learning process lively, dynamic, and interesting; (e) it gives both the student and the teacher the power to work efficiently. Chapter 2, "Resources for Teachers," describes the ways teachers can use the Internet to communicate with their peers, particularly through e-mail or e-mail lists. The chapter also analyzes the various on-line resources for the teacher to access such as sites, journals, and virtual libraries. The next three chapters examine the major skills areas that are, in the authors' words, "being reshaped by the Internet: communication and collaboration, reading and research, and writing and publishing" (p. 8). Chapter 3 discusses how communication and collaboration can take place at the intra-class level (within a single class), or at the supra-class level (across classes or beyond the boundary of the class). While the former is exemplified by teacher-student and student-student communication, the latter takes on forms like long-distance communication or interclass projects. Chapter 4, "Student Research," investigates the possible research skills to be used by the student and to be taught by the teacher. After briefly reviewing basic features of the major available search engines, the authors look at strategies for using Web searches in English teaching, and finally conclude the chapter by discussing the classroom activities and projects where the research skills are to be used. This chapter, in my view, is of special importance in that in the current world people are faced with such a vast amount of information that the basic skills described in this chapter are essential for locating, analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information. More importantly, these skills can be learned. In chapter 5, "Student Publishing," the reader is presented with
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Review of Internet for English Teaching
how and why students are supposed to publish their own work on the World Wide Web. This chapter is roughly separated into three sections. The first section is devoted to displaying the changing nature of writing in the Internet era as compared with traditional classroom writing. The second outlines a projectbased approach to Web publishing. In the third section, some sample Web-publishing projects are provided. The underlying tenet for the encouragement of student publishing projects is that it can "achieve the dual purposes of helping students become active masters of technology while sharing authentic texts with real audiences" (p. 66). Chapter 6 provides an overall picture of on-line distance education. It defines distance education, talks about available on-line courses for students and teachers, and finally mentions the pitfalls of distance education and how the quality of education can be affected. In chapter 7, the authors advance some basic principles teachers need to observe in integrating the Internet into English language courses. They suggest that these principles are pedagogical rather than technological in nature, so observing them is essential since they remain useful guides even if particular tools change. The principles are divided into three areas: learning goals, teaching guidelines, and planning tips. The chapter concludes with the description of ten sample Web projects. Chapter 8 is concerned with approaches to conduct research about on-line learning. The chapter opens with a description of five types of educational research, and then analyzes five specific areas of on-line language learning research: linguistic features, interaction, attitude, context, and language impact. Following chapter 8 is a supplement on how to make Web pages. The most praiseworthy aspect of this book is that it provides comprehensive guidelines for the effective integration of the Internet with English teaching. Every topic discussed in this book is clearly described, and the reader can find an inexhaustible stock of information, from basic principles to actual examples, from individual aspects to all-round application. It is also accessible to readers with diverse backgrounds: for laymen and professionals as well as experienced teachers and rookie educators. Furthermore, it abounds in hands-on examples, which are so critical for conducting research in education. Despite all the above virtues, I would like to point out a few minor concerns about the book. First, the fact that it provides so much Internet-based information in each chapter, such as useful Web sites, is a doubleedged sword, because the Internet is so prone to change and so unpredictable that Web sites may come and go overnight. Therefore, while the book tries to keep pace with time, it is obviously hard to do so, especially where the Internet is concerned. Second, while it is good to be all-inclusive, it is difficult to provide an in-depth discussion of all aspects of the applicability of technology in second language education. This is most evident in chapter 8 where the research methodology in education is addressed. The five approaches are all mentioned, but none of them is discussed in detail, leaving non-expert readers confused as to what to make of the seemingly profound terminology as in the "etic versus emic" dichotomy. The flaws of the book are really minor in comparison with its virtues. In the opinion of this reviewer, this volume is a must-read for anyone interested in the application of technology, particularly the Internet, in foreign language teaching. It is definitely worth reading.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER Shaofeng Li is currently a PhD candidate in Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida. His research interests include the integration of technology into second language teaching and learning, Sociocultural Theory, bilingual education, and discourse analysis. He has published a number of academic articles and is author of several book chapters. E-mail: sli@mail.usf.edu
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol1num1/morris/
CHILD-TO-CHILD INTERACTION AND CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK IN A COMPUTER MEDIATED L2 CLASS

Frank Morris University of Miami ABSTRACT The current study examined the provision of corrective feedback and learner repair following feedback in the interactional context of child-to-child conversations, particularly computer mediated, in an elementary Spanish immersion class. The relationship among error types, feedback types, and immediate learner repair were also examined. A total of 46, fifth-grade children participated in the study. Using Blackboard, the instructor randomly paired students and created a "virtual group" for each pair. Each pair was asked to interact and complete a jigsaw task in the "virtual classroom." Blackboard recorded the pairs' interactions, which were later printed and coded for types of error (syntactic/lexical), types of negative feedback (explicit/recasts/negotiation) and immediate learner repairs. Findings indicate that learners did not provide explicit negative feedback. Learners provided implicit negative feedback (recasts and negotiation) while completing the jigsaw task in the virtual classroom. The majority of lexical errors and syntactic errors were corrected using negotiation. Over half of feedback moves led to immediate repair. Negotiation moves proved more effective at leading to immediate repair of errors than did recasts.
INTRODUCTION While second language acquisition (SLA) researchers agree that input plays an important role in second language acquisition (e.g., Gass, 1997), many debate the form that input needs to take (whether positive or negative) in order for second language acquisition to occur. Some researchers have maintained that positive evidence alone is sufficient for adult SLA (e.g., Krashen, 1977, 1994). Others consider positive evidence as insufficient for second language (L2) learning to occur, and propose a role for both positive and negative evidence (e.g., Hatch, 1978; Long, 1983, 1996; White, 1987). Positive evidence tells the learner that linguistic features in the input are possible in the target language (TL). As an example, consider that in English, pronouns and nouns can be deleted in sentences with conjoined verbs as in the following example: 1) The bird sang and flew back to its nest. Upon first hearing a sentence such as the above, it is possible for a learner of English to infer that subject use in English is optional in sentences with conjoined verbs. In contrast to positive evidence, negative evidence provides information to learners about what is not possible in the TL (e.g., Lightbown & White, 1987; Long, 1996; White, 1990). As an example, consider the following: 2) Speaker 1: Yesterday I did spoke to my parents. Speaker 2: Did speak? In the example above, Speaker 1 receives feedback about the ungrammaticality of what was said. Of course, it is possible that Speaker 1 may not understand that it was intended as a correction and may think that Speaker 2 simply did not hear what was said and asked for clarification. Negative evidence can be provided preemptively or reactively (see Long & Robinson, 1998). Preemptive negative evidence is presented to learners before they attempt to produce language structures (e.g., by providing and explaining grammar rules), while reactive negative evidence is provided as a response to an ill-formed
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Child-to-Child Interaction and Corrective Feedback
utterance. Reactive negative evidence "highlights differences between the target language and a learner's output and as such is described as negative feedback (NF)" (Oliver, 2000, p. 120). In his updated version of the Interaction Hypothesis, Long (1996) argues that negotiation for meaning elicits NF, and that NF contains various types of reformulation and repetition in addition to input modifications that serve to make L2 target forms salient to learners. Thus, NF facilitates L2 development. As a reaction to a learner's erroneous utterance, NF can be explicit. An explicit correction supplies a correct TL form after the ill formed utterance and clearly indicates that what the learner has said is incorrect, as in "No that is not how you say X. You say it like Y." NF can also include implicit indications that an utterance is not well formed. Recasts, for example, reformulate a learner's ill-formed utterance and can provide relevant information that is obligatory but is either missing or wrongly supplied in the learners' utterance (e.g., "My mother works all day" as a recast of the incorrect "My mother work all day"). Researchers have argued that recasts as a discourse structure can provide implicit negative feedback, positive evidence (in that TL forms are provided), and enhanced salience through the juxtaposition of the original ill-formed utterance and the TL recast form (Leeman, 2000; Saxton, 1997; Saxton, Kulcsar, Marshall, & Rupra, 1998). In contrast to explicit correction and recasts, negotiation of form (see Lyster, 1998a; Lyster & Ranta, 1997) does not provide learners with the correct TL form. Instead, it indicates to learners that they have produced an error and that the error requires repair. Negotiation can take several forms, for example, clarification requests are utterances made by the listener to clarify what the speaker said (e.g., Pardon?, What do you mean?); elicitations are used to obtain correct forms from learners by asking questions (e.g., How do we say that correctly?); metalinguistic clues are comments, information or questions regarding the well-formedness of a learner's utterance but without providing the correct form (e.g., Is that masculine or feminine?); and repetition restates the learner's error(s). Negative (corrective) feedback has also been identified as a focus-on-form procedure (see Long & Robinson, 1998). Long (1991) defines focus-on-form as "overtly draw[ing] students' attention to linguistic elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication" (p. 46). The support for focus-on-form is based largely on three different claims about SLA. First, L2 learners acquire new linguistic structures while attending to those forms in contexts where the primary goal is the message and not the code (see Hatch, 1978). Second, L2 learners may experience difficulty in attending to and producing linguistic forms in communication because they possess a limited information-processing capacity (see VanPatten, 1990), and, as a result, L2 learners benefit from the opportunities that take place during communication to give specific attention to form (e.g., Long, Inagaki, & Ortega, 1998; Mackey & Philp, 1998). It seems then that focus-on-form can draw learners' attention to linguistic forms within the context of performing communicative activities, and such focus can occur in a variety of classroom activities, including when a learner provides corrective feedback in response to her conversational partner's L2 errors. NF carries important pedagogical and theoretical implications for classroom SLA If research shows that classroom interactions make NF available to learners, in a form that is usable and used by learners, and thus facilitates L2 development, we can gain a better understanding of the relevance of classroom interactions between teacher-learners and between learners. Negative feedback could then be encouraged in language classrooms in teacher-student interactions and pair work. Despite the possible benefits of negative feedback, its role in SLA has been questioned. In order to play a role in language acquisition, it must meet several criteria: it has to exist, be useful, used by learners and necessary for acquisition to occur (Grimshaw & Pinker, 1989; Pinker, 1989). Beck and Eubank (1991) have echoed similar arguments for L2 acquisition and pose that the "universality" of NF must be documented. Thus, researchers argue that the impact of interaction and feedback in SLA must be examined in different social and instructional contexts. Hall (2000), for example, calls for sufficient research "to help us compare the scope and circumstances of contextual conditions the myriad issues connected to classroom interaction and
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additional language learning in all learning contexts require more examination" (pp. 296-297). Echoing Hall's argument, Breen (2001) proposes that if we perceive interaction and interactional features such as feedback "as the catalyst for language development," we must pay more attention to classroom contexts (p.136).1 Early studies on negative feedback demonstrated that feedback in the form of explicit correction is seldom available (e.g., Chaudron 1986, 1987; Chun, Day, Chenoweth, & Luppescu, 1982). It is possible that explicit correction is avoided because it may be perceived as abrupt and impolite. Recent SLA research has developed a noticeable interest in the role that implicit negative feedback, such as recasts and negotiation, plays in second language development (Ayoun, 2001; Doughty & Varela, 1998; Han, 2002; Leeman, 2003; Long, Inagaki, & Ortega, 1998; Mackey & Philp, 1998; Morris, 2002a; Muranoi, 2000; Nabei & Swain, 2002). Findings suggest that implicit negative feedback facilitates learners' L2 development. Because of the potential benefits of implicit negative feedback, research has attempted to examine whether it is available to learners in different interactional contexts (e.g., Braidi, 2002; Buckwalter, 2001; Chaudron, 1977, 1986, 1987; Doughty, 1994; Ellis, Basturkmen, & Loewen, 2001; Fanselow, 1977; Hamayan & Tucker, 1980; Lin & Hedgcock, 1996; Lyster, 1998a, 1998b; Lyster & Ranta, 1997; Mackey, Oliver, & Leeman, 2003; Moroishi, 2001; Morris, 2002b; Nystrom, 1983; Ohta, 2001; Oliver, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002; Oscoz & Liskin-Gasparro, 2001; Panova & Lyster, 2002). These studies demonstrate that implicit negative feedback is frequently available and used by L2 learners. However, the majority of these studies have been carried out in adult contexts. Only a limited number have been carried out in the context of child-to-child conversations (e.g., Mackey et al., 2003; Oliver, 1995, 2000, 2002). Research on child-to-child interactions, either non-native-speaker/non-native-speaker interaction or native-speaker/non-native-speaker interaction, reveals that while children provide implicit negative feedback in the form of recasts and negotiations, negotiations are the most common form of feedback. With regard to repair, children in child-to-child conversations frequently incorporate the feedback in their subsequent L2 production, while the rate of repair is higher when the interlocutor is a non-native speaker. Although these findings are valuable, research has yet to examine whether results would be similar in the context of child-to-child conversations in Spanish immersion classrooms. The context of second language learning in Spanish immersion classes in the United States is communicative, experiential, and thoroughly content-based (i.e., limited grammar instruction), where feedback is often avoided. In fact, Spanish immersion teachers have indicated that error correction is best avoided because it only leads to temporary changes in learners' language achievement and may cause learners to develop negative attitudes towards the study of the language (see Truscott, 1999). Feedback, however, provides learners with the language evidence on crucial and complex L2 morphosyntactic structures that they have yet to master in the L2 (Long, 1996). Thus, SLA research must examine whether children in Spanish immersion classes provide feedback in response to their peers' errors. This paper assumes that feedback can also be available to language learners through peer and group interactions, and that peer feedback fosters learners' increased awareness of language forms and, consequently, plays a role in their L2 development. Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) The use of computers in second and foreign language classrooms has increased during the last ten years. In particular, language teachers have incorporated "chat" programs that allow learners to interact in virtual rooms without engaging in face-to-face contact. Although CMC can be used for L2 teaching, its role cannot be seen as "transparent" (see Haas & Neuwirth, 1994). In other words, it cannot be assumed that CMC will resemble and generate the same learning context as face-to-face interactions. Therefore, research must seek to understand and assess the norms of CMC. It is important to examine how this technology affects learner-learner interaction and the extent to which it may differ or be similar to face-toface interaction. Thus far, research indicates that CMC elicits more learner participation (Beauvois, 1992; Kelm, 1992; Kern, 1995; Kim, 1998; Warschauer, 1996) and creates a less stressful environment for
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language learning (Chun, 1998). However, research to date with regard to CMC has been limited, as only a handful of studies have examined the effect of CMC on learner-learner interaction (e.g., Blake, 2000; Darhower, 2002; Fernndez-Garca & Martnez-Arbelaiz, 2002; Pellettieri, 1999; Smith, 2001, 2003). These studies reveal that when learners engage in CMC, most of the focus during negotiation is on lexical items and little attention is paid to linguistic form. While these findings are valuable, they may apply only to adult learners. It may be that the findings could vary according to the age of learners, whether adult or child. In addition, these studies have focused mostly on the overall incidence of negotiation, which may not provide an accurate picture of the learning opportunities that arise as a result of corrective feedback provided during CMC. Therefore, it is necessary that research on CMC examine whether implicit negative feedback is provided to learners in response to their non-target-like utterances, because such feedback is perceived to play a facilitative role in promoting L2 development. Current Study The current study joins the established efforts that have attempted to assess the existence and use of implicit negative feedback in child-to-child interactions, and the recent studies that have explored the benefits of negotiation in CMC. The goal is to examine the provision of corrective feedback and learner repair following feedback in the context of child-to-child conversations in an elementary Spanish immersion classroom during CMC. The relationship among error types, feedback types, and immediate learner repair will also be examined examined. The questions motivating the current study are: Do Spanish immersion school children working in CMC provide implicit negative feedback in response to their peers' non target-like utterances? What types of learner errors lead to what types of implicit negative feedback? When Spanish immersion school children working in CMC receive implicit negative feedback from their peers, do they immediately repair the original ill-formed utterance? What types of implicit negative feedback lead to the immediate repair of what types of learner errors? METHOD School and Classroom Context The current study was conducted in a private Spanish immersion school (K-5) located in the southeast region of the United States. The school was selected based on feasibility and the willingness of the staff to allow this study to be carried out. Children come from home backgrounds that represent a wide range of socioeconomic levels. The vast majority of the children attending the school come from monolingual English-speaking families.2 The school is located in a Spanish speaking community in a metropolitan area where Spanish is considered a second language. Therefore, students who attend this school generally have opportunities to speak Spanish outside the school. The curriculum emphasizes thematic and cultural content over linguistic form. The pedagogical approach at the school is student-centered and grounded in the principles of whole language and communication (i.e., that there is an integral connection between language and culture and that culture learning is a major contributor to second language learning). The school curriculum and instruction, including reading and language arts, is in Spanish in kindergarten and first grade. English is introduced for the first time in second grade. Computer lab class is introduced in the fifth grade and is conducted in Spanish. Fifth grade is the end of elementary education at this school. All teachers in this school are bilingual (English-Spanish), either native speakers of English or Spanish. The fifth grade level was selected for the current study because it was the only grade level to incorporate the use of computers in the curriculum. The particular class chosen for the study was computer lab class because it was the only course that utilized computers and technology enhanced instruction during classtime. Three sections of a fifth grade computer lab class participated in the study. At the time the study was conducted, students had been enrolled in the course for almost 6 months. The course met Monday through Friday for a period of 1 hour and 10 minutes each day and provided learners with opportunities to learn basic computer skills such as uploading and downloading documents, browsing the Internet,
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creating Web sites, creating and engaging in online chat rooms, reading online magazines and newspapers, and playing computer games. Participants A total of 46 fifth grade students (29 girls and 17 boys, mean age 10.6) enrolled in three separate computer lab classes. Almost all students were native, monolingual English-speaking students of nonHispanic origin. One student was Korean, one Japanese, one was German, and two were French. There were no Spanish-heritage language speakers3 in the classrooms examined. Although the school has no language placement test or language proficiency exam to determine learners' levels of language attainment, informal conversations with school teachers and the researcher's classroom observations suggest that the participants in this study had achieved an intermediate to high-intermediate level of language proficiency (i.e., extensive vocabulary allowing them to produce discourse related to daily activities, family, school, and child-associated activities such as games, and grammar limited to present and past tense forms). One teacher participated in the study, and she was in charge of the three computer lab classes. The teacher had been teaching this grade level for two years and the class for one year. She is a native speaker of Spanish, born and raised in a Spanish-speaking country. Her native English-speaking peers at the school considered her to be highly proficient in English. The teacher always spoke Spanish to the students in and out of the classroom. At the time the study was conducted she was in the process of getting her State Teaching Certificate and was completing a Masters in Education at a nearby university. Data Collection Procedures The activities employed in the current study were used by the classroom teacher as typical activities planned for students to engage in interactional sequences with their peers while engaged in CMC. The researcher was not the instructor for the course. The teacher provided all directions. Following classroom protocol, all directions were provided in Spanish. Immediately after class began, learners were randomly placed at different computer terminals. Using Blackboard (Version 5), the instructor randomly paired students and created a "virtual group" or chat room for each pair (see description of software). Students did not know where their partners were sitting or who their partners were.4 Each pair was asked to interact and complete a jigsaw activity in the "virtual classroom." The teacher chose a jigsaw because it is believed that communicative activities that require information to be supplied by both learners to achieve a common goal are most likely to generate opportunities for learners to receive and produce comprehensible input, feedback and language modification (Pica, Kanagy, & Falodun, 1993). All pairs worked on the same jigsaw, a set of pictures (N=15) numbered 1 through 15 that represented La rutina de Esteban (Esteban's routine). Each dyad member got half the pictures (one student received pictures numbered 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, and 15, and the other received 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14). The pictures were not available online but provided to students in hardcopy. Participants were asked to work together and, according to the pictures they had available, to produce in 25 minutes one collaborative essay that represented "Esteban's routine."5 Blackboard recorded the pairs' interaction (synchronous and text-based CMC) while completing the jigsaw activity, and each pair's interactional sequence was later printed and coded for types of error, types of feedback and immediate repairs (see Data Analyses section). The time restriction established for the jigsaw (25 minutes) was consistent with the teacher's lesson plan and curriculum design, which employs activities that need to be completed within 25 minutes. No modeling or training session was held because students in these classes had already completed similar jigsaws and were comfortable working via CMC. The Computer Program Blackboard is a software platform that delivers a course management system and creates a customized institution-wide portal and online communities. Each course offered by an institution is hosted on a
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Website. The instructor assigned to a course Web site oversees the course through the Instructor Control Panel. While the instructor has control over the course Web site, the administrator sets overrides that restrict or require content areas and tools. A course Web site consists of a navigation path, a button bar, and a content frame. The navigation path allows users to return to any page accessed between the main course page and the current page (see Appendix A for a frame sample). The button bar links users to the available content areas and tools. The content frame displays Web pages accessed through the buttons or navigation path. All course administration is done through the Instructor Control Panel. This area is only available to users who have been designated as "professor," "instructor," or "teaching assistant" (see Appendix B for frame sample). One of the Instructor's features is the "virtual classroom." The virtual classroom, or the chat room, allows the instructor and students to participate in real-time lessons and discussions and also view archives of previous classroom sessions. It can be used to hold online classroom discussions, TA sessions, and office hour type question/answer forums. All communication and interaction is carried out through (synchronous) typed text. The system has the capacity to welcome guest speakers and subject matter experts who can address the class (see Appendix C for a sample template). Data Analysis To answer the questions posed in this study, the interactions were coded for learner errors, learner corrective feedback used in response to errors, and learners' repairs. In addition, the errors were examined in relation to three main feedback types and in relation to learner repair. The researcher and one additional coder independently coded the data. The current study examined the errors that learners produced while completing the jigsaw and during CMC. The errors coded were (a) syntactic errors (e.g., lack of or use of articles, determiners, prepositions, pronouns, errors with subject/verb agreement, gender, verb morphology, pluralization, and word order); (b) lexical errors (e.g., inaccurate, imprecise or inappropriate choices of lexical items and non-target derivations of nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives); (c) unsolicited uses of L1 (e.g., instances when learners used English when Spanish would have been more appropriate and expected). Interrater reliability for error type was high (r = .96). Three categories were used to assess corrective feedback: explicit correction, recasts, and negotiation of form. Interrater reliability for corrective feedback type was high (I = .91). Explicit correction directly and clearly indicates that what the learner has said is incorrect (translation of the example and comments are on the right): S1: S2: Comer mucho todos los das. Don't say comer. Say como. I to eat (wrong form) every day. Don't say to eat (wrong form). Say I eat (correct form).
Recasts are immediate implicit reformulation of an ill-formed utterance and reformulate all or part of the utterance as a recasts of the incorrect: S1: S2: l lavar... l lava... He washes... (wrong form) He washes... (correct form)
Negotiation of form provides learners with signals that facilitate peer and self-repair rather than mere rephrasing of their utterances. Negotiations differ from explicit correction and recasts in that negotiations do not provide learners with a correct form. Signals to learners can be given in the form of clarification requests (include statements such as What did you say? ), metalinguistic clues (comments, questions, or information regarding the well formedness of the learner's utterance without providing the correct form such as Is it masculine?), elicitation (obtains correct forms from learners by asking questions such as How do we say that in Spanish?, or by asking students to reformulate their utterance), and repetition (the
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learner's error is repeated). Once learners received feedback from their peers, their immediate responses to feedback were coded as repair or not repair. Interrater reliability for response to feedback was high (r = .98). Repairs do not necessarily constitute that a learner has developed the form corrected. However, they allow learners to produce modified output and possibly notice the TL form, which creates conditions that may facilitate development (Swain, 1985, 1995). The following example represents an instance of repair: S1: S2: S1: RESULTS The analysis yielded a total of 135 errors, each initiated by a student turn, containing at least one error coded as syntactic, lexical, or L1. Table 1 presents the distribution of error types in the database. The majority of errors (64%) were syntactic, whereas 33% were lexical, and 3% were L1 uses. A chi-square test shows that the differences were statistically significant, X2 (2, N = 135) = 76.6, p = .0001. Table 1. Number and Percentage of Errors by Error Typs Syntactic Lexical L1 Total 87 44 4 135 64% 33% 3% 100% Ella correr en el parque. Ella corre en el parque. Ohyeah corre. She to run (wrong form) in the park. She runs (right form) in the park. Ohyeah runs (right form).
Of the 135 errors, 76 were followed by corrective feedback. Table 2 reveals the distribution of corrective feedback across the different error types. The majority of feedback moves followed lexical errors: 58% of all feedback followed lexical errors, 40% followed syntactic errors and 2% followed uses of L1. These differences were statistically significant, X2 (2, N = 76) = 30.8, p = .0001. Table 2. Number and Percentage of Feedback Moves per Error Type Lexical Syntactic L1 Total 163 114 5 282 58% 40% 2% 100%
Fifty-six percent of learners' errors received corrective feedback from their peers. Table 3 reveals the rate at which each error type received corrective feedback: 100% for L1 uses, 97% for lexical errors, and 33% for syntactic errors. Therefore, the rate at which L1 uses and lexical errors were corrected was higher than the rate at which syntactic errors were repaired. Table 3. Rate of Feedback per Error Type L1 Lexical Syntactic Total 4/5 43/44 29/87 76/135 100% 97% 33% 56%
The feedback moves were distributed across three feedback types as follows: recasts, negotiation, and explicit correction. Of the 76 feedback moves, 72 (95%) were negotiations, 4 (5%) were recasts, and none were explicit corrections. Thus, negotiations were more likely to follow learner errors. A comparison of the distribution of these feedback types across different error types appears in Table 4. Negotiations were more likely than recasts to follow lexical errors (98%), syntactic errors (93%), and L1 uses (75%).6
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Table 4. Distribution of Errors Receiving Feedback Across Feedback Types and Error Types Recasts Negotiation Total Lexical 1 (2%) 42 (98%) 43 Syntactic 2 (7%) 27 (93%) 29 L1 1 (25%) 3 (75%) 4 Total 4 (5%) 72 (95%) 76
Of the 76 feedback moves, 52 led to learner repair within the error treatment sequence. Of the 52 errors repaired, 37 (71%) were lexical, 13 (25%) were syntactic, and 2 (4%) were L1 uses. These differences were statistically significant, X2 (N = 52) = 36.9, p = .0001. Thus, the majority of the errors repaired were lexical. Table 5 provides the rate at which each error type was repaired. The overall rate of repair was high (68%). The highest rate of repair was for lexical errors: Of the 43 lexical errors with feedback, 86% were repaired. The next highest rate of repair was for L1 uses (50%): Of the four errors with feedback, two were repaired. Only 45% of the syntactic errors with feedback were repaired. All repairs resulted from negotiations. Recasts did not lead to repairs. Table 5. Rate of Repairs of Errors with Feedback Lexical L1 Syntactic Total 37/43 2/5 13/29 52/76 86% 50% 45% 68%
The following excerpt illustrates learners' overall pattern of error correction and repair while engaged in CMC7: Turn 26 27 28 29 Jorge: Carlos: Jorge: Carlos: Y dime las que tienes. Pues que tengo que mirar. <wait>8 Ya pues <wait> . Le veo que parece que eschucha las canciones o algo por como igualy es<wait>. Where are you? You alive? <wait> !. Sorry! Sorry! I am back like yeah I could not figure it out! LOL! Escucha las canciones con un radio amarillo y tiene unos headphones de los que no tiene los cables de por encima y que te ponen el pelo todo mal como sabes huh?? los headphones? LOL! Los audio los de los de esos los de que se me olvida audfonos ya sabes no? ! Que me vuelves locoBRB! <wait> Y lo otro que necesitamos?? And what else do we need? LOL! The sound [incorrect/incomplete word] the the the ... I forget... ... headphones ... You know what I mean, right? You drive me crazy...BRB! Listens to songs with a yellow radio and he has one of those headphones that does not have cables over your head and do not get your hair looking bad you know And tell me which ones you have So I have to look (OK) I see that it seems that he listens to songs or something like thatand it is
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Jorge: Carlos:
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Jorge: Carlos:
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Jorge: Carlos: Jorge:
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Carlos:
Que creo tienes la actividad que sigue y yo no la tengomenciona <sigh> and decribe las que hay contigo!!!
I think that you have the following activity and I don't have it mention and describe the ones you have.
In turn 31 in the excerpt above, Carlos produces the English equivalent of audfonos, headphones. Immediately in turn 32, it appears that Jorge does not understand what Carlos says or at least wants Carlos to utter the item using Spanish. Jorge, thus, engages in a negotiation: los headphones? Immediately in turn 33, Carlos produces a repair and utters the Spanish form audfonos. By turn 36, the pair moves on to attempt to complete the task.9 DISCUSSION The findings permit the following responses to the four questions posed earlier in the study. Do Spanish immersion school children working in CMC provide implicit negative feedback in response to their peers' non target-like utterances? Yes, over 50% of errors received implicit negative feedback in the form of recasts and negotiations. What types of learners' errors lead to what types of implicit negative feedback? The majority of lexical, syntactic, and L1 errors invited negotiations. When Spanish immersion school children working in CMC receive implicit negative feedback from their peers, do they immediately repair the original ill-formed utterance? Yes, learners repaired over 60% of errors that received feedback. What types of implicit negative feedback lead to the immediate repair of what types of learners' errors? All repairs followed negotiation. When the children in this study engaged in CMC, they provided feedback in response to their peers' L2 errors. The results support the findings of previous face-to-face, child-to-child interaction studies that suggest that implicit negative feedback is available to learners within the error treatment sequence. It has been argued that children are risk takers and are comfortable in correcting their peers' error (see Dekeyser, 2000; Singleton, 1995) which may explain why the rate of feedback was high. While all L1 uses and the majority of lexical errors were corrected, the rate of syntactic error correction was low. Why were all L1 uses repaired? At the school where data were gathered, the staff, the curriculum, and the teachers do not tolerate the use of English (except of course in the English class) during class-time or in school surroundings. Children are encouraged to constantly use Spanish, the L2. Thus, the children may have just been following school protocol in tolerating their peers' L1 uses. That lexical errors were corrected at higher rates that syntactic errors should not come as a surprise, as the methodologies encouraged at the school concentrate more on lexical growth over grammatical accuracy. In addition, these Spanish immersion students have not had any formal instruction of Spanish grammar and, therefore, many lack a solid syntactic base to correct linguistic form. With regard to the type of feedback, there were no corrections in the form of explicit feedback. Although learners provided feedback in the form of recasts and negotiations, the most common form of feedback was negotiation. The same results have been obtained in studies that examined face-to-face, child-to-child interactions (e.g., Mackey et al., 2003; Oliver, 1995, 2000, 2002). It is possible that children negotiated their peers' errors instead of using recasts because recasts require a solid linguistic knowledge and communicative competence, which these children are still in the process of developing. Over sixty percent of learners' errors that received feedback were repaired. Studies that examined face-toface, child-to-child interactions have also reported that children frequently repair their errors immediately following feedback (Mackey et al., 2003; Oliver, 1995, 2000, 2002). It is possible that the rate of repair was high because, as indicated earlier, children are considered "risk takers," and thus may not be afraid to take chances when producing or modifying their L2. Following feedback, children repaired the majority of lexical errors and most of the L1 uses. Children repaired less than half of the syntactic errors. It is possible that syntactic errors are more difficult to process than lexical errors because processing and
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accessing the rules of grammar is far more complex than retrieving lexical items. In addition, students are not used to focusing on form, as the school curriculum encourages content over linguistic form. Findings indicate that all repairs followed negotiations. Recasts failed to promote any learner repair. It appears that negotiations are more likely to promote repairs because, in contrast to recasts, they may (through clarification requests, metalinguistic clues, elicitation, and repetition) incite learners to notice that they have produced a non-target-like utterance and to reprocess it. Repairs may be important, as they allow learners to practice the structures and to produce output (Swain, 1985, 1995) which may create conditions needed for language acquisition. However, even when learners fail to repair their non targetlike structures after receiving feedback it does not necessarily mean that the feedback provided is ineffective in promoting acquisition. It helps to remember that feedback, such as recasts, can do more than simply signal an ungrammatical utterance. Recasts can also promote L2 development by making the target language form salient and by providing positive evidence (e.g., Leeman, 2003; Saxton, 1997). In fact, Morris (2002a) and Mackey and Philp (1998) have also shown that recasts may be beneficial for short-term interlanguage development even when they are not immediately incorporated by learners. What learners may have to do for acquisition to take place is to notice the feedback and accurately perceive it as intended; it may not be necessary for them to produce an immediate repair. CONCLUSIONS The significance of this study lies in demonstrating that interaction via CMC provides opportunities for learners to write and "chat" (in a synchronous text-based format) about language, provide feedback and use the feedback, elements that are considered to be crucial for L2 development.10 When these Spanish immersion school children engaged in CMC, they corrected many of their peers' errors, and, following feedback, learners produced repairs of the errors corrected. The majority of errors were corrected using negotiations, which proved to be more effective at leading to immediate repair of errors than did recasts. Overall, these findings demonstrate that the pattern of error correction and repair following feedback resembles that of face-to-face interactions (see Mackey et al., 2003; Oliver, 1995, 2000, 2002). But did CMC play a particular role in the provision and use of feedback? It is possible that the incidence of feedback and learner repair following feedback was high because, as Kern (1995) argues, interaction which is implemented in a synchronous electronic environment generates high rates of students participation and language production, offers more time to develop and refine comments, and allows for more collaboration between participants. However, synchronous CMC blocks interpersonal cues and reduces much of the nonlinguistic aspects of face to face interaction that may facilitate communication and understanding (Walther, Anderson, & Park, 1994). Thus, CMC may take away the support that faceto-face cues provide, focusing the burden of communication on written messages. As a result, the use of persistent indicators, such as providing feedback and immediately responding to feedback, may have occurred to establish the intended utterance and avoid a communication breakdown between participants. These explanations are, however, speculative at the moment and must be viewed with caution. To fully determine how CMC shaped these learners' provision and use of feedback, we must also examine how these learners correct their peers' errors and how they respond to feedback in the context of face-to-face interactions. The results should be compared to those in this study. The overall findings may reveal specific interactional features that may or may not be particular to context. The current study takes on the position that new technologies and their application to L2 classrooms, must be looked upon with caution. Much work needs to be conducted in order to examine how these new technologies and their applicability to language classrooms affect the learning context. Researchers and educators must continue to ask, for example, how technology improves the quality and process of L2 learning. In the field of CMC very little work has been done to particularly examine the identification of the pedagogical objectives that this type of technology-based teaching is intended to fulfill and to explore the demands that CMC activities place on learners (Salaberry, 2001). Without a doubt, communication
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settings substantiated in CMC still require a substantial amount of investigation before reliable pedagogical guidelines are developed. The current study does not argue that all child-to-child interactions via CMC will yield the same results. Additional studies should examine the provision and use of feedback in Spanish immersion schools, evaluating other levels and classes, and comparing CMC to face-to-face conversations. The lack of preand post-tests measures make it impossible to determine the effects of feedback and repair following feedback on L2 development. One must also be cautious when interpreting the results, as socio-cultural factors may have played a role in the interactions and feedback patterns represented in this study. For example, learners' preference for negotiation over recasts may not necessarily be attributed to the CMC or the classroom itself but to other variables such as learners' conversational and learning styles and strategies. Perhaps the participants in this study were courteous students who have been taught to negotiate their peers' errors instead of correcting those errors using explicit feedback. Additional studies are needed to determine what social and cultural aspects may predict the pattern of error correction and repair. Another question that remains speculative and future research should address is why learners demonstrated a lack of awareness of grammatical inaccuracy. NOTES 1. These claims also support Tarone's position (see Tarone & Liu, 1995) arguing that the study of L2 use in its social context is essential to the study of SLA. 2. The exact demographics of the school are not known because the school administration chose not to disclose that information. Only the students who participated in the study could, and only if they chose to, disclose their ethnic-racial-language background. The limitations placed on the research by the school administration and the Institutional Review Board/Human Subjects Committee were done to safeguard the children who volunteered to participate in the study. 3. The term is used to refer to a student who is raised in a home where Spanish was spoken and who is to some degree bilingual in English and Spanish. 4. Once the activity began, the teacher could not control whether students would eventually recognize their partners, as many students immediately shared their identity. 5. The reason participants were asked to write an essay was to give a purpose for the jigsaw task. The essay that the students produced was collected and the students received feedback from the teacher, as is customary when learners hand-in any written work. 6. Statistical analyses were not conducted for the data in Table 4 because the number or items and frequencies in some of the cells are low. 7. The names of participants have been changed to protect their identity. The Internal Review Board/Human Subjects Committee allowed only the researcher (and coders) access to the original dialogues with names. 8. <Wait> indicates one waits or the other person should hold/wait; LOL means laugh-out loud; BRB means be right back. 9. As stated earlier, the purpose of the current study was to examine the overall pattern of error correction and repair following feedback. The current study did not attempt to evaluate discourse techniques, CMC strategies, language use, or general interactional patterns. Future research should examine these interactional patterns and determine, for example, children's use of language (whether English or Spanish) when engaged in CMC, and the interactional features (e.g., LOL ["laugh out load"] and happy faces ! ) that communicate emotion and help learners compensate for the lack of face-to-face contact.
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10. The terms "chat" or "chatting" are commonly used when individuals engage in online conversations such as "instant messaging."
APPENDIX A Sample Template -- Blackboard Welcome Page
APPENDIX B Sample Template 2 -- Blackboard Control Panel
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APPENDIX C Sample Template 2 -- Blackboard Virtual Classroom / Chat Room
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Frank Morris teaches in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Miami. He obtained a PhD in Hispanic Linguistics at the University of Minnesota (2002). His current research explores whether collaborative work and classroom pair work fosters second language acquisition. E-mail: fmorris@mail.as.miami.edu, morrisfrnk@aol.com REFERENCES Ayoun, D. (2001). The role of negative and positive feedback in the second language acquisition of the Pass Compos and the Imparfait. Modern Language Journal, 85(2), 226-243. Beauvois, M. H. (1992). Computer assisted classroom discussion in foreign language classrooms: Conversation in slow motion. Foreign Language Annals, 25(5), 455-464. Beck, M. L., & Eubank, L. (1991). Acquisition theory and experimental design: A critique of Tomasello and Herron. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 13(1), 73-76. Blake, R. (2000). Computer mediated communication: A window on L2 Spanish interlanguage. Language Learning and Technology, 4 (1), 120-136. Braidi, S. (2002). Reexamining the role of recasts in native-speaker/nonnative-speaker interactions. Language Learning, 52(1), 1-42. Breen, M (2001). Overt participation and covert acquisition in the language classroom. In M. Breen (Ed.), Learner contributions to language learning: New directions in research (pp. 112-140). London: Longman.
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Buckwalter, P. (2001). Repair sequences in Spanish L2 dyadic discourse: A descriptive study. Modern Language Journal, 85(3), 380-397. Chaudron, C. (1977). A descriptive model of discourse in the corrective treatment of learners' errors. Language Learning, 27(1), 29-46. Chaudron, C. (1986). Teachers's priorities in correcting learners' errors in French immersion classes. In R. R. Day (Ed.), Talking to learn: Conversation in second language acquisition (pp. 64-84). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Chaudron, C. (1987). The role of error correction in second language teaching. In B. K. Das (Ed.), Patterns in classroom interaction in Southeast Asia (pp. 17-50). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre. Chun, D. M. (1998). Using computer-assisted class discussion to facilitate the acquisition of interactive competence. In J. Swaffar, S. Romano, P. Markley, & K. Arens (Eds.), Language learning online: Theory and practice in the ESL and L2 computer classroom (pp. 57-80). Austin, TX: Labyrinth Publications. Chun, A. E., Day, R. R., Chenoweth, N. A., & Luppescu, S. (1982). Errors, interaction, and correction: A study of native-nonnative conversations. TESOL Quarterly, 16(4), 537-547. Darhower, M. (2002). Instructional features of synchronous computer-mediated communication in the L2 class: A sociocultural case study. CALICO Journal, 19(3), 249-277. DeKeyser, R. M. (2000). The robustness of the critical period effects on second language acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22(4), 499-533. Doughty, C. (1994). Fine tuning of feedback by competent speakers to language learners. In J. Alatis (Ed.), Georgetown University Round Table (GURT) 1993 (pp. 96-108). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Doughty, C., & Varela, E. (1998). Communicative focus on form. In C. Doughty, & J. Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom SLA (pp. 114-138). New York: Cambridge University Press. Ellis, R., Basturkmen, H., & Lowen, S. (2001). Learner uptake in Communicative ESL lessons. Language Learning, 51(2), 281-318. Fanselow, J. (1977). The treatment of error in oral work. Foreign Language Annals, 10(4), 583-593. Fernndez-Garca, M., & Martnez-Arbelaiz, A. (2002). Negotiation of meaning in non-native speakernon-native speaker synchronous discussions. CALICO Journal, 19(2), 279-294. Gass, S. (1997). Input, interaction and the second language learner. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Grimshaw, J., & Pinker, S. (1989). Positive and negative evidence in language acquisition. Behavioral and Brain Science, 12(2), 341-342. Hamayan, E., & Tucker, E. (1980). Language input in the bilingual classroom and its relationship to second language achievement. TESOL Quarterly, 14, 453-468. Haas, C., & Neuwirth, C. M. (1994). Writing the technology that write us. In S. Hilligoss & C. Self (Eds.), Literacy and computers (pp. 319-335). New York: Modern Languages Association. Hall, J. (2000). Classroom interaction and additional language learning: Implications for teaching and research. In J. Hall & L. Verplaetse (Eds.), Second and foreign language learning through classroom interaction (pp. 287-298). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
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Han, Z-H. (2002). A study of impact of recasts on tense consistency in L2 output. TESOL Quarterly, 36(4), 543-572. Hatch, E. (1978). Discourse analysis and second language acquisition. In E. Hatch (Ed.), Second language acquisition: A book of readings (pp. 401-435). Rowley, MA: Newburry House. Kelm, O. (1992). The use of synchronous computer networks in second language instruction: A preliminary report. Foreign Language Annals, 25(5), 441-454. Kern, R. (1995). Restructuring classroom interaction with network computers. Effects on quantity and characteristics of language production. Modern Language Journal, 79(4), 457-476. Kim, Y. (1998). The effect of a network computer-mediated discussion on subsequent oral discussion in the ESL classroom. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin. Krashen, S (1977). The monitor model for adult second language performance. In M. Burt, H. Dulay, & M. Finocchiaro (Eds.), Viewpoints on English as a second language (pp. 152-161). New York: Regents. Krashen, S. (1994). The Input Hypothesis and its rivals. In N. Ellis (Ed.), Implicit and explicit learning of languages (pp. 45-77). London: Academic Press. Leeman, J. (2000). Towards a new classification of input: An empirical study of the effect of recasts, negative evidence and enhanced salience on L2 development. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Leeman, J. (2003). Recasts and second language development: beyond negative evidence. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25(1), 37-63. Lightbown, P., & White, L. (1987). The influence of linguistics theories on language acquisition research. Language Learning, 37(4), 483-510. Lin, Y. H., & Hedgcock, J. (1996). Negative feedback incorporation among high-proficiency and low proficiency Chinese speaking learners of Spanish. Language Learning, 46 (4), 567-611. Long, M. (1983). Linguistic and conversational adjustments to non-native speakers. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 5(2), 177-193. Long, M. (1991). Focus on form: a design feature in language teaching methodology. In D. C. K. de Bot, C. Kramsch, & R. Ginsburg (Eds.), Foreign language research in a cross-cultural perspective (pp. 3952). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Long, M. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In W. Ritchie, & T. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 413-468). New York: Academic Press. Long, M., & Robinson, P. (1998). Focus on form: theory, research and practice. In C. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 15-41). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Long, M., Inagaki, S., & Ortega, L. (1998). The role of implicit negative feedback in SLA: Models and recasts in Japanese and Spanish. Modern Language Journal, 82, 357-371. Lyster, R. (1998a). Negotiation of form, recasts explicit correction in relation to error types and learning repairs in L2 classrooms. Language Learning, 48, 183-213. Lyster, R. (1998b). Recast, repetition and ambiguity in L2 classroom discourse. Studies in second language acquisition, 20, 51-81. Lyster, R., & Ranta, L. (1997). Corrective feedback and learner uptake: Negotiation of form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 37-66.
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Mackey, A., Oliver, R., & Leeman, J. (2003). Interactional input and the incorporation of feedback: An exploration of NS-NNS and NNS-NNS adult and child dyads. Language Learning, 53(1), 35-66. Mackey, A., & Philp, J. (1998). Conversation interaction and second language development: Recasts, response and red herrings? Modern Language Journal, 82(3), 338-356. Moroishi, M. (2001). Recasts and learner uptake in Japanese classroom discourse. In X. Bonch-Bruevich, W. J. Crawford, J. Hellermann, C. Higgins, & H. Nguyen (Eds.), The past, present and future of second language research. Selected proceedings of the 2000 Second Language Research Forum (pp. 197-208). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. Morris, F. (2002a). Learner-learner interaction in the Spanish foreign language classroom: The effects of recasts and negotiation on L2 development. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Morris, F. (2002b). Negotiation and recasts in relation to error types and learner repair. Foreign Language Annals, 35(4), 395-404. Muranoi, H. (2000). Focus on form through interaction enhancement: Integrating formal instruction with a communicative task in EFL classrooms. Language Learning, 50(4), 617-673. Nabei, T., & Swain, M. (2002). Learner awareness of recasts in classroom interaction: A case study of an adult EFL student's second language learning. Language Awareness, 11(1), 43-62. Nystrom, N. (1983). Teacher-student interaction in bilingual classrooms: four approaches to error feedback. In H. W. Seliger & M. H. Long (Eds.), Classroom oriented research in second language acquisition (pp. 169-188). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Ohta, A. (2001). Second language acquisition processes in the classroom: Learning Japanese. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Oliver, R. (1995). Negative feedback in child NS-NNS conversation. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 17(4), 459-481. Oliver, R. (1998). Negotiation of meaning in child interactions. Modern Language Journal, 82 (3), 372386. Oliver, R. (2000). Age differences in negotiation and feedback in classroom and pairwork. Language Learning, 50(1), 119-151. Oliver, R. (2002). The patterns of negotiation for meaning in child interactions. Modern Language Journal, 86(1), 97-111. Oskoz, A., & Liskin-Gasparro, J. (2001). Corrective feedback, learner uptake, and teacher's beliefs: A pilot study. In X. Bonch-Bruevich, W. J. Crawford, J. Hellermann, C. Higgins, & H. Nguyen (Eds.), The past, present and future of second language research Selected proceedings of the 2000 Second Language Research Forum (pp. 209-228). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. Panova, I., & Lyster, R. (2002). Patterns of corrective feedback and classroom uptake in an adult ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 36(4), 573-595. Pellettieri, J. (1999). Why talk? Investigating the role of task-based interaction through synchronous network based communication among classroom learners of Spanish. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California at Davis. Pica, T., Kanagy, R., & Falodum, J. (1993). Choosing and using communication tasks for second language instruction. In G. Crookes & S. Gass (Eds.), Tasks and language learning (pp. 9-34). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
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Pinker, S. (1989). Resolving a learnability paradox in the acquisition of the verb lexicon. In M. L. Rice, & R. L. Schiefelbusch (Eds.), The teachability of language (pp. 13-62). Baltimore, MD: P. H. Brookes. Salaberry, R. (2001). The use of technology for second language learning and teaching: A retrospective. Modern Language Journal, 85(1), 39-56. Saxton, M. (1997). The contrast theory of negative input. Journal of Child Language, 24, 139-161. Saxton, M., Kulcsar, B., Marshall, G., & Rupra, M. (1998). Long term effects of corrective input and experimental approach. Journal of Child Language, 25, 701-721. Singleton, D. (1995). Introduction: A critical look at the critical period hypothesis in second language acquisition research. In D. Singleton & Z. Lengeyl (Eds.), The age factor in second language acquisition (pp. 1-29). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Smith, B. (2001). Taking students to task: Task-based computer mediated communication and negotiated interaction in the ESL classroom. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona, Tucson. Smith, B. (2003). Computer-mediated negotiated interaction: An expanded model. Modern Language Journal, 87(1), 38-57. Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some rules of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235253). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. Swain, M. (1995). Three functions of output in second language learning. In G. Cook & B. Seidlhofer (Eds.), Principle and practice in applied linguistics (pp. 125-144). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Tarone, E., & Liu, G. (1995). Situational context, variation and SLA theory. In G. Cook & B. Seidlhofer (Eds.), Principles and practice in applied linguistics: A festschrift for H. G. Widdowson (pp. 107-124). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Truscott, J. (1999). What's wrong with oral grammar correction. Canadian Modern Language Review, 55(4), 437-456. VanPatten, B. (1990). Attending to form and content in the input: An experiment in consciousness. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12(3), 287-301. Walther, J., Anderson, J., & Park, D. (1994). Interpersonal effects in computer mediated interaction: A meta-analysis of social and antisocial communication. Communication Research, 21(4), 460-487. Warschauer, M (1996). Comparing face-to-face and electronic communication in the second language classroom. CALICO Journal, 13(2), 7-25. White, L. (1987). Against comprehensible input: The input hypothesis and the development of L2 competence. Applied Linguistics, 8(1), 95-110. White, L. (1990). Second language acquisition and universal grammar. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 12, 121-133.
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/meskill/
TRIADIC SCAFFOLDS: TOOLS FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS WITH COMPUTERS1
Carla Meskill State University of New York at Albany ABSTRACT Active communication with others is key to human learning. This straightforward premise currently undergirds much theory and research in student learning in general, and in second language and literacy learning in particular. Both of these academic areas have long acknowledged communication's central role in successful learning with the exact intricacies of instructional conversations and the forms these take having been the focus of close analysis (Cazden, 1988; Gee, 2001; Nystrand, Gamoran, Kachur, & Prendergast, 1997; Tharp & Galimore, 1991; van Lier, 2000). In this examination of computer-supported classroom discourse, specific forms of instructional conversation employed by a veteran elementary teacher of beginning-level English language learners (ELLs) are examined. The focal teacher orchestrates instructional conversations around computers with children whose immediate needs are to learn the English language, specifically the "language of school" and the concomitant social complexities implied in order to participate in mainstream instructional activity. With these goals shaping language and literacy activity, their ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) teacher makes use of the computer to capture, motivate, and anchor learner attention to, and render comprehensible the target language they hear and see on and around the computer screen. The anatomy of the activity she orchestrates around the computer and the language she uses to support it -- labeled here as triadic scaffolds -- are the focus of analysis. Forms and functions of triadic discourse (teacher, learner, computer) are examined for their potential unique role in second language and literacy instruction.
INTRODUCTION Computer technology is being widely used in classrooms as a means of supporting instruction. Concurrently, much attention in the education research community has focused on instructional technologies generally and more particularly on the critical role of contexts of use; that is, the situational features and verbal instructional dynamics that can accompany computer use (Garner & Gillingham, 1996; Kumpulainen, 1996; Lankshear & Snyder, 2000; Meskill, Mossop, & Bates, 1999; Wegerif & Mercer, 1996). This analysis examines the communicative dynamics of an experienced English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) teacher working with her students around computers. My interest here is to present particular patterns of instructional discourse that are at once (a) making distinct referential use of the physical features of the computer and (b) accomplishing second language and literacy activity in ways that make good pedagogical sense. In this case, the guiding notion of good pedagogical sense is rooted in what Gee (2000) points to as critical elements of effective literacy instruction: a "judicious mixture" of (a) learner involvement in their language and literacy learning ("immersion in a community of practice"); and (b) instructional language ("overt focusing and scaffolding[to] focus learners on the most fruitful sorts of patterns in their experience") that supports learner acquisition of a community's practices (p. 5-6). This analysis of instructional conversations around computers is an attempt to closely detail and explicate such mixtures in action.
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Triadic Scaffolds: Tools for Teaching English Language...
The Language of School The number of children in U.S. schools for whom English is their second language is nearing five million and growing. While ELLs are expected to master the English language, they are also expected to learnacademic content in the very language they are in the process of learning. In short, their instructional needs are multiple and complex. Language is, after all, essential to virtually all aspects of daily life. It is key to improving one's lot and imagining different worlds. Likewise, schools are brimming with language: lectures, directions, advice, admonitions, facts, fantasies, and dissings. It would be difficult to disagree with the notion that something as critical and pervasive as language should be featured and so treated in schools. Yet the trend has traditionally been for language to be treated as a given, a prerequisite -- not as essential to all learning (Schleppegrell, 2001; Short & Sherris, 2004; Snow & Wong-Fillmore, 2002). Moreover, "organizational structures in schools give or deny students access to an apprenticeship to the discourses of academic success" (Gebhard, 1999, p. 551). Nonetheless, children need language that provides access to the practices of their various communities (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003). A characteristic of at-risk learners -- both native and non-native speakers of English -- is that they may not be communicatively equipped to engage the everyday scripts of school-based activities, activities for which most middle class, "mainstream" students have been prepared since birth (Delpit, 1995; Gee, 1990, 2000; Heath, 1983). Rather, children come to school versed in the experiences of their homes, their families, and their home culture -- cultures comprised of complex ways of knowing and communicating -where what Bloom calls a "theory of mind" is firmly established as a foundation on which children's native communicative repertoire is formed at a young age through social interaction with others. This is accomplished through observing parents' and peers' ways of understanding, talking about, and being in the world (Bloom, 2001; Bruner, 1996). How a child's home and community understand and communicate about the world and how this is manifest in U.S. school culture can be quite dissimilar (Cazden, 1988; Heath, 1983; Michaels, 1981; Soto, 1997). Recent recognition that mastering language use is first and foremost a social process that involves humans relating to one another in effective and productive ways has taken precedence over older notions of language as a body of knowledge that can be broken down into discrete pieces and taught accordingly (Lantolf, 2001). When learning the first, or native language children actively learn the ways of knowing, talking about, and doing the world by working out the intentionalities of those around them. Learning a second language can be viewed as comprising similar processes. The human imperative to work out the intentionalities of others is central to a child's development of a theory of mind -- an essential understanding of the self in the world -- that accounts for the ways language connects with the immediate social context. With a foundational understanding of language learning as a social/contextual process that benefits from opportunities to interact with others (van Lier, 2000; Wilkinson & Silliman, 2000), language teaching professionals typically engage students in activities that make what learners see and hear in the target language salient, referenced, noticeable, and comprehensible, with understanding having relevant consequences: in short, an "authentic need to comprehend and act accordingly" (van Lier, 1996, p. 248) with immediately perceptible consequences (Asher, 1988). Correspondingly, instructional activity that has as its goal initiation into the world of school discourses -those ways of talking that have become institutionally sanctioned or "normal" (Gee, 2000) -- must be crafted and guided in order to render what gets said and done salient and meaningful to learners. Consequently, the structure of a typical language learning activity might be as follows: A need to engage is established and a context is orchestrated that sets up a particular relationship between aspects of the physical or social environment and learners. The resulting activity -- where sight, touch, and speech unite -- becomes the locus of learning. Such structured activities make use of "enhanced input," language that has both clear visual referents and whose forms get noticed by students (Schmidt, 1995). Language teachers further enhance their aural input through salience-building intonation, prosody, and visual accompaniments of all kinds (gesture, object, facial expression). Such complexes of instructional
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elements have been variously referred to as "affordances" (van Lier, 2000), "optimal samples" (Cook, 2001), and "instructional conversations" (Tharp & Gallimore, 1991). Computers and Language Teaching/Learning Adding the computer into the instructional mix affords many opportunities for this sort of language learning activity. Learning what language sounds like, looks like, and means can be supported and enhanced through teacher and student talk about what they see on the computer screen (e.g., an instructor verbally directing a child's sizing and placement of an image). Thus, specific verbal instructional strategies known widely as teaching "scaffolds" can be facilitated by virtue of the physical properties of the computer. Wood, Bruner, & Ross's (1976) definition of scaffolding is instructive in this regard. Their four-component definition of instructional scaffolds can be readily applied to what the presence of the computer accomplishes in the instructional conversation: a) what appears on the screen can be viewed as reducing the size of the task so the child can complete it; b) what appears on the screen and what changes to it are possible can be viewed as keeping the child's attention in the moment; c) what appears on the screen can facilitate making salient relevant features; and d) what the teacher says and does in reaction to what appears on the screen can be viewed as modeling ways to accomplish. Each of these four key characteristics of scaffolding involves more than the language used per se. Each involves strategic instructional moves that, as a complex whole, are at the heart of the craft of teaching. The presence of the computer potentially amplifies such moves. Indeed, recent research on computer-supported learning contexts indicates that these interactional routines can provide the kinds of stimulation and anchoring of language so central to the language learning process (Cummins & Sayers, 1997; Esling, 1991; Meskill, Mossop, & Bates, 1999; Meskill & Mossop, 2000a; Newman, 1997). Second language and literacy learning contexts that promote and sustain the social construction and negotiation of meaning-making are widely considered as optimal (e.g., August & Hakuta, 1998; Snow, 1992). In light of such optimal contexts, Meskill, Mossop, and Bates (1999, 2000b) propose specific physical features of computers that are especially supportive of joint meaning-making and instructional conversations. Features such as publicness, instability, anchored referents, and the anarchic nature of computers can be viewed as enabling acquisition-oriented activity when skilled language professionals take instructional advantage of them.2 A language educator can make use of the visual representations of a word or picture on the computer screen (a public, anchored referent), to communicatively reinforce word, phrase, and sentence-level meaning. Further, she can direct learners to manipulate what they see on the screen (publicness, anchored referents, instability) thereby reinforcing the aural/visual aspects of the language she is teaching. If a student wishes to exercise her own volition by changing what is on the screen independent of the teacher's directives (anarchy), this also becomes a rich venue for immediate, referenced target language learning. From this perspective, computer screens can serve to anchor attention to forms and functions in immediate, highly tangible, and communicatively authentic ways. The following analysis focuses on the computer-supported instructional scaffolding of an ESOL teaching professional as she uses computers to teach beginning-level English language learners the language and literacy they need to participate in the everyday academic activities of their school. Special focus of these instructional sequences is given to the interplay between the teacher's utterances, the features of the machine, children's responses, and what these together accomplish instructionally. CONTEXT "Mrs. M" has taught English to non-native speakers in the same mid-size, post-industrial city school district for over 30 years; the majority of that tenure has been as the sole elementary ESOL specialist in the district. As such, she has traveled between the district's elementary schools to teach groups of mostly low socioeconomic status (SES) English language learners (ELLs). Over the years, this role has come to include serving as the main liaison between schools and ELL families as well as the wider immigrant
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community. She regularly sees that children receive the medical and social services support they need; this can mean "pounding on doors. Making sure kids get to the dentist even when I've got to drive them. That they've got a winter coat to wear to school" (interview with Mrs. M). Mrs. M's main objective during her 30 years as an ESOL professional has been to do everything in her power to ensure that her English language learners are equipped with the linguistic and cultural skills they need to actively participate and succeed in school. She sadly describes how the ELL children she has worked with over the years have been subjected to gross misunderstanding, racial abuses, and all out anger on the part of their classroom teachers and other school personnel. This is mainly due, she observes, to school personnel perceptions that ELLs' lack of responsiveness is "rude and disrespectful when these kids aren't understanding or that they don't know how to respond." To these ends, she works intensively with her students on basic oral and written literacy, content area language and accompanying concepts, and the appropriate verbal and non-verbal ways of "doing school" that will gain them access to the academic/school discourse that surrounds them. This is her stated way of combating the negative reactions her students tend to experience: She immediately teaches them comprehension and responsiveness techniques they need to appear cooperative, to fit in. She accomplishes her multiple instructional goals through modeling, guidance, and investment-building that are profoundly respectful and caring. Each elementary school in the district uses the ESOL "pullout" approach to ELL instruction. Children leave their regular classrooms to come to Mrs. M's room daily for 45-minutes of intensive ESOL instruction. The remainder of their day they spend in the mainstream classroom from which they are "pulled out" and where they receive little or no linguistic/instructional support. Mrs. M's class sessions are held in a small private room. The room is bright and cheerful with posters on the wall. There is a table where the teacher plus 4-8 students can work together. Two computers line the wall to the side of the worktable. As soon as the children enter the room, Mrs. M engages them in level-appropriate conversation about their clothes, the weather, their health, the class they just came from, their family, and the like. After these informal yet always instructional conversations, Mrs. M's sessions typically consist of group table work that focuses and prepares students to successfully engage in subsequent language and literacy activities that she orchestrates around the computers. Like most language instructors, Mrs. M makes use of software not designed specifically for ELLs. Instead, she uses native-speaker software that aligns with the theme of the class's current work and that can be used in ways that support learners practicing target language around the machines through interaction with their teacher and peers. She uses content-rich games, simulations, and productivity tools to complement her instruction. Sample themes of these activities are the alphabet, colors, animals, shapes, geography, and food. These topics steer focal academic vocabulary and each activity consistently integrates the five language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and pronunciation. Data Collection and Analysis Mrs. M's sessions with two groups of ELLs were audio recorded with field notes made of non-verbal components of the activity over the course of 3 months. In addition to a 1 1/2 hour culminating interview, all informal conversation with Mrs. M before, during, and after class sessions was also recorded. Transcripts of Mrs. M's classes and her comments about them were successively coded on a number of emerging dimensions. Through processes of review, revision of codes, and re-review, labels were assigned to verbal and non-verbal actions on Mrs. M's part that formed part of the triadic scaffolds seen as predominating her work with ELL children around the computers. The construct triadic scaffold grew out of observing a preponderance of similar verbal routines around the computer coupled with the fact that these routines appeared to most accurately characterize Mrs. M's approach to exploiting computers for their overall attention-getting and maintaining quality as well as the continuous opportunities they afford for language and literacy learning. Descriptions of these verbal strategies and what these were intended to accomplish were checked against interview data with Mrs. M as were the labels for the roles played by
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the computer. These data collection and analysis activities comprise an attempt to capture the special computer-supported techniques this one very experienced teacher employs to coax and support children's English language and literacy learning. Triadic Scaffolds Data consist of transcripts of classroom interaction and interviews with the participating teacher. Three coders, one of whom was the author and all of whom were language-teaching professionals, examined, discussed, and independently coded classroom and interview transcripts. Coders initially employed Meskill, Mossop, and Bates' (1999) unique features of electronic texts (publicness, anchored referents, instability, and anarchy) in their attempts to make sense of the role of the computer in these instructional conversations. In addition, commonly favored second language teaching strategies (modeling, echoing, recasting, and the like) also served to guide analysis. Through discussion and negotiation of, and ultimately agreement on, terminology, select classroom data came to be coded by a set of (a) teaching strategies (both verbal and nonverbal, global and local); (b) the role of the computer in the instructional scaffold; and (c) what these combined (teacher + computer features) strategies appear to accomplish and what the teacher reports them as accomplishing. Due to their tripartite nature, these verbal instructional strategies came to be characterized as triadic scaffolds -- three dimensions of an utterance that at once aims to teach language, is fashioned to be instructional, and references the computer in a sociolinguistically and instructional way. Triadic scaffolds are thus comprised of and were coded as follows: 1) S - a teacher verbal strategy 2) C - contribution of the computer 3) A - what the strategy accomplishes Those instances of strategies reported effective by the teacher -- those that appeared to accomplish her aims -- are clusters of verbal routines (including gesture) that clearly connect with learner investment in language and literacy learning with the computer. Two excerpts containing triadic scaffolds -- one from each of the two pull-out classes observed -- are explicated below. The first involves two second graders and the use of an alphabet game to reinforce pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, and listening. The second involves three fourth graders and the use of an animal game to reinforce vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling, and listening. In both cases, the aim is less what the design of the computer software might dictate, and more the thematic focus and conversational opportunities for language and literacy work that its use affords. Illustrative triadic scaffolds are in bold with their components explicated in boxed, bolded text.
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Four second-graders are transitioning from table-work to computer-work. They have been preparing for the computer time by reviewing the English alphabet and sound-letter correspondence. They work in pairs with an application called Alphabet Express, software designed for beginning readers whose native language is English. In the following, the pair of boys, Joe and Sam, work under Mrs. Ms guidance. Mrs. Ms stated instructional aim here is to teach listening, speaking, vocabulary, reading, and pronunciation simultaneously through talk and activity around the computer screen.
Figure 1. Triadic scaffold: second graders
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Two trios (one girls, one boys) are working at the computers using The Animal Game, a colorful software application designed for native speakers of English to learn the names and families of animals. Cathy, Fiona, and Rachel work together under Mrs. Ms guidance. In this brief excerpt, Rachel is watching the others, waiting her turn. Learners had previously reviewed animal names and their pronunciation during table work. Again, Mrs. Ms stated aim is to work on listening, speaking, vocabulary, and reading simultaneously in an authentic context. The trios have been taking turns playing an identification game. The computer used by one trio is not playing sound.
Figure 2. Triadic scaffolds: six mixed ability, mixed (2 second, 4 first) grade ELLs Highlighted and labeled instances of triadic scaffolds in Figures 1 and 2 are typical of the routines Mrs. M uses to teach language and literacy skills to beginning-level ELLs as they are use the computer. In these two cases, children are newcomers and as such speak and understand very little English. It is important to note that as they advance, so too will the complexity of the language Mrs. M uses in these scaffolds. Typical teacher verbal strategies with these beginning-level learners such as directing, questioning, echoing, and focusing accomplish language learning goals; the computer serves to physically support and motivate attention while at the same time providing referents for the language in use. In all cases, talk and
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action are immediately perceived (public), situationally cued (anchored), and subject to both the machine's instability and to learners' individual or collective volition (anarchy). Children's responses to these scaffolds are continually evidenced in their attentiveness to the activity at hand, their continual nonverbal responses to the verbal scaffolds (pointing, moving the mouse, nodding, keying, smiling, etc.), as well as their verbal responses which, for beginning level language learners are both an accomplishment and a clear indication of successful progress in acquiring the language. Moreover, Mrs. M reports that she hears her students using the language that they learn while using the computer in other school contexts: "They use what they learn with me on the computers all the time. I hear them. Their teachers hear them. It's great." In the first sample triadic scaffold above (Figure 1), Mrs. M uses the verbal strategy of directing ("What's this? Do you remember? Ohh the what? Sam, what is it called?") with the accomplishments of getting the children situated to use the computers, the sociolinguistic accomplishment of learners responding to aural directives and questions in English that are representative of school talk, and focus on the sound /m/ in mouse. The computer serves to provide an immediate, visual, anchored referent and thereby anchors the children's attention on what the teacher is saying, what they ought to be doing, and the literacy material they see on the computer screen. In the second triadic scaffold, Mrs. M uses an echoing strategy to reinforce the language these children need to acquire ("It's his turn"). The children learn the basic language of turn taking, making requests, giving and responding to directives ("The train"), and, almost incidentally, the pronunciation and spelling rules of the words on the screen. In this instance, the computer motivates and anchors the children's attention to these interactions while guiding them to affect the right outcome on the computer screen. She comments, "They get so involved with what I say and what they're doing on the screen that their comprehending becomes really easy for even the most basic beginners. They get it so quickly so I see them saying the same things I say within a couple of days." With the older students in the second excerpt (Figure 2), the instability of the machine (it will not play sound, but may offer other options) focuses learners on attending to the language of problem solving being modeled by their teacher: "You really can't play without sound. You know what we'll play another game." This is high level language that Mrs. M is making accessible by virtue of the instability of the machine and their collective actions in response to that instability. Likewise, in the final triadic scaffold, Mrs. M provides the aural component for the learners' decision-making process while focusing the girls' attention on the information on the screen and the procedures required by the animal game. We can observe Mrs. M again using the language of directing to model and reinforce the language of school with the computer anchoring and motivating the children's language and literacy learning. The children consequently learn the language of goal setting and problem solving as modeled by Mrs. M and made possible by the instability and unpredictable nature of the machine and, again almost incidentally, the names and pronunciation of jungle animals. In spite of the often "directed" feel to this teacher's talk, these interactions are eminently social in nature with children fully involved and responsive. The children's careful attending to what gets said and done is clearly evident; their acquisition of the language that gets used and scaffolded is likewise apparent. This is in contrast to the rest of their day in the mainstream classroom where there is little support for comprehension nor opportunity to participate. In Mrs. M's class learners actively participate in the conversation by moving the cursor around the screen and clicking the mouse as a form of response while Mrs. M models and forces meaning out of language that is directly related to sight, action, and the immediate social milieu. Each bit of talk is anchored to what is seen on the screen and to the social process of manipulating it and moving forward. She reports, "I am amazed at what I, whatever vocabulary, whatever activity I do with them, how it could be reinforced so easily now." The forward movement evident in the activity requires collective collaboration in order to not stall. What is seen, said, and done to keep things moving along is, therefore, consistently relevant and salient -precisely what the language acquisition process thrives on. The children moreover enjoy a certain degree
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of control over the interactions as they are the ones holding the mouse, controlling the keyboard, and thereby directing the action. Opportunities for action are inherent when learners have physical/decisional control over what appears and happens on computer screens. With the language routines they learn in order to participate successfully in this kind of cooperative work, moreover, they are equipped to access the academic discourse that makes up the bulk of their school day as well as participate where they may not have before. Skilled language teaching professionals consistently use what anchors they have available to exploit the aural-visual-action interface. This type of scaffolding -- scaffolding that is particular to second language and literacy instructional activity -- has characteristics that mark it as unique from the traditional sense of the term. Scaffolding in the Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) sense describes verbal moves on the part of an instructor that, while initially controlled by her, gradually guides responsibility over to the learner. In second language and literacy instruction, scaffolding has a three-fold purpose. Language teachers not only scaffold learning in the traditional sense of cueing, supporting, and sustaining thought, but employ the added dimension of tailoring learner attention to both the forms of talk and accompanying visual referents to which that language corresponds in the immediate physical and social environment. Such calculated instruction requires continual use of an internal syllabus for each individual learner so that scaffolds can be implemented to give "support to the edge of a child's competence" (Gaskins et al., 1997, p. 45). In the case of children who also need to learn the language of school, a dimension of scaffolding becomes the modeling of school discourse and how it enjoins the ways school gets done. As composites, then, the triadic scaffolds used by Mrs. M reflect Gee's judicious mixture in that (a) learners are directly mentored into a community of practice; (b) their learning is overtly scaffolded by a skilled mentor; and (c) learners' attention is deliberately focused on "fruitful patterns" (the English language they need to learn). DISCUSSION While Lemke (1995) sees a monologic, controlling tendency in technology, he paradoxically also sees technology as a means of breaking old patterns of social reproduction. For, as new technologies become more widely available, the univocal transmission of voice through one teacher, or one school administration will become less sustainable. However much the presence of technology may imply equilibrium, the issue of traditional modes of social reproduction in schools that appears to be going on in these classroom conversations must also be addressed. If we turn to the broader context of these children's learning and the social/pedagogical imperatives expressed by the teacher, we can see that her aim is to strengthen her students' voices and participation and thereby avert what might otherwise end up being an "ESL ghetto" (Valds, 2004). Her aims are continually informed by immediate practical matters of survival for these children in a context where understanding the language of school is socioacademically crucial. Mrs. M is consequently ever watchful of the tenuous relationship between children's development of school-based language and literacy and their development of a theory of mind in their second language so that they have less risk of joining the ranks labeled "left behind": "These kids need to feel like they can do school, that they can participate like everyone else. I try to help them with that, with the English they need." Some have suggested that having children use computers as tools for learning increases motivation in children who are less likely to be motivated by school (Burns, Griffin, & Snow, 1999; Sharp, et al., 1995). Mrs. M's ELLs are no exception. Indeed, she reported several anecdotes where children who otherwise "removed" themselves from the school community by keeping their heads down on their desks, crying, acting out, and behaving in ways that revealed strong disconnections with school, became highly motivated and animated when the computer was turned on. I became most excited when we had this little boy John John was unreachable. He was just, he was a first grader, very little bit of English. I couldn't get John to color. I couldn't get him to even
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get excited about using markers. Nothing turned John on. He had his head down on the desk most of the day -- in his regular classroom and with me. And I was surprised by that, because I had other first graders and we did lots of little fun projects and the other six year olds were joining in, but not John. Then finally we put him next to the computer and Well! He sat up! I couldn't believe it. He had a smile on his face, and he started, I mean his eyes were bright! And I thought my god look at this kid, he wanted to interact, he wanted to do something. That was a real turning point. John wanted to type his name, this is a kid I couldn't get a pencil in his hand, he was so lethargic, wouldn't hold a pencil. And here he's typing his name. It was amazing to me. Such incidents parallel those of Elliot & Hall (1997) who found that explicit modeling of self-regulating behaviors around computer tasks contributed to better performance of at-risk preschoolers. Indeed the kinds of ongoing scaffolding provided by Mrs. M and those explicitly modeled and encouraged in the Elliot and Hall study are quite similar; both make use of the special features of the computer to anchor and support such strategies. Through this kind of activity, children learn to respond appropriately to oral directives and suggestions, to understand the language and rules of turn taking, and to follow the steps of solving a problem. In both cases, the computer context served to capture and maintain learner attention in ways unlikely to occur offline. The kinds of verbal routines that are used to regulate and model regulation, what Wootton (1997) terms forms of "successive guidance," constitute the major material that initiates children into the discourse communities in which, if they are to be successful in school, they must fully participate (Gee, 1990). Technologies represent potential contexts where active participation of learners, in conjunction with caring teachers, can be orchestrated and orchestrated well (Heath, 1990; Johnson, 1991; Meskill, Mossop, & Bates, 1999, 2000a; Palumbo & Bermudez, 1994). Studies of learning with and around computers consistently point to a teacher's planning, orchestration, and moment-by-moment support of learning as being critical to successful instructional activity. Nowhere is this more the case than with non-native English speaking children from diverse backgrounds for whom the social norms and accompanying discourses of school are new and challenging. This experienced instructor exploits the machines in her classroom to stimulate children's enthusiasm for learning while exploiting the computers' special language and literacy affordances in ways that model, guide, and initiate learners into ways of doing school. Mrs. M's talk is dense with triadic scaffolds. Cross referencing what appears on the screen with her comments and directives is continual. On a moment-by-moment basis, we can observe her capitalizing on the physicality of the computer to orchestrate language and literacy learning. She exploits the computer for its capacity to draw and maintain learner focus, stimulate problem-solving, anchor discourse, and encourage learner-directed talk and action. CONCLUSION Oftentimes a lack of understanding on the part of educators concerning English language learners places their education in jeopardy. A key conceptual obstacle to understanding these students' needs is the folk assumptions that the language and complexities of "doing school" are inherently obvious. This folk model can spell disaster for those whose cultural/familial backgrounds do not mirror nor prepare children for these complexities. "The verbal abilities that children who fail in school lack are not just some general set of such abilities, but rather specific verbal abilities tied to specific school-based practices and schoolbased genres of oral and written language" (Gee, 2001, p. 724). Indeed, such cross-cultural situations can become exacerbated when unequal power relations are also at work (e.g., child-adult, parent-teacher; see Darder, 1991; Schleppegrell, 2001; Scollon & Scollon, 2001). In school, those in power, teachers, use talk that reflects an "implicit model of literate discourse" that too often neither considers nor accommodates learners who have yet to be initiated into this specific genre of communication (Cazden, 1988, p. 14). Deconstructing the obvious is the ESOL specialist's first line strategy: Undertaking careful analysis of what children need to know in a given context. Her second is to orchestrate instructional activity that apprentices her students to learning language that can help them navigate and participate.
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This seasoned teacher's instruction with computers and ELLs employs specific strategies that exploit the physical features of the medium to assist children in learning the language that will help them navigate these contexts. She uses the public feature to anchor language and attention to language. She makes use of the unstable feature to model problem solving and the language through which it can take place, and the anarchic feature to encourage learner volition and autonomy. For Mrs. M's ELLs, these instructional sequences are just the beginning of their guided immersion into the world of the cognitive academic language they must master to participate in the mainstream, a process that risks derailing if the foundational language of doing school is not first mastered and used to access institutional streams of meaning. At first blush, what Mrs. M does with her learners may look like social reproduction of mainstream discourse structures, and indeed to some extent it is. However, equipped with the language that gains them access to, and acceptance at school, these children may be better poised to claim their identities and participate in the (re)shaping of schools than were they not so equipped. As active participants they are positioned to construct their contexts of being and learning, a process that benefits from inclusion as opposed to exclusion. Technology represents no magic bullet for the problems of schooling. Indeed, empirical studies of programs of excellence for ELL children continue to point to excellent teachers as the prevailing influence on school success (Burns, Griffin, & Snow, 1999) and that exemplary uses of technologies with elementary students are typically driven by constructivist models of teaching and learning (Becker, 2000; Berg, Benz, Lasley, & Raisch, 1998). This examination of Mrs. M's teaching reaffirms the critical role of caring, thoughtful educators in meeting the widely varying needs of ever-changing populations of school age children while illustrating ways that computers can be thoughtfully integrated into language and literacy instruction. Delineated strategies and routines for giving and guiding the voice of at-risk English Language Learners as they use computers can serve as a basis for future empirical work on computersupported learning dynamics as well as points for modeling and discussion in professional development in computer-assisted language learning (CALL). NOTES 1. This project was supported in part by the National Center on English Learning and Achievement (CELA). The Center is supported by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Award #R305A60005). Partial support was also provided by The Language Advocacy Project, University at Albany, a language and literacy training project funded through the Office for English Language Acquisition (OELA), U.S. Department of Education (Award #T195A970024-99). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Department. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American Educational Research Association Conference 2001, Seattle, WA. 2. The following is from Meskill, Mossop, & Bates, 1999: a. PUBLICNESS: The feature of publicness is defined as public nature of electronic texts that prompts, supports, and facilitates rich discourse on the part of learners and their teachers. b. INSTABILITY: Electronic texts are unstable. Information appears, disappears, and changes. Relational structures of information is often invisible. This lack of predictability provokes the kind of thinking and conjecture reflected in critical thinking and the literacy/acquisition oriented discourse that accompanies it. c. ANCHORED REFERENTS: Electronic texts provide immediate concrete referents to which talk can be anchored. This is most frequently manifest in learners and teachers pointing with their fingers or with the cursor (mouse) to something on the screen that illustrates (anchors) their talk and thus both meshes aural and visual, and form-meaning correspondances. d. ANARCHY: This feature directly contrasts with traditional linear/hierarchical forms of representation characteristic of the print medium, especially school-based print. This feature is defined
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as learners exercising volition and control over the order and direction of their interaction with electronic texts. Evidence is discourse and action that reveals learners interacting with information in an anarchic, rather than preset, linear fashion.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Carla Meskill is Associate Professor, Department of Educational Theory and Practice. Her research interests include the communicative dynamics and consequent language and literacy learning that the uses of technologies can provoke and sustain. E-mail: cmeskill@uamail.albany.edu REFERENCES Asher, J. (1988). Learning another language through actions: The complete teacher's guidebook. Los Gatos, CA: Sky Oaks Productions. August, D., & Hakuta, K. (1998). Educating language-minority children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Becker, H. (2000). Findings from the teaching, learning and computing survey: Is Larry Cuban right? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 8(51). Retrieved May 20, 2004, from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v8n51/ Berg, S., Benz, C., Lasley, T., & Raisch, C. (1998). Exemplary technology use in elementary classrooms. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 31(2),111-122. Bloom, D. (2001). How children learn the meanings of words. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Bruner, J. (1996) The culture of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Burns, M., Griffin, P., & Snow, C. (1999). Starting out right: A guide to promoting children's reading success. The National Research Council. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Cazden, C. (1988). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Cook, V. (2001). Second language learning and teaching. New York: Arnold. Cummins, J., & Sayers, D. (1997). Brave new schools: Challenging cultural illiteracy. New York: St. Martin's Press. Darder, A. (1991). Culture and power in the classroom. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. Delpit, L. (1995). Other people's children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press. Elliot, A., & Hall, N. (1997). The impact of self-regulatory teaching strategies on "at-risk" preschoolers' mathematical learning in a computer-mediated environment. Journal of Computing in Childhood Education, 8(2), 187-198. Esling, J. (1991). Researching the effects of networking: Evaluating the spoken and written discourse generated by working with CALL. In P. Dunkel (Ed.), Computer-assisted language learning and testing: Research issues and practices (pp. 111-131). New York: Newbury House. Garner, R., & Gillingham, M. (1996). Internet communication in six classrooms: Conversations across time, space, and culture. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
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Gaskins, I., Rauch, S., Gensemer, E., Cunicelli, E., O'Hara, C., Six, L., & Scott, T. (1997). Scaffolding the development of intelligence among children who are delayed in learning to read. In K. Hogan & M. Pressley (Eds.), Scaffolding student learning: Instructional approaches and issues (pp. 43-73). Cambridge, MA: Brookline Press. Gebhard, M. (1999). Debates in SLA studies: Redefining classroom SLA as an institutional phenomenon. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 544-557. Gee, J. (1990). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses. Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis. Gee, J. (2000). Discourse and sociocultural studies in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume III (pp. 195-207). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Retrieved November 9, 2001, from http://www.readingonline.org/articles/ art_index.asp?HREF=handbook/gee/ Gee, J. (2001). Reading as situated language: A sociocognitive perspective. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 44(1), 714-725. Heath, S. (1983). Ways with words. New York: Cambridge University Press. Heath, S. (1990). The fourth vision: Literate language at work. In A. Lundsford, H. Moglen, & J. Slevin (Eds.), The right to literacy (pp. 289-306). New York: The Modern Language Association of America. Johnson, D. (1991). Second language and content learning with computers: Research in the role of social factors. In P. Dunkel (Ed.), Computer-assisted language learning and testing: Research issues and practices (pp. 61-83). New York: Newbury House. Kumpulainen, K. (1996). The nature of peer interaction in the social context created by the use of word processors. Learning and Instruction, 6(3), 243-261. Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2003). New literacies: Changing knowledge and classroom learning. Philadelphia: Open University Press. Lankshear, C., & Snyder, I. (2000). Teachers and techno-literacy: Managing literacy, technology and learning in schools. London: Allen & Unwin. Lantolf, J. (2001). Introducing sociocultural theory. In J. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory ands language learning (pp. 1-26). New York: Oxford University Press. Lemke, J. (1995). Textual politics: Discourse and social Dynamics. Bristol, PA: Taylor & Francis. Meskill, C., Mossop, J., & Bates, R. (2000a). Electronic texts in ESOL classrooms. TESOL Quarterly, 34(3), 585-592. Meskill, C., Mossop, J., & Bates, R. (2000b). Bilingualism, cognitive flexibility, and electronic texts. Bilingual Research Journal, 23 (2/3), 235-246. Meskill, C., Mossop, J., & Bates, R. (1999). Electronic texts and learners of English as a second language environments. Albany, NY: National Research Center of English Learning and Achievement. http://cela.albany.edu/esl/index.html Michaels, S. (1981). "Sharing time": Children's narrative styles and differential access to literacy. Language in Society, 10(4), 423-442. Newman, D. (1997). Functional environments for microcomputers in education. In M. Cole, Y. Engestrom, & O. Vasquez (Eds.), Mind, culture, and activity: Seminal papers from the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (pp. 279-291). NY: Cambridge University Press.
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Nystrand, M., with A. Gamoran, R. Kachur, & C. Prendergast. (1997). Opening dialogue: Understanding the dynamics of language and learning in the English classroom. New York: Teachers College Press. Palumbo, D., & Bermudez, A. (1994). Using hypermedia to assist language minority learners in achieving academic success. Computers in the Schools, 10(1/2), 171-188. Schleppegrell, M. (2001) Linguistic features of the language of schooling. Linguistics and Education, 12(4), 431-459. Schmidt, R. (1995). Consciousness and foreign language learning: A tutorial on the role of attention and awareness in learning. In R. Schmidt (Ed.), Attention and awareness in foreign language learning (Technical Report 9; pp. 1-63). Honolulu: University of Hawai'i. Sharp, D., Bransford, J., Goldman, S., Risko, V., Kinzer, C., & Vye, N. (1995). Dynamic visual support for story comprehension and mental model building by young, at-risk children. Educational Technology Research and Development, 43(4), 25-42. Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. (2001). Intercultural communication: A discourse approach. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Short, D., & Sherris, A. (2004). Teacher views and practices on the integration of language and content. Paper presented at the 2004 Conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Seattle, OR. Snow, C. (1992). Perspectives on second-language development: Implications for bilingual education. Educational Researcher, 21(2), 16-19. Snow, C., & Wong-Fillmore, L. (2002). What teachers need to know about language. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Soto, L. (1997). Language, culture, and power: Bilingual families and the struggle for quality education. Albany: State University of New York Press. Tharp, R., & Gallimore, R. (1991). The instructional conversation: Teaching and learning as social activity. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Valds, G. (2004). The failure to educate immigrant children. In O. Ana (Ed.), Tongue-tied: The lives of multilingual children in public education (pp. 111-117). New York: Rowman & Littlefield. van Lier, L. (1996). Interaction in the language curriculum: Awareness, autonomy, and authenticity. London: Longman. van Lier, L (2000). From input to affordance: Social-interactive learning from an ecological perspective. In J. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 245-259). New York: Oxford University Press. Wegerif, R., & Mercer, N. (1996). Computers and reasoning through talk in the classroom. Language and Education, 10(1), 47-64. Wilkinson, L., & Silliman, E. (2000). Classroom language and literacy learning. In Kamil, Mosenthal, Peason, & Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume III (pp. x-x). Mawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Retrieved January 2, 2004, from http://www.readingonline.org/articles/handbook/ wilkinson/ Wood, D., Bruner, J., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89-100. Wootton, A. (1997). Interaction and the development of mind. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/richards/
THE DESIGN OF EFFECTIVE ICT-SUPPORTED LEARNING ACTIVITIES: EXEMPLARY MODELS, CHANGING REQUIREMENTS, AND NEW POSSIBILITIES
Cameron Richards Graduate School of Education, University of Western Australia ABSTRACT Despite the imperatives of policy and rhetoric about their integration in formal education, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are often used as an "add-on" in many classrooms and in many lesson plans. Nevertheless, many teachers find that interesting and wellplanned tasks, projects, and resources provide a key to harnessing the educational potential of digital resources, Internet communications and interactive multimedia to engage the interest, interaction, and knowledge construction of young learners. To the extent that such approaches go beyond and transform traditional "transmission" models of teaching and formal lesson planning, this paper investigates the changing requirements and new possibilities represented by the challenge of integrating ICTs in education in a way which at the same time connects more effectively with both the specific contents of the curriculum and the various stages and elements of the learning process. Case studies from teacher education foundation courses provide an exemplary focus of inquiry in order to better link relevant new theories or models of learning with practice, to build upon related learner-centered strategies for integrating ICT resources and tools, and to incorporate interdependent functions of learning as information access, communication, and applied interactions. As one possible strategy in this direction, the concept of an "ICTsupported learning activity" suggests the need for teachers to approach this increasing challenge more as "designers" of effective and integrated learning rather than mere "transmitters" of skills or information through an add-on use of ICTs .
The Internet is an embarrassment of riches that is next to worthless without an educator to facilitate learning and integration in classrooms what tends to be in shorter supply are specific learning activities that make use of this wealth. (March, 2001) How do we understand persistence, but also the reasons for transformation -- decays of old lines of work and the emergence of really new ones? For this, we need an as yet unknown nonexistent theory of the structure and evolution of activities. (Disessa, 2000, p. 78) INTRODUCTION: THE CHALLENGE OF "DESIGNING" LEARNING FOR ICT INTEGRATION In general, ICTs are often used as an "add-on" in the classroom, demonstrations of cutting-edge programs and possibilities often intimidate rather than encourage educators, and teachers often resent the nave rhetoric of ICT integration typically associated with top-down policy imperatives (Cuban, 2001; Healy, 1998). The challenge for teachers to more effectively harness the educational implications and possibilities of ICT learning resources and tools is not simply a problem of finding sufficient time to develop appropriate computer skills or even think about potential applications. Relevant contexts or frameworks for practical integration which link to both the curriculum and the learning process are also needed, as are specific methods and models. Despite an often instinctive skepticism, many teachers have a
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The Design of Effective ICT-Supported Learning Activities...
general awareness that the Internet offers a rich source of potential learning resources, that multimedia tools and design can make interesting, impressive, and interactive tools of learning, and that many of their colleagues are finding ways of harnessing the learning possibilities of ICTs in unique contexts. Even an ICT-resistant "traditional" teacher cannot deny that the World Wide Web (WWW) houses endless and ever-current information on all manner of topics, and that multimedia CD-ROMs are at the very least useful for skills-based tutorials or for making information links more attractive. The inquiry represented by this paper began with an interest in developing transferable design principles for a teacher education context out of the many good ideas and examples of good practice available. This goal initially proved to be most elusive because of the difficulty of distinguishing between contextspecific factors related to teaching and learning and any inherent principles of design that might be at work. Effective learning through an integrated use of ICTs often occurs despite, and not because of, the role of the teacher (Loveless, Devoogd, & Bohlin, 2001). Yet relevant designs for learning with ICTs can certainly enhance this possibility. An initial review suggested some inherent principles and strategies at work in effective examples and models of teaching with ICTs that emphasize an activity-based approach (e.g., Thomas & Knezek, 2002), hence the interest in alternative requirements needed to more effectively integrate ICTs in teaching and learning. This paper therefore investigates the idea that an emergent notion of "ICT-supported learning activity design" provides an antidote of sorts to an add-on use of ICT in education. This is insofar as the conventional generic structures of formal lesson-planning and syllabus design tend to reflect a view of learning as essentially a transmission of information or skills, as distinct from a dialogue between teacher and learner or an interaction between learners and the learning process (e.g., Laurillard, 2002) One principle which suggested itself from the outset is that effective teachers tend to see ICT resources and tools as much more than an extension of "traditional" print resources, existing classroom practices, and "curriculum-as-content" transmission. The integration of ICTs in teaching and learning is more likely if the tools and resources of the Internet, multimedia, and related technologies are seen as being integrally connected with literacy learning in the wider sense of learning as a matter of accessing information, communicating, and applying knowledge (Kress, 2003; Lankshear & Snyder, 2000). In other words, to the extent that they represent new tools, media, and functions of learning in the digital age, ICTs complement, extend, and transform the role of language-across-the-curriculum in learning as the very basis of generic skills or competencies and applied knowledge as well as mere skill or content transmission. Thus, it might be argued that an across-the-curriculum approach does not just complement and extend a more skills-focused and specialized use of ICT in formal education, but is a key to ICT integration in teaching and learning (Richards, 1998; Roblyer & Edwards, 2000). In addition to promoting the learning of generic skills and applied knowledge orientations instead of mere skill or content transmission, an across-the-curriculum approach is useful for recognizing and promoting the idea that to effectively integrate ICT in education teachers need to increasingly become designers rather than merely transmitters of learning (Kimber, 2003). Such an approach naturally also extends a "new literacies" perspective of how language and literacy learning as formal study is more effective and relevant in various ways if grounded in the functions and aspects of informal everyday discourses and interactions outside the classroom (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000). This is especially true in the digital age where young learners tend to be more confident and have greater familiarity with everyday (especially visual) literacy aspects and functions mediated by ICTs than older teachers and parents (Hird, 2000; Richards, 2000). The importance of every learner and teacher becoming designers of meaning through new ICT literacies has been well argued by Kress (1997), an influential critical literacy and language theorist. Kress's recent work has increasingly focused on how effective multimodal literacy learning needs to be grounded in (not merely imposed on) everyday practices and contexts. Kress's notion that design precedes yet is interdependent with evaluation in terms of the literacy (i.e., to the extent that
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writing and reading are aspects of design and evaluation) as well as learning aspects of education in the digital age, suggests the need for new approaches to learning design also. As will be discussed further, many of the new learner-centred concepts and models point in a similar direction but are often either practiced or theorised in a way which inadvertently reinforces teachercentred or transmission approach assumptions. Practical concepts such as problem-based learning, collaborative learning, project work, authentic assessment, and inquiry-based activities all represent alternatives to the linear and hierarchical assumptions of formal lesson-planning and course design, yet tend to be seen in either opposition to or as an add-on to traditional educational design. To the extent that they provide exemplary foci for discussing the learner-centred implications of ICT tools and resources (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003), such approaches emphasize how effective learning should rather be understood as a process, cycle and/or set of stages proceeding from initial skill or information acquisition to more applied and reflective understanding, knowledge and even innovation . Kolb's (1984) influential model of the learning process usefully lends itself to the practical requirements of ICT integration in terms of how it outlines a practice-reflection cycle proceeding as distinct stages of concrete experience, observation, conceptual abstraction and testing. Likewise, Sandholtz, Ringstaff, and Dwyer (2000) have developed a well-known model of instructional "evolution" as a traversal of five stages (entry, adoption, adaptation, appropriation, and invention). However such models or theories tend to view learning processes, cycles, or stages independently of context and often fail to recognize the discontinuities or "missing links" between learner doing and thinking, educational practice and theory, and ICT skills or information and applied understanding or innovation (e.g., Beard & Wilson, 2002). The hands-on requirements of ICT integration suggest how such models need to be more effectively grounded in the very situational contexts of practice, application, and various related notions of activity which every teacher needs to negotiate. The challenge of ICT integration also represents a good opportunity for productive change and interesting innovations. THE CONTEXT AND DESIGN OF THE INQUIRY Context This paper represents an inquiry which proceeded for several years in teacher education ICT foundation courses taught in Singapore, and more recently Hong Kong, based on earlier interests and experiences of coordinating similar courses at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. It also developed as an implicit focus of two related projects undertaken in Singapore and Hong Kong: (a) the design and development of a model of activity-reflection e-portfolios as a learning and assessment strategy for ICT integration, and (b) a practical and conceptual investigation into a convergent model of ICT-supported learning environments (Richards, 2002, 2003). Whilst undertaken in different cultural contexts where language education and issues were significant, the most relevant context of the inquiry was a global one related to how new learner-centered practical models and theoretical projections offer the promise of a more effective approach to integrating ICTs in teaching and learning than still often dominant teachercentered, transmission and rote learning approaches and practices. The teaching modules which were the focus of the inquiry involved foundational ICT courses with common objectives for both across-the-curriculum classes and also language education classes from both primary and secondary level teacher education programs. While the specific purposes and contexts of ICT integration in teaching and learning varied somewhat in different classes, the inquiry addressed and responded to the challenge of the common main aim of foundational ICT teacher education modules, namely, to prepare future teachers to respond more effectively to the challenge of integrating ICTs in their pupils' learning and also in their own specific teaching contexts. In short, the specific inquiry represented by this paper is one of how might teachers be prepared and encouraged at practical, concrete, and "micro" as well as reflective levels of pedagogical design to integrate ICTs more effectively in their pupils'
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learning and in their own teaching? In other words, how might we identify, represent, and make transferable the pedagogical principles of an alternative design strategy which seems to be implicit in both examples of good practices and influential practical design concepts such as project-based learning, problem-based learning, collaborative learning, authentic assessment, and so forth? The challenge of ICT integration in education is intensified, and therefore exemplified, in contexts such as Singapore and Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Department of Education followed Singapore's example in developing an initial five-year plan in the late 1990s to increase access to computers and the Internet in school classrooms. Both Singapore and Hong Kong have ambitious and innovative policy projections which strongly link the challenge of ICT integration to new student-centered theories of learning as well as to strategies of educational reform relevant to an emerging global economy (Hong Kong Education Commission, 2002; Singapore MOE, 2002). However, despite increased access to ICTs, the schooling systems in both countries still remain largely dominated by an exam-driven curriculum and traditional teacher-centered methods of pedagogy (Pearson, 2001). Such contexts thus made it more difficult in some ways and easier in others to emphasize to students how the challenge of ICT integration exemplifies a larger challenge for teachers of the future to design contexts for more active and effective learning, that is, to go beyond related paradigms of teaching and formal education in both "traditional" and industrialized societies as primarily the transmission of information or skills in isolation or for its own sake. The comparative context of the study thus emphasized that a generational gap between older teachers and younger students, who embrace a global "wired" culture at home, was as significant as the cross-cultural clash between traditional educational practices and the imperative of progressive new theories of learning (Richards, 2004). The challenge of ICT integration is as much at the centre of a conflict between old and new pedagogies as it is in terms of how educational values are alternately influenced by institutional imperatives for change and existing social contexts. Design of Inquiry The three case studies below also represent three stages of the action research inquiry outlined above, as well as examples of different approaches taken to prepare future teacher educators in terms of a pedagogical design approach which might more effectively facilitate integration of ICTs in teaching and learning and go beyond a mere add-on approach. Harris's (1995, cited in Grabe & Grabe, 1998) threefold typology of meaningful ICT learning activities (information exchanges, interpersonal exchanges, and problem-solving projects) provided a useful focus for linking different approaches to related concept of stages which increasingly emphasize more higher-order, applied, and innovative approaches to pedagogical design for ICT integration in learning. Such a model also seems to reflect how both pedagogical and technological perspectives involve three convergent principles of design and development: the organization or dissemination of information, the facility for communication (including modes of either presentation or publication which potentially go beyond the teacher as sole audience) and some aspect of user interactivity exemplified by the challenge of problem-solving, and also the participatory possibilities of role or game playing. As performative action research, the inquiry represented stages of seeking to "change and improve" efforts to encourage participants to be more active designers of learning with ICTs (Richards, 2001). In other words, at each stage there was an ongoing action research cycle of design, implementation, and evaluation which linked up a focus on the generic structures of the models used with the larger interest or strategy in getting the student teacher cohorts involved to think more effectively about designing learning with ICT tools and media. Hence, this paper has further adapted a case study approach involving example artifacts by students from specific classes typifying the three different approaches and related stages trialled during the overall study. The names of students have been changed for reporting purposes. The three studies described focus on how particular cohorts typically responded to the main approach taken at that stage. While the overall inquiry included cohorts of both primary and secondary student
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teachers, the examples for the discussion below mainly reflect a "middle school" focus. Sample activity designs were selected for their typicality as an example focus and a practical reference-point for discussing here the specific models reflecting these three different approaches and stages. These studies are all relatively autonomous although somewhat overlapping as a progression. They also reflect a progressive and comparative refinement of approach as well inquiry in terms of distinct stages. For instance, the specific models (i.e., webquests and microlessons) and general focus (i.e., ICT integration as a strategy for mainly harnessing information resources) adopted and trialed at the first stage were still being used as exemplary models in their own right as well as a foundation for the second and third stages where the activity focus was more on ICT communications and interactivity. The first stage involved subjects taught at the Singapore National Institute of Education in the academic year 2000-2001. Likewise, stage 2 also corresponds to relevant subjects taught at the same institution in 2001-2002, and stage 3 similarly relates to a key focus taken in several subjects taught at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in 2002-2003. The main focus of the second stage was on the specific models of "Internet communication projects" and "multimedia project development" reflecting a general focus on ICT tools and media which encourage communication and collaboration in the process of knowledge construction. As will be discussed, the third stage trialed versions of a generic template conceived to encourage students to design and develop ICT-supported learning activities in interactive modes which might build on or even include aspects of both the specific models and approaches of the first two stages. As a series of three stages, the studies represent both an interdependent progression of sorts on one hand, and a comparative progression of sorts on the other. Implicit to the kind of typology outlined by Harris and also the various models looked at is a sense that effective ICT supported learning activity models all reflect some aspect of information resourcing, communication (including publication or presentation), and learning interactivity. For instance, the seminal model of hypermedia learning projects outlined by Lehrer, Erickson, and Connell (1994) describes a general sequence where students (a) choose a topic or focus to research for information and resources, then (b) design a way of transforming this into a presentation or publication, and (c) finally refine this in terms of effects aimed at purposefully engaging an audience. Likewise, the comparative progression inherent in the study focused on how the models and approaches investigated all resisted being reduced to the constraints of formal lesson planning and linear/hierarchical syllabus design. Similarities and differences between these models suggested the outlines of alternative generic structures which could inform the design of an effective lesson plan or larger module, but not be reduced to this. The models explored in the first two studies suggest the anatomy of an effective ICT-supported learning activity to the extent that they also seem to intrinsically "resist" merely linear and hierarchical approaches to educational design. This is might be better appreciated in terms of the kind of three-fold progression of knowledge inquiry and construction described in the methodology of dialogical hermeneutics; that is, an initial naive phase followed by a critical, or even procedural, phase and finally a dialogical, or applied phase. In this way our investigation sought to discern the design principles of how effectively designed "activity structures" involving ICT integration provide a context and focus for learning as a transformation in terms of bridging the gaps between learner doing and thinking, between practice and theory, and also between the literacy processes of design and evaluation. Study #1: Webquests, Microlessons, and a "Learning Design" Focus on ICT Information Resources Typical Learner Artifacts -- Class A, 2001 Hitendra's webquest Because of the exam-driven curriculum (and despite official support for the introduction of project work), our Singapore students initially struggled to see the possibilities of webquests, and also found that many North American classroom examples did not translate well into a local learning context. However, many
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soon become enthusiastic about developing webquests on their own Web sites and how this model would help motivate learners to search and use Internet information resources. Hitendra's webquest provides a context on one page and useful links on a related "resource pag"' to explore information about the regional Pilcher plant. At the end of the module there was a presentation sharing session which, with the approval of his peers, inspired Hitendra to collect and post the class webquests on a shared Web page resource. Brian & Kai Ming's microlesson The microlesson model usefully outlines the importance of designing learner-centred contexts. Although students in many other classes simply adapted their ideas to existing design templates, my class was encouraged to develop their own design schemes in a relevant way to the activity idea, and also use the often ignored multimedia functions of Powerpoint such as customized animation. Brian and Kai Ming's microlesson has a simple but effective design which links a wishful plan to save up for a mini disc player to a mathematical activity of interest calculation. They use a hypertext function well to get learners to explore different examples and scenarios, and an accompanying worksheet (not linked here). This microlesson could be undertaken by an individual learner or a small group. In the initial year of the study when working at the Singapore National Institute of Education, the models used for getting students to design effective ICT-supported learning were webquests and the locallydeveloped microlessons. Typically the main focus of both these models is on providing contexts for students to collaboratively or individually engage with the use of ICT for information resourcing in either an actual classroom context or in distance education mode (McKenzie, 1999). Both are applicable to and provide many useful examples of across-the-curriculum applications. Webquests are usually presented in Web page format and aim at getting students to use information resources from the World Wide Web in terms of either provided URLs or tasks in which students need to find their own links. For instance, Hitendra's webquest on tropical pitcher plants provides the context of mayoral intervention in a debate between town residents. The term webquests has become for many teachers almost a generic term for getting students to interact with information on the Internet. Indeed, it was originally conceived by Dodge (1997) as a general strategy for learning with Internet resources: "a webquest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which some or all of the information that learners interact with comes from resources on the Internet." Microlessons, in contrast, are typically conceived as Powerpoint templates with one or two basic objectives for student-centred learning which may link to either Internet resources or some kind of worksheet (e.g., as a word processing or spreadsheet document) as exemplified by Brian and Kai Ming's microlesson. While webquests are typically posted online, microlessons may alternatively be saved to CD-ROM as multimedia learning activities. In theory, both models encourage independent and collaborative learner-centered inquiry as well as higher-order thinking. In practice, webquests mainly promote active engagement with information resources on the Internet, while microlessons encourage teachers to use Powerpoint as a multimedia activity format rather than just for standard presentations. Both models seemed to be -- and to a significant extent are -- useful templates for encouraging more active learning on one hand, and teacher designs for such learning on the other. However in practice both are often used to inadvertently reinforce the very inherent assumptions of the traditional lesson which their originators seemed to be challenging. This was evidenced by the typical use of microlessons in the Singapore foundation teacher education courses where I was first introduced to the concept. Students were generally not required to design their own variations of the multimedia templates but simply to add their own content. Also, the expectation of having lesson objectives at the outset (like a normal lesson plan) also seemed to me to contradict perhaps the most powerful implication of this model: the facility for allowing student teachers to design
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interesting and authentic contexts for engaging the learning process. Therefore the second semester we used this model students were required to design their own slide templates (especially in terms of customized animation and other multimedia functions) as well as a context of activity linked to one or more specific learning outcomes. As also exemplified by Brian and Kai Ming's microlesson, our students were expected to put their learning objectives at the end rather than the outset. In these courses, webquests were found to be more useful for getting students away from the traditional lesson mindset for using ICT tools and resources, because they represented a more open-ended model. In other words, webquests provide typical examples and a basic design structure which is useful for promoting a design approach and also an appreciation of the power and possibilities of ICT-supported learning activities. Discussion Many educators still see the Internet as basically a reference or information resource. Dodge (1997) helped to promote and develop the idea of integrating Internet resources in terms of the teacher design of student-centered activities which mine the potential of the Internet to encourage more immediate, relevant, interactive, and authentic learning. His co-developer Tom March (1999) went on to develop a framework for Web-based learning activities which included webquest (alongside topic hotlist, multimedia scrapbook, treasure hunt, and subject sampler) as the one category which covered an integrated use of Internet resources. In contrast to conventional lesson planning designs, Dodge's model of a webquest incorporates the progressive structure of introduction, task, Internet resources, process, and outcomes. This is outlined in the online template he set up for teachers. Dodge also conceived it most typically as a collaborative activity where a group divides into different roles and perspectives for information searching in order to produce some kind of presentation report or publication outcome which addressed a particular topic or task in terms of focus questions. However, some of the limitations of Dodge's model provided a focus for going beyond this as a design model. For a start, Dodge's initial definition of a webquest is somewhat of a catch-all and potentially covers all manner of uses of the Internet as an information resource for teaching and learning purposes. Even its use as a mere reference resource still involves some degree of inquiry where there is a need to search and evaluate quality information. Yet Dodge himself conceived webquests as a particular method which he developed into an example template with an associated assessment rubric. Thus the term webquest is often used interchangeably in confused fashion as alternately a general approach and a particular method associated with his personal authorization and online models. Put another way, should any classroom learning activity which makes use of Internet resources be referred to as webquests? If not (and clearly not), where do you draw the line and how do you distinguish an authentic webquest? Although webquests were further defined by Dodge (1997) as "inquiry-orientated activities which include both specific or short-term and larger long-term projects," his examples have tended to be shorter activities. Dodge ended this his most definitive article about webquests with a plea for people to send him longer examples. It would seem that Dodge conceived his notion of webquests in the manner of a traditional self-contained lesson context and was thus confused about how this might be reconciled with a more general project-based learning approach. In short, the theoretical concept of webquests is ultimately a rather narrow and specific one, and is not able to contain extended and varied notions of learning activities which make use of Internet resources. As suggested by Dodge's own definition, the educational concept of project-based learning seemed to provide a more integrative context for not only different types and sizes of webquests, but also various types of ICT-supported learning activities.
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Study #2: Project-Based Learning for Internet Communications and Multimedia Design Typical Learner Artifacts -- Class B, 2002 Lena's monster exchange The monster exchange model was conceived for younger learners. Yet as an imaginative writing exercise (which may be done either individually or in groups) also involving both a drawing with a graphics program and some form of Internet communication for interacting and sharing files, it soon captures the enthusiasm of learners of all ages including student teachers. Normally the monster idea is exchanged and drawn by the other party. Here Lena also drew her own monster and then exchanged that back to other party for comparison with their drawing. This model thus provides a useful prototype and exemplar of the possibilities of Internet communication projects. Mei's multimedia project Many of the multimedia projects undertaken in our classes, especially those involving more advanced authoring or extensive use of audio-visual files, would involve so much computer memory that they would need to be submitted on CD-ROM rather than as a Web page. Mei's project was saved to a file which took up little memory (one reason for being selected here) but is simple and effective. As a language lesson it focuses on skills learning, but does so in relation to an interesting and well-conceived context. Many of the student multimedia projects focused on setting interesting contexts for introducing topics of information or skills learning. Others used the connection between introductory animations and related hypertextual link options (requiring learner choices) to encourage more interaction and higherorder learning. We continued to use webquests and microlessons as useful templates for getting my students to design learning contexts with ICT tools and media. However we found that project-based learning was an even more useful framework to get these students to link the design of learning contexts for ICT integration with a range of associated issues and challenges -- especially those to do with reconciling the quantitative emphasis of much formal assessment and qualitative aspects of the learning process on one hand, and an applied, problem-solving focus with the acquisition of multiple skills and knowledges on the other. So to extend the focus and possibilities of designing learning for ICT integration two other specific design models were used monster exchanges as an introductory example of Internet communication projects, and multimedia learning projects as a design cycle developed around a particular topic or idea (Lehrer, Erickson, & Connell, 1994). The latter uses Internet communications directly as a pretext for writing, drawing, and other learning activities, whilst the former provides a convergent, developmental, and often collaborative focus for seeking and transforming information into modes of indirect communication as presentations or publications designed to engage particular audiences. Monster exchanges exemplify the power of an interesting pretext for a range of ICT-supported learning activities within and between different classrooms, including international language exchanges. The basic idea of a monster exchange is that getting students to imagine in written and then also in graphic form their own unique monsters not only provides a powerful motivational focus for learning participation but also for interactive exchange in and between classrooms. A typical variation is students in two different classrooms send each other monster descriptions by e-mail to be drawn by the other as a focus for ongoing interactions. The originators of this particular model mainly conceived it terms of literacy learning, but other related models such as the Global Schoolhouse's "travel buddies" exemplify the power and across-the-curriculum possibilities of such exchanges and pretexts for learning. While we have used real-time chat programs such as ICQ as a means of conducting monster exchanges and organizing online dialogue (either with other classes running at the same time or groups within the same class), usually email or even webforums are the ways in which students interact and send attached graphic or word files in their monster exchanges. Using this model we found that imaginative drawing and writing activities
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provided a powerful focus and example for even older learners such as Lena to get excited about using Internet communications and graphical tools on one hand, and linking of design activities with the learning process on the other. The development model of hypermedia proejcts seminally conceived by Lehrer, Erickson, and Connell (1994) -- also developed and refined by others -- provides a useful focus for both developing and converging the learning design models of webquests and microlessons. Such models provide a context for connecting multimedia effects and some form of curriculum content in a common design process. Multimedia learning projects are similar in many ways to commercial models of multimedia project development, but much smaller, more manageable, and more flexible. The key learning design principle involved here is that the trajectory between an initial idea and a developed project or outcome at the end not only provides a framework for the learning process but also a convergent focus for acquiring, refining, and reflecting on a variety of multimedia design processes and project development skills along the way. This may be represented and evaluated effectively as an activity-reflection learning e-portfolio or some similar way of grounding assessment in the learning process. Multimedia learning projects provide an especially useful focus for reflecting on the interactions between individual and collaborative or team efforts and visions in relation to a specific idea or topics. Electronic concept-mapping programs provide the means to get learners to design and develop their work through mindmaps, concept maps, hypermedia flowcharts, and storyboards. Mei conveived and developed her multimedia project in this way and presented the final product as part of an activity-reflection e-portfolio assignment. Discussion A project-based learning (PBL) approach usefully goes beyond the notion of webquests because it represents a general integrative approach which can include as well be exemplified by, but not reduced to, specific learning activities, methods, and outcomes. A project may also include the collaborative emphasis of webquests, but ultimately encourages personal motivation for and ownership of the learning process. Any teacher who has used project-based learning strategies well should be able to attest to the power of a project topic (especially if negotiated) to capture a student's energies and enthusiasm for exploring knowledge. As an aspect and model of problem-based learning, project-based learning with the Web represents an exemplary focus and framework for the integration of ICT in education in terms of being a general approach which also embraces various types of Web-based learning activities or teaching methods. As a transformational focus for learning multimedia skills and knowledges in a doable, applied context, multimedia learning projects contrast with workshop models which either focus on skill acquisition without much effective connection to the design of learning process, or rather tease with the distant promise of advanced cutting-edge possibilities which the average teacher has little hope of attaining. Multimedia learning projects may be further developed as learning contexts in themselves in terms of how hypermedia may be approached as either an animated sequence or as a set of multimedia links. Commercial programs are usually some sort of mix involving an opening animated context followed by the options of hypermedia links. For example, the Winnie-the-Pooh literacy skills programs sets the main character in a forest and children then need to decide which path to take from there to engage in learning activities. The typical design for teacher multimedia learning projects typically involves an animated sequence which introduces a topic or process of learning linked to a menu of further topics or processes. However, many of the more effective multimedia projects tend to be more mixed with ongoing animation linking with interactive options for engaging learners in the negotiation of choices or selections (Mayer, 2001). As the Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project (1999) outlines, "project-based learning is a model for classroom activity that shifts away from the classroom practices of short, isolated, teacher-centered lessons and instead emphasizes learning activities that are long-term, interdisciplinary, student-centered,
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and integrated with real world issues and practices." As a context for discussing the integration of Internet resources in teaching and learning, PBL also goes beyond the webquest model in terms of emphasizing that problem-based and inquiry-based contexts for transforming information are ultimately part of a larger communication framework of learning, interaction, and presentation -- instead of vice versa -- by those who focus on the Internet as a gigantic database rather than primarily as a telecommunications media. While the student webquest report is typically produced for the teacher alone, influential models of Internet PBL emphasize the sharing and even wider publication or presentation of activity outcomes and products. As a communication tool, the Internet extends the process of learning in terms of a range of "telecomputing activity structures" (Grabe & Grabe, 1998, p. 44). Particular types of activities ranging from key pals or electronic mentoring through to tele-fieldtrips and social action projects may be adapted to and extend the specific contents of different subjects. Whether or not a particular project makes use of e-mail, webforums or even chat and other conferencing Internet functions or programs, influential organizations such as the Global Schoolhouse-- which has pioneered telecollaboration projects since 1984 -- use the World Wide Web itself as a communication medium to advertise projects, to link classrooms across the world, and to develop online educational communities. Various communication options from email lists through to Internet chat provide contexts of interaction on these sites for teachers to discuss possible projects and for students to undertake projects (e.g., Lerman, 1998). Likewise, within a communication framework of collaborative projects, student Web sites provide a focus for reporting and interaction as well as developing information resources -- as exemplified by the International Schools Cyberfairs organized by the Global Schoolhouse. Although Internet communication projects typically involve more simple pretexts for learning and social interaction than the other models looked at, examples such as Monster Exchange and Travel Buddies illustrate how even simple pretexts can provide the focus for more varied and developed modes of ICTsupported learning activity. Project-based learning might productively be considered as one useful subcategory of problem-based learning in terms of not only designing a specific focus and context for student projects but in terms of getting students themselves to also (a) identify project constraints and feasibility; and (b), to plan and apply a "design" approach. Sternberg's (1997) "six A's of designing projects" provides a useful overview of relevant criteria for an effective PBL context: authenticity, academic rigor, applied learning, active exploration, adult/effective guidance, and assessment practices. At this stage of the inquiry some of the convergent principles (or "anatomy") of an effective ICTsupported learning activity are clearer and more explicit. In particular, it is the function of learning activity "pretexts" to engage learner interest, participation, and their very process of learning and focus this in the direction of some kind of applied learning, explicit knowledge, and effective outcomes. This initial transformatory connection is a crucial not just accidental or add-on function of learning activity design. Such a learning design structure is significantly different to that associated with formal lesson planning although the latter may be used to develop the former. The whole more effectively informs the parts in a progression of learning focus from implicit to explicit knowledge, both in terms of individual lessons and larger modules. As indicated, for instance, by Blue N'Web's typology of ICT resources and learning designs, a specific learning task (i.e., a narrow conception of a learning activity) may organize the plan for up to several classroom lessons. In contrast, a project is an educational focus which is able to provide an organizing framework across and beyond a series of lessons and many quite distinct even if related activities (March, 2001).
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Study #3: Interactive Learning with ICT and the Quest for Generic Alternatives to the Traditional Lesson Plan Typical Learning Artifact -- Class C 2003 Kristina's ICT-supported '"learning activity" idea template Section B is actually the activity template and generic structure (which was conceived out of the first two stages of inquiry) for generating and developing a range of ICT-supported learning ideas. In effect this represents an initial draft or stage which can be further developed in terms of various models or modes. Section A is a warming-up task where students are asked to come up with three innovative ideas for transforming a typically boring lesson plan objective into a much more interesting context. Kristina's responses are more typical than exemplary. A bit mixed in quality, her activity design nevertheless indicated some innovative context ideas and she started to develop this quite well as an activity sequence. Her idea could be adapted and refined in different ways. In this third phase, we continued to use earlier models both as useful examples in their own right and also as ways of getting our students teachers to think about designing effective learning with ICTs. However in this phase we generated a template which would try to exemplify some of the structural resemblances of these other models to the extent that this was quite different to the traditional lesson plan. The use of this learning activity "generic structure" either in its own right as a design strategy or as a complement to the use of various models (such as webquests, multimedia projects, and various kinds of problem-based or inquiry-based learning using ICTs) might still be applied to formal lesson planning and module or subject design -- but not vice versa. Feedback from both student evaluation surveys and learning activity assignments indicated that this template was useful in getting student teachers away from merely replicating particular models or specific examples and to think about and apply the generic learning activity functions of (a) providing effective and interesting contexts for engaging learners and (b) linking this to organizing learning objectives ranging from skill and information acquisition to various higherorder understandings, syntheses, and applications. The template used by Kristina includes a "warming up" activity as introduction to the exercise of conceiving, developing, and outlining an ICT-supported learning activity idea -- along the lines suggested in Figure 1. In the activity of this initial section, which is modeled in class, students are challenged to transform boring curriculum learning objectives into exciting pretexts or foci for interaction. In this way they should become ready to choose and develop one idea with promise. 1. CONCEIVE OF AN AUTHENTIC OR IMAGINARY SITUATION/CONTEXT/PROBLEM. 2. WHAT WILL LEARNERS NEED TO DO AS THE PURPOSE OF INITIAL INTERACTION (solve a problem, address some issue or challenge, etc.)? 3. HOW WILL THIS PROVIDE A PRETEXT FOR SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES IN A CHOSEN SUBJECT AND RE: MAIN LEARNING OBJECTIVE? 4. PROVIDE AN OVERVIEW OF KEY STAGES OR STEPS OF ACTIVITY. 5. WHAT IS THE MAIN ICT-SUPPORTED LEARNING FOCUS AND WHAT ADDITIONAL RESOURCES NEEDED FOR THIS ACTIVITY? Figure 1. Design aide for developing an ICT-spported learning activity In terms of the structure indicated in Figure 1, an effective learning activity design will involve two transformations as the foundation for learning as an effective connection between learning activity and reflection or doing and thinking. Firstly, the authentic or imaginary context for an activity must somehow lead into an activity involving curriculum learning through some kind of use of ICTs for information resourcing, communication, or interactive engagement. Although ICTs may be used for a combination of purposes (e.g., initial access to digital information resources as the basis for a multimedia presentation or
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web publication), one mode should be primary. Kristina's nascent activity describes the imaginary context of leaners being asked to help an alien stranded on Earth get back to his own planet. This pretext for interaction is then linked with a curriculum learning activity focus on identifying distinct words in relation to supermarket items. The second transformation should represent a stage of applied learning which realizes an organizing learning objective which has been implicit from the beginning but emerges directly out of the curriculum focus of the learning activity. Kristina's lesson involves English as second language learning. Although her plan has yet to be developed in detail yet, there is indication that a communicative or conversational framework is being provided for learning new words in a second language context. Whilst the curriculum focus of the learning activity is central, the initial context idea is crucial as both a stage and in terms of indirectly engaging learners in the learning process generally, and their own learning process in particular. In other words, designs for interactivity are a key to the learning process itself as a productive transformation of information and/or skills into actual knowledge (Salmon, 2002). The generic structure of an ICT-supported learning activity outlined in the template is also consistent with the kind of dialogical model of learning with ICTs advocated, for instance, by Laurillard (2002). This model, often associated with the Socratic model of teaching through questions which engage and challenge the learner, views the learning process as kind of a "conversation" between learner and teacher, other learners, and even the curriculum mediated as much by "technologies" of communication as language itself (Light & Cox, 2001). Thus, relevant focus questions are another way of setting up interesting and effective pretexts for engaged learning -- contexts to critically explore or developmentally engage with topics or issues, and to encourage active learning as a process of transforming knowledge in terms of understandings, applications and transferable principles. The common stages and dialogical trajectory of effectively designed learning are depicted in Figure 2 in terms of effectively linking both content and process, and also leaner thinking and doing. In contrast to the linear and hierarchical assumptions of the traditional lesson, the two related transformations of learning outlined above are framed here in terms of the three phases of a dialogical methodology: nave, critical, and applied modes of the learning process corresponding to introductory, explanatory/procedural, and synthesizing stages of knowledge construction. The diagram attempts to depict how the generic structure of an ICT-supported learning activity represents an activity-reflection cycle grounded in contexts of both individual performance and social knowledge (Richards, 2003). It can be visualized as either a threefold process or as open-ended design spiral. A nave phase initially engages learner interaction and understanding as a basis for achieving a subsequent phase of "disciplined" performance, adequate explanation, or critical reflection. In turn, a dialogical phase represents the potentially innovative transformations implied by any effective grounding of reflective knowledge and the learning process generally in concrete contexts of application and interaction. Such a design strategy is as applicable to larger contexts of curriculum design as it is to specific activity design or lesson planning.
Individual performance
doing (using)
1. Naive/activity phase (initial familiarisation/ innovation)
content
2. Critical/reflection phase (procedural/theoretical explanation - discipline) 3. Dialogical/transformative phase ( specific/innovative application)
process
Social knowledge
thinking
threshold of temporary vs perpetual frustration (especially where ICT is concerned)
Figure 2. ICT integration and learning as an activity-reflection cycle (adapted from Richards, 2004)
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The process of learning to use ICT tools and programs effectively and with confidence, especially across different contexts of application, can be most frustrating and often is not achieved without adequate support. In this way the hands-on requirements of ICT integration exemplifies the inherent dilemmas of the learning process generally. Thus, relevant and appropriate designs for learning are needed which provide contexts or frameworks for bridging the missing links between learner doing and thinking (and also content and process) so that confidence, application, and even innovation begin to be achieved. Practical ICT skills and even related new learning concepts are often taught in somewhat of a vacuum. ICT-supported learning activities provide an applied focus for learning which extends from a primary focus on ICT skills and knowledge acquisition through to ICT integration in various modes of and subjects of across-the-curriculum learning. In other words, it is an approach which suggests that technical competence in using ICT tools and programs can actually be enhanced when linked to either (a) applications which also encourage the design process at the same time or (b) any key or convergent learning objectives, even if this focused on the content of different subject or disciplinary areas of knowledge. Discussion The three stages of the inquiry represented in this paper have linked the challenge to get teachers to be more active and effective designers of learning with the tools and media of ICTs with a response to how formal lesson syllabus planning seems to involve an inherent tendency for add-on uses of ICTs in teaching and learning. In a way, the dialogical methodology and related constructivist learning approach that underlies the generic structure and alternative model of an ICT-supported learning activity represents a turning-on-its-head of the formal lesson plan format and associated assumptions about educational design and even the learning process. The need for a better exemplary model or strategy for designing ICT-supported learning is given weight by a closer examination of the assumptions and limitations of two currently influential approaches or general theoretical perspectives -- instructional design and social constructivist learning theory. Both approaches represent a range of diverse interests and methods but also general assumptions about learning design. Also despite ostensibly opposing the linear and hierarchical tendencies of traditional formal education, it may be argued that both approaches are often used to reinforce such tendencies, likewise, oppositional views of the relation between pedagogy and technology. Gagne's (1987) theory exemplifies this tendency in instructional design. Taking specific and typically lower-order learning outcomes or tasks as its reference point, this theory proceeds retrospectively in linear fashion to describe the required "learning hierarchy" of skills and processes. Gagne's associated theory of "instructional events" then proceeds in terms of the typical linear and hierarchical assumptions of formal lesson planning: gaining attention, lesson objectives, recall of prior learning, presentation, guidance, learner performance, reinforcement, retrieval, and generalization. Adaptations of instructional design as "instructional technology" thus tend to view the educational use use of ICTs (and any technology media) in terms of their add-on facility to this process. Gagne's collaborator David Merrill developed this approach further to outline a model of reusable ICT "learning objects" and metadata which barely recognize the role of teaching or learning performance in context. Different versions of instructional design theory make use of constructivist learning theory as they do cognitivist and behaviourist models. However, social constructivist learning theory can be regarded as distinct for present purposes insofar as it represents an influential approach to how learning with ICTs lends itself to collaborative activities and the concept of bonded learning communities and "rich" learning environments (e.g., Barab, Kling, & Gray, 2004). Such an approach is most notably associated with the theoretical work of David Jonassen which has long explored the learner-centred and "cognitive tool" implications of ICTs. For instance, Jonassen's (2000) adaptation of cultural-historical activity theory tends to be more interested in the concept of activity as a systemic use or context of cognitive tools rather than
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specific and transferable designs for grounded hands-on use of ICTs as a form of media literacy. Such theories have a tendency to discuss in vague abstraction how ICT tools and media lend themselves to learning community development, collaborative interactions, and knowledge building, rather than specific and transferable ideas applicable by the average teacher. Thus, for instance, Scardamalia & Bereiter's (1994) well-known CSILE (Computer-Supported Intentional Learning Environments) model of knowledge building is really not so much about ICT integration in education as such, but functions of learning linked to one particular program which many teachers find difficult to use in average classrooms. In sum, both models make useful gestures about how ICT might not only be integrated in learning but enhance the learning process. However, it may be argued that both models retain implicit linear, hierarchical, and oppositional assumptions about learning which represent tendencies for an add-on use of ICT in education and fail to most effectively overcome missing links between practice and theory and learner doing and thinking. Just as the cultural-historical model of activity theory derived from the work of Vygotsky and others represents a more systemic and abstract model of the technology-learning process connection, so too there are related instructional design models (e.g., concepts such as intelligent learning or tutoring systems, often associated with knowledge management principles) which see learning primarily in terms of networked information systems. The message from this short discussion of two particularly influential approaches is that the discussion about the challenge of ICT integration in terms of teacher designs for learning has largely remained at macro levels of theory as well as policy and rhetoric. The many good ideas and useful concepts associated with these general approaches might be even more relevant if related to a more bottom-up perspective on how effective practice presumes some kind of design strategy grounded in performance or dialogue. Thus, in contrast to the more abstract cultural-historical notion of ICT-supported learning activity, the approach taken here focuses at the outset on simple practical design models which any teacher can soon begin to customize and apply ICT both as discrete tools and as a general media interface (i.e., both as physical and cognitive extensions of human activity) in relation to his/her own specific contexts of practice. In this way any teacher can soon become an innovative designer of learning contexts which encourage not only ICT integration in learning and the learner-centred implications of ICT generally, but also the learning process in relation to any specific pedagogical objectives or strategies. Such a bottom-up perspective is able to appreciate in practice how specific or situational contexts of individual performance both ground and open up for potential transformation any implicit or explicit (i.e., designed) structure of social knowledge -- and thus ultimately the kinds of cultural-historical structures or relevant macro objectives emphasized by activity theory and related models. The effective design of an ICT-supported learning activity as some kind of doing-thinking or activityreflection transformation relates to, complements and reinforces the kind of dialogical approach to learning outlined in Laurillard's (2002) conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies -- the designed contexts of either actual or virtual learner interactions with (a) teachers, (b) other learners, and (c) mediated knowledge itself. The importance placed on designed pretexts recognizes the need for grounding learning in context, and the greater efficacy-- at least where ICT integration is concerned -- with emergent and developmental rather than arbitrary or fixed and imposed learning objectives and processes. As new modes of literacy and learning, the models, which provide a practical design focus for the inquiry, have exemplified alternative ways, structures, and strategies for harnessing, in formal contexts of education, the great interest and seemingly natural confidence that the young have for the kind of new digital media worlds and cultures similarly outlined, for instance, by the critical pedagogist Peter McLaren and the new media critic Douglas Rushkoff. Figure 3 provides a comparative breakdown of how the kind of generic activity design investigated represents an alternative generic structure to a top-down formal lesson plan format. If the "generic activity design" structure were imagined visually, then it might be represented as three stages or even two interpenetrating spirals informing (a) an overall link, connection, or transformation
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between doing and thinking as well as skills or information and higher-order learning; and (b) the two specific links or transformation indicated earlier which engender effective participation and then potential achievement or realization of key or convergent learning objectives. Instead of designs for showing' being a mere add-on to telling, the link between designed or virtual and actual contexts is recognized as crucial for an emergent and developing learning process along the lines of the dialogical framework outlined above. Formal lesson plan format key learning objective/ outcomes explicitly outlined from outset (also tendency for confusion of implicit and explicit objectives) linear and often 'closed' or fixed sequence of topics or procedures hierarchical and oppositional view of relation between thinking and doing, theory/content and practice/examples introduction and conclusions gesture towards learners prior and developing knowledge Generic activity design initial activity context and focus encourages and frames convergent modes of participation and learning implicit links between learner involvement and key learning objective/s more open-ended, transformational relation between (a) initial activity context and specific 'curriculum' context and (b) content and key learning objective/s spiral structure underlies learning design connections between doing and thinking, practice and theory/content introduction and conclusion frame the learning process as an activity-reflection cycle and as dialogical stages (naive/critical/applied)
Figure 3. A contrast between formal lesson-planning and learning activity design The concept of an ICT-supported learning activity has some initial resemblance to the task-based pedagogy (and larger communicative) model in language education (e.g., Nunan, 1993). In the communicative language classroom, tasks serve the purpose of making sure that the learner's "attention is focused on meaning rather than linguistic structure" (Nunan, 1989, p. 10), that is, it is an initial and key requirement that learning activities engage interaction and understanding. Tasks thus provide pretexts for grounding various aspects of language study (grammar and vocabulary as well as conversation) in some everyday context of application or topic of interest. The term activity has been used here to refer to both a process and a generic structure which encompasses pretexts, tasks and specific activities. In both senses activities inform a larger convergent focus and design for learning in time. In this way, activity as a generic organising structure of learning complements an associated notion that effective learning often proceeds as an activity-reflection cycle grounded in context, and is a process by which learners both individually and collaboratively transform skills or information into applied knowledge. The later work of Paul Ricoeur (e.g., 1994) has powerfully argued how the discursive and textual applications of language in context not only mediate but transform the connection between interpretative processes of thought and reflection and the world of human action; and, also, how the mind-body dualism in western and modern thought is transformed in practice as a dialogical interplay of understanding and explanation, innovation and structure, and individual performance and social knowledge. Activity in context as both individual performance and social process opens up structures of knowledge and thus learning to processes of innovation as well as habituation or discipline. Just as Hannah Arendt (1958) identified intrinsically meaningful action rather than labor or work as the key to her famous study of the human condition, other thinkers such as Huizanga have proposed that play is the characteristic human activity which precedes and transforms work. Not only does the generic structure of a learning activity represents a design framework for linking learner doing and thinking, but also play and work in ways we will need to understand better if we are to harness the extra-curricular ICT literacies of younger learners (e.g., Gee, 2003).
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An important related aspect of pedagogical design for ICT integration which will be investigated further beyond the scope of this particular paper is the link between learning activity design and visual interface design as convergent aspects of the growing importance of interaction design principles. Educational interaction design has much to learn from the cultural and commercial contexts of how various popular and visual aspects of interaction with ICTs such as digital gaming represent transformations of old media as well as new possibilities, requirements, and innovations (Bolter & Grusin, 2000; Johnson, 1997; Murray, 1997; Manovich, 2001). A key to linking interface design with educational content and structures of learning thus lies in the convergent functions of visual metaphors and narrative structures for encouraging interactivity in a dialogical and applied fashion. Digital games in particular exemplify the importance and possibilities of designing engaging and structured participation or interaction which hook in, engage, and direct the attention of users through functions of virtual navigation and goal-directed interaction of some kind (Aldrich, 2003; Prensky, 2000). In contrast to the commercial purposes and various entertainment genres of many popular games -- especially open source games which exemplify the process of collaborative learning communities -- effective educational multimedia designs for learning face the additional challenge of needing to extend interaction design principles to include educational content or specific learning objectives. As Norman (2002) has argued, any effective design process needs to be understood as an interactive communication with "users" in terms of functionality and flexibility as well as form. ICTs need to be integrated in teaching and learning to the extent that they represent a new or extended mode literacy in the digital age, and effective designs for ICT-supported learning need to be grounded in activity as both process and structure. As Kress (2003) has recognized, the design possibilities and literacy implications of multimodal learning with ICTs tools and media represent a convergent focus for language and technology in general, and verbal and non-verbal modes of interaction in particular. This is consistent with how any teacher who attempts to effectively integrate ICT in his/her teaching and the learning of their pupils or students is a curriculum as well as learning designer of sorts. The generic structure of an ICT-supported learning activity represents one strategy in this direction which many teachers are already finding useful in the guise of various models and practices, and which may be refined further to encourage even more effective designs for learning. CONCLUSION To more effectively harness the exciting educational implications and learner-centred possibilities of ICTs, teachers need (a) new design strategies for teaching and learning which promote the applied integration of ICTs, and (b) to avoid the kind of add-on tendencies associated with still dominant assumptions about formal lesson planning and syllabus design on one hand, and are often inadvertent in the use of top-down models such as instructional design and social constructivism learning theory. This inquiry has investigated how the exemplary use of practical design models (a) provide a useful focus in teacher education for encouraging teachers to become more active and innovative "designers" of ICTsupported learning in the digital age, and (b) indicate the generic structure or anatomy of an effective ICT-supported learning activity. Practical activity-based learning with ICTs that provides pretexts for more effective curriculum learning and reflective practice exemplify a dialogical approach to educational design. Such an approach to educational design goes beyond (rather than merely oppose) the linear, hierarchical and transmission assumptions still dominating formal education in a way which is able to ground critical and applied thinking in transferable contexts of practice and knowledge. The dialogical stages of nave, critical, and applied learning represent a framework for not only linking educational content and process and also learner thinking and doing, but the very transformations which exemplify an ICT literacy transition from mere competency to applied understanding, knowledge and innovation. The alternate challenges of integrating the Internet and related ICTs in education on one hand, and encouraging innovation and applied thinking in students on the other, are helping us to appreciate that the
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new 'literacy and learning' skills of the electronic age revolve around the complementary organizing concepts of design and evaluation, and also learner doing and thinking. This paper has argued that there is a similar need to reconstruct the role of the teacher as a designer and evaluator of learning activities, contexts, and environments in a way which more effectively links the learning process to the curriculum, especially when using the Internet or ICT generally. In short, teachers need to consider overall design elements when outlining or setting up specific assignment contexts, criteria, and outcomes which exemplify effective ICT-supported learning. The emergent notion of an effective ICT-supported learning activity provides a useful focus for encouraging teachers to approach the challenge of ICT integration in education more as designers of interesting and applied learning rather than mere transmitters of skills or information through an add-on use of ICTs in teaching and learning.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr. Cameron Richards is a senior lecturer in the Graduate School of Education, University of Western Australia. His main research and scholarly interests currently revolve around the interdisciplinary and across-the-curriculum possibilities and challenges of effectively integrating ICT in new and changing contexts of education. E-mail: Cameron.Richards@uwa.edu.au REFERENCES Aldrich, C. (2003). Simulations and the future of learning: An innovative (and perhaps revolutionary) approach to e-learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer. Arendt, H. (1958). The human condition. London: University of Chicago Press. Barab, S., & Duffy, T. (2000). From practice fields to communities of practice. In D. Jonassen & S. Land (Eds.), Theoretical foundations of learning environments (pp. 25-56). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Barab, S., King, R., & Gray, J. (Eds). (2004). Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Beard, C., & Wilson, J. (2002). The power of experiential learning: A handbook for trainers and educators. London: Kogan Page Bolter J., & Grusin, R. (2000). Remediation: Understanding new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project. (1999). Why do project-based learning. Project-based learning with multimedia. Retrieved June 29, 2004, from http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/PBLGuide/WhyPBL.html Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (Eds.). (2000). Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures. New York: Routledge. Cuban, L. (2001). Oversold and underused: Computers in the classroom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Disessa, A. (2000). Changing minds: Computers, learning and literacy. Cambridge, Ma: MIT Press. Dodge, B. (1997). Some thoughts about WebQuests. San Diego State University. Retrieved June 29, 2004, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/EDTEC596/About_WebQuests.html Gagne, R. (1987). Instructional technology foundations. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Gee, J. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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Grabe, M., & Grabe C. (1998). Learning with Internet tools: A primer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Healy, J. (1998). Failure to connect: How computers affect our children's minds -- and what we can do about it. New York: Simon & Schuster. Hird, A. (2000). Learning from cyber-savvy students: How Internet-age kids impact on classroom teaching. Sterling, VA: Stylus Hong Kong Education Commission. (2002). Learning for life: Report on the education reform. Hong Kong: Printing Department. Johnson, S. (1997). Interface culture: How new technology transforms the way we communicate and create. New York: Basic Books. Jonassen, D. (2000). Revisiting activity theory as a framework for designing student-centred learning environments. In D. Jonassen & S. Lund (Eds.), Theoretical foundations of learning environments (pp. 89-122). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Jonassen, D., Howland, J., Moore, J., & Marra, R. M. (2003). Learning to solve problems with technology: A constructivist perspective (Rev. Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Kimber, K. (2003). Technoliteracy, teacher agency and design: Shaping a digital learning culture. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Kolb, D.A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Kress, G. (1997). Visual and verbal modes of representation in electronically mediated communication. In I. Snyder (Ed.), Page to screen: Taking literacy into the electronic era (pp. 53-79). Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. London: Routledge. Lankshear, C., & Snyder, I. (2000). Teachers and techno-literacy. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. Laurillard, D. (2002). Rethinking university teaching: A conversational framework for the effective use of learning technologies (2nd Ed). London: Routledge. Lehrer, R., Erickson, J., & Connell, T. (1994). Learning by designing hypermedia documents. Computers in the Schools, 10(1-2), 227-254. Lerman, J. (1998). Ten nifty ways your teachers can use e-mail to extend kids' learning. Electronic School Online. Retrieved June 29, 2004, from http://www.electronic-school.com/0398f5.html Light, G., & Cox, R. (2001). Learning and teaching in higher education: The reflective professional. London: Paul Chapman. Loveless, A., Devoogd, G., & Bohlin, R. (2001). Something old, Something new: Is pedagogy affected by ICT? In A. Loveless & V. Ellis (Eds.), ICT, pedagogy and the curriculum (pp. 63-83). London: Routledge. March, T. (1999). Theory and practice on integrating the web for learning. Ozline.Com. Retrieved June 29, 2004, from http://www.ozline.com/learning/theory.html March, T. (2001). What's on the Web? Retrieved June 29, 2004, from www.ozline.com/learning/ webtypes.html Manovich, L. (2001). The language of new media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Mayer, R. (2001). Multimedia learning. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press
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McKenzie, J. (1999). The research cycle. From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal, 9(4). Available at http://www.fno.org/dec99/rcycle.html Murray, J. (1997). Hamlet on the Holodeck: The future of narrative in cyberspace. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Norman, D. (2002). The design of everyday things (2nd Ed). New York: Doubleday. Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Nunan D. (1993). Task-based syllabus design. In G. Crookes & S. Gass (Eds.), Tasks in a pedagogical context: Integrating theory and practice (pp. 55-68). Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Pearson, J. (2001). IT in Education: Policy and provision in Hong Kong schools. Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 10(3), 271-282. Prensksy, M. (2000). Digital game-based learning. New York: McGraw-Hill. Richards, C. (1998). An across the curriculum framework for computer literacy in education. Proceedings of Australian Computers in Education Association conference. Retrieved June 29, 2004, from http://www.cegsa.sa.edu.au/acec98/acec98.htm Richards, C. (2000). Hypermedia, Internet communications, and the challenging of redefining literacy in the electronic age. Language Learning and Technology, 4(2), 55-77. Richards, C. (2001). Changing with the times: Using action research to introduce IT in classroom teaching. REACT, 20(2), 7-16. Richards, C. (2002). ICT integration, e-portfolios and learning as an activity-reflection cycle. Proceedings from the 2002 Australian Association for Research in Education. Available at http://www.aare.edu.au/ 02pap/ric02309.htm Richards, C. (2003). ICT-Supported Learning Environments: The challenge of reconciling technology and pedagogy. Proceedings of International Conference on Computers in Education [CD-ROM]. Richards, C. (2004). From old to new learning: Global dilemmas, exemplary Asian contexts, and ICT as a key to cultural change in education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 2(3), 399-414. Ricoeur, P. (1992). Oneself as another (trans. K. Blamey). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Roblyer, M. D., & Edwards, J. (2000). Integrating educational technology into teaching (2nd Ed.). Merrill, NJ: Prentice Hall. Salmon, G. (2002). E-tivities: The key to active online learning. London: Kogan Page Sandholtz, J., Ringstaff, C., & Dwyer, D. (2000). The evolution of instruction in technology-rich classrooms. In R. Pea (Ed.), Technology and learning (pp. 255-276). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(3), 265-283. Singapore Ministry of Education. (2002). Masterplan II for IT in education. Retrieved August 15, 2004, from http://www.moe.gov.sg/edumall/mp2/mp2.htm Sternberg, A. (1997). Real learning, real work: School-to-work as high school reform. New York: Routledge.
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Thomas, L., & Knezek, D. (2002). Standards for technology-supported learning environments. State Education Standard, 14-20. Available online at ISTE http://www.iste.org/news/2002/10/23-nasbe/nasbetech-supported-2002.pdf
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COMMENTARY: YOU'RE NOT STUDYING, YOU'RE JUST

Ravi Purushotma Massachussetts Institute of Technology ABSTRACT As often as language teachers lecture about the importance of continual practice to adolescent learners, the dullness of homework exercises designed primarily to be educational has difficulty competing with popular media designed solely to be entertaining. Recently, numerous attempts have been made to develop "edutainment" titles that seek to merge educational goals with entertainment content; oftentimes, however, they fail to achieve either goal and fall instead into niche markets. Rather than seeing entertainment-focused media forms as adversarial to educational content, educators should instead embrace them. This commentary examines how content originally designed for entertainment purposes can be modified to provide natural and context rich language learning environments, without sacrificing its entertainment value. First, I examine a modification to the number one selling video game The Sims that intelligently combines game data from the English edition with data from editions of other languages to form a bilingual gaming environment. This exposes learners to abundant L2 vocabulary, yet still provides enough L1 support not to detract from the game. This principle is then extended to other applications such as music videos, typing tutors, and voice-navigated games. Finally, areas of otherwise wasted time are identified, such as waiting for Web pages to load or walking to class, with suggestions of how technology can facilitate language learning during these times.
In a single week, I met five people each claiming to be the world's worst language learner. Having legitimately claimed this title for myself long ago, it's obvious they were only exaggerating. Still, in listening to their various language learning histories, it seems we all reached this conclusion from similar experiences: Frustration with our old high school workbooks, a sense of helplessness when confronted with lists of isolated vocabulary to memorize, and little connection between assignments and our everyday life. While changes in classroom environments over the past century have allowed in-class learning to evolve considerably, the guidance students receive on how to continue learning a language outside of class has remained relatively the same. In general, beginning students are advised to set aside dedicated study time for completing practice exercises and to rehearse vocabulary items with techniques such as flashcards. However, as the current dot-com generation grows up submerged in captivating and dynamic media forms, educators will likely need to adapt their conceptions of homework to match if they wish to capture the interests of adolescent students. While recently numerous suggestions have been advanced for enlivening the language learning experience with interactive activities and online collaboration (e.g., LeLoup & Ponterio, 2003), much of the potential for the integration of entertainment media with mainstream language learning remains untapped -- something that would have been pivotal for my own early language learning experiences. Finding my high school German homework assignments frustrating and dull, I rarely managed to complete assignments. Naturally, as the course progressed it became increasingly difficult for me to remain an active participant in class -- in turn, making homework assignments yet more frustrating. At the end of the year, I left the course with only two things: an ability to irritate my teacher enough never to be called upon in class and an "F" in German 1. It was at this time I dubbed myself "the world's worst
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Commentary: You're Not Studying, You're Just
language learner" and publicly declared that I was well satisfied with my monolingual status, with full intentions of keeping it throughout my life. Fortunately, the Internet later provided a perspective on foreign language and culture considerably more appealing than the one I received in ninth grade. Far from the German "She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain" we used to open each morning, sites like audioscrobbler connected me to modern commercial songs by analyzing youth in Germany with the same musical tastes. Rather than spending my free time on "find the conjugated form" word-search puzzles, I practiced contextualized conversation and grammar by loading learning materials found on the Internet into my cell phone and listening to them in my spare time while walking between classes. Surprised and encouraged by how much I learned from such a simple system, I enrolled in further German study and set about developing more complex ways of using technology to increase my foreign language exposure in practical and entertaining contexts. YOU'RE NOT STUDYING, YOU'RE JUST PLAYING THAT SIMS GAME OF YOURS For many adolescent language learners, the suggestion of playing an edutainment software title unfortunately conjures up images of simplistic space invader games, re-programmed to solicit foreign language vocabulary before being able to be able to shoot at a screen of sketchily drawn aliens. For students in a class only because of a mandated requirement, the temptation to forego all educational value for a modern software title instead designed solely to be entertaining is far too enticing. Upon a closer look, however, some of these same entertainment-focused titles possess much of the basic content desired in an educational title. For example, if we look at the number one selling game (Croal, 2003) The Sims, we see a lot of the same content one might find in an introductory language textbook. The Sims is a game designed to simulate normal everyday life. Players control the daily routines of a virtual family, guiding them through tasks such as managing personal hygiene, cooking food, finding jobs, entertaining guests, and so forth. After assigning professions to their characters, players then manage the family finances, deciding how to best purchase furniture and appliances to develop their house based on analysis of the emotional states of their characters. In playing the English version of the game, I noticed the vocabulary for the tasks contained many of the same words as the German homework I should have been studying instead. Finding that the language of the game could be changed to German simply by switching a single registry setting, I placed a laptop with a translation tool beside my main computer and continued playing the game in German. When the vocabulary items then came up in class, I was already familiar with them and could recall the relevant associated contexts and animations used in the game. While there have already been numerous suggestions for using commercial simulation games as language learning contexts (see, e.g., Coleman, 2002), most are based on designing external activities without modifying the games themselves. Traditionally, modifying a commercial game's interface or language data was an impossible task, as its programming was often locked away in compiled binary code. Today, however, most game designers separate game data into external files and actively encourage third-party customizations. For games like The Sims, this has led to an explosion of enhancements for the entertainment value of the game, though so far little has been done to take advantage of this customizability for educational extensions. One freely available customization tool provides users with direct access to the language data used in the game. By using macros, or scripts, educators can rapidly extract the parts of the first language (L1) game data they feel necessary for scaffolding learners and then integrate them as available translations within the second language (L2) version of the game (see Figure 1).
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Figure 1. The Sims German Edition, annotated for English speaking students In Figure 1 we can see an edit in which the main interface uses data from the German version of the game, yet includes tool tip data from the English dataset, so that if a player does not know a German word such as "Kochen," s/he can leave the cursor over the word and receive a pop-up explanation which includes an English translation. Also, enough keywords are glossed for the prompt "Do you wish to save before quitting" (literally: "Wants you save, before you the game quit?") to ensure a player would not get frustrated trying to understand, but makes it likely they will first read in the L2. This method of modifying video games offers a powerful vehicle for further exploring recent work on incidental learning. Hulstijn (1992), suggests that vocabulary retention can be improved if new words are glossed with multiple choices in which the learner must then decide the most appropriate choice (Figure 2).
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Figure 2. Players are presented two meanings for the word "Post," making them evaluate which most likely combines with the word "angestellter" and fits in the context of being their Sim's profession. Unfortunately, in a traditional reading environment this can have adverse effects for both reading comprehension and vocabulary retention if learners make the wrong choices (Watanabe, 1997). In a video game, however, some incorrect assumptions by learners can be recovered through the interactions present in a typical gaming environment. For example, one of the variables players must keep track of is their Sim's energy level -- represented in the German version by a bar labeled "energie." If a poor learner were to guess the meaning of this word incorrectly, her/his character would take steps to notify the player until the energy variable was addressed: First, the character would act sleepy and think about beds (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Sleepy Sim
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If the learner still failed to recognize and improve the Sim's energy level, the game would take control and show the learner how by having the Sim fall asleep on the spot (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Asleep Sim Besides interactivity and flexibility, video games provide content that is naturally rich in associations. Numerous studies report on how glossing reading passages with images and videos can enhance incidental vocabulary acquisition better than can text-only glosses (Al-Seghayer, 2001). Creating images for glosses, however, also requires more work than simply writing text -- and videos yet even more. By using video games as content platforms, images and animations become an automatic and effortless part of the environment. In The Sims, anytime a player clicks to receive elaboration on variables they need to monitor, it presents a window already containing images of all the game items relevant to that variable (see Figure 5).
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Figure 5. Detailed view provides both textual and pictorial information Another challenge in incidental learning is that materials should be personally relevant and useful to the learner (see Huckin & Coady, 1999). In a gaming environment, content is generally presented to the user because of its direct relevance to their task. Should a player in The Sims choose to ignore messages about the variable harndrang ("bladder") and any game cues (e.g., how their Sim starts running when by the bathroom), s/he would later be embarrassed when the Sim becomes unable to control him/herself (Figure 6). This would hopefully encourage the learner to take interest in and learn more about that variable.
Figure 6. Failure to respond to game cues can have embarrasing consequences
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In their review of studies on incidental vocabulary learning, Laufer and Hulstijn (2001) conclude that "learner involvement" is the main factor influencing overall effectiveness. They highlight three core components comprising learner involvement: "need" -- ensuring a word is relevant to the learner; "search" -- providing a means by which a learner can work to discover the meaning of an unknown word; and "evaluation" -- assessment by the learner of how the meaning does or does not fit into the current context. An entertainment-focused video game such as The Sims can be modified to not only fulfill each of these criteria, but do so in a manner that minimizes extraneous effort and stress on part of the learner, provides repeated interactive exposures to words, and automatically generates rich contexts for associations. Additionally, by making direct changes to the game data files themselves, educational designers can make their modifications instantly deployable by teachers worldwide. Looking Ahead Besides game customization tools, today's educators enjoy a wide variety of other gaming innovations for building pedagogical solutions. Previously, a typical commercial game would consist only of a weapon and a target -- leaving educators little room for inserting educational enhancements. Fortunately, as designers are forced to come up with more creative game elements, technologies useful to educational designers will naturally make their way into entertainment media (Squire, 2003). Perhaps the most successful innovation in game designs is the development of modern massively multiplayer online games -- MMOGs. In these games, rather than playing within a pre-programmed environment, players exist as characters in a virtual world formed through their interactions with other live players on the Internet. The unparalleled success of these games should be of interest to anyone trying to understand adolescent motivation and attention. In stark contrast to the high school language teacher sometimes struggling to receive 30 minutes worth of homework from students, the alarming success of MMOGs has prompted the establishment of government organizations to control their use and psychological addiction (Yee, 2002) after a set of players neglecting to break for food collapsed following up to 84 hours straight at their keyboards (Farrell, 2002; Gluck, 2002). Makers of the popular online game "Everquest" (commonly referred to as "Evercrack" for its addictive properties ) found the average player spends over 20 hours a week playing the game (Everquest or Evercrack?, 2002). While it might be nice to get teens to spend 20 hours a week solely on their Spanish homework, we should consider the educational potential for leveraging the phenomenal ability of MMOGs to capture the attention of adolescent audiences and bring them into a manipulatable world with players from all over the planet. Some studies have reported success at integrating MOOs, the historical predecessor to modern MMOGs, into the language classroom (Von der Emde, Schneider, & Ktter, 2001), although the educational potential for MMOGs is only just beginning to be examined (Coleman, 2004; Squire & Jenkins, in press). Simply by having such an international population together in a virtual community based on communicative interaction, motivated players have access to countless native L2 speakers and tasks to discuss with them -- though much could be done to extend this possibility to encourage shy learners to find and interact with players speaking their L2. For example, in a game like The Sims Online -- the MMOG version of The Sims -- players begin by choosing a city to live in, finding a house, then chatting with and getting to know their roommates. Besides merging international editions to form bilingual versions, another almost effortless modification game designers could make to interest language learners would be to create incentives and ways in which players could find and partner with native speakers of their L2 trying to learn their L1. This would not only provide the above-mentioned benefits of playing a bilingual game, but also provide learners with an L2 native from whom to learn about culture and language while performing a series of entertaining tasks requiring communicative exchanges. Alternatively, teachers could collaborate with classes in other countries and assign their students L2 speaking roommates.
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Besides multiplayer interaction via the Internet, speech recognition is another advancement often regarded as a promising candidate for making CALL truly interactive, though to date the number of successful applications has been limited due to its poor performance and high system demands. The Learning Company provides one of the better examples of speech recognition technology in their Learnto-Speak product line and freely available VirtualTalk Web site. These programs allow learners to engage in a simulated conversation by presenting them with a list of possible responses to choose from whenever they have a turn to participate in the conversation. The program then simply has to match the learner's response to the closest of the available responses and provide corrective feedback. While pre-programming each of the expected responses greatly improves functionality -- such that even foreign accents can be somewhat accommodated -- it significantly increases the design complexity. As a result, participatory conversation designers targeting the foreign language market often need to simplify interactions in ways that impair both the entertainment and educational value. For example, in response to a question such as "Would you like some coffee?" designers may need to force learners down a single prepared path ("Yes, please/I'd love some/Sure, thanks") rather than creating distinct paths a learner can meaningfully choose between ("Yes, please/No thanks/Do you have decaf?"; Hubbard, 2002). While in the foreign language software market it may not be feasible to create lengthy and complex dialogs -- a typical VirtualTalk conversation generally lasts only a couple of minutes; games targeting the larger entertainment market should begin incorporating spoken interfaces in the near future. While U.S. releases have only just begun to do this, such games have been available in the Japanese market for some time: Seaman takes the old tomogachi virtual pet craze to a new level by presenting players with a virtual baby fish-creature, which they must nurture into adulthood by conversing with it about its life and conditions. Raising a creature from birth to adulthood is expected to take about a month, with about 10 minutes of interaction a day. For more advanced students a game such as Operator's Side (Lifeline in English) includes all the elements of a typical action/adventure game, though instead of directly controlling the main character, players are challenged to direct her entirely through vocal instructions based on over 100,000 phrases. While there are numerous other commercial gaming innovations that could be discussed, the ability to easily edit international language files combined with advances like MMOGs and speech interfaces should be incentive enough for us to begin considering how entertainment focused games can be used for language learning, rather than needing to develop an edutainment title from scratch. For researchers, modifying commercial games offer a quick way to develop rich content for examining student motivation, task-based learning, context effects, incidental learning, and simulated immersion; additionally it could prove useful in rapidly creating content for less commonly taught languages (Figure 7). For commercial game designers, selling foreign language expansion packs provides a simple way to further capitalize on investments already made into creating versions for different languages and, in the case of MMOGs, the collection of a large multi-lingual community of players.
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Figure 7. Games can be edited to support entirely new languages YOU'RE NOT STUDYING, YOU'RE JUST BROWSING THE WEB As game design develops further, even more opportunities for practicing foreign languages within entertaining contexts will become available; the main challenge for educators will be to fold the value added by games in with the structure provided by a traditional learning environment. A beginning classroom playing a bi-lingual The Sims needs a way of focusing student attention on learning the most relevant words and an intermediate Japanese class playing a bi-lingual Operator's Side needs a way of preparing students for all the vocal commands expected in the game. One possibility might simply be to assign exam words as vocabulary homework for students to memorize during independent study time. This, however, may lose some of the interest of the less motivated or less organized students. Being the world's worst language learner, it always took me far longer to learn foreign vocabulary than any of my classmates. In asking some of my more successful classmates how they approached vocabulary, they mentioned that they studied flashcards during television commercials. Lacking either a television or index cards, I set about to instead make an equivalent system for browsing the Internet. Much like the language data for The Sims, the user interface descriptions for the latest Mozilla and Netscape Web browsers are stored in editable files. This allows anybody with knowledge of XUL, a language similar to HTML/XML, to rapidly reconfigure the layout and design of the browser interface. In most browsers, the upper right hand corner includes a logo known as a "throbber" which animates while loading a Web page. During my German class, I replaced my throbber with a small frame pointing to a Web site containing a randomized vocabulary word from the current chapter of my textbook. Instead of displaying a corporate logo, the throbber in the top right corner displayed a German word and image
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while loading a Web site, followed by the English translation when loading was complete.In my case, this simply served to flash new vocabulary words while I was waiting for Web sites to load, although such a system could be extended in any number of ways (see Figure 8).
Figure 8. Top right corner is replaced with an online flashcard system for when pages are loading Being part of the browser, the internal frame used in this example naturally inherits the ability to display HTML -- making the implementation of rich media annotations a simple process using commonly available authoring programs. Furthermore, this opens possibilities for direct authorship by students. Nikolova (2002) shows how vocabulary retention is best when students author their own personalized annotations, yet cautions that logistics and time-on-task can actually outweigh such advantages. With this in mind, an innovative textbook publisher could offer a Web gallery where students who enjoy authoring could share any multimedia annotations they develop (Figure 9) would then provide those students not inclined to authoring with a large point-and-click repository, allowing them to personalize their annotations in a time efficient manner.
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Figure 9. Possible gallery for classrooms who choose to author their own annotations Besides inheriting the rich media capabilities of an HTML renderer, an internal browser frame also has access to the same scripting environment and programming capabilities as the main browser frame. This allows it to interact with the user and other components of the browser. For example, it could adaptively adjust its content based on which site the user is currently visiting. Another script may be able to monitor language-learning exercises students perform online and then automatically update its content according to their mistakes. For users who consent, a script could additionally allow the browser to automatically transmit data about student's usage back to a researcher. As an example of the numerous possibilities available to creative educators, the Mozilla browser includes a feature that replaces advertisement banners with blank images; rather than blank images, advertisements could be replaced with vocabulary images. Although learning vocabulary phrases while waiting for Web sites and programs to load fragments a student's studying into numerous quick flashes, it features many advantages over dedicating a set block of study time. For adolescent learners, the clearest advantage is that little else can compete for the learner's attention. While a 10-minute study block could also be redirected towards Friends,1 flashes integrated into Web site loading have a more captive audience. Furthermore, a digital delivery system centralizes the logistics behind studying away from each individual student to the teacher or textbook publisher. By having content stored on a Web site, teachers can specify the current vocabulary words and deliver them directly to the student's browser interface -- such that even the least disciplined student is forcibly saturated with material of the teacher's choice. Besides logistical advantages, a more fragmented vocabulary exposure system could also aid the longterm retention of words. Numerous studies show long-term advantages when items to be remembered are spaced out in their presentations (Bjork & Bjork, 1992; Forester, 2002). Other studies show the importance of a learner being in the same mood when trying to recall an item as when learning it (Forester, 2002). By distributing and repeating exposures of a target vocabulary phrase across the whole time a student is using a computer, the student is more likely to have seen a given word in a wider range of moods. In a dedicated study time, students are likely to stop studying as soon as they can successfully recall an item from memory. Researchers suggest, however, that if an item is to remain accessible in the long-term, students must continue studying a word even after it appears to be learned (Bjork, 1999). Keeping study content in the periphery of a student's browser interface encourages continued rehearsal.
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YOU'RE NOT STUDYING, YOU'RE IN TYPING CLASS Another possibility for getting students to engage in more rote forms of practice without needing to compete for their free time is to piggyback foreign language practice on time spent working with a typing tutor. Many high schools already include classes where students practice with a typing tutor, though there is little value in repeatedly telling them about how the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. One simple modification could be to set a typing tutor to use sentences in the language the student is learning. The Online Spanish Tutorial and about.com German offer a series of model sentences students can memorize in order to learn grammatical concepts such as differentiating "por" and "para" or dative versus accusative prepositions; however, students may find memorizing so many sentences tedious and boring. Williams and Thorne (2000) report on how students learning foreign language subtitling acquired impressive language skills simply as a byproduct of their subtitling practice. By using the customize sentences feature available in most typing tutors to include key L2 sentences, students could likely gain similar language learning side effects from their keyboarding classes. For typing tutor programs that offer further customization, high school language teachers could work together with keyboarding teachers to supply sentences synchronized with the current course material, bi-lingual games, or pop-music lyrics. YOU'RE NOT STUDYING, YOU'RE JUST LISTENING TO MUSIC In every language classroom I have attended or observed, there has been some attempt to use music as a medium of engaging students. While music has strong potential for sharing foreign culture with students, its use in classrooms has numerous challenges. Foremost, musical tastes are often very individualized, making it impossible for a teacher to find a single song that can similarly engage all students. Though I had numerous German teachers, each preparing lessons on songs ranging from traditional folk to punkmetal, it was not until I found artists for myself that I was able to appreciate German music enough to voluntarily listen to and study it regularly on my own free time. Another challenge is that song lyrics can often be difficult to recognize accurately -- even for native speakers. Also, it can be difficult for a teacher to provide instruction while a song is playing. Often this requires students instead to first exclusively listen to a song and then switch to studying a printout of the lyrics to try to understand what they just heard. Previously, the only access students had to foreign music was often their teachers personal CD collection. Today, however, resources like MTV international, net radios and audioscrobbler allow learners to independently explore modern music worldwide with services such as iTunes and Napster emerging to provide affordable and legal purchases. Now that most digital songs are using ID3v2 or higher, one feature useful for language learners is that synchronized lyrics can be embedded directly into MP3 files. Combined with an OCR-capable translator, this allows learners to follow along with a foreign song as it is playing (see Figure 10). For older songs, synchronized lyrics can easily be inserted or retrieved from online databases. following_synced_lyrics.avl Figure 10. A listener follows a song through syncronized lyrics and uses an OCR translator to look up unfamiliar words In an ideal world, rather than clicking each word for an electronic translation, we would simply have a bilingual friend or teacher always standing beside us whenever we wanted to listen to a foreign song -ready to translate any unfamiliar words for us. While always using a friend may not be so realistic, it can be simulated practically using 3D spatialized sound technology. By delaying the timing at which a given sound is delivered to each ear, insertions can be made to songs that sound as though they are coming from a physical location different from the ambient song. This allows educators to embed instructional content directly into a song (or other audio content) while still maintaining a clearly audible distinction so as not to detract from the main song. (see Figures 11, 12, and 13).
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fur_mich_ans_lickt_4_meters_right_translation.mp3 fur_mich_ans_licht_4_meters_right_translation.wav Figure 11. Example of song with spatialized translation simulating a translator standing 4 meters to the right of the listener (please use headphones; creation details) fur_mich_ans_licht_innerear_halfm_left_translation.mp3 fur_mich_ans_licht_innerear_halfm_left_translation.wav Figure 12. Example of song with spatialized translation simulating a nearby source to the left luftbalons_innerear_5m_right.mpg Figure 13. Example of a music video combining both spatialized translations and captions in order to maximize comprehension (please use headphones) YOU'RE NOT STUDYING, YOU'RE JUST WALKING TO CLASS In recent years Simon and Schuster Corporation has been developing a language learning solution known as the Pimsleur series, receiving widespread popular reviews throughout the Internet. Despite the $725 price tag, Amazon.com user surveys2 for their comprehensive Spanish series give 60 out of 72 perfect 5star ratings and overall enthusiastic reviews (Amazon Reviews, 2003): I was a definite beginner with Spanish; now I speak more and better than my husband who took Spanish for years in school. If you enjoyed Spanish in high school, you probably won't like this course. This one is easy on your mind, fast, and doesn't require repetition of the same old stuff over and over ... and over. I used the course while commuting and was surprised at the amount of retention in just a short period of time. The comprehension level is amazing. And the one thing that is so great about it is that you don't need to study a book even if you do prefer visual learning, you would benefit greatly from this system. Most distinct about this series is the exclusive use of auditory materials on cassette or CD. Personally, I found listening to the comprehensive German series I had loaded onto my cell phone while walking between classes to be a stress-free way of incorporating an hour of practice into my daily routine. Following these 50 hours of instruction, I felt more than comfortable enrolling in UCLA's second level German -- despite my previous failed attempts at first level German. Unfortunately, unlike my prior listening while walking, completing assigned written exercises was always in competition with studying my other textbooks -- rarely allowing me time to do more than temporarily memorize the contents of the next quiz and ultimately requiring some of the other learning strategies discussed in this paper by the time I finished third level German. In the past, written print has generally been the more practical medium for introductory level language homework; whereas a textbook could always be taken anywhere and studied at any time, auditory materials sometimes required a dedicated trip to the language lab. This partially encouraged written assignments to become the primary medium for practicing grammar and vocabulary -- with accompanying auditory material usually provided only to supplement listening practice where necessary. Today, however, an entire day worth of non-stop portable audio can fit on a common one inch flat memory chip. Furthermore, simply for entertainment purposes, portable audio players are rapidly
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becoming ubiquitous in the life of the average adolescent -- with predictions that by 2005 it will be possible to directly purchase, receive, and play music all by cell phone (Digital Media, 2003). As both the next generation grows up fully accustomed to portable media technologies and professional digital audio production tools become more widely available, researchers should work to find the best balance between auditory and written practice materials and examine the impact of providing students materials similar to Simon and Schuster's Pimsleur series that are synchronized with course topics and examinations. YOU'RE NOT STUDYING, YOU'RE JUST DOING WHAT YOU ENJOY -- WOW Proponents of Content Based Instruction (CBI) have done a great service to students by bringing authentic and personally relevant materials into the classroom. Still, when we consider the enormous range of media forms and different literacies present in a digital society, we really have only begun to explore the possibilities for how authentic materials can be used. For each learner in a given country, there is literally a world of different popular media items they would be exposed to had they grown up in the country of their L2. For those aspects of popular culture with a technology component, accessing the corresponding L2 versions for the different media forms in one's daily life is often easier than might be thought. For example, simply by changing the location setting, users of the English version of the Yahoo mail service can optionally access mail and receive their advertisements in 12 different languages. Many of the more successful CBI paradigms have been those using academic content, perhaps because they manage to blend so naturally into a classroom environment. For adolescent learners, however, academic content may not even be able to capture their attention to begin with, let alone sustain it for an hour of instruction in an unknown language. In this case, rather than finding what is suitable for classroom use and then working to capture student attention with it, we should instead begin with the popular media forms that students would independently be interested in had they grown up in the country of their L2 and then find better ways of integrating them into the language learning process. Certainly, no teacher could be expected to independently design lessons that provide language instruction for all their students' different media preferences. Rather, by devising ways to embed language instruction directly into popular media, curriculum designers can offer students highly adaptable learning environments to explore and teachers cutting edge curriculum that can be implemented as simply as assigning textbook pages. While this paper has provided examples of embedding language instruction into games, Web browsing, and music, the same potential is likely to be found in virtually any digital media form. Most media technologies include accessibility features for the blind or deaf. As demonstrated with music videos, using these extra modalities to include the L1 can be a powerful way to modify them for language learning. Advances in internationalization programming place most language data for software outside the main program so it can rapidly be translated to other languages. In fact, when Squaresoft entertainment announced their intention not to create an English translation of their popular Final Fantasy V, a group of volunteer fans was able to create one without assistance from Squaresoft. By understanding how to merge and take advantage of multilingual datasets, researchers can rapidly generate engaging learning content from any internationalized media. Finally, meta-description developments such as XML give us power and flexibility when annotating content with instructional extensions. By understanding how these and other upcoming innovations fit together, curriculum designers should have enough flexibility for embedding instructional extensions into authentic media to alleviate either extensive teacher preparation for using commercial media resources or the need for artificial edutainment materials. Often as a follow-up to content based lessons, assigning at least some explicit study of linguistic features can be useful. Lankshear and Knobel (2002) suggest that assignments should be evaluated within an economic framework of how much attention a student must invest in completing it. Within this perspective, we can identify two areas for improvement when assigning explicit study to adolescent learners: First, explicit study tends to consume 100% of a learner's attention while performing it, making
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it costly for the learner to invest more than is necessary to receive a satisfactory grade. By embedding language instruction into learning to type or any daily routine, students are able to make a double return on any attention they invest. Second, students naturally consider their free time precious, making it difficult for educators to persuade them to direct it towards studying. Embedded language instruction allows us to capitalize on moments where attention is less scarce. Similar to how a roadside billboard manages to attract our attention to a product we might have ignored when busy, pushing materials at students while waiting around for a parent's car to arrive or waiting for a Web site to load allows us to engage them when their attention is less valuable. In 1989, Brinton, Snow, & Wesche wrote, "CBI aims at eliminating the artificial separation between language instruction and subject matter which exist in most educational settings" (p. 5). In the past 15 years, technology has advanced into a new epoch, requiring every academic discipline to re-evaluate its possibilities. By fully understanding the convergence of language instruction and digital media, we should now be able to eliminate the artificial separation between language instruction and everyday life -allowing even the world's worst language learner to enjoy learning a foreign language. NOTE 1. Friends is a popular U.S. television show 2. These are self-selected participants, see other amazon.com reviews for a comparison baseline.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ravi Purushotma recently entered the Comparative Media Studies masters program at MIT. He hopes to explore how emerging digital media forms can be harnessed to foster learning and help dispel global barriers. E-mail: ravip@mit.edu Click here for updates or to read/post comments about this commentary. REFERENCES Al-Seghayer, K. (2001). The effect of multimedia annotation modes on L2 vocabulary acquisition: A comparative study. Language Learning & Technology, 5(1), 202-232. Retrieved October 8, 2003, from http://llt.msu.edu/vol5num1/alseghayer/ Amazon Reviews (2003). Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Spanish. Retrieved March 31, 2004, from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671521527/ref=cm_rev_prev/103-39350527739849?v=glance&s=books&vi=customer-reviews&show=-submittime&start-at=1, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671315943/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/103-39350527739849?v=glance&s=books&vi=customer-reviews, and http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail//0671315935/ref=cm_rev_all_1/103-3935052-7739849?v=glance&s=books&vi=customer-reviews Bjork, R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (1992). A new theory of disuse and an old theory of stimulus fluctuation. In A. Healy, S. Kosslyn, & R. Shiffrin (Eds.), From learning processes to cognitive processes: Essays in honor of William K. Estes, Volume 2 (pp. 35-67). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Bjork, R. A. (1999). Assessing our own competence: Heuristics and illusions. In D. Gopher & A. Koriat (Eds.), Attention and performance XVII. Cognitive regulation of performance: Interaction of theory and application (pp. 435-459). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Brinton, D., Snow, M. A., & Wesche, M. (1989). Content-based second language instruction. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle. Coleman, D. W. (2002). On foot in SIM CITY: Using SIM COPTER as the basis for an ESL writing assignment. Simulation and gaming, 33(2), 217-230. Coleman, D. W. (2004). Langland home. Retrieved March 19, 2004, from http://coarts_faculty.utoledo.edu/dcoleman/Langland/ Croal, N. (2003, November 25). Sims family values. Newsweek. Retrieved October 3, 2003, from http://www.msnbc.com/news/835533.asp?cp1=1 Digital Media. (2003). Consumer Electronics Association. Retrieved October 4, 2003, from http://www.ce.org/publications/books_references/digital_america/audio/internet_digital_recording.asp Everquest or Evercrack? (2002, May 28) CBS News. Retrieved October 4, 2003, from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/05/28/earlyshow/living/caught/main510302.shtml Farrell, N. (2002, October 22). Second gamer dies after massive binge. Vnuet.com. Retrieved October 4, 2003, from http://www.vnunet.com/News/1136154 Forester, L. (2002). Implications of research on human memory for CALL design. Calico Journal, 20(1), 99-126. Gluck, K. (2002, November 22). South Korea's gaming addicts. BBC News. Retrieved on October 4, 2003, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2499957.stm Hubbard, P. (2002). Interactive participatory dramas for language learning. Simulation & Gaming, 33(2), 210-216. Huckin, T., & Coady, J. (1999) Incidental vocabulary acquisition in a second language. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21(2), 181-193. Hulstijn, J. H. (1992). Retention of inferred and given meanings: Experiments in incidental vocabulary learning. In P. J. L. Arnaud & H. Bjoint (Eds.), Vocabulary and applied linguistics (pp. 113-125). London: Macmillan. Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2002). Do we have your attention? New literacies, digital technologies and the education of adolescents. In D. Alvermann (Ed.), Adolescents and literacies in a digital world (pp. 20). New York: Peter Lang. Laufer, B. & Hulstjn, J. (2001). Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition in a Second Language: The Construct of Task-Induced Involvement. Applied Linguistics, 22(1), 1-26. LeLoup, J. W., & Ponterio, R. (2003). Tele-Collaborative Projects: Monsters.com? Language Learning & Technology, 7(2), 6-11. Retrieved October 3, 2003, from http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/net/ Nikolova, O. R. (2002). Effects of students' participation in authoring of multimedia materials on student acquisition of vocabulary. Language Learning & Technology, 6(1), 100-122. Retrieved October 4, 2003, from http://llt.msu.edu/vol6num1/NIKOLOVA/ Squire, K. (2003) Video games in education. International Journal of Intelligent Simulations and Gaming, (2)1. Retrieved October 4, 2003 from http://cms.mit.edu/games/education/pubs/IJIS.doc Squire, K., & Jenkins, H. (in press). Harnessing the power of games in education. Insight. Retrieved March 19, 2004, from http://website.education.wisc.edu/kdsquire/manuscripts/insight.pdf Von der Emde, S., Schneider, J., & Kotte, M. (2001). Technically speaking: Transforming language learning through virtual learning environments (MOOs). Modern Language Journal 85(ii), 210-225.
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Watanabe, Y. (1997). Input, intake, and retention: Effects of increased processing on incidental learning of foreign language vocabulary. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 287-307. Williams H., & Thorne D. (2000). The value of teletext subtitling as a medium for language learning. System, 28(2), 217-228. Yee N., (2002). Ariadne -- Understanding MMORPG addiction. Unpublished manuscript. Retrieved March 31, 2004, from http://www.nickyee.com/hub/addiction/adiction.pdf
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/call.html
January 2005, Volume 9, Number 1 p. 97
Call for Papers for Special Issue of LLT
Theme: Technology and Listening Comprehension

Guest Editor: Philip Hubbard Developments in multimedia software and the Web offer a range of new opportunities for learners to develop listening proficiency in the target language. Multimedia programs combine digital audio, graphics, and video with an array of meaning aids and afford a high level of individual control, while the Web makes it possible for easy access to an assortment of listening experiences, including exposure to an unprecedented selection of unfiltered native speaker materials. This special issue of Language Learning & Technology aims at providing a variety of perspectives in this area through research articles and theoretical discussions in the domains of technology-based comprehension, language acquisition, and testing. Possible topics include, but are not limited to a comprehensive literature review of technology and listening comprehension theories or theoretical frameworks for aspects of computer-based listening research on the link between computer-based activities that promote listening comprehension and those that promote language acquisition studies on the utilization of authentic listening materials on the Web studies of the efficacy of technology-based meaning aids (captions, glosses, graphics, translations, etc.) to support comprehension and acquisition studies of the use of technology for the co-development of listening and reading proficiency studies of the impact of listening and handheld technologies (mobile phones, MP3 players, etc.) on comprehension research into the use of DVDs for language learning computer-based testing of listening proficiency Please send an e-mail of intent with a 250 word abstract by May 1, 2005, to llt-editors@hawaii.edu.
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/ackn.html
January 2005, Vol. 9, Num. 1 p. 98
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF REVIEWERS
Language Learning & Technology would like to acknowledge and thank the following people who reviewed manuscripts for us during the production of Volume 8 and throughout the 2004 production year. Their contribution has helped the journal to grow and continue its success. Zsuzsanna Abrams Janet Anderson-Hseih Jungok Bae Kathi Bailey Naomi Baron Rick Beach Ken Beatty Peggy Beauvois Diane Belcher Julie Belz Phil Benson Sigrun Biesenbach-Lucas Robert Blake Francoise Blin George Braine Klaus Brandl Mary Ellen Butler-Pascoe Teresa Cerratto Anna Uhl Chamot Candace Chou Andrew Cohen Douglas Coleman Joseph Collentine Dave Coniam Averil Coxhead David Crookall Graham Crookes Catia Cucchiarini Alistair Cumming Mark Darhower Juliana de Nooy Pat Desloge Joy Egbert Irina Elgort Lee Forester Bob Fox David Gardner Margo Glew Keren Goldfrad Greta Gorsuch Bill Grabe Regine Hampel Barbara Hanna Mirjam Hauck Susan Herring Beth Hewett Monica Hill Elaine Horwitz Phil Hubbard Nora Hussin Sophie Ioannou-Georgiou Robert Johnson Hae-Young Kim Celeste Kinginger Keiko Kitade Markus Koetter Jim Kohn Claudia Kost Haggai Kupermintz Marie-Noelle Lamy Lina Lee John Levis Meei-Ling Liaw Hsien-Chin Liou Min Liu Lara Lomicka Alison Mackey Elaine Martyn Cristina Matas Richard Mayer Michael McCarthy Owen McGrath Kevin McLure Carla Meskill Andreas Mueller-Hartmann Noriko Nagata Paul Nation Raffaella Negretti Hillary Nesi John Norris David Novick Robert O'Dowd Lourdes Ortega Nicholas Ostler Rebecca Oxford Faridah Pawan Jill Pellettieri Joy Kreeft Peyton Lucy Pickering Jon Reyhner Warren Roby Joan Rubin Jean Schultz Sima Sengupta Jane Setter Tony Silva D. Bryan Smith Maggie Sokolik Susana Sotillo Juha Suoranta Elaine Tarone Paul Tench Yukio Tono Larry Vandergrift Leo van Lier Margaret van Naerssen Lorrie Verplaetse Daniel Villa Juliette Wade Paige Ware Rob Waring Donald Weasenforth Cynthia White Anne Wichmann Lawrence Williams Lillian Wong Dolly Young Zheng-Sheng Zhang
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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/editors.html

January 2005, Volume 9, Number 1 p. 1

FROM THE EDITORS

Dorothy Chun and Irene Thompson

Copyright 2005, ISSN 1094-3501

Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/editors.html

January 2005, Volume 9, Number 1 pp. 2-3

FROM THE SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS

Copyright 2005, ISSN 1094-3501

From the Special Issue Editors

Michele Knobel & Colin Lankshear Special Issue Editors

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January 2005, Volume 9, Number 1 pp. 4-16

Copyright 2005, ISSN 1094-3501

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

El Parque Zoolgico de Barcelona

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

Zoolgico de Baranquilla, Colombia

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

Italian: Parco faunistico Le Cornelle

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

German: Zoo Hannover

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

...and convert it into a completely new animal of their own creation:

Language Learning & Technology

Jean W. LeLoup & Robert Ponterio

On the Net: Let's Go to the Zoo!

Language Learning & Technology