Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lisa Peskar
providing experiences that transfer to skills outside of the classroom. We are currently teaching
digital natives that have grown up using technology for social media, news, finding new
information, learning skills, watching videos, shopping, music, communication and more! Since
technology plays such a monumental role in our students daily lives, it is important to
incorporate technology and use its many benefits to our advantage inside the classroom, as well
as promote digital literacy development in our students. However, since current educators were
not taught using advanced technology, it can be daunting to navigate these new waters to choose
the best activities for students. Ducate and Arnold (2011) explain that by using Computer
Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the classroom, it is important to design activities that
actively enhance learning in the classroom, rather than using technology solely to say one has
used technology in the classroom. While taking the course FL 515 Technology in the Foreign
Language Classroom, I was able to deepen my understanding of uses and benefits of effective
CALL in the classroom through reading published CALL research, reflection and discussion, and
finally using these experiences to design effective, sound CALL tasks for my own classroom.
consider the resources that the school and students have at hand, and at home. While internet
access is at a high level in the United States, found to be at 79% in 2012 by the U.S. Department
of Commerce (2012), there is currently a digital divide that separates resources and access
among different communities. In my current district, for example, all of my students the past
three years have had internet access, smartphones, and many have laptops and other technology
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at home. On top of this, our district gives all students personal Chromebooks, and to develop
more advanced technology skills, has 3D printers and supplies at hand for students and teachers
to use. While taking the course FL 515, I saw that teachers in other communities have much less
access to technology, possibly only having access to a computer lab when needing 1:1
technology. In designing CALL tasks, this will certainly need to be taken into consideration in
terms of technology used. When using this technology, the instructor must also consider
explanations needed in learning new programs--do students need to learn the technology to
Perhaps one of the most obvious uses of technology and internet is how it gives access to
a vast amount of resources. CALL is especially relevant to world language teachers as we must
expose students to real-life, authentic sources. Virtually every online news article, Youtube
video, or website created by a native speaker gives access to authentic language in context.
However, each language educator must be conscientious about the source that s/he is using and
how it is used. Authentic resources can be used in three types of activities: teacher-led,
disadvantages to all three types depending on the proficiency of the language learner. More
specifically, teacher-led articles (giving a student one specific resource to use with
pre-determined activities) lend better to beginner language classes because it can be tailored
giving students a list of pre-selected sites for Argentinian restaurants, have been shown to fit well
in beginner and intermediate language courses. In learner-determined lessons, the teacher serves
as the facilitator and offers support, but students are finding the resources that they would like to
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use, analyzing them, and creating outcomes based on these resources. Because of the
overwhelming nature of the language found online, this is best used in intermediate to advanced
language classes for activities like content-based learning, group work, and project-based
learning.
In my own practice, there are two questions that I ask when using authentic resources: 1.
Does this resource align with learning objectives? and 2. Can I use this resource to enhance my
activities for my students, I have used many authentic resources in the form of songs,
infographics, news articles, and Youtube videos. In my experience teaching beginner language
courses, Spanish I and Spanish II, I tend to use teacher-determined and teacher-led activities, but
Guth and Helm (2011) discuss how technology can take this one step further, into
incorporating culture through CALL through being able to communicate and collaborate with
speakers from the target culture. Guth and Helm cite a study done by Meguro and Bryant (2010)
between Japanese and U.S. students that showed participation in Skype exchanges was
successful in motivating students and increasing their interest in culture. Although technology
gives us many access and produce resources, which are resources that can be accessed or
produced by regular internet users such as myself, according to Guth and Helm (2011), I feel that
Technology gives students the opportunity to connect instantly with people around the world
using programs such as Skype or Google Hangout. In my district, for example, we use CALL to
organize Google Hangout sessions between our Spanish students and students in Spain.
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Although it has been a tedious process of figuring out how to bridge the six hour time difference,
create Google accounts for the students in Spain, and match them up together cohesively, the
benefit is seeing how motivating it is for students as continue to learn the language. The difficult
part is implementing this between two schools in countries where technology is not at the same
level. For instance, when doing this, the Spain schools internet is not as fast, leading to some
issues with connectivity. It has also been a process to get them enough laptops to be able to have
fifteen different students in video hangouts at once. While this is challenging for educators to do
now, I believe within the next ten to twenty years as technology is growing at such a rapid pace,
this exchange will become more achievable in language classrooms across the world.
Finally, I have learned how CALL can be implemented to reach all students through
designing tasks by principles of Game-Based Learning. Something unique about video games is
that they have the ability to motivate students to learn complex skills and persevere through
tough challenges to reach a final goal. James Gee (2005) discusses that games motivate learners
by designing activities that fall under three categories: Empowered Learners, Problem Solving,
and Understanding. He argues that education should empower learners as good games do by
allowing students to be co-designers, or active agents, in their own learning by allowing them
choice and customization in tasks. In my own teaching I have begun to allow more choice and
options for students when completing tasks, and especially when creating a final product. For
example, recently after completing a book, I gave my students a list of options for a final
product: create and record an interview, create an online comic, create a movie trailer, write two
additional chapters, in addition to several other options. We as educators can utilize technology
Under Problem Solving principles, Gee (2005) discusses that good games include
well-ordered problems, are pleasantly frustrating, and support the cycle of expertise by giving
sufficient practice to master a skill. Using technology can help teachers scaffold activities and
give options at the learners level. For example, a website that I use in the classroom,
NewsELA.com, provides leveled news articles at various learner levels in Spanish, so students
can choose between a second grade version or up depending on their own proficiency level and
desire for challenge. Another example is using EdPuzzle for a listening task: this helps make a
listening activity pleasantly frustrating by meeting the student at their level, as students can
re-play a section if they need to hear it again, or move on if they understood a section. In this
way, technology helps make activities more tailored to a students needs rather than the standard
teacher practice of playing a clip three time for students in class. In addition, technology can help
provide sufficient practice and individualized feedback when practicing vocabulary or grammar
through programs like Quizlet or Quia, both of which I use for designing practice activities in my
lessons.
Gee further discusses that good games should act as a sandbox and a fish tank, allowing
students to learn in an environment of a few variables at once, and an environment that simulates
the real world, allowing students to try out new tasks, but in a safe way without penalty that
could make them completely fail or start over from scratch. In addition, getting students to
understand the system that they are in is critical, as is creating experiences that use their skills in
a real life setting (Gee, 2005). I believe that well-designed tasks in problem-based learning help
design a task as a sandbox and fish tank, and that incorporating technology is part of designing
an effective problem-based learning task that applies experiences to a real life setting. For
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example, in one CALL task that I created, which was a problem-based learning task, technology
played a role in all parts, from students gathering their information, to creation with technology
In closing, I believe CALL offers great benefit for educators in the classroom today, and
these opportunities for use in the classroom are only growing as technology becomes more
advanced and accessible around the world. From an authentic language perspective, technology
gives both teachers and students unlimited access to resources online for language learning and
exploring purposes. Although still in the earlier implementation stages, CALL is showing great
potential to connect students with speakers from around the world in real-time for interpersonal
communication and cultural learning. The cultural-exchange set up at my school is proof that this
can be accomplished in a way that is beneficial to students, although there are still some
roadblocks as the process is being perfected. Finally, perhaps the most beneficial reasons to use
technology is to design CALL tasks with game-based principles in mind to help us reach all
students, which is still one of the biggest challenges to educators today. By following
game-based principles and taking into consideration differentiation practices, educators can
motivate students to learn difficult, complex tasks and complex learning by using technology to
design tasks that empower learners, follow principles of problem-based learning, and that have
application in the real world as real life experiences. As a modern-day educator, I am excited to
References
Brandl, K. (2002). Integrating internet-based reading materials into the foreign language
Ducate, L. & Arnold, N. (2011). Technology, CALL, and the Net Generation: Where are We
Headed from Here? Present and future promises of CALL: From theory and research to
Gee, J. P. (2005). Learning by Design: good video games as learning machines. E-Learning and
Guth S., & Helm, F. (2011). Teaching culture through CALL. Present and future promises of
CALL: From theory and research to new directions in language teaching. CALICO Book
Meguro, A., & Bryant, T. (2010). Finding language partners in unexpected places: Skype and
United States Department of Commerce, US Census Bureau. (2012). Reported Internet usage for
individuals 3 years and older, by selected characteristics: 2012 (Data file). Retrieved
from https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2012/demo/computer-internet/computer-use-20
12.html
Youngs, B. L., Ducate, L., & Arnold, N. (2011). Linking Second Language Acquisition, CALL,
and Language Pedagogy. In Present and Future Promises of CALL: From Theory and