TECHNOLOGY FOR A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSKatelyn Turner

Education W200

Professor Anna Bragg

MENU

“Technology in Foreign Language” “Telecommunications in Foreign Language

Education” “Global Language Education: Learning the

Lingo”

“TECHNOLOGY IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE”HTTP://SCHOOLCOMPUTING.WIKIA.COM/WIKI/TECHNOLOGY_IN_FOREIGN_LANGUAGE

To help make learning a foreign language not seem as alien and distant from us, the term ‘World Language’ should be used to further emphasize that we are connected rather than separated.

Technology is a very effective tool to teach, it can provide authentic sources of language while also teaching students to use technology efficiently and effectively, both very essential tools for lifelong learning. There are 10 important reasons why teachers need to implement and use technology in World Language teaching:

Students are accustomed to technology and very technological literate Students have different learning rates and styles, technology helps teachers reach all students in different

ways Students become more relatable to the curriculum outside of the classroom Technology involves students with interactional activities, exchanges, gathering, and problem-solving Students become active participants of the Information Age Students are more motivated to learn using the different aspects of technology Many dimensions are added by using technology Technology helps make studying a world language more practical and significant in daily life Students have opportunities to work in a collaborative manner Students have the chance to use their productive and receptive abilities for real purposes such as:

publishing a newsletter, writing in an interactive journal, and emailing a pen-pal from the country they are learning from

In technology, there are many possibilities that a teacher can use to help teach students learning a world language from creating a menu using word to creating an advertisement for a popular cultural product to creating a PowerPoint or HyperStudio presentation about themselves or any topic.

This article has great ideas and information about how teachers can use technology to aid in their productivity and how Internet resources give boundless opportunities for interaction and learning language in “real world” context. The article has a list of web resources specifically for World Language Instruction; for teachers- e-mail resources, French language resources, current event resources, and includes some websites for students to have lessons for free.

The last thing that this article emphasizes on with “using technology to enhance learning and instruction through each of the 5 C’s”

Communication – Interpersonal Mode- students communicate with native speakers via: e-mail, real-time chats,

videoconferencing, or video exchanges Interpretive Mode– the amount of written information on the Internet provides the student

with reading experiences while practicing their proficiency Presentational Mode - students use technology tools to create a presentation, such as;

PowerPoint, making their own website, advertisements, or using images for documents or displays

Culture – technology can make students more aware of another people’s way of life Connections – using the internet to compare and contrast specific similarities and

differences ie: comparing the US food pyramid to France’s Comparisons- while a student reads or speaks with someone, they talk about what they

do in daily life, thus students can compare what is considered “relaxing” or which sports are mainly played. Through comparisons, students, at times, will need to “re-examine cultural and language phenomena through the perspective of another culture”

Communities – students reach out through the various means of communication and share with them. Technology connects speakers of other languages making their own community.

This article made me realize that a teacher must be skilled in all areas, but especially in technology .Being skilled in this area, teachers will really be able to implement technology tools and really be able to reach and teach all students, no matter the level or learning style. “The skilled teacher, like a skilled craftsman, matches the tool to the task in order to accomplish an important purpose.”

“TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATION”HTTP://WWW.ERICDIGESTS.ORG/PRE-9214/LIST.HTM

Educators, especially foreign language educators are able to bring the world to their classrooms by using new telecommunication technologies such as; Internet, telephone, television, satellite, etc.

There are many different technologies that are available, a teacher must decide which ones would be most appropriate to meet the needs of their students.

There are many advantages to using telecommunications in a foreign language classroom Learning via a computer network improves reading and writing

skills Learning via a satellite program increases listening

comprehension skills and develops a cultural understanding Learning via distance technologies provides interaction between

educator and students with native speakers Learning via interactive telecommunication technology media

permits real and live communication in the target language Learning via interactive telecommunications develops

international understanding and cross-cultural communication skills

TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROGRAMS OFFERED De Orilla A Orilla “From Shore to Shore”

A telecommunications project where groups are setup between classrooms in the U.S. and other countries. The goal of this is to increase students’ proficiency in one or two languages through written communication and to improve understanding of another culture.

The Computer Writing Network The National Heritage Language Resource Unit in Canada encourages learning a

second language, the maintenance of it and cultural exchange between students. CompuServe

A computer network that requires: a computer, communications software, a phone line, and a modem. Provides communication and online information retrieval via forums, e-mail, data libraries, or even bulletin boards.

Minitel A French network now available in the U.S. enables students of French to

communicate in writing to native speakers in France. Also being used by deaf foreign language students.

The Global TELEclass Project Assists foreign language students directly with counterparts learning English in

other countries. Uses speakerphones and videophones, students read and write via the computer and can see and communicate verbally with one another.

SCOLA- the Satellite Communications for Learning A consortium of colleges and universities that provides members foreign news via

satellite some frequencies include text printouts of: vocabulary, discussion topics, speech pattern exercises, and graduated difficulty quizes. The computer can also receive text printout of the foreign language as well as an English translation.

TELECOMMUNICATING Telecommunications is a wonderful technology tool for

learning a foreign language, however, although this article had some programs that are offered and what the goals are of each program, I wished that it emphasized more on the advantages that students have of learning with telecommunications and how much skill a teacher needs to use each program effectively.

GLOBAL LANGUAGE EDUCATION: LEARNING THE LINGOWWW.EDUTOPIA.ORG/GLOBAL-LANGUAGE-EDUCATION-SCHOOLS-ONLINE

Highlighting Hindi More than 400 million people in the

world speak Hindi, yet it is rarely taught in K-12 schools in the U.S.

Edison School District in New Jersey created a collaborative project-based curriculum for students to connect with peers in India

3 year grant from U.S. Department of Education’s Foreign Language Assistance Program uses an iEARN site where students can post questions, ask about words, and what students do after school.

Daily journal entries are posted and there is a time to video Skype. Students share curriculum projects with each other via Skype videoconference.

“When students know someone is listening on the other side of the globe, they take they lead.”

Technology? Mais Oui “If it’s already well developed,

aligned, and standards-based, technology can enhance a lesson– that’s all” Toni Theisen, teacher

Enhancing lessons using technology, Theisen reaches her students and teachers worldwide sharing experiences, ideas, and instructions for tool that work.

Her students use wikis, VoiceThreads, Voki avatars, TodaysMeet (a free chat room), Poll Everywhere, create videos with Animoto.com and comic strips with ToonDoo.

They have become experts on multimedia while learning French and also connecting her classes with people across the world.

Theisen set up a wiki for her classes and a class in New Zealand to share while they read Le Petit Prince. Students posted letters, audio podcasts, and creative videos.

Today she and her students have a wiki with students in La Reole, France where her students practice French and La Reole students practice English and share cultural information.

Little Japan At a pre-K-5 public school in

Waterbury, Ct all students learn Japanese.

Students take 75 minutes of Japanese class per week using immersion techniques, differentiated instruction, and hands-on, visual technologies.

Technology helps with both differentiated instruction as well as language immersion. The teacher uses an interactive whiteboard to show, not tell. “I don’t have to deliver instructions in English when I use it.”

Language games on laptops, watch and respond to videos, and a class wiki allows students to practice at home with PowerPoint's, videos, and outside links to games and tutorials.

With an award, the teacher bought iPods so that students can listen, view, and record in Japanese. “Now, the kids who can do it can play through it, and the kids who need extra help can pause the video. It’s all about different learning styles.”

Tulsa Tongues Eisenhower International Elementary

School in Tulsa, OK is a two language-immersion school using Spanish and French immersion methods.

The school has very close relationships with students, rare that they lose a student and rare if they take one, all recruiting happens at kindergarten.

Use foreign language as the vehicle of instruction, not content.

Has multi-week student exchange programs with sister schools in Mexico and France

By third grade students communicate with pen pals in sister school by letters, email, FaceBook, and Skype.

“Once they built these relationships, it’s just chatting with friends.” a teacher speaking about how they speak on Skype once a month until a homestay, then they Skype once a week.

In this article, I thought that what the schools did were amazing in teaching students, even 4 year olds, a foreign language. I zeroed in on the “Mais Oui” portion and explored some of the links that were on there. I have to say that they ideas that are shared on her blog as well as the main idea of creating a wiki to share with another class in a different country was amazing, AND to create a class wiki isn’t that difficult at all. It is great that the teacher as well as the students are motivated to do well because “most exciting is technology’s ability to connect classes instantaneously with people across the world.” so although going to a country and being totally immersed in every detail of that culture and language, it is amazing how closer we are getting, connecting, learning from one another even if we are on opposite sides of the earth and are just beginning learning a new language.

Krause, Julie (1989). Telecommunications in Foreign Language Education. ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics Washington DC. Retrieved from

http://ericdigests.org/pre-9214/list.htm

Bernard, Sara (2010 April). Global Language Education: Learning the Lingo. Edutopia. Retrieved from

http://www.edutopia.org/global-language-education-schools-online

School Computing: Technology in Foreign Language . (n.d.) Retrieved from Wikia:

http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/Technology_in_Foreign_Language