Current Trends in Online
Language Learning
Robert Blake
Tutorial Call
Nur Ekaningsih
OLL is more familiar now in language
learning and teaching.
Based on R. J Blake, the recent studies of online learning
focuses on its application for language learning.
We break down Blake’s ideas on his article of Current Trends
in Online Language Learning into 5 categories.
They are
1. Tutorial Call is presented by Nur Eka
2. Intelligent Call is presented by Shinta
3. Social Computing is presented by Qushoy
4. Games for Language Learning is presented by Nia
TUTORIAL CALL
Blake noted that this approach was nearly
closed to Grammar Execise, Vocabulary,
Pronounciation and beyond.
At first, this way seemed pejorative to
students because they couldn’t construct
meaning independently. They also had
low level of interactivity.
Cobb (2007) stated that the computer can play a
pivotal role in L2 lexical acquisition by tracking
students’ lexical problems and providing them
with multiple exposures to new words through
graded texts, glossing, or explicit instruction.
CALL researchers have long been convinced that
multimedia word glosses make a difference in L2
lexical growth, as can be seen in Chun’s
(2006)excellent overview of previous research on
this topic.
Tutorial CALL based on
Lafford,Lafford,&Sykes,2007; Ranalli, 2009,has a
significant impact on vocabulary acquisition,
but reading comprehension is more
complicated and subject to a number of
additional factors, including prior or background
knowledge of the topic at hand.
The Web site is organized by pragmatic
functions such as expressions of
gratitude,leavetakings, requests, apologies,
invitations, advice, suggestions, complaints, and
reprimands.
Each topic provides a detailed pragmatic explanation,
a possible situation, video illustrations that provide a
correct model, and self-correcting activities.
The site is designed with both teachers and students in
mind. They have also collaborated to produce a
synthetic immersive learning environment called
Croquelandia to teach pragmatics that will be
examined in the next section on games. However,
Cohen&Sykes,2010 noted that progress in pragmatic
knowledge for students using these materials appears to
have been rather modest by the authors’ own
admission. Clearly,this will remain an active and
promising area for future CALL research.
Intelligent CALL (iCALL)
iCALL
iCALL is a type of feedback provided to the students working alone online
Individual instruction by providing a system of responses and interaction
based on the record’s user
Criteria of iCALL
Anticipate student’s mistakes
Offer helpful suggestions
Provide detailed and individualized level of feedback
Keep track od each student most common mistakes
3 iCALL Systems
1. E-tutor for German
2. Tagarela for Portuguese
3. Robo-Sensei for Japanese
The advantages of iCALL to language
Learning
The increased level of feedback significantly raies the student’s
grammatical awareness, sometimes by providing preemptive feedback
E-tutor
Compile a learner corpus
Provide individual exercises of grammar, vocabulary, listening & reading,
and cultural knowledge
Sentence building activities
Student can access and compare their own interlanguage with that of
their peers
Conclusion
The more specific the feedback, the easier it is to correct an error, and the
more likely students are to engage in the error correction process.
iCALL approach holds great promise foe the CALL field, but it takes time
and quite hard to develop the such system
SOCIAL COMPUTING CALL
Textual-Based Chat, Asynchronous
and Synchronous CMC
social computing and other forms of CMC constitute the
single most influential technological response to this call for
more learner control, because CMC gives both the instructors
and students the ability to direct the conversational flow
(Chapelle, 2008; Kern & Warschauer, 2000).
CMC, could refer to
1. asynchronous CMC (ACMC) : e-mails, forums, blogs, wikis,
2. synchronous CMC (SCMC) : instant messenger programs or
Skype, with or without voice or video (for a review of CMC
tools, see Lafford & Lafford, 2005).
Chat is often used to refer to just textual exchanges, but it also is used to
refer to more elaborate audio and video exchanges e.g. Skype.
This array of tools has made social computing providers (Facebook,
MySpace, and LinkedIn) an integral part of our society, especially among
our youth, by facilitating the growth of social networks via the computer.
CMC allows instructors and learners to en- gage in meaningful
negotiations with all of the positive benefits associated with scaffolding that
have been reported in the literature for face-to-face exchanges (Smith,
2009).
Some of the benefits
foreign language teachers have set up tasks that their students
accomplish by helping each other in pairs through CMC chat, with or
without sound or video.
As the students fail to understand, they may request the assistance of their
partner in order to continue working on a common solution to the
assigned task.
Some teachers have even used Facebook to stimulate their students to
interact with each other, but not without awakening certain concerns
about mixing personal networks with more academic ones.
RESEARCH ON CMC USE AND
EFFECTIVENESS
Researchers have analyzed the use of CMC from either an interactionist
(Smith, 2009) or sociocultural perspective (Belz & Thorne, 2006; Lomicka,
2006).
The interactionist approach has focused more on how L2 learners negotiate
meaning with their peers or with more expert interlocutors (i.e., advanced
learn- ers or native speakers) in the course of carrying out meaningful
exchanges of information, especially jigsaw tasks.
a coding system : <trigger ➔ indicator ➔ response ➔ reaction to the
response>
Earlier CMC interactionist studies found that negotiations of meaning
occurred in ACMC in ways similar to those exhibited in face-to-face
exchanges and with the same learning outcomes (Blake 2000; de la
Fuente, 2003; Pellettieri, 2000; Smith, 2003; Sotillo, 2000).
More recently, Yanguas (2010) has provided data to support the notion
that SCMC with video capabilities also allows students to carry out
negotiations of meaning with the same success as students working in a
face-to-face format.
Smith (2009), however, has urged researchers to improve their
methodology by supplementing text logs with video recordings in order to
capture the dynamics of these online exchanges, especially with an eye
to revealing students’ self-initiated repairs.
The sociocultural theory (SCT) have focused on CMC more by looking at
how L2 learners participate in new communities of practice—with different
levels of success in using the target language and gaining an
understanding of the new culture.
The central issue within SCT deals with the construction of an emerging L2
identity within a learning environment that provides interpersonal and
interactive scaffolding (Kramsch, 2009).
Some instructors use telecollaborations or teleconferenced tandem
learning with students from dif- ferent countries who are learning each
other’s language and culture (Darhower, 2007; O’Dowd, 2006; Ware &
Kramsch, 2005).
Oskoz (2009) has explored how learner–learner exchanges can foster the
students’ linguistic improvement (i.e., microgenetic growth) as a result of
the shared performance that takes place while working together on an
assigned task. Lee (2007) explored a similar theme with a variety of tasks:
jigsaw, spot-the-differences, and open-ended questions.
Both CMC approaches, interactionist and sociocultural, promise a rich
line of investigation for the future since social computing shows no sign of
losing its importance in our society.
GAMES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING
The Nature of Language Learning Games
GAMES FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING
The Nature of Language Learning Games
CALL researchers and curriculum developers consider game as a viable
way to stimulate learning a second language (Gee, 2007; Peterson, 2006,
2010; Sørensen & Meyer, 2007; Thorne & Black, 2007).
Several games that can facilitate language learning:
World of Warcraft, online players navigate through a fantasy world of
beasts and warriors in pursuit of different quests or battle goals.
Second Life (SL) people dress in whimsi- cal costumes in order to pursue
their own social or academic agendas.
Forgotten World English learners participate in an online comic-strip drama
that develops new linguistic skills while helping to solve the adventure story
at hand.
How do games assist students in learning
language?
Games allow people to play, and language games are no exception.
1. Designed experience. Goals, Rules/protocols to follow. Learners submit to
these goals, but only if they can con- tinue to be playful (Klopfer,
Osterweil, & Salen, 2009).
2. Role-playing
Games allow students to explore new identities in a unique state of relative
pseudonymity in a persistent or ever-present game world. This quality parallels
what language instructors are trying to get their students to do when they
learn a second language: Expand into a new bilingual or multilingual self,
something akin to what Kramsch (2009) has described with references to the
multilingual subject.
3. games foster agency, allowing players to do something and construct
meaning. Game players have to think like scientists because they must
hypothesize, probe the micro world, get a reaction, reflect on the results,
and then probe again in order to get better results.
conclusion
Given the enthusiasm with which today’s young people
engage in social net- working, it is quite possible that
language students feel particularly comfortable
connecting digitally with members of the target
culture, which would enhance their digital
communicative competence at the very least. The
same channel might also be leveraged to connect the
language classroom with other language- use areas, so
that L2 students can become lifelong language
learners, rather than dead-end students, at the
completion of the language requirement.