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Volume 15 Number 2 June 2011 Articles

Columns

Comprehending News Videotexts: The Influence of the Visual Content Abstract | Article PDF Jeremy Cross, Nanyang Technological University pp. 44–68

Tribute to Irene Thompson Article PDF by Dorothy Chun p. 1

Divergent Perceptions of Tellecollaborative Language Learning Tasks: Task-as-Workplan vs. Task-asProcess Abstract | Article PDF Melinda Dooly, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona pp. 69–91 Online Domains of Language Use: Second Language Learners’ Experiences of Virtual Community and Foreignness Abstract | Article PDF Sarah Pasfield-Neofitou, Monash University pp. 92–108

Emerging Technologies Mobile Apps for Language Learning Article PDF by Robert Godwin-Jones pp. 2–11 Action Research Edited by Fernando Naiditch Using Wordles to Teach Foreign Language Writing Article PDF by Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin pp. 12–22 Announcements News From Sponsoring Organizations Article PDF pp. 23–26

Reviews Edited by Paige Ware Moodle 2.0 Moodle.org Article PDF Reviewed by Tsun-Ju Lin pp. 27–33 Teaching Literature and Language Online Ian Lancashire (Ed.) Article PDF Reviewed by David Malinowski pp. 34–38

Contact: Editors or Managing Editor Copyright © 2011 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors.

Teaching English Language Learners through Technology Tony Erben, Ruth Ban, and Martha Castañeda Article PDF Reviewed by Jesús García Laborda and Mary Frances Litzler pp. 39–41 Corpus-Based Contrastive Studies of English and Chinese Richard Xiao and Tony McEnery Article PDF Reviewed by Zhang Xiaojun pp. 42–43

Contact: Editors or Managing Editor Copyright © 2011 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 the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL).



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 (February, June, and October).

Copyright © 2011 Language Learning & Technology, ISSN 1094-3501. Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors.

Sponsors, Board, and Editorial Staff Volume 15, Number 2 SPONSORS University of Hawai‘i National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR)

CO-SPONSOR Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)

ADVISORY AND EDITORIAL BOARDS Advisory Board Susan Gass

Michigan State University

Richard Schmidt

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa

Editorial Board Sigrun Biesenbach-Lucas Klaus Brandl Thierry Chanier Tracey Derwing Robert Godwin-Jones Regine Hampel Philip Hubbard Claire Kennedy Markus Kötter Marie-Noelle Lamy Lina Lee Meei-Ling Liaw Lara Lomicka Jill Pellettieri Bryan Smith Patrick Snellings Maggie Sokolik Susana Sotillo Paige Ware Mark Warschauer

Georgetown University University of Washington Universite Blaise Pascal University of Alberta Virginia Commonwealth University The Open University Stanford University Griffith University, Brisbane University of Münster The Open University University of New Hampshire National Taichung University University of South Carolina Santa Clara University Arizona State University University of Amsterdam University of California Berkeley Montclair State University Southern Methodist University University of California, Irvine

Editorial Staff Editors

Dorothy Chun

University of CA, Santa Barbara

Irene Thompson

The George Washington University (Emerita)

Trude Heift

Simon Fraser University

Carla Meskill

State University of New YorkAlbany

Managing Editor

Daniel Jackson

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa

Web Production Editor

Carol Wilson-Duffy

Michigan State University

Book & Multimedia Review Editor

Paige Ware

Southern Methodist University

Emerging Technologies Editor

Robert Godwin-Jones

Virginia Commonwealth University

Copy Editors

Rebecca Estes

University of California, Davis

Daniel Jackson

University of Hawai‘i at Manoa

Dennis Koyama

Kanda University of International Studies

Associate Editors

Copyright © 2011 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.

Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/tribute.pdf

June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 p. 1

TRIBUTE TO IRENE THOMPSON In July 1997, Mark Warschauer realized his vision of an open access journal for emerging research in the field of computer-assisted language learning as the founding Editor of Language Learning & Technology. A year later, in July 1998, Lucinda HartGonzález joined as a Co-Editor (serving for two years in that position), and in January 1999, Irene Thompson came on board as the third Editor. Thirteen years and 37 issues later, Irene is stepping down at the end of August 2011. I have had the great privilege and pleasure to work with Irene for the last 12 years since 2000 and would like to offer a tribute to her for helping to bring LLT to the tremendous heights it has reached. In 1998, LLT had more than 1,000 readers worldwide. In 2010, there were 18,214 official subscribers, and the journal’s Website has an average of 1,513 visitors per day, with over 552,000 visitors during the year. Since 2003, LLT has been 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, and in 2009 was ranked 3rd in Linguistics journals (out of 93) and 3rd in Education journals (out of 139). ISI Journal Citation Reports® Ranking:

Year 2009 2008 2007

Impact Factor 2.53 1.70 1.22

5 Year 3.575 2.067 No Data

Linguistics 3 out of 93 11 out of 68 13 out of 55

Education 3 out of 139 9 out of 113 14 out of 105

A study by Smith and Lafford (2009) that appeared in The Modern Language Journal surveyed expert researchers in language education and technology. These experts ranked Language Learning & Technology highest in quality in a list of 19 academic journals. LLT was also ranked first in terms of these scholars’ preferences for publishing their own research and in having benefit for tenure/promotion. All of the above successes are due in large measure to Irene Thompson’s expertise, dedication, thoroughness, attention to detail and unwavering commitment to excellence. She has worked tirelessly on all aspects of the journal, from the layout and design of the Website to the copyediting of individual articles and reviews, from performing internal reviews of the 150+ yearly submissions during the last several years to working closely with authors to craft publishable articles. During the time of her editorship, the journal has received over 1,300 submissions! Although we are on opposite ends of the continent, working with Irene these past 12 years has been seamless, enjoyable, and immensely rewarding. My heartfelt gratitude to her professionally and personally, and my very best wishes for her well deserved retirement. Despite the sadness of Irene Thompson’s departure, the journal seems to have come full circle as we welcome Mark Warschauer back as Co-Editor. LLT will no doubt continue to thrive and benefit from Mark’s visionary leadership. Aloha and mahalo to Irene and welcome back, Mark! Sincerely, Dorothy Chun Editor-in-Chief

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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/emerging.pdf

June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 pp. 2–11

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES MOBILE APPS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING Robert Godwin-Jones Virginia Commonwealth University It wasn’t that long ago that the most exciting thing you could so with your new mobile phone was to download a ringtone. Today, new iPhone or Android phone users face the quandary of which of the hundreds of thousands of apps (applications) they should choose. It seems that everyone from federal government agencies to your local bakery has an app available. This phenomenon, not surprisingly has led to tremendous interest among educators. Mobile learning (often “m-learning”) is in itself not new, but new devices with enhanced capabilities have dramatically increased the interest level, including among language educators. The Apple iPad and other new tablet computers are adding to the mobile app frenzy. In this column we will explore the state of language learning apps, the devices they run on, and how they are developed. THE CHANGING MOBILE ENVIRONMENT As long as there have been portable audio-video and computing devices, there has been interest in exploring their use in language learning. As portable cassette players yielded to iPods and other MP3 players, the new capabilities of the hardware led to enhanced use of audio-based learning such as language podcasts with integrated transcripts. As PDA’s (personal digital assistants) became more widespread with the advent of the Palm Pilot and its successors, language dictionaries, e-book grammars, and flashcard programs began to appear. Palm also was the producer of some of the first smartphones, which integrated PDA functions with new capabilities including SMS messaging, built-in cameras, and voice recording. With a small internal grant, I was able in 2002 to purchase smartphones for each of the participants in a study abroad program in Austria. The picture taking, text messaging, and dual-language dictionaries proved to be very useful, but the main point of having the phones—for the students to write travel diaries—proved to be problematic as the text input system (T9 keyboard) was too slow and errorprone for writing longer texts efficiently. This kind of issue was not unusual at the time. Five years ago in LLT, George Chinnery (2006) surveyed the state of mobile language learning. He reported on projects using mobile phones for vocabulary practice, quiz delivery, live tutoring, and email lesson content delivery, and on other projects using PDA’s for file sharing, video playback and stylus text entry. In many of these instances, Chinnery reported that technical problems arose due to the limitations inherent in the devices, in particular small, low-resolution screens (problematic for image/video display or even good text reading), poor audio quality (both in phoning and audio playback), awkward text entry, limited storage/memory and slow Internet connectivity. Many of the language learning projects were seriously hampered by these issues. Moreover, the predominant operating systems (OS) for phones and PDA’s at the time, namely Palm OS, Windows Mobile, and Nokia Symbian, offered limited features and expandability. All did allow, however, apps to be loaded onto devices, but they were few in number and limited in functionality. Web browsing was constrained and slow; Web navigation using a mini-joystick or a stylus was awkward and error-prone. A huge step up in functionality arrived with the Apple iPhone in 2007. It is not only the iPhone’s own advanced features which have proven to be a game-changer in the mobile area, but also the fact that its success has led competitors to create other equally capable devices. With the iPhone, Android devices, and Windows Phone 7 products, what used to be phones with added-on computing capabilities have morphed into mini-computers which can also make phone calls. These devices go a long ways towards solving the issues arising from early efforts in mobile assisted language learning. Screens are considerably larger, with higher resolution and clarity, and capable—through more powerful processors—

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of playing back high-resolution video smoothly. Almost all smartphones today feature a responsive touch screen which makes Web navigation much easier. Text entry is enhanced through a relatively large virtual keyboard or a full physical mini-keyboard. Many phones are capable not only of video capture, but of video (and image) editing as well as of voice recognition. Most of the new generation of smartphones have faster 3G or 4G cellular connectivity along with even faster Wi-Fi. Built-in storage is greatly enlarged, with flash memory having in recent years become cheaper, smaller, and higher capacity. Some of the functionality of current smartphones even surpasses in some ways what is available on laptops, as many include GPS chips, accelerometers, compasses, high-resolution cameras, and proximity sensors. Most incorporate Bluetooth and USB connections as well. Clearly having such powerful devices available anytime, anyplace provides tremendous opportunities for educational use. However, it is not just—or even primarily—hardware enhancements of the iPhone generation devices that hold the most promise for use in language learning. Equally important is the software and the new opportunities that arise from mobile application development. APPS ON THE RISE One of the significant software enhancements of the iPhone when first released in 2007 was the much greater usability of its Web browser, Mobile Safari. Coupled with a larger, high-resolution screen, a more powerful processor, more internal (RAM) memory, and faster Internet connectivity, Mobile Safari was able for the first time on a device its size to access and display the “full” Web. Previous phone browsers used either text only browsing, server-based on the fly re-formatting (Opera Mini), or reliance on WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), a way to rewrite HTML for display on phones. Web browsing on a phone did not deliver the same Web experience as desktop browsers. Web pages on the iPhone, by contrast, are not dumbed down in any way, but are displayed as they would appear in a normal Web browser on a desktop computer. The smaller screen size effects the readability of full-page display, but the iPhone introduced touch actions such as double tap and two-finger zoom to allow smaller text to be read. Other smartphones have similar browsers. In fact, most are based on the WebKit rendering engine developed by Apple for use in Safari. Apple has made Webkit an open source project. Another significant development with Mobile Safari was robust JavaScript support, the language that supplies much of the interactivity on the Web. Also supported was CSS 2 (cascading style sheets), which not only is important for formatting Web pages but also plays a key role in structuring the page’s “document object model” (DOM), an essential element in being able to change dynamically and programmatically elements of a page. At the same time, Apple introduced extensions to HTML and CSS which enhance the Web display on iPhones. As WebKit is used now across smartphone platforms, these tags are commonly supported and, in fact, are making their way into the specifications of HTML 5, the new version of the Web formatting language, not yet finalized, but already largely supported in many browsers. A major component of current Web publishing is, however, not supported on iPhones or on other mobile Apple devices, Adobe’s Flash; Apple believes that HTML 5 will gradually replace the use of Flash. That remains to be seen. Given the enhanced capability of mobile Safari, Apple initially encouraged developers to add functionality to the iPhone by creating Web apps, that is, HTML-based programs which used JavaScript and CSS to provide interactivity. Developers, however, were not satisfied with this approach, which did not provide full access to the capabilities of the iPhone, and in 2008 Apple announced that it would allow 3rd party native applications for the iPhone. Subsequently, a SDK (software development kit) was released for development of iPhone apps, built into Apple’s programming environment, XCode. At the same time Apple created a curated environment for distributing the new apps, the Apple App Store, integrated into the iTunes Store. The App Store has proven to be wildly successful, with some 400,000 apps to date. Other smartphone OS’s have implemented similar systems, although in general without the strict scrutiny apps submitted to the Apple store undergo. Google’s Android OS, in particular, has gained significantly in the past year in both users and number of apps. There are predictions that the number of

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Android apps will soon surpass those for Apple devices. Among these iPhone and Android apps are a good number supporting language learning. Claire Siskin has provided a nice list of apps for language learning, and others have listed and reviewed apps for all languages, or for specific languages such as Japanese, French, and ESL. Many of these apps are of similar kind to those available for some time on phones, including flashcard programs, dual language dictionaries, and phrase books. Not all are of the highest quality. In some instances, newer hardware and software have allowed for enhanced functionality. Phrase books, for instance, can now hold much more content, including video as well as audio, and integrate with online sites. Some travel guides such as the Lonely Planet apps feature advanced features such as drag-and-drop trip planners, audio phrase books, and even augmented reality, which uses phone camera views to overlay local site information. Vocabulary development programs have become more sophisticated and powerful. One I have been using for studying Chinese is eStroke. Its primary purpose is to help in learning stroke order for writing Chinese characters, but it also includes an extensive dual-language dictionary, features excellent animations, and includes personal library and quizzing functions. Another popular app for Chinese is Pleco, which starts out as a free app, but adds functionality through a large number of paid add-ons such as specialized dictionaries, enhanced handwriting recognition, and optical character recognition. ChinesePod has a nicely designed app which offers a variety of tools to work with lesson podcasts and their vocabulary/phrases. The app also automatically syncs the user’s learning status on the app with that on the Web site and allows lesson content to be downloaded for off-line study, one of the benefits of apps over the live Web. Another nice feature new smartphones offer Chinese learners, and anyone else using a non-Latin writing system, is the ease with which one can switch the virtual keyboard’s text input system, making it possible on the iPhone, for example, to enter Chinese characters by drawing them with one’s finger or switching to pinyin text entry with then the corresponding character equivalents displayed for selection. Flashcard programs have also become more powerful. A popular program of this type is Anki, a spaced repetition vocabulary study program (discussed in the LLT 14/2 column). The mobile version offers essentially the same powerful functionality as the desktop version, including deck and individual card editing, audio support, and customizable review options. It also syncs with the desktop and Web versions. The popular Quizlet flashcard system also offers a mobile app, which has an interesting auto-define function when adding new items, which allows the user to see/choose definitions that other Quizlet users have entered for that term. Wordreference.com’s app links to language discussion forums that reference the term searched. Conjugation Nation offers apps in a variety of languages for drilling verb forms. Linking a mobile app to Web services or an online database is being used more and more in language learning apps, in particular in commercial products such as Rosetta Stone or Transparent Language’s Byki, as well as in online services such as Babbel.com or hello-hello, all of which have mobile apps which sync mobile and desktop versions. Complete language courses, such as Living Language for French, are now also being offered as apps. An interesting approach to leveraging the client-server relationship on mobile devices is the Cloudbank project described by Pemberton, Winter, and Fallahkhair (2009). It uses crowdsourcing to build a database of informal English language usage, featuring an Android app communicating with a database through Web services. It also uses RSS feeds to keep users informed of new content added. Cloudbank leverages not only the ability of a smartphone to exchange information with an online database; it also makes use of a peer-to-peer network. In fact, with the rise of social networking, we are seeing more language learning apps that take advantage of this trend. The Byki app for example, allows users to search for use of terms within Twitter messages. The Micromandarin project uses the location aware program Foursquare to provide contextually relevant content for language practice. The app uses GPS to determine a user’s location and supplies vocabulary information and practice appropriate to that location: food and drink vocabulary, for instance, if the user is in a restaurant. The CLUE project makes

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similar use of GPS to supply location appropriate content and adds another dimension through tagging objects with RFID tags (radio frequency identification), whose information then can be retrieved on the smartphone. Beaudin, Intille, Tapia, Rockinson and Morris (2007) describe a similar project for vocabulary learning, using objects in the home with stick-on sensors. It seems likely that we will see app development in the future take greater advantage of some of the hardware features of new smartphones beyond the GPS chip. The accelerometer, for example, used extensively in mobile game applications, could be used in language learning games as well. Claire Siskin’s list of apps for language learning includes a category called “repurposed apps,” which discusses general purpose apps that could be used in language learning, including voice search, voice email, postcard creation, audio recording, and children’s games. Integrating audio capabilities adds a crucial component of language use and learning. A good many e-books are becoming available, especially for the iPad, which combine text, images, and audio in an attractive way. Some also include games. Many of these, such as the Town Musicians of Bremen, are designed for children, but clearly would be of interest for language learning. Google Translate for Android offers an interesting experimental feature using voice. “Conversation mode” lets users translate an utterance into the target language, which is then read aloud. One’s conversation partner can then speak in the target language and have in turn that response be translated and read aloud. Another Android voice translation app is Talk to Me, which has gotten positive reviews. While newer smartphones include voice recognition, including in some cases for languages other than English, this feature does not yet appear to have worked its way into apps. DEVELOPING FOR MOBILE DELIVERY In order to take full advantage of the hardware and OS capabilities of a mobile device, developers need to create an app using an approach consistent with that device’s programming environment. For Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), that means using Objective-C and Apple’s XCode developers’ tool. However, such apps will not run on Android devices, for which apps are written in Java running on a version of Linux. iOS apps are available exclusively from the Apple App Store (unless the iPhone is “jailbroken,” i.e., unlocked for open access), while Android apps are more widely available, from the official Android Market, Amazon’s Appstore for Android, Handango, and other repositories. As is the case with iOS apps, Android apps are free or available for a price, usually under ten US dollars. Some apps are considerably more expensive—buying all the add-ons to Pleco costs US $149. Apps are usually available in English only, few are localized for other languages. Other smartphone environments (Blackberry, WebOS [Palm/HP], Windows Phone 7) use different programming environments, all mutually incompatible. All of the different smartphone software companies make development tools available, which typically include a desktop phone simulator. Most are free, or available for a modest cost. Except for iOS development, which is Mac OS only, app development can be done on Windows or Macintosh machines, and, in some instances, on Linux. App development is currently progressing at a feverish pace, and app developers are in high demand. However, for language learning purposes, native app development may not be the best choice. Not only are the programming environments different, each also involves knowing or learning a programming language such as Objective-C or Java. Moreover, there is little carryover from developing an app in one environment to re-creating that app for a different platform. Obviously, the fundamental functionality and user interface design could be the same, but the programming will be altogether different and done using different tools. For educational use, as things stand now, it would seem that one at the least would want to have an iOS and Android version of an app, probably a Windows Phone 7 app as well, and possibly WebOS or Blackberry versions, depending on one’s user base and the market rise and fall of the various companies’ products. This could prove to be a time-consuming and expensive development process. An alternative to developing native apps is to create instead a Web app. This involves using more familiar and easier-to-learn HTML, JavaScript and CSS. All are scripting rather than programming languages,

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hence do not involve compilation into byte-code. The only tool needed is a text editor. Web apps will run and perform similarly in most smartphone environments, particularly as all but Microsoft now use WebKit. The look and feel can be quite similar to built-in apps, particularly if one uses relatively new HTML/CSS tags such as the “viewport” meta tag and CSS “webkit-border” rules. Icons/shortcuts to the Web app on the home screen allow it to be launched in a similar way to native apps. Distribution for Web apps is through a Web server, rather than from an app store. What does one sacrifice creating a Web app rather than “going native”? Execution speed is likely to be slower and the user interface not as slick. There will also be more limited access to the device hardware, including its camera, audio player or GPS. These considerations may or may not be of consequence, depending on the nature of the application. They may be outweighed by the advantage of creating one app which can be universally deployed. My second year German students have been using for the past year a simple flashcard Web app I created, which is linked both from the Blackboard course Web site and from an open, mobile-friendly link. This allows the students to use the app both from desktop browsers and mobile devices, something not doable with native iPhone or Android apps. Another possibility is to create a “hybrid app,” a Web app which is then ported through a tool such as PhoneGap to the native environment of the smartphone. This facilitates linking to some hardware features of the device. It also allows for possible distribution through one of the app stores. A number of Web apps created with PhoneGap are available from the various app stories. Creating a Web app for mobile distribution through PhoneGap or similar tools such as Appcelerator Titanium can be much easier through using templates such as those available from Mobile Boilerplate or by using a mobile-oriented JavaScript library. Among the latter is jQuery Mobile, an extension to the popular and free jQuery library. Using jQuery Mobile makes it easy to create parts of a Web app such as navigation, form elements, and page transition effects without having to write the JavaScript oneself. It supports most smartphone platforms (but not yet Windows Phone 7) and features progressive enhancement, meaning that its advanced features degrade gracefully if not supported in a given mobile browser, while maintaining across all browsers the same essential content and functionality. If not supported, for example, page transitions such as fading, flipping or sliding will simply not appear, but the new page will still be displayed. Another kind of mixed environment approach that is getting wide usage is the creation of Web-based content that automatically re-formats itself for display on a small screen. This approach uses a feature of CSS 3 called CSS media queries, which is widely supported on both mobile and desktop browsers. This involves adding a tag to the HTML header to direct a Web browser to use a size appropriate CSS style, as in the following example: In this case the page formatting will be determined by the “mobile.css” style, rather than the main CSS linked in the header of the page, if the device being used has a maximum width of 480 pixels. A similar process has been possible for some time to enable optimization of a print copy of a Web page. What is new here is the ability to specify a screen width to be used in connection with a particular style. A mockup of an online journal page from the Web design site “A List Apart” demonstrates this and displays differently depending on screen width, with the pictures either displayed in 2 columns on a phone (480 pixels wide or less), 4 columns on a typical monitor (480 to 600 pixels) or 6 columns on a widescreen monitor (wider than 600 pixels). The navigation buttons also change location depending on the screen size, namely moving to the top for a small screen. While this approach has a number of devotees, others advocate creating separate HTML pages for mobile devices. It is a trade-off between more complex code which adjusts automatically to different screen size or simpler code which must be maintained and synced in different file locations. One approach that many language developers have used in the past in creating Web-based interactivity is

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problematic in the mobile sphere, namely Flash. Traditionally, Flash has been used for video streaming, animation, and for general interactivity. Flash is not likely to ever be supported on iOS devices, but it does run on other mobile devices. Android 3.0 and some 2.x versions support Flash. However, Flash performance on mobile devices is not as robust as it is on desktop platforms. It tends to run more slowly and occasionally crashes the system on some devices, due mostly to memory issues. Adobe has been working on better performance on mobile devices, and it seems likely performance will improve in the near future. However, if it’s possible to use HTML 5 rather than Flash—which may or may not be possible—that is advisable for the widest possible compatibility. OUTLOOK: TABLETS ALSO ON THE RISE Complicating app development even more is the arrival of touchscreen tablets. The iPad, introduced in 2010, has been a phenomenal success for Apple, with sales far exceeding most expectations and eclipsing sales of earlier tablet computers, which never caught on except in narrow niche markets. Apps developed for the iPhone will also run on the iOS-based iPad but to take advantage of the larger screen need to be modified, which may entail a revamping of the user interface. One of the first commercial language learning apps designed specially for the iPad was the heavily marketed hello-hello app, available for several different languages. Meanwhile, tablets from other manufacturers are becoming available, many using the Android OS. The Android tablets vary in sizes, most either 7 or 10 inches, with likely more variation in future models. Given this scenario, it seems all the more advisable for developers to consider creating a Web app with a fluid grid that adjusts automatically to different environments. It looks likely that tablets will be a popular product in the near future, so having language learning applications that work in that environment seems highly desirable. Of course, a special use case may make creation of a native app more appropriate, especially if the target audience has a marked predominance of one platform, or if hardware linkage is an important part of the project. It’s unfortunate that today in mobile software development, we seem to have gone back to the days when developers had to make a choice that excluded a large part of their possible market, as in deciding between Mac-based HyperCard or Windows only Toolbook. The Web has been an environment which has brought peace to the platform religion wars but we are starting to see a new war of words being waged between iOS and Android partisans. As recently as 2007, a comprehensive review of mobile assisted language learning by Agnes KukukskaHulme and Lesley Shield found that for the most part uses of mobile devices were pedestrian, uncreative, and repetitive and did not take advantage of the mobility, peer connectivity, or advanced communication features of mobile devices. Most activities were teacher-led and scheduled, not leveraging the anytime, anyplace mobile environment. Oral interactions and learner collaboration were infrequently used. The problem is less one of hardware/software shortcomings and more in developers’ conceptualization of how language learning could be enhanced in new, innovative ways with the assistance of mobile devices. The new mobile computing environment ushered in by the arrival of the iPhone gives us even more capability of which to take advantage. It would be a shame to fall into only the same use patterns as in the past. In a recent post to his mobile ESL blog, David Read describes what he would like to see in a language app. He envisions a photo translation function that would make use of the built-in camera as a scanner to read in, recognize, and translate items from menus, posters, or other realia, similar to how that works now in the SnaPanda program (Android). He would also like to see new approaches to accessing language corpora on small screens as well as ways to look up and display items simultaneously from a variety of online dictionaries, with the added ability to add items from all these sources—scanning, look-up, corpora—to a personal word bank. It would be interesting to see such functions combined as well with an intelligent tutoring system (ITS). A step in that direction is the TenseITS project (Cui & Bull, 2004) which featured a mobile ITS using context and location of the user to determine which verbs to use in drill exercises. The PDAs used in the project were hampered by limited memory capacity; the new generation of mobile devices could make mobile ITS a more doable proposition. Chen and Li (2010) describe a project which combines context/location awareness with a rudimentary kind of ITS, with content delivered based on a

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user’s profile/learning history and current location. In this case location was determined by nodes in a wide-area network, but GPS could also be used. With the good connectivity now available on mobile devices, adding a social dimension to location-aware learning apps would be beneficial, allowing users to share context-specific learning experiences. It is not just the mobility, enhanced hardware, and better software of new mobile devices that should encourage new thinking. The devices in and of themselves encourage a new kind of relationship between user and machine. The responsive touchscreen interface seems to create a more personal, even intimate connection, becoming part of one’s personal identity. According to a recent report on creating mobile apps from Forrester Research, the emotional bond often created is something to keep in mind when developing mobile apps. The devices are more personal also in the sense that they are individually highly customizable and small enough to be always within reach. It’s also the case that both smartphones and tablets tend to focus the attention more on one task at a time than is the case with regular computers. Although multi-tasking to one degree or another is available on these devices, the screen size and touch interface tend to invite users to focus exclusively on the program running in the foreground. For educational uses, this may present a welcome opportunity to capture, at least for a short time, the full attention of the learner. Desktop and laptop computers will continue to be used, but as mobile devices proliferate, their use may change. Apple devices are still tied to using a computer for storage and syncing, but the predominant movement these days is towards over-the-air syncing and resources residing “in the cloud” rather than on a personal computer. With faster Internet connections, client-user interactions through Ajax (JavaScript-based server interactions) or other means work faster and smoother, making it possible to draw data more efficiently from online sources for smoother interactions in an ITS or other program involving heavy data usage. As personal devices, smartphones are ideal for individualized informal learning. The user determines which apps to acquire and how to use them. As language educators, we should encourage and assist the learner autonomy this enables and provide means for learners to combine formal and informal learning. Song and Fox (2008) describe a project which features an open-ended, student-oriented approach to vocabulary learning in which EFL students were provided access to and guidance on using a variety of vocabulary building tools. The article describes the considerable variety of tools and approaches eventually chosen by the students. This kind of activity becomes even more powerful when coupled with the ability for students to show or discuss their methods and findings with their peers. The photo blogging project described by Wong, Chin, Tan, and Liu (2010) involved students using iPhones to take photos to illustrate Chinese idioms being studied and to share their photos and comments with the class through a wiki. Students were encouraged to take photos based on their daily lives using their immediate surroundings. This use of the student’s actual environment improves upon similar projects that have used an artificial space such as a lab (Stockwell, 2008) or a classroom (Liu, 2009). We know that learning becomes more real and permanent when tied to learners’ lives outside the academic environment. Mobile devices are a great way to achieve that goal. Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that we are far from seeing universal ownership of smartphones—they are still too expensive for many budgets. Designing exclusively for smartphone usage will necessarily exclude many users. Smartphone penetration will likely gain worldwide in coming years, but not at the same pace everywhere. At the same time, phone and tablet models—both hardware and software—will evolve from their current state. Given how competitive and profitable that market has become, the pace of innovation is likely to be rapid. As mobile devices become even more powerful and versatile, we are likely to see more users make them their primary, perhaps their sole computing devices. This is not a trend language educators can ignore.

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Robert Godwin-Jones

Emerging Technologies: Mobile Apps for Language Learning

REFERENCES Beaudin, J. S., Intille, S. S., Tapia, E. M., Rockinson, R., & Morris, M. E. (2007). Context-sensitive microlearning of foreign language vocabulary on a mobile device. In B. Schiele, A. K. Dey, H. Gellersen, B. de Ruyter, M. Tscheligi, R. Wichert, E. Aarts, & A. Buchmann. (Eds.), Ambient intelligence (pp. 55– 72). (Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science). Volume 4794/2007. Berlin: Springer. Chen, C-M., & Li, Y-L. (2010). Personalized context-aware ubiquitous learning system for supporting effective English vocabulary learning. Interactive Learning Environments, 18(4), 341–364. Chinnery, G. M. (2006). Going to the MALL: Mobile assisted language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 10(1), 9–16. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/vol10num1/pdf/emerging.pdf Cui, Y., & Bull, S. (2005). Context and learner modelling for the mobile foreign language learner. System, 33, 353–367. Kukulska-Hulme, A., & Shield, L. (2007). An overview of mobile assisted language learning: Can mobile devices support collaborative practice in speaking and listening? Paper presented at EuroCALL 2007, Conference Virtual Strand, September, 2007. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=

10.1.1.84.1398&rep=rep1&type=pdf Liu, T.-Y. (2009). A context-aware ubiquitous learning environment for language listening and speaking. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 25(6), 515–527. Pemberton, L., Winter, M., & Fallahkhair, S. (2009). A user created content approach to mobile knowledge sharing for advanced language learners. Proceedings of mLearn 2009, Orlando, Florida, 184– 187. Song, Y., & Fox, R. (2008). Using PDA for undergraduate student incidental vocabulary testing. European Association for Computer Assisted Language Learning, 20(3), 290–314. Stockwell, G. (2008). Investigating learner preparedness for and usage patterns of mobile learning. ReCALL, 20(3), 253–270. Wong, L.-H., Chin, C.-K., Tan, C.-L., & Liu, M. (2010). Students’ personal and social meaning making in a Chinese idiom mobile learning environment. Educational Technology & Society, 13(4), 15–26.

RESOURCE LIST Language Learning and Mobile Apps •

Language Learning Applications for Smartphones, or Small Can Be Beautiful – Clair Siskin’s list



Brief Review of Language Learning Apps – HRC Blog



Learnosity Blog : Mobile Applications for Language Learning



Move Over, Rosetta Stone: Mobile Language Apps Make Learning Fun



Mobile Application for Language Learning – MALL Research Project Report from the schools online initiative



Cool Apps for Language Learning



50 iPhone Apps to Help You Learn a New Language



How I’m using my iPad to learn languages

Language Learning & Technology

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Robert Godwin-Jones

Emerging Technologies: Mobile Apps for Language Learning



Google Docs gets Android, iPhone editing in 44 languages



Mobile Language Learning: Learn Japanese on the Go



Mobile ESL: My perfect language learning mobile app



TOTALe Companion – For Rosetta Stone



Byki Mobile App



Quizlet – App



Conjugation Nation – Verb form app



WordReference.com app



CloudBank Project – Crowd-sourcing project with Android app

App Development •

Mobile application development – Good introduction from Wikipedia



Mobile app development trends - what languages should you be learning? – Nice overview of different platforms



Mobile App Design Best Practices - Forrester Research – Comprehensive but expensive



What is Android? | Android Developers – Good starting point



iOS Development Center – Starting point from Apple for developing iPhone and iPad apps



BlackBerry Developer Zone



WebOS Developer Center



Introduction to Windows Phone 7 Development)



How To Port an iPhone Application to the iPad



Green’s Opinion: From iPhone to iPad: Creating a Universal Application

Web Apps and Mobile-friendly Web Publishing •

Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 – From the W3



ADL Mobile - Mobile Learning Research



Designing Web Sites for Phone Browsers – Microsoft



New to Mobile? Welcome to the One Web Debate



Mobile Application Development: Web vs. Native - ACM Queue



Responsive Web Design or Separate Mobile Site? Eh. It Depends



A List Apart: Articles: Responsive Web Design



A Flexible Grid



jQTouch - jQuery plugin for mobile Web development



Sencha - Desktop and Mobile JavaScript Frameworks



PhoneGap



Baker Ebook Framework

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Robert Godwin-Jones

Emerging Technologies: Mobile Apps for Language Learning



jQuery Mobile | jQuery Mobile



Nuance Mobile Developer Program: Dragon Mobile SDK



Need a Mobile Web App Template? Mobile Boilerplate 1.0 is Here



CSS3 Media Queries



css3-mediaqueries-js – Library to use css media queries in supported browsers

Language Learning & Technology

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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/actionresearch.pdf

June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 pp. 12–22

ACTION RESEARCH USING WORDLES TO TEACH FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING Melissa Baralt, Florida International University Susan Pennestri, Georgetown University Marie Selvandin, Georgetown University This paper introduces readers to Wordle, a data visualization tool, and describes how word clouds, or wordles generated by Wordle, were used in an action research project designed to facilitate the teaching of foreign language (FL) writing within a dual coding theoretical framework. Over the course of one semester, students in a third-semester university FL Spanish course submitted drafts of their compositions electronically to create wordles (word clouds). The wordles were then used as visual tools to discuss students' writing development, writing strategies, and lexical acquisition. Word frequency counts along with wordles also contributed to student-centered discussions about writing. The paper concludes with a discussion of ways in which instructors can incorporate wordles into their FL classrooms to facilitate the teaching of L2 writing, as well as use them as tools to promote vocabulary development and communicative task-based teaching and learning. USING WORDLES TO TEACH FOREIGN LANGUAGE WRITING Data visualization tools have recently generated increased interest in multiple disciplines due to their ability to present and summarize data in ways that appeal to different types of learners. One type of data visualization, word clouds, assists in accentuating the main points of text-based information. In a matter of a few seconds, a word cloud highlights the main ideas by presenting words used in a text in the shape of a cloud, with the biggest words being those that were most frequently employed in the text. While numerous ideas exist for the potential of word clouds, there is relatively little research on whether and how they can facilitate the teaching and learning of vocabulary. No study exists to date that explores their potential in the FL classroom. In examining one type of data visualization tool for word clouds, Wordle, the present paper aims to fill this gap by carrying out an action research project during which “wordles” were incorporated into a Spanish foreign language (FL) classroom. The project had two goals: to facilitate the teaching of writing in class and to improve students’ writing in the FL. The first part of the paper that reports on this project contains a brief discussion of data visualization as a learning tool by specifically examining word clouds and how they have been used in previous research. The second part describes an action research project conducted by the authors using Wordle. The final section discusses the outcome of the project and provides suggestions for incorporating word clouds into the FL classroom. Throughout the paper, the term wordle is used to refer to a word cloud in general, while the capitalized term Wordle refers to the specific application tool created by Jonathan Feinberg (2009). Data Visualization Data visualization refers to the use of tools for representing data in the form of charts, maps, tag clouds, animation, or any graphical means that make content easier to understand (Barret, 2010). It serves as a way to communicate information clearly and effectively through visual representation, sometimes even via animated multimedia (see Friendly, 2008, for an excellent review of the history of data visualization through the centuries). Over the past few years, the use of data visualizations has increased rapidly in academia and in other contexts. These tools can help facilitate the understanding of complex events or phenomena because they present data in a multimodal way, incorporating visual, phonological, textual, and even animated input. For example, data visualization was used to report on the 2010 midterm elections in the United States (see CNN© video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnPjjAfcIgI).

Copyright © 2011, ISSN 1094-3501

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

Wordle It is only recently that data visualization has become more accessible to the general public. Using widely available Web 2.0 tools, users can now easily create data visualizations without needing to know the technology used to create word cloud output. Creating data visualizations is now as easy as pasting information into a browser’s window and choosing an output style, thanks to the many Websites that provide these tools for free to the public. Word clouds are one of the most popular forms of data visualization. A word cloud, also called text cloud or tag cloud, is a visual representation of word frequency. The size of each word in a cloud depends on how many times it appears throughout the text. As the frequency of the word increases, the size of the word in the cloud becomes larger as well. The importance of a word is thus visualized in the cloud according to its font size. A number of free word cloud tools are available, such as Tagxedo, Tagul, Wordsift, and Tag Crowd. One of the most popular word cloud generators is Wordle, created by IBM developer Jonathan Feinberg. Feinberg also built Word-Cloud Generator (WCG), the tool found in the widely-known interactive data visualization site called Many Eyes (http://www958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/). Defined by Feinberg as a “toy,” Wordle is used by many for its simplicity and its visually appealing results. Users simply need to copy text from any source and paste it into Wordle, which performs statistical analyses of the text and organizes it by word frequency. Users can then change the font, shape and color scheme of the resulting image, remove any unwanted words, and view the total word frequency counts in a separate chart. Figure 1 below shows a word cloud created by the authors using Wordle.

Figure 1. Example word cloud from Wordle.net (created by the authors). Word Clouds in Research Only a small number of studies (Cidell, 2010; McNaught & Lam, 2010; Pendergast, 2010; Ramsden & Bate, 2008) has conducted research with word clouds, all within the last four years. Pendergast (2010) used “tag clouds” to perform an analysis of the most commonly used terms from documents published by the American Association for Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS), creating what she referred to as a “folksonomy” of texts (p. 292-3). She showed that the clouds revealed a visual hierarchy of text, and concluded by suggesting that tag clouds be included on Websites next to the published documents. Pendergast argued that doing so would appeal to multiple generations, including the “millennials,” who, according to her, are multiliterate and tend to prefer visual over textual information (p. 297).

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

Cidell (2010) suggested that “content clouds” may serve as a form of exploratory qualitative data analysis (p. 516). She carried out a study with geographical data from public meeting transcripts and newspaper articles about “green” buildings. Using both visual content clouds and word frequency reports to carry out two case studies, Cidell showed visually how the same environmental issues are understood in different ways across the country. McNaught and Lam (2010) also supported the use of word clouds, arguing that they can be used as supplementary research tools for the triangulation of data (i.e., using multiple methods and data sources to obtain a more reliable picture of the phenomenon being explored). They carried out a study in which transcripts from two student focus groups, Chinese secondary school science students and second year law students, were analyzed. The researchers used Wordle to assess students’ blog entries about their educational experiences as well as the use of ebooks. They were able to demonstrate the vast differences among student experiences, as well as to qualitatively corroborate their quantitative findings about students’ perception of the value of both the focus groups and ebooks. Finally, Ramsden and Bate (2008) discussed the potential for word clouds to contribute to the field of education. They described how word clouds can be used to examine teacher responses to a survey about podcasting in educational contexts. The authors concluded by suggesting other uses for wordles (e.g., gathering informal feedback during large group instruction), as well as considerations teachers should take into account when creating word clouds, for example, the selection of software, data preparation, and how to interpret a word cloud. Word Clouds in Education To our knowledge, there is currently no research on the implementation of word clouds in the classroom. Rather, there are resources and suggestions for teachers on how to use word clouds. For example, Mehta (2007) created a Website that uses word clouds to analyze the speeches of U.S. presidents called U.S. Presidential Speeches Tag Clouds. Users can drag a timeline cursor to compare the frequency and trends of word use by all of the presidents. Another example is the Website www.gapminder.org, which has a section entirely dedicated to materials for teachers, such as the data visualization graph of wealth and health of nations. Not surprisingly, most literature on ways that teachers might incorporate word clouds is available on the Internet, typically in the form of blogs. One of the most detailed blogs with ideas for teachers is the Website The Clever Sheep, maintained by a Canadian high school teacher Rodd Lucier who proposes a number of educational uses for word clouds (Lucier, 2008). Dual Coding Hypothesis The theoretical framework for using wordles in the classroom is based on the dual coding hypothesis (Paivio, 1986). Engaging in class-based discussion about the meaning of words while simultaneously being able to look at them in a wordle, thus presenting learners with visual and auditory input concurrently, may help them to process and to retain vocabulary more effectively. According to Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory, as well as to recent empirical findings about the way in which human brains process information (see Sousa, 2006, for a review), both verbal and nonverbal knowledge contribute to lexical representation of words in the mind. In reviewing what brain research tells us about second language learning, Genesee (2000) explains that “as connections are formed among adjacent neurons to form circuits, connections also begin to form with neurons in other regions of the brain that are associated with visual, tactile, and even olfactory information related to the sounds of words” (p. 2). Using multimediabased input in class such as wordles should facilitate learners’ ability to make meaningful connections among written, oral, and visual information, since the dual coding theory postulates that the mind processes and encodes information in multiple ways. There is clearly a need, then, for studies that show whether and if so, how, word clouds can enhance teaching and learning. The present study sought to address this need by carrying out an action research project exploring the potential of word clouds in a FL classroom context.

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

THE PRESENT STUDY To investigate the potential of word clouds in a FL classroom, an action research project was designed using Wordle to enhance essay-writing skills in an intermediate-level FL Spanish class. The steps used in the present project were adapted from Mackey and Gass’s (2005) explanation of action research, specifically to (a) incorporate “wordles” in the FL classroom to facilitate the teaching of writing in Spanish and (b) improve students’ FL writing. To follow is a description of the classroom context and each step taken during the research project. Classroom Context Wordles were incorporated into an Intermediate-level Spanish FL class at a private research university. In a class of 18 students, which met for 50 minutes three times a week, students were assigned communicative tasks to perform with their peers in order to practice newly learned vocabulary and grammar. Students were also regularly assessed in speaking, reading, listening and writing. For the writing component, students wrote four compositions throughout the semester, each with two drafts. Some days of instruction were designated for in-class writing workshops that served as an opportunity for discussing the writing process and writing strategies, and also for receiving instructor and peer feedback. The writing workshops were conducted as a class and were typically divided into two parts. During the first half of the workshop (25 minutes), the instructor discussed with students how to write in different genres such as narration, argumentation, and presentation in Spanish. Spanish transition words, such as paragraph markers, were presented, as well as writing techniques and formats that students could employ in their essays. The instructor also dedicated time to review common intermediate-level errors in writing. During the second half of the workshop (25 minutes), students worked in pairs to develop and discuss their essay topics, work on outlines, and ask questions. The writing workshops were conducted in Spanish. All four composition topics covered cultural themes introduced in the course. Students were expected to be able to: present information formally with an introduction, supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion; use accurate grammar; and incorporate the instructor’s feedback into their writing. These expectations were clearly communicated to the students. Action Research Stage 1: Identification of the Problem and Hypothesis The instructor observed two main issues in students’ writing, which served as the foci of the current project: (1) continuous repetition of errors in students’ essays, and (2) students’ reliance on high frequency words, without trying to incorporate new ones into their writing. In other words, students rarely employed new vocabulary, relying instead on the same words. Below are some examples from student compositions. Pienso que estereotipos no están basados en la realidad por muchos razones. Primero, un estereotipo que pienso que no es cierto es el estereotipo que atletas son brutos y no son inteligentes. Un otro estereotipo es que personas gordas son gordas porque no hacen ejercicio; este también es falso por muchas razones. Muchas personas piensan que ... “I think that stereotypes are not based on reality for many reasons. First, a stereotype that I think is not certain is the stereotype that athletes are dumb and are not intelligent. One other stereotype is that fat people are fat because they do not do exercise; this is also false for many reasons. Many people think that …” Note that the verb pensar “to think” is used three times; the adjective mucho “many” three times, and the un otro “one other” is used instead of otro “another,” a common error. Despite class discussions about the use of new lexical items, students often relied on words with which they were most comfortable. The instructor therefore wanted to develop a more student-centered way to promote more lexical creativity

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

and grammatical accuracy. In consultation with the instructional technology staff, the instructor decided to use wordles as a teaching tool during the writing workshops. Because wordles are used for visualizing the text and could be based on the students’ own compositions, the instructor hypothesized that their use could have a positive effect on student writing. Action Research Stage 2: Data Collection Data collection for this action research project came from three sources. First, at each draft stage, the instructor used Wordle to create one whole-class-based wordle as well as a word frequency count from all of the students’ compositions. Second, after each writing workshop, the instructor wrote a teaching reflection about the class discussion and how students responded to the wordles. Lastly, at the end of the semester, the instructor asked students about their own perceptions of the use of Wordle for the writing process. For the second composition, students were asked to submit their first draft to the instructor electronically. Using Wordle, the instructor then created a single wordle based on all the students’ compositions. During the next class meeting and writing workshop, the instructor showed the resulting wordle to the class.

Figure 2. Students’ first wordle for draft one of composition two.

Figure 3. Students’ wordle for the second draft of composition two.

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

As can be seen in the wordle in Figure 2, the largest words were those most frequently used in the students’ writing. Using the wordle, the students and the instructor engaged in a dialogue about vocabulary items they had used, the different tenses, and even themes that their peers had written about. The class discussion during the workshop was therefore focused entirely on the students’ own use of words. By examining the wordle in Figure 2 as a visual representation of the students’ own writing, the instructor addressed issues in writing in a way that was based primarily on the students’ written production instead of the teacher’s feedback. Together, the class then came up with the goal of having students use five new vocabulary words in their second composition draft. For the next writing workshop, students again sent their second draft electronically to the instructor. Figure 3 shows the wordle from the second draft of the second composition. This wordle showed that more words were used in the second draft than in the first one. To provide additional evidence, the instructor used the “show word counts” tool on the Wordle Website to create a corpus count of every word used in all 18 student compositions (Figure 4). While the total number of word types that students as a class used in their first draft was 1,134, the second draft word count was 1, 258. Furthermore, in addition to showing the total number of word types used by the students, the instructor showed them the frequency of each word. For example, in the first draft, the high frequency word mucho “many” was used 48 times across students’ compositions. In the second draft, it was used only 21 times, meaning that students were using different adjectives in their writing. Both tools also showed students how many tenses they had produced, the different uses of adjectives, and how they showed grammatical agreement. The word frequency list also allowed the class to discuss topics in orthography: in scrolling down the word count list, a student pointed out that observaciones “observations” was listed twice. A closer examination revealed that across all 18 compositions, there were two uses of observaciones and two uses of observaciónes with an accent mark on the penultimate syllable. Students then inquired about which was correct, noticing their equal frequency. The instructor invited students to brainstorm about syllabification rules in groups. As a class, the students concluded that the single form observación has an accent, but maybe the plural form does not need one. This allowed the instructor to briefly discuss accentuation in a way that was based on the students’ own writing. To conclude workshop 2, students established further goals for their next composition: a continued incorporation of new vocabulary words as well as the use of tenses besides only the present and past. One student also reminded the class to think about accent marks when an extra syllable is added to the word. Goals, therefore, were student-generated for the next composition and writing workshop. In the third composition, students’ writing continued to improve in the areas of grammatical complexity, accuracy, and use of new vocabulary, as indicated by an improvement in the average composition grade calculated with a rubric in these three areas, among others. Anecdotally, students reported to the instructor that they enjoyed the Wordle tool and looked forward to seeing the class wordle getting bigger with each successive draft. By the third composition, the whole-class wordle contained 1,476 word types. Some students used new vocabulary that had specifically come up during the class discussions of their writing. There was also a notable decrease in the use of commonly used words, such as mucho “many,” pienso que “I think that,” and personas “persons”. The wordle helped to discourage use of common words, because students knew that they would show up in the class wordles. The end goal of seeing the wordle grow promoted the incorporation of new lexical items in their FL writing.

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

Figure 4. Excerpt from word frequency count (produced by the same Wordle tool). One incident that took place during a conversation about the students’ third composition was particularly revealing. The name Bob was present in the second wordle (composition 3, draft 2). During the following writing workshop, the instructor asked students to identify any words they did not recognize in the wordle, and then invited the authors who had used those words to define them in class. A student raised his hand and asked “¿Quién es Bob?” (“Who is Bob?”). After much laughter from the class, the student who had written about Bob explained that Bob was his uncle who had dressed up as a clown one year for his birthday. Notably, this excerpt had an error in it: the student’s first draft contained the erroneous form vestió, “dressed,” which the instructor corrected to se vistió (irregular spelling and reflexive form). The student, while telling the class about Bob, produced the correct form (se vistió) and went on to explain that this irregular verb had been corrected in his first composition, but that he had remembered the correct form. The humorous conversation about Bob turned into a form-focused incident during which the student himself drew attention to a linguistic form in front of the whole class. Thus, a student’s observation resulted in another student’s consideration of grammatical accuracy, while sharing a meaningful story. This moment in class illustrated how opportunities to talk about the writing process, grammar, and feedback, namely, the instructor’s corrections of students’ compositions, were facilitated by the use of wordles. By the fourth composition, the wordle for students’ compositions had grown by another 50 words, as can be seen in Figure 5. Not only were students using more vocabulary in their writing, they also were employing and trying out new grammatical tenses, as demonstrated by both the wordle and corpus word frequency count.

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

Figure 5. Students’ wordle for final composition. For example, the first wordle and word frequency count showed that students employed only the present and past tense; however, by the fourth composition, they were using the present, past, future, perfect tenses, and even the present subjunctive. Though the addition of these tenses and moods was a function of new grammar learned during the semester, the wordles helped to show how much students had learned and how much they could express in writing by the end of the semester. It is important to point out that the very mechanisms of their writing served as the focal points of their own class discussions about the writing process. Action Research Stage 3: Qualitative Evaluation of the Effects of Wordle At the end of the semester, the instructor asked students to share their thoughts about the use of Wordle and whether or not they thought it was an effective tool to learn about writing in Spanish. Students were asked to write their opinions anonymously. 100% of the students thought that the use of Wordle was worthwhile and that it was a valuable tool to help them improve their writing. Many credited the wordles with making the writing workshops much more enjoyable and interesting than traditional ones. Students also made reference to the visual component of wordles. Below are some student comments: “I really like the wordles. They were fun and different. They also were interesting in that they showed me what everyone else was writing about. I got to know my classmates a little better.” “The wordles definitely helped me in my writing. I especially liked that [the instructor] actually showed us how many more words we were writing with, how our grammar was improving … for me, having something visual just helps me more.” “Using wordles for me was better because it made the writing workshop days more interesting. I normally hate writing workshop days! The visual of what everyone was writing about made it more interesting.” “… What I liked was that it was a way of making art from our class’ compositions. It made me more interested in writing, and I can honestly say I learned some words by studying the wordles.” These student comments corroborated perceptions expressed in the teaching reflection journal kept by the instructor. After the first writing workshop, the instructor reflected on how she felt and how students seemed to respond: Today I felt like I really was able to get them interested in writing in Spanish! They seemed to come alive when I showed them the wordle and explained that it was made up of every one of their compositions. For the first time I felt like I wasn’t up there in front of the class lecturing about

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

writing. Writing workshops are sometimes difficult for me in that sense, because it’s hard to make the very topic of writing be student-centered and communicative. They seemed so interested and so much more willing to talk about their compositions, and I was able to use the wordle to get them to initiate the discussion. This definitely started by talking about the vocabulary they used, asking which words they recognized and which they didn’t. I think the word frequency count will help too—I’m going to try that next time and see how they react to it. The best part of today though, was the fact that the students came up with goals to improve the next round of compositions. This made me ecstatic, because I wasn’t telling them what to do—they thought of the ideas themselves. By the end of the semester, the instructor wrote the following as a conclusion to the action research project: … I feel like I have finally found something to really enhance my teaching about writing. The wordles were an excellent way to help me teach more effectively this semester, because I felt that I was connecting with my students better. As I’ve taught this class before, I definitely feel that wordles assisted in obtaining better writing on behalf of the students too. They were fun, were visual, and were created from the students’ work … they helped me to motivate my students about writing. The instructor’s impression of the use of wordles to assist in teaching about FL writing was very similar to that of the students: effective, novel, and enjoyable. Not only did the class discussions and workshop days become more student-centered, students also improved in their writing by incorporating new vocabulary into their essays, using grammar more accurately, and incorporating more content in their writing. Both the instructor and students had positive perceptions of wordles, confirming the instructor’s hypothesis that wordles could be an effective tool for improving student writing. DISCUSSION This action research project was designed to address problems in students’ FL writing as identified by the instructor, as well as to improve instruction in writing workshops. The incorporation of wordles into the classroom as an instructional tool resulted in the students using more varied vocabulary, more verb tenses, and more accurate grammar in their writing. In addition, feedback on students’ perceptions of wordle as a tool to help them improve their writing was very positive. From the instructor’s perspective, wordles enhanced the teaching of writing workshops and made them more effective and student-centered. Other Uses of Word Clouds in the FL Classroom The action research project described above demonstrated how word clouds can be used to facilitate the teaching of FL writing. However, they can certainly be employed as well for other languages, purposes, and for different types of tasks in FL instruction. For example, the Wordle application also supports Cyrillic, Devanagari, Hebrew, Arabic, and Greek scripts, and therefore can be used for many other foreign languages. To conclude, we would like to propose further suggestions for FL instructors such as: Vocabulary Development Instructors can create wordles from a text and have students learn and be tested on new words. For example, instructors can create a word cloud from a news article and use it to start an in-class conversation about current events. Students can use the word cloud visual to ask questions about words they might not know and/or as a means of input when discussing current events. Pre-communicative Task Phase Instructors can use word clouds during the pre-task phase of communicative tasks for which students are required to use new vocabulary. Students can be given a few minutes to study the word cloud and ask questions; they can then continue to refer to it as a visual means of vocabulary assistance while engaging in conversational interaction.

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

Pre-reading Activity Students can engage in discussions using key words produced in a word cloud and make predictions about the content before reading the actual text. Brainstorming Students can use word clouds to generate ideas for new writing topics and/or themes. Reflection Students can use Wordle as a reflective tool for writing projects. For example, a wordle can be created for each essay that a class writes; wordles could be displayed as art forms illustrating the different genres and topics the class wrote about. Assessment Instructors can create word clouds from students’ individual essays and use them for self-assessment purposes. Similar to the present study, the resulting word clouds as well as word frequency counts can show students’ individual progress towards improving their vocabulary. The source of text could derive from blog posts as opposed to essays; this could be especially relevant for online classes. Define Main Ideas Students can use Wordle to make a word cloud out of a speech or newspaper article in the target language to discover and highlight the main ideas. CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH In this action research project, wordles helped the instructor to foster more student-centered discussion of writing in class. In addition, they helped students to improve their writing. This study also aimed to contribute to the body of literature on emerging technology, in this case, wordles as data visualization tools. A limitation of this study is its possible lack of generalizability. Findings in action research projects are typically relevant to the specific class under investigation, its students, and its own unique characteristics. While the use of wordles was successful in the current project, it may yield different results in other classrooms, contexts, and even languages. In addition, any instructor who wants to use Wordle must have a Java-enabled Web browser. If the in-class computer does not have java applets, the instructor may need to take a screen shot of the wordle before class. Finally, the algorithm used by Wordle automatically eliminates “common words” unless the instructor turns off this option. It is possible that “common words” are treated differently across languages. While this study is classroom-specific, our goal is to share the results of the project with other FL instructors so that they too can consider the implementation of word clouds as well as other forms of data visualization tools in their classrooms. Further empirical studies, action research projects, and even classroom tasks are needed so that we learn more about how data visualization tools afford opportunities for teaching and learning in a variety of contexts and languages.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Melissa Baralt is an Assistant Professor of Spanish Applied Linguistics at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. She does research in second language acquisition, bilingualism, and task-based language learning that involves technology. E-mail: [email protected]

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Melissa Baralt, Susan Pennestri, and Marie Selvandin

Action Research: Using Wordles

Susan Pennestri is an Instructional Technologist at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She works with faculty across all disciplines to enhance instruction through the use of technology in ways that are pedagogically appropriate. E-mail: [email protected] Marie Selvanadin is a Web Application Developer at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. She designs and develops Web applications that meet the pedagogical needs of faculty members, as well as research on new Web applications. E-mail: [email protected]

REFERENCES Barret, T. (2010). Forty-five interesting ways* to use Wordle in the classroom [Slideshare slides]. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/boazchoi/fortyfive-interesting-ways-to-use-wordle-in-theclassroom Cidell, J. (2010). Content clouds as exploratory qualitative data analysis. AREA, 42, 514–23. Educause (2009). 7 things you should know about…Data Visualization II. Retrieved from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7052.pdf Feinberg, J. (2009). Wordle. Retrieved from http://www.wordle.net/ Friendly, M. (2008). A brief history of data visualization. In C.-H. Chen, W. K. Härdle, & A. Unwin (Eds.), Handbook of computational statistics: Data visualization (pp. 15–56). New York: Springer. Genesee, F. (2000). Brain research: Implications for second language learning. Eric Digest, EDO-FL00012, 1–2. Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0012brain.html Lucier, R. (2008). Top 20 uses for Wordle. Retrieved from http://thecleversheep.blogspot.com/ 2008/10/top-20-uses-for-wordle.html Mackey, A., & Gass, S. M. (2005). Second language research: Methodology and design. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mehta, C. (2007). US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud. Retrieved from http://chir.ag/projects/preztags/ McNaught, C., & Lam, P. (2010). Using Wordle as a supplementary research tool. The Qualitative Report, 15(3), 630–643. Retrieved from http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/ Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representation: A dual-coding approach. New York: Cambridge University Press. Pendergast, D. (2010). Connecting with Millennials: Using tag clouds to build a folksonomy from key home economics documents. Family & Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 38, 289–302. Ramsden, A., & Bate, A. (2008). Using word clouds in teaching and learning. Retrieved from http://opus.bath.ac.uk/474/1/using%2520word%2520clouds%2520in%2520teachi ng%2520and%2520learning.pdf Sousa, D. A. (2006). How the brain learns. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/news.pdf

June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 pp. 23–26

NEWS FROM SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS Sponsors University of Hawai‘i National Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR) Co-Sponsor Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)

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 workshops and conferences for language professionals among its many activities. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Our 2011 Summer Institute on Online Learning Communities for Less Commonly Taught Languages will bring together faculty from participating institutions to build language-specific online cafés. Participants will structure thematic café content rubrics, participate in training sessions on researchbased pedagogical best practices for facilitating online learning communities, and practice technical skills needed to host cafés on the BRIX courseware system and to deploy tag cloud technology, skills that will enable them to fashion online learning communities to achieve a variety of specific purposes. The Chinese, Korean, and Russian Flagship Cafés will combine Flagship students at domestic sites and study abroad sites, allowing second-year students to act as mentors for first-year students preparing for their upcoming international experience, further improving their language and networking skills. The International Teacher Development Café for Samoan Educators will facilitate the sharing of ideas, research, and materials among teachers across the Pacific in the US, Samoa, and New Zealand. The Japanese for International Business Café will serve as a virtual support group and networking venue for MBA students conducting their overseas internships throughout Japan. Each café will serve as a model for developing similar cafés in the future. Interested in finding out more about online cafés or creating your own? Visit our Online Cafés resource Website. STAY IN TOUCH WITH SOCIAL MEDIA Did you know that the NFLRC has its own Facebook page? It’s one of the best ways to hear about the latest news, publications, conferences, workshops, and resources we offer. Just click on the “Like” button to become a fan. For those who prefer getting up-to-the-minute “tweets,” you can follow us on our Twitter page. Finally, NFLRC has its own YouTube channel with a growing collection of free language learning and teaching videos for your perusal. Subscribe today!

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News from Our Sponsoring Organizations

NEW NFLRC PUBLICATIONS ‘O Fāiā Fa‘atūmua o Sāmoa mai Tala o le Vavau by ‘Aumua Mata‘itusi Simanu More so than most other Polynesian languages, the Samoan language is highly stratified. The common spoken form of Samoan used among friends and peers, for example, would be inappropriate for public speaking at both traditional and non-traditional gatherings. At these kinds of events, Gagana Fa‘aaloalo (Respect Language) and Gagana Fa‘afailāuga (Chiefly Language/Oratory) are used. Both of these speech registers interweave into the language references to Samoan history, genealogies, and, more recently, the Christian bible. The first book in this series, ‘O si Manu a Ali‘i, was written primarily to provide linguistic background for these registers. This second book, ‘O Fāiā Fa‘atūmua o Sāmoa mai Tala o le Vavau, provides the core knowledge necessary to understand the high level of interplay in Samoan oratory between language and history. Check out our many other publications. OUR ONLINE JOURNALS SOLICIT SUBMISSIONS Language Learning & Technology is a refereed online journal, jointly sponsored by the University of Hawai‘i NFLRC and the Michigan State University Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR). LLT focuses on issues related to technology and language education. For more information on submission guidelines, visit the LLT submissions page. Language Documentation & Conservation is a fully refereed, open-access journal sponsored by NFLRC and published exclusively in electronic form by the University of Hawai‘i Press. LD&C publishes papers on all topics related to language documentation and conservation. For more information on submission guidelines, visit the LD&C submissions page. Reading in a Foreign Language is a refereed online journal, jointly sponsored by the University of Hawai‘i NFLRC and the Department of Second Language Studies. RFL serves as an excellent source for the latest developments in the field, both theoretical and pedagogic, including improving standards for foreign language reading. For more information on submission guidelines, visit the RFL submissions page.

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. Projects focus on materials development, professional development training, and foreign language research. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Four professional development workshops are slated for July 2011. The application deadline is June 1, so hurry to choose your courses: •

Rich Internet Applications for Language Learning: Introductory Techniques



Adding Variety to Reading and Vocabulary Lessons



Project-Based Learning in the Language Classroom



Using Video to Promote Language Development in the Classroom

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News from Our Sponsoring Organizations

Detailed information on all workshops can be found on our Web site. NEW PRODUCT We have recently released our new Introductory Business Chinese CD-ROM. The software is intended mainly for use by those who have little or no knowledge of the Chinese language but who, for any number of different reasons, wish to learn more about business and economics in the Chinese environment. MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT CLEAR is developing several new products during our fifth funding cycle. Check our Web site for updates on new products and services. Some of our upcoming projects include: •

Professional development webinars on diverse topics



Online videos for language teaching techniques



Online listening and speaking tests for LCTLs



Applications for language learning on mobile devices

CONFERENCES CLEAR exhibits at local and national conferences year-round. We hope to see you at ACTFL, CALICO, MIWLA, Central States, and other conferences. NEWSLETTER CLEAR News is a free bi-yearly publication covering FL teaching techniques, research, and materials. Download PDFs of back issues and subscribe at http://clear.msu.edu/clear/newsletter/.

The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) The Center for Applied Linguistics is a private, nonprofit organization that promotes and improves the teaching and learning of languages, identifies and solves problems related to language and culture, and serves as a resource for information about language and culture. CAL carries out a wide range of activities in the fields of English as a second language, foreign languages, cultural education, and linguistics. Featured Resources: •

Language Policy Research Network (LPREN) CAL is pleased to host the Language Policy Research Network (LPREN), created in 2006 by the Research Networks committee of the Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée, (International Association of Applied Linguistics). Visit the LPREN Web site to learn more or to join the e-mail discussion group.



CAL News CAL News is our electronic newsletter created to provide periodic updates about our projects and research as well as information about new publications, online resources, products, and services of interest to our readers. Visit our Web site to sign up.

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News from Our Sponsoring Organizations



Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages Visit the Alliance Web site to browse the Heritage Language Program Profiles, view the Heritage Voices Collection, and sign up to receive the quarterly electronic newsletter, Alliance News Flash.



Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) Visit the CREATE Web site to learn more about CREATE, its research, free resources, and upcoming November 2011 conference.



CAL SIOP Professional Development Services CAL works with schools, states, and districts to design and deliver high-quality, client-centered professional development services on the SIOP Model.



CAL Solutions: Adult ESL Education This new Web site provides access to evidence-based resources and practical tools for practitioners working with the growing population of adult English language learners throughout the United States.



CAL Solutions: PreK-12 ELL Education CAL provides a variety of professional development and technical assistance services related to language education and assessment needs. In order to meet the growing demand from K-8 educators for training material on teaching reading to English language learners, CAL continues to offer its successful series of institutes in Washington, DC, in June and July 2011.

Featured Publications: •

Connecting Diverse Cultures: A Video Guide for A New Day and Be Who You Are



Improving Education for English Language Learners: Research-Based Approaches



Education for Adult English Language Learners in the United States: Trends, Research, and Promising Practices



Foreign Language Teaching in U.S. Schools: Results of a National Survey



Realizing the Vision of Two-Way Immersion: Fostering Effective Programs and Classrooms



Using the SIOP Model: Professional Development Manual for Sheltered Instruction



What’s Different About Teaching Reading to Students Learning English?

Visit CAL’s Website to learn more about our projects, resources, and services.

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Language Learning & Technology http:/llt.msu.edu/vol15num2/review1.pdf

June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 pp. 27–33

REVIEW OF MOODLE 2.0 Title Platform Minimum hardware requirements Publisher (with contact information) Support offered Target language Target audience Price

Moodle 2.0 Mac OS X, Windows, Linux Disk Space: 160MB free (min) Memory: 256MB (min), 1GB (recommended) http://moodle.org Context help, Moodle Docs, Moodle Tracker, Moodle.org Forum, Moodle Partners, self-help tutorials, and Moodle on social network sites Multiple languages (more than 70 languages) Any level of students Free

Review by Tsun-Ju Lin, Washington State University INTRODUCTION With the rapid increase of digital technologies and the popularity of the Internet in recent years, a new definition of literacy has emerged. “New literacies” extend beyond traditionally held views of literacy as the ability to read and write to include an expanded definition, which includes a wide range of skills: the ability to locate and evaluate information effectively and efficiently; facility with making meaning by aligning new information with prior knowledge; and an ability to synthesize, critically analyze, and create new information within the context of larger social practices (Coiro, 2003; Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008; Greenhow, Robelia, & Hughes, 2009). In order to help students acquire new literacies, it is essential to engage learners in developing deep cognitive processing, to activate their prior knowledge, to promote collaborative inquiry, and to encourage creativity in all language skills (Cummins, Brown, & Sayers, 2007). This review evaluates the potential of Moodle 2.0 for helping students master such a wide range of abilities and competencies by examining Moodle 2.0 using the following guiding criteria adapted from Cummins and his colleagues (2007): 1. Providing cognitive challenges and opportunities for deep processing of meaning 2. Relating instruction to prior knowledge and experiences 3. Promoting active self-regulated collaborative inquiry 4. Encouraging extensive involvement in all language skills 5. Developing multiple strategies for effective language learning 6. Promoting identity investment WHAT IS MOODLE 2.0 ABOUT? Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is a free and open-source course management system based on the social constructionist model of pedagogy. The design of Moodle emphasizes creating collaborative interaction and student-centered online learning environments. The open network allows any interested users to contribute their ideas, information, and support, and also to create additional modules and features that allow unlimited innovation. Moodle has been described as software “created through participation rather than via publishing” (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006, p. 45). Due to the involvement of the community, a newer version of Moodle (Moodle 2.0) was released in 2010, and this revised version includes many new features. Although itemizing every change is beyond the scope of this review, the new features have resulted in a management system that is more personalized

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(e.g., my private files, and an improved My Moodle page); more user-friendly (e.g., portfolio support, repository support file picker, and a new HTML editor); more organized (e.g., themes, quiz navigation, flagging questions, question bank, tagging, and blocks); more educationally challenging (e.g., course completion and prerequisites, rewritten Wiki and workshop modules, and enablement of conditional activities); and more collaborative (e.g., comments, ratings, and community hubs). EVALUATION OF MOODLE DESIGN Examining Moodle 2.0 with the six principles proposed by Cummins et al. (2007) reveals several positive strengths and some potential challenges. Providing Cognitive Challenges and Opportunities for Deep Processing of Meaning. Opportunities for cognitively challenging activities can be provided in different Moodle modules and plug-ins that instruct language learners to think about and represent particular topics in multiple ways. To take just one example, the glossary module gives opportunities for participants to create and organize a list of definitions, such as an online word library. Individuals can determine how the information is organized (e.g., keywords and categories) and represented in post-typographic formats (e.g., videos, graphics, audios, texts, etc.) in order to make a shared sense or meaning for the community (see Figure 1 for an example of a glossary module). With Moodle 2.0, multiple glossary definitions can be rated and commented on by users to negotiate and evaluate each other’s work. The active and in-depth processing of new or unfamiliar vocabulary promotes both “higher-order thinking” and “lower-order thinking” (Cummins et al., 2007). This instruction of vocabulary via the learners arguably helps them develop depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge.

Figure 1. Example of a glossary module used in a Spanish class. In another example, a forum module is a useful space for stimulating discussion by using posttypographical formats. The main contribution of this module is that learners get to decide the flow of the content, while the role of the instructor can be as facilitator rather than as primary information giver. This module can enable learners to bring different perspectives and knowledge to a theme, thus promoting the abilities of meaning negotiation and critical thinking. Additionally, instructors can also have learners create questions to assess each other’s comprehension by utilizing a quiz module, including a variety of question types (e.g., multiple-choice, matching, short answer, ordering, true/false, and more). The process of student creation provides an opportunity for

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students to synthesize, critically analyze, and create new ways of transforming information. Notably, the activity not only allows students to decide what is important but also can potentially empower them as learners and thinkers by offering opportunity for greater autonomy. However, to create such a meaningful problem-solving activity is complicated, time-consuming, and may require technical support (e.g., basic HTML knowledge). Relating Instruction to Prior Knowledge and Experiences. Tools such as the mindmap module and questionnaire module can facilitate student brainstorming and prediction of content as students build background knowledge in a new area. A mindmap module is a type of mapping/graphic organizer that can be used by teachers to create warm-up activities for students to link new information with prior knowledge and for instructors to determine what additional knowledge needs to be developed before introducing the main topic. For example, the teacher may have students develop ideas relevant to Alzheimer’s and then provide articles that discuss perspectives not/rarely mentioned in the activity. Instructors can also create a survey activity by utilizing the questionnaire module to set up specific connections for students to activate their prior knowledge (see Figure 2 for an example of a questionnaire module). The examples above illustrate a reliance on the teachers’ ability to provide clear instructions and to be aware of prior knowledge held by learners. A major challenge for Moodle 2.0 might be the extra effort required by course designers to provide appropriate instructions, although Moodle 2.0 offers a space for teachers to develop meaningful activities. The majority of participants in MoodleDocs are developers, administrators, or/and teachers. However, little support is designed specifically for language learners to ask related questions. Features that would enhance the learners’ experience might include a list of frequently asked questions, technical support for students, or a set of instructions for various basic activities such as participating in a module, uploading files, or importing/exporting files from other sources.

Figure 2. Example of a questionnaire module. In short, Moodle contains several useful tools for teachers to evaluate students’ prior knowledge and experiences but the effort to provide clear instructions needs further consideration. Promoting Active Self-regulated Collaborative Inquiry Collaboration and social interaction can be embedded in almost every module and block via chat (e.g.,

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chat room), discussion (e.g., forum and comment functions), or work with peers to get ideas (e.g., Wiki). The new Wiki module now is more consistent with other Wiki formats such as Wikipedia. It provides more administrative options to enable instructors to easily and effectively provide a “knowledgebuilding” environment for students to develop, create, and share information together while online (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006) (see Figure 3 for an example of an interactive Wiki module). The particular challenge for the Wiki type of tool is that it requires users to maintain it properly and for teachers to build a learning environment which recognizes it as a valuable source.

Figure 3. Example of a Wiki module. Encouraging Extensive Involvement in All Language Skills According to Cummins et al. (2007), involvement is the key to the development of proficiency. Design that encourages active involvement in all language skills is elaborated in Moodle 2.0. For instance, the RSS feeds block enables instructors to link to authentic reading materials (e.g., online newspapers and articles) from external Websites. The voice device NanoGong (not yet compatible with Moodle 2.0) can be embedded in almost every module. Another audio and video recording device PoodLL Language Laboratory package (will be compatible with Moodle 2.0 soon) includes two assignments, two activities and three questions types. This means that listening and speaking activities can be created anywhere to encourage practice of these language skills. Besides, with the new repository support in Moodle 2.0, authentic resources such as YouTube and Flickr can be easily integrated into a Moodle site. Writing opportunities can also be created in any of the following modules: assignment module, lesson module, personal profile, journal module, blog module, and forum module. All these features not only encourage students to practice language skills but also to make language learning happen in more “real-world” settings. Additionally, creating activities by incorporating different modules can be easily achieved, so different language skills can be linked; for example, a chat session transcript can be analyzed for grammar and spelling errors in a Wiki or forum module. Developing Multiple Strategies for Effective Language Learning Language learners need to know how to use a range of strategies before, during, and after learning, such as self-management, self and peer evaluation, and the use of post-typographic materials to fit a variety of learning styles. Moodle 2.0 provides multiple opportunities for teachers to develop tasks during which students can practice such skills.

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Tsun-Ju Lin

Review of Moodle 2.0

Organization The first feature that allows users to practice organizing effective information is page layout. A Moodle page is organized in blocks to enable users to track important information. In Moodle 2.0, however, all blocks are consistently implemented in every page and can be customized by users. Another change in Moodle 2.0 from Moodle 1.9 is in two settings of its interface: navigation block and setting block. A navigation block helps users quickly and easily access items, such as site pages, courses, my profile, etcetera. With the setting block, users can directly locate items they have permission to edit across the Moodle site. Second, the new development of My Private File provides opportunities for users to integrate personal or external documents and media (initial plug-ins include: Alfresco, Flickr, GoogleDocs, Picasa, and YouTube) (see Figure 4 for a sample of My Private File). In My Private File, students can easily arrange the appropriate materials to effectively represent information through posttypographic materials. Evaluation Strategies Moodle 2.0 supports a wide variety of evaluation strategies, providing built-in comment boxes for instructors to provide feedback, user ratings, a quiz module, and a workshop module.

Figure 4. Sample of My Private File. The workshop module has been completely redesigned for Moodle 2.0 and emphasizes peer assessment activities. It contains multiple types of assessment forms and allows the learner, peers, and instructors to evaluate the quality of one’s work. The quiz module allows users to design a variety of question types and store these in a question bank to be re-used or modified for multiple quizzes. It also includes quiz reports and statistics to give students instant feedback, so they can compare results to their own goals. Another major improvement from Moodle 1.9 in the module is the possibility of flagging questions during a quiz attempt (see Figure 5 for the flagging example). This function allows students to go back to review answers they are unsure of. Thus, users can monitor what needs to be further understood. These functions allow easy access to both qualitative and quantitative assessments. With this function, users can easily track or arrange important or interesting information. According to this criterion, teachers can utilize Moodle 2.0 to facilitate students’ development of multiple learning strategies.

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Figure 5. Example of flagging in a Chinese course. Promoting Identity Investment Tools to support involvement and identity are available in several blocks on Moodle. Cummins et al. (2007) state that it is critical to carry out “identity texts insofar as students invest their identities in these texts (written, spoken, visual, musical, or combination in multimodal form) that then hold a mirror up to students in which their identities are reflected back in a positive light” (p. 219). The My Moodle page outlines learner profiles, activity reports, tags, notes, and their private files, as well as records the user’s way of thinking, responding, and acting in each task. Also, Moodle 2.0 allows student identity to be represented in multiple ways, including visual or iconic images, letter identification, voice, videos, or a combination of these. CONCLUSION Moodle 2.0 is a powerful software package that can be used for language learning. Its primary strength lies in its technical features. It is important to note here that the tools mentioned above are just some of Moodle 2.0’s capabilities, and more modules, blocks, and plug-ins can be added. Many of the technical issues mentioned in this review in need of improvement will undoubtedly become part of the next set of issues addressed by the many Moodle developers and users (often called “Moodlers”). In its current iteration, however, Moodle 2.0 has strong pedagogical potential and allows instructors flexibility in creating activities based on the perceived needs, intentions, cognitive traits, and learning strategies of their students. Moodle 2.0 has the power to enhance efforts by teachers to provide carefully designed learning environments so that their students can be successful.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER Tsun-Ju Lin is a doctoral student in Language and Literacy Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Washington State University. While pursuing her degree, she is working as an online language course developer and education technology consultant in the Department of Foreign Languages and Cultures at WSU. Her research interest is supporting learner engagement in technology to facilitate FLLs’ language competence. E-mail: [email protected]

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REFERENCES Coiro, J. (2003). Reading comprehension on the Internet: Expanding our understanding of reading comprehension to encompass new literacies. The Reading Teacher, 56(5), 458–464. Coiro, J., Knobel, M., Lankshear, C., & Leu, D. (2008). Central issues in new literacies and new literacies research. In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, & D. J. Leu (Eds.), Handbook of new literacies research (pp. 1–22). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Cummins, J., Brown, K., & Sayers, D. (2007). Literacy, technology, and diversity: Teaching for success in changing times. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson. Greenhow, C., Robelia, B., & Hughes, J. (2009). Web 2.0 and classroom research: What path should we take? Educational Researcher, 38(4), 246–259. doi:10.3102/0013189x09336671 Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2006). New literacies: Everyday practices and classroom learning (2nd ed). London: Open University Press. Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (2006). Knowledge building: Theory, pedagogy, and technology. In K. Sawyer (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of learning sciences (pp. 97–118). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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Language Learning & Technology http:/llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/review2.pdf

June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 pp. 34–38

REVIEW OF TEACHING LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE ONLINE Teaching Literature and Language Online Ian Lancashire (Ed.) 2009 ISBN-10: 9781603290579 US $40.00 (hardcover) $25.00 (paperback) 460 pp. Modern Language Association New York

Review by David Malinowski, University of California, Berkeley As Ian Lancashire points out in the Introduction to this most recent entry in the Modern Language Association’s Options for Teaching series, blended and fully online learning models are in wide and growing use. Writing in 2009, he notes that in the fall 2006 term, almost 3.5 million students and 20% of all higher education students in the U.S. took an online course (p. 2). The Sloan Consortium’s most recent (2010) report on the state of online learning in the U.S. indicates that as of fall 2009, these numbers had increased to 5.6 million and almost 30% of higher education students, with 63% of 2,500 colleges and universities surveyed saying that online learning “was a critical part of their institution’s long term strategy” (Allen & Seaman, 2010, p. 2). Considering the frequent and varied use of technology in blended online and offline foreign and second language classes (see, for example, Blake, 2008), and the growing tendency in this direction for university literature courses as well (Introduction, p. 17), Lancashire’s volume is a timely and welcome contribution. And, in light of the release of the MLA’s own report questioning the governance structures that keep university language and literature curricula separate (MLA 2007, p. 2), Teaching literature and language online can be read as a discussion point in this wider conversation. With close to thirty chapters written from the perspectives of teachers in university language and literature departments in the U.S. and Canada, this volume speaks both to beginning instructors and to instructors beginning to contemplate teaching courses partly or wholly online. In his introduction Lancashire recommends that, in part because of the many approaches to online education and varied contexts in which it takes place, teachers should make themselves part of professional communities of practice and, through exploration and judicious selection of practices and tools, develop their own unique “signature pedagogy” (p. 11). In this sense, Teaching literature and language online represents a step in this direction: after a series of chapters in Part I (“Overview”) orienting the reader to issues and approaches in online education “for MLA disciplines” (p. 3), Parts II and III present collections of case studies that speak to a range of experiences in language and literature classes, respectively. Together, the diversity of courses and projects narrated bear witness to Lancashire’s contention that, while teaching an online course can require more work than teaching face-to-face (e.g., p. 14), it provides an invaluable extension of the mission of higher education. Following Lancashire’s Introduction, Robert Blake presents data comparing proficiency gains in traditional Spanish classrooms and distance and blended courses, finding that distance education is a

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“reasonable and responsible option” (p. 34) for teaching linguistic proficiency and oral skills, especially for beginning learners and in less commonly taught languages. In the next chapter, Kristine Blair draws on Lee Shulman (2005)’s concept of “signature pedagogies” and Chickering and Gamson (1987)’s “Seven Principles for Undergraduate Education,” arguing for the need for the writing and composition profession to take up a measured debate about principles and best practices for online education, while also focusing upon the contentious but often under-represented issue of instructors’ labor conditions. Elizabeth Hanson-Smith, meanwhile, provides guidelines for teachers of ESOL (ESL and EFL) to integrate technology into their teaching of language through literature; she presents evidence that “more student interaction, both with the instructor and with peers, can take place online than in class” (p. 55) and discusses integrated classroom environments like Moodle and Blackboard, literature-based content on Project Gutenberg and other sites, and tools for oral and written communication as they enable projectbased and group-centered learning. In the following chapter, “Teaching World Languages Online,” Mary Ann Lyman-Hager reviews developments in language teaching beliefs and practices in the latter half of the 20th century, beginning with the audiolingual (Army) method of the postwar period. Pointing to Warschauer and Kern (2000)’s periodization of language learning technologies, then, she suggests that the most recent sociocognitive paradigm is particularly apt for intercultural e-learning environments that connect communities and foster collaborative tasks. In “Humane Studies in Digital Space,” Jerome McGann is likewise concerned with mapping an historical evolution; his interest, however, is with the transition from a book-based to a digitally-based culture of critical inquiry in the face of the commercialization of knowledge. Noting that inherent in the mission of the university today is “the selfconscious understanding that culture and critical reflection are shared activities and social acts” (p. 101), McGann introduces three digital tools (IVANHOE, Juxta, and Collex) designed to lead students to critical engagement with texts. Rounding out Part I, Stéfan Sinclair and Geoffrey Rockwell bring an interest in the use of tools for digital textual analysis so as to combine “both linguistic and literary sensibilities” (p. 104). They note that CALL applications, in particular, have often missed the opportunity to allow students to do just the kind of nuanced interpretation that McGann and others advocate, and introduce several text analysis techniques useful for the language and literature classroom. Part II comprises five essays under the title “Case Studies in Language”. The first, by Stephen Tschudi, David Hiple, and Dorothy Chun, investigates cohesion in dialog and community formation through the use of online forums in an advanced Chinese writing class. While one feels hard-pressed to accept that students in this study shared feelings of “belonging” and “commitment” on the basis of the evidence presented, the reference to Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) notion of students’ dialogic cohesion as the “creation of a single text” (p. 124) in an online context was helpful. Also pursuing questions of community formation online, Diane Formo and Kimberly Robinson Neary present success stories from the use of Online Response Groups (ORGs) in the second language writing classroom. Making the analogy to the peer-to-peer writing center, they suggest several ways for instructors to use ORGs to help students organize their writing processes and give “honest” feedback and assistance. Next, Nike Arnold describes a “literacy-based curriculum in a foreign language class” (p. 165) through which she had her 3rd year German composition and conversation class interact online in relatively unstructured written exchange with native speaker guests. She writes that student survey results indicated that this exchange realized the literacy principles of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice (cf. New London Group, 1996); a lack of evidence in the chapter makes this claim difficult to validate. Following this essay are two chapters that describe the development of learning resources that, once online, assumed multiple and at times unpredicted functions. Gillian Lord’s essay on Aymara on the Internet is noteworthy for its descriptions of the innovations required to bring a communicative approach to the rote grammar exercises of a decades-old language textbook, usable both by language learners and linguists interested in documentation and revitalization. Meanwhile, Douglas Morgenstern’s chapter describes the history and use of MITUPV, an open online environment for Spanish-English cultural and linguistic exchange. Unlike an online textbook, MITUPV was not designed with pre-given learning

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outcomes in mind; Morgenstern notes that open registration and user-generated content have led to a pedagogical orientation that is “decidedly bottom-up” (p. 191), where content generation and even community formation become benchmarks for success (ibid.). A tension underlying this and other studies of online, open social sites for language learning is how the use of such environments articulates with the goals and structures of the classroom; with Morgenstern stating that “all required class-related projects are somewhat coercive and artificial” (p. 199) while Websites like MITUPV “[approximate] the serendipitous nature of authentic language immersion” (p. 198), the task of the classroom teacher seems monolithic. Part III, “Case Studies in Literatures”, comprises 16 chapters; here I depart from the order of the original text in favor of four thematic groupings of chapters. First, and noticeable as well in previous sections of the book, is the visibility of an array of innovative tools developed to foster new forms of textual analysis and linguistic proficiency. Seemingly a holdout from Part II of the book, Noriko Nagata’s study (appearing near the end of the volume) outlines the functioning and impact of Robo-Sensei, an online Japanese textbook using natural language processing to analyze beginning students’ written input on the sentence level, while generating feedback and instruction tailored to their structural errors. Meanwhile, Gerald Lucas describes the evolution of digital tools tried out over years of teaching his online world literature course World.Lit. Discussing the merits of using student and teacher blogs, a wiki, a discussion forum, and a content management system for aggregating these tools together, Lucas foregrounds the need for literature instructors online to engage students in discussions about course expectations and procedures, while explicitly teaching computer literacy. In another chapter introducing a novel tool developed on-site, Haun Saussy describes his detailed selections, re-orderings and annotations of the classical Chinese text Shang Shu, incorporated into a late-1990s hybrid Introduction to the Humanities course in order to lead students to deeper textual analysis and comparison. Finally, introducing the openaccess networked resource Decameron Web, Papio and Riva present a vision of the ‘outmoding’ and evolution of a now 17-year-old tool for teaching and researching late medieval and early modern Italian studies. The authors convey a fundamental tension between the hierarchical concerns of the academic community (where research and publication are protected domains) and “virtual collaborative space[s] where multiple activities can take place simultaneously, in an ongoing and self-enriching dialogue” (p. 353). Of course, reading this collection of essays in the 2010s, many people may feel that the ‘home-grown’ sites in the studies above simply offer features that have become commonplace in the corporate-owned and often freely available blogs, wikis, online games, virtual worlds and other online media (for a review, see Thorne & Black, 2007). Indeed, several chapters in Part III address the benefits offered and constraints imposed by such tools in the online literature classroom. Kathleen Fitzpatrick’s contribution, “The literary machine: Blogging the literature course,” is a narrative of the successes and failures that she experienced using blogging in a 2003 literature class; she finds that “the open-endedness of the blog” (p. 211) is among the reasons why literature instructors need to make their expectations clear, provide model posts, give guidelines for comments, and otherwise structure student blogging. Kathy Cawsey and Ian Lancashire’s essay reports on the success of the chat medium in an online Reading Poetry class as it encouraged distally located students to discover and explore subtle meanings in the texts at hand; drawing from an extended chat transcript on Seamus Heaney’s poem “Punishment”, they argue that “the interaction among committed students and their teachers improves markedly in a virtual classroom (chat room, bulletin board, e-mail) over what is possible in a physical classroom” (p. 311). In “Seeking the best of both worlds: Online and off-line Shakespeare”, Michael Best draws from his experience using the resource Website Shakespeare’s Life and Times and a variety of online media in his classroom teaching, arguing that together, they enact “a method of communication that is both effective and democratic” (p. 266)—this despite the challenges of dealing with plagiarism, development costs, and technological change while paying greater attention to the critical evaluation of sources and materials. Several chapters in this volume demonstrate that, together with the introduction and use of new tools in

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the online classroom, the very technologies of the online literature classroom—the changing ecologies of pedagogical structures, procedures, and relationships—are in flux. In his chapter, “Old English online at the University of Calgary”, Murray McGillivray writes that his mandate in creating an entirely online course was to improve on what he terms the “humiliation” students undergo in class when called upon to do direct grammar translation, and out-of-class when reading source texts and their annotations; he argues that teachers online need to make explicit the structures for students’ participation, performance and evaluation that are often left implicit (or absent) in the face-to-face classroom. In an essay on teaching undergraduate and graduate online courses on Shakespeare, James Fitzmaurice presents a seeming contradiction in that a preponderance of “highly motivated students in the virtual classroom” might be motivated in part because they feel “deprived” at not being able to be physically in the face-to-face classroom (pp. 275–276). Meanwhile, Martha Wescott Driver, in a chapter on her multimedia course bridging Middle English readings and text interpretation with student multimedia projects, relays her students’ singing praises of the online medium and surmises that the fact of their sense of “expanded audiences” for online work pushes them to collaborate and focus in new ways. Finally, Kathryn Grossman, an instructor of both language and literature courses, echoes the interest of authors from Part II in the formation of classroom communities online. In moving from the offline medium to online instruction, she finds that “students working collaboratively in my hybrid course submitted much better and more writing overall” (p. 337); she concludes by offering numerous recommendations for literature and language instructors to use collaborative work to heighten student involvement, while simultaneously reducing the teacher’s workload. The last strand of chapters I note in Part III is one that opens up questions of textuality, representation, and teaching online to greater and greater degrees of self-scrutiny and doubt. Laura Bush’s chapter “Solitary confinement: Managing relational angst in an online classroom,” for example, seems to double backwards and begin to question the very humanity of the humanities online. Where she spends the first part of her essay pragmatically outlining “four distinct areas” of competence necessary for faculty to teach literature effectively online, in the second part she describes a pervasive sense of isolation that besets online teachers and students who lack the robust social presence of the face-to-face classroom. Devoid of angst but marveling nonetheless at human transformations amidst changed knowledge relations online, Ian Lancashire’s “The open-source English teacher” describes the fate of the online instructor. The “open-source teacher,” he says as creator and editor of the Web-based archive Representative Poetry Online, makes the fruits of her or his intellectual labor available to the general public through Websites, interactive databases, and other online resources, and so enters into an asynchronous and unstructured relationship with faceless students who are only occasionally made visible through the impromptu email (p. 418). As with Representative Poetry Online, in her two chapters Martha Nell Smith reflects on new modalities of knowledge and collaboration engendered by humanist research and instruction with the Dickinson Electronic Archives and other large-scale projects. With respect to the Archive in particular, she highlights the textual indeterminacies and creative processes that are, she says, frequently hidden within the legacy technology of the book. The online medium, on the other hand, allows the learner to maintain a processual orientation to textual meaning—the very approach that she claims Dickinson herself took toward her own writing (p. 281). Lastly, in “Hybrid world literature: Literary culture and the new machine”, William Kuskin reflects on his WebCT-delivered “Hybrid English” course that was, on the surface, successful in “delivering record student credit hours” (p. 359). However, the problem of online courses, and the challenge that online instructors must work against, Kuskin says, is that online courses such as his “[reduce] the problems of online and traditional learning to the single issue of information management” (p. 359), a discourse of control already present in the notion of “record student credit hours”. The fundamental challenge of the online teacher of literature, Kuskin contends, is rather to lead students to an awareness of a fundamental contradiction that runs through their humanistic inquiry online: that while the realm of the literary is traditionally understood to be figural and never fixed, he writes (invoking imagery from the science fiction hit The Matrix), “the logic implied by digitization, by the

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green veil of computer code, by the various downloads and uploads that constitute the curriculum, was that literary knowledge can be entirely encased in computer technology” (p. 361). Overall, the chapters from this and the first two parts of Teaching literature and language online present many useful lessons, while provoking thought about the pedagogical and institutional challenges that arise with the use of technology; they are well worth reading individually with these practical goals in mind. Taken together, however, I found that they give occasion to an urgent question of an altogether different nature. As Kuskin reminds us, language and literature teachers alike ought to share a concern with what it means to be human online: The future of online education for the humanities, therefore, involves not only the implementation of online teaching but also our understanding of the process of symbolic production of ourselves as human in the history of textual technology (p. 360).

ABOUT THE REVIEWER David Malinowski is a doctoral candidate in Education in Language, Literacy, Society and Culture at the University of California, Berkeley, and a research assistant with the Berkeley Language Center. His research interests include distance and blended learning in foreign language education, multimodal literacies, and semiotic landscapes. E-mail: [email protected]

REFERENCES Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2010). Class difference$: Online education in the United States, 2010. SloanC. Retrieved from http://sloanconsortium.org/publications/survey/class_differences Blake, R. (2008). Brave new digital classroom: Technology and foreign language learning. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 39, 3–7. Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman. MLA (Modern Language Association; Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages). (2007). Foreign languages and higher education: New structures for a changed world. New York: Modern Language Association. Retrieved from http://www.mla.org/flreport New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92. Shulman, L. S. (2005). Pedagogies of uncertainty. Liberal Education, 91(2), 18–25. Thorne, S. L., & Black, R. W. (2007). Language and literacy development in computer-mediated contexts and communities. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 27, 133–160. Warschauer, M., & Kern, R. (Eds.). (2000). Network-based language teaching: Concepts and practice. New York: Cambridge University Press.

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June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 pp. 39– 41

REVIEW OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY Teaching English Language Learners through Technology Tony Erben, Ruth Ban & Martha Castañeda 2009 ISBN: 978-0-415-95768-7 US $36.95 240 pp. Routledge New York, USA

Review by Jesús García Laborda & Mary Frances Litzler, Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid, Spain) Teaching English Language Learners through Technology is contextualized in the U.S. American educational system, but as will be discussed in this review, many of the concepts can easily be used beyond these geographical boundaries. The authors themselves state in the introduction that the book is intended for practitioners in all content areas, and the book includes explicit links among theoretical background information, recent research, and case studies to illustrate how the pedagogical implications can extend beyond just the U.S. context. An early indication of the U.S. context is in the use of the term English Language Learner (ELL), which is frequently used in discussions among educators at the elementary and secondary levels in the United States. The term is often viewed as interchangeable with English as a Second Language, in that it refers to learners who are geographically located in a place where English is the dominant language, in contrast to English as a Foreign Language. However, the omission of “second” indicates an acknowledgement that English may well be a second, third or new language for immigrant students. A second indication that the U.S. context is the primary audience for the book is in the intended audience of pre-service and in-service elementary and secondary (Kindergarten through grade 12) teachers. These teachers often do not have formal training as language teachers, but they must learn to teach language as part of their profession as their classrooms become more linguistically diverse. This reader-friendly book is divided into three parts. Part 1 presents an overview of ELL teaching and learning in order to provide “guidance for the informed use of instructional strategies in the teaching of ELLs” (p. 7); part 2 provides empirical evidence for the use of technology in differentiated instruction while also emphasizing the role of social constructivism; and part 3 addresses the use of technology inside and outside the classroom through examples and also suggests strategies and exercise plans for the use of technology in differentiated instruction. Part 1 is divided into eight chapters preceded by a general introduction, which explains ethical values, the aim of the book, the target audience, and an extensive description of five principles for integrating technology. These principles focus on creating effective second language learning environments around which learning should happen: (a) ELLs must be given many and varied opportunities to read, write, listen to and discuss oral and written English; (b) attention should be drawn to English language structural

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patterns; (c) students should be given classroom time to practice their English usage productively; (d) opportunities need to be offered for ELLs to notice their errors and correct their English; and (e) maximum opportunities should be provided for ELLs to interact with others in English. Part 1 continues by covering a wide range of issues that provide a backdrop for the rest of the book. Issues of equal opportunity and recent U.S. educational legislation are addressed and call for ELLs to receive adequate resources and individual attention from educators. Other aspects include an overview of principles of second language acquisition and theoretical applications of the five principles listed above, descriptions of ELL programs, developmental stages in acquisition, specific intercultural developmental stages, the parents’ role, and applications and models of ELL instruction for ELLs with special cognitive and socio-cultural needs. Part 2 introduces the intersection of technology and ELL instruction. It emphasizes the role of social constructivism in the teaching of ELLs. For example, it presents the application of Vygotsky’s theory (1962, 1978) on the student’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) as well as the role of regulation in language learning for the classroom. Classroom applications are provided by discussing differentiated instruction, project-based learning, and constructivist pedagogy principles. The next three chapters illustrate ways to integrate and accommodate technology into lessons and discuss principles that should guide the use of technology in the classroom. Part 3 is the most practical part of the book. The authors describe activities for middle and high school students with a view towards putting into practice the principles from the first two parts of the book. The activities are divided into four levels (Preproduction, Early Production, Speech Emergence and Intermediate Fluency), which correspond to common categories used to describe ELLs language skill levels. The activities are presented in the form of lesson plans, learning activities, and Web-based resources. Also included are special sections entitled “Teaching Tips,” “Classroom Implications,” and “Teaching Help” boxes. As in the rest of the book, most of the activities do not require the teacher to be experienced in the use of technology, to have computer labs, or to teach in classrooms with highly sophisticated technology. Instead, the existence of one or two computers with a minimal capacity can serve in many cases. For instance, Chapter 3.2 introduces what the authors call E-creation tools and selfmade computer-based resources, such as podcasts, Power Point, moviemakers, audiomakers, and Web publishing, all of which permit students to develop their creativity with limited resources. In describing and suggesting tools, the authors use easily accessible and often free resources such as Hot Potatoes (p. 102), Audacity (p. 106), and a range of communicative facilitating e-tools such as e-mail, instant messaging, and listservs. The final sections are devoted to improving ELLs’ literacy in the four skills areas through creative activities such as using the whiteboard, creating wikis, and using and designing blogs, webquests, podcasts, and audioblogs. This section includes what we believe to be the most interesting part of the book because it covers informal performance-based assessments that serve both formative and summative purposes. In this highly practical section, the authors suggest the use of e-portfolios, e-surveys, e-quizzes, and e-rubrics. The authors also provide a brief foray into virtual learning environments such as Nicenet. The book concludes with an extensive, well-annotated list of resources, which makes it valuable for CALL-intensive environments, as well as for classrooms that are in the early phases of technology integration. It also has a very clear and useful glossary, a student grouping chart for the classroom, and a well-organized list of references. FINAL COMMENTS Some parts of this book are similar to other volumes (cf., Dudeney & Hockly, 2007; Sharma & Barret, 2007), but it appears to be more practical. While the first two parts are more theoretically than practically based, the theory can be of benefit to those teachers who have limited knowledge or experience with

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ELLs, and it is well-illustrated by case studies and real-life examples. In fact, the theory is presented in an accessible way; for instance, readers may not want to miss the excellent synthesis of the natural approach (Krashen & Terrell, 1983). Another asset of this book is that it introduces emotional perspectives, which are less frequently discussed in language texts, through exemplified cases and also considers educational stakeholders such as the parents. To conclude, although this book is aimed at practitioners working with ELLs, its applications and uses are also valid in general ESL and EFL courses, given the quality and variety of the resources described. Its pedagogical approach makes it especially useful as a textbook for educational technology for both general and bilingual education. For a broader, international context, the book may be attractive for content teachers working in Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Teachers who may lack knowledge in language learning but need to integrate second (or subsequent) language learning into their content will likely find that the theoretical underpinnings and practical recommendations will facilitate their work. All in all, this is an accessible volume that integrates theory and practice.

ABOUT THE REVIEWERS Jesús García Laborda, PhD & EdD, is an associate professor at Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid, Spain). His main interests are educational technology, low-stakes language testing and English for Specific Purposes. He has published broadly in all three areas in such journals as Computers & Education and Educational Technology & Society. As a reviewer, his works have been included in many educational journals including Language Learning & Technology. E-mail: [email protected] Mary Frances Litzler has taught English to adults for some 25 years. She currently works at Universidad de Alcalá (Madrid, Spain) and the British Council (Madrid, Spain), but she also has experience working in the United States, Japan and France. Her research interests are CALL and medieval text editing. She will defend a PhD thesis on medieval medical prologues in June 2011. E-mail: [email protected]

REFERENCES Dudeney, G., & Hockly, N. (2007). How to teach English with technology (with CD-Rom). Cambridge: Pearson Longman. Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. London: Prentice Hall Europe. Sharma, P., & Barrett, B. (2007). Blended learning: Using technology in and beyond the language classroom. Cambridge, UK: Macmillan. Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 pp. 42–43

REVIEW OF CORPUS-BASED CONTRASTIVE STUDIES OF ENGLISH AND CHINESE Corpus-Based Contrastive Studies of English and Chinese (Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics) Richard Xiao and Tony McEnery 2010 ISBN: 978-0415992459 US $117.57 (hardcover) 201 pp. Routledge London & New York

Review by Zhang Xiaojun, Shaanxi Normal University Contrastive research of English and Chinese, particularly in mainland China, has attracted great attention since the late 1970s. Corpus-Based Contrastive Studies of English and Chinese makes an important contribution to this body of work. Richard Xiao and Tony McEnery provide an examination of a number of grammatical categories, including aspect markers, temporal adverbials, quantifiers, passives, and negation structures in English and Chinese. The book is organized into six main chapters framed by an introductory and summary chapter. The corpora used in this book are introduced in Chapter 1 and include the Freiburg-LOB corpus (FLOB), the Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese (LCMC), and the Freiburg-Brown corpus (Frown). FLOB is an update of LOB (Johansson, Leech, & Goodluck, 1978) which sampled texts published in 1991–1992. LCMC was designed as a Chinese match for FLOB, representing written Chinese published in China in the early 1990s (McEnery, Xiao, & Mo, 2003). The first of the chapters in the main text, “Aspect Marking in English and Chinese,” provides a contrastive study of aspect marking in English and Chinese and concludes that while Chinese and English are typologically different, aspect markers in the two languages show a strikingly similar distribution pattern. The authors counted and contrasted the frequencies of perfective and imperfective aspect markers in English and Chinese corpora. In Chinese, they found that the particles ‘-le, -guo, zai, and -zhe’ are regarded as aspect markers, of which the first two markers represent the perfective aspect and the other two refer to the imperfective aspect. In English, perfective meaning is “most commonly expressed by the simple past, though the perfect can also mark perfectivity” (p.14). Comparing the frequencies of perfective and imperfective aspect markers in different languages is a feasible way to set up such contrastive language studies. Chapter 4, “Quantifying Constructions in English and Chinese,” shows that Chinese employs numeralclassifier constructions obligatorily in quantification, whereas in English a classifier is only required when non-count nouns are quantified. Classifiers are motivated cognitively, pragmatically, and conventionally in both English and Chinese. Normally, Chinese is recognized as a classifier language while English is not, but the two languages show striking similarities in their classifier systems in spite of the different terms used and in spite of several quantitative differences. The authors found that a cross-linguistic difference exists because Chinese is a non-inflectional language, whereas nouns in English inflect for

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plurality morphologically. The authors illustrate eight semantic categories of classifiers that exist in both Chinese and English and point out that classifiers in the two languages differ in a number of ways. For example, classifiers are significantly more common in Chinese; unit classifiers and verbal classifiers are characteristic of Chinese while collective classifiers are more diversified in English. Chapter 5, “Passives in English and Chinese,” is concerned with passive constructions in English and Chinese. The authors indicate that while passive constructions in English and Chinese express a basic passive meaning, they also show a range of differences in terms of overall frequencies, syntactic features and functions, semantic properties, and distributions across genres. By statistically contrasting these, several conclusions were drawn. First, passive constructions are nearly ten times as frequent in English as in Chinese. Also, a major distinction between passive constructions in the two languages is that Chinese passives are more frequently used with an inflictive meaning than English passives. There are clearly genre variations in the distribution of passive variants in both languages, and the passive is primarily used to mark an impersonal, objective and formal style in English, whereas it is typically an “inflictive voice” in Chinese. The next two chapters each examine negation structure: “Negation in English and Chinese: Variants and Variations” (Chapter 6) and “Negation in English and Chinese: Special Usages” (Chapter 7). The discussion in Chapter 6 provides various negative forms and their language-specific features in English and in Chinese and focuses on the differences and similarities of explicit not and no-negation structures in English as well as bu and mei negations in Chinese. Chapter 7 discusses the scope and focus of negation and also contrasts special usages such as transferred negation, double negation, and redundant negation. In conclusion, this book seeks to provide a systematic account of several grammatical categories in English and Chinese on the basis of written and spoken corpus data of the two languages. In the final chapter, “Challenge and Promise, and the Way Forward,” the authors construct a model of contrastive corpus linguistics that helps bring together the strengths of contrastive analysis and corpus analysis. This synergy expands the field of corpus linguistics, translation studies, and second language acquisition research by providing a bridge that links all of these research areas.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER Zhang Xiaojun is an associate professor in computational linguistics at the School of Foreign Languages of Shaanxi Normal University, China. He is an academic visitor at the Center of Translation and Intercultural Studies (CTIS), University of Manchester, from September 2010 to August 2011. His published work includes Semantic Combination and Machine Translation (in Chinese) and ‘The Fuzzy Integrated Evaluate Method of Translation Quality’. Address for correspondence: Zhang Xiaojun, No. 199 South Chang’an Road, School of Foreign Languages, Shaanxi Normal University, 710062 Xi’an, China (P.R.C.). E-mail: [email protected]

REFERENCES Johansson, S., Leech, G., & Goodluck, H. (1978). Manual of information to accompany the LancasterOslo/Bergen Corpus of British English for Use with Digital Computers. Oslo: University of Oslo. McEnery, T., Xiao, R., & Mo, L. (2003). Aspect marking in English and Chinese: Using the Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese for contrastive language study. Literary and Linguistic Computing, 18(4), 361–378.

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June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 pp. 44–68

COMPREHENDING NEWS VIDEOTEXTS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE VISUAL CONTENT Jeremy Cross Nanyang Technological University Informed by dual coding theory, this study explores the role of the visual content in L2 listeners’ comprehension of news videotexts. L1 research into the visual characteristics and comprehension of news videotexts is outlined, subsequently informing the quantitative analysis of audiovisual correspondence in the news videotexts used. In each of five lessons, ten pairs of Japanese EFL learners participated in a sequence of tasks in which they listened to, and discussed various facets of their comprehension of news videotexts. The pairs’ dialogue acted as the unit of analysis for exploring the effect of visual information on their comprehension. The qualitative analysis illustrated that various attributes of the visual content, such as audiovisual correspondence, impacted on comprehension. Moreover, other influences of the visual content found were its general utility in facilitating comprehension, inhibiting of attention to, and processing of audio information, and stimulation of learners’ expectations and inferencing of content. Based on these findings, learner variability aspects and several implications for related L2 listening pedagogy are discussed. INTRODUCTION Advances in satellite, digital video and broadband technology mean that news videotext services are readily available to viewers across the globe. L2 users form a large part of the world-wide audience, with news videotexts providing them with an authentic sociocultural, linguistic and educational resource which can be exploited for language learning inside and outside the classroom. However, the intrinsic audiovisual nature of news videotexts means that L2 users not only have to deal with the challenges to listening comprehension1 that they typically encounter which are associated with the audio channel (e.g., unfamiliar vocabulary, speech rates, prosody and syntactic structures), but also need to cope with the vagaries of content presented in the accompanying visual channel if they are to process, understand, and respond to the message news videotexts are crafted to convey. A number of publications point to the correspondence between audio and visual information as one potentially important factor affecting L2 learners’ comprehension (Meinhof, 1994, 1998). However, while such intuitions regarding the influence of visual elements seem valid, there is very little empirical research which is informative in such respects. Moreover, apart from Gruba’s (2004, 2006) studies, little is known about how L2 listeners strategically exploit visual content in news videotexts to facilitate comprehension. Given that the use of news videotexts in second and foreign language classrooms and self-access centres is increasingly common practice (particularly with more advanced listeners), there is a need for related research which promotes understanding of the influence of the visual content in L2 listeners’ comprehension of this videotext genre. This paper reports on a study which draws on relevant L1 and L2 theory and empirical research to address this issue. BACKGROUND Audiovisual Processing In line with L1 research into the processing of audiovisual information in multimedia (Mayer & Anderson, 1991; Mayer & Sims, 1994) and in news videotexts in particular (Walma van der Molen & Van der Voort, 2000; Walma van der Molen, 2001), the theoretical perspective underpinning this study is dual coding theory. In his seminal work, Paivio (1971, 1990, 2007) proposes dual coding theory as a

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theory of cognition, which is distinguished from other common-coding theories of cognition (e.g., propositional representation) by its modality-specific nature. That is, it provides a coherent account of how separate verbal and nonverbal mental representations are collectively processed. The basic premises of dual coding theory most recently presented by Paivio (2007), which builds on his own early work and also research in association with several colleagues (Clark & Paivio, 1991; Sadoski & Paivio, 2001), are: •

Both verbal and nonverbal systems are specialized and distinct, and mental representations associated with each system preserve the properties of the sensorimotor events which trigger them;



The verbal system encompasses written, auditory, and articulatory verbal codes;



The nonverbal system includes images for environmental sounds, activities, and events;



While written, aural and articulatory input is each typically processed sequentially by the verbal system, the nonverbal system processes information simultaneously as a whole, for a single mental image comprises a multitude of details;



The verbal and nonverbal systems are joined by referential connections as part of a complex associative network (e.g., imagery may evoke word representations and vice versa);



Associative connections are another type of link within each of the verbal and non verbal systems (e.g., a word or an image may activate associated words or images, to create complex configurations of mental representations);



The activation of mental representations in either system may or may not be a conscious experience;



Patterns of connection activation are influenced by contextual factors (e.g., a particular task such as showing pictures may prime the nonverbal system and promote the production of mental images);



Verbal and nonverbal mental representations and their interconnections differ for each individual due to their diverse past experiences;



And, nonverbal processing is affected by an individual’s propensity and capability to use imagery.

As a hypothetical example of dual coding theory in the context of this study, a visual scene/shot and its accompanying audio content in a news videotext would activate, depending on the individual’s capacity, corresponding mental representations in both verbal and nonverbal systems, some of which are conscious. Spreading activation through associative and referential connections would occur within and between the two systems generating an intricate and idiosyncratic pattern of mental representations which need to be filtered to formulate a correct interpretation. Extending this hypothesis further, verbal and imagery representations activated by complementary stimuli would potentially generate relatively less complex mental patterns than when incongruence is evident, with associated positive and negative consequences for cognitive loading, respectively. Videotexts A videotext is broadly defined here as a multimodal text consisting of contiguous, dynamic, and interwoven sounds (verbal, musical and/or background) and visual images (still, moving, text and/or graphic) which can be presented using a range of media. Movies, game and talk shows, dramas, music videos, documentaries, and news are all prevalent genres of videotexts, and are representative of the multitude of such material which is accessible around the world in many languages, through both satellite and terrestrial television and the Internet, to an increasingly visually-oriented populace (Meinhof, 1998).

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Videotext genres differ in the extent to which they aim to entertain and/or inform an audience. Broadly speaking, for example, movies and music videos are primarily entertainment focused, whereas documentaries and news are essentially purveyors of factual information. Videotexts also vary in their degree of structure. For instance, movies and music videos are at the less-structured end of the continuum, while news, talk shows, and soap operas are notably tightly structured in contrast (Meinhof, 1998). Also, while there are format similarities in the more-structured videotexts mentioned, their production and construction reflects the sociocultural values and norms of the country or region from which they emanate (Meinhof, 1998). In terms of language teaching and learning, the exploitation of videotexts is commonplace. Reasons for using videotexts are that the visual channel provides learners with opportunities to see and hear the target language in use and shows many aspects (e.g., landscapes, locations, fashion, food, gestures, way of life) of the target culture and society, both of which can raise learners’ interest levels (Harmer, 2001; Sherman, 2003). In addition, videotexts have ecological validity, as learners are highly likely to listen to another language through this multimodal medium (Guichon & McLornan, 2008). As with other major genres of videotexts, news videotexts (both authentic and non-authentic) are a valuable and widely used resource for advancing language learners’ listening abilities, and a growing number of publications continue to offer suggestions for exploiting this material in the classroom (Gruba, 2005; Harmer, 2001; Lynch, 2009; Meinhof, 1998; Sherman, 2003). Nonetheless, despite the utility and prevalence of news videotexts in foreign and second language learning contexts, it is only recently that L2 researchers have again, following an early study by Brinton and Gaskill (1978), begun to empirically investigate ways to facilitate learners comprehension of this genre (Cross, 2009; Rivens Mompean & Guichon, 2009). As yet, however, little research has concentrated on understanding the influence on L2 learners’ news videotext comprehension of the associated visual content, which is a central element of the message this genre is fashioned to communicate, but one which is often dismissed as less important than the aural content (Graddol, 1994). Prior to exploring related L2 research, L1 research informative to this study is presented. The Visual Content of News Videotexts L1 Research In one of the first publications to cover news videotext comprehension, Gunter (1987) states that the reasons behind inserting visual content (rather than just including a newscaster) in news production are that it increases the overall impact of the news broadcast, serves to emphasize specific aspects of the narrative (e.g., who was involved and where the story occurred), gives the audience the impression they are being allowed to witness the reported events first-hand as they unfold, and triggers an emotional reaction. Gunter (1987) reviewed early studies from the 1960s to 1980s on the influence of the visual channel. Generally, findings from the studies presented did not offer conclusive support for visual content in enhancing information assimilation and retention in news videotexts, but the degree of redundancy between the content of the two channels was identified as an important variable in information processing. In subsequent research, Brosius, Donsbach, and Birk (1996) suggest that the visual content of news videotexts largely consists of ‘standard scenes’, that is, shots of buildings, shoppers strolling in the street, or employees at work, which typically carry little information, and merely have a thematic correspondence with the audio content. Brosius, et al. (1996) investigated the effect of such standard scenes on the quality of information recalled by L1 users, representing how well the content had been conveyed, compared to three other conditions: (a) audiovisual correspondence, (b) audio content only, and (c) audiovisual divergence. The researchers found that the uptake of information was highest for audiovisual correspondence, followed by standard scenes and audio only, which both had similar recall quality. Audiovisual divergence hindered uptake the most. This outcome highlights that visual content has

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the potential to facilitate news videotext comprehension when it is convergent with the audio information (see also Reese, 1984; Walma van der Molen & Van der Voort, 2000), but seems to be detrimental when there is some degree of divergence. A more recent L1 study by Walma van der Molen (2001) also considered audiovisual correspondence in terms of introducing and applying a coding scheme to enable a more systematic analysis of this attribute than provided by general judgments of correspondence across whole news videotexts in previous studies. Walma van der Molen evaluated audiovisual correspondence of information presented in ‘shots’, that is, the visual content between ‘edits’ (a change to a similar scene) and ‘cuts’ (a change to a different visual scene), within news videotexts. Informed by earlier related research (Brosius et al., 1996; Lang, 1995), she developed four categories to establish and code the degree of semantic overlap between audio and visual channels in shots. Three of these categories are classified on a correspondence continuum ranging from Direct, through Indirect, to Divergent. In accordance with Walma van der Molen (2001), the Direct category is used to classify audio and visual content which both express the same propositional meaning (i.e., information in the two modalities is essentially semantically redundant); the Indirect category is used to classify audio and visual content which is only partly related (as in standard scenes); and the Divergent category is used to classify audio and visual content which is not related or even contradictory. The fourth category, Talking head, refers to a scene in which typically only the top half of a newsreader, reporter, or interviewee is shown as they speak, and is considered a separate category as it neither reflects conflicting audio and visual content, nor transparent semantic relatedness between the two. However, a Talking head is categorized as one of the other three categories when additional visual information is available in the background, for example, behind an interviewee. Examples of each category from a BBC news videotext about UK forces in Iraq entitled Basra Deaths are presented in Table 1 for clarification. Walma van der Molen (2001) utilized her coding system to good effect in examining a sample of Dutch news videotexts. She summarized in writing the visual content of shots and the concurrent verbal content, and noted the duration in seconds for each shot. Two coders then used the four-category scheme to code audiovisual correspondence using the written information as well as the actual news videotexts. Walma van der Molen reported a very strong inter-rater reliability (Cohen’s Kappa was .81) for the two coders, which suggests her coding system is a valid and reliable method for determining the level of audiovisual correspondence in news videotexts. Her taxonomy was used in this study for the analysis of the news videotexts. Other related L1 news videotext research has focused on graphics, such as computer-generated texts (CGTs) and computer-generated animations (CGAs). These are features which are typically used to present numerical details, and are utilized to facilitate understanding of complicated events or processes. Fox, Lang, Chung, Lee, Schwartz, and Potter (2003) investigated the comparative amount of comprehension for seven science-related news videotexts in three modified versions which contained a CGA, a CGT, or no graphics. The researchers reported that comprehension was worst for the no graphics version, though there was little difference between the CGA and CGT versions. Moreover, when the perceived complexity of the news videotext was included as a factor, comprehension was not affected for easier or harder content by the presence of a CGA or CGT, but more difficult content resulted in significantly less comprehension when no graphics were included. In summary, this discussion illustrates that variations in audiovisual correspondence can impact on the processing of news videotexts by skilled L1 users. For L2 listeners, it seems safe to hypothesize that such factors will also be influential, as well as be potentially compounded due to linguistic deficiencies, working memory constraints, and a lack of familiarity with the culture-bound visual content, style, and conventions of news videotexts geared to the L1 audience (Meinhof, 1994).

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Comprehending News Videotexts

Table 1. Examples of the Four Coding Categories in Basra Deaths Verbal content

Visual content Talking head

The death of two British soldiers in a roadside bombing in Iraq has raised further questions about the level of equipment used by British troops and whether it’s enough to fight insurgents with their increasingly sophisticated weaponry. From Iraq, David Lauren reports now.

Direct This Land Rover was hit…

Divergent …as British troops were escorting construction workers north of Basra this morning.

Direct Wreckage was strewn across the road…

Indirect …in an area where there have been similar attacks before.

L2 Research Regarding L2 learning, there is a growing body of research which has investigated the influence of the visual content in videotexts primarily in terms of the role of kinesic cues (e.g., hand gestures and lip movements), and still images in lectures, and to a lesser degree dialogues, in an academic listening context (see Ginther, 2002; Ockey, 2007; Sueyoshi & Hardison, 2005; Wagner, 2007, 2008, 2010a, 2010b). The general findings of these studies were that kinesic and contextual visual cues appeared to either facilitate or inhibit understanding, and that variability was apparent in learners’ orientation to, and

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perceived usefulness of, such visual cues. In many of the studies cited, the authors could only offer intuitive insights based on test items and responses, questionnaires, and interviews to suggest how visual content might have affected learners’ comprehension. However, Ockey (2007) and Wagner (2008) specifically focused on eliciting learners’ online processing of audiovisual information through verbal reports to determine the influence of the visual content on understanding in tests of academic listening ability. Ockey’s study involved 6 ESL test takers who were asked to report their use of visual cues, and the impact those cues had on their comprehension during pauses inserted at essentially regular intervals in two lecture videotexts, one containing moving images, and the other still images. Five of the six test takers used hand and body gestures or facial cues in the videotext with moving images to facilitate comprehension. Few of the test takers found the still images in the lecture distracting, and all were rarely found to observe the still images in any case. There was a fairly even split between test takers who broadly found visual content either helpful, both helpful and distracting, or primarily distracting. Overall, Ockey found limited use of the still images by test takers in that version of the videotext, and that there was considerable variability in the videotext with moving images in how test takers reported utilizing the visual content, or generally considered it to be helpful or distracting. Wagner also collected verbal reports using a pause insertion methodology. Eight ESL learners verbalized their comprehension processes at predesignated pauses as they worked through an academic dialogue and a lecture videotext, and completed the corresponding tests. Most learners reported using hand gestures in the lecture to interpret relevant parts of the videotext. In addition, several learners mentioned utilizing the body language of the speakers in the academic dialogue to help develop their interpretations of its content. Furthermore, some of the learners exploited contextual information in the academic dialogue to discern who the speakers were, and to monitor and interpret what the speakers were doing at the start of the dialogue. Similar to Ockey (2007), Wagner concluded that learners vary widely in how they attend to and exploit visual content to understand videotexts. Although there has been comparatively less research with news videotexts than with academic lecture videotexts, it is an area that has been, and continues to be, the focus of interest for L2 researchers. For example, in several publications aimed at informing classroom practice, Meinhof (1994, 1998) describes and exemplifies the interrelations between visual and audio content in news broadcasts in terms of Overlap, Displacement, and Dichotomy. These three categories are analogous to the Direct, Indirect and Divergence categories, respectively, proposed by Walma van der Molen (2001). As in the present study, Meinhof (1994) adopts the view that by understanding how L1 users process, and are influenced by, vagaries in audiovisual content, we can come to understand their potential effects on L2 users’ comprehension. In empirical terms, Guichon and McLornan (2008) investigated aspects of multimodality (i.e., audio only, audio and visual, and the addition of L1 or L2 subtitles) in a BBC news videotext. The authors counted semantic units in learners’ written summaries as a measure of what they had comprehended. In attempting to account for the differences in comprehension that were evident across the modality conditions of visual content with or without subtitles, the authors suggested that learners’ comprehension may have been negatively affected at times due to a ‘split-attention’ effect (Chandler & Sweller, 1992), that is, the division of attention to different modes of input which increases the working memory load and reduces understanding. Importantly, and perhaps counterintuitively, a ‘redundancy’ effect has also been noted by Chandler and Sweller (1991), whereby the processing of simultaneous audio and visual content which is congruous has potentially negative consequences for understanding. This occurs because an increase in working memory load is associated with processing two simultaneous sources of information and attempting to establish if they are related (Sweller, 2002). In a more extensive study of how visual content affects L2 listeners’ comprehension of news videotext, Gruba (2004) investigated the ways in which learners utilized the visual content of Japanese news videotexts. Through examining the retrospective verbal reports of twelve tertiary learners of Japanese,

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Gruba (2004, p. 63) identified seven aspects related to the role of visual information during news videotext comprehension: •

Listeners utilize visual elements to identify text type;



Listeners may utilize decoded written text to form an initial macrostructure;



Listeners may utilize visual elements to generate a number of tentative hypotheses;



Listeners may utilize visual elements to confirm an emerging interpretation;



The presence of a visual element may help listeners narrow an interpretation from amongst other plausible meanings;



Visual elements may confuse or hinder interpretation;



At times, visual elements add little to the development of a macrostructure.

Gruba (2006) also explored learners’ verbal reports and semi-structured interview responses related to listening to Japanese news videotexts from a media literacy perspective, and again illustrated the influence of the visual content on listening. Regarding aspects relevant to this study, Gruba reported a case study of one learner, Abby, who was given the opportunity to replay sections of the news videotexts to create and build her understanding of content. Abby reported using visual elements to determine signposts (key visual content) and boundaries (segmentation) as a means of facilitating her search for comprehension. In addition, she became aware that aural and visual elements did not necessarily correspond. Where discrepancies existed, she attended to the audio content and ignored the visual information. When the two content sources matched, she was able to exploit this to realize greater understanding. Other learners in the study also commented in their interviews that the visual content helped reduce their anxiety, heightened motivation, and gave them a sense of connectedness with the cultural context represented on-screen. Given this rather small body of research into news videotexts, and that only Gruba (2004, 2006) has thus far provided tangible insights into the way visual elements are processed and how they function in news videotext comprehension, there appears a need for further investigation to inform conceptual understanding and pedagogical practice, as well as generally broaden our knowledge of the influence of this key aspect of videotexts on language learners’ comprehension. Thus, the research question for this study was: What is the influence of visual content on L2 listeners’ comprehension of news videotexts? THE STUDY Overview This research was part of a broader study examining the listening processes of twenty EFL learners studying at a language school in central Japan. Five BBC news videotexts were examined using Walma van der Molen’s (2001) four-category coding system, and their audiovisual characteristics were accordingly quantified. A different news videotext was then utilized in each of five 90-minute lessons over five weeks. The news videotexts were edited into segments, and learners worked in pairs to complete a sequence of tasks in a pedagogical cycle for each segment (six per news videotext) at their own pace guided by a prompt sheet. The pairs did not receive any prior training in discussing their comprehension processes, nor did they receive any input from the researcher throughout the study to avoid manipulating the direction and content of their dialogue. The researcher’s role was only to ensure that the pairs adhered to the task sequence and to control the playing of the news videotexts. All interaction between learners was carried out in English, reflecting the requisite use of the L2 in their regular lessons. Each pair’s dialogue was audio recorded, transcribed, and acted as the unit of qualitative analysis.

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Comprehending News Videotexts

Participants The twenty volunteers were Japanese females aged between 22 and 55. All were attending an advancedlevel English language course. A comparison of course level versus IELTS band scales using the language centre’s approximation table indicated that participants were at approximately IELTS band scale 7.0. All names are pseudonyms. Materials Preparation and Analysis The five news videotexts used in the study were drawn from free-to-air televised BBC news broadcasts. The initial criterion for choosing the news videotexts was that they were under two minutes in length to ensure that the amount of preparation time required for editing each of the news videotexts into segments was not overly excessive. In addition, among the news videotexts selected, a range of common tradecraft features, such as interviews with members of the general public, CGTs, and CGAs, should be represented to expose learners to the typical components of this type of videotext. Furthermore, news videotexts consisting of a sequence of short segments were preferred, with each segment consisting of one or a series of images of the same scene plus accompanying audio and well-defined visual cuts between segments. This provided for ease of editing and consistency of material through the study. Each news videotext was edited into short segments according to visual scene change and shift in audio content focus, a natural discourse boundary in news videotext (see Appendix). Due to lesson time constraints, only the first six segments of each news videotext were presented in the ‘classroom’ phase of the study. The length of segments ranged from 6 to 22 seconds, with the average length being 14 seconds. The order of presentation and content of the five news videotexts examined in the study are summarized in Table 2. Table 2. Overview of the Titles, Topics and Lengths of the Five News Videotexts News Item Title

Topic

Length (seconds)

Term-time Holidays

School holidays in the UK

126.1

Green Grocer

Food packaging in the UK

124.5

Elderly Abuse

Aged-care in the UK

129.9

Job Losses

Unemployment in the UK

118.3

Basra Deaths

UK forces in Iraq

130.5

To explore the nature of the information presented in these five news videotexts, verbal and visual content in each videotext for all segments was analyzed according to the four categories suggested by Walma van der Molen (2001)—Direct, Indirect, Divergent, and Talking head. The coding method employed was similar to Walma van der Molen’s. A coding form was prepared in which the verbal script was given alongside images of associated shots and a brief written statement describing the shots. During the analysis, one of the four coding categories was selected and noted on the coding form for the given audiovisual information. However, Walma van der Molen used shot duration to calculate the time for each category. Instead, in this study, the time for a category was calculated based on the duration of the utterances accompanying associated shots. Pauses before and after utterances were excluded, as only visual content was being presented. Measurements were made using Praat Version 4.3.22 (http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/). A colleague acted as a second coder for coding agreement checks. An inter-coder reliability analysis using the Kappa statistic was performed with SPSS Version 18.0 (http://www.spss.com/). Inter-coder reliability was .79. Differences in coding were then resolved by discussion to enable the analysis of the prevalence of each of the four categories. Elicitation and Analysis of Dialogue To provide the framework for eliciting learners’ dialogue for subsequent analysis based on the first six

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segments of each news videotext, a pedagogical cycle proposed by Vandergrift (2007) was used (see Cross, in press, for details). Pairs watched a segment on a TV set, and then made notes after the segment finished. Next, learners shared their understanding of the segment, discussed how they had tried to understand the content, and considered ways to understand more of the segment. Specific written prompts were provided to elicit learners’ responses, such as, “What strategies did you use to try to understand the segment?” The learners discussed their comprehension processes at designated pauses inserted in the news videotext, akin to the manner in which Ockey (2007) and Wagner (2008) collected verbal protocols. The same segment was then replayed, learners added to their notes, shared their understanding, and reported on how they had tried to understand the segment. Following this, learners worked together to produce a written summary of main ideas they had jointly comprehended. On average, they spent approximately fifteen minutes working on each segment. On finishing a segment’s summary, the learners signaled to the researcher to play the next segment. The qualitative analysis by the author of each pair’s ‘dialogic recalls’ (Cross, 2011) using QSR NVivo Version 8 (http://www.qsrinternational.com/) aimed to establish the influence of the visual content on their comprehension of the given news videotexts. Excerpts in which a learner’s report referred to the visual content were firstly identified and grouped for each news videotext. These excerpts of dialogue were then individually cross-referenced to the coding form (see previous section) to establish the category of the relationship (i.e., Talking head, Direct, Indirect, and Divergent) of the audiovisual content that had been the focus of learners’ dialogue. Excerpts of dialogue related to the visual content in the news videotexts which were more general in nature and could not be linked to any of Walma van der Molen’s four coding categories, were collated and given provisional labels for each pair. Excerpts with related labels were then matched across the ten pairs, and the categories iteratively consolidated. Isolated excerpts which could not be cross-matched were excluded from further consideration. A colleague again acted as a second coder, and was asked to use the categories established (i.e., positive or negative effect, inferencing, and predicting) to code the excerpts which did not relate to the coding form content. An inter-coder reliability analysis using the Kappa statistic was conducted with SPSS. Inter-coder reliability was .83. Coding differences were subsequently resolved by discussion. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The initial concern of this study was to draw on L1 research to establish the nature of the audiovisual content in the BBC news videotexts utilized. Using Walma van der Molen’s (2001) audiovisual coding system, all of the segments in each of the five news videotexts used in this study were analyzed and the amount of time in seconds and as a percentage of the total time for each of the four categories was quantified. Table 3 shows the findings of the analysis for each of the news videotexts. Table 3 highlights that the Talking head category was the most common, with each news videotext containing two or three of such segments. Overall, the majority of the audio and visual content for each of the five news videotexts was classified as Indirect or Divergent. This supports the generally held view that redundancy between audio and visual modes in news videotexts is rare (Meinhof, 1998; Walma van der Molen, 2001). Two of the news videotexts contained a CGT segment (Elderly Abuse and Job Losses) and one a CGA segment (Basra Deaths), and these segments exhibited a notable level of audiovisual correspondence. Hence the higher percentages for the Direct category compared to the other two news videotexts (i.e., Term-time Holidays and Green Grocer). The implication for the L2 listeners in this study was that the prevalence of at least partial audiovisual discrepancy in the five BBC news videotexts clearly had the potential to create comprehension difficulties, much as it had affected uptake in the L1 study by Brosius, et al. (1996) discussed above. To examine the manner of influence of the audiovisual content on learners’ comprehension, excerpts of dialogue from each pair were cross-referenced to the relevant shots they were referring to in their dialogue, and the coding of those shots as Talking head, Direct, Indirect or Divergent. The influence of

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the visual content on learners’ comprehension is now discussed in terms of each of these four audiovisual correspondence categories. Table 3. The Types of Visual Content and Their Distribution in Seconds and as a Percentage for Each of the Five News Videotexts News Item Title

Types of visual content

Distribution of visual content (seconds)

Term-time Holidays

Talking head

41.7

37

2.9

3

Indirect

30.0

26

Divergent

38.8

34

113.4

100

39.0

35

0.0

0

Indirect

33.2

30

Divergent

39.6

35

111.8

100

Talking head

44.9

41

Direct

15.7

14

Indirect

20.8

20

Divergent

27.0

25

108.4

100

Talking head

35.9

33

Direct

19.9

18

Indirect

17.3

16

Divergent

35.3

32

108.4

100

Talking head

24.6

24

Direct

20.6

20

Indirect

36.0

34

Divergent

23.4

22

104.6

100

Direct

Total Green Grocer

Talking head Direct

Total Elderly Abuse

Total Job Losses

Total Basra Deaths

(%)

Total

Note: Pauses in audio content, which meant only visual content was presented, were excluded from time calculations in each category.

Talking Head This category refers to close-up shots of the head and upper body of newscasters, reporters, and interviewees which did not contain background scenes of semantic significance. In this study, each of the news videotexts began with a Talking head segment in which the newscaster can be seen introducing the news story. Four of these segments also included a caption identifying the title and, therefore, the theme

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of the news videotext (see Appendix, Segment 1). In addition, three of the news videotexts included Talking head segments in which an interviewee offered their views. Each interviewee was identified with a caption (see Appendix, Segment 3). None of the learners’ reports contained comments about the Talking head shots of the newscasters. Thirteen learners (in ten excerpts) mentioned the visual content in segments with Talking head shots of interviewees. Three learners reported just focusing on the audio content as the visual content in the Talking head segment was not felt to be semantically informative. For instance, Nao reported that the Talking head shot merely showed the woman talking (see Appendix, Segment 3), and so she had concentrated on what the interviewee was saying. Nao:

uhm about for the visual points

Midori:

mm

Nao:

a woman is just talking about

Midori:

mm mm

Nao:

just talking, so I concentrated on the words

Midori:

mm

Nao:

I I I can catch

However, two learners reported using the captions identifying an interviewee to orientate themselves to who the actual speaker was. Interestingly, three learners also reported not noticing the captions, despite their appearance on screen for most of the duration of the given segments. An excerpt from Azusa and Yoko’s dialogue with respect to the female interviewee (see Appendix, Segment 3) illustrates both of these aspects, with Yoko mentioning she used the caption, whereas Azusa reported not seeing it. Yoko:

ah I first of all who is speaking

Azusa:

uhuh

Yoko:

the head teacher

Azusa:

eh eh how did you know she’s the head teacher

Yoko:

the subtitles subtitles

Azusa: Yoko:

[ah you saw the subtitles I didn’t see that point and ah this is the head teacher

In summary, several learners’ reports reflected that they felt visual content in Talking head shots provided little of semantic value to facilitate their understanding, and thus they tended to direct their attention to the contiguous aural content. The captions identifying interviewees did help to orientate a few learners to the name/position of the speaker, but this feature could also go unnoticed. Direct Category This category describes instances in which there was a high degree of semantic equivalence between aural and visual information. Apart from excerpts linked to the CGT and CGA segments, there was one excerpt each from the dialogue of four pairs in which learners discussed the influence of audiovisual content classified in this category. All of the learners mentioned that the visual content had supported their understanding of audio content in relation to a scene from Basra Deaths in which parts of a vehicle destroyed in an explosion are seen on the road (see Table 1). For example, Jun mentions that seeing the wreckage on the road had facilitated her understanding of this part of the segment.

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Jun:

Comprehending News Videotexts

uhm if ah when I saw the pic- erh the image of erh the wreckage parts are strew- strewn around across the road

Kaori:

[uhuh

[ah yes yes

Jun:

that was very helpful to understand the the what’s happening

Kaori

[mm

Jun:

at that time

Kaori:

yes on the road

yes

mm

This part of the segment was notably short (1.9 seconds), yet the audiovisual correspondence appeared to be particularly apparent to several of the learners, and drew comment. It is unclear as to why no other excerpts were related to audiovisual content in the Direct category (other than for the CGT and CGA segments). It may be that the brief duration of each example of such content in general (the average time of audiovisual content in the Direct category was 2.6 seconds), or that just under half of the examples were only a partial component of a proposition (e.g., see the two examples of the Direct category in Table 1), made it difficult for learners to recognize and exploit the semantic overlap in the audio and visual content. Alternatively, audiovisual redundancy may not have been recalled as associated content was unconsciously processed, or because it was one small part of the complex process of comprehending a segment’s propositional content (typically each segment contained three propositions). The CGT and CGA segments contained audiovisual content which exhibited redundancy. The CGT segment in Elderly Abuse consisted of a sequence of numbers and on-screen text, and around half of this segment’s content exhibited semantic overlap. Table 4 shows the content which was categorized as Direct. Table 4. Examples of the Direct Category in the CGT from Elderly Abuse Verbal content

Visual content

In more than two hundred cases the person was abused in their own home.

There have been just five prosecutions.

Seven pairs commented on the effect on their comprehension of the CGT visual content in ten excerpts. This was primarily regarding facilitating understanding of numerical details which is typically difficult for L2 listeners. For example, Yoko reported using the number graphic, recognizing it was linked to the audio content, and thus being able to comprehend the information presented. Yoko:

I tried to follow the numbers appearing on the screen

Azusa:

[mm

Yoko:

and the sound is connected with that number

Azusa:

uhuh

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Yoko:

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so I could understand what this number is what

The CGA in Basra Deaths, shown in Table 5, also contained audiovisual content which was redundant. This segment primarily portrayed an explosive attack on a vehicle, with the voiceover describing how such an attack proceeds. Table 5. Examples of the Direct Category in the CGA from Basra Deaths Verbal content

Visual content

But shaped bombs are designed to focus the force of the explosive into a small area, forcing a hard projectile through the light armour of a Snatch Land Rover.

Excerpts of dialogue from seven pairs illustrated that this CGA appeared to have either a positive or negative influence on learners’ comprehension. Of eighteen related excerpts, ten were positive. For instance, both Emi and Kana reported that their understanding of the military technology shown in the segment had been facilitated by the animation. Emi:

yes in my case I I watched the illustration that something weapons attacked to the land rover mm:: so I think it helps me to understand the weapons how weapons how sophisticated the weapon mm

Kana:

mm yeah erh well in my case I uhm thanks for the clear illustration illustrations I thought I could understand the basic concepts of the weapons

However, Masako and Satsuki were among the learners who reported the CGA had inhibited or impaired their comprehension irrespective of audiovisual correspondence because of the nature and amount of information it contained. Satsuki reported being absorbed in the visual content and forgetting to attend to the audio content, while Masako stated that her attempts to exploit more of the visual content had led to increased confusion. Satsuki:

I was I was I was so so attracted by the scene

Masako:

mm

Satsuki:

the truck land rover and the explanation and illu- and illus- illustration

Masako:

mm mm mm

Satsuki:

and and so I forgot to listen to erh what announcer said

Masako:

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mm mm mm Satsuki:

so

Masako:

ok so I I tried to get more information

Satsuki:

mm

Masako:

from screen

Satsuki:

mm

Masako:

but ah:: mm:: it made me more confused confused

Overall, there was a fairly even split between the number of learners who reported that the graphics in the CGA had been beneficial to their comprehension or had impaired it. The difficulty for learners seemed to be in concurrently coordinating their attention, decoding and integration of the on-screen animation and the details presented aurally. This was a procedure which possibly overwhelmed their cognitive resources. Therefore, it seems that despite redundancy between audio and visual content, the sheer volume of information from different sources (i.e., written text, audio, animated visual scenes) in CGAs, which is designed to assist L1 users’ understanding of complicated events or processes in news videotexts, could possibly confuse some L2 listeners and make it difficult for them to build connections between audio and visual sources of information. Alternatively, learners’ cognitive resources could have been overloaded as they tried to establish that correspondence existed between the multiple sources (i.e., a ‘redundancy’ effect, see Chandler & Sweller, 1991; Sweller, 2002). This did not appear to be as problematic with the CGT as the visual content consisted only of written text accompanied by redundant audio information, so it may be that the ‘moving picture’ aspect of CGAs adds an extra element of complexity for learners. Indirect Category This category refers to audio and visual content which has partial semantic redundancy. One example of this type of audiovisual correspondence was when a reporter was seen using hand gestures and simultaneously referring to on-screen items or locations. This use of gestures by a reporter occurred in two of the five news videotexts. For instance, in a segment from the Green Grocer news videotext shown in Table 6, the reporter is seen holding and gesturing towards some packaging and a plastic bag as he is talking about them. Table 6. Examples of the Hand Gestures from Green Grocer Verbal content

Visual content

Sainsbury’s argue that the natural products in this packaging will break down very quickly in compost…

…whereas the degradable plastic used by some rivals is still oil-based and will take a couple of years to break down completely.

Four pairs discussed the visual information in this segment. For example, Tomoko reported on the way in which the visual content influenced her understanding. She stated how the reporter had explicitly drawn

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attention to objects using his hands, and how this had helped her to recognize that he was making a comparison between objects. Tomoko:

when they did some comparison between sainsbury’s and other retailers rivals like when he talked about the sainsbury’s products he used I I think he

Nami:

mm:: uhuh

Tomoko:

drew up our attention to the sainsbury’s products and when he talked about plastic bags or biodegradable bags by other retailers he hold the bags visually we could notice that he was comparising

Nami:

mm::

Tomoko:

huh comparising comparing sorry comparing something with something

This representative example illustrates that the semantic overlap achieved through the use of hand gestures for comparing and contrasting by the reporter helped to orientate some of the learners to, and facilitate their understanding of, the aural content2. This is in line with Wagner’s (2008) findings that hand gestures can help learners to interpret information in videotexts, and supports the perceptions of the learners in Coniam’s (2001), Ockey’s (2007) and Sueyoshi and Hardison’s (2005) studies regarding the usefulness of a speaker’s gestures in aiding listening comprehension. Visual content in the Indirect category in the form of standard scenes (i.e., visual content which has a thematic correspondence with the audio content) informed learners’ contextual/thematic orientation. All ten pairs commented on this aspect in relation to various segments of each videotext, and there were thirty three associated excerpts in their dialogues. For instance, in Job Losses, the visual content shows employees at work in a call-centre in India, as shown in Table 7, and the audio information is about office jobs being shifted to India. Table 7. Example of the Standard Scene from Job Losses Verbal content

Visual content

Indian workers able to do the same office jobs more cheaply.

Manami and Keiko discussed this visual content, and their dialogue illustrates that it had enabled Manami to achieve situational orientation. She reported she was able to notice the disparity in the visual scene and this had helped her recognize the related context of the information being presented in the segment. Manami:

the first thing I noticed is that the the visual was very parallel to to the one we saw in the segment four

Keiko:

parallel

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Manami:

it was similar but different to the one taken in britain

Keiko:

mm

Manami:

it was the similar office

Keiko:

mm mm mm mm

Manami:

but something was different

Keiko:

mm

Manami:

people were different the partition and the configuration were was different so in a way it helped me that to to to notice that this is the situation in India or the uhm the exported situation

In summary, excerpts related to the reporter’s use of hand gestures indicated that this aspect helped to orientate several learners to items or locations being depicted. In addition, the presence of standard scenes appeared to have a positive influence on some learners’ comprehension through activating and informing contextual/thematic orientation and helping them to refine their interpretations of the given news videotexts as they formed and developed a macrostructure representation (Gruba, 2004). Divergent Category With respect to this category, which refers to audio and visual content which is unrelated or possibly contradictory, there were only four related excerpts evident in the pairs’ dialogues. Two pairs commented on audiovisual divergence when it was patently apparent. A segment in Term-time Holidays, shown in Table 8, contains visual content of children running around a gym mostly showing their legs, while the audio information is an explanation of a court case. Table 8. Examples of the Divergent Category from Term-time Holidays Verbal content

Visual content

The issue has been brought to the fore again because of a court case involving a mother from Kent.

She was prosecuted after taking her children on holiday twice without their schools permission. After a legal battle, the High Court ruled that she’d broken the law.

One example illustrates Azusa mentioning to Yoko how the divergent visual and audio information affected her ability to concentrate and listen, and how she felt the visual content of the children running around had hindered her concentration and comprehension. Azusa:

I think I watched very concentratedly con- co- concentrate on the tv so

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Yoko:

[mm

Azusa:

that’s why I couldn’t catch a lot

Yoko:

mm::

Azusa:

because I wh- while I was listening I always thought what is what are those why are they running running so that bothered my concentration and listening

This representative excerpt illustrates that when the audio and visual content is particularly incongruous and also, in this case, peculiar in terms of the camera technique, it becomes apparent to some learners and can create confusion. A possible reason for why few excerpts of dialogue related to content classified as Divergent is that, although other segments contained disparate audio and visual content, the storyline of the audio and the associated visual images (excluding Talking head shots) were related to previous segments in the news videotext, and it is possible that learners were able to orientate themselves to the continuing thread of the storyline as their tentative macrostructure of the news videotext evolved (Gruba, 2004). This was not the case for the segment content in Table 8, and may have been why learners felt it was problematic. Other Influences In the qualitative analysis of each pair’s dialogue, a number of other general influences related to the visual content emerged across a number of pairs. Firstly, in twenty three excerpts, learners in all pairs mentioned in broad terms that they found that visual content had facilitated their comprehension at some stage, as in this example: Satsuki:

we:: this time uhm the visual points helped us very much I think

Masako:

[mm

[mm::

ah yes

Satsuki:

mm:: and erh I think uhm we we cou- we have got a lot of information

Masako:

mm

Satsuki:

erh from the visual points

Masako:

[mm mm mm yes yes

However, this needs to be qualified, as there were eighteen excerpts in the dialogue of seven of the pairs which illustrated that when they attended to the visual content in a segment, it impaired their ability to attend to the accompanying audio content. For instance, Hiromi stated that she recognized that her attention to the visual information had inhibited processing of the concurrent audio input. Hiromi:

mm:: mm:: I tried concentrate only on the screen so actually sound did not enter

Naoko: Hiromi: Naoko:

really [my brain ah::

Another interesting aspect was that the initial scene in a segment (i.e., the post-cut shot) was used by learners to generate expectations about possible audio content. There were fourteen excerpts related to this in the dialogue of five pairs. For example, Manami reported that the initial image of a child in a segment from Term-time Holidays (see Appendix, Segment 2) had created an expectation regarding the context, which she felt had assisted her comprehension.

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Manami:

Comprehending News Videotexts

ah:: but you know when I first see I first saw the head of of a child I I immediately

Keiko:

[mm

Manami:

knew they were going to talk about the classroom and it helped me

Keiko:

[mm:: ah::

A further influence of the visual content was that it aided inferencing by learners of a segment’s information. There were thirteen related excerpts among six pairs. One example shows Emi reporting that the visual scene had been the stimulus for guessing the content. She mentioned concentrating on the visual content and seeing parts of a vehicle on the road in Basra Deaths (see Table 1), and using this information to conclude that the vehicle had exploded. Emi:

erh I watched on the screen carefully and yes I I saw a car

Kana: Emi:

[uhuh and some metal things such as coil

Kana: Emi:

[mm

mm

and the metal plate on on the on the place so I I guessed the cars

Kana: Emi:

mm

[mm:: exploded exploded and mm::

In summary, learners considered that visual content could both promote and impede their understanding of the accompanying verbal material. Other studies have also found in broad terms that visual content can be both helpful and distracting. Regarding the latter, as with a number of the participants in Coniam’s (2001) and Ockey’s (2007) studies, the visual content seemed to exclusively absorb learners’ attention at times, causing them to fail to allocate resources to processing the simultaneous audio information. In addition, using the initial visual content of a segment helped learners to predict or create expectations about the possible information presented in that segment. Although this could be a risky strategy, just over half of post-cut shots were good indicators of the focus of segment content. A further strategy learners felt had facilitated their comprehension was inferencing based on the visual content (see also Gruba, 2004). The visual content possibly provided a tentative frame of reference which learners used to organize the parts of the audio content they could comprehend and create coherent propositions. Of course, this does not imply that their inferences were necessarily always correct, especially as there was a high proportion of content in the news videotexts that lacked audiovisual redundancy. Learner Variability Ockey (2007), Sueyoshi and Hardison (2005), and Wagner (2008) have commented that the influence of the visual content on comprehension of videotexts is notably variable for each learner, and the findings of this study also illustrate that this is so. While L2 listening comprehension is primarily an idiosyncratic process and, as such, one would expect differences to be evident among learners regarding their frequency and degree of use of visual content in videotexts (as reflected in their verbal reports), it is informative to account for how such variability possibly arises. Wagner (2008) suggests that one reason for the variability is because visual content tends to be automatically processed, so learners are not conscious of doing so. Hence, it is not available for reporting by the given learner. However, it is debatable that the socioculturally-bound visual content in videotexts requires little conscious effort on the part of L2 learners to extract the semantic notions being conveyed. Rather, the analysis of each pair’s

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dialogue in this study revealed that some variability can be more plausibly explained from a dual coding theory perspective, which advocates distinct verbal and nonverbal systems (Paivio, 2007). Given that the multimodality of news videotexts places excessive demands on an individual’s limited short-term memory capacity (Lang, 1995), a number of learners appeared to employ a coping mechanism in which they intentionally directed their attention to either the visual content or the audio content, with the incumbent loss of information presented in the non-attended content source. Moreover, eight learners reported deliberately switching their attention across the two listenings to each segment, primarily attending to the visual content in the first listening to a segment, and focusing on the audio content in the second listening. As such, these learners were likely to comment on the visual content following the first listening only, particularly when they did not find the visual content initially useful. For example, Masako reported that the visual information had not aided her understanding during the first listening so she had decided to attend to the audio content in the second opportunity to listen. Masako:

mm:: on the screen there is no there’s no tips I mean

Satsuki:

yeah

Masako:

hints

Satsuki:

yeah mm

Masako:

so it’s quite difficult to

Satsuki:

mm

Masako:

mm to guess from the visual in the part

Satsuki:

[yeah mm yeah

Masako:

so next time I’m going to concentrate on erh the the listening

Satsuki:

mm::

Similarly, in the following excerpt, whereas Manami mentioned using visual information in the second listening to a segment, Keiko reported that she had consciously not attended to the visual content the second time she listened to the segment and had focused on the audio content. Manami:

this time I tried to use the visual

Keiko:

mm mm mm and I yeah I this time I ignored the visual

Manami: Keiko:

[right yeah and concentrate to hear

Gruba (2004) also noted the tendency of learners to primarily attend to the visual content in the first listening to formulate an initial impression, and then develop a more complete understanding by attending to the aural content as they listened again. Therefore, it appears that conscious attention to either, but not simultaneously to both, the audio or visual content is a way learners attempt to overcome processing issues they encounter, such as when a ‘split attention’ or ‘redundancy’ effect overwhelms their short-term memory resources. In relation to learners focusing their attention on either source of content, there was evidence that while all learners were observed to ‘look’ at the screen when listening, this was, at times, possibly a ‘blank stare’—an unfocused look that does not involve the processing of what is seen (Garland-Thomson, 2009). The visual information in the news videotext was not necessarily being utilized, and learners concentrated on processing the audio content alone. For example, the following excerpt illustrates that Naoko adopted this type of behavior.

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Naoko:

so some sometimes I I point my eyes on the screen but not exactly focus on

Hiromi:

ah:: blankly you look at ok

Naoko:

yeah so next

These findings have implications for studies in which researchers have measured the time learners spent observing the visual content (e.g., Ockey, 2007; Wagner, 2007, 2010a). Although learners are seen to be orienting to the screen, this study shows that it does not necessarily mean they are attending to and exploiting (consciously or unconsciously) the visual elements displayed. Overall, then, it appears that the visual content in news videotexts, irrespective of the degree of audiovisual correspondence, creates a further significant strain on learners’ limited cognitive resources. Learners may try to deal with this issue through directing their attention at different times to information from only one source in preference to the other. This may depend on which source the individual learner feels can best be effectively exploited to interpret and ascertain meaning in the news videotext, and seems to be one important reason for why variability in the use of visual content exits across learners3. IMPLICATIONS FOR PEDAGOGY Despite a number of limitations of this study, including the participants being a rather homogenous group, the news videotext segmentation possibly distorting normal discourse processing, and potential issues with using dialogic recalls as verbal reports (see Cross, 2011), several implications for L2 listening pedagogy arise from the findings. Firstly, it was evident that not all learners recognized congruence and discrepancies between the aural and visual elements as they strove for understanding. This suggests that such aspects need to be made explicit to learners if they are to better deal with the audiovisual vagaries of news videotexts. One technique for achieving this is to present learners with a range of segments and ask them to compare the transcript of the aural content with the visuals they see, and determine and discuss the extent of audiovisual correspondence. Another approach is to have learners predict the kind of visual content they think corresponds to the transcript of the audio content of a news videotext, and then ask them watch the videotext and reflect on the degree of audiovisual correspondence that was evident. In particular, it seems apposite to raise learners’ awareness of the utility of hand gestures used by reporters, and the potentially facilitative effect of numbers and/or captions presented in Talking head, CGT and CGA segments. Furthermore, several studies have shown the facilitative nature of speakers’ lip movements and facial expressions for understanding (Ockey, 2007; Sueyoshi & Hardison, 2005). Talking head segments are a common element of news videotexts, and it would be useful to draw learners’ attention to such features with respect to newscasters and interviewees. In addition, from a media literacy standpoint, Gruba (2006) points to the importance of learners being able to identify segment boundaries using visual elements. This skill helps listeners to keep pace with shifts in content focus as the news videotext progresses. For this study, boundaries were predetermined to enable separate segments of the news videotexts to be presented one-by-one. However, in a classroom context, learners could initially be introduced to the notion of segmentation through visuals in news videotexts and how it operates. A complete news videotext could then be presented (with or without sound) and learners asked to discuss and justify the number of segments they feel it contains. This could be facilitated by asking them to mark segment boundaries on a transcript of the news videotext. Drawing learners’ attention to the regularity of the generic macrostructure of news videotexts (Meinhof, 1998) is also important for developing media literacy. In the BBC news videotexts used in this study, we first see the anchor in the studio, and this is followed by a sequence of short multimodal segments. Viewpoints presented are supported through interviews with ‘stakeholders’ (i.e., members of the general public, politicians, victims), and the final segment often shows the correspondent at the scene or contains the correspondent’s voiceover indicating current consequences and future directions. Of course, it is important to note that the macrostructure and content of BBC news videotexts are culture-bound. In

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contrast, Japan’s NHK news, for example, has a different macrostructure and content (see Botting, 2003). In addition to raising awareness of the macrostructure, learners’ knowledge of the defining features of news videotexts according to particular themes (e.g., politics, war, crime) may be enhanced by using worksheets to guide and maximize their listening experience (see Lynch, 2009). Furthermore, as Gruba (2005) suggests, learners can predict the meaning of the visual content in a news videotext and compare their ideas. Through doing so, they can become aware that visual content may have ‘polysemic’ interpretations (i.e., an array of diverse meanings, Gruba, 2005). CONCLUSION This study identified and examined the various audiovisual characteristics of (BBC) news videotexts using a four-category system and coding method developed by Walma van der Molen (2001). It was evident that audiovisual correspondence in the news videotexts was non-equivalent to varying degrees. Subsequent analysis focused on learners’ dialogue to explore the effect the four different categories of shot types had on learners’ listening comprehension. Talking head visual content seemed to have little influence on comprehension, though captions did help with speaker identification. The effect of the visual content classified as Direct was typically facilitative of comprehension, but the multimodality of contiguous information in CGAs could be detrimental to understanding. Indirect audiovisual correspondence, as reflected in the hand gestures of the reporter and in standard scenes, influenced comprehension positively, whereas Divergent audio and visual content seemed particularly problematic when it was notably incongruous with the evolving news videotext storyline. In addition, the analysis revealed other influences of the visual content on comprehension such as its role in facilitating comprehension; inhibiting of attention to, and processing of, audio content; and triggering of learners’ expectations and inferencing of content. Dual coding theory provided a useful perspective for explaining possible reasons for why there is notable variability among learners in the degree to which they report exploiting the visual content in news videotexts, and it is hoped the implications for L2 listening pedagogy presented offer a way forward for practitioners using news videotexts (or other types of videotexts) in their listening lessons.

NOTES 1. Listening comprehension is defined here as “an active process in which listeners select and interpret information which comes from auditory and visual [this author’s italics] clues” (Rubin, 1995, p. 7). 2. The audiovisual correspondence was coded as Indirect as the visual information presented includes the supermarket interior, the shopping aisle, and items in a trolley. 3. Other potential reason for learner variability in reports of their use of visual content include the tendency for this information to evoke polysemic interpretations (Gruba, 2005), and the disparate visual literacy, spatial ability, and background knowledge of learners (Chun & Plass, 1997).

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APPENDIX. Example of a segmented news videotext Segment verbal content

Segment visual content Segment 1

Now, if you think you could save a tidy sum by taking your kids on holiday in term time, you could be in for a nasty surprise. In a test case, the High Court has a backed the law which says it’s schools who decide if these trips are OK. So, what exactly are parents allowed to do? Judith Morris has been finding out.

Segment 2 These children at school in Manchester are all present and correct, but that’s not the case everywhere. Most teachers marking the register have had the experience of pupils taking time off to go on holiday. It can be a tug of war between parents and schools.

Segment 3 It’s escalating in the number of families that are actually taking children out of school. Parents now …erh… expect to take probably more than one holiday a year. I do have a sympathy with parents because the guidelines are not clear. And it’s left too much onto head teachers.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to acknowledge Major Matthew Bacon, who is mentioned in the Basra Deaths news videotext used in this study, and who lost his life on 11th September, 2005 while serving in Iraq.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jeremy Cross is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His primary research interest is L2 listening. He mainly teaches postgraduate courses on ELT methodology for listening and speaking. E-mail: [email protected]

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Sweller, J. (2002). Visualisation and instructional design. Workshop paper for the IWM Knowledge Media Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.iwm-kmrc.de/workshops/visualization/sweller.pdf Vandergrift, L. (2007). Recent developments in second and foreign language listening comprehension research. Language Teaching, 40, 191–210. Wagner, E. (2007). Are they watching? An investigation of test-taker viewing behavior during an L2 video listening test. Language Learning & Technology, 11(1), 67–86. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/ vol11num1/wagner/default.html Wagner, E. (2008). Video listening tests: What are they measuring? Language Assessment Quarterly, 5, 218-243. Wagner, E. (2010a). Test-takers’ interaction with an L2 video listening test. System, 38(2), 280–291. Wagner, E. (2010b). How does the use of video texts affect ESL listening test-taker performance? Language Testing, 27(4), 493–510. Walma van der Molen, J. (2001). Assessing text-picture correspondence in television news: The development of a new coding scheme. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 45(3), 483–498. Walma van der Molen, J., & Van der Voort, T. (2000). The impact of television, print, and audio on children’s recall of the news: A study of three alternative explanations for the dual-coding hypothesis. Human Communication Research, 26(1), 3–26.

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Language Learning & Technology http://llt.msu.edu/issues/june2011/dooly.pdf

June 2011, Volume 15, Number 2 pp. 69–91

DIVERGENT PERCEPTIONS OF TELECOLLABORATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING TASKS: TASK-AS-WORKPLAN VS. TASK-AS-PROCESS Melinda Dooly, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona The use of computer-supported collaborative learning is more and more commonplace in language learning classrooms; this has given rise to the need for more research on roles and processes of telecollaboration in language teaching and learning and how online interactions are integrated with face-to-face classroom activities. Using a data-driven, qualitative approach to provide snapshots of a telecollaborative language learning project, this article examines participants’ modes of language use beginning with the task-asworkplan (Breen, 1987, 1989) and then examining episodes (both F2F and online) and outcomes of the task-in-process. By pinpointing specific moments of emerging language knowledge in the telecollaborative process, the article aims to delineate salient factors involved in this type of language learning context. INTRODUCTION Despite being a fairly new educational mode, there is a considerable and growing body of research on telecollaboration in language learning, and definitions and uses of telecollaboration have gone through many transformations. Generally, telecollaboration in language learning contexts is seen as an Internetbased exchange aimed at developing both language skills and intercultural communicative competence (Guth & Helm, 2010). In this article the label Telecollaborative Language Learning (henceforth TlcLL)1 will be employed. Language educators know well that communicative-based environments do not guarantee that language learning takes place. The task design and its implementation are key elements for efficient language learning to develop—a carefully designed task or activity that requires off- and online co-construction of knowledge not only provides opportunities for target language practice, it also helps integrate language use as the means for shared knowledge-building, thus further enhancing purposeful communication. (For an in-depth overview of “the growing awareness of the centrality of tasks in CMC [computer-mediated communication] learning environments” (p. 19) and subsequent research into task-based language teaching in CMC, see Müller-Hartmann & Schocker-v. Ditfurth, 2008). Several researchers of TlcLL have called for more focus on what it means to efficiently design a communicative venue for online interaction in the target language (Levy & Stockwell, 2006; Mangenot, 2008). Hermeneutic views of the more common task typology used in telecollaboration can be found in recent literature (see Harris, 2002; O’Dowd & Ware, 2009), however research into what occurs during the learning process in TlcLL is still lagging behind. Arguably, this is even more so in the case of TlcLL in primary education, where there are far fewer studies. Along these lines, this article aims to explore the discourse space between online and F2F language learning talk that takes place in a fifth grade classroom in Catalonia, Spain. The learners in the study participated in a yearlong telecollaborative project with a partner class in the Czech Republic. By considering data from specific episodes during the learning process (both on- and offline), the text outlines the anatomy of the language-in-action in these different modes of communication, all of which were essential, interlocking components to the overall project design. Considering that the use of telecollaboration in language classrooms is becoming more common, a micro-analysis of divergent perceptions of telecollaborative language learning tasks of the participants involved (learners and teachers) may provide useful insight into the learning process, along with understanding of potential gaps between task plans and actions (and final output). The environment is understood as a blended learning environment2 therefore data from off- and online contexts are taken into

Copyright © 2011, ISSN 1094-3501

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account. Contextual and conversational analysis begins with the task-as-workplan (in the classroom) and then examines different episodes (both F2F and online) of the task-in-process (Breen, 1987, 1989) to discern whether student uses of different resources are legitimized by the teacher as part of the emergent language learning in the TlcLL project. The conjunction of different, segmented data, collocated within the “network of activity” (Barab, Hay, & Yamagata-Lynch, 2001) that constitutes the yearlong telecollaborative project provide the foci for the driving questions of this descriptive study: •

Is a relationship between learner repertoires, tasks, and output discernable in the described episodes (snapshots)?



Are there indicators of language learning in these described episodes (snapshots)?



Are these indicators recognised and acknowledged in the teaching process?



Are there divergences between task plans and participant actions?

LITERATURE REVIEW Lamy and Hampel (2007) provide an overview of the history of computer-supported language acquisition, describing it in three broad phases: behaviouristic CALL, communicative CALL and integrative CALL (p. 9). In the first phase, computers principally were used for individual drill-type exercises. In the communicative phase, targeted language practice included speaking and listening albeit via machinelearner interaction. The integrative phase (beginning in the 1990s) involves multimedia network-based interaction, which usually mediates human-human interaction and is often group-based. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories have generally guided studies of language learning online (Levy, 1998). Chapelle (2001) provides a comprehensive overview of the connections between SLA and computersupported learning. There are two broad paradigms which have been quite influential in SLA (Lamy & Hampel, 2007): cognitive and sociocultural (although these can be further categorised into different theoretical branches and research areas). “Cognitive SLA is an applied psycholinguistic discipline oriented towards the cognitive processes involved in the learning and the use of language” (Lamy & Hampel, 2007, p. 19). (For a very thorough description of the debate between the two fields of inquiry in SLA, see Zuengler & Miller, 2006). Cognitivism focuses principally on the individual, with the notion of the single language learner processing linguistic input and output (based on the metaphor of the brain as a computer). Recently however, SLA research has received criticism for holding an imbalanced focus on the four linguistic competencies (listening, reading, writing and speaking), based on mostly empirical research that mainly considers form and accuracy (with idealised images of native-speaker performance) and with little consideration of language as a process and a communicative means for use in socially and culturally embedded cultural activities (see Firth & Wagner, 1997, 2007). Sociocultural theories aim to put more emphasis on the importance of interaction for language learning and in turn highlight situated, learner-centred social practices as part of the learning process. In recent years, there have been a number of studies that propose the importance of the sociocultural base of language learning (see Firth & Wagner, 1997, 2007; Lantolf, 2000; Mondada & Pekarek-Doehler, 2004). Roberts (2001), Kanno and Norton (2003), and Norton and Kamal (2003) have even argued that learning linguistic competences is in itself a socialising process in which the individual deploys and negotiates new identities as a member of the target language community. This sociocultural perspective can be found in CMC research as well: [T]he role of technology in education has increasingly been studied through the lens of learning theories and models that mark a departure from cognitive approaches, by locating knowledge not only

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in the mind of individual learners but also in the history, culture and communities that provide the context in which learning is taking place. (Blin, 2005, p. 5) Applying an even more critical stance to early SLA research, Hall, Cheng, and Carlson (2006) assert that much of the research in SLA relies on three assumptions that have underlying theoretical flaws. These are: 1. The assumption of homogeneity of language knowledge across speakers and contexts; 2. A view of L1 and L2 language knowledge as distinct systems; and 3. The presumption of a qualitative distinction between multi-competence and mono-competence (Hall, Cheng, & Carlson, 2006, p. 220). These authors contend that speakers’ language knowledge should not be considered as homogeneous; they argue that language knowledge is “not composed of a-contextual, stable system components” (Hall et al., 2006, p. 230). This is predicated on the fact that an individual’s use of language is not static, even in the case of native speakers; levels of accuracy and fluency will vary, according to everyday contexts. Someone writing an article for an academic journal, for instance, will pay more attention to form and accuracy of language than he or she might when writing an e-mail to a colleague or sending an SMS message (which are often purposefully composed of lexical, syntactical and spelling errors). By acknowledging these “varying shapes and substance of individuals’ language use” (Hall et al., 2006, p. 233) we can have better insight into the way in which learners’ develop their language knowledge according to the context in which they are interacting and make comparisons of individual use across different episodes and communicative events. The other two “flawed assumptions” stem from an idea that language learning processes are sequential and monolingual (based on the notion that learners are principally monolingual speakers learning other languages as separate systems). Given that many telecollaborative language learning processes take place within blended-learning environments in which at least one (and often times more than one) other language is available as a communicative resource (apart from the target language), this assumption begs reconsideration. In most cases, the task design does indeed aim to elicit a monolingual product (output) at the end of a learning process. However, the process of generating the product itself, especially among lower level (multilingual) learners, is not always a monolingual process, despite the best intentions of students or the admonitions of teachers to use the target language. Research indicates that multilingual practices can contribute to the eventual construction of a final monolingual output. It has been put forth that plurilingual-hybrid practices often scaffold cognitive and communicative activities which eventually allow speakers to participate in monolingual activities at the end of the process (Borràs, Canals, Dooly, Moore, & Nussbaum, 2009). Recent research with multilingual language learners working towards monolingual task accomplishment shows that they tend to shift between different types (or stages) of L1 and target language use (Borràs et al., 2009; Masats, Nussbaum, & Unamuno, 2007). Their code-switching allows them to overcome communicative obstacles, facilitating an eventual stage where the learner can maximise use of the target language for task management, task fulfilment, and other communicative events (e.g., side-sequences). This suggests that research must adopt a learner-centred focus that looks at how learners use their various linguistic resources to acquire communicative expertise in the target language (Kasper, 2004), and in this particular case how this process follows a path that starts with multilingual practices (the simultaneous presence of more than one language) to reach voluntary monolingual practices (the use of only one language at will) through both off- and online interaction. Furthermore, by viewing the multilingual language learner as having an integrated system of different languages that “constitute a repertoire” (Canagarajah, 2009, p. 5), the idea of competences (often based on native versus non-native idealised standards) must be interrogated.

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Interrogating the idea of competences inevitably foregrounds the question of what is evidence of language learning. Recent work critiques the dominant view of language assessment, arguing for a more context sensitive model of dynamic assessment (see Rea-Dickins & Gardner, 2000; Poehner & Lantolf, 2005). Gardner and Rea-Dickins (2002) propose using language sampling (recordings of what learners say and do during a task and analysing this later) in order to gain more insight into learners’ needs and abilities. According to Rea-Dickins (2006, 2007, December), there are a number of potential clues that can be used as an indication of a child’s learning. These include when a learner is able to extend a concept; is able to relate the activity to own experience; use the targeted learning concepts in different contexts and provide evidence of engagement and persistence on a task (among others). This is consistent with language learning research that focuses on the socially constructed nature of learning interaction over time. This in turn, brings up the question of what constitutes research data for language learning. It is becoming more common to find classroom interaction presented as a means of study for language learning processes, although this type of reduced data has also been critiqued (see Stubbs, 1981) due to the fact that it is the researcher who selects and then interprets the data. Nonetheless, an interactional view sees the language input and output of the classroom as inextricably linked and therefore a micro-perspective of different learning episodes can provide insight into this learning process (see key studies of classroom interaction analysis by Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975; Mondada & Pekarek-Doehler, 2004; Seedhouse, 2004). This type of analysis, in large part based on social research methods, is traditionally grounded in repeated study of collections of examples of human interaction as a means of gaining insight into specific moments of very complex, situated practices, as is the case of language teaching and learning. Attempting to cover the complexity of interaction in language learning situations implies inherent difficulties in classroom research. The approach adopted here focuses on segmented chunks (referred to here as snapshots) of the language learners’ actions as the unit of analysis in order to encapsulate the language learner as a social and cultural participant engaged in linguistic interaction. At the same time, endeavouring to delineate what constitutes interrelated nodes of actions within a classroom is difficult since any one pedagogical activity is inevitably embedded in many other activities and often times the activity itself is intersected by many other factors. Barab et al. (2001), for example, underscore the highly complex interrelations that make up an activity system in the learning process, suggesting that a methodological approach based on situated cognition must necessarily try to “[track] knowing in the making as the course unfolds” (p. 64). While these episodes do not provide a full picture of learning processes, they do offer chunks (or nodes) of segmented data that provide insight into the relationship between the nodes that represent the “historical development” (Barab et al., p. 69) of the learner. Similarly, finding a way to map the density of a yearlong language learning course in which the activities and outcomes were integrated into both online and faceto-face contexts can be problematic. Therefore, the analysis traces the interaction patterns in both F2F and online activities through these snapshots (interrelated episodes of data segments) in order to discern how varying activities promote or hinder opportunities for learners to use the target language productively and thus gain insight into the effect of specific tasks on students’ language production and, over time, on their language development. The complexity of this blended-learning interaction is further exacerbated by the difficulties of defining task within a SLA or foreign language learning situation. Seedhouse (2005) argues for the need for more clarification of the notions of task from the perspective of task-as-workplan (which deals with intentions and expectations of the task) and task-in-process (or what “actually happens”, p. 535) and task-asoutcomes (Seedhouse & Almutairi, 2009, p. 312). This underscores the notion that learners, as active agents in learning processes, can modify activities according to their own intentions—modifications which may or may not be in direct accordance with the initial intentions of that task-as-workplan. As for the off- and online dimensions of learning processes, Kitade (2008) states that most previous

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studies “have examined only online interactions….without addressing the role of offline interactions or the learners’ engagement in combined online and offline interactions” (p. 67). The author posits that “in order to fully understand how learners implement a task….and the potential of this task with regard to L2 learning” it is necessary to integrate a sociocultural perspective that examines and reveals “how each type of interaction—online, offline, or combined interactions—can provide learners with opportunities for collaborative learning” (p. 67). PARTICIPANTS AND CONTEXT The data come from a yearlong telecollaborative, cross-disciplinary project that focused on both content and language. While it was not formally labelled as a Content Language and Integrated Learning (CLIL) project, the project was designed and implemented by an English specialist and the social science teacher and dealt with environmental issues. The project was carried out across the full academic year with Year Five students (ten-to-eleven year old students) in a Spanish primary school (in the Barcelona area, thus the principal school language of instruction is Catalan). The partner school was located in the Czech Republic (in the Vychodocesky State); the school language was Czech. There were twenty-six students in the Barcelona group (twelve girls, fourteen boys) and twenty-eight students in the Czech group (fifteen girls and thirteen boys). The focus of this inquiry is on the Catalan students. The project aims were for the students to make initial contact, form work groups to exchange information and opinions about different types of pollution (paying special attention to locally-specific issues), and to form work groups made up of local and national pairs to compile ideas for contributing to a shared wiki about environmental problems. The teachers took charge of posting the negotiated information to the wiki. The data were compiled by a student teacher working at the Spanish primary school while completing a graduate degree in research in language and literature teaching methods; her research advisor helped record and collect the initial data. The teacher and research advisor were not directly involved in the planning but the student teacher did take part in the implementation and the research advisor was an observer. Class sessions that were related to the telecollaborative work were recorded throughout the year using one recorder per working group. These were transcribed using the language archiving technology called Transana (transcription key in Appendix A). Permission to audio record the face-to-face exchanges was obtained from the Spanish students’ parents, however due to strict regulations in the school the exchanges could not be videotaped. The teacher also received permission from both the Spanish and the Czech participants for full access to the data online (forums, e-mails, wiki). MATERIALS The project activities consisted of face-to-face work (whole class activities, group work activities, pair work and individual work) and online work with international partners in the Czech Republic (primarily pair work and group work). The English specialist was in charge of implementing the exchange, including the preparatory work leading up to the online collaboration. Some of the online activities involved: •

Participating in a forum about environmental issues in which the students explained different topics and concepts related to the environment that were relevant to their countries (e.g., water conservation was important to the students in Spain following a drought in 2008). The pupils were asked to post comments, links, and images.



Comparing and contrasting different issues that were important to each community and how they were dealt with.



Based on the previously shared information, preparing a collaborative environment alert wiki.

Overall, the data collected during the year are the teacher’s work plans (handwritten in a notebook; seven

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recorded F2F class sessions, screenshots of forum interactions during the year (breakdown of interactions can be found in Appendix B) and the final wiki. The data presented here consist of: 1. Teachers’ workplans (Spanish EFL teacher: Laura) 2. Student-teacher’s field notes 3. F2F pair work interaction (one extract) - Participants: two female students (Berta, Clara) and one female teacher (Laura) 4. Forum entries - Three students (Maria, Berta, and Clara) - Two teachers (Laura, Agnieska) The names of the participants have been changed. ANALYSIS FRAMEWORK: DATA SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT Since task is understood here as something in progress—in a constant state of negotiation and construction (Breen, 1987, 1989)—these data extracts are seen as snapshots of interaction, allowing glimpses into moments of specific language learning events taking place during the overall exchange, and not just as end-products. Taking the position that language learning is dynamic, non-linear, and contingent upon multiple, non-isolatable factors, then language use and learning can be seen to emerge in nested patterns. “These patterns are not predicted but ‘retrodicted’ or described post priori, since interrelationships are so complex that causation in the traditional sense is untenable” (Reinhardt, in press). Furthermore, within an interactional research framework, data analysis actually begins with the data compilation and segmentation. The analytical approach follows the premise posed by Barab et al. (2001) that methodological approaches aiming to capture learning processes from a situated-cognition perspective must try to describe the rich contexts “of knowing about [knowledge-construction] that are so fundamental to situative or distributed conceptions of cognition” (p. 67). These authors propose a means of representing the learning process “as a network of activity—a network that allows for the inclusion (capturing) of material, conceptual, and social components” (Barab et al., 2001, p. 67). They apply a method of identifying relevant data through three steps. “[E]xperiences are (a) sectioned into actionrelevant episodes (AREs), (b) parsed down to codes in a database, and (c) then represented as nodes in a network so that the historical development of the particular phenomenon of interest can be traced” (Barab et al., 2001, p. 63). A similar approach is taken here, however, rather than using AREs, snapshots (captured data segments) revolving around chosen language use are employed. “It is important to note that the boundaries of what constitutes a chunk are determined by the needs of the study and not some ontological truth” (Barab et al., 2001, p. 66). The snapshots in this study focus principally on one pair (girl-girl) in different stages of the task-as-process. The pair also interacts with others but the focus is on the language use by these two girls. The timeline shown in Figure 1 helps underscore the complexity of describing the interrelatedness of tasks and activities over a long-term period. For instance, snapshot 2, time wise, falls after snapshots 3, 4 and 5, but it is clearly linked to the snapshots that come before and after it. This will be described in more detail in the analysis.

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Figure 1. Mapping the network of activities. Before determining which data segments were of interest, multiple listening sessions were arranged (twice for the transcriptions done by the student teacher and researcher) and once for triangulation by a nonparticipant. Following that, data sessions3 were arranged to (a) select relevant data segments (snapshots) for further analysis, and (b) revise and analyse the selected data. Due to the nature of the telecollaborative situation, these sessions dealt with more than the recorded transcripts; thus written and online data were also included (teachers’ workplans; student teacher’s field notes; F2F pair work interaction; forum entries). Taking Rea-Dickins’ (2006, 2007, December) indicators of language learning as a preliminary basis for data selection (extension of a concept; relating an activity to own experience; use of targeted learning concepts in different contexts; evidence of engagement and persistence on a task), the data session participants incorporated van Lier’s notion of being “on the lookout for patterns and regularities” in the data (1988, p.16). This article focuses on snapshots that showed recurring patterns of use of new lexical items in the students’ L2 repertoire: noise and annoy. (The reasons for this selection are illustrated further on.) Researchers are not unmotivated by the theoretical frames in which they move, thus the way in which the data were selected and managed is considered part of the analysis cycle, as illustrated in Figure 2. Following the data segmentation related to the chosen features to be analysed (episodic snapshots related to the words noise and annoy), the interactions—both face-to-face and online—are examined through the parameters applied to the study of talk-in-interaction. The interactions are analysed in terms of “the order/organization/orderliness of social action, particularly, those social actions that are located in everyday interaction, in discursive practices, in the sayings/tellings/doings of members of society” (Psathas, 1995, p. 2). The snapshots of interaction are then placed in conjunction with the original task-as-workplan (network of activities) to highlight convergences and divergences between the task plans and actions. As Markee (2000) argues, a social-interactionist approach that closely examines the learners’ talk can help identify

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successful and unsuccessful learning behaviours as well as show how meaning is constructed by the participants (students and teacher) in the learning situation.

Figure 2. The analysis cycle. Inevitably, the fact that these exchanges take place within a wider context of the classroom implies that there is a different speech exchange system than other types of talk-in-interaction (McHoul, 1978). As Meskill (2005) puts it, school discourse is made up of “those ways of talking that have become institutionally sanctioned or ‘normal’” (p. 46). In this study, the importance of unequal roles of teacher and student within this school discourse emerges as an important feature determining the talk-ininteraction in both the face-to-face and online interaction. ANALYSIS The first data segment consists of written text while the second data segment is a short F2F extract of inclass pair work. However the content of both data segments relate to online interaction that will take place later on in the network of activities. The analysis illustrates a mismatch between the intended task plan (as understood by the teacher) and the learners’ actions. This mismatch carries implications that will be discussed further on.

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Snapshots 1 and 2: F2F classroom interaction The first snapshot deals with the teacher’s plans (see network of activity, Figure 1, above). According to the teacher, the underlying plan of the overall exchange was to provide opportunities for the students to use the target language in their F2F and online work (stated intentions were collected in student-teachers’ field notes). The workplan focused on the use of F2F work for language planning (metalinguistic focus)— the students first consider carefully about how they should phrase their interaction with their partners. This was intended to lead into their exchange between the online partners. The focus of the workplan is on specific target language that should take place during the online work. - Brainstorm words associated with environment/contamination in class - Make pairs & match with partner - Pairs suggest topics in the forum for the project (2 wks) - Pairs use forum/chat to negotiate topic (in computer lab)

- Pairwork in class: make suggestions of images, words for the online mural (topics already decided) […] Figure 3. The teacher’s first workplan (transcribed next to the original notes). The workplan indicates that sub-tasks leading up to the online interaction centred on vocabulary (beginning with the oral elicitation of possible topics in the brainstorming) and structures needed for making introductions and suggestions (about the topics). The first brainstorming produced the following lexical items: •

Ozone layer holes



Ecology



Al Gore



Global heat [warming]



Factories



Too much traffic



Cutting down trees in the Amazon



Dead fish



Cow farts



Golf courses in Almería

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Greenhouse effect (list comes from the student-teachers’ field notes)

Following this, the teacher presented short dialogues as models for the online exchange. According to the field notes, the teacher used the F2F sessions as a means of a priori language practice of the modeled structures. At this point in the task plan, the teacher’s focus is on presenting, practicing, and producing discrete, previously selected target language (how to introduce themselves and make suggestions for topics). This is to then be transferred to the online exchange. The next snapshot proceeds from the F2F exchange (audio recording) of a pair of students discussing in Catalan what topic they are interested in working on with their online partners. According to the workplan (Figure 4), the students should first make their introductions online, mention local environmental problems, read the Czech students’ posts and then make specific project-topic suggestions and wait for a response. - Sts post introductions in forum - Read CZ intros - Post 1 reply (min) - Discuss (clss) about ptners - Forum post on local env. prob. (can b in prs) - Find out CZ prob - Post topic suggestion Figure 4. The teacher’s second workplan (transcribed next to the original notes). According to the workplan, the students should not decide a topic beforehand. This becomes an issue in the following extract. Extract 1. Original Version: Teacher (T), Berta (BER), Clara (CLA) (transcription key in Appendix A) 1.

BER: teacher/ (.) el podem fer sobre el soroll oi/_

2.

T: well: have you talked to the Czech partners yet/|

3.

BER: no: hem estat pensant molt i volem fer el noise\|

4.

T: you have to decide with the others\|

5.

BER: (2) >yes
yes
__>) (Anon. 29/09/2008) It is evident from this user’s comment that despite her desire to use Japanese, the new forum setting did not facilitate this desire, and furthermore, the introduction of a new international board has not gone far to alleviate tensions over the use of Chinese. For Hyacinth, an Australian-Chinese-background learner of Japanese, hostility towards Chinese affected her motivation to engage in interaction on the forums. Even so, Hyacinth saw the reaction of the hostile Japanese as symptomatic of their online space being invaded: “I think the frustrations are the invasion of a domain that [is] mostly Japanese.” When asked what made the Website a Japanese domain, Hyacinth responded “Generally, the Website being completely in Japanese to me suggests that a level of Japanese is required to play it…especially with instructions in Japanese.” Thus, in addition to the nationality of users, the language of moderation appears to contribute to perceptions of linguistic domains also. It is important to note that most of the conversation on the forum regarding the use of WebKare in languages other than Japanese was carried out by anonymous users who, as in the two messages above, chose not to attach their name or avatar. Levy and Stockwell (2006) state that while anonymity in CMC can have positive effects such as giving L2 speakers more confidence to participate than they may have in face-to-face communication (as noted by Shibanai, 2007), negative effects, such as the flaming (hostile or insulting comments) seen above, are also fostered by the affordance of anonymity. As mentioned earlier, the sense of anonymity afforded by some types of online communication has also led to claims that, so long as language use does not indicate otherwise, the signaling of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, or indeed any other aspect of identity online appears to be at the user’s discretion (Burkhalter 1999; Herring 2003). Despite this commonly held view, none of the Australian participants in the current study attempted to hide or disguise their nationality, or their self-selected identity as language learners. On the contrary, participants took pains to emphasise their L2 identities online. Language “Learners?” “Users?” “Foreigners?” Rather than hiding their L2 learner or L2 user identities, the Australian participants in the present study instead brought them to the fore, through the use of both linguistic and visual means. In some cases, participants even identified themselves as foreigners, in stark contrast with the idea of the Internet as a placeless space, and instead, highlighting the extent to which participants viewed Japanese domains as Japanese-owned spaces.

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Critics of traditional applied linguistics research have problematised the distinction that has been made between native- and non-native speakers, as if these were given, absolute categories. Perhaps the most famous call for consideration of these terms was made by Firth and Wagner (1997), arguing that mainstream theory skews our view of language learners/users by focusing on them as NNSs who strive to reach NS-like competence. In this view, other social identities of individuals are in danger of being overlooked. Sealey and Carter (2004), too, have highlighted the danger of selective measurement whereby the researcher makes use of a preconceived concept, such as NNS or learner, already infused with theoretical notions. Sealey and Carter outline their approach to social categories by identifying two types: those constituted by involuntaristic characteristics, and those characterised by a degree of choice on the part of their members, emphasising that “actors’ understandings are a central element in the theoretical description of social collectives” (2001, p. 7). Rather than the researcher imposing the categories of learner or native-speaker, in the present study, participants identified themselves as learners or native-speakers, as is evidenced in their interview data, and sometimes, in their online interactions themselves. However, as identity is fluid, Firth and Wagner’s (1997) point that these identities may not always be the most relevant in a given interaction, is taken into consideration. Drawing on the case studies of participants’ Facebook and Mixi use, this section will examine the fluidity of participants’ identities across different language domains online through an analysis of SNS profiles. As previously outlined, half of the Australian participants in the current study (Alisha, Ellise, Kaylene, Noah, Oscar, and Zac) were members of Mixi, and for five of them, Mixi was their most commonly used CMC medium in Japanese. Mixi profiles typically consist of a display photo, a list of basic information, a self-introduction, and a list of likes and interests, all of which are optional to complete. All six participants who were members of Mixi clearly stated in their profiles that they were not Japanese, or that they were studying Japanese. All listed 海外オーストラリア(Overseas: Australia) as their current address. This is a set expression included in a list on the site, in which countries other than Japan are automatically prefixed Overseas. Yet, of course, providing one’s current country of residence alone does not differentiate a student of Japanese as a foreign language from a NS from Japan currently living overseas, for example. So in addition to this, Noah and Oscar also added Australia as their birthplace. Furthermore, Alisha, Ellise, and Zac all explicitly stated their nationality in the body of their profiles. This information often took precedence over other biographic details or participants’ interests. Alisha’s profile opened with the statement 「オーストラリア人だ」 (I am Australian). Ellise’s profile also started with a statement of nationality: 「私はオーストラリア人とイギリ ス人ですけれども今 オーストラリアに住んでいます!」 (I am Australian and English, however I am living in Australia at the moment!). Zac’s profile read 「ザックです。オーストラリア人 で23歳です」 (I’m Zac. I am Australian and 23 years old). Kaylene’s approach was a little less direct, simply implying her foreignness by stating 「この日記は、きっと下手で外国人 っぽいな日本語か「ケイリー語」になっちゃうご めんね」(I’m sorry, this blog will probably end up being very badly written and the Japanese is that of a foreigner, or even Kaylese), referring to herself as a foreigner, and her own idiolect as Kaylese (ケイリー 語). Furthermore, some participants were also careful to emphasise the fact that they are still studying Japanese. Ellise’s second line was 「今は大学で日本語を勉強しています」 (I am studying Japanese

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at university at the moment). Similarly, Oscar stated 「今、日本語と中国語を勉強しています」(At the moment, I am studying Japanese and Chinese). Noah included a lengthy description of his language learning history, excerpted below. Extract 3. Noah’s Mixi Profile 私は2006年から今まで日本語を勉強しています。最初はR大学で日本語の勉強を始ま ったんですが後八ヶ月に卒業しました。短いコースでしたけどすごく楽しくて興味深った。 今はM大学で勉強しています。もちろん日本語の勉強を続けています。 (I have been studying Japanese since 2006 up to now. At first, I began studying Japanese at R University, but I graduated after eight months. It was a short course, but a lot of fun and I was very interested. Now, I am studying at M University. Of course, I am continuing with my Japanese study.) Finally, several participants also used the Interests section to further focus on language. Four out of six participants, Ellise, Noah, Oscar, and Zac, all listed 「語学」 (language study) as a hobby. Although a major theme of all six profiles, it would be erroneous to presume that being a foreigner / language learner was the only identity at the forefront of participants’ profile construction. Another observable pattern concerns interest in Japanese culture, something all participants took pains to emphasise. Four of the six participants used Japan-related photographs for their display picture; Alisha, a photo of herself in the snow in Japan, Zac, likewise, a photo of himself with a snow sculpture in Japan. Ellise used a purikura (Print Club photo sticker) of herself and a Japanese friend, complete with Japanese graffiti, and Oscar’s profile photo was a snapshot of the neighborhood he lived in while on exchange in Japan. All six also listed Japanese-related likes and interests. This may appear unsurprising, given that an interest in Japanese culture is hardly remarkable among students of Japanese, or even among the youth population of Australia more generally, as Larson (2003) notes. However, interesting comparisons can be drawn between participants’ English domain SNS profiles (in this case, Facebook), and their Japanese domain (Mixi) profiles. None of the participants mentioned any of the Japanese-specific interests that they displayed on Mixi (Japanese television dramas, karaoke, anime cartoons, manga comics, shogi chess, Japanese alcohol and foods, or even language learning), in their English Facebook profiles. This demonstrates the context-specifity of participants’ identity displays as shown in Table 5. Lastly, although all six participants went to great lengths to foreground their non-native status, and emphasise their interest in Japanese culture, this does not mean that they cast themselves in a wholly subordinate role. This is clearest in the case of Noah, who positioned himself as a learner of Japanese, but an expert in English: 「私は日本で英語の教師にたりたいんです。…feel free to ask me for help with English」 (I want to become a teacher of English in Japan…) Zac also divulged his aspirations to become an English teacher, and offered to speak in English or Japanese with anyone interested: 「私の夢は日本で英語教師になりたいです。そのためにいっぱい日本人の友達を作って、 日本語と英語で話したいです。」 (My dream is that I want to become an English teacher in Japan. Therefore I want to make a lot of Japanese friends, and talk in Japanese and English.)

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Table 5. Australian Participants’ Interests on Mixi and Facebook Profiles Participant

Mixi Interests

Facebook Interests

Alisha

Swimming, Japanese anime and music

None listed

Ellise

Sports, karaoke, band, cooking, sake, shopping, driving, language study, Japanese TV dramas and video games, ice skating, AFL, tantanmen noodles, the 300 Yen Bar

Acting, singing, travelling, reading, talking, shopping

Kaylene

Travel, art, language study, reading, Internet

Stuff, music

Oscar

Movies, sport, food, travel, language study, reading, TV, video games, Internet, Japanese chess

None listed

Noah

Language study, manga

No profile

Zac

Watching movies, sport, watching sport, listening to music, cooking, sake, driving, travel, language study, manga, TV, video games, Internet

No profile

Lucas

No profile

Sleeping Eating Video gaming

DISCUSSION It is apparent from both participants’ interview comments and from the evidence of opportunities for language acquisition (expanded upon in more detail in Pasfield-Neofitou, 2010) that there are a number of benefits of participation in Japanese domains for learners of Japanese. One important benefit is greater access to the language, as Japanese domains tend to be populated predominantly by NS. The presence of Japanese NS also leads to opportunities for learners to view NS-NS communication, which can later be used as a model for their own language use. Participation in language-specific virtual communities may also act as a springboard for greater access to popular culture and other authentic materials via links posted by other users and advertising from Website sponsors. Perhaps most importantly though, a sense of virtual immersion and of being in someone else’s space, may develop L2 learners’ motivation to use the target language, due to actual or perceived audience demographics. However, simultaneously, a feeling of being a foreigner or of trespassing on someone else’s space can also result in severe effects on a learner’s desire to attempt communication in their L2. The identification of language-specific domains was based not only on the analytical coding of the interaction data collected, but also an in vivo coding of interviews with participants. This finding was particularly related to interaction spaces aimed at groups such as SNSs, like Facebook and Mixi, and also Websites or forums, rather than typically one-on-one interaction channels such as private e-mail, which tended to be viewed more neutrally, and have more even language choice patterns3. Thus, in this respect it appears that networks or domains are influenced and continuously sustained by the social interaction of individuals. The domain in which any given interaction is perceived as being situated was found to affect participants’ situated activity in terms of language choice, and use of contextual resources. A sense of being immersed Language Learning & Technology

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in someone else’s space had both positive and negative effects regarding opportunities for language acquisition, as summed up in Alisha’s comments. She stated that the Internet environment gave her an opportunity to be surrounded by the language, but also made her feel that she would always be a Japanese as a second-language speaker. Positive effects included Alisha’s sense of virtual immersion or perception of joining a virtual community, and greater exposure to Japanese. This greater exposure led to some participants drawing on the communication between NSs they saw as models, and gave them greater access to authentic cultural materials, as well as to linguistic assistance from NSs. Some of the negative effects documented include intolerance towards other languages or ethnic groups. However, the Australian participants were also found to create their own Japanese-specific spaces and Japanese-learner identities via their profiles, of which they had ownership, with social networking profiles constituting an important site for the ongoing construction of identities. Participants’ self-identification as foreign or non-native may have been beneficial in a number of ways. The main goals participants had for using their L2 online were social and educational. By constructing their identities online as learners of the language, they mitigated any potential loss of face due to their language competency, and by construing themselves as experts in English or as foreigners, they may have made themselves more attractive to Japanese members who were actively looking for a foreign or English-speaking contact. In fact, at least one participant in the present study met her closest Japanese friend in this way. Secondly, by describing themselves as learners, they invited correction and other forms of repair, which were surprisingly frequent in the public forum of Mixi in particular, as further described in Pasfield-Neofitou (2010). Being a part of a virtual community, in particular, gaining access to an authentic audience, was the most important source of motivation for L2 production identified in the present study. A sense of being heard and understood appeared to increase participants’ sense of achievement, and increase the likelihood of their continued engagement in L2 use online. This suggests that Blood’s (2002) observations with respect to the importance of an authentic audience in a monolingual first-language blog environment holds true in L2 settings also. Being an L2 learner was also found to be an important identity for many participants in their online interactions, as evidenced in their foregrounding of this aspect in their profiles. Furthermore, their identification of themselves as foreigners online is further evidence of their perception of Japanese-owned and moderated domains such as Mixi as Japanese domains, and themselves as outsiders. This finding challenges views of Internet communication as neutral, equalising or more democratic, and demonstrates that it is possible to feel like a foreigner (and to be treated as one) even in what has been viewed as a gigantic, placeless cyberspace.

NOTES 1. danah boyd’s name is spelled in all lowercase in all of her publications; her preferred format has been retained here. 2. The term domain is an in vivo code description which emerged from participant’s observations, and is distinct from the technical use of the term domain to refer to a component of URLs that indicates ownership or control of a Website or other online resource (although this may be a relevant factor in user’s perceptions). Mixi, for example, is owned by a Japanese company, and Facebook, an American company, yet the perceived ownership of Facebook extends beyond the national boundary of the US and across the West. 3. Although English use dominated participants’ e-mail communication (62% compared to 25%), this ratio was influenced by the fact that the Australian students’ university e-mail accounts at the time of data collection did not support Japanese. If the e-mails sent to or from an Australian university e-mail address Language Learning & Technology

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are excluded, the figure is much more balanced (54% English or Mostly English, 46% Japanese or Mostly Japanese).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sarah Pasfield-Neofitou is a lecturer at Monash University. Her recent doctorate research focuses on Japanese as a second language learners’ social computer medicated communication with native speakers. Her past research projects have examined language use in intercultural chat, and the use of electronic and online dictionaries and other digital resources. E-mail: [email protected]

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