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Content Type: 1
Title: Hacking Quizlet for Longer Discourse Strings and Comprehension
Body:
From https://mrpeto.wordpress.com
Most teachers are familiar with Quizlet, a web-based tool for review and practice (http://caslsintercom.uoregon.edu/content/6166). In this recent blog post, teacher Mike Peto describes a way to use the tool for longer strings of discourse than words and short phrases, in a way that requires comprehension: https://mrpeto.wordpress.com/2017/04/04/hacking-quizlet-to-make-good-reading-activities/
Source: My generation of polyglots
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Title: Do’s and Don’ts of Learning Stations
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From http://www.path2proficiency.com
Rosalyn Rhodes recently presented about learning stations at the SCOLT conference. You can read the main takeaways of her presentation here: http://www.path2proficiency.com/get-in-the-game-lets-talk-about-stations/
Source: path to proficiency
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Title: Audio Tours in the Museum of Modern Art
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From https://www.moma.org/m/tours
The Museum of Modern Art’s website includes audio tours available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. If you’re showing your students pieces of art from the MoMA, here’s a great way to include an authentic resource in their target language.
The audio guides are available at https://www.moma.org/m/language_settings/edit?locale=en
Source: MoMA
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Title: Key Factors in Interaction-driven L2 Learning
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Lorena Valmori graduated in the Second Language Studies doctoral program at Michigan State University. Her teaching experience has informed her research interests in motivational dynamics, identity, and emotions in second language learning. She is currently teaching EFL in high school and collaborating with Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy). She recently published in Language Teaching.
A large body of research has shown that second language (L2) interaction promotes L2 development (Mackey, 2012), with many empirical studies investigating the most favorable conditions for interaction-driven learning to take place. Language learning is inherently a hypothesis-testing process where learners make predictions about language and use input data to test whether they are correct or not. These hypotheses are put to the test when breakdowns occur in L2 interactions. During breakdowns input and output can be negotiated by means of comprehension checks “Do you understand what I mean?”, clarification requests “What did you mean?”, and confirmation checks “Do you mean this?” which enhance linguistic information, making it more salient or noticeable, and pushing learners to modify their original output to be more targetlike.
In instructed contexts, learners engaged in L2 interactions can benefit from corrective feedback, which aims at drawing learners’ attention to their incorrect utterences, forcing them to test their hypotheses about their new language. Corrective feedback varies in the degree of explicitness, from implicit feedback such as providing the correct reformulation of learners’ incorrect utterance (recast) to the more explicit indication that a “rule” has been broken (metalinguistic feedback). Research has been inconclusive regarding the most effective kind of feedback, as the different types of feedback have shown their effectiveness in different contexts according to learners’ developmental level and individual differences. What makes feedback effective is the number and saliency of the targeted structures corrected, with lexical and pronunciation recasts being more noticed than recasts on morphological and syntactic errors (Mackey, Gass, & McDonough, 2000).
Findings in interaction research have indicated the most favorable (1) task characteristics (cognitive demands and interactional factors), (2) interlocutor variables (nativeness, familiarity, gender, proficiency), and (3) learners’ varibales (proficiency, aptitude, working memory, affective factors) for more negotiations and thus learning to take place during interactions.
- In particular, as far as tasks are concerned, higher task complexity such as larger amounts of information and reasoning involved, and having to request and provide different portions of information to reach the same convergent goal seem to promote the greatest opportunities for input, feedback and modified output.
- As far as intrlocutor variables are concerned, more negotiations are generated when learners take up the challenge and interact with more advanced interlocutors.
- Finally, learners’ internal variables affect the way they can take advantage of the learning opporunities afforded by the favorable contextual conditions (task and interlocutor). Higher proficiency and working memory have been shown to help students notice the feedback more.
One thing to consider though is that the very same factors that promote learning through interaction can also be anxiety-inducing, affecting what learners notice during interactions, their perception of their performance and their involvement in the interaction iteself. To reduce language anxiety in interaction, realistic beliefs and expectations about the language learning process should be promoted for learners to approach L2 interactions willing to accept the challenges and take the opportunities they afford.
References
Mackey, A. (2012). Input, interaction, and corrective feedback in L2 learning. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Mackey, A., Gass, S. M., & McDonough, K. (2000). How do learners perceive interactional feedback?. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22(4), 471–497.
Source: CASLS Topic of the Week
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Content Type: 4
Title: Ingress Activities: Exploring African Diaspora in Latino Communities
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The following two activities were originally created for Games2Teach, a website resource to help instructors and learners interested in the benefits that games can offer for language learning. Two levels of the activity were designed: Novice and Advanced.
The purpose of the novice activity is to expose learners to the African diaspora of the Spanish-speaking communities in their own towns. In order to engage in this exploration, novice learners of the language will search for items with African origins that are used in Spanish-speaking communities. Their goal in searching for these items is to plan for an authentic Afro-Latino party through the creation of lists of necessities for the party. The categories are food, decorations (art), entertainment, and dress.
The purpose of the advanced activity is to enable learners to recognize the influence of African diaspora in local Latino communities and to raise awareness of said diaspora through the creation of a project, ideally with an augmented reality tool. This activity will require learners to engage in authentic conversations in the target language with their fellow classmates and members of a local Latino community. It is designed to take place over several days in class.
To see the novice activity, click here. To see the advanced activity, click here.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Content Type: 4
Title: Ingress Advanced Activity: Exploring African Diaspora in Latino Communities
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The purpose of this activity is to enable learners to recognize the influence of African diaspora in local Latino communities and to raise awareness of said diaspora through the creation of a project, ideally with an augmented reality tool. This activity will require learners to engage in authentic conversations in the target language with their fellow classmates and members of a local Latino community. It is designed to take place over several days in class. For a novice version of this activity, click here.
Objectives:
Learners will be able to:
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Identify African influences in local Latino communities.
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Engage in authentic conversations with local members of said communities in order to gauge their knowledge of African influences in their cultures.
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Create a comprehensive project to showcase the African influences within the targeted community.
Mode(s): Interpersonal Communication, Presentational Writing, Interpretive Reading, and Interpretive Listening
Resources:YouTube Video, Video and Research Handout English / Spanish, Portal Handout English / Spanish, Ingress app, Aurasma Studio, Aurasma app, Aurasma Instructions Handout, mobile device with video and photo recording capabilities
Procedure:
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Introduce learners to African diaspora in Latin America by having them watch YouTube Video. As learners watch, have them take notes regarding how African diaspora has influenced present-day culture in Latin America on the Video and Research Handout. This handout is divided into two sections. The first section applies to information shared by documentarians and is in both English and Spanish. The second section is in Spanish only and gives a preview of the research recorded by the documentarians.
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After learners are done taking notes, have them answer the final questions on the Video and Research Handout by allowing them to search the internet in the target language to explore one African influence that is evident in Latin America. This research should take roughly 30 minutes. When the research is done, learners will share what they learned with partners and the class in a Think, Pair, Share format.
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Next, learners will be introduced to Ingress, a place-based mobile app that they will use to explore a local community in which the target language is largely spoken. Give learners roughly 20 minutes to download Ingress on their mobile devices in the target language and to pick a faction to represent. Learners will conduct the next steps of this activity in groups of 2-4 members, so they need to be sure to select their factions in those groups. Also, take care to ensure that each group is comprised of members who researched differing influences in Step 2.
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Next, have learners brainstorm questions in their groups that they might ask someone who speaks the target language regarding their knowledge of African diaspora. The teacher should approve these questions before Step 5. If you need help to guide your students in the creation of these questions, check out this blog.
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On a field trip following this approval, learners will explore a local Latino community while playing Ingress for one to two hours. As they play, they must defend and hack at least five portals within the community. At the location of each portal, they will search for and document evidence of African influences within the local culture. In addition, they will use the questions that they brainstormed in Step 4 to interview at least one member of the community in the target language regarding his or her knowledge of the African influences that the learners discover. All of these observations and interactions will be recorded by the learners on the Portal Handout. Teachers must emphasize to that in order to complete Step 6 of this activity, learners should record the interviews in video format and should take as many pictures of the physical locations and items discovered as possible.
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The learners will then regroup as a class and share what they learned. Teachers should be sure to ask the learners the following questions:
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What types of places did you visit? Were they important community areas? Why or why not?
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What African influences did you note as you traveled through the community?
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Were the people that you spoke to aware of those influences? Is it important that they be aware of those influences? Why or why not?
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Next, learners will promote the African cultural influences that they explored. This promotion can take place within the local learning community (school) or the larger community as a whole. Using Aurasma Studio, a free augmented reality tool, learners will use the photographs that they took in Step 4 as trigger images to create auras that provide additional information regarding the cultural and historical importance of the images to people who view the images with their mobile devices. In order create these auras, learners will overlay the images with video information about the origins of the influence selected. This video information may include the interviews that the learners conducted in Step 4 or information that the learners record of themselves explaining their research on the cultural history of the influence selected. For more information on how to use Aurasma, please see the Aurasma Instructions Handout.
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Title: Ingress Novice Activity: Exploring African Diaspora in Latino Communities
Body:
The purpose of the activity is to expose learners to the African diaspora of the Spanish-speaking communities in their own towns. In order to engage in this exploration, novice learners of the language will search for items with African origins that are used in Spanish-speaking communities. Their goal in searching for these items is to plan for an authentic Afro-Latino party through the creation of lists of necessities for the party. The categories are food, decorations (art), entertainment, and dress. For an advanced version of this activity, click here.
Objectives:
Learners will be able to:
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Negotiate unknown meaning in a commercial app.
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Create lists in the target language of items needed to throw a party.
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Predict and verify the influence of African culture in Latino communities.
Mode(s): Presentational Writing, Interpretive Reading, Interpretive Listening
Resources: Give One, Get One Handout English / Spanish, Ingress mobile app, Ingress introductory video on YouTube, Portal Documentation Sheet English / Spanish
Procedure:
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Give learners the Give One, Get One handout and have them complete it. This handout will allow learners to predict what African influences are evident in Latin American cultures.
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After learners are done completing the handout, engage in a short (roughly five minute) discussion regarding their predictions. Given the proficiency level of learners, this discussion may need to take place in the first language. If that is the case, make sure that learners explain their line of reasoning for the words that they listed.
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Next, allow learners to engage in 30 minutes of research on the internet in which they verify their predictions on the Give One, Get One Handout. The teacher will provide some helpful steps to assist learners who may not be as familiar with technology:
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Type predictions in the search bar of web browser and find any websites/pictures/videos/etc. which show how they are African influences in Latino communities.
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Use research websites such as encyclopedias, museum websites, and Google Scholar to give factual evidence to either refute or confirm your predictions.
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Now, put the learners into groups of four or less and explain to them that they will be tasked them with planning an authentic Afro-Latino celebration. In order to plan this celebration, learners will create lists in the target language that are separated into the following categories: dress, decorations, food, and entertainment. The creation of the lists will occur in Steps 6 and 7 of this activity.
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Next, introduce learners to the Ingress app, a game that is designed in a way to familiarize players with their local communities. Allow learners to view the Ingress introductory video on YouTube, download the game, and select a faction to represent. This step should take roughly 20 minutes for large classes.
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After that, learners will go to a neighborhood in which the target language is predominantly spoken. In their assigned groups, the learners will travel from portal to portal within the game. Their goal is to defend and hack as many portals as possible, all the while tracking their progress on the Portal Documentation Sheet. As the learners defend and hack portals, they must search out items for their party that they know to be of African origin on the Portal Documentation Sheet as well. This step in the activity should take between 1-2 hours and will likely have to occur as a field trip.
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After the outing is complete, learners will regroup as a class. Together, they will discuss all of the materials that they need to find for their party and brainstorm any other materials that they think they might need. Allow the learners to work individually or in groups by using Google Shopping to search for where to buy those additional materials. Learners may also find that they wish to do some additional research regarding the origins possible materials at this time. Alternatively, the internet search could easily be conducted as the whole class with the learners directing what they wish to search for and the teacher typing into the search engine and projecting the results for students.
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Finally, have learners reflect on the limitations of what they were able to find in the community as they played Ingress. It is fine if this discussion takes place in the first language, target language, or a combination of both. Use the following discussion questions as a guide: Where did you look for your materials? Why did you look there? How difficult or easy was it to find authentic materials for the party? What did you learn about about finding materials that connect people to their ancestry? How connected to one’s homeland can that person be without the necessary material possessions?
Source: CASLS Activity of the Week
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Title: Book: Affective L2 Learning Experiences and Ideal L2 Selves in Spoken CALL Practice
Body:
Affective L2 Learning Experiences and Ideal L2 Selves in Spoken CALL Practice
By Stephen Bodnar
Published by LOT Publications
Thanks to sophisticated mobile and web technologies, the wide availability of video chat software, and applications with natural language and speech processing capabilities, language learners have more, and more varied, opportunities to learn. Computer-based learning contexts such as these offer compelling new features, yet the impact of these features is not always well understood. This thesis draws on recent developments in L2 motivation theory to advance our understanding of learners' affective experiences in computer-based spoken L2 grammar practice, and to explore learners' motivations for learning Dutch as an L2. The platform employed is innovative for its use of Automatic Speech Recognition technology to provide oral grammar practice with automatic corrective feedback on word order errors. Learners tend to prefer having their errors corrected, but feedback can result in negative emotional reactions which may undermine learning. Learners' motivations for learning Dutch are explored using a new instrument based on the L2 Motivational Self System, as a first step towards creating computer applications that adapt to the future hopes and concerns of individual learners. Together, the findings suggest that self-study practice is a context where feedback can be provided safely, that affective experiences are linked to learning, and that individuals have diverse motivations for learning an L2 which could be taken into account in pedagogical design.
Visit the publisher’s website at http://www.lotpublications.nl/affective-l2-learning-experiences-and-ideal-l2-selves-in-spoken-call-practice
Source: LOT
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Title: Call for Proposals: Kentucky World Language Association Fall Conference
Body:
From http://kwla.org/
Kentucky World Language Association Fall Conference
“Languages on the Rise”
September 21-23, 2017
Louisville
Call for Proposals Closes on Monday, May 15, 2017 at 11:59 PM.
Submit a proposal at https://form.jotform.us/kwla/2017kwlaconference
Source: KWLA
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Title: Call for Papers: A Symposium on Second Language Spanish
Body:
From https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/advancedl2spanish/home
Evolving Perspectives on Advancedness: A Symposium on Second Language Spanish
February 15-17, 2018
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
The symposium will highlight data-driven research that operationalizes the term advanced according to one of four strands of research:
• Sophisticated language use in context. This construct of advancedness encompasses more than linguistic phenomena; it includes aspects of literacy and diverse manifestations of cultural competence. Topics include, but are not limited to, register, voice, genre-specific features, and socio-pragmatic phenomena;
• Acquisition of late-acquired structures. Certain features, such as gender agreement, copula selection, and mood selection, are known to develop slowly in L2 Spanish, yet most work has focused on beginning or intermediate learners. Presentations in this strand will explore characteristics of these features in the language of advanced learners; Linguistic correlates of proficiency.
• Linguistic correlates of proficiency. A variety of standardized methods (e.g., ACTFL OPI, ILR, CEFR, DELE, DLPT) are used to describe and assess the L2 proficiency of individuals as well as establish criteria for enrollment or employment. How do they correspond to the notions of advancedness among different institutions of higher learning? The linguistic correlates, or features, characteristic of language at each level comprise this strand of research;
• Individual differences. Language aptitude, learning experiences, motivation, identity, working memory, and many other learner variables are known to impact language development and outcomes. This strand addresses those variables, exploring issues regarding ultimate attainment, individual speaker variables and their correlation with proficiency, variability within groups, and the relationship of institutional status and proficiency.
In addition to the four strands described above, the organizers welcome proposals for a colloquium on Instructed SLA and advanced proficiency.
Deadline for abstracts: May 26, 2017
Visit the symposium website at https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/advancedl2spanish/home
Source: University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
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