Browsing by Subject "Foreign Language"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Institutional and Individual Dimensions of Transatlantic Group Work in Network-Based Language Teaching
    ([BREAK]© 2001 Cambridge University Press[BREAK][LINK]http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=318&pmid=80033[/LINK][BREAK]Access to the original article may require subscription and authorized logon ID/password. IUPUI faculty/staff/students please check University Library resources before purchasing an article. Questions on finding the original article via our databases? Ask a librarian: [LINK]http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/research/askalibrarian[/LINK], 2001) Belz, Julie A. (Julie Anne)
    Network-based language teaching (NBLT) involves the application of global or local communication networks within foreign and second language education (Warschauer and Kern, 2000). In telecollaboration, a type of NBLT, distally located language learners use internet communication tools to support dialogue, debate, collaborative research and social interaction for the purposes of language development and cultural awareness (e.g. Kinginger et al., 1999). To date, the research on NBLT has been limited, focusing primarily on pedagogical implementations of technology and linguistic features of online communication. In particular, researchers have not robustly explored social and institutional dimensions of telecollaboration (Chapelle, 2000:217) nor have they adequately investigated the pervasive assumption that telecollaborative interaction will necessarily and unproblematically afford language learning (e.g. Kramsch and Thorne, to appear). Drawing on social realism (Layder, 1993), a sociological theory which emphasizes the inter-relationship between structure, i.e. society and institution, and agency, i.e. situated activity and psycho-biography, in researching and explaining social action, I present a sociocultural account of German-American telecollaboration. In particular, I explore the meanings that the macro features of (1) language valuation (Hilgendorf, 1996); (2) membership in electronic discourse communities (Gee, 1999); and (3) culturally determined classroom scripts (Hatch, 1992) may have for the differential functionality of virtual group work in this partnership. Differences in group functionality are reflected at the micro-interactional level in terms of (1) frequency and length of correspondence; (2) patterns of discursive behavior such as question-answer pairs; and (3) opportunities for assisted L2 performance and negotiation of meaning. Ethnographic data (e.g. interviews, electronic and classroom discourse, surveys and participant observations) on individual psycho-biographies are interwoven with macro-level descriptions and statistics to paint a rich picture of learner behavior in intercultural telecollaboration. This project is funded by a United States Department of Education International Research and Studies Program Grant (CFDA No.: 84.017A). The author is a research associate for the German component.
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    Materials Development in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2015-04-17) Wang, Jing
    Materials development usually consumes a lot of money and effort, and therefore it deserves great attention. It is even more important to study the subject in the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) because limited research has been carried out. Professionals in the CFL field have noticed the following phenomenon: On the one hand, many new textbooks appear on the market every year; on the other hand, instructors of the Chinese language still find it difficult to get the ideal textbooks for their students. This presentation aims to reveal perspectives from expert textbook writers. Four expert textbook writers participated in the study, and each was interviewed for an hour. A qualitative method of grounded theory was used to analyze the interview data, and four themes emerged from the data. This presentation discusses the themes and provides pedagogical applications of the findings.
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    Social Dimensions of Telecollaborative Foreign Language Study
    (The original publisher of this article: Language Learning & Technology (LLT).The definitive publisher-authenticated version of Julie A. Belz. "Social Dimensions of Telecollaborative Foreign Language Study". Language Learning & Technology 6, no.1 (2002): 60-81, is available online at:[BREAK][LINK]http://llt.msu.edu/vol6num1/default.html[/LINK].[BREAK]Access to the original article may require subscription and authorized logon ID/password. Please check University Library resources before purchasing an article via the publisher. Questions on finding the original article via our databases? Ask a librarian:[LINK]http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/research/askalibrarian[/LINK], 2002) Belz, Julie A. (Julie Anne)
    Previous research on network-based foreign language study primarily has focused on: a) the pedagogy of technology in the language curriculum, or b) the linguistic characterization of networked discourse. In this paper, I explore socio-institutional dimensions of German-American telecollaboration and the ways in which they may shape foreign language learning and use. Telecollaborative partnerships represent particularly productive sites for the examination of social aspects of foreign language study since, by definition, they entail tight sociocultural and institutional interface. Within the theoretical framework of social realism (e.g., Carter & Sealey, 2000; Layder, 1993), any human activity is thought to be shaped by both macro- and micro-level sociological features. These include social context and institutional setting, situated activity and individual agency, respectively. In this analysis, I intertwine the socially and institutionally contingent features of language valuation, computer know-how, Internet access, and learning accreditation and the micro-level features of situated classroom interaction and individual psycho-biography in order to provide a rich and multi-faceted characterization of foreign language learning and use on both ends of a German-American telecollaborative partnership.