Browsing by Subject "Language Teaching"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    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.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Pedagogical Mediation of a Developmental Learner Corpus for Classroom-Based Language Instruction
    (Publisher of original article: Language Learning & Technology (LLT)[BREAK][LINK]http://llt.msu.edu/vol12num3/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], 2008-10) Belz, Julie A. (Julie Anne); Vyatkina, Nina
    Although corpora have been used in language teaching for some time, few empirical studies explore their impact on learning outcomes. We provide a microgenetic account of learners’ responses to corpus-driven instructional units for German modal particles and pronominal da-compounds. The units are based on developmental corpus data produced by native speakers during interactions with the very learners for whom the units are designed. Thus, we address the issue of authentication in corpus-driven language pedagogy. Finally, we illustrate how an ethnographically supplemented developmental learner corpus may contribute to second language acquisition research via dense documentation of micro-changes in learners’ language use over time.