Teaching languages online: Professional vision in the making

Meskill, C., Anthony, N. & Sadykova, G. (2020). Teaching languages online: Professional vision in the making. Language Learning & Technology, 24(3), 160–175.

This study is based on 174 surveys from practicing language educators and interviews with nine respondents, to find out more about how they see their work, noting that as educators have moved from traditional classrooms, their roles and practices have adapted to the new environments often within cultures increasingly shaped by social media. The authors emphasize the importance of teacher accounts like these in order to see connections between theory, knowledge and practice.

Following short summaries of the nine interviewees’ experience and attitudes towards online teaching, the authors report on both survey respondents’ and interviewees’ foundational stances and qualities and give examples of those from the interviews as well as from the surveys. The study then looks at attitudes to online teaching and what it demands and provides; it also describes the amount of flexibility required to achieve what is needed for effective language teaching and learning.

Retrievable from:

https://www.lltjournal.org/item/3168

Technology-mediated task-based language teaching: A qualitative research synthesis

Chong S.W., & Reinders H. (2020). Technology-mediated task-based language teaching: A qualitative research synthesis. Language Learning & Technology, 24(3), 70–86.

This report synthesizes data from 16 (14 of the 16 focus on ESL or EFL studies) research studies that examined technology-mediated task-based language teaching, in second and foreign language classrooms between 2002 and 2017. Results of a literature search using identified keywords on digital libraries, major refereed journals and the World Wide Web; and a reference list that identifies the 16 research studies are provided in addition to the descriptions of the findings of each research study. The findings are presented as five affordances noted across the studies, e.g., Facilitating Collaborations, Interactions, and Communications.

Retrievable from:

https://www.lltjournal.org/item/3162