Category: Instructors

Using action research to explore technology in language teaching: international perspectives

Burns, A. & Kurtoğlu-Hooton, N. Using action research to explore technology in language teaching: international perspectives. British Council. (2016).

This publication is an extensive report of a virtual action research project undertaken by the British Council in 2015-16. The project was designed to introduce international language teachers to action research, to investigate the teachers’ experience of an action research approach, and to collect and disseminate insights for the effective use of technology based on the action research projects undertaken by the teachers.
In all, 12 English language teachers, with the support of academic researchers conducted small action research projects examining the use of specific technology tools in their programs and classrooms. Each of the participants produced research summaries outlining their experiences. These are included in the report.
Although the focus of this project is English language teaching internationally, it provides an interesting model for virtual action research on technology use for language teaching that could be applied in settlement language programs. Such a virtual action research project could support valuable collaborative learning and information sharing for language instructors.

Retrievable from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/28313%20ELTRA%20Report%20WEB.PDF

Integrating Digital Literacy Into English Language Instruction: Issue Brief

Harris, K. Integrating Digital Literacy Into English Language Instruction: Issue Brief [nd].

Digital Literacy, the ability to use digital devices and to participate in our digital world is now recognized as a fundamental skill in our increasingly digital world. This issue brief  from the U.S. is part of the LINCS ESL Pro suite of resources on Integrating Digital Literacy into English Language Instruction.

This short article provides an overview of digital literacy within the context of English language teaching and learning, highlighting its critical importance for students and providing a straightforward introduction to four aspects of digital literacy: (1) using basic digital skills, (2) creating and communicating information, (3) finding and evaluating information, and (4) solving problems in technology-rich environments. In addition the article provides practical advice on how digital literacy activities can be included in English language instruction.

Retrievable from: https://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/ELL_Digital_Literacy_508.pdf

Becoming Blended: A case study in teacher identity

Renteria Navarro, Victoria. Becoming Blended: A case study in teacher identity. Plymouth St Mark and St John University. British Council ELT Master’s Dissertation Awards: Commendation. (2015-16).

This case study is set in an English Blended Program in Mexico. The author’s aim was to discover how a teacher’s educational and cultural background as well as their experience and knowledge play a role to promote or hinder agency, their capacity to critically shape their responses to problematic situations, such as those they would encounter teaching in a blended language learning program.

The study takes as a given that the internet and web applications have provided options and responsibilities that have seriously influenced teachers’ outlooks, encouraging them to change their practice. This will impact the institutions that provide professional development for teachers. One of the elements the author suggests will help to guide them is teacher identity.

The author provides evidence that experiences in one’s own educational past will have an impact on one’s approach to teaching, e.g., how to be successful teaching in a new blended language learning program with little technological support, how to cope with constantly changing technology, how to work with dependent students, whether to take on a formal or informal guise in the online component, etc.  The author also describes the teachers’ professional development and examines how it has helped each of them to evolve or change their preferred practices in the blended environment. The examples of each teacher’s Moodle pages provide further insight about this dynamic relationship.

Retrievable from: http://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/attachments/dissertation_for_publication_2016_st_mark_and_st_john_plymouth.pdf

Exploring ESL Students’ Perceptions of Their Digital Reading Skills

Gilbert, J. (2014). Exploring ESL Students’ Perceptions of Their Digital Reading Skills. Ed.D. University of Nottingham.

A doctoral thesis exploring ESL students’ understandings of their own digital reading skills.  The study included  three sources of data: reading workshops created for the participants; interviews with participants; discussions with participants and analysis of participants’ reading journals. The study concludes that while the participants had the capacity to randomly search the internet they lack the information literacy skills to productively research and evaluate information online.  The study also found that the participants’ reading strategies varied when engaging with print and web-based text. Finally the research points to the need to consider teaching digital literacy skills in tandem with language instruction and to provide instructors and instructors-in-training with the means to develop robust digital skills to enable them to support students to develop these skills alongside their language learning.

Retrievable from: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14080/1/Gilbert_Re-formated_Thesis_Draft.pdf

 

 

 

 

Enhancing the Digital Skills of English Language Learners Studying at a Distance

Vanek J.  & Johnston, J. (2015).  Enhancing the Digital Skills of English Language Learners Studying at a Distance. AEIS Newsletter March 2015.

Based on interviews with instructors  who work within the IDEAL consortium the article  outlines the components of a successful distance learning program for second language learners.  The authors argue that given the ubiquity of digital technologies and the multiple demands on learners to use digital technology in the workplace, distance learning instruction should not be limited to the academic content typically found in online distance learning curricula. Rather, learners need to have access and exposure to a range of digital technologies for learning and problem solving facilitated by an instructor.

Retrieved from: http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/tesolaeis/issues/2015-03-04/5.html

 

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Blended Learning Project Report

National Adult Literacy Agency.(2014). English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Blended Learning Project Report.

The report describes the findings from a research project carried out in Ireland in 2013 over a ten-week period with 41 learners. Learners in the ESOL program used a web site www.writeon.ie in conjunction with face to face classes. The study documents how they used this blended approach. The report provides a description of the two learning methods, a profile of the learners involved, and highlights the benefits to the various stakeholders of a blended approach for adult ESOL learners. The Write On site is open and accessible to users.

NALA acknowledges that there is not one agreed-upon definition of blended learning and sets out the one they have adopted: “Blended learning is about facilitating learning using a variety of approaches, best determined by the needs of the learner and the capability of the provider. It may or may not involve computers. It is simply a way of creatively matching different approaches to learners, content and contexts.”

Retrievable from: https://www.nala.ie/resources/english-speakers-other-languages-esol-blended-learning-project-report

IDEAL Distance Education and Blended Learning Handbook

IDEAL Distance Education and Blended Learning Handbook, IDEAL Consortium (2016).

The 5th edition of the IDEAL Distance and Blended Learning Handbook is intended as practical guide for educators to support the delivery of distance education, including blended learning. Each of the six chapters of the Handbook focuses on a single aspect of planning and delivering distance education:

  1. Recruitment: Identifying and Recruiting Students
  2. Screen: Determining Who is Ready for Distance and Blended Learning
  3. Orientation: Setting Up Learners for Success
  4. Instruction: Models and Strategies Supporting Involved Instruction and Communication
  5. Assessment: Student Participation and Progress
  6. Administrative Issues: Getting Started with Distance Education

Informed by current research and the work of educators and administrators in the IDEAL program in the U.S. since 2002 this handbook is an invaluable resource to support planning and delivering effective distance and blended learning programs

 

Retrievable from: http://ideal.worlded.org/pdf/IDEAL_Handbook.pdf

 

 

 

LearnIT2teach: Free CALL PD for LINC and ESL Professionals.

McBride, R., Fahy, P., Edgar, J., O’Brien, K., Allan, J., Sturm, M., & Gillespie, M.E. (2011). LearnIT2teach: Free CALL PD for LINC and ESL Professionals. Contact, 37(3), 30–32.

This article describes the LearnIT2Teach project, supported by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Since 2010 the project has developed and offered tools and training to LINC and ESL instructors to support them in integrating CALL in their instruction. The project includes a web portal, learner courseware, a learning object repository and four stages of mentored instructor training.

Retrievable from: http://www.teslontario.net/uploads/publications/contact/ContactFall2011final.pdf

 

LearnIT2teach: Scaffolding Instructors’ Online Training Skills.

Edgar, Jim, Johnson, K., & McBride, R. (2011). LearnIT2teach: Scaffolding Instructors’ Online Training Skills. TESL Ontario.

This document presents a scheme for training in Online Training Skills as part of TESL Ontario’s Post TESL certificate. The Framework is based on an understanding of the ubiquity of digital technologies and devices in our lives and the opportunities that these technologies provide for language learners to bridge time and distance, to have more flexibility in where and when they learn and to have access to high-quality and cost-effective learning activities. Through the proposed modes, that is, the inclusion of LearnIT2Teach in the Post TESL certificate, instructors will learn how to develop online student activities using CALL authoring software and share the content they create on Tutela. ca, Canada’s online community for current and future ESL/FSL professionals across Canada with a focus on language training for adult newcomers.

Retrieveable from: http://www.teslontario.net/uploads/accreditation/PTCT/NewMediaLanguageTraining.pdf

The LearnIT2Teach Project: Modernizing Settlement Language Training through E-Blended Delivery.

Edgar, J., & McBride, R. (2012). The LearnIT2Teach Project: Modernizing

Settlement Language Training through E-Blended Delivery. INSCAN Special Issue on Settlement Language Training, (Spring), 28–30.

This article provides an outline description of the LearnIT2Teach Project, launched in 2010. The project provides four stage of mentored training to LINC instructors and justin-time training resources accessible through a project portal to enable them to integrate technology in the language training classroom. In addition, a manual and workshop are available for program coordinators. LINC courseware and learning objects are made available for LINC 2-LINC 7 classes (Canadian Language Benchmarks 2-8) The LINC courseware is designed to supplement face-to-face in-class delivery in a blended learning environment.

Retrievable from: http://torontonorthlip.ca/sites/torontonorthlip.ca/files/v24_se.pdf

Problematizing the Hybrid Classroom for ESL/EFL Students.

Harrington, A.M. (2010). Problematizing the Hybrid Classroom for ESL/EFL Students. TESL-EJ, 14(3).

Hybrid courses — which replace 20%–80% of class meetings with online activities — are predicted to increase as educators embrace the benefits of blending online technologies with face-to-face class meetings. Also expected to increase are enrollments of ESL/EFL students. As these growth trends intersect, an increased number of ESL/EFL students are expected to enroll in hybrid courses, especially mainstream courses populated by a majority of native-English-speaking students. Despite these growth trends and research showing hybrid courses as positive for most students, the TESOL community has not yet opened a discussion of the implications of hybrid delivery of mainstream classes for ESL/ EFL students. In an effort to start the discussion, this article investigates potential problems related to issues of identity, forced individualization, and muting; gives several strategies for instructors of hybrid courses with ESL/EFL students; and concludes by calling for TESOL researchers to focus attention on hybrid delivery.

Retrievable from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ912069.pdf

Blended learning and the language teacher: a literature review

Mendieta Aguilar, J. (2012). Blended learning and the language teacher: a literature review. Colombo Appl. Linguist. Journal, 14(2), 163–180.

The author argues that there is a lack of information about instructors’ perceptions of and roles in blended learning environments resulting in difficulties in creating effective models of blended learning. This article sets out to examine the views and perceptions of ESL instructors in relation to the integration and use of technology and blended learning and to point to the need for future research about how instructors manage the new demands presented by the online learning component in blended learning programs.

Retrievable from: http://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/ojs/index.php/calj/article/%20viewFile/3930/5641

Teacher and student perspectives on a blended learning intensive English program writing course

Larsen, L. (2012). Teacher and student perspectives on a blended learning intensive English program writing course (Ph.D.). Iowa State University.

Although this dissertation investigates the use of blended learning with ESL writing students in an intensive English program, there is much that will be of interest to adult settlement language programs as well. The author notes the immaturity of blended learning within the area of language learning and also that blended learning is considered separate from CALL. One of the author’s points is that CALL research does not mention blended learning theories, but blended learning researchers often rely on CALL research when making arguments. The author provides a table (Table 2, p 38) showing blended learning studies and the variables identified or investigated in blended learning environments. These include areas of interest to adult settlement language programs such as student computer literacy skills; teacher attitude, training and support and positive effects on learner autonomy. The writer stresses “the paucity” of research in blended learning implementation in language learning environments. He also states that a review of the literature from CALL indicates that teachers are generally not sufficiently prepared to teach using technology which may also be significant in adult settlement language training.

Retrievable from: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3382&context=etd

Web 2.0 and Four Paths Beyond

Hubbard, P., P. (2011, March 18). Web 2.0 and Four Paths Beyond. PowerPoint Slides presented at the TESOL Conference, New Orleans.

A presentation about Web 2.0, emerging technologies and the critical importance of incorporating technology and learning with technology deeply in language teacher training in order to support teacher flexibility, to prepare teachers for long careers in language teaching during which they are likely to continually encounter new technologies, new technological modes, and in which they will need to have the confidence and skills to approach these technologies successfully. The presentation also highlights the importance of situated learning theory in ensuring that teachers learn in the same environment in which they will teach.

Retrievable from: http://web.stanford.edu/~efs/tesol-11.pdf

Language Learning and Technology Special issue on Teacher Education and CALL

Language learning & Technology Special issue on Teacher Education and CALL

Volume 19 Number 1 February 2015

This is a special issue of the online journal that addresses the topic of teacher education and computer assisted language learning.

Retrievable from:

http://llt.msu.edu/issues/february2015/index.html

 

Issues emerging from the pilot of an online module on vocabulary learning by low-educated adult immigrants.

Martha Young-Scholten,. (2015). Issues emerging from the pilot of an online module on vocabulary learning by low-educated adult immigrants. Language Issues: The ESOL Journal, 26(2), 41–45.

A report of an international pilot of online learning module for second-language instructors in North America and the European Union, conducted over a 5-week period in 2015. The instructors are working with learners who have been designated as low-educated and literacy acquisition (LESLLA). Based on two extensive surveys of the professional development and training needs of these instructors the online training module focused on vocabulary teaching and learning. The module, Topics in Vocabulary Learning for LESLLA Learners, (in English, Dutch German, Finnish and Spanish). was delivered using MOODLE. Learning materials were drawn from publications in each of these languages as well as translations of some English materials into the other languages. The author states that while more research is required to better understand how LESLLA learner develop vocabulary and move from fast-mapping to the use of new vocabulary in their daily lives, the value of this pilot is in support instructors in carrying out their own research to extend understanding of vocabulary acquisition this pilot. In addition, participants in the pilot, although it was of short duration, reported positive results based on their learning and experimenting with new techniques. The pilot also set the groundwork for the future development of a curriculum framework for LESLLA instructors, at the international level, which will allow instructors to share and exchange their experience and knowledge.

Cost: $USD 38.16

Retrievable from:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/natecla/esol/2015/00000026/00000002/art00007?crawler=true&mimetype=application/pdf

 

A Call for the human feel in today’s increasingly blended world.

Geoff Lawrence. (2014, May). A Call for the human feel in today’s increasingly blended world. Contact Magazine Special Research Symposium Issue, 40(2), 128–141.

The author presents research on the reported benefits of using Technology-mediated language learning for both instructors and learners, as well as the importance of instructional design on meeting learner outcomes. He then examines the potential for adult non-credit ESL programs in Ontario from results of a multi-phased feasibility study. The findings indicate that the majority of ESL instructors continue to use primarily a face- to-face approach in their teaching. After describing the barriers to use, he also discusses an emerging theme: the crucial role of social interaction and the need for teacher-mediated learning. This was described by one participant as keeping “the human feel” in the learning environment and emphasized the importance of the teacher in the learning process. Some instructors warned about the isolating nature of self-directed technology environments. In the section “The Blended Solution”, the author lists some of the advantages to this approach identified by study participants. He also notes that by itself, a blended approach will not address concerns about isolation; this depends on both the pedagogy and the instructor. Lawrence goes on to highlight the need for strategic, interactive program design.

Retrievable from: http://www.teslontario.net/uploads/publications/researchsymposium/ResearchSymposium2014.pdf

Digital Mindsets: Teachers’ Technology Use in Personal Life and Teaching.

Tour, Ekaterina (2015). Digital Mindsets: Teachers’ Technology Use in Personal Life and Teaching. Language Learning & Technology, 19(3), 124–139.

This study looks at the relationships between teachers’ everyday and professional uses of technology and explores the assumptions that lie behind their practices. The findings of the study identify the impact of teachers’ digital mindsets and assumptions on the potential they see for digital technologies. The author reports on other studies that explore teachers’ personal experiences with digital technologies to see what they might reveal about what prevents teachers from seeing the learning potential of technologies, and making connections between their working use and their personal use. The study looks at how differently study participants considered seven interrelated affordances of digital technologies and whether they recognized their potential. The author concludes that professional development and learning needs to take into account teachers’ everyday practices, experiences and digital mindsets as well as provide opportunities for critical reflection about them.

Retrievable From:

http://llt.msu.edu/issues/october2015/tour.html

 

Teaching Presence in Online Course for Part-time Undergraduates

Baker. Credence (2010). Teaching Presence in Online Course for Part-time Undergraduates. The Journal of Educators Online, 7(1).

This paper begins by noting that researchers have moved from establishing the notion that there is no significant difference between face-to-face and online learning to extending research to empirically validate best practices in online learning thus providing more effective online courses and taking advantage of the unique features of the online environment. Instructors in blended courses do have the opportunity to establish positive teaching presence and immediacy in the face-to-face component of their courses, but these two practices may have implications for learner motivation, active learning and participation and achievement of outcomes in the online portion. The author refers to other research that notes that instructors can convey “visibility” with regularly scheduled interactions, inform students of their availability, provide feedback that is consistent and meaningful, be present as an effective moderator in discussions and use their content background to reactivate discussions that languish. The study results provide interesting distinctions between the effects of instructor presence and instructor immediacy on student behaviour and outcomes.

Retrievable From:

http://www.thejeo.com/Archives/Volume7Number1/BakerPaper.pdf

Uses of Technology in Adult ESL Education CAELA: ESL Resources: Collections – Adult ESL Fact sheets. (2002).

This brief fact sheet from 2002 noted how and where technology was beginning to be included in adult ESL programs. Although the examples are modest, the challenges described are still familiar, e.g., the cost of acquiring hardware and software and supporting technology use, matching applications to instructional needs and goals, over-enthusiasm with applications that may not pay back the investment and access to computers and the Internet. The list of best practices includes the need for training for practitioners both in instructional approaches and uses of “hardware”. This last need is addressed in the recently revised TESOL Technology Standards (2011) with the hope that programs that train teachers will recognize that they have an obligation to prepare teacher candidates adequately in technology proficiency for their field and that technology proficiency will be given a high priority in new staff in teacher education programs.

Retrievable From: http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/collections/factsheets.html#tech