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= How can teachers use technology to increase learning in foreign language classrooms? =

My Screencast
= Introduction: = Throughout my life I have struggled learning Spanish. To learn a foreign language one needs to have a certain type of intelligence to succeed. However, I feel that all students can learn a foreign language if they are taught from many different types of media. This is why I was interested to find what types of technology would enhance foreign language learning in a classroom. I succeeded in learning Spanish while studying abroad in Mexico for two and a half months; however, not every student will have that opportunity. It is my goal to bring that type of experience to students, and I feel that this goal is possible using technology.

= Best Practices: = It is shown that students who are connected with the material they are learning are more motivated to learn. The same is true for learning a foreign language. When students cannot see the purpose of what they are learning there is no meaning to the material. By giving the students opportunities to have an understanding of the people and the cultural information, they can have a full understanding of the language. If students do not have this connection they tend to be unmotivated to learn. When students are in contact with an international student they are more likely to practice their language skills. There are many was that we can let our students have these opportunities to be intrinsically motivated to learn. Technology enables language learning in authentic situations!

1. Online Research Tour
One of the most talked about uses of technology in a foreign language classroom is this idea of a virtual tour. The student can go online and look at different pictures, or videos of the different cities. Many teachers are talking about having the student research a city or a country and have them give a visual tour of what might be seen in that country. This gives the students in the class a visual description of what the city looks like without the expensive of a field trip. The students can "visit" a foreign country without leaving the classroom.

Beyond that, the students are then aware of the global community around them. There are so many resources for the students to find online dealing with their foreign language. The students can use programs such as Flickr to play games such as "describe the image". Here they find a picture from a the foreign country and describe it using the foreign language. The student can be creative and make up any story that they would like, and they will be practicing speaking the foreign language. This activity adds variety to the classroom, and can connect them to people from other countries thought their pictures and stories.

2. Video Conferencing
This is one of the most popular ideas in foreign language classrooms today. With the popularity of programs such as Skype, it is easy to connect students from different sides of the world. One of the most real experiences that travelers receive in foreign countries is the ability to interact with native speakers. Using video conferencing is a way to connect language learners to native speakers. From my experience, speaking to native Spanish speakers was the way that I learned the most Spanish. There are also many people from other countries that want to learn English. By connecting with video chat the students can practice the foreign language while helping that student learn English.

Also by speaking to someone in a different country students can not only learn how to speak a language, but they will learn about a different culture. Setting up a conversation with someone from a different part of the world will push students to ask questions about what life is like there. There cannot be a more real experience for learning about the culture of a different area. Students will learn about others and more about themselves. I feel that this is very important because the United States is becoming more culturally diverse, and by introducing students to that idea early, they will have an easier transition when they encounter diversity in their lives.

3. Video Recording
There are many ways to use video in a foreign language classroom. Through the use of video the students can hear themselves speaking the language, and hear their mistakes and the mistakes of their peers. This is an invaluable experience for learning about themselves, and their strengths and their weaknesses. Also it creates a safe atmosphere for working in a group.

The most popular use for video in a foreign language classroom is acting out skits. The students take the vocabulary that they are learning and incorporate it into a skit and actions. By acting out the words and the verbs the students will be reinforcing what they have previously learned. Not to mention, by watching the video after they have recorded it, the material will be reviewed another time. Using video also creates a creative output for students who have strengths in that area. This leads to more motivation for the students to learn.

4. Multimedia Storytelling
Stories are part of a country's culture. There are some stories that overlap throughout countries, but they are many stories that do not over lap. It may be difficult for students to understand parts of a culture if they do not understand the stories that are behind their beliefs. Foreign language teachers place a lot of importance on reading stories in order to fully understand the foreign culture. However, just to read a story does not help all students grasp the idea. This is the idea that teachers have worked with when looking into storytelling. When a student takes material, reads it, and then turns around and retells the story they will have a greater understanding of the task. Also this idea incorporates reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in the language.

There is a program that was created in one of the studies where the students use multimedia story telling. The students not only create the story and record themselves saying it, but they can add animations, sound effects, and background music. This can be a great create output for students. These students can share their stories, and they can be replayed as many times as necessary. This goes back to the idea that teachers need to take the foreign language and connect the material to the students. The students take a story that is part of the other culture and essentially make it their own. They become the experts, and can then share that knowledge with the rest of the online world.

= Additional Resources: =

1. Joe Dale's Blog
[] Joe Dale is a recognized expert on technology and language learning, and a regular conference speaker. His blog is always current and gives ideas, and news updates about different types of media to use in foreign language classrooms. The author uses video and picture clips in his blog to make his posts easier to view.

[]
This is a great website for finding visual aides to support language use in the classroom. This would not only be helpful for foreign language classrooms, but English language learning (ELL) classrooms. Not only are their pictures for teaching vocabulary, but also for teaching grammar through situations. Also in many ELL classrooms students will not be able to communicate in much English. This resource will create pictures for the students to point at when trying to communicate their needs.

[]
This site every foreign language teacher should have available! There are 35 different language resources available, and multiple resources online for each language. These resources include information on important people, audio exercises, and games for students to play.

= Sources: =

Informal:

 * Stroud, M. D. (1998, September). Incorporating technology into the foreign language classroom. Retrieved from http://www.trinity.edu/mstroud/technology/CALL.html **

The author states that, "In foreign language education, the goal of computer-assisted language learning is no different from the goals of foreign language education in general: to provide students with resources and experiences that will provide instruction and practice in speaking, reading, writing, and listening to their target language, as well as cultural information necessary to a full understanding of the people and the language they are studying." They make this point by including that students can practice speaking and listening to mp3 language online, they can read and write while finding foreign language characters anywhere online, and they can even visit foreign country online using the internet which includes the cultural part.

Because this author feels so strongly about using technology in the classroom and gives specific examples of how to use technology I feel that it is valid to finding the answer to how to increase learning in the foreign language classroom. By using the internet students can do listening and speaking at home, using less class time and giving the students more practice using the foreign language.


 * Technology in foreign language. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2010, from the School Computing Wiki: http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/Technology_in_Foreign_Language **

This wiki addresses 10 reasons to use technology in world language teaching which gives some very strong positive reasons why teachers should incorporate the technology many of which we have discussed in class. It then continues to go into the Foreign Language Standards and shows how using technology can meet those standards. Finally it talks about resources for teachers, and students and how technology can enhance teacher productivity. This article is very for using technology in the foreign language classrooms.

This is a great article for my inquiry question because it goes through the different standards directly and how they relate to technology. None of the other articles do that, and using the standards is a main focus of teaching. Also I like how there are resources for students and resources for teachers. The other articles explain the technology for students but do not talk about resources for teachers as well.


 * Technology in the foreign language classroom. (n.d). Retrieved October 19, 2010, from the Edutopia Wiki: http://www.edutopia.org/groups/foreign_language/26816 **

This page is a teacher asking for help using technology in her foreign language classroom. On this page many other teachers who have used the different technologies post great resources and websites that they have used personally. There are many different suggestions that have not been mentioned in the journal articles.

This is useful because it shows teachers that have used the technology. Beyond that it shows their enthusiasm about the tools that they have used and what has truly worked for them. It also shows examples of what they used in all different languages, Spanish, German, and Japanese. The other strength of this website is that the original person that posted replies on the entries and talks about her experience using the same idea.

Formal:

 * Tsou, W., Wang, W., & Tzeng, Y. (2006, August). Applying a multimedia storytelling website in foreign language learning. Computers & Education, 47(1), 17-28 **

This article is about a case study done on the amount of increased learning while using a foreign language storytelling website. The authors state that foreign language teachers have difficulty with storytelling because they do not have prior knowledge, they have difficulty locating appropriate stories, and they do not have the language abilities to tell stories in the foreign language. However, while using this storytelling website students can create their own stories using pictures, sound, and text. This increased the recall of the story by all of the students in the class.

This is related to my question because it talks about a specific technology tool that can be used in a foreign language classroom. Beyond that, it was also tested and seems to be affective. It is also a creative way to do storytelling and talking about literature in a foreign language classroom.


 * Tuttle, H. G. (2007). Livening up foreign language. Technology & Learning, 28 (4), 40-42. **

This article lists many different technological resources and how to use them in a foreign language classroom. Some of the strong points include, videoconferencing with a Spanish speaker, using Flickr to describe an image in a minute, posting pictures of a city and having the students give a tour around the room after online research, and even online gaming. There are so many opportunities to do different activities and the technology opens up the doors to different learning opportunities.

This is a great article for my inquiry question! It answers my question by showing multiple ways to use fourteen different technologies. The weakness of this article is there are not any negative points that are listed, and it is brief in descriptions. I feel that it opens up ideas for other teachers. This will even be beneficial in the future when I am teaching.


 * Yang, S. C. & Chen, Y. (2007, January). Technology-enhanced language learning: a case study. Computers in Human Behavior, 23 (1), 860-879. **

This is a case study about 44 10th grade students that joined a technology-enhanced language learning project. The students used six technology tools for learning; group e-mailing, a Web-based course,an e-mail writing program, homepage design, video-conferencing, and chat room discussion. The students liked this approach but not all students agreed that it was beneficial. Some students preferred a traditional teaching approach rather than the technology approach. Also students that were at a low level of proficiency had difficulties using the video-conferencing and chat room discussion because of the quick response time needed.

I feel that this article is critical to my technology inquiry question because it is a case study that shows the results of students using technology in a foreign language classroom. However, it shows the pros and cons of using the technology. This article specifically shows the weakness of using technology, because it may not work for all learners.