Carla Meskill

Learning to Orchestrate Online Instructional Conversations: A Case of Faculty Development for Foreign Language Educators

In the past decade, providing language instruction via computer-mediated communication (CMC) has seen tremendous growth throughout the world. With this increase in asynchronous instruction have come questions concerning the role of the instructor as it determines the quality and impact of learning and of what optimal faculty development might consist. This study addresses the question: Can simulated instructional conversations using CMC be used effectively in faculty professional development? An online professional development course for foreign language higher education faculty was designed, implemented, and its processes and outcomes documented and examined. Results indicate that readings, discussions, simulated practice, and reflections concerning engagement in instructional conversations can indeed foment awareness of the anatomy of effective online instructional conversations for foreign and second language instruction.

CMC in language teacher education: learning with and through instructional conversations

Abstract As the popularity of computer mediated communication (CMC) in language teaching continues to grow, questions regarding best practices arise. Whereas a number of recent studies have examined the online discourse of language learners, few have explored the potential of online instructional conversations for language teacher education. This paper discusses CMC as a venue where language teachers in development can explore instructional conversations while they are actively guided via models, practice, and analysis to understand and make good use of the affordances of CMC (Meskill and Anthony 2007a,b). Samples from online professional development for language educators illustrate the potential of CMC in serving teacher learning. The power and diversity of CMC to support development of language educators is presented via uses in (1) modeling online instructional conversations; (2) analyzing online instructional conversations; (3) experimenting with instructional conversations in blended environments; (4) as a practicum laboratory; and in (5) promoting ongoing professional engagement.

Language Learning Strategies Advice: A Study on the Effects of On-line Messaging

Abstract This study set out to assess the effects of on-line advice messages which suggest learning strategies to the user. Thirty-four students of English as a second language (ESL) participated by interacting with an interactive video database dealing with common conversational strategies in English. Subjects were randomly assigned two treatments: one offering students no advice concerning the on-line material, the other providing students with advice regarding strategies they might choose to use while studying the language content. Although no significant differences in post-test nor attitude scores between the advice and no-advice groups was detectable with this sample size, qualitative data gathered are suggestive. Results of systematic observations and post-treatment interviews tend to support the proposition that the design of learner controlled interactive video materials for language teaching that include advice regarding learning strategies may be potentially helpful to students who do not come to a database environment equipped with a repertoire of effective language learning strategies.

Electronic Texts in ESOL Classrooms.

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ESL and multimedia: A study of the dynamics of paired student discourse

Abstract This study examines the interactions of pairs of language students working with multimedia. Six pairs of students of English as a second language were videotaped while working with the instructional system. Transcripts are coded by type and target of participant utterances. A framework for analyzing the interactional dynamic incorporates the ways in which the configuration is likely to shape exchanges given a number of constraints likely to affect conversation. Patterns of discourse on the part of paired subjects were first analyzed within this framework and effects of the identified contraints were observed in the data. Non-native speaker discourse was then compared to native speaker discourse with the identical computer-centered task. Implications are drawn from both the analysis of discourse patterns in light of the configuration constraints, and from discourse elements that occur in the native speaker trial but not in non-native sessions. Discussion centers on how configuration constraints and the unique character of language use of non-native speakers become relevant for teachers and software designers who wish to pair language learners at the computer.

Where in the world of English is Carmen Sandiego

Computer games designed for use by native speakers of English can serve as apowerful source of motivation; provide exposure to the target language, and be an impetus for meaningful interaction among students of English as a Second Language (ESL). A particularly attractive package for this purpose, WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO., is described here in the context of ESL instruction.

Roles for Multimedia in the Response-Based Literature Classroom

As numerous multimedia products for literature become commercially available, questions pertaining to their quality, approach, and role in teaching and learning need to be posed. This study set out to develop criteria with which to examine products, and in turn have teachers apply these to a representative sample of software currently on the market. Findings indicate that while products are attractive on a technical level, their underlying pedagogical approach is not necessarily aligned with response-based practice in literature teaching and learning. In spite of this lack of supportive features, our teacher/reviewers make suggestions for ways in which the applications might be adapted to meet the needs of the response-based classroom.

Through the Screen, into the School: Education, subversion, ourselves in The Simpsons

There is little question that popular television shows influence the shaping of social norms, identities, and the ways we navigate daily life. High profile shows are also a common magnet for critical attention. No primetime television show has provoked as wide a range of reactions as Foxs The Simpsons. From shock radio to public broadcasting pundits pour condemnations, accolades, and adulations for this unique cartoon sitcom. From the masses to the literary elite, the worlds most famous animated family touch one and all, from the raw funny bone to the higher intellect. In a parallel vein, there is no lack of strong and varied opinion regarding education in the USA, and few venues do a more effective job at representing its core controversies than this weekly cartoon. Here I angle a mirror at the primetime television screen and suggest some ways this animated series reflects inner, outer, and systemic relationships with education. The beauty of The Simpsons in this regard is that the translucent motility of an ostensibly average nuclear family in the anywhere USA town of Springfield buffers the gaze just enough to allow us room to laugh, however uneasily.

Bilingualism, Cognitive Flexibility, and Electronic Literacy.

Abstract Electronic text (e-text) is any information displayed via a computer screen including audio, video, graphics, and the written word. As the amount of our reading and writing with electronic texts increases, so do the number of questions concerning the literacy implications of that activity. English Language Learners (ELLs) represent a rich window through which we can begin to glimpse the ways electronic texts are shaping the language and literacy of the electronic age. Given the special skills, abilities, and diversity of experiences of ELLs, we propose that the unique features of e-text can effectively interact with these qualities in such a way as to help us better understand both the goals, processes, and special characteristics of the bilingual experience and the acquisition of electronic literacy skills. Moreover, interaction of the emerging bilingual’s qualities with the unique features of electronic texts provides a novel perspective from which both evolving definitions of electronic litera...

Using Hypermedia in Response-Based Literature Classrooms: A Critical Review of Commercial Applications

AbstractResponse-based literature teaching and learning regards readers as active meaning-makers, and therefore emphasizes the importance of teaching and learning the processes of literary understanding, which are viewed as both socially and personally mediated. Many of the qualities of hypermedia suggest that it may be well suited for supporting such approaches. The National Center for Research on Literature Teaching and Learning’s ongoing Multimedia and Literature Teaching and Learning Project is concerned with systematically exploring this idea. The project’s first stage, detailed in this article, involved reviewing commercial multimedia literature applications from a response-based perspective. This article describes criteria developed for evaluating applications from that perspective, as well as the program acquisition and evaluation process. Findings suggest that the hypermedia literature applications currently commercially available, although technologically quite good and perhaps supportive of tex...