Richard Kern

Network-Based Language Teaching: Concepts and Practice

1 Introduction: Theory and Practice of Network-Based Language Teaching 2 Curriculum Innovation in TEFL: Technologies Supporting Socio-collaborative Language Learning in Bulgaria 3 Online Learning in Second Language Classrooms: An Ethnographic Study 4 Negotiation in Cyberspace: The Role of Chatting in the Development of Grammatical Competence 5 Writing into Change: Style-Shifting in Asynchronous Electronic Discourse 6 Computers and Collaborative Writing in the Foreign Language Curriculum 7 Networked Multimedia Environments for Second Language Acquisition 8 An Electronic Literacy Approach to Network-Based Language Teaching 9 Task-Based Language Learning via Audio-Visual Networks: The LEVERAGE Project 10 Is Network-based Learning CALL?Over the past 20 years, computer networks have introduced unprecedented opportunities for language learners to access and publish texts and multimedia materials and to communicate in new ways within and beyond the classroom. Whereas computer-assisted language learning (CALL) refers broadly to a wide range of applications (e.g., tutorials, drills, simulations, instructional games, tests, concordancers, etc.), network-based language teaching (NBLT) refers specifically to the pedagogical use of computers connected in either local or global networks, allowing one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many communication. NBLT research explores what happens when learners are brought together with texts, media, and other speakers of the language in computer-mediated contexts of interaction. NBLT arose at the confluence of both technological and educational change. In the 1980s and 1990s, networking technologies and infrastructure developed with dramatic rapidity in many industrialized countries, making low-cost connections possible. At the same time, educational theory and practice were increasingly influenced by social constructivism, which emphasized the social and cultural construction of knowledge, the importance of collaboration among individuals and groups, and a learnerand problem-based approach to pedagogy.

Perspectives on Technology in Learning and Teaching Languages

Rapid evolution of communication technologies has changed language pedagogy and language use, enabling new forms of discourse, new forms of authorship, and new ways to create and participate in communities. The first section of this article identifies and discusses four key issues arising from the recent technology-related literature (the status of CALL, its theoretical grounding, its cultural embeddedness, and its effectiveness). The second section synthesizes research findings from three current areas of research: computer-mediated communication, electronic literacies, and telecollaboration. The third section develops implications for teaching and research, highlighting the importance of the teacher, new understandings of language and communication, critical awareness of the relationships among technology, language, culture, and society, and new trends in research methods.

Literacy practices : investigating literacy in social contexts

Defining literacy: models, myths and metaphors investigating literacy practices in context educational contexts for literacy development spoken and written language reading as situated social practice writing as situated social practice researching literacy as social practice.

The Role of Mental Translation in Second Language Reading.

Reading in a second language (L2) can produce inefficient processing in otherwise proficient readers. This paper argues that mental translation during L2 reading may facilitate the generation and conservation of meaning by allowing the reader to represent portions of L2 text that exceed cognitive limits in a familiar, memory-efficient form. Fifty-one intermediate-level French students, in high, middle, and low reading ability groups, participated in think-aloud interviews while reading French texts. The relative frequency of translation use among these groups is compared at the beginning and end of a semester and is found to decrease with level of reading ability. The specific contexts in which students relied on translation are identified, and functional benefits and strategic uses of translation are discussed. Finally, hypotheses and questions are developed for future research.

Making connections through texts in language teaching

Language is not just a tool for communication. It is also a resource for creative thought, a framework for understanding the world, a key to new knowledge and human history, and a source of pleasure and inspiration. The Connections Standard is about linking language and literature study to other disciplines (for example, art, music, film, history, among others) and about getting students to experience unique viewpoints available only through a particular language and its cultures. This presentation will argue for the importance of analyzing texts (written, oral, visual, audio-visual) in language teaching. The goal is to give students the chance to position themselves in relation to distinct viewpoints and distinct cultures and to make connections between language and other symbolic ways of making meaning, connections between language and other disciplines, and connections between language and culture. These connections are not easy to make, but they are essential if we are to prepare our students for the broadest range of language use and allow them to achieve their full communicative potential.

Network-based Language Teaching: Name index

1 Introduction: Theory and Practice of Network-Based Language Teaching 2 Curriculum Innovation in TEFL: Technologies Supporting Socio-collaborative Language Learning in Bulgaria 3 Online Learning in Second Language Classrooms: An Ethnographic Study 4 Negotiation in Cyberspace: The Role of Chatting in the Development of Grammatical Competence 5 Writing into Change: Style-Shifting in Asynchronous Electronic Discourse 6 Computers and Collaborative Writing in the Foreign Language Curriculum 7 Networked Multimedia Environments for Second Language Acquisition 8 An Electronic Literacy Approach to Network-Based Language Teaching 9 Task-Based Language Learning via Audio-Visual Networks: The LEVERAGE Project 10 Is Network-based Learning CALL?Over the past 20 years, computer networks have introduced unprecedented opportunities for language learners to access and publish texts and multimedia materials and to communicate in new ways within and beyond the classroom. Whereas computer-assisted language learning (CALL) refers broadly to a wide range of applications (e.g., tutorials, drills, simulations, instructional games, tests, concordancers, etc.), network-based language teaching (NBLT) refers specifically to the pedagogical use of computers connected in either local or global networks, allowing one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many communication. NBLT research explores what happens when learners are brought together with texts, media, and other speakers of the language in computer-mediated contexts of interaction. NBLT arose at the confluence of both technological and educational change. In the 1980s and 1990s, networking technologies and infrastructure developed with dramatic rapidity in many industrialized countries, making low-cost connections possible. At the same time, educational theory and practice were increasingly influenced by social constructivism, which emphasized the social and cultural construction of knowledge, the importance of collaboration among individuals and groups, and a learnerand problem-based approach to pedagogy.

Network-based Language Teaching: Frontmatter

1 Introduction: Theory and Practice of Network-Based Language Teaching 2 Curriculum Innovation in TEFL: Technologies Supporting Socio-collaborative Language Learning in Bulgaria 3 Online Learning in Second Language Classrooms: An Ethnographic Study 4 Negotiation in Cyberspace: The Role of Chatting in the Development of Grammatical Competence 5 Writing into Change: Style-Shifting in Asynchronous Electronic Discourse 6 Computers and Collaborative Writing in the Foreign Language Curriculum 7 Networked Multimedia Environments for Second Language Acquisition 8 An Electronic Literacy Approach to Network-Based Language Teaching 9 Task-Based Language Learning via Audio-Visual Networks: The LEVERAGE Project 10 Is Network-based Learning CALL?Over the past 20 years, computer networks have introduced unprecedented opportunities for language learners to access and publish texts and multimedia materials and to communicate in new ways within and beyond the classroom. Whereas computer-assisted language learning (CALL) refers broadly to a wide range of applications (e.g., tutorials, drills, simulations, instructional games, tests, concordancers, etc.), network-based language teaching (NBLT) refers specifically to the pedagogical use of computers connected in either local or global networks, allowing one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many communication. NBLT research explores what happens when learners are brought together with texts, media, and other speakers of the language in computer-mediated contexts of interaction. NBLT arose at the confluence of both technological and educational change. In the 1980s and 1990s, networking technologies and infrastructure developed with dramatic rapidity in many industrialized countries, making low-cost connections possible. At the same time, educational theory and practice were increasingly influenced by social constructivism, which emphasized the social and cultural construction of knowledge, the importance of collaboration among individuals and groups, and a learnerand problem-based approach to pedagogy.