Week 4: Technology and SLA

Hello,

I found interesting Yeh’s (2018) reading Exploring the perceived benefits of the process of multimodal video making in developing multiliteracies because in Spring 2017 my students at Changzhou University (China) created a video comparing elements of multiculturality between China and a given number of Spanish-speaking countries and then submitted it to a worldwide contest called “Con c de Cine -Spanish in a Day.”

In the end, a group of my students won the contest and was invited to Spain—all expenses paid—to study a Spanish course. You can watch the video and read their experiences in Spain (I apologize because it is written in Spanish).

Before they settled on their final topics, they spent time searching for information. As Yeh (2018) explained most students went through three principal processes to produce the video: composing the scripts, enacting the scripts, and editing the videos. Everyone in the group collaborated and had different roles. This is an example of learning by doing and task-based language teaching. This task involved writing, reading, speaking and listening. At the same time notions of pragmatic and sociolinguistics.

From the result, the students indicated positive effects of writing scripts on their Spanish learning (vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, grammar, etc.). Also, they mentioned that this project was important to learn about their own culture.

I would like to create at UCSB opportunities for students to do this kind of projects, but we have to follow the syllabus.

I have also found really interesting Gabe Baker's website, which is a collaborative virtual world. You can use Frame as a collaboration space or meeting room, you can make it "multi-user" and then anyone who visits your Frame at the same time will be able to interact as avatars. I am excited to develop my own Frame for pedagogical uses. One advantage is that the language instructor can toggle whether other people are able to permanently edit your Frame or not.

Finally, when I read Blake’s article (2016) Technology and the Four Skills it came up to my mind two interesting websites to practice Spanish in different ways:

1-  Video ELE: which has interesting videos and activities (pre-listening, listening and post-listening).

2-  Practica español: which has original news (reading and listening).

We can always adapt the activities from these websites and create a TBLT.

I look forward to your comments.

Best,
Samanta