Learning and Leading - December 2009/January 2010

learningconnections

World Languages 26 • Multidisciplinary 29, 30, 32, 33 • Tip 31

Grounded Tech Integration: Languages

By Marcela van Olphen, Mark Hofer, and Judi Harris

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This is the fourth article in a series on grounded technology integration. See Resources on page 28 for the full list of previous articles.

Wikis, blogs, You Tube, i Tunes, virtual field trips, and Web radio offer world language teachers and students many easily accessible opportunities to experience distant cultures and languages. When integrated into a student-centered world languages curriculum, these educational technologies can help enhance language learning and teaching in ways not previously possible. However, the increasing number and expanding possibilities of new technologies for language instruction may obfuscate their most appropriate instructional uses and distract from learning goals.

How can we channel our efforts so that we truly integrate technology into world language instruction instead of using it as an add-on? What does it take to use technologies meaningfully without losing focus on content and pedagogy?

Matching Tech to Lesson Planning

One way to help teachers integrate technology effectively is to focus on instructional planning. Quite simply, we suggest matching technology-in-tegration strategies to existing lesson-planning methods, rather than asking teachers to plan instruction that exploits the opportunities offered by particular educational technologies.

A conceptual tool that can assist with technology integration during planning is a comprehensive set of

learning activity types for each curriculum area that specifies the particular educational technologies that can best support the learning goals within each activity.

We have organized the many world-languages learning activity types into subcategories to build an informal taxonomy. Once teachers have determined the learning goals for a particular lesson, project, or unit, they review the activity types for that content area, selecting and combining the activities that will best help students achieve the selected learning goals. Teachers then choose from the multiple educational technologies listed for each learning activity type to support the instructional plan. We consider this grounded technology integration, as it is based in content, pedagogy, and how teachers plan instruction.

Using Learning Activity Types The process of learning to communicate in a foreign language involves three modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational. Because students must develop multiple skills that span all three modes of communication, we have organized the world-languages activity types into five genres that address different skill families: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing. (Note that we have added viewing to the four skills that are typically discussed, to include visual world-language learning.) We have identified 56 activity types so far. Due to space constraints, we can’t share them all here, but readers can find the complete taxonomy of activity types on our wiki. The tables on page 27

provide examples of activity types in each of the five skills genres, with brief descriptions and illustrations of the technologies that can be used to support each.

Combining Activity Types: An Example

Although each of these activity types could be used independently, when combined, they can help teachers make world-language learning more efficient and engaging for students. By combining activity types in an instructional plan, teachers can address the five organizing principles (communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities) of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages standards while attending to the three communicative modes.

Here is an example of a combination that can be used for foreign language learning in elementary schools:

Creating a class dictionary can be an engaging way to learn new vocabulary without resorting to rote memorization. To help elementary students develop their vocabularies, a teacher can plan a project involving the classroom, the school, and students’ homes by combining five activity types. The project is divided into three phases.