From Theory to Practice: The Creation of an Internet-Based Language Learning Environment for Academic Language Proficiency in Greek as a Second Language

Integrating scaffolding-learning technologies has been recognized for its potential to create intellectual and engaging classroom interactions. In the United Arab Emirates, having language teachers employ computers as a medium of new pedagogical instrument for teaching second languages generated the idea of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) as a medium of an innovative pedagogical instrument for facilitating and scaffolding language learning, with an aspiration that it will lead to improved English language attainment and better assessment results. This study aims at investigating the perspectives of students and teachers on the advantageous and disadvantageous impacts of CALL on learning and teaching English as a second language in one public school in the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The results show that CALL has a facilitating role in L2 classroom and that using CALL activities is advantageous in reducing English learning tension, boosting motivation, catering for student diversity, promoting self-directed language learning and scaffolding while learning English. The results additionally report that numerous aspects like time constraints, teachers’ unsatisfactory computer skills, insufficient computer facilities, and inflexible school courses undesirably affect the implementation of CALL in English classrooms. It is recommended that further studies should be undertaken to investigate the actual effect of CALL on students’ language proficiency.

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Didattica delle lingue in prospettiva interculturale: innovazione e potenzialità

Anuario de Letras Modernas ◽

10.22201/ffyl.01860526p.2008.14.686 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

pp. 189-198

Author(s):

Manuela Derosas

Keyword(s):

Learning Environment ◽

Language Learning ◽

Communicative Competence ◽

Language Education ◽

Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽

New Paradigm ◽

Language And Culture ◽

Learning And Teaching ◽

Vast Literature ◽

The Creation

Since the early ’80s the adjective "intercultural" in language learning and teaching has seemed to acquire a remarkable importance, although its meaning is strongly debated. As a matter of fact, despite the existence of a vast literature on this topic, difficulties arise when applying it in the classroom. The aim of this work is to analyze the elements we consider to be the central pillars in this methodology, i.e. a renewed language-and culture relation, the Intercultural Communicative Competence, the intercultural speaker. These factors allow us to consider this as a new paradigm in language education; furthermore, they foster the creation of new potentialities and configure the classroom as a significant learning environment towards the discovery of Otherness.

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Evidence for embodied cognition in immersive virtual environments using a second language learning environment

2020 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG) ◽

10.1109/cog47356.2020.9231752 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jack Ratcliffe ◽

Laurissa Tokarchuk

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Learning Environment ◽

Language Learning ◽

Embodied Cognition ◽

Virtual Environments ◽

Second Language Learning ◽

Immersive Virtual Environments

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The 'Third Place': Investigating an ESL Classroom Interculture

TESL Canada Journal ◽

10.18806/tesl.v22i1.162 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Xuemei Li ◽

Anita Girvan

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

Cultural Identities ◽

Third Place ◽

Cultural Space ◽

The Third ◽

The Creation ◽

Esl Classroom

This study focuses on a multicultural ESL classroom with the purpose of exploring the creation of new individual and cultural identities and the formation of interculture. Through on-site observations and interviews with second-language learners and their teacher, the study presents findings about the dynamics, quandaries, complexity, and diversity of classroom interculture. The metaphor of the 'third place' (Kramsch, 1993) aptly captures the nature of this interculture in its fluidity and ambiguity. Perceiving language-learning in this way allows one to look beyond the traditional dichotomous views and approaches to culture and identity in ESL settings and to describe properly the enriching process of creating new identity and new cultural space that is greater than the sum of individual cultures.

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