Getting the Mix Right Again: An updated and theoretical rationale for interaction
By Terry Anderson
Athabasca University – Canada’s Open University
October 2003

I thought that the theory presented in our reading this week was kind of obvious, but it made me aware of how important it is to be prepared to teach web-based classes and to learn how to maximize student-content and student-student interactions in both online and face-to-face classrooms. I agree that educational opportunities need to be economically available to as many students as possible, and educators play a key role in developing ways to make it affordable.

The greatest challenge I find in implementing the above strategy is in engaging unmotivated students. I think that technology could play a great role in this, both because it provides ways to hold students more accountable and because it can provide elements that will interest unmotivated students. The educational games that have been available for the last couple decades have been a great start. I look forward to investigating more ways that technology can meet the needs of today's students.

The thing that I have most enjoyed about this class so far is that it’s given me an excuse to check out language learning websites that I wouldn’t have gone through otherwise. I plan to recommend the one that I reviewed to my classes, and possibly even assign some tasks from the site. I also found a few other interesting sites, which I bookmarked, and I plan to spend more time reviewing them and providing them as additional resources to my students.

I have been able to complete the tasks that we’ve been assigned so far, except that I had problems inputting classmates’ blog URLs into my bloglines account. I was planning to finish that this weekend and was also going to look through everyone’s website reviews and comment on some of them, but I will have to wait until Moodle reopens to access the directory of blog URLs.

Two items that are new to me are Skype and Bloglines. I believe they will be useful for keeping up more with what’s happening in the foreign language education field. I don’t have a lot of opportunities to network with other Spanish teachers at this time. I think that both of these sites will provide ways to have a lot of content come directly to me without my having to think about looking for information all the time. I also appreciated learning about the details involved in the epal project. I had not thought of some of the preliminary steps and can see that they would greatly enrich the students’ experiences.

I would like to learn more about the available functions in Skype and plan to spend more time looking through the website. I also would like to learn about website design, which is totally new to me. I will go through the suggested tutorials this week and will try to complete the steps throughout the week. I’m also looking forward to reading about more ways that others are incorporating technology into their foreign language classrooms.

Software/Website Title: Learn Spanish: a free online tutorial

Website URL: http://www.studyspanish.com/freesite.htm

Grade/Age Level: Grade 6 through adult

Language & Content:

1) The intended purpose of this website is to teach Spanish pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, and culture, and to advertise a CD Spanish course.

2) The contents of the website are:

• Pronunciation Tutorial
• Grammar Tutorial
• Vocabulary Tutorial
• Verb Drills
• Word-a-Day
• Travel Helper
• Cultural Notes
• Spanish Schools
• Survey
• Idiom Generator
• Top Ten List
• Useful Links
• Online Translator
• Spanish in your City

3) The contents are presented as hot links that contain detailed explanations, practice exercises (written and oral), assessments, photos, translations, and further hot links to sites that are of interest to Spanish students and instructors.

3) The external documents included in the website are listed above. They include links to discussion forums, radio and television stations, and Spanish language schools. The documents are effective for practice, assessment, translation, networking with other learners and instructors, and broadening cultural knowledge.

4) The website is interesting to the target audience because it contains practical information and tutorials. The grammar explanations are clear and well illustrated. The website has an audio component with pronunciation models from Spain and Latin America. The format allows for repetition of drills to achieve mastery of the subject matter. The links are of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about Hispanic language and culture, and they provide opportunities to network with others.

5) This website is useful to meet language goals of comprehension, speaking, reading, writing, and cultural knowledge. It includes material that is normally covered in beginning and intermediate-level Spanish classes.

6) The website offer practice, assessment, and feedback. There are multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank quizzes and tests that are automatically graded upon submission. The audio component speaks words and phrases and leaves pauses for students to repeat the information.

7) This website is easy to use. The navigation and layout are totally intuitive. It requires no technical knowledge. It even provides a bank of accented letters that can be chosen for written answers in the quizzes and tests so that the student does not have to use special keyboard controls for accents.

8) The strengths of this website are that it is very comprehensive, and it's free! It provides a lot of practice opportuntities, and the cultural readings are equally accessible to beginners and advanced students, because they are provided in English and Spanish on the same pages. The links are pertinent for anyone interested in the Spanish language and the Hispanic world.

9) For a free site, this website provides a lot of explanations, practice, translations, and audio and visual components. The only improvement that I would suggest is for the webmaster to ascertain that all of the listed links are still active. A couple of the links that I tried were dead.

In this article, Kern and Warschauer provide a recent history of language acquisition theories. They explain the underlying assumptions and pedagogical implications of the structual, cognitive, and sociocognitive perspectives. Language education has shifted in emphasis from rote learning of forms and emphasis on accuracy, to collaborative, communicative projects through which meaning and mastery are to be derived.

At the same time, computers have increased in their capabilities, from providing drill practice to providing network-based educational opportunities through the world-wide web. Language educators have sought to align current understandings of language acquisition with project-based, authentic, collaborative learning opportunities for students using available technology.

I think that an understanding of theories broadens our perspectives as educators, and that there are elements of theories which have fallen out of favor that might still be useful for current language learners. I appreciated the description of A la rencontre de Philippe, because the program seemed to be applicable for beginners. I think that many of the activities suggested by the sociocognitive theory would be difficult to implement for those who have very little knowledge of a language. The emphases of this theory are just as important for beginners as for more advanced students, but collaboration opportunities must take different forms depending upon the students' levels of skill. I look forward to examining resources that are appropriate for first-year students.

Chapter 1
Introduction: Theory and Practice of Network-Based Language Teaching Richard Kern and Mark Warschauer

This article explains how a theory of computer-assisted language learning should not be considered different from other theories of language education or language acquision. Regardless of the media used, what is of interest is understanding the factors that affect optimal language learning.

The article identifies 8 conditions that positively affect language learning environments. These conditions primarily have to do with interacting and negotiating meaning in the target language using authentic tasks. Affective factors, such as the degree of comfort that students experience and their perceived feelings of autonomy, also influence outcomes.

Egbert, et. al., also discuss problems with existing research of computer-assisted language learning, and steps that should be followed when undertaking research. These steps are common to any type of research, but there are special considerations when examining CALL.

This article confirms my beliefs that technology is a tool, but it should not be considered more valuable than other tools that are available for teaching and learning. It provides opportunities that other media don't provide, but it does not take the place of the personal aspects of education. Technology does broaden opportunities, therefore, as it is developed further, and as access becomes more universal, it will probably take on more significant roles in educational processes.

Egbert, J., Chao, C. & Hanson-Smith, E. (1999). Computer-Enhanced Language Learning Environments: An Overview. In J. Egbert & E. Hanson-Smith (Eds.). CALL Environments: Researach, Practice & Critical Issues (pp. 1-13). Alexandria, VA. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.