Teaching reading the 21st century way

July 16, 2010

In an article by the Smithsonian, author Kevin Kelly talks about reading in the digital age. He makes a good point when he says that the digital screen is the biggest thing to hit reading since Guttenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1440. He talks about how screen reading involves more than using your eyes. It includes engaging our bodies through interaction with a mouse or touch screen. He adds that portable screens (like the iPod touch, the iPad and any number of other mobile devices are becoming more and more prominent.)

Are you teaching reading in a way that makes sense in the 21st century?

Related post: How technology has changed reading in the 21st century http://wp.me/pNAh3-11P

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Check out Roswita Dressler’s presentation on website promo for language schools

June 23, 2010

My friend and colleague, Roswita Dressler, from the University of Calgary, did a presentation called “Increasing the Effectiveness of Website Promotion for Heritage Language Bilingual School Programs“. She reviews websites from a variety of schools and talks about bilingual and heritage language learning. Way to go, Roswita!

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Check out Roswita Dressler’s presentation on website promo for language schools http://wp.me/pNAh3-a0

Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

Comments Off on Check out Roswita Dressler’s presentation on website promo for language schools | 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program, languages, marketing, second languages | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Got a language lab? Rip it out!

June 14, 2010

Language labs went out with the 20th century. Language labs came into existence in the late 1940s and early 1950s when modern foreign language programs were starting to develop in universities. Labs were constructed where students were gathered together and collectively followed a prescribed audio programs. This followed the behavourist model of language teaching. That was long before the communicative method was ever developed.

The purpose of language labs was for students to gain auditory exposure to the language they were studying. This was a big deal back then. Students had far fewer opportunities to travel. There was no such thing as the Internet. There was no foreign television programming. And phone calls to family members who were living abroad were horrendously expensive.

That’s all changed. In today’s world of digital everything, audio exposure to foreign languages is readily available at little to no cost. Satellite radio, Internet radio and podcasts are all available. Even as far back as the 1980s, visionary scholars began to see that one day, language labs would become extinct (Chen, 1996; Froehlich, 1982). They were right. In the twenty-first century, constructing language labs is not a wise use of a school’s limited money, time and other resources.

Note: This blog post was one of a number that served to inform a larger article that can be found here:

Eaton, S. E. (2010). Global Trends in Language Learning in the Twenty-first Century Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED510276.pdf

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

1 Comment | education, ESL, languages, second languages | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

“Facebook Alternative ‘Diaspora’ Fully Funded”

June 4, 2010

Check out this news report from the BBC, released June 3, 2010:

“Facebook Alternative Diaspora Fully Funded”.

BBC News. 3 June 2010. Retrieved from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10225455.stm

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

Comments Off on “Facebook Alternative ‘Diaspora’ Fully Funded” | social media, Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

MALL (Mobile Assisted Language Learning)

May 31, 2010

Mobile Assisted Language Learning, or “MALL” is creating the same buzz in the new millennium that computer-assisted language learning (CALL) created in the 1990s. MALL is language learning using mobile devices such as:

  • cell (mobile) phones (including the iPhone)
  • MP3 or MP4 players (e.g. iPods)
  • Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) (e.g. Palm Pilot, Blackberry, etc.)

Here are a few articles — all published since 2000 – that I’ve found on MALL:

Chinnery, G. M. (2006). Emerging Technologies: Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning. Language Learning & Technology, 10(1), 9 – 16. Retrieved from http://llt.msu.edu/vol10num1/emerging/default.html

Collins, T. G. (2005). English Class on the Air: Mobile Language Learning with Cell Phones. Paper presented at the Fifth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT’05). Retrieved from http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/ICALT.2005.137

Edvista.com. Mobile Assisted Language Learning Applications.   Retrieved May 15, 2010, from http://www.edvista.com/claire/pres/iphoneapps/

Kukulska-Hulme, A., & Shield, L. (2007). An Overview of Mobile Assisted Language Learning: Can Mobile Devices Support Collaborative Practices in Speaking and Listening. Retrieved May 15 2010, from The Open University, UK: portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1520087

These are just a few articles that I found. If you have other online resources for MALL to share, please let me know.

Related posts:

Cool Apps for Language Learning http://wp.me/pNAh3-mQ

Techno-Tools for the Second Language Teacher http://wp.me/pNAh3-M7

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Like this post? Share it or Tweet it: MALL (Mobile-Assisted Language Learning) http://wp.me/pNAh3-6U

Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

5 Comments | education, languages, second languages, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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