[L544] Reflection #2 (Web 2.0 & Social Media)

Hi, everyone. I'm sorry not to catch up with everyone in L599 CALLer's blogs so far.
I've been so busy and also a little sick since the second week of the semester, but now I'm on the good condition and come back to normal daily life.
In my blog, I'd like to share not only my L599 reflections but also some useful teaching materials with technology I've been collecting on my Facebook private page. Please feel free to give me any comments or share with your ideas, materials, or whatever you want! :)
Also, I'm happy to be everyone's FB friend and share our educational/social lives. :)
https://www.facebook.com/rachel.y.chae

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• Prichard, C. (2013). Using Social Networking Sites as a Platform for Second Language Instruction. TESOL Journal 4(4), 752-758.
• Terantino, J. M. (2011). Emerging Technologies YouTube for Foreign Language: You Have To See This Video. Language Learning and Technology, 15, 10-16.

While reading all the articles for this week, it made me reconsider my target language learners’ ascribed environment. In these articles, both authors clarify about our potential target language learners first. Prichard (2013) portrays the contemporary language learners as Net Generation  (p.754), and the term is equivalent to the concept of Digital Natives from Terantino’s (2011, p.10-11) – people who have grown up with digital technology and have been socializing on the net or through text messaging. Taken as a whole, not merely from educational perspective, using technology how smartly, wisely, and effectively in each domain would change a quality of person’s life in this era of flooding of technologies and information.

In the Web 2.0 interface, language learners’ posting or publishing in the net community is a meaningful and authentic activity with meaningful purpose than traditional classroom activity, which motivates learners’ interest and satisfaction with their own ownership about the product they created by themselves. In this way, especially Social Networking Sites such as Facebook could be a space not only to hang out socially online but also to do academic or even any fields of performances. As an educator, we should strive to make the best use of SNSs in an educational way. Some might disagree with integrating SNS in language class because of its distractions and unsecured setting. However, potential merits of using SNS in language class would be abundant enough to put aside these concerns. Terantino (2011) points out that students would be learning without initially realizing that they were learning in this alive online world, and foreign language students may be temporarily distracted by various YouTube video clips but they will gain real linguistic knowledge and skills at the same time (p.11-12).

With this unlimited access to instructional videos, articles, and posting in the Web 2.0, settings for language learning are expanded with regard to learning materials, types of class assignments, or even possible peers to interact with. On the Web 2.0 technologies, two-way communication is very easy and active to be done, and public in online community could play a role as another agent in students’ language learning, rather than just teacher-student or student-student relationships in typical classroom-based language class. In other words, public in online community could be language learners’ audience, unofficial teacher, friend, commenter, critic, or supporter. Among these public, even learners’ family members or friends could join and support their learning, not just by one language teacher.

As an example of using SNS I’ve seen, some instructors of Korean language courses at IU use Facebook as one of the required course assignments. Regular FB posting is students’ weekly assignment, and the postings should be about status posting, making comments to other’s posting, uploading some video clips or articles and writing a review in Korean language. All the class members including instructors share and discuss their product on FB as well as practicing in face-to-face classroom. It seemed really great especially for young undergraduate students who are the very net generation or digital natives.

Another example I myself can think of is Language Exchange group program. Two foreign language classes from different countries, let’s say, English class in Korea and Korean class in the U.S., could do a collaborative work on Facebook group page. Their target learning language is each other’s native language, so teachers can use the ability of both L1 and L2 of all the learners from two different language classes. Korean learners will do the postings in English and American students will make comments or give feedback on them, and vice versa. This collaborative language group work not only enhances student-centered learning but also induces their interests in foreign language learning by socializing among themselves in an entertaining SNS community.

As a closing, I’d like to share a great Google Drive tool for taking notes while watching videos. Its name is VideoNotes, and you can sneak a peek on this video clip. I hope everyone likes this and apply in your teaching. :)