formation

Researching the teaching and learning of specialised languages: DidASP

Research in the teaching and learning of languages is a field which is gaining visibility in higher education in France. Referred to as language didactics (didactique des langues) as distinct from the more practically oriented language pedagogy, this research seeks to understand how second or foreign languages are learned in instructed contexts, and may or may not have direct implications for teaching.

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Archives Nationales, site de repli pour GERAS 2016 (manifestations à Paris 8)

Some new and more established outlets and groups for research in this area in France include

  • ARDAA (Association pour la Recherche en Didactique de l’Anglais et en Acquisition), a recently formed affiliate of the Société des Anglicistes de l’Enseignement Supérieur, the French society for English studies in higher education. ARDAA focuses on research on all aspects of teaching English, particularly in French contexts.
  • DidASP, focusing on research in the teaching and learning of English for Specific Purposes, as a new special interest group in GERAS (Groupe d’Etude et de Recherche en Anglais de Spécialité). GERAS runs the open access journal ASp which publishes on all aspects of ESP research, including ESP didactics.
  • Research and Teaching Languages for Specific Purposes (RPPLSP, Cahiers de l’APLIUT). This open access journal has its roots in foreign language instruction in technical universities; its scope has recently widened to include special issues edited by ARDAA and RANACLES members.
  • Research on the Teaching of Second Languages and Cultures (RDLC, Cahiers de l’Acedle), the publication of the Association of Researchers, Teachers and Didacticians in Foreign Languages (Acedle).
  • Mélanges CRAPEL (Centre de Recherches et d’Applications Pédagogiques en Langues) for research and development in language teaching and learning.

Cédric Sarré and I have been considering how ESP didactics might fit into this picture in an article just published in ASp on Research in ESP teaching and learning in French higher education: developing the construct of ESP didactics. The paper includes an overview of recent work by our colleagues teaching and researching ESP in higher education contexts in France. It attempts to propose a framework for ongoing research in ESP didactics, defined as

the branch of English language studies which concerns the language, discourse and culture of English-language professional communities and specialised social groups, as well as the learning and teaching of this object from a didactic perspective.

Sarré & Whyte, 2016: 150

At our ESP Didactics SIG meeting at this year’s GERAS conference in Paris, we heard presentations on English for veterinary science (Muriel Conan) and designing a hybrid English course in musicology (Aude Labetoulle). We also discussed possible collaborative research projects for the group, and provided an update on the seminar on Teaching ESP today we are co-organising at this summer’s ESSE conference in Galway.

 

Beyond powerpoint: tools for novice language teachers

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My colleague in our technology in language education course, Bianka Fuchs

What kind of digital tools appeal to student teachers of foreign languages? Masters students in education in France, that is, pre-service primary and secondary school teachers, are expected to use technology in their classes during teaching placements. Often, however, opportunities are limited by technology provision in schools, and by uptake by the practitioners who act as tutors to our students. This means that implementing technology in the foreign language class may not go much beyond Powerpoint, with the teacher showing a slide presentation from the single class computer via a videoprojector.

Following a course on using audio-visual resources in the language classroom, Masters students in language education working with English, German and Spanish were asked to implement classroom activities with their learners and I was interested to see what kind of other applications these new teachers decided to use.  Here are the top ten selections, all free, cross-platform sites, often with mobile applications. Only the first is my own suggestion, in response to numerous accounts of difficulties getting pupils started on webquests; the others are student selections, many finding favour with student teachers of all three languages in focus.

Top ten applications

  1. Bitly: link shortener
    https://bitly.com
  2. Bitstrips: cartoon creation app
    https://www.bitstrips.com/
  3. Phrase it: add speech bubbles to photos
    http://phrase.it/
  4. Pons: bilingual dictionaries (DE, EN, ES, FR)
    http://en.pons.com/translate
  5. Popplet: mindmapping
    http://popplet.com
  6. Tellegami: animated video app
    https://tellagami.com/
  7. Vocaroo: voice recording
    http://vocaroo.com/
  8. Voicethread: collaborative multimedia presentation
    https://voicethread.com/
  9. Subtitle Workshop: open source video subtitling tool
    http://subworkshop.sourceforge.net/
  10. SoundCloud: audio recording and sharing
    https://soundcloud.com/

The teachers also of course used slides, and collaborative tools for working together amongst themselves. Here are some that came up frequently:

Slides

Collaboration

Teaching resources

The course, YouTube You Teach, was designed as part of the EU project SoNetTE, which has just ended.

iTILT training: French participants

An iTILT teacher training session at a primary school in Antibes, near Nice, this month involved primary teachers and teacher trainers involved with language education and technology training, as well as newly-qualified secondary EFL teachers.
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Training materials included

  • the pilot version of the iTILT training manual, with its focus on task-based language teaching (TBLT)
  • the iTILT website, with

    • practice examples (video clip, description, participant commentaries, related clips, tags)
    • quick/advanced search functions, manuals in several languages, and sample IWB teaching resources
  • new video training materials developed in collaboration with our German iTILT partners in Schwäbisch-Gmünd.

We explained that this second iTILT project uses the same approach to teacher education, involving class films, learning focus group interviews, and video-stimulated recall session with participating teachers.  However, based on the first project’s results, we now have a focus on a new objective:

  • How can we encourage more interactivity and interaction in the IMG_1467foreign language classroom?

The goal is thus to consider not tools, but rather pedagogical factors.

During our review of the first iTILT project activities and findings, we examined two video examples in particular: the magic schoolbag (primary EFL, FR), hotel furniture (vocational French, DE).

The new project involves a teacher who was also part of the first one: here we see her in the same classroom at the same board as she used in iTILT 1.

The French project teachers are working on video communication in English as a lingua franca using class sets of iPads (primary) and iPods (secondary) to exchange short videos with partner classes abroad, as well as some live videoconference sessions.
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In keeping with our goal of developing TBLT approaches, the focus is on developing activities which include

  • emphasis on making meaning and exchanging messages
  • an information gap or other cognitively challenging premise
  • the opportunity for learners to use their own linguistic resources
  • a particular outcome for each task.

Recherches en ALMT : journée d’études Lyon 2

Programme et résumés

Nicolas Guichon : on démarre

Nicolas Guichon : on démarre

Nicolas Guichon, Marie-Josée Hamel
Les questionnements et les tensions dans la recherche en apprentissage des langues médiatisés par les technologies. Il s’agit de recherches finalisées (enseignement) mais aussi réifiées. Questions d’écologie et d’ergonomie.

1. Recueil de données, constitution de corpus

Cédric Sarré, Paris
Références : Mondada, Ochs, Chapelle
Outils : EXMARalDA
Questions : représentativité, diffusion des corpus

Ciara Wigham, Lyon 2
Références : LETEC, MULCE, ARCH21 (Second Life)
Partage de corpus, corpus distinguable

Marie-Josée Hamel: U Ottawa
Références : Hamel et Milicevic,
Recherche-action : formation à un outil de capture vidéo-écran (CVE) pour observer le processus d’écriture en L2
Outil : Morae

Learning takes place when the learners faces conflict; Technology enables us to trace
conflicts, their existence. (Bertin et Gravé)

2. Analyse des données

Cathy Cohen, Lyon 2
Références : Develotte, Guichon & Vincent 2010 ; Van Lier 2004 : ecological validity
3 études
1. visio vs Skype
2. qualitative, expérmentale visio
3. étude écologique
compténce sémio-pédagogique chez les enseignants en ligne en production et en réception
quels gestes possibles – geste, regard, mimiques, orchestration multimodale

Marion Tellier et Ben Holt
gestuelle coverbale en interaction exolingue, gestes égocentrés ou allocentrés
Références : McNeill 1992, de Ruiter et de Beer, 2013
Outil : ELAN – une heure d’interaction, une heure de transcription et codage
schéma d’annotation avec tiers pour les gestes, paroles, chat, commentaires
comparer séquences normales et pas normales
contre-codage en aveugle avec un calcul de taux d’accord inter-juges pour voir si le schéma d’annotation est viable

3. Réutilisation des résultats

Jean François Grassin

Shona Whyte

Catherine Mueller

Et on repart

Et on repart

Vidéo et visio en apprentissage des langues médiatisé par les technologies (ALMT)

Communication à la Journée d’études ICAR 2, Université de Lyon et Université d’Ottawa
08/11/13

Vidéo et visio :  des outils de médiatisation de l’activité au service  de la collaboration et de la formation

Résumé
Cette présentation s’appuie sur trois projets de recherche-action collaborative axés sur la vidéo, utilisée comme outil de communication de classe et/ou comme instrument de recherche et de formation.   Les données comprennent des entretiens semi-structurés appuyés sur une rétroaction vidéo avec enseignants et apprenants d’anglais des premier et second degrés.   Le re-investissement des résultats s’est fait auprès des enseignants participant aux projets, ainsi que dans la formation initiale et continue à des niveaux différents (local, national, européen), en présentiel et à distance.   Ces expériences soulèvent des questions relatives aux prédispositions des enseignants ainsi qu’aux contraintes institutionnelles par rapport à leur formation.

Le TBI dans la formation à l’enseignement des langues : ESPE Paris

Une séance pour formateurs en langue à l’ESPE de Paris qui s’inscrit dans une série de formations TICE organisée par Cédric Sarré et Séraphine Lansonneur.

Les activités de formation

Une présentation du projet iTILT

Une conclusion sur les recherches en didactique dans le cadre du projet, et des pistes pour aller plus loin avec le TBI et les TICE de manière générale.

Réferences 
    • Alexander, J. (2013). The IWB in EFL, the IWB for EFL: using the IWB to teach EFL in French educational settings. (Unpublished master’s thesis). Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France.
    • Beauchamp, G. (2004). Teacher use of the interactive whiteboard (IWB) in primary schools – Towards an effective transition framework, Technology, Pedagogy and Education13 (3): 327–348.
    • Cutrim Schmid, E. (2010). Developing competencies for using the interactive whiteboard to implement communicative language teaching in the English as a Foreign Language classroom. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 19(2), 159-172.
    • Cutrim Schmid, E. (2008). Potential pedagogical benefits and drawbacks of multimedia use in the English language classroom equipped with interactive whiteboard technology. Computers and Education, 51 (4), 1553-68.
    • Cutrim Schmid, E. & van Hazebrouck, S. (2010). Using the Interactive Whiteboard as a “Digital Hub”. Praxis Fremdsprachenunterricht 04/10, 12-15.
    • Cutrim Schmid, E. & Whyte, S. (in press). Ongoing professional development in IWB mediated language teaching: evening up the odds. In Cutrim Schmid, E., & Whyte, S. (Eds.) Teaching languages with technology: communicative approaches to interactive whiteboard use. A resource book for teacher development. Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching (Series editors: Michael Thomas, Mark Warschauer & Mark Peterson). Bloomsbury.
    • Cutrim Schmid, E. & Whyte, S. (2012). Interactive Whiteboards in School Settings: Teacher Responses to Socio-constructivist Hegemonies.  Language Learning and Technology 16 (2), 65-86. ]
    • Hillier, E., Beauchamp, G., & Whyte, S. (2013). A study of self-efficacy in the use of interactive whiteboards across educational settings: a European perspective from the iTILT project. Educational Futures, 5 (2)
    • Whyte, S. (in press). Theory and practice in second language teaching with interactive technologies. In Cutrim Schmid, E., & Whyte, S. (Eds.) Teaching languages with technology: communicative approaches to interactive whiteboard use. A resource book for teacher development. Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching (Series editors: Michael Thomas, Mark Warschauer & Mark Peterson). Bloomsbury.
    • Whyte, S. (2011). Learning to teach with videoconferencing in primary foreign language classrooms. ReCALL 23(3): 271–293.
    • Whyte, S., & Alexander, J. (2013). Learning to Use Interactive Technologies for Language Teaching: Video Diaries for Teacher Support in the iTILT Project.  Atelier didactique, SAES, Dijon, 18 May.
    • Whyte, S., Beauchamp, G., & Hillier, E. (2012). Perceptions of the IWB for second language teaching and learning: the iTILT project. In L. Bradley & S. Thouësny (Eds.), CALL: Using, Learning, Knowing, EUROCALL Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 22-25 August 2012, Proceedings (pp. 320-6). © Research-publishing.net Dublin.
    • Whyte, S., & Cutrim Schmid, E. (in press).  A task-based approach to video communication with the IWB: a French-German primary EFL class exchange.  In Cutrim Schmid, E., & Whyte, S. (Eds.). Teaching languages with technology: communicative approaches to interactive whiteboard use. A resource book for teacher development. Advances in Digital Language Learning and Teaching (Series editors: Michael Thomas, Mark Warschauer & Mark Peterson). Bloomsbury.
    • Whyte, S., Cutrim Schmid, E., & van Hazebrouck, S. (2011). Designing IWB Resources for Language Teaching: the iTILT Project. International Conference on ICT for Language Learning, 4th Edition. Simonelli Editore.
    • Whyte, S., Cutrim Schmid, E., van Hazebrouck, S., & Oberhofer, M. (2013). Open educational resources for CALL teacher education: the iTILT interactive whiteboard project.  Computer Assisted Language Learning.