CALICO with IALLT 26TH Annual Conference

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CALICO with IALLT 26TH Annual Conference Languag
e Learning in the Era of Ubiquitous
Computing Arizona State University March 10-14,
2009
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Producing Digital Videos A Sociocultural
Approach Luba Iskold, Ed. D. Muhlenberg
College Allentown, PA
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Presentation Outline

• Background Theoretical Perspectives
• Research Related to Listening
• Building Communicative Skills
• Collaborative Service-Learning Project
• Discussion Pros Cons of the Legacy Project
• Examples of Online Materials

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Background Information

• Theoretical Foundations of Second Language
  Acquisition
• Comprehension-based approaches (Krashen,
  1985-1990 Terrel, 1986)
• Cognitive-theoretical view of language
  acquisition (OMally Chomat, 1993)
• Sociocultural approaches to language learning
  based on a more general sociocultural theory
  proposed by Vygotsky (1962, 1978)

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Sociocultural Approaches to Language Learning

• Genetic analysis
• Interpretation of learning should take into
  account social, cultural, and historic trends
• Social learning
• Interactions with teachers or peers allow
  learners to advance through their zone of
  proximal development (ZPD), the distance between
  what they can achieve by themselves and what they
  can accomplish when assisted by others (Vygotsky,
  1978, p. 58)
• Mediation
• Interprets the teachers role as a facilitator,
  guide, and, when appropriate, expert in
  apprenticing students into discourse and social
  practices of the communities of native speakers
  (Warschauer, 1997, p. 90)

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Why is Listening Important?

• Rivers (1975) reported data on how adults spend
  their communicative time
• 40-50 listening
• 25-30 speaking
• 11-16 reading
• 9 writing
• In our media saturated world students are
  increasingly expected to obtain information from
  oral rather than written sources (Joiner et
  al., 1989, p.427)

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Research Related to Listening

• Research on listening and reading comprehension
• Factors that affect listening comprehension
• Research on listener characteristics
• Authentic materials in listening research
• Video in listening research

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Factors that Affect Listening Comprehension

• How do listeners integrate phonologic, syntactic,
  lexical, and sociolinguistic information?
• According to Rubin (1994), the following factors
  affect listening comprehension
• Text Characteristics (variations in listening
  passage/text or associated visual support)
• Interlocutor Characteristics (variations in the
  speakers personal characteristics)
• Listener Characteristics (variations in the
  listeners personal characteristics)
• Process Characteristics (variations in the
  listeners cognitive activities and in the
  nature of interaction between the speaker and the
  listener)
• Task characteristics (variations in the purpose
  for listening and the associated responses)

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Video as a Source of Authentic Discourse

• Unmodified authentic discourse, a genuine act of
  communication
• Simulated authentic discourse, a discourse for
  pedagogical purposes that exhibits features that
  have a high probability of occurrence in genuine
  acts of communication (Geddes and White, 1979)
• Examples
• Simulated authentic discourse in a video-driven
  course package
• Authentic online newscasts
• Interviews with native speakers conducted by
  students

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What is Service Learning?

• Method of teaching, learning, and reflecting
• Combines academic curriculum with service
  experiences that meet community needs
• Teaching methodology experiential education
• Legacy Project
• Guest speaker Story telling living history
• Students
• Discussed, wrote, and peer-edited interview
  questions
• Conducted and filmed interviews with native
  speakers of Russian
• Watched each video repeatedly
• Produced videotext transcripts in Russian
• Translated videotexts into English
• Prepared vocabulary lists cultural glosses

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Factors that Affect Listening Comprehension as
Found in Student-conducted Interviews

• Text Characteristics
• Texts are produced by native speakers, but with
  student learners of Russian in mind
• Subject matter unfamiliar to students
• Absence of visual support
• Long sentences with complex grammar.
• For example, relative clauses
• Sophisticated, frequently unfamiliar vocabulary

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Factors that Affect Listening Comprehension as
Found in Student-conducted Interviews

• Speech (Interlocutor) Characteristics
• Normal pauses, hesitations, corrections,
  paraphrase
• Occasional reduction of vowels and assimilation
  of consonants
• Input is not rehearsed and is produced
  spontaneously
• Interviews represent natural discourse

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Factors that Affect Listening Comprehension as
Found in Student-conducted Interviews

• Process Characteristics
• Negotiation of meaning and questions for
  clarification characterize discourse
• Listeners carry out an active participatory role
• Task Characteristics
• Learners solicit answers to questions of their
  interest
• Listener Characteristics
• Most students at the Conversation Composition
  level have had little prior exposure to
  unmodified authentic discourse
• L2 learners have imperfect control of linguistic
  code
• Learners exhibit low tolerance for information
  gaps

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Instructional Challenges

• Understanding instructional goals
• Learning to Listen vs. Listening to Learn (Lund,
  1991)

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• Learning to Listen
• Receptive approach that involves the teaching of
  listening skills
• Instructional Objective
• Developing tasks that cultivate skills for
  structural and sociocultural comprehension
• Listening to Learn
• Integrated approach - video provides a starting
  point for work on productive skills
• vocabulary development
• structural analysis
• conversation
• analytical writing
• Instructional Objective
• Developing learning activities that cultivate
  receptive and productive skills

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Designing Listening Comprehension Tasks

• Richards (1983) suggested manipulation of two
  variables the input and the task (pp. 227-229)
• INPUT ? MICRO-SKILLS ? TASKS
• Pre-listening Objectives
• Elicit students background knowledge
• Identify students previous experiences
• Generate a meaningful framework for further
  development of comprehension and linguistic
  skills
• Reduce anxiety of confronting the unknown

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Low-production Tasks while Watching the Video

• Scaffolding, assisting with comprehension of
  lexical items (e.g., add subtitles or full
  scripts, then steadily withdraw help as the
  semester progresses)
• Focusing attention on particular features of the
  videotext
• Identifying main ideas, characters, places
• Recognizing vocabulary, identifying cognates
• Conducting grammar observations
• Classifying statements and determining
  intonation patterns

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High-production Objectives Activities Tasks

• Facilitating retention of linguistic items
• Paragraph-level oral and written summaries
• Exercises for active vocabulary development
• Fostering critical thinking and students
  analytical skills
• Express your opinion about the event
• Tasks that bring L2 into active use
• Recall, recognition, and application exercises
• Compare findings with other students in the group

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Conclusion

• Avoid
• Cognitive overload
• Task overload
• Long video episodes, exceeding 3 min. in length
• Provide
• Parallel texts for reading (full text, captions,
  key words)
• More viewing sessions of fewer discrete episodes
  
• Class time and screen space for note taking

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Contact Information

• Dr. Luba Iskold
• 2400 Chew Street
• Muhlenberg College,
• Languages, Literatures and Cultures,
• Allentown, PA 18104
• Phone [phone]Fax [phone]
• E-mail iskold_at_muhlenberg.edu
• http//www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/forlang/LLC/iskold
  _home/index.htm