tailieunhanh - Technically Speaking: Transforming Language Learning through Virtual ...

The purpose of this article is to give some context to the current discussions abounding in language teaching classrooms around the world. I think it is essential to judge the most recently marketed approaches in the light of what has gone before. And following Thomas Kuhn, who wrote the seminal The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, my suggestion is that we integrate and account for, rather than sweep away, past approaches. | Technically Speaking: Transforming Language Learning through Virtual Learning Environments (MOOs) SILKE VON DER EMDE JEFFREY SCHNEIDER MARKUS KÖTTER Department of German Studies Department of German Studies Westfälische Wilhelms–Universität Münster Vassar College, Box 426 Vassar College, Box 501 Englisches Seminar Poughkeepsie, NY 12604 Poughkeepsie, NY 12604 Johannisstr. 12–20 Email: vonderemde@ Email: JeSchneider@ D-48143 Münster, Germany Email: kotterm@ Though MOOs (multiple user domains object-oriented) have found a limited use in some language courses, their potential for transforming the language learning classroom has not been fully recognized or valued. In Fall 1998 and 1999, the authors teamed up to teach the first language course conducted almost entirely using a MOO and involving a 7-week exchange between students learning German at an American college and advanced students of English at a German university. Drawing on their experiences, the authors systematically map out the tremendous pedagogical benefits to using a MOO for language learning: a student-centered learning environment structured by such objectives as peer teaching, autonomous learning principles, intellectually rich content-based instruction, individualized learning, and play. In addition to offering a model for the successful integration of technology into the classroom, this article suggests how MOOs can help achieve the long-sought goal of securely anchoring intermediate or even elementary language learning back into the liberal arts curriculum. BEGINNING AS FAR BACK AS THE 1950s WITH spend at least 10% of their time using technology the use of tape decks in the Audiolingual to help in their learning,” laments that “there is method, new technologies have been a perennial little evidence that technology is having any sig- source of hope for making language learning a nificant impact on the way most students learn faster and more efficient process .