Technology, Mediation, and Second Language Acquisition:
Research and Praxis

APLNG/CMLIT/FR/GER/SPAN 589

Steve Thorne (sthorne@psu.edu) , Office: 304A Sparks Bldg, University Park, PA

Linguistics and Applied Language Studies; The Pennsylvania State University

Spring Term, 2007, Mondays, 6-9pm; Class meetings: 11 Sparks

CMLIT/FR/GER/SPAN 589: This graduate level survey course explores the theoretical and pedagogical implications of Internet-based communication and multimedia in a wide array of language education contexts. Course activities include experimentation with established and emerging Internet communication and composition tools (e.g., wikis, weblogs (blogs), forums, chat, podcasting, the virtual environment Second Life) and readings of relevant research drawing from second language acquisition, communication theory, descriptive linguistics, cultural studies, poststructuralism, and educational theories of development (the latter primarily in the form of sociocultural and activity theoretical research). Participants will be expected to exit this course with a broad knowledge of educational uses of technology and will have the opportunity, through a variety of course activities, to focus on specific empirical, theoretical, and/or pedagogical contexts that relate to their academic and professional specializations. Students are encouraged to carry out research relevant to their interests and professional goals.

Purpose: To competently and with insight enter the discourse community concerned with technology use in language education. To this end, we will address related research and pedagogical issues from a variety of perspectives, including, but not limited to, second language acquisition, communication theory, linguistics, cultural studies, poststructuralism, and educational theories of development (the latter primarily in the form of sociocultural and activity theoretical research).

Course Objectives:

• To grapple with the principal issues, concepts, and theories associated with technology use in language education.
• To understand a diversity of educational contexts through the reading and discussion of research and case studies.
• To investigate the relationships linking communication technology to changing forms and uses of language.
• To produce critical scholarship, pedagogies, and/or applied materials relating to language educational uses of information and communication technologies.

Class meetings will include:

• Presentations/Lecturettes by the instructor
• Discussion of readings
• Group and individual presentations
• Iconoclastic critiques
• The use of internet communication and information tools

Your obligations and responsibilities:

1. To participate in on-line and class discussions (invaluable, but marked at 10%): These will include whole-class interaction (email and web-based threaded discussion) and periodic uses of synchronous CMC and other new/emerging technologies.
2. To produce a reaction journal to the readings (10%): Write a short summary or outline of 12 articles over the length of the course (roughly one per week) and include 3 (or more) critical questions or issues that you could raise in class discussion. You will develop and keep these reactions on a BLOG (web-log).
3. To act as a discussion catalyst (10%): In teams of 2-3, groups will take responsibility for initiating in-class discussion by presenting a brief overview of the day's readings and critical questions.
4. Consider the following:
   • Teaching With Technology Certificate: The Teaching With Technology Certificate will appear on your official Penn State transcript and indicates proficiency in the application of technology to educational contexts. See the frequently asked questions page, requirements, for more information.
5. Technology-integrated Curricular Unit Development Project (30%): In this project, you will work in small groups to design a technology-integrating unit of instruction for a second/foreign language course of your choice. The unit should be at least 3 hours of instruction, and should be comprised of at least 3 related technology-based activities, e.g. web, chat, blogs, wikis, podcasts, MMO(RP)G (e.g., Second Life) or other technologies. The purpose of this project is for you to become familiar with the processes involved in developing a technology-integrated second/foreign language instructional unit. The final product (credited to you, of course), with possible adaptations and edits, will become a publicly available resource hosted on the CALPER Computer-mediated Activity Library < http://calper.la.psu.edu/taflp >, either as separate activities or as an integrated project. There are 3 parts to the project: a project description, activity descriptions, and a case study.
   
   1. Project description: The project description should include a section describing the course for which the unit would be a part, including discussion of the institutional context, students, course goals, and course content. A larger section should then describe the unit, in terms of:
   •    unit content
   •    rationale for choice of unit theme
   •    means used to conceptualize the content, including any heuristic
   •    unit goals & objectives—these should parallel TESOL or ACTFL standards
   •    organization of content, including overview grid or other representation
   •    student assessment measures
   •    evaluation of unit
   
   2. Activity descriptions: Your unit should include at least 3 technology-based activities (or be a single project using 3 different technologies). Each activity description should be of an identical format, with information on the activity type, language, topic, tool, group size, description, objectives (again using TESOL or ACTFL standards), teacher instructions, student objectives, variations, and resources.
   
   3. Case study: For the case study, you should implement one of the activities (or the entire unit, if you can) in a class you or colleagues are currently teaching. You should videotape the implementation and record a separate instructor evaluation and student impressions if possible. You should then use iMovie or similar software to develop a 5-minute video describing the implementation.
   
   
6. Final project and presentation (40%): Examples are term paper, original research paper, review of the literature paper, formal report on activity 5 (above), other written genres (proposal for research, MA thesis, PhD proposal or chapter, etc). The goal of the Final Project should be relevant to your interest and academic/professional development. For all large projects, an outline, key questions, and literature review/bibliography will be due in late March (2004). Oral presentations of Final Projects will occur during the mini-conference we will convene over the 2 class sessions. Final paper due on the last class day in April, 2005.

Evaluation and Grading: You will be responsible for putting together the assignments that include the above items. At the end of the term, please provide a cover letter that explains where your work is (e.g., on a blog, wiki, website, attached document).

Ethical Code: The internet (and world, for that matter) is full of information that you will want to utilize in your written work. Please do so as freely as you like, but do use proper citation protocols (otherwise, one falls into plagiarism, which will result in a failing grade). Collaborative work in encouraged -- If you would like to co-develop a project with a classmate, please do so. 

Texts and Study Materials: We will utilize both a traditional reading packet (to be available at the UPS Store., 208 W. Hamilton Shopping Center off South Atherton, Phone: 237-2552), and readings that are available on the web (linked directly off the 589 on-line syllabus).

Technology resources you will need: The ability to access readings via the Internet (web), and potentially somewhere to print them out.

• Course Blogs: http://uniblogs.la.psu.edu/blogs/aplng589/sp07/
• Course Wiki: http://uniwikis.la.psu.edu/techawiki/HomePage
• CALPER's Computer-mediated Activity Library: http://calper.la.psu.edu/taflp/index.php

• Thorne, S. L., & Payne, J. S. (2005). Evolutionary Trajectories, Internet-mediated Expression, and Language Education. The CALICO Journal, 22/3: 371-397.
• http://language.la.psu.edu/%7Ethorne/thorne_payne_calico2005.pdf

• Course text book: Ducate, A. & Arnold, N. (2006). Calling on CALL: From theory and research to new directions in foreign language teaching. CALICO Monograph Series Volume 5;
• Chapter 1: Arnold & Ducate: Where are we and where do we go from here? pp. 1-20.
• Chapter 2: Luke: Situating CALL in the broader methodological context of foreign language teaching and learning: Promises and possibilities. pp. 21-42.

• 2006 Horizon Report: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2006_Horizon_Report.pdf

• Internet History. Excerpt from Imagining the Internet. Elon University/Pew Internet and American Life Project: http://www.elon.edu/predictions/internethistory.aspx

• "What is" the Internet from whatis.com: http://searchWebServices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci212370,00.html

• Kern, R. & Warschauer, M. (2000). Theory and practice of network-based language teaching. In M. Warschauer & R. Kern (Eds.), Network-based language teaching: Concepts and practice. New York: CambridgeUniversity Press.
• http://www.gse.uci.edu/faculty/markw/nblt-intro.html
  

• Thorne, S. (2004). Cultural historical activity theory and the object of innovation In New Insights into Foreign Language Learning and Teaching. Oliver St. John, Kees van Esch, & Eus Schalkwijk (Eds). Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt (Germany).
• http://language.la.psu.edu/%7Ethorne/Thorne2004.pdf
  

• Nardi, Bonnie, & O'Day, Vicki. (1999). Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press. Read Chapter 4, skim chapter 2 if interested.
• http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue4_5/nardi_contents.html

• Rheingold, H. (1999). Look who's talking: The Amish are famous for shunning technology. But their secret love affair with the cell phone is causing an uproar. WIRED, Archive 7.01, January 1999.
•  http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.01/amish.htm

• Thorne, S. (2003). Review of Language and the Internet (David Crystal): The Biggest Language Revolution Ever Meets Applied Linguistics in the 21st Century. Language Learning & Technology 7/2: 24-27.
• http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/pdf/review1.pdf

• Goodwin-Jones, B. (2003). Blogs and Wikis: Environments for On-line Collaboration. Language Learning & Technology 7/2:12-16.
• http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/default.html

• Wikipedia entry on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

• Pew Internet & American Life Project. (2002). The digital disconnect: The widening gap between Internet-savvy students and their schools. [Review the summary of findings, + anything else that interests you]
• http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Schools_Internet_Report.pdf

• The Future of the Internet. Pew Internet & American Life Project. January 9th, 2005. [Review the summary of findings, + anything else that interests you]
• http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Future_of_Internet.pdf

• Herring, Susan. (1999). Interactional coherence in CMC. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 4 (4) June 1999.
• http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol4/issue4/herring.html

• Kern, R., Ware, P. & Warschauer, M. (2004). Crossing frontiers: New directions in online pedagogy and research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 24, 243-260.
• http://www.gse.uci.edu/faculty/markw/frontiers.pdf

• Thorne, S. L. (2000). Beyond bounded activity systems: Heterogeneous cultures in instructional uses of persistent conversation. In S. Herring & T. Erickson (Eds.), The proceedings of the thirty-third Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science. New York: IEEE Press. Draft available on-line:
• http://www.personal.psu.edu/slt13/589_s2007/Thorne_HICSS2000.pdf
  

• Course text book: Ducate, A. & Arnold, N. (2006). Calling on CALL: From theory and research to new directions in foreign language teaching. CALICO Monograph Series Volume 5;
• Chapter 8: Abrams, Z: From theory to practice: Intracultural CMC in the L2 classroom. pp. 181-209. PDF
  

• Podcast entry from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

• Podcasts @ Penn State: http://podcasts.psu.edu/

• Podcasts at Duke University -- Spanish:  http://cit.duke.edu/ideas/newprofiles/merschel.do

1. Bernhardt, E., Kamil, M. (1998). Enhancing foreign culture learning through electronic discussion. In Judith A. Muyskens (ed.), New ways of learning and teaching: Focus on technology and foreign language education. Boston: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
2. Sullivan, N., & Pratt, E. (1996). A comparative study of two ESL writing environments: A computer-assisted classroom and a traditional oral classroom. System 29: 491-501.
3. Thorne, S. (1999).Chapter 3: Educational and foreign/second language uses of computer-mediation: A review of research. In: An activity theoretical analysis of foreign language electronic discourse. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
   • http://language.la.psu.edu/~thorne/ThorneDissChap3.html
4. Warschauer, M., & Healey, D. (1998). Computers and language learning: An overview. Language Teaching, 31, 57-71.
   • http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/overview.html

• Ortega, L. (1997). Processes and outcomes in networked classroom interaction: Defining the research agenda for L2 computer-assisted classroom discussion. Language Learning & Technology, 1/1: 82-93.
• http://llt.msu.edu/vol1num1/ortega/default.html

• O’Rourke, B. (2005). Form focused interaction in online tandem learning. CALICO Journal, 22(3): 433-466. PDF

• Sykes, J. (2005). Synchronous CMC and pragmatic development: Effects of oral and written chat. CALICO Journal, 22(3): 399-431. PDF

• Blake, R. (2005). Bimodal CMC: The glue of language learning at a distance. CALICO Journal, 22(3): 497-511. PDF

• A clever video on Web 2.0 from youtube: The Machine is Us/ing Us, by Michael Wesch

• Payne, J. S. and P. J. Whitney. 2002. Developing L2 oral proficiency through synchronous CMC: Output, working memory, and interlanguage development. CALICO Journal 20.1: 7-32.
• http://php.scripts.psu.edu/faculty/j/s/jsp17/articles/calico2002/
• Blake, R. (2000). Computer mediated communication: A window on L2 Spanish interlanguage. Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 120-136.
• http://llt.msu.edu/vol4num1/blake/default.html
• Smith, Bryan. (2004). Computer-mediated negotiated interaction and lexical acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 26/3.

• Bryant, T. (2006). Using World of Warcraft and Other MMORPGs to Foster a Targeted, Social, and Cooperative Approach Toward Language Learning. Academic Commons.
•  http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/bryant-MMORPGs-for-SLA

• Purushotma, R. (2005). Commentary: You're not studying, you're just…, Language Learning & Technology 9, 80-96.  http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/pdf/purushotma.pdf

• Goodwin-Jones, R. (2005). Messaging, Gaming, Peer-to-Peer Sharing: Language Learning Strategies & Tools for the Millennial Generation. Language Learning & Technology 9/1: 17-22.
• http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/emerging/default.html

• Course text book: Ducate, A. & Arnold, N. (2006). Calling on CALL: From theory and research to new directions in foreign language teaching. CALICO Monograph Series Volume 5;
• Chapter 10: Dubreil, S: Gaining perspective on Culture through CALL. pp. 237-268. PDF

• Michigan State's Confucius Institute and MMOG for Chinese: http://b2e.nitle.org/index.php/2007/01/26/massively_multiplayer_online_learning

• MIT chat circles: http://chatcircles.media.mit.edu/

• Penn State Virtual Worlds website on Second Life: http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/virtualworlds/?page_id=6
  

• Video clip on Second Life from a biz/corporate perspective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=synxFmQJ_0A
  

• *Suggested: Buy and read The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. This is a cyberpunk fiction account of a digital learning environment that propels the protagonist across social class boundaries. Try amazon or any large or online bookseller.
  

• Thorne, S. L. (forthcoming). Transcultural communication in open Internet environments and massively multiplayer online games. In S. Magnan (ed.), Mediating Discourse Online. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  
• http://www.personal.psu.edu/slt13/589_s2007/Thorne_Magnan(ed).pdf
  

• Steinkuehler, C. A. (2004). Learning in massively multiplayer online games. In Y. B. Kafai, W. A. Sandoval, N. Enyedy, A. S. Nixon, & F. Herrera (Eds.), Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the Learning Sciences (pp. 521–528). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• http://website.education.wisc.edu/steinkuehler/papers/SteinkuehlerICLS2004.pdf
  

• Nardi, B., Ly, S., & Harris, J. (2007). Learning conversations in World of Warcraft. The proceedings of the 2007 Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science. New York: IEEE Press
• http://www.artifex.org/~bonnie/pdf/Nardi-HICSS.pdf

• Second Life in Education Portal: Vance's ESL_Home: http://www.geocities.com/vance_stevens/secondlife_edu.htm
  

• Miller, Daniel, and Slater, Don. (2000). The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach. New York: Berg Publishers. Read "Summary of Findings" and "Chapter 1".
• Skim if interested --> Parially on-line at: http://ethnonet.gold.ac.uk/index.htm

• 101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom, by Megan Conklin. A great overview and discussion of educational uses of SL.
  

• Thorne, S. (2003). Artifacts and Cultures-of-Use in Intercultural Communication. Language Learning & Technology 7/2: 38-67.
• http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/pdf/thorne.pdf

• Belz, J. (2003). Linguistic perspectives on the development of intercultural competence
  in telecollaboration. Language Learning and Technology 7/2: 68-117.
  • http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/pdf/belz.pdf

• Thorne, S. L. (2006). Pedagogical and Praxiological Lessons from Internet-Mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education Research.
  
• http://language.la.psu.edu/%7Ethorne/thorne_AAUSC2005.pdf

• Bauer, B., deGenedette, L., Furstenberg, G., Levet, S. & Waryn, S. (2006). The Cultura Project. In J. A. Belz & S. L. Thorne (eds.), Internet-Mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education (p. 31-62). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle. PDF

• Ware, P., & Kramsch, C. (2005). Toward in intercultural stance: Teaching German and English through telecollaboration. Modern Language Journal  89(2): 190-205.
  
• PDF

• Belz, J., & Thorne, S. L. (2006). Introduction: Internet-mediated intercultural foreign language education and the intercultural speaker. In J. A. Belz & S. L. Thorne (eds.), Internet-Mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education (p. iix-xxv). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
• PDF

• O'Dowd, R. (2006). The use of videoconferencing and e-mail as mediators of intercultural student ethnography. In J. A. Belz & S. L. Thorne (eds.), Internet-Mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education (p. 86-119). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
• PDF
  

• Lee, Jin Sook. (2006). Exploring the relationship between electronic literacy and heritage language maintenance. Language Learning & Technology 10/2: 93-113.
• PDF

• Muller-Hartmann, A. (2006). Learning how to teach intercultural communicative competence via telecollaboration: A model for langauge teacher education. In J. A. Belz & S. L. Thorne (eds.), Internet-Mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education (p. 63-83). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
• PDF
  

• Arnold et al. (2005). Using computer-mediated communication to establish social and supportive environments in teacher education. CALICO Journal 22/3: 537-566.
• PDF
  

• New Lankshear & Knobel volume! Read intro chapter (Lankshear & Knobel) and then one additional chapter -- you will report on the additional chapter in class (no PPT necessary -- oral discussion only).
• PDF *(temporary only!)

• Noble, D. (1998). Digital diploma mills: The automation of higher education.
• http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_1/noble/index.html