The art of language learning

aps is

old school acquisition

at the core

Professor Stephen J Hall

Centre for English Language Studies

The same old same old challenge

“Nothing is more depressing as struggling word-by-word at

snail’s pace through a piece of material so that you can do

something with it or talk about it only to find that understanding

the material has taken so long that the interesting follow-up

activity lasts only a moment or two or disappears altogether.”Lewis, M. & Hill, J. (1992). Practical techniques for language teaching. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.

And now the kids are on the phone all the time……the language aps and even

old school websites are new,novel, motivating but perhaps not really that new in

how they work…

Where are we going ? The new

Scope• Describing Aps and Their Unique Selling Points

• Social aps

• Commercial developments

• Ownership of new learning processes

• Pushing productive use

• Engineering Acquisition

Where are we going?

Scoping The evergreen of pushing output

• Specificity

• Communicative, career or commercial drives

• Ownership of learning

• Positivity Praising paced practice

• Engineering Acquisition 1 and 2

Language as a Performing Art

We believe that language is not just an

academic subject but also a performing

art – something that must be actively

practiced in order to master. A learner can

watch people speak a new language,

memorize all of the grammar rules, and

talk about the language ad nauseam. But

to truly speak a language, a learner must

actually try it out with a partner. Real

conversational fluency takes good

instruction, a dose of courage, and a lot of

real-life practice. From Live Mocha a

Social Ap

Social networking :an example

Live mocha:

Live Mocha – across the globe

• Demonstration: The learner watches and/or listens to a conversation. The real-life setting helps with the construction of a mental model..

• Deconstruction: The situation represented in the conversation is broken down into its vocabulary and grammar parts.

• Practice: Finally, the components are reassembled and the learner is given the opportunity to practice via a series of interactive activities. .. involve interaction with and feedback from real native speakers of the language.

Aps and ‘selling points’ of just a few

• Moving from website based to mobile aps

• Anki: Ap for Japanese : uses flashcards

• Babbel :custom goal posts enable individual goal setting

• Busuu : 150 topics based on everyday situations 50 million users Apple Best Ap 2014

• Conversation English :uses ongoing storyline to link non-verbals and speech through video dialogues

Commercial Aps and new learning

capabilites• Blended learning supplementing courses as with

large scale publishers :Berlitz,Mosalingua,Fluentu. Cambridge etc. BBC British Council

• Needs analysis as with Word Engine and vocabulary level testing

• Using speech recognition can provide real time feedback for pronunciation as with Duolingo

http://www.wordengine.jp/iphone-

android

Ownership of ubiquitous

computing• Own pacing

• Anywhere

• As visual as you like and it will grow with technology

• Private or public

• Instant feedback in a safe space.

Pushed output

• Rewarded Lingots in Duolingos virtual space. Memerises points system

• Ranked and in game format for some

• Reminders due to tracking

• Regular accuracy memory checks

Engineered

• Chunked from simple to complex

• Visually supported (content memes

• Word forms and words in context

• Graphically entertaining

SCOPEWith Aps Learners can choose

• Specific learning through seeing, reading listening and producing in a non judgmental setting

• Communicative commitment –time, effort, place

• Ownership of different learning styles

• Push their learning in a safety zone

• Engineer their personal goals and experience useful vocabulary * Michael West 1953 anyone

• Are classrooms ready for this ?

Specific

• I know why I am learning this language

• I know where I can use the language

• I invest time to gain and develop

• I learn just what I want

The five Cs in language motivation

• Communication (see Widdowson 1982)

• Community of practice (Wenge,1998)

• Camaraderie, and or

• Career and or $$$$$

• Commitment (Zornyei on motivation)

Ownership

• Open ended

• Operable anywhere as with vocab cards

• Own pacing which even in a classroom is the reality

• Ownership of one’s learning style

Positivity

• Praise, points and positive strokes

• Positioned where and when in my own space

• Paced personally

• Pushing output

Engineered 1

• Form and function

• Listening input /reading at level of success

• Spoken assessment and accuracy feedback

• Visual support –memes and all

SCOPEWith Aps Learners can choose

• Specific learning through seeing, reading listening and producing in a non judgmental setting

• Communicative commitment –time, effort, place

• Ownership of different learning styles

• Push their learning in a safety zone

• Engineer their personal goals and experience useful vocabulary * Michael West 1953 anyone

• Are classrooms ready for this ?

Engineered 2

• Purposeful

• Chunked

• Spaced

• Significant

• Repetition across forms and collocations

• Enjoyable

Professor Stephen J Hall

Centre for English Language Studies

Sunway University

https://www.facebook.com/cels.sunwayu