International Seminar: Genre Theory and New Literacies.

Applications to Autonomous Language Learning

Castellón, Tuesday 11th November 2008

PROJET NÉGOCIÉ DE RECHERCHE

Recherche-actionDimension éthique et épistémologique*Représentation de la recherche selon une dynamique d’intervention-conceptualisation-

intervention*Portée

éthique

de l’intervention

Représentation du savoir.Dimension éthique et épistémologiqueReconnaissance de la pratique comme domaine de la rechercheReconnaissance de soi-même et du groupe comme agents de la rechercheConception écologique de la construction des savoirs

Recherche collectiveDimension éthique et épistémologiqueConception dialogique de la conceptualisation: Pensée

complexe

Représentation du projet de recherche comme champ de la formation et de l’autoformation

GIAPEL- CIBERTAAAL Research lines

•

Research on the development of learning autonomy

How can ICT contribute to the development of learning autonomy?

•

Research on discursive features of texts and generic variation

•

Research on the development of foreign language reading skills in hypermedia environments

Digital genresGenre:-

dynamic forms, situated in specific social contexts

-

framework

in which

readers

and

writers

meet

Aspects to investigate:-

new generic norms that allow readers and writers to establish a dialogue

-

the new competences that readers need to access the complex structures of hypermedia texts.

Features of digital genres-

Genres

are multimodal

-

Genres

are continously

evolving-

Hypertextual

nature

Analysis

of

digital genres•

the design of a site (how the site is conceived and produced)

•

the contents of the site and the relation between these contents

and the structure of the site

•

interactive elements

•

the multimodal interaction among the different semiotic levels in a text (i.e., images, graphics, sound, video, text)

•

the types of links in the site and their function

•

the way readers use all these attributes to establish semantic relations between elements within and across texts, perform actions, and participate in communicative acts.

Research on the development of foreign language reading skills in hypermedia

environments•

Modal shifts in the reading process (Finnemann, 1999):

–

The reading mode: sequential reading–

The navigating or linking model: site traversing

•

Lemke (2003):

meaning is made across and between genres, as we juxtapose, catenate

and traverse websites.

Key question: how do readers/users make sense and construct meaning throughout their journeys across hypertexts?

i.e. how the reader of hypertext becomes a “wreader”.

•

investigating

how

readers

construct

meaning

involves

analysing:–

multiplicity

of

paths

–

Multimodality–

Language multiplicity

Autonomy and ICT

Autonomy: progressive capacity to be responsible for one’s own learning.

Key Question: What is the relation between autonomy and ICT?

•

multimedia and hypermedia resources offer great potential for the development of autonomy.

HOWEVER

very often the use of ICT in learning encourages learning behaviour where ireflexive

action prevails.

THEREFORE

ICTs

DO NOT generate autonomous behaviour, rather they require new approaches to autonomy training

ICTs require new approaches to autonomy training

learning how to manage complexitydeveloping critical and creative thoughtlearning how to manage interaction

Challenge:

to integrate all the learning resources offered by ICT into a personalised learning plan. This plan should develop the ability to select, organise and manage the complexity of the product offered

according to the learner’s own goals.

Issues

open

to

research•

What changes do “traditional”

genres go through in the new digital

environment ?

•

How do these changes affect the representations,

which are to a greater or lesser extent shared, on discursive genres and

text

organisation?

•

What are the implications of digital genres for learning?

•

How can genres act as raw material fro transgeneric

constructions? How do readers construct meaning in their traversals and navigation through hypertexts?

•

Which new skills related to autonomy development must be faced by an autonomising

plan? Technical and methodological skills, skills

concerning material and resource search and selection, forms of assessment, etc?

The CIBERTAAAL research area

•

linguistic aspects of digital texts: description and analysis of genericity, multimodality and hypertextuality

•

psycolinguistic plane: study of students’

search, navigation and reading strategies, and metacognitive

evaluation of the actions performed by students when hyperreading

with a purpose.

•

methodological aspects and pedagogical proposals: cybertask

design.

Objectives

•

to “find”

a model of analysis of digital genres

that can provide insights into how the readers/users construct meaning throughout their trajectories across hypertext

analysis of web pages devoted to popular science topics in English, French, German:

-

structure-

generic cues (multimodality, traversals, etc.)

-

cognitive models that lie behind their organisation.

Objectives

•to study the pragmatic and cognitive mechanisms

involved in the production and processing of electronic texts, and to analyse the strategies used by readers/users when approaching these texts

Correlation among variables such as:-

the students’

linguistic competence

-

their cognitive and learning styles-

their navigating styles

-

their ability to handle ICT and their attitude to the use of ICT

Objectives

•

to integrate results from the analysis within a pedagogical framework aiming at a long-life learning process, which should imply the development of autonomous learning skills, plurilingual

competence and

new literacy competences.

-

critical evaluation of the existing proposals of Web-based tasks

-

elaboration of criteria for the design of cybertasks

METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS FOR ANALYSIS

GENERAL PLAN

A- ‘CYBERTASKS’

B- NAVIGATING MAPS

C- TESTS

D- SELF-ASSESSMENT

A- ‘CYBERTASKS’

•

METHOD:

Universities

Degrees (English

Philology, Engineering, Journalism)

Students

Cybertasks

Tests

Navigating maps

Self-Assessment

•

INSTRUMENTS:

English proficiency level test

-

Before

the

task

Learning styles test

Navigating maps

-

During

the

task

Control sheets

- After the task

Self-Assessment questionnaire

C- TESTS

•

LEARNING STYLES TEST

Learning styles (Nunan, 1991; Willing, 1988):

“Learning styles are the result of the combination of different

personal preferences that lead to the use of a certain set of

learning strategies. These preferences are determined by

cognitive, psychological, social and cultural variables as well as

educational experiences, attitudes towards learning, beliefs,

perception on learning limitations and skills, etc”.

LEARNING STYLES TEST for

the

present

study:

♦

Learning Styles (Villanueva & Navarro, 1997; Villanueva, 2002).

♦

‘Positive attitude towards ICT vs. Negative attitude towards ICT’

Students’

feelings

towards

the

use of

new

technologies

♦

Aim:

Determine students’

learning styles.

http://www.giapel.uji.es/testnivel/testNivelLogin.html

http://www.giapel.uji.es/testestilos/Proyecto.html

ACTIVE-

Active experimentation

towards

new

experiences.- Easy

adaptation

to

new

situations.

REFLEXIVE-

Reflection

towards

previous

observation.- Planification.

VISUAL-

Long texts

accompanied

by images.

VERBAL-

Information

in a text

format.

SYNTHETIC- General ideas.- From

general to

specific

ideas.

ANALYTIC- Specific

ideas.

- Does

not

know how to

relate ideas.INDUCTIVE- From

specific

to

general ideas.

-

Discover

rules by himself/herself

from observation.

-

Background knowledge

and

new knowledge.

DEDUCTIVE-

First

the

rule

and

then

use it

in specific

situations.

COOPERATIVE-Working

in teams, in pairs.

-

Communication

with

others

enriches your

own

knowledge.

INDIVIDUALISTIC-Working

alone.

-

Working

in teams, in pairs…

is

a waste of

time.

-

Communication

with

others

takes

a long time.

DEPENDENT-

Depends

on

someone

else

to

take

responsibility

on

himself/herself.-

Needs

external evaluation.

AUTONOMOUS-Carries

out his/her own

decisions.

- Evaluates

his/her own

work.

EMOTIONAL-Content

rather

than

form.

- Cultural aspects

of

the

language.

RATIONAL-Form

rather

than

content.

-

Dissatisfaction

towards

exceptions

in the

rules.

- Preferance

towards

informative

texts.+ ICT - ICT

•

LEVEL TEST

♦

Questionnaire

to

elicit

students’

language

proficiency:

-

Name, surname

- Course

- Age

-

Mother

tongue

-

Period

of

time

-

Settings

(eg. Elementary

school, high

school, language

school, abroad, etc.)

♦

Aim:

Determine students’

English

proficiency

level (European

Portfolio

for

Languages).

♦

European Portfolio for Languages created

by the

Council

of

Europe

(2001).

BASIC USERA1

A2

INDEPENDENT USERB1

B2

PROFICIENT USERC1

C2

♦

Five

competences:

1-

LISTENING COMPREHENSION Listening

to

spoken

language

2-

READING COMPREHENSION Reading

texts

in that

language

3-

ORAL INTERACTION Participating

in conversation

4-

ORAL EXPRESSION Speaking

5-

WRITTEN EXPRESSION Writing

texts

http://www.giapel.uji.es/testnivel/testNivelLogin.html

CONCLUSION

-

STYLES TEST

SMAIL Project

-

LEVEL TEST

(2000-2004)

D- SELF-ASSESSMENT

♦

Villanueva, M. L.

CIBERTAAAL Project (2005-2008)

♦

Aim:

Obtain

information

about

students’

experiences

on

surfing the

net and

reading

in a digital format

♦

Two

sections:

I-

The

Task

Performance Process

II-

The

Task

Result

I- THE TASK PERFORMANCE PROCESS

1-

Technical

skills

in computer

use.

2-

Criteria

used

when

surfing on

the

Internet.

3-

Information

management.

4-

Interactivity

and

cooperation

strategies.

5-

more interesting

http:// addresses

and

why.

6-

Language

comprehension

has implied

a difficulty

in carrying

out the

task.

7-

Previous

knowledge

about

a “Cybertask”.

8-

Observation, comments…

II- THE TASK RESULT

1-

Assessing

the

task

results

according

to

the

scale

below:

2-

Assessments, observations, problems…

or

other

issues

related

to

the

task

process

and

the

use of

Internet resources

in a

foreign

language.

3-

Strong

and

weak

points

on

your

task

process.

4-

Strong

and

weak

points

on

the

task

proposed.

LOW MEDIUM HIGH VERY HIGH

http://www.giapel.uji.es/autoevaluacion/avaluacio.htm

Web structure

capture Web structure

visualization

User

navigation

logNavigation

visualization

NAVIGATING MAPS - STEPS

B.1- WEB STRUCTURE CAPTURE

•

AIM:

Capture the

structure

of

a web page: pages

and

links

•

ALTERNATIVES:

-

Offline

Explorer -

http:///www.metaproducts.com

-

Web Zip. -

http://www.sipdersoft.com

-

Web Copier

-

http://www.maximumsoft.com

-

Web Sphinx

-

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rcm/websphinx

B.1- WEB STRUCTURE CAPTURE

•

RESULT:The

previous

programs

were

designed

to

get

the

contents

of

the

web

page, not

the

structureDesign

our

web crawler

based

on

the

kernel of

Web Sphinx

in order

to

be flexible during

the

investigation

Web structure

capture Web structure

visualization

User

navigation

logNavigation

visualization

NAVIGATING MAPS - STEPS

B.2- WEB STRUCTURE VISUALIZATION

•

AIM:

Represent

graphically

the

structure

of

a web page: pages

and

links

•

ALTERNATIVES:

-

Graphviz

-

http://www.graphviz.com

-

jGraph. -

http://www.jgraph.com

- yEd - http://www.yworks.com/products/yed

B.2- WEB STRUCTURE VISUALIZATION

•

RESULT:All

of

them

offered

excellent

features

but

yEd

was

closer

to

the

needs

of

the

project:-

Different

visualization

algorithms

-

Easy

to

create

graphs

programatically-

Excellent

user

interface

Web structure

capture Web structure

visualization

User

navigation

logNavigation

visualization

NAVIGATING MAPS - STEPS

B.3- USER NAVIGATION LOG

•

AIM:

Record the

user

interaction

while

browsing.

•

ALTERNATIVES:

-

Proxy cache -

http://www.squid-cache.org/

B.3- USER NAVIGATION LOG

•

RESULT:For

each

page

visited

the

proxy

saved

the

following

information:

-

What URL was visited-

When

it

was

visited

-

What user visited the page (previous login required)-

What

IP visited

the

page

(problem with LANs)

Web structure

capture Web structure

visualization

User

navigation

logNavigation

visualization

NAVIGATING MAPS - STEPS

B.4- NAVIGATION VISUALIZATION

•

AIM:

Show graphically

the

user interaction with the web page

Using

the

previous

information: web structure, navigation

log

B.4- NAVIGATION VISUALIZATION

•

RESULT:Two

kinds

of

visualizations:

Graph

Information:Page visited: in the

nodeNavigation styles: color of

nodesOrder of access: arrows

with

numbersTime of navigation: in the

arrows

B.4- NAVIGATION VISUALIZATION

Text

Information:Page visited: in the

second

columnNavigation styles: color of

the

last

columnOrder of access: in the

first

columnTime of navigation: in the

last

column

RESULTS

Marta Navarro Coy

Antonio José Silvestre López

RESULTS

Present Stage: analysis of resultsQuantitative&Qualitative

General results

Data obtained from different resources

•

Results: general remarks

Control sheetsE.g. Proficiency level tests

Learning style tests

Self-assesment tests

Website architecture analysis

RESULTS

Analysis of Results

• Management of complexity • Construction of meaning

• Navigation maps – learning styles •

Web page architecture – navigation

patterns

• Self-assessment tests

Why? How?

• Computer skills

• Cybertask assessment

• Degree of satisfaction on task performance

Browsing

Navigating

Reading

Navigation maps and learning styles, proficiency level

RESULTS

Case 1: A2/B1

•

Strategic or Contextual profile: different styles depending on activity/context

•Comments: “Prefiero los libros a los ordenadores para buscar reglas gramaticales, pero lo cierto es que para un tema o personaje concreto prefiero internet”

• Positive attitude towards ICT 100% Information search mainly• Negative attitude towards ICT 66.67% Language Learning

• Overwhelmed by too much information: • Negative attitude towards ICTs• Deductive (50%) vs. Inductive (25%)

Navigation maps and learning styles, proficiency level

RESULTS

Case 2: A2/B1

• Outstanding features: active 100%, synthetic 66%, global, emotional 100%

• Task approach: “firstly to get a complete-global picture of the website”:127 seconds examining main webpageUse of website map

• “Arts Imaginaires”: +60”, external website, Artbots

RESULTS

Case 3: A2A2•

Outstanding features: autonomous 100%, emotional 100%, positive

attitude towards ICTs 100% , active 75%, inductive 75%

E.g. High number of pages visitedFirst steps in cybertask: surfs many internal pages in navigating

mode (<5”/page)More than 15 external pages visited, multimodal resourcesSelf-assessment comments: ability to surf the net and “link websites”

• “Compulsive clicker”

Navigation maps and learning styles, proficiency level

It seems a general tendency that students with a low linguistic level may be able to cope better in a digital environment than others with a higher linguistic level if they are able to manage complexity, work in a non-linear environment, use search tools, evaluate the relevance of information, and extract meaning from different semiotic codes. (Luzón, Ruiz-Madrid, Villanueva 2008)

Web page architecture and navigation patterns

RESULTS

E.g.: Use of links in Automates Intelligents and Cyberjournalism

- Automates intelligents: complex, highly hypertextual: 80% used links provided at random.

- Cyberjournalism: highly categorised online directory: 64% used links in a selective way not at random.

Self-assessment tests

Students’ perceptions / reactions / appreciations on:

1. Technical skills

- use of computers and internet: 70%

- improvement: navigation skills:

- selection of key words

- use of links

- criteria used to access information

50%-70%: key words

40%-50%: easiness to read. Content.

RESULTS

for a more effective search

2. Information management:

Use Use ofof resourcesresources::

- 80% used information in different languages

- Automates Intelligentes: 80%: links dispersed the search

- Cyberjournalism: 76%: links helped in the search

- 60%: carried out own searches using relevant sources different from the one provided

RESULTS

3. Degree of satisfaction (performance of the webtasks)

Cybertasks: GIAPEL perspective

iii) To integrate the results obtained within a pedagogical framework aiming at a long-life learning process, which should imply the development of autonomous learning skills, plurilingual competence and new literacy competences.

1. A critical evaluation of the existing proposals of web-based tasks.

2. The elaboration of criteria that allow for the development of the wreading competence and learner autonomy in an integratìve design.

1. Evaluation of the existing proposals of web-based tasks

Webquest model (Dodge) & Talent Quest (Koenraad)

Activities must be active and engaging.

They need to engender cooperative and collaborative activities.

They must provide opportunities for reflection and articulation.

They must provide the purpose and the context for learners to deal with the context and information.

They must provide an active role for the learner in the knowledge construction. Learners must be prompted to assume much of the responsibility for themselves in terms of what is learned and how it is learned.

Cognitive, metacognitive and intercultural strategies in the different types of communication afforded by the new medium.

2. New criteria for a third generation of Cybertasks

Technical skills of information elaboration and management:the ability to identify the relevant information on a specific website,

recontextualise it according to one’s goal and audience, and eventually transmit it by means of different synchronous and asynchronous communication tools

Linguistic and semiotic skills:the identification of the different communicative purposes and the

possible audiences of a webpage or site, the awareness of linguistic and cultural variety,the ability to relate different semiotic codes with different purposes, orthe ability to use information from different webpages and sites, which

might have employed diverse generic options, among others.

Cognitive skills: categorising and linking information,finding a balance point between the urge to action and reflection in

order to make effective use of the immediacy afforded by ICT

2. New criteria for a third generation of Cybertasks

Metacognitive skills:

learning to evaluate the shifts between navigation and reading modes according to the characteristics of the webpages and to the task goals,

learning to evaluate hypotheses when using the links, and the results obtained, establishing different criteria in order to evaluate the language learning process (e.g., the ability to use online resources, ability to use different reading strategies, ability to identify generic echoes in the new digital genres, ability to use multimodality in order to understand and transmit a message).

Cybertasks to train students to:

work in a non-linear environment and interact with digital text in various ways,

use search tools to locate valuable information and relevant sources,

evaluate the usefulness of online information in relation to one’s purpose and follow links effectively to amplify such information,

evaluate the accuracy of online information,

understand multimodality,

use online texts as interactive resources to do things (i.e. searching for information, booking and purchasing products, viewing videos, registering for services, participating in polls, collaborating in text construction, etc.).

Selection of learning resources

Scaffolding

Implicit:

Selection of resources: appropriate

and relevant

content

well

organised; interactive

features, multiplicity

of

formats.

Design of the task itself: clear instructional

purpose

and

task

sequence,

possibility

of

setting

the

pace and

evaluate progress, freedom

in choosing

the

entry

point.

Explicit:Scaffolding explicit tools: teachers’

notes

and

context-sensitive

online help, annotation

and

horizontal and

vertical

communication

tools, possibility

of customise

content

and

an

intuitive

interface.

Web 2.0 nature: functionality, collaboration, interaction, content

creation

and

sharing

and individual’s

empowerment.

Textual nature of complexity of the web: multiplicity

of

genres

and

uses, multimedia, authenticity, multilingualism, polyphony, multiple

structures, etc.