Technology & Learning November 2007 - (Page 40) » Integration By Harry Grover Tuttle Livening Up Foreign Language Technology enables language learning in authentic situations. echnology has long been associated with language learning: we’re familiar with seeing children wearing headsets, reciting in unison recordings of Spanish or French vocabulary words. Nowadays, students can experience real life in real time across the globe, thanks to a host of new Internet applications. Here, we envision what could be happening in your Spanish or Chinese class. T Online Newspapers Students stay up-to-date on news as one day a week they read Spanishlanguage newspaper accounts about a current event (www.allnewspapers .com). The teacher has students read a range of news sources so they can discuss the similarities and differences in perspective. Internet Audio Students feel like they are in a Spanish-speaking country every time they enter the classroom. The teacher often plays music or newscasts from an Internet Hispanic radio station (www.radio-locator.com/) by using Real Player or Media Player. The students listen to the music and identify the theme of the song, its tone, and some of the repeated images. For instance, they may flag today’s song as one about the sadness of lost love and the images of broken mirrors, ripped letters, and storm clouds. Flickr Students enjoy the fast-paced “describe the image” culture game, where they pair up and tell a partner as much about the Woophy Flickr picture (www.woophy.com/map/index.php) of a Latin-American place as they can in one minute. A variation is to have only one person tell about the image for the minute; with the partner offering additional sentences about the scene. They can also play “ask and answer” questions about the image. To assess progress, learners make a slash for each sentence they say and record the total number in a spreadsheet to easily see the number contrast from when they first played the game to when they last played. Students learn about varying perspectives by reading online newspapers from around the world. Movies When the class watches part of a recent English movie in Spanish, the teacher often stops and asks them questions about what was said. The teacher then turns off the sound and has students supply the dialogue in Spanish. At other times, the teacher shows them a movie with original Videoconferencing The class does a biweekly videoconference on societal themes with peers in a Spanish-speaking country. They prepare for these presentations by researching local culture and sharing their findings. Research may lead to talk and debate about global warming or other high-profile issues, and students benefit from opinions and perspectives far different from their own. 40 | www.techlearning.com http://www.allnewspapers.com http://www.allnewspapers.com http://www.woophy.com/map/index.php http://www.radio-locator.com/ http://www.techlearning.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.