Language Teaching with Video-Based Technologies

Creativity and CALL Teacher Education

Michael Thomas, Christel Schneider

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000172423
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming Games
• Index: Computer Science

This book explores the implications of technology-mediated project-based language learning for CALL teacher development, focusing on the role of video-based instruction in elucidating challenges and opportunities to promote learner creativity in the language classroom.

The volume builds on existing literature on project-based language learning by extending the focus on the affordances of machinima, digital video created by teachers and learners to capture experience in 3D immersive games or virtual worlds. Drawing on data from a large-scale research project featuring case studies that examine different facets of CALL teacher education, the book calls attention to language learning and teaching strategies that encourage both learners and teachers to develop innovative approaches in the language classroom and how such approaches promote the integration of lifelong learning skills alongside traditional linguistic competencies.

Offering a dynamic contribution to the growing literature on the interface of language learning and teaching and technology, this book will appeal to students and researchers in applied linguistics and language and education, as well as those interested in the latest developments in CALL.

1 Introduction

Like the wider domain of educational technology, computer-assisted language learning (CALL) has been promising to revolutionise teaching and learning for rather a long time. Indeed, while CALL has taken significant steps as an area of independent academic enquiry under the broader umbrella of second language acquisition (SLA) over the last three decades, insights from its growing body of research have affected practitioners in the field with much less speed as the majority of research has focused on English (rather than other languages) and higher education (rather than schools, adult or vocational education). In place of the marketing hyperbole promising ‘revolution’, ‘disruptive innovation’ and ‘transformation’, empirical research suggests that the reality is often one of uneven integration and, in fact, marginalisation, regardless of the more widespread availability of such technologies in our social lives through the use of smartphones, social networking applications and video- and photo-sharing websites. Indeed, the reality for most language teachers around the world, particularly in developing and under-resourced CALL contexts, remains that of a computer attached to a projector displaying PowerPoint slides or web pages with interactive grammar exercises and quizzes. At the opposite extreme, there are abundant examples of technology being thrown into pedagogical contexts as a ‘quick fix’ or symbol that ‘something needs to be done’, particularly in areas of significant social disadvantage or inequality. The lesson reiterated again and again from any attempt to narrate the history of CALL is that access to technology infrastructure alone does not automatically lead to well-trained teachers or meaningful learning environments (Davies, Otto, & Rüschoff, 2013).

As has been widely pointed out in the growing body of work on CALL, the effectiveness of technology integration in a wide variety of contexts has been dependent on several recurring findings. These are that the technology (whether hardware or software) is subject to constant change, that technology should be driven by pedagogy and not vice versa and that the use of digital technologies in learning is fraught with challenges that some teachers prefer to avoid rather than risk ‘loss of face’ in front of their learners and/or colleagues if something unpredictable goes wrong (Kenning, 2007). Like research in the broader area of educational technology, CALL research is in danger of focusing only on the newest gadget from the latest trade event, showing teachers how to use the technology in question rather than addressing the underlying and longer term professional development needs of teachers (Hubbard & Levy, 2006).

In response, this book explores the potential of digital technologies in foreign language teaching, specifically a video-based learning approach called machinima, through the lens of research and practice on teacher education, by asking, What makes effective CALL teacher education in this constantly shifting terrain? Specifically, what are the elements of an effective framework for online CALL teacher education, in terms of the type of support and mentoring required by trainees?

While we explore the context of video-based approaches to learning and specifically examine the implications of teaching and learning with machinima, our goal is to understand the bigger picture of second language teacher education (SLTE). Our focus on video-based learning, then, is a way to explore how teacher training courses can help to rediscover the potential of teacher and learner creativity in an age in which so much of formal education, particularly in the schools sector for modern foreign language learning, is concerned with testing and performance-based measures of successful learning. In harnessing the evident potential of digital technologies in the language classroom (Plonsky & Ziegler, 2016), educators and policymakers need to be savvier about the history of education technology, its failings and its limitations (Cuban, 1993, 2003), as well as the educational technology and digital start-up lobby who promote a product-driven and corporate approach to education that does not always fit with process- or values-based models of effective teaching and learning (Player-Koro, Rensfeldt, & Selwyn, 2017).

CALL Teacher Education

CALL teacher education, according to Torsani (2016),

is not only (and not much) about transferring notions and/or learning how to use a piece of software; its main objective is to develop in teachers the knowledge of the technological options available and the ability to combine them with their knowledge of language teaching.

(p. xvi)

Viewed in this light CALL is not merely about the use of technologies in language teaching and learning, but as Garrett (2009), also reminds us, it “designates a dynamic complex in which technology, theory, and pedagogy are inseparably interwoven” (pp. 719–720). The word dynamic here conveys the need for a much more critically informed approach to CALL research and practice, one that is context-dependent, historically aware and focused on the transferable skills required by teachers in their particular teaching environments (Hubbard & Levy, 2006).

Viewed through the lens of these principles, this book investigates the specific use of digital video and immersive environments such as Second Life (SL) and OpenSimulator in the foreign language classroom as a potential means of encouraging creative and collaborative forms of project-based teaching and learning (Hafner & Miller, 2011; Thomas, 2015, 2017; Gras-Velazquez, 2019), but it does so by addressing important considerations for CALL teacher education as a result of the development of an online teacher training course. The course was originally based on the format of a MOOC, or Massive Open Online Course, like those offered by FutureLearn in the UK or EdX in the US, which run over a period of approximately five weeks, and involve the use of short, video lectures supported by tasks and online discussion board activities. While MOOCs have become a popular, if sometimes controversial, format for online courses, they have latterly become more commercialised and are often seen as a gateway to premium content for which payment is required. Pedagogically, MOOCs have often been criticised for not following the original, rather radical intentions of the first course developed by Siemens and Downes along connectivist lines, as they have tended to utilise behaviouristic learning principles (Downes, 2006).

Offered as a variation on MOOC principles, the video project explored in this book is based on what we have called a MOOT, or Massive Open Online Training course, as it focuses more on the pedagogical design of the course along dialogical (Wegerif, 2007, 2013) and community of practice (CoP) lines (Lave & Wenger, 1991). This meaning is implicit in the acronym, which draws on the meaning of the word moot as indicated in its Oxford English Dictionary entry: to ‘subject to debate, dispute, or uncertainty’ (adjective), to ‘raise (a question or topic) for discussion; suggest (an idea or possibility)’ (verb); or an ‘assembly held for debate’ (noun). The origin of the word moot is the Old English word mōt, meaning an ‘assembly or meeting’, as well as the word mōtian, of Germanic origin, which means to ‘converse’. The connection with Wegerif’s (2017) definition of dialogical is clear as it includes both epistemological and ontological aspects and means more than a mere space for dialogue. It includes, as Wegerif outlines, a “dialogic form”, as it opens “a shared dialogic space”, and in the educational context, has the “aim of teaching for more dialogue or teaching dialogue as an end in itself as well as using dialogue as a means to knowledge construction”. Wegerif elaborates on this definition of dialogical as follows:

In teaching through the opening of a shared dialogic space, dialogic education draws students into participation in the processes through which shared knowledge is constructed and validated. In other words dialogic education promotes dialogue as an end in itself. As a result of participation in dialogic education students are expected to become better at dialogue which means better at learning things together with others.

(para 12)

The MOOT online teacher training course explored in the book aimed to embed the dialogical approach among the moderators and trainees to foster “a shared dialogical space” in which thinking is done together and in support of one another (Merleau-Ponty, 1968). To achieve this, the course followed Hubbard and Levy’s (2006) techno-pedagogical model of CALL teacher education and sought to familiarise teachers with the technologies and approaches that they will also expect their learners to use by making them actual users of the technologies involved.

Our exploration of the online course, then, offers a case study of a model of CALL teacher education based on an approach that can also be called ‘situated learning’ in that it was both practical and theoretical, as Torsani (2016, p. 77) points out:

Online courses are important because they take the notions which were learnt within institutional and formal contexts onto the field, with the result that learners manage to get a precise idea of all the mechanisms (technical problems, relationship management etc.) which rule working with technologies – in this case, digital media – once again proving the importance of the latter in CALL renaissance. Practice in the field, both in the shape of situated learning and in that of critical incident, plays a crucial role in solving the problem of credibility for technologies and the activities related to them (see Egbert, Paulus, & Nakamichi, 2002). Furthermore, the building of communities of practice, with its stress on cooperation and exchange among participants, opens the way for the vast and indistinct world of extra-institutional learning, whose realisations, such as, for instance, informal learning, form one of the privileged channels for professional training.

Following Lave and Wenger (1991), by situated learning we refer to the process of involving learners in authentic settings in which they can acquire and apply their knowledge through social interaction in a community of practice such as a project team. A CoP is a group of people who interact regularly and share a passion or interest as well as the ability to learn from each other. Developing firstly from ‘low-risk’ activities, learners gradually become more independent and engage in more complex activities as they become more experienced.

Designed along these lines, the CALL online training course at the centre of the book demonstrates the need to move from a procedural model of teacher training (Hubbard & Levy, 2006) to a more holistic model, which derives from earlier work by Ide (1987) and integrates procedural, creative, pedagogical and technological skills as part of a natural continuum. Following Chao (2015) and Slaouti and Motteram (2006), in such a holistic approach, teachers are encouraged to develop a mindset of lifelong learning rather than one based on discrete and unconnected training, and trainers need to consider how the skills and competencies learned can be transferred to the trainees’ actual teaching contexts. Within this lifelong learning approach to CALL teacher education, the trainee is presented with opportunities for extra-institutional interaction, participation in active communities of practice, to understand the importance of critical pedagogy and reflection rather than merely accepting technology integration and the importance of integrating CALL teacher education into the wider context of SLTE (Slaouti & Motteram, 2006). The online teacher training course was designed to test this breadth and depth model of CALL teacher education that aimed to function as a type of cognitive apprenticeship (Chao, 2015) in which scaffolding took place to help teachers understand and integrate the technologies involved. In this approach, technology is not seen as an add-on but as integral to the course; thus, the design moves beyond the primacy of technology to show how to connect technology and linguistics with transferable skills. The design of the online course involved interactive and collaborative projects, rather than a tutorial led approach, based on a ‘learning by doing’ approach that was more likely to engage participants in more complex tasks. The course incorporated tutorials, the process of guided instruction and complex projects, thus presenting the training course as a replication of the teaching context of the participants (Debski, 2006). Following Herrington and Oliver (1999), the course aimed to adhere to the following core principles (as cited in Torsani, 2016, p. 115):

1. It envisaged real contexts, reflecting the modalities in which knowledge will be used in real life;
2. It envisaged authentic tasks;
3. It envisaged experts’ performances on which to model processes;
4. It envisaged different roles and perspectives;
5. It supported cooperative knowledge building;
6. It promoted reflection so that abstractions may be made;
7. It promoted articulation in order to allow implicit knowledge to become explicit;
8. It envisaged opportunities for coaching scaffolding on teachers’ part in critical moments;
9. It envisaged real learning evaluation within task accomplishment.

The model of CALL teacher education that underpinned the teacher training courses was therefore not based on mastering particular skills but, given the dynamic nature of the environment and field, was attuned to identifying and comprehending the complex factors that impact on the integration of technologies in unique language teaching contexts. It also explored the importance of other support networks for CALL teachers, such as social media communities, continuing professional development and mentoring (Bauer-Ramazani, 2006). While the book offers several specific case studies on CALL teacher training, CALL is recognised as a highly innovative and fast-moving field (Kessler, 2006), and the challenges and opportunities identified will also be relevant to teacher trainers, trainee teachers and more established teachers who work in the wider context of teacher development in education and/or educational technology in schools, colleges and higher education (Kessler & Plakans, 2008).

Digital Video and Machinima

While foreign language teacher development is a central focus of the book, other concerns include the role of foreign languages in terms of their place in the school and university curriculum (Brumfit, Myles, Mitchell, Jo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations and Glossary
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Immersive Education and Machinima
• 3 Technology-Mediated Project-Based Language Teaching
• 4 Creating and Field Testing Machinima in the Language Classroom
• 5 Evaluating a Machinima CALL Teacher Education Course
• 6 Afterword: Implications for Project-Based Teaching and Creativity
• Bibliography
• Appendices
• Index