Eurocall 2009 Conference

9-12 September, 2009 | Gandia, Spain

Plenary Speakers

» Gavin Dudeney - Project Director, The Consultants-E, Barcelona (Spain)

Abstract

Beyond the Book – What Computer Games Teach Us About Today's Learners

This talk looks at current views of the use of games, gaming technologies and new technologies in general in education - from Prensky's ‘New Paradigm', through Gee's ‘Passion Communities'. Taking a critical look at the way current education fails to consider new digital literacies and the learning needs of the ‘digital native' we will consider why teachers should be looking at these approaches, and how they might set about acquiring the necessary skills and experience to implement them comfortably and successfully in the classroom.

Biodata

Gavin Dudeney is author of The Internet & The Language Classroom (CUP 2000, 2007) and co-author of How To Teach English with Technology (Longman 2007). The latter won the 2007 International House Ben Warren Trust Prize for the most outstanding work in the field of language teacher education. He is currently co-authoring a new book on blended learning to be published in 2009. Project Director of his own educational technology consultancy (www.theconsultants-e.com), his company was awarded a British Council ELTON award for its ‘ICT in the Classroom' course in 2007. Gavin is a past Coordinator of the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group and current Honorary Secretary of IATEFL. His current interests are in the fields of multi-user virtual environments and gaming technologies for teaching and teacher development.

» François Mangenot - Université de Grenoble3 (France)

Abstract

Training future teachers through online exchanges

Biodata

François Mangenot is full professor of Applied Linguistics at Stendhal – Grenoble 3 University (France), a member of the research unit Linguistique et Didactique des Langues Etrangères et Maternelles – LIDILEM, where he coordinates the branch “Foreign Language Education and ICT”. He currently manages a Master's course for Teaching French as a Foreign Language, which also taught as an e-learning course. He has previously worked in Besançon, Lyon, Turin, Belgrade and Vienna. He has been researching in CALL for over 20 years (Ph. D., “Habilitation”). He is the author of several pieces of software (Ecritures automatiques, 1988;Gammes d'écriture,1996), two books (Les aides logicielles à l'écriture, 1996; Internet et la classe de langue, 2006, co-authored with E. Louveau), a number of papers about the Internet and e-learning in Foreign Language Education (e.g. in Alsic.org , Recall and Calico Journal), and he recently coordinated two Journal Issues about online exchanges (Le Français dans le monde, Recherches et applications 40, “Les échanges en ligne dans l'apprentissage et la formation”, 2006, with C. Dejean-Thircuir, Lidil 36, “ Echanges exolingues via Internet et appropriation des langues-cultures”, 2007, with C. Degache). He has recently been appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Development and Distance Learning by his University.

» Steven L. Thorne - The Pennsylvania State University (USA) - http://language.la.psu.edu/~thorne/

Abstract

Language learning as bricolage in new media environments

This presentation describes a broad research program examining remix semiotic practices, new media literacies, and multiplayer gaming as settings for second and foreign language (L2) use and development. The talk begins by examining communication technologies from demographic, historical, and sociocultural vantage points. A number of case studies of online interaction are then explored: (1) participation in plurilingual online communities, (2) interaction in organized Internet-mediated intercultural foreign language partnerships, and (3) engagement in multiplayer online games. The final section of the presentation argues for the efficacy of a usage-based model of second language acquisition and presents a pedagogical framework designed to increase the relevance of instructed L2 education through the structured juxtaposition of digital vernaculars with more formal ‘classroom' genres of language use, an approach I am terming bridging activities (e.g., Thorne & Reinhardt, 2008). In conclusion, an argument is made for continued exploration of new media genres of language use and their selective inclusion into instructed L2 pedagogy, processes, and curricula.

Biodata

Steven L. Thorne is Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics and Associate Director of the Center for Language Acquisition at the Pennsylvania State University. He also serves as the Advisor for Mediated Learning at the Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research (a national foreign language resource center). His research focuses on cultural-historical activity theory, computer-assisted language learning, new media literacies, second language acquisition, and themes relating to social theory and critical pedagogy. His research has appeared in numerous edited collections as well as the Handbook of New Literacies, Encyclopedia of Language and Education, and the Modern Language Journal, Language Learning & Technology, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, CALICO Journal, Language Teaching, and Intelligence, among other venues. His book length works include a co-edited volume on Internet-mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education (Thomson/Heinle, 2006) and the co-authored book Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language Development (Oxford University Press, 2006).