RECENSIONE – REVIEW
Rosell-Aguilar F., Beaven T., Fuertes Gutiérrez M. (eds) (2018). Innovative language teaching and learning at university: integrating informal
learning into formal language education. Voillans, France: Research-publishing.net.
di Lucia Maffione
Bearing in mind that informal education plays a key role for language learning, the present collection of papers, presented at InnoConf 171, focused on «informal and formal learning
initiatives» (p. 2) that included the use of digital tools to empower and/or develop linguistic competence in foreign language teaching at University.
Bàrkànyi Z., in “Can you teach me to speak? Oral practice and anxiety in a language MOOC” (pp. 9-16), presented the use of MOOCs to teach «the most anxiety-provoking» (p. 10) skill in a foreign language, speaking. More specifically, a Language MOOC has been used in a Spanish language course for beginners, using asynchronous activities such as: voice recordings, audio prompts and online discussions. Students had positive attitudes towards this language learning experience because thanks to the mooc modality, they could experience a lower level of anxiety than in traditional classroom setting.
Even Wang L. promoted the development of speaking skills in the paper “It’s a shame that we haven’t met earlier! facilitating a tandem language exchange programme at Queen’s University Belfast” (pp. 37-46). Here, the author presented a “Tandem Language Exchange” programme, aimed at supporting students to practise a foreign language with native speakers. The project, realized at Queen’s University Belfast, used the CANVAS platform to advertise students’ language exchange needs and to arrange meetings on a voluntary base. A successful case study is
1 A conference organized by the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics of The Open University in UK.
reported in the paper: a tandem linguistic exchange between a native Chinese student and a German girl who, during their informal learning meetings, could teach their native language each other, and social and cultural values as well.
On the empowerment of pragmatic competence in a class of Spanish as a foreign language is focused the paper written by Vacas Matos M. and titled “Multimodal Corpus of Spanish Speech Acts: main features and potential pedagogical uses” (pp. 89-97). Starting from the acknowledgement that «students are still missing the pragmatic rules that are behind the behaviours of native speakers and their use of language» (p. 89), the author tried to fill in this learning gap creating a multimodal Corpus of Spanish Speech Acts (called COR.E.M.A.H) made up of 150 hours of role-play conversations of American and Spaniards pairs. It was used to show the different strategies coped by native and non-native speakers in three different speech acts: compliments, refusals and apologies. The pedagogical applications of COR.E.M.A.H. may be multiple: to analyse the non-verbal language, the proxemics, the tone of voice of the speakers, and so forth.
Another important aspect of the linguistic competence, the intercultural competence, is the object of an educational initiative explained by Salin S. in the paper titled “The Better French Living Project: how to encourage linguistic, practical, and cultural year-abroad preparation outside the classroom” (pp. 79-88). The project, started in 2014 in the French section of the Newcastle University School of Modern Languages, provided learning content regarding practical and everyday life challenges, that students had to face during their year-abroad. The learning material, available in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), promoted an independent and personalized learning experience and gave students the chance to feel «more prepared before embarking on their year abroad» (p. 87), both linguistically and culturally. It involved topics such as: «cultural differences about stereotypes, accommodation, formal and informal register, daily
life and socialising, banking, secondary and higher education, application and interview and phone conversations» (p. 82).
It goes without saying that, videos are becoming more and more central in language teaching/learning process, and two different projects presented in the book, could give proof of their educational efficacy. The first project, illustrated by Chen Z. in “Video resources in a flipped language classroom: an experience of using videos to flip a Mandarin teaching module” (pp. 67-78) showed the successful combination between videos and flip teaching approach to reach linguistic accuracy in foreign language. More specifically, the author illustrated the use of three type of self-produced videos as pre-class learning material in one Mandarin teaching module, and assigned to students for self-study three days ahead of in-class teaching. The results of the research revealed that students appreciated it and «all three types of videos were not used just for pre-class self-study, but (also) for revision, consolidation, or clarification purposes» (p. 74).
Another example of the use of videos for teaching foreign language is provided by Mericka K. in the paper titled “LipDub: a technology-enhanced language learning project with music” (pp. 59-65). The researcher presented a project undertaken with German language students to practice the foreign language in an informal and funny way. The students were asked to create a LipDub, that is to say «a type of music video that combines lip-synching and audio dubbing» (p. 60) recorded with a camera. The definitive video was edited with the original audio and the recordings realized by students were incorporated into a formal language lesson of the University. The experience was relevant as it «promoted autonomous learning in an informal learning environment» (p. 62) as well as provided great support to students’ motivation to practise pronunciation.
The improvement of collaborative writing skills was promoted by the use of other two different digital tools: a wiki software and a social network. As far as the use of a wiki software is concerned, it was presented by Martìnez-Carrasco R. in the paper “Social media in L2 education: exploring on-line
collaborative writing in EFL setting” (pp. 17-26). The project, aimed at foreign English students enrolled in the second year of the Degree in Translation and Interpreting at the Jaume I University, proposed the use of wikis to develop writing skill in a collaborative way and to «make students aware of the situated nature of both linguistic and cultural practices» (p. 21). In more detail, the students were asked to write, in small groups, some texts about their cultural background (i.e. traditions, festivals, gastronomy, etc.), including audio-visual materials and hypermedia links. While writing the texts, students could notice the need of writing strategies such as: paraphrasing, loan words, neologism to fill in the cultural gap between the two languages. It was a collaborative writing activity because each text could be modified on wiki by other groups and it was useful «to foster further collaboration and peer scaffolding» (p. 24).
Another possibility to develop collaborative writing skill in a foreign language is the use of the famous social network Twitter, illustrated by Rosell-Aguilar F. in his paper “Twitter as a formal and informal language learning tool: from potential to evidence” (pp. 99-106). The author provided an overview on the «potential uses of Twitter as a language learning tool» (p. 102) and showed how the social network could encourage «more precise thinking, editing, and synthesising of language» (p. 101). Although it is primarily a written medium, its affordances to livestream video and link to audio and video resources provide a more varied interaction: «it can be part of teacher-directed activities in a formal learning environment […] or can be undertaken by learners in informal manner as self-directed activities» (p. 102).
The two papers written by Saona-Vallejos, Wilson and Brick Within can be insert within the macro area of the mobile learning apps. As far as Saona-Vallejos is concerned, in the paper titled “Busuu: how do users rate this app for language learning?” (pp. 27-36) he illustrated a study about the use of “Busuu”, an online platform, to learn foreign languages. For the project, participants were asked to use the platform daily for a minimum of 10 minutes per day, for four weeks. The outcomes gathered showed
several weak points in this social network as language learning tool. For example, participation was not encouraged as students could not share their language progress with others and, even if “Busuu” promoted user-generated content, it did not assure «participation, communication, information sharing and collaboration» (p. 35) among online learners/users.
A different app for language learning is presented in the paper “ImparaApp: Italian language learning with MIT’s TaleBlazer mobile app” (pp. 49-58), written by Cervi-Wilson and Brick. The mobile application “ImparaApp” provided a way to learn Italian as foreign language «both within and beyond the classroom» (p. 49), being based on a game-based approach, within an augmented reality platform. The app was used in a blended mode: when students did not attend class, they had to «complete challenges and tasks within the app in a self-guided mode» (p. 53). On the one hand, «the content and learning objectives of the app were aligned to the curriculum of the Beginners Italian modules at Coventry University, on the other hand “ImparApp” provided examples of incidental learning» (p. 56), as it stimulated students to practise speaking and to write short passages using appropriate grammatical structures for the task and the level» (p. 56).
The collection of papers ends with the written transcription of an informal interview that Tita Beaven conducted with the polyglot Richard Simcott. Considering his own personal experience of foreign language learner, Richard Simcott reflected about the incidental nature of language learning process and stated that «there are many different methods and there’s not one magic pill that anyone can take to learn a language» (p. 115). In keeping with this assumption, this book provided an effective overview on «online resources and communities available to language learners» (Rosel-Aguilar, Beaven & Fuertes Gutiérrez, p. 1) and, the eleven short papers presented so far seemed to promote a self-directed, student-centred and personalised learning experience.
As a whole, the use of digital learning tools presented, (mobile apps, M.O.O.C., user-generated videos, wiki, and virtual learning
environment) could represent useful educational attempts to match formal learning objectives with incidental learning experiences, as well as the drive of formal University teaching of foreign languages towards a more informal and pervasive way of learning.
