"Ning-ing" in a Foreign Language

Have you ever though Facebook or Twitter would be a lot more pleasant an experience were it not for all of the pointless banter about celebrity gossip and sports drama? Or the inescapable flood of posts where the not-so-closest to you tell the world where they went shopping today and who they are watching a movie with? Even more extreme, do you ever just wish you could create your own social network for meaningful discussion and networking ONLY? Well, apparently the creators of Ning, Marc Andreessen and Gina Bianchini, didn't think this was such a radical idea when they launched it in 2005.

Ning is an internet-based platform for individuals and exisiting networks, companies, organizations or other institutions to initiate their own custom social networks. What's cool about Ning is that it provides users the ability to create that network as part of a larger community page with full customization abilities for settings, appearance, theme, and so on. Group administrators are even free to charge current and potential members of their social network. The social websites on the Ning Platform are referred to as Ning Networks, and currently over 90,000 of these Ning Networks are operating.

With that much freedom for the user to customize the network site to such a great extent, its logical that there would be an enormous amount of variety across the Ning Networks in terms of theme or focus for each group. Indeed, Ning Networks are based on everything from sports and entertainment (which you may want to avoid if the above circumstance applies to you) to professional networks of lawyers and educators. Included among them are language educators and those with interest in linguistics.

As a prospective language educator and someone with a strong interest in language diversity and acquisition, the ability to communicate with peers of the same interests in a focused, centrally-themed social network is great news. But is there a Ning Network out there that relates directly to my interests? Yes!

Though my studies focus on ESL and EFL, my personal interest is in French, both in terms of culture and as my L2. This Ning Network, simply titled French Language, aims to allow users to "discuss and learn French," including "French vocabulary, French grammar, French culture etc." A perfect match, or so say the administrators of this Ning Network. But what features make the French Language network worth visiting?

After a scouring of the pages of this network, I quickly found many helpful and centrally located, easil accessible resources to assist in advancing French language learning. The site is packed with links to French language videos, lessons for practice, a French-English dictionary page, vocabularly lists, and even links to French language apps for smartphones. This selection of learning tools is a great informal supplement to the language learnign journey.

But what makes it unique among a huge universe of language websites? Interaction with others. This Ning Network is complete with a list of members that you can contact directly, discussion forums for posing questions about difficulties you are having or just to share the joys of learning French, and best of all, a direct chat feature. Not everyone, even my close friends, has the same interests as I do. Perhaps I might be interested in discussing French with someone who is interested. This allows me to "chat about French" without boring my car-obsessed and sports-maniac friends to death.

Not to be lost on us is the usefulness that this Ning Network (and those similar to it) might have for us in education. As an ESL instructor, I would find it very appropriate to recommend a similar network oriented toward the English language to my students to supplement their classroom learning. The degree to which it benefits their SLA process will go as far as their interest and effort allow it.

I strongly encourage all educators, professionals, and hobbyists alike to give Ning a try. Perhaps you'll find a network that appeals to you or augments your current network of peers and resources!

From the edublog EFL 2.0... "You On You" videos in the classroom; and the death of textbooks?

David Deubelbeiss' blog, EFL 2.0 - Teacher Talk, presents and reviews many resources to ESL/EFL teachers from videos to lessons for the classroom and from educational tools to interviews with educators and techies. I find it useful as an introduction to many of these resources, most of which I have not previously encountered, but also interesting because the topics he discusses run the gammet, spanning all aspects of modern education.
One post I found to be of particular interest was his entry Listening - UGC (User Generated Content) from February 12th of this year. In this post, he discusses a new 'tool' for English language education. The tool is based on YouTube videos of a contest hosted by HP Computers titled Getting Personal: You On You where contestants made entries by submitting headless videos of themselves while giving a short biography about themselves. Deubelbeiss explains how he would use these videos in the classroom by letting EFL/ESL students watch them and record the information and try to identify the contestants. This would put into practice their listening comprehension skills and also their grammar skills in terms of verb tenses and syntax when re-supplying the information from the individuals in the recordings.
He goes into more detail on that activity but also suggests another use of the concept where the students produce their own videos of themselves. This is a more interactive use of the idea that allows students to not only listen and record, but practice original composition of their own. If you haven't followed the link to the video I am discussing, it is embedded below.



A second point of interest is the author's statement about the future, and even the present, of the language learning classroom. Here he says that the age of the textbook is over, and the "white men" who publish and profit from these are at the end of the road. He implies that activities such as that discussed above have replaced the need for structured, dictated learning. While I agree the days of the physical, paper-based textbook are indeed numbered, the notion that formal, published learning aids are obsolete is a stretch at best and possibly dangerous to rush to such a judgement. Based on substantial research by many language acquisiton experts, such as Fotos and Ellis' examination of task-based approaches to grammar-skill acquisition (TESOL Quarterly, 25, 605-628), formal learning methods based on explicit instruction of linguisitic forms and rules is necessary for many aspects of language learning. Of course, there is no authority on what materials are used to guide this explicit instruction. However, as helpful and convenient (and indeed beneficial) internet tools and user created educational approached are, they do not guide a course of instruction. Whether a textbook is found on paper or a disc, they do provide (a well written, carefully reviewed book, of course) a framework to evolve from beginning learning to proficiency. And, yes, the best textbooks would be ones that encourage and even incorporate those non-traditional means of education discussed above.
So while you may be first in line to trash those heavy, expensive, environmentally un-friendly books, just make sure you keep a .PDF on your hard drive first!

Yes, even in the barren pinelands of New Brunswick, 'edutech' is poking through (and out)

Without a doubt, the way our students (and ourselves) learn and how they should learn is changing dramatically. Not only are the methods of instruction changing by necessity, but what is learned is changing as well. Most would agree that teachers, administrators, policy makers and parents need to adapt to learning as it is and will be in the 21st century.

Most school districts and their administrative bodies are cognizant of this and have prepared their classrooms for the future. How have they done this? Aside from incorporating new technology like smartboards, laptops, and other physical technological tools into the classroom, they have also started to educate students on how to use new technologies through curriculum. Tech and computer-based skills are necessary to be successful in the current and future job markets. It’s difficult to picture an employee in almost any field who is not well-versed in the use of technology, not just in IT jobs, but in other vocations in economics or business fields and even environmental and education-oriented jobs.


The video below, from the Ministry of Education of New Brunswick, Canada shows that preparing students
for the 21st century classroom is not a cottage industry of Silicon Valley school boards. Educational systems (with the financial means) around the world are taking notice (and action).



The video is intended as a public service ad of sorts that explains to the public the importance of adapting to the fast-paced, techonologically-tuned version of learning that dominates the present and future. However, one could argue that it seems more like an advertisement marketing a product, or maybe an idea or philosophy in this case. So if the future of technology's role in education is so obvious, is there a justified need to convince us of this fact?


It depends on how you pose the question. The question is, how far can or should we stray from traditional learning goals? Can we really abandon traditional content? And is state of the art technology a suitable replacement for skilled instructors and tried and true educational methods? Even if we don’t intend to make this substitution, it is not a stretch to think that the inundation of new technology, which is constantly changing and growing, distracts students, teachers and the public from necessary content.


Some would suggest that maybe the content needs to change and we no longer need to teach our students the same subjects we learned, such as history, literature, geography, earth science and so on. But how do we know what our primary school students should learn when we don’t know what their future goals will be in regards to careers? Yes, a future history teacher or geologist or writer will need to be adept at using current technology. But they will also need a well-rounded knowledge base in their field. Students need to be able to practice critical thinking and analytic skills. The ability to look up all kinds of necessary information and facts on their smartphone or computer at the drop of a hat does not demonstrate a real knowledge of these topics.

Further, by being too absorbed into technology in the classroom, will students suffer in areas like social skills that are in fact maybe more important in primary and secondary school than even the content learned. It is true today and the trend continues to be that a college education is necessary for becoming marketable to employers. My only fear is that if we become too dazzled by the benefits of technology in education, we transform primary and secondary education into a premature vocational training experience that replaces the real and necessary roles it has in personal and interpersonal development. And when it’s all said and done, these students will be no more prepared for the job market until they get a Master’s degree anyway. Meanwhile, nearly all that they have learned about technology and how to use it in their earlier years will be obsolete.

This article from the New York Times points out that the future of learning, at least as some have defined it, does not present such a bright and clear future as the producers of this video might want to claim or hope for. While administrators and districts are becoming quick to throw millions of dollars at unproven methods of instruction (in a time when budgets, at least in developed countries, are as strapped as ever), the results are not justifying the expense, effort, or time involved. This does not mean that all
of the initial points made about the benefits of technology are fallacies, but only that we should be more hesitant to jump head-first into a territory we are no very familiar with.

So while we jump on the information highway 21st century-style, where it pervades our educational system and every facet of life, it’s important that we remain critical and fairly skeptical of how these technologies and new approaches really impact our students and the age at which it is necessary to incorporate this in their classrooms. Technology provides great new opportunities and means with which to learn, but not so much in how we develop into healthy adults. Let us not disregard the value of traditional education that falls outside of what any internet tool (or textbook for that matter) can teach.

For ESL, Podcasts Offer Flexibility, Variety

Whether or not you have ever listened to one via streaming or download on your phone or mp3 player, without a doubt everyone with any internet experience has come into contact with podcasts. For those who haven't listened to one yet, you may be asking the question what exactly are podcasts? Well in fact they have no specific purpose or subject. Generally speaking, any audio recording where a bogger, journalist, host, etc. speaks on a topic or a variety of topics of interest within a general them that is available through the internet for the public's consumption could be considered a podcast. Users can subscribe to podcasts from specific websites or hosts, usually for free but sometimes for a charge, and receive them regularly via automatic download or download/stream them one by one. Most commonly podcasts are about news, sports, music, technology and other mainstream topics. Less frequently, but maybe more practical, podcasts are designed and used for educational purposes.

Educational podcasts can be oriented toward common subject areas from science or history for kids, to business or computer science for more mature learners. And, for the L2 learner and educator, there are also podcasts available that aid in language instruction. Virtually every language with a significant number of speakers is represented through language acquisition podcasts, and more widely used languages like English, Spanish, Mandarin, French and so on have podcasts from hundreds of reputable sources. The manner in which they go about exposing the listener to the language, and to some extent putting it into practice, can vary greatly depending on the platform and intended audience.

As a student of French, I have used podcasts myself to increase the amount of input from the target language, or TL, that I take in. My favorite podcast source, and the one I use most frequently, is the French-based, multilingual news agency Radio France Internationale, or RFI. This agency, created by the government of France, has as a secondary mission (after news reporting, of course) the promotion of the French language throughout the world. For those who decide to use RFI for French language learning, there is an accompanying iPod app to get the most out of the podcasts. Ideally, one would have the app through which they can listen to a daily podcast focuses on the top world news stories in addition to some Eurpean economic and sports news. These podcasts are spoken in basic, simple French and are accompanied by a French-language transcript to follow along with. Of course, if someone had no knowledge of French (or whatever the TL may be) reading and listening may serve only to recognize the relationship between the phonology and morphology of lexical items. However, though even that may be quite useful, I don't think anyone would recommend podcasts as a stand-alone or introductory means of learning an L2. It serves best in a role as one tool of many, a piece of the puzzle.

Having learned firsthand the value of podcasts as a part of augmenting exposure to a TL and thus SLA, its only logical to implement (or at least suggest) them as part of a language learning curriculum for my ESL students. While I think the most effective podcasts for SLA, whether the TL is French, English or Afrikaans, are those accompanied by apps that are interactive or provide a visual aspect as well, it would be unfair to assume all students have or want an iPod or smartphone that is capable of running such apps. There are useful alternatives. One series that I have been exploring and find to have an interesting approach to basic exposure to spoken English is 6 Minute English produced by the BBC. These podcasts explore one story of general interest each week that range from the "War on Drugs" in Australia to cyber attacks in Bangladesh and even invasive plant life in Antarctica.

The podcasts are 'hosted' by two actors that go by the monikers of Chris and Rosie. Chris introduces the news report to Rosie and, by extension, the audience. While narrating the story, Rosie acts as commentator, sharing her personal thoughts, opinions, and questions. She serves as a learner, and it is through her simple questions in elementary English where an English learner at a low proficiency would gain some insight into the content of the conversation. An example of the general pattern of each podcast in the series can be heard in this episode titled Dream apps posted on Friday April 20th, 2012. Here, Chris introduces the topic, but before starting presents a multiple choice trivia question to the audience. He asks "what do Margaret Thatcher, Napoleon Bonaparte and Florence Nightingale have in common?" and presents three choices (  a. They all dreamt of becoming farmers when they were children; b. They all suffered from a recurring nightmare of being bitten by spiders; and c. They all usually slept for just four hours a night, for those that are interested), but does not disclose the answer. This is intended to keep the listener interested, perhaps even if they are not so enticed by the topic of the podcast, which is unrelated by design.

Moving on to the subject of "dream apps," Chris explains how researchers have developed an app for the iPone, soon to be released for Android phones, called Dream: ON that allows users to select the time they want to wake up in addition to their ideal dream scenario. The app uses a motion sensor to detect when the user is in a dream state and uses various "soundscapes" to induce desired scenarios in the sleeper via the subconscious mind. Researchers believe that positively influencing dreams can aid sufferers of sleep disorders and depression. As Chris shares the information about the app, Rosie frequently interjects to express her wonder at the idea and also to ask questions about it, some of which Chris laughs at and implies are silly. In some sense, though she sounds like an adult, she speaks with the mannerisms and figures of speech of a child. Rather than some form of veiled sexism that first comes to mind, I feel the real intent of the presentation of her character is, as noted above, to allow an opening for the listener to become engaged and follow the story through her elementary use of the English language and exaggerated emotion in speech. This emotion provides context and meaning to her speech that may be inaccessible to the learner in plain speech.

As we have seen, podcasts are in fact a very helpful addition to any language learner's acquisition process. The best part about podcasts for ESL or any TL is that there is such a wide variety of approaches to different types of L2 inputs and the learning process. At worst, any exposure to a foreign language is written or spoken form is beneficial by at least getting the learner accustomed to the sound and appearance of the language. Good podcasts (and the possible accompanying apps)however, like the two discussed above, provide an added aspect to supplement typical listening to bland, monotone speech. With podcasts, your ESL or other foreign language learner can choose when they listen, what they listen to, and the extent to which they engage the subject matter.

ePals: An Online "Teacher's Convention" for Social Learning

By the day, more and more educators from all subject areas are becoming more aware of both the value of social learning and the ways in which the internet can make this more and more feasible. Particularly in second language learning settings, the ability for students to interact with other learners and even native speakers is extremely conducive to an enhanced learning experience. However, until the last 10 years, and even less than that in some cases, classes and student groups connecting with these learners or foreign language speakers has been difficult and rare, if not impossible.

Today, with the ever-expanding internet where more and more of the world is connected and able to communicate in real-time while on opposing sides of the globe, learners and educators have a much higher capability to learn a foreign language in a social context ; the way which many researchers suggest it is best accomplished. A large assortment of tools make this possible: social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, blogs such as those found on Blogger and eduBlogs, and of course individual websites of organizations and teachers all provide (either directly or through reference/links to other resources) a sort of populist assortment of learning tools. The problem with such an expansive battery of resources is that there is, to date, no centralized collection of these user-created tools that saves an educator valuable time and attention by presenting a vast selection of tools that are "peer-reviewed"; not in the research sense, but in terms of user-ratings. Using the internet, it is indeed very possible to get completely lost from the comfort of your home. One site, ePals, is potentially the start of a solution to this enduring road block in using the internet for focused social learning.

ePals  is an education technology website that connects users to learning networks that are both safe for students of all ages and effective. The fields of study and project foci are greatly varied but are targeted on the primary and secondary school levels. The bulk of the site in terms of value are the Member Projects. These projects are social learning plans that are not only designed by educators, but are in practice now. Even more, the site allows registered users to rate projects. Of course this is subjective, but it provides at least some means of sorting through the fog in an open-community to find projects that are truly advantageous.With a self-reported 700,000 users, ePals does have what could be seen as an overwhelming amount of "stuff" to share with you, but keeps them all in one space where you can search it, sort it, sneak a peak it it, then use it. Or move on to the next project.

As an example, one project I find interesting and with great potential in the field of social learning of an L2 is Far or Close Language Always Flows (A Culture and Language Project) submitted by an educator in Turkey and a partner in Italy. The project aims to allow teachers and students from different language backgrounds to share and teach language to each other using lexicon from a number of practical topics such as household items, food, clothes, animals, etc. The project puts students from the larger group into pairings to provoke them to both teach and learn their partner's language socially. The aspect of this project that these learning exchanges was precipitated by an actual, physical visit to one anothers' home countries. This may or may not be feasible, depending on many contextual and environmental circumstances, but, while ideal, may not be necessary thanks to tools like Skype and web-conferencing. That's what the site is all about... finding projects out there that you can use or that inspire you to modify them so they suit your class' situation. Visit the project's own external site to learn more about it.

So how do you take the above project and make it work if you can't afford 20 airline tickets from Buffalo to Paris? Well, another project of value to me that would aid in putting a modified project, as discussed above, into fruition virtually is Connecting Classrooms with Skype submitted by educator Betsy Weigle of South Carolina. This project attacks the hurdles of distant social learning. The project synopsis linked above shares the teacher's goals for this specific project: "...to open my classroom to the world by bringing children from Washington state and South Carolina together virtually to share insights on Native American cultures".They did this in a shared virtual classroom by doing research, creating PowerPoint point presentations and other digital exhibits, and maybe most importantly, verbal presentations. "Combining these presentation techniques with Skype allowed in-depth, real-time interaction on shared content," according to the submitter.

Of course, the topic of Native American cultures may not at all be pertinent to my L2 classroom or your own. But, the topic of study in the projects you find on ePals is not necessarily relevant at all. The biggest advantage of the site is the ideas the projects provide regarding how to teach a lesson socially and how to use technology to do it. This is how I would use this site in the future; not to carbon copy a project and duplicate it with my students. Rarely would all of the circumstances be the same to make such a duplication as effective as it could be. The networking of information and ideas that you can incorporate into the best possible use for your specific classroom is what makes this site great. Again, these benefits are amplified by its centralized nature, ease of "search-ability", and its user-ratings.

No Good Videos to Use in Your L2 Classroom? Make Your Own with Stupeflix!

Various means of multimedia and entertainment, such as film, music, online digital photography and so on are, in my opinion, well underrated in terms of their potential in augmenting L2 education as a whole and are thus under-utilized. Surely upon consideration, nearly any L2 educator can see the value that foreign language media and art can have as part of an immersion in L2 language and culture. So it follows that if a student can not in fact be physically immersed in an L2 environment, then certainly a kind of "sensory immersion" would be the next-best thing.

This is not to say that the arts, again meaning to include film and music, are not already frequently used in foreign language and second language classrooms; indeed, they are, though maybe not as much or in ways that they should. In addition, maybe you can't find enough of them that are "just right" for your usage, you'd like to do more with multimedia. Now the internet and its seemingly endless supply of applications and websites, provide students and educators with an opportunity to experience and create these modes of L2 inputs (and outputs, as it relates to the creation of multimedia discussed below) via the "cloud" from anywhere at anytime with a computer and an internet connection.

Of course viewing and listening to foreign language films and music, respectively, on the web or at home is not a new possibility. But the capability to use these art forms to put SLA into practice using written and orally-based L2 compositions to produce a personal audio-visual presentation (without the need to purchase editing software at exorbitant costs) is a relatively new advent.

An example of, but certainly not the only, web-based application / website for user-created multimedia productions is Stupeflix.

Stupeflix allows users, aftera short registration process (or a convenient option to log-in with one's Facebook or Google accounts), to upload personal photos or downloaded images (appropriately licensed ones, that is!) and join them with site-supplied video-esque backdrops and transitions to liven up a typical slideshow to a more feature-like exhibition. Allowing the addition of captions to tell the story and backing music from your own audio files, you are left with the potential for fun-to-produce, fun-to-watch, and even fun-to-grade L2 assignments. Below is a silly Stupeflix production I created based on a vacation I took a few years ago. While watching it, imagine that this type of presentation was elicited from a non-native speaker of English as part of a skills task...





So how do you turn something apparently goofy like this into an assessable exercise? Simply supply your students with a language-learning objective, be it proper usage of verb tenses, syntactical features, pronoun selection, newly introduced lexicon, or the appropriate location of negatory clauses. In fact, the options here are as endless as they would be for any standard writing assignment. Then, ask your students to tell a story with their own images (I prefer the usage of personal photos, as they are more expressive) while following those linguisitc features being assessed. Now you have a fun (possibly even fun-ny), engaging task what will be entertaining for the creator/student, his or her peers, and you, the instructor.


A key to successful and consistent SLA is prolonged interest and attention from the student. A "changing-up" of the methods and  means of working with the TL is critical to this. In addition, an aresenal of varying forms of input and output exercises provide greater contextual expanse and depth for linguistic interaction, helping to bettew attain L2 proficiency. Stupeflix, and its numerous counterparts, are excellent for fulfilling these roles.

VoiceThread: Speaking Aloud in the Cloud

When teaching your L2 students, do you find yourself wishing you could expand the discussion beyond the walls of the classroom? Are you instructing a "distance learning" course and feel you are not fully connecting with the students because oral communication is absent? Well, VoiceThread may be just the web-tool for you.

After a quick registration that takes no more than 5 minutes, you can get started right away. After creating your account, just click on the "myVoice" tab for step-by-step tutorials on how to get the most out of this web-based application. Suddenly, you are verbally communicating with your students through the "cloud."
Since the discussions are recorded, class participation can occur at the convenience of the instructor and the students. (Of course, the creators of VoiceThread were thoughtful enough to include the option to type comments in addition to audio recordings.)


A screenshot of a prepared VoiceThread with several users.


As for the content and objectives when utilizing this tool, the choice is up to you. You can do anything from simple discussions on a given topic led by the thread initiator to activities based on images uploaded by users. Tools such as the color wheel allow users to interact with images and "virtually draw" on posted images. Other features include the ability to upload webcam and/or audio files directly to the thread from your computer.

For some ideas, check out the following VoiceThreads created by fellow instructors: This VoiceThread by Wenjing Zhao is an example of a basic open discussion-based thread, this one amongst educators sharing their ideas on how VoiceThread might assist learning in an L2 classroom. This thread by Meng Zhang is an example of a "hands-on" L2 activity that utilizes the virtual drawing feature. Take a look and poke around to see exactly how these users made the most out of their own VoiceThread accounts. These are great examples of how to get started putting VoiceThread to good use with your class. Of course, the discussion can be about anything, and the images can be of anything (withing the confines of classroom appropriateness, of course).

However you see fit to use this interactive, user friendly tool, it surely provides educators one more asset, a tool in the belt so to say, that can increase interpersonal dialogue and class participation.