Computer Assisted Language Learning: Application or Prospects

Online Journal.
Yesterday, when I had free time, I go to the PTSL to doing some research about the online journal. The topic that I selected is The Application Of ICT In Language Learning.

Proquest Journal
Can ICT reduce social exclusion? The case of an adults' English language learning programme.

Strong claims are made for ICT-based lifelong learning as an effective way of reducing the exclusion of various groups in society, yet, there is very little research to support these claims. Empirical research is needed, including qualitative studies of the experiences of socially excluded learners using ICT. This article reports the findings of such a study in relation to learners from one socially excluded group, adults from ethnic minority backgrounds, who are disproportionately deprived and often excluded by language. The article discusses the study of the experiences and perceptions of adults learning English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) through ICT in seven different learning centers in England. The findings show that technology is insufficient to overcome existing inequalities in access to learning, and to engage learners who would not otherwise undertake formal learning, but ICT-based learning can reduce some aspects of social exclusion in terms of encouraging minority ethnic group learners to speak more within the host community. ICT-based learning offers a space for language learning and practice, which is often absent in traditional ESOL classrooms and in the. Learning is a social practice in which the level of commitment of tutors to encouraging the use of these media and creating a safe and private space for learning affects the range of learning activities with which learners engage and the impact of these on their everyday use of English.


Emerald Journal
Innovative practice in the use of ICT in education and training: learning from the winners

Addresses three separate initiatives: South Yorkshire Further Education Consortium (SYFEC); e-skills4industry – a partnership between Lewisham College and Deloitte; and Cascade and information and communication technology (ICT) training for schools. The initiatives, however, share two important characteristics. First, they are all initiatives which have been recognized within the National Training Awards (NTA) programmed organized by UK Skills and supported by the UK Government's Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Second, each of the initiatives, albeit in different ways, looks at the utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) in different aspects of education and training. The three winning accounts featured here offer useful insight into how the further and higher education sectors, in partnership with industry, are responding to some of the challenges and opportunities that have arisen as the use of information technology (IT) becomes common place in people's working (and learning) lives.


Emerald Journal

Concept IV: role of computer applications in facilitating language learning.
Do electronic communications and computerized interventions respect the ecology of the behavior, the speaker, and the listener?
According to Vygotsky (Portes, 1985; Vygotsky, 1962, 1978; Wertsch, 1985, 1990), behavior, or activity, was said to be verbally mediated. Initial reflexive behaviors were regarded as biologically controlled but influenced by the child-environment interaction through which cognitive structures were modified. Thus, behavior cannot be separated from thought; both are embodied within the unique cognitions of the individual and are at the same time the manifestations of that individual's social-- historical development.


Concept IV: Role of computer applications in facilitating language learning.
Are computer applications that target particular age groups or grade levels respectful of the child's cognitive, linguistic, and social-historical development?
To understand Vygotsky's approach and the multiplicity of intellectual roots characterized in his writings, Wertsch (1985) identified three general themes which could be applied to specific issues: (1) reliance upon developmental methods, (2) attributing higher mental processes to the social processes from which they originated, and (3) the postulate that understanding mental processes requires understanding of the signs/ tools that mediate them. The three themes are interdefined; there cannot be isolation of social and individual phenomena in the social sciences.


Concept IV: Role of computer applications in facilitating language learning.
Because electronic communication uses the signs of language and is a tool for communicating, is it also an appropriate context for developing the signs and tools the child needs?
Any function in the child's cultural development appears twice, or on two planes. First it appears on the social plane, and then on the psychological plane. First it appears between people as an interpsychological category, and then within the child as an intrapsychological category. This is equally true with regard to voluntary attention, logical memory, the formation of concepts, and the development of volition.


Concept IV: Role of computer applications in facilitating language learning.
Is it appropriate to use electronic communication as the "social context" referred to as the interpsychological plane?
Although the holistic emphasis and functional-mediationist perspectives of the social-interactionist theories appear to be quite different from Skinner's behaviorist theories, there are shared theoretical tenets. First, both underscore the important role of environment in contributing to the acquisition of language. Further, though reinforcement is qualitatively different from the Skinnarian-defined operant conditioning, it is an important component of social-- interactionist theory.


Concept V: Computer applications as intervention tools for LLI
Selection of developmentally appropriate software and application in intervention are essential considerations. Are criteria outlined by Nelson and Masterson (1999) sufficiently stringent to guide the SLP?
Berlin, Blank, and Rose (1980) underscored the importance of language in the schools as the medium through which all learning takes place. Silliman (1984) pointed out that not all talk is effective teaching, though most teaching involves talk. Nelson (1984) noted that the research in the area of school discourse was sparse. She reported that literature in this area described teaching as a process of deciding which discourse styles and content to use; what pace to set; and how to best manage a classroom, not in a sense of discipline but as part of the larger process of selection of a discourse style.


Concept V: Computer applications as intervention tools for LLI
Do electronic communication contexts, such as email, chatrooms, and list servs, provide an appropriate intervention setting to stimulate (1) conversation initiation, maintenance and elaboration; (2) more mature discourse regulation; (3) development of more flexible and mature syntax; and (4) maintenance of connected discourse?
Four aspects of children's communicative abilities were examined by Fey and Leonard (1983), including conversational participation, discourse regulation, speech acts, and referential skills. Their findings indicated that the SLI child was a deficient initiator of conversation at home, with peers, and in school. Such children did not initiate conversation or elaborate on topics, but rather used other nonverbal or less efficient verbal behaviors in their role as a communication partner. The third aspect examined, speech acts, revealed conflicting information. Some children evidenced deficiencies in their ability to produce requests for action and information and employed a limited range of linguistic forms (Fey and Leonard, 1983).The last aspect discussed by Fey and Leonard (1983) was use of referential skills. They reported there was evidence that SLI children could encode the element of context, which carried the greatest information load, as well as and sometimes better than could younger, language-matched children.


Experience using TSL databases.
This was my first time using online databases and I don’t know that journal is provided in modern way. Usually if I need to seek for a journal I used the traditional way and go to level three at PTSL and then I will photocopy the page that I want. Using online databases is more easy and convenient, because all the information that we search is in your hand. It is more easy using PROQUEST and EMERALD because it give the clear instruction and it is easy to find the topic that I choose. I’ve also try the EBSCOHOST, ERIC and LISA but it is difficult to understand the steps to find the topic. By this experience I get, I feel like I'm love to do this activity again. Thank You.