32.1360, Review: Applied Linguistics: Blake, Guillén (2020)

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Subject: 32.1360, Review: Applied Linguistics: Blake, Guillén (2020)

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Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2021 17:47:00
From: ZEYNEP ERDIL-MOODY [zerdil at mail.usf.edu]
Subject: Brave New Digital Classroom

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36644737


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-868.html

AUTHOR: Robert J. Blake
AUTHOR: Gabriel A. Guillén
TITLE: Brave New Digital Classroom
SUBTITLE: Technology and Foreign Language Learning, Third Edition
PUBLISHER: Georgetown University Press
YEAR: 2020

REVIEWER: ZEYNEP ERDIL-MOODY, University of South Florida

SUMMARY

Robert Blake, with Gabriel Guillén in this third edition, offers a
comprehensive overview of how new digital technologies revitalize
foreign/second language (L2) curriculum and how interactionist and
sociocultural approaches to L2 teaching enhance language task design and
interaction in digital learning environments. Brave New Digital Classroom
addresses computer assisted language learning (CALL) practitioners and both
experienced and novice teachers in technology-enhanced L2 teaching. In this
revised edition, authors’ choice of organizational pattern – learners’
inherent qualities as humans pertinent to L2 learning – places the locus on
the language learner. Therefore, the book is organized into six chapters, each
devoted to one of these inherent qualities: students and teachers as language
speakers, conscious and intuitive analyzers, social beings, tool users, game
players, and storytellers. Based on these learner qualities, the authors
discuss which digital tools and affordances best fit how students learn an L2
and how teachers can integrate them into their teaching effectively for the
optimal learning outcomes. 

This fully updated third edition synthesizes some of the content in earlier
editions into fewer chapters, reducing the chapter number to six, and includes
a new chapter on digital literacy and L2 identity. With its discussion
questions, suggested reading lists in each chapter, and a glossary of
italicized words throughout the text, this revised book is a comprehensive and
insightful handbook for a wide range of audiences, L2 instructors, L2 teacher
educators and their graduate students, administrators, and other
decision-making bodies in L2 programs/institutions. The evolution of digital
technologies and its increasingly mediating role in education, everyday life,
and communication across the globe has made it inevitable for educators to be
innovative in the twenty-first-century L2 classroom, especially with the
recent pandemic-forced shift to online education. This makes the book a very
timely useful resource book for all L2 teaching communities, discussing why
some specific technological tools should be incorporated into the L2
curriculum, their potential benefits for L2 learning, and contributions to any
L2 program. 

Chapter 1 revolves around the fundamental question: Can CALL help L2 learning?
The essence of this chapter and the book overall is how teachers can utilize
digital technologies effectively in their L2 curriculum to foster learner
engagement with each other, the content, and the target language. Grounded in
the second language acquisition (SLA) theories and notion of learners as
language speakers, the authors discuss in this chapter differences between L1
and L2 acquisition, primarily focusing on the nature, function, and amount of
input and interaction. Bridging the L2 classroom pedagogy, SLA theories, and
CALL right from the beginning in this first chapter provides a solid
foundation for the subsequent discussions, especially for readers new to the
SLA field. The authors emphasize that shortcomings of formal L2 teaching are
generally attributed to insufficient and/or inauthentic input in L2 curricula
and books due to their inadequate opportunities for negotiation and output.
Employed wisely, however, digital technologies can offer more language
practice and enriched input to enhance L2 development. Enabling
telecollaboration within L2 learner communities and with native speakers,
virtual L2 learning environments cultivate students’ attention and interest,
extend class discussions outside of class time, and enhance intercultural
competence by integrating L2 culture into learners’ virtual exchanges. During
these exchanges, learners are given opportunities to notice the gap between
what they know and what they should know in the L2, engage in meaningful
interactions, and negotiate for meaning – an advantage especially for the less
commonly taught languages. 

Discussing tutorial and social CALL and explaining misconceptions about
language learning and technology, the authors raise awareness that technology
is not the panacea teachers seek for language teaching woes, nor the panacea
administrators need to reduce their budgets. However, educational technology
certainly complements and facilitates L2 teaching when implemented using
effective pedagogies informed by SLA theories, which evidently indicates
instructors’ paramount role in the new digital L2 classroom as much as in
face-to-face classrooms.

Chapter 2 focuses on the inherent quality of both students and teachers as
conscious and intuitive analyzers in the process of CALL evaluation to
identify appropriate digital technologies for L2 learning. The authors provide
a brief overview of CALL evaluation checklists/frameworks (e.g.;
Rosell-Aguilar, 2017) and recommend CALICO journal’s checklist as an elaborate
framework synthesizing Hubbard’s (2006) methodological and Chapelle’s (2001)
interactionist approach to CALL evaluation. The criterion they highlight for
evaluations is the appropriateness for teachers’ instructional approach,
learner profile, interests, activity types, and computer infrastructure and
interface features. 

Supporting the interactionist and sociocultural approach to SLA, the authors
argue that the best way to integrate today’s digital affordances into L2
teaching is to engage students with real-life interactions for meaningful and
communicative purposes. They discuss language learning social networks’
critical role to not only expose learners to the authentic language use but
also give them abundant opportunities to negotiate for meaning and genuinely
interact with L2 speakers, especially in foreign language contexts where
learners have no access to target language speakers. Task-based (TBLT) and
content-based (CBLT) language teaching, and tandem, online, and autonomous
learning stand out as the most appropriate approaches in their discussion to
instigate noticing, negotiation for meaning, and scaffolding, all of which
promote L2 development; yet they believe tutorial CALL’s grammar driven
multimedia activities can still help outside the classroom. 

Addressing how the digital world shapes our social interactions, Chapter 3
focuses on the high level of interactivity of social CALL and
computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools. Learners’ inherent quality as
social beings and their predisposition to make and maintain connections with
others either in person or via telecollaboration makes CMC tools an integral
part of today’s digital L2 classroom. To stimulate L2 learning and
intercultural competence, the authors discuss advantages of asynchronous CMC
(ACMC) and synchronous CMC (SCMC) tools, language learning social networks
(LLSNs), and cooperative online intercultural exchange (OIE) – also known as
etandem learning, telecollaboration, or virtual exchange. These collaborative
writing and interaction spaces facilitate language development, learner
autonomy, and collaborative project-based L2 learning by empowering learners
to exercise their own voice and produce multimedia materials. 

Chapter 3 discusses how LLSN affordances can be effectively used for
telecollaboration in L2 classrooms. Designed for L2 learning, these
affordances lower anxiety, enhance motivation, intercultural awareness,
linguistic self-confidence, L2 fluency, and autonomy, while giving learners
more opportunities to collaborate, negotiate for meaning, undertake
self-initiated repairs, and notice their mistakes and gaps in their
interlanguage. The authors also highlight that time lag, lack of physical
clues, and learners’ low intercultural pragmatics during these
telecollaborative exchanges cause communication breakdowns and require
training. Hence, the authors emphasize that instructors’ role is vital in
guiding students’ participation in online intercultural exchanges.

Chapter 4 is a review of the best digital tools for L2 learning that do not
require programming skills and it focuses on students and teachers’ inherent
quality as tool users. The authors describe three stages of CALL – structural,
communicative, integrative CALL –and argue how augmented reality and
integrative CALL increase learners’ autonomy and ‘agency’ (Kern & Warschauer,
2000) in L2 learning by providing multimedia, content-based instruction, and
authentic discourse. Recommended useful tools include digital dictionaries
(Duolingo, Langbot), concordances (Linguee), collaborative digital
storytelling (VoiceThread), and other tools that enhance language skills in
general (iSpraak – L2 pronunciation; forvo vocab; Evernote – dictation). L2
teachers might find the tools that allow annotations on any web page or
YouTube videos very inspiring as they turn internet materials into interactive
lessons (e.g., Edpuzzle; InsertLearning). The rest of the chapter discusses
L2-related advantages of automatic speech recognition, learning management
systems (LMS), online feedback, authoring tools (e.g.; Adobe Spark, Softchalk,
WordPress, Wix), and sophisticated homegrown CALL materials created by L2
instructors. They also recommend incorporating such authoring tools into the
LMS shell to supplement course content and collaborative writing
spaces/bulletin boards such as Padlet for telecollaboration. Finally, the
authors underline the necessity of instructors’ pedagogical approach, careful
planning, and task design for any of these tools to promote L2 development and
lead to comprehended input, intake, uptake, and eventually, output. It is
noteworthy to mention that the discussion on authoring tools from the earliest
computer software predating World Wide Web is a bit distracting and could be
instead devoted to recent affordances.

Focusing on students as game players, Chapter 5 discusses the benefits of
gaming in L2 teaching and how to effectively incorporate collaborative games
into the L2 classrooms, which was added to the book in its second edition and
updated in the current one. Blake and Guillén provide an overview of current
trends in gameful learning, e.g.; ImmerseMe or Forgotten World virtual reality
(VR) games for L2 learning. They then elaborate on their potential benefits,
when pedagogically well-designed based on SLA theories, such as motivating
learners, engaging them meaningfully in task-based interactions with native
speakers, and giving them opportunities to both engage in language
socialization and develop autonomy and intercultural competence. Similarly,
they also state that role-play games (e.g.; Second Life) shape learners’
verbal performance via their digital presence and help them become independent
problem-solvers to collaboratively complete a given task. These games expand
learners’ identity in their journey as an emerging multilingual speaker
(Ortega, 2017). Discussing pedagogical properties of good L2 games (Gee,
2007), Chapter 5 outlines lists of guiding principles for effective language
games. The chapter’s documentation of developing effective game-enhanced
pedagogy (Sykes & Reinhardt, 2012) presents a practical guide for both novice
and experienced teachers. It, however, also stresses that not all games are
for L2 learning, nor do they all go beyond explicit language exercises that
resemble games, so they should be thoroughly evaluated first for pedagogical
appropriateness and practicality for the new digital L2 classroom. 

New to this third edition, Chapter 6 focuses on L2 learners as storytellers
and discusses how CALL fosters learners’ digital writing and literacy skills
and emerging bi/multilingual identities. The authors first provide an overview
of writing support/correction tools (e.g.; Grammarly), digital collaborative
writing tools (e.g.; Google docs, blogs), storytelling tools (e.g.; iMovie;
FinalCut), and social reading tools (e.g.; ecomma). Grounded within the
interactionist and sociocultural theories, they argue that these tools provide
multimodality during digital collaborative writing/speaking via synchronous
chats (textual, audio, audio-video) and increase learner motivation,
willingness to explore and communicate, critical thinking, and presentational
competence. They then mention some relevant studies on how multimodality in
writing collaborations help learners build a community of support, trigger
dynamic and dialogic exchanges that foster intercultural competence,
reflective communication, and collaborative learning (Blin & Appel, 2011;
Blyth, 2014). Needless to say, these multimodal digital storytelling
technologies give L2 learners many opportunities to reflect on and represent
their emerging bilingual identities, have their voices heard, and shape their
own textual voices and social roles. Summarizing transnational projects like
the Cultura Project (Bauer, et al., 2006; Furstenberg, et al., 2001), the
authors highlight how critical it is for L2 teachers to train learners for
effective cross-linguistic/cultural interactions.

EVALUATION

The pandemic that shifted the modality of not only instruction but also our
interactions to online platforms worldwide in the early days of 2020, shows
this book as a very timely one! Brave New Digital Classroom is concise but
comprehensive, well-written, and an insightful book with a survey of today’s
digital technologies that offer many opportunities for L2 development. This
book is a must-read for L2 teachers, L2 teacher educators, and even
administrators and other decision-making stakeholders, helping them to choose
appropriate digital instructional technologies in which to invest, based on
their local context, institutional goals, pedagogical approach, and learners’
profiles. The book is well positioned to address the gap between language
learning research and CALL – social, intelligent, and tutorial CALL, and
virtual reality games. It is a useful textbook for a graduate course, for
instance, about technology-enhanced language teaching, in a TESOL, SLA, L2
teaching certificate or a professional development program; but it is
noteworthy to underscore that it will be easier with a solid comprehension of
SLA theories to understand the connections made throughout the book. One of
the strengths of this book is its breadth of discussion in synthesizing the
pedagogy of network-based language teaching (e.g.; LLSNs) with the fundamental
SLA theories for successful L2 learning such as sociocultural and
interactionist approaches to L2 teaching –the zone of proximal development,
forced output, negotiation for meaning, and linguistic scaffolding (Long,
1996; Swain, 1985; Vygotsky, 1978). Thus, CALL researchers and educators new
to digital technologies in L2 learning/teaching will find in this book useful
references to relevant and up-to-date research on effective pedagogy of
integrating digital tools into the L2 curriculum and design of pedagogically
sound online intercultural exchanges (telecollaboration) based on SLA
theories. 

Addressing the misconceptions among teachers that CALL is the solution to all
L2 learning woes, the authors set up more reasonable expectations from
integrating CALL in L2 teaching. One essential take-away from this book is
that the key to optimal learning outcomes in digital L2 teaching platforms is
the solid pedagogical design of language tasks for collaborative exchanges
with other L2 learners and L2 speaker communities – telecollaboration – and
engaging learners with real-life activities that bridge the conceptual
knowledge within the curriculum with the real life situations in which they
are used, all grounded in SLA theories. 

Brave New Digital Classroom is also commendable for how successfully it
situates its discussion of the intertwined relationship between L2 digital
literacy and learners’ intercultural competence as well as bi/multilingual
identities within the interactionist and sociocultural approaches to L2
teaching. The authors highlight that today’s technology serves to meet the
needs of multilingual learners to cultivate their bi/multilingual identity in
a multicultural world that is in a way both independent and dependent of their
L1 and L2 identities by engendering student-directed curricula and real-time
communication via SCMC (telecollaboration). These insightful discussions will
help educators in their transformation as most institutions have already
converted to fully online courses.

Blake and Guillén accomplish their goal in this edition to motivate L2
teachers to effectively integrate interactive digital technologies into their
teaching to promote learners’ language development and competence in
intercultural pragmatics. For the intrinsic flux of educational technologies
and the challenges they cause, the authors’ solution is college-wide
continuous long-term institutional support, especially as more L2 teachers
embrace online teaching. If this book were used for a course on CALL and
game-based L2 learning, one recommendation would be to supplement course
materials with studies showing effective implementation of gaming in the L2
classroom. Furthermore, it would enhance the book to include narratives from
teachers and students regarding the implementation of gaming tools/software in
the L2 curriculum, some of the challenges they experience, or even perhaps
sample lesson plans, activities, or tasks.

REFERENCES

Bauer, B., de Benedette, L., Furstenberg, G., Levet, S., & Waryn, S. 2006.
Internet-mediated intercultural  foreign language education: The Cultura
project. In J. A. Belz & S. L. Thorne (Eds.), Internet-mediated intercultural
foreign language education, 31-62. Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.

Blin, F., & Appel, C. 2011. Computer supported collaborative writing in
practice: An activity theoretical study. CALICO Journal, 28(2), 473-497.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/calicojournal.28.2.473

Blyth, C. 2014. Exploring the affordances of digital social reading for L2
literacy: The case of eComma. In J. Guikema & L. Williams (Eds.), Digital
literacies in foreign and second language education, 201–226. San Marcos, TX:
CALICO.

Chapelle, C. 2001. Computer Applications in Second Language Acquisition:
Foundation for teaching, testing, and research. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. Doi:10.1017/CBO9781139524681

Furstenberg, G., Levet, S., English, K., & Maillet, K. 2001. Giving a virtual
voice to the silent  language of culture: The CULTURA project. Language
Learning & Technology, 5(1), 55-102. Doi:10125/25113

Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and
literacy (2nd ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Hubbard, P. 2006. Evaluating CALL software. In L. Ducate & N. Arnolds (Eds.),
Calling on call: From theory and research to new directions in foreign
language teaching, 313-334. San Marcos, TX: CALICO

Kern, R., & Warschauer, M. 2000. Introduction: Theory and practice of
network-based language teaching.  In M. Warschauer & R. Kern (Eds.),
Network-Based Language Teaching: Concepts and Practice: Concepts and Practice,
1-19. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Doi:10.1017/CBO9781139524735.003

Long, M. H. 1996. The role of the linguistic environment in second language
acquisition. In W. C.  Ritchie, & T. K. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second
language acquisition, 413-468. New York: Academic Press.

Ortega, L. 2017. New CALL-SLA research interfaces for the 21st century:
Towards equitable multilingualism. CALICO journal, 34(3), 285-316.
Doi:10.1558/cj.33855

Rosell-Aguilar, F. 2017. State of the app: A taxonomy and framework for
evaluating language learning mobile applications. CALICO Journal, 34(2),
243–258. Doi: 10.1558/cj.27623

Sykes, J. E. & Reinhardt, J. 2012. Language at play: Digital games in second
and foreign language teaching and learning. Boston: Pearson–Prentice Hall.

Swain, M. 1985. Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input
and comprehensible output in its development. In S. M. Gass & C. G. Madden
(Eds.), Input in second language  acquisition, 235-253. Rowley, MA: Newbury
House

Vygotsky, L.S. 1978. Mind and Society: The development of higher psychological
processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Zeynep Erdil-Moody is an applied linguist, independent researcher, and a
language teacher educator with a PhD in Second Language Acquisition and
Instructional Technology from University of South Florida and an MA in TESOL
from California State University–Sacramento. She has taught undergraduate and
graduate courses in applied linguistics, foreign/second language pedagogy, and
ESOL, as well as a wide range of EAP, ESL, and EFL courses in the U.S. and
abroad. Her research focuses on language learning motivation, individual
differences in SLA, L2 teacher education, brain-based language teaching
approaches, higher education pedagogy, and qualitative interviews.





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