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Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés INSPT – UTN 2011

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OUTPUT – ORIENTED LANGUAGE LEARNING WITH DIGITAL

MEDIA

The development of the digital media has changed the way we, common people, act

upon the world that surround us; not only by changing our ways of communication, but

also changing the way we learn and the way we educate other people. In a better or worse

way is a subjective matter, but it has definitely change our way of living.

The chapter I am about to discuss is called “Output – Oriented Language Learning

with Digital Media”. Here, Bernd Ruschoff, the author, highlights the importance and

potential that the digital media represents when trying to generate not only comprehensible

but meaningful output from the learners, or when trying to create the so important authentic

environment that the learners need. His hypothesis and studies are based on Swain’s output

hypothesis (1985), which states that “learners engaged in negotiating meaningful and

comprehensible outputs […] are very much engaged in learning experiences which foster

language learners’ cognitive and linguistic growth by means of processes of reflective and

collaborative learning”(Swain, 1985, p. 42). So, starting from this point and taking into

account two very important words such as “Meaningful” and “collaboration”, the author

makes a connection between the use of the tools and platforms available on the web and the

possibility the concepts previously mentioned give us to create true authenticity, which is,

as the author states, “a crucial issue in language learning methodology” (Ruschoff, 2006, p.

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Rossino, Carolina

Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés INSPT – UTN 2011

Written Assignment for Final Exam

43-44). Ruschoff believes that true authenticity necessitates “the provision of learning

experiences which include authenticity of language, authenticity of task, authenticity of

learning situation and authenticity of interaction” (Ruschoff, 2006, p. 44 ). From this

definition of authenticity derives another key term, which is very important in the

hypothesis, because it has a close connection with the use o the digital media, and it is the

term “Agency”. This term has been explained by different authors and researchers, but

according to Ellis (1985, p. 44), the concept “addresses the fact that any kind of successful

language learning should be based on the principle of language learning as language use”;

although not explicit but embedded, the concept of authenticity appears in this definition,

giving the learner not only the possibility of construct their own knowledge in an authentic

environment, where language is used in authentic situations , but, as the author says, it

“empowers the learner with skills and competencies needed to interact and communicate in

a meaningful and appropriate manner in a given context” (Ruschoff, 2006, p. 44). Once

more, in a not explicit way, the term places great importance in the role of the learner when

constructing their own knowledge; there is an important combination of authentic

environment and the learner, as an “active, creative and socially interactive participant”

(Harper, 1996, p.48), just like in Vygotsky’s theory of learning (1935). And, if we intend to

follow this path, we may need the tool(s) the learner might need in order to construct

knowledge; in this context, Digital media, as the author states, may be the tool we need.

Although the Internet may not be something new in our lives, the current 2.0 system

provides opportunities for us to become learners and producers at the same time. During the

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Rossino, Carolina

Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés INSPT – UTN 2011

Written Assignment for Final Exam

early years of the Web 1.0, the creation of projects necessitate a lot of effort and technical

knowledge, what is more, we were not able to modify our work and the products of the

activities were rarely published. In the author’s words, the web, for most people, “was not a

creative space” (Ruschoff, 2006, p. 46). Nowadays, the Web 2.0 has become a

“participatory platform […] where […] anyone can contribute to an ongoing ‘conversation’

in which knowledge is both discovered and constructed as it goes on” (Freeman, 2006, p.

47). This new concept not only has changed our attitude towards our idea of

communication and knowledge construction, but has also ‘created’ a new generation of

people: the so- called “digital natives”. This generation and the different characteristics

they share have played an important part in the inclusion of the digital media in the

curricula and the use of the internet in order to create the authentic learning environment

we have discussed before.

However, as Ruschoff (2006) states, “authenticity cannot be limited to replacing the

textbooks with a sample of real language”. But if there is not only a sample of real language

(a text, an audio or a video) but also tasks the learners can both identify with and relate to

their experiences in life, we can say there is true authenticity.

As a conclusion of this chapter, we are able to say that there must be a purpose and

urgency for the agency of the learner to take place into the authentic environment we are

intended to create; in the author’s own words : “Learners need to feel the need to become

actively involved in learning scenarios they consider […]valid and purposeful in their

lives”(Ruschoff, 2006) and, more important, they need to share this experience, to get a

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Rossino, Carolina

Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés INSPT – UTN 2011

Written Assignment for Final Exam

feedback and to “expose” this learning that is taking part. By producing and publishing

“radio- clips” or other kind of broadcasts, we may be able to see the output and they may

benefit from the feedback the listeners or viewers often provide.

There is one last challenge, “to find models for how to connect various web

applications […] into coherent learning experiences” (Purushotma, 2005, p. 55); because

using Digital media is not a challenge any more.

References:

Ruschoff, B. (2006) Output Oriented Language Learning with Digital Media. In

Thomas, M. (2009) Handbook of Research on Web 2.0 and Second Language

Learning (pp. 42-59). Japan: Nagoya University of Commerce and Business.

Ellis, R. (1985). Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Harper, B. (1996). Using cognitive tools in interactive multimedia. Retrieved June 11, 2008,

from http://www.auc.edu.au/conf/Conf96/Papers/Harper.html

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Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés INSPT – UTN 2011

Written Assignment for Final Exam

Purushotma R. (2005). Communicative 2.0 — foreign language education learning with

video games and authentic web media. Retrieved April 1, 2008, from

www.lingualgamers.com/thesis/

Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and

comprehensible output in its development. In Gass, S., & Madden, C. (Eds.), Input in

second language acquisition (pp. 235-256). New York: Newbury House.

“THE FUTURE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ELT”

Technology is playing an important part in our lives, and as our lives include

education in all the senses, we can find technology shaping us as learners and educators

too.

According to Dudeney and Hockly (2007), the term distance learning has referred to

“traditional paper-based distance courses delivered by mail”. Nowadays, this has been

replaced by the use of the Internet, and the term is often used as a synonym for E-learning,

which includes other types of learning, such as open learning, online learning and blended

learning. This is the way the digital natives construct their world, by using tools that are

different from the tools digital immigrants were able to use. And this use of the technology

has lead to what Sharma and Barret (2007) called “normalization of technology”; it is part

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Rossino, Carolina

Aplicaciones de la Informática Educativa a la Enseñanza del Inglés INSPT – UTN 2011

Written Assignment for Final Exam

of our everyday life and we have to adopt it and adapt it to our needs; always bearing in

mind that it is only a tool and not a replacement for the human factor.

As a conclusion, we can say that technology is part of our lives and its playing an

important part on them, becoming almost ‘invisible’, but changing the way we construct

our world and changing the world itself almost continually.

References

Dudeney, G. & Hockly, N. (2007). E- learning: Online Teaching and Training. In

How to Teach English with Technology (pp.136 – 147). Malaysia: Pearson

Education Limited.

Sharma, P. & Barret, B. (2007) Blended Learning: Using technology in and beyond

the language classroom (p. 132) Great Britain: MacMillan Publishers Limited.

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