ALIS Newsletter - November 2022 (Plain Text Version)
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BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEW OF ONLINE LANGUAGE LEARNING: TIPS FOR TEACHERS Max Chamberlain, University of South Florida, Tampa Bay, Florida, USA
The Covid-19 pandemic forced teachers around the world to rapidly change from teaching classes face-to-face to delivering instruction completely online. In response to this challenge, Laurence Mann, Jieun Kiaer, and Emine Çakır have written the book Online Language Learning: Tips for Teachers, which describes the authors’ experiences with this rapid adjustment and offers advice to other educators on how they can adapt to the ever-increasing reliance on technology in education. Each chapter is centered around one tip offered by the authors and how they used it while teaching online. Each chapter ends with a summary to help educators who are short on time and would like to understand the main points. Those who teach English as a second language are sure to find useful advice for their classrooms. Chapter 1 discusses the authors’ educational context and describes how the book should be used. While the authors state that their experience involves teaching Turkish, Japanese, and Korean, they believe that language teachers across disciplines can benefit from this book. The book was published in 2022, when many schools and universities were transitioning back to in-person learning and discussions were being had on the future of online learning in the classroom. The authors state that educators should be included in this conversation and offer this book as their contribution to the conversation. The central argument in this book is that the future of language education will include online tools. They cite that apps, such as Duolingo, saw an increase in users during the pandemic as evidence that online tools have an important role for the future of language learning (Palmai & Smale, 2021). The tip focused on in Chapter 2 is to bring social media into teaching in meaningful ways. The rise of social media has helped people connect in more ways than ever before allowing for language learners to interact and learn in new ways. This includes online forums, instant messaging, videos, and educational material that can be easily accessed on widely available devices. However, while the authors advocate for the benefits of using online tools in the classroom, they acknowledge the downsides of teaching entirely online, such as screen fatigue and the lack of spontaneity that occurs in the classroom. Instead, they propose a hybrid model that combines the content that social media can provide with the benefits of face-to-face teaching. In addition to a hybrid model, the authors propose using social media to facilitate a “virtual immersion” as a more convenient alternative to the traditional Year Abroad exchange program. Chapter 3 focuses on using the Internet to diversify the curriculum. The authors state that special attention should be given towards creating a more diverse and inclusive curriculum to mitigate the risk of perpetuating preexisting notions of learning and biases that may exist. The Internet provides a wealth of authentic materials that can be useful to this end. It can also boost student motivation by allowing the student to engage in online communities that speak the target language, which is particularly beneficial to advanced learners. One example that the authors provide is a group of students that are learning Korean. These students participated in online forums dedicated to Korean pop music. The students were able to interact with Korean speakers and were exposed to slang that they had not encountered in the classroom. This use of forums not only allowed the students to learn Korean in an informal context, but also allowed the students to engage with a culture that they wanted to learn about. Teachers can encourage student motivation by allowing the students to engage with topics they are interested in online while also having conversations with proficient speakers. However, not all information online is reliable, and teachers must be wary of where students are getting their information from as well as who they are engaging with. Chapter 4 encourages educators to use social media to self-generate opportunities for professional development and suggests how to critically examine their performance in the classroom by conducting small-scale research. Whether teaching in an online or face-to-face context, the authors argue that language teachers can use online tools not only to discover new tools and techniques for the online classroom, but to make connections with an online community of like-minded professionals (Carpenter, McDade, & Childers, 2018). However, it can be difficult for an educator to determine if a new technique or tool is effective in their classroom. The authors offer methods that educators can use to determine what new techniques and tools have been successful for them by conducting small-scale research. The authors claim that by examining classroom practices in a systematic way, educators can more easily determine how well they are performing in the classroom as well as if the students are responding well to the educators’ techniques. Personal development via online tools can meet the needs of the individual teacher, as well as be used by the workplace and institutions. Chapter 5 discusses assessment and the careful consideration of how to incorporate it into the online language learning process. While this chapter primarily concerns itself with assessment in online environments, the topics can also be applied to a physical classroom environment. The authors begin by addressing the complexity of assessments and their controversial nature. They argue that while some educators have strong opinions against assessment, it is important for educators to understand the purpose of assessments, the different kinds of assessments, and how they can properly be used. Finally, the authors discuss the difficulties of using assessment in the online classroom. One such difficulty is that it is easy for students to access outside materials during a test. This turns almost every online test into an open book test. They recommend that instead of trying to prevent students from doing this, educators should reassess the goals of the class and determine if there are better ways to test the students. Educators may also decide that they want to use a traditional test format but use it for other purposes related to the classroom goals. Chapter 6 recommends language teachers keep a positive mindset while teaching in an online context and not lose faith in the skills they have acquired during their career. While it may be difficult for some educators to adjust to using online tools in the classroom, they recommend language teachers keep an open mind about using such tools, be analytical of their practices, and be creative when using new technologies. While the authors encourage a positive mindset, they suggest a healthy dose of skepticism whenever a substantial change is being proposed. They do not advocate for teaching to be completely online in the future, only for more use of the Internet in the future classroom. In terms of this book’s utility, I recommend that language teachers read this book regardless of what language or grade level they teach. While the authors teach Turkish, Japanese, and Korean at the university level, they frame their ideas in a way that can be used by any language teacher. The book’s format feels more like a conversation than a lecture on how to do things the correct way. The authors state at the beginning that they do not want to recommend specific online tools, but it would have been helpful to include a list of what online tools they used in their classrooms. In sum, the authors have written a book that caters to teachers who are short on time but interested in improving their pedagogies with technology. References Carpenter, J., McDade, C., & Childers, S. (2018). Advice seeking and giving in the Reddit r/Teachers online space. Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference, 2018(1), 2207–2215. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/182831/ Mann, L., Kiaer, J., & Çakır, E. (2022). Online language learning: Tips for teachers. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91418-9 Palmai, K., & Smale, W. (2021, January 11). UK leading the way in use of language-learning apps. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55562267
Max Chamberlain graduated from the University of South Florida in the United States with a Master's in Applied Linguistics and TESOL. His research interests include computer-mediated discourse analysis, narratives, stance, and CALL. |
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