CALICO with IALLT 26TH Annual Conference
“Language Learning in the Era of Ubiquitous Computing”
Arizona State University
March 10-14, 2009
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Producing Digital Videos:
A Sociocultural Approach
Luba Iskold, Ed. D.
Muhlenberg College
Allentown, PA
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Presentation Outline
• Background: Theoretical Perspectives
• Research Related to Listening
• Building Communicative Skills
• Collaborative Service-Learning Project
• Discussion: Pros & Cons of the “Legacy” Project
• Examples of Online Materials
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Background Information
Theoretical Foundations of
Second Language Acquisition
• Comprehension-based approaches
(Krashen, 1985-1990; Terrel, 1986)
• Cognitive-theoretical view of language acquisition
(O’Mally & Chomat, 1993)
• Sociocultural approaches to language learning based on a more
general sociocultural theory proposed by Vygotsky (1962, 1978)
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Sociocultural Approaches to Language Learning
Genetic analysis
• Interpretation of learning should take into account social, cultural,
and historic trends
Social learning
• Interactions with teachers or peers allow learners to advance
through their “zone of proximal development” (ZPD), the distance
between what they can achieve by themselves and what they can
accomplish when assisted by others (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 58)
Mediation
• Interprets the teacher’s role as a “facilitator, guide, and, when
appropriate, expert” in apprenticing students into “discourse and
social practices” of the communities of native speakers
(Warschauer, 1997, p. 90)
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Why is Listening Important?
• Rivers (1975) reported data on how adults spend their
communicative time:
40%-50%
25%-30%
11%-16%
9%
listening
speaking
reading
writing
• In our “media saturated” world students are “increasingly expected
to obtain information from oral rather than written sources”
(Joiner et al., 1989, p.427)
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Research Related to Listening
• Research on listening and reading comprehension
• Factors that affect listening comprehension
• Research on listener characteristics
• Authentic materials in listening research
• Video in listening research
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Factors that Affect Listening Comprehension
How do listeners integrate phonologic, syntactic, lexical, and sociolinguistic
information?
According to Rubin (1994), the following factors affect listening comprehension:
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Text Characteristics (variations in listening passage/text or associated visual
support)
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Interlocutor Characteristics (variations in the speaker’s personal
characteristics)
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Listener Characteristics (variations in the listener’s personal characteristics)
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Process Characteristics (variations in the listener’s cognitive activities and
in the nature of interaction between the speaker and the listener)
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Task characteristics (variations in the purpose for listening and the
associated responses)
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Video as a Source of Authentic Discourse
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Unmodified authentic discourse, a genuine act of communication
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Simulated authentic discourse, a discourse for pedagogical purposes that
exhibits features that have a high probability of occurrence in genuine acts
of communication (Geddes and White, 1979)
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Examples:
– Simulated authentic discourse in a video-driven course package
– Authentic online newscasts
– Interviews with native speakers conducted by students
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What is Service Learning?
• Method of teaching, learning, and reflecting
• Combines academic curriculum with service experiences that meet
community needs
• Teaching methodology: experiential education
“Legacy”
Project
• Guest speaker: Story telling & living history
• Students:
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–
–
–
–
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Discussed, wrote, and peer-edited interview questions
Conducted and filmed interviews with native speakers of Russian
Watched each video repeatedly
Produced videotext transcripts in Russian
Translated videotexts into English
Prepared vocabulary lists & cultural glosses
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Factors that Affect Listening Comprehension
as Found in Student-conducted Interviews
Text Characteristics
• Texts are produced by native speakers, but with student learners of
Russian in mind
• Subject matter unfamiliar to students
• Absence of visual support
• Long sentences with complex grammar.
– For example, relative clauses
• Sophisticated, frequently unfamiliar vocabulary
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Factors that Affect Listening Comprehension
as Found in Student-conducted Interviews
Speech (Interlocutor) Characteristics
• Normal pauses, hesitations, corrections,
paraphrase
• Occasional reduction of vowels and assimilation
of consonants
• Input is not rehearsed and is produced
spontaneously
• Interviews represent natural discourse
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Factors that Affect Listening Comprehension
as Found in Student-conducted Interviews
• Process Characteristics
– Negotiation of meaning and questions for clarification
characterize discourse
– Listeners carry out an active participatory role
• Task Characteristics
– Learners solicit answers to questions of their interest
• Listener Characteristics
– Most students at the Conversation & Composition level have had
little prior exposure to unmodified authentic discourse
– L2 learners have imperfect control of linguistic code
– Learners exhibit low tolerance for information gaps
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Instructional Challenges
Understanding instructional goals:
Learning to Listen vs. Listening to Learn (Lund, 1991)
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Learning to Listen
Receptive approach that involves the teaching of listening skills
Instructional Objective:
• Developing tasks that cultivate skills for structural and sociocultural
comprehension
Listening to Learn
Integrated approach - video provides a starting point for work on
productive skills:
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•
•
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vocabulary development
structural analysis
conversation
analytical writing
Instructional Objective:
• Developing learning activities that cultivate receptive and productive skills
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Designing Listening Comprehension Tasks
Richards (1983) suggested manipulation of two variables: the input and the
task (pp. 227-229)
INPUT  MICRO-SKILLS  TASKS
Pre-listening Objectives:
– Elicit students’ background knowledge
– Identify students’ previous experiences
– Generate a meaningful framework for further development
of comprehension and linguistic skills
– Reduce anxiety of confronting the unknown
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Low-production Tasks while Watching the
Video:
• Scaffolding, assisting with comprehension of lexical
items (e.g., add subtitles or full scripts, then steadily
withdraw help as the semester progresses)
• Focusing attention on particular features of the videotext
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–
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Identifying main ideas, characters, places
Recognizing vocabulary, identifying cognates
Conducting grammar observations
Classifying statements and determining intonation patterns
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High-production Objectives: Activities & Tasks
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Facilitating retention of linguistic items:
– Paragraph-level oral and written summaries
– Exercises for active vocabulary development
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Fostering critical thinking and students’ analytical skills:
– Express your opinion about the event
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Tasks that bring L2 into active use:
– Recall, recognition, and application exercises
– Compare findings with other students in the group
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Conclusion
Avoid
• Cognitive overload
• Task overload
• Long video episodes, exceeding 3 min. in length
Provide
• Parallel texts for reading (full text, captions, key words)
• More viewing sessions of fewer discrete episodes
• Class time and screen space for note taking
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Contact Information:
Dr. Luba Iskold
2400 Chew Street
Muhlenberg College,
Languages, Literatures and Cultures,
Allentown, PA 18104
Phone: 484-664-3516
Fax: 484-664-3722
E-mail: iskold@muhlenberg.edu
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/forlang/LLC/iskold_home/index.htm
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