Language Tasks Using Touch Screen and Mobile Technologies: Reconceptualizing Task-Based CALL for Young Language Learners

Canadian Network for Innovation in Education. 260 Dalhousie Street Suite 204, Ottawa, ON K1N 7E4, Canada. Tel: 613-241-0018; Fax: 613-241-0019; e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.cjlt.ca

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23

Handheld Devices; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Teaching Methods; Task Analysis; French; Immersion Programs; Foreign Countries; Action Research; Ethnography; Interviews; Teacher Attitudes; Student Attitudes; Learning Processes; Sociocultural Patterns; Computer Assisted Instruction; Metacognition; Elementary School Students; Elementary School Teachers; Qualitative Research; Grounded Theory

1499-6677

This article examines how the use of mobile technologies (iPods and tablets) in language classrooms contributes to redesigning task-based approaches for young language learners. The article is based on a collaborative action research (CAR) project in Early French Immersion classrooms in the province of Alberta, Canada. The data collection included digital ethnographic observation in the classrooms, students' artifacts, and interviews with teachers and students. The findings outlined how the use of mobile technologies such as iPods and tablets contributes to redesigning language tasks and activities by helping young learners to create their own learning environment and meaningful language tasks, as well as self-assess and regulate their language learning process. The research also provides evidence of how the use of mobile technologies contributes to redesigning task-based approaches for young language learners that reflect learning principles based on emergent learning theories as well as Vygotskian sociocultural theories in second language acquisition (SLA).

As Provided

68

2014

EJ1030429