WORKING PAPER - SECOND INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIA ON RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES TO BE HELD IN BOGOTA COLOMBIA, AUGUST 17- 19, 2011

WORKING PAPER - SECOND INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIA ON RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES TO BE HELD IN BOGOTA COLOMBIA, AUGUST 17- 19, 2011

“CSIT” TEACHING MODEL AND WIKIS: INNOVATING FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING

ABSTRACT

The current communicative needs and sociocultural interests of the modern world demand new practices and environments in the foreign language classroom. One way of innovating foreign language teaching and learning can be the integrated use of wikis and the CSIT teaching model. This integration can provide opportunities not only to renew language learning and teaching methods but to rethink the roles of teachers and learners, and ultimately to move from information processing to knowledge construction.

KEY WORDS

Innovation, ICTs, wikis, CSIT teaching model, foreign language classroom.

RESUMEN

Las necesidades comunicativas y los intereses socioculturales actuales del mundo moderno exigen prácticas y ambientes nuevos en el salón de lengua extranjera. Una manera de innovar la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras puede ser el uso integrado de wikis y el modelo de enseñanza CAIT. Esta integración puede proporcionar oportunidades no sólo para renovar los métodos de enseñanza y aprendizaje de lengua sino para repensar los roles de los profesores y aprendices y, en últimas, trascender del procesamiento de información a la construcción de conocimiento.

PALABRAS CLAVES

Innovación, TICs, wikis, modelo de enseñanza CAIT, salón de lengua extranjera.

INTRODUCTION

One way of innovating language teaching can be the use of new technologies, which provides opportunities not only to renew course contents and teaching methods but to rethink the process of learning in order to transform information into knowledge and understanding (Semenov, 2005). Warschauer and Meskill (2000) state that, among other things, new technologies can help students have opportunities for authentic and meaningful interaction both within and outside the classroom, access different tools for their own social, cultural, and linguistic exploration and gain apprenticeship into new discourse communities. For their part, Padurean and Margan (2009) explain that new technologies allow the development not only of instrumental skills but also knowledge of new languages​​(audiovisual and hypertextual) as well as teaching competencies and methodological skills in virtual environments.

The Constructivist, Self-regulating, Interactive and Technological (CSIT) teaching model (CAIT as it called in Spanish), established by the Forum's Internet Educational Foundation Meeting (Beltrán and Pérez, 2003) may be a concrete way to strengthen educational planning, implementation and evaluation through new technologies. This model is based on the context of a pedagogy of imagination centered on the student, expecting him/her to subject the information collected online to the action of critical thinking. In addition, this model understands technology as a cognitive tool to stimulate the development of analytical thinking, pragmatic and dialectical processes (Soler, 2003; Beltrán y Pérez, 2004).

For their role as task organizers, input providers, and language teaching management resources, wikis can become useful cognitive tools for both teachers and students in the language curriculum. Parker and Chao (2007) explain that wikis can be used as a source of information and knowledge, as well as a tool for collaborative authoring since they allow participants to engage in dialog by sharing their knowledge with the group, putting up interesting pieces of information, working together and discussing issues. For language learning, contends Lund (2008), wikis hold a potential for collectively producing, organizing and sustaining textual (and, increasingly, visual and auditory) resources. Gimeno and García (2009) claim that wikis are a social network that can be used to support cooperative learning tasks in the language curriculum. Due to their collaborative nature, they can be used in project-based and problem-based language learning practices where students and teachers contribute to the construction of knowledge.

CONTEXT

Currently, EFL teachers and learners are experiencing a set of pedagogical and sociocultural changes that asks from them better language practices and environments: improved teaching and learning philosophies, integrationist curricula, the emergence of new means of communication, etc. See discussion about some of those changes below.

Competency and performance-based curricula

Oliver (2002) states that competency and performance-based curricula tend to require (a) access to a variety of information sources and forms; (b) student-centered learning contexts based on information access and inquiry; (d) learning environments centered on problem- and inquiry-based activities and (e) teachers as coaches and mentors rather than content experts. In his opinion, contemporary ICTs are able to provide strong support for all these requirements because, among other things, they provide and support for resource-based, student centered settings, enable learning to be related to context and to practice, and encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning. Ultimately, ICTs can allow teachers and students to move from a transmissionist classroom centered on information memorization to a constructivist classroom based on knowledge generation.

Information literacy

Shetzer and Warschauer (2000, p. 172) state that previously language educators considered how to use information technology in order to teach language, nowadays they need to consider how to teach language so that their learners can make effective use of information technology. This shift resulted from the emergence of what some authors have called information literacy, which consists of knowing how to use computers and access information to reflect critically on the nature of information itself, its technical infrastructure, and its sociocultural and ideological context and impact (Shapiro and Hughes, 1996). As a result of this new kind of literacy, Nishinoh (2005) claims that instruction in the English classroom has to improve students’ information literacy/skills in general and improve their English skills while making use of the information literacy/skills which are being learned.

ICT in language learning and teaching

Rozgiene, Medvedeva, and Straková (2008) state that teachers need to work with hypermedia and internet in their classes because they provide a number of advantages for language learning. First of all, all language skills can be easily integrated in task-based learning. Secondly, learners have greater control over their learning because they can go at their own pace, skipping some parts or going back to review the material. Thirdly, the learner can access various learning tools like grammatical explanations or exercises, vocabulary notes or comments, pronunciation information, or questions or prompts. Finally, learners can share not only brief messages, but also create interactive graphics, sounds, and videos, which can facilitate collaborative learning.

Wikis and language learning and teaching

According to Lund (2006), the production and appropriation of language in wikis go beyond individualistic and mentalist approaches to language learning since these interfaces make possible the development of activities that require multiple participants with a collective goal in common. Also, explains Lund, since wikis have resources to face complex problems, they facilitate the production of language. Kovacic, Bubas and Zlatovic (2008) claim that wikis can be used in language learning to encourage student interaction and discovery while helping the students acquire the linguistic content of the language course. To them, the flexibility and relative easy use of wikis make them suitable for the implementation of learning paradigms like collaborative learning and social constructivism. Similarly, in a study about the use of a wiki in an EFL class, Chen (2008) concludes that the wiki environment can allow students to fulfill their role duties, cooperate, negotiate, manage and model their contributions from each other.

DEVELOPMENT

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