Technologies for Advanced Foreign Language Proficiency

Internet-mediated communication is no longer merely a proxy or additional activity used to foster development of communicative competence in other modalities. On the contrary, the Internet is increasingly a part of everyday communicative practice. The materials and workshops associated with the CALPER Technology project aim to prepare students and teachers to more fully realize the potential of computer-mediated-communication (CMC) for both teaching/learning and everyday communicative activity.

Computer Mediated Activity Library
CALPER's foreign language Computer Mediated Activity Library contains CMC activities with suggestions for using them in the classroom, and a bibliography with additional resources.

Professional Development Materials

• No. 1 .... SCMC, Blogs, and Wikis (2007)
  Downloadable from left sidebar.

CALPER Working Papers

New Media Literacies, Online Gaming, and Language Education

by Steven L. Thorne & Rebecca W. Black
No. 8, September 2007

New Technologies and Additional Language Learning

by Steven L. Thorne
No. 7, November 2006

Internet-mediated Intercultural Foreign Language Education: Approaches, Pedagogy, and Research

by Steven L. Thorne
No. 6, September 2005

Internet-mediated Text and Multi-modal Expression in Foreign Language Education

by Steven L. Thorne & J. Scott Payne
No. 5, June 2005

CMC Tools

The following tools are available to foreign language educators nationwide. CALPER hosts these tools, provides access to for students and teachers, offers modification to support varying practices, and enables teachers to access classroom data in ways often not possible by commercial sites. CALPER also offers consulting for institutions interested in hosting their own blogs and wikis.

• L*Wiki: A Unicode-based Wiki engine.
• L*Blog: A Unicode-based "Web log" or "Blog" client.
• L*Chat: A Flash-based chatroom client.

2008 Summer Workshop at University Park

New Technologies for Language Teaching and Learning

Monday + Tuesday, June 23-24, 2008 ..... 9:00am-4:30pm

This workshop will focus on recent and emerging technologies as they relate to the needs of foreign language teachers and learners. We will address the creation of innovative, technology-enhanced methods and activities for classroom instruction to promote the development of linguistic, cultural, pragmatic, interpersonal and communicative competencies of advanced language learners. Specific areas include: new media literacies and self-expression in Internet-mediated communication, the use of the Internet to foster language learning through intercultural dialogues, and the use of a number of multi-modal Internet tools and environments, including blogs, wikis, chat, online gaming, podcasting, and data driven learning pedagogies supported by online corpus tools. This workshop will include content for teachers and technology specialists working the foreign language education.

Presenters:
PA teachers: ACT 48 - 12 hrs

Workshop Materials

• Technology Workshop 2007 (Web Syllabus, includes links to PowerPoints)

Project Co-Directors: Steven L. Thorne and Jonathon Reinhardt, The Pennsylvania State University