Innovation in Language Learning

The ruthless use of cell phones by university students was a rude awakening to me a few years ago.  After fifteen years in the classroom, I started teaching online.  The change had partly to do with the fact that when I moved to the Netherlands i hadn't mastered Dutch and fluency was desired by almost all universities in the Netherlands.  Online universites in the U.S. then became an option; one I took gratefully.  After several years in the Netherlands, however, I decided I wanted to try to break through the system and get a face to face position.  My current university hired me despite my lacking fluency in Dutch because they said their language department was going to have English as the common language within two years.  This made sense they believed because the language department was in the business school and most agree that English is the common language in business.  After some years working at home and teaching online, it was like a shock to encounter what is considered the normal university environment.  My first trip to the school was when I went for the interview. The entrance, surrounded by students using their phones, was a small indication of what I would find within school walls.  I walked in and found the main hall swamped with students and their phones, pcs and tablets.  After the interview, I asked how much the devices were interfering with teaching and what teachers were doing for classroom management.  My soon to be colleague said she laid down the law and kicked students out.  That was not the path I wanted to take as a teacher.  I decided instead to try to incorporate the use of the devices into the learning outcomes and guide students as to when it was okay and not okay to succomb to their obsessions with communication.  I did this in the three units of the Third Year English course.  The course is made up of Writing, Legal English, and Presentations.  In the Writing unit, one of the assignments is the counter argument essay.  For this essay, I ask students to get out their devices and search for procon.org.  They then have to do further research on their debate topic and come up with an outline for my approval.  In the Legal English unit, we go over a chapter on Capitalization.  For this unit, I ask students to get out their devices and search for companies from which they might buy shares.  Then they must participate in a stock game by choosing five stocks to start with and then over a month buy and sell.  In the third unit, Presentations, students use their devices to search for topics on international business for their presentations.  In this conference paper I will back up my experience with research on the integration of the use of various devices in teaching and also go into great detail about the actual activities in my classroom to show how a classroom management issue became a path to quality and innovation in language learning and teaching.