Innovation in Language Learning

For many years the Internet has been referred to, by Downes (2004) among others, as a meeting place where dialogue is replacing information publishing and retrieval. In recent years, the WeChat phenomenon has spread throughout China, much of Asia, and beyond. According to GlobalWebIndex, WeChat is the fifth most-used smartphone app worldwide (Millward, 2013) WeChat provides multimedia communication with text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, photo/video sharing, location sharing, and contact-information exchange. WeChat supports social networking via shared streaming content feeds and location-based social plug-ins ("Shake", "Look Around", and "Drift Bottle") to connect and chat with local and international WeChat users.

This presentation includes actual Print/Audio/Photo/Video samples from our WeCHAT-based Mandarin-English Learning Community project, in which contributors describe/discuss/role play: (1)brief on-line movie segments,(2)editorial cartoons, (3) commercials. We discuss the value of this process for language learning/teaching, particularly in relation to:

WeChat-based Mass Collaboration can also serve as valuable training grounds beyond language learning/teaching (and income-generation for skilled Tutors/Audio Describers), by (1) preparing participants for career success in the emerging world of Wikinomics, based upon the principles of "openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally" (Tapscott & Williams, 2008), as well as (2) developing  “…effective habits of discriminating tested beliefs from mere assertions, guesses, and opinions…sincere, and open-minded preference for conclusions that are properly grounded, and …methods of inquiry and reasoning appropriate to the various problems that present themselves.” (Dewey, 1910/1997).