Pixel International Conferences

Educational technology awards many new advantages to teaching and learning a second language. Current research in second language acquisition states that in order to attain high learning outcomes foreign language learning has to be authentic, culturally meaningful and cognitively appropriate. Computer-based instruction allows to introduce authentic and culturally rich materials from the very beginning of language learning, and thus motivate and empower the students. Poetry in a foreign language classroom presents an ideal medium through which the students can learn new grammar and vocabulary in context, practice their pronunciation and correct intonation while enriching their cultural and literary knowledge of the target country.

The paper will present a web-based project developed at Yale University that contains more than a hundred poems in Russian, geared to different levels of proficiency, all with complete audiofiles, extensive glosses, background notes in both languages and supplementary grammar and vocabulary exercises. The presentation will focus on the benefits of computer-mediated instruction based on the literary poetic texts and propose different ways of integrating poetry into the second language courses at different levels of proficiency, from beginners to advanced learners.

http://russianpoetry.yale.edu/

Digital format enables language learners to work on their own pace, extending the learning beyond the classroom and granting the learner more autonomy, it allows to access the audio simultaneously with a printed text, and it can provide extensive support to a novice language learner such as glosses opening on demand, images, questions guiding the reading comprehension, and additional context. Computer-based reading and speaking activities will also be discussed.