Pixel International Conferences

The rise of network use as a global phenomenon entices language teachers and learners to modify acquisition patterns towards an increasingly learner centered approach, with grammar learning partly taking place outside the classroom.  In this paper we present a digital literacy project which investigates the potential of audiovisual learning and teaching (L&T) resources for the acquisition of grammatical knowledge and understanding in mother tongue and foreign language education. We focus on evaluation literacy, the cognitive and social skills that determine the motivation and ability of individuals to gain access to, understand and use evaluative information in ways that contribute to achieving learning goals (adapted from Rogers, Kelly & McCoy (In Press). The aim is to explore data driven learning as a way to provide incentives for contextualized grammar teaching, i.e. transforming students from passive listeners to active learners. To achieve this aim, we first administered two questionnaires to 28 linguists and EFL teachers to establish and adapt existing evaluation criteria for the selection of grammar resources. Second, we applied these evaluation criteria to 148 existing online audiovisual grammar videos. This resulted in illustrations of evaluation literacy, as well as ready-to-use information for the use of such resources by both learners and teachers. This information includes learnerlevel for both native and non-native speakers, previous knowledge required to benefit from the resources (e.g. terminology), and accessibility. Third, we developed concrete examples of learning activities which blend online instruction with face-to-face communication. This approach is expected to help learners recognize how grammatical knowledge works in authentic contexts, by generalizing through use rather than memorizing. The concrete examples of L&T will furthermore function as a framework for further discussion about digital pedagogy i.e. ways of approaching digital L&T tools from a critical pedagogical perspective.

Keywords: learner-centred approaches, digital literacy, grammar.

References:

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