Language Learning &
Technology
Advantages, Limitations and Best Practices
Mohammad Hashemi
Warm up
• What are some of the things that
computers can do better than
teachers?
• What are some of the things that
teachers can do better than
computers?
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”
• Rushing into tech without thinking just
because:
• it is hip.
• it saves costs.
• the competition is doing it.
• it is supposed to cure all that is wrong in
the world of education.
Quiz: Who does it better? The human
or the computer?
• Lip reading
• Selling a car
• Writing bug free
software
• Transcribing
• Trading stocks
• Dealing with the
unexpected
• Flying a jet
• Diagnosing
diseases
• Playing poker
• Deciding the
relevance of
information
• Being creative
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Showing empathy
Expressing emotions
Welding
Reading an x-ray
Making people laugh
Non-routine physical
work
Booking a flight
Correcting spelling
Forming relationships
Sorting packages
• Unstructured problem
solving
• Making moral choices
• Exercising free will
• Picking a face out of a
crowd
• Creating a book index
• Watering plants
Computers vs. Humans
• Computers are good at:
– Speed
– Accuracy
– Anything rule or formula-based
• Humans are good at:
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Flexibility
Creativity
Dealing with the unexpected
Understanding/showing emotions & forming
relationships
Will I lose my teaching job to a computer?
• AI and technological singularity
• Examples:
– human child vs. billion-dollar software
– Google search (example: awesome jaguar)
– Google translate (example: hell and high
water)
Theories of Technology
• Instrumental theory: technology as culturally
neutral serving as well in one context as in another
• Substantive theory: technology as an autonomous
cultural force that restructures the social world, creating
a technology way of life.
• Critical theory: tech as an ambivalent rather than
neutral force, a site of struggle between designers and
users
Theories:
Example of a new LMS
• Instrumental (school admin): the LMS is
equally beneficial for all teachers regardless of discipline
or personal approach
• Substantive (teachers’ view): will the LMS
impose a particular way of teaching and interacting with
students? Will I be forced to grade only in ways the
computer understands?
• Critical: teachers decide which features of the LMS
would be supportive of their goals.
Technologies for language teaching/learning
Material Development
• Corpora, concordances, search engines
• Summarizers, level tools, readability tools, etc.
• Digital storytelling and podcasting (esp. for
flipped classrooms)
• Repurposing and enhancing existing material
• Using advanced search skills and a bit of coding
to find more pertinent material
• Note: importance of context in material design and
choices
Technologies for language teaching/learning
Learning
• Big four tools: blogs, wikis, social
networking, podcasting
– Blogs: to deliver material to students or get
students to produce material and comment
– Wikis: for collaborative writing and projects
– Social networking: to interact as a community
– Podcasting: audiovisual production,
consumption
Online and blended (hybrid) courses
• blended models
– Flipped classrooms
• Station rotation
• Lab rotation
• Flex
• See www.blendedlearning.org for info.
Technologies for language teaching/learning
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Mobile learning
Gaming
Virtual and augmented reality
Extending the teaching of textbooks with
technology
Technologies for language teaching/learning
Testing
• Advantages
– Speed
– Accuracy
– Adaptive testing
– Statistics
• Disadvantages
– Limited to certain types of evaluation (multiple
choice, matching, true/false
Technologies for language teaching/learning
teacher education
• Tutela
The future
• Evolving roles of learners and teachers
• Virtual and augmented reality classrooms
• Cyborgs?
conclusion
• The bright side:
– Computers are more efficient than teachers in many areas.
– Computers free up teachers’ time to do more creative activities.
– Computers continue to change the roles of both students and
teachers hopefully for the better.
• The dark side:
– Shortened attention span
– Weakened memorization skills
– Loss of deep and critical thinking
Sources
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Farr, Fiona & Murray, Liam. The Routledge Handbook of Language
Learning and Technology. NY: Routledge 2016.
Herzog, Werner. Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World. Saville
Productions 2016. Film.
www.blendedlearning.org
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2017/04/24-things-artificiallyintelligent-computers-can-do-better-than-you-can.html