Higher education students, just like everybody else, need to be able to safely, critically, creatively and productively take part in a digital society. Language instructors can help their students become digital citizens by including content related to, among others, digital literacy, digital footprint, copyright and intellectual property respect, health and wellness, security and privacy (Digital Citizenship Conversations) in the coursework. In so doing, while developing foreign/second language skills, they can prepare their students for life and work in a digital society.
As to pedagogy, teaching digital citizenship can be implemented in a higher education language classroom by using technology-enhanced task-based language teaching (TBLT) (see chapter 9 in THIS book). In this approach, we focus on a real-world task (that is real communication, authentic communicative situations), not a grammar point or a lexical area. Language is a communication instrument which enables task completion. Students are exposed to language (input) and use their language resources to execute the task at hand (language output, production). What is important, students have an opportunity to understand what they (don’t) know and become more aware of their learning needs. The instructional cycle consists of three stages:
Description of the TBLT speaking activity. I applied this approach in my speaking course for English Studies students (as part of their “practical English” programme). By engaging them with the tasks on digital citizenship, I aimed to develop both their content knowledge (see THIS post on the importance of developing students content knowledge for speaking) and their English speaking skills. I targeted these specific skill areas:
As part of their obligatory coursework, out-of-class, throughout the whole semester, the students did research on an assigned topic, recorded and shared their 3-minute talks using the SoundCloud application (HERE is more about this online oral production activity). Instructions for each task were published on Moodle and included the following elements:
The TBLT sequence. At the pre-task stage, the students were provided with the topic, the websites that they could use to learn about the topic, as well a list of aspects that could be considered in the podcast. At the task stage, the students recorded their podcasts using the SoundCloud application and submitted the recording online. Finally, at the post-task stage, the students got feedback from peers: they accessed podcasts online, listened to them and gave feedback with reference to the provided criteria. After that, each student received individual feedback from me through the Moodle messenger. A sample task. Topic: Managing digital footprint on the Internet. Aim: to persuade people to take more care when it comes to their online reputation. Audience: your group. Duration: 3 minutes. Submit HERE [the link]. In order to record the podcast, you can consider:
Browse these resources to get more information: Your podcast will be assessed using these criteria: 1) How effective was the speaker?
Sample feedback on student podcasts. The students could score the maximum of 6 points for each criterion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2020
Categories |