New EU countries
Language learning and teaching through social media in new EU countries: the case of Romania, Latvia and Poland
A joint research project involving the University of Latvia, Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University Ovidius Constanta, Romania, College of Foreign Languages, Czestochowa, Poland and the University of Luxembourg.
About our activities
teachers with low ICT skills took place in Latvia, Poland and Romania in April 2011
1. Using online resources - images, videos, podcast (Flickr, Youtube, TeacherTube)
2. Creating presentations (280Slides, Prezi, WordCloud)
3. Online polls (Survey Monkey, Doodle)
4. Social bookmarking (Delicious, Diigo)
5. Online Communications -Computer Mediated Communication (Skype, WiZiQ, Wallwisher, Voicethread)
6. Mindmapping (Freemind, Map42)
7. Working in the cloud - colaborative working (Evernote, Dropbox, Scribd)
All handouts and training materials are available for free in English, Polish, Latvian and Romanian.
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WEBINAR
Language learners using social media: What is happening in Latvia, Poland and Romania?
The recording of the webinar is available here
Riga, 11 February, 2011
- Some of the topics discussed involve:
- How, and for what purposes, do language learners use the Internet in their everyday life and to learn languages?
- What are learners’ perceptions and attitudes in relation to social media?
- What motivates learners to become active users and contributors in social spaces on the Internet?
FORUM
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An open forum discussion was launched for two monthes just after the webinar and expanded the real-time debate by giving more opportunities to exchange in asynchronous mode.
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STUDY
Social media and language learning: beliefs, attitudes and uses in Latvia, Poland and Romania
Available in English, French, Latvian, Polish and Romanian
On a basis of approximately 60 interviews carried out in Latvia, Poland and Romania with people of varying degrees of computer use and familiarity with web 2.0 technologies, we will attempt to answer the following questions, based on mixed method research (interviews, questionnaires and cross-country quantitative data):
What are the most prevailing current uses of the Internet? How do they relate to what we call Web 1.0 and Web 2.0?
What do individuals mean by “social media”? Do they perceive "social media" as a distinct form of the Internet?
What do users do with social media? What are people’s beliefs concerning the use of social media for learning languages?
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KEY POINTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Key point 1
According to the survey “Social media and language learning: beliefs, attitudes and uses in Latvia, Poland and Romania” the internet population of the three countries is young, engaged in participatory uses and eager to try out social media tools and integrate them in their everyday life and language learning. Accessibility and interactivity are seen as one of the most important features of web 2.0. The text-chat and social media are favourite tools, with relatively high levels of confidence in web-searching, using email, copying/pasting text and files/folders, and less in creating content such as websites or blogs.
RECOMMENDATION:
In the light of the above, language teachers may want to consider ways of introducing more language learning activities with the use of social media, so as to integrate language learning into learners’ participatory cultures on the internet.
Key point 2
The use of social media depends on a variety of factors, among which the user’s skills and personality traits seem vital: Skills necessary for social media use can be broadly divided into technical skills and content management skills. As to social media and language skills, the participants need to develop new literacies enabling them to use metalanguage and different types of discourse, as well as to take a critical approach to text and information.
RECOMMENDATION:
Digital literacies do not necessarily accompany the expansion of social networking tools. Therefore, language pedagogy should not only promote language interaction through social networking tools, but also cover the literacy that will make this interaction a valuable learning experience....
Key point 3
Similarities in Internet uses across EU countries are being reported (e.g. Eurydice studies) while at the same time country- and context-specific differences exist. As the survey findings show, the social media landscape reflects this phenomeno too. Types of barriers to social media use exist (technical, cultural, psychological and pedagogical) but are not identical in the three countries and are not addressed in the same way in each context.
RECOMMENDATION:
Extended research, combining qualitative and quantitative approaches and methodologies, is needed to shed more light on the real uses of social media, namely for language learning. Field analysis that looks at the reality of participatory cultures and questions older analytical frameworks is necessary in order to grasp the unique social media landscape, its evolution and its link to personal growth in a lifelong perspective.