LANDSCAPES FOR LEARNING: CONCEPTUAL AND HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK

•Flávia Rodrigues Nunes•Lídia das Chagas Pedro•Mariana Clímaco•Michel Souza

Changes in theories of learning affect uses of technology, but new

technologies also make new kinds of interactions possible and hence

affect theories of learning. (Cognition & Technology Group at

Vanderbilt, 1996)

In his treatment of the historical developments in language pedagogy, Stern (1992, p.6) isolates three ways in which language

pedagogy has aimed to renew and improve itself:

1. Innovation through change in teaching methods;

2. Innovation through language-related sciences and research;

3. Technological innovation.

The evolution of second- and foreign- language teaching has been clearly chronicled and delineated by researchers and theorists and has been largely discussed and debated in a ”methods” framework.

Stern (1983) describes a method as a ”theory of language teaching” or school of thought resulting ”from practical and theoretical discussions in a given historical context”(p. 452).

The 19th Century The characterizing feature of the method –

Grammar Translation Method – was its emphasis on translation into and from the target language. The goal of studying a foreign language was to learn the language so as to be able to read its literature.

Little emphasis on speaking or listening to the language was encouraged. Instead, the ”book-oriented method” reflected an intellectual activity of mental discipline involving reading and memorization of rules and facts (Stern, 1983).

The consequence was that...

In the final decades of the nineteenth century, grammar translation was attacked as a cold and lifeless approach to language teaching, and it was blamed for the failure

of foreign language teaching. The majority of language teaching reforms

in the late nineteenth century and throughout the first half of the twentieth

developed in opposition to grammar-translation.

The Early 20th Century

The interest in developing principles grew out of naturalistic principles of first-language acquisition and reflected the beginnings of the discipline of applied linguistics.

The principles emphasized the importance of listening and speaking the foreign language. Meaningful contexts for learning, inductive teaching of grammar and avoidance of translation were some of the principles put forth.

These principles provided the foundation for the Direct Method.

The new method which emphasized communication in the target language arose out of the need for more effective language learning ”in a new world of industry and international trade and travel”.

The Language Laboratory

The laboratory of language emerged in the mid-50’s with the intention of facilitating learning

The laboratory was composed of individual structures containing a cassette tape recorder where the student had access to the discipline studied and could record their own comments in the breaks

It was possible a communication between two people in a confined space thru a radio

Finally with this feature was possible to improve the teaching / learning the language, in this case English

The title speaks for itself ... and it tells us?!

CALL that is the acronym used to describe the technology that was developed to assist teaching and learning of languages

It can be divided into three stages:Behaviorist; Communicative; and Interactive.

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL)

Behavioristic CALL This phase of CALL is a behaviorist point where the

introduction of the computer allows for repetition and memorization of knowledge

It also allows a teaching / learning individualized and easily accessible without the computer gets tired of repeating

This phase was to fall into the academic and teaching as

a method that injects knowledge and not the individual constructs

And with the boom of the web and unrestricted access to more varied sources of information about everything, including on new methods of language teaching

Communicative CALL

The pedagogical approach in this phase is performed through the construction of knowledge

Students and teachers are the protagonists of their ways to learn and pass knowledge on

This is a phase in which learning becomes fun, because the teacher has several options tools, particularly via the Internet

It is a phase in which the individual can connect their knowledge with the world has acquired new information presented to all in a sometimes abrupt

Technology-Enhanced Language Learning (TELL)

TELL: this stage is part of the process Interactive CALL, which means work on specific bases at the computer for different subjects

Use of social networks as a method of teaching as well as blogs and space for socializing where the user can interact with a group of people or a crowd or publishing papers commenting on the work of others

It is a phase that tends to extend taking into account the speed of technological change today, and the dynamism with which humans can adapt to something new

It is a phase where the individual has total control over the information that must be absorbed or not and how better way to exchange thoughts useless of new thoughts