Wikipedia

for Language Learning

Collaborative Learning 

Wikipedia and Wikitravel for language learning

• Read, edit & create content

• Relevant to students’ lives

• Focus on accuracy & quality

What are Wikipedia and Wikitravel?

• Collaboratively created information sources

• Anyone can add or change content

• Wiki-based technology

• Wikipedia = encyclopedia

• Wikitravel = travel guidebook

Why is Wikipedia interesting?

• Content relates to students’ lives

• Students gain an online voice

• Wikipedia is a household name & familiar to most students

• Simple to use

How can we use it for language learning?

I. Reading Wikipedia

II. Editing Wikipedia

III. Writing new content

I. Reading Wikipedia

• Source of information

• Discussion ("Talk") pages– See debate behind main text– Consider editorial processes– Language of disagreement and

discussion

II. Editing Wikipedia

• Edit content– Correct factual errors– Correct gramatical / spelling mistakes

• Discuss how informatin is created– Bias in information – Reliability of information

III. Writing Content

• Create new articles or paragraphs– Topics according to students’

expertise– Wikitravel articles about home town– Individual or group projects

• “Simple English” Wikipedia for English learners

Appropriate Pedagogies

• Task-based learning– Reading, writing and researching

tasks

• Dogme language teaching– Content generates emergent

language– Conversations about bias, reliability

etc

Find Out More…

Learn more about

Wikipedia and Wikitravel

in language learning...

www.avatarlanguages.com/teaching/wikipedia.php

Who Are We?

An online language school, offering…

…one-to-one language classes

• English

• Spanish

• Other languages

www.avatarlanguages.com