[EN] Despite the vast research into motivation in traditional Foreign Language Learning (FLL) environments, there has been little done into retention for online FLL. There are many factors that influence retention in online FLL environments and this thesis' original contribution to knowledge was to study the most important aspects for that context. Thus the objectives of this study are to explore the co-existence and interconnectedness between peers, students' indications of autonomous behaviour and the significance of relevance for continuity within a distant / online learning environment and how these issues relate to motivation. This qualitative research study developed a 5-week Intercultural Communication course for students who were at a B1 and B2 (following the Common European Framework of reference for Languages) level of Spanish and English that was delivered entirely online. These students were placed into groups for tutorials and met twice a week on Google Hangouts to practise their target language with natives of that language and discuss the course concepts and their relevance to FLL and their personal lives. These linguistic exchanges were recorded. The dataset that was analysed to draw conclusions were these recordings, statistics from the Blackboard learning platform course site and the pre- and post-course questionnaires. Research into distance and online learning shows that isolation plays a key role in students' decisions to abandon their chosen course. Despite that, current and available technologies have not yet exploited online learning tools that foster and encourage networked learning connections. This thesis concluded that those results are also true for the online FLL context and that emphasis must be placed on giving students opportunities to work autonomously; create spaces that will foster peer interaction, resulting in peer support; and ensure students are continuously aware of the relevance of what they are learning in order to maintain motivation and retention and consequently knowledge acquisition. / [ES] A pesar de la amplia investigación en motivación en los entornos tradicionales del aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera (ALE), se ha trabajado poco la cuestión de la retención del conocimiento en el ALE en línea. Existen muchos factores que influyen en la retención en entornos de ALE y la contribución al conocimiento de esta tesis es el estudio de los aspectos más importantes en ese contexto. Por lo tanto los objetivos que se plantean en esta tesis doctoral son analizar la colaboración y comunicación entre pares, los indicadores del comportamiento autónomo de los estudiantes y la importancia de continuar en un medio de aprendizaje a distancia/en línea y cómo todo ello se relaciona con la motivación. Este estudio cualitativo ha partido del desarrollo de un curso en linea de comunicación intercultural para alumnos con niveles de conocimiento de lenguas B1 y B2 (según el Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para lenguas) de cinco semanas de duración. Durante la realización del curso, estudiantes ingleses y españoles fueron distribuidos en grupos para realizar tutorías, siendo citados dos veces por semana en Google Hangouts para practicar la lengua de destino con alumnos nativos de la lengua meta (español o inglés). Los alumnos comentaban los conceptos del curso y su relevancia respecto a la enseñanza de una lengua nativa así como temas personales. Esos intercambios lingüísticos fueron grabados y junto con las estadísticas extraidas desde la plataforma de aprendizaje Blackboard y los cuestionarios previos y posteriores al curso conformaron la metodología a seguir y los resultados. Los resultados extraidos del estudio mostraron que el aislamiento juega un papel clave en la decisión de los estudiantes de abandonar el curso escogido. A pesar de eso, hemos detectado que la tecnología actual no saca provecho de las herramientas en línea para el aprendizaje de lenguas. La conclusión de esta tesis es que esos resultados son también válidos para los contextos de aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera online y por ello se ha de poner énfasis en proporcionar a los estudiantes oportunidades para trabajar autónomamente, crear espacios que fomenten la interacción entre pares, dar lugar a un apoyo mutuo, asegurándose que los estudiantes son conscientes de la relevancia de lo que aprenden para mantener la motivación y la retentiva, adquiriendo de este modo conocimiento. / [CAT] Malgrat l'àmplia recerca en motivació en entorns tradicionals d'aprenentatge d'una llengua estrangera (ALE), s'ha treballat poc la qüestió de la retentiva per a ALE online. Hi ha molts factors que influeixen en la retentiva en entorns de ALE online i la contribució original al coneixement d'aquesta tesi ha sigut l'estudi dels aspectes més importants en aqueix context. Per això, els objectius d'aquesta tesis doctoral són analitzar la col.laboració i comunicació entre parells, els indicadors del comportament autònom dels estudiants i la importància de continuar en un mitjà d'aprentatge a distància/en linia i com tot això es relaciona amb la motivació. Aquest estudi de recerca qualitativa ha desenvolupat un curs de comunicació intercultural per a estudiants amb un nivell de llengua B1 i B2 (seguint el Mac Comú Europeu de Referència de llengues) de cinc setmanes de durada, que va ser realitzat enterament online. Estudiants anglesos i espanyols van ser distribuits en grups per a tutorials i citats dues vegades a la setmana en Google Hangouts per a practicar la llengua meta amb nadius en eixe idioma i comentar els conceptes del curs, la seua rellevància respecte al ALE i també questions personals. Aqueixos intercanvis lingüístics van ser gravats. Els resultats són el conjunt de dades recopilats en els enregistraments, les estadístiques des de Blackboard learning platform course site i els qüestionaris previs i posteriors al curs. La recerca sobre l'aprenentatge a distància i online va demostrar que l'aïllament juga un paper clau en la decisió dels estudiants d'abandonar el curs escollit. Malgrat açò, les tecnologies actuals disponibles no han aprofitat les eines online d'aprenentatge per a promoure les connexions en xarxa per a animar a aprendre en línea. La conclusió d'aquesta tesi és que aqueixos resultats són també vàlids per als contextos d'aprenentatge de FLL online i per açò l'èmfasi ha de ser posat a proporcionar als estudiants oportunitats per a treballar autònomament, crear espais que fomenten la interacció entre parells, donant lloc a un suport mutu i assegurar-se que els estudiants són conscients contínuament de la rellevància del que aprenen per a mantenir la motivació i la retentiva, adquirint d'aquesta manera coneixement. / D'arcy Hernández, LH. (2016). Intercultural communication in foreign language learning and retention in online learning [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/67692 / TESIS

This paper is the second part of a study where the first part was written as a literature review on digital learning at school. In this second part the paper focuses on digital schoolbooks and their use in foreign language teaching, an area that has not been researched yet. Multimedia, interactivity and interaction are terms connected to learning with digital schoolbooks. These books aim to cover all a subject’s contents leading up to pupils using different multimedia features through a learning process. Previous findings indicate that using digital tools help to individualize teaching by supporting children’s individual needs in learning. This paper concerns on teachers and producers’ purposes and experiences in using the digital schoolbooks in foreign language learning in Swedish primary and secondary schools. The paper presents the results of interviews with four teachers and a publishers’ staff member. The main conclusions are that multimedia learning promotes effective learning and that teachers wish to increase their influence in practical terms in order to improve the books effectiveness in teaching contexts. / <p>Tyska</p>

This mixed method study aims to investigate motivation and attitudes towards English foreign language learning among Swedish upper secondary school students at vocational and preparatory programs. A quantitative questionnaire has been distributed and qualitative interviews have been conducted concerning students’ attitudes, integrative and instrumental motivation regarding English foreign language learning. Sociocultural theory has been applied to analyze the data. The findings reveal that what motivates the participants to learn English is their desires for future studies, employment, travels and global communication. The questionnaire shows that there is no difference between students’ integrative and instrumental motivation, while the interview findings reveal that the students are more instrumentally than integratively motivated. In conclusion, the findings from both studies show that there is no difference in integrative and instrumental motivation among students at the vocational and preparatory programs. Furthermore, the results reveal that students’ motivation and attitudes regarding English are affected by their goals, desires and their surroundings.

This thesis project proposed the building of a website as a repository of authentic texts in video format for teaching foreign or second languages. The project planned the building of a minimal viable product or MVP with authentic videos both in English and Spanish, organized by the ACTFL levels with particular attention to the Intermediate level. Data were collected from a survey of 42 respondents in the United States and 89 combined from Spain and Mexico. The responses collected suggest that there is a need for this MVP. Additionally, the data indicated which features were most wanted by these teachers. These features included lesson plans, turn on and off captions, tag and save videos, and a dashboard for teachers. As a result, these features were included in the MVP.

Any activities where English can be encountered in outside of school, have been labeled by Sundqvist (2009) as “extramural English activities”. One of these activities is playing games (both digital and board games), which in accordance to the research by Sundqvist (2009) and Sundqvist and Sylvén (2012) has a great impact on the learner’s English proficiency. In accordance to these prior findings, the focus of this degree project is on the gaming habits of year three students in Swedish elementary school. After presenting a theoretical background and key elements from earlier research, I examine to what extend the students play digital games, what type of games are played and most importantly; do students in year three play digital games in English? Further on, I investigate the student’s vocabulary proficiency and connect the two parts of my research together, searching for correlations between time spent gaming and vocabulary depth. This degree project also includes a gender aspect and compares gaming habits and vocabulary proficiency of girls and boys, along with interviews with four teachers and their perception on students’ participation in extramural activities and English motivation.

Past theorists have shown through their work the versatility and advantages of utilizing pre-established schemata to form a novice’s interaction with and comprehension of a text. Schemata have shown to contribute to comprehension by means of four purposes: to disambiguate, to elaborate, to filter, and to compensate (Lee & VanPatten 1999). Furthermore, we see that these schemata, or formerly attained background knowledge, are integral parts of Coady’s ESL psycholinguistic reading model (1979) , as well as Carrel’s schema theory (1984). Previous studies done by Jimenez (2000) and that of Valdés (2001) with ESL/LEP students show that motivation for learning a second language is partly derived from the social environment in which students are participants. Valdés’ study in particular supports a Funds of Knowledge Approach (Moll et. al. 1994), which stresses the need for increased attention on the social environment of the student. The present study focuses on novel L2 lexical item decoding. Students will be given a “pre-study” questionnaire in order to ascertain knowledge of and ability level of Spanish. Novices will encounter the lexical items in two different short texts. One will activate a known “social schema”, while the other will be a text for which students will not have a background structure. There will be the same amount of novel lexical items in both texts, and each text will be of the same level. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate whether, and how, students interpret the meanings of novel lexical items when they are presented in a “socially tailored” text. This new “socio-schematic approach” to L2 lexical item decoding can contribute to the stages of Reading Skill and Acquisition outlined by ACTFL. By applying this “socio-schematic approach”, implications for foreign language learning can be linked to the stages of ACTFL.

No description available.

In 2010, Brigham Young University Independent Study (BYU IS) sponsored a development project for the creation of a second-year high school Russian language learning course. The objectives of the course were to implement the five standards for foreign language learning as constituted by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages: communication, cultures, connections, comparisons, and communities. The design project is an attempt to implement these principles in an independent distance learning course, with particular emphasis on encouraging meaningful communicative learning in authentic, real-world tasks and contexts. The product of the design is a course deliverable completely online through BrainHoney, a course management system utilized by BYU IS for its courses. The product consists of eleven homogeneous lessons, each with instructional content preparing learners to communicate in a specified context that reflect real-world situations. This paper discusses the obstacles of designing a distance education language learning course, especially facilitating communication in real contexts and the design objective and products geared towards overcoming these obstacles.

Language acquisition in the digital realm is currently being explored by members of the second language acquisition community. Social networks in particular are well suited to provide the modern language learner and educator with collaborative tools. This study explores the potential of the Facebook group utility in assisting university language learners from a variety of language proficiency levels in their language learning endeavors. Participants represented four different Spanish classes at the university level. The results of the study indicate that resource sharing, student collaboration, and continuous learning are among the more fascinating benefits for pedagogical exchange in the selected common digital space.

The aim of this essay has been to investigate the role of language awareness (LA), from a teacher’s perspective in today’s Swedish upper secondary school, related to foreign language learning (with the emphasis on the cognitive aspects), and to investigate why it is important to give more attention to LA as a concept in order to enhance language acquisition. The investigation has been carried out through qualitative in-depth interviews with six foreign language teachers. The result shows that the teachers’ views of the concept do not cover all aspects of LA and that there are theoretical and practical ambiguities in the views concerning the cognitive aspects. The conclusion points to the necessity of clarification of LA and that LA ought to be explicitly mentioned and developed in the curriculum. Finally, the conclusion underlines the need of LA methodology in order to facilitate teaching in the aim of improving language learning through pupils’ metacognition.