Thornedy, Thorne, Thorne, Thorne

This was a pretty good article. Thorne does a good job of not only stating how to use technology in the classroom but how technology fits into various language acquisition theories. Thorne also talked about how technology can fit into classroom pedagogy and described how to use wikis, blogs and gaming in the classroom to enhance SLA.

I’m glad that Thorne included the various language acquisition theories and how technology fits into those theories. This has helped me to focus more on how I can apply the various theories of SLA and technology in my own research.

The section of the article I chose to focus on the most was the section that dealt with how open internet communities can enhance SLA. I found it quite interesting that the students from various cultures responded and used the technology in completing different ways. I also found it encouraging the students were able to identify and discuss how the partnerships helped enhance SLA. I have been thinking of trying to arrange a telecollaboration with another school but have not quite organized it as of yet. In the past, I have had my students email or be keypals with other students in Japan and Italy but the students had a hard time trying to figure out what to write and often tines responses were quite slow. I would love to do a telecollaboration project using some sort of chat (iChat, Skype) that has a video chat option. I think that would help students to realize that the other students existed in some other realm instead of just on a computer screen and hopefully that would encourage students to form a more worthwhile relationship.

Many of the ideas in this article have been the same ideas that have been presented in many other articles as well. I think it is extremely important to allow students to craft their own identities and personalities. With so many students coming from such a variety of backgrounds it is so important that we incorporate these differences into our classroom and allow students to express their individuality.

Thorn, S. (2006). New technologies and additional language learning. CALPER Working Paper Series, 1-26