This paper presents an experiment on the potential pedagogical benefits of collaborative reverse subtitling in foreign language education. The principal objective was to discover whether reverse subtitling used as a collaborative language learning tool could enhance general translation and writing skills. The participants involved in the study had two and a half months to subtitle two short clips and were monitored as they followed a series of steps guiding their work week by week. The findings obtained from the analysis of the language tests results, the answers given to questionnaires and the teachers' observations are promising. Given the small size of the sample (20 students), it is difficult to make generalisations. However, the main conclusion is that writing and general translation skills can be fostered by the use of reverse subtitling within an online, collaborative learning framework. This is a very encouraging result that we believe will lead the way to further research in the field.
In this short paper, we present some initial work on Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) undertaken by the ATLAS research group. ATLAS embraced this multidisciplinary field cutting across Mobile Learning and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) as a natural step in their quest to find learning formulas for professional English that adapt to the changing profiles and needs of our modern society. A needs-analysis undertaken by group members highlights the way in which professionals need to have language learning activities available on their mobile devices. The SO-CALL-ME project has been established to enable such MALL apps, designed and developed within the ATLAS group, to be studied with real users to explore the way in which they can improve their oral language skills. Here one such app, ANT-Audio News Trainer, is presented as an example of the development being undertaken.
C urrently, there is an international change in education that includes the development of new learning programmes and policies, such as (a) bilingual education programmes, (b) the Bologna process, with an emphasis on a more autonomous way of learning, or (c) the systematic evaluation and assessment of students and educational results. These changes in the educational situation require changing the way we learn, think and behave. Thus have emerged several new scenarios and environments for teaching and learning, such as blended learning, e-learning, ubiquitous learning or incidental learning. All these new approaches put the focus on learners and are intended to adapt to their needs and limitations. It seems that the easiest way to implement these new approaches is to apply Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to teaching and/or learning. This is the main assumption underlying the research in important language teaching and learning areas, such as Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL). This chapter (as well as this whole volume) tries to show how this goal is currently being achieved.
T his article presents a prototype social Mobile Assisted Language Learning (henceforth, MALL) app based on Kukulska-Hulme's (2012) conceptual framework. This research allows the exploration of time, place and activity type as key factors in the design of MALL apps, and is the first step toward a systematic analysis of such a framework in this type of app in the future. Firstly, the selected conceptual framework is discussed, emphasising the adequacy of its development (or even adaptation) for the systematised design of mobile apps for second language learning.Secondly, the prototype of the Audio News Trainer (ANT) app, which aims at developing oral and written competences in a mixed individual-social modality, is presented in terms of its formal features and its functionality.Finally, some preliminary findings are presented together with suggestions for further development.
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