Preservice teachers’ use of a translation app with dual language learners

Abstract

Many practicing teachers face challenges with effective technology integration (Keengwe & Onchwari, 2009). Teachers who do integrate technology into their educational practices understand that it is not an end-all solution, but rather a support to their current pedagogical and content practices. However, a simple question remains among current early childhood educators, how can technology be effectively used and integrated into classroom environments in order to facilitate children's learning and development? Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore how pre-service teachers (PSTs) integrated technology (a translation app) into their lessons and how students (dual language learners) responded to the use.1. How do pre-service teachers integrate Speak & Translate with dual language learners? 2. How do dual language learners respond to the use of Speak & Translate?

A Systematic Review of Machine-Translation-Assisted Language Learning for Sustainable Education

“…Thus, it is necessary to review the recent literature and explore the ways in which previous studies integrated MT tools. Furthermore, the perceived benefits and drawbacks of MT applications highly depended on the quality of MT integration [29]. MT has brought about considerable changes, and the number of MTAL publications has increased in recent years [9].…”

“…With the rapid development of technology, Mishra and Koehler [59] emphasized the importance of technological knowledge in teaching. Ross et al [29] utilized the TPACK framework to discuss how preservice teachers integrate translation tools into their lessons. Likewise, the ADAPT approach adopted by Knowles [33] was also designed for the integration of machine translation.…”

“…Teachers take positive attitudes towards machine translation as they have experienced the benefits of introducing this technology in the classroom. Through a translation applica-tion, teachers could communicate with dual language learners in students' home languages, thus achieving positive interactions and providing students with a sense of security [1,29]. Teachers preferred to regard machine translation as a multimodal tool to help beginners to understand instructions and participate in the class [1].…”

“…Teachers were also worried about the translation of complete sentences and whole paragraphs [34]. Other reasons included lack of confidence and organizational support [29]. Thus, teachers held that they should receive formal training in machine translation [50].…”

“…Language teachers firstly presented and introduced MT tools to students by identifying the role of these tools in class and constructing affordances of them [35], or by discussing with students the associated ethical issues, advantages, and pitfalls [4]. After the introduction, teachers did demonstrations and instructed students in the use of MT tools [7,29,35]. Ensuring that students were capable of utilizing translation tools, teachers could instruct students to complete tasks and assignments individually [46] or collaboratively [42].…”