scholarly journals Culture learning in a daily space of kitchen: the case of Korean digital kitchen

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaeuk Park

AbstractThe rapid advancement of technology has allowed computer-assisted language learning (CALL) to have made inroads in the area of pedagogy for language and culture learning. While the majority of studies have used online and virtual environments for culture learning, very little attention has been paid to a real world environment. This study is based on a digital kitchen where students can learn foreign language, culture and cuisine at the same time through cooking tasks. Learning cultural aspects can be properly realised via cooking because the daily activity provides a window into culture, and the digital kitchen provides users with opportunities to directly encounter the target culture themselves via cooking and tasting. 48 international participants conducted two cooking sessions, one in a digital kitchen using real objects and the other in a classroom by looking at typical pictures/photos in a textbook. A range of data sources were employed, such as questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and video-observations to answer the research question. It was found that students learned foreign cultural aspects better when in direct engagement in a digital kitchen by handling actual items than when in a classroom by simply using photos. This study contributes to the development of the real world learning environment for culture learning via innovative technology.

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol A. Chapelle

This paper argues that the vertical spread of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), i.e., a spread throughout language materials and curricula, makes it difficult to draw a clear distinction between CALL and other language materials. In view of the emphasis that teachers, researchers, and administrators have placed on evaluating CALL, I argue that some valuable lessons about materials evaluation can be drawn from reflection on issues in CALL evaluation. In particular, I discuss the opportunities for professionals to reconsider assumptions held about comparative research, draw upon research perspectives and methods from applied linguistics in materials evaluation, and include critical perspectives which examine the opportunities that materials offer language learners to engage in language and culture learning.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahib Khatoon Thaheem ◽  
Mohamad Jafre Zainol Abidin ◽  
Quratulain Mirza ◽  
Habib Ullah Pathan

PurposeThe shift from physical class to online classes in the pandemic COVID-19 situation has posited opportunities as well as challenges for teachers and students. The primary purpose of this research is to investigate challenges faced and benefits availed by the teachers at the tertiary level in universities of Pakistan and Indonesia.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the purpose a mixed-method approach is employed to answer the three research questions of the present study. The quantitative data is obtained from the responses of 66 teachers, teaching online in Mehran UET Pakistan and 102 teachers from Indonesian university. The personal, technological, and pedagogical challenges were analyzed by descriptive statistics on SPSS. Thus, the independent-samples t-test was run to test for statistically significant differences faced by teachers in both countries.FindingsThe findings revealed that there were no statistically significant differences found in personal, and pedagogical challenges faced by both countries' teachers, whereas there is a significant difference in facing technological challenges between Pakistani and Indonesian teachers. The benefits of online teaching were investigated qualitatively by conducting semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers 5 from each country. There are very positive aspects of online teaching revealed in the interviews.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper includes implications for the development of Computer Assisted Language Learning, the development of technology integrated courses, and for managing the balance between physical and online classes.Practical implicationsThe findings of the study have implications on finding out the solutions of the derived challenges, further it suggests to concentrate on students of public and private universities in Pakistan and Indonesia so that a comparison of challenges faced by teachers and faced by students can be researched and evaluated and it can generate significantly different results.Social implicationsThe implications on the research society and the teachers and designers' communities are very clear in this research because it paves the way forward towards the blending of technology in any way either synchronously/ asynchronously into education, further researches can be done on designing the new concepts, courses, instructional platforms for students and investigate the new dimensions and effects of them.Originality/valueFindings have value, because two countries' context (developing countries) with respect to the comparison of the challenges and benefits is better understood, it would have different results if had done in the developed countries.


Author(s):  
Kaishan Kong

Both ACTFL standards and the world-readiness standards for learning languages include five aspects in foreign language education, among which are connections and comparisons. While many instructors consider these two aspects as means of effective instruction, in this chapter, connections and comparisons are studied as learning strategies that four American students adopted to apply in their study abroad contexts in China. Despite the different focus of their study abroad programs, this chapter discusses a variety of examples where the participants made connections and comparisons to enhance their language and culture learning. Findings reveal that connections and comparisons were not only fostering language learning but also developing cultural knowledge. Results provide implications to foreign language educators related to teaching and preparing students for study abroad experience.


Author(s):  
Paul Milgram ◽  
David Drascic

The concept of Augmented Reality (AR) displays is defined, in relation to the amount of real (unmodelled) and virtual (modelled) data presented in an image, as those displays in which real images, such as video, are enhanced with computer generated graphics. For the important class of stereoscopic AR displays, several factors may cause potential perceptual ambiguities, however, which manifest themselves in terms of decreased accuracy and precision whenever virtual objects must be aligned with real ones. A review is given of research conducted to assess both the magnitude of these perceptual effects and the effectiveness of a computer assisted Virtual Tape Measure (VTM), which has been developed for performing quantitative 3D measurements on real-world stereo images.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 14-32
Author(s):  
Sabrina Priego ◽  
Meei-Ling Liaw

Previous literature in the area of computer assisted language learning in Second/Foreign Language (L2/FL) education has highlighted the benefits of using virtual environments for learning the target language and culture (e.g. Blyth, 2018; Lloyd, Rogerson, & Stead, 2017; Shih, 2015). In addition, a number of researchers have demonstrated that one of the important attributes of virtual environments for language learning is the affordances of physical and social presence (e.g. Cho, Yim, & Paik, 2015; McKerlich, Riis, Anderson, & Eastman, 2011; Peterson, 2011; Wang, Lawless-Reljic, Davies, & Callaghan, 2011). However, to our knowledge, no previous studies have investigated the affordances of virtual environments from the makers’ point of view. In this present study, 22 Canadian pre-service teachers used a 360 degree camera and Virtual Reality (VR) software to construct VR environments that were used as cultural virtual tours. They then invited 24 Taiwanese students to interact with them in their created immersive environments. Analyses of the pre-service teachers’ final written reflections showed that most of them reported that they experienced a sense of physical and social presence in their self-created VR environments and that they enjoyed participating in the VR project. However, various factors, such as the design of the task, technical difficulties with the VR equipment, and limits of the social VR network were also found to have negatively influenced their satisfaction with the VR experience. Findings from this study might inform other L2/FL teachers who design VR environments and integrate social VR in their classes. Suggestions for future research are also provided.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Maha Bader Alghasab ◽  
Anaam Alfadley ◽  
Amel M. Aladwani

Previous Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) research has shown that technology is beneficial for promoting language learning, but some teachers neither use technology as an assisted tool nor integrate it into their language classrooms. It has also been argued that the integration of technology has been unsuccessful in Kuwait. This study aims to explore the factors influencing teachers’ use of technology in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom in Kuwaiti government primary schools. More specifically, it aims to highlight factors promoting and hindering EFL teachers’ use of technology. For the purpose of this study, 55 questionnaire responses were collected from different primary school teachers in Kuwait, followed up with 15 semi-structured interviews. The study findings show that Kuwaiti primary school EFL teachers who participated in the current study demonstrated positive attitudes towards using technology and acknowledged the implementation of some cutting-edge technologies in their classrooms. Enhancing students’ language learning, innovation and school support were the main factors that encouraged the participating teachers to use technology. Other factors hindered the use of technology; particularly those related to lack of parental support, personal expenses and health problems, teachers’ lack of skills and training, poor classroom infrastructure, and time constraints/workload. The findings also reveal that the lack of professional development training workshops provided by the Ministry of Education led the Kuwaiti teachers to rely more on informal training in which they worked and learnt together with their colleagues in small sub-groups to improve their use of technology. The study findings have implications for policymakers and other stakeholders intending to integrate technology in Kuwaiti primary schools.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Si Thang Kiet Ho

<p><b>Intercultural competence has become an important goal of foreign language education in response to the need for learners to function effectively in an increasingly multicultural world. Language and culture are seen as interwoven and inseparable components and therefore learning a foreign language inevitably means learning about other ways of being and behaving. Many foreign language programmes around the world, particularly in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, have adopted an intercultural pedagogy which seeks to integrate into the language teaching experience opportunities for developing intercultural competence for language learners. This study investigates intercultural teaching and learning in tertiary EFL classrooms in Vietnam, a context in which intercultural approaches to language teaching and learning have not been widely considered.</b></p> <p>The study consisted of three phases. The first phase involved a curriculum review in which I critically evaluated the extent to which culture and culture learning are represented in the curriculum frameworks for tertiary EFL programmes and in the national education policy on foreign language education in Vietnam. The findings showed that the importance of culture and culture learning is not emphasised, and the designation of culture to separate culture courses establishes a separate status, construct and treatment of culture and culture learning in the EFL programmes.</p> <p>In the second phase of the study, I analysed the perceptions of fourteen Vietnamese EFL teachers and two hundred Vietnamese EFL students on culture in language teaching and learning, and their classroom practices. The findings indicated that the teachers' beliefs about culture teaching revealed a predictable priority for teaching language rather than culture. Their culture teaching practices were greatly influenced by their perceptions and beliefs regarding culture in language teaching. The students also treated culture as a subordinate priority in language learning. Overall, they found culture learning beneficial for their language learning and supported the teachability of language and culture in EFL classes. Both the teachers and students identified a number of constraints that restricted their opportunities and motivation to engage in teaching and learning culture.</p> <p>The third phase of the study involved an empirical study investigating the effect of adopting an intercultural stance in English speaking lessons on thedevelopment of the learners' intercultural competence. Over a nine-week teaching period, eighteen English speaking lessons (90 minutes / lesson / week) for two equivalent, intact classes (seventy-one students) were observed. For one class, the lessons were adapted to reflect the principles of intercultural language learning. For the other, no changes were made. The results showed that the intercultural competence of learners in the intercultural class increased by significantly more than that of learners in the standard class. In particular, the students in the intercultural class were able to better articulate ethnorelative awareness and attitudes towards their home culture and the target culture. The findings also showed that the reflective journal was an effective tool to assess learners' process of acquiring intercultural competence, particularly affective capacities that are not easy to evaluate by other means.</p> <p>Overall, the study provided evidence for the feasibility of intercultural teaching and learning in tertiary EFL classrooms in the Vietnamese context. It also showed that intercultural teaching and learning cultivated learners' affective capacities which are often overlooked in the EFL classroom. It is hoped that the study can inform the work of curriculum designers, education policy-makers as well as EFL teachers and students for the implementation of intercultural language teaching and learning in Vietnam and elsewhere.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Edyta Olejarczuk

AbstractA considerable body of research has grown up on learners’ perceptions of computer-assisted language learning, clearly a key consideration for curriculum designers and teachers involved in the planning and deployment of technology. This article aims to contribute to this work by focusing specifically on learners of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) (n=20) in light of their experiences with a blended learning course (classroom + Moodle). Analysis of semi-structured interviews suggests generally positive attitudes towards the experience, and yields insights into the specific aspects of the course which were valued by students and which were less so.


1999 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-153
Author(s):  
Paul Nation

This book, which is one of a series of papers from the University of Duisburg, is a justification of the visual elements of a particular computer-assisted language learning program for learning Dutch called EuroLex. About one third of the book is a description of the EuroLex program. Because of this, it suffers from the seemingly unavoidable problem that many accounts of CALL programs face, and that is the need for elaborate step-by-step description of the operation of the program when five minutes working with the actual program would convey more information more effectively.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Si Thang Kiet Ho

<p><b>Intercultural competence has become an important goal of foreign language education in response to the need for learners to function effectively in an increasingly multicultural world. Language and culture are seen as interwoven and inseparable components and therefore learning a foreign language inevitably means learning about other ways of being and behaving. Many foreign language programmes around the world, particularly in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, have adopted an intercultural pedagogy which seeks to integrate into the language teaching experience opportunities for developing intercultural competence for language learners. This study investigates intercultural teaching and learning in tertiary EFL classrooms in Vietnam, a context in which intercultural approaches to language teaching and learning have not been widely considered.</b></p> <p>The study consisted of three phases. The first phase involved a curriculum review in which I critically evaluated the extent to which culture and culture learning are represented in the curriculum frameworks for tertiary EFL programmes and in the national education policy on foreign language education in Vietnam. The findings showed that the importance of culture and culture learning is not emphasised, and the designation of culture to separate culture courses establishes a separate status, construct and treatment of culture and culture learning in the EFL programmes.</p> <p>In the second phase of the study, I analysed the perceptions of fourteen Vietnamese EFL teachers and two hundred Vietnamese EFL students on culture in language teaching and learning, and their classroom practices. The findings indicated that the teachers' beliefs about culture teaching revealed a predictable priority for teaching language rather than culture. Their culture teaching practices were greatly influenced by their perceptions and beliefs regarding culture in language teaching. The students also treated culture as a subordinate priority in language learning. Overall, they found culture learning beneficial for their language learning and supported the teachability of language and culture in EFL classes. Both the teachers and students identified a number of constraints that restricted their opportunities and motivation to engage in teaching and learning culture.</p> <p>The third phase of the study involved an empirical study investigating the effect of adopting an intercultural stance in English speaking lessons on thedevelopment of the learners' intercultural competence. Over a nine-week teaching period, eighteen English speaking lessons (90 minutes / lesson / week) for two equivalent, intact classes (seventy-one students) were observed. For one class, the lessons were adapted to reflect the principles of intercultural language learning. For the other, no changes were made. The results showed that the intercultural competence of learners in the intercultural class increased by significantly more than that of learners in the standard class. In particular, the students in the intercultural class were able to better articulate ethnorelative awareness and attitudes towards their home culture and the target culture. The findings also showed that the reflective journal was an effective tool to assess learners' process of acquiring intercultural competence, particularly affective capacities that are not easy to evaluate by other means.</p> <p>Overall, the study provided evidence for the feasibility of intercultural teaching and learning in tertiary EFL classrooms in the Vietnamese context. It also showed that intercultural teaching and learning cultivated learners' affective capacities which are often overlooked in the EFL classroom. It is hoped that the study can inform the work of curriculum designers, education policy-makers as well as EFL teachers and students for the implementation of intercultural language teaching and learning in Vietnam and elsewhere.</p>


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