Jacet

Blending mobile device-mediated collaborative tasks for oral production with traditional

coursework.

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Semmelweis reflex

Ignaz Semmelweis

Mid-nineteenth century

Discovered the cause of child-bed fever

Ignored and mocked

Died in a mental institution

…. of an infection similar to childbed fever

The tendency to ignore or reject new ways of doing things

Don’t expect people to change too quickly

Guy Cook

Tool use is often ignored

Tool use is often mocked

Waiting for statistical proof of the obvious

Don’t expect things to change quickly

Mobile learning

Revolutionary enhancement of student experience

But don’t expect quick changes

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Good “face to face” communication

• Compared with …?

Waiting for Godot

In the EFL classroom

Meaningless, silent

Waiting for students to change

Don’t give up

Keep doing what you’re doing

Actually, students aren’t going to change

YOU have to adapt to the culture

• Cultural studies suggest Asian students1. Are more focused on collectivist motivation2. Are more focused on grades3. Are less focused on self-actualization4. So …?

• Probably …• Well-defined speaking tasks• Objectively assessed• … will deal with the problem

The tasks are collectivist in nature

• ELT remains hostile to “cultural” explanations although …

• People generally agree that Asians have higher educational standards/expectations than westerners

• Sociocultural theory has become important in ELT

• Sociocultural ELT and cultural-historical psychology are part of the same field!

Mobile assessment

• Feeds into collectivist achievement motivation• Frees the teacher to monitor• Frees the teacher to provide feedback • Students do not resent machine assessment

Mobile collaborative speaking tasks

• Can prepare students for a “lecture” phase• Can consolidate material already presented• Can present vocabulary• Can practice grammar• Can target vocabulary and grammar very

precisely• Can lead into free-form tasks

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Fairly traditional

Text and pictures

Stuff like this

Traditional reading based stuff

Some listening plus traditional quiz

So what?

Pairs page

Partner A

Partner B

Check the same ones

Well done!

Never mind

Gap-filling A

Gap-filling B

HINT

Pictures A

Pictures B

Local A

Local B

The Back End

Simple Quiz-making software

Anyone can do it

I used to do all my own coding! www.mfi.or.jp/taki

www.veryserioso.wordpress.com

Wordpress can be optimized for mobile devices

And it’s dead easy

• You can devise more innovative tasks• But the important things are that you can …• Distribute information• Automatically assess• Spend more time on monitoring and feedback• Customize for courses or classes• Precisely target vocabulary and grammar

It’s easy so it will usher in a revolution

But don’t forget Dr. Semmelweis