WebLingu@: blended English language learning
For the acquisition of a second language the World Wide Web offers an abundance of learning resources that can provide opportunities for meaningful, realistic, contextualized language activities. This paper presents the WebLingu@ project of blended English language courses, which have been desig...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Italian e-Learning Association
2012-10-01
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| Series: | Je-LKS: Journal of E-Learning and Knowledge Society |
| Online Access: | https://www.je-lks.org/ojs/index.php/Je-LKS_EN/article/view/676 |
| Summary: | For the acquisition of a second language the World Wide Web offers an abundance of learning resources that can provide opportunities for meaningful, realistic, contextualized language activities. This paper presents the WebLingu@ project of blended English language courses, which have been designed and developed by the University of Siena Language Centre (CLA) on the FaD (Formazione a Distanza) platform.
To exploit the potential of Internet resources, WebLingu@ consists of a multi-level English language resource constructed through the process of evaluation, organization and effective application of web activities. The basis for the blended course design is a wrap-around syllabus model (Mason, 1998), using the core of existing Internet resources wrapped or complemented with printed materials, online tutor support and limited face-to-face lessons. The integration of a collaboration workspace is a key factor for the development of a virtual learning community, which increases group cohesion and second language discourse production (Kasper, 1999).
Overall, this paper aims to present a case study of online educational methods that support second language acquisition, as applied to online English courses at the University of Siena. |
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| ISSN: | 1826-6223 1971-8829 |