DMLL

For me, this area of proficiency really aligns with the times of online learning, especially when everything was remote during the pandemic. With our society becoming more and more reliant on new-age technology, online learning is becoming more of the norm and something that is in our lives almost every day. The tools that I gathered when completing these DMLL courses allowed me to apply the knowledge that I gained in the classroom, and apply that knowledge to courses that could be taught remotely online. To begin, there was a specific module entitled Telecollaboration that gave great advice on how to present an online course and useful techniques that would get learners involved with the class as well as increase their motivation to learn the material. In the module, there were eight suggestions that hold a concrete ground on what instructing an online course would be like. This stood out to me as one of the most salient modules because it was something that both students and teachers had to learn and adapt to, and could be something that I do in the future. The eight suggestions were as follows; liquid syllabus (having an outline of a syllabus that is also flexible), a humanized homepage (something that participants can identify themselves with an not feel detached from the material), warm-wise feedback (giving feedback in an understanding and grounded way rather than an opposing force), self-affirming icebreaker (having learners say positive words of self-affirmation at the beginning of the course in order to build motivation and confidence as well as introduce each other in a driven manner), wisdom wall (this could be something like a word bank or an activity where students look at positive examples of overcoming challenges in SLA or being in a new country. This activity is mainly meant to build self-confidence in learners), bumper video (a brief an entertaining video about the course that peaks the interests in the learners), micro-lectures (keeping lectures in the online class brief, about 5-10 minutes, and lazer-focused so that the objectives of the course or activity are straight to the point and learners aren’t too sidetracked. This also allows more time and room for interaction between students in the online classroom).

This specific module, among others, taught me the nuances behind creating an online lesson and how to teach language remotely, which may be something that I do in the near future. Other modules that informed me of similar learning and teaching methods were Organizing an Online/Hybrid Course, Game-Based Learning, and Utilizing Online Resources. Even the site that was used for the Digital Mediated Language Lessons (DMLL) was a prime example of how to use an online platform in order to teach learners. Being that many classes now are also offered as remote or hybrid courses, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to learn and incorporate DMLL skills in a language teaching setting. The site included short videos, interactive lessons that involve match-making and fill-in-the-blank

As there are many different modes and aspects of language teaching, there are also a seemingly infinite amount of language lessons that can be taught online. An example of this resides within the modules for Pronunciation, Interactive Reading, and also Needs Analysis. Through utilizing online resources and taking advantage of the access to the internet, a language teacher can find themselves in a space with an abundant amount of information that is also accessible to the learners. Online applications such as interactive IPA charts, websites such as youglish,com, and DuoLingo, all allow language learners to learn at their own pace and with their own chosen method of how they choose to acquire a language. As a language teacher, my goal is to incorporate both in-person and online methods of teaching while also giving my students the autonomy to be able to discover and find methods of learning that personally work best for them as an individual. 

The DMLL site also included short mini-games to review the context that was being taught in the online lesson. I found these games to be very helpful in increasing motivation, user interaction and participation in the lesson while at the same time keeping the lesson interesting and fun. I have noticed throughout my years as a student and through my experience as a language teacher, that incorporating games into the lesson is a great way to increase learner involvement while also increasing memorization and motivation.  Game-based learning does just that by making learning fun and enjoyable while also being interactive (Brown & Lee, 2015) . Especially during this day in age, methods of learning that include gameplay apply to a large number of learners and show how including games in a lesson can be very informative and useful in a language classroom. This stood out to me personally as a good strategy to incorporate student interaction because a common occurrence in my context of teaching English in Japan is that students do not engage with one another during class time often. However, through incorporating communicative activities that involve games along with online resources and the integration of game-based learning in a language lesson, student interaction can increase dramatically through teamwork and communication. 

The artifact that I chose to demonstrate my application of Digitally Mediated Language Learning were the slides to my presentation on teaching techniques on making learning fun and memorable. The audience for this class were international students from Japan and China and was done during the beginning of my internship at CASLS and with Li-Hsien. In this lesson and slideshow presentation, I include videos demonstrating aspects of the lesson and slides containing vocabulary words and their definitions. At the end of the lesson I provide a link for a game of Jeopardy where the class forms teams and compete with each other to win the game. The questions contained review information that appeared throughout the lesson and the student cooperated with one another in order to answer the question the fastest. It was at this moment that I noticed the engagement and interests of the student skyrocket and the liveliness of the class increase. In order to close out the lesson and receive feedback, the last slide of the presentation included a Google Forms survey link in which the class would answer questions about their thoughts on the class as an Exit Ticket. This is something that also appeared in the Creating a Survey module of DMLL and is something that I found very useful in order to examine and improve my language teaching. The results showed that almost everyone in class thought the Jeopardy game was their favorite part of the lesson and helped them to retain the information of the lesson while also having an enjoyable and memorable time.

References

Brown, H.D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An integrative approach to language pedagogy (4th edition). Pearson Education, Inc.