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Articles

Collaborative Tools and Tasks to Motivate Language Learners

Shelly TerrellApril 18, 2012

“We are born into a box of time and space. We use words and communication to break out of it and to reach out to others.” — Roger Ebert

Language learning involves community. Learners need to be able to take the vocabulary and skills they learn in the classroom and apply them in real world contexts. They need to be able to interact with other language learners and participate in real conversations. I’ve been an English teacher for over a decade and have tried to find the best way to get my students to be able to practice language outside the classroom. One of the most effective ways is to get the students to use online tools that foster communication in English. As a language teacher, you can get your students to use these websites to participate in discussions or collaborate on projects. In this way, the students are applying what they learn in class to specific tasks. I hope the following tips and resources will help you plan these tasks.

Collaborative Tools and Tasks

These are some of the most effective and free collaboration tools I recommend and a few ideas on what your language learners can do with them.

Facebook Groups - Facebook is the most popular social network so chances are your learners are already set up on there. This means they do not have to register so they are more likely to use this social network.

Edmodo - Learners can collaborate in a private, secure environment. They post discussions through the threaded feature that looks similar to Twitter and Facebook. They also can upload pictures, links, videos, and more.

Twiddla - This is an online collaborative whiteboard. Students can post documents, brainstorm, view a website, and so much more in real-time. Students don’t have to register. They just click a button and are given a room link for others to join. The learners can even talk to each other while they work using the live audio feature.

Google Docs - Learners collaborate in real-time when editing a text document, spreadsheet, or slide presentation. There are chat and comment functions that make it easy for learners to communicate. Use this tool to have your learners brainstorm.

What other collaborative activities can you think of?

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Comments (4)

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Grid jumper(Guest)

Great list. I especiallly like google hangout. I would add immersive spaces to your list. Virtual worlds where both audio and text are used extensively to communicate in a variety of real and imaginary settings. Second life, opensim grids and even MMORPGs.

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Brian (Guest)

Thanks for this list. We have a learning site but I think we need to incorporate social tools so I will be going through this list looking for ideas.

All the best and any feedback on our site at worldwordexchange.com is more then welcome

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Estefani (Guest)

A plreobm that could be a plreobm with ELL students is that when they are new to a culture, they tend to be more shy so that decreases their communication in schools. That means that they will lack social skills and will decrease their effort in school. If they lack in social skills, they will not know talk to people and ask for help when they need it. If they do not ask for help in school when they do not understand something, their grades will start to drop because they never took the time to talk to others to ask. So this is when the teachers should step in and be involved because. They should take the extra time to help those who are new and unaware of what is going on so that these students can succeed in the future. Teachers should have students be more interactive with each other so they can get a feel for who people are and where they come from. Also, have the teachers teach a unit where the students learn about other cultures. There are many ways that this could be accomplished, but i feel like just having students interacting with each other would be the most beneficial way to have ELL students step out of their box.

Roger (Guest)

A large problem for an ELL stnduet is being expected to learn in a foreign setting where there’s a new set of rules that could clash with that of their own culture. When an ELL stnduet enters a new classroom, they are not only stepping into a new culture but a new learning environment as well. Simple tasks, like turning in homework, can cause problems because the routines and expectations are different. A new learning environment can cause confusion, apprehensiveness, and frustration to stnduets. In order to help smooth the transition and help stnduets understand, teachers need to be sensitive to the child’s viewpoint and explain to them the system. Even if the teacher isn’t able to communicate with the child using language, they can demonstrate examples by using other children or themselves to make an English Language Learner’s everyday routine more comfortable. This will eventually allow the child to feel like they are able to flow in their new classroom without standing out because they know what’s expected of them. For example, when a class leaves to go to music the ELL stnduet knows they are expected to walk down the hall in a line and not wander around because that’s what has been shown to them.

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