Topics In Techology Enhanced Language Learning 2. Baskı

At the time of writing this preface, I have just recently returned from a 2.5-week trip to Turkiye as a visiting scholar and English Language Specialist. During my time in Turkiye, I had the great fortune to meet and work with students and faculty from English language teaching programs at 􀃯ve different universities around the country. My visit mainly consisted of facilitating various pedagogy workshops to pre-service teachers. These hours-long workshops ranged in topics from designing reading activities, to using authentic materials, to conducting peer observations, just to name a few. Although the locales and workshop topics were wide-ranging, the method of delivery had one aspect in common: the nearly 400 participants at these workshops used their smartphones to access the materials and complete the hands-on activities. As such, students' access to and understanding of digital technology, as well as my own, was essential for offering an engaging, interactive, and student-centered workshop experience that re􀃰ected best practices in the 􀃯eld of English language teaching. Without this access and understanding, students' learning and my own teaching surely would have suffered. What this experience has reemphasized for me is the importance and exibility of technology as a learning and teaching tool in language teaching, and perhaps even more so in the English as a foreign language context. This experience has made it crystal clear for me why we need this book. The editor of this book has brought together English language teaching educators from six different universities from around Turkiye, resulting in a collection of nine chapters covering diverse aspects of digital learning. Topics range from the challenges and affordances of mobile-assisted language learning, educators' shifting roles in the digital language classroom, creating new classroom spaces through videoconferencing, capitalizing on text to speech software and other technologies to teach vocabulary and language competencies, and creating innovative and immersive English language learning environments in a foreign language context through virtual reality, social networking, and digital games. These chapters, of course, do not simply lend themselves to teaching EFL in Turkiye but in any global EFL learning context and beyond. This collection is a great resource for any language educator interested in ways to successfully use technology to motivate and engage students in their learning. What I appreciate about this book, beyond its breadth of technological topics, is the way each chapter begins with several questions posed to the reader. The questions ask educators to re􀃰ect on their beliefs and teaching philosophies prior to reading, encouraging each one of us to consider our own unique contexts as we contemplate how to implement the suggestions found within this collection. Even as a very experienced English language educator myself who teaches within an L1context in the U.S., I nd this collection helpful in understanding new ways of using technology with my linguistically diverse students. While initially I thought this book would be a great tool for the professional development of the pre-service educators I work with, I quickly realized this book was also for me. I believe other experienced educators, and the ones they are preparing, will 􀃯nd this resource a useful addition to their teaching toolkit.