Technology and learners's noticing :

[mbarek]

It was found that text-based online chat promotes noticing more than face-to-face conversations, especially in terms of learners’ noticing of their own linguistic mistakes .(Chun Lai and Yong Zhao , 2008) How does text based online chat promote learners' noticing ?

[mariabossa]

Hi,
After having some chat sessions with Mbarek and some other participants I think that chat promotes not only real time communication but also a fast way of learning. Students can get to know new vocab and expressions. They chat almost the whole day so for them it's a natural thing.
I want to share with you this link. I knew about it last year in my 1st EVO session and then when I met Jennifer Verschoor in a conference. I think that text-based chat can be very funny and rewarding!
jenverschoor.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/using-text-messaging-in-the-esl-classrrom/
Also I want to share this ad where text-msn shows how much they are used and by whom!!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySR3hpieiQc
Smiles, Maria

[nmprofozic]

I was curious to read the article on technology and learners' noticing as it is something that's very close to my own area of research, and have found the article very interesting. I knew there was some research that provided evidence of noticing being enhanced by the use of technology and just last night I read a very interesting article which showed the improved results on immediate post-tests when learners' attention in a computer mediated communicative task was drawn to some language features by asking them if they had noticed the difference between their own utterance and the utterance they heard.
I think that, really, the use of technology may "push" learners to notice those things which they might not notice in , for example, a classroom f2f setting - while at the same time it gives them an opportunity to develop fluency in communication. I don't know how much the teachers out there are aware of the notion of noticing which is considered to be extremely important in the process of language learning - actually the so called 'noticing hypothesis' claims that only those things which are being noticed are being learnt! I also did some research in this area and , actually, the article i've just read gave me some ideas for some research topics that could be be explored some time in the future. In any case, an interesting and instructive article.

[submauricio]

Some of the classrooms in the current place I'm working at have smartboards. I think they can be very engaging especially when working with young learners, because they love tapping and moving things from one side to the other and making things pop-up. It can actually make the English learning experience a more enjoyable one because they are working outside their books and are interacting with technology.

I will bring Twitter up again, I mean it's just so useful because a lot of the students have access to the internet on their phones and since Twitter is such a popular and light app, they can send messages and have a thread like chat discussions anytime.

[olenacrawford]

I found the article and the study Chun Lai and Jong Zhao did quite interesting. Chat is a unique environment for language learning since it utilizes student's various mental resources, making the process of communication more focused - thus improving concentration and ... noticing. Plus the visual component, which is not always present in f2f oral situation, definitely helps, too.

[remaricris]

Chun Lai and Yong Zhao´s study of learner´s noticing of their own language weaknesses comes to very interesting results. Learners show a higher level of noticing when interacting through on line chatting for two reasons:

On line interactions are slower than face to face ones, consequently, they give speakers more time to check and analyze their own mistakes and decide on their output.
At the same time, the fact that on line chatting is recorded gives them the opportunity to browse and check the interactions in to order to find out what the production problems were.