Educational Innovation & Foreign Language Education Research PDF

EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION AND INTRODUCTION TO FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Mr. D. Salvador Montaner Villalba UNIVERSITY MASTER IN SECONDARY AND SIXTH FORM TEACHING, VOCATIONAL TRAINING AND LANGUAGE TEACHING Este material es de uso exclusivo para los alumnos de la Universidad Internacional de Valencia. No está permitida la reproducción total o parcial de su contenido ni su tratamiento por cualquier método por aquellas personas que no acrediten su relación con la Universidad Internacional de Valencia, sin autorización expresa de la misma. Edita Universidad Internacional de Valencia University master in Secondary and sixth form teaching, vocational training and language teaching Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research 6 ECTS Mr. D. Salvador Montaner Villalba Key Link of interest Example Terms highlighted in orange are explained in the GLOSSARY Important Index UNIT 2. EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION. METHODOLOGIES, RESOURCES AND ASSESSMENT............... 7 Specific learning goals.......................................................................................... 7 2.1. Innovative methodologies in ELT........................................................................... 8 2.1.1. Introduction........................................................................................... 8 2.1.2. Competence-based learning........................................................................ 9 2.1.3. Problem-based learning............................................................................. 9 2.1.4. Design thinking....................................................................................... 10 2.1.5. Thinking-based learning............................................................................. 12 2.2. The use of ICT in ELT........................................................................................ 12 2.2.1. Web 2.0. CALL (computed assisted language learning)........................................... 12 2.2.2. Open educational resources (OER)................................................................. 24 2.2.3. Language MOOCs................................................................................... 25 2.2.4. Mobile assisted language learning (MALL)........................................................ 28 2.3. Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)........................................................... 29 2.3.1. What is CLIL?......................................................................................... 29 2.3.2. Plurilingual education............................................................................... 29 2.3.3. Skills in the CLIL classroom......................................................................... 31 2.3.4. Planning and classroom-based assessment for CLIL............................................. 32 2.3.5. The use of ICT in the CLIL classroom............................................................... 36 2.4. Innovation and assessment in education................................................................. 40 2.4.1. Assessment in education............................................................................ 41 Recommended bibliography................................................................................... 51 References...................................................................................................... 51 Suggested reading.............................................................................................. 62 Specific reference. English................................................................................ 62 Educational innovation.................................................................................... 62 5 Unit 2 Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment Specific learning goals Analysing innovative projects and activities for English teaching and learning, and knowing how to assess their viability. Knowing and applying innovative proposals in the field of English teaching. Discovering and using basic and innovative methodologies, instruments and assessment resources that adjust to the teaching project in the classroom. Integrating training in audiovisual and multimedia communication in the teaching-learning process. Identifying problems related to teaching and learning in the areas of knowledge that make up the Compulsory Secondary Education curriculum. 7 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment 2.1. Innovative methodologies in ELT 2.1.1. Introduction Considering the nature of this subject, it is important that the students/trainee teachers of this master’s degree become aware of the need to innovate inside the EFL classroom. In the 21st Century, education has changed substantially compared with the traditional lessons we were used to in the 19th and 20th century. Furthermore, we are becoming aware of the need to modify educational methods in order to adjust them to the learners’ needs, evolving from traditional lessons to the latest innovative methodologies in education, which can also be used when teaching English as a foreign language. Some of these methods, such as task-based learning, already existed in the past. However, the innovative element in the 21st Century is not only the use of these methods but also the integration of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in them. Several of these innovative methods (task-based language learning, cooperative learning, flipped classroom and gamification) have already been discussed in other subjects of this master’s degree so we will not deal with them in depth since we do not want to overlap contents. However, some very brief considerations will be given on these methodologies, since the ideas here suggested are not mentioned in other areas of the master. In relation to task-based language learning, it is worth reading Vergara (2016), and a very recent paper by Montaner Villalba (2017), which covers aspects such as advantages, characteristics, and implementation stages, and gives some interesting examples of TBL experiences. Within the field of English language teaching, we will highlight two examples of task-based language learning in the Spanish educational system: In Primary Education, the blog Follow me! English Corner offers an interesting tool with specific themes, such as “Our Nice World”, where learners are divided into two groups to perform tasks which are linked with the topic of peace. Another motivating proposal is “Our Favourite Animal”, in which the competence in oral expression is enhanced in the classroom through small teamwork. In Compulsory Secondary Education, the proposal English in my Daily Life shows ten didactic units with topics which are adjusted to the learners’ needs. The use of evaluation rubrics as a learning guide completes this blog. As regards the flipped classroom, Tourón, Santiago and Díez (2014) talk about six different educational approaches: Flipped learning + peer instruction. Flipped mastery learning. Flipped adaptive learning. Flipped learning + gamification. 8 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research Flipped learning + cooperative learning. Challenge-based learning. As far as gamification in education is concerned, it is worth mentioning a book, written in Spanish, by Rodríguez and Santiago (2015), about which Montaner (2016) wrote a review for EDUTEC (Revista Electrónica de Tecnología Educativa, 5, March 2016). As Tourón points out in the prologue to this book, it offers “a different vision of the relationship between teachers and students”. Tourón perceives the teacher as a relevant figure within the learning-teaching process, and considers motivation a key aspect. A good example of gamification in English language teaching is the app known as Duolingo. Below we will deal with other four innovative methodologies in education. 2.1.2. Competence-based learning Competence-based learning is an approach to teaching and learning which is used to develop specific skills. Rather than treating a course or subject as a whole, every individual skill, known as a competence, is regarded as one single unit. Learners work on one competence at a time, which is in turn a small component of a larger learning goal. Then learners are assessed on the individual competence. After that, higher or more complex competences are developed to a degree of mastery and isolated from other topics. Another aspect of competence-based learning is the possibility to skip entire learning modules if the student can prove that they have command of the skill which is dealt with in the unit. That can be done through either prior learning assessment or formative testing. Thus, students learning a foreign language must first prove their command of grammar, basic structures, phrases, expressions, etc. in order to be able to communicate. Then they may focus on producing short, clear texts, both orally and in writing. As this is a type of kinetic learning, the teacher demonstrates each skill a few times, then students perform guided practice followed by independent practice, until they can prove their mastery. This prevents students from moving on to the next course without having learned the necessary skills. Competence-based learning is learner-centred and works more naturally through independent study and with the educator assuming the role of facilitator. This method allows students to learn those individual skills which they find more challenging at their own pace, practising and refining as much as they like; then they can rapidly move on to other skills. 2.1.3. Problem-based learning Problem-based learning (PBL) is a learner-focused pedagogy in which students learn about a subject by solving an open-ended problem posed and designed by the teacher to reach the lesson’s goals. The PBL process leads to the improvement of skills and attributes such as knowledge acquisition, critical thinking, teamwork and communication. The PBL process was originally developed for medical education and has since spread to other learning environments. 9 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment PBL requires working in small groups of learners. Each learner assumes a role which often rotates within the group and which may be formal or informal. This methodology is centred on the student’s reflection and reasoning to build their own learning, and covers aspects such as clarifying terms, defining problems, brainstorming, structuring and hypothesis, learning goals, independent study and synthesis. In a nutshell, it is about identifying what students already know, what they need to know, and how and where they can access the new information that may lead to solving the problem. The educator’s role is to facilitate learning by assisting, guiding, and monitoring the learning process (Schmidt et al., 2011). The teacher must build up learners’ confidence to face the problem. This methodology is based on constructivism. According to Hung (2011), problem-based learning represents a paradigm shift from the traditional teaching and learning philosophy, which is often lecturebased. PBL usually requires more preparation time and resources to support small group learning. Link of interest In these links, there are some ideas on how to use PBL in the English classroom. https://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning https://es.slideshare.net/bhewes/pbl-in-the-english-classroom 2.1.4. Design thinking Design thinking refers to creative techniques which are put into practice when the process of designing takes place (Visser, 2006). It is also an approach that can be used to solve problems in a wider scope than professional design practice and has been applied in both business and social issues (Dorst, 2012). Link of interest For a better understanding of what design thinking is and how it works, it is worth watching the following videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7sEoEvT8l8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXtN4y3O35M In education, design thinking can be used in a variety of curricular ways (Leverenz, 2014; Leinonen and Durall, 2014), as well as for redesigning student spaces and school systems. Design thinking usually serves three purposes: helping school administrators solve institution-based problems, helping educators develop more creative lesson plans, and helping students develop design thinking skills (Razzouk and Schute, 2012). There are many researchers exploring the intersection of design thinking and education. The REDlab group, from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, leads research into design thinking for K-12, secondary, and post-secondary settings. The Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Research Program is a collaboration between Stanford University and the Hasso Plattner Institute from Potsdam, Germany. This program’s task is to “apply rigorous academic methods to understand how and why design thinking innovation works and fails”. 10 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research In addition to enriching curricula and broadening students’ perspectives, it has been suggested by scholars that design thinking allows teachers to integrate technology in the classroom, and it is increasingly being recognized as a feasible curricular and systematic program of reinforcement. According to Carroll et al. (2010, p. 38), “much of today’s education system guides students toward finding the correct answers to fill-in-the blanks on standardized tests, as this kind of instruction facilitates streamlined assessments to measure success or failure... It is critical that, particularly in under-served schools, this model of learning does not continue to prevail. Students need both the skills and the tools to participate in a society where problems are increasingly complex and nuanced understandings are vital”. The integration of ICT into the teaching-learning process presents many challenges that go beyond the issues related to technical implementation. Some researchers like Cuban et al. (2001) and Dynarski et al. (2007) have already claimed that the use of ICT in learning has very limited effects. Taking into account both the emphasis and the investment that have been put into the utilization of ICT in formal learning contexts (schools and higher education institutions), it seems relevant to identify where the problems are. In this regard, some voices from the educational community focus on the methods used to integrate ICT in teaching and learning (Dillenbourg, 2009). In this sense, the adoption of a design thinking mindset is considered an ideal strategy to produce a comprehensive solution. Firstly, it is necessary to acknowledge that the kind of problems faced by the educational community when adopting learning technology are unique, ill-defined and do not have clear solutions (Leinonen et al., 2010). Secondly, similarly to what happens in design, the diversity of actors brings another layer of complexity that should be recognized. In this regard, collaboration between the different parts involved during the design process is key for the development of more meaningful technologies for learning (Dillenbourg, 2009; Leinonen and Durall, 2014). The adoption of a design thinking mindset aids to understand that there can be many solutions for a specific situation and that any design requires testing. From this point of view, bringing design thinking to learning design and design expertise to the development process of technological learning solutions can contribute to the creation of more holistic solutions in learning through ICT (Leinonen et al., 2014). Link of interest How to apply design thinking in an English classroom, which can give some ideas on this innovative methodology. https://medium.com/synapse/how-might-we-the-content-applying-design-thinking-in-a-high-school-english-classroom-74f7c202b9bb Link of interest In this article, the author explains some design thinking based tasks for learning Spanish as a foreign language which can also be applied in English learning. https://rafangel.wordpress.com/approaches-to-learning-atl/teaching-approaches-to-learning-ideas/assessment/pensamiento-de-diseno/ 11 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment 2.1.5. Thinking-based learning Link of interest To understand the concept of thinking-based learning, this video is worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TiCwisb_Ns Link of interest In this link, students of this master’s degree will learn some of the advantages of using thinking-based learning. http://www.realinfluencers.es/2017/01/03/5-ventajas-aprendizaje-basado-pensamiento/ Link of interest Abdel-Hafez-Pérez (2013) analyses how thinking-based learning can be used in primary education. https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/1862 2.2. The use of ICT in ELT The presence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in our schools and classrooms has gained ground and weight since our curriculum became centred in the development of students’ key competences. In 2006, LOE was the first law to establish a set of “basic competences” to be developed at every level of the education system. In 2013, with LOMCE, Spain aimed to promote the improvement of education and the term evolved into “key competences”. Nevertheless, if there is something we know for certain is that the importance of ICTs in education and the development of key competences will remain the same. 2.2.1. Web 2.0. CALL (computed assisted language learning) The term Web 2.0 refers to World Wide Web sites which focus on user-generated content, usability (ease of use, even by basic users), and interoperability, which means that a website can work well in a wide range of systems and devices, for end users. This concept was made popular by Tim O’Reilly in late 2004. Web 2.0 refers to changes in the way web pages are designed and used. A Web 2.0 website allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, as opposed to Web 1.0, where people were limited to the passive viewing of contents. Some examples of the Web 2.0 include social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, among others; blogs, wikis, folksonomies (“tagging” keywords on websites and links), video-sharing online platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, etc., web applications (also known as “apps”), and so on. 12 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research Whether Web 2.0 is substantively different from previous web technologies has been challenged by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, who describes the term “Web 2.0” as slang. His original vision of the web was “a collaborative medium, a place where we [could] all meet and read and write” (Richardson, 2010). On the other hand, the term “semantic web” (sometimes referred to as Web 3.0) was coined by Berners-Lee to refer to webs with content whose meaning can be processed by machines (Berners-Lee, Hendler and Lassila, 2001). In the field of education, Web 2.0 is useful to achieve collaborative learning. As an example, blogs offer learners the chance of interacting with one another as well as the contents of each lesson. Richardson (2010) suggests that Web 2.0 can increase the public’s understanding of science, which could influence governments’ policy decisions. A 2012 study by several researchers (Ladwig, Dalrymple, Brossard, Scheufele and Corley, 2012, p. 762) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison notes that “... the Internet could be a crucial tool in increasing the general public’s level of science literacy. This increase could then lead to better communication between researchers and the public, more substantive discussion, and more informed policy decision”. Below we will review the different uses of Web 2.0 in education and, more specifically, in English language teaching. The social web consists of a variety of digital tools and online platforms where people share their experiences. Web 2.0 applications tend to interact much more with the end user. Due to this fact, the end user is not only a user of the application but also a participant in the following cases: 1. Podcasting A podcast is an episodic series of online audio files which a user can subscribe to, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded from the website or cloud to the user’s own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player (Merriam-Webster, 2012). The word “podcast” is a combination of “iPod” (a brand of media player) and “broadcast”. The files are therefore distributed in audio format; however, the term includes other file formats such PDF or ePub. Videos which are shared following a podcast model are known as video podcasts or vodcasts. The distributor of a podcast keeps a central list of the files on a server as a web feed which can be accessed through the Internet. The listener or viewer uses special client application software on a computer or media player, known as a podcatcher, that accesses this web feed, 13 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment checks it for updates, and downloads new files in the series. This process can be automated. The files are stored locally on the user’s device, ready for offline use. There are many different mobile applications available for people to subscribe and listen to podcasts, many of which allow users to stream podcasts on demand as a different option to downloading. In addition, most players (apps as well as dedicated devices) allow listeners to skip around podcasts and control the playback speed. Some have called podcasting a converged medium which brings together audio, the web, and portable media players, as well as a disruptive technology which has caused some people in the radio business to reconsider established practices and preconceptions about audiences, consumption, production, and distribution (Berry, 2006). Podcasts are usually free of charge for listeners and can often be created with no cost, which sets them apart from the traditional model of “gate-kept” media and production tools (Berry, 2006). Podcast creators can monetize their podcasts by permitting companies to buy advertising time, as well as via sites such as Patreon, which provides special extras and content to listeners, who have to pay a small quantity. It is very much a horizontal media form: producers are consumers, consumers may become producers, and both can engage in conversations with each other (Berry, 2006). Richardson (2010) gives the reader a few reasons why the use of podcasts is increasing in schools. One way to get into the flow of education-related podcasting is to visit the Education Podcast Network (http://www.edupodcastnetwork.com/), which lists nearly 1,000 different education-related podcasts. The author offers an interesting example of podcasting in schools, which is radio broadcasting. According to Richardson (2010, p. 115), “the motivating factor, to me at least, is that the content of these shows does not have to be limited to a school or community audience”. Podcasting, then, turns into another way for students and teachers to be creating and contributing ideas to a larger conversation. Walls, Kucsera, Walker, Acee, McVaugh and Robinson (2010) state, in relation to podcasting in higher education, that very few studies have researched on students’ perceptions of podcasting for educational purposes, especially in relation to two different forms of podcasting: repetitive or supplemental. This paper studies the readiness and attitudes towards these two forms of podcasting to provide relevant information for future researchers and educators. A very interesting reference in relation to podcasting and second language learning as well as oral competences is found in the work of Santiago and Bárcena (2016). The authors present podcasting for the distribution of different types of contents which can be listened to or watched on a computer or laptop as well as on a smartphone or a similar device, such as a tablet. The use of podcasts in second language acquisition and, more specifically, its suitability for the improvement of oral skills is analysed in this paper. When oral skills are mentioned, both receptive (comprehension) and productive skills (speaking) are referred to, and, of course, aspects such as pronunciation, intonation and fluency are considered. Audacity (https://www.audacityteam.org/) is the perfect tool for teachers and students to create podcasts. Once they have been created, they should be published and shared online in some digital platforms. iVoox (https://www.ivoox.com/) and Podomatic (https://www.podomatic.com/login) are two of the most relevant and interesting online platforms where the podcasts can be shared. 14 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research 2. Blogging A blog (a truncation of the expression “weblog”; Blood, 2000) is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web which consists of informal diary-style text entries (also known as “posts”). These posts are displayed in reverse chronological order, so that the latest one is published in the first place, at the top of the web page. During the 2010s, “multi-author blogs” (“MABs”), with posts written by a large number of authors, have increased enormously. The rise of microblogging, which features very short posts in such platforms as Twitter, among others, helps to integrate both multi-author and single-author blogs into the news media. The emergence and growth of blogs in the late 1990s was possible thanks to the advent of web publishing tools that allowed the posting of content by non-technical users who did not have much experience with HTML or computer programming. Since the 2010s, most online pages are interactive Web 2.0 websites, permitting visitors to publish comments, and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from older static websites (Mutum and Wang, 2010). Blogging can thus be seen as a form of social networking service. Bloggers, in fact, do not only produce content to post on their blogs, but often build social relations with their readers and other bloggers too (Gaudeul and Peroni, 2010). Nevertheless, there are high-readership blogs that do not allow comments. Many blog authors comment on a particular subject or topic from a wide range, from politics to sports. Some blogs work as personal online diaries, while others advertise the brand of a particular individual or company. A typical blog usually combines text, digital images, links to other blogs, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to publish comments which can be viewed online and to interact with other users is an important contribution to the popularity of many blogs. Nevertheless, some blog owners or authors often moderate and filter comments to remove hate speech or other offensive content. Most blogs are mainly textual, although some focus on photographs (photoblogs), videos (video blogs or “vlogs”), music (MP3 blogs), and audio (podcasts). In education, blogs can be used as instructional resources, in which case they are known as “edublogs”. Link of interest Two of the most popular blogging platforms are Blogger (https://www.blogger.com/about/?r=1-null_user) and Wordpress (http://wordpress.com/). Nowadays, Internet plays a very important role in communication. Blogging is one means which is today quite often used. There are various reasons why we should create our own blogs and participate in those of others. On the one hand, blogging does not require much technical knowledge and allows teachers to stay connected with students, parents and the entire school community; as well as to keep up with the latest teaching trends. Moreover, a blog can help teachers analyse their own educational practices, by keeping an ongoing personal record of their actions, decision-making and issues they have to deal with (techniques on teaching skills, strategies on managing large groups, etc.). On the other hand, blogging can also encourage students to write and read (Fellner and Apple, 2006; Zhang, 2009; Murray and Hourigan, 2008), which develops their literacy. Blogs can work as digital portfolios (Richardson, 2010; Barrett, 15 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment 2004), giving storage for students’ works, photos and other needed materials. Therefore, blogging promotes cooperative work among students, causing interaction within the learning process (Vázquez and Sevillano, 2011; Richardson, 2010). According to Richardson (2010), although blogging is a genre that engages the different members of the educational community (especially teachers and students) in a process of thinking in words, it should not be limited to accounting the day’s events or feelings. In fact, Eide (2005) shows that blogging, in its original form, can have a great deal of positive impact on students, as it can: 1. Foster critical and analytical thinking. 2. Promote analogical thinking. 3. Be a powerful means to increase access and exposure to quality information. 4. Combine the best of solitary reflection and social interaction. As for microblogging, it has become a very useful resource for language teaching, as it presents two major advantages: 1. The limitation of the number of characters forces users to be concise in the message, causing conversations to be more fluent. Content is paramount. 2. The simplicity of microblogging allows easier and more direct communication, being thus an ideal tool to be used between teachers and students. The dynamic and versatile structure of blogs gives them various applications to foreign language learning. Campbell (2003) established three categories of blogs which are based on their own technical structure, thus distinguishing the teacher’s blog, whose content is limited to the subject’s curriculum, information of the academic year, tasks to be done, etc; the classroom blog, which is used as a space for collaborative discussion, motivating learners in the blogging process; and finally the learner’s blog, which is individual and where the learner can write about their own interests. From a pedagogical perspective, Richardson (2006a, 2006b) states that blogs can be used as a collaborative space, as an e-portfolio, as a website for each class, and as a website for the school. Richardson (2010) analyses some basic aspects of blogs which make them attractive tools for teachers to use in the classroom. According to Richardson (2010, p. 26), blogs “are truly a constructivist tool for learning”, that is, he considers that the use of blogs encourages constructivist learning, or learning by doing. Students improve their writing skills through experimenting, creating their own written texts and learning from their mistakes. 16 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research Motivation is a key element when using blogs in language teaching. Blogging significantly improves the motivation of learners, allowing them to write on topics which are of interest for them (Carney, 2009a, 2009b; Hann, 2007). Fellner and Apple (2006, p. 17) consider that the use of blogs is adjusted to the learners’ needs according to two basic aspects: 1. The blog should encourage real learning opportunities by improving not only writing skills but also reading comprehension in the English language. 2. The blog should be of use in real tasks, so that learners can see its practical application in their daily lives. One of the latest publications on blogging in English language teaching and, specifically, on the use of blogs in Vocational Training within the Spanish educational system is by Montaner Villalba (2017). 3. Wikis A wiki is a collaborative website whose content and structure can be changed by users directly from the web browser. In a typical wiki, text is written in a simplified markup language with the help of a rich-text editor. A wiki is run on specific software known as a wiki engine. A wiki engine is a kind of content management system, with the particularity that content is created without any defined owner or leader, and wikis have little implicit structure, as it emerges according to the users’ needs. Some wiki engines are open source, whereas others are proprietary. These engines allow different levels of access; for example, editing rights allow users to make modifications, adding or deleting material. Other rules may be imposed to organize content. The online encyclopaedia project Wikipedia is by far the most popular wiki-based website, as well as one of the world’s most widely viewed sites of any kind. Wikipedia is not a single wiki but rather a collection of hundreds of them, one for each language. The English-language Wikipedia has the largest collection of articles; as of February 2020, it had over six million articles. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work”. Richardson (2010) makes some pedagogical considerations on the use of wikis in schools. Wikis can foster collaboration in such an effective way that teachers need to carefully examine their role. The author notes that the early implementation of wikis in educational contexts has proved that the more autonomy the teacher offers learners in terms of negotiating the scope and quality of the content that they are creating, the better results learners will get within their learning process. By using wikis, students learn not only how to publish content but also how to develop skills such as collaboration, negotiating with other users to agree on meaning, correctness, relevance, and so on; thus, a democratic process of knowledge creation is established. Parker and Chao (2007) deal with the different uses of wikis, and investigate their contribution to various learning paradigms, such as cooperative/collaborative learning and constructivism. Apart from examining their use in education, they suggest additional uses in teaching software engineering. 17 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment Wikis can be used as a means of fostering writing skills in a foreign language. Writing assignments is perhaps the most common pedagogical use of wikis in foreign language teaching (Lamb, 2004). Barton (2004) lists some innovative uses for wikis to develop the students’ competence in writing in English language teaching. Some of these innovative uses are: 1. A class project with a reference or encyclopaedic format, such as glossaries, etc. 2. A group project with a bibliographic format which requires students to find websites related to a topic, and then take notes, rank and organize them, etc. Wikis are also effective tools to promote project-based language learning (Schaffert, Bishop et al., 2006). According to Byron (2005), wikis allow students to meet virtually at their convenience and work on collaborative class projects. Fountain (2005) suggests various applications of wikis in foreign language teaching, such as problem solving, allowing constructive comments on pedagogical projects, etc., whereas Schaffert, Gruber et al. (2006) explain several ways in which wikis can be useful in project knowledge management, including coordination of activities, functioning as a notepad for common information items, etc. Another application of wikis is related to distance education, as they facilitate the creation of online learning groups (Augar et al., 2004). Both Byron (2005) and Tsinakos (2006) discuss the use of wikis in distance learning, the former in a distance learning symbolic logic class and the latter as an environment for the creation of collaborative student models during online educational lessons. Seitzinger (2006) offers a detailed discussion of the benefits of constructivist online learning environments. Link of interest The most important online learning platforms are Mediawiki (https://www.mediawiki.org/ wiki/MediaWiki) and PBWorks (http://www.pbworks.com/). Nevertheless, Google Docs (Docs. Google.com) can also be considered a wiki-based online tool (Richardson, 2010). 4. Social networks A social networking service (also known as social media) is an online platform where users can build social networks with those who share similar personal or professional interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections. Obar and Wildman (2015) have found several common features to try and define social networks as a whole: 1. Social networking services are Internet-based applications. 2. User-generated content is the main element of social networking services. 3. Users make service-specific profiles for the site or app which are designed and maintained by the social networking service organization. 18 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research 4. Social networking services facilitate the creation of online social networks by connecting a user’s profile with those of other individuals or groups. 5. Most social networking services are web-based and supply users with means to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail, instant messaging and online forums. Social networking sites are varied and include different kinds of new information and communication tools which operate on desktops and laptops, as well as on mobile devices such as tablet computers and smartphones. These sites enable users from distant places to share ideas (through posting), digital photos and videos, and inform them of online or real world activities and events in which other users in their network are taking part. The main kinds of social networking services are those that contain category places (for example, former school year classmates), means to connect with friends, and a recommendation system linked to trust. Social network services can be divided into three kinds: 1. Socializing services are mainly to socialize with friends users already know (e.g. Facebook). 2. Networking services are primarily used as a means of promoting the users’ careers (e.g. LinkedIn). 3. Social navigation services are mainly to help users work out specific information or resources (such as Goodreads). In the field of education, the methodology used in relation to social networks is based primarily on two approaches of relevance: constructivism (Piaget, 1932; Vygotsky, 1978) and task-based learning (Ellis, 2003). The constructivist approach to learning is developed with easiness since users can collaborate and interact by using diverse social applications. On the one hand, within an educational context, social networks allow a double relationship with reality, so that real classrooms can be combined with a virtual classroom which has been created in a specific context, and with perfectly determined aims, favouring thus that the student knows the purpose of their communication. Each student is presented with their unique profile, from which some connections with other profiles are established in the context of social networks linked with the daily reality of learners. Learners build new knowledge from their experience combined with their previous knowledge (Pritchard, 2007; Saéz López, 2012), so that, firstly, the teacher should check how familiar their learners are with the use of social networks. Nowadays, the majority of learners are already part of some social network, which makes their degree of the familiarity with them quite obvious. Constructivist theories acquire meaningful relevance in the context of social networks if collaborative learning is taken into account. With the use of social networks in teaching, two important aspects are considered: information exchange and interaction among learners with the purpose of making a concrete task, thus increasing individual learning, interpersonal relationships and social skills. In addition, the degree of motivation and self-confidence increases, implying that the affective filter decreases (Krashen, 1981). 19 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment On the other hand, task-based learning allows each student to works according to their own characteristics. This approach also facilitates autonomy in the learning process. The active implication of learners in making a concrete task through the use of social networks will necessarily produce an authentic result, which will also be linked with real life. The topic of the task to be made should be motivating and attractive enough for learners. Likewise, it is highly advisable that the task to be made is related to the previous knowledge of learners and with diverse possible solutions, instead of being a strictly closed task (Ellis, 2003). The concept of social network springs from the theory of the “six degrees of separation”, created by Frigyes Karinthy in 1929 and reconsidered in 2001 by the expert on sociology Duncan Watts. According to this theory, “everyone” may know “everyone” through five people, who are intermediaries, thus we are all interconnected. The first social network, as we nowadays know them, was created in 1995, when www.classmates.com was launched with the purpose of helping ex-colleagues from university to keep in contact. Nowadays, there are hundreds of social networks, with more than 3 billion users throughout the whole word. Boyd and Ellison (2007) define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to: 1. Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system. 2. Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection. 3. View and surf their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. De Haro (2011, p. 38) defines social networks as “a social structure that can be represented with nodes connected by edges. The nodes represent the individuals and the edges the relationships between them. These relationships can be friendship, professional, family or any other kind”, whereas Cruz, Lara and Naval (2010, p. 157) define social networks as “web applications for communication and interaction between users, where groups made up of more or less known people are formed, depending on interests, age or environment, among many other variables”. De Haro (2011) distinguishes two types of social networks: strict social networks and online services 2.0 with similar characteristics to those of social networks. The first type is itself divided into two types: 1. Horizontal social networks which provide completely open use, that is, the user joins a network which has millions of users and, therefore, is available in the whole world, such as Facebook. 2. Vertical social networks which allow users to create independent networks within the major one. A good example is Twiducate. These social networks are restricted from external users and their members have something in common. The use of a certain kind of social network will depend on the application that the teacher might want to offer, on the learners’ educational needs and on the communicative purpose. 20 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research In the following table chart there are some examples of both horizontal and vertical social networks. Horizontal social networks Vertical social networks www.facebook.com www.edmodo.com www.twitter.com www.twiducate.com www.hi5.com www.micueva.com www.myspace.com www.socialgo.com Table 1. Social Networks. Source: De Haro, J. J. (2011). Redes Sociales para la educación. Madrid: Anaya Multimedia. Ponce (2012) and De Haro (2011) define educational social networks as groups of people who are interconnected because of their interest in education. Users exchange knowledge and available tools, so that this interrelationship develops common spaces for parents, learners and teachers, where the implication of the different members of the educational community leads to an enriching collaboration. Some of these educational social networks are Edmodo, Diipo, Edu 2.0, Eduredes (created by De Haro in Ning), TeacherTube (which is a YouTube channel), Skype in the Classroom and Scolartic, the last two of which have been especially developed for teachers. According to De Haro (2011), a social network should meet two key characteristics in order to be able to fulfil educational purposes: 1. Offer learners the chance of creating social networks which are exclusively for those users who are registered, with all guarantees regarding privacy and security. 2. Allow learners to create groups or subnetworks within the network. The creation of these groups facilitates collaborative work among their members, according to ages/levels and/or skills. Subnetworks are flexible, since they vary depending on content, curriculum needs and concrete tasks. Link of interest Twitter, for example, is evolving from a social platform to a learning platform in the field of language teaching. The use of various skills of each communicative competence is normally highlighted by adding some key words: listening, vocabulary, reading, speaking, grammar, etc. The following links show some Twitter examples related to English language teaching. https://twitter.com/languagelab https://twitter.com/voalearnenglish https://twitter.com/englishfeed https://twitter.com/ESLTime 21 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment 5. Content curating with RSS Content curation is the process of gathering information which is relevant to a particular topic or area of interest. Services or people that implement content curation are called curators. Curation services can be utilized by both businesses and end users. Content curation is not a new phenomenon; museums and galleries have curators who choose items for collection and display. There are curators in the media as well, for instance DJs of radio stations who select songs to be played in the air. In the 21st Century, teachers also need to learn to curate contents. In her blog Innovations in Education, Nancy White raised the following questions on the issue of content curation: “Why curate? What is the value of curating for teachers? Really –what is the benefit of curating in terms of the learning goals – enduring understandings and 21st Century skills for our students?” In order to answer these questions and, more specifically, to explain what is the value-added of curating vs. collecting information, the following chart summarizes Nancy White’s ideas about content curation. Criteria Collecting Curating Thinking level Classifying Critical thinking – Synthesis – Evaluation Not much depth in the selection process; somewhat random “Cherry-picked” – Reading – Synthesizing – Interpreting – Evaluating for theme and context – Disciplined – Purposeful – Continuous process of inquiry Thematic Thematic and contextual – “Real world” use, examples Meets a personal interest – Value to collector – Quantity matters Meets a learning goal – Value to collector and learners – Quality matters Not necessarily shared Arranged, annotated and published somewhere – available to the general public – Beyond the life of a particular “course” – Shared Process Organization (How the resources are linked together) Value Audience 22 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research Table 2. Content curation. Source: https://nancyweducationinnovations.wordpress.com/2017/07/17/understanding-content-curation-a-refresh/ Link of interest In this link, you will find seven different content curation tools for teachers. https://raccoongang.com/blog/top-7-content-curation-tools-education/ Link of interest Robin Good explains 10 relevant reasons why curation revolutionizes education and learning. https://medium.com/content-curation-official-guide/why-curation-revolutionizes-education-learning-5d0130457a81 Link of interest Some ideas on how content curation can be applied in English language teaching are shown in the following link. https://www.slideshare.net/OscarRodrguezManjarr/content-curation-for-english-i 6. Social bookmarking Social bookmarking is a centralized online service which permits users to add, annotate, edit, and share bookmarks of web documents (Noll and Meinel, 2007). The best known social bookmarking platform is Delicious, founded in 2003, which made popular the terms “social bookmarking” and “tagging”. Tagging is a relevant feature of social bookmarking systems, as it enables users to organize their bookmarks and to develop shared vocabularies known as folksonomies. Social bookmarking and file sharing differ in the fact that the first method does not save the resources themselves, but merely bookmarks that reference them, or, in other words, links to the bookmarked pages. Metadata (short descriptions) can be added to these bookmarks so that users know what the content of the resource is without having to download it first. These descriptions may consist of free text comments, or tags that collectively or collaboratively become a folksonomy. Folksonomy is also known as social tagging, “the process by which many users add metadata in the form of keywords to shared content” (Golder and Huberman, 2006). Link of interest For a better understanding of what social bookmarking is, you can watch the following videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8zTkC4jrkM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeBmvDpVbWc 23 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment Link of interest For teachers of English as a foreign language with an interest in using innovative online tools such as social bookmarking, it is worth reading the following article: https://www.englishclub.com/efl/esl-magazine/social-bookmarks/ Link of interest In this link, a selection of the best social bookmarking applications is provided. http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/16/the-best-social-bookmarking-applications-for-english-language-learners-other-students/ 2.2.2. Open educational resources (OER) Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible, openly licensed text, media, and other online assets that are useful for teaching, learning, and assessing as well as for research purposes. They constitute the leading trend in distance education (Bozkurt, Akgun-Ozbek et al., 2015). There is no universal usage of open file formats in OER. The development and promotion of open educational resources is often motivated by a wish to provide an alternate or enhanced educational paradigm (Sánchez, 2013). The concept of open educational resources has been discussed by many scholars. The term was first coined at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on Open Courseware and it designates “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions. Open licensing is built within the existing framework of intellectual property rights as defined by relevant international conventions and respects the authorship of the work”. According to the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (2013), the term OER can be defined as “teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge”. These definitions show some discrepancies: Nature of the resource. Some experts limit the definition of OER to online resources, while other scholars consider that any educational resource can be included in it. Source of the resource. While some definitions require a resource to be created with an explicit educational purpose in mind, others widen this to cover any resource which might potentially be utilized for learning. Level of openness. Most definitions require that a resource is placed in the public domain. Others require for employment to be granted uniquely for educational purposes. At the same time, these definitions also share some universal aspects (Camilleri, Ehlers, Pawlowski, 2014, p. 54): 24 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research They include both use and reuse, as well as repurposing, and change of the resources. They encompass free employment for educational purposes. They cover different kinds of online media. One of the difficulties in reaching a consensus description of the term OER is whether there should be explicit emphasis focused on specific technologies. For instance, a video can be openly licensed and freely utilized without being a streaming video. A book can also be openly licensed and freely employed without being an electronic document. This technological tension is deeply connected with the discourse of open-source licensing. Since the aim of open educational resources is being available for various educational purposes, most organizations using OER neither award degrees nor give academic or administrative support to students who look for college credits towards a diploma from a degree granting accredited institution (Hafner, 2010; Johnston, 2005). In open education, there is an emerging effort by some accredited institutions to offer free certifications, or achievement badges, in order to acknowledge the accomplishments of participants. It is worth mentioning that some freely available educational resources are not necessarily OER. Many educational resources which are made available on the Internet are geared to permitting online access to digitalized educational content; however, the materials themselves are restrictively licensed. This is not often intentional. Educators are not generally familiar with issues on copyright law in their own jurisdictions. Both international laws and those of various nations, and certainly of those countries which have signed onto the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), restrict all content under strict copyright. Educational resources must have an open license in order to be considered OER. The Creative Commons license is the most widely used licensing framework internationally for OER (Miao, Mishra and McGreal, 2016, p. 8). Downes (2007) analyses the sustainability of open educational resources in terms of three models: funding, technical, and content. The author believes they are part of a larger image, which covers volunteers and incentives, community and partnerships, co-production and sharing, distributed management and control. The relevance of OER has been broadly shown recently. Considering that OER are cost free, and that, as Larsen and Vincent-Lacrin (2005) state, “the open sharing of one’s educational resources implies that knowledge is made freely available on non-commercial terms”, Downes (2007) raises the question of how free platforms are to be maintained. But Downes (2007) offers a broader view. It is worth noting that the major reason why OER are desirable is that they are based on value. According to Larsen and Vincent-Lancrin (2005), “the innovation impact is greater when it is shared: the users are freely revealing their knowledge and, thus, work cooperatively”. 2.2.3. Language MOOCs A massive open online course (MOOC) is aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2016). In addition to traditional course materials such as filmed lectures and readings, many MOOCs offer interactive user forums to support community interactions among 25 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment students and teachers. MOOCs are one of the latest and most widely researched development in distance education. They were first introduced in 2006 and emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012 (Pappano, 2014; Lewin, 2013). Early MOOCs often focused on open-access features, such as open licensing of content, structure and learning goals. Some later MOOCs use closed licenses for their course materials while keeping free access for students (Adamopoulos, 2013; Carr, 2013; Cheverie, 2013; Wiley, 2012). The first MOOCs emerged from the OER movement. The term MOOC was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier of the University of Prince Edward Island in answer to a course called Connectivism and Connective Knowledge. This course was led by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, who were the precursors of this new movement related to MOOCs. All course content was available through RSS feeds, and online students could participate through collaborative tools, such as blog posts, guided discussions in Moodle and Second Life meetings (Downes, 2008). According to Siemens (2012), citing his colleague Downes (2008), two kinds of MOOCs should be distinguished, due to the way in which they have evolved: those that focus on the connectivist philosophy (cMOOCs), and those that are similar to more traditional courses (xMOOCs). Stephen Downes believes that these so-called cMOOCs are more “creative and dynamic” than the current xMOOCs, which, he considers, “resemble television shows or digital textbooks” (Parr, 2013). As was said before, cMOOCs are based on principles from connectivist pedagogy indicating that online material should be aggregated, remixable, re-purposable, and feeding forward, that is, evolving materials should be aimed at future learning (Downes, 2011a, 2011b). cMOOC instructional design approaches try to connect learners to each other to respond questions and/or to collaborate on joint projects, which might include collaborative development of the MOOC itself. Andrew Ravenscroft of the London Metropolitan University suggested that connectivist MOOCs better help collaborative dialogue and knowledge building (Mak, Williams and Mackness, 2010). xMOOCs have a much more traditional course structure, with a concrete syllabus of recorded lectures and self-test problems. xMOOCs use elements of the original MOOCs; however, they are provided by branded IT platforms that give content distribution partnerships to institutions (Prpic, Melton, Taeihagh and Anderson, 2015). The instructor is the expert supplier of knowledge, and learner interactions are usually limited to asking for help and monitoring each other on difficult points. 26 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research According to Patru and Balaji (2016), there are three major benefits to be obtained by the use of MOOCs in education: 1. MOOCs are a powerful tool to broaden access to higher education (HE), as they reach people in the developing world, and can consequently improve their quality of life. Thus, MOOCs contribute to the democratization of higher education. With the availability of the latest technologies, MOOCs have significantly increased access to a large variety of courses offered by world-renowned institutions. 2. Providing affordable alternatives to formal education, since the cost of tertiary education is increasing. MOOCs can be accessed by anyone anywhere through an Internet connection, being thus open to everyone without entry qualifications. 3. The initial philosophy of MOOCs is to extend higher education to a broader audience. Therefore, they are a relevant tool to achieve Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Research studies show that some ELLs (English language learners) prefer to take MOOCs in English, in spite of the language challenges, since doing so enhances their aims of economic, social, and geographic mobility (Uchidiuno, Ogan, Yarzebinski and Hammer, 2016). This reveals the need to provide MOOC content in other languages, as well as to promote English language interventions for ELLs who participate in English MOOCs. Active participation in MOOCs discussion forums has been found to develop students’ grades and engagement, and leads to a decrease in dropout rates (Wang, Yang, Wen, Koedinger and Rosé, 2015). However, ELLs are often spectators rather than active contributors in discussion forums (Kulkami, Cambre, Kotturi, Bernstein and Klemmer, 2015). Finally, since the students of this master’s degree will eventually become English teachers, it is worth giving a brief overview of language MOOCs. Language MOOCs (language massive open online courses, or LMOOCs) are web-based online courses freely accessible for a limited period of time, which are created for those interested in improving their skills in a foreign language. According to Sokolik (2014), enrolment is large, free and not restricted to students by age or geographic location. LMOOCs have to follow the format of a course, that is, to cover a teaching programme and schedule and offer the guidance of one or several instructors. Although there are not many LMOOCs offered by MOOC providers, authors such as Martín-Monje and Bárcena (2014) argue that these open digital courses can be effectively designed to facilitate the development of communicative language competences in potentially massive and highly heterogeneous groups, whose common interest is to learn a foreign language. Scholarly research is equally incipient in the field, with only two monographs published to date on the topic (Martín-Monje and Bárcena, 2014; Dixon and Thomas, 2015). These two volumes, considered milestones of the emerging field, are based on work taken from the well-established discipline of CALL (computer-assisted language learning), which has long shown the suitability of technology-enhanced language learning (Warshauer, 1996; Levy, 1997). 27 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment 2.2.4. Mobile assisted language learning (MALL) Mobile learning or m-learning is “learning across multiple contexts, through social and content interactions, using personal electronic devices” (Crompton, 2013, p. 4). For Crescente and Lee (2011), it is a form of distance education, as m-learners utilize mobile device educational technology at their time convenience. M-learning technologies cover handheld computers, MP3 players, mobile phones and tablets. M-learning emphasizes the mobility of the learner, interacting with portable technologies. The use of mobile tools in order to create learning aids and materials has become an important part of informal learning (Trenting and Repetto, 2013). Although m-learning is relatively new in the field of educational technology, some interesting works on the subject have been published in the last decade, such as the book by Santiago, Trabaldo, Kamijo and Fernández (2015) Mobile Learning. Nuevas realidades en el aula. (Innovación Educativa). Madrid: Digital-Text. Grupo Océano. 354 pp. Of course, mobile learning can also be applied to language learning, in which case we refer to mobile assisted-language learning (MALL). MALL is a subset of both m-learning and computer-assisted language learning (CALL). It has evolved to assist language learning through the increasing use of mobile technologies such as cell phones, MP3 and MP4 players, PDAs and other devices, such as iPhones or iPads. With MALL, learners can access language learning materials and communicate with their teachers and colleagues anytime, anywhere. This allows students to brush up on their language skills just before or after a conversation in the language which they are learning. In addition, MALL provides attractive dynamics which are not available in the traditional classroom. Klopfer et al. (2002) suggested that some of the properties of mobile devices produce the following educational benefits: Portability. The small size and weight of mobile devices implies that they can be taken to different places or moved around within a place. Social interactivity. Data exchange and collaboration with other learners can happen face-to-face. Context sensitivity. Mobile devices can both gather and answer to real or simulated data which is unique to the current location, environment and time. Connectivity. A shared network can be created by connecting mobile devices to data collection devices. Individuality. Scaffolding for complex tasks can be adjusted for individual learners. 28 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research 2.3. Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Although Content Language Integrated Learning has already been dealt with (yet not in depth) in the “Teaching and Learning English” area, we have considered analysing CLIL in depth so that students of the master can understand better key concepts such as plurilingual education, how the different skills can be adapted into CLIL lessons, how to assess CLIL lessons and, most interestingly, some general ideas on how to use the ICT when teaching the English language through non-linguistic areas. 2.3.1. What is CLIL? Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a term coined in 1994 by David Marsh. It refers to learning an additional language (foreign or second) through a content-based subject or topic. This approach has been described as a very important innovation by the European Commission (2004), since “It can provide effective opportunities for pupils to use their new language skills now, rather than learn them now for use later. It opens doors on languages for a broader range of learners, nurturing self-confidence in young learners and those who have not responded well to formal language instruction in general education. It provides exposure to the language without requiring extra time in the curriculum, which can be of particular interest in vocational settings”. CLIL implies learning subjects such as History, Geography and others in an additional language. It can help children develop a positive attitude towards themselves as language learners, and encourage the learning of languages and other subjects. 2.3.2. Plurilingual education The development and practice of plurilingual education is one of the Council of Europe’s most relevant priorities. Europe is multicultural and multilingual and, to fulfil its social and cultural aims, the European Union seeks to provide education which is adjusted to the needs of plurilingual citizens. This encompasses: Europe’s linguistic diversity. The mobility of Europe’s citizens. Social cohesion. Accessible, quality education for all. Plurilingual education consists of two aspects: Education for plurilingualism and education through plurilingualism. Understanding and experiencing the diversity of languages and cultures is an aim of quality education, as well as a resource for it. Its practice is based on the following key concepts: A holistic view of languages in education. There is a global approach to every language present in learning environments rather than considering each language as a separate entity. They include the “language of schooling”, which is usually the national language of the country or region; languages spoken at home by the learners, which are frequently not the same; foreign languag- 29 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment es learnt as subjects in the school and classical languages such as Latin and Greek, as well as the language used to teach different subject areas in CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approaches. Common strategies and plural complementary approaches can become into more effective language learning. Linguistic repertoire and partial competences. Individual learners can improve their own repertoire of the different languages they know and use. The competences acquired in one language can be used in learning another one. The competence in a language is always “partial”, and the linguistic repertoires consist of a number of partial competences in different languages. Bilingualism and plurilinguism are achievable. More than half of the population of the world is bilingual or plurilingual, implying thus that it is a feasible purpose to establish educational system which enhance it. Cognitive benefits of plurilingual education. There is strong research evidence of the cognitive benefits in being plurilingual and from plurilingual approaches to education and, in particular, where educational activities requiring intellectual flexibility are concerned. Plurilingual approaches contribute to social integration. Acknowledging and valuing the home languages and cultures of migrants help their integration into schools and society; and plural approaches foster the development of openness, respect and intercultural competences in all learners. This, in turn, can contribute to more harmony in our schools and our society. Plurilingual competences are empowering for all learners. They are better prepared for employment, for further study, for effective additional language learning and for citizenship. These key concepts are at different levels of generality and complexity. Some relate to the educational outcomes, others to the educational process itself. It is very advisable that the students of this master read two different references, who have published on plurilingual education. These references are Grommes and Hu (2014) and Muscarà (2010). Grommes and Hu (2014) state that plurilingual communication is a common practice in most urban areas. These editors explore throughout this volume of the Hamburg Studies in Linguistic Diversity the plurilingual education along three major lines. The first group of contributions sheds light on educational policies in Europe and beyond. The second group of contributions elucidates what interaction and communication practices improve in multilingual contexts, focusing on school settings. Thirdly, the editors present articles which discuss the effects of plurilingual settings and plurilingual practices on language development. Muscarà (2010) deals with an action-research project which is aimed at checking and assessing CLIL effectiveness in Sicilian schools and thus within the Italian educational system. This action- research experiment has taken the agreement of social, political and pedagogical remarks that have led Europe to involve itself in the challenge of learning at least three languages among its citizens as an initial point. 30 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research 2.3.3. Skills in the CLIL classroom Clegg (2009) outlines the language and learning skills which a learner learning a subject through the medium of English as a second language requires. Clegg (2009) distinguishes three types of language and learning skills: basic L2 skills, academic L2 skills, and metacognitive skills for learning a subject in L2. As far as the basic L2 skills are concerned, it is rather obvious that the learners learning a L2 need to possess basic language skills. This implies that the learners are expected to be able to listen, speak, read and write on various topics, making appropriate and accurate use of the language at any level of the language: beginning from the phonetics/spelling, next the grammar level, vocabulary level, to finish with the functional and discursive level. The students learn these basic skills partly formally in foreign language lessons, partly implicitly in L2-medium subject lessons and – in high exposure contexts – informally outside school through the media and (in communities where the L2 is used in society) from L2-fluent peers and adults. In relation to the academic language skills, the learners need language for learning, that is, what Cummins (1979) calls cognitive language academic proficiency (CALP) which refers to formal academic language as opposed to Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) which is an informal, contextualised, social variety of language. CALP requires learners to do the type of listening, speaking, reading and writing which they practice within various subjects; they need to understand and to produce the key vocabulary of the subjects; to follow and generate the types of language structures and texts which are typical of formal subject study and, finally, to utilize the L2 to engage in the kinds of thinking which teachers expect the learners to utilize. Listening Learners have to listen and understand teachers talking in the lessons and answer to their questions. Teacher presentations might consist of well-organized stretches of talk with clear statements, examples and summaries, often supported by visuals. However, those speeches might be poorly organized, difficult to follow or visually unsupported, and learners might also have to take notes while they are listening. Moreover, they have to listen and discuss with their peers in small groups. Liubiniene (2009) analyses how CLIL methodology could be useful in developing listening comprehension in both content and language classes. Since it is rather relevant to teach students how to listen, the listening skill emerges first and foremost as a process, and later as a product. For this reason, learners become responsible for their own learning and gain control over the listening process. Reading Learners have to read handouts and subject textbooks. These texts are usually fairly well signalled through paragraphing, numbering and headings, and they might be supported by clarifying visuals such as photographs, diagrams or charts. But not every textbook is clearly laid out and many texts consist of dense paragraphs in formal language with long and complex sentences. Additionally, learners have to search for information in reference books and on the Internet and need the skills of using tables of contents, they must learn how to read by both skimming and scanning and, finally, they must learn how to properly use keywords to direct their search. 31 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment Writing Students also have to write about different topics: they have to construct formal sentences accurately, to use specific vocabulary to learn and to organize the sentences into well-formed paragraphs, according to the characteristics of writing. To write longer pieces, students have to plan what they want to assert, draft it and revise their work. They also have to take notes in class while listening. Loranc-Paszylk (2009) explores the didactic possibilities of combined reading and writing tasks within the CLIL classroom from the point of view of the students’ linguistic achievements. This paper introduces a case study of a project taking 2 semesters, which involves 17 undergraduate students of International Relations, who were offered CLIL lessons as an option to a traditional EFL course. Talking For students, talking in class means using short, infrequent responses to teacher elicitations. They also have to talk with their peers in small groups. The skills of groupwork talk are complex and many learners cannot easily use them in their L1. Learners have to follow and contribute to an ongoing and loosely directed discussion, agree and disagree with other peers’ points of view and support their own opinions, direct the conversation to some conclusion and report on it to the classroom. They will do this either in L1, or mainly in L2 (especially if the task provides support for talk) or in a mixture of both. Finally, they often have to produce spoken presentations in their L1. This is a more formal exercise in oral language use and in organizational terms is similar to producing formal writing. Delliou and Zafiri (2016) aim at investigating the effectiveness of CLIL in the development of the students’ skills. They write on this topic by the use of an action-research project within the Greek educational system. Their study is based on the hypothesis that the CLIL approach can help the students develop their speaking skills in Greek State Primary schools, having participated in the experiment 30 students who belong to two different state primary schools of the same area. These participating students have a A2 level of the EFRL. Finally, we shall mention metacognitive skills, which learners need to use when learning subjects in L2. These metacognitive skills enable learners who possess them to work efficiently in CLIL lessons. As an example, learners need to ask teachers to explain and repeat. They also need to be able to look up words themselves and keep vocabulary books, and use their language monitor to look out for and remember useful key words and phrases. 2.3.4. Planning and classroom-based assessment for CLIL This section consists of two major blocks: in the first block we will deal with planning a CLIL lesson, and in the second block we will deal with some considerations on assessment in the CLIL lessons. We will begin with the first block, related to the planning of a CLIL lesson. Firstly, we will analyse here how CLIL is realised in the classroom and, at the same time, we will suggest a framework for planning CLIL lessons. We will distinguish between underlying principles and classroom principles. As far as the underlying principles are concerned, it is important to mention that these principles behind CLIL include global statements such as “all teachers are teachers of languages” (Bullock 32 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research Report, 1975) to the wide-ranging advantages of cross-curricular bilingual teaching in statements from the Content Language Integrated Learning Project (CLIP). On the one hand, CLIL might be the best methodology for language teaching and learning in a multilingual Europe whereas, on the other hand, the existing literature on CLIL tells us that there are scarcely materials related to this method. Moreover, there are not enough teacher training programmes in order to prepare both language and subject teachers for CLIL teaching. Although the theory on CLIL is probably solid, there still remain some questions about how theory is put into practice within the CLIL lesson. In relation to the classroom principles, two principles are worth being mentioned: Language is utilized not only for learning but also for communicating, and it is the subject matter that determines the language needed to learn. For these two reasons, it is very important to understand that a CLIL lesson is not a language lesson neither is it a subject lesson taught in a foreign language. According to Coyle (1999), a successful CLIL lesson should combine the 4 Cs curriculum, that is: Content. Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related with specific elements of a defined curriculum. Communication. Using language to learn whilst learning to use language. Cognition. Developing thinking skills that link concept formation (abstract and concrete), understanding and language. Culture. Exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings, which deepen awareness of otherness and self. As mentioned in the above section, the four language skills should be combined in a CLIL lesson. From the point of view of teachers who have an ELT background, CLIL lessons involve of the following characteristics: 1. CLIL lessons combine language and skills, as well as receptive and productive skills. 2. CLIL lessons are often based on reading or listening texts. 3. The language focus in a CLIL lesson does not consider structural grading. 4. Language is functional and dictated with the context of the subject. 5. Language in CLIL lessons is approached lexically, not grammatically. 6. Learner styles are considered in task types. Therefore, a CLIL lesson is similar to an ELT integrated skills lesson but with some exceptions: a CLIL lesson includes exploration of language, is taught by an expert in CLIL methodology and is based on material directly related to a content-based subject. Both content and language are explored in a CLIL lesson. A CLIL ‘approach’ also follows the humanistic, communicative and lexical approaches in ELT, and aims to guide language processing and supports language production processing, and supports 33 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment language production in the same way that an ELT course would do by teaching techniques in order to exploit reading or listening texts and structures for supporting spoken or written language. In the second block, we will deal with the lesson framework of the CLIL lesson. A CLIL lesson looks at both content and language in equal measure, and it follows a framework consisting of four stages (Coyle, 1999). These stages are: 1. Processing the text. 2. Identification and organization of knowledge. 3. Language identification. 4. Tasks for students, which we shall next describe in detail. The first stage is processing the text. Texts are normally accompanied by illustrations for students to visualize them at the time that they are reading. Learners need structural markers in texts which will help them find their way through the content. These markers might be linguistic or diagrammatic. When a ‘core knowledge’ has been identified, the organization of the text can be analysed. The second stage is identification and organization of knowledge. Texts are often represented diagrammatically. These structures are also called ‘ideational frameworks’ or ‘diagrams of thinking’, and are employed to help learners categorize the ideas and information in a text. Diagram types include tree diagrams for classification, flow diagrams and timelines for sequenced thinking (instructions and historical information, tabular diagrams describing people and places as well as combinations of these, for example). The structure of the text is used with the purpose of easing the learning process, as well as the creation of activities or tasks that focus on both language development and core content knowledge. The third stage is language identification. In this stage, learners are expected to be able to reproduce the core of the text using their own words. There is no grading of the language used since learners will need to use both simple and more complex language. However, it is advisable for the teacher to highlight useful language in the text and to categorize it according to function. The learners might need the language of comparison and contrast, location or describing a process; however, they might also need specific discourse markers, adverb phrases or prepositional phrases. Other structures such as collocations, semi-fixed expressions and set phrases might also be given special attention as well as subject-specific and academic vocabulary. The fourth and last stage is related to the tasks for the students. There is little difference between a CLIL lesson and a skills-based ELT lesson, therefore various types of tasks should be provided, considering three different aspects: learning purpose, learner styles and preferences. Receptive skills activities or tasks are related to the ‘read/listen and do’ genre. Some listening activities the teacher might give are: Listen and label a diagram, picture, map, graph or chart. Listen and fill in a table. 34 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research Listen and make notes on specific information (dates, figures, times). Listen and reorder information. Listen and identify location/speakers/places. Listen and label the stages of a process/instructions/sequences of a text. Listen and fill in the gaps in a text. In the second block of this section, we will deal with some assessment considerations in the CLIL lessons. Firstly, it is important for students of this master to be aware of the relevance that teaching does not only mean imparting some contents but also teaching involves assessment. When deciding about various aspects (such as lesson content and sequencing, materials, learning tasks, etc.), teachers have to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the different options which are available to them. ‘The theme of assessment is a difficult and sometimes contentious area amongst CLIL teachers. In some respects, it lies at the heart of the question of how to define the level of content– language integration, because, ultimately, no matter what is taught and how it is taught, the mode of assessment determines how the learners perceive the teacher’s intention and, of course, also shapes performance data’ (Coyle, Hood & Marsh 2010:112). Assessment in CLIL is a complex area for three major reasons. First of all, there is the dual focus, (language and subject), which implies that there are two assessment processes involved. Secondly, key issues are the extent to which language and subject assessment are integrated, that is, both language and subject assessment are assessed at the same time and through the same tasks. Finally, the key to understand what makes assessment a difficult challenge for CLIL teachers lies on the fact that the impact of the mode of integration on the assessment outcomes needs to be understood where language and subject assessment are integrated. In order to understand assessment in the CLIL lessons, Babocká (2015) gives certain importance to the need of understanding assessment in its wider sense and to be aware of some basic concepts and taxonomy. She emphasizes that the first step to be considered is to clearly distinguish among assessment, evaluation and testing. These three terms are very confusing, since they are often considered as identical. It depends on the understanding and intentions of the authors. For example, some authors use the term ‘evaluation’ for identifying the means of detecting learners’ progress and achievements, and therefore directly giving the learning process support. Nevertheless, other authors attribute these qualities exclusively to assessment. (Williams, 2003; Rea-Dickens & Germaine, 2003; Ioannou-Georgiou & Pavlou, 2003; Gondová, 2010). This leads us to explain the differences between assessment and evaluation in a clear way. Although both terms might be utilized interchangeably, there is a clear difference between the terms ‘assessment’ and ‘evaluation’. The term ‘assessment’ is often referred to individual students’ achievements, whereas the term ‘evaluation’ deals with systems, materials, procedures, and their values. The distinction between ‘assessment’ and ‘evaluation’ is relevant since each concept serves a different purpose. There is, however, a potential overlap that is important to the question of whether we are assessing content, language or both, whereas programme evaluation might focus on learners’ 35 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment language achievement, probable being this an appropriate place and method in order to carry out, additionally, and discrete language assessment. Having explained the difference between assessment and evaluation, we will explain how assessment can be integrated in the CLIL lessons. Coyle et al. (2010, 129-131) summarize the assessment principles in CLIL as follows: 1. Before choosing an assessment focus, the teacher should establish clear learning objectives as a priority. Clear learning objectives should use a format which acknowledges the different areas of learning in the classroom, such as the ‘4Cs approach’ (Coyle, 1999). 2. We should use a mixture of formal and informal assessment, which is both task-based and assignment-based. Additionally, a mix of specific test times and class work sampling should be used. 3. We should attempt that learners get some familiarity with the assessment measures and success criteria, shown in a student-friendly format. 4. Content language should be assessed using the simplest format of appropriate language for that purpose. 5. Language should be assessed for a real purpose in a real context. 6. If the assessment is orally based, ‘wait time’ is relevant, since in CLIL contexts we should ask students to think, and thinking takes time and the expression of that thinking takes longer. 7. Since we need to assess what students can do with support before assessing what they can do without it, scaffolding is not considered cheating. 8. Students need to be able to take some responsibility for their own assessment, both in terms of self- and peer-assessment. This will encourage their longer-term learning potential. Genesee and Hamayan (2016) highlight five relevant qualities of effective classroom-based assessment in CLIL lessons: Effective assessment in any classroom should be linked to instructional objectives and methods. Secondly, it aims at optimizing student performance so the teacher gets an accurate picture of what the students can actually do. Effective classroom assessment is also based on clearly defined expectations which should be communicated to the students. It must also be a continuous assessment, and should take place from the beginning to the end of the academic year or course. Finally, effective assessment must be carefully planned. 2.3.5. The use of ICT in the CLIL classroom This section deals with the potential of the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in the CLIL lessons. The approach of this section will be practical. The students/trainee teachers of this master may, someday, feel the need to cooperate with colleagues from other non-linguistic areas to design online resources in order to teach subjects such as Geography, Science, etc., using the English language. This is the reason why we have introduced several basic online tools, such as Blogger, 36 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research Google Drive, digital posters with Glogster, online presentations with Prezi, etc., in order to create online tasks for teaching CLIL. These are a few online tools, more than enough to start your teaching career with some good ideas on how to use ICT in your classrooms. However, before beginning with the online tools, we should explain why the use of the ICT is rather relevant in the CLIL lessons. In order to explain this, first we shall mention what the major characteristics of CLIL are: 1. Multiple focus 2. Safe and enriching learning environment 3. Authenticity 4. Active learning 5. Scaffolding 6. Cooperation. In order to fulfil these features, teachers must use multiple resources and materials where ICT appear since they provide a rich and varied context. Harlen and Qualter (2009) state that there is a vast range of material on the Internet for students to exploit for gathering information and exploring ideas. The ICTs are tools that can be harnessed and used by children in order to find information, explore and revise ideas, collect data and record and collate. Students, however, still need a clear aim for their activities, and learn what teachers want them to learn. In this line, it is advisable that teachers have to learn how to use some ICT tools such as PowerPoint presentations (Google Presentations, Prezi, etc.), interactive digital boards (IDBs), tools from the Web 2.0 such as Blogs, Wikis, Social Networks, and online educational platforms such as eTwinning. eTwinning is a social educational network, whose aim is that students and teachers from different European countries can collaborate together with different projects. Otherwise, teachers have to learn how to use the ICT in order to support learning. A clear example is the Interactive Digital Boards, which adds value to the learning process, but when teachers adopt a leader role reduces children opportunities to improve their thinking skills. Other point to be considered is the use of published materials or learning software. Internet offers many resources that save a lot of time, but teachers need to be careful with these online tools since they cannot be adjusted to the learners’ needs. 2.3.5.1. Online tools to work with written competence In this section, a brief selection of online tools to improve the written competence will be given. Some interesting online tools are Google Docs, Blogging and the wikis. What the three tools have in common is that learners can write and edit texts as many times as they need to, and that it takes place online at the time the students might also work with other learners from different spaces. Therefore, the learning process is collaborative. 37 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment We will try to explain how some of these tools can be applied in the improvement of the written skill in the area of Geography, in English. This figure shows some tasks from a student book of the area of Geography in the 3rd year at Compulsory Secondary Education. In the section ‘before you start’, students are required to answer two questions. Image 1. Tasks from a Geography lesson. Source: Various Authors, 2015. Geography. Social Science 3 Edit. Anaya. Learners of 3rd year at CSE are invited to answer these two questions using Google Docs. Google Docs offers the learners the opportunity not only to write short texts in English but also to interact through the online chat. Learners can share their own opinions and collaborate online in making the proposed tasks and activities. Google Docs also allows the teacher to help them online. Image 2. Google Docs. Source: Own elaboration. Prezi is an online tool whose aim is to write summaries or to make outlines. In this example, it will be used to make an outline about the land relief of the Iberian Peninsula. Prezi is a visual storytelling software and an alternative to traditional slide-based presentation formats such as PowerPoint. 38 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research Image 3. Prezi. Source: Own elaboration. 2.3.5.2. Online tools to work with oral competence Students of this master’s degree will learn about some useful online tools, which can help them design and create digital tasks to work with the oral competence in the English language, that is, both the listening and speaking skills. To practice with the oral competence, it is advisable that the students of this master get some familiarity with the software Audacity, which is the best online tool to create podcasts. Audacity is a free open source digital audio editor and recording computer application, available for Windows, OS X, Linux and other operating systems. A podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that a user can subscribe to, so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user’s own local computer, mobile application, or portable media player. Image 4. Audacity screen. Source: Own elaboration. 39 Unit 2. Educational innovation. Methodologies, resources and assessment In the section ‘before you listen’, from the textbook of Geography in English (2015), Unit 2, whose title of Section 4 is ‘The climates and vegetation’, the learners from 3rd year at CSE will have to work specially the speaking skill. To do this successfully, learners will create their own podcasts, in which they will have to explain their own opinions orally to some issues raised in the section ‘before you listen’ of the Unit 2. Once they have created their own podcasts, they can upload their files to online platforms such as iVOOX (www.ivoox.com). Both Treasure Hunts and Webquests are two very interesting tools, which allow the students to learn both language and content by searching in the Internet. In the case of the area of Geography, for example, the use of an interactive map can be very useful for learners (http://ntic.educacion.es/w3/ recursos/secundaria/sociales/geografia/puzlepro.html, Geography in English). 2.4. Innovation and assessment in education It is very important to trainee teachers to be aware of the relevance of identifying the learners’ needs within the process of designing an educational project in order to analyse them later, with the final aim of improving the teaching task through the appropriate teaching interventions by using the latest methodologies as well as the use of the ICT in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Looney (2009) pays special attention to the impact of high-stake final assessment on innovation and discusses that it is possible to reconcile high-stakes assessments and exams through innovative approaches to testing. He proposes three main ways of combining assessment and innovation: 1. Improving a wide range of performance measurements for both students and schools. 2. Reconsidering the alignment of standards and assessment. 3. Measuring the impact of assessments on teaching and learning. On the one hand, when describing what counts as innovation in teaching, learning and assessment, it might be useful firstly to consider what are thought of as more ‘traditional’ teaching practices, in which teaching implies ‘direct transmission’ (Looney, 2009). That is, teachers communicate knowledge in a clear and structured ways, demonstrating and explaining solutions whereas, on the other hand, teaching and learning approaches considered as innovative are characterised ‘student-centred’ or ‘constructivist learning’. These innovative methodologies put their emphasis on improving thinking and reasoning skills, such as ‘learning-to-learn’, as well as the ability to synthesize knowledge across the curriculum. According to the OECD, teachers and students may adjust teaching programmes according to the learners’ needs and interests of individual students. Assessment has changed quite a lot in the last 10 years. It has experienced deep modifications in views on the role of classroom-based assessment, evolving from the traditional view as a tool for making summative judgements of student achievements into being considered as a tool for learning. Assessment thus plays a continuous role, allowing that teachers can identify gaps in student learning and adjust teaching adequately. This approach suits perfectly with the aims of OECD countries in order to improve lifelong learning, which is related to learning-to-learn skills. 40 Educational innovation and introduction to foreign language educational research Innovative educational approaches such as constructivism or student-centred learning necessarily imply that teaching programmes are adjusted to the learners’ educational needs. Newman et al. (2001) found that students from schools in the American mid-west, who featured constructivist approaches in the classroom, outperformed more than traditional lessons. The school was adjusted in terms of students’ prior achievement, emphasising the improvement of higher-order thinking and students responsibility for learning. 2.4.1. Assessment in education From a pedagogical standpoint, according to Hernández and Velázquez (2004), evaluation is: ‘carrying out a set of actions aimed at obtaining significant information in order to, once analysed and interpreted in a frame of reference, make it possible to develop a judgement of value and, if appropriate, make decisions about the different elements and factors that configure and interact in the educational system’. To be able to evaluate key competences, it is necessary to choose, whenever possible, strategies and tools to evaluate students according to their exercises in solving problems that simulate real contexts in w

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