Table Of ContentDisruptive Technologies
and the Language
Classroom
A Complex Systems
Theory Approach
Regine Hampel
Disruptive Technologies and the Language
Classroom
Regine Hampel
Disruptive
Technologies and the
Language Classroom
A Complex Systems Theory Approach
Regine Hampel
Faculty of Wellbeing, Education
and Language Studies
The Open University
Milton Keynes, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-31367-8 ISBN 978-3-030-31368-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31368-5
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E
pigraphs
Technology gives us the facilities that lessen the barriers of time and
distance—the telegraph and cable, the telephone, radio, and the rest. But
technology is a tool, not a virtue.
(Emily Greene Balch [1948], Nobel lecture)
To my parents; and to Fiona.
p
rEfacE
Moving from a language teaching post at a conventional UK uni-
versity to the Open University in 1999, I first experienced a model of
distance education that was based on the traditional correspondence
approach enriched by audio cassettes and the addition of optional face-
to-face tutorials. However, I quickly became involved in the creation
of a CD-ROM for students of German in 2000. This alongside a uni-
versity pilot developing and trialling a tool that combined voice confer-
encing over the Internet with text chat started to break the mould of
the time-honoured distance education approach. I then joined a team in
the then Centre for Modern Languages that was collaborating with the
in-house Knowledge Media Institute to develop, trial and mainstream
an integrated audiographic conferencing system (called Lyceum) that
allowed distance language learners and their teachers to communicate
with one another online using the speaking mode as well as through text
chat, a concept mapping tool, a whiteboard, and a document module.
Over time, Lyceum was replaced by different generations of videocon-
ferencing systems (for more information on these development and the
underlying pedagogical principles, see Hampel and de los Arcos 2013),
which today are accompanied by a panoply of other technological tools
that students use—not just at the Open University but globally.
This first-hand experience gave me valuable insight into the opportu-
nities for interaction and communication that the new digital media offer
to language students and teachers but also the challenges that are associ-
ated with them. It also led to my engagement in research which has been
ix
x PREFACE
built on the premise that the technologies that we have introduced are
not neutral tools but instead change the ways in which we teach and the
ways in which students learn. These implications should not be ignored
if we want to ensure that our students become successful communica-
tors in their second language. This book will hopefully contribute to our
understanding of what the effects of this change are and enable language
teachers and learners to use the new technologies successfully.
I would like to thank my Open University colleagues who gave me
feedback on the manuscript—Theresa Lillis, Jane Seale and Uschi
Stickler—as well as the anonymous reviewers of the book proposal. A
thank-you also goes to the anonymous reviewer of the journal Applied
Linguistics who—when I first tried to publish a much shortened version
of this book—provided very constructive and valuable feedback, while
also indicating that there was much more to this piece than an 8500-
word journal article could accommodate.
Milton Keynes, UK Regine Hampel
c
ontEnts
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background: Computer-Assisted Language Learning 2
1.2 The Disruptive Potential of New Technologies 4
1.3 Approach 8
1.4 Outline of the Book 11
References 13
2 Theoretical Framework 17
2.1 Complex Systems Theory: System and Context 23
2.1.1 Complex Systems Theory 23
2.1.2 Complex Systems Theory and Applied Linguistics 25
2.2 Sociocultural Theory 28
2.2.1 Social Interaction 29
2.2.2 Tools Use and Mediation 31
2.3 Theory of Multimodal Communication 33
2.4 Conclusion 35
References 35
3 Human Meaning-Making: Communication Tools
and Modes and Epistemic Practices 41
3.1 Development of Tools and Modes of Communication 42
3.2 Communication Modes and Their Affordances 44
xi
xii CONTENTS
3.3 Development of Learning and the Use of Particular
Modes of Communication 46
References 47
4 Computer-Mediated Communication and Meaning-
Making in the Language Classroom: Disruptions
in Learning and Teaching 49
4.1 Approach 50
4.2 Changes in Interaction Patterns 52
4.2.1 Traditional Interaction Patterns in Language
Education (Attractor 1) 52
4.2.2 Active Meaning-Making and Negotiation
of Meaning by Learners Online 56
4.2.3 New Interlocutors and Multiple Resources 60
4.3 Changes in Communication 61
4.3.1 Communication in the Traditional Face-to-Face
Language Classroom (Attractor 2) 61
4.3.2 Written Computer-Mediated Communication
Across Space and/or Time 64
4.3.3 Social Presence in Online Communication 68
4.3.4 Multimodal Communication and Its Use
in the Classroom 70
4.3.5 Multimodal Online Communication
in Language Learning and Teaching Settings 74
4.4 Changes in Learners’ Positioning in Relation
to the World 78
4.4.1 Learner and Teacher Identities in the Traditional
Language Classroom (Attractor 3) 79
4.4.2 Constructed Identities, Imagined Communities
and Online Affinity Spaces 80
4.4.3 Linking the Language Learner with the Larger
Social World 85
4.4.4 Learning in the Wild 87
4.5 A Phase Shift in Language Learning and Teaching 90
References 91
