TY - JOUR

T1 - Web 2.0 Tasks in Action

T2 - EFL Learning in the U.S. Embassy School Election Project 2012

AU - Kaliampos, Joannis

AU - Schmidt, Torben

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Exploring topics that are personally relevant and interesting to young adult English as a foreign language (EFL) learners remains a core challenge in language teaching. At the same time, the advent of Web 2.0 applications has many repercussions for authentic language learning. The “U.S. Embassy School Election Project 2012” has addressed these questions by combining a close focus on the U.S. Presidential Election with an interactive project scenario. Over 1,400 students across Germany participated in this project and produced an election forecast for an assigned U.S. state based on a survey of regional news media and social network data. Their predictions were in many cases more accurate than those of major U.S. broadcasting networks. This paper discusses the general educational potential of such projects in the contexts of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), intercultural learning, and learning in a task-based project environment. The authors have applied a multimodal qualitative approach to analyze tasks and learner perceptions of tasks in the context of the election project. In a first step, the micro-perspective of the perception of web-based tasks is investigated by example of one selected task cycle and a focus group of three learners. The second part of the analysis represents a bird’s-eye view on the learner products arising out of such tasks.

AB - Exploring topics that are personally relevant and interesting to young adult English as a foreign language (EFL) learners remains a core challenge in language teaching. At the same time, the advent of Web 2.0 applications has many repercussions for authentic language learning. The “U.S. Embassy School Election Project 2012” has addressed these questions by combining a close focus on the U.S. Presidential Election with an interactive project scenario. Over 1,400 students across Germany participated in this project and produced an election forecast for an assigned U.S. state based on a survey of regional news media and social network data. Their predictions were in many cases more accurate than those of major U.S. broadcasting networks. This paper discusses the general educational potential of such projects in the contexts of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), intercultural learning, and learning in a task-based project environment. The authors have applied a multimodal qualitative approach to analyze tasks and learner perceptions of tasks in the context of the election project. In a first step, the micro-perspective of the perception of web-based tasks is investigated by example of one selected task cycle and a focus group of three learners. The second part of the analysis represents a bird’s-eye view on the learner products arising out of such tasks.

KW - Didactics of English as a foreign language

KW - Digital media

KW - Empirical education research

KW - North American Studies

KW - Language Studies

U2 - 10.18422/58-04

DO - 10.18422/58-04

M3 - Journal articles

JO - American Studies Journal

JF - American Studies Journal

SN - 1433-5239

IS - 58

ER -