Blake Robert J. Brave New Digital Classroom: Technology and Foreign Language Learning

Georgetown University Press, 2008. — 189 p.Brave New Digital Classroom deftly interweaves results of pedagogical research and descriptions of the most successful computer-assisted language learning (CALL) projects to explore how technology can best be employed in the foreign-language curriculum to assist the second language acquisition process.Directed to all language teachers--whether at the school or the postsecondary level, with or without prior experience--this book focuses on how to use new technologies effectively. Blake urges teachers to move beyond a simple functional competence of knowing how to use the tools toward first a critical competence--realizing what the various tools are good for--and ultimately a rhetorical competence of knowing how the tools will help transform the learning environment. This book examines the effective use of a range of technologies, from Internet sites through computer-mediated communication such as synchronous chatting and blogs, to distance learning. At the end of each chapter questions and activities demonstrate the interactionist, learner-centered pedagogy Blake espouses.An invaluable reference for experienced researchers and CALL developers as well as those of limited experience, Brave New Digital Classroom is also ideal for graduate-level courses on second language pedagogy. It will also be of interest to department chairs and administrators seeking to develop and evaluate their own CALL programs.