The 5 C's of Constructivist Language Learning with Moodle

Tony C. Beld, Ph.D.
Director, Language Technology Center, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
tbeld@uccs.edu

V The presentation looked at Moodle, the free open source Course Management System and the 5 C's of the National Standards for Foreign Language Education
V Communication
V In real life situations
* Leave a message inquiring about a job
* Inquire about an apartment for rent
* Etc.
V Writing
V Forum
V Blog
V Wiki
V Audio
V MoodleSpeex (toggle text and audio forum)
V Gong (threaded asynchronous discussion in Moodle) gong.ust.hk
V COVCELL www.covcell.org
V What students can do with language rather than what they know about language
* Task over form
* Socio-constructivist language teaching
* Learn by doing
* Students communicate in oral and written form, interpret oral and written messages and show cultural understanding
V Present oral and written information to a variety of audiences
* Peers (describe the key points of a chapter lesson to the others)
* Write a description of university life for incoming freshmen on your blog
* Oral activity where students must explain or define a concept
V Cultures
V Cultural understanding
V Videos from SCOLA, YouTube etc.
* Current headlines
* News
* Blogs
V Relationship between languages and other cultures as well as the student's native culture
* Opinion sites in the target language
* Controversial issues
* Cultura project (web.mit.edu—)
* Tandem learning
V Connections
V Explore the target language through various subject matters
* Linguistics/Dialectology
* Sociology
* Geography
* Philosophy
* Music
V Comparisons
V Compare and contrast languages and cultures
V Introducing regional accents and various dialects helps students to discover patterns, make predictions, and analyze similarities and differences across languages and cultures. Furthermore, it helps them come to better understand their native language and culture better.
V Communities
V Extend the learning experience beyond the classroom
V Social Networking
* Profile pages
V Blogs
* Community of practice in language teaching and learning moodle.org—view.php