From Multimedia to
Multitasks
Frances Yufen
Lee Mehta
To
meet the needs of our students who are from a generation in which technology is
rapidly changing and gaining prominence, teachers often have to incorporate new
developments in technology that can be adapted to language teaching and
learning. I adapt online technology to
engage my third-year students in active communication via interaction,
cooperation, reflection and self-assessment, while applying standard pronunciation, precise structural
devices and rich vocabulary. Classroom
activities and assignments are designed to accomplish a variety of tasks in which students assume various roles in a
range of functions to demonstrate their deeper understanding on the newly
acquired linguistic and cultural knowledge in social and cultural appropriateness. This process and result show that students
benefit from the exposure to and application of multimedia materials, which are
not only authentic and up-to-date but also suitable to their learning
style.
In
my presentation, I will briefly explain the pedagogical background of my recent
project funded by the Consortium of Language Teaching and Learning. I will then discuss the exploration of
multimedia resources for
Chinese language teaching and learning for third year students.
Participants will review the design of using multimedia resources as tools to achieve multiple tasks. Finally, results using multimedia to achieve
multi tasks in the third year Chinese course and users’ feedback will be
revealed.
TECHNOLOGY: Using technology and
media in the Chinese language classroom, including audio and video.