Digital Teaching for Linguistics

Rebecca Gregory, Jessica Norledge, Peter Stockwell, Paweł Szudarski

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032058504
• eBook ISBN: 9781000534832
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

Digital Teaching for Linguistics re-imagines the teaching of linguistics in a digital environment. It provides both an introduction to digital pedagogy and a discussion of technologically driven teaching practices that could be applied to any field of study.

Drawing on the authors' extensive experience of successful delivery of web-based instruction and assessment, this book:

• provides extended analysis and discussion of the best practices for teaching in an online and blended context;
• features examples and case studies based on current research and teaching practice;
• proposes new methods of teaching and assessment in line with innovations in educational technology.

This book is essential reading for educators in the areas of linguistics, English language, and education seeking guidance and advice on how to design or adapt their teaching for a digital world.

Part I

Teaching linguistics online

Chapter 1

Innovations in digital pedagogy

DOI: 10.4324/9781003199496-3

The traditional lecture-plus-seminar approach to teaching in higher education has long been at the forefront of university life, with images of the large-scale lecture hall, studious tutorial rooms and buzzing seminar spaces saturating university marketing, filling the pages of high-gloss prospectuses and, of course, leading popular representations of university teaching on-screen. However, the landscape of higher education is shifting, with the physical reality of university teaching and the tools and methods which underpin teaching practice undergoing significant change as online, blended and distance education become increasingly prevalent (see Miller and Ives 2020; Tomlison 2018). The evolution of the digital scene over the last five years has, after all, been phenomenal. The establishment of sophisticated methods for digital communication and the steady increase in access to digital resources have revolutionised the facilitation of online learning, with more and more students turning to web-based courses, particularly at postgraduate level.

In reacting to global advances concurrent with the first decades of the twenty-first century, we in higher education must be responsive to the development of innovative and dynamic teaching tools, aligning our current practice with improvements in blended learning and the rise of new educational technology. Teaching online offers the opportunity for us to ‘use technology more innovatively to enhance […] learning’ (Baylen and Zhu 2009: 241), particularly when applying immersive, interactive and augmented technologies for the teaching of English language and linguistics. With this in mind, it is necessary to develop a range of bespoke multimodal digital resources for the student and teacher of linguistics, formulating lessons, tasks and activities which are textured and applied, in line with contemporary practice around e-learning, lessons from MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and the gamification of higher education.

Across this chapter, we aim to introduce, review and reflect on a range of contemporary innovations in digital pedagogy, considering the challenges and advantages of teaching in a digital world, and exploring the opportunities presented by digital tools for the teaching of linguistics online. We place particular emphasis on the ways in which digital pedagogies can help us to reach towards education that is adaptive, personalised and student-led, discussing ways of promoting active learning in both a blended and virtual learning environment and investigating the use and creative development of synchronous and asynchronous learning designs.

Teaching in a digital world

Although digital pedagogy is advancing rapidly, the presence of digital technology in education is not new: the first version of WebCT (now owned by Blackboard), for instance, began serving students and teachers in 1996, following the research of Goldberg et al. (1996), which illuminated the potential relationship between web-based, student-facing systems and student success. The benefits of game-based study have long been explored across younger groups of learners, with tools such as BBC Bitesize bridging the gap between revision and play since the late 1990s. The iPad has been commonplace in schools since its launch in 2010 with classrooms, seminar rooms and lecture spaces being increasingly equipped with smart devices since that time. As recognised by Beetham and Sharpe (2019a: xix): ‘[a]lthough a digital age presents new challenges and new contexts’ there is nevertheless ‘a great deal that is already known about effective teaching and learning’ online – knowledge which can be drawn upon when teaching in our current experiential environment. The key is to fully appreciate and respond to the challenges of our increasingly online contexts, beginning with an understanding of the present-day online learner, their need for flexibility, desire for personalisation and penchant for intuitive and immediate communication.

Flexibility and communication are the most crucial aspects of teaching in a digital or blended environment, with learners typically studying at distance, set apart from the day-to-day activity and face-to-face interaction that defines the on-campus university experience. Distance learners in particular are more likely to work in isolation, both as a result of their individual schedules and lifestyles (the need for flexibility in time commitments being one of the leading motivations for pursuing an online degree), and as an effect of the notorious difficulties of online group teaching. As a rule, distance cohorts almost inevitably bridge multiple time zones, often working outside of standard ‘office hours’, and present differing levels of desired interaction with their tutors and peers. Some students, for example, favour a very independent type of active learning, seeking out tutor input infrequently and preferring one-to-one rather than group interaction. Others crave the campus experience, actively seeking out opportunities for collaboration, scaffolding and support (Sánchez-Elvira Paniagua and Simpson 2018; Simpson 2014; Tait 2014). Placing specific emphasis on student individuality, it is therefore necessary to reject a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to teaching and aim to be adaptive in our teaching style, working with our students across media platforms as it suits their preferences and reviewing teaching materials and facilitation in response to students’ learning needs, research interests and aspirations.

The kind of adaptability necessary to personalise teaching in this way is fundamentally integral to pedagogical design, as recognised by the increasing optionality and personalisation features embedded in modern digital tools. Digital publishing software such as Articulate360, SmartSparrow, Xerte and Cerego, for example, actively promote accessible and flexible content creation. Student activating tools including Kahoot!, Padlet or PollEverywhere can be effectively employed to encourage dynamic forms of knowledge exchange that can be adapted to student needs, expectations and communicative preferences. Emphasis on bespoke forms of assessment is embodied by dynamic portfolio tools like PebblePad, Mahara and Bulb. Adaptive software such as these is intended to address individual student needs, provide customisable teaching experiences and track skills development, with the future of such systems offering the means to more effectively measure student activity, progress, attainment and behaviour.

In addition to tools for course and activity design, innovations in communications software have also opened new doors for teaching online, complementing overarching Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Blackboard, Canvas or Moodle, supplementing traditional teaching methods and working in combination with popular lecture and seminar tools (e.g. Panopto, Echo360, Kaltura). By incorporating a variety of modalities, systems such as Zoom, Adobe Connect, Google Classroom, and Office 365 have revolutionised online teaching, enabling educators to experiment with different methods of student-to-tutor and student-to-student interaction, promote idea-sharing on the go, and to provide innovative ways for students to engage with materials and discussion in a way that works for them.

Zoom

Used primarily as a social platform, Zoom has recently been embedded into teaching, serving as a useful tool for organising seminars and lectures online. Meeting links are simple to set up, chat functionality is embedded into the platform design; documents can be shared easily; and participants can communicate via audio, video or both. Zoom has a large gallery view which is perfect for seminar teaching; includes a variety of response functions (e.g. hand raising, applause) and whiteboard and annotation options (which may prove useful for text or discourse analysis); has a dedicated breakout room feature for small group tasks and collaboration, along with in-built polling tools for quiz-style questions and interaction; and automatic meeting transcription can also be enabled, which may prove helpful for recording lectures or enhancing accessibility. What Zoom currently lacks is the facility for asynchronous communication outside of scheduled classes and meetings.

Adobe Connect

Adobe Connect can be integrated with an existing LMS, offering optionality for designing and hosting virtual sessions. As with Zoom, Adobe Connect is chiefly a synchronous videoconferencing tool and offers a variety of in-meeting options for interactivity.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom has particular optionality for hybrid or blended teaching, as well as presenting additional benefits for teaching younger learners (e.g. the ability to easily communicate with and update guardians). Classes can be set up simply and work can be sent directly to students’ calendars; feedback can be personalised as well as stored for frequent responses, this being a particularly useful feature when marking at scale. Students and tutors can also meet face-to-face through Google Meet.

Microsoft Office 365

Office 365 is designed as a suite of tools which work together to provide a broad range of capabilities for business or education; some of these are more relevant to teaching than others, and perhaps the two most relevant components are Teams and OneNote.

Teams is a multifunctional collaboration space which houses a range of tools for asynchronous and synchronous teaching and learning. More than a tool for video calling, Teams offers the user the option to build a more complex VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) comprising various ‘Teams’ (groups of users) and Teams ‘channels’ (pages for particular subjects, groups or topics). Numerous apps can be embedded into the Teams infrastructure (not limited to those created by Microsoft), offering interaction through quizzes, polls, collaborative notebooks etc.; files can be shared and co-edited and videos can be streamed directly in app. Communication can take the form of asynchronous text chat, either through a shared channel or via a private chat, and synchronous teaching can be held over video or audio call or live instant messaging. Teams meetings can host up to a thousand participants, with Together Mode presenting a lecture-style gallery view. Breakout room functionality is also embedded as are appointment bookings which may prove useful for office hour appointments, personal tutor meetings or other forms of one-to-one interaction.

OneNote Class Notebook integrates with Teams and offers a way to organise and share teaching materials online. Noteboo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: digital teaching for linguistics
• Part I Teaching linguistics online
• Part II Active and interactive teaching in linguistics
• Part III Reconceptualising assessment for linguistics
• Index