For those interested in language teaching & learning, new media, digital

literacies, online learning environments, and/or learner engagement you
won't want to miss this talk next week.

***

The interdisciplinary program in linguistics presents Steven L. Thorne,
Department of Applied Linguistics, The Pennsylvania State University,
speaking on March 4th, 4:30 pm in 128 Hodges Library.

Supported by Educational Psychology & Counseling, English/Rhetoric,
Writing & Linguistics, Modern Foreign Language & Literatures, Theory and

Practice of Teacher Education.

***
Title: Use-value and usage-based approaches to language in the lifeworld

Abstract: There has been a great deal of research and pedagogical
experimentation relating to technology use within second and foreign
language education. This presentation broadens the scope of inquiry to
include second and foreign language-related uses of technology that
extend into the interstitial spaces between instructed L2 contexts and
entirely out-of-school realms of freely chosen digital engagement. The
talk begins by examining communication technologies from demographic,
historical, and sociocultural vantage points. A number of case studies
of online interaction are then explored: (1) participation in
plurilingual online communities, (2) the use of new media to bridge the
in- and out-of-school lifeworlds of students, and (3) engagement in
multiplayer online games. More generally, the presentation argues for
the efficacy of a usage-based model of second language acquisition and
presents a pedagogical framework designed to increase the relevance of
instructed L2 education through the structured juxtaposition of digital
vernaculars with more formal 'classroom' genres of language use, an
approach I am terming bridging activities (e.g., Thorne & Reinhardt,
2008). In conclusion, an argument is made for continued exploration of
new media genres of language use and their selective inclusion into
instructed L2 pedagogy, processes, and curricula.

Biography: Steven L. Thorne is Assistant Professor in the department of
Applied Linguistics and Associate Director of the Center for Language
Acquisition at the Pennsylvania State University. He also serves as the
Advisor for Mediated Learning at the Center for Advanced Language
Proficiency Education and Research (a national foreign language resource

center). His research focuses on cultural-historical activity theory,
computer-assisted language learning, new media literacies, second
language acquisition, and themes relating to social theory and critical
pedagogy. His research has appeared in numerous edited collections as
well as the Handbook of New Literacies, Encyclopedia of Language and
Education, and the Modern Language Journal, Annual Review of Applied
Linguistics, CALICO Journal, Language Teaching, Language Learning &
Technology, Brain and Cognition, and Intelligence, among other venues.
His book length works include a co-edited volume on Internet-mediated
Intercultural Foreign Language Education (Thomson/Heinle, 2006) and the
co-authored book Sociocultural Theory and the Genesis of Second Language

Development (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Speaker website: http://language.la.psu.edu/~thorne/

To view the archives, or join or leave the gradrept list:
http://listserv.utk.edu/archives/gradrept.html