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> 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

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