ABOUT THIS BOOK

Brave New Digital Classroom examines the most effective ways to utilize technology in language learning. The author deftly interweaves the latest results of pedagogical research with descriptions of the most successful computer-assisted language learning (CALL) projects to show how to implement technology in the foreign language curriculum to assist the second language acquisition process.

This fully updated second edition includes new chapters on the latest electronic resources, including gaming and social media, and discusses the realities and potential of distance learning for second language acquisition. The author examines the web, CALL applications, and computer-mediated communication (CMC), and suggests how the new technologically assisted curriculum will work for the foreign-language curriculum. Rather than advocating new technologies as a replacement for activities that can be done equally well with traditional processes, the author envisions a radical change as teachers rethink their strategies and develop their competence in the effective use of technology in language teaching and learning.

Directed at all language teachers, from the elementary school to postsecondary levels, the book is ideal for graduate-level courses on second language pedagogy. It also serves as an invaluable reference for experienced researchers, CALL developers, department chairs, and administrators.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Robert J. Blake is director of the UC Consortium for Language Learning and Teaching, professor of Spanish and classics, and chair, Designated Emphasis in Second Language Acquisition, at the University of California, Davis.

REVIEWS

No education collection should be without this guide on how to proceed.

-- Midwest Book Review

A cohesive, updated overview of how technology can be effectively used in second and foreign language teaching and learning. This book serves as a useful handbook for a wide audience including all language teachers.

-- Linguist List

Blake succeeds in painting the possibilities of technology integration for those contemplating its use in the classroom. The book is suitable for multiple audiences, including the methods courses, in which it could serve as a springboard for further discussion of appropriate and meaningful use of technology in language learning.

-- Raquel Oxford, Midwestern State University Hispania

"No education collection should be without this guide on how to proceed."

-- Midwest Book Review

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

ForewordClaire Kramsch

1. Second Language Acquisition, Language Teaching, and Technology

2. Web Pages in Service of L2 Learning

3. CALL and Its Evaluation: Programs and Apps

4. Computer-Mediated Communication 5. Theory in Practice: Putting It All Together

6. Distance Learning for Languages

7. Social Networking and L2 Learning

8. Homo Ludens: Games for Language Learning

Glossary

References

Index

EXCERPT

Brave New Digital Classroom [is] a practical, useful and seemingly modest introduction to the use of computer technology in the foreign language classroom. . . . It states clearly and urgently what the stakes are: either teachers embrace the new language learning technologies and integrate them in a new pedagogy or they will not only deprive themselves of the enormous benefits afforded by CALL, CMC, distance learning, social networking and language games, but they will be increasingly out of touch with their own students, who are by now wired, networked, and computer savvy. However, in every chapter we are reminded that the technology is not a panacea in itself. It urgently needs the teacher to harness it properly if it is to help learners achieve the ultimate goal of foreign language learning: becoming bilingual.