IT-supported‘active learning’

methodsin the linguistics

curriculum

Heike Wiese & Jörg Lüttgau

Humboldt-University Berlin & IT Media Office

Overview

1. Didactic background

2. ‘Grammar games’: Active learning in class

3. LinguTrain: Self-instruction outside the classroom

4. Moodle: Discussion forums and additional material

5. Active learning methods in linguistics

The classes

Participants: Linguistics students; 70% study to become teachers at high schools and sixth-form colleges

Curriculum: Grammatical structure of German; Formal methods of linguistic analysis

The classes

Tight time-tables necessitate concise instruction;

Classes can be very large (up to over 100 students);

Classes are heterogeneous (+ specialisation, motivation)

Challenges:

‘Active learning’ methods

+ Increase students’ interest in linguistic topics

Methods that do not treat students as passive recipients of the teacher’s instructions,but as active participants in the learning process

+ Allow students to experience didactic methods that they can later employ when teaching grammar at schools

‘Active learning’ methods

Self-instruction (tools of grammatical analysis)

In class: Classroom materials that support independent studies, in particular ‘grammar games’.

Outside class (internet): Linguistic training program: LinguTrain; Additional material and discussions: Moodle.

‘Active learning’ methods

Research projects (apply analysis tools)

Empirical investigation, carried out in team-work;

Intermediate reports and final presentation of results.

Organise work, discuss problems,contact other teams: Moodle.

Positive potential of ‘active learning’ methods

Differentiation: Differentiated tasks fit the needs of different students.

Flexibility: Option of running a variety of activities at the same time.

Positive potential of ‘active learning’ methods

Cooperation: Team work, cooperative learning

Emancipation: Self-instruction, independent studies

+ Motivation, enhanced learning success

Grammar games

Tasks: Analysis and discussion of linguistic structures

Form: Similar to familiar games (jigsaw puzzles, card games,

board games, dominoes, Scrabble)

Control mechanisms: Students monitor each other’s contribution Self-regulation through pictures etc. Answers on separate sheets.

Outside the classroom:

LinguTrain

LinguTrain

Tasks: Linguistic analyses: short summaries, open and multiple-choice questions

Form: Tailor-made program on the internet: www.lingutrain.de

Control mechanisms: Correct answers appear on mouse-click.

LinguTrain offers short summaries of linguistic theories and exercises for grammatical analysis.

Students canrecapitulate

andelaborate onclassroom-

lessons.

The teacher can lock/unlock sections to keep the focus on current and previous lessons.

Exercises supported by LinguTrain

1. Open questionsno solution offered

Correct answer appears on mouse-click.

Exercises supported by LinguTrain

1. Open questionsno solution offered

Correct answer appears on mouse-click.

2. Multiple choiceseveral solutions offered

Correct answer(s) highlighted on mouse-click.

Exercises supported by LinguTrain

1. Open questionsno solution offered

Correct answer appears on mouse-click.

2. Multiple choiceseveral solutions offered

Correct answer(s) highlighted on mouse-click.

3. Matching problems and solutions randomly mixed

Correct match visualised on mouse-click.

Open questions

Multiple Choice

Matching

About LinguTrain

Completely open-source+ no running costs (e.g. licensing fees)

needs just ‘standard’ environment:- Webserver (‘Apache’ etc.)- PHP as programming language- mySQL as database

About LinguTrain

Straight-forward editing, no support by a programmer needed: Open Source Content-Management-System ‘typo3’ enables teachers to modify, add, and delete content.

More complex types of questions with an intuitive backend-module allow teachers to add and modify questions for each section.

About LinguTrain

Software that supportstailor-made exercises

that are accessible via internetand complement classroom teaching

in an active-learning paradigm.

Moodle

Open shareware Supports university teaching Some features:

Time-table for courses,

Information about participants,

Links to files and websites,

Discussion forums.

Active learning methods in linguistics

Training

Self-instruction

Application

Research projects

in class outside class

GrammarGames

Lingu-Train

TeamWork Moodle