Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
sociolinguistic, strategic and discourse compe-
tence-across receptive and productive skill areas.
The concept of communicative competence has
led to communicative approaches in language
teaching whose primary focus is not on language
structures but on language functions, that is, how
to communicate in specific, real communicative
situations.
co-construction of knowledge and which call for
the student to take an active role.
One of the problems in language learning is
the separation that many people make between
learning and using a foreign language (our italics)
(Little, 1996). The communicative approach, how-
ever, is based on the assumption that successful
language learning depends in part on language use
and not only on knowledge of linguistic structures.
Thus, language use should be integrated with
language learning.
Language is most commonly put to use for
social, informative and transactional purposes,
where the user is able to recognize, produce and
innovate structures in appropriate situations to
achieve the desired result. Therefore, for a success-
ful language learning experience, students should
be exposed to varied input from their interaction
with real audiences while engaging in authentic
tasks which will promote negotiation of meaning.
The essence of these beliefs is captured the
following frameworks:
How is knowledge of
Language Acquired?
From the socio-cognitive perspective, the focus on
language learning is on having students engage in
authentic social discourse and on knowing how to
interact appropriately in specific discourse situa-
tions. Thus, interaction appears to have an impor-
tant role for language learning. Many researchers
have demonstrated that oral interaction with au-
thentic audiences, which generates negotiation of
meaning, is beneficial for language learning and
language acquisition (Vygotsky, 1978; Cazden,
1988; Long, 1983). Negotiation of meaning, in
combination with a series of purposeful activities
scaffolding the learner from basic communicative
utterances to understanding and active use of lin-
guistically and pragmatically complex language
(Long, 1985) will lead the learner to achieving
communicative competence. This process occurs
first at a social level through social interaction and
co-construction of knowledge and then takes place
at an individual level (Vygotsky, 1978).
The Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages: Learning,
Teaching, Assessment -CEFR-which sets
clear standards to be attained at succes-
sive stages of learning and for evaluating
outcomes in an internationally comparable
manner.
The Standards for Foreign Language
Learning in the 21st Century (1999)-“The
Five Cs.”-which describe the “what” (con-
tent) of world languages learning and form
the core of standards-based instruction in
the world languages classroom.
How is knowledge of
Language Put to Use?
How language is acquired affects how it should
be taught or learned. MUVEs have to be seen as
social spaces which foster interaction and the most
effective MUVEs for learning are those which
support different kinds of communication. This
social interaction should take place within the
context of meaningful activities which foster the
The Canadian Language Benchmarks
(2009)
mUVeS AND LeARNINg
This section discusses how MUVEs have devel-
oped in their application to language learning
Search WWH ::




Custom Search