Rick Kern

University of California, Berkeley | UCB · Department of French

From the origins of writing to today’s computer-mediated communication, material technologies shape how we read and write, how we construe and share knowledge, and ultimately how we understand ourselves in relation to the world. But communication technologies are themselves designed in particular social and cultural contexts and their use is adapte...

Globalization and networking technologies have transformed the contexts, means, and uses of foreign language learning. The Internet offers a vast array of texts, films, music, news, information, pedagogical resources, sounds, and images from around the world as well as unprecedented opportunities for direct communication with native speakers in rea...

Rapid evolution of communication technologies has changed language pedagogy and language use, enabling new forms of discourse, new forms of authorship, and new ways to create and participate in communities. The first section of this article identifies and discusses four key issues arising from the recent technology-related literature (the status of...

Language is not just a tool for communication. It is also a resource for creative thought, a framework for understanding the world, a key to new knowledge and human history, and a source of pleasure and inspiration. The Connections Standard is about linking language and literature study to other disciplines (for example, art, music, film, history,...

This book examines the relationships between online visual interfaces and language use in educational contexts and the features that underpin them to explore the complex nature of online communication and its implications for educational practice. Adopting a case study approach featuring a global range of examples, the volume uniquely focuses on mu...

Whereas early studies in network-based language teaching (NBLT) tended to test the technology to see what effects it might have on language use, later studies gradually shifted toward testing theories of second language acquisition within the context of computer-mediated communication. This chapter describes two trends in research on NBLT: one that...

This article offers a capacious view of technology to suggest broad principles relating technology and language use, language teaching, and language learning. The first part of the article considers some of the ways that technological media influence contexts and forms of expression and communication. In the second part, a set of heuristic question...

Whereas early studies in network-based language teaching (NBLT) tended to test the technology to see what effects it might have on language use, later studies gradually shifted toward testing theories of second language acquisition within the context of computer-mediated communication. This chapter describes two trends in research on NBLT: one that...

Built around the concept of linguistic and cultural plurality, this book defi nes language as an instrument of action and symbolic power. Plurality is conceived here as:-a complex array of voices, perspectives and approaches that seeks to preserve the complexity of the multilingual and multicultural enterprise, including language learning and teach...

ABSTRACT  This study compares one group of students' beliefs about language learning with those of their teachers and with those of their peers at another institution. It furthermore examines change in students' beliefs in relation to those of their instructors in an effort to develop hypotheses about the potential influence of teachers' beliefs on...

This article studies the impact of multimodality and synchronicity on an online teaching/learning exchange between dyads of Masters degree students in teaching French as a foreign language at the University of Lyon 2 and dyads of intermediate-level French students at the University of California, Berkeley during the 2006-07 academic year. The deskt...

Studies in French Applied Linguistics invites the reader to adopt a broad perspective on applied linguistics, illustrating the fascinating multifaceted work researchers are conducted in so many various, inter-connected subfields. The five chapters of the first part are dedicated to the first and second language acquisition of French in various sett...

This article argues for a context-sensitive, integrative approach to research on reading, writing, and related text-based practices in second language acquisition (SLA). The approach views literacy not as universal psycholinguistic processes but as constellations of social, cognitive, and linguistic practices that vary with situational and cultural...

Research on networked language learning is now entering its second decade. While earlier research tended to focus on the linguistic and affective characteristics of computer-assisted discussion in single classrooms, more recent research has increasingly focused on long-distance collaboration. This type of learning environment is challenging to arra...

Defining literacy: models, myths and metaphors investigating literacy practices in context educational contexts for literacy development spoken and written language reading as situated social practice writing as situated social practice researching literacy as social practice.

This study describes the use of Daedalus InterChange, a local area computer network application, to facilitate communicative language use through synchronous, written classroom interaction. The study compares the quantity and characteristics of the discourse produced by two groups of second‐semester French students during an InterChange session and...

Reading in a second language (L2) can produce inefficient processing in otherwise proficient readers. This paper argues that mental translation during L2 reading may facilitate the generation and conservation of meaning by allowing the reader to represent portions of L2 text that exceed cognitive limits in a familiar, memory-efficient form. Fifty-o...

Understanding about how students make sense of foreign language texts, based on relevant research and theory, can contribute to effective foreign language reading instruction. Both linguistic factors in the target language and native language reading skill development are critical to success in foreign language reading. Linguistic factors affecting...

This talk considers relationships between technology and language use from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives, with examples from various languages. Rather than taking a technologically deterministic view, it emphasizes how writing systems and technologies reflect the cultures of reading they serve. Correspondingly, it argues that technolo...