Online Communities and their Implementation in Language Education: Supporting Participation in Social Practice

Abstract

Many teachers know that their students participate in various online communities (OCs). In OCs, popular media, such as sitcoms, books, and digital games serve as focal points for an array of complex activity, ranging from discussion and debate to user-made videos and art. What some teachers may not realize is that this type of activities can facilitate foreign-and second language learning. Thus, one goal of the current study was to describe critical features of OCs from a situated learning and a digital literacies perspective, highlighting multimodal meaning making and social practice. Additionally, to move beyond language practice and support participation as social practice, researchers are beginning to explore ways to integrate OCs into the language curriculum. However, there currently exist relatively few discussions and examples in the literature to assist teachers in implementing OCs into instruction. To address this issue, the current study drew from a technology implementation framework to propose three models to guide the use of OCs in Korean educational contexts. Each model presented was discussed in regards to four considerations—how to: (1) identify “good” online communities; (2) relate community activities to curriculum objectives; (3) encourage participation;and (4) assess community involvement and language learning. (199)