Language learning as the agency for a social purpose: examples from the coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic is a reality affecting human activity worldwide, including language education. This paper addresses practices and possibilities for L2 learning and use occurring informally, particularly those taking place in bottom-up, community-driven digital actions of citizens in the fig...

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Main Author: Katerina Zourou
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Université Marc Bloch 2020-12-01
Series:ALSIC: Apprentissage des Langues et Systèmes d'Information et de Communication
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/alsic/4880
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author Katerina Zourou
author_facet Katerina Zourou
author_sort Katerina Zourou
collection DOAJ
description The coronavirus pandemic is a reality affecting human activity worldwide, including language education. This paper addresses practices and possibilities for L2 learning and use occurring informally, particularly those taking place in bottom-up, community-driven digital actions of citizens in the fight against the pandemic. Since January 2020, many technology-mediated social participation (TMSP) forms (Preece & Shneiderman, 2009) were launched locally and globally, where citizens contribute voluntarily to actions that serve a social purpose in crises. Four TMSP types are analysed through the examples of cases drawn from the pandemic: a) massively multiplayer online games, b) emergency response expert hackathons, c) digital activism in grassroots communities and d) citizen science. The paper builds on sociocultural understandings of the language learner as a social actor and an active citizen meaningfully engaged in collective action during the pandemic to identify current practices and future possibilities at the crossroads of language learning and agency for a social purpose in crises. Despite the scarcity of practices so far, the paper offers a tentative mapping of the TMSP features that depict their potential for L2 learning and use and open up research perspectives in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).
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issn 1286-4986
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publisher Université Marc Bloch
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series ALSIC: Apprentissage des Langues et Systèmes d'Information et de Communication
spelling doaj-art-974b4f2b79e840959dbd24230174c42e2024-12-09T13:25:16ZfraUniversité Marc BlochALSIC: Apprentissage des Langues et Systèmes d'Information et de Communication1286-49862020-12-0123110.4000/alsic.4880Language learning as the agency for a social purpose: examples from the coronavirus pandemicKaterina ZourouThe coronavirus pandemic is a reality affecting human activity worldwide, including language education. This paper addresses practices and possibilities for L2 learning and use occurring informally, particularly those taking place in bottom-up, community-driven digital actions of citizens in the fight against the pandemic. Since January 2020, many technology-mediated social participation (TMSP) forms (Preece & Shneiderman, 2009) were launched locally and globally, where citizens contribute voluntarily to actions that serve a social purpose in crises. Four TMSP types are analysed through the examples of cases drawn from the pandemic: a) massively multiplayer online games, b) emergency response expert hackathons, c) digital activism in grassroots communities and d) citizen science. The paper builds on sociocultural understandings of the language learner as a social actor and an active citizen meaningfully engaged in collective action during the pandemic to identify current practices and future possibilities at the crossroads of language learning and agency for a social purpose in crises. Despite the scarcity of practices so far, the paper offers a tentative mapping of the TMSP features that depict their potential for L2 learning and use and open up research perspectives in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL).https://journals.openedition.org/alsic/4880social dimensiononline learningsocial mediainformal learningopenness
spellingShingle Katerina Zourou
Language learning as the agency for a social purpose: examples from the coronavirus pandemic
ALSIC: Apprentissage des Langues et Systèmes d'Information et de Communication
social dimension
online learning
social media
informal learning
openness
title Language learning as the agency for a social purpose: examples from the coronavirus pandemic
title_full Language learning as the agency for a social purpose: examples from the coronavirus pandemic
title_fullStr Language learning as the agency for a social purpose: examples from the coronavirus pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Language learning as the agency for a social purpose: examples from the coronavirus pandemic
title_short Language learning as the agency for a social purpose: examples from the coronavirus pandemic
title_sort language learning as the agency for a social purpose examples from the coronavirus pandemic
topic social dimension
online learning
social media
informal learning
openness
url https://journals.openedition.org/alsic/4880
work_keys_str_mv AT katerinazourou languagelearningastheagencyforasocialpurposeexamplesfromthecoronaviruspandemic