Chris Cavey, lead educator for our massive open online course on FutureLearn, Exploring English: language and culture, explains what learners can gain from exchanging ideas online.
Using English to get your message across
Most classroom English teachers will remember a moment when an authentic conversation in English broke out in their classroom. It’s most likely to happen in a multilingual class and it may be about something as trivial as where to get the cheapest phone deal or the best way to get to Camden. It’s memorable because in those moments the students have moved away from being ‘learners’ and become themselves – but in English.
Teachers may love the moments when students use English for these pressing and authentic purposes but they tend to happen spontaneously and can be difficult to engineer in the classroom. Perhaps the online classroom offered by a MOOC would lend itself better to authentic interaction.
Creating an online language-learning community
When we ran our massive open online course (MOOC) course in 2014, real authentic interaction was very common. The conversations could be fun, (‘How do you say hehehe in your language?’), or serious (different views of Spanish regionalisms). They could be passionate (a deep love of David Bowie) or informative (many versions of the same song in different languages). But what they all were was authentic — real language used to convey a real message
As with social media sites, learners on this course become part of the lesson content when they share their thoughts and opinions, and ask each other questions about their cultures, backgrounds, and interests. In this way, English learners get to practise their English by interacting with their peers and exchanging ideas.
The students I taught 15 or 20 years ago in Slovakia or Japan would have loved an opportunity to use ‘real’ English in this way, as they would have been able to interact with their fellow learners in just the same way you would writing a message to friends on social media. What’s more in this case, you’re connecting and interacting with others in English all around the world.
Learners can work together to improve their English
When we ran this course in 2014, we found that learners quickly started to help and advise each other in the language work sections. The range of learners, language abilities and linguistic backgrounds (the course is popular with English teachers too!) means that learners can often find someone who can help them with a particular language point.
Here’s a typical exchange from the last course:
Learner 1: For the first time I’m coming to know about these terms of grammar and it’s so difficult for me. Saying simply, I couldn’t understand it yet very clearly. Please can you help me on it?
Learner 2: Hi! I have problems with this part of grammar too. But I found these pages [2 useful links] I hope they’ll help you. I’m reading them now, and I think they are good explanations :)
Learner 1: Hi [Learner 2]. Thanks a lot for helping me. I’ll read them :)
So if your fellow learners don’t know the answer, they can point you in the right direction – to links on other pages or to answers elsewhere on the course.
When learners encourage each other, great things can happen
It can be daunting to share your thoughts with others in a language you may not feel entirely confident in. So imagine how Esteban felt when he shared his thoughts about Mexican regional identity and five minutes later sees a comment from Ahmed that says ‘Great words, brother! I have the same ideas about humanity.’ What can be more rewarding than authentic feedback from a peer who understands and agrees with your message?
Our 2014 course had more than 120,000 people from more than 190 countries. Sign up now for your chance to become part of an online learning community today. The next live course starts on 2 February 2015.