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WORKING PAPER - SECOND INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIA ON RESEARCH AND

INNOVATION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES TO BE HELD IN BOGOTA COLOMBIA,

AUGUST 17- 19, 2011

“CSIT” TEACHING MODEL AND WIKIS: INNOVATING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

TEACHING AND LEARNING

ABSTRACT

The current communicative needs and sociocultural interests of the modern world demand new

practices and environments in the foreign language classroom. One way of innovating foreign language

teaching and learning can be the integrated use of wikis and the CSIT teaching model. This integration

can provide opportunities not only to renew language learning and teaching practices but to rethink the

roles of teachers and learners, and ultimately to move from information processing to knowledge

construction.

KEY WORDS

Innovation, ICTs, wikis, CSIT teaching model, foreign language classroom.

RESUMEN

Las necesidades comunicativas y los intereses socioculturales actuales del mundo moderno exigen

prácticas y ambientes nuevos en el salón de lengua extranjera. Una manera de innovar la enseñanza y el

aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras puede ser el uso integrado de wikis y el modelo de enseñanza CAIT.

Esta integración puede proporcionar oportunidades no sólo para renovar las prácticas de enseñanza y

aprendizaje de lengua sino para repensar los roles de los profesores y aprendices y, en últimas,

trascender del procesamiento de información a la construcción de conocimiento.

PALABRAS CLAVES

Innovación, TICs, wikis, modelo de enseñanza CAIT, salón de lengua extranjera.

INTRODUCTION

One way of innovating language teaching can be the use of new technologies, which provides

opportunities not only to renew course contents and teaching methods but to rethink the process of

learning in order to transform information into knowledge and understanding (Semenov, 2005).

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Warschauer and Meskill (2000) state that, among other things, new technologies can help students have

opportunities for authentic and meaningful interaction both within and outside the classroom, access

different tools for their own social, cultural, and linguistic exploration and gain apprenticeship into new

discourse communities. For their part, Padurean and Margan (2009) explain that new technologies

allow the development not only of instrumental skills but also knowledge of new languages

(audiovisual and hypertextual) as well as teaching competencies and methodological skills in virtual

environments.

The Constructivist, Self-regulating, Interactive and Technological (CSIT) teaching model (CAIT as it

called in Spanish), established by the Forum's Internet Educational Foundation Meeting (Beltrán and

Pérez, 2003) may be a concrete way to strengthen educational planning, implementation and evaluation

through new technologies. This model is based on the context of a pedagogy of imagination centered

on the student, which expects him/her to subject the information collected online to the action of

critical thinking. In addition, this model understands technology as a cognitive tool to stimulate the

development of analytical thinking, and pragmatic and dialectical processes (Soler, 2003; Beltrán y

Pérez, 2004).

For their role as task organizers, input providers, and language teaching management resources, wikis

can become useful cognitive tools for both teachers and students in the language curriculum. Parker

and Chao (2007) explain that wikis can be used as a source of information and knowledge, as well as a

tool for collaborative authoring since they allow participants to engage in dialog by sharing their

knowledge with the group, putting up interesting pieces of information, working together and

discussing issues. For language learning, contends Lund (2008), wikis hold a potential for collectively

producing, organizing and sustaining textual (and, increasingly, visual and auditory) resources. Gimeno

and García (2009) claim that wikis are a social network that can be used to support cooperative

learning tasks in the language curriculum. Due to their collaborative nature, they can be used in project-

based and problem-based language learning practices where students and teachers contribute to the

construction of knowledge.

CONTEXT

Currently, EFL teachers and learners are experiencing a set of pedagogical and sociocultural changes

that asks from them better language practices and environments: improved teaching and learning

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philosophies, integrationist curricula, the emergence of new means of communication, etc. See

discussion about some of those changes below.

Competency and performance-based curricula

Oliver (2002) states that competency and performance-based curricula tend to require (a) access to a

variety of information sources and forms; (b) student-centered learning contexts based on information

access and inquiry; (d) learning environments centered on problem- and inquiry-based activities and (e)

teachers as coaches and mentors rather than content experts. In his opinion, contemporary ICTs are

able to provide strong support for all these requirements because, among other things, they provide and

support for resource-based, student centered settings, enable learning to be related to context and to

practice, and encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning. Ultimately, ICTs can

allow teachers and students to move from a transmissionist classroom centered on information

memorization to a constructivist classroom based on knowledge generation.

Information literacy

Shetzer and Warschauer (2000, p. 172) state that previously language educators considered how to use

information technology in order to teach language, nowadays they need to consider how to teach

language so that their learners can make effective use of information technology. This shift resulted

from the emergence of what some authors have called information literacy, which consists of knowing

how to use computers and access information to reflect critically on the nature of information itself, its

technical infrastructure, and its sociocultural and ideological context and impact (Shapiro and Hughes,

1996). As a result of this new kind of literacy, Nishinoh (2005) claims that instruction in the English

classroom has to improve students’ information literacy/skills in general and improve their English

skills while making use of the information literacy/skills which are being learned.

ICT in language learning and teaching

Rozgiene, Medvedeva, and Straková (2008) state that teachers need to work with hypermedia and

internet in their classes because they provide a number of advantages for language learning. First of all,

all language skills can be easily integrated in task-based learning. Secondly, learners have greater

control over their learning because they can go at their own pace, skipping some parts or going back to

review the material. Thirdly, the learner can access various learning tools like grammatical

explanations or exercises, vocabulary notes or comments, pronunciation information, or questions or

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prompts. Finally, learners can share not only brief messages, but also create interactive graphics,

sounds, and videos, which can facilitate collaborative learning.

Wikis and language learning and teaching

According to Lund (2006), the production and appropriation of language in wikis go beyond

individualistic and mentalist approaches to language learning since these interfaces make possible the

development of activities that require multiple participants with a collective goal in common. Also,

explains Lund, since wikis have resources to face complex problems, they facilitate the production of

language. Kovacic, Bubas and Zlatovic (2008) claim that wikis can be used in language learning to

encourage student interaction and discovery while helping the students acquire the linguistic content of

the language course. To them, the flexibility and relative easy use of wikis make them suitable for the

implementation of learning paradigms like collaborative learning and social constructivism. Similarly,

in a study about the use of a wiki in an EFL class, Chen (2008) concludes that the wiki environment

can allow students to fulfill their role duties, cooperate, negotiate, manage and model their

contributions from each other.

DEVELOPMENT

In order to provide both EFL teachers and learners with technology-enhanced environments that

respond to current society’s demands and needs, EFL programs can implement the constructivist self-

regulating interactive and technological (CSIT) teaching model. According to Beltrán (2003), this

model aims to transform information into knowledge, change teacher-based classes into student-

centered classed and, ultimately, change and improve reality. It can do so because of its four essential

features: (1) constructivist which allows students to (re)construct reality by re-structuring contents

within the context of instruction, (2) self-regulating which enables students to “learn to learn” by

directing their own learning process, (3) interactive which encourages students to work in learning

communities by sharing and connecting multiple points of view, and (4) technological which drives

students to carry out authentic and real tasks by using technological resources as cognitive instruments.

Martín, Beltrán and Pérez (2003) explain that this teaching model has seven steps or processes to help

teachers and learners work with contents, values, abilities, processes and strategies. Teachers can have

those steps as reference to create concrete, active and meaningful learning experiences. To them, these

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parameters can become the axes of articulation of academic learning and guide teacher and students’

activities. See description of the seven steps below.

Figure 1. Steps and process in the CSIT teaching model (Martín, Beltrán & Pérez, 2003)

Contextualization It describes the justifications, contents and tasks that configure the learning proposal as

well as the audience to which it is directed. It refers explicitly to level, area, topic, and

specific contents.

Objectives It represents the aim or aims students need to achieve at the end of the unit. They show the

mental route of students divided into three axes: cognitive (knowledge, abilities and skills),

affective (attitudes, feelings, and values) and behaviorist (activities, actions).

Teacher’s role It moves from transmitting information to helping to learn and learn with technology. The

teacher becomes a guide, a facilitator and a mediator. The teacher plans tasks, diagnoses

strengths and weaknesses, presents contents to promote understanding, encourages students

to analyze and transfer information, and helps students assess their processes.

Student’s role It is an active and responsible agent whose activities make knowledge construction

possible. It involves a disposition towards learning, a planning of tasks, a development of

adequate strategies, an application of acquired knowledge and an evaluation of results.

Technological

tools

They range from data bases and semantic webs to micro worlds and simulators that do not

just allow to acquire information but to increase and improve the human capacity to

construct and generate knowledge. Teachers need to determine what kind of instruments

can be used to do the programmed activities and to fulfill the proposed objectives.

Activities and

processes

development

Teachers and students need to do activities and follow processes in order to learn to learn

such as plan tasks, select and organize information, transfer and apply knowledge, act

critically and creatively, etc. These activities and processes must allow students to acquire

information but, above all, develop comprehension and communication skills, solve real

and authentic problems and use critical thinking and creativity. Beltrán (2003) recommends

five concrete steps: Sensibilization (preparing the mental context for learning), planning

(designing learning tasks), elaboration (understanding the message, the situation, or the

ability), personalization (developing creativity and critical thinking) and application (use

or transfer knowledge and skills).

Evaluation It entails assessing not just the successful achievement of objectives but the appropriate

development of processes and the adequate use of technology. It also involves assessing

students’ attitudes and participation in group and individual work.

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RESULTS

The use of new technologies through wikis and the CSIT teaching model can result in two main

innovations in EFL classrooms: a consolidation of the postmethod era and a reinterpretation of teachers

and students’ roles.

New language learning and teaching perspectives

Kumaravadivelu (2006) states that traditional ELT methods and strategies fail to offer the necessary

flexibility to be applied to the many varied contexts of English Language Teaching. This failing

triggers what he calls the postmethod era, in which new language pedagogies are characterized by a

broader focus, an emphasis on developing teachers’ skills, and flexibility to meet students’ needs.

Consequently, teachers and learners should work together to innovate the everyday practices and

processes of the language classroom. The use of wikis and the implementation of the CSIT teaching

model seem to enable the postmethod philosophy in the language classroom because they can facilitate

the combination of constructivism, situated cognition, autonomy, cooperative language learning, task-

based teaching and problem-based learning (Matthew, Felvegi & Callaway, 2009; Kessler, 2009).

New roles of the language teacher and the language learner

According to Gallardo (2011), the educational environments situate the learner in the center of the

learning experience, which makes teachers create activities and contents based on students’ learning

styles, interests, motivations and multiple intelligences. The teacher, then, loses his traditional role as a

knowledge transmitter to become an information consultant, a learning facilitator, a virtual moderator

and tutor, a continuous evaluator, and a technology mediator. Learners, on the other hand, stop being

passive knowledge consumers to become active processors of information. In the new learning

environments, learners need to be able to work in teams to achieve a common goal, set objectives in

different time-frames, interact through synchronous and asynchronous communications systems or

face-to-face communication, and develop autonomous and collaborative learning strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

Undoubtedly, the information and communication technologies (ICTs) offer language educators a wide

scope of activities and techniques to engage EFL learners in a range of communicative and interactive

tasks and, ultimately, to foster learner-centered language environments. This paper succinctly presents

a proposal to integrate wikis and the CSIT teaching model for those teachers who realize that their

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actions and roles and those of their learners need to differ from traditional EFL methods. In sum, this

reflection calls for the need for finding innovating ways to implement technology-enhanced language

processes and activities in the EFL classroom.

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