Wen Yun

A thriving development direction of digital language learning has been to integrate mobile-based language learning and AI techniques. Nevertheless, few studies focus on investigating the affordances of AI-embedded mobile learning systems in enhancing formal language learning for young learners. This project sets out to explore how AI techniques can be used to promote Chinese language learning for young learners through strengthening learning across contexts. The present paper introduces the ongoing project by focusing on the design and development of an AI-powered seamless Chinese vocabulary learning system for Singapore lower-primary school students, named ARCHe.

介绍了一种基于三益模型的协作脚本是如何被 然科学课上的一组学生所采用的。协作脚本被置于AppleTree 系统中,学生们经历了 4 个阶段的协作学 活动: 个体构建、组内构建、组间评分和组内提炼。共有 33 名新加坡中四年级学生参与了这项研究。对学生的行为和认知进行定量和定性分析,解释了学生对协作脚本的脚本的使用情况以及影呴协作脚本使用的因素。学生的概念知识水平、课堂文化和时间是影呴学生使用协作脚本的重要因素。

Little research has examined second language (L2) learning from a Knowledge Building (KB) perspective. Most KB research is conducted in the context of science or mathematics learning which focuses on idea development and refinement. This paper proposes to investigate students' L2 learning using a KB approach, drawing upon our school-based research work which examines how L2 students learn and practice language skills through a Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) tool called GroupScribbles. We hope to develop a theoretical framework with empirical evidence from a real classroom context to explore how KB unfolds in L2 learning.

This work analyzes the interactions of small groups of students doing collaborative learning activities in the primary classroom for learning Chinese as a second language. We take the perspective of identifying the characteristics of interactional moves as students interact and negotiate meaning in the computer-mediated collaborative learning (CSCL) environment called GroupScribbles (GS). Much work in group cognition and in interactional analysis of small groups looks at problem-solving in subjects like mathematics and science. In language learning, the task posed for collaborative activities does not focus on problemsolving, but it may be targeted towards enriching students’ vocabulary and proficiency in language expression, developing their thoughts and writing through cogitating with new words, vocabulary and sentence construction. We hope the work can illuminate how students can co-construct knowledge mediated by GS representations for Chinese language learning. In the paper, we look at collaborative situations in which the group members are not seated together in the classroom, and so they have to collaborate through the GS medium.

This case study investigates the appropriation of a representational tool by students in small groups in the context of collaborative writing and the teacher orchestration in a dual-interaction (both face-to-face and online) environment. The study aims to unravel and discover how different small groups evolve alternative approaches to appropriating online technology in classrooms, and during the process, what role the teacher can play to orchestrate multiactivities for productive interactions.

This study is situated in a real second language (L2) learning classroom setting equipped with a generic representational tool—Group Scribbles—that enables collaborative generation, collection, and aggregation of ideas in multimodal interactions. The notion of representational tools is emphasized to distinguish them from other computer-mediated communication tools for dialogical communication or threaded discussion. The study focuses on analyzing and modelling interactions in which technology-mediated learning takes place. Both statistical analysis and qualitative microanalysis of interaction are addressed to provide a more comprehensive analytical region to examine the interactions that occurred naturally. Underlying the rationale of mutual shaping of participants and technical devices, the study contextually examined and reinterpreted the dynamic interplay between small groups of students, teacher, and medium, and their holistic effect in L2 learning.

Two key findings are generated from the study. First, the functions of inscriptional devices in L2 classroom learning are identified: (1) referencing, (2) pinpointing, (3) accumulating, (4) prompting notice, (5) realizing parallels, and (6) promoting synergy. Second, teachers are suggested to play a dual role as both facilitator and collaborator to monitor and adjust all groups’ work processes and even join in small-group work by providing improvised scaffoldings. The case study does not aim at predicting that all the identified functions will be played out in all the representational tool-supported L2 learning contexts but rather suggests that teachers and researchers should create conditions for enabling the inscriptional device to facilitate more productive group understanding development. A series of principles for teacher orchestration in networked L2 learning are distilled. These principles are not antagonistic with some traditional instructional principles or strategies, such as making learning objectives explicit, holding the attention of the students, or controlling time strictly. Teachers are recommended to monitor small-group progresses by drawing upon group inscriptions throughout the lesson. In the context of L2 learning, teachers are suggested to detect and assist students to in-situ solve language-related problems that emerge in their language use, though they are suggested not to offer ready-made solutions for students in science or mathematics classes.

The study explores the beneficial affordances of the representational tool that supplement face-to-face communication for both learning and teaching in L2 learning classrooms and, thus, provides insights to task/script design and enactment of collaborative L2 learning in networked classroom environments where face-to-face and online interactions are intertwined. Methodologically, this study is sympathetic to calls from computer-supported collaborative learning researchers who are concerned with classroom learning and multimedia/multimodal interactions. It provides a workable approach to exploring how small-group interactions interweaving social and cognitive dimensions take place in networked classroom environments.

Innovations in teaching and learning are not merely about merely the design of technologies but the integration of technologies and pedagogical practices in supporting meaningful learning. This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a web-based system to support secondary school students’ collaborative argumentation (CA) in science learning in Singapore. A pedagogical model named the Spiral Model of Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (SMCKI) is proposed in this study to inform the system and learning activity design. Starting with a stage of individual brainstorming, the pedagogical model scaffolds students to go through five stages of intra-group and inter-group knowledge improvement and refinement, to support the advancement of their collective and individual knowledge. The results showed that the students significantly improved on their scientific content knowledge through the staged collaboration argumentation activities in the web based learning environment.

This paper presents how a collaboration script informed by the Funnel Model was appropriated by a class of students in a secondary science class lesson. Based on the script, a class of 33 tenth grade students enacted four stages of a technology-supported collaborative learning activity: individual construction, intra-group construction, inter-group rating, and intra-group refining. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of students' behaviors and perceptions were conducted to identify and explain how students appropriated the collaboration script.

The concept of Rapid Collaborative Knowledge Improvement (RCKI) refers to quick cycles of knowledge improvement in the short duration of a classroom lesson. We explore the role of RCKI in language learning in our school-based design research by working with teachers to co-design and enact lessons in classrooms. We design a model, called the Funnel Model, to provide a scaffolding structure to enable RCKI practices in the context of reading comprehension. Starting with a stage of individual brainstorming, the model leads to stages of intra-group and inter-group knowledge improvement. The design and implementation of three cycles of RCKI activities in GroupScribbles (GS) supported classroom environment are provided to illuminate the flexibility and diverse uses of the model.