Mobile Augmented Reality and Language‐Related Episodes

Abstract

Applications of locative media (e.g., place‐based mobile augmented reality [AR]) are used in various educational content areas and have been shown to provide learners with valuable opportunities for investigation‐based learning, location‐situated social and collaborative interaction, and embodied experience of place (Squire, 2009; Thorne & Hellermann, 2017; Zheng et al., 2018). Mobile locative media applications’ value for language learning, however, remains underinvestigated. To address this lacuna, this study employed the widely used construct of language‐related episodes (LREs; Swain & Lapkin, 1998) as a unit of analysis to investigate language learning through participation in a mobile AR game. Analysis of videorecorded interactions of four mixed‐proficiency groups of game players (two English language learners [ELLs] and one expert speaker of English [ESE] per group) indicates that LREs in this environment were focused on lexical items relevant to the AR tasks and physical locations. Informed by sociocultural theory and conversation analysis, the microgenesis of learners’ understanding and subsequent use of certain lexical items are indicated in the findings. This understanding of new lexical items was frequently facilitated by ESEs’ assistance and the surrounding physical environment. A strong goal orientation by both ESEs and ELLs was visible, providing implications for task‐based language teaching approaches.

Augmented reality in language learning: A state‐of‐the‐art review of 2014–2019

“…With regard to participants and activity duration, researchers suggest the employment of a larger sample size and greater age range, greater diversity of participants and teaching contexts, as well as an extension of the intervention period (time spent on AR) and include more real‐life learning targets (see, e.g., Cheng & Tsai, 2016; Hsu, 2017; Wang, 2017). Bring together formal and informal learning : Contextually designed AR activities in open social spaces outside structured classrooms can allow learners to engage more actively in language production rather than giving similar prompts in a classroom context (Sydorenko, Hellermann, Thorne, & Howe, 2019; Taskiran, 2019; Yang et al, 2019). Kramsch and Andersen (1999, p. 33) summated the issue in the following statement ‘the problem with learning a language from live context is that context itself cannot be learned, it can only be experienced’.…”

“…AR activities in open social spaces outside structured classrooms can allow learners to engage more actively in language production rather than giving similar prompts in a classroom context (Sydorenko, Hellermann, Thorne, & Howe, 2019;Taskiran, 2019;Yang et al, 2019). Kramsch and Andersen (1999, p. 33) summated the issue in the following statement 'the problem with learning a language from live context is that context itself cannot be learned, it can only be experienced'.…”

Rewilding Language Education: Emergent Assemblages and Entangled Actions

“…We design for the desired phenotype space but can never fully predict, or sometimes even imagine, what will happen there (and perhaps this is the art and alchemy of pedagogical innovation). It is for this reason that detailed, microinteractional, moment‐by‐moment investigations into materials use are so critically important: They offer insight into the ways that learning materials, as purpose‐designed constituents of broader human and nonhuman assemblages, potentially enhance (or have some other effect on) the developmental trajectories of the people who use them (for research specifically describing language use and learning in mobile AR, see Sydorenko et al., 2019, for a discussion of language‐related episodes; and Sydorenko et al., 2021, for analysis of directive language use).…”

Learning Potentials Afforded by a Film in Task‐Based Language Classroom Interactions

“…Learners in a task may discuss and make relevant concepts regarding the content of a film or another material. This goes beyond linguistic objects or languagerelated episodes (see Sydorenko et al, 2019), and resembles what may happen in a content-based classroom. The concept of materials in use (Guerrettaz et al, 2021) is highly relevant to learning potentials afforded by film-based discussion tasks.…”