Lisa+Rose-+Resourses

This article focuses on the fact that technology makes real world interaction, or "learning in authentic situations" not only possible but rather easy. It points to the important factor, unique to language study, of interacting with speakers of the target language that technology really enables. The article continues to list various uses of technology in the foreign language classroom. The article had some very practical ideas for integrating authenticity through technology, but I am skeptical of several ideas. For example, it suggests that students have conversations with a buddy class in another part of the world about current events and issues. That is something my level three students would probably be capable of, but would struggle with. The conversation my level one students could have about current issues would be stilted to say the least. This article has challenged me to provide my students with some interaction with a buddy class, but I think I'll start out with more basic pen-pal interaction.
 * Resource 1:** Tuttle, Harry Grover. (November 2007). Livening up foreign language: technology enables language learning in authentic situations. //Technology and Learning, 28 (4), 40.// Available: []


 * Resource 2:** Bahrani, Taher. (September 2011). Technology as an assessment tool in language learning. //International Journal of English Linguistics, 1(2), 295-298.// Available: []

This article is about using technology specifically for assessment purposes. It mentions several modes of doing this, from podcasts to recorded phone conversations, pointing out that kids use technology constantly to communicate, so why not continue on that theme, but in their second language? A weakness of the article is that while it mentions several forms of technology you could use in assessment it isn't very specific about any of them. Something that I really liked from the article is that any form of assessment using technology should be, "authentic, valid, and reliable."


 * Resource 3:** Davies, Graham. (November 22, 2011). Google translate: friend or foe? Retrieved from: []

This blog post tackles the dilemma all language teachers find- how to deal with students using translators. The article points out that Google Translate has come quite a ways and will continue to improve until it is much harder than it currently is to spot a translated text. Of course, as the author also acknowledges, the input must be correct in order for the output to be correct, so many high school students will still continue to get translations that don't make sense. The blog links to another blog post about how to get around this issue, opening the floor to other teachers to give their ideas on how to adapt our teaching in light of the progress with translators. The post raised some good questions for language teachers to consider about ways to deal with students using translators on homework assignments.