Second Language Learning in the Context of MOOCs

Shaoqun Wu, Alannah Fitzgerald, Ian H. Witten

2014

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses are becoming popular educational vehicles through which universities reach out to non-traditional audiences. Many enrolees hail from other countries and cultures, and struggle to cope with the English language in which these courses are invariably offered. Moreover, most such learners have a strong desire and motivation to extend their knowledge of academic English, particularly in the specific area addressed by the course. Online courses provide a compelling opportunity for domain-specific language learning. They supply a large corpus of interesting linguistic material relevant to a particular area, including supplementary images (slides), audio and video. We contend that this corpus can be automatically analysed, enriched, and transformed into a resource that learners can browse and query in order to extend their ability to understand the language used, and help them express themselves more fluently and eloquently in that domain. To illustrate this idea, an existing online corpus-based language learning tool (FLAX) is applied to a Coursera MOOC entitled Virology 1: How Viruses Work, offered by Columbia University.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Wu S., Fitzgerald A. and H. Witten I. (2014). Second Language Learning in the Context of MOOCs . In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-020-8, pages 354-359. DOI: 10.5220/0004924703540359

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu14,
author={Shaoqun Wu and Alannah Fitzgerald and Ian H. Witten},
title={Second Language Learning in the Context of MOOCs},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,},
year={2014},
pages={354-359},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004924703540359},
isbn={978-989-758-020-8},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 1: CSEDU,
TI - Second Language Learning in the Context of MOOCs
SN - 978-989-758-020-8
AU - Wu S.
AU - Fitzgerald A.
AU - H. Witten I.
PY - 2014
SP - 354
EP - 359
DO - 10.5220/0004924703540359