Brave New Digital Classroom: Technology and Foreign Language Learning.(Book review)

Blake moves on to discuss the potential of using CMC tools to additionally foster intercultural communicative competence (ICC) within the sociocultural approach to SLA. This method is more commonly known as telecollaboration, in which online communication is used to involve language learners from different countries to work together on projects or to undertake intercultural exchanges. Blake presents the Cultura Project developed at MIT in the late 1990s to showcase how the implementation of telecollaboration improved the language ability and ICC of a group of intermediate and advanced L2 learners. This project engaged students from France and the United States in exchanges of opinions about their own cultural values through different modes of telecollaboration, such as the use of online surveys and videoconferences. Blake suggests that successful implementation of telecollaboration requires teachers' active participation in and organization of the activities; additionally, learners' culture and age backgrounds, and the design of the curriculum also need to be taken into consideration. Experienced teachers, however, may find these suggestions not drastically different from the implementation of non-Web based activities.

Chapter Five introduces different formats of Distance Learning (DL) language courses, including teleconferences, hybrid/blended, and virtual courses. DL refers to the instructional systems that use different modes of technologies to deliver language courses online. Teleconferencing involves the use of two-way interactive TV that allows teachers to reach students at a remote site; hybrid or blended courses combine both classroom instruction and students' individual work through a technology component while in virtual language courses, teachers and students interact with each other entirely online.

Although DL courses are growing in popularity, little is known about the efficacy of these courses as compared to face-to-face courses (Winke & Goertler, 2008). Blake's critical review of existing studies about hybrid courses, such as Adair-Hauck, Willingham-McLain, and Earnest-Youngs (1999), Chenoweth, Jones, and Tucker (2006), Chenoweth and Murday (2003) and Scida and Saury (2006), yields contradictory findings with regard to the value of hybrid courses. He argues that the interpretation of these research findings may have been complicated by respective research design and specific learning contexts in each study. In contrast, Blake's review of three studies focusing on courses taught entirely online (Blake & Delforge, 2005; Cahill & Catanzaro, 1997; Soo & Ngeow, 1998) brings more uniform results. Overall, the improvement in language skills of students who participated in the virtual courses was found to be significantly greater than that of students who were in traditional classes. Going beyond the scope of previous studies, Blake suggests that future research on the effectiveness of online courses needs to consider the effects of other intervening factors on the experimental treatment design, such as learner characteristics, teaching methods, and media attributes. Taken together, the exhaustive list of literature reviewed provides readers with a better understanding of the capabilities of DL language courses and the usefulness of different types of DL formats. The review is also a good source of references for interested readers to look for gaps in the effectiveness of DL courses in relation to learner variables and instructional methods for further investigation.

The chapter continues with a discussion of the critical issue of whether DL classes can provide language learners with adequate practice in speaking or not. A case study, Spanish Without Walls (SWW), is presented to show how DL contributed to learners' oral proficiency development, making a case for DL courses as a possible format of language instruction that enhances oral performance. Drawing upon the experience from the SWW project and the divergent findings from previous studies, Blake concludes the chapter by stating the real challenge that DL is facing now is how to implement DL courses within a sound pedagogical framework, a central theme throughout the book.

Chapter Six synthesizes the common themes addressed explicitly or implicitly throughout the book. Blake re-emphasizes that the cornerstone of the brave new digital classroom is not what but how technology is used. A successful technology-enhanced FL curriculum is student-centered, carefully planned, technically well-supported, and most importantly, pedagogically well-constructed. To this end, Blake, following Selber's (2004) three types of computer literacy, suggests that teachers and students alike should develop not only functional computer literacy, but also critical literacy, which shows their capability to reflect on what they are doing, and rhetorical literacy, which refers to users' ability to put their thoughts about the use of technology into practice.

Blake outlines a specific pedagogy for a rhetorically-based digital classroom with reference to Laurillard's (2002) iterative conversational framework. This framework proposes that after teachers initiate or start out certain classroom activities, specific lesson plans need to be formulated based on a dialogic process in response to students' respective ideas and reflections about their own learning. Blake suggests that language teachers activate this iterative learning process by using different technological tools, such as the Web or CMC tools. Nevertheless, it needs to be pointed out that more concrete examples or activities as to how to incorporate the theoretical concepts into actual classroom instruction are not provided. Readers may find this framework conceptually sound; however, without more specific instruction on the set-up procedure, it may be practically difficult for novice teachers to adopt such an approach. Blake ends the chapter by emphasizing the responsibility for the CALL field to train new teachers and re-train seasoned educators in the use of technology and to promote teachers' willingness to move toward a more student-centered, technology-enhanced language classroom.

At the end of the book, an appendix and a glossary are provided. The appendix supplements Chapter Five and gives statistical explanations of the learning outcomes in the Spanish Without Walls project. Language teachers who are not familiar with basic inferential statistics such as t-tests and p-values will find the explanation helpful. The concise glossary that defines technical terms, such as ACMC, ARS, and MOO, provides those who are new to the field with a quick and easy way to find definitions.

Overall, Brave New Digital Classroom: Technology and Foreign Language Learning is a concise, well-written, and accessible book that will appeal to language teachers, educators, and researchers who are interested in learning more about CALL research and best practices in the FL classroom. The organization and presentation of the content and the breadth of the discussion in this book reflect Blake's insightful and thorough concerns about the different aspects of technology-enhanced FL curricula. Graduate students interested in the field of CALL will find a good deal of references and informed discussion on the use of technology in language instruction. One major strength of the book is its emphasis on grounding CALL practices within a sound theoretical framework. To this end, Blake dexterously interweaves and draws upon interactionist perspectives throughout the book.

However, the introduction of the theoretical framework is relatively brief and not as in depth as it could be. A more thorough discussion of the concepts of input, interaction, different types of corrective feedback, implicit and explicit form-focused instruction in relation to SLA development should have been added to scaffold readers' understanding of the relationship between the theoretical underpinning and the efficacy of different technological tools. Additionally, while Blake covers a wide range of best practices of technological tools in the FL language classroom, hands-on information regarding how to design CALL activities and explicit language classroom applications are noticeably absent in the book. For example, language teachers may want to know how to design engaging classroom activities using specific Web sites, or how to form well-structured CMC-facilitated pair work. More step-by-step procedures as to how to set up these activities in the language classrooms would be appreciated by interested language teachers who are seeking practical guidance in creating their own teaching materials. Nevertheless, with these caveats in mind, readers will find this book a timely contribution to the CALL world and an excellent reference on the bookshelf or in the library.

REFERENCES

Adair-Hauck, B., Willingham-McLain, L., & Earnest-Youngs, B. (1999). Evaluating the integration of technology and second language learning. CALICO Journal, 17(2), 269-396.

Blake, R. J., & Delforge, A. (2005). Language learning at a distance: Spanish without walls [Electronic Version]. Selected papers from the 2004 NFLRC Symposium: Distance education, distributed learning and language instruction. Retrieved February 21, 2009 from http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/NetWorks /NW44/Blake.htm.

Cahill, D., & Catanzaro, D. (1997). Teaching first-year Spanish on-line. CALICO Journal, 14(2), 97-114.

Chapelle, C. A. (2001). Computer applications in second language acquisition: Foundations for teaching, testing, and research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chapelle, C. A. (2003). English language learning and technology: Lectures on applied linguistics in the age of information and communication technology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Chapelle, C. A., & Douglas, D. (2006). Assessing language through computer technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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