ERIC Number: EJ1107927
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1832-4215
EISSN: N/A
Comics, Crowdsourcing and Up-Votes: EFL on the Front Page of the Internet
York, James; Stiller, Scott
JALT CALL Journal, v9 n1 p99-112 2013
The social-media news website "Reddit" boasts a huge readership with over 35 million unique visitors for December 2011 alone. Content is generated by users, who submit links from other websites to the various sub-forums. Users also have the ability to comment on links, providing the means for a community to be developed. Both content and comments can be promoted or demoted based on a voting system. This paper focuses on the creation of a sub-forum on Reddit for the purpose of submitting the work of EFL learners, the notion being that other Reddit users, primarily native English speakers, may be crowd-sourced in order to provide feedback, comments, or corrections for students to read, and provide grounds for cross-cultural communication. Firstly we provide a detailed overview of what Reddit is. Following this, we introduce a particular type of comic that has an enormous popularity on Reddit: rage comics. Literature regarding electronic literacy, the use of comics in language learning, and computer-mediated communication is then covered. We then detail the methodology used to introduce, create and submit such comics with our learners. Lastly, we share the results of a questionnaire designed to reveal student perceptions of the project, and discuss possible considerations for future implementations.
Descriptors: Cartoons, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Teaching Methods, Technological Literacy, Social Media, Web Sites, Voting, Feedback (Response), Users (Information), Intercultural Communication, Computer Mediated Communication, Questionnaires, Student Attitudes, Asians, College Students, Foreign Countries, Emotional Response, Asynchronous Communication
JALT CALL SIG. 1-6-1 Nishiwaseda Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-8050, Japan. e-mail: journal!jaltcall.org; Web site: http://journal.jaltcall.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Japan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A