2018 BC TEAL Annual Conference

The emergence of social media and the participatory culture that it promotes has become ubiquitous throughout society. There are also numerous automated linguistic tools that provide feedback in varied and meaningful ways. Along with other trends such as crowdsourcing, data aggregation and the use of geo-location technologies, these developments create interesting and wholly unique opportunities for language teaching and learning. In many ways, these emerging technologies and the social practices they support are changing the ways we communicate across society. The presenter suggests that these changes have been so dramatic (and are likely to be even more so in the future) that they warrant significant alterations to the way that we think about, create and utilize learning materials, activities and spaces. As language education professionals, we should be conscious of these developments and reflect on how they inform future authentic, engaging global language learning experiences.