ABSTRACT

It is now generally accepted that learners of today must be equipped with so-called 21st-century skills and that the development of these competences should begin at an early age. Most curricula worldwide call for learning tasks that help students develop these competences, underscoring the need for appropriate techno-pedagogical know-how of teachers that can promote this learning. This in turn underscores the need for a variety of research into the optimization of pedagogical approaches that fuse technology with project-based language learning (PBLL) as promoted by Beckett and Slater, Fried-Booth, and Stoller.

This chapter provides data analysis and discussion of pedagogical implications derived from two ethnographic studies of technology-enhanced project-based language learning contexts, one in primary, the other in middle school. In both cases, the focus is on classroom interaction with groups of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) who are taking part in telecollaborative exchanges. The examples provide support for the argument that technology-enhanced project-based language learning (TEPBLL) is an effective approach to integrated teaching of language(s) and content and that it is a particularly effective means to introduce user-driven, form-focused language learning tasks.