Digital Identity in ESL Classrooms Wiki

Erix Flores

ENGL 6328

Colin Charlton

August 16, 2018

Contents

1.       ESL DIGITAL IDENTITY

1.1   ESL

1.2   Digital identity

2.       Digital Identity from ESL Students

2.1   ESL Digital Identity in Social Media

2.2   ESL Digital Identity in Entertainment

2.3   ESL Digital Identity in Information

2.4   ESL Digital Identity in Information

ESL DIGITAL IDENTITY

ESL Digital Identity is a concept that individuals acquire the English language through the identity of digital age.  Which means that educators develop a lesson based from the knowledge of digital identity and implement it with learners (Rance).   This was not always the case before because back in the late 1990s there was a booming proliferation of technological advancement and ESL educators were starting to get the idea of integrating technology in the classroom in order to maximize learning in English acquisition.  (Best) is one of the pioneers of ESL when it comes to digital literacy and digital identity.  She was one of the first ESL and college professor to start implementing technology when it comes to English as a second language.  It was a difficult journey to take because the author had the right idea but students and staff were resisting the concept.  This is how it started and this is how it is now, and reflecting a lot has changed in terms to technology integration in ESL classroom and academics overall.

ESL

ESL is an acronym that stands for English as Second Language.  The concept developed by many scholars is that ESL students have an easier time acquiring the English language by cultural exposure and assimilation as well as using their identities in order to make connections into the English language.  There is a wide variety of definitions in the term ESL (English as Second Language) but this is a widely accepted definition that many experts had agreed on (Kim).

Digital Identity

Digital Identity has embodied in many different shapes and forms.  However, a general definition of digital identity is an identity developed based on the individual’s day-to-day activities through the use of technology.  Digital identity can be developed but not limited to social media, forums, entertainment, articles, educations, and the list goes endlessly.   Scholars have argued that digital identity empowers people even more due to the fact that individuals in the digital world can perform more than in the world.  Digital identity has taken many different definitions that it is dependent upon individual on how they want to make their own digital identity and make up their definition on what digital identity is.  One thing is for sure, digital identity needs to come from some form of device which can be a computer, phone, tablet, television, and things of that nature.  Moreover, the components within the devices that makes up for digital identity is upon the person; whether the person forms an identity through video gaming or use of social media is up to the, but those mentioned are not limited to digital identity there are endless factors to keep in mind.

Digital Identity from ESL Students

Civilization live in a digital world where individuals are depended upon technology and digital identity in order to get by from their day-to-day activities.  Moreover, most of the ESL learners especially from the elementary and secondary level have ingrained the technological know-how which means that these learners’ upbringing consisted in the use of technology, and have developed this sense of identity in the digital world.  Research has shown that today’s ESL learners learn better with the use of technology and embedding the lesson with entertainment, articles, information in the digital world (Chamberlin-Quinlisk).

ESL Digital Identity in Social Media

Many ESL students develop this sense of identity with the use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and many more.  It is important for an ESL educator to pinpoint these aspect of the English learners due to the fact that many teachers develop a lesson that is connected with the current trend that is going around Facebook and Instagram (Chamberlin-Quinlisk).

ESL Digital Identity in Entertainment

ESL learners have the tendency to access forms of entertainment in the digital world such as YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and more.  (Chamberlin-Quinlisk) have developed that ESL educators can help maximize learning by using that information that they already know into the lesson so they can acquire the English language with something they like and have an easier time learning (Chamberlin-Quinlisk).

ESL Digital Identity in Information

For the most part, ESL learners have the tendency of accessing information in their native language when it comes to finding out something that they might be in doubt.  (Chamberlin-Quinlisk) and more experts have said that ESL teachers take that information from what English learners know and translate it to the English language since they will have an easier time making the connections since they have prior knowledge of the content (Chamberlin-Quinlisk).

ESL Digital Identity in Culture

(Cassidy) and many experts have shown that most, if not, all of the ESL learners who have access in technology have experience some form of cultural immersion or exposure.  This gives an opportunity and advantage to ESL educators to take that prior knowledge in order to have ESL students have an open mind when it comes to culture assimilation (Cassidy).

Reference and Notes

Best, Linda. “Planning and Implementing the Multimedia Networked ESL Laboratory Classroom.” Research and Teaching in Developmental Education, vol. 14, no. 2, 1998, pp. 75–86. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42801999.

Cassidy, Jacquelyn A. “Computer-Assisted Language Arts Instruction for the ESL Learner.” The English Journal, vol. 85, no. 8, 1996, pp. 55–57. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/820043.

CHAMBERLIN-QUINLISK, CARLA. “TESOL and Media Education: Navigating Our Screen-Saturated Worlds.” TESOL Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 1, 2012, pp. 152–164. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41576033.

Rance-Roney, Judith. “Jump-Starting Language and Schema for English-Language Learners: Teacher-Composed Digital Jumpstarts for Academic Reading.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 53, no. 5, 2010, pp. 386–395. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25614572.

Kim, Yanghee. “Designing a Robot for Cultural Brokering in Education.” Educational Technology, vol. 56, no. 4, 2016, pp. 41–43. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44430477.