Abstract:

This article presents student perceptions about different types of web-based activities used to seek information for French language learning. Group interviews were conducted with 71 students in five Canadian universities to elicit data on their use of the Internet for information-seeking activities. These students use the Web for three main purposes: firstly, to expand their knowledge base by searching for information for language projects; secondly, to concentrate on form-focused activities by consulting online dictionaries or translation software; and finally, to organize their studies by consulting language course management websites. Our results are presented in a continuum of characteristics articulated by the students. Four continuums were identified: the first is goal-related (maintain/improve); the second is action-oriented (check/gather); the third involves the engagement of the students (receive/search), while the fourth one relates to the nature of the information (fact/culture).

Author: Martine Peters, Alysse Weinberg, Nandini Sarma, Mary Frankoff