Des digital wilds à la classe de langue – Perception des tâches ancrées dans la vie réelle par de (futurs) enseignants de langues

Abstract

Findings from research studies conducted on the informal participation of language learners on participatory websites have motivated language educators and practitioners to consider how opportunities for (inter)action on these sites could be used within the formal framework of language teaching and learning. This article presents a way to transpose these practices into the language classroom using "real-world tasks", i.e. tasks to be carried out on open participative websites within the social interactions that are specific to these websites. It also explores the perceptions of (prospective) language teachers enrolled in a Master’s degree in French as a foreign language (FLE) who were asked to carry out two real-world tasks. The results of a thematic content analysis of the students’ feedback show that they identified more benefits than obstacles. Many of the advantages that research has highlighted in studies on informal participation are also reflected in the students’ perceptions (awareness of the socio-interactional dimension, feeling of usefulness, motivation, etc.). Students also mention a number of challenges, which, in their opinion, are not insurmountable, and emphasize the need for teachers to seek solutions to these and to provide support to learners so that they can tame the digital wilds, which can be quite intimidating.

Keywords

• tasks
• digital wilds
• formal
• informal