"Mirá, mirá [Look at This]": Teachers and High School Emergent Bilingual Learners Multitasking With Digital Tools

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eighteen
  In Roundtable Session: Language Learning and Teaching in a Digital World (Table 17)

Abstract

Research has examined how students use specific technologies like digital storytelling for language learning in the classroom, but more research is needed on how students multitask, using multiple digital tools simultaneously during class time, and how teachers overcome challenges related to student multitasking. This qualitative study draws on sociocultural theory to examine the multitasking tendencies of 24 9th and 10th graders in two classes of English to speakers of other languages. Findings reveal that students leveraged multitasking for peer collaboration to multimodally co-construct knowledge. Teachers often directed students’ attention to one specific digital tool, but students naturally and continuously multitasked. We offer implications for how teachers can leverage students’ multitasking abilities.

Authors

• Carmen Durham, University of Northern Iowa
  Presenting Author

• Loren Jones, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author