Technological Language Immersion is the total immersion into a second language achieved through machines.

1. Redefining TESOL in the Digital Age
Technological Language Immersion
3/30/2011 © 2011 American TESOL Institute 1

2. TESOL2 - Technological Language Immersion
•How the English language is evolving today.
•How humans learn second languages now.
•How humans will learn languages in the future.
•Will language become obsolete?
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3. Evolution of the English Language
 Do you speak Panglish?
Any language is constantly evolving, so it's not  A growing body of research
surprising that English, transplanted to new shows electronic
soil, is bearing unusual fruit. Nor is it unique communications channels like
that a language, spread so far from its instant messaging have created a
homelands, would begin to fracture. The
obvious comparison is to Latin, which broke
kind of semi-speech - language
into mutually distinct languages over
that is between talking and
hundreds of years — French, Italian, Spanish, writing. Some say it is evidence
Portuguese, Romanian. A less familiar of evolution, not of decay.
example is Arabic: The speakers of its myriad
dialects are connected through the written
language of the Koran and, more recently,  Technology allows us to
through the homogenized Arabic of Al communicate faster using
Jazeera. But what's happening to English may symbols and abbreviations,
be its own thing: It's mingling with so many while expending less energy to
more local languages than Latin ever did, that convey the same ideas.
it's on a path toward a global tongue — what's
coming to be known as Panglish. Soon, when
Americans travel abroad, one of the languages
they'll have to learn may be their own.
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4. How do we learn a 2nd language?
Traditional Methods It can take 5 to 10 years using
 Art/Music traditional methods to become
 Direct Based
fluent in a language you are not
immersed.
 Communicative
Factors
 Vocabulary
 Your age - the younger you are
 Total Physical Response when you start, the better
 Rassias Method  Your aptitude for language -
 Computer Assisted Language some people are just better at
Learning language than others
 The effort you put into learning
- if you practice every day you'll
learn and remember a lot more
than someone who goes to class
once a week but never practices
outside of class
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5. Technological Language Immersion
How we will learn languages in the
near future.
 Augmented Reality
 Technological Language
Immersion is the
total immersion
into a second language
achieved through
machines.
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6. How We Will Learn Languages in
the Distant Future.
 Eventually humans will  Human-Computer
perfect nanocomputers Symbiosis
for wireless  Nanocomputers
communication over
networks. These
nanocomputers will
symbiotically fit into
areas of the brain
responsible for
transmitting and
receiving information.
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7. Will Language Become Obsolete?
In the distant future it is conceivable that communication
will be achieved through human-computer symbiosis, and all
forms of communication will be represented in a universal code.
Sources: Wired.com, About.com, Seeingwithsound.com, AmericanTESOL.com
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