ESOLSIG: Learning Languages through Cultural Activities: The ENACT Web App

An IATEFL ESOLSIG webinar presented by Paul Seedhouse

ENACT is a free web app https://enacteuropa.com/ developed at Newcastle University UK, co-funded by the European Union. The app enables people to learn aspects of foreign languages while performing a meaningful real-world task which enables them to experience the culture of the foreign language. Users can learn a foreign language through the foreign culture by carrying out a cultural activity. Learn Māori while you’re making a poi ball! Devices will guide users through the stages of doing the activity through structured interactive content using photos, text, audio and video to help them. People can use the ENACT Author to create their own favourite cultural activity in their own language so that anyone else round the world can use it to learn the language and culture. ENACT has been used by over 11,000 people in 153 countries.

In this presentation, I will provide an overview of the project aims, introduce the task-based language teaching and online interactive material design principles underlying the app design, and briefly demonstrate the key features of the ENACT app: the interactive player, the author, and the community. During the Q&A, we can explore opportunities for producing materials for other cultures and languages. I will provide an overview of the project aims and rationale and briefly demonstrate the key features of the ENACT app. I will discuss collecting Māori materials during my last trip to NZ.

Speaker - Professor Paul Seedhouse, Newcastle University, UK

Paul Seedhouse is Professor of Educational and Applied Linguistics and Director of ilab:learn at Newcastle University, UK. With colleagues in Computing Science over 12 years, he has worked on 4 grants to use digital technology to teach users languages and cultural tasks simultaneously, resulting in the Linguacuisine and ENACT apps. 

He has also had 5 grants from the IELTS consortium to study spoken interaction in the IELTS Speaking Test. He has published 10 books and over 70 articles and book chapters in the areas of spoken interaction, applied linguistics and digital technology. His book The Interactional Architecture of the Language Classroom: A Conversation Analysis Perspective won the 2005 Modern Language Association of America Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize.

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