학술논문

Language Teachers and Crowdsourcing: Insights from a Cross-European Survey
Document Type
article
Source
Rasprave Instituta za Hrvatski Jezik i Jezikoslovlje, Vol 46, Iss 1, Pp 1-28 (2020)
Subject
crowdsourcing
language teaching
language infrastrucure
survey
Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages
PG1-9665
Language
Croatian
ISSN
1331-6745
1849-0379
Abstract
The paper presents a cross-European survey on teachers and crowdsourcing. The survey examines how familiar language teachers are with the concept of crowdsourcing and addresses their attitude towards including crowdsourcing into language teaching activities. The survey was administrated via an online questionnaire and collected volunteers’ data on: (a) teachers’ experience with organizing crowdsourcing activities for students/pupils, (b) the development of crowdsourced resources and materials as well as (c) teachers’ motivation for participating in or employing crowdsourcing activities. The questionnaire was disseminated in over 30 European countries. The final sample comprises 1129 language teachers aged 20 to 65, mostly working at institutions of tertiary education. The data indicates that many participants are not familiar with the concept of crowdsourcing resulting in a low rate of crowdsourcing activities in the classroom. However, a high percentage of responding teachers is potentially willing to crowdsource teaching materials for the language(s) they teach. They are particularly willing to collaborate with other teachers in the creation of interactive digital learning materials, and to select, edit, and share language examples for exercises or tests. Since the inclusion of crowdsourcing activities in language teaching is still in its initial stage, steps for further research are highlighted.