Retrieving Online Language Learning Resources : Classification and Quality

Foreign language teachers and learners use digital repositories frequently to find appropriate activities for their teaching and learning activities. The question is: How can content providers support them in finding exactly what they need and in retrieving high quality resources? This question has been discussed in the literature and in the context of research projects. The answers are a taxonomy of searching mechanism and quality criteria of online resources from the methodologic point of view. Correspondingly, this paper introduces a classification of online resources according to the four skills (speaking, writing, reading, listening/watching) and two language use types (grammar, vocabulary), representing the changing paradigm of foreign language teaching and learning. Further the paper identifies quality criteria for designing online learning materials with regard to content, methodology, technic and design. Finally, the findings are illustrated by an example of a learning scenario.


Introduction
Recent technological advancement provides challenges for language training institutes and for the education sector as a whole.At EU level, studies show that only 30% of learners, and even more importantly, only 30% of teachers can be regarded as digitally competent (see 2013 Communication on OpenupEducation).There is also a lack of high-quality open education repositories designed for language teaching and learning where users could find best practices.
In addition, recent research shows that language learners and teachers would be more inclined to use the world wide web to find appropriate resources for their language learning and teaching activities if they were not discouraged by the huge quantity of materials to select from.According to recent studies, they seek high quality resources and efficient ways for searching and finding materials (accessible within three clicks) from different training backgrounds (classification by subject, topics and level).If we don't want these target groups to get lost in cyberspace, it is crucial to provide adequate support to them and shorten the route to accessible information [20].

Classification Theory
In this context, the design of teaching and learning activities includes four components: environment, teacher, learner, and activity (including materials/resources). Resource-based learning is a view which gives prominence to the role of resources in the teaching and learning process.
The classification theory of such activities determine different factors playing a role in their design and implementation: age of the learner, teaching approach, topic, form of cooperation, type of the activities, task, assessment, equipment, technical and other pre-requisites, etc. [16,27,35].
The classification theory lacks the user involvement and though remains to be the domain of experts rather than users.When users look for an activity for their specific goal, they want to find resources as quickly as possible, probably within three clicks [8,30].
Considering the practice, it can be stated that practitioners search by activity type, topic and level, as these three factors seem to be the most informative and decisive.The rest of the factors build an additional information category (called advanced search) -but they are not a core for the first searching mechanism.
For a better understanding, these three key factors are described in the following paragraph.The most recently and commonly used guideline which describes the achievement levels of foreign language competence is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL), containing six levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2.The required topics depend, if applicable, on the institutional purpose (curricula, training programme), the goal of the whole class and/or also each and every individual; and can reach from everyday life themes to complex special issues.
The last category, activity type, is much more demanding as the concept of language teaching and learning has changed radically during the last years.Whereas in former days, it was mainly characterized by written grammar and translation exercises, nowadays more skill-oriented activities are prevalent [2,9,18,31].In the next chapter a complex classification of learning activities will be proposed.

Classification of Learning Activities
According to the "new" paradigm of language teaching / learning activities, exercises and tasks -independent from the language -can be classified as follows [see also 14,15, When teaching / learning a foreign language, it is essential to foster all four skills mentioned above (speaking, writing, reading, listening and watching).For this purpose, it is important to subdivide these rubrics into pre-, during-and post-activities.Young & Hofer & Harris [41] explicitly suggest this subdivision only for the passive skill of reading and the active skill of writing.However, this sub-classification makes sense for all four skills.
According to the paradigm transformation in theory, language use activities (grammar and vocabulary) should be embedded in the activities of the skills.Here they build a separate element -as users are used to search materials with keywords grammar and vocabulary.Anyway they should be linked to the specific skill they refer to, and in a later stage, they could be completely integrated to the used skill.
The skills are subdivided into pre-, during-and post-activities (see also annex I. Language learning classification).At the beginning of a learning scenario, knowledge should always be activated or generated in some way, e.g., by brainstorming, researching, etc.This means that learners can activate their prior knowledge or research a new topic before they start with the during-activity.Also information on the educational purposes and objectives should be part of the pre-activity, which helps learners in terms of focus and comprehension [41].During-activities deal with new learning insights in a specific field of language learning.After the during-activity, a post-activity can involve a knowledge/competence deepening task (mainly active skills activities, e.g., text production), a reflection sequence on the during-activity, e.g., learners can discuss what has been dealt with in the during-activity with their peers, share content with other learners, perform their finished work in class, etc.Also the evaluation of work and the assessment of goals' achievement can be a post-activity [41].

Speaking
As already discussed, the active skill of speaking can be subdivided into pre-, during-and post-speaking activities.While the categories speaking / speech and performance / production can be regarded as during-speaking-activities, the category evaluating or critiquing speech, performance or production has to be classified as a post-speaking-activity as students reflect on what has been performed in the during-speaking activity.

Writing
As already mentioned, the active skill of writing can be subdivided into pre-, during-and post-writing activities [41] Revising -students revise the content of their writing based on feedback from their peers and their instructor, as well as their own ideas  Editing -students edit their papers to address language conventions appropriate to the context of the piece of writing based on feedback from their peers, their instructor and their own knowledge of accurate mechanics, usage, grammar, and spelling  Writing fiction -students engage in various writing activities, including fiction (e.g., short stories, graphic fiction, fan fiction, etc.)  Writing nonfiction -students engage in various writing activities, including nonfiction (e.g., autobiography, diary, essay, news writing, letter writing, persuasive writing, etc.)  Writing other forms of text -students engage in various writing activities including other forms of text (e.g., academic notes, poetry, screenplay, storyboard, multimodal, multigenre, multimedia, web-based text, participatory media, comic creation, texting, etc.)  Note taking -students engage in note-taking by copying their teachers' notes from some type of display tool (i.e., chalkboard, projector, etc.) and note taking by creating their own metacognitive reflections in response to texts 1In addition, Stevick [37] mentions establishing coherence as during-writing activity.
According to Bohn [4], during-writing activities can be classified as follows:  Reproductive writing -the text read or heard is written down without any changes  Reproductive-productive writing -the text read or heard has to be understood and changed according to a certain intention  Productive writing -a text is created according to a certain intention that has been chosen by the student or given by the teacher Another way to subdivide during-writing activities is the following [4]: Guided writing -the writing process is related to a text that has been read or heard (e.g. a dictation, a summary, etc.)  Free writing -the writing process is not related to a text that has been read or heard Furthermore, the following post-writing activities can be distinguished, which allow students to share their polished writing with an audience [37,41]: Sharing -students share their finished pieces of writing with a smaller audience  Publishing -students publish their finished pieces of writing in order to share processed writing with a larger audience  Performing -students engage in performing their finished writing in order to share it with a specific audience.

Reading
As already discussed, activities focusing on the passive skill of reading can be subdivided into pre-reading activities, during-reading activities and post-reading activities.According to Young & Hofer & Harris [41], the following pre-reading activities can be distinguished:  Activating knowledge -students need to make connections with the reading they have to complete; by activating or generating prior knowledge and experience, students are able to frontload meaning and forge connections with their reading  Making predictions -as a means of drawing upon existing knowledge and generating new connections with a text, students try to make predictions about texts they are going to read After the pre-reading activity has been completed, the following during-reading activities can be carried out [11,24] In this context, the following categories can also be added [24]: activity but as it activates the skill reading, it should be listed here.

Making comparisons 
Finding information gaps

Listening & Watching
As already mentioned, activities focusing on the passive skill of listening & watching can be subdivided into pre-listening activities, during-listening activities and post-listening activities.While pre-listening activities may involve activating or generating knowledge and brainstorming, the following during-listening activities can be distinguished:  Listening actively -students listen actively and process the information heard in order to retain it, respond to it, act on it or apply it in some way (e.g.listening to and processing information from a lecture, listening to peers in a discussion, listening to multiple points of view, listening to directions or an explanation, listening to an audio-recording, etc.


Watching or viewing actively -students watch and process visual images (still or moving, silent or audio-enhanced) in order to create memories, learn from them, respond to them, or act on or apply information they have gained from them (e.g.watching or viewing images, exhibits, demonstrations, etc.)  Multimodal or multimedia interaction -students listen, watch or view, and interact with or participate in (if applicable) multimodal or multimedia texts; they also process the experience they have gained in order to think, learn, respond, react, or apply knowledge or some aspect of their experience in some way (e.g.listening to a podcast and posting a response to it online either as text or as an audio comment, viewing a multimedia blog that includes digital video segments and then posting responses to various parts of the blog either as text or as digital video, viewing or listening to original audio or video recordings and then creating a remix of those recordings that include elements of the original plus elements the student generates on his or her own, etc.) [41].
Besides, the following listening activities exist [36]:  Selective listening -students perceive certain pieces of information  Global listening -students understand the general idea  Detailed listening -students understand details  Analytical understanding -students understand the speaker's conclusions, motives, intensions, etc.  Recognizing -segmenting phonemes  Understanding -students comprehend the global content of the text; they are able to align pictures to the information heard  Listening / watching passively After the during-listening activity has been completed, an evaluation of what has been heard [36] in the during-listening activity (e.g., a personal statement) can be carried out as a post-listening activity.This activity allows students to process critically what they have heard in their during-listening activity in order to make sense of it and respond to it.

Grammar
Grammar is one of many focus areas for studying a foreign language.In order to address language on a broader scale and in ways that go beyond just addressing notions of correctness, it is essential to give students opportunities to explore language, use it, compose it, analyse it and develop a better understanding [41].In order to achieve these goals, the following activities can be carried out:  Sentence composing -students build sentences by using sentence composing strategies (e.g., sentence combining, sentence imitation, sentence expanding, etc.) -this results in syntactic growth  Code switching -students practice code switching in oral and written language, thus developing a better understanding of informal and formal speech varieties as well as the contexts in which each is most effective  Word analysis -students analyse words in various ways, including origins, parts (e.g., roots, affixes, etc.), formations, functions (i.e., parts of speech), etc.  Sentence analysis -students analyse sentences in various ways, including the identification of patterns and types, syntax and structure, phrases or clauses, effects of punctuation on style and meaning, etc.  Style / error analysis -students analyse language to be able to distinguish between style and error (e.g.stylistic choices that break conventions vs. errors in language conventions, dialect choices vs. errors in language conventions, error analysis, etc.)  Semantic analysis -students engage in semantic analysis in various ways to better understand simple and complex meanings in language (e.g., language as a symbol, abstract vs. concrete language, semantic disruptions, euphemism, etc.)  Mechanics -students develop an understanding of mechanics in the context of language, especially reading and writing, and an ability to apply it (e.g., capitalization, punctuation, etc.)  Usage -students develop an understanding of language use concerning reading, writing and speaking (e.g., usage varies based on context, purpose, audience, etc.) Schifko [34] mentions also the following activities according to the learning stages in the field of grammar:  Implicit learning -students apply a rule without reflecting it and/or are able to decide whether a phrase sticks to a rule or not  Explicit learning -students are able to explain a rule by using linguistic terminology and/or by using their own words When teaching a foreign language, difficulties and confusions that traditional grammar exercises often cause have to be avoided -it is essential to teach grammar in a Retrieving Online Language Learning Resources: Classification and Quality communication-oriented way.

Vocabulary
Vocabulary study can have significant effects on writing and communication.For this reason, it is important for students to have opportunities to develop awareness of, engaging in analysis of, and using new vocabularies.In order to achieve these goals, the following activities can be carried out:  Vocabulary awareness -students engage in activities that allow them to acquire new vocabularies and develop awareness about various features of sets of words, e.g.similar consonant clusters, similar vowel sounds, similar root words, similar origins, words associated with certain themes, etc.; example activities may include sight words (e.g.word lists) and word play (e.g., crossword puzzles, word search, word matching, word lists, etc.)  Vocabulary analysis -students analyse new and existing vocabularies in order to develop consciousness about core features of it and more sophisticated understandings about it (e.g.semantic maps, word study, word origins, context clues, use, using the dictionary, etc.)  Vocabulary use -building on awareness and analysis activities, students use new vocabulary in various contexts in order to adapt it further, developing syntactic complexity and fostering semantic growth (e.g. using vocabulary from word lists tied to literary works or other assigned texts, practicing with homonyms, antonyms, and synonyms, word play, etc.
These activities allow learners to move from the acquisition of vocabularies to comprehension and application [41].

Quality Theory
Classification as such is crucial for the search mechanism, but quality factors determine the long-term successfulness of digital resources on the users' side [10,23].In the case of OER, these factors relate to input (quality of the structure and potential), implementation (process) and output (outcome) aspects [23].In this paper we focus on the input quality criteria of OER and summarize the main results of the research in the context of language learning and teaching in order to determine quality characteristics for OER.Although building the basis for high quality scenarios, these criteria catalogue has not been proven as causal for the learning effect yet [19].More research is needed to confirm and extend the following quality criteria.
By the categorization of OER quality requirements, a user-friendly version is chosen [for a more complex one, see e.g.13].These traditional requirements refer to the following four main categories, which may partly overlap each other: 1. Content 2. Methodology

Design 4. Technic
In comparison to traditional educational objects, digital resources should have an added value, which justifies the additional effort in design and which should be also transparent for the user [21,32].

Content
Content deals with topics and subtopics and their educational appeals and the context of language learning / teaching.Characteristics of digital resources basically do not differ from traditional ones.The content must be chosen on the basis of: 1. Context (educational, professional or individual context) 2. Target group (its specific conditions, interests, knowledge, etc.) 3. Educational purpose.
Following the literature in the field of language teaching and learning [6,25,28,40], the content display following aspects, here categorized in general characteristics, attitudes and knowledge factors.

General Characteristics
 Up-to date and/or updatable, but at the same time reusable,  Authentic,  Informative,  Factual correct,  Understandable, technical terms are explained,  Clear structured, coherent, complex issues are organized meaningfully and understandably, avoiding redundancies  The sample of content is transparent and well founded  Links to background information for deepening knowledge and know-how are available  Dictionary / glossary / explanations are/may be integrated Attitudes  Including educational appeal, stimulating learners to up-take attitudes  Motivating, having a relevance for the learner, his/her attention is captured and maintained  Polarizing meanings, generating tension, which is the basis for "authentic" interaction  Vivid, including examples, novel, uncertain events and/or sense of humor  Free from strong or mistakable stereotypes, meanings and positions, obscene and radical illustrations, etc.

Knowledge/Competence
 Linked to the users' professional (e.g.curriculum, occupation) context, life and experiences, e.g.activate and recall prior knowledge  Varied, include more than one perspective of a topic, motivating learners to decision making  Besides information it includes also know-how (strategic competence) aspects  Higher/more complex than the learners' knowledge/skills

Methodology
Methodology refers to the didactical principles, teaching and learning theory and praxis, purposes and design of tasks, and takes into account the up-to-date research in the disciplines psychology, sociology, education, linguistics and neurophysiology [1].
In the context of OER, approved methodologic concepts remain valid when ICT (information and communication technology) is implemented as an instrument for a didactically meaningful purpose.The didactic concept is the most crucial aspect for the acceptance and success of the ICT implementation.According to literature [25,28], the methodology is divided into goals, activities and tasks.

Design
Design involves all aspects we can sense with our organ of perception: visual and auditory issues (text, graphic, symbolic, color, background, picture, video, sound, etc.).High quality design reflects the following characteristics [13,28]:  User-centric  Appropriate and didactically meaningful chosen (oriented towards educational purposes, context, learners' specifications and content)  Functional, logic and focused  Consistent, coherent and complementary  Integrated in a learning motivating way  Ergonomic (e.g.color contrasts are pleasant)  Aesthetic (attractive to the learners)  High-quality  Is in any way harmful to anybody  The written or oral text is well readable, audible  Appealing and clear layout

Technic
In this paper the category of technic deals with the pedagogical view of learning systems, their functionalities and possibilities, and does not include implications to hardware, software or engineering issues.
The implementation of LMS (learning management system), media and tools should be oriented towards the methodology: goal, task, content, specification of the learner and the context.In the case of e-learning, the didactical purpose is in the middle of attention, not technic or tools.The rule is: as much technic as necessary and as little as possible.According to the literature [17,26,28,33]

Implementation to Praxis
For illustration, the resource portal of the British Council (http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org)has been chosen.The example learning scenario presented in this paper is called "The Fridge".It is about a man who sends a Facebook friendship invitation to a woman who he met in a restaurant.However, before accepting his invitation, she first wants to get to know him better.Therefore, he invites her for dinner to his place and cooks lasagna for her.
This learning scenario involves a pre-, a during-and a post-activity.In the pre-activity, vocabulary that is used in the during-activity, i.e. the film, is dealt with -words have to be matched with definitions.In the during-activity, the student watches a short film (the man who invites a woman for dinner tells the whole story outlined above).It is possible to have a look at the transcript of the film at any time during the whole learning scenario.
In the post-activity, the learner has to put given sentences into the correct order so that they describe the story presented in the film.Afterwards he/she has to indicate if given sentences about the film are true or false.Finally, the recipe of the lasagna the man has cooked is given.There is also a forum where people can discuss the film, the recipe, etc.
This learning scenario was chosen as an example because it illustrates how important it is to offer students a variety of activities, e.g., vocabulary exercise (pre-activity), watching a film (during-activity) and putting sentences in the correct order, true-false-exercise and discussion (post-activity)."The Fridge" also shows how different learning styles and paces can be coped with as students can take as much time as they need for completing the scenario, and moreover, it is possible to have a look at the transcript of the film at any time.This supports self-controlled learning and students' autonomy and may enhance the learning intensity.
Furthermore, this learning scenario is especially suitable for language teaching and learning purposes as learning processes and knowledge construction are focussed onlearners have to match words and definitions themselves.In addition it is functional and user-oriented, i.e. the learning scenario presents a useful result -here, the lasagna recipe is given.Furthermore, it fosters personal reflection and interaction -in the discussion forum, students can discuss the film, the recipe, etc.
From the content point of view, this learning scenario is real-life-oriented because a recipe is given that can actually be tried by the learners and because the discussion forum allows users to exchange their experience with the lasagna, the film, etc.Moreover, social activities on Facebook represent the starting point of the during-activity, which are an important part of young people's life.This makes it especially vivid and interesting for them to complete the tasks.The learning scenario "The Fridge" is up-to-date and authentic as it deals with getting to know new friends and adding them on Facebook -this attracts the students' attention.Furthermore, it is informative including background information like an explanation for the term "lasagne" and presents how a lasagna recipe can be tried (representing know-how).Narrating the happenings by talking into the inside of a fridge / to us, makes the monologue of the actor vivid and gives the learning scenario an unexpected plus.
The visual design of the learning scenario is simple and practical.The colours are reduced to grey and green and their shadows have a clean appearance.In addition, they make a good detail contrast (e.g., by defining the content areas and dividing the activities into different sections) and match the websites' main colours.However, the typographyespecially the font size -could be more consistent, gaining a more professional effect.
The technical realisation of the learning scenario is functional, the site works fast, the navigation bar is simple, it is clear what is clickable.The icons are transparent, understandable and make the activities easy to use.However, according to the postings, some users have difficulties in playing the video, but a link with a description is provided and technical support is given through the LearnEnglish Team.Anyway, the technical support/link should be placed more transparently, perhaps included in the right column -in case of following the two-column layout meaningfully.The answers can be checked at the end of every activity and are also included in the pdf version of the learning scenario.
As far as the use of technologies is concerned in language learning, this example has shown that technology-enhanced materials do have a lot of potential.Anyway it is challenging to design effective online resources for language teaching and learning purposes.Therefore, content providers should take into account the quality catalogue and the classification presented in this paper.Employing the principles offered in the corresponding chapters will help all stakeholders to ensure that their efforts are rewarded, ultimately, with satisfied users.

Conclusions
Nowadays the Internet is frequently used as a pool of resources to find appropriate material for teaching and learning languages.However, users have to be prevented from getting overwhelmed by the mass of resources that can be found in the World Wide Web.It is crucial to support them to find high quality resources and to retrieve easily what they need for their purposes.Accordingly, developments and recommendations on language learning taxonomy that can be used for structuring language teaching and learning resources has been described.In addition, quality criteria for open educational resources have been outlined.In order to illustrate the outcomes of the paper, a real-life learning activity has been introduced.

Annex I. Language Learning Classification
[41]r & Harris[41]also regard the following activities as during-reading activities, but these activities should be seen as post-reading activities as students reflect on what they have read in their during-reading activity: [41]Selective reading -students understand certain pieces of information  Global reading -students understand the general idea of a text  Detailed reading -students understand details of a textRetrieving Online Language Learning Resources: Classification and Quality  Consulting resources -students explore and consult resources that might help them writing in some meaningful way (e.g., content, research, format, etc.)22 Young & Hofer & Harris[41]mention consulting resources as writingYoung &