CALICO 1999, Miami University Ohio
Advancing Language Learning Technologies
into the New Millennium
June 1 – June 5, 1999
Hosted by
Miami University
Jump to Day Two
Jump to Day Three
Conference Presentations: Day One
June 3, 1999
10:00 – 10:45
Speech Recognition Technology and Course-ware Development
Steve LaRocca, John Morgan, Sherri Bellinger, and Dave Bennett
Report on speech recognition (SR) development efforts in the Department of Foreign Languages, US Military Academy, West Point, NY. Arabic, Russian, and Brazilian Portuguese speech recognition systems developed at West Point and produced with Entropic development tools are discussed and demonstrated. Three distinct levels of speech recognition are incorporated into course-ware designed with the WinCALIS Authoring System, which has been modified to incorporate SR. Level one, comprised of simple recognition; level two, which provides qualitative feedback on recognized utterances and pinpoints weaknesses; and level three, which gives the student human-like, individualized bio-feedback on their utterances.
The Interactive Textbook: Concept, Implementation and Evaluation
Els Heughebaert
On the basis of previous research, Didascalia has developed the concept of the interactive textbook as a curriculum-bound tool for (home) language learning. So far, Didascalia has developed five interactive textbooks for learning French in Flanders. They each incorporate more than 20,000 interactive items, integrated dictionary and grammars, a user’s manual, combinable selection mechanisms and ten strategies (dictation, multiple choice, written, combination). With more than 6,000 users, it was time to make an evaluation. In this presentation the interactive textbook will be briefly demonstrated; needs analysis, implementation strategies, user satisfaction and didactic efficiency will be discussed in detail.
Exploiting the Potential of a Computer-based Grammar Checker with Advanced Level French Students
Jack Burston
The best current French grammar checkers are capable of detecting nearly 90% of the morphosyntactic errors typically found in student compositions. Yet student use of this tool is not widespread and, in some quarters, is even discouraged by instructors fearful of its counter-productive effects. The purpose of this paper is to report on a study of grammar checker usage which surveys the steps taken to successfully integrate it into the curriculum of an advanced level French course. In so doing, the pedagogical limits of computer-based grammar checking are identified, innovative applications explored, short-term and long-term effectiveness measured, and negative effects considered.
Using the World Wide Web for Teaching Culture and Reviewing Grammar in First Year Spanish
Caterina Reitano
The presenter will show numerous exercises for teaching culture using the WWW and how they lend themselves to reviewing Spanish grammar for beginners. Learning strategies exploited during each activity will also be discussed. Exposure to authentic material available on the WWW provides learners the opportunity to gain cultural competence, while at the same time improving their proficiency in the target language.
A SMARTer Way to Teach Foreign Language: The SMART Board as a Language Learning Tool
Fabienne Gérard
What is Smartboard? How can you use it in your foreign language classes? What are the advantages of this tool for the class but also for foreign language acquisition? Those are the main questions addressed in this presentation.
Web Magic: Interactive Stories on the Web
Reid Paxton, Philomena Meechan, and John Stewart
Discover web magic as learners create stories by dragging vocabulary words over an imaginary line and PRESTO! the WORDS turn into OBJECTS right in front of their eyes! Based on ZigZag World’s Hanukkah House Java Applet, we have created interactive, story-based, multimedia web activities designed to develop both listening and reading comprehension skills for foreign languages. This presentation will demonstrate several stories created at the University of Michigan, as well as those originally created by ZigZag that inspired our collaboration. We will also discuss our educational partnership and the instructional/technological considerations faced.
11:00 – 11:45
Pushing the Envelope: Creating Virtual Language Laboratories on a Shoestring
Jack Franke
Heading into the new millennium, L2 educators are encountering many potholes. As pointed out by many second language acquisition researchers, the development of reading and listening comprehension requires a great amount of time and individualized tailoring. The question of how to usher in new technologies with limited funding is a critical issue for virtually all institutions. Focusing on ACTFL/OPI proficiency guidelines, this paper will discuss a curriculum that enhances the language acquisition process by utilizing various types of authentic materials. Finally, there will be a discussion on several pedagogical issues regarding how to enhance language proficiency with multimedia and computer networking technologies.
E-Mail: A Teaching/Learning Tool in a Work Environment
Lise Desmarais
Research on the use of e-mail has been conducted mostly in college/university settings. However, using e-mail in a work environment is a viable option since learners can work at their own rhythm, according to their schedule and time zone. The Canadian Foreign Service Institute has set up a writing course (Spanish and German) using e-mail as a means of delivery. The course focuses on professional tasks such as checking translation, proofreading and writing correspondence. The presentation will focus on the design of the program, material development and the logistics related to this approach. Research methodology and results obtained as well as data on attitude will be discussed.
How Do We Know If It Worked? Evaluating a CALL Initiative
Claire Bradin and Ana Pérez-Gironés
We are familiar with guidelines which attempt to assess specific CALL software packages. However, the same cannot be said for the evaluation of larger-scale projects or for the overall implementation of CALL in a specific educational setting. By what criteria can such programs be judged? To what do we compare their “failure” or “success?” The presenters were recently involved in the appraisal of a CALL project. In addition to offering their perspectives from the inside and outside, they will outline a rationale for such reviews and suggest a framework for this type of evaluation.
Learner Production and Computerized Feedback. What is the Relationship?
María J. Alvarez-Torres and Beth Queeney
In this study, learner preferences for different types of feedback within a CALL context were analyzed. The focus was whether preferences for computerized feedback differed depending on the source of the learners’ nontarget-like production (a morphosyntactic structure vs. a lexical item). Participants, adult university students in an advanced ESL course, carried out different grammar and writing tasks. While they were completing these tasks, the courseware provided various types of feedback. Feedback types varied from explicit feedback options (i.e., metalinguistic feedback) to implicit feedback (i.e., models) options. Results focused on the pedagogical implications and applications of computerized feedback types.
A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Output Produced by 63 Learners of German in a Chatroom and Face-to-Face Discussion Groups, and Its Potential Implications for Foreign Language Instruction
Olaf Böhlke
The purpose of my study was to evaluate the usefulness of technology for interaction and communication among students of German, and to contrast students’ oral output, as it is produced in face-to-face group discussions, with the output produced in real-time electronic discussions, and to look for implications which these forms of interaction among students may have on foreign language instruction. My study also sought to come to a better understanding of chatroom language produced by learners of German, compared to students’ discourse produced during small group verbal discussions.
Peer Instructional Technology Training and Collaboration: The Case of UC Santa Cruz
María Victoria González Pagani
This paper will examine the issues involved in training foreign language faculty in instructional technology using the recent experience in ITML (Instructional Technology for Modern Languages) project at UC Santa Cruz as a case study. The following issues will be examined: institutional support for faculty development, time release, technical support, recognition and rewards, infrastructure and technical support, relationship between faculty and technical support staff, content, form, and pedagogical design, encouragement of faculty involvement, workshops, individual training, guest speakers, student-faculty and faculty-faculty teams, student needs, faculty needs, administration needs, and teaching load reconfiguration to accommodate the demands of integrating technology.
2:30 – 3:15
Authoring Language Lessons with Ficelle
Hélène Knoerr and Alysse Weinberg
This paper will introduce the many features of Ficelle, a multimedia authoring tool with audio and video capabilities, clickable words, text, audio and photo glossary, a fully integrated recording facility, phonetics exercises capabilities, generic and customized feedback and a test mode. The presenters will demonstrate how to create a few activities.
A Practical Technology Solution for Less-Common and Endangered Languages
Michael Quinlan, Keith Regli, and Virginia Martin
Financial and market constraints have severely limited the development of world-class software for Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL). Transparent Language, Inc. has invested substantial resources developing its proprietary LanguageNow! technology for language learning. A unique underlying technical architecture enables the inexpensive development of new LanguageNow! packages. As a result, TLI has recently released groundbreaking software for LCTLs such as Swedish, Polish, Arabic, Latin and Irish. In this session we will 1) describe plans to bring this technology to many more languages, 2) demonstrate the underlying technology publicly for the first time, and 3) solicit ideas for additional LCTL and Endangered-Language initiatives.
Assessing Foreign Language Oral Proficiency Using the Global Language Authoring System (GLAS)
Johannes W. Vazulik and MAJ David Wilson
By integrating the Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI) to assess foreign language oral proficiency with the recently developed Global Language Authoring System (GLAS), a highly desirable human dimension is added. Adhering to the prescribed format and assessment principles of the SOPI, the presenters developed interactive test modules in German by employing avi, sound, mpeg and recording components in the GLAS environment. Examinees execute the SOPI by engaging with the examiner in a more realistic, authentic and less intimidating setting than the traditional tape-recorded interview.
Self-Paced Language Instruction: How Students Use Technology to Personalize Language Learning
Mary Morrisard-Larkin, Elizabeth O’Connell-Inman, and Helen Roberts
A language curriculum, which incorporates both traditional and computer-based materials, has been developed at the College of the Holy Cross so that students can work independently and personalize their language learning. The course is delivered to students on the World Wide Web but many of the practice activities also require students to work in the language lab with software that has been adapted to fit course objectives. This presentation discusses case studies of learners who have benefited from this approach as well as data that was collected to compare these students to those who learned Spanish in a traditional classroom.
Learning About Assessment: A Case Study of a Multimedia Language Program
Clara Roman-Odio
Language educators believe that multimedia-based approaches offer significant advantages over traditional teaching methods by accelerating and sustaining the process of language acquisition. Our success in procuring long-term support that will nurture new advances in the field depends on the extent to which we can articulate in quantitative and objective terms the pedagogical benefits offered by these new technologies. This presentation will provide a case study to illustrate the methods of assessment used to evaluate a Spanish multimedia program developed by Kenyon College Spanish Faculty. It will consist of a demonstration of the program, and a description of the experimental design used for assessment of the program, including numerical and graphical summaries, a statistical analysis and anecdotal evidence.
AaLL About Technology: Research of Web-based Models for Curricular Innovation
Anne Green and Bonnie Earnest Youngs
We will explain a research study that evaluated student learning in an alternative-access language learning (AaLL) environment using web-based activities. We will discuss preliminary quantitative and qualitative findings of first-year AaLL study in French and German. The presentation will include research design and findings, examples of web-based activities, their curricular implementation, guidelines for a “technology methodology,” and ideas for adapting the AaLL model in a variety of FL instructional contexts. Handouts on the findings, guidelines, and web-based activities for French and German will be provided.
3:30 – 4:15
Advanced Web Technologies for Language Learning
Bob Godwin-Jones
This session deals with new developments in technologies and applications to enhance Web-delivered or assisted language learning, including increased interactivity, more effective storage/delivery of multimedia, greater control over text formatting and page design, and improved search, retrieval and cataloging of Web objects. Specific technologies to be demonstrated include dynamic HTML and style sheets (auto-scrolling of dual language texts); enhanced browser scripting (Java-JavaScript interaction for multilingual chat); advanced CGI (generation of JavaScript exercises through Web forms); streaming media (text display synchronized to audio); and expanded incorporation of meta-data (use of XML and the Instructional Management System standard). Authoring options for use of these technologies will be discussed.
Do You Know What They Know? Quantification and Graduality in Language Learning
Wilfried Decoo and Jozef Colpaert
Students enter, for example, a third year of French. Do they, and their teacher, know exactly what has been learned and integrated during the first years? Is that knowledge balanced in terms of semantic fields and communicative needs? To what extent do new texts studied in that third year match the level reached? To what extent are the new elements part of a quantified aggregate, warranting pre-determined progression? Our research and implementations show that the computer provides a major help in quantifying and organizing learning material in order to ensure a more gradual, fluent and balanced learning process over many years.
Digitized Slowed-Audio in Foreign Language Instruction
Jay P. Kunz
Although most beginning foreign language programs have an audio component, students tend to avoid using the accompanying audio tapes or CDs because the speed of the spoken language is often beyond beginning students’ ability to comprehend. The use of digitized audio and PureVoice technology has allowed foreign language students at Mississippi State University to control the playback speed of their audio materials without distorting the original speaker’s voice. This presentation explains how to create digitized, slowed-audio materials. It also discusses student reactions to this new technology and pedagogical implications for using digitized, slowed-audio in foreign language instruction.
Computer Programs for Advanced Language Study
John Robin Allen
Most CALL programs deal with lower-level language study. This presentation deals with a more advanced level of language learning. As such, the two programs described here can help persons improve their knowledge of even their first language. “JraVoc” helps with problems of learning vocabulary found in written or printed texts. It simplifies tracking and getting explanations of words (in context) a reader does not understand. “JraPlay” might more accurately be named a ‘term paper/article generator.’ The program helps one to analyse themes in literary texts, in order the better to make cogent remarks on such material.
Creating and Assessing Interactive Web Pages
Volker Hegelheimer
The presenter will share with the audience the steps involved in the development of student tracking procedures through a combination of a web-enabled database and JavaScript in order to collect performance data of students who access interactive reading passages which include textual, graphical, and audio glosses. The presenter will illustrate teaching and research applications of this design and discuss implementation requirements as related to software, hardware, and programming.
Java Japanese Kanji Flashcard 500
Nobuko Chikamatsu, Stephen Ryner, Jr., Hironari Nozaki, and Shoichi Yokoyama
The Java Kanji Flashcard 500 is a Japanese kanji reference and practice program for learners of Japanese, developed based on empirical kanji character data. The program presents the user with the 500 highest frequency kanji characters, as selected from the most recent kanji character frequency list (Yokoyama, et al., 1998). Each flashcard in the program presents the reading, meaning, stroke number, stroke animation, frequency rank and compound words of the target kanji character. The program is designed for use over the World Wide Web through Java-equipped web browsers. The program does not require Japanese operating system software.
4:30 – 5:15
Virtual Travel on the WWW
Philomena Meechan, Reid Paxton, and John Stewart
Plan your itinerary, book your ticket, exchange money, take the trip–you can even send postcards! The WWW provides amazing authentic resources for the FL learner as virtual traveller. This presentation demonstrates a task-based lesson that simulates the travel experience from beginning to end, utilizing existing web resources. Sites hosting RealAudio, QuickTime Virtual Reality, and live WebCams will be highlighted along with a list of resource links. Includes examples of guided and student-created itineraries. Ideas for follow-up (writing) activities such as postcards, travelogues, and brochures will be included and we can brainstorm many more!
Combining Experience-Centered and Mind-Centered Learning Activities Through Multimedia Materials
De Bao Xu and Hong Gang Jin
We will demonstrate two 1.3 GB multimedia software programs for Chinese language teaching. Each of them incorporates over 150,000 pieces of media. Activities include interactive dialogs, lessons, exercises, and homework with teacher’s accessibility. We will argue that CALL material designers can in fact use multimedia to create effective teaching materials to combine experience-centered and mind-centered input tasks, and to provide activities emphasizing involvement of multiple language skills (listening-speaking, listening-reading, and reading-writing).
A Bon Port: Designing a Companion CD-Rom for a Beginner French Textbook
Alysse Weinberg and Hélène Knoerr
This paper will present the CD-Rom to accompany the French language teaching package “A Bon Port.” The “A Bon Port” activities were developed using Ficelle multimedia software. Ficelle is a Windows-based program specifically designed to allow people with no prior programming experience to develop multimedia activities for language students. These activities include text, sound files, pictures, videos to create fill-in-the-blank and multiple choice exercises complete with generic and customized feedback, glossary and integrated grammar and cultural reviews. We will also discuss the methodology for creating these activities. Finally, selected activities from the “A Bon Port” CD-ROM will be presented.
Look Both Ways Before Crossing: Surviving the Analog to Digital Transition
Steven Smolnik and Roger Sánchez-Berroa
Transitioning the Language Laboratory from an analog environment to a digital one does not necessitate excluding the former in favor of the latter. This evolution includes choices for continued management and delivery of the services and functions of today’s learning center. This discussion addresses implications of our “digital transition” for foreign language faculty, their students, Language Lab staff, and the foreign language curriculum at Wesleyan University. It includes a recent perspective on the roles of the analog lab in the curriculum, reflections on the re-design of the facilities, the current hybrid environment, and expectations for the future.
Using the TroubleShooters’ Video-CALL to Help Students Generate Corrected Interactive Language
Jay Bodine
Incorporating high quality MPEG I digitized video and its script on a CD-ROM, the TroubleShooters programs have a sophisticated algorithm matching student responses against alternate correct answers, reducing student frustrations when their responses are incorrect, and helping the students effectively to produce and practice correct structures. The program leads students through the appropriate text-based exercises with video context, which the author can create readily by typing in basically the questions and answers of the exercises desired. The program checks for word order and character errors, and furnishes specific clues for correcting problems. Students correct only those aspects of their response that are wrong. Keyboard layouts, combining U.S. and near-native configurations, enhance text entry for English-language typists
Conference Presentations: Day Two
June 4, 1999
8:00 – 8:45
Computer-delivered ESL Speaking Tests
Jerry Larson
For several months, work has been in progress creating a computer-delivered ESL (English-as-a-Second-Language) speaking test. During this session, the components and functioning of a prototype of this test will be discussed and demonstrated.
Teaching Agents in CALL Tutorials
Philip Hubbard
Recent research in social psychology has demonstrated that we interact with computers in many ways as if they were fellow humans. Teaching agents, like the helpful paper clip in Microsoft Office, are already playing a role in human-computer interaction. That role will expand as agent programming becomes more sophisticated. In this presentation I begin by exploring the status of teaching agents in current software, especially CALL tutorials. I then suggest ways in which future CALL applications, both CD and web-based, can make use of teaching agents to lead to effective teacher-learner interaction when the teacher is not physically present.
The Virtual Global Village: The World Wide Web, Instructional Technology and the “Communicative” Language Classroom
Jon Blake
The “discovery and conquest” of the Internet and its application to the teaching of foreign languages and cultures have created some very serious pedagogical problems. The interest in Instructional Technology appeared on the horizon at a moment when theorists of foreign language acquisition were promoting notions of “proficiency-oriented” and “interactive” teaching for cross-cultural communication. The digital realms of the Internet, the WWW, CD-ROM, and Network-based communications should immerse students in “task-driven” cultural studies. This field of expansion has presented a dilemma to foreign language teachers, who have had to face the issue of proper contextualization of these activities. Digital technologies can promote a more student-focused environment only if the teacher examines what is happening in the classroom before the addition of the use of any of the computer technologies. The World Wide Web as properly applied in this effort provides quick and unrestricted access to authentic materials, in the form of text, sound and images. This presentation will include Power Point demonstrations using an LCD panel and/or scan converter to display pedagogical examples from my own Web site, saved to the hard drive of my laptop.
MediaGuide: An Interactive Multimedia Template
Gary Whitby
This presentation will display a prototype template for a series of interactive multimedia movie and video guides geared to language learners, yet also applicable to other audiences interested in the content and critique of media and the elocution of the scripts. This template will allow a better understanding of the media as a whole and in the language used by the characters portrayed. This is done in an interactive process and at the same time a framework is provided for a continued series of guides that could facilitate a series of videos or films.
Evaluating Software Effectiveness: Matching Wants and Needs
Debra Hoven
This presentation presents the preliminary findings of an evaluation of learner use of the software tools in a multimedia software package for teaching Indonesian listening comprehension and culture. Data on learner perceptions of the ease of use, and appropriateness of the software interface are being investigated, in order to improve our understandings of the perceptions and reactions of novices compared to experienced users of multimedia software packages. This investigation will include an analysis of the differences in strategy use between high and low proficiency learners, and their use of the help tools such as grammar reference notes, language laboratory simulation, replay facility, and mid-task answer checking.
Japanese E-mail and Its Effect on Communication Skill Development
Nobuko Chikamatsu
The current paper discusses a Japanese e-mail exchange project conducted between US college learners of Japanese and native Japanese college students in Japan. The structure and other details of the Japanese e-mail exchange project are described first, followed by the results of student survey and writing tests. The student survey was conducted by distributing questionnaires to examine student attitude toward the e-mail project. Then, the analysis of the writing tests (vocabulary and essay tests) is discussed to examine the effects of computer use on Japanese writing, comparing computer-writing and hand-writing settings. Some pedagogical implications will be also discussed.
9:00 – 9:45
Academic Misconduct in CALL
Wilfried Decoo, Jozef Colpaert, Ruth Sanders, and Randall Jones
CALL, because it is an interdisciplinary field dealing with quickly changing technologies, seems to be a field at high risk for academic misconduct. It is easy to become an “instant expert.” When utopian projects are funded, the proposers cannot live up to their initial promises and may yield to the temptation to plagiarize or falsify results. The panel will discuss a recent case, how to recognize misconduct, how the profession can set standards for assessing originality, and how researchers can protect their work from misappropriation.
Interactive Movies on DVD
Gina Brown on behalf of Michael Bush
Movies can be quite useful as a source of comprehensible input for language learning. Interactivity is a means to make movies more comprehensible for a wider range of learners. DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) is an ideal technology for the new millennium that has the potential to make interactive movies accessible to a wider range of learners than was ever possible with interactive videodisc and CD-based interactive video systems. This presentation will present the results of a project to make a classic Italian movie useable with DVD technology. DVD-Video with barcode for classroom use as well as DVD-ROM implementations will be demonstrated.
From Vanilla Web Server to WebCT: Moving a Multimedia On-line Course to a Framework-bound Environment
Fenfang Hwu
This paper describes the challenges faced and solutions adopted in converting an on-line course, originally designed to be delivered on vanilla web server, to being delivered on WebCT, a commercial on-line course framework. In the face of the intrinsic limitations, yet with the timesaving features of the commercial web courseware, the challenges that the conversion confronted are maintaining the learning methodology behind the original design and supporting the original course structure while weaving the commercial framework’s built-in features into the course. The presentation will also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each environment and the lessons learned.
Computer Mediated Communication in the Language Lab: Foundation, Implementation, and Results
Peter Lafford, Barbara Lafford, and Michael Cottam
A discussion of Second Language Acquisition Interactionist theories will provide a basis for exploration of some of the practical issues involved in the implementation of computer mediated communication, and an examination of different models of online chat environments (web-based chat rooms, dedicated chat software such as Tribal Voice’s PowWow, and the chat functions of dedicated distance learning systems such as FirstClass). Finally, the presenters will share the results of a semester-long empirical research project involving three sections of Spanish 201, which examines the effect of task type and instructor participation on output, interaction and student attitudes towards computer mediated communication.
Foreign Accent Archive
Steven Weinberger
Humans have the unique ability to instantly detect a foreign accent. At the same time we make biased social and personal judgements about the speakers with these accents. Careful linguistic study of non-native speech reveals that it is a systematic and uniform system of behaviors. This is a report on a project that is developing an ongoing and on-line web repository of digitized non-native speech to be used by students, researchers, and teachers. It serves to de-mystify foreign accent by supplying ready examples along with principled linguistic analyses of each accent. The methodology and pedagogical uses of the archive will be discussed.
Going the Distance: Interactive, On-line Professional Development Courses for Teachers of German
Ali Moeller, Donna Van Handle, and Stephen Panarelli
Interactive, on-line courses created for professional development of teachers of German will be demonstrated and discussed. This joint project of the Goethe-Institut and the AATG was funded by the European Recovery Program. Results of a course developed and offered through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the spring of 1999 entitled TELI: Technology Enhanced Language Instruction, authored by Donna VanHandle (Mount Holyoke College) will be featured. Project authors and staff (Eleonore Sylla, Goethe Institut-Washington D.C.; Kathy Corl, Ohio State University; Ali Moeller, Instructional Planning; Joan Campbell and Iris Bork-Goldfield, Schreiben; Iris Busch and Lisa Thibault, Sprechen) will demonstrate various features of the courses. Stephen Panarelli, project technologist, will demonstrate technology used to create these interactive, on-line courses.
10:00 – 10:45
Virtual Reference: A Case for Web-based Dictionaries in Instructed SLA
Tom Randolph
This presentation provides both ESL/FL teachers who have access to an Internet-ready CALL environment and individual ESL/FL learners who have Internet access with a guide to setting up their computers’ WWW browsers in the role of electronic lexical resource. Several cutting edge lexical reference sites will be demonstrated. An analysis of the electronic dictionary form compares harddrives to the Internet as corpora storage and lookup sites, concluding that the Internet offers the greatest potential for a CALL dictionary due to its capacity for constant change and growth, its cost-effectiveness, and lack of size limitations.
A (Cultural) Web of One’s Own: New Modes of Teaching Culture in the Foreign Language Class
Gilberte Furstenberg, Shoggy Thierry Waryn, and Sabine Levet
This session will present a unique Web-based, cross-cultural project and methodology, which allows students to gradually construct understanding of a foreign culture. With a combination of Web and classroom use, students in France and in the US simultaneously observe and compare a variety of similar materials from both cultures. They analyze these materials, react to them and exchange viewpoints in a constant cross-cultural perspective. This step-by-step approach provides students with the unprecedented ability to directly apprehend aspects of culture that are usually invisible to them. It also provides teachers with a new way for teaching culture in the language classroom.
On-Line CALL Teacher Training
Jeff Magoto
Like all teacher training, in-services about teaching with technology always involve hard choices: How do I meet the needs of a diverse audience? How do I motivate the technically experienced students while not losing the neophytes? How can I maximize hands-on time while systematically presenting examples of software use and tasks? These days, there’s an additional wrinkle: How do I deliver all of this across continents via the Internet? This demonstration details the presenter’s experience with an 8-week online CALL methodology course for Greek teachers of English. Topics covered will be syllabus design, sample activities, and software tools for course design.
Multilingualism, Technology and Language Learning
Sipho Nakasa
The use of technology such as video-centered instruction and computer assisted language learning programmes within a multilingual and multicultural academic context is a great challenge for students and staff participating in designing and implementing such programmes. The Cape Technikon, being one of the technologically and career oriented learning institutions in South Africa is currently grappling with this challenge of using technology in student academic development. Its Writing Centre is at the forefront of this process. The paper will therefore assess the cognitive value, rewards and future prospects for using technology in learning development and cross linguistic affirmation.
Internet-Based Language Instruction for Science Students
Yvonne Stapp
For the English-language instructor, designing courses for university science and technology students is very challenging, especially regarding up-to-date materials, visual reinforcement, and meaningful practice. The Internet is the ideal all-purpose resource. The Web provides outstanding materials including graphics and virtual visits to science-technology sites, and Internet communication facilities make language practice more productive. With very basic equipment and software, an instructor can design quality courses which accommodate diverse individual levels and needs, even in large classes. Three courses are demonstrated here, and a description of the techniques used for designing and evaluating the courses is given.
1:30 – 2:15
Didactic Functions in CALL Applications
Jozef Colpaert and Wilfried Decoo
An extensive analysis of actors, available technology and linguistic-didactic functionality, within the Pedagora research project has revealed that the eventual added value of CALL applications mainly depends on four factors: actor involvement, content (quantity, quality, flexibility, reusability), strategies (tasks, skills, exercises) and didactic functions. Every application or system incorporates one or more of the following didactic functions: Tool (as an instrument for the learner), Monitor (as advice on demand), Mentor (as follow-up of the learning process), Tutor (as organizer of the learning process) and Lector (as one-way instructor). These functions will be illustrated and discussed against Levy’s tutor-tool framework.
From Libra to Gemini: Work(s) in Progress
James Champion, Michael Farris, and Franziska Lys
Libra, an Authoring Environment for Multimedia Lessons on the Macintosh was designed for faculty members who wished to author lessons for their students which focused on listening comprehension. Gemini has enhanced several of the features of Libra , while including a number of new features. It also adds facilities for designing lessons focused on reading comprehension. The programmer of Libra and Gemini will discuss the evolution of Gemini and its major new features. Other panel members will demonstrate projects in various stages of development which illustrate the application of some of the new features.
Fokus Deutsch: Television for Language Learning
Robert Di Donato
This session will focus on the conceptualization, development and production of a new German telecourse “Fokus Deutsch,” consisting of 24 half-hour programs for beginning through intermediate German. Excerpts from specific programs will be shown in order to analyze the pedagogical and multimedia implications of the series. The series will be piloted as the basis of a distance learning course in first year German at Miami University in the fall of 1999. Additionally, it will be broadcast on public television nationwide beginning in September 1999.
From Didactics to Technology
Jean-Claude Bertin
The presentation aims at showing the real place of technology in the learning/teaching process, i.e. a means rather than an end in itself, as is too often the case. The presentation intends to demonstrate how teacher-centred authoring packages make it possible to focus on didactics rather than technology when designing multimedia learning materials. The presentation shall start from the teacher’s needs, then use a video clip in order to demonstrate how this clip can be exploited for teaching purposes.
Computer-Assisted Reading in Chinese
Zheng-sheng Zhang
Computer programs have been used to aid reading by providing instant help, mostly on vocabulary and background information. However, such assistance is not sufficient for Chinese, due to its linguistic and orthographic characteristics. The identification of words may pose problems, since the orthography leaves no space between words; the identification of syntactic relationship may also be difficult, since Chinese words bear almost no morphological markers. The paper discusses special strategies for helping readers of Chinese and suggests possible computer implementation of these strategies. Some of these strategies will also be useful for reading in other languages.
Developing Pragmatic Awareness in the Virtual Zone of Proximal Development
Sheila Carel
I describe learning theory, schema theory and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which guided the development of The Virtual Ethnographer, a multimedia courseware designed to meet the National Standards’ goals for culture (linking practices and perspectives) and for communication. I then report upon a case study in which high school students of French used the program and undertook a virtual field experience in France. I provide evidence from the student ethnographers’ findings, interviews, and my observations to demonstrate how the theoretically grounded coursework led to the development of pragmatic awareness and other cultural knowledge.
2:30 – 3:15
VRoma: Collaborative Learning in Cyberspace
Judith de Luce, Suzanne Bonefas, and William Magrath
This presentation will examine the VRoma Project, an NEH-supported community of teachers and students who create on-line resources for teaching Latin and ancient Roman culture. VRoma is more like an on-line classroom than a true simulation of Rome. Here students and instructors interact live, hold classes, and share resources for the study of the ancient world. This session will feature: collaboration on the VRoma MOO in a university/secondary school advanced Latin course, and faculty “consultants” for an AP class; building resources for interactive language exercises; and creation of internet resources.
Instructor-made Online Tools for Teaching
William Cline and J. Sanford Dugan
As computers become more widely available, individual instructors are encouraged to develop computer-mediated materials that meet specific local needs. Two experienced foreign language teachers present several tools developed for online instruction, including a HyperCard-based ESL composition correction stack, an HTML template for online lessons, and a set of web-based lessons for a second-year reading course in French. The presenters, using intermediate computer skills that are largely self-taught, found that the major components of development are knowledge of the subject matter and design of instructional tasks. Implementation of the materials is also discussed.
Information Technology and WH-Questions in the Language Learning Classroom
Jacky Tweedie
The ESL teaching environment is awash with exhortations to use information technology (IT) in the classroom. Rarely is the validity of IT in the classroom (or curriculum) challenged. The Intensive English as a Second Language program (Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada) has begun a series of initiatives within its unit designed to examine the role IT should play within its communicative curriculum. Ad hoc initiatives have led to staggered experiences and outcomes for teachers and learners alike. This paper will discuss the process the school has begun in its attempt to understand some of the fundamental WH-questions prompted by it.
Bridging the Gap Between Pedagogy and Technology: An Exploration of TA Attitudes
Travis Bradley and Lara Lomicka
Scott (1998) proposes that technology should serve as a means to reflect upon foreign language teaching and learning. As a crucial step in their professional development, TAs should explore the pedagogical assumptions upon which CALL applications are based. In teaching a graduate course on technology in language education, we explored TA attitudes on the use of technology for language learning. They were asked to complete a pre- and post-course questionnaire and to reflect on their development during the course. In this presentation, we will address the issues of course design and implementation and present findings regarding TA attitudes toward the pedagogy-technology interface.
Winnowing the Web with KWiCFinder
William Fletcher
Today’s Web is a natural extension of the foreign language classroom. Paradoxically, its explosive growth limits its usefulness. On-line searches too often yield more irrelevant than useful matches. KWiCFinder shifts the focus from process to product: it submits a search, retrieves matching webpages, and produces a Key Word in Context abstract of each match. Scanning these abstracts, the user rapidly identifies content of further interest. Borrowing concordance conventions, KWiCFinder permits highly specific search criteria to eliminate false matches. KWiCFinder will be demonstrated and the benefits and dangers of using the Web as a linguistic and cultural corpus will be discussed.
3:30 – 4:15
The Three “I’s”: Interactive Intermediate French, German, and Spanish Courses on the Internet
Franziska Lys and Janine Spencer
This session will present three new interactive web courses for intermediate French, German, and Spanish. Materials include interactive exercises with feedback, self-check tests, sound files to illustrate pronunciation, video clips for culture and listening comprehension, easy links to on-line reference materials, a virtual on-line tutor, and an individualized tracking system. This presentation will be interesting to any language teacher as the materials presented go beyond the traditional confine of a textbook and classroom. This new teaching approach is unique because it empowers students to be in charge of their own learning and gives them means to become more autonomous learners. The presentation will serve as a model to anybody developing interactive web-based language material. All three web courses have been pilot tested with over 1,000 students and presenters will share results of surveys conducted to evaluate students’ affective responses and the effectiveness of the program as a teaching tool.
The Benefits of Network-Based Communication for SLA: The Case of the RTA-Chat Program
Robert Blake
SLA research suggests that negotiated target-language use in the classroom speeds the process of second language acquisition and encourages students to continue their language studies. Will the benefits of L2 negotiations hold for network-based communication as well? A network-based component was introduced into the intermediate Spanish lab curriculum of 50 university students in the spring and fall quarters, 1998. The goal was to foster second-language acquisition by electronically augmenting opportunities for negotiated language use with classmates via a synchronous chat program, Remote Technical Assistant (RTA). RTA supports live interactions with a full array of communication tools: transmission of multilingual text, replayable sounds, shared graphics or whiteboarding, remote Web page control, and a collaborative writing tool or Textpad. Functionality of the RTA program, results from the study, and the potential of using the RTA program in the language classroom will be discussed and illustrated.
XML and Language Learning: What’s in Store?
Douglas Mills
The Extensible Markup Language (XML) Specification was approved by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in February of 1998. As browser support and development tools for the standard become increasingly available, what are the implications for language learning and teaching via the web? Will XML revolutionize web-based language learning, be just another tool, or not be very useful at all? In this presentation, XML will be introduced and some of its possible applications to web-based language teaching will be examined. Available XML-enhanced language learning sites will be demonstrated and a web-based list of relevant resources will be provided.
WALL-Web Assisted Language Learning
Beverley Clinch
This presentation will illustrate how the World Wide Web is incorporated into the curriculum of Spanish at a local high school in South Carolina. Although on-going, this project fits within the communicative emphasis on language learning. The open-ended nature of hypertext imposes an active role in the learning process which crosses curriculum boundaries, motivates the individual and improves basic skills. Additionally this environment provides students an ability to “learn language, learn about language and learn through language.” (Warschauer, 1997). But what level or quality of “learning” actually occurs as a result of these projects? Preliminary findings and theoretical support.
Using the World Wide Web to Teach French Civilization
Lynn Herkstroeter
Contemporary French Civilization taught in French is ideal for the WWW. Each week in the computer lab students were given activity sheets with about four URLs and specific tasks and/or questions. They were also expected to report the news about France from the internet. For example, they were following the 1997 elections and results. Students could access very up to date information. For topics such as government, political parties, geography, social issues, the family, education, and leisure the internet provided abundant material. Students completed three projects: web pages on various topics and a final group project.
4:30 – 5:15
Multidisciplinary Project Teamwork: The MultiCAT Testing Project
Kathryn Corl, Lauren Aland, and James Cheng
This session will present Ohio State University’s MultiCAT Multimedia Computer Adaptive Language Tests in French, German, and Spanish. The MultiCAT Project, now in its fourth year, has benefited from the diverse talents of a multidisciplinary team. Presenters will discuss aspects of the project’s development (e.g., item development, interface design, user testing, multimedia programming, and databasing issues) and demonstrate the current version of the test.
Designing Commercial French Courses for On-Line Delivery as Part of the UI-Online Program
Elizabeth Martin
The Department of French at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) is currently designing various Web-based courses for professional development. This presentation pertains specifically to our two-course sequence in Business French that is scheduled to be delivered entirely on-line beginning in August 1999. The website that is being designed for these courses will feature both synchronous and asynchronous two-way communication systems, video, on-line activities specifically created for the courses, and numerous links to other websites pertinent to the study of commercial French. The presentation will include a guided “virtual” visit and demonstration of a U of I Business French course website.
Con/textos: Literatura Hispanoamericana en Multimedia
Julia Van Loan Aguilar
Con/textos: Literatura Hispanoamericana en multimedia is an application designed at the Univ. of Pennsylvania to incorporate L2 reading strategies in a culturally rich interactive framework for the study of the short literary text in the intermediate Spanish classroom. In a task-based format, students review audiovisual background information on the text, listen and respond to RealAudio interviews with the authors, read and/or listen to the text read by the author before completing post-reading composition activities linked to oral interaction in the classroom. Presentation will also discuss research on the interactive glossary as an aid to top-down processing.
Concordancing and ESL Writing Research
Ross Bender and Sharon Bode
The use of the concordancer as a pedagogical tool in ESL is not widely popular in the United States. At the same time, concordancing software has become more available. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the use of the concordancer as a tool for teacher research, rather than the customary teaching tool. In this paper is described the use of the Longman Miniconcordancer and MonoConc for Windows to analyze 100 student essays written as part of an ESL placement test. Such features as type/token ratio and article usage are analyzed and correlations to the holistic scoring by a human rater are explored.
Teaching with Technology to Create Student-centred Classrooms
Michael Vallance
The paper details and demonstrates the collaborative project work undertaken by first year engineering students at Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore, focusing on the writing tasks of a product description and a comparison and contrast report, together with their computer-based oral presentations. Due to the resultant positive effects of the student-centered, constructivist learning environment the paper concludes that the utilization of technology for collaborative project work is essential for the successful development of engineering students’ technical communication skills.
Conference Presentations: Day Three
June 5, 1999
8:00 – 8:45
Using Multimedia to Develop Skills in Using the ACTFL Guidelines to Assess Oral Proficiency
Dorry Kenyon and Helen Carpenter
The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) will demonstrate a multimedia program that trains educators to assess oral proficiency using ACTFL’s Guidelines for Speaking Proficiency. In training to rate Simulated Oral Proficiency Interviews (SOPIs), this self-instructional program adapts to individual skill levels in rating, offering more practice when it is needed, using authentic responses from SOPI examinees. The program first establishes a context for assessing oral proficiency by walking raters through a mini-SOPI. It then divides the Guidelines into learnable units, provides insight into oral proficiency task design, offers plenty of practice in rating, and then gives users a chance to assess their developing rating skills.
Using CALL to Teach CALL: Preparing an Interactive Web-based CALL Course for Distance Education
Christine Bauer-Ramazani and Lorraine Williams
This paper suggests steps to prepare a web-based interactive CALL course for distance education. The presenters will share their experience creating such a course for an MATESL program which has overseas satellites and wants to maximize opportunities for interaction, learning, and collaboration between the overseas and on-campus course participants by creating a “tandem.” The course preparation includes forming a resource project group designed to insure technical support, student support services, and inter-institutional fit. Portions of a CALL course web site will illustrate how online participants can experience the technology first-hand, which they can then apply to their own classroom situation.
Design and Development of Courseware for High School and College EFL Students in Taiwan
Yuli Hung Yeh
The paper describes a one-year project supported by National Science Council in Taiwan. A piece of courseware about an important Western holiday, Easter, was completed in the project by a team of professors, programmers, and art workers. Sounds and pictures were used as mnemonic devices for student memory, learning efficiency, and motivation. The courseware facilitates reading comprehension, vocabulary learning, and, most important of all, cultural understanding for intermediate EFL college students and high school students. An initial formative evaluation was conducted and provided data for necessary revision. Reflections, suggestions and recommendations for future development are also presented.
Chinese Orthography on the Internet
Wen-chiu Tu
The goals of this web-based courseware are to introduce the fundamental concepts of the Chinese writing system and to enhance beginning learners’ character recognition and reading skills. This computer courseware will be integrated with the new Chinese Basic Course developed at Defense Language Institute. The course is a structure-driven program enriched by animations, interactive graphics, authentic/simulated materials, various handwritten styles as well as function-based tasks. Factual information includes basic strokes, stroke order, methods of construction, radicals and a systematic correspondence between the simplified form and the traditional form. Approximately 250 of the most frequently used characters will be included.
Developing Multimedia Course-ware for Advanced Learners of Bi-Alphabetic Languages (Serbian/Croatian)
Zenon Obydzinski
The presented course combines the Asymetrix ToolBook technology with a content-based approach designed to enhance language proficiency (Serbian/Croatian), sociopolitical and cultural awareness of US Government personnel sent to the area of the former Yugoslavia. The software combines intensive language study by providing authentic language materials, activities and tasks, and taking user input in both Latinized and Cyrillic alphabets. The presentation will also show how various modes of interactivity can be achieved through multiple levels of formative feedback, multimedia and user selection of language modality.
9:00 – 9:45
WebQuest: A Web-based Tool for Collaborative Research and Writing in Second Language Instruction
J. Scott Payne
Inspired by the vast quantity of authentic second language resources available on the World Wide Web, WebQuest is an effort to combine this rich supply with the dynamics of collaborative research and project-based learning in an online second language learning environment. WebQuest is based on a three-step research and writing model, where students 1) collaboratively build a database of text and images, 2) judiciously select and synthesize information, and finally 3) communicate their newly acquired knowledge in multiple draft essays. The presenter will demonstrate and discuss the utility of such an online system in second language instruction. Audience participation is encouraged.
Translation Software: It’s There, How Can We Use It?
Finley Taylor
This presentation is a continued exploration of translation software as a creative tool. Beginning and advanced students used translations, dictionaries, inflection and grammar aids to learn more about the target language and culture. Both problematical and rewarding aspects of using translating software are discussed with examples in French, German, and Spanish. Globalink’s Power Translator will be demonstrated.
Does CALL Motivate in Acquiring Kanji Characters in Japanese?
Sato Van Aacken
Knowledge of about 1000 basic kanji characters is imperative to comprehend written Japanese. Actually learning kanji is not difficult but is extremely time-consuming. How can students study kanji more quickly in order to take advantage of available sources of information such as newspapers on the internet, especially in the foreign language environment? This study examines language learning motivation and strategies in relation to learning kanji using CALL.
Academic Writing in a Multimedia Classroom
Amanda Brooks and Rachida Primov
The presenters will recount their experience setting up a multimedia classroom for upper-level language classes. They will introduce the materials used and address questions of relative advantages and disadvantages of their choices. In particular they will look at the implementation and use of a collaborative writing software application Commonspace (in its French/Spanish plug-ins) in conjunction with their use of the Internet for this course. From a pedagogical perspective, they will address questions of how and why to teach writing in a multimedia classroom and will share effective techniques for student and computer interaction during class time.
Multimedia Authoring Without Technical Support
Greg Kessler and Gary Whitby
The presenters will share their experience in designing a specialized multimedia application without the assistance of outside technical experts. Through the use of Hyperstudio, the presenters designed a multimedia tour of Ohio State University for their English as a Second Language students. This program introduces students to the various cultural and educational resources of the community. Through the integration of video, audio, animation, and still images, the presenters developed a useful and coherent means by which students could learn about their new community, improve their language skills, and develop basic computer keyboard and mouse techniques.
10:00 – 10:45
Web-Based Class Annotation of Spanish Literature: Collaborative Textual Analysis On-line
Owen McGrath, Erika Shuh, Ignacio Navarrete, and Doug Moody
Asking students to author materials for publication on the web may have a positive impact on quality, but what are the particular advantages for helping students encounter, understand, and communicate in a foreign language literature class? One professor has created an assignment which scholars of old would appreciate: asking students to annotate a text. Their annotations take on a decidedly modern form when linked to a shared copy of the text on the web. Students read, discuss, and further annotate each other’s comments–experiencing not only the academic but also the social and communicative utility of the target language.
Curriculum and Assessment Choice in a Web Based Language Course
Stephen Hoyt and Daniel Reed
Internet-based technologies offer teachers a wide array of content and assessment choices. Neither student centered, nor content-driven, this course plan concerns itself with developing the capability of analysis, a skill necessary to study higher-level subjects in the target language. To date, little has been done to specifically focus on the development of analytic skills. The discussion will cover both the organization of web-based material to enhance analytical skills and allow for an accurate assessment of course objectives. One of the fundamental assumptions in this course is allowing for user freedom of choice in both course content and assessment techniques.
Using Automatic Writing Environments
François Mangenot and Brian Gill
The presenters will demonstrate some recent French programs that help students overcome the cognitive overload associated with complex writing tasks in a playful and motivating way. They will also discuss findings based on the use of these programs and briefly go over their theoretical underpinnings. Featured will be Gammes d’ecriture, a writing environment for French based on the Italian Scrivere con Word Prof.
Triggers of Collaboration in Computer-Assisted Language Learning
Franklin Bacheller
The presenter will report on the results of a study investigating the triggers of collaboration of ESL learners cooperating to complete one of three activities at the computer. Learners were videotaped, and the language they used was analyzed for collaboration. Collaboration was defined in the Vygotskian sense of assisted performance. Results showed that learners assisted each other with language and with tasks and that they negotiated meaning while assisting. Underlying this assistance were difficulties learners experienced with partner language and computer representations. The presenter will reveal the triggers of collaboration and discuss implications for the design of CALL materials.
Internet: Global English Learning to Global English Activities
Yoshio Narisawa
The introduction of Internet into EFL classes has brought profound changes to college English teaching in Japan. English Instructors in Japan have shown increasing interest in bringing new methods and technology to motivate students to communicate in English. The students are involved in communicating with students abroad via the Internet. They regularly exchange informal letters and gain knowledge and intercultural experience as well as writing skills. The Internet has given an opportunity to have written communication abroad, while inspiring the students to improve their communicative skills and also fostering global awareness.
User-Centred Methodological Framework for the Design of Hypermedia-based CALL Systems
Jae Eun Shin
The aim of this research is to improve the educational quality of hypermedia-based CALL systems. The results of a survey are reported which indicate that many of the deficiencies of current systems can be attributed to an insufficient consideration of the needs of users and to the lack of an explicit educational philosophy guiding their design. Accordingly a methodological framework has been developed which draws on recent developments in the field of Software engineering/HCI regarding interactive system design; and on a general constructivist approach to the design of computer-based learning material. The methodological framework involves a number of key features including use of learning scenarios to identify user requirements (Carroll, 1995); development of prototypes embodying different design options; and a series of formative workshops to evaluate the prototypes. The paper reports progress so far in the use of the methodology. The overall results provide broad support for the general approach of basing design on an open constructivist model. They also confirm the general validity of the user-centered, scenario-based methodological approach.
11:00 – 11:45
Reading Strategies and the Web
Ruth Sanders and Alton Sanders
Language students in second year and above sometimes find it difficult to manage the large texts they are assigned in the target language. Currently, explicit instruction in reading strategies based on the work of Adler and Van Doren (1940) and many other writers since has gained favor. An automated reading aid can help students develop effective strategies by providing click-on word lookup, multiple passes over the text, and self-quizzes on vocabulary for any digitized text. The texts need not be processed by the teacher in advance. The reading aid we have implemented for German will be available at no charge.
Learning a Language in a Virtual Study Abroad Program
Inmaculada Pertusa, Melissa Stewart, and Carollyn Rudesill
The University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Institute for International Studies (KIIS) have provided funding for the Segovia Virtual Study Abroad Program, which will link the Segovia program with students in Spanish classes in the USA. Following the model presented in the Spring semester of 1997 by Carollyn Rudesill in Morelia, Mexico, this new web page will include photographs taken by our students in Spain every week (Album de fotos) and entries that they write about their experiences (Diario). There are several pedagogical aspects of the project that can be incorporated into Spanish classes. Students can write questions in Spanish about various aspects of the study abroad experience to the KIIS group (Intercambios). These questions will be answered by students on a regular basis throughout the semester on the web page. Furthermore, the Segovia group’s activities–including visits to other Spanish cities (Madrid, Toledo, Salamanca), art museums, famous castles, and historic sites in Segovia can provide a basis for meaningful discussion about culture in a variety of Spanish classes. Both the Segovia Virtual Study Abroad Program, and the Morelia Virtual Study Abroad Program offers an opportunity for a special “intercambio,” as program participants share their experiences while they are having them via Internet and students at home participate with the group in daily life in Segovia and in their travels around the peninsula. In our presentation we will talk about the outcomes of the Virtual Segovia program, compared with the results of the first program in Morelia. We will describe the details of both programs, hoping that other programs like these will come after.
Developing an Integrated Five-Skills Multimedia Model for Language Learning
Virginia Lewis and Glenda Carl
At Southwestern University, modern languages across the board have been implementing a strategic model for intensifying language offerings during the first two years through internally developed multimedia applications based on an integrated five skills approach. These can be delivered in the Language Learning Center or, increasingly, in networked dorm rooms via the world wide web. Cultural themes integrate the lessons, which progress from simple overviews to basic listening and reading composition and grammar to reading and writing, both in and outside the networked classroom. The presenters will show and discuss examples for German, French, and Latin. Particularly emphasized will be the use of in-class and out-of-class composition in the target language as a capstone of the learning experience. Initial results
Electronic Portfolios in ESL Writing: An Alternative Approach
Saad Alkahtani
Creating and using electronic portfolios facilitate language teaching and learning in general and ESL writing in particular. This session will demonstrate how teachers can create electronic portfolios using the World Wide Web. The session will: (a) highlight advantages of creating and using electronic portfolios, (b) present the content of the electronic portfolios, and (c) demonstrate the tools that can be used to create electronic portfolios. The session will support ESL teachers in using electronic portfolios in the ESL writing classroom. They will also learn about the several advantages that electronic portfolios have over portfolios in the traditional paper and folder format.
Where’s the Language Lab? Issues in Developing and Managing a Multimedia Language Center
Samantha Earp and Rachel Saury
In this session the panelists will discuss the development and management of language centers to support technology-enhanced language learning and will provide resources for those who are interested in setting up or modernizing such a facility in their institution.
Teaching Variables as Predictors of Students’ E-mail Writing Strategies
Yu-Chih Sun
The current study aimed to identify students’ e-mail writing strategies and to examine, to what extent, the teaching variables influence the students’ use of e-mail writing strategies. A 50 item 5-point Likert scale self-report instrument, Strategy Inventory for E-mail Writing (SIEW), was derived to measure students’ e-mail writing strategies. Questionnaires for ESL teachers were also developed to identify selected teaching characteristics. The subjects were 16 ESL teachers and their 208 students in academic universities in the United States. The results of the study show that negative and significant difference was found between students’ use of communication strategies and some teaching variables.
2:30 – 3:15
The ALLE Project
Brian Gill
How can many more language instructors be brought into the CALL fold and encouraged to make use of technology in their regular teaching practice? This is the goal of the ALLE project, a provincially funded initiative in Alberta, Canada. This second progress report (the first was at FLEAT3 in 1997) will focus on the design and access of “didacticized” Web sites, the use of workshops and groups, and a very simple template system we have developed for producing Web-based activities.
A Computerized Progress Test of ESL Listening
Sha Balizet
While computers are often used for language learning, classroom tests are typically paper-and-pencil. Testing listening skill development by computer offers numerous advantages: superior audio quality, test-taker control of audio prompt timing, automatic test scoring, and more instruction time (since students can be tested in a computer lab). Despite these advantages, little research has examined computerized testing for classroom applications. This study compared computer and audiocassette/paper-and-pencil versions of a listening test. Data showed that intermediate ESL test-takers performed similarly in both modes. A survey of examinees and instructors found they were positive about the advantages of computer-delivered tests.
Protecting Students and Staff in Technological Environments
Fawn Whittaker
Students learning in a technologically-based setting should enjoy an unstressful, healthy environment. Such an environment includes 1) clearly marked, easily accessible, functioning resources, 2) an organized server and records backup system with effective viral protection, and 3) an environmentally unstressful technological environment for learning. Photographs are provided illustrating the difference between a “closed” versus an “open” environment. A list of preventative measures includes various backing up measures and viral protectors. Facts about adverse ELF and VLF fields, how to measure them, and how to protect the staff and students from adverse effects are included. Discussion follows!
Integrating Literature, Music and Web Quizzes in the Intermediate ESL Classroom
Lydia Froio
Literature and music can be motivating, challenging yet somewhat daunting to lower level language students. Technology and a variety of software programs can provide the needed support. This presentation will demonstrate how three programs, Language and Reading Companion (LaRC), Cantare and Netquiz, are used with ESL students in Quebec. LaRC is a multimedia program which includes audio, video, a glossary, comprehension questions and language study exercises. NetQuiz allows users to create multimedia quizzes for the web without the need for programming skills or knowledge of HTML. Cantare allows users to create language learning lessons using songs from compact discs.
Internet-based CALL–What Does It Take, and What Can It Do?
Sabine Siekmann
This presentation will address issues of feasibility of supplemental Internet-based CALL from both the instructor’s and the students’ point of view. I will demonstrate that the increased time demands on the designer/instructor are outweighed by access to unique information that could not have been obtained in the regular classroom. Establishing a learning environment in the target language, which encourages meaningful communication in that foreign language, has many benefits. Additional and specialized practice is made available to the students; however the computer does not and cannot replace the need for teacher involvement in the learning process even in Internet-based CALL.
3:30 – 4:15
Foreign Language Communications Technology at a Technical University: Setting up on a Shoestring
Bernice Nuhfer-Halten
This presentation is about using technology in foreign language instruction, including its advantages and disadvantages, problems and solutions (when possible), and plans for future additions. Also presented is a discussion of the implementation of the following modalities: e-mail; word processing in Spanish using Atajo, and in French using Système D; using the Internet for in-class activities and out-of-class assignments; SCOLA, international satellite television broadcasting; videotaping skits; audiotaping oral tests; commercially-prepared CD-ROM programs, including translators (Spanish Assistant and French Assistant) games (Triple Play Plus) and complete language instruction (Learn to Speak Spanish & Learn to Speak French); and others.
Language Learning Through Technical Interaction (The R.T.A. Project at UC Davis)
Dick Walters and Jacqueline Kaminski
All learning requires interaction. Remote Technical Assistance (RTA) enhances human interaction, live and asynchronous, multimedia, and platform independent through Internet links anywhere in the world. We will demonstrate this interactive tool and discuss its use in second language acquisition at the University of California, Davis. RTA permits multi-lingual dialog, annotated white-boarding, stored sound, collaborative writing, and sharing of internet URLs. All exchanges are archived for future research.
The Effect of Hypertext Glossing on Reading Comprehension and Reading Rate
Robert Larson
A study compared the effect of printed and hypertext glosses on reading rate and reading comprehension. It also investigated student attitudes toward using computers for L2 reading. Elementary college Latin students read four passages of prose–two using computerized texts and two using printed texts. The results indicated that 1) students read 17% faster using hypertext and 2) there was no significant difference in reading comprehension based on the type of gloss. Seventy-two percent of the students felt that the computer helped them read more efficiently by reducing the work needed to access supplementary information.
Computer-Mediated Communication for L2 Learning: Learners’ Interactional Strategies in Internet Relay Chat
Keiko Kitade
Studies of L2 classroom interaction suggest that cooperative and comprehensible interactions facilitate L2 learning. The nature of the L2 classroom environment with its less imposing contexts, however, has restricted the range of interaction that occurs among learners of the same proficiency level (Ellis, 1991). Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) may provide potential benefits for L2 learning because it provides a broader range of interactions, among NS-NNS and NNS-NNS with different levels of proficiency. CMC is, however, a newly invented variety of interaction and has unique linguistic and interactional features (e.g. Interactive text-based discourse and no turn taking competition) which are distinct from both written and oral interactions. Although CMC has some potential benefits for L2 learning and has spread remarkably as a new means of interaction, there is little work to date which examines the linguistic and interactional features of CMC. Such a study should contribute to our knowledge of how CMC can be applied to L2 learning. This study explores the L2 learners’ interactions in CMC qualitatively to clarify to what extent CMC is actually a useful device for L2 learning. This study examines how Japanese as a foreign language learners actually interact in Internet Chat (IC) and reports that L2 learners’ strategies in CMC take advantage of distinct linguistic and interactional features of IC. The results indicate that CMC provides potential benefits for L2 learning: facilitating comprehensible and contextualized interaction, learners’ self-correction, and a collaborative learning environment.
Computer Skills ESL Class: Integrating Language in Technology Class
Makoto Yoshii
This session will report on a seven-week, Computer Skills Class in an ESL setting. Students, novice at computers, learn different topics in English including basic functions of Windows, word processing, searching in the Internet, email, PowerPoint presentation. For a final project, students conduct research and make PowerPoint presentations, integrating all the skills acquired in the class. This session will look at the practical ways to integrate language learning in content-based, computer skills class. Included will be samples of PowerPoint presentations, findings from a survey of students about the class, the handout of the syllabus and the sample class activities.