CALICO 2002, University of California Davis
Creating Virtual Language Learning Communities
March 26-30, 2002
Hosted by
University of California, Davis
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Conference Presentations: Day One
March 28, 2002
10:00 – 10:45
The Effect of Gloss Lookup Behavior on Incidental Vocabulary Learning
Makoto Yoshii
A study (Yoshii, 2000) examined the effect of the glosses on incidental vocabulary learning using an Internet-based reading text. Three types of glosses were used for the investigation: text-only (L2), picture-only, and the combination of text and picture. The study revealed the superiority of the combination glosses. The current study re-examines the data including the lookup behavior as an important factor. The lookup behaviors were statistically controlled, and the data from the previous study were re-analyzed. This study also investigated whether there are any significant interactions between the lookup behaviors and other main variables (e.g., Group, Level, and Time).
Communicative Interaction in a Bilingual Chat Community: A Study of Intermediate ESL and Spanish Learners
Mark Darhower
Dorothy Moore
This presentation will share results of the study of a bilingual language learning chat community consisting of learners from a fourth semester ESL class in Puerto Rico (native Spanish speakers) and a third semester Spanish class in Pennsylvania (native English speakers). Groups of two to three learners from each class participated in weekly one-hour chat sessions, a half hour in English and half hour in Spanish. Principled discourse analysis will illustrate and explain some interactional characteristics of this online community, with a particular focus on the L1-L2 construction of meaning and the effects of variable task designs on chat room interaction.
Introducing a Distributed Learning Model for Ab Initio Language Learning: Online, Task-based, and Interactive
Mathias Schulze
Grit Liebscher
The model to be presented is used in on-line university as well as distance education credit courses for ab initio language learners. The web-based courses rely on a task-based model (T5) and offer students a variety of interactive learning objects. These are complemented by material from a traditional course- and workbook. Students are supported by an online study guide. This web-based guide uses information from the student model (which records prior learning achievements) to provide contextualized study help. We will discuss selected learning objects as well as study guide and student model.
Making the Move to SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model): How We Converted the Miguel Littín, Clandestino en Chile Web Site to SCORM Compliance
Ana Martinez-Lage
David Herren
SCORM is an emerging standard for the description and format of web-delivered eLearning. Designed to facilitate deployment of content using any Learning Management System (LMS), and with the 1.2 release of the standard, vendors of LMSs such as WebCT have announced work towards SCORM compliance. The “Miguel Littín, Clandestino en Chile” web site is used standalone by many Middlebury College students, but, for wider adoption and LMS deployment, it was decided that work should be done to ensure full SCORM compliance. This presentation will review the Littín project, highlight conversion challenges, and spotlight common issues with respect to SCORM compliance.
Gently Down the Stream
John Vitaglione
LARC’s web-gateway integrates pedagogy and educational technology to provide fast, easy access to digitally streamed authentic language materials for teaching and learning languages. The Digital Media Archive (DMA) is comprised of digital media relevant to language and cultural aspects of the selected language and topic. DMA application varies for different learners and their environments. Recommendations are furnished for adapting specific topical material to individual instructors’ lesson plans and teaching environments. This presentation reviews DMA’s dynamic database design (Ultradev/ColdFusion) for content submission and page building, digital media component design and production (Premiere, Cleaner 5), and interactive content controls (QuickTime “Chapters”).
Enhancing Nonnative Speech Through Synthesis
Garry Molholt
Lack of experience in using English stress, intonation, and rhythm often creates communication problems for nonnative speakers. Since these features carry signals indicating intended structural relationships and attitudes, native listeners may easily misperceive the intentions of nonnative speakers. The purpose of this study is to show which parameters need to be changed and how they can be changed through speech synthesis so that native perceptions better match nonnative intentions. Data consist of files collected in Taiwan utilizing the Kay Elemetrics Multi-Speech software. These files were then edited with WinPitch to enhance stress, intonation, and rhythm. To test the effectiveness of the synthesis, native speakers evaluated the intended structural relationships and attitudes of the utterances before and after the synthesis.
Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training: When Technology Meets Pedagogy
Ambra Neri
CALL systems are often described as impressive in their technological features but inadequate in their pedagogical features. Computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) in particular seems to be lagging behind most instructional applications of computer technology, in spite of the tremendous advantages it offers if compared to traditional classroom instruction, especially with the integration of automatic speech recognition. In this session, the presenter describes the pedagogical requirements that CAPT should meet and examines available CAPT systems in terms of their pedagogical and technological underpinnings. Finally, the presenter discusses the pedagogy-technology interface and suggest some recommendations for designing pedagogically sound CAPT that uses reliable technology.
One Step Backward, Two Steps Forward: Recovering Lost Ground by Using Internet-aware Software to Replace Lost Functionality
Dennie Hoopingarner
The loss of an audio console in Michigan State University’s Language Learning Center meant the loss of a valuable function: being able to record students’ voices for later evaluation. A software package developed at MSU recovers the recording function via internet-connected software. Since this method of collecting students’ voices does not require that the students all be in the language lab, the software creates a virtual data collection environment. Following a background of the project, the pedagogical and technical considerations behind the product will be presented, plus a demonstration of the software and discussion of initial impressions after implementation.
Testing German Pronunciation Using Oral Testing Software
Randall Jones
Using the Oral Testing Software developed by Jerry Larson at Brigham Young University, we have begun evaluating our students’ pronunciation in German 310 (German Phonetics and Pronunciation) on four occasions during the semester. The first time is a ‘pre-assessment’ and is administered during the first week of the semester. The next two times are administered as part of exams in the seventh and twelfth week of the semester. The fourth test is given during the last week as part of the final exam. The presentation will illustrate the design, administration, and evaluation of the German oral tests.
11:00 – 11:45
Linguistics Online: A Virtual Platform for (Language) Learning
Bernd Rüschoff
This presentation will describe the results of the LINGUISTICS ONLINE project, an on-going project financed by the German Ministry of Science, Research & Education. The project deals with the setting up of a platform for virtual classes in linguistics and applied linguistics, and is regarded by many as a model platform for virtual learning in a variety of fields including language learning. The platform is up and running, and trial classes are being evaluated at the moment. In the course of the presentation the principles of the set up will be discussed. In addition, first results of our research into student reactions and the effectiveness of virtual classrooms will be outlined.
Learners’ Behaviors in Computer-Based Structured Input Activities Elicited Through Tracking Technologies
Fenfang Hwu
A few studies which caution instructors that students may not be doing what the program designer or the instructor intend them to do in CALL also reveal that CALL was used peripherally in the instructions. Structured input activities delivered inside and outside the classroom through the computer have the advantages of learner-control and accessibility over those activities by the instructor in the classroom. Using the data generated from the access log of WebCT and RealServer, this study investigates students’ behaviors and performance in such an environment and how various input activities facilitate learning for each learner thus providing the instructor with the information for further instructional decisions.
BANZAI: A Web-based Intelligent Language Tutor
Noriko Nagata
The paper presents BANZAI, a new Japanese software package developed by the author. BANZAI employs artificial intelligence technology, “natural language processing” which enables the computer to actually read and correct an arbitrary sentence typed in by the learner. It is programmed in Java and runs on the web browser through the Internet. BANZAI is designed to develop learners’ grammatical and sentence production skills as well as to instill cultural knowledge about Japan. It accepts inputs in kana and kanji, incorporates Japanese sounds, and presents relevant photographic and graphical images of Japan and of everyday situations.
The Permanent Software Development Crisis
Sue E. K. Otto
James P. Pusack
Foreign language instructional software development is in a permanent state of crisis as a result of fundamental contradictions that exist among the following factors: 1) our continually rising expectations for instructional software, 2) the rapid pace of technological change, 3) the nature of language acquisition, 4) the availability of authentic materials and rights to use them, 5) the time span of typical curricular cycles, 6) the nature of textbook publishing, 7) local institutional structures, and 8) the resources available for investment in development. The presenters will engage session participants in a discussion exploring this thesis and possible remedies.
Authoring Online Multimedia Content with Divace
Randall S. Davis
This demonstration will focus on how Divace (Digital Interactive Audio Video Recorder), from Tandberg Educational, can be used to develop interactive, multimedia content for the Internet. The presenter will show how he has used Divace to develop materials for his own website, Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab (www.esl-lab.com). He will outline the technological and pedagogical rationale behind online materials and then demonstrate how to use Divace to develop such content.
NEXOS – Shared Learning and Collaboration Over the Web
Josef Hellebrandt
David Armstrong
This interactive session highlights NEXOS, a web language portal to support learning Spanish language and culture and to promote collaboration among teachers, students, and community members. The main goal of NEXOS is to promote learning exchanges through shared cultural information and resources. The key features of NEXOS include a database-driven platform and multiple communication and collaboration channels. The portal supports three types of resources within its databanks: images, audio/video, and general resources. NEXOS is designed for the sharing of a variety of resources among users and contributors around the globe, specifically for the education community.
A CD-ROM of Francophone Maghrebian Writers and Terrorism in Algeria
Robert Balas
Anne George
Our CD-ROM project is built around a QuickTime movie of an address by the Algerian writer, Assia Djebar, who addresses the inhumanity of terrorism and the responsibility of the writer in such a milieu. Her comments are reinforced by videotaped readings of the poets: Abdellatif Labi and Moncef Ghachem. Also included are selected passages from various works treating the War in Algeria including La Sale Guerre, Services spéciaux Algérie and Tazmamart Cellule 10, scenes from the Rwanda genocide, and clips from the movie La Bataille d’Algers. The object of our project is to demonstrate, while teaching the French language, that the problems of terrorism are not unknown internally in Arab countries and to present the ethical stance of certain francophone writers before such inhumane acts. The video and text portion of the CD-ROM are accompanied by various exercises. The program was created by “La Taupe” and “A travers la lumière.”
Learning Communities and Communication: Using Multimedia to Enhance Language and Interdisciplinary Development
Frances M. Sweeney
This presentation explores the connection between contemporary theories and practices of language instruction, language proficiency, and interdisciplinary study. We will review the notion of learning communities and how they can be introduced at different levels of language courses, via multimedia delivery and practice, to enhance interdisciplinary awareness. Beyond language development, such activities also promote critical and integrative thinking. Practical advice and steps for creating learning communities will be shared, from the perspective of the department and securing institutional support.
What’s in a Word? En Una Palabra CD-ROM: Presenting Definitions from Native Speakers to Think about Culture
Ana Perez-Girones
Emmanuel Paris-Bouvret
Designed to be delivered as a CD-ROM or in a networked environment, “En una palabra” consists of 150 digitized video segments showing 15 interviewees defining the same ten human concepts and institutions (e.g. family and freedom) in Spanish. Segments are accessible both by interviewee or topic and are enriched with glossary and multimedia annotations. “En una palabra” offers students at different levels of proficiency an opportunity to listen to authentic language used by native speakers to reflect on their cultural values. This provides a context to discuss the complexity of understanding culture and exposes students to their own cultural biases.
2:30 – 3:15
The Teacher’s Role in Tutorial CALL
Claire Bradin Siskin
CALL enthusiasts praise CALL for its effectiveness at freeing up the teacher’s time while simultaneously scoffing at the notion that computers might replace teachers. In this contradiction, teachers are being sent a mixed message. The presenter will argue that the relationship between tutorial CALL and the language teacher should be examined candidly. The attitudes of CALL practitioners with respect to tutorial CALL will be considered. The often cited “tutor versus tool” dichotomy may not serve us well, and alternative models will be discussed. Some suggestions will be made for defining the respective roles of computer and teacher more precisely.
LanguagePro Immersion Environments for Less Commonly Taught Languages and Specialized Applications
Michael Quinlan
LanguagePro is a high-functionality, simulation-style software environment for language learning and sustainment. Although centrally administered, the LanguagePro experience is delivered to each user by CD-ROM, client-server, or browser, as is most appropriate for each, making LanguagePro particularly suitable for distance learning and dispersed personnel applications. A special capability of LanguagePro is to rapidly and inexpensively create these powerful learning environments for less commonly taught languages or special purposes. Environments in Farsi, Spanish and Irish will be shown. The developer hopes in time to apply the technology to endangered languages as well as commercial applications.
Virtual Mini-Labs
Jörg Waltje
The Language Resource Center at Ohio University has begun to experiment with “Virtual Mini-Labs.” By sending laptops from an iBook-cart normally used for classroom instruction to rooms designated at certain times for certain languages, we personalize instruction for students and cater to differing learning styles. Faculty members and Teaching Assistants hold office hours in those virtual mini-labs and thus become available to tutor and proctor students who are working on a variety of assignments within a room designated as, for example, the “Spanish Lab” on certain afternoons. Students immensely benefit from more one-on-one tutoring, more opportunities for communication with an instructor and with other students, and more interactive multimedia exercises to reinforce grammatical forms and vocabulary with the help of the computers but also with a language specialist in close proximity. This presentation will describe the project and its results in more detail.
Monitoring Distance Training
Lise Desmarais
Distance training can be delivered through various formats and using different management systems. The Centre for Language Training of the Canadian Foreign Service Institute is monitoring closely the delivery of its distance training programs to insure quality. The monitoring applies to students doing assignments as well as to tutors delivering the training. In this presentation, I will describe the program structure and delivery format, as well as discuss techniques we use and the results of the monitoring process. Our research tends to demonstrate that close monitoring helps increase the participation rate and leads to the delivery of higher quality training. The research also shows that some students are better suited for distance learning than others and that some tutors are better suited than others for this type of training.
Innovative Language Learning: Acquiring a Second Language Using Auralog’s Tell Me More Pro
Peter A. Schultz
Brigitte Crull
This presentation highlights research conducted at Rice University on how learners acquire a second language using Auralog’s Tell Me More Pro. The areas investigated in this project include the language learning objectives defined by the instructors, the actual learning outcomes of the students and how they were measured, and the areas of second language acquisition that were enhanced by using Tell Me More Pro. The presentation includes an instructor of French at Rice who used Tell Me More Pro as a component of her intermediate French course, explaining her objectives for using the software.
Physical and Virtual Space for Web Enhanced Foreign Language Instruction
Ralf Borrmann
The presentation describes a project to create the physical and virtual space for web enhanced and computer assisted foreign language instruction in German in a high school setting. The featured classroom is equipped with a wireless network and laptop computers for the students. The web based environment allows synchronous and asynchronous communication and enables students and teachers to engage in projects and exchanges with the German speaking and studying community. Within the project research is underway on what impact the environment has on the instruction and its effects on the learners.
The Web: A Collaborative Editing Tool for Foreign Language Instruction
Fabienne Gérard
Claudia Griesing
The two presenters will share with the audience their experience in developing collaboratively and implementing a whole year online course for their French Intermediate High students (High School). The topics that will be discussed in this session are: issues relating to the curriculum, didactical coherence and progression, methodological approaches, the editing process, and an evaluation of the students’ progress as well as their reactions to the material.
Food for Thought: Real and Virtual Potluck Parties
Kathryn Murphy-Judy
Last year I presented an incipient K-16 consortium to improve vertical and horizontal articulation. The result is FLEX, the Foreign Language Exchange, that includes monthly potluck food and lessons supported by a web site and e-mail. FLEX has already helped local schools in a recent adoption of iBooks. FLEX has also been approached by other localities as a model. I would like to offer a recipe to educators who are looking to promote real and virtual K-16 sharing of ideas, expertise, and resources with an eye to improving the entire spectrum of FLE in their area.
Increasing Meaningful Exposure, Maximizing Assessment, and Facilitating Evaluation in the High School Classroom Through the Use of Technology
Edwin Braun
This presentation will discuss several ways in which technology can be incorporated into the Advanced Placement High School LOTE Curriculum. Units of practice will be discussed that include the innovative and interactive use of software such as PowerPoint, Imovie, Inspiration, and web page design templates in all phases of the lesson cycle, as well as student comments that demonstrate the students’ reactions to the usefulness and efficacy of these tools. In addition to some specific examples of student work, there will be a brief discussion of how software such as the College Board’s Advanced Placement CD-ROM, BYU Oral Testing Software, Markin 32, and Atajo are being utilized to facilitate evaluation and maximize student progress while preparing for the Advanced Placement Exam.
3:30 – 4:15
Type or Drag, but Don’t Click: A Study on German Word Order
Trude Heift
This presentation reports on the comparative effects on learning outcomes and corrective behavior noted using three different CALL exercise types for German word order practice: typed-entry, drag-and-drop, and multiple-choice. Twenty-seven students of introductory German participated. For all exercise types students received error-specific feedback. Results indicate that students using the drag-and-drop interface performed significantly better than those using multiple choice, but only marginally better than the typed-entry group. The more flexible word-order practice afforded by the drag-and-drop interface in addition to other benefits such as eliminating typing errors and ease-of-use may argue in its favor.
Improving ESL Learners’ Computer-mediated Communication Skills by Reflecting on Their Discussions in a Virtual Learning Community
Carissa Young
The presenter describes the results of a study which investigated ESL learners’ behaviors when having discussions in a virtual learning community. The learners were asked to reflect upon their online discussions after the task. Results showed that reflection seemed to help these learners recall the strategies they used to solve their communication problems during the task. Also, with the assistance of computer tracking, these learners were aware of the development of arguments. Based on these results, the presenter suggests that reflection upon online discussions be used as a follow-up activity in computer-mediated communication tasks.
Teaching Practices with Videoconferencing
Emiko Nagatomo
Two experiments in Japanese and French on the pedagogical use of videoconferencing for advanced business students were conducted at the J.H Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies (the MBA-MA program at the Wharton school) and the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania. These projects were developed in collaboration with a university in Japan and a university in France. This presentation will discuss the processes and outcomes with regard to the utilization of this new technology for advanced language and culture instruction.
Integrating Technology into the Teaching of Culture
Ute S. Lahaie
Hajime Kumahata
Rasma Lazda-Cazers
Janet Norden
There are different technology tools that can be used in studying foreign cultures, in learning to communicate in a foreign language, and in making connections with speakers of the target language. Technology can also be an aid for making comparisons between US students’ language and culture and the language and culture of students at a partner institution abroad, or it can be used to help students to participate in communities around the world. The panelists will show different classroom projects that focus on the integration of the 5 Cs into the foreign language classroom, such as a chat classroom exchange with students in Japan, virtual tours to Germany, end-of-the-semester film projects, and the study of Spanish language and culture through digital video.
Student Experience with MPEG-Video CALL on a CD-ROM
Jay Bodine
This presentation is an interim logistics report on CD-ROM-based CALL with quality digitized video, helping students learn to generate correct contextual language (Intermediate German). CALL can now readily incorporate quality digitized video (MPEG on a CD-ROM). This allows exercises designed to practice the same kind of linguistic interactivity as in the classroom and students can practice and be corrected on their generation of real language. The presentation will focus on one video clip in German (also available for English, French, Italian, and Spanish). It will demonstrate a type of exercise that leads students through first mastering the vocabulary in the video clip and then using that vocabulary to interact linguistically in the context of the video. Some exercise techniques are: verification, video guide (true, false, multiple choice), “stop-frame” for confirmation of detail or asking students to assess what the characters are thinking, personalization, contradiction, anticipation of what comes next, reinvention of plot from specific points, hypothesis generation, etc.
Taming Unscripted Authentic Spanish with Gemini
Karen Schairer
The multimedia CD-ROM Matices provides Spanish students with authentic language and cultural experiences. Completed using the Gemini authoring system, Matices includes listening and reading comprehension, vocabulary building activities, and grammar practice that emerge directly from daily life filmed in Mayan Guatemala. Villagers demonstrate traditional ways of growing and harvesting coffee, preparing food, and weaving clothes and share memories of childhood, courtship, and marriage, and overcoming obstacles to achieve goals. Students select video segments by cultural and/or grammatical topic and may alternate between deliberate narrative or native speed. Insights and questions emerging from tracking student use of Matices will be shared.
Web DVD: Broadening the Horizon of Interactive Video
Harold H. Hendricks
Interactive laserdisc opened the door to using precise video sequences as discrete elements for instruction and assessment, and for years we made do with costly, add-on equipment, bulky players, and a variety of programming environments. The internet promises to seamlessly integrate all media together, but the pipeline is often constricted, and the legal issues are many. A computer DVD drive controlled by a web browser offers another possibility to the implementation of authentic video for both personal and classroom language instruction.
Conference Presentations: Day Two
March 29, 2002
8:00 – 8:45
Text-to-Speech: A Review of the State of the Art
Richard Kunst
We survey the current state of Text-to-Speech (TTS), especially as it applies to CALL with a review and demonstration of some popular TTS applications and a demonstration of TTS within the Win/WebCALIS system and a typical Web page. TTS, or synthesized speech, is the complement of Speech Recognition, or Speech-to-Text. It has the advantage over pre-recorded voice files in that it requires no storage whatsoever. What about bandwidth considerations? TTS has not been much used hitherto, either in CALL or in computing in general, perhaps because of concern over its mechanical, robot-like speech quality. How far have we advanced beyond that in 2002?
DLI Online Language Courses: A Unique Virtual Learning Community
Thomas S. Parry
Kawther Hakim
Wen-chiu Tu
Youngsook Kim
Kiril Boyadjieff
The Defense Language Institute’s twelve-week Arabic, Chinese, and Korean online courses represent a virtual language learning community for U.S. government linguists serving worldwide. Employing examples from the online courses, this session will describe methods of long-distance collaborative learning using customized asynchronous templates to facilitate interaction between and among students and teachers. In addition, the session will showcase synchronous activities for online conferencing tools featuring interactive small group work with teacher support and feedback enhanced by a variety of multimedia including audio, video, and target language keyboard input methods. To access the online courses, you must establish an account at www.lingnet.org and then visit onlinelearning.lingnet.org/default.htm
The Collaborative Classroom: Flexibility and Interactivity in Language Learning
Sébastien Dubreil
José Rodriguez
In an effort to rethink foreign language instruction, a Collaborative Classroom was designed and built. With informal banquette seating and moveable tables, students and faculty enjoy access to wireless laptops and digital projection from a variety of media sources (computer, multiformat VCR, CABLE television, document camera). This new, flexible learning environment allows instructors to adapt technology to their specific pedagogical approach with minimal constraints. From collaborative writing exercises to group web research and online courses, students engage in a wide variety of communicative and interactive activities. The Collaborative Classroom, teaching techniques, and feedback from faculty and students will be presented.
Proving IT Works
Jack Burston
This paper raises the question of how to go about assessing the effects of instructional technology on the foreign language curriculum. In dealing with this issue, I begin by giving due consideration to evaluating the effectiveness of learning outcomes. However, I also very much want to propose that we need to take a broader view of the assessment of IT, one which goes beyond its defensive justification and promotion. In particular, I argue that we need to move away from a technocentric assessment of IT to one which focuses on how IT contributes to realizing our pedagogical goals and objectives.
Dynamic Modalities Compared
María Victoria González Pagani
I will present findings from research on a descriptive Spanish Dynamic Grammar for the web which uses text, sound and animation as descriptive agents. First- and second-quarter first-year students at two University of California campuses were exposed to three descriptive modalities in a controlled environment (music alone, music and target language explanations, and music combined with native language explanations) and asked to perform certain linguistic operations on sample sentences after viewing the modules. The results show, surprisingly, that a remarkable amount of learning happens when explanation is not involved at all.
E-Business Japanese Program: The Best of Low- and High-technology
Keiko Kuriyama
Mark Ashwill
This paper presents a pilot language and cross-cultural training program called E-Business Japanese developed by the World Languages Institute at the State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo. E-Business Japanese utilizes Blackboard’s web-based course delivery system that is both multimedia and interactive. The program is designed specifically for business people who need and want to learn Japanese, but find it difficult to attend regular classes. This sixteen-week certificate program for beginning-level and intermediate-level learners uses an approach that encompass both on- and offline learning. The program features instructor-led workshops and weekly telephone tutorial hours, along with the online instruction.
Facilitating Students’ Self-Regulated Development within a Web-Based Learning Environment
Mei-Mei Chang
Web-based online learning continues to increase . However, research indicates that attrition rates become the problem of learning in cyberspace. Research suggests that EFL teachers should facilitate students taking charge of their own learning. Self-regulatory models of instruction focus on students’ use of specific processes to motivate and guide their learning. In this study, a web-based course web site was created. Except for course content, a discussion section was provided for students to interact with each other. Self-regulated activities such as self-monitoring were incorporated into the instruction to help students develop their self-regulated learning ability. Students benefit from the activities academically and motivationally.
Pedagogical and Technical Issues in a Business Chinese Simulation
Robert S. Hart
Hang Zhang
This paper describes Joint Venture in China, an attempt to address some of the pedagogical and technical problems encountered in using networked computer technology in a way which allows students to acquire business Chinese in the context of a realistic business task. Joint Venture is web-based, multimedia simulation courseware designed to provide experience with the language, practice, and culture of Chinese business. Students play the role of the Assistant Vice President of Development for VekTech, a (fictitious) American maker of computer peripherals seeking to establish a business presence in the People’s Republic of China.
9:00 – 9:45
Do You Get What You Want? A Powerful Content Selection Routine for CALL
Jozef Colpaert
Wilfried Decoo
More than 15 years ago (1986), we developed a content selection routine which we have been using ever since in our applications. This selection routine has continuously appeared to be very effective both for users and developers. It is formulated in terms of distinctive features and Boolean operators and can be translated into any programming language in a few minutes time. We will show how this routine can be used for sophisticated or user-adaptive menu systems, saving tailor-made lessons, adaptive language testing, adventure games and remedial units. Several examples will be given and implications for online development will be discussed.
A Scenistic Approach to Designing Personalized Second Language Learning Tracks: A Quality-based Method to Language Teaching
Michel Labour
Igor Crevits
Sylvie Merviel
Marie Escarabajal
Evaluating second language learning on the Web goes beyond the excellence of linguistic materials and support given to learners. Given this, we have used the “scenistic” approach (Leleu-Merviel, S. 1999. Le scénario multimédia, Hermès: Paris) for its capacity in scripting the possibilities of how students can use learning resources. The four-step approach (viz., diagesis, scenario, scenation, and scene setting) is illustrated through an action-research study based on a three-year contrastive study of 800 university students’ attitudes to teaching tools (e.g., multimedia and paper-based materials) in terms of self-reported learning styles, teaching/learning preferences, and entry language scores. The aim is to establish the implications for CALL communities.
Corpus Linguistics and the Design of CALL Materials
Ron Cowan
Doe Hyung Kim
Hannah Choi
This paper describes the intersection of corpus linguistics and CALL in instruction designed to improve L2 learners’ (university students) ability to edit first drafts of their compositions. Analysis of a large corpus of L2 learner compositions allows the identification of L1 transfer errors in sentence level grammar, which are then targeted in the program. DHTML and JScript together provide ways to enhance the interface of the instructional program while ASP with JScript connect the database to the program more efficiently. The program incorporates intelligent learner feedback of the type suggested by Chapelle (1998, 2000). Planned evaluation issues are discussed.
Hypertext, Reading Process, and Reading Comprehension in EFL: A Case Study
Chi-chuan Yang
Shih-Hsien Yang
Hui-chin Yeh
This study will discuss many reading processes such as interaction between readers and text, schema theory, linear and nonlinear reading, and content reading. The study will focus on how each participant’s reading habits affect the way he/she reads hypertext. This study will also pay attention to what strategies each participant uses while reading between printed text and hypertext. The interview results will be categorized from emerging themes. In addition, the pitfalls of hypertext will also be emphasized for classroom teachers to pay attention to.
Foreign Language Teacher Education and Technology: Bridging the Gap
Ali Moeller
Katya Koubek
This session will demonstrate a variety of products and processes designed to build competencies and confidence in preservice teachers to encourage the integration of technology into the language classroom. The interface between content and technology in the context of a foreign language education program will be highlighted. Examples of products and programs that illustrate how technology can enhance teaching practices and student learning will be demonstrated and discussed in the context of standards. Addressed will be how to bring preservice teachers to a deeper level of reflectivity and how to connect the language classroom to the community through technology applications.
Using Technology to Improve Listening Comprehension
Lathrop Johnson
Recent years have seen significant advances in our knowledge about the listening and comprehension processes in humans. When these advances are combined with new technological capabilities, it becomes possible to design a wide array of tools to help students improve their ability to understand spoken foreign language. After a short theoretical introduction, several flexible but simple tools using interactive audio and video will be demonstrated. These tools, built from everyday internet and standalone utilities, can be used by individual students, in small groups, or with an entire classroom, either singly to solve specific listening problems or in a coordinated suite to teach strategies for improving listening/viewing comprehension.
Multimodal Glossing and Incidental Vocabulary Learning in Spanish
Adam Karp
Although learners may acquire L2 vocabulary incidentally through extensive reading alone, unfamiliar words are better acquired after a single exposure when the learner has been drawn to notice form-meaning relationships such as through glossing. Which gloss type is best suited for achieving this effect is still unknown. Two theoretical approaches receiving much attention on this issue are the dual-coding effect–associated with multimedia glossing–and the inferring method–exemplified by multiple-choice glossing. This study investigates the effects that learner-level exerts on incidental vocabulary learning in light of current research on the use of multimedia and multiple-choice glosses in online reading tasks.
Chinese Multimedia Listening Exercises
Limin Zheng
The presentation demonstrates Chinese multimedia listening comprehension lessons that combine audio texts, images, and sound effects in the form of PowerPoint slide shows. The lessons also consist of web-based exercises that can give students instant feedback. The presentation discusses the pros and cons of multimedia listening exercises and the ways for the materials to be used in the classroom. In addition, it also touches upon a few general principles for teaching material development. Finally, it discusses briefly the innovative approach to the management of this multimedia project in the Chinese section at Foreign Service Institute.
Evaluating CALL: The Arabic Context
Mashael Al-Hamly
The presenter will demonstrate a survey of the existing Arabic multimedia software; evaluating their inherent features, skills covered, points of strength and weakness, as well as potential context of use.
10:00 – 10:45
No One Is an Island: Campus Computing and Language Resource Centers
Peter Liddell
Sharon Scinicariello
Ursula Williams
This panel discusses the changes in campus computing (course management tools, wireless access, online delivery) to come in the next five to seven years and their impact on Language Resource Centers. As universities adopt technology-fueled changes and provide more varied access to learning and materials, technology centers with a broad mandate, like LRCs, tend to be the most affected. Do LRCs differ from other campus support centers? (How?) Will they be affected by the changes? One example alone, the analog-to-digital transition, involves budget, staffing, pedagogy, faculty support. Will LRCs change from being content distributors to content producers?
Faculty Development Trends with Technology and Foreign Language Learning
Joel Goldfield
Faculty development with technology is one of the most idiosyncratic areas in higher education outside of teaching styles. Yet technology is one of the most common elements binding disparate divisions and disciplines. Studying the results of recent grants, workshops, IALLT surveys, and the content of local syllabi will put into microcontext trends in foreign language faculty development as observed at several institutions. Their macrocontext and the future of organizations like CALICO will be suggested by comparison with my analyses of approximately 10,000 technology-oriented job ads, focusing on the Chronicle of Higher Education (1997-2001) and the MLA’s Job Information List (1991-2001).
Optimizing Speech Recognition for Use by Learners of Less Commonly Taught Languages (Arabic)
Stephen LaRocca
John Morgan
Sherri Bellinger
Producing speech recognition systems for use by native speakers is relatively well understood, but more effort is needed to adapt these methods to the needs of language learners. The Center for Technology Enhanced Language Learning has studied techniques that optimize speech recognition for language instruction. Pioneering work by Stanford Research International, sponsored by the US Government, has shown there are several possible strategies for developing a system optimized for language instruction. Model development for different proficiency levels of Arabic speech has been carried out applying several model adaptation techniques. An Arabic exercise using the adapted model sets will be demonstrated.
L2 Reading Comprehension with CALL: A Decade of Data
Dorothy Chun
Great strides have been made during the last decade in the development of software for L2 reading and in research on how reading comprehension is facilitated with multimedia. In this paper, I compare longitudinal data of user behavior with CyberBuch (a CD-ROM for reading German) and netLearn (a web-based simulation). Learners today are shunning the multimedia glosses that were used to a greater extent in the mid-1990s and are going unabashedly for the simple translations of unknown words encountered while reading. The user behavior data and the results of reading comprehension tests suggest avenues for future research and software development.
Multimedia Online Testing with ExTemplate 2.0: Placement tests, Midterm, and Final Exams
Claire Bartlett
Raquel Gaytán
ExTemplate is a multimedia web-based authoring tool created at Rice. It enables instructors to develop exercises and tests even in languages using non-Roman characters. Students and instructors modify and access their records in a database. ExTemplate 1.0 has been used at Rice for two years and is currently required for 30 language classes. During the summer of 2001, ExTemplate 2.0 was implemented to administer our ACTFL-approved online placement tests, which include listening comprehension components. The demonstration will also include a new Wimba-enabled speaking component, which will be used for the 2002 placement tests. Instructor feedback and results will be discussed.
The Learners’ Experience in Technology-Enhanced Versus Traditional Elementary Spanish
Christine A. Coleman Young
Using WebCT as a course delivery system, students in a technology-enhanced elementary Spanish course were presented with a variety of modes of interactive learning tools for one fifteen-week semester. Students in a control group had no access to the CALL materials but were given an equivalent activity or task on the same day for the same amount of time in a more traditional format. An assessment of the pedagogical merits of CALL materials is based on the comparison of the performance of both groups of students on entrance and exit exams and on students’ assessment of the learning environment.
A Tale of Two Sites: Teaching Introduction to Literature in the Foreign Language Classroom Via Teleconferencing and Web-based Technology
Perla Sasson-Henry
Ana María Alfaro-Alexander
While the distance-learning discussion in our field focuses on language acquisition, literature courses can benefit from these technologies as well. This instructional model permits smaller foreign language programs to round out their offerings and tap into the specialized expertise of colleagues elsewhere. The presenters closed the gap between two Vermont state colleges by jointly offering a course in the fundamentals of literary analysis in Spanish through a variety of short stories, thus enabling the students to complete their minor in Spanish. They will share the steps they followed to prepare and teach this course, paying special attention to methodology, skills integration, and interaction between the students at the two sites.
Student Experiences in the Language Online Project
Kimmaree Murday
Eiko Ushida
As part of the continuing evaluation of the Language Online project at Carnegie Mellon University, student progress has been measured both quantitatively (in terms of language gain) and qualitatively. Our focus here is on the qualitative data, which includes individual and group interviews, reflective papers, journals, and course evaluations. We will present a portrait of the student experience in these online French and Spanish classes, including how students adjust to language learning in a new format and the strategies that may have influenced student success. These factors may provide important insights for the development and implementation of online language courses.
Teaching Intermediate Spanish Composition Online
Andrés Villagrá
This paper analyzes the effectiveness of using online instruction for foreign language education purposes. The study identifies the following features of the foreign language generated through the electronic medium: (a) foreign language instruction online, (b) variety of tools and language functions, (c) higher level of language accuracy, (d) video and audio components for the course, (e) more student-intiated interactions, and (f) real-time conference and e-phone. These observations were extracted from the presenter’s Spanish Composition Online Course during Spring 2001 and reflect on how to integrate electronic communication in the classroom in order to facilitate foreign language learning.
1:30 – 2:15
Developing a Collaborative Community
Debra Hoven
Proficiency in a second language and intercultural awareness are seen as important assets as we take an increasingly global perspective. In Australia, Indonesian is one of the priority languages, while in Indonesia, English is the most widely taught foreign language in schools and is compulsory for most secondary students. This presentation describes a developing project, Queensland Indonesia Proyek Internet (QUIPNet), designed to enhance the language proficiency and cultural awareness of students using computer-mediated exchanges. Ten schools in Indonesia and 15 schools in Queensland have been linked in this large-scale tandem e-learning project, after a preliminary year-long feasibility study.
Online Language Learning and Virtual Communities
Christophe Pralong
Tell Me More Online, by Auralog, is an interactive program based on speech recognition for learning languages on the Internet. The program covers all essential areas of language learning and includes tools for the teachers. The course is completed by a virtual community that can be used for virtual classes by bringing together students grouped by level or by language studied. In general terms, this site, combined with individual study and used within the structure of the tutored learning, is both a communication center, and the ideal place for users to find information and additional publications to enrich their software.
“Klass”: A Virtual Classroom Space and Task-Authoring System for Teachers of Russian
Ken Petersen
After developing a large corpus of standalone language modules, the development team at Russnet felt that it needed a way to let teachers better integrate the materials into their classes. What has emerged is “Klass.” Klass is a web-based virtual classroom environment and authoring system for Russian language learning activities. With this system, teachers can create a wide variety of interactive activities through a simple user interface. The activities are automatically tied into Russnet’s database-driven tracking system that allows teachers to review student scores, mistakes and writing samples and to search contributed material by content and grammar keywords.
Enhancing the Study of Literature with the Web: Two Collaborative Projects
Anne Green
Caroline Schaumann
Caroline Schaumann and Anne Green will present and discuss interactive web projects to enhance the literary texts “Der Vorleser” by Bernhard Schlink and “Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee” by Thomas Brussig. The “Vorleser” project, completed in Fall 2000 by advanced Middlebury students, was used in a Carnegie Mellon course in Fall 2001 and provided the model for the “Sonnenallee” web project. The “Sonnenallee” project, in turn, is being used and enhanced by Middlebury students in a similar course in Spring 2002. These projects explore possibilities of multi-institutional collaboration using the web and provide models for other languages.
Interaction, Interrelation and Autonomy in the Context of Computer-Assisted Learning and Distance Learning
Aline Germain-Rutherford
The French Masters Program of the University of Wisconsin offers a distance education Oral Proficiency course. The course design and the choice of the technological tools to conduct the course on line revolved around two main ideas: Tardif and Mukamura’s definition of teaching with an emphasis on human interactions and the constructivist conception of learning as an active process which builds knowledge through collaboration and reflective interactions among learners. We will discuss the use of computer-mediated communication tools and techniques implemented to allow the students and the teacher to develop stronger partnerships and interrelations in this distance language teaching/learning situation.
Getting the Most out of Technology in the Classroom
Yumiko Guajardo
This presentation addresses the pros and cons related to technology-assisted classroom instruction. The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) has developed technology-based teaching materials for various levels of several languages in which success has been derived from collaboration between classroom instructors and students. The effectiveness of the technology is heightened when it strongly supports classroom activities and curriculum as a whole. This presentation will demonstrate how particular online programs are used in relation to classroom activities, exams, and other means of assessment. It will also discuss the adaptation of word processing and online translation software in less commonly taught languages.
Accelerated Language Learning Online
Antonie Alm-Lequeux
Accelerated learning theory, derived from Lozanov’s Suggestopedia, developed in the 1950s. While widely applied for general learning contexts, accelerated learning techniques share common ground with modern language learning principles. Both recognize different learning styles, the nonlinear process of learning and the role of emotion (positive or negative). In this project I want to show that computers–traditionally seen as intruders in human interaction–can be used to complement a language course based on accelerated learning principles. The computer is also used to monitor and evaluate the learning outcomes of a six-week accelerated German beginners course.
Integrating CALL into Language Curricula
Antje Neuhoff
I would like to present results after one year of working on the project at the Centre for Languages and Cultures at Dresden University. The project has been developed to combine several schemes for maximum effect: (a) learning platform (adaptation of an existing platform to make it suitable for language learning), (b) language courses and materials (design of language courses and learning modules), (c) teacher training (a series of workshops called “media passport” for all teachers to develop competency for new technologies), and (d) learning materials (media database development with criteria specific to language learning).
Building Online Academic Communities: Analysis of an Online Discourse
Joan Keck Campbell
Iris Bork-Goldfield
How can online academic discourse create a nurturing learning environment in which students’ voices are heard and taken seriously and comments seen as building blocks for further discussion? What course mechanisms reinforce the interactions between instructors and students, students and content, and students and students? How can user interface contribute to this communication? The presenters will answer these questions based on their experience as authors and instructors of a successful online course. Furthermore, research has shown that online interaction can give insight into learner types. This knowledge leads to more effective online discourse and produces a marked carry-over effect in face-to-face instruction.
2:30 – 3:15
Student Motivation in Online Language Learning Environments
Jonathon Reinhardt
Barbara Kuczun Nelson
How do factors such as technological literacy level and reasons for learning foreign languages affect student motivation in online learning environments? How engaging are online foreign language learning activities compared to similar classroom activities? The presenters surveyed the users of a highly popular, noncommercial Spanish grammar exercises web site. An online survey was used to gather responses from some of the thousands of daily users of the site, and paper surveys were given to four control groups–students in university-level Spanish classes. The presenters will show the results of the survey and discuss implications for CALL instructional design.
Taking Language Instruction Online: Progress or Demise?
Klaus Brandl
The purpose of this presentation is to report the results of a research study that compared the learning outcomes of and students’ attitudes toward two different versions of an intensive Spanish language course. 298 students participated in the study. Subjects in the regular sections (control) met with their instructor five times per week. Subjects in online-integrated sections (experimental) experienced only two contact hours per week and completed learning materials autonomously online. The results revealed no significant differences between the control and experimental group on posttest and final. The surveys showed a strong preference in favor of the in-class learning environment.
Visual Displays of Tone for Learners of Chinese: A Teacher’s Perspective on Machine-Generated Feedback
Mark Francis
Christopher Pultz
The recent availability of speech-enabled courseware for learners of Chinese provides new opportunities for students to practice pronunciation and, more specifically, the proper use of tone. Lessons produced at US Military Academy at West Point and commercially available software produced by Auralog make use of graphical displays that compare pitch over time for student utterances and native examples. Faculty evaluation of these learning tools indicates considerable variability in the shape of the pitch patterns of acceptable utterances. Insights on the best use of these pronunciation tools will be presented along with a courseware demonstration.
Metacognition and L2 CALL
Ninette Cartes-Enríquez
Gonzalo Pérez-García
This longitudinal experimental research tries to explain the real importance of metacognition for students who learn/acquire English as L2. The general objective of this study was to develop L2 language acquisition in the intelligent class to gather information from three viewpoints (linguistic, cognitive, and metacognitive). The specific objectives were to develop critical thinking, to guide students in their metacognition, and to specify the samples’ progress in reading comprehension. After a recorded pretest and postest interview and the application of standardized tests, quantitative and qualitative results were obtained to compare groups and to differentiate the mean in independent samples in order to get the conclusions connected with the objectives.
Three Approaches to Creating Animated Grammar
Marmo Soemarmo
Brown (1994) points out four significant issues which language teachers should consider in determining how to teach grammar. These issues include: (a) determining whether the form should be presented inductively or deductively, (b) choosing to use technical or nontechnical language and grammatical explanations, (c) deciding to teach grammar in “grammar only” classes or integrating it into other language skills courses, and (d) providing explicit correction of errors or ignoring errors. Each of these issues can be built into Animated Grammar. This presentation will demonstrate three different tools to create animated texts, the basis for Animated Grammar: Authorware, DHTML, and Flash.
Chatting Around the World: Using Synchronous Oral Computer-mediated Communication to Connect Students and Classrooms
Shannon Sauro
Most of us are already familiar with Internet text-based chat programs that allow users to communicate with each other in real time. Less known are the free and widely available chat programs that allow synchronous oral communication. These types of applications provide new opportunities for the foreign language learner to use oral language to communicate in the L2 with native speakers or other learners. This presentation will introduce and demonstrate various free applications that permit synchronous voice-chat as well as discuss network oriented tasks suitable to this environment.
Multi-user Virtual Environments: Constructivist and Communicative Learning
Cindy Jorth
Lisa Mentz
With the rise of the Internet, the potential of e-mail, bulletin boards, object oriented multi-user domains (MOOs), and chat rooms was instantly recognized by language educators. Researchers continue to examine whether technologies affect learning and, if so, in what capacity. In particular, how have text-based, and now 3-D, multi-user virtual environments been incorporated into courses? What conclusions, both anecdotal and research-based, can be made? What are prospective design, implementation, and research directions? This survey examines the utilization of multi-user virtual environments in education (language learning in particular) and draws a connection between second language acquisition theory and constructivism.
Li Chastels de Savance: Combining Resources and Communication in a Virtual Environment
Sharon Scinicariello
The program Li Chastels de Savance ‘the Castle of Wisdom’ presents a virtual reality world created to organize multimedia resources for the teaching of French civilization. Learners use real-time audio to communicate with each other as they collaboratively explore the environment and complete learning activities. This presentation outlines the pedagogical and technical aspects of the virtual world’s construction. It focuses on the creation of the resource database and explains both how queries are linked to objects in the environment and why resources are represented as three-dimensional objects. Finally, participants will discuss how the environment can be used to teach other courses
Facing Real Problems in Virtual Communities
Yoko Koike
Hideko Shimizu
For several years, students in Japan and in the US have participated in a collaborative network-based Japanese language project in which each student was assigned as a member of a team consisting of students from different schools. Using synchronous and asynchronous communication, each team collaboratively created establishments in a cybertown. Vygotsky claimed that, in essence, communicational proficiency develops through socially meaningful interaction. Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective served as foundation of our project. Sharing this view, the participating instructors helped students create a virtual community. The instructors will discuss issues they faced and the implications these have for facilitating learning in cyberspace.
3:30 – 4:15
Web-based Chinese Placement Test
Alex Chapin
Yao Tao-chung
The Computer-Adaptive Test for Reading Chinese (CATRC) has been used at the Middlebury College Chinese School and elsewhere for many years and has proven to be a reliable indicator for reading proficiency in Chinese. The foreign languages instructional technology group at Middlebury College has developed a web version of this test that will be demonstrated in this presentation. The web version of the test can be set up to email test results as well as save these results into a web database. It can also limit any given user’s access to the test material through its user tracking interface.
SALUD: A Project to Integrate Language, Technology, Healthcare, and Distance Learning That Bridges the Gap Between Disciplines and Learning Sites
Julia Cardona Mack
An interdisciplinary group at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has designed an intermediate Spanish course, using DVD and web-based technology, for healthcare providers who work with immigrant populations. To serve intermediate students with different skill levels and learning styles and facilitate the practice of oral skills in a distance-learning format, we integrated video-based materials, audio email and web meetings, and also optimized tools for collaborative and independent learning. A showing and discussion of the pilot DVD will illustrate the innovations in pedagogy and technology developed for this course and the implications for distance learning and interdisciplinary courseware development.
Virtual Learning Environments and Communities of Practice: The CSU-Teleste Virtual Language Learning Lab Project (VLL)
Ronald Bergmann
Yoshiko Saito-Abbott
Yoko Pusavat
Ryu Kitajima
Wayne Stromberg
Cindy Jorth
Gus Leonard
Jeff Winters
The California State University (CSU) system-wide Virtual Language Learning (VLL) Project has the primary goal of building virtual learning communities in less commonly taught languages. The VLL-Japanese (VLL-J) Group includes professors and lab directors from four CSU campuses: Chico, Long Beach, Monterey Bay, and San Diego. VLL-J is (a) using “virtual language lab” software and traditional web-based technologies for course delivery and virtual community building, (b) developing course materials using a community of practice model, and (c) collaboratively teaching between the four campuses. This panel discussion will reveal the project processes and progression from the perspective of the professors, lab directors, and the administrative director.
Technology-enhanced Content-based Instruction in Spanish Phonetics and Phonology
Travis Bradley
This presentation discusses the ways in which technology enhanced two upper-division undergraduate courses on Spanish phonetics and phonology, both taught at a West Coast research university in 2001-2002. For many learners, these courses constitute an initial formal exposure to both linguistics and the Spanish sound system. Technology was employed in several ways: a course website, in-class multimedia-enhanced presentations, out-of-class asynchronous communication, and interactive web-based and CD-ROM resources. On a practical level, this presentation demonstrates how such technologies can effectively enhance content-based instruction in Spanish linguistics by providing concrete examples of what worked well in these courses and what did not.
Principles for Creating Online Language Learning Environments
Stephen Carey
Chronological sequences of graduate courses with live seminar and online bulletin board components were analyzed for reciprocal transference and scaffolding of second language between course modes to study refinements in creating virtual language learning communities. Each seminar, comprised of ESL and native speakers, also allowed a study of academic writing growth as well as virtual learning communities across native languages. Interviews showed progression in creating more closely knit communities in successive seminars with new students, thus demonstrating refined principles of virtual language learning environments. Discourse analysis and studies of recasts and idiom transfers showed advantages of online learning.
Psycholinguistics and CALL: Suggestions for Improved CALL Interactions
Lee Forester
Based on a psycholinguistic model of language processing presented at CALICO 2001, a set of CALL interactions will be proposed that seeks to improve on standard CALL activities by activating underutilized learner cognitive processes and strategies. Prototype interactions will be demonstrated, and initial findings from user testing will be presented and discussed. These results will hopefully contribute to ongoing research and discussion on effective human-computer interactions in both web-based and standalone CALL applications.
Computer-assisted Reading Strategy Instruction: An Empirical Study
Cindy Evans
I will discuss my ongoing research study on computer-assisted reading strategy instruction. My presentation will include an overview of the theoretical basis for the study and a demonstration of the reading strategy instructional modules I designed using the Libra authoring system. I will present results of a pilot study conducted with intermediate students of French and results I have from the ongoing implementation of the study.
A Web Site for All Seasons: Personally Tailored Language Learning Plans and Resources
Madeline Ehrman
Gerald Lampe
LangNet is a web site offering language resources, learning plans, and study strategies all personalized to user needs by such categories as learning situation (e.g., instructed or not), topics of interest, language proficiency level, and learning style. LangNet has begun with reading, at levels from beginning to distinguished. Users can self-assess for language proficiency and learning style and use the results to select lesson materials and learning strategy advice. Developed through Federal interagency cooperation, LangNet’s languages so far range from Spanish through Hindi to Chinese; more are planned. The presentation describes the program design and shows how it works.
Human-factors in Computing: The Influence of Multimodal Design on Long Term L2 Vocabulary Retention
Rod A. Farmer
Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) tools have been used with considerable success in second language acquisition. The success of graphic user interface design has been a major advance in the development of these learning tools, rendering applications more accessible and intuitive. However, few studies have provided empirical evidence as to the impact of CALL design on human factors, such as memory and language acquisition. In response, the present study investigates the impact of multimodal interaction on long-term word retention. We submit that multimodal CALL applications will lead to increased usability and greater long term second language vocabulary retention.
Conference Presentations: Day Three
March 30, 2002
8:00 – 8:45
The Effects of Focus-on-form Treatment on Fragile Morphosyntactic Features
Eugene Mogilevski
This paper describes an action research undertaken at Monash University in 1999-2000 on the basis of the data provided by 72 second year students. An evaluation of advanced level students’ writing in French (Mogilevski & Burston, 1999) demonstrated a disturbingly low morphosyntactic accuracy. A treatment based on the use of a computer grammar checker affected the individual distribution of errors but did not lead to any significant improvement of the group scores. Further research included the implementation and testing of strategies designed to promote error awareness and attention to feedback, and to improve the efficiency of student self-correction.
The Role of Computer-Delivered Input in Oral Production: Ramifications for Distance Learning
Theresa A. Antes
French students who simultaneously listened while reading computer-presented print materials showed development of overall speaking proficiency to a greater extent than those enrolled in the same courses who read the material only. Reading comprehension was not affected by the presence of the audio material. This study presents implications for distance learning: whenever possible, audio material should accompany print material because the combination allows students to build phoneme-grapheme representations more accurately than activities focusing on the two skills separately; focused comprehension activities can aid the development of oral proficiency in the long term.
Rich Content from Speech Transcriptions
Kathleen Egan
Rich content in foreign languages is available everyday from broadcast news. However, in most instances, the data is hard to capture in text format. Speech Recognition technology provides a unique, while errorful, quick access to the transcribed data synchronized with the audio. The demonstration will show an audio transcription capability in Arabic that allows learners to view the text and listen to the audio. Listening comprehension, translation and other language tasks can be created on the basis of the material. Searching for the right audio segment in a data set is usually a time consuming task, while, with Automated Speech Transcription, the data is easily searched resulting in the ability to access a variety of audio segments as quickly as searching for text. This technology has not yet been applied to language learning. The presentation will suggest ways of maximizing this capability.
The ViewPoints Digital Video Project of the Five Colleges of Ohio
Susan Carpenter Binkley
Lyudmila Portnova
In 1996 the Five Colleges of Ohio consortium received a grant from the Mellon Foundation to strengthen foreign language learning through the collaborative use of technology. Since then, language faculty from all five institutions and representing all languages taught at those institutions (Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Swahili, and Japanese) have worked together to create multimedia projects. The ViewPoints series, in which digital video of native speakers is a central feature for listening comprehension activities, has become the most significant endeavor. We will discuss the pedagogical benefits of ViewPoints from both the instructor and student perspective, and share the positive lessons learned from working collaboratively.
The Challenge of Learner Training for CALL
Philip Hubbard
Addressing both disk and web-based applications, this presentation argues for going beyond teaching students how to simply use technology to helping them understand why and when to use it for meeting specific language learning objectives. It identifies areas in which learners can acquire relevant skills and knowledge, including second language learning theory and practice, so that they can make informed decisions about how best to exploit language learning applications. Emphasizing pervasive and repeated learner training in place of one-time tutorials, it discusses problems with putting these principles into practice in the presenter’s own language courses and lessons learned from trying.
Judging the Quality of Student Participation in Online Courses
Chia-Huan Ho
The quality of students’ written responses in two online English grammar courses was examined in this study. Using Grice’s (1975) Cooperative Principles of Conversation, two English grammar courses taught by the same instructor in two semesters with different class sizes were analyzed to judge students’ online participation. Online discourse in these two classes was evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative methods on four criteria: quality, quantity, relatedness, and manner (Grice, 1975). Specifically, the study attempts to answer the following question: Compared to a larger class, did the students in a smaller online class have more and in-depth interaction with their classmates and the instructor? Results can inform the design and maintenance of effective virtual language learning communities.
Interaction, Communication and Language in ICT: Japanese EFL Students
Malcolm Field
Writers in Western societies have considered the changing nature of the individual, the school, and language use through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) (Adams, 1996; Tweddle, Adams, Clark, Scrimshaw, & Walton, 1997). The Japanese have been slow to implement ICT in education. This paper reports on a study that examined the influence of ICT on language of Japanese EFL students in CALL classes through web board and email interactions. The results often did not support the writer’s preconceived bias. Models that highlight the determinants of language use and communication, and models for the use of email and ICT are proposed.
Electronic Discussion in the Technical Communication Classroom
K. C. Lee
This study investigated the feedback of students in a technical communication module on the use of the discussion forum. Responses collected via a questionnaire and messages posted on the discussion forum were analyzed. Findings showed that students preferred, thus participated more in, face-to-face discussions. However, most agreed that there was more equal class participation, more time for them to think before they gave their feedback, and that they made more thoughtful and quality comments on the discussion forum. Interaction analysis, on the other hand, revealed that there was negotiation of meaning, sharing of information, and identifying of dissonance among ideas.
ESL Learners’ Self-efficacy and Language Anxiety in Computer-networked Interaction
Kyungsun Han
This study explores how interaction modes, that is, computer-networked mode versus face-to-face mode, affect ESL learners’ self-perception of efficacy in the English language and their language anxiety. Although a majority of studies have illustrated the advantageous features of computer-mediated class environments in language teaching and learning, little research has dealt with how learners are aware of their language skills distinct from what are the usual skills required in a regular language class and how these differences may relate to their language anxiety. In addition, I will focus on cultural differences in the self-efficacy and language anxiety expressed by students with different native languages.
9:00 – 9:45
The Use of Computerized DVD to Facilitate the Acquisition of Pragmatic Competence: Six Degrees of Comprehension
Barbara Lafford
Peter Lafford
After a brief theoretical introduction to the acquisition of pragmatic competence and factors necessary for successful textual comprehension, this presentation will explore ways in which DVD materials captured digitally on the computer can be used effectively in the language laboratory for individual/interactive work or in the classroom. Specifically, this six-point plan will focus on how this technology can help students rely on their prior knowledge to aid comprehension, raise their pragmatic consciousness, help them confirm/reject hypotheses about the L2 formed during the conversion of input to intake, and use application activities to utilize their newly acquired knowledge in communicative situations.
IN-VISION: Using Technology to Reach Out to the World
Marie Trayer
IN-VISION, a technology challenge grant which supports K-12 Spanish, uses exciting, innovative technology-based activities to enhance Spanish lessons in project schools. The presenters demonstrate the use of two-way video conferencing among schools as well as to Spain. IN-VISION students and teachers practice Spanish using web-based activities and streamed video. Technology Learning Centers on the web site provide students with integrated curriculum activities that are completely interactive. Audience members will receive clear directions on how to integrate these activities into their own classrooms. Handouts provided.
The Homo.Cyber Project: Practicing Contructionism on the Web
Christina Frei
Constructivist approaches to teaching and learning inform the syllabus of a fifth-semester conversation and composition course in which students created their own web page in connection with their readings of an authentic literary text (Max Frisch’s Homo faber). In collaborative group work, students created the contents for different components: biography, text analyses, historical background, geography, and didactications emphasizing integrated skills and discourse competence. For instance, students created listening (working with WIMBA software) and reading exercises, compiled essay and discussion questions, and created (with Hot Potatoes) vocabulary exercises. The student-initiated (created) web site, in turn, is incorporated in the fourth-semester syllabus, where students use the peer-generated information and comprehension checks for their understanding of an abridged version of Homo faber.
How Are They Doing? Assessing the Effectiveness of Web-based Instruction
Stephen Fleming
The University of Hawaii’s Web-based courses in advanced Chinese and Korean focus mostly on reading and writing. Communicative interaction in forums, ‘word banks,’ and ‘grammar clinics’ is essential to the courses. The text-based environment differs significantly from a traditional classroom as a locus for learning reading and writing skills. This session focuses on assessment of student satisfaction and evaluation of the effectiveness of the courses in meeting their targeted goals as reflected in a case study conducted during one semester’s Chinese course. Strategies for effective formative and summative course evaluation, as well as assessment of student achievement, will be addressed.
Internet-mediated Intercultural Communication and Foreign Language Learning
Steve Thorne
The Penn State Foreign Language Telecollaboration Project is a grant funded, multiyear research program. Through empirical analysis, we are assessing the effectiveness of telecollaborative intercultural pedagogy for foreign language learning in French, German, and Spanish. The telecollaboration sections are compared to conventional sections of the same course across the three languages. Our research focuses on the quantitative assessment of standardized pre/post tests (e.g., oral and written proficiency) as well as qualitative analysis of discourse properties (e.g., the development of syntactic complexity and morphological accuracy) in student produced texts. This presentation will report findings from our first and second year of operation.
Advanced Technology Training for Teaching Assistants: Phase II of a Training Program Developed at the University of Georgia
Inge DiBella
This presentation discusses the results of the second phase of a highly successful technology training program for German Teaching Assistants (TAs) begun in Spring 2001 (presented at CALICO 2001 in Orlando, FL). Phase II of this program involves the effective application of technological and pedagogical skills to original audio/visual productions. The presentation demonstrates how the use of higher-end instructional technologies considerably strengthens the pedagogical expertise of TAs as they are producing high quality learning modules for enhanced student learning. The presentation includes guidelines for offering specialized and advanced technology training to TAs in foreign language departments.
Competencies: Do We Need Any to Fully Integrate Technology in the Second Language Classroom?
Martine Peters
Technology has rapidly been changing the face of the classroom in the last decade. While many researchers have shown that technology plays an important role in the classroom, very few have examined the impact of these changes on teachers and their need for technological training. This paper will present data showing which competencies need to be developed in order to fully integrate technology in the second language classroom. With this knowledge, proper teacher training can be implemented and students will in turn benefit from more knowledgeable teachers.
Using WebCT in a TESL Teacher Preparation Course
Wei Zhu
Ruth Roux
This presentation discusses the integration of computer technology in TESL teacher preparation courses, focusing particularly on the impact of WebCT on the language development of and content acquisition by nonnative English speakers. The presentation reports a case study of a nonnative English speaker in a language testing class. The class met weekly in the traditional format, and WebCT was used to support learning and teaching. Data for the study were collected from different sources for the purpose of triangulation: questions and responses posted by students on the bulletin board, the students’ weekly journals, and student interviews and questionnaires.
10:00 – 10:45
Using Concept Maps for Modern Language Learning
Olaf Böhlke
María Mena-Böhlke
Concept mapping is a powerful visual learning tool that can be used by students to represent their knowledge, thinking, and understanding of a given topic. This presentation is an introduction to concept mapping with emphasis on its use for modern language instruction. A couple of software programs that facilitate the process of creating and modifying concept maps both online and standalone will be presented.
Using Computerized Oral Tests in an ESL Environment
Troy Cox
The Oral Testing Software (OTS) created at Brigham Young University (BYU) has been used at BYU’s English Language Center (ELC) since the fall of 2000. This presentation will focus on how the OTS is used in an ESL environment by examining the experiences and perceptions of students, teachers, and lab employees. It will also address technical issues in administering the OTS to students in a Macintosh Lab. It is hoped that the ELC’s experience with computerized oral testing software can address concerns that may arise for others trying to use similar programs.
Virtual Learning Communities in Foreign Language Classes: Linking Languages, Linking Cultures
Lara Lomicka
This presentation reports on a collaborative project between classes at three institutions: the University of South Carolina, The Pennsylvania State University, and the Lycée Paul Héroult. The project integrates various forms of CMC such as paired email correspondence, textual chat in small groups, and audio/visual communication via webcams. In addition to CMC, students make regular contributions to a collaborative web site, including photos, surveys, collages, reactions pieces, and personal creations. Specifically, I will (a) provide examples of collaborative activities, (b) discuss the implementation of computer-mediated communication, (c) provide a summary of student reactions and perceptions of their own language learning during the project, and (d) discuss the curricular challenges of such a project.
Investigating the Effects of L1 and L2 Glosses on Foreign Language Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Retention
Howard Hao-Jan
With the increased use of the authentic materials on the Web, reading from computer screens has become an important new skill for language learners. This study compared the effect of L1 and L2 glosses on EFL learners’ online reading comprehension and vocabulary retention. College EFL students were divided into three groups. Students in group one conducted reading without accessing any glosses, students in group two were allowed to use Chinese glosses, and those in group three were allowed to use English glosses. Students’ online reading behaviors were tracked and recorded in a SQL database. The performances of the three groups in reading comprehension and vocabulary tests were compared.
Speech-enabled Multimedia Lessons Using Several Authoring Systems: A Comparison
Johannes Vazulik
Jesus Aguirre
Tom Newman
During the past year, US Military Academy faculty members have developed speech-enabled multimedia Spanish lessons using WinCalis, GLAS, SRI’s EduSpeak, and MILT. The lessons were developed using a standard format which employed speech recognition technology in a multiple-choice question format with digital video and/or still pictures. The goal of this study was to determine which system yielded the most satisfactory results. This presentation includes a review of the project, a demonstration of the courseware, the findings of a cadet attitude survey, and a discussion.
Experiencing French Mass Media via WebCT
Courtenay Dodge
Sandrine Dincki
“Mass media and culture in the US and in France” is a new course aimed at developing an awareness of the constant interplay between mass media and culture. Students are asked to compare authentic French and US media material. WebCT is used as a virtual resources and communication center. Current, authentic, and constantly updated material is made available; our students interact with other students and with French native speakers to discuss and compare their views via online fora. Various WebCT activities will be presented and their design will be discussed.
An Activity Theoretic Perspective on L2 Motivation and Computer-mediated Communication: A Case Study
Eduardo Negueruela
This paper presents research addressing the complex relationships linking L2 motivation and the classroom use of computer-mediated communication (CMC). The analysis is based on an ethnographic interview with an American, intermediate level Spanish student who participated in a semester-long, intercultural CMC-based partnership with students in Spain (using chat, email, threaded discussion, and video conferencing). This project is theoretically aligned with Activity Theory (Leontev, 1978) and offers a framework for conceptualizing L2 motivation in relation to the cultural and interactional affordances provided by CMC. Findings from this case study will be presented and used to develop a project-based pedagogy enhanced by CMC.
Interpreting Cultural Data in the Classroom: Uses of Cultura Archives
Shoggy Waryn
The cross-cultural project CULTURA is predicated upon having two separate groups of students negotiate cultural understanding through the Web. However, the project can also be applied in “closed circuit” where students use and analyze the content of previous experiments to draw conclusions without the benefit of a “live” exchange. In this mode, while students do not experience a direct encounter with the other culture, they still have access to all the materials and methodologies. This presentation focuses on the pedagogy behind “closed circuit” uses of CULTURA and gives specific examples of various classroom practices.
Internet Relay Chat as a Space for Multidirectional Peer Support
Lawrence Williams
As part of research sponsored by Penn State’s Center for Language Acquisition, this semester-long project created new virtual language learning communities by grouping university students of French from three different levels (first, second, and third semester) in Internet Relay Chat rooms on a local server. Besides providing students with an environment having the potential for multidirectional peer support of different kinds, these learning spaces served as preparation for synchronous communication with francophones. Samples of chat logs as well as excerpts from interviews with students will be discussed, using sociocultural theory as an analytic framework.
11:00 – 11:45
Hitting the High-tech Wall in Web-based Environments
Barbara Lindsey
Kristina R. Sazaki
The language instructor who wishes to provide students with web-based activities that reinforce the dynamic, interactive classroom environment runs up against the high tech wall. Using the example of dependent word order in German, this presentation describes the impasse that divides communicative-based classroom practices from web-based technologies and suggests solutions requiring the commitment of administrators, publishers, and those in the ITS sector. Included are survey results of foreign language instructors who maintain web sites for their students, a review of German textbook web sites, and web sites which focus on dependent word order in German.
Webheads: Online Community Building Since 1998
Vance Stevens
Writing for Webheads is an ongoing “experiment in world friendship through online language learning” whose participants have been meeting weekly online for almost three years now. During that time, Webheads have experimented with numerous synchronous and web-based multimedia communications formats, and presented at several live and online conference venues. We will demonstrate our use of the latest synchronous communications technologies, including video and voice, while showing delegates around the Webheads community. The presenter will present from a remote location and convene members of the community entirely online for the demonstration.
NATALIA, a Touch of Subjectivity: From Authentic Materials to the Web Guides
Krystyna Wachowicz
The successful web-based approach to the so-called language sustainment process in the government language communities continues to be a topic of experimental research. This paper demonstrates and provides an analysis of the design features of two extensive web-based, interactive language programs for Russian and Serbian consisting respectively of 40 and 16 units. Based on the comparisons of the statistical data and several subsequent user questionnaires obtained by three separate government learning centers, the paper argues for a novel approach to creating online language learning communities. Using a network of web guides in addition to the online language instructors, the programs present an original, sociolinguistically viable approach to authentic materials and tasks.
Using Computer-assisted Classroom Discussion (CACD) as an Authentic Assessment Tool
Claudia Kost
Lisa Jurkowitz
Julian Heather
Foreign language classes today are generally replete with personalized, meaningful communicative tasks. Yet, assessment tools often do not require genuine communication. One means of bridging the gap between teaching and testing is to use computer-assisted classroom discussion (CACD) because it involves a two-way information exchange with immediate feedback and is purposeful, contextualized, and open-ended. The presenters of this session will report their findings in intermediate French and German language classes regarding the use of CACD to assess the students’ content knowledge, as well as their grammatical, discourse, sociolinguistic, and strategic competence.
Live Action English Interactive: TPR on a Computer!
Contee Seely
Larry Statan
Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
Robert Wachman
Elizabeth Kuizenga Romijn
The first Total Physical Response CD-ROM, Live Action English Interactive, is based on the classic TPR book Live Action English. It consists of 12 action series and a variety of engaging interactive activities based on each series. Using high quality video, digital sound, and still photographs, it includes grammar and dictation components. In one activity the user interacts with video by dragging objects directly to it. The video immediately responds with action and speech. Level: high beginning/low intermediate. Educational levels: second grade through university. The presenters, including the authors of the book, are members of the development team. See a demo online at www.speakware.com/laedemo.html
Foreign Language Composition and Computers: What’s Out There?
Cathy Barrette
Research indicates that foreign language students write better when they identify their audience, and, with the widespread use of technology, writers now have access to many audiences. For foreign language composition students, computers offer access to a broad virtual audience, but not all computer uses guide them to take advantage of that potential audience. This presentation evaluates three of those computer uses found in current composition textbooks: (a) computerized versions of in-text activities, (b) online expansion activities, and (c) a writing assistant. A critical evaluation of these materials forms the basis for a discussion of their effective use and potential improvements.
Collaboration in the Virtual Museum
Caroline Schaumann
J. Scott Payne
Aaron Coburn
This presentation will provide an overview of a collaborative German project initiated by five liberal arts colleges using the Virtual Museum, a portfolio-style, multimedia writing tool developed at the Center for Educational Technology at Middlebury College. Findings from a pilot study will also be reported, exploring L2 writing processes in a multimedia-enabled writing environment and the effects of peer feedback on collaborative online projects. Presenters will discuss the processes of L2 writing and collaboration in an online environment by showing various student-created exhibits. We will also explore further possibilities for multi-institutional collaboration in second language instruction.
Modeling Repetitions in the Utterances of Beginning Readers
James Salsman
About one in six of the sentences recorded in the Carnegie Mellon/LDC Kids Corpus of beginning readers involved some kind of repetition. Repetitions include stuttering, self-corrections, restarting, and other forms. Although most kinds of repetitions can confound nearly all automatic speech recognition systems, repetitions have not been studied in the literature, and they are not handled well by existing reading assessment systems. This presentation will describe an ongoing effort to characterize and model the disfluencies including repetitions made in the CMU/LDC Kids Corpus. General guidelines for modeling repetitions and correctly recognizing disfluencies will be suggested.