CALICO 2012, Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Preconference Workshops Information Available
Teaching Language Online: Preparation, Design, Experiences, and Resources
Overview Handout, Schedule of Activities Handout, Challenges Handout
Marlene Johnshoy and Frances Matos-Schultz
Jump to Day Two
Jump to Day Three
Conference Presentations Day One:
Thursday, June 14
Keynote Address
Greg Kessler
Collaboration, Ubiquitous Computing and the Future of Language Teaching
Greg Kessler is a Professor of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in the Department of Linguistics and Director of the Language Resource Center at Ohio University. He teaches CALL teacher preparation and research methods courses. His research addresses CALL teacher preparation, teacher and student language use in collaborative constructivist language learning, the role of students and teachers in innovative pedagogical contexts, student and teacher autonomy, and the relationship between technology and change in the English language. He has published widely in the area of CALL and has given invited talks around the world. He was the CALL IS chair for the teachers of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) from 2003-2004 and president of Ohio TESOL from 2007-2008. He is currently interim co-director CALICO and editor of the Action Research Column for Language Learning & Technology.
Session 1
10:00am – 10:45am
Rapport Management in Conversation Closings: L2 Socialization in Livemocha
Adrienne Gonzales, University of New Mexico
This presentation will report the results of a dissertation discussing seven longitudinal case studies of Spanish language learners’ participation in Livemocha. It will focus on the closings of these learners’ text-based synchronous conversations and the politeness strategies employed during their interactions in this environment. Using a conversation analytical approach to the data, this project seeks to reveal the evolution of learner politeness strategies over time, the effect of learner perception of this online community, and native speaker influence on language learners. This presentation will conclude with a discussion of the implications of this technology in classroom and independent language learning.
Telenovelas in the Classroom? Yo soy Betty, la fea as a Text for Intermediate Spanish Language and Culture
Harold Hendricks, Brigham Young University
Paul Sebastian, Brigham Young University
Mayavel Amado, Brigham Young University
Authentic language and culture is introduced to second year students through a pilot program at Brigham Young University using the popular telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea. Supporting content and classroom methodology for both a standard four-skills class and a conversation class will be described. The custom player used to create the playlists and then present the video and annotations will also be demonstrated and is of interest to others besides Spanish instructors.
Online Strategy Instruction for Teaching Knowledge of English Word Patterns as a Complex Cognitive Skill
Jim Ranalli, Iowa State University
This project involves the development of a CALL resource combining a novel goal with an innovative means of achieving it. The goal is to establish L2 learners’ knowledge of English word patterns (Hunston, Francis, & Manning, 1997) in the form of a complex cognitive skill, which integrates conceptual understanding with related text-analysis and dictionary referencing skills to facilitate self-directed use and learning of these common lexical features. The method of instruction is an automated, online form of strategy training that can be delivered outside of class time, facilitating self-paced learning with sufficient practice and feedback.
Open Language Learning: How it Should and Why it Won’t Work
Jozef Colpaert, University of Antwerp
Content development for language learning and teaching, especially for CALL (courseware), is far too labor-intensive. Language learners, teachers, CALL practitioners and researchers will agree that content should be more generic, reusable, authorable, exchangeable, portable, sustainable and … open. Educational software development on the other hand has seen the emergence of Open-Source systems such as Moodle, Big Blue Button, OpenSis and ExeLearning, which have gained momentum but have not completely broken through yet. In the same vein, recent content-related phenomena such as Open-Source Learning, Open Educational Resources, the Open Data movement and the Open Knowledge Foundation might offer more advantages than expected for the CALL community.
The Use of Blended Learning in an Intensive English Program Writing Course: Teacher and Student Perspectives
Jacob E. Larsen, Iowa State University
Blended Learning (BL) is becoming increasingly popular at colleges across the US for a variety of reasons. For example, it can improve learning outcomes, student motivation, and classroom dynamics. While research in the area of BL has found several student and teacher benefits, instructor training and support has been found to play a key role in the success of a BL environment. This presentation focuses on a study at a Midwestern university IEP which involved students and teachers from six ESL writing classes. Data on BL environment productiveness will be shared together with student and teacher perceptions and experiences.
An Irish Hybrid Language Program: Leveraging Technology to Meet Students’ Learning Outcomes in the Irish Language
Tara MacLeod, University of Notre Dame
Matthew Getze, University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, the only university in North America with a Department of Irish Language & Literature, faces specific pedagogical, cultural and linguistic challenges. This program responded to these challenges by identifying and assessing student needs while sustaining student sense of progress and improvement, while maintaining enrollment numbers. This paper emerges from an innovative experimental hybrid program at the University of Notre Dame. Developed in conjunction with the Department of Irish Language and Literature and the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures, this program modeled on the successful Rice program, bridges the traditional three-day instructional model at Notre Dame with independent structured learning. Using dubbing, cultural research, guided reading, photostory, Wimba and video recording, this approach encompasses a variety of approaches and techniques to expand the student’s engagement with the target culture and increase their contact time with the target language at a level and register appropriate to their respective levels. This presentation details the pre-planning and development of this hybrid program and charts the successes, failures and challenges encountered in administrating and teaching this model.
Session 2
11:00am – 11:20am
Noticing Implicit Corrective Feedback in Text-based SCMC: An Eye Tracking Study
Bryan Smith, Arizona State University
This paper investigates the effectiveness of corrective feedback in a text-based synchronous computer-mediated communication second language (L2) learning environment. Intermediate learners of German and Spanish interacted in an SCMC environment with their instructor on an essay revision task. Instructors provided implicit corrective feedback where it seemed natural to do so. Results indicate that learners fixate on about 72% of all recasts.
Effects of Video versus Audio Modes on Ratings of Learner Recordings
Betsy Lavolette, Michigan State University
Student-recorded video for speech evaluation is largely unexplored, leaving us uncertain whether teachers evaluate video and audio-only recordings differently. No data are available on whether webcam video recordings affect the validity of speaking tests. In this study, I examine teachers’ evaluations of speech recorded by two intact ESL classes to see if there are perceptual differences in the ways teachers evaluate speech presented with or without visual cues. I also explore learners’ and teachers’ perceptions of digital audio versus video recordings.
A Quasi-Synesthetic Approach to the Learning of Words and their Grammatical Features: Colors, Voices and Pictures
Victor Dias de Oliveira Santos, Iowa State University
Knowledge of lexical items is arguably the most essential part of communicating in a foreign language (Richards, 2000). Many studies have been conducted on ways of learning the meaning/translation of foreign words, including incidental learning of words in context, use of the keyword method and others. However, studies on the acquisition of the grammatical features of lexical items (be it gender, noun classes, conjugational paradigms of verbs, etc.) are unfortunately considerably fewer. In our study, we investigate if the learning of grammatical features concomitantly to meaning results in an increase in cognitive load and whether a semi-synesthetic approach to learning those features is more effective than the current standard approach. We make use of colors, voices and pictures and have found that these have different effects on the recall and retention of noun meaning and gender in German. This talk also addresses possible implications for materials development, language learning and CALL and will allow all those attending to partake in a simulated version of the experiment in real time.
Using Social Networking to Develop Pragmalinguistic Awareness in Elementary Korean
Jieun Ryu, University of Arizona
Jonathon Reinhardt, University of Arizona
This presentation is to report the results and implications of a study that used Social Networking Service(SNS) (Facebook) explicitly in classroom-based activities for developing elementary level Korean learners¡¯ functional and declarative awareness of pragmalinguistic knowledge. Using advanced organizers, learners conducted pragmalinguistic analyses of honorifics on selected Facebook comment threads posted by native speakers (NSs) with instructor¡¯s guidance. Using fake Facebook profiles, they then participated in extended task-based role plays, and analyzed their own production. The students also completed pre-and post-survey as well as pre-and post-tests.
Taming the Jungle of Formulaic Language for Learners: Applying StringNet Lexical Knowledgebase to EFL Academic Writing
Barry Lee Reynolds, National Central University
An implementation of StringNet lexical-grammatical knowledgebase (Wible & Tsao, 2011) is reported in which Taiwanese graduate students use the system to improve their academic English writing. A query of StringNet returns a ranked list of lexico-grammatical patterns where the queried word or word combination is typically used, ranging from frozen expressions to patterns with open slots. The system also gives error corrections for queries of full phrases or word strings (e.g., a query ‘in my point of view’ receives the suggestion ‘from my point of view’). StringNet’s functions and results of its use by graduate students for their academic writing are described.
TV Commercials as an Open-Textbook for Intercultural Co-investigation: Collaboration Between Learners of Different Languages
Minjung Park, University of Texas
Despite the recognized benefits of using TV commercials for promoting cultural understanding and critical thinking (McGee and Fujita, 2000), these pedagogical benefits do not go beyond the classroom in which a teacher, often linguistically and culturally more knowledgeable, delivers the meaning of commercial to students. I will discuss a new form of learner collaboration between ESL learners and American learners of Korean at the same university, who were paired up to critically investigate and discuss the cultural values embedded in commercials from both cultures. The presentation includes the potential of cross-cultural commercials as open-source instructional materials for intercultural education.
Session 3
11:30am – 11:50am
Integrating Collaborative Activities Using Wikis to Enhance College Students’ Writing in Learning Spanish
Daniel Castaneda, Kent State University
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using wikis to improve college students’ writing in Spanish. Sixty-seven students participated in the study for three consecutive semesters. Pre and posttests results show that collaborative wiki activities were helpful in improving their grammatical understanding; furthermore, students found collaborative writing through wiki useful and helpful for developing their writing skills and learning a second language.
The Form and Function of Questions in Chinese Language Learners’ Social Communication on Facebook
Shenggao Wang, University of South Florida
This presentation reports the findings of an empirical study on the form and function of questions used by intermediate-level Chinese language learners during their free communication on Facebook. Preliminary findings revealed that “Wh” questions dominated three major question types and students used significantly fewer alternative questions. During a conversation with a colleague about the communication styles in various online communities, we discussed insights from 안전 슬롯사이트 reviews that highlighted the importance of clear, purposeful interactions. In question functions, students primarily used questions for requesting information, which was predominantly recreational and phatic instead of transactional or negotiating meaning. Few questions were asked to request clarification, to make suggestions, and to request explanations. No students used rhetorical questions or questions for offering assessment or opinion.
Technology across Writing Tasks and Contexts
Greg Kessler, Ohio University
Ana Oskoz, UMBC
Idoia Elola, Texas Tech University
This session will provide an overview of the 2012 offering in the CALICO book series, which is focused on technology across writing tasks and contexts. By presenting the different sections of the publication — perspectives on theoretical and research based integration of technology within L2 writing; transformational relationships among diverse applications and their influence on tasks, writing processes and learning; and curricular and educational implications for courses integrating technology in L2 writing — the presenters will help underscore the relationship between investigation into L2 writing, SLA research and CALL informed pedagogy. The session will also address areas that need further investigation.
Practice as the Guiding Principle in Research and Teaching in Second Life
Stella K. Hadjistassou, Arizona State University
The paper examines the effort undertaken by a group of Applied Linguists and Engineers to devise interactive instructional material and propose a research project by taking into account some of the practical-theoretical constructs that determine teaching and student learning in such context. The aim of this paper is to address the following questions: (1) What are the guiding principles that contributed to the construction of the virtual island and the design of pedagogical material to meet the students’ and instructors’ needs? (2) What are some of the theoretical constructs that this group of researchers considered in this process? (3) In what ways did the group of educators and researchers utilize these practical-theoretical resources to build pedagogical material in this virtual setting?
Panel Presentation
2:00pm – 3:30pm
Designing Effective Hybrid Foreign Language Classes
Merica McNeil University of Arizona
Thom Thibeault Southern Illinois University
Christopher Jones Carnegie Mellon University
Helene Ossipov Arizona State University
Katie Angus University of Arizona
Hybrid courses can offer numerous advantages and are increasingly attractive to administrators, instructors, and students. How can foreign language program directors and instructors design effective hybrid classes that help students achieve course goals and objectives? This panel, comprised of experienced instructors, teacher educators, and developers of hybrid foreign language courses, will discuss the following: selection and implementation of appropriate tech tools, technical training and support for both teachers and students, as well as assessment and feedback practices. Other concerns such as student motivation, course level, and potential challenges of designing and teaching hybrid foreign language classes will also be addressed.
Session 4
2:00pm – 2:45pm
An Investigation on the Impact of Interactive Adventure Video Games
on Foreign Language Learning Based on Learners’ Perceptions
Hao-Jan Howard Chen, National Taiwan Normal University
Some researchers (e.g., Szynalski) suggested the potential of adventure games in language acquisition; however, few studies have investigated their impact on foreign language learning. Two highly interactive adventure games called Back to the Future and Puzzle Agent were adopted in this study. A group of 20 college EFL students in Taiwan were invited to play these adventure games for more than 10 hours and they were also asked to write a report. The analysis of their reports showed that students considered adventure games helpful in improving their language skills and learning motivation. Students also enjoyed the intriguing game design.
Exploring the Formation of Communities of Practice in a Web-based Social Networking Language Learning Environment
Meei-Ling Liaw, National Taichung University
This study examines the social interaction dynamics in a web-based language learning environment and how it fosters or impedes the formation of communities of practice. The crucial elements defined by Wenger (2007) in distinguishing a community of practice from other groups of communities were used to analyze the interactions between the participants and other users of the social networking language learning site. A questionnaire and stimulated recall interviews were also conducted to obtain L2 learners’ perspectives on the social elements of the site. Findings reveal supportive and collaborative learning within the context of a social networking learning environment. Factors that facilitated and inhibited shared practices are also identified.
Discover New Collaborative Methods of Virtual Language Learning to Increase Engagement and Retention
Gloryvee Cordero, SANS Inc./Sony Language Learning Technology
Learn how SANSSpace Virtual Language Learning Environment (VLLE) can engage students in language learning 24/7. SANSSpace™ VLLE virtually links language courses, content, and learning communities. The online digital comparative recorder is an essential tool to promote communication practice and reinforce skill development. See how synchronous and asynchronous tools encourage collaborative learning anywhere, anytime.
Second Language Phonology and Online Communities
Gillian Lord, University of Florida
Stasie Harrington, University of Wisconsin—Madison
This study examines second language phonological acquisition through podcasting. Participants from a college-level Spanish phonetics class carried out a series of audio recordings; the experimental group (n = 22) collaboratively created podcast channels to share, critique, and reflect on these recordings, while the control group (n = 18) only participated in self-evaluation. The first and last audio recordings were acoustically analyzed, focusing on traditionally problematic sounds for L2 learners of Spanish. The experimental group improved on all sounds, while the control group continued to show considerable variability. Results are discussed in terms of the role of community building in second language acquisition.
Overseas Skype Video Chat with Moodle Scheduler
Thomas Robb, Kyoto Sangyo University
This presentation will discuss various scenarios for using Skype or similar programs to facilitate language practice between our students and native (or fluent) speakers of the target language. We will discuss methods for finding target speakers, accommodating time zone differences, and considerations such as whether to hold sessions together in a CALL lab or individually outside of class. The presenter, having tried many permutations over the past few years, will finally present Moodle Scheduler, which appears to offer the best solution for scheduling in the presenters’ learning context. The audience is invited to share their own experiences, as well.
Session 5
3:00pm – 3:45pm
Where’s the Pedagogy in Web 2.0?
Betsy Lavolette, Michigan State University
Susan Pennestri, Georgetown University
With the proliferation of Web 2.0 tools, it is not only challenging to keep up, but it can also be overwhelming to figure out which tools are the most appropriate for meeting learning goals. This session will introduce an evolving resource for Web 2.0 tools for language learning and teaching that includes a wide range of free and freemium tools that can be easily searched and browsed by skill, type of collaboration possible, cognitive level (based on Bloom’s taxonomy) and limitations. Selected tools and their pedagogical uses for language teachers will be presented in detail.
Facilitating Online Peer Feedback in the L2 Writing Classroom
Richmond Dzekoe, Iowa State University
Shu Ju Diana Tai, Iowa State University
Research has documented positive effects of peer feedback on L2 writing (Hedgcock & Lefkowitz, 1992; Suzuki, 2008). However, the literature also indicates the need to facilitate peer feedback by blending multiple modes of communication (Warschauer, 2000), and to help students focus on providing more revision related comments (Lai, Zhao, & Li, 2005; Liang, 2010). This study investigated how six ESL learners used VoiceThread, an asynchronous multimedia platform, for online peer feedback. The findings show that the students provided more revision-related comments and benefited from multiple mode feedback in revising their drafts. Pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.
Using Second Life in Your Language Class: Designing a Hybrid Course
Maria Pares-Toral, Marquette University
This presentation will discuss a study on the effects of using the 3-D multi-user virtual environment Second Life on student motivation, academic achievement, and language proficiency in Intermediate Spanish courses. The presentation will focus on the logistics and the methodology used to design the hybrid course used in the study. An overview of the assessment tools and examples of activities completed in Second Life will also be provided. The presenter will also discuss the results of the study and suggestions for future courses using Second Life.
iPad Application and Assessment
Kathleen Mitchell, Oregon State University
(katie.mitchell2@oregonstate.edu)
Susan Beddes, Oregon State University
(susan.beddes@oregonstate.edu)
Erich White, Oregon State University
Although the benefits of some CALL activities are clear, bringing a class into the computer lab can be difficult and requiring students to bring their own technology to class can unfairly disadvantage some students. This session will present a 6-month trial of a classroom set of iPads in an Intensive English Language program. Participants will hear about six concrete lesson plans from subtitling videos to making interactive flashcards. They will also learn about the student, teacher and administrative perspectives on the benefits and drawbacks of using iPads in the classroom when compared to traditional computer labs. This information will help to demonstrate the possibilities the iPad presents and how/if the idea should be implemented on a larger scale.
The Acceso Project: Meeting Curricular Challenges put forth by the 2007 MLA Report through CALL Applications
Amy Rossomondo, University of Kansas
This presentation reports the progress of the Acceso project, an open-access, Web-based curriculum for intermediate-level Spanish studies that responds to MLA 2007 Report’s call to integrate the study of language, literature and culture at all levels of foreign language (FL) study. It begins with a description and concrete examples of how foundational FL study is approached through Web-based technologies that both provide access to the ever-evolving content of the curriculum and structure student interaction with the content. Representative examples of student work, along with students’ reflections on their own learning and experiences with this CALL curriculum are analyzed. Finally, future directions for the project are discussed, including opportunities for extra-institutional collaboration.
Panel Presentation
4:00pm – 5:30pm
Basic Lessons We’re Learning Online
Kathryn A. Murphy-Judy, Virginia Commonwealth University
This panel addresses lessons online basic language developers (Bonnie Youngs, CMU; Bob Godwin-Jones, VCU; Laura Franklin, NVCC; Betty Rose Facer, ODU; Ed Dixon, UPenn by distance; Edwige Simon, University of Colorado; and others) are learning from creating, teaching, administering, and revising college level, credit bearing first and second year courses. We consider: logistics; media; learner profiles (and selection) for success; and, teacher training, disposition and skill sets needed for online teaching.
Session 6
4:00pm – 4:45pm
Peer Observation of OER (Re-)Use
Anna Comas-Quinn, Open University
Tita Beaven, Open University
This paper describes how the principles of Peer Observation of Teaching have been adapted and extended to the context of working with Open Educational Resources in order to observe teachers as they select OER for their lessons. After the lesson, the observer provided feedback and both parties engaged in a conversation about OER. The project was an attempt to develop Peer Observation for a new context in order to make the teachers’ tacit knowledge and their reflection in and on action in the context of (re-)using OER more explicit.
Exploring Smartphone Applications for Effective Mobile-Assisted Language Learning
Heyoung Kim, Chung-Ang University
Yeonhee Kwon, Chung-Ang University
The widespread smartphone has brought millions of mobile applications to L2 learners, but discussion has not been settled yet regarding effectiveness of using the unproven language learning materials. This presentation broadens the discussion by reporting findings from in-depth review of 88 ESL mobile apps. This study first suggests evaluation criteria tailored to mobile-based ESL software. Next, the features and functions of the selected applications are analyzed in three categories: 1) content and design, 2)approaches, and 3) technology. Finally, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of current L2 learning apps and the future direction toward effective MALL. Examples are demonstrated by language skills.
Utilizing Web 2.0 Tools to Develop Second/Foreign Language Proficiency
PyongGag Ahn, Defense Language Institute
Web 2.0 refers to the emergence of a set of applications on the web which facilitate a more socially connected web where everyone can be a creator of content online. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, podcasts, photos, news feeds, etc. The benefit of utilizing these tools is to provide authentic contexts for communication and enhance social interaction and collaboration in language learning beyond classrooms. It also helps learners produce varied and creative language and exchange feedback to develop the target language proficiency.
“Wikis, and Vokis, and Blogs, Oh My!”: A K-16 Blackboard Language Resource Site for Language Learning Education
Frank Kruger-Robbins, Pine Crest Preparatory School
(fkruger-robbins@pinecrest.edu)
“Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore!” Come take a magical journey through Blackboard to see how juniors and seniors at a wireless school use wikis to create online newspapers, avatars to be downloaded to web pages, blogs to collaborate, digital story-telling, and much more! Task-based instruction has truly changed the way in which language learning is evolving. Participants of this session will receive a notebook of student project handouts, rubrics, and access to the presenter’s Blackboard courses, as well as a K-16 Blackboard Language Resource Site! After taking this magical trip, you will no longer be saying, “There’s no place like home.”
Telecollaboration for Professional Purposes: Towards Developing a Formal Register in the Foreign Language Classroom
- Joseph Cunningham, University of Kansas
This study reports on the development of a professional spoken register among learners of German as they participate in four synchronous web conferences with German-speaking professionals. The researcher investigated the effect of interaction combined with an instructional intervention focusing on pragmatic competence. The data reveal a positive effect on the strategic use of modal verbs for expressing polite requests as well as a moderate effect on learners’ use of the subjunctive mood to establish social distance. These results support the use of telecollaborative exchanges mediated by data-driven instruction and highlight the utility of a microgenetic approach to analyzing spoken data.
Preparing Language Teachers to Teach in Virtual Worlds: A Case Study
Karina Silva, Iowa State University
The increased interest in virtual worlds (VWs) such as Second Life (SL) has resulted in studies that show a potential for these environments for language learning. If teachers are to use VWs in their classes, understanding how VWs work, including their capabilities and limitations, will empower them to better integrate these environments into their teaching. This presentation reports on a case study aimed at investigating language teachers’ needs and the best ways to prepare them to teach in VWs. Suggestions for the preparation of language teachers will also be addressed.
Courseware Showcase Presentations, June 14
6:30pm – 8:00pm
FLAn Hypermedia Editor
Thom Thibeault, Southern Illinois University
FLAn (Foreign Language Annotator) is a hypermedia editor that allows language instructors to create hypermedia learning units for their students. Instructors can import text into FLAn and and then add relevant multimedia annotations to words or phrases. Students can then click on unfamiliar words in the text to gain understanding. Several learning units created with FLAn will be demonstrated in different languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other languages which use non-Latin writing systems. FLAn is available as a free download from redhotwords.com. For Macintosh and PC.
Adapting Moodle Reader to the Masses
Thomas Robb, Kyoto Sangyo University
MoodleReader, initially developed in 2009 as a means of checking the outside reading progress of students at a single school, has quickly been adopted by other schools around the world, with some 15,000 students currently registered on the moodlereader.org site. While the intended pedagogical aims of the software have been met, other aspects of software development such as funding for development, administration and server performance have not been able to keep pace. After a brief description and demonstration of the program, we will discuss these issues and our attempts to address them. The audience will be invited to share their own experiences.
Wow! It’s an OWL!
Claire Bradin Siskin, Excelsior College
The ESL Writing Online Workshop (ESL-WOW), an online multimedia program designed to guide non-native speakers of English through each stage of the writing process, will be demonstrated. Designed for community college students, ESL-WOW is a free Internet service designed to support individual writers as well as composition instruction.
Authoring with ANVILL: Getting Drupal and Flash to Cooperate
Jeff Magoto, University of Oregon
ANVILL is a web-based, speech-focused learning management system designed for language lesson authoring. It’s built with Drupal and Flash, taking advantage of the former’s great open source community, and leveraging the latter’s excellent A/V capabilities. But it’s far from a perfect marriage. For this showcase I’ll focus on the pros and cons of working with these two powerful tools in a language learning context, and demonstrate the kinds of tasks and lessons they enable teachers to create. ANVILL is a research project of the Yamada Language Center and the Center for Applied Second Language Studies at the University of Oregon.
The InGenio First Certificate in English Online Course & Tester
Antonio Martínez Sáez, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
Ana Gimeno, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
Ana Sevilla-Pavón, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
The authors of this proposal will present the recently completed InGenio FCE Online Course & Tester, consisting of a preparatory course and exam simulator for students intending to take the Cambridge First Certificate in English (FCE) examination or simply achieve an upper-intermediate level of English (a B2 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, 2001). The materials have been created within the framework of the multimedia courseware development carried out by the CAMILLE Research Group at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia in Spain. The authors will illustrate the courseware and describe some of its main features, structure, layout and selection of contents. They will also refer to the validation and assessment phases, which started last September.
Language Online at Carnegie Mellon University — 2012
Christopher Jones, Carnegie Mellon University
Marc Neil Siskin, Carnegie Mellon University
Bonnie Youngs, Carnegie Mellon University
Therese Tardio, Carnegie Mellon University
The latest updates in French Online will be available as well as information on other Language Online courses, including Arabic for Global Exchange (a culture and survival language mini-course) and the partial rewriting of Spanish Online (including video shot in Guadalajara in the summer of 2011) and its conversion to the Open Learning Initiative platform. The interface redesign for Fall 2012 will also be previewed.
The Use of an In-house Web App for ESL Academic Writing Class
Volker Hegelheimer, Iowa State University
Zhi Li, Iowa State University
Sylvester Upah, Iowa State University
In recent years, the development of Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) is further facilitated with a rapid growth in the ownership of internet-enabled mobile devices. In this courseware presentation, we will demonstrate the use of Mobile Grammar Clinic, a web-based mobile app of grammar practice, at Iowa State University as an outside class activity and a complement to formative assessment in ESL writing classes. Mobile Grammar Clinic features “fun-size” grammar practices, performance reports, individualized grammar reviews, and a mobile learning community. Preliminary analysis of the usability of this web-based mobile application will be reported and implications will be discussed.
Bookmarklets in Action: Using Bookmark Applets for Dictionary Lookups
Lathrop P. Johnson, Ball State University
Online dictionaries have gotten much better recently, but they are often not very easy to use. With bookmarklets and split-screen windows students get instant definitions which they can check against the second language text they are reading. The demonstration will show how easy it is to use bookmarklets for bilingual and monolingual online dictionaries in several different languages.
The Foreign Language TroubleShooters
with New Video Capabilities
Jay Bodine, Colorado State University
Stop by my station to get a look at the Foreign Language TroubleShooters with new video capabilities in new versions for the Macintosh OS X and later Windows operating systems. A secondary aspect includes using Microsoft’s (Macintosh’s) keyboard utilities for reconfiguring keyboards to allow for Foreign Language keyboards individually designed for North American typists. The demonstration can include not only the Microsoft utility, free to download, but then also four different keyboard configurations for German, French, Italian and Spanish that consist of variations of the U.S. keyboard, but with easy, normally one-stroke access or familiar two-stroke access capabilities for accents, umlauts, etc.; that is, on these particular individually designed keyboards, the general diacritical markings for the most common Western European languages are obtained through familiar foreign keyboard capabilities — but for the rest, the other more common U.S. keyboard layout is retained.
Conference Presentations Day Two:
Friday, June 15
Panel Presentation
8:00am – 9:30am
Designs and Discourses in Digital Game-mediated L2 Learning
Julie Sykes, University of New Mexico
Christopher S Hill, Ohio State University
Jonathon Reinhardt, University of Arizona
David Neville, Elon University
Digital game-mediated L2 learning entails a growing diversity of approaches and perspectives. For example, while research on game-enhanced learning may focus on L2 discourse in naturalistic, vernacular gaming environments, game-based research may examine the interactions of intentional pedagogical design and L2 learning. This panel session, sponsored by the CALICO Gaming SIG, will reflect these complementary approaches to research on game design and game-mediated discourse, and presentations will offer insights into how designs and discourses interact. Presentations will be followed by discussion and audience questions.
8:00am – 8:45am
What Predicts Language Learners’ Self-Regulated Use of Technology for Learning?
Chun Lai, University of Hong Kong
Previous literature has shown that language learners do embrace technology to self-regulate their learning process to create optimal and self-fulfilling language learning experience for themselves, and there is a great variation among learners. This study aims at unraveling the factors that predict language learner adoption of technology for learning. Around 300 foreign language learners will be surveyed on their current use of technology for language learning and potential predictors of learner technology use at both individual and social levels. Structural equation modeling will be used to analyze the survey responses to identify the significant predictors of language learner technology adoption for learning and to unravel the mediating relationships among the predictors.
Automated Formative Feedback Using the Online Diagnostic Assessment System (ODA)
Sun-Kwang Bae, DLIFLC
The Online Diagnostic Assessment (ODA) system offers foreign language learners a tool to evaluate and manage their language learning. Upon completion of the assessment modules, the ODA system furnishes learners with individualized feedback (or a diagnostic profile) on their performance strengths, and their weaknesses. Currently, ODA offers assessment of reading and listening in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Farsi, Spanish and Tagalog. ODA reading assessments are also available in Dari, Portuguese, French, Pashto and Urdu. Listening assessments are offered in Levantine and Iraqi Arabic. The presentation will discuss the ODA assessment structure and the methodology that produces the individualized feedback.
User Evaluation of FERN iCALL System with Learners of Spanish
Michael Walmsley, University of Waikato,
FERN is an iCALL system that assists language learners in locating and reading text that is tailored to their individual interests and ability. In addition, Fern automatically creates vocabulary review exercises that target words a learner finds difficult. Finally, the system provides motivating feedback of language learning progress. This presentation will demonstrate the system and report on positive results of a 12 week evaluation with 17 students in a second year university Spanish class. Analysis of system usage data demonstrate, among other things, that Fern’s functionality can be used to eliminate cheating from the extensive reading classroom.
User Tests in CALL: How Questionnaires Can Inform the Task Process and Outcome
Marie-Josee Hamel, University of Ottawa
(marie-josee.hamel@uottawa.ca)
Five questionnaires were distributed to learners (n = 17) before and after a user test conducted on a CALL dictionary prototype. The data collected shed light on some of the behaviours observed (through video screen capture) during the task process. One questionnaire revealed insights on how learners perceived the task, while another provided useful feedback about the prototype. Triangulation of empirical data on learner profile, performance, perception and preferences has enabled multi-angled, complementary perspectives on the learner-task-tool interaction, permitting a better understanding of the dictionary consultation process and also helping make further recommendations to improve our prototype.
Screencast Feedback on Writing: Comments Students Can See and Hear
Kathleen Mitchell, Oregon State University
(katie.mitchell2@oregonstate.edu)
Giving comprehensible, memorable, and thorough feedback on student writing can be difficult. This session will explore the effects of video feedback on student writing using screen-cast software. The software, compared to traditional written feedback, allows the teacher to give more thorough feedback and appeal to both visual and auditory learners. This session will show examples of screencast video feedback, which focused on global writing issues, such as strength of arguments and organization of body paragraphs. Participants will leave with an understanding of the effectiveness of this type of feedback on student uptake of feedback and possible drawbacks.
Students in the New Millennium: How Much do We Know about Them? Report on a Student Technology Survey
Jian Wu, Sourthern Connecticut State University
Although the existing research seems to have confirmed the belief that students in the new millennium are more technology savvy than their older counterparts, many specific questions remain unanswered. There are simple questions such as exactly how many students have cell phones and/or smart phones, how many students like technology and consider themselves good at technology, and what technology-related class activities are effective from the students’ perspectives. A survey was conducted in a college setting in order to answer some of these questions. 1047 language students participated in the survey. This presentation will report the findings of the survey, analyze the results and discuss the implications for language teaching and learning.
Session 8
9:00am – 9:45am
Connecting Language and Culture through Web 2.0: Students’ Perceptions and Preferences
Kelly Frances Davidson, Clemson University
Despite the growing trend in curriculum to represent the inherent connections between language and culture, designing a language course that successfully integrates these two areas can feel overwhelming. Technology can be a key component in the creation of projects that allow for full integration of both aspects in a variety of individualized classroom situations. This session will be structured for participants to explore how to use tools such as blogging and simple website design to integrate all skills with cultural learning in a seamless manner for individual curricula, while also examining a recent classroom study done in this area.
ESL Teacher Candidates’ Developing Technology-infused Culture Teaching Materials for ESL Learners
Derya Kulavuz-Onal, University of South Florida
How can we promote the creation and distribution of culture-integrated ESL materials that serve for intercultural competence in a way that also helps teachers’ confidence and ability in developing teaching materials by integrating technology and computers? In this presentation I will share a project that I implement in a graduate level course for future ESL teachers where they create their own technology-infused culture teaching materials for ESL learners by incorporating cultural practices and products from non-target cultures. Such a project helps develop their technological pedagogical content knowledge as well as their skills and confidence in developing materials by integrating technology.
Developing EFL Learners’ Communicative Ability in CALL Environments
Zhihong Lu, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
Ping Li, Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications
Teaching listening and speaking in English in China have been given top priority on the post-secondary level. How to develop learners’ communicative skills effectively in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) environments? The presenters will demonstrate a self-developed language skill training system with materials development, students’ actual usage, and collected research data.
Interaction Revisited: The Role of Learner’s Agency in Computerized SLA
Luis Cerezo, American University
Using an innovative computerized tutor, this study empirically investigates the role of learner’s agency in interaction. Results from 90 college students of L2 Spanish showed that the effects of practicing grammar vs. observing others’ practice are mediated by the type of feedback provided and the forms targeted, revealing implications for interactive learning materials development.
Language Center’s New Role in the E-Learning Era
Mingyu Sun, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
Michael Kramizeh, Michigan State University
In the past few years, with the rapid expanse of hybrid and online courses, our language centers have seen tremendous shifts in the ways they support language programs. This presentation will showcase how our language centers adopt new strategies to adjust to the needs of both language instructors and language students who live, teach, and learn within the digital explosion environment. We will discuss some of the challenges and our practices using the following perspectives: re-purposing the center space; using new tools to help manage the centers; fostering professional development; initiating research projects; collaboratively developing and implementing new curriculum.
How to Increase Mandarin Chinese Courses’ Outcome Predictability with Corpus Linguistics-derived Applications and Advances of the Information Age
Daniel Wang, DLIFLC
Recent advances in technology have added many valuable tools to foreign language teaching and second language acquisition. However, time-to-outcome and course outcome predictability continue to remain variable. This presentation draws upon research and experiences in a wide range of instructional settings to suggest several corpus linguistics-derived adaptations that, when woven into thematic units, can enhance Mandarin Chinese courses’ effectiveness and outcome predictability. This presentation also demonstrates how these design enhancements can interweave authentic materials in a natural progression through content areas and improve learners’ automaticity while reducing reliance on drills. Both synchronous and asynchronous adaptations will be discussed.
Session 9
10:00am – 10:20am
Fanfiction Practices in ESL Writing Classrooms
Sally Behrenwald
Despite the ever-growing popularity of fanfiction on the Internet and its appeal to English language learners, relatively little research has been done on the potential benefits of reading, writing, and reviewing fanfiction for students in ESL classrooms. This presentation gives an overview of the global development of fanfiction and prior research on the influence of fanfiction on literacy. I suggest that there are beneficial applications of fanfiction practices in an ESL classroom setting in terms of scaffolding, peer editing, collaborative writing, authentic language and cultural knowledge, motivation, and digital literacy. Suggestions for classroom implementation and future research are given.
The Use of Criterion by ESL Students: Useful Feedback Types and Students’ Revision Behavior
Volker Hegelheimer, Iowa State University
Aysel Saricaoglu, Iowa State University
Jooyoung Lee, Iowa State University
Automated writing evaluation (AWE) technologies have been involved in the teaching of writing since the 1960s. Most studies to date have focused on the reliability and validity of scoring systems (Dikli, 2006) rather than their pedagogical usefulness (Chen & Cheng, 2008; Chodorow, Gamon, & Tetreault, 2010). This study examines the use of Criterion by ESL students to determine what types of feedback are effective in improving writing and how much students rely on the feedback. In this semester-long study, we compare 15 students’ first and last drafts of four papers and conduct interviews to incorporate the students’ voice.
Handwriting Recognition: Untapped Technology for Intelligent Tutoring and SLA Research
Karen Price, Boston University
Specific hand movements involved in handwriting contribute to superior recognition and recall of new letters/words learned through writing as compared to typing on a keyboard, reading, viewing pictures or translating (Mangen & Velay, 2010). However, there is little awareness of handwriting’s significance. Controlling for working memory and task type, the author compared the use of a digital pen that writes on paper with an iPad and stylus, developing experimental software integrating real-time handwriting recognition functionality with audio prompts and audio feedback. This paper offers a thoughtful review of research to date, as well as the results of the author’s own study.
New Audiences, New Resources: Opening Up the Language Resource Center
Sharon Scinicariello, University of Richmond
Even as campuses increase their efforts to ‘internationalize’ their curricula and activities, both language programs and resource centers face elimination because they are not seen as essential. This presentation discusses how the combination of technological and instructional expertise found in LRCs enables them to meet the needs of faculty, students, and staff not served by traditional language programs. The presenter will discuss specific ways—e.g., designing attractive learning spaces, providing workshops on the effective use of authentic media—in which LRCs can ‘open up’ to these new audiences and support independent and discipline-based language learning.
Use of iPad Applications to Introduce English as a Foreign Languge to Young Turkish Learners
Senem Yildiz, Bogazici University
During this presentation, the process of designing and developing digital educational applications to introduce Turkish pre-school aged children with English as a foreign language through mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers and the preliminary findings of the investigation of the effectiveness of these applications on these learners’ language learning, specifically both receptive and expressive vocabulary acquisition, phonological awareness and listening comprehension skills will be discussed. Mobile devices, especially iPads are selected for this study as they provide an excellent platform for including activities that can activate both sides of the brain.
Session 10
10:30am – 10:50am
The Use of Code-switching in L2 Text, Audio and Video SCMC
Marta Gonzalez-Lloret, University of Hawai’i
This presentation explores the use of code-switching in three modes of synchronous computer-mediated communication—text, audio and video—among American students of Spanish and Spanish learners of English. Through Conversation Analysis, sequences including code-switching were explored to discover their function in the discourse. The different functions of code-switching as understood by the participants will be presented and the differences between of the modes of SCMC highlighted. Finally, pedagogical implications for the implementation of these three different modes of SCMC will be discussed.
The Effects of Blog-mediated Peer Feedback on Learners’ Motivation,
Collaboration, and Course Satisfaction in an L2 Writing Course
Haisen Zhang, University of International Business and Economics
This paper reported on a study of using blogs as out-of-class assignments for the development of learners’ writing competence. A mixed method design was employed to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. The results showed that blog-based peer feedback had a strong positive relationship with learners’ motivation, collaboration, and course satisfaction. The findings also revealed that the feedback was conducive to an enhanced L2 writing experience. The study concludes that group collaborative writing via blogging can not only encourage collaboration and self-reflection but also engage learners in noticing and peer construction of knowledge.
M-learning in the Language Classroom: A Year with the iPod Touch
Lara Lomicka, University of South Carolina
Lara Ducate, University of South Carolina
With the increase of mobile learning, students have access to course-related and authentic materials anywhere and anytime, both in and outside of class, and can participate in and communicate with virtual communities. In this session, we present findings from a year-long project in intermediate French and German classes using the iPod Touch in and out of class. Analysis of pre- and post- surveys and bi-monthly logs of how students used the device, overall reactions to the project, and potential pitfalls and challenges will be shared. We will also present a variety of tasks that were implemented and corresponding assessment rubrics.
If You Build It, Will They Use It?
Fuqiang Zhuo, University of California, Davis
The last decade has experienced the booming of course and learning management systems, but many foreign language instructors cannot take full advantage of the systems available including even the power of multimedia. This presenter will report the findings of which management system features are frequently used and neglected by examining online courses on a Moodle server, discussing the reasons and making suggestions to raise awareness of useful features, and improving implementation of modern instructional technologies so that teaching and learning can be more effective.
Perceptions and Preferences of Technology Use in a Third-Year French Class: A Case Study
Ruslan Suvorov, Iowa State University
This case study explored the student’s perceptions of technology use for learning French from the perspective of Activity Theory. Results indicated that a student had overall positive perceptions of technology suggested by the teacher, but needed explicit instructions on the purposes of using some types of technology for language learning.
Comparing Two Forms of Digital Feedback on Middle School Writing
Paige Ware, Southern Methodist University
Katy Walter, Southern Methodist University
This study examined the impact of two different forms of digital feedback on middle school student writing. A total of 82 students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: computer-generated feedback, human feedback delivered electronically, and a control group receiving face-to-face feedback. Students participated for 45 minutes daily for four days a week for six weeks. In a pre/post-test design, essay quality in the genre open-ended response was analyzed. Findings show a main effect for time for all three groups and an interaction effect such that the group in the human feedback delivered electronically showed statistically significant greater growth.
Session 11
1:30pm – 2:15pm
Teaching Technology Online: Challenges and Successes
Marlene Johnshoy, CARLA, University of Minnesota
Alyssa Ruesch, University of Minnesota
In the summer of 2011, we piloted a nine-week online professional development course on using social networking for second language learning. Arising from a need to provide an advanced technology workshop, the course facilitators wanted to create an active online learning experience that would provide longer term support. We will share the successes and challenges we encountered when offering this course for the first time, ranging from course development, to providing individualized feedback and responses. Based on participant feedback, this pilot course proved to be an inspirational experience for many professionals that will impact their language teaching approaches.
Does Instruction Kill the Game? Exploring Learners’ Perceptions of
Corrective Feedback in an Immersive Foreign Language Learning Game
Frederik Cornillie, K.U.Leuven campus Kortrijk
(frederik.cornillie@kuleuven-kulak.be)
This presentation reports on an experimental study which investigated learners’ perceptions of corrective feedback (CF) in an immersive educational game in relation with learner motivation. Feedback is a topic of focal attention in SLA and digital-game based learning, but is conceptualized quite differently across these fields, arguably because motivation plays a central role in game-based learning. Questionnaire and interview analyses revealed that students’ perceptions of CF in the game were positive generally, that explicit CF was found more useful than implicit CF and was also preferred, and that explicit CF correlated positively with constructs related to motivation.
Working Across Disciplines: Developing World Languages Courseware as Part of a Larger Enterprise
Lisa Frumkes, Apex Learning
At Apex Learning, World Language courses comprise just one small portion of the content that we develop for online learning by high school students. As the World Languages Curriculum Manager, I work alongside peers in English language arts, math, science, and social studies who are developing courseware too. Our projects intersect in surprising and interesting ways, and I often have the opportunity to share with them the lessons I’ve learned from CALL. In this presentation, I will share some of what we’ve learned together about developing online materials and show some of what we’ve created.
Scaling Up Automated Writing Evaluation for Learning
Elena Cotos, Iowa State University
Stephen Gilbert, Iowa State University
Stephanie Link, Iowa State University
Nandhini Ramaswamy, Iowa State University
Deepan Prabhu Babu, Iowa State University
The conceptual design of AWE programs needs to be revisited due to a number of limitations that are bound to affect AWE effectiveness with L2 learners. AWE applications should be grounded in theory so that their potential is exploited to the fullest and so that latent caveats are anticipated and prevented. This paper discusses a number of ways in which the design of a new AWE program, the Research Writing Tutor, enhances computerized writing assessment for learning purposes and scales up AWE technology.
Successful Use of CALL Software: An Investigation in Higher Education
Jinhee Choo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Ruth Yontz, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Norma I. Scagnoli, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This study explores the use and implementation of web-based software for language learning by international graduate students. With the overall goal of better understanding the effectiveness of CALL software in improving language communication, it investigates students’ use of a specific software application in an ESL course that teaches communication skills in business. The findings provide information related to students’ use of the software, their satisfaction, and learning outcomes. The research has implications for using CALL software in language teaching, suggesting principles that inform implementation and development.
Challenges in Building an Online Life-long Learning Sustainment/Enhancement Course
Michael L. Vezilich, Defense Language Institute
Iksoo Jeong, Defense Language Institute
The E-Mentor Instructional Component for the Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP) has been designed by the Air Force Culture and Language Center in conjunction with the Defense Language Institute to support junior officers and selected airmen with foreign language abilities and to foster these skills throughout their careers. Training is conducted utilizing broadband technologies by the School of Distance Learning at DLI. Because of the nature of the program with students located worldwide, LEAP presents some very unique aspects and challenges; e.g. online asynchronous self-study combined with synchronous e-mentoring as a blended virtual classroom teaching mode; student long-term commitment to the program over the life of their service career; and the integration of the target country’s culture and designated functional domains into the language study. This presentation introduces the program more in detail, discusses its unique opportunities and challenges that DLI has experienced during its pilot phase in FY11, and provides demonstration of the Sakai and Elluminate platforms as its instruction delivery tools.
Two Models for Integrating iPads
Suzan Stamper, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
Alexander Wrege, University of Toledo
What are effective strategies for integrating iPads into university language classes? What are the challenges and limitations? What are the infrastructural needs? This presentation will highlight the findings of two universities’ models for using iPads in English for Academic Purposes courses. In one model, each student and instructor had a personal iPad; in the other, each instructor had one personal iPad and access to a class set of iPads. The presenters will compare and contrast their experiences and research, including use case scenarios, faculty involvement, and student perceptions on engagement and learning.
Session 12
Panel Presentation
2:30pm – 4:00pm
Are We Engaged in Research and Creative Activity?
Helene Ossipov, Arizona State University
Thom Thibeault, Southern Illinois University
Frederik Cornillie, K.U.Leuven campus Kortrijk
(frederik.cornillie@kuleuven-kulak.be)
Faculty in language departments engage in “research and creative activities.” These are generally understood to mean the publication of books or articles in a field of study; included in creative activities can be literary works or even translations of literary or scholarly works. When coming up for tenure or sabbatical leave, one must show a fairly well-developed project or agenda of one of the above-mentioned activities. But what about developing courseware or pedagogical tools for teaching? We will examine the requirements and policies of our various institutions to see how our work fits in with their overall goals.
The State of Computer Games and Language Learning
Felix Kronenberg, Rhodes College
This paper addresses the current state of computer games in L2 learning and teaching. The medium offers many advantages, such as motivational aspects, agency, development of automaticity, authenticity, compelling narratives, multimodal input and output possibilities, as well as a reflection of many learners’ realities. I will discuss the various factors that have kept many educators from implementing this medium despite these advantages. Examples of computer game integration, offshore sports betting, scaffolding, language center integration, as well as financial, technical, and administrative solutions are discussed and an outlook of anticipated future developments and current related trends, such as gamification, will be presented as a conclusion of this paper.
The Effect of an Online Speed Reading Course on
Intermediate Level ESL Students’ Reading Speeds
John Haupt, Ohio University
The following study looked at the use of an online speed reading course, and its effect on L2 intermediate level ESL students’ reading speeds. The study was conducted over a 10 week period. Students were required to read two texts per week. Pre-tests and post-tests were conducted using three paper texts and three computer texts to determine the percent of increase in reading speeds. Results of this study could impact the use of online speed reading courses to increase L2 learners’ reading speeds. This presentation targets K-12 and higher education ESL instructors and program administrators.
Teachers’ Collaborative Wiki Ethnographies as Open-source for Intercultural Education: Digitizing Personalized Intercultural Experiences to an Open Textbook
Minjung Park, University of Texas at Austin
Jacques Hardy, University of Texas at Austin
To address teachers’ struggles in integrating culture into language curriculum, this paper proposes a new form of FL/SL educator online collaboration. We will present narrative accounts of our year-long experience of developing a two-tier online project, the Intercultural Collaborative Ethnography Project. We will illustrate how teacher professional development and intercultural competence can benefit from writing collaborative wiki ethnographies on everyday intercultural encounters. We will also demonstrate how such authentic intercultural dialogues between teachers, combined with multimedia activities, can be customized and incorporated into an ongoing ESL curriculum to serve as open-source instructional materials for intercultural education.
Transcending Cyber Space. Strategies for Decreasing Isolation and Distance
Marina Kostina
Connection online has been found to be one of the key elements of a successful distance learning course; as the lack of such connection can lead to isolation, frustration and even dropout from the online course (Berge, 1999; Hara & Kling, 2000; Northrup, 2002). This presentation focuses on the factors that contribute to students’ feelings of isolation and the techniques that are proven to promote students’ feelings of connectedness online. The session will conclude with the practical solutions and strategies that can help online language teachers to transcend cyber space and decrease the feeling of isolation in their students.
For an Open World: An Introduction to the
Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL)
Rachael Gilg, COERLL/University of Texas
COERLL is a new Title VI National Foreign Language Resource Center dedicated to producing and disseminating Open Educational Resources (OER) for language learning. Founded upon the belief that Open Education has the potential to transform language learning in the digital age, COERLL’s materials are freely available for anyone to use and share. Join us to learn more about COERLL and its projects, including: open courseware for less commonly taught languages (Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Portuguese, Yoruba); open corpora (Spanish); open language & assessment tools (textual annotation, frame-based lexicon, bilingual assessment, Spanish proficiency training); and open textbooks (Français interactif, Deutsch im Blick, Foreign Language Teaching Methods).
Session 13
3:30pm – 4:15pm
Creating a Collaborative Distance Learning Environment for
Sharing Less Commonly Taught Languages: Administrative, Technical, and Pedagogical Perspectives
Richard Feldman, Cornell University
Nelleke Van Deusen-Scholl, Yale University
(nelleke.vandeusen-scholl@yale.edu)
John Graves, Yale University
Chrissy Hosea, Yale University
Stephane Charitos, Columbia University
Bill Koulopoulos, Columbia University
Mona Momescu, Columbia University
Cornell, Yale, and Columbia are currently in the process of creating a collaborative framework for sharing less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) through videoconferencing and distance learning technology. In this presentation, we highlight the administrative, technological and pedagogical affordances and challenges that we encountered during the pilot phase of the project, which focused on sharing Romanian and Dutch. We plan to offer additional languages and more advanced courses, by fostering collaboration among programs. We will provide a detailed analysis of the broad range of issues that must be taken into consideration in developing a sustainable distance learning model.
Grammar Speakeasy: Make it Audio-Based!
Kate de la Fuente, Defense Language Institute
(kathryn.delafuente@dliflc.edu)
The Defense Language Institute must bring its military students to proficiency in speaking, reading and listening. The study of grammar necessarily involves all skills, especially when traditionally text-based. The computer, however, allows the teacher to emphasize the most-needed skills by drawing the grammar point not from the authentic texts used in the lesson but from the authentic audio clips. There follow the standard examples, exercises and reinforcement activities, but because they are audio-based, they give the student practice in listening and speaking as he learns the grammar. I will demonstrate this with examples from our post-Basic electronic Hindi curriculum.
Advancing Proficiency and Program Articulation: A Program-wide Case Study
Angelika Kraemer, Michigan State University
Senta Goertler, Michigan State University
This presentation discusses the results from a program-wide implementation of TELL ME MORE. The software was implemented and evaluated for four different purposes: (1) as a possible replacement for publisher-created workbooks in lower-level language courses; (2) as a mechanism to focus on language in upper-level content courses; (3) as a possible alternative for existing placement and exit exams; and (4) as a venue to address individual differences in language learning. Pilot testing suggested positive results, which prompted this large-scale study.
A Step Towards Digital Literacy for “Digital Natives”: Integrating Web 2.0 Tools into the First-Year Spanish Curriculum
Keah Cunningham, University of Kansas
Karen Acosta, University of Kansas
This presentation will describe the process of incorporating Web 2.0 tools into the first-year Spanish program at the University of Kansas. Through the use of these tools, students engage in transformed practice, one of the components of the multiliteracies framework. Furthermore, unlike traditional pencil-and-paper activities, technology-based activities increase digital literacy, a crucial skill for student success. We will showcase the tools utilized, evaluating them from both a pedagogical and technological viewpoint, and will also comment on our lessons learned.
Experiencing a Street in Vienna
Dan Soneson, University of Minnesota
The session will present a project which provides the virtual experience of walking up and down a street near the center of Vienna, Austria. The project involves thousands of photographs and many hours of video interviews, and provides an opportunity to traverse the street, enter shops, and listen to shop proprietors regarding their establishment and daily life. By exploring the street through hundreds of 360 degree panoramic photographs, users can experience visual culture and learn about contemporary living in the Austrian capital.
Conference Presentations Day Three:
Saturday, June 16
Panel Presentation
8:00am – 9:30am
Teacher Education SIG Presentations
Marlene Johnshoy CARLA, University of Minnesota
Mirjam Hauck Open University
Peter B Swanson Georgia State University
Melinda Dooly
This session features six presentations regarding teacher training to provide instruction online, cross-cultural mediators in telecollaboration 2.0, the differential effects of using Prezi or PowerPoint during second/foreign language instruction, the maximization of learners’ reading comprehension with teacher-created interactive texts, the exploration of the role of social presence in computer supported collaborative learning and teaching, and the INTENT project. Colleagues will be giving a series of mini presentation (between 5-10 minutes) so that there is more room for in depth discussion in the second half of the symposium.
8:00am – 8:45am
YouTube Channels as Open Language Learning Resources
Munassir Alhamami, University of Hawaii
YouTube videos have become a very helpful resource for language learners and teachers. In this presentation, the audience will explore the use of YouTube channels in education as a free resource for teaching and learning. This session will highlight the most important features to create successful language learning YouTube channels. In addition, it will present a comprehensive guide for using the available language learning YouTube videos in language learning classrooms.
Addressing Anxiety with Technology: The Application of Blogs to Better Understand Foreign Language Anxiety
Kyle Scholz, University of Waterloo
This paper bridges new insight in SLA and foreign language anxiety (FLA) with research in CALL on the use of blogs in language learning. I argue that blogs (Miceli et al., 2011) can be a tool to help learners better understand their anxious feelings about foreign language learning and use (Horwitz et al., 1986; Horwitz & Yan, 2009). Rather than theorize FLA as a situation-specific trait, I contend that anxiety must take into consideration the dynamic nature of the learner (Block, 2007). Blog postings allow learners to both discuss and share feelings of anxiety with one another. Although current blog research has examined the anxiety-reducing nature of the blog (Ducate & Lomicka, 2008), I aim to emphasize the complex role of the language learner.
Integrating Technology-enhanced Student Self-regulated Tasks into a University Chinese Language Course
Irene Shidong An, University of Sydney
This paper reports on the implementation of a semester-long task into a university lower intermediate Chinese language course. Web-based podcasting technology, ChinesePod was utilized to assist this implementation. The first part of this paper focuses on the task design informed by frameworks proposed in present literature. The second half of the paper presents and analyses data collected from an end-of-course questionnaire and semi-structured student interviews. The results reveal that the students differ in their perceptions of the same task and the ways they approach it. This in turn leads to a quality difference in their actual performance of the task. This study highlights the importance of careful task design, recognition of individual learning styles and constant rapport with students, especially when student self regulated tasks are implemented.
Educational Engineering as Research Method: Just an Ecological Paradigm Shift or a Copernican Revolution?
Jozef Colpaert, University of Antwerp
The main tenet of Educational Engineering (EE) is that the added value of a particular educational artifact is proportional to the extent to which it contributes to the creation of an optimal learning environment. EE does not focus on some inherent effect on learning emanating from a particular technology. EE defines the learning environment as a self-regulating system, a learning ecology, where more attention goes to the interplay between the components of the environment, the context and the rationale behind its design. In this presentation we will show why it is best to focus on the need for a particular technology within a well-designed learning environment, why Educational Engineering can be recognized as a research method, and how language teachers can transform their daily practice into research.
Session 15
9:00am – 9:45am
Accurate or Not Accurate – This is Not the Question!
Mat(hias) Schulze, University of Waterloo
Peter Wood, University of Saskatchewan
When it comes to linguistic accuracy of learner texts, the focus of ICALL has been on diagnosing individual errors. Our approach, however, is to score the level of accuracy of learner texts holistically. We will discuss how corpus data can be used to arrive at an accuracy measure that can be used together with measures for complexity and fluency to obtain a complex picture of individual learners’ proficiency and their second language development. We rely on a computational accuracy analysis to be able to analyze large learner corpora and to provide speedy contingent feedback in a VLE.
Enhancing Parallel Corpus Resources for CALL
Piet Desmet, KULAK
(piet.desmet@kuleuven-kortrijk.be)
Hans Paulussen, KU Leuven KULAK
(hans.paulussen@kuleuven-kortrijk.be)
Electronic text corpora have proved to be invaluable resources for language learning and teaching. Since text data are nowadays electronically available, basic structuring and exploitation has become an easy task. However, the real quality of text resources for DDL improves a lot when the corpora are further enhanced with linguistic annotations. Two levels of corpus structuring are required. The macro-level concerns the structuring of files and folders, whereas the real enhancement concerns the linguistic annotation (lemmatization and PoS tagging) at the micro-level. In order to make the data easily transferable for other applications, an open format (XML) is the appropriate packaging format. This talk will describe the different enhancement approaches possible for a parallel corpus, illustrated by samples from the DPC translation corpus used in the COBALT project.
Bridging the Gap: Bringing Interactivity to a Synchronous Distance Learning Class
Chrissy Hosea, Yale University
In 2011-2012, Yale University and Cornell University started offering a synchronous distance learning course in Dutch. This pilot course presented several challenges in terms of the technology used, course design, and pedagogy, which all had to be adapted to the new learning environment. Discussion will concern the process of implementing a series of classroom activities and technology solutions that preserve the effective interactive and communicative language learning approaches from the bricks and mortar classroom. We will also present the learners’ reactions to the distance learning context through the results of the student surveys.
Customizing Language-Learning Activities for Engineering Students via LADL
Gregory Aist, Iowa State University
Monica G. Richards, Iowa State University
Prakalp Sudhakar, Iowa State University
In order to support language learning in a wide range of languages and by learners with specific career or personal motivations, novel CALL tools and approaches are required that allow straightforward construction of language-learning activities by nontechnical people. LADL, the Learning Activity Description Language, provides a common framework including a streamlined programming language and an integrated development environment designed for use by non-programmers to enable the development of pedagogically sound interactive exercises. This presentation focuses on the use of LADL to develop language-learning activities for several test cases, including English for civil engineering students and French for engineering undergraduates.
Computer Mediated Communication Meets Social Media
Michael Bush, Brigham Young University
Technology today presents an impressive array of options for bringing the target language and culture to anyone interested in learning a second language. An examination of typical materials today, however, reveals that instruction is often based on the same technology used by the parents of today’s students: the textbook. Today’s “digital natives” thus face an approach to learning significantly different from the technological means they use in other aspects of their lives. This presentation will show how the power of story, computer-mediated communication, and social media can be combined to create a pedagogically sound language learning experience that students also find to be extremely engaging.
Session 16
10:00am – 10:45am
SLIC: Second Life as A Collaborative Tool For Graduate Teacher Training
and Developing Intercultural Communicative Competences
Anne-Laure Foucher, Université Blaise Pascal
(a-laure.foucher@univ.bpclermont.fr)
Aurelie Bayle, Université Blaise Pascal
Bonnie Youngs, Carnegie Mellon University
SLIC (Second Life InterCulturel) was a collaboration between undergraduate students of French at Carnegie Mellon University and Masters students of FLE using ICT from Université Blaise Pascal. The project’s intent was to extend the intercultural communicative competences of the undergraduates and of the graduate students as well as the teaching experiences of the latter using the synthetic world Second Life (SL). Students on both sides of the project collaborated in SL, where they were able to exchange cultural information on themes linked to the undergraduate course in asynchronous document exchanges via Moodle and during synchronous online meetings in SL.
CMC SIG Sponsored: Analyzing Multimodal CMC
Marta Gonzalez-Lloret, University of Hawai’i
Shannon Sauro, UT San Antonio
As technology evolves and the field of CMC research incorporates more multimodal communication, new issues in research start to surface: which are the best technologies to collect data, how do these impact the activities themselves, and how is data analysis transformed to accommodate and best represent the multimodality of data. This presentation, sponsored by the CMC SIG, brings together a panel of three CMC experts to discuss three new and innovative methods of CMC data collection and analysis from a broad spectrum of approaches.
Learner Interaction in Autonomous, Student-led Speaking Tasks via Synchronous Audiographic Conferencing
Joseph Hopkins, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
This paper reports on a study examining interaction of adult distance learners of EFL engaged in speaking tasks via a synchronous audiographic conferencing (SAC) tool. In light of previous findings regarding the teacher centeredness of the interaction in such environments, speaking tasks were designed to be carried out autonomously by learners in small groups, without the presence of the teacher. An in-depth analysis of 31 sessions was conducted to investigate the nature of learner collaboration and interaction. The main findings will be presented, along with implications for task design for SAC environments.
What’s So Epic About This Legend? Blending Technologies to Teach Language and Culture at Multiple Levels
Christopher Brown, San Diego State University – LARC
Evan Rubin, San Diego State University – LARC
Mana Mohtasham, San Diego State University – LARC
Written over 1,000 years ago by the Persian poet Ferdowsi, the ‘Tales of Shahnameh’ is an epic poem bursting with history, culture, and authentic language from the region known today as Iran. Due to the poetic style and complex language of this classic story, utilizing the Shahnameh in the Persian language classroom is a great challenge. By using the E-learning software Articulate, Quizmaker, BYKI, and Moodle, LARC is recreating one story of the Shahnameh epic, developing language practice tools, and comprehension activities for novice, intermediate, advanced and superior level Persian language learners.
LangBot: A Language Reference Agent for Language Learners
Scott Payne, Amherst College
Kelly Bilinski, UC Davis
Luiz Amaral, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Weijia Li, Amherst College
Aaron Coburn, Amherst College
LangBot is an innovative data-driven language learning and research tool freely available on instant messenger that logs learner behavior, self-report data, generates learner models, and tracks development of vocabulary and syntax while serving as an “intelligent” language reference agent in a conversational “wrapper.” In this presentation we will provide an update on this on-going project, including research findings to date.
A Collaborative Wikisite for Diagnosis of Spanish and English Word Stress
William McCartan, Seton Hall University
Wikinomics (Tapscott & Williams, 2006) introduced the word “prosumers” for the collaborative process whereby consumers participate in production. This session consists of an interactive presentation that includes a pb wikisite constructed for the purpose of diagnosis and instruction of word stress usage in Spanish and Standard American English and to allow for collaboration among users to develop the diagnostic process and instructional materials. The diagnostic procedure is based on inventories of word stress patterns derived from a 7,000 record Standard American English data base and a 1,500 record Spanish data base.
Designing Blended Language Learning Environments: Challenges, Pitfalls, and Successes
Sebastien Dubreil, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Rachel LaMance, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Blended language learning environments, when designed properly, enable a harmonious combination of face-to-face and online instructional formats, harnessing the best potentialities of both. Indeed, new instructional technologies afford learners and teachers a new set of pedagogical practices that, in addition to language skills, will help developing new skill sets. However, from conceptualization to implementation, the challenges and pitfalls are numerous. This presentation explores the process of moving to blended learning environments, taking into account research in CALL within the context of institutional constraints. It also discusses some of the successes and failures associated with implementation and gives examples of learners’ work.
Session 17
11:00am – 11:20am
Opening the Horizons: Young Language Learners and Telecollaborative Projects
Melinda Dooly, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Language teaching in today’s society highlights the need to redefine concepts such as literacy and communicative competence, not only in language education but across different fields of knowledge. Project-based learning (PBL) is becoming an increasingly popular and fruitful approach to achieving this unity. Project-based Language Learning (PBLL) –especially when combined with Web 2.0– is a powerful tool for enhancing the integrative development of linguistic, audiovisual and digital competences as well as the proficiencies linked to cross-disciplinary knowledge. This presentation discusses a research project (PADS: EDU2010-17859) aimed to explore the design, implementation and analysis of telecollaborative PBLL with young language learners.
Effectiveness of Using Moodle Glossary for Collaborative Vocabulary Building
Niamboue Bado, Ohio University
Vocabulary building is an important aspect of foreign language learning in the sense that it contributes to the development of fluency and reading comprehension. However, less effective techniques such as rote memorization and decontextualized mechanical drills have made vocabulary learning one of the most dreaded tasks for learners. Instructors have become aware of the problem and are taking advantage of technology to improve vocabulary learning. The present study draws insights from qualitative data collected from graduate students at a Midwestern University to argue that using Moodle Glossary for collaborative vocabulary learning improves learners’ understanding and attitudes towards French vocabulary learning.
Professional Development on Web 2.0 Technologies for Teachers of German: A Case Study
Carolina Bustamante, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
(bustamantemc@huskers.unl.edu)
The purpose of this session is to present a qualitative case study that describes a unique professional development program on Web 2.0 technologies for teachers of German using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework. The program was developed as an online class for teachers of German for grades 7-12 on integrating Web 2.0 tools into the language classroom, with the purpose of forming German teachers who are competent technology users and who understand foreign language pedagogy. The course aimed to improve the teachers’ proficiency in their second language as well.
Designing Error Correction Programs for L2 Writing
Jinhee Choo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sunny Lee, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
This paper describes a CALL program designed to address persistent writing errors made by Korean learners with advanced proficiency in English. We describe an experiment that demonstrated that the program enabled these L2 learners to identify and correct four types of persistent errors—determiners, quantifiers, passive constructions, and articles—on a post test and on a delayed post test five months later. We then discuss the elements in the program that support this result. Finally, we suggest how programs based on L2 error corpora can contribute to resolving some current issues in L2 acquisition.
Exploring the Usability of Holistic Scores in Automated Writing Evaluation
Volker Hegelheimer, Iowa State University
Yang Hye Jin, Iowa State University
Zhi Li, Iowa State University
Stephanie Link, Iowa State University
Hong Ma, Iowa State University
Recent years witnessed an increasing use of automated writing evaluation (AWE) in L2 writing classes (Warschauer & Grimes, 2008). Although the usefulness of AWE for improving students’ writing development has been broadly investigated (Wang & Brown, 2007), the influence of holistic scores on students’ revising process is under-explored. Contextualized in a Midwestern university, the present study aims to explore the usability of holistic scores generated by Criterion® in ESL writing classes and look into the relationship between teachers’ grading and AWE scoring. The implication of this study will be discussed regarding the potential of implementing AWE scoring in teachers’ final grading rubric.
Building an Online Community of Practice for Language Learning: The VidéoTech Project
Nandini Sarma, Carleton University
Helene Knoerr, University of Ottawa
This paper will describe the framework of a community of practice for language educators and report on the VidéoTech project for French language learning. Launched in 2011, VidéoTech was designed to provide teaching tools and collaborative space for FSL teachers. Based on questionnaires and data collected from the site, we will discuss user background, technology awareness, teacher beliefs and teaching practices in the context of VidéoTech and its associated tools.
Session 18
11:30am – 11:50am
Metacognitive Application of CALL to Improve L2 Pronunciation
Angel Anorga, University of Cincinnati Blue Ash
This session presents the implementation of digital voice recording through the utilization of CALL software to promote the improvement of L2 pronunciation. The results of a ten-week study are presented as a model of the application of CALL in the L2 classroom. The study describes how digital voice-recording, as a pedagogical tool, can be utilized to provide feedback to learners to facilitate the improvement of pronunciation in the target language. This session also explores how the utilization of digital voice-recording software allows promoting metacognitive practices among learners. Ten important reasons for the use of digital-voice recording will be presented.
Targeting Peer-response in an Intercultural Exchange on a Wiki Space
Linda Bradley, Chalmers University of Technology
This presentation discusses a case study where non-native English speaking students from six countries engage in an intercultural web-based exchange with native English speaking students in the US. The focus is investigating how students understand and recognize peer-response as a tool for text processing. The data consists of the students’ texts, comments and video-recorded interviews with their reflections. This combination of data makes it possible to follow the students’ reasoning about the feedback process at a very specific level. Results show that participating in a multifaceted intercultural web-based exchange is a vital experience for learners to develop their writing skills.
A Review of the Use of Script-based Tracking in Studies on Grammar Applications for Data Sharing
Fenfang Hwu, University of Cincinnati
Using script-based tracking to gain insights into the way students learn or process language information can be traced as far back as to the 1980s. Nevertheless, researchers continue to face challenges in collecting and studying this type of data. Accordingly, this paper reviews studies in which script-based tracking was used to record learning behaviors in grammar applications. The objective is to propose data sharing through data repositories as a way to ease the challenges that researchers face in collecting and studying this type of tracking data, increase the use of this type of data, and synthesize and enhance CALL research.
Web 2.0 for Language Learning: Benefits and Challenges for Educators
Tian Luo, Ohio University
This literature review study explores 16 empirical research studies that report on the integration of Web 2.0 tools into language learning and that evaluate the actual impact of using those Web 2.0 tools in language learning. In particular, this review aims to identify the theoretical underpinnings that are commonly used to frame the research, the methodologies and data analysis techniques that scholars employ to analyze their research data, the benefits and challenges scholars spotted in their research findings, and the implications in using Web 2.0 for language learning that scholars offer from their research.