1998 — Friday Sessions

CALICO 1998

Conference Presentations
Day Two: July 9, 1998

 

8:00 – 8:45 

Digitized (MPEG) Video with the Foreign Language TroubleShooters on a CD-ROM
Jay F. Bodine
This presentation focuses on the demonstration of a CD-ROM with digitized video and the German TroubleShooters. The program allows student interaction with the video and the video script according to the design of the individual courseware author. The program then leads students through the appropriate text based exercises of the course, which the author can readily create. The program compares student responses to the correct answers (according to word order and characters, with particular attention to accents, umlauts, etc.) and guides students to correct only those aspects of their response that are wrong. Authors can capture video clips with digitizing hardware/software packages and incorporate the clips into courseware with the TroubleShooters authoring system or with other graphics authoring systems.

Creating Intonation Lessons With SpeechLab Authoring Tool
Carolyn Fidelman
The SpeechLab Authoring Tool for the Macintosh enables teachers to create lessons in intonation for any language. Students hear a digital recording of native speech or see it via a connected videodisc player, see its graphic representation, and record their own voice for analysis and playback comparison.

Professional Development using Technology and Teacher Research
Ingrid Greenberg
Participants are introduced to the Online Action Research (OAR) Project, a national teacher research network and on-line database containing reports of teacher research projects. The presenter will discuss the benefits, successful practices, and challenges of using technology to implement teacher research projects.

The Role of Faculty Involvement in the Development of CALL Materials
Sheryl Coleman and Maurizio Oliva
This paper seeks to examine the role of faculty as they work with technical specialists to use emerging technologies for the instruction of foreign languages. Using the institutions of the Five Colleges of Ohio Consortium Foreign Language Technology Project (funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation) as a case study, the following issues will be discussed: (1) how involved must faculty be with technology? (2) should the role of faculty be only one of “content-provider?” (3) how do we encourage more faculty to become involved? (4) how are faculty to be recognized/rewarded for their contributions? (5) how do instructors combine the virtual classroom with the face-to-face one?

Taking New Directions on the Multimedia Highway
Marjorie Hall Haley and Kelly Luton
As foreign language teachers we must be able to design learning opportunities for students who are continuously surrounded by today’s multimedia technologies. The use of hypermedia for instructional purposes easily supports integration of a variety of media (text, sounds, graphics, animation and video) in a single learning activity. Hypermedia provides several advantages for language learning and instruction. The variety of media makes it natural to combine all four modalities (reading, writing, speaking, and listening) to be accessed at one time (Warschauer, 1996). Hypermedia authoring programs allow considerable flexibility for the teacher to create and customize activities using one’s own materials to best fit daily lesson plans, while addressing the needs of multiple learning styles. Multimedia technology can play a major role in language learning and instruction, provided that essential training, guidance, and support are given to teachers.

Simulated Conversations in Learn To Speak? The Wave Of The Future
Linda Leppig, Carine Peelaers, and Chauncey J. Mellor
We will demonstrate and provide hands-on practice with “Learn To Speak 7.0,” featuring The Learning Company’s newest computer software for practicing and assessing conversational skills with speech recognition and branching conversations. The conversations allow learners to answer according to their level of linguistic competence, to influence the course of a conversation by their answers, and to explore the many possible different outcomes. A carefully calibrated system of hints and pre-programmed responses make the simulated conversations an engaging and effective practice tool regardless of a learner’s level.


9:00 – 9:45

On Demand Generation of Individualised Language Learning Materials across the Internet
Andrew Lian
In a recent paper, A-P. Lian and A. B. Lian described a computer based environment for supporting exploration-driven, autonomous and individualised foreign/second language learning. This study argues for reducing the status given to the classroom as a place for collective, synchronised, and privileged learning in favour of the development of an environment which makes a genuine place for the differences between people and their unpredictable demands by accommodating their real needs. The present paper describes an attempt to implement the above environment which will be required not only to provide access to personally relevant authentic text, information, and “help” systems but also to generate exercises and other forms of learning materials. The paper will conclude with the demonstration of a proof-of-concept version of the system illustrating: (a) the selection of material for study from a database of authentic audiovisual resources, (b) the generation of learning materials, and (c) the distribution of these materials across the Internet.


Accent Reduction Via Acoustic Analysis
Garry Molholt
This demonstration will provide explanations of video taped examples of nonnative English speakers improving their accents through the use of bio-feedback provided by a Kay Elemetrics Visi-Pitch II 3300TM. Since recent enhancements of the technology allow almost real time displays of pitch and intensity, vowel frequencies, and spectrograms, all with immediate playback capabilities and split screen displays, teachers are able to communicate clearly and easily with students regarding patterns which detract from comprehensibility. The demonstration will include suggestions for working with students and integrating accent reduction with other topics such as language structure.


Expanding Teaching and Learning Opportunities through Technology
Lisa Frumkes
Technology can allow students to choose when, where, and what they learn, instead of forcing them into the teaching schedules, locations, and paradigms which are the norm today. If students are allowed to take independent study courses with instruction which meets their particular needs. At the same time, faculty members can teach courses in their specialties, since they now have the opportunity to teach students at institutions other than their own. This paper will examine these ideas and propose some strategies for implementing them.

Using Speech Recognition in CALL
Farzad Ehsani, Jim Meador, Kathleen Egan, and Steve Stokowski
While the use of speech recognition in computer aided language education has steadily increased, few systematic studies of recognition as well as the pedagogical design of these systems have been undertaken. This presentation describes our latest development of Subarashii, a system that uses speech recognition to offer computer based exercises in Japanese. Building the original system identified strengths and limitations of ASR technology and showed us some novel methods in the development of additional material. Based on our experience and testing of the system, we discuss the improvements as well as the results that we obtained in the field.

Learning How To Learn With Technology
Helen Ulitsky and Carla Meskill
Research in the use of technologies strongly indicates that students who possess and exercise effective learning strategies benefit most from independent on-line language learning. This multimedia based study involved a longitudinal self-reporting/self-access approach. Participants in this language learning experience, namely learners of Spanish at various levels of proficiency, kept detailed accounts of the language learning strategies they used. The optimal strategies learners employed and the patterns of their strategies use will be presented. Implications for integrating strategies training in language learning will be discussed.


10:00 – 10:45

A Computer Based Reading Program for Studying Vocabulary Growth in Advanced L2 Learners of Spanish
Adam Karp
The purpose of this presentation is twofold. The first is to provide a rationale for studying the effects that lexical input modifications (e.g., textual glosses, multiple-choice glosses, multimedia cues, and computer-mediated tasks), which involve varying degrees of cognitive processing and interaction, have on the growth of L2 vocabulary knowledge through reading. The second is to demonstrate a computer based reading program for advanced Spanish students designed to moderate learners’ access to these four types of input modifications. Preliminary results of its implementation will be discussed, as well as implications for curricular design.

Presentation of a Sixteenth-Century Text: Cabeza de Vaca
James Champion
There is no available facsimile edition of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Relación. This chronicle of his travels in America, especially the southwestern United States, was published in Spain in the mid-sixteenth century, an important period in the history of the Spanish language. The presenter will discuss and demonstrate a hyperactive facsimile edition of this text. This project involves digitization of the page photographs, preparation of a hyperactive transcription, and design of a presentation program in Libra.

Language Learning on the Internet with WebCALIS
Satsuki Scoville
The Computer Assisted Language Instruction System for the Web (WebCALIS) is a Java applet that brings intelligent language learning to all computer platforms and to all locations. Scripts may be in virtually any language of the world and may contain multimedia sources. Using WebCALIS, students can easily access language scripts, produce actual language input, and receive solid response analysis and feedback based on that input. The presenter will demonstrate sample scripts, discuss options for script origination and script distribution, and describe the Java WebCALIS development process.

Cultural Dimensions of Computer Assisted Language Learning
John Brine and Marcia Johnson
This paper will discuss, for a general audience, the characteristics of computer-mediated communications in view of the cultural context of Japanese learners of English as a Foreign Language.

Learner Interaction in Technology-Enhanced Language Learning Environments: A Case Study
Lara Lomicka and Travis Bradley
This study explores student perceptions of and experiences with technology in the computer assisted language learning environment. We followed four undergraduate students, two in French and two in Spanish, at a large research oriented university over a period of four months. The questions guiding this study are: (1) How do students perceive their experiences with technology? (2) What types of activities do students engage in while in the technology enhanced environment? (3) How do students interact with each other and with computers in foreign language environments? Patterns emerging from data collected via observations and interviews will be discussed.


Web Based Dynamic Reference System for English as a Foreign Language Learners
Masatoshi Sugiura
The purpose of this presentation is to illustrate a web based dynamic reference system for learners of English as a Foreign Language. This reference system consists of a dictionary component and a corpus component. Both the dictionary and the corpus are based on the research done at Nagoya University using the Internet. The system is provided on a web server, and the dictionary and the corpus are dynamically linked together. EFL learners can look up words and sample sentences interactively. This system not only assists EFL learners to write their composition but also to enhance their productive skills through the inductive acquisition of word usage.


1:30 – 2:15

Taking Annotated Reading One Step Further: Developing Literary Analysis Skills through Interactive Multimedia
Virginia Lewis, Glenda Carl, and Edward Dixon
The benefit of annotated multimedia for reading comprehension is largely known, and annotated readings for cultural pieces and short stories are becoming fairly common in first- and second-level language classes. Authoring packages such as Libra have made creation of multimedia tools possible for the faculty member with much less demand on time and technical expertise than in the recent past. One area which has received somewhat less attention is how these tools can be modified and expanded to develop students’ skills in analysis of literary texts. The presenters will demonstrate the use of customized Libra templates for developing multimedia-annotated texts, both as aids to reading comprehension and to literary analysis, and will the discuss a Libra based class project undertaken by an upper-level French literature class at Southwestern University and for German Studies at Georgetown University.


Nihongo Partner: Interactive Multimedia Program You Can Customize For Your Oral Communication Class
Masashi Kato
Role-playing based on model dialogues is a very effective activity for teaching communicative skills, if properly performed. Nihongo Partner (NP), a computer based interactive multimedia program developed at University of Washington, enables students to master model dialogues effortlessly and to perform them properly in real situations. NP contains a library of QuickTime short video segments which focus on a specific task or situation and an interface which helps learners practice the dialogues presented in those video segments. Instructors can easily integrate their original video segments into NP’s standard library using NP Author if segments already included in the library are not suitable for their purposes.

Are We on the Right Path to Reach our Long-Term Goals?
Nina Garrett
Most CALL projects focus on materials development and/or faculty development, meaning teaching faculty the capabilities for materials development for specific skills, specific courses, specific languages. We can claim that this approach is the necessary basis for curriculum development leading to significant improvements in language education–surely our long-range goal–but I will argue that it is far from a sufficient basis. CALL is no longer a lone-ranger enterprise; we need to consider new directions and new paradigms for curriculum development in CALL from the beginning of any initiative in materials or faculty development.

New Directions in Grammar Presentation and Testing: Internet Practice and Intranet Exams
Sanford Schane and Ezra VanEverbroeck
The Language Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego, has created a secure web site that enables students to use the Internet to take computerized grammar exercises and midterm exams and to look up course grades. The same site offers instructors a computerized grade book for the various sections they teach. The presenters will demonstrate, using a “live” Internet connection, the various components of this web site. They will discuss both the academic considerations and technical issues involved in the creation of such a site: curriculum design, student privacy, site security, intranet monitoring, staffing and maintenance, and problems of programming.


Designing a CD-ROM Interface: Nuevos Destinos for Accelerated or Intermediate Spanish
Robert Blake
Nuevos Destinos, a new CD-ROM for accelerated or intermediate Spanish instruction, will be demonstrated with an eye to explaining the criteria for its interface design. Students enter the program as a law clerk in Raquel Rodriguez’ office and must complete a series of real world legal tasks in order to help solve the Castillo family’s legal troubles. The underlying pedagogy of the task based activities will be discussed. Nuevos Destinos is a cross-platform CD-ROM program that highlights listening comprehension, reading comprehension, and writing.

2:30 – 3:15

Teaching Culture with Technology: Boundaries and Limitations
Franziska Lys
The presenter will show an array of exercise exercises (from CD-ROM applications to Web based technologies) for teaching culture and language and discuss their learning objectives. She will consider which types of activities lend themselves best to computer applications. The presenter will use two language documentaries: AZUBI (Three apprentices in Berlin) and Drehort: Bern, Gesichter einer Stadt ‘On Location in Berne, Faces of a City’–a new documentary about the lives of six Swiss citizens as examples.


Pro-Nunciation English Language Communication Toolkit
George Erdos
This presentation will focus on the Pro-Nunciation English Communication Toolkit which contains a full phonetic word finder, searchable databases organized by sound and written words, concise definitions plus idiomatic usage in a 20,000-word dictionary which can be additionally extended by the user, audio help in over 20 major languages, British and American pronunciation patterns, a see-hear-say system, 3-D phonetic animations, and pronunciation practice for specific speech problems. The presenter will describe how the system enables any student to learn to pronounce and enunciate English. Starting from the basic phonemes, students can literally build their own words. They can also record their own voice and compare their pronunciation with the standard form.


Hypertext and L2 Reading Comprehension
Suzanne Hoffman
Results of a study conducted at a mid-size, southern university to investigate the effect of hypertext on the reading comprehension of intermediate-level college students in a German class revealed the following: (1) reading comprehension of beginning L2 German readers was greater for those using hypertext, (2) word recognition is the most common source of L2 readers’ reading comprehension errors in German, (3) more proficient L2 readers invoke a top-down approach, and (4) hypertext may enhance motivation for beginning L2 German readers because it makes text more accessible and helps avoid confusion and misinterpretation on the part of the reader.

DVD for Language Learning
Michael Bush
DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) has the potential to reach levels of implementation in language learning never reached by interactive videodisc and CD-based interactive video systems. This presentation will focus on the results of a research project that has been investigating the potential of this new technology for language learning and teaching. In addition to presenting the strengths of DVD, this presentation will clarify some of the differences that must be taken into account for materials development. The speaker will show examples of how DVD can be used for language learning and discuss issues of implementation, pedagogical as well as practical.

Criteria in the Assessment and Advancement of Learning Technologies
Kathleen Egan and Irene Thompson
This presentation will focus on the results of a US Government funded project at the University of Hawaii proposing criteria drawn from an interdisciplinary perspective in the assessment and development of foreign language learning technologies.

3:30 – 4:15

Working Toward Interactive Chinese Language Teaching: A Sample of Multimedia Chinese Courses
De Bao Xu and Hong Gang Jin
With the rapid development of technology in multimedia in recent year, a great deal of research has shown that multimedia, if well designed, can model and imitate interactive, complex behavior in the human system (Gardner 1985; McCarthy 1981) and therefore can be a dynamic and flexible tool to promote language learning in a interactive context. Such findings have presented new challenges to language teachers in rethinking their teaching methodology and in restructuring their language curriculum. In our paper, we will first discuss the importance of incorporating multimedia into Chinese language curricula and the definition of multimedia approach to language teaching in general. Subsequently, we will demonstrate a series of multimedia lessons designed for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students.


Animation in CALL: Learning to Think in the Fourth Dimension
Paul Sundberg
Instructional designers in CALL are often enculturated by years of schooling to conceive of material presentation in static, text-centric ways. Even when using multimedia applications, we still think in inanimate media metaphors: the textbook, the encyclopedia, the slide show. Yet, as language professionals, we know that much of language reflects changing reality: actions and changes of state. This presentation contrasts examples of static and dynamic CALL presentation, briefly surveys human perceptual reality–static and dynamic–embodied in parts of speech and language propositions, and offers a psycholinguistic and cognitive theoretical basis for what role animation might play in CALL design.


Constructivism and the Design of a Web Based Hypermedia Spanish Phonetics/Phonology Course for Distance Learning
Fenfang Hwu
This paper describes the design of a Web based Spanish phonetics/phonology distance learning course which takes into account the constructivist view on learning theory and its implications for instruction and instructional design. It also takes into account the nature of the content, student’s background such as language proficiency and career plans, and technological feasibility and compatibility. The goal is to take full advantage of the rich information presentation formats and communication methods on the World Wide Web in order to offer distance learners rich contexts to experience and construct the principles and rules of the subject matter.

The Cognitive Benefits of Grammar Slide Shows for Foreign Language Learners
Karina Collentine, and Joseph Collentine
The foreign language curriculum is increasingly informed by our understanding of the cognition of language processing, such as the crucial role that auditory and visual stimuli as well as metacognitive strategies play in the acquisition process (see Cowan, 1988; Oxford, 1990). The presenters propose that grammar explanations known as slide shows (computer based explanations in the form of Director pieces, HTML documents supported by JavaScript, and Java applets through which students navigate screen by screen) engage learners in a wider variety of cognitive processes and metacognitive strategies than do text based explanations. We also present the results of a study comparing the types of metacognitive strategies that learners utilize in both slide show and text based grammar explanations.

CALL Syllabus Design for the Context and the Medium
Marcia Johnson and John Brine
This paper will discuss a practical skills continuum developed as part of university-level English as a Foreign Language computer mediated writing courses in Japan. The paper focuses on the knowledge and skills that students require as language learners and as computer users. The presentation will be of interest to a general audience of language teachers and curriculum developers.

4:30 – 5:15

WWKanji for Japanese Language Learning
Saeko Komori, Miki Ueda, and Masatoshi Sugiura
The revised version of WWKanji for Japanese language learning will be demonstrated. WWKanji is a Java based program which can be used on any platform by any user on the Internet. The program can provide data on 1000 kanji including “on” and “kun” readings, “jukugo” (compound words) with sound, stroke number, and stroke order information. One of the characteristics of the program is to show the stroke order of each kanji through a digitized movie next to which learners can practice writing. The presenters will explain the newly added handwriting recognition and evaluation features of WWKanji and discuss feedback from learners who have used the program.


The Effects of a Traditional and a Computerized German Workbook on Student Study Strategies, Attitudes, Achievement, and Retention Scores
Jay Kunz
Although much hard work and pedagogical prowess go into the development of traditional and computerized foreign language materials, very little is known about how foreign language students actually make use of these materials and why. This presentation describes a study of how 100 beginning-level German students used a traditional workbook and a computerized version of the workbook developed by the author, “Deutsch zusammen Computerized Lernheft.” Results provide new insights into the use and benefits of both traditional and computerized materials for foreign language instruction. Such information can be valuable to materials developers, publishers, teachers, students, and researchers.


Using Web Links to Mark Student Papers in Distance Learning
Glenn Broadhead
In distance learning, paper marking is difficult. In this alternative to commercial systems, a student writes a paper in Microsoft Word, converts it to HTML with a keystroke, and e-mails it to the instructor as an attachment. To mark problems in development, cohesion, style, and usage, the instructor drags over a passage with one hand and, with the other, activates keyboard macros that insert links to on-line instructional files. Receiving the marked file by e-mail (which may contain additional comments), the student views the file with a web browser. Clicking on a color-coded passage opens relevant instructional material in a separate file.

New Developments in Multimedia for Learners of Spanish
Ana Maria Gimeno-Sanz
The author will report on issues which relate to the acquisition of Spanish as a foreign language through multimedia courseware. She will base her discussion on the development, use, and evaluation of the recently published “CAMILLE: español en marcha,” a flexible, student-centred multimedia course developed at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia within the European Union funded Computer Assisted Multimedia Language Learning Environment project (CAMILLE). The author will discuss how learning technology is forcing teaching strategies to change and how technology is moving faster than methodology with concomitant consequences on language acquisition. The author will also discuss issues relating to the combination of CD-ROM based learning materials and World Wide Web based activities which provide complementary learning activities for distance learners in search of ways of adapting innovative learning strategies to the new media.

Teaching Writing with Computers: A Study of Three English as a Second Language Teachers
Yousef Almozaini
This paper reports the results of multiple case studies that explore how CALL teachers use computers to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) writing. Through qualitative methods, three CALL teachers were observed, interviewed, and videotaped to examine their use of computers. This study examined computer assisted writing instruction in ESL contexts from teachers’ perspectives. It sought to explore teachers’ use of computers in relation to pedagogy, technology, classroom management, and how these factors interrelate to each other and influence teachers’ practices. It also considered the role of CALL and second language writing (SLW) theories, teachers’ beliefs, and contextual factors.

Flexible Model For Computer Based Language Placement
Karen Schairer
With our Authorware based Placement Exam Template, instructors develop exams in any language font supported by SimpleText. The completed prototype is in Spanish with samples available in French, German, Navajo, Russian, and Japanese. An outgrowth of the need for efficient placement of large numbers of students with prior Spanish but no university credits, the computer version is superior to our in-house, hard copy version in terms of ease of modification, comprehension testing, and data collection. In addition, it offers random selection among four variants for each item and allows students to see their answers in context before accepting or rejecting them.