2000 Thursday Sessions

CALICO 2000

Conference Presentations
Day One: June 1, 2000

 

9:00 – 9:45  

Towards a Didactical Approach of the Web: Le Cyberbouquin
Fabienne Gérard
Le Cyberbouquin (Pour l’apprentissage du français langue étrangère) is a web-based French curriculum covering four levels of instruction from Novice through Intermediate High. The presentation will show how this (free) online French textbook uses the extensive variety of resources on the Internet to enhance learning by encouraging different types of learning processes. We will discuss the didactical approach of this learning/teaching material as well as general didactical issues of CALL.

Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication in the College Spanish Class: A Case Study
Mark Darhower
This study investigates the interactional and linguistic features of communication among intermediate-level Spanish learners and their teacher in a synchronous computer-mediated (chatroom) context. The study will evoke some fundamental constructs of Vygotskian sociocultural theory in order to describe and explain how learners and their teacher collaborate with each other to co-construct meaning in the chatroom. General patterns of learner-learner and learner-teacher interaction will be analyzed, as well as learner and teacher perceptions of the use of chat as a language learning tool, and, finally, changes in learner output over a nine week period of time.

Wedding Video Productions With CallVideo
John I. Liontas
Today’s unprecedented emphasis on multimedia technology has forced many language instructors to redefine the methodological role camcorders and microcomputers have as innovative instructional tools and diagnostic instruments for drilling, measuring, developing, and building students’ communicative competencies. Yet, the potential wedding of student video productions with authentic computer-assisted language learning and video applications has not received the attention it deserves. This presentation argues that such a “wedding” may offer a viable alternative to today’s learners and advances the argument that the judicious combination of the two is pedagogically justifiable, for it makes language learning authentic and immediate at all levels of instruction.

Integrating New Technologies in Language Learning and Teaching: A Cognitive-Communicative-Multimedia Approach
Marta Berdugo
This paper deals with the issue of integrating interactive technologies in language teaching. It presents the basis and methodological components of a cognitive-communicative-multimedia approach. A classroom research project involving two parallel groups tested the improvement of the communicative competence of university learners of French. Two tests (pretest, posttest), lesson planning diaries, and an (auto)evaluation survey provided date for analysis of learning/teaching activities and aids. The results showed a higher increase of the communicative skills for students in the experimental group, who seemed to have developed more cognitive, metacognitive, and communicative strategies through a great variety of activities integrating multimedia and Internet resources.

The Influence of a Graphically Enhanced Chatroom (Authentic Cultural Pictures, Role Play, and Props) on the Discourse of Learners of German
Olaf Böhlke
The purpose of this study is to describe how pictures, role-play tasks, and the availability of props influence the chatroom discourse of students of German. The first part of the study examines chatroom discourse without any guidance–displaying only culturally authentic pictures in a virtual environment; the second part includes pictures and guided role play situations in a sociocultural context; and the last part examines how students use clip art props in the chatroom.

10:00 – 10:45

Managing Multimedia CALL Development Projects
Ana Gimeno-Sanz
The presenter will describe ways of efficiently managing multimedia CALL development projects through collaboration between academic partners belonging to different institutions. She will focus on issues relating to the organisational and development phases of the projects such as needs analysis, courseware specifications, designing exercise templates, designing templates for reference materials, graphical user interface, etc. She will base her discussion on two EU funded projects–Airline Talk (Leonardo da Vinci Funding) and City Talk (Socrates-Lingua Funding). She will also illustrate the City Talk on-line foreign language learning tutoring system which integrates a reference library, an information centre, an exercise centre and an on-line student “magazine.”

Where Can We Fail?
Bev Garcia
Too often we tend to see only where we can succeed and not where we can fail. Seeing both sides of integrating technology planning and implementation of Web interactivity in the classroom helps to reduce frustration of both teachers and students. The presenter will discuss how to learn what to identify, demonstrate examples of success and failures on the Web, and detail how to analyze one’s own work for potential failure or success.

Special Languages, Special Students
Zev bar-Lev
Sheltered Initiation Language Learning (SILL) is a controversial but powerful method for teaching speaking and comprehension focusing on authentic, real-time language use, and including Less Commonly Taught Languages and special-needs students (learning disabled, phobic, or busy). SILL also happens to be uniquely suited to mechanical media (HyperCard, web site, CD-ROM, including distance learning), as will be shown here by a demonstration of the method (“talking dictionary” lessons and “skip-comprehension” lessons), a description of the programs using it (Hebrew distance learning for intercampus Judaics majors, the Language Bazaar, the LARC World Tour, Robo/Web-site), and a discussion of the training film.

Pros and Cons of Web-Based Instruction: Striking a Balance Between Virtual Environments and Conventional Classrooms
Lara Lomicka, Travis Bradley, and Lorraine Williams
Hara and Kling’s (1999) study on web-based instruction cited several sources of student frustration. This panel addresses these and other issues involved in integrating web-based instruction within conventional classroom-based instruction. The discussion follows from our recent experiences in teaching courses at two northeastern universities on the use of technology in language education. Specifically, we will discuss (a) course design and implementation, (b) integration of virtual learning environments (web-enhanced discussion and synchronous chat, with face-to-face discussion taking place in the classroom), and (c) challenges involved in trying to achieve a balance between the treatment of research/theoretical issues and the acquisition of hands-on technological skills.

Bringing English to Kids (K-6) through Multimedia
Orit Nahamias
The presentation will focus on the use of technology in teaching English to children through a demonstration of a new English learning program–English Adventures. We will show how various technologies (speech recognition, video clips, 3D animation, and graphics) and current language learning approaches have been combined to create an imaginary world where English is used in an authentic, meaningful, and enjoyable way. Special attention will be given to how multimedia can optimize the learning process, help improve attitudes, and increase children’s motivation.

On-Site Technology Training Workshops from Conception to Completion
Dennie Hoopingarner and Jane Ozanich
The presenters will discuss the On-site Technology Training Workshops they organize and develop and their findings on effective training techniques. These workshops give high school and college foreign language educators the necessary information and skills to use computers and Internet resources in their classrooms. These workshops are an outgrowth of the Summer Institutes which the Center for Language Education And Research (CLEAR) has offered for the past three years. The presenters will highlight the steps they take in designing the workshops as well as how they plan and carry out the programs. Presentation participants can expect to see samples from former workshop participants and take part in lesson demonstrations.

11:00 – 11:45

Creating a Communicative Language Environment Via Software
Minjie Xing and Ken Spencer
Having learned linguistic structures of a foreign language, students still frequently remain deficient in the ability to actually use the language in normal communication because the language is not taught as discourse or interaction in context. A Multimedia Mediated Language Learning (MMLL) software is therefore called for. The software is composed of background knowledge, linguistic explanation, information exploration and e-mail + oral discussion. Through a one semester pilot study, students benefited from the software and the cultural context in the WWW, and their writing skills improved significantly.

The Influence of E-Mail Use in Second Language Learning
Ines Milke
This review of research addresses the benefits and shortcomings of e-mail use in L2 learning identified in studies, conducted between 1991 and 1998, whose subjects were graduate and undergraduate college level students. Findings of nine studies are summarized, categorized, and presented in a narrative review.

How Do Highlighted Hyperlinks Affect Reading On Screen?
Isabelle De Ridder
This paper reports on an experiment that examined the impact of highlighted hyperlinks on overall text comprehension. A first experiment showed that highlighted links to dictionary definitions had a positive effect on incidental vocabulary learning. This study, however, left several questions about text comprehension unanswered. The current research project attempts to fill this void and looks in great detail at how highlighted hyperlinks affect the entire language learning process. At the moment of writing this abstract, results are being analysed. This includes the processing of a vocabulary and comprehension test and the handling of data from interviews and tracking mechanisms.

Implications of Research on Human Memory and Perception for CALL Design
Lee Forester
This session will outline aspects of the current understanding of human memory and perception (primarily visual and aural), as represented in recent research, and will address their ramifications for CALL design. Examples from the Auf Geht’s! interactive program, a first-year German language program based both on print and multimedia, will be used to illustrate some possible implementations that exploit these research findings.

Pasaporte a España: An Interactive Journey Before You Study Abroad
Melissa Stewart and Inma Pertusa
As study abroad programs become increasingly popular, there is a growing need to provide students with adequate preparation for this experience. Although the Internet is full of useful sites of a touristic nature, there are no resources specifically geared toward students preparing to study abroad in Spain. Our web site is designed to provide an introduction to many practical aspects of the experience. Through contextualized activities, students can familiarize themselves with daily situations in Spain. The web site includes QuickTime movies that offer images of Spain with interactive exercises and simultaneous feedback. Audio files accustom students to peninsular Spanish.

Repurposing Machine Translation for Language Learning
Melissa Holland, Clare Voss, and Lisa Decrozant
Sentence-aligned bilingual corpora, the core resources used to build machine translation systems, can be repurposed for language learning. These corpora contain verified human translations of real-world text. They can be organized into concordances, presenting for any word in one language all the instances of that word in the data together with its sentence context and paired with a translation of each sentence in the other language. We present a prototype tool, CONDOR, that structures and displays concordances from bilingual data, allowing language learners to explore words of interest in a range of authentic contexts. We demonstrate the program with French and Haitian Creole.

2:30 – 3:15

On-Line Concordancing: Teaching Materials Derived from Authentic Text
Yu-Chih Sun
The presentation will first illustrate various features of web-based concordance and then how these features can be used in the preparation of teaching materials for classroom use. This preparation includes grammar, vocabulary, prefixes, word choice, punctuation, and source books. Sample lesson plans based on different levels of learners’ language proficiency will also be provided. By using web-based concordance, ESL/EFL teachers can gather material for creating exercises and explore the possibilities for better use of this new learning tool.

Using WebCT for On-Line Quizzes and Exercises with Feedback
Maria Morrell and Lily Zhang
In this session we propose to demonstrate how to use the WebCT course management software to incorporate on-line quizzes and exercises with feedback for language course web sites. We will offer an overview of the variety of exercises available when one incorporates audio files, images, and video files, as well as how to insert Hot Potatoes quizzes in WebCT. For those instructors who are interested in using more sophisticated exercises with additional variables and more specific feedback, we will discuss the process of shocking AuthorWare Attain-created files to the Web and present the benefits and drawbacks that this technology offers. In addition, we will present results from pilot Spanish conversation and intensive grammar courses that heavily incorporated these on-line exercises and tutorials and consider the pedagogical implications of these new, easy-to-use teaching resources.

Sociocollaborative CALL
Chia-Huan Ho
An increasing number of research studies in CALL focus on how learners construct their language knowledge and skills sociocollaboratively (e.g., Kern, 1996; Meskill, Mossop, & Bates, 1999; Vilmi, 1995; Warschauer, 1999). This paper first summarizes critical components in language instruction processes as identified in this literature and at the same time reviews projects aligned with sociocollaborative learning theory. To further understand how technologies can assist language learning, a sociocollaboratively designed distance learning project between English students in Bulgaria and TESOL graduate students in the US is presented. Achievement and affective outcomes of the year-long project are reviewed and discussed.

Creating a Critical Mass Using Technology: The California State University Strategic Language Initiative
Walter Oliver and Ronald Bergmann
The California State University (CSU) Chancellor’s Office created the CSU Strategic Language Initiative to promote the preservation and development of less-commonly-taught foreign language programs. This initiative works with individual campus language departments and CSU-wide councils to achieve the following overall goals: (a) preserve and expand student access to the study of several less-commonly taught, but strategically important, foreign languages currently in danger of disappearing from the system, (b) promote more effective second language programs through consortial arrangements and distributed learning, (c) provide the knowledge necessary to enable campuses to make informed purchases of language learning laboratories, associated technology, and software to better match needs and reduce collective CSU long-term costs, and (d) establish collaboration between CSU and other organizations, including other public and private academic institutions, which are integrating technology into language teaching and learning and/or are engaged in language acquisition, maintenance, assessment, and policy development.

Mellon-Funded Projects and Initiatives at Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges
Lisa Frumkes, Daniel Beeby, Maria-Luisa Guardiola, Jeanette Owen, Christine DeGrado, and Nicholas Patruno
In 1997, Haverford, Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges in Pennsylvania received funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to incorporate technology into language teaching and learning. This presentation will provide an overview of this grant’s initiatives as well as showcase several of the projects that faculty have created with the assistance of college and Mellon staff. All of the projects are Web-based for cross platform compatibility and run the gamut from syllabi to materials developed for language, literature, and culture courses. These projects were constructed during workshops and other grant-funded support time, and most are available for use by other institutions.

Multimedia Courseware Development of the Future: A Team Approach
Robert C. Davis, Maria Estella Harretche, Ellen W. Kaplan, Gabriele Wittig Davis, Joanne Cannon Carlson, and Frank Citino
In this presentation, faculty and multimedia specialists describe their roles within courseware development teams. The members of the panel analyze the development of applications in Spanish and German, Literature, Theatre, and Film. They discuss curricular needs, project development, navigation and screen design, materials organization, functionality, and integration of student input. Using examples such as “Juan Rulfo: Dentro y fuera,” “Geschichte/n eines Findlings: Kaspar Hauser multimedial,” and “Vision oder Wirklichkeit?” we document the creation of applications for new content within time restrictions, using a modified template approach. Finally, we consider the role of students on development teams and other models where staff resources are limited.

3:30 – 4:15

Computer-Mediated Feedback in Composition Correction
Jack Burston
The purpose of this presentation is to describe theoretical and practical considerations in the use of a computer-based composition annotation program, MARKIN32, with advanced level students of French. Correction and positive reinforcement are critical in foreign language learning. However, when applied to the acquisition of writing skills, especially at more advanced levels, the provision of such feedback is problematical for both instructor and learner alike. The paper reports on the results of a two-semester pilot project which was intended to reduce correction loads for instructors and improve the quality and usefulness of composition feedback for students.

Instructional Design of Classroom Strategies for Web-Based Cross Cultural Communication
Sabine Levet, Katherine Maillet, and Shoggy Waryn
This session examines how CULTURA–a collaborative Web-based project where learners in France and in the US analyze a shared set of materials in a cross cultural perspective–enables teachers to develop a diversity of modes for interaction in the classroom. Grounding the presentation on concrete examples collected over three years of experimentation, we analyze the pedagogical framework and classroom environment: strategies to help students decode information about the other culture, practical approaches and guidelines for designing student tasks, the proper balance between activities inside and outside the classroom, and the changing role of the teacher.

Raising the Target Language Index with the Internet
Gyonggu Shin
This paper proposes a device called Target Language Index based on the distance between the L1 and the L2 context. It is divided into Target Language Environment Index (TLEI) and Target Language Utilization Index (TLUI). TLEI shows how much language learners are exposed to in the target language. Located in target language context, their TLEI is considered near 100%. TLUI measures how effectively teachers make their students utilize the target language. TLUI is considered near zero if the target language is not used in classrooms. TLUI is controllable, and language teachers’ role is to raise it. I use the Internet to raise TLUI in my college English classes.

Soothing the Naysayers, Naying the Soothsayers
Claire Bradin Siskin and Nina Garrett
Skeptics demand to be convinced that CALL really “works” and is worthwhile. Rapid changes in the technology may seem to represent progress in the field. But promises of a rosy future for CALL should be tempered by the realization that technological developments have not been accompanied by comparable advances in pedagogy. In an attempt to steer a course between the negative and the positive, specific strategies for dealing with the critics will first be offered. Then, lest we become too complacent, a challenge to exploit the technology more effectively will be extended.

Exploiting the GLobal Language Authoring System (GLAS) for Assessing Oral Proficiency
Johannes W. Vazulik, MAJ David Wilson, and CPT(P) Kelly Carrigg
The Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview (SOPI) has been successfully implemented in GLAS. The next step is to incorporate higher levels of technology, including the use of branched, situational tasks while investigating the use of automated assessment of speaking and listening skills. In partnership with the JFK Language School at Fort Bragg, presenters will tailor the SOPI for the target audience, also adding feedback and record-keeping functions. Ordinate’s Phonepass tests will be reviewed and their assessment procedures considered for future implementation. Practice tests will be designed in German and French, moving toward versions for all languages in the Fort Bragg curriculum.

Relationships Among Prosodic Features of Foreign Accents
Garry Molholt
Through acoustic analysis of patterns of intonation, stress, duration, addition, and reduction, we are able to see how prosodic features combine to create the prosodic portion of foreign accents. Thus we are able to create acoustic accent profiles. This presentation looks at accent profiles of Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin speakers of English in a university setting. Their accents are differentiated according to patterns in intonation, stress, duration, addition, and reduction. This type of analysis is useful for a general understanding of relationships among prosodic features, for work in accent enhancement, teacher training, and for advancing computer analysis of speech.

The Critical Languages Series: CD-ROM Courseware for Less Commonly Taught Languages
Scott Brill and Alexander Dunkel
The Critical Languages Series of CD-ROM courseware for Brazilian Portuguese, Cantonese, Chinese, Kazakh, Korean, and Turkish was completed over a three year period at the University of Arizona (UA) in conjunction with the UA/Critical Languages Program, National Association of Self-Instructional Language Programs, National Security Education Program, UA/Computer Aided Language Instruction Group, and the UA/Press. Each classroom tested, double CD-ROM package contains 20 lessons for beginning learners comprised of video dialogues and readings by native speakers, thousands of audio recordings, exercises, graphics, and extensive cultural and grammatical notes. The courseware was created by authors nationwide with our MaxAuthor software system.

4:30 – 5:15

VICTORY: A Video Interaction in the Laboratory
Maria Cooks
The objective of this paper is to present a Video Interaction in a Computer Laboratory (VICTORY) that will not only enhance the quality of instruction but also accelerate the process of acquiring a second language. This objective is achieved by designing a Video Interaction which takes into consideration not only the technology and the particular medium of delivery used for the interaction but also knowledge of the process of language acquisition and the classroom dynamics which help students learn. VICTORY Video Authoring System offers six modes of interactions that guide students gradually from video browsing or first-viewing activities to final reconstruction of the video production. These interactions are designed to familiarize learners in a gradual manner with the culture of a foreign language as well as the governing conventions.

Better Speech Recognition for CALL
Steve LaRocca, John Morgan, and Sherri Bellinger
Speech recognition (SR) is a technology of primary importance to the future of CALL. Progress in the development of useful SR for Western languages belies the widespread ignorance surrounding the linguistic phenomenon of tone, which is particularly unfortunate given that half of the world’s languages are tonal. Tools are currently available that will track the fundamental frequency, an acoustic correlate of tone. Presenters will report on their effort to model tone itself using fundamental frequency information, as well as a parallel effort to extend the Chinese phone model set to a state where it is sensitive to tone.

Programming Microsoft Word for Language Learning Exercises
Jim Bauman
The Visual Basic programming language was used to extend the capabilities of Microsoft Word to build a menu of language learning tools. These include clozing, dialog restructuring, sentence component reordering, and inflectional derivation exercises, as well as tools to search for word forms and construct electronic flashcards. The development was aimed initially at creating a toolkit for adults learning Dutch in both formal and self-instructional programs. Important considerations were to make the toolkit extensible in handling different instructional materials, user-friendly for those familiar with a word processor, available at low-cost, and capable of easily being adapted for other languages.

CALL or CHLL? Computers in Saudi High School English as a Foreign Language Classes: Description and Evaluation
Khalid Abalhassan
This paper describes and evaluates the integration of CALL tools into the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curricula in selected Saudi high schools. These CALL tools include Ellis, Galaxy, and Knowlodgy packages. The study investigates the contribution of those technologies to the improvement or hindrance of EFL learning.