2002 Thursday Sessions

CALICO 2002

Conference Presentations
Day One: March 28, 2002

 

10:00 – 10:45 

The Effect of Gloss Lookup Behavior on Incidental Vocabulary Learning
Makoto Yoshii
A study (Yoshii, 2000) examined the effect of the glosses on incidental vocabulary learning using an Internet-based reading text. Three types of glosses were used for the investigation: text-only (L2), picture-only, and the combination of text and picture. The study revealed the superiority of the combination glosses. The current study re-examines the data including the lookup behavior as an important factor. The lookup behaviors were statistically controlled, and the data from the previous study were re-analyzed. This study also investigated whether there are any significant interactions between the lookup behaviors and other main variables (e.g., Group, Level, and Time).

Communicative Interaction in a Bilingual Chat Community: A Study of Intermediate ESL and Spanish Learners
Mark Darhower
Dorothy Moore
This presentation will share results of the study of a bilingual language learning chat community consisting of learners from a fourth semester ESL class in Puerto Rico (native Spanish speakers) and a third semester Spanish class in Pennsylvania (native English speakers). Groups of two to three learners from each class participated in weekly one-hour chat sessions, a half hour in English and half hour in Spanish. Principled discourse analysis will illustrate and explain some interactional characteristics of this online community, with a particular focus on the L1-L2 construction of meaning and the effects of variable task designs on chat room interaction.

Introducing a Distributed Learning Model for Ab Initio Language Learning: Online, Task-based, and Interactive
Mathias Schulze
Grit Liebscher
The model to be presented is used in on-line university as well as distance education credit courses for ab initio language learners. The web-based courses rely on a task-based model (T5) and offer students a variety of interactive learning objects. These are complemented by material from a traditional course- and workbook. Students are supported by an online study guide. This web-based guide uses information from the student model (which records prior learning achievements) to provide contextualized study help. We will discuss selected learning objects as well as study guide and student model.

Making the Move to SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model): How We Converted the Miguel Littín, Clandestino en Chile Web Site to SCORM Compliance
Ana Martinez-Lage
David Herren
SCORM is an emerging standard for the description and format of web-delivered eLearning. Designed to facilitate deployment of content using any Learning Management System (LMS), and with the 1.2 release of the standard, vendors of LMSs such as WebCT have announced work towards SCORM compliance. The “Miguel Littín, Clandestino en Chile” web site is used standalone by many Middlebury College students, but, for wider adoption and LMS deployment, it was decided that work should be done to ensure full SCORM compliance. This presentation will review the Littín project, highlight conversion challenges, and spotlight common issues with respect to SCORM compliance.

Gently Down the Stream
John Vitaglione
LARC’s web-gateway integrates pedagogy and educational technology to provide fast, easy access to digitally streamed authentic language materials for teaching and learning languages. The Digital Media Archive (DMA) is comprised of digital media relevant to language and cultural aspects of the selected language and topic. DMA application varies for different learners and their environments. Recommendations are furnished for adapting specific topical material to individual instructors’ lesson plans and teaching environments. This presentation reviews DMA’s dynamic database design (Ultradev/ColdFusion) for content submission and page building, digital media component design and production (Premiere, Cleaner 5), and interactive content controls (QuickTime “Chapters”).

Enhancing Nonnative Speech Through Synthesis
Garry Molholt
Lack of experience in using English stress, intonation, and rhythm often creates communication problems for nonnative speakers. Since these features carry signals indicating intended structural relationships and attitudes, native listeners may easily misperceive the intentions of nonnative speakers. The purpose of this study is to show which parameters need to be changed and how they can be changed through speech synthesis so that native perceptions better match nonnative intentions. Data consist of files collected in Taiwan utilizing the Kay Elemetrics Multi-Speech software. These files were then edited with WinPitch to enhance stress, intonation, and rhythm. To test the effectiveness of the synthesis, native speakers evaluated the intended structural relationships and attitudes of the utterances before and after the synthesis.

Computer Assisted Pronunciation Training: When Technology Meets Pedagogy
Ambra Neri
CALL systems are often described as impressive in their technological features but inadequate in their pedagogical features. Computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) in particular seems to be lagging behind most instructional applications of computer technology, in spite of the tremendous advantages it offers if compared to traditional classroom instruction, especially with the integration of automatic speech recognition. In this session, the presenter describes the pedagogical requirements that CAPT should meet and examines available CAPT systems in terms of their pedagogical and technological underpinnings. Finally, the presenter discusses the pedagogy-technology interface and suggest some recommendations for designing pedagogically sound CAPT that uses reliable technology.

One Step Backward, Two Steps Forward: Recovering Lost Ground by Using Internet-aware Software to Replace Lost Functionality
Dennie Hoopingarner
The loss of an audio console in Michigan State University’s Language Learning Center meant the loss of a valuable function: being able to record students’ voices for later evaluation. A software package developed at MSU recovers the recording function via internet-connected software. Since this method of collecting students’ voices does not require that the students all be in the language lab, the software creates a virtual data collection environment. Following a background of the project, the pedagogical and technical considerations behind the product will be presented, plus a demonstration of the software and discussion of initial impressions after implementation.

Testing German Pronunciation Using Oral Testing Software
Randall Jones
Using the Oral Testing Software developed by Jerry Larson at Brigham Young University, we have begun evaluating our students’ pronunciation in German 310 (German Phonetics and Pronunciation) on four occasions during the semester. The first time is a ‘pre-assessment’ and is administered during the first week of the semester. The next two times are administered as part of exams in the seventh and twelfth week of the semester. The fourth test is given during the last week as part of the final exam. The presentation will illustrate the design, administration, and evaluation of the German oral tests.

11:00 – 11:45

Linguistics Online: A Virtual Platform for (Language) Learning
Bernd Rüschoff
This presentation will describe the results of the LINGUISTICS ONLINE project, an on-going project financed by the German Ministry of Science, Research & Education. The project deals with the setting up of a platform for virtual classes in linguistics and applied linguistics, and is regarded by many as a model platform for virtual learning in a variety of fields including language learning. The platform is up and running, and trial classes are being evaluated at the moment. In the course of the presentation the principles of the set up will be discussed. In addition, first results of our research into student reactions and the effectiveness of virtual classrooms will be outlined.

Learners’ Behaviors in Computer-Based Structured Input Activities Elicited Through Tracking Technologies
Fenfang Hwu
A few studies which caution instructors that students may not be doing what the program designer or the instructor intend them to do in CALL also reveal that CALL was used peripherally in the instructions. Structured input activities delivered inside and outside the classroom through the computer have the advantages of learner-control and accessibility over those activities by the instructor in the classroom. Using the data generated from the access log of WebCT and RealServer, this study investigates students’ behaviors and performance in such an environment and how various input activities facilitate learning for each learner thus providing the instructor with the information for further instructional decisions.

BANZAI: A Web-based Intelligent Language Tutor
Noriko Nagata
The paper presents BANZAI, a new Japanese software package developed by the author. BANZAI employs artificial intelligence technology, “natural language processing” which enables the computer to actually read and correct an arbitrary sentence typed in by the learner. It is programmed in Java and runs on the web browser through the Internet. BANZAI is designed to develop learners’ grammatical and sentence production skills as well as to instill cultural knowledge about Japan. It accepts inputs in kana and kanji, incorporates Japanese sounds, and presents relevant photographic and graphical images of Japan and of everyday situations.

The Permanent Software Development Crisis
Sue E. K. Otto
James P. Pusack
Foreign language instructional software development is in a permanent state of crisis as a result of fundamental contradictions that exist among the following factors: 1) our continually rising expectations for instructional software, 2) the rapid pace of technological change, 3) the nature of language acquisition, 4) the availability of authentic materials and rights to use them, 5) the time span of typical curricular cycles, 6) the nature of textbook publishing, 7) local institutional structures, and 8) the resources available for investment in development. The presenters will engage session participants in a discussion exploring this thesis and possible remedies.

Authoring Online Multimedia Content with Divace
Randall S. Davis
This demonstration will focus on how Divace (Digital Interactive Audio Video Recorder), from Tandberg Educational, can be used to develop interactive, multimedia content for the Internet. The presenter will show how he has used Divace to develop materials for his own website, Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab (www.esl-lab.com). He will outline the technological and pedagogical rationale behind online materials and then demonstrate how to use Divace to develop such content.

NEXOS – Shared Learning and Collaboration Over the Web
Josef Hellebrandt
David Armstrong
This interactive session highlights NEXOS, a web language portal to support learning Spanish language and culture and to promote collaboration among teachers, students, and community members. The main goal of NEXOS is to promote learning exchanges through shared cultural information and resources. The key features of NEXOS include a database-driven platform and multiple communication and collaboration channels. The portal supports three types of resources within its databanks: images, audio/video, and general resources. NEXOS is designed for the sharing of a variety of resources among users and contributors around the globe, specifically for the education community.

A CD-ROM of Francophone Maghrebian Writers and Terrorism in Algeria
Robert Balas
Anne George
Our CD-ROM project is built around a QuickTime movie of an address by the Algerian writer, Assia Djebar, who addresses the inhumanity of terrorism and the responsibility of the writer in such a milieu. Her comments are reinforced by videotaped readings of the poets: Abdellatif Labi and Moncef Ghachem. Also included are selected passages from various works treating the War in Algeria including La Sale Guerre, Services spéciaux Algérie and Tazmamart Cellule 10, scenes from the Rwanda genocide, and clips from the movie La Bataille d’Algers. The object of our project is to demonstrate, while teaching the French language, that the problems of terrorism are not unknown internally in Arab countries and to present the ethical stance of certain francophone writers before such inhumane acts. The video and text portion of the CD-ROM are accompanied by various exercises. The program was created by “La Taupe” and “A travers la lumière.”

Learning Communities and Communication: Using Multimedia to Enhance Language and Interdisciplinary Development
Frances M. Sweeney
This presentation explores the connection between contemporary theories and practices of language instruction, language proficiency, and interdisciplinary study. We will review the notion of learning communities and how they can be introduced at different levels of language courses, via multimedia delivery and practice, to enhance interdisciplinary awareness. Beyond language development, such activities also promote critical and integrative thinking. Practical advice and steps for creating learning communities will be shared, from the perspective of the department and securing institutional support.

What’s in a Word? En Una Palabra CD-ROM: Presenting Definitions from Native Speakers to Think about Culture
Ana Perez-Girones
Emmanuel Paris-Bouvret
Designed to be delivered as a CD-ROM or in a networked environment, “En una palabra” consists of 150 digitized video segments showing 15 interviewees defining the same ten human concepts and institutions (e.g. family and freedom) in Spanish. Segments are accessible both by interviewee or topic and are enriched with glossary and multimedia annotations. “En una palabra” offers students at different levels of proficiency an opportunity to listen to authentic language used by native speakers to reflect on their cultural values. This provides a context to discuss the complexity of understanding culture and exposes students to their own cultural biases.

2:30 – 3:15

The Teacher’s Role in Tutorial CALL
Claire Bradin Siskin
CALL enthusiasts praise CALL for its effectiveness at freeing up the teacher’s time while simultaneously scoffing at the notion that computers might replace teachers. In this contradiction, teachers are being sent a mixed message. The presenter will argue that the relationship between tutorial CALL and the language teacher should be examined candidly. The attitudes of CALL practitioners with respect to tutorial CALL will be considered. The often cited “tutor versus tool” dichotomy may not serve us well, and alternative models will be discussed. Some suggestions will be made for defining the respective roles of computer and teacher more precisely.

LanguagePro Immersion Environments for Less Commonly Taught Languages and Specialized Applications
Michael Quinlan
LanguagePro is a high-functionality, simulation-style software environment for language learning and sustainment. Although centrally administered, the LanguagePro experience is delivered to each user by CD-ROM, client-server, or browser, as is most appropriate for each, making LanguagePro particularly suitable for distance learning and dispersed personnel applications. A special capability of LanguagePro is to rapidly and inexpensively create these powerful learning environments for less commonly taught languages or special purposes. Environments in Farsi, Spanish and Irish will be shown. The developer hopes in time to apply the technology to endangered languages as well as commercial applications.

Virtual Mini-Labs
Jörg Waltje
The Language Resource Center at Ohio University has begun to experiment with “Virtual Mini-Labs.” By sending laptops from an iBook-cart normally used for classroom instruction to rooms designated at certain times for certain languages, we personalize instruction for students and cater to differing learning styles. Faculty members and Teaching Assistants hold office hours in those virtual mini-labs and thus become available to tutor and proctor students who are working on a variety of assignments within a room designated as, for example, the “Spanish Lab” on certain afternoons. Students immensely benefit from more one-on-one tutoring, more opportunities for communication with an instructor and with other students, and more interactive multimedia exercises to reinforce grammatical forms and vocabulary with the help of the computers but also with a language specialist in close proximity. This presentation will describe the project and its results in more detail.

Monitoring Distance Training
Lise Desmarais
Distance training can be delivered through various formats and using different management systems. The Centre for Language Training of the Canadian Foreign Service Institute is monitoring closely the delivery of its distance training programs to insure quality. The monitoring applies to students doing assignments as well as to tutors delivering the training. In this presentation, I will describe the program structure and delivery format, as well as discuss techniques we use and the results of the monitoring process. Our research tends to demonstrate that close monitoring helps increase the participation rate and leads to the delivery of higher quality training. The research also shows that some students are better suited for distance learning than others and that some tutors are better suited than others for this type of training.

Innovative Language Learning: Acquiring a Second Language Using Auralog’s Tell Me More Pro
Peter A. Schultz
Brigitte Crull
This presentation highlights research conducted at Rice University on how learners acquire a second language using Auralog’s Tell Me More Pro. The areas investigated in this project include the language learning objectives defined by the instructors, the actual learning outcomes of the students and how they were measured, and the areas of second language acquisition that were enhanced by using Tell Me More Pro. The presentation includes an instructor of French at Rice who used Tell Me More Pro as a component of her intermediate French course, explaining her objectives for using the software.

Physical and Virtual Space for Web Enhanced Foreign Language Instruction
Ralf Borrmann
The presentation describes a project to create the physical and virtual space for web enhanced and computer assisted foreign language instruction in German in a high school setting. The featured classroom is equipped with a wireless network and laptop computers for the students. The web based environment allows synchronous and asynchronous communication and enables students and teachers to engage in projects and exchanges with the German speaking and studying community. Within the project research is underway on what impact the environment has on the instruction and its effects on the learners.

The Web: A Collaborative Editing Tool for Foreign Language Instruction
Fabienne Gérard
Claudia Griesing
The two presenters will share with the audience their experience in developing collaboratively and implementing a whole year online course for their French Intermediate High students (High School). The topics that will be discussed in this session are: issues relating to the curriculum, didactical coherence and progression, methodological approaches, the editing process, and an evaluation of the students’ progress as well as their reactions to the material.

Food for Thought: Real and Virtual Potluck Parties
Kathryn Murphy-Judy
Last year I presented an incipient K-16 consortium to improve vertical and horizontal articulation. The result is FLEX, the Foreign Language Exchange, that includes monthly potluck food and lessons supported by a web site and e-mail. FLEX has already helped local schools in a recent adoption of iBooks. FLEX has also been approached by other localities as a model. I would like to offer a recipe to educators who are looking to promote real and virtual K-16 sharing of ideas, expertise, and resources with an eye to improving the entire spectrum of FLE in their area.

Increasing Meaningful Exposure, Maximizing Assessment, and Facilitating Evaluation in the High School Classroom Through the Use of Technology
Edwin Braun
This presentation will discuss several ways in which technology can be incorporated into the Advanced Placement High School LOTE Curriculum. Units of practice will be discussed that include the innovative and interactive use of software such as PowerPoint, Imovie, Inspiration, and web page design templates in all phases of the lesson cycle, as well as student comments that demonstrate the students’ reactions to the usefulness and efficacy of these tools. In addition to some specific examples of student work, there will be a brief discussion of how software such as the College Board’s Advanced Placement CD-ROM, BYU Oral Testing Software, Markin 32, and Atajo are being utilized to facilitate evaluation and maximize student progress while preparing for the Advanced Placement Exam.

3:30 – 4:15

Type or Drag, but Don’t Click: A Study on German Word Order
Trude Heift
This presentation reports on the comparative effects on learning outcomes and corrective behavior noted using three different CALL exercise types for German word order practice: typed-entry, drag-and-drop, and multiple-choice. Twenty-seven students of introductory German participated. For all exercise types students received error-specific feedback. Results indicate that students using the drag-and-drop interface performed significantly better than those using multiple choice, but only marginally better than the typed-entry group. The more flexible word-order practice afforded by the drag-and-drop interface in addition to other benefits such as eliminating typing errors and ease-of-use may argue in its favor. 

Improving ESL Learners’ Computer-mediated Communication Skills by Reflecting on Their Discussions in a Virtual Learning Community
Carissa Young
The presenter describes the results of a study which investigated ESL learners’ behaviors when having discussions in a virtual learning community. The learners were asked to reflect upon their online discussions after the task. Results showed that reflection seemed to help these learners recall the strategies they used to solve their communication problems during the task. Also, with the assistance of computer tracking, these learners were aware of the development of arguments. Based on these results, the presenter suggests that reflection upon online discussions be used as a follow-up activity in computer-mediated communication tasks.

Teaching Practices with  Videoconferencing
Emiko Nagatomo
Two experiments in Japanese and French on the pedagogical use of videoconferencing for advanced business students were conducted at the J.H Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies (the MBA-MA program at the Wharton school) and the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania. These projects were developed in collaboration with a university in Japan and a university in France. This presentation will discuss the processes and outcomes with regard to the utilization of this new technology for advanced language and culture instruction.

Integrating Technology into the Teaching of Culture
Ute S. Lahaie
Hajime Kumahata
Rasma Lazda-Cazers
Janet Norden
There are different technology tools that can be used in studying foreign cultures, in learning to communicate in a foreign language, and in making connections with speakers of the target language. Technology can also be an aid for making comparisons between US students’ language and culture and the language and culture of students at a partner institution abroad, or it can be used to help students to participate in communities around the world. The panelists will show different classroom projects that focus on the integration of the 5 Cs into the foreign language classroom, such as a chat classroom exchange with students in Japan, virtual tours to Germany, end-of-the-semester film projects, and the study of Spanish language and culture through digital video.

Student Experience with MPEG-Video CALL on a CD-ROM
Jay Bodine
This presentation is an interim logistics report on CD-ROM-based CALL with quality digitized video, helping students learn to generate correct contextual language (Intermediate German). CALL can now readily incorporate quality digitized video (MPEG on a CD-ROM). This allows exercises designed to practice the same kind of linguistic interactivity as in the classroom and students can practice and be corrected on their generation of real language. The presentation will focus on one video clip in German (also available for English, French, Italian, and Spanish). It will demonstrate a type of exercise that leads students through first mastering the vocabulary in the video clip and then using that vocabulary to interact linguistically in the context of the video. Some exercise techniques are: verification, video guide (true, false, multiple choice), “stop-frame” for confirmation of detail or asking students to assess what the characters are thinking, personalization, contradiction, anticipation of what comes next, reinvention of plot from specific points, hypothesis generation, etc.

Taming Unscripted Authentic Spanish with Gemini
Karen Schairer
The multimedia CD-ROM Matices provides Spanish students with authentic language and cultural experiences. Completed using the Gemini authoring system, Matices includes listening and reading comprehension, vocabulary building activities, and grammar practice that emerge directly from daily life filmed in Mayan Guatemala. Villagers demonstrate traditional ways of growing and harvesting coffee, preparing food, and weaving clothes and share memories of childhood, courtship, and marriage, and overcoming obstacles to achieve goals. Students select video segments by cultural and/or grammatical topic and may alternate between deliberate narrative or native speed. Insights and questions emerging from tracking student use of Matices will be shared.

Web DVD: Broadening the Horizon of Interactive Video
Harold H. Hendricks
Interactive laserdisc opened the door to using precise video sequences as discrete elements for instruction and assessment, and for years we made do with costly, add-on equipment, bulky players, and a variety of programming environments. The internet promises to seamlessly integrate all media together, but the pipeline is often constricted, and the legal issues are many. A computer DVD drive controlled by a web browser offers another possibility to the implementation of authentic video for both personal and classroom language instruction.