2004 Thursday Sessions

CALICO 2004

Conference Presentations
Day One: June 10, 2004

 

10:00 – 10:45 

L1 and L2 Glosses: Their Effects on Incidental Vocabulary Learning
Makoto Yoshii
This study compared the effects of L1 and L2 glosses on incidental vocabulary learning using an Internet-based reading text. The study also examined whether the addition of images to each gloss type would make a difference. Four types of glosses were used for the investigation: L1 text-only, L2 text-only, the combination of L1 text and picture, and the combination of L2 text and picture. The experiment was conducted among 200 Japanese university students using different types of vocabulary tests including both immediate and delayed measures.

AREA1300: Learner Generated Country Study ePortfolios
Bogdan Sagatov
The AREA1300 Series of Area Studies Courses, developed for government analysts and linguists, consists of 100 individual courses, each focusing on a specific country but all employing the same generic ePortfolio designed to guide learners through a study of Internet resources (webliographies) that have been identified for their target country. The ePortfolio consists of 50 questions that cover the entire spectrum of target knowledge: geography, politics, history, economics, literature, philosophy, and so forth. The key components of the AREA1300 courses – the country specific webliographies and the generic ePortfolio – have now been made available on the Internet to guide learners at all levels in independent and collaborative country study projects

Using SRI’s EduSpeak to Teach French Pronunciation
Stephen LaRocca
Powerful tools are now available for those who would like to extend spoken language-learning activities beyond the classroom. Of these, SRI’s EduSpeak software stands out for the degree of detail that can be made available to learners concerning the accuracy of their pronunciation as they practice speaking. A question that surfaces in the design of learning activities is whether detailed feedback to learners helps their learning. This paper reports on a study of third-year French students using computer-based activities with detailed pronunciation scoring and the utility of such software for improving pronunciation.

The Effect of Task Design on Chatroom Communication: Focus on the Learner
Mark Darhower
Drawing on research from the interactionist and sociocultural SLA frameworks, this presentation analyzes the differential effects of task design on chatroom communication in both groups of nonnative speakers and mixed native/nonnative speakers. A variety of chatroom tasks are considered, ranging from tightly structured to highly open ended. Data are generated from previous chat studies, chat transcripts, and student questionnaires from an ongoing chat community of Spanish and ESL learners. Data description includes an analysis of the learners’ goals and attitudes toward both the chat and the assigned tasks. Implications are made for the assignment of chat tasks.

CMC and Foreign Language Development: A Meta-analysis of Research
Steven Thorne
Jonathon Reinhardt
In this paper, we critically review a number of research articles that utilize three frameworks common to CMC/FLL studies: namely, the interactionist, the sociocultural, and the sociolinguistic/pragmatic. Based on our analysis, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and address the primary question of how each paradigm implicitly construes/defines technology, communication, and the learner. In summary, we offer a meta-analysis of CMC/FLL research and discuss implications for educational practice.

MPEG Video CALL and Exercises on a CD-ROM/DVD
Jay Bodine
This will be a preliminary, or interim, report on the logistical experience of supplying students with their own CALL video for homework learning (intermediate German). Better uses of CALL have become possible that can now readily incorporate good digitized video (at least MPEG I or II from a CD-ROM or DVD on the newer Intel or Mac machines). The technology is here to readily and economically digitize our own video, for which we have a license, and then incorporate it with our CALL materials and save it on a CD-ROM/DVD. It becomes a matter of preparing students’ homework based on the video–in preparation for what we do in the interactive classroom and along the same lines, with the same kinds of activities.

Which Authoring Program is Right for You: Evaluation and Comparison
Ryoko Yoshida Keaton
Nobuko Taguchi
This presentation highlights characteristics of various authoring programs and compares them in terms of cost, functions, usability, and learning effectiveness. Programs such as Quia, Hot Potatoes, and Course Builder have been specifically developed for creating learning materials from templates. They are easy to use but offer limited functionality. Other programs, such as Authorware, Director, and Flash, have been developed for creating presentations and animation. Using these programs to create CALL materials requires creativity and some training. Presenters share their experiences and ideas for using these authoring programs and address pedagogical implications with student feedback.

11:00– 11:20 

Adapting Language-learning Interfaces to Individual Learning Styles
Aleata Hubbard
Maxine Eskenazi
In several human-computer interface studies, it has been shown that adapting learning software to the user allows the latter to learn faster and retain more material over a longer period of time. It has also been shown that individuals have different learning styles. It would thus be good if the presentation of language learning software could adapt to the learning style of the individual learner. We devised a method for automatically detecting preferred learning styles (auditory or visual) and tested whether teaching users in that preferred style makes a difference in learning. We will discuss implications for language learning software.

What to Say When: A Look at the Effects of Different Types of Synchronous CMC on Language Learners’ Pragmatic Development
Julie Sykes
The connection between computer-mediated communication (CMC) and Interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) development presents promising possibilities for language learning. This presentation will discuss the results of a study that examined the effects of three types of synchronous group discussion (written chat, oral chat, and traditional face-to-face) on acquisition of target speech acts (refusals of an invitation). Two classes of third-semester Spanish students participated in the small group discussions. They then completed pre and post role-play tasks that elicited the target speech acts. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of these role plays will illustrate the effects that discussion type has on pragmatic development.

Student Attitudes Towards Multiple Intelligences and Technology-based Instruction
Radhika Lothe
Guhan Osman
As foreign language instructors/educators, I am sure you will all testify that student/learner attitudes towards foreign language learning constitute an important criterion in asserting their success and motivation to climb the foreign language ladder. This exploratory study investigates the combined effect of technology and multiple-intelligences-based instruction in a foreign language classroom on student attitudes towards learning a foreign language. It also aims to determine which technologies are conceived to be more beneficial than others and why.

Student ePortfolios: Let’s Tell Students About National Standards
Emi Ochiai Ahn
Many teachers have quietly implemented the 5 Cs of the National Standards, but it is important to give an explicit explanation of the 5 Cs to students, because then they can focus on their learning goals. Student ePortfolios provide a good assessment for student performance on the 5 Cs. The ePortfolio, unlike a regular portfolio, allows students to include sound or video easily and lets other students and teachers access a student’s work conveniently. The presenter will show her students’ ePortfolios that highlight their performance on the 5 Cs, and she will discuss their reactions and further development.

Revisiting Digitized Slowed Audio and the Internet
Jay Kunz
For over a year, beginning foreign language students at Mississippi State University have accessed websites in French, German, Japanese, and Spanish containing digitized audio files at normal and two slower speeds. This presentation describes a follow-up to the first study, which was presented at CALICO 2003. Results of qualitative and quantitative data on student preferences and study strategies as well as website usage will be presented, along with implications for future studies.

Guidelines for Semantic Navigation
Steven D. Tripp
In preparation for building a dictionary browser, an actual navigational interface (a digital chart plotter) was analyzed for design guidelines to be applied to an interactive semantic navigator. WordNet is a lexical database structured as an inheritance system encoding numerous semantic relationships. The guidelines are applied to the design of a browser for WordNet.

A Chat is Not a Chat, so What’s a Good Chat?
Senta Goertler
Kara McBride
Hale Thomas
At a university in the Southwest a new chat server was developed. The purpose of the development was to adapt the chat to the needs of the college teachers and to incorporate continued teachers’ feedback into the development of the program. This study discusses the expectations and experiences of 20 FL teachers with the newly developed and an old obtained program. Based on the survey and interview results and continued communication between teachers and developers a wish list was established. This presentation will discuss the development process and the teachers’ wish list.

11:30– 11:50

 How Interactive is Interactive CALL?
Robert Fischer
Several studies investigating student usage of CALL materials have revealed that students often underuse learning materials or use them in unexpected ways. This study examines students’ use of instructional features in a multimedia French reading program in which selected hyperactive expressions were made more salient through color coding. It then examines the effect of students’ use of the instructional features on their reading comprehension and short-term vocabulary acquisition. Analysis of the results suggests relatively complex interactions among student usage, hyperactive marking, multimedia features, and learning.

Blogging? What Language Do You Speak? Integrating Collaborative Technology into the Foreign Language Classroom
Nicole Grewling
Annie Hesp
Len Cagle
Outside of academia, the use of Web Logs (blogs) has increased considerably over the past few years. Now educators are becoming interested in them as well due to the opportunities they offer for pedagogical purposes. Blogs have the potential to democratize a class, to develop a sense of community through collaboration, and to expand its boundaries through connections with the outside world. This presentation will discuss some pedagogical aspects of using blogs in class and show examples of possible applications in foreign language classes in higher education, with concrete examples from Spanish, French, and German classes.

How Students Experience Reading Foreign Language Texts on the Internet
Ulrike Tallowitz
The possibility of choosing foreign language texts within a hypertext environment allows students to experience autonomy in their learning. However, studies show that Internet texts are difficult since they are not adjusted to the students’ learning level. Constructivist learning theory points to the importance of scaffolding, but its effectiveness depends on how well it meets the needs of learners. This paper describes a Ph.D. research study in a university German class. Think-aloud protocols and interviews show students’ successful problem-solving strategies as well as specific difficulties while reading on the Internet. The significance of the study lies in its pedagogical implications.

The Instructor’s Roles in Asynchronous Computer-assisted Classroom Discussion: Observing Russian Classes
Natasha Anthony
Instructor-scaffolded learner communication is widely viewed as the central locus of communicative language teaching. Extending learner opportunities for engagement in communicative practice in the target language via telecommunications has been widely lauded. However, the potential enhancements to the acquisition process when telecommunications-mediated language-learner discourse is guided by skillful instructor participation, and what an online instructor’s ‘verbal’ support and guidance might actually consist of, have yet to be explored. This presentation discusses the effective online instructional techniques and learner responses to them within transcripts of online class conversations undertaken by US college students learning Russian.

Video Conferencing in Content-based Language Learning Classrooms
Malcolm H. Field
Chris Shepherd
This paper reports the use of video-conferencing media in the language learning classroom from classroom-management, language-learning, and content-learning perspectives. Interaction was between students from a high level private Japanese university and a US State university. The transcription of the interaction showed very little clarification and repetition, questions were left unanswered and exchanges were incomplete, highlighting that video conferencing alone seems to be limited in its application for both the development of language and content over distance. Task-based learning approaches can help to alleviate these factors and are discussed in the paper.

Evaluating Web-based Instruction and B-board Use for an Elementary Japanese Course
Akiko Mitsui
Megumi Hamada
Sono Takano-Hayes
Yuki Yoshimura
The study examined the effect of web-based instruction on learners’ motivation and awareness in learning Japanese as a foreign language. It is widely known that motivation plays important roles in learning a foreign language successfully (Gardner, 2000). However, not much is known about how web-based instruction enhance learners’ motivation and outcome of their learning particularly in learning Japanese orthography. This study addressed the issues of whether there were any differences in learning Japanese orthography (e.g., Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji) between students supported by web-based instruction and those who studied by paper-based practice.

Emiliando: A Project to Generate “Initial Motivation” in Learners of Intermediate Spanish through an Exchange via Email; Proofs of the Increase of Motivation
Roberto Gómez Fernández
Some studies have revealed the effects of the use of email in the motivation of students (e.g., Ushioda, 2000; Cruz Piñol, 2002), but there is a need for calculating this increase and the factors which affect it. The author proposes a study comparing two groups (NS-NS and NNS-NS) studying the progression of their motivation taking into account several factors such as their background, the process, and the effects at the end of the exchange.

2:00– 2:45

 Predicting Scores for Spanish OPIs on ILR and ACTFL Scales
Jared Bernstein
Isabella Barbier
Elizabeth Rosenfeld
This study reports on the feasibility of building a short, computer-administered, and automatically scored Spoken Spanish Test (SST) to predict scores on Oral Proficiency Interviews. Results indicate that, overall, the SST predicts scores for OPIs on ILR and ACTFL scales with the same precision as two independent OPIs predict each other.

New TeLL me More Education, Language Learning Software
Christophe Pralong
The new TeLL me More Education responds to the educational demand of a more comprehensive approach to language learning, while applying the latest in multimedia resources. This new version has been specially designed to meet the needs of educational institutions. TeLL me More has been already adopted by thousands of academic institutions worldwide. Available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic for networked labs, distance learning (Internet), or CD-ROMs.

The Effectiveness of Online Listening and Reading Exercises
Claire Bartlett
Meng Yeh
Chao-mei Shen
We will present two research projects assessing the use of technology for listening and reading comprehension exercises. The first study examines the effectiveness of the implementation of an online Chinese Listening Workbook as compared to that of the original workbook format based on quantitative and qualitative data from the student’s and instructor’s perspective. The second project examines the results of two comparable groups on a series of online reading exercises to explore the effectiveness of Narrow Reading Approach. We will show samples from both studies, discuss results, and provide technical explanation. Both projects use ExTemplate, a Rice University web-authoring tool.

Building Templates for Foreign Language Applications with HTML, JavaScript, and XML
Steve Koppany
Pamela Combacau
Kiril Boyadjieff
The development of online materials requires substantial expertise in both content development and web-related programming. One way of reducing production expenses is to utilize the many opportunities HTML, JavaScript, and XML offer in creating templates. By utilizing MS Front Page, programming models and practices will be demonstrated and discussed including specifics related to right-to-left text systems. The presentation is of interest to Foreign Language educators, program administrators, project managers, and those who have already some expertise in programming with HTML/JavaScript. The offered ideas and techniques carry the potential of cost reductions and resource enhancement.

German Online Dictionary User Skills Project
Lisa M. Hundley
Jonathon Reinhardt
Whether or not they receive explicit instruction, students utilize digital resources like online dictionaries as situated practice embedded in cultures-of-use (Thorne, 2003). Yet, online resources can lead to transformative practice if they are considered mediational tools. Kern (2000) offers a heuristic for designing transformational literacy instruction that can address the development of electronic literacy skills (Shetzer & Warschauer, 2000). Utilizing this framework, the presenters designed instruction to teach online dictionary user skills to 50 lower-intermediate, university-level German students. Students were taught to critically frame the activity of online dictionary use, resulting in transformed practice.

Collaborative Learning Via Technology: What Really Works and How Can I Do It?
Lisa Nalbone
With the benefits of collaborative learning becoming more and more apparent, the application of this learning style in the context of technology in the classroom expands the horizons of this learning strategy. In this discussion, I plan to demonstrate different strategies that implement technology in the collaborative environment. The rationale behind their implementation will show the practical concepts that serve as a model whether or not all of the technology is available in the audience’s institution. The goal is successful, student-centered learning, and, in this case, it becomes enhanced through technology.

Learner Control: Online Digital Integration of Interactive Authentic Resources for Foreign Language Teaching and Learning
John Vitaglione
Giving learners interactive control of the integrated online digital media they use for language learning has specific advantages. Authentic resources from LARC’s Digital Media Archive (DMA) enable learners to access and play materials at specific points that draw on different language competencies. Interactive examples of digital video chapters, multiple language audio and text tracks, panoramic virtual reality, and movie-in-a-movie techniques will be demonstrated using Apple Computer’s cross-platform-compatible QuickTime player. Discussion will include how LARC incorporates these types of digital media within its DMA, its web pages, and its online/distance education courses for language teaching and learning.

3:00– 3:45

The Browser is Dead, Long Live the Web: Delivering Web-based CALL Without Web Browser Hassles
Devin Asay
The World Wide Web brings great reach and ease of delivery to developers of CALL materials. However, the variety of web browsers across multiple operating systems, each using different implementations of “standards,” bring its own headaches to the process. Using web-savvy development tools, it is possible to bypass the browser and produce web-delivered materials in a way that gives you both greater flexibility and control over the end user experience. I will discuss the pros and cons of both approaches and show examples of web-enabled CALL applications developed with Revolution, a commercially available, cross-platform development tool.

Creating a Mobile Language Learning Environment
Read Gilgen
We will describe how we implemented several foreign language learning projects at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, using wireless laptops, PDAs, and tablet PCs, what we have learned about setting up a wireless environment in a humanities context, and how our projects turned out, including results of extensive assessment of student and faculty attitudes.

CALL Outside In: Perspectives from Computational Linguistics
Mathias Schulze
Over the last 30 years, there have been a number of projects whose aim it was to employ natural-language-processing techniques in computer-assisted language learning. Many of these projects were carried out by computational linguists who presented project results at computational linguistics (CL) conferences or in CL journals. Often, these projects received little attention by CALL researchers and developers. In this paper, a selection of such projects will be reviewed, and their significance for developments in CALL will be evaluated. The focus will be on parser-based projects for the improvement of writing skills.

The Web-delivered Teacher’s Unit/Lesson Template
Kathryn Murphy-Judy
Robert Godwin-Jones
We will demonstrate a web template for curricular, unit, and lesson planning. The template takes teachers, especially beginners, through the process of creating a course mission statement all the way to the details of individual activities within a given lesson. The template links to sites of current best theory and practices in language learning and includes references to the ACTFL standards and K-12 Performance Guidelines. It also addresses learners’ styles and intelligences and assessment.

Technology and the Teaching of Foreign Language Across the Curriculum
Nina Garrett
Bradley Gano
Courses in many disciplines present language students with intellectually interesting and personally relevant opportunities to work at advanced levels when special language sections–typically called “Foreign Language across the Curriculum” (FLAC or LxC)–are made available. However, FLAC presents serious challenges with regard to staffing roles and funding. Garrett and Gano will present a model for FLAC that addresses these problems through the use of technology. They will discuss the success of a Yale sociology course’s FLAC section and the use of a web-based application called CRAFT to facilitate students’ study of authentic texts.

Lessons, Tricks, Pitfalls and Mantras: How to Optimize Data Collection and Analysis in CALL Environments
Kara McBride
Mary E. Wildner-Bassett
In addition to the benefits that computers have the potential to bring to the language classroom, they facilitate the collection, storage, sorting, and analysis of language classroom data. The magnitude of this facilitation is limited by little beyond the vision of the researchers involved. Reporting on an extensive data-gathering initiative completing its fourth year, we share lessons learned and techniques developed in survey creation, administration, and analysis; the coding of files and types of data; statistical analyses; meeting Human Subjects requirements; and to what degree processes can be automated and collected data can be turned into a searchable database.

Communicating and Interacting: What Role for Multimedia?
Debra Hoven
As the media we use to communicate in and teach languages matures, it is time we in the profession took stock of what the current research literature is telling us about the effectiveness of communications technologies in the teaching and learning of language, whether these technologies be synchronous, ‘delayed synchronous,’ or asynchronous. In order to help us make informed decisions about what technologies to employ with which student populations, this presentation will examine how our learners are using these technologies to communicate and learn in their second languages, and what differences are emerging among these different modes of human-human and human-computer interactions.

4:00– 4:45

 Learning Management Systems: Essential for Distance FL Learning?
Thomas S. Parry
Wendy W. Tu
Earl Schleske
In the context of technology-mediated autonomous language learning, a learning management system (LMS), if built right, can track the progress of learner proficiency, deliver personalized learning activities, provide a comprehensive view of learner knowledge/skills, measure gains in productivity, and reveal the effectiveness of a course. This presentation will demonstrate the features of a LMS under development at Ft. Huachuca and the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center highlighting features that are essential for language learning and the detailed reporting collected from pilot teaching. Discussion will also focus on whether the LMS is essential for improving FL learning programs.

The Language Laboratory’s New Role in Language Learning
U. Theresa Zmurkewycz
Today’s updated language laboratories have opened up endless possibilities for both teachers and learners at all levels of language study. This presentation will demonstrate some approaches to language teaching that can be incorporated at the beginning through intermediate language courses as well as those that I have used for Business Spanish and Spanish Culture and Civilization. The session will demonstrate the use of programs created by textbook publishers, using peer editing on the Tandberg system, websites for educational purposes, teacher-generated activities and online research. Although the examples will be for Spanish students, they can be adapted to all languages.

Utilization of a Coefficient of Variation for Comparing Nonnative and Native Mandarin Intonation
Garry Molholt
John Morgan
Although real-time displays of pitch contours provide visual insight into comparisons of patterns of different speakers, indications of the absolute Hertz level are also misleading. For example, though a change from 200 Hertz to 400 Hertz appears to be much greater than a change from 70 to 140, the two changes are similar in that they both cover one octave. By creating visual displays which show the relative change, therefore, we are able to better represent the similarities and differences of the intonation of nonnative and native speakers. This presentation is designed to show how a coefficient of variation provides the means for comparing the relative changes of a student’s voice with a native speaker model. In order to determine the appropriate level of the coefficient, while allowing for appropriate flexibility, a baseline study was conducted involving analysis of 50 sentences spoken by 300 native speakers. Statistics derived from this study also show levels of variation according to gender, age, education level, and geographic region of the subjects.

Using Speech Data to Assess Reading Proficiency
June Y. Sison
Joseph E. Beck
The Reading Tutor is a computer tutor that uses automated speech recognition (ASR) technology to listen to children read aloud and helps them learn how to read. The research reported here uses ASR output to predict students’ GORT fluency posttest scores. Using a linear regression model, we achieved correlations of over .80 for predicting first through fourth graders’ performance. Our model’s predictive ability is on par with standard public school reading assessment measures. This work contributes to a better understanding of automated student assessment in language tutors and introduces methods for accounting for noisy ASR output.

CALL and Teacher Training: A Chance to Reflect on What Should be Taught and Why
Volker Hegelheimer
Chapelle and Hegelheimer (2003) argue that technology has become integral to the ways in which ELT professionals teach, create materials, and even the way they conceptualize the profession in the 21st century. However, future teachers enrolled in MA programs may not necessarily realize the pervasiveness of technology or simply disagree with the concept that technology can enhance language learning. Their vision for computer use in their profession is initially limited to managerial and presentation tasks. However, their healthy skepticism/criticism, which is frequently absent in publications about CALL, provides professionals in CALL with the opportunity to ponder their assumptions.

Input Enhancement in Computer-generated Recasts
Ken Petersen
A common salience-enhancing characteristic of recasts in oral interaction is the addition of stress or emphasis on the feature that is being corrected. This study examines issues related to salience in recasts and input enhancement in a CALL environment by engaging a group of 28 high school level-two learners of Russian in a series of picture description tasks. Throughout the treatment, experimental groups were exposed to (a) no feedback, (b) unenhanced recasts, or (c) recasts enhanced with visual input enhancements. Results indicate that recasts have a significant effect on the acquisition of both lexical and morphosysntactic forms.

Effects of CALL Approaches on EFL College Students’ Learning of Verb-Noun Collocation
Hsien-Chin Liou
Crystal Tunpei Chan
English verb-noun (V-N) miscollocation has been found to be a dominant lexical weakness among EFL learners based on learner corpus analyses. This project built six online units on collocation with pedagogical designs for inductive and deductive teaching with four major V-N types and a bilingual concordancer to investigate whether 70 college learners would benefit from such practice through 7 weeks. Research questions address the impact of factors such as learners’ prior collocation knowledge, different types of V-N collocation, and different online teaching methods on the effectiveness of collocation learning, besides the overall effect, retention, and learners’ perception via measures of pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest.