2005 Saturday Sessions

CALICO 2005

Conference Presentations
Day Three: May 21, 2005

8:00 – 8:45

Foreign Language Teaching in Interactive Multimedia Laboratory Settings
Marinella Garatti

This paper reports on findings from a study conducted among Intermediate-level college students of Italian learning the present subjunctive in an interactive multimedia laboratory setting which allows for data recording of language input, student-student interaction, and output. In addition to providing insights into student achievement and preferences for different instructional tasks, the study discusses strengths and challenges of foreign language teaching in this instructional setting.

Noticing in Text-based Online Chat
Chun Lai
Current research on text-based online chat has yielded rich documentation of its social and motivational effects and of the quality of negotiated interaction produced in this context. However, to fully realize the potential of text-based online chat, a deeper understanding of its cognitive effects is much needed. This study is an effort along this line and investigated the potential of text-based online chat for promoting ‘noticing.’ The study found that text-based online chat had great strength in terms of facilitating learners’ noticing of their own linguistic mistakes. Furthermore, some features of discourse in text-based online chat also lent support to its potential in facilitating second language learning.

Weblogs and Wikis in the EFL Classroom
Richard S. Lavin
Weblogs have recently garnered much attention for their potential to foster the writing habit and to engender a stronger feeling of ownership than is possible with closed-community discussion forums. To a lesser extent, wikis–a class of networked editable writing environments–have also attracted attention since they appear to lend themselves to peer editing and the co-construction of knowledge. The present study describes the use made by the presenter of weblogs, wikis, and discussion forums in EFL tertiary contexts and attempts to draw conclusions regarding the nature of the respective media and pedagogically sound uses that play to their strengths.

Reality in Virtuality: Enhancing Authenticity of Role Play in Language Learning through CMC
Jiang Pu
Fei Gao
Yong Zhao
Role play has been widely used as a strategy in foreign/second language learning to simulate authentic communication opportunities that allow learners to practice what they have learned. However in traditional classrooms, the authenticity of such simulation suffers from the fact that the learners are often too familiar with each other to pretend to be someone else and that visual existence of the reality of the context affects their ability to fantasize. The lack of authenticity can significantly reduce the effectiveness of role play as a pedagogical strategy. The potential of being anonymous and seeing a visual presentation of intended context of CMC technologies may, paradoxically, bring about a higher degree of authenticity than the traditional face-to-face classroom. For example, ActiveWorlds, a 3-D online chatting environment, with built-in anonymity and spatiality, gives students great room for imagination and thus might enhance their perception of its authenticity. This study proposes to examine the potential of ActiveWorlds in promoting learners’ perception of the authenticity of role play.

Using Moodle for Teaching Business English in a CALL Environment
Thomas Robb
Moodle is an open source course management system (CMS) that is in many ways superior to the expensive ‘high end’ products such as WebCT and Blackboard. The presenter will demonstrate how Moodle, with some special enhancements, has been made the center piece of the Business English course for English majors at Kyoto Sangyo University. It is used to take attendance, provide practice materials, administer quizzes, collect written assignments and return them with feedback, and, finally, to extract data for final evaluations. Observations will be made on how the course has changed since the adoption of Moodle.

Creative Uses of Audio and Video in the Foreign Language Classroom
Gregory Menke
Cecilia Barbudo
Marina Cobb
Tarek Elgendy
Hanan Khaled
Soondeuk Kim
A panel of presenters from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) will demonstrate creative uses of audio and video media for teaching Arabic, Korean, Kurdish, Russian, and Spanish exemplifying principals of teaching for proficiency in the communicative task-based classroom and demonstrating the use of technology for enhancing interactivity in the classroom. Activity templates and step-by-step instructions for development and implementation will be provided. Some of the programs utilized include SMART Board Notebook software, Microsoft Office, Adobe Audition, and Ulead Video Studio 7.

9:00 – 9:45

A Designed Case for a New Theory for Teaching Freshman English in a Hybrid Web-based Course
Gi-Zen Liu
The researcher created an instructional case to develop guidelines (including speaking, listening, reading, and writing) for teaching EFL to first-year undergraduate students in a hybrid Web-based course (including both classroom and online contexts) in Taiwan. This study utilized the broad framework of instructional design theory (Reigeluth, 1999) to develop guidelines and used formative research methodology to collect and analyze data to refine the guidelines in the theory in a five-stage process. He used two rounds of expert review to collect and analyze formative data on the case and then used the data to refine the case and the guidelines.

Integrated Courseware for Beginning Language Instruction: The Auf geht’s! Project
Lee Forester
Anne Green
This session will give an overview of Auf geht’s!, an integrated curriculum for beginning college German language and culture, and describe the results of the first full pilot year, 2004-05. The Auf geht’s! curriculum consists of multimedia software, print materials, web resources, and communicative classroom activities designed to work together, emphasizing the unique strengths of each learning medium. The main elements of the program will be demonstrated and initial findings of student learning and attitudes described, especially in relation to the multimedia software materials.

Corpus CALL: Opportunities and Challenges
Hans Paulussen
Piet Desmet
Recently, the use of text corpora has gained momentum in language technology and in linguistics, but the advantages of this type of textual resources in language learning and CALL still remain underestimated. If collected and annotated in a systematic way, text corpora can be useful not only as a reference tool (e.g., learner dictionary or grammar), but also as an effective part of learning activities (e.g., automatic generation of exercises, active support of the learning activity, and generation of feedback). We will illustrate how we use parallel corpora in the development of corpus-based CALL materials.

Creating Technology-enhanced Materials for Innovation
Rebecca L. Oxford
Sei-Hwa Jung
Ying Zhang
This presentation shares experiences in creating technology-enhanced materials for English language learners in a recently established Materials Design and Technology course in the Second Language Education Program at the University of Maryland. Presenters discuss how they used technology to create new materials and learning environments for English language learners and how the course promoted cooperative learning and individual responsibility among class members. The presentation highlights not only the process and the products of this innovative course but also the theoretical foundations underlying it.

Use of Cohesive Devices in Synchronous and Asynchronous CMC in Japanese
Maki Hirotani
The need for a better understanding of language use in the CMC environment is called for in order to provide appropriate CMC applications to learners for the achievement of a higher level of targeted linguistic features, including linguistic complexity and cohesiveness. The researcher qualitatively examines cohesiveness in the chat and bulletin board environment. Using discussion data from learners of Japanese, she looks at various types of cohesive devices and examines how each type was used and how the learners’ cohesive skills were developed over a period of time. Based on the findings, she proposes possible CMC applications for developing learners’ cohesive skills.

Internet-based Reading–Vocabulary Learning and Lookup Behavior
Makoto Yoshii
This study examines the incremental nature of vocabulary learning through reading for comprehension using Internet-based materials. The study was conducted for more than two months with 45 Japanese university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. The participants read six texts (in total more than 5,000 words) for comprehension purposes. A program was created to present reading texts with an electronic dictionary component which allowed the researchers to keep track of learners’ lookup behavior. The study looks at the change in students’ vocabulary knowledge and also examines the relationship between the vocabulary test scores and the lookup data.

Task-based Language Teaching in CALL
Junko Hondo
This presentation focuses on a technology-enhanced foreign language program via a web-based voice-board system. Limited exposure to the target language outside of the classroom poses challenges to the learners and instructors of all foreign languages. In this study of a Japanese language program, students collaborated outside the classroom to enhance oral production and listening comprehension as an extension of their class work. In an effort to maximize the functionality of the voice board, task-based instruction was incorporated as the method of stimulating student collaboration. The descriptive results indicate benefits in addressing the special challenges of foreign language acquisition.

10:00 – 10:45

Situated Research in Video Study Groups: A Critical Framework for World Language Education
François Tochon
Video allows for “situated research,” referring to lived experience for the purpose of understanding and reflection. Video has thus freed research from an exclusively laboratory-based approach and broadens it to include self-viewing and other-viewing in reflective groups. Video feedback offers one means of contributing to the intersubjective meaning-making process. As such, it constitutes one of the loci of validation of knowledge. Video feedback can be seen as an applied semiotic process through which world language learners and teachers make sense of their actions. The resulting attention has implications for how language learning and teaching are conceived and studied at various levels.

CMC Technologies for Teaching Foreign Languages: What’s on the Horizon?
Peter A. Lafford
Barbara Lafford
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies have begun to play an increasingly important role in the teaching of foreign/second languages. In this presentation, various established and “cutting-edge” CMC technologies that facilitate asynchronous and synchronous oral and written communication will be described and evaluated vis-à-vis the feasibility of their pedagogical application to the teaching of foreign/second languages. Various foreign language learning scenarios using these technologies in task-based activities will also be proposed. This presentation concludes with a discussion focusing on the challenges facing the implementation of these technologies (e.g., accessibility, compatibility, and financial considerations) and some possible solutions to those problems.

Teaching about Post-reunification Germany: Issues, Challenges, and Technology
Bernhard T. Streitwieser
Franziska Lys
Fifteen years after the reunification of East and West Germany, a heated debate rages on over the legacy of communism and the continuing impact of 1989. A new course at Northwestern University explores this debate through innovative use of the Blackboard course management system. This presentation will share use of internet technology (e.g., video-audio links to archives, documentary footage, famous recordings, academic articles, newspaper reports, Internet sites, online quizzes, and virtual discussions) to involve undergraduates in debate, engaging them in ways deviating from traditional teaching models. We will also present results of a preliminary study on learning and technology to test the course’s impact.

Who, When, Why, What: How Computer Technology is Used in Higher Education
Nike Arnold
This presentation reports the findings of a web survey about the use of computer technology for foreign language teaching in higher education. The responses of teaching assistants, lecturers, and faculty from selected colleges and universities in the Southeast were used to answer the following questions: Who uses computer technology for their teaching? How is it used? Why is it used? Why is computer technology not used more often? This presentation contributes to a better understanding of the status quo of technology use and provides essential information for lab directors, supervisors, and administrators to help address the needs and concerns of their teachers.

Tierra Adentro-Spanish Electronic Newsletter
Adolfo Carrillo Cabello
Robert Irvin
Students studying abroad are a very valuable first-hand source of information that this project utilizes as a unique source of cultural materials that help to foster more awareness of cultural diversity in and outside the language classroom. This project shows the use of basic image and audio technology to develop a web site that consists of student reports from abroad. Using our own students in developing online materials has increased their peers’ interest in other cultures while they learn from their experiences abroad. This in turn has enhanced the sense of ‘ownership’ of this valuable learning resource.

DiLL–The All Digital Audio Lab Solution for the Macintosh-equipped Computer Lab
Janine Spencer
Matthew Taylor
This presentation will introduce the Digital Learning Lab (DiLL), a new software solution for Macintosh-equipped computer labs developed by the Multimedia Learning Center at Northwestern University. DiLL incorporates all of the important features of traditional analog language lab systems and also provides additional innovative capabilities such as a database-driven audio-cataloging system, safeguarding and web-enabled review of student work from a web browser, and variable audio playback. After final deployment, testing, and refinement at Northwestern, the Multimedia Learning Center will begin licensing the software to interested outside institutions starting in summer, 2005.

11:00 – 11:20

Demonstration of German Elementary I, Internet Course
Annemarie Pajewski
The presenter will demonstrate course tools used to develop/teach a two-year-college four-semester, transferable German Internet course Mesa Community College. Having been taught for 2 years, with Deutsch Heute and a QUIA component. Platform makes use of WebCT, and GoLive. The web course tools to develop/maintain online course material include: course management, images, icons, uploading files. The web site contains a content module, organizer page, discussion, chat, assignment dropbox, WebCT email/oral assignments, bulletin board/themes, grade book, Respondus-Quizzes, and equation editor for MAC/PC (PDF). Oral assignments use PureVoice. Links are used for grammar, chapter deadlines, submission dates, cultural/linguistic information. For more information, see http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~pajewski

A Report on Efforts to Identify and Promote Online Language Learning Resources at the DLIFLC
Gregory Menke
This presentation highlights teacher-training efforts to promote the use of authentic materials gathered from the Internet in the teaching of a wide variety of less commonly taught languages at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) in Monterey, CA. As part of a 20-hour workshop, teachers are trained to use digital audio and video recording software coupled with Internet resources and then expected to develop a project for presentation. The concerns, suggestions, reservations, and problems encountered by those teachers having completed this training will be discussed.

Dissemination of Technology-based Language Instructional Materials
Yong Zhao
Chun Lai
The underutilization of computers and other innovations in education has been widely recognized. While much has been invested in developing technology-based interventions to support language learning, few have been widely adopted and used regularly in the classroom. A well meant innovation amounts to nothing if not adopted, and, thus, successful dissemination of these materials is the premise of the intended benefit. Therefore, an understanding of the factors that inhibit or facilitate their adoption is of great importance in that it informs both the development and dissemination processes. This study proposes to enrich our understanding on this issue through investigating the dissemination of the language instructional materials developed by the federally funded national language resource centers.

Developing Competencies through the Use of a Webfolio and a Discussion Board
Martine Peters
Future language teachers nowadays are encouraged to reflect and follow the development of their various competencies during their teacher education program. In an effort to understand the development of technical competencies and reflective skills of future language teachers, this research project analyzed the use of a webfolio and a discussion board by the students over a three month period. Students were asked to comment on various aspects of language learning and teaching. Conclusions on the use of technological tools such as the webfolio and the discussion board to develop competencies will be discussed.

Collaboratively Building a Learning Community through Online Games
Kazue Masuyama
Andrea Shea
We will describe the collaboration between a Japanese language instructor and a computer specialist at California State University, Sacramento, in building a learning community through use of interactive activities. The primary focus will be on a set of online games called “Hiragana and Katakana Drag-n-Drop.” First the instructor will share her motivation in seeking such games. The computer specialist will then discuss the steps taken in the design, development, and implementation of the games. Based on comments from surveys and interviews with students, effective ways to incorporate these successful online games into the course will be shared.

Building Virtual Communities of Practice in TESOL
Valia Spiliotopoulos
Stephen Carey
A research project conducted at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) English Language Institute explored the nature and dynamics of international teachers’ virtual participation in an online course of Advanced English Language Teaching. Through discourse analysis, this research hopes to assess whether meaningful online communication and full participation were achieved by all members of this virtual community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991). The findings of this research can help to solve common challenges in online teacher development courses so as to maximize international participation of virtual communities of practice in the field of teaching English as a second/foreign language.

The Design and Implementation of a Web-based Dictation Homework System
David Sperling
This presentation describes the design and implementation of a web-based dictation system which assesses the listening comprehension skills of students at any level in language courses. While the system was implemented in English, it may be used with many other languages. The web application allows nonprogrammers to create dictation exercises for large classes with a few clicks of the mouse. The system centrally stores the dictation results in a database. The program allows teachers to view student progress/activity scores for the length of the course.

11:30 – 11:50

Building Speech Corpora with Flash
Jack Franke
Natasha Ananenko
The Macromedia Flash program has revolutionized CALL and is ubiquitous throughout the world. The access to foreign language utterances in a corpora can enhance the awareness of foreign language learners. At the next level of electronic portfolios, students can access a corpora to see/hear various speaking samples. The corpus, which has been constructed from a selection of student recordings, contains samples based on the construct of the ILR OPI. The corpora are provided in a Flash interface for ease of use and will be provided to all participants.

Preservice Teachers’ Perception of Using Technology in Teaching ESOL Students
Zhaohui Chen
This qualitative study examined preservice teachers’ perceptions of using technology in teaching English as a second language (ESOL) students. Online survey and semistructured interview were used to collect data from 25 preservice teachers from an urban public university in southeastern United States. Findings provided information on preservice teachers’ beliefs for the use of technology in teaching English as a second language to ESOL students with diverse language backgrounds and reflected possible factors that would influence their decision to use or not use technology. In light of teacher education, the study would inform the design and delivery of distance learning courses in preservice teachers’ professional development.

Proving IT Works: A Critical Transition
Christina Huhn
In current CALL literature, our research focus remains primarily on very specific learner outcomes, rather than looking at our overall pedagogy and advancement of the field. This focus can have detrimental effects on both individual projects and the overall advancement of the field, and it is becoming more critical that we shift our focus. The presentation will discuss one researcher’s experience, where the research project began as a traditionally designed research project, but early results forced the researcher to reconsider the project from a new perspective. This shift revealed not only additional issues to be addressed in the project, but also strong potential for contributions to current research.

The Effects of Learning Units on Synonymous Adjectives for College EFL Students
Yuli Yeh
Yi-Hsin Lee
This study aims to design and evaluate online learning units for helping Taiwanese college EFL learners avoid using the five most frequently overused adjectives in writing. Each unit presents two tasks. The first task requires students to induce patterns from instances in a bilingual concordancer, TANGO. Then in the second task, learners do substitution, blank-filling, and translation exercises to actively practice employing a more specific adjective in context. A tracking device and individual notepad provided by the system, together with interviews will record students’ learning processes. The instruments used include a pretest, two posttests, in addition to background and evaluation questionnaires.

Using Multipoint ISDN Videoconferencing and Blackboard to Meet the Needs of EFL Teachers in Mexico
Ruth Roux
The scarcity and dispersion of qualified language teacher educators in the northeast Mexico presents difficulties for the implementation of a much needed BA program in English language teaching. To solve the problem, a distance learning project was developed to help teachers and students in six cities communicate using ISDN conferencing and web-based learning technology. The presenter will provide an overview of how technology is used to deliver one of the courses in the program: teacher research. The presenter will also discuss the results of a study that examines the perceptions of students on the extent to which technology meets their learning needs.

Evaluation of Educational Software
Juan Garcia
The introduction of computers in the classroom has provoked a massive production of educational software, the quality of which is questionable in some cases, or does not adapt to classroom needs. Teachers find an overwhelming quantity of material that they need to evaluate before using it in class. A good evaluation system is required in order to choose the appropriate educational software and to maximize its benefits for learning. Several evaluation methods will be discussed in the presentation, taking as a point of reference an example of software to teach foreign languages.

Using Multimedia and Internet in Proficiency-oriented Foreign Language Teaching
Marat Sanatullov
Elvira Sanatullova-Allison
The session discusses the use of the HyperStudio multimedia program as well as Macromedia Web Design Studio 4 in a proficiency-oriented foreign language teaching. The presenters demonstrate the adaptation of Alexander Dumas’ story, The Three Musketeers, to contextualize the practice of reading, listening, writing, speaking and viewing skills for novice learners of French. The session also presents a WebQuest, an internet- and inquiry-based project in which intermediate learners of French investigate the culture and geography of France in order to select the best host for Summer Olympic Games in France.

1:30 – 2:15

EPortfolio–Key to Authentic Assessment
Jan Marston
Every language learner in DULAP (Drake University Language Acquisition Program) develops and presents an ePortfolio which begins with a statement of the learner’s objectives for the semester. The purpose of the ePortfolio is to demonstrate how those objectives are achieved along the course of the semester by including selections of the learner’s language work, such as digital video clips, sound bites, mediated chat transcripts, as well as more formal writing samples, reflective writing, study group project, self-evaluations, and peer evaluations. Creating this proof of objectives met gives students a sense of ownership, self-awareness, and purpose about their language learning.

Computer Adaptive Tests in English as a Second Language
Miguel Fernandez
Computer adaptive tests (CATs) started being used as an alternative method of assessing language acquisition. However, there are still some disadvantages in their use. Are they as practical, valid and reliable as paper and pencil tests? This presentation will show when, how, and why to administer both kinds of tests.

Data-driven Learning in Second Language Writing Instruction
Brenda Ross
J. Scott Payne
Data-driven learning (DDL) is a research-as-pedagogy approach to language learning that places corpus analysis software in the hands of language learners and encourages them to take on the role of researchers. Results from a study are presented addressing the question of whether DDL can help language students improve their writing skills. Student writing samples, questionnaires, and video data were analyzed together with the behavior-tracking data generated from the KWICionary. Implications for second language writing instruction are discussed.

Using the Wimba Voice Board in Foreign Language Courses: A Communicative Integration Plan
María Isabel Charle Poza
Computer conferencing technologies are increasingly being used in second language acquisition. They have expanded the communicative reach of the classroom by breaking the time and space barriers of that environment. Additionally, it is now possible to add the dimension of voice to these text-based technologies. The challenge for language educators today is to find ways to effectively integrate this new tool into their teaching. To address this need, a simple plan will be presented that includes sample activities using the Wimba voice board, as well as guidelines that will aid instructors to effectively integrate computer conferencing technologies into language courses.

A Tale of Convergence: Asynchronous Communication Between Beginning Native Speakers and Nonnative Speakers of Spanish
Cynthia Ducar
Brittany Lindsey
This correlational study analyzes dyadic interactions between native speakers (NS) of Spanish and nonnative speakers of Spanish (NNS) via discourse analysis. Data was collected utilizing online conferencing. Transcripts were coded and analyzed using MS Excel. The following research questions were addressed: Will CMC facilitate accommodation and negotiation in NS and NNS groups? Will both populations show evidence of English influence? Will NS produce a greater amount of language than NNS, as measured by word count? The NS-NNS pairs produced authentic interactions, resulting in complex outputs. The ability to communicate anonymously restructured traditional classroom interaction, resulting in increasingly equal participation between NS and NNS.

German Express: The Foreign Service Institute’s Online Familiarization Course and its Utilization at the United States Military Academy–A Successful Pilot Project
Johannes Vazulik
Peter Rowell
In this pilot project, first-, second-, and third-year German students used the online course German Express for review, reinforcement, enrichment, and remediation of language skills and cultural knowledge. German Express features a powerful speech recognizer, authentic video clips, interactive vocabulary and grammar exercises, a succinct grammar reference, the well known publication These Strange German Ways, and a lexicon. Contextual listening and speaking activities address daily functions and handling emergencies. Presenters will discuss pre- and postmeasures of students’ foreign language production and cultural awareness. They will also report learners’ and instructors’ perceptions regarding German Express’s effectiveness as an ancillary instructional tool.

Distance ESL Teaching: Tips and Techniques
Darcy Christianson
This presentation will review a few of the current methodologies as well as provide tips and techniques for effective distance ESL learning and teaching, taking into consideration issues such as cross-cultural communication and course design. Useful, low-cost tools for collaboration and communication will also be reviewed and discussed.

2:30 – 3:15

Web Audio Lab: A Hybrid Web/CD/ftp Audio Recorder with Teacher Review
Richard Feldman
While task-based communicative activities are surely the most valid for class use, students need opportunities to repeat, transform, and generate speech in a guided environment. The program described in this presentation gives students the opportunity to record their voice in response to programmed input, compare their speech to the model, and submit to the teacher. The teacher can then check the class generally for submissions, scan certain exercises, or listen comprehensively to student recordings. The program has been used with beginning courses and intermediate pronunciation courses and has a wide range of applications. It has been received enthusiastically.

Chatting in the Year of Languages
Bonnie L. Youngs
Technology use in language classrooms must incorporate sound language teaching methodology practices. In this Year of Languages, we must examine ‘tried and true’ technologies to improve our overall view of technology and technological innovations. As professionals, we approach chat in varied ways, but we must still ask: ‘How can we implement chat for the greatest benefit to our students?’ In this session, we investigate different chat tasks to understand when chat ‘works’ and does not. In order to better inform our teaching practices, in conjunction with second language acquisition theory, we examine student language in quality and quantity, produced via various chat assignments.

Towards the Automatic Evaluation of Fluency
Garry Molholt
John Morgan
Sherri Bellinger
In order to evaluate fluency of learners of Arabic, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, and Spanish, an automatic speech recognition system (ASR) is configured to output duration data of speech segments. The duration data are used to calculate measures such as the pace, articulation rate, and phonation/time ratio, which indicates the amount of space within the utterances. In addition to measuring the values for a large number of speakers, native speakers were asked to provide perceptual data to determine the salience of the various parameters regarding their perceptions of fluency.

Redesigning Introductory Spanish: Increased Enrollment, Online Management, Cost Reduction, and Effects on Student Learning
Robert Sanders
Integration of online course management (WebCT) in a year-long beginning Spanish program allowed enrollment growth of 85% (250 students per term) and decreased cost per student by 29% while lowering section sizes from 30 to 25 students each. Course design and assessment from 2 years of implementation are discussed: student retention, successful course completion, and scores on the Brigham Young University web-based Computerized Adaptive Placement Exam were comparable to those of traditional instruction. Student satisfaction was also high, but proficiency results (certified by the ACTFL) were mixed. Lessons learned will be shared.

Interactivity System Analysis, AIM, and Pedagogical Innovation
Steve Thorne
Arlo Bensinger
Jonathon Reinhardt
Dana Webber
This research uses activity theory to analyze a CMC-based pedagogical innovation in a Spanish language high school classroom. Our qualitative interactivity system analysis suggests that as students and teachers create a new activity system through the use of CMC, factors that come into play include the heterogeneous cultures of use of Internet communication tools, shifting expectations of rules, changes in the division of labor, and ultimately the potential for a reformation of social identities on the part of both students and the instructor. This presentation concludes with a discussion of the use of activity theory as a change agent within educational practice.

Spanish Prepositions POR and PARA in a Universal Mythology Contextualized Inductive Choose Your Own Adventure Style CALL Tool
Justin P. White
Research suggests that the formal schema and cultural schema of a text affects comprehension (Carrell, 1992). This study evaluates the design of a CALL tool prototype adhering to the cultural and formal schema posited by the theory of universal mythology (Joseph Campbell, 1968). The multimedia tool is designed to facilitate the acquisition of the Spanish prepositions por and para in an inductive learning environment structured as a choose your own adventure style story. Design evaluating data are collected through participants’ surveys, pre-/posttests, and investigator observations. Implications are drawn and suggestions are provided for improvements on future versions.

Anonymity and Negative Feedback
Chun Lai
Wei Qiu
Qi Chen
Yong Zhao
The importance of negative feedback in second language learning has long been conceptualized and verified for its capacity to evoke learners’ noticing of the “holes” in their interlanguage systems. However, the provision of negative feedback in face-to-face situation might be inhibited by sociocultural concerns. On the other hand, studies have shown that anonymity might free learners of these constraints, help them interact more freely, and thus provide more negative feedback to each other when detected. This study proposes to examine the link between anonymity mediated via CMC and provision of negative feedback in a peer review situation.