CALICO 2006
Conference Presentations
Day Three: May 20, 2006
8:00 – 8:45
Empowering Online Language Learning: The Chinese LearnLab in the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center
Sue-mei Wu
Mark Haney
This presentation will demonstrate an online Chinese course being developed at Carnegie Mellon University as a LearnLab course for the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center (PSLC). The LearnLab course aims to leverage web technologies to provide effective learning experiences for students and to gather rich data on student learning that will enable in vivo research studies of the learning process. Results of the research enabled by the course are expected to inform improvements to the online learning experience provided by the course, resulting in a continuous cycle of improvement that will empower online language learning. In addition to the demonstration, the presenters will also discuss the technologies utilized and the challenges of integrating diverse goals and knowledge domains in the project.
The Effect of a Learning-style-based Computer Application on Learners’ Processing Behavior
Tadayoshi Kaya
Do language learners process data differently if they are provided with a CALL application that matches their learning styles? In order to investigate this issue, an empirical study with 140 Japanese university students was conducted. After being judged on their learning styles through questionnaires, the participants were assigned either learning-style matched computerized materials or unmatched materials for English vocabulary learning. Based on the computer log files that were stored while the participants were learning vocabulary, the effect of computerized material adjustments according to learners learning styles on learners behavior will be examined.
Minimizing Difficulties: Utilizing SCMC to Enhance Interlanguage Pragmatic Developmen
Julie M. Sykes
Synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) and pragmatic instruction in the foreign language classroom have the combined potential to enhance L2 Interlanguage pragmatic (ILP) development at various competency levels. This study combines pragmatic instructional theory with current SCMC research to provide guidelines for utilizing SCMC in the classroom for ILP acquisition. The unique combination of these areas offers the possibility to overcome many of the obstacles to ILP instruction by allowing for individual preferences, varied roles, lessened pragmatic pressure, and limited requirement of instructor intervention. Five guidelines for the use of SCMC in ILP development as well as sample activities are given.
Using Eye Movement Analysis tools to Predict Language Proficiency
Martha E. Crosby
Christoph Aschwanden
David E. Ashworth
This research describes how EventStream, computer software that employs features for creation of experiments, setup, data storage, data replay, export, and analysis, can facilitate experiments in language comprehension. An experiment was performed to show an example of how this software can help language researchers. The focus of the study was the analysis of the participants comprehension strategy, where the strategy was defined as all the eye movements and operations involved from reading the text to answering the questions. The software is also able to record other aspects of the users activity and synchronize all of the data streams.
Tutorial Interaction Online or Face-to-face–Much of a Muchness?
Annette Duensing
Ursula Stickler
For students studying languages at a distance, synchronous audio or video conferencing via the Internet is so far the most promising way of offering genuine interaction, that is, to communicate in real time, synchronously, with other speakers of the target language (Hampel & Hauck 2004). However, can online tutorials offer interactivity equally beneficial to student learning as could the old face-to-face variety? To answer this question a sample of face-to-face and online tutorials for the same German course at the Open University (UK) was recorded and then examined using OSR N6 and Social Network Analysis.
Intelligent CALL–New Avenues for Empirical Research
Trude Heift
Mathias Schulze
The employment of techniques from artificial intelligence in CALL–often described as Intelligent CALL (ICALL)–has opened up new avenues for empirical research. The improvement and consolidation of artificial intelligence techniques such as natural language understanding and generation as well as student profiling and modeling provide innovative approaches to the development of language-learning software. At the same time, ICALL applications provide applied linguists with information rich data about learners, learning processes, and learning outcomes. We will identify current developments and results in ICALL and discuss their impact on CALL and its empirical studies.
Investigating the Promise of Learner Corpora
Carol A. Chapelle
Mohammad Haji-Abdolhosseini
This paper reports on our analysis of a commercially available learner corpus (The International Corpus of Learner English) which sought robust, quantitative evidence for ESL learners grammatical development as shown in past SLA research. We describe the methodology we used to (a) segment the corpus into proficiency levels using demographic information in the corpus and quantitative analysis of the text, (b) obtain external criterion measures of level, (c) identify key indicators of development that have been found on SLA research, and (d) statistically test for robust predictors of level.
9:00 – 9:45
ESL Students’ Use of a Transcript and Subtitles in a Multimedia Listening Unit
Maja Grgurovic
This presentation reports on a study investigating the use of two help options (a lecture transcript and target language subtitles) in a multimedia listening unit containing a video of an academic lecture. While working on the unit, ESL learners in an academic listening class were offered help options in cases of comprehension breakdowns, and their interactions were tracked using a screen capturing program. This presentation will add to the understanding of help options in CALL materials by describing students navigational patterns, comparing the use of two help options, and pointing out differences between learners at two proficiency levels.
Models for Content-Language Collaboration: Technology to the Rescue
Madeline Spring
Robert L. Davis
Content-based Instruction (CBI) has become a key component in the development of advanced language proficiency. But many language teachers lack advanced content knowledge, and content experts lack the expertise and techniques necessary to make content accessible to language learners. This session will present a variety of models for collaboration between language teachers and content experts that hinge crucially on web-based resources and tools. Target languages include Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish, and materials demonstrated will cover levels ranging from Intermediate to Superior.
Student-produced Photo Documentaries: An Innovative and Effective
Jack Burston
This presentation demonstrates the use of student-produced photo documentaries in the foreign language curriculum and describes the pedagogical benefits that can be derived from their exploitation. Photo documentaries combine still images, titling, audio narrations, background music, and visual effects into a video clip. Using freely available Windows programs, they are very easy to produce and can be undertaken either as individual or small group projects. They lend themselves well to a wide range of innovative applications at all levels of linguistic competence: family albums, advertisements, real or imagined trips, study-abroad stays, biographies of famous people, historical/cultural presentations, creative story-telling, and so forth.
A Study on the Effects of Networked Language Learning
Ooyoung Pyun
This study explored the effects of networked computers in L2 learning by comparing synchronous online discussions with face-to-face discussions. Given the limited database in computer-mediated communication and the contradictory results of previous research, this study investigated the linguistic and interactional characteristics of real-time electronic communication and how the written output of electronic communication resembles or differs from the spoken output of traditional face-to-face discussions. The 20 subjects of this study were randomly paired for two types of discussions (electronic and face to face), and then the data were compared in terms of linguistic amount, syntactic complexity, grammatical accuracy, and interactional features.
Computer-assisted Authenticity: Slavic Taggers Project
Danko Sipka
In an attempt to provide more authentic and autonomous instruction of less commonly taught languages Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS), Polish, and Russian text taggers (http://www.asusilc.net/cgi-bin/newtepajgu.pl) are being developed as a part of the project titled Learner-centered Task-based Language Instruction (http://www.asusilc.net/lctli) The taggers allow the user to paste in a text, copied from an online newspaper or acquired in another manner, and have it tagged with English glosses and equipped with the option of displaying the inflection of each word form in the text. The present paper summarizes achievements of this project, identifies its major problem areas, and outlines its envisaged development hence.
Online Language Learning: Where is Your Content?
Jozef Colpaert
Two of the main reasons why interactive online language courseware lacks momentum compared to CMC are (a) the complexity of online software development and (b) the specificity of content authoring. Content authoring for online systems is a rather discouraging experience due to a series of alienating factors. In this presentation we will explain how we tackle these challenges by working on an Entreposage Universel (EU) level. This EU data structure will be illustrated with examples of finished and ongoing projects. A surprising and pleasant effect is that the EU data structuring leads to a considerable reduction of specification time in language courseware design.
Phonetics: the Sounds of Spoken Language
Kaspar Stromme
Anja Szustak
“Phonetics: the Sounds of Spoken Language” is a collaborative project developed at The University of Iowa. The project uses a Flash-driven website to deliver animated libraries of the phonetic sounds of American English, German, and Spanish. Our demonstration provides an overview of the website, gives technical information and requirements, and uses the German part of the website to demonstrate how students who learn German may use the animated articulatory diagram, step-by-step descriptions, and video-audio of sounds spoken in context to develop an understanding of German phonetics.
10:00 – 10:45
Another Peek into What Today’s English Learners as Researchers Actually do in Production with the Scaffolding of Three Web-based Referencing Tools
Hsien-Chin Liou
Chih-Hsin Lee
The pedagogical effectiveness of referencing tools in assisting language learning has attracted quite a lot of attention. The aim of this study is to investigate 22 learners preferences and look-up strategies of using three web-based referencing tools: a bilingual dictionary, a bilingual concordancer, and a collocation retrieval program while doing writing and translation tasks. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed. Qualitative data included two think-aloud sections of six learners; quantitative data contained records of an online tracker, an evaluation questionnaire, and pretest/posttest writing of the 22 learners. Results and implications will be presented in the conference.
Word Appropriation Strategies among Adult ESL Learners Engaged in a Threaded Discussion Forum
Su-Lin Tai
The aim of this study was to investigate how advanced adult ESL learners dealt with unknown words when divided into groups to argue for or against controversial topics derived from assigned readings. Results of the study suggest that different participants had different degrees of word command regarding vocabulary used for arguments during task engagement. They employed various word appropriation strategies when trying to come to a better understanding of unknown words in postings as well as to compose their replies with immediate needs to express the concepts of those unknown words.
A Pointless Exercise? Improving Pronunciation in a Learner-autonomy-based Language Programme
Klaus Schwienhorst
The paper looks at the issue of pronunciation in a learner-autonomy-based learning context, often a neglected issue. First, I will look at the importance of pronunciation within learner autonomy. Second, I will review existing concepts and tools that have been used in pronunciation teaching and evaluate them in terms of learner autonomy. Third, I will report on the concepts and tools that we developed for the pronunciation workshops and individual learners in our evening courses. Fourth, I will provide an outlook how pronunciation development could be evaluated and whether pronunciation work at this level can have any long-term effect.
Scaffolding FL Instructors to Enhance Virtual Class with Task-based Instruction
Wendy W. Tu
The Distance Learning Division at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center is launching pilot sustainment classes over broadband for service men and women stationed in isolated or remote locations. This presentation will discuss the initial process and outcome of supporting participant instructors as they are oriented to e-tools and protocols, refresh applications of task-based instruction (TBI), experience various tasks online as ESL learners, review/critique/design sample tasks, extend reading/listening online tutorial with communicative/collaborative tasks, and then incorporate/adapt TBI into their existing curricula. Empirical evidence and challenges for developing faculty as well as implementing TBI in the virtual classroom will be presented and discussed.
A Comparison of Students’ and Instructors’ Perception of Japanese CALL
Grace Wiebe
Kaori Kabata
At the University of Alberta we have undertaken a study to compare students and instructors attitudes towards CALL materials used in the Japanese program. We will report on the results of a survey which examines whether instructors have a good grasp of the students’ perception and usage patterns of CALL and how instructors’ attitudes towards CALL affect their students’ performances. By comparing students in first- and third-year courses, we will describe how students attitudes towards CALL change as they proceed with their studies. We will also discuss possible gaps between students and instructors perception of CALL materials.
What’s a Wiki and How Do you Moodle It? Collaboration for Online Foreign Language Learning
Bridget E. Yaden
Patrick Blaine
The presenters will demonstrate Moodle, a free open-source software platform based on the social constructivist model of pedagogy. This course management software contains a number of different features which enable communication between individuals and groups and also allows for nearly any format commonly used in teaching (lesson, quiz, essay, each with multiple subformats). The presenters will show how users can use Moodle’s wiki function and briefly discuss free wiki software for other systems. These online spaces are great resources for collaborative projects in language courses. The presenters will show specific examples of projects using Wikis.
Voices for the Unheard Community: Implications of Online Communicative Language Learning
John Vitaglione
The golden silence of Internet instruction is awakening to online voice communications that extend communicative teaching beyond the classroom context to enable students to learn a language by actually speaking it. This presentation will demonstrate how LARC is integrating archived digital resources that provide the learning situation with online voice communication tools and techniques to engage students in communicative activities that involve the use of language in real-life situations. Discussion includes online collaboration/language learning via real-time voice conferencing and archived voice threads using a triptych toolset of Blackboard, Horizon Wimba, and LARC’s Digital Media Archive.
11:00 – 11:20
iPod Digital Audio Devices in a Technology-Enabled Second Language Classroom: A Case Study
Matthew Schmidt
In the Winter semester of 2006 a case study was conducted at a large midwestern university to investigate the functions, role, and impact of iPods equipped with microphones in a technology-enabled Spanish classroom. Findings indicate a number of functions that may be promising for language learning; however, the role and impact of these devices may not be as great as the interest they have been receiving of late. Findings based on interview, observational, and artifact data will be presented along with implications for practice and research.
Fostering L2 Oral Communication through Constructivist Interaction in Desktop Videoconferencing
Lina Lee
This presentation reports on a pilot project utilizing desktop videoconferencing (DVC) to foster face-to-face oral interaction delivered to 18 college Spanish students. The aim of the project was to examine the effectiveness of one-to-one DVC from a constructivist approach. Eighteen students worked collaboratively with native speakers to complete two task-based activities. Data from video recordings, course surveys, participant reflections, and final oral interviews were employed to justify the findings. Findings relate to the issues of task design, linguistic variation and skills, verbal and nonverbal communication features, and scaffolding feedback. This presentation concludes with suggestions for future research and pedagogical implications.
The Effectiveness of Dynamic versus Static Images in the Teaching of Aspectual Distinctions
Hélène Ossipov
An especially difficult aspect of French to master is the distinction between the past tenses because, in most contexts, either tense could be used but with differences in meaning; moreover, that difference is one of aspect, which is coded differently in English than in French. Using dynamic images rather than static images would render the distinction clearer to L2 learners of French. I will present the preliminary results of a study in which students were taught the distinction with the use of movie trailers, discussing the pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest results of one control and one experimental group.
The Nexos Media Edition: An Intuitive Model for Hybrid and E-Learning Environments
LeeAnn Stone
The myriad variations for language course delivery today (from face-to-face to hybrid to fully online) has created challenges for language departments (in terms of common text, delivery of instruction, and teacher training), for instructors (in learning how to use and integrate the program resources and determining how and when to assign them), and for students (in keeping track of the various program components). The design scheme for the Nexos Media Edition, an integrated multiple media introductory Spanish program, resolves these departmental, instructor and student challenges by providing a suite of options designed around a book-like interface with embedded multimedia components.
The Expanding Role of Technology in Foreign Language Teacher Education Programs
Christopher Luke
Jody Britten
As computer technologies continue to expand, current and future foreign language educators must learn to effectively integrate technology with instructional practices and activities. This responsibility necessitates a thorough and realistic understanding of the various functions, uses, strengths, and limitations of technology. Teacher education programs are a logical starting place for educators to gain requisite knowledge and skills. Accordingly, the purposes of this presentation are: (a) to highlight and explain some of the expanding roles and affordances of technology in a collegiate foreign language education program and (b) to encourage continued research and development of instructional technology in teacher education programs.
The Maze Task as Learning Activity and Testing Method
Kara McBride
The maze is a fun, computer-delivered, visually presented task in which the participant is shown two words at a time, only one of which can, when added to the words preceding it, continue a grammatical sentence. Given its status half-way between a reception and a production task, the maze can focus participants on any specific grammatical structure or vocabulary set that the programmer chooses. Two experiments are discussed. One used the maze task as a learning activity on 120 Spanish FL learners. The other employed the maze as one half of a pre- and posttest with 200 EFL students working online.
A RunTime Revolution Program Resurrection
Robert Balas
Anne George
We will discuss and demonstrate how RunTime Revolution to which we were introduced at a CALICO conference permitted us to create an improved and expanded dual platform software program. Through contracting with RunTime, we were able to resurrect years of work creating videos and student lessons for French. Activated by the RunTime DreamCard Player, we have been able to continue our projects, which were becoming obsolete with the phasing out of OX9, on Québec theater and documentary film, Maghrebian literature, student programs in French as well as an experimental program with a Northwest native American language, Halq’eméylem.
11:30 – 11:50
English Language Collaborative Learning in Asynchronous Online Environments
Goh Kawai
Students in our online course need to learn from each other without interacting with instructors. Students study at times and places of their choosing. We developed non-real-time, nonsimultaneous virtual meeting places where students can interact using voice or text. Our web-based voicemail center allows students to leave each other simulated telephone messages and to verify messages were correctly received. Our shared folder allows students to exchange business letters. In both voice and text, students are forced to interact because they must reply to incoming messages. However, whereas instructor-led courses can recover when teamwork breaks down, online courses cannot.
Working with Foreign DVDs: Region Code and Copy Protection Problems
Peter Ecke
Foreign language teachers use of DVDs, purchased abroad, has become increasingly difficult through restrictions imposed by the motion pictures industry on DVDs, DVD-playing equipment and software. In addition, the law has imposed restrictions that negatively affect the fair use of digital media for educational purposes. In this session, I will describe some common problems experienced by language teachers when using DVDs purchased abroad, explain these restrictions, and present tools that are available to overcome them, in particular, those that make it possible to play and backup educational DVDs from other regions in DVD players and computers purchased in North America.
Fostering Learners’ Speaking Skills Using Internet Telephoning
Golge Seferoglu
In this talk, the presenter will outline her own research findings in relation to using free Internet telephoning to foster learners’ speaking skills, particularly their accuracy and fluency at the discourse level. Moreover, pros and cons of using these free Internet telephoning tools in teaching speaking skills and pronunciation will be discussed. Furthermore, issues that need to be taken into consideration while using these technological tools with specific learner groups will be explored.
Implementing Moodle on a University-wide Basis
Thomas Robb
As an avid Moodle user and developer, this presenter was keen on seeing Moodle implemented as the school-wide system for my university of 12,000 students. This presentation will chronicle the journey, placing particular emphasis on those aspects of a university-wide implementation that had unexpected consequences. The discussion will include problems with authentication, user account names, personal profile data, course registration and creation, student access, and instructor training.
Blogs in the Foreign Language Classroom
Maria Fidalgo-Eick
Traditional writing in the second language classroom has taken the form of essays and sometimes real-paper diaries. Many times the students were/are left to write to an unknown audience. New technologies added the use of collaboration tools for writing and communication such as bulletin boards, chat rooms, and so on. A new possibility arose with the blog sites–online diaries where the writers audience is obviously wider. Our students are technology savvy. A lot of them had immediately begun to create their own blogs in their native language. Why not use the blogs for our foreign language classrooms?
Creating Teacher-made Materials Using Adobe Audition
Gregory E. Menke
Marina Cobb
This presentation focuses on our experiences in conducting Adobe Audition training in house to more than 180 multilanguage faculty members. Creative uses of audio exemplifying learner-centered, skill-integrated instruction will be demonstrated. Attendees will receive a handout of all techniques presented.
ESL Writer Feedback via Screen-Capture Video
Jeanette Clement
This demonstration of an innovative electronic method for responding to student writing features both visual and verbal feedback. Participants will learn how to provide feedback using audio-enhanced screen capture video. Results of a pilot study will be presented.
1:30 – 2:15
Content-based Distance-learning of a Less Commonly Taught Language and Culture: The Case of Arabic Without Walls
Sonia Shiri
Arabic Without Walls (AWW) is a distance-learning project designed to bring elementary Arabic to University of California campuses that do not offer Arabic. One of the three main sections of AWW presents cultural-linguistic materials following a content-based methodology supported by a variety of other strategies. This thematically organized section contextualizes Arabic for the distant learners and raises their awareness of selected cultural aspects of the Arab world, past and present. This section acknowledges the college language learners intellectual needs and addresses them from various perspectives. This paper will present some of the strategies used to address the challenges of designing content-based materials for a nonroman script language that shares few cognates with European languages, on the one hand, and a culture that is often subject to media-nurtured misconceptions, on the other.
WikiWikiWeb for Language Learning and Learner Autonomy: Activity Theoretical Principles and Implementation
Francoise Blin
In the Hawaiian language, ‘wiki’ means ‘quick.’ WikiWikiWeb, as originally created by Ward Cunningham in the mid 1990s, is thus a fast and easy way of collaboratively creating a website (see for example Wikipedia). Starting from an activity theoretical perspective on language learning and learner autonomy, this paper proposes some principles for the integration of WikiWikiWeb and associated technologies in language-learning environments. These principles are illustrated through examples drawn from French courses delivered to Irish university students and supported by Moodle, an open source virtual learning environment. In particular, the collective construction of electronic artifacts such as wikis is discussed with respect to its potential for language use and language learning.
Lexical Competency in L2 Production: FL2 Learner Corpus Analysis, and Beyond
Marie-Josée Hamel
Jasmina Milicevic
In this talk, we will report on an ongoing research which looks into lexical competency from an L2 production angle and whose ultimate goal is to propose pedagogical tools for enhancing it. In an FL2 learner written corpus (50,000 words), we have investigated errors resulting from insufficient knowledge of semantic properties of lexical units. Our analysis has revealed diverse lexical errors types and an overall high density of lexical errors, indicative of a rather low level of lexical competency of supposedly intermediate-advanced learners. To remedy this problem, we intend to develop an electronic lexicographic tool based on meaning-text linguistic theory (Melcuk, 1997).
Web Standards and Accessibility: the Future of the Web
Megan Foldenauer
Imagine what languages would be like without standards. Web pages, like languages, have syntax, grammar, and rules called “web standards.” This session provides a pragmatic look at current web standards, as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium. Accessibility and Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act, which requires that Federal agencies’ electronic and information technology be accessible to people with disabilities, will be addressed, as well as benefits of web standards designs using XHTML and CSS, including better rankings with search engines, easier website maintenance and re-design, compatibility with new technologies, and faster websites that are less expensive to host.
Cultural and Linguistic Support for the Armed Forces
Pamela Combacau
Bella Cohen
Steve Koppany
This presentation captures and recapitulates the efforts made by the Defense Language Institute to use technology combined with face-to-face training to provide a prompt response to the need for predeployment culture training. The Familiarization Program is a joint effort between two program managers as well as numerous web developers, content developers, teachers, and administrators which resulted in a successful program used by thousands. The flexibility of design allows training coordinators to efficiently respond to time constraints imposed on deployed units.
The Double Gaze: TRACS as Facilitator of Foreign Language Learning in Hybrid Italian/French Courses
Moira Di Mauro-Jackson
This presentation will provide an overview of the project to deactivate Texas State University’s current customized version of Blackboard by migrating users to a Sakai based environment. The Sakai Project is a community source software development effort to design, build, and deploy a new collaboration and learning environment (CLE) for higher education. This presentation will also show how this customized version of the Sakai software, called TRACS (Teaching, Research and Collaboration System), is implemented in a regular French course and a hybrid Italian course( taught in class and online). We will show how Sakai is used to enhance foreign language teaching, learning, and testing to meet student academic and professional needs. This presentation will therefore focus on the user’s view, as well as the administrator’s view of the system, making this an outsider’s and insider’s gaze onto Sakai and one of the pilot group professors that uses Sakai in her language courses.
1:30 – 2:15
Content Data Models, Learning Management Systems, and Instructional Design Patterns: Architectures for Sharing Creativity for Online Learning
Michael Bush
Online materials development efforts can gain three important categories of lessons that from software engineering principles: the need for standards, content data models using XML schemas, and software design patterns. SCORM, the primary standard for online learning, has certain advantages but can also lead to approaches that bury content within complex amalgams of JavaScript, HTML, ActionScript, and so forth, that may or may not be useable in the future. This presentation will demonstrate how the development of generalizable Content Data Models can be used to represent granular units of content that can be sequenced using the concept of instructional design patterns.
Community and the Preservice Teacher: An Exploration of Computer-mediated Forums
Rebecca Chism
When two student teachers at Kent State University were unable to attend a weekly seminar class with peers due to time and distance constraints, necessity called for the exploration of alternative formats. Various applications of computer mediated-communication forums were implemented as a way to develop a virtual forum for the distance student to receive the same support, guidance, and sense of community enjoyed by the other students. Data from student interviews and virtual communication demonstrate that these applications were effective in creating a sense of community and bonding outside the classroom.
Can Learner Training Lead to Increased Gloss Use?
Anne O’Bryan
While recent studies have found that viewing glosses with multimedia annotations can help students learn and retain vocabulary words (Chun & Plass, 1996; Al-Seghayer, 2001), O’Bryan (2005) found that when providing pictorial glosses for select words within an online reading unit, few students took advantage of the clickable gloss function allowed by the medium, a finding that mirrors a number of research studies (see Hegelheimer, 1998; Hegelheimer & Tower, 2004). In an attempt to combat this discovery, this study investigates whether training learners to use CALL effectively following Hubbard’s (2004) five-step approach leads to increased gloss use.
FRANEL: A Cost-free Online Language Learning Environment for French and Dutch, Based on Broadcast Material
Piet Desmet
Hans Paulussen
Via Franel (www.wtv.be/franel) we want to stimulate the inhabitants of the border area Flanders-Wallonia-France to learn each others language and culture. After all, this free electronic language learning environment is based on reportages from three regional TV channels which present the neighbor’s region. Communication without borders is our baseline. The most important trump cards of Franel include (a) the integration of authentic broadcast materials (streaming video with adapted Franel-player), (b) the thematic structure in modules and units, constructed along a uniform global didactic scenario (listening comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, speech acts, etc.), (c) multiple access facilities to the different materials, (d) an intuitive interface and the animated text balloon Franel, and (e) half-open language activities, intelligent feedback and tracking & logging (via Idioma-tic and Cognistreamer). Franel is intended for the general public, regular education and the business world. In less than three weeks time Franel has reached more than 2500 individually registered users.
Development of Innovative Multimedia for Use in Teaching Online at the Defense Language Institute
Gregory E. Menke
Tarek Elgendy
Hanan Khaled
Marina Cobb
Soondeuk Kim
Hudar Arin
This presentation demonstrates how available technology at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) can be applied, matching classroom activities with out-of-class assignments online. The languages represented include Arabic, Korean, Kurdish, Russian, and Spanish. Specific strategies will be provided for transferring and adapting technological materials from the classroom environment to the web environment, emphasizing the importance of flexibility on the part of the teacher. Sample lessons will be offered for teaching aspects of grammar, listening, reading, culture, and games that exemplify principles of teaching for proficiency in the communicative task-based classroom.
Collaborating with Multilingual Teams to Create Learning Tools
Karen Audant
Dermot Rourke
Tiffany Taylor
The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the federal government’s primary training institution for officers and support personnel of the US foreign affairs community. Since 1999, FSI has designed and developed over 70 distance learning courses, including language courses and tools. This presentation focuses on a collaborative model for instructional and technical design of Arabic-based language-learning tools.
A Journey Into the FLORE Project
Catherine Caws
Martin Beaudoin
Christian Guilbault
Norm Friesen
FLORE (French Learning Object Repository for Education) is an online collection of French resources specifically designed to be used by the French community of educators and learners. This demonstration will take you into an exploratory journey of this new web portal to show you the major components of the system design and explain how the description and peer reviewing of the resources can be integrated into the context of courses and research by students. This presentation will also help answer the following fundamental question: how can Learning Object Repositories be used effectively for language learning and teaching?