2008 Friday Sessions

CALICO 2008

Conference Presentations
Day Two: March 21, 2008

8:00 – 8:45

When They Talk About CALL
Greg Kessler
This study investigates preservice teachers’ discourse about CALL in a required CALL class. Thirty-five graduate students in a Linguistics MA program were observed over a 10-week quarter. For all of these students it was their first formal exposure to CALL as a discipline. Extensive language samples from a collaborative wiki and videotaped observations of in-class discussions document the teachers’ emerging perceptions of CALL and the role it plays in language teaching and learning. Implications regarding CALL teacher preparation are discussed.

Second Language Pragmatics in Second Life: How Learners Navigate Speech Acts and Their Attitudes Toward Error Correction
Lisa Kuriscak
Christopher Luke
We will describe findings from data collected from interactions in a synthetic immersive environment (Second Life) involving college-level, intermediate learners of Spanish. Participants had the choice of interacting with other learners of Spanish or with native speakers (NSs) of Spanish. Those who interacted primarily with NSs will be compared with a subset of those who interacted more with other learners in terms of: (a) learners’ attitudes toward error correction by NSs, instructors, and peers as well as self-correction patterns and (b) learners’ performance in carrying out and responding to requests, openings, and closings in conversation.

Implementation of an Integrated CALL Element in an Intermediate Japanese Class: A Case Study
David Laurence
A supplementary online element was designed and implemented in an intermediate Japanese class. While the use of the element could not be correlated with an increase in students’ use of Japanese outside the classroom, certain aspects, in particular the use of a Japanese-language community site and its weblog function, did have a positive correlation with student rating of the element as a whole. It is hypothesized that this positive experience with the element may reflect increased motivation, with positive implications for the use of such web-based activities in second-language learning environments.

Emotion in Online Distance Language Learning: Learners’ Appraisal of Interpersonal Transactions in Audiographic Synchronous Computer-mediated Communication (SCMC)
Beatriz de los Arcos
Although research into the role of emotions in language learning is mounting in some areas, there can be little disagreement concerning the fact that other disciplines such as psychology have suggested and explored more adventurous avenues of inquiry into what causes an emotion. Among the last is appraisal theory which claims that emotions are elicited by evaluations of events and situations in relation to a person’s goals, needs, or concerns (Roseman & Smith, 2001). This paper will present the main assumptions and models of appraisal theory and discuss its potential contribution to the study of emotion in language learning.

What’s Important in Teaching and Learning a Language According to Preservice Teachers?
Martine Peters
Our research examined the link between preservice teachers’ learning styles and concepts they judged important in their vision of teaching and learning a language. Student teachers had to reflect on their vision of learning and teaching a language and create a concept map to illustrate this vision. We wanted to examine why some student teachers chose to present, almost exclusively, concepts related to learning while others focused on the teaching process. Yet, others indicated no relationship in their concept maps between teaching and learning a language. As well, the importance accorded to language in the learning and teaching process was examined.

Social and Affective Strategies in Online Language Learning
Mirjam Hauck
It has long been suggested (e.g. Chapelle & Jamieson, 1986, 1989, 1991; Chapelle, 1990, 1995) that investigations of CALL should incorporate areas central to second language acquisition. Learning strategies constitute one such area, yet-apart from an emerging interest in metacognitive strategies (Hauck, 2005; Hauck & Hurd, 2005)-research into strategy use in online settings has been scant. As a result, we still know little about how exactly learners deploy strategies when learning a language online and how they develop strategic competence. In this presentation I will focus on affective and social online skills and explore how the fact that communication is mediated via the computer impacts on language learners’ strategy use. The findings are based on observations of learner interactions in the context of a telecollaboration project with participants from three different countries: France, the UK and the US.

A Quality Analysis of CALL Journals
Barbara Lafford
Bryan Smith
This presentation will address the results of a quality analysis of CALL journals. The data used for this analysis will be gathered from two sources: (a) a survey of established CALL scholars on the perceived quality of various academic journals that publish CALL research and their opinions of how CALL-related scholarly activity is assessed during promotion and tenure decisions involving CALL researchers and (b) a study of CALL journals regarding their readership and publication data (e.g., acceptance rate, readership, intended audience, time to publication) and other quality indicators (e.g., citation counts, impact, publisher rank, number of indexes, etc.).

Creating Hypermedia Readers for Language Learning
Thom Thibeault
This presentation focuses on hypermedia readers for language learning and how instructors can create them using HyperMedia Editor 1.1. Hypermedia readers allow language students at all proficiency levels to read materials written for native speakers. This is possible because students can click on unfamiliar words to get additional information about those words. The information can be in a variety of formats, including text (definitions, explanations), sound (readings, pronunciation), images, animations, web links (online quizzes and activities, cultural content), and video. HyperMedia Editor 1.1 is a new tool which allows language instructors to create their own hypermedia readers. Attendees will receive a copy of the program.

9:00 – 9:45

Online Translation Websites Assist Communication but Hinder Learning
Peter Ruthven-Stuart
This presentation describes the results and implications of an experiment to discover to what extent people could distinguish between texts that had been created entirely by translation software and texts written by Japanese learners of English. On average, respondents misidentified almost 40% of the texts. One of the main conclusions drawn from the results is the possibility that new technologies being developed to assist communication may hinder the acquisition of language skills. Even now, students are able to use free translation web sites to ‘assist’ them with language tasks, and many of their teachers are unable to recognize this.

Weblogs, Peer Review, and Multimedia Representation as Enhancements of EFL Writing
Hsien-Chin Liou
Zhong-Yan Debby Pen
Blogging’s interactive functions and multimedia compatibility have made it a promising environment for students to provide peer review and compose visual essays. The present study examines the relationship between students’ peer comments, their revision quality, and their use of multimedia when composing in blogs. Fourteen EFL students participated in a writing class and wrote four formal assignments and seven journals in their individual blogs. Peer review training was held. The results of characteristics of students’ peer comments before and after training, students’ revision quality, and students’ use of multimedia in writing will be presented.

Learning Languages in Virtual Worlds: An Analysis of Use and Potential
Jacob E. Larsen
Karina Silva
Within the last decade, virtual worlds have gradually become more used as teaching and learning environments. This paper will focus on the benefits and constraints of using virtual worlds in language education. More specifically, the presenters will discuss the use of virtual worlds in and outside the classroom and compare the virtual worlds of Second Life and Active Worlds. This comparison will address issues of interface design, feasibility and practicality. Recommendations will be given for their future employment as language learning tools. This presentation targets teachers and researchers with an interest in online and distance education.

Petrarch, Drupal, and the Intersections of Learning and Technology
Jeff Magoto
Massimo Lollini
Norman Kerr
IALLT Presentation
Many of us in IALLT work in interdisciplinary places called “humanities centers” or “language learning centers,” yet our work is frequently characterized as literature-focused or language-focused. We feel this is unfortunate. The Petrarch Project focuses on one attempt to bridge that divide: it is a digital archive and communications portal for a great work of poetry, the Canzoniere. It is also a set of tools for other courses in other genres to build upon. We will discuss the nature of the collaboration and software used to build the site, the approaches to teaching that underpin its design, and offer suggestions for similar projects.

Is Technology Driving our Curriculum?
Claire Bartlett
IALLT Presentation
Using Rice as an example, we will show and discuss how a number of technologies have altered our curriculum. Thanks to streaming technologies, video material is more easily integrated to our curriculum and contributes significantly to the teaching of culture. The practice and assessment of speaking is now on our syllabi thanks to user friendly software. The use of Learning Management Systems shapes our testing. Today’s students are writing to publish on the internet and communicate with students across continents. Textbooks and homework are mostly online. Is today’s class much different? What is behind these changes?

Transforming Aligned Video Transcriptions for Automatic Video Selection in CALL Applications
Hans Paulussen
Piet Desmet
Although originally used as supporting text to accompany videos for language learners, video captions can also be transformed into an application related corpus. The resulting corpus samples can be used as input for exercises, feedback material, searchable lexical database, and so on. In this talk we will present how this approach is being implemented in MEDIATIC, a database of freely available video materials. The transcriptions and translations are stored in XML caption files where time codes are used to align the captions with the corresponding video sequences. Transcriptions and translations are aligned, using the alignment tools developed within DPC (Dutch Parallel Corpus), a parallel corpus project for English, Dutch, and French.

Bridging an Online Resource Gap: Interactive Writing and Grammar Tutorial
Olga Urban
Writing is a skill that can be daunting for students to master. Many universities have established Writing Centers and tutoring services to promote effective writing practices. However, students still lack basic grammar and writing skills, and faculty often find it difficult to allocate class time to review common problem areas in student writing. The majority of writing resources available online are mere electronic page turners which neither engage students nor offer feedback. This paper describes the design, development, implementation, and usability survey of the Online Tutorial on Effective Writing Practices which attempts to bridge this gap by allowing students to review and learn from their most common English grammar, punctuation, organization, and style mistakes.

10:00 – 10:20

Focusing on Grammatical Form through CMC Tasks in Beginner German Classes: Do Students or Don’t They?
Deanne Cobb-Zygadlo
IALLT Presentation
Whereas most L2 research in computer-mediated communication investigates its effect in intermediate or advanced language classes, in this study I investigate beginner German language students’ demonstration of discrete grammatical forms in the CMC environment. A quasi-experimental design and qualitative analysis of the chat room transcripts determines that students’ primary focus is on communicating meaning and that their focus on form is minimal. To help explain the results, I use qualitative data provided by student survey responses and posit that the teaching methodology adopted by the students’ classroom instructor may have impacted the results. This study has implications for instructors who use collaborative tasks to practice grammatical structures in beginner language courses.

Survey of Attitudes towards Technology by Teachers of Literature/Culture/Linguistics
Hélène Ossipov
IALLT Presentation
The use of technology in language teaching is well documented and is almost universally accepted. However, it is not clear that instructors of literature, culture, and linguistics make as extensive use of technology as language teachers do. In this presentation, I will analyze the results of a survey of attitudes toward and use of technology in a language and literature department of a large university.

Perceptions of CALL in the Second Language Classroom
Stephanie Buechele
This study examines instructors’ perceptions of their use of CALL in comparison to their actual use in the L2 classroom. Instructors in an intensive English program were interviewed about their perceptions of their use of CALL in their classroom and were observed teaching. Students were asked to give their perceptions of how the teacher’s use of CALL affected their language learning to see if their perceptions were in line with those of the instructors. Consistencies and inconsistencies within the data are explored with implications being discussed.

Ten Technology Tips for Teaching with Target Language Songs
Lathrop Johnson
Songs have always been and remain a key resource in language learning. By combining the opportunities of technology with imaginative pedagogy, teachers can make learning with songs much more effective than before. The ten tips will include ways of manipulating text displays, changing or adjusting the audio content, and preparing for creative follow-up activities by the students.

Humor Support in Computer-mediated Communication
Ilona Vandergriff
Carolin Fuchs
Our paper contributes to the growing body of research on language play in CMC which, more than any other medium, has been associated with goofing off, chatting off task, role playing, joking and other nonserious communication. In reacting to a joke, speakers often rely heavily on nonverbal cues (e.g., a smile or laughter). In this paper, we explore how foreign language learners in computer-mediated discussions provide humor support in light of the reduced nonverbal repertoire.

The Study of Gender Difference in Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) Using Microsoft Windows Messenger (MSN)
Hsiao-ping Wu
IALLT Presentation
The paper examines the relationships between genders, internet-use behaviors and communication styles in a computer-mediated communication (CMC) context. A questionnaire is used to explore internet-use behavior and a chat tool is used to collect interaction patterns and communication styles on 10 male and 10 female Mandarin-Chinese speakers who attend universities and work in companies in the US. Findings show gender has very slight influences on online behavior and also has a weak relationship on communication style; misunderstandings and misinterpretations occurred because they are caused by the lack of social context cues, social presence, and conversational turn taking.

Integrating YouTube in the Foreign Language Classroom
Rocco A. Mesiti
IALLT Presentation
From audiocassettes in language labs to high speed internet, technology has made again another major presence in foreign language classes with the popular website YouTube. This presentation demonstrates how language teachers can maximize technology at home and in the classroom integrating YouTube in their lesson plans. Teachers can customize their lessons to be more interesting, contemporary, captivating, and provide current language content for students. Relevant lessons can be achieved while still delivering the ACTFL five C’s of language learning (communication, culture, connections, comparisons and community). This presentation will show the following: an overview of YouTube, how to use YouTube, registered and unregistered users, blogging (postings) in target language by students and teachers, and sample of a lesson plan.

Implementing Video in the Foreign Language Classroom
Leah Graham
Jack Franke
The ubiquity of storage, fast processors, and software programs has permitted greater inroads for video in the FL classroom. Innovations such as YouTube, iTunes, and the iPod have galvanized this medium in US education. We will discuss the use of video from two viewpoints: familiarization with technology for the beginning FL learner and digital portfolios for adult language learners. We will discuss student and faculty training in multimedia and demonstrate techniques for green screen, video capture, editing and conversion.

10:30 – 10:50

Material Development for Japanese Kanji in the ANGEL Course Management System
Takeshi Sengiku
This presentation will describe the process of material development for Japanese in the ANGEL Learning Course Management System such as the textbook analysis, content creation, feedback from the students and faculty, and future consideration. The material was intended for students to be exposed to more Kanji characters outside of Japanese classes in an effective and efficient way, incorporating visual and audio resources created as a Kanji project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In addition to the MIT resources, the material provides additional information for Kanji characters and assessment in which students can review their learning process of these characters.

La valorisation de la liberté: Using Music in a Web Site Supporting English Students Enrolled in a European History Course Taught in French
Alysse Weinberg
This session will describe the use of music in a website developed for a European history course taught in French. Half the web site is devoted to English immersion students enrolled concurrently in a special language support course set up to improve their French language skills while working through the history course content. Specially commissioned songs about European history are at the centre of each of the learning activities. The session will also discuss the attitudes of the students towards the songs and whether or not these multimedia exercises provided productive French vocabulary and comprehension learning.

Rockin’ Russian: Music Videos for Language and Culture Instruction
Thomas J. Garza
IALLT Presentation
This presentation discusses a web-based program of graduated modules to supplement the instruction of Russian at all proficiency levels. The modules are designed around authentic Russian music videos, modified with Russian, English, or no captions, and a series of interactive exercises. The exercise materials focus on pronunciation, vocabulary development, grammar, and cultural features relevant to each video. The modules will feature graduated exercises based on the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines to allow learners from Novice to Superior levels of competence to use the materials. The exercises are self-graded and students move at their own pace through the modules and video segments.

Teaching Foreign Languages with YouTube
Patricia D. Hardin
One of the best sources to incorporate cultural realia into the foreign language classroom is YouTube, which allows the instructor to introduce cultural capsules and easily intersperse them throughout the syllabus. This presentation discusses the many benefits, both for students and instructors, derived from incorporating YouTube videos in the foreign language classroom, specifically for German and Italian. The presenter will share specific YouTube sites used at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced level for various cultural topics and also discuss exercises, developed by the presenter, for students to complete during or as a follow-up, to the viewing of YouTube videos.

EFL College Students’ Perceptions of Self-access Language Learning in a CALL Classroom
Chih-cheng Lin
Shiau-jiun Lillian Ning
This paper evaluates the effectiveness of a university self-access classroom (SAC) by examining EFL college students’ perceptions of self-access language learning (SALL) at the SAC. Both quantitative and qualitative data show that the SAC has created a proper environment for language learning. Not only have the students improved their language abilities from using the learning programs, they have also developed skills to evaluate their learning and to acquire common knowledge. Further investigations of the beneficiaries reveal that they share characteristics of choosing suitable materials and monitoring whether they have attained their learning goals.

Learn Chinese in Second Life Chinese School
Dongping Zheng
Ning Li
Yong Zhao
The Confucius Institute Chinese School in Second Life is an immersive environment to teach Chinese language and culture. It takes advantage of the existing technological functions that support social interactions and communications, and also adds new language learning functions. This study looks at how learners interact with instructors, native Chinese speakers, designed objects and tasks in the virtual world. We will report results from online ethnographic observation and interview data, as well as learners’ chat and audio log data to argue that learning in the virtual world can bring embodied experience with engagement and enjoyment.

Multimodal Projects for Advanced Spanish Classes
Bruno Louchouarn
Felisa Guillen
Crystal Carrera
IALLT Presentation
Multimodal production engages language students with technology in upper division classes. The teamwork, process, and end result activate the integration of various cognitive streams and yields both a critical synthesis of information and an enhancement of cultural and linguistic competence. Two classes developed at Occidental College are examined: “Multimodal Portrait of a Grandparent” in a Spanish for native speakers class and “Media and Literary Appropriations in Chicano Culture” in a Chicano literature class.

Speech Recognition Technology: A Cure for Test Anxiety?
Marina Dodigovic
Success at high-stakes, high-anxiety and high-cost standardized language proficiency tests such as TOEFL opens the door to prestigious international schools, jobs, and awards. However, not everyone can afford to take such a test, and, even if they can, sometimes test anxiety can spoil the outcome. This becomes even more of a concern because such tests take a long time to complete. In this situation, speech recognition technology could be a solution. An application of this technology is being used to test English proficiency and is compared to TOEFL in a validation study described here.

1:30 – 2:15

Teaching L2 Pragmatic Competence with Materials Based on a CMC Corpus
Nina Vyatkina
Corpus-based pedagogical suggestions for L2 teaching have mostly involved indirect native speaker corpus use, have not considered CMC corpora, and have not been tested empirically for their efficacy. This paper addresses these gaps and reports on a successful direct application of an integrated learner-native speaker CMC corpus for teaching L2 pragmatic competence. Possible indirect applications are also discussed.

Learners’ Reactions to Arabic Online Learning
Robert Blake
Sonia Shiri
In the fall semester, 2007, the University of California, Berkeley launched the first University of California online language course in Arabic. Seventeen students used Moodle to access the course materials, including (a) extensive web materials with sound recordings and video interviews, (b) JavaScript/Flash exercises, (c) wiki assignments, and (d) weekly CMC meetings via Wimba. This presentation will cover the formative evaluation measures that document student use and reactions to the online format. All aspects of the course production and evaluative measures will be discussed along with an analysis of how the CMC chat contributed to the students’ progress.

Revisiting Negotiated Interaction in Computer-mediated Communication (CMC)
Hyewon Lee
I examined the relationship between dialogic negotiated interaction and comprehensible output by comparing computer-mediated communication (CMC) with face-to-face (F2F) communication. Specifically, I investigated whether negotiated interaction in synchronous chat can play a more constructive role in producing comprehensible output during a collaborative task than F2F interaction through activating and mediating learners’ cognitive processes. The chat data show that ESL learners who actively participated in negotiated interaction in CMC produced more comprehensible output than in F2F interaction. From an interactionist perspective, results imply that the procedure of interaction may provide good stimulus for acquisition (e.g., vocabulary, structure, grammar), supporting a more direct link between negotiated interaction and acquisition (Smith, 2004).

Open Source Technology as a Catalyst for Foreign Language Teachers
Tony Erben
Rebecca Blankenship
Victoria Russell
We report a study that examines foreign language teachers’ collaborative dialogues as they explored open source (OS) technologies, attempted to incorporate OS resources into lessons, and how this activity led to self-regulated professional development. The goals of the study were twofold: first, to investigate teachers’ awareness about open source (OS) technologies and to explore teachers’ beliefs about the impact of these technologies on their professional knowledge base and, second, to make sense of teachers’ mediation of OS and how this led to self-regulation. The findings indicate that through collaborative dialogue (Swain, 2000) teachers engaged in problem-solving activity (unpacking the instructional significance of using OS resources) leading to meaningful professional development.

Designing and Implementing the LanguageSpace: A Consortium Project Website for Social Networking for Language Learning and Teaching
Douglas Moody
Otmar Foelsche
IALLT Presentation
The BYU HumTV environment is a television record/transcode-on-demand application that allows faculty to easily schedule campus cable/satellite recordings, group recordings into course-specific “channels,” annotate the recordings with text, links, and images (cued to particular points in each recording), and disseminate these recordings to students through a variety of formats (Flash streaming, iTunes, podcasts, direct download, etc.). With the increased availability of technology-enhanced classrooms and the student desire for anytime-anywhere access to class materials, this is proving itself to be a very promising digital solution for faculty wishing to engage their students with broadcast media.

Using Immersive Learning Environments in Foreign Language Classes: Second Life
Heather McCullough
Douglas W. Canfield
IALLT Presentation
The LanguageSpace (http://www.languagespace.org) is funded by a grant from the Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning and is designed to create a social networking “nexus of communication,” which will promote student-centered learning activities and demonstrate these innovative teaching methods to instructors of foreign languages. The LanguageSpace website utilizes Web 2.0 technology to connect learners and teachers of foreign languages and cultures. The LanguageSpace project is still in its preliminary stages, and the principal investigators at three Consortium institutions, Dartmouth, Harvard, and MIT, tested the beta version of the website in the fall semester of 2007. During the spring semester of 2008, the investigators will begin to integrate the website into their instruction during the pilot phase of the project. This presentation will demonstrate the current developments and findings of the LanguageSpace.

Sakai and the “Audacity” to Moodle: Three Audio and Video Projects
Bridget Yaden
IALLT Presentation
The results of four pilot studies of audio and video projects for language study, utilizing Sakai (2) and Moodle (2), will be presented. These projects used Audacity and Sony Virtuoso/Soloist for recording audio and video. This session includes an in-depth discussion of the implementation of the projects, which involved university-level Spanish courses, a first-semester Norwegian course, and an American Sign Language (ASL) course. Survey and assessment results will be shared, with a discussion of the role of technology and the benefits of the projects, including increased participation in the L2, encouragement of self-assessment, and improved oral and/or signing skills.

Making the Unconventional Conventional: Examining the Role of Emerging Digital Media in Language Learning
Steven Thorne
Julie Sykes
This presentation will explore approaches to L2 acquisition that emphasize the immediate relevance of internet usage and the attendant proliferation of new media literacies and communicative genres. Following a discussion of our own and other relevant research in the areas of internet use and educational gaming, we will describe an innovative pedagogical framework that is rooted in authentic opportunities for meaningful expression via emerging digital technologies. We will conclude the presentation with concrete suggestions for heightening the relevance of instructed foreign language education and for better preparing language learners to be successful multilingual members of 21st century global communities.

Fostering Cohesion and Community in Asynchronous Online Courses
Stephen L. Tschudi
David V. Hiple
Dorothy Chun
How does the teacher enhance students’ personal involvement in an online learning environment? This presentation, based on research from an advanced online Chinese language course, examines this question from two angles: fostering cohesion, or the sustained advancement of relevant topics by participants in a conversation; and fostering community, or a sense of solidarity and identification among learners that contributes to strong participation. Three distinct patterns of behavior discerned in student interactions in asynchronous forums in the course pointed to a set of pedagogical principles for instructors to follow when designing and teaching asynchronous online courses.

2:30 – 3:15

Wiki: An “Enhancing” Tool For Foreign Language Instructors and Students
Jean Janecki
IALLT Presentation
The wiki has several advantages that I will discuss in this paper, illustrated by different wiki projects that I have used in my Spanish language, literature, and culture classes. I will show how these projects, created on the open-source “wikispaces,” are easy to design, not difficult for students or instructors to use, and help improve students’ participation and learning at various levels, thus, an “enhancing” tool for both instructor and student. The presentation will focus on proper ways to approach the wiki so that it will be beneficial for all, keeping in mind the pedagogical goals of the instructor.

Participation Patterns of Three Nonnative Speakers in Online Discussion
Hoe Kyeung Kim
Asynchronous online discussion involving text-based computer-mediated communication has a great potential for promoting the participation of nonnative speakers in class discussion. In spite of the popularity of online learning, there is little research on nonnative speakers’ participation in online learning environments. The postings of three nonnative speakers and eleven native speakers enrolled in an introductory language teaching course were examined to understand nonnative speakers’ participation patterns. The presenter will discuss the findings of a study on nonnative speakers’ participation patterns in online discussion in terms of the frequency and collaborative efforts.

A Second Life for a Second Language: Is it Worth it?
Natalie Mullen
Hui-I Shaw
Two language teachers give a critical perspective on the benefits and drawbacks of using the virtual world Second Life as a language-learning tool. They will present conclusions from qualitative data collected from eight language teachers and their own experiences participating in Second Life for second language learning purposes. Two language teachers, one learning English at an established virtual English language school and the other learning Spanish in online Spanish-speaking communities, will discuss the different attributes of each experience, which give rise to distinct recommendations and precautions about using virtual world programs like Second Life in language classrooms.

Individualized and Technology-based Foreign Language Instruction
Linda L. Chang
How can individualized instruction be provided for advanced foreign language learners with diverse needs and varying domains of expertise? A 7-week (3 days a week) advanced Chinese course for Chinese Foreign Language (CFL) learners at the Department of Defense can. Individualized and technology-based CFL instruction has proven very effective in raising advanced language learners’ level and language proficiency in Chinese, whether in a college setting or for government Chinese linguists. Students have also shown a dramatic increase in their affective learning and a positive attitude toward learning the target language, especially in their specialized fields. Samples of students’ feedback demonstrating positive affective learning outcomes and a live demonstration on the students’ final presentations at Brigham Young University will be part of this presentation.

Blogging in the Language Class–Challenges and Victories
Senta Goertler
Angelika Kraemer
In this presentation, we will summarize the practical implementation of blogging in two upper-division technology-enhanced German classes. In addition, we will present research findings from a qualitative analysis of the interactivity (measured by number of people responding to a blog entry and length of the responses) and quality (measured by content appropriateness, language comprehensibility, and directness of response) of student blogs. Didactic implications will be discussed, including possible factors that positively (e.g., reliability of the blogger) or negatively (e.g., position of the blog) influenced the interactivity and quality of the blogging.

Bridging the Three CALL Communities (Research, Practice, and Engineering): Building on Facts, Findings, or Informed Opinion?
Jozef Colpaert
Although not strictly separated, one could consider there are three CALL communities: research, practice, and engineering. CALL research mainly applies accepted empirical and theoretical methodologies. In this presentation we will explain (a) how CALL practice and CALL engineering can be considered applied research, (b) which methodologies are most appropriate to yield relevant findings, (c) how CALL research can take into account these findings and become more practice oriented at the same time, and (d) how to publish about CALL engineering and practice. The three communities will most efficiently exchange information if they use common concepts and frameworks. A conceptual and methodological framework will be presented which is based on literature and projects.

From Technology to Technagogy-based Training
Sandra Wagner
Rong Yuan
IALLT Presentation
Integrating technology into classroom instruction requires more than just learning the features and functions of the new hardware. According to Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) Report #21 (1994), “technology integration is a developmental process of entry, adoption, adaptation, appropriation, and innovation.” When teachers are required to incorporate specified technology into instruction, factors such as participant motivation and attitude, familiarization with the technology, and incorporation of effective pedagogy /technology integration (technagogy) in task design must be considered. This presentation focuses on the development and implementation of technology training for instructors teaching in a foreign language immersion program, progressing from technology-based to technagogy-based outcomes.

3:30 – 4:15

Chaos Theory, Complexity Science, and Classroom Management in the Technology-enhanced Language Classroom
Leah Graham
New socioconstructivist approaches to learning, which facilitate greater student investment and interaction and greater use of the language, demonstrate that students working noisily, moving about the classroom is as prominent a signal of learning as students sitting quietly at their desk. Thus, this paper discusses the need for a new theoretical framework, chaos theory and complexity science, with which to study CALL settings that acknowledges the social, cultural, and intellectual complexity of the language classroom. The discussion is based on a study that took place in a technology-enhanced EFL course; however, the discussion will focus on implications for general CALL environments.

Bridging Communities of Language Teachers
Lara Ducate
Lara Lomicka Anderson
Gillian Lord
Nike Arnold
This presentation examines peer blogs and expert discussion boards in teaching methods courses at two universities. Both media allowed TAs to hone their teaching expertise and receive support for classroom issues and frustrations. Students reflected weekly on their teaching experiences in a blogging community of peers; the groups also engaged in monthly interactions with SLA experts via discussion boards. Our analysis investigates the benefits of each virtual discussion by highlighting how peer-peer interaction and peer-expert interaction in each group was characterized. We also examine the reactions of the virtual guests to their experiences in this medium.

How to Get Published in the IALLT Journal: Advice from the Editors
Douglas W. Canfield
Heather McCullough
IALLT Presentation
In this session, the President of IALLT and the editors of the IALLT Journal of Language Learning Technologies discuss current and future developments in the IALLT Journal, and in CALL journals generally, as the profession begins to more fully embrace digital scholarship. This discussion of trends and issues in digital scholarship as it pertains to the IALLT Journal will form the foundation for suggestions from the editors on practical considerations for those interested in contributing to the professional literature by having their work published in the IALLT Journal.

Language Technology Boot Camp
Felix Kronenberg
Ryan Brazell
IALLT Presentation
With this grant-funded project, the Language Technology Boot Camp, we will further develop the language assistant training that started at Pomona College in 2005. After a spring conference, an out-of-the-box training program-which is of high quality, selective, adaptable for various settings, and open source-will be developed. In this session we will show the progress that we have been making, provide information on the project and its benefits to the wider community, and discuss ways in which participants may join or contribute to our project. More information can be found at our website (http://bootcamp.pomona.edu).

Speech Recognition: Strengths and Weaknesses
Lance Knowles
Data collected over several years points to the effectiveness of DynEd’s proprietary use of speech recognition technology. This has now been upgraded to include useful visual feedback, scoring, and better accuracy. DynEd is now using this upgraded technology for proficiency testing purposes. Despite its weaknesses, which will be illustrated, the technology provides many benefits for language learners, as will be demonstrated in a variety of exercises drawn from DynEd courses, including Aviation English, Hospitality English, and New Dynamic English.

Find the Key and Choose Your Way: Learner Autonomy, Self-access Learning Centresand Moodle in an “Unconventional” Grammar Workshop
Verónica Morgade Cuña
The ideas presented derive from an ongoing grammar workshop in cooperation with the Leuphana University in Lüneburg (Germany). The aim of the self-directed grammar workshop was to develop the learners’ capacity to assume responsibility for their learning, planning, choosing an objective and developing the capacity for reflection in a CALL environment. Participants built autonomous strategies through collaboration with the group and with the advisor using different tools such as learning diaries, portfolios, Moodle, and second language materials (books, Blogs, internet, etc.). Students were required to submit a number of products to be evaluated: a learning plan, learning diaries, a final report linked to three diaries with a minimum of three products, and participation during in-class meetings and meetings with the advisor and a final group grammar presentation of their own choice. Examples of collaboration will be given, including the participants’ perceptions of their own autonomy.

Taking One Step Further in Language Technology–Summer Workshops for Language Educators
Hajime Kumahata
IALLT Presentation
Educators envisage applying technology in their classroom teaching. However, their demanding schedule often prohibits them from spending time researching language technology. The Language Resource Center at Rice University recognized this dilemma and began offering summer workshops to the faculty members. I will discuss the pros and cons of the nine unique web based projects from the workshop over the last 4 years. I will also discuss the implementation of the projects in and outside of the classrooms and the process of the entire summer workshop, from the “call for proposal” to the final presentations and implementation.

Creating Community at a Distance: Language Teacher Education Options and Possibilities
Debra Hoven
Web 2.0 and Education 2.0 are overtaking the landscape of teacher education in many arenas and changing what the CALL profession and the field of language teacher education consider to be essential knowledge and expertise of language teachers. Based on four semesters of data collection and action research, a set of design guidelines will be presented for “converting” a face-to-face language teacher education course to fully online mode. An experiential, community-based pedagogical approach was necessary to equip pre- and in-service teachers from varied cultural and language backgrounds with the necessary skills and understandings to become actively practicing CALL teachers.

4:30 – 5:15

Investigating the Occurrence, Linguistic Complexity, and Lexical Richness of Deleted Turns in Chat
Bryan Smith
Shannon Sauro
This session will present preliminary results of a semester-long study involving adult learners of German (n = 10) in a university CALL setting. Using video screen capture software and applying a new model for coding sent and unsent text during synchronous CMC (SCMC) interaction, this study explored two aspects of deleted messages during task-based text chat. First, under what conditions are these messages deleted rather than sent? Second, is there a difference in the linguistic quality of those messages deleted over those which are sent? Results of the comparison of sent versus deleted messages will be discussed.

Matrix Model Simulation: An Investigation into Long-term Vocabulary Change
Makoto Yoshii
This study attempts to examine long-term change in learners’ vocabulary knowledge. The researcher used a computer simulation to predict the change and compared the simulated data with actual data collected through a case study. The case study took place with two learners over 3 months dealing with 200 to 300 words. The participants rated their vocabulary knowledge weekly for 10 weeks. In the presentation, the researcher will share the results of the comparison of the data between the simulation and the actual case study and discuss the possibility of using such simulations for investigating language acquisition.

Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) and Second Life: The Reality of Learning a Language
Randall Sadler
Ulugbek Nurmukhamedov
How can the very real world methodologies of task-based language teaching (TBLT) be applied to the virtual world of Second Life? This presentation will discuss the results of a semester-long project which investigated how TBLT activities apply to teaching in a virtual world. The participants, all students in an advanced ESL class on Everyday Reading and Writing, spent one class per week engaging in a variety of TBLT activities in Second Life. The presentation will demonstrate several of the activities from the study as well as the quantitative and qualitative results.

Self-authoring Projects: Structure, Implementation, and Evaluation
Kara McBride
Social networking websites, blogs, podcasts, internet video sharing, and wikis have made self-authoring a part of many peoples’ lives. A general model for including self-authoring activities is presented in this talk, starting with a foundation of critical social-constructivism and a review of relevant literature. I then sketch out ways of introducing self-authorship into a FL class, depending on what the main role of technology is otherwise in the course. Next, three examples classes are presented in terms of (a) how assignments were structured and explained, (b) different models of group work and product sharing, (c) evaluation, and (d) student response.

The Right Tool for the Task: Language Production and User Preferences in a VLE
Ursula Stickler
Regine Hampel
This paper reports on a study into learner use of computer-mediated communication tools in the context of an online German course. The course, CyberDeutsch, was designed for the Open University’s new Moodle-based virtual learning environment and used a range of asynchronous Moodle tools as well as additional synchronous software such as a Flash-based videoconferencing tool. The focus of the course was on giving learners the opportunity to communicate and practice the target language. In order to find out more about users’ spoken and written language production, learner output and usage data were collected and analyzed and compared with subjective user evaluation of tools.

Using Speech-processing Technologies to Assess Airplane Pilots’ English Proficiency
Masanori Suzuki
Jian Cheng
This presentation describes the test development and validation process of an automated test of spoken aviation English. The test was developed in collaboration with the FAA to meet the ICAO language proficiency requirement. The spoken aviation English test is delivered over the telephone or via computer to simulate voice-only contexts. The candidates’ responses are automatically analyzed and scored by speech processing technologies. The test reliability was found to be 0.93. The correlation between the scores given by ICAO experts and by the machine was 0.94, suggesting that sufficient information can be obtained from the automated test for high-stakes testing purposes.

Pittsburgh Students Are Doing “LAPS” for Proficiency
Marsha Plotkin
Susan Cefola
Chris D’Alessandri
Are your students “exercising” to improve their speaking skills as they advance through your World Language program? Pittsburgh Public School students are improving by using Language Assessment and Practice Software (LAPS). Learn about the materials developed with two FLAP grants and the progress made with a third FLAP grant. LAPS includes the PPS Orals Online Assessment, the PPS Multimode Test, and Practice Activities for Language Students (PALS) developed with Prismatic Consulting. Prepare your students to move up the proficiency scale by doing LAPS and collect important data to support instruction and promote World Language programs.

Customizing Technology for Language Learning Success
Ulysses Navarrete
Kevin Donnelly
In this presentation, we will demonstrate how creating custom learning paths using technology can enhance the overall learning experience and increase learner engagement, as well as help grow a language program. Plus attendees will have an opportunity for hands-on practice.