2008 Saturday Sessions

CALICO 2008

Conference Presentations
Day Three: March 22, 2008

8:00 – 8:45

Ergonomic Investigations in the Design of a CALL Reformulation Dictionary
Marie-José Hamel
Lexical errors are salient in the texts of language learners. Their knowledge about the lexicon could be superficial while their lexical reference strategies could be poor. Furthermore, lexical resources used by language learners are often missing the kind of information needed to meet their encoding needs. These findings motivate the development of our CALL ‘reformulation’ dictionary. To better understand the design of an interface for such a dictionary, we have investigated user-centered (ergonomic) issues within both a pedagogical lexicography and a CALL perspective, as they emerged from the language learning context described above. Our presentation will focus on the outcome of these ergonomic investigations.

Training on Mandarin Tones at Phrase and Sentence Levels
Xinchun Wang
A group of beginning level Mandarin learners with different L1 backgrounds completed 6 hours of training on Mandarin phrases and sentences produced by multiple native Mandarin speakers. The trainees recycled the training stimuli on a PC computer using Kay Elemetric’s Sona Speech II software with instant display of pitch contours along with speech output. Judged by four native Mandarin speakers, the trainees’ posttest sentences improved significantly from the pretest while the control subjects did not show such improvement. Intensive visual and auditory training is effective for learning Mandarin tones in a larger linguistic context.

Language Lab Unleashed: Virtual Professional Development and Collaboration
Barbara Sawhill
Felix Kronenberg
Ryan Brazell
Douglas W. Canfield
IALLT Presentation
Language Lab Unleashed (LLU) began in late 2005 as a place for two language learning technologists to experiment with social software and as a place to share ideas about the art and the craft of being a language technologist/teacher in academia today. In the past 3 years, LLU has become a virtual resource center for language teachers and technologists around the world, many of whom are often the only individuals at their schools doing what they do, and most of whom do not have the necessary funding to attend meetings, workshops, or conferences on a regular basis. LLU (http://languagelabunleashed.com) strives to provide an open, free, virtual meeting space for teachers and technologists to learn about new tools for the teaching and learning of languages, a place to discover and create new connections between technology and teaching, as well as a site where individuals can participate in conversations with fellow academics, self-identified techno geeks … and even Bluegrass stars. This session will introduce the audience to the site and provide a “behind the scenes” glimpse of the tools and resources used to run LLU and create its content. The presenters will talk about the different roles they fill on the LLU site. Audience members will be invited to suggest topics for upcoming shows, sign on as guest bloggers, and host webcasts using the LLU tools.

Investigating Learners’ Awareness of Collocations: Using Novel Technology to Address an Old Question
Anne Li-Er Liu
David Wible
Chin-Hwa Kuo
Tsung-Fu Hung
Collocational knowledge has drawn considerable attention of researchers and teachers in gauging learners’ vocabulary knowledge. It is widely recognized that a native-like usage of collocations of learners suggests a more thorough understanding of the target language. An increase of exposure alone does not improve learners’ collocations (Nesselhauf, 2004). By implementing a novel learning tool, UWiLL Collocator, this presentation aims to address the issue of how the collocational awareness of learners might be promoted via an online reading task. The result indicates that learners’ perception of collocation can indeed be changed which, in turn, implies that learners can identify a collocation rather than seeing the two words of a pair as two separated units. Further, learners’ receptive knowledge on collocations is explored in light of the theoretical proposals presented in the paper.

Learners’ Perception and Preference of Audio Stimuli during an Online Pragmatics Test
Dennie Hoopingarner
Fei Fei
Computer-based assessment of interlanguage pragmatic knowledge has not taken into account the effect of multimedia elements on learners’ behavior. This study used a Chinese pragmatics test in which learners had access to audio stimuli in addition to written prompts. A computer program was developed specifically to capture participants’ performance, including the frequency of audio selection. In addition to the quantitative analysis, interviews were conducted to collect students’ perceptions of the audio stimuli to provide a qualitative analysis. The results of this study furthers our understanding of the utility of including audio in online tests.

Towards Bridging Cultural Gaps by Using a CALL-enhanced LMS
Daniele Allard
Transfer of patterns from L1 can initially be a major source of errors for learners. These show that language, as a social practice, is imbued with culture. What learning difficulties associated with cultural differences can we identify? What are the cultural differences? This paper will highlight examples of errors in English and French in view of pragmatic functions and link them to cultural concepts organized according to ontological engineering methodology, which focuses on the specification of concepts, their relations and their attributes. It will also demonstrate how a potential LMS, in accessing information to this effect, can support the design of language lessons.

Web-based Diagnostic Assessment of Listening
Sun-Kwang Bae
Abdelfattah Boussalh
Youngsook Kim
The Curriculum Development Division of DLIFLC has been involved in developing a web-based formative assessment system called Online Diagnostic Assessment (ODA). ODA enables learners to evaluate and manage their foreign language learning. ODA provides learners with individualized feedback on their accomplishments and needs in their chosen foreign language. This feedback is based upon a systematic sampling of their linguistic abilities across a variety of levels, to include language-specific features. We will present the ODA listening assessment component, including system-wide structure, targeted listening features and assessment items. Korean and Arabic samples will be used.

9:00 – 9:45

Computer-mediated Communication and Real-world Teaching
Randall Sadler
There are now a large number of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools available for teachers to enhance their students’ language learning. However, how much are these tools actually utilized? This paper discusses the results of a survey of 500 teachers which examined the actual use of CMC by language instructors, both for their personal use and for language teaching. In addition to the quantitative results, the presenter will share qualitative findings illustrating the successful, and not so successful, use of CMC in the “real world.”

Foreign Language Learner Beliefs about the Use of Technology in Language Learning
Tetyana Sydorenko
Ching-Ni Hsieh
Seongmee Ahn
This survey study explores learners’ beliefs about using technology in language learning from two perspectives: (a) language learners’ beliefs about the effectiveness of technology and (b) the relationship between learners’ familiarity with particular technology and their beliefs about it. The survey, administered to university-level foreign language learners, consists of three sections: (a) background questionnaire, (b) Likert-scale items on learners’ beliefs about using technology for language learning, and (c) learners’ familiarity with technology. It is hypothesized that several factors will influence learners’ beliefs about the use of technology for language learning, and that overall beliefs will be positive.

Educational and Appealing? Language Learning via Gaming
Jörg Waltje
This presentation will report on the efforts of developing a strategy and adventure game for the study of foreign languages, a collaborative project of the Games Research and Immersive Technology (GRID) Lab and the Language Resource Center at Ohio University.

Online Foreign Language Achievement Testing for College Credit
Jerry Larson
During this session, the feasibility and development of online foreign language achievement tests for students wishing to receive college credit by examination will be discussed. The tests include sections for listening comprehension, grammatical accuracy, and reading comprehension. Registering for the tests, taking the tests, and receiving performance feedback for both the students and the respective institutions are all accomplished online. Examples of two tests (Spanish and Russian) will be presented.

Digital Narratives 2.0
Felix Kronenberg
IALLT Presentation
Digital narratives share the advantages that traditional storytelling offers: they are multimodal, interactive, and can be saved and shared with ease. The new web-often referred to as web 2.0-has brought about a large number of tools that make digital storytelling easier and more interactive than ever. In addition, since they are browser based they are portable and platform independent. In this presentation I will discuss the pedagogical framework of storytelling and discuss various tools and their uses in a language program. Multiple projects in various languages and skill levels at Pomona College will be presented and commented on.

Using IM in the Classroom: Common Lexical Bundles in Computer-mediated Communication
Aziz Yuldashev
Julieta Fernandez
IALLT Presentation
This presentation will discuss how corpora findings can not only yield new quantitative and qualitative information about language use, but also make a case for an alternative view of how ESL can be taught through CMC. This presentation will provide practical ideas on how to implement instruction that helps students become aware of common lexical bundles used in IM, and achieve and interpret different social acts within IM environments in a pragmatically appropriate way.

Somewhere Over the Virtual Rainbow: Bridging the CALL Communities of Cultura and Second Life
John Vitaglione
Sabine Reljic
Somewhere over the virtual rainbow, world citizens participate in a global village where they interact and communicate across cultures. Successful interaction requires an understanding of cultural value systems other than their own, and the ability to learn the mainstream language of society. This presentation bridges the virtual CALL communities of MIT’s Cultura and Linden Lab’s Second Life to demonstrate how authentic artifacts posted by native speakers can be shared online with second language learners in communicative learning environments which engage users in web-mediated exchange. The goal is to achieve a rich understanding of the target culture to further promote language learning.

The Sims in Academe: Integrated Gaming in French Classes
Mylene Catel
IALLT Presentation
This presentation deals with exploring and implementing emerging technologies such as simulation games into the language curriculum. Games such as Sims 2, Sims Online, and Second Life can be educational tools for the teaching and learning of foreign languages. I use integrated gaming as a way to attract students, motivate them, immerse them, and role-play with them. In the resulting relaxed atmosphere, linguistic rules are more easily learned. See http://www.langwidge.com or http://www.profcatel.com for more information.

10:00 – 10:45

Effects of Guest Responses in an Asynchronous Learning Network: An Exploratory Study
Wen-Kai Yu
Yu-Chin Sun
Online discussions are known to have been incorporated with distance education to support participants who might not be able to meet or interact with their teachers face to face (King, 2001). There have been ample studies endeavoring to address the differences between synchronous online discussions and asynchronous online discussions; however, few have tackled the effect of guests in an asynchronous learning network. The present investigation examines the effects of guest responses in an asynchronous learning network in a exploratory study of seventeen-year-old EFL learner’s blog in Taiwan. The study also provides suggestions for future research and on how online courses can be better designed.

A Collaborative Peer Observation Model for Online Language Teachers
Joseph Hopkins
Pauline Ernest
Peer observations have long been considered a valuable tool for teacher development and reflection in foreign language teaching in face-to-face environments (Fanselow, 1988; 1992; Wajnryb, 1992). There is a limited amount of literature available, however, on peer observation within online education. This paper focuses on a model for collaborative online peer observation used in a recent teacher-development activity for 58 English language teachers at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), a fully online distance-learning university based in Barcelona, Spain. The activity was conducted asynchronously, using virtual group spaces and a common discussion forum, within the university’s virtual learning environment.

Designing a Computer Delivered Language Performance Test: A Pilot Study
Carol A. Chapelle
Yoo-Ree Chung
Volker Hegelheimer
Nick Pendar
Jing Xu
Prototype tasks were constructed to elicit language displaying evidence about grammatical knowledge. The tasks were piloted using 30 ESL students in one session and 453 in a second. This presentation will describe the basis for test design, the test tasks, and the results of the pilot studies to evaluate performance relative to the research on grammatical development and students’ performance on other tests. We will discuss implications for use of second language acquisition and learner corpus research for increasing the utility of L2 assessment with automatic response analysis.

The K-12 Factor: Bridging the Gap between the K-12 and University Communities
Frank Kruger-Robbins
Kristy Britt
Marlene Johnshoy
Rachida Primov
Dana Rensi
IALLT Panel Discussion
Why do CALICO and IALLT have a small number of K-12 constituents while ACTFL boasts a strong K-12 community? Is it time for a paradigm shift to encompass the needs of the K-12 educator? Come partake in this panel session of K-12 and university faculty members. Panelists will report on successful programs and resources that are already making this paradigm shift a reality. See how the CARLA Summer Institutes for Language Teachers, the University of Miami-Dade Outreach Program, and a K-16 “Blackboard” Language Resource Site are already changing the way K-12 and college-level language instructors communicate via technology!

Heritage and Foreign Language Learners’ Language Development: An Exploration of the Use of Asynchronous Communication Exchanges
Cynthia M. Ducar
Sara Beaudrie
This presentation investigates the gains achieved by SFL and SHL learners in an asynchronous exchange. Using an emergent theme analysis, we analyzed the 70,000 word corpus for metalinguistic comments and interaction patterns. Our findings show that the CALL environment increased students’ opportunities to attend to both form and content.

Podcasting for Language Learning: Models and Possibilities
Fernando Rosell-Aguilar
The popularization of portable media players such as the iPod, and the delivery of audio and video content through content management software like iTunes, means that there is a wealth of language learning resources freely available to users. These resources vary greatly in quality and follow different approaches to learning. This paper will present a review of the potential of podcasting for language learning in the light of SLA theories, provide a taxonomy of current podcast resources available, argue for better design, outline directions for future research, and discuss what the next steps are to arrive at a “podagogy” for language learning.

Evaluating Teaching CALL in Teacher Training
Trip Kirkpatrick
Mark Knowles
This presentation reveals a preoccupation about CALL’s rightful place in teacher training programs. To this end, we will discuss the development of a questionnaire used to uncover the structures of beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge ([BAK] structures, following Woods, 1996) of teachers who use CALL and those who promote CALL but may not teach. Following Borko et al. (1979), we refute the claim that teachers can be programmed to use desirable methods effectively. Instead, we believe that the language curriculum evolves when experienced teachers adapt to new environments and bring imagination and creativity to bear on those contexts.

Language and Culture and Tweets
Sharon Scinicariello
IALLT Presentation
In spring 2007 a new name–Twitter–appeared in the popular press, and now everyone seems to be sending tweets. Twitter is one of several applications that facilitate the sending of short “status” messages to the web. Because tweets can be read and sent via IM and SMS, they are a form of one-to-many communication that can be completely mobile. This presentation discusses several ways that Twitter can foster connections with other languages and cultures, for example, learning from tweets sent by global news organizations, following tweets from twitterers in other countries.

Bridging CALL Communities–Bringing Teachers Together Online!
Kirsten Söntgens
This paper will focus on the presentation and critical appraisal of the Leonardo-funded project called ‘EUROVOLT via VLE’ (European vocational online learning and teaching via a virtual learning environment), 2005-2007. EUROVOLT is an online teacher training course presented with Moodle, which trains experienced tutors from further and higher education in developing online vocational language courses themselves on their chosen virtual learning environments. The presentation will highlight how the training course was conceived and how it worked during the pilot as well as its critical evaluation by its participants. This evaluation will focus on data collected from the ‘trainees’ in an online seminar as well as online evaluation questionnaires.

Combining Moodle and Online Video to Spur Language Learning and Critical Thinking
Peter Neff
IALLT Presentation
The ever increasing availability of online video materials has been a boon for language instructors, especially in EFL contexts, who wish to provide their students with various authentic listening options outside of the classroom. Using resources such as Google Video and YouTube, in combination with systems like Moodle, teachers can now develop multifaceted online extensions of the learning environment. This presentation will demonstrate how different types of online video can be assigned for outside-of-class viewing and then later tied to assessment and critical thinking development through quizzes, debates, and forum discussion.

Sona Vocabulary Assistant: Connections and Integration through Browserless Webware
Curtis Ford
Sona Vocabulary Assistant is a cross-platform, web-enabled desktop application used in Russian classes at the University of South Carolina. Created in Runtime Revolution, it allows instructors to more tightly integrate existing textbook resources by bringing information scattered among different media into a single multimedia environment with six automatically generated activities. Instructors can also easily add to word lists their own examples of usage, audio, notes, images, and web links. I will discuss the current state of the program, students’ reactions, and demonstrate how web-enabled programs can deliver culturally rich learning materials without the limitations of a browser.

The Impact of Academic Podcasting on Student Learning Outcomes
Betty Rose Facer
Margaret Camarena
M’hammed Abdous
With an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities-Digital Humanities Initiative, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Old Dominion University is building upon its Pilot Podcasting Project to determine if the use of podcasting technology in foreign language courses results in increased pedagogical effectiveness and greater student learning outcomes. The study examines the academic use of podcasting in beginning to advanced language, literature and culture courses for the 2007/2008 academic year. It is expected that podcasting technology will not only enhance students’ out-of-class review and practice activities, but that it may eventually cause instructors to rethink the types of materials they provide to students and the ways in which language courses are offered.

LinguaStep: A Platform for Curriculum-based Language Learning
Loren Siebert
IALLT Presentation
LinguaStep is a new online language-learning resource that was designed from the ground up to work in conjunction with existing language textbooks. While many existing commercial software programs target language learning, their focus tends to be on replacing textbooks and classrooms (and teachers) with solitary learning. LinguaStep takes the opposite approach by integrating an existing textbook series into an easy-to-use and pedagogically sound Web 2.0 service, so that textbook-based language learners can leverage online technology as well. By incorporating ideas from research on human memory and computer-aided language learning, the LinguaStep service aims to make each student more successful with the curriculum they are following. And by integrating guided and exploratory activities into a single service that leverages content relevant to the curriculum, students gain a useful resource for language learning.

International Online Student Language Exchange and Intercultural Sensitivity
Nina Langton
Alwyn Spies
IALLT Presentation
Through online collaborative multimedia projects, students have increased opportunities to connect with L2 students of different cultural backgrounds for the purpose of producing and negotiating meaning in the target language. These opportunities can also potentially make students more aware of cultural issues that may impact their own language acquisition and use. This study, involving online collaboration between second-year Japanese language students in Canada and Taiwan, examines connections between intercultural sensitivity and Japanese language development, and hypothesizes that online exchanges between multicultural learners of a second language can potentially contribute to increased intercultural sensitivity.

Topic-oriented Tasks and Vocabulary Acquisition
Maria Victoria Gonzalez Pagani
Jenny Nadaner
There has been an increased focus on vocabulary growth as a benchmark for SLA in recent years. Research has shown that interaction through computer-mediated communication benefits L2 vocabulary acquisition. Further studies show that lexical confusions dominate negotiations of meaning. The present study centers on incidental vocabulary acquisition through topic-oriented tasks in the context of synchronous CMC through learner/learner (NNS/NNS) pair chat exchanges using Skype. Tasks included information exchange and collaborative writing on the chosen topics. Target vocabulary was measured by two different instruments, and chats were examined for negotiations of meaning and the use of target vocabulary in context.

11:30 – 11:50

ICT and the Reversal of Authority Legitimation and Power Representation: Possibly a New Learning Experience?
Moira DiMauro-Jackson
This paper will reflect the preliminary findings of the observation carried out in a first year Italian class at Texas State University, featuring a video final project created by the students, in comparison to a French second year class with no such project, focusing on the pedagogical, social, cultural, and anthropological dimensions of ICT within the classroom. I will seek to demonstrate that the ways in which teachers and students “invent” their uses of technology both reflect and constitute the ways the political culture of a society is maintained and changed. Magli (1997) states that by introducing technology into school practices, we change the processes of authority legitimation and power representation and ultimately achieve a new learning experience.

Theory and Steps to Develop Adaptive Hypermedia Material for L2 Acquisition
Mercedes Rico
Eva Maria Dominguez Gomez
Maria Antonia Paín Arias
Héctor Sánchez Santamaría
Alejandro Curado Fuentes
Learning and information technologies (ICTs) are progressively evolving in the Spanish educational system with an increasing joint focus on the early ages. The process has been accelerated by legislation applied to elementary and preschool curricula claiming the need to foster foreign language learning in combination with educational technologies for 3- to 6-year old children. In this context, our research group-Research Group for Computer-Assisted Language Learning in Extremadura (GexCALL, http://gexcall.unex.es)-has embarked on the development of an adaptive hypermedia system founded on individualized user models and the creation of adaptive games.

Tagging and Word Frequency: What Do Language Learners Need to Know?
Charles Wiz
IALLT Presentation
The use of tags has become an important tool for finding and retrieving information on the internet. Individuals are free to assign any tags to any item, without the existence of a controlled vocabulary or imposed guidelines. This can pose challenges to language learners who wish to use sites that employ tags. This presentation will report preliminary findings on item frequencies and divergence between standard word frequency lists and tag frequencies, and the potential impact that this may have on vocabulary instruction.

Synchronous Computer-mediated Communication for Real-life Tasks: Ordering Pizza
Jacob E. Larsen
Karina Silva
The interaction between native and nonnative speakers has been researched for decades. This research has, among other things, focused on the negotiation of meaning. However, no studies have addressed native and nonnative speaker interaction in an authentic, everyday activity, such as the ordering of pizza via phone and written synchronous computer-mediated communication. This study aims at filling this gap by analyzing participant performance on a pizza-ordering task in terms of communication breakdowns, turns, and time on task. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the participants’ performance and perceptions will be presented and discussed.

Using a Digital Video Library to Develop Cultural Literacy
Catherine Caws
This paper describes FrancoToile, a work-in-progress project initiated in the summer of 2006 at the University of Victoria, and its pedagogical implementation in our language courses focusing on the development of cultural literacy. I will review recent research in CALL technologies relating to sociocultural theories, focusing on cultural awareness, and discuss the opportunity of combining these technologies with concepts of multiliteracy as well as curriculum design. The presentation will introduce and explain the technology as well as present its associated research project used to measure learners’ capacity to use the technology and other tools in order to develop their understanding of Francophone cultures.

Promoting Cultural Acquisition among Korean Language Learners through Podcasting
Minsook Kim
Junghee Park
IALLT Presentation
This paper is a report of an on-going development project, “Berkeley Korean Podcasting,” which aims to enhance the cultural knowledge of Korean language learners at the University of California at Berkeley. Starting in late October 2007, we launched a podcast called “Berkeley Korean,” with a new episode debuting each week. The podcasts can be downloaded for free and be used by teachers to lend an extra dimension to classroom learning. Taking advantage of the increasing iPod usage at the college level, the podcasts will hopefully prove to be a successful marriage of technology and language and bridge the gap between classroom language learning and real-life cultural acquisition.

Using Computer Lab Internships to Train Future Teachers
Troy Cox
IALLT Presentation
Many intensive English programs (IEPs) as well as teacher training institutions struggle with getting their teachers trained in CALL. To get future teachers trained before they have the stress of being a “new teacher,” one program started a pilot program to offer paid internships to students who are just entering the field. The purpose is to train teachers in educational uses of technology prior to their being hired to teach at an IEP with the goal that they will be able to more effectively integrate the technology with their classes. This presentation will report on how the pilot program is working.

Advance Organizers and Listening Comprehension Assessment in a DVD-based Video Program
Bernd Conrad
The objective of this presentation is to demonstrate how DVD technology can be used to incorporate preview and review activities that help beginning level learners comprehend the story in the TV series “Berlin Berlin.” One challenge is to design advance organizers which help learners focus on global comprehension but do not compromise their interest in how the story unfolds. Similarly, an episode review is designed to assess comprehension but not to delay the presentation of the next episode by dwelling on linguistic aspects of the current one. Preview examples will have English translations and video excerpts will have English subtitles.

1:30 – 2:15

Learning Chinese Language and Culture in the Context of an Massively multiplayer Online Role-playing Game (MMORPG)
Kenneth Wade Dirkin
Ruhui Ni
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games are a significant potential, but underutilized, learning environment for second language acquisition. The exploration and discussion on how to fully employ the characteristics of MMORPGs to support language learning has drawn a great deal of attention from many such areas as second language acquisition, CMC, gaming, and educational technology. This presentation is to introduce ZON, an on-going project aimed at providing an MMORPG environment for Chinese language learning and Chinese culture experience for English speakers. The beta version of the ZON game will be demonstrated. The rationale of design, the framework of the ZON game, and how language learning and culture exposure happen in this environment will be presented and discussed as well.

CALL Learner Training in a Listening Course
Philip Hubbard
Kenneth Romeo
CALL learner training is receiving increasing interest, yet our understanding of how to incorporate it effectively into a course remains largely anecdotal. This presentation reports on a pilot study for developing a pervasive learner training component for an advanced ESL listening course for graduate students. Data are collected from pre- and postcourse surveys, assignments during the course, student learning journals, and videotaped individual meetings focused on checking and refining students’ understanding and implementation of learning principles and procedures. The data are analyzed qualitatively to assess the impact of the training and inform a more extensive study planned for subsequent quarters.

Advances in Large Scale Oral Reading Fluency Assessment
Ryan A. Downey
David Rubin
Alistair Van Moere
Individualized assessment of oral reading fluency (ORF) consumes teachers’ valuable time. As part of the development of an automated system for assessing ORF (i.e., percent words read correctly, reading rate, and phrasing/expressiveness), two large-scale studies collected oral reading samples over the telephone from first-, second-, third-, and fifth-graders from the US. Samples were scored using an automated speech-processing system that had been trained to match human scoring. Results demonstrated: (a) automated scoring correlated highly (above .90) with scores from expert human raters and (b) internet-to-telephone test delivery can significantly reduce time spent administering and scoring ORF tests.

Using Second Life to Learn a Second Language: Language Learning in a Virtual World
Christopher Luke
Lisa Kuriscak
The primary intent of this presentation is to demonstrate how second language learning can be facilitated in the online, virtual world of Second Life (SL). The presenters will focus on a recent pilot project that involved approximately 100 fourth-semester Spanish students and their initial work in SL. Topics will include designing and implementing a SL project in a language class, successes and drawbacks of using SL, and student reactions and response to learning in this particular online environment.

Student-Authored Content at the Core: Instant Video Projects in Italian 101
Cindy Evans
Shirley Smith
IALLT Presentation
The presenters will give a brief overview of the integration of video projects in the foreign language curriculum at Skidmore College, focusing on the current use of student-authored video as content in Italian. Students create video assignments designed to target specific thematic and grammatical structures. As an alternative to the use of video projects as a capstone experience, this practice exploits the medium as a tool for creative expression; students engage by putting their personal perspectives on center stage. The presentation will also include a discussion of constructionist principles supporting the integration of video projects in the classroom.

Computer-assisted Study Abroad: Empowering Students with Web 2.0
Kevin M. Gaugle
Duleep Deosthale
IALLT Presentation
Distance learning has traditionally been thought of as a matter of convenience in which one studies online because traveling is not an option. However, what if traveling were a mandatory component of a distance-learning experience? How might such an initiative redefine the meaning of study abroad or distance education itself? The following presentation will describe several projects at Marist College that have used student-generated podcasting, blogging, and geotagged photography to enhance both the student’s study abroad experience as well as traditional on-the-ground courses at the host institution.

2:30 – 3:15

Activity Theoretical Case Study: A Research Method for Online Language Learning
Joseph M. Terantino
This paper presents a research method for investigating CALL. The method integrates the conceptual framework provided by activity theory with case study methods to facilitate CALL research in online language learning. This presentation offers a comprehensive description of activity theory and case study methods, which emphasize the learning context as opposed to isolated learning outcomes. These descriptions provide guidelines for defining activity systems and describing the transformational processes associated with online language learning. The presentation will close with conclusions drawn from the application of the research method to a real context, my dissertation research in progress, demonstrating its usefulness to investigating online language learning.

Changing Realities of the Writing Classroom: The Effects of Computer-mediated Feedback on Revision in L2 Writing
Soo Hyon Kim
This presentation reports on a classroom-based study using insert comment/track changes, a function in Microsoft Word, and also Google Docs, a web-based collaborative editing program, for giving students comments on their essays prior to revision. Based on the findings of this study, the presenter discusses the effects of computer-mediated feedback on students’ writing and how the changing realities of ESL classrooms call for a closer examination of the influence that the medium of teacher feedback has on the ways students revise.

Creation and Application of a Database of Foreign Language Film Clips
Mark Kaiser
We will demonstrate the pilot for a searchable database of foreign language film clips. The clips, ranging in length from 30 seconds to 5+ minutes, have been tagged for descriptive features (e.g., culture, discourse, and linguistic) and language (e.g., actual words used in the dialog of the clip). Privileged users are able to search the database, review clips, and order those that they want to make available to their students. We discuss potential pedagogical applications of film clips, as well as problematize both decontextualization of the clip and the use of film clips as models of authentic speech.

Writing Collaboratively: Using Wikis in the Foreign Language Classroom
Ana Oskoz
Idoia Elola
IALLT Presentation
This study focuses on the use of wikis for collaborative writing in a FL context. It examines students’ writing performance individually and collaboratively by analyzing in the essays (a) fluency, accuracy, and syntactic complexity and (b) content and structure. Furthermore, the study analyzes students’ beliefs regarding individual and collaborative writing. Twenty-one students in a Spanish advanced writing course composed four essays and completed two questionnaires. Although the essays composed collaboratively showed less fluency, the essays improved in accuracy, content, and structure. Moreover, students felt they learned more about content, genre and grammar when working collaboratively than working individually.

Synthetic Immersive Environments and Spanish Pragmatics: Examining Dynamic CMC
Julie Sykes
Various features associated with these online collaborative environments are ideally suited to tackle pragmatic complexities. This presentation reports on the design, testing, and implementation of the first synthetic immersive environment (SIE) for learning L2 pragmatics. It describes the development process of the 3-dimensional, virtual space including the theoretical model for design and implementation. It reports on a large-scale study addressing user perception of the SIE for learning, the patterns of use within the SIE, and learner outcome data. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of implications for research as well as suggested applications of SIEs in language classrooms.

Web 2.0, the Language Learner, and You!
Clayton Mitchell
IALLT Presentation
Have you ever wanted to add technology to your classes and were not sure where to begin? Have you ever wanted to communicate with your students more efficiently? Have you been daunted by all of the technology available? If so, this talk is for you. Technology is no longer an option when talking about instruction in the 21st century; it is an obligation we have to our students to prepare them to communicate in the global community.

The Use of e-Portfolios in Spanish Language Teaching: Update on a Case Study
Peter Lafford
Barbara Lafford
Michelle Petersen
The educational use of e-portfolios continues to increase. Particularly relevant in support of language study, e-portfolios that can incorporate text and audio or video clips, documenting the student’s linguistic skill and progress over time, can be especially useful. Within the context of college-level Spanish, the presenters will update last year’s pilot study with more robust empirical data addressing the rationale and implementation of PowerPoint-based e-portfolios in a Spanish language classroom at Arizona State University. They will also report on the progress of the Global Language Portfolio project at Virginia Commonwealth University, and the Sakai-based Open Source Portfolio, showing examples of each.