2008 Thursday Sessions

CALICO 2008

Conference Presentations
Day One: March 20, 2008

10:00 – 10:45

Developing Pronunciation Self-reflection Skills through Digital Video
Andrew Arthur Oestrike
IALLT Presentation
The need for International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) continues to rise across English-speaking universities because EFL programs across the world rarely prepare students with the speaking skills necessary to effectively communicate in academic environments. This study examines the use of technology in an ITA pronunciation course. The students in this class failed the standardized ETS SPEAK test, necessitating enrollment in the class. Through videos created in short interviews, students critically analyze their own speech samples as the core component to their assignments. Students’ perceptions of the material and technology, along with their improvement on the test will be discussed.

Integrating ICALL into Synchronous CMC
Markus Dickinson
Rebecca Sachs
Yunkyoung Kang
Soojeong Eom
Task-based synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) may represent an optimal psycholinguistic environment for form-meaning connections, but learners do not receive feedback from a trusted authority. Intelligent computer-assisted language instruction (ICALI) provides feedback, but the encouragement of communicative interaction remains largely unexplored. To combine the benefits of ICALI and CMC, we are designing a parser-based system that provides feedback on particle usage by first-year L2 Korean learners in CMC. To deal with computational challenges, we constrain the content with picture-based information-gap tasks and limit feedback to a specific area of language. This lets the system address errors in meaningful, goal-driven interactions.

Relative Effectiveness of Feedback Types in CALL
Sandra Kregar
Numerous studies have identified a facilitative for the use of corrective feedback in L2 instruction (Russell & Spada, 2006). However, few studies (e.g. Nagata, 1997; Sanz & Morgan-Short, 2004) have explored the effects of different types of corrective feedback on learner performance in a CALL environment. Moreover, these studies have not yielded a consensus regarding the superiority of a single feedback type or identified conditions in which feedback is most beneficial. This session presents a current study that explored the relative effectiveness of feedback types, discusses the findings in relation to previous research and offers implications for instructional practices.

Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Culture through Blogs: More Than What Is in the Textbook
Marc Cadd
IALLT Presentation
Whether you use your own blog or simply use existing blogs to supplement your curriculum, blogs offer a free and easy means of expanding what students learn about the target culture. Using readily available, free blog providers, you can set up a blog, control content, and have your students learn what you want them to learn about the culture. Systematic assessment of students’ learning is also a critical aspect of this process. This presentation will show you how to set up a blog, provide sources of existing blogs that will expand your curriculum, and discuss various means of assessing students’ learning of the target culture.

Sharing the Expertise: Communities of Learning for Technology
Marlene Johnshoy
Both CALICO and IALLT are concerned with making connections to language teachers who are not “techies” in order to share the technology expertise that resides in our organizations. At the same time, there are many language teachers who are doing very creative things with many different kinds of technology! How can we make more connections? This session will show the results of a national survey of language teachers on their technology use and what they would like to learn more about. Some connection suggestions will be put forward (learning communities), and brainstorming other means of knowledge sharing will be encouraged.

Mapping Resources across the Language Curriculum
Julio C. Rodriguez
Mehmet Sahin
IALLT Presentation
The Language Studies Resource Center at Iowa State University has embarked on the complex task of mapping its resources to the language curriculum. We have approached this task by implementing two complementary processes: one designed to associate resources with existing information (e.g., expert reviews, standards, learning outcomes) and the other to associate resources with specific pedagogical experiences (descriptions) or their outcomes (products) through the use of social software (wikis and blogs). The latter involves the participation of instructors and learners. We will share our experiences with the tools we selected, as well as the processes we created to collect information.

CALL Needs a Disciplinary Track Record
Nina Garrett
New technologies are often used to deliver the same pedagogy as materials in earlier formats by developers unaware of similarities in pedagogical purpose or of the research conducted earlier–which results in a kind of “reinvention of the wheel” that undermines the seriousness of CALL as a track of language pedagogy/SLA theory. CALL practitioners and publications must establish a disciplinary track record that will allow old timers and newcomers alike to understand how language pedagogy has and has not changed with changing technologies and how earlier materials and research can be recognized as basic to current theory, practice, and research.

eLearning Standards and Design-based Research
Michael Bush
Although eLearning is gaining acceptability in education, a visit to most language classrooms would reveal that few students are benefiting from interactive learning to the extent early proponents believed. Nevertheless, research has for years demonstrated that technology-enhanced language learning environments can be effective in improving learning outcomes. Yet materials development costs remain high, and many educators and decision makers still question the value of technology-based learning. This presentation will provide an overview of how eLearning standards address the problem of development costs and show how design-based research principles can add a feedback loop for further research and materials improvement.

11:00 – 11:20

The Use of Wiki in Content-based Courses in Spanish
Jose A. Narbona
IALLT Presentation
Wiki is computer software that allows users to easily create, edit, and link web pages. The advantage of this free software is that it allows collaborative work online, a very attractive option to use for second-language acquisition purposes. My presentation will focus on the varied ways in which I have been using this tool in commercial and scientific Spanish. I will talk about specific examples like our vocabulary lists, writing an instruction manual for scientific Spanish, the final presentations, and how Wiki is used to collect links and organize materials for these courses.

Language Learners’ Metacognitive Beliefs and Learner Autonomy via an Autonomous Learning Platform (ALP)
Jinghui Wang
Minjie Xing
Ken Spencer
This study explored the link between EFL learners’ metacognitive beliefs and learner autonomy via an autonomous learning platform (ALP) which consisted of both intrapersonal (e-course and e-monitoring) and interpersonal EFL learning tasks (e-revision and e-forum). Constructs of metacognitive beliefs and learner autonomy (learners’ motivation, perceived ability, attributional awareness, learner independence, and collaborative learning) were identified; metacognitive beliefs changed with experimental conditions; though all subjects made progress in terms of academic English writing proficiency, the extent and degree were different, with the intervention group displaying significant difference. ALP assisted EFL learners to develop their language proficiency as well as learner autonomy.

Professional Foreign Language Competence and Certification through Online/Multimedia Courses
J. Enrique Agudo
Eva Maria Dominguez Gomez
Patricia Edwards
Paula Ferreira
One of the world’s most important cross-cultural building blocks lies in forging a solid foundation in communicative skills. The European Union proposes to tackle the feat of understanding the multiple languages spoken among its member states by the not so far off target date of 2013. This paper addresses the question of formative needs in foreign language competency in selected working collectives in equivalent professions across Europe and is part of the government-funded research project: Creation of language learning courses for occupational purposes with online/multimedia support (Moodle) for officially recognized professional qualifications in Europe.

User-generated Content as a Tool for Video Conferencing in the Language Classroom
Yang Hye Jin
Hyun Bin Kang
User-generated content (UGC)–also known as user-created content–is media content created by users all over the world and its popularity has increased through websites such as YouTube. The presenters will demonstrate the use of UGC as a tool to teach all four integrative skills in the language classroom. The presenters will show a number of UGC related sites and also demonstrate four activities that could be used in any language classroom.

Linguistic and Stylistic Features of On-task and Off-task Chat
Shannon Sauro
This study examines chat scripts produced by dyads of university-level learners of English and their native English-speaking interlocutors completing online collaborative tasks via text chat. Analysis of linguistic, interactional and stylistic features uncovered distinct differences between on-task and off-task chat.

A Technologically Enhanced Approach to Teaching Languages through Songs
Gautami Shah
Meng Yeh
IALLT Presentation
Music is a part of every culture and songs are a wonderful way to learn a language. College and high school students are increasingly more familiar with and dependent on internet resources. The web plays a vital role in the lives of our students. How do we combine these two interests? In this talk we shall discuss ways to exploit the web to enhance the use of songs as textual material. As an example we shall report on a web-based project in which we have developed multilayered interactive websites for teaching Chinese and Hindi through songs.

In Touch with the iPod Touch
Franziska Lys
This presentation highlights an advanced German class in which students regularly used an iPod Touch to develop vocabulary and oral communication skills using the method of shared inquiry. Since the shared inquiry method is a group process in which participants explore together the meaning of a literary work, the iPod touch with its new features was an ideal tool to use shared inquiry for film and video material. During the presentation, the following tasks will be discussed, among others: learner-centered vocabulary development, building factual knowledge through shared listening, using visual information to encourage building opinions, and providing supporting evidence.

11:30 – 11:50

Effectiveness of Words, Pictures, and Other Instructional Media
Fuqiang Zhuo
IALLT Presentation
For several decades, researchers have conducted experiments on human information processing by comparing single and multiple sensory channels, or different media types, but their results varied. Meanwhile, with the rise and advancement of computer technology, training, and effort, instructors and course designers are able to create teaching materials with multimedia components (text, image, audio, video, and animation). As a result, it is vital for instructors to be aware of the overall differences and effectively design instructional materials. This presentation reports the results of a synthesis of research studies on the effectiveness of different media types for (foreign) language instruction and learning.

Designing and Evaluating CALL Materials: Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition Through Annotations
Elena Cotos
IALLT Presentation
This paper presents an example of how theory and research can inform CALL materials design and guide the evaluation of their effectiveness. CALL materials were developed for the purpose of investigating the learning potential of two types of annotations with respect to incidental vocabulary acquisition. Specifically, this study compares traditional glosses, in which the definitions of words correspond to their specific contextual meaning, with a cognitively more challenging type of input enhancement glosses linked to online dictionary and concordancer entries. Evidence suggests that both annotation modes hold learning potential for low-intermediate L2 learners.

Exploring the Nature of Language Learners’ Interaction in Multimedia-integrated CMC
Yoo-Ree Chung
Many synchronous CMC (SCMC) studies focus on text-based interaction of L2 learners. Meanwhile, technological advancement has allowed for synchronous communication on multimedia-integrated platforms, many of which accommodate aural and video communication as well as text-based interactions. Further research is called for because multimedia-integrated CMC has potentials for language learning. The present study thus explores the effects of audio- and video-assisted CMC on the nature of learner interaction. Characteristics of ESL learners’ dyadic interaction on different types of multimedia CMC will be explored in relation to task types. Finally, ESL learners’ perceptions about different SCMC modes will be reported.

Use of Technology to Improve Students’ Pronunciation
Hiroyo Saito
IALLT Presentation
Foreign language faculty at Haverford College have renewed emphasis on students’ pronunciation using technology. In this presentation, I will demonstrate how technology is being used to improve students’ pronunciation. I will discuss the types of software, audio files, equipment, and websites that are used. The software used includes Audacity, DL recorder, Praat, and Blackboard; and the equipment includes iPods with Micromemo and an Edirol R-09 (a digital voice recorder). Activities that students are required to do inside and outside of class will be described in detail. The students’ reactions to the pronunciation exercises and findings by faculty will be shared.

Exploring Conceptual Fluency through Learner Corpora
Viktoria Driagina-Hasko
This paper utilizes learner corpus analysis to investigate such an “evasive” aspect of FL acquisition as conceptual fluency attainment. Specifically, this learner corpus research focuses on diverging conceptualizations of motion in English and Russian and on how their linguistic instantiations are used by advanced American learners of Russian.

Synchronous, Asynchronous, and Face-to-face Feedback Exchanges in ESL: Instrumental Components of the Peer Review Process
Stella Hadjistassou
The aim of this study is to address the following questions: (a) How can the synchronous “collaboration sessions” and asynchronous “discussion board” set the collaborative conditions to stimulate a constructive conversation that enhances students’ understanding of the assignment? (b) How do the discourse and collaborative constructs differ on the simultaneous collaboration sessions and delayed discussion board? (c) What role does each online forum play in setting the conditions for face-to-face exchanges and completion of rough drafts? To examine these collaborative configurations and the value of online forums as a collectively and interactionally oriented activity, the study recruited 10 ESL learners enrolled in their second writing course at a large Southwestern university in the US and examined their exchanges for one semester.

Migrating to Moodle: Unraveling the Mysteries of Language Teaching and Technology
Juliet Falce-Robinson
In spite of the availability of effective technology, why are most language instructors still only using the most rudimentary forms of technology? Why is there a continued insistence to use technology for technology’s sake and not in order to achieve projected goals and outcomes? Why do so many instructors underuse the available technological resources? Through a survey of a representative group of language professionals and technology professionals we will try to answer these questions in an attempt to finally bridge the gap between techies and teachers while demystifying the process for language professionals on both sides of the technology “fence.”

CALL Design and Video Comprehension: Insight from Research and Practice
Luba Iskold
This paper examines cognitive and sociocultural theoretical paradigms underpinning research in video comprehension and explores the ways to integrate research findings in the design and development of online learning environments to augment student “learning to listen” and “listening to learn.” The presenter will demonstrate and discuss examples of online materials she developed to facilitate student comprehension of three types of video texts: (a) simulated authentic discourse in a video-driven course package, (b) authentic online newscasts, and (c) collaborative service learning projects conducted and videotaped by students in a local target language community. Findings from a survey of student opinions will be discussed.

Describing the EFL Learners’ Academic Lexicon by a Contrastive Corpora Approach
Ming-Chia Ally Lin
This study investigates the incremental changes of 25 EFL college learners’ productive vocabulary. Via one essay topic administered at three time points (pretest, posttest, and 4-week delayed posttest), the learners’ uses of the Academic Word List (AWL) will be examined by contrastive corpus analyses. With the VocabProfiler, the overall AWL type-token ratio will be calculated. Antcon3.2 concordancer and the AWL Highlighter will be employed to underscore the collocation and colligation uses of the AWL items. Two major collocation types, Verb-Noun and Adjective-Noun, will be reviewed with the BNC concordances to ensure the rating quality. Three high-frequency AWL items will be selected for qualitative descriptions. Results and implications will be discussed.

Effective use of the Twenty Questions Electronic Game in FL classes
Thomas Robb
The surprisingly accurate electronic guessing game “Twenty Questions” by Radica is available in numerous languages including French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese. While intended for use by a single person, it can effectively be used with groups of students, or even as a whole-class activity. The presenter will suggest a number of different activity configurations and extensions to focus on syntax, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Samples of the game in various languages will be available.

Task Design and Implementation of Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) in Online Foreign Language Classrooms
Chun Lai
Jiawen Wang
Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been proposed as “psycholinguistically optimal” for distance foreign language learning (Doughty & Long, 2003; Ellis, 2003; Leaver & Willis, 2003). However, the implementation of a TBLT syllabus in the online foreign language learning context is just beginning to be documented (Kötter, 2001; Stockwell, 2004; Rosell-Aguilar, 2005). Discussions on task design, a crucial factor in TBLT, in online learning contexts have just started to accumulate (Hampel & Hauck, 2004; Hampel, 2006; Rosell-Aguilar, 2005). This study attempts to add to the discussion by analyzing task design in the online beginning-level foreign language learning context in reference to the instructors’ and students’ perceptions and performances on the designed tasks during the online classes. The study identified several issues crucial to the successful implementation of TBLT and elaborated on how to design tasks in response to the identified issues to ensure the successful implementation of TBLT in the online beginning-level foreign language learning context.

Panel Discussion: Successes and Challenges of Implementing CMC Tools for Teaching and Research
Claudia Kost
Ana Oskoz
Nike Arnold
Lara Ducate
Scott Payne
Julie Sykes
Steven Thorne
The CALICO CMC SIG sponsors this panel discussion which focuses on the benefits and challenges of the implementation of a variety of CMC tools in the foreign language classroom. The presenters will discuss current research agendas and methodologies, as well as data collection and analysis techniques which they use with these tools. Nike Arnold, Lara Ducate, and Scott Payne will focus on recent forms of CMC tools, such as chat, blogs, and wikis. Julie Sykes and Steve Thorne will cover the emerging tools of gaming and virtual environments. The session concludes with time for discussion.

Do They Match Each Other? The Policy and Reality of ICT Integration
Mei-jung Wang
Yung-yuan Liu
In Taiwan, most research focuses on the effectiveness of CALL on students’ learning or teachers’ teaching. Little research has addressed national policies designed to promote the integration of information communication technology (ICT) into English instruction. This paper aims to present the policies relevant to the integration of ICT into English instruction in high schools, to examine the degree of the fulfillment of these policies, and then identify the factors which have enhanced or hindered the integration of ICT into English instruction in high schools. The results can serve as reference points for making future policies and designing teacher-training programs.

Tesoros: DVD or Online Formats for First-Year Spanish
Robert Blake
This presentation will showcase Tesoros, a first-year Spanish software program for use as a DVD or online course. The materials in both formats cover the standard grammar and vocabulary scope and sequence for introductory Spanish using the vehicle of animated vignettes and a detective storyline. The student is asked to participate in the solution of the detective story by completing a series of activities. Student responses are scored and archived for the instructor’s convenience. The online format offers chatting (CMC) with native-speaker tutors in real (VoIP) or deferred time. Tesoros can be used in hybrid, distance-learning, or individual study learning environments.

The Dark Side of the Web-Version 2.0
Sharon Scinicariello
Steven K. Sharp
IALLT Presentation
Blogs, iTunes, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and so on. The multitude of new tools for mediated communication and learning provokes reactions that range from enthusiasm to skepticism to fear-as do calls for the transformation of education to incorporate these tools. Indeed, even when activities that integrate these tools into courses are successful, they often fail to have a lasting impact on the curriculum. Using representative examples, the presenters will discuss the pluses and minuses of these tools and explore what has to happen before they become integral parts of language learning.

3:00 – 3:45

Using NLP Technology to Promote Independent Learning of Vocabulary and Word Form
Peter Wood
This paper deals with the development of an application promoting independent learning of German vocabulary and word formation, based on freely available software and databases. With the application, students can import any German text and (after an automatic mark up) look up words in a dictionary, access morphological and semantic information on them, or have KWIC lists from a large corpus displayed. Ultimately, the application should be able to deal with learner language, analyze various errors, and provide explanations and exercises geared toward students’ individual needs. Progress in this area will be discussed at the end of the talk.

Dynamic Assessment in Synchronous Computer-mediated Communication
Mark Darhower
Dynamic assessment, a technique that is well known in the field of psychology but only recently introduced into second language acquisition, is employed in this study to help understand the development processes of two university Spanish learners as they produce a series of narrations in the past time frame. The assessments were carried out in a synchronous computer-mediated (chat) environment. The findings uncover patterns of mediation needs of the two learners, providing a snapshot of their potential in addition to their current level of independent functioning. Learner perceptions and effects of the chat medium are also discussed.

Language Related Episodes in Synchronous plus Asynchronous Communication
Ryowa Tsurunaga
Yoko Hasebe
This presentation showcases a case study report on a tandem online chat (synchronous) and blog (asynchronous) project in which university students in the US and Japan communicate using both English and Japanese in order to learn each other’s language and develop mutual cross-cultural understanding over 6 weeks. Language related episodes (LRE) are analyzed qualitatively, which uncovers marked differences in the quality of output observed in both modes. Finally, implications for designing a tandem online project will be discussed taking account of the participants’ perceptions from continuous surveys and focus interviews.

Sustainability in Telecollaboration: Social Presence and Interactional Strategies
H. Müge Satar
This paper will report on the results of an email telecollaboration exchange between participants from the US and Turkey in the spring term, 2007. Drawing on research on social presence (Rourke et al., 2001), interactional strategies (Peterson, 2006) and community building (Darhower, 2007) in online communication, a qualitative analysis of the exchanges between the participants and between the organizers will be presented by an exemplification of cases within a sociocultural/socioaffective perspective. The results will be discussed in terms of sustainability to raise awareness on the differential features of communication that may potentially affect the outcomes of the exchanges via CMC.

HumTV: New Directions for Broadcast Media in the Language Classroom
Jarom McDonald
Ian James
Anthony Quinn
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 use of immersive online environments and online virtual reality games is currently a popular topic in instructional technology. Advocates propose that these tools can engage students more fully in active learning and that they correspond to millennial students’ learning styles. Skeptics suggest that virtual learning environments are too time consuming to use, do not develop higher level cognitive skills, and have low accessibility. This presentation will discuss the pedagogical issues of using the popular immersive environment Second Life to teach foreign language and culture and will give practical examples of activities that can be developed and implemented in Second Life.

Learner Empowerment or Cultural Homogeneity?: A Bottom-up Critique of Community Tagging in Web 2.0
David Malinowski
IALLT Presentation
After reviewing the common Web 2.0 practice of community tagging as it takes place on several language-learning websites, this paper presents evidence from learners’ critical engagement with the reorganization of an existing multilingual and multimodal corpus of authentic texts. The paper argues that overreliance on so-called “folksonomic” construction of knowledge poses a threat to semiotic diversity, while obfuscating power relationships. In the end, the need for learners to negotiate the diversity of performative functions, socioindexical meanings, and embodied practices that local actors read into online texts leads to a host of alternative approaches for designing frameworks for learning and interaction.

Web 2.0: Output-oriented Scenarios for Language Learning and Digital Media
Bernd Rüschoff
Following the apparent upgrade of the internet to Web 2.0, expectations are running high as to the innovative potential of this (supposedly) new platform for technology enhanced language learning. In this presentation I shall discuss the principle of output orientation in language learning and then consider some of the tools the “new” internet has to offer in such an approach. The presentation will also address the issue of how output orientation in language learning can contribute to lifelong learning. It will be argued that learners engaged in “negotiating meaningful and comprehensible output” are very much engaged in learning experiences which incorporate reflective learning together with collaborative learning. Therefore, such activities provide a perfect framework for the development of learning strategies. A few examples of such experience-oriented learning scenarios from school and university contexts will be shown during the presentation.

4:00 – 4:45

The Construct Validity of a Web-based Listening Comprehension Test
Cristina Pardo
This study describes and evaluates an online Spanish Listening Exam (SLE), a listening measure focused on linguistic items and tasks based on the main topics learned in the first two years of a Spanish curriculum. Descriptive statistics and correlation analyses of raters for the text content of tasks were conducted as evidence of the consistency of the SLE construct validity. Moreover, the SLE was administrated to 147 Spanish learners and participants’ perceptions about the exam similarity with instructional tasks were analyzed. This study concludes that the SLE effectively tests Spanish proficiency based on linguistic features.

A New NLP-based Online Japanese Textbook
Noriko Nagata
Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology can be used in CALL to provide detailed, relevant feedback concerning student errors in sentence-production exercises. NLP is essential for providing such feedback because of the astronomical range of possible responses a student might produce. This paper introduces a new NLP-based online textbook called Robo-Sensei which significantly extends the scope of the currently distributed supplementary software package, Robo-Sensei: Personal Japanese Tutor (Nagata, 2004). The new Robo-Sensei will cover an entire Japanese curriculum as a stand-alone textbook. I describe each component, illustrate the variety of NLP-based exercises presented, and discuss the benefits of such exercises in and out of the classroom.

Computer-enhanced Language Instruction in the Midwest
Senta Goertler
Paula Winke
We will summarize the results of a survey of 39 language program coordinators in the Midwest on the technology-enhanced teaching practices in their language programs. Coordinators were asked to report general information about their programs, technology practices, materials used, training provided, availability of computer labs for development, teaching, and self-study, and the implementation, benefits and challenges of hybrid or online courses. Results revealed that technology practices differ across languages and institutions; however, there is a general trend toward the use of additional online materials. Additionally, programs with hybrid or online courses reported positively about these courses.

Aptitude, Personality, and Form-focused CALL Instructions
Fenfang Hwu
Theories and research in SLA have suggested that L2 learners need to focus attention on the form of the target language in some way and that consciousness at the level of rule awareness facilitates learning. It seems likely that the process of gaining rule awareness will be facilitated by learners’ ability to uncover language patterns, their memory capacity, and their preferred manner of learning about these patterns. Given that learners differ in these areas, an important function of instruction is therefore to accommodate their differences. The design of the current CALL instruction thus considers individual differences in language aptitude and personality.

Developing an Ngram-based Grammar Checker for ESL Learners
Hao-Jan Howard Chen
More and more ESL students need to improve their writing skills to pass various language tests. To help teachers reduce their teaching loads, some automatic essay raters are available (e.g., ETS Criterion and Vantage My Access). However, they often cannot give good feedback on ESL students’ writing errors. In this study, we used NLP technologies to develop an ngram language model based on a large native corpus. The grammar checker can perform well in detecting ESL learners’ lexical errors. Though the checker still has some limitations, its robustness in detecting errors has great potentials in helping ESL learners.

The LARC Lab’s Suspension Bridge To CALL: Shock Absorbers and Technological Springs to Help Meet the Instructional Needs of Faculty
Marcia Ledezman-Macias
John Vitaglione
LARC at San Diego State University supports two language-learning labs, one PC and another Mac, as well as three smart classrooms and two digital-media-production labs. First-rate communication is vital for bridging instructional needs to appropriate teaching technologies. This presentation depicts (a) the use of suspension-shock-absorbers such as job aids, lab orientations, and hands-on workshops to reduce tech stress, and (b) the technological springs of digital recording, virtual storage and access to oral assessment applications and collaborative learning environments. Examples demonstrate how multimedia production enhances learning with tools such as Skype and iMovie, while empowering instructors to take control of technology for teaching.

Developing a Meaning-focused and Task-based Virtual Learning Reality
James C. Chan
The presenter will report on the design and development of a National Security Education Program (NSEP) grant project at University of Oregon and Avant Assessment, that builds a new digital language learning environment based on the emerging technology of virtual worlds and social networking. He will present the challenges and successes of designing and implementing a meaning-focused and task-based gaming scenario in Second Life, that provides the immersion and authentic interaction lacking in the traditional classroom for advanced language development.

Design, Development, and Formative Evaluation of a Computer-based Diglot Reader
Paul F. Merrill
This paper will report on the design, development, and formative evaluation of a computer-based diglot reader. The diglot reader, which was originally conceived by Robbins Burling, gradually introduces second-language vocabulary and sentence structure within the context of a familiar authentic first-language text. The computer software provides learning aids such as native pronunciation of target vocabulary, recording of learner pronunciation, translations of target vocabulary, and grammar hints. The diglot reader will be demonstrated and issues related to its design and formative evaluation will be discussed along with the advantages and disadvantages of the diglot approach.