Gold Sponsor Sponsors Supporter Coordinator

Transcription

Organisers
Gold Sponsor
Sponsors
Exhibitors
Supporter
Coordinator
Wednesday, 24 August 2016
Keynote Lecture
15:00-16:00 | Why Mobile Devices Aren‟t Enough: Learning
Languages, Building Communities & Exploring Cultures
Mark Pegrum, University of Western Australia, Australia
Symposium
16:30-18:30 | Specific affordances of virtual worlds and serious games for
language learning
Kristi Jauregi, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Gene Dalton, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Branislav Bedi, University of Iceland, Iceland
Christel Schneider, CSiTrain, Germany
Parallel Session 1 - 1
16:30-17:00 | Session 1-1 A (MALL) - Session Chair: Nicos Souleles
Integrating Mobile Technologies Into Very Young Second
Language Learners‟ Curriculum
Gulnara Sadykova, Kazan Federal University, Russia
Gulnara Gimaletdinova, Kazan Federal University, Russia
Albina Kayumova, Kazan Federal University, Russia
Liliia Khalitova, Kazan Federal University, Russia
Session 1-1 B (TeachedED) | Session Chair: Alex Boulton
Reconsidering TPACK for Second Language Teacher
Education: Insights from a Professional Development Course
Alina Horlescu, Ireland
Session 1-1 C (Research) | Session Chair: Eleni Nikiforou
Leveraging automatic speech recognition errors to detect
challenging speech segments in TED talks
Maryam Sadat Mirzaei, Kyoto University, Japan
Kourosh Meshgi, Kyoto University, Japan
Tatsuya Kawahara, Kyoto University, Japan
Session 1-1 D (CMC) | Session Chair: Joan-Tomas Pujola
First-Time Telecollaboration!
Ola Bakri, AUC, Egypt
EUROCALL 2016 - Conference Abstracts
1 | Page
Session 1-1 E (Social) | Session Chair: Ciara Wigham
Informal Social Networking Sites for Language Learning:
Insights into Autonomy Stances
Katerina Zourou, Web2Learn, Greece
Anthippi Potolia, University Paris 8, France
Filio Zourou, Distance Learning University Switzerland, Switzerland
Session 1-1 F (LWULT) | Session Chair: Mark Pegrum
CALL and Less Commonly Taught Languages – still a way to
go
Monica Ward, Dublin City University, Ireland
17:00-17:30 | Session 1-2 A (MALL) | Session Chair: Nicos Souleles
Using a mobile music application to extend the reach of the
L2 language classroom
Ross Sundberg, Concordia University, Canada
Walcir Cardoso, Concordia University, Canada
A CALL For Evolving Teacher Education Through 3D Micro
Teaching
Giouli Pappa, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Salomi Papadima-Sophocleous, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Are commercial personal robots ready for language learning?
Focus on the acquisition of second language speech
Souheila Moussalli, Concordia University, Canada
And what about the classroom? Scaffolding and Reflection for
Telecollaboration
Sarah Guth, University of Padova, Italy
Session 1-2 E (Social) | Session Chair: Ciara Wigham
Seeing and being seen: Facebook as a platform for task-based
language teaching of German at tertiary level in New Zealand
Vera Leier, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Una Cunningham, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
2 | Page
Teaching Turkish in low tech contexts: opportunities and
challenges
Katerina Antoniou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Evelyn Mbah, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Antigoni Parmaxi, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
What students think and what they actually do in a mobile
assistedlanguage learning context: New insights for selfdirected language learning in higher education
Gustavo Garcia Botero, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Frederik Questier, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Digital literacy and sustainability field study in EFL teacher
development
Christopher Allen, Linnaeus University, Sweden
Jan Berggren, Linnaeus University, Sweden
The Online Reading Strategies of Language Learners
Caleb Prichard, Okayama University, Japan
Andrew Atkins, Kinki University, Japan
„Preparing for our future‟: Interculturalcommunication task
design forEnglish for Specific Purposes through
Telecollaboration
Ana Sevilla Pavón, Universitat de València, Spain
Anna Nicolaou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Session 1-3 E (Social) | Session Chair: Cathy Cohen
Taking English Outside of the Classroom through Social
Networking: Reflections on a Two-Year Project
Louise Ohashi, Meiji University, Japan
A platform and customization toolkit for error-tolerant
search of language resources
Aric Bills, University of Maryland, United States
Susan Campbell, University of Maryland, United States
C. Anton Rytting, University of Maryland, United States
David Zajic, University of Maryland, United States
3 | Page
MALL community and culture in French-speaking Belgium :
the teachers‟ perspective
Julie Van de Vyver, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium
Transforming top-down EFL teachereducation into mobilebased peer-topeerlearning
Jin-Hwa Lee, Chung-Ang University, South Korea
Heyoung Kim, Chung-Ang University, South Korea
Jie-Young Kim, Chung-Ang University, South Korea
Hyoshin Lee, Konkuk University, South Korea
A systemic functional perspective on automated writing
evaluation: Formative feedback on causal discourse
Aysel Saricaoglu, TED University, Turkey
Effects of task based videoconferening on speaking
performance and overall proficiency
Atsushi Iino, Hosei University, Japan
Yukiko Yabuta, Seisen Jogakuin College, Japan
Yoichi Nakamura, Seisen Jogakuin College, Japan
Session 1-4 E (Social) | Session Chair: Cathy Cohen
Social networking affordances for open educational language
practice
An Audiolexicon Spanish-Nahuatl: Using Technology to
Promote and Disseminate a Native Mexican Language
Rafael García-Mencía, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Mexico
Aurelio López-López, Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y
Electrónica, Mexico
Angélica Muñoz-Meléndez, Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y
Electrónica, Mexico
4 | Page
Thursday, 25 August 2016
09:00-09:45 | Session 2-1 A (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Caleb
Prichard
Quantifying CALL: significance, effect size and variation
Alex Boulton, Atilf, CNRS & University of Lorraine, France
Session 2-1 B (Research) | Session Chair: Anna Kyppö
CALL Research: Where Are We Now?
John Gillespie, Ulster University, United Kingdom
Session 2-1 C (MALL) | Session Chair: Maria Victoria Soule
Mobile assisted language learning and mnemonic mapping –
the loci method revisited
Ikumi Waragai, Keio University, Japan
Marco Raindl, Dokkyo University, Japan
Tatsuya Ohta, Nanzan University, Japan
Kosuke Miyasaka, Keio University, Japan
Session 2-1 D (LWULT) | Session Chair: Bart Pardoel
Game based learning of Chinese characters and lexicon :
towards outsourcing graphic and lexical knowledge through a
video-game?
Yoann Goudin, Innovalangues - Université Grenoble Alpes, France
Mathieu Loiseau, Innovalangues - Université Grenoble Alpes, France
Parallel Session 2 – 2
09:45-10:30 | Session 2-2 A (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Caleb
Prichard Overall, very well!: The challenge of effective peerfeedback in a tandem-MOOC
Joan-Tomas Pujola, Universitat de Barecelona, Spain
Christine Appel, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Session 2-2 C (MALL) | Session Chair: Maria Victoria Soule
Vlogging: a new channel for language learning and
intercultural exchanges
Christelle COMBE, Aix-Marseille Université, LPL UMR 7309
CNRS, France
Tatiana CODREANU, ENS, ICAR UMR 5191 CNRS, France
5 | Page
Session 2-2 D (LWULT) | Session Chair: Bart Pardoel
Classification of Swedish Learner Essays by CEFR levels
Elena Volodina, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Ildikó Pilán, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
David Alfter, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Symposium
11:00-13:00 | The role of teachers in modern - technologically advanced –
multicultural and multilingual societies | Session Chair:
Peppi Taalas
Maria Panayiotou, Cyprus
Parallel Session 3 -1
11:00-11:30 | Session 3-1 A (TeachedED) | Session Chair: Ola Bakri
Cultivating a community of learners in a distance learning
postgraduate course for language professionals
Angelos Konstantinidis, UoN, Greece
Cecilia Goria, UoN, United Kingdom
Session 3-1 B (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Eleni Tziafa
Quizlet: What the Students Think. A Qualitative Data
Analysis.
Bruce Lander, Matsuyama University, Japan
Session 3-1 C (OER) | Session Chair: Julie Van de Vyver
Flip-J: Development of the system for flipped jigsaw
supported language Learning
Masanori Yamada, Kyushu Univerisity, Japan
Yoshiko Goda, Kumamoto Univerrity, Japan
Hideya Matsukawa, Osaka University, Japan
Kojiro Hata, Otemae University, Japan
Seisuke Yasunami, Kumamoto University, Japan
Session 3-1 D (Multicultural) | Session Chair: Sake Jager
„Amateur‟ interculturism in foreign language education
Antonie Alm, University of Otago, New Zealand
Session 3-1 E (LWULT) | Session Chair: Sylvie Thouësny
Learning Icelandic Language and Culture in Virtual
Reykjavik
Branislav Bédi, University of Iceland, Iceland
6 | Page
Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir, University of Iceland, Iceland
Hannes Högni Vilhjálmsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland
Hafdís Erla Helgadóttir, Reykjavik University, Iceland
Stefán Ólafsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland
Elías Ingi Björgvinsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland
Session 3-1 F (Designs) | Session Chair: Stella Hadjistassou
Visualization of feedback in a grammar-based e-learning
system for German as second language
Karin Harbusch, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
Annette Hausdörfer, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
YELL/TELL: online community platform for teacher
professional development
Ivana Marenzi, University of Hannover, L3S Research Center, Germany
Maria Bortoluzzi, University of Udine, Italy
Rishita Kalyani, University of Hannover, L3S Research Center, Germany
The Contribution of CALL to Advanced Level
Foreign/Second Language Instruction
Jack Burston, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Kelly Arispe, Boise State University, United States
Session 3-2 C (Analytics) | Session Chair: Julie Van de Vyver
Investigating student choices in performing higher-level
comprehension tasks using TED talks
Francesca Bianchi, University of Salento, Italy
Ivana Marenzi, L3S Research Center - Hannover, Germany
Using object-based activities and an online inquiry platform
to support learners‟ engagement with their heritage language
and culture
Koula Charitonos, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Marina Charalampidi, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Eileen Scanlon, The Open University, United Kingdom
Session 3-2 E (LWULT) | Session Chair: Sylvie Thouësny
The Digichaint interactive game as a virtual learning
environment for Irish
Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Ailbhe Ní Chasaide, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
7 | Page
Towards a development of Foreign Language Teaching
resources for the exploitation of enriched texts
Jorge Arús-Hita, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Timothy Read, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain
Elena Bárcena, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain
Meeting the Technology Standards for Language Teachers
Cornelia Tschichold, Swansea University, United Kingdom
A social constructionist approach to teaching and learning
vocabulary for Italian for Academic Purposes
Eftychia Xerou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Session 3-3 C (Analytics) | Session Chair: Julie Van de Vyver
Integrating online writing into the oral productive skill
training process
Zhihong Lu, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
Man Yang, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
Multilingual CALL – The Good, The Bad And The Ugly,
From The Perspective Of Teacher Training Students
Judith Buendgens-Kosten, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Session 3-3 E (Interdisciplinary) | Session Chair: Sylvie
Thouësny
Exploring the connections between language learning,
personal motivations and digital letter games: the case of
Magic Word
Mathieu Loiseau, University of Grenoble-Alpes, France
Cristiana Cervini, University of Bologna (LILEC),University of GrenobleAlpes, Italy
Andrea Ceccherelli, University of Bologna (LILEC), Italy
Monica Masperi, University of Grenoble-Alpes, France
Paola Salomoni, University of Bologna, Italy
Marco Roccetti, University of Bologna, France
Antonella Valva, University of Bologna (LILEC), Italy
Francesca Bianco, University of Bologna, Italy
8 | Page
The Use of Interactive Whiteboards: enhancing the nature of
teaching young language learners
Christina Giannikas, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Professional Development for Teachers through an IT
Intervention Project
Karen Lund, DPU Aarhus University, Denmark
Lilian Rohde, University College Capital, Denmark
An evaluation of text-to-speech synthesizers for the foreign
Language classroom
Tiago Bione, Concordia University, Canada
Jennica Grimshaw, Concordia University, Canada
Session 3-4 C (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Julie Van de
Vyver
The role of the webcam in lexical word search episodes
Cathy Cohen, ESPE Université Lyon 1; Laboratoire ICAR, France
Ciara Wigham, Université Lyon 2; Laboratoire ICAR, France
Promoting multilingual communicative competence through
multimodal academic learning situations
Anna Kyppö, University Language Centre, University of Jyväskylä Finland
Teija Natri, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Session 3-4 E (MALL) | Session Chair: Sylvie Thouësny
Can a “shouting” digital game help learners develop oral
fluency?
The EFL Flipped Classroom: The New Practice to Be
Discovered in L2 Writing
Iman Oraif, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
9 | Page
Poster Session
13:00-14:30 | Session Chair: Anna Nicolaou
Keynote Lecture
14:30-15:30 | Session Chair: Shaunna Joannidou
CALL Students as designers of their online learning
Panayiotis Zaphiris, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
17:00-17:30 | Session 4-1 A (Inclusion) | Session Chair: Sarah Guth
Positive affordances and ameliorative opportunities for L2
writers online
Carmen Denekamp, Qatar University, Qatar
Session 4-1 B (Social) | Session Chair: Alina Horlescu
Social Networking and Teaching Greek as a foreign language
Skevi Vassiliou, Cyprus University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Session 4-1 C (TeachedED) | Session Chair: Christopher Allen
How do trainee teachers use multimodal resources during
online instruction-giving?
H. Müge Satar, Bogazici University, Turkey
Ciara R. Wigham, Université Lyon 2 - ICAR, France
Session 4-1 D (Multicultural) | Session Chair: Oranna Speicher
Engaging the Southeast Asian Mothers in their Children‟s
English Learning by Adopting a PMPB APP: a Taiwanese
Case
Sa-hui Fan, National Taichung University of Education, Taiwan
Rayi Chang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Zhi-Sheng Chen, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Session 4-1 E (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Panayiotis
Zaphiris
Affordances of Gaming in Affective Learning a Second
Language in a Virtual Collaborative Environment
Judith Molka-Danielsen, Molde University College, Norway
Stella Hadjistassou, KIOS Research Center for Intelligent Systems and
Networks, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart, talkademy, Austria
10 | Page
Session 4-1 F (Designs) | Session Chair: Gustavo Garcia Botero
Using Instructional Technology to Integrate CEFR “Can Do”
Performance Objectives into an Advanced-Level Language
Course
Androulla Athanasiou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Maro Neophytou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Preparing Japanese students‟ digital literacy for study
abroad: How much CALL training is needed?
Travis Cote, Tamagawa University, Japan
Brett Milliner, Tamagawa University, Japan
A Twitter-based approach to help FL learners improve their
pronunciation
Jonás Fouz-González, UCAM University, Spain
Exploring the influence of teachers‟ education and
professional development in higher education CALL practices
María Victoria Soulé, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Pre-mobility eTandem project for incoming international
students at the University of Padua
Lisa Griggio, University of Padua, Italy
Edit Rozsavolgyi, University of Padua, Italy
Session 4-2 E (DBR) | Session Chair: Panayiotis Zaphiris
Aspirations and contributions from design-based research
implementation in CALL context: a researcher‟s
methodological account
Students‟ Perceptions of Online Apprenticeship Projects at a
University
Hisayo Kikuchi, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan
11 | Page
18:00-18:30 | Session 4-3 A (Inclusion) |Session Chair: Sarah Guth
Investigating the use of commercially available technology
and its assistive effects with language learners in
highereducation at the high functioning end of the disability
spectrum
Georgia Savvidou, Cyprus University of technology, Cyprus
Fernando Loizides, University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
Effective EFL teacher presence in wiki mediated collaborative
writing activities
Maha Alghasab, University of York, United Kingdom
Learning from Peer Teachers Anytime Anywhere: A New
Learning Platform for EFL Teacher‟s Professional
Development
Jieyoung Kim, Chung-Ang University, South Korea
Mobile Assisted Language Learning of less commonly taught
languages: learning in an incidental and situated way through
an app
Cristiana Cervini, University of Bologna; University of Grenoble
Alpes, Italy
Olga Solovova, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Annukka Jakkula, University of Lapland, Finland
Karolina Ruta, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
Urban Explorations for language learning: A gamified
approach to teaching Italian in a university context
Sylvester Arnab, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Luca Morini, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Tiziana Cervi-Wilson, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Billy Brick, Coventry University, United Kingdom
12 | Page
Game of Words: prototype of digital game focusing on oral
production (and comprehension) through asynchronous
interaction
Mathieu Loiseau, University Grenoble Alpes, France
Racha Hallal, University Grenoble Alpes, France
Pauline Ballot, University Grenoble Alpes, France
The Effect of Audio and Video Modality on Comprehension
of Connected Speech: The Role of e-Learning
Kaine Gulozer, Yildiz Teknik University, Turkey
Zeynep Kocoglu, Yeditepe University, Turkey
Session 4-4 B (Autonomy) | Session Chair: Alina Horlescu
Using WebQuests as idea banks for fostering autonomy in
online language courses
Shirin Sadaghian, Alzahra University, Iran
S. Susan Marandi, Alzahra University, Iran
Tertiary ELF Teachers‟ Digital Literacy: Is CALL training
still needed?
Ogane Ethel, Tamagawa University, Japan
Ready to Negotiate: a competitive digital game to develop
language skills and motivation in L2 French
Avery Rueb, Vanier College, Canada
A Design-based Research Approach to Investigating the
Effects of Authentic Activities in Foreign Language Learning
Ildeniz Ozverir, EMU, Cyprus
Ulker Vanci Osam, EMU, Cyprus
Jan Herrington, Murdoch University, Australia
13 | Page
Gamification elements on a pilot english course to foster
student engagement
Kirsi Korkealehto, Diaconia University of Applied Sciences, Finland
14 | Page
Friday, 26 August 2016
09:00-09:30 | Session 5-1 A (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Leila Kajee
Language immersion in the self-study mode e-course
Olga Sobolev, London School of Economics and political Science
(University of London), United Kingdom
Session 5-1 B (CMC) | Session Chair: Jorge Arús
It‟s about time: examining closings in webcam-mediated
pedagogical interactions
Eugenie Duthoit, Laboratoire ICAR / ENS de Lyon, France
Nicolas Guichon, Laboratoire ICAR / University of Lyon 2, France
Session 5-1 C (MALL) | Session Chair: Maha Alghasab
Developing a vocabulary learning system on iPad for young
learners
Kazumi Aizawa, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
Tatsuo Iso, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
Session 5-1 D (TeachedED) | Session Chair: Brett Milliner
Mind the gap: task design and technology in novice language
teachers‟ practice
Tom Smits, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Margret Oberhofer, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Jozef Colpaert, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Session 5-1 E (Interdisciplinary) | Session Chair: Cornelia
Tschichold
“Check your Smile, first prototype of acollaborative LSP
website for technical vocabulary learning”
Nadia Yassine-Diab, University of Toulouse, France
Charlotte Alazard-Guiu, University of Toulouse, France
Laurent Sorin
Charlotte ORLIAC
Session 5-1 F (EU Projects) | Session Chair: Timothy Read
ERASMUS+ VEO EUROPA PROJECT: An innovative Ipad
App for teacher training and development
Sandra Morales, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Paul Seedhouse, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
15 | Page
09:30-10:00 | Session 5-2 A (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Leila Kajee
Exploring the benefits and disadvantages of introducing
synchronous to asynchronous on-line technologies to facilitate
flexibility in learning
Fernando Loizides, Emerging Interactive Technologies Lab, University of
Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
Session 5-2 B (Designs) | Session Chair: Jorge Arús
Benefits of integrating online interactivity in formative
assessment in language learning at beginner level
Cecilia Trevino, King's College London, United Kingdom
Alejandra Lopez Vazquez, King's College London, United Kingdom
Session 5-2 C (MALL) | Session Chair: Maha Alghasab
Digital Story(re)telling Using Graded Readers and
Smartphones
Kazumichi Enokida, Hiroshima University, Japan
„Practise what you preach‟: Addressing the need for ESP t
teacher training in Cypriot and Greek tertiary education
Elis Kakoulli Constantinou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Session 5-2 E (MOOCs) | Session Chair: Cornelia Tschichold
The MOOC „Cultural Studies and Modern Languages: An
Introduction‟
Gloria Visintini, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
HR4EU - web-portal for e-learning of the Croatian language
Matea Filko, Zagreb, Croatia
Daša Farkaš, Zagreb, Croatia
Diana Hriberski, Zagreb, Croatia
10:00-10:30 | Session 5-3 A (Designs) | Session Chair: Carmen Denekamp
Is the online translator your best friend or your worst enemy?
Luis Gonzalez, Lausanne University, Switzerland
Jayshri Mizeret-Lad, Lausanne University, Switzerland
Ruben Gomez, Lausanne University, Switzerland
Anna Renda, Lausanne University, Switzerland
16 | Page
Session 5-3 B (Autonomy) | Session Chair: Jorge Arús
Learner autonomy and personal autonomy: Some
correlations and how to put theory into practice.
Implications on pedagogy as a result of adopted CALL
practices
James Pagel, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan
Stephen Lambacher, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan
e-lang, digital literacy for language teaching and learning
ECML (Languages at the heart of learning) project 2016-2019
Catherine Jeanneau, University of Limerick, Ireland
Christian Ollivier, Université de la Réunion, Réunion
11:00-10:30 | Session 6-1 A (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Travis Cote
A self-paced extensive listening activity combining the Moodle
Quiz and Lesson modules using the grade condition and the
restrict access features
David Campbell, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary
Medicine, Japan
Session 6-1 B (CBLT) | Session Chair: Bruce Lander
Automatic Generation of Sentence Representations for Oral
Language Evaluation
Bin Dong, Ricoh software Research Center, China
Lei Ding, Ricoh Software Research Center, China
Session 6-1 C (MALL) | Session Chair: Jack Burston
Working round the imperfections of an LMS to run an
academic writing course from a tablet
Tim Knight, Shirayuri University, Japan
Session 6-1 D (TeachedED) | Session Chair: Monique Burston
An exploration of the use of web 2.0 technologies in language
education: a case study of Saudi women in higher
education
Khloud Al Khader, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
17 | Page
Session 6-1 E (Research) | Session Chair: Lisa Griggio
The Digital Kitchen from Cooking to Learning: A study of the
impact of Task-Based Learning using Digital Technology
Jaeuk Park, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
Paul Seedhouse, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
Jieun Kiaer, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Session 6-1 F (MOOCs) | Session Chair: Karen Lund
Synchronous tandem language learning in a MOOC context:
A study on task design and learner performance
Marta Fondo García, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Enhancing Taiwanese EFL Freshmen‟s Reading
Comprehension through Online Concept Mapping Tools
Chin-Wen Chien, National Hsinchu University of Education, Taiwan
The development of aural and visual vocabulary size tests
Kazummi Aizawa, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
Paul Nadasdy, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
Colm Smyth, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
Fostering autonomous pronunciation training through
smartphone apps: an empirical study
Using iPads as Tools to Evaluate Pre-service Teacher
Performance on Teaching Practice
Stella Hadjistassou, KIOS Research Center for Intelligence Systems and
Networks University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Student and instructor relationship to instructional
technology
Shaunna Joannidou, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
18 | Page
Session 6-2 F (OER) | Session Chair: Karen Lund
Enhanced TOOLS for CLIL and Clil4U
Kent Andersen, SDE College, Denmark
Collaboration through blogging: The development of writing
and speaking skills in ESP courses
Angela Kleanthous, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
The effects of Multimodality through storytelling using
various movie clips
SoHee Kim, Korea University, South Korea
Mobile-Assisted Language Learning and Language Learner
Autonomy
Paul Lyddon, Osaka Jogakuin College, Japan
Designing for unpredictability in CALL
Juha Jalkanen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Does usage of an online EFL workbook conform to Benford‟s
law?
Mikołaj Olszewski, Pearson, Poland
Kacper Łodzikowski, Pearson, Poland
Jan Zwoliński, Pearson, Poland
Rasil Warnakulasooriya, Pearson, United States
Adam Black, Macmillan Learning, France
Session 6-3 F (CMC) | Session Chair: Karen Lund
A Spanish-Finnish telecollaboration: extending intercultural
competence via video conferencing
Pasi Puranen, Aalto University – Language Centre, Finland
Ruby Vurdien, White Rose Language School, Spain
19 | Page
The use of NLP tools for languagegeneration in CALL: the
case of verb conjugators
Hans Paulussen, iMinds-ITEC-KU Leuven, Belgium
Piet Desmet, iMinds-ITEC-KU Leuven, Belgium
Session 6-4 C (OER) | Session Chair: Jack Burston
Methodological issues in the study of the impact on the
knowledge construction process of multimodal online
interactions in audio-graphic conferencing systems
Chahrazed Mirza Mirza, Nizwa University, Oman
Session 6-4 F (Interdisciplinary) | Session Chair: Karen Lund
Preparing students‟ mobility through telecollaboration: the ITell project Catherine Jeanneau; Marta Giralt
Marta Giralt, University of Limerick, Ireland
Poster Session
13:00-14:30 | Session Chair: Anna Nicolaou
Keynote Lecture
14:30–15:30 | Session Chair: Shannon Sauro
Deconstructing digital literacy practices: Identity
narratives from the South
Leila Kajee, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
20 | Page
Saturday, 27 August 2016
09:00-09:30 | Session 7-1 A (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Maria
Victoria Soule
Developing a comprehensive pedagogical framework for
pronunciation training based on blended learning and
adapted Automatic Speech Recognition systems
Saandia Vanessa Ali, Rennes 2 University, France
Session 7-1 B (TeachedED) | Session Chair: Kent Andersen
How can teachers utilize corpora when the EFL classroom
has no computers?
Heba Said, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Hala Said, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
Session 7-1 C (TBL) | Session Chair: Bart Pardoel
A Study in Sherlock: Bridging the Digital Wilds and the
Language Classroom
Shannon Sauro, Malmö University, Sweden
Session 7-1 D (MOOCs) | Session Chair: Angela Kleanthous
Mapping & Evaluating Language MOOCs at a global level
Maria Perifanou, University of Macedonia, CONTA Lab, Greece
Session 7-1 E (OER) | Session Chair: Carmen Denekamp
Instructional design for openness - practical implications
Malgorzata Kurek, Jan Dlugosz University, Poland
Session 7-1 F (LWULT) | Session Chair: Masanori Yamada
Mingling Students Cognitive Abilities and Learning Strategies
to Transform CALL
Efi Nisiforou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Victoria Soule
Exploiting Behaviorist and Communicative Action-based
Methodologies in CALL Applications for the Teaching of
Pronunciation in French as a Foreign Language
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Olga Georgiadou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Monique Monville-Burston, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Session 7-2 B (Designs) | Session Chair: Kent Andersen
Japanese Speakers‟ Apologies in English: A Study Based on a
Spoken Corpus
S. Kathleen Kitao, Doshisha Women's College, Japan
Session 7-2 C (TBL) | Session Chair: Bart Pardoel
Task based learning and professional development: A success
story
Designing strategies for an efficient Language MOOC
Podcasting in a mobile world: Power, potential and pitfalls
Jaime Selwood, Hiroshima University, Japan
The EXERCISE: An Exercise Generator Tool for the
SOURCe Project
Fryni Kakoyianni-Doa, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Eleni Tziafa, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Athanasios Naskos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Victoria Soule
The multimodality of lexical explanation sequences during
videoconferenced pedagogical interaction
Benjamin Holt, Université Lumière Lyon 2, France
Session 7-3 B (Designs) | Session Chair: Kent Andersen
Coordination of corpus resources and online reference tools in
correcting collocation errors in L2 writing
Yi-ju (Ariel) Wu, Chinese Culture University, Taiwan
Introductory Finnish - Massive Open Online Course
Aija Elg, Aalto University - Language Centre, Finland
Petri Myllynen, Aalto University - Language Centre, Finland
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Digital Literacies for Language Learning and Teaching:
developing a national framework
Fiona Farr, University of Limerick, Ireland
Francoise Blin, Dublin City University, Ireland
Liam Murray, University of Limerick, Ireland
Laura McLoughlan, NUI Galway, Ireland
Demystifying pronunciation with animation
10:30-11:0 0 | Session 7-4 A (CALL materials) | Session Chair: Maria
Victoria Soule
Developing an online dictionary in an ESP course
Eleni Nikiforou, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Session 7-4 C (Multicultural) | Session Chair: Bart Pardoel
Podcasting in ESP: A task-based global approach to promote
language acquisition through input and output.
Yiola Paraskevaides, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
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Wednesday, 24 August
15:00-16:00
Keynote Lecture
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Keynote Lecture - Wednesday, 24 August - 15:00-16:00
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“Why Mobile Devices Aren‟t Enough: Learning Languages, Building
Communities & Exploring Cultures”
Mark Pegrum, University of Western Australia, Australia
Panorama
The field of MALL, or Mobile-Assisted Language Learning, has grown up around the notion
that mobile devices hold considerable promise for spreading, improving and enriching
language learning. But this promise can be realised in different ways and to different degrees:
using mobile devices, in and of itself, isn‘t enough.
We will begin by exploring how mobile learning can be implemented, covering the three
main levels of mobile learning evident in the world today: learning where the devices are
mobile but the learners and the learning experience are not; learning where the devices and
the learners are mobile, but the learning experience is not; and learning where the devices, the
learners and the learning experience are all mobile. It will be seen that the implications for
learning language, building community, and exploring culture differ dramatically across these
levels.
We will continue by exploring why mobile learning should be implemented, covering the
three main agendas for promoting mobile learning in evidence today: transforming teaching
and learning; fostering 21st century skills; and promoting social justice. Again, it will be seen
that the implications for learning language, building community, and exploring culture differ
dramatically between these agendas.
Having examined the theory of mobile learning, we‘ll look at several case studies of mobile
language and literacy projects from different parts of the globe, including Africa, Asia,
Europe and South America. These case studies will show how the mobile learning levels and
agendas are realised in practice in varying settings, and what this means for learning
language, building community, and exploring culture in each case. They will also
demonstrate the importance of taking into account our local settings as we attempt to design
the optimal kinds of mobile learning for our own learners in our own contexts.
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16:30-18:30
Symposium
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Symposium - Wednesday, 24 August - 16:30-18:30
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Specific affordances of virtual worlds and serious games for language
learning
Kristi Jauregi, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Gene Dalton, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Branislav Bedi, University of Iceland, Iceland
Christel Schneider, CSiTrain, Germany
Symposium - Panorama
Video games and virtual worlds show potential not just for engaging and entertaining users,
but also in promoting learning. This is mostly due to techniques game designers employ to
promote user engagement and motivation. These techniques are increasingly being employed
in so-called serious games: games whose main purpose is to educate while entertaining their
users. Recently a growing awareness of the learning potential of games and virtual worlds has
been observed in the CALL field (Cornillie et al., 2012; Reinders, 2012; Sykes & Reinhardt,
2012, Deutschmann & Panichi, 2009; Jauregi et al. 2012). In this symposium we present
innovative experiences on how virtual worlds and serious games are being used in different
educational contexts for language learning and teaching: the Virtual Reykjavik online game
for adult learners learning Icelandic, machinimas for language learning and CLIL, gamebased language learning for primary school children and telecollaborative games in virtual
worlds for youngsters. We look at the affordances of the tools being used, the theoretical
underpinnings of learning being followed, the pedagogic rational used for designing tasks, the
implementation procedure followed in each case, we visualize and discuss examples and we
will present the results of the different case- studies carried out. We will end outlining future
developments in the use of virtual worlds and serious games for education and proposing new
research directions.
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16:30-17:00
Parallel Sessions 1 - 1
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Parallel Sessions - Wednesday, 24 August - 16: 30-17:00
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Integrating Mobile Technologies Into Very Young Second Language
Learners‟ Curriculum
Gulnara Sadykova, Kazan Federal University, Russia
Gulnara Gimaletdinova, Kazan Federal University, Russia
Albina Kayumova, Kazan Federal University, Russia
Liliia Khalitova, Kazan Federal University, Russia
Session 1-1 A - Megaron G
While mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) has occupied a solid place in CALL
research and practice, little do we know how MALL technologies could be integrated into
second language education of pre-school children. Latest MALL literature reviews and metaanalyses indicate lack of research and reports from practitioners who tap on the interests of
very young (language) learners in mobile technologies and integrate them into the curriculum
of children younger than 7 years old (see, for example, Duman, Orhon & Gedik, 2015 or
Burston, 2015). On the other hand, studies demonstrate steady increase of mobile users
among young children (Bond, 2014; Jere-Folotiya et al, 2014) and the need to use technology
skills of learners in education.
This report will present and discuss a newly developed MALL-oriented study program that
focuses on the experiences of pre-school children aged 5-7 who attend a private kindergarten.
Located in one of the largest cities of Russia with multicultural population, this kindergarten
emphases the importance of early multilingual education and promotes curriculum that
enriches native language developmental programs with English and second foreign language
classes (Chinese, Spanish or Italian). In late 2015, the administration of the kindergarten
decided to introduce mobile technologies into English language curriculum. Teaming up with
experts in English teaching and educational technologies, the kindergarten developed a smallscale program for one of its groups of preschoolers who have previously studied English for
2,5 years. A program Reading Eggs and its mobile applications were selected as study
platforms, which were introduced into the curriculum in spring-2016.
The conference presentation will describe the process of designing the mobile-assisted
English program and share the preliminary results of formative evaluation carried out by the
team of experts and administration. The data will include the results of pre- and post-tests,
class observations, interviews with teachers and parents‘ survey. A discussion of the future of
the innovative program will follow.
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Reconsidering TPACK for Second Language Teacher Education: Insights
from a Professional Development Course
Alina Horlescu, Ireland
Session 1-1 B - Atrium A
Recent views of literacy as a plural notion with multiple dimensions have profound
implications for language teaching as it must not only account for the assumption that literacy
is indeed multiple (Stewart 2012) but also promote the development of learners‘ multimodal
communicative competence (MCC) which refers to the ability to interpret and construct
appropriate meanings multimodally (Royce 2002; 2007). It becomes therefore paramount that
language educators understand and devote attention to the importance of offeri/ng learners
multiple ways in which to express and demonstrate meaning (Bezerra 2011; Heberle 2010;
Royce 2002, 2007). However, research studies point out that many teachers are caught in the
traditional notion of reading and writing printed text as the only legitimate form of school
literacy (Miller & Borrowicz 2005; Cloonan 2010; Kress 2003; Tour 2015). According to
Valdes (2004), teachers have been hesitant to acknowledge and engage with the new
dimensions of literacy primarily because of their ‗tendency to conceptualize language in their
teaching as an abstract linguistic system, detached from a broader socially constructed
multimodal perspective‘ (p. 79). Lotherington & Jenson (2011) also point out that in today‘s
classrooms ‗the interactive screen-based media of the 21st century have taken a back seat‘ (p.
227) and print literacies continue to dominate. This calls for professional development that is
directly aimed at increasing language teachers‘ awareness of the new literacies and expanding
their teaching repertoires in relation to multimodality. This paper discusses the findings
revealed by the analysis of the data collected for a PhD project which examines four ESL and
EFL teachers‘ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Mishra & Koehler 2006) as
manifested in their participation in a twelve hour professional development course on
Machinima and Multimodality. More specifically, the project seeks to explore the teachers‘
views and practices of meaning-making in the context of using technological tools such as
machinima, ‗animated film-making within a real-time virtual 3D environment‘ (Hancock &
Ingram 2007, p.1), which requires ‗an integrative, combinatorial assemblage of modes‘ (Burn
& Parker 2003, p. 59) that makes it difficult for teachers to stay in the comfort zone of printonly texts. Qualitative analysis software, i.e. Transana has been used for the transcription and
coding of the data obtained from surveys, interviews with and recordings of the participants
working on creating machinima videos in Second Life®. The preliminary analysis informed
by the Transana Analytic Model seems to indicate that the participants actually have
profound knowledge of interpreting and constructing meaning multimodally, i.e. MCC. The
paper presents examples of participants‘ MCC and examines the role that their existing
knowledge plays in the perception and enactment of the affordances designed into Second
Life® for multimodal meaning-making. Implications of these findings for second language
teacher education TPACK are also addressed.
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Leveraging automatic speech recognition errors to detect challenging
speech segments in TED talks
Maryam Sadat Mirzaei, Kyoto University, Japan
Kourosh Meshgi, Kyoto University, Japan
Tatsuya Kawahara, Kyoto University, Japan
Session 1-1 C - Atrium B
In recent years the emergence of computer technologies has greatly influenced the
manifestation and applications of CALL. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems,
particularly, as new technologies to train and evaluate second language (L2) learners‘
pronunciation have played important roles in the CALL domain. Advances of these systems
have exploited other potentials, which made us investigate their usage for developing
listening skill. This study investigates how ASR systems can epitomize L2 listeners‘
problems in perception of TED talks. Such application provides teacher with useful data on
the difficulties of authentic audio/visual material for L2 listeners. These difficulties can be
attributed to various factors such as fast speech rate, infrequent words, co-articulation,
hesitation and assimilation, etc. To collect such data, we focused on the errors made by an
ASR system when generating transcripts for TED videos. Then, ASR generated errors were
stored and compared against the correct human-annotated transcript of the audio. Next,
through a root-cause analysis, the underlying factors that induced these errors were
investigated. While the root-causes of some of these errors could not be identified clearly,
others closely indicated the challenging nature of the respective speech segments and were
automatically classified into different categories. Some of the main categories represent cases
including minimal pairs, homophones, boundary misrecognition, fast speech rate, etc. which
are reported to be challenging for L2 listeners. To confirm that these errors indicate
problematic speech segments, an experiment was conducted with L2 listeners using a partial
transcription task. The purpose of this experiment was to compare the ASR-generated
transcript with L2 learners‘ transcript, focusing on their mutual errors. The participants were
asked to watch a short segment of TED videos once and complete a partial transcript. To
maintain a real-life listening, pauses were inserted at irregular intervals and the participants
were asked to provide a transcription of what they have just heard. Their answers were
checked and the errors (excluding spelling errors) were picked. Next, the ASR errors were
aligned with L2 listeners‘ errors and compared. Preliminary results showed a strong
correlation and confirmed the potential of using ASR errors as a predicator of L2 learners‘
difficulties in listening to a particular audio. This result indicates that ASR system can be
used as a model of L2 listener: some (but not all) ASR errors predict where language learners
have similar difficulties. This finding is useful in a sense that it can assist teachers to scaffold
the learners on the problematic speech segments. Furthermore, this study provided us
valuable data to enrich a partial and synchronized caption system that we previously built to
facilitate listening for L2 learners and assist them in developing listening skill.
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First-Time Telecollaboration!
Ola Bakri, AUC, Egypt
Session 1-1 D - Atrium C
This paper is based on the reflections of a university instructor conducting a telecollaboration
project between American students studying Arabic at the University of New Mexico and
Arab students studying English. This paper will tackle the challenges faced during a sevenweek project. These challenges were not limited to the time difference between participants
but extended to committing to the program and sending records of the meetings to the
instructors. This paper serves as an account for teachers who aim to do telecollaboration with
individual students not following a certain educational program. The instructors in this study
played many roles basically managerial and technical. Many projects were conducted among
the EU countries on many education levels. However, few numbers were done in the Middle
East. The researcher has found one organization doing such exchanges between the Middle
East and the West called Soliya. This organization focuses on the cultural understanding and
rifting the gap between the West and the East. The researcher aimed to do an individual effort
to simulate some of these exchanges to experiment on such exchanges for her Ph.D. study,
and encourage individual teachers to do such projects with different institutions.
The Research Questions for this Study: 1- What are the challenges a teacher can face in their
first-time telecollaboration project? 2- Is technology going to hinder the interaction? How?
Participants in the Study: The undergraduate students of the University of New Mexico
learning Arabic and the researcher's Egyptian students from previous courses participated in
this project for a whole semester. The choice of former students was due to the inability of
doing that project in the Egyptian researcher's workplace for many curriculum and time
restrictions. The students from New Mexico were accounted for their participation and
assignments; however, that was not the case for the Egyptian students, as this was a voluntary
course. The researcher has chosen these students based on their merits studying with her
before in face-to-face settings. The Students at the University of New Mexico were mixed
between beginners and intermediate in Arabic while the Egyptian students were mixed
between intermediate and upper intermediate in English.
The Structure of Assignments: The project was structured as a mixture of a blog post and a
conversation chat. They followed the same structure a teacher colleague followed.
The Setting of the Project: For American students, that project was part of their Arabic class.
Their teacher has assigned grades for their Skype conversations and blog posts with their
Egyptian partners. As for the Egyptian students, they were merely volunteers participating in
this class to improve their English language level. The setting was easier for the American
students due to several reasons. One of them was having fast Internet connection, face-to-face
teacher support, and a grade incentive. The Egyptian students had to do the procedures of this
course through only the telephone support of their teacher without having the privilege of
class hours to be assisted. The Egyptian teacher assigned the same assignments for her
students. The American teacher ensured they have little homework putting into consideration
their exchange assignments in addition to their demotivated natures as she described them.
Medium for Communication Skype was chosen for communication between the groups. It
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was chosen based on a survey done as most participants had experience using Skype.
Conversations were recorded using certain websites for Mac and PCs. Their meetings lasted
for one hour once a week according to the time they both agreed to meet. Some Challenges
Students started using Skype and recording conversation; however, we had many glitches.
Some groups did not send their recordings as they were supposed to do. Some even forgot to
record the sessions. Time difference between groups played a considerable obstacle in
deciding suitable times for partners. It took more than one email to agree on a time each week
as in addition to sometimes missing appointments. Some participants waited for their partners
on Skype without any trace of them to be available. That student who waited reported to
ensure that these situations were not repeated. Following up with Conversations: Participants
were supposed to talk about their blog posts as every week they write a different blog post.
What the researcher noticed, when she listened to the recordings, was that participants talked
about different issues other than their blog posts. The interaction time between them was one
hour and they had to divide it equally amongst them. At many times that did not happen; the
American students talked more in Arabic giving little or sometimes no time to their partners.
At the end of the project, the teachers administered a survey to measure students' benefit of
the exchange. Out of the 16 participants who participated in the project, only eight answered
the survey at the end of the project. There was no obligation on them to answer as they have
received their grades. Summary: The limitations of these exchanges are not restricted to
finding a partner class, a willing educator to participate in such a time-consuming activity but
also interesting themes for both classes, and willing students to participate in these projects.
Such exchanges can be demotivating for first-time teachers as both researchers had many
feelings of the complacency of students during the exchange.
After this experience, the researchers intend to continue doing such exchanges, but with
more defined questions. Having complacent participants may be demotivating for teachers,
but it can be a rewarding experience to change tactics and measure the efficiency of these
exchanges in different settings.
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Informal Social Networking Sites for Language Learning: Insights into
Autonomy Stances
Session 1-1 E – Phoenix
Research on learner autonomy, from Holec‘s inaugural studies (1979/1981) onwards, has
focused mainly on formal learning settings, with little attention paid to informal ones,
understood as out-of-class, self-organized learning contexts that encompasses interaction with
both target language media and a community of users of the language. Developments in
digital and web 2.0 technologies, and the opportunities for informal language learning that
they afford, further emphasize social agency in the development of learner autonomy (Chik,
2014). Informal learning contexts can be considered as arenas in which learner autonomy
becomes even more essential, as it involves the least amount of teacher support and less
scaffolding than regular language instruction. This paper explores learner autonomy in an
informal social networking site for language learning (SNSLL). The aim of this research is to
analyze autonomy stances, as individual and social strands of social network based activity
evolve and intertwine in this informal learning community. It particularly questions whether
social activity, facilitated by social networking and gaming features, affects learner autonomy
on the individual and/or social dimensions. For the purposes of the study we collected data
from users (n=1528) whose native language was English (n = 696) and French (n = 832) and
divided them in three age groups. The study adopts a mixed methods approach in the analysis
of quantitative data (user data and closed-ended replies to a survey) and qualitative ones
(open-ended replies to the survey). We first analyze user activity as an indicator of learner
stances, individual and social. We then explore the role of social networking and game
mechanics in the adoption of these stances with regard to learner autonomy. Finally, we share
insights into the reconceptualization of learner autonomy development in the light of social
network based informal learning.
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CALL and Less Commonly Taught Languages – still a way to go
Session 1-1 F - Olympic bar
In recent years many changes have taken place in the world of CALL, but many of the
changes mainly apply to the Most Commonly Taught Languages, especially English (Gamper
and Knapp, 2002). Languages such as French, German and Spanish are also considered
MCTLs, although the classification can vary depending on geographical location. For
example, Chinese does not fall into the MCTLs category from a European perspective, but
could be considered as one in the Asian and Oceania contexts. The list of recent
manifestations of CALL such as corpora, MALL and MOOCs are interesting developments
in the area of CALL, but they are seldom found in the world of Less Commonly Taught
Languages (LCTLs). While there are exceptions, many of the LCTLs are under-served by
such CALL resources and artefacts. In many cases, the knowledge of the worldwide CALL
community has not spread out to researchers and teachers working in LCTLs and this is a pity
as sometimes mistakes made in the MCTL context is repeated in the LCTL one. Lack of
awareness of strategies that have been successful in the MCTL context mean that this
knowledge is not leveraged in the LCTL context. Furthermore, if resources exist, they often
exist only for beginner or intermediate learners and this means that the more advanced learner
is under-served in this regard. This paper presents an overview of CALL and LCTLs and
looks at the CALL resources available for several LCTLs. While some good resources exist,
as would be expected there is not the range and variety of CALL resources available for these
languages compared with the MCTLs. Sometimes the resources are quite basic and
developed by enthusiasts and not based on good CALL design principles. Teachers working
with these languages often lack the support of others and it behoves the CALL community to
make its work more known and accessible to those on the fringes. The vast majority of CALL
literature refers to learning English in many different contexts and with many different goals
throughout the world. There is a limited amount of publications (and research?) on what
works and what does not work for LCLTs in the CALL domain. Some findings may be
relevant for all languages (e.g. access to high quality resources at the appropriate level), while
some may be more specific to a particular language (e.g. the challenge of deciphering Polish
orthography or learning the Arabic script (Shaalan, 2005). The CALL community could do
more outreach activities with those outside the CALL circle – perhaps by liaising with
university teaching departments and teacher training colleges to at least make the future
generation of teachers and educators aware of CALL, how it can help in the language
learning process and that there is a community of CALL researchers out there to help them as
they start or continue on their CALL journey. This is not easy – there are many actors
competing for their time and attention – but such interventions could be mutually beneficial
for all parties.
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17:00-17:30
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Parallel Sessions - Wednesday, 24 August - 17:00-17:30
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Using a mobile music application to extend the reach of the L2 language
classroom
Ross Sundberg, Concordia University, Canada
In non-immersive learning environments, most students do not receive enough L2 exposure
(input – Collins, Trofimovich, White, Cardoso & Horst, 2009). For this reason, optimizing
time in the classroom is contingent upon what students are able to do outside of class time
(Collins & Muñoz, in press). In this study, we introduce Bande à Part, a mobile music
application (app) that uses music as a pedagogical tool, developed for learners of French as a
second or foreign language. As an out-of-class tool, we hypothesize that the proposed app has
the potential to increase the quantity (and possibly the quality) of the target language, thus
addressing Collins and Muñoz concern. The rationale for the use of music for language
learning stems from Engh‘s (2013) call for incorporating music in L2 teaching programs,
based on a meta-analysis of its effects on L2 acquisition. According to the author, music is an
ideal tool for L2 learning because it is naturally repetitive, it is already a part of many
learners‘ lives, and it provides interesting content to motivate learners to use it.
To ensure that Bande à Part is theoretically-informed and pedagogically sound, the app was
developed according to Doughty and Long‘s (2003) principles for integrating SLA theory and
technologically enhanced environments. For example, it has interactive features to promote
noticing and consequently the development of phonological and morphological awareness,
and it employs a set of input enhancement features (see also Chapelle, 2003 for similar
recommendations). Some the input enhancement features include the ability to highlight
certain features in the French language (e.g., liaison, gender, subjunctive), slow down the
speed of singing, choose songs based on a number of options (e.g., vocabulary difficulty,
regional variety), and provide subtitles in the target L2 French and/or in the L1 English.
Vocabulary is also graded in a similar style to graded readers to help provide learners with
comprehensible input (in the form of music) that matches their proficiency level. Since
comprehensibility relies on more than merely vocabulary knowledge, the music corpus is also
tagged for grammar features and singing speed (words per minute). In this paper, we
introduce Bande à Part and its features, the rationale behind its inception and development,
and discuss many of its language learning capabilities. We also discuss a set of pedagogical
implications focussing on how songs can be used in alignment with curricula in order to
complement and enhance language instruction.
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A CALL For Evolving Teacher Education Through 3D Micro Teaching
Giouli Pappa, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Enhancing Foreign Language / Second Language (FL/L2) language teacher‘s training skills
with emphasis on new technologies has been a priority in CALL context (Arnold, N., &
Ducate L., 2015). While specific technology-focused standards have been developed to this
end (Healey et al., 2011; International Society for Technology in Education, 2008), it is
argued that teaching with technology requires additional skills (Comas-Quinn, 2011;
Compton, 2009; Hampel & Stickler, 2005). Recent research reveals that L2 teachers who
completed online methodology instruction demonstrated less confidence in their abilities to
teach L2 learners (Algozzine B., & Kissau S., 2014). There is a claim that there is need for
'better professional development opportunities in CALL area' (Kessler, 2006; Beaven, Emke,
Ernest, Germain-Rutherford, Hampel, Hopkins, Stanojenic & Stickler, 2010; Digedu 2014;)
Virtual Worlds are currently receiving increased attention in teacher education. These 3D
environments offer a wide range of tools to implement innovative educational scenarios for
teaching, learning and assessment (Montalbano, 2010). It is only recently, though, that virtual
technology for training in the simulation field has been applied in FL/L2 teacher preparation
and education programmes (Judge S., & Katsioloudis P., 2011). This paper attempts to shed
light into how FL/L2 teaching practices within an MA in CALL online teacher education
programme can be extended through virtual worlds. The purpose is to prepare eight practising
teachers, who participate in this postgraduate programme, to effectively deliver their
microteaching in a different community of practice – that of the virtual worlds. Thus, the use
of the Microteaching (MT) technique, supported by the use of Singularity Viewer - a desktop
virtual world- are explored for the development of 3D micro teaching, as part of the online
microteaching component of the programme. Sloodle, a Moodle plugin, is used. The
development of its instructional design framework is based on CoI model (Pellas, N. &
Boumpa, A., 2015). By using the formative experiment model, this study is designed in line
with constructivist principles that are consistent with the overall aim of this particular Master.
Hence, multiphase mixed qualitative and quantitative data collection methods are applied.
Open Broadcaster Software is used to screen record the 3D micro teaching sessions, and
thematic discourse qualitative analysis within the virtual worlds is used to assess the 3D
micro teaching. Reflective journals are also used to establish the participants‘ feelings
regarding the whole experience. An online questionnaire is also distributed to explore how
participants perceive and respond to different professional development opportunities that
involve learning about and using technology. Furthermore, interviews are used to investigate
the trainees‘ learning gain through the Sloodle activities. Since microteaching in FL/L2
teacher training in virtual worlds has not yet been broadly explored in an online training
CALL context, a second aim of this research is to relate the participants‘ learning gain in 3D
micro teaching with their primary virtual training using - Sloodle. This exploratory study
could offer new insights into the practice of CALL and would provide the CALL community
with more empirical studies.
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Are commercial personal robots ready for language learning? Focus on the
acquisition of second language speech
Souheila Moussalli, Concordia University, Canada
Today‘s language classrooms face many challenges such as limited classroom time
(Lightbown, 2014) and lack of input and output practice in a stress-free environment (Hsu,
2015; Neri et al., 2003). One way of overcoming these limitations in the language classroom
is with the help of commercial, readily available technological tools such as personal robots
(PRs – e.g., Amazon‘s Echo and Jibo). We hypothesize that the out-of-class use of these
personal robots have the potential to promote language learning by freeing up class time so
that the instructor can focus on personalized instruction (e.g., for teacher-facilitated
interactions and individualized feedback). PRs also provide learners with opportunities for
input exposure (listening) and output practice (speaking) in an environment that is anxietyand stress-free, which may contribute to an increase in willingness to communicate (Baran‐
Łucarz, 2014). We view the use of these commercial personal robots as pedagogically
valuable because of their built-in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) software. ASR is a
computer-driven technology that transcribes speech and provides information based on an
oral input (e.g., the results of a learner‘s query such as ―what‘s the weather like today‖?).
Previous research on the use and potential of ASR for the development of second language
(L2) has shown that language learners interact, practice and enhance their performance on
target phonological features (e.g., Derwing et al., 2000; Levis, 2007; Liakin et al., 2015; Neri,
Cucchiarini, & Strik, 2006, 2008), and self-assess their oral production (e.g., Dalby &
Kewley-Port, 1999; Neri, Cucchiarini, & Strik, 2003; Penning de Vries, 2015). To examine
the potential of PRs (Echo) as pedagogical tools, we conducted a feasibility study to
investigate whether their use would be an effective and efficient tool to satisfy the needs of
language learners, particularly when used as an extension of the classroom, in combination
with standard in-class teacher-facilitated interactive practices. To evaluate the robot‘s
performance, we adopted a set of criteria that include its ability: (2) to comprehend L2 speech
on a number of phonological features such as segments, word/sentence stress patterns, and
intonation; (2) to provide ―easy-to-understand‖ feedback (as recommended by CALL
researchers – Chapelle, 2001, 2003; Chapelle & Jamieson, 2008), and (3) to deliver accurate
results for a set of questions (e.g., What‘s the weather like in New York now? How many
people are there in China?). Using questionnaires, survey and interviews with participants,
we also report the results of an analysis of a typical user‘s experience and perceptions of the
tool‘s strengths and weaknesses as a pedagogical tool. The results will highlight the benefits
of this type of personalized, computer-mediated instruction as an approach to extend the
reach of the classroom. In addition, our study will contribute to this under-studied area of
CALL: the pedagogical use of personal robots for L2 education.
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And what about the classroom? Scaffolding and Reflection for
Telecollaboration
Sarah Guth, University of Padova, Italy
Teachers interested in implementing telecollaboration projects have at their disposal a wealth
of research and resources providing information on what technologies to use, what types of
online tasks to engage students in, what has proved to work and what hasn‘t, etc. (e.g. Guth &
Helm 2010; Schultheis Moore & Simon 2015). What is less present in the literature, however,
is what teachers can and should be doing in the classroom during the exchange. There are
well-established models in the field that do address this issue, such as the Cultura model
coming out of MIT, but they can only be implemented in very limited contexts and have to be
adapted for different contexts. For example, Cultura was designed and developed for
bilingual exchanges between language students studying one another‘s where all
communication takes place in students‘ native language. However, there have been trends in
recent years (Guarda 2013) to move away from bilingual models and to engage students in
exchanges with peers from other disciplines or to have monolingual exchanges where the
language of communication is a foreign language for all students. In a globalized world
where much communication takes place online, telecollaboration can actually duplicate
situations in which the students might find themselves having to communicate in their
futures. This type of communication requires not only language skills but intercultural
communication skills and digital competence as well. The telecollaboration project discussed
in this presentation is one such project between EFL students in Italy and the USA who
communicated using Skype, WhatsApp and discussion boards. Both cohorts were
multinational but the US group was primarily made up of international students from Saudi
Arabia and the Italian group of local Italian students. When developing a telecollaboration
project a lot of time and effort are dedicated to choosing the tools and designing the online
tasks but a major concern my co-teacher and I had was that if we didn‘t design specific
reflection tasks to implement in our respective classrooms following each Skype session that
the learning might at best remain superficial and in a worse case scenario lead to the
reinforcement of stereotypes. Therefore, we developed guided discussions and reflective
activities for the classroom to focus on language development and to draw out what students
were learning about the other cultures, their own, aspects of online communication, etc. This
also helped us align our learning objectives and outcomes since the project was only a
component of longer courses at both universities which had different course curricula. In this
presentation I will provide examples of what we did and feedback from our own observations
and our students'. The aim of the presentation is to briefly share what we did with an active
audience who will then share their experiences with us and lead to a fruitful exchange of
ideas for all participants.
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Seeing and being seen: Facebook as a platform for task-based language
teaching of German at tertiary level in New Zealand
Vera Leier, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Una Cunningham, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
This paper reports the findings of an ethnographical study of a Facebook task in a German
intermediate language class at a New Zealand university. The study was guided by the
research question:‖What are the practices and perspectives of German students when using a
FB-group as part of their German curriculum‖.
Twelve students participated in the Facebook task which took place in a closed Facebook
group. The data was collected over a period of one semester (12 weeks) using participant
observation of the interactions of the FB-group, semi-structured online and offline interviews.
The data was analysed using a combination of thematic analysis and activity theoretical
analysis. Activity theory helped to better understand and focus the ethnographical narrative.
The analyses revealed that learner preferences led to a number of sets of Facebook
behaviours. Some student, for example were reluctant to write in the target language, German
and reported anxiety when writing in the target language. A clear difference was established
between way the individual‘s FB-wall was used and the way the FB-group was used and a
hierarchy of student interactions was established. Participants considered the FB-group to be
an authentic platform and they used it for genuine communicative purposes even after the
course had ended. However, the role of the teacher in the FB environment was found to be
important for the motivation of the participants, and some requested more feedback from her.
The FB group facilitated high quality meaning-focused target language production within the
class group, and the participants were overwhelmingly positive to their Facebook experience.
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Teaching Turkish in low tech contexts: opportunities and challenges
Katerina Antoniou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Evelyn Mbah, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Abstract Language learning has witnessed series of changes with regards to the use of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Recently, digital divide has been a topic
of discussion in language learning studies. Digital divide is the inequality that exists between
information-poor and information-rich communities (Digital Divide Network, 2003). Within
the field of Computer Assisted Language Learning, scant literature exists regarding the use of
technology in poor ICT contexts. Yet, many people learn and teach language in such
contexts. Egbert and Yang (2004) defined low-tech context as possessing limited general
access to technology, limited or no Internet access, no software, old software and mandated
software, and few computers and other technologies. Following action research design, we
implemented a small-scale intervention using game-based quizzes in order to address the
challenges encountered in teaching Turkish in a limited tech context. The data for the study
were gathered through questionnaire, unstructured focus groups and participant observation
in the classroom. The findings of the study informed the opportunities and challenges of
teaching and learning Turkish in a technology-limited classroom. Challenges addressed
include lack of basic and current information on the World Wide Web, lack of specialised
manpower, insufficient time of practice, mixed age group and diverse personal reasons for
attending the course. In addressing the aforementioned challenges, the use of game-based
quizz was conceived as playful, pleasant way and method for bringing students closer and
create a group environment. Upon its use, several opportunities arose for enhancing students‘
concentration, allowing for a mastery of the limited technology, an increased metacognitive
ability, and adequate interaction in the classroom. This study concludes with implications for
practitioners and researchers, demonstrating that, despite the challenges, teachers in low tech
are encouraged to be more resourceful, be involved in in-service training, and seek help from
more experienced colleagues worldwide.
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17:30-18:00
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What students think and what they actually do in a mobile assisted
language learning context: New insights for self-directed language learning
in higher education.
Gustavo Garcia Botero, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Frederik Questier, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets have become increasingly popular and
accessible. The constant development of apps, many of them which are free, allows people to
have new ways of communicating, entertaining and even learning. In the educational field,
mobile assisted language learning (MALL) is gaining special interest among researchers,
teachers and students. Its ubiquity permits to broaden the reach of what is learned inside the
classroom and it provides students additional tools to get in touch with the language they are
learning.
In an attempt to figure out whether MALL could foster students‘ autonomy and self-directed
learning, this paper analyzes a self-directed learning experience by means of a language app:
Duolingo. Duolingo is the most popular app in the education category and it has now more
than 100 million users. It claims that 34 hours of study in its platform equals a semester of
language study. It also has features that encourage self-directed learning, such as a
notification system, and a coach which the user can configure to attain his own learning
goals. Its methodology based on gamification, rewards and competition is aimed at increasing
motivation towards autonomous learning.
In this study, 120 higher education language students were encouraged to use Duolingo
outside the classroom. The data collected by tracking students‘ app usage for over a year as
well as by surveys and semi-structured interviews brings to light new insights in the selfdirected learning and MALL relation-ship: First, the students overestimate their actual
activity in Duolingo and their low activity in the app contrasts the high value they attribute to
it. Second, even though MALL and in particular Duolingo is perceived to be useful and
interesting for language learning, students have great difficulty to manage their own learning
and complete a language course with mobile technologies. The main reason for this is their
additional obligations inside and outside their academic context. Third, students need external
motivation to be more active in the platform; that motivation can come in form of external
follow-up, course grades or language certificates. Finally, the study concludes that MALL
currently offers promising features to encourage students to take responsibility for their own
learning. Nonetheless, in practice, for the majority of students it takes more than the app
features to achieve self-directed learning. Higher education language students still need
mentoring, modeling and monitoring in the shaping and development of their self-directed
study skills, which is one of the many reasons why the role of the language teacher remains
significant in language learning.
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Digital literacy and sustainability- a field study in EFL teacher
development
Jan Berggren, Linnaeus University, Sweden
If in-service training provision in ICT is to be successful in bringing about a durable,
sustainable and effective integration of technology into the classroom, new approaches need
to be adopted which place teachers and their workplaces firmly at the intersection of subject
content, pedagogical and technological knowledge. In recent years, digital literacy has
emerged as one such framework with potential affordances in combining ICT tools and
resources with the language education mainstream. This paper reports on a project to
introduce the concept of digital literacy at a practical level to a group of EFL teachers within
the context of a single work place- a technologically well-resourced upper secondary school
in Sweden. English teachers at the school were provided with a theoretical and practical
overview of the digital literacy concept as described by Dudeney, Hockly and Pegrum (2013)
before being given the task of teaching a lesson based on a planning outline selected from this
resource book containing some 40 individual activities for the EFL classroom. The teachers'
reflective experiences of encorporating digital literacy into advanced level English teaching,
the extent to which digital resources can replace / augment 'traditional' coursebooks and the
efficacy of lesson evaluation as a form of exploratory practice were then evaluated through a
focus group interview. The results obtained from the interview cast interesting light on the
benefits of encorporating small scale exploratory practice research projects alongside busy
teaching schedules and administrative demands as well as teachers‘ perspectives on ICT in
the EFL classroom. In addition, the project has promoted synergies and collaboration among
a school staff engaged in the long-term goal of continued professional development.
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The Online Reading Strategies of Language Learners
Caleb Prichard, Okayama University, Japan
Andrew Atkins, Kinki University, Japan
Most reading is now done on PCs and other electronic devices, and the ability to read online
materials greatly enhances a language learner‘s academic success, job prospects, and global
citizenship. While reading proficiency is influenced by a number of factors, reading strategy
usage is also a key predictor of reading comprehension (Wang, 2008). Research using survey
instruments has suggested that more proficient L2 readers more often use a variety of reading
strategies. Rather than relying on linear reading and bottom-up processing of a text, strategic
readers often utilize top-down reading methods, such as previewing the text and allocating
selective attention to the text‘s main points or their reading purpose. Global reading
strategies, and specifically previewing, may be even more important when reading online
(Kang, 2014); there is so much content available online that readers must be more selective,
and this involves previewing articles for relevance, interest, and appropriacy.
A significant limitation of the existing research on L2 reading strategies is that the studies
tend to rely on participants‘ survey responses or think-aloud protocols, and such self-report
measures may lack reliability (Bax & Weir, 2012). One alternative research method is to use
eye-tracking technology to measure students‘ eye-movements over a text (Rayner, 1998).
Participants‘ eye movement data can validly show if readers are using certain strategies, such
as skipping irrelevant sections, re-reading important passages, scanning for information,
reading linearly, etc. However, L2 research utilizing eye tracking has been extremely rare
(Bax, 2013), and L1 research may or may not be relevant to L2 reading since it differs in
several ways (Grabe & Stoller, 2013).
This presentation describes a study that evaluates the global reading skills of Japanese
university students as they read an English Wikipedia article. To evaluate learners‘ global
processing of the article, participants‘ eye movements over the title, images, table of contents,
and headings were tracked. To determine the participants‘ level of selective attention to the
main points of the text as opposed to the supporting details, data on the frequency and
duration of eye fixations were identified on the topic sentences as opposed to supporting
sentences. The participants‘ reading behavior was evaluated to determine if it correlated with
their ability to summarize the online article.
The results and implications for teaching reading will be discussed. While further research is
necessary, research suggests that learners may have lacked global reading strategies partially
because they have had little previous experience in reading English for authentic purposes
online. In addition to reading for main points, explicit reading strategy training may also help.
Such training will be described and modeled. Finally, preliminary results on the effect of
strategy training will be described.
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„Preparing for our future‟: Intercultural communication task design for
English for Specific Purposes through Telecollaboration
Ana Sevilla Pavón, Universitat de València, Spain
Anna Nicolaou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
This paper focuses on task design for intercultural communication within an English for
Specific Purposes (ESP) telecollaboration project. The project, which was carried out during
the academic year 2015-2016 at two universities in Spain and Cyprus, was aimed at
enhancing the participants' intercultural skills while dealing with topics related to business
management, engineering and intercultural communication in a global world. A learnercentred, socio-constructivist, task-based approach to computer-assisted language learning and
teaching was adopted. The tasks were designed so as to be authentic, challenging, meaningful
and enjoyable while capable of enabling students to develop linguistic, intercultural,
problem-solving and digital skills, based on the need for European universities to put a clear
and coherent language policy in place that takes into account cultural and linguistic diversity,
as established by the European Commission. In addition, the tasks aimed at helping students
learn about different issues relating to business management and engineering from an
intercultural perspective through various telecollaboration activities carried out both
synchronously and asynchronously. The findings that are reported were drawn from
qualitative data gathered by means of direct observation, field journals, and interviews with
focus groups, as well as from quantitative data collected through two online student opinion
questionnaires. The results obtained showed a positive evolution of students‘ feelings and
perceptions regarding different issues dealt with (cultural diversity, language learning and
technology, learning communities, problem-solving skills) as well as their progressive
development of intercultural awareness throughout the project.
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Taking English Outside of the Classroom through Social Networking:
Reflections on a Two-Year Project
Louise Ohashi, Meiji University, Japan
In many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts students have few opportunities to
use their target language outside of the classroom, but if they are willing to use the Internet
they can gain access to a diverse English-speaking world that provides opportunities to read,
write, listen, and speak. However, not all students know which online tools suit their needs or
how to use them effectively, and some of them lack the confidence or motivation required to
take advantage of what is available. In Japan, where this research project took place, most
university students have a smartphone and many have a computer, but students often express
discontent at the lack of opportunities to use English outside of class. This perceived shortage
of opportunities was the impetus for the creation of a private Facebook group at a women‘s
university in Tokyo. The teacher-led group was designed for students who wished to study
English independently, and was not connected to any subjects at the university. It was formed
to provide a space for learners to communicate in English, and also aimed to increase their
awareness of different online and offline resources that could be used to develop their
language skills. Furthermore, it was hoped that being in the group would make learners feel
like they were part of a community, and that through the community they would be able to
increase, or at least maintain, their motivation. It was also hoped that a learning community
that resembled Lave and Wenger‘s (1991) ―community of practice‖ would eventually form,
with the teacher initially taking the ―expert‖ role and gradually handing it over to a strong
central group of students who would guide the less experienced ―novices‖.
This presentation will outline how the group was created and changed shape over a two-year
period, and examine the extent to which it achieved its goals. The primary goal of the teacher
in creating the group was to provide opportunities for students to communicate, so the
presentation will begin by examining students‘ active participation (writing). Their thousandplus written contributions will be examined, with posts coded by function (such as telling
personal stories or sharing study materials), and comments will be drawn on to show
examples of communicative exchanges that took place. The more concealed yet still
important passive participation (reading) of students will also be considered. The silent
majority only read posts and accessed links that were introduced, but it will be argued that
these one-way communicative opportunities were also valuable. However, without active
participation a group like this cannot sustain itself, so the presentation will also examine
strategies that were used to attempt to encourage writing. The second goal in creating the
group was to help students understand that numerous English-language resources were
available to them. As such, the teacher introduced a variety of materials and events through
her posts, and encouraged students to do the same. Examples of such posts will be provided
in the presentation, and students‘ responses to them will be examined. The third goal was to
create a community that would help students to maintain, or even increase, their motivation to
study and use English. Interview and questionnaire data that relate to this will be shared, and
the number of students who regularly accessed the group will be briefly examined. The latter
is important because passive participation (reading) rates fluctuated throughout the two-year
period, some students stopped checking posts and eventually chose to leave the group. The
final and most challenging goal was to create a learning community in which more
experienced ―expert‖ members led less experienced ―novices‖, with the experts eventually
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replacing the teacher. Although the group was largely teacher-dependent throughout its first
two years and did not reach a point in which it was likely to continue to function without
teacher intervention, many examples of ―student experts‖ who took on ―teacher-like roles‖
were found, and some of these will be shared in the presentation.
This presentation focuses on an EFL Facebook group that was not connected to a specific
English course, with some members who took classes together and others who were complete
strangers. As such, it may be of interested to educators in self-access centres, those who want
to connect students from different courses, or those who support learners that do not attend
face-to-face classes. Furthermore, as the basic concept of the project builds on the presenter‘s
earlier work with course-based Facebook groups (Ohashi, 2014), it is also recommended for
educators who would like to engage learners through social media in course-based contexts.
Finally, the social media platform that was used in this project was Facebook, but it is
conceivable that other platforms such as Edmodo would yield similar results, so those with an
interest in other group-based social media platform are also encouraged to attend.
Ohashi, L. (2014). Understanding what motivates and deters language learners: An
experiment with Facebook Groups. PeerSpectives, 12, 26-27. Retrieved from
http://peerspectives.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/louise-ohashi1.pdf
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A platform and customization toolkit for error-tolerant search of language
resources
Aric Bills, University of Maryland, United States
Susan Campbell, University of Maryland, United States
C. Anton Rytting, University of Maryland, United States
David Zajic, University of Maryland, United States
All language users need a good bilingual dictionary. Increasingly, dictionaries are searched
digitally via query rather than browsed. Successful search of digital dictionaries depends on
accurately representing the search query. However, if learners are not sure how to spell a
term they have heard in conversation or audio media, or have misheard the term, it will be
difficult for them to find it in a dictionary. Autonomous and online language learners, who
may not be able to ask an instructor for clarification, especially need resources which are easy
to search. One way to improve access to digital dictionaries is by providing error-tolerant or
―fuzzy‖ search: when a query that is not in the dictionary is entered, a system can provide a
ranked list of similar-sounding words that are in the dictionary. We present a software
platform that allows error-tolerant search of digital dictionaries, which can either be accessed
via a browser or incorporated into other dictionary search tools.
Error-tolerant search is most likely to be helpful to language learners if the notion of
similarity is informed by an accurate model of query errors language learners are likely to
make. Such models have been developed for commonly taught languages, such as English for
Japanese learners (Hovermale, 2011). For less commonly taught languages, statistical models
of language learner query errors are often unavailable. However, teachers and advanced
learners may be sufficiently aware of common errors to provide approximate error models
that work well in practice (Rytting, et al., 2013).
We therefore also present a novel web-based toolkit allowing learners and teachers of less
commonly taught languages to construct error models for themselves or their students. The
toolkit does not presuppose any programming expertise on the part of the user. Given a
digital dictionary or similar resource, it guides the user through the process of making that
dictionary more easily searchable by language learners. The main steps in creating a search
aid involve creating an error model: i.e., specifying pairs of character strings that might be
confusable and then quantifying how confusable those pairs of strings are. The resource
creator can then iteratively test whether this system improves searchability for particular
queries, and update their error model as needed.
While the error-tolerant search platform still requires the acquisition and formatting of lexical
resources, the toolkit lowers the barriers for customizing the search mechanism of these
lexical resources once they are obtained. In future work, we hope to facilitate the formatting
and importing of lexical resources into the platform.
Works Cited Hovermale, D. J. (2011). Erron: a phrase-based machine translation approach to
customized spelling correction. (Doctoral Dissertation), The Ohio State University.
Rytting, C. A., Silbert, N., Rodrigues, P., Buckwalter, T., Novak, V., Madgavkar, M., &
Bills, A. (2013). An auditory perception study of non-native Arabic: Validating and
improving the Arabic ―Did You Mean...?‖ tool. Technical Report for TTO 1005 E.3.1.
College Park, MD: University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL).
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18:00-18:30
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MALL community and culture in French-speaking Belgium : the teachers‟
perspective.
Julie Van de Vyver, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium
The CALL culture has been developing and evolving for several decades thanks to individual
initiatives, scientific research, experimentation and reflective practices from CALL
practitioners. New teaching designs have subsequently emerged (such as Puentedura (2013)‘s
SAMR model or Lui et al. (2014)‘s TPACK model) and new tools have been created and
commercialized (e.g. interactive whiteboards, educational apps). Lately, research has been
focusing on providing a more in-depth understanding and analysis of CALL practices. Last
year, the topic of the EUROCALL conference was ‗critical CALL‘ and practitioners in
collaboration with researchers started taking a critical stance on CALL. Mobile learning in
general, and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) in particular, are more recent
manifestations of CALL and before evaluating their efficiency in Belgium, there is a need to
observe and discuss the current situation and the readiness to adopt these new tools in
education as was done in some other contexts (Fujimoto 2012 for the Australian context and
Pieri & Diamantini 2014 for the Italian one). Several projects have been implemented in the
Federation Wallonia-Brussels, which is, in short, the French-speaking part of Belgium. They
include: the Plan Cyberécole in 1999, Plan Cyberclasse in 2005, Ecole Numérique in 2011
and Plan du Numérique in 2015 (see www.ecolenumerique.be for more details) and were
meant to equip schools and educational environments with, among others, computers and
tablets. Surveys have then been regularly conducted to evaluate the access to technologies in
our secondary schools (Agence Wallonne des télécommunications, 2013). However, mobile
technologies per se have not yet been much investigated in this context. My PhD research
concentrates therefore on the perception and uses of mobile technologies by teachers and
pupils in foreign language teaching and learning. The target pupils and teachers come from
the last three years of secondary education in the Federation Wallonia-Brussels. For the
present study, I designed three online questionnaires that I have distributed to pupils, teachers
and school principals in several secondary schools throughout the federation. I expect at least
a hundred completed questionnaires from language teachers by the end of the data collection.
This paper will focus on one particular aspect of my research, viz. the teachers‘ attitudes
towards the use of mobile technologies in- and outside the classroom. The descriptive
analysis will rely on Davis‘ Technology Acceptance Model (Davis, 1989). I first aim to list
the teachers‘ attitudes towards using tablets and smartphones for teaching and learning
languages, as well as their perceptions regarding the ease of use and the usefulness of such
devices. The second part of the analysis consists in identifying the influences between these
perceptions and attitudes so as to come up with a list of factors and obstacles to the
acceptance and uptake of mobile learning. The aim of this investigation is to further develop
the field of MALL in Belgium in teacher education, taking the cultural specificities of the
local context into account.
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Transforming top-down EFL teacher education into mobile-based peer-topeer learning
Jie-Young Kim, Chung-Ang University, South Korea
In the midst of paradigm shift in education environments in Korea, Korean EFL in-service
teachers suffer from the lack of efficient professional development programs. The current
programs are criticized for top-down and unsustainable curriculum, disconnection of teacher
education to practice, and deficiency of reflection on instruction. This study was set out to
identify and solve these problems by suggesting a new mobile-based teacher development
program. In this presentation, we will report a two-year, nationally-funded project which
consists of four phases: i) literature review of previous studies on online in-service teacher
program in Korea and abroad, ii) needs analysis with Korean EFL teachers, iii) development
of a mobile-based teacher development program, and iv) its implementation to explore the
effects. The literature review revealed as key features for effective online teacher
development programs; bottom-up approach to curriculum development, establishment of
community of practice, easy participation during their busy schedules, and connection
between teacher education and everyday teaching practice. Aligning with the identified
features of a new teacher development program, we developed SMART Teacher 3.0. This
mobile-based teacher education program is different from the previous ones in many
significant ways. First, it was developed with and by teachers. Contents were selected based
on a thorough needs analysis with 258 EFL teachers. It was also teachers who provided
contents in the form of sample lessons. Second, it is designed in a mobile-based MOOC
format and thus is available anytime anywhere. On top of that, each sample lesson lasts less
than 15 minutes so that teachers can learn and apply it to their daily practice instantly. Third,
it is designed learner-centered. Instead of enforcing a fixed learning curriculum, it lets
individual teachers to choose contents to their needs from a systematically categorized menu.
To explore the feasibility of SMART Teacher 3.0 as a new teacher development program in
Korean teaching context, it was implemented to 30 novice Korean EFL teachers. After
introducing SMART Teacher 3.0 to the target teachers, their use patterns and perceptions
were investigated via observation, focus group interviews, and questionnaire survey. In this
presentation, we will report the findings of the implementation of the program. Based on the
results, suggestions for revision and supplementation will be made.
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A systemic functional perspective on automated writing evaluation:
Formative feedback on causal discourse
Aysel Saricaoglu, TED University, Turkey
Based on the theory of systemic functional linguistics (SFL), this qualitative study examines
written causal language development with automated formative feedback. Causal
explanations are a very important part of academic literacy and success (Mohan & Slater,
2004). In order to help learners to express causal explanations in a more sophisticated way,
teachers can benefit from formative assessment (Slater & Mohan, 2010), which needs to be
guided by the causal developmental path as described in the theory of systemic functional
linguistics (SFL). According to SFL, causal language development of learners demonstrates a
shift from conjunctions to verbs and nouns (Halliday & Martin, 1993). Learners use
conjunctions to express causal relations (e.g., because) at the beginning of their language
development; later on, learners also choose verbs to indicate causality (e.g., cause); and
finally, they add nominalizations to their repertoires for expressing causal meaning (e.g., the
cause) at the end of their language development (Mohan & Beckett, 2003). Teachers need to
take into account this path when giving learners formative feedback on their causal language.
Because manual formative assessment of causal language is time-consuming and impractical,
feedback provision on causal discourse can be done through the use of automated writing
evaluation (AWE) programs. However, existing commonly-used AWE programs are unable
to evaluate content and provide discourse-specific feedback (Hegelheimer & Lee, 2013),
which also creates a gap in research for studies on the effectiveness of AWE programs to help
learners improve their written discourses. This study addresses this gap by investigating the
effectiveness of a recently-developed automated causal discourse evaluation tool. The tool
was created based on the theoretical perspectives of SFL and the feedback from the tool
aimed to help learners follow the causal development path.
In this study, pre- and post-test drafts, automated feedback reports, and screen capturing
videos collected from 32 English as a second language (ESL) learners enrolled in an
academic writing class were analyzed for causal discourse development within two causeand-effect essays and across pre- and post-tests by using descriptive statistics. Causal
discourse development within papers was investigated by analyzing the modifications
learners made in causal discourse features in their papers based on the automated feedback
while development across pre- and post-tests was examined by comparing causal discourse
features learners used in their drafts. The findings demonstrate that only a limited number of
students developed their causal discourse within papers and across pre- and post-tests.
However, the findings are very informative for how to enhance automated discourse-specific
feedback on writing for achieving better learning outcomes. Relevant implications are
discussed.
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Effects of task based videoconferening on speaking performance and
overall proficiency
Atsushi Iino, Hosei University, Japan
Yukiko Yabuta, Seisen Jogakuin College, Japan
Yoichi Nakamura, Seisen Jogakuin College, Japan
Although there are increases in claims in the use of videoconferencing (VC) for second and
foreign language learning, not enough research has been done to find out its effect with
proper proficiency measurements (Van Dusen-Scholl, 2015). This study tried to find the
effects of using VC as a tool of foreign language instructions in a semester long research
design. The research questions were to find the effects of the instruction including
videoconferencing as its communicative goal (1) on speaking skill measured by an
monologue style test following TOEFL speaking test Part One, (2) on general proficiency
consisting of vocabulary, reading and listening measured by IBA test (Eiken Foundation of
Japan), (3) on willingness to communicate measured by WTC questionnaire (McCroskey &
Richmond, 1987) and International Posture quetionnaire (Yashima, 2002). The participants
were 49 EFL learners in a university in Japan. As an experimental group (EG), 22 learners
experienced 8 times of a role play task over weekly VC through a semester. The weekly
sessions were held with conversation partners living in the Philippines. Prior to each VC
session, the learners were provided listening materials in order to understand the issue for
discussion and do some dictation tasks. Then, in a preparatory class conducted by Japanese
Teacher of English, five steps were taken to prepare for VC: (1) free discussion between
learners on the issue; (2) sharing expressions noticed as gaps for communication in their L1;
(3) learners' presentation on the issue to stretch their content knowledge; (4) re-discussion on
the same issue to incorporate their learning in Step 2 and 3; (5) role play practice in triads
among the learners. After the preparatory class, the learners in pairs experienced the same
role play task over VC. Each session lasted about 45 min. The learners were given a writing
assignment in 100 words or more from the viewpoint of the decision maker in the role play
by the following preparatory class. As a control group (CG), 27 freshman learners in the
same university were provided the same listening task as EG before weekly classes. They
also experienced the same steps in the classroom up to the part of a role play among the
learners. Instead of VC, they were assigned to do ―shadowing practice‖, i.e. repeating/
reproducing the listening material out loud many times and to write a short essay on the same
topic. Pre and post test results in the ratings in TOEFL style showed no significant difference
between the groups. Both groups showe signifincant improvment. About the general
proficiency,both group did not show significant improvement but the EG stayed better than
CG. In WTC scores, there was no significant differences between the groups,either, though
both groups showed slight increase. The process of instruction particularly with VC and
additional data analyses will be presented in the presentation.
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Social networking affordances for open educational language practice
Open Educational Resources (OER), as openly licensed content free to (re-)use at no cost, are
attracting increasing interest from scholars and practitioners for their repurpose value in new
educational settings, thus enabling Open Educational Practice (OEP). A topic that is underexplored to date is the role of social networking in OER uptake, affording ways for user
groups to socially engage in meaningful learning, and bridging formal and informal learning
contexts. This paper critically examines whether and how social networks are a good vehicle
to enhance open practice, focusing on the field of language learning and teaching. For the
purposes of the study, expert views in response to an open-ended questionnaire on OER/OEP
for language learning and teaching were collected between June and August 2014. The 18
respondents were scholars operating at the crossroads of OER and Computer Assisted
Language Learning (CALL). Expert views were analyzed through a content analysis
framework in line with three dimensions: the value of the social component in OEP,
instructional design for open content (re-)use, and social network affordances in OEP. The
study reveals insights into social networking activity as it relates to openness in education,
such as user engagement and co-creation of OER afforded by reputation, recommendation
and badging systems fueled by. It also contributes to an understanding of changes in learning
pedagogies afforded by principles of openness.
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An Audiolexicon Spanish-Nahuatl: Using Technology to Promote and
Disseminate a Native Mexican Language
Rafael García-Mencía, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Mexico
Aurelio López-López, Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, Mexico
Angélica Muñoz-Meléndez, Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, Mexico
This research focuses on the design of resources for both, reappraising the knowledge of a
native language for those who speak or have notions of Nahuatl, and getting familiar with
Nahuatl terms for those who do not speak this language. An Audio-lexicon Spanish-Nahuatl,
ALEN, was developed taking advantage of new technologies, specially mobile devices and
gadgets, as an opportunity to reach children and youth mainly. A beta version of ALEN has
been tested by 11 volunteers with very promising results. On one hand, examinations of
knowledge of Nahuatl language before and after one week of use of ALEN have shown that
most volunteers improved their Nahuatl vocabulary. On the other hand, volunteers have
evaluated ALEN with a median rating of Excellent in a qualitative analysis of an usability
test.
Nahuatl is a native American language with the largest population of speakers in Mexico,
nearly 1.5 millions people -that represents 1.7\% of the total population over 5 years - speak
Nahuatl. ``Nahuatl is the result of a continuous and long history of communication
creativity''. It was the dominant language in the center of Mexico before the Spanish conquest
by the mid-fourteenth century. Nowadays Nahuatl is mainly spoken by marginalized groups
but has also played a role contributing with loanwords to other languages.
Diverse efforts are made around the world to preserve and disseminate endangered
languages, since languages have a major role in the cultural heritage of mankind. For
instance, the declaration of the International Mother Language Day by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) whose goal is to encourage
linguistic and cultural diversity in the world, and raise awareness about the three thousand of
the six thousand languages spoken in the world that are endangered to a greater or lesser
degree. There are different ways to contribute to safeguard endangered languages, from the
promulgation of public policies and laws to preserve and promote minority languages to the
generation of linguistic resources oriented to these minorities. This research deals with the
latter effort, the design of resources for both, reappraising the knowledge of a native language
for those who speak or have notions of Nahuatl, and getting familiar with Nahuatl terms for
those who do not speak it.
Since this research aims to reach children and youth mainly, Nahuatl resources are
developed taking advantage of new technologies, specially mobile devices and gadgets.
For that, an Android based application called ALEN (from Audio-lexicon SpanishNahuatl) has been developed and tested. ALEN comprises a database of more than 130
entries in Spanish and Nahuatl, in both formats written and oral, specially designed
illustrations, and word-search capabilities.
A beta version of ALEN has been tested by 11 volunteers who completed a Nahuatl
knowledge examination twice, before and after the testing period. Volunteers also completed
a usability test which revealed that this first version of ALEN was useful to grasp Nahuatl
notions, and that its design was positively evaluated by users.
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Thursday, 25 August
09:00-09:45
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Quantifying CALL: significance, effect size and variation
Alex Boulton, Atilf, CNRS & University of Lorraine, France
CALL research is often quantitative in nature, in line with much research in applied
linguistics which sees measurement as a way to counter subjectivity and strive towards more
‗scientific‘ rigour (e.g. Lazaraton 2000; Benson et al. 2009; Richards 2009). This of course
neglects the important insights that can only realistically be gleaned from qualitative studies,
with their more frequent focus on emic, ecological, holistic considerations, and ability to
account for complex, narrative, continuous data such as interviews which do not lend
themselves easily to quantitative analysis. This is not to say that quantitative research should
be abandoned, only that – like all research – it needs using and interpreting with caution.
A particular problem with primary quantitative research is that many studies adopt null
hypothesis significance testing (NHST) as the standard model. NHST is entirely subject to
sample size (any difference will be significant if the sample is large enough), it doesn‘t tell us
anything about what we‘re really interested in (i.e. the effect of a particular variable), and
encourages dichotomous thinking on an arbitrary basis (with p-values typically set at 95% for
no good reason). NHST has been heavily criticised on all these counts, with Plonsky (2015:
242) claiming it has done ―far more harm than good‖ to research development as a whole.
Additional problems are that such attempts to isolate variables fail to take account of the
complexity in language learning (De Boot 2008), and that p-values can only be generalized
between studies via the vote-counting approach (e.g. Burston 2015 for CALL).
More useful are effect sizes: these measures do address the real issues, and can be pooled
across studies. If we do this in CALL, we come to some disappointing conclusions, with
several meta-analyses providing overall effect sizes of d<.04 (e.g. Grgurović et al. 2013; Lin,
W.C. et al. 2013; Yun 2011; Lin, H. 2015), which can be considered small by Plonsky and
Oswald‘s (2014) empirically-derived, field-specific benchmarks. The main exceptions to this
trend in CALL are either extremely succinct studies (Chiu et al. 2012; Chiu 2013), or metaanalyses based on very small samples (e.g. Abraham 2008; Zhao 2003).
Further, meta-analyses need interpreting with caution: in particular, it is tempting to seize on
a single figure as the ultimate answer to the question: ‗Does it work?‘ (cf. Grgurovic et al.
2013). To nuance the results, we need to account for variation between individual studies.
This can be achieved, at least in part, through analysis of moderator variables, i.e. by
grouping the results according to different sub-features to see if we can find common points
between higher and lower effect sizes.
Drawing on the recent experience of conducting a meta-analysis of data-driven learning
(Author & XX, 2016), i.e. the use of corpora in language learning, we tease apart the issues
and results of a dozen meta-analyses in CALL identified to date. As anticipated above, the
main conclusions are that quantitative studies provide essential insights but do not capture the
whole picture (cf. Ellis 2015); that the daunting range of choices are often glossed over; that
single-figure main effects can be misleading and need careful interpreting; and that, despite
the relatively low overall effect sizes reported, there are reasons for optimism in CALL.
Inevitably, more research is needed in all areas, but improved design and reporting practices
are crucial; suggestions are made on the basis of the meta-analyses discussed.
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CALL Research: Where Are We Now?
John Gillespie, Ulster University, United Kingdom
This paper is part of a series of papers that are examining the position of CALL as an
academic discipline from a strategic perspective. In this paper we will consider the position
of CALL research publications in the scientific world. It will deal with the following research
questions: What is the current status of CALL research? What are the evidences of quality
and impact? Are CALL research publications continuing to show innovation and ambition?
Has CALL research gained respect and credibility in the area of language and linguistic
research and in the research world in general?
The author has published and presented in CALL research over many years, and is a reviewer
for a wide range of CALL journals.
The paper will report on an analysis of the recent publications of the key CALL journals and
consider the range of topics covered, the papers published and their impact factor (where
possible and appropriate). Interviews will also be conducted with editors and reviewers of the
journals to gain an insight into their perceptions of the current position and researchers
outside the area will be approached.
On the basis of this analysis, a critical overview of the current strategic situation of CALL
research showing its positive achievements and outlining the various strategic steps that
might be taken to increase the reputation and impact of CALL in the world of University
research will be provided.
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Mobile assisted language learning and mnemonic mapping - the loci
method revisited
Ikumi Waragai, Keio University, Japan
Marco Raindl, Dokkyo University, Japan
Tatsuya Ohta, Nanzan University, Japan
Kosuke Miyasaka, Keio University, Japan
This paper presents the prototype of a mobile language learning environment allowing
learners to map learning content onto the trajectories of their every day lives, using places
that they come by as mnemonic loci. It is often argued that mobile learning has the potential
to create links between language learners‘ formal learning and their informal learning
experiences in their every day lives (Kukulska-Hulme&Sharples 2016). One important factor
for the interaction between our learners‘ actual experiences and learning contents from formal
contexts that can be connected through mobile devices is place. As learners move from place
to place in their every day lives, learning opportunities can arise – or can be made to arise –
that offer learners contexts to revisit what they learnt in the classroom. The authors, who
teach German at Japanese universities, have been exploring different ways of connecting
places in countries where the target language is spoken and classroom learning contents, by
designing mobile learning environments that supported learners with learning materials (a)
according to the situations they were supposedly experiencing in specific places, offering
help for oral interaction in the target language (Waragai et al. 2013), or (b) according to
places that learners had visited during the day, providing them with scaffolding for writing
target language entries on SNS about what they had experienced (Waragai et al. 2016). This
paper presents the learning environment d-radio that follows a different approach to the
notion of place: place does not figure as the setting where an interaction in the target
language might happen, but as mnemonic locus. In the loci-method, a mnemonic technique
dating back to ancient Greek rhetorics, contents to be memorized is associated with real or
imagined places. Users of d-radio can use loci - in this case, concrete geolocational positions
in their own town that they register on their mobile devices - in order to revise contents while
navigating through their every day lives. Learners can, for example, line up a series of
learning items along their way to school, and thus change their daily commute into a learning
trail, for example placing a learning item at each station that their trains stops at. The
members of the target group of this learning environment all study at universities in extended
urban conglomerations and many of them spend long hours commuting to school. By
changing the approach to the notion of place in mobile learning, the authors took into account
that only a small number of Japanese students learning German have the opportunity to visit a
German speaking country during their studies, as well as the fact that there are very few
chances to use German in Japan. The learning items used in this prototype learning
environment, were key sentences from the textbook used in class presented as audios,
emphasizing the importance of learning chunks of language as well as that of aural input,
especially in a context where learners have neither many opportunities to encounter spoken
language in their every day lives nor to use it themselves. The paper presents an outline of the
theoretical background and didactic design of the learning environment, a report about a trial
implementation and a first evaluation of this project.
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Game based learning of Chinese characters and lexicon : towards
outsourcing graphic and lexical knowledge through a video-game?
Yoann Goudin, Innovalangues - Université Grenoble Alpes, France
Mathieu Loiseau, Innovalangues - Université Grenoble Alpes, France
The ideal of European citizens mastering three European languages is being increasingly
challenged by other international languages such as Chinese, Japanese or even recently
Korean. From rare languages for a few specialists of Oriental philology, these languages have
become, after English, a popular option for non-specialists learners in many European
institutions and beyond. The point is that Mandarin – on which this paper will focus – as
distant as it is from any European language is not allotted more time in class than the latter,
despite its distinction from the students' previous learning experiences. Indeed, to the five
traditionnal skills, mandarin adds a very specific feature : the Chinese script. The problem is
that for these non-specialists representing now the enormous majority of the learners of that
language, communicative skills can be atrophied by the very first steps of Chinese script
learning based on strokes order, copy and kinesic practicing even though the daily writing
habits of Chinese writers definitely shifted to digital devices. Indeed, the traditional ways to
proceed are tracing strokes on paper and look for the radicals of each unknown character in
order to search paper dictionaries whereas keyboards, tablets and digital functionalities, logs
and databases provide ground shaking solutions. In order to dedicate class time to
communicative skills and oral interactions rather than stroke tracing, we propose to tackle
this field by exploring in which ways and to which extent the graphic knowledge might be
outsourced to digital devices. Based on the digital turn of language learning and teaching and
the contribution of NLP in the field of Chinese script (Unihan, Kanjivg, IDS Ideographic
Description System, Sino-ex, Koktai) in the very recent years, the « global approach »
(Goudin et Lê 2016, Magistry et al. 2016) offers a praxeological framework to our solution :
a match three tiles game – the infamous Candy Crunch Saga brought this game mechanic to
the mainstream, after games such as Zookeeper or Bejeweled introduced it – in which the
grids are not filled with candies or diamonds but Chinese characters selected on purpose for
pedagogical reasons. This research was carried out over 18 months within a team dedicated to
game based langage learning itself part of a greater French government funded project. The
game being design has not yet been implemented. In this communication, we will thus first
introduce the didactic background that underlies the levels articulation in order to make the
players – Mandarin learners or not – efficient in the global apprehension of the graphic
economy ruling the full system, rather than the drawing techniques for each particular
character. We will then present our global learning game design methodology (Loiseau,
Zampa, et Rebourgeon 2015) and how we take into account these didactic and game design
precepts in the level design. We will conclude with the design possibilities offered by a more
generic approach based on language resources, learners' personal lexicons or their interaction
traces within an LMS and level design tools made available to teacher's.
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Thursday, 25 August
09:45-10:30
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Overall, very well!: The challenge of effective peer-feedback in a tandemMOOC
Joan-Tomas Pujola, Universitat de Barecelona, Spain
Peer-feedback is a key element for a successful tandem language learning partnership. In
tandem language learning two learners help each other in their language learning process by
sharing the experience and language learning strategies while learning each others‘ native
language. Thus, learners play a dual-role expert-novice. In this context students benefit from
the existent common ground: they are both learners, and can share motivation and affective
factors. The challenge in this setting is to respect the principles of autonomy and reciprocity
(Little & Brammerts 1996) which make both learners feel they are benefitting equally. In
order to achieve this the time dedicated to interaction between the learners should be equally
distributed between the two languages involved, and both learners should be able to give each
other useful feedback that will help them improve. Learner experience and explicit linguistic
knowledge of their first language, as well as their expectations of what useful feedback is
comes into play here. In terms of providing feedback, native speakers are not trained teachers
and are not necessarily aware of, for instance, the grammatical rules of their mother-tongue.
Learners can also be reticent to correct their peers‘ performance (Lee 2004) and there is
evidence that the feedback provided by peers is often limited in scope or accuracy (Ware &
O‘Dowd, 2008). However, they feel more comfortable providing affective feedback (Belz,
2003). It is important to manage learner expectations and support them in how to provide
feedback, and most importantly on how to take initiative and ask for useful and specific
feedback tailored to his/her own specific needs.
The context of this study is a tandem-MOOC focused on the development of speaking skills.
This course took place over six weeks and was offered to B1/B2 level learners of
Spanish/English that were native speakers of the other language. One of the innovative
features in this MOOC is that tandem partnerships are formed at random using a chat-roulette
system, and there is no expectation for these tandem partnerships to last in time. The
intention being to turn the massive component in this MOOC into an advantage in ensuring
enough critical mass for everybody to be able to receive feedback from a number of different
native speakers of their target language.
This paper will discuss how the course tackles the support for learners on detecting and
communicating their own needs for feedback, and the design for peer-feedback behind the
forms and interfaces used for this activity. An analysis of the type of feedback given by
learners will also be detailed and suggestions for improvements based on the data collected
by means of forms, recordings, and questionnaires will be provided.
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Vlogging: a new channel for language learning and intercultural exchanges
Christelle Combe, Aix-Marseille Université, LPL UMR 7309 CNRS, France
Tatiana Codreanu, ENS, ICAR UMR 5191 CNRS, France
Web 2.0 and its numerous tools offer opportunities for online language learning and
intercultural exchanges have grown significantly in this context. Guth and Thomas (2010)
class Web 2.0 tools into three categories that can serve as a platform for communication and
collaboration: social networks, wikis and blogs. However, media sharing communities such
as Flickr and YouTube are presented outside of this category. It is the latter that we are
interested in, as likely to encourage online autonomous language learning (Barton and Lee,
2013) and yet quite unexplored in French language learning. Since the creation of the
webcam and its development and integration in the various screen-based communication
tools (laptops, tablets and mobile phones), users have been able to easily create home videos
then publish and share content in communities on YouTube. A new genre appears: the vlogs,
which are videos posted by regular vloggers (users) on a specific theme and augmented by
online comments. We discussed, in a previous study on vlogs (XXX, 2014), a particular kind
of vlogging as a way to practice languages online while learning. The context of this research
is a young American individual‘s vlog on YouTube sharing his experiences as a learner of
French. Our corpus of reference consisted of 38 videos of various duration between 10
seconds to around 16 minutes, published between June 28, 2011 and September 22, 2015,
extracted from the ‗texfrancais‘ channel and the associated written comments from viewers of
the vlog. However, given the importance of multimodal online corpus and the specificity of
the data (Develotte, 2012), we selected a corpus of study in order to answer the research
question: "What opportunities do a learner's vlog present in enhancing his speaking and
intercultural skills?" And to do that, we studied two specific videos: "The differences
between France and the USA" (01/09/2013, 5 minutes and 35 seconds) and "American Slang
"(03/05/2015, 4 minutes and 49 seconds). and the content of their comments (1554 for the
first video and 198 for the second one). This corpus of study was selected as it related to
different aspects of language practice and learning: intercultural aspects and issues of
stereotyping, opinion conflicts (O‘Dowd Ritter, 2006), but also linguistic variation (slang),
multilingual exchange and peer learning. In methodological terms, the recency and little
explored web-native type of productions (Paveau, 2013) gives us the opportunity to
investigate new tools that can be created or adapted in order to study screen-based
multimodal interactions and digital discourse. We explore how the web‘s informal spaces
develop and become learning spaces where users build together and share knowledge and
skills and how, in these globalized virtual spaces, intercultural aspects and multilingualism
are present. We are particularly interested in the specifics of generic vlogging – how an
individual addresses via a video and asynchronous communication to his audience, who in
turn respond in writing - and we try to see how suitable these features are for French
Language learning, the practice of the French language, and more generally, for practicing
foreign languages. The first results of our in-depth analysis show that the vlogger is widely
encouraged by peers (we observe strong socio-emotional aspects), exchanges take place on a
multilingual environment, the vlogger is both a learner and a teacher (he practices French but
also teaches American slang), users share knowledge and comments in informal ways
(without signs of stress or formality), but in contrast, intercultural issues can crystallize
tensions. The exchanges appear successful and lead to rich debates. This study highlights the
vlog‘s potential for supporting informal language learning and intercutural exchanges
between YouTube users in a globalised world.
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Classification of Swedish Learner Essays by CEFR levels
Elena Volodina, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Ildikó Pilán, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
David Alfter, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Learner essay grading presents a lot of challenges, especially in terms of manual assessment
time and qualification of assessors. The identification of errors in learner writing can be very
time-consuming since these stretch along different linguistic dimensions and thus might need
several iterations of re-reading to be detected. Human assessment is precise and reliable
provided that assessors are well trained. However, their judgements can also be subject to
different outside factors, such as hunger, bad mood, negative attitude to a learner or boredom.
To avoid misjudgements and to ensure objectivity, certain institutions have started to
complement human grading with automatic assessment as a more objective reference point,
e.g. Educational Testing Services (Burstein 2003, Burstein & Chodorow 2010). Developing a
data-driven automatic essay grading (AEG) system is a non-trivial task which needs to rely
on (1) DATA consisting of essays that have been manually graded by human assessors; (2) a
SET of RULES and specific FEATURES that are relevant for the assessment, and (3) a
CLASSIFICATION ALGORITHM that is based on the example data provided and the
specified features that can predict the grade or level of previously unseen essays. AEG tasks
have been addressed previously in a number of projects, e.g. by Hancke & Meurers (2013)
for German, Burstein & Chodorow (2010) for English, Vajjala & Lõo (2014) for Estonian,
etc. For Swedish, only one AEG project has been carried out (Östling et al. 2013), where the
authors have looked at Swedish upper secondary school essays, i.e. first language (L1)
learner essays, and assessed them in terms of performance grades (pass with distinction, pass,
fail). In contrast to them, our main aim has been to assess the reached proficiency levels in
essays written by Swedish as a second language (L2) learners. The availability of data is
critical for AEG experiments. Our experiments are based on SweLL (Volodina et al., 2016), a
corpus consisting of L2 Swedish learner essays, linked to proficiency levels as defined by the
Common European Framework of References, CEFR (COE 2001). All essays contain
information on learners' mother tongue(s), age, gender, education level, at which CEFR level
the essay is, etc. The automatic ranking based on SweLL predicts which CEFR level the
writer of an essay has performed at in the essay. The CEFR levels have been selected since
the CEFR is very influencial in both Europe and outside with numerous projects targeting the
interpretation of the CEFR scales (e.g. Hancke & Meurers, 2013; Vajjala & Lõo, 2014),
however, very little work has been done for CEFR-based L2 Swedish. The selection of
features is the most important and time-consuming part of an AEG project. Hancke &
Meurers (2013) have started with 3821 features, that have been reduced in the course of
experiments to the 34 most informative ones. Features can be language independent, such as
n-grams, sentence and word length, or language specific, such as out-of-vocabulary words
(where vocabulary is defined as some lexicon or word list). Our experiments include an
empiric analysis of data, the extraction of relevant features in machine learning experiments
and experimentation with those to select the most predictive ones. We have tested languageindependent versus language specific models to see how language specific features change
the quality of predictions. We are currently working on setting up a user interface for
assessing new essays. The interface generates a holistic assessment (reached CEFR level) as
well as provides feedback to users on certain features or groups of features (e.g. lexical,
grammatical). Feedback on lexical proficiency is based partly on out-of-vocabulary words,
i.e. misspelled or non-existent vocabulary used in learners' essays, as well as on three learner-
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relevant wordlists – SVALex, SweLL list and Kelly-list. SVALex covers receptive
vocabulary at different CEFR levels (François et a., 2016), SweLL list covers productive
vocabulary per CEFR level (ongoing work), Kelly-list is based on L1 web texts (Volodina &
Johansson Kokkinakis, 2012). Grammar features have been derived from COCTAILL
(Volodina et al., 2014) to generate receptive grammar scope per level, covering both
overrepresented and underrepresented features as compared to L1 texts. Besides, readability
assessment algorithms previously developed for use in Intelligent Computer-Assisted
Language Learning programs (Pilán et al., 2015) have been adapted to the needs of our AEG
system. The readability algorithms assess linguistic complexity of texts and sentences linking
them to various proficiency levels. Further work on refining the AEG algorithm would
include (1) adding error annotation to the essays, (2) linking error types to CEFR proficiency
levels, and (3) employing error types as a feature in our algorithm. Availability of error
annotation would also facilitate a more instructive feedback to learners.
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Thursday, 25 August
11:00-13:00
Symposium
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The role of teachers in modern - technologically advanced -multicultural
and multilingual societies
Symposium – Panorama
Undoubtedly, the past couple of decades have caused changes in the teacher‘s role. The
increased application of technology in the classroom and workforce, along with the
demographic, social and political changes, have initiated new dimensions of complexity to
the teacher‘s role. What is more, a mixture of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and experiential
plurality has been created by the immigration and globalisation. Effectively managing such a
diversity - in order to avoid anxieties, hostilities and racist behaviour – has always been a
challenge. It is only natural then, the fact that multicultural education and technology have
emerged as key issues in teaching and teacher education. This paper discusses how
technology can support multicultural education efforts, with reference to recent research
findings, and attempts to answer if technology can become a tool to reinforce acceptance and
understanding.
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Thursday, 25 August
11:00-11:30
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Cultivating a community of learners in a distance learning postgraduate
course for language professionals
Angelos Konstantinidis, UoN, Greece
Cecilia Goria, UoN, United Kingdom
The purpose of this contribution is to share reflections and best practice in cultivating a
community of learners in the context of a professional development programme at Master‘s
level for language teachers. The programme implements a highly participatory pedagogical
model of online learning which combines Community of Inquiry model (Garrison et al.,
1999) with Community Indicator Framework (Galley et al., 2012). The tangible outcome of
our revised interpretation of the two models is an active and cohesive community
characterised by a strong sense of commitment towards the learning of the individuals as well
as that of the group. This affects the quality of the learning experience, enhances academic
achievements, and increases student retention.
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Quizlet: What the Students Think. A Qualitative Data Analysis.
Bruce Lander, Matsuyama University, Japan
Quizlet, a now very well-known and established e-learning, digital flashcard tool is used
extensively in our field of education. First released in 2007, later becoming mainstream since
2013, the researcher has used Quizlet to some degree since 2012 in many of his foreign
language classrooms. Quizlet utilises a user-friendly interface that allows users to create
digital word lists with authentic audio pronunciation of each item entered in one of 18
available target languages. Quizlet links up with Flickr to allow users to supplement word
items or expressions with a suitable visual jpeg or gif file. This function, combined with the
near perfect pronunciation of each word, provides users with a tool far superior to their
analogue paper flashcard counterparts. Many emerging educational software programmes are
now providing links to Quizlet and its user-friendly interface thanks to its increasing
popularity the past 2 years. However, what do the students think of Quizlet and its digital
flashcard format? Do they prefer it to more traditional methods of learning vocabulary? And
perhaps more importantly, is it effective? This empirical study will introduce two batches of
qualitative data obtained over a two-year time span from April 2013, to January 2015 in a
test-based English language class and aims to answer these questions. Empirical data in the
form of numeric quantitative data can be difficult to draw conclusions from with regards to
latent constructs such as confidence, motivation and anxiety towards learning with
computers. However, qualitative data can provide the researcher with a more concrete insight
into students‘ actual opinion and are therefore easier to speculate with. Just like many online
educational tools on the market, Quizlet has seen a transformation in its interface as it
continually improves and develops its functionality according to user requests. The test
function, flashcard tool, word repetition and a newly updated iPhone, and Android mobile
app, is now better than ever and far easier to use. Quizlet has also recently introduced spaced
repetition into its programme through popular demand. Earlier this year (2016) Quizlet
introduced several fully functional and innovative updates including a new test tool available
for the mobile application and a group activity called Quizlet Live that lets students work and
compete in teams with the same word list. This presentation will show teachers how to
successfully integrate Quizlet into your class. It will also provide demonstrations of all its
updates and highlight the do‘s and don‘ts of making Quizlet play a permanent role in every
future class you design. This presentation will be of interest to anyone planning to, or with
previous experience in using Quizlet, or other digital tools in their teaching toolkit. Or
simply, if you are interested in how to analyse or collect qualitative data in a clear and
concise manner this may be for you.
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Flip-J: Development of the system for flipped jigsaw supported language
learning
Masanori Yamada, Kyushu Univerisity, Japan
Yoshiko Goda, Kumamoto Univerrity, Japan
Hideya Matsukawa, Osaka University, Japan
Kojiro Hata, Otemae University, Japan
Seisuke Yasunami, Kumamoto University, Japan
The flipped class has gained international attention as an effective method of language
teaching. The flipped class technique uses a blended learning design with online learning
materials to enhance learning engagement in face-to-face classes (Sams & Bergmann, 2013).
It has been employed in EFL learning, and positive effects have been reported (e.g. Engin,
2014; Fraga & Harmon, 2015). In language learning, it is desirable for both instructors and
learners to learn the appropriate knowledge and vocabulary prior to face-to-face classes.
However, several issues have been pointed out with the implementation of flipped classes.
One of them is that learners do not watch the required video prior to the face-to-face class
(Sams & Bergmann, 2013). This problem seems to be caused by a decrease in the students‘
sense of learning engagement. Therefore, a flipped class design that enhances learning
engagement should be considered for effective and efficient face-to-face classes. When a
jigsaw collaborative learning approach was utilized to encourage quality interactions and
promote higher-order thinking, in order to enhance students‘ learning engagement, positive
effects on learning were reported in different subjects from elementary to graduate school
(Aronson & Patnoe, 2011). This is a helpful method for EFL students who lack confidence in
speaking English; they have at least enough confidence to discuss their assigned expert area
with a jigsaw group, and this gives them a successful experience of speaking in English. The
experience may help them overcome their mental barriers and anxiety about speaking
English. In this study, the flipped class and jigsaw approaches were merged to create the
flipped jigsaw collaborative learning approach (‗flipped jigsaw‘, for short). This study aims
to a develop language learning support system, called Flip-J, that supports the flipped jigsaw
class design, and evaluate its effects on language learning engagement. The system is a webbased application that uses the learning management system Moodle module. Flip-J has three
functions: expert and jigsaw group formation, learning materials allocation, and the creation
of a learning material database (DB). Expert and jigsaw group formation automatically
assigns students to expert and jigsaw groups for the face-to-face class, based on their
homework submission to Moodle. Instructors can change the group member assignments
after the automatic group formation. Instructors can allocate learning materials, which are
uploaded to the learning material DB for expert and jigsaw groups, by using a drag-and-drop
function on the user-friendly interface. The learning material DB stores information about the
learning materials that the instructors have uploaded. The instructors can register information
(URL, starting time, description, and metadata) on open educational resources such as
YouTube and Voice of America videos that have been made free to use for EFL teaching.
They can reuse and share these learning materials with other instructors. Flip-J will be
evaluated in English class settings as formative evaluation in June 2016. We will report the
results of our evaluation at this conference.
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'Amateur' interculturism in foreign language education
Antonie Alm, University of Otago, New Zealand
Growing mobility and increased opportunities to publish and share personal impressions of
encounters with people of other cultures have resulted in new resources for intercultural
language education. The travelblog matador, for example, publishes regular posts of
travelers, such as ―10 habits I lost when I moved to Spain‖ or ―Are Germans rude? Killing the
stereotypes after living in Berlin‖. Shared on social networks, these personal accounts are
exposed to a wide audience, natives and sojourners alike, often leading to animated
discussions on incidents described by the authors. A further example is the bilingual book
"How to Be German in 50 Easy Steps/ Wie man Deutscher wird in 50 einfachen Schritten" by
the British journalist Adam Fletcher. It first appeared as a blog and once published in
Germany it became a bestseller in the German news magazine "Spiegel", attracting extensive
comments from German and English-speaking readers on amazon.de.
I will refer to these accounts of personal intercultural experiences, which are shared with a
wider audience and discussed amongst this audience as ‗amateur' online interculturism. The
authors and participants of these discussions are guided by their personal and often uncritical
views, yet they manifest a passion for the encountered cultures and a fascination for observed
personal transformations. At the same time these views are presented as perspectives rather
than truths and invite comments for discussion. These conversations lend themselves to
analysis in intercultural education as they provide students with a personal point of reference
(descriptions reflecting their own experiences), which can then be taken to a more critical and
reflective level.
This presentation discusses the concept of ‘amateur‘ interculturalism, as introduced by
Dervin (2015) and illustrate its application in the context of German language education in
New Zealand. I will focus on "Life Swap", an animated series about two young men, Jörg
from Germany and Duncan from New Zealand who have swapped lives for a year. The
individual episodes are framed by their monthly Skype conversations in which the two
discuss their respective insights, frustrations and misunderstandings. The episodes are meant
to be lighthearted and are described by their creators, Steffen Kreft from Germany and
William Connor from New Zealand, as a ―celebration of a cultural exchange‖ (episode 2, The
Tea Towel Stinks, for an example, https://vimeo.com/81393966). I will discuss the issues
raised in the series and provide examples of how the episodes can be used to sharpen the
learners‘ own intercultural awareness.
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Learning Icelandic Language and Culture in Virtual Reykjavik
Branislav Bédi, University of Iceland, Iceland
Birna Arnbjörnsdóttir, University of Iceland, Iceland
Hannes Högni Vilhjálmsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland
Hafdís Erla Helgadóttir, Reykjavik University, Iceland
Stefán Ólafsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland
Elías Ingi Björgvinsson, Reykjavik University, Iceland
The Icelandic language and culture training application Virtual Reykjavik (Vilhjálmsson,
2011) is an online game designed for adult learners, who are beginners in Icelandic as a
foreign or second language. The main approaches used in the game are game-based learning,
task-based learning, and communicative approach. In this video game-like environment, the
learners practice Icelandic by speaking to virtual characters (agents) via a microphone;
speaking is realized by the means of Google speech recognition service for Icelandic. Speech
is automatically transcribed so that the learner (user) can read what has been said in the
dialogue. By letting the users speak, Swain‘s (2007) Output Hypothesis in language learning
is supported. Moreover, when users listen to agents and read transcribed dialogues, they
receive input in a dual form and thus Krashen‘s (1982) Input Hypothesis in language learning
is supported. Users engage in solving particular tasks in order to achieve the goals of each
lesson, which allows them to proceed to the next level. In the first scene, the user needs 1) to
approach an agent, who is a native speaker of Icelandic present in downtown Reykjavik, and
get his/her attention, 2) ask for directions to a particular place, and 3) say goodbye. Currently,
the game has only one scene including these three tasks. Natural language for each of the
tasks has been collected in downtown Reykjavik (144 video recording), creating a source for
a multimodal corpus that provides with authentic data for discourse modelling between
human users and embodied conversational agents. Specific communicative functions and
behaviours associated with them have been implemented into the human-to-agent
conversation system, allowing the agents to respond to the users in a more realistic manner
that is specific to the social and situational context. The agents are designed so as to simulate
the behaviour of Icelanders in a situation when a stranger approaches them, gets their
attention and asks for directions; their speech, facial expressions, body language and posture
are based on what has been observed on data from real life and applied to response to the user
input (speech, proximity, direction of looking) authentically. In addition, the game includes
cultural information about selected buildings and monuments, which appear in a pop-up text
window when the user selects to be in a pause/―freeze‖ mode. A qualitative pilot study was
conducted to test the user response to playing the first scene. Results revealed that the agent‘s
spoken language was perceived as the most natural, and the overall agents‘ behaviour was
perceived all as natural, robotic, cold, and sincere, or as some users commented, ―similar to
how Icelanders are in real life‖. Starting to speak and cultural information about buildings
was amongst those that the users reported to have learned.
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Visualization of feedback in a grammar-based e-learning system for
German as second language
Karin Harbusch, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
Annette Hausdörfer, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany
Abstract:
COMPASS is an e-learning system that can visualize grammar errors during sentence
production in German as first or second language. Via drag-and-drop dialogues, it allows
users to freely select wordforms from a lexicon and to combine them into phrases and
sentences. The system‘s core component is a natural-language generator that, for every new
word the user wishes to attach to the current string (as an extension of this string or as a
replacement of a substring), checks whether this tentative attachment is grammatically wellformed or not. On this basis, the system can compute and display online the grammatical
structure of input strings in the form of syntactic trees, and identify and diagnose input errors.
In our presentation, we focus on the crucial question of how to present the feedback to the
learner. We propose tutored visualizations with animations of pedagogical agents. We briefly
report the results of a preliminary user evaluation study in which the participants judged the
well-formedness of prefabricated input sentences. The data, collected by means of eyetracking and a questionnaire, show that L1 learners who are exercising an unfamiliar and
error-prone grammatical structure, pay due attention to, and can profit from, this type of
visualized error feedback.
1. Introduction
Automatically generating personalized, reliable and immediate learner feedback is an
important prerequisite for effective learning in intelligent computer-assisted languagelearning (ICALL). In our presentation, we focus on automatic feedback presentation in
COMPASS, an e-learning system for German as first and second language. It confronts the
learners only with errors they could have avoided, given their current proficiency level and
their current understanding of the grammar rules. If COMPASS spots such an error, an
animated tutor shows up. The level of detailedness for feedback can be chosen by the user. In
order to find out whether the presentation of feedback is appropriate, we performed an eyetracking experiment. We also asked the participants to express in a questionnaire their
subjective impression of the usefulness of the feedback. In Section 2, we argue for tutored
visualizations with an animated pedagogical agent. Section 3 describes a preliminary user
study with L1 learners as participants who judged the well-formedness of prefab input
sentences that provided unfamiliar and error-prone grammatical structures. In final Section 4,
we draw some conclusions and address future work.
2. Feedback in COMPASS
In COMPASS—the acronym stands for COMbinatorial and Paraphrastic Assembly of
Sentence Structure—, the user selects wordforms from a lexicon and combines them into
phrases and sentences via drag-and-drop dialogues. In response to each user action, the
system displays the grammatical structure of the resulting wordform string in the form of a
syntactic tree, and provides feedback on (un)grammaticality of the string. The grammar
formalism underlying COMPASS separates rules for the hierarchical structure of a sentence
and the linear order of its constituents. This split allows the student to divide a sentenceconstruction exercise into relatively small parts. For instance, (s)he can select a word, and
inflect it as required by the intended grammatical function, without simultaneously
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considering the linear position of the constituent in the sentence under construction. At any
time during this ―scaffolded‖ sentence construction process, the syntactic tree built so far
remains visible on the screen, ready to be expanded or modified with additional words or
phrases. Another advantage arises from this scaffolded sentence-production approach:
feedback can be immediate, precise and exhaustive. However, it is desirable to highlight only
those errors against rules the student is supposed to have mastered. COMPASS uses
underspecification of grammar rules to accomplish this. The question we deal with in our talk
concerns the format in which to present the feedback. Widely practiced in e-learning systems
are animated tutors that interact with the user in a socially engaging manner. Adopting this
format, we have chosen an owl—portrayed as intelligent and wise in Aesop‘s fables—as a
character capable to attract and motivate children as well as adults. The user can select
feedback at two levels of detail—or switch it off if desired. In verbose mode, the owl shows
up at the word or phrase the learner has just attached erroneously, and displays a box with
information about the error type. In concise mode, the owl has green eyes, sitting in a green
box at the upper right corner as long as the user is building grammatically correct structures.
In case of an error the color changes to red.
3. Do users pay attention to the feedback messages? A preliminary system evaluation
using eye-tracking
In order to find out whether the feedback was sufficiently salient and informative to attract
the attention of the users, we performed an eye-tracking experiment with 20 adult native
speakers of German (university students) who were instructed to judge the grammatical
correctness of displayed sentences. We also asked the participants to express in a
questionnaire their subjective impression of the usefulness of the feedback. The experiment
comprised two phases. In Phase I, the participants familiarized themselves with COMPASS
by freely composing syntactic trees in drag-and-drop dialogues with the system. Then, in
Phase II, they were presented with prefabricated sentences featuring correct or incorrect
subject-verb agreement (adapted from an experiment by Bock&Miller 1991), allowing them
to exercise relatively rare and error-prone agreement cases. In addition to these experimental
sentences, there were filler sentences that were either grammatically correct or contained
other types of errors. In one experimental condition, the participant delivered his/her
grammaticality judgment, and the owl indicated the (un)grammaticality of the input sentence.
All sessions were video-recorded and transcribed. The percentage of correct answers
increases from 52% in the control condition (no tree, no feedback) to 67% in the
experimental condition with syntactic trees (more precisely, in the experimental subcondition
without feedback where the owl did not give away the correct answer). This suggests the
feedback was not only perceived but also yielded a learning effect. The questionnaire data
showed that several participants (5 out of 20) found the trees baroque and confusing rather
than helpful. These participants did not profit from the feedback.
4. Conclusions
The results of our preliminary user evaluation experiment suggest that our way of presenting
feedback via an animated pedagogical agent is promising. However, the questionnaire
revealed considerable dissatisfaction with the level of detail of the linguistic information
provided by COMPASS. The participants‘ complaints ranged from too many colors to too
much linguistic sophistication. We take these results as recommendations to continue with
feedback presentation in the form of animated tutors and with syntactic trees, but also to
simplify the tree format considerably.
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Thursday, 25 August
11:30-12:00
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YELL/TELL: online community platform for teacher professional
development
Ivana Marenzi, University of Hannover, L3S Research Center, Germany
Maria Bortoluzzi, University of Udine, Italy
Rishita Kalyani, University of Hannover, L3S Research Center, Germany
The presentation discusses the findings of an ongoing project about how language teachers
use an online community platform for teacher professional development and lifelong
learning. The community platform Young English Language Learners/Teen English
Language Learners (YELL/TELL) was developed to respond to the needs of collaboration
and sharing among trainee teachers, school teachers, teacher trainers and researchers in the
field of language learning for English as a foreign language (EFL). The social community
YELL/TELL, supported by the LearnWeb social platform (http://learnweb.l3s.unihannover.de), has the aim to encourage professional collaboration among teachers of
different school levels and backgrounds. Lifelong learning is promoted on the basis of
sharing resources, commenting and reflecting on them in the spirit of co-construction of
knowledge through open educational practices and resources, offering support, ideas, and
competences for teaching English as L2/FL. As developers of the YELL/TELL platform, at
the L3S Research Center in Hannover, we decided to involve teachers in the co-design of the
platform (Wang & Hannafin, 2005). During the past 2 years, we carried out an iterative
evaluation-driven design-based research approach (Mirijamdotter et al., 2006; Marenzi, 2014)
involving groups of trainee teachers and experienced teachers to investigate how the latter
use online platforms for their teaching profession, and how the former use it for their learning
how to teach while becoming part of a professional e-community. The ultimate goal of our
work is to improve the experience of teacher development by optimizing an existing digital
environment on the basis of actual user requirements and feedback. The current study focuses
on the activities carried out by 16 teachers during a workshop for professional development
based on the use of the digital environment and its affordances for a professional community.
The workshop was organized in Pordenone (Italy) in September-December 2015. The general
aim was to reflect on online searching for resources and sharing resources and practices for
English language learning and teaching and plurilingual education. The research goal was to
verify to what extent teachers, with different background and diverse digital skills, would
find easy or complex to use the current version of the YELL/TELL platform by analyzing
their online practices and collecting their perceptions and suggestions about the experience.
In this presentation we shall focus on the actions and reflections for professional practices
such as searching, selecting, annotating and customizing online resources for English
language learning and plurilingualism. We shall compare the evidence of the teachers‘
actions within the online environment (using the records of the logs) with the analysis of their
perception about their use of the online environment and their critical reflection about the
experience (using their comments on the forum and the final questionnaires).
Marenzi Ivana (2014). Multiliteracies and e-learning2.0. Foreign language pedagogy contentand learner-oriented, Vol.28. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main. ISBN 978-3-631-65652-5
Mirijamdotter Anita et. al (2006): An interactive and iterative evaluation approach for
creating
collaborative
learning
environments.
EJISE,
9(2),
83-92.
Wang Feng & Hannafin Michael J. (2005): Design-based research and Technology-Enhanced
Learning environments. ETR&D, Wilson, 53(4), 5-23.
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The Contribution of CALL to Advanced Level Foreign/Second Language
Instruction
Kelly Arispe, Boise State University, United States
This paper evaluates the contribution of instructional technology to advanced-level
foreign/second language learning (AL2) over the past 30 years. The proposed presentation
will show that the most salient feature of AL2 practice and associated CALL research are
their rarity and restricted nature.
In American classrooms, even at university, less than 1% of foreign language students pursue
instruction beyond the intermediate level (Goldberg, Looney & Lusin, 2015). Not
surprisingly, the place of AL2 in the CALL literature is extremely marginal. Based on an
analysis of four leading CALL journals (CALICO, CALL, LL&T ReCALL), less than 4% of
all papers deal with AL2. Moreover, to the extent that it is even defined, one is confronted by
a lack of consensus about what actually constitutes an advanced level of language
proficiency.
As concerns the nature of these publications, the range of languages involved is very
restricted. Three languages account for nearly 87% of the total with ESL/EFL representing
nearly 63% and French and German another 12% each. In terms of pedagogical focus, some
64% of the studies target writing skills either as a primary focus or incidentally as the
underlying vehicle for the development of communicative or intercultural competence (i.e.,
via e-mail, text chat, discussion forum exchanges). Emphasis on the written language is
further increased by another 11.5% in reading-based studies. Attention to oral-aural skills
(listening, speaking, pronunciation) accounts for only 14% of all AL2 CALL projects. The
remaining 10% of papers deal with grammar and vocabulary.
Whatever the linguistic focus, the most striking aspect of advanced-level L2 CALL studies is
the lack of information given regarding the linguistic level of the actual language activities
undertaken by students. Not a single study explicitly relates these activities to an external
reference point such as the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) or ACTFL
Proficiency Guidelines. However, judging by the activities themselves, it is possible to infer
the linguistic competence level required to successfully perform them. Based on such
inferences, the range of language activity levels extends from A2 to C1 (CEFR). Most
tellingly, for projects purportedly targeting advanced level learners, in over 55% of the
studies the linguistic tasks undertaken by students were below the B2 level. Less than 30%
were at B2 and just under 15% at C1.
The proposed presentation concludes that both quantitatively and qualitatively the
contribution of instructional technology to advanced-level L2 acquisition has been very
limited.
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Investigating student choices in performing higher-level comprehension
tasks using TED talks
Francesca Bianchi, University of Salento, Italy
Ivana Marenzi, L3S Research Center - Hannover, Germany
LearnWeb is a collaborative educational Web platform that allows searching, collecting,
sharing, and analysing resources from various Web sources, such as websites from Bing,
videos from YouTube, and images from Flickr, within a single environment. Among the
many resources accessible through the platform there are TED talks, an open set of videos
with multilingual transcripts that are gaining momentum as multimedia teaching resources.
An advantage of accessing TED talks and transcripts in LearnWeb derives from the
availability of extra interactive features specifically designed to support learning. More
specifically, the students can highlight a word or part of a sentence in the transcript and tag it
with an open annotation; furthermore, when the mouse passes over a highlighted word, the
system automatically shows a set of definitions and synonyms for that word, taken from
WordNet. Finally, if the students are not happy with their selection or tag, they can delete it
and make a different one. The students‘ activities (their selections, tags, deletions, etc.) are
logged, and log files can be accessed by the teachers for research purposes. In the present
experiment, LearnWeb and its TED-related features were used to train higher-level
comprehension skills within a module on Interpreting, in an MA curriculum for language
specialists. Specifically, the selecting and tagging features available on TED transcripts were
used to help novice interpreting students develop skills such as understanding discourse
structure, distinguishing key elements of discourse from exemplifications and peripheral
elements, and identifying speech acts. More importantly, the platform logging features
allowed the teacher to collect information on the students‘ choices and difficulties while
performing those tasks. While exercises of this sort do not necessarily required the use of
software, detailed monitoring of the students‘ choices and mistakes would not be possible
otherwise. This paper analyses the students‘ logs of the tasks described above and discusses
the results from the pedagogical as well as the technical perspectives. Logging the student
actions is a powerful means to provide insight into the student selection and tagging
processes, self-corrections, (in)decisions. The current experiment offered an answer to the
following research questions: Which of the three tasks was perceived by the students as more
difficult?; How was each task faced by the students?; How did the logs contribute to an
understanding of the students‘ approaches to the tasks? The experiment also suggested ideas
for further development of LearnWeb‘s log features from a pedagogical and research
perspective.
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Using object-based activities and an online inquiry platform to support
learners‟ engagement with their heritage language and culture
Marina Charalampidi, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
Eileen Scanlon, The Open University, United Kingdom
Heritage language education is distinct from the field of second language acquisition due to
having the concept of identity always at its core (Leeman et al., 2012). The present article
highlights this matter and presents an action research study focusing on teaching and learning
of Greek as a heritage language in the context of Supplementary Education in the UK. The
main aim of the study is to support students in gaining an understanding of how language is
intertwined with social and cultural aspects.
The study seeks to provide young learners access to cultural experiences, e.g. object-based
activities in a museum and in the school, with an aim of capitalising on these to develop
speaking and writing skills. It builds upon formal instruction in the classroom and draws
attention to blending the physical and the digital contexts with an aim of directing the
learners to use the mobile technology to bring the digital world into the real world of the
language classroom and at the same time to represent real world experiences directly into the
digital domain. In addition to this, it aims to engage learners with aspects of inquiry learning
(e.g. observation, data collection, reflection), which is viewed as offering learners a
meaningful and productive approach to the development of their knowledge of the world
(Littleton et al., 2012).
This paper reports on the development of the study, that took place in two Greek
Supplementary Schools (in Milton Keynes and Leicester) during the academic year 2015-16.
The participants are learners of Greek Heritage attending pre-GCSE, GCSE and A‘Level
class (12-17 years old). For the purposes of this study the learners used mobile and webbased technologies, i.e platform nQuire-It (http://www.nquire-it.org), to explore their
environment though specific missions (e.g. ‗Looking for All Things Greek‘, ‗It‘s a Habit‘).
The study involved a number of classroom sessions, attendance of an object-handling
workshop run by educators based at the British Museum at each of the two participating
schools and also participation in a museum visit.
The paper will share practitioners‘ insights into the integration mobile technologies within
language learning and teaching in the context of heritage education. Evidence from students‘
interviews and classroom observations, along artefacts created online will be provided. Key
areas that will need to be addressed in the next cycle of action research are discussed, such as
the language as a barrier, technological issues and learners‘ participation. These provide a
basis for our discussion about how technology might be more effectively introduced into the
environment of the heritage language classroom. Special thanks to the British Academy for
providing the funding for this study (British Academy Schools Language Awards).
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The Digichaint interactive game as a virtual learning environment for Irish
Neasa Ní Chiaráin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Ailbhe Ní Chasaide, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Irish is an endangered language, spoken as a community language only in limited Gaeltacht
regions in the West of Ireland. As a minority language it is unique in being the country‘s first
national language and is a compulsory subject nationwide up to school leaving age. A major
challenge with the teaching of Irish is the lack of exposure to native speaker models of the
language (most teachers are themselves L2 speakers). Furthermore, the dearth of modern
resources for teaching/learning mean that motivating learners can be difficult. It is clear that
the long-term survival of the language will depend to a very large extent on the success with
which it can be taught to the school going population. There is a pressing need to explore new
CALL-based approaches which can help address the many challenges that confront the
teaching of a minority language.
The interactive language learning game, Digichaint, adapted from The Language Trap (Peirce
& Wade, 2010), is designed specifically with these considerations in mind. Computer games
provide an effective means of creating the conditions where task-based language learning
activities with focus on meaning can be created. The fun, problem-solving aspect of the game
and the use of attractive visuals help provide a virtual platform that will motivate learners and
engage their attention, while giving them extensive exposure to native-speaker models. Note
that this type of prototype is intended not just as a self-standing game but eventually might
serve as an open toolkit where teachers can develop their own scripts which can vary
depending on the targeted linguistic content, the learners‘ levels, their sociocultural
backgrounds, etc.
In Digichaint learners are set the task of finding the missing half of their winning Lottery
ticket by conversing with numerous characters in a hotel. The dialogues with the characters
are fixed and presented as a set of text choices at each conversational turn. Once selected by
the user, the utterance is spoken out using the Irish synthetic voices of ABAIR
(www.abair.ie). A key feature is that the language content is adaptive: by selecting
simpler/more complex dialogue choices, the user is selecting a path adapted to their level.
This allows the game to be used by a variety of users with different levels of competence
(typical in any classroom), as well as being well-suited to autonomous learners. Additional
metalinguistic notes (grammar/dictionary items, etc.) are also included by way of hypertext.
The game was evaluated by 250 pupils in 13 schools nationwide, including Gaeltacht schools
(rural), Irish-medium schools (urban) and English-medium schools (both rural and urban).
The evaluation framework, drawing on the ideas of Chapelle (2001) and of Hubbard (2006),
was designed to assess the extent to which Digichaint conformed to a specific set of criteria
deemed essential for effective CALL platforms. These include: a meaningful task-based
setting, using the target language; opportunity to develop meta-linguistic awareness;
appropriate difficulty level; playfulness; enjoyment level; clarity of plot; logical structure and
legitimacy of game narrative; engagement; appropriateness of visual and aural material.
Results were encouraging, with a high level of engagement and satisfaction with the gaming
experience, showing that Digichaint, as an interactive game-like platform, conformed to the
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targeted criteria. Positive responses were also obtained in evaluations carried out on the
acceptability and appropriateness of the synthetic voices.
Chapelle, C. (2001). Computer applications in second language acquisition: Foundations for
teaching, testing, and research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hubbard, P. (2006). Evaluating CALL software. In L. Ducate & N. Arnold (Eds.), Calling on
CALL: From theory and research to new directions in foreign language teaching. San
Marcos, TX: Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium.
Peirce, N., & Wade, V. (2010). Personalised learning for casual games: The ―Language Trap‖
online language learning. In Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Game Based
Learning (ECGBL 2010) (pp. 306–315). Copenhagen, Denmark: Bente Meyer.
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Towards a development of Foreign Language Teaching resources for the
exploitation of enriched texts
Jorge Arús-Hita, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain
Timothy Read, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain
Elena Bárcena, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain
In this article we present an overview of the eLITE project (a Spanish acronym for
―electronic LITerary Edition, supported by the county of Madrid with European funding),
which involves several Spanish research groups (including that of the authors‘: ATLAS
[Applying Technology to Languages]) and disciplines. The main goal here is the creation of
new textualities and foreign language learning routes that meet the needs of different reader
/learners profiles, by integrating the development of digital formats with the creation of highquality contents from an aesthetic-cognitive perspective, aimed at clearly defined
users/readers. The three main goals of the eLITE project are: 1) the development of a
multimedia, interactive, multilingual and multidevice model of edition and visualization
which allows writers to generate digital texts through the design of an adaptive web
application for reading and creating content; 2) the publication of three main lines of digital
collections of texts, i.e. literature for children, literature on Madrid, and genre literature; and
3) training new developers, e-writers and e-readers to create and use these novel tools
through microlearning techniques (specific online open lessons). The role of the ATLAS
group within this project is to use the textually enriched texts compiled by our partners for the
development of foreign language teaching resources within the contexts of CALL and
MALL. To that end, we are currently translating the eLITE textual repository from Spanish
into English (and vice versa) using a form of crowd translation, in order to create oral
versions and develop pedagogic materials in line with the methodology that we have been
refining in our previous projects. In this paper, the novel architecture of the eLITE research
project is presented. The paper will then focus on the tasks which have been undertaken by
ATLAS, such as the profiling of the end users and the design of the modules of crowd
translation, multimodality and multilingual textualities, which have involved the
collaboration of our distance learning university students. The authors claim that the
procedures undertaken are transferrable to other CALL initiatives and allow research work to
be integrated with daily didactic practices in a way that is beneficial for all parties involved.
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Thursday, 25 August
12:00-12:30
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Meeting the Technology Standards for Language Teachers
Cornelia Tschichold, Swansea University, United Kingdom
While computers of various types are increasingly common in classrooms, CALL itself
cannot be said to be entirely normalized yet. Hubbard (2008) and Bi He et al (2015) among
others point out the need for more systematic integration of CALL in teacher training, while
Hong (2010) states that the aim of such training is teachers knowing about and being
confident with CALL in their classroom, something that cannot be achieved by just a few
workshops. The starting point for this project was the question in how far a CALL module in
a TESOL course can bring the students up to the required level. Meeting the Technology
Standards for Language Teachers (part of the TESOL Technology Standards Framework,
Healey et al. 2008) was chosen as evidence for the level of training required. In a first
instance, each standard was matched against one or more components of an existing CALL
module. Standards that were not met were then filtered for achievability in a pre-service
teacher training situation, and those that were deemed not to be achievable in the given
context were eliminated. All remaining standards were then examined to find out whether
they could be incorporated into the module, either by modification of an existing element or
the introduction of new elements. A second step involved the evaluation of components of
the CALL course that did not seem to contribute to helping the students reach any of the
technology standards. One of the goals of this procedure was to give more structure to the
process of regular updates of the module content, beyond simply updating the software used
in the module, and to allow for a more principled improvement of the module over the years.
In the presentation, the results from the comparison of the module components and the
technology standards will be shown, and an evaluation of this section of the framework
attempted for CALL modules in the context of pre-service teacher training.
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A social constructionist approach to teaching and learning vocabulary for
Italian for Academic Purposes
Eftychia Xerou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
This study describes a social constructionist approach to teaching and learning vocabulary for
Italian for Specific Academic Purposes with reference to Parmaxi and Zaphiris (2015) social
constructionist framework. Constructionism is a theory of learning, teaching and design
which assumes that knowledge is better gained when students find this knowledge for
themselves when engaging in the making of concrete and public artifacts and through
collaboration. According to literature, collaborative activities are commonly used in foreign
language learning and viewed as beneficial to learning (Kessler, 2013; Mutwarasibo, 2013).
Moreover, learners are reported to be more motivated when working with technologysupported collaborative activities than in individual learning situations (Ray, 2007). In this
research, students are guided to create, explore, construct and evaluate through the use of
Quizlet, an interactive education game. Quizlet is an online learning tool but also a mobile
application which permits the creation of vocabulary, flashcards, games and quizzes and the
sharing of the collections created but the users. The participants in the study are twenty-two
beginner students who are studying Italian as a Second Language in a public university in the
Republic of Cyprus during the Spring Semester of 2016. For the purposes of the research this
group consists of sub-groups of students of five different disciplines, namely Management
and Economics, Communication and Internet Studies, Multimedia and Graphic Arts,
Engineering and Technology, Geotechnical Sciences and Environmental Management. The
sub-groups contribute to the building of the learning process by the creation of academic
vocabularies, based on the academic needs of each group. Students collaborative artifacts,
built within Quizlet are used by the rest of the learners for the purposes of the lessons. This
presentation, describes social constructionist instructional procedures, gives samples of
learners' linguistic output and provides comments on the student response to this method of
instruction. The research method that it will be applied is qualitative research. Data will be
collected through questionnaires, in-class observation and students‘ and instructors‘
reflections and students‘ completed artifact. The expected outcomes are: increase of students‘
motivation in learning information from different academic fields and consider the use of
Quizlet in order to improve the introduction of specific academic needs in the teaching of a
second language. Data resulting from the assessment of this instructional intervention is
expected to provide positive students responses from using Quizlet for socially constructing
and sharing an artifact and evidence of students' accurate and appropriate vocabulary use
within a small repertoire of communicative situations. The potential of this approach is
described in detail, along with implications for researchers and practitioners.
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Integrating online writing into the oral productive skill training process
Man Yang, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
Promoting English as a foreign language (EFL) learners‘ productive ability has been given
top priority in Chinese higher educational institutions over the last two decades. Based on
Swain's Output Hypothesis (1985), in the process of communication, the comprehensible
output is conducive for second language learners to recognize their language holes and
facilitative to their subsequent language learning. Recent research has shown that coconstruction computer-based communication and self-repair are predictive of the EFL/ESL
learners' output abilities in the target language. Some related studies have also shown that
automated writing evaluation (AWE) tools have great potential for EFL learners to improve
their writing and the AWE real-time corrective feedback has positive effects on learners'
cognition of mismatch between their output language and the target one. The aim of this
study is to investigate the potentially facilitative impact of the controlled writing task through
the implementation of the Pigai system (http://www.pigai.org, a web-based AWE tool which
has more than 10 million users in China) on Chinese EFL learners' subsequent speaking tasks
through a mixed-method approach. The teaching experiment has been conducted since
September 2014, and has been repeated for three rounds of teaching sessions between two
parallel naturally formed classes of an English audio-video speaking course (EAVSC) for
non-English major college students, one being fully computerized utilizing the Pigai system,
the other being completely similar but not using the Pigai system. To measure if it is feasible,
the same pre- and post-tests along with the same follow-up surveys were carried out
repeatedly during the three rounds of teaching experiment. The same teaching design
includes: (1) group discussion and pair work based on synchronous computer-mediated
interacted speaking activities; (2) a ten-minute writing task on the Pigai system (exclusive to
the experimental class) with the same topic in speaking activities and (3) a one-minute
personal narrative task of the same topic. All students‘ written texts and their oral
performances were collected and recorded for analysis. The presentation will demonstrate
how the task of online writing by using the system has been integrated into the process of oral
productive activities in the EAVSC from the following aspects: the system in actual use in
both classroom and off-class contexts; some samples of formative track records of students‘
writing scripts compared with those of the speaking tasks; research data of the control classes
and the experimental classes from different teaching session's students‘ pre- and post tests
scores and students‘ perceptions of both the system and the teaching mode from the surveys.
Statistical analyses of correlated data indicate that two conclusions can be drawn as follows:
(1) the ten-minute controlled writing task online is facilitative to the students‘ follow-up
speaking task, e.g. a one-minute recording of a personal statement in this teaching context;
(2) the Pigai system as applied in this study has played an important role in assisting students‘
abilities to write effectively through raising cognitive awareness of respective language holes
during the process of construction/reconstruction and statements/restatements, integrating
task-based writing and speaking into a series of pure speaking activities in the target language
in digital environments. Finally, some issues and problems with the system design and
development as well as the teaching design reflected from the three teaching sessions will
also be discussed. Through this study, the presenters hope to provide both EFL instructors
and AWE designers and developers with pedagogical implications and some innovative
suggestions, and to shed light on the integration of EFL learners' productive skills
development into task-based teaching design with effective use of AWE tools. The teaching
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model in this study has proved to be duplicable and could possibly be applied to other similar
EFL teaching contexts.
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Multilingual CALL – The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, From The
Perspective Of Teacher Training Students
Judith Buendgens-Kosten, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
CMC based CALL scenarios such as telecollaboration projects or e-tandems often carefully
orchestrate language choice. Self-directed language learners tend to avoid code-switching, at
least in language learning blogs (Buendgens-Kosten 2016). There is a noticeable scarcity in
language learning software that uses more than one language – beyond use of translation and
grammar drills. These three observations imply that multilingual CALL is to some degree
problematiced, not normalized. The ideal of the monolingual (English as foreign language)
classroom does not stop in front of the screen; it permeates CALL design and consumer
choices. Multilingual practices are notably absent from most mainstream CALL products.
Based on a survey of teacher training students in two European countries (total N=183), the
presentation will discuss what concerns exist against the inclusion of multilingual CALL
beyond dubbing and translation drills, using the example of a multilingual language learning
game. It will also point out aspects equally emerging from the data that suggest that future
English teachers do perceive a certain potential for multilingual CALL, specifically in the
context of heterogeneous classrooms and multiple language learning (regarding foreign
languages taught at school). The focus of the study lies on a range of languages used in
Europe, including high status national languages frequently taught as foreign languages in
European schools (French, German, Spanish), national and regional languages not frequently
taught outside the areas they are spoken (Luxembourgish and Catalan), and languages
associated with migration (Turkish and Urdu). It will be outlined how the status of a language
as perceived by teacher training students, including its perceived worth for students as either
a means for language learning or as an outcome of language learning, is essential for the
acceptability of a specific language in a multilingual product. This talk is of interest for
individuals engaging in the design and study of multilingual CALL, as well as those engaged
in teacher training.
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Exploring the connections between language learning, personal motivations
and digital letter games: the case of Magic Word
Cristiana Cervini, University of Bologna (LILEC); University of Grenoble-Alpes, Italy
Andrea Ceccherelli, University of Bologna (LILEC), Italy
Monica Masperi, University of Grenoble-Alpes, France
Paola Salomoni, University of Bologna (Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering), Italy
Marco Roccetti, University of Bologna (Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering), France
Antonella Valva, University of Bologna (LILEC), Italy
Francesca Bianco, University of Bologna, Italy
Session 3-3 E - Phoenix
In this contribution we aim to discuss the first contrastive test of two early prototypes of a
digital letter game, called Magic Word, based on the meta-ludic rules (Silva 1999, 277) that
could be exemplified by the well-known example of the Boggle. The test is carried out for
Italian as a foreign language. The first prototype of the game was conceived and implemented
at the Grenoble-Alpes University (Loiseau, Zampa, et Rebourgeon 2015), within the
Innovalangues project (Masperi, 2012). From a linguistic stand point, this prototype is
particularly focused on morphological exploration and inflection mechanisms. As far as the
gameplay is concerned, this version differs from the second version in that the focus has been
set on repeatability of games using 1-on-1 competition among players around randomly
generated grids. On the other hand, the second version developed by the University of
Bologna within the frame of the E-local for all project (Ceccherelli, Valva 2014) focuses on
lexical acquisition, thanks to the implementation of an original algorithm allowing to
generate series of grids based on the words to be found in them (Roccetti et al. 2015). This
has allowed to create sets of grids associated to learning units found in the E-local for all
project. Through this adjunction, the gameplay has been transformed from a game based on
speed, to one more focused on the completion of lexical puzzles. Both versions have been
developed under open source licences which allow the creation of subsequent versions of the
game using the best features of both prototypical versions. With this respect, the grid creation
algorithm devised in Bologna opens a wide array of possibilities, especially in terms of game
customization by teachers, who could then create grids depending on their pedagogical
interests. This could be critical in terms of adoption of the game. Indeed, within a study
considering language teachers' use of games (Hallal 2015), the author underlines the
importance of the « adaptability of the games » for the teachers (Hallal 2015, 83), which is
consistent with the scarce use of digital games among them in the study (Hallal 2015, 79). In
the wake of the implementation of a first version of the game, it seems important to
experiment on the reception of both games among students in order to harness their
respective, yet intertwined features for learning languages in incidental and informal ways.
The experimentation, to be carried out this April, intends to make feedbacks available to
researchers and developers. For this purpose, we will involve students enrolled in classes of
Italian as a second language, in France and in Italy, with different proficiency levels, from
beginners to intermediate. The experimentation will include pre-test and post-test phases in
order to collect relevant clues to answer to the following questions: do students feel
motivated to play that linguistic game? which language learning outcome (if any) they think
they can reach using this game? what is the relationship between their lexical competence in
certain semantic fields (such as i.e. ―trips and transports‖, ―family‖, ―colours and shapes‖,
etc.) and their success in the game? which features are most appreciated by students in both
versions (such as time constraints, solo or challenge mode? ...). In a first step, all the
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participants will be given a list of words in order to, on one side, activate the lexis which will
be found on the Magic Word game grids, and on the other to indicate if they know the
meaning of that specific word or not. Within the data analysis phase, we will have the chance
to cross the information collected in the pre-test phase (already known words and proficiency
level) with the results got during the matches (for example success in finding words in the
grids). All results will be discussed in conjunction with a description of the games themselves
in order to consider them under the scope of the possibilities offered, in terms of language
learning, by the game mechanics used in both games.
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The Use of Interactive Whiteboards: enhancing the nature of teaching
young language learners
Christina Giannikas, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Language teaching can be enhanced by effective uses of educational technology; nonetheless,
there are language teachers around the globe who are reluctant to integrate technology in their
practice (Papadima-Sophocleous, Kakkouli-Constantinou, Giannikas, 2015). This reluctance
and avoidance deprives students of interactive and effective language learning, and may have
a negative toll on their education in the digital world of today. The issue has been highly
debated in the field, resulting to a number of Ministries of Education worldwide recognizing
the significance of technology and its potential to influence major change in education.
Actions have been taken to enrich schools with the necessary equipment (Department of
Education, South Africa, 2003; EACEA, 2009; Ramanair and Uyu Sagat, 2007) and measures
have been employed to support the integration of technology in education, including financial
support (DfFES, 2003; 2005). Such a transition was supported by the Greek Ministry of
Education through the introduction of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs). The Greek Ministry
of Education, with the support of MLS, a Greek leading company in educational technology,
supplied and installed 3,300 IWBs in public schools across the country
(http://www.skai.gr/news/technology/article/169271/diadrastikoi-pinakes-sta-ellinika-sholeia/). This initiative inspired private language school owners to supply their teachers with IWBs
as well. Nonetheless, this initiative was not well-received at the time, in either the public or
private sector, due to the fact that teachers were not provided with any training in how to use
IWBs and implement them in their teaching. This innovative and powerful technological tool
became intimidating in the eye of the language teacher and did not serve the purpose it was
meant to in most cases. However, there were teachers who were intrigued by IWBs and made
an effort to apply its use in their classes. These teachers were self-taught and their motivation
led them into making an effort to train others in the process. The proposed paper will focus
on the self-taught language educators in question, specifically on teachers of young language
learners. The effect and development of teaching practices and language learning in a context
where no training was undertaken will be discussed, and the effect the teachers‘ risk-taking
has on pedagogy will be presented from the teachers‘ and students‘ perspective. The paper
introduces a small-scale study conducted in Southwestern Greece. Data collection occurred at
a private language school and the focus was on students aged 10-15 years old. The major
conclusions and outcomes of the study were that language teachers within the Greek context
have taken charge of their own professional growth and have learned to take risks in order to
help their students benefit from their language lessons. Technology plays an important role in
this process; however, due to lack of training, teachers and students have not reached the
zenith of using IWBs. For the needs of the study, an integration of different types of
qualitative research, supported by quantitative evidence, was applied. More specifically, there
was an interpretation of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and observations. The aim
of the proposed paper is to display the strength of teachers‘ motivation, the desire for
professional development and the effect the IWBs has on the particular context.
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Thursday, 25 August
12:30-13:00
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Professional Development for Teachers through an IT Intervention Project
Karen Lund, DPU Aarhus University, Denmark
Lilian Rohde, University College Capital, Denmark
Professional Development for Teachers through an IT Intervention Project Karen Lund,
DPU, Aarhus University & Lilian Rohde, University College Capital, Denmark This
presentation concerns an intervention project in English as a foreign language in upper
secondary school in Denmark, in which students developed a thematic blog for a group of
‖customers‖, who were students of the same age group from a partner school. The
intervention project was based on the following learning facilitating criteria: Problem-based
learning with a specific focus on entrepreneurial education, involving working with outside
partners through technological contacts, content-based communicative learning activities,
intensive student activity, collaborative methodology and extensive use of online facilities in
the classroom. The process aims at developing student competences regarding innovation,
communication and technology with a special focus on making students self-reliant and
autonomous in the development of blog products within a framework provided by the
teachers. The rationale of the intervention project was research on teacher
C(ontinuing)P(rofessional)D(evelopment) and the effect of developing a pedagogical
platform for new teacher cognition and practice with a focus on teaching English as a foreign
language in the 21st century. Results indicate that the transition from traditional teaching of
foreign languages to a more problem-based approach with innovative uses of it technology
offers opportunities for teacher development. However, this approach also risks teachers
being unable to enter into transformative learning experiences and complex thinking and,
instead, dichotomizes their understanding and practice into traditional teaching versus
innovative projects. Results also indicate that a fixed intervention needs to be supplemented
by other measures of a more reflective nature for teachers to benefit fully from this type of
CPD.
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An evaluation of text-to-speech synthesizers for the foreign language
classroom
Tiago Bione, Concordia University, Canada
Second language researchers and practitioners have explored the pedagogical capabilities of
text-to-speech synthesizers (TTS) for their potential to enhance the acquisition of writing
(Kirsten, 2006), vocabulary and reading (Proctor, Dalton & Grisham, 2007), and
pronunciation (Cardoso, Collins & White, 2012; Soler-Urzua, 2011). Despite their
demonstrated effectiveness, there is a need for up-to-date formal evaluations of TTS systems,
specifically for their potential to promote the ideal conditions under which languages are
acquired, particularly in an English as a ―foreign‖ language (EFL) environment, as suggested
by Cardoso, Smith and García Fuentes (2015). This study evaluated a modern English TTS
system in a EFL context in Brazil, at a number of levels: (1) speech quality, (2) opportunity
to focus on form, and (3) learners' cognitive processing of TTS-generated texts. Fifteen
Brazilian EFL learners participated in the study in which they listened to both human and
TTS-produced speech samples while performing the abovementioned tasks. Semi-structured
interviews were used to collect data about participants‘ perceptions of the technology. We
report an analysis of these interviews, which indicate that EFL learners have overall positive
attitudes towards the pedagogical use of TTS and, more importantly, that they are ready to
accept this technology as a learning tool.
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The role of the webcam in lexical word search episodes
Cathy Cohen, ESPE Université Lyon 1; Laboratoire ICAR, France
Ciara Wigham, Université Lyon 2; Laboratoire ICAR, France
Within the field of SLA, studies have examined the word search practices of native and nonnative speakers as interactional phenomena. Word search episodes are cases in interaction
during which a speaker ―displays trouble with the production of an item in an ongoing turn at
talk‖ (Brouwer, 2003:535) and does not provide the next relevant turn but interrupts his
present course of action to orient to the turn-under construction (Kurhila, 2006:20). The
trouble-source can be grammatical, lexical or a longer syntactic unit. This paper focuses on
lexical searches where a speaker ―wishes to label a concept for which she does not have the
lexical resources, or where these resources are available but cannot be recalled, or where
available and retrievable resources cannot be used successfully because of contextual
constraints‖ (Kasper & Kellerman, 1997:8). Whilst lexical searches have been examined with
respect to learners‘ use of different semiotic modes (Brouwer, 2004; Carroll, 2005) and
strategies employed for their resolution (Kurhila, 2006), to the best of our knowledge, few
studies have examined lexical word search episodes in online mediated interactions.
This study builds upon previous research (Guichon & Cohen, 2014) that examined the effects
of different synchronous conferencing tools on lexical word search. More specifically, it
compares lexical word search in learner-teacher interactions in either a videoconferencing or
audioconferencing condition. It concerns 40 undergraduate students (20 in each condition)
with a B2 level in English who were asked to describe a previously unseen photograph to a
native English EFL teacher. The photograph contained problematic lexical items likely to
trigger word search episodes. In the videoconferencing condition, the webcam gives
participants access to multimodal semiotic resources that might impact on the course of
lexical searches, whereas in the audioconferencing condition, episodes rely solely on the
verbal mode. The aim of this study is to explore how having access to the interlocutor‘s
image impacts on the lexical searches.
All the interactions were recorded using dynamic screen capture software and acts in the
verbal and visual modes were transcribed using ELAN (Sloetjes & Wittenburg, 2008), a
multimodal data annotation tool. We chose to look in detail at one problematic lexical item, a
‗tunnel earring‘, and observed the number of cases for which it triggered lexical searches. We
then compared the episode duration between the two conditions, before adopting a qualitative
approach to explore to what extent the information was communicated differently in each
condition and what role gestures and other multimodal elements played. Finally, we
examined whether one condition was more favourable to reach the target item.
Initial findings suggest that the learner‘s image provided by the webcam helped to launch
word search trajectories as well as signal to the teacher that these were not complete and that
the learner wanted to contribute further. The combination of the visual and verbal modes also
allowed learners to provide more detailed and precise descriptions of the target item by
contributing information in a wider range of semantic categories. The consequences of this
finding in relation to language learning will be discussed.
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Promoting multilingual communicative competence through multimodal
academic learning situations
Anna Kyppö, University Language Centre, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Teija Natri, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
The purpose of this presentation is to offer some information on the interdisciplinary course
of multilingual interaction, which was piloted at the University of Jyväskylä Language Centre
in 2014 - 2016. The course inspired by the EU project Modularising Multilingual an
Multicultural Academic Communication Competence (MAGICC 2011) is aimed at the
integration of multilingual and multicultural academic competences as graduate learning
outcomes. Main purpose is to enhance students‘ multilingual and multicultural academic
communication competences by promoting the use of their entire linguistic repertoire in
various social learning situations. The course has been implemented partly in class and partly
in a technology-enhanced learning environment. Various multilingual tasks, for example,
intercomprehension - performing different activities in different languages even without
having them learned, multilingual reading, simulated multilingual and multicultural
negotiations, persuasive argumentations, etc. have been practised during the course. In
addition to the development of learners‘ multilingual and multicultural academic
communication competences, the focus is on the development of learners‘ agency in
multilingual and multicultural settings - at what they can do with their linguistic repertoire in
the multicultural environment, as well as on the enhancement of their networking skills. We
believe that simultaneous use of multiple languages in both synchronous and asynchronous
learning environment has an evident impact not only on the development of the above
mentioned competences, but also on the increase of learners‘ multicultural awareness. While
the primary focus of the pilot course in 2014 was on teachers‘ approach to multilingual
teaching and participants‘ mutual interaction, the focus of the latest course is on the more
efficient employment of task-based learning in the multifaceted learning environment –
extended use of social media and multimodal interactive online resources. Our experiences
documented by learners‘ and teachers‘ reflective learning diaries may contribute to the more
efficient use of CALL as a forum for multilingual/multicultural communication and
enhancement of learners‘ and teachers‘ multilingual and multicultural academic competences.
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Can a “shouting” digital game help learners develop oral fluency?
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has shown to decrease learner anxiety (e.g.,
Kelm, 1992) and increase willingness to community (WTC; Reinders & Wattana, 2014),
while also providing additional opportunities for enhanced input exposure (e.g., listening)
and/or output practice (e.g., speaking) via learner-computer interaction (see Chapelle, 2003).
When used to facilitate oral communication between learners, CMC has been shown to
increase a feeling of security to practice language use (Seyyedrezaei & Ziafar, 2014). In
addition, this type of communication has the potential to provide the appropriate environment
to develop oral fluency, or automatized speech (Derwing, Munro, Thomson, & Rossiter,
2009), often recommended as one of the last steps in the development of oral skills (Nation &
Newton, 2008).
This study examines the development of oral fluency in a CMC learning environment that
uses a ―shouting‖ digital game as a pedagogical tool: Spaceteam ESL (Waddington &
Cardoso, 2015). Spaceteam ESL is a game for mobile devices that involves time-sensitive
aural exchanges among players (English learners), with great potential to promote fluency
development (via speed) in a non-threatening environment (mediated by the game, a CMC
tool). Fifty high-beginner/low-intermediate ESL learners participated in the study, divided
into two groups: an experimental group (n=25), which played the game for 15 minutes as a
warm-up in class for a period of 7 weeks (see http://spaceteamesl.ca for an example of typical
game playing); and the control group (n=25), which was engaged in ―traditional‖ classroom
activities such as info gap, story retelling, and other interactive activities for the same period
of time. The study followed a mixed-methods design with pre/post/delayed post-tests to
measure developments in oral fluency (measure via a triangulation of methods that include
the computation of number of syllables per second, silent pauses, and judges‘ perceptions –
see Kormos, 2006; Segalowitz, 2010 for details), and change in learner anxiety and WTC (via
questionnaires – adapted from Baran‐Łucarz, 2014). We also examined learners‘ attitudes
towards and perceptions of Spaceteam ESL as a pedagogical tool via a survey, individual
interviews, and focus group discussions conducted at the end of the 7-week period.
Preliminary findings suggest that participants perceive the game positively and enjoy the
CMC-enhanced, game-assisted learning environment afforded by Spaceteam ESL. The
results of our study will shed light on the effects of team-building games such as Spaceteam
ESL on the development of oral fluency in second language acquisition and on how students
perceive the game as a tool to develop fluency.
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The EFL Flipped Classroom: The New Practice to Be Discovered in L2
Writing
Iman Oraif, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
With the continuous evolution of technology and online tools in recent times, blended
learning has received extensive attention in the field of higher education and is not
exceptional in English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching practice. However, there are still
too few specifications and guidelines for developing blended learning so that it meets second
language (L2) learners‘ demands and motivates them. Online activities is mostly used as a
supporting element for in-class teaching, with no clear relationship between the two
approaches. Nevertheless, online mode should be integrated into the language classroom and
so this study proposes the use of a flipped classroom, specifically designed for an upperintermediate level writing course. The design is influenced by socio-cultural theory, as
developed by Vygotsky and Cole (1978), representing the theoretical foundation for each
component in the intervention. This theory comprises several constructs that validate the
implementation of the flipped classroom on EFL writing courses. With the flipped approach,
the inversion of the traditional in-class and out-of-class activity is the main issue. Although
this appears in conventional ways through the assignment of materials to prepare before class,
the use of virtual learning environment (VLE) systems Like Blackboard may upgrade such an
approach, thus rendering the learning experience more active, self-centred, and engaging. In
this regard, the study will provide a design for the use of a flipped classroom integrated with
the process approach on an L2 writing course. However, the main concern here is to
investigate changes in EFL learners‘ intrinsic motivation to achieve competence in L2 writing
following the intervention.
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Thursday, 25 August
14:30-15:30
Keynote Lecture
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CALL Students as designers of their online learning
Panorama
This presentation will focus on an empirical study of an online learning community that
collaborates with the course design team under the Participatory Design methodology. The
different phases of this methodology were implemented using a four-stage participatory
design process for an large online course for teaching Greek to English speakers:
1. Building bridges with the intended users
2. Mapping user needs and suggestions to the system
3. Developing a prototype
4. Integrating feedback and continuing the iteration.
We took advantage of the online and distributed nature of the student community to
synchronously design, implement, and study the course. We carried out the participatory
design methodology by following the Distributed Constructionism pedagogical theory.
During the different phases of the design process, we measured the student participation and
user trends when new design elements were introduced.
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Thursday, 25 August
17:00-17:30
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Positive affordances and ameliorative opportunities for L2 writers online
Carmen Denekamp, Qatar University, Qatar
A double cycle action research study of two semesters focused on developing an online selfaccess centre for writing (online writing lab). It needed to be culturally appropriate for the
heterogeneous, Arab, L2 academic writing students that made up the community of an
English medium university in Qatar. Providing extra out of class help and promoting learner
autonomy as well as improved learning outcomes for L2 academic writing were the goals.
However, independent writing facilities both onsite and online can lack inclusiveness for L2
writers where their needs are not met in the right way – students do not perceive opportunities
as affordances (Reinders, 2007; Wang, 2012). Also online writing sites have been viewed as
deficient models to onsite models for both L1 and L2 writers. The biggest obstacle has been
the inability of the online centres to emulate the attributes of a face-to-face advisory session
(Ehmann Powers, 2015; Hewett, 2015). Adaption to the specific culture of students and new
strategies and pedagogies for the online environment are paramount for success (CCCC,
2009, 2013; Miller-Cochran, 2015). The study‘s online self-access for writing was an LMS
that featured various resources, tools and advisement via asynchronous and synchronous text
modalities. The action research methodology being data-driven allowed the study to be openended and exploratory to investigate what worked best for a cohort of 37 volunteers. Multimethods were used to collect data from diverse sources including pre- and post-tests,
assignments and questionnaires, advisor‘s and students‘ written dialogues, students‘ drafts
and student drafts plus advisor‘s feedback, frequency logs and grades. This segment, as part
of a bigger work overall, concentrated on the resultant affordance features that seemed to be
making students active agents. These were: support, personalization, immediacy and
availability, proactivity of students and advisor, and change. Each is described with its range
and potential, confirming empirically the online writing facility as a very useful autonomous
writing aid to the cohort of students and hence hypothetically to the university‘s bigger
community. Orthodoxy can limit students to a reductive model of writing help, whereas
exploitation and experimentation of an online environment can increase student affordances
and provide tailored niches for them, allowing heteroglossic perspectives to dictate rather
than inappropriate pedagogies and ideologies.
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Social Networking and Teaching Greek as a foreign language
Skevi Vassiliou, Cyprus University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Social Networking and Teaching Greek as a foreign language Skevi Vassiliou Special
Scientist School of Modern Greek Language University of Cyprus Abstract The purpose of
this research is to identify if a social community developed within a Facebook group can
increase learners‘ interest and motivation in learning Greek as a foreign language. It will also
highlight if their writing skills are being improved by using a Facebook group. In addition to
this, the research will also investigate the theoretical background of using social networking
in teaching a foreign language. As Blattner&Fiori (2009) argue even though computer and
social networking use has become a famous trend, little is known about how Facebook can be
used as an educational online tool that can promote their language competence sufficiently.
The classroom consisted of 17(14 women and 3 men) students aged from 20 -55 who studied
Greek as a foreign language (A1 level according to the Common European Framework of
Reference for Languages).Technical requirements which are essential for the research is that
all of them have internet access from home and all are members of the same Facebook group.
The data collection followed the qualitative research method and the basic research tools that
were included are questionnaires, interviews (individually and in small groups) and sample of
students‘ work in the group. Learners were expected to share their experiences using a
Facebook group while learning a foreign language. Moreover, learners were expected to
indicate the importance of using this social network tool in improving their writing
competence and in increasing their interest and motivation in learning a foreign language.
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How do trainee teachers use multimodal resources during online
instruction-giving?
H. Müge Satar, Bogazici University, Turkey
Ciara R. Wigham, Université Lyon 2 - ICAR, France
Although instruction-giving is a significant part of teacher-talk time in the foreign language
classroom, a limited number of studies have explored teachers‘ instruction-giving practices
(Hellerman and Pekarek Doehler, 2010; Markee, 2015). These studies have investigated
teachers‘ instruction-giving particularly in the face-to-face classrooms outlining various
components of instructions, how posture alignment works as a signal for task initiation and
how teachers and students orient to talk-external artefacts. Yet research on instruction-giving
practices in online educational contexts is virtually non-existent. In our presentation, we try
to bridge this gap by exploring how trainee teachers give instructions on a webconferencing
platform with limited potential for posture alignment and access to talk-external artefacts. In
particular, we investigate how the trainees make use of the multimodal resources available in
the online context.
Our data comes from the ISMAEL (InteractionS and Multimodality in lAnguage LEarning)
project corpus (Guichon et al., 2014). This corpus structured the interaction data from a
telecollaborative project during which 12 trainee teachers of French as a foreign language
met for online sessions in French with 18 undergraduate Business students from an Irish
university. The participants met for seven 40-minute online sessions in 2013 via the
webconferencing platform Visu (Bétrancourt et al., 2011). Each online session was thematic
and focused on Business French.
Drawing on a social-semiotic perspective of multimodality and conversation analysis to the
investigation of task instructions, we will closely look at data from one of our participants to
exemplify how the trainee uses gaze and posture change accompanied by use of vocatives
and transition markers in her instructions for a role-playing activity. The data is taken from
the fourth session in a series of six. Our findings highlight the need for specific training of
prospective teachers in instruction-giving sequences and the multimodal resources they can
employ for an effective and efficient organisation of task-based online language learning
lessons.
Guichon, N., Blin, F., Wigham, C.R. & Thouësny, S. (2014). ISMAEL Learning and
Teaching Corpus. Dublin, Ireland: Centre for Translation and Textual Studies & Lyon,
France: Laboratoire Interactions, Corpus, Apprentissages & Représentations. Hellermann, J.
& Pekarek Doehler, S. (2010). On the contingent nature of language-learning tasks.
Classroom Discourse, (1)1. pp.25-45. Markee, N. (2015). Giving and following pedagogical
instructions in task-based instruction: An ethnomethodological perspective. In C. Jenks & P.
Seedhouse (Eds.) International Perspectives on ELT classroom interaction. Basingstoke
(UK): Palgrave MacMillan. pp.110-128
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Engaging the Southeast Asian Mothers in their Children‟s English
Learning by Adopting a PMPB APP: a Taiwanese Case
Sa-hui Fan, National Taichung University of Education, Taiwan
Rayi Chang, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Zhi-Sheng Chen, National Taiwan University, Taiwan
Different habituses between home and school have been shown to be a significant cause for
the disadvantaged students to fail academically (Freire, 1995; Albright & Luke, 2010; Luke,
2000, 2004). Fillmore & Snow (2000) and Heath (1984) also noticed that bridging the
habituses between English schoolteachers and ESL students was crucial to facilitate English
learning of the students from diverse cultural backgrounds. Moreover, how to transfer funds
of knowledge from home to school has been recognized as an important issue to help students
from the diverse cultural backgrounds better acquire English literacy (Moll et al, 1992). The
current project intends to develop a novel software application, a personalized multilingual
(that is Chinese Mandarin, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and English) parental book (PMPB) APP
providing personalized shortcut keys with frequent translated terms, parent-teacher social
network, and parent-student or student-student collaborations, to shorten up the cultural
distances between the students‘ homes and elementary-leveled English schoolteachers in
Taiwan. These students from the diverse cultural backgrounds mostly come from the families
of Southeast Asian immigrant mothers who married Taiwanese men through transnational
marriage brokers. The translation shortcut keys on this APP were designed to accelerate
translations of the often-used educational terms to reduce translation errors and increase
cross-cultural communications between Southeast Asian immigrant mothers and English
schoolteachers. This function has been regarded as novice in machine translation technology.
This study lasted for one whole year. It was designed to explore how teacher habitus of 5
primary-leveled English teachers has been critically challenged and negotiated after
employing this edging software application. Plus, this study examined changes of parental
involvement after parents‘ usage of this APP. The mode of this study remains mixed and both
qualitative and quantitative methods are employed. The participants include 5 in-service
English schoolteachers teaching at the remote areas in Taiwan and approximately 100 student
parents of the 5 teachers. Two in-depth interviews were respectively conducted with each
participant teacher before and after the experiment of the APP to gather the qualitative data;
whereas two surveys were sent respectively to the participating parents before and after the
experiment of the APP to garner the quantitative data. The time frame covers a 6-month
period of developing PMPB APP and another 16 weeks to experiment it at 5 remote
elementary schools in Taiwan. The findings of this project show that PMPB APP facilitates
the communications between the disadvantaged homes and the English teachers and enhances
teachers‘ understandings as well as parental engagements of students‘ English learning. In
terms of attitudes, knowledge, skills of interpreting, skills of interaction, and critical selfawareness (Byram, 2001), there seems to be apparent improvements in English teachers‘
intercultural competences and capabilities to provide the bicultural students with better
English instructions and curriculum. Furthermore, in this study the five areas of parental
involvement in Hess and Holloway‘s (1984) categorization seem to be improved after
utilizing PMPB APP.
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Affordances of Gaming in Affective Learning a Second Language in a
Virtual Collaborative Environment
Judith Molka-Danielsen, Molde University College, Norway
Stella Hadjistassou, KIOS Research Center for Intelligent Systems and Networks, University of
Cyprus, Cyprus
Gerhilde Meissl-Egghart, talkademy, Austria
There is a growing body of evidence that virtual collaborative learning environments (VLE)
such as 3D virtual worlds provide opportunity for teaching and learning in formal education
contexts. The main arguments are these are engaging as media, and that the use of 3D media
facilitates comprehension by the means of situating learning materials in a context (Roussou,
Oliver & Slater, 2006). However, virtual technologies on their own cannot serve as effective
learning aids. Pedagogical tools and training in the use of such tools within contexts need to
be developed to meet the needs of learners. Our work is motivated by the context of
Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Historically limited attention has been paid
to foreign language faculty members who strive to introduce technology in their courses,
redesign curricula and transfer the content and learning in VLE. Even in cases where second
language teachers‘ interest is galvanized by this global force for virtual learning and teaching
potential for using virtual environments to design creative learning experiences, they often
lack the pedagogical training for their effective integration in situated teaching contexts
(Hubbard, 2004; Youngs, Ducate, & Arnold, 2011). In recent years, the application of
"serious games" has been studied to bring about the structured delivery of the learning
objectives to the targeted groups of learners. Gee (2003) identified 36 principles of welldesigned games that foster learning. O'Neal, et al. (2005) identified classification schemes of
learning outcomes according to the cognitive learning outcomes. He suggests a need for
research models that include affective learning outcomes and the Affective Learning model
(ALM) by Robins et al. (2004) emphasizes that games of themselves are not sufficient for
learning, but that game elements that interact with the instructional environment may support
learning outcomes. In the ALM learning outcomes are based on constructs of academic goals,
self-efficacy, effort, play and test anxiety. This research evaluates and presents an extension
of the Affective Learning Model (Robins et al, 2004) in light of gaming in 3D VLE. We
identify and give evidence of affordances that serious games as applied within virtual
collaborative environments can be enacted for support of affective learning outcomes in
learning a second language. We explore the implications that affordances can emerge in
multiple ways, such as from the integration of a particular tool in the delivery of the
instructional materials, the construction and integration of game-based learning experiences,
the use of semiotic resources; however, it is crucial to note that second language teachers
perceive these new affordances as they integrate the tools and participate in constructive
interactions and actions (see Zheng, 2012; Haines, 2015). Not all affordances in game-based
learning are realized; some affordances might also hinder actions. As van Lier (2004) notes
affordance can ―signal an opportunity for or inhibition of action‖ (p. 4). Our research is based
on the analysis of case data from a set of 12 case studies that were collected as part of the
three-year European Commission Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency
Project (2011-2014).
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Using Instructional Technology to Integrate CEFR "Can Do" Performance
Objectives into an Advanced-Level Language Course
Androulla Athanasiou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Maro Neophytou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
The purpose of this presentation is to show how instructional technology can be exploited to
effectively integrate Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) ―Can Do‖
performance objectives (Council of Europe, 2001) into the syllabus and assessment of an
advanced (B2) level course. The particular course that will be used for purposes of
demonstration is English for Rehabilitation, an English for Specific Academic Purposes
offering at the Cyprus University of Technology. It is a two-semester compulsory subject for
first-year students majoring in Rehabilitation Sciences, a Health Faculty discipline. The
ultimate goal of the course is to increase students‘ linguistic competence to allow them to
function professionally in English as independent learners in all four skills: listening, reading,
speaking and writing. It will be shown how Internet resources, in particular YouTube and
various Google applications (Gdrive, Google Docs, Google Scholar, Google Slides,
Hangouts) are used to provide and organize online content as well as to support students in
the production of written and oral materials based on discipline-specific input. These include
listening to lectures in their field of study, taking notes and synthesizing these in
collaborative written course summaries. Individual note taking and paraphrasing of assigned
disciplinary readings are also undertaken based on printed as well as web-based sources.
Students are taught to take responsibility for their professional learning in English through
collaborative web-based research on topics related to their discipline, for which they produce
essay outlines. Communicative use of the language is practiced through regular small group
interactions in class as well as through the preparation and delivery of professionally-related
oral presentations.
Course assessment, both formative and summative, is measured in relation to students‘ ―Can
Do‖ linguistic performance. The course grade is determined, for both individual and group
assignments, by the extent to which students‘ lecture summaries, reading synopses, research
outlines and oral presentations correspond to the CEFR B2 level ―Can Do‖ descriptors for
reading, writing, listening and speaking. As a capstone project, students produce an
individual e-portfolio in which they summarize the activities carried out during the course
and, more generally, reflect upon their learning. The final exam, although in paper form,
assessed students against the ―Can Do‖ descriptors, mainly having to read a professionrelated test, taking notes on it, paraphrasing some parts and summarising the whole text.
Throughout the presentation, examples will be given to demonstrate the various instructional
technology applications used in the course along with samples of student work using different
kinds of technology. Extracts from student e-portfolio personal reflections will also be
presented to provide some insight on learners‘ perceptions of the course. Overall results
indicate that they benefited from it and recognized the importance of the target language in
their future career. Not only did they meet to a great extent the learning objectives of the
course, but they also developed their ICT skills while using the technology through which the
majority of the learning outcomes were achieved. The presentation will end with some
limitations and future considerations.
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Thursday, 25 August
17:30-18:00
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Preparing Japanese students‟ digital literacy for study abroad: How much
CALL training is needed?
Study abroad programs provide an excellent opportunity for students to accelerate their
language learning and acquire cultural capital (Byram & Feng, 2006). Research into returnees
from a variety of study abroad programs, however, has revealed that this is not always the
case. To promote a more positive academic and culturally-inclusive study abroad experience,
one recommendation is for language teachers to focus on students‘ digital literacy
(Kinginger, 2011). Given the reported poor levels of digital literacy among freshman
Japanese students (see Lockley 2011; Murray & Blyth, 2011), the researchers in this current
study were attempting to determine if this wider trend also applied to students at their private
university in Tokyo. The presenters surveyed first-year tourism and hospitality majors
preparing for a year-long study abroad program. The survey considered accessibility to,
ownership of, and proficiency manipulating personal computers and mobile devices for
personal and professional use. Along with survey results, the presenters will identify the core
skills that they are aiming to develop when preparing students for a year-long study abroad
program and describe some of the tasks they have adopted to serve this purpose. The
information presented in this talk will be of interest to ESP curriculum designers, faculty
affiliated with study abroad programs and teachers inspired to include CALL activities in
their classroom.
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A Twitter-based approach to help FL learners improve their pronunciation
This paper presents the results of a study aimed at testing Twitter‘s effectiveness to help FL
learners improve their pronunciation of challenging pronunciation aspects. The study was
conducted with a group of 121 Spanish EFL learners divided into control and experimental
groups. Students in the experimental group were sent one tweet a day over a period of four
weeks, each of them dealing with the pronunciation of a word of difficult pronunciation for
EFL learners. Students in the control group also received a daily tweet, although these dealt
with aspects other than pronunciation (phrasal verbs, idioms, etc.). The learners‘ production
was measured through pre- and post-tests aimed at assessing their mastery of the target
features. The results show that the Twitter-based instruction had a significantly positive
impact for learners in the experimental group, whereas no gains were observed for
participants in the control group. The paper also reports on the learners‘ views towards using
this kind of instruction and it offers recommendations for the use of Twitter in FL teaching.
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Exploring the influence of teachers‟ education and professional
development in higher education CALL practices
María Victoria Soulé, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
The appearance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in language teaching
and learning first occurred during the practice of traditional language and learning (Levy,
1997; Hubbard, 2009). Since then, the way in which technology is used in language
classrooms has been largely examined by numerous studies (Cuban et al., 2001; Hubbard &
Levy, 2006; Silviyanti, T. & Yusuf, Y., 2015; Yu et al., 2010). This explore aspects such as
teacher perceptions, attitudes and barriers However, it still remains unclear whether L2
practitioners‘ use of ICT has been based on current theories of Computer Assisted Language
Learning (CALL) or, on the contrary, ICT integration into language courses is implemented
ad hoc (Hong, 2010). As a means of better understanding the complexity of L2 teachers‘
integration of technology into the classroom, the aim of this study is twofold: (a) to examine
the current practices of CALL in higher education; (b) to identify to what extent teachers‘
CALL education and training affect the evaluation, selection and use of CALL. A survey was
carried out in the Language Centres (LCs) of seven universities in the Republic of Cyprus
and semi-structured interviews were also conducted in order to clarify issues and get deeper
into instructors‘ reasons for responses. The research is still in progress and we envisage that
we will have full results for the conference. Based on the findings, suggestions for
improvement on the correlation between teachers‘ training and integration of CALL will be
discussed.
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Pre-mobility eTandem project for incoming international students at the
University of Padua
Lisa Griggio, University of Padua, Italy
Edit Rozsavolgyi, University of Padua, Italy
In this study we will focus on an initiative taken at the Language Centre of the University of
Padova to develop strategic partnerships with students from the University of Padova and
international students coming to Padova mainly in the setting of Erasmus student mobility
and exchange programs. This pre-mobility eTandem project is designed specifically for
incoming international students to facilitate their integration into the Italian higher
educational learning environment of which they will be part of once in Italy. They can
practice their Italian, have practical information about Padova and its university, get to know
local students with whom they can possibly have face-to-face relationships after their arrival
in Padova. For this online exchange - based on the principles of tandem learning, reciprocity
and autonomy – students from the host university who are interested in practicing foreign
languages are matched with international students. They are given each other‘s contact
information so that they can begin to communicate, using different tools such as e-mail,
Skype, chat, Facebook, What Apps etc. During these internet sessions partners can share
personal information, can discuss topics of their choice or suggested by the tutors in the
Facebook community. They can treat specific cultural and linguistic aspects in their target
language. Besides the one-to-one interaction students are involved in a many-to-many
connection. For this purpose there is a Facebook group, made up by the whole eTandem
community, which students should also sign up for. In this space communication is in both
English and Italian and if need be in other languages. This social area serves to put all
participants in touch with other students and cultures involved in the eTandem project. This
implies an exchange on a wider basis, where the whole eTandem multilingual and
multicultural community can meet to share information and opinions regarding different
cultural aspects. Besides the closed group in Facebook, tutors send posts and crunchy news
related to traditions, customs, languages, cultures and topics involved in the project to their
wall. The project has also a dedicated Moodle platform where information about both
eTandem in general and our specific project besides useful material for language learning
experience is supplied. Students are asked to keep a weekly diary where to track how long the
sessions lasted and what they discussed in every session, to highlight problems and positive
aspects, and note what they have been most fascinated by, both on a linguistic and /or cultural
basis. At the end of the project students are asked to fill out a feedback form. Students who
hand in at least 4 weekly diaries, upload a final essay and return the feedback form are given
a certificate of participation and a digital badge so that their engagement in the project are
recognized and valued. We assert that the project helps students develop their digital,
linguistic, social and intercultural competencies, boost their critical thinking and cultivate
their curiosity towards the others. It facilitates international students‘ integration into their
target country/university/culture.
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Aspirations and contributions from design-based research implementation
in CALL context: a researcher‟s methodological account
This paper describes aspirations and contributions that grew out of a developmental cycle of
design-based research (DBR) implementation conducted over a three-year project in a CALL
context. DBR engineers new learning environments and improves learning in context whilst
communicating usable knowledge for learning and teaching in complex settings. This project
aimed at fostering groups of language learners in three different language classroom settings
to construct a shared and meaningful artifact using social technologies. This study employed
constructionism as an overarching theoretical framework, and unpacked the potential of
social technologies as instructional tools that support social construction of artifacts by
groups of language learners. Constructionism is a theory of learning, teaching, and design,
which can be summarized in the conviction that learning occurs more effectively when
learners understand the world around them by creating meaningful artifacts that can be
probed and shared. In an attempt to infuse elements of constructionism in the use of social
technologies, group of learners in three different Computer-Assisted Language Learning
settings were assigned a task for social construction of an artifact using social technologies.
The main research tools employed were a questionnaire, students‘ and instructor‘s
reflections, semi-structured interviews and observation of group activities within social
technologies. Such an inquiry revealed both strengths and challenges with regard to
implementing DBR in CALL and reporting how designs function in authentic settings. This
paper brings forward considerations related to reporting intentionally designed interventions,
potentials and limitations of DBR and implications for future DBR implementations in the
field of CALL.
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Students' Perceptions of Online Apprenticeship Projects at a University
Hisayo Kikuchi, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan
Throughout history, apprenticeship has been an important system for teaching and learning.
This tradition holds true in higher education; with senior students formally and informally
handing down survival tips to younger students. The purpose of this study to examine the
impact of this tradition in the context of English education at a university in Japan, focusing
on both senior and freshman perceptions and attitudes toward their English learning through
open video exchanges between seniors and freshmen. The structure for the apprenticeship
system in this study has three steps, and takes three months. (1) For the first month, 10 senior
students create each own 5 minutes video in English featuring various strategies and their
experiences that they consider them to be helpful for freshmen. The video content includes
tips for test taking (e.g., IETLS, TOEIC, and TOEFL), tips of university life, and tips
regarding study abroad strategies. (2) All the videos are uploaded on the MLS and freshmen
watch them on their schedules. The MLS allows both the seniors and freshmen to write their
comments freely. (3) The last month of the semester, the freshmen are asked to create their
videos in English featuring what they learn from each of the videos the seniors create. Both
the 10 seniors and 10 randomly selected freshmen ask the questionnaire with 10 questions
and five open questions the last week of the semester. The paper will discuss the results of the
study and present a theory of Cognitive Apprenticeship (Collins, 2006). Cognitive
Apprenticeship is one of the well-known instructional technology models, the idea of which
is based on constructivism, and strongly influenced by Piaget and Gardner‘s Arts Propel
(1991). Some possible relationships between this Cognitive Apprenticeship and Second
Language Acquisition will also be implied.
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Thursday, 25 August
18:00-18:30
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Investigating the use of commercially available technology and its assistive
effects with language learners in higher education at the high functioning
end of the disability spectrum
Georgia Savvidou, Cyprus University of technology, Cyprus
Fernando Loizides, University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
This work presents the assistive use of a combination of technologies in language learning to
individuals with high functioning disabilities within a higher education environment.
Technology is often specialised and bespoke when targeted at low functioning individuals,
such as children who belong to the Asperger‘s part of the autism spectrum. Conversely,
children with a higher functioning disability, such as those with dyslexia or minor learning
difficulties, are often dismissed as ‗perfectly able‘ and granted minimal assistance such as
extra time in exams and assignments, without specialised help.
In this article, we present a case study of 10 young adults with different levels of needs and
abilities, including dyspraxia, dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADD, articulation, learning difficulties
and psychological problems. The learners are undertaking different disciplines in higher
education and are exposed to bespoke and off the shelf solutions as assistive technologies.
This study focusses on their English programme. The main aims revolve around helping the
students develop their English in terms of communication, reading, writing and listening.
This also includes involving various skills such as presentation skills, simple use of a
dictionary and avoiding plagiarism.
The course lasted for a one or two academic years (9 month period per year) with students in
groups of 2-4 receiving 2 sessions a week, between 1-2 hours. This began with one to one
meetings with the students, after a liaison with the Educational Psychologist, where they are
assessed by being asked to write about themselves. This assessment includes an evaluation of
their abilities such as handwriting, spelling, structure and language level. After completing
the paragraph, a discussion is initiated which enables a background evaluation from the
students view for details such as English language experience, diagnoses, level of support
they have and how effective they think it is as well as difficulties they would like to report
on. This material is then used to match the student‘s individual requirements with their
learning expectations and also match appropriate technologies to each group. In order to
engage the students and improve the learning process, a series of technologies are
implemented in the classroom environment to engage the students with individual activities.
Technologies include laptops, smartphone applications, on-line use of document sharing,
presentation software, video editing software, audio-visuals (including gap fillers), QR
scanners, polls, social media and online resource MOOCS.
Our preliminary findings, which are still in progress since this abstract has been submitted,
include benefits and also challenges faced. Challenges include learning difficulties from mild
technophobia and even technology related social limitations in interaction. The learning curve
was also steeper than usual with, however a larger reward in terms of satisfaction and sense
of achievement and motivation after barriers were overcome. Technology used in a student‘s
own pace and time as well as physical space (home) positively impacted the learning
experience. This includes levels of engagement, better understanding of material and
requirements, focus and memory. Lastly, the students expressed a higher sense of
independence and ability to learn by themselves when using some of the technological tools.
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Effective EFL teacher presence in wiki mediated collaborative writing
activities
Maha Alghasab, University of York, United Kingdom
Despite the effectiveness of language teachers at supporting students‘ collaboration in Face to
face (FTF) and other online contexts (e.g. Anderson, Rourke, &Garrison, 2001; Mercer,
1995; Yoon & Kim, 2012), their roles in wiki mediated collaborative writing activities
require further exploration. To date, wiki studies have focused on students-students (S-S)
interaction, with limited attention directed toward teachers‘ participation in the activity (e.g.
Li & Zhu, 2011; Mak & Coniam, 2008). Therefore, this study explores how English as a
Foreign Language (EFL) teachers support learners‘ collaboration, while engaging in wiki
collaborative writing activities. A multiple qualitative case study design was conducted with
three EFL teachers and their students (aged 17-18 years) at two Kuwaiti government high
schools. The data collection phase took place over a period of 13 weeks. The online
discussions that occurred between students via the discussion pages, and their writing
behaviours as shown in the edits history, were then analysed and triangulated with the
interview data. The cross-case analysis suggests that teachers played an effective role in
shaping the way the students interacted. An examination of the teachers‘ interventional
behaviours suggests some interventional behaviour promoted S-S collaboration and some
hindered it. Behaviours such as establishing a wiki culture of collaboration, reinforcing the
sense of a wiki community, encouraging students‘ mutual engagement, being a co-learner and
modelling collaborative behaviour, all seemed to promote collaboration. Conversely, direct
teacher edits, immediate responses, using an authoritative tone, and asking inactive students
to participate promoted participation but not necessarily collaboration. The interview data
also suggested that sociocultural issues associated with the Kuwaiti context, such as
acceptance of the teacher‘s superiority, questionable peer feedback, and concerns over
individual text-ownership restricted collaboration. Therefore, it is argued that even in an
online student-centred context, such as a wiki, the role of the teacher is critical. Teachers who
adopt a non-authoritative and collaborative-orientated intervention can more effectively
promote S-S collaboration than those who are authoritative and intervene in a noncollaborative way. Therefore, there is a need for teacher training to raise teachers‘ awareness
of effective pedagogy, regarding the use of wikis.
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Learning from Peer Teachers Anytime Anywhere: A New Learning
Platform for EFL Teacher‟s Professional Development
Jieyoung Kim, Chung-Ang University, South Korea
SMART Teaching 3.0 is a new learning platform for Korean English Teachers to develop
their ELT expertise by watching and sharing peer teachers‘ stories, instructional tips, lesson
demos and lectures. SMART Teaching 3.0 was designed in a mobile-based MOOC format
where teachers can instantly choose the learning contents (out of 38 video files) by their
hands-on needs anytime even while teaching in the classroom. SMART Teaching 3.0 project,
funded by Korean National Research Foundation, was created for the purpose of suggesting a
transformational model for teacher education which provides motivating, self-directed,
situated, and bottom-up mobile learning opportunities to Korean secondary level English
teachers, which is a substantially different from traditional top-down teacher training
programs. The platform was developed with mobile friendly technology, such as ‗responsive
web design (RWD)‘ and a web application framework, which makes the website easily
adaptable and optimally viewing both on desktop monitors and mobile devices. The contents
were identified by triangulated needs analyses from survey and interviews with Korean
English teachers and were created in the short video format with less than fifteen- minute
running time. The menu includes four categories: 1) Teachers‘ stories 2) Tips & Issues 3)
Virtual class tour, and 4) Screen lectures. In Teachers‘ stories, similar to the TED show, the
English teachers tell their own experiences to the audience about teaching successes and
failures, trial and errors, school episodes, and unforgettable students. In Tips & Issues,
experienced teachers‘ trouble shooting tips, such as quick attention getting know-hows, were
presented in interview clips to help novice teachers. Also keen ELT issues in Korea, such as
whether or not to use grammar translation methods in high school reading class, were brought
up and discussed by invited English teachers in a panel discussion. Virtual class tour, the
largest category, includes 18 teaching samples produced by experienced English teachers in
their regular class, which were systematically arranged by topics (e.g.,. reading, writing,
speaking, grammar, vocabulary, evaluation, etc.), by language proficiency levels (e.g., high,
low), by school levels (e.g., middle, high), or by teaching process (e.g., pre-reading, while
reading, post-reading). Finally, in Screen lecture master teachers explain ―how to‖ to novice
teachers who might have encountered difficulties and challenges in their regular tasks as
English teachers, such as how to develop good test items, how to deal with mixed level
students in one class, etc. In this presentation, the key features and sample contents of
SMART Teaching 3.0 will be introduced.
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Mobile Assisted Language Learning of less commonly taught languages:
learning in an incidental and situated way through an app
Cristiana Cervini, University of Bologna; University of Grenoble Alpes, Italy
Olga Solovova, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Annukka Jakkula, University of Lapland, Finland
Karolina Ruta, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
In recent decades, the European Commission has developed measures for promoting
multilingualism among the EU population (Action Plan 2004–2006; A New Framework
strategy for Multilingualism, 2005). Guided by the need to develop a competitive European
multilingual economy, the commission has acknowledged the importance of informal
learning in the process of life-long education (EC 2007, High Level Group on
Multilingualism Report).
The learning process is nowadays moving out of classrooms, into virtual and physical spaces
(Naismith et al. 2004). It is becoming mobile ―in space‖, i.e. carried across various domains
(workplace, home, places of leisure), ―in time‖, as it encompasses different moments of the
day, and in terms of ―learning purpose‖, which may be related to work, self-improvement or
leisure (Vavoula and Sharples 2002:152). In line with the principles of learning in an
informal, incidental and mobile way, an open source and geolocalized application
(ILOCALAPP) for learning foreign languages with a smartphone is being implemented
within Key Action 2 of the Erasmus Plus European project framework. The app will aid
learning Finnish, Italian, Polish and Portuguese embedded within their respective cultural
practices.
The app will be situated in the university city where international
Finnish language content will unfold in Rovaniemi, the Italian in
Poznań, and the Portuguese in Coimbra. The learning content will
everyday contexts, whereby the app would be used incidentally in a
providing enjoyable moments throughout their daily activities.
students arrive, i.e. the
Bologna, the Polish in
blend in the end-users‘
game-like manner, thus
The ILOCALAPP builds on the wide spread of mobile devices while exploring their built-in
sensors (e.g. GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, digital camera, and Internet connection) thus
enabling to detect and identify the users‘ activities. These could activate some contextual
contents and activities related to specific and geolocalized Points Of Interest (POIs). As the
user gets close to a specific POI detected by geolocalization, the app will upload relevant
contextual contents and activities (e.g. ordering food in a café, asking for directions in the
street).
From a methodological perspective, we start from the theories of situated and incidental
learning, where all learning is embedded in the learners‘ social, cultural and historical
contexts, representing interaction with their lifeworlds (Lave and Wenger 1997). Integral to
this process becomes participation in a community that shares certain cultural values,
assumptions and rules. That is why the cultural identity of the learner and surrounding
community are especially important in an app that supports mobility. Hence cultures and
languages are mutually dependent in this app.
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Online and mobile technologies have opened up exciting new possibilities for study in higher
education (Macdonald and Creanor 2010). Learning through mobile technologies can make
boundaries between educational settings, life and work more permeable. Learning languages
becomes more accessible in various situations, collaborative and participatory. By
foregrounding cultural values and practices, it provides opportunities for authenticity and
inclusion.
The ongoing ILOCALAPP project is currently at its research and methodology phase, as it
explores end-users‘ needs and expectations. This paper will report some preliminary results
and insights. However, the project team aims to project the interests beyond 2018 to ensure
the app‘s validity, relevance and usability for everyday contexts in the future.
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Urban Explorations for language learning: A gamified approach to
teaching Italian in a university context
Sylvester Arnab, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Luca Morini, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Tiziana Cervi-Wilson, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Billy Brick, Coventry University, United Kingdom
Mobile devices provide opportunities for exploring connections between life - ―what learners
happen to come across‖ - and learning (Kukulska-Hulme, 2013, p.2). Recognising that
language learning increasingly takes place beyond the classroom and at the same time
acknowledging that the use of mobile technologies challenges traditional knowledge and
skills, the paper will present a study that focuses on a pervasive and gamified approach to
language teaching and learning.
This paper reports on the development and testing of an introductory Italian Language
Learning game, i.e. ImparApp, developed with the MIT‘s TaleBlazer authoring tool. By
situating gamified fictional narratives in the real world through mixed-reality and locationbased quests the aim is to engage learners in an array of experiences that combine real
landscapes and other aspects of the physical environment with contextualised digital
information supplied to them via mobile devices. Players interact with virtual characters,
objects, and data as they move around their real physical location.
The ImparApp game requires learners, attending an eleven-week Absolute Beginners‘
Module in Italian at Coventry University (CEFR level half of A1) to move around Coventry
University‘s campus and Coventry city centre while completing exercises and collecting
items for their inventory with a view to solving a time travel mystery. Specific tasks are
triggered by learners‘ Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, and learners and tutors
will also be able to monitor progress via a leaderboard. Additional points will be offered to
learners who complete further exercises focussing on cultural and language topics, hence
embedding features that may help learners connect incidental and deliberate learning
activities (Gaved et al., 2013). Importantly, ImparApp is designed to be used in a blended
learning approach: learners spend one week in the classroom with their tutor, and the
following week completing challenges and tasks with the app in self-directed mode.
The paper will summarise the design of the blending activities across episodes and settings
and their integration in the app. It will share preliminary findings of the pilot of the game
prototype during the Spring Term 2016, which will iteratively inform adaptable strategies and
methodologies for gamified and game-based learning design. Data collected from two focus
groups with students (N=10) and observations of the play-test phase of the study will be
provided, along an analysis of the students‘ views around the use of mobile technologies for
language learning in a university context. Essentially the paper will contribute to the field of
mobile-assisted language learning with insights on pervasive and gamified approaches to
teaching and learning a foreign language.
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Game of Words : prototype of digital game focusing on oral production
(and comprehension) through asynchronous interaction
Mathieu Loiseau, University Grenoble Alpes, France
Racha Hallal, University Grenoble Alpes, France
Pauline Ballot, University Grenoble Alpes, France
In this communication, we aim to present a game prototype designed and developped within
the GAMER work package of the Innovalangues project (French government financing). This
game prototype is meant to be extended in the long run, and to prepare this implementation a
first user test is being carried out in two different institutions, in order to gather information
of the user's (both teachers and learners) perception and use of the game. Game Based
Learning has been identified as a hot topic in education (Sharples et al. 2013) in which many
researchers see various advantages (Oblinger 2004). In the field of language learning, some
see in games an opportunity to overcome excessive self consciousness impeding involvment
in tasks (Villez 2006, 51). Yet the emergence of a playful attitude considered productive in
games in terms of (language) learning (Silva 2008, 18) is far from being systematic in
learning games (Lavigne 2013). The metaphor of ―chocolate coated broccoli‖ for serious
games has even been used in various publications (Söbke, Bröker, and Kornadt 2013). In the
hope of avoiding this type of reception, we have adapted the design suggestions of the
authors who advocate for directly using commercial off the shelf games, of which the authors
themselves acknowledge that games that can be enriched with educational content are a ―rare
species‖ (Söbke, Bröker, and Kornadt 2013, 528). We have chosen to design games by
resorting to metaludic rules (pertaining to a game genre) (Silva 1999, 277) of successful
games. Additionnally, we have so far tried to design games that offer to the student
replayability (in a casual game manner) rather than resorting to an elaborate one time play
scenario (see (Loiseau, Zampa, and Rebourgeon 2015) for another example of this strategy).
In this communication, we focus on Game of Words, which could be described as a guessing
game. The metaludic rules could be described as follows : One player/team holds a
knowledge (often a word, sometimes an expression or a person) ; One player/team ought to
guess this knowledge ; Specific modalities are defined as to how this knowledge is to be
transmitted between the two entities. Many avatars of such games can be imagined, for the
first version of this prototype, we have chosen to focus on the well known modalities of taboo
(Hersch and Bougrèle 1990): in order to convey thei knowledge (a word) the first team
cannot use certain words. This avatar seems fitting for language learning in that, we hope it
helps the player to realize that in order to communicate an idea they do not need to know in
L2 all the words they would use in L1 and that it can help them to develop rephrasing
strategies. Additionally, various teachers reported to us using such game mechanics in class.
The issue with such game mechanics is that three persons are required to make the game
playable, which can be an issue if the player spends their time waiting for other players. We
have thus decided to make the game asynchronous. In this communication, we will detail
further the current prototype of the game and report on ways in which teachers have included
this prototype in their courses.
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Thursday, 25 August
18:30-19:00
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The Effect of Audio and Video Modality on Comprehension of Connected
Speech: The Role of e-Learning
Kaine Gulozer, Yildiz Teknik University, Turkey
Zeynep Kocoglu, Yeditepe University, Turkey
Listening comprehension for second language (L2) development has gained importance both
in research and pedagogy. The existence of reduced forms in a stream of speech is
challenging for L2 learners to segment the speech. This research study investigates whether
the instruction of five connected speech forms (RFs) results in any difference in listening
comprehension test performance. The five forms entail (a) contraction, (b) assimilation, (c)
flap, (d) elision and (e) linking. Adopting cognitive theory of multimedia learning by Mayer
(2011), this study used an intervention with two conditions as audio vs. video, and
investigated their contribution to the learning of RFs and overall listening comprehension for
both low and high level of L2 learners. A community of 307 students at a preparatory school
of a state university participated and were randomly assigned to one of the two RFs
instructional groups: RFs instruction in audio with low and high proficiency; RFs instruction
in video with low and high proficiency, and a control group. All interventions were delivered
through the web page designated for the study for a period of five weeks. Results from
participation were measured with pre- and post-tests. Data was also elicited from learners
through weekly web-based reflections, a dictation task of RFs and an identification task of
RFs as well as a forced-choice listening comprehension test. Results of the study indicated
that all students regardless of the modality improved in their comprehension of reduced
forms, yet the ones in video modality in low proficiency level had higher performance in their
post test. Additional study is suggested for impact on L2 development with use of video
modality.
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Using WebQuests as idea banks for fostering autonomy in online language
courses
Shirin Sadaghian, Alzahra University, Iran
S. Susan Marandi, Alzahra University, Iran
The concept of language learner autonomy has influenced computer assisted language
learning (CALL) to the extent that Schwienhorst (2011) informs us of a paradigm change in
CALL design in the light of learner autonomy. CALL is not considered a tool anymore, but a
learner environment available to language learners anywhere in the world. The current article
presents a practical framework for implementing autonomy in online courses based on work
cycle design which is a particularly helpful way in introducing aspects of autonomy in
foreign language classrooms (Legenhausen, 2003). Work cycle design takes several
principles of learner autonomy such as goal setting, content and format choice, selfevaluation and reflection in action. It is defined as a learner-based approach that emphasizes
metacognitive knowledge that raises students‘ awareness to become more conscious of their
own language learning process, strengths and weaknesses (ter Haseborg, 2012). The idea and
activity bank at the top of a work cycle provides learners with the opportunity to plan and
negotiate, make decisions, do project works and evaluate their learning in a cyclic mode. The
present article argues that work cycle approach, applied to online English courses can take
the benefit of WebQuest as the idea bank that includes the ideas and activities used
throughout the cycle. The WebQuest is defined as an inquiry-oriented activity that could
effectively integrate the material available on web into teaching and learning. Thus, the
current article argues that because of its flexibility and accessibility, WebQuests lend
themselves to the work cycle approach in online courses aimed at fostering autonomy.
Moreover, WebQuests contribute to the development of learner autonomy by encouraging
critical thinking among learners.
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Tertiary ELF Teachers‟ Digital Literacy: Is CALL training still needed?
Ogane Ethel, Tamagawa University, Japan
Many language teachers are interested in computer technology to facilitate language learning
and help learners engage with the new literacies and the intercultural opportunities being
presented in the digital age (Corbel & Gruba, 2004). There have also been calls made for
language teachers to be competent working within online environments and possessing strong
digital literacy (e.g., Hubbard & Levy, 2006; Hubbard, 2008: Son, Robb & Charismiadji,
2011; Stockwell, 2009). However, in the presence of such pushes for increased skills, what
digital literacy levels do contemporary foreign language teachers possess? How confident are
they at implementing CALL? With an overarching goal to learn how to more effectively train
language teachers for using CALL tools and developing the language teaching curriculum,
the authors of this study surveyed 50 faculty members employed to teach English at their
private Japanese university. The questionnaire (adopted from an earlier study by Son, Robb,
& Charismiadji, 2011) contained questions relating to the teachers‘ ownership and
accessibility of computers, their level of ability to perform tasks electronically, their personal
and professional use of computers, CALL training experiences, and interest in CALL. The
findings of this study provide a contemporary picture of language teachers‘ computer literacy
and their attitudes towards CALL. The presenters will also introduce steps that they have
taken to provide training and support for teachers. This information should be of interest to
foreign language program leaders, CALL trainers and foreign language teachers.
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Ready to Negotiate: a competitive digital game to develop language skills
and motivation in L2 French
Avery Rueb, Vanier College, Canada
The popularity of mobile devices and related technologies in recent years has given rise to a
number of possibilities for ―anytime anywhere leaning‖ (Stockwell, 2007; 2010). This study
explores one of these possibilities: the use of an information gap digital game, Prêt à
négocier, to develop oral interaction skills in intermediate-level French as second language
(FSL) learners. In the game, students negotiate orally and synchronously with a partner for
items like cars, houses, and even trips to the moon. Inspired by Larsen-Freeman and Long‘s
(1991) Information Gap Activity, game players exchange information to solve a common
problem (e.g., to buy a car within certain conditions imposed by the game). As a competitive
game, the pairs must use their oral interaction skills in a comprehensible and persuasive
manner to win (e.g. obtain the best final price on a product).
Two groups of FSL students participated in this 4-week study. While the experimental group
(n=30) played Prêt à négocier, the control group (n=15) played similar gamified information
gap activities. Game playing sessions were held twice a week and each lasted 25 minutes.
The study followed a pre/post/delayed-posttest design that measured learners‘ development
of vocabulary and pronunciation. To measure motivation, students completed a motivation
questionnaire and participated in individual interviews and a focus group. The discussion of
the findings will highlight how interactive games can complement and enhance L2 learning
inside and outside the classroom.
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A Design-based Research Approach to Investigating the Effects of
Authentic Activities in Foreign Language Learning
Ildeniz Ozverir, EMU, Cyprus
Ulker Vanci Osam, EMU, Cyprus
Jan Herrington, Murdoch University, Australia
Enabling learners to achieve communicative competency has been a key goal for many
teachers and researchers in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts. In doing so, the
difficulty and complexity of integrating real life tasks into classroom teaching, however, have
often been disregarded in language teaching pedagogies. Lack of opportunities for authentic
language use often results in learners‘ gaining extensive knowledge about the target language
without having a chance to use it in unstructured genuine settings. As a result, learners are
equipped with ―know what‖ while they are weak in ―know how‖, which are the two different
ingredients to learning that education must incorporate. Accordingly, in language education,
while learners can talk about grammar rules wisely, they usually fail to use these rules for
real communicative purposes, and thus, knowledge often remains unnoticed, and ―locked up
and inaccessible‖ (Herrington, Reeves, & Oliver, 2010, p. 4), referred to as ―inert
knowledge‖ by Whitehead (1932). The present study employed a design-based research
approach to investigate the use of authentic tasks and activities in an EFL context. Eleven
characteristics of authentic activities were refined in order to assist learners in developing
their language competency to B1 (Threshold) level according to Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). An e-learning environment was created,
based on the design characteristics, and employed in two research cycles. Revisions to the
learning environment occurred between iterations. The research was conducted at a language
school of a university in three EFL classes with ten adult language learners and three
language teachers in two full 6-week iterations over two semester courses. Data were
collected through work samples, video recorded data, and observations. Later videotapes
were transcribed for in-depth analysis. For data analysis ―verification of learning‖ approach
(North, 2007) was utilised with the aim of monitoring students‘ progress as well as the
opportunities that the activity provided to use the target language in context for meaningful
communication. Analysis of student work took place in relation to the assessment criteria for
each component of the task –online discussions (written interaction), an article for a
newsletter (written production), and presentation and artefact (spoken production). The
findings suggest that an e-learning environment designed according to 11 design
characteristics provided optimum opportunities for learners to develop their language
competency at the desired B1 level. Accordingly, within the range of components, learners
were able to express themselves by using the target language to communicate their intended
messages adequately with a real purpose, whether it was in written or spoken form. It is thus
proposed that learning environments designed in accordance with the 11 design principles for
authentic activities facilitate competency-based foreign language learning. Suggestions for
further research are also provided.
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Gamification elements on a pilot english course to foster student
engagement
Kirsi Korkealehto, Diaconia University of Applied Sciences, Finland
The focus of this research is to study gamification elements in a pilot blended learning
English course for healthcare students at a University of Applied Sciences in Finland. The
aim is to examine and discover gamified elements that foster student engagement in the
course and trigger students practice their oral communication skills. Gamification as use of
game design element for non-game context is a growing trend in education and not yet
studied sufficiently, therefore there is a need for this design research in hand. An essential
starting point in writer‘s teaching approach is to find positive and fun factors that trigger
students to learn and practise a foreign language and especially their oral communication
skills in the target language. On one hand the class atmosphere is in crucial part when
creating a tolerant and error allowing study environment, and on the other hand the
appropriate and interesting assignments as well as used applications play an important role
for student engagement. When designing the pilot, the starting points were besides the set
curriculum, enhancing the 21st century skills, using versatile applications in blended learning
context as well as supporting individual learning paths of students with heterogeneous
language competences and learning skills. The students of this 3-credit field-specific pilot
English course were 1st-year healthcare students. The duration of the course was 10 weeks
including five face-to-face -sessions. According to the curriculum, the objectives of the
course are to enhance students‘ professional language competence both in oral and written
interaction, both being assessed separately after the course. During the in-class teaching the
students were provided with iPads, but they were encouraged to use their own devices as
well. The ultimate target of implementing gamification in a language course was to improve
student engagement and oral communication. Student engagement fosters the learner
ownership and improves the learning outcome. Furthermore, gamification is one tool to
increase interaction between the students. Game design enhances through both individual and
group participation creativity as well as awakens emotions. In addition, fun elements are
brought in learning by playfulness. In the planning of the gamified part of the course, a
background story was created to lead the students into a field-specific hospital setting to
simulate work-life. In the task design versatile player-profiles were utilised to foster different
drives of different player types. The main gamified platform was the game application called
Seppo. The incorporated assignments were pair tasks which in the pilot phase were conducted
in-class with the teacher in control. Other used game applications were Kahoot, Quizlet,
EDpuzzle and Padlet. The research material consists of students‘ learning diaries and a
questionnaire send to the students after finishing the course. The results show that the
majority of the students considered the gamification elements as engaging and beneficial in
training their oral skills.
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Friday, 26 August
09:00-09:30
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Parallel Sessions - Friday, 26 August - 09:00-09:30
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Language immersion in the self-study mode e-course
Olga Sobolev, London School of Economics and political Science (University of London), United
Kingdom
This paper assesses the efficiency of the ‗Language Immersion e-Course‘ that was developed
at the Language Centre of the London School of Economics and Political Science. A new
self-study revision e-course, promoting students' proficiency in spoken and aural Russian
through autonomous learning, is based on the Michel Thomas Method (language acquisition
without any written materials, exclusively through oral practice) and focused primarily on
vocabulary work, which students commonly consider one of the biggest challenges in
language learning. The course, targeted at the Intermediate (A2/B1) level of proficiency in
Russian, was incorporated into the students‘ guided revision programme. The course is
downloadable as an application on the i-pad/i-phone, so that students can meaningfully
practise/revise their Russian anywhere and any time throughout the day (in a mobile mode).
The paper focuses on the pedagogical evaluation of the course (through students‘ exam
performance, as well as their feedback on the efficiency of this approach), and analyses the
learning implications of such e-courses as a valuable alternative and added value to
classroom teaching language provision. Given that vocabulary knowledge plays a
fundamental role both in fluent language production (speaking and writing) and efficient
language comprehension (listening and reading), the paper suggest that the integration of
such e-courses into the curriculum is one of the prerequisites of improving efficiency in
students‘ experience of second language acquisition.
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It‟s about time: examining closings in webcam-mediated pedagogical
interactions
Eugenie Duthoit, Laboratoire ICAR / ENS de Lyon, France
Nicolas Guichon, Laboratoire ICAR / University of Lyon 2, France
Synchronous online foreign language teaching raises questions that CALL researchers have
to face to fuel their interactions with interface designers and teacher trainers in an effort to
integrate linguistic analyses into the design process (Crabtree et al., 1998; Dourish & Button,
1998). One of these questions concerns the functionalities that can be offered to online
teachers to facilitate the management of pedagogical interactions.
Within the framework of Conversation Analysis, our presentation takes first a specific look at
the closings of pedagogical tutorials through a videoconference language learning platform
and subsequently discusses the extent to which the outcome of this kind of analysis could be
reinvested both in the redesign of a platform and in recommendations to online language
tutors pertaining to the management of closings.
Our study focuses on the Speakplus platform that is designed to assist in the development of
oral communication skills in three languages: English, French and Spanish. This startup
company, which is the fruit of academic research, offers a service that allows individuals
wishing to learn a language to follow a specially-designed course geared to the development
of their oral interactional competence via videoconferencing. One of the two authors of this
paper was involved in a 6-month ethnographic observation within the company while the
platform was being designed, and gathered a corpus comprising different kinds of data:
audio-video recordings of meetings of all the people involved in the platform design
(teachers, design experts and developers) and recordings of some webcam-mediated courses
that took place at critical moments of the design process.
One of the questions that was identified as crucial by the designers concerned the optimal
ways of bringing the language tutorials to a close by being neither too abrupt for the
participants nor too time consuming for the tutors (Belhiah, 2009). Our study is based on the
multimodal transcription of a collection of closings from a series of five consecutive lessons
of French as a Foreign Language on the platform between a French tutor and an Italian
learner. To this collection is added the transcription of episodes from the design team
meetings when the topic of ―closings‖ is mentioned and design choices are debated.
The main purpose of our analysis is to describe how the tutor and the learner take into
account the interface configurations in the accomplishment of their situated actions
(Suchman, 1987) while closing a webcam-mediated exchange. Our study examines the three
following questions: (1) How does the interface‘s affordances provided by SpeakPlus affect
the sequential organization of closing in terms of coordination and negotiation? (2) How do
participants get attuned to the constraints of the platform during the closing episodes? (3)
What recommendations can be provided to improve the interface and the teachers‘
management of closings in synchronous online interactions?
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Developing a vocabulary learning system on iPad for young learners
Kazumi Aizawa, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
Recently the popularity of mobile terminal devices such as smart phones and iPads has
increased enormously in Japan (Obari, 2014). Many elementary schools have started
introducing iPads as learning tools in formal classes (Koike & Kamiya, 2013). However,
since application software for iPads is still developing, these devices are still not optimal for
classroom learning. For countries like Japan, which are geographically distant from Englishspeaking countries, the use of smart devices for exposure to English has added appeal – using
devices such as iPads for the language learning experience is also appealing because it can
make the learning process more enjoyable, more interactive, and more engaging for young
learners. Against this background, this project aimed to create online application software for
fostering young learners‘ vocabulary knowledge. There are two sides to this system. The first
is the learning application itself. It was developed based upon the results of questionnaire
data collected from 213 English teachers from all around Japan. Two hundred and three
target words were selected for this system. (2) The pronunciation, a visual image and a
Japanese translation were prepared for each word. (3) A series of learning activities (a
learning stage and a game stage) with the target words was carefully formulated. The entire
program consists of 21 sessions. In each session, learners study 10 words within five different
activities: listen & repeat, choosing the right meaning for a word, identifying pictures by
listening, and word ‗fighting‘ in which a word must be matched with a picture. The other side
of this system is the operational system. Teachers are issued with ID numbers. Once they
have accessed the system on their PC, they are able to, and are requested to, register students
on the monitoring screen. Only learners who are registered in this course of study can access
this application. Teachers can monitor the progress of students and their history of vocabulary
study. Teachers can also edit and add information within the management system, making the
tasks more challenging or more suitable for the students‘ learning needs. The advantages of
this system are four: it is easy to use, for students and for teachers; it is attractive both in its
simple graphics and easy-to-use interface; users can also compete with one another while
using the system online, with the sense of competition adding an extra incentive to learning;
and it is an efficient means by which teachers can follow their students‘ progress in real time.
This system will be released to elementary school teachers for free in March, 2016. The
system will also be available to teachers of other foreign languages.
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Mind the gap: task design and technology in novice language teachers‟
practice
Tom Smits, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Margret Oberhofer, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Jozef Colpaert, University of Antwerp, Belgium
This presentation focuses on the possibilities and challenges for language teachers to design
EFL tasks grounded in the TBLT framework and taking advantage of the affordances of
technology, in this case the interactive whiteboard. TBLT (task-based language teaching) has
become the dominant approach to second language teaching in many countries, at least in
governmental and school policy papers (Van den Branden, 2015). Research has shown that
many language teachers find it difficult to distinguish a task from a grammar exercise or an
activity for vocabulary practice. Moreover, the iTILT project has shown that when it comes
to the use of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) the focus often shifts from interactive teaching
to interactive technology (e.g. Oberhofer et al., 2014). To better prepare novice teachers for
their future teaching practice, 28 postgraduate pre-service English teachers at Antwerp
University were guided through a training programme that intended to familiarize them with
the affordances of the IWB for the language teacher within the TLBT framework. After
having been introduced to the key concepts of TLBT in theory and practice, the student
teachers attended two dedicated sessions on IWBs and TBLT that zoomed in on the iTILT2
training manual. In pairs they subsequently drew up a ready-to-use lesson plan and
accompanying electronic learning materials (using the Notebook™ software) for a B1
English lesson on a cultural topic involving tasks and TBLT-oriented activities. Besides
analyzing how (un)successful the novice teachers were at marrying TBLT and ICT resources,
our study specifically assesses interactivity and TBLT qualities such as authenticity, as they
were the pivotal evaluation criteria for the participating novice teachers. Supporting evidence
of their aptitude in TBLT practice is provided by the Integrated Assessment Tasks (IATs)
each individual participant had to design for another component of their TEFL programme.
IATs too are more than separate tasks/exercises on skills, grammar and/or vocabulary
practice and they too constitute a real-world approach to assessing learners‘ ability to use
language in a meaningful and effective way. Combining both elements, IWB and IAT, in the
analysis of TBLT quality, our presentation provides an answer to the question: ‗To what
extent are pre-service teachers able to design a TBLT environment involving modern
technology that adheres to iTILT principles and current theories of TBLT methodology?‘
iTILT - Interactive Technology in Language Teaching. Lifelong Learning Programme (20112013). www.itilt.eu
iTILT2 Professional Development Resource (2015). Training manual developed with the
project Interactive Teaching in Languages with Technology. Erasmus Plus (2014-2017)
www.itilt.eu
Oberhofer Margret, Simons Mathea, Smits Tom. Academic teacher training and the IWB :
coaching pre-service teachers in Belgium. Teaching languages with technology :
communicative approaches to interactive whiteboard use / Schmid, Euline Cutrim [edit.];
e.a.-London, Bloomsbury Academic(2014)
Van den Branden, Kris (2015). What can CALL learn from TLBT? Proceedings from the
Seventeenth International CALL Conference: Task design and CALL. Tarragona 6-8 July
2015.
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“Check your Smile, first prototype of a collaborative LSP website for
technical vocabulary learning”
Nadia Yassine-Diab, University of Toulouse, France
Charlotte Alazard-Guiu, University of Toulouse, France
Laurent Sorin
Charlotte ORLIAC
In the wake of the seminal work of GERAS (the French research group on ESP in France),
different French research laboratories have endeavoured to build up concepts, theories and
models which serve to analyse and compare the learning and teaching of different foreign
languages in different specific subjects such as biology, medecine, music, and also
professional situations related to engineering, commercial, managering professions, etc. In
reality, LANSAD (Languages for Non Specialists) covers everything that is not the learning
of a foreign language for its own sake.
In the face of the diversity of subjects taught at university for LANSAD students, we have
decided to focus on specialized vocabulary learning, as a complement to LSP classes, and to
develop a prototype which harnesses the scientific and academic knowledge to be acquired
by the students with an LSP focus. In a design-based research approach (Barab et Squire
2004), we have developed the first prototype of a collaborative LSP website for technical
vocabulary learning. It is c alled ―Check your Smile‖ and it is meant to be both
multidisciplinary and multilingual. It focuses on technical vocabulary to help our LANSAD
students master LSP better, as they will need it in their professional life. Check Your SMILE
is a platform aggregating various types of games which automatically generate game plays
based on a collaboratively constructed multilingual dictionary. To this day the platform
integrates 6 lexical games. Some of the games we have developed for ―Check your Smile―
were designed in collaboration with the Innovalangues IDEFI Project (2012-2018) and will in
turn be integrated to the associated digital ecosystem dedicated to language training (Masperi
et Quintin 2014). In addition, ―Check your Smile‖, as a prototype of a new platform itself,
has been selected as an Initiative of Excellence Project from the University of Toulouse in
France (see https://www.univ-toulouse.fr/node/11538 ). The new budget granted should allow
us to re-develop it in a more stable and complete way and to experiment it on our students.
For example, we are already exploring the possibility of integrating multimodality in the
platform as it has been demonstrated that hand gestures facilitate vocabulary learning in
second language (for Spanish, see Allen, 2000; for English, see Lazaraton, 2004; for French
as a Foreign Language, see Pavelin, 2002). Thus, we are currently aiming at developing new
sets of games based on mimes, gestures and imitation through the use of a webcam. In a
context of Digital Game-Based Learning (Cornillie, Thorne et Desmet, 2012) and as games,
gaming and playing have become one of the strongest trends in educative innovation
(Sharples et al., 2013 : 29–31), we will first justify the choice of a digital game-based
learning solution. Then, we will present the methodology followed for the development of
―Check your Smile‖ and describe the linguistic and collaborative objectives. Finally, we will
conclude by presenting our online prototype and its potential future evolutions.
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ERASMUS+ VEO EUROPA PROJECT: An innovative Ipad App for
teacher training and development
Sandra Morales, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Paul Seedhouse, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
European Project Dissemination
VEO (Video Enhanced Observation) Europa is an Erasmus+ funded project
(www.veoeuropa.com) which aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning in
primary, secondary and higher education by using innovative video technology-the VEO appfor classroom observation. VEO Europa gathers educators and researchers from the UK,
Germany, Finland, Turkey and Bulgaria who seek to promote, apply and test VEO with preservice and in-service teachers in contexts such as language teaching and learning, teacher
training and teacher assessment. The VEO app is currently available for download
(www.veo-group.com). It was developed by experienced teacher trainers in Newcastle
University, UK, as a technological tool to promote teachers‘ initial and continuous
professional development. VEO not only allows educators to capture teaching practices on
video, but also stimulates reflective practice which has been suggested key for teacher
education (Schon, 1983; Burton, 2009). The app can be downloaded into ipad devices and
has customizable embedded tags that can be used to identify teachers‘ classroom behaviour
(i.e. teacher talk, L1 use). VEO‘s tagging system is flexible and enabled for any European
language. Additionally, recordings taken with VEO and existing videos can be tagged and
saved into the VEO online portal for peer feedback sessions. Teachers can also view
statistical data and share their videos with other VEO users to build up an online community
of practice. VEO can also help teachers to monitor their students‘ progress as they can
observe and tag their learners‘ performance in, for example, group work or presentations. The
VEO Europa project‘s research framework includes designing VEO teacher training materials
and tags, observing how teachers use VEO and evaluating the app as a means to measure its
impact on teacher education. VEO will be also used as a tool to collect data such as video
recordings of lessons and video diaries. Questionnaires and interviews will be implemented
as well. Data will be analysed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The outcomes of
the project include improved versions of the VEO app and portal. Also, updated training
materials and tag sets in a variety of languages for different teaching and learning
environments will be developed. VEO Europa will provide empirical evidence on the use and
effectiveness of the app. The project‘s data will allow educators and researchers to suggest
strategies and guidelines regarding the incorporation of video enhanced technology in teacher
education. The VEO app has already been used in some schools in the UK. Its
implementation in different countries and educational settings will maximize the scope of
VEO‘s applicability and support the professional development of teachers as digital reflective
practitioners.
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Friday, 26 August
09:30-10:00
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Exploring the benefits and disadvantages of introducing synchronous to
asynchronous on-line technologies to facilitate flexibility in learning
Fernando Loizides, Emerging Interactive Technologies Lab, University of Wolverhampton, United
Kingdom
The article examines the impact of online synchronous tutorials on online students enrolled in
an MA in CALL programme module at a mid-sized primarily undergraduate university in the
Republic of Cyprus. This specialised way of teaching aims to provide the required flexibility
for students who are teaching practitioners and need to fit the course into their demanding
schedule. In this article we present the details of the methods used (synchronous and
asynchronous) and present the findings (both benefits and disadvantages) of a longitudinal
study during the participant's course from both the learners‘ and the teachers‘ perspective.
The programme consists of both asynchronous and synchronous delivery methods. The
asynchronous consists of an eLearning environment, where students have access to the
module material, a Discussion Forum, Drive Access, Facebook Groups, an Instant Messenger
Client, Email and Regulated Text Messaging. The synchronous method consists of webinars
and Skype delivered lectures. To accommodate immediate interaction to the instructor and
the students, weekly synchronous online tutorials are also included. The latter has been
introduced for two reasons. Firstly, these tutorials have been introduced to give opportunity
to the instructor to recognise specialised psychological effects often overlooked in online
architectures. These effects include participants‘ confusion, frustration, fatigue and
performance. By observing these effects, the instructor can provide additional instruction,
assistance and examples to clarify concepts. Furthermore, the instructor is able to also adjust
material to facilitate better interaction between the students and both the course content and
the concepts needed to be transmitted and assimilated. Secondly, learners can get their
questions answered immediately and receive instant feedback. They are able to reinforce their
understanding of the content covered and the assigned tasks, discuss issues of their concern
and share ideas and knowledge. They can interact during the online tutorials with the
instructor for questions or problems. The tutorials also accommodate slow learners‘ needs. In
the case of pair or group tutorials, opportunity is given to students to discuss and share
questions, issues and ideas amongst them and with the instructor.
To answer our questions and evaluate the impact of these tutorials, we used a mixed-method
data collection approach that included records of student participation, student weekly journal
entry, focus groups and other metrics when required. The data collection also targeted areas
of potential impact such as: changes in attitudes and behaviours, changes in the dynamics of
professor-student relationship, and the overall student performance enhancement. We studied
8 students synchronously interacting with their instructor once a week over a period of fifteen
weeks.
Although the findings are still being analysed beyond the time span of this submitted abstract,
initial findings indicate positive effects on participants in terms of improved clarity in the
understanding of the material and also the requirements, the readings and other activities
posted in the eLearning area. Furthermore, we observe a developed rapport with their
instructor and improvement in academic performance. Disadvantages include staff increased
time allocation and a technological barrier that needs to be overcome for a smoother
operation of the module.
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Benefits of integrating online interactivity in formative assessment in
language learning at beginner level
Cecilia Trevino, King's College London, United Kingdom
Alejandra Lopez Vazquez, King's College London, United Kingdom
This paper will focus on the benefits of using a blended interactive formative assessment
(IFA) for students and teachers in language learning. The assessment has evaluated (1)
listening, (2) reading comprehension, (3) grammar and vocabulary and (4) writing. The first
three sections were made interactive to be marked by an automated online function and to
provide students with immediate feedback. A hardcopy of the writing section was handed to
the teachers to be manually marked. More than 170 students and four tutors took part in this
case study. The interactive nature of the assessment allowed the students to engage with the
technology and to develop ownership of their learning. The benefits also included using the
Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in a more meaningful way and not only as a repository
for information. Students were encouraged to complete the interactive assessment within a
fixed amount of time to replicate examination conditions in order to foster skills transfer.
Helping teachers to integrate more technology in their teaching was one of the main
challenges. The workload demand is a deterrent from the academics‘ perspective. Once the
examination has been set up, it can be used repeatedly over many years and can save the
tutors a lot of marking time, which can instead be used for promoting collaborative learning
in the classroom. This can be a key factor to encourage other tutors to embrace this practice.
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Digital Story(re)telling Using Graded Readers and Smartphones
Kazumichi Enokida, Hiroshima University, Japan
Extensive reading and digital storytelling utilise "the power of stories" effectively to enhance
learners' receptive and productive skills. The presenter reported at the EUROCALL 2014
conference on his classroom project combining these two activities, where each group of
students was requested to choose a book from the graded readers they studied and, based on
that story, create a digital story — a movie clip made from text, images, sounds, and narration
— using Microsoft PowerPoint installed in the CALL room at the university campus.
In this paper, the project implemented throughout the past two years is reported on, where
some improvements were made based on the findings from the preceding implementation,
regarding the ways the story should be analysed and how the digital stories should be created.
It was conducted on an EFL reading course for advanced and motivated learners at a national
university in Japan. The primary aim of the project is to direct learners' attention to the story
structure while developing their reading/oral fluency through extensive reading and digital
storytelling. A collection of 350 graded readers, composed of Oxford Bookworms and
Macmillan Readers, were brought into the classroom every week so that the students could
check them out and study them outside the class. Then the students worked in groups to
analyse the books they chose in terms of plot structure and characters, and to create digital
stories of the books based on the analysis.
There were two major improvements in the classroom practice reported: First, instead of the
PCs in the CALL room, MALL (mobile devices) was integrated into the process — the
students were asked to use their own smartphones for creating digital stories. It was expected
that the high penetration rate of smartphones among the college students in Japan would
make it easier for them to create digital stories using the device they know well. The
convenience of MALL on a BYOD basis would enable them to focus more on the content of
the materials rather than the technology they have to cope with. And second, instead of
writing one summary in each group, they were requested to choose two characters from the
book they were studying and let each of them narrate the story, so that the same story could
be retold from multiple points of view. The presenter will first explain the background and
the outline of the project, and then show some of the digital stories created by the students,
and finally discuss the results and the effectiveness of his latest project based on the
questionnaire survey.
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„Practise what you preach‟: Addressing the need for ESP teacher training
in Cypriot and Greek tertiary education
Elis Kakoulli Constantinou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is an area of language education that has been advancing
during the last years with an increase in the number of publications, conferences and
discussions on the subject. Despite the development of ESP however, ESP teacher education
has not received the same attention by researchers in the field; in many countries of the
world, ESP instructors have received very limited ESP teacher training or in most cases no
ESP training at all, since programmes of this kind are very few and the ones that exist are
mainly traditionally-based (Bell, 2002; Bojović, 2006; Savas, 2009; Basturkmen, 2010;
Mahapatra, 2011; Wright, 2012; Abdulazizm, Kazim Shah, & Mahmood, 2012;
Bezukladnikov & Kruze, 2012; Chen, 2012; Bracaj, 2014; Madhavi Latha, 2014). This
presentation focuses on a technical action research study, which is still in progress, in the
field of ESP teacher training in the Cypriot and Greek tertiary education. The purpose of the
study is to address the need for ESP teacher training in the context of Cypriot and Greek
tertiary education, by proposing an intervention in the form of an online ESP teacher training
programme. The presentation reports on some of the findings from the first phase of this
technical action research study, during which an online questionnaire was administered to 64
Cypriot and Greek ESP educators in January 2016. The aim was to define their profiles, to
elicit their views on the qualities of the ESP practitioner, to determine their needs in terms of
ESP teacher education, and to record what a potential ESP teacher training programme
should involve according to their opinion. Despite the vast amount of data collected, this
presentation only concentrates on the findings that relate to the current duties of Cypriot and
Greek ESP practitioners and their views on the qualities that an ESP practitioner should have.
Continuing, the presentation illustrates how these findings, in combination with results from
previous research conducted in the field, determine the nature of the online ESP teacher
training programme that is proposed. This nature is governed by a reflective, ‗practise-whatyou-preach‘ approach (Wallace, 1991) that considers the ESP practitioner as part of a
community of educators instead of an individual teacher who practises teaching in isolation
(Johnson, 2009; Maggioli, 2012).
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The MOOC „Cultural Studies and Modern Languages: An Introduction‟
Gloria Visintini, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
This presentation will describe the development and the results of the University of Bristol‘s
MOOC Cultural Studies and Modern Languages: An Introduction. It was designed to give
people a flavour of how exciting studying Modern Languages can be, while pioneering a
better awareness of what the study is about. A degree in Modern Languages is often
perceived as just acquiring fluency in another language, whereas it is also about exploring
different cultures and societies; something we wanted to emphasis through this MOOC.
To this end, Cultural Studies covers 12 topics and takes the learners on a cultural adventure
across the world. It was developed by a team of academics from the School of Modern
Languages and is hosted on the FutureLearn (FL) platform. It was launched for the first time
in February 2015, and since then has been re-run twice.
As a result, several thousand people from many countries across the world have taken and
enjoyed the course. Over 90% of the learners have rated their overall experience of the course
as being good or excellent. In particular, people like the range of topics covered in the course
and the bite-sized format. Normally, FL MOOCs have one linear story running through a
course; but in Cultural Studies people have 12 mini-stories to engage with, which learners
seem to have really appreciated.
Our learners also enjoyed and highly engaged with the course activities and debates. Indeed,
our rate of ‗fully participating learners‘ is higher than the average rate on a FutureLearn
course. This and many other aspects of the course -- such as how this project created a more
positive CALL culture among the staff involved -- will be discussed in the presentation,
unpacking our findings in detail and highlighting what makes our course different compared
to other MOOCs.
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HR4EU - web-portal for e-learning of the Croatian language
Matea Filko, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
Daša Farkaš, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
Diana Hriberski, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
In this paper we present HR4EU (www.hr4eu.hr), a web-portal for e-learning of Croatian,
which is developed at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and funded
by European Social Fund. Since Croatian is a language with a relatively small number of
speakers, its presence on the web is limited. A few e-learning sites for learning Croatian are
either not free of charge or not developed by native speakers of Croatian. Learning material is
usually presented in a static manner, whereas existing language technologies in terms of
language resources and tools are not used at all. With HR4EU portal we aim to overcome this
deficiency and to develop a modern e-learning system. The system is based upon
bidirectional interaction with previously developed language resources (LRs). This e-learning
system is developed by native speaker linguists with expertise in building of LRs. HR4EU
portal is divided into four sections: a) Courses b) Language Resources - this section includes
short video tutorials for each resource used throughout the courses and provides guidelines
how to use them c) About Croatia – this section provides a cultural context for learning
Croatian via interactive maps d) Living in Croatia – this section offers useful information to
foreigners in Croatia, e.g. list of important institutions etc. In this presentation we will focus
on the main and most important part of the portal: Courses. Courses on HR4EU portal are
divided into three stages: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Each course is divided into
ten lessons. Lessons include pages with short grammar descriptions and pages with questions,
which interchange in order to keep the user concentrated on the content. Each lesson is
followed by more elaborated grammar parts and quizzes consisting of different kinds of
questions (e.g. cloze (embedded answer), multiple choice, matching, ordering, short answer,
etc.). The lessons and quizzes are designed to encourage the users to use LRs on their own,
e.g., to find the appropriate word form in the Croatian Morphological Lexicon (hml.ffzg.hr)
as well as to learn semantically related words via lexical hierarchies or synsets in the Croatian
WordNet (hnk.ffzg.hr/crown/) or derivationally related words in the verbal derivational
database CroDeriV (croderiv.ffzg.hr). This system also takes into account learners'
contribution to improvement of existing LRs. We intend to use learners‘ activity to enhance
and enlarge existing LRs by tracking queries yielding empty results and using them in further
development of a respective resource. Another goal of this project is to build a new LR – the
corpus of Croatian as a second language. This corpus is particularly useful to language
teaching specialists, since it offers a possibility to extract morphological and syntactic errors
of users, and even to compare them to their mother tongue. Since our main target group are
foreigners preparing for study or work in Croatia, we have added two additional courses in
the HR4EU portal, namely Croatian for business users and Croatian for students. These
courses offer specialized vocabulary from business and education domains. Users can also
learn how to write a CV, job application, letter of motivation and recommendation and
similar in standard Croatian. Each student is given individual feedback from our team
members.
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Friday, 26 August
10:00-10:30
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Is the online translator your best friend or your worst enemy?
Luis Gonzalez, Lausanne University, Switzerland
Jayshri Mizeret-Lad, Lausanne University, Switzerland
Ruben Gomez, Lausanne University, Switzerland
Anna Renda, Lausanne University, Switzerland
Our study seeks to propose learning strategies to be implemented in order to attain an
acceptable translation both in the sense of cultural and linguistic conventions with an
automatic translation tool. No doubt, this type of tool is widely popular and nothing
extraordinary in itself however, we must be aware that the result with such a translation is not
fully satisfying in many ways.
Is the online translator your best friend or your worst enemy? The result obtained with an
automatic translation tool varies from one to the other, hence it is important to know the
specific features of each tool to make the necessary changes to final text to ensure accuracy
and comprehension, this could be at word level or a word contextualised in paragraphs. The
readjustment of a translated text can be highly complex for the learner as this would largely
depend on the level of the learner‘s knowledge in the target language. In addition to this, the
efficiency of the selected online translator varies according to the languages concerned. It is
vital to test the chosen translator several times to be certain if it is adequate for the languages
one is working with. For example, you may find that a particular translator can be very
effective when converting a text from English to French as apposed to English to Chinese.
In our study, we proposed students to work on the translation of a short authentic text and
translate their language (L1) into the target language (L2). The translation had to be
performed with at least 2 different translators after which the results were compared. Students
reflected on strategies for managing common forms of politeness, the elements related to
culture and certain language conventions.
The requested task was to produce a text whilst respecting the meaning and the use of
language appropriate to the message recipient. When comparing the versions of the translated
texts from different translating online tools, the variations were significantly noted therefore
one would be required to adopt remedial work involving an identification of the problem
areas and address each with a strategy.
The production of student texts have not only consisted of an adequate translation of the text,
but also in the development of a list of observations proving the efficiency and reliability of
the translators related to the above aspects and reflection on strategies to be applied to correct
the written text.
To sum up, it seems clear that a rough translation of a text by an online translator cannot be
reliably used without making any changes, partly because an inadequate formulation may not
only offend the recipient but also because it can even lead to misinterpretations or simply
nonsense.
A process with guidelines has been developed taking into account the essential elements to
achieve an acceptable translation and it is this process that we propose to present in this
study.
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Learner autonomy and personal autonomy: Some correlations and how to
put theory into practice.
Over the past two decades, the concept of learner autonomy has gained popularity, becoming
the centre of discussions in language learning education. The shift from a teacher-centred to a
more learner-centred kind of learning has led to the gradual use of the terminology of learner
autonomy and the gradual dominance of the concept in educational research. Despite the
numerous debates, there is a consensus that the practice of learner autonomy requires a
positive attitude, a capacity for reflection, insight, and the inclination to be in interaction with
others. Likewise, personal autonomy is a concept that has been a buzz word within the
context of philosophy since the enlightenment. Discussions regarding its value, role and
nature are commonplace in philosophical and educational debates. As a result, it has become
the object of critique by numerous theorists – particularly for the past decades. Despite the
debates, it is agreeable that personal autonomy associates with values such as a capacity for
reflection, critical thinking, personalisation and insight. This presentation aims to
theoretically connect the concepts of learner autonomy and personal autonomy, and outline
some of the key challenges in facilitating autonomous learning and developing personal
autonomy through paideia (education, included). What is more, this paper proposes a
research study not only to gain an understanding of the practices that develop learner
autonomy but also to explore whether the encouragement of learner autonomy fosters
personal autonomy as well.
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Implications on pedagogy as a result of adopted CALL practices
James Pagel, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan
Stephen Lambacher, Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan
Many Japanese undergraduates lack motivation and appear discouraged with their English
learning experience, which may be due to any number of factors, including the emphasis
placed on traditional exam-centered or grammar-based English classrooms at a majority of
Japanese universities. This lack of motivation and confidence often has a negative impact on
students‘ attitudes and classroom behaviors, resulting in long-term and widespread negative
learning outcomes. The main focus of this study is on identifying how students and teachers
appraise resultant changes to language teaching pedagogy with the goal of better
understanding the motivation and attitudes of EFL students consistent with a move to more
communicative-based classes held in CALL classrooms.
During the past five years we have annually surveyed both students and instructors of their
respective faculties at their university in Tokyo. The number of student respondents has
averaged 182 yearly. However, the ―in-house‖ teaching staff is comprised of nine full-time
and 26 part-time instructors across the two faculties. Not all instructors completed the survey,
with the average being only 17 yearly.
At the past two EuroCALL conferences, we reported on patterns and changes in teacher and
student attitudes and motivation towards the adoption of CALL-MALL at our university,
which has been part of an ongoing study focusing on their attitudes toward the use of
computers and mobile devices for L2 learning. The overall results revealed that both faculty
and students preferred MALL and CALL and found it to be more motivating and valuable for
learning English compared with traditional practices.
In the present study, we focus almost exclusively on survey items that correspond to
pedagogically-related issues. A main motivation for this is that in one faculty, the expansion
is the result of a total revamping of the curriculum that went into effect in 2012. The surveys
therefore were developed to serve as part of a faculty development endeavor to evaluate
instructor reactions to the new curriculum which required all classes be held in CALL
classrooms and for the instructors to adapt their teaching methods to take full advantage of
the available facilities and technology.
Both teacher and student surveys were comprised of Likert scale items measured with a 6point semantic scale reporting agreement with the affective items (1 = strongly disagree; 6 =
strongly agree). SurveyMonkey® was used to collect and analyze the survey responses.
Instructor survey questions focused on gauging their attitudes on a wide range of pedagogical
questions, including learning theory, student learning styles, and general teaching practices.
Student survey questions pertaining to pedagogy were likewise broad, and ranged from
student attitudes and perceptions of learning styles and outcomes, teaching methodology and
materials, as well as their motivation and goals for studying English.
The overall responses from both surveys collected during the past five years will be
summarized and compared. An attempt is also made to correlate the key findings with our
previously reported results of the MALL and CALL-related survey questions, as well as
discuss these results within the framework of L2 acquisition and CALL theory.
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e-lang, digital literacy for language teaching and learning ECML
(Languages at the heart of learning) project 2016-2019
Christian Ollivier, Université de la Réunion, Réunion
Recent studies and reports (Center for Educational Research and Innovation, n.d.; Guichon,
2012; OCDE, 2015) have highlighted that the full potential of digital tools is not reached
when it comes to enhancing teaching and learning, all the more so in the context of language
teaching and learning. This situation often arises from a lack of training. In this presentation,
the elang team will detail the aims and objectives of the e-lang project which aims to address
this teacher training need by providing the basis for a teaching methodology which integrates
new technologies. This methodology, which is based on recent methodological developments
(particularly the action-oriented and pluralistic approaches), combines online interactions and
a critical use of digital tools and resources to develop language skills. It aims to integrate
digital technology while developing both communication skills and linguistic as well as
intercultural skills. We will detail how the e-lang methodology combines: - diversified taskbased online interactions (communication within a group, telecollaborative tasks between
groups, participation in ―open‖ Internet environments… (Thorne & Black, 2007)) to
encourage learners to develop interactional skills; - language engineering (Portine, 2013)
/digital tools and resources (such as open educational resources (OER), concordancers, textto-speech tools…) to foster the autonomous development of the basic skills required to
engage in interactions.
Center for Educational Research and Innovation. (n.d.). New Millennium Learners Initial
findings on the effects of digital technologies on school-age learners. OECD/CERI. Retrieved
from http://www.oecd.org/site/educeri21st/40554230.pdf Guichon, N. (2012). Vers
l‘intégration des TIC dans l‘enseignement des langues. Paris: Didier. OECD (2015),
Students, Computers and Learning: Making the Connection, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264239555-en Portine, H. (2013). L‘ingénierie
linguistique: des technologies au service d‘une didactique intégrant la cognition. In C.
Ollivier & L. Puren (Eds.), Mutations technologiques, nouvelles pratiques sociales et
didactique des langues. Recherches et applications. (pp. 159–168). Paris: Clé International.
Thorne, S. L., & Black, R. W. (2007). Language and literacy development in computermediated contexts and communities. Annual review of applied linguistics, 27, 133–160.
Thorne, S. L., & Reinhardt, J. (2008). ―Bridging activities‖, new media literacies, and
advanced foreign language proficiency. CALICO Journal, 25(3), 558–572.
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Friday, 26 August
11:00-11:30
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A self-paced extensive listening activity combining the Moodle Quiz and
Lesson modules using the grade condition and the restrict access features
David Campbell, Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Japan
Research has shown that giving learners control over when, where and how long they learn
can increase student motivation, but for some students instructor set limits and goals are also
necessary elements to his or her learning process. To supply these elements the grade
condition feature of the restrict access settings was used to create a self-paced extensive
listening activity that combines the Lesson and Quiz modules of Moodle. This arrangement
allows students to move forward at their own pace, but firm completion dates prevents them
from doing all the activities in a few days or weeks at the end of the semester. This
presentation demonstrates the creation of the pre-listening exercises in the Lesson Module
and how to set up of the lesson flow so that learners can review material as many times as
necessary, to acquire the necessary grade to open the audio file and comprehension quiz. It
will also look at the making of audio quizzes and the necessary settings to make sure the
questions work effectively. Finally, it will look at student feedback on the activity and how
the activity has evolved over the past three years.
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Automatic Generation of Sentence Representations for Oral Language
Evaluation
Bin Dong, Ricoh software Research Center, China
Lei Ding, Ricoh Software Research Center, China
Automatic evaluation algorithm for oral language test is used more and more with the
development of speech recognition. There are two kinds of oral language tests that automatic
evaluation algorithm can be used in. They are close test and semi-open test. In close test of
oral language, the word, phrase or sentence is known and unique for both evaluation system
and tester. The main target of the test is pronunciation quality of tester. The evaluation
system based on speech recognition can be qualified for the kind of test. In semi-open test,
the target is not only pronunciation quality but also grammar and syntax. Talking about
pictures is the main representative. Tester has to describe those pictures with some sentences.
In automatic evaluation system, sentences corpus has to be required which can describe
pictures as much as possible and cover all or most of possible expresses tester would employ.
Traditionally, these sentences are generated by teachers. But it is difficult to cover all the
sentences which tester would use to describe pictures manually. In this paper, an automatic
generation method would be proposed. If teachers can provide some text words associated
with the picture, our method would combine two important processes. First, we can
automatically generate one baseline description based on the text words teachers provide.
And second, we diversify the description as a paraphrase generation problem. For the first
step, to get the baseline description, we can find the most similar sentence in the dataset and
replace the keywords. Word2vec is used to get the vector of each word and the loss function
of the replace action is defined as the sum of the Euclidean distance between the words. And
for the second step, pattern-based algorithm is proposed to generate more representations.
Assuming that only single monolingual corpus we have, dependency tree can be used to
induce generalized paraphrase templates. The problem is how to measure distributional
similarity over dependency tree paths. If two tree paths have similar distributions such that
they tend to link the same set of words, then they likely mean the same thing and together
generate an inference rule. Based on the dataset, we create dependency parses for all the
sentences in the corpus in the pre-processing step. Then, we extract the paths and compute
their distributional properties. After that, pairs of paths which are similar should be extracted,
insofar as such properties are concerned. At the end, we have sets of paths (or inference rules)
that are considered to have similar meanings by the algorithm and ―the most similar
sentence‖ belongs to one of the sets. We can directly fit the keywords into other paths in the
same set to get other kinds of representation. The method proposed above could generate
sentences representation corpus automatically based on the learning materials dataset. The
learning materials dataset should be corresponding to the level of testers.
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Working round the imperfections of an LMS to run an academic writing
course from a tablet
Tim Knight, Shirayuri University, Japan
This paper will focus on the challenge the presenter faced when integrating the use of a
cloud-based LMS into the management of an academic writing course. Seduced by the
undoubted benefits of using the LMS Schoology, largely through its fully-fledged mobile
app, at first the presenter did not appreciate the scale of its imperfections when marking
students‘ papers and returning them from a tablet. However, working in a blended learning
environment, the presenter took on board student comments both in class and in response to
surveys, and worked out a way to largely surmount the problem. The problem and student
comments will be fully reported.
The use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) continues to increase among teachers and
throughout educational institutions worldwide. However, there are many to choose from and
the challenge for teachers with little or no institutional support and/or little technological
expertise is to choose the most suitable one. Schoology, the 2015 Best Education CODiE
award winner, is only seven years old, but now claims 12 million users in 130 countries. For
managing an academic writing university course, the presenter has found Schoology to have
clear benefits for teacher and students. The key benefit has been to help meet what Matsuda
(2012) calls ―one of the most important writing strategies…to divide and conquer - make the
task into smaller chunks so that you can actually manage them.‖ Some other benefits of
Schoology include: 1. it is cloud based and works well on computers using any operating
system; 2. it has fully-fledged dedicated apps for both Android and iOS mobile device
systems which obviate the need for computer use when giving and receiving feedback; 3. it is
clear and convenient for both teachers and students to use; 4. it is free; and 5. it has excellent
communication tools, grade-book and comprehensive analytics built in.
Matsuda, P. K. (2012). Putting the Horse Before the Cart. Workshop at Sophia University,
Tokyo. June 14th, 2012.
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An exploration of the use of web 2.0 technologies in language education: a
case study of Saudi women in higher education
Khloud Al Khader, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
The use of web 2.0 technologies is relatively new to the Saudi Arabian higher education
sector. In a study conducted on their use in Saudi universities, it was found that Saudi
universities are aware of and do utilize web 2.0 technologies (Ahmad et al., 2013), however,
there is limited research into their uses as learning and teaching tools in Saudi Arabia in
general and in language education in particular and the majority of the literature and practice
on the use of Web 2.0 technologies has been written so far about western contexts.
Because the role of the teacher is recognised as being very important for the effective
integration of the technology in the classroom (Egbert et al., 2009), exploring Web 2.0
technologies in the classroom requires a research approach that focuses on the teacher in their
world. This should both encompass the micro level of the classroom as well as the macro
level of the sociocultural context as proposed by Warschauer (1998). This study, therefore,
helps us to understand EFL teachers‘ beliefs and practices concerning use of web 2.0
technologies in their classrooms in a holistic manner; it also investigates how the teachers
understand, function, and engage in activities when using web 2.0 technologies in their
classroom.
The research adopted a case study design in which interviews and classroom observations
were used as the main research methods to collect the data. The study uses activity theory as
an analytical framework to help us in understanding and adding a criticality to research into
teachers‘ beliefs and practices. It considers the obstacles encountered when using these
technologies from both teachers‘ perspectives and my observations of their practices.
This talk will present the findings of this study. The process of analysing the data is ongoing,
however, it is anticipated that the findings will relate to teachers‘ belief, their emergent
practices, and the challenges they encounter and how they deal with them.
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The Digital Kitchen from Cooking to Learning: A study of the impact of
Task-Based Learning using Digital Technology
Jaeuk Park, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
Paul Seedhouse, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
Jieun Kiaer, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
The research uses the existing technology of the EU-funded project called ‗The European
Digital
Kitchen‘.
Information
can
be
found
in
great
detail
at
www.europeandigitalkitchen.com.
The technology-enhanced environment is where learners can simultaneously learn a foreign
language and foreign culture. Activity recognition as well as wireless sensor technology,
similar to a Nintendo Wii, is embedded or attached to the equipment and ingredients,
allowing users to detect and evaluate progress as they carry out their cooking tasks in a real
world kitchen.
Participants are 48 international adults from 20 international countries, all of whom
conducted cooking sessions both in a digital kitchen by using real objects and in the
classroom by looking at typical pictures/photos in the textbook.
The research questions are: What are learners‘ attitude to learning in two different settings?;
Does using real objects in the digital kitchen help them learn vocabulary items better than
looking at photos of the objects in the classroom? If so, to what extent?; Does using real
objects in the digital kitchen help them learn Korean cultural aspects than looking at photos
of the objects in the classroom? If so, to what extent?; What is the interaction effect between
setting, recipe and vocabulary learning?
The research is based on a quasi-experiment design called ‗Latin square‘. The research design
fairly explains where users can better learn a foreign vocabulary items and culture: only by
looking at photos of the items in a classroom or by physically manipulating the real objects
whilst cooking in the digital kitchen.
Subjects went through real-life activities in three stages, called ‗Task-Based Language
Learning & Teaching (TBLT) in both situations using two different recipes with two different
set of vocabularies. There were tests before and after cooking to compare the score to see
their achievements. The tests were designed to see the level of recognition and recall ability
in which students are required to match a piece of paper with each object‘s name on the right
item, and produce phonological forms in relation to a specific vocabulary item. 10 vocabulary
noun items were targeted here in this research with 48 learners.
A range of data sources were employed, such as semi-structured interviews, videoobservations, test-results for a triangulated approach. Research questions were answered
using data analysis tools such as SPSS, Conversation Analysis (CA), and thematic analysis. A
series of data set clearly demonstrated what their attitudes towards the digitalized learning
environment were and which environment was more effective to learn foreign language
vocabulary and culture. It also showed the interaction effects between variables.
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Working as a trans-European consortium resulted in cross-fertilisation of ideas concerning
the relationships between language, cuisines and culture, which is close in line with many
European agendas. Furthermore, this project supported the development of innovative ICT
for language & culture learning across the world. It is also expected to help address a number
of well-known problems relating to classroom foreign language teaching: lack of authentic
tasks and the difficulty of bringing the foreign culture to life in the classroom.
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Synchronous tandem language learning in a MOOC context: A study on
task design and learner performance
Marta Fondo García, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
In the context of an LMOOC (Language Massive Online Open Course) teacher interventions
have to be designed into the course since personalized teacher feedback actions are an
impossibility due to the large number of participants. In this design learner autonomy, peerfeedback and task design are crucial. In this paper we present a study on the task design
phases of a tandemMOOC (English-Spanish). The tandemMOOC takes advantage of the
―massive‖ feature in a MOOC to provide learners with ample opportunity of language use
with native speakers of their target language, and access to peer-feedback. The tasks in this
context provide content and an objective for the conversations turning them into episodes of
meaningful language interaction.
During the 6 week course, 6 new tasks were added to the virtual classroom each week
resulting in a total of 36 available tasks. Learners could opt for a chat roulette format in
which they were assigned at random a task and an interlocutor, or the pre-arranged tandem
format in which they could plan for a meeting with an interlocutor and task of their choice.
Each week had a thematic thread for all the 6 activities which belonged to 6 different
categories: negotiation, quizzes, free-talk, problem-solving, role-playing and exam
preparation. All tasks had an even number of activities, to ensure a half/half distribution of
languages. Learners interacted through the tandemMOOC platform tools that included a
videoconferencing system which automatically records and archives the conversations, and
the tandem tool which distributes contents to participants in real-time (both tools developed
under the SpeakApps project (www.speakapps.eu).
This study sets out to explore how and to what extent different task designs have an influence
on the performance of the student in terms of communication strategies, linguistic output,
length of conversation and immediate feedback provided during on-task time. The tasks are
analysed using Robinson‘s triadic componential framework (2007). The data analysed are the
video recordings of the conversations by 8 pairs of learners, 2 different participants carrying
out 4 different tasks in the tandemMOOC. The tasks have been selected by
divergent/convergent solution.The results of this study will inform the design of tasks of the
implementation of the second edition of the tandem-MOOC and a larger-scale study on the
complexity of SCMC tandem tasks. The study also seeks to explore to what extent
Robinson‘s model can be employed for the analysis of oral SCMC tandem tasks in a MOOC
environment.
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Friday, 26 August
11:30-12:00
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Enhancing Taiwanese EFL Freshmen‟s Reading Comprehension through
Online Concept Mapping Tools
Chin-Wen Chien, National Hsinchu University of Education, Taiwan
Mind-mapping is a type of graphic organizer that is used for learners to generate ideas, take
notes, develop concepts and ideas, and improve memory (Buzan, 1974). This study explores
the reading comprehension and knowledge construction of 42 EFL (English as a foreign
language) freshmen through the use of online concept mapping tools in a Freshmen English
class in the northwest university in Taiwan. Based on the data analysis of these 42 freshmen‘s
oral presentation, mind-mapping, and interview, the research has the following two major
findings. Based on the data analysis, the research has the following major findings. First,
these online concept mapping tools helped participants‘ reading comprehension, particularly
in better understanding of the text, finding the main ideas, and identifying the structure of the
article. Second, the strategies that these participants employed for making mind-mapping
included finding the main ideas and titles from each paragraph. Third, participants held a
positive attitude toward the online concept mapping tools, because they thought of these tools
as helpful, easy, and convenient. However, the top reason why a very small number of
participants disliked these online tools was ―why not use other tools.‖ Fourth, the biggest
challenges these participants faced while making these mind-maps included ―their
incompetent English ability in reading the article, understanding the text, and thinking about
how to present the maps‖ and ―their uncertainty in identifying and demonstrating the main
ideas.‖ In order to effectively integrate online concept mapping tools into freshmen English
classes to improve EFL learners‘ reading comprehension, a model is proposed. First, EFL
teachers should provide effective instruction on reading comprehension for learners and such
instruction should include direct explanations, guided practice, modeling, and applications.
Secondly, of all the reading strategies, summarizing skills should be most emphasized and
developed among EFL learners for concept maps based on the required texts. Learners should
be taught to find the main ideas, important facts, and supporting details. They should also
learn to connect the main ideas and eliminate unnecessary ideas. Third, EFL teachers should
foster learners‘ metacognition so they will be able to state the strategies they employ as well
as the difficulties they encounter before, during, and after reading. Finally, different types of
graphic or semantic organizers should be introduced to EFL learners, such as webs, clusters,
frames, maps, graphs, or charts in traditional paper or multimedia forms.
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The development of aural and visual vocabulary size tests
Kazummi Aizawa, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
Paul Nadasdy, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
Colm Smyth, Tokyo Denki University, Japan
The purpose of this study is to describe the development of web-based aural and visual
vocabulary size tests for Japanese learners of English. Many researchers have developed
vocabulary size tests to estimate overall language proficiency. Although there are numerous
vocabulary size tests almost all of them are visually oriented. To be more precise, in such
tests, test takers are asked to "look at" a given target word and respond. Scarcely any
vocabulary size tests are aurally oriented. Since most languages are not only written but also
spoken, it is only fair to assess learners' aural vocabulary size when estimating their language
proficiency. Especially when the language proficiency measurements include listening
section. In the current project, the aural and visual vocabulary size tests are programmed to
use the identical set of target words that were selected from JACET8000, a frequency-based
English vocabulary list with 8000 words. The list is divided into eight levels where each level
contains 1000 words, with level one being the most frequent and level eight the least. Fifteen
words were randomly selected from each level, and the total number of target words was 120.
During the tests, test-takers are instructed to choose an appropriate Japanese meaning of a
given target word from four choices. The only difference between aural and visual version of
the tests is the way target words are given to the test-takers. In aural test, they will hear each
target word whereas in visual test, they see it. In the test verification process, a total of 165
Japanese university students participated in the administrations of the tests. All of them took
both formats of the tests, as well as TOEIC. The aural version of the test was administered
first, and the visual test followed after a two-week interval. One may argue that counterbalancing the order of the tests would have been better. However, the visual version of the
tests was considered to leave a lasting impression of the target words. Therefore, there was no
counter-balancing of the test order. The results of the tests showed that reliability indices
(Cronbach's alpha) of the aural and visual version were .87 and .85, respectively, both of
which were high enough to conclude that both tests were reliable. Upon comparing the mean
scores of the tests, it was revealed that at each frequency level, the scores of the visual test
were statistically significantly higher than those of the aural test. This was in accordance with
the expectation as Japanese learners of English usually lack the exposure to spoken English.
Interestingly enough, when correlation coefficients were calculated among aural, visual, and
TOEIC test scores, the aural test scores showed a slightly stronger correlation with TOEIC (r
= .57), as opposed to the visual test (r = .44). Finally, through the item analysis, it was
discovered that there were some words that were easier in aural test, despite the higher score
seen in the visual test.
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Fostering autonomous pronunciation training through smartphone apps:
an empirical study
This paper presents the results of a study aimed at testing the potential of smartphone apps to
help FL learners improve their pronunciation of challenging phonemes. Fifty-two students
divided into control and experimental groups participated in this study. Participants in the
experimental group were required to use an app to work on their pronunciation for around 20
minutes a day over a period of two weeks, whereas participants in the control group only took
the pre- and post-tests. However, once the latter group had acted as control, they started to
receive instruction too, therefore also acting as experimental. The learners‘ pronunciation was
measured through a series of perception and production tasks before and after receiving
instruction. The results show that the app-based instruction had a significantly beneficial
effect on the pronunciation of learners in the experimental group, although not for every
sound or task. Generalisation to novel contexts also occurred, although this was also limited
to a few sounds.
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Using iPads as Tools to Evaluate Pre-service Teacher Performance on
Teaching Practice
Stella Hadjistassou, KIOS Research Center for Intelligence Systems and Networks University of
Cyprus, Cyprus
The decision to integrate mobile-based devices in the curriculum, the pedagogical
implications, and the technological affordances and contradictions in enriching second and/or
foreign language learners‘ experiences have galvanized scholarly interest (see GoodwinJones, 2011; Kinash, Brand, & Mathew, 2012; Kukulska-Hulme, 2009; Kukulska-Hulme &
Shield, 2007; Lys, 2013). However, even teacher-led initiatives to integrate mobile devices in
the curriculum have often been constrained by the lack of institutional support, constructive
training on how to bring forth and fully realize the affordances of mobile devices, and above
all the lack or limited ―developers‘ conceptualization of how language learning could be
enhanced in new, innovative ways with the assistance of mobile devices‖ (Goodwin-Jones,
2011, p. 7). Further, there is a dearth of studies on how mobile-devices such as iPads can be
used in new innovative ways. For instance, iPads can be used as tools to record and evaluate
in-service teachers‘ teaching practices – especially in cases where in-service teachers teach in
remote locations where it is not always feasible to have an experienced faculty member to be
physically present in the classroom and offer in-service teachers constructive feedback on
their teaching practices. This study introduces a novel approach where iPads were used in the
remote assessment of student teacher classroom performance while on teaching practice. A
group of primary school student teachers from a university in Sweden were each issued with
an iPad mini for the purposes of recording separate aspects of their EFL lessons while on a
five week international teaching practice. Five in-service teachers were assigned to teaching
practice schools in [location] as part of their five week international teaching experience. All
in-service teachers were given specific guidelines and assignments to guide them in
submitting a series of short video excerpts of lesson. The recorded data were uploaded on a
Moodle forum specifically designed for the purposes of this course. Upon their return to
Sweden, in-service teachers received feedback from two experienced faculty members. The
aims of this study then were to investigate the following overarching research questions: (1)
How can iPads be integrated as tools for evaluating in-service teachers teaching practices? (2)
What are in-service teachers‘ perceptions about the use of iPads for evaluating their teaching
practices?
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Student and instructor relationship to instructional technology
This study investigated first year tertiary students‘ access and use of digital technologies in
formal and informal educational and/or personal settings. These students attend a public
research oriented university and are all Language Centre students representing all
departments campus wide. A mixed method approach was used in order to elicit empirical
evidence to complement the current research citing tertiary students as Digital Natives,
Millennials or the Net Generation as defined by Prensky, 2001. An initial quantitative online
questionnaire was available to students which mainly dealt with four areas: (1) student
background information, (2) foreign language competency, (3) possession and/or access to
ICT, and (4) how the students used ICT and social networking. Approximately 485 students
completed the survey. The raw data of the survey was coded using SPSS, statistical analysis
software. Preliminary results indicate that students possess a number of available ICT
hardware that is on the market, and they are knowledgeable in the use of social networking
tools - but only for personal and/or informal learning settings. In the next phase of the study
qualitative semi-structured interviews were undertaken with randomly selected students and
instructors separately. The interviews were transcribed and coded while Grounded Theory
methodology was applied. Data triangulation indicates that instructors‘ use of technology in
the classroom influences students use and attitude towards the use of technology for
educational purposes and that students‘ inexperience in using technology in formal learning
environments impedes instructors‘ inclusion in the curriculum. This double edged sword
provides insight into how educational institutions and educators can improve the use of
instructional technology particularly in foreign language learning.
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Enhanced TOOLS for CLIL and Clil4U
Kent Andersen, SDE College, Denmark
The presentation will have focus on free online CLIL resources that are suitable for
scaffolding.
During the presentation the participants will experience how to link texts word by word to
online dictionaries in +100 languages using Clilstore (multidict.net/clilstore) a tool developed
during the TOOLS project, which had Eurocall as a partner. See Clilstore used in a real class:
https://youtu.be/t9sAr6f2aLA Clilstore is growing in popularity, but is in need of added
functions that will enable users to upload exercises and create exercises like Hot Potatoes
directly within Clilstore. The ideas behind the new eTOOLS project (also with Eurocall as a
partner) will be presented and hopefully ideas for new or improved TOOLS functions will be
collected from the participants.
The presentation will also seek to present the outcomes of the Clil4U project: - A collection
of materials and commented links to resources relevant for CLIL in European languages:
http://languages.dk/databank/ -48 scenarios complete with materials covering primary
schools and vocational colleges. Each scenario describes a module with advice on method
and on how to share the tasks between teachers in a CLIL team, together with ready to use
materials. For the primary schools the scenarios are based on the national curricula and cover
subjects like maths and art as well as thematic projects covering several subjects. Two of
these deal with life and traditions in two other countries (DK/IT/ES), so pupils learn phrases,
songs, games etc. from these countries. For vocational colleges the scenarios cover content
from electrical regulations, first aid, human physics, medical subjects, etc.
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Friday, 26 August
12:00-12:30
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Collaboration through blogging: The development of writing and speaking
skills in ESP courses
Angela Kleanthous, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Collaboration is believed to be helpful in encouraging students to become more motivated
and engaged in the learning process, as well as to complete set tasks (Rummel & Spada,
2005; Johnson & Johnson, 2009; Fernández Dobao, 2012). Providing as well as receiving
feedback by both their peers and their instructor via this process can also prove to be
beneficial, especially in improving students‘ writing skills and language acquisition in
general (Guardado & Shi, 2007).
There has been a growing interest nowadays in incorporating social media in education and in
language teaching in particular (Chum Chan, & Tiwari, 2012; Deng & Yuen, 2011; Kang,
Bonk, & Myung-Chun, 2011; Halic, Lee, Paulus & Spence (2010). For instance, blogs (or
weblogs), which are tools that can be used for communication among students and the
instructor, have been shown to be effective in enhancing writing and/or reading skills
(Montero-Fleta, Perez-Sabater, 2010; Akcay & Arslan, 2010; Noytim, 2010). In the context
of writing, previous studies confirm that English language learners' writing skills tend to
improve through the use of blogs (Montero-Fleta, Perez-Sabater, 2010; Akcay & Arslan,
2010; Noytim, 2010; Wright, White, Hirst, and Cann, 2014, 126), as their interactive
platforms enable learners to exchange comments and offer feedback, which in turn allow
learners to reflect on their own work and learning. While there has been extensive research on
the use of blogs in language learning in general, and in English in particular, there has been
little focus on whether blogs can be effective in developing learners‘ writing skills in English
for Specific Purposes‘ courses (ESP). This study proposes a research agenda for the
effectiveness of collaboration through peer feedback in enhancing the writing skills of ESP
students in an online setting. A preliminary analysis of data collected suggests that the
interactive use of blogs in the ESP classroom has a positive impact on students‘ writing skills.
The discussion of our results will highlight the importance of social media in promoting
language learning within a collaborative environment that is essentially learner centred and
teacher facilitated, as recommended by CALL researchers (Chapelle, 2001, 2003; Chapelle &
Jamieson (2008).
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The effects of Multimodality through storytelling using various movie clips
SoHee Kim, Korea University, South Korea
Multimodality can refer to a new communication form that provides learning experiences for
language learners. Multimodal modes include more than language, enabling language
learners to perceive and understand differently based on their individual cultural
backgrounds, linguistic competence, and content knowledge. In particular, since many online
educational tools support the use of a variety of modes, there are great potential opportunities
that the learners can interact with various modes that they can manage and select their
preferred learning in online language learning. Moreover, using various modes can lead to
possible to refer to the integration skills that learner can access and interpret multiple modes
at the same time. Thus, it needs to consider what the most salient multimodal approach for
language learning and learners‘ reactions are. In order to investigate multimodal effects, this
study examines which mode would optimize performance for learners with different language
proficiency through narrative tasks. This study was designed for 90 Korean university
students who have beginning, intermediate, and advanced English proficiencies to see their
interactions through storytelling on three different types of modes. Among the various modes,
a silent movie clip, a movie clip with sound effects, and a movie clip with sound effects and
dialogue were used to determine how English learners have different interactions based on
their language proficiency in terms of listening and speaking as well as preferred learning
modes. Three tasks were administered on the websites specially designed for the study using
Flying Popcorn 7.0, a web authoring program. After viewing each movie clip, participants
were asked to record a one-minute story on the spot. In order to develop further discussion,
this presentation will share the results of a survey concerning participants‘ attitudes towards
three modes. This session may also provide the use of appropriate modes to develop media
literacy using storytelling in online and offline learning environment.
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Mobile-Assisted Language Learning and Language Learner Autonomy
Paul Lyddon, Osaka Jogakuin College, Japan
In the modern age of exponential knowledge growth and accelerating technological
development, the need to engage in lifelong learning is becoming increasingly urgent.
Successful lifelong learning, in turn, requires learner autonomy, or ―the capacity to take
control of one‘s own learning‖ (Benson, 2011, p. 58), including all relevant decisions about
what, when, where, and how to learn. Mobile technologies, as not only potential means for
learning anywhere and anytime but also conduits to rich, multimodal content, provide
unprecedented opportunities for the development of learner autonomy. However, even when
learners possess adequate training in mobile technology use and autonomy itself,
implementation of mobile learning devices in the classroom often seems to engender little
additional autonomous behavior. This paper highlights the differing constraints on learner
autonomy in formal and informal learning environments. It then proposes an approach to
encouraging greater demonstration of autonomy though an explicit linking of institutional
requirements associated with routine lesson assignments and the achievement of personally
meaningful, individually determined learning goals. Finally, it suggests the role that mobile
technology can and properly ought to play in capacitating consistently high levels of
demonstrated autonomy both inside and outside the classroom.
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Designing for unpredictability in CALL
Juha Jalkanen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
In the age of supercomplexity (Barnett 2000), education is faced with great expectations.
Along with globalization, digitalization has increased the possibilities for communication,
content production, access to information, and the evolution of a participatory culture (Erstad
2010). These transitions, in turn, have informed us about how we need to reorient what we
mean by ―being literate‖ in our culture (Erstad 2011). However, recent studies have provided
insights into the parallel realities of literacy practices at school and in free time (e.g. Taalas et
al. 2008). Hence, the practices within the digital domain remain a critical issue in formal
education. To bridge the gap between the two realities, research is needed to explore and to
study dynamic approaches to dealing with these transitions in the field of language teaching
and learning.
In this presentation, I will discuss the results of a recent study (Author 2015) that examines
the development of pedagogical design in technology-rich environments for language
teaching and learning in the context of Finland‘s higher education. The specific focus of this
presentation is on designing for unpredictability. Theoretically, the study builds on theories of
expertise, pedagogical design and languaging. To demonstrate how the technology-rich
environment shapes the enactment of pedagogical design in physical and virtual settings,
some empirical data will be presented. In the light of the ecological approach (van Lier
2000), I will discuss how such unpredictability can be understood and designed for in the
context of language teaching. Finally, I will conclude with the implications for language
teacher education and pedagogical development work.
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Does usage of an online EFL workbook conform to Benford‟s law?
Mikołaj Olszewski, Pearson, Poland
Kacper Łodzikowski, Pearson, Poland
Jan Zwoliński, Pearson, Poland
Rasil Warnakulasooriya, Pearson, United States
Adam Black, Macmillan Learning, France
Objective: The aim of this paper is to check if EFL learners‘ usage of an online workbook
follows Benford‘s law, which predicts the frequency of leading digits in numbers describing
natural phenomena.
Background and data: According to Benford (1938), one can predict the frequency
distribution of leading digits in numbers composed of four or more digits describing natural
datasets, such as river lengths, city populations, death rates, etc. In such numbers, the digit 1
is the most frequently occurring leading digit (about 30% of cases), while the digit 9 is the
least-frequently occurring leading digit (less than 5% of cases). This is a counterintuitive
claim since one expects all leading digits to be equally probable. In recent years, Benford‘s
law attracted the attention of researchers for its practical implications, e.g. discovering tax
frauds (Miller 2015). In the case of an online EFL workbook, Benford‘s law could help
identify the relationship between learners‘ behavior and their performance, as well as to
detect abnormal behaviour. We focused on the number of online activities completed by EFL
learners and the time spent on those activities, the latter being an inherently noisy data
variable given the variety of extraneous events that can happen during the course of a learner
interacting with the relevant EFL-related online activities. The data comes from
MyEnglishLab for Speakout Pre-intermediate (henceforth ‗MyEnglishLab‘), an EFL
workbook that accompanies a paper textbook. It consists of twelve units, each of which
contains about thirty typical EFL activities. The anonymized dataset contains 3,218,624 first
attempts of MyEnglishLab activities from 35,265 learners from 18 different countries (or 12
different languages).
Method and results: For each day when a learner attempted a MyEnglishLab activity, we
calculated the total number of activities attempted for that day. The frequency distribution of
the leading digits of these measurements were then plotted and compared with the expected
trend according to Benford‘s law. The findings show that the resulting curve closely fits the
Benford‘s law. For time on task, we listed the time (in seconds) that every learner spent on
every first attempt on a MyEnglishLab activity. The frequency distribution of the leading
digits of these measurements was again plotted and compared with the expected trend
according to Benford‘s law. We show that the resulting curve nearly-perfectly fits Benford‘s
law. Moreover, learners receive the highest average activity scores when the leading digit of
average time on task is 1 or 9 and the lowest score when the digit is 5. Thus, learners who
submit activities within 90-199 s on average achieve a higher activity score -- about 4%
higher -- than learners who submit activities within 50-59 s or within 500-599 s. These
findings may reflect specific behavioural and learning patterns of learners relative to the
assessment or learning tasks they are engaged with. Additionally, this approach shows how
insights can be revealed in noisy online data, such as the time data, which the standard
methods of analysis would not reveal.
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A Spanish-Finnish telecollaboration: extending intercultural competence
via video conferencing
Pasi Puranen, Aalto University – Language Centre, Finland
Ruby Vurdien, White Rose Language School, Spain
In language learning today students from different geographical locations can interact online
with a view to developing language skills and intercultural competence. This online
intercultural exchange, which is also known as telecollaboration, enables students to interact
in a more authentic environment, share their views with their partners, create profiles as well
as build online communities enjoying common interests. This paper examines and reports on
a study about how students from two different countries, Finland and Spain, developed
intercultural competence through the use of a video conferencing platform, Adobe Connect,
as a telecollaborative learning context. The platform Facebook was also used so that each
group could post their recorded discussions for their peers to watch.
The Spanish participants were preparing for the C1 and C2 (Common European Framework
of Reference) Cambridge ESOL examinations, whereas the Finnish participants were
studying a degree in Economics and were learning Spanish as part of their compulsory
language studies. A task-based project was designed in which students interacted online with
their peers for six weeks. The participants were expected to perform a weekly task on the
Connect videoconferencing platform in groups of three.
The first three tasks were assigned in English whilst the other three were in Spanish. The
exchange of information was aimed at helping the students to learn about different aspects of
each other‘s culture with a view to developing intercultural competence. The study adopted a
qualitative approach and data were collected by means of two questionnaires administered at
the start and end of the project to find out about their expectations of the project and if these
had been fulfilled. A survey comprising a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly
disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) was also employed to gauge the participants‘ reactions to the
project. Finally, individual interviews were conducted at the end of the project to gather
additional data. The two main questions that guided this study are as follows:
1. To what extent does intercultural competence take place in students‘ interaction via video
conferencing?
2. What do the participants consider to be the most important learning outcome in this
intercultural project?
The findings suggest that the students‘ learning experience was positive and to a certain
extent they had enhanced their knowledge of each other‘s cultural traits, such as their
lifestyle, food, hobbies and traditions. They reported that they had found similarities between
the two cultures, particularly in terms of hobbies and interests, which they attributed to the
fact that they belonged to the same age group. Some Spanish students also mentioned that the
image they had of their Finnish counterparts had improved considerably on completion of the
project and group work was deemed helpful in exchanging their views regarding the different
issues they discussed. However, they pointed out that communication was not always smooth
due to certain technical problems that arose throughout the exchange. Some Finnish students
mentioned that they had more problems communicating their thoughts due to their low level
in Spanish.
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Friday, 26 August
12:30-13:00
174 | Page
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The use of NLP tools for language generation in CALL: the case of verb
conjugators
Hans Paulussen, iMinds-ITEC-KU Leuven, Belgium
Piet Desmet, iMinds-ITEC-KU Leuven, Belgium
In which way can natural language processing (NLP) resources and tools help language
learners in learning a new language? Nowadays, many NLP tools are available but they are
mainly used for analysis, less for generation (Heift & Schulze, 2007). For example, the
analysis from finite verb forms to their canonical infinitive form is part of any lemmatization
program (ate -> to eat), but the other way round (eat -> eats, ate, eaten) is only provided in
language generation tools. Moreover, the tools have mainly been developed for robust
analysis, and therefore often lack fine-grained output, which is necessary in the language
learning CALL context. Language analysis tools are mainly used in error analysis and
feedback. Language generation tools, on the other hand, can help language learners in
producing language. A typical example of language generation tools are verb conjugators
that can help learners to write the correct form.
In this talk, we will present an analysis of two tools developed for automatic verb
conjugation, and show where the tools fail and can be improved. The analysis is focused on
the creation of primitive tenses (infinitive, simple past, past participle), since these form the
basic pattern to construct all the other conjugated forms. Dutch was selected, because it has a
richer morphology than, for example, English, and there are fewer conjugation tools available
for Dutch.
A conjugator program usually consists of a database containing a list of irregular verbs (and
the primitive tense forms) and a module capable of conjugating regular verbs on the basis of
morphological rules. In a similar way, language learners have to learn the irregular verbs by
heart and learn the rules to conjugate the regular verbs. There are systems to facilitate rotelearning by dividing the list of irregular verbs into manageable chunks, usually based on verb
patterns or frequency. The number of irregular verbs for Dutch varies from some 170 (found
in different lists) to about 275 forms (wikipedia). There is even a case of 1500 forms (Onze
Taal), but this is a distorted image of the verbal system, based on the fact that the components
of Dutch particle verbs and compound verbs are written together in the infinitive (e.g. rijden:
autorijden, wegrijden, meerijden, proefrijden, paardrijden).
In order to test the quality of conjugation tools, we analysed the conjugation of a
representative sample set of verbs, using the web-based tool (www.verbix.com) and the
stand-alone python module Pattern (De Smedt & Daelemans, 2012). The sample set consisted
of 1068 verbs from the Intertaal learners' dictionary, which was converted into a database
format, as part of a project creating the language learner platform for learners of Dutch:
www.nedbox.be. The analysis will show that the main errors are related to some common
issues. First of all, the morphological structure of the verb (particles and compounding)
sometimes conceal irregular verb forms. Another issue, which cannot readily be solved
without context, is the fact that a small number of verbs have different (irregular) forms,
depending on their meaning (e.g. plegen, pluizen, prijzen). Finally, English loans, although
following general conjugation rules, require extra processing often not yet implemented.
After resolving the most obvious errors, conjugators can be useful tools to help language
learners select the right verb form in writing tasks.
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Methodological issues in the study of the impact on the knowledge
construction process of multimodal online interactions in audio-graphic
conferencing systems
Chahrazed Mirza Mirza, Nizwa University, Oman
Online researchers suggest that synchronous audio-graphic conferencing systems provide
different mediational tools that create different mediated educational interactions that support
the collaborative process of meaning construction. However, providing tools for synchronous
multimodal interactions does not automatically result in efficient and constructive
interactions. For instance, the use of SAGC tools brought ―affordances‖ that offer
opportunities as well as challenges for tutors and students to develop new skills necessary to
communicate and co-construct meaning. Besides, the uses of each communication tool as
well as the simultaneous use of a variety of tools create different types of affordances.
However, the existing literature does not indicate whether the affordances of the use of the
synchronous medium can effectively enhance this process of meaning construction. In
addition, Multimodal data continues to intrigue researchers due to the lack of models of
multimodal data transcription and analysis. I assume that students‘ choice to use tools
individually or simultaneously would result in different kinds of affordances depending on
the combination of tools used. The interaction between the different tools shaped by the
different multimodal choices of students is a very important aspect of the affordances of
mediation in the context of multimodal online discussions. I assume that the mediational
multimodal choices of students create different types of affordances that might have impacts
on the quantity and the quality of interaction. we can understand the opportunities that
students have to collaborate to construct meaning only if we examine the mediational
affordances of the different mediational tools when used individually and/or simultaneously
for the collaborative meaning construction. This thesis brings together two lines of research.
The first develops a methodological framework for the transcription, description and
presentation of multimodal online interactions as well as a model of analysis of the meaning
construction process that draws on socio-constructivist understanding that the process of
meaning construction is social and individual. The second is concerned with the analysis of
online multimodal discussions; it examines the interrelationship between the different
mediational tools of communication and the different affordances of their simultaneous and
single use that may hinder or promote the collaborative process of meaning construction. The
design of this research focuses on interaction patterns and examines the extent to which
online discussions, mediated by the different tools of communication, reach high levels of
collaborative meaning construction. This study assumes the meaning construction process to
be empirically observable through analyzing online interactions and students‘ perceptions of
the learning experiences. It examines, through interviews, questionnaires and video
recordings of online tutorials, the quality of online learning experiences of two different UK
Open University tutorial groups learning French. The use of the developed models shows that
participants make different multimodal choices which lead to the creation of different
patterns of multimodal interactions and online exchanges that affect differently students‘
engagement in the collaborative meaning construction process. Furthermore, results show
that the multimodal competencies of students and tutors, the tutors‘ styles and task design
play an important role in supporting the collaborative meaning construction process.
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Preparing students‟ mobility through telecollaboration: the I-Tell project
Marta Giralt, University of Limerick, Ireland
In recent years, going abroad during the course of their studies has become all the more
significant for HE students as concepts such as internationalisation, globalisation and
intercultural competencies have gained a prominent role in Higher Education (Penman and
Ratz, 2015). Byram & Dervin (2008) have shown that while it is crucial to increase the
opportunities for students to go abroad, it is erroneous to assume that students will
automatically benefit from this experience. In 1997, Coleman already highlighted that while
―[p]reparation for the cultural dimension of discourse [could] obviate certain problems‖(p.2)
in general, the preparatory tasks in this domain were non-existent or inadequate as they were
often limited to practical or linguistic advice. In the last few years, programmes have
emerged in various Higher Education institutions which address these issues. This paper will
focus on one of these pre-mobility preparation programmes: the I-Tell project (Intercultural
Telecollaborative Learning). This initiative has been running for the past two years, offered
jointly by the University of Limerick, Ireland and the University of León, Spain. It aims at
raising intercultural awareness amongst students and promoting language practice through
online exchanges between students in both institutions in the semester prior to their mobility
period. As part of the project work, participants have to conduct in pairs a series of
telecollaborative tasks covering a range of cultural and intercultural topics over a period of
eight weeks. The virtual exchanges are carried out using e-mails; video recordings and
videoconferences. In this paper, we will first position the I-Tell project within the current
research in the field of telecollaboration, especially in relation to studies in intercultural
learning (Ware & Kramsch, 2005; Thorne, 2006; O'Dowd, 2007) and students mobility
preparation (Coleman & Parker, 2001; Holmes, Bavieri & Ganassin, 2015; Gutiérrez, Dur n
& Beltr n, 2015; Borghetti, Beaven & Pugliese, 2015). We will then present our data. A
survey distributed to 20 students at the end of the two iterations of the project allowed us to
collect quantitative data while the comment sections of the survey, reflective portfolios
written by students on completion of the initiative and post-project focus groups yielded
qualitative data. This data was coded into categories. Common topics and recurrent ideas
were identified and connected to the domains established for this study: linguistic and
intercultural development and preparation for mobility. The data analysis reveals some
encouraging results. Not only did students report an improvement in their linguistic abilities
and intercultural awareness, but the data also shows that the project was also instrumental in
preparing students for their mobility programme, both logistically and psychologically. This
latter point will be particularly highlighted. We will compare and discuss how some of the
activities and elements of the project were modified following the outcomes of the first year
of the project and the impact these changes had on the second iteration of the initiative.
Finally, conclusions and recommendations based on the findings will be drawn and the
importance of telecollaboration in preparation for the period abroad will be discussed.
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Friday, 26 August
14:30-15:30
Keynote Lecture
178 | Page
KeynoteLecture - Friday, 26 August - 14:30-15:30
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Deconstructing digital literacy practices: Identity narratives from the
South
Leila Kajee, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Panorama
The digital revolution has changed informationseeking behaviour beyond recognition. In
developed countries a whole generation has grown up in a digital society, exposed to vast
amounts of information in a variety of formats: text, image, video, audio. They interact
naturally with digital technology and combine work and social life instinctively and
nonsequentially. With the growing convergence of media, the boundaries between digital
technology and other media have become increasingly blurred.
In children‘s leisure, computers are more than information devices: they convey stories,
images, identities, and fantasies through providing imaginative opportunities for play. They
provide new ways of mediating the child‘s world, thus children are engaging with media not
just as technologies, but as cultural forms. Their actions are mediated by digital tools, and
digital technology is subsequently a means and symptom of social change. Because
technology has provided children with alternate platforms with which to engage in social
interaction it is inevitable that the socialisation process is also influenced. This in turn shapes
the construction of digital identities.
In this address I report on the ―Cyber Lives‖ project I lead in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The project has several strands where our team examines in-and-out of school digital literacy
practices and its contribution to schooled literacy. In this presentation I report on the digital
identity strand. To do this I provide three supporting cases of how young children and
adolescents negotiate their identity digitally through the digital games they play, the
multimodal narratives they compose, and their social networking practices. I use New
Literacy Studies as a framework to theorise literacy practices, and the work of Hall and others
to theorise identity. The paper presents further possible implications of digital identity
construction for teaching and learning.
179 | Page
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Saturday, 27 August
09:00-09:30
180 | Page
Parallel Sessions - Saturday, 26 August - 09:00-09:30
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Developing a comprehensive pedagogical framework for pronunciation
training based on blended learning and adapted Automatic Speech
Recognition systems
Saandia Vanessa Ali, Rennes 2 University, France
This paper reports on the early stages of a locally funded research and development project
taking place in a French university. It aims at developing a comprehensive pedagogical
framework for pronunciation training for adult learners of English. This framework will
combine a direct approach to pronunciation training (Face-to-Face teaching) with online
instruction using and adapting existing ASR systems. The sample of learners chosen for the
study, are university students majoring in Arts, Literature or Communication at graduate and
undergraduate level. These students have generally been learning English for 7 years prior to
entering university and might show an advanced mastery of grammar and syntax, but their
spoken English remain heavily accented and may hinder effective communication.
Furthermore, the classes are overcrowded (up to 40 students per group) and the emphasis is
placed on fluency and communication skills rather than phonetic accuracy. In addition to that,
most teachers don‘t feel confident with teaching pronunciation as they often haven‘t received
any training themselves. Under these circumstances, students experience performance
anxiety, and they only have a limited amount of time for teacher-student interaction and
individualised feedback. Language learning appears most efficient when the teacher
constantly monitors progress to guide remediation or advancement. Computer Assisted
Pronunciation Training programs (CAPT, Abuseleek 2007) could help realising these goals
by offering individual practice and feedback in a safe environment. A considerable body of
research has already shown the efficacy of ASR systems for pronunciation training (Hinks
2001, Kim 2006 or Elimat 2014). Recent ASR based CAPT programs include Subarashii
(Entropic HTK recognizer), VILTS (SRI recognizer), FLUENCY (Carnegie Mellon
University SPHINX recognizer), Naturally Speaking (Dragon Systems), and FluSpeak (IBM
ViaVoice recognizer). We intend to build on these existing programs and on previous
research to develop a set of tools to address bad pronunciation habits among French learners
of English. This approach is based on intensive hybrid tuition, starting from teaching English
phonology, pronunciation rules and contrastive analysis in the classroom and then developing
online courses with embedded ASR systems for autonomous learning with automatic
corrective feedback at both segmental (phone) and suprasegmental (intonation) level.
Pronunciation is more cognitive than articulatory and we believe that such an approach could
provide both a cognitive input so as to help students become more aware of their
pronunciation habits and opportunities for practice and feedback. The ideal adapted ASR
system should include error detection, scoring of pronunciation, full diagnosis (error
visualisation and analysis) and remediation tools. It should also accommodate different levels
of proficiency (priorities being set for each level and for each learner profile). Reading tasks
and virtual conversations based on elicited language will be used for the online course.
Finally, most CAPT systems present part of the feedback through the recording and visual
representation of learners‘ performance which is compared to the recording of a native
speaker. Commonly used spectrograms will be enriched with modelled representations that
are closer to learners‘ perception using pitch modelling algorithms such as Momel
(Modelling Melody, Espesser & Hirst 2003).
181 | Page
How can teachers utilize corpora when the EFL classroom has no
computers?
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How can teachers utilize corpora when the EFL classroom has no computers?
Corpora, large and structured electronic databases of naturally occurring examples of
language, are relied upon more and more each day in the development of teaching resources.
This can easily be observed when one looks at the body of corpus-based or corpus-informed
dictionaries that are available nowadays, yet this is still not the case for materials designed to
teach grammar or vocabulary.
When EFL is taught in a lab, the gap can relatively easily be filled by utilizing the technology
available. However, for settings where it is practically not possible for teachers to rely on
technology within the classroom on daily basis, an alternative is needed to compensate.
The popularity of possessing Personal Computers and/or smart devices with internet access in
addition to the availability of free to use corpora encouraged the presenters to examine the
use of corpora to help teachers create authentic material that reflect the natural use of the
language.
The presenters will show how to use the BYU Corpus of Contemporary American English
(COCA) to create material that is prepared and taught using a Data Driven Learning (DDL)
approach that is loosely built around Tasked Based Language Teaching (TBLT) principles.
The COCA is consulted to aid in decisions on what topics and vocabulary to include, which
semantic fields and lexical associations to represent them in while creating TBLT activities
and exercises.
This presentation is mainly aimed at teachers in setting where Language classes are not held
in a lab, yet it provides a method of utilizing corpora in a way that provides contextual
information that goes beyond annotating parts of speech and going through mechanical
activities, as such it can be adapted by teachers in more tech-advanced settings.
The presenters aim to share with teachers the knowledge needed to utilize corpora to create
material that reflect natural language use and will share a guide with the participants so that
they can easily start building the material that suits their students in their settings.
182 | Page
A Study in Sherlock: Bridging the Digital Wilds and the Language
Classroom
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Shannon Sauro, Malmö University, Sweden
This reflective practice presentation builds on prior work that has looked at the use of fandom
tasks (Sauro, 2014) for language learning. Such tasks include those that focus on fanfiction,
defined by Jamison (2013) as "writing that continues, interrupts, reimagines, or just riffs on
stories and characters other people have already written about" (p. 17). Initial investigation of
fanfiction in the advanced English classroom has shown that collaborative fanfiction tasks
that makes use of blog-based role-play to tell a missing moment from a story can be useful in
bridging both language and literary learning (Sauro & Sundmark, in press 2016). However,
although such tasks borrow from digital and linguistic practices found in online fan
communities, the resulting stories do not fully reflect the linguistic or literary norms of the
fanfiction in the digital wilds. This was a concern for language learners whose interest in
publishing their online fanfiction was to communicate with online fans and fan communities.
The means of addressing this may lie in better integrating fan practices and fan voices in the
tasks themselves and in actual classroom practice. This presentation, therefore, explores the
revision and implementation of collaborative fanfiction tasks and instructions that do just
that.
Building on previous blog-based fanfiction projects, the current project, A Study in Sherlock,
was carried out as part of a course for students in the teacher education program at a Swedish
university who were specializing in teaching English at the secondary school level. Students
self-organized into small groups of 4-6 to write and publish online a collaborative mystery
inspired by a Sherlock Holmes story. As part of their preparation, students were guided in the
reading of several Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but were also required to read Sherlock
Holmes fanfiction that had been identified by online fans as representative of the tropes and
specific fan genres found in this type of fan writing. In addition, online several fanfiction
writers were contacted to share writing activities they used when helping other novice
fanfiction writers and these were incorporated into class instruction. Once completed, these
stories were shared with online Sherlock Holmes fan communities.
Analysis of the language, content, and formatting of the 16 completed online stories as well
as the reaction of fans, in particular to the six stories that were published to online fanfiction
archives, revealed advantages for integrating fan practices into task design and teaching to
support greater mastery of fanfiction genres in a manner more likely to reach (fan) readers
and thereby link the digital wilds with the language classroom.
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Mapping & Evaluating Language MOOCs at a global level
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In the age of globalization the need for language learning is greater than ever before.
Globalization is a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society
and functioning together [1]. As global citizens we need to be able to work in settings
characterized by linguistic and cultural diversity and that means that language competencies
and intercultural skills are more than ever a part of the key qualifications needed to
successfully work and live in this new reality. But how easy is to achieve this goal? Easy
access to open data, open educational resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses
(MOOCs) have changed dramatically the educational landscape, paving the way to a different
mode of learning a foreign language. Over 370,000 students have enrolled
in FLEnglishIELTS course that prepared them for the English language proficiency test
IELTS. This course was offered by the FutureLearn MOOC provider making it the biggest
MOOC so far in the world [2]. These findings show that there is a really growing interest for
MOOCs connected to Foreign Language Learning (FLL). Even though many prestigious
universities offer open language courses at large scale choosing well known MOOC
providers such as Coursera, EdX and others, the body of research on exploration and
evaluation of the existing Language Learning MOOC initiatives at a global level is really
poor. This paper aims to fill this research gap presenting the research contribution of the
Erasmus+ KA2 project entitled LangMOOC project (www.langmooc.com). More
specifically, the paper will first present the findings of the background research [3], [4] of the
LangMOOC project that has explored the first Language Learning MOOC initiatives and
evaluated them based on the Massive Open Online Interactive Language Learning
Environment (MOILLE) framework. Next, the paper will analyze the overall aims of the
LangMOOC project and in the end, it will discuss its first research findings as well as its
future research steps.
184 | Page
Instructional design for openness - practical implications
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Malgorzata Kurek, Jan Dlugosz University, Poland
The openness paradigm, which assumes open access to educational resources and public
visibility of educational practices, has become a prerequisite to major educational trends of
today such as the focus on learner autonomy, the role of peer-to-peer learning, the merging of
formal and informal education and the levelling of educational opportunities. With potential
for modification being the underlying principle of open educational content, increasing
attention is being given to the processes of its repurposing and localisation to culturally and
pedagogically different local contexts (e.g. Parrish and Linder-VanBerschot, 2010; Buckler,
Perryman, Seal, & Musafir, 2014). The following presentation builds on the idea that the
quality of instructional design should be seen as a relation between the original version and
its appropriated adaptation (Conole & Ehlers 2010) and that open content created for a given
educational context should not be seen as culturally pre-determined but should lend itself to
flexible appropriation to other, educationally, pedagogically, technically or even politically
different cultures. Driven by the view that it is the teacher who takes an active role in
repurposing and appropriating open content, I will show how properly designed tasks and
materials can assist teachers in their autonomous judgements and decisions about which
modifications to implement. As I will argue, open content designed for future appropriation
needs to follow a set of specific criteria making it both well structured and generic. In the
presentation I will analyse the tasks and content designed in the EU-funded project LangOER
and I will formulate the criteria for openness–related instructional design.
185 | Page
Mingling Students Cognitive Abilities and Learning Strategies to
Transform CALL
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Efi Nisiforou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Language researchers have identified a number of elements related to language performance.
One of these factors is individual attributes of the language learners or their cognitive
abilities-styles. In Fall semester 2015, 18 undergraduates of Greek for academic purposes
language course of a Public University in Cyprus participated in the study during a 13-week
session of in-classroom instruction. This research work attempts to investigate the
relationship between students Field Dependence-Independence cognitive ability and learning
strategies within a Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) environment. Students
FDI cognitive style was measured on their performance on the Hidden Figures Test (HFT)
psychometric tool and classified into Field-Dependent (FD), Field-Mixed or Neutral
(FM/FN), and Field-Independent (FI) learners. After the measure was ad¬ministered, records
of participants‘ learning strategies related to four language learning skills, (a) writing, (b)
reading, (c) listening and (d) speaking were reported using an online questionnaire. Statistics
and mainly qualitative analyses were used to interpret the data. With the end goal of
understanding how learners Field Dependence – Independence (FDI) cognitive ability
intersects in learning within a CALL environment, the article concludes with some directions
for further areas of research.
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Saturday, 27 August
09:30-10:00
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Exploiting Behaviorist and Communicative Action-based Methodologies in
CALL Applications for the Teaching of Pronunciation in French as a
Foreign Language
Olga Georgiadou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
Monique Monville-Burston, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
This paper describes the use of instructional technology to promote, through a combination of
behaviorist and communicative action-based methodologies, correct pronunciation of French
as a foreign language (FFL) to native Greek-speaking false beginner-level learners.
Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has long been valued for its potential to
extend teaching out of the classroom (Reinders & Darasawang 2012), which for oral
production is essential given the practical constraints on in-class activities. As reflected in the
number of websites devoted to teaching French pronunciation, though out of fashion
(Warschauer 1996), behavorist focus-on-form exercises remain a methodologically valid
approach to this challenge. However, in attempting to exploit such online resources, teachers
of FFL are confronted by two considerable shortcomings. Firstly, the majority of these
websites are generic in nature and thus do not take account of L1-specific factors. Secondly,
practice exercises are typically undertaken in isolation from communicative activities.
Overcoming these obstacles requires teachers to create materials attuned to the mother tongue
of their learners and integrated into the class syllabus. They must also keep in mind that the
ultimate goal is to foster the acquisition of correct pronunciation, not just in isolated
exercises, but in spontaneous speech linked to meaningful discourse.
Within the curriculum of the A1-level French course at Cyprus University of Technology,
learners acquire the spoken language largely through action-based tasks, speech-acts related
to these activities and their formulaic expression. These are implemented through various
role-plays and the creation of short video clips using students‘ own mobile devices. Teacherauthored preparatory vocabulary exercises, created using the cloud-based Schoolshape digital
language lab system, provide the content of pronunciation exercises. CALL-based aural
discrimination exercises are exploited to make same/different judgements and to identify
which particular sounds are heard. As learners gain competence in discriminating between
the sounds of the L1 and the L2 as well as between L2 sounds, they also begin to notice the
gap (Schmidt 2010) between their own pronunciation and that of normative models.
Listen/repeat/listen exercises are thus used to provide pronunciation practice with words and
short phrases containing targeted phonological features. Such oral production exercises
require student self-evaluation for immediate feedback. In addition, the recording of
pronunciation exercises allows the instructor to asynchronously monitor student progress and
provide real-time correction in class and individually. Written language is exploited to
provide visual support for oral output and establish the phonological correspondences of the
orthographic system. The reading out loud and recording of model words and phrases, as well
as virtual dialogues without written support in which students record their responses to oral
prompts, provide both pronunciation practice and preparation for the action-based mobile
video creation.
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By linking their substance to the vocabulary, grammar and content of action-based tasks,
behaviorist pronunciation exercises geared specifically to the L1 of our students become
meaningfully integrated into the communicative curriculum. Though taking place out of the
classroom, the recorded results allow the instructor to monitor student progress and more
effectively target follow-up correction.
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Japanese Speakers‟ Apologies in English: A Study Based on a Spoken
Corpus
Demeter (2012) demonstrated how spoken corpora could be used to study speech acts when
most examples could be found by searching for keywords. He did a study of apologies using
two spoken corpora and found that there were types of apologies that were not included in
previously developed typologies of apologies. I have done additional studies on Englishspeakers‘ apologies (Kitao, 2012; Kitao & Kitao, 2013) using a corpus developed from the
subtitles of a US situation comedy
One purpose of studying a speech act is to provide a description of how that speech act is
realized for the purpose of teaching it to non-native speakers. For that purpose, it is also
useful to know how non-native speakers realize that speech act, in order to look at what they
can do and what they might still need to learn.
In this paper, we have used The Corpus of Learner English (CLE) (Izumi, Uchimoto, &
Isahara, 2004), a corpus made up of transcripts of 1281 15- to 20-minute oral interviews with
Japanese speakers of English for the Standard Speaking Test (SST). The test includes a
warm-up chat on general topics, three tasks (a picture description, a role play and a
storytelling task, each with follow-up questions), and another informal chat. Using this
corpus, we did lemmatized searches for five words: sorry, pardon, excuse, forgive, and
apologize. Using the results of these searches, we classified the apology strategies based on
the typology developed by Cohen and Olshtain (1981) and revised by Hitomi Abe (personal
communication, March 5, 2012) and Kitao (2012). We looked at how they were combined
and also looked at apology strategies used for speech acts other than apologies, categorizing
them according to the speech act they represented. Considering these results, we discussed
how the teaching of apologies might be improved in English language materials and classes.
Cohen, A. D., and Olshtain, E. (1981). Developing a measure of sociocultural competence:
The case of apology. Language Learning, 31, 113-134. Demeter, G. (2012). Co-constructed
and negotiated apologies: Contributions of corpus linguistics to the study of speech acts.
Paper presented at the First Asia Pacific Corpus Linguistics Conference, Auckland, New
Zealand, February 14-19. Izumi, E., Uchimoto, K., and Isahara, H. (2004). SST speech
corpus of Japanese learners‘ English and automatic detection of learners‘ errors. ICAME
Journal, 28, 31-48. Kitao, S. K. (2012). Using a spoken corpus compiled from subtitles to
study apologies. Asphodel, 47, 50-77. Kitao, S.K., and Kitao, K. (2013). Apologies, apology
strategies, and apology forms for non-apologies in a spoken corpus. Journal of Culture and
Information Science, 8(2), 1-13.
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Task based learning and professional development: A success story
This paper investigates the use of a task-based approach in designing a professional
development virtual learning environment for tertiary foreign language instructors. Meaningmaking and creativity in learning is best achieved when activities are structured to allow
participants the opportunity to interact with one another through collaboration. Task-based
learning (TBL) enables course participants to establish a collaborative working environment,
to create and experience meaningful artefacts for classroom use, and to reflect on as well as
assess group and/or individual achievements. These are key characteristics cited in teacher
professional development literature that indicate a successful learning experience for teacher
participants and a successful application of newly acquired knowledge in the classroom.
Opfer & Pedar (2011) suggest that the focus of professional development is embedded in the
inclusion of schools, teacher professional development and tasks/activities. Teacher learning
must occur in a professional context. Borko & Putnam (1997) identify that there are multiple
perspectives in teacher professional development that include the personal, social, situated
and distributed notions of cognition. These perspectives are supported in a TBL design. A
case study will be presented illustrating the use of TBL in the design of the professional
development course as well as including the teachers experience as cited in reflective essays
through a content analysis identifying common themes expressed by the participants.
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Designing strategies for an efficient Language MOOC
Nowadays language competence and intercultural skills are more than ever before key
qualifications for every citizen in every part of the world. Professional development, cultural
awareness, mobility facilitation, social skills building are only few of the benefits that
language literacy can bring. According to the Opal Report [1] the main barriers to learn a
language include a lack of time, a lack of motivation and the expense of language courses.
But how easy is to cover the linguistic needs of a big number of people taking under
consideration the main language learning barriers? Open education initiatives such as
Massive Open Online Language Courses (MOOLCs) seems to be a promising solution as
they give the opportunity to massive number of learners to learn for free the language of their
choice with no space and time limitations. Research has shown that the key to successful
language learning lies in interaction, co-creation, community building and networking. The
pedagogical philosophy of Language MOOCs is connected ideally to the original MOOC,
connectivist MOOC (cMOOC), which was built on peer-to-peer learning, autonomy, social
networking diversity, openness, emergent knowledge, and interactivity [2]. But how can we
design such an efficient Language Learning environment for massive number of learners?
Which are the steps that need to be followed? Are there any good practices that showcase
successful Language MOOCs design strategies? According to recent research findings [3],
[4] there is not an ideal MOOLC platform that can offer a successful ―Massive Open Online
Interactive Language Learning Environment‖. Most of the current MOOLCs are following
the traditional model of xMOOCs that is based on a cognitive behavioral pedagogical model
but there are also few examples that embrace the cMOOC model (like Instreamia, Mixxer,
OpenLearning etc.). This paper aims to facilitate the work of Language teachers and
Language and Training providers who wish to design and create successful Massive Open
Online and Interactive Language Courses for all. First, it will present the ―Massive Open
Online Interactive Language Learning Environment (MOILLE) Questionnaire‖ analysing the
key steps in order to design a successful LangMOOC. Next, it will showcase specific
examples of successful LangMOOC activities and other platforms‘ features. In the end, the
paper will provide few useful and practical tips for the Language MOOC designers.
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Podcasting in a mobile world: Power, potential and pitfalls
Podcasting can be an inexpensive, beneficial and portable technology that offers language
learners and instructors the opportunity to access specially prepared content whenever and
wherever it is convenient. With the increased popularity of Internet access directly through
mobile devices, and the the huge growth of global smartphone ownership, podcasts have also
created the potential for language instructors and institutions to exploit these high ownership
numbers to the benefit of the language learning process. Whilst world-wide figures show that
the number of podcasts available through the Internet continues to steadily grow. At the
beginning of 2016 current figures show that there are between 115,000 to 130,000 English
language podcasts available to download. Additionally, there are numerous mobile
applications (apps) that can be downloaded to a smartphone or tablet device that allows for
easy access to these podcasts for little or no cost to the language learner.
First, this presentation will highlight the potential positives as well as possible negatives of
language-learning podcasts to both students and instructors. The presenter will also detail
ongoing research into the use of language-learning podcasts, specifically at the university
level. The goal of this research was to observe the practical benefits and potential drawbacks
of using podcasts and mobile technology as an integral part of the language-learning process.
Over a five year period of research into podcasts carried out by the presenter, detailed
feedback indicates that 81% of students have had a favourable disposition towards the use of
podcasts as part of their language-learning process.
Second, the presentation will additionally provide a detailed guide that will easily explain
how participants can create, design and publish their own podcasts. Drawing on experience
gained during the last five years of publishing free language-learning podcasts, the presenter
will highlight what is required and what should be avoided when designing and publishing
podcasts. The presenter will also outline how by exploiting free apps and mobile and
computer technology, the process of creating a high-quality podcast does not need to be
expensive nor complicated. Both the benefits and pitfalls of creating and publishing a podcast
will be presented and analysed.
Third, presentation will introduce three English language-learning podcasts produced by the
presenter for the university level, but available to download free to anybody anywhere. Two
of these podcasts are written, edited and produced by the presenter whilst the third highlights
the potential benefits of podcasts when they are researched, written, edited and recorded by
language-learners. All three podcasts contain an audio programme and accompanying PDF
that can be downloaded to any hand-held mobile device. Within the presentation these three
podcasts will show how successful and popular language-learning podcasts can be, when
utilised correctly, for both language learners and instructors.
Finally, an easy to follow step-by-step guide will be provided to participants of the
presentation that will detail useful apps, mobile-technology and software that can help when
creating and publishing language-learning podcasts.
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The EXERCISE: An Exercise Generator Tool for the SOURCe Project
Fryni Kakoyianni-Doa, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Eleni Tziafa, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Athanasios Naskos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Our aim is to present a new tool for French language teachers, EXERCISE, an EXercise
genERator in the SOURCe project. It is a tool that complements the properties and
functionalities of the SOURCe project, which includes the search engine for the Searchable
Online French-Greek Parallel Corpus for the University of Cyprus (SOURCe) (KakoyianniDoa & Tziafa 2013), the PENCIL (an alignment tool) (Kakoyianni-Doa et al. 2013), the
Synonyms and the Library tools. The core of this tool is a collection of parallel corpora,
aligned (in sentence level) original and translated texts, in French and Greek language. This
project is led by Fryni Kakoyianni-Doa and is fully funded by the University of Cyprus. All
these tools and functionalities are designed as freely available resources for language
processing, along with the data to be processed, in usable formats for teachers and also for
learners. Moreover, we will outline its future perspectives and applications, discussing how it
can be incorporated into effective learning resources. We will focus on the construction and
composition of the EXERCISE tool, based on a parallel corpus, the content, annotation,
encoding and availability of which are meant to serve the needs of teachers and students of
French or Greek as a foreign language and also to facilitate future linguistic research. There
are plenty of exercise generators available online, but they apply mostly in English language.
Few of them are available for free or open-source, very few apply in other languages than
English (e.g. Swedish: Volodina & Borin, 2012), and even fewer support low-resourced
languages, such as Greek. In order to support the use of corpus linguistic tools by a diverse
range of teachers and learners with no previous expertise, we designed a simple interface,
through which the user may search existing corpora, upload texts, and work online with
interactive exercises. The EXERCISE Tool enables teachers to create either online activities
or print out paper-based worksheets, including a variety of texts and activities on topics, a
variety of exercise types (e.g. multiple choice, word, phrase or sentence matching, drag and
drop words in gaps, word search, text reconstruction, etc.). Our objective is to develop a
whole platform of tools that will assist teachers to find out about, adapt and apply new tools
in classroom. References Kakoyianni-Doa, F. & Tziafa, E. (2013). Source: Building a
Searchable Online French Greek Parallel Corpus for the University of Cyprus. Revista
Nebrija de Lingüística Aplicada 13 (número especial). Kakoyianni-Doa F., Antaris S. &
Tziafa E. (2013). A Free Online Parallel Corpus Construction Tool for Language Teachers
and Learners, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier, Volume 95, 25 October
2013, 535–541. Volodina, E. & Borin, L. (2012). Developing an Open-SourceWeb-Based
Exercise Generator for Swedish. In L. Bradley & S. Thouësny (Eds.), CALL. Using,
Learning, Knowing, EUROCALL Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 22-25 August 2012,
Proceedings, 307-313.
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Saturday, 27 August
10:00-10:30
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The multimodality of lexical explanation sequences during
videoconferenced pedagogical interaction
Benjamin Holt, Université Lumière Lyon 2, France
Our corpus, which is part of the ISMAEL project (Guichon, Blin, Wigham, & Thouësny,
2014), consists of 6 weeks of videoconferenced interactions mediated by Visu (Guichon,
Bétrancourt, & Prié, 2012) between future teachers of French enrolled in a master‘s program
at a French university, and undergraduate learners of French at an Irish business school. This
multimodal corpus gives us a unique look at how teacher trainees harness semiotic
affordances during weekly 45-minute sessions, where they implement task-based pedagogical
activities having to do with the French business world. Our corpus allows us to revisit
didactic questions through multimodal analysis, such as how words are explained in this
environment, potentially enabling us to improve teacher training. Of the 13 hours of video
data that were transcribed using ELAN (Wittenburg, Brugman, Russel, Klassmann, &
Sloetjes, 2006), we have identified more than 150 lexical explanation sequences. The aim of
this study is to analyze the ways in which the teacher-trainees use and combine the semiotic
resources at their disposal to mediate lexical explanation sequences.
It has been shown that during native-nonnative and non-native-non-native interaction,
negotiation sequences are most commonly initiated by lexical triggers (Nicolaev, 2010;
Smith, 2003). Various models for negotiation sequences have been proposed (Smith, 2003;
Varonis & Gass, 1985) to describe how a negotiation sequence unfolds in time, and Lauzon
(2008) proposes a three-step model for lexical explanation sequences in which there is an
opening, a nucleus and a closing. One of our research goals is to study the structure of these
lexical explanation sequences and how they unfold in time in order to propose a new model.
Besides a structural analysis of these mediated lexical explanation sequences, we propose a
fine-grained multimodal analysis by phases (Baldry & Thibault, 2006) which are defined by
semiotic coherence. During each phase, different modes (voice, eye contact, posture,
proxemics, head movements, facial expressions, gestures, text chat, etc.) work together in
synergy to make meaning, with the hierarchy of modes constantly being rearranged and
renegotiated by the participants (Norris, 2004). The ways in which phases and their
boundaries are marked and orchestrated multimodally is another one of our preoccupations.
A paper is proposed which will focus on work in progress that is part of a PhD project,
outline our methodology and show preliminary results.
Baldry, A., & Thibault, P. (2006). Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis. London;
Oakville, CT: Equinox Publishing. Guichon, N., Bétrancourt, M., & Prié, Y. (2012).
Managing written and oral negative feedback in a synchronous online teaching situation.
Computer-Assisted Language Learning, 25, 181–197. Guichon, N., Blin, F., Wigham, C., &
Thouësny, S. (2014). ISMAEL Learning and Teaching Corpus. Dublin, Ireland: Centre for
Translation and Textual Studies & Lyon, France: Laboratoire Interactions, Corpus,
Apprentissages & Représentations. Lauzon, V. F. (2008). Interactions et apprentissages dans
des
séquences
d‘explication
de
vocabulaire.
Retrieved
from
https://libra.unine.ch/export/DL/Evelyne_Pochon-berger/20434.pdf Nicolaev, V. (2010). Les
négociations de sens dans un dispositif d‘apprentissage des langues en ligne synchrone par
visioconférence. Les Cahiers de l‘Acedle, 7, 169–198. Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing
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Multimodal Interaction: A Methodological Framework (1st ed.). New York: Routledge.
Smith, B. (2003). Computer-Mediated Negotiated Interaction: An Expanded Model. The
Modern Language Journal, 87, 38–57. Varonis, E. M., & Gass, S. (1985). Non-native/Nonnative Conversations: A Model for Negotiation of Meaning. Applied Linguistics, 6, 71–90.
Wittenburg, P., Brugman, H., Russel, A., Klassmann, A., & Sloetjes, H. (2006). Elan: a
professional framework for multimodality research. In Proceedings of LREC (Vol. 2006, p.
5th).
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Coordination of corpus resources and online reference tools in correcting
collocation errors in L2 writing
Yi-ju (Ariel) Wu, Chinese Culture University, Taiwan
Data-driven learning (DDL), in which learners ―confront [themselves] as directly as possible
with the corpus data‖ (Johns, 2002, p. 108), has shown to be effective in collocation learning
in L2 writing. Researchers further suggested that the effects of corpus can be maximized
when being combined with the use of other consultation resources such as dictionaries and
grammar books (Kennedy & Miceli 2010; Mueller & Jacobsen 2015; Yoon & Hirvela, 2004).
Nevertheless, very few empirical studies have investigated how learners‘ coordination of
corpus with other reference tools in collocation teaching and learning. There is little
understanding regarding how learners utilize various resources at hand and how the
coordination contributes to collocation usage in their L2 writing. Additionally, prior research
also shows contradictory result regarding how level of English proficiency relates to corpusbased collocation learning, as many studies have suggested that DDL is most suitable for
advanced learners (e.g., Johns, 1991; O‘Sullivan & Chambers, 2006), while others
researchers have argued that learners of higher and lower English proficiency can benefit
from it (e.g., Chan & Liou, 2005; Tono et al., 2014).
The current study intends to fill the gaps by investigating how 140 learners of three different
levels of English proficiency coordinated the use of Corpus of Contemporary American
English (COCA) with other reference tools to correct eight different types of collocation
errors adapted from their writing. Data was obtained from three aspects: learners‘ collocation
performance, learners‘ resource use, and learners‘ evaluation toward resource use. A mixedmethods approach that included quantitative statistics and qualitative interview was used.
The results showed learners across three levels of proficiency all improved 30% in both
collocation accuracy and collocation richness after having access to COCA and other
reference resources. Even though learners of higher English proficiency performed better,
learners across different levels of English proficiency received a similar amount of assistance
from COCA. As for COCA use, different learners coordinated the consultation resources
differently; yet, the number of times they consulted COCA was similar among learners across
different levels of English proficiency. Consultation styles rather than English proficiency
influenced learners‘ number of times learners checked COCA; yet, lower proficiency learners
utilized more of the external consultation resources compared to learners of higher English
proficiency. As for learners‘ evaluation toward COCA use, learners of higher English
proficiency did not think corpus use is easier compared to that of lower proficiency; however,
learners of higher English proficiency think corpus usage is useful for their English writing
compared to that of lower proficiency. In conclusion, even though data-driven learning
(DDL) itself still caused difficulties for learners in the process, the advantages outweigh the
difficulties for learners across all levels of English proficiency, as corpus use helps learners to
―reconstruct‖ (Boers and Lindstromberg, 2012, p. 85) a collocation in what can be seen as a
formulaic sequence. Teachers should inform learners of the benefits of learning collocation
through corpus and should guide learners in how to coordinate effectively the use of corpus
and other consultation resources.
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Introductory Finnish - Massive Open Online Course
Aija Elg, Aalto University - Language Centre, Finland
Petri Myllynen, Aalto University - Language Centre, Finland
Introductory Finnish is a Finnish language Massive Open Online Course (MOOC, which has
been implemented as a pilot course for the Aalto University‘s Online Learning project
(A!OLE. The goal of this three-year project is to integrate existing expertise and services in
Aalto to support development projects for individual courses. The Finnish course will be put
into practice in fall 2016, and it is the first language MOOC offered by the Aalto Language
Centre.
The necessity of Finnish language learning has increased due to the effects of mobility.
Approximately 750 international people (exchange, master, and doctoral students as well as
faculty members) come to Aalto every year; of these, 350 start beginning level Finnish
courses. At the moment, there are many more students willing to participate in Finnish
courses than there is room and many are left outside. Apparently, there is a need for online
and open language learning access.
The Introductory Finnish course aims to teach Finnish from no prior background to a lower
beginner level and functions as an orientation phase for newcomers to enable easier
adaptation to Finland. The main target groups are people who are planning to come to study
or work in Finland and Aalto University. In this four-week course, students will learn to
understand, speak, and write basic Finnish.
This presentation will focus on the key factors in implementing a successful language
MOOC: detailed and careful course design, qualified teacher(s), an effective organization,
keen collaboration between content providers and technical support, and a MOOC platform
that provides the necessary tools to acquire foreign language skills. This presentation
provides an insight into a Finnish language MOOC implementation from an instructional
design and technical point of view. With examples from the Introductory Finnish course, the
presentation offers answers to questions, such as:
What kind of teaching material is used and how is the content displayed?
Which platform is utilized and what kind of learning does its technology enable or support?
Which usability factors help students to use the platform effectively and be self-supportive?
What kinds of instructional views are behind the exercises? How do the technical choices
support
the
pedagogical
view?
How
are
the
exercises
implemented?
What kinds of connection-forming phases does the course contain before, during, and after
the course? What tools are employed to facilitate the connection building?
With the feedback from users, the next aim is to explore more carefully how this course will
enable the students to make decisions that best suit their goals and needs for language
learning.
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Digital Literacies for Language Learning and Teaching: developing a
national framework
Fiona Farr, University of Limerick, Ireland
Francoise Blin, Dublin City University, Ireland
Liam Murray, University of Limerick, Ireland
Laura McLoughlan, NUI Galway, Ireland
In an Irish national setting, the urgent need to address the national language skills' shortage
has been highlighted in numerous arenas, and in the context of the need for a continued
economic recovery, language skills and proficiency are essential. Against this backdrop, the
national project reported in this paper (funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) aims to develop a national framework for digital
literacies for language learning and teaching in an Irish HE context, and to curate and create a
wide range of OERs to facilitate its implementation. The overall focus of the recently-funded,
18-month project (January 2016-June 2017) is to provide a framework and strategy-oriented
on-line resource for language learners and teachers to be fully integrated into third level
language programmes in Ireland, including language teacher education programmes for
secondary, primary and private sectors. The project team comprises language lecturers and
language teacher education lecturers from across a range of geographically diverse locations
representing six HE institutions (University of Limerick, National University of Ireland,
Galway, Dublin City University, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Dublin Institute of
Technology, and Limerick Institute of Teachnology). The languages emphasis for the project
extends to French, Italian, German, Spanish, Irish and English for Speakers of Other
Languages. Within the scope of this project the target user groups include first year students,
study abroad students, and language lecturers.
Preliminary primary pilot research conducted in 2015 as part of the project has identified a
number of key areas where online flexible support is best targeted. Based on these findings
and international research in the field, the aim of the project is to develop online resources
and activities in three broad areas: 1. Digital Literacies for Language Development 2.
Language Learning Strategies and Practices 3. Transitions to Third Level Language Learning
Environments
This conference paper will outline the full development of the framework and present it in
detail as a set of skills, strategies and conceptually congruent pathways, which will have been
completed at the end of the first six-month project period of the project (June, 2016). The
iterative processes involved in this development (including consultation with key
stakeholders, further primary research in the form of national surveys and a number of focusgroup discussions) will be presented, along with key results. The beginning of the
development of the OERs in each of the three key areas included in the digital literacies for
language learning and teaching framework will be presented and discussed, along with a
detailed plan for pilot and evaluation phases. The project, its outcomes, and their
implementation in HE language curricula will represent a significant and unique step forward
for any European country in this way.
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Demystifying pronunciation with animation
The orthographical depth of a language impacts on a learner‘s ability to learn and even their
motivation to learn a language. For example, in terms of a beginner‘s ability to read and
pronounce words in a language, an orthographically-shallow language like Spanish is less
challenging than an orthographically-deep language such as English. With Spanish, learners
can at least pronounce the words even if they cannot understand them. However, in the case
of orthographically-deep languages, learners can struggle to read words and this can lower
their motivation levels, especially for compulsory learners who have to learn the language, as
opposed to voluntary learners who choose to learn the language. One way to address this
problem is to demystify the pronunciation of a language by using animation. This involves
showing learners graphically how a combination of certain letters or symbols produces a
sound combination. This is particularly useful when the combination is different to what
might be expected given the learner‘s knowledge of what those letters or symbols sound like
individually. For example, in English the combination ‗th‘ sounds different to that what a
learner might expect when a ‗t‘ and a ‗h‘ are combined, based on their sound as standalone
letters. This is particularly important when two orthography systems may appear similar
superficially but are actually different. This paper provides an overview of the animation
component of the CALLIPSO system – a CALL resource for Irish orthography and
pronunciation. Irish uses the same letters as the English alphabet, with the letters j, k, q, v, w,
x, y, z only found in loan words. However, there are differences in the letter-sound
correspondences. Vowels present a particular challenge for L1 English learners of Irish i.e.
the vast majority of Irish learners, who are compulsory learners as Irish is a core subject on
the national curriculum. They often ignore the accent and pronounce the letters the same way
as its corresponding non-accented vowel (e.g. an ‗ ‘ is considered to be the same as an ‗a‘).
In the animation component, annotated words are passed to the animation tool which
demonstrates to the learner how each combination of letters gives rise to the overall
pronunciation of the word. For example, the popular Irish first name Seán is pronounced
Shawn, but ab-initio learners may pronounce it as Say-an. The animation tool explains the
correct pronunciation of the word as a series of steps. Firstly, the learner is shown that ‗ ‘ is
the key vowel to pronounce and that the other vowels are ignored. Then the tool explains that
‗ ‘ has an ‗aw‘ (as in ‗raw‘) sound. The ‗s + e‘ combination means that the ‗s‘ is pronounced
as ‗sh‘. At the end of the animation process, the learner can see the steps involved in arriving
at the correction of the word. The tool uses a combination of colours and movements to
demonstrate these steps. The tool is language independent and can be used for languages
other than Irish.
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Saturday, 27 August
10:30-11:00
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Developing an online dictionary in an ESP course
This paper examines how the students use the wiki to collaboratively create their own
biomedical dictionary. The paper will report the results from data taken from tertiary English
Foreign Language (EFL) students working collaboratively and/ or co-operatively in a wiki to
complete the task of creating a shared online dictionary. The methodology that lies behind the
research is grounded theory. The research conducted is qualitative and as such the data is
collected from the wiki and the history pages which kept track of the students work in the
wiki. Emphasis is given on the frequency the students entered the wiki to add, edit and format
the vocabulary items. Furthermore, practical suggestions will be given on how to better
design and implement such a task in any EFL course.
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Podcasting in ESP: A task-based global approach to promote language
acquisition through input and output.
Yiola Paraskevaides, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Never before has technology been so accessible to students and teachers of English as a
Foreign Language and more specifically in English for Specific Purposes. Fifteen years ago,
we would argue that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was the panacea in
TEFL. It was discussed that multimedia software for language learning, interactive websites
and material developed by the instructor, if integrated properly, would promote language
learning. However, the pedagogy behind the integration has always been the key to success.
Good organization in terms of lesson planning, task design together with engaged and
motivated students would promote Computer Assisted Language Learning. Nowadays,
podcasting offers new opportunities. If implemented properly, it can be a powerful tool
promoting listening and speaking. This paper discusses the implementation of podcasting
with ninety, second-year Economics students in the course LAN209 Advanced English for
Global Communication at the University of Cyprus. The theories to be discussed and related
to this study are; Krashen‘s Input Hypothesis and Comprehensible Output Hypothesis, Task
Based Learning popularized by N.S. Prabhu and then discussed by Ellis, R., Learner
Autonomy and motivation through CALL discussed by various authors such as Egbert,
Hubbard, Levy, mobile language learning. Preliminary findings suggest that although
students had almost no prior exposure to podcasting, they were able to create podcasts and
are motivated to share, enjoy, and learn from each others‘ podcasts. A podcast is ―a series of
audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet.‖ Podcasts may be
subscribed to and downloaded automatically when new content is added. Podcasts cover
diverse topics including the news, history, literature, music, art, television shows, etc. The
relative ease of production and low costs associated with the making of a Podcast has opened
this new medium to the masses. There are many sources of sound on the Internet but not all
audio is a podcast and not all podcasts are simply audio. An important feature that makes the
online audio file into a podcast is the possibility of subscription, so that the listener is alerted
when a new episode is available and may even have it automatically downloaded onto a
computer ready for listening or transfer to a mobile device. A podcast can also include video
or pictures. Podcasts also often have a Web location on a blog where information, sometimes
called "show notes," about each episode is also stored and where listeners can interact with
the podcasters through email or a comment function. Task-based Language Teaching
(TBLT), also known as task-based instruction (TBI), focuses on the use of authentic language
and on asking students to do meaningful tasks using the target language.
According to Krashen, the Input Hypothesis assumes that we acquire language by
understanding messages. More precisely, comprehensible input is the essential environmental
ingredient – a richly specified internal language acquisition device also makes a significant
contribution to language acquisition. Krashen (1989) continues by arguing that the best
hypothesis is that competence in spelling and vocabulary is most efficiently attained by
comprehensible input in the form of reading. According to IH, when the Language
Acquisition Device is involved, language is subconsciously acquired – while you are
acquiring, you don‘t know you are acquiring, your conscious focus is on the message, not
form. Stephen Krashen argues that the basic problem with all output hypotheses is that output
is rare, and comprehensible output is even rarer. Even when the language acquirer does
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speak, they rarely make the types of adjustments that the CO hypothesis claims are useful and
necessary to acquire new forms. Another difficulty with CO is that pushing students to speak
in a second language may be uncomfortable for them, raising the affective filter and thus
hampering acquisition. When asked which aspects of foreign language learning caused them
the most anxiety, students placed speaking in the foreign language at the top of the list.
Methods that are based on comprehensible output frequently put acquirers in this
uncomfortable position.
The academic use of podcasting allows for 24/7 accessibility and portability of the teaching
and learning experience, while enabling on-demand learner control and personalization (Lee
& Chan, 2007). It permits the restructuring of valuable classroom time and can convert the
popular iPod and other MP3 players into multipurpose teaching and learning tools that can be
used to reinforce class content, to improve pronunciation and vocabulary, and to improve oral
and aural skills. The instructor has initially presented and explained what podcasts are. She
requested that students should subscribe to a number of podcasts either through their smart
mobile phones, tablets or computers. They were encouraged to listen to the updates in their
spare time. This should be an ongoing process towards practicing their listening skills. Some
podcasts were chosen to be listened during class time to ensure that all students even those
with no internet access would have listened to at least a few podcasts before producing their
own podcast. Podcasting production consists of three steps: pre-production, production and
post production. It was explained to students that most of the time should be spent in preproduction. This step consists of planning the content based on the topic/task the instructor
gave, scripting and revising, choosing sound effects, and rehearsing. The instructor has
corrected the script of the students as this was part of their assessment before they continued
with the production of the podcast. The materials needed for podcasting include a computer
with a microphone and a recording program such as Audacity which is available online
through free downloads. Even though students were encouraged to use the Language Centre‘s
multimedia lab, the majority chose to do the recording at their own space, pace and time.
Finally, post-production involves editing the content to achieve the desired effect and then
publishing the podcast. Podcasts were part of students‘ assessment and peer evaluation was
combined with instructor‘s evaluation for the final mark of students. Limitations: Though
podcasting can be useful in the classroom and can fit most educational objectives, this
technology must be used wisely. There is the possibility that students could produce
unfocused or poorly created work. Another limitation is the possibility of podcasting
overshadowing the students learning. Learning comes first and podcasting should be a tool to
aid that learning. If students or the teacher become more concerned with the tool than the
content, learning will suffer.
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Thirsday, 25 August
13:00-14:30
Poster Session
Megaron B
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Poster Session - Thirsday, 25 August – 13:00-14:30
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Use of multimodal technologies for online screening of student academic
English and academic readiness for IMDP admissions
Miia Konttinen, University of Jyväskylä, Language Centre, Finland
Lisa Lahtela, University of Jyväskylä, Language Centre, Finland
POSTER SESSION - Megaron B
The University of Jyväskylä currently has 20 International Master‘s Degree Programmes
(IMDP) with a wide range of students with varied education and linguistic backgrounds.
Admission procedures have required the students to submit their results from validated
language tests (e.g. TOEFL, IELTS, Pearson Academic, CAE). However, based on
discussion regarding delayed graduation rates of students in the programmes, the use of
English as the language of study appears to be an ever present challenge for some students
(―Final Report: Internal Evaluation of the International Master‘s Degree Programmes at the
University of Jyväskylä‖ 18). Therefore, it was decided that a more targeted testing of
language would help in determining which applicants would better succeed within the two
year timeframe of studies. An additional aim of the test was to assess academic readiness for
studies at the University of Jyväskylä, as academic readiness is an issue of concern noted by
Murray and Nallaya (2014). As a result, the Language Centre in conjunction with two of the
programs, one from Business and Economics and the other from Education, piloted a test as
part of the application process for the 2016-2017 academic year. Since during this process
applicants were located throughout the globe, all candidates were tested through the support
of multimodal technologies (eExam, Skype or Adobe ConnectPro, and an online video
storage platform), so location did not need to be arranged on-site and, thus, flexibility for
both those administering and those taking the test was provided (Dooey 22). With the help of
the eExam platform, candidates were initially assessed in academic reading and writing,
which consisted of reading a peer-reviewed article in the field, chosen by programme
instructors, and writing a short summary with a critical response to the article. Language
Centre English lecturers also assessed the results. Following this section of the test,
participants were interviewed online by programme instructors and English lecturers from the
Language Centre were able to review the applicants‘ listening and speaking skills afterwards
with the help of Moniviestin. Final feedback regarding English proficiency in all four skill
areas, as well as academic readiness, was then communicated to the programmes for each
candidate, with a suggestion for which students might succeed, struggle or not be able to
study in the programme. This poster will present the process of this multimodal online
screening assessment of language and academic readiness.
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Using Dialog System based on Dialog Maps for Computer Assisted SecondLanguage Learning
Sung-Kwon Choi, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea
Oh-Woog Kwon, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea
Young-Gil Kim, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea
Yunkeun Lee, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea
In order to use dialog system for computer assisted second-language learning system, one of
difficult issues in dialog system is maybe to find how to construct large-scale dialog
knowledge that matches the dialog modelling of a dialog system. This paper describes how
we have accomplished the short-term construction of large-scale and machine-readable dialog
scenarios that match the dialog modelling of a dialog system through the authoring tool
including dialog maps. The dialog map is a kind of graph which consists of sub-tasks,
instance-to-slots, and binary relations of sub-tasks such as ‗necessary‘ or ‗optional‘. By
introducing the dialog map, we could implement a dialog system for ordering food within 1
month, in comparison with the equivalent domain that was completed even in 4 months by
the existing dialog system. The authoring tool for construction of dialog map and the dialog
system based on dialog map are currently in development.
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Communicate to Learn, Learn to Communicate: A Study of Engineering
Students‟ Communication Strategies in a Mobile-Assisted Learning
Environment
Li Cheng, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
The development of communication skills including interpersonal skills, management skills
and teambuilding skills in undergraduate students is an important issue in higher education in
China. This poster reports a 3-month study investigating the engineering students‘
communication strategies while they were organizing a model international conference
(MIC). This annual MIC was an important teaching module of the English course of
Professional Applications (PA), which used a blended mode of face-to-face instruction and
mobile learning. There are two theoretical constructs related to the current study: Linguistic
Interdependence and Mobile-assisted Language Learning (MALL). Linguistic
Interdependence provided the theoretical framework for this study and MALL served as the
pedagogical support of the teaching method used in the English course. Previous researches
have shown that mobile learning provides students with a platform across time and space
(e.g., Kukulska-Hulme, et al, 2009; Traxler, 2007). The two research questions were as
follows: 1. What communication strategies did the students use when they were organizing
and attending the MIC in 2015? 2. To what extent did communication help students improve
their academic performance in MIC 2015? Fifty-seven students volunteered to participate in
the study. The researcher followed the participants for three months. On May 17 of 2015, the
students in PA held the 9th Model International Conference on the university campus. Before
then, they spent three months making preparations. Some students were involved in
conference organization whereas others in writing proposals and delivering presentations.
The instruments included a pretest and a posttest in two treatment sessions, a questionnaire,
academic writing assignments and presentations, semi-structured interviews and the
instructor‘s reflective teaching notes. The 56-item questionnaire consisted of two parts with
the first part (34 items) focusing on academic strategies and the second part (22 items) on
communication skills. The Cronbach‘s alpha for the two parts in the questionnaire was 0.736
and 0.789 respectively, indicating the questionnaire was reliable. Results showed that the
participants used a variety of communication strategies when organizing and attending the
Model International Conference. Moreover, these communication strategies were closely
related to the students‘ involvement at metacognitive, cognitive, social and affective levels.
Furthermore, the use of problem-solving strategies in communication revealed that the
participants employed different strategies at different time when doing different tasks. It is
suggested that instructors have English education tailored to their students‘ professional
needs. Moreover, teachers should be aware of individual differences in academic ability when
evaluating academic performances. Therefore, the direction for future research should focus
on a longitudinal investigation of the amount of scaffolding that helps students transfer their
communication strategies across tasks.
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Utilizing COCA for the low-tech classroom
Utilizing COCA for the low-tech classroom
A Data Driven Learning (DDL) approach to language teaching and learning is shown to have
many advantages; it promotes noticing which is deemed to be the first step of language
learning, provides authenticity, ensures a learner-centered classroom, enhances autonomy and
facilitates a learning style that ―synthesizes meaning and form‖ (Garstang, 2013; TorresMartinez, 2015; Chujo et al., 2009). In situations where it is not feasible or practical to rely
on DDL daily in the EFL classroom, a paper-based approach has been developed (PBDDL),
upon application, there were observations that it can be less interesting for learners and more
mechanical than interactive. To gain the benefits and avoid the drawbacks, this poster session
will show how an online corpus like the COCA can be utilized to create material that is
loosely built on Tasked-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) principles. The COCA is
consulted to aid in decisions on what topics and vocabulary to include, which semantic fields
and lexical associations to represent while creating TBLT activities and exercises. The
presenters will share with audience the knowledge needed to utilize the COCA to create
materials that reflect natural language use and a step-by-step guide so that they can easily
start building the materials that suits their students in their settings.
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Development of a Listening Materials System
Adam Murray, Miyazaki International College, Japan
The purpose of this ongoing research project is to develop and validate a system for rating the
difficulty of foreign language listening materials. Currently, there are no publicly available
systems for rating the difficulty of a listening passage in a foreign language. However, there
are such systems for estimating the difficulty of written texts and graded reading materials.
Researchers and material writers can use word counts, lexical grades, and readability
formulas (e.g. Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning-Fog, SMOG) to assess the relative difficulty of
graded reading passages (Poulshock, 2010). For example, a ―very easy‖ passage is 200-250
words in length and 95% of the vocabulary is in the British National Corpus (BNC) 1000word band. On the other hand, an ―advanced‖ passage is 250-300 words in length and 95% of
the vocabulary is the BNC 4000-word band. However, in the case of listening materials,
assessing the relative difficulty of a passage is much more difficult. Although a similar
approach to that taken with written texts can be taken, listening texts have additional
elements that need to be accounted for such as redundancy, speech rate, and information
density (Bloomfield, Wayland, Blodgett & Linck, 2011).
The presenter will report on the first phase of this project – the development of the online
system – LiMaS (Listening Materials System) for delivering the audio materials and
collecting research data. To be specific, the open-source Learning Management System
MOODLE was used to host LiMaS in order to minimize costs. In addition to developing
LiMaS, listening materials and comprehension questions were prepared. Listening materials
were collected from a number of sources to ensure that a variety of text types (e.g. problemsolution, discussion, interview, telephone message, news report etc.) of varying levels of
difficulty are included in the system. To help minimize costs, educational-use materials such
as those from Voice of America (VOA) Special English were used.
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Using Facebook to improve L2 German university students‟ sociopragmatic skills
Axel Harting, Hiroshima University, Japan
Acquiring socio-pragmatic competence in L2 is a challenging task. However the need for an
adequate performance of potentially face-threatening speech acts such as requests, apologies
and compliments is crucial when needing to maintain good personal relations with the
readers. This requirement can be seen notably through social networking sites such as
Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. In previous research the author has evaluated the
difficulties foreign learners of German have encountered when writing email requests in the
target language. The results suggest that students not only need to be made aware of how to
perform L2 speech acts adequately, but they also need a lot of assistance and practice in their
acquisition process.
Since classroom discourse is insufficient for learners to develop pragmatic competence, the
author decided to use social networking sites as an additional tool to provide a wider
opportunity for language learners to practice speech acts in an authentic communication
environment. As previous research has demonstrated, learners‘ pragmatic competence may be
enhanced if they are embedded in a larger context of significant relationships. For this
purpose, the ‗Group‘ application offered by Facebook seemed to be a suitable tool for raising
the students‘ pragmatic awareness. This is because it allows the exchange of data,
information and ideas which often involve speech acts such as; greetings, thanks, wishes,
compliments, requests, apologies and congratulations.
For this project a regular textbook-based language class, geared at CFER level B1, with
eleven participants of different majors was selected. Each week the students were given an
online task, mostly consisting of finding pictures, videos or text materials. They then were
required to comment on them, post their feedback to the dedicated Facebook ‗Group‘ page
that in turn asked other members to react and comment on each post. In this way, multiple
exchanges between the class members were prompted, creating the opportunity for students
to engage in numerous speech acts. The results were regularly revised and discussed in class,
placing particular emphasis on the adequate performance of the required speech acts. At the
same time, the students‘ comments also served as data to gain further insights into the
difficulties foreign learners faced while acquiring socio-pragmatic knowledge in their L2
German. In order to determine to what extent the students could improve their pragmatic
competence throughout the course, pre and post testing was carried out.
In this poster presentation, the author will illustrate how social networking was integrated
into a regular university language course and how data relevant to the students‘ performance
of L2 speech acts was collected and analysed. By presenting preliminary quantitative as well
as qualitative results, it is envisioned more can be realised by harnessing fellow researches
who also focus on social networking to improve their students‘ communicative skills. Due to
the growing popularity of social network sites such as Facebook it is increasingly likely, and
indeed also desirable, that students engage in such interactions and continue to practice and
improve their acquired L2 skills even after they completed their institutional language tuition.
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Exploring EFL Learners‟ Lexical Application in AWE-based Writing
Zhenxiao Li, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
The implementation of automated writing evaluation (AWE) tools has provided potential
possibilities for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners to proceed their writing tasks at
their own rate with the real-time intelligent feedback. Much research has pointed out the
importance of AWE tools in improving EFL learners‘ writing autonomy and ability.
However, there are a few studies related to learners‘ lexical application through the trails of
their‘ revised draft utilizing AWE tools. The poster reports on Chinese EFL learners‘ ten
writing tasks on an AWE tool, the Pigai system which is widely used in China with more than
10 million users. The Pigai system makes it feasible to provide learners with real-time
individualized feedback within two seconds and to keep track of their writing moves each
time. The current study was carried out based on an English audio-video speaking course
(EAVSC) for non-English majors at the authors‘ university. Students were asked to proceed
with a writing task in class which was integrated into the course on a regular basis, and the
students were allowed to revise their writing after class before a deadline set by the instructor.
In order to measure the effectiveness of the Pigai system on improving students‘ lexical
application in their writing assignments, the mixed method was applied to examine how
students used and chose vocabulary in the process of revision, and how they reacted with
automated feedback based on ten writing tasks in one semester from September, 2015 to
January, 2016. Lexicon variation and sophistication are important text features interacting
with the quality of EFL writing. In this research, lexicon consists of words and phrases,
frequent collocations, institutionalized utterances, sentence frames and heads. In addition, the
study instruments consist of interviews and questionnaires, which would provide insights into
students‘ perception of the Pigai system and its intelligent feedback in terms of lexicon,
grammar, discourse and others. Consequently, the research is intended to provide instructors
and system developers with pedagogical implications and improving suggestions to further
facilitate EFL learners in their writing.
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Pre-matriculate mobile-assisted language learning for encouraging study
between entrance examinations and start of classes
Akio Ohnishi, VERSION2, Japan
Goh Kawai, Hokkaido University, Center for Language Learning, Japan
We implemented mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) tasks to provide English
language learners (ELLs) with pre-matriculate learning (PML), that is, learning tasks
intended to maintain and retain the language proficiency of incoming freshmen who took our
entrance examination but have not yet started classes.
Since 2006, our incoming freshmen (approximately 2550 each year) have taken the same
proficiency test during their 1st week of school. Mean scores and variance have remained
constant over the last 10 years. In week 9, freshmen take TOEFL-ITP
(http://www.ets.org/toefl_itp). Mean scores have steadily risen, while variance has fluctuated
somewhat. There is no correlation between week 1 and week 9 scores (r=0.5). Scores for our
entrance examinations cannot be compared across years because those tests are not
standardized.
We suspect the following. Many students cram for 3 to 6 months before taking the entrance
exam. After taking the exam, some students stop studying, while other students continue. The
former group's scores fall because 3 to 6 months are too brief for language skills to stabilize.
The latter group's scores rise or hold steady, and tend to be retained because of the increased
time on task.
Our PML MALL tasks are designed for individual learning that leverages the widespread use
of smart phones among students. Most learning tasks take 30 to 90 seconds. We strived to
design the tasks and the user interface following the 10 principles of MALL (Stockwell &
Hubbard, 2013). User accounts are not required, although if an account is created the system
will record progress, such as which questions have been asked. All tasks are wholly in the
target language, because (unlike some schools in our country) we prefer maximum exposure
to English language.
We
provide
2
types
of
tasks.
(1) Branching story. ELLs first listen to a character (e.g., "I'm a witch. I'm turning you into a
frog!"), read several options for action (e.g., "Call the police", "Take her picture"), and tap on
their choice. The story branches based on the ELL's choice. This game-like experience trains
listening and reading comprehension. We hope that ELLs will repeat the story by trying new
combinations of choices. Large icons facilitate tapping on small screens. (2) Dragging
words. ELLs see 2 sentences, the 1st complete (e.g., "I found the movie captivating"), and the
2nd incomplete (e.g., "The movie ___") with words beneath (e.g., "I", "find", "captivate").
The ELL drags a word to its position within the 2nd sentence, taps the word, and chooses the
appropriate form (e.g., "I" expands to show the choices "I", "me", "my", "mine"). This tapdrag user interface is intended to maximize ease of control when practicing paraphrasing or
writing (e.g., the ELL does not need to type the sentence "The movie captivated me").
In our conference presentation we will (1) demonstrate how ELLs use the system, (2)
demonstrate how teachers create language material, and (3) show comments from high school
teachers.
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Identifying and Activating Receptive Vocabulary by An Online 5-Category
Multiple-Choice Vocabulary Survey and An Online Creative Writing Task
Ivy Chu-Hui Lin, Hokkaido University, Graduate School of International Media, Communication, and
Tourism Studies, Japan
Seeking to identify and activate the receptive vocabulary (RV) of English language learners
(ELLs), we (i) designed an online 5-category multiple-choice vocabulary survey that
efficiently measures vocabulary knowledge, and (ii) designed an online creative writing task
where ELLs chose RV items identified in step (i) RV items of highly proficient ELLs cause
difficulties in language production (Laufer 2013; Nation 1990). RV items are prime
candidates for activation since their phonology, morphology and syntax are already known to
the ELLs. RV items should be activated through explicit instruction (Lee & Muncie 2006;
Kim, 2008).
Existing tools for measuring vocabulary knowledge include the following: (a) The Productive
Vocabulary Level Test (Laufer & Nation, 1999) measures lexical knowledge, but does not
necessary measure vocabulary production (Lee & Muncie, 2006). (b) The EFL vocabulary
test (Meara, 1992) is fast but lacks reliability (Schmitt, 2014). (c) The Vocabulary
Knowledge Scale (Paribakht & Wesche, 1996) asks examinees to write sentences, which
improves the reliability of PV measurements but requires more testing and grading time per
vocabulary item
To avoid impeding upon our other learning activities, we needed to measure the levels of
vocabulary knowledge of 300 vocabulary items within 15 minutes. Since no existing
technique measures at this rate, we developed a radio-button style online survey that ELLs
respond to in less than 3 seconds per vocabulary item. For each vocabulary item, ELLs chose
from 5 statements: (1) I never saw this word before, (2) I forgot what this word means, (3) I
can guess what this word means, (4) I know what this word means, (5) I use this word when I
write or talk.
The vocabulary items were selected from the college entrance examination stratum of the
Hokkaido University English Vocabulary List (Sonada, 1996). This list stratifies 7454
vocabulary items into 5 levels, from middle school to advanced college. Based on our
vocabulary survey, we chose thematically-grouped 148 RV items that were likely to belong
to the RV of the majority of our 134 ELLs. A test for identifying RV items for each ELL
individually would be desirable.
Writing tasks promote active vocabulary use and knowledge (Laufer, 2013). We designed a
4-stage, 5-week writing task based on task-induced involvement and on the fact that
vocabulary acquisition involves need, search and evaluation (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001). Stage
1 preparatory): Write an approximately 150-word story on an online forum that was viewable
by all 134 ELLs, and read story aloud to classmates. Stage 2 (design): Design a story by
using a template to specify characters, settings, events, and ending. Stage 3 (write and
activate RV): Write a 400 to 600-word story that includes at least 20 out of 148 RV items.
Stage 4 (rewrite): Receive corrective feedback, improve writing, and read story aloud to
classmates. The writing and commentary was online. The stories were orally told in class.
The conference poster will include quantitative results of RV activation, and qualitative
analyses of an introspective survey.
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Project –based learning for the development of digital literacy skills in ESP
courses: Engaging Media students in the production of multimodal
artefacts.
Stavroulla Hadjiconstantinou Angelidou, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
This study is an investigation of the affordances of technology in support of the development
of critical media literacy skills, through project based learning in an ESP university course for
Media students. Language courses offered by the Language Centre to students of the various
departments at Cyprus University of Technology are designed and implemented based on the
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) approach to language learning (Csizeir and Kontra,
2012). Based on a combination of the basic principles underlying the ESP approach, and
situated or project-based learning (Blumenfeld et al., 1991), the course offered to learners in
the department of Communication and Internet Studies employs technology to facilitate
collaboration of different types and at various degrees between learners. The course has been
designed to involve learners in a project that gradually leads to the collaborative construction
of artefacts related to their areas of interest and field of study. Through their engagement in
the various activities comprising the project, learners engage with identification, analysis and
production of the language used in Media texts and are expected to develop the kind of skills
and literacies required for professionals in Media and Communication infused digital
contexts. For learners in these fields of study, who will eventually be accountable to the
public opinion for things like the validity and clarity of information they provide and the
informative, persuasive or entertaining power this information will impose, such literacies
would entail the ability to distinguish between logical argument and personal opinion, to hold
beliefs that are commensurate with available evidence and to exercise control on the various
cognitive biases that individuals may exhibit. Skills that are considered necessary in this
respect relate to searching vast online databases, retrieving and processing large quantities of
information, as well as communicating and negotiating meaning in online shared
communities in various contexts and for different purposes. (Kellner and Share, 2007) In
attaining the literacies and competencies in practices, one needs to consider the context or
setting- the real world connections -in which these will be necessary (Ramanathan and
Morgan, 2009). Recent advances in information and multimedia technologies contributing to
the emergence of new literacy practices in online contexts (Hafner and Miller, 2011) further
emphasize the need to develop pedagogical strategies for dealing with the abundance of
multimodal data learners in tertiary education are required to process, evaluate, share, and
negotiate ―in a way that is largely self-directed‖ (Ito et al., 2008, p.2).Technology empowers
learners in this respect as it provides meaningful opportunities for participation in activities
requiring different degrees of engagement depending on learning objectives and the type of
skills or literacies to be deployed.
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Developing a large-scale virtual exchange programme between Japanese
and Colombian EFL-learners.
Martin Meadows, Nayoro City University, Japan
In contrast to Europe, with its shared borders and large immigrant communities, foreignlanguage learners in the island-nation of Japan have relatively limited opportunities to
interact with speakers of other languages. Virtual exchange is thus a highly attractive
component of CALL that allows Japanese learners of 2nd or foreign languages to overcome
insularity and connect with larger, global communities of learners. This poster presentation
will describe an ongoing effort to build a large-scale, Moodle-based virtual exchange
program between EFL learners in Japan and Colombia. For the first virtual exchange (VE),
held from September - December 2015, the former were comprised of young adults in
compulsory EFL classes at 8 separate universities across Japan, while the latter were adult
learners taking elective EFL classes at various locations around Colombia as participants in
courses provided by SENA, an independent education service pertaining to the Colombian
Ministry of Labour that has the wider objective of promoting economic, technological and
social development of Colombian workers through further education and training. As
experienced by one of the Japan-based instructors, this poster presentation will trace the
development of this VE program and discuss both the successes and issues for future
improvement associated with its inaugural implementation.
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What are more effective in English classrooms: Textbooks or podcasts?
Kazumi Enokida, Hiroshima University, Japan
Joe Lauer, Hiroshima University, Japan
In the 21st Century it has become clear that more and more pedagogical materials have
moved from being textbook-based to being accessed through the Internet. Additionally,
nearly a decade after the introduction of the first globally popular smartphone, mobile
technology continually influences how foreign languages are taught and studied. High quality
language-learning podcasting can therefore provide a cheap, beneficial and portable
technology that allows learners the freedom to download useful material whenever and
wherever convenient.
However, despite the low cost involved in producing and accessing podcasts, educational
institutions still seem reluctant to fully utilise podcasts as an integral part of the languagelearning process. This poster presentation will detail the results of a comprehensive ongoing
longitudinal study that analysed the effectiveness of language-learning podcasts within the
parameters of a specially designed university English language course.
The presentation will outline the structure of a study which aimed to analyse the
communicative abilities of university freshmen during one-semester English language
courses. Two teachers each taught two compulsory English communicative courses for nonEnglish majors during each semester. Each course was held once-a-week for fifteen weeks
and each class was 90 minutes in length. The first course was designated the ‗traditional‘
model and was centred around a paper textbook. The second course was the ‗digital‘ model
where no textbooks were used and instead the course was designed around a series of English
language podcasts.
Within in the study there were several controlled variables, including starting language
abilities and student majors. A series of communicative language tests were given at the
beginning, middle and end of each semester. These tests included listening, vocabulary,
grammar and audio aspects. Importantly, the experimental method used partially mirrored an
influential study by Gilmore (2011), which found that ‗utilising authentic web-based
materials‘ were found to be more effective than textbooks when applied pragmatically. The
initial goal of this study was to confirm Gilmore‘s findings by determining which
pedagogical materials were the most effective in improving students‘ oral abilities: textbooks
or podcasts.
The presentation will also provide a detailed analysis of the study‘s test results which have,
so far, shown that some tests exhibited a higher level of improvement than others. Students
showed a greater level of improvement through the ‗digital‘ course over the ‗traditional‘
course, in both the listening tests and the fluency / pronunciation tests. On average these
students improved by 10.5% over their counterparts in the ‗traditional‘ course. Yet the
study‘s results have also shown that the ‗digital‘ group did not significantly outperform their
‗traditional‘ course counterparts in the grammar-vocabulary test. Common spoken
grammatical trouble spots such as articles and prepositions remained a problem area.
Finally the benefits and drawbacks of the study will be included in the presentation which
will also highlight that by the end of each semester, those students on the ‗digital‘ course
provided a far more favourable attitude to the communicative course over those on the
‗traditional‘ course. This showed the potential that podcasts can have within the languagelearning process.
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Task-Oriented Spoken Dialog System for Second-Language Learning
Yoon-Hyung Roh, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea
Young-Kil Kim, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea
Yunkeun Lee, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea
This paper introduces a dialog-based computer assisted second-language learning (DBCALL) system using a task-oriented dialogue processing tech-nology. The system promotes
dialogue with a second-language learner for a specific task, such as purchasing tour tickets,
passing through immigration, etc. The dialog system plays a role of a ticket agent or an
immigration officer at each task and the learner completes the task through talking with the
sys-tem in the second-languages. The system gives new situation of the task at every trial, so
that the learner could have a different experience and learn var-ious expressions in the same
task. Our DB-CALL system is based on a task-oriented dialog system which consists of
language understanding module using structural support vector model (SSVM) and dynamic
dialog graph based dialog management module. Our task-oriented dialog system trains from
the intention-annotated dialog scripts. Every dialog script is a real dialog between two
persons who play a role of system and learner respectively. We annotated every system and
learner utterance with its intention using predefined dialog acts and slots. To classify user
utterance with the predefined dialog acts and slots, the language understanding module
trained dialog act classification model and slot classi-fication model from user utterances of
the corpus using SSVM, respectively. The dialog management model automatically
constructs the task-oriented dia-log-graph from the corpus. The task-oriented dialog-graph
consists of user and system intention nodes having slot history vector and direct links between nodes with weights. The user and system nodes of the graph corre-sponds to the user
and system intention of the dialogue script. The dialog management finds the best user node
similar to the intention of current user‘s utterance in the current dialog history, and then
selects one among the system nodes linked to the best user node which is on the shortest path
into terminal node not including used system nodes before. The dialog management module
generates system response using the example sentence of the selected system node. For the
experiments, we constructed two tasks-oriented dialog system, pur-chasing tour tickets and
passing through immigration. For each task, we firstly set up several situations, constructed
100 dialog scripts between English na-tives and then annotated with intention. Finally, we
trained the system knowledge from the intention annotated scripts. To evaluate the systems,
we recruited 20 subjects (A group with low proficiency levels: 5 subjects have TOEIC scores
lower than 500, B group with middle proficiency levels: 10 sub-jects have TOEIC scores
between 500 and 800, and C group with high profi-ciency levels: 5 subjects have TOEIC
scores lower than 800.). Each subject had a dialogue with system at 4 situations of each task.
The experiments show the average task success rate of 85.52%, the average turn success rate
of 85.32%, and the average turn length 14.61. Contrary to our expectations, the success rates
of C group are lower than A and B groups. The results of a satis-factory survey targeting the
subjects about the second-language usefulness and efficiency showed 88.42.
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Chinese students' online English learning experience through audio
graphic conferencing tools
Chenxi (Cecilia) Li, The Open University, UK, China
Computer Assisted Language Learning has become increasingly popular in China since 2013.
According to the 2014 China Online Language Education Industry Report (iResearch, 2015),
the market value of online language education in China is around 3 billion USD and the
amount of online language learners reached 14.8 million in 2014 (iResearch). However, in
the western world, little is known about the recent developments and current problems of the
Chinese CALL community. This study first reviews the recent developments of CALL in
China and then focuses on a specific area of CALL: synchronous ELT classes through
audiographic conferencing tools. What are Chinese students‘ online language learning
experience through audio graphic conferencing classrooms and what do they think about it?
What are the major problems for audiographic conferencing ELT classes in China? This
study attempts to answer the questions above through questionnaires and interviews with
online English teachers and learners.
Some primary findings have been identified from the pilot study. First, most Chinese online
learners do not consider CALL as formal learning and they haven‘t spent too much time,
money or effort in online language learning. Second, huge number of students (usually more
than 50) in an online class makes it for individual students to have any online interaction with
their teachers and peers, which results in low learning effectiveness and low motivation.
Third, although many technologies are available, e.g. student audio interactions, they are
rarely used in real online teaching practice. Finally, the ‗replay‘ function of the recordings are
generally believed to be an advantage of online ELT classes, but the fact is very few people
actually make use of it. These results can offer important suggestions for online ELT
institutions and teachers in China on how to improve students‘ online learning experiences.
An innovative data collection method is employed which combines a online survey tool
(Survey Star) with a popular social networking mobile App (WeChat). 115 questionnaire
replies were collected within one day and the author received a WeChat message for every
single reply. The functionalities of the mobile social networking APP, WeChat had a
significant influence on the sampling method. During the poster presentation, there will be a
hands-on demonstration of how to create, publish, distribute and collect a questionnaire
through the use of Survey Star and WeChat. To make it easier for Western scholars, I would
also demonstrate the whole process with Twitter and compare the differences between
spreading questionnaires through WeChat, emails, and Twitter.
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Friday, 26 August
13:00-14:30
Poster Session
Megaron B
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Poster Session - Friday, 26 August – 13:00-14:30
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Adapting CEFR to a Japanese EFL writing course
Bob Gettings, Hokusei Gakuen University Junior College, Japan
Recently, the Japanese Ministry of Education is promoting use of the Common European
Frame of Reference (CEFR) for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning and testing. In
light of this, the English Department of Hokusei Gakuen University Junior College began a
research project to investigate the possibility of integrating CEFR into the curriculum. In the
first stage of the project a sample group of students were tested to identify their CEFR levels.
Traditionally, EFL writing classes have focused on teaching paragraph development and the
five paragraph academic essay. During the first semester of the 2016 academic year, based on
test results, materials for developing writing fluency based on the CEFR model will be
designed and tested in an EFL writing classroom. This presentation will describe the changes
in the curriculum as well as student and faculty evaluation of the new materials.
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Autonomous Learning through e-Portfolios
Elena Osinskaya, The University of Iowa, United States
The paper introduces a development of e-portfolios as an assessment tool for less commonly
languages. The author is interested in how e-portfolios can be an integral part of language and
culture evaluations on university campuses.
It goes without saying that assessment is essential to learners as a way of evaluating the
effectiveness of instruction uniting subject, culture and language. It can provide learners with
feedback on their progress and may lead them to reassess learning strategies or to motivate
them toward future studies (lifelong learning).
What are the ways to evaluate the progress of learners of less commonly languages? One of
the solutions would be the creation of e-portfolios. Portfolios are a form of alternative
assessment in which a student's progress is measured over a period of time in various learning
contexts. Portfolios can include evidence of specific cultural skills and language performance
over time, under different conditions or under several communication modes.
Based on the research of Brown (1998), the major strengths of e-portfolio assessment are that
they are embedded into instructions and measure student's ability over time; involve student
in their own assessment, and capture many facets of culture and language learning
performance.
It is assumed that students have their own goals and purposes to achieve cultural and
language competence which means that they are highly motivated when they are admitted to
language courses. Indeed, students‘ e- portfolios promote positive student involvement. As
students create their e-portfolios, they are involved in and reflect on their own learning. Thus,
increased metacognition has a positive impact on a student's self-confidence, facilitates
student use of learning strategies, and increases the student's ability to assess and revise work
(Thomson, 1996). Moreover, student motivation to proceed in studying and succeeding in
culture and language learning tends to thrive in such an environment.
Because e-portfolio would be the property of the learner, and it would be continuously
evolving even after the completion of the courses, its development promotes learner
autonomy by providing sustained intrinsic motivation for him/her.
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CALL and MALL tools to Promote Collaborative Academic Listening
Skills
The spread of using English as a medium of instruction in universities requires competent
academic listening skills from many non-native speakers. In a context such as the American
University in Cairo, Egyptian students are being instructed in English in many fields,
technical and non technical, by native speakers of English, creating comprehension issues for
both parties. Thus, the need to effectively teach those who lack academic listening skills rose,
proving to be a challenging issue. An exploration of whether adapting a collaborative
learning framework using technology could further help students develop their academic
listening skills was undergone. The value of grouping or pairing students to work together
towards achieving a common academic goal has been advocated for by many researchers.
According to Johnson and Johnson (1986), Cooperative teams achieve at a higher level and
retain information longer than those students working quietly alone. The shared learning
gives students an opportunity to engage in discussion, take responsibility for their own as
well as others‘ learning, thus becoming critical thinkers (Totten, Sills, Digby, & Russ, 1991).
Moreover, the advances in technology have made collaborative work even more feasible
considering the time constraint of an academic semester. Thus this presentation will focus on
the framework adopted in a Low intermediate English class to promote collaborative
academic listening in an Egyptian classroom. The framework utilized two freely accessed
web based online tools; MOOC Notes and Kahoot. This framework could help students
enhance their note taking skills, engage in discussions, and apply and synthesize information.
All of which endorse critical thinking and better listening comprehension. This study is still
in action and data is still being collected. Therefore, if the abstract is accepted, presenters will
share: a- the framework adopted b- the CALL and MALL tools utilized c- the results
obtained.
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Creation of a language communication simulation item design
Fuan Wen, Beijing University of posts and Telecommunications, China
Zhihong Lu, Beijing University of posts and Telecommunications, China
The effective design of language learning resources plays a very important role in the process
of computer-assisted language teaching (CALT) for it usually guides the language teaching
for many schools in an expected direction. In terms of item types, the most commonly
adopted model used in the classroom follows a fixed type, of which, some apply the
international standards, such as IMS Global Question & Test Interoperability (QTI). With the
development of interactive multimedia network technologies, it has become rich and varied
in media forms and the types of interaction. The items designed by computer-aided system
(CAS) have made a great progress compared with those of paper-and-pencil in the past.
However, there is still an obvious gap between the form of the items and the actual use in
language practice. Many instructional systems simply copy the design of item forms used in
the context of paper-and-pencil and make it difficult for learners to make the best out of the
advances of computer-assisted instruction, thus result in the devotional direction with real
language practice. In this presentation, a system that enables instructors to design innovation
item types is built up based on the latest HTML5 technology. Instructors may not only use all
kinds of multimedia resources, such as video, audio, graphic, image, animation, text, but also
use all other different types of input devices such as a mouse click, double click, drag and
drop, keyboard input, touch screen, microphone recording, etc.. And it can also enables the
users to operate multimedia resource objects , such as, to add, delete, select, fill, logic
matching, control and so on. Finally the system simulates an item which is similar to the
language application environment on the system board. It is beneficial to the integration of
developing learners' language skills into real language practice through the interactive
teaching with this innovative item designing technology. With a variety of interaction forms
common to the language applications are increasingly created, we have developed a practical
item making tool, which can support the innovative simulation item types, in the same time, a
common computer based-exam and training system has been built up and a student training
results evaluation system has also been developed, which will make the innovative design to
be applicable in language teaching and learning.
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Encouraging blended learning via a group singalong activity for learning
segmental and prosodic pronunciation features
Naomi Suzaki, Hokkaido University, Center for Language Learning, Japan
We designed singalong activities for training segmental and prosodic pronunciation features.
English language learners (ELLs) (1) arranged lyrics in order while listening to a familiar
song with a clearly audible lead vocal singer, (2) received a lyrics card that visually
highlighted specific pronunciation features by means of colored text, bigger or smaller font,
superscripts or subscripts, and underlines, (3) said portions emphasized in (2), and (4) sang
the song. Unlike karaoke, ELLs heard and sang with the vocal track and the band.
Before each class session, ELLs prepared for the next class individually and at times of their
choosing via an online learning system where they heard, wrote, and said phrases. The ELLs
then met in a face-to-face classroom with no computers. Each singing session occurred at the
middle of a 90-minute conversation class. No part of the singing was online, although we had
the technology to do so. 3 classes of 40 to 45 college freshmen each met 1 time per week for
14 weeks.
We hope to remind the Eurocall audience that blended learning or flipped learning courses
benefit from interactive, active, tension-relieving use of language. Our online preparatory
assignments (although acknowledged by ELLs as being useful and necessary) were lonesome
and monotonous. The singalong activity encouraged ELLs to persevere during the semester,
because (1) singing provided opportunities for camaraderie and expression, and (2) the lyrics
cards improved pronunciation awareness. ELLs were well aware that singing was a learning
activity, yet they viewed singing as a pleasurable reward that punctuated the drudgery of
practicing language. Anonymous surveys conducted during the 6th and 14th weeks of class
show that our ELLs overwhelmingly enjoyed songs. Some ELLs wrote that singing was the
high point of their school week. Such sentiments underscore the danger of college classes
becoming dry and impersonal.
Songs are used in language learning for (1) cultural awareness, (2) emotional expression, (3)
memorizing phrases, and (4) pleasure (Shen, 2009; Ashitiani & Zafarghandi, 2015).
Empirical studies show that music and songs affect (1) recall and memory, (2) din
phenomena or involuntary mental rehearsal, and (3) language-specific skills such as listening
discrimination, comprehension, pronunciation, and phonology (Engh, 2013).
In practice, instructors prefer to efficiently use class time by training in groups rather than 1
ELL at a time. Singing helps instructors monitor pronunciation because visually observing
mouths shows which ELLs are singing out of sync. ELLs strive to join the chorus by
synchronizing speech sounds with each musical note, and by mimicking their peers. We
speculate that ELLs become aware of linking and deletion more strongly in singing than in
shadowing.
A survey showed that (1) 47% of students strongly supported singalongs, (2) 45% strongly
supported the design of lyrics cards, and (3) 37% strongly agreed that lyrics cards help with
linking and segmental deletion.
In our conference presentation we will show how to (1) select pronunciation features, (2)
select songs, (3) create lyrics cards, and (4) lead the singalong activity.
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French language in the Field of Law: an innovative hybrid lifelong learning
language programme
Evangelia Moussouri, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Anthippi Potolia, Paris 8, EXPERICE - EA 3971, France
In the framework of the Lifelong Learning Program of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki a
training program is being offered during the current academic year 2015-2016 entitled «Legal
French: Section 1». The purpose of the program is to familiarize students and legal
professionals with the French language in a legal context and to improve competency in the
French language for anyone interested in continuing postgraduate studies or working in
French-speaking countries. The training program is divided into three sections, for a total of
300 hours. Each section lasts approximately three months. The main objective of the seminar
is to improve written and oral competency through the use of original, legal texts.
Specifically, participants will have the opportunity to be exposed to legal vocabulary using
authentic texts related to actual communication skills in the workplace. In addition, the
seminar focuses on competency development in regard to structure analysis and oral and
written production, with recourse to expressions typical of the field of law. Furthermore, in
order to increase their competence, the participants will have the opportunity to develop the
language skills that would allow them to successfully communicate in academic
circumstances, such as the carrying out of postgraduate studies abroad; as well as in
professional circumstances, for the purpose of employment search. The participants will also
be facilitated in their cooperation with legal institutions or professionals within Greece or
abroad. Specifically, the program aims to improve competency and acquisition in the French
language, as required for the entrance exams of the National School for Magistrates, for the
Notaries‘ competition, as well as for the candidates‘ preparation for the obtaining of the
Diplôme de français professionnel juridique B2 of the Chambre de commerce et d‘industrie Paris Île-de-France (Paris Île-de-France Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry). Our
communication will focus on the analysis of reading comprehension activities based on
authentic texts and falling within the thematic scope of legal French. The issues that our
communication focuses on are:
The choice and the role of the authentic materials (audio, video, products, etc.) used to design
distance-learning activities for legal French. The types of activities designed and the
problems encountered in the design. The skills covered by the proposed activities. Difficulties
encountered by learners during the implementation of activities; such difficulties would be
linked to the particularities of the target language (legal French) and the specificities of
distance learning.
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I want to CALL -- the role of peer-to-peer learning communities
Anna Turula, Pedagogical University, Cracow, Poland, Poland
In my paper I offers an insight in two CALL collaborative training schemes. The first was a
peer-to-peer instruction on the use of Moodle for academic purposes, organised at the
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures of the Pedagogical University in Krakow,
Poland; the second was a series of workshops in which the students of the Digital Teacher of
English programme of the same department imparted their CALL expertise to ongoing
teachers of English in Krakow, Poland, in exchange for the teachers' TEFL perspective on the
proposed solutions. In both cases the trainer(s) and the trainees were in a kind of symbiotic
relationship, highly reminiscent of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model proposed by
Garrison et al. (2000; cf. also later publications of the team). This is why in my paper I
analyse the two training schemes in relation to the CoI model, trying to pinpoint the
underlying reasons for their effectiveness, and potential implications for their improvement.
In doing so I base on the results of the two post-training satisfaction surveys as well as data
gathered during participatory observation.
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Online opportunities for Professional Teacher Development (PTD): A
teacher‟s perspective and experience
Chrysanthi Nicodemou-Pasiardi, Ministry of Education and culture, Cyprus
Professional Development for teachers(PD) can mean different things to individual teachers
and take various forms. It can take place formally and informally. Interestingly, due to
advancements in technology, PD has extended from f2f learning opportunities to online ones.
As a result, PD opportunities have increased for all teachers and educators worldwide.
Currently, there is a plethora of online communities, courses and webinars and courses many
of which are free.
Apparently, PD deals with the individual needs and wants of teachers and requires selfreflection. The focal points of my paper are two - my perspective on Teacher development
and my learning experience through joining online communities and taking online courses
which involve educators from all around the world. I bring to the foreground the need to
connect with educators in other countries and the impact of such connection on my teaching.
I illustrate this with examples of what I consider to be my best teacher development
experiences. The examples include learning through online communication with educators by
negotiating class projects and carrying them out through an online community i.e. Global
epals Community. I also exemplify how taking online courses, an example of which is
MOOC, facilitates a high degree of interaction among participants through synchronous and
asynchronous communication such as live online sessions, discussion forums to name but a
few. Joining online communities for the reasons stated above entails learning from sharing
practices, materials, doing joint projects, giving and receiving feedback and reflecting on the
learning experience and generally the whole process. Interestingly, the online experience has
helped me develop further my ICT skills, mainly due to needs which have risen naturally in
circumstances just as staying connected and updated with others and performing various tasks
for and with my students. Parallel, it has been an inspiring and motivating experience.
Continuous PD is a must for the simple reason that when teachers learn, students learn.
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Responses to Apologies in English: A Corpus-Based Study
Apologies and their responses are an important part of maintaining relationships. However, it
is often difficult to know how to respond to apologies, and while there is research on the
concept of forgiveness and emotional responses to apologies, there has been little research on
the expressions and strategies that English speakers use to respond to apologies.
In this paper, we begin by looking at previous research on responding to apologies and then
at issues related to gathering data in order to study speech acts. In our study, we analyzed the
responses to 320 apologies which had been identified as part of a previous study (Kitao and
Kitao, 2013). These apologies came from a corpus made up of dialogue from 72 episodes
from the US situation comedy Modern Family (Levitan and Lloyd, 2009). We developed a
typology for the responses which has nine categories: no response, minimizing the offense
(denying the need for an apology, denying the fault of the interlocutor, minimizing the
offense, explaining why the offender committed the offense, and so on), focusing on the
offense (emphasizing, explaining, or agreeing with the seriousness of the offense; suggesting
that the interlocutor does not understand the offense, or criticizing the offender), response to
the justification/explanation/question (i.e., responding to something about the explanation
rather than to either the apology or the offense itself), asking for clarification (in order to
clarify what the offender is apologizing for or something about the situation), reciprocating
the apology (apologizing in return, either because the interlocutor feels partially responsible
for the offense or for a related offense), vocalization (expressions like ―Mm-hmm,‖ ―Mmm,‖
and ―Yeah‖), expression of disbelief (questioning the sincerity of the apology), and other
(denial of responsibility in response to self-justification, rejecting the apology, asking for
time to get over the offense, and finishing the offender‘s thought). We discussed how the
responses in different categories are used and analyzed the circumstances in which they are
used by using examples from the corpus.
Kitao, S.K., and Kitao, K. (2013). Apologies, apology strategies, and apology forms for nonapologies in a spoken corpus. Journal of Culture and Information Science, 8(2), 1-13.
Levitan, S., & Lloyd, C. (2009). Modern Family [Television Series]. Hollywood: American
Broadcasting Company.
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Students‟ attitudes towards Motivation and Technology in a Turkish
Language Classroom
Chryso Pelekani, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
This presentation aims to present the aims and objectives of the study concerning the
―Students‘ attitudes towards Motivation and Technology in a Turkish Language Classroom‖.
The purpose of this study is to 1) investigate adult learners‘ approaches towards Turkish
language 2) A the learners‘ outlooks towards the use of digital technologies for learning and
3) Evaluate the impact of Language Lab‘s model on learners‘ language achievement. Some of
the Research questions of the study were whether attitude towards digital technologies varied
based on different backgrounds (i.e linguistic, educational etc). Age or genders were taken
also into consideration, whether the implementation of Language Lab‘s model motivated the
TSL/FL learners of Adult Education Program (AEP) to continue their studies? What was the
impact of the model on learners‘ TSL/FLs‘ skills? During this assessment procedure, it was
identified that students used varied technological tools, including the introduction of online
games, like Kahoot and synchronous pages such as Facebook that motivated them to learn
foreign languages in an efficient way. In precise, it can be affirmed that with the adoption and
the execution of the above stated technological tools, the approaches of the students changed
by a considerable degree in learning TL within the classroom setting.
It is thus worth mentioning that the findings of this study can encourage the TL teachers to
use technology in their classes, in order to turn them into more autonomous, student-centered
and more effective as a language method in TL acquisition. A few of the technological tools
that will be discussed will appear as recommendations for both TL teachers and students,
aiding in ensuring further enhancement of language acquisition. Teachers will then be able to
understand their students‘ effective domains and likewise, students would become
independent as second language learners.
It might also encourage secondary education, Instructions and TL teachers who are working
in various institutions of life-long learning locally and abroad to further explore how students
are able to use technology, computer and mobile devices (in and outside classroom) while
learning any language.
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Teacher Professional Learning: Developing with the aid of technology
Marianna Kyprianou, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
Education is a field that constantly changes, which dictates the need for continuing teacher
professional learning and development. Teacher professional learning and development can
be divided into categories: formal learning/ development and informal learning/ development.
This paper focuses on the experience of the presenters as coordinators of a large language
section in a tertiary education institution, as this gave them the chance to develop
professionally without attending formal training. Both coordinators did not have any previous
experience in coordination, but they decided to keep a positive outlook on challenges and
weaknesses, turning them into opportunities and strengths with the aid of technology. The
experience of coordination will be presented using a SWOT framework of analysis (of
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Challenges/Threats). The present paper will report
on this experience and how it helped the presenters develop professionally, will discuss the
role of the use of online tools in the process and will also provide implications for future
research.
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The application of data mining technology in the college English training
Hongbo Luan, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
Fuan Wen, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
Big data era of "data driven school, analyze the innovation education" has come, which the
data mining technology in the education industry comes, also related education field model is
established using the data mining technology to explore education variables, the relationship
between effective support for the decision of education teaching will become the
development trend of future education. With increasing the application of English society,
college English education quality and the corresponding are required to improve, the era of
big data characteristics for college English teaching and learning has brought new
opportunities and challenges make education a new change, big data and data mining
technology in English teaching and learning will become the new trend of development of the
application and research. In recent years, to improve the quality of college English teaching,
the digital language lab in colleges and universities and the establishment of the network
teaching platform, made in the aspect of the change of teaching mode has made great
progress, the college English teaching is no longer the traditional single unified model, the
teaching goal, teaching objects, teaching resources, teaching content, teaching forms,
teaching methods, teaching evaluation present a complex diverse, and the development of the
college English skill training system (Rofall) is in the college English classroom teaching and
autonomous learning teaching practice achieved rich results. College English skill training
system (Rofall) involved in all aspects of language teaching, including course setting, course
management, teaching activities, audio-visual training, in-class test, simulation test,
questionnaire, activity display, mutual, performance analysis and reporting, and other
functions. Focus on listening and speaking training, through various forms of teaching
activities to improve students' translation with the ability of listening, speaking, reading and
writing, and at the same time for the student in the offline situation continue training, testing,
to reduce reliance on the server and network bandwidth. College English skill training system
(Rofall) based on network and the classroom teaching mode, with the Internet environment,
depending on the campus network as the main content for college English teaching, teachers
face as auxiliary, will form a variety of teaching activities in accordance with the
characteristics of the English language teaching principle to carry on the organic
combination, realize network and intelligence of college English teaching process, so as to
improve students' English language skills. In the process of English learning, there are many
factors influence the student's academic record, need to carry on the comprehensive analysis,
in the era of big data, how to find out valuable information from large amounts of data and
use these information to predict unknown or future values becomes even more important, the
process of data mining technology is by building a relevant model, to explore the relationship
between information. This study is in the education under the background of the development
trend of the technology of data, based on college English skill training system (Rofall) of
teaching data mining analysis, selection of 2012 to the fall in the spring of 2014, six year of
first and second grade students, selected reading time, such as the actions related to student
achievement 18 dimension data as features, to aim at student performance, using GBDT
(Gradient Boosting Decision Tree) algorithm for model training, after data extraction, data
pretreatment, model establishment and optimization of process, and after many tests, finally
realizes the prediction of the student's grade. Is the purpose of the research of data extraction
and preprocessing to remove data attributes associated with goal and content, for data mining,
accurate, and more specific data, reduce the mining algorithm of data processing, improve the
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mining efficiency and the accuracy of the final result, modeling and optimization of process
is a process of looking for model parameters according to the known data, through the given
data and the model assumes that space, can build up the optimization problem, determine the
related parameters and constantly adjust to forecast target optimization. Through the analysis
of the assessment, prediction results found using data mining technology can more accurate
estimates of student achievement, to verify the application of data mining technology in
college English learning, as well as GBDT (Gradient Boosting Decision Tree) model to
predict the impact of the results. Through in predicting results extract all levels of student
achievement, analysis of the students in the process of English teaching of listening,
speaking, reading and writing each link of the master degree, can be targeted teaching, has a
great guidance to the students' learning and teachers teaching effect and use value, help
students' English learning, teachers to the deep understanding of the examination results. The
study proves that the data mining technology in forecasting accuracy and feasibility of
English. Data mining techniques to obtain the very good application in the education
industry, in the era of big data, using data mining technology will change the traditional
education.
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Automatic Dialogue Scoring for a Dialog-based Computer Assisted Second
Language Learning System
Jin-Xia Huang, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, South Korea
Kyung Soon Lee, Chonbuk National University, South Korea
Young-Kil Kim, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute,
This paper presents an automatic dialogue scoring and feedback generation approach for a
Dialog-Based Computer-Assisted second-Language Learning (DB-CALL) system. A CALL
system usually provides grammar correction feedback with a grammar checker, and a
discourse feedback via a semantic checker in case it is a dialog-based system. This kind of
feedback is generated for each user utterance, to decide if the dialogue can move to the next
turn, or need to correct grammar error first, or even represent differently. This paper noticed
that there is user need toward overall dialogue scoring – users would like to know their level
after finishing whole dialogue, because it is not only helpful to know their relative grade, but
also to trace their achievements in different learning stages. This paper investigates the
measures adopted for automatic assay scoring, and presents several measures including task
proficiency, speech fluency, grammar accuracy, vocabulary, and syntactic ability, to assesses
the user performance during given dialogue, and then produces feedbacks with the overall
score to suggest which parts the learner should focus more on. Considering that there is
barely training corpus can be used for automatic dialogue scoring, which is very different
from automatic assay scoring, this paper proposes scoring approach for each measure: task
proficiency evaluates how fluently the conversation has been maintained according to the
numbers of pass and failing turns, which is judged by semantic checker. Grammar accuracy is
measured according to the number of grammar errors, the utterance length, and the dialogue
turn number. Grammar check is held by grammar checker. Syntactic ability includes syntactic
quantity and syntactic complexity – the former one relates with the utterance lengths, while
the complexity considers the syntactic structure of the utterances. Vocabulary is measured by
word level and diversity, the system checks if the learner tends to use same expressions or
words from elementary level vocabularies when there are better alternatives, and provides
synonyms and similar expressions to improve user vocabulary. The references offered by
native speakers for the same education class are adopted for the evaluation of vocabulary and
syntactic ability. A user evaluation is performed on the automatic dialogue scoring results, to
collect the feedback from real learners and to see if the measures are really helpful. The
evaluation result shows that, syntactic ability measure is considered less helpful than other
measures, and grammar and vocabulary measure are very necessary with the overall score.
Considering that syntactic measure is one of the most important measures for the assay
scoring, this paper gives a discussion about the difference between the automatic dialogue
scoring from automatic assay scoring.
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