| Saturday, April 8 |
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8:00
- 9:00 |
Registration & Coffee
Outside Room 17, Logan Hall
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9:00 - 9:15
Room 17
Logan Hall |
Welcoming
remarks
Dr. Joseph Farrell, Associate Dean for Arts and Letters
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9:15
- 10:15
Room 17
Logan Hall |
Keynote Address: CMC Technologies and Tasks for
Teaching Foreign Languages: The shape of things to come (powerpoint
presentation)
Peter A. Lafford and Barbara A. Lafford, Arizona State
University
Computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies have
begun to play an increasingly important role in the teaching of foreign/second
(L2) languages. Their use in this context is supported by a growing
body of research that highlights the positive effect of the negotiation
of meaning and computer-based interaction on the process of second language
acquisition (Gass and Varonis, 1994; Chapelle, 1998; Payne and Whitney,
2002). In addition, recent research has pointed out the importance of
situated cognition (Brown, Collins and Duguid, 1989) and the use of
task-based activities (Doughty and Long, 2003) to allow students to
acquire language in meaningful contexts for specific purposes. In this
presentation, various CMC technologies will be described and evaluated
(strengths/weaknesses), and their possible applications in task-based
foreign language learning activities will be explored. Included in this
presentation (which will go beyond the information presented in Lafford
& Lafford, 2005) will be a critical overview of CMC technologies that
facilitate asynchronous written and oral communication (e.g., e-mail;
discussion boards, blogs, podcasts, wikis, Horizon Wimba voice boards).
Also discussed will be technologies supporting synchronous written and
oral communication (e.g., controlled and open chat environments, text
messaging and SMS, instant messaging environments among computers, PDAs,
cell phones, Wimba voice chat; internet telephone and video chat). Foreign
language learning scenarios using these CMC technologies in task-based
activities will also be presented and the pros and cons of these technologies
will be weighed. This paper concludes with a discussion focusing on
the challenges facing the implementation of these technologies (e.g.,
accessibility, compatibility, financial considerations) and some possible
solutions to those problems.
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10:15
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Break
... Refreshments available outside Room 17, Logan Hall
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10:45
- 11:05 |
Technology Showcase |
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Williams
Hall
Room 23 |
A study to reclaim
and reframe the role of technology in the foreign language classroom and
beyond
Yoshihiko Ariizumi,
Lafayette College
In spite of rapid technological development, the role of technology
is still peripheral at best in our real language classroom. This study,
based on a five-year action research project, suggests 8 ideas to mainstream
the technology-based activity in the language curriculum. These ideas
include proactive usage of entertainment multimedia (video, song, webpage,
and game) to maintain uninterrupted learners, attention, redefinition
of students readiness for learning new materials, synchronization of
randomly shown entertainment materials with the core-curricular contents,
and creative and spontaneous employment of attractive and contextual
technology-producing sounds and images. The presentation starts with
a brief definition of principle-based action research that the presenter
advocates, followed by a demonstration of several different modes of
in-class multimedia-based language activities. The 8 ideas are presented
with audio- and video- sample materials.
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Williams Hall
Room 24 |
Dancing and singing your way through
grammar
Asima F. X. Saad Maura, Haverford
College
There are plenty of books and newer proposals for teaching Spanish
in the context of literature. The younger generations, having been raised
fully with computer games and the like, will learn better with audiovisual
and technological aids. Music, certainly, is part and parcel of this
"new" learning approach, for it has a deeper impact in the
overall process. Popular music incorporates the pulse, the rhythm, and
the heart and soul of the language. Having collected an array of popular
songs as teaching aides, students experience a living expression of
the language and the culture. Be it the preterite and imperfect tenses,
subjunctive mode, reflexive verbs, along with struggles of social and
political import, human relations, immigration, and displacement, there
is always a particular song used to illustrate the subject. At the NEALLT
Conference it would be my intention to show how this range of music
can become a teaching strategy.
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Williams Hall
Room 25 |
Podcasts as Instructional Tools: Taking Language Tasks Beyond
the Classroom (powerpoint)
Jenna Torres &
Ryanne Araujo, St. Lawrence University
One of the challenges for foreign language educators is promoting
meaningful tasks for students outside the classroom in order to increase
the limited opportunities for practice and exposure to the language.
Since many students of the "net generation" are already familiar
with iPods and mp3s, the technology of podcasting offers extensive possibilities
to increase exposure to native-language input and opportunities for
student production at all levels, particularly because of the ease of
recording as well as the advantages of web feed technology. This presentation
of a project in progress will examine the use of podcasting with students
in an advanced Spanish conversation course. In this project, students
listen to and discuss native-language podcasts; in addition, they create
their own series of short podcasts to which the other students must
listen and respond, thus creating an information gap task over time
and distance. From the perspective of a faculty member and language
resource director, we will discuss the potential benefits and applications
of podcasts for integrating in-class and out-of-class material, explain
how to set up a podcast and web feed, present the results of a survey
of language and technology use, and give examples of student work from
this semester.
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Williams Hall
Room 27 |
Enhancing the Teaching of Language
and Culture through the Use of a MOO
Jennifer Austin,
Ursula Atkinson, Anne-Catherine Aubert and Karen Campbell, Rutgers University
This workshop immerses participants in the ever-expanding MOO , an
online virtual learning environment emphasizing cooperative work across
campuses. MOOs offer many advantages over the traditional classroom
for world languages learners, including an enhanced ability for collaboration,
a culturally-immersed setting, and a unique opportunity to communicate
without inhibition.
In MOOs, students work together, critique each other's writing, and
communicate with peers in their class, at other institutions, and internationally.
The flexibility of MOO programs permits teachers and students to build
virtual objects, rooms, and even cities, real or imagined, thus enriching
the teaching of culture by transporting students into the target environment.
Students can also transform their ’inter-language, virtual selves into
anything they choose, eliminating natural inhibitions present in foreign
language communication. MOOs offer all this through virtual technology
commonly utilized by today's generation of language learners.
This workshop is designed specifically to give participants the tools
to start creating their own MOOs. We will describe our experiences using
MOOs in the classroom, give opportunities to explore established MOOs,
and aid participants in a hands-on experience in MOO creation. Participants
can take what they have learned and implement it in their own classrooms,
integrating new technology into language teaching.
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Williams Hall
Room 29 |
Speak More with
Less In-Class Time in a Foreign-Language Classroom
Brandon S. Lee,
UNC-Chapel Hill/Terra Dotta, LLC
I taught a unique French 2X course at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill that made extensive use of a software program called
Edufolio. One of the key differences in my French 2X course was reduced
in-class time; while French 2X typically meets four times per week for
50-minute sessions, we met two or three days per week and did online
work for the remaining class meetings. The online work augmented students,
speaking opportunities and increased their verbal comprehension through
the use of Edufolio's built-in component that allows teachers to record
either audio or video questions and lets students record their own voices
in response. The students were very happy when I told them they would
not have to go to the language lab and could do everything from any
computer connected to the Internet.
I would like to show the discussion forums, the online assessments,
and the audio and video recording tools we used on a daily basis. I
would also highlight how we enhanced office hours by using a real-time
course tool that is part of Edufolio. Finally, I will discuss how the
students performed in subsequent semesters after taking the computer
section of the course.
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11:05
- 11:25 |
Technology Showcase |
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Williams Hall
Room 23 |
Promoting Language
Learning Beyond the Classroom
Martine Benjamin,
Princeton University
"Lost and Found in Translation." Communication and miscommunication
in The Spanish Apartment by Cédric Klapisch and in Code unknown
by Michael Haneke.
For a very long time, French dominated European public affairs. Now,
with the recent enlargement of Europe, English is becoming increasingly
the language of choice, preferred over French within the European Community,
as well as among almost all member countries of the United Nations.
And yet, if the question of communication between all of the member
countries of the European Community and their leaders and officials
has not yet been resolved, how can we expect that this problem will
be less difficult for the people of these diverse nations? The new absence
of borders and the freedom of travel from country to country, with no
iron curtain and streamlined modes of transportation, serve to highlight
new difficulties brought by mixing of cultures and mores. There is a
growing need for a Code, a mode of behavior and a key for communication.
In my presentation, as in my course at Princeton University, French
for the Modern World, I will show how these two directors, Cédric
Klapisch and Michael Haneke, each offers in his own way a transcendent
cinematic code, one that serves to unify all languages and bridge all
diversities. Klapisch and Haneke chose to make a movie with different
foreign actors speaking with different accents and in different languages,
and each movie highlights the sense of mobility and displacement. If
The Spanish Apartment glorifies the experience of going abroad to study,
of meeting new people and "finding" a new language and new cultures,
Code Unknown, focuses primary on the notion of "loss" of a safe heaven.
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Williams Hall
Room 24 |
Aprender Cantando: an Online Curriculum
Supplement for Portuguese Learning
Megwen Loveless, Princeton
University
This website is meant as a resource to enrich the curriculum of an
introductory Portuguese language course for high school or university
students. Its uniqueness stems from the sixty+ songs which are used
as a baseline for the site to help students practice vocabulary and
grammar. Its aim is to encourage creative and contextual learning for
students by tapping into the rich diversity of Brazilian popular music.
Though students may find it easy to use on its own, it is meant to provide
supplementary materials (vocabulary banks, practice exercises, cultural
links) in conjunction with the instructor's in-class activities. I would
argue that its unique format is geared not only toward integrating cultural
context into grammar and vocabulary lessons, but it actually uses the
cultural context as a base from which to learn language specifics. This
site seeks to provide resources that will lead students to genuinely
enjoy their language-learning experience. Its design incorporates elements
to combat various problems that arise in language classes (including
boredom, passivity, anxiety) and to help students toward learning language
and culture simultaneously.
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Williams Hall
Room 25 |
Promoting Oral
Proficiency Via Odeo.com
Jeff Ruth and, Leonardo
Teixeira, East Stroudsburg University, Sara Villa, The New School
In recent years a number of on-line tools have appeared for the improvement
of oral proficiency in the second language learner. For the language
instructor hoping to find the right tech tool in this area, three needs
have been paramount: the ability to easily access the learner's recorded
audio via the web; the ability to reply with another audio recording
that extends the communicative activity or offers constructive feedback
on pronunciation, etc.; and affordability. Odeo.com, a free recording
and podcasting service, is perhaps the newest tool fulfilling all these
criteria. This presentation describes the way that Odeo can be used
to extend discourse beyond the language classroom. Three language instructors
(from East Stroudsburg Univ. of PA and The New School Univ.) will offer
feedback on the use of Odeo in their Spanish and Portuguese courses.
Experiences from the current semester will be described, including the
content of recordings (which can be supplemented by text and photos),
characteristics of student replies, effect on student participation/performance
during class, and impact on lab attendance by students. While results
are certainly preliminary in nature, it seems clear that Odeo has a
promising role for the promotion of oral proficiency in language learning.
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Williams Hall
Room 27
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A constructivist multimedia (TBL)
framework to promote the learning of Arabic
Hebatalla Elkhateeb-Musharraf,
Ed.D. Princeton University
This is a constructivist multimedia methodological task-based learning
(TBL) frame work to promote the learning of the Arabic language beyond
the classroom. This frame work provides constructivist models for creating
multimedia teaching and learning materials, power point presentations
of language and culture, and digital video projects. It provides opportunities
and motivation for natural language use and deep linguistic and cultural
understanding in a supportive environment, creating meaningful linguistic
and cultural exposure that promotes more positive attitudes towards
the Arabic language and culture.
This proposal has two main components, multimedia teaching and learning
materials and task based learning activities. The multimedia materials
will help the learners in identifying and defining topics, recalling
and activating words and phrases through visual illustrations and demonstrations
that facilitate a deeper understanding related to every day real world
situations. The task based learning activities will compliment the multimedia
materials and introduce the learners to various topics and activate
topic-related words and phrases offering opportunities to use the language
they already know, and improve on that vocabulary through teacher facilitation,
allowing for a closer explicit study of the many features of the Arabic
language.
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Williams Hall
Room 29 |
Technology? What
do beginning students need to learn? Japanese typing instructions from
the beginning level
Atsuko Takahashi,
Smith College
In recent years, teaching computer skills, particularly
instructing writing/typing skill of non-alphabetical languages on computer,
became a very essential skill for non-western language learners from
beginning levels in order to develop their capability of language use
in various contexts beyond the classroom. However, instructors often
face challenges in planning a curriculum for beginning levels using
technology. For example, the first year Japanese class tends to have
a heavy workload in getting students to learn the unique language. Students
are also still developing their handwriting skills to correctly form
Japanese syllables and Kanji. Thus, instructors are reluctant to let
them use computer, which automatically provides correct form of characters.
These negative factors seem to limit instructors in using computers
for writing in class. In this presentation, I would like to share some
curriculum ideas, which I conducted in the first year Japanese in Smith
College. Students appeared very animated with all the challenges and
excitements of their experience of writing Japanese on computer and
their discovery of uses beyond Japanese classes. Then, I discuss an
effective curriculum development with technology in beginning levels
in regard of the balance between authenticity and technology, as well
as the structural integration of spiral curriculum.
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11:25
- 11:45 |
Technology Showcase |
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Williams Hall
Room 23 |
Understanding Distance Language
Learners: the Motivation Correlation
Noelle Isenberg,
The Pennsylvania State University
While the application of language learning technologies in on-campus
language programs may enjoy the hybrid safety-net of traditional classroom
interactions, in distance language learning contexts, instructional
media and materials take on a heightened significance in maintaining
student motivation and fostering eventual success. Unfortunately, across
all disciplines, distance programs continue to be plagued by up to fifty-percent
attrition rates which inversely correlate with learner motivation. As
a non-trivial issue in the language-learning endeavor generally, learner
motivation thus emerges as a factor central to any exploration of language
learning contexts beyond the classroom. As a preliminary to development
of fully-online German-language courses at a state university in the
northeastern United States, the present study considers the relationship
between motivation (as measured by Noels et al.'s 2000 Language Learning
Orientations Scale Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, and Amotivation
Subscales) and learning outcomes (final course grade) of first-, second-,
or third-semester distance learners of German-, French-, and Spanish-language
courses in a traditional correspondence model. Initial results suggest
that gender, age, and motivational subtypes converge to form prototypical
profiles which are not only indicative of certain learning outcomes
but also suggest an application of language learning technologies which
may be ideally suited to attend to motivational discrepancies and flux
thus addressing the attrition issue at its source.
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Williams Hall
Room 24 |
Teaching Contemporary French Culture
with Web Resources
Duane Kight, Haverford College
Over the past few years, I have been teaching an introductory class
in Contemporary French Culture using the Web. The syllabus is entirely
on the Web, and presents extensively annotated versions of chapters
from the textbook we are using; these exploit the full possibilities
of hypertext and multimedia resources for enrichment and updating of
the material so that it is truly contemporary. In addition, the syllabus
features QuickTime sound files taken from French radio and QuickTime
video clips captured vis Snapz. I would think that my presentation would
be informative and useful on three counts: first, it would allow me
to discuss the pros and cons of a Web syllabus for such a course (including
justification for its being Web-based in the first place); second, it
would allow me to present a model for how to organize such a course;
third, it would allow me to present technical and Web resources that
others may not have explored. The syllabus is available at http://www.haverford.edu/fren/dkight
by clicking on the French 105 button.
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Williams Hall
Room 25 |
The Evolving Role
of the Speech Center in New Administrative Initiatives
Sean Palmer,
LaGuardia Community College- CUNY
When LaGaurdia Community College built a new digital
Speech Center in 2004 to replace the old tape lab, a new world of possibilities
opened up. Before this, the Speech Center's primary duty was the lab
hours of the speech classes aimed at the college's large and diverse
ESL population. Now, however, the Speech Center does so much more. First,
it was essential in the development process of our new Speech Assessment
Rubric, both in terms of technological support and the host for the
norming sessions. After the Speech Assessment Rubric was developed,
Oral Communication across the Curriculum was started. Finally, the e-Portfolio
project is an on-going initiative here at LaGuardia. With the new Speech
Center, we are able to add audio to the -ePortfolios, something that
was previosuly overlooked. As new intitiatives develop the Speech Center
will continue to evolve, encouraging faculty to think about new ways
to incoprate speaking skills and technology into their courses.
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Williams Hall
Room 27 |
Maximizing Foreign Language Curriculum
Outcomes through Technology: A Case of African Languages
Audrey N Mbeje, Elaine Mshomba,
Esau J. Mavindizde, University of Pennsylvania
Innovative teaching strategies involving technology are frequently
cited as effective in increasing student access to information and improving
foreign language teaching and learning. To the extent that technology
enables learning outside the classroom, the use of technology in foreign
language teaching has a potential to expand the time and motivation
for language learning which can substantially improve the outcomes of
a language curriculum. Thus, it seems obvious to conclude that students
will greatly benefit from language programs that integrate technology
into their curriculum.
This presentation will discuss specific online materials targeting
various levels of proficiency in African languages and how these can
be used to enrich the language learning experiences of students. The
focus will be on how these online materials can be incorporated into
carefully designed teaching and learning activities across African languages
to support receptive skills learning. The African languages project
will only be used as an example; however, the model can be used to maintain
instructional standards across languages in any foreign language curriculum.
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Williams Hall
Room 29 |
The Role of Creative
Writing as an Enabling Activity in FL Language Acquisition
Erika Gilson, Princeton University
Generally writing is considered the least important, or necessary,
of the language skills, to the point where this skill is not being tested
at all in many instructional settings. I would like to argue that developing
writing skills in the target language from the very beginning of the
language learning process furthers language acquisition by letting the
learner first work with, and produce, in the language without experiencing
the pressures of oral production. Sample writing assignments will be
shown, data on student writing collected over the years for elementary
Turkish at Princeton will be discussed, and how such student work in
turn is used to further extensive reading by first year students in
the TL.
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11:45
- 12:45 |
Lunch
... Room 17, Logan Hall
(included in registration fee) |
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12:45
- 1:15
Logan Hall
Room 17
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A Look at WebSpeak
D. Bradford Marshall,
Harvard University
I would like to propose the presentation of a new web-based
audio-video authoring system designed to facilitate on-line oral communication
and assessment "beyond the classroom." Using the Macromedia
Flash Media Server, the WebSpeak project includes two main components
that can be manipulated by both the instructor and the student without
any specific technological knowledge. WebSpeak Recorder allows for the
creation and evaluation of "two-way" audio and video activities.
After a student has listened to or viewed a clip, he or she records
an audio or video reply which the instructor may access from any on-line
computer. The instructor can then leave audio, video and/or text feedback
concerning the student's work. WebSpeak Discussion takes the common
Internet forum format and adds the capability to post audio and video
as well as text messages, which can not only be accessed individually
but also played back together in the order they were posted thus recreating
an asynchronous "conversation". Both projects will be available
free to educational institutions, and I hope this presentation at NEALLT
will enable us to promote future collaboration and development.
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Williams Hall
Room 25 |
Self-Serve
Video Recording in American Sign Language Classes
Jami Clark, Penn Language Center, University of Pennsylvania
This presentation gives an overview of the use and applications
of the new private, self-serve video-recording booth that is set up
at the technology center at the University of Pennsylvania. The establishment
of the video booth was a successful collaboration between MMETS (educational
technology center) and Penn Language Center. In essence, upon being
given an assignment by their instructors, students are able to sign
up for and have access to a digital recording booth to record expressive
ASL assignments based on the topics of study. In turn, students can
give their instructors a DVD recording of their work which is much more
portable than a class‚ worth of VHS tapes and more easily and
thoroughly graded than an in-class expressive assignment.
The technology has given instructors opportunity to
assign more individual expressive assignments (without taking up class
time). It has also allowed for students to record expressive ASL assignments
at their leisure. While American Sign Language program was the primary
target in the creation of this video-booth, this technology and strategies
for its use can be applied to any language group.
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Williams Hall
Room 27 |
Beyond Technology:
Collaborations Across Classrooms, Campuses and Countries
M. Lamb-Faffelberger
& Mary Toulouse, Lafayette
College
The speakers will address the benefits and challenges
of enhancing curriculum by collaborating with other institutions over
Internet 2. Two different types of collaborations will be discussed.
In the first, we will present the results of an undergraduate course
on Friedrich Schiller's Die Räuber offered by German departments
at four colleges (Colgate Univ., Lafayette, Vassar, and Wheaton Colleges)
and institutions in Germany (Pädgogische Universität and Theater
Freiburg). While the courses at each school remained autonomous, faculty
and students used videoconferencing and online tools for discussion,
interviews and project collaboration. In the second example, we will
discuss an Internet 2 round table "event" in which biology
and language students from several schools networked with speakers from
the Institut Pasteur in Paris and New York to discuss global preparedness
for the looming threat of an influenza pandemic. The role of the language
resource center in the organization of the event will be highlighted.
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1:20
- 1:50
Logan Hall
Room 17
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Using
E-Mail and Blogs to Encourage Comprehensible Output
Jocelyne Brant & Christine Foster Meloni, George Washington
University
The Internet enables foreign language educators to offer
their students exciting learning opportunities beyond the classroom.
Key features of cyber activities are interactivity and authenticity.
Research has shown that FL students engaged in electronic communication
with partners produce more comprehensible output, an essential element
in second language acquisition, than when engaged face to face in a
classroom. Some research seems to indicate that this electronic output
is of a higher quality as well. The presenters will discuss projects
they have developed to enhance student language learning in cyberspace.
The first presenter will discuss two e-mail projects she implemented
in her university French language literature classes while the second
presenter will discuss two blogging projects she developed for her intermediate
ESL writing classes at a community college. Participants will receive
a handout with detailed project guidelines and excerpts of student writing
and a bibliography of related research.
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Williams Hall
Room 25 |
Comics with two
"i's": Comic Life, iSight, and iMovie in the Italian Classroom
Shirley Ann Smith,
Skidmore College
Comic Life has a 'capture' function which allows creation
of a strip in the classroom for students who have only done the first
few chapters of elementary language. We used it in 101 to practice adjectives
and agreement. Students were very enterprising in either taking images
off the web or dipping into their Facebook files. In this presentation
I shall demonstrate how to use Comic Life and how to easily and quickly
develop a 10 minute exercise for the elementary language classroom.
iMovie is easy to use and allows a quick and easy application
of cultural information. Students did the regional/geographic cultural
reading at the end of a chapter. They looked for images on the web to
illustrate the ideas in the reading and worked them into a 30 second
iMovie, using a headset with microphone to record the prose that linked
together the images.
iSight can be used in the Comic Life function. It can
also be used to take snapshots/stills for an iMovie. It is most amazing,
however, if you can get a student going abroad to take one or find one
in an Internet Cafè.
I shall illustrate and show examples of each of these uses of Mac programs/functions.
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Williams Hall
Room 27 |
Inflection
and phonology software for a digital Sanskrit library: (http://sanskritlibrary.org/)
Peter M. Scharf, Brown University
Internet users now expect to find whatever they search
for on the web in seconds. Yet those who seek information about India
online find their access to digital content in Indian languages severely
hampered because the seamless fulfillment of their expectations depends
upon information processing technology that has developed primarily
in the environment of the Roman alphabet. To enhance the accessibility
of Indian language content requires progress in technologies for foreign
language texts in non-Roman scripts. A collaborative project including
colleagues at the University of Buffalo, Cologne, Frankfurt, and Brown
is developing a digital Sanskrit library to provide a robust online
environment for texts representing the cultural heritage of India. In
particular, the integration of linguistic tools with Sanskrit lexica,
archives of Sanskrit texts, and OCR technology will permit broad access
to large number of texts in many fields in one of the world’s
richest culture-bearing languages. The linguistic tools developed at
Brown include inflection and phonological software constructed from
a cascade of rules written using regular expressions in XML independent
of any particular programming language subsequently converted into Perl
executable code.
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1:55
- 2:25
Logan Hall
Room 17 |
Rethinking Grammar
CALL
Nina Garrett,
Yale University
After decades during which grammar CALL has been limited
to conventional drill materials, that paradigm must be fundamentally
reconceived, because language education faces growing demand for learners
with advanced (even professional) competence and that level requires
comprehensive grammatical accuracy. Unfortunately grammar has been so
out-of-fashion that (1) most textbooks devote minimal space to grammar
explanations and examples; (2) most teachers have had little training
in teaching grammar; and (3) most CALL developers assume that advanced-level
learners need engagement with authentic materials and computer-mediated
communication rather than "pedagogical" materials.
We know that drilling grammar forms does not result in
accurate use of those forms in spontaneous language production, but
almost no CALL materials address grammar any other way. I will suggest
a variety of kinds of CALL materials that could help learners how to
use grammar concepts and their language-specific forms for advanced-level
comprehension and production. CALL could handle grammar at elementary
and intermediate levels so as to give learners a better foundation for
advanced-level learning, and CALL could help advanced students and their
teachers both diagnose underlying grammar problems and integrate grammatical
knowledge into sophisticated language use.
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Williams Hall
Room 25 |
Course management systems (CMS) to promote language learning
(Saito Powerpoint)
Hiroyo Saito & Yukino Tanaka,
Haverford College, Ed Dixon
& Jay Treat, University of Pennsylvania
Are you using Blackboard just to place course materials online? Blackboard
can be used as more than just a place to hold course materials. It provides
a lot of communication tools that can be used to promote language learning
inside and outside the classroom.
This presentation will discuss how the language learning center (LLC)
at Haverford College has been supporting creative uses of Blackboard
for foreign language teaching. It will describe how the LLC conducted
a Blackboard Discussion Forum and a hands-on Blackboard communication
tools workshop.
This presentation includes examples of how some foreign language faculty
have been using Blackboard to develop all the language skills. The Blackboard
features that will be discussed include chat, journal (blog), teams
site (wiki), and assignment tools. The presentation will also describe
how sound software such as Audacity and Dartmouth Language (DL) Recorder
are used in conjunction with Blackboard. The examples include activities
that can be done both inside and outside the classroom.
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Williams Hall
Room 27 |
"Virtual Embodiments:
Video Games, Video Clips and Reality TV in Contemporary Spanish Narrative":
Experiencing Literature Through Technology
Audrey Sartiaux
& Christine Henseler, Union College
This presentation will offer a new perspective on teaching
Spanish contemporary literature through the use of modern technology.
“Virtual Embodiments: Video Games, Video Clips and Reality TV
in Contemporary Spanish Narrative” is a course developed with
the aid of a small grant to make students active participants in the
analytical process of the question of identity. The three contemporary
Spanish novels studied in this class, namely Ático by Gabi Martínez
(2004), Héroes by Ray Loriga (1993), and Veo veo by Gabriela
Bustelo (1996), illustrate the question of the construction of identity
through technology. In addition to the more traditional approach of
analyzing these novels in relation to critical articles on video game,
video clip, and reality television, students were asked to study the
effects of these technologies on the construction of subject identities
as well as on their own lives, through the handling of the very technology
described in the books. In short, students were put in the position
of “living” the stories presented in the novels by creating
their own Video clip, and playing the SIMS video game. In order to complete
their assignment, they were provided with two training sessions conducted
by the language center director and staff. Students were showed how
to handle a video camcorder, and how to edit their short film using
Pinnacle studio 9. They also received an hour long training on how to
create their own Virtual Character in the SIMS video game.
In addition to showcasing the course, this presentation
will briefly discuss the practical aspects necessary in the successful
implementation of such a project, and render a short conclusion on the
problems encountered, and the students’ response to the technology.
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2:30
- 3:00
Logan Hall
Room 17 |
Supporting Foreign
Languages with Revolution
Dan Soneson,
Southern Connecticut State University
This session will demonstrate several utilities, developed
in RunTime Revolution, that facilitate access to materials and student
work.
1) Instructors supply the lab with specific oral tasks
and the student lab staff uses "LabRecorder Programmer" to
enter these tasks, thereby "programming" oral recording activities.
2) Instructors access this class's files and play back
each student response via "LabRecorder Playback."
3) Another lab application assesses speaking, listening,
reading and writing. With "TestFabrik Programmer " instructors
can produce the program file for the exam themselves. The lab staff
installs the finished programming file on our server, making the test
available. Faculty use "LabRecorder Playback" to access not
only their students' oral output but also to print written output.
4) We often videotape native speakers for listening comprehension
material. We transcribe this material in order to make its contents
available and accessible to all instructors who might want to use it.
"Video Transcriber" allows us to play the video, pause, rewind
a specific number of seconds, all the while entering text into a text
field, which is then saved to a text file.
The presenter will discuss the genesis for these utilities
and talk about using Revolution to help the lab function smoothly.
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Williams Hall
Room 25 |
Drupal and language teaching
Bill Koulopoulos & Kevin Wong,
Columbia University
Like many other institutions, Columbia University would like to empower
its language faculty to make appropriate usage of technology to support
their curricula. Moreover, it would like this process to be as seamless
and as transparent as possible so that its faculty is not put off by
the technology and can concentrate its effort on the appropriate technology
to incorporate media-rich material into the language classroom.
In order to achieve these goals, Columbia University's Language Resource
Center has chosen to promote Drupal, an open source content management
platform, to create support websites for some of the less frequently
taught languages as well as resource websites for language instructors.
Drupal allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish,
manage and organize a great variety of content on a website. Content
is added as easily as typing a document and uploading files and images
is as simple as attaching a file to an email. This method of content
building is universal, allowing for group training and easy support.
Furthermore, Drupal offers a variety of modules and features that can
further enhance the functionality of each website. One such module is
the taxonomy module, which allows users to create categories and organize
content by type. The module supports hierarchical classification and
association between terms, allowing for truly flexible information retrieval
and classification. Our goal is to implement innovative instructional
approaches while remaining as cost-effective as possible.
The presentation will introduce Drupal to the audience and show how
Drupal has helped the LRC meet its goal of empowering language faculty
to become confident developer of web-delivered, media-rich pedagogical
material. The presentation will rely on several of the websites that
have recently been authored by Columbia faculty and LRC staff to illustrate
the various functionalities of Drupal.
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Williams Hall
Room 27 |
Developing Listening Comprehension
Using SCOLA Online News Casts: Theoretical and Practical Considerations
Luba Iskold, Muhlenberg College
In today’s society young people increasingly learn to use media
as a source of information about the world in which they live. In this
context, authentic online TV news casts provided by SCOLA are a valuable
resource that allows students access to authentic programming that is
informative, interesting, and current. However, the decision to use
SCOLA presents a challenge to students and faculty alike. Although authentic
materials offer a great variety of real life language and there are
convincing pedagogical reasons to incorporate such materials into language
curricula, they tend to overwhelm and even frustrate students and may
be impractical for teachers. Based on a review of the relevant literature,
the presenter will discuss the pros and cons associated with the integration
of online SCOLA newscasts into language curricula. She will explore
how the theoretical view of comprehension may lead to the design of
online video-based learning environments which employ listening tasks
and activities that are sensitive to the ways learners construct meaning
from a video text.
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3:00
– 3:30: |
Break
... Refreshments available outside Room 17, Logan
Hall |
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3:30
- 4:00
Logan Hall
Room 17 |
Web
Audio Lab: Bringing Power and Efficiency to Students and Teachers (http://lrc.cornell.edu/showcase)
Dick Feldman, Cornell
University
While task-based communicative activities are surely
the most valid for class use, students need opportunities out of class
to repeat, transform and generate speech in a guided environment. The
program described in this presentation gives students the opportunity
to record their voice in response to programmed input, compare with
the model and submit to the teacher. The teacher can then check the
class generally for submissions, scan certain exercises or listen comprehensively
to student recordings. Teachers can made text or audio comments that
students receive on the web. The program has been used with beginning
courses and intermediate pronunciation courses and has a wide range
of applications. It has been received enthusiastically.
The presentation will first explain the rationale and
need for this program, and the place it holds in a general transition
to digital delivery of language learning support. Applications of the
student client in Russian, Spanish, French, Korean and Chinese will
be demonstrated, showing its use in supporting various pedagogical levels
and approaches. The web side affords teachers a range of tools for organizing
student data and viewing it at various levels of intensity. The package
comprises a number of modules, but the student and teacher interfaces
are relatively seamless, powerful and efficient. It does require specialized
server tools.
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Williams Hall
Room 25 |
Finding Cultural
Resources in the Online Culture Club (http://nclrc.org/cultureclub/neallt.html)
Christine Foster Meloni and Jill Robbins, George Washington University
The Culture Club is an online environment that offers cultural resources
for foreign language teachers. It consists of nine rooms: the Library,
Screening Room, Music Room, Banquet Hall, Hangout, Art Gallery, Speaker‚s
Corner, Computer Lab, and Teacher‚s Lounge. A new edition is published
six times a year and past editions are catalogued in The Collection.
The presenters will describe the types of resources available in each
of these rooms and will offer ideas on how these resources can be used
in the classroom. While the main focus of the presentation will be on
the resources available for teachers of Spanish, French, and Italian,
participants will be given handouts with examples of resources for teachers
of several other languages. Feedback will be solicited from participants
to make the Club more useful and more user-friendly.
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Williams Hall
Room 27 |
Learning from Context:
Video Based Online Instruction for Hindi and Tamil
Vasu Renganathan & Vijay Gambhir, University of Pennsylvania
We will demonstrate our Hindi and Tamil online materials
that introduce socio-linguistically appropriate language and culture
using a series of dialogues filmed in authentic speech situations. Language
variation and code mixing are presented in a rich natural context. Exposure
to verbal and non-verbal language in a variety of communicative situations
allows learners to pick up subtle and unanalyzed rules of language use.
Humor is an important part of these materials that makes a relaxed environment
for learning. Students can access the materials at all times and work
on their language development at their own pace.
The design of the Hindi and Tamil websites takes into
consideration the learning needs of a variety of learners: zero heritage
learners, advanced heritage learners and traditional learners. Exercises
allow learners the option of responding orally or in writing. Questions
are designed to develop learners' ability to read a text for different
purposes: skimming, scanning, etc. For an intensive comprehension check,
learners have the option to read text with or without translation and
listen to dialogues with or without transcripts. For evaluation and
computer mediated testing, the exercise component presents an online
linear progression environment in a Wiki format for students' responses
and for instructors‚ mediation. Learners‚ language samples
generates a rich database for research on interlanguage development.
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4:05
- 4:35
Logan Hall
Room 17 |
Beyond the classroom
with Pogos and Web templates
Regina DeAngelo
& Bradley Gano, Yale University
In the theme of "language learning beyond the classroom,"
we would like to describe
1. How we use technology to provide audio materials for
our indpendent language study students.
The Center for Language Study's Directed Independent
Language Study (DILS) program allows students to independently learn
less-commonly taught languages. We do this by hiring language partners
and providing MP3 recorders to capture, archive, and share authentic
oral language materials. Students use the recorders to practice listening
and speaking. We'll discuss our experience with the technology (specifically,
the Pogo and the MuVo MP3 recorders) and the students' response to it.
2. CLS-created Web templates that instructors use for
supplemental or in-class instruction
We have developed three easy-to-use Web templates that
allow instructors to use video, foreign-language texts, and pictures
for supplementing or enhancing in-class instruction. The idea is to
provide, and to show instructors how to use, user-friendly templates
for loading video, text or even an entire picture dictionary to the
Web so that students have access to authentic, up-to-date, relevant
and interesting learning materials. The templates have been used successfully
in and outside the classroom and have been demonstrated at conferences
around the country. Although we won't have time to demo all our templates,
we would like to show what they look like, describe how they work, and
what the instructors think of them.
We'll discuss how these initiatives show various instances
of a language center using technology for beyond-classroom learning.
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Williams Hall
Room 25 |
Planning and Implementing a Unified
Circulation System to Maximize Efficiency
Susan Pennestri, Georgetown University
This presentation will demonstrate the online circulation system created
and used at Georgetown University for managing the language lab‚s
collection of media holdings, equipment items and circulation records.
The application‚s features include:
- Restricting access to users with a valid university ID
- Accessing media/equipment information and availability
- Cataloguing and labeling of new materials
- Tracking patron history and usage statistics
- Automating overdue item reminders
A list of resources to get started will be provided for those interested
in setting up a similar system.
Target audience: all language laboratory and media center directors
and staff.
Language and level: ALL
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Williams Hall
Room 27 |
Revolution
for Non-Programmers, or Yes, There Is Life After HyperCard! (http://www.edvista.com/claire/rev/templates/templates.html)
Claire Bradin Siskin,
University of Pittsburgh
HyperCard enjoyed a long reign as the authoring tool of choice for many
CALL software developers. With the advent of the Intel Macs, HyperCard’s
total demise is drawing near. However, Runtime Revolution can fill the
niche formerly occupied by HyperCard, and in fact its capabilities are
superior. There are versions for Mac, Windows, and Linux. One can develop
materials on one platform and export them to other platforms. It is often
possible to import legacy HyperCard stacks into Revolution and export
them to other platforms. Color is fully integrated. Revolution lends itself
very well to use in a language media center since one can record and play
back both audio and video. It can be integrated with database programs
and with the Internet.
The presenter has converted her “HyperCard Templates
for Language Learning” into „Revolution templates.”Activities
include role-playing, interactive listening, dictation, listen-and-record,
playing a video clip and responding, and traditional multiple choice exercises
such as picture match and vocabulary exercises. The templates can be used
at any level. Language instructors can download them from a website at
no charge, After minimal instruction, they can modify them to suit their
own target language and purpose.
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4:45–
5:30 |
Tour of facilities at
University of Pennsylvania - if interested sign up at registration |
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7:00
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Dinner @ La Terasse
(Optional, pre-registration required!) |