{"title":"Mobile-based Extensive Reading: An Investigation into Reluctant Readers","authors":"Brett Milliner, T. Cote","doi":"10.4018/IJCALLT.2015100101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2015100101","url":null,"abstract":"Mobile devices have sweeping repercussions in education and suggest shifting content-engagement paradigms. Extensive reading ER is not unaffected by the many evolving aspects of mobile technology in second language classrooms. This paper reflects on Xreading®, an online graded reader GR and learning management system LMS designed for digital ER. Students at a private university in Tokyo had access to this online library using mobile devices. While overall reflections were positive, actual engagement with GR's and the software, was significantly lower for a surprising number of participants. Focusing on those reluctant readers RRs this study investigates the basis for disengagement, both with ER and perhaps with mobile technology. Using a post-pilot questionnaire and focus group discussion, the authors attempted to understand reasons behind the disconnect. Key findings for why students neglected this system included: insufficient software training, misconceptions about reading extensively and ineffective exploitation of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133976506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elizabeth Gatbonton, Ildikó Pelczer, C. Cook, V. Venkatesh, C. Nochasak, Harriet Andersen
{"title":"A Pedagogical Corpus to Support a Language Teaching Curriculum to Revitalize an Endangered Language: The Case of Labrador Inuttitut","authors":"Elizabeth Gatbonton, Ildikó Pelczer, C. Cook, V. Venkatesh, C. Nochasak, Harriet Andersen","doi":"10.4018/IJCALLT.2015100102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2015100102","url":null,"abstract":"An obstacle to revitalizing an endangered language is the shortage of authentic speech samples for learners to use as models. Digital recordings of community elders performing traditional chores and special rituals or narrating legends and myths are often made to overcome this obstacle. These recordings, however, contain speech that lacks the crucial features of conversational speech that make them appropriate instructional models. Effective model utterances should be short, have a stand-alone format, and have similar structures to utterances used in everyday transactions, which must be labeled and tagged and organized into a searchable corpus. To date, however, no such corpus exists for indigenous languages, and compiling one is an enormous task. To provide native speech models for adult Labrador Inuit learning their endangered language, Inuttitut, the authors explored the feasibility of building a specialized corpus potentially useful for aiding classroom instruction, using an internationally recognized open-source search and retrieval system called Topic Maps to create its database.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125135267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Practicing the English Present Simple Tense in Active Worlds","authors":"Mariusz Kruk","doi":"10.4018/IJCALLT.2015100104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2015100104","url":null,"abstract":"The main purpose of the study was to determine the usefulness of using Active Worlds in teaching the English grammar. Specifically, the study examined the immediate and delayed effectiveness of using the chat feature of the Active Worlds' virtual environment for teaching the English present simple tense. In addition, the study explored the attitudes of students receiving this intervention as compared to a traditional approach. The sample consisted of 22 Polish senior high school students. The learners in the experimental group were subjected to innovative instruction and the students in the control group were taught in a traditional way. The data were obtained by means of a background questionnaire, a grammar test and a post-questionnaire. The results show that both groups benefited from the instruction they received; however, the experimental learners' long-term retention turned out to be much superior when compared with their control counterparts. What is more, the experimental students expressed more positive opinions of the lessons.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123050950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Smartphone Assisted Language Learning and Autonomy","authors":"Adrian Leis, Akihiko Tohei, Simon D. Cooke","doi":"10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070105","url":null,"abstract":"In the present study we investigate the advantages of using smartphones in an English as a foreign language EFL classroom. We compared two groups of Japanese university students who were either prohibited from using their smartphones in the classroom, or encouraged to use them for academic purposes, examining whether those using smartphones in their EFL lessons would show a tendency toward being autonomous. The results indicated that students who were encouraged to use their smartphones during class were inclined to study more in their free time as well as show signs of autonomy by taking charge of their learning and consider ways to improve their own study habits and English proficiency. Our conclusion is that language teachers and learners should be encouraged to use smartphones in the classroom as a means of fueling the desire to learn.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"104 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124667609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
K. Reeder, Jon Shapiro, J. Wakefield, Reginald D'Silva
{"title":"Speech Recognition Software Contributes to Reading Development for Young Learners of English","authors":"K. Reeder, Jon Shapiro, J. Wakefield, Reginald D'Silva","doi":"10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070104","url":null,"abstract":"Thirty-six English language learners aged 6;8 to 12;6 years received practice with The Reading Tutor, which uses speech recognition to listen to oral reading and provides context-sensitive feedback. A crossover research design controlled effects of classroom instruction. The first subgroup worked with the software for 3.5 months, and following a week's crossover period, the second subgroup worked for a subsequent 3.5 months. Both groups were assessed to obtain comparable gains both in regular classroom with English as an Additional Language EAL support and in the classroom condition with EAL support plus the Reading Tutor. Oral reading fluency was assessed by the DIBELS measure. Fluency was also calculated by the program, and grade level of materials mastered was assessed by the software's logs. Both groups made significant gains in oral reading fluency and grade level of materials mastered, according to measures internal to the software. For one period, gains in fluency following experience with the program appeared to have been slightly larger than gains with regular classroom instruction and EAL support only.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114473720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Curricula: A Case Study on Intercultural Understanding in Video Communication Exchanges","authors":"L. V. D. Kroon, K. Jauregi, J. T. Thije","doi":"10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070102","url":null,"abstract":"The development of intercultural communicative competence is increasingly important in this globalised and highly digitalised world. This implies the adequate understanding of otherness, which entails a myriad of complex cognitive competences, skills and behaviour. The TILA project aims to study how the use of digital communication means in foreign language education can contribute to the development of intercultural understanding when communicating with peers across borders. Understanding is the result of a collaborative construction of shared knowledge, which can be supported through the use of meta-communicative devices MCDs. This case study investigates how pupils used communication strategies during video communication sessions to achieve intercultural understanding. Results reveal that task-based telecollaboration sessions offer learners the opportunity to achieve mutual understanding by utilizing a variety of meta-communicative devices that help the learners to compare their cultures in relation to time, space and habits, verify meaning and clarify utterances.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123563257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Computer-Mediated Communication for Course Delivery and Teaching Materials Development: A Case Study","authors":"S. Akutsu, Tim Marchand","doi":"10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070101","url":null,"abstract":"This paper describes a university English course which uses computer-mediated communication CMC for the dual-purpose of providing lesson materials online and collecting student written output in the form of a news-based blog to develop a learner corpus. Comments on the blog from Japanese university students form the basis of a learner corpus, which is analysed with reference to native speaker norms, allowing needs to be identified and addressed in subsequent materials. The paper discusses CMC as a repository of teaching materials and as a resource to develop teaching materials.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133618138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Learners of Different Language Proficiency Levels and Incidental Focus on Form in Synchronous Text-based Discussion","authors":"Wan-Tsai Kung, Zohreh R. Eslami","doi":"10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2015070103","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined the effectiveness of incidental focus on form in facilitating second language learning for learners of different proficiency levels in a synchronous computer-mediated communication environment. Sixteen native speaker (NS)-nonnative speaker (NNS) dyads and fourteen NNS-NNS dyads were formed. The participants completed two communicative tasks. Language-related episodes (LRE), mini-dialogues in which learners either explicitly or implicitly ask or talk about language or question their own or/and interlocutors' language use, were identified and used as a basis for individualized tailor-made tests to assess the learners' subsequent learning outcome. The results reveled that in the NS-NNS dyads, no significant difference in the frequency of LREs produced was found between the lower- and higher-proficiency learners whereas in the NNS-NNS dyads, the lower-proficiency learners produced significantly more LREs than their higher-proficiency interlocutors. Additionally, the learners of both proficiency groups interacting with NSs produced significantly more LREs than learners interacting with NNSs. However, no significant differences were found in the test performance of learners of different proficiency levels in either dyadic type.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115404764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Integrating International Video Chat into the Foreign Language Curriculum","authors":"Tasha N. Lewis, H. Schneider","doi":"10.4018/IJCALLT.2015040105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/IJCALLT.2015040105","url":null,"abstract":"This article is a description of face-to-face real-time international virtual language exchanges that have been integrated into first and second year Spanish courses at the university level. The focus of this article is to explain the origins of the virtual language exchange, its implementation into the program-wide curriculum, its effect on students, and to explain in detail how a session operates. The success of the virtual language exchange program is evident based on an analysis of video captured dialogues, coordinator and facilitator observations of the program, as well as participant feedback about the experience. The content and methodology of this article are adaptable to any second/foreign language course.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129868371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From Preservice to Inservice: Can Practicing Foreign Language Learning Online Help Teachers Transfer Linguistic, Cultural, and Technological Awareness into Teaching English Language Learners?","authors":"Congcong Wang","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2015040101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2015040101","url":null,"abstract":"Wang (2012) suggested that preservice teachers perceived that their initial experiences as online language learners increased their linguistic, cultural and technological awareness, which would further benefit them when working with diverse students. However, that study was unclear about whether teachers perceived that they could transfer their awareness into teaching practice. Therefore, extending the pilot study, this follow-up study explored inservice teachers' perceptions of linguistic, cultural and technological awareness transfer in teaching English Language Learners by asking them to engage with an online language course and reflect on their experience. This study proposes a model for language teacher linguistic, cultural and technological awareness development and transfer, as well as discusses issues related to language teacher awareness transfer.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2015-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134549808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}