{"title":"Learning to Learn Digitally: Getting Students on the Road to Autonomy","authors":"N. M. Terhune","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013100102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013100102","url":null,"abstract":"How can educators empower and encourage their students to be more proactive, and give them the tools necessary to learn on their own, utilizing digital language learning resources in a culturally sensitive way? Described below is a project that introduced students to how technology and the Internet can empower the independent language learner. The goal was for the students to develop knowledge of and confidence in self-instruction and learn how to use technology and the Internet to further their language education independently. This article first outlines research into autonomous language learning with computers, offers a list of key elements for autonomous language learning, gives a description of how an independent language learning project was implemented and reports on results of student surveys that measured student response to the project. These students lacked the skills, knowledge and confidence to study on their own. However, by learning autonomous language learning concepts, and with instruction on how technology and the Internet can support a digital language learner, they gained the understanding and confidence to set and accomplish language learning goals on their own.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129887086","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":"Finding Gems in Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Clues from GLoCALL 2011 and 2012 Papers","authors":"Jeong-Bae Son, Klaus-Dieter Rossade","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013100101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013100101","url":null,"abstract":"A large number of papers on computer-assisted language learning (CALL) are presented at international conferences such as the Globalization and Localization in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (GLoCALL) conference every year. Considering that diverse and innovative ways of using CALL technologies and techniques are reported through the papers, it should be meaningful to have a close look at them in order to see the flow of the development of CALL. This article attempts to explore some emerging trends, issues and topics discussed in the field of CALL by looking at papers presented at the GLoCALL 2011 and GLoCALL 2012 conferences and describing three papers selected for this Special Issue from the two conferences. It serves as an introduction to the Special Issue and an invitation to CALL researchers and practitioners to participate in finding real gems in CALL.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130727138","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":"The Application of Corpus Tools in the Teaching of Discipline-Specific Academic Vocabulary: A Case Study for Information Engineering Undergraduates","authors":"Min Zhang","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013100104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013100104","url":null,"abstract":"This article concerns a corpus-based lexical study that is aimed at teaching academic vocabulary to address the specific needs of Chinese undergraduates majoring in information engineering. A 1,024,882-word corpus of Information Engineering English Corpus (IEEC) was built on the basis of university-level textbook materials drawn from ten compulsory courses for information engineering students. A quantitative analysis was carried out to seek for an optimal frequency threshold for extracting frequently occurring academic vocabulary specific to the discipline of information engineering based on Coxhead’s Academic Word List (2000). An innovative 2-dimensional categorization of AWL for EAP students was adopted in the study. As a result, a 100-word highly frequent core AWL and a 147-word frequent AWL were compiled for IEEC under two parameters of lexical frequency and specificity to individual sub-corpora. The present study further explored the application of corpus tools to highlight and effectively teach the discipline-specific academic vocabulary and collocations to promote learners’ autonomy and enhance their lexical competence in the study of specialized courses.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114806381","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":"Using Social Network-Mediated Bridging Activities to Develop Socio-Pragmatic Awareness in Elementary Korean","authors":"Jonathon Reinhardt, Jieun Ryu","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013070102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013070102","url":null,"abstract":"Informed by a bridging activities model Thorne & Reinhardt, 2008, the authors designed and implemented a series of activities using Facebook to develop elementary level Korean learners' socio-pragmatic awareness of the use of Korean honorifics. Nine students took part in the activities, which involved student collaboration to create five invented profiles and shared resources, guided analysis of expert/native use, role play activities to practice new socio-grammatical understandings, and analysis of peer production. Based on analysis of student work and post-instructional surveys, the authors found evidence for the development of socio-pragmatic awareness, as demonstrated by the practice of pragmatic flouting, the understanding of contextual constraints on use, and the creative use of Facebook affordances.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"371 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121754550","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":"Learner Fit in Scaling Up Automated Writing Evaluation","authors":"Elena Cotos, S. Huffman","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013070105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013070105","url":null,"abstract":"Valid evaluations of automated writing evaluation AWE design, development, and implementation should integrate the learners' perspective in order to ensure the attainment of desired outcomes. This paper explores the learner fit quality of the Research Writing Tutor RWT, an emerging AWE tool tested with L2 writers at an early stage of its development. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the authors sought to answer questions regarding the nature of learners' interactional modifications with RWT and their perceptions of appropriateness of its feedback about the communicative effectiveness of research article Introductions discourse. The findings reveal that RWT's move, step, and sentence-level feedback provides various opportunities for learners to engage with the revision task at a useful level of difficulty and to stimulate interaction appropriate to their individual characteristics. The authors also discuss insights about usefulness, user-friendliness, and trust as important concepts inherent to appropriateness.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130198374","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":"Web 2.0 for Language Learning: Benefits and Challenges for Educators","authors":"Tian Luo","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013070101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013070101","url":null,"abstract":"This literature review study explores 43 empirical research studies that report on the integration of Web 2.0 tools into language learning and evaluate the actual impact of their use. In particular, this review aims to identify the specific Web 2.0 tools integrated in the educational settings, theoretical underpinnings that are commonly used to frame the research, methodologies and data analysis techniques that scholars employ to analyze their research data, the benefits and challenges scholars spotted in their research findings, the pedagogical implications in using Web 2.0 for language learning and future research directions that scholars offer from their research.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"124 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115871932","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":"Online Communities of Practice and Second Language Phonological Acquisition","authors":"G. Lord, Stasie Harrington","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013070103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013070103","url":null,"abstract":"Second language L2 researchers have long recognized the potential benefits of incorporating pronunciation instruction in language curricula e.g., Arteaga, 2000; Castino, 1996; Elliott, 1995, 1997; Gonzalez-Bueno, 1997; Lord, 2005; Major, 1998; Moyer, 1999; Terrell, 1989; among others, and have investigated a variety of training types both in and out of the classroom, meeting with mixed successes. Likewise, technological advances provide educators with new tools that foster collaboration among learners and encourage the crucial processes of input, interaction and output Long, 1996; Pica, 1994; Swain, 1985 beyond the walls of the classroom. The present study examines the potential of one such tool-podcasting-to create a community of practice for language learners to improve their second language phonological production following Lord, 2008; see also Ducate & Lomicka, 2009. Although the results offer inconsistent evidence in favor of specific acoustic and articulatory improvements, the benefits of podcasting for such purposes are discussed.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132221854","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":"Questionnaires to Inform a Usability Test Conducted on a CALL Dictionary Prototype","authors":"Marie-Josée Hamel","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013070104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013070104","url":null,"abstract":"Questionnaires are often considered a suitable instrument to gather data on language learners' experiences. To test the usability of an online dictionary prototype, a series of questionnaires were distributed to a class of language learners before and after they completed a language task at the computer using the dictionary prototype. Measures of task effectiveness and efficiency were obtained and correlated with the questionnaires' results. This study shows how the questionnaire results informed the overall measure of usability and, in particular, addressed user satisfaction, a more subjective yet a central component of this measure. Pre-questionnaires prepared learners for the task, whereas post-questionnaires fostered a reflection about the task process and its outcome. Hence, it is argued that combining observation and questionnaire techniques in that context was effective in providing a fuller insight into the learner-task-tool interaction at the computer. In this CALL research and development context, questionnaires served a double function as an evaluative and a pedagogical instrument.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129251402","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":"Negotiation of Meaning in Multimodal Tandem Learning via Desktop Videoconferencing","authors":"Yuping Wang, Jianqiu Tian","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013040103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013040103","url":null,"abstract":"Using the discourse model for negotiation of meaning developed by Varonis and Gass (1985), this study investigates the quality of the negotiation of meaning by eTandem partners in a videoconferencing-supported multimodal environment, and the facilitating effects of such an environment on L2 acquisition. To achieve this, three case studies were chosen from the interaction between15 pairs of Mandarin and English students, to represent three levels of Mandarin proficiency of the dyads, namely, the low, intermediate and high levels. Data were examined and corroborated both qualitatively and quantitatively to reveal the interaction patterns of the dyads and the extent to which the multimodality of the videoconferencing environment contributes to learning. Recommendations are also drawn from this research.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125259276","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":"Technology-Mediated Tasks in English for Specific Purposes (ESP): Design, Implementation and Learner Perception","authors":"Cédric Sarré","doi":"10.4018/ijcallt.2013040101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcallt.2013040101","url":null,"abstract":"Although many researchers have focused their attention on task-based language teaching (TBLT) in recent years, there is little published research on TBLT in technology-mediated contexts, and on how to design and implement tasks in online settings. In addition, very little can be found in the literature about learner perception of technology-mediated tasks in these new virtual learning environments. The objective of this paper is to bridge these gaps by reporting on the design, implementation and learner perception of English For Biologists (EFB), an online module based on tasks and aimed at French biology students enrolled on a first year Master’s degree programme. The principles underlying the design of EFB (a combination of three action-based approaches) as well as its implementation (tutor mediation in particular) are presented in this paper. This article also offers insight in the learners’ perception of task-based language learning through the analysis of the answers they gave to a post-course online questionnaire. Overall, technology-mediated task reception was positive but learner feedback enabled to uncover specific problems, notably regarding the type of support provided.","PeriodicalId":282169,"journal":{"name":"Int. J. Comput. Assist. Lang. Learn. Teach.","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125754419","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}