Schedule: 2009-09-11 (18:15 - 19:00)
Parallel Session 3 (Room A-1)

Title: Development of email writing skills for business employees using Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) software.
Authors: Michael Bilbrough, Teresa López-Soto
Abstract: A preliminary study was carried out to assess the ability of end-users to improve their style and accuracy in writing business email messages. The task was carried out using Computer-Assisted Translation Software, English Assistant Business, which allows for autonomous and self-paced learning. The study involved 10 Spanish native speakers interested in learning business English and who had an English level from intermediate to advanced. The subjects took part in a 30-hour course over a period of 10 days where they completed a number of typical email assignments related to buying/selling operations. The assignments were presented in the form of written instructions and the subjects, who took on roles of buyer or seller, were encouraged to use the CAT tool to write email correspondence and send it to another member of the group for a reply. The teacher took a low profile and discouraged the subjects’ appeals for language help other than from the CAT tool. Results show that subjects were able to use correct business expressions offered in the CAT tool to compile their emails. In a multiple-choice post-test where subjects had to demonstrate recognition of registers required for business email writing by labelling example sentences informal, neutral or formal, an average score of 0.89 was given. A post-task opinion questionnaire about English Assistant Business showed that 67% of subjects gave the programme the highest score, 5, on a rating of 0 to 5 and 30% a score of 4 for the qualities: “practical language reference tool” and “tool for language acquisition potential”. These results lay the groundwork for further studies in which the programme can be fully integrated at a real workplace situation. Thus, the study may suggest that much costly teacher-led foreign language training in companies in the area of business email English could be avoided or channelled towards other language skills. The implementation of this task using an environment that incorporates CAT techniques has proven the enhancement of autonomous learning and has demonstrated its potential to help students improve their writing skills in the business email domain.
Keywords: autonomous learning, Computer-Assisted Translation, writing skills, business email, EFL

Main topic: Research in new language learning environments

Biodata: Michael Bilbrough has been an English language teacher in Spain for the last 20 years. He specialises in business English training in companies and is currently doing a doctorate in the area of CAT and language acquisition. Dr. Teresa Lopez-Soto's research areas are Computational Linguistics (especially linguistic information in Speech Recognition and Machine Translation) and CALL, with special interest in perception and pronunciation training.
Type of presentation Paper presentation

Paper category Research

Target educational sector Vocational education

Language of delivery English

EU-funded project No

Schedule:	2009-09-11 (18:15 - 19:00) Parallel Session 3 (Room A-1)
Title:	Development of email writing skills for business employees using Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) software.
Authors:	Michael Bilbrough, Teresa López-Soto
Abstract:	A preliminary study was carried out to assess the ability of end-users to improve their style and accuracy in writing business email messages. The task was carried out using Computer-Assisted Translation Software, English Assistant Business, which allows for autonomous and self-paced learning. The study involved 10 Spanish native speakers interested in learning business English and who had an English level from intermediate to advanced. The subjects took part in a 30-hour course over a period of 10 days where they completed a number of typical email assignments related to buying/selling operations. The assignments were presented in the form of written instructions and the subjects, who took on roles of buyer or seller, were encouraged to use the CAT tool to write email correspondence and send it to another member of the group for a reply. The teacher took a low profile and discouraged the subjects’ appeals for language help other than from the CAT tool. Results show that subjects were able to use correct business expressions offered in the CAT tool to compile their emails. In a multiple-choice post-test where subjects had to demonstrate recognition of registers required for business email writing by labelling example sentences informal, neutral or formal, an average score of 0.89 was given. A post-task opinion questionnaire about English Assistant Business showed that 67% of subjects gave the programme the highest score, 5, on a rating of 0 to 5 and 30% a score of 4 for the qualities: “practical language reference tool” and “tool for language acquisition potential”. These results lay the groundwork for further studies in which the programme can be fully integrated at a real workplace situation. Thus, the study may suggest that much costly teacher-led foreign language training in companies in the area of business email English could be avoided or channelled towards other language skills. The implementation of this task using an environment that incorporates CAT techniques has proven the enhancement of autonomous learning and has demonstrated its potential to help students improve their writing skills in the business email domain.
Keywords:	autonomous learning, Computer-Assisted Translation, writing skills, business email, EFL
Main topic:	Research in new language learning environments
Biodata:	Michael Bilbrough has been an English language teacher in Spain for the last 20 years. He specialises in business English training in companies and is currently doing a doctorate in the area of CAT and language acquisition. Dr. Teresa Lopez-Soto's research areas are Computational Linguistics (especially linguistic information in Speech Recognition and Machine Translation) and CALL, with special interest in perception and pronunciation training.
Type of presentation	Paper presentation
Paper category	Research
Target educational sector	Vocational education
Language of delivery	English
EU-funded project	No