Schedule: 2009-09-12 (10:45 - 11:30)
Parallel Session 3 (Room A-32)

Title: I-AGENT: Collaborative Learning of Business English
Authors: Pilar Rodríguez Arancón
Abstract: This paper presents the work that is being carried out by a group of researchers for the development of a novel CALL program that combines collaborative and individual learning techniques. The ATLAS group (Read et al., 2002) is developing the system I-AGENT , which uses methodologies that incentivize the collaboration among individuals in order to learn more effectively than in the case of individual learning alone. It is based on the Systemic Functional (Halliday, 1985) linguistic approach and follows the guidelines of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR; Council of Europe, 2001). The system can be used in a traditional face-to-face classroom environment with a teacher and in a distance learning setting.
Some experimental teaching projects have been presented recently which suggest that the most effective method to encourage learning is through a combination of individual and collaborative learning techniques, based in groups (Cortright et al., 2003, 2005; Gokhale, 1995). This research is very inspiring to look for a way to reconcile the debate between the individual vs. the social nature of human cognition, which has had defending figures such as Piaget (1968) and Vygotsky (1978) from Constructivism. On the one hand, Piaget’s tradition is centred on the inherent conflicts to individual knowledge and restricts the function of the group to the social support needed to resolve them. On the other hand, Vygotsky considers that individual cognitive processes are exclusively the result the interiorization of the tools and resources generated and used in social interactions, mainly of a language type. We maintain that this distinction between the individual and social levels of cognition must be diffused. All this research suggests that cognitive and social language learning constructivist perspectives do not have to be opposite, and that an integrative paradigm would capture the essence of efficient learning.
The proposed system works in the following way: initially, the learning takes place individually by doing simple exercises of a given notion (in the sense of a semantic concept) which are mainly closed and as a result automatically evaluated. Once there is evidence that prototypical conceptual learning is happening, the collaboration starts taking shape (for the same notion or concept) through the carrying out of more complex activities. For collaboration to ocurr, the students who work together must be able to reach a common understanding by communicating in English. This process reinforces the previous individual learning and gives way to the future individual study of the following unit.
The principal axis to the whole process is the language and interchange between colleagues and teachers. The computer helps establish a communication channel through which the exchanges teacher-student and student-student take place. It offers many productive aspects, given that communication can happen synchronous (chat rooms, skype voice technology, ect.), or asynchronously (messaging services, email, etc.).
Our objective up to this moment has been to design and develop a theoretical framework on a cognitive and social constructivist paradigm, and a notional-functional didactic programme based on the CEFR and an original application of Intelligent CALL techniques (mainly domain, student and group modelling, diagnosis based on Bayesian networks, adaptive material selection and also adaptive group instructing). The improvement we hoped for, and has been proved in a previuos project, is not only in terms of reading and oral comprehension, passive, receptive, and controlled in closed exercises (as in most CALL systems), but in writing and speaking or oral production.
References
1. CORTRIGHT, R. N.; COLLINS H. L.; RODENBAUGH D. W.; DICARLO S. E. (2003). Student retention of course content is improved by collaborative-group testing. In Advance in Psychology Education 27 (p. 102-108).
2. COUNCIL OF EUROPE (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. GOKHALE, A. A. (1995). Collaborative Learning enhances critical thinking. In Journal of Technology Education, 7 (1) (p. 22-30).
4. HALLIDAY, M. A. K. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold
5. PIAGET, J. (1968). Genetic epistemology. Columbia University Press.
6. READ, T.; BÁRCENA, E.; BARROS, B.; VERDEJO M. F. (2002). I-PETER: Modelling personalised diagnosis and material selection for an on-line English course. In F. Garijo, J. Riquelme & M. Toro, eds. Advances in Artificial Intelligence – Iberamia 2002 (LNAI 2527) Berlin: Spriger-Verlag (734-744).
7. VYGOTSKY, L. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Keywords: Business English, Collaborative and individual CALL system, CEFR, Hybrid learning, Distance learning.

Main topic: Research in new language learning environments

Biodata: Pilar is a member of the research group ATLAS at UNED. The group is formed by linguists and computer scientists and work together in the development of CALL systems to teach business English.
Type of presentation Paper presentation

Paper category Research

Target educational sector Adult education

Language of delivery English

EU-funded project No

Schedule:	2009-09-12 (10:45 - 11:30) Parallel Session 3 (Room A-32)
Title:	I-AGENT: Collaborative Learning of Business English
Authors:	Pilar Rodríguez Arancón
Abstract:	This paper presents the work that is being carried out by a group of researchers for the development of a novel CALL program that combines collaborative and individual learning techniques. The ATLAS group (Read et al., 2002) is developing the system I-AGENT , which uses methodologies that incentivize the collaboration among individuals in order to learn more effectively than in the case of individual learning alone. It is based on the Systemic Functional (Halliday, 1985) linguistic approach and follows the guidelines of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR; Council of Europe, 2001). The system can be used in a traditional face-to-face classroom environment with a teacher and in a distance learning setting. Some experimental teaching projects have been presented recently which suggest that the most effective method to encourage learning is through a combination of individual and collaborative learning techniques, based in groups (Cortright et al., 2003, 2005; Gokhale, 1995). This research is very inspiring to look for a way to reconcile the debate between the individual vs. the social nature of human cognition, which has had defending figures such as Piaget (1968) and Vygotsky (1978) from Constructivism. On the one hand, Piaget’s tradition is centred on the inherent conflicts to individual knowledge and restricts the function of the group to the social support needed to resolve them. On the other hand, Vygotsky considers that individual cognitive processes are exclusively the result the interiorization of the tools and resources generated and used in social interactions, mainly of a language type. We maintain that this distinction between the individual and social levels of cognition must be diffused. All this research suggests that cognitive and social language learning constructivist perspectives do not have to be opposite, and that an integrative paradigm would capture the essence of efficient learning. The proposed system works in the following way: initially, the learning takes place individually by doing simple exercises of a given notion (in the sense of a semantic concept) which are mainly closed and as a result automatically evaluated. Once there is evidence that prototypical conceptual learning is happening, the collaboration starts taking shape (for the same notion or concept) through the carrying out of more complex activities. For collaboration to ocurr, the students who work together must be able to reach a common understanding by communicating in English. This process reinforces the previous individual learning and gives way to the future individual study of the following unit. The principal axis to the whole process is the language and interchange between colleagues and teachers. The computer helps establish a communication channel through which the exchanges teacher-student and student-student take place. It offers many productive aspects, given that communication can happen synchronous (chat rooms, skype voice technology, ect.), or asynchronously (messaging services, email, etc.). Our objective up to this moment has been to design and develop a theoretical framework on a cognitive and social constructivist paradigm, and a notional-functional didactic programme based on the CEFR and an original application of Intelligent CALL techniques (mainly domain, student and group modelling, diagnosis based on Bayesian networks, adaptive material selection and also adaptive group instructing). The improvement we hoped for, and has been proved in a previuos project, is not only in terms of reading and oral comprehension, passive, receptive, and controlled in closed exercises (as in most CALL systems), but in writing and speaking or oral production. References 1. CORTRIGHT, R. N.; COLLINS H. L.; RODENBAUGH D. W.; DICARLO S. E. (2003). Student retention of course content is improved by collaborative-group testing. In Advance in Psychology Education 27 (p. 102-108). 2. COUNCIL OF EUROPE (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3. GOKHALE, A. A. (1995). Collaborative Learning enhances critical thinking. In Journal of Technology Education, 7 (1) (p. 22-30). 4. HALLIDAY, M. A. K. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold 5. PIAGET, J. (1968). Genetic epistemology. Columbia University Press. 6. READ, T.; BÁRCENA, E.; BARROS, B.; VERDEJO M. F. (2002). I-PETER: Modelling personalised diagnosis and material selection for an on-line English course. In F. Garijo, J. Riquelme & M. Toro, eds. Advances in Artificial Intelligence – Iberamia 2002 (LNAI 2527) Berlin: Spriger-Verlag (734-744). 7. VYGOTSKY, L. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Keywords:	Business English, Collaborative and individual CALL system, CEFR, Hybrid learning, Distance learning.
Main topic:	Research in new language learning environments
Biodata:	Pilar is a member of the research group ATLAS at UNED. The group is formed by linguists and computer scientists and work together in the development of CALL systems to teach business English.
Type of presentation	Paper presentation
Paper category	Research
Target educational sector	Adult education
Language of delivery	English
EU-funded project	No