¿Qué es EUROCALL? Informes anuales
Headquarters and secretariat
EUROCALL continued to operate from the Language Institute at the University
of Hull, through the small team working at the CTI Centre for Modern
Languages, consisting of June Thompson, Jenny Parsons, Fred Riley and
Kylie Baxter. Sadly, Kylie moved to another post at the end of 1998,
but we were fortunate to secure Julie Venner in her place to act as
EUROCALL membership secretary.
Executive Committee
Members of the Executive Committee for the period in question are listed
below. Members of the Committee attend two meetings a year, normally
at the expense of their own institution but with assistance from EUROCALL
if they have no other source of funding. In between meetings, discussion
is carried out through a closed e-mail discussion list. Committee members
also serve on the Academic Advisory Panel of EUROCALL's journal, ReCALL,
and on the scientific committee for EUROCALL conferences. EUROCALL does
not pay any fees for the services of its committee members.
Ms Francoise Blin
School of Applied Languages (SALIS)
Dublin City UniversityMrs Nicole Chenik
UFR Informatique de Gestion
Université Paris IX DauphineDr Thierry Chanier
Laboratoire d'Informatique de Besançon
Université de Franche-ComtéProf Graham Chesters (Treasurer)
Institute for Learning
University of HullProf Graham Davies (President)
Thames Valley UniversityDr Philippe Delcloque
School of Management
University of Abertay DundeeDr Ana Gimeno
Departamento de Idiomas
Universidad Politécnica de ValenciaProf. Dr. Michael Goethals
Department of Linguistics & Teacher Training, Faculty of Arts
K.U. LeuvenMrs Lis Kornum (Vice-President)
Christianshavns Gymnasium
CopenhagenM. Joseph Rézeau
Département d'anglais
Université de Rennes 2Prof Dr Bernd Rüschoff
Universität Gesamthochschule EssenMrs June Thompson (Secretary)
CTI Centre for Modern Languages
University of Hull
Membership
Total membership of EUROCALL increased over the year from 334 to 442.
For the first time, following the introduction of recruitment of members
via the annual conference, the UK has been overtaken by Belgium as the
country with the highest number of individual members! The table below
gives a breakdown of the countries represented. EUROCALL continues to
operate a reciprocal arrangement with affiliated associations such as
CALICO, so that members of these associations are entitled to certain
EUROCALL benefits and vice-versa.
EUROCALL Members by country at 31 July 1999
COUNTRY | CORPORATE | INDIVIDUAL | TOTAL |
Australia |
1
|
1
|
2
|
Austria |
0
|
4
|
4
|
Belgium |
10
|
67
|
77
|
Brazil |
0
|
1
|
1
|
Canada |
3
|
7
|
10
|
Chile |
1
|
0
|
1
|
Denmark |
1
|
8
|
9
|
Finland |
5
|
8
|
13
|
France |
8
|
10
|
18
|
Germany |
6
|
32
|
38
|
Greece |
0
|
7
|
7
|
Ireland |
12
|
10
|
22
|
Israel |
1
|
6
|
7
|
Italy |
5
|
5
|
10
|
Japan |
0
|
13
|
13
|
Luxembourg |
0
|
1
|
1
|
Malaysia |
0
|
1
|
1
|
Netherlands |
8
|
21
|
29
|
New Zealand |
1
|
1
|
2
|
Norway |
2
|
2
|
4
|
Peru |
1
|
0
|
1
|
Portugal |
2
|
4
|
6
|
Slovenia |
0
|
1
|
1
|
South Africa |
0
|
1
|
1
|
Spain |
2
|
9
|
11
|
Sweden |
6
|
5
|
11
|
Switzerland |
5
|
5
|
10
|
Turkey |
1
|
1
|
2
|
United Kingdom |
55
|
63
|
118
|
USA |
1
|
11
|
12
|
TOTAL |
137
|
305
|
442
|
Publications and information
During this year, members received their two issues of ReCALL
as usual, but in addition a Web-only issue was published in association
with the WELL project and made available at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/eurocall/recall/r_online.htm.
Members were also able to access a wide range of relevant resources
via the EUROCALL website, including the Online Software Database at
http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/resources/searchdb.htm
and Internet Resources for Language Teachers and Learners at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/langsite.htm
and the ReCALL Newsletters at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/pubs/newslet.htm.
as well as Software Reviews, a CALL Bibliography and a regularly updated
Calendar of Events, all available at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/.
Enquiry service, visitors and discussion list
Over the year, the Hull team dealt with 198 enquiries from EUROCALL
members and received 14 visitors who spent time, usually relating to
their research, examining software and publications in the dedicated
CALL libraries held at Hull.
Approximately 200 members were registered as users of the discussion list. Much of the material posted to the list related to the provision of information, but there were a few interesting threads concerning, for example, the retention of diacritics in e-mail messages. Overall, the discussion list has worked successfully, with very few instances of poor 'netiquette'.
Regional representatives
During this year, we started to identify EUROCALL members who were prepared
to act as contacts in their own particular regions, to stimulate relevant
activity locally and to promote membership of EUROCALL. Françoise
Blin agreed to act as Co-ordinator for the first year. A discussion
list was established for these representatives and documentation was
prepared to assist them in carrying out the various duties, such as
designing local websites. The representatives will meet annually at
the conference to share ideas, and the Co-ordinator of the representatives
will be co-opted onto the EUROCALL Executive Committee.
Conference
A highly successful annual conference was held at the Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven, Belgium, organised by Michael Goethals. The quality of presentations
was generally thought to be high, and a selection of these was published
in ReCALL volume 11 number 1, May 1999.
Research
Following an initiative by the organiser of EUROCALL 97 in Dublin, where
issues relating to the standing of CALL-related research were debated
at a special conference session, a decision was taken at the AGM in
Leuven to organise a special Research Symposium. This took place at
the University of Essen on 1st May 1999, jointly sponsored by EUROCALL
and the University of Essen. Invited participants included representatives
of CALICO and IALL, and the main outcome of the Symposium was a Joint
Policy Statement designed to : (i) establish a clearer understanding
for departments, institutions, professional associations and decision-making
bodies of the range of activities represented in the field, and (ii)
provide an organised and consistent perspective on the rubrics under
which these activities should be evaluated. This document is now available
to EUROCALL members at http://www.hull.ac.uk/cti/eurocall/research_policy.htm
Special Interest Groups
Despite expressions of interest by various groups, the only SIG that
really became established during the year was CAPITAL (later renamed
InSTIL), relating to the integration of speech technologies. Full information
may be found at the website http://dbs.tay.ac.uk/instil/
János Kohn
It was with deep sadness that we learned of the death of János
Kohn in March 1999. János was a highly respected academic, a
former member of the EUROCALL Executive Committee and organiser of the
memorable and successful EUROCALL 96 conference in Szombathely, Hungary.
The Year 2000 conference in Dundee will be dedicated to his memory and
EUROCALL will be establishing a special scholarship to commemorate his
name.
Finance
Income of £20,000 in membership fees and £8,000 in profits
from the last two conferences meant that there was a surplus of £8,413
over the year. This was carried forward to bring the total held in reserve
to £27,723. The result of this was that the goal of holding at
least one year's operating costs in reserve had been achieved, so that
EUROCALL could plan for modest additional expenditure in the coming
year.